[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, NEB., NEV., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 26



OHIO:

Federal judge rejects Ohio's new lethal injection process


A federal judge has declared Ohio's new lethal injection process 
unconstitutional and delayed three upcoming executions.

The ruling Thursday by Magistrate Judge Michael Merz followed a weeklong 
hearing over the 3-drug method Ohio planned to use Feb. 15 on death row inmate 
Ronald Phillips.

Merz rejected Ohio's use of a sedative used in problematic executions in 
Arizona and Ohio. The judge also barred the state from using drugs that 
paralyze inmates and stop their hearts.

Lawyers for Phillips argued the method announced last year is worse than a 
similar procedure used years ago.

The state defended the new process as constitutional and said a U.S. Supreme 
Court ruling last year paved the way for its use.

Phillips execution would have been the 1st in the state since January 2014.

(source: Columbus Dispatch)

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

Ohio Prepares to Execute Its 1st Inmate Since 2014


Ohio's last execution was 3 years ago, in January 2014, when the State killed 
Dennis McGuire by lethal injection. In 1989, McGuire raped and murdered 
22-year-old Joy Stewart, who was 30 weeks pregnant. The Columbus Dispatch 
reported on the execution, saying "McGuire...gasped, choked, clenched his fists 
and appeared to struggle against his restraints for about 10 minutes... before 
being pronounced dead.... It took 26 minutes for him to die after the drugs 
were administered."

"I've been with the ACLU 13 years and Dennis McGuire's execution marked the 4th 
botched execution in that timeframe," says Mike Brickner, Senior Policy 
Director of the Ohio office of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). "Ohio 
has a very troubling track record with properly carrying out executions, and 
Mr. McGuire's execution was tantamount to human experimentations."

Now, the State of Ohio prepares to impose capital punishment again. On February 
15, 2017, Ronald Phillips, who was convicted of raping and murdering his 
girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter in 1993, is scheduled to be executed by the 
State.

Drug Problem

Ohio has not put anyone to death since McGuire due largely to the difficulty in 
obtaining lethal drugs. Many pharmaceutical companies, including Roche and 
Akorn, according to press releases posted on the Death Penalty Information 
Center website, have condemned the use of their drugs in execution protocols, 
so states have been reaching out to strange companies, often in other 
countries, to obtain them. The International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists 
also "discourages its members from participating in the preparation, 
dispensing, or distribution of compounded medications for use in legally 
authorized executions." Meanwhile, Ohio and other states have made laws that 
keep the pharmacies that compound lethal injection drugs anonymous.

Ohio is one of 31 states that provide for the death penalty as punishment, 
along with the U.S. federal government and the U.S. military. Since the 
beginning of the new millennium, seven states, including New York and New 
Jersey, have abolished the death penalty or courts have ruled their state death 
penalty laws unconstitutional. 4 state governors have halted using the death 
penalty, and 11 states and the District of Columbia already had previously 
abolished the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center 
(DPIC).

Ohio has been killing people for capital crimes since the 1800s. For many 
years, the electric chair was used to kill the condemned, but in 2001, lethal 
injection became the sole method of execution in Ohio.

The State of Ohio has executed 53 prisoners since 1999, but did not execute 
anyone for a full 36 years between the 1963 execution of Donald Reinbolt and 
then the 1999 execution of Wilford Berry.

Toledo and the death penalty

Toledoans for Prison Awareness (TPA), a local organization focused on mass 
incarceration and prison issues, including the death penalty, in conjunction 
with the ACLU and Ohioans To Stop Executions (OTSE), hosted on January 12th a 
talk by attorney and Assistant Cuyahoga County public defender Jeff Gamso on 
"The Death Penalty in Ohio and the Nation" at the First Unitarian Church in 
South Toledo. About 50 people attended the event. The date for the talk was 
chosen to coincide with Ohio's resumption of executions this year.

Mr. Gamso noted in his presentation that while the death penalty is still the 
law in Ohio, and while about 60 % of Americans support capital punishment, 
executions and death sentences are both declining.

"We're killing fewer people, we're sentencing fewer people to death - that's 
the poll that makes the most sense," Gamso said. There have been fewer capital 
indictments since 2009, he said, because "it's far more expensive to try a 
capital case."

Gamso is vehemently opposed to capital punishment. "If you kill enough people," 
he said "sooner or later you're gonna kill innocent ones. We are fallible human 
beings."

"We support the elimination of the death penalty, and propose life without 
parole as an alternative," says Joe Moran, treasurer of TPA, "We're concerned 
that [the death penalty] is erratically imposed and, commonly, used against 
those without financial means, which are often people of color. It's applied 
unevenly. It's a lottery - and that alone makes it a very unfair punishment."

Not everyone who attended the event held anti-death penalty views. Maggie, a 
teacher who lives in Maumee, said "I think some crimes are so heinous that you 
lose your right to live." She also said she didn't want her tax dollars helping 
criminals serving a lifelong prison sentence.

The Toledo Correctional Institution (TCI) is now home to Ohio's death row 
prisoners. Ohio's Department of Rehabilitation and Correction announced in 
October that about 125 death row prisoners will be moved to TCI, which opened 
in 2000.

Toledoan Anthony Belton, an African-American, was sentenced to death in Lucas 
County in 2012 for the 2008 murder of 34-year-old BP convenience store clerk 
Matthew Dugan. The crime, in which Dugan was shot in the back of the head, 
occurred during a robbery of the convenience store, then at Secor and Dorr.

Belton's attorneys, in an appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court, argued that 
Belton's sentence be commuted to life in prison, without the possibility of 
parole, sparing him the death penalty. The Court's opinion, acknowledging that 
Belton presented numerous mitigating factors - including his difficult 
childhood, suffering depression, his young age (22), and his lack of prior 
criminal history - held that the shooting of Dugan at close range, in the back 
of the head, while Dugan was cooperating with Belton's demands, overrode those 
mitigating factors, and allowed Belton's sentence to stand.

"One of my primary concerns in reintroducing this legislation and renewing my 
call for abolishment is preventing the execution of an innocent person." - Ohio 
Senator Edna Brown

Toledo-area State Senator Edna Brown reintroduced legislation this year, Senate 
Bill 154, to abolish the death penalty in Ohio. "One of my primary concerns in 
reintroducing this legislation and renewing my call for abolishment is 
preventing the execution of an innocent person," Senator Brown said in a press 
release. Senator Brown met with three Ohioans, Wiley Bridgeman, Kwame Ajamu, 
and Ricky Jackson who were exonerated and released from their death sentences 
and from prison, at the Ohio Statehouse in 2015. "In a system so clearly prone 
to error, I believe the ultimate and irreversible penalty of execution should 
not be an option," Senator Brown stated.

"You look at the potential of executing an innocent person," said the ACLU's 
Brickner, "that would be a grave travesty of justice."

9 Ohio death row convicts have been exonerated since 1979, and since 1973, 156 
people on death row in the entire USA have been set free, according to the 
Death Penalty Information Center.

Ohio's death penalty law

To be eligible for the death penalty, the defendant must be at least 18 years 
old and a homicide must occur in conjunction with an aggravating circumstance, 
such as: murdering a law enforcement officer, acting as a hired hit-man, 
murdering a person less than 13 years of age, or murdering while committing, or 
while fleeing after committing, robbery, rape, kidnapping, arson, an act of 
terrorism or burglary.

However, based on the requirements of the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case, Lockett 
v. Ohio, factfinders at the trial level, as well as appellate courts, must also 
consider several "mitigating factors" before upholding a death sentence.

Since 2002, Ohio has outlawed the execution of individuals with intellectual 
disabilities. Those convicted and sentenced to death have several ways of 
appealing their conviction in state and federal courts. 1 common federal 
appeal, a habeas corpus proceeding, alleges that the state violated the 
convict's constitutional rights during the state's prosecution.

Ohio's Governor has the power to pardon convicts, or commute their sentences. 
Death row convicts, when all other appeal efforts have failed, can make a 
clemency request of the governor. By January 1, 2016, Governor Kasich had 
commuted - reduced - the sentences of 5 death row convicts, sparing their 
lives.

Race and the death penalty

People of color have comprised 43 % of those executed since 1976.

UT Law Professor Jelani Exum UT Law Professor Jelani Exum "It's the proportions 
that are out of whack with the general numbers of each race in society. About 
34 % of people executed since 1976 have been black, 8 percent Hispanic - but 
blacks are only 13 % of America's population."

- Jelani Exum, UT Law Professor

"In pure numbers, there are more whites on death row than blacks," says 
University of Toledo Law Professor Jelani Exum who teaches a law school course 
on sentencing. "But it's the proportions that are out of whack with the general 
numbers of each race in society. About 34 % of people executed since 1976 have 
been black, 8 % Hispanic - but blacks are only 13 % of America's population."

Ohio's task force to reform the death penalty

In 2014, the Ohio Supreme Court appointed a Joint Task Force to assess the 
state's death penalty. Abe Bonowitz, of the anti-death penalty advocacy 
organization, Ohioans to Stop Executions (OTSE), said in a phone interview, 
"There was this whole process of evaluating Ohio's death penalty system, and it 
found that [Ohio] failed the ABA's (American Bar Association) standards for 
fairness...."

The task force submitted a report along with 56 recommendations for reform in 
Ohio, including the recommendation that a defendant suffering from a serious 
mental illness at the time of the crime should not be eligible for the death 
penalty.

Bonowitz promoted OTSE's work to implement the task force recommendations at 
the TPA-hosted Gamso death penalty talk, and distributed a flyer that states, 
"these recommendations were intended to ensure fairness and accuracy in Ohio's 
death penalty."

OTSE and other groups, including the Ohio Alliance for the Mental Illness 
Exception, are currently working to reform the laws so they incorporate some of 
these task force recommendations.

A ban on cruel and unusual punishments

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Furman v. Georgia, where three 
African-American men were sentenced to death for murder and rape. The Court 
held, in a close 5-4 decision, that the State of Georgia's use of the death 
penalty violated the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel 
and unusual punishment. Article 9 of Ohio's own state constitution echoes the 
Eighth Amendment, stating, "Excessive bail shall not be required; nor excessive 
fines imposed; nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."

"What does cruel and unusual punishment mean?" asked Law Professor Exum. "It 
means that punishment cannot be disproportionate to the offense, there must be 
something to protect against arbitrariness, and [there must be] respect for 
human dignity...."

"OTSE considers the death penalty and death row itself - sending someone to 
wait to be executed - a violation of human rights and cruel and unusual," said 
OTSE's Bonowitz.

"[The ACLU believes] that the death penalty is unconstitutional, and violates 
the Eighth Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment," Mike Brickner 
said. "We simply believe that the government should not be in the business of 
taking anyone's life."

In the Furman case, Justice Douglas pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court 
does not consider capital punishment to be cruel, "unless the manner of 
execution can be said to be inhuman and barbarous."

However, in Toledoan Anthony Belton's case, 1 lone Ohio Supreme Court Justice, 
William O'Neil opposed the use of the death penalty, stating:

"The death penalty is inherently both cruel and unusual and therefore is 
unconstitutional. Capital punishment dates back to the days when decapitations, 
hangings, and brandings were also the norm. Surely, our society has evolved 
since those barbaric days. The United States is one of just a few civilized 
countries that still permit state executions...The time to end this outdated 
form of punishment in Ohio has arrived..."

Public opinion for and against the death penalty

In the United States, currently about 60 % of Americans support capital 
punishment for people convicted of murder, according to a 2016 poll by the 
Gallup Company.

Though OTSE's Bonowitz claims, "When you ask [a person] do you prefer the 
alternative of life without the possibility of parole, more Ohioans and more 
Americans support that..."

A 2014 poll by ABC News supports Bonowitz's claim. The poll found that, though 
61 % of respondents supported the death penalty, when given a choice, 52 
percent chose "life imprisonment without parole," and only 42 % chose the death 
penalty, as the preferred punishment.

Despite considerable support for the death penalty, the number of executions 
has been on the decline over the past 30 years, with 28 executions nationwide 
in 2015 compared to 98 executions in 1999. In 1996, courts meted out 315 death 
sentences, but only about 49 such sentences were ordered in 2015, according to 
DPIC.

For the time being, the death penalty is the law in Ohio. Jeff Lingo, chief of 
the Criminal Division of the Lucas County Prosecutor's Office stated, "I think 
in the proper case, [the death penalty] is a proper punishment. I agree with 
the opinion it should be applied in the worst of the worst homicides."

"I know in the [death penalty] cases that we have been indicting," he said, "I 
believe they are the worst of the worst criminals."

How hard is it to kill someone?

Demonstratively difficult.

>From 1890 to 2010, the United States imposed capital punishment on over 8,000 
citizens, with 3.15% experiencing a botched execution (meaning the execution 
went wrong in some way).

Specific success rates can depend on what method is used. Rates of botched 
executions for the 5 methods approved by the Federal Government are as follows:

Lethal Injection 7.12%

Lethal Gas 5.4%

Hanging 3.12%

Electrocution 1.92%

Firing Squad 0%

Currently, the 31 states with capital punishment all provide lethal injection 
as the primary method. Despite having the highest rate of failure, lethal 
injection became Ohio's exclusive form of execution in 2001.

Unusually cruel: lethal attempts

Ohio's struggle to find a successful combination of drugs for lethal injections 
haven't just caused legal problems - for everyone involved, a botched lethal 
injection is a gruesome spectacle.

May 2, 2016: Joseph L. Clark

Lethal Injection: Successful

Time: 90 minutes

After execution technicians spent 22 minutes trying to find a suitable vein, a 
catheter was inserted into Clark. A few minutes later his vein collapsed, his 
arm began to swell, he raised up his head and said, "It don't work. It don't 
work" 5 times. Technicians then closed the curtains surrounding him and spent 
30 minutes finding another vein. Media witnesses reportedly heard "moaning, 
crying out and guttural noises." He was pronounced dead 90 minutes after the 
execution began.

May 24, 2007: Christopher Newton

Lethal Injection: Successful

Time: 2 hours

Prison medical staff struggled to find veins on the arms of the 265-pound man. 
Before being declared dead 2 hours after the execution process began, Newton 
was stuck at least 10 times with needles before a shunt was used to inject the 
lethal concoction.

September 15, 2009: Romell Broom

Lethal Injection: Unsuccessful

Time: More than 2 hours

Efforts to execute Broom were halted after more than 2 hours of failed efforts 
to find a suitable vein. After the 1st hour, he reportedly attempted to help 
the executioners find a good vein. During the attempt, he winced and grimaced 
with pain. Broom is said to have covered his face with both hands, sobbing and 
heaving. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland finally ordered the execution to be halted. 
Broom is currently back on death row.

January 16, 2014: Dennis McGuire

Lethal Injection: Successful

Time: More than 25 minutes

Once injected with the hydromorphone and midazolam, McGuire reportedly gasped 
for air for about 25 minutes as the drugs took effect. Witnesses reported 
McGuire struggling, his stomach heaving and fists clenched. His family then 
filed a lawsuit (which they dropped in 2015) alleging that McGuire experienced 
"repeated cycles of snorting, gurgling and arching his back, appearing to 
writhe in pain." Said the family: "It looked and sounded as though he was 
suffocating."

(source: toledocitypaper.com)

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

Ohio should reform death penalty, not rush back to executions


Ohio's death penalty has been notoriously riddled with problems for years, 
including four botched executions in less than a decade, a growing mountain of 
evidence illustrating vast racial and geographic disparities, and seven 
exonerations since 2003.

As a response to these challenges, in 2011, Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice 
Maureen O'Connor rightfully appointed a task force to examine the 
administration of the death penalty in Ohio. The panel of 22 experts -- ranging 
from academics, law enforcement and judges to criminal defense attorneys -- 
advanced 56 recommendations to reform the state's system of capital punishment. 
Ironically, the report was issued only 4 months after Dennis McGuire's botched 
execution in January 2014.

One might assume that, given the many highly publicized problems with the 
state's death penalty, leaders in the General Assembly would act swiftly to 
implement the task force's recommendations. Unfortunately, most reforms have 
not advanced in the legislature, most notably a bipartisan bill that would 
exempt people with serious mental illnesses from the death penalty.

The proposal would ensure that anyone who was suffering from a severe mental 
illness when he or she committed the crime may not be executed. It would still 
allow the person to be convicted and to receive a noncapital sentence.

Such an exemption should be reasonable, even to proponents of the death 
penalty. There are currently already exemptions for both juveniles and people 
with developmental disabilities from being executed, under the principle that 
it would be wrong to execute them for a crime they could not fully appreciate. 
Death is the harshest and most permanent punishment society may dole out, and 
those who did not have the capacity to understand their crime and exercise 
rational judgment should not be executed.

Those lacking the capacity to understand their crime and exercise rational 
judgment should not be executed.

Current mechanisms, such as allowing a defendant to plead not guilty by reason 
of insanity, do not fully protect people with mental illnesses. Prominent 
conservatives, such as former Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, 
former Gov. Bob Taft and former Attorney General Jim Petro, have all supported 
the legislation.

Rather than prioritizing reform, state leaders have instead rushed legislation 
that prevents the public from knowing which companies have produced the drugs 
used in lethal injections. The haste to secrecy rather than reform marks a 
stark contrast that leaders should correct swiftly.

Even those who ardently support the death penalty should recognize the flaws 
that have been identified by experts. To turn a blind eye will only bring more 
injustices, undermining the public's faith in the criminal justice system 
altogether. The legislature should move immediately to pass the serious mental 
illness exemption, and then it should consider the remainder of the task 
force's recommendations.

(source: Opinion; Mike Brickner is senior policy director of the American Civil 
Liberties Union of Ohio----cleveland.com)






NEBRASKA:

Corrections Department recommends striking provision hiding identities of 
lethal injection suppliers


Nebraska prison officials have recommended striking a controversial change to 
the state's lethal injection procedure that would hide the identities of death 
drug suppliers.

Gov. Pete Ricketts, who wants to return Nebraska's death penalty to viability, 
would have to sign off on the recommendation before the confidentiality 
provision is removed. His policy research staff is reviewing the proposed 
changes.

The governor's spokesman said Wednesday he had not seen the recommendation and 
could not immediately respond to questions about it.

Several states that have carried out executions in the last year have shielded 
the identities of drug makers and suppliers because doing so makes it easier 
for executioners to obtain the drugs. Death penalty supporters say revealing 
the identities of such suppliers subjects them to public pressure from 
opponents of capital punishment.

Opponents of secrecy argue the state should keep all aspects of the death 
penalty open to public scrutiny.

The Department of Correctional Services, which falls under the governor's 
control, indicated in a Jan. 12 document that it was backing off a plan to 
withhold public disclosure of the source of lethal injection drugs. Multiple 
people who testified at a Dec. 30 public hearing on the protocol changes 
expressed opposition to shrouding the death penalty procedure in secrecy.

The department's response to feedback gathered at the hearing said it "is 
striking" the confidentiality provision.

Even if the governor signs off on the recommendation, however, a death penalty 
supporter in the Nebraska Legislature said Wednesday he still wants to amend 
state law to shield records about drug suppliers from public disclosure.

State Sen. John Kuehn of Heartwell said confidentiality would allow the state 
to follow the will of the majority of voters who reinstated Nebraska's death 
penalty in November. Kuehn said he has not been working in concert with the 
governor's office on Legislative Bill 661.

Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha said he will fight Kuehn???s bill while working to 
pass his own measure to abolish the death penalty again. Chambers and other 
death penalty opponents argued that the confidentiality provisions are 
unconstitutional.

(soruce: Omaha World-Herald)






NEVADA:

Prosecutors are seeking death penalty for man who killed daughter, 3, with a 
blow to the chest so hard it TORE her heart after torturing her for 18 months-- 
Justin Bennett, 23-year-old married father-of-3 from Nevada, faces open murder 
charge in beating death of 3-year-old Abygaile Bennett


Prosecutors in Nevada are planning to seek the death penalty for a 23-year-old 
father who is accused of punching his 3-year-old daughter in the chest with 
such a force that her heart burst, killing her, after spending more than a year 
torturing the girl and her sister.

Justin Tom Bennett, a 23-year-old married father-of-3, was arrested on the 
evening of July 2, 2016, in Henderson in connection to the death of his young 
daughter, Abygaile Bennett.

On July 1, police and paramedics were called to the home of Bennett and his 
wife, Korie Morimoto, in the 2400 block of Tilden Way where 3-year-old Abygaile 
was found unconscious at 11am.

The toddler was rushed to St Rose Dominican Hospitals, where she was pronounced 
dead.

An autopsy later revealed that the child died of blunt-force trauma to the 
chest, and that she had a host of other injuries indicating chronic physical 
abuse, including a bruised lung and a fractured rib.

The Clark County Coroner's Office ruled the toddler's manner of death a 
homicide.

On Tuesday, the district attorney's death penalty committee announced its 
decision to seek the death penalty against the father.

His attorney said there is no evidence that Bennett ever intended to kill his 
young daughter, reported the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Justin Bennett was at home with his three daughters, aged 2, 3 and 4, at the 
time of Abygaile's death. The following day, he was booked into Henderson 
Detention Center on open murder charges and dozens of counts of child abuse.

An indictment filed in the case has laid out in graphic detail 18 months of 
torture Justin Bennett had allegedly inflicted upon his two oldest daughters, 
ages 3 and 4.

According to the document, the young father would kick and punch the two girls, 
throw them against the wall, force feed them mustard and cover their mouths and 
noses as punishment for lying.

Bennett would also allegedly make Abygaile and her older sister stand against 
the walls, and if they fell down or cried from exhaustion, he would beat them.

He would also force feed them white habanero peppers.

'These were so hot it would cause the children to foam at the mouth,' the 
prosecutor said.

'Their eyes would be bleeding with tears, and he would cover their mouths until 
they would swallow.'

On one occasion, according to the indictment, Bennett cut open a wound on the 
head of one of the girls that had not healed.

A prosecutor stated that in the days leading up to her beating death, little 
Abygaile had her back broken and suffered 3 fractured ribs.

During his initial interview with police, Justin Bennett said on the morning of 
Abygaile's death, he went into the bedroom to check on her and her sisters as 
they slept and found a blanket wrapped around the child's neck, reported the 
station KTNV in July.

Unable to wake her up, Bennett said he tried splashing water on the toddler's 
face, then carried her downstairs and proceeded to perform CPP before calling 
for help.

When asked about his approach to discipline, Bennett said the 'punishment fits 
the crime,' according to an arrest report.

After initially denying that he spanked his children, the father-of-3 later 
admitted to using a wooden spoon to strike their bare buttocks.

Speaking to police on the evening of Abygaile's slaying, the 23-year-old dad 
said the toddler came into his room that morning screaming and crying. About 10 
minutes into her tantrum, he said he got angry, took the girl into the bedroom 
and put his hand on her mouth to stop her screaming.

When asked by detectives if he thought that is what a good father would do, 
Bennett reportedly replied that he is not a good father.

The autopsy found that when Justin Bennett allegedly punched the toddler in the 
chest, the force of the blow ruptured the right atrium of her heart.

At the time of Abygaile's death, her mother, Korie Morimoto, was in Texas 
taking part in a US Air Force training program. She was later charged with 
child abuse and allowing child abuse or neglect with substantial bodily harm.

Morimoto and Bennett had been investigated by Child Protective Services in 
early 2016 after the parents accused each other of punishing their daughters 
too harshly.

In the end, investigators concluded the couple's 3 children were not in any 
danger and recommended that Bennett and Morimoto enroll in a parenting class.

(source: dailymail.co.uk)






CALIFORNIA:

Pernel spends time on death row


French pay TV channel 13eme Rue has commissioned a four-part English-language 
true crime series about prisoners waiting on death row in the US.

20 Years on Death Row (4x60') is being produced by Paris-based indie Pernel 
Media for the NBCUniversal International Networks-owned channel.

Shot entirely on location in the US, the series follows the case of truck 
driver Keith Doolin who is currently facing the death penalty for the murder of 
2 women in 1995.

Doolin, who has no previous convictions, has maintained his innocence 
throughout and is still mired in the California appeals system while the state 
has recently voted to speed up the death penalty process.

In circumstances similar to the case of Steven Aviary, which came to worldwide 
attention through Netflix's doc Making a Murderer, there have been numerous 
dubious incidents during the prosecution of Doolin, including poor 
representation by his trial lawyer who was disbarred before he passed away.

The series was commissioned by 13eme Rue's head of productions and acquisitions 
Hector Lavigne and Stephanie Hunt, VP of programming for Southern European 
channels at NBCU. It is executive produced by Pernel founder Samuel Kissous.

The commission follows The Innocence Network (4x60'), which was also produced 
by Pernel for 13eme Rue and distributed internationally by All3Media.

(source: c21media.net)