[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 14




TEXAS:

Cardenas Execution Raising Questions About Treatment of Mexican Nationals In 
U.S. Prisons



The Cardenas execution in Huntsville is raising questions about the treatment 
of Mexican Nationals in American prisons. News Center 23 had a chance to speak 
to the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs moments before and after the 
execution of Ruben Ramirez Cardenas.

"Ruben if you can hear us, we are here for you" yell protesters outside the in 
the rain.

Those may have been some of the last sounds heard by Ruben Ramirez Cardenas, a 
Mexican National, convicted of killing and Raping his 16 year old cousin back 
in 1997.

News Center 23 had the opportunity to bear witness to the execution. Friends, 
family, were not present to see the passing of their loved one. Instead 4 lone 
protestors battling 50-degree weather in the rain and Mexican dignitaries were 
hoping the execution was delayed fi not avoided.

Among those protestors, Gloria Ruback a representative of the TX Death Penalty 
Abolition Movement. She claims that she has been attending and protesting 
executions since the 1980???s. She says, "we found out that they can hear us 
back there in the room where they execute them. So to give him a little support 
... maybe a smile before he's murdered."

The execution, once slated for 6 PM on November 8th had visitors tense. Appeals 
made by Cardenas' attorney and The Mexican Foreign Ministry to the Supreme 
Court were to decide Cardenas' fate.

They appealed to have "the DNA evidence [that] can be properly evaluated." 
Those appeals were rejected, and Cardenas was pronounced dead at 10:26 that 
same night.

Jason Clark, spokesperson Texas Department of Criminal Justice talked to press 
immediately after the execution. He says, "Ruben Cardenas was executed for the 
brutal murder of 16 year old Mayra Laguna in 1997. He was the 7th person to be 
executed in the state of Texas this year. He did make a written last state he 
did not make a verbal last statement."

Ruben Cardenas' Attorney, Maurie Levin states, "I am convinced that we would 
not be standing here now if Texas had not violated its Vieanna Convention 
obligations preventing the Mexican consulate when he most needed its help."

"Carrying out the execution would be the equivalent to the arbitrary 
depravation of life, and the United States would be in Violation of its 
obligations under International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, The 
ICCPR." States Alejandro Alday Legal Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 
Mexico.

Also in attendance, Susana Guerra coming from Guanajuato Mexico to wait for the 
execution's results. She proclaims, "We are deeply sorrowed after this result 
and by the execution of Ruben ... When it comes to the family, the mother, we 
will try our best to support her. She is sick and frail. But we will be there 
for whatever she needs."

Mexico abolished the death penalty in 2005. Despite the execution, efforts are 
underway to prove Cardenas' innocence.

(source: rgvproud.com)

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

Psychiatrist testifies convicted murderer Hudson has personality disorder



A Brazos County jury heard from experts that William Hudson suffers from mixed 
personality disorder, alcoholism and narcissism. The defense rested Monday in 
the punishment phase of Hudson's murder trial. The jury will decide if he gets 
life in prison or the death penalty.

Hudson was convicted last week for 2 of the 6 murders at a campground in East 
Texas. The victims ranged in age from 6 to nearly 77-years-old.

The jury heard from psychiatrist David Self. He said Hudson can have his 
personality issues managed but he can't be cured.

The defense also called Antoinette McGarrahan. She is a Forensic Psychologist. 
She told the jury she spent 14 hour with Hudson completing I.Q. and other 
tests. She believes he had average intelligence at one time but has fallen 
10-15 points after repeated injury to his brain. On one test his intelligence 
score was 72. She talked about several cars accidents he was in including a 
roll over where he didn't have a seat belt on. She said damage to his frontal 
lobes can contribute to things including poor judgment, decision making, 
planning, aggression and lack of insight.

The court also heard more about what serving life in Texas prisons can look 
like. Hudson's defense attorneys called Lane Herklotz to testify. He is a 
retired TDCJ employee who worked for the state prison system for more than 25 
years. He described how inmates are classified when they are transferred into 
prison custody.

Many of in the court were surprised to learn that, despite the fact Hudson is 
accused of murdering six people, that isn't taken into account when they 
classify him in the system. TDCJ has five levels, Herklotz told the court, 
capital murder inmates serving life usually have a roommate or on occasion live 
in a dormitory. He also speculated Hudson would be considered minimum to medium 
custody, a level G-3 or G-4. He also couldn't rule out Hudson might be allowed 
outside the prison walls under armed supervision if he's serving life. Hudson 
could also potentially request being able to leave the prison to attend a 
family funeral depending on his conduct in prison. Herklotz said being on death 
row would be more secure with more restrictions.

The state talked about Hudson's mental state and confirmed with witnesses that 
Hudson is not faking any illness and his intelligence is not so low that he'd 
be considered mentally impaired. Daniel Altman, a Forensic Psychologist also 
testified Hudson has below average intelligence. He said Hudson scored a 79 
which is below average. He also tested to see if Hudson was faking mental 
illness and Hudson did not. Lisa Tanner with the AG's Office says nobody had 
made a claim Hudson had been faking mental illness.

The state will begin calling rebuttal witnesses next.

The trial resumes Tuesday at 9:00 a.m.

(source: KBTX TV news)

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

After more than 40 years of searching, Alice police on Monday announced they 
had arrested the man they believe is responsible for killing one of their own.



Alice Police Chief Rex Ramon made the announcement during a news conference at 
the Alice Public Safety Training Center. Police said they had arrested 
70-year-old Roberto Lopez in connection with the Dec. 1, 1974 murder of Alice 
Police Officer Matthew Murphy, who was killed following a traffic stop near the 
intersection of U.S. Highway 281 and West Main Street.

"This is a long time coming," said Ramon, who first started working at the 
Alice Police Department in 1988. "I never forgot watching Matt Murphy's plaque 
at the (police department) and wondering, 'When? When?' and it came true."

"This is only the beginning."

Murphy's former fellow officers attended the news conference, along with city 
and county officials.

Alice police identified Lopez - an inmate at the St. Clair Correctional 
Facility in Springville, Alabama - as a suspect Murphy's death in an Oct. 24 
affidavit filed by Sgt. Aniceto Perez Jr.

The press conference was meant to publicly announce the department's execution 
of an arrest warrant on Lopez, who is still being held in Alabama while serving 
a life sentence without parole for another crime.

According to the affidavit, Lopez reportedly bragged while in prison about 
shooting and killing a "narc" named "Murphy" with a .22-caliber pistol. Murphy 
was an undercover narcotics agent who had been put back on patrol at the time 
of his death. He was shot several times and later died at a nearby hospital.

Kenneth Helms, 70, remembered rolling up on the scene just after Murphy was 
shot. He was a detective at the time of Murphy's death. It's been 43 years 
since that fateful day, but Helms became emotional remembering how his fellow 
officer lay dying in the street from his wounds. He said Murphy actually died 
in the road, but Helms refused to allow him to stay there to become part of a 
crime scene.

Helms is now in a wheelchair, limited physically in what he can do, but the 
desire to see justice for his friend is still as strong as it ever was.

"I went up to him ... and he was trying to say something, but he (Murphy) 
expired on me," Helms said. "I wasn't going to let him lay there like a dead 
dog. I said 'He's got a pulse - get him out of here, get him to the hospital.'"

"Sure, you can say he died at the hospital, but he died at the scene," Helms 
said, his chin quivering with emotion as tears welled in his eyes.

70--year-old Henry Garza, his gray hair and goatee neatly trimmed underneath a 
U.S. Air Force cap, resigned from the Alice Police Department shortly after 
Murphy's death to work at a telecommunications company until his recent 
retirement. He said he left the department after growing frustrated with its 
handling of the investigation into Murphy's murder.

"It's something that you don't forget," Garza said of his fellow office's 
death.

According to the affidavit filed on Oct. 24, a lot of the information used to 
gain the arrest warrant for Lopez was obtained in the early 1980s. Additional 
information was obtained in during the early 1990s.

For instance, in 1982, an informant sent a letter to the Jim Wells County 
District Attorney's Office claiming to have information about a man - who later 
turned out to be Lopez - bragging in prison about killing a "narc" named 
"Murphy."

The following year, that same informant sent a letter claiming to have 
information about where the alleged murder weapon was disposed, though the 
location was not specified at the time. That information was verified in 1994 
after follow-up interviews with the informant, along with additional witnesses, 
one of whom identified Lopez as Murphy's shooter, according to the affidavit.

Lopez reportedly admitted to investigators previously he used to sell narcotics 
in Alice.

When asked what the difference was between why Lopez was picked up now and not 
then, Ramon said there wasn't really a clear answer to that question.

"Of course, different officers, different chiefs of police, different (district 
attorney)," he said. "It's a very hard question to answer because a 
determination was made. What's the difference between now and then? I guess 
we're just different people."

Carlos Omar Garcia, the District Attorney for Jim Wells and Brooks counties, on 
Monday said Lopez's case will be presented to a grand jury at a later date for 
possible indictment. Police have charged Garcia with capital murder, which is 
punishable by the death penalty, but he must first be indicted to see if there 
is enough evidence to allow the case to move to trial.

If an indictment is issued, Garcia said that would begin the process of having 
Lopez extradited to Texas to stand trial. There was no timetable on when the 
case would be presented to the grand jury.

(source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times)








FLORIDA----female to face death penalty

Woman charged in Wellington clown murder case waives speedy trial



After 27 years, a judge agreed Monday that a few more weeks won't make a 
difference in the "killer clown" murder trial of Sheila Keen-Warren.

Keen-Warren, 54, arrested in September at her home in Virginia, is accused of 
dressing as a clown and murdering 40-year-old Marlene Warren in Warren's 
Wellington Aero Club home in 1990.

In court Monday, defense attorney Richard Lubin waived Keen-Warren's right to a 
speedy trial and Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg Feuer set 
the next status hearing for Jan. 23.

Feuer retained Keen-Warren's "no bond" status.

The judge also agreed to a request by Lubin that Keen-Warren need not be 
present at status hearings.

Lubin has said Keen-Warren will plead not guilty .

In Monday's hearing, which lasted about 2 minutes, Lubin told the judge he 
recently had received a voluminous batch of documents, both electronically and 
on paper, from prosecutors, as part of the trial's "discovery," and wanted time 
to digest them.

"Murder cases in general are very complicated. This one is even more 
complicated and compounded by the age of the case," Lubin told reporters later. 
"We just decided to reset it for 60 days and see where we stand. It's going to 
take a while. But we're not going to dawdle."

Lubin also would not reveal the contests of a lengthy conversation he had right 
after the hearing with Keen-Warren, sitting in the jury box with other criminal 
defendants, all clad in blue jail jumpsuits.

Prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death penalty. It's been at least 2 
decades since a jury imposed a death sentence in state court in Palm Beach 
County.

Detectives on the cold-case unit at the sheriff's office had said a new DNA 
analysis finally got them an arrest warrant for the woman they'd suspected in 
Warren's murder for decades.

In the initial investigation, deputies were told Keen-Warren was having an 
affair with Michael Warren. 12 years after the murder, Keen-Warren and Warren 
were married in Las Vegas 12 years after the slaying.

Authorities would not say whether they're investigating Michael Warren or if he 
may face charges in the fatal shooting.

Marlene Warren reportedly told her family that she wanted to leave her husband 
but that it was complicated because the businesses they ran together - several 
properties and a used car dealership - were under her name. Her family told The 
Palm Beach Post in 2000 that she warned them if anything happened to her, her 
husband had something to do with it.

(source: palmbeachpost.com)

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

Woman accused in killer clown case waives right to speedy trial



It took more 27 years for authorities to make an arrest in South Florida's 
killer clown case. There won't be a rush for a trial either.

Through her attorney, Sheila Keen Warren on Monday waived her right to a speedy 
trial on a 1st-degree murder charge. She also will be excused from attending 
any more routine court hearings.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the 54-year-old woman accused of 
wearing a clown disguise during the May 26, 1990, slaying of Marlene Warren, 
40, in Wellington.

The shooting victim and Keen Warren share the same last name yet were not 
related. But Warren's husband, Michael, is now married to Keen Warren. He was 
not in court Monday.

Defense attorney Richard Lubin told Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg Feuer that 
his client does not use Keen in her name, although that is how it appears in 
court records.

Sheila Warren has pleaded not guilty and is being held at Palm Beach County 
Jail without bond.

Wearing blue jail scrubs, and long golden hair partially obscuring her face, 
Warren didn't speak during Monday's brief hearing.

The next court hearing will be a case status check between the judge and the 
attorneys on Jan. 23.

Defense attorney Richard Lubin said prosecutors just days ago handed over the 
1st batch of evidence in the case, which he called "complicated" because it's 
so old.

"I don't really know anything about the case yet," Lubin told the judge.

Detectives say Marlene Warren answered the door to her home in the Aero Club 
community to accept a bouquet and 2 balloons from a clown wearing an orange 
wig, a red bulb nose, gloves and a smile painted on its white face.

Immediately, the clown fired at Warren's face. She died within 2 days.

The clown fled in a white Chrysler LeBaron, which was found 4 days later 
abandoned at a shopping center parking lot. Sheila Keen and Michael Warren were 
originally identified as persons of interest but neither was charged at the 
time.

Keen, then 27, had been working for Warren's used car dealership, Bargain 
Motors Inc. of West Palm Beach, helping to repossess cars.

The case went cold until 2014, when Palm Beach County detectives took a fresh 
look at DNA evidence. They also learned the Warrens married in Las Vegas in 
2002.

Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and State Attorney Dave Aronberg have told reporters that 
Sheila Warren's Sept. 26 arrest in southwest Virginia resulted from a DNA link 
and recent witness interviews.

They did not offer any specifics about the evidence, and there is no arrest 
report filed in the case that outlines what led to the charge.

After the killing, detectives told reporters that a search of Keen's home 
yielded fibers from a bright orange wig. And similar fibers were found in the 
getaway car.

Sheila & Michael Warren's life in Abingdon Virginia

For the past 15 years, the Warrens lived in small, historic Abingdon, Va., 
within the Blue Ridge Mountains.

They had a reputation as a hardworking, sociable couple who until last year 
operated a popular fast-food restaurant in nearby Kingsport, Tenn.

After news of Sheila Warren's arrest made national headlines, their neighbors 
and customers have said they were unaware of their past alleged ties to one of 
South Florida's high-profile murders.

(source: richmond.com)

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

Despite lost evidence, no mistrial declared in quadruple murder



The penalty phase trial for James Edward Bannister, convicted last week in the 
deaths of 2 women and 2 children in 2011, began Monday.

The penalty phase trial of an Ocala man convicted of shooting and killing 2 
women and 2 children in August 2011 continued as planned after a 3-hour aside 
about a missing piece of evidence.

After opening statements Monday, 5th Judicial Circuit Judge Willard Pope 
announced that a printed version of defendant James Edward Bannister's phone 
records - more than 100 pages of calls and text messages - could not be found. 
The phone records were placed into evidence to support the state's claim that 
Bannister lured 1 of the victims, via text messages, to her death and that he 
was in the area of the crime scene during the murders, instead of at home where 
he claimed to be.

Bannister, 37, was found guilty Wednesday of 4 counts of 1st-degree murder and 
1 count of arson in the Aug. 5, 2011, deaths of CorDerica Hill, 6, CorDarrian 
Hill, 8, Jocalyn Gray, 27, and Bridget Gray, 52. Jocalyn Gray was Bannister's 
girlfriend at the time. Bridget Gray was Jocalyn Gray's mother. The Hill 
children lived with Bridget Gray, who was dating their father, Willie Hill.

Defense attorney Terry Lenamon immediately moved for a mistrial after Pope's 
announcement early Monday.

"The issue is whether the jury received all the evidence," he said.

Assistant State Attorney Robin Arnold said the CD containing the phone records 
was still in evidence so the records could be reprinted, but Lenamon was not 
satisifed by the argument.

Pope told attorneys one juror was seen leaving the jury room with a bag, which 
he usually carries. Shortly after, the piece of evidence was unaccounted for. 
The Clerk of Court's office called the juror at home and asked him about the 
piece of evidence. He said he didn't have it.

Arnold said she was contacted by the office and asked if she had the evidence, 
but said she didn't. And she "quite frankly forgot" about the correspondence. 
The defense claimed they were not aware of the missing evidence until Pope 
brought it up.

"Whatever verdict they come back with, there will be a motion for new trial," 
Lenamon said. "At the end of the day it will be a waste of judicial resources" 
to continue the trial."

Pope gave each side an hour to research case law to support their arguments. 
Once court reconvened, each juror was individually questioned. All said the 
contacted juror asked them if anyone else had received a call, but they hadn't. 
The only other discussion, they claim, was wondering what could have happened 
to the evidence.

Although the specifics of the evidence - jurors only new it was phone records - 
weren't revealed, many said they remembered placing it back in the evidence box 
after deliberations. At least 3 separate phone record packets were entered into 
evidence for the jury to consider.

"This is not a harmless error judge," Lenamon said. "This is a death penalty 
case."

Lenamon said there is no way to prove the jury reviewed the evidence.

Pope, when denying the motion, said the jurors asked several questions about 
evidence during deliberation. There was no question about the phone records.

The trial then continued as planned.

Arnold called 2 witnesses to the stand to read victim impact statements. She 
also submitted an armed robbery certified conviction from Maryland.

"There's not a minute of every day that someone or something doesn't remind me 
of those kids," the Hill children???s uncle, Raymond King, read from a prepared 
statement.

He remembered once making fun of CorDarrian for falling backwards off a step 
onto his backpack like a turtle. King said he thought he would be able to tease 
CorDarrian about the fall for a long time to come.

And he said CorDerica would have to be bribed with ice cream to go to school.

"Hearing my aunt (Bridget Gray) laugh can never be replaced," Bridget Gray's 
niece Tarkyshia Wade read from a statement. "Seeing (Jocalyn Gray's) smile from 
ear to ear is not the same in a photograph."

Defense attorney Tania Alavi began the defense's argument by presenting 
testimony of Bannister's 5 siblings. Each described a terrible childhood full 
of abuse and lacking love. Bannister's father physically abused his mother to 
the point of once causing a miscarriage. And the children were the subject of 
racial slurs and prejudice at the hand of their relatives - all white.

Bannister's older sister said she once came home to find her uncles had 
stripped her black dolls, ripped their heads off and hung them up by their 
feet. The children were also called whatever racial slur the family could think 
of. She dropped out of school at 15 to take care of her younger siblings 
because her mother was addicted to crack cocaine and often left for weeks at a 
time.

Bannister's youngest sister said for a while she thought her oldest sister was 
actually her mother because she was the primary caregiver.

Each sibling described Bannister as loving, someone who wanted to always get 
the family together to hang out. And he loved his nieces and nephews.

He would write his younger siblings, whom he hadn't really lived with before, 
from prison in Maryland.

"It was us against everybody else," one said.

Alavi asked each sibling at the end of their testimony if they loved Bannister 
and if they would continue to visit him in prison. They all answered yes to 
both questions.

The defense will continue presenting witnesses Tuesday morning. Evidence of 
multi-generational trauma, traumatic brain injury and Bannister's PTSD 
diagnosis will be topics of discussion.

At the end of the penalty phase, the jury will decide whether Bannister is 
sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. A vote 
for the death sentence must be unanimous.

Bannister is 1 of 7 Marion County defendants facing the death penalty.

(source: ocala.com)








ALABAMA:

If Alabama Executes Vernon Madison, Bill Clinton Will Share the Blame



Vernon Madison has been on Alabama's death row for 32 years. Now 67, he suffers 
from severe vascular dementia and retrograde amnesia as a result of a series of 
strokes. Testing revealed that he has a borderline IQ of 72 and a working 
memory score (which measures attention and concentration) of 58, indicating 
major impairment. He is legally blind. His speech is slurred. He cannot walk 
independently. And he is incontinent. The cumulative effect of his disabilities 
has left him with no recollection of the crime that sent him to prison.

Any day now, the state of Alabama - home of such stalwarts of righteousness as 
Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III and former state Supreme 
Court Chief Justice and current Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore - will 
set an execution date for Madison. If the state succeeds in putting him to 
death, several parties will share the blame. They will include not only Madison 
himself, but a system of capital punishment that is cruel, irrational and 
racist.

Also sharing the blame will be the 42nd president of the United States, William 
Jefferson Clinton, whose legislative accomplishments include the enactment of 
the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) of 1996, which the 
Supreme Court relied on earlier this month when it ruled adversely on the 
latest appeal in Madison's case.

How Madison came to this point is emblematic of much that is wrong with capital 
punishment. In September 1985, a jury convicted him of capital murder in the 
death of a Mobile, Ala., police officer. Madison had been charged with shooting 
the officer in the back of the head during an investigation into a report of a 
missing child and a domestic dispute between Madison and his girlfriend.

Madison is black. The officer was white.

In 1987, the Alabama Court of Appeals reversed Madison's conviction because the 
local district attorney had engaged in racially discriminatory jury selection.

Madison was retried in 1990. At his 2nd trial, he didn't deny shooting the 
officer, but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He was convicted again, 
and once more, the state appellate court reversed, holding that the DA had 
engaged in prosecutorial misconduct by eliciting improper expert testimony 
about Madison's mental state.

Madison was convicted a 3rd time of capital murder following a jury trial in 
April 1994. During the penalty phase of the proceedings, evidence was 
introduced showing that Madison suffered from a mental illness, marked by 
paranoid delusions, dating to his teenage years. After hearing testimony from 
both prosecution and defense psychiatrists, who disagreed about the severity of 
his condition, the jury voted to sentence Madison to life in prison without the 
possibility of parole rather than death.

The trial judge, however, countermanded the jury's recommendation and imposed 
another death verdict. At the time, Alabama was 1 of only 4 states (the others 
were Indiana, Delaware and Florida) that permitted such "judicial overrides." 
According to the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), the Montgomery, Ala., 
nonprofit that currently represents Madison, the judge (who died in 2011) 
overrode a total of 6 life verdicts during his tenure on the bench, the most of 
any Alabama jurist.

Madison appealed his death sentence unsuccessfully in the Alabama court system, 
and in 1998, the United States Supreme Court declined to review the case. From 
there, Madison followed the path of many other condemned inmates, filing 
petitions for writs of habeas corpus in both state and federal courts. The 
petitions succeeded in delaying the case, but on March 3, 2016, the Supreme 
Court of Alabama ordered that Madison be put to death by lethal injection.

Before Madison was slated to die, however, the EJI convinced a Mobile County 
Circuit Court judge to hold a hearing to determine whether Madison was 
sufficiently competent to be executed.

As interpreted by a long line of U.S. Supreme Court decisions, the Eighth 
Amendment prohibits the execution of "one whose mental illness prevents him 
from comprehending the reasons for the penalty or its implications." In recent 
years, the court also has barred the execution of intellectually disabled 
persons. Such executions, the court has reasoned, serve no legitimate 
penological purpose, whether by way of retribution or deterrence.

But despite ample evidence of Madison's cognitive and memory deficits, the 
county court judge found him competent. In his order, the judge even failed to 
mention Madison's diagnosis of dementia.

Running out of time and options, the EJI lodged a habeas corpus petition with 
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta. Prior to the passage 
of the AEDPA, the EJI might have expected a relatively easy victory based on a 
violation of Madison???s constitutional rights regarding his competency for 
execution.

But as 9th Circuit Court Judge Alex Kozinski has written, the AEDPA "has pretty 
much shut out the federal courts from granting habeas relief in most cases, 
even when they believe that an egregious miscarriage of justice has occurred. 
We now regularly have to stand by in impotent silence, even though it may 
appear to us that an innocent person has been convicted. AEDPA is a cruel, 
unjust and unnecessary law that effectively removes federal judges as 
safeguards."

In order to succeed on a habeas corpus petition filed in federal court, a state 
prisoner must show that the state court ruling he contests "was contrary to, or 
involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as 
determined by the Supreme Court of the United States," or else was "based on an 
unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented." 
Further, a petitioner has to show that the state court's decision was "so 
lacking in justification that there was an error well understood and 
comprehended beyond any possibility for fairminded disagreement."

As investigative journalist Liliana Segura wrote persuasively in a 2016 article 
for The Intercept, Bill Clinton signed the AEDPA into law as part of a 
deliberate policy of presenting himself as tough on crime following GOP 
victories in the 1994 midterm elections. Based on an examination of a trove 
White House memos released from the Clinton Digital Library in 2014, Segura 
argued that the adverse effects the AEDPA and other criminal justice reforms of 
the era would have on poor and minority defendants and prison inmates were not 
"unintended consequences," as Bill and Hillary maintained during the 2016 
presidential campaign, but were entirely foreseeable.

Still, the EJI managed to convince two members of the 3-judge 11th Circuit 
panel that heard oral argument on Madison's case that the state court's 
competency decision satisfied the stringent standards of the AEDPA. 
Accordingly, the 2 judges in the majority found Madison incompetent to be 
executed.

That was not so for the Supreme Court.

In a unanimous, 8-page, unsigned per curiam ("by the court") decision issued 
Nov. 6, the high tribunal held that Madison's claims were foreclosed by the 
AEDPA. The court reversed the 11th Circuit's judgment and sent the case back to 
Alabama, which now has the authority to set a new execution date.

In the meantime, Madison remains on death row, awaiting news of his appointment 
in the injection chamber, unable to recall the night he shot a police officer 
more than 3 decades ago.

To add further injustice to Madison's regrettable story, there are no longer 
any states that permit judges to override jury verdicts that call for life 
sentences rather than death in capital cases. Indiana abolished the practice in 
2002, and Delaware and Florida followed suit in 2016 after the Supreme Court 
invalidated Florida's capital punishment scheme for giving too much power to 
judges over sentencing.

Alabama was the last to fall in line, passing a new statute in April, outlawing 
judicial overrides. Unfortunately for Madison, the new law was not made 
retroactive to his case or that of 32 other condemned men in Alabama put on 
death row by trial judges who had nullified jury recommendations of 
life-without-parole sentences.

Although the number of executions in the United States has fallen in recent 
years, the U.S. remains among the world's leaders in capital punishment, along 
with the likes of Saudi Arabia, China, Egypt, Somalia, Iran and Iraq. It's high 
time we put an end to the travesty.

There's no reason to believe Congress will act, but it could get the ball 
rolling by repealing the AEDPA. Vernon Madison may deserve to spend the rest of 
his days locked away, but he should not be put to death because of the rigid 
dictates of a criminal justice statute signed into law by a Democratic 
president as a matter of pure political expediency.

(source: truthdig.com)

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

Court grants review



In Reeves v. Alabama, the justices declined to wade into the question of when 
an attorney's representation of a criminal defendant is so inadequate that it 
violates the defendant's Sixth Amendment right to have help from an attorney, 
and how courts should make that determination. In Strickland v. Washington, the 
Supreme Court outlined a standard for courts to use to decide whether an 
attorney was constitutionally ineffective: (1) the attorney's performance must 
be deficient; and (2) the defendant must have been prejudiced by that deficient 
performance - that is, he must show a reasonable probability that, if the 
attorney had not been deficient, the result would have been different.

In 1997, Matthew Reeves was on trial in Alabama for capital murder for the 
death of Willie Johnson in a robbery. Reeves contends that, although his 
court-appointed attorneys were aware that he could have an intellectual 
disability, and although the trial court had granted the attorneys' request for 
funds to pay for an expert to evaluate Reeves, his attorneys failed to hire any 
mental health professionals to do so; they also did not call any witnesses to 
testify about a possible intellectual disability. Instead, they presented 
testimony from a court-appointed expert who had conducted only a limited 
examination of Reeves, and with whom Reeves' attorneys had not spoken until the 
day she testified. Reeves was sentenced to death.

Reeves challenged his sentence, but the Alabama courts ruled against him on the 
ground that he had not called his trial attorneys to testify about their 
actions. That rule, Reeves told the Supreme Court, conflicts with the holdings 
of 5 federal courts of appeals and 1 state supreme court, which "recognize that 
reviewing courts must examine the record as a whole, even in the absence of 
direct testimony from trial counsel that purports to explain strategic trial 
decisions, to determine whether the defendant received constitutionally 
effective representation."

Today the Supreme Court turned down Reeves' petition. That order drew a sharp 
14-page dissent (4 pages longer than Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's opinion on 
the merits last week in Hamer v. Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago) from 
Sotomayor, joined by Ginsburg and Kagan - but not Justice Stephen Breyer, who 
has recently been most likely to object to the court's rulings against 
death-row inmates. Sotomayor began by emphasizing that there "can be no 
dispute" that a categorical rule requiring attorneys to testify in federal 
cases alleging ineffective assistance of counsel would be inconsistent with the 
Supreme Court's rulings "requiring an objective inquiry into the adequacy and 
reasonableness of" the attorney's performance "based on the full record before 
the court." Indeed, Sotomayor stressed, even "Alabama does not defend such a 
rule." Instead, she continued, the dispute in Reeves' case was whether the 
Alabama state court "in fact imposed such a rule."

Because Sotomayor believed that the state court "plainly did so," she would 
have sent the case back to the state court for it to "explain why, given the 
full factual record, Reeves' counsel's choices constituted reasonable 
performance." But instead, Sotomayor lamented, "the Court has cleared the way 
for Reeves' execution." And that, Sotomayor concluded, "is a result with which 
I cannot agree."

The justices' next conference is scheduled for November 21.

(source: scotusblog.com)








OHIO----impending execution

Man who killed teen during escape from custody to be put to death in Ohio 
Wednesday----Lawyers for condemned Franklin County killer Alva Campbell Jr. had 
argued he was too sick to be executed.



A man who shot a teenager after stealing his car during an escape from custody 
will be executed on Wednesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in 
Lucasville.

An effort to stop the execution of Alva Campbell Jr., 69, is pending before the 
U.S. Supreme Court.

If the execution goes forward as scheduled, Campbell would be the 3rd person 
executed this year, when the state ended a 3-year halt in executions after 
controversy over the prolonged execution of Dennis McGuire using a previously 
untested combination of lethal injection drugs.

Lower courts, the state Parole Board and Ohio Governor John Kasich have all 
rejected efforts by Campbell to be spared death for the 1997 killing of Charles 
Dials.

A federal judge in Dayton also rejected Campbell's request to be executed by 
firing squad, a request made because of concerns that Campbell may not have 
accessible veins suitable for the 3-drug lethal injection used by the state to 
execute prisoners, said David Stebbins, Campbell's federal public defender.

In court filings Stebbins has cited the condemned man's multiple health 
problems, which include issues with his veins, asthma, emphysema and an 
external colostomy bag.

"I anticipate they may have some difficulties," Stebbins said. "He cannot 
breathe if he has to lie flat. And the process takes some time, so they've 
arranged a wedge to sit him up at a 40-degree angle."

Stebbins said he was given a report by the warden that medical personnel were 
able to palpate Campbell's veins in his legs and arms in order to find 1 
suitable for injection.

The state agreed to use the wedge-shaped pillow on the gurney, said JoEllen 
Smith, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

"Mr. Campbell's medical condition and history are being assessed and considered 
in order to identify any necessary accommodations or contingencies for his 
execution," Smith said.

The parole board also rejected arguments that Campbell be spared because of 
violence he said he suffered as a child from his parents and then in foster 
care.

"He had as bad a childhood as I've encountered in 35 years of doing this work," 
Stebbins said. "It was significant for the level of violence inflicted on him 
by his parents."

The state parole board in an Oct. 20 report acknowledged Campbell's 
dysfunctional and traumatic childhood but said it needed to be weighed against 
the seriousness of his crimes, including a previous murder conviction.

"Those murders and other crimes committed by Campbell over the course of many 
years reflect a disturbing propensity to engage in extreme and senseless 
violence, a propensity that never abated despite multiple incarcerations and 
attempts by the state to rehabilitate him," according to the parole board's 
report.

The board voted 11 to 1 that he be denied clemency, and on Thursday Kasich 
denied Campbell's request for executive clemency.

Campbell was 1st convicted at age 19 in 1967 of shooting a state trooper, armed 
robbery and grand larceny. He was paroled in 1971 and then shot a man to death 
during a robbery in Cleveland in 1972. He received a life sentence for 1st- 
degree murder but was paroled after 20 years. In 1997 he was arrested again in 
Franklin County, this time for aggravated robbery.

He had been shot during the robbery and pretended to be paralyzed as he was 
driven by a Franklin County deputy from the Jackson Pike Jail for his 
arraignment at Franklin County Municipal Court. Campbell overpowered Deputy 
Teresa Harrison and took her gun as she attempted to help him out of her 
vehicle at the loading dock, according to a narrative from court records 
included in the Parole Board report.

Dials was at the court to pay a traffic ticket. He was driving away in his 
pickup truck when Campbell stopped him, pulled open the door, forced Dials to 
move over and drove off. Campbell later ordered Dials to get onto the floor 
board of his truck and then shot him twice.

Campbell was captured after stealing another car and attempting to kidnap 2 
other people and then hiding in a tree, where authorities found him after a 
chase.

In a Sunday tweet, death penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean called for 
people to contact Kasich to stop the execution. Ohioans to Stop Executions also 
oppose his execution.

The last person executed in Ohio was Gary Otte, 45, who killed 2 people in a 
Cleveland suburb in 1992 and was put to death on Sept. 13.

Child killer Ronald R. Phillips, 43, was executed on July 26 for the 1993 death 
of a 3-year-old girl he had raped and beaten.

By the numbers

53: Number of Ohio inmates executed between 1981 and March 2017.

85: Number of victims killed by those inmates.

43: Number of female victims.

19: Number of victims who were children.

45.73: Average age of inmates put to death.

19: Number of African-American inmates executed during that span.

25: Number of victims who were African-American.

34: Number of executed inmates who were Caucasian.

56: Number of victims who were Caucasian.

53: Number of Males.

0: Number of Females.

16.63: Average number of years on death row prior to execution.

[source: Ohio Attorney General's office]

Note: Data does not include Gary Otte, 45, executed in September, and Ronald R. 
Phillips, 43, executed in July.

(source: Dayton Daily News)

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

Inmate will get pillow to help him breathe during execution



Ohio will provide a wedge-shaped pillow to help a condemned inmate breathe as 
he's being executed this week, among other accommodations the state is 
considering.

Death row prisoner Alva Campbell, who has said he is too ill for lethal 
injection, became mildly agitated when officials tried lowering him to a normal 
execution position, according to a medical review by a physician contractor for 
the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

Dr. James McWeeney noted there were no objective findings such as increased 
pulse rate or breathing to corroborate Campbell's anxiety. Nevertheless, he 
recommended allowing Campbell to lie "in a semi-recumbent position" during the 
execution.

The same exam failed to find veins suitable for inserting an IV on either of 
Campbell's arms.

Campbell, 69, has severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder as the result 
of a decades-long 2-pack-a-day smoking habit, the doctor said.

The prisoner's attorneys say he uses a walker, relies on a colostomy bag, 
requires 4 breathing treatments a day and may have lung cancer. They have asked 
the U.S. Supreme Court to stop Wednesday's execution, because of his poor 
health, a motion opposed by the state.

The attorneys have warned that Campbell's death could become a "spectacle" if 
guards are unable to find suitable veins in the sick inmate's arms.

Earlier this month Campbell lost a bid to be executed by firing squad after a 
federal judge questioned whether lawmakers would enact the bill needed to allow 
the method.

Prisons department spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said Monday that Campbell's 
"medical condition and history are being assessed and considered in order to 
identify any necessary accommodations or contingencies for his execution."

Franklin County prosecutor Ron O'Brien calls Campbell "the poster child for the 
death penalty."

Prosecutors say his health claims are ironic given he faked paralysis to escape 
court custody the day he killed a teenager during a carjacking.

Campbell was paroled in 1992 after serving 20 years for killing a man in a 
Cleveland bar. On April 2, 1997, Campbell was in a wheelchair when he 
overpowered a Franklin County sheriff's deputy on the way to a court hearing on 
several armed robbery charges, records show.

Campbell took the deputy's gun, carjacked 18-year-old Charles Dials and drove 
around with him for several hours before shooting him twice in the head as 
Dials crouched in the footwell of his own truck, according to court records.

Campbell was regularly beaten, sexually abused and tortured as a child, his 
attorneys have argued in court filings and before the Ohio Parole Board.

Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich rejected mercy for Campbell last week.

(source: therepublic.com)

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

The Pursuit of Torture



On Wednesday this week, Jeffrey Wogenstahl's fellow death row inmate, Alva 
Campbell, is set to die.

As a child, Alva Campbell was forced by his father to play games of torture. 
One was the electrical current game: all the children held hands with their 
father while he stuck his finger in an electrical socket and one of the 
children held a faucet to act as a ground; all felt the shock of the 
electricity flowing through them.

Constantly subjected to this and other abuse, torture would have been 
internalized as normal by Campbell. The state attempted to support him in later 
childhood, but by placing him in "dysfunctional and often dangerous 
environments" it instead added to his emotional instability.

Tragically, Campbell moved into adulthood still broken by his childhood 
experience of violence, danger, instability and torture. And in this broken 
condition he committed murder.[i]

On Wednesday, staff working for the state of Ohio will attempt to kill Campbell 
by injecting him with three drugs. His frailty could cause complications: 
during a rehearsal staff could not find a vein suitable for inserting an 
IV.[ii]

Even more problematic are 2 of the drugs, pancuronium bromide and potassium 
chloride: Ohio had promised to stop using them for lethal injections, but then 
reinstated them, deftly avoiding litigation regarding their constitutionality. 
The function of the remaining drug, midazolam, is to mask the extreme pain 
caused by the other 2 drugs; yet credible experts have testified that midazolam 
is unsuitable for this purpose, and experience in other states confirms its 
inadequacy.[iii]

To minimize his potential torture, Campbell has asked to be killed by firing 
squad instead; his request has been refused.[iv]

Soon Campbell's life will have come full circle. Torture awaited him when he 
was born; torture accompanied him throughout childhood and beyond. And on 
Wednesday torture inflicted by the state will pursue him to his final moment of 
life.

It is time for "a civil, thoughtful conversation among the American people, 
legislatures, and the courts - on the meaning of the [Eighth] Amendment's 
prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment."[v]

[i] Minutes of the Parole Board meeting, Re Alva Campbell Jr., CCI #A354-963 on 
October 12, 2017.

[ii] New York Times, Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Associated Press), Doctor approves 
of ill inmate sitting up during execution, October 31 2017.

[iii] Dissent, Karen Nelson Moore, United States Court of Appeal for the Sixth 
Circuit, In Re Execution Protocol, No 17-3076, June 28 2017. For instance:

"There is significant evidence that the first drug, midazolam, cannot prevent 
someone from feeling [immense] pain." (page 16)

"[T]here no question that the State has publicly taken inconsistent positions, 
concealed facts from Plaintiffs to gain strategic advantage, and attempted at 
every turn to deny Plaintiffs an opportunity to try their constitutional claims 
... The majority has ensured that the State will be rewarded [for such 
behaviour]". (page 40)

[iv] New York Daily News, Elizabeth Elizalde, "Death row inmate wants execution 
by firing squad, not lethal injection because he has weak veins", November 7, 
2017.

[v] Dissent, Jane B. Stranch, United States Court of Appeal for the Sixth 
Circuit, In Re Execution Protocol, No 17-3076, June 28 2017, page 42.

(source: RB-jeffreywogenstahl.com)

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

Ohio Man Could Face Death Penalty in Slaying of 1-Year-Old: Prosecutor



An Ohio man who was captured in Pennsylvania could get the death penalty for 
the slaying of his girlfriend's 1-year-old daughter.

Joshua Gurto, 37, is being accused in the death of Sereniti Jazzlynn-Sky 
Blankenship-Sutley, as reported by The Associated Press. He was indicted 
several days ago.

Ashtabula County Prosecutor Nicholas Iarocci said Thursday that Joshua Gurto 
said that he could face the death penalty if he's convicted of aggravated 
murder in the Oct. 7 death. He faces other charges including felonious assault, 
domestic violence, and sexual assault.

Gurto was arrested Oct. 27 in Alleghany County, Pennsylvania, after he was 
spotted in a convenience store.

A coroner said Seriniti died from blunt force trauma to her head and body. She 
was later pronounced dead at a hospital near Cleveland.

Gurto was taken to the Ashtabula County Jail on Thursday from Allegheny County, 
the prosecutor said.

Prior to his capture, he had spent e weeks on the run.

It's not clear if he has an attorney.

Gurto's arraignment will take place in "the near future," the prosecutor's 
office said, according to the Daily Mail.

Gurto was dating Sereniti's mother, Kelsie, when her baby daughter died.

She's not facing any charges.

(source: The Epoch Times)

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

Attorney change delays re-sentencing for convicted serial killer



New counsel was named Monday for a convicted serial murderer hoping to get a 
2nd chance at life in prison without parole instead of death row.

The last-minute change in lawyers for Anthony Kirkland means his re-sentencing 
hearing will now be delayed several months.

In a surprise move the day jury selection was to begin, his attorneys announced 
in court last week they wanted off the case.

They said they didn't feel they could represent Kirkland, 49, after learning he 
was talking to an attorney for the State Public Defender's Office.

The judge agreed to let them off the case and delayed further court proceedings 
until Monday.

Kirkland was convicted in 2010 of killing 2 women and 2 teenage girls.

The jury recommended the death penalty, and the judge concurred.

But last year, the Ohio State Supreme Court ordered a re-sentencing hearing.

They said prosecutors may have been prejudicial in their closing arguments.

That means the man who sexually assaulted, strangled and then burned the bodies 
of 3 of his victims could get a lighter sentence.

He could be allowed to live out his days in prison without the possibility of 
parole.

Kirkland was convicted after a jury trial of murder in the 2006 death of 
14-year-old Casonya Crawford and 2009 slaying of 13-year-old Esme Kenney.

He was arrested the day he killed Esme when she went jogging near the Winton 
Road reservoir.

Before the trial began, he pleaded guilty to killing 2 women, 45-year-old Mary 
Jo Newton and 25-year-old Kimya Rolison.

Once the jury is set for the re-sentencing, testimony must occur all over 
again, putting the families through the anguish of reliving the grisly 
slayings.

(source: WXIX news)