[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., LA., OHIO, IND., ARK., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 13



TEXAS----impending executions

Man convicted in Texas prison guard's death to be executed



A Texas death row inmate who sued unsuccessfully to try to halt his execution, 
arguing that more DNA testing needed to be done, is now trying to convince the 
U.S. Supreme Court to stop the punishment scheduled for Thursday.

Robert Pruett was already serving 99 years for a neighbor's killing when he was 
convicted in the death of a prison guard who was stabbed in an attack that 
prosecutors say stemmed from a dispute over a peanut butter sandwich. Pruett 
wanted to take the sandwich into a recreation yard against prison rules, they 
said. An autopsy showed corrections officer Daniel Nagle died of a heart attack 
brought on by the December 1999 stabbing.

Pruett, 38, has insisted he's innocent of Nagle's death at the McConnell Unit 
near Beeville, about 85 miles (136 kilometers) southeast of San Antonio. He 
would become the 6th prisoner executed this year in Texas, which carries out 
the death penalty more than any other states. Texas executed a total of seven 
inmates last year.

Pruett avoided execution in April 2015 when a state judge halted his punishment 
just hours before he could have been taken to the death chamber. His lawyers 
had convinced the judge that new DNA tests needed to be conducted on the 
tape-wrapped, 7-inch sharpened steel rod used to repeatedly stab the 
37-year-old Nagle. The new tests showed no DNA on the tape but uncovered DNA on 
the rod from an unknown female who authorities said likely handled the shank 
during the appeals process after the original tests in 2002. The execution was 
put on the schedule again.

After seeking even more DNA testing and being rejected by the courts, Pruett's 
attorneys filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in August in which they argued 
that the courts denied Pruett due process. The lawyers asked the federal courts 
to halt the rescheduled execution, allow the additional DNA testing and then 
check the results for matches in law enforcement databases.Last week, the 5th 
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the lawsuit. But Pruett's attorneys 
appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, arguing that a lower court judge 
wrongly rejected the case after sitting on it for 2 months.

In a second appeal to the Supreme Court, also filed on Tuesday, the attorneys 
asked the high court to revisit the question of whether it is constitutional to 
execute a prisoner who claims actual innocence because of newly discovered 
evidence. U.S. Supreme Court justices in 1993 ruled 6-3 in a Texas case that it 
was constitutional to do so.

State attorneys say Pruett's lawyers have long engaged in "a pattern of delay."

No physical evidence tied Pruett to Nagle's death. At his 2002 trial, prisoners 
testified that they saw Pruett attack Nagle or heard him talk about wanting to 
kill the guard. According to some of the testimony, he talked about possessing 
a weapon as well.

Pruett has said he was framed and that Nagle, an officer for more than 3 years, 
could have been killed by other inmates or corrupt officers at the McConnell 
Unit.

"I never killed nobody in my life," Pruett testified at his trial. He said he 
was in a gym when he learned the officer had been stabbed.

Pruett's 99-year murder sentence that he was already serving was for 
participating at age 15 with his father and a brother in the 1995 stabbing 
death of a 29-year-old neighbor, Raymond Yarbrough, at the man's trailer home 
in Channelview, just east of Houston. Pruett's father, 70-year-old Howard 
Pruett, is serving life in prison. His brother, 47-year-old Howard Pruett Jr., 
was sentenced to 40 years.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Houston serial killer loses appeal 1 week before scheduled execution



With just a week to go before his scheduled execution, Houston serial killer 
Anthony Shore lost a last-ditch appeal claiming decades-old unrealized brain 
damage left him so impaired he was not morally culpable for his crimes.

The so-called Tourniquet Killer slated for execution Wednesday was convicted of 
capital murder in 2004 after he confessed to brutally slaying 4 young women in 
the Houston area.

In the latest appeal, turned down by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on 
Tuesday, Shore's lawyers argued that the extent of his brain damage rendered 
the execution unconstitutional, likening it to executing an intellectually 
disabled prisoner.

"Mr. Shore does not claim he is ineligible for the death penalty because he is 
unintelligent or uncharismatic," his lawyers wrote earlier this month in a 
court filing.

"Mr. Shore is ineligible for the death penalty because his brain injury 
decreases his moral culpability for his crimes, in the same way that a 
juvenile, despite intelligence or charisma, is nonetheless ineligible for the 
death penalty."

But the state's highest criminal court didn't buy into that argument.

"We find that applicant has failed to make a prima facie showing that a person 
with brain damage, like an intellectually disabled person, should be 
categorically exempt from execution," the court wrote in its decision.

"Accordingly, we dismiss this application as an abuse of the writ without 
reviewing the merits of the claim raised."

The failed appeal follows another courtroom disappointment, when the U.S. 
Supreme Court denied without comment his petition for writ of certiorari which, 
if granted, would have required a lower court to reconsider a request for 
appeal. Even before the court issued its decision, Shore's attorney, K. Knox 
Nunnally, admitted "the odds are not in our favor."

Now, Shore's hope rests on a clemency application filed with the state's Board 
of Pardons and Paroles.

Nunnally did not offer comment about Tuesday's decision.

Currently the only Houston killer with a scheduled execution, the 55-year-old 
was convicted of one killing in 2004, though he confessed to 3 others.

Shore's murderous rampage started in 1986, when he slaughtered 14-year-old 
Laurie Tremblay. 6 years later, he raped and murdered 21-year-old Maria del 
Carmen Estrada. In 1994, he killed 9-year-old Diana Rebollar, a year before 
slaying 16-year-old Dana Sanchez.

The cases went unsolved for nearly 2 decades, until Shore had to register as a 
sex offender after he was convicted of molesting 2 family members.

Eventually, authorities linked Shore's newly registered DNA to evidence from 
the cold cases. When they brought the former telephone technician in for 
questioning, he calmly confessed to a string of rapes and murder in the Harris 
County area.

Now, he's scheduled to meet his fate in Huntsville on Oct. 18 at 6 p.m.

(source: Houston Chronicle)

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

Texas attorneys brace for new round of death penalty appeals after intellectual 
disability ruling



Tomas Gallo smiled and laughed as Harris County jurors decided his fate for the 
rape and murder of his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter.

Gallo had covered the girl's body with bruises and bite marks before sexually 
assaulting and bludgeoning her while her mother was at work just a few days 
before Christmas in 2001. He then cleaned up the blood-spattered bathroom, 
dressed the child in clean clothes and called her mother to say the girl was 
not breathing.

Jurors agreed he should be sentenced to death, despite his lawyers' arguments 
that he was intellectually disabled.

Now, however, Gallo and at least 9 other death row inmates from across Texas - 
including 5 others from Harris County - are seeking to have their death 
sentences thrown out in exchange for life in prison under a ruling earlier this 
year by the U.S. Supreme Court that changed how Texas determines intellectual 
disability.

Some, including Gallo, could eventually walk free, since life without parole 
was not an option in Texas when they were convicted.

"When we think about it, it just tears us up again," said Rosa Flores, the 
child's paternal grandmother. "I don't feel that this young man has any kind of 
problem. He might have a low IQ but that doesn't mean he's stupid or dumb. He 
knows what he's doing."

Their fears are echoed among other families awaiting execution of a capital 
murderer, said Andy Kahan, victim's advocate for the city of Houston.

Life or death?

A March ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court could lead to new sentences for at 
least 10 death row inmates in Texas. The court, which in 2002 prohibited 
execution of mentally ill inmates, ruled that the state must rely on 
professional evaluations in determining intellectually disability. At least 
five of the cases under review are from Harris County:

Harris County

Joel Escobedo, 55, shot a man during a robbery at a bus stop in 1998.

Tomas Gallo, 42, raped and fatally beat his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter 
2003.

Joseph Jean, 45, beat 2 teenage girls to death after breaking into his 
ex-girlfriend's home in 2010.

Harlem Lewis, 26, shot a police officer and a good samaritan after a police 
chase in 2012.

Bobby Moore, 57, shot a grocery store clerk during a robbery in 1980.

Bexar County

Obie Weathers, 36, killed a bartender while robbing a bar in 2000 in San 
Antonio.

North and Central Texas

James Henderson, 44, fatally shot 85-year-old while burglarizing her home in 
1993.

Steven Long, 46, raped and killed an 11-year-old girl in 2005.

Naim Rasool Muhammad, 38, drowned his 2 sons in a creek in 2011.

Us Carnell Petetan, 41, murdered his estranged wife in Waco in 2012.

"There's a lull where you're waiting on justice, for maybe a decade, and you're 
riding that roller coaster and all of a sudden that coaster gets taken down 
because you're right back in court again," Kahan said. "And you have to re-live 
all the nightmares of what happened to your family."

The U.S. Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in 2002 for people with 
intellectual disabilities, but left it up to states to set standards for 
determining disability. A follow-up ruling by the Supreme Court in March in a 
different Harris County case overturned Texas' method for determining 
intellectual disability, saying it was out of date and ineffective.

The March ruling left Texas prosecutors and defense attorneys scrambling to 
review cases, some dating back decades. Harris County has 82 inmates on death 
row, though it remains unclear how many cases in Houston or across Texas will 
be affected by the ruling.

Attorneys on both sides are bracing for what could be a wave of appeals, with 
some putting the number in the dozens.

"They could be looking at a nightmare," said Tom Moran, a Houston criminal 
defense and appellate attorney who is representing another inmate, Joel 
Escobedo, in his attempt to get his death penalty overturned.

District Attorney Kim Ogg said her office is keeping a close eye on the legal 
developments and she is sympathetic to the families of the victims.

"Taking a person's life is the most serious action a government can take 
against an individual," Ogg said, "and we are making every effort to ensure 
that offender's Constitutional rights are respected."

Moore and the law

The March ruling came in the case of Bobby Moore, convicted of capital murder 
in the death of a Houston store clerk in April 1980.

Moore, now 57, shot and killed 73-year-old James McCarble at Birdsall Super 
Market near Memorial Park, a store he and 2 accomplices picked because 2 
elderly people were running the customer-service booth and the cashier was 
pregnant. After shooting McCarble with a shotgun, Moore fled and was arrested 
10 days later in Louisiana.

He was sentenced to die by lethal injection.

His attorneys appealed the conviction, arguing that the judge and jury should 
have considered his intellectual disability as outlined in a landmark 2002 
ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that prohibited execution of the 
intellectually disabled.

The ruling stemmed from the conviction of Daryl Atkins, a mentally disabled 
Virginia man who was sentenced to death for the kidnapping, robbery and murder 
of an air force serviceman in 1996.

The Atkins decision set off waves of appeals by inmates, many of whom had their 
death sentences changed to life in prison. At least 15 Texas inmates were 
removed from death row for being mentally disabled in the wake of the decision, 
according to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

To qualify for the Atkins exemption, inmates must have a low IQ, typically 
under 70, and significant problems adapting to their surroundings that were 
evident even in childhood. Figuring out how to determine that fell to the Texas 
Court of Criminal Appeals, which adopted a seven-pronged test to determine 
intellectual disability in the state.

The test, named after plaintiff Jose Briseno, referenced Lennie, the fictional 
character from John Steinbeck's novel "Of Mice and Men," as someone most Texans 
would agree should be exempt from the death penalty.

The "Briseno factors," as they came to be known, consisted of 7 questions to 
help courts decide whether someone shows "adaptive behavior" that suggests they 
are not intellectually disabled. The questions ranged from whether someone can 
lie effectively to whether his conduct shows leadership.

In Moore's case, however, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg wrote in a 
5-3 majority opinion that the Texas courts relied too heavily on IQ scores and 
non-clinical evaluations by judges. She said the state should have used 
evaluations by mental health professionals to determine intellectual 
disability.

Moore's precedent-setting case was sent back to the Texas Court of Criminal 
Appeals, which has yet to issue a ruling on how the state's courts will 
determine intellectual disability.

In the meantime, other death row inmates are asking for reconsideration of 
their sentences.

Joshua Reiss, head of the post-conviction writs division at the Harris County 
District Attorney's office, has been notified that at least three inmates, 
including Gallo, are appealing under the March ruling. He said he expects 6 to 
10 death row inmates from Harris County to appeal over the next few years. Even 
though they are being appealed under the same decision, he said each one would 
be different.

"They're very fact-intensive, they're going to be expert-intensive," he said. 
"We're going to take each one individually."

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court sent the San Antonio case of convicted killer 
Obie Weathers back to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to be reevaluated 
under the new law.

Local cases affected

The 1st Houston case reconsidered under the Moore ruling was Robert James 
Campbell.

Mental health professionals on both sides agreed that he was mentally disabled. 
In a plea deal designed to make sure he never leaves prison despite being 
eligible for parole, he ended up with a life sentence earlier this year.

The new sentence was accepted bitterly by the family of his victim, Alexandra 
Rendon, a 20-year-old bank teller who was abducted from a gas station, raped 
and killed.

"To me, it's an extremely borderline case of whether Robert James Campbell is 
mentally well for execution," Israel Santana, Rendon's cousin, said at the 
time. "Me and my family, we strongly believe that he is. But in no way do we 
want to be a part of executing someone who is questionable."

Santana, an attorney, said he and his family have a duty to follow the law.

"As much as it hurts, we accept the State of Texas and the Supreme Court's 
ruling taking Robert James Campbell off death row," he said with tears in his 
eyes. "There are laws left and right that we may not agree with, but we have to 
abide by."

Gallo and two other condemned men, Harlem Lewis and Joseph Jean, have notified 
the Harris County District Attorney's Office they will also seek to have their 
death penalty sentences overturned.

Lawyers for Gallo argued during trial that someone else in the family killed 
the young girl. After he was convicted of capital murder, they argued that he 
was too mentally disabled to execute.

"It's not an act," said A. Richard Ellis, Gallo's appellate attorney. "Someone 
can't just rig up an (intellectual disability) claim after the fact and make it 
fit the law. He had abysmal school performance, was in special education and on 
and on. This is an ongoing disability."

The prosecutors who put Gallo on death row, who no longer work at the Harris 
County DA's office, did not return calls and emails. At trial, prosecutors and 
the jury relied on the Briseno test to determine that Gallo was not disabled.

In a more recent case, Lewis, now 26, landed on death row for gunning down 
Bellaire Police Officer Jimmie Norman and good Samaritan Terry Taylor after a 
police chase in 2012.

Lewis testified in his own defense that he was scared after a police chase and 
shot both men after a struggle to get him out of his car. His attorneys did not 
raise his intellectual capacity at trial but the issue is allowed in his 
appeal.

"A lot of us have the idea that if someone's not drooling in the corner, they 
can't have intellectual disability," said Gretchen Sween, an appellate attorney 
for Lewis. "Harlem Lewis's case shows that somebody can successfully mask all 
kinds of things, and it takes an expert to go in and investigate and understand 
what adaptive deficits mean."

In another case that is being appealed, Joseph Francois Jean, 45, landed on 
death row in 2011. He broke in to the home of an ex-girlfriend he was stalking 
and, finding just her teenage daughter and niece having a sleepover, beat the 
teens to death with a baseball bat on April 11, 2010. He then set the townhouse 
on fire using gasoline and fled. He was convicted of killing Chelsey Lang, 17, 
and her cousin, 16-year-old Ashley Johnson.

Those cases could be just the beginning. Attorneys who work on death penalty 
appeals agree there could be 8 to 12 more Harris County cases in which the new 
rule applies.

"If there's one case that would be affected by this, I'd be thrilled," said 
defense attorney Pat McCann. "And I'm pretty sure there's a dozen."

Other cases

Other cases are also working their way through the state and federal courts.

Attorney Moran has filed an appeal in federal court for Escobedo, who was 
convicted in 1999 of robbing and killing a 65-year-old man for drug money at an 
East End bus stop. Guadalupe Garcia was pistol-whipped, robbed, then shot.

In his pleadings, Moran cited 2 other death row inmates whose cases involved 
claims of intellectual disability: Raymond Martinez and James Henderson.

Martinez's case was closed in August when the 71-year-old died of natural 
causes after three decades on death row. A diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic 
with an IQ of 65, he was convicted of a 1983 crime spree that left 5 people 
dead. He died with claims still pending that he was mentally disabled.

Henderson, 44, was convicted in 1994 of shooting 85-year-old Martha Lennox 
while burglarizing her Clarksville home in East Texas. He was convicted in 
Bowie County.

Sween, an attorney for the state's Office of Capital and Forensic Writs, said 
the agency is handling at least 5 cases stemming from the Moore ruling.

"We shouldn't let unscientific biases come into play in this really important 
question," she said. "We should listen to what the scientists tell us about how 
you diagnose somebody."

Looking ahead

Death penalty opponents have cheered the Moore decision, saying courts have a 
tendency to look at a defendant's strengths and rule that they are not mentally 
disabled, rather than look at the disability.

"Based on Justice Ginsberg's opinion, you have to use the best medical 
standards available and focus on the disabilities to determine whether someone 
meets the standard," said McCann, Moore's attorney. "That's a game-changer 
because the courts have tended to put their thumb on the scale towards any 
showing of strength or some competency in some field as negating retardation, 
and that's just not how one determines that."

But critics argue that reducing old capital murder convictions obtained before 
the state's "life without parole" law was passed in 2005 means killers who have 
been behind bars for decades are eligible almost immediately for parole.

In most death penalty cases that have been changed to life sentences, defense 
attorneys work with prosecutors to craft elaborate sentencing arrangements to 
ensure that the former death row inmate never walks free. The common goal, both 
sides agree, is making sure killers never get out of prison, even if they get 
off death row.

But it's still possible.

In Campbell's case, District Attorney Ogg has promised to protest any possible 
parole. Similar arrangements are likely to materialize as other cases are 
considered in light of the new ruling.

In Gallo's case, the victim's family remains unconvinced that he is so mentally 
disabled that he should not be executed.

He has apparently been able to make jailhouse wine and give himself a jailhouse 
tattoo with a makeshift tattoo gun, said Flores, the child's grandmother.

"I don't think his IQ is all that low because he's got common sense," she said. 
"If you've got common sense, you've got a lot going for you."

(source: Houston Chronicle)

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

Death Watch: Next Up, the Tourniquet Killer----Convicted strangler set for 
execution on Oct. 18

Time is running out for convicted serial killer Anthony Shore. Dubbed the 
"Tourniquet Killer" due to his predilection for strangling victims between 1986 
and 1995, Shore's most recent appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied on 
Oct. 2. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied a motion for a last minute 
stay on Wednesday, and the Houston killer will face execution next Wednesday, 
Oct. 18. Though Shore was only convicted on one count of capital murder in 
2004, he confessed to the killing and rape of several other girls, ranging in 
age from 9 to 21. On Sept. 12, Shore filed an appeal with the CCA that claimed 
he suffers from brain injuries incurred in a 1981 car accident. The state 
followed with a motion to dismiss his appeal and stay the request on the 
grounds that Shore has been diagnosed as a psychopath: That is "what someone 
is, not what someone becomes," read the motion. The state also referenced 
Shore's childhood history of sexual violence.

Shore was caught nearly a decade after what investigators believe was his last 
kill; he was arrested in the late 90s for sexually assaulting his 2 daughters. 
But because of Houston's notoriously dysfunctional crime lab, there wasn't a 
CODIS hit on his DNA until 2003, after a sample of one of his victim's DNA was 
outsourced to a different crime lab for testing. If Robert Pruett is indeed 
executed today, Thursday, Oct. 12 (see "Death Watch," Oct. 6), Shore is in line 
to be the 7th Texan to be killed this year.

(source: Austin Chronicle)

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

Former Austin officer accused of murder may face death penalty, experts 
say----VonTrey Clark is charged with murder in the death of Crime Victims 
Counselor Samantha Dean outside of Bastrop.



A Bastrop county judge has set a trial date in one of the region's most 
high-profile murder cases in recent years.

Opening statements in the trial of former Austin police officer VonTrey Clark 
will start March 19, according to a judge's order, in the death of crime 
victims counselor Samantha Dean. Jury selection will begin Feb. 6 and will 
include individual interviews with prospective jurors, which legal experts said 
is an indication that prosecutors may seek the death penalty.

Clark is charged with capital murder in the death of Dean, who worked for the 
Kyle Police Department.

Clark is accused of killing Dean, who was 7 months pregnant, because she would 
not terminate her pregnancy.

He then fled to Indonesia, where federal officials captured him and returned 
him to Bastrop County.

A trial date for a co-defendant, Kevin Watson, has not been set.

(source: KVUE TV news)








FLORIDA:

Florida Could Become the First State to Execute Drug Dealers----Selling 
fentanyl to someone who dies is now 1st-degree murder. But how do you prove it? 
That's a life-or-death question for Tamas Harris.



Sonny Priest's friend found him dead in his home in Altamonte Springs, Florida, 
the week before Christmas 2016. Priest had overdosed on alprazolam, cocaine, 
heroin, and fentanyl, a medical examiner ruled.

6 months after Priest's death, Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed a law expanding 
the state's 1st-degree murder code to include selling a lethal dose of 
fentanyl. The law, which only applies to adults, took effect Oct. 1. Priest's 
alleged dealer, Tamas Harris, was 8 days into adulthood when Priest died. This 
month, 18-year-old Harris will go to court an accused murderer. If convicted, 
he faces the death penalty.

Florida law already allowed dealers of drugs like cocaine or heroin to be 
charged with 1st-degree murder when their drugs led to fatal overdose. But 
overdose rates have skyrocketed in the state with the proliferation of 
fentanyl, a drug up to 50 times more powerful than heroin. Fentanyl and heroin 
are sometimes combined without the buyer or distributor's knowledge, creating a 
cocktail of indeterminate strength.

"Most deaths we've seen since the rise of fentanyl in Florida have been a 
mixture of heroin and fentanyl," said Greg Newburn, Florida's state policy 
director for Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a sentencing reform group.

Florida's new law doesn't care whether or not dealers know their drugs are 
laced with fentanyl. As long as a fatal mixture contained any amount of 
fentanyl, the dealer can be charged with 1st-degree murder, a charge for which 
"the only 2 sentences available are life without parole and the death penalty," 
Newburn said.

In text messages before Priest's death, he and Harris only discussed heroin. 
Priest ordered 7 bags of heroin the morning of his death, according to texts 
included in a warrant for Harris' arrest.

Late that evening when a friend went to check on Priest, he found him dead in 
his bedroom. A medical examiner ruled that Priest had died from a combination 
of alprazolam, cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl - a dangerous combination. The 
mixture of heroin with a tranquilizer like alprazolam is a common recipe for 
overdose, with the 2 sedative drugs combining to shut down the respiratory 
system.

Harris has entered a plea of not guilty in Priest's death. His lawyer argues 
that prosecutors cannot prove Harris sold the drugs that ultimately led to 
Priest's overdose.

In an attempt to prove Harris sold the drugs that killed Priest, police 
convinced Priest's friend to text Harris under the guise of buying drugs. "Is 
this new? I don't want that fire Sonny [Priest] last got from you," the friend 
texted Harris.

Harris confirmed that he was selling a different batch. After the deal was 
completed, police arrested Harris and tested his drugs. They tested positive 
for heroin, not fentanyl, according to an arrest report.

"Alleged dealers like Harris could be charged with murder regardless of their 
intent to sell fentanyl"

Like many street-level dealers, Harris might not have known the exact 
composition of his drugs, which appeared to vary between alleged sales. But 
under the new law, alleged dealers like Harris could be charged with murder 
regardless of their intent or lack of intent to sell fentanyl.

"One of the problems with the bill is there's no intent requirement for any of 
it," Newburn said. "The way the statute reads, it's unlawful distribution of 
this substance or any mixture of this substance."

One possible saving grace in Harris' case is the date of his alleged sale. He 
allegedly sold drugs to Priest in December, nearly a year before Florida's new 
sentencing law for fentanyl overdoses went into effect.

"If the cause of death is the fentanyl, I'm not sure he can be charged with 
murder because fentanyl was not in the list of drugs that could be listed as a 
predicate for murder until Oct. 1," Newburn said. "If it was heroin, or another 
drug that was already listed, then they could charge it as 1st-degree murder."

A medical examiner ruled the proximate cause of death in Priest's case to be 
heroin and fentanyl, claiming that the alprazolam and cocaine in Priest's 
system would not have killed him on their own.

If Harris is convicted of selling a fatal dose of heroin, he could still face 
the death penalty. But if the prosecution's case relies on Harris' alleged 
fentanyl sale, he could be the last alleged fentanyl dealer in Florida to avoid 
life in jail or the death penalty in a fatal overdose case.

Harris' family has already lost a teenage son. In January 2016, his 15-year-old 
brother Tamar died when a person fired into his car in broad daylight. In a 
press conference, Harris' mother pleaded for the shooter to come forward, while 
another boy who looked like Tamas Harris cried in a relative's arms behind her.

Nearly 2 years later, police have made no arrest in Tamar's murder, but Tamas 
Harris could get the death penalty for his alleged role in a death for which he 
was not present.

(source: The Daily Beast)








LOUISIANA:

Ian Howard indicted, faces death penalty; speaks in court Wednesday



A grand jury has indicted Ian Paul Howard on a 1st-degree murder charge in 
connection with the Oct. 1 shooting death of Cpl. Michael Middlebrook, a 
Lafayette police officer.

District Attorney Keith Stutes said he will seek a "capital verdict" against 
Howard, and later confirmed his office plans to seek the death penalty.

Howard, 27, is accused of killing Cpl. Middlebrook when he responded to an 
assault call at a Moss Street convenience store.

The grand jury also indicted Howard of three counts of attempted 1st degree 
murder. 2 of the reported victims are civilians, and the 3rd is a police 
officer.

A bond has not yet been set on the 1st-degree murder charge. A bond hearing 
will not be held until after Howard's arraignment, which is set for Oct. 24.

Lafayette police shooting suspect 'under the care of medical personnel'

Stephen Singer, an attorney for Howard, asked for the later bond hearing 
because he said he was not aware of the indictment until Stutes presented it 
during a Wednesday hearing.

Howard appeared in court Wednesday for what was originally slated to be a 
hearing on several motions filed by Singer last week.

He was escorted into Judge Jules Edwards' courtroom with heavy shackles and a 
protective vest. Multiple deputies were positioned inside the courtroom and 
outside the courthouse before, during and after the proceedings.

Howard no longer wore the head bandages he had on in his booking photo, but 
there were still small cuts and bruises on his face and under his eyes.

There did not appear to be any relatives of Howard in the courtroom.

Howard directly addressed Edwards several times, first saying he did not want 
Singer and Elliott Brown, both of the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center, to 
represent him.

"I've never hired him as a lawyer, no," Howard said of Singer.

Howard said he had spoken briefly to someone from the local public defender's 
office shortly after his arrest, and indicated he wanted that person to 
represent him.

However, he also said he was not indigent and had the money to hire his own 
attorney. When Edwards asked how much money Howard had available, he said he 
could not remember. Howard said he had one or two friends who are attorneys who 
would represent him for free, but could not immediately provide their names or 
phone numbers.

"I haven't gotten to make any phone calls," Howard told Edwards, who offered to 
let Howard call an attorney Wednesday.

Details emerge about man charged with killing police officer

Edwards ultimately allowed Howard time to consult with Singer, Brown and Chad 
Ikerd, an attorney with the 15th Judicial District Public Defender's Office. 
Following that consultation, Ikerd said Howard had agreed to let Singer and 
Brown represent him, at least for the time being, and had signed a document to 
that effect.

Edwards granted a motion from Singer asking the state to preserve all physical 
and scientific evidence in the case. Stutes had no objection.

(source: Daily Advertiser)








OHIO:

Accused killer's grim past influences death penalty decision----Rape victim 
says accused killer held her hostage years ago



A man charged with a Price Hill murder is now facing the death penalty, in part 
because of his past.

Gary Box, 41, is accused of murdering Tanisha Huff on Elberon Avenue Friday, 
but an unrelated rape case from 2001 is playing a role in why he will face 
capital punishment.

"11th grade high school, I was at the bus stop and he basically approached me 
and asked me for the time," said Caseya Brown, who talked without shielding her 
identity.

Remembering the incident from 16 years ago, Brown said Box's demeanor suddenly 
changed and he told her he had a gun.

"He told me to come with him and he ended up wrapping his hand around my neck," 
Brown said.

She was forced to a nearby vacant apartment where Box had apparently been 
staying illegally.

Brown said Box didn't have a gun, but pulled a knife.

"He just kept (me) at knifepoint 7 to 8 hours, the whole school day," Brown 
said.

Throughout the time she was there, she was raped "about a dozen times," Brown 
said.

Box made sure she couldn't escape.

"He tied me up. He cut off the extension cords to the TV and the fans and tied 
me up, tied my hands and my feet up," Brown said.

She only escaped when someone knocked on the door and Box ran out the back.

That was the last time Brown saw Box for another 3 or 4 years, until one day 
when she was at a park and heard a familiar question from a man.

"The man came from behind and asked me the same question, 'Do you know the 
time?'" Brown said. "I didn't recognize the voice, but when I turned around, my 
friend must have recognized the shock in my face."

It was Box.

Brown called police and Box was arrested. Faced with the DNA evidence, Box 
pleaded guilty.

He was still on parole for rape and kidnapping convictions when he allegedly 
shot Huff.

(source: WLWT news)

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

Hundley back in court bickering with judge in death penalty case



A man who wants the right to represent himself in his death penalty case 
bickered Wednesday with a judge in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Lance Hundley, 47, accused of the November 2015 beating death of Erika Huff and 
the attempted murder of her mother, complained to Judge Maureen Sweeney in a 
pretrial hearing that his former attorneys, who are now on stand by, have 
failed to perform several duties for him, such as sending letters or acquiring 
documents.

Judge Sweeney curtly told Hundley that now that he is own attorney, those are 
his responsibilities.

Hundley is set to go on trial in January for Huff's death.

(source: vindy.indicator)






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

Killer claims he's too ill to be executed



Death-row inmate Alva Campbell, once dubbed "the poster child for the death 
penalty" for a deadly carjacking outside the Franklin County Courthouse 20 
years ago, is now too sick to be put to death, his attorneys and advocates say.

The convicted killer is slated for execution Nov. 15, but Campbell has so much 
fluid in his lungs that he can't lie flat on the execution table for a lethal 
injection, one of his attorneys, David Stebbins, said Tuesday.

"He'll start gasping and choking," Stebbins said.

Stebbins said that for Campbell to sleep in prison, "he has to prop himself up 
on his side. It's not very good."

Stebbins said he has communicated his concerns to the Ohio Department of 
Rehabilitation and Correction, which didn't immediately respond to questions 
about how to deal with Campbell's condition.

Campbell, 69, has twice been convicted of murder, most recently in the 1997 
execution-style slaying of 18-year-old Charles Dials behind a K-Mart store on 
South High Street.

Long before that, Campbell had cardiopulmonary issues that in the past few 
years have become debilitating, his attorneys say. Most of his right lung has 
been removed, and he has emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 
possibly cancer in much of his remaining lung tissue, Campbell's application 
for executive clemency says. In addition, his prostate gland has been removed, 
as has a gangrenous colon. A broken hip last year has confined him to a walker.

"The severity of these combined illnesses have left Alva debilitated and 
fragile," Campbell's clemency application says. "Alva's deteriorating physical 
condition further militates in favor of clemency."

The health claims are only one reason why Campbell and his attorneys are asking 
that his sentence be commuted to life in prison without parole. They also cite 
the "nightmare" childhood that Campbell suffered at the hands of an alcoholic 
father who was both physically and sexually abusive.

If Gov. John Kasich doesn't want to commute Campbell's sentence, delaying his 
sentence would have the same effect because the inmate will die soon, advocates 
said.

"He's probably in the poorest health of any living death-row inmate in the 
country," said Kevin Werner of Ohioans to Stop Executions.

A spokesman for Kasich couldn't be reached Tuesday.

Campbell is scheduled for a clemency hearing Thursday. A spokesman for Ohio 
Attorney General Mike DeWine said that, in advance of the hearing, his office 
will file a response rebutting the claims made in Campbell's application.

Campbell argues that poor health is one reason he shouldn't be put to death, 
but he used an earlier, false health claim to commit the crime that put him on 
death row.

Campbell feigned paralysis from a glancing bullet wound suffered during a 
robbery arrest. As Campbell was being taken to the Franklin County Courthouse 
for a hearing on April 2, 1997, he sprang from his wheelchair, overpowered a 
deputy sheriff, took her gun and fled.

He then carjacked Dials, who was at the courthouse to pay a traffic ticket. 
After driving Dials around for hours, Campbell ordered him onto the floor of 
his truck and shot him twice.

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien, who at the time of Campbell's trial 
called him "the poster child for the death penalty," couldn't be reached 
Tuesday for comment.

Campbell is not the first condemned man in Ohio to use ill health to argue that 
he should be spared from execution. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected 
Richard Cooey's claim that he was too obese to be executed. Cooey said his 
obesity could make it difficult for executioners to find a vein for a lethal 
injection. He was executed that year.

(source: The Columbus Dispatch)








INDIANA:

Indiana lawmakers consider changes to death penalty law



In just a couple months, lawmakers could make recommendations to change the 
state's death penalty law.

It goes back to a bill that failed last year that would have put new 
restrictions on when prosecutors could seek the death penalty if the defendant 
suffered from mental health issues.

Indiana has executed nearly 100 Hoosiers since 1897. The last one was nearly a 
decade ago. Right now, 13 inmates sit on death row.

"The death penalty should be reserved for the worst of the worst, not people 
acting on false stimuli," said Barbara Moser, the executive director at NAMI 
Indiana, a part of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Last year, a bill failed that would have exempted defendants from the death 
penalty if they suffered from mental illnesses including post-traumatic stress 
disorder and schizophrenia.

Lawmakers got a science lesson Wednesday on why to possibly reconsider. 
Neuro-anatomist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor said the brains of people suffering from 
schizophrenia or PTSD will not necessarily process right from wrong easily.

"If I'm hearing the voice of God that's telling me 'I'm Jesus' or 'I'm 
Michael,' then I am going to hold myself to the standard of that delusional 
system over what I'm going to hold as far as mankind is concerned," she said.

Several mental health experts testified the state could save millions in legal 
costs if the cases were tried with a maximum penalty of life without parole.

There are a couple prosecutors seeking capital punishment right now.

In Marion County, Jason Brown is accused of murdering Southport Police Lt. 
Aaron Allan.

In Boone County, Zachariah Wright could face the death penalty for reportedly 
murdering a 73-year-old man and trying to rape and set his wife on fire.

"As Indiana prosecutors, we do view the death penalty as a measure that should 
only be imposed on the worst of the worst," said Boone County Prosecutor Todd 
Meyer.

Meyer said the state's legal system allows defendants to challenge the 
decision, with the courts sometimes ruling in their favor.

"I think our system works very well in this state," he said.

Lawmakers have their opinions, too. State Rep. Thomas Washburne, a Republican 
from Inglefield, said to be exempt from the death penalty, the defendant should 
be diagnosed with psychotic features or losing contact with reality in addition 
to the mental illness.

State Rep. Ed DeLaney, a Democrat from Indianapolis, said the death penalty 
should be abolished because it is so expensive.

(source: WISH TV news)








ARKANSAS:

Former Arkansas death row inmate freed after 16 years in custody; charges 
dropped in mutilation case



After more than 16 years in custody, including as many as 12 on death row, 
Rickey Dale Newman walked out of the Crawford County jail Wednesday a free man.

Crawford County Circuit Judge Gary Cottrell signed an order approving a motion 
by special prosecutor Ron Fields to dismiss the 1st-degree murder charge 
against Newman in the Feb. 7, 2001, mutilation slaying of fellow transient 
Marie Cholette, 46, at a camp on the western edge of Van Buren.

Standing outside the county jail Wednesday afternoon wearing a dark gray 
sweatsuit and slippers and sporting a scruffy gray beard and glasses, Newman 
said it felt good to be free again.

"I'm a little nervous," he said. "I mean, I've been locked up for 16 years, 7 
months and 9 days. I have no idea what this world is all about."

Asked what it was like on death row, Newman said it was something he had to 
"deal with" every day.

"You have no feelings," Newman said. "You're dead."

Newman was waiting with court-appointed attorney Julie Brain for his brother to 
arrive and said he was heading to the Veterans Affairs hospital. He suffers 
from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, and the sheriff's office has 
provided his medication since the summer of 2015.

Newman indicated he didn't know where he would go from there, but he said he 
was not going to remain in the area.

In a letter dated Tuesday to Cottrell explaining his reasons for requesting 
dismissal of the charge, Fields wrote that the Sept. 21 opinion by the Arkansas 
Supreme Court barred the state from introducing at Newman's retrial confessions 
he made to police after his arrest in 2001.

The state had presented Newman's confession to a jury during his 1-day 
capital-murder trial June 10, 2002. Also during the trial, Newman, acting as 
his own attorney, told jurors he killed Cholette and wanted to be sentenced to 
death.

According to court records, Newman testified before the jury that he killed 
Cholette because she falsely represented herself as a member of a transient 
rail riding group he called the FTRA and had hurt one of its members during an 
altercation.

The jury convicted Newman and, on the basis of the jury's recommendation, 
Circuit Judge Floyd "Pete" Rogers sentenced him to death.

Newman was in the state prison system from June 11, 2002, to Feb. 14, 2014, 
according to the state Department of Correction, but it could not be determined 
whether he spent all that time on death row.

In January 2014, the Arkansas Supreme Court threw out his conviction and death 
sentence, ruling that Newman suffered from mental disease and defects. The 
court ordered Newman back to Crawford County, where he was to be rendered 
competent and retried.

It was that 2014 ruling that Cottrell relied on in January to bar Fields from 
using Newman's confession in his retrial. Fields appealed Cottrell's decision 
to the state Supreme Court, and it denied the appeal in the Sept. 21 opinion.

The mandate for the opinion was filed Wednesday, returning jurisdiction for the 
case back to Crawford County and opening the door for Fields to file the motion 
to dismiss the murder charge.

"The Supreme Court's opinion will prevent all these incriminating statements 
from being introduced into evidence at any new trial," Fields wrote in his 
letter to Cottrell. "Without this evidence, it is my belief that sufficient 
evidence does not exist at this time to retry the case."

Fields said in a telephone interview Wednesday that while he did not have 
enough evidence to retry Newman, he didn't think police investigators made a 
mistake in arresting Newman in 2001.

"I found no need to look for other suspects, as I believe they had found the 
correct one at the time," he said.

Fields wrote to Cottrell that he did not make the decision to dismiss the case 
lightly. "Lengthy and strenuous investigation" was undertaken by the Van Buren 
Police Department, the Arkansas State Police and the state Crime Laboratory, 
Fields wrote.

Fields said in his letter that in preparing for trial, he had asked the state 
police to search the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, a large repository 
of major violent crime cases, to try to determine if other crimes of the type 
Newman was accused of had been committed around the country.

Court records showed that Cholette was killed Feb. 7, 2001. Her body was found 
in a tent at a transient camp known as the Benny Billy camp. Billy found her 
body Feb. 15, 2001. Cholette was wearing only a shirt and wrapped in several 
blankets.

According to the records, Cholette's sexual organs and anus had been severely 
mutilated and her nipples were cut off. Foreign material had been placed inside 
her pelvic area. Her jawbone was broken, and her dental plate was lodged in her 
throat. Her throat was cut, and there were several stab wounds in her chest.

Her sternum had been cut open and there was a large, gaping wound from her 
chest to her pelvic bone. Her pelvic bone had been cut through. There also was 
evidence of defensive wounds that indicated Cholette put up a struggle before 
she died, the records said.

"Based on my experience, it was clear that whoever perpetrated this crime would 
have committed other crimes of a similar nature if they were still at large in 
the public," Fields wrote. "The results of the search were that no other crimes 
matched the type of violence displayed in this case."

Fields wrote that he asked investigators to inventory the case evidence in the 
Police Department's evidence locker and to determine whether any other DNA 
testing was needed on any items. Several items were tested, he wrote, but 
results showed they "were not of evidentiary value at this time."

DNA testing on hair samples showed they did not connect Newman to Cholette as 
was presented to jurors in the original trial, Fields' letter said.

Fields noted that he found no indication police in the initial investigation 
made any mistakes or errors and that the investigation was conducted with 
"professional and competent performance."

Cholette's sister, Denise Cholette of Utica, Mich., said Wednesday that she was 
sad there was not enough evidence to try Newman, especially given that he was 
the last person to be seen with her sister.

Police had recovered video from a Fort Smith liquor store just across the 
Arkansas River from Van Buren that showed Newman and Cholette together on Feb. 
7, 2001.

Denise Cholette said she didn't plan to tell Marie Cholette's 2 daughters, 
Angela Robinson and Danielle Soule, about the dismissal of Newman's charges 
because of the effect it would have on them.

"It was a difficult time in my life to lose my childhood playmate," Denise 
Cholette said of her sister's death.

She said she also believed that her sister's death caused the death of their 
mother. She said her mother, Ruth, grieved deeply after learning of Marie 
Cholette's death and died of a heart attack about a year later.

Even though they didn't have a body, Marie Cholette's family gathered in a 
Michigan church after her death for a service, Denise Cholette said. She said 
her sister's ashes were sent to her about a year after her death, and she keeps 
the urn in her basement.

The family never knew why Marie Cholette became a transient, Denise Cholette 
said. She once worked for Lockheed Missile and Space Co., in Bremerton, Wash., 
but lost it when violence in her marriage caused her to lose her security 
clearance.

The family lost track of her as she wandered the country with a succession of 
boyfriends, Denise Cholette said.

The last time she saw her sister was in the late 1990s when Marie Cholette and 
a boyfriend named Tom arrived at her home. Denise Cholette said she offered her 
sister a condo to live in as long as she would get a job to support herself. 
Marie Cholette chose to go off with her boyfriend, Denise Cholette said.

Records show she arrived in Van Buren in late January 2001 with another 
boyfriend, John Evans. They were arrested Jan. 23, 2001, for public 
intoxication. Cholette got out of jail the next day, but Evans remained locked 
up after hitting a jailer. Cholette stayed in Van Buren to wait for his 
release.

After his conviction, Newman sought to forgo his appeals and be executed. 
Murder convictions are automatically appealed to the state Supreme Court. After 
the court affirmed his conviction in September 2003, the justices determined 
Newman was mentally competent at his 2002 trial and granted his request to drop 
further appeals and dissolve his execution stay.

His execution was set for July 26, 2005, but four days before it was to be 
carried out, he allowed federal public defenders Bruce Eddy and Brain to file a 
request in federal court on his behalf to stay his execution.

In a hearing for that stay before U.S.District Judge Robert Dawson in November 
2007, a neuropsychologist and a psychiatrist testified that Newman suffered 
from mental illnesses and cognitive deficits that made it impossible for him to 
rationally waive his appeals.

Court records show a psychological report on Newman that included a lengthy 
description of his early life.

>From interviews with Newman's family, the report said, Newman had been 
physically and psychologically abused as a child. Newman and several of his 
siblings were beaten seriously and often by a man who lived with their mother.

A sister of Newman recalled the man would hold the children, including Newman, 
upside down with one hand and beat them with the other.

Newman also was tied up outside for hours. He and other siblings were left for 
long periods without food, and the man sometimes would taunt them with food but 
not give them any.

His mother, Ruby Inez Ross, regarded her children as a nuisance, the report 
said, and was quick to anger and lashed out physically at them. She died of 
cancer in 1969, with Newman and his siblings listening to her screams of pain 
that morphine could not ease, the report said.

Mentally impaired, Newman could not grasp his lessons in school. At 16 he began 
to run away, ride around the country in train box cars, do simple manual labor, 
panhandle, search dumpsters and get charitable and government assistance.

He joined the Marines for one year and received an honorable discharge.

In the effort to restore Newman to competence after his conviction and death 
sentence were reversed, Cottrell ordered Newman to be sent to the State 
Hospital for treatment and evaluation.

After 3 stays at the State Hospital over nearly 2 years, during which Newman 
refused to cooperate at his attorney's instruction, Cottrell declared Newman 
fit to proceed in November 2015 to be retried.

Progress on the case was further slowed when it took more than a year to reach 
a resolution of Newman's motion to bar his confession from trial.

(source: arkansasonline.com)








USA:

Racial disparity led to ban of death penalty in territorial Alaska



A man accused of murdering his wife aboard a cruise ship in Southeast Alaska 
waters could face the death penalty. But it's a long process and it may be 
unlikely to end in the defendant's death.

In July, Kristy Manzanares was found dead in the couple's cabin aboard the 
Emerald Princess. They were on an Alaska cruise celebrating their wedding 
anniversary.

According to court records, her blood was everywhere, including on her husband. 
The cruise ship diverted to Juneau, docked, and federal authorities 
investigated the scene and interviewed more than 100 witness.

Curious Juneau stars you and your questions. Every episode we help you find an 
answer. Catch up on past episodes, or ask your own question on the Curious 
Juneau page.

Kenneth Ray Manzanares is awaiting federal trial on 1st-degree murder charges, 
and the prosecution is considering whether it will seek the death penalty.

Federal Public Defender Rich Curtner has been with the District of Alaska 
office since 1992.

"Somebody can be charged with murder in the 1st degree, but before the 
government could seek a death penalty at sentencing, they'd have to go through 
this process where the Department of Justice would have to authorize it," he 
said.

Curtner, who is also the board president of Alaskans Against the Death Penalty, 
said that process can take 2 to 3 months. The U.S. Attorney's office 
investigates and makes the final decision.

Curtner's office is representing Manzanares, so he couldn't speak about that 
case specifically, but he said the death penalty has been authorized in just a 
few Alaska cases since he became a federal public defender here. But they were 
all resolved without the death penalty.

As a state, Alaska has never had capital punishment available at criminal 
sentencing. You have to go back to the end of the territorial days under 
federal jurisdiction to find the last person executed.

In the early 1990s, some lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to establish a state 
death penalty. Averil Lerman, then a civil attorney, was inspired to research 
the history of executions in the territory. An interest in the case of the last 
man put to death in territorial Alaska prompted her to find out more.

She later became a criminal defense attorney and specialized in examining 
convictions and writing appeals.

"I learned many things that helped inform my feeling about what had happened to 
the last man. I did an oral history of the death penalty in Juneau," she said. 
"There were 3 executions in Juneau in 1939, 1948 and 1950."

When Lerman retired after practicing law in Alaska for more than 30 years, she 
devoted more time to researching. The racial demographics of those executed 
troubled her.

"The fact is that after 1902, all of the people who were executed in Alaska 
were either racial minorities or ethnic minorities."

The last 3 men executed in the territory were an Alaska Native and 2 black men.

Lerman said prejudice and poor legal training on the part of the defense 
lawyers were mostly to blame. She said the lawyers just weren't very good at 
writing appeals.

3 men were hung in Fairbanks in the 1920s. But after that, the 4th Judicial 
District didn't put anyone else to death. The last man executed in the 
territory was in Juneau in 1950

7 years later, the territorial Legislature banned capital punishment.

"I think that one of the things that suggests is that in small communities 
there's a learning curve about the death penalty and what it feels like to have 
it, and implement it and to have it live in your town," Lerman said.

Fast forward to today, and the death penalty is again being considered for a 
case in Alaska.

It would be good to note that Alaska does not have a death penalty.

But if Alaska doesn't have the penalty, how can the Manzanares case be 
eligible?

The alleged murder happened in territorial waters, so it's under federal 
jurisdiction. And while Alaska doesn't have the death penalty, federal capital 
punishment is legal.

If the alleged crime had happened while the ship was docked, the death penalty 
wouldn't be an issue, because the state would have jurisdiction.

Since 1963, only 3 men have been executed under federal jurisdiction in the 
entire country. Timothy McVeigh, for example, was one of them. He was convicted 
and sentenced for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

As of January 2017, there were 63 inmates on federal death row. They include 
convicted Charleston church shooter and white supremacist Dylann Roof and 
convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Kenneth Manzanares is being held at Lemon Creek Correctional Center in Juneau. 
His next hearing is scheduled for Nov. 29.

(source: KTOO news)

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

The death penalty's ugly, racist roots----Law professor and author Brandon 
Garrett explains the entrenched racial bias around the death penalty



"There's a long, ugly history of racial bias in the American death penalty," 
Brandon Garrett, professor of law at the University of Virginia and author of 
the new book,"End of Its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive 
Criminal Justice," told me in a video interview for Salon.

"The death penalty in the South has roots in lynching," Garrett said.

Garrett's book explains the steps that led to the decline in the death penalty 
in the United States and how specific reforms can lead to its total extinction.

While Garrett is hopeful that these reforms will translate into lasting changes 
within the criminal justice system, there are real concerns with the way black 
and brown defendants are discriminated against within the criminal justice 
system.

Will sweeping reforms be enough to address the specific disparities people of 
color face?

For example, Garrett says, there is a "white lives matter more effect" that is 
commonplace in death sentences. When the victim is white, a defendant is 4.3 
times more likely to be sentenced to death than if the victim was black. 
Garrett and many other researchers have found that the race of the victim is a 
defining factor in death sentences.

The ongoing racial bias in death sentences can be traced to the county-level, 
where the sentencing is imposed, Garrett points out.

"People think of death penalty states, you really just have death penalty 
counties," Garrett explained. "There's 31 states that have death penalty on the 
books," and just a few counties that order them.

In "End of Its Rope" Garrett writes that its the "counties with large black 
populations that engage in far more death sentencing." He cites Riverside 
County, California, where from 2010-2015, people of color made up 80 % of those 
sentenced to death.

"Despite the entrenched racial patterns," Garrett said, "death sentences are 
disappearing across the country." He added that it "is a phenomenon of a few 
counties, mostly wealthy counties that feel like they can afford it."

The demise of state-sanctioned death sentences give Garrett hope that racial 
bias can be addressed and tackled in criminal justice. And at the very least, 
he sees the national dialogue increasing around the discrimination and 
persecution faced by people of color.

"There are lots of conversations to have about how to improve the way race 
plays into our criminal justice system, but you do see it talked more about 
now," Garrett said. "I think that???s a really positive thing."

(source: salon.com)