[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., DEL., N.C., FLA., ALA., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 5



PENNSYLVANIA:

Trial for New Florence man, accused of killing police officer, begins Monday



Jury selection is expected to start this morning in Westmoreland County in the 
capital murder trial of a New Florence man charged with the fatal shooting of a 
police officer in late 2015.

Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck has said he will seek the death 
penalty for Ray A. Shetler Jr. if jurors find him guilty of 1st-degree murder.

Shetler is charged with killing St. Clair Township police officer Lloyd Reed 
during a domestic dispute call on Nov. 28, 2015. The prosecution contends Reed, 
54, was in uniform when he was shot in the chest by Shetler during an exchange 
of gunfire after police responded to a call for help from a woman.

That woman contended her boyfriend, Shetler, was drunk and abusive and had a 
weapon.

Shetler has maintained that he did not know that Reed was a police officer when 
fired his gun. After the shooting, Shetler fled and swam across the Conemaugh 
River before he discarded the murder weapon, prosecutors allege.

The trial before Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Meagan 
Bilik-DeFazio is expected to take about 2 weeks. Jurors are expected to be 
taken to the murder scene during the trial.

According to court records, the prosecution said it will ask jurors to sentence 
Shetler to death because his victim was a police officer.

In more than 2 decades as district attorney, Peck has put 5 men on 
Pennsylvania's death row, which has fewer defendants waiting for execution than 
it has in recent years.

According to the state's Department of Corrections, there are 156 condemned men 
waiting for execution. No women are on death row.

It was just 2 years ago that more than 200 inmates were on death row, but as a 
moratorium on capital punishment imposed by Gov. Tom Wolf in 2015 continued, 
the number declined.

Some death sentences were commuted to life prison terms while other defendants 
died in prison. 1 such inmate was Michael Travaglia, one of oldest members of 
death row who was sent there in 1981 after a Westmoreland County jury sentenced 
him to die for the 1980 murder of Apollo police Officer Leonard Miller.

Travaglia, 59, died in September of natural causes following a lengthy illness.

His codefendant, John C. Lesko remains on death row for Miller's shooting.

Kevin Murphy, 57, was sentenced to death in 2013 by a Westmoreland County jury 
for the 2009 killings of his mother, sister and elderly aunt in an automotive 
glass repair shop the family owned in Loyalhanna Township.

Ricky Smyrnes, 31, formerly of North Huntingdon, was sentenced to death in 2013 
for his role 3 years earlier in the torture killing of a mentally disabled 
woman in Greensburg. Smyrnes was considered to be the ringleader of a group of 
6 roommates convicted in the 2010 killing of 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty.

Melvin Knight, 28, formerly of Swissvale, also was sentenced to die by lethal 
injection for his role in Daugherty's stabbing death but a state appeals court 
last year vacated that sentence. A new hearing, in which Peck will again ask 
for the death penalty against Knight, is scheduled for later this year.

Last month Peck announced he will seek the death penalty against Rahmael Sal 
Holt, an Allegheny County man accused in the November fatal shooting of New 
Kensington police Officer Brian Shaw.

Pennsylvania has executed just 3 inmates since capital punishment was 
reinstated in 1978. The last execution was in 1999.

(source: Tribune-Review)








DELAWARE:

Former Carney deputy legal counsel jumps in race for attorney general



A 4th person has joined the race for the Democratic nomination for attorney 
general: Chris Johnson, formerly the governor's deputy legal counsel, recently 
announced he plans to run for the position.

In his announcement speech, Mr. Johnson, 32, pledged to combat inequality and 
fight for a fairer legal system.

"My strategy is to unite coalitions of people who face oppression every day," 
he said. "I will be the candidate who speaks up for those whose voices have 
been silenced.

"I am not afraid to say that 'Black Lives Matter.' I support the 'Me Too' 
movement, and am not afraid to say 'Time's Up.' I will stand up for the rights 
up the LGBTQ community. I will stand with our DREAMers, even if Washington will 
not. And that's just who I am. Being unwilling to compromise in a world fraught 
with bigotry, hatred, and injustice, I stand for a bold new vision for 
Delaware."

Mr. Johnson, who resigned his position with Gov. John Carney's office at the 
end of January, has previously worked for the city of Wilmington's law 
department. He is the vice chair of the Wilmington Democratic Party and sits on 
the board of directors for the Delaware Center for Justice and the executive 
committee of the Delaware State Bar Association.

Also seeking the Democratic nomination for AG are three former Delaware 
Department of Justice high-ranking officials: Chief of Staff Tim Mullaney, 
state prosecutor Kathy Jennings and Chief Deputy Attorney General LaKresha 
Roberts. Republican Tom Neuberger, a private attorney, has announced his 
intention to run as well.

Current Attorney General Matt Denn revealed in August he would not campaign for 
a 2nd term, citing "grueling" politics and a desire to spend more time with 
family.

The current field of Democratic candidates is quite varied, ranging in age from 
32 to 67 and including 1 white man, 1 black man, 1 white woman and 1 black 
woman.

In an interview, Mr. Johnson said he opted to enter the race "simply to 
represent a voice that isn't heard, the voice for chance and that progressive 
voice."

As priorities, he pointed to urban gun violence, the opioid epidemic and 
criminal justice reform. Wilmington has seen record levels of violence in 
recent years, and 308 people fatally overdosed in Delaware in 2016. Delaware's 
imprisons people at a higher rate than the 50-state average, while the United 
States' incarceration rate is much higher than almost every other country.

"These statistics are sobering. Especially considering that national crime 
rates have been dropping in other jurisdictions," Mr. Johnson said. "The 
Delaware criminal justice system is truly broken and stacked against low-income 
and minority communities.

"That is why I am here. I am ready to lead the movement towards achieving a 
truly just, equitable, and color-blind criminal justice system in Delaware."

Describing gun violence in cities, particularly Wilmington, as his main issue, 
Mr. Johnson said he would aim to collaborate with local governments to create 
programs to keep kids and teenagers off the streets.

That's an area Mr. Denn has not completely solved, Mr. Johnson opined.

"I do believe there's a lot he's left on the table, again in terms of 
specifically addressing gun violence from a state perspective," he said, 
although he was otherwise complimentary of the current officeholder.

Unlike the other candidates, Mr. Johnson is against capital punishment. Mr. 
Neuberger, Mr. Mullaney, Ms. Jennings and Ms. Roberts have all said they would 
be willing to seek the death penalty in certain circumstances.

The death penalty was struck down by the state Supreme Court in 2016 over a 
provision justices ruled to be unconstitutional, but lawmakers are currently 
considering a bill that would reinstate it.

Mr. Johnson is in favor of the legalization of marijuana, saying it would have 
"economic and criminal justice benefits alike."

Legislation awaiting a vote in the House would allow adults to consume cannabis 
for recreational purposes.

Mr. Johnson kicked off his campaign in Wilmington with a career workshop, 
emphasizing a focus on reducing crime other than through incarcerating 
offenders.

"I could go on about my other positions on urban gun violence, consumer 
protection and many more that you will hear from me on the campaign trail. But 
today, I will end with this: I believe that the Attorney General's Office, now 
more than ever, has a responsibility to influence the cycle of crime outside 
the scope of prosecution," he said in his announcement speech.

"Imagine the number of crimes that would be prevented if there were more 
funding available for public education beginning at pre-k, for after-school 
programs, for community centers, for health and rehabilitation services, and 
for job preparedness resources - especially for ex-offenders who are 
re-entering society."

(source: delawarestatenews.net)








NORTH CAROLINA:

DA wants death penalty for Bertie County inmate charged in officer's death



Prosecutors want the death penalty for an inmate accused of beating to death a 
correctional officer who rushed to extinguish fire set in a prison dormitory 
trash can.

Multiple media organizations report that District Attorney Valerie Asbell last 
month advised a Bertie County judge she would seek the death penalty against 
Craig Wissink. He's accused of beating to death Sgt. Meggan Callahan with the 
fire extinguisher she used to douse the fire inside Bertie Correctional 
Institution last year.

The 36-year-old Wissink was already serving a life sentence for a June 2000 
murder in Fayetteville.

Callahan was the 1st of 5 North Carolina prison workers to die last year in 2 
attacks by inmates. State prisons have seen severe staff shortages, putting 
workers in danger.

(source: Associated Press)








FLORIDA:

Poole to get new resentencing hearing in murder of Lakeland man, rape of 
victim's pregnant fiancee



Convicted murderer Mark Anthony Poole will get a new sentencing hearing, but a 
circuit judge has ruled his conviction for the 2001 murder of a 24-year-old 
Lakeland man and the rape of his pregnant fiancee will stand.

In a 73-page decision, Circuit Judge Jalal Harb denied Poole's request for a 
new trial, saying the errors the defense argued were made during Poole's 2nd 
trial, whether considered individually or collectively, didn't rise to the 
level of warranting a new trial.

"The Court did not find that counsel's performance fell below an objective 
standard of reasonableness," Harb stated in his order.

In an evidentiary hearing last year, lawyers for Poole had argued that 
attorneys representing him during his 2005 trial had told jurors Poole 
acknowledged that he committed armed robbery, armed burglary and rape. That 
error, they said, allowed prosecutors to tell jurors Poole never proclaimed his 
innocence in the murder, which unfairly prejudiced him in the trial.

But Harb has ruled that error didn't justify a new trial.

"Any deficiency by counsel with regard to any of the claims and subclaims 
asserted by the defendant, when combined, could not reasonably be viewed as 
affecting the fairness and reliability of the proceedings or the outcome of the 
trial," he wrote.

Poole, 55, was convicted of 1st-degree murder and related charges following a 
2-week trial in April 2005, nearly four years after Noah Scott and his fiance 
awoke in the night to find Poole inside their Lakeland mobile home. Scott died 
that October morning of blunt force trauma to the head.

The girl testified that Poole beat her with a tire iron and held a pillow over 
her face as he raped her, asking where the money was, according to court 
documents. Before he left, Poole returned to the bedroom, where he'd left the 
girl on the bed, touched her vaginal area and whispered "Thank you," court 
records show.

DNA evidence and eyewitness testimony identified Poole as the assailant in the 
home-invasion attack, court documents state.

The jury voted unanimously to recommend the death penalty against Poole, and 
Circuit Judge J. Dale Durrance sentenced him to die for the crimes.

In December 2008, the Florida Supreme Court overturned the death penalty 
against Poole, which led to a 2nd sentencing hearing in 2011. That jury voted 
11-1 to recommend the death penalty, and Poole was again sentenced to die for 
the murder. Circuit Judge J. Michael Hunter ruled the brutality of the attack 
outweighed any mitigating evidence presented by the defense, according to court 
records.

In July 2016, Poole's lawyers appealed his conviction and sentence, about 6 
months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Florida???s death penalty 
process was unconstitutional.

That Supreme Court decision has led to changes in the state's death penalty 
statute, which now requires jurors to agree unanimously that prosecutors have 
proven the facts in at least 1 of the statutory factors supporting the 
imposition of the death penalty. The jury's vote also must be unanimous to 
recommend death, whereas before only a simple majority among the 12 jurors was 
required to recommend that a judge impose the death sentence.

The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that the changes are retroactive in some 
cases, including Poole's. Since the jury vote in his 2011 resentencing wasn't 
unanimous, he's entitled to a new sentencing hearing.

No date has been set for Poole's resentencing. His next hearing is a status 
conference May 10.

(source: The Ledger)








ALABAMA:

Decatur random killings crime spree; 3 others charged



A capital murder trial begins today for 1 of 4 young people charged in a 2015 
Decatur crime spree that included random killings, armed robberies and 
shootings.

Cortez Mitchell, a 19-year-old from Decatur, faces up to life in prison without 
the possibility of parole if a jury convicts him of capital murder in the May 
2015 crime spree that left 2 men dead. Mitchell was just 16 when authorities 
say he and 3 others gunned down Antonio Hernandez-Lopez and Joshua Davis.

Hernandez-Lopez and Davis were chosen at random by the suspects, police have 
said. The killings were part of a crime spree that included 6 armed robberies 
and 2 shootings into homes. The spree spanned several days during mid-May.

"They seemed to just be going around thinking they were having a good time," a 
Decatur police Captain said of the suspects during a news conference to 
announce the charges on May 17, 2015.

Charged along with Mitchell are brothers Joseph and Cedric Cowan, and Amani 
Goodwin. Each suspect was denied youthful offender status by Morgan County 
Circuit Judge Jennifer Howell. Youthful offender status would have guaranteed 
the suspects serve no more than three years if convicted. Each defendant faces 
11 felonies, including robbery, discharging a gun and capital murder. Only 
Joseph Cowan is eligible for the death penalty because he was 20 at the time of 
the killings. Mitchell and Cedric Cowan were 16, and Goodwin was 17, making 
them too young to be sentenced to death.

Mitchell's trial begins this morning at 9 a.m. in Howell's courtroom. The jury 
was empaneled last week on Friday morning. With more than 60 potential 
witnesses, the trial could continue into next week.

Mitchell has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental disease or 
defect. His competency has been a central question during pretrial court 
hearings. He recently asked for new lawyers, but changed his mind by the time 
he was in front of the judge for a hearing. His appointed attorneys, Joe Propst 
and Jacob Roberts, said the request was just another example of Mitchell's 
inability to understand the charges and severity of the situation.

During a hearing on Mitchell's youthful offender application, a Tuscaloosa 
psychologist testified the boy's IQ was 70 and he has the mental capacity of a 
12-year-old.

"He's functionally illiterate," Goff testified about Mitchell, according to The 
Decatur Daily. "He did not, in my view, understand his right to counsel and 
didn't have the mental faculties to waive his right to counsel."

Shortly after police began identifying suspects in the crimes, Mitchell agreed 
to speak with investigators and pinned the shootings on the older Cowan. 
Mitchell's statement also incriminated Cedric Cowan and Goodwin, according to 
authorities. Goodwin drove the suspects, according to police.

Mitchell first was identified as a suspect because he took to school a 
cellphone that had been taken in 1 of the robberies, police have said. 
Investigators called that their big break in the case.

The killings were the 1st homicides in Decatur, a city of about 55,000 
residents in nearly 2 years. The previous killing happened in August 2013.

Goodwin, now-20, is the next defendant set for trial in August. It's not yet 
clear when the Cowan brothers could face a jury.

(source: al.com)








LOUISIANA:

Louisiana doesn't have to keep heat index below 88 degrees on Angola's death 
row, court says



3 ailing Louisiana death row inmates will still have to be protected from 
excessive heat during the sweltering summer months, but a federal appeals court 
has given state corrections officials more latitude to decide how to keep them 
cool.

A 3-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans said 
the state does not have to prevent heat indexes at the Angola prison from 
topping 88 degrees as a Baton Rouge federal judge previously ordered.

The appellate court ruled that Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson erred by 
setting the 88-degree threshold and sent the civil rights case, filed by the 3 
prisoners in 2013, back to him for further review.

The panel left open the possibility that Jackson may require what it called 
"temperature triggers" that would initiate the use of specific heat-relief 
measures. But where Jackson "went astray," the appellate court judges said, was 
when he effectively required a "temperature ceiling" that could not be 
breached.

"Although well-intentioned, the district court ... both considered and accepted 
the need for a maximum heat index," Circuit Judge Jerry Smith wrote Wednesday 
for the panel, noting that a previous 5th Circuit panel "plainly foreclosed any 
consideration of a maximum heat index."

In his response to the appeals court ruling, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff 
Landry said the Constitution "does not require prisons to be comfortable; it 
requires them to be humane."

The state has argued it should have to provide only cold showers, an individual 
fan and unlimited access to ice and water to the 3 inmates.

Mercedes Montagnes, an attorney for the 3 inmates, declined comment Thursday.

The 5th Circuit has made it clear over the past few years and again on 
Wednesday that condemned killers Elzie Ball, Nathaniel Code and James Magee are 
not entitled to air conditioning on Angola's death row. The inmates' attorneys 
have argued that air conditioning is the only way to adequately lower heat 
indexes on death row, and at the same time reduce the prisoners' risks of 
heat-related illness or even death.

Ball was condemned to die for fatally shooting beer deliveryman Ben Scorsone 
during a 1996 armed robbery of a Gretna lounge. Magee received the death 
penalty for the 2007 shotgun killing of his estranged wife, Adrienne Magee, and 
their 5-year-old son, Zach, in a subdivision near Mandeville. Code is on death 
row for the slaying of 4 people at a house in Shreveport in 1985.

Jackson and the 5th Circuit both have found that subjecting the ailing Angola 
death row inmates to excessive heat constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, 
and that some remedies are necessary to protect their health and safety. 
Circuit Judge Stephen Higginson agreed with Smith and fellow 5th Circuit Judge 
Rhesa Barksdale that ordering the state to maintain the heat index below 88 
degrees was wrong. But in a partial dissent, he said that to forbid Jackson 
from considering a maximum safe heat index "is to require that court to remedy 
the constitutional violation that we have found exists ... without considering 
its cause."

"But, in a facility where the heat index frequently exceeds 100 degrees and has 
risen as high as 110.3 degrees, requiring the state to lower the heat indices 
to which these medically compromised plaintiffs are exposed is not the same as 
mandating that the heat index remain below 88 degrees," Higginson wrote.

The heat index is a measure of temperature and humidity.

The state is currently providing the three inmates with cold showers, 
individual fans, unlimited access to ice and water, and "IcyBreeze" units. 
IcyBreeze is a brand name, but in court documents the modified ice chests also 
have been referred to as "Cajun coolers," which are equipped with fans and 
ducting to blow cool air.

The state has been using the IcyBreeze units under protest, saying they are 
essentially air conditioning, but the 5th Circuit panel disagreed with that 
characterization in its Wednesday decision.

"As the district court rightly explained, the IcyBreeze units are basically ice 
chests with fans attached," Smith wrote, adding that they also are inexpensive, 
costing about $500 apiece.

The inmates' civil rights case has bounced back and forth between Baton Rouge 
federal court and the New Orleans-based appellate court.

Jackson's 2013 order mandating the state to keep heat indexes from topping 88 
degrees was struck down by the 5th Circuit because it effectively required the 
state to install air conditioning throughout the death row housing, the appeals 
court said.

The state's 2nd court-mandated plan provided the 3 inmates with daily, 
15-minute cold showers; ice containers regularly replenished from newly 
purchased ice machines; and a personal fan. The inmates' objected to that plan, 
and Jackson concluded it was inadequate because it exposed the prisoners to 
heat indexes above 88 degrees. The judge also found that the plan did not 
reduce the substantial risk of serious harm to the inmates because they 
continued to experience heat-related symptoms during the plan's implementation.

The state, in connection with settlement discussions, then implemented under 
protest several experimental relief measures. These included relocating the 3 
men to another tier close to the air-conditioned guards' pod, installing an air 
vent in that pod to divert cool air to the inmates' cells, setting up a plastic 
curtain around their cells to trap the cool air, providing each man with an 
IcyBreeze unit and regularly replenishing the units with ice. Those measures 
would only kick in when the heat index topped 88 degrees.

The state appealed Jackson's imposition of that third plan to the 5th Circuit, 
which led to Wednesday's ruling.

In sending the case back to Jackson in that ruling, the appeals court said the 
judge "cannot decree whether any given plan is necessary to lower the heat 
index to below a maximum, nor can it require the state to provide an 
undetermined number of IcyBreeze units or other measures to keep the heat index 
below a certain point."

The panel, however, said it "may well be that parts of the Third Plan are still 
necessary to redress the constitutional violation: i.e., 'housing these 
prisoners in very hot cells without sufficient access to heat-relief 
measures.'"

(source: The Advocate)