[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., GA., LA., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

June 2



TEXAS:

Coryell will seek death penalty in child's death


A Gatesville man with a history of arrests for sexually abusing children was 
indicted on a capital murder charge Wednesday in the January death of a 
2-year-old boy.

Chet Shelton, 27, of Gatesville, was arrested and booked into the Coryell 
County Jail. Coryell County District Attorney Dusty Boyd confirmed his office 
will be seeking the death penalty in any upcoming trial.

According to an arrest affidavit, Shelton was tasked with babysitting the 
Gatesville toddler, Makai Brooks Lamar, for most of the day while the boy's 
mother worked a double shift at a local restaurant.

The child's mother came home for a break from work and reported the child was 
fine at that time, the affidavit said. While the mother was back at work, 
Shelton said he found the child not breathing and took the child to a 
neighbor's home where a Coryell County deputy sheriff lived, according to the 
affidavit. The child died a few hours later at Coryell Memorial Hospital.

Police almost immediately began treating the 34th Street home in Gatesville as 
a crime scene and began investigating the child's bedroom where they found 
bloody bedding and pillows.

In the arrest affidavit, police highlight several inconsistencies with 
Shelton's story regarding what happened in the hours before Lamar's death, 
saying the child's mother ensured police Lamar always slept clothed and in a 
diaper.

"When Shelton took the infant child to the neighbor's house for medical 
assistance, the infant was wearing no clothing, not even a diaper," the 
affidavit said.

Perhaps most troubling are the injuries to Lamar confirmed by an autopsy in 
Dallas. The preliminary cause of death was labeled as blunt force trauma as the 
child had numerous injuries to his head and internal organs.

The affidavit said the child had also been sodomized, causing "severe, distinct 
trauma" to the child.

Shelton's criminal history includes 3 counts of aggravated sexual assault of a 
child in May 2007, 3 counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child in December 
2007, 2 counts of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury in October 
2010 and 4 counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact in May 2007. 
However, in exchange for his plea of guilty, many of Shelton's most serious 
sexual charges against children were eventually downgraded to injury to a 
child, which does not carry a sex offender registration requirement, according 
to Boyd.

Shelton is currently in the Coryell County Jail where he awaits his trial on at 
least $500,000 in bonds.

According to Boyd, Shelton's case is Coryell County's only death penatly case.

(source: Killeen Daily Herald)






CONNECTICUT:

Killers deserved death sentences


I pay tribute to the late Detective Michael Malchik, whose alertness and 
persistence caught the disgusting creeper that was Michael Ross. Unfortunately, 
he and the families of Ross' victims waited an eternity for the state of 
Connecticut to put Ross down like the animal he was.

With news that the state's liberal Supreme Court has made the death penalty 
disappear, vermin such as the cowardly Cheshire killers, who deserve to be 
nameless, and the pathetic Russell Peeler Jr. will escape the fate they so 
richly deserve. Detective Malchik understood that people like this had no place 
in society, unlike our leaders in Hartford who happily coddle perpetrators 
rather than help the victims.

My idea for those on the now-defunct death row is to put them into the general 
prison population. Jailhouse justice would prevail I am sure, with the inmates 
themselves knowing that the crimes these individuals took part in deserved a 
death sentence, which they would mete out the 1st chance they had. Detective 
Malchik, may you rest in peace knowing you saved lives; as for Ross, I hope you 
turn on an infernal spit in hell for the rest of time.

JOHN LINDELL

Moosup

(source: Letter to the Editor, Norwich Bulletin)






GEORGIA:

District attorney draws heat over toy electric chair


"Death Row Marv" is a battery-powered toy electric chair that produces an 
electric buzzing sound with Marv's eyes glowing red under a helmet attached to 
electrodes. After his "electrocution," Marv asks, "That the best you can do, 
you pansies?"

Because the toy was on display in District Attorney Layla Zon's office, it now 
figures prominently in a recently filed court motion that seeks to overturn a 
Newton County death sentence.

The motion contends Zon is "pathologically enthralled" with the death penalty 
and has pursued it with a fervor and zeal unmatched by any other district 
attorney in the state. Zon is DA of the Alcovy Judicial Circuit, which consists 
of Walton and Newton counties.

On Wednesday, Zon said she seeks the death penalty only in cases that warrant 
it. As for "Death Row Marv," it was already in her office when she became 
district attorney in 2010 and she recently removed it.

"It was not something I purchased to decorate my office," she said. "It was a 
left-behind trinket that became part of the woodwork. ... I never sat and 
looked and fixated on it, like it was part of some medieval mindset."

Marv was a fictional character created by comic book legend Frank Miller for 
the "Sin City" graphic novel series. Actor Mickey Rourke portrayed Marv in a 
2005 movie adaptation. In "The Hard Goodbye," Marv is sentenced to die in the 
electric chair and survives the 1st jolt - prompting the "you pansies" retort. 
His executioners then pull the switch again to finish the job.

The toy did not define her philosophy on capital punishment, Zon said. "But 
when the evidence and the law are not on their side, they launch ad hominem 
attacks."

State capital defender Josh Moore, who filed the motion on behalf of condemned 
inmate Rodney Young, declined to comment. In 2012, Young was condemned to die 
by lethal injection for killing his ex-fiancee's son.

An estimated 1,400 murder cases that were eligible for the death penalty have 
been closed statewide since Zon took office and fewer than 1 % of them resulted 
in death sentences, the motion said. Young's case was "considerably less 
aggravated" than the other death cases, the motion said, but his crime occurred 
in Newton County, where Zon turned down his offer to plead guilty in exchange 
for a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Since 2011, there have been 13 death-penalty trials statewide and 4 of them 
took place in Newton County, the motion said. During that same time frame, 
Georgia juries imposed 5 death sentences and 2 of them came from Newton.

"These statistics resoundingly confirm what Ms. Zon's toy electric chair 
perhaps only suggests: that her fixation with the death penalty is completely 
out of step with the sensibilities and evolving standards of decency in this 
state," the motion said.

The motion notes that the Georgia Supreme Court in 2001 found that death by 
electrocution caused excruciating pain with a certainty of "cooked brains and 
blistered bodies."

"The idea of any elected state official memorializing such a barbaric (and 
unconstitutional) practice with an office ornament would be surprising and 
troubling," the motion said. "The fact that the elected official at issue here 
is a constitutional officer entrusted with virtually unfettered discretion in 
deciding which defendants under her jurisdiction will be singled out for 
execution, and which will be spared, is cause for real concern."

Zon said she now wishes she had "trashed" the toy when she first saw it.

As for the 2 death sentences she obtained, Zon said, jurors from both trials 
unanimously agreed the ultimate punishment was necessary. And the case 
involving Young was particularly heinous, she said.

Young killed Gary Lamar Jones because his mother had ended her relationship 
with Young, Zon said. On a Sunday in March 2008, Jones returned home from 
church and was overtaken by Young, who tied him to a chair.

Young bludgeoned Jones with a hammer, sliced open his throat with a knife and 
beat him so viciously he was found dead with an eyeball hanging out of his 
face, Zon said. "I think if confronted with those same facts, DAs in other 
counties would have sought death too."

(source: myajc.com)






LOUISIANA:

Executions in Louisiana on hold until at least January 2018


A trial on the legality of the death penalty in Louisiana has been delayed 
again as the state tries to determine its execution method.

Wednesday, a federal judge delayed for 18 months proceedings on the 
constitutionality of Louisiana's death penalty procedures, as well as the 
execution of convicted child-killer Christopher Sepulvado.

Sepulvado and another death-row inmate, Jessie Hoffman, are named in the 
filing, but the ruling affects all inmates on death row. The state can't 
execute anyone until its method is examined in federal court as part of a 
lawsuit brought by the inmates against the state Department of Corrections.

Sepulvado, who was convicted of beating his stepson with a screwdriver and then 
submerging his body in scalding water, has won several stays of execution. He 
argues that the state's method of lethal injection violates his constitutional 
protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

As part of that lawsuit, Sepulvado wants to learn exactly how he will be put to 
death. The state has fought such disclosures in the lawsuit and in response to 
public-records requests.

Attorney General Jeff Landry's office on Tuesday asked for the delay because 
the facts "continue to be in a fluid state."

Lawyers for Sepulvado wouldn't elaborate on what facts keep changing, but the 
motion comes amid a years-long, nationwide shortage of lethal injection drugs. 
The attorney general's office didn't immediately respond to requests for 
comment.

This is the 3rd time in 2 years that the state has asked to delay the trial. 
The last time, in June 2015, lawyers pointed to a lack of lethal injection 
drugs. The state's last-known supply had expired earlier that year.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections said Wednesday that the 
agency doesn't have the drugs it would need to carry out an execution. That was 
the case back in February, too.

Michael Rubenstein, Hoffman's lawyer, has said in court filings that the 
hearing should be delayed until after the 2017 legislative session to avoid any 
conflicts with proposed legislation.

The state is now scheduled to describe its execution method on January 8, 2018. 
That's just a week after the deadline for a legislative study on the cost of 
the death penalty.

Although experts don't believe the death penalty will be abolished in Louisiana 
anytime soon, several legislators have said they're rethinking their support 
because of how much it costs.

Many of the 31 states that allow the death penalty are mired in court battles 
over its constitutionality as drug shortages have forced prison officials to 
turn to compounding companies or import them from overseas. In some states, 
legislators have passed laws establishing the secrecy of where and how 
officials obtain execution drugs.

States have improvised their own lethal drug mixes that have resulted in 
several botched executions. Death penalty opponents say those prolonged 
executions, including a few in which inmates have writhed, gasped or cried out 
after being injected, amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

It's now even harder to get execution drugs. Last month, the pharmaceutical 
company Pfizer announced that it has now banned the use of its drugs in 
executions. It had been the last open-market manufacturer of drugs used in 
executions.

Louisiana corrections officials have sought death-penalty drugs from unorthodox 
sources. In 2013, officials considered getting pentobarbital from a compounding 
pharmacy that wasn't licensed in the state.

A year later, officials turned to a Lake Charles hospital to get midazolam as 
part of a new 2-drug execution mix, saying the drug was for a patient.

(source: The Lens)






OHIO:

Ohio man to be sentenced for killing 3 women wrapped in bags


A suburban Cleveland man convicted of killing 3 women and wrapping their bodies 
in garbage bags is set to learn whether he'll be sentenced to death, as a jury 
recommended.

The Cuyahoga County judge sentencing Michael Madison on Thursday must decide 
whether he should die by lethal injection or get life in prison without parole.

A jury convicted Madison on aggravated murder and kidnapping counts last month, 
then deliberated for less than a day before recommending the death penalty.

Madison's attorneys argued that he shouldn't get a death sentence because of 
psychological damage caused by child abuse.

He was found guilty of killing 38-year-old Angela Deskins, 28-year-old Shetisha 
Sheeley and 18-year-old Shirellda Terry. Their bodies were found in July 2013 
near the East Cleveland apartment building where Madison lived.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Judge in Seman case hears arguments on death penalty


Judge Maureen Sweeney is expected to soon rule on motions asking her to dismiss 
death-penalty specifications against Robert Seman.

Seman, 48, of Green, faces 10 counts of aggravated murder with death-penalty 
specifications for the arson deaths of Corinne Gump, 10, and her grandparents, 
William and Judith Schmidt, when the Schmidts' Powers Way home was destroyed by 
fire March 31, 2015, the day Seman was to go on trial on charges he raped 
Corinne.

Attorneys argued their motions Wednesday before the judge in Mahoning County 
Common Pleas Court.

Lynn Maro, 1 of 2 lawyers representing Seman, said 1 of the reasons the 
specifications should be overturned is because the lack of execution drugs in 
Ohio violates Seman's Eighth Amendment constitutional right to not receive 
cruel and unusual punishment.

Maro said because the state cannot find the drugs, it is canceling and 
rescheduling executions, which causes uncertainty for inmates as to when they 
may be executed because they do not know when that date will be.

Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa said the 2 cases Maro was citing are 125 
and 60 years old, respectively. Cantalamessa said no ruling states 
death-penalty specification should be withdrawn because of a problem with the 
way the execution is to be carried out.

"There's no case law that says the death penalty should be dismissed because of 
that," Cantalamessa said.

Maro also said the specifications should be dismissed because of a prosecution 
request to disqualify all jurors from the jury pool who are opposed to the 
death penalty.

Maro said Supreme Court rulings have found that jurors who favor the death 
penalty are more inclined to convict, which is unfair to her client.

Maro also challenged the specifications on how they were worded as well with 
the terms "prior calculation and design" and "principal offender" language in 
the same specification, which she said is a violation of state law.

Cantalamessa said the state would stand on their briefs for the most part to 
rebut the arguments.

Judge Sweeney in April had turned down a request by Seman's lawyers to dismiss 
the death penalty altogether because it violates the Ohio constitution.

(source: vindy.com)