[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, NEV., USA

[Rick Halperin]

July 7



OHIO----impending execution

Ohio preparing for 1st execution in more than 3 years


Ohio is following a mandatory checklist for putting inmates to death as it 
prepares for the state's 1st execution in more than 3 years, a prisons agency 
official said.

The state wouldn't release documents related to those checkups to The 
Associated Press, saying open records law shields such information.

"We can confirm, however, that to date all steps of Ohio's execution protocol 
have been complied with in preparation of the execution scheduled later this 
month," JoEllen Smith, prisons department spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Ronald Phillips, who was convicted of raping and killing his girlfriend's 
3-year-old daughter in 1993 in Akron, is scheduled to die July 26. It's his 3rd 
execution date of the year following earlier reprieves to allow legal arguments 
over the drugs Ohio plans to use.

In a significant ruling, a federal appeals court last month opened the door to 
Phillips' execution and others by permitting Ohio's use of a contested 
sedative.

That drug, midazolam, was used previously in problematic executions in Ohio, 
Arizona and Arkansas in which inmates didn't appear fully sedated before other 
drugs kicked in.

Attorneys for death row inmates fell short in attempts to prove that "Ohio's 
protocol is 'sure or very likely' to cause serious pain," the appeals court 
said in an 8-6 ruling.

An appeal of that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court is expected.

Phillips, 43, also has separate federal appeals pending that argue his age at 
the time - he was 19 - should be a consideration for mercy. The nation's high 
court already has banned the execution of people under 18.

"We're going to continue to fight as vigorously as we can to see that this 
execution does not go forward," said Tim Sweeney, an attorney representing 
Phillips.

Executions have been on hold in Ohio since January 2014 when death row inmate 
Dennis McGuire gasped and snorted during the 26 minutes it took him to die, the 
longest execution in the state to date. The state used midazolam and a 
painkiller on McGuire in a method that's since been abandoned.

What Ohio's protocols require:

30 days before the execution:

-- The warden of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, where executions are 
carried out, determines whether the state has sufficient execution drugs and 
reports his findings to the prisons agency director. The state has said in 
court filings it has enough drugs to carry out at least 4 executions.

--The execution team begins weekly training sessions.

21 days beforehand:

-- Prison medical staff evaluates an inmate's veins and plans for the 
insertion of the IV lines.

-- A member of the prison system's mental health staff evaluates the inmate's 
stability and mental health in light of the scheduled execution.

14 days beforehand:

The warden of Chillicothe Correctional Institution, where death row is housed, 
verifies the inmate???s pre-execution visitors, his spiritual adviser, 
execution witnesses and funeral arrangements.

(source: Associated Press)






NEVADA:

Court overturns death sentence in 1982 Nevada killing----A federal court has 
overturned the death sentence of a Nevada prison inmate who killed a Reno car 
salesman in 1982


A federal appeals court has overturned the death sentence of a 65-year-old 
Nevada state prison inmate convicted of killing a Reno used car salesman in 
March 1982, just months after killing his girlfriend in Seattle.

Tracy Petrocelli's murder and robbery convictions for shooting James Wilson 
were upheld by a 3-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San 
Francisco.

However, the judges said in the Wednesday ruling that Petrocelli's 
constitutional rights were violated during penalty proceedings because his 
attorney wasn't present when he was interviewed by a psychiatrist who later 
testified for the prosecution.

Petrocelli's attorney, A. Richard Ellis of Mill Valley, California, said 
Thursday he would let the court opinion speak for itself.

Aides to Washoe County District Attorney Christopher Hicks and Nevada Attorney 
General Adam Laxalt said a decision had not been made whether prosecutors will 
retry Petrocelli's penalty phase in state court or seek a lesser sentence such 
as life in prison without parole.

"We are in the process of further reviewing the 9th Circuit's decision," Laxalt 
spokeswoman Monica Moazez said.

? Petrocelli's name is invoked regularly in criminal courts in Nevada, after 
the state Supreme Court ruled in an appeal of his murder conviction that 
prosecutors must convince a judge during a pretrial hearing that evidence about 
so-called "prior bad acts" can be introduced to a jury.

Prosecutors in Nevada told the Washoe County District Court jury that 
Petrocelli pleaded guilty in May 1981 in Washington state to kidnaping his 
18-year-old girlfriend, Melanie Barker. He had not yet been convicted of 
shooting Barker dead outside a Seattle restaurant where she worked in October 
1981.

5 months later, Wilson, 63, was shot dead during a vehicle test-drive. His body 
was found buried in a makeshift grave near Pyramid Lake north of Reno. 
Petrocelli, who also used the name John Maida, was arrested in Las Vegas in 
April 1982.

After nearly 35 years behind bars, Petrocelli has become one of Nevada's 
longest-serving death-row inmates.

The last execution in the state was in 2006.

(source: Associated Press)






USA:

Prosecutors: Murder of correctional officer was 'sport' for Con-ui


The brutal murder of Correctional Officer Eric Williams was "sport" for the 
gang assassin who committed the crime, a heinous act that "shocks the 
conscience," prosecutors argued Thursday in seeking the death sentence for the 
killer.

The defense for twice convicted murderer Jessie Con-ui, however, countered that 
he was once a "kid with promise" who lost his way in the world and found 
himself caught up in a life of drugs, guns and violence.

Jurors will soon be asked to decide if that is enough to spare his life.

The panel of 12 jurors on Thursday began hearing the closing arguments that 
will bookend a two-month capital murder trial that has been years in the 
making. When closings wrap up later Thursday afternoon, jurors will get their 
final instructions before deliberating the fate of Con-ui.

Last month, the jury convicted Con-ui, 40, of 1st-degree murder and other 
offenses for brutally beating and stabbing Williams, a 34-year-old Nanticoke 
native, during an ambush attack at U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan on Feb. 25, 
2013.

The attack, which Con-ui launched because he felt disrespected over his cell 
being searched earlier that evening, involved the inmate kicking Williams down 
a flight of stairs before chasing him down and slashing him with 2 shanks. 
Con-ui stabbed and hit Williams more than 200 times in addition to stomping and 
slamming the officer's head on the ground, fracturing his skull.

Jurors saw gruesome surveillance video of the 11-minute attack, which continued 
long after Williams stopped moving in a pool of blood.

Prosecutors argue the ferocity of the attack warrant the death penalty. During 
his closing argument Thursday morning, Robert J. Feitel, an attorney with the 
Justice Department's Capital Case Section, reminded jurors that Con-ui paused 
to wash a cut on his hand and to sip some water during the brutal attack. 
Afterward, he stole a pack of gum from Williams' pocket and chewed it, 
displaying nonchalance and "a level of depravity that we've never seen."

"He's relishing this murder," Feitel told the jury. "He's loving it. He's 
enjoying it. This is sport to him."

But the brutality of the murder alone was just 1 element pointing to death, the 
attorney argued. Con-ui's choices tore a hole in the heart of Williams' family 
and friends, and he has consistently shown a cold, remorseless demeanor, he 
said.

Other aggravating factors include that Con-ui is a New Mexican Mafia assassin 
already serving 25 years to life in prison for executing a gang member at a 
Phoenix strip mall in 2002. He is also a convicted drug dealer who at the time 
of Williams' murder was serving more than 11 years for trafficking about 33 
pounds of cocaine.

Known on the streets as "Chino," Con-ui has a violent past that includes 
stabbing an inmate, beating another inmate with a metal food tray and 
threatening a correctional officer who had just searched his cell. Con-ui was 
also involved in a conspiracy to kill several people, including a Phoenix 
police detective, but the plot was stopped before Con-ui could act, according 
to prosecutors.

"You have heard about the defendant's lifetime of bad choices," Feitel said. 
"You have heard about a lifetime of horrible suffering for each and every one 
of his victims."

Con-ui's defense, which admitted he was guilty of murdering Williams, has 
sought to save him from death row by presenting jurors with dozens of 
mitigating factors they say should tip the scales in favor of life without 
parole.

Defense attorneys stressed that Con-ui has faced consequences for his actions - 
since the murder, he has been held in isolation at the federal prison system's 
lone supermaximum prison in Florence, Colorado. During his closing, defense 
attorney David A. Ruhnke of Montclair, New Jersey, told jurors Con-ui now has 
minimal human contact.

Con-ui has been restricted to his cell area at all times and can only see 
people when guards pass his food trays, he said. Phone calls are also limited 
to 2 per month and Con-ui is not permitted contact visits.

His conviction for Williams' murder also means Con-ui will no longer be 
eligible for parole in 2031 at the age of 54, he said.

"Nobody is saying that this is a 'free crime,'" Ruhnke said. "He knows for sure 
he will die as a federal inmate."

Con-ui's defense also sought to portray him as the product of a rough 
upbringing, being raised in poverty in a slum in Manila, Philippines, before 
coming to live in America.

He showed promise, excelling in school with involvement in student council and 
lacrosse before things turned south, Ruhnke told the jury.

When Con-ui was a young man, his abusive stepfather kicked him out of the 
family home, he said.

For an escape, Con-ui turned to alcohol and marijuana, before moving on to 
harder drugs including cocaine, methamphetamine, LSD and PCP, a former friend 
told jurors. Eventually, Con-ui got caught up in the justice system in Arizona, 
which at the time was "one of the worst" in the country and helped mold him 
into a hardened criminal, testified Dr. Craig Haney, a defense witness from 
Santa Cruz, California.

Runke told jurors that while Con-ui's life experiences don't excuse what 
happened, they can help explain why he turned out the way he did - enough of an 
explanation to warrant a sentence of life in prison.

"There is a case here that screams out for life," Ruhnke said. "You don't have 
to impose a death sentence."

Arguments continue this afternoon.

(source: Citizen's Voice)