[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----VA., ALA., OHIO, KAN., CALIF., ORE., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 21



VIRGINIA:

Tazewell man faces capital murder charge, death penalty


A Southwest Virginia man has been indicted on a capital murder charge and now 
faces the death penalty.

Tazewell County Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Dennis said that a grand jury 
has issued a true bill against Shaun Matthew Wakefield, 33, of Tazewell, for 1 
count of capital murder, 1 count of grand larceny of a motor vehicle and 1 
count of concealing a dead body. Wakefield was arrested earlier this year on 
March 29 for the murder of Danielle Louise Pruett, who went missing March 17.

The woman's body was found of state Route 720 near Bluefield, Virginia, after 
an extensive search of various law enforcement officers approximately 24 hours 
after she was reported missing.

Dennis said a preliminary report showed that Pruett suffered injuries that were 
indicative of blunt force trauma.

Wakefield is currently being held at the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in 
Abingdon.

At the time of the murder, Wakefield was on bond for a current felony charge of 
larceny, 3rd or subsequent offense and was subsequently charged with altering a 
drug screen on March 18, 2016, both of which are scheduled to be heard in 
Tazewell County General District Court. He is currently on probation for 
convictions out of Alexandria, Virginia, for burglary, larceny, possession of a 
firearm by a convicted felon and drug charges.

"Based on the continuing investigation surrounding the brutal murder of 
Danielle Pruett, a young mother of three children, I believe the circumstances 
of this killing more than justifies our decision to charge Wakefield with 
capital murder," Dennis said. "Wakefield is now facing the death penalty."

This case was investigated by the Tazewell County Sheriff's Office, Bluefield 
Police Department and Virginia State Police with assistance from District 43 
Probation & Parole Office and Officers with Community Corrections of Clinch 
Valley Community Action.

(source: Bristol Herald Courier)

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

Prosecutors to seek death penalty in murder of Bluefield, Va. woman


A man charged with the March 29 homicide of a Bluefield, Va., woman will face 
the death penalty, prosecutors announced Friday.

A special Tazewell County grand jury returned a true bill indictment against 
Shaun Matthew Wakefield, 33, of 160 Grace Street in Tazewell for 1 count of 
capital murder, Commonwealth Attorney Mike Dennis said.

The grand jury also returned indictment charges of 1 count of grand larceny of 
a motor vehicle and 1 count of concealing a dead body.

Wakefield was arrested on March 29 for the murder of Danielle Louise Pruett, 
who went missing on March 17. The woman's body was later found off of Route 720 
near Bluefield, Va., after an extensive search of various locations by law 
enforcement officers approximately 24 hours after she was reported missing.

"Based on the continuing investigation surrounding the brutal murder of 
Danielle Pruett, a young mother of three children, I believe the circumstances 
of this killing more than justifies the decision to charge Wakefield with 
capital murder," Dennis said. "Wakefield is now facing the death penalty."

Tazewell County Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Lee Dennis announces that Shaun 
Matthew Wakefield of Tazewell, Va., was charged with 1 count of 1st-degree 
murder in connection with the murder of Danielle Louise Pruett of Bluefield, 
Va.

At the time of Pruett's murder, Dennis said Wakefield was on bond for a current 
felony charge of larceny, 3rd or subsequent offense and was subsequently 
charged with altering a drug screen on March 18. He is currently on probation 
for convictions out of Alexandria, Va., for burglary, larceny, possession of a 
firearm by a convicted felon and drug charges.

He is currently being held without bond at the Abingdon regional jail.

The case was investigated by the Tazewell County Sheriff's Office, the 
Bluefield, Va. Police Department and the Virginia State Police.

(source: Bluefield Daily Telegraph)






ALABAMA----impending execution

Alabama Death Penalty


An Alabama inmate is asking an appellate court to stay his execution scheduled 
for next month.

Tommy Arthur asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stay his execution 
until it hears his challenge to Alabama's lethal injection process.

Arthur is scheduled to be put to death Nov. 3 for the 1982 murder-for-hire of 
Muscle Shoals businessman Troy Wicker.

A federal judge in July dismissed Arthur's challenge that Alabama's lethal 
injection procedure causes unconstitutional pain and suffering. His attorneys 
appealed, arguing the judge prematurely dismissed the case after misapplying a 
requirement for inmates to name an alternate execution method.

Arthur had been scheduled for execution on 6 previous occasions, but was given 
court-issued reprieves. The state asked for an expedited execution date after 
the judge dismissed Arthur's challenge.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Alabama now alone on 'limb' with death penalty law


Alabama, Delaware and Florida were in a very small club at the start of 2016, 
but Alabama now stands alone - last in the nation to embrace a set of rules, 
deemed unconstitutional elsewhere, that increases the likelihood of a death 
sentence.

All 3 states were the only ones in the nation to allow judges to override jury 
recommendations for life without parole and instead impose the death penalty. 
And they also were the only states that didn't require jury advisory votes for 
the death penalty be unanimous.

Since January, however, courts have ruled those practices unconstitutional in 
Delaware and Florida. The most recent ruling came last Friday when the Florida 
Supreme Court ruled that jury recommendations for the death penalty must be 
unanimous.

That leaves Alabama as the only state that allows judges to override jury 
recommendations and the only one to allow split juries to recommend death. In 
Alabama, at least 10 of 12 jurors must vote for a death recommendation.

But there have been signals that the U.S. Supreme Court may be taking aim at 
Alabama.

"Alabama is out on the limb and the U.S. Supreme Court has already suggested it 
might be pulling out the saw," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the 
Death Penalty Information Center.

One sign that Alabama's death penalty law is on the U.S. Supreme Court's radar 
is that the high court this spring sent back the cases of 3 death row inmates 
for the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to review. The U.S. Supreme Court 
didn't say in its brief orders what it was about each of those cases that the 
Alabama appellate court should consider because in all 3 the judges followed 
jurors' recommendations for death. One recommendation was unanimous and the 
other 2 split decisions.

Now the Alabama court must see if the sentences should be overturned in light 
of the federal decision in January. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court 
overturned the law in Florida that allowed judges to override jury 
recommendations.

"That suggests that the U.S. Supreme Court is looking at this issue," Dunham 
said.

While the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals hasn't ruled on those 3 cases, that 
same court has since declared Alabama's death sentence law constitutional in 
light of the Florida case anyway.

That happened in June when the state appeals differed with Jefferson County 
Circuit Judge Tracie Todd. The state court ordered Todd to vacate her March 3 
ruling that declared the state's capital punishment sentencing scheme 
unconstitutional in the cases of 4 men charged with capital murder in her 
court. She had considered the Florida case in her order.

Then on Sept. 30, the Alabama Supreme Court weighed in. The Alabama Supreme 
Court ruled in the case of Death Row inmate Jerry Bohannon that Alabama's death 
penalty law is constitutional in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in 
Hurst v. Florida in January.

Alabama Death Penalty Controversy Explained

District attorneys and Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange have said 
Alabama's law is not the same as Florida's.

The AG's office and district attorneys have said the U.S. Supreme Court held in 
the Florida case that a jury, not the judge, must find the aggravating factor 
in order to make someone eligible for the death penalty. Alabama's system, 
however, already required the jury to do just that in either the guilt or 
sentencing phase, they said.

Once a jury has unanimously made the factual determination that a defendant 
meets the criteria to be eligible for the death penalty, the judge may make the 
legal determination of whether to impose it or not, the attorney general has 
stated.

"The Hurst ruling has no bearing whatsoever on the constitutionality of 
Alabama's death penalty, which has been upheld numerous times," the AG's office 
has stated.

The Alabama Attorney General's Office declined an interview this week regarding 
Friday's new ruling in Florida regarding unanimous jury recommendations for 
death sentences, but a spokesman for the office offered a response.

"Florida and Alabama have different laws regarding death penalty sentencing," 
Mike Lewis, communications director for the attorney general. "Alabama's 
Supreme Court has already found Alabama's death penalty law to be 
constitutional."

Alabama's sentencing scheme in death penalty cases is the same as Florida's, 
which was ruled unconstitutional last month by the U.S. Supreme Court, a number 
of Alabama defense lawyers are arguing to get death sentences barred in their 
cases.

But Emory Anthony, a Birmingham lawyer who has filed motions for about 5 
defendants seeking to have their capital murder charges dismissed in light of 
the Hurst decision, believes judicial override and non-unanimous will be 
changed.

"We're still trying to hold on to something that will have to be changed 
legally," Anthony said, adding that the state has been "dragging our feet" 
because elected judges and justices and prosecutors want to show the electorate 
that they're tough on crime.

"I think we are finding out that one individual should not be the final voice 
on whether someone should live or die. That should be a decision for 12 
people," he said. "I don't know why we are so hard headed. It is almost stupid 
when you think about it."

At least 2 U.S. Supreme Court justices - Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer - 
have indicated in recent years that it may be time to look again at Alabama's 
death penalty sentencing law when it comes to overrides by judges.

Alabama is the only state in the last decade where judges have imposed the 
death penalty despite of contrary jury verdicts, according to the dissent. 
Since adoption of this statue, Alabama has imposed death sentences on 95 
defendants when a jury voted to sentence them to life.

Within days after the SCOTUS decision in the Hurst case in Florida attorneys 
for Alabama death row inmate Christopher Brooks argued that his execution 
should be halted because Alabama's death penalty sentencing law was similar to 
Florida's.

SCOTUS declined to stop Brooks' Jan. 21 execution.

But Justice Sonia Sotomayor, with whom Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg agreed, 
noted in the court's denial of Brooks' motion that the court in Hurst v. 
Florida had overruled the 2 cases that underpinned Alabama's law, basically 
knocking out any legal foundation for Alabama's system. But procedural 
obstacles would have prevented the court from granting the stay of Brooks' 
execution, she wrote.

Justice Stephen Breyer also wrote that SCOTUS has recognized that Alabama's 
sentencing scheme is much like and based on the one used in Florida that has 
been declared unconstitutional. "The unfairness inherent in treating this case 
differently from others which used similarly unconstitutional procedures only 
underscores the need to reconsider the validity of capital punishment under the 
Eighth Amendment," Breyer wrote in the Brooks' opinion.

Sotomayor in a 2013 dissenting opinion in the case of Mario Dion Woodward, who 
was convicted in the shooting death of Montgomery Police Officer Keith Houts, 
said it's time to look at Alabama's law again.

She noted that while Florida, Delaware and Alabama still had override laws at 
that time, Alabama judges were the only ones who were still using it. No one is 
on Delaware's death row as a result of an override and no death sentences have 
been imposed by override in Florida since 1999.

Since 1976, Alabama judges have overridden jury verdicts 112 times, according 
to the Equal Justice Initiative.

"18 years have passed since we last considered Alabama's capital sentencing 
scheme, and much has changed since then," Sotomayor wrote. "Today, Alabama 
stands alone: No other State condemns prisoners to death despite the considered 
judgment rendered by a cross-section of its citizens that the defendant ought 
to live."

(source: al.com)






OHIO:

Fate of tape of alleged Pilkington confession lies in judge's hands


It is up to a Logan County judge whether or not a video that shows Brittany 
Pilkington allegedly confessing to killing her 3 children will be used in 
trial. After 2 days of testimony from both Logan County Prosecutors and 
Pilkington's defense attorneys earlier this week, both sides were given until 
Friday to file memorandums on the issue of whether a taped interview between 
Pilkington and Bellefontaine police should be used in trial.

A judge is expected to file his written decision in the next few weeks, 
according to Logan County Common Pleas Court records.

Brittany Pilkington, 24, of Bellefontaine has been charged with aggravated 
murder in the deaths of her 3 young sons over 13 months and faces the death 
penalty.

She's pleaded not guilty in the case and has been in a secluded cell at the 
Logan County Jail for more than a year since her arrest on Aug. 18, 2015.

(source: Dayton Daily News)






KANSAS:

Death sentence upheld for Gary Kleypas in Pitt State student's 1996 rape and 
murder


The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday upheld the death sentence of Gary Kleypas, 
who raped and murdered a Pittsburg State University student at her home in 
1996.

Kleypas, Kansas' 1st death row inmate after lawmakers reinstated capital 
punishment, had to be tried twice for the rape, torture and murder of 
20-year-old Carrie Williams in March 1996. His 1st capital murder conviction 
and death sentence was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2001.

Jurors handed down a 2nd death sentence in 2008 after he was retried.

In a 166-page decision released Friday, the court said it found several errors 
- one of which required reversal of an attempted rape conviction - but that 
none warranted vacating Kleypas' capital murder conviction or death sentence.

Friday's ruling was written by Justice Marla Luckert. She is 1 of 5 Supreme 
Court justices seeking retention on Nov. 8.

Justice Lee Johnson dissented, saying the death penalty violated Kansas 
Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

The decision marks the 3rd death sentence upheld by the court over the past 
year. It also has affirmed death sentences for Johnson County serial killer 
John Robinson Jr. - known for storing his victims' bodies in barrels - and for 
Scott Cheever, who fatally shot Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels during a 
drug raid in 2005.

Also on Friday, the Supreme Court upheld capital murder and aggravated arson 
convictions - but vacated an attempted rape conviction - of Douglas Belt, who 
sexually assault and decapitated Wichita housekeeper Lucille Gallegos in 2002.

Because Belt died in prison in April before his appeal could be heard, the 
court looked only at issues that could lead to his exoneration. The court held 
that the attempted rape conviction and the sentence attached to it must be 
thrown out because it was multiplicitous with his capital murder conviction.

The Kansas state Legislature reinstated capital punishment, by lethal 
injection, in 1994.

No one has been executed in Kansas since 1965. 10 men currently are on death 
row.

WHO IS ON KANSAS' DEATH ROW?

These 10 men are facing death sentences in Kansas (with county and year of 
sentencing in parentheses). They are listed chronologically in order of when 
their crimes were committed. An eleventh died in prison earlier this year while 
waiting for his appeal to be heard by the Kansas Supreme Court.

-- Gary Kleypas (Crawford County, 2008): For the March 30, 1996, rape and 
murder of 20-year-old Carrie Williams, a Pittsburg State University student. 
The Kansas Supreme Court overturned his sentence in 2001, but another jury 
condemned him to death again in 2008. His 2nd death sentence was upheld Friday.

-- John E. Robinson Sr. (Johnson County, 2002): For the murders of Izabel 
Lewicka and Suzette Trouten, whose bodies were found in barrels on his property 
in rural Linn County. He was also sentenced to life in prison for killing Lisa 
Stasi, who disappeared in 1985 and was never found. The Kansas Supreme Court 
upheld his death sentence in November 2015.

-- Jonathan and Reginald Carr (Sedgwick County, 2002): For 4 shooting deaths 
in Wichita during a crime spree in December 2000. Found guilty of invading a 
home, sexually abusing the 5 residents, forcing them to withdraw money from 
ATMs, then shooting them in a soccer field. Killed were Jason Befort, Brad 
Heyka, Heather Muller and Aaron Sander. The Kansas Supreme Court threw out 
their death sentences but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that decision and 
sent the cases back for further review in 2015.

-- Douglas Belt (Sedgwick County, 2004): For the June 25, 2002, sexual assault 
and decapitation of Lucille Gallegos in a vacant west Wichita apartment, where 
she was a housekeeper. Belt died in prison in April 2016, before his appeal 
could be heard. The Kansas Supreme Court agreed to take up issues that could 
lead to Belt's exoneration and upheld his capital murder conviction Friday.

-- Sidney Gleason (Barton County, 2006): For the shooting deaths of Miki 
Martinez and her boyfriend, Darren Wornkey, on Feb. 24, 2004. Prosecutors said 
Gleason and his cousin Damian Thompson worried that Martinez would tell police 
about their involvement in the stabbing and robbery of a 76-year-old man. The 
Kansas Supreme Court threw out his death sentence but the U.S. Supreme Court 
overturned that decision and sent the case back for further review in 2015.

-- Scott Cheever (Greenwood County, 2007): For the January 2005 shooting of 
Sheriff Matt Samuels at a home near Virgil, where authorities also found a 
suspected methamphetamine lab. The Kansas Supreme Court overturned Cheever's 
conviction in 2012, saying his right against self-incrimination was violated by 
prosecutors who used a court-ordered mental evaluation from a different trial 
against him. A year later, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the decision, 
noting that Cheever's own expert raised the issue of whether methamphetamine 
use had damaged his brain. The Kansas Supreme Court upheld Cheever's death 
sentence in July 2016.

-- Justin Thurber (Cowley County, 2009): For the January 2007 abduction, 
sexual assault and killing of 19-year-old college student Jodi Sanderholm. Her 
body was found in a wooded area near where her car had been sunk in a lake. His 
appeal hasn't been heard yet by the Kansas Supreme Court. - James Kraig Kahler 
(Osage County, 2011): For the November 2009 murders of his estranged wife, 
Karen Kahler; her grandmother, 89-year-old Dorothy Wight; and the Kahlers' 
daughters, Emily, 18, and Lauren, 16. Kahler was reportedly upset that his wife 
had allegedly taken a female lover and filed for divorce. His appeal hasn't 
been heard yet by the Kansas Supreme Court.

-- Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. (Johnson County, 2015): For the April 2014 
shooting deaths of 3 people outside Kansas City-area Jewish sites. His appeal 
hasn't been heard yet by the Kansas Supreme Court.

-- Kyle Trevor Flack (Franklin County, 2016): For the shooting deaths of 3 
adults and an 18-month-old child. His appeal hasn't been heard yet by the 
Kansas Supreme Court.

(source: Wichita Eagle)






CALIFORNIA:

Man Accused of Attacks on Homeless Ruled Mentally Incompetent to Stand Trial


A man accused of attacking 5 homeless men in various San Diego neighborhoods, 
killing 3 of them, is mentally incompetent to stand trial, a judge ruled 
Friday.

In a report to Judge Steven Stone, a court-appointed doctor said that Jon David 
Guerrero refused to be interviewed regarding his competency and the 
conversations with the defendant were limited.

A 2nd report recommended the involuntary administration of anti- psychotic 
medications to Guerrero.

The judge ordered Guerrero sent to Patton State Hospital for up to 3 years or 
until his competency is restored.

Guerrero, 39, is charged with 3 counts of murder and 2 counts of premeditated 
attempted murder, along with a special circumstance allegation of multiple 
murders. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

San Diego police said the victims were brutalized - 2 of them set on fire - as 
they slept on roadsides, in open areas and under freeway bridges.

The 1st attack in the series occurred July 3. About 8 a.m. that day, the 
burning body of Angelo De Nardo, 53, was found underneath an Interstate 5 
offramp near the 2700 block of Morena Boulevard in Bay Park. Witnesses to the 
scene described seeing a man running across the freeway near Claremont Drive, 
carrying a gas can.

The following day, Shawn Mitchell Longley, 41, was found dead at a park on 
Bacon Street in Ocean Beach, and 61-year-old transient Manuel Mason was 
severely injured near Valley View Casino Center in the Midway district, 
according to police.

On the morning of July 6, Dionicio Derek Vahidy, 23, was gravely injured in 
downtown San Diego by an assailant who fled after leaving a towel burning on 
top of him. Vahidy died in a hospital 4 days later.

There are no indications that the suspect knew the victims, according to 
police.

The most recent attack happened shortly after 4:30 a.m. on July 15, when 2 San 
Diego Harbor Police officers in a squad car in the 1800 block of C Street heard 
someone underneath Interstate 5 in the East Village yelling for help, police 
said.

The officers pulled over and found a 55-year-old homeless man suffering from 
"significant trauma" to his upper body.

(source: thetimesofsandiego.com)






OREGON:

White supremacist could face death sentence in Oregon jail murder


A jury convicted the gang member of killing a fellow inmate with a homemade 
knife while the 2 were at the county jail in Salem in 2013.

A member of a white supremacist gang faces a possible death sentence after 
being convicted of aggravated murder in the killing of a fellow inmate.

A Marion County jury this week unanimously decided David Bartol stabbed Gavin 
Siscel with a homemade knife while the 2 were at the county jail in 2013. The 
Statesman Journal reports the victim was serving a 30-day sentence for contempt 
of court while Bartol was awaiting trial for a robbery.

The penalty phase of Bartol's trial began Wednesday and could last until 
mid-November. Jurors will consider whether Bartol should be sentenced to death. 
If given the penalty, Bartol would join 34 others on Oregon's death row.

Regardless of the punishment, the 45-year-old Bartol is unlikely to ever leave 
prison. Earlier this year, he was sentenced to 55 years in prison after a 
Portland jury found him guilty of attempted murder in a torture attack on 2 
fellow Krude Rude Brood gang members.

In the jail homicide, authorities said Bartol made a shank and used it to stab 
Siscel in the eye while Siscel was watching TV in a day room. Officials said it 
appeared to be a random attack.

Bartol's criminal record spans 3 decades. Previous court records listed Bartol 
as a Salem resident.

During Bartol's sentencing in Portland, his attorneys argued he didn't 
understand the severity of his crimes because he is intellectually disabled and 
has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Court records show similar defense 
arguments in the Marion County case.

(source: Associated Press)






USA:

Yes on 62, no on 66: Abolish the death penalty


When 2 death-penalty ballot propositions appear in the November election, it 
illustrates that the system needs to change. And the fact that the state has 
put 12 people to death in the past 20 years proves this true.

But speeding up this inhumane, reductive practice - as Proposition 66 asks - is 
not the right solution.

Instead, voters should approve Proposition 62 and abolish the death penalty.

When juries must decide the fate of their peers' lives, succumbing to 
internalized racial and gendered biases poses a huge problem - and that 
manifests when Black criminals are far likelier to be sentenced to death than 
white criminals convicted of the same crimes.

As it works now, inmates on death row spend their lives tied up in expensive 
legal battles as they live from appeal to appeal, bogging down courts and 
living on the edge. Proposition 66 would fix this problem by creating stricter 
deadlines for appeals - making them more difficult - and changing the appeals 
process.

But speeding up an often unjust process is the wrong answer, especially when 
exoneration of death-row inmates abounds.

Society should strive toward more justice, always, and speeding up a barbaric 
practice that is routinely misused won't do that.

Vote yes on Proposition 62 and no on 66 - for a California that respects itself 
enough to stop its participation in state-sanctioned murder.

(source: Editorial Board, Daily California)

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

The end of the inevitability of the death penalty


Recently, Georgia executed Gregory Lawler. When he was pronounced dead at 11:49 
p.m. on Oct. 19, he was the 17th person executed in the United States this 
year. Texas and Georgia are responsible for 14 of those executions.

By year's end, 2016 will have the fewest number of executions in a quarter 
century. Public support for the death penalty is at its lowest point since the 
U.S. Supreme Court suspended capital punishment in 1972. A Pew Research poll 
published last month revealed that only 49 % of Americans now favor execution 
as an appropriate form of punishment.

The death penalty is largely symbolic. Most states that have the death penalty 
don't execute those condemned. A handful of states carry out executions and a 
very small minority do so on a regular basis.

Lincoln Caplan recently wrote about the decline of the death penalty in Harvard 
Magazine. Citing the various works of professors Jordan and Carol Steiker, 
including the siblings' recent book "Courting Death: The Supreme Court and 
Capital Punishment," Caplan explains the difference between symbolic states and 
executing states.

Pennsylvania is a symbolic state: It has executed only three people since 1976, 
and each was a volunteer - they chose not to continue their appeals. On the 
other hand, Texas is an executing state. Officials there have executed 537 
people since 1976.

But, ironically, the rate of death-sentencing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is 
higher than in Harris County, Texas, which has had more defendants executed 
than any other county in the country.

Caplan further writes that 8,124 people had been sentenced to death between 
1977 and 2013. Only 17 percent of those condemned were executed. 6 % died by 
causes other than execution and 40 % received other dispositions, including 
reversals of their convictions. The rest - 37 % - were in prison. In California 
in 2014, a federal judge found that, of the 748 inmates then on death row, more 
than 40 % had been there for more than 20 years.

In fact, Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote a 2015 dissent - joined 
by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg - in Glossip v. Gross that it was "highly likely 
that the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment," the constitutional ban 
against cruel and unusual punishment.

The stage has been set for a dramatic confrontation with state-sponsored death. 
Capital punishment will be tested on Election Day in 3 states. The outcomes of 
those ballot measures will no doubt have an impact on the future of the death 
penalty.

In Nebraska, the issue pits the Republican governor against a bipartisan 
majority in the legislature. A coalition of lawmakers last year repealed the 
death penalty with the rallying cry of cost and the claim that the death 
penalty is not a deterrent. The governor is now strongly supporting a ballot 
measure where voters will be asked to reinstate capital punishment.

In Oklahoma, ardent supporters of the death penalty hope to protect it through 
a ballot initiative. The state has a long history of capital punishment and not 
all of it positive. The state has had several highly publicized botched 
executions and Justice Breyer's stunning dissent came in an Oklahoma case.

Oklahoma has not carried out an execution in 2016, and last fall 52 % of 
Oklahomans said in a News 9 poll that they support life-without-parole as an 
alternative to execution. State Ballot Question 776 appears to be the effort of 
legislators to prevent what happened in Nebraska from happening in Oklahoma.

Finally, California voters will face 2 competing initiatives on Election Day. 
Proponents of Proposition 62 say the state has spent $5 billion maintaining the 
legal and physical apparatus of capital punishment while executing only 13 
people in 38 years.

Advocates for Proposition 66 want to "mend, not end" capital punishment by 
changing appellate rules to expedite capital cases, reduce the costs of the 
death penalty and the size of death row.

To paraphrase a famous English statesman, this may not be the end of the death 
penalty - may be the beginning of the end - but surely the end of the 
inevitability of the death penalty.

(source: Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & 
George P.C. His book, "The Executioner's Toll, 2010," was recently released by 
McFarland Publishing----wickedlocal.com)