[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA., FLA., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 29



TEXAS:

U.S. Supreme Court To Hear Texas Death Penalty Case On Intellectual Disability


It's unconstitutional to execute people with intellectual disabilities, that 
much the U.S. Supreme Court has made clear. But things get fuzzy when 
individual states try to legally determine "intellectual disability," and that 
ambiguity is leading Texas to its latest hearing before the high court.

On Tuesday morning, the 8 justices will hear arguments surrounding Texas' 
method of determining the condition, ultimately deciding if the state's 
approach fits within past rulings specifying who can be put to death. The case 
is brought forth by Bobby Moore, a death row inmate of more than 36 years.

In April 1980, Moore, then 20, walked into a Houston supermarket with 2 other 
men, wearing a wig and holding a shotgun, according to Texas' brief to the high 
court. He approached the clerks' counter and shot 73-year-old James McCarble 
once in the head, killing him. Decades after receiving the death sentence, the 
57-year-old man still sits in prison.

Moore's appeals have been exhaustive; he was even granted a second sentencing 
hearing in 2001 and again handed the death penalty. In his latest appeal, 
Moore's attorneys claim he is intellectually disabled, which would make him 
ineligible for execution. But courts have disagreed on how to legally determine 
the disability.

2 previous Supreme Court rulings have addressed executing intellectually 
disabled people. In 2002, Atkins v. Virginia ruled that executing those with 
the disability violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual 
punishment, but left it up to the states to legally define the condition. In 
2014, Hall v. Florida specified that an IQ higher than 70 did not alone 
eliminate the condition, and that legal determination "is distinct from a 
medical diagnosis but is informed by the medical community's diagnostic 
framework."

"I'm very concerned of this propensity to push the envelope and define more and 
more people as intellectually disabled, including people that regular folks 
would not for a moment consider to have that condition." - Kent Scheidegger, 
legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Fund

After Atkins, Texas' highest criminal court set the state's definition of 
intellectual disability in Ex parte Briseno as those with a low IQ and poor 
adaptive functioning since childhood. In setting the standard, the Texas Court 
of Criminal Appeals controversially referred to Lennie, a character from John 
Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, in describing how to define the condition.

"Most Texas citizens might agree that Steinbeck's Lennie should, by virtue of 
his lack of reasoning ability and adaptive skills, be exempt," the ruling 
stated. "But, does a consensus of Texas citizens agree that all persons who 
might legitimately qualify for assistance under the social services definition 
of mental retardation be exempt from an otherwise constitutional penalty?"

The same year Hall was decided, a state district court determined that Moore 
was indeed intellectually disabled, but the ruling was overturned by the Court 
of Criminal Appeals. Judge Cheryl Johnson wrote that the lower court erred by 
using current medical standards to determine the condition, instead of the 
framework set up by the criminal appeals court, which adheres to the 1992 
definition set by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental 
Disabilities (AAIDD).

"Although the mental-health fields and opinions of mental-health experts inform 
the factual decision, they do not determine whether an individual is exempt 
from execution under Atkins," Johnson wrote in the opinion. "The decision to 
modify the legal standard for intellectual disability in the capital-sentencing 
context rests with this Court unless and until the Legislature acts, which we 
have repeatedly asked it to do."

On Tuesday, attorney Cliff Sloan, representing Moore, will argue that the CCA 
violated the constitution by requiring courts to use medically outdated 
standards to determine if a death row inmate is intellectually disabled and 
ineligible for execution.

Moore's brief claims that courts should be using current medical standards to 
determine intellectual disability, and that the Briseno definition is unjust 
and only qualifies certain people with intellectual disability as exempt from 
execution, instead of all of them.

"In Briseno, the CCA - while ostensibly adopting a 1992 clinical definition of 
intellectual disability - criticized the medical community's diagnostic 
framework as 'exceedingly subjective,' and fashioned its own additional 
'factors' for intellectual disability derived from lay stereotypes and lacking 
any clinical foundation," Moore's brief to the high court said.

"There really isn't any confusion in the medical and the scholarly environments 
about what is intellectual disability. This is a condition that's been around 
since as long as there's been people." - Margaret Nygren, executive director 
and CEO of AAIDD

Solicitor General Scott Keller will argue for Texas, claiming that the state's 
way of defining intellectual disability is in line with the Atkins and Hall 
decisions, and that the CCA ruled correctly, since Hall distinguishes that the 
legal definition of intellectual disability is different than a medical 
diagnosis.

"The CCA actually considered the clinical definitions that petitioner labels 
'current medical standards' ... and relied on them to apply certain concepts," 
the brief states. "What the CCA did not do is adopt those definitions wholesale 
as Texas's legal standard for Atkins claims."

In regards to the "Lennie" discussions, the brief said it is a "strained 
effort" by Moore and the ACLU to taint the Briseno test.

"The 'Lennie' comment should be understood for what it actually was: an aside," 
the brief states.

Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice 
Legal Foundation, filed a brief in support of Texas. He said in a phone 
interview that he doesn't have a problem with the Atkins ruling, but is 
concerned about the "creep" in defining intellectual disability.

"I'm very concerned of this propensity to push the envelope and define more and 
more people as intellectually disabled, including people that regular folks 
would not for a moment consider to have that condition," Scheidegger said.

A push that doesn't exist, according to Margaret Nygren, the executive director 
and CEO for AAIDD.

"There really isn't any confusion in the medical and the scholarly environments 
about what is intellectual disability," she said. "This is a condition that's 
been around since as long as there's been people."

In the petition, Moore is asking the court to reverse the CCA's ruling and toss 
out his sentence. If the court rules in his favor, it could set even further 
restrictions on how states can legally determine intellectual disability, as it 
did in Hall.

Nygren hopes the court will further intertwine the medical definition with the 
legal one.

"What I'd like to see happen is a recognition that statutory definition should 
really mirror the diagnostic criteria supported by research," she said.

Texas is asking that the court affirm the state court's ruling, or, at the very 
least remand the case back to the CCA to further review current medical 
standards, instead of setting national precedents.

"If the Court concludes that the CCA did not sufficiently consult these 
sources, then the appropriate remedy would not be to install part or all of 
those definitions as a national Atkins standard," the state's brief wrote. "The 
redress for that claimed injury would be a remand with instructions to give due 
'consideration' to [the current diagnostic framework]."

Other death penalty news:

Moore will be the 2nd Texas death row inmate to have his case heard by the U.S. 
Supreme Court this fall. In October, Duane Buck argued for a new sentencing 
trial since a psychologist at his original trial testified that black men are 
more dangerous than whites.

This year, Texas and the nation will see the fewest number of executions in 20 
years.

(source: houstonpublicmedia.org)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Judge to consider fate of death-row inmates' Racial Justice Act claims


A years-long effort by 4 Fayetteville-area death row inmates to use racial 
discrimination claims to stave off the death penalty will again go before a 
judge today. The inmates are fighting to again use the state's Racial Justice 
Act - a controversial law that was passed in 2009 and repealed in 2013 - in a 
renewed attempt to get their death sentences commuted to life in prison without 
parole.

A hearing in their cases is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. today in Charlotte. 2 
special deputy attorneys general are expected to say the 4 cases should be 
dismissed because of the 2013 repeal.

A team of lawyers for the defendants counter that the inmates can still use the 
Racial Justice Act because their cases were initiated when the law was still on 
the books.

The 4 defendants in 2012 used the Racial Justice Act to get off death row. They 
persuaded Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Greg Weeks that the 
prosecutors in their trials illegally prevented black people from serving on 
their juries.

But in December 2015, the North Carolina Supreme Court overturned Weeks' 
rulings. It said he made errors that made his Racial Justice Act hearings 
unfair to the state's lawyers.

The Supreme Court said the 4 Racial Justice Act hearings should be done over; 
the 4 defendants were put back on death row in the meantime.

The 4 defendants are Marcus Reymond Robinson, who killed a teen in a robbery; 
Tilmon Golphin, who with his brother killed a deputy and a state trooper in a 
traffic stop; Christina S. "Queen" Walters, who led a gang that kidnapped and 
killed 2 women; and Quintel Augustine, convicted of murdering a Fayetteville 
police officer.

Lawyers Danielle Marquis Elder and Jonathan P. Babb of the state Attorney 
General's Office say in court fillings that the 4 inmates can no longer use the 
Racial Justice Act because it was repealed in 2013. They argue that the appeal 
of their 4 cases never reached a final conclusion - the state Supreme Court's 
decision did not consider the merits of the claims, only whether Weeks 
conducted fair hearings - so the cases can't resume now that the law is 
repealed.

The defense lawyers contend that the state's lawyers are wrong.

According to Ken Rose of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, Cassandra 
Stubbs of the American Civil Liberties Union and other defense lawyers in the 
case, the defendants have several key arguments, including:

The state Supreme Court specifically said the cases should be done over.

The lawmakers were angry that these 4 defendants successfully used the Racial 
Justice Act and were trying to punish them by repealing it. It's 
unconstitutional to make a law to target specific individuals for punishment, a 
concept called bill of attainder.

The lawyers say it's unconstitutional for the repeal to be applied 
retroactively. This falls under a legal concept known as ex post facto.

The passage of the Racial Justice Act vested a right with the defendants and 
gave them life, liberty and property interests that, according to the 
constitution, can't be taken with due process of law.

They say the state isn't allowed under the constitution and by law to increase 
a person's sentence after it's set - they say that once a death sentence is 
taken off, it can't be put back on.

(source: Fayetteville Observer)






GEORGIA:

Georgia's death row in 2016: The killers and those they killed----State leads 
nation in executions this year


Georgia executes 8 people in 2016

Georgia's stepped-up pace has thrust the state into the lead, surpassing even 
Texas - which on the whole has carried out almost 8 times as many executions as 
Georgia since the death penalty was reinstated 4 decades ago: Georgia has 
killed 68 prisoners; Texas has killed 538.

For the most part, the reason Georgia is using its death chamber more 
frequently is because a large number of inmates have simply exhausted their 
appeals. Also, the legal issues that had been a barrier in recent years - the 
use of lethal injection drugs, which ones the state uses, and Georgia's secrecy 
law - have been resolved.

There are 59 men on Georgia's death row.

Following are the 8 men executed in 2016, plus the prisoner slated to be this 
year's 9th execution.

Brandon Astor Jones (Feb. 3)

Brandon Astor Jones was the oldest man on Georgia's death row when he was 
executed for murdering Roger Tackett, a convenience store manager.

Jones and Roosevelt Solomon were already in the store when a police officer 
pulled up at the Cobb County Tenneco station just after midnight on June 17, 
1979. The lights were on past the closing time, which raised the officer's 
suspicions. Just as the policeman looked through a store window, Jones peeked 
out of the storeroom. There were 4 shots. The officer found Jones and Solomon 
still inside, and Tackett dead on the storeroom floor. Solomon was electrocuted 
in 1985. Jones was executed more than 30 years later, at age 72.

Final words: None.

Roger Tackett

Victim: Roger Tackett was 37 when he was gunned down. Before working at the 
Tenneco convenience store, Tackett had taught Russian, French and Latin at 
Georgia Southern College, and taught languages at a metro Atlanta private 
school. When the program at the private school was eliminated, Tackett took a 
job pumping gas, making more money than he had as a teacher. On the night he 
was killed, Tackett had stayed late to finish paperwork so he could spend 
Father's Day with his 7-year-old daughter.

Travis Hittson (Feb. 17)

Travis Hittson was a 21-year-old Navy seaman on an aircraft carrier based in 
Pensacola when he and two buddies traveled to Middle Georgia for a weekend. 
Chief Petty Officer Edward Vollmer, Hittson and shipmate Conway Utterbeck 
planned to stay at Vollmer's parents' home while they were away.

They spent that Saturday afternoon in April 1992 drinking at the Vollmer house, 
then Hittson and Vollmer decided to hit a local bar. Utterbeck stayed behind. 
It was on the drive back that Hittson and Vollmer decided to murder Utterbeck. 
Hittson beat Utterbeck with a bat and shot him. Then they dismembered him, 
burying Utterbeck's torso in Houston County and taking the rest of his body 
parts to Pensacola. Vollmer pleaded guilty in exchange for a life sentence with 
the possibility of parole. Hittson went to trial and was sentenced to die. He 
was 45 when executed.

Final words: "No, sir, I'm alright."

Victim: Conway Utterbeck was stationed aboard the USS Forrestal in Pensacola 
when he met Hittson and Vollmer on his job assignment. According to court 
records he was murdered only because Vollmer convinced Hittson that Utterbeck 
had a hit list and they were on it. Utterbeck was asleep in a recliner when the 
2 men came home and attacked him. Utterbeck asked "why?" as he pleaded for his 
life.

Initially, Navy officials just made note of Utterbeck's unauthorized absence. 
They opened an investigation only after Utterbeck's mother called because she 
had not heard from her son in a month. 6 weeks after the murder, a logger in 
Houston County found Utterbeck's torso.

Joshua Bishop (March 31)

Joshua Bishop was 19 when he used a curtain rod to beat to death Leverette 
Morrison during a struggle for keys to Morrison's jeep. Once Bishop was in 
custody, Baldwin County investigators learned he had also killed another man 2 
weeks earlier, Ricky Lee Wills, because Wills bragged about a sexual encounter 
with Bishop's mother. His advocates said Bishop had a hard life as a child: he 
was physically and sexually abused, was his mother's drinking buddy, and was 
always searching for his father. Bishop was 41 when executed.

Final words: "I apologize to the people of Baldwin County and to the Morrison 
family. I'd also like to thank all the people who stood by me."

Victim: Leverette Morrison might have been Bishop's uncle. No one knows for 
sure. In answer to her son's repeated questions about his father, Bishop's 
mother named Morrison's brother, Albert Ray Morrison, as 1 of 3 possibilities. 
"I don't really know for sure," Albert Morrison wrote in Bishop's clemency 
petition. "His mama, Carolyn, went with a lot of men, including me and 
Leverette."

Kenneth Fults (April 12)

Kenneth Fults was jealous and had been on a weeklong crime spree in January 
1996. His goal was to steal a gun so he could kill his ex-girlfriend's new 
boyfriend. He broke into the trailer of his next-door neighbor in the hope of 
finding one. Cathy Bounds' was home alone, her live-in boyfriend having just 
left for work moments earlier. Fults wrapped 6 feet of electrical tape around 
Bounds' eyes, put her face-down on a bed, placed a pillow over the back of her 
head and fired 5 times. Fults pleaded guilty to murder, but still claimed he 
was in a trance-like state when he did it. Fults was 47 when he was executed.

Final words: "Amen."

Victim: Cathy Bounds, 19, was about to begin her day when Fults entered her 
home, wearing gloves and a hat pulled over his eyes. Bounds begged for her 
life, offering him the rings on her fingers. He responded by shooting her with 
a stolen .22-caliber handgun.

Daniel Anthony Lucas (April 27)

Daniel Lucas was 19 when he and another teenager murdered a father and his 2 
children. Until that day, his lawyers said, Lucas was controlled by his drug 
addiction, his parents' drinking, and frequent abuse and neglect. Lucas teamed 
up with Brandon Rhode to burglarize the Jones County house one April afternoon. 
When 11-year-old Bryan Moss came home from school and spied the 2 men, he armed 
himself with a baseball bat to defend his home. He was soon shot. When his 
15-year-old sister came home, she was bound to a chair and eventually shot too. 
Moments later, their father, a truck driver, came home and was shot. Once Lucas 
and Rhode were caught, Lucas confessed. His advocates said he was sorry for his 
crime. By the time he was executed at age 37, he practiced Buddhism, his 
advocates said.

Final words - "To the Moss family, I'm sorry for Mrs. Moss. And to family and 
friends, I love them. All beings are basically good, all beings are basically 
kind, all beings are basically strong, all beings are basically wise."

Moss family

Victims: Bryan, Kristin and Steven Moss were killed in their own home on April 
23, 1998. The day he was murdered, Bryan was supposed to play with a 
neighborhood friend after putting away his things. At 15, Kristin was in high 
school and a normal teenage girl. Their father, 37-year-old Steven Moss, had 
the day off. So he had lunch in Macon with his wife - who found her family dead 
when she got home from work.

John Conner (July 15)

John Conner had been on death row for 34 years by the time he was executed for 
murdering a drinking buddy. His lawyers said Conner learned to be violent from 
his father. Even before the murder that landed him on death row, he had killed 
another friend. On Jan. 9, 1982, Conner and his buddy J.T. White spent the 
evening at a party but wanted to continue drinking at Conner's house in Telfair 
County. On the walk to Conner's place, Conner attacked White with a quart 
bottle and an oak tree branch. Before skipping town, Conner went back to make 
sure White was dead. Conner's girlfriend told investigators he walked into the 
woods and moments later she heard a thud. Conner then told her he was sure 
White was dead. Conner took up painting while on death row. He was 60 when 
executed.

Final statement: None.

J.T. White

Victim: J.T. White was 29 when murdered. White, Conner and Conner's girlfriend, 
Beverly Bates, had been to a party in Eastman, where they drank and smoked 
marijuana. Witnesses said there was no tension between the men. But that 
changed later when White told Conner he wanted to have sex with Bates.

Gregory Lawler (Oct. 19)

Gregory Lawler had a master's degree in business from Emory University but was 
earning a living assembling furniture when he murdered Atlanta policeman John 
"Rick" Sowa and critically wounded policewoman Pat Cocciolone in October 1997. 
Neighbors told investigators they gave Lawler a wide berth. He drank heavily 
and yelled often at his girlfriend, neighborhood children, and even his 
battered gray Ford Escort when he worked on it. Lawler lived with his 
girlfriend near the intersections of Piedmont Avenue and Lindbergh Road. After 
killing Sowa, Lawler engaged in a standoff with police for about 6 hours. He 
surrendered after he cut his hair, shaved and changed clothes. He was 63 when 
executed.

Final words: None.

John Sowa

Victim: Atlanta police officer John "Rick" Sowa was 28 when he and his partner, 
Pat Cocciolone, walked an intoxicated woman to her front door and were shot. 
Cocciolone was critically wounded but was able to call for help as Sowa lay 
dead. The nightmare began when Sowa and Cocciolone were dispatched to 
investigate a report of a man hitting a woman. They found Lawler and his drunk 
girlfriend, Donna Rogers, behind a Midtown Atlanta store. Since Lawler had left 
the scene to walk home, Sowa and Cocciolone decided to drive Rogers to the 
apartment she shared with Lawler rather than arrest her. Within moments of 
speaking to Lawler at the apartment door, the officers were running for their 
lives as Lawler fired at them with a high-powered rifle loaded with 
armor-piercing bullets. Cocciolone survived but is disabled.

Steven Spears (Nov. 16)

Steven Spears never denied he murdered his ex-girlfriend. He told investigators 
everything after he was picked up walking to town to turn himself in for Sherri 
Holland's murder, having hid in the woods for 10 days. Spears said he had 
warned Holland when they started dating in 1999 that he would kill her if she 
ever left him for someone else. Other than an automatic appeal in early 2015, 
Spears flatly rejected any legal attempt to spare his life. He was 54 when 
executed.

Final words: None

Victim: Sherri Holland was a 34-year-old single mother and a U.S. Department of 
Agriculture inspector who worked at a ConAgra Food plant, which is where she 
met Spears. She and Spears dated about 3 years, even though he threatened her 
and her family. Relatives said she stayed in the relationship because she was 
trying to protect them from Spears. On the weekend she was murdered, Holland 
was scheduled to go on her 1st date in almost a year since she and Spears broke 
up.

William Sallie (scheduled for Dec. 6)

William Sallie, at age 40, could be the 9th man Georgia executes this year. 
When he and his wife separated in December 1989, she moved out and took their 
2-year-old son to live with her parents in rural Bacon County. Soon after, 
under the pretense of visiting his son, Sallie took the boy to Illinois, where 
he stayed until a judge ordered him to return Ryan to his mother. Before 
returning to Georgia, Sallie had a friend in Illinois buy him a gun. And in 
Liberty County, Ga., Sallie rented a mobile home under an assumed name. Around 
10 p.m. on March, 28, 1990, Sallie went to the house of John and Linda Moore, 
ripped out the telephone wire, and waited. Almost 3 hours later, as the Moore 
family, Sallie's estranged wife, Robin, and their son slept, Sallie pried open 
the back door. He shot John Moore 6 times, killing him, and wounded Linda Moore 
before handcuffing her and her 9-year-old son, Justin. Sallie left the house 
with his estranged wife and her 17-year-old sister, April Moore, taking them to 
his secluded mobile home, where he sexually assaulted them. Sallie freed the 
sisters the next evening when they told him they would not press charges.

Victim: John Moore was asleep when his son-in-law burst into his bedroom, 
flicking on the lights and firing a 9-mm handgun. Moore got out of bed, 
collapsed onto the floor and died. When Sallie dragged his estranged wife and 
her sister from the house, he left his 2-year-old son in the bedroom with his 
dead grandfather. Moore's wounded wife Linda and their 9-year-old son Justin, 
who had been handcuffed, freed themselves after a few hours and ran to a 
neighbor's house to call police.

(source: myajc.com)






FLORIDA:

Court ruling could get Lords of Chaos leader off death row


Recent Florida Supreme Court rulings throw into question the death sentences 
imposed on three of Lee County's most notorious killers.

In January, the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling on Hurst v. Florida, struck down the 
Florida law that allows juries to recommend the death penalty by a majority 
vote and allow the judge to decide if it should be imposed.

Since that time, the Florida Supreme Court has been hearing appeals from 
prisoners sentenced to death without a unanimous jury recommendation. They have 
ruled penalty phase hearings in these cases unconstitutional, giving convicted 
murderers the opportunity to have their death penalty sentences overturned.

"The question that still remains is will (the court) apply this to all 
(similar) cases or will it say that this is a constitutional standard we will 
only apply after a particular date," said Robert Dunham, executive director of 
the Death Penalty Information Center.

If the court says the standard doesn't apply to cases prior to a certain date, 
then the court is allowing people "to be executed that it knows received unfair 
sentencing trials and the unfairness was prejudicial," Dunham said.

The killers

If every case without a unanimous jury recommending death is unconstitutional 
there could be nearly 400 convicted murderers in the state who could be 
resentenced. This would include three in Lee County: Joel Diaz, Harold Gene 
Lucas and Kevin Donald Foster, the man who killed a popular high school 
teacher.

Although some attorneys have said the court has signaled that all non-unanimous 
death penalty cases will have to undergo resentencing, Stephen Harper, 
co-director of the Florida Center for Capital Representation at Florida 
International University's College of Law, is more conservative in his opinion.

It does seem however, that the court will grant rehearings for any death row 
petitioner who is in the appellate process and did not have a unanimous jury 
decision, Harper said. But for those who have exhausted their appeals, they 
might be out of luck and out of time.

One of those is Harold Gene Lucas. Lucas has been on death row since 1977 for 
the 1976 murder of 16-year-old Anthia Jill Piper. Piper was killed in her home, 
shot 7 times by Lucas, who claimed to be intoxicated at the time of the crime. 
Lucas was convicted of the murder of Piper and attempted murder of her 2 
friends whom he wounded.

The 1st jury to sentence Lucas was unanimous in recommending death. But in a 
subsequent resentencing the jury voted 11-1 for the death penalty.

Joel Diaz was sentenced to death in 2001 after shooting his former girlfriend 
and killing her father, Charles Shaw, at the Shaw family home in Cross Creek. 
The jury in Diaz's case recommended the death penalty, 9-3.

More than 20 years ago, Foster, then 19, killed 32-year-old Mark Schwebes, a 
popular Riverdale High School teacher. During April 1996 a loosely organized 
gang, calling themselves The Lords of Chaos, committed various crimes around 
Lee County including theft, vandalism and arson. Schwebes, who was Riverdale's 
band director, foiled the gang's plans to vandalize the school and they 
targeted him for death.

4 teens participated in the murder and Foster, the triggerman, was convicted of 
1st degree murder and sentenced to death. The jury recommended 9-3 in favor of 
the death penalty and Judge Isaac Anderson imposed the sentence. Foster has 
been on death row ever since.

Overtaxed courts

If the court system is suddenly flooded with penalty phase trials, there will 
be a problem with resources. Dunham, whose organization is neither pro nor 
anti-death penalty, but provides information and analysis, said that the 
convictions will stand, it's not the guilt or innocence that will be retried. 
Yet much of the evidence related to the crime will need to be presented to the 
jury, meaning more work for an already overburdened judicial system.

If the court says that all cases with non-unanimous recommendations of death 
require sentencing rehearings, Dunham fired off a bevy of questions: "Who will 
pick up the costs? How much money is being spent on this? And how much will the 
counties and taxpayers tolerate?"

One way to cut the costs would be to reduce all non-unanimous death sentences 
to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Dunham said surveys 
show that people, when presented with that option, favor it over the death 
penalty.

Mesac Damas murder case in limbo due to death penalty challenges

But how do prosecutors feel about it? Randall McGruther who prosecuted Foster, 
said he's been retired for 2 years and didn't feel comfortable commenting on 
the case.

Samantha Syoen, the communications director for the State Attorney Attorney 
Stephen Russell's office, wrote that because the death penalty law is in "a 
state of flux" the office is "waiting for guidance from the Florida Supreme 
Court as to which if any cases may be impacted by their recent or upcoming 
decisions."

(source: News-Press)

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

Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Jorge Labarga orders investigation of death 
penalty attorney; may be first of its kind


In a highly unusual move, Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Jorge Labarga has 
ordered an investigation of a death penalty lawyer who has repeatedly missed 
critical deadlines, was involved in a capital case in which roach-infested 
boxes of documents were destroyed by rain and who is representing two inmates 
trying to fire her.

Labarga ordered the probe this month of Fort Lauderdale lawyer Mary Catherine 
Bonner "pursuant to the Court's authority to monitor the representation of 
capital defendants to ensure that the defendants receive quality 
representation."

The decision comes seven months after prominent death penalty lawyer Martin 
McClain wrote to the court outlining concerns about Bonner.

Bonner was rebuked by U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan in Jacksonville 
several years ago for failing on two separate occasions to meet a 1-year 
deadline to file habeas corpus petitions.

Such federal appeals provide inmates a last chance to have their convictions 
reviewed on a variety of grounds.

In this month's administrative order, Labarga appointed 3rd District Court of 
Appeal Judge Kevin Emas as the referee in the Bonner investigation and named 
Belvin Perry - a former 9th Judicial Circuit chief judge who presided over the 
Casey Anthony murder trial - to serve as special counsel to the referee.

Labarga gave Emas 90 days to complete the inquiry and file a report on Bonner.

"The referee shall make findings of fact and recommend any necessary remedial 
action, including the removal of Mary Catherine Bonner from the registry for 
post-conviction capital attorneys, if appropriate," the 2-page order said.

Bonner did not respond to phone calls and emails seeking comment.

Numerous death penalty legal experts said Labarga's order appeared to be the 
1st of its kind.

Florida's death penalty has been under scrutiny since the U.S. Supreme Court, 
in Hurst v. Florida, ruled the state's capital sentencing system as 
unconstitutional.

The chief justice ordered the Bonner investigation after McClain sent a letter 
April 4 to the clerk of the Supreme Court raising alarms about 2 death row 
inmates, Alphonso Cave and Paul William Scott, whom Bonner represents in state 
court.

Cave and Scott have independently asked the court to dismiss Bonner from their 
cases.

Both men said she went years without contacting them.

McClain represented Scott for a period over a decade ago, as well as Cave's 
co-defendant, who has since been executed.

McClain also wrote about Bonner's court-appointed representation of 2 death row 
inmates - including Mark James Asay, whose pending execution was put on hold by 
the Florida Supreme Court this year. McClain now represents the 2 death row 
inmates.

In 2009, Corrigan harshly criticized Bonner for filing federal appeals in the 
cases of Asay and William Greg Thomas more than 200 days after a 1-year 
deadline had passed.

Bonner blamed the delays in part on health problems both she and her husband 
had undergone, but Corrigan was not appeased.

"The terms 'bad faith' or 'dishonesty' capture Ms. Bonner's conduct and are the 
type of egregious conduct that rises well above professional negligence or even 
gross negligence," Corrigan wrote of Bonner's handling of Asay's petitions in 
2009.

Bonner's delays in filing the federal appeals prompted Corrigan to grant 
"equitable tolling" in both cases, allowing the missed deadlines to be ignored.

The Florida Attorney General's Office, which represents the state in capital 
cases, opposed giving the inmates more time to file the federal appeals but 
maintained Bonner's conduct warranted sanctions.

Even so, the state opposes allowing inmates whom Bonner currently represents to 
fire her.

In March, Cave sent a hand-written letter to the Supreme Court requesting that 
Bonner be terminated as his attorney, saying he had not seen her in 4 years and 
she had not responded to his letters and calls.

Cave - whom Bonner has represented for nearly half of the more than 3 decades 
he has spent on death row - was concerned about the impact of the Hurst ruling 
on his case.

That decision prompted the state court to put the scheduled executions of Asay 
and Cary Michael Lambrix on hold indefinitely.

In April, Bonner asked the state court to keep her on as Cave's lawyer, saying 
she "took a very bad fall" and broke her shoulder.

Bonner went on to describe in detail problems she encountered during her 
recovery, including "a terrible adverse reaction to pain medication" and 
lengthy waits at the hospital where she was being treated.

Bonner - who has a clean record with The Florida Bar - also wrote to Cave, 
asking him to keep her on as his attorney.

"I care about your fate and will vigorously litigate on your behalf," she wrote 
to the inmate April 3.

In a hand-written response to the court dated April 11, Cave wrote he simply 
wanted a lawyer who would file the appropriate documents on his behalf.

"It is unfortunate and just not right that I had to write this Honorable Court 
to get my lawyer to correspond with me," Cave, 57, wrote.

Cave's letter is the latest document posted in his case on the Florida Supreme 
Court website.

Scott also asked the court to remove Bonner as his lawyer in state court. After 
the court refused that request, Scott appealed. That appeal is pending, 
according to the state court website.

Asay's case became the focus of attention earlier this year.

McClain took over Asay's case in January, shortly after Gov. Rick Scott set a 
March execution date for the convicted double murderer.

After being sentenced to die, Asay went for a decade without legal 
representation, and almost all of the paper records involving his case went 
missing or were destroyed.

McClain said he encountered difficulties trying to retrieve documents from 
Bonner, who had served as Asay's lawyer in the federal appeals. That included 
having 4 mold- and insect-infested boxes delivered to his office, which McClain 
said made them a health hazard.

Bonner later delivered more boxes to McClain "after they had been left outside 
in a driving rain storm," he continued.

The boxes were "completely waterlogged" and "were literally disintegrating as 
they were carried to my office," he wrote.

Much of the material in the boxes was unrelated to Asay's case, according to 
McClain's letter.

(source: jaxdailyrecord.com)






OHIO:

Judge to decide if mother can face death penalty for daughter's 
slaying----Father sentenced to death last month

A mother may learn today if she could face the death penalty for her daughter's 
death.

Andrea Bradley is accused of killing Glenara Bates in 2015.

Her family and attorney have said she has struggled with her mental health 
since she was a teenager.

Bradley has a tested IQ of 67, below the usual standard of 70 indirectly set by 
the U.S. Supreme Court in Atkins vs. Virginia in 2002.

But the U.S. Supreme Court also struck down a Florida law that set 70 as the 
standard, stating that there had to be a margin of error in IQ tests.

Even if she is found to not be elibile for the death penalty, Bradley could 
face 25 to life in prison if convicted.

Glenara's father, Glen Bates, was sentenced to death for the girl's slaying 
earlier this year.

(source: WLWT news)