[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

July 25



TEXAS----impending execution

Texas death row inmate facing execution this week loses appeals


Texas' highest criminal court and a federal judge have refused to stop this 
week's scheduled execution of the convicted killer of a woman in San Antonio in 
2004.

Taichin Preyor is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday evening in 
Huntsville for killing Jami Tackett, 24, during a break-in at her apartment.

Tackett is described in court documents as a drug dealer and Preyor, 46, as a 
customer and dealer.

Preyor's attorneys contend his trial lawyers didn't properly investigate and 
tell jurors about his abusive childhood and that an earlier inexperienced 
appeals attorney relied on a disbarred lawyer for guidance.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in San 
Antonio rejected their appeals.

Preyor's attorneys said Tuesday they're appealing to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court 
of Appeals.

(source: Associated Press)





OHIO----impending execution

Condemned killer in Ohio arrives at death house ahead of execution


A condemned killer in Ohio arrived at the death house a day ahead of his 
scheduled execution Wednesday with several requests for a delay pending before 
the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ronald Phillips arrived at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in 
Lucasville around 10:15 a.m. Tuesday, about 24 hours before he was set to die 
in Ohio’s first execution in more than three years, a prisons spokeswoman said.

The last execution in Ohio was in January 2014, when a condemned inmate 
repeatedly gasped and snorted during a 26-minute procedure with a 
never-before-tried drug combination. Gov. John Kasich put several scheduled 
executions on hold. The delays have continued, prompted by shortages of 
acceptable drugs and legal challenges by death row inmates to Ohio’s plans for 
a new three-drug execution method.

A federal court last month upheld the use of the sedative midazolam, which has 
been problematic in several executions, including Ohio’s in 2014 and others in 
Arkansas and Arizona. The ruling clears the way for the state to move forward 
with three executions, but it isn’t a decisive ruling on the constitutionality 
of the three-drug method.

On Monday, 15 pharmacology professors argued in Phillips’ favor that midazolam 
is incapable of inducing unconsciousness or preventing the unconstitutional 
infliction of serious pain.

Phillips, 43, was convicted for the 1993 rape and killing of his girlfriend’s 
3-year-old daughter in Akron. He also has requested that the execution be 
halted based on his age at the time of the killing. He was 19, older than the 
Supreme Court’s cutoff of 18 for purposes of barring executions of juveniles, 
and argues the cutoff age should be 21. The latest delay request on that issue 
was filed Tuesday.

Attorneys for the state argued against Phillips’ request, saying he made 
meritless, often conflicting, legal claims.

“Phillips argues that youth, like IQ, cannot be reduced to a number. But he 
also argues that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of adults under 
age twenty-one,” they wrote in a court document filed Tuesday. “He cannot have 
it both ways; if age cannot make one eligible for death, it cannot make one 
ineligible for death.”

The state of Ohio also has told U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who 
handles such appeals for Ohio, that continued delays in Phillips’ case are 
harming the state by costing time and resources.

Phillips has had several previous delays to scheduled executions, most notably 
in 2013 when he made a last-minute plea to donate his organs. He said he wanted 
to give a kidney to his mother, who was on dialysis, and possibly his heart to 
his sister. His request was denied. His mother has since died.

As he awaited action from the high court, Phillips was being permitted to see 
family, friends and spiritual advisers and to meet with his attorneys.

For his last meal, to be served Tuesday evening, he requested a large cheese 
pizza with bell peppers and mushrooms, a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi and strawberry 
cheesecake, along with grape juice and a piece of unleavened bread.

(source: Toledo Blade)