[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., OHIO, TENN., IND., MO., UTAH

[Rick Halperin]

December 5




PENNSYLVANIA:

PA Supreme Court To Consider Putting End To Death Penalty



The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will weigh whether to block the use of the death 
penalty unless the state overhauls how it is imposed. In an order Monday, the 
court said it will consider taking the unusual step of hearing the case before 
lower courts have ruled on it.

In a petition filed in August, the federal defender's office in Philadelphia 
urged the justices to exercise what’s called “king’s bench jurisdiction” to 
declare Pennsylvania's system of capital punishment unconstitutional. The 
king's bench power allows the justices to skip over the appeals process and 
weigh a case immediately.

The appeal involves 2 death-row inmates, Jermont Cox and Kevin Marinelli. The 
federal defender's petition argued that king's bench authority is warranted 
following a bipartisan report that state lawmakers released this summer: The 
report highlighted numerous defects with Pennsylvania’s capital punishment 
regime. It found that since 1972, 6 death row inmates have been exonerated 
while just three have been executed.

Similar numbers nationally, the petition said, show “the justice system cannot 
guarantee that an innocent person will not be convicted and sentenced to 
death.”

The petition added that the legislative report concluded that death sentences 
are imposed arbitrarily, based not on “the defendant’s unique culpability, but 
[on] bad lawyering, geographical happenstance, racial disparities, and 
prosecutorial caprice.”

The state Attorney General's office, which represents the commonwealth in such 
cases, opposed the king's bench petition. In its own filing, the AG's office 
said the move would “forgo all judicial norms and standards” to make “a major 
public policy determination.”

Justices should require the case “to be litigated in the normal manner,” the 
office said, rather than rely on a report it called a "nonjudicial document."

The court's 1-paragraph order instructed lawyers on both sides to prepare 
arguments on "the propriety of this Court's exercise of either King's Bench or 
extraordinary jurisdiction, as well as the merits of the issues raised in the 
petition." Justices Max Baer and Sallie Mundy dissented from the high court’s 
decision to consider the inmates’ case.

Representatives from the Philadelphia federal defender’s office and the 
Pennsylvania attorney general’s office said they cannot comment on the matter.

Cox and Marinelli, the inmates named in the case, are among roughly 150 
Pennsylvania convicts awaiting execution. Both were convicted of 1st-degree 
murder and sentenced to death in the mid-1990s.

Gov. Tom Wolf imposed a moratorium on all executions in Pennsylvania in 2015, 
saying that he would revisit the decision after reviewing the General 
Assembly’s report. Wolf said in a statement at the time, "This moratorium is in 
no way an expression of sympathy for the guilty on death row, all of whom have 
been convicted of committing heinous crimes."

Rather, the governor said, "This decision is based on a flawed system that has 
been proven to be an endless cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, 
unjust, and expensive."

(source: WESA news)








OHIO:

Warren County prosecutor opposes appeals of Clayton man’s death penalty



Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell wants appeals of a Clayton man’s death 
sentence rejected by both the Ohio and U.S. Supreme Court.

Last week, Fornshell urged the Ohio Supreme Court to reject the sentence appeal 
of Austin Myers, 24, a Northmont man sentenced to death in Warren County for 
murdering Justin Back, 18, of Warren County.

On Monday, Fornshell argued a writ of certiorari filed by Myers’ lawyers in the 
U.S. Supreme Court failed to meet standards set by the nation’s highest court.

“This court has already denied certiorari on the same question, and Ohio’s 
death penalty scheme is constitutional,” Fornshell wrote in his brief in 
opposition.

On Nov. 29, Fornshell said the motion for reopening filed by Elizabeth Orrick, 
a former state public defender, failed to raise a “genuine issue.”

In the U.S. Supreme Court, Ohio Public Defender Bethany O’Neill claimed that 
the high court’s ruling in another death penalty case, Hurst v. Florida, 
“rendered Ohio’s death penalty scheme unconstitutional,” Fornshell wrote.

Myers was convicted in 2014 of murdering Back, a childhood friend. Back was 
about to join the U.S. Navy.

Myers was the youngest person on Ohio’s death row at the time.

Timothy Mosley, the other Clayton man charged in the case, entered a plea to 
life in prison without parole and cooperated with prosecutors.

(source: Springfield News-Sun)








TENNESSEE----impending execution

David Earl Miller moved to death watch as his execution approaches



Tennessee death row inmate David Earl Miller has been moved into a cell next to 
the electric chair days before his scheduled execution.

The Tennessee Department announced the move Tuesday, as preparations for 
Miller's execution continued. The new cell is part of Miller's "death watch," a 
period of time within 72 hours of an execution, when an inmate is under 24-7 
surveillance and other heightened security measures.

Unless a court or Gov. Bill Haslam intervenes, Miller will stay in the new cell 
until he is put to death Thursday night. Miller, 61, has told prison officials 
he wants to die by the electric chair.

What to expect: David Earl Miller is scheduled to die by electrocution Thursday

Inmates can choose the chair over lethal injection if they were convicted of a 
crime that took place before 1999. The chair was used last for the execution of 
Edmund Zagorski on Nov. 1.

State officials said they are prepared to use the electric chair.

Miller's execution seems likely to move forward — his legal options are 
dwindling, with long-shot requests for a stay pending before the U.S. Supreme 
Court. Gov. Bill Haslam has not commented on Miller's request for clemency, but 
the governor has not stopped previous executions.

Miller was sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of Lee Standifer, 23, in 
Knoxville.

(source: The Tennessean)

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

Tennessee death row inmates ask for electrocution over lethal injection. It’s a 
form of protest.----A botched drug cocktail protocol is to blame.



David Earl Miller will face the death penalty in Tennessee later this week, and 
like a growing number of inmates, he’s asking for electrocution over lethal 
injection.

Miller sent a handwritten note marked “URGENT” to the warden over at Riverbend 
Maximum Security Institution, mere weeks before his sentence is to carried out 
on December 6. The 61-year-old man was found guilty of the 1981 murder of Lee 
Standifer in Knoxville, according to the Tennessean.

Miller is the 2nd death row inmate this year who chose the electric chair over 
lethal injection, and his wish appears to play out amid 2 big factors: Botched 
executions have gotten national attention, and challenges either to the death 
penalty itself or to specific forms of execution are on the rise.

In any case, it is a definitely a provocative move. Electrocution was chosen in 
2018 by a Tennessee inmate for the 1st time in 11 years, and no other state has 
used it since 2013.

As painful as it is, though, electrocution lasts roughly 35 seconds. Lethal 
injection may take up to 18 minutes to kill an inmate.

“It’s a little bit surprising to me that they’d prefer electrocution,” said 
Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert and professor at Fordham University. “I 
really see that as a huge statement against lethal injection because 
electrocution has had its own problems.”

A national trend that creeps behind a botched protocol

Lethal injection was first enacted in the United States in 1977, but it wasn’t 
put to use on death row inmates until 1982. According to Denno, lethal 
injection protocol has been “consistently problematic” since its onset and has 
only gotten worse in terms of accounting for failed executions over the years.

In Alabama, some 51 inmates said they’ve chosen to die in the nitrogen gas 
chamber rather than succumb to lethal injection since granted the option in 
March. In Texas, a man accused of a series of rapes asked for the firing squad 
before eventually dying of a drug cocktail earlier this year.

In Tennessee, inmates have neither option (those with crimes committed before 
1999 can still choose the electric chair, though), and some have legally 
challenged the constitutionality of lethal injection over what appears to be a 
rising concern over botched executions.

European pharmaceutical companies, which manufactured the main lethal injection 
drugs used in the US and exported them across the world, stopped supplying them 
to North America circa 2009, which created a massive shortage. Ever since, the 
US Department of Corrections has faced difficulties acquiring the proper 
cocktails, relying on cheap substitutes instead.

In comes midazolam. According to modern lethal injection protocol, midazolam (a 
sedative) is the 1st of 3 drugs given to death row inmates. It’s meant to 
render them unconscious so the other 2 (a muscle paralytic and a heart-stopping 
drug) can act on the sentenced men and women without them experiencing any 
pain.

But 7.1 % of the roughly 1,000 lethal injection executions since 1890 were 
botched - many due to midazolam failing to act as a proper sedative. “It is not 
able to knock somebody out and keep them unconscious if [the inmates] are 
subsequently exposed to painful stimuli,” said Rob Dunham, executive director 
at the Death Penalty Information Center. “There is no question that the other 
drugs are going to produce pain … We know from botched executions that the 
description of being burned alive is physically accurate.”

Denno said she’s heard inmates who survived lethal injection describe the 
experience as “sticking a hot poker in your stomach.”

Of course, the failed use of midazolam is not the sole contributing factor in 
botched sentences. Denno and Dunham told me that, in addition to the 
ineffective drugs, both the physicality of the inmates and the lack of proper 
training and procedure carried out during the executions can explain the number 
of inmates who end up surviving a death sentence.

“A ‘typical’ botch is an inability to follow the protocol,” Dunham said. “So, 
if you struggle to find a vein, that’s a botch. If you find a vein and you 
administer the drugs and the execution is problematic because it’s an 
inappropriate drug, that’s a botched protocol.”

Failed sentences are happening at the same time as — and maybe even 
contributing to — legal challenges and changes to the death penalty

On Columbus Day this year, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that lethal 
injections will remain the preferred method of execution for people on death 
row, delivering a major blow to some 32 inmates who’ve protested the drug 
cocktails violate the US Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, which orders that no 
“cruel and unusual punishments” be inflicted on prisoners.

Tennessee Chief Justice Jeffrey S. Bivins wrote in the majority opinion: “We 
conclude that the plaintiffs failed to carry their burden of showing 
availability of their proposed alternative method of execution … As a result, 
we need not address the plaintiffs’ claim that the 3-drug protocol creates a 
demonstrated risk of severe pain."

And yet, Tennessee inmates are not alone in the fight. Many death penalty cases 
have come before the Supreme Court just this year, a matter that’s put 
America’s highest court — and its recently confirmed controversial justice — in 
the spotlight.

“This all creates a perfect storm of extraordinary ineptitude,” Denno said. 
“The Supreme Court … is embarrassed that it’s taken on as many [death penalty 
cases] as it has without any resolution. It wants them to go away.”

But the Supreme Court’s apparent incompetence has driven state lawmakers to 
take a stronger stance on capital punishment.

Since the turn of the century, 8 states have moved to abolish capital 
punishment for all crimes, a possible outcome of the long-standing legal battle 
that argues lethal injection — and electrocution, for that matter — is 
unconstitutional.

What’s more, support for the death penalty has drastically fallen, with 54 % of 
Pew survey respondents approving of the sentencing, in stark contrast to 78 % 
just over 2 decades ago.

According to Dunham, Americans’ approval has definitely swayed state 
legislatures (especially left-leaning ones like New York, Connecticut, and, 
most recently, Washington) to move away from capital punishment sentences, a 
trend that’s “certainly” also been affected by the high number of botched 
lethal injection executions.

And yet, in Tennessee, inmates are still likely to choose electrocution in the 
years to come as a form of protest.

“It really tells us about the state of the death penalty in the United States,” 
Dunham said. “It’s astonishing that we’ve come to this.”

(source: vox.com)








INDIANA:

Death penalty rejected for man who killed woman and her 4-year-old daughter



The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a request by Indiana's attorney general's 
office to reinstate the death sentence of a man convicted of killing a central 
Indiana woman and her 4-year-old daughter.

Monday's decision leaves in place a federal appeals court ruling that threw out 
Frederick Baer's death sentence because he had ineffective legal counsel. He'll 
now be resentenced by an Indiana court.

The 47-year-old Indianapolis man was convicted in the 2004 slayings of 
26-year-old Cory Clark and her daughter Jenna at their rural Madison County 
home about 25 miles northeast of Indianapolis.

A 3-judge panel of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago threw out 
Baer's death sentence in January.

Indiana's attorney general's office asked the full federal appeals court in 
February to reinstate Baer's death sentence.

(source: Associated Press)








MISSOURI:

Fitch calls for Bell to turn over Catholic Supply case to feds for death 
penalty



Thomas Bruce, 53, is charged with 1st-degree murder in the Nov. 19 Catholic 
Supply store killing.

Former St. Louis County police Chief Tim Fitch, now set to take a seat on the 
County Council Jan. 1, called on the incoming county prosecutor to turn the 
Catholic Supply killing case over to federal authorities so that the killer can 
get the death penalty.

Prosecutors charged Thomas Bruce, 53, of Imperial with 1st-degree murder, 
kidnapping and burglary in the case, in which they say Bruce went into the 
Catholic Supply store at 14069 Manchester Road Nov. 19, sexually assaulted 3 
women at gunpoint and shot Jamie Schmidt in the head when she refused to comply 
with his demands. House Springs resident Schmidt, 53, later died at a hospital.

Bruce is being held without bond at the St. Louis County Justice Center.

The Catholic Supply store is in the west county-based 3rd District, which 
Fitch, R-Fenton, will represent starting in January. Incoming county 
Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell will be sworn in alongside Fitch at a ceremony 
Jan. 1.

But Bell should not be prosecuting the case, Fitch argued in a news release 
sent out last week.

“This horrific sexual assault and murder begs for the ultimate penalty upon 
conviction,” Fitch said. “The community needs to send a convincing message in 
senseless deaths such as the one forced upon the victim, Jamie Schmidt.”

In a press conference following Bruce’s arrest, county Prosecuting Attorney 
Robert McCulloch said that the decision on the death penalty would be up to 
Bell.

The incoming prosecutor vowed in his campaign platform that he would not seek 
the death penalty in any case. He defeated 7-term incumbent McCulloch in the 
Democratic primary in August and had no challenger in the November general 
election.

Fitch noted that Bell said on his campaign website that he “pledges never to 
seek the death penalty.”

Fitch said he believed federal prosecutors could find multiple federal crimes 
to associate with the case to seek execution.

(source: callnewspapers.com)








UTAH:

Provo man facing death penalty pleads not guilty in murder of 4-month-old baby 
girl



A Provo man pleaded not guilty Monday in an aggravated capital murder case 
stemming from the death of a 4-month-old girl in March.

23-year-old Cameron Willingham is accused of killing baby Nevaeh King, who was 
his girlfriend’s daughter.

Provo police said that on March 19, officers responded to the call of a baby 
that was not breathing. The baby was flown to the hospital, where she was 
pronounced dead.

“Through the autopsy, it was found that she [Nevaeh] had serious head and neck 
injuries as well as abdominal hemorrhaging,” said Sgt. Nisha King with Provo 
Police.

Police announced the arrest of Willingham several days after Nevaeh died.

Willingham appeared in court Monday, where he entered a not guilty plea for 1 
count of capital murder and 1 count of obstructing justice, a 2nd-degree 
felony.

His pretrial conference is scheduled for Jan. 14, 2019 at 8:30 a.m.

(source: Fox News)