[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., OHIO, UTAH, ARIZ.

[Rick Halperin]

July 30




TEXAS:

Book details history of hangings in Texas -- Brazos County included



Before lethal injections and electric chairs, the preferred method of 
death-penalty execution in Texas was hanging, conducted by local sheriffs at 
their county jails, not at prison facilities.

Such is the subject of a new book, Death on the Gallows: The Encyclopedia of 
Legal Hangings in Texas, by West Gilbreath, captain of the criminal 
investigation division at the University of North Texas Police Department. 
Gilbreath, who published a similar book in 2002 about New Mexico's legal 
hangings, said he decided to compile the executions for a book so future 
historians could have a more reliable source of information than the internet.

"I was trying to come up with a better resource for researchers and 
historians," Gilbreath, adding that the book is for anyone who is interested in 
true crime or Old West or Texas histories and wants to read eyewitness accounts 
of the men and women who stood on the gallows or their last words spoken to the 
crowd before they were hanged.

Gilbreath's book details 467 legal executions conducted between 1834 and 1923, 
the year Texas authorized the use of the electric chair for executions 
conducted by the state in Huntsville; of those, he found 2 in Brazos County.

Authorities executed the `st man, Ezekiel Bradley, on May 2, 1879. In 
Gilbreath's recounting, Bradley had been drinking and gambling on Christmas Day 
in 1878 before going with his friend Shep Wilson to a Steele's store, about 15 
miles west of Bryan, to buy more whiskey. At the shop, Wilson began arguing 
with a man named Buck Pollock, who eventually struck Wilson in the face. Drunk, 
Bradley rushed to help his friend, pulling out a concealed pistol and shooting 
Pollock in the mouth, killing him.

According to a story published in the Galveston Daily News on May 3, 1879, 
Bradley told the paper on the day before his execution that he had "been a 
drinking and quarrelsome boy all my life," and that he greatly regretted having 
killed Pollock.

"I have lain down and wept at the thought of having killed a man who never done 
me harm or injury, and whom I had not known," Bradley told the reporter.

Gilbreath said that between 4,000 and 6,000 people came to Bryan -- far more 
than lived there at the time -- to see Bradley's execution on May 2.

"The entertainment value of an execution was a big deal," said Bill Page, 
library associate II at Texas A&M University's Evans Library.

The same Galveston Daily News story notes that a doctor offered up prayers 
before Bradley's execution. After praying, "the sheriff pulled the drop and the 
prisoner was launched into eternity." The 6-foot fall dislocated his neck, and 
he struggled for 5 minutes before the doctor pronounced him dead almost 12 
minutes after his hanging began.

Gilbreath said the 2nd man executed in Brazos County, Bob Ballard, died in a 
more private setting on Nov. 22, 1901, a year after the law changed, requiring 
sheriffs' to take precautions to make executions as private as possible.

Public sentiment, Gilbreath said, had changed to thinking that executions 
"shouldn't be a carnival or public spectacle."

Gilbreath said Ballard shot two men Nov. 7, 1900, a little more than a year 
before he would be executed.

An article in The Eagle published on Nov. 8, 1900, states that Ballard shot "2 
Bohemians at Smetana yesterday." One man, Jacob Shramek, a postmaster, survived 
after being shot in the chest, but Joe Blazek, shot "in the lower part of his 
body," died.

"The tragedy," The Eagle reported the next day, "caused bitter feelings among 
the Bohemians and there were some indications that violence might possibly be 
resorted to."

The sheriff at the time, fearing a violent mob, took Ballard to another jail in 
Houston, according to the a story published on Nov. 16, 1900, in the Houston 
Daily Post.

Page said Ballard had been "denied due process" and received an unjust death 
sentence.

"Officials didn't want a lynching on their hands, so they arranged to have him 
found guilty and sentenced to death," Page said of the jury's verdict, which 
originally was for life imprisonment but changed after the judge and district 
attorney indicated the ruling had to be the death penalty.

Page sent a document to The Eagle in which he wrote Ballard had been 
"essentially lynched under a veneer of law."

Page said that some immigrant whites new to the U.S. participated in lynchings 
to "establish their own whiteness," and that Ballard's stepfather had been a 
county commissioner, so it's possible the whites who lived in his precinct 
resented him for being a successful, powerful black man.

Gilbreath said he's still finding new hangings he'd missed before publishing 
his book. Currently, he's reviewing around 20, which he may publish in a second 
volume or a revised edition of his book.

One such case is Frank Hammond, executed on May 21, 1875. An article published 
in the Galveston Daily News on May 22 of that year reports that Hammond prayed 
for a few minutes at a local Catholic church with a priest, then "made quite a 
lengthy speech from the scaffold" about religion. He never confessed or alluded 
to his crime, seeming "perfectly indifferent and composed." A doctor pronounced 
him dead 20 minutes after his hanging began, as "several thousand people 
witnessed" his death.

All 3 men executed by hanging in Brazos County were African Americans, as were 
60 % of those whose deaths were reported in Gilbreath's book.

Gilbreath said his research focused on death penalty executions, not lynchings, 
because "lynchings are just another form of murder."

But Page said lynchings were significantly more common than legal executions in 
Brazos County, and that it's difficult to consider one without the other.

"To me, you can't separate those," Page said of lynchings and legal executions. 
"There was a lot of overlap."

Page said he "hopes there's a distinction" between lynchings and legal 
executions and the processes that led to each, and that not all local figures 
were in favor of lynchings, but there were "notorious cases" and institutional 
flaws in the criminal justice system at the time that left African Americans 
inadequately represented in the eyes of the law.

John H. Johnson, Bryan's first African-American attorney, didn't start 
practicing until 1882, Page said, and the criminal justice system was 
overwhelmingly white and not representative of the county's 
population."Everybody was white, and many of the people had formerly owned 
slaves," he said of the flawed criminal justice system.

"If the legal system is corrupt," Page said, "then every verdict is suspect."

Page said there was "also a question about whether people got fair trials," 
since "typically African Americans would not have served on a jury."

Stressing that not every lynching was a white crowd and a black victim -- 
though the vast majority of those lynched were African Americans -- Page said 
that there were lynchings where victims could have gotten the death penalty "if 
justice were allowed to take its course, but they were summarily executed."

As someone who works in the modern-day criminal justice and a historian of the 
past's system, Gilbreath said people took testimony more seriously then, but 
"they didn't have the evidence back then that we had today. Society expects 
more [now.]"

"Back then they did what they could with what they had," Gilbreath said of the 
lack of DNA analyses in the late 1800s and early 1900s, but "I believe there 
were people who were caught and executed who very possibly did not commit that 
crime."

But because of a faster appellate system, Gilbreath said those who were in 
favor of the death penalty and saw it as a form of punishment for society's 
worst crimes were able to see the punishment much faster than today's 
executions, which take place years after the dates of the crimes.

"Justice was a lot quicker," he said.

Denton author West Gilbreath has compiled a fascinating book on execution by 
hanging in Texas.

(source: The Eagle)








FLORIDA:

Inmate wants off death row for killing West Palm Beach woman in 1995



With an IQ hovering around 75, Leroy Pooler should be released from his 
decades-long home on Florida's death row and be allowed to spend the rest of 
his life in prison for the 1995 slaying of his ex-girlfriend in West Palm 
Beach, his attorney told a Palm Beach County judge on Friday.

The issue of Pooler???s mental capacity is among several that Circuit Judge 
Jeffrey Colbath will have to weigh as he decides whether the 69-year-old 
Vietnam veteran deserves a chance for a life sentence for fatally shooting 
24-year-old Kim Wright Brown as she begged him not to kill her 22 years ago.

Like scores of other condemned inmates in Florida, Pooler is trying to take 
advantage of a series of recent U.S. and Florida Supreme Court decisions that 
have forced the state to change the way the death penalty is meted out. In the 
last 4 months, 2 other men who are on death row for committing vicious murders 
in Palm Beach County have sought similar relief. At least 2 others will be back 
in court in the next 6 months.

However, just as the brutality of the murders vary, so do their claims for 
relief.

Under current law, it doesn't appear Pooler would be entitled to a new 
sentencing hearing. When the Florida Supreme Court last year struck down the 
state's death penalty as unconstitutional because it didn't require unanimous 
jury verdicts, it decided that only some of the 361 inmates awaiting execution 
could take advantage of its ruling.

Drawing a line that death penalty opponents call arbitrary, the high court 
ruled that June 24, 2002 is the magic date. Those who were sentenced to death 
after that date can ask for a new sentencing hearing if their juries didn't 
vote unanimously that they should be executed. Anyone who was sentenced to 
death before that date can't seek a life sentence based on the lack of an 
unanimous decision.

Pooler's death sentence became final on Oct. 5, 1998. So, even though a jury 
voted 9-3 for his execution, he is not entitled to a new sentencing hearing, 
said Florida Assistant Attorney General Leslie Campbell.

But Pooler's attorney Linda McDermott countered that Pooler raised many of the 
same issues that eventually led the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 to throw out the 
state's death penalty as unconstitutional. "Mr. Pooler specifically challenged 
the Florida statute ... so he should get the benefit from it," she told 
Colbath.

Campbell, however, argued that the Florida Supreme Court had a good reason for 
selecting the cut-off date. It was the date the nation's high court in a 
landmark case struck down Arizona's death penalty as unconstitutional. After 
Ring vs. Arizona was decided, Florida judges and lawmakers were on notice that 
its death penalty was flawed and changes should have been made.

But McDermott said there is evidence that the state supreme court may be 
reconsidering the cut-off date. She suggested that Colbath wait until Florida 
justices decide another case, which could extend relief to every inmate on 
death row.

Further, she reminded Colbath that it has been illegal to execute mentally 
disabled people since a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision. Tests done of Pooler, 
who struggled in school before dropping out, showed he had an I.Q. of 75, which 
signals he is mentally disabled, she said.

Campbell countered that Pooler's right to argue that he shouldn't be executed 
because of a mental disability expired in November 2004.

Calling the various constitutional issues "interesting," Colbath promised to 
make a decision within 30 days.

(source: Palm Beach Post)








OHIO:

Ohio commits another state-sanctioned murder



I killed a man last week.

So did you.

At 10:43 a.m. Wednesday at the state penitentiary near Lucasville, Ronald 
Phillips, 43, was pronounced dead after an agent of the state injected him with 
a fatal drug cocktail containing the sedative midazolam, the paralytic drug 
rocuronium bromide, and the heart-stopping drug potassium chloride.

The state did this in your name and paid for it with money it took from you.

The rationale for this state-sanctioned murder is that when Phillips was a 
teenager he beat his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter to death.

It was certainly a brutal and heinous crime and I shed no tears for Phillip's 
death. However, I do weep because every time we murder someone in the name of 
"justice" a little bit dies in each of us.

Most civilized nations have abolished this abhorrent practice. Of the 195 
recognized nations on Earth, only 58 still kill people as a form of judicial 
punishment, with the United States being the most developed country that still 
executes people.

Only 3 other industrialized nations retain capital punishment: Japan, Singapore 
and Taiwan. Even the Russians have not executed anyone in nearly 2 decades.

When it comes to capital punishment, we are in the same group with Saudi 
Arabia, North Korea and Iran.

Still, executions in the United States have been on the decline. There were 
only 20 last year and, with Phillips' death, 15 so far this year. There were 98 
in 1999 and 52 in 2009.

Nearly 1/2 the states have either banned executions or have a moratorium in 
place. In practice, however, the death penalty is only used in a few states: 30 
states have not had an execution in more than a decade and 35 states haven't 
had an execution in the last 5 years.

The death penalty in the United States is carried out by only 2 % of the 
nation's counties. According to a report from the Death Penalty Information 
Center, 85 % of U.S. counties have not had a single case resulting in an 
execution in 45 years.

The death penalty is on the way out in this country, yet Ohio seems to be 
ramping up the killing machine and is clearly on the wrong side of history.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, "Ohio has executed 53 
prisoners since the turn of the century - the most of any northern state and 
more than the combined total of every other northern state east of the 
Mississippi. Ohio ranked with Texas and Oklahoma as the only states to have 
executed at least 1 prisoner each year from 2001 to 2014."

Ohio has three more scheduled this year and 26 scheduled through 2020. There 
are 138 people on Ohio's death row.

Aside from the pure barbarity of state-sanctioned murder, executions make 
little sense.

The death penalty has no deterrence value, at least not as it is practiced in 
the United States. We conduct our state-sanctioned murders behind closed doors 
and we try to do it with as little pain as possible.

And we take our time doing it.

Ronald Phillips was a teenager when he killed that little girl. He was 43 years 
old when we killed him Wednesday, 24 years later.

Nor does it make fiscal sense.

It costs the state significantly more money to execute someone than to keep 
them locked up for the rest of their lives.

States waste hundreds of millions of dollars on the death penalty with no 
discernible result. Imagine how that money could better be used in actually 
reducing crime, such as hiring more police officers, increasing community 
policing, more programs to help drug addicts.

If we stopped wasting so much money killing a few people, we might actually be 
able to end the opioid crisis plaguing this nation.

Finally, there is the risk we will, if we haven't already, execute an innocent 
person. Since 1973, 159 people have been exonerated from death row. That is 159 
innocent people sentenced to death. Some of them spent decades on death row 
before being exonerated. There have been 3 exonerations this year alone.

It's time for Ohio and the United States to leave the 12th century behind and 
put an end to the wasteful behavior - in blood and treasure - of killing people 
and put that money toward actually solving problems.

(source: Commentary; Thomas J. Lucente Jr. is an attorney and night editor of 
The Lima News)








UTAH:

Costello, Emile could face death penalty in death of 3-year-old



In 2nd District Court Thursday, Weber County attorney Christopher Shaw told a 
judge that Miller Costello and Brenda Emile will require attorneys certified to 
handle death penalty cases.

Ogden couple accused of killing 3-year-old may ask for leave to attend funeral

Police responded to a 911 call on July 6 and found 3-year-old Angelina Costello 
dead. They observed that the girl appeared malnourished and had injuries 
consistent with prolonged abuse, according to the probable cause statement 
against her parents.

Costello, 25, and Emile, 22, are charged with aggravated murder in the death of 
their daughter. Aggravated murder is the only crime subject to the penalty of 
death under Utah law.

Costello and Emile appeared separately in court Thursday, and District Court 
Judge Michael DiReda informed them that he had spoken by phone with the 
attorneys who had expected to be retained to represent them individually. 
Because the funds that could be used to retain the attorneys are still tied up 
in the investigation, neither Costello nor Emile are presently represented.

Both Costello and Emile answered affirmatively when DiReda asked if they needed 
a public defender appointed in the interim. Weber County attorney Shaw advised 
the judge that a ???Rule 8 certified??? public defender would be necessary.

Rule 8 applies when the death penalty is a potential punishment for an indigent 
defendant. It sets forth qualifications for the complicated and expensive 
ordeal of defending a client in a death penalty case, requiring that the state 
provide for at least 2 attorneys with at least 5 years' experience, who "can 
dedicate those resources to the representation of the defendant ... with 
undivided loyalty."

Attorney Michael Bouwhuis is the coordinator of indigent defense services for 
Weber County. He said that he spoke with the county prosecutors Thursday, and 
they have not yet made a decision regarding the death penalty in Costello's and 
Emile's cases. The state is not required to declare its intention until after a 
preliminary hearing.

"We have to assume they are pursuing the death penalty, for the purposes of 
providing representation and protecting the rights of our clients," Bouwhuis 
said.

A report on the status of the couple's counsel is scheduled for Aug. 3. They 
are currently being held in the Weber County Jail without bond.

(source: standard.net)








ARIZONA:

udge allows Rector attorney to withdraw



A Superior Court judge on Friday allowed the attorney for a Bullhead City man 
accused of killing an 8-year-old girl to withdraw from the case.

Justin James Rector, 29, is charged with 1st-degree murder, kidnapping, child 
abuse and abandonment of a dead body in the Sept. 2, 2014 death of Isabella 
Grogan-Cannella. He allegedly strangled Grogan-Cannella and left her body in a 
shallow grave near her Bullhead City home. He faces the death penalty if 
convicted of the murder charge.

Rector's primary defense attorney, Gerald Gavin, filed a motion July 19 to 
withdraw from Rector's case after becoming aware on June 10 of an ethical 
conflict of interest, which he said cannot be resolved or avoided.

Gavin said 3/4 of the defense team will remain and the county???s Indigent 
Defense Service will start the process to look for another lead attorney to 
handle the murder case. Co-counsel Julia Cassels will remain on the case as 2nd 
counsel. 2 death penalty qualified attorneys are required in a capital murder 
case.

Cassels told the judge that if the prosecutor dropped the death penalty, she 
and her team are prepared to go to trial next year without needing to hire 
another attorney.

She also suggested to sit down with the prosecutor and go over the 1,000-plus 
pages of documents and evidence.

Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen said much of the work on the murder case 
doesn't need to be redone with the hiring of a new lead counsel. The judge 
allowed Gavin to withdraw and set a status hearing on the murder case for Sept. 
22.

Cassels will also be the attorney on Rector's latest case. He was indicted 
Thursday on three counts of aggravated assault after allegedly assaulting a 
detention officer July 17 in his cell. He was arraigned Friday and pleaded not 
guilty to the new charges. The judge said Rector faces from 6 months to 2 1/2 
years in prison if convicted of any of the aggravated assault charges. His next 
hearing on those charges was also set for Sept. 22.

Rector's murder trial has not been set. He is being held in county jail without 
bond on the murder charge. Gavin was assigned Rector's case in March 2015. The 
county has paid Gavin $248,020 for the 2 years and 5 months he has been the 
lead attorney on Rector's case.

(source: Mohave Valley Daily News)