[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MD., VA., S.C., FLA., ALA., LA., TENN., S.D., COLO., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 20



MARYLAND:

Shoemaker: Bring back the death penalty for cop killers



My Dad used to tell me to say what you mean and mean what you say. It try to 
live by that. I don't waffle. I take positions on issues. People are free to 
agree or disagree, but at least folks know where I stand.

And while my wife wishes that I would keep my trap shut more often, the 
overwhelming majority of Carroll County citizens that I encounter appreciate 
the fact that I take a stand. As a consequence of expressing myself, it causes 
liberals (including my opponent apparently), to lose their minds and write 
scathing responses to the Carroll County Times. And do you know what? I'm OK 
with that.

If folks on the left are so agitated by my opinion that they want to call me 
names, I hope it makes them feel better. But, I really believe that if you 
don't stand up for something you will fall for anything.

This leads me to my point. It is time to reinstate the death penalty in 
Maryland. On Nov. 16, Det. Sean Suiter, an 18-year veteran of the Baltimore 
Police Department, a former Navy officer, and the father of 5 children, 
succumbed to his injuries after having been shot in cold blood on Fremont 
Avenue in West Baltimore. Suiter, who worked in homicide, was there to 
investigate a previous murder. There is no question that the scumbag who killed 
him knew Suiter was a police officer. He killed the detective anyway.

If there ever was a case that screams for reinstatement of the death penalty, 
it's this one. While sentencing is supposed to have 2 functions, to 
rehabilitate and to punish, it's readily apparent that the perpetrator in this 
case is so callous that he is irredeemable, and should be put to death.

Liberal do-gooders will protest that the death penalty is not a deterrent. 
Well, after Ted Bundy was executed for raping and murdering numerous victims, 
he stopped raping and murdering. So the death penalty was definitely a 
deterrent for him.

Until liberal do-gooder Martin O'Malley signed a death penalty repeal bill into 
law in 2013, Maryland had the death penalty in place. It has been used 
sparingly - in a total of 5 cases - during the modern era. Thankfully, one of 
the people who got the ultimate sanction was John Thanos, one of the 
coldest-hearted killers in Maryland's history.

But, besides the fact the death penalty serves as a deterrent for the scumbag 
who is sentenced, it has other values that the bleeding hearts have deprived us 
of. Practically any prosecutor will tell you it's another tool in their tool 
box to use in the plea-bargain process.

We also hear people cite the Kirk Bloodworth case and contend that it would be 
terrible to execute an innocent man. I agree, but DNA testing and other methods 
of modern crime scene science can now effectively eliminate almost all 
uncertainly as to a person's guilt or innocence.

Furthermore, the death penalty should be reserved for the most heinous 
offenders: Those who kill law enforcement, those who kill correctional officers 
and those who engage in mass-killings and/or acts of terrorism.

People like the scum that killed Det. Suiter deserve to be slipped the juice. I 
will support legislation to do just that during the 2018 session.

(source: Op-Ed; Haven Shoemaker is a Republican representing District 5 in the 
Maryland House of Delegates and seeking re-election in 2018. He writes from 
Hampstead----Carroll County Times)








VIRGINIA:

Joseph M. Giarratano, controversial former death row inmate, granted parole



After 38 years behind bars and a close brush with execution for a rape and 
double murder that supporters have long claimed he did not commit, Joseph M. 
Giarratano has been granted parole.

One of the best known and most controversial death row inmates in Virginia 
history, the former scallop boat crewman, jail house lawyer and well-traveled 
inmate was approved for release on Monday. Adrianne L. Bennett, chair of the 
Virginia State Parole Board, said it may take a month before Giarratano is 
actually freed.

Giarratano was convicted of the Feb. 4, 1979, rape and capital murder of 
Michelle Kline, 15, and the murder of her mother, Toni Kline, 44, in Norfolk. 
After several confessions he later said he had no recollection of what happened 
in their apartment. He said he woke, discovered the bodies, assumed he was 
guilty and fled.

In 1991, 2 days before his scheduled execution, Gov. L. Douglas Wilder commuted 
Giarratano's sentence to life after his case won national and international 
attention from celebrities, liberal and conservative commentators, religious 
and political figures and others who raised questions about his guilt.

His was apparently the only death sentence commuted to life in Virginia in 
modern times allowing for the possibility of parole.

Members of the victims' family could not be reached for comment Monday evening. 
His prosecutor and the judge who found him guilty are deceased.

Bennett said the board cannot comment on communications with victims and victim 
family members. However, she said in general the board does have the duty to 
use due diligence to obtain victim input.

She said the parole board's decision - it would take at least four of the 5 
parole board votes to grant Giarratano parole - is not a comment on an inmate's 
innocence claim. "It's also not an act of forgiveness," said Bennett.

Richmond lawyer Stephen A. Northup, who represented Giarratano before the 
parole board, said, "For all the reasons that caused Governor Wilder to give 
Joe a conditional pardon more than 26 years ago, I believe Joe is innocent of 
the crimes for which he was convicted.

"In addition, he has served almost 40 years of his life in prison and has 
compiled a remarkable record during that time. His release will pose no risk to 
public safety and will enable the outside world to benefit from his 
extraordinary skills and intelligence," said Northup.

Gerald Zerkin, Giarratano's lawyer when Wilder commuted the death sentence, 
said Monday evening that, "That is the most fantastic news."

"It is a tragedy that he has been kept in prison for all this time and it is 
just great for all of us that he will be getting out. It should have happened a 
long time ago," said Zerkin.

The murders were discovered on Feb. 5, 1979, when police found Toni Kline, 
stabbed to death on the bathroom floor of her apartment. Michelle Kline, who 
had been sexually assaulted and strangled, was found in the bedroom.

At 3 a.m. Feb. 6, 1979, Giarratano walked over to a deputy sheriff eating 
breakfast in a Jacksonville, Fla., bus station, surrendered and confessed to 
killing 2 women in Norfolk. He would confess 4 more times though the 
confessions were not consistent and conflicted in parts with the crime scene 
evidence.

As a result of his confessions and some circumstantial evidence, Giarratano was 
convicted in May 1979 in a trial before Norfolk Circuit Court Judge Thomas R. 
McNamara. Giarratano was later sentenced to death.

A decade after the convictions his lawyers said he had not been competent to 
stand trial because drug abuse, mental illness and a death wish left him unable 
to assist in his own defense. They said his conflicting confessions were made 
up and that new evidence supported innocence.

Supporters, including Hollywood personalities, raised a cloud of doubt about 
his guilt.

Authorities strongly defended the capital murder conviction and death sentence, 
arguing that the confessions were made out of genuine remorse and that 
Giarratano had since changed his mind.

The conditional pardon spared his life and made him eligible for parole after 
serving 25 years. Wilder left it up to then-Virginia Attorney General Mary Sue 
Terry to decide whether he should be retried - something legal experts 
questioned was possible.

Possible or not, Terry wanted no part of it, saying at the time she did not 
believe he had a right to a new trial and that he did not deserve one.

Giarratano has kept a relatively low profile behind bars in recent years but 
that hasn't always been the case.

In decades past he was a lightning rod for attention and a polarizing fixture 
on and off death row. He assisted in the 1984 escape of 6 death-row inmates, 
though he did not flee, and is a skilled jailhouse lawyer with 1 of his cases - 
about the right of prisoners for court-appointed lawyers on appeals - argued in 
the U.S. Supreme Court.

He was credited with helping save the life of Earl Washington Jr., Virginia's 
only death row inmate proved wrongly convicted. Giarratano helped get legal 
representation for Washington who came close to being executed for a rape and 
murder that years later DNA proved was committed by someone else.

Giarratano's supporters included actors Roy Scheider, who appeared in the 
movies, "Jaws" and "Russia House," and Mike Farrell, of television's, "M*A*S*H, 
" who appeared at a Charlottesville rally on his behalf in 1991, a month before 
Giarratano was scheduled to be executed and Wilder commuted his sentence.

In a 2001 article in The Criminal Law Bulletin, the authors concluded: "In sum, 
here is not a shred of significant or credible physical evidence supporting the 
conclusion that Joseph Giarratano's contradictory and inconsistent confessions 
are reliable or link him to the deaths" of Toni and Michelle Kline. Yet there 
is considerable evidence supporting the conclusion that his confessions are 
false."

Detractors argue Giarratano was a "poster boy" for anti-death penalty activists 
who twisted facts to suggest the guilty killer was innocent. He was derisively 
dubbed, "Gentle Joe," in an oft-cited editorial in the Richmond Times Dispatch. 
Lawrence C. Lawless, who prosecuted Giarratano, said in 1989 that while he was 
no fan of the death penalty, in Giarratano's case he was willing to pull the 
switch.

Moved off death row, Giarratano remained a thorn in the side of Virginia 
Department of Corrections.

One of the last inmates to be held at the decrepit Virginia State Penitentiary 
in Richmond before it was razed, he was sent to the Augusta Correctional Center 
where, with the help of former Washington Post columnist Colman McCarthy, the 
founder of the Center for Teaching Peace. Giarratano set up a peace education 
program for other inmates.

His imprisonment has included cross-country flights in then-Gov. George Allen's 
executive jet, a hunger strike, long periods in isolation and an essay 
published in the Yale Law review.

He was also stabbed by another inmate - he said because corrections officials 
wrongly labeled him a snitch - and was sent to a prison in Utah in 1996 for his 
own safety under the terms of an interstate compact among correctional systems 
across the country.

His reputation preceded him. Upon his arrival the Salt Lake City Tribune wrote:

"Virginia prisoner Joseph Giarratano was halfway through a cigarette when 15 
guards unexpectedly appeared in his cell to escort him to the governor's 
personal jet.

"The aircraft delivered one of the nation's most articulate prison critics and 
effective litigators to Utah on Sept. 4 as a part of a prisoner exchange 
officials here may regret."

Regret they did and he was soon transferred from Utah to Illinois where he was 
held in the Joliet Correctional Center, best known as the home of "Joliet Jake" 
of cinema's fictional "Blues Brothers."

He was sent back to Virginia in 1997. In 2002, after state law was changed 
allowing inmates to request DNA testing, Giarratano's lawyers sought vaginal 
and cervical swabs and slides and any other biological evidence from the crime 
scene that could be tested.

But authorities said none remained for testing since none was ever actually 
entered into evidence. The Norfolk police said they routinely destroy such 
evidence 3 years after a case has closed.

2 years ago, Giarratano's case was a vehicle for a 2-day legal discussion at 
the Washington and Lee University School of Law, to "explore the ethical, legal 
and public policy issues surrounding the use of the death penalty."

In recent years, Giarratano lost a leg to diabetes and is now an inmate at the 
Deerfield Correctional Center in Capron where many aged and ill inmates are 
held.

He has a blog, freejoeg.com in which, among other things, he took the 
Department of Corrections to task for allegedly failing to comply with the 
Americans with Disabilities Act.

(source: Richmond Times-Dispatch)








SOUTH CAROLINA----impending execution

South Carolina lacks lethal injection drugs needed to execute death row inmate



South Carolina does not have the lethal injection drugs necessary to complete 
the execution of a death row inmate scheduled for next month, Gov. Henry 
McMaster said Monday.

The South Carolina Supreme Court has ordered a Dec. 1 execution for 52-year-old 
Bobby Wayne Stone, who was convicted of murder in the 1996 slaying of Sumter 
County sheriff's Sgt. Charlie Kubala.

But the state has not executed anyone on death row in 5 years due to the lack 
of access to the necessary drugs.

McMaster and South Carolina Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling 
called on the General Assembly to pass a shield law that would allow companies 
to sell the drugs to the state confidentially in order to avoid public 
scrutiny.

"The reason we don't have the drugs despite intense efforts to get them is 
because the companies that make them, the distributors who distribute them and 
the pharmacies who may have to compound them don't want to be identified," 
McMaster said.

The governor explained that the companies are "afraid that there names will be 
made known and they don't want to have anything to do with it for fear of 
retribution or exposure," which he said were "perfectly good reasons."

"So here we are at a dead stop, and we can't do anything about it unless or 
until our Legislature enacts the shield law that Director Stirling asked for 
years ago," McMaster said.

The state's current injection protocol requires 3 drugs - pentobarbital, 
pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

South Carolina switched to pentobarbital instead of sodium thiopental, a change 
made necessary after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration cracked down on 
the use of the anesthetic and seized the state's sodium thiopental supply. The 
agency took the drug away from several states because of concerns that 
officials broke the law by buying doses from England, which banned the drug's 
export for executions.

But then South Carolina's supply of pentobarbital expired in 2013. States 
including South Carolina have struggled with finding companies willing to sell 
the drugs, fearing harassment and other negative repercussions for being 
involved in the execution process.

Other states have gone to using a single drug. Currently there are 39 inmates 
on South Carolina's death row. Inmates can choose electrocution, although few 
do.

Prosecutors have cited the state's lack of execution drugs in accepting life 
sentences in recent cases. Prosecutor Barry Barnette said in May he told the 
families of the 7 people murdered by serial killer Todd Kohlhepp that he 
couldn't guarantee Kohlhepp could be executed if he was convicted because South 
Carolina "doesn't have a functioning death penalty." Kohlhepp instead received 
7 life sentences without parole.

In April, Charleston-area solicitor Scarlett Wilson said she worked out a plea 
agreement for Dylann Roof resulting in a life sentence because, even if he'd 
been sentenced to death for killing 9 African-Americans at a church, the state 
couldn't have executed him.

At that point, Roof had already been sentenced to death in the federal system, 
and he's currently on federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana.

(sources: Charleston Post and Courier & Associated Press)

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

Susan Sarandon won an Oscar portraying this real nun, who blasts SC's execution 
plans



One of the foremost critics of the death penalty had some harsh words for South 
Carolina Governor Henry McMaster Monday.

Sister Helen Prejean didn't mince words, calling out McMaster after his news 
conference announcing that South Carolina's 1st scheduled execution in 6 years 
will not be carried out.

Prejean said the planned execution of death row inmate Bobby Wayne Stone, 
announced Nov. 17, was a political stunt orchestrated by McMaster, who spoke to 
the media while standing in front of South Carolina's death row.

Stone's execution will not be carried out on Dec. 1 as planned because S.C. 
does not have the drugs necessary to perform a lethal injection. McMaster was 
joined by S.C. Corrections Director Bryan Stirling at the news conference to 
make this announcement, something Prejean saw as a charade.

The nun, whose best-selling book "Dead Man Walking," was turned into an 
award-winning movie, posted as much on Twitter.

"Let's get this straight: South Carolina scheduled an execution for December 
1st, all the while knowing that the state doesn't have any drugs to carry it 
out. This is basically a mock execution, recognized worldwide as a form of 
torture," Prejean tweeted.

The lethal injection cocktail requires 3 drugs - pentobarbital, pancuronium 
bromide and potassium chloride - all of which the state does not have, 
according to Stirling. He said the drugs are hard to come by because drug 
companies do not want to be named publicly for providing drugs for executions, 
fearing backlash.

McMaster and Stirling said the companies seek anonymity and encouraged 
lawmakers to pass a law that would make the source of the drugs secret. 
McMaster said the companies would not be named in subpoenas or public record's 
requests.

"Here we are at a dead stop and we can't do anything about it unless our 
Legislature passes the shield law," McMaster said.

South Carolina Corrections Director Bryan Stirling, left, and Gov. Henry 
McMaster stand outside the state's death row at Broad River Correctional 
Institution in Columbia. Stirling and McMaster announced Monday the state 
doesn't have the drugs it needs for lethal injection and can't carry out an 
execution scheduled for Dec. 1.

Prejean said that ulterior motive was the true reason Stone was scheduled for 
execution last week. He was a political pawn.

"S. Carolina Gov. @henrymcmaster used this situation to argue for new execution 
secrecy laws," Prejean tweeted. "Governor, the fact that you all scheduled an 
execution without a way to carry it out is a pretty strong argument for more 
transparency, not less."

Stone, 52, has been on death row for 20 years, convicted of murder in the 1996 
slaying of Sumter County sheriff's Sgt. Charlie Kubala, who was shot twice.

Stone has acknowledged he shot Kubala as the officer responded to a call in 
February 1996, but said the shooting was accidental.

There's no evidence that Stone was wrongly convicted, but flaws in the judicial 
system are one of the reasons Prejean advocates against the use of the death 
penalty. She says the death penalty fails to work as a deterrent, isn't a 
cost-effective solution and often fails to offer closure to families of 
victims.

It's a crusade she has been on for 4 decades, since meeting Patrick Sonnier, 
the convicted killer of 2 teenagers, sentenced to die in the electric chair of 
Louisiana's Angola State Prison.

Upon Sonnier's request, Prejean repeatedly visited him as his spiritual 
advisor. In doing so, her eyes were opened to the execution process. Prejean 
turned her experiences into a book, Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of 
the Death Penalty, that was number one on The New York Times Best Seller List 
for 31 weeks.

The book was developed into a major motion picture starring Susan Sarandon as 
Prejean and Sean Penn as a death row inmate. The movie received 4 Oscar 
nominations, including 1 for Sarandon who won the Academy Award for Best 
Actress.

According to her website, Prejean has witnessed 5 executions in Louisiana and 
continues to lecture, in addition to organizing and writing about the death 
penalty. She still counsels death row inmates, as well as the families of 
murder victims.

It is through this work that Prejean has formed strong opposition to the death 
penalty. She continued to share her views Monday on Twitter, when she reasoned 
about its perils.

"The death penalty is a deeply emotional issue, but a few things become clear 
when we look beyond emotion to the facts: no measurable deterrence, more 
expensive than life sentences, doesn't really help victims' families heal, and 
innocents have been executed."

(source: thestate.com)








FLORIDA:

State Attorney Ayala says Gov. Scott dropped the ball in death penalty filing, 
not her



State Attorney Aramis Ayala was placed under scrutiny last week when she filed 
her intent to seek the death penalty in a Kissimmee murder case 22 days past 
the 45-day deadline.

Ayala, who has been at odds with Gov. Rick Scott since she announced her office 
would not seek the death penalty in any case it prosecuted, said Monday that it 
wasn't her fault the deadline was missed.

The case in question is against Emerita Mapp, who is accused of stabbing 
20-year-old Zachary Ganoe to death and critically injuring another man at a 
Kissimmee Days Inn in April.

Earlier in the year, Scott said his office would review the 1st-degree murder 
cases in Orange and Osceola counties after Ayala made her death penalty 
announcement.

The case against Mapp was never reviewed by Scott's office, or another state 
attorney, which is why the deadline was missed, Ayala said.

In September, Ayala announced the formation of a death penalty review panel, 
which will examine potential capital cases and decide if seeking the death 
penalty is appropriate.

The panel did not review Mapp's case until after the deadline, which requires 
that an intent to seek the death penalty be filed within 45 days of the 
defendant's arraignment.

Mapp was arraigned on Aug. 23.

"I want to address inaccurate and misleading statements that have come from 
outside my office," Ayala said Monday. "The defendant here, Ms. Mapp, committed 
this murder (on) April 11, which is 8 days after the governor pledged to the 
public that he would identify all the potential death penalty cases" in Orange 
and Osceola counties.

While Mapp's attorneys have made a motion to have the prosecution's filing of 
intent to seek the death penalty dismissed, Ayala said her office is ready to 
litigate the issue.

Scott's office struck back Monday, saying the missed filing was Ayala's fault 
alone.

"It is outrageous State Attorney Ayala is attempting to pass the blame for her 
failure," Scott's deputy director of communications McKinley Lewis said in a 
statement. "Let's be clear - State Attorney Ayala failed to meet this deadline 
and she alone is responsible for not fighting for justice for the victims in 
this case."

Ayala released the following statement on missing the death penalty deadline in 
Mapp's case:

"I want to address some of the inaccurate and misleading statements regarding a 
case and the work we do in my office.

When I made my March 16 statement indicating that I was not seeking the death 
penalty, I was prepared to file death notices in appropriate cases to preserve 
any procedural deadline. However, on his own accord, Gov. Scott made a public 
statement committing himself to reviewing all 1st-degree murder cases that 
occurred here in the 9th Circuit. Gov. Scott further pledged to the public he 
would reassign any potential death penalty cases to a different circuit.

Once the Florida Supreme Court issued its ruling regarding a prosecutor's 
discretion to seek death penalty, I created a death penalty review panel to 
review every 1st-degree murder case. At my direction, once they convened they 
reviewed every 1st-degree murder case since the start of my administration on 
January 3. I requested the panel go back to the beginning of my administration 
to ensure Gov. Scott did not make a mistake and miss cases, which he clearly 
did.

Of course, I knew the potential of some of those cases passing the 45-day 
(deadline). This is something the review panel discussed prior to reviewing 
cases. The issue was well researched, so again this was an anticipated hurdle. 
But it was the right thing to do and consistent with the Florida Supreme 
Court's ruling.

Consistent with his public statement of reviewing and reassigning all potential 
death penalty cases, the governor reassigned cases in April, July and August. 
Unfortunately, the Governor failed to reassign this case or even acknowledge 
its potential as a death penalty case, despite the fact the murder occurred on 
April 11, 2017, and has 7 potential aggravators.

It is clear, the Governor failed in his review and missed this case.

The death penalty review panel met, discussed this case and unanimously 
recognized it as an obvious death case.

The state's ability to seek death penalty has not been compromised, and with 
the filing of the notice of intent to seek death, we have preserved the issue 
and remedied the governor's failure."

Gov. Rick Scott's spokesman responds to Ayala's accusations:

"It is outrageous State Attorney Ayala is attempting to pass the blame for her 
failure. Let's be clear - State Attorney Ayala failed to meet this deadline and 
she alone is responsible for not fighting for justice for the victims in this 
case.

The Supreme Court ruled in Governor Scott's favor on August 31, 2017, giving 
State Attorney Ayala more than a month to file the appropriate notice by the 
October 7, 2017 deadline.

What possible excuse could there be for failing to do her job and missing a 
basic deadline on a case she is responsible for handling?"

(source: WFTV news)








ALABAMA:

Supreme Court to consider Alabama petition involving death penalty



The Supreme Court will consider a petition from Alabama on Tuesday featuring 
the death penalty, discrimination, and former Alabama Supreme Court Chief 
Justice and controversial Senate candidate Roy Moore.

At Tuesday's conference, the justices will consider whether to hear Floyd v. 
Alabama, a case questioning if the Alabama Supreme Court failed to follow the 
high court's precedent prohibiting race- and gender-based discrimination in 
jury selection.

Christopher Floyd was convicted in 2005 of killing Waylon Crawford during a 
robbery in 1992. Crawford's killing went unsolved for more than 12 years, 
following a lack of witnesses and physical evidence found at the crime scene, 
as Floyd's attorneys note in their petition to the high court. After the jury 
returned an 11-1 verdict against Floyd in 2005, a judge sentenced Floyd to 
death in 2006.

Floyd challenged the jury's decision on the basis that the prosecutor, who 
Floyd says has "a documented history of racial discrimination in jury 
selection," removed 10 of 11 African-American prospective jurors and 12 of 18 
prospective female jurors. Floyd is white and male.

Floyd's case then bounced back and forth in Alabama courts before arriving at 
the Supreme Court, where the justices granted Floyd's case in 2016, vacated his 
conviction, and sent the case back to the Alabama Supreme Court in light of the 
high court's precedent. The Alabama Supreme Court, then led by Moore, denied 
Floyd's claims again and backed Floyd's conviction.

Floyd's petition of the Alabama Supreme Court's decision arrives back at the 
Supreme Court as Moore's record in Alabama is facing heightened scrutiny. Moore 
is facing multiple accusations of sexual impropriety involving underage girls 
over the course of several decades starting when Moore was in his 30s. Moore is 
now 70 years old and the GOP nominee for Alabama's Senate seat in a special 
election scheduled for Dec. 12.

(source: Washington Examiner)








LOUISIANA:

Man freed from death row blames conviction on racial bias



A man freed from Louisiana's death row says his case was corrupted by a biased 
autopsy and a prosecutor's racism and religious fervor.

Rodricus Crawford sued the Caddo Parish coroner and district attorney's offices 
last Thursday, one year after the Louisiana Supreme Court overturned his 
1st-degree murder conviction in the death of his 1-year-old son.

Crawford's federal lawsuit says authorities recklessly disregarded medical 
evidence that his son had pneumonia and died of natural causes. Investigators 
accused Crawford of smothering the child.

The suit also says Crawford was deprived of a fair trial by a prosecutor with a 
"racist world view" who followed a "biblical command" to secure the death 
penalty against black defendants.

A spokesman for both the coroner and district attorney's offices said he 
couldn't comment on pending litigation.

(source: Associated Press)








TENNESSEE:

Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentences For Murders Of Memphis Family



The Tennessee Supreme Court has affirmed the convictions and sentences of death 
for Sedrick Clayton for the murders of Arithio, Patricia, and Pashea Fisher and 
the conviction for attempted murder of A'Reco Fisher in Memphis.

During the early morning hours of Jan. 19, 2012, a domestic dispute erupted 
between the defendant and Pashea Fisher, the defendant's girlfriend, at the 
Fishers' home. The situation escalated, and the defendant shot and killed all 3 
victims and shot toward the area in which A'Reco Fisher had been sleeping. The 
defendant then fled the residence in Pashea Fisher's vehicle with his and Ms. 
Fisher's then 4-year-old daughter. After having several telephone conversations 
with a law enforcement officer, the defendant eventually turned himself in. He 
subsequently confessed to the murders.

A Shelby County jury convicted the defendant of three counts of first degree 
premeditated murder, attempted first degree murder, possession of a firearm 
with the intent to go armed during the commission or attempt to commit a 
dangerous felony, employing a firearm during the commission or attempt to 
commit a dangerous felony, and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. In 2016, 
the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the convictions and sentences of death 
after merging the latter 2 convictions.

Upon automatic appeal to the Supreme Court as required by statute, the 
defendant raised several issues. First, the defendant argued that the evidence 
was insufficient to support the jury's finding of premeditation. The Court 
disagreed, based upon the evidence presented at trial that the defendant fired 
upon four unarmed victims without provocation, failed to render aid, and 
reloaded his weapon to fire a 2nd and fatal shot at Pashea Fisher. Second, the 
defendant argued that the statements he made to police the day after the 
shooting should have been suppressed pursuant to the Fourth Amendment. This 
issue was neither raised nor ruled upon at trial or in the defendant's motion 
for a new trial and was, therefore, waived. The Court, however, reviewed the 
issue under the plain error doctrine and found that the defendant's arrest was 
supported by probable cause and that he was brought before a magistrate in a 
timely manner.

The Court also conducted an independent review of the imposition of the death 
sentences, as required by statute, and concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that 
the evidence fully supported the defendant's convictions and sentences of 
death, that the sentences were not arbitrary, and that the aggravating 
circumstances supporting the sentences outweighed any mitigating circumstances. 
In addition, the majority of the Court found the sentences were not 
disproportionate to sentences imposed in similar cases wherein a sentence of 
death was imposed.

In her concurring opinion, Justice Sharon G. Lee agreed with the Court's 
outcome but stated she believed that when reviewing whether a death sentence is 
disproportionate to similar cases, the Court should not limit its review solely 
to cases in which the death penalty was imposed but should review all 1st 
degree murder cases in which life imprisonment or a sentence of death was 
imposed. Using that analysis, she also concluded that the defendant's sentence 
of death was not excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in 
similar cases.

To read the majority opinion in State of Tennessee v. Sedrick Clayton, authored 
by Justice Roger A. Page, and Justice Sharon G. Lee's separate concurring 
opinion regarding proportionality review, go to the opinions section of 
TNCourts.gov.

(source: The Chattanoogan)



SOUTH DAKOTA:

Berget's mental status for death sentence still in question



Attorneys spent the better part of Monday afternoon making arguments about the 
mental capabilities and rights of a man sentenced to death in 2012 after 
pleading guilty to killing a South Dakota State Penitentiary guard during an 
escape attempt.

Judge Doug Hoffman in the Lincoln County courthouse said the court needs more 
time and evidence before deciding if Rodney Berget is intellectually disabled, 
which would make his execution unconstitutional.

Hoffman set a final hearing for Jan. 29, where both sides will get to question 
mental health experts who were previously brought in to evaluate Berget's 
intellectual level.

At Monday's hearing, the state argued that Berget was fully aware of what he 
was doing in an "elaborate" and "intelligent" plan to escape the prison along 
with another prisoner, Eric Robert, in 2011 when they killed guard Ronald 
Johnson.

"I've taken the position that (Berget) does not suffer an intellectual 
disability," said Attorney General Marty Jackley. "It'll continue to be the 
state's position that Mr. Berget needs to answer for his conduct."

Berget had appealed the death penalty verdict but later withdrew it, clearing 
the way for his execution. His attorney, Eric Shulte, disagreed with that 
decision and told a judge in September 2016 that he wanted to check Berget's 
mental capacity to see if he was eligible for the death penalty.

A mental health expert's review didn't reach the "necessary sufficiency to say 
(Berget had) an intellectual disability," but that there was "a potential (for 
him to have one)," Jackley said.

The state brought on their own expert to evaluate Berget. There were also seven 
psychiatrists and three psychologists brought in, all of whom determined he did 
not have a disability, Jackley said. But that "potential" for an intellectual 
disability is why Berget's sentence hasn't been carried out.

Schulte argued that it was his duty to ensure an intellectually disabled person 
was not executed, as doing so is unconstitutional.

Berget last year sent a letter to the court saying he wants his death sentence 
to be completed. Past IQ tests have shown "borderline" results of intelligence 
levels. He was given an IQ test in 1971 and received a score of 70, which is 
considered "borderline" below average.

"If there was a 12 or 13 year old who wanted to be executed, the court would 
bar that," Schulte said.

Berget pleaded guilty to killing Johnson in April 2011 as he and Robert carried 
out their escape plan. Robert put on Johnson's uniform and tried to push a box, 
in which Berget was hiding, toward the prison gate. The 2 were caught before 
getting out.

Robert was executed in 2012. A 3rd inmate, Michael Nordman, was sentenced to 
life in prison for providing plastic wrap and a pipe used to kill Johnson.

Berget was scheduled to be executed in May 2015.

(source: Argus Leader)








COLORADO:

Hickenlooper: Not considering Dunlap's case



Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said Monday he has no plans to consider 
convicted killer Nathan Dunlap's efforts to commute his death sentence.

Hickenlooper briefly addressed the case during a news conference in which he 
announced pardons for 22 individuals he said had served their time, rebuilt 
their lives and are contributing to their communities.

Dunlap was sentenced to die in 1996 for the ambush slayings of 4 people inside 
an Aurora restaurant. In 2013, Hickenlooper indefinitely delayed Dunlap's 
execution, saying he had doubts about the fairness of Colorado's death penalty.

He stopped short of converting Dunlap's death sentence to life in prison and 
said he would leave it to his successor to address the case. The term-limited 
governor is set to leave office in January 2019.

"We are not considering Nathan Dunlap," the governor said Monday. "Not on my 
list."

The Denver Post has reported that Dunlap's attorneys want to present new 
evidence about the effect of Dunlap's traumatic childhood on his 
decision-making.

Madeline Cohen, an attorney who represents Dunlap, said she had no formal 
comment on Monday.

Hickenlooper said he and his administration plan to complete reviews of roughly 
475 clemency petitions. Most of those decisions released Monday concern crimes 
ranging from theft to marijuana sales convictions.

Of the decisions released Monday, Hickenlooper said each case had been reviewed 
exhaustively. Victims, victim advocates, judges and prosecutors were consulted. 
Many cases date back decades, and convictions barred many years later from 
getting jobs or finding places to live, the governor said.

"Some of these individuals have gone above and beyond for their communities and 
for themselves," he said, adding, "This decision in no way lessens the impact 
their crimes had on others."

The clemency decisions include cases involving theft and non-violent drug 
offenses, such as possession of marijuana, dating to the 1990s. One felony 
grand larceny case dates to 1967.

(source: Associated Press)








USA:

Trump Judicial Nominee Expressed Unorthodox View on Death Penalty: 'Just Shoot 
Them'



The saga of Brett Talley keeps getting worse.

Talley is the 36-year-old lawyer-cum-political-operative nominated for a 
lifetime appointment to a federal judgeship by the Trump administration despite 
the fact that he has worked as a lawyer for all of 3 years and has never tried 
a case.

Then news broke that Talley had not told the Senate his wife is a lawyer 
working in the White House. And not just any lawyer, but the chief of staff to 
White House counsel Don McGahn, who oversees judicial nominations for the Trump 
administration. Somehow Talley neglected to tell the Senate Judiciary Committee 
about this glaring conflict of interest before it voted along party lines to 
send his nomination to the full Senate for a confirmation vote.

Now Slate notes that Talley, in his apparently copious spare time, liked to 
post his political opinions on a message board for University of Alabama sports 
fans. His comments on the death penalty are now drawing some notice, since they 
seem to lack the judiciousness one might hope for in a judge:

BamainBoston noted that it would be "awesome" if Alabama brought back the 
electric chair. Later in the thread, BamainBoston proposed an alternative means 
of execution, saying that a "bullet's cheap." One year earlier, responding to 
news that an Oklahoma inmate named Clayton Lockett had died of a heart attack 
on the gurney after his lethal injection was botched, BamainBoston wrote: "Just 
shoot them. That's effective."

Theoretically, senators evaluate a judicial nominee's qualifications for the 
bench partly on his or her writing, such as legal briefs or law review 
articles. In Talley's case, most of his writing seems to have come in the form 
of horror novels he scribbled on the side, and in the comments he left as 
BamainBoston. It is a limited sample in terms of legal thought, but it is all 
we have.

And what his written comments on the death penalty reveal, even accounting for 
the Internet anonymity that encourages tough-talking thuggery, is an immature 
mind.

Of course, it likely doesn't matter to the members of the Senate Judiciary 
Committee and their colleagues in the full Senate. For them, Talley's 
conservative policy views are good enough.

Granted, Talley is only one of many Trump judicial nominations. But with his 
administration having outsourced picking these nominees mostly to the 
ultra-conservative Federalist Society, it seems Talley's is the judicial 
temperament we can expect to see on the federal bench for - given that these 
are lifetime appointments - at least the next 40 years or so.

(source: ijr.com)