[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISS., IND., IOWA, OKLA.

[Rick Halperin]

March 29



MISSISSIPPI:

Secret Execution Team, Firing Squads, Restricted Media Included in House Bill


Death by firing squad could become an option for administering the death 
penalty if Senate Bill 2237, which passed by the Mississippi House of 
Representatives on Friday and held on a motion to reconsider, becomes law.

The bill's primary intent is to protect the identities of the state's execution 
team and lethal-injection chemical suppliers in the state of Mississippi. The 
bill would exempt the identities of not only the state executioner and his team 
but also local lethal injection drug suppliers and any witnesses to an 
execution from the Public Records Act.

Rep. Joey Hood, R-Ackerman, presented the bill to the House last Friday, saying 
it had the bi-partisan support of Attorney General Jim Hood, the only statewide 
elected Democrat, and Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican. Hood told the House that 
the primary intent of the legislation was to protect the identities of the 
execution team and the drug supplier. House Democrats challenged the bill in a 
half hour debate, questioning the motives for the bill's lack of transparency.

Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson, asked Rep. Joey Hood whether the bill contradicted 
the state's attempts at being transparent.

"The voters and the people of this state have overwhelmingly approved of the 
implementation for the death penalty," Rep. Joey Hood said in response.

The attorney general said of the 31 states that have the death penalty, 20 of 
those states have confidentiality laws in place. Rep. Joey Hood said the 
legislation was "nothing new" compared to other states.

Rep. Jay Hughes, D-Oxford, said he was concerned about what the bill would 
force the media to do to access what was previously public record. "We are 
restricting the media," he told Hood. "We are telling them what they can do as 
a state."

Rep. Joey Hood maintained that a press representative was present hearings for 
the bill and said that anyone can access the information under civil procedure 
in the court of law and ask for a subpoena for those documents to be turned 
over.

Rep. Adrienne Wooten, D-Jackson, questioned Rep. Joey Hood on why the drug 
suppliers, and not the manufacturers, needed to be exempt from the Public 
Records Act.

"I think the supplier supplies the drugs, I think the manufacturer makes the 
drugs and ships it to the supplier and the supplier provides it to the prison, 
that would be my assumption," Rep. Hood told Wooten.

Wooten pressed further, asking who created and mixed the concoction drug (a mix 
of several drugs) used for lethal injections.

"Whose responsibility is it to put the drug together?" she asked Rep. Hood.

"I don't have the exact answer for that," Hood said. "All I know is that the 
manufacturers manufacture the drug, and the supplier supplies the drug."

Wooten also asked Rep. Hood if he was aware of the lawsuits in Missouri that 
news organizations recently won against the state's Department of Corrections 
for similar media exclusion attempts. Hood said he did not know about the 
lawsuits.

In 2014, The Guardian, the Associated Press and 3 Missouri newspapers sued the 
Missouri Department of Corrections to release the names of pharmacies where the 
state bought lethal execution drugs. The news organizations won in court last 
week, a Guardian article says, and the judge ruled that the pharmacies did not 
count as a part of the execution team. Therefore, the names of the pharmacies 
had to be a part of the public record.

The final order said that the Missouri Department of Corrections "knowingly 
violated the Sunshine Law by failing to comply with statutory time limits, 
withholding whole categories of requested documents without justification, 
refusing to provide redacted records, and citing irrelevant exceptions to the 
Sunshine Law to justify withholding responsive documents."

Wooten told Hood that Mississippi was asking for the same sort of situation by 
passing Senate Bill 2237. "Based off of the bill you're bringing here, the news 
media was able to take this to court, which would be taking the state to court 
at this point - taking this to court and having this overturned," Wooten said.

Before the House could vote on the bill, Rep. Robert Foster, R-Hernando, and 
four other Republicans offered an amendment to allow the Department of 
Corrections to use a firing squad to carry out the death penalty if "lethal 
injection chemicals becomes (sic) unavailable or is deemed too costly by the 
Commissioner of the Department of Corrections and the Attorney General."

The amendment passed 70-39. 11 representatives did not vote on the amendment. 
The bill also passed, but was held on a motion to reconsider.

(source: Jackson Free Press)






INDIANA:

Man faces rape, murder charges in death of 1-year-old Owen County girl


A man accused in the death of 1-year-old Shaylyn Ammerman faces additional 
charges in connection with the case.

Kyle Parker, 22, appeared in court Monday afternoon. He asked the court to 
appoint an attorney and pleaded not guilty in the case. Online records show 
Parker is charged with rape, murder, child molesting, kidnapping, strangulation 
and aggravated battery in the case, in addition to obstruction of justice and 
failure to report a dead body.

Police took Parker into custody on Thursday, the same day they found the 
14-month-old's body near the White River in Gosport. An autopsy showed the girl 
died from asphyxiation.

Parker was at the Ammerman home the night Shaylyn disappeared. Her family 
reported her missing Wednesday morning. Her father said his mother put Shaylyn 
to bed late Tuesday; when they woke up in the morning, she was gone. Her 
disappearance set off a massive search for the little girl involving multiple 
law enforcement agencies.

Court documents released Monday showed Parker abducted and raped the girl; he 
then attempted to pin it on one of her family members, using bleach on the 
girl's body and his own in an attempt to destroy evidence. A medical examiner 
said this was "the worst case of sexual trauma she had seen in her career."

The night of Shaylyn's disappearance

Several people were at the Ammerman home in Spencer on Tuesday night, including 
the girl's father, Justin Ammerman; his brother, Adam Ammerman; and Ammerman's 
mother, Tammy Morgan.

In addition, officers were told a friend of Adam Ammerman "had also spent the 
night but left during the night at an unknown time. The friend was only 
identified as Kyle at the present time and was driving a maroon Pontiac Grand 
Am," court documents said.

Justin Ammerman said he went to bed around 11 p.m., about an hour after his 
mother, Tammy Morgan, put Shaylyn in her crib. Shortly after Ammerman went to 
bed, he said his brother, Adam, and a friend, Kyle Parker, invited him to drink 
with them. Justin Ammerman said he declined and went to bed.

When he woke up Wednesday morning, he couldn't find Shaylyn and went to see if 
she was with his mother. He then called 911. He asked his brother to walk 
around the house to see if she was in the yard.

When Kyle Parker left the house

Ammerman said Parker was gone when he woke up; his brother, Adam, said Parker 
had left around 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. on Wednesday.

Adam Ammerman said he and Parker went to the liquor store to buy alcohol on 
Tuesday. Around 3 or 4 a.m. Wednesday, he said he heard the sound of the front 
door shutting. He realized Parker was gone; he looked outside the window to see 
Parker "walking away from the house" and "carrying something." He yelled 
goodbye to Parker, but Parker didn't turn around.

Adam Ammerman said he "thought he saw a foot dangling from Kyle (Parker???s) 
side but was not certain so he went back to bed."

A disturbing history

Adam Ammerman told investigators that his mother walked into the house one day 
and found Parker, who was intoxicated, sitting in a rocking chair and holding 
Shalyn in his lap. When Tammy Morgan asked Adam about Parker's interests, he 
said "Kyle preferred to watch pornographic movies which featured people being 
spanked."

Friends of Parker said he "drank a lot" and would "often get naked when drunk." 
They also said Parker was "attracted to younger girls in the 12- to 14-year-old 
range."

Parker's 1st interview

When interviewed by police, Parker said he left the Ammerman home around 12:30 
a.m. or 1:35 a.m. on Wednesday. He recalled Adam Ammerman leaning out of a 
window to say goodbye and then said he drove to a friend's house. He said he 
sat in their garage and listened to music until his friends woke up in the 
morning for work. They let him in around 3:20 a.m., he claimed.

Parker had told his stepsister's mother that he planned to stay the night at 
the Ammerman residence. Parker told police he intended to do that, but changed 
his mind. He said he "just did not feel like spending the night" when asked why 
he left the home.

Parker had numerous scratches on his forearms and hands that appeared to be 
fresh injuries, court documents said. He claimed they were from cats at his 
house and insisted they were older wounds.

Locating Shaylyn's body

Parker's stepfather called police on Wednesday night to say Parker was willing 
to cooperate. When asked if he was involved in Shaylyn's disappearance, Parker 
didn't answer directly, but he did nod "in an affirmative response." He 
initially declined to lead investigators to her body, but later agreed to show 
them the location on a map.

Parker "stated that the location was east of Gosport and it was off of an 
access road that ran north and south" between the railroad tracks and Indian 
Creek.

Parker "advised Shaylyn's body was on the side of the tree that faces the 
road." He said it was "too dark for him to determine if Shaylyn was clothed but 
he did not believe so."

Attempting to shift the blame

Parker said he didn't carry Shaylyn, but another man did, saying it was either 
"Adam or Justin Ammerman but he would not tell which one."

Parker said authorities "shouldn't find any of his DNA on Shaylyn's body." He 
tried to pin the girl's death on Adam Ammerman, court documents said, though 
investigators said they didn't believe him, informing him that Adam Ammerman 
had passed a polygraph test.

When investigators found the girl's body, they also discovered a burn pile 
nearby that may contain her clothes and other evidence.

Mike Patton, Parker's stepfather, said his stepson told him "the police would 
have the truth once they found Shaylyn's body and the DNA with it." Patton said 
he "knew right then that Kyle had taken Shaylyn and raped and killed her," 
court documents said.

'Worst case of sexual trauma'

An autopsy showed the girl died from asphyxiation; the injuries all over her 
body were consistent with a sexual assault. Dr. Donna Stewart, who performed 
the autopsy at the Kentucky Medical Examiner's Office in Louisville, Ky., told 
investigators that this was "the worst case of sexual trauma she had seen in 
her career."

The girl suffered multiple hemorrhages to her face and had a laceration on the 
upper left lip and a contusion on the lower left lip. She "suffered from 
multiple cutaneous abrasions and contusions to multiple body regions" in 
addition to severe trauma to her private areas.

A stepson's confession

Parker's stepfather called police on Sunday to inform them that Parker had 
confessed to the crime. Patton said he "could not live with himself if he did 
not tell" investigators what happened.

Patton said Parker confirmed he'd acted alone in Shaylyn's death and 
disappearance. She was alive and dressed when he took her from the home. He put 
her in his car and drove until he pulled over to the side of the road and raped 
her; he then smothered her with "some type of cloth that he already had in the 
vehicle," court documents said.

Parker poured bleach on Shaylyn's body in order to conceal any traces of his 
DNA, Parker told his stepfather, and also used bleach to wipe down his own 
body. He then burned her clothes and pacifier; he told his stepfather that he 
hoped he would create "reasonable doubt by using the bleach to destroy DNA and 
confuse the investigators by accusing a family member."

Parker said he hoped that would be enough to prevent charges from being filed 
in the case.

Parker's sister, Bree Smith, released a statement Monday:

"It is awful my heart is broken, I pray to God my brother didn't do it. I love 
my brother, I'm in shock and I just can't believe any of these charges... I'm 
so upset."

Prosecutors say because the graphic nature of the allegations, they have not 
ruled out seeking the death penalty.

"These types of allegations are just atrocious," said Owen county prosecutor 
Donald Vandermoere.

Prosecutors say the death has taken an emotional toll on the city of Spencer 
and all the law enforcement working the case.

"This is the 1st time in my tenure I've seen grown law enforcement wincing in 
pain. It's just horrible," said Vandermoere.

Shaylyn's funeral is scheduled for Wednesday at the Christian Life Center in 
Spencer. Visitation will be held starting at 3 p.m. A private burial will be 
held at Chambersville Cemetery.

(source: cbs4indy.com)

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

Attorney weighs in on charges against Kyle Parker


New charges were announced Monday in the murder of 1-year-old Shaylyn Ammerman 
of Spencer.

Kyle Parker now has 8 charges against him, including murder, rape, child 
molesting, kidnapping with serious bodily injury, aggravated battery, and 
strangulation.

Attorney Jack Crawford is not involved in the case but cringed at the details 
in the probable cause statement describing charges against Parker.

"The pathologist who did the autopsy on the young girl said it was one of the 
most horrible cases of sexual assault the pathologist had ever seen," he said.

In the probable cause statement, Parker is accused of kidnapping 1-year-old 
Shaylyn Ammerman from her father's home, raping her, murdering her, then hiding 
her body in the woods.

Crawford said this case is eligible for the death penalty because of Shaylyn's 
age and the type of crime against the victim.

Crawford believes that Parker's public defender will ask for a mental health 
evaluation right away.

"So if indeed he has a mental illness then it's a factor that the county will 
have to consider," he said.

If Parker is found to have a mental illness, he can't by law be sentenced to 
death.

However, that is not enough to justify an insanity plea.

Crawford said 2 things must be proven for that to happen.

"One that you suffer from a severe mental disease or defect," Crawford said, 
"And number 2, that the disease or defect created a condition where you did not 
know what you were doing was wrong."

But the probable cause statement describes actions like Parker pouring bleach 
on the baby and hiding her body.

"That certainly indicates the mental capacity to realize I've done something 
very wrong and I'm going to try to hide my tracks by doing all these things to 
hide my guilt," he said.

According to court documents, Parker had been consuming alcohol the night of 
Shaylyn's disappearance.

Crawford said he likely won't be able to use that as a defense, either.

"If you drank voluntarily, got intoxicated, and committed a horrible crime, it 
is no defense in this state," he said.

(source: WISH TV news)






IOWA:

Death penalty not likely for former UI student in China


Johnson County officials who went to China last week to observe the trial of a 
former University of Iowa student say they do not believe the death penalty is 
likely.

Xiangnan Li, 24, admitted in court Wednesday that he killed his 
then-girlfriend, 20-year-old Iowa State student Tong Shao, in September 2014 
and fled to China. Shao's body was stuffed in the trunk of her car, which had 
been left in the parking lot of an Iowa City apartment complex. Li turned 
himself in to Chinese authorities in May 2015 and was charged with Shao's 
murder in June. He will serve his punishment in China, but the exact sentence 
is unknown.

Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness said it was her understanding that Li's 
sentence is likely to range from 20 years to life in prison, but that Chinese 
authorities consider that he turned himself in to be a mitigating factor that 
decreases the likelihood of the death penalty.

Lyness spoke at a news conference Monday afternoon, where she introduced 
Assistant County Attorney Elizabeth Dupuich and Iowa City Police investigator 
David Gonzalez, who helped investigate Shao's death and traveled to China last 
week to observe the trial. ICPD investigator Andy Rich also flew to China for 
the trial but was not at the news conference.

Shao, who had come to ISU to study engineering, was killed in Iowa in September 
2014. Her body was stuffed in the trunk of her car, which had been left in the 
parking lot of an Iowa City apartment complex.

Shao homicide case timeline

Sept. 5-7, 2014: Tong Shao and her boyfriend, Xiangnan Li, stay at the Budget 
Inn and Suites, 1521 South G Ave., in Nevada, Ia. Police wrote in a search 
warrant that "evidence of Tong Shao's death may be found in the hotel room."

Sept. 7, 2014: Li allegedly kills Shao and flees to China, according to 
authorities.

Sept. 17, 2014: Shao is reported missing to the Ames Police Department.

Sept. 26, 2014: Police find Shao's body in her Toyota Camry parked in the area 
of 2401 Highway 6 E. in Iowa City. Li is living at the apartment complex and is 
identified as a person of interest.

May 13, 2015: Li surrenders to police in Wenzhou, China, and is detained.

Early June, 2015: Criminal Investigation Bureau of China investigators go to 
Iowa City to work with the Iowa City Police Department, the Ames Police 
Department and the Johnson County Attorney's Office.

(source: Iowa City Press-Citizen)






OKLAHOMA:

New commission to study constitutionality of Oklahoma death penalty system


Backed by a national research group, a newly formed commission of former 
elected officials, prosecutors, judges, public defenders and advocates will 
study the constitutionality of Oklahoma's death penalty over the next year.

The study, performed by the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, will be 
the 1st time an independent study of the state's death penalty has been 
conducted.

"I don't like to talk about it, I don't like to think about it, but it's 
something we as a civil society need to do," said former Gov. Brad Henry. "We 
need to do this in-depth review from top to bottom and figure out what's 
working and what's not."

(source: Tulsa World)