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

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 3



TEXAS:

Death Row Inmate Sues Texas for DNA Tests


With help from The Innocence Project, death row inmate Larry Ray Swearingen 
claims that DNA tests could prove his innocence of a 1998 murder, but the Texas 
Court of Criminal Appeals has unconstitutionally denied him the opportunity to 
present the evidence.

Swearingen sued the nine judges on the state's highest criminal appeals court 
on Oct. 28 in Federal Court, challenging the appellate court's interpretation 
of the criminal code, and demanding the release of evidence for DNA testing.

"It's not a casual thing to bring a federal civil rights action, but the denial 
of DNA testing in a death penalty case is really something that is pretty 
extraordinary," said Bryce Benjet, an attorney with The Innocence Project of 
New York City.

"We think it is appropriate for a federal judge to step in and enforce the 
Constitution," Benjet said in an interview.

Swearingen was convicted of the 1998 murder of Melissa Trotter, of Willis, 
Texas, a 19-year-old freshman at Lone Star Community College-Montgomery. She 
was found in the Sam Houston National Forest, strangled to death by a pair of 
pantyhose.

The state presented evidence at trial that Swearingen and Trotter had been seen 
leaving campus together the day she disappeared. Prosecutors said Swearingen 
kidnapped, raped, and murdered her after she refused his sexual advances.

Swearingen's attorneys say in the new lawsuit that he was convicted "largely on 
the basis of circumstantial evidence."

Swearingen has always maintained his innocence and has filed several motions to 
secure DNA testing under the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, which requires 
post-conviction DNA testing if such evidence would more than likely have 
resulted in a not-guilty verdict.

His first 2 motions were unsuccessful, but the Montgomery County Court granted 
2 subsequent motions for DNA testing, which the court of appeals reversed.

As those motions wended through the courts, the Texas Legislature made several 
amendments to the DNA testing statute in the criminal code. The Legislature 
cited Swearingen's case as the impetus for these changes, which included 
expanding the definition of what "biological material" could be tested and 
broadening the statute to require testing of evidence that has "a reasonable 
likelihood of containing biological material."

"His case was the subject of legislative testimony, yet still, when it gets 
back to the Court of Criminal Appeals, they interpret the statute in a way that 
denies him testing," Benjet said.

The 28-page lawsuit against the Court of Criminal Appeals states that 
Swearingen's repeated efforts to obtain DNA testing have been "thwarted" by the 
appellate court's "unreasonably narrow" interpretation of the criminal code, 
and that its interpretation "ignores the most powerful aspects of DNA testing 
and sets a bar that cannot be satisfied in most cases."

This alone has denied him due process, his attorneys say, and 
"unconstitutionally deprived [him] access to the courts" to obtain other 
remedies which could prove his innocence.

Swearingen seeks declaratory relief that the appeals court's interpretation of 
the code is unconstitutional.

He also sued the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the 
Montgomery District [Court] Clerk and the Montgomery County Sheriff, to force 
release of evidence for testing, including the murder weapon, the rape kit, the 
victim's clothing and cigarette butts found near her body.

Montgomery County prosecutor Bill Delmore told the Houston Chronicle last year 
that "a lot" of DNA testing had been done in Swearingen's case, and that 
Swearingen's DNA profile was matched to a hair on a pantyhose fragment found in 
his trailer and 2 hairs found in Swearingen's truck were matched to Trotter.

"We're very confident that we have the right guy," Delmore told the Chronicle 
article in June 2015. "We've executed on far less."

But Swearingen's attorneys call the pantyhose evidence found in Swearingen's 
trailer "troubling," as the pantyhose had not been found during the first 2 
searches of the trailer. Also, "serious doubts have been raised about the 
reliability" of the tear line analysis that matched the fragment to the 
pantyhose found tied around Trotter's neck, according to the complaint.

The only pre-trial DNA testing that revealed a male donor, taken from 
fingernail scrapings, excluded Swearingen, and the state offered no "plausible" 
explanation for the presence of someone else's DNA underneath Trotter's 
fingernails, his attorneys say in the complaint.

They say the state speculated that "perhaps blood from an officer present 
during the autopsy who may have cut himself while shaving hours before 
inexplicably worked its way under the victim's fingernails," or that blood 
circulating through the morgue's air-conditioning system "somehow landed in the 
scrapings from Mr. Trotter's fingernails."

Or, the state argued, perhaps blood from an investigator was blown under the 
fingernails "by the whir of helicopters in the search."

The Innocence Project has been handling the constitutionality of Texas' 
DNA-testing statute. Philip Hilder and James Rytting of Houston-based Hilder & 
Associates have taken on other aspects of the case.

Benjet said there is "some pretty alarming" forensic evidence that makes some 
experts think it would have been "impossible" for Swearingen to have committed 
the murder.

"We've seen time and time again that the criminal justice system, like most 
government endeavors, is not perfect," Benjet said. "And when we have science 
that can conclusively determine guilt or innocence, it's really hard to believe 
that people wouldn't want that applied in death penalty cases."

Swearingen's 5th execution date, set for March this year, was delayed by 
appeals.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant writ of certiorari on Oct. 3. The Texas 
Court of Criminal Appeals denied the writ without comment on Oct. 12. The 
setting of his 6th execution date is imminent.

(source: Courthouse News)






FLORIDA:

Mark Sievers back in court trying to get death penalty off table


A Lee County judge denied the motion to have the death penalty thrown out in 
the criminal case against Mark Sievers.

Sievers, 48, is accused in the homicide of his wife, Dr. Teresa Sievers who was 
found dead in her home in June 2015.

He was arrested in February after months of investigations by the Lee County 
Sheriff's Office.

Sievers' attorney argued last month that the death penalty should be thrown out 
because prosecutors didn't file their motion to seek the death penalty within 
the required time table.

The judge in the case, Bruce Kyle, denied the motion on Tuesday, according to 
the Lee County Clerk of Courts. Sara Miles, public information officer for the 
Lee County courthouse, confirmed the Kyle denied the motion.

Investigators believe Sievers coordinated with his long-time best friend Curtis 
Wayne Wright Jr. and Wright's friend, Jimmy Rodgers, to kill the Estero 
holistic doctor. Wright has since pleaded guilty to 2nd-degree murder in 
exchange for a 25-year prison sentence as long as he helps in the prosecution 
against Sievers. Rodgers has pleaded not guilty to 1st-degree murder charges.

(source: news-press.com)






ALABAMA----impending execution

Alabama Supreme Court denies death row inmate stay of execution


The Alabama Supreme Court this morning denied death row inmate Tommy Arthur's 
request for a stay of execution.

Arthur is set to be executed at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Hollman Correctional 
Facility in Atmore for his conviction in the 1982 contract killing of Troy 
Wicker.

Arthur's attorneys on Tuesday had appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court asking 
it to vacate or stay his execution. That appeal challenged the state's death 
penalty sentencing law as unconstitutional, saying it is similar to Florida's 
former law that was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in January. The 
Alabama Attorney General's Office has argued that it isn't similar and the 
Alabama Supreme Court in a recent case ruled that the state's law is 
constitutional under the Florida ruling.

Arthur also is waiting to hear back from the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals 
for his request to stay the execution.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley also has not said whether he would grant clemency 
to Arthur, although the governor has yet to grant clemency for an inmate in the 
past. Arthur recently wrote Bentley seeking a stay of his execution, help in 
getting a new hearing, and a moratorium on all executions.

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

Tommy Arthur: Execution timed so election covers up his 'murder'


The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals early Wednesday evening denied Alabama 
Death Row inmate Tommy Arthur's request to stay his execution.

Arthur is set to be executed at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Holman Correctional 
Facility in Atmore for his conviction in the 1982 contract killing of Troy 
Wicker. This is the 7th time Arthur has had his execution set.

A spokesperson for Arthur's attorney, Suhana Han, said in a statement that 
Arthur's attorneys will appeal the 11th Circuit Ruling to the U.S. Supreme 
Court to seek a stay.

Earlier Wednesday the Alabama Supreme Court had also denied a stay of Arthur's 
execution.

Arthur said during a phone interview with Al.com on Wednesday night that he 
feels his execution is being timed with the national election to cover up what 
he calls his "murder" - a claim he also made in a letter to the governor. He 
said he also felt the 11th Circuit had delayed a ruling in his case so the U.S. 
Supreme Court won't have enough time to consider it or before there can be a 
public outcry before he is put to death.

Arthur was placed in a holding cell outside the execution chamber on Tuesday.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley also has not said whether he would grant clemency 
to Arthur. The governor has yet to grant clemency for an inmate in the past. 
Arthur recently wrote Bentley seeking a stay of his execution more than a week 
ago.

Arthur is set to be executed at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Holman Correctional 
Facility in Atmore for his conviction in the 1982 contract killing of Troy 
Wicker.

The 11th Circuit denied the stay of execution and also affirmed the lower 
federal court's ruling that tossed out Arthur's challenge of Alabama's lethal 
injection drug combination and procedure for administering it.

In the majority opinion in the 2-1 ruling by a three-member panel of the 
federal appeals court, Circuit Judge Frank M. Hull wrote that it has been 34 
years "since Thomas Arthur brutally murdered Troy Wicker."

"During 1982 to 1992, Thomas Arthur was thrice tried, convicted, and sentenced 
to death for Wicker's murder. After his third death sentence in 1992, Arthur 
for the next 24 years has pursued, unsuccessfully, dozens of direct and 
post-conviction appeals in both state and federal courts," Hull wrote in the 
140-page opinion. "In addition, starting nine years ago in 2007 and on three 
separate occasions, Arthur has filed civil lawsuits ... challenging the drug 
protocol to be used in his execution. This is Arthur's 3rd such ... case, and 
this current ... case was filed in 2011." "For the last 5 years Arthur has 
pursued this ... case with the benefit of lengthy discovery," Hull wrote. "The 
district court held a two-day trial and entered two comprehensive orders 
denying Arthur ... relief. Those orders are the focus of the instant appeal."

"After thorough review, we conclude substantial evidence supported the district 
court's fact findings and, thus, Arthur has shown no clear error in them," Hull 
stated. "Further, Arthur has shown no error in the district court's conclusions 
of law, inter alia, that: (1) Arthur failed to carry his burden to show 
compounded pentobarbital is a feasible, readily implemented, and available drug 
to the Alabama Department of Corrections ("ADOC") for use in executions; (2) 
Alabama's consciousness assessment protocol (which includes pinching the 
condemned inmate) does not violate the Eighth Amendment or the Equal Protection 
Clause; and (3) Arthur's belated firing-squad claim lacks merit."

Arthur had suggested the firing squad as an alternative. When challenging a 
method of execution inmates are required to suggest to the courts alternate 
methods of execution.

Circuit Judge Charles R. Wilson, was the lone dissent in the ruling.

"Due to the scarcity of and secrecy surrounding lethal injection drugs, it is 
all but impossible for a prisoner to set forth a viable lethal-injection-based 
alternative," Wilson wrote in his dissent. "The Majority's decision therefore 
checkmates countless Alabama and Florida prisoners, nullifying their 
constitutional right to a humane execution."

Wilson also stated that the majority in the ruling - Hull and Circuit Judge 
Stanley Marcus - determines that Arthur's suggestion of a firing squad was not 
feasible and readily implemented because Alabama law does not authorize the 
firing squad.

"Arthur should be permitted to amend his complaint to include the firing squad 
as an execution alternative to Alabama's lethal injection protocol. The firing 
squad is a potentially viable alternative, and Arthur may be entitled to relief 
under Baze and Glossip (U.S. Supreme Court ruling) based on that method of 
execution," Wilson wrote.

Arthur has admitted he killed his sister-in-law in 1977 but has maintained he 
did not kill Wicker 5 years later. Wicker's wife testified at 1 of Arthur's 3 
trials that she paid Arthur $10,000 to kill her husband. Arthur was in a work 
release program at the time and she and Arthur were involved in a romantic 
relationship. Judy Wicker served 10 years of a life sentence for her role.

(source for both: al.com)

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

Upholding Death Row Inmates' "Suicide Burden," Federal Judge Attacks Medical 
Profession


Chief United States District Judge for the Middle District of Alabama, W. Keith 
Watkins, has big-time beef with the medical profession.

According to Judge Watkins, "modern medicine has orphaned Hippocrates and his 
Oath, in the name of patient self-determination and choice." The entire medical 
community, Watkins decries, is violating the Hippocratic Oath by, "unleashing 
the genies of physician-assisted suicide, medical marijuana, drug and alcohol 
use." But, worst of all, according to Watkins, they have been "countenancing 
medical procedures that the original [Hippocrates] Oath prohibited. For 
instance, the oldest version of the Oath says, 'I will not give to a woman an 
abortive remedy.' Today, that provision is history, aborted by modern medical 
ethicists."

Now, maybe you're thinking, Judge Watkins must have been overheard saying these 
things at a private dinner. Or, maybe, he was caught on a hot mic at a gala 
after supping at the local country club? Perhaps, you know, Billy Bush was 
there?

Nope.

Watkins' fire and brimstone attack is part of a 29-page federal court opinion 
granting a motion for summary judgment filed by lawyers for the Alabama 
Department of Corrections (ADOC); ADOC was being sued by 5 death row inmates in 
Alabama who claim their impending executions by lethal injection with the 
controversial drug midazolam will cause them excruciating pain in violation of 
the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. The 5 
condemned men in question (and all of Alabama's death row population) have 
plenty of reason to fear a torturous end because: (1) Alabama's last execution 
may have burned a man alive; (2) Alabama tilts the advantage in executions in 
favor of prosecutors; and (3) death row inmates in Alabama are human guinea 
pigs.

In one particularly dyspeptic section of Judge Watkins' sui generis opinion 
titled, "Alternative Method Evidence: Hippocrates and Hypocrites," Watkins 
accuses doctors, nurses, ethicists, and everyone else involved in medicine, of 
standing "by passively as sodium thiopental and pentobarbital were ripped from 
[the] medical bag of compassionate pain management by a tiny cadre of death 
penalty abolitionists."

By dizzying turns of circular and impenetrable right-wing logic, Judge Watkins' 
opinion argues, it is primarily because of the medical community's malfeasance 
that Alabama death row inmates can't satisfy, "the burden of proving a known 
and available alternative method of execution that significantly reduces the 
risk of substantial pain in execution," also known as "the 'suicide burden'."

"Suicide burden," you ask? Yes, indeed. But, when it comes to this abomination 
of jurisprudence, you can't blame Judge Watkins (and yes, still no Billy Bush 
sightings here); when it comes to what's been called disgustingly, for 
shorthand, the "suicide burden," point the needle straight at Supreme Court 
Justice Samuel J. Alito instead.

It is Alito's opinion in the Supreme Court's fractured 5-to-4 decision in 
Glossip v. Gloss, 135 S. Ct. 2726, 2737 (2015), that thrust the unconscionable, 
unethical, and I respectfully submit, unconstitutional burden - upon death row 
inmates challenging the method of their execution - to establish the existence 
of a known and available alternative method that is, "feasible, readily 
implemented, and in fact significantly reduce[s] a substantial risk of severe 
pain."

I am not alone. As reported in sciencedaily.com: "Court orders demanding death 
row inmates to provide 'specific, detailed and concrete alternatives,' to a 
state's lethal injection protocol compel those inmates to produce evidence that 
is impossible to obtain without forcing physicians and other clinicians to 
violate their medical ethics, according to Harvard bioethicists and legal 
experts. Such orders, therefore, the experts argue, pose an insurmountable 
hurdle for inmates seeking alternative methods of execution."

So, where does Judge Watkins' opinion, issued on Halloween (which must have 
thrilled all of the ghouls) leave 74-year-old Tommy Arthur, scheduled to die by 
lethal injection today, in the hellhole of Holman Prison, in Atmore, Alabama?

The answer is dismal. But, just as gloomy and even harder to fathom is, where 
does it leave all compassionate, justice-loving Americans who reject torture, 
who believe in science, the Constitution, and, also, that the medical community 
is not some nefarious justice-thwarting-conglomerate on a mission to harm us 
all?

(source: Stephen Cooper, counterpunch.org)

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

Alabama to execute man held on death row for nearly 34 years


A 74-year-old man on death row for more than three decades for the 1982 murder 
of his girlfriend's husband was to be executed in Alabama on Thursday, 
following 3 trials and another man's confession to the crime.

Thomas Douglas Arthur shot to death Troy Wicker as he slept, court records 
showed. Prosecutors said Arthur's girlfriend, Judy Wicker, paid him $10,000 to 
kill her husband.

Alabama seeks to execute him despite questions about its death penalty process 
following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in January that struck down a Florida law 
giving judges powers that juries should wield in deciding death eligibility.

The U.S. Supreme Court has since ordered Alabama to review similar practices in 
4 other cases.

Arthur saw two convictions overturned on constitutional grounds, including 
improper introduction of evidence about a prior murder conviction. After his 
third conviction in 1991, he asked the jury to sentence him to death, saying it 
would give him more time with his children during prison visits and a private 
cell.

The killing in Muscle Shoals, Alabama occurred when Arthur was in a prison work 
release program after the earlier murder.

Judy Wicker told police a black man raped her, knocked her unconscious and shot 
her husband at their home. Arthur, who is white, disguised himself as a black 
man, prosecutors said.

At her trial, Judy Wicker denied Arthur was the killer but later changed her 
testimony during Arthur's trial, his lawyers said. She was convicted of murder 
and paroled after 10 years in prison, according to the Alabama Department of 
Corrections.

In 2008, another inmate, Bobby Ray Gilbert, confessed to killing Wicker, but a 
state court held that Gilbert and Arthur had conspired to submit a fake 
confession.

Limited testing of crime scene items found no DNA link to Gilbert or Arthur. 
Alabama lost a rape kit with tests from Judy Wicker that might have cleared 
Arthur, his lawyers said.

Recently, his attorneys asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to 
consider a firing squad as a more humane alternative to a drug used in 
Alabama's method of lethal injection, saying it could cause pain and suffering.

On Tuesday, they petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court to stop the execution 
based on the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, calling Alabama's law "virtually 
identical," to Florida's. Alabama argued in court filings that it was not.

Arthur is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. local time at the William C. Holman 
Correctional Facility in Atmore. He would be the 18th execution this year in 
the United States and the 2nd in Alabama, according to the Death Penalty 
Information Center.

(source: Reuters)






MISSISSIPPI:

D.A. going for death penalty----Capital murder suspect pleaded not guilty


On Nov. 1, Leonta Gates, 23, was brought to Lee County Circuit Court and before 
Circuit Judge Jim Pounds. Gates was facing the felony charge of capital murder, 
as well as 3 other felony charges.

He pleaded not guilty.

Law enforcement and the Lee County District Attorney's Office, however, are 
confident in their evidence and the state intends to seek the death penalty in 
this case.

Gates is accused of capital murder in the May 13 robbery and killing of cab 
driver Charlie "Boo" Williams. He is also accused of 2 Tupelo armed robberies 
while on the run before he surrendered to police in the early morning hours of 
May 16.

"This case is a prime example of why the death penalty was enacted and why I 
support it," said Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson. "However, with the death 
penalty he'll have 2 attorneys assigned to him, and the right to 2 appeals. So 
it will be a long, long process."

Gates' court date is Jan. 17, 2017.

He remains in the Lee County Jail, where he is being held without bond.

Gates has been in and out of the system since he was a teenager.

"He had been released on parole in October (2015)," Johnson said in an earlier 
interview. "He had been serving time for an armed robbery he'd committed when 
he was 17."

Whether or not an inmate is released early to parole is within the complete 
discretion of the Mississippi State Parole Board. Parolees are supposed to 
check in and be monitored by their probation officer. The sheriff didn't 
believe he had met with his probation officer in more than 3 months.

There are currently 2 men from Lee County on death row at the Mississippi 
Department of Corrections, Derrick Walker and William Matthew Wilson.

Walker, 36, was sentenced to death in Lee County in 2003 for the stabbing death 
of former Tupelo personnel director Charles Richardson. He has the additional 
charge of felony arson for setting Richardson's house on fire to try to cover 
up the murder.

Wilson, 36, was convicted in 2007 of the capital murder and child abuse of his 
girlfriend's daughter, 2-year-old Mallow Conlee.

Mississippi is 1 of 32 states that do have the death penalty. Mississippi 
currently uses lethal injection to execute offenders.

On June 20, 2012 Gary Carl Simmons Jr. was the last person put to death in the 
state of Mississippi.

The last 2 put to death from Lee County were Joseph Daniel Burns, July 21, 2010 
and Dale Leo Bishop, July 8, 2008.

(source: leecountycourier.net)






OHIO:

Ohio execution law upheld ---- Appeals court dismisses death-row challenge


A Cincinnati appeals court Wednesday dismissed challenges to an Ohio law that 
promises to shield the identities of some of those involved in the execution 
process, including pharmacies that manufacture the drugs.

In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's 
dismissal of claims made by several death row inmates that the process 
unconstitutionally conceals information to which they are entitled.

The majority agreed that the death row inmates lacked standing to sue because 
they could not show they'd been harmed by being denied information to which 
they claim they have a free-speech and public record right.

"... The plaintiffs claim that 'seriously botched lethal-injection executions' 
have occurred in Ohio, that they have 'imminent execution dates,' and that they 
have challenged Ohio's execution practices and protocols in the past," Judge 
Eugene Siler, Jr., wrote. "They aver that, as a result of [House Bill] 663, it 
is 'more likely' that their executions will not meet legal standards.

"But it is not enough that the plaintiff's executions be imminent, because a 
validly imposed death sentence that is properly carried out is not 'an invasion 
of a legally protected interest,'" he wrote. "While a deficient execution is a 
very serious matter, the existence of deficiencies in this case is only 
conjectural or hypothetical and is therefore not imminent for [legal standing] 
purposes."

1 of the 4 plaintiffs in the case is Grady Brinkley, convicted in the 2000 
slaying of his 18-year-old Toledo girlfriend, Shantae Smith.

Ohio last executed an inmate in January, 2014, when Dennis McGuire of 
Montgomery County was put to death using a 2-drug process that it has since 
abandoned. McGuire died, but witnesses described him as making choking noises 
and struggling against his restraints for 26 minutes after the drugs began to 
flow.

In her dissent, Judge Jane B. Stranch described McGuire's death as "this 
horrifying tale of an execution gone wrong."

She argued that the majority's ruling prohibits condemned inmates from 
accessing information that may be necessary to prevent the carrying out of an 
execution that unconstitutionally imposes cruel and unusual punishment.

"Death penalty cases are not just about punishing a convicted person," she 
wrote. "These cases are also about protecting the functioning of our justice 
system, which ... envisions a forum for addressing the claims made in this 
litigation, and perhaps other litigation over state lethal injection laws."

She noted that 4 years ago federal courts had decided to monitor each Ohio 
execution because of the state's "persistent failure to refusal ... to follow 
its own written execution protocol."

Between a federal court order and subsequent decisions by Gov. John Kasich, 
Ohio has had an informal moratorium carrying out executions in place since 
McGuire's execution. That is about to expire at the end of the year.

Ohio plans to execute Ronald R. Phillips, formerly of Akron and one of the 
plaintiffs in this case, on Jan. 12. It plans to use a revised process 
involving an intravenous combination of fairly common drugs: midazolam, an 
anti-anxiety medication; rocuronium bromide, a paralytic agent, and finally 
potassium chloride, designed to stop the heart.

After the McGuire execution, Ohio, like other states, struggled to find the 
drugs it preferred to use because manufacturers refused to make them for 
executions.

As part of its efforts, lawmakers passed House Bill 663 which, among other 
things, dangled the promise of at least temporary anonymity for compounding 
pharmacies that would agree to make the drugs from scratch for the state.

The law would also shield the identities of certain individuals directly 
involved in the execution process.

(source: Toledo Blade)

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

Killer Roberts to get 3rd appeal


Convicted murderer Donna Roberts will get a 3rd chance to appeal her death 
sentence with the state's highest court.

The Ohio Supreme Court has set the next round of oral arguments on Roberts' 
appeal for Feb. 7, 2017, court records show.

In 2014, the 72-year-old former Howland woman and only female on death row was 
sentenced to death for a 3rd time by a 2nd Trumbull County judge assigned to 
her case.

Common Pleas Judge Ronald Rice inherited the case from former Judge John M. 
Stuard who retired in 2012 and died soon afterward. Stuard had twice previously 
sentenced Roberts to death, and both times the high court remanded the case 
back to the local court.

The 2nd time, the high court sent the case back to Rice with orders he give 
specific consideration to Roberts'oral appeal to the court before sentencing - 
something Stuard had failed to consider in his written opinion, according to 
the high court.

Now Roberts' attorneys are asking that because Rice didn't originally try the 
case, he must hear a penalty phase before ordering the death penalty. Roberts 
argued the judge should consider her history of depression, head injuries and 
other mitigating factors that her attorneys argue deserve a life sentence.

Roberts is on death row after she was convicted of plotting the 2001 murder of 
her former husband, Robert Fingerhut, who operated Greyhound bus terminals in 
Warren and Youngstown. Her accomplice was former lover Nathaniel Jackson, whom 
she corresponded with in prison.

Fingerhut, 57, was shot to death at his Howland home, and Jackson was convicted 
of the crime and also sentenced to death. The high court earlier this year 
affirmed Jackson's death sentence.

(source: tribtoday.com)

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

Grate could face the death penalty if convicted


The man accused of kidnapping, raping and brutally murdering at least three 
women is set to stand on trial next year, where he could face the death penalty 
if convicted.

Shawn M. Grate, 40, of Ashland had his pretrial at the Ashland County 
Courthouse Monday, which happened to be Halloween. During the trial Grate held 
to his "not guilty" plea against his 23 charges.

Among those charges are 4 counts each of aggravated murder, rape, kidnapping 
and burglary, 2 counts of gross abuse of a corpse, and 1 each of tampering with 
evidence, aggravated robbery, unauthorized use of a vehicle, robbery and 
breaking and entering.

Court proceedings for the case will resume in a year, beginning with Grate's 
final pretrial on Sept. 29.

If no plea deals are agreed upon by the 2 parties, Grate is currently slated to 
have his trial at Nov. 6, 2017. The Ashland County Courthouse currently has 20 
days set aside in case the jury trial should need the extended time for court 
days and deliberation.

Grate is accused of kidnapping, raping and killing Greenwich woman Stacey 
Stanley and Ashland's Elizabeth Griffith in Ashland.

(source: Norwalk Reflector)

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

Woman facing death penalty apologizes for outbursts


Andrea Bradley was much more subdued as she was led into a courtroom Wednesday.

"I want to apologize for my behavior the last couple times," she said to 
Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman. Last in court on Oct. 18, 
Bradley laughed at the prospect of the death penalty. Her previous behavior 
elicited several reprimands from Ruehlman.

Bradley, 30, faces charges that could bring the death penalty in her daughter, 
Glenara Bate's death. Bradley's one-time boyfriend, Glen Bates, was sentenced 
to death in October in the death of Glenara.

Wednesday's hearing was to determine Bradley's competency to face the death 
penalty.

Her attorney, Will Welsh, said her doctor completed a report about her 
intellectual capability, determining her IQ was at 67, much lower than the 75 
threshold needed to face the death penalty.

"It's clearly an Atkins case," Welsh said, referring to the Atkins v. Virginia 
Supreme Court case from 2002. In that case, the court ruled that executing 
people with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on 
"cruel and unusual punishments."

However, it's open-ended with respect to how states can define who has an 
intellectual disability, according to the ruling. The prosecutors will have two 
weeks to determine whether they want to bring in their own expert to counter 
Bradley's Atkins defense or accept the report.

To give an example of Bradley's intellectual disabilities, Welsh said either in 
2009 or 2013, the power went out in Bradley's home, but she continued to eat 
the spoiled food. It's an intellectual disability, Welsh said, that manifested 
before she was 18.

Ruehlman accepted Bradley's apology, saying her better behavior "makes my job 
easier."

The next court hearing is set for Nov. 29 at 10 a.m.

Prosecutors say both Bradley and her boyfriend, Glen Bates, were responsible 
for the death of their 2-year-old daughter, who was starved, burned, beaten and 
ultimately slammed against a door frame by Bates before she died in March 2015.

Bradley's attorneys have called Bates controlling and abusive toward her.

(source: cincinnati.com)