[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., VA., S.C., NEB., COLO., MONT.

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 18



PENNSYLVANIA:

Execution warrant signed for Poplawski, guilty of killing 3 police officers


The secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections today signed a 
death warrant for the Stanton Heights man convicted of killing 3 Pittsburgh 
police officers nearly 8 years ago.

Richard Poplawski, 30, was sentenced to death in June 2011 after a Dauphin 
County jury found him guilty of killing Officers Paul J. Sciullo II, Stephen J. 
Mayhle and Eric G. Kelly on April 4, 2009.

The execution date of March 3, though, is just a formality. Poplawski still has 
a number of appellate avenues left before him, and next on the list should be a 
post-conviction relief act appeal before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge 
Jeffrey A. Manning who presided over the trial.

In addition, Gov. Tom Wolf, in January 2015, issued a moratorium on capital 
punishment in the state until recommendations from a bipartisan commission, 
formed 6 years ago to review the death penalty in Pennsylvania, can be reviewed 
and acted upon.

A final draft of that report is now being circulated among commission members, 
and it is expected the report will be released in coming weeks, according to 
the staff at the office of Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery.

The state Supreme Court, in December 2015, said that the governor's actions 
were "constitutionally sound," and the moratorium remains in place.

Poplawski lost his 1st appeal to the state Supreme Court in December 2015. His 
attorneys had argued that Judge Manning admitted evidence for the prosecution 
that was prejudicial against Poplawski, including his statements to police, 
racial epithets he made in a 911 call and his visits to white nationalist 
websites.

Further, Poplawski's attorneys argued that there was prosecutorial misconduct 
because of emotional appeals made to the jury regarding the officers' deaths to 
their families.

The Supreme Court disagreed.

(source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)






VIRGINIA----execution

Executed: Ricky Gray put to death for murders of Harvey girls ---- Ricky Javon 
Gray, 39, was sentenced to death for the 2006 murders of Harvey sisters Ruby, 
4, and Stella, 9. Gray also killed the girls' parents and another Richmond 
family.


Ricky Javon Gray was executed by injection Wednesday night for the slaying of 2 
young Richmond sisters on New Year's Day 2006.

Gray, 39, was pronounced dead at 9:42 p.m. at the Greensville Correctional 
Center. Asked if he had any final words, Gray said, "Nope," according to a 
prison spokeswoman.

It appeared to take an inordinately long time - more than a half-hour - to 
place the IV lines and do other procedures behind a curtain that blocks the 
view of witnesses.

At the conclusion of the execution, a physician came out from behind the 
curtain and listened to Gray's chest for a heartbeat.

Gray was sentenced to die for the Jan. 1, 2006, slayings of Ruby Harvey, 4, and 
Stella Harvey, 9. He and accomplice Ray Dandridge, 39, also killed their 
parents, Bryan Harvey, 49, and Kathryn Harvey, 39, in their Woodland Heights 
home.

A few days later, Gray and Dandridge killed Ashley Baskerville, 21; 
Baskerville's mother, Mary Tucker, 47; and stepfather, Percyell Tucker, 55, in 
their South Richmond home. Dandridge, Gray's nephew, was sentenced to life for 
those killings.

The Harveys were tied up, their throats cut and beaten with a hammer. Their 
house was set on fire by the killers when they fled and the victims were 
initially discovered by firefighters. Ultimately, Gray was sentenced to death, 
leading to years of appeals.

The Virginia Department of Corrections said that victim family members were 
expected to witness the execution. The state does not reveal the victim 
witnesses who view the proceedings through 1-way glass in a separate room from 
other witnesses.

On Tuesday, Gov. Terry McAuliffe turned down a clemency request to commute 
Gray's death sentence to life without possibility of parole. Later on Tuesday, 
Gray's lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency stay, which the 
justices denied on Wednesday evening.

Outside Greensville Correctional Center on Wednesday evening, a half-dozen 
members of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty gathered with about 
20 of Gray's family members to hold a vigil as the man was executed.

One women held a sign that said "Thou shall not kill." Several in the group 
said they object to the death penalty for religious and other reasons. They 
said there is no doubt that Gray killed the Harveys and Tucker-Baskerville 
families, but that no one else should die.

Also outside the prison was Chuck Troutman, of Staunton, who held a sign in 
support of the Harvey family.

Troutman said he had met Bryan Harvey, twice, and his wife Kathryn, once, while 
disc-jokeying at a local radio station in Harrisonburg.

Bryan Harvey's band, House of Freaks, played for a function the station was 
hosting. Bryan played bass and sang; Troutman said Bryan's "vocals had a John 
Lennon quality to them."

He held a sign with the names of the Harvey family. On the bottom, the sign 
read "Peace be with you."

"I felt compelled to be here," Troutman said of Gray's execution. "It's not 
about deterrance or retribution, it's justice."

Troutman said he wasn't sure what to expect or how he'd feel.

"I'll be happy to see justice done." 7-year-old Heidi Strong held a sign that 
says "Remember the victims. All of them. Stella and Ruby. Ricky Gray can rot.".

Her mother, Amy Strong of Blackstone, was living in Richmond and frequented 
Kathryn Harvey's popular toy store World of Mirth in Carytown, when the Harvey 
family was killed. She brought Heidi and her 2 other children, Robert, 9, and 
Alexsandra, 5.

"It sticks with you," Strong said. "This is a civics lesson. I want to protect 
my kids, of course, but I think they need to know what happened and that not 
everyone is a good person."

Earlier in the day, as the clock ticked down for Gray, Richmond Commonwealth's 
Attorney Michael N. Herring said, "I definitely think the city is going to be 
better off when we close the chapter on Ricky Gray."

"I think we will remember the Harveys and the Tucker/Baskervilles well - and it 
will be nice when Ricky Gray's name and memory are distant," Herring said.

He recalled the Sunday the Harveys were murdered. He had just been elected to 
office but had not yet taken the oath. "I was at the scene before I was sworn 
in," said Herring, who officially took office the next day.

"When I heard the news, I remember being in disbelief that we had a crime that 
involved 4 fatalities. That was just hard to come to terms with," said Herring. 
He and the 2 deputies who would prosecute Gray and Dandridge, Learned Barry and 
the late Matthew Geary, went to the Harveys' house.

Herring said, "That 1st week we really were struggling to come up with leads. 
It's one thing to have to reconcile the gravity of what's happened with the 
inability to identify the perpetrator."

"So we immediately went from the scope of what had (happened) to the fear that 
we had potential mass murderers roaming the city. And it turned out that that's 
what we had because they ended up killing the Tucker-Baskervilles. We became 
just totally preoccupied with trying to develop viable leads," said Herring.

The Harveys were murdered on Jan. 1 and the Tucker/Baskerville slayings were 
discovered on Jan. 6. Acting on a tip, police arrested Gray and Dandridge in 
Philadelphia on Jan. 7. Gray soon confessed. He also admitted he had murdered 
his wife, Treva Gray, in Pennsylvania in November 2005.

Herring did not attend the execution but Barry planned to be there to represent 
the office.

Wednesday was difficult for many in Richmond - particularly for those who knew 
the Harveys - as the execution approached and the stay request was still 
pending before the high court.

Phaedra Hise, whose daughter attended day care and later Fox Elementary School 
with Stella Harvey, said, "Kathy was the 1st person I met when I moved to 
Richmond in 1998."

"I knew Bryan because we were both on the PTA," she said. "They were just good 
friends. We spent a lot of time with them."

She said Kathryn Harvey was coming to a party Hise planned for Jan. 8. 
"Obviously that didn't happen ... I can't believe it's been 10 years," said 
Hise, her voice breaking. "I'm shocked that I'm this emotional, but you know, 
it's an emotional day."

Hise said she attended Gray's trial. "I just was hoping to understand more and, 
of course, there's some things you just can't really understand."

"I came home from the days at court and I couldn't even explain what I'd seen. 
I wasn't comfortable sharing it," Hise said. "It's hard. It brings it all back. 
Are they going to execute him? Are they not going to execute him? It's been 10 
years."

"It's fair," she said of the last-minute court action. "It's a very serious 
thing and executing this man won't bring the Harveys back. I get that. But, 
what he did."

Gray's clemency petition to McAuliffe cited his physical and sexual abuse 
suffered as a child that led to his addiction to PCP, a drug his lawyers said 
he was high on while committing the murders.

The late court challenge stemmed from Virginia's 3-drug execution procedure. 
The 1st drug is intended to render the inmate unconscious, the 2nd to cause 
paralysis, and the 3rd stops the heart.

For Gray's execution the state planned to use midazolam and potassium chloride 
made by a licensed compounding pharmacy in Virginia as the 1st and 3rd drugs. 
The compounded chemicals are tested monthly to verify identity and potency, 
said state officials.

The chemicals are injected into 1 of 2 intravenous lines - the 2nd line is a 
backup - with a saline flush following the injection of each chemical. 2 
minutes after the 1st saline flush, the inmate is pinched or otherwise tested 
to make sure he or she is unconscious.

Among other things, critics contend that if the 1st drug fails to render the 
inmates unconscious, they could be awake but paralyzed by the 2nd drug and 
unable to signal they are suffering pain.

Compounded midazolam has never been used in an execution before, complained 
Gray's lawyers.

Their bid for a stay of execution was rejected by a federal judge and a federal 
appeals court last week. On Wednesday evening the U.S. Supreme Court denied 
Gray's request for a stay without giving explanation.

Virginia's Catholic Bishops Francis X. DiLorenzo, of Richmond, and Michael F. 
Burbidge, of Arlington, released a statement Wednesday opposing the death 
penalty.

They said in part, "Knowing that the state can protect itself in ways other 
than through the death penalty, we have repeatedly asked that the practice be 
abandoned. Our broken world cries out for justice, not the additional violence 
or vengeance the death penalty will exact.

Gray becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Virginia, 
and the 112th execution in Virginia since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed 
executions to resume in 1976. The toll ties Oklahoma's 112 executions for the 
2nd most nationally. Texas leads the country with 539.

Gray becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA 
and the 1444th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

(sources: Richmond Times-Dispatch & Rick Halperin)






SOUTH CAROLINA:

Death penalty isn't effective deterrent


The latest chapter in the case of death row inmate James Robertson is unlikely 
to mollify opponents of the death penalty and is likely to rile its supporters.

Robertson, a former resident of Rock Hill, was convicted of beating his 
parents, Terry and Earl Robertson, to death in 1997 in a plot to get access to 
their multimillion dollar estate. 2 years later, he was sentenced to death.

That means Robertson, now 43, has been languishing on death row at the Lieber 
Correctional Facility in Columbia for nearly 2 decades. Execution dates have 
twice been set and twice delayed.

In a new twist, the S.C. Supreme Court ruled recently in a split decision that 
Robertson is entitled to a new hearing because of competency questions about 
the lawyers who represented him in the sentencing phase of the trial. The 
attorneys may have lacked required experience in death-penalty trials and 
post-conviction relief experience, as well as lacking necessary continuing 
education on death penalty law.

Specifically, questions were raised about the defense attorneys' failure to 
pursue a guilty but mentally ill plea deal that might have spared Robertson's 
life.

The hearing could result in a new trial or sentencing hearing. But legal 
experts say either is a long shot, and that a new hearing is unlikely.

But legal scholars note that in death penalty cases, inmates often are given 
more leeway to pursue legal avenues that might change their status. After all, 
once the verdict is carried out, there is no recourse.

But the delay can be frustrating to those who knew the victims and those who 
think executions should be carried out more swiftly. How can the courts justify 
delaying Robertson's execution for 20 years after his conviction?

But those who oppose the death penalty note that enough innocent people have 
received death sentences to warrant the pursuit of any avenue that might reveal 
a death-row inmate is not guilty or other significant information that might 
affect the case.

>From a purely practical point of view, this case raises serious questions about 
the efficacy of the death penalty. How could a death sentence be considered a 
deterrent when Robertson has not been executed after 2 decades and may yet have 
the penalty delayed?

Some mistakenly view a death sentence as a way to save the state the cost of 
housing and feeding an inmate for life. But the cost of Robertson's many legal 
hearings has been enormous.

Death penalty cases ordinarily are far more expensive than non-capital cases, 
and housing an inmate on death row is significantly more costly than housing a 
prisoner in the general population.

We think the value of the death penalty is tenuous for both practical and moral 
reasons. As noted, too many innocent people end up on death row. The numbers 
also clearly indicate that black defendants are far more likely to be sentenced 
to death than white defendants, indicating a prominent racial bias in the way 
the sentence is meted out.

But the issue can be persuasively argued on a purely practical level: Why waste 
money pursuing the execution of James Robertson? Wouldn't it be just as 
effective to require him spend the rest of his life confined to a cell?

(source: The Herald Editorial Board)






NEBRASKA:

Bill would let Nebraska prison officials hide identities of lethal injection 
suppliers


Nebraska prison officials would be allowed to hide the identities of their 
lethal injection suppliers under a proposal introduced Wednesday on the final 
day of bill introduction in the state Legislature.

The bill would allow authorities to withhold any information "reasonably 
calculated to lead to the identity" of an entity or individual that 
"manufactures, supplies, compounds or prescribes" drugs used to carry out an 
execution.

Sen. John Kuehn of Heartwell, who sponsored Legislative Bill 661, said it's the 
Legislature's responsibility to comply with the majority of Nebraska voters who 
cast ballots in favor of capital punishment in November. He suggested providing 
confidentiality to drug makers would remove one of the obstacles that makes 
capital punishment dysfunctional.

Most of the leading death penalty states shield the identities of the lethal 
drug suppliers, saying the information is used by capital punishment opponents 
to pressure suppliers not to make or sell the drugs for executions.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, a strong supporter of the death penalty, is 
pursuing changes to the state's lethal injection protocol that include similar 
secrecy provisions. The governor also wants to withhold the type of drug the 
state plans to use until 60 days before the attorney general asks the Nebraska 
Supreme Court for a death warrant.

Kuehn's 2-page bill addresses no other issues except for shielding the identity 
of the drug supplier. He said Wednesday that Ricketts did not ask him to 
introduce it.

While the senator said he thinks the existing lethal injection law allows 
prison officials to shield information from public disclosure, he said 
addressing it specifically in statute would help keep the death penalty 
functional.

In 2015 the Legislature repealed the death penalty over the governor's veto. 
But in November, 61 % of voters overturned the repeal and reinstated capital 
punishment.

Ricketts has said he will make every effort to proceed with the executions of 
the 10 men on Nebraska's death row.

Death penalty opponents have argued that the state has an obligation to keep 
the execution process open to public scrutiny. They also have predicted 
confidentiality provisions will simply be subject to legal challenges.

(source: Omaha World-Herald)






COLORADO:

Advocates for repealing the Colorado death penalty will be back before the 
legislature


Advocates for repealing the death penalty in Colorado are back with a 
legislative effort for the 1st time in 4 years, motivated by their belief the 
issue is gaining traction in battleground and red states

But proponents still face an uphill battle in the legislature.

The Better Priorities Initiative of Colorado hopes to build off of work in the 
right-leaning state of Nebraska, where the legislature there repealed the death 
penalty in 2015, despite opposition led by Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts.

The Nebraska legislature repealed the death penalty over the governor's veto, 
becoming the 1st conservative state in more than four decades to abolish the 
death penalty.

But Nebraska voters in November reinstated the state's policy on capital 
punishment, with 61 % voting to "repeal the repeal."

Still, supporters of abolishing the death penalty in Colorado say the action by 
the Nebraska legislature offers hope that Colorado lawmakers can cross party 
lines to advance a repeal.

A bill from Senate Democratic Leader Lucia Guzman of Denver is expected to be 
introduced as early as Wednesday.

"We've seen a renewed energy around ending the death penalty," said Stacy 
Anderson, outreach director for the Better Priorities Initiative of Colorado, 
who helped run the repeal effort in Nebraska. "It's definitely shifting to be 
more of a Western states movement."

The Nevada legislature this year is expected to take up a bill that would make 
the state's maximum punishment life in prison without parole. And Utah is 
expected to take up the issue again this year after a repeal bill failed on the 
last day of the legislative session last year. Washington state also is working 
on a bipartisan effort to abolish the death penalty.

Efforts to repeal in Colorado have failed in the past, including in 2013, when 
Democrats controlled the legislature. This year the legislature is split.

It's also unclear where Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, stands on 
abolishing the death penalty.

In 2013, the governor expressed "conflicting feelings" and upset some by 
granting a stay of execution to Nathan Dunlap, who was convicted of murder for 
the 1993 deaths of four people at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese.

In 2014, Hickenlooper outlined his reasons for opposing the death penalty, 
which opened him up to attacks from Republicans as he headed into re-election. 
But he has never pushed to abolish capital punishment in the state.

Last year, Republican lawmakers attempted to make it easier to impose the death 
penalty by requiring only nine out of 12 members of a jury to deliver capital 
punishment. Current law requires a unanimous agreement. Supporters of the bill 
attempted to compromise by requiring 11 of the 12 jurors to agree, but that 
effort also failed, with the vote crossing party lines.

Repealing the death penalty in Colorado would be a major victory for 
supporters, especially given high-profile cases. Jurors in Arapahoe County 
could not unanimously agree to sentence the 2012 Aurora movie theater gunman to 
die by lethal injection.

George Brauchler, the Arapahoe County prosecutor who sought the death penalty 
in the Aurora movie theater case, said a judicial issue as important as capital 
punishment should not be left to the legislature.

"This is an issue for the people of the state of Colorado to decide," Brauchler 
said, suggesting that it would be better to refer the question to voters.

The Better Priorities Initiative of Colorado - which is pushing the repeal 
effort this year - said they have no immediate plans for a ballot drive.

The coalition consists of many of the usual groups that fight capital 
punishment, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National 
Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Religious organizations also 
are part of the coalition.

Anderson said she expects the coalition to have bipartisan support, with 
Republicans speaking out against the death penalty as well.

One of the talking points used by repeal advocates is that capital punishment 
is an expensive burden on taxpayers, though detailed costs have not been 
recently researched in Colorado. Some estimates put the cost between $5 million 
and $10 million per year thanks to the need for extensive legal work.

The last time someone was executed in Colorado was in 1997.

"We're wasting millions of dollars on a punishment we don't use, and arguably, 
that most Coloradans have lost interest in," Anderson said. "There are things 
that we could be spending our money on that could make us all safer and 
actually be more effective for all Coloradans."

Brauchler, however, questions whether seeking capital punishment actually costs 
millions, or if there would be much of a savings to taxpayers if it were 
repealed.

"They want to suggest that if we didn't have the death penalty, we wouldn't 
have had the cost, but what is ignorant about that analysis is if you take the 
death penalty away, and God forbid something like the Aurora theater shooting 
happened tomorrow, you think the public defender's office is going to come in 
and say, 'Well, we're ready to plead guilty and go to prison forever,'" 
Brauchler asked.

"No. We're going to have the exact same trial, minus the sentencing phase for 
the death penalty, and that exact same expense."

(source: The Gazette)






MONTANA:

Punishment concerns resurface for death row inmate


A look back on history of Montana's death penalty

The cruel and unusual punishment argument again surfaced in 2006 with the 
impending execution of David Thomas Dawson. Dawson kidnapped and killed Monica 
and David Rodstein along with their 11-year-old son Andrew in a Billings motel 
room in 1986; police rescued their 15-year-old daughter Amy who survived. 
Dawson fought his conviction for years, but gave up the fight in 2004 to become 
a willing participant in carrying out his death sentence.

A month before Dawson's scheduled execution, the American Civil Liberties Union 
of Montana led a coalition arguing that the state's method of administering 
lethal injection was cruel and unusual punishment. The law stipulates that the 
executioner need not be a physician, registered nurse or licensed practical 
nurse but only someone selected by the warden and trained to administer a 
lethal dose. The dissenting groups claimed that the lethal substance, if 
improperly administered, could cause excruciating pain and thus violate the 
U.S. and Montana Constitutions.

The Montana attorney general decided, however, that there was no indication 
that lethal injection had caused pain and that the groups had nothing 
personally at stake. They thus had no reason to be involved. Dawson wanted the 
execution to go forward and not to do so would infringe upon his constitutional 
rights. The courts had no right to infringe on Dawson's rights in the attempt 
to uphold the concerns of others. Dawson was executed by lethal injection on 
Aug. 11, 2006.

Montana has legally executed 75 individuals since Montana Territory carried out 
its 1st legal hanging in 1875. The Montana legislature considered abolishment 
of the death penalty in 2007, with the passage of a repeal bill in the Montana 
Senate, but the legislation died in State House committee by a single vote.

(source: Ellen Baumler is an award-winning author and the interpretive 
historian at the Montana Historical Society----Great Falls Tribune)