[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., TENN., NEB.

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 2



TEXAS:

North Texas man to face death penalty in wife's drowning


Prosecutors in North Texas say they will seek the death penalty against a man 
accused of drowning his wife by throwing her off a bridge after tying a rope 
attached to concrete around her neck.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports (http://bit.ly/2dghpmc ) court records 
show the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office filed a notice on Sept. 16 
of intent to seek the death penalty against 34-year-Rodolfo Arellano.

Arellano, from Fort Worth, is charged with capital murder in the death of his 
28-year-old wife, Elizabeth. Her body was pulled from Lake Worth after 
authorities were called April 16 about a possible suicide from a freeway 
bridge. Authorities say the couple had separated and Elizabeth Arellano was 
planning to divorce her husband.

Rodolfo Arellano remains jailed on a $500,000 bond.

(source: Associated Press)






VIRGINIA:

Virginia's lethal injection costs set to skyrocket to $16.5K


In the span of a year, the cost for the state of Virginia to obtain lethal 
injection drugs has leapt from about $525 per execution to $16,500.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports the price rose after the General Assembly 
passed a law allowing the state to buy execution drugs from compounding 
pharmacies whose identities are secret.

The law, which took effect July 1, was passed after lawmakers feared executions 
in the state would grind to a halt as pharmaceutical companies stopped 
participating in the death penalty nationwide.

The Department of Corrections says it had cost slightly less than $250 in 2014 
to receive the drugs directly from pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy says the $16,500 price tag is "the 
cost of enforcing the law."

(source: Associated Press)






FLORIDA:

Death-penalty cases rack up big dollars in Miami-Dade


Nearly a decade after 5 reputed members of a street gang known as the Terrorist 
Boyz were charged in connection with nine murders and dozens of shootings, the 
first defendant has pleaded guilty in a legal saga that holds a unique 
distinction:

Taxpayers have been billed $4.2 million to help defend the men - making it the 
most expensive death-penalty case in recent Florida history. And it's far from 
over.

The case's plodding path though the legal system underscores this: Defense 
against the death penalty is by far more expensive in Miami-Dade County than 
anywhere else in the state.

Miami-Dade accounts for 38 % of all billings in Florida, but only 18 % of the 
state's cases.

And taxpayers have been billed $50 million for court-appointed defense lawyers, 
investigators, experts and others in Miami-Dade in 352 1st-degree murder cases 
stretching back to the late 1990s, according to a Herald analysis of state 
records. That's more than triple the cost spent in the next highest county, 
Broward, where $13.8 million was spent, albeit on 131 fewer cases.

Of the $50 million billed over the years, $47.4 million was paid, with the 
remaining money waiting to be processed on pending cases.

Florida's highest-paid capital litigation lawyer, Terry Lenamon of Miami, has 
earned $5 million over the course of 59 capital cases since 2000. He doesn't 
shy away from the distinction, pointing out that he has kept all but 2 clients 
off death row, and 1 of those had his sentence overturned on appeal.

"It's money well spent. In many places in Florida, there is very little spent 
on the death penalty and there is a rush to complete the cases," said Lenamon, 
who founded a non-profit group called the Florida Capital Resource Center that 
assists lawyers in in death-penalty cases. "I have the responsibility to make 
sure no stone is left unturned. It's a very expensive proposition, but there is 
a simple solution: End the death penalty."

So why is Miami so much more expensive? The answer lies in the complicated 
process of how death-penalty cases unfold after a grand-jury indictment.

In Miami-Dade, a small but seasoned group of defense lawyers get court 
appointed to handle death-penalty cases. Their task: convince a committee of 
senior prosecutors to drop the death penalty as punishment for someone accused 
of 1st-degree murder.

But the process can last years as the bills rack up. 8 years, for instance, 
passed before prosecutors waived the death penalty in December against Robert 
St. Germain, 34, the 1st of the alleged Terrorist Boyz to close his case. He 
finally pleaded guilty Friday to 2 murders, half-a-dozen attempted murders and 
a firebombing.

The bill to defend St. Germain was $1.03 million, according to state records. 
His sentence: 12 years in prison, of which he's served nine. The 4 others are 
awaiting trial, and still face the death penalty.

Each side blames the other for legal foot-dragging.

Defense lawyers insist that prosecutors simply take too long to waive the death 
option, perhaps hoping to use the potential punishment to force a plea deal. 
But prosecutors say defense lawyers wait too long to provide "mitigation" - a 
thorough background investigation on a defendant needed to waive the death 
penalty.

"The mitigation is everything. It's important to get that information as early 
as possible," Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said. "The 
mitigation can help us resolve these cases quicker and fairly, not only for the 
defendants but for the victim's grieving family members."

Both sides say that despite the high costs and delays, the system works, 
limiting the county's application of the ultimate punishment.

Prosecutors point out that that in a county as large as Miami-Dade, relatively 
few, only the worst-of-the-worst killers, face execution - just 5 Miami-Dade 
inmates from the past decade are currently on death row, compared to 26 from 
the Jacksonville area in that same time period.

And Miami defense lawyers insist their work saves lives, with most succeeding 
in getting the death penalty waived before trial.

Said David S. Markus, the s2nd-highest paid lawyer who has billed for $3.1 
million on capital cases over the years: "We get a flat rate of $100 an hour. 
That's way below the market value - our work is worth between $300 and $400 an 
hour because of the expertise and experience the lawyers have. We have way more 
death-penalty cases in Miami, and we have a much more aggressive defense bar."

The financial data was provided by Florida's Justice Administrative Commission, 
which handles billing for clients who cannot afford to hire their own defense 
lawyers. The statistics do not offer a complete picture of the pre-trial costs 
of the death penalty in Florida - they do not take into account defendants 
represented by the Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office, or the taxpayer-funded 
Regional Conflict Counsel Office, which employ salaried lawyers who do not bill 
by the hour.

The commission did not begin handling death-penalty litigation billing until 
2004, although some of those criminal cases began years earlier.

Former senior Miami-Dade prosecutor Abe Laeser said he believes defense lawyers 
intentionally drag out cases because of the hourly rates. "The easiest solution 
is to not make it so lucrative," Laeser said.

There is little chance that the process will speed up anytime soon. For the 
near future, death-penalty trials remains mostly in limbo in Florida.

The reason: The Florida Supreme Court is weighing whether juries need to be 
unanimous in meting out the death penalty, as is required by nearly every state 
that still has capital punishment. The state's high court is also mulling 
whether a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that Florida's sentencing 
scheme is unconstitutional means new sentences for hundreds of death row 
inmates.

But at Miami's criminal courthouse, many newer capital cases are still chugging 
along as overworked detectives labor to finish their reports, prosecutors pore 
over evidence and defense lawyers consult experts and schedule depositions. 
Judges are part of the process too - they must approve many of the defense fees

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Nushin Sayfie, who heads the administration of the 
criminal division, acknowledged that system is often overburdened and can lead 
to delays and higher costs. And judges are cognizant that every step of 
death-penalty litigation is scrutinized by the higher courts that can reverse a 
conviction, she said.

"Judges here, when we do trials, we want to do it right the 1st time," Sayfie 
said.

That means judges do not hesitate to approve money for extra defense experts or 
witnesses, and bills for the lawyers, said retired Miami-Dade Circuit Judge 
Stanford Blake, who also oversaw administration in the criminal court.

"I can tell you that as a judge who looked over fees, I went over every single 
bill and there were times, we cut a little here and there, but what they charge 
is totally reasonable for the work they did," Blake said. "Do they get results? 
Absolutely. Do I feel comfortable if I have to impose the death penalty that 
someone was well represented? Absolutely."

In Florida, only people indicted by a grand jury of 1st-degree murder are 
eligible for the death penalty.

By law, prosecutors must file a notice of intent to seek the death penalty 
within 45 days. With a window so small, they file it on every 1st-degree 
indictment so as not to lose their ability to seek execution later.

After someone is indicted, the Public Defender's Office or the Regional Counsel 
office is normally appointed to represent them.

But if there is some a conflict, a judge must appoint a private lawyer. Since 
the early 1990s, those in Miami have been drawn from a pool of lawyers 
certified to handle death-penalty cases. Just 26 are qualified to handle death 
cases, although the local court system is considering tweaking rules to expand 
the number of attorneys who can handle death cases.

In each death-penalty case, 2 lawyers are automatically appointed, with 1 in 
charge of handling the mitigation that might persuade prosecutors - or jurors 
at trial - to forgo execution.

The waiver is sometimes relatively quick. At 21 and with a history of mental 
illness, Matthew Guzman was indicted for 2 murders in 2011. Within 3 months, 
his lawyers - not private attorneys but the Public Defender's Office - began 
submitting mitigation evidence. By March 2012, prosecutors waived the death 
penalty; he is still awaiting trial.

For Stephenson Charles, accused in 2009 of the murder a North Miami pawn shop 
owner, that included the hiring of a mitigation specialist ($82,066.95), a 
neuropsychologist ($14,266.13), a psychologist ($11,155), a researcher on 
intellectual disabilities ($16,009.35), and even Marvin Dunn, a retired 
university professor who often testifies about the abject conditions of young 
black men growing up in the inner city ($6,300).

The mitigation, however, was not filed until March 2013. Then the case cycled 
through various prosecutors and judges, and the defense turned over a second 
request to waive the death penalty in August 2015.

Prosecutors officially waived the death penalty 1 month later. Charles is now 
set for trial in January. The total cost to taxpayers so far: $429,590.15, for 
the lawyers, battery of experts, transcripts and other services.

"We thought we had laid out a pretty good case for them to waive the death 
penalty much sooner," said his former attorney, G.P. Della Ferra. "We did a lot 
of work in this case."

In Miami-Dade, unlike other jurisdictions, the decision on whether to waive the 
death penalty is ultimately made by a committee of senior prosecutors who 
produce a detailed memo explaining the decision. Because of concerns over 
defense delays, prosecutors in recent years began detailing the dates when the 
lawyers provided the mitigation.

"These defendants face the ultimate punishment, and that requires us to 
scrutinize and analyze these cases thoughtfully," Fernandez Rundle said. "All 
documented, because these cases last decades and it's important to have that 
for future generations to see."

As for the Terrorist Boyz, the case is certainly more complex than most.

Prosecutors are still seeking the death penalty against St. Germain's 
co-defendants: Benson Cadet, Max Daniel, Frantzy Jean-Marie and the purported 
ringleader, Johnny Charles, known as the "Angel of Death."

They are blamed for a bloody gang war that rocked North Miami-Dade in 2002 and 
2003. The case, in which indictments came in 2007, is built largely on the 
testimony of fellow gang members and associates who took deals to testify 
against the 5 main players.

The prosecutors on the case, Stephanie Silver and Bill Howell, annually earn 
$78,609 and $138,205, respectively.

There are over 400 witness, and thousands of hours of jail calls in evidence, 
all of which had to be reviewed by defense lawyers billing by the hour. So far, 
$3.5 million of the $4.2 million in bills have been paid out, with most of it 
going to legal bills.

Other expenses include $224,748 for transcripts of witness depositions, nearly 
$80,000 for mental-health evaluations and at least $113,872 on travel-related 
expenses.

"We're really doing the brain surgery of criminal law. When you look at how 
much we're paid, it's not excessive," said defense attorney Scott Sakin, who is 
representing Cadet. "Especially in a case like this where you have over 400 
witnesses. We're held to such a high standard. Our clients??? lives are at 
stake."

(source: miamiherald.com)

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

Lawyers to use insanity defense in case of Winter Haven man accused of killing 
2


Jurors will hear a rare argument from defense lawyers for a Winter Haven man 
accused of fatally shooting two house guests in front of his 7-year-old 
daughter.

Evidence from doctors will show Joshua Davis was insane and at the time was 
suffering from paranoid episodes, said his lawyer, Julia Williamson.

It's a defense that's rarely successful in Polk County and Florida.

Williamson also plans to argue that the houseguests, Esteban Zavala, Christian 
Rodriguez and Joseph Palacios, were planning to harm Davis.

"He was scared and shot people," Williamson said. "He had a right to defend 
himself."

Polk State College students Rodriguez and Palacios, both 19, were killed. 
Zavala, now 23, was wounded in the 2012 shooting.

In an interview with detectives, Davis, now 37, said after smoking marijuana 
with Zavala and Rodriguez, he noticed the 3 men appeared to be communicating 
with "signals."

He said they shared a joke he didn't understand because it wasn't in English 
and looked at his 7-yearold daughter. He said his "blood just boiled."

"Just a number of things ran through my head all of a sudden, like what are 
they talking about and why are they looking at her," Davis said.

He described hearing a "loud ringing" in his head and experiencing a sudden 
urge to act. He ran down the hallway and got a loaded 9mm Ruger pistol. He 
returned, hid behind a stereo speaker, jumped up and opened fire.

Rare defense

The last time an insanity defense was used during a Polk County murder trial 
was 1996 when Assistant Public Defenders Austin Maslanik and Rex Dimmig, who is 
now the public defender, argued that Dustin Saum was insane when he shot and 
killed his father and two neighbors in Eaton Park.

Saum, who was 26, confessed to a shooting rampage on June 3, 1995, after 
holding a gun on his parents, Elva and Larry. For more than 2 hours, he 
questioned them about religion and demanded money.

His mother survived being shot.

Minutes after shooting his parents, Saum shot and killed his neighbors as he 
ran through his parents' neighborhood trying to elude deputies.

After a 3-week trial, a jury rejected Saum's insanity defense and convicted him 
in 3 killings. The same jury then recommended by votes of 9-3 in the murder of 
Carol Waid and 10-2 in the murder of Waid's tenant, Michael Kelly, that Saum 
should die.

A week later, Circuit Judge Robert Young overrode the jury's recommendation of 
the death penalty.

Unlike the jury, Young accepted the insanity defense, describing the killings 
as "terrible" and a result of "extreme emotional disturbance." He sentenced 
Saum to 6 life prison terms.

Assistant State Attorney Paul Wallace said the case showed how hard it is to 
prove insanity.

Wallace said his colleague, Assistant State Attorney John Aguero, argued at the 
time that Saum was well aware of what he had done because he shot and killed 
Waid and Kelly while trying to escape from police.

"The question is does a mental health illness cause you to know what was 
wrong," Wallace asked. "He fled the scene.

"It's a tough thing to say that the person didn't know what was wrong," he 
said.

Stetson Law Professor Charles Rose said it's difficult to prove someone was 
insane when they committed a crime.

"You've got to show that they completely lost control and didn't understand 
what they were doing wasn't legal," Rose said.

The defense "is pushing an uphill battle" in the Davis case, Rose said.

Typically, Rose said, a not guilty by reason of insanity is the sole defense. 
He said lawyers could argue that the marijuana could have been laced with 
something that "completely removed his understanding of what he was doing."

But Rose said it's hard to be insane if you're asserting self-defense.

"Maybe they could say that their client normally wouldn't have thought these 
people were a threat and he wasn't in his right mind and that altered state of 
reality caused him to make a decision and he thought he had a right to defend 
himself."

Mentally ill, not insane

In Florida, to be legally insane lawyers have to prove their clients suffer 
from a mental illness, and because of that mental illness, the defendants are 
so ill that they did not know what they were doing was wrong at the time of the 
crime.

Davis, who lived in an apartment on Lake Howard Drive East in Winter Haven, 
didn't have a criminal history before the shootings.

He told detectives he was friends with Zavala and Rodriguez from working with 
them at a McDonald's restaurant. Davis said he hadn't smoked marijuana in a 
long time and suggested that he became "paranoid" after going outside to smoke.

Wallace, the prosecutor, said in his 37 years of work he knows of only 2 
insanity defenses that have been used in murder trials. The 1st was the Saum 
case. The 2nd involved him as a prosecutor in a 1990 case involving Donnie 
"Catman" Watts.

Watts was given 2 life sentences in 1990 for stabbing Willie and Grace Bellamy, 
his neighbors on Chestnut Woods Drive in Lakeland, as their 6-yearold daughter 
watched. Watts had forced himself into the home.

Wallace said Watts had a documented history of mental illnesses. But that 
didn't mean he was insane, Wallace said.

Wallace said evidence showed that Watts left the home after killing the couple, 
changed clothes and attempted to hide the fact that the stabbings had occurred.

"The facts showed he knew what was wrong," Wallace said.

Earlier this month, prosecutors announced that they would drop plans to seek 
the death penalty against Davis. If convicted, Davis will be sentenced to life 
in prison. If Davis is found not guilty by reason of insanity, the judge could 
have Davis committed to a hospital until it is determined he is no longer a 
danger to himself or others.

If that occurs, Wallace said, there is a review of the patient each year and a 
written report is sent to the judge and attorneys for both sides. If found not 
guilty by reason of insanity, a judge also has the option to authorize 
outpatient treatment for the patient.

The Davis trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 10.

(source: newschief.com)






TENNESSEE:

What 2,000 cases show about Tennessee's death penalty----A Tennessee lawyer has 
studied more than 2,000 1st-degree murder cases in the state looking for clues 
into how the death penalty is administered. He's still working on the project, 
which he hopes will prove the death penalty is unconstitutional.


It took investigators 2 days to find all the bodies: 3 women in their early 
20s, including 1 in her 3rd trimester of pregnancy, a man and a 16-month-old 
boy.

The boy was stomped to death, a medical examiner said. All were the victims of 
a robbery and killing spree in the name of drugs.

In a separate case, a 79-year-old man was strangled with an extension cord and 
stuffed into a closet.

Yet another robbery left one man bound in duct tape and stabbed to death and a 
woman with multiple wounds and a butcher knife in her back. She lived.

Which convicted murderer deserves to die?

Lawyers routinely challenge the death penalty as arbitrary. A new analysis in 
Tennessee, believed to be one of the most comprehensive of its kind, attempts 
to put new numbers and data behind that old argument.

The lawyers who did the analysis examined more than 2,000 1st-degree murder 
cases, the only crime punishable by a death sentence, since 1977. That is the 
year capital punishment was reinstated in Tennessee. They say the numbers show 
the death penalty is imposed infrequently and unfairly and thus the system as a 
whole is unconstitutional.

"This is the 1st time this kind of information has been laid before the court," 
said Brad MacLean, one lawyer involved in the study and who for 20 years has 
represented a man on death row. "If we're going to remain true to the 
principles set forth by the Supreme Court, there is no logical way, no rational 
way we can sustain this system. It really operates like a lottery. It's a 
crapshoot. It's like being struck by lightning whether you get executed or 
not."

The key findings of the analysis are outlined in a motion filed by MacLean. He 
is asking Nashville Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins to deem the death 
penalty unconstitutional as part of an appeal on behalf of Abu-Ali 
Abdur'Rahman. Abdur'Rahman, who formerly used the name James L. Jones, has been 
on death row nearly 30 years.

Those who support the death penalty say they've heard this argument before. 
They say it is just another attempt to delay, which harms grieving victim's 
families even further.

No matter what the judge rules, it will almost certainly be appealed, putting 
another legal challenge to the controversial punishment system in the pipeline 
even as the Tennessee Supreme Court takes up a capital punishment issue 
Thursday.

The state's top court will consider whether the state's single-drug lethal 
injection protocol is constitutional. Some say the case may clear the way for 
the court to reset execution dates that have been halted for years because of 
legal challenges. The new court arguments also come as support for the death 
penalty has hit a 40-year low, according to a recently released Pew poll.

Imposed arbitrarily?

Meanwhile, the argument that the death penalty is imposed arbitrarily is under 
consideration by the Nashville judge. Opponents of capital punishment hope 
analyzing nearly 40 years of data will help them win.

Brentwood lawyer Ed Miller has spent 2 years gathering the information 
documented in MacLean's motion. He hopes his work will lead to the death 
penalty being declared unconstitutional.

Miller examined what are called Rule 12 reports, which are forms that judges 
fill out in first-degree murder cases. The multiple-page reports document 
information ranging from case outcomes to the demographics of defendants and 
victims. After finding holes in those reports and first-degree cases for which 
they had not been completed, Miller began scouring appeals court rulings online 
and documents in paper files.

He's still finding cases to add to his list.

His analysis so far, as summarized in a motion filed on Abdur'Rahman's behalf, 
found:

--Of 2,095 1st-degree murder cases in Tennessee identified since 1977, only 193 
resulted in death sentences. Of those 193, 104 - or 54 % - have been reversed. 
45 of those were reversed because of ineffective lawyers. Only 0.3 % of those 
defendants convicted were executed.

--Only 48 of 95 counties in the state have imposed a death sentence. Shelby 
County accounts for 37 % of all death penalty cases. There has been no death 
sentence handed down in Davidson County for 15 years.

--Defendants who kill 2 or more victims are actually 7 times more likely to 
receive a sentence of life in prison or life without parole, even though 
multiple victims are a factor juries can consider in handing out a death 
sentence.

--In the past 10 years, as death sentences have dropped significantly 
nationwide, there have been 14 capital punishment cases in Tennessee. Of those, 
10 were African-American defendants.

--In 2004, the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury studied 10 years of 
1st-degree murder cases in a similar analysis.

--In 2014, the University of Tennessee published an analysis of 1,000 1st 
degree murder cases, focused on the role of race.

Nationwide, 20 states have overturned or abolished the death penalty. Governors 
in 4 states have put moratoriums on the practice. 26 states still have it on 
the books, though in many states executions are delayed by legal challenges or 
movements toward abolition in legislatures, according to the Death Penalty 
Information Center.

"The arbitrary administration of the death penalty was one of the key reasons 
why the U.S. Supreme Court declared all existing death penalty statutes 
unconstitutional in 1972," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death 
Penalty Information Center. "Since that time, there have been a number of 
challenges that have alluded to the arbitrariness of capital punishment, but 
the federal courts have not overturned entire death penalty statutes on those 
grounds."

Yet the Connecticut Supreme Court last year cited arbitrary administration as 
part of its ruling in declaring capital punishment laws there unconstitutional, 
Dunham said.

Victim impact

Those who support the death penalty criticized the recent filing and point to 
its impact on families of murder victims.

"It's a political game and it's maddening and it's very hard on their emotions. 
It's so unfair," said Verna Wyatt, executive director of Tennessee Voices for 
Victims. "It's almost to the point of ridiculous. They're arguing whether 
lethal injection is cruel and unusual, when the acts of the people sitting on 
death row are inhuman. They were the judge and the jury and the executioner."

Wyatt is an advocate for the punishment in the worst-of-the-worst cases. She 
named attacks across the country as examples of cases that warrant capital 
punishment: The bombing at the Boston Marathon and the recent string of 
explosions in New Jersey and New York City.

"There are some crimes that cry out for that ultimate sanction," Wyatt said. "I 
think we'll always have that penalty because there will always be crimes that 
cross over the bounds of human decency."

There is arbitrariness in all sentences, she said in response to the study's 
findings, saying that, for example, repeat drug offenders spent more time in 
prison than people who have killed others. She noted that the wishes of 
victims' families can also influence what punishment a defendant receives.

Robert E. Lee Gordon Jr., of South Fulton on the Kentucky border, has been 
following 1 case for 11 years. His brother was killed in a triple-homicide at a 
Tennessee Department of Transportation facility in Jackson in 2005. David Lynn 
Jordan, 52, was sentenced to death in the case a year later.

"I got a packet probably 8 or 9 months ago, another appeal," Gordon said. "I 
read it. It???s a lot of bad details in there about my brother asking the man 
not to shoot him. He still shot him. Any man that would do that, to a man you 
didn't know, he shouldn???t be able to live."

David Gordon's car was sideswiped by Jordan, who was on the way to a state 
office building where he fatally shot his wife, Donna Renee Jordan, and another 
state employee in her office, Jerry Hopper. When he left the building, Gordon, 
who had followed him, was riddled with bullets. At Jordan's trial, Robert 
Gordon asked a jury to sentence Jordan to death.

"I ain't got nothing against y'all," he recalled telling the killer's family 
members. "But your son, your brother took the life of my brother, and I think 
he ought to die."

Gordon thought the appeals would take five years and then the state would 
execute Jordan. He promised his dying mother he would see that through. 
Tennessee's current death row inmates, there are 64 of them, have spent an 
average of 20 years there. The last execution in Tennessee was 7 years ago.

"I'm 59 years old," Robert Gordon said. "I don't know if I can live another 10 
years."

Tennessee cases

So which killers in Tennessee get death sentences?

Zakkawanda Moss and Henry Burrell were found guilty in 6 murders, including 1 
of an unborn child, in a 2013 Lincoln County killing spree. Each is serving 6 
consecutive life sentences.

Prosecutors asked for the death penalty for Norman Lee Follis Jr., who 
strangled his uncle with an extension cord in Anderson County in 2011. But a 
jury in May deliberated for 7 hours before deciding Follis deserved life 
without parole.

And Abdur'Rahman, who in Davidson County in 1986 killed a man and wounded a 
woman with a butcher knife, has been on death row nearly 30 years.

The arguments

The Tennessee Supreme Court is slated to hear arguments about the state's death 
penalty protocol on Thursday.

Here's a brief summary of each side's position, based on court filings in the 
case.

The inmates...

Say the state's single-drug lethal injection protocol is unconstitutional 
because it creates risk of pain and lingering death. The inmates say compounded 
pentobarbital, the chemical used, can easily be contaminated and thus its 
effectiveness can be altered, risking that its injection will be painful or 
ineffective. They say the Department of Correction execution team is untrained. 
And they accuse the physicians who prescribe the chemical of violating the 
Controlled Substances Act, which says listed drugs can only be given for a 
"legitimate medical purpose."

The state...

Argues the protocol is constitutional. The Tennessee Attorney General cites 
legal experts who agree that a 5-gram injection of the chemical pentobarbital 
will "likely cause death with minimal pain and with quick loss of 
consciousness." They say though the drugs can take a while to stop a person's 
heart, that does not mean the procedure is also cruel and unusual punishment. 
They say the inmates must provide an alternative method that poses less risk of 
pain.

New filings

Several motions have been filed in recent months on behalf of death row inmates 
that present a new, and perhaps unexpected, course of attack on the death 
penalty: Citing the case known as Obergefell, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling 
legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.

The motions argue the justices in that case ruled that courts cannot infringe 
on rights, including the right to life. The inmates say that to impose a death 
sentence infringes on that right. Many of those motions have been denied by 
judges, though a few are still pending.

That argument is unique, according to Robert Dunham, executive director of the 
Death Penalty Information Center, which studies and tracks the death penalty 
nationwide.

"That's a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision so this would be one of the first 
cases in which that argument has been advanced," he said. "It's not surprising 
that they would cite the U.S. Supreme Court equal protection case that dealt 
with marriage equality to raise a claim about unequal treatment under the law 
in capital cases."

(source: The Tennessean)






NEBRASKA:

Nebraska citizens to vote on death penalty: Repeal should stay in place


Last year, when the Nebraska State Legislature repealed the use of the death 
penalty, overriding Governor Ricketts' veto and achieving bipartisan support, I 
was ecstatic. It seemed like such a progressive measure: conservatives uniting 
with liberals and citing a mosaic of religious, economic and social reasons, 
putting a penalty that did not work for Nebraska or Nebraskans in the past.

But something troubling happened after the veto was overridden, the repeal 
became official and news outlets around the country hailed the unicameral's 
bipartisan achievement. Governor Rick-etts, with a few senators, began to 
agitate against the measure. I was troubled by how much of Ricketts' personal 
fortune he began funneling into a referendum effort, paying political 
strategists who knew which areas to avoid in order to get their signatures, 
paying petition gatherers who would spin the referendum as a matter of voter 
rights, not a matter of life and death.

His organization, Nebraskans for the Death Penalty, is grotesque. I was 
horrified that an organization that dedicated itself to the pursuit of death 
could be taken seriously and indeed that a sitting governor would conduct 
himself in such a way as Ricketts, pouring his mon-ey and his family's money 
into this death race. What was once a shining moment for Nebraska, as one of 
the first conservative states to repeal the death penalty, became another 
moment ruined by Ricketts, as national news outlets began to notice the 
corruption and Ricketts' frantic attempts to kill.

The petition drive was successful, halting the progress of the repeal measure, 
but Ricketts ran into nagging troubles on his desperate quest to execute the 
ten men in his prisons. Nebraska was embarrassed again and again as his 
fumbling to procure illegal drugs, his failure to smuggle them into the country 
and his failed requests for a refund to his drug dealer, were revealed to a 
laughing national eye.

Finally, in November, we will vote to put this all behind us, one way or the 
other.

It should go without saying that this is a bipartisan issue. One of the most 
troubling falsehoods the death-penalty backers propagate is that the initial 
repeal was the result of a liberal legislature that was out of touch with its 
citizens. But in reality, the movement would not have passed without a very 
strong conservative coalition, voting from their hearts and minds.

As someone who grew up in a deeply religious community, I know those who would 
cringe at being called a liberal, but fully support the legislature in its 
repeal. These are conservative Christians who take Bible verses like "love your 
enemies" and "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone," 
seriously. The idea that the unicameral acted in spite of con-servatives is 
nothing but spin.

Whether conservative or liberal, there are many reasons to oppose the death 
penalty. One of the biggest reasons is that the penalty, as it is administered 
by the state, is unfair.

Around 7 out of 10 death penalty cases within the last few decades have been 
found to be erroneous, and wealth and race show disparate statistical influence 
on whether the penalty is administered at all. It's also expensive, even if one 
doesn't factor in the tens of thousands Ricketts spent pursuing illicit drugs 
in India. Creighton University economist Dr. Ernest Goss found that the death 
penalty costs $14.6 million per year over the cost of life without parole. In 
addition, research shows that the death penalty is not an effective deterrent 
of further crime.

The death penalty is an unfair, expensive and ineffective treatment, based on 
research from multiple sources across and beyond party lines. Its repeal 
showcased the best of Nebraska politics: the ability to work across the aisles 
(so to speak) and unite on an important issue regardless of political ideology. 
The ensuing referendum revealed the worst: the corruption and the manipulation 
of Nebraskan voters. In November, the state will have a chance to set the 
record straight once and for all. Conservatives and liberals must stand 
together to make our state the best it can be.

(source: Opinion, Phil Brown, unogateway.com)