[Deathpenalty] death penaty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., VA., FLA., MISS., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 10




TEXAS----new execution date

Rosendo Rodriguez has been given an execution date for March 27 (2018); it 
should be considered serious.

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----27

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----545

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

28---------Dec. 14-----------------Juan Castillo----------546

29---------Jan. 18-----------------Anthony Shore----------547

30---------Jan. 30-----------------William Rayford--------548

31----------Feb. 1-----------------John Battaglia---------549

32----------Feb. 22----------------Thomas Whitaker--------550

33----------Mar. 27----------------Rosendo Rodriguez------551

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)

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

Defense expert testifies inmate facing death penalty has abnormal brain



A medical expert testified Thursday for the defense that inmate Billy Joel 
Tracy has an abnormal brain.

Tracy, 39, is facing a possible death sentence for beating Correctional Officer 
Timothy Davison to death July 15, 2015, at the Barry Telford Unit in New 
Boston. A Bowie County jury convicted Tracy of capital murder and is now 
hearing evidence in the sentencing phase of his trial.

The defense began calling witnesses Thursday morning. Neuroradiologist Travis 
Snyder of Las Vegas, Nevada, testified that Tracy has abnormalities in the 
temporal lobe of his brain in an area which controls emotions and inhibitions, 
under questioning from defense attorney Mac Cobb of Mount Pleasant. Snyder said 
the abnormality is significant and could account for Tracy's problems though 
not all people with abnormal brain scans are violent criminals.

Cobb called clinical and forensic psychologist Mark Cunningham to testify about 
the effects of solitary confinement. Cunningham said those who are isolated 
from support groups, human contact and external stimulation for long periods 
tend to suffer emotionally and often "become a savage or sink into despair."

Cunningham testified that prisoners and correctional officers in a setting such 
as administrative segregation, where Tracy has been housed since 2005, may 
develop a "trench warfare" atmosphere which is negative for all involved. 
Cunningham said officers may become "callous and cynical" and that inmates may 
become more and more retaliatory in administrative segregation.

Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp sparred with Cunningham over his 
description of Davison's death as a "tragedy" and asked if he was blaming TDCJ 
for his murder. Crisp showed Cunningham a photo of Kasey Kuhn taken when she 
was 16 and in the hospital after being assaulted, taken from her bedroom and 
dragged into a wooded area in a Rockwall, Texas, park in 1998.

"He had never been in administrative segregation when he did this," Crisp said.

Tracy was sentenced to 2 life sentences plus 20 years for assaulting Kuhn, 
burglarizing a house and assaulting a police officer by a jury in Rockwall in 
1998. He has been in prison ever since.

A childhood friend of Tracy's testified that he is a "kind" person who looked 
out for her when the 2 were in middle school, under questions from Texarkana 
defense attorney Jeff Harrelson. Dawn Monti testified that Tracy's mother and 
father were not good parents and that they committed him to a psychiatric 
hospital when he was in the 7th grade.

TDCJ inmate Courtney Shepherd testified that Tracy encouraged him to conform to 
prison rules while the 2 were both housed in administrative segregation at the 
Robertson Unit. Shepherd said he was often a "cell warrior" meaning he would 
make noise, yell and otherwise disrupt, while in his 1-man cell. Shepherd 
described his time in administrative segregation as frustrating and said, 
"you're always looking for something to do."

Shepherd, who is serving a life sentence for murder, said he and Tracy would 
talk together when both were outside in recreation yards at the same time. He 
said Tracy read and edited his poetry and talked to him about using his time 
for positive pursuits. Shepherd said he is now housed at a different unit in 
general population and gives Tracy credit for helping him move to a lower 
security level that allows him more freedom.

More testimony from witnesses for the defense is scheduled for Friday morning 
at the Bowie County courthouse in New Boston before 102nd District Judge Bobby 
Lockhart.

(source: txktoday.com)








PENNSYLVANIA:

In Philly's 'last death-penalty case,' killer gets a life sentence instead



On Tuesday, Philadelphia elected a district attorney who has pledged to take 
the death penalty off the table.

But 2 days later, prosecutors asked a jury of Philadelphians to impose it 1 
last time - in the case of Robert Lark, a 63-year-old man who has already spent 
more than 3 decades on death row for the 1979 murder of 36-year-old Tae Bong 
Cho at a takeout restaurant Cho owned in North Philadelphia.

The jurors, who had already found Lark guilty of murder, sent a note to Judge 
Steven Geroff after an hour of deliberations: "We are at a deadlock. Nobody is 
budging, and there won't be a unanimous decision."

That meant Geroff would have to sentence Lark instead - to the mandatory term 
of life in prison with no possibility of parole.

"It's obvious to me that you are quite a villain," Geroff told Lark. Then, he 
tacked 22 1/2 to 45 more years in prison onto the life sentence, for a series 
of related convictions on charges including terroristic threats and kidnapping.

Lark was 1st convicted of the crime in 1985. But that verdict was overturned in 
federal court based on Lark's claim that the prosecutor in his trial had used 
race-based practices in jury selection. At an evidentiary hearing, the 
prosecutor could not provide an explanation other than race for striking 3 
African American jurors in the case.

Jury selection for Lark's new trial, which began Oct. 2, took more than a week. 
In a death-penalty case, lawyers must select a pool of jurors who state they 
are willing and able to impose the harshest punishment the law provides.

"Each of you," Assistant District Attorney Gail Fairman told the jury, "looked 
inside of yourselves, and each of you stated, 'Yes, we can do this.'"

A majority of Pennsylvanians no longer support capital punishment, according to 
a 2015 York College of Pennsylvania poll. One complaint is that so-called 
death-qualified juries are inherently biased, and studies have shown such 
juries inherently are more likely to convict.

No one has been executed in Pennsylvania since 1999. Since 2015, Gov. Wolf has 
maintained a moratorium on executions.

The standard penalty for 1st-degree murder in Pennsylvania is life in prison, 
but aggravating factors can trigger the death sentence. The prosecutors 
described 2 such factors. The 1st, they said, was that Lark had murdered a 
witness. They said he killed Cho on Feb. 22, 1979, because Cho was scheduled to 
testify in court the next morning that Lark had robbed him at gunpoint 2 months 
earlier.

2nd, they said, Lark qualified to be executed because of his significant 
criminal history, which included the gunpoint robberies of a store clerk, of 
Cho, and of his own landlord.

"The crime was an affront to the justice system," Fairman said.

Lark's lawyers presented mitigating factors: a childhood destroyed by his 
mother's drug addiction and neglect, and his stepfather's violent abuse.

His birth was a surprise to his 15-year-old mother, defense lawyer Regina Coyne 
said. "In his 1st year of school, when he was 5 or 6, he went to 5 different 
schools," she said. "He was in survival mode."

She described rats and a leaking roof, vomit on the floor. She spoke of foster 
homes where he was taken away from his siblings, and described how he ran away 
from those placements and slept in cars until he could find his siblings and 
reunite them.

The jury's decision means Lark will move from death row - where for 32 years he 
has been kept in his cell for 23 hours a day, according to his lawyer - into 
the general prison population.

Nonetheless, Lark will appeal the verdict, according to his other lawyer, James 
Berardinelli, who said he had been prevented by the judge from presenting key 
evidence, including a pattern of questionable behavior by the police who 
investigated the case.

That, prosecutors noted, means prolonging the pain for Cho's family as well.

Seeing the case return to court, Assistant District Attorney Andrew 
Notaristefano said, "brought back everything. They thought this was over with, 
and then they had to relive it all over again."

(source: philly.com)








DELAWARE:

Delaware prosecutors consider death penalty in prison riot



Delaware prosecutors are holding out the possibility of seeking the death 
penalty against inmates charged in a deadly prison riot, even though the state 
does not currently allow capital punishment.

18 prisoners have been indicted for their alleged roles in the February riot. 
16, including some already serving time for murder, are charged with 1st-degree 
murder in the death of correctional officer Steven Floyd.

In a letter last week, prosecutors informed Judge William C. Carpenter Jr., who 
is presiding over the case, that if lawmakers vote to reinstate the death 
penalty, prosecutors reserve the right to try to apply it to 1 or more 
defendants.

The state Supreme Court declared Delaware's death penalty law unconstitutional 
last year because it allowed judges too much discretion and did not require 
that a jury find unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant 
deserves execution. That ruling came after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down 
Florida's death sentencing law, which was similar to Delaware's.

In their letter, prosecutors pointed out that the killing of a prison employee 
in the performance of his duties is a specified aggravating factor in 
Delaware's death penalty statute, which remains on the books despite last 
year's court ruling.

Based on Floyd's position, prosecutors wrote, "all identified defendants would 
be eligible for a sentence of death."

At the same time, prosecutors acknowledged that the retroactive application of 
a revised death penalty statute could face significant legal hurdles.

"The state acknowledges that there may be good faith disagreement and 
litigation over such an application, but it provides this correspondence to the 
court and defendants to ensure that all interested parties are on notice of 
this stated purpose," the letter reads.

Democratic Attorney General Matt Denn, through a spokesman, declined to comment 
Thursday.

Chief public defender Brendan O'Neill was less circumspect.

"This attempt by the state to reserve a nonexistent 'right' to seek death 
sentences is not supported by law," O'Neill said in an emailed statement. "It 
is an ill-conceived, legally unfounded proposal that will create unnecessary 
legal, practical, logistical and financial problems. Quite simply, it's a waste 
of money and time for everybody involved."

Amid the outcry over the prison riot and the fatal shooting of a state trooper 
in April, House lawmakers in May passed a revised death penalty statute that 
addresses the constitutional infirmities noted in the state and federal court 
rulings by requiring unanimous jury approval. The Senate never acted on the 
bill.

Democratic Gov. John Carney has said he supports the state Supreme Court ruling 
declaring Delaware's death penalty law unconstitutional, but he hasn't taken a 
stand on any specific legislation to reinstate capital punishment, nor has he 
ruled out supporting the death penalty for people convicted of killing law 
enforcers.

A key question for the courts in deciding whether a revised death penalty law 
could be applied retroactively is whether the revisions to the existing statute 
are substantive, or merely procedural.

Delaware's Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the application of "procedural" 
revisions to the state's capital punishment law, while warning that retroactive 
application of a law that "increased the quantum of a defendant's punishment," 
would be "manifestly prohibited" by the ex post facto clause of the 
Constitution.

(source: Associated Press)








VIRGINIA:

Prosecutor to Seek Death Penalty



Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty for a couple charged in the 
brutal murder of an elderly Caswell County man this past summer. Sean Damion 
Castorina and Penny Michelle Dawson are both charged with 1st-degree murder in 
the death of 84-year-old Harold D. Simpson. Investigators say the 2 killed 
Simpson in rural Caswell County in August, then fled to Virginia where police 
say they shot another woman and left her for dead. The pair was finally 
arrested at a gas station in Fergus Falls, Minn.

(source: Martinsville Daily)








FLORIDA:

Victim's family pushes for death penalty in Bannister case



A day after James Bannister was found guilty of 4 charges of 1st degree murder 
and 1 count of arson, victims' families, now pushing for him to get the death 
penalty over life in prison.

The family members say only then will justice be served.

After 6 long years, Frank Brown and his family say they've finally got the 
answers they've been looking for.

"We the jury finds as follows to count 1 of the charge, the defendant is guilty 
of murder to the 1st degree premeditated."

Frank Brown said, "When it came down and they said he was guilty it just proved 
to me who was really in charge."

James Bannister was found guilty on 4 counts of 1st degree murder and 1 count 
of arson.

And after having time to think it over, Brown says his family and the state 
attorney's office are pushing for bannister to be sentenced to death.

Frank Brown said, "My sister and my niece and the 2 other kids can't say 
anything at this point. They're lives are over and the chapter in their books 
are closed. And now we're the ones that still have to move on from this.???

The sentencing phase of bannister's trial will begin on Monday.

And the same jury that convicted him will now be tasked with deciding whether 
he should be sentenced to death, or face life in prison without the possibility 
of parole.

Per Florida's new rule the jury must be unanimous in favor of capital 
punishment in order to sentence Bannister to die.

Frank Brown said, "We'll be there and that's the only thing I can say you know, 
we'll be there until the end of this journey."

(source: WCJB news)

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

Man on death row for killing wife re-sentenced to life in prison----In 
exchange, Lesly Jean-Phillipe agrees not to file future appears



Lesly Jean-Phillipe, who was unanimously sentenced to death for the brutal 2009 
murder of his wife, was re-sentenced Thursday to life in prison at the behest 
of his victim's family.

In exchange for dropping the death penalty against him, Jean-Phillipe gave up 
any right to future appeals for parole.

Judge Adrian Soud said the life without parole sentence brings closure to the 
family of Jean-Phillipe's wife, Elkie.

Jean-Phillipe was convicted of going to the Southside Jacksonville home of 
Elkie's sister in 2009, posing as a pizza deliveryman, and stabbing Elkie to 
death. He was convicted in 2011 of murder and a jury voted 12-0 to recommend 
the death penalty.

The direct appeal was denied, but defense lawyers filed a motion to throw out 
the conviction and sentence, saying Jean-Phillippe had ineffective counsel at 
trial. A new defense motion asked for Jean-Philippe to be re-sentenced to life 
in prison in exchange for an agreement that he would file no further appeals.

Prosecutor Jeffrey Moody told the court the family supported the change and 
wanted closure.

"They want this to be over," Moody said.

In re-sentencing Jean-Phillipe, Soud reminded him that he will spend the rest 
of his life in prison.

"You have no hope of parole," Soud said.

(source: news4jax.com)








MISSISSIPPI:

Court Reverses Death Penalty Conviction in Toddler's Death----The Mississippi 
Supreme Court has overturned a 2014 death penalty conviction, saying the 
defendant was improperly disadvantaged by last-minute evidence, jailhouse 
informants and a prosecutor's disposal of other evidence.



The Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a 2014 death penalty 
conviction, saying prosecutors sandbagged the defendant by introducing 
last-minute evidence, using jailhouse informants to elicit information when the 
suspect's lawyer should have represented him and throwing away evidence that 
could have helped the defense.

The court ruled 9-0 that Justin Blakeney of Laurel should get a new murder 
trial in the 2010 death of Victoria Viner, the daughter of his then-girlfriend.

"Because Blakeney was denied an opportunity to present a complete defense, 
because testimony and evidence from witnesses working as state agents was 
allowed, and because of prosecutorial misconduct, we now reverse Blakeney's 
conviction and sentence and remand his case for a new trial on the merits," 
Justice Leslie King wrote for the court.

Jones County District Attorney Anthony Buckley did not immediately return a 
phone call seeking comment.

The court also overturned a death penalty conviction last week because of 
questionable bite mark evidence.

An autopsy found the 2-year-old Victoria died of blunt force trauma to the 
head. Blakeney argued that she'd fallen off a stool weeks before he called 
paramedics to report she was ill, but a physician at a hospital reported the 
case as possible child abuse.

The child's mother, Lidia Viner, pleaded guilty to child neglect, was placed on 
probation and was later deported to Mexico.

Prosecutors relied on two informants who were promised lighter treatment in 
turn for information from Blakeney. He'd appealed to them for help in joining 
the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist prison gang. Prosecutors argued at 
trial that Blakeney killed the child to qualify to join the gang, but Blakeney 
said he'd only tried to join the gang for protection after years in jail.

King said it would have been OK if the informants had reported conversations 
with Blakeney but said the state went wrong when authorities cooked up a plan 
to use the informants as undercover agents, including one who wore a wire, to 
seek stronger confessions from Blakeney. King wrote that after Blakeney was 
indicted, state agents couldn't question him unless his lawyer was there or he 
waived his right to a lawyer.

The court also found that Circuit Judge Billy Joe Landrum should have given 
Blakeney's lawyer more time to prepare after the state introduced more evidence 
days before trial, including testimony of one of the informants, Randall 
"Satan" Smith.

"With the untimely introduction of Smith's testimony, the State's case added 
extremely inflammatory testimony for which the defense needed time to prepare," 
King wrote. "Had the defense had time to obtain impeachment evidence, it likely 
would have undermined Smith's testimony in favor of the defense."

Finally, the court found that Assistant District Attorney J. Ronald Parrish 
erred when he threw away computer and cellphone records from Blakeney and Viner 
instead of providing them to the defense.

"Clearly, information on Blakeney's and Viner's cellphones and computer 
potentially could be useful," King wrote. "A recent picture of Blakeney without 
swastika tattoos could have emphasized the defense's point that Blakeney had 
not been involved with the Aryan Brotherhood before he went to jail."

(source: Associated Press)








LOUISIANA:

Attorney calls for payroll fraud investigation into Louisiana death penalty 
prosecutor Hugo Holland



A New Orleans attorney on Thursday asked state officials to open a "payroll 
fraud" investigation into Hugo A. Holland, one of the most influential 
prosecutors in Louisiana, accusing the outspoken death penalty proponent of 
breaking the law by working full-time in multiple judicial districts.

The attorney, Nicholas Trenticosta, forwarded a dossier on Holland to the state 
Legislative Auditor's Office, saying he holds so many state-paid positions 
"that it would be impossible for him to have performed the duties for which he 
was being paid."

The complaint says Holland, a so-called circuit rider who specializes in 
capital punishment, has been paid by at least 10 different parishes over the 
past 3 years to prosecute cases while also receiving a state salary, known as a 
warrant, to work as an assistant district attorney in Lake Charles.

He also runs the Webster Parish division of the 26th Judicial District 
Attorney's Office, where he screens felony cases and is expected to appear in 
court twice a week.

"Mr. Holland has been paid the statutorily set amount of $45,000 a year of 
public money to serve as a full-time prosecutor for the state of Louisiana and 
has then billed the public fisc another $150,000 or more a year to be a 
prosecutor" in a host of parishes, Trenticosta wrote.

He added that Holland, who frequently testifies before the state Legislature, 
has violated the law by serving as an unregistered lobbyist on behalf of state 
prosecutors.

Holland denied the allegations in an email, insisting the position of assistant 
district attorney is considered part-time under Louisiana law. He told The 
Advocate in an interview earlier this year that he holds commissions from 18 
Louisiana district attorneys, often flying around the state in a four-seat 
RV-10 to prosecute high-profile cases in largely rural parishes.

"An individual may hold as many part-time appointed positions as he or she 
desires," Holland wrote. "I can be a commissioned ADA in all 42 jurisdictions 
if I so desire and if the DA's in those jurisdictions approve."

He also said that it was "horses--t to claim I am a paid lobbyist," adding, "I 
simply don't fit the definition."

"I defy any of these ass----s to produce a shred of evidence that I have 
'double billed' or 'double dipped,'" Holland said.

Trenticosta's claims echo those made in recent years by a host of capital 
defense attorneys who have accused Holland of bending the rules in his zeal to 
secure death sentences. One of them, G. Ben Cohen, an attorney with the Promise 
of Justice Initiative, told the Washington Post recently that Holland "captures 
everything that's wrong with the criminal-justice system in Louisiana."

The Post article referred to Holland as "the most powerful law enforcement 
official in Louisiana."

(source: The Advocate)