[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.H., GA., FLA., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

April 28



NEW HAMPSHIRE:

The death penalty continues to slowly die.



Lawmakers in the New Hampshire House of Representatives on Thursday 
overwhelmingly passed a bill, already approved by the state Senate, to replace 
capital punishment with life-without-parole sentences. New Hampshire has not 
carried out an execution since 1939 and only 1 inmate currently sits on the 
state's death row.

If signed into law, the bill would extinguish the death penalty in New England. 
Connecticut Supreme Court abolished it in 2015 and reaffirmed its ruling the 
following year; capital punishment has been banned in the rest of the region 
for decades - or, in Maine's case, for more than a century. The bill now 
requires the signature of Republican Governor Chris Sununu, who said in 
February that he would veto an abolition measure if it reached him. (The 
legislation passed by a veto-proof margin in the Senate, and would need just 1 
more vote in the House.)

"I stand with crime victims, members of the law enforcement community, and 
advocates for justice in opposing a repeal of the death penalty," Sununu wrote. 
"Repealing the death penalty sends us in exactly the wrong direction, and I 
will veto the bill if it reaches my desk."

Those assertions elide the death penalty's realities. There's some evidence 
that life-without-parole sentences, which lack the grueling appeals process 
that follows every death sentence, may be more conducive to healing for 
victims' families. At the same time, there's very little proof to support the 
common claim that executions deter crime. And the American public is 
increasingly rejecting capital punishment: Support fell to 55 % in 2016 - the 
lowest level since the 1960s - while only a smattering of counties actually 
imposes new death sentences in practice.

(source: The New Republic)








GEORGIA----impending execution

Same violent crime - one set to die while the other waits



Gang members Robert Earl Butts and Marion "Murdock" Wilson were together when 
they asked an off-duty correctional officer for a ride outside a Milledgeville 
Walmart the evening of March 28, 1996.

They were together when, 16 minutes later, Butts shot Donovan Corey Parks with 
a sawed-off shotgun then left the 25-year-old lying face-down on a 
Milledgeville road.

Together they dosed Parks' 1992 Acura Vigor with gasoline and set it on fire 
behind a Macon Huddle House. Just hours later, the pair applied for landscaping 
jobs.

Convicted of the same charges - murder, armed robbery, possession of a firearm 
during the commission of a crime, possession of "certain weapons," and 
carjacking, both were condemned by Baldwin County juries.

But on Thursday, Butts, 40, is scheduled to be the 2nd person Georgia has put 
to death this year while Wilson has more time; how much no one can say. On 
April 17, the day after Butts' execution warrant was signed, the U.S. Supreme 
Court sent Wilson's case back to the federal appeals court in Atlanta with 
instructions to take another look.

For those steeped in the vagaries of death penalty law, such an outcome is no 
surprise.

"That happens," said Michael Mears, who is now a professor at John Marshall Law 
School but who has been involved in 167 capital case of which only 27 went to 
trial.

One man will go to his death while another, equally responsible for the same 
murder, has a chance of avoiding lethal injection, he said.

"It's the luck of the draw sometimes," which lawyers represent them, what 
mistakes were made at trial, which judge hear their appeals, Mears said.

For example, Mears noted, Brandon Jones died by lethal injection in September 
2016 for the 1979 murder of a Cobb County convenience store manager, more than 
3 decades after his partner, Van Roosevelt Solomon, was electrocuted on Feb. 
20, 1985 for that same murder. Brandon Jones' case took longer to work through 
all the appeals after a 2nd sentencing trial was ordered because there was a 
Bible in the room with jurors as they deliberated his punishment the 1st time.

And David Lucas was executed on April 27, 2016, for the 1998 murders of a Jones 
County father and his 2 children, more than 5 1/2 years after his co-defendant, 
Brandon Rhode, was electrocuted on Sept. 27, 2010.

"Different issues come up in (a) case," said Georgia State University law 
professor Lauren Sudeall Lucas. "They just move at different paces ... There 
are different lawyers and different issues in each case. There may be claims 
one can raise the others cannot."

District Attorney Stephen Bradley, who was an assistant district attorney 
during the trials of both Butts and Wilson, said the Supreme Court's decision 
on Wilson has no bearing on Butts' case. In their appeal, Butts' attorneys are 
claiming the death sentence is not proportional to the crime, at least not by 
today's standards. Wilson's most recent appeal focused on the arcane question 
of what prior state court ruling the federal appeals court should evaluate when 
deciding the merits of a condemned inmate's case.

For Donovan Parks' father, Freddie, 22 years is long enough to wait for 
justice.

"I've been praying I'd see this day and they would get what's coming to them," 
Parks, 75, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

He said he's kept his son's clothes, which he sometimes wears. "I know he would 
want me to have them. None of it was given away," he said.

Freddie Parks plans to witness Butts' execution. "I feel like I'm doing 
something for my son. ...I feel like I would have accomplished something for 
him, justice for him."

But then he must wait for a final decision on the fate of the 2nd many 
convicted of killing his son.

Donovan Parks, like his father, became a prison guard after graduating high 
school. But the younger Parks had plans, his father said. Instead of making 
corrections his career, he wanted to attend college.

The night that he was killed, Parks, a Jehovah's Witness, had just come home 
from Bible study at the Milledgeville Kingdom Hall, across the street from the 
house he shared with his recently-widowed father. Parks was still wearing his 
tie and checkered grey suit when he left for a quick trip to Walmart for cat 
food.

According to then-District Attorney Fred Bright, Butts and Wilson also had gone 
to the Walmart, "shopping for somebody to kill." Prosecutors said the 2 
18-year-olds were looking to make an impression on other members of their gang, 
FOLK Nation.

At 9:50 p.m., Parks handed a Walmart cashier $7.93 for 4 cans of cat food, 
tropical fish food, soap and cocoa butter. Behind him, Butts waited to pay for 
a 20-cent pack of Wrigley's chewing gum.

Butts worked with Parks at a local Burger King and he asked for a ride for him 
and Wilson.

A single-barrel sawed-off shotgun hidden in the sleeve of his Colorado Rockies 
jacket, Butts got in the front passenger seat. Wilson climbed in the back after 
Parks cleared out a spot for him to sit.

Minutes later, on street dotted with pre-fabricated houses, Wilson grabbed 
Parks' necktie, cinching it so tightly it later had to be cut off. Butts 
ordered Parks out of the car and shot him in the back of the head, leaving the 
officer face-down in his own blood and brain matter.

The 2 fled to Atlanta in Parks' Acura, according to testimony.

Moments after Parks was shot, his father, came up on a body in the road but 
didn't recognize his son because of the damage done by the large buckshot. The 
father called the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office to report that someone had 
been hit by a car.

Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills, who was the chief deputy in Baldwin County 
at the time, was able to identify the dead man only by matching the initials in 
the dead man's class ring to the roster of seniors at Baldwin High School in 
1990; there was only 1 person with the initials BCP.

Wilson was arrested 4 days later at the courthouse when he came to an 
appointment related to a DUI conviction. Butts was hiding in his grandmother's 
bedroom closet when authorities came for him.

Detectives found the shotgun under Wilson's mattress. Wilson's girlfriend said 
she saw Butts hand him the weapon.

Talking to investigators Wilson blamed Butts for everything. He said he had 
nothing to prove because he was "chief enforcer" with the local FOLK Nation 
gang. "I'm as high (in the gang) as I can be. I ain't got to go no higher. I 
ain't got to do nothing to go no higher," Wilson said in an interview with 
Sills and Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee.

Butts, meanwhile, denied everything at first but then decided to testify at his 
trial and to lay it all on Wilson. Butts testified that it was Wilson's idea to 
steal a car and it was Wilson who "snatched him out" of the car and took him to 
the back and shot him.

"I was scared..." Butts testified. "I was really upset. And I was feeling, you 
know, kind of sick at the stomach."

The jury didn't believe him and convicted him of murder.

Butts was sentenced to die on Nov. 21, 1998, almost exactly a year after 
another Baldwin County jury voted to condemn Wilson.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)








FLORIDA----female may face death penalty

Death penalty possible for mother suspected of killing newborn twins----Rachael 
Lynn Thomas accused of beating babies to death



Prosecutors will soon begin the process of reviewing the case of a West 
Melbourne mother charged with killing her newborn twins to determine if the 
state will seek the death penalty, according to News 6 partner Florida Today.

Detectives say 30-year-old Rachael Lynn Thomas gave birth April 15 to healthy 
twins in the bathroom of her Laurel Oak Street duplex and then beat the unnamed 
babies, carried to 39 weeks, to death.

"When we receive the information, we will review the case," said Todd Brown, 
spokesman for the state attorney's office. Prosecutors will first go over the 
investigators' information, witness statements and tests from the medical 
examiner's office.

Police charged Thomas - initially booked on child neglect charges - with 2 
counts each of 1st-degree murder and child abuse after the medical examiner's 
office determined that the infants had been murdered.

Both newborns were found with blunt-force trauma to the head and the baby girl 
was found with a "foreign object" stuffed in her mouth, police said.

A grand jury could then be convened over the next few weeks to review evidence 
in the case before recommending whether formal state charges should be filed. 
With formal charges, the state will have 45 days from the arraignment to decide 
whether to pursue the death penalty.

If the grand jury returns with a 1st-degree murder indictment, coupled with the 
aggravated child abuse charges, "then there will be a review to make the 
determination if the case qualifies for the death penalty," Brown said.

West Melbourne police said Thomas - who had 2 other children, including a 
toddler - was alone when she gave birth. She told detectives that she didn't 
know she was pregnant and had "panicked."

Detectives discovered later that she placed one of the dead infants in a bag 
and stuffed the infant - identified as "Baby Jane" - in an outside waste bin 
beneath a bag of cat litter.

Thomas did call 911 after giving birth, but only initially reported 1 of the 
twins.

"I had a baby, and then I passed out. Now the baby's not responding and I don't 
know what to do," Thomas told 911 dispatchers when she called that Sunday 
around noon. "It's not doing anything. It's cold and it's blue."

Thomas also faces tampering with evidence charges because police said she did 
not tell them about the infant girl.

Thomas' 2 other children, an 8-year-old and a 1-year-old, were removed from her 
custody and placed with other family members by the Department of Children and 
Families.

Prosecutors sought the death penalty in a similar case against a 33-year-old 
Jessica McCarty, a Palm Bay mother who admitted to killing her 3 children on 
March 19, 2015, including a 5-month-old infant.

The woman - who dealt with drug and mental health issues - instead pled guilty 
in December 2015 and in exchange for the plea, was sentenced to life in prison 
without parole.

(source: clickorlando.com)

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

State to seek death penalty in Baldwin woman's murder



State Attorney Melissa Nelson intends to seek the death penalty for the man 
charged in the stabbing death of a Baldwin mother, according to Duval County 
court records.

Dennis Mixon, 59, was indicted on 1st-degree murder last week in the killing of 
Nikki Redden, whose body was found lying on the side of a dead-end road in an 
industrial complex in Baldwin in May 2016.

Mixon, who has been serving a 7-year sentence for car theft and other charges, 
was transferred back from a Florida prison to the Duval County jail April 20.

He also faces a charge of 2nd-degree arson in the case after someone's car was 
torched, according to a copy of the indictment.

Redden's sister told News4Jax her sibling is survived by 2 young children.

Court and corrections records show Mixon has been in prison 11 times over the 
past 40 years.

(source: WJXT news)








LOUISIANA:

Prosecutors Hid Evidence of Corey Williams' Innocence in Pursuit of a Death 
Sentence



In 2000, Corey Williams, a Black teenager with an intellectual disability, was 
tried and convicted in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, for the murder of a pizza 
delivery man at his friend's house.

Williams was just 16 years old at the time and due to his disability, still wet 
himself, sucked his thumb, and ate odd things like dirt and paper. Despite 
these factors, Caddo Parish prosecutors still sought and obtained the death 
penalty for Williams, though his guilt was not supported by much of the 
evidence, which they never turned over to the teenager's trial lawyers. 
Williams' plight is a horrifying example of the awesome power of prosecutors, 
who can not only take someone's freedom - but life itself.

Williams wasn't even a suspect at the outset of the investigation. Rather 
police officers first focused their attention on two older men, who were 
present during the crime. Police recorded witness statements on the night of 
the homicide that were never given to Williams' defense. On these recordings, 1 
witness told police that he saw a man nicknamed "Rapist" with the murder weapon 
prior to the homicide. Another witness, the brother of one of the likely 
culprits, insisted that it would make no sense for Williams to have killed the 
pizza delivery man, implicating his own brother and "Rapist" instead.

Even when other witnesses suggested to police that Williams was the 
perpetrator, the police pushed back, as they suspected the older men were 
pushing these witnesses to frame Williams for their actions. After an all-night 
interrogation, however, Williams confessed to the murder despite evidence 
pointing to his innocence. Rather than question the confession due to his 
youth, obvious disability, and the circumstances under which it was taken, the 
police stopped investigating the likely culprits and charged Williams. The 
prosecutors' decision to then charge Williams with 1st-degree murder destroyed 
his life, and the state of Louisiana was set to snuff it out completely.

Thanks to 2 intervening decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court - first forbidding 
the death penalty for those with intellectual disability, and later against 
those who were under 18 at the time of a crime - Williams' life was spared. But 
today he still remains incarcerated for life in Louisiana for a crime he almost 
certainly did not commit.

Prior to his trial, Williams' defense attorneys asked repeatedly for all 
information in the prosecutors' possession that showed their client was not 
responsible for the crime - information the prosecutors were required to 
disclose under the Supreme Court's 1963 decision in Brady v. Maryland. The 
prosecutors were not forthcoming, likely because they knew the information they 
possessed would undermine their case against Williams.

In fact, they were more concerned with a conviction than justice. Rather than 
turning over the recorded statements suggesting Williams's innocence, the 
prosecution team, led by Assistant District Attorney Hugo Holland, gave the 
defense summaries of the statements. These summaries grossly misrepresented the 
witnesses' accounts and omitted entirely the fact that the witnesses had pinned 
the crime on the other 2 men.

Louisiana courts have so far rejected Williams' Brady claims, finding that the 
evidence would not have made a difference in his trial in light of his 
confession. Williams' attorneys have now asked the U.S. Supreme Court to 
intervene, which it should.

The plot, however, thickens from there, showcasing the prosecutorial corruption 
in Caddo Parish.

Several years ago, Holland was forced to resign after he was caught faking 
documents to obtain M-16 military rifles through a Pentagon program. Yet even 
after losing his job in Caddo Parish, he continues to try death penalty cases 
as a contract employee with prosecutors' offices all over Louisiana. If that 
weren't bad enough, Holland is also working with the Louisiana District 
Attorneys Association to lobby legislators against much-needed criminal justice 
reform in the state.

The Caddo Parish District Attorney's Office's decision to seek the death 
penalty against a teenager with severe mental health impairments - especially 
when substantial evidence, never shared with the defense, pointed to other 
culprits - underscores the substantial power of prosecutors. It's a power that 
must be checked by holding prosecutors accountable, through elections, through 
engagement with district attorney offices, through litigation, and through 
legislation.

Given these troubling practices, it's no wonder that until recently Caddo 
Parish was leading the country in death sentences per capita. Dale Cox, the 
former acting district attorney, maintained that rather than limiting the death 
penalty to the most violent offenders, consistent with national trends, we 
should instead "kill more people" - a staggering and revealing statement about 
the state of criminal justice in the parish.

Fortunately, in 2016, the people of Caddo Parish sent a clear message at the 
polls, rejecting the Cox administration. Unfortunately, that doesn't change the 
fact that countless victims of prosecutorial misconduct are locked up in 
prisons throughout the state. With Williams v. Louisiana, the U.S. Supreme 
Court has an opportunity to hold Louisiana prosecutors accountable while also 
sending a strong message that such prosecutorial misconduct is intolerable in 
any state of the union. The court should review Williams' case and end the 20 
years of injustice he's endured.

(source: Anna Arceneaux, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Capital Punishment 
Project)