[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CONN., VA., FLA., ARK., UTAH, NEV.

[Rick Halperin]

March 24



CONNECTICUT:

Justice Palmer's Proven Decency


Rep. William Tong, the co-chairman of the judiciary committee, says that 
Supreme Court Justice Richard Palmer has the votes to be reappointed to the 
state's highest court today.

No one should get a free pass on job performance, including Supreme Court 
justices. Luckily for Connecticut, Justice Richard N. Palmer has survived a 
tough evaluation to earn a fourth term on the state's highest court.

Justices serve for 8 years and are reconfirmed by the legislature. Most 
confirmations are rubber-stamped. Mr. Palmer's was not. He endured unusual 
scoldings from conservatives before being confirmed earlier this month. "I'm 
... concerned about the activism that has taken place on the court through his 
opinions," said Rep. Richard A. Smith.

Critics took particular aim at his role in ending the state's death penalty in 
2015. The majority opinion that he wrote in the 4-3 decision was on point, 
however, even if it offended some with the harsh truth that putting people to 
death "no longer comports with contemporary standards of decency."

The legislature had confirmed that truth in 2012 when it abolished the death 
penalty going forward, thus signaling that state-sanctioned killings were too 
indecent to continue. If executions were indecent for the future, surely they 
were also indecent for the 11 men then on death row.

Mr. Palmer wasn't so much making policy with his death penalty opinion as 
trying to interpret the legislature's confusing 2012 law and finding it 
unworkable, arbitrary and unconstitutional. Up till then, he'd upheld the 
state's death penalty statutes.

Those in power should be held to account. Justice Palmer is no exception. By 
our account, he's been a very good justice, one willing to do the sometimes 
unpopular but ultimately right thing.

(source: Editorial, Hartford Courant)






VIRGINIA----impending execution

Scheduled Virginia Execution Based on False and Recanted Testimony


More than 113,000 people have signed a Change.org petition urging Governor 
McAuliffe to intervene to prevent the April 25th execution of Ivan Teleguz. 
Teleguz was charged with hiring someone in 2001 to murder his former 
girlfriend. According to the Supreme Court of Virginia, in order to convict 
Teleguz, jurors "had to believe the testimony of [Alexsey] Safanov, [Edwin] 
Gilkes, and [Michael] Hetrick." Teleguz was sentenced to death based on 
testimony that he also was involved in arranging an additional murder in 
Ephrata, Pennsylvania; prosecutors told jurors this proved Teleguz "solve[d] 
problems" by arranging murders, and that he could "dial up a murder" from 
prison if he was allowed to live.

Concern about the execution is growing quickly as people learn that 2 of the 3 
witnesses jurors "had to believe' - Safanov and Gilkes - have provided sworn 
statements that their trial testimony was false, and they could not implicate 
Teleguz in the murder. Of equal concern is the fact that law enforcement has 
confirmed not only that Teleguz was not involved in a murder in Ephrata but 
that no such murder occurred in the small central Pennsylvania township.

So how could Teleguz have ended up on Virginia's death row in the first place?

A petition filed in the U.S. Supreme Court explains the case as follows:

As soon a police learned of Teleguz's previous relationship with the victim, 
they focused on him as their suspect. However, they could find no evidence 
implicating him. Years after the crime, Safanov, who was facing criminal 
charges and deportation, offered to testify against Teleguz in exchange for 
help obtaining a US visa and a generous reduction in his sentence. Safanov 
claimed that Teleguz confessed while the 2 worked at a construction site that 
he had hired a "black man" to kill his girlfriend. After the trial, Safanov 
gave a sworn, written statement admitting that his testimony against Teleguz 
was not true.

Safanov identified the "black man" as Edwin Gilkes, who he had met through 
Teleguz and other friends. Police confronted Gilkes, told him they were 
investigating Teleguz for the murder, and threatened him with the death penalty 
- unless he testified against Teleguz. Gilkes denied that he was hired to 
commit any murder, but testified that he was tricked into accompanying his 
roommate, Michael Hetrick, to Virginia to commit the crime. In exchange for his 
testimony, Gilkes received a significantly reduced sentence and will be 
released in 2018. After the trial, Gilkes gave sworn, written statements 
admitting that his testimony against Teleguz also was a lie.

Hetrick initially told police he did not know Teleguz. Police explained that 
they had found his blood at the crime scene, and that Hetrick would have to 
implicate Teleguz to avoid the death penalty himself. After police told him 
details about the case and even let him study a written summary of the police 
investigation, Hetrick agreed he would blame Teleguz. However, he testified 
that Gilkes was hired to commit the murder, and Hetrick only stepped in at the 
last minute when Gilkes got cold feet. Hetrick's shaky testimony, fed to him by 
police, elicited on the threat of his life, and in conflict with testimony of 
other prosecution witnesses, is all that remains of the evidence against 
Teleguz.

Prosecutors argued that jurors should sentence Teleguz to death because he 
solved his problems by arranging murders, and could "dial up a murder" at any 
time from prison. This was based on Gilkes's testimony that Teleguz was 
responsible for another arranged murder in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. Jurors were 
disturbed enough by this information that they asked the judge whether Teleguz 
had access to their names and addresses. Shortly after the judge replied that 
he did, jurors sentenced Teleguz to death. It has since been discovered, 
however, that the murder Gilkes described in Ephrata never even happened.

Thus, Virginia is just a few weeks away from carrying out a death sentence 
based on a nonexistent murder and a conviction based on recanted testimony. 
Every Virginia governor since Douglas Wilder has commuted the death sentence of 
at least one inmate (except Bob McDonnell). If Governor McAuliffe does not 
intervene to stop the execution in a case this fraught with doubt, he will 
inexcusably allow an irrevocable punishment to be imposed in circumstances 
brimming with uncertainty about whether we are punishing the right person. To 
express your concerns and to encourage the Governor to stop Ivan Teleguz's 
execution, you can call (804) 786-2211.

Follow @InnocenceVA on Facebook and Twitter to help spread the word about this 
injustice, learn more, and receive breaking updates on the case.

(source: bluevirginia.us)






FLORIDA:

Florida Speaker: Suspend prosecutor who nixes death penalty


Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran has called on the governor to suspend a 
prosecutor for pledging to not seek the death penalty in any case while she is 
in office.

Corcoran said Thursday that Orlando State Attorney Aramis Ayala was "violating 
the constitution" because she is not even considering the death penalty. 
Capital punishment is authorized under the Florida Constitution. Corcoran added 
that if Florida lawmakers had the power to impeach Ayala, they would already be 
doing so.

Gov. Rick Scott removed Ayala from a high-profile police murder case last week 
after she announced her decision against the death penalty. Ayala argues Scott 
has overstepped his bounds and filed a motion in response, asking a judge to 
let her present her argument in court.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Black caucus demands Rick Scott rescind order taking Orlando prosecutor off 
cop-killer case


Members of the Florida Legislative Black Caucus, led by Sen. Perry Thurston, 
D-Lauderhill, call on Gov. Rick Scott to rescind an executive order removing 
the Orange-Osceola state attorney from a case after she said she would not seek 
the death penalty.

The order, signed by Scott last Thursday after State attorney Aramis Ayala 
publicly said she would not seek death for Markeith Loyd or any other accused 
murderer while she is in office, gives the Loyd case to Ocala-based State 
Attorney Brad King.

Since the order, Scott has faced pressure from all sides. Some, including 
lawmakers, have demanded he suspend Ayala from office. Others, among them a 
group of lawyers and former state Supreme Court justices, call Scott's decision 
an overreach.

"Gov. Scott's hasty response to State Attorney Ayala's announcement set a 
dangerous precedent and is a slap in the face of the voters who carried her 
into office," said Sen. Perry Thurston, D-Lauderhill, the chairman of the black 
caucus. "In this way, the order operated as little more than an unfettered and 
uninformed power grab by the governor's office over a difference of opinion."

Removing Ayala from the Loyd case was unprecedented, Thurston said. He contends 
that the state attorney is using her prosecutorial discretion in choosing not 
to seek the death penalty and that Scott has gone beyond what the Constitution 
and state law intend by removing her from the case for this reason.

Thurston noted that Scott did not intervene -- nor were there widespread calls 
for him to do so -- when Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle 
decided last week not to prosecute guards at Dade Correctional Institution who 
locked a schizophrenic inmate in a hot shower for 2 hours until he ultimately 
died.

But, he said, Scott should not have stepped into either case, allowing 
prosecutors to make the decision for themselves.

The governor has broad authority in the Constitution to move cases away from 
state attorneys if he believes justice would best be served by doing so, though 
it is most often used to avoid conflicts of interest. Ayala asked a judge to 
intervene in a court filing earlier this week.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for Scott said he stands by his decision to 
reassign the case against Loyd.

"Markeith Loyd is accused of executing Lt. Debra Clayton, a brave law 
enforcement hero who was on the ground fighting for her life, and murdering his 
pregnant ex-girlfriend Sade Dixon. Orange County Sheriff's Deputy Norman Lewis 
was also killed while actively searching for Loyd," spokeswoman Kerri Wyland 
said. "As Governor Scott has continued to say, these families deserve a state 
attorney who will aggressively prosecute Loyd to the fullest extent of the law 
and justice must be served."

State Rep. Sean Shaw, D-Tampa, said there is another element of concern here: 
The long racially-tied history of Florida's death penalty.

No white person has been executed in Florida for killing a black person.

And research has shown that race of the defendent and race of the victim both 
play critical roles in the outcome of a death penalty case here.

Ayala, who was elected in November, is the first African-American state 
attorney elected in the state's history.

"Clearly all the data and all the studies show that the death penalty is 
applied with racial bias, particularly in Florida," Shaw said. "This is still 
the case and has always been the case, and by standing against the death 
penalty, State Attorney Ayala is standing with communities of color."

(source: Tampa Bay Times)

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

Jacksonville man's death sentence vacated by Florida Supreme Court


The death sentence imposed on a Jacksonville man for the 2008 murder of a local 
woman has been vacated, in yet more fallout over the state's death sentencing 
procedure.

Randall Deviney was convicted of 1st degree and a jury recommended death by an 
8-to-4 vote, which was accepted by the court. But last year, the U.S. Supreme 
Court found the Florida's death penalty sentencing procedure to be 
unconstitutional because a recommendation did not require a unanimous jury.

On Thursday, The Florida Supreme Court affirmed Deviney's murder conviction and 
ordered a new penalty phase.

Deviney was found guilty of killing his neighbor, Delores Futrell, in 2010, but 
the Florida Supreme Court overturned the ruling. The court determined police 
coerced Deviney's confession. A 2nd jury found Deviney guilty of 1st degree 
murder in 2015.

(source: WOKV news)






ARKANSAS:

Arkansas is turning its death penalty into an assembly line


The director of Arkansas' corrections department appeared at a Little Rock 
Rotary Club meeting Tuesday with an unusual appeal. The state needs volunteers 
- as many as 48 by mid-April - and the qualifications are simple. "You seem to 
be a group that does not have felony backgrounds and are over 21," the 
director, Wendy Kelley, told the lunch gathering. "So if you're interested in 
serving in that area, in this serious role, just call my office." And what 
exactly would the Rotarians be volunteering for? To watch the state put eight 
men to death over 10 days in April.

No state has executed so many people in such a short time since the U.S. 
Supreme Court revived the death penalty in 1976. Arkansas is 1 of several 
states that requires "citizen witnesses" for each execution - in Arkansas' case 
a minimum of 6 people who don't know the victim or the condemned inmate 
(nothing precludes a witness from sitting through more than 1).

But Arkansas' assembly-line pace of executions has corrections officials 
scrambling, and thus Kelley's trip to the Rotary Club (the Arkansas Democrat 
Gazette reported that none of the club members took up Kelley's call).

As absurd as that scenario is - "Hey! Who here wants to watch someone be put to 
death? Huh? You with me?" - Arkansas is in this rush because its supply of 
midazolam, the 1st of 3 drugs in its execution protocol, reaches its "use by" 
date on April 30. And with drugmakers refusing to sell to executioners, it's 
unclear whether Arkansas can replenish its supply. So the state is in a macabre 
race to see which expires 1st: The 8 condemned men or a drug it wants to use to 
kill them. Heaven forbid that Arkansas and other states just abandon the 
barbaric practice of capital punishment, as almost every country around the 
world has done.

Kelly should at least be honest about what the witnesses may see. Midazolam is 
supposed to render the inmate insensate before a 2nd drug paralyzes the person 
and a third stops the heart. But midazolam - medically approved to sedate 
patients before an operation, not to render them so unconscious they can't feel 
- has been involved in several botched executions. Most recently, Ronald Bert 
Smith Jr. "appeared to be struggling for breath and heaved and coughed and 
clenched his left fist" for 13 minutes after the midazolam was administered 
Dec. 8 in Alabama's execution chamber. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor 
recently wrote that prisoners executed with the drug "are suffering horrifying 
deaths beneath a 'medically sterile aura of peace'" and that lethal injections 
"may turn out to be our most cruel experiment yet" in finding a humane method 
of execution.

So step right up, people of Arkansas, and save your seats. Time's running out.

(source: Editorial Board, Los Angeles Times)






UTAH:

Man charged with capital murder, 3 others with murder in Provo shooting


An Orem man could face the death penalty if convicted in the March 13 killing 
of a Provo resident.

Jesse William Gourdin, 21, has been charged with aggravated murder in 4th 
District Court for allegedly shooting and killing 24-year-old Gustavo Ramirez. 
The charge is enhanced to a capital offense because the killing was 
gang-motivated and carried out with the help of other gang members, court 
documents indicate.

Brayden Kenneth Marshall, 18, of Provo, Maria Guadalupe Hernandez, 18, of 
Sandy, and 34-year-old Eagle Mountain man Jerry Otis Hawley are charged with 
murder in 4th District Court in connection with the same shooting. The charges, 
filed Tuesday, allege they and Gourdin were there to take a metal box full of 
cash and to recover a backpack that Hernandez had said belonged to her.

The group of 4 drove to Ramirez's home in Provo on March 13 with the intent of 
robbing him, court documents say. Gourdin, the alleged gunman, fired "several" 
shots, the charges state. Police reported Hawley, who allegedly drove the group 
there, waited in the vehicle with Hernandez.

Wearing bandanas over their faces, Gourdin and Marshall tried unsuccessfully to 
get into the front door of the home at 71 N. 400 West, then went around the 
residence, forced the back door open and ran inside, according to court 
documents.

"Almost immediately upon entering, Gourdin fired several rounds from (a 
handgun), killing (Ramirez)," the charges state. "Others inside the home 
scattered to seek cover."

Those shots were fired before Marshall himself made his way into the home, 
court documents say. Gourdin allegedly also fired additional shots after 
exiting the home.

With Hawley still driving, the group fled in their vehicle to Marshall's home, 
the charges state.

Ramirez's girlfriend took him to Utah Valley Hospital, where he was later 
declared dead, Provo police said last week. Investigators were sent to his 
home, where they reported finding plentiful forensic evidence, including blood, 
shell casings and bullet holes.

Police also interviewed "victims that were present at the residence at the time 
of the shooting," who helped identify the people involved, court documents say.

Marshall, Hernandez and Hawley were all arrested 2 days after the shooting. 
Gourdin was arrested without incident a day after that in Farmington. All 
remained behind bars Thursday at the Utah County Jail.

Gourdin carried out the killing using a gun belonging to Marshall, police have 
said. Marshall allegedly told police initially that he was aware of the plot, 
but that Gourdin had only borrowed his gun and that he wasn't outside Ramirez's 
home at the time of the shooting. Hernandez also originally denied being there, 
police reported.

"They later told the truth ... and admitted they knew about the money and the 
home and had gone there with the intention of robbing the occupants," court 
documents say.

(source: ksl.com)






NEVADA:

Convicted killer's fate uncertain after receiving death penalty


Convicted killer Javier Righetti will join more 82 men on Nevada's death row, 
but he may never face the penalty as some state lawmakers try to put an end to 
capital punishment.

The 24-year-old received the death penalty on Tuesday, March 21st for the 2011 
murder of 15-year-old Alyssa Otremba.

Despite dozens of people currently facing death in the state, executions don't 
often happen in Nevada.

Since Nevada reinstated capital punishment in 1977, the state executed just 12 
people.

"We're very grateful for the jury's service and for the verdict that they've 
rendered," said Giancarlo Pesci, Clark County Prosecutor.

Speaking to reporters following the verdict Pesci said the death sentence is 
just.

"Hopefully people that are at the legislature that are considering that will 
take that into mind when they make their decisions," Pesci said.

Lawmakers introduced Assembly Bill 237 in the legislature last month.

The bill would abolish capital punishment in Nevada and reduce death sentences 
to life without the possibility of parole.

"The main reason is just economics. It is not cost effective," said State Sen. 
Tick Segerblom.

Sen. Segerblom co-sponsored Assembly Bill 237. In 2014, a legislative audit 
researched the fiscal costs of the death penalty using 28 cases.

The findings showed the cost of a capital punishment case is up to $1.3 million 
from the time of arrest to the end of incarceration.

The total is about $500,000 more than cases in which the state does not seek 
the death penalty.

"They have to double the number of attorneys, they have to hire a psychiatrist 
on both sides and then, of course, if you're convicted of the death penalty, 
the appeals process just starts," Sen. Segerblom said.

In 2015, legislators approved almost $860,000 to build a new death chamber at 
the Ely State Prison, where death row inmates are housed.

Construction is complete, but the state does not have the drugs needed for an 
execution.

Pharmaceutical companies across the country are refusing to sell legal 
injections to states, claiming their products are meant to enhance and save 
lives.

"There are opponents to the death penalty that say that the people of Nevada no 
longer want the death penalty. This verdict is obviously evidence to the 
contrary," Pesci said.

The last execution in Nevada was in 2006.

(source: lasvegas now.com)