[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, MO., OKLA., NEB.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 10




OHIO----impending execution

Gov. Kasich denies clemency request for ill Ohio inmate



Ohio Gov. John Kasich says he won't spare the life of a condemned killer who 
has cited his poor health and tough upbringing in an attempt to avoid 
execution.

The Republican governor's decision Thursday came in the case of Alva Campbell, 
who was sentenced to die for fatally shooting 18-year-old Charles Dials after a 
1997 carjacking.

The 69-year-old Campbell is scheduled for execution Nov. 15.

Campbell's attorneys say he uses a walker, relies on an external colostomy bag, 
requires four breathing treatments a day and may have lung cancer.

They also say Campbell was the product of a violent, dysfunctional and sexually 
abusive childhood.

Prosecutors say Campbell's health claims are ironic given he faked paralysis to 
escape court custody the day he killed Dials.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Defense attorneys for convicted serial killer Anthony Kirkland quit the 
case----Deters blames public defender's interference



An angry prosecutor Joe Deters is blaming a public defender in Columbus for 
interfering in the resentencing case of serial killer Anthony Kirkland and 
forcing 2 defense attorneys to quit.

Jury selection was supposed to begin Thursday, but instead, attorneys Perry 
Ancona and Norm Aubin told Judge Patrick Dinkelacker that they had to withdraw. 
Deters was riled because the attorneys revealed that Rachel Troutman from the 
Ohio Public Defenders Office had advised Kirkland that she was trying to get 
Aubin taken off the case.

Kirkland was originally sentenced to death for killing 13-year-old SCPA student 
Esme Kenney and 14-year-old Casonya Crawford in 2009 and 2006, respectively, 
and burning their bodies.

According to Ancona, Troutman talked to Kirkland about his attorneys in 2 phone 
calls.

"We're placed in the ridiculous situation this morning here," Ancona told the 
judge. Ancona said prosecutors just this week gave him and Aubin CDs of 
Kirkland's conversations with Troutman. They were calls Kirkland made from the 
Justice Center almost a year ago on Dec. 15, 2016 and last month on Oct. 10.

"A person he referred to as Rachael Troutman on Dec. 15, 2016, indicated and 
said she has been working behind the scenes to get rid of Mr. Aubin - get him 
off the case," Ancona said in court.

In the 2nd call last month, Troutman used an expletive to describe the 2 
attorneys.

"This person said that Norm and Perry may not necessarily do a good job 
explaining how Anthony got where he is. I think that's clearly undermining our 
efforts to work on his behalf," Ancona said.

Kirkland told the judge he only called Trautman because he couldn't get hold of 
Ancona and Aubin.

"Your Honor, I haven't been able to contact these dudes - my attorneys. Made 
efforts to contact them," Kirkland said. "I tried to put them on my phone list 
to get their numbers in so I could talk to them. It was always denied. When I 
seen them in court, it was only for a couple of seconds or a couple of minutes 
during the time here and then they're off. Other times when I tried to contact 
them, I sent them letters. I didn't get a response to my letters.

"The only way that I could make contact through them was going through familiar 
territory where I was at."

Nevertheless, Deters called Troutman's actions "reprehensible" and said he 
would take action against her.

"This borders on the most reprehensible conduct I've ever seen an attorney do 
in all my years of practicing law," Deters said after the hearing. "This was 
unconscionable for her to interfere and obstruct in this case and we're going 
to find out what the remedies are.

"I mean, I'm not going to sit back and just let this go by. She clearly was 
undermining the defense to the point where they can't even represent him 
anymore? This is a very serious matter."

Deters wasn't finished. He went off on the Ohio Public Defenders Office and 
state officials who oppose the death penalty.

"We're down in Cincinnati. We don't pay attention to what goes on in Columbus, 
and it's my belief that the Ohio Public Defender's Office creates a culture 
where these attorneys feel enabled to do whatever the heck they want, any means 
to an end," Deters said.

"Now, we've got 100 jurors waiting and they're being excused because of her 
behavior. She slandered 2 very good defense attorneys with Perry and Norm and 
she needs to be held accountable.

"But, the problem is we've got judges and bar association people that may have 
some political bent that they don't believe in the death penalty and they 
enable people to behave like this.

"So, we again, after bringing the family back in, they have to resume all the 
pain and agony they went through when their loved one was murdered and we've 
got to do it again because of the behavior of someone from the state public 
defender's office.

"If you don't want the death penalty, go to the legislature and end it, but 
this activity in the courts that they're permitted to get away with so many 
times over and over again is unconscionable. It makes you lose your faith in 
the system. It really does."

Deters said $250,000 has already been spent on the case and it could take 
months for new lawyers to get up to speed.

Dinkelacker said he would appoint new attorneys on Monday.

WCPO has reached out to the Ohio Public Defender's Office for comment.

Kirkland was already serving a 70-year sentence for killing 2 women when he got 
the death sentence in 2010 for murdering Kenney and Crawford. But the Ohio 
Supreme Court decided that Kirkland should be resentenced because of a comment 
by Deters during Kirkland's sentencing.

"So I guess Casonya and Esme are just freebies for him," Deters said at the 
time. The court found that Deters' comment insinuated that Kirkland would go 
unpunished for the teens' murders unless he was put to death.

4 of the 7 Ohio Supreme Court Justices voted in favor of a resentencing 
hearing.

"It is improper for prosecutors to incite the jurors' emotions through 
insinuations and assertions that are not supported by the evidence and that are 
therefore calculated to mislead the jury," the Ohio Supreme Court decision 
said. "Although the crimes Kirkland is alleged to have committed are horrific, 
due process requires that a jury be free from prejudice before recommending the 
death penalty."

Kirkland's guilt isn't on trial this time around -- just his sentence.

Retired judge Norbert Nadel said this type of hearing is extremely rare. He 
also said jury selection may take longer than the resentencing hearing itself.

"The prosecution will put on a synopsis and put on the investigators and all 
that sort of thing," Nadel said. "It will be done in a brief fashion. (The 
defense attorneys) have a great hill to climb because of the facts of that 
case, the horrible facts of the case. They have a horrible, difficult hill to 
climb -- as they should have."

(source: WCPO news)

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

Accused baby killer back behind bars in Ashtabula, could face death penalty



The Ashtabula County Grand Jury has secretly and directly indicted the man 
accused with the rape and murder of a 13-month-old girl.

Joshua Gurto, 37, was taken into custody last month after he was spotted at a 
gas station near Pittsburgh.

He was brought back to Ashtabula County Thursday morning and is being held in 
the jail.

Gurto fled shortly after the girl was killed. Sereniti Jazzlynn-Sky 
Blankenship-Sutley, 13 months, died after being found Oct. 7 with blunt force 
trauma to the head and trunk.

The Conneaut Law Director's Office filed charges and obtained an arrest warrant 
for Gurto in Sereniti's murder and rape. He is believed to be the boyfriend of 
the baby's mother.

Gurto has been on indicted on several charges including the following:

2 counts of aggravated murder, an unclassified felony offense

3 counts of murder, an unclassified felony offense

1 count of rape, a 1st degree felony

1 count of felonious assault, a 1st degree felony

1 count of domestic violence, a 1st degree misdemeanor

The Grand Jury has also indicted Gurto on 2 separate death penalty 
specifications.

He is expected to be back in court later this month.

(source: Fox News)

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

Ohio man could face death penalty in rape, slaying of toddler



An Ohio man has been indicted in the rape and slaying of his girlfriend's 
13-month-old daughter.

Ashtabula County Prosecutor Nicholas Iarocci said Thursday that Joshua Gurto 
could face the death penalty if convicted of aggravated murder in the Oct. 7 
beating death of Sereniti Jazzlynn-Sky Blankenship-Sutley. Gurto also faces 
rape, felonious assault and domestic violence charges.

The 37-year-old was arrested Oct. 27 in Alleghany County, Pennsylvania, the day 
after he was spotted at a Pittsburgh convenience store.

A coroner has said Seriniti died from blunt force trauma to her head and body. 
She died at a local hospital after being found unconscious in Conneaut, 
northeast of Cleveland.

Iarocci says Gurto was brought to the Ashtabula County Jail on Thursday from 
Allegheny County.

It's unclear whether Gurto has an attorney.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Attorneys for Golsby seek to throw out death penalty specifications



The attorneys for Brian Golsby are asking the judge overseeing his case to 
throw out the death penalty specifications in his indictment.

Golsby is the man accused of kidnapping, raping and murdering Ohio State 
student Reagan Tokes, last February.

According to a motion filed on October 31, defense attorneys cite a report by 
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor Frank Baumgartner to 
argue race is a factor when the state determines who is eligible for the death 
penalty.

It reads in part:

"Indeed, 65 % of all executions carried out in Ohio between 1976 and 2014 were 
for crimes involving White victims despite the fact that 43% of all homicide 
victims are White."

The defense also argues Prosecutor Ron O'Brien seeks the death penalty against 
more African American defendants than white ones.

As the motion states:

"Such grave disparity in the most serious of cases cannot be tolerated by a 
criminal justice system that strives for even the appearance of fairness and 
equality."

Golsby's attorneys, who also filed a motion to have the evidence collected from 
the defendant's ankle monitor suppressed, declined to comment.

O'Brien issued the following statement:

"We have 14 days under court rule to respond to any defense motion in a 
criminal case and are in the process of preparing a response to both motions 
recently filed in the Golsby case, including the allegation that the death 
penalty is being sought on a discriminatory basis. Both the facts and the law 
do not reflect discrimination in those cases in which a death penalty 
indictment was filed in Franklin County."

Golsby's trial is scheduled to begin in February.

(source: WCMH news)








MISSOURI:

Prosecutors seek death penalty against principal accused of murder



St. Louis prosecutors on Thursday said they are seeking the death penalty 
against a principal accused of hiring a hit man to kill his pregnant 
girlfriend, a teacher. The alleged hit man, Phillip Cutler, is also facing the 
death penalty.

Cornelius Green is charged with 2 counts 1st-degree murder. He allegedly hired 
a childhood friend, Phillip J. Cutler, of Oklahoma, to kill Jocelyn Peters, 30.

Prosecutors allege the murder was "outrageously vile, horrible or inhuman in 
that involved torture or depravity of mind."

"What we have here is an apparent murder for hire," said Jennifer Joyce, former 
St. Louis Circuit Attorney in 2016. "What we do know is Mr. Green did send Mr. 
Cutler through the mail $2,500 cash."

Peters was found fatally shot in her Central West End apartment in late March, 
2016. She was 7 months pregnant at the time of the shooting. Peters was a 
teacher at Mann Elementary in St. Louis City.

Court records sat Cutler and Green were childhood friends and Cutler was 
visiting in St. Louis the week of Peter's murder. The documents also reveal 
that Cutler's cell phone was near Peter's apartment the night of the murder.

Green is the former principal at Carr Lane Visual Performing Arts School. He 
was arrested in August, on theft charges, for allegedly stealing $2,700 from a 
student dance group at the school where he used to be a principal.

Green faces 2 counts of 1st-degree murder because the Peters' fetus was 
7-months-old.

(source: KMOV news)








OKLAHOMA:

Tulsa County DA files intent to seek death penalty in 2016 gang-related 
torture, slaying



The Tulsa County District Attorney's Office on Thursday announced its intent to 
seek the death penalty against a man and a woman charged with beating a Tulsa 
man to death in a gang-related attack and subsequently burning his body.

The case marks the 2nd time in 2 months that the DA's office has sought an 
execution.

In the current case, Gerald Keith Lowe Jr., 40, and Michaela Riddle, 25, face 
counts of 1st-degree murder, intimidation of a witness, kidnapping, desecration 
of a human corpse and committing a gang-related offense in the Nov. 11, 2016, 
death of 23-year-old Courtney Palmer.

The defendants, who were dating at the time, are accused of beating Palmer 
inside a home in the 4600 block of North Boston Place during a dispute tied to 
the Hoover Crips gang before taking his body to Muskogee, putting it in a 
shallow grave and setting it on fire.

District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler, in a filing Thursday, said the case merits 
the death penalty because Palmer's slaying was especially atrocious, heinous 
and cruel, and that the defendants are a continuing threat to society.

Lowe also has a felony conviction for an offense that involved the use or 
threat of violence on another, which is listed as a 3rd aggravator against him.

Tulsa Police Department investigators found Palmer's burned body in a shallow 
grave outside a dilapidated home in Muskogee on Dec. 15. An autopsy report from 
the state Medical Examiner's Office says Palmer died of "homicidal violence by 
multiple modalities," noting many of his facial bones and ribs were broken.

Charletha Mack, 40, is charged an accessory to Palmer's death but is ineligible 
for the death penalty. Mack testified against Lowe and Riddle during a 
preliminary hearing in October, describing how she observed them repeatedly 
beat Palmer in her home "until he couldn???t breathe no more" and explaining 
her reasons for not immediately notifying police.

Jeannetta Thomas, 19, was a co-defendant with Lowe and Riddle on the murder, 
witness intimidation and kidnapping counts, but all charges against her were 
dropped Monday and she is now a material witness.

Thomas testified in October that Palmer was attacked because of Lowe's and 
Riddle's belief that Palmer had set up a person named "Duke," and that Palmer 
repeatedly denied the accusation.

Thomas told Assistant District Attorney Isaac Shields that she saw Lowe choke 
Palmer after Palmer had a blue dry cleaner's bag placed over his head, and 
alleged that she saw Riddle pour a pot of boiling water on Palmer's face.

Police said Palmer reported being a witness to an altercation in which "Duke," 
later identified as his friend Carl Harris, was shot at an apartment complex 
near 61st Street and Peoria Avenue.

Lead homicide detective Jason White testified that Lowe and Riddle were linked 
to Palmer's burial site by using DNA collected from a sock and a vacuum cleaner 
device recovered from the dilapidated home. Lowe and Riddle reportedly had sex 
in the house before they removed the mattress from the bedroom, placed it over 
Palmer's body and set both on fire.

A probable cause affidavit states Palmer's girlfriend told White in an 
interview that Riddle said, "this is about to be some 'First 48' stuff" after 
the girlfriend began crying upon seeing a news report on Palmer's 
disappearance. "The First 48" is a television show that tracks the Tulsa Police 
Department's Homicide Unit, among other agencies, as it works on open cases.

Lowe and Riddle are set for trial court arraignment Nov. 27 before District 
Judge Sharon Holmes, but their arraignments will likely be pushed back, in part 
so she can appoint attorneys with experience in death penalty cases.

Riddle's counsel, Stephen Lee and Mark Cagle, have done capital punishment work 
but are expected to withdraw because they also are representing Michael 
Browning, whose 2003 death sentence was overturned and who is set for a 
re-trial in Tulsa next spring in a 2001 homicide.

Lowe's attorney, Brian Boeheim, has not been involved in death penalty matters 
and could either withdraw or receive death penalty-qualified co-counsel via an 
appointment from Holmes.

Kunzweiler said the nature of the crime merits the request.

"I do not make these decisions without giving thoughtful consideration to the 
alleged facts, as well as having extensive communication with the law 
enforcement officers who investigated the case," he said. "With regard to these 
2 defendants, my office believes there exist aggravating circumstances which 
should afford a jury the option of imposing the death penalty."

Kunzweiler also has requested the death penalty in the case of 41-year-old 
Gregory Jerome Epperson, who is charged with strangling 19-year-old Kelsey 
Tennant and trying to kill her boyfriend, Riley Allen, in an east Tulsa 
apartment on March 20.

Epperson's case, which became a capital proceeding in September, is the 1st 
such case handled in Tulsa County in nearly 5 years and the 1st for 
Kunzweiler's tenure as chief prosecutor. Former District Attorney Tim Harris 
had last filed a bill of particulars in January 2013 against Jacob England and 
Alvin Watts, who were accused of murder in 3 shootings on Good Friday in 2012 
that prosecutors said was a hate crime against black people.

The last death penalty trial in Harris' administration culminated in a jury 
recommending in early 2014 that Darren Price serve 2 life without parole 
sentences for his role in the September 2011 Hicks Park homicides. Price was 19 
at the time of his arrest, which prosecutors said then may have been a factor 
in why he did not receive a death sentence.

If the cases against Epperson, Lowe and Riddle go to trial and end in 
recommendations of death, they would be the first defendants from Tulsa County 
to face lethal injection since Raymond Johnson, who was sentenced in 2009 to 
die by lethal injection for killing a woman and her baby in 2007.

Oklahoma has not put anyone to death since the lethal injection of Charles 
Warner in January 2015, which was later found to have had a drug not listed to 
the Oklahoma Department of Corrections' lethal injection protocol. Richard 
Glossip received a last-minute stay in September 2015 after Gov. Mary Fallin 
learned DOC staff obtained for Glossip the same drug that was incorrectly used 
in Warner's execution.

The Oklahoma Attorney General's Office issued a stay of all scheduled 
executions pending the DOC's release of an updated protocol, after which it 
said it will wait at least 150 days before placing anyone on schedule to die. 
The DOC, according to its Oct. 31 status report, has not said it is ready to 
resume with executions.

(source: Tulsa World)

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

Prosecutors seeking death penalty for murder defendant accused of fatally 
shooting Tecumseh police officer



Wounded Tecumseh police officer Justin Terney feared he was dying in the 
moments after a shootout late March 26.

"Stay with us. Help is coming," Lt. Mike Mallinson told his wounded colleague, 
according to testimony Thursday. The lieutenant explained to a judge he was 
trying to keep Terney awake.

"Mike, I think I'm going out," Terney replied, according to the testimony. 
Terney, 22, died the next day at a hospital.

The testimony came during a preliminary hearing Thursday for murder defendants 
Byron James Shepard, 36, and Brooklyn Danielle Williams, 23.

Prosecutors announced Thursday they are seeking the death penalty against 
Shepard, who is accused of fatally shooting Terney in the abdomen and leg. 
Prosecutors allege Shepard is a "continuing threat to society."

Shepard, of Okemah, is charged with 1st-degree murder. Williams, of Tecumseh, 
is charged with 2nd-degree murder. At the hearing's conclusion, Pottawatomie 
County Special Judge David Cawthon found there was enough evidence to send 
their cases to trial.

Terney pulled over a vehicle driven by Williams late March 26 in Tecumseh. 
Shepard was riding in the car with Williams, his girlfriend, investigators 
reported.

Shepard fled when the officer discovered he had an outstanding arrest warrant 
for concealing stolen property, according to investigators. A brief foot chase 
and the shootout followed, investigators said.

Mallinson testified he responded to the traffic stop to assist Terney after it 
appeared Shepard had given a false name. Before Mallinson could exit his 
vehicle, Shepard fled on foot, according to his testimony.

Mallinson said Shepard ran into a wooded area and Terney chased after him. The 
lieutenant said he heard Terney deploy his Taser twice during the foot chase.

Mallinson told the judge he then heard gunshots. He said he found Terney and 
Shepard both lying on the ground wounded.

"The defendant continued to scream and I told him to shut up," Mallinson 
testified.

Investigators reported Terney shot Shepard in the arm, chest and groin. Shepard 
was treated at a hospital and later taken to jail.

Prosecutors allege Williams knew Shepard had an active arrest warrant and was 
"harboring" him before the fatal shooting. Law enforcement officers had 
previously warned her that she would be in trouble if she was caught with 
Shepard, according to investigators.

Text messages between the 2 defendants also were put into evidence Thursday, 
some referencing them not wanting Shepard to go back to jail. Prosecutors said 
one message sent by Shepard alluded to him wanting to "take out 4 or 5" 
officers.

Shepard also is charged with offenses related to methamphetamine and concealing 
property.

Both defendants appeared in court Thursday in handcuffs and wearing orange 
uniforms.

(source: The Oklahoman)








NEBRASKA:

NDCS says it has drugs to execute inmates on death row----A year after Nebraska 
voters brought the death penalty back, the state says it now has the drugs to 
enforce it.



A year after Nebraska voters brought the death penalty back, the state says it 
now has the drugs to enforce it.

"We revised the protocols earlier this year to be the most effective, to comply 
with state law," Gov. Pete Ricketts said.

Ricketts was part of the protocol changes in January, which made the capital 
punishment process more public.

First on death row is Jose Sandoval, who was convicted for murdering 3 people 
in the 2002 Norfolk Bank Robbery.

Corrections Director Scott Frakes explained Nebraska's new execution protocol 
in a letter to Sandoval, listing the 4 drugs that will be used to kill him.

The process starts with diazepam, an anti-anxiety drug.

? "It causes the body, in large amounts, to go into respiratory depression and 
shuts down the respiration of the body," said pharmacist Jim Quinley.

The 2nd drug used is fentanyl citrate and the 3rd is cisatracurium besylate, 
which Quinley said is a skeletal muscle relaxant.

"In large quantities it would shut down your skeletal structure, all your 
muscles and you can't move," Quinley said. "Including your respiratory 
muscles."

The final drug in the list of 4 to be used for executions is potassium 
chloride.

"Potassium chloride is a natural mineral that the body needs, but in large 
amounts it will put the heart, the cardiac system in afib and cause the heart 
to stop," Quinley said.

Quinley said the 4 drugs are legal, prescription drugs.

"In smaller doses they're used for therapeutic reasons," Quinley said. "In 
larger doses they can kill."

Ricketts said Nebraska bought the drugs in the U.S., but would not specify 
where in compliance with state law.

"We're not disclosing that," Ricketts said. "I'd refer you to the attorney 
general."

Neither the attorney general nor the department of corrections would answer 
that question Thursday, or any of KETV Newswatch 7's questions.

Death penalty opponents like Matt Maly said Nebraskans deserve an explanation.

"It's a very scary thing and to me, this just exemplifies how broken the system 
is," said Maly, operations coordinator for the Nebraskans for Alternatives to 
the Death Penalty organization. "You've got a state department putting out a 
release saying, 'Hey, we've got these drugs. Were not saying where they came 
from.'"

Maly said his organization also worries about botched executions and that 
Nebraska's use of this 4-drug cocktail is experimenting.

"Nebraska does have a history of purchasing bad lethal injection drugs from 
unauthorized suppliers, so it's very important that we know where these drugs 
came from, who made them," Maly said.

Ricketts said 3 of the drugs Nebraska plans to use are currently a part of 
Nevada's execution protocol.

Maly said his group or another will likely file a lawsuit to learn where 
Nebraska bought the drugs.

As for the Sandoval case, the attorney general's office must wait 60 days to 
request an execution warrant from the Nebraska Supreme Court. That must happen 
before a date for Sandoval's execution is set.

(source: KETV news)

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

Nebraska moving forward with execution plans for Norfolk killer Jose Sandoval



Nebraska's attorney general has chosen Norfolk killer Jose Sandoval as the next 
condemned prisoner to die, after a 20-year hiatus in executions in this state.

No request to the Nebraska Supreme Court for an execution warrant has been 
made, but Corrections Director Scott Frakes served notice to Sandoval on 
Thursday of the lethal injection drugs that would be administered to cause his 
death if an execution takes place.

That combination of drugs chosen has never been used in an execution.

State regulations require the prisons chief to notify condemned inmates 60 days 
prior to the attorney general requesting an execution warrant.

Attorney General Doug Peterson said he is prepared to request the Supreme Court 
issue Sandoval's execution warrant after at least 60 days have elapsed from the 
notice.

Corrections officials have chosen a new protocol for administering lethal 
injection drugs and have purchased diazepam, fentanyl citrate, cisatracuriam 
besylate and potassium chloride.

The drugs were purchased in the United States and received into the 
department's inventory Oct. 10, said Dawn-Renee Smith, spokeswoman for the 
Nebraska Department of Correctional Services.

She would not name the company or suppliers from which they were purchased, or 
say whether the supplier was local or a compounding company. The Journal Star 
is pursuing the answers to those and other questions.

Nevada has a similar drug protocol, but uses 3 drugs: fentanyl, diazepam and 
cisatracurium. That protocol is in question after a judge said Wednesday she 
may cut a paralytic (cisatracurium) from the state's previously untried lethal 
injection plan, after hearing that it could mask movements reflecting awareness 
and pain, according to The Associated Press.

The Nebraska department has tested its drugs for quality, according to a 
Corrections news release.

Sandoval, 38, is housed on death row at the Tecumseh State Correctional 
Institution. He was convicted and sentenced to death 13 years ago for killing 5 
people at the U.S. Bank branch in Norfolk in September 2002.

Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, a longtime opponent of the death penalty, said in 
spite of the notice he doubted an execution was going to be carried out any 
time soon.

He and others need to know where the drugs came from, and whether there was a 
private compounding company manufacturing them, he said.

Other issues that have to be resolved, he said, include whether or not this 
combination of drugs has been used anywhere else, even though that would not 
bind Nebraska; whether or not the combination of drugs would be effective in 
accomplishing an execution; and whether they were designed to be used to take 
someone's life.

The Associated Press reported in April that a German pharmaceutical company 
spokesman said the potassium chloride the Nebraska Corrections Department had 
purchased in 2015 was not intended to be sold to a state corrections 
department. A distributor had tried unsuccessfully to get the department to 
return the drugs.

The fact that the department is withholding certain information, Chambers said, 
indicates it is not fully transparent and may feel there are weaknesses in what 
it is doing.

Chambers charged that the notice of intended execution drugs is timed to 
coincide with Gov. Pete Ricketts re-election campaign.

Ricketts responded, saying: "Last year the people of Nebraska reaffirmed that 
the death penalty remains an important part of protecting public safety in our 
state."

Thursday's announcement is the next step to carrying out the sentences ordered 
by the court, he said.

ACLU of Nebraska Executive Director Danielle Conrad said the organization was 
"horrified" that the department planned to use Sandoval as a "test subject for 
an untested and experimental lethal injection cocktail."

"This rash decision will not fix the problems with Nebraska's broken death 
penalty and are a distraction from the real issues impacting Nebraska's 
Department of Corrections: an overcrowded, crisis-riddled system," she said.

America is a nation turning away from the death penalty, Conrad said, with more 
and more states seeing that ending capital punishment means improving public 
safety. Fiscal conservatives, faith leaders and public safety officials are 
increasingly leading efforts to replace the death penalty.

"The ACLU will continue to discuss the state's misguided plan with experts 
locally and nationally and evaluate the grave constitutional, legal and policy 
questions associated with this untested protocol," she said.

The attorney general said in a statement he agrees with the notice that was 
given to Sandoval.

"Sandoval planned the Sept. 26, 2002, Norfolk bank robbery when, in less than a 
minute, 5 innocent people were brutally shot and killed," Peterson said in a 
news release.

The dead included bank employees and customers. Sandoval personally killed 3 
people, 2 more people were killed, and 3 more were in the midst of the gunfire 
that day. Sandoval's crimes were captured on video.

The Nebraska Supreme Court upheld Sandoval's convictions and death sentence. 
The U.S. Supreme Court then denied further review of the sentence. Sandoval 
never filed any challenges to the Supreme Court decisions, Peterson said.

The last execution in Nebraska was Robert Williams in December 1997. It was 
carried out using the electric chair.

(source: Lincoln Journal Star)

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

Nebraska to use 4 drugs never tried together in an execution



Nebraska's corrections department took a key step Thursday to prepare for the 
state's 1st execution since 1997, unveiling a new combination of lethal 
injection drugs that no state has ever used on an inmate before.

The state Department of Correctional Services notified death-row inmate Jose 
Sandoval of the lethal injection drugs to be used in his execution, although no 
date has been set.

State officials are required to notify an inmate of the drugs to be used at 
least 60 days before Nebraska's attorney general asks the state Supreme Court 
for an execution warrant. A spokeswoman for the attorney general said state 
attorneys plan to seek the warrant after the waiting period has ended.

The announcement came almost 1 year to the day after Nebraska voters reinstated 
capital punishment, overriding state lawmakers who had abolished the death 
penalty in defiance of Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts.

"Last year, the people of Nebraska reaffirmed that the death penalty remains an 
important part of protecting public safety in our state," Ricketts said in a 
written statement. "Today's announcement by the corrections department is the 
next step towards carrying out the sentences ordered by the court."

A corrections department spokeswoman said the state intends to use the sedative 
diazepam, commonly known as Valium; the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl 
citrate; the paralytic cisatracurium; and potassium chloride to induce death.

The department has access to all 4 drugs, and all were purchased in United 
States, said correctional services spokeswoman Dawn-Renee Smith. Smith, 
responding to questions by email, did not say how the drugs were obtained or 
who provided them.

Nevada officials have been pushing to use 3 of those drugs in a scheduled 
execution on Tuesday. On Thursday, a Nevada state court judge ordered state 
officials not to use the paralytic cisatracurium. Federal public defenders 
argued that the paralytic could prevent observers from seeing if the condemnded 
inmate suffers during his death. Nevada officials also plan to use diazepam and 
fentanyl.

Sandoval, 38, was sentenced to death on 5 counts of 1st-degree murder for the 
September 2002 deaths of five people in a bank robbery in Norfolk, a city of 
24,000 about 110 miles northwest of Omaha. It's unclear whether he has an 
attorney. The Norfolk lawyer who handled his most recent appeals did not 
immediate respond to a phone message.

"He has to be given some sort of opportunity to challenge it," said Jeffery 
Pickens, executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, 
which has represented other death-row inmates. The commission cannot represent 
Sandoval because it defended some of the other men convicted in the crime, so 
it has a conflict.

Nebraska state Sen. Ernie Chambers, a longtime death penalty opponent who 
sponsored the repeal law in 2015, said he believes the execution announcement 
was politically motivated.

Ricketts vetoed the death penalty repeal measure during his 1st year in office, 
and suffered a political blow when lawmakers overrode him. The former TD 
Ameritrade executive also helped bankroll the petition drive to place the issue 
on the November 2016 ballot with $300,000 of his own money. Nebraska voters 
reinstated the death penalty. Ricketts is up for re-election in 2018.

"They're a good long ways from being able to carry out an execution," Chambers 
said. "But I think the timing is suspicious."

Chambers predicted that attorneys for Sandoval would "tear into" the state's 
plan and create more delays. Nebraska's last execution was in 1997, using the 
electric chair. The state has never carried out an execution with lethal 
injection drugs.

Ricketts did not address Chambers' criticism in his statement.

State officials chose a combination of drugs that has never been used before in 
an execution, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty 
Information Center, a national group that has questioned the way executions are 
performed.

Dunham said the use of a paralytic could effectively hide any pain an inmate 
experiences during the execution, thus obscuring whether the execution was 
carried out without causing unconstitutional pain and suffering.

"It's literally human experimentation, because no one has done it," Dunham 
said. "That doesn't necessarily mean it won't work, but it means there are 
serious questions about it."

Potassium chloride has been used in other executions to stop an inmate's heart, 
but it also caused severe chemical burns during a botched execution in Florida 
in 2014, Dunham said.

(source: Associated Press)