[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., GA., FLA., ALA., MISS., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

June 8



TEXAS----stay of impending execution

Execution halted for man convicted in Texas real estate agent's murder----The 
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday halted the execution of a man 
convicted in the murder of a McKinney real estate agent in 2007.


Another Texas execution has been stopped by the state's highest criminal 
appellate court, giving relief to the man convicted in 2007 in the robbery and 
murder of a McKinney real estate agent.

Kosoul Chanthakoummane, 36, was scheduled to die on July 19 after more than 9 
years on death row. He was convicted in the 2006 stabbing death of Sarah Walker 
in the model home of a subdivision where she worked, according to court 
documents. On Wednesday morning, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a 
stay of execution and sent his case back to the Collin County trial court to 
review claims of discredited forensic sciences.

On July 8, 2006, a couple coming to view the model home found Walker dead, 
stabbed 33 times with a bite mark on her neck, according to a federal court 
filing. Her watch and ring were missing from her body. Bloody fingerprints 
found at the scene and DNA under Walker's fingernails linked the crime to 
Chanthakoummane, who was arrested nearly 2 months later.

Chanthakoummane told police he went to a model home after his car broke down, 
and that he had cuts on his hands that could explain his blood at the scene, 
according to the filing. At trial, the state presented forensic experts who 
claimed the bite mark on Walker's neck and DNA at the scene pointed to 
Chanthakoummane.

In 2016, a White House report concluded forensic bite-mark evidence was not 
scientifically valid.

This is the 3rd time the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has halted a scheduled 
execution this year (2 of those scheduled executions were for the same man, 
Tilon Carter). Another execution was halted by a federal court.

There have been 4 executions in the state this year.

(source: Texas Tribune)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----24

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----543

Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #

25---------July 27-----------------Taichin Preyor---------544

26---------Aug. 30-----------------Steven Long------------545

27---------Sept.7------------------Juan Castillo----------546

28---------Oct. 26-----------------Clinton Young----------547

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)

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

Intellectually disabled death row inmate should be exempt from death penalty


The Gospel compels Christians to speak for those without a voice and to 
advocate for society's most vulnerable members, including those with 
intellectual disability. For this reason, I feel compelled to speak out on 
behalf of Bobby James Moore, an individual with documented life-long 
intellectual disability who has spent the last 37 years on Texas' death row.

While Christians have varying views on the death penalty, hopefully we can all 
agree no person with intellectual disability should be executed. As the U.S. 
Supreme Court recognized more than 15 years ago, "(n)o legitimate penological 
purpose is served by executing a person with intellectual disability" because 
such persons "do not act with the level of moral culpability that characterizes 
the most serious adult criminal conduct." While the Texas Court of Criminal 
Appeals has been reticent to heed this message, it has both the legal and moral 
duty to do so now. And it should take an important 1st step here by reforming 
Moore's death sentence to life imprisonment.

As a 13-year-old, Moore lacked a basic understanding of the days of the week, 
the months of the year, telling time, and the concept that subtraction is the 
reverse of addition. He failed the 1st grade twice and every grade after that 
before dropping out of school in the ninth grade. At age 14, his father - after 
subjecting Moore to years of severe mental and physical abuse - threw him out 
of the house because Moore still did not know how to read. Moore lived on the 
streets, eating out of garbage cans and sleeping in a pool hall. He survived 
largely due to the kindness of strangers.

Then, at the age of 20, Moore was involved in a bungled grocery store robbery, 
in which he shot and killed a grocery store clerk. He has spent nearly 40 years 
on death row for that crime, which we all condemn.

In 2014, a Harris County District Court judge held a 2-day hearing. After 
carefully listening to experts and witnesses, Judge Susan Brown applied current 
medical standards and determined that Moore is intellectually disabled and 
therefore exempt from the death penalty. She noted that Moore has an average IQ 
score of 70.66, which is well within the range of intellectual disability. And 
she found in her lengthy fact-finding that Moore's serious mental and social 
difficulties were very clear from early childhood.

The judge's determination that Moore is intellectually disabled and exempt from 
the death penalty should have been the end of the matter. Instead, in 2015, the 
Court of Criminal Appeals said that the lower court erred in applying current 
medical standards in making its determination that Moore was intellectually 
disabled. Applying non-clinical and outdated medical standards, it decided that 
Moore was not intellectually disabled and could be executed.

In March 2017, in Moore v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court emphatically reversed 
the appeals court's decision. The U.S. Supreme Court carefully reviewed the 
record. It emphasized that Moore's IQ score is clearly within the range of 
intellectually disabled and that the evidence just as clearly supported that he 
had significant mental and social difficulties from an early age. The U.S. 
Supreme Court also strongly endorsed Brown's application of current medical 
standards in concluding that Moore is intellectually disabled. Now Moore's case 
is back before the Court of Criminal Appeals.

This case presents not only a legal issue, but also a moral one. In Moore's 
case, the U.S. Supreme Court questioned why Texas applies current medical 
standards for diagnosing intellectual disability in other contexts, "yet clings 
to superseded standards when an individual's life is at stake." The appeals 
court now has the opportunity to chart a new course for how Texas handles 
intellectual disability claims and ensure that no person with intellectually 
disability is executed.

Moore is not the worst of the worst, but due to his significant intellectual 
deficits, he is certainly among the most vulnerable. He is worthy of God's love 
and of our fair and humane treatment. There is a path forward that affirms 
Moore's innate dignity as a human being, while still ensuring that justice is 
done. The Court of Criminal Appeals should follow this path and reform Moore's 
death sentence to life imprisonment.

(source: Opinion; Steve Wells, DMin, is pastor of South Main Baptist Church in 
Housto----Houston Chronicle)






VIRGINIA:

2 suspects in Raymond Wood murder case to get court-appointed attorneys


A judge said Wednesday he will name 2 court-appointed attorneys each for 2 
capital murder suspects in the slaying of Lynchburg teen Raymond Wood.

Jose Coreas-Ventura, 20, and Lisandro Posada-Vazquez, 24, had been represented 
in a lower court by the public defender and a Lynchburg attorney, respectively, 
but neither of those lawyers could defend them in a capital murder trial. The 2 
face upgraded charges after a grand jury indictment June 2.

A 3rd suspect, Victor Arnoldo Rodas, 19, faces 1st-degree murder and other 
felony charges, and Bedford County Circuit Judge James Updike Jr. said he would 
ask attorney Matthew Pack to continue representing Rodas. A tentative trial 
date for Rodas has been set for Oct. 24.

Wood's body was found by a motorist March 27 lying on Roaring Run Road in 
Goode. Authorities have said they believe Wood, 17, was taken from Lynchburg 
against his will before his killing.

Each of the defendants, who are being held without bond in Blue Ridge Regional 
Jail, appeared separately into Updike's courtroom in shackles to answer 
questions about how he wished to be represented.

Because each defendant said he could not afford to retain his own attorney, 
Updike asked several standard questions regarding income and assets. He 
determined in each case the defendant qualified for court-appointed counsel.

Coreas-Ventura and Posada-Vazquez face the possibility of the death penalty if 
convicted of capital murder, and Updike said he will contact qualified 
attorneys to determine who can represent them. By Virginia law, at least 2 
attorneys are named for indigent capital murder defendants who receive 
court-appointed counsel.

For now, trial dates for the 2 men have not been set.

The charges against those 2 are capital murder, robbery, abduction for 
pecuniary benefit and participation in a criminal act in association with a 
criminal street gang.

Rodas said he has about $500 in cash and owns a 1993 Honda Del Sol. However, 
Bedford County Commonwealth's Attorney Wes Nance told the judge the car has 
been seized for evidentiary purposes and thus cannot be liquidated.

Updike said Pack has asked to continue representing Rodas, and the judge 
appointed him for the Circuit Court trial.

Following the advisement, Nance said while Rodas does not potentially face the 
death penalty, he could be sentenced to life in prison on 3 charges: 1st-degree 
murder, robbery and abduction for pecuniary benefit.

Rodas also is charged with participation in a criminal act in association with 
a criminal street gang.

(source: newsadvance.com)






GEORGIA:

Grand jury re-indicts 4 alleged gang members in possible revenge slaying


A Chatham County grand jury on Wednesday re-indicted 4 alleged members of the 
nationally affiliated Bloods gang in connection with the shooting death of a 
24-year-old man, who was killed 5 days after defending himself during an armed 
robbery.

The re-indictments of Arthur Newton, 23; Artez Strain, 22; Timothy Coleman, 21; 
and Tyriek Walker, 21, were administrative, cleaning up minor issues with the 
initial documents returned in November, prosecutors said.

District Attorney Meg Heap is seeking the death penalty for all 4 during 
proceedings before Superior Court Judge John E. Morse Jr. Because the death 
penalty is involved, all 4 must be tried separately.

In court documents filed earlier in the case, Heap alleged that Newton directed 
another to commit Dominque Powell's slaying and that Coleman was the gunman. 
She also alleged that Coleman committed the murder of another "for the purpose 
of receiving money or any other thing of monetary value" and that he committed 
the murder as "an agent of another person."

Walker and Strain also were alleged to have committed the slaying to "receive 
money or any other thing of monetary value" as an agent of another person.

Heap's documents also alleged that in all 4 cases, "the offense of (Powell) was 
outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman, in that it involved 
depravity of mind."

It was the 1st time Heap, who declined comment, has sought the death penalty.

According to officials, police responded to a shooting on Sept. 12 in the 900 
block of Garey Avenue in Tatemville, where they found Powell suffering with a 
fatal gunshot wound outside a residence.

Powell was the victim of an armed robbery on Sept. 7 in the neighborhood. 
During the robbery, Powell exchanged gunfire with would-be robbers Antwan 
Drayton and Newton, police said. Investigators concluded that Powell shot 
Drayton and Newton in self-defense during the robbery.

After being arrested, Newton ordered the death of Powell, Lumpkin said. Strain, 
Coleman and Walker carried out those orders and participated in Powell's death, 
police said.

According to the indictments, Coleman caused Powell's death by shooting him on 
Sept. 12.

(source: savannahnow.com)






FLORIDA:

Murder case defendant unhappy with legal representation


At a status conference Wednesday, the defense attorney for a man charged with 
1st-degree murder said his team is ready for trial. But his client, for whom 
the state is seeking the death penalty, didn't seem to be on board.

Dillon Gresham, 26, accused of the 2014 murder of Robert Hiles, 64, of Citra, 
disagreed with his defense attorney, J. Edwin Mills, of Orlando. At the end of 
the hearing, he accused Mills of not being a competent lawyer and wanted him to 
be tested for competency.

Gresham said he has sent multiple letters to Mills and has not heard back. He 
said he did not want to postpone the trial because of this issue, because he is 
innocent, but wanted it addressed.

Mills did not reply to the accusations in court.

Fifth Judicial Circuit Court Judge Willard Pope acknowledged Gresham's 
comments, but did not act on them.

"I have no reason to believe Mr. Mills is being insufficient," he said.

When Gresham continued, he told the defendant not to argue.

"This is my life on the line, how are we not going to argue about it?" Gresham 
said.

The judge assured Gresham he would have plenty of time to meet with Mills 
before the trial.

Pope set one more status conference for Aug. 30 and said he expects the case to 
go to trial in September.

Gresham, Timothy Mayhew, 23, and Angel Long, 25, who were tenants of Hiles, 
were accused of killing Hiles, tying him up and setting fire to his house. All 
3 were charged with 1st-degree murder and grand theft. Mayhew faces an 
additional charge of arson.

Firefighters found Hiles beaten and badly burned in his doorway. He died later 
that day at Ocala Regional Medical Center.

Long said she knew of the plans but did not participate in the murder. She 
pleaded no contest April 4 to 2nd-degree murder and grand theft as part of a 
plea deal in which she was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Gresham and Mayhew were indicted in August 2014. The State is seeking the death 
penalty for both defendants.

Mayhew's case is still in the preparation phase, with his next court date 
scheduled for July 19.

Gresham and Mayhew are 2 of the 8 Marion County defendants facing the death 
penalty.

(source: The Ledger)






ALABAMA----impending execution

Inmate's lawyers seek to halt execution citing faulty drug


Lawyers for a condemned Alabama inmate made a series of legal filings trying to 
halt his upcoming execution, arguing there are questions about the sedative 
that will be used.

Robert Melson is scheduled to die by lethal injection Thursday for the 1994 
fatal shooting of 3 employees during a robbery at a Popeye's restaurant in 
Gadsden, 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of Birmingham.

Attorneys for Melson asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the 
Alabama Supreme Court Wednesday to block the execution. The 11th Circuit had 
previously issued a stay that was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Melson's attorneys argue the sedative midazolam is ineffective and noted a 
December execution in which an inmate coughed and heaved for 13 minutes.

The Alabama attorney general's office has argued midazolam's use has been 
upheld.

(source: Daily Journal)

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

There are more Robert Melsons than Tommy Arthurs


On May 26, minutes after midnight, Tommy Arthur was put to death by lethal 
injection. "His case," Gov. Kaye Ivey said, "was reviewed thoroughly at every 
level of both our state and federal courts, and the appellate process has 
ensured that the rights of the accused were protected."

Later the same day, Ivey signed into law the "Fair Justice Act," a law intended 
to speed up the death penalty appeals process.

Proponents of this law claim that death penalty appeals take too long, 
frustrating the interests of justice and prolonging the agony of victims' 
families. Arthur's case, which spanned more than 3 decades and involved, among 
other things, 2 retrials and 7 execution dates set aside at the last minute by 
dramatic claims of newly discovered evidence and questions about the 
constitutionality of Alabama's death penalty scheme and execution protocol, was 
often cited as a case in point.

Yet despite everything, questions remained even up to the moment of Arthur's 
death. His execution was immediately preceded by a strongly-worded dissent from 
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor, who contended that Alabama's 
refusal to allow his lawyer to bring a phone with her into the viewing room so 
that she could alert the court to irregularities in the execution meant that 
"when Thomas Arthur enters the execution chamber ... he will leave his 
constitutional rights at the door."

Arthur was lucky to have his constitutional rights honored that long. Robert 
Melson, an Alabama death row prisoner who is set to be executed on June 8, has 
not been so fortunate. While Arthur's post-conviction lawyers did battle on his 
behalf for years and stuck with him to the end, Melson's lawyers abandoned him 
long ago. Despite strenuous efforts by his current attorneys and a moment of 
hope in 2011, when the U.S. Supreme Court remanded his case for a hearing on 
the question of whether his previous attorneys' negligent behavior was 
irresponsible enough to merit an exception to the strict rules governing 
deadlines for post-conviction appeals, Melson, if he is executed on June 8, 
will go to his death without ever having had a hearing on the merits of his 
post-conviction case.

The difference between Arthur's trajectory and Melson's comes down to luck. 
While Arthur was blessed in post-conviction with a team of committed, 
competent, creative, and tenacious lawyers from a deep-pocketed and generous 
New York law firm - and helped also by the multitude of prosecutorial and 
judicial missteps that necessitated 2 retrials -- Melson was cursed when the 
out-of-state lawyer who took his case, and the inexperienced local counsel, 
turned out to be well-meaning but incompetent bumblers who doomed his case by 
missing a crucial deadline.

There are serious questions about the integrity of Melson's conviction. 
Arrested for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and for having skin the 
same color as the alleged shooter's, his death sentence rests on a pair of 
shoes that were a size and a half too small for him, 2 pebbles, a seed, and the 
self-serving statement of an intellectually disabled and emotionally disturbed 
teenager who has since recanted. No physical evidence at the scene connects Mr. 
Melson to this crime. Yet because his post-conviction counsel abandoned him, he 
has never had a chance to air evidence of his innocence in court.

Alabama is almost alone among death penalty states in declining to provide 
death-sentenced prisoners with attorneys to help them challenge their 
convictions during the state post-conviction phase, known as Rule 32. Except on 
the rarest of occasions, Rule 32 is the only opportunity most inmates have to 
put on evidence that innocence or other factors mean they are deserving of new 
trials. Alabama inmates must rely on the kindness of strangers to take their 
cases - and, as Melson's and many other cases prove (including that of Ron 
Smith, who was executed in December 2016 and whose Rule 32 lawyer also 
abandoned him) - kindness is not enough.

In a recent letter to his lawyer, Melson wrote, "I don't know much, I didn't 
even finish high school. But this I do know, I am scared and I need someone to 
see me, hear me! PLEASE."

The courts saw and heard Tommy Arthur. He was executed anyway, and questions 
remained, but at least he was lucky enough to have attorneys who fought for him 
every step of the way. Though Melson now has lawyers who have begged the courts 
to make an exception and allow him to put on evidence about the flaws in his 
conviction, the courts have ruled that they came too late in the day. Only the 
governor can save him now - and in living memory, only 1 Alabama governor has 
granted clemency to a death-sentenced prisoner.

The argument for the Fair Justice Act, like many arguments about the death 
penalty, is premised on the idea that some people somehow get too much justice. 
But there are many more Robert Melsons than Tommy Arthurs. In its rush to exact 
vengeance, the state must not neglect its duty to see and hear them all.

(source: Jake Watson is a Huntsville-based solo practitioner who represents 
clients in state and federal court. He has been honored by the Alabama Criminal 
Defense Lawyers Association for his work on capital cases, and serves as a 
board member of the Alabama Post-Conviction Relief Project 
(alapcrp.org)----Montgomery Advertiser)






MISSISSIPPI:

The firing squad: Mississippi joins Utah and Oklahoma

With a stroke of his pen, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant legalized death by 
firing squad in early April to little fanfare.

Bryant made it clear he supported House Bill 638, which gives the Magnolia 
State options for capital punishment. But he quietly signed the bill eight days 
after it passed both chambers of the legislature, and it went largely 
unreported.

"Gov. Bryant favors the efficient administration of the death penalty in 
Mississippi," said spokesman Clay Chandler in an email to Guns.com this week. 
"He believes House Bill 638 will help with that, so he signed it."

The law makes fusillading the last resort for the state, behind lethal 
injection, nitrogen gas, and electrocution, in that order. Inmates would only 
face the firing squad if the first 3 options are held unconstitutional, or are 
"otherwise unavailable," according to language in the law.

Mississippi joins Utah and Oklahoma on the short list of states that allow 
death by firing squad. Last month, a Georgia man's request to die by firing 
squad was shot down. Lawyers for J.W. Ledford, Jr. argued there was 
"substantial risk" that he'd be aware "as he drowns in his own saliva" from a 
lethal injection.

"You can kiss my white trash ass," Ledford said as he smiled just before he 
died. The state had injected him with the barbiturate pentobarbital.

The last death by firing squad in the U.S. came nearly 7 years ago, on June 18, 
2010, in Utah. Ronnie Lee Gardner, a convicted murderer, was able to choose the 
method of execution.

In Mississippi, there are 47 people on death row. The state hasn't executed 
anyone since June 2012.

(source: guns.com)






LOUISIANA:

Keeping the death penalty alive in Louisiana


It was quite appropriate that Hugo Holland posed in what was described as his 
"mancave,"considering the troglodyte quotes in the profile that accompanied the 
photograph last Sunday.

Holland, Louisiana's go-to prosecutor in capital cases, hangs out in what was 
also termed a "bunkerlike work space" bristling with guns, while the world 
passes him and his obsession by. He devotes his life to securing death 
penalties, which Louisiana no longer has the stomach to carry out. He has 
become an anachronism, albeit one sustained by a heartfelt devotion to capital 
punishment.

Well, that's not the only motivation, for this obsession is a lucrative one. 
Holland rakes in more than $200,000 a year as he moves from town to town as the 
would-be harbinger of death.

He not only prosecutes cases in various jurisdictions, but frequently appears 
before legislative committees to champion the death penalty and decry what he 
sees as excessive public expenditures for capital defense. For his lobbying 
efforts, the profile revealed, he is paid "thousands of dollars a year" by the 
Caddo Parish DA's office.

Evidently, gung-ho prosecutors are keener on enforcing the law than obeying it. 
Holland's lobbying fees would appear to be illegal under the laws that says "No 
state employee in his official capacity or on behalf of his employer shall 
lobby for or against any matter intended to have the effect of law pending 
before the legislature or any committee thereof."

In addition to his various one-off gigs, Holland is on the payroll in Calcasieu 
and Webster parishes, which might be open to question under the state law that 
prohibits dual office holding. Holland, however, insists he is within the law 
because all his jobs are regarded as part-time.

He did work full time as a Caddo Parish prosecutor until he was fired in 2012 
for obtaining M16 rifles from the Federal Property Assistance Agency by 
claiming they would be used in joint operations with police that existed only 
in his imagination.

He does not always play by the rules in court and has been known to suppress 
exculpatory evidence. He has succeeded in sending 10 men to death row, but 5 of 
them had their convictions reversed. He would love to watch the other 5 
executed, but the system has become so sclerotic that he must despair of ever 
having that pleasure.

It is just as well that we are reluctant to execute, given how many death row 
inmates have been exonerated and released. That those miscarriages eventually 
came to light is proof enough, so far as Holland is concerned, that the system 
is working, a view not shared by men who spent years on death row for murders 
they did not commit.

Holland recognizes that the death penalty is not a deterrent, but needs no 
justification beyond the Old Testament principle of an eye for an eye. He has 
seen enough bloody scenes to conclude, "The only thing we can do with animals 
who do stuff like that is put them down."

This is clearly a man passionate about his work, and district attorneys say 
Holland is a highly competent prosecutor. He endorses their opinion. "I'm not 
ashamed of the fact that I worked my way through college and law school, and 
I've developed a skill set that people are willing to pay for," he said. "I can 
take a case that would take a 5-year assistant district attorney 2 hours to 
review, and I can review it in 10 minutes."

Regardless, the whole edifice was in danger of tumbling down a few weeks ago 
when a bill was filed to abolish Louisiana's death penalty. Among its sponsors 
was state Rep. Steve Pylant, R-Winnsboro, a former sheriff whose public 
pronouncements in recent years indicated he no longer supported capital 
punishment, albeit not as a matter of moral principle. Pylant repeatedly 
pointed out that we are wasting millions on a death penalty we have lost the 
will to enforce.

Holland naturally appeared before the committee to lobby against the bill, 
which failed when Pylant changed his mind again and cast the deciding vote. 
Holland must have breathed a sign of relief when he returned to his cave.

(source: The New Orleans Advocate)