[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., S.C., GA., FLA., MISS., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

December 8



TEXAS:

I'm a police chief who has fought for justice all my life, and I support the 
death penalty



This column will probably come as no surprise to you, but I support the death 
penalty. I know as a subscriber to The Dallas Morning News, this sentiment is 
not shared by the editorial board. Over the years I have read the arguments 
posed against the death penalty and consider the recent execution of Joseph 
Garcia an appropriate time to provide a different perspective.

I serve as a chief of police, and I have worked in law enforcement for more 
than 30 years. Some of that time was spent as a detective investigating 
homicides. So before you write me off as some right-wing, blood-thirsty 
vigilante, let me explain. As a police professional, I firmly believe in the 
rule of law. I stand for justice.

I have fought my entire career to ensure the innocent were protected and that 
those who would do evil against society were held accountable. And I did so the 
right way, never taking short cuts or bending the truth. Upholding the law and 
everything it stands for is how I approach this calling. I also believe the 
overwhelming majority of men and women serving in law enforcement today feel 
and act in the same vein.

That is why I find it so troubling every time I read or hear of a new case of a 
person wrongfully convicted due to mishandled, inept, corrupt or misguided 
investigations and prosecutions.

Recently my support of the death penalty has been tested as stories of police 
corruption, prosecutorial misconduct and judicial ineptitude have come to 
light. I have found myself asking the question there is no answer for: Why? Why 
would a police officer lie to secure a warrant? Why would a prosecutor 
purposely hide evidence? Why would a judge or jurors ignore their 
responsibility to act fairly? These questions have any number of possible 
answers, none of which justify or fully explain the why.

So should we as a society do away with the death penalty because there are a 
few among us who cannot be trusted to act justly? I could very easily adopt 
that view but for two very significant dates. March 20, 2000, and Dec. 24, 
2000, will forever prevent me from supporting the abolition of the death 
penalty.

That date in March was when Robert Wayne Harris walked into the Mi-T-Fine Car 
Wash in Irving and systematically executed 5 of the 6 employees because of some 
warped sense of injustice about his termination. Harris had previously been 
convicted of burglary, he was sentenced to 8 years, and he served the entire 8 
years (which rarely happens in our prison system). Harris was also the primary 
suspect in the disappearance of Sandra Scott, whom he later confessed to 
murdering before leading me to her remains. Harris was the epitome of evil.

Christmas Eve was forever changed because of Garcia, who was recently executed, 
George Rivas, Donald Newberry, Michael Rodriguez, Randy Halprin, Patrick Murphy 
Jr. and Larry Harper. They became known as the Texas 7, seven escaped convicts 
from the Connally Unit in Kenedy, each serving between 30 years to life in 
prison for crimes including capital murder, murder, sexual assault, aggravated 
kidnapping, aggravated robbery and injury to a child.

Society was supposedly protected from their violence; after all they were 
secured away in a maximum security prison. Yet each of these violent convicts 
took an active role in an escape that caused injuries to prison personnel and 
rained terror on a number of businesses in the Houston area as they committed 
aggravated robberies before making their way to North Texas.

They ended up in Irving on Christmas Eve and committed another violent robbery. 
Officer Aubrey Hawkins was just finishing Christmas Eve dinner with his family 
at a local restaurant when he was called to investigate what was reported as a 
suspicious circumstance at an Oshman's Sporting Goods store. When he arrived, 
he was met with a hail of gunfire before even getting out of his squad car. He 
was murdered that night because 7 convicted felons had escaped from prison and 
would do anything and everything to avoid being captured and sent back.

The idea of convicting or executing an innocent person is abhorrent, so it is 
critical that the criminal justice system works the way it is intended. That 
means the men and women sworn to uphold the rule of law — police officers, 
prosecutors and judges — must be held to the highest standards and held 
accountable when they fall short. I know the system can work. It did in the 
cases described above, or at least it has so far, and I know it has in many 
others across the state.

The death penalty must remain a possible outcome for those who would commit the 
most unspeakable evil against our society. If it is not, how do we protect our 
communities from those like Robert Wayne Harris or George Rivas and his 
brotherhood of evil? There is no guarantee that confinement in a maximum 
security prison will.

(source: Commentary; Jeff Spivey is the Irving chief of police. He wrote this 
column for The Dallas Morning News)

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

Death Penalty Rejected Again for Killer of Pioneering Dallas Civil Rights 
Attorney



For the 2nd time in 8 years, Texas’ Court of Criminal Appeals has reversed the 
death sentence of a man who was convicted for the brutal killing of pioneering 
Dallas civil rights attorney Fred Finch, because a jury was not properly 
instructed about the defendant’s intellectual disability.

Kenneth Wayne Thomas was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 
1987 for the slayings of both Fred Finch, one of the first African-American 
graduates of Harvard Law School, and his wife, Mildred Finch, a college math 
instructor, in their modest home in South Dallas.

Fred was a World War II veteran who served as a Tuskegee Airman before 
graduating from Harvard Law in 1954. He later returned home to Dallas, where he 
became a civil rights attorney who helped desegregate the University of Texas 
at Arlington and Texas Woman’s University. His wife was a beloved professor at 
Dallas’ El Centro College.

According to the decision, Thomas stabbed 64-year-old Mildred more than 80 
times and 66-year-old Fred more than 20 times. Thomas, known on the street by 
the name “Clean” for his well-dressed appearance, stole Fred’s clothes and 
watch and later told family members that he had “killed them folks on TV,” 
referring to news reports about the murders, adding “dead folks can’t talk,” 
according to the decision.

Thomas was later charged with and convicted in 1987 of the murders. In 2010, 
the CCA affirmed the convictions but voided Thomas’ death sentence because the 
1987 jury was not allowed to consider whether Thomas’ low intelligence, brain 
damage and mental illness warranted the imposition of a life sentence rather 
than a death sentence.

In 2014, a trial court held a 2nd punishment hearing for Thomas and again 
sentenced him to death.

Thomas again appealed his death sentence to the CCA, arguing that the evidence 
standards used during his 2014 trial for deciding whether a person has an 
intellectual disability had since been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.

And in a 5-4 decision released this week, the CCA agreed with Thomas’ argument 
and granted him a third punishment hearing that could decide whether he 
receives a life sentence or a third death sentence.

“Based upon our review of the record, we hold that, because the jury was not 
presented with the proper diagnostic framework regarding Thomas’s claim of 
intellectual disability, then as a matter of due process, Thomas is entitled to 
a new punishment hearing,” wrote Judge Bert Richardson in the majority 
decision. “We vacate Thomas’s death sentence, and remand this cause for a new 
punishment proceeding."

CCA Presiding Judge Sharon Keller dissented to the majority decision, noting 
that Thomas’ claim of intellectual disability was not preserved for appeal and 
because the majority did not conduct a harm analysis.

“The court should either have conducted a harm analysis or explained how this 
particular claim was immune from a harm analysis,” Keller wrote in her dissent. 
“Because the court has done neither of these things, even if I believed that 
Appellant’s claim was preserved, I would not be able to join the Court’s 
opinion."

Kimberlee Leach, a spokeswoman for the Dallas County District Attorney’s 
Office, said the decision on whether to seek a 3rd death penalty punishment 
hearing for Thomas will be left up to incoming DA John Creuzot. Creuzot, a 
Democrat, defeated Republican Dallas DA Faith Johnson in the November 2018 
general election and will take office in January.

John Tatum, a Richardson attorney who represents Thomas, did not return a call 
for comment.

(source: Texas Lawyer)








VIRGINIA:

Heather Heyer's Father Doesn't Want Her Killer To Get The Death Penalty----"He 
was too stupid and too young to realize what he was about to do would change 
his whole life," Mark Heyer told BuzzFeed News about the white supremacist who 
killed his daughter.



The white supremacist convicted Friday of 1st-degree murder for killing 
anti-racist protester Heather Heyer at 2017's Unite the Right rally won't face 
the death penalty until his federal trial next year. And Heyer's father is more 
than OK with that.

“I don’t relish the thought of him getting the death penalty. That’s my 
belief,” Mark Heyer told BuzzFeed News by phone in Florida before the verdict 
was reached. “I’d rather him get his heart straight and get life [in prison].

James Alex Fields Jr. was found guilty of 1st-degree murder and other charges 
Friday for ramming his car into a crowd of people in Charlottesville, Virginia, 
killing Heather Heyer and injuring scores of other counterprotesters at the 
white nationalist rally. The death penalty isn't on the table for the state's 
case when his sentencing hearing starts on Monday. However, he will face the 
possibility of a death sentence next year if he's convicted at his next trial 
on federal hate crime charges.

During Fields’ trial, defense attorneys did not dispute that he was the one who 
drove the Dodge Challenger into the crowd, but they argued he did so because he 
was in fear for his life. However, prosecutors used video and phone records, as 
well as earlier social media posts, to prove what they said was a calculated 
effort to inflict harm on the counterprotesters.

Heather Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, did not comment Friday after the verdict, 
but in an earlier email to BuzzFeed News she said the decision on whether to 
pursue the death penalty will ultimately be made by officials, not the family. 
That said, Fields’ death "would not bring Heather back," she wrote.

Bro has taken up her daughter's activism in the ensuing year, appearing at 
notable events like the 2017 Video Music Awards to implore viewers to "make 
Heather's death count" in the fight against racism.

Whatever happens, Mark Heyer said he forgives Fields because he has to do "what 
the Lord taught" him.

"He was too stupid and too young to realize what he was about to do would 
change his whole life. I think about his mother and what she’s having to go 
through," he said.

Mark Heyer knows Fields will get some form of punishment, saying he is "still 
going to have to pay the price," but ameliorating the hate he sees as his 
motivation for the 2017 attack is more important to him than retribution.

“What happened to make him hate that much?” he said. “You don’t just wake up in 
the morning like that. He had hatred building up in him for years.”

(source: BuzzFeed News)








SOUTH CAROLINA:

How much is 30 years of a man’s life worth?----'He left this world as a free 
man': After 30 years in prison, Edward Elmore dies at 59

After 3 decades behind bars, Edward Lee Elmore was granted 6 years of freedom 
before his death.

He spent 11,000 days in jail for a murder he and his attorneys maintained 
across decades he did not commit.

On Monday, Elmore died. He was 59.

According to a relative, he woke up that morning in his Columbia home, poured 
himself a cup of coffee and went out to his front porch to enjoy it. As he sat 
there, his heart stopped beating.

On Jan. 16, 1982, Greenwood’s Dorothy Edwards, 75, was found dead after she was 
raped, beaten and stabbed. Edwards’ neighbor, former Greenwood County 
Councilman Jimmy Holloway, reported finding her body in a bedroom closet at her 
home.

Elmore, who was then 23, was a handyman who had performed work at Edwards’ 
residence. Holloway identified Elmore as a suspect for police. Within 48 hours, 
police arrested Elmore after finding a thumbprint matching his on the frame of 
Edwards’ back door, a number of his pubic hairs at the scene and blood on the 
clothes he had been wearing that day which matched Edwards’ blood type.

What followed was a legal back and forth that would keep Elmore behind bars for 
the majority of his life. He was convicted in 1982 and sentenced to death, but 
the conviction was overturned. A second conviction was followed by another 
death sentence, leaving him on death row until 2010, when his death sentence 
was vacated.

A life sentence later that year came with the possibility of parole, but a U.S. 
4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling overturned his conviction and leave an 
opening for his legal team to get him out of jail.

Throughout these convoluted legal battles, however, Elmore kept his patience 
and radiated a ceaseless optimism that one day he would have his freedom back, 
said Christopher Jensen, co-counsel on Elmore’s legal team.

“I first met Eddie in the early 1990s, and he was not what I expected,” Jensen 
said.

The gentle, smiling man he met had been convicted of murder at the time, but 
Jensen said from the moment he met Elmore he knew he wasn’t a killer.

“He was a sweet, gentle man living in conditions that were really quite 
difficult, but he had this optimism that everything would turn out for the 
better,” Jensen said. “He always remained cheerful and positive.”

The woman who championed Elmore’s innocence and led the fight for his freedom 
is Columbia-based attorney Diana Holt. She became involved with the case in the 
early 1990s when she reviewed the case as part of an internship at the South 
Carolina Death Penalty Resource Center.

Holt raised questions about evidence used against Elmore, testimony that went 
unchallenged in court and the willingness of Elmore’s initial defense attorneys 
to accept information the state provided. She, Jensen and others worked 
tirelessly to earn Elmore his freedom — though when he was released in 2012 he 
was not cleared of the charges.

Elmore agreed to an Alford plea, acknowledging that if a jury were to believe 
the facts of a case as the state presented them, he’d likely be found guilty. 
Edwards’ daughter, Carolyn Lee, agreed to a plea deal, hoping that a resolution 
to the case would finally give her peace and closure.

“When he walked out of that courtroom, his status was not innocent or not 
guilty, it was guilty under Alford,” said W. Townes Jones.

Jones prosecuted Elmore during the 1986 sentencing phase trial, and his father, 
the late William T. Jones, served as 8th Circuit Solicitor and prosecuted 
Elmore during the initial trial. If Elmore and his attorneys wanted 
exoneration, Jones said they should have taken the case to trial and tried to 
prove his innocence.

“Based on the evidence that was brought to the solicitor’s office, I always 
thought that it would be sufficient to establish guilt beyond a reasonable 
doubt,” Jones said. “I would certainly hope and pray that the time that he 
served for the crime he pleaded to went a long way toward rehabilitating him."

Following the plea deal, 8th Circuit Judge Frank Addy sentenced Edwards on 
March 2, 2012 to 30 years in prison, with credit for his 30 years served.

“We had a stipulation in the plea that if we agreed to it we could walk him out 
through the front doors of the courthouse,” Jensen said. “It was really the 
greatest day of my life as a lawyer. I can’t tell you there’s been anything in 
my career as a lawyer that was as satisfying."

Holt was unavailable to speak following the news of Elmore’s death, but gave 
Jensen a comment to share.

“I’m relieved that Eddie is no longer suffering and that he left the world as a 
free man,” she said.

Jensen said he kept in touch with Elmore in the years following his release. 
Though Elmore frequently struggled with his health, his spirits stayed as high 
as ever, Jensen said.

“He was always the same guy, inside of jail and outside of jail,” Jensen said. 
“I feel like I’m a better person just having known him — his life and his 
story."

(source: indexjournal.com)








GEORGIA:

Woman accused of starving stepdaughter to represent herself in death-penalty 
trial



A Gwinnett County woman accused of starving her stepdaugher to death said she 
would rather rely upon divine guidance than the guiding hand of legal counsel. 
Tiffany Moss is now on track to represent herself at her upcoming death-penalty 
trial.

On Thursday, the Georgia Supreme Court declined to hear a pretrial appeal that 
sought to overturn a judge’s decision to allow her to serve as her own lawyer. 
She was accused of starving her 10-year-old stepdaughter Emani Moss to death in 
2013. The girl weighed only 32 pounds when her body was found, authorities 
said.

Moss’s trial, which had been scheduled for this past July, was postponed when 
Superior Court Judge George Hutchinson allowed 2 lawyers from the state’s 
public defender system to appeal his decision allowing Moss to represent 
herself. The judge will now have to reset her trial date.

Criminal defendants have a right to counsel if they cannot afford to pay for 
legal representation. They also have the right to represent themselves, 
although it’s extremely rare for this to happen in a death-penalty case.

During a pretrial hearing, Hutchinson found Moss competent to stand trial. But 
before granting her request to be her own lawyer, Hutchinson implored her to 
accept legal representation. At one point, Hutchinson told Moss he had retained 
a lawyer to represent his daughter when she got a traffic ticket a few years 
ago.

That was a trivial matter compared to what Moss faces now, he said.

“They are seeking to have you executed, and I can’t be more blunt than to say 
they are trying to have you killed,” the judge said. “That’s just as serious as 
it can possibly get and I think it’s best that you have an attorney.”

As a precaution, Hutchinson appointed capital defenders Brad Gardner and Emily 
Gilbert to serve as standby counsel and represent Moss if she changes her mind. 
On Friday, Gardner and Gilbert, who had filed the pretrial appeal on Moss’s 
behalf, expressed disappointment that the high court had declined to hear the 
case.

“We are extremely concerned about her ability to navigate through this 
death-penalty trial,” Gilbert said. “At this point, we’re still standby counsel 
but have gotten no word from her that she wants our assistance. It appears she 
is willing to rely on God to provide guidance to her. That’s it. And it appears 
she’s unable to conduct any preparation for trial."

District Attorney Danny Porter had agreed the state Supreme Court should at 
least consider the pretrial appeal. Hutchinson, he added, has done as much as 
he can to warn Moss about the perils of self-representation in a case where the 
stakes are so high.

“I’m much more comfortable now with the idea we’ve gone out of our way to make 
sure she understands what she’s doing and the risks that come with it,” he 
said. “We’ll now go forward with her representing herself."

At a previous court hearing, Moss acknowledged she had not been reviewing the 
evidence against her or putting together a list of witnesses who would testify 
on her behalf. Instead, she said, she was getting ready “in a more spiritual 
way than, you know, a physical way."

Despite Hutchinson’s attempts to persuade her to get a lawyer, Moss has held 
firm.

“I’m confident in my decision and I’m standing by it,” she told the judge.

Reluctantly, Hutchinson acceded to her wishes. But he also allowed the state 
Supreme Court to scrutinize his decision before the trial.

The state Supreme Court was unanimous in deciding not to hear the appeal and 
the justices said they had thoroughly reviewed the case record.

Prosecutors are expected to tell jurors that after Emani Moss starved to death, 
Tiffany Moss, her stepmother, burned the body and put it in a dumpster outside 
the apartment where they lived.

Prosecutors had also sought the death penalty against Emani’s father, Eman 
Moss. But he pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Tiffany Moss in 
exchange for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)








FLORIDA:

Florida should provide DNA testing for all death row inmates. But don't use 
Tommy Zeigler as the poster child for why.



19 men on Florida’s death row have been asking for DNA testing in their cases 
for years, and Florida courts have said no.

What can the judges be thinking?

Journalists at the Tampa Bay Times pointed out this injustice in an excellent 
series last week that was illustrated by the persistent case of Tommy Zeigler, 
a Winter Garden furniture store owner who has been on death row for 42 years.

Zeigler, now 73, has asked 6 times for DNA testing and been refused five of 
them, the Times reported. More than 15 years ago, Zeigler was allowed to do 
limited testing of small squares of the clothes he was wearing when 4 people — 
his wife, her parents and a longtime customer — were shot and killed in the 
store on Christmas Eve 1975.

None of the squares contained blood from anyone but Zeigler, damaging the 
police narrative that Zeigler bludgeoned his father-in-law 16 times with a 
heavy metal crank from a roll-up door while holding him in a headlock. That, of 
course, would have been rather a messy process. So DNA testing at least threw 
into question the police version and bolstered Zeigler’s story that he was 
innocent and longtime customer Charlie Mays, one of the dead, did the shooting.

Regardless of Zeigler, Florida ought to be DNA-testing every case in which new 
evidence could shed any light on the truth. A law passed by the Legislature 
declaring that suspects have the right to DNA testing unfortunately also gave 
judges wide latitude over whether to approve it, which is how Zeigler got 
turned down so many times.

Judges get to decide in death cases whether the DNA would make a difference in 
the outcome of the case. If they think not, they can turn down the request. 
Good grief. Who cares? That’s just unnecessary drama if the goal is truth 
rather than conviction. Prosecutors should stop opposing such tests. They end 
up looking like all they’re trying to do is cover their own fannies in a weak 
case.

The arguments against DNA testing are lame — the blood samples may have 
deteriorated, the DNA wouldn’t clinch innocence or guilt anyway and samples 
that are years old weren’t properly preserved because DNA testing wasn’t 
available at the time. That’s all specious. If an accredited lab can’t property 
do the test, it will say so.

Even if a convicted killer wants the test just to delay being put to death, 
give it to him. It’s a few hundred bucks, and 6 weeks. Move on.

Florida must do everything possible in the way of forensic science because of 
its shoddy record of sentencing innocent people to death. Some 28 men have been 
exonerated through Nov. 5, the most in any state, according to the Death 
Penalty Information Center. Does that make you proud?

Zeigler’s case, however, isn’t the best example on which to base an argument 
for DNA testing. It’s a convoluted mess of twisted forensics along with 
contradictory evidence and testimony. DNA probably won’t make any difference in 
the outcome. Consider that a bullet stopped a clock at 7:24 p.m. at the 
furniture store, but Zeigler, who was shot in the stomach sometime before 
police arrived, didn’t call for help until 9:18 p.m.

Meanwhile, there are tales black guys who were supposed to be picking up a TV 
instead being taken into the woods to fire guns, of witnesses coming and going, 
of bullet fragments and the bloody fingertip of a rubber surgical glove. That’s 
not to mention the rumor of a three-legged dog that Zeigler supposedly maimed 
deliberately. Heaven alone knows what would have emerged if the suspects and 
victims had texting and phone video capability back then.

Compared to any modern crime scene, the bloody picture inside the store was a 
hot mess of jumbled forensics, which the detectives at the time used to 
clumsily piece together how it all happened.

Did they get some of it wrong? Undoubtedly.

But a single witness, not any forensic evidence, is the biggest roadblock to 
Zeigler’s innocence.

Edward Williams is dead now, like so many others in this story, including the 
judge, the lead detective and a number of witnesses. The Bahamas native would 
be 101 if he were living. Interviewed by the Orlando Sentinel’s Roger Roy (full 
disclosure, this columnist’s ex-husband) a decade after the murders, Williams 
described how Zeigler tried to kill him that night.

Williams, who worked for the family, said Zeigler asked him to come to the 
store to help moved heavy items, then pointed a gun at his chest and pulled the 
trigger three times when he arrived. It didn’t fire, and Williams fled. Later, 
detectives theorized that Zeigler forgot to reload it after the 1st round of 
killing and may have mixed up which of 5 guns at the scene actually was still 
loaded.

Williams later that evening had a friend take him to the Orange County Jail at 
33rd Street to make a complaint.

Those who believe Zeigler innocent point out that Williams went home and 
changed clothes that were bloody, suggesting that he was involved. Roy, who now 
is a journalist for a national magazine, chuckled at the notion that changing 
clothes somehow makes Williams culpable when set in the context of Central 
Florida in 1975, where civil rights arrived way late. No sensible person of 
color would have shown up at police station with blood on his shoes.

“He’s black and poor but not stupid. He knows what’s gonna happen,” Roy said.

Williams, when he was 67, told Roy during an interview that he figured out why 
he was able to escape what he thought was certain death at Zeigler’s hands.

“The Lord wouldn't allow it. He wanted someone to be alive to tell the truth, 
to see that Zeigler was punished. The Lord spared me,” he said in that 1986 
interview.

Roy, who covered the case on and off for nearly 20 years, said he asked Zeigler 
about Williams’ damning testimony and never got a straight answer. He said 
Zeigler usually muttered something about how he “just didn’t know why” Williams 
would make up such a story.

“Edward Williams, despite the back-and-forth about details, was always the key. 
Maybe he was in on the murders as Zeigler’s accomplice. But no way Williams did 
it without Zeigler.

“There is no way to square his testimony with Zeigler’s innocence."

(source: Commentary, Lauren Ritchie, Orlando Sentinel)








MISSISSIPPI:

Loden's attempt to block lethal injection drug fails



Thomas Loden's attempt to avoid the death penalty for the rape and killing of 
an Itawamba County girl was denied by the state supreme court Thursday.

In his most recent appeal, Loden argued that midazolam was not an appropriate 
anesthetic and should not be used in the 3-drug mixture the state of 
Mississippi uses to execute inmates.

Loden pleaded guilty to capital murder, rape and 4 counts of sexual battery in 
the June 2000 death of Leesa Marie Gray. He was sentenced to death plus another 
150 years, to run consecutively.

In the ruling handed down Dec. 6, the Mississippi Supreme Court said Loden had 
only offered the unproven arguments of one expert and said "some portions of 
his affidavits ... are a 'sham' and are not supported by established medical 
literature."

The 6-2 ruling further stated that "the United States Supreme Court considered 
the same arguments presented in Loden's petition and rejected them."

(source: Daily Journal)








OHIO:

Capital Costs: Murder case drains taxpayers' pockets



Since his arrest in June 2017 and the appointment of 2 capital 
punishment-certified attorneys to represent him, Daniel Myers has cost Sandusky 
County taxpayers nearly $62,000.

Because the county is seeking the death penalty against Myers — who is charged 
in the murder of single mother Heather Bogle — he has the right to two 
attorneys certified in handling death penalty cases.

And the costs will only continue to rise as Myers awaits his murder trial, 
scheduled to start March 4.

During a bond hearing in June 2017, Myers was declared by Sandusky County 
Common Pleas Court Judge John Dewey to be indigent, meaning the court would not 
force him to pay for his own legal counsel.

Sandusky County Prosecutor Tim Braun argued that the suspect could pay for his 
own defense, citing between $40,000 and $50,000 in assets through a retirement 
plan from Whirlpool and property ownership.

Myers told Dewey during the hearing he was unable to obtain counsel because he 
was terminated from his job at Whirlpool and just purchased a home, paying 
$20,000 cash.

Sandusky County Administrator Theresa Garcia said Myers' legal fees have come 
to $73,730.50 so far, with the attorneys paid $125 per person per hour. But 
because of the state reimburses counties for 42 percent of their public 
defender costs, Sandusky County taxpayers are on the hook for $30,966.88.

In addition to costs for his defense counsel, taxpayers are also paying for 
Myers' stay at the Sandusky County Jail, where he has been since his June 1, 
2017 arrest.

Sandusky County Sheriff Chris Hilton said the cost to house Myers is $56 per 
day, which includes housing and food.

With 554 days as an inmate, taxpayers have paid $31,024 so far for his stay in 
the jail.

The legal and jail costs will continue to rise until a resolution is reached 
for Myers, whose trial has been delayed several times after initially being 
slated to begin in May.

Trial's repeated delay increases expenses

During a Feb. 21 hearing, Myers' attorneys Merle Dech and Jane Roman, both of 
Toledo, and Braun said they were prepared for the May 7 start to the trial, 
which is expected to last 2 to 3 weeks.

But in April it was announced the trial would be delayed because Dech was also 
representing James Worley in a capital punishment case in Wauseon and Dech, who 
is Myers' lead counsel, could not be present for an April 7 pretrial hearing 
for Myers.

A new trial date was set for Oct. 22 and a jury pool of 225 was selected. The 
list of prospective jurors was pared down to 140, with 12 jurors and between 2 
and 4 alternates to decide Myers' fate.

But on Oct. 17, a sealed motion was filed and a gag order was placed on the 
case and the trial was delayed indefinitely.

The exact reason for the delay has not been disclosed by the court or the 
attorneys involved, but Myers had been taken to ProMedica Memorial Hospital on 
Oct. 15 for treatment of wooziness and incoherence, according to Sandusky 
County Chief Deputy Ed Hastings, who spoke to The News-Messenger prior to the 
gag order being imposed.

A new trial date was set for March 4, but more delays could mean more taxpayer 
dollars spent, Garcia said.

"If they (Myers' attorneys) come visit him in jail, or work on the case, the 
county pays for it," she said.

Garcia said the more the trial has been the delayed, the more money the county 
is on the hook for, unless Myers opts for a plea deal.

"They meet with them every month," Garcia said of Myers' attorneys. "Now 
they're doing more research, and because they have more time, they're asking 
for more things, like they want new investigators to do more research, so now 
they're asking for more things that will go into the costs."

'The real issue is how do we get justice'

Braun said his job is to seek justice, but he is fully aware of how expensive 
death penalty cases can be.

"The real issue is how do we get justice for the family," Braun said. "I'm not 
unrealistic about it ... I know what it costs the county."

On Thursday, Dech and Roman filed a motion to have a psychological evaluation 
of Myers that will add more costs to the county's bill.

Sandusky County Commission Board President Kay Reiter said delays could be a 
good thing for the case.

"I look at a little differently," Reiter said. "I look at it like the more it 
gets the delayed, the more of the opportunity that he'll accept a deal."

"That would be a significant savings," Sandusky County Commissioner Scott 
Miller said.

But Braun told The News-Messenger on Friday that a plea deal is unlikely.

"At this point, no, I don't think the case will be resolved by a plea," Braun 
said. "We are ready to go to trial. All the delays have not been from us, 
they're coming from the defense."

Reiter said she does not believe it to be a budget issue, because the county 
has to "deal with it no matter what."

Garcia said the county budgeted $460,000 for all of its public defender costs. 
She said because of the financial strain of Myers' and other cases in 2018, the 
commissioners had to appropriate another $120,000 to cover costs before 
reimbursement.

And the state can reject a request for reimbursement, for factors such as 
requests being turned in late or not filled out properly, Garcia said.

Before state reimbursement, as of Wednesday the county has paid $570,295.65 for 
public defenders this year, compared to $522,849.39 paid over that same time 
the previous year.

In 2017, the county paid $775 for Myers.

For 2019, when Myers' case is expected to be resolved, Garcia said the county 
has budgeted $425,000 for all of its public defender costs.

Legislation could provide relief for counties

Reiter said there is legislation, House Bill 781, being discussed by the Ohio 
House and Senate that could relieve all counties of defense costs associated 
with capital punishment cases.

She cited the Pike County murder case, involving the brutal slaying of the 
Rhoden family.

Four people have been charged in the case and each will face the death penalty 
if convicted.

"Pike County doesn't have the money," Miller said.

Reiter said if the state legislature passes a bill that removes all costs for 
the county in death penalty cases, it would be "huge" for Sandusky County.

But the commissioners are not sure if the Myers' case would be grandfathered 
in, since the county has already paid more than $30,000 for Myers' defense.

If the bill is passed, though, Garcia said future costs could be paid by the 
state.

"I think they're trying to push it really quickly," Reiter said of the 
legislation.

And Reiter believes incoming Governor-elect Mike DeWine may be willing to 
support the legislation, having served as Ohio's Attorney General.

Myers' defense has other financial repercussions, as his two-to-three-week 
trial will delay other proceedings in Sandusky County Common Pleas Court, Braun 
said.

"I've spent a substantial amount of time on this case," Braun said. "This trial 
is going to impact other cases, because other cases are going to be pushed back 
for this."

Other costs will include jury fees of about $15 per juror per day.

Food and housing is provided to the jurors when deliberations continue for a 
length of time, Braun said.

And if Myers is convicted and sentenced to death by the jury, the state 
estimates that he could cost all state taxpayers $412,000, based on the 17-year 
average someone stays on death row, according to the Ohio Legislative Service 
Commission.

But it may be less expensive to execute an inmate than sentence someone to life 
without parole.

The OLSC estimates people sentenced to life without parole on average spend 23 
years in the prison system at a cost of $562,000.

Of the 137 waiting for execution, Sandusky County currently does not have 
anyone on death row.

(source: News-Messenger)