[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN. GA., FLA., ALA., TENN.

[Rick Halperin]

July 8




TEXAS:

British woman on Texas death row may be spared as new evidence surfaces----A 
hearing this week for Linda Carty presents her with hope that she might avoid 
death penalty amid evidence prosecutors coerced false witness testimonies


A British woman who has been on death row in Texas for 14 years has been given 
renewed hope that she might be spared execution by an appeal hearing at which 
devastating evidence was presented that prosecutors had coerced false testimony 
from key witnesses.

Linda Carty, 57, has a high profile in Texas as one of just 6 women facing 
execution in the state and as a British citizen by dint of her birth in St 
Kitts at a time when the Caribbean island was still a British colony. Her case 
has been highlighted in documentaries and championed by the likes of Bianca 
Jagger and the British government.

Carty has always protested her innocence on charges that in 2001 she 
commissioned three men to carry out the kidnapping and murder of her neighbor, 
Joana Rodriguez, in a plot to steal the victim's 3-day old baby. Previous 
attempts to appeal her death sentence have failed, despite the absence of any 
forensic evidence against her and the fact that she was represented at trial by 
a defense lawyer who spent only 2 weeks preparing the case.

Close observers say that this week's hearing before a single judge appointed by 
the Texas court of criminal appeals takes her plea of innocence to another 
level. The hearing, that is likely to be concluded with the judge's opinion in 
early September, presents her with the greatest hope yet that she might secure 
a retrial.

Michael Goldberg of the law firm Baker Botts, who has been Carty's lawyer for 
the past 13 years, said that it was highly unusual that his client had even 
reached the stage of a post-conviction evidentiary hearing. "We were very happy 
when the Court of Criminal Appeals granted us this hearing, since it rarely 
does in Texas," he said.

Goldberg added that "now that we've concluded the hearing, the evidence that we 
were able to present shows even more conclusively that Linda's rights in the 
1st trial were abused and that a new trial is required".

During this week's hearing, Goldberg spent 8 hours cross-examining Connie 
Spence, the lead prosecutor in the case who still works as a supervisor for the 
Harris County district attorney's office in Houston. Part of that 
cross-examination related to the explosive affidavit given in 2014 by Charles 
Mathis, a former agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

In the affidavit, Mathis recounted how he had recruited Carty as a confidential 
informant who could provide useful information to the DEA on drug dealing in 
the city given her expertise as a trained pharmacist. He said that when he told 
Spence that he did not want to testify at trial against Carty, the prosecutor 
threatened to concoct a story about him having had an affair with the 
defendant.

"I was shocked when Spence said this ... I felt Spence was threatening and 
blackmailing me into testifying."

The judge heard further allegations that the prosecutors had fabricated 
evidence, destroyed essential case notes and emails that might have helped the 
defense and withheld several recorded witness statements that should have been 
handed over to the defense team.

Both Spence and another prosecutor on the case who also still works for the 
DA's office appeared at the hearing, and both denied that they had done 
anything to coerce evidence from any of the witnesses. According to a report of 
the hearing by the Houston Chronicle, Spence told the judge: "Defense had 
access to the evidence any time they wanted to look."

Closing arguments in the appeal will be presented on 29 August, and the judge 
has indicated he will give his opinion within the first 10 days of September. 
Should the judge recommend a retrial, it will then be up to the full court of 
criminal appeals to decide whether or not to act upon his advice.

(source: The Guardian)






PENNSYLVANIA:

Death-row inmates can get federal legal help----The Federal Community Defender 
Office represents 4 out of 12 death row inmates in the York County Court of 
Common Pleas.

Hector Morales got on the witness stand in the York County Court of Common 
Pleas on Jan. 19, 2011, and told jurors that he didn't kill Ronald "Country" 
Simmons to prevent him from testifying in a drug case.

Instead, Morales testified, the 2 worked out an agreement. He was going to give 
Simmons, 42, a discount on drugs - and the occasional freebie.

The jury didn't buy it. And on March 1, 2011, jurors came back with a 
punishment for the crime: death.

Now, Morales, 33, is asserting that his constitutional rights were violated. 
He's arguing the prosecution committed misconduct during the trial, and that 
his previous lawyers were ineffective.

"I am innocent of the crimes for which I was found guilty," Morales wrote in 
court documents filed on Feb. 22. "I need new counsel to follow up on these 
issues, and identify and develop other valid issues."

So he asked for a specific attorney: Tracy Ulstad of the Federal Community 
Defender Office's Capital Habeas Unit in Philadelphia, which gets more than $16 
million from the U.S. government. Right now, the group represents 4 of the 12 
people from York County who are on death row in state appeals.

Though the federal and state court systems are separate, the Federal Community 
Defender Office is allowed to get involved in these appeals, and it's helped 
fill a need for quality representation in Pennsylvania death penalty cases, 
some legal experts said. The organization has been praised for its expertise, 
but criticized by some who say its lawyers use unethical tactics because they 
want to abolish capital punishment in the state.

"We get appointed to represent individuals," said Shawn Nolan, the chief of the 
Federal Community Defender Office's Capital Habeas Unit, who added that people 
deserve the best representation possible under the Constitution. "And that's 
what we do."

Why are the feds in state court?

Nolan has been in the Federal Community Defender Office for 14 years, and has 
led the Capital Habeas Unit for about 2 1/2. Right now, along with Morales, the 
organization represents York County death row inmates John Small, Kevin Dowling 
and Milton Montalvo.

Its lawyers typically get appointed to represent someone in a death penalty 
case once his or her initial appeals are denied, Nolan said. That's because 
there's a time limit when constitutional issues can be raised in federal court.

The Capital Habeas Units were created across the country in 1995 and 1996 to 
fill a void that was left when the federal government cut off money for death 
penalty resource centers, which provided training, consulting and 
representation in capital cases, said Robert Dunham, the executive director at 
the Death Penalty Information Center.

Dunham served as the executive director of the Pennsylvania Capital Case 
Resource Center from 1994 to 1999. He also spent 10 years in the Federal 
Community Defender Office's Capital Habeas Unit.

Not all of the Capital Habeas Units get involved on the state level, though 
they might have the flexibility to do so, he said.

Pennsylvania is the only place in the United States that does not provide state 
money to the defense in death penalty cases in which someone cannot afford an 
attorney. The Federal Community Defender Office got permission to start a pilot 
program to appear in state court, Dunham said.

Typically, when the office gets involved in state appeals, it is not allowed to 
use the money it gets from the U.S. government.

When Benjamin Lerner was on the bench of the Philadelphia Court of Common 
Pleas, every homicide case in the city would come through his courtroom before 
trial.

He suspects the office became involved with appeals in state court because a 
lot of the convictions in capital cases or death sentences that were being 
thrown out happened on the federal level.

So, he said, it made sense for a lawyer who already knew the facts and had a 
relationship with the client to continue working on the case. Pennsylvania also 
has a "terrible shortage" of qualified attorneys who are willing and able to 
represent people facing the death penalty, Lerner said.

Whenever lawyers from the Federal Community Defender Office were in his 
courtroom, Lerner knew he was going to work "awfully hard." But every relevant 
issue would be litigated - and the case would not come back again on a claim of 
ineffective assistance of counsel, he said.

Lerner said he understands the burden that's placed on prosecutors, as they're 
facing an opponent who has greater resources and handles only capital cases.

"But my view about that has always been that's the price you pay if your area 
is a jurisdiction that elects to have the death penalty - or that's the price 
you ought to pay," said Lerner, who's now Philadelphia's deputy managing 
director for criminal justice.

"We have no right, I think, as a society to say, 'On the one hand we want to 
have the death penalty, but on the other hand, we aren't going to provide the 
resources for a constitutionally-adequate defense for people who we're seeking 
to put to death.'"

Praise and criticism

Some in the legal field regard the lawyers in the Federal Community Defender 
Office's Capital Habeas Unit as the preeminent experts, as they strictly handle 
death penalty cases.

In June, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a death row inmate's 
constitutional rights were violated when a judge who was involved in the case 
as a prosecutor took part in issuing a decision against him. The Federal 
Community Defender Office represented the prisoner.

"Their results cannot be questioned, and any time an underserved community gets 
competent and effective representation, I think, that's for the best," said 
Marc Bookman, the director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, a 
nonprofit death penalty resource center. He views the punishment as a "failed 
government program."

But the office has also been criticized.

That happened in the case of Morales.

In court documents, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office noted that 
Assistant Federal Defender Billy Nolas filed a motion in 2012 on behalf of 
Morales. That happened even though the judge had refused to put Nolas on the 
case, and had already appointed another lawyer, prosecutors said.

The motive, prosecutors said, was clear. It was another attempt by the Federal 
Community Defender Office to "improperly interject themselves into state court 
proceedings when they were specifically precluded from doing so."

But Jeff Conrad, an attorney in Lancaster who was court-appointed on the case, 
said it was a "win-win" for everyone, because taxpayers in York County did not 
have to foot the bill. And, he said, "it's the client's business to choose who 
he wants to defend him."

When asked about the effect the Federal Community Defender Office has had on 
prosecutors who are handling appeals, Kyle King, a spokesman for the York 
County District Attorney's Office said: "We're certainly not going to make a 
comment." The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office also declined to talk 
about the organization.

Retired Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille wrote 2 
opinions that were highly critical of the group. Both were in response to 
filings from Mark Spotz, who was sentenced to death for a crime spree that 
spread across Clearfield, Schuylkill, Cumberland and York counties in 1995, 
during which he killed 4 people.

In an opinion from 2011, Castille wrote that the Federal Community Defender 
Office's involvement in cases has been "remarkable in its stealth and 
pervasiveness." He also said the resources the group has are "something one 
would expect in major litigation involving large law firms," and that the 
organization bogged down state courts.

The group has a global political agenda, he said: "to impede and sabotage the 
death penalty in Pennsylvania."

"A zealous representation of your client - that's fine," Castille said in a 
recent interview. "But being a zealot is different."

The future of the death penalty in Pa.

The Federal Community Defender Office's involvement in state court, for the 
time being, might have a different urgency.

Saying the system is "riddled with flaws" and "anything but infallible," Gov. 
Tom Wolf in February 2015 placed a moratorium on executions.The Pennsylvania 
Supreme Court later ruled that he acted within his authority.

In June 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which covers 
Pennsylvania, also held that the Federal Community Defender Office was allowed 
to appear in state court. Prosecutors in several counties tried the prevent the 
organization from getting involved in cases.

Chief Judge Theodore McKee wrote in a concurring opinion that systemic attempts 
to disqualify the lawyers from cases was "all the more perplexing and 
regrettable" in part because of how much has been written about inadequate 
representation creating a risk for miscarriages of justice. Prosecutors, he 
said, seemed to be objecting because the office was "providing too much defense 
to the accused."

"I am not quite sure why the same kind of meticulous devotion of resources 
should not be available to someone who has been condemned to die by the state," 
McKee wrote, "and who seeks to challenge the legality of that punishment."

Who's in death row in York County?

Here are the 12 people from York County who are on death row, and the year they 
were sentenced. People who are represented by the Federal Community Defender 
Office in the York County Court of Common Pleas are marked with an asterisk.

--Paul Gamboa-Taylor (1992): Gamboa-Taylor pleaded guilty to murdering 4 family 
members with a hammer on May 18, 1991.

--Hubert Michael Jr. (1995): Michael pleaded guilty to kidnapping and killing 
Trista Eng, 16, on July 12, 1993.

--Mark Spotz (1996): Spotz killed 4 people during a crime spree in 1995, which 
spanned Clearfield, Schuylkill, Cumberland and York counties. 6 death warrants 
have been signed for him, according to the Pennsylvania Department of 
Corrections.

--John Small* (1996): He was convicted of attempted rape and the murder of 
Cheryl Smith, 17, whose body was found in West Manheim Township in 1981.

--Kevin Dowling* (1998): Dowling was sentenced to death for the killing of 
Jennifer Myers, 44, the owner of an art and frame shop outside Spring Grove, on 
Oct. 20, 1997.

--Milton Montalvo* (2000) and Noel Montalvo (2003) The brothers were condemned 
to die for the stabbing deaths of Miriam Asencio-Cruz, 44, and Manuel 
Ramirez-Santana, 37, on April 19, 1998.

--Harve Johnson (2009): Johnson is on death row for killing 2-year-old 
Darisabel Baez in 2008.

--Kevin Mattison (2010): Mattison, who previously did time for third-degree 
murder in Maryland, was convicted of shooting Christian Agosto during a robbery 
on Dec. 9, 2008. Agosto, 34, died 1 week later.

--Hector Morales* (2011): Morales was sentenced for shooting and killing Ronald 
"Country" Simmons Jr. on July 16, 2009. Simmons was a drug informant who 
planned to testify against Morales.

--Aric Woodard (2013): On Nov. 7, 2011, Woodard beat 2-year-old Jaques Twinn to 
death.

--Timothy Jacoby (2014): Jacoby shot and killed Monica Schmeyer, 55, on March 
31, 2010, when he tried to burglarize her home in West Manheim Township.

Active death penalty cases in York County:

Right now, the York County District Attorney's Office is proceeding with 2 
death penalty prosecutions:

--Marcus Bordelon, 23, of Wrightsville, is accused of killing his 
ex-girlfriend, Samantha Young, 21, on April 19, 2015.

--Daniel Jacobs, 45, of York, is awaiting retrial on a charge of criminal 
homicide in the death of his girlfriend, Tammy Lee Mock, 18, on Feb. 16, 1992. 
His case has been in limbo for more than 10 years. He is already serving a life 
sentence for the murder of his 7-month-old daughter, Holly.

Johnson seeks new trial

This fall, Harve Johnson, who was convicted of his killing his girlfriend's 
2-year-old daughter, Darisabel Baez, will be back in court for a 3-day hearing. 
It comes after his lawyer filed - and later revised - a motion that, including 
exhibits, is more than 1,200 pages and argues that he's entitled to a new 
trial.

The attorney representing Johnson, Michael Wiseman, is the former chief of the 
Federal Community Defender Office's Capital Habeas Unit in Philadelphia. He is 
no longer with the organization.

(source: York Daily Record)






GEORGIA----impending execution

Georgia Prepares for 6th Execution of the Year ---- John Wayne Conner's lethal 
injection would set a record in Georgia, which hasn't executed more than 5 
people in a year in the modern era.


A man who beat a drinking buddy to death with a stick is set to become 
Georgia's sixth death-row inmate executed by lethal injection this year.

John Wayne Conner is scheduled for execution by lethal injection at 7 p.m. on 
Thursday, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

If the execution goes through, it would set a new record for Georgia. The state 
has never executed more than 5 people in a year in the 40 years since the death 
penalty was reinstated.

5 death-row inmates were executed in 2015 and 1987.

There have been 64 men and 1 woman executed in Georgia since the U.S. Supreme 
Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Conner would be the 43rd put to 
death by lethal injection.

There are presently 63 men under death sentence in Georgia.

Conner was sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of James T. White in 
Telfair County.

According to testimony, Conner, White and Conner's girlfriend had gone to a 
party in Eastman. After returning to Conner's house, Conner, then 25, and 
White, 29, walked to a neighbor's home to ask, unsuccessfully, for a ride to a 
liquor store.

While walking back to Conner's house, Conner claims, White made a comment about 
wanting to have sex with Conner's girlfriend. The men fought, and Conner hit 
White first with a glass bottle then with a stick he found.

After returning home, Conner told his girlfriend he may have killed White, but 
that they needed to go back and make sure. The girlfriend testified that, when 
they went back to the scene of the fight, she heard a thud, then Conner 
returned and told her White was dead.

The couple were arrested the next day in Butts County.

Conner's attorneys will appear before the state Board of Pardons and Paroles on 
Wednesday in an attempt to have his execution halted.

(source: patch.com)





************************

Slain St. Augustine priest signed "Declaration of Life" document asking that 
his killer not be put to death


Editor's Note: Road to Murder, a Times-Union Special Report, details the 
slaying of St. Augustine priest Rene Robert. In this preview, Robert is 
remembered for his work, his compassion and a "Declaration of Life."

As the 6 o'clock hour approached and workers spilled onto the streets toward 
home, Father Rene Robert would stand with others on a corner solemnly waiting.

For him and those who stood with him, 6 p.m. was a time of great sadness. It is 
at that hour on appointed days that Florida typically puts to death its 
condemned. So on a corner Robert and the others would pray. They prayed for 
redemption for the killer. They prayed for the victims. They prayed for Florida 
to join 19 other states and abolish the death penalty.

Robert was so opposed to the death penalty that in 1995 he signed a 
"Declaration of Life" that said, " ... should I die as a result of a violent 
crime, I request that the person or person found guilty of homicide for my 
killing not be subject to put in jeopardy of the death penalty under any 
circumstance, no matter how heinous their crime or how much I have suffered."

The notarized declaration is to be given to the prosecutor, the attorney 
representing the accused, the judge and the recorder of the county where the 
homicide case will be tried. While the declaration carries little legal weight, 
its moral significance is real. Robert was killed on April 11 in Burke County, 
Ga. A deeply troubled 28-year-old, Steven Murray, has said in interviews with 
the Times-Union that he committed the crime. A Georgia prosecutor is seeking 
the death penalty.

Ashley Wright, the district attorney for the Augusta Judicial District, filed 
the notice of intent to seek the death penalty on May 19. She didn't seem moved 
by Robert's wishes, which she learned about after her filing.

She said, "The State's decision to seek imposition of the death penalty is 
based on legal reasons which arise from the unique facts of each case. While 
many who are affected by a loved one's loss would wish the State to seek the 
maximum penalty, it is reserved for certain cases based on aggravating 
circumstances. That's how the decision is made. It's not sought based on public 
opinion."

DIOCESE CONTINUES APPEAL

The Diocese of St. Augustine, where Robert served initially as a Franciscan 
brother then a priest of the diocese, sent Wright the document as well as a 
letter from the Most Rev. Felipe J. Estevez, bishop of the diocese.

Estevez wrote, "While the State has the right to carry out the death penalty in 
order to protect society, the unnecessary, deliberate taking of any life denies 
the dignity of all persons, contributes to an ever growing disrespect for the 
sacredness of human life, and feeds a sense of vengeance rather than justice. 
Society remains safe when violent criminals are imprisoned for life without 
parole."

A spokeswoman for the diocese said, "Bishop Estevez on behalf of Father Rene 
Robert and the Diocese of St. Augustine will continue to appeal to the State of 
Georgia until the death penalty is removed from this case."

'NO EXCEPTIONS'

When Robert signed his Declaration of Life 21 years ago, he joined an estimated 
1,200 others who had done the same during the anti-death-penalty group's 
infancy. Modeled after a national group, Catholics Against Capital Punishment, 
a group of nuns from the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Regional Community of the Sisters of 
Mercy formed the group Cherish the Life Circle to speak out against capital 
punishment, offer the Declaration of Life and to provide support to family 
members of loved ones who have been victims of homicide.

At 83, Sister Camille D'Arienzo, a founder, still carries the cause though she 
readily admits that keeping tally on the number of people who have has signed 
the declaration has stopped. Still, she was aware that Robert has a Declaration 
of Life document with her name and his signature on it.

"I feel so honored that I was able to provide that," she said. "And while the 
father can no longer speak for himself, our faith tells us that he is 
witnessing what is being done in his name. And to take a life, to take the life 
of his killer would be to dismiss his value, father's value and to dishonor his 
memory."

To Sister Camille, there are no gray areas.

"We have a commandment that says Thou shalt not kill," she said. "It doesn't 
say it's okay because the crime was horrific or because the victim was an 
innocent child. There are no exceptions.

"We don't do anything of value by imitating the very behavior that we condemn. 
To kill someone who has killed someone because we hate killing is irrational."

'FOLLOWING THE GOSPEL MESSAGE'

Robert saw life much in the same way; without gray, when it came to helping the 
downtrodden, the addicted, the marginalized.

"He was deeply committed to the sacredness of life," said Bishop Emeritus John 
Snyder. "He was just so committed and so concerned about people that he was 
extraordinary in that sense."

That commitment put him in potentially dangerous situations.

For years Robert ministered to people in jail. That work wasn't limited to 
those behind bars. He also ministered and helped those like Murray who bounced 
in and out of jail.

"I was worried about him getting ripped off. He was kind of an easy mark," said 
St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar. "He was just very giving and would get 
close to these people; and I did worry about them, and I did worry about him.

"...People that spend time in jail, and I'm not saying all of them, but if they 
see a particular opportunity to get money, I always worried about that and I'd 
talk to him about it."

Despite the warnings, Robert found goodness in all people, Shoar said. "I think 
he had a level of naivete because of his faith in people," he said.

That faith was remarkable, said Nancy O'Byrne, a long-time friend of Robert.

"He felt he was following the gospel message," O'Byrne said. "And that is why 
he did what he did. He wasn't worried about his safety. ... And that is what 
you do when you are living the gospel message. You don't worry about your 
safety. You do what God is calling you to do and more of us need to be doing 
that and not worrying about personal safety. If we believe in the God that we 
are going to be with for all of eternity, then why are we so worried about what 
would happen to us? It's a big disconnect as far as I am concerned and I think 
he believed that too."

O'Byrne said, "He chose to live out of love, not fear."

(source: Florida Times-Union)






FLORIDA:

Mesac Damas murder case remains in legal limbo due to death penalty challenges


The 1st-degree murder case of Mesac Damas remains in legal limbo due to ongoing 
challenges to Florida's death penalty laws.

Damas appeared in court Friday morning. During the appearance both his 
appointed attorney, James Ermacora, and the assistant state attorney expressed 
frustration that "nothing has happened" for months to untangle the legal knot 
that is holding up cases throughout the state.

"I think every death penalty case in Florida is tied up in a knot like this 
one," Ermacora said.

The Legislature rewrote Florida's death penalty law in March after the U.S. 
Supreme Court ruled that the state's previous law was unconstitutional. That 
law allowed judges to reach a different decision than juries, who had only an 
advisory role in recommending death.

But the new law, which doesn't require a unanimous recommendation of death from 
the jury - it only requires 10 of the 12 jurors to recommend death - has also 
been challenged by judges in Miami-Dade and Hillsborough Counties. The Florida 
Supreme Court will likely have to weigh in, Ermacora said.

Damas, 39, is charged with 6 counts of 1st-degree murder in the deaths of his 
wife and 5 children, who were between the ages of 1 and 9 at the time of the 
September 2009 killings. Damas has twice confessed to the Daily News that he 
committed the homicides, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

His case also has been delayed by competency issues.

Damas is next scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 23.

(source: Naples News)

*****************

Egypt Robinson back in court


The woman charged with 1st degree murder in the death of her three year-old son 
was back in court Thursday afternoon for a pre-trial hearing.

Bay County Sheriff's deputies arrested 27-year-old Egypt Robinson in December 
after they found the body of her son A.J. Acevedo wrapped in a sheet in a 
suitcase floating behind a Callaway home she was staying at.

Prosecutors said the state will be seeking the death penalty.

Robinson's next court date is October 27.

(source: WJHG news)

************************

Florida Supreme Court puts rulings on death penalty and gambling on hold, takes 
summer break


The Florida Supreme Court released its final round of rulings for the summer 
Thursday and issued a rare clarification of its workers' compensation decision 
of last month, but it also put left unresolved 2 of the most controversial 
issues to come before the court this year: the death penalty and expansion of 
slot machines.

The court postponed rulings on the constitutionality of the state's death 
penalty, leaving the state's procedure and the 388 inmates on death row in 
limbo for potentially several more months.

The ruling is expected as part of a series of hearings the court held in May 
and June over cases challenging the state's death penalty law passed by 
lawmakers in March, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Hurst vs. Florida 
that the state's sentencing scheme was unconstitutional. The court has stayed 
two executions in the wake of the Hurst ruling, heard arguments in more than a 
dozen death penalty cases, and has not yet unanswered whether longtime death 
row inmates should be afforded new sentencing hearings.

The court also heard arguments in June about whether a 2010 state gaming law 
allows counties to expand slot machines without legislative approval.

Both decisions could have wide-ranging ramifications and could potentially 
provoke criticism, controversy and unleash an election-year debate over 2 
highly-charged issues.

3 of the 7 sitting justices on the bench are up for a merit-retention vote in 
November - Chief Justice Jorge Labarga, Justice Charles Canady and Justice 
Ricky Polston.

The death penalty questions before the court were spawned by the January U.S. 
Supreme Court ruling that declared the state's death sentencing system 
unconstitutional because it gave too little power to juries. For decades, 
Florida jurors issued bare majority recommendations, with judges ultimately 
imposing the death penalty.

The opinion evolved from a similar ruling in a 2002 case, Ring vs. Arizona, 
which held that juries in that state should have the sole authority to decide 
on aggravating circumstances that made someone eligible for the death penalty. 
Alabama, Florida and Delaware are the only 3 states in the nation that do not 
require a unanimous jury to impose the death sentence and Florida officials 
believed the jury's "advisory" role was sufficiently different to allow the 
court to differentiate Florida from the Arizona ruling.

The decision forced the Legislature to rewrite its death-penalty sentencing law 
to require juries to unanimously vote for every reason, known as aggravating 
factors, that a defendant might merit a death sentence. The decision to impose 
the death sentence requires 10 of 12 jurors.

The fact that the court went on its summer recess without issuing an opinion, 
however, doesn't necessarily mean there won't be one to come before the court 
issues opinions again in late August.

Martin McClain, a lawyer who has represented more than 250 defendants condemned 
to death and presented arguments before the court in June, said Thursday that 
in 2009 he was appealing the death sentence of an inmate issued its last 
opinions before it recessed for the summer one week, and the next week the 
opinion on his case was issued.

"We have no idea what they will do,'' he said in an interview. He noted that 
there are 2 people on death row in which juries recommended a life sentence but 
a judge overrode it with a death sentence and the court may be taking its time 
to consider the impact of those cases.

"We now have a statute that says you can't get a death sentence if three or 
more people voted for life and yet we are still going to execute people who 
have a life recommendation? It's very difficult to determine what we're going 
to do. It makes sense to me the court wants to do it right. ... It's also clear 
from the oral arguments that they are not in agreement."

(source: Tampa Bay Times)






ALABAMA:

Strange facts about Alabama's 200 years of executions


Official records from the Alabama Department of Corrections lists the names of 
more than 200 people executed between 1927, when the state started using the 
electric chair, through this year when Christopher Brooks died by lethal 
injection, Alabama's current means of execution.

But what of the many decades in which Alabama executed people by hanging or 
even gunfire?

The Death Penalty Information Center's Espy File, which tracked executions 
nationwide that took place between 1608 and 2002, states Alabama executed 764 
people between 1812 and 2002 -- making it the state with the seventh highest 
number of executions.

Alabama has executed another 33 people since 2002, according to state records.

The Espy File is a "list of 15,269 executions was compiled by M. Watt Espy and 
John Ortiz Smykla, and was made available through the Inter-University 
Consortium for Political and Social Research," the DPIC site states.

Between 1812 and the advent of Alabama's "Big Yellow Mama" in 1927, Alabama 
executed 555 people, the file states.

The earliest record in the file is the Dec. 19, 1812 hanging of Eli Norman for 
the crime of murder.

All but one of the executions between 1812 and 1927 were hangings. On Feb. 6, 
1814, a man named John Woods was executed by gunshot. The file lists his crime 
as "other."

Among the interesting items in the file:

--While most executions are for murder, 60-year-old Thomas Davis was hanged on 
Oct. 10, 1822 for counterfeiting.

--In 1833, Littleton Prince was hanged for aiding a runaway slave.

--Multiple executions in one day was not uncommon in years past. In 1934, the 
state electrocuted 5 men in 1 night.

However, the largest mass execution in Alabama history may have been Nov. 11, 
1825. On that day, 6 Native Americans, including Tuscoona Fixico, Dancing 
Rabbit, Chilancha and 3 others not identified, were hanged for murder.

In his book "The Second Creek War," writer John H. Ellison states Tuscoona 
Fixico led rebel warriors in a series of ambushes intended to isolate Fort 
Wilson.

--Men make up the vast majority of Alabama's executions -- since 1927 only 4 
women have been executed here.

The earliest known execution of a woman in Alabama came on June 10, 1825 when 
Patsy Gorman was hanged for murder. In all, the file lists the executions of 15 
women in Alabama in the 1800s.

--African-Americans made up the vast majority of Alabama executions. However, 
several Native Americans were also executed in the 19th century.

The earliest of these may have been the Dec. 12, 1834 hanging of Poo-sa-la for 
murder. Another Native American, Eas-ko, was executed here for murder in 1834 
but no exact date was listed.

(source: al.com)






TENNESSEE:

State Supreme Court Upholds Conviction, Death Penalty For Washington Co. 
Murderer


The Supreme Court has affirmed the convictions and sentences of death for 
Howard Hawk Willis for killing two East Tennessee teenagers and dismembering 
one of them.

In 2010, a Washington County jury convicted Willis of two counts of 
premeditated murder and one count of felony murder in the perpetration of a 
kidnapping for the 2002 deaths of 17-year-old Adam Chrismer and his 16-year-old 
wife, Samantha Chrismer, according to a news release.

The jury sentenced Willis to death on each conviction. In 2015, the Court of 
Criminal Appeals affirmed the convictions and the sentences of death.

On appeal to the Supreme Court, Willis argued that the trial court should have 
excluded certain incriminating statements he made to his ex-wife because she 
was acting as an agent of the government at the time the statements were made.

Willis made the statements to his ex-wife during in-person meetings with her at 
the Washington County jail and at a detention facility in New York, and also 
during recorded telephone calls from jail, according to the release. He claimed 
that the admission into evidence of the statements violated his right to 
counsel under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The court held that there was no violation of Willis' right to counsel. The 
court first noted that Willis made some of the incriminating statements to his 
ex-wife before he was indicted, and he had no constitutional right to counsel 
at that time.

After Willis's indictment, the state discouraged the ex-wife from having any 
further contact with Willis, and he did not offer proof at trial that the state 
agreed to have the ex-wife act as its agent or that the state had any control 
over her actions.

Consequently, as to incriminating statements Willis made in person to his 
ex-wife after his indictment, the proof showed only that the state willingly 
accepted information from a cooperating witness, according to the release.

Willis admitted that every telephone call he made from jail was preceded by a 
recording that informed him that all calls are subject to monitoring and 
recording, so he implicitly consented to the monitoring and recording of his 
telephone conversations with his ex-wife. The court maintained that the 
admission into evidence of the incriminating statements did not violate Willis' 
constitutional rights.

After a full review of the record and all of the evidence, the court concluded 
that the proof fully supported the convictions and the sentences of death.

Chief Justice Sharon G. Lee filed a separate concurring opinion, in which she 
agreed that Willis's death sentence is proportionate to the penalties imposed 
in similar cases but reiterated her disagreement with the manner in which the 
court conducts proportionality review.

(source: Greeneville Sun)