[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, TENN., NEB., N.MEX., UTAH., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 6



TEXAS:

Texas judge confronts 'serious deficiencies' in death penalty cases ---- The 
state broke its longest streak without an execution. But the highest criminal 
court has issued multiple late stays - and the legal process may be changing


At the time, in the state that executes more people than any other, it was 
hardly surprising that Barney Fuller was sentenced to die.

On 1 January 2001, Fuller phoned Annette Copeland, a neighbour in the tiny 
Texas town of Lovelady, a hundred miles north of Houston. "Happy New Year," he 
told her. "I'm going to kill you."

2 years later, he did. A dispute that stemmed from Fuller's habit of annoying 
his neighbours by firing weapons at his home escalated into a murderous rampage 
that took the life of Annette and her husband, Nathan.

In the 911 call that Annette Copeland made at about 1.30am that May night, the 
operator heard a man saying: "Party's over, bitch." Then a popping sound; 
presumably 1 of the 3 pistol shots that Fuller fired into her head.

Fuller was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday night; there are another 
253 inmates on Texas's death row and 2 more men are scheduled to die on the 
gurney at the state penitentiary later this year. But the 58-year-old's death 
broke a remarkable streak: it was the 1st Texas execution in 6 months.

That was the longest run without a judicial killing since 2007-08, when 
executions stopped nationwide while the US supreme court considered whether the 
lethal injection method violated the constitution. When Texas resumed in June 
2008, 18 inmates died in the space of 5 months.

Less than a decade later, with a Pew survey suggesting public support for 
capital punishment is the lowest it has been in more than 40 years, both giving 
death sentences and completing them are on the decline in Texas, like elsewhere 
in the country. In 2015, Texas executed 13 prisoners; Fuller's death brings 
this year's total to 7 so far. Only 5 new inmates have been added to death row 
in 2016 and 2015, compared with 20 in the 2 years prior.

And though traditionally unmoved by the pleas of those on death row, the 
state's highest criminal court, the Texas court of criminal appeals, has issued 
multiple late stays of execution - 3 in August alone.

Meanwhile one of the court's judges, Elsa Alcala, has drawn attention for 
writing opinions questioning the state's process, including 1 in June that said 
it has "serious deficiencies" that have "caused me great concern".

Like 8 of the 9 judges, Alcala is a Republican. She was appointed in 2011 by 
former governor Rick Perry - dubbed the "killingest" governor in modern history 
for presiding over 279 executions in 14 years. Despite her misgivings, Alcala 
has not advocated for or against the death penalty overall.

She worries that inmates have been convicted and died as a result of the poor 
quality of their lawyers at trial and during appeals, and because bad evidence 
was taken seriously. "These things are coming to light - but I wonder about how 
many cases have not come to light," she said last month during a panel 
discussion at the Texas Tribune Festival.

There, Alcala floated "legislative fixes that wouldn't cost a dime", such as 
forbidding the execution of the severely mentally ill, disallowing the 
testimony of co-conspirators who cut deals with prosecutors, and no longer 
asking juries to decide whether a defendant is a continuing danger "to society" 
given that Texas now allows an alternative sentence of life without parole.

Last year the Texas legislature passed a law requiring a defendant's most 
recent attorney to be notified when an execution date is set. It was a 
progressive move according to Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas 
Defender Service, a not-for-profit group that helps clients facing the death 
penalty.

Kase represents Scott Panetti, a mentally ill man who represented himself at 
trial dressed as a cowboy and tried to subpoena Jesus Christ, John F Kennedy 
and the pope.

In fall 2014, Kase discovered that Panetti was scheduled to die in a little 
over a month when she read about it in a local newspaper. That sent her 
scrambling to argue that his lethal injection should be put on hold. It was, on 
the day he was due to die - but by a federal appeals court, after the Texas 
court of criminal appeals voted 6-3 to reject a stay. That prompted one of its 
members, the now-retired Tom Price, to write a dissent calling for the 
abolition of the death penalty.

40 years on since the supreme court reinstated capital punishment in the US, 
Kase believes the system is "as imperfect as ever". But, she said, "all the 
players have become sensitized to all the reasons that executions might be 
unjust," and when restored to its full nine members, the court might before 
long be ready to take up the issue of whether capital punishment violates the 
constitution.

"These are clues that the body politic is changing its mind," she said. "The 
tea leaves have become very interesting."

Alcala tracks her own evolution since first becoming involved in death penalty 
cases as a young lawyer.

She was a prosecutor for 9 years in Harris County, which by itself has 
accounted for more executions than any other state except Texas. With 
colleagues, she tried 3 capital punishment cases; 2 resulted in death 
sentences. One was handed down to a 17-year-old and was commuted to life after 
the US supreme court banned the execution of juveniles in 2005.

"I was in my late 20s or early 30s when I was trying those, single, didn't have 
kids. Nowadays I think of the execution of a 17-year-old as barbaric. But back 
then I guess it just wasn't in my zone of reference," she told the Guardian.

"I think that we learn with time and we evolve in our thinking and what we 
would have found acceptable 20, 25 years ago, may not be acceptable, probably 
isn't acceptable, in many instances, today."

The US supreme court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in the case of Duane 
Buck, a convicted murderer sentenced to death after a Texas jury heard a 
so-called expert testify that being black increased his "future dangerousness". 
Astonishingly, the "expert" was called by Buck's defence lawyers.

While Alcala said the recent spate of stays is a result of various issues, she 
thinks one likely factor is "that we have better lawyers coming in ... When I 
first got on the court we would have executions come up and there was really a 
defendant without any kind of representation, or active representation."

For now, there are still "leaps and bounds to go to get to where I feel 
comfortable [with how] Texas is handling death penalty cases," Alcala said in 
the discussion. "I think it's working better than it used to, and maybe that's 
not saying a whole lot."

(source: The Guardian)






OHIO:

Andrea Bradley: After saying she 'didn't care' if she died, mom may take new 
plea deal in court


A woman who Hamilton County officials accused of torturing her 2-year-old 
daughter to death could take a plea deal when she returns to court Oct. 18 
after defiantly saying she "didn't care" if she got the death penalty on Sept. 
29.

30-year-old Andrea Bradley is charged with aggravated murder for allegedly 
starving and killing her daughter Glenara Bates, who weighed only 13 pounds 
when she was beaten to death.

Mental health tests reveal that Bradley has an IQ of 67, below the threshold 
for Ohio's death penalty. At her last court appearance, Bradley's attorneys 
asked Judge Ruehlman for more time to negotiate a plea deal.

Bradley chose not to take a plea deal that would have given her 15 years behind 
bars in May. This decision meant her case would head to trial.

A jury recommended death for Bradley's boyfriend Glen Bates on Sept. 28. Bates 
was convicted of killing his daughter after banging her head against a wall.

(source: WCPO news)






TENNESSEE:

Tennessee justices question death row attorneys on lawsuit


Tennessee Supreme Court justices peppered lawyers trying to block the state's 
lethal injection protocol with questions on Thursday, challenging them to 
declare some other execution method they would consider acceptable under the 
law.

Lawyers representing the death row inmates argued that they shouldn't have to 
suggest alternatives as part of their legal challenge, which claims the state's 
1-drug lethal injection method is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual 
punishment because it's likely to inflict extreme pain and can cause a 
lingering death.

The justices appeared to disagree, citing a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling they 
said requires challengers of execution methods to suggest alternatives.

"The Supreme Court has said repeatedly that the death penalty is constitutional 
in this country," said Justice Roger A. Page. "Doesn't it follow there has to 
be some constitutional method to carry it out?"

"The proper test does not involve the showing of an alternate method," 
plaintiffs' attorney Steve Kissinger insisted.

Justice Sharon Lee said that under the plaintiffs' argument, "it sounds like 
there would be no protocol which would meet the standards."

Tennessee has not executed an inmate in nearly 6 years because of legal 
challenges and problems in obtaining lethal injection drugs. State lawmakers 
passed a law to allow the state to return to using the electric chair if lethal 
injections can no longer be administered.

Death row inmates sued after the state moved away from its 3-drug cocktail to a 
1-drug method using a powerful anesthetic called pentobarbital. After 
pentobarbital's only commercial producer restricted its distribution to prevent 
its use in executions, Tennessee decided to have a compound pharmacy mix 
pentobarbital to order.

Compounded drugs are small, specially mixed batches of drugs that are not 
subject to the same federal scrutiny as regular doses.

The inmates' lawyers said this work-around is unethical and illegal.

"It is not a medical procedure; it is not done in the ordinary course of the 
medical practice; it violates the DEA's statute; it violates the Tennessee 
licensing provisions," said Michael Passino, an attorney for the inmates. "It 
violates the ethical obligation of the physician."

State attorney Jennifer Smith said the current lethal injection standards meet 
constitutional requirements.

"A prisoner is not entitled to a painless death, but to a death that is not 
cruel, that is not unnecessarily painful," she said.

Justice Lee asked what Tennessee can do to avoid the problems other states have 
experienced with lethal injections.

"How do we know our executions won't be botched?" Lee asked.

"We don't," said Smith. "Executions, like any human endeavor are subject to 
error."

"We can't be 100 % sure that there will not be a problem with an execution. But 
that's not what the constitution requires," she said. "The constitution doesn't 
guarantee a perfect process."

(source: Associated Press)






NEBRASKA:

Nebraska death penalty foes call for audit of drug purchase


Death penalty foes are calling for an audit of the $54,400 purchase of lethal 
injection drugs that Nebraska never received.

Sen. Burke Harr of Omaha made the request Thursday in a letter to State Auditor 
Charlie Janssen. It was released as the anti-death penalty group Retain a Just 
Nebraska reiterated its arguments that the state is unlikely to execute an 
inmate again even if voters reinstate the punishment because of challenges 
obtaining the drugs.

Nebraska bought the drugs from the India-based Harris Pharma LLP but hasn't 
been able to import them because of federal restrictions. The state has tried 
to recoup some of the money, but Harris Pharma has refused to provide a refund.

Sen. Colby Coash of Lincoln says the challenges with executions are a 
distraction for prison officials.

(source: Associated Press)






NEW MEXICO:

The Latest: Death penalty bill fails to clear NM Senate


The New Mexico Legislature has adjourned from a special legislative session 
without considering a measure to reinstate the death penalty and other criminal 
justice initiatives backed by Republican Gov. Susana Martinez.

The Democrat-led Senate adjourned Thursday without taking up stricter 
sentencing provisions approved by the House or Representatives.

New Mexico repealed the death penalty in 2009. Martinez and allies in 
Legislature have pushed for stricter criminal sentencing as a response to the 
recent killing of 2 police officers and the August sexual assault, killing and 
mutilation of 10-year-old Victoria Martens in Albuquerque.

(source: Washington Times)






UTAH:

Judge hands court defeats to Utah death-row inmate


One of Utah's longest-serving death-row inmates is one step closer to execution 
by firing squad after a judge handed down pair of court defeats.

U.S. District Judge Dee Benson decided Wednesday that high-profile prisoner Ron 
Lafferty won't get to seek out new evidence to back up claims that his lawyers 
were ineffective and jurors were biased, in part because the claims are nearly 
a decade old.

Lafferty was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1984 deaths of his 
sister-in-law and her baby daughter. He has claimed the killings were directed 
by God because of the woman's resistance to his beliefs in polygamy.

His lawyers didn't immediately return messages seeking comment.

Benson also denied Lafferty's claims last year that the use of the firing squad 
is cruel and unusual.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

California's death penalty should be reformed, not repealed


Californians have strong feelings regarding the death penalty. A lot of the 
discussion this year has been about the fiscal impacts of competing death 
penalty measures. Those who want to repeal the death penalty say the system is 
broken and can't be fixed, and that it has become overly expensive. Those in 
favor of reform of the death penalty believe that housing heinous criminals for 
the rest of their lives is what's too expensive. Asking taxpayers to clothe, 
house, feed, guard and provide healthcare to the nearly 750 convicts currently 
on death row will clearly cost more money than fixing the system.

But while the fiscal debate around the death penalty is important, for me, the 
issue at hand is not dollars and cents, but justice.

Whatever your feelings are toward the death penalty, one thing most people will 
never know is the pain experienced when a family member, or in my case, family 
members are brutally tortured and murdered. They'll never experience the 
heartache, the anger, or the frustration with our criminal justice system. I 
hope no one has to experience the pain I've been through, yet I live with these 
emotions every day and have done so for more than 30 years.

In 1984 my mother, sister and 2 nephews were cold-heartedly shot to death. The 
killer, an 18-year-old gang member named Tiqueon Cox walked through my mother's 
house and shot each member of my family. My mother sat at the table drinking a 
cup of coffee and was shot in the head. My sister was shot to death while she 
slept and my two nephews, aged 8 and 12 years, were shot while they slept. The 
triggerman was paid to commit murder. In a cruel twist of fate, my family was 
not the intended target ... they were all murdered by mistake when Tiqueon went 
to the wrong house.

Tiqueon was sentenced to death by a jury of his peers. He's been sitting on 
death row for 30 years and has exhausted all of his appeals at both the state 
and federal level. This man is one of the worst of the worst, yet he still sits 
on death row, waiting for an execution date, and 30 years later, I continue to 
wait for justice to be served. California's death penalty needs to remain 
intact to deal with criminals like Cox, but it needs to be reformed.

One ballot measure that we must vote no on is Proposition 62. This measure 
would abolish the death penalty and give these heinous criminals life in prison 
without parole. Repealing the death penalty does nothing to stop these hardened 
criminals. In fact, Tiqueon Cox, while on death row, has continued to operate 
as a shot caller; being classified as the most dangerous man on death row. In 
2001, he attempted a violent takeover of the Super Max Adjustment Center at San 
Quentin. His goal was not to escape but to kill as many guards as possible. He 
is also responsible for repeated assaults on fellow inmates and correctional 
officers.

A competing proposition, Proposition 66, will finally provide justice to 
families. Through Proposition 66, Californians can ensure the death penalty in 
California not on stays in place but actually works. Proposition 66 was written 
by the most experienced legal experts on the death penalty. It was written to 
ensure due process and to balance the rights of all involved - defendants, 
victims and their families. Proposition 66 will streamline the system to ensure 
criminals sentenced to death will not wait years simply to have an appellate 
attorney appointed. It will limit unnecessary and repetitive delays in state 
court to 5 years. While there are no innocent people on California's death row, 
Prop 66 will ensure due process by never limiting claims of actual innocence. 
In addition, it would ensure convicts on death row lose special privileges, 
requiring them to work in prison and use their earnings to pay restitution to 
victims' families. Proposition 66 will expand the pool of qualified lawyers to 
deal with these cases, and the trial courts that handled the death penalty 
trials in the 1st place and know them best will handle the initial appeals. The 
overall changes to the death penalty system, as laid out by Proposition 66, are 
simple fixes that will reform the death penalty and fix what's broken.

Today, California's death row is filled with killers like Rex Krebs who 
abducted and murdered 2 women and Charles Ng who was convicted of murdering 11 
people and most likely murdered up to 25 people. Although sentenced to death 
years ago, they each have been sitting on death row for decades. My family and 
other families who have suffered through the actions of heinous killers like 
Cox, Krebs and Ng want and deserve justice.

California's death row inmates have murdered over 1000 victims, including 226 
children and 43 police officers; 294 victims were raped and/or tortured. They 
are serial killers, cop killers, child killers and rape/torture murderers.

Those in favor of abolishing the death penalty may call the death penalty cruel 
and unusual but I would argue that these killers will have it easy - they will 
be executed by lethal injection. They will simply fall asleep.

Cruel and unusual is what the victims suffered through and what my family and 
others like mine suffer through daily.

I urge a no vote on Proposition 62 and yes on Proposition 66 to ensure the 
worst of the worst killers receive the strongest sentence. A yes on Prop 66 
brings closure to families while saving California taxpayers millions of 
dollars every year.

Justice isn't gentle. Justice isn't easy. But justice denied is not justice.

(source: Kermit Alexander is former NFL player with the San Francisco 49ers, 
the Los Angeles Rams and the Philadelphia Eagles--The Hill)

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

Formerly condemned prisoners speak out against the death penalty


Supporters of preserving California's death penalty in next month???s elections 
showcase the relatives of murder victims, who say their only hope of justice 
and closure is the killers' execution. Death penalty opponents, on the other 
hand, are featuring former death row inmates who were cleared of their charges 
and set free.

"I've been out over 30 years ... and every day it's on my mind," Ernest Shujaa 
Graham said Wednesday at an event sponsored by supporters of Proposition 62, 
which would abolish capital punishment and resentence condemned prisoners to 
life without the possibility of parole.

Graham, 66, was sent to prison at age 18 for a robbery in Los Angeles. He said 
he joined a political movement behind bars, was influenced by the Black Panther 
Party, and in 1973 was charged with the fatal stabbing of a guard, Jerry 
Sanders, at Deuel Vocational Institution near Tracy.

His 1st jury deadlocked, but he was convicted and sentenced to death after a 
retrial in 1976 - a conviction the California Supreme Court reversed in 1979 
because prosecutors had systematically removed all African Americans from the 
jury. The court had prohibited race-based jury selection in 1978, 8 years 
before the U.S. Supreme Court followed suit.

A third trial ended with another hung jury. Graham was finally acquitted at his 
4th trial and set free in 1981. He now lives in Maryland and is on the board of 
directors of Witness to Innocence, a group of former death row inmates seeking 
to end executions.

Paris Powell, another formerly condemned prisoner, noted the number of inmates 
nationwide since 1973 who have been cleared of the charges that had sent them 
to death row.

"America's justice system got it wrong 156 times," he said.

Powell, now 43, was sentenced to death in Oklahoma for the fatal shooting of a 
14-year-old girl in 1993. He said he knew nothing about the crime, turned down 
a prosecutor's offer to go free if he would implicate others, and was convicted 
on the testimony of a witness who later admitted lying under pressure from the 
district attorney's office. A federal appeals court overturned Powell's 
conviction in 2009 and prosecutors decided not to retry him.

"I do believe in redemption," Powell said, describing fellow death row inmates 
who had straightened out their lives in prison, and some who shed tears of 
remorse as they were led to the execution chamber. "This is a time that 
California can show the world that there's no place for the death penalty in 
2016," he said.

The event was held to promote Prop. 62 and oppose Prop. 66, a rival measure 
that would retain the death penalty and seek to speed up executions. It would 
require the state Supreme Court to rule on all capital cases within 5 years, 
more than twice as fast as its current pace, while setting new time limits and 
other restrictions on inmates' appeals. If both measures pass, only the 1 with 
the higher majority will take effect.

Opponents say Prop. 66 would greatly increase the chances of convicting and 
executing an innocent person.

"If 66 had been in effect, there's a great possibility that myself would not be 
here today," Graham said.

That was disputed Thursday by San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike 
Ramos, co-chairman of the campaign to pass Prop. 66.

"I think their appellate rights would be protected even more (by) expanding the 
pool of attorneys and assigning them an attorney at the date of sentencing," 
Ramos said, referring to two of the initiative's provisions.

"The last thing we want to do is put an innocent person on death row and I'm 
confident we have not," said Ramos, whose county is 1 of 5 responsible for 
nearly all of California's death sentences in recent years. He said 
exonerations like Graham's are evidence that "the system works."

His confidence wasn't shared by a third inmate, Randy Steidl, 65, who spent 
more than 17 years in Illinois prisons, 12 of them on death row, before being 
cleared and released in 2004. Steidl was convicted of 2 1986 murders - based on 
the testimony of "a mentally ill woman and a town drunk," he said. He was 
eventually exonerated after an investigation by the state police, a ruling by a 
federal judge and newly available DNA evidence.

"We know that we've executed innocent people," said Steidl, who now heads 
Witness for Innocence. "You can release an inmate from prison. You can't 
release him from the grave."

(source: sfgate.com)






USA:

A former executioner has become a leading advocate for ending the death 
penalty----Frank Thompson oversaw the only two executions in Oregon in the last 
54 years.


"During the process of 1 execution, the individual let us know that the straps 
binding his hands to the gurney was hurting. ... I gave instructions to make 
adjustments so that this hands wouldn't hurt," Frank Thompson, former 
superintendent of the Oregon State Penitentiary says. "He looked up at me and 
says, "Thank you boss.'"

iThat moment of humanity in what Thompson calls a "terrible process" stays with 
him.

He took on the role of superintendent after serving as a military policeman in 
the Vietnam War, and ran prisons for more than 10 years. After returning from 
service in Vietnam, he demonstrated against the war. After overseeing 
executions, he now wants to abolish them.

Despite his experience - or because of it - when asked if he believes that 
capital punishment makes the public safer, he replies in a heavy, slow voice, 
"Oh, absolutely not."

For the 1st time since 1971, people seem to share Thompson's sentiment - fewer 
than half of Americans support the death penalty. That's according to a poll 
released last week by the Pew Research Center, which found that 49 % support 
capital punishment, and 42 % oppose, trend lines that are increasingly 
converging.

Despite these trends, Ohio officials announced this week that the state would 
resume executions in January after a 2-year hiatus.

Thompson is happy that national views toward capital punishment appear to be 
shifting. His main argument against capital punishment is one of public safety. 
Murder rates in non-death penalty states are consistently lower than those with 
the death penalty - and a recent survey of criminologists by the University of 
Colorado found that 88 % of criminologists believed that the death penalty does 
not act as a deterrent for future crimes.

"In the process of that 1st execution," which happened 18 months into his 
position as superintendent, "I came to the realization that I was at my very 
core against the death penalty," Thompson says.

While the 2nd execution was not any easier for Thompson, he believes that 
"society has to have professionals that can do the difficult jobs -- even if 
they don't believe in it -- as long as they have the ability and the capacity 
to work to correct the system."

In addition to overseeing the execution, Thompson also had to assist in 
rewriting the policy from death by gas chambers to death by lethal injections.

"It forced me to come to grips with how I really stood about the death penalty 
and all of the flaws with the death penalty, one by one, just came into focus," 
Thompson says.

"I was a leading a group of men and women into the process of how to kill a 
person - how to take a life a of human being in the name of public policy that 
could not be shown to make the public any safer," he continued.

Thompson says he was able to do his job because he also had the ability to 
criticize the process. He gave his director input, who then spoke to the 
governor.

"It takes an inside person to have that kind of a voice," Thompson says. "If 
you have the capacity to make change from within, from a credible experience, 
that's the way to make a real difference."

When asked how he would respond to someone who was enthusiastic about putting a 
criminal to death, Thompson says he understand that sentiment.

"I had a best friend, his name was John Tilman Hussey, who was a police officer 
who was abducted by felons who were attempting to avoid being captured. They 
killed him. I remember when I was supporting the death penalty - hoping that 
those persons would get caught and that they would be executed," Thomson says.

"I understand those emotions," Thompson continued. "But vengeance does not make 
good public policy."

(source: pri.org)