[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., MISS., LA., OHIO, ILL.

[Rick Halperin]

March 17



TEXAS----impending execution

Appeals court denies stay of execution for Adam Kelly Ward


The state's highest criminal appeals court has denied a stay of execution for a 
Commerce man, who claims he was mentally ill when he shot and killed one of the 
city's code enforcement officers almost 11 years ago.

Adam Kelly Ward is set to die on the evening of March 22 and was convicted of 
capital murder in connection with the 2005 death of Michael "Pee Wee" Walker.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals this week denied a stay of execution for 
Ward, one of the last appeals which can be filed before Ward faces death by 
lethal injection.

The court's ruling: "In his application, applicant makes a single claim that 
evolving standards of decency should exempt him from execution because he is a 
severely mentally ill individual. After reviewing his application, we have 
determined that applicant has failed to meet the dictates of Article 11.071, # 
5. Accordingly, we dismiss the application as an abuse of the writ without 
considering the merits of the claim, and we deny his motion to stay the 
execution."

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, in a February 2010 ruling, also denied an 
appeal raised by Ward.

Last fall, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of Ward's 2007 
conviction and sentence to death by lethal injection for the 2005 death of 
Michael "Pee Wee" Walker.

In January 2015 the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also rejected Ward's 
formal appeal. Ward's attorneys had argued Ward's trial counsel was deficient. 
The court also denied a writ of habeas corpus filed in Ward's behalf in 2014.

In the writ, Ward contended his conviction and death penalty sentence were 
unconstitutional because he received ineffective assistance of trial counsel, 
was not tried by an impartial jury, and is severely mentally ill.

The court reviewed the case and in a 63-page opinion denied the writ in a 
unanimous ruling, also noting Ward failed to make a substantial showing of the 
denial of a constitutional right. Ward's defense counsel then filed the formal 
appeal with the court.

Walker was working as a code enforcement officer for the City of Commerce and 
shortly after 10 a.m. on June 13, 2005 he was taking photos of alleged code 
violations at the home where Ward lived on Caddo Street. The 2 engaged in a 
verbal altercation, which ended when Ward shot Walker as many as 9 times with a 
.45 caliber semi-automatic pistol.

In order to have been convicted of capital murder, the prosecution had to show 
Ward knowingly and intentionally either obstructed Walker's ability to do his 
job or retaliated against Walker for doing his job as a public servant, while 
in the course of committing the murder.

Defense attorneys attempted to show Ward may have been psychotic and suffering 
from paranoid delusions at the time of the shooting.

Ward was found mentally competent to stand trial in a separate hearing which 
occurred even as a jury was being impaneled to consider guilt or innocence on 
the capital murder charge.

(source: Herald Banner)






FLORIDA:

Judge rules death penalty still applies in 2 Bradenton murder cases


A judge has ruled the death penalty remains a potential sentence for 2 accused 
murderers in separate high profile cases in Bradenton.

Circuit Court Judge Diana Moreland ruled that the death penalty was never 
completely invalidated by a recent Supreme Court decision. The judge said the 
previous capital sentencing statute still served as a deterrent, warning Devin 
Chandler and Terez Jones of the punishment they could face if they committed 
1st-degree murder.

Moreland issued similar orders in both cases, denying the defense motions to 
strike the state's intent to seek the death penalty and to find the death 
penalty is no longer a potential sentence.

Chandler is charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder and armed robbery in the 
fatal shooting of brothers Khasem Yousef, 23, and Faares Yousef, 17, on Labor 
Day in their family's convenience store in Palmetto.

Jones, 33, along with Jimmie McNear, 19, and Trey Nonnombre, 19, were indicted 
on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the July 9 fatal shootings of Esther Deneus 
and her boyfriend, Kantral Markeith Brooks, both 29, during a home invasion at 
their Bradenton residence.

If convicted of 1st-degree murder, Jones and Chandler will each face the death 
penalty or life in prison.

Chandler had attempted to change his plea to a plea of guilty but Moreland 
denied accepting his plea until the issues surrounding the state's intent to 
seek the death penalty were resolved.

Florida's death penalty, which was reestablished in 1976, had been in limbo 
after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Jan. 12 in Hurst v. Florida that it was 
unconstitutional for a judge, and not a jury, to make the final decision to 
sentence a murderer to death.

Assistant Public Defender Franklin Roberts and Assistant State Attorney Art 
Brown argued the issues surrounding the death penalty before Moreland during a 
hearing on Feb. 24. Brown argued that the motions be continued until after 
March 11 when the state legislature session ended.

Moreland cited another Supreme Court decision from 1977, Dobbert v. Florida, 
and said the state had the right to give notice of its intent and that at the 
time of the slayings the death penalty was an option. Both attorneys had been 
asked to submit written briefs on the Dobbert decision.

After reviewing those briefs, Moreland issued her written ruling in both cases 
on Thursday.

On March 7, Gov. Rick Scott signed into law House Bill 7101 making the 
necessary changes to Florida's capital sentencing statute addressing the 
concerns raised in Hurst v. Florida.

"Contrary to the general premise of defendant's pending motions, Hurst did not 
completely invalidate the death penalty in Florida; rather, the Supreme Court 
deemed the procedure used to arrive at that penalty constitutionally flawed to 
the extent that the 'capital sentencing scheme' did not require the jury to 
make the critical findings necessary to impose the death penalty," Moreland 
wrote.

"As in Dobbert, this court finds the recent change in Florida's capital 
sentencing legislation, via enactment of HB 7101, to be procedural (not 
substantial) as it simply alters, in compliance with Hurst, the methods 
required for determining whether the death penalty is warranted," Moreland 
wrote.

(source: Bradenton Herald)






MISSISSIPPI:

Death row survivor shares her story with UCM


Sabrina Butler, a Mississippi native, was 17 years old in 1989 when she left 
her sleeping son at home in his bed while she went for a jog. 27 years later, 
the exonerated death row survivor came to campus to share her story with the 
UCM community about her life experiences in and out of prison.

Approximately 800 people filled Hendricks Hall on March 2 to hear Butler speak 
about being wrongfully convicted of murdering her 9-month-old son.

"The purpose for bringing her to campus was to provide an opportunity for our 
campus and community to meet somebody who has experienced injustices in our 
criminal justice system," said Ashley Wellman, UCM assistant professor of 
criminal justice.

Butler said when she arrived at the hospital that spring night, the doctors 
took her son from her, and it felt like forever before they returned to tell 
her that her son Walter had died.

"The 1st thing that came to my mind was that my son was gone and I'm in 
trouble," Butler said. "But never in a million years did I think that I would 
be charged with murder. I thought that I would be in trouble for leaving him at 
the house by himself."

Butler was wrongfully charged with capital murder. She stayed in the city jail 
for two weeks before being moved to the county jail. From there, she went to a 
mental institution where she spent eight weeks of what she calls one of the 
scariest times in the whole experience because of her proximity to so many 
criminally insane people.

"After that, I went back to the county jail where I sat a year before trial," 
Butler said.

Butler said there wasn't anybody in the courtroom to help her; they just did 
what they wanted. Her jury makeup consisted of 2 black people; the majority was 
white. Butler's lawyers advised her not to take the stand.

"To sit there and be accused of killing my son was hard," Butler said. "That 
was my son - I did what I could to save him."

The jury found Butler guilty and sentenced her to death. Her date of execution 
was set for July 2, 1990. A month after the trial, she was transported to 
prison. "When I got to prison, I had to go into intake: shackled, around my 
wrists, my ankles and waist," Butler said. "They humiliate you, take off all 
your clothes, put bug spray in your hair, take fingerprints, take pictures. 
You're no longer a human, you're a number."

She spent 2 years and 9 months on death row.

"July 2 was the day that I paced the floor, listened for every chain, every 
sound because, I thought that was the day that I was going to die," she said. 
"If it hadn't been for the other death row inmate on the other side of me, I 
don't think I would've made it through."

Butler had hope when her sentence was overturned in 1992. She thought she was 
free, but she was sent back to county jail for another 3 years before her 2nd 
trial.

Butler finally made headway with her case when she ended up with a new set of 
attorneys who proved that what Walter died of was hereditary. Her 13-year-old 
daughter is battling the same disease today.

"It's been a battle because I'm pretty much going through the same thing with 
(my daughter)," Butler said. "Having to go to the doctors and things every 3 
months. They say there's nothing they can do to save her kidneys. So it's not 
(like) I just stopped there."

Butler walked out of prison as a free woman when she was exonerated Dec. 18, 
1995.

While Butler said she never plans on stepping foot in a prison ever again, she 
continues to speak across the country to educate people about the flaws in the 
criminal justice system.

"I try and speak as often as I can because I want people to know that what can 
happen to you when you're young and don't understand law - they just took 
advantage of me," she said. "I try to do this to bring awareness as to what's 
going on in the systems. We need a change, and it's racially biased. And that 
is not right, but it's a known fact."

When she talks on college campuses, Butler aims to speak to students who are 
looking to make a change in the system.

"I want people to get into some of these positions: lawyers, judges, doctors, 
police officers," she said. "I want good people to get in and learn the system 
and know how to look for things and they can make a change. It's a lot of 
corruption in politics, in death penalty, in prison systems, all of that."

Wellman said she was thrilled with how the event went and feels that the 
attendees benefited from the experience.

"I think it's important for them to learn from a human being and not just a 
textbook that our decisions have consequences that effect people lives," 
Wellman said.

Mojdeh Khoshnavaz, senior criminal justice major, said the presentation was 
phenomenal and she was impressed with how openly Butler shared her story.

"I am a criminal justice student, and I know the criminal justice system has 
its flaws," Khoshnavaz said. "It's not a perfect system, and it never will be."

Diego Ramos, a junior social work major who attended the event for an 
assignment in his criminal law and procedures class, said the presentation 
inspired him to try and make sure that what happened to Butler doesn't happen 
to anyone else.

"You could feel her suffering and emotions through the way she spoke about 
everything that happened to her," Ramos said. "She is a real warrior for being 
able to go through all of that and now after a long time being able to look 
back at what happen and be able to joke a little about it."

As for now, Butler said she lives her life positively.

"Today, I live my life in bliss," she said. "I don't deal with a lot of people 
that just come and vomit their negativity. I try to live as happy as I can. The 
things that I took for granted when I went in are the air, the trees, the 
grass. It's all beautiful."

(source: digitalburg.com)






LOUISIANA:

Convicted serial killer Derrick Todd Lee cause of death released


The West Feliciana Parish Coroner's office has released the cause of death for 
convicted serial killer Derrick Todd Lee.

According to the Coroner's Office, Lee died of heart disease on January 21st, 
several days after being moved from Angola State Prison's death row to a nearby 
hospital.

Lee was convicted of killing 2 women in 2002.

He received a sentence of life in prison for the murder of 21-year-old Geralyn 
Desoto and got the death penalty for the murder of Charlotte Murray Pace.

Lee was connected to the murder of 5 other women between 1988-2003, but he was 
never tried for those crimes.

An autopsy was performed on Lee's body, but the corner's office says it won't 
release any other information on Lee's death at this time.

(source: WGNO news)






OHIO:

Death Row Inmates Become Political Rag Dolls


The Ohio Supreme Court has recently decided that death row inmate Rommell Broom 
will get a 2nd chance, not at life, but to be executed a second time after a 
botched execution forced the state to delay.

The Virginia Gazette reports that executioners were unable to find a vein for 
the lethal drugs to take hold in 2009, but the courts made a decision based on 
whether the drugs entered the body of the death row inmate, as a technicality.

This is ironic because a wrongly convicted death row inmate and now exonerated 
man named Ricky Jackson, was one of the few in the audience of the recent 
Democratic debate in Ohio, who directly questioned Hillary Clinton about her 
support for the death penalty.

The presidential candidate's response stayed within the realm of supporting 
executions before she explained that death row should only be for those who 
commit the most extreme crimes, such as terrorism.

"In 1975, I - along with my 2 childhood friends and co-defendants Wiley 
Bridgeman and Kwame Ajamu - was wrongfully convicted and sent to death row for 
the murder of a white businessman that occurred in our predominantly poor and 
black neighborhood in Cleveland."

Ricky Jackson basically says that people should move further away from 
supporting the death penalty and in the article, he takes a more philosophical 
approach to how the American people should decide on who should end up on death 
row, even with some of the already mentioned extreme crimes.

Current Ohio Governor and Republican presidential candidate John Kasich is 
mentioned in an article from last year in the Columbus Dispatch as largely 
supporting capital punishment, but still allowed clemency as pressure was 
building to abolish the death penalty even though he still allowed the 
execution of 12 death row inmates during his first 4 years in office.

It's mentioned that most Ohioans still support the death penalty, but also that 
there is a noticeable yet gradual drop of that support.

A wider nationwide Gallup poll taken in October of last year shows similar 
results.

During the debate, Hillary Clinton did say that something had to be done in 
light of the states wrongly executing innocent people, and currently, Ohio has 
halted executions until 2017 due to a shortage of lethal injection drugs.

An article on Cleveland, which was published in December, writes about the 
state's current situation with trying to find a way around the drug problem, 
even creatively pushing the limits of the law to find unwilling drug makers or 
that obtaining the drugs from other countries is illegal.

The fact that they haven't yet found a solution and Kasich's delay to do so is 
often seen as a sign of weakness in politics, especially in a society that 
still favors capital punishment and continues to hold more people in death row.

One case of getting around the issue of the lack of lethal drug supply has made 
headlines recently with states such as Virginia, who are reverting to methods 
once deemed cruel and unusual as state legislators passed a bill to be able to 
use the electric chair as an option.

As of this writing, the bill has yet to make it to the governor's desk, who has 
said he would have to look into it.

The Washington Post describes the forming of the bill that was debated for its 
vague language, which also gave too much credibility to a reason for it to 
stall in the senate, which Sen. Richard H. Stuart (R-Stafford) would not allow.

Currently, 8 states still use the electric chair as an option, it has not been 
entirely banned but was slowly phased out in most states due to the popularity 
of lethal injection drugs.

Unless the states are forced to make the choice, the decision has mostly been 
left up to the death row inmate as to how they would want to be executed.

This has also been the case with the state of Utah where they decided to use 
firing squads and very recently, according to the San Diego Union Tribune, an 
effort to abolish the death penalty failed to win the last vote(s) needed 
before the deadline.

The Washington Post describes that Ricky Jackson was given $1 million by the 
state for being wrongfully convicted and has been out of jail since 2014.

He also says that he's an undecided voter and this will be his 1st election to 
vote since released from death row.

There is no doubt that Rommell Broom will be put on death row again but at this 
time, there is no information as to when the state will make another attempt to 
execute him.

(source: inquisitr.com)

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

Court: Inmate who survived '09 execution can be put to death


The state can try again to put to death a condemned killer whose 2009 botched 
execution was called off after 2 hours, the Ohio Supreme Court said Wednesday.

The court by a 4-3 vote rejected arguments by death row inmate Romell Broom, 
whose attorneys said giving the state prisons agency a 2nd chance would amount 
to cruel and unusual punishment and double jeopardy.

Prosecutors had argued double jeopardy doesn't apply because lethal drugs never 
entered Broom's veins while executioners unsuccessfully tried to hook up an IV. 
They also said a previously unsuccessful execution attempt doesn't affect the 
constitutionality of his death sentence.

With a federal appeal of the ruling likely, a 2nd execution is years away. In 
addition, Ohio already has more than 2 dozen death row inmates with firm 
execution dates but no lethal drugs to put them to death with.

Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger sided with the state in the case, saying the 
execution never began because the drugs were never administered.

"Because Broom's life was never at risk since the drugs were not introduced, 
and because the state is committed to carrying out executions in a 
constitutional manner, we do not believe that it would shock the public's 
conscience to allow the state to carry out Broom's execution," Lanzinger wrote.

The majority opinion said it was unclear why Broom's veins couldn't be 
accessed, a fact that brings the rejection of his appeal into question, Justice 
Judi French wrote in a dissent.

"If the state cannot explain why the Broom execution went wrong, then the state 
cannot guarantee that the outcome will be different next time," French said.

Broom was sentenced to die for raping and killing 14-year-old Tryna Middleton 
after abducting her in Cleveland in 1984 as she walked home from a football 
game with 2 friends.

His 2009 execution was stopped by then-Gov. Ted Strickland after an execution 
team tried for 2 hours to find a suitable vein. Broom has said he was stuck 
with needles at least 18 times, with pain so intense he cried and screamed.

An hour into the execution, the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction 
recruited a part-time prison doctor with no experience or training with 
executions to try - again, unsuccessfully - to find a vein.

Broom's appeals in federal court were on hold while the state court heard the 
constitutional arguments.

Broom, 59, has been back on death row since. No new execution date has been 
set.

A message was left with Broom's attorneys seeking comment. The state's top 
public defender said it's long been understood that the government gets 1 
attempt at an execution.

"Whether you believe it's the hand of God or just basic government failure, as 
happened in this case, they don't get to do this again," Tim Young, head of the 
Ohio Public Defender's Office, said Wednesday.

Ohioans to Stop Executions, the state's leading anti-death penalty group, 
criticized the ruling, saying the 18 times Broom was stuck with needles as he 
lay strapped to a gurney demonstrate the execution had begun.

Requiring Broom to endure another execution attempt would double up his 
punishment by forcing him to relive the pain he's already been through, his 
attorneys, Adele Shank and Timothy Sweeney, argued in a court filing last year.

During a June hearing, Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor asked Shank about a 
prison official's testimony that Broom may have caused the problems with his 
veins by ingesting an entire box of antihistamines the day before to dehydrate 
himself. Shank, in seeking to rebut the state's argument about purposeful 
hydration, said she saw Broom drinking coffee the day of the execution. Chris 
Schroeder, an assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor, said the antihistamines 
allegation was not part of the state's argument.

In 1947, Louisiana electrocuted 18-year-old Willie Francis by electric chair a 
year after an improperly prepared electric chair failed to work. The U.S. 
Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to allow the 2nd execution to proceed, rejecting double 
jeopardy arguments. A state's administration of its criminal law isn't affected 
by due process rights, when "an accident, with no suggestion of malevolence, 
prevents the consummation of a sentence," the court ruled at the time.

Ohio prosecutors said lower courts properly determined that any mistakes 
happened during Broom's execution preparations, not the actual procedure.

Schroeder said the evidence shows that the state wasn't deliberately trying to 
hurt Broom and that nearly 2 dozen successful executions since 2009 mean such 
an event couldn't happen again.

(source: Associated Press)






ILLINOIS:

Sen. Raoul Reflects on 5 Years Since Abolition of Death Penalty


"The struggle against the discriminatory, unreasonable or ineffectual 
application of our laws did not end with the abolition of capital punishment 
... The case for reform is clear."

State Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago 13th) reflected last Wednesday on the fifth 
anniversary of the signing of legislation he sponsored to abolish the death 
penalty in Illinois.

"When I introduced legislation to end capital punishment in Illinois, I was 
motivated by new revelations concerning individuals who were on death row for 
crimes they had not committed," Raoul said. "Unfortunately, many of the same 
factors that enabled that shameful situation are still present in our system, 
and accordingly, we have expanded our efforts to encompass not only the 
enduring problem of wrongful convictions and false confessions, but policies 
and cultures that produce unjust outcomes and do not make our communities 
safer."

In the years since death penalty abolition, Raoul has continued to push 
legislation addressing law enforcement misconduct; prison overcrowding; racial 
disparities in traffic stops, arrests and sentencing; DNA testing backlogs; the 
need for reform in juvenile justice and more. He has sponsored programs that 
offer alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders, and he has 
supported funding for Redeploy Illinois, which provides grants to courts and 
counties that adopt innovative, data-driven models to rehabilitate offenders 
and reduce recidivism. Having served on the governor's Criminal Justice and 
Sentencing Reform Commission, Raoul is now working to ensure passage of 
legislation that would implement many of the recommendations the task force 
issued.

"The struggle against the discriminatory, unreasonable or ineffectual 
application of our laws did not end with the abolition of capital punishment; 
in many ways, that legislation and the debate surrounding it were only the 
beginning," Raoul said. "The good news is that the past five years have seen 
the rapid rise of bipartisan interest in smarter strategies to improve public 
safety and end racial disparities. Whether we're talking about the economic 
impact of ex-offenders being unable to find jobs, the social impact of 
extremely high incarceration rates in certain neighborhoods or the budgetary 
impact of recidivism, the case for reform is clear."

"We are making a noticeable dent in the considerable problems still facing 
Illinois' justice system," Raoul said. "I believe the prospects for progress 
are better now than ever."

(source: The Chicago Citizen)