[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----DEL., GA., ALA., OHIO, OKLA., NEB., CALIF., WASH., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 16




DELAWARE:

Justice and the death penalty


The key issue in the death penalty is justice. All men are created equal and 
man???s innate, God-given human right to self-preservation is the citizen's 
civil right to self-defense in equal justice

The death penalty is the sentence for murder in the 1st degree, for 
premeditated homicide with malice aforethought, for laying in wait for, 
planning and executing another legally innocent human being ... premeditated 
murder.

Capital punishment is enacted through the power of attorney of the condemned 
murderer. As a citizen of the state, the murderer is brought to justice by his 
own citizenship in the state and by his own justice.

All men have an innate human right to self-preservation and a civil right to 
self-defense. The prison guards, the warden, the contractors are all in double 
jeopardy while a murderer lives. All people are in double jeopardy of life. The 
first jeopardy was before the crime was committed in bloodlust. The second 
jeopardy is now as the murderer lives.

Mary De Voe

Elkton

(source: Letter to the Editor, The News Journal)






GEORGIA:

Man accused in priest's murder pleads not guilty----Steven Murray faces murder 
charge in death of Father Rene Robert


The man accused of killing a St. Augustine priest in April pleaded not guilty 
Friday to malice murder in Burke County, Georgia.

Prosecutors have filed notice that they will seek the death penalty against 
Steven Murray in the death of Father Rene Robert.

Motions hearings in the case will begin Dec. 2, but the District Attorney's 
Office said it doesn't expect a trial for at least 2 years.

Murray, 28, led deputies to Robert's body in April in a wooded area of Burke 
County on State Road 56, after the priest had been missing for a week.

Investigators said Murray kidnapped Robert, who had been helping Murray after 
his release from prison, and drove the priest to northeast Georgia, where he 
shot him.

Robert, 71, was last seen April 10 and was reported missing after a funeral the 
next day. His car was found crashed into a tree in Aiken, South Carolina, and 
Murray was arrested nearby. He was extradited to St. Johns County on charges of 
aggravated fleeing and attempting to elude law enforcement.

He was sent back to Georgia after the malice murder charge was filed against 
him.

Priest was against death penalty

Those closest to Robert said the death penalty is not what the priest would 
have wanted for Murray.

He even wrote a letter 20 years ago addressing this exact situation.

"Father Rene was strongly opposed to capital punishment and left in his files, 
written 20 some years ago, the important letter in which he says that if anyone 
should do me harm in the future and that person is facing judgment, I do not 
want in my name, the capital punishment death sentence," said Father John 
Gillespie of San Sebastian Catholic Church.

Gillespie, who served with Robert in St. Augustine, said that doesn???t mean 
Murray shouldn't be punished, just that his life shouldn't be taken in Robert's 
name.

Amy Law, 1 of the people who alerted police to Robert's disappearance, said she 
wants justice for Robert.

"(Murray) will get what he deserves. Hopefully, he will get what he deserves," 
Law said.

Murray moved around

Murray has been moved to several jails because of suicide attempts and damage 
he caused to a jail.

Murray was initially moved to Jefferson County after he tried to hang himself 
using a bed sheet, Burke County Sheriff Greg Coursey said.

Coursey told WRDW that Murray was put on suicide watch and Jefferson County 
Jail's facilities are better prepared for suicidal inmates.

While he was in the Jefferson County Jail, Murray damaged a sprinkler head, 
flooding his holding cell, Coursey said in a statement released Monday. WRDW 
reports that the damage was less than $150 and will be covered by Jefferson 
County.

Murray also pulled a metal drain pipe connected to the toilet loose, Coursey 
said.

The Georgia Sheriff's Association told WRDW that after Murray was returned to 
its jail, Burke County called asking for help to find another facility for him.

GSA suggested Clayton County and Sheriff Victor Hill agreed to the transfer.

While in the Clayton County Jail, Murray again attempted suicide by trying to 
hang himself, according to a report from WRDW.

(source: news4jax.com)






ALABAMA:

Nov. 3 execution date set for Tommy Arthur in '82 Muscle Shoals murder


The Alabama Supreme Court has set execution dates for 2 state inmates, 
including Tommy Arthur in a 1982 Muscle Shoals slaying.

Arthur is scheduled to be executed on Nov. 3. Arthur was convicted of the 
murder-for-hire of a Muscle Shoals man. This is the 7th time an execution date 
has been set for Arthur in his more than 3 decades on death row.

Ronald Bert Smith Jr. is scheduled to be executed on Dec. 8. Smith was 
convicted in the 1994 robbery and slaying of a Huntsville convenience store 
clerk.

Alabama is seeking to resume executions after a more than 2-year lull as the 
state faced a scarcity of lethal injection drugs and ongoing litigation over 
the death penalty.

The state in January carried out its 1st execution since 2013.

An appellate court in May halted the execution of Vernon Madison just hours 
before he was scheduled to be put to death.

Arthur was sentenced to death in 1983 for the Feb. 1, 1982, contract killing 
and robbery of Troy Wicker Jr. in Muscle Shoals.

On the day of the murder, authorities said, Arthur walked away from a work 
release program in Decatur and drove to Muscle Shoals.

Arthur was in the Decatur facility because he was convicted in the 1977 
shooting death of a woman in Marion County, according to a 2007 Florence 
TimesDaily story in which authorities said Arthur was tied to at least 4 
shootings.

Another shooting involved a Colbert County guard when Arthur broke out of the 
jail in 1986, shortly before the scheduled retrial in Troy Wicker's shooting.

The guard survived a gunshot wound to the neck.

(source: Times Daily)






OHIO:

Judge in death penalty case has jurors sign media waiver


All 12 jurors and 6 alternate jurors were asked to sign a pledge stating they 
would not watch television, read newspapers, read online news articles or 
consume other forms of media regarding a Dayton death penalty case Friday.

The pledge, orchestrated by the judge in the trial, Judge Steven Dankof, is an 
unusual move, as many jurors are asked verbally not to consume media during 
higher-profile cases and it's left at that.

Opening statements in the Harvey Jones case began Friday.

The double-murder suspect is accused of killing 29-year-old Demetrius Beckwith 
and 32-year-old Carly Hughley in January 2013. Harvey is believed to be 
Hughley's ex-boyfriend.

It happened the morning of Jan. 24, 2013 at the Catalpa Crossing Apartments on 
Turner Road in Harrison Township. Hughley's then-10-year-old son was in the 
apartment when the shootings took place and ran to a neighbor's house to get 
help.

The now-14-year-old boy is expected to testify, as he was the sole person to 
witness Harvey pull the trigger, deputies say.

Harvey was initially indicted on charges of murder, kidnapping and robbery 
charges.

Jury selection in the trial began Monday.

(source: WDTN news)






OKLAHOMA:

Suspect in Oklahoma rancher's slaying expected to plead guilty


A man who faces the death penalty if convicted for the shooting death of a 
Cherokee County rancher is expected to plead guilty instead of taking his 
chances with a jury in a 1st-degree murder trial.

Paul Newberry, 25, of Park Hill, Okla., hinted that he might be ready to seek a 
plea deal with the hope of taking the death penalty option off the table. 
Newberry is scheduled to appear at 1:30 p.m. Thursday before a judge in 
Cherokee County District Court to announce his decision.

"I anticipate that Newberry will enter a plea," Assistant District 27 Attorney 
Jack Thorp said Thursday after the accused appeared in court. "I can't get much 
more into it than that."

Newberry is suspected of fatally shooting Charley Kirk, 88, on July 27, 2015, 
during what prosecutors have described as a home invasion gone awry. Cheyenne 
Watts, 23, also faces a murder charge in connection with Kirk's death.

The 2 are accused of breaking into Kirk's home and then shooting him to death 
when the rancher confronted them. After ransacking the home - reportedly 
overlooking a safe that reportedly contained $186,000 - the 2 are believed to 
have stolen a handgun, a sawed-off shotgun, a German-style Luger, a Kawasaki 
Mule, batteries, a frozen pizza, Kirk's wallet and a pair of binoculars.

Kirk was shot 16 times during the melee. The bullets, according to a 
preliminary report previously presented by the medical examiner's office, 
struck Kirk in the head, neck, torso and his extremities.

Prosecutors charged both Newberry and Watts with 1st-degree murder, robbery 
with a weapon, 1st-degree burglary, attempted 1st-degree arson, larceny of an 
automobile and 3rd-degree arson.

Investigators say they found evidence of an attempted arson at Kirk's home, and 
the Kawasaki Mule reportedly was found burned at a location near Keys High 
School. The 2 men were arrested later at a casino in Pittsburg County.

A jury trial for Watts is expected to begin in mid January, according to court 
records.

(source: swtimes.com)






NEBRASKA:

Public hearings next month on death penalty ballot issue


Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale has scheduled public hearings concerning 
the death penalty issue that will appear on the November ballot. By state law, 
the hearings are required to be held in each of Nebraska's congressional 
districts whenever a petition issue is on the general election ballot.

Referendum No. 426 will ask voters to either retain or repeal Legislative Bill 
268. In 2015, state lawmakers voted in favor of LB 268, which abolished the 
death penalty and also set a maximum penalty for a 1st-degree murder conviction 
at life in prison.

The hearings are moderated by Gale and anyone is welcome to testify or just 
attend and listen. "This is more than an informal town hall meeting. All 
comments become part of a permanent record on the issue. The purpose of the 
public hearings is to help educate citizens and the media through a meaningful 
exchange of views on the subject prior to the general election. In this case, 
voting to either retain or repeal doesn't apply to the death penalty itself. 
Rather, voters are being asked to decide whether to repeal LB 268, thereby 
reinstating the death penalty."

1 of the hearings will be held in Omaha at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 11th 
at the Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center (rooms 201, 205 & 209) on the 
UNO campus.

Hearings will also be held on the UNK campus in Kearney on October 13th and at 
the State Capitol in Lincoln on October 18th.

(source: WOWT news)



CALIFORNIA:

California voters oppose ending state's death penalty


More than 1/2 of voters oppose a November ballot measure that would abolish the 
California death penalty, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times 
poll conducted by SurveyMonkey.

Proposition 62, which would replace capital punishment with life without 
parole, had 40% support among the 1,909 registered voters polled in September 
across the state. 9 % had no answer.

It is 1 of 2 measures on the future of the death penalty that voters will weigh 
on Nov. 8. Both capital punishment initiatives would require current death row 
inmates to work and pay restitution to victims but take opposing approaches to 
what the measures both call a broken system.

Proposition 66 would keep the death penalty, limiting the number of petitions 
prisoners can file to challenge their convictions and sentences, and providing 
new deadlines intended to expedite appeals.

The poll only surveyed on Prop. 62, which has garnered some high-profile 
supporters, including California billionaire Tom Steyer and Former President 
Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter.

A campaign to defeat Prop. 62 and support Prop. 66 has wide support from law 
enforcement officials across California.

Jacob Hay, a spokesman for the campaign in favor of the measure, disputed the 
results, saying internal polling using the full ballot language - including its 
fiscal impact - showed Prop. 62 in the lead.

"Voters move quickly towards Prop. 62 when they learn about the $150 million in 
annual savings Prop. 62 brings and how it guarantees California never executes 
an innocent person," Hay said. "Prop. 62 is the only real solution to a failed 
system that has cost $384 million per execution, delivers no crime prevention 
benefits, and is an empty promise to victims' families."

Sacramento County Dist. Atty. Anne Marie Schubert, a Prop. 66 supporter, 
disagreed. "This poll is consistent with what we see in other polls that show 
Californians support the death penalty but they want it fixed, and this is what 
Prop. 66 does," she said.

(source: Los Angeles Times)

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

California's Death Row


Each week, the editor's of LA Progressive pick what they regard as a 
particularly insightful comment from one of our readers, both to draw attention 
to one particular reader's thoughts and to encourage more readers to weigh in 
with their opinions. This week's pithy response comes from Nicholas C. 
Arguimbau, commenting on "Californians' Looming Life-Or-Death Decision" by 
Ernest Canning.

6 of the 746 men on California's death row were once clients of mine. 4 of the 
6 have sat in prison waiting an outcome to their unending cases over 30 years 
or more. The people who are executed are a generation older and wiser than the 
people who we arrested.

I worked for 20 years on appeals from death sentences in California. I have 
great respect for all the men I represented, because the lives they led up to 
the point of an alleged killing were so uniformly terrifying that all you can 
say to yourself is "There but the grace of God go you or I." Capital murder is 
not normal behavior, and something abnormal led to it - generally mental 
illness or the sort of severe abuse as children that beat all the humanity out 
of them.

The only men on death row who have not been the subjects of severe abuse or 
mental illness are generally innocent. When the system is working, the jury 
will have come to understand that the individual deserves to be acquitted or 
has suffered mitigating circumstances that point to a lesser punishment than 
death by the terms of California's death penalty statute. That that has not 
happened to the 746 men on death row is almost always the result of some 
miscarriage of justice such as concealment of evidence by the prosecution or 
incompetence of the defense. So there is virtually no death row inmate who 
would be there had the law operated as intended.

But the irony of it all is that the great majority of death row inmates quote 
Patrick Henry in substance: "Give me liberty or give me death". They have come 
from backgrounds where life is grimly cheap, and they can stand the thought of 
capital punishment. Life without the possibility of parole, on the other hand, 
is an unbelievably terrifying sentence. It means being placed in a cold 
concrete prison hundreds of miles from the people you once knew, where the 
jailkeepers have an insatiable lust for cruelty, where there is no such thing 
as rehabilitation, and where you will live for decades without hope. So 
execution, relief from a nightmarish life is nowhere as terrifying to these men 
as life without parole.

So California will be well rid of capital punishment if that is what the voters 
choose.

Nicholas C. Arguimbau

(source: laprogressive.com)






WASHINGTON:

Decision on death penalty in Moneytree cases delayed again


A Selah man charged with killing two women outside a Yakima payday lending 
business in March could find out today if he'll face a possible death sentence 
if he's convicted.

Manuel Enrique Verduzco is expected to appear in Yakima County Superior Court 
at 9 a.m., where prosecutors are expected to tell Judge Michael McCarthy if 
they have decided to seek the death penalty in the March 26 homicides.

Verduzco is charged with 2 counts of aggravated 1st-degree murder in the deaths 
of Karina Morales-Gonzalez and Martina Martinez.

Morales-Gonzalez, 27, of Toppenish, and Martinez, 30, of Yakima, were opening 
the Moneytree at the corner of South First and East Walnut streets when each 
was shot once in the head, authorities say.

Verduzco once worked at the business.

Under the aggravated murder charge, Verduzco would face either life in prison 
without the possibility of parole or the death penalty if convicted.

The hearing for prosecutors to decide which penalty to seek has been delayed 
twice in order to obtain more information.

(source: Yakima Herald)






USA:

WikiLeaks' Julian Assange fails to overturn arrest warrant----WikiLeaks founder 
could face death penalty


The arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on allegations of rape 
still stands, a Swedish appeals court announced Friday.

Swedish prosecutors issued the warrant for Assange, 45, in August 2010 based on 
allegations of sexual assault by 2 female WikiLeaks volunteers in the country 
and have for years sought his extradition.

He has been holed up inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012. 
Ecuador granted Assange political asylum after he said he feared an extradition 
to Sweden could lead to another extradition to the United States, where he 
could face the death penalty if he is charged and convicted of publishing 
government secrets through WikiLeaks.

Ecuador said last month it would allow an interrogation of Assange, which is 
now scheduled to take place October 17.

'Risk he will evade legal proceedings'

The order from the Swedish appeals court said that Assange "is still detained 
in absentia," adding that it "shares the assessment of the (lower) district 
court that Julian Assange is still suspected on probable cause of rape... and 
that there is a risk that he will evade legal proceedings or a penalty."

It was the 8th time the European arrest warrant has been tested in a Swedish 
court, with all 7 previous judgments also having gone against Assange.

WikiLeaks tweeted a statement from Assange's legal team Friday after the 
decision, saying their client was "disappointed."

"Mr. Assange will appeal the decision and remains confident that his indefinite 
and unlawful detention will cease and that those responsible will be brought to 
justice," the statement said.

The decision comes a day after WikiLeaks released medical records claiming that 
Assange's mental health would be adversely affected if he remained holed up in 
the embassy.

"Mr. Assange's mental health is highly likely to deteriorate over time if he 
remains in his current situation ... It is urgent that his current 
circumstances are resolved as quickly as possible," said a report published by 
the organization on Twitter.

A 27-page medical analysis, which was attributed to an unnamed "trauma and 
psychosocial expert" in London and dated December 11, 2015 was published 
alongside supporting documentation.

Assange's legal team has intensified its calls for Sweden to adhere to a 
non-binding opinion by the United Nations working group on arbitrary detention, 
which stated in February that their client's confinement in the embassy should 
be considered as arbitrary detention enforced by Sweden and Britain.

Exchange offered

On Thursday, Assange said he would agree to serve prison time in the United 
States in exchange for President Barack Obama granting clemency to imprisoned 
former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, the group's Twitter account 
said .

"If Obama grants Manning clemency, Assange will agree to US prison in exchange 
-- despite its clear unlawfulness," the group said.

Assange attorney Barry Pollack told CNN Thursday the deal would have to include 
a pardon for Manning, who was convicted in 2013 of stealing and disseminating 
750,000 pages of documents and videos to WikiLeaks in what has been described 
as the largest leak of classified material in US history. Manning was found 
guilty of 20 of the 22 charges against her, including violations of the US 
Espionage Act.

Thursday's tweet offering the deal was posted along with a letter from Pollack 
addressed to Attorney General Loretta Lynch that pressed the Department of 
Justice to provide information about its ongoing criminal investigation into 
his client.

Pollack argued in the letter, which was written last month, that over the 
course of the investigation into Assange, which is in its sixth year, the 
Justice Department "revised the department's regulations with respect to 
obtaining evidence from and charging members of the news media."

Pollack also said "the department publicly announced it was closing its 
criminal investigation of the handling of classified information by Hillary 
Clinton," as another development that justifies more transparency into the case 
against Assange.

The Justice Department told CNN it was unaware of any deal being offered by 
Assange or his representatives. An official with the US Attorney's Office of 
the Eastern District of Virginia, where he would be prosecuted, had no comment.

(source: CNN)