[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., FLA., LA., OHIO, TENN., MO., NEB., USA

[Rick Halperin]

August 4




PENNSYLVANIA:

DA to seek death penalty for Raymond Rowe, who's accused of killing Christy 
Mirack


The Lancaster County District Attorney's office is officially pursuing the 
death penalty against disc jockey Raymond "DJ Freez" Rowe, who is accused of 
the brutal 1992 sexual assault and killing of 25-year-old schoolteacher Christy 
Mirack.

Rowe, 49, of Lancaster, was charged earlier this year after prosecutors said 
DNA from the crime scene matched Rowe's through a genealogy database.

In a July 30 notice of intent to seek the death penalty, Assistant District 
Attorney Christine L. Wilson cited as aggravating circumstances that the 
killing was committed while in perpetration of the felony offenses of burglary, 
rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.

Police said Mirack was getting ready for work at her East Lampeter Township 
home, dressed with gloves and a jacket, when Rowe confronted her inside the 
home, physically assaulted her, sexually assaulted her and strangled her to 
death, according to an affidavit filed with the homicide charge.

Police said Rowe's DNA matched six samples, consistent with sexual assault, 
taken from Mirack's body, according to the affidavit.

Rowe is represented by public defender Patricia Spotts, who had no comment 
Friday.

Rowe recently waived his right to a preliminary hearing on the charges of 
criminal homicide, 3 counts of rape, 2 counts of involuntary deviate sexual 
intercourse and burglary.

The next step in the court case is a formal arraignment scheduled for Aug. 24, 
at which Rowe will be advised of his rights and asked to enter a plea of guilty 
or not guilty.

District Attorney Craig Stedman declined further comment through spokesman 
Brett Hambright, who said the office "is essentially cutting off public comment 
on the case now that it is into court."

Currently there are 7 people on death row in Pennsylvania because they were 
sentenced to the death penalty following convictions in Lancaster County cases. 
They are Orlando Baez, Tedor Davido, Francis Harris, Landon May, Abraham 
Sanchez Jr., Leeton Thomas and Jakeem Towles.

The most recent conviction here to result in a death sentence was Thomas', in 
June 2017. Pennsylvania has not executed anyone since 1999, and Gov. Tom Wolf 
imposed a moratorium on executions in 2015.

(source: lancasteronline.com)






FLORIDA:

Lawyer withdraws in Bessman Okafor death penalty case, likely delaying trial


Bessman Okafor, the Orange County man who was convicted of killing a witness 
and had his death sentence overturned, agreed to have his defense attorney 
withdraw from the case Friday, likely delaying his retrial.

The attorney, Dean Mosley, told Circuit Judge John Marshall Kest that he had 
other time commitments that would keep him from giving the case the attention 
it needs. He declined to say what those commitments are, or comment about 
whether he's occupied with his campaign for circuit court judge.

"I'm acting in the best interest of my client," he said.

Kest appointed Orlando attorney Marc Burnham after Friday morning's hearing.

Okafor was convicted in the murder of Alex Zaldivar, a 19-year-old who was set 
to testify against him in a home-invasion case. At the time, Okafor was out on 
bond as part of a monitoring program that no longer exists in Orange County.

In 2015, his original jury recommended a death sentence by a vote of 11-1 just 
months before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Florida???s death penalty law 
unconstitutional because it did not require unanimity. His case is one of 
dozens sent back to the court system. A pool of new jurors will not have to 
determine whether Okafor is guilty, only whether to sentence him to life in 
prison or the death penalty.

The retrial was set for November. Mosley represented Okafor during his original 
trial, and Kest noted a new attorney will likely need more time to prepare for 
the case.

Alex Zaldivar's father, Rafael Zaldivar, said he was frustrated with the 
delays.

"You see how he was in there? He wants to pick his own damn attorney, even 
though we taxpayers are paying for it. No different than Markeith Loyd," he 
said, referring to the man accused of killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend and an 
Orlando police officer. Loyd asked for Miami death penalty specialist Terry 
Lenamon to defend him and, after more than a year with a local attorney, a 
judge granted the request last month.

Okafor asked how he would know his new attorney can try a death penalty case.

"How do I know he's qualified?" he asked Kest. The judge assured him that his 
new lawyer will be qualified.

Okafor's case was one of the 29 cases Gov. Rick Scott took away from 
Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala after she announced in 2017 she 
would not seek the death penalty for anyone, a stance she rescinded after the 
Florida Supreme Court ruled in Scott's favor.

The case is now assigned to State Attorney Brad King of Ocala, and being tried 
by Assistant State Attorney Ryan Williams who left Ayala's office to work for 
King. But Scott's executive orders for the cases are only in effect for 1 year, 
records show. Scott signed another order in June keeping Okafor's case with 
King's office until June 8, 2019, records show.

By then Scott, who is term-limited and not seeking re-election, will be out of 
the governor's office. Zaldivar said he worries about what will happen to the 
case after that.

"This is a disaster. The Ninth Judicial Circuit is a circus. It's a complete 
circus and it's an insult to us non-criminals out there," Zaldivar said. "It is 
a joke, and we need to fix it. But now we get another damn year, now we have to 
worry about the elections."

(source: Orlando Sentinel)






LOUISIANA:

A new furor over capital punishment in Louisiana


Down in the Bayou State, there's a clamor for more executions. Louisiana 
Attorney General Jeff Landry makes no bones about his feelings. More executions 
-- including nitrogen gas, hangings, firing squads, electrocution and lethal 
injection. But a federal judge has put all executions in Louisiana on hold for 
another year.

There is a reason the death penalty is rarely enforced anymore, particularly in 
the federal judicial system. Too many innocent victims are being convicted, 
based on cover-ups and the withholding of exculpatory evidence by some federal 
and state prosecutors. A recent study published in the National Academy of 
Sciences concludes that some 4.1 % of inmates on death row are innocent. More 
than 4 %! If that were the rate of airplanes crashing, would you fly?

My alma mater, the University of North Carolina, completed a death penalty 
study in 2016, and found that in Louisiana, 127 of 155 death penalty cases over 
the past 40 years ended in reversal, some 10 points above the national average.

Since 2000, there have been only 2 executions while seven people in Louisiana, 
about to be put to death, were found to be innocent. The main reason? 
Prosecutorial misconduct.

For years, the Bayou State has held the title of having the highest 
incarceration rate in the world. It now has taken on the dubious title of 
having case after case of death row inmates being convicted based on the 
withholding of evidence that would prove their innocence.

New Orleans has become the cesspool for the innocent being convicted of capital 
crimes and sentenced to death. One of the most egregious is the case of New 
Orleanian John Thompson, who was convicted back in 1982 of 1st-degree murder 
and given the death sentence. He came within days of being executed after 
spending 14 years on death row and 18 years total in prison. 5 different 
prosecutors were involved in the case and all knew that a blood test, and other 
key evidence that showed Thompson was innocent, had been withheld by the 
prosecution.

On his deathbed and dying of cancer, one of the prosecutors confessed to a 
colleague that he had hidden the exculpatory blood sample.

The colleague waited 5 more years before admitting that he too knew of the 
hidden evidence. Thompson, after 18 years, received a new trial, and his 
lawyers were finally able to produce pieces of evidence that had been kept from 
Thompson's defense attorneys, that overwhelming showed he was innocent. The new 
jury took less than 35 minutes to find him not guilty.

Hiding evidence that can find the accused innocent is nothing new for 
prosecutors in New Orleans, both in state and federal court as well as with the 
FBI. The Innocence Project of New Orleans reviewed a number of convictions over 
the past 25 years in the city and concluded that prosecutors have a "legacy" of 
suppressing evidence. The Project said 36 men convicted in Orleans Parish 
alleged prosecutorial misconduct. 19 have since had their sentences overturned 
or reduced as a result. In 19 of 25 capital cases, the prosecutors withheld 
favorable evidence.

Then there is the chilling case of Dan Bright, convicted and put on death row 
for a murder he did not commit. Evidence came out years after his conviction 
that the FBI, thanks to a credible informant, had been in possession of the 
name of the actual killer all along. Luckily for Bright, because of the 
unconstitutional withholding of key evidence by the prosecution and the FBI, 
his conviction was thrown out, and he now is a free man.

The foreman of White's jury, who recommended that he be put to death, was 
Kathleen Norman. She was so incensed over White's wrongful conviction and the 
hiding of evidence that would have cleared him by the FBI, that she became head 
of the Louisiana Innocence project, helping others like White mount a credible 
defense.

Questionable conduct by rogue prosecutors who withhold information that could 
prove the innocence of an accused is far too prevalent. Whether one is for or 
against the death penalty, there is ample evidence that convictions of a 
capital crime can be a crapshoot based on the whims of some prosecutors who too 
often withhold evidence that shows the accused is innocent. Bobby Lee Swagger 
says in the movie Shooter, "This is the world we live in, and justice is not 
always fulfilled!"

Peace and Justice

(source: Jim Brown, stmarynow.com)






OHIO:

Serial killer Anthony Kirkland to jurors: 'Please spare my life'


Convicted serial killer Anthony Kirkland stood at his sentencing hearing and, 
in a calm and steady voice, asked jurors to spare his life.

Though, he said, he'd understand if they recommended the death penalty for 
strangling, burning and dumping the bodies of 2 teenage girls -- one 14, the 
other 13.

"It has been stated that I am evil. It has been stated I am a monster," he 
said. "I cannot offer any justifiable response. I am not looking for 
absolution. Eventually I will answer to a higher authority. I do not blame you 
if you kill me. I do not deserve to live. Please spare my life."

Kirkland didn't have to speak on his own behalf, but his defense team is hoping 
Kirkland could help convince a jury to let him live. No other family members, 
as is sometimes the case in death penalty sentencing hearings, were among those 
who testified on his behalf.

Kirkland said kindergartners think they'll grow up to police officers, 
firefighters, doctors or teachers. They never think they'll be abused or become 
involved in drugs and alcohol or cause others grief, as has been his life, he 
said.

"I have hurt so many people," he said. "I am truly sorry. Please understand I 
am not here to beg for mercy, nor your forgiveness."

He paused.

Then he explained he was abused physically and mentally. Though that is not an 
"excuse," he said.

His speech lasted 3 minutes. He didn't look at jurors.

Closing arguments are scheduled for Monday. Then the jury - who heard testimony 
over the last 2 weeks - will be sequestered to make a sentencing 
recommendation.

The jury has been asked to recommend a sentence for the deaths of Casonya 
Crawford, 14, in 2006 and Esme Kenney, 13, in 2009. Kirkland strangled the 
girls, then burned their bodies. He attempted to rape Esme and forced her to 
perform a sex act on him when he was unsuccessful.

The Ohio Supreme Court overturned a previous death sentence for the girls' 
deaths, prompting the new sentencing hearing. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe 
Deters is again seeking a death sentence.

Jurors can recommend life sentences instead.

(source: cincinnati.com)






TENNESSEE----impending execution

Death row inmate could be executed next week


Tennessee could be finished with its 1st execution in almost a decade by this 
time next week.

Death row inmate Billy Ray Irick is scheduled to be put to death next Thursday.

The 59-year-old was convicted of rape and murder of a 7-year-old in 1985 in 
Knox County.

Advocates against his execution said he suffers from severe mental illness.

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery filed an argument with the courts 
saying there is no reason the execution shouldn???t proceed.

The National Alliance of Mental Health is pleading with Gov. Bill Haslam to 
commute Irick's sentence.

The group claims he suffers from mental illness, but it wasn't brought up in 
his trial and asks Haslam to change his sentence to life without parole.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people with mental illnesses and juveniles 
cannot be executed.

The execution process is something Haslam has been asked about before.

He had made it clear he has no desire to make any changes to the process.

The use of lethal injection was cleared for use last week by the courts, ahead 
of 3 scheduled executions this year.

That decision is being appealed, but won't be heard until after next week.

The governor addressed the issue last week and said the only way he would stop 
an execution is if there was a problem during the trial.

"My role is not to be a 13th juror. My job is not to decide if capital 
punishment is right or wrong. It's the law of this state," said Haslam. "My 
role is to see if the process broke down anywhere along the way."

Irick's execution is scheduled for Thursday. The last execution in Tennessee 
was Cecil Johnson in December 2009. Johnson had been convicted of 3 counts of 
1st-degree murder in Davidson County.

(source: WSMV news)






MISSOURI:

Former corrections officers seek to block Missouri execution


Nearly 2 dozen former corrections officers from across the country have filed a 
court brief in support of a Missouri death row inmate's claim that his medical 
condition could cause an unconstitutionally cruel execution.

Russell Bucklew was sentenced to death in 1997 for killing a southeast Missouri 
man. Bucklew, 47, has been scheduled for execution twice in the last 4 years 
but was granted a stay each time. Bucklew has a rare condition called cavernous 
hemangioma, which causes blood-filled tumors in his neck and head.

His case is before the Missouri Supreme Court. It's unclear when the court will 
rule.

Bucklew's attorney, Robert N. Hochman, said in court documents that lethal 
injection "will not go smoothly."

But Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, in a separate filing, wrote that the 
growth in Bucklew's mouth had shrunk. Hawley disagreed that the condition 
presents a risk of suffering under lethal injection.

The Columbia Tribune reports that several briefs were filed on Bucklew's 
behalf, including 1 from 23 former corrections officers who turned death 
penalty opponents. They argue that such a high-risk execution places an unfair 
burden on corrections workers involved in the execution process.

Some of the corrections officers have witnessed or overseen multiple executions 
and some have served as executioners themselves.

"It's incredibly traumatic even in the best of circumstances for corrections 
officers to participate in executions," said Tejinder Singh, the attorney who 
filed the brief on behalf of the corrections officers. He said the burden is 
significantly worse when a medical condition comes into play.

"But when, as is here, there is a real risk the execution will be botched 
because of the inmate's unique medical condition leading to complication, the 
risk becomes truly intolerable. It becomes extreme and there is no good reason 
to force public servants into a position of carrying out those executions," 
Singh said.

Bucklew was convicted of killing Michael Sanders, 27, at his Cape Girardeau 
County home in front of his children, and kidnapping and raping his 
ex-girlfriend. A Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper found Bucklew in St. 
Louis County and Bucklew shot the trooper in a gunfight. The trooper survived.

Bucklew later escaped jail and attacked his ex-girlfriend's mother before being 
arrested again.

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

Death penalty sought beating death at Missouri campground


Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against a man charged with a man's 
brutal killing at a southwest Missouri campground.

Miller County Prosecutor Ben Winfrey has filed a court notice of intent to seek 
the death penalty against 39-year-old John Joe Powell. He is accused of beating 
Mark Johnson of Colorado at the Iguana Campground in Miller County in September 
2017.

The Lake Sun Leader reports that investigators believe Powell hit Johnson with 
a tire iron, stabbed him and dragged him behind a jeep.

Police found Johnson unconscious and tied to the rear of a Jeep. He died about 
a week after the confrontation.

(source for both: Associated Press)






NEBRASKA----impending execution

Prison director selects media witnesses for execution of Carey Dean Moore


Prison director Scott Frakes has selected 4 members of the media as witnesses 
for the Aug. 14 execution of death-row inmate Carey Dean Moore.

In a news release Friday, the Department of Correctional Services named Joe 
Duggan of the Omaha World-Herald, Grant Schulte of The Associated Press, Chip 
Matthews of News Channel Nebraska and Brent Martin of Nebraska Radio Network as 
media witnesses.

By state statute, Frakes may designate up to 6 people to witness an execution. 
At least 2 must be professional members of the Nebraska news media.

2 prison staff members, who are Moore's escorts, also will serve as witnesses, 
the prisons department said. Moore is allowed to select additional witnesses.

He's scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 10 a.m. on Aug. 14, and 
his execution will be the 1st in Nebraska since Robert Williams' in 1997 and 
the state's 1st using lethal injection.

Moore received a death sentence for the shooting deaths of Reuel Van Ness Jr. 
and Maynard Helgeland in Omaha in 1979.

(source: Lincoln Journal Star)

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

Pope's Death Penalty Stance Won't Stop Execution, Nebraska's Catholic Governor 
Says


When Nebraska lawmakers defied Gov. Pete Ricketts in 2015 by repealing the 
death penalty over his strong objections, the governor wouldn't let the matter 
go. Mr. Ricketts, a Republican who is Roman Catholic, tapped his family fortune 
to help bankroll a referendum to reinstate capital punishment, a measure the 
state's Catholic leadership vehemently opposed.

After a contentious and emotional battle across this deep-red state, voters 
restored the death penalty the following year. Later this month, Nebraska is 
scheduled to execute Carey Dean Moore, who was convicted of murder, in what 
would be the state's 1st execution in 21 years.

The prospect has renewed a tense debate in a state that has wrestled with the 
moral and financial implications of the death penalty for years, even before 
the 2015 attempt to abolish it. Protesters have been holding daily vigils 
outside the governor's mansion to oppose Mr. Moore's execution.

Complicating matters, Pope Francis this week declared that executions are 
unacceptable in all cases, a shift from earlier church doctrine that had 
accepted the death penalty if it was "the only practicable way" to defend 
lives. Coming only days before the scheduled Aug. 14 execution here, the pope's 
stance seemed to create an awkward position for Mr. Ricketts, who is favored to 
win a bid for re-election this fall.

Mr. Ricketts, who in the past has said that he viewed his position on the death 
penalty as compatible with Catholicism, on Thursday issued a statement about 
the pope's declaration.

"While I respect the pope's perspective, capital punishment remains the will of 
the people and the law of the state of Nebraska," Mr. Ricketts's statement 
said. "It is an important tool to protect our corrections officers and public 
safety. The state continues to carry out the sentences ordered by the court."

But opponents seized on the pope's comments. Nebraska's Catholic bishops urged 
people to contact state officials to stop the scheduled execution of Mr. Moore 
and cited the pope's teaching. "Simply put, the death penalty is no longer 
needed or morally justified in Nebraska," the bishops wrote.

Jane Kleeb, who leads the Nebraska Democratic Party, wrote on Twitter that Mr. 
Ricketts "is going against the teachings of the church" on the matter of 
executions.

"When you have a priest on Sunday talking about how we don't believe in the 
death penalty, I think that will matter to people," she said in an interview. 
"Nebraskans are churchgoers and believe in the church and strong family units, 
and they believe in people paying for their crimes, but not necessarily with 
their lives."

In many respects, Mr. Moore, 60, has become an afterthought in the buildup to 
his own execution. He has been on the state's death row longer than any of the 
other 11 other men and is among the longest-serving prisoners on any death row 
in the nation's history.

The execution planned here has also become part of a national dispute over the 
use of drugs in death chambers. Nebraska, which was still using an electric 
chair the last time it executed someone in 1997, has said Mr. Moore will be the 
state's 1st execution by lethal injection, using a combination of 4 drugs, 
including fentanyl. Nebraska officials have refused to disclose where they 
obtained the drugs. The execution would be the nation's 1st to use fentanyl, 
the powerful synthetic opioid that has been at the center of the nation's 
overdose crisis.

Though the state has had capital punishment on the books for most of the past 
century, it very rarely condemns people to death and even more rarely kills 
them. In the United States, executions have been on the decline for years. In 
1999, there were 98 executions across the nation, compared to 23 in 2017, 
according to the Death Penalty Information Center. So far this year, there have 
been 14.

While 31 states still have death penalty statutes, only 10, including Texas, 
Ohio and Florida, have carried out executions since 2014, according to the 
center. During the past decade, several states have placed moratoriums on 
capital punishment or abolished it altogether. The most recent was Delaware, 
which banned the death penalty in 2016.

The crimes Mr. Moore committed - the murders of 2 Omaha taxi drivers, Reuel Van 
Ness Jr. and Maynard Helgeland, during a 5-day span in 1979 - occurred so long 
ago that many in Nebraska know about them only through newspaper articles.

For years, Mr. Moore, who admitted to the killings, has made it clear that he 
is ready to die. He has dismissed his lawyers and refused to take part in 
efforts to spare his life. He has told friends that, as a born-again Christian, 
he believes he will be in the presence of God upon his death, his sins 
forgiven, said Geoff Gonifas, his longtime pastor.

"No one's happy a man's life is going to be taken," said Michael Fischer, 35, a 
Republican and a financial planner in Omaha who, like many along the streets 
here, said he supported capital punishment. "But if you take the death penalty 
off the books, the fear is there won't be strong discouragement for people to 
commit crimes."

In 2016, in part through the governor's efforts, 61 % of Nebraska voters chose 
to rescind a ban on the death penalty that an unlikely coalition of Democratic 
and Republican lawmakers had passed a year before.

In Lincoln, the state capital, where a unicameral legislature is officially 
nonpartisan but is dominated by Republicans, the battle over the death penalty 
has gone on for decades. State Senator Ernie Chambers, an independent from 
Omaha and one of the Legislature's most outspoken members, tries nearly every 
year to push legislation to abolish capital punishment and has clashed bluntly 
with Mr. Ricketts.

Opposition to the death penalty in this state has often centered on matters of 
religion and morality, but also money. An essential argument that helped an 
array of lawmakers support an end to capital punishment was the extensive costs 
involved before a prisoner is actually executed.

"If any other government program had been as inefficient as this one, we would 
have gotten rid of it," said Colby Coash, a former Republican state senator who 
was instrumental in convincing other conservatives to support the death penalty 
repeal in 2015. "How is killing someone 20 years after the crime justice for 
anyone?"

Mr. Chambers, who once described the death penalty debate as "a personal 
struggle between me and the governor," called Mr. Ricketts "evil" during a 
recent interview. A spokesman for the governor responded by questioning Mr. 
Chambers's religious tolerance.

Mr. Ricketts, scion of the TD Ameritrade family fortune and an owner of the 
Chicago Cubs, has made the death penalty a signature issue as he seeks a 2nd 
term as governor. In the past, he has repeatedly said that capital punishment 
deters violent crime. He contributed $300,000 to help with a petition drive 
that led to the restoration of the death penalty by voters.

Mr. Ricketts declined requests to be interviewed for this story, but in an 
interview in The Omaha World-Herald in 2015, the governor said that his 
position in favor of executions was in keeping with the tenets of his faith.

"The Catholic Church does not preclude the use of the death penalty under 
certain circumstances: That guilt is determined and the crime is heinous. Also, 
protecting society," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "As I've thought about 
this and meditated on it and prayed on it and researched it, I've determined 
it???s an important tool."

Some have suggested that Mr. Ricketts's own family's experience with violence 
may have affected his views, though the governor has rarely addressed the issue 
publicly. In a meeting in 2015 with death penalty opponents, first reported by 
The World-Herald, participants said the governor spoke to them about the 
troubling death of a cousin, Ronna Anne Bremer, in Missouri years ago.

Ms. Bremer, 22, was the mother of 2 children and was pregnant when she 
disappeared in the 1980s. 3 years after she disappeared, her skull was mailed 
to the local sheriff's department. The authorities said they believe she was 
murdered, but they never made an arrest in the case.

(source: New York Times)

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

Lack of transparency on execution


I have been following the proposed execution of death row inmate Carey Dean 
Moore. The State of Nebraska refuses to tell anyone where the execution drugs 
came from. As taxpayers, we have a right to know.

State Sen. Ernie Chambers thinks Pfizer made them. Pfizer has asked for the 
drugs back because they don't want to be associated with drugs that cause 
death.

Can you blame them?

Nebraska has not complied. The State of Nebraska is not being open about this. 
The State Department of Correctional Services needs to be reformed and made to 
answer under the open records law. Until then, the department should not be 
allowed to proceed with this execution.

As a Catholic, I feel the death penalty in Nebraska must end. Life in prison 
without parole is the only moral choice.

Bill Gaughan, Omaha

(source: Letter to the Editor, Omaha World-Herald)

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

Nebraska Supreme Court says death row inmate Torres raised question too late


The Nebraska Supreme Court rejected death-row inmate Marco Torres Jr.'s appeal 
of a district court's denial of a post-conviction relief hearing to challenge 
the state's method of determining who gets the ultimate punishment.

The state's highest court found the challenge was filed too late because he 
didn't raise the issue within a year of the Jan. 12, 2016, decision in Hurst v. 
Florida.

Torres's attorney, Jeff Pickens of the Public Advocacy Commission, argued that 
the U.S. Supreme Court decision - which said jurors must make every finding 
necessary in order for someone to be sentenced to death - put the 
constitutionality of Nebraska's sentencing procedures in doubt.

In a decision Friday, the court didn't address that question, saying only that 
Torres' motion was time-barred under the Nebraska Postconviction Act and that 
the district court judge was right to deny him a hearing.

"Torres' successive motion is not timely ... because he filed his motion more 
than 1 year after the release of the opinions in Hurst and Johnson - the U.S. 
Supreme Court cases that Torres contends announced a 'newly recognized right,'" 
wrote Justice Stephanie Stacy.

In Hurst, the nation's high court found that a man's death sentence in a 1998 
murder case violated the Sixth Amendment because, under Florida's sentencing 
scheme, a judge, not a jury, made the critical findings necessary to impose the 
death penalty.

In Nebraska, juries decide whether aggravating factors exist to justify an 
execution. If so, a 3-judge panel then determines whether the aggravating 
factors outweigh any mitigating factors in the defendant's favor to warrant a 
death sentence.

Torres, 43, was sent to death row on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder for killing 
roommates Timothy Donohue, 48, and Edward Hall, 60, in Grand Island in 2007. 
His DNA was found at the crime scene and he had used Hall's debit card 2 days 
before his body was found.

(source: Lincoln Journal Star)






USA:

Thou Shalt Not Kill----Pope Francis declares capital punishment unambiguously 
wrong. No exceptions.


Pope Francis's condemnation of capital punishment is simple and unambiguous: It 
is inadmissible. No exceptions for especially heinous crimes; no loopholes 
allowing execution when other lives might be in jeopardy, as in past Catholic 
teachings. No, declared the pope; state-sanctioned killing is always an 
unjustifiable attack on the dignity of human life, it's always wrong.

That it is. It is an arbitrary and hugely expensive barbarism whose victims in 
the United States are often black, poor or mentally disturbed - and sometimes 
innocent. Over the past 45 years, when 1,479 people were executed in this 
country, 162 people sentenced to death have been exonerated. All the arguments 
for executing criminals have been debunked: It is useless as a deterrent and it 
does not save lives by getting rid of murderers. Many countries, including 
nearly all Western democracies with the shameful exception of the United 
States, have rejected it.

Since his election to the papacy 5 years ago, Francis has introduced a less 
formal, more pragmatic and progressive approach to his ministry, taking strong 
stands on issues like climate change and consumerism. His approach has often 
drawn criticism from Catholic conservatives, and the new teaching on the death 
penalty is bound to generate a heated debate - indeed it already has - on what 
it means for Catholic judges and politicians in the United States.

The church's new position on the death penalty carries no formal punishment for 
defying it, but in eliminating any ambiguity it does compel Catholic officials 
at least to find concrete reasons to not abide by it. 4 Supreme Court justices 
are Catholic, as is Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump's nominee for the court; 
among governors, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, a Catholic and staunch supporter of 
the death penalty, has already declared that he will not block an execution 
scheduled for this month.

There will also be conservative Catholics who reject the pope's reasoning for 
changing his church's teaching on capital punishment after centuries in which 
it was tolerated. A letter to bishops accompanying the revised teaching 
explained at length that it was a development of the teachings of the last 2 
popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, reflecting changes in awareness that had 
taken place in recent times.

Yet the importance of the pope's definitive rejection of capital punishment is 
not solely for Catholics, or for Christians, as the Vatican made clear in 
saying that the church would work "for its abolition worldwide."

Capital punishment has been long abandoned across Europe and indefinitely 
suspended in Russia, and even in the United States its use has been declining 
for years. There were 23 executions in 2017, compared to 98 in 1999, and 14 so 
far this year. And though 31 states still allow the death penalty, only 10 have 
carried out executions since 2014.

The man awaiting execution in Nebraska is a prime example of the absurdity of 
capital punishment. Carey Dean Moore, now 60, has been on death row for 38 
years and few Nebraskans remember what he was condemned for. How taking his 
life would serve justice is a mystery even to many state legislators, who voted 
to repeal the death penalty in 2015, only to have Governor Ricketts lead a 
campaign to restore it.

President Trump would most likely be on Mr. Ricketts' side, not the pope's. The 
president has expressed support for the death penalty several times, as in this 
tweet after a man killed 8 people with a truck in New York City last October: 
"NYC terrorist was happy as he asked to hang ISIS flag in his hospital room. He 
killed 8 people, badly injured 12. SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!"

In fact, very few of those who have been executed or are on death row committed 
anything as monstrous as that terror attack by Sayfullo Saipov, who is awaiting 
trial. Yet even the most serious crimes, in Pope Francis's view, do not deprive 
the perpetrator of the "dignity of the person," and modern prisons are fully 
capable of protecting citizens from him or her.

For those who have long opposed capital punishment as cruel and pointless, as 
has this page, the only lingering question is why the Catholic Church or any 
religious denomination that still condones executions would take so long to 
recognize that they are simply inadmissible. The same can be asked of 
Americans, whose Constitution so clearly prohibits cruel and unusual 
punishment.

(source: Editorial Board, New York Times)

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

You can be put to death for these 36 offenses - according to the Bible


36 different offenses in the Bible qualified for capital punishment. How many 
of these apply to you?

In a Texas murder case that ultimately reached the Supreme Court, a juror 
brought a Bible into the sentencing process - showing that the Bible recommends 
death for anyone who kills another person with an iron rod (Numbers 35:16).

Astonishingly, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to revisit the case. The court 
argued that even though bringing the Bible into the sentencing was improper, 
there is no evidence that it swayed the jury. Rest assured that when the Bible 
and other authorities (like our judicial system ) are at odds, we can trust 
Texas jurors to ignore the Bible and do what is right. Half the country 
believes that God made humans in their present form because the Bible says so - 
but we can count on believers (school boards excepted) to follow the evidence 
and the constitution.

All the same, just in case an issue like this should come up in your state, 36 
different offenses in the Bible qualified for capital punishment. Do any of 
these apply to you?

Cursing Parents----For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be 
surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall 
be upon him. Leviticus 20:9

Working on the Sabbath----Whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall 
surely be put to death. Exodus 31:15

Premarital Sex (girls only)----If, however, this charge is true, that evidence 
of the young woman's virginity was not found, then they shall bring the young 
woman out to the entrance of her father's house and the men of her town shall 
stone her to death, Deuteronomy 22:20

Disobedience (boys only)----If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who 
will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they 
discipline him, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring 
him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. They shall say to 
the elders of his town, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will 
not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard." Then all the men of the town 
shall stone him to death. Deuteronomy 21:18

Worshipping any god but Yahweh----If there be found among you, within any of 
thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that . . . hath 
gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or 
any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; . . .Then shalt thou 
bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, 
unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, 
till they die. Deuteronomy 17:2-5

Witches----Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Exodus 22: 18

Wizards (epileptics? migraine sufferers? schizophrenics?)----A man also or 
woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to 
death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them. 
Leviticus 20:27

Loose Daughters of Clergy----And the daughter of any priest, if she profane 
herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with 
fire. Leviticus 21:9

Girls who are Raped within the City Limits----If there is a girl who is a 
virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with 
her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall 
stone them to death; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city . . . 
But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces 
her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. 
Deuteronomy 22:23-25

Blasphemers----And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be 
put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the 
stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the 
Lord, shall be put to death. Leviticus 24:16

Anyone Who Tries to Deconvert Yahweh Worshipers----If anyone secretly entices 
you - even if it is your brother, your father's son or your mother's son, or 
your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend 
-saying, "Let us go worship other gods," . . . you shall surely kill them; your 
own hand shall be first against them to execute them. Deuteronomy 12:6

Men who Lie With Men----If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a 
woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to 
death; their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20:13

Adulterers----And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, 
even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and 
the adulteress shall surely be put to death. And the man that lieth with his 
father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely 
be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. And if a man lie with his 
daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought 
confusion; their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20: 10-12

Men who Lie with Beasts and Beasts who Lie with Men----And if a man lie with a 
beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast. Leviticus 
20:15

So. Are you up for the death penalty?

Just so you know, it could be worse. As I am reminded by people who want me to 
make nice, this list represents an advancement from mob justice. They are 
right, and the Levitical Code would a fascinating window into human moral 
history were it not for the fact that juries in Texas, politicians in Colorado, 
and clergy in Africa all advocate the death penalty for 1 person or another on 
the basis of these texts (murderers, homosexuals, and child witches 
respectively).

When people put God's name on Iron Age documents, and then make those documents 
a golden calf, they get stuck with Iron Age moral thinking. Maybe it's time to 
take the Bible down off of its pedestal, and acknowledge the obvious human 
handprints on the texts. Maybe it's even time to do again what Thomas Jefferson 
did: cut the book apart, keep the parts that are worth keeping, and leave the 
rest on the floor in the cutting room of history.

(source: Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and writer in Seattle, 
Washington----rawstory.com)