[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., KAN., UTAH, CALIF., WASH., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 4



TEXAS----stay of impending execution

Execution halted days before Fort Worth man was set to die----Tilon Carter, 37, 
received a stay Friday afternoon from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. His 
execution was set for Tuesday.


For the 2nd time this week, a Texas execution has been stopped days before the 
man was set to die.

Tilon Carter, 37, received a stay Friday afternoon from the Texas Court of 
Criminal Appeals. His execution was set for Tuesday.

Carter was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the 2004 
death of 89-year-old James Tomlin in his Fort Worth home. Carter and LaKeitha 
Allen broke into Tomlin's home, bound him with duct tape and robbed him, 
according to court records.

Carter has maintained that he never meant for Tomlin to die, that he tied him 
up and left with the money. But a medical examiner ruled Tomlin died from being 
smothered, as well as from being tied up and left in a dangerous position.

The stay comes after Carter's attorney filed a late petition requesting a stay 
of execution on a technicality: the trial court was a day late in notifying the 
Office of Capital and Forensic Writs that an execution date had been set.

"This is fairly technical thing, but they did technically violate the law," 
said Robin Norris, Carter's attorney.

According to the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, if the trial court fails to 
notify the convict's lawyer and the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs that 
an execution date was set within 2 business days of setting it, the court must 
reset the execution date. In Carter's case, it took 3 days.

The trial court had rejected Carter's request to reset the execution date, 
stating that even though it took 1 day more than was required, the execution 
was still more than 140 days away, longer than the 90 days required between 
setting an execution date and the actual execution. The Court of Criminal 
Appeals issued a stay pending its resolution of the issue.

"This is the 1st case I know of that has actually gone to the Court of Criminal 
Appeals on this question," Norris said. "Most of the convicting courts that 
have been asked in the past to reset an execution date on the grounds that the 
Office of Capital and Forensics Writs was not notified in a timely matter have 
just reset the execution on request. But they didn't do that here."

The Tarrant County District Attorney's Office could not be reached for comment 
on the case.

The stay was the 2nd in Texas this week. On Tuesday, a federal district court 
in Corpus Christi stopped the execution of John Ramirez, which was set for 
Thursday. The state has executed 2 people this year.

(source: The Texas Tribune)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----22

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----540

Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #

23---------March 7------------------Rolando Ruiz----------541

24---------March 14-----------------James Bigby-----------542

25---------April 12-----------------Paul Storey-----------543

26---------June 28------------------Steven Long-----------544

27---------July 19-----------------Kosoul Chanthakoummane---545

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)

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

Why some Texas legislators want to limit the death penalty


1 death sentence in Texas has prompted some legislators to rethink the state's 
broad qualifications for the death penalty.

Jeff Wood, 43, was convicted for the 1996 murder of Kriss Keeran. Wood was 
sitting in a truck outside a convenience store in Kerrville, Texas when his 
friend Daniel Reneau entered the store to steal the safe. Reneau shot and 
killed Keeran, who was working there as a clerk.

Wood was convicted of murder under Texas' "law of parties" statute that says 
those who are responsible for a crime that results in death are equally 
responsible as the killer even if they did not directly commit the murder, the 
Texas Tribune reports.

The convict was scheduled to be executed in August 2016, but the Texas Court of 
Criminal Appeals stayed his execution just 6 days before the event.

At the time, the Texas Catholic Conference said the stay "prevents a gross 
miscarriage of justice."

"The public outcry against this execution illustrates broad agreement on the 
injustice and basic unfairness of the Texas law of parties," the conference 
said Aug. 19.

A trial court is reviewing Wood's case. State Rep. Terry Canales, a Democrat, 
is sponsoring House Bill 316 to end death sentences for those convicted of 
capital murder under the law of parties.

"We've got to start somewhere when it comes to reforming the death penalty, and 
there's no better place to start than the law of parties," Rep. Canales said, 
according to the Texas Tribune.

Republican State Rep. Jeff Leach plans, a death penalty proponent, opposes 
using the law of parties to secure a death sentence. He was involved in Wood's 
case.

"He may have suspected, he may have anticipated, but he didn't know," Rep. 
Leach said. "You can't be executing people like that, you just can't. We can 
keep them in prison for life, but to execute them is an entirely different 
conversation."

For his part, Rep. Leach is backing Canales' proposal and is considering his 
own bill.

Another legislator, State Rep. Harold Dutton, advocates the abolition of the 
death penalty. However, he is also backing a more limited bill to modify the 
law of parties rule. His proposal, House Bill 147, would still allow death 
penalty sentences for those who help a killer commit murder, but not 
necessarily in other cases.

Changes to state law would not be retroactive and would affect Wood's case.

5 people have been executed under Texas' "law of parties" statute. 5 other 
states with similar laws have executed 1 person.

In Texas' Walker County, a man named John Falk is accused of capital murder 
under the law of parties. In a 2007 prison escape in Huntsville, another inmate 
killed a guard during the escape. The trial is in the jury selection stage.

Texas is a leader in executions among U.S. states. Last year it executed 7 
people, behind only Georgia, the Death Penalty Information Center reports.

(source: Catholic News Agency)

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

DA to seek death penalty for Hudson


The Anderson County District Attorney will seek the death penalty in the trial 
of William Mitchell Hudson.

According to court records, Allyson Mitchell filed a State of Notice to Seek 
the Death Penalty on Jan. 23.

The following day, Mitchell signed documents that stated the court has 
officially been moved to the city of Bryan in Brazos County for the change of 
venue that was approved by presiding judge, the honorable Mark Calhoon.

The court hopes to maintaining its preliminary trial date, set for Sept. 25.

Remaining pre-trial dates may remain in Anderson County.

The next pre-trial hearing is set for May 22.

(source: Palestine Herald)






PENNSYLVANIA:

Trio faces murder charges in connection with death of Luzerne County man----1 
of the suspects testifies against the 2 others


Murder charges were filed Friday in connection with the death of a 21-year-old 
man whose body was found dumped in a wooded area of Susquehanna County last 
year.

State police say the victim was in the middle of a drug overdose and was 
strangled while the suspects drove on Interstate 81 in Lackawanna County.

Preston Layfield, Tyler Mirabelli and Amanda Wayda are now facing charges 
including 1st and 3rd-degree murder and abuse of a corpse.

In a surprising move, Preston Layfield took the witness stand Friday to testify 
against his fellow co-conspirators.

It has been more than 5 months since Preston Layfield was arrested and charged 
with assaulting Joshua Rose of Luzerne County.

Friday, on the same day he was charged with murder, Layfield took the witness 
stand and admitted using jumper cables to help strangle Joshua Rose.

In court, Layfield said, "I had begun to get tired and was going to let go and 
he told me to pull harder."

The "he" Layfield was referencing was his friend Tyler Mirabelli who is now 
also facing murder charges.

Layfield says after the strangulation, Mirabelli "stabbed Josh in the back of 
the neck" adding "he said that he missed the feeling of it."

Layfield's attorney believes his client was truthful and forthcoming on the 
witness stand.

"Think about where he places himself in this scene. He places himself with his 
hands around the ligature that ultimately kills the victim. He doesn't try to 
minimize his role," Layfield's attorney Paul Ackourey said.

After being strangled and stabbed, police believe the victim was dumped over an 
embankment in a wooded-area near Hop Bottom.

A 3rd person, Amanda Wayda, is also now facing murder charges.

Prosecutors say she actually started the assault by placing a purple plastic 
bag over the victim's head.

About her involvement, Preston Layfield testified, "she put it over his head 
and pulled it down over his mouth."

After a full-day of testimony, a judge ruled all 3 murder suspects will stand 
trial.

"Today was the first significant step in this procedure and we're very happy 
with how things went today," Lackawanna County Deputy District Attorney 
Mariclare Hayes said.

This case grabbed national headlines because after the victim was killed in a 
vehicle on Interstate 81, prosecutors believe the suspects put sunglasses and a 
hat on him and propped him up in the truck while they stopped at a gas station 
in Susquehanna County.

Because all 3 of the suspects are facing 1st-degree murder charges along with 
abuse of a corpse, this could potentially be a death penalty case.

Prosecutors say they have not made any final decisions on whether they will 
seek the death penalty.

(source: WBRE news)





GEORGIA:

Cobb man facing death penalty in stepdaughter's death silent in court


Dafareya Hunter refused to answer the lone question a Cobb judge had for him in 
court Thursday.

Hunter faces the death penalty for allegedly raping and killing his 14-year-old 
stepdaughter before torching their Marietta home to hide the evidence last 
summer.

That question Cobb County Superior Judge S. Lark Ingram asked was the required 
inquiry of whether or not he was satisfied with his attorneys.

Silence.

The attorneys told the judge that their client didn't intend on responding.

The arraignment hearing marks the beginning of what could be a long legal 
process in Hunter's case.

His state-provided defense team entered a plea of not guilty.

Hunter was indicted on charges that he raped the teen, stabbed her and then 
burned down the Shadowridge Drive house. The girl's body was found in a bedroom 
of the charred home July 23.

He was arrested a month later in Broward County, Florida.

The judge scheduled Hunter's next court appearance for April 13. That's when 
attorneys will file the 1st round of motions in the death penalty murder case. 
The judge has blocked off half of a day.

(source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)






KANSAS:

Kansas Supreme Court allows death sentence


A divided Kansas Supreme Court on Friday upheld a man's death sentence it once 
had thrown out in the 2004 shooting deaths of a woman and her boyfriend.

The 4-3 ruling Friday let stand the Barton County sentence of 37-year-old 
Sidney Gleason in the killings of Mikiala Martinez and Darren Wornkey. The 
state's high court had vacated the death sentence in 2014, only to be overruled 
a year ago by the U.S. Supreme Court and ordered to review Gleason's case 
again.

Writing for the court in that ruling, then-Justice Antonin Scalia - a month 
before his death - voiced exasperation about the Kansas court, which has tossed 
out death sentences 7 times in 20 years, with 5 of those decisions later 
reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Since Kansas reinstated capital punishment in 1994, the state high court has 
affirmed 4 death sentences since December 2015. In November, voters retained 4 
of the Kansas justices who had been targeted for ouster, partly because of the 
Scalia-scorned overturned death sentences.

"When the Kansas Supreme Court time and again invalidates death sentences 
because it says the federal Constitution requires it, review by this court, far 
from undermining state autonomy, is the only possible way to vindicate it," 
Scalia wrote.

In October, Kansas' high court upheld the death sentence of Gary Kleypas, who 
was convicted of the 1996 rape and stabbing death of a Pittsburg State 
University student and became the first person condemned in Kansas after it 
reinstated the death penalty.

On Friday, the Kansas court's majority rejected Gleason's claim that his 
sentence was unconstitutional because it was more severe than the 
25-years-to-life sentence given to an accomplice, Gleason cousin Damien 
Thompson.,

"The wheels of justice are turning," Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said 
of the ruling.

Prosecutors said Gleason and Thompson were part of a group that robbed and 
stabbed a 76-year-old man in his Great Bend home in February 2004. Gleason and 
Thompson were accused of later plotting to kill the 19-year-old Martinez 
because she'd been present during the robbery and they worried about what she 
would tell police. Authorities said they also planned to kill Wornkey, 24, if 
he got in the way.

Gleason repeatedly shot Wornkey as he sat in a Jeep outside a home he shared 
with Martinez, prosecutors said, and with Thompson drove Martinez out of town, 
where Thompson strangled and shot her as Gleason watched.

Thompson later agreed to testify against Gleason and was sentenced to life in 
prison, with no chance of parole for 25 years. But Thompson reneged on the 
agreement.

The Kansas Supreme Court later tossed out Gleason's death sentence and those 
imposed separately on brothers Jonathan and Reginald Carr in a 2000 
quadruple-killing crime spree known as the "Wichita massacre." The court found, 
among other things, that juries in both cases should have been told that 
evidence of the men's troubled childhoods and other factors weighing against a 
death sentence did not have to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year rejected that, with Scalia writing there is no 
requirement to tell jurors in a death sentence case that they can consider a 
factor favoring the defendant even if it's not proved beyond a reasonable 
doubt.

Kansas has 10 inmates now on death row but hasn't executed anyone in more than 
half a century.

(source: Associated Press)



UTAH:

Lawmakers OK capital punishment for sex trafficking deaths


A plan that would expand capital punishment in Utah so that criminals convicted 
of aggravated human trafficking or child sex exploitation that leads to death 
could be executed has made it through its 1st test on Friday.

Members of a House law enforcement and criminal justice committee voted 6-5 to 
approve the proposal, despite concern from both lawmakers and members of the 
public that the plan would be costly and is unnecessary.

Ralph Dellapiana, of the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, spoke 
out against the proposal during the hearing, saying that the courts only allow 
the death penalty to be used on the "worst of the worst."

The bill "seems to capture people that would not normally be deemed the worst 
of the worst," he said during the hearing.

Proposal sponsor Republican Rep. Paul Ray said human trafficking is a big 
problem in Utah, so he wants to hold the leaders of human trafficking rings 
accountable.

"I want to be able to pull down a cartel kingpin or somebody and put them on 
death row if women or girls are dying in their trafficking rings," he told The 
Associated Press.

The proposal is only the latest effort by Ray to institute hardline 
death-penalty plans. He ushered in a law in 2015 allowing Utah to use firing 
squads in executions if the state can't obtain lethal injection drugs.

The bill next moves to the full House of Representatives for consideration.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah spoke against the proposal, saying 
it is more effective to provide support and protections for the actual victims 
of human trafficking.

ACLU spokesperson Anna Thomas said the death penalty is ineffective, as it 
almost never results in the sentence being given, and is more costly than a 
life sentence.

"There's also this troubling trend in Utah where for every very serious social 
ill, Rep. Ray is really quick to offer the death penalty as a solution," she 
said. "And it never works and it will never work."

Ray said he believes an inmate spending life in prison would be more expensive 
because of medical costs and court appeals.

The lawmaker tried to pass a similar bill last year, but it died in a Senate 
committee.

Execution law in the U.S. dictates that crimes must involve a victim's death or 
treason against the government to be eligible for the death penalty.

Ray said he also plans to introduce a proposal this year that would require the 
death penalty if someone kills a police officer. The plan is meant to punish 
someone who wakes up one morning and specifically decides to kill a police 
officer because of their job, he said.

The ACLU said the proposal is redundant since the death penalty can already be 
sought if someone kills a law enforcement officer.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

Man convicted of killing 4 OC women gets death penalty


A registered sex offender convicted of kidnapping and murdering 4 Orange County 
women was sentenced to death Friday.

Steven Dean Gordon, 48, was convicted in December of raping, kidnapping and 
killing Kiana Jackson, Josephine Vargas, Martha Anaya and Jarrae Estepp.

At Gordon's sentencing hearing, 6 of the victims' family members, including 
their mothers, read impact statements.

"He left 4 women's families to hurt, to grieve and to wonder, and for this you 
should seek the death penalty," Jodi Estepp, mother of Jarrae, said. "He took 
the light right out of my life."

As he heard the statements, he began to tear up and cried during his own 
statement. Throughout his trial, Gordon represented himself and said he 
deserved the death penalty.

"I am sorry for everything, but those are hallow words compared to what those 
women went through," he said.

During his trial, prosecutors said the women worked as prostitutes in Santa Ana 
and Anaheim when Gordon and his suspected accomplice, Franc Cano, picked them 
up in 2014 and murdered them. Both men are registered sex offenders.

Of all the victims, only Estepp's body was found. The discovery led to multiple 
clues tying Gordon and Cano to the other killings.

Cano is awaiting his own trial and prosecutors announced they will also seek 
the death penalty against him.

(source: ABC news)






WASHINGTON:

Time to end death penalty


We recently celebrated Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In his call to heal 
community he provided us with some wisdom on the death penalty:

"Capital punishment is against the better judgment of modern criminology, and, 
above all, against the highest expression of love in the nature of God."

"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night 
already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do 
that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate 
violence multiplies violence and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending 
spiral of destruction."

Pope Francis recently called for an end of capital punishment:

"Indeed, nowadays the death penalty is unacceptable, however grave the crime of 
the convicted person..."

"It does not render justice to victims, but instead fosters vengeance,"

Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation's TCTV (Channel 22) in February will have 
an interview of a person wrongly convicted and on death row in our state. It 
and an interview with another death row survivor can be seen on their web page: 
http://www.olympiafor.org/death_penalty.htm and 
http://www.olympiafor.org/tv_programs.htm

In Washington State Legislature there are both Democrats and Republicans 
supporting legislation to abolish the death penalty. They are doing this 
because death penalty is very expensive, unfair with majority of people 
executed being poor and/or people of color and when mistakes are made they 
cannot be corrected. They announced the bill on Martin Luther King Day. It is 
time to end it in our State.

Bob Ziegler, Olympia

(source: Letter to the Editor, The Olympian)






USA:

Gary Lee Sampson Formally Sentenced to Death ---- A federal judge sentenced the 
spree killer to death a month after a jury did.


Gary Lee Sampson was formally sentenced to death Friday morning by a federal 
judge.

Sampson, who went on a killing spree in Massachusetts and New Hampshire in 2001 
that resulted in the deaths of 3 people, had been sentenced by a jury in 
January.

Sampson chose not to speak at the hearing, but a report from WBZ says Sampson 
yelled an expletive before exiting the courtroom.

Sampson, of Abington, took 2 lives while hitchhiking through Massachusetts in 
2001. He killed Philip McCloskey, 69, of Taunton, and Kingston native Jonathan 
Rizzo, 19, after grabbing a ride in their cars. He tied up both and stabbed 
them to death in separate instances within a t3-day span.

He later turned himself in to police and admitted to both murders. Sampson 
separately pleaded guilty to the murder of a former New Hampshire city 
councilor and an attack on a Vermont man within the same week.

Sampson was sentenced to death by lethal injection after those convictions in 
2003, but that verdict was scrapped by a federal judge in 2011 due to juror 
misconduct.

A 12-member federal jury sentenced him to death a 2nd time in January for the 
murder of Rizzo and gave him a life sentence for the death of McCloskey.

Sampson's trial resumed this November, and jurors have been deliberating since 
Thursday as the defense pushed for life in prison rather than capital 
punishment.

Although Massachusetts law does not allow for the death penalty, Sampson was 
tried under federal law. If executed, he would be the 1st person killed for a 
crime in Massachusetts since 1947.

He is the first to receive the federal death sentence since Boston Marathon 
bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev in 2015. Tsarnaev is currently appealing.

(source: patch.com)

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

Judge denies Fell appeal


A judge has denied a motion that would have allowed defense attorneys in the 
upcoming retrial of Donald Fell to appeal an earlier ruling upholding the 
constitutionality of the death penalty. If such an appeal had been granted it 
likely would have delayed Fell's retrial for years.

In a ruling issued last week US District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford found 
fault with the defense team's argument that the case should still be considered 
a habeas corpus or civil proceeding. An interlocutory appeal, which Fell was 
seeking, is typically granted only in civil cases.

Though the decision wasn't surprising, according to Robert Dunham, Executive 
Director of the Death Penalty Information Center, it does illuminate some of 
the contradictions and challenges the court is grappling with as it prepares 
for a trial that could end in a death penalty conviction.

"The irony of not allowing the appeal to go forward is that the court is 
subjecting Fell to the very jury selection process it believed was unfair," 
said Dunham. In his ruling upholding the constitutionality of the death 
penalty, Judge Crawford emphasized the flaws in impaneling a so-called death 
qualified jury. A large body of research has demonstrated that jurors selected 
in capital cases are not only biased in favor of the death penalty but also 
more likely to convict.

According to Dunham if Fell is convicted and sentenced either to death or life 
in prison, Crawford???s ruling will still serve as grounds for appeal.

"If he is convicted and sentenced to death it will clearly be one of the lead 
issues on the appeal," Dunham said. Even if Fell is convicted and sentenced to 
life, Crawford's ruling on the death penalty would be at play. The defense 
could argue that their client is entitled to a new trial because the jury 
selection process was unfair.

"The court faces a conundrum," said Dunham. "It faces the possibility of either 
an extended delay in the case or the possibility of placing a conviction at 
risk if later on the death penalty is held to have been improper."

The judge declined to respond to a possible motion to withdraw from the trial, 
which had been raised in hearings by defense attorneys John Philipsborn and 
Michael Burt who said they needed more time to prepare.

Crawford wrote that it was "premature to respond to a motion which has not been 
made," but expressed confidence in the ability of defense counsel to be 
prepared by the time the trial starts.

Fell was charged in the killing of North Clarendon resident Teresca King and 
convicted in 2005. He was later sentenced to death but the ruling was 
overturned after revelations of juror misconduct came to light. When Fell's 
defense filed a petition to have the original charges vacated, the case became 
a civil proceeding.

However Crawford said once a new trial was granted the civil proceeding was 
effectively closed and pre-trial criminal phase commenced. "There can be little 
doubt that the case is now a criminal prosecution subject to all the rules and 
requirements of other criminal cases," Crawford wrote. "These rules include a 
virtual ban on interlocutory appeals in criminal cases except in limited 
circumstances not relevant here."

Those limited circumstances include decisions about pre-trial release, certain 
appeals by the prosecution, or by crime victims.

Other orders in a criminal trial may be subject to appeal if they touch on 
issues independent of the right to a fair trail such as double jeopardy or 
forced medication, Crawford wrote.

In his ruling upholding the constitutionality of the death penalty, Judge 
Crawford said it was not the role of a federal trial judge to overrule the 
majority position of the Supreme Court. However he also offered a measured 
critique of the application of the Federal Death Penalty Act and the jury 
selection process in death penalty cases, which could serve as a foundation for 
future challenges to the constitutionality of capital punishment.

The jury selection process in the upcoming retrial of Donald Fell is set to 
begin this month and will require prospective jurors to explain their views on 
the death penalty. According to the court, the trial could last up to 3 months.

(source: vtdigger.org)