[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., FLA., ALA., OHIO, NEB.

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 8




TEXAS:

Texas district attorney who prosecuted Jeff Wood now wants him off death row



The prosecutor in the death penalty case of a man who didn't kill anyone has 
asked the parole board and Gov. Greg Abbott to change his sentence to life in 
prison.

Now the Kerr County district attorney, Lucy Wilke was the prosecutor in the 
1998 murder trial of Jeff Wood - a man whose scheduled execution last year 
prompted lawmakers to question when the state should put accomplices to death. 
Although she originally decided to seek the death penalty for Wood, she said in 
a letter to the prison parole board that "the penalty now appears to be 
excessive."

Wilke asked the board to recommend Gov. Greg Abbott grant clemency and change 
Wood's sentence to life in prison. The letter was sent in August, but The Texas 
Tribune received a copy from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Thursday after 
a Wednesday court order referred to it.

"While I am aware that requests for clemency in Death Penalty Capital Murder 
cases are normally considered when there is an execution date pending, I 
respectfully ask that you consider this request for commutation of sentence and 
act on it now, in the absence of such an execution date, in the interest of 
justice and judicial economy," she wrote.

The letter was co-signed by Kerrville Police Chief David Knight, who was an 
officer at the time of the murder, and the district judge who is handling 
Wood's current appeal, Keith Williams.

A spokeswoman for Abbott did not immediately respond to requests for comment 
about the letter, but the governor has not changed a death-sentenced 
individual's sentence since he took office in 2015. A spokesman for the parole 
board did not say whether members have voted on the request.

Jeff Wood's case gained national attention in August 2016, as his execution 
date neared. Wood, now 44, was convicted and sentenced to death in a 1996 
Kerrville convenience store murder - he was sitting outside in the truck when 
his friend, Daniel Reneau, pulled the trigger that killed clerk Kriss Keeran.

As an accomplice, he was sentenced under Texas' felony murder statute, commonly 
known as the law of parties, which holds that anyone involved in a crime 
resulting in death is equally responsible, even if they weren't directly 
involved in the killing. Wood's attorneys claimed he didn???t go to the store 
with the intention of having Keeran killed and didn't even know Reneau brought 
a gun. Prosecutors disputed that fact, saying Wood knew Reneau would kill 
Keeran if he didn't cooperate.

In the months before his scheduled death, Wood's case drew the spotlight on 
Texas' law of parties, and a bipartisan group of state lawmakers sought to stop 
the execution. Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, said more than 50 House members signed 
onto a letter he wrote asking Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles 
to reduce Wood's sentence.

In this year's legislative session, lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to limit 
death sentences for those convicted under the law of parties.

6 days before his execution, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stopped it and 
sent the case back to the trial court in Kerr County to review Wood's claim 
that a jury was improperly persuaded to hand down a death sentence because of 
testimony from a highly criticized psychiatrist nicknamed "Dr. Death."

Wood's lawyers claimed the psychiatrist, Dr. James Grigson, lied to jurors 
about how many cases he had testified in and how often he found a defendant 
would be a future danger. The lawyers claimed he almost always found they would 
be. A person can only be sentenced to death if a jury unanimously agrees that 
he or she would present a danger.

In her letter, Wilke cites the issues with Grigson's testimony as reason for 
requesting a change of sentence. She claims she was unaware at the time of the 
trial that he had been expelled from the American Psychiatric Association and 
Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians.

"Had I known about Dr. Grigson's issues with said organizations, I would not 
have used him as the State's expert witness in this case on the issue of future 
dangerousness," she wrote.

Wilke said she wants clemency for Wood because of Grigson's testimony and other 
factors including: the fact that he wasn't the shooter, his documented history 
of low intelligence and his nonviolent history in and out of prison. She 
mentioned that 3 jurors have submitted affidavits saying they would not have 
agreed Wood presented a future danger if they'd been aware of Grigson's issues.

In April, the Kerr County court paused its review of the Grigson claims after 
Wood's lawyers said they and the state???s lawyers were in discussions about a 
"possible settlement," according to a Wednesday court order by the Court of 
Criminal Appeals. The order directed the trial court to resume its review 
regardless of the prosecution's request to leadership that Wood's sentence be 
changed.

If Wood's sentence is changed to life in prison, he would become eligible for 
parole 40 years after the crime - in 2036.

(source: Texas Tribune)








PENNSYLVANIA:

Berks death-row inmate gets reprieve



A Berks County man who was set to be executed at the end of the month for the 
killing of a Sunday school teacher in her Reading home has been granted a 
reprieve.

Michael Pruitt, 53, was scheduled for execution by lethal injection on Dec. 29 
at the State Correctional Institution at Rockview, Centre County. But Pruitt's 
execution was stayed Monday by Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg of the U.S. District 
Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Secretary John E. Wetzel had signed a 
notice of execution on Nov. 8 for both Pruitt and Sheldon Hannibal, 45, of 
Philadelphia, who would have been the first prisoners executed in the state 
since 1999.

Gov. Tom Wolf issued a moratorium on the death penalty in 2015. However, the 
law allows the governor or the secretary of the Department of Corrections to 
sign execution warrants. Wetzel, who earlier in his career worked at the Berks 
County Prison, has been signing all of the warrants since Wolf issued the 
moratorium.

A Berks County jury sentenced Pruitt to death in May 2005 after convicting him 
of 1st-degree murder in the Sept. 28, 2002, strangulation of Greta A. Gougler, 
69, of 521 N. Ninth St. Police said Pruitt raped, robbed and killed Gougler, 
who taught Sunday school at the former St. Stephen's United Church of Christ, 
after watching her working in her yard and then following her into her home, 
telling investigators that he wanted to steal money to buy drugs.

Pruitt's sentence was upheld in June by the state Supreme Court, which ruled 
there was enough evidence to support the death sentence.

Hannibal, who was sentenced to death in October 1994 for the 1992 murder of 
Peter LaCourt in Philadelphia, had his execution stayed on Nov. 9 by Judge 
Gerald A. McHugh Jr.

Pruitt and Hannibal are in the State Correctional Institution at Greene, Greene 
County.

Gary M. Heidnik, who raped and killed 2 women in Philadelphia, was the last 
inmate put to death in Pennsylvania, executed by lethal injection in July 1999.

(source: readingeagle.com)








FLORIDA:

Murder for pills: Man found guilty on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder



It took the jury 3.5 hours to find Derrick Thompson guilty on 2 charges of 
1st-degree murder.

Thompson is convicted of murdering Steven and Debra Zackowski in 2014. Thompson 
allegedly worked as an electrician for the Zackowskis, who paid him in pain 
pills. After a disagreement over how many pills were to be paid for his 
services, Thompson killed the couple and stole about 35 pills from a safe 
inside their home.

During closing arguments Thursday, Assistant State Attorney John Molchan showed 
the jury the murder weapon, a Cobra .380. Arguing the murders were 
premeditated, Molchan cited the receipt, which showed Thompson bought the gun 
on a Friday and killed the Zackowskis the next day. Molchan also showed photos 
of the crime scene and the deceased victims, as well as DNA evidence and 
autopsy reports.

Describing the murders as "quick and impulsive", Defense Attorney Martin Lester 
argues the murders were not premeditated. He said Thompson wanted to foster a 
relationship with the Zackowskis in order to have a steady supply of pain 
pills, adding an altercation between Thompson and Steven Zackowski is what 
really led to the murders.

A first degree murder conviction carries a sentence of life without parole or 
the possibility of the death penalty. Thompson's sentence hearing will take 
place Wednesday, December 13 at 9 a.m.

(source: WEAR TV news)

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

State Attorney Aramis Ayala's Office Recommends The Death Penalty For Jimmy 
Merritt



The Death Penalty Review Panel considered and unanimously recommended death on 
the case of State v. Jimmy Gary Merritt (2017-CF-013832), Merritt is accused of 
2 different murders.

"Jimmy Gary Merritt is being held without bond and is charged with 1st degree 
murder with a firearm in the death of Benny Clyde Hallmark, 64.

According to Orlando Police detectives, firefighters found Hallmark's body on 
the morning of Friday, Oct. 20, lying in a reclining chair in a home on the 
3100 block of Lauressa Lane. A medical examiner ruled Hallmark's death a 
homicide.

On Tuesday, detectives learned that Merritt admitted to someone that he???d 
killed another person, they said. According to the witness, Merritt said he 
buried that person in the backyard of a home."

(source: Orlando Political Observer)








ALABAMA:

Judge denies gas station murder suspect's request to bar death penalty



A Shelby County Circuit Court judge has denied a request to bar the death 
penalty in a case against a 44-year-old Alabaster man who is facing allegations 
he shot and killed a clerk at a local Chevron gas station in 2016.

Judge William Bostick denied the request from Michael Anthony Powell, who lists 
an address on Simmsville Road, during a Dec. 5 hearing at the Shelby County 
Courthouse.

In motions filed in Shelby County Circuit Court on Oct. 19, Powell's attorney 
Everett Wess filed requests to bar the death penalty in the case and to allow 
Powell to be released from jail pending trial. Wess later withdrew the request 
to grant Powell bond.

Powell was indicted by a Shelby County grand jury in November 2016 on a capital 
murder charge originally brought against him by the Alabaster Police Department 
on Oct. 30, 2016.

Powell is facing allegations he shot and killed 54-year-old Pelham resident 
Tracy Latty Algar while Algar was working a Sunday morning shift at Alabaster's 
Kirkland Chevron off U.S. 31.

In the Chevron shooting, Alabaster Police Chief Curtis Rigney said the suspect 
allegedly entered the gas station, took Algar into the bathroom and shot her in 
the top of the head, killing her. The suspect allegedly stole a "couple hundred 
dollars" in the robbery before fleeing the scene on foot, Rigney said.

He has been held in the Shelby County Jail without bond since his Nov. 4, 2016 
arrest, and allegedly attempted to identify himself as another inmate in the 
jail in early December 2016, according to his arrest warrants.

In the request to bar the death penalty in Powell's case, Wess claimed Powell's 
"indictment fails to allege the existence of any aggravating circumstances 
which would authorize a sentence of death."

"The failure of the indictment to allege one or more aggravating circumstances 
precludes the state from requesting the death penalty, and bars this court from 
sentencing the defendant to death in the event that he is convicted of capital 
murder for the reasons stated in this motion," read the request.

As of Dec. 7, a new court date had not been set for Powell in Shelby County 
Circuit Court.

(source: Alabaster Reporter)






OHIO:

Death penalty possible in North Ridgeville killing



A Cleveland man could face the death penalty after being indicted on aggravated 
murder charges for the April slaying of a North Ridgeville man.

John Rowan, 37, of Cleveland, was indicted on 2 charges of aggravated murder, 2 
counts of murder, 3 counts of kidnapping, aggravated robbery, felonious 
assault, 2 counts of robbery, 2 counts of tampering with evidence, 2 counts of 
theft and abuse of a corpse, according to the indictment release Thursday.

Rowan was arrested in October for the murder of Harold Litten, 60, of Jaycox 
Road. Litten was reported missing April 18 by family members and his employer 
when he failed to show up for work, according to police.

Detectives found Litten's body in an outbuilding at his home, 5490 Jaycox Road, 
on May 26 during a prearranged search of the property after several searches of 
the home turned up nothing.

Rowan turned himself in to the Lake Erie Correctional Facility for an unrelated 
charge 3 days after he allegedly killed Litten and tried to cover up the 
homicide. He was transferred to Lorain County Jail in October and is listed as 
a current inmate.

(source: Chronicle-Telegram)








NEBRASKA:

Jose Sandoval argues he was illegally sentenced to death when Nebraskans voted 
to restore capital punishment



Mass killer Jose Sandoval argues in a new court filing that he was illegally 
sentenced to death when voters restored capital punishment last year at the 
ballot box.

Omaha attorney Stu Dornan this week filed a motion for post-conviction relief 
that challenges the state's efforts to make Sandoval the 1st inmate to be 
executed in Nebraska in 20 years. It's possible the motion could delay the 
setting of an execution date for Sandoval early next month.

"The state's recent legislative repeal of the death penalty, followed by 
reinstatement through referendum, is an extraordinary circumstance raising 
constitutional issues that must be addressed," Dornan said Thursday.

Madison County Attorney Joe Smith said he is hopeful a judge can quickly reach 
a decision in the first motion filed on behalf of Sandoval in several years. 
But he disagreed with the argument that the Legislature's repeal in any way 
changed the sentences of Sandoval or the others on death row.

"With death penalty cases there are frequently a lot of motions filed for the 
purposes of delay. I don't know that this is any different," Smith said 
Thursday.

A similar post-conviction action was filed this week on behalf of death-row 
inmate Erick Vela, who along with Sandoval and Jorge Galindo, participated in 
the 2002 fatal shootings of five people inside a Norfolk bank. All 3 men were 
sentenced to death for the killings of four U.S. Bank employees and a customer.

Prison officials notified Sandoval on Nov. 9 they have obtained four drugs to 
carry out his lethal injection. Under the execution protocol, the state must 
now wait at least 60 days before asking the Nebraska Supreme Court to issue a 
death warrant.

When the Nebraska Legislature repealed the death penalty in 2015, it converted 
the sentences of Sandoval and the 9 others on death row to life in prison 
without parole, Sandoval's motion argued. When voters restored capital 
punishment in November 2016, they took a legislative action that sentenced the 
inmates to death.

The Constitution requires the judicial branch to decide individual punishments 
for crimes, not the legislative branch, Sandoval's motion said.

Dornan said Nebraska is likely the 1st state where a legislative repeal of the 
death penalty was overturned by voters. That created questions surrounding the 
death penalty that have not been addressed by the courts before, he added.

Allowing voters to not only set policy on capital punishment, but to impose a 
death sentence on Sandoval, violates the Eight Amendment rule against cruel and 
unusual punishment, Dornan said.

Smith, the prosecutor who worked to convict Sandoval and his co-defendants, 
said the repeal law passed by the Legislature in May 2015 was put on hold after 
nearly 144,000 valid signatures were submitted by death penalty supporters in 
October 2015. Those signatures prompted the 2016 vote that overturned the 
repeal.

In a related development this week, the ACLU of Nebraska filed a lawsuit on 
behalf of the 11 men currently on death row. Among other arguments, the lawsuit 
alleges Gov. Pete Ricketts overstepped the constitutional limits of his office 
by helping to lead and fund the pro-death penalty petition drive.

A spokesman for the governor called the lawsuit a "frivolous" attempt by the 
ACLU to overturn the will of Nebraskans who voted to keep the death penalty.

(source: Omaha World-Herald)

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

Lawmakers should decide what to disclosure about death penalty protocols



Gov. Pete Ricketts and the Nebraska Department of Corrections seem willing to 
do whatever it takes to keep the source of the state's lethal injection drugs 
secret.

The effort began a year ago, when Ricketts proposed a revised death-penalty 
protocol that would conceal the identity of those suppling the drugs. Ricketts 
dropped that provision after strong objections were raised at a public hearing 
last December.

Then State Sen. John Kuehn of Heartwell, who often aligns with Ricketts, 
proposed a change to state law that also sought to shield the identity of the 
state's drug suppliers and compounders. The bill stalled, lacking enough 
support for passage.

Now, by trying to keep most of the information secret anyway, the 
administration appears to be circumventing both state law and the Legislature's 
prerogative.

The appropriate approach should be either to follow Nebraska public records law 
or work to change it.

Instead, the Corrections Department is arguing an overly broad approach to 
attorney- client privilege because the state is being sued. Such a broad state 
interpretation of exceptions risks rendering the public records law moot. State 
and local governments are often sued. Consider ACLU Nebraska, which is suing 
the state over prison crowding, failure to disclose the drug supplier and the 
validity of the state's older death sentences.

The state also appears to be again arguing it doesn't have to reveal its drug 
supplier, under the new execution protocol - despite pulling back from that 
position in January. The state contends that the law reviving the death penalty 
allows Corrections wide latitude in designating members of its execution team, 
including perhaps a compounding pharmacist and/or drug supplier. It hasn't 
specified which are included. But designating a supplier as part of the 
execution team is a legal stretch.

Hiding such information is not in taxpayers' interest. For example, the public 
records law enabled taxpayers to learn about the 2015 debacle when Corrections 
wasted $54,000 on drugs from a supplier in India because the drugs could not be 
legally imported.

The department should honor the intent of Nebraska public records law, which 
requires disclosure of how state tax dollars are spent. The law says fiscal 
records of a public body should be "liberally construed" as public records, a 
standard reinforced by previous attorney general opinions and years of case 
law.

The state spent $10,500 on drugs for its new protocol. Taxpayers deserve to 
know the identity of the supplier and details, including how much the state 
paid to compound the drugs into a usable formula for executions.

State law also requires Corrections to describe the contents of any records 
withheld and specific reasons for the denial, which the department has failed 
to do adequately.

Nebraska voters strongly supported reviving the death penalty, as did this 
newspaper. But the state remains obligated to follow legal procedures in 
carrying out the penalty.

The state's current effort has introduced more delays into the process by 
triggering legal challenges.

The administration should show its commitment to the spirit and letter of 
public records law by reconsidering its stance and releasing the records in 
question. If a change is warranted in the transparency of death penalty 
procedures, that decision should rest with the Legislature. And it should be 
decided after full, vigorous - and open - debate.

(source: Editorial, Omaha World-Herald)