[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., FLA., ALA.

[Rick Halperin]

June 1



TEXAS:

Death Row Solitary: 'Their Walls Have Driven Them Mad'


Anthony Graves emerged from solitary confinement over 6 years ago to become a 
national crusader for justice reform, but it took a recent report by 
researchers at the University of Texas at Austin to add new urgency to his 
campaign to reform the practice in his own state.

Graves spent more than 18 years in the Texas prison system, including 16 years 
in the all-solitary Allan B. Polunksy Unit, after being convicted for murders 
that he didn't commit. He was released in 2010 after DNA evidence helped 
exonerate him - but the trauma of his nearly 2 decades behind bars is with him 
still.

Graves started his own foundation - with about $250,000 the state compensated 
him for the years he was wrongfully imprisoned - to support his efforts. His 
argument that solitary confinement on death row is inhumane has been reinforced 
by the study published earlier this spring by the Human Rights Clinic at the 
University of Texas School of Law-Austin, entitled "Designed to Break You: 
Human Rights Violations on Texas' Death Row."

The study's title, he believes, couldn't be more accurate.

"Every day you have something going on in solitary confinement," Graves, who 
spent some 12 years of his solitary confinement on death row, told The Crime 
Report.

"From men going insane, to men dropping their appeals, to men overdosing on 
their medication - and some men not even being men because their walls have 
driven them mad."

Texas death row inmates, according to the report, are subjected to a total ban 
of visits from attorneys, friends and family; "substandard" physical and 
psychological health care; and lack of access to what human rights activists 
would consider "sufficient" religious services.

"Prolonged solitary confinement has overwhelmingly negative effects on inmates' 
mental health, exacerbating existing mental conditions, and causing more 
prisoners to develop mental illness for the 1st time," the report said.

As of April 2017, 233 men were on death row in the Texas Department of Criminal 
Justice's Polunksy Unit in Livingston, which "Texas Tough" author Robert 
Perkinson called the "most lethal" death row prison "anywhere in the democratic 
world." Another 6 women are housed in death row at the Mountain View Unit in 
Gatesville.

According to the UT-Austin study, inmates on death row spend an average of 14 
years and 6 months housed there - most of the time in solitary.

According to a 2014 ACLU brief, Texas death-row prisoners had most of the same 
privileges as those in the general prison population until 1999, when they were 
effectively confined to permanent solitary confinement until their execution. 
Under current conditions, according to the report, inmates on solitary are 
confined to 8 by 12-foot cells for at least 22 hours per day, and are banned 
from socializing or eating with other inmates. Inmates are only able to see out 
a small window in their cells by rolling their mattresses and standing on them.

A bill calling for an Office of Independent Oversight Ombudsman for the Texas 
Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), which would increase transparency in the 
prison system was considered by the Texas legislature this session, but failed 
to move forward.

The problem is not confined to Texas. According to the UT-Austin Human Rights 
Clinic researchers, more than 3,000 death row inmates across 35 states are in 
solitary confinement. Most are isolated due to their original capital 
conviction - and not for behavior while in prison.

Some states have reformed conditions. 7 - California, Alabama, Georgia, 
Missouri, Nevada, Ohio and Indiana - now allow visits on death row with family 
and attorneys, for example.

But the number of exonerations has focused attention on what happens to all 
prisoners who experience solitary confinement.

Graves said he was fortunate to have a support system when he was released from 
prison. However, he says he suffered from PTSD, sleep deprivation and 
loneliness. He was so used to having only himself for company that he had a 
difficult time adjusting to the company of others.

"It's like landing on Mars," Graves said of his return to civil society. "The 
whole word has changed, and you have to deal with that. You're starting to feel 
like maybe you can't make it out here and you start to deal with it 
psychologically.

"The sad part is there are no facilities or programs trying to deal with these 
issues."

He believes inmates held in solitary confinement are set up for failure when it 
comes to rehabilitation, and that runs counter to the purpose of any criminal 
justice system. Considering that even inmates on death row could be released, 
as he was, on new evidence that exonerates their charges, authorities should 
not exclude those inmates from reform measures.

Researchers found "self-injury" is 8 times more likely, and suicide 5 times 
more likely, in Texas' solitary confinement than in the general population.

"Men are literally going insane and attempting suicide because of the way we're 
allowing the state to house death row inmates," he says.

A 2015 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas report backs up Graves' 
claim. Researchers found "self-injury" is 8 times more likely, and suicide 5 
times more likely, in Texas' solitary confinement than in the general 
population.

Nevertheless, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) counters that its 
processes and procedures are working effectively.

In a statement emailed to The Crime Report, identical to one published in The 
New York Times, and other publications, TDCJ Director Jason Clark said: 
"Offenders on death row are individuals who have been convicted of heinous 
crimes and given the harshest sentence possible under the law. TDCJ will 
continue to ensure it fulfills its mission of public safety and house death row 
offenders appropriately."

Clark declined further comment on solitary confinement or any of the study's 
findings.

Graves believes that conditions on death row will only improve if Texas and 
other states stop seeing solitary as a "weapon" used only to punish prisoners.

"Solitary confinement shouldn't be a weapon," he said. "But the way it's 
designed (currently), there is no way to properly get them ready to send them 
back out to the general population (in prison) or into the world.

"It's a recipe for disaster."

Nevertheless, Doug Smith, a policy analyst at Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, 
who was instrumental in pushing the bill forward, said there is evidence of 
progress.

A law went into effect Sept. 1, 2015 mandating that correctional departments 
conduct a mental health assessment prior to placing prisoners in solitary 
confinement. The legislation was a direct result of the ACLU study, which 
called for TDCJ to exclude people with mental illness from being placed in 
solitary confinement.

Smith, an ex-inmate who served some of his sentence in solitary, acknowledges 
that TDCJ now offers improved services to different segments of the prison 
population, including a program to help some inmates transition from 
administrative segregation back into the general prison population.

But other states have gone much further.

California loosened its stringent solitary confinement policies after a 
successful lawsuit in 2015 that followed a series of hunger strikes staged by 
inmates across the state in protest over "inhumane conditions and degrading 
conditions of confinement."

The strikes, deemed the largest of its kind, garnered worldwide attention and 
led to a series of legislative hearings including a lawsuit that ultimately 
ended the use of long-term solitary confinement in the state.

"Prolonged solitary confinement is torture and cannot be imposed on any 
prisoner."

"We argued that prolonged solitary confinement is torture and cannot be imposed 
on any prisoner," says Rachel Meeropol, senior staff attorney and associate 
director of legal training at CCR, which joined the lawsuit in 2012.

"We successfully settled the case based on California agreeing to release 
thousands of prisoners who'd been in solitary confinement for decades into 
general population prisons. Under the settlement, California no longer puts 
prisoners in solitary based on gang association alone which is how so many 
people ended up there for so long."

Meeropol said Texas appears to be out-of-step with the rest of the country 
which is moving away from solitary confinement.

"We've seen several states over the last decade recognize that solitary 
confinement is not necessary for prison security," she states. "In fact, it's 
counter-productive, and based on the (UT-Austin) report, it seems clear that 
Texas' solitary confinement system violates the Eighth Amendment and is 
desperately in need of reform."

In March of this year, 3 death row prisoners in Louisiana filed a lawsuit on 
behalf of all death row inmates at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, 
asking for a change to the prison???s policy that automatically places all of 
them in solitary confinement without opportunity to challenge their placement.

Betsy Ginsberg, director of the Civil Rights Clinic and clinical associate 
professor of law at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, 
believes such lawsuits can set a pattern for change elsewhere in the country.

"Prisons have a set of factors to take into account to determine what level of 
security a prisoner needs," she said. "It doesn't need to rely just on 
someone's sentence..... It should be how well they behave inside a prison."

Ginsberg said the growing opposition to solitary confinement has been boosted 
by statements from Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer and Anthony Kennedy.

"The view that is gaining consensus is that it is inhumane," she said.

That's encouraging to Graves, who has been crisscrossing the state to provide 
resources to the wrongfully convicted and ensure they have support to re-enter 
back into society. Graves was influential in convincing a key witness to 
testify in Alfred Brown's case, the latest Texas death row exoneree.

He has also in demand as a speaker on criminal justice issues at universities 
and organizations across the country. Recent appearances include: the American 
Bar Association Death Penalty Representation Project's 25th anniversary with 
retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and the Anti-Defamation 
League's Summer Association Program.

Graves also testified at the U.S. Senate Judiciary Hearing on Solitary 
Confinement led by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill), and frequently presents at ACLU 
Continuing Legal Education workshops.

Even as he sees reform happening in other states, he worries he will still wait 
a long time before anything changes in his home state.

"Texas laws are disconnected from the reality on the streets," said Graves, who 
is now studying for a criminal justice degree through an online program with 
the University of Maryland.

"[It's] one of the worst states when it comes to inhumane punishment."

(source: Christine Bolanos, a freelance writer based in Austin, Texas, covers 
government, education, human interest features and business for numerous 
international, national and local outlets----thecrimereport.org)






PENNSYLVANIA:

7 jurors chosen as selection in Leeton Thomas double-homicide trial resumes 
Thursday


A feed mill manager, a retired elementary school teacher and a college student 
majoring in finance were among seven jurors chosen Wednesday in Lancaster 
County Court for the double-homicide trial of Leeton Thomas of East Drumore 
Township.

Jury selection was scheduled to enter a 3rd day Thursday as attorneys work to 
seat a total of 12 jurors and 2 alternates.

Prosecutors are seeking to convict Thomas, 39, in the stabbing deaths of an 
East Drumore Township woman and her 16-year-old daughter, both witnesses in his 
sexual molestation case.

If convicted of 1st-degree, or premeditated murder, Thomas faces an immediate 
penalty hearing at which the jury will impose a sentence of death by lethal 
injection or life in prison without possibility of parole.

State police accuse Thomas, who lived on Conowingo Road, of breaking into the 
basement of a house on Spring Valley Road in East Drumore Township and fatally 
stabbing Lisa Scheetz, 44, and Hailey Scheetz, 16.

Scheetz's 15-year-old daughter, Paige, survived stab wounds to the chest, 
shoulder and back. First Assistant District Attorney Christopher Larsen listed 
her as a prosecution witness.

(source: Associated Press)

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

PA moratorium doesn't solve costly death penalty problem


Execution proceedings happen in the state of Pennsylvania 5 times each year - 
yet the state hasn't executed an inmate since 1999.

Mock executions are routinely performed to ensure that in the event of an 
execution, the prison guards and doctors would be prepared. But right now the 
state isn't permitted to actually execute any inmates.

That's because in 2015 Gov. Tom Wolf signed a moratorium on executions in the 
state while a bipartisan task force investigates the cost, history and 
effectiveness of capital punishment. Since the state of Pennsylvania carried 
out its last execution 18 years ago, hundreds of people have sat on death row 
in limbo - currently, 165 inmates await their executions.

Seeing numbers like those may have been what prompted Gov. Wolf to institute 
the moratorium in February of 2015, but the review itself has actually been 
underway since 2011 - and nearly 6 years later it still isn't completed. It's 
far beyond overdue at this point, and now the Commonwealth must decide whether 
to reinstate capital punishment or end the practice altogether.

Since the moratorium began, not much has changed. The last execution carried 
out in Pennsylvania's chambers - which are at the state Correctional 
Institution in Rockview - was in 1999 against Gary Heidnik, who received 2 
death sentences in addition to his cumulative prison term of 150 to 300 years.

Today, the list of condemned prisoners is still growing - but the names on it 
don't seem to matter to the state.

Among the condemned are 165 prisoners who are reduced to little more than their 
name, a single letter abbreviating their race and their sentencing date. These 
prisoners have been in solitary confinement - a practice that causes inmates to 
suffer from anxiety, depression, insomnia and paranoia - since their sentencing 
dates, which date back to 1983, over 30 years ago.

And these are expensive years - each inmate in solitary confinement costs the 
state $10,000 a year more than their counterparts serving life sentences 
without parole. Trials can vary in cost, but each trial costs taxpayers 
millions of dollars, and in capital punishment cases there can often be 
multiple trials, increasing the state's spending in a period of severe budget 
deficit.

Beyond the price of housing and sentencing the condemned inmates, the state 
also constantly maintains the execution facility. While we don't know the daily 
operation cost of the facility, we do know that an investigation by the Reading 
Eagle found that between 1978 and 2014, the state spent over $800 million on 
its capital punishment proceedings - nearly $300 million per execution actually 
performed.

We also know that the state currently sits in a budget deficit of nearly $600 
million, which would be reduced if the state decided to end capital punishment 
- but it can't seem to decide, given its failure to produce the review.

The issue isn't with the morals of capital punishment - that argument requires 
far more consideration, and even then there are no clear answers. But the issue 
is with Pennsylvania's course of action. By placing a moratorium on capital 
punishment and failing to produce a long overdue review, the state continues to 
cost its taxpayers - a clear example of the state failing to take decisive 
action to address a pressing issue.

The answer is simple - the state needs to decide with finality whether or not 
we will be among the other 31 states that practice capital punishment. Until 
then, we are merely wasting our money, waiting for someone to decide if $272 
million per procedure is worth it - but while the morality of the issue is 
complex, the economics of it seem much more simple.

(source: The Pitt News Editorial Board)






NORTH CAROLINA:

4 Cumberland murderers try again to get off death row


4 death row inmates convicted of murders in Cumberland County on Tuesday asked 
the North Carolina Supreme Court to give them another chance to prove that 
racism was an illegal factor in their trials.

2 former judges from the North Carolina Court of Appeals and other lawyers 
filed briefs on Tuesday to bolster the request.

The 4 inmates previously used the now-repealed North Carolina Racial Justice 
Act to get off death row in 2012. The Racial Justice Act said that if a death 
row inmate can prove to a judge that racism tainted the conduct of his murder 
trial, then his death sentence must be commuted to life in prison without 
parole.

All 4 were returned to death row following a December 2015 Supreme Court ruling 
that overturned their reprieves and sent their cases back to Cumberland County 
Superior Court.

(source: The Fayetteville Observer)






FLORIDA:

Florida Supreme Court revising death penalty jury instructions


The Florida Supreme Court is one step closer to establishing new capital crime 
jury instructions.

Comments have rolled into the court over the past month about its proposed 
amendments to the jury instructions in 1st-degree murder cases, which the court 
originally posted for public viewing on April 13. The commenting period ended 
May 29. 5 commenters have entered requests for oral arguments in the case. None 
have yet been scheduled.

8 Marion County defendants and 2 local death row inmates are waiting on the 
finalization of the jury instructions. 7 of the 8 defendants have not yet gone 
to trial to determine whether they are guilty of the state's highest crime; the 
other, Kelvin Coleman, is waiting for the penalty phase of his trial to 
determine his fate.

Death row inmates Renaldo McGirth, sentenced in 2008, and William Kopsho, 
sentenced in 2009, have been granted re-sentencings by the state's highest 
court.

State Supreme Court justices are faced with revising jury instructions after 
Gov. Rick Scott signed new regulations in March requiring a unanimous jury 
decision in death penalty cases. The regulation also requires that juries, not 
judges, find the aggravating factors in a case worthy of sentencing the 
defendant to death.

The verdict form given to penalty phase juries has been completely revised to 
lead jurors through the process of determining the correct sentence.

Jurors must first unanimously find that at least 1 aggravating factor - such as 
if the defendant is a previously convicted felon or the defendant knowingly 
created a great risk of death - was established by the state beyond a 
reasonable doubt. They must then find whether the factors are sufficient to 
warrant a possible death sentence. If the jury is not unanimous on either of 
these topics, the defendant will be ineligible for the death penalty and will 
receive life in prison without parole.

Another major revision is that definitions of aggravating factors and 
mitigating circumstances and instructions on how to determine whether a witness 
is credible have been moved to the final jury instructions, meaning the jury 
will hear them before heading into deliberation instead of before hearing 
opening statements.

This change made initial jury instructions significantly shorter: a brief 
explanation of the trial process and what the jurors should consider are paired 
with brief definitions of key terms, which are readdressed in the final 
instructions.

Most of the comments about the new jury instructions simply concerned word 
choice - using "proven" instead of "established," or "verdict" instead of 
"recommendation," for examples - and additional explainer language.

Howard Dimmig, a public defender in the 12th Judicial Circuit, though, believes 
the state Supreme Court needs to complete a "comprehensive re-evaluation of the 
standard jury instructions." In the 6-page document he submitted as commentary, 
he states the last comprehensive review of capital crime jury instructions 
occurred in 2004.

The new unanimous jury rulings "constitute a paradigm shift in Florida's death 
penalty jurisprudence which necessitates a complete reassessment of the 
standard jury instructions," he wrote.

Only after re-examining the instructions should the state Supreme Court adopt 
final jury instructions, Dimmig wrote.

The Florida Center for Capital Representation at Florida International 
University's College of Law and the Florida Association of Criminal Defense 
Lawyers submitted a joint commentary. Their biggest critique to the 
instructions was about the jury verdict form.

They want the verdict form to be modified to show that the jury's findings 
"must not only be unanimous, but must be based on proof beyond a reasonable 
doubt."

When the Florida Supreme Court released the revised instructions, it stated 
they could be used immediately until further notice. It is unknown when the 
final instructions will be published, but Marion County's 1st death penalty 
decision is slated for August: Coleman's penalty phase trial is set to begin 
Aug. 21.

(source: The Ocala Star Banner)

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

Penalty phase begins in Orance County death penalty trial


An Orange County jury will likely decide this week whether a man convicted in 
the murder of an 83-year-old woman should be sentenced to life in prison or 
death row.

Juan Rosario, 30, was convicted in April of murdering Elena Ortega, as well as 
robbing and setting fire to her home in 2013.

The same jurors who found him guilty returned Wednesday to hear opening 
arguments regarding whether he should be put to death or get life in prison. 
All 12 will have to recommend a death sentence for him to be sent to death row.

The governor reassigned the case from Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis 
Ayala to Ocala-based prosecutor Brad King after Ayala announced she will not 
seek the death penalty for anyone. This is the 1st capital case being tried in 
the region since that announcement.

"There was a careful plan or prearranged designation by Juan Rosario to commit 
the murder of Mrs. Ortega," prosecutor Kenneth Nunnelley said. "He went back to 
her house because she saw his face."

Jurors found Rosario guilty after about an hour of deliberation last month. The 
state's main witness was his girlfriend at the time, who said he came home with 
blood splattered in his shirt and told her he robbed an old lady, and that he 
had to go back and kill her because she woke up and saw his face.

Ortega's belongings were found buried in Rosario's backyard months later, after 
his girlfriend came forward and told deputies she buried them there.

On Wednesday, jurors wiped away tears as Ortega's daughter, Elena Wilson, took 
the stand and talked about how much her mother meant to her.

"She was my cheerleader, my best friend, my guardian angel," Wilson said, 
reading from a prepared statement as photos of her mother flashed on a screen 
behind her. "I truly don't wish this on anyone. Until this day, I still repeat 
the word 'mom' many times every day, looking for her love, her attention, her 
guidance."

Jurors also heard from Wilson's husband, Ortega's son-in-law, who talked about 
how welcome Ortega made him feel in her home; and Ortega's son, who talked 
about the sacrifices his mother made to keep them well and happy when they were 
growing up in Cuba.

The defense will get its chance on Thursday, when jurors hear about Rosario's 
childhood and family life, which defense attorney Luis Davila described as 
"dysfunctional, to say the least." Davila was 1 of 5 children raised by a 
single mother, Davila said. His mother's live-in boyfriend shot and killed her, 
Davila said.

"He was under the influence of extreme mental and emotional disturbance at the 
time of this incident," he said.

(source: Orlando Sentinel)

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

Prosecutors cleared to seek death penalty in disemboweling and other cases


The death penalty is back on the table for a Sunrise man who admitted to police 
that he disemboweled his girlfriend, and for a Miami man charged with killing 
his ex-girlfriend and dumping her body in a ditch in Delray Beach, an appeals 
court ruled Wednesday.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal struck down a February ruling by Broward 
Circuit Judge Ilona Holmes that blocked the state from seeking the death 
penalty against Fidel Lopez, 26, who is charged with first degree murder in the 
gruesome slaying of Maria Lizette Nemeth, whose remains were found in her 
apartment at the Colonnade Residences in Sunrise on Sept. 20, 2015.

The same ruling applies to the case against John Eugene Chapman, who is facing 
a murder charge in Palm Beach County for the death of his ex-girlfriend, 
Vanessa Williams Bristol.

Death penalty prosecutions delayed despite new state law

Both defendants were set to go to trial earlier this year, when the status of 
the state's death penalty was in flux. The judges in their cases ruled that the 
death penalty could not be sought because the indictments did not include the 
"aggravating factors" a jury would have to find in order to recommend 
execution.

Palm Beach Circuit Judge Krista Marx issued her ruling in the Chapman case in 
January. Holmes' ruling came a few weeks later. Prosecutors appealed both 
cases, arguing that aggravating factors are not always clear by the time a 
grand jury decides to indict.

In a motion in the Lopez case, prosecutor Tom Coleman argued that recent 
Florida Supreme Court decisions make it clear that a jury needs to find that 
aggravating factors have been proved beyond a reasonable doubt, but grand 
juries, which meet closer to the beginning of murder cases, do not need to make 
those allegations.

"The Florida Supreme Court has consistently and unequivocally rejected the 
argument that aggravators must be alleged in the indictment," Coleman wrote.

The appeals court agreed with the prosecutor, putting the Lopez and Chapman 
trials back on track for jury selection, barring any other delays that are 
sought by defense lawyers.

Attorneys for Lopez had demanded a speedy trial in early February, and jury 
selection was scheduled to begin in the middle of that month. The speedy trial 
demand came at a time when Florida had no legal death penalty procedure in 
place, giving Holmes a second reason to keep it from being considered.

The governor signed a new death penalty law in March that requires a unanimous 
jury recommendation. Wednesday's appeals court ruling said the new law 
addresses concerns about the constitutionality of the state's procedure.

Information on Chapman's next court date was not posted on the Palm Beach 
County Clerk's website Wednesday.

Lopez is due back in court for a status conference on Friday. Defense lawyers 
have not said whether they will proceed with their demand for a speedy trial. 
Attorney Melisa McNeill said in February that the defense was ready for trial, 
brushing off questions about whether the timing of the demand was intended to 
capitalize on the uncertainty over the death penalty.

(source: Sun Sentinel)






ALABAMA----impending execution

Death row inmate set to die in June challenges midazolam ruling


An Alabama death row inmate has asked a federal appeals court to block his 
execution for the slayings of 3 people 23 years ago.

Robert Melson, 45, is set to die by lethal injection on June 8. His attorney, 
John Palombi with the Federal Defenders for the Middle District of Alabama, 
filed a motion last week in the 11th District Court of Appeals asking for the 
execution to be stayed until a judge can review and rule on Melson's appeal.

A lower court previously dismissed Melson's challenge to Alabama's 3-drug 
lethal injection method of execution because the motion was filed past the 
deadline, court records show. His appeal to the 11th Circuit states that the 
court should conduct a hearing on Melson's method of execution challenge, and 
delay the execution until those issues are resolved.

Melson was convicted in Etowah County for fatally shooting 3 people, and 
injuring another, at a Gadsden Popeye's Chicken & Biscuits restaurant in April 
1994. He has been on death row since May 1996.

Another man, Cuhuatemoc Peraita, was also convicted in the crime. Peraita was 
originally sentenced to life in prison but was moved to Alabama's death row 
after his conviction for his role in stabbing another inmate to death in 2001.

Employees Tamika Collins, 18, Nathaniel Baker, 17, and Darrell Collier, 23, 
were killed in the shooting. Bryant Archer was the only survivor and identified 
Melson as the shooter. Prosecutors said Peraita planned the crime.

Melson's previous 2 appeals were denied. He has exhausted his direct appeal, 
state postconviction remedies, and federal habeas remedies, the Alabama 
Attorney General's Office previously stated.

Court documents filed in Melson's case argue the switch to midazolam from 
pentobarbital has caused a "method of execution that has failed to work 
properly in 4 states, including Alabama."

The documents state the district court that denied Melson's case on the 
midazolam switch must hold a trial on the issues raised in his motion. It 
continues, "Mr. Melson's execution should be stayed pending the resolution of 
his and the other challenge to Alabama's method of execution."

The filing seeking a halt to the execution states a list of reasons why the 
stay should be granted: Melson meets the standard for being granted a stay, 
would likely be successful on appeal, his motion should not have been dismissed 
in the lower courts, Melson is not required to suggest a 3-drug alternative 
method of execution, and he will suffer "irreparable harm" if a stay is not 
granted.

The document also states Melson's attorneys should be able to use either cell 
phones or landline phones during the time of his execution, should something go 
wrong. According to court documents, prohibiting phones in the prison and 
witness rooms violates Melson's "right to access to the courts."

Former death row inmate Tommy Arthur raised similar claims about phones and 
method of execution in his appeals, but courts - including the U.S. Supreme 
Court - denied his motions. He was executed on May 25.

The Attorney General's Office stated in its Jan. 18 motion to the Alabama 
Supreme Court, "Melson committed his horrific crime many years ago, and his 
conventional appeals have been completed for several years."

The office declined to comment on the newest motion.

(source: al.com)