[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARK., MO., OKLA., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

May 20




ARKANSAS:

Judge who blocked Arkansas lethal drug retracts probe plea


A judge who blocked Arkansas' use of an execution drug, effectively blocking 
the state's lethal injections, has retracted his request for a professional 
conduct investigation of state Attorney General Leslie Rutledge and members of 
her staff over their response to his order.

The attorney general's office sought Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell 
Griffen's removal from the execution drug case after Griffen participated in an 
anti-death penalty demonstration the same day as his April 16 order.

Griffen asked for the investigation April 26, saying Rutledge's office didn't 
alert him it was seeking his removal from the case. The Arkansas Supreme Court 
lifted Griffen's order and disqualified him from death penalty cases.

Griffen retracted his investigation request Friday, saying he found an April 15 
email on his office computer that alerted him to Rutledge's intentions.

(source: Associated Press)






MISSOURI:

Admitted killer asks Missouri Supreme Court to toss death sentence


Sentenced to death by a Boone County jury in 2008 for a double murder in 
Callaway County, Brian J. Dorsey now claims an error in jury instructions, 
based on recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent, resulted in an unconstitutional 
verdict that condemned him to die.

Jurors in the penalty phase were not instructed to determine beyond a 
reasonable doubt that the aggravating circumstances of the crime outweighed the 
mitigating evidence, according to a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed 
Wednesday with the Missouri Supreme Court. The jury did not determine beyond a 
reasonable doubt each fact necessary in order to lawfully sentence someone to 
death, according to the petition.

The petition asks for the court to vacate Dorsey's death sentence and send the 
case back to Boone County Circuit Court for another sentencing trial. Courts 
can issue what is called a writ of habeas corpus for a convicted person when it 
finds that their conviction or sentence violates the laws or constitution of 
the U.S. or state.

It is necessary for a jury to make a determination whether aggravating 
circumstances, those that support a stiff penalty, outweigh mitigating 
circumstances, which would support leniency, when deciding whether to impose a 
death sentence, Rebecca Woodman, Dorsey's lawyer, wrote in the petition. 
Woodman cites several cases, decided in Missouri's highest court and the U.S. 
Supreme Court, as precedent for the unconstitutionality of his sentence. The 
Missouri Supreme Court has retroactively applied decisions it has made in cases 
similar to Dorsey's "where a jury failed to find the facts necessary to impose 
a given sentence."

Dorsey, 45, used a shotgun to kill his cousin and her husband, Sarah and Ben 
Bonnie, as they slept in their New Bloomfield home on the night of Dec. 23, 
2006. He then raped his cousin's body and poured bleach over her torso and 
genitals before stealing cash, her car and some property to sell off so he 
could pay his drug debts. Sarah Bonnie's parents found their bodies the next 
day and Dorsey turned himself in on Dec. 26, 2006.

He took his case to the Missouri Supreme Court before in an attempt to get his 
guilty plea and death sentence overturned, but the court, in a unanimous 
decision by all 7 judges, denied his appeal. Dorsey in 2013 alleged that the 
state had withheld DNA evidence from his defense and his counsel was 
ineffective.

Woodman did not respond to a message seeking comment. Loree Ann Paradise, 
spokeswoman for the Missouri Attorney General's Office, which represents the 
state in criminal appeals, declined to comment.

Dorsey, the last person a Boone County jury sentenced to death, is among 24 men 
on death row in the Missouri Department of Corrections and is currently 
incarcerated at Potosi Correctional Center. Including Dorsey, 4 men are on 
death row via Boone County sentences, according to data a department of 
corrections spokesman provided.

Among the cases Woodman cites that she claims apply to Dorsey's are U.S. 
Supreme Court decisions in Hurst v. Florida and Ring v. Arizona. Those cases, 
which were similar, found that the capital-sentencing protocols, 1st in Arizona 
in a 2002 decision and then in Florida in 2016, were unconstitutional because 
judges determined whether defendants deserved the death penalty. The decisions 
set precedent that only a jury can sentence someone to death. The Hurst 
decision was made in light of the court's decision in the Ring case.

In the petition, Woodman argues that the court should re-examine the case 
because Dorsey's 1st appeal, one filed right after he was sentenced and that 
was denied, predated the Hurst decision.

"In a holding that is contrary to Hurst, this court found that 'the jury's 
"weighing" of aggravating and mitigating evidence is not subject to proof 
beyond a reasonable doubt because it is not a factual finding that increases 
the potential range of punishment,'" Woodman wrote.

(source: Columbia Daily Tribune)






OKLAHOMA:

Lethal injection drug bill headed to Oklahoma governor's desk


Even though Oklahoma's once-busy death chamber has been quiet for more than 2 
years, the state Legislature continues to prepare for the return of executions.

A bill allowing Oklahoma Department of Corrections staff to handle drugs, like 
those involved in lethal injections, sailed through the Oklahoma House of 
Representatives on Thursday. House Bill 1679 now heads to Gov. Mary Fallin's 
desk.

The measure exempts any corrections employee and anyone who participates in the 
execution process from the Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Act. Fallin 
signed a similar bill in 2016 allowing corrections staff to store lethal drugs 
at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Before that measure became law, only 
physicians and hospitals could obtain the necessary licenses to house those 
drugs.

The bill is designed to allow staff to handle lethal injection drugs without 
first attaining the medical licensing that is currently required, said author 
Rep. Harold Wright, R-Weatherford. The state Corrections Department, with legal 
assistance from the attorney general's office, requested the bill.

"(The attorney general's office) said that this was very important to get this 
done, because (execution staff) could be considered to be operating illegally 
without the license," he said.

The bill easily passed through the state Senate in April.

"I believe if a physician colleague of mine wants to help carry out something 
that is legal in the state, to make it ... easier on the person that's being 
executed, I see nothing wrong with that," said Sen. Ervin Yen, R-Oklahoma City, 
who is a licensed physician, during the Senate reading of the measure. "I'm not 
saying that I would want to participate, but I have no problem with a colleague 
of mine doing that."

Both bills were borne out of necessity, following the postponement of Richard 
Eugene Glossip's execution in 2015. Glossip's lethal injection was halted less 
than 2 hours before it was set to begin once staff discovered the state 
Corrections Department received the wrong lethal drug for the execution.

A grand jury later found the state Corrections Department lacked any 
verification process to ensure the proper drugs were obtained and administered. 
The department is rewriting its execution protocol, which must be approved by 
the state attorney general before it goes into effect and the state can resume 
administering the death penalty.

Oklahoma has not performed an execution in more than 2 years, the longest gap 
since the mid-1990s. The last inmate to be put to death by lethal injection in 
Oklahoma was Charles Frederick Warner in January 2015. An investigation by The 
Oklahoman later revealed Warner had been executed using a drug, potassium 
acetate, the state was not authorized to use.

No other state has ever used potassium acetate in a lethal injection, according 
to the Death Penalty Information Center.

(source: The Oklahoman)






CALIFORNIA:

Jury in Hawthorne murder case deadlocks over death penalty


Jurors have deadlocked on whether to recommend the death penalty or life in 
prison without the possibility of parole for a man convicted of the 2001 
killings of a pregnant woman and her unborn son at her Hawthorne apartment.

The Los Angeles Superior Court jury on Friday was split 7-5 - with the majority 
favoring a life prison term - for Skyler Jefferson Moore, the District 
Attorney's Office said.

Moore, 35, and co-defendant Derek Paul Smyer, 36, were convicted May 8 of the 
Sept. 25, 2001, killings of Crystal Taylor and her unborn son in the 12700 
block of Kornblum Avenue.

Prosecutors contended that Smyer arranged for Moore to commit the killing 
because the 27-year-old woman was pregnant with Smyer's baby and refused to 
have an abortion.

Moore already is serving a life prison sentence without the possibility of 
parole for an unrelated 2001 murder. He will return to court June 1, when 
prosecutors expected to announce whether they will retry the penalty phase.

Smyer will be sentenced the same day to life in prison without the possibility 
of parole.

(source: daiybreeze.com)






USA:

Juror transportation reviewed in Tsarnaev death penalty appeal


Juror transportation during the high-profile trial of Boston Marathon bomber 
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was sentenced to death in 2015, could be one of the many 
factors under review in his pending appeal, records show.

The issue of how jurors were escorted to and from the Moakley Courthouse 
surfaced in a brief order that US District Court Judge George A. O'Toole Jr. 
entered on Friday.

"I understand from the Clerk's Office that counsel are requesting copies of the 
Jury Management and Transportation Order, which was sealed during the 
proceedings in order to protect the confidential juror transportation 
arrangements made by the United States Marshal Service and to minimize the risk 
of juror contamination [by outside factors]," O'Toole wrote.

"Upon review of the order, I see no reason for a continuation of the seal. 
Therefore, the Clerks Office is directed to unseal the document and docket 
entry text as to Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev."

The document remained unavailable for review on the federal Public Access to 
Court Electronic Records, or PACER, website as of 10 p.m. Friday.

Tsarnaev, 23, was sentenced to death for his role in the April 15, 2013 
bombings, which killed 3 people and wounded more than 260. His appeal is 
pending before the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston.

His older brother and co-conspirator, Tamerlan, was killed in a clash with 
police days after the attacks. Tsarnaev is being held at a supermax prison in 
Colorado.

(source: Boston Globe)

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

Why does it take so long death row inmates to be executed?


Q: Why do prisoners on death row have to wait sometimes as long as 20 years 
before they are executed? Given the heinous crimes that they have committed, in 
my opinion they should be put to death as soon as possible or at least as soon 
as they exhaust their appeals.

W.G., of Collinsville

A: You might be interested to know that your question led me to uncover a 
fascinating catch-22 of sorts that I didn't realize existed.

As you note, the growing pressure on states to make sure they absolutely, 
positively execute a truly guilty perp has led to an increasingly lengthy 
period between verdict and the needle or electric chair. According to the 
Bureau of Justice Statistics, the average time spent on death row before 
execution in 1985 was 71 months - or just less than 6 years. Now, it's hovering 
around 190 months or about 16 years and it's climbing. In 1 exteme case, Gary 
Alvord, a Florida man convicted of strangling 3 women, died after 40 years on 
death row - of natural causes.

But guess what? Even though the slow and rigorous appeals process is a 
prisoner's last lifeline, some judges and legal scholars now charge that these 
long delays constitute cruel and inhuman punishment in themselves. They say it 
forces the convicted to endure the physical and psychological torture of living 
on death row for years upon years. As a result, judges in other countries are 
using it as a reason to overturn death sentences.

In September 2011, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stay the 
execution of convicted cop-killer Manuel Valle in Florida, and he was executed 
2 hours later. But Justice Stephen Breyer dissented, saying that the 33 years 
Valle had spent on death row amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

"Our Constitution was written at a time when delay between sentencing and 
execution could be measured in days or weeks, not decades," Breyer wrote in a 
similar dissent in 1999.

He pointed out that under 18th-century English law, executions were typically 
carred out 2 days after sentencing. Final justice is no longer that swift 
across the pond, but some countries still want it carried out much faster than 
we do here.

"There is an instinctive revulsion against the prospect of hanging a man after 
he has been held under sentence of death for many years," the Judicial 
Committee of the Privy Council in London wrote in 1993. Its ruling changed a 
death sentence into life in prison for two Jamaica prisoners who had been on 
death row for "only" 5 years.

Similarly, the European Court of Human Rights in 1989 ruled that extended 
periods on death row violated a provision of the European Convention of Human 
Rights that forbids "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." While 
acknowledging the legality of the death sentence in certain cases, it 
nonetheless forbade Britain to deport a German man to Virginia to face capital 
charges because he might spend years on death row facing "the anguish and 
mounting tension of living in the ever-present shadow of death."

Others, like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, seem to scoff at the 
notion.

"I am unaware," he wrote in response to Justice Breyer's 1999 dissent, "of any 
support in the American constitutional tradition or in this court's precedent 
for the proposition that a defendant can avail himself of the panoply of 
appellate and collateral procedures and then complain when his execution is 
delayed."

Thomas likely would say that, through the work of such groups as Amnesty 
International and the Innocence Project bringing attention to the subject of 
the execution of the innocent, death-row prisoners should consider themselves 
fortunate that they enjoy far more time to prove their innocence.

A 2015 study published in the Washington Post, for example, found that of 8,466 
death sentences imposed between 1973 and 2013, 3,194 were overturned on appeal 
- including 890 cases in which the conviction itself was thrown out. A similar 
study in California in 2002 found that for every execution carried out, 7 death 
sentences are set aside. The reasons: incompetent lawyers, prosecutorial 
misconduct, faulty eyewitness ID and judicial errors. Moreover, based on DNA 
evidence, the Innocence Project has helped free at least 343 wrongfully 
convicted people, including 20 who spent time on death row.

For those reasons, those favoring the slow approach argue that it is preferable 
over quick, feel-good revenge when it involves the taking of human life. That's 
why we have the seemingly labyrinthine appeals process, which is the short 
answer to your original question. Space prevents me from detailing this process 
in depth, but, in brief, it starts with appeals to appellate and state supreme 
courts, asking judges to review the evidence. At the same time, they may appeal 
their conviction by charging that their lawyers were incompetent. If they fail 
to sway the state courts, they then move on to the federal district, appellate 
and, finally, the Supreme Court.

Except for the Hollywood last-minute stay, these appeals are not taken up 
overnight, which accounts for the months upon years delay you lament. Others 
are thankful for it because capital cases may have elected prosecutors looking 
for headlines while the accused may be defended by appointed and 
less-than-vigorous defense lawyers. The long appeals process, they argue, is 
necessary to even the score as proven by the number of "criminals" who are 
later proven innocent.

For a detailed look at the process, try 
http://criminal.lawyers.com/criminal-law-basics/death-sentence-appeals-take-time-for-a-reason.html.

(source: Roger Schlueter; Belleville News-Democrat)