[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., MASS. FLA., IND., ARK., OKLA., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

April 20



TEXAS:

Warden Describes Life on Death Row in Delacruz Testimony



Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison warden Stephen Bryant testified 
about living conditions on death row for jurors in the Isidro Delacruz trial on 
April 3, 2018.

Jurors unanimously sentenced Delacruz to death late Tuesday for the murder of 
5-year-old Naiya Villegas on Sept. 2, 2014.

District Judge Ben Woodard told Delacruz his case was automatically appealed to 
the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest criminal state court in Texas. 
He also informed Delacruz that he had appointed Hilary Sheard as his appellant 
attorney. Sheard will work with Delacruz's current court-appointed attorneys to 
begin the mandatory appeal of his capital murder conviction.

Sheard is a capital murder appellant qualified indigent defense attorney.

There are 229 male inmates on Texas death row. Isidro Delacruz will be the only 
inmate from Tom Green County.

Bryant is Senior Warden at the Pam Lychner State Prison in Humble, TX and spent 
8 years working on Texas death row in the Allan B. Polunsky unit in Livingston, 
TX.

As we reported earlier, Bryant testified that offenders sentenced to death are 
sent to the Polunsky Unit in Livingston. He told attorneys that death row 
inmates are confined to their 6 ft. by 10 ft. cells 22 hours a day and are 
allowed just 2 hours a day for recreation. Recreation is allowed in a concrete 
walled room about the size of an average garage. Death row inmates are not 
allowed contact visits according to Bryant. The warden told attorneys there are 
different levels of offenders on death row based upon their level of obeying 
prison rules.

Bryant said the typical day in the life of an inmate on death row begins at 3 
to 3:30 a.m. when they serve breakfast. He said that's because the general 
population is served breakfast at 3 to 3:30 a.m. because all offenders are 
required to have a job and many of those jobs begin at 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. and 
many inmates need medications at that time. Those meds would include insulin 
for diabetics, and etc.

Under questioning from District Attorney Allison Palmer, Bryant testified that 
the difference between offenders sentenced to death and those sentenced to life 
in prison without parole is significant. Death row inmates remain in their 
cells, don't have jobs and are not allowed contact visits ever. A death row 
inmate's visit is restricted to non-contact through a glass window and talking 
over a phone.

Bryant testified that death row offenders are provided services "Cell side." 
That is, they receive almost all benefits in their cells. Offenders sentenced 
to life must leave their cells and walk to appointments for medical service, 
educational service, counseling and jobs. Bryant told attorneys that all 
offenders in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice must be assigned a job. 
Some are not physically able to work, but they have an assigned job anyway. 
Death row offenders do not work, however.

Bryant said offenders are served lunch from 9:30 to 10:00 a.m. and then supper 
starts at 3:30 p.m.

Death row offenders are strip searched, shackled and accompanied by 2 
corrections officers every time they leave their cells. There are no 
televisions on death row, only radios.

Bryant described to attorneys how death row offenders are treated when they 
leave their cells. They are strip searched. They take off all their clothing 
and show all their body cavities to corrections officers. Then they re-dress 
and place their hands behind their back through a slot in the cell door so 
corrections officers can handcuff them. Then 2 corrections officers shackle 
their feet and grab them by the upper arm and take them to where ever they are 
appointed to be.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, inmates sentenced to death 
on average spend 10 years on death row and many spend at least 20 years 
awaiting execution.

(source: sanangelolive.com)








NEW HAMPSHIRE:

The Christian case against death penalty



Writing about death penalty repeal, Chuck Douglas asked, "Why should the Dylann 
Roofs of this world who said, 'I do not regret what I did' be spared?" (Monitor 
Forum, April 5)

I can offer at least 2 answers from my perspective as the executive director of 
the New Hampshire Council of Churches. This body is made up of 9 denominations, 
all of which oppose the death penalty for faith reasons.

First, the death penalty fails to respect the wishes of the victims' families. 
Douglas noted that the mass murder took place in "a famous church" but failed 
to remember that the families affected publicly asked for forgiveness and mercy 
for Roof. By urging or mandating capital punishment, we neglect their deeply 
Christian desires.

During the Senate and House testimony, many family members of murder victims 
urge repeal as well. We must value their wishes over shouts of revenge.

2nd, Douglas emphasizes Roof's lack of remorse as a reason for the death 
penalty. But Christians know that God can bring any person to remorse and 
rehabilitation, to repentance and redemption. For the Christian, no person is 
ever "too evil to live." Urging the death penalty presumes that we know better 
than God and forever closes off the work of the Holy Spirit to change hearts.

Let's listen to victims and their families. Let's listen to the better angels 
of forgiveness, redemption and the sacredness of life. Let???s turn New 
Hampshire's death penalty into a life sentence. Let's vote in favor of Senate 
Bill 593.

Rev. JASON WELLS

Pembroke

(source: Letter to the Editor, Concord Monitor)








MASSACHUSETTS:

Lawmaker Calls For Death Penalty After Murder Of Yarmouth Officer



The murder of Yarmouth Police Sergeant Sean Gannon has some Republican 
lawmakers calling for the death penalty in such cases, and Governor Charlie 
Baker supports the idea.

"After the death of (Auburn) Officer (Ronald) Tarentino there was outrage and 
frustration and sadness but unfortunately there was no action," says 
Representative Shaunna O'Connell of Taunton.

Now more outrage and more sadness, in the killing of Sgt. Gannon allegedly at 
the hands of a career criminal. O'Connell says it's time to send a clear 
message that Massachusetts protects the men and women who protect everyone 
else.

"We're talking about a very small part of the population. Cop killers. The 
worst criminals among us. If you're going to kill a cop, we need to send a 
message you're going to face that same fate," said O'Connell.

Governor Baker told WGBH News he's supported the idea for years, as police put 
themselves in danger every day.

"There's really no other job I can think of where you simply don't know what's 
going to happen from one minute to the next. There ought to be a measure in 
there that reflects that," Baker said.

Other lawmakers in the Democrat-controlled legislature, including Senate 
President Harriette Chandler, oppose re-opening the debate. But O???Connell 
argues life without parole isn't enough - it's more dangerous.

"When you kill a cop you go to jail and you're a hero in that prison. It puts 
the lives of corrections officers in great danger because these people have 
nothing to lose. They're in for life without parole. What's to stop them from 
trying to kill a department of corrections officer as well?" O'Connell said.

Massachusetts' Major City Chiefs of Police Association said after Gannon's 
funeral they planned to discuss possible legislation, including the death 
penalty. Massachusetts last executed someone in 1947.

In 1984 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a death penalty law 
approved by voters was unconstitutional. In 2013, lawmakers debated but 
ultimately shelved a proposal to reinstate the punishment after the deadly 
Boston Marathon bombings.

(source: CBS news)








FLORIDA:

Jury decides: Life in prison - not death penalty - for Sanel Saint-Simon



Jurors in the case against convicted killer Sanel Saint-Simon unanimously 
decided that he should get life behind bars - rather than a death sentence - 
for the murder of 16-year-old Alexandria Chery.

The jury deliberated for just over an hour before reaching its decision.

Alexandria's mother Rosalie Joseph, and her older brother, Fanzo Chery, sat 
silently in court as the verdict was read. Saint-Simon smiled and thanked his 
defense attorneys and the courtroom deputies.

"I honestly can say that they wanted justice, and they thought justice will be 
either or," prosecutor Ryan Williams said of the jurors' decision. "I just know 
that Rosalie Joseph told me it's gonna be ok, and she's happy, and that makes 
me feel better. That's the most important."

Saint-Simon, 47, was convicted in February of murdering 16-year-old Alexandria, 
an Olympia High School student and the daughter of Joseph, Saint-Simon's 
then-long-time girlfriend. Saint-Simon helped raise Alexandria since she was 
about 5 years old, and her family has said he sexually abused her before her 
murder.

The same jury that convicted him of 1st-degree murder, aggravated child abuse 
and lying to investigators in a missing child's case returned to court this 
week to hear more testimony and determine whether Saint-Simon should be 
sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole or to death.

In their final arguments to the jurors, attorneys for both the prosecution and 
defense brought up mercy.

"Justice is getting what you deserve," Williams told jurors Thursday. "That is 
a brute definition. Mercy is deliverance from that justice. It's a powerful 
concept, mercy, one we're all familiar with. But make no mistake that it 
forsakes justice."

But Assistant Public Defender Erin Hyde suggested the 2 concepts can go 
together, telling jurors that "justice is tempered by mercy."

"It is a life worth saving," Hyde said of Saint-Simon. "It is a life that you 
should save. He never will be released, he never will breathe the air of a free 
man. And that alone is the punishment he should suffer."

In arguing for Saint-Simon's execution, prosecutors presented 4 factors 
outlined in Florida's death penalty statute for which jurors can impose the 
death penalty.

The jurors found the state had proved 2 of those factors beyond a reasonable 
doubt: that the murder was committed while Saint-Simon was engaged in 
aggravated child abuse; and that Alexandria was especially vulnerable, because 
Saint-Simon was in a position of parental or custodial authority over her.

But jurors determined the state did not prove the other 2 aggravating factors: 
that the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel; and that the crime 
was carried out in a cold, calculated, and premeditated fashion. The proven 
aggravating factors were not enough to impose death, jurors determined.

As the courtroom clerk read the verdict, Fanzo Chery sat leaning forward, his 
forearms resting on his legs and hands covering part of his face. His mother 
sat 1 row behind him, looking straight ahead.

Joseph is the person who reported Alexandria missing on July 28, 2014, when she 
came home and found her daughter gone and her belongings missing from her 
bedroom.

Landscapers found Alexandria's body on the Osceola-Polk county line on Aug. 1, 
2014. Her body was decomposing and a medical examiner could not determine a 
cause of death, but found skull fractures and stab wounds on her body.

This week jurors heard from Alexandria's family and friends, who described her 
always-smiling face and the pain her death brought them.

They also heard from Alexandria's ex-boyfriend, who said the she told him 
Saint-Simon touched her inappropriately at least 4 times in the months before 
she was killed.

Saint-Simon's family members testified via video from Haiti, where he was born 
and raised. They described his poor childhood in a rural part of the country 
and how he went on to succeed, becoming a ferry boat captain and then 
immigrating to the U.S. in 1999 and sending money back to family and his 3 
children there.

"That isn't to excuse what you have found in your verdict," Hyde said. "It is 
to show you the life of Sanel Saint-Simon, a man who sent money back to the 
very mother who abandoned him on his grandmother's doorstep, a woman who didn't 
even know him."

Saint-Simon's case was one of 29 Gov. Rick Scott took away from Orange-Osceola 
State Attorney Aramis Ayala after she announced last year that she would not 
seek the death penalty in any case. She has since created a review board to 
weigh possible death-penalty cases.

Williams, who worked for Ayala's office, left his job to join Ocala-based 
prosecutor Brad King, to whom Scott reassigned the 29 cases. He has been 
prosecuting many of the cases taken from his old office.

"The really important thing is that jurors made the decision, it wasn't made 
for them by somebody else," Williams said after the verdict.

Saint-Simon will be back in court May 18 for a formal sentencing hearing.

(source: Orlando Sentinel)



INDIANA:

Attorneys address possible sentencing with jurors in Darren Vann's death 
penalty case



The defense team for a man accused of killing 7 women want jurors to know what 
could potentially happen at sentencing in his death penalty case, court records 
show.

Last month, Darren Vann's attorneys filed 3 pages of proposed paragraphs for 
juror questionnaires explaining what they'd be tasked with if Vann were found 
guilty.

These types of paragraphs are something Indiana death penalty experts said 
they've seen before.

"Anything that would reveal a prospective juror's attitudes toward capital 
punishment is, at least potentially, fair game - because that is what the juror 
may be asked to decide at the end of the case," Joe Hoffmann, an Indiana 
University law professor, said in an email.

Vann, 47, is scheduled for trial in October, with jury selection beginning in 
September, in the deaths of Afrikka Hardy, 19, of Chicago, and Anith Jones, 35, 
of Merrillville, records show.

In 2014, police found Hardy's body in a bathtub at a Motel 6 in Hammond and 
Jones' body in the basement of a vacant home on East 43rd Avenue in Gary, 
according to court records.

Vann faces more murder charges, in a case that will be tried separately, in the 
deaths of Teaira Batey, 28, of Gary; Tracy Martin, 41, of Gary; Kristine 
Williams, 36, of Gary; Sonya Billingsley, 52, of Gary; and Tanya Gatlin, 27, of 
Highland.

If a jury finds Vann guilty at his 1st trial, "the jury's service will not be 
over," the defense's proposed paragraphs state. Jurors would then have to 
decide between 3 sentences: death by lethal injection, life in prison without 
the possibility of parole or a prison term of 45 to 65 years for each of their 
deaths, court records show.

Prosecutors wrote their own proposal, which is 2 paragraphs long, in response 
to the defense, according to court records. Judge Samuel Cappas ordered the 
state's proposed language be included in juror questionnaires.

"The decision whether to impose a sentence of death is one the law leaves 
entirely up to the jurors," prosecutors said in their paragraphs.

Each juror "must ultimately make an individual judgment" on what sentence to 
impose, but the law "never requires" them to vote for 1 sentence over the 
other, the state said.

All 12 jurors have to unanimously agree "death is the only appropriate 
sentence" before it's imposed, and the judge must follow their determination, 
according to prosecutors.

The defense wanted to include what would happen if jurors couldn't reach a 
unanimous decision, according to their paragraphs. In that case, "then the 
judge, sitting alone as the fact finder, will make a determination" of the 
sentence, the document states.

None of this is "to imply that Mr. Vann is guilty," the defense added. But "it 
is important that we know your opinions and feelings regarding punishment," 
their proposal states.

It's difficult to know the exact motives of why attorneys proposed what they 
did, but there are a variety of possible reasons, according to Hoffman and 
Richard Kammen, an Indianapolis attorney.

"One of the realities is that the average person, and there's no reason they 
should, just has no idea of the complexity of the system and sort of the 
cumbersome nature of it," Kammen said. Attorneys may be trying to be efficient 
by giving jurors background of what they???re tasked with before a judge gives 
further explanation in court, he said.

Another reason could be the defense is "worried about the possibility of a 
split verdict on the death penalty," Hoffman said, and they want to let jurors 
know that would "take the decision out of the hands of the jury and leave the 
decision to the judge."

"In other words, the defense attorneys might be trying to find prospective 
jurors who don't want to leave it up to the judge, but want to keep the 
decision in the hands of the jury and would be willing to keep trying to reach 
a unanimous sentencing verdict," Hoffman said.

Death penalty cases are a long and complex process, they said.

"As a general rule, working on a death penalty case is probably a commitment of 
1,500 to 2,000 hours per year just working on the case," Kammen said.

The paragraphs the defense proposed would go on page 37 of the questionnaire 
regarding "questions about the death penalty," and attorneys are still working 
on finishing those, court records show.

"Obviously, capital defense attorneys will try to take advantage of any 
possible opportunity to learn more about the people who might be selected to 
serve on a capital jury, and to figure out how they might be persuaded to vote 
for life," Hoffman said. "That is the No. 1 job of a good capital defense 
attorney."

(soruce: Chicago Tribune)








ARKANSAS:

Pastor/judge repeats controversial death penalty protest



An Arkansas judge and pastor of a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church 
participated in an anti-death penalty demonstration this week, re-enacting 
symbolic speech that a year ago led to his being barred from hearing capital 
punishment cases.

Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen, pastor of New Millennium Church in Little Rock, 
Ark., strapped himself on a cot and lay motionless Tuesday night during a vigil 
outside the governor's mansion. The vigil was for 4 inmates put to death in 
Arkansas last year, victims of violent crime and prisoners currently on death 
row.

Media photos of the judge and pastor posing similarly at a death penalty 
protest on Good Friday 2017 prompted the Arkansas Supreme Court to permanently 
ban him from all civil and criminal cases involving capital punishment, the 
death penalty or the method of execution in Arkansas.

Last October Griffen filed a civil right lawsuit accusing the justices of 
violating his First Amendment and 14th Amendment rights and claiming the 
sanction against him was racially motivated.

Griffen said on his blog April 18 he is as committed to both the rule of law 
and expressing his moral and religious opposition to the death penalty as he 
was a year ago, "if not more so."

Griffen said when his authority to preside over capital cases is restored, he 
will follow state law making death by lethal injection a punishment for capital 
murder, but his obligation to follow the law does not to compel him to agree 
with it.

"The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects my freedom to hold and 
express moral and religious opposition to the death penalty, including freedom 
to peacefully and lawfully question the morality of state-sanctioned 
premeditated and deliberate killing of people who have been convicted for the 
premeditated and deliberate killing of other persons," Griffen wrote.

"If a person who has been convicted of premeditated murder is deliberately and 
premeditatedly killed, we should condemn that killing as murder," he continued. 
"Murder is wrong, even when the state hires people to do it. Anger and 
bloodlust are not excuses for the state to commit premeditated murder of people 
who have committed premeditated murder for an understandable reason. 2 wrongs 
don't make anything right."

Last June Cooperative Baptist Fellowship leaders traveled to Arkansas to show 
support for Griffen's right to express his religious beliefs while serving as 
an elected judge. In February, Griffen publicly criticized the CBF for 
instituting a partial ban on LGBTQ hiring and said he would ask his church to 
revisit its relationship with the 1,800-church Fellowship in light of the 
policy.

(source: Baptist News)








OKLAHOMA:

Oklahoma Officials Endorse Nitrogen Executions As 'Humane,' But Some Medical 
Experts Aren't Sure



Oklahoma wants to go where no state has gone before: Executing death row 
inmates with nitrogen gas. Officials say nitrogen will bring quick, painless 
deaths, but the research is slim - and it has never been used in U.S. 
executions.

The case for nitrogen hypoxia sounds simple. Nitrogen is already in the air we 
breathe, but, as long as humans get the right mix, nitrogen is safe. The state 
wants to make death row inmates breathe pure nitrogen.

State Sen. Ervin Yen, R-Oklahoma City, is a cardiac anesthesiologist who signed 
his name to the bill that made nitrogen hypoxia a legal execution method in 
2015. He says the inmates would die from "lack of oxygen," not exposure to 
nitrogen.

Yen says this is not the same as choking to death, during which the "blood 
level of carbon dioxide would go up drastically." That carbon dioxide buildup 
is the primary reason for discomfort, Yen said. "Like, anxiety, and you might 
start sweating, and your blood pressure might go up."

Yen says when a person breathes nitrogen, they're still exhaling carbon dioxide 
which means they won't feel the same painful carbon dioxide buildup. They'll go 
to sleep and if they don't get oxygen, they'll eventually die.

In Yen's medical opinion, nitrogen hypoxia would not be painful and it wouldn't 
fall under the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

ROAD TO NITROGEN

This isn't the 1st time Oklahoma pioneered a way to execute people. The state 
was also 1st to write lethal injections into law after a 1976 Supreme Court 
ruling ended a nationwide death penalty ban.

Nearly 40 years and 112 executions later, manufacturers stopped supplying the 
lethal drugs needed for the injections. Inability to find the right drugs led 
to national outrage when Oklahoma botched 2 executions.

Lawmakers wanted a fix. They changed the law so death row inmates could be 
executed by nitrogen hypoxia - another method no state had ever tried. 
Legislators, including Yen, voted overwhelmingly in favor of the new method.

Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter said in a March 2018 news conference 
pilots and scuba divers who recalled what it's like to nearly die from losing 
oxygen was evidence nitrogen hypoxia would be a painless death.

Hunter and his office reference studies on nitrogen gas used in suicides and 
its effects in accidental deaths. Some studies exist but, a spokesperson for 
the office couldn't name specific studies staff reviewed.

Hunter also claimed nitrogen is used in physician-assisted deaths in states and 
countries where it is legal.

Dr. David Grube, a medical director for nonprofit Compassion and Choices, which 
advocates for physician-assisted deaths, says U.S. doctors that are helping 
terminally ill patients end their lives would never prescribe inert gas. Grube 
says he doesn't know whether or not death by nitrogen hypoxia would be painless 
because he never used the gas in his nearly 40 years of practice.

Dr. Catherine Forest, a physician who practiced family medicine for over 25 
years and teaches at Stanford University School of Medicine in California, 
where physician-assisted death for patients in their final 6 months of life is 
legal, says no matter the method, executions can't be compared with 
physician-assisted deaths.

Physician-assisted deaths and executions "are very different medical 
situations," she said. "One is a healthy individual and the other is a dying 
human being."

Forest also says doctors can and have studied how people die during 
physician-assisted deaths in a way that can't be done for executions. She 
believes studies on death penalty methods would be unethical.

"I don't know that we can identify in a healthy population what would be a 
comfortable or a non-painful death of a healthy person under these settings," 
Forest said.

'WE KNOW WHAT HAPPENS'

Michael Copeland, an attorney and professor at East Central University in Ada, 
researched nitrogen for a Legislative study to find out whether the gas could 
be used to execute people. Copeland says he has "100 % confidence that we know 
what happens when a person doesn't breathe oxygen."

Copeland's team concluded nitrogen would be constitutional, the gas would be 
easy to acquire and the state wouldn't need doctors to help use it on inmates. 
The researchers, who aren't medical doctors but say they consulted with 
physicians, concluded it would be a "humane" alternative.

Copeland says there is no need for a medical study on the new execution method 
because officials can "infer" what would happen if nitrogen or another inert 
gas is used in a death chamber.

"I can see no reason to believe it would be any different because you're 
intentionally doing it for a death penalty than if it was for suicide, or an 
industrial accident, or scuba diving accident, or a pilot," he said.

While Copeland and Yen believe the merits of the death penalty are up for 
public debate, they both say the effects of nitrogen hypoxia are clear.

State officials in March said the state is in the early days of creating its 
new nitrogen execution protocol. Once the state has finalized the procedure, 
they've agreed to wait 5 months to give inmates and their attorneys time to 
review it.

StateImpact Oklahoma is a partnership among Oklahoma's public radio stations 
and relies on contributions from readers and listeners to fulfill its mission 
of public service to Oklahoma and beyond. Donate online.

As a community-supported news organization, KGOU relies on contributions from 
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beyond. Donate online, or by contacting our Membership department.

(source: KGOU news)








CALIFORNIA:

Fight to resume executions in California clears one hurdle----The court ruled 
in 2012 that the state failed to follow proper procedures when it set standards 
for conducting executions using 3 drugs



A judge on Tuesday lifted his own court's previous order blocking California 
from carrying out death sentences by lethal injection, but the decision is far 
from the final word on the contentious issue because of several ongoing 
lawsuits.

Marin County Superior Court Judge Roy Chernus said in a tentative order that a 
2016 ballot measure approved by voters to resume executions invalidated his 
prior injunction blocking the death penalty. Chernus ruled in 2012 that the 
state failed to follow proper procedures when it set standards for conducting 
executions using three drugs.

Voters approved Proposition 66, however, which did away with the requirement 
that the state follow those procedures. Chernus said that left him with "no 
alternative but to dissolve the permanent injunction."

A tentative ruling gives the parties a chance to change the judge's mind before 
a final decision.

Steve Mayer, an attorney who argued against lifting the injunction, said he 
does not plan to contest the judge's decision, so it will become final. But 
Mayer said Chernus??? ruling was narrow, and the case was a small part of the 
ongoing fight to resume executions.

"There are a lot of moving parts here," he said.

The case in Marin County is one of four in the courts holding up executions. No 
executions can take place until all the cases are resolved.

California has the nation's largest death row with nearly 750 inmates. Only 13 
have been executed since 1978. Currently, condemned inmates are more likely to 
die of old age during decades of appeals.

The 2016 voter-approved ballot measure attempted to remove regulatory hurdles 
to executions.

State officials and a former NFL player whose family was murdered, Kermit 
Alexander, wanted Chernus to lift his injunction on executions.

They said California now has the necessary regulations to execute condemned 
inmates using a single dose of powerful barbiturates. Judges previously 
rejected the state's 3-drug method of carrying out executions, forcing the 
adoption of new rules this year.

Alexander was a proponent of the ballot measure designed to streamline death 
penalty regulations and appeals and speed executions. His mother, sister and 2 
nephews were murdered in 1984.

"This injunction harms the public interest, and it harms the particular 
interests of families who have already waited far too long for justice," his 
motion stated.

Opponents counter that the state must still go through the normal 
time-consuming regulatory process for procedures related to executions that 
were not specifically exempted by the ballot measure.

That includes things like determining if an inmate has become insane behind 
bars, selecting witnesses to executions, and disposing of inmates' bodies and 
property.

Death penalty opponents plan to fight the state's new execution method in 
federal court. 2 other procedural challenges are underway.

A separate lawsuit filed last month in Marin County by condemned inmate Jarvis 
Jay Masters and the nonprofit organization Witness to Innocence challenges the 
new execution rules on similar procedural grounds.

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California contends 
in legal action that state lawmakers cannot delegate the responsibility for 
drafting execution regulations to unelected prison officials.

Officials say those three procedural cases must likely be resolved before a 
separate legal battle before U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg of San 
Francisco renews the fight over how to humanely execute condemned murderers.

His predecessor on the bench ruled in 2006 that the previous execution method 
violated the 8th Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Seeborg will have to decide if the new process is humane.

"Are all these appropriate safeguards in place to avoid the substantial risk of 
severe pain? Those remain real questions," said Linda Lye, a senior ACLU staff 
attorney.

David Senior, one of the attorneys representing condemned inmates in that case, 
said death penalty opponents are likely to challenge how executioners are 
selected and trained, which facilities and equipment they use, and how the 
lethal drugs are selected, mixed and stored.

The main objection has been whether the barbiturates allowed under the new 
rules can be safely obtained. The rules call for using either pentobarbital or 
thiopental, depending on which is more readily available.

The federal government bars importing thiopental and the maker of pentobarbital 
prohibits using it in executions.

The state regulations allow for buying the drugs from compounding pharmacies, 
but those businesses may have trouble importing the ingredients, said Ana 
Zamora, formerly an ACLU criminal justice policy director.

Zamora also questioned how the state would guarantee the chemicals would be 
properly mixed, increasing the possibility of botched executions. Inmates can 
also choose the gas chamber.

"It's the nature of the death penalty litigation that they fight everything 
they can," said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal 
Foundation that advocates for crime victims and is pushing to resume 
executions.

(source: eastbaytimes.com)

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

Kern County judge releases man who's been on death row for 26 years----Vincente 
Benavides, 68, released from prison



A Kern County judge decided Thursday to set free a man who's been on death row 
for 26 years.

Vicente Benavides, 68, was freed from San Quinton Prison Thursday afternoon.

The judge said all Benavides' charges were changed to not guilty. His defense 
attorney told 23ABC that Benavides will not have to return to Kern County.

On Tuesday, District Attorney Lisa Green made the announcement that her office 
would not file charges against Benavides, saying the case would be nearly 
impossible to retry in court. She said it would be very difficult to convince a 
jury beyond a reasonable doubt of Benavides' guilt.

According to a decision released by the California Supreme Court last month, 
the convictions of Vicente Benavides in 1993 "were based on false evidence and 
that he received ineffective assistance of counsel."

The decision also says that "false evidence was introduced at trial and that 
petitioner's convictions of substantive sexual offenses, special-circumstance 
findings, and judgment of death must be vacated."

Benavides was convicted in 1993 of 1st-degree murder, rape, and other charges. 
He was sentenced to life. He was serving his term on death row in San Quentin.

It was asked that his murder conviction be reduced to 2nd-degree murder. That 
was also thrown out.

The judgment has been vacated entirely. Benavides' defense attorney says his 
client's case is extremely rare, saying only 2 similar cases have occurred 
since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970's.

The California Supreme Court cited multiple doctors who evaluated 21-month-old 
Consuelo Verdugo in November 1991 when she died. The baby was taken from the 
Delano Regional Medical Center to Kern Medical Center then eventually the UCLA 
Medical Center where she died November 25, 1991.

Multiple reports were made by doctors who said based on the inability to insert 
a catheter, bruising found near Consuelo's genitalia and other factors, they 
believed she had been sexually assaulted.

(source: turnto23.com)

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

Prosecutors Seek Death Penalty in Coachella Valley Craigslist Killing



Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a man accused of gunning down a 
Cathedral City resident who was trying to sell his car to the defendant.

Gabriel Gaytan Cardenas, 33, is charged with murder and several special 
circumstance allegations, including murder for financial gain, lying in wait, 
and murder in the commission of a robbery, carjacking and a felony in the Nov. 
11, 2014 killing of 46-year-old Victor Mendoza. Mendoza's body was found in a 
desert area of Coachella one week after he allegedly met with Cardenas.

Prosecutors filed their notice of intent to seek the death penalty on 
Wednesday.

Mendoza posted an ad on Craigslist for his Mercedes-Benz, and after an initial 
meeting with Cardenas about the car, called friends "and expressed concerns 
over selling the vehicle to Cardenas," according to a declaration filed in 
support of an arrest warrant.

On Nov. 11, Mendoza asked a friend to be at a Del Taco restaurant on Varner 
Road and Washington Street in Palm Desert while he finalized a deal with 
Cardenas, and she watched as the defendant got into the Mercedes with the 
victim and drove off, according to the declaration.

Mendoza's friend talked to him on the phone shortly after the two men left and 
said he was acting strangely. Cardenas later called her on Mendoza's phone, 
saying Mendoza had inadvertently left it behind after selling him the car, 
according to the declaration prepared by sheriff's Investigator Sean Freeman.

Mendoza was reported missing the following day.

On Nov. 15, Cardenas was driving Mendoza's car when he met with a man and his 
son in response to their Craigslist car ad, according to the declaration. 
Cardenas met the pair again 2 days later, again under the guise of buying their 
car. He allegedly brandished a gun and threatened to kill them, while also 
admitting to Mendoza's murder.

However, he let them go since one of the men "reminded him of his father" and 
"they had been nice to (him) during the 1st meeting" and took their car, the 
declaration states.

Cardenas was arrested later that day in Indio while driving the father and 
son's car, and investigators found his cell phone number in both victims' phone 
records, according to Freeman.

Cardenas allegedly told the investigators that he was in debt to a Mexican drug 
cartel and was ordered by the cartel to meet Mendoza. He alleged that he 
delivered Mendoza to a cartel member, who drove them to Coachella, and the 
cartel member shot Mendoza. Cardenas later led investigators to where the body 
was found, according to the declaration.

In a 2nd interview, Cardenas told investigators that he met with Mendoza at the 
Del Taco in Palm Desert and had him drive to Coachella, the declaration says.

"Cardenas told Mendoza to get on his knees and to say a prayer for Cardenas. 
Cardenas then shot Mendoza in the back of the head and left the body," the 
document states. "Cardenas still claimed that he committed the murder on behalf 
of a drug cartel that he owed money."

Cardenas remains held without bail at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility 
in Banning. He's next due in court Monday for a trial-readiness conference.

(source: KMIR news)