[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, MO., OKLA., UTAH, USA

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 8


OHIO:

He's Watched 21 Men Die - A Former Journalist on 18 Years of Covering 
Executions in Ohio



It's a role he had to fight for and one, quite frankly, he would rather not 
have had. But, as Johnson says, it's fundamental and essential for the media to 
bear witness to these deaths, and through them, the public.

Those experiences over almost 2 decades have left Johnson with a unique 
perspective on capital punishment - the mechanics of state-sanctioned homicide; 
the logistics of lethal injection and its recent issues of supply and secrecy; 
the range of emotions and reactions from families and victims; the problems 
when an execution goes awry; the almost dry, rote details one notices when it 
is, for lack of a better word, successful.

Johnson wrote about all that and more in a first-person piece for Columbus 
Monthly in August 2016. That article ends with the troubling death of Dennis 
McGuire on Jan. 16, 2014. A 3-year moratorium on executions in Ohio would 
follow.

They have, of course, resumed, most recently with the aborted attempt to kill 
Alva Campbell after officials couldn't locate a suitable vein for the process. 
(His execution has been rescheduled 2 years from now; his lawyers have recently 
argued their client should be allowed death by firing squad instead of being 
subjected once again to a failed lethal injection.)

Up next is Raymond Tibbetts, whose date in the Death Chamber is next Tuesday, 
Feb. 13. (An original juror in that case recently wrote a letter to John Kasich 
asking the governor to commute the sentence to life without parole for a 
variety of reasons, but we digress.)

Given all that has happened in the past three years, we asked Johnson to update 
his piece. He's done so, for this week's cover story, with the same keen eye 
that produced the original. You can read the full tale in print this week. As 
for reading it online, that's a slightly different story. Part of the peculiar 
republishing agreement with Columbus Monthly for this story was a requirement 
that we not upload the full version online. That's too bad, but as Frank 
Jackson says, it is what it is.

You have 3 options here. First: You can pick up a physical copy of this week's 
Scene and enjoy it there. Second: You can check our our e-edition at this link 
and read the full thing in one place in PDF form. Third: You can head over to 
Columbus Monthly's site and read the original piece, stopping at the section 
headed "The Last Execution," and then come back here for the updated ended, 
which you can find below. Not ideal, we know, but the story was worth sharing 
with a larger audience and it's simply the conditions laid out by the original 
publisher.

***

The Last Execution, For Awhile

The most troubling execution I witnessed in 18 years was when a gasping, 
struggling Dennis McGuire was put to death on Jan. 16, 2014. McGuire did not go 
easily.

Things appeared to be going as planned until about five minutes after the 
chemical cocktail began flowing into his veins. The state was using a two-drug 
combination that had never previously been tried in the U.S. Suddenly, McGuire 
began to gasp, cough and choke. A minute later, he gasped so deeply that his 
stomach heaved up and down. It continued for nearly 15 minutes. McGuire 
clenched his fists repeatedly and several times appeared to try to rise up off 
the table, only to be prevented by the restraints on his chest, arms and legs. 
His grown son and daughter looked on in horror, sobbing uncontrollably. The 
family members of Joy Stewart, the pregnant, 22-year-old victim, watched in 
stunned silence.

"Is this what's supposed to happen?" one whispered.

My own anxiety grew by the minute, as McGuire tried in vain to stay alive. I 
found myself wondering if it was too late for prison officials to call it off, 
to end the death drama playing out on the other side of the glass. There was no 
way to unring the bell.

"Please die. Just die," I remember thinking, thoughts that still haunt me.

At 10:52 a.m., about 23 minutes after the deadly chemicals began flowing, the 
curtain was pulled. Unseen, a physician listened for a heartbeat and found 
none.

In the weeks and months that followed, controversy swirled about what had 
happened and why. The state said that an execution took place, as planned. 
Capital punishment opponents called it torture.

The state quickly abandoned the 2-drug combination, but that triggered a search 
for new killing drugs. They were difficult to obtain because of the reluctance 
of drug manufacturers to sell drugs for use in executions. The General Assembly 
scrambled to pass a law allowing the state to make anonymous purchases from 
small "compounding pharmacies" that mix drugs to customer specifications. No 
Ohio pharmacies were interested in the state's business.

Gov. John Kasich was forced to push back all scheduled executions.

An Untested Combination

The state, without disclosing the source, was eventually able to acquire a 
supply of 3 drugs with the following amounts to be used for each execution: 500 
milligrams of midazolam hydrochloride, a strong sedative; 1,000 milligrams of 
rocuronium bromide, a muscle relaxer; and 240 milligrams of potassium chloride, 
which stops the heart.

The new, previously untried combination was successfully used on Ronald 
Phillips, 43, of Akron, on July 26, 2017. It was Ohio's 1st execution in 3 1/2 
years. Phillips received the death sentence for raping, beating and murdering 
3-year-old Sheila Marie Evans, the daughter of his girlfriend at the time, on 
Jan. 18, 1993.

The day before his execution, Phillips' "last meal" request included a bottle 
of grape juice and a piece of unleavened bread for a prison-cell communion, in 
addition to a bell pepper and mushroom pizza, strawberry cheesecake and 2-liter 
bottle of Pepsi.

In stark contrast to McGuire's troubled death, Phillips died quickly and 
quietly at the prison near Lucasville. The process took just 22 minutes, 
including 12 minutes after a chemical combination began flowing into his veins. 
By the official time of death, 10:43 a.m., Phillips had lain motionless and not 
apparently breathing for several minutes.

Phillips gave a final statement choked with emotion, apologizing to the Evans 
family for his "evil actions" and thanking his family for their "support and 
faithfulness." Phillips closed his eyes and a few minutes later appeared to be 
sleeping. His stomach heaved slightly and his mouth fell open, but there were 
no dramatic reactions. A single tear fell from his left eye.

The reaction from witnesses afterwards differed sharply.

Donna Hudson, the slain girl's aunt, said, "It was too easy. I don't know if 
God forgave him, but I don't think I can."

William Phillips, the condemned man's brother, watched his sibling die, but did 
not speak to media after it was over. However, Allen Bohnert, a federal public 
defender who represented Phillips, said an extremely high dose of a drug 
midazolam acted like a "chemical curtain" to prevent Phillips from showing pain 
he was feeling. "Ohio once again experimented with an undisputedly 
unconstitutional drug," Bohnert said.

A Botched Attempt and a Retirement

Phillips' execution was the last I would witness or cover prior to my 
retirement from the Columbus Dispatch on Sept. 22, 2017. At that point, I had 
witnessed 21 executions and written about the majority of the 34 others to that 
point during a 33-year career.

While I had had enough of the "machinery of death," as U.S. Supreme Court 
Justice Harry S. Blackmun called it in 1994, the state of Ohio continued 
forward, lethally injecting Gary Otte of Parma on Sept. 13, 2017. Otte, 45, 
robbed and murdered Robert Wasikowski, 61, and Sharon Kostura, 45, at an 
apartment in Parma in 1992.

The Associated Press reported that Otte's stomach "rose and fell repeatedly" 
for several minutes after the 1st drug, midazolam, was administered. One of 
Otte's public defender attorneys hurriedly called a federal judge in Dayton, 
seeking to stop the execution, but the request was refused.

Ohio's capital punishment process stumbled again with the aborted execution of 
Alva Campbell of Columbus on Nov. 15, 2017. Campbell's lethal injection was 
called off after members of the prison execution team were not able to find 
intravenous access to administer the lethal drugs.

The Columbus Dispatch reported the execution team attempted for more than a 
half hour to find suitable veins on Campbell's arms and 1 leg, before Gary 
Mohr, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, who was 
on the scene, halted the process. Campbell, who was sentenced to die for 
killing Charles Dials, 18, during a carjacking in Columbus on April 2, 1997, 
had a host of health problems. He was allowed to have a wedge-shaped pillow 
behind his back on the injection gurney for the execution to assist his 
breathing.

Campbell's attorneys asked the state to allow him to be executed by a firing 
squad, but a federal judge turned down the request since state law allows only 
1 method, lethal injection. The General Assembly would have to approve adding a 
new means of execution.

Kasich set a new death date for Campbell of June 5, 2019.

Ohio has four executions scheduled this year (out of 27 slated through 2022). 
First up on Feb. 13 is Raymond Tibbetts, 60, a Cincinnati man who killed his 
wife, Judith Crawford, and Fred Hicks, for whom Crawford was caregiver, on Nov. 
5, 1997. Unlike Campbell, Tibbetts has no serious health problems, although his 
attorneys argue he should receive clemency because of an abusive childhood and 
an opioid dependency acquired as an adult. The Ohio Parole Board disagreed, 
recommending 11-1 against clemency, but Kasich has the final word.

My direct involvement with capital punishment in Ohio has come to an end. I 
won't miss Lucasville, but I continue to think about the price it extracts on 
the families of victims and inmates, on prison employees, and on the public at 
large.

Being a witness to death is an important job, but I don't mind that someone 
else will be watching from here on out.

(source: Cleveland Scene)

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

Man who killed Alianna DeFreeze was high on cocaine, unable to follow laws, 
according to psychologist



Christopher Whitaker was high on cocaine when he kidnapped, raped and killed 
14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze, and his drug use "impaired his ability to control 
his impulses and conform his behavior to the requirements of the law," a 
psychologist hired by his defense lawyers found.

Court records filed this week say the psychologist also diagnosed Whitaker with 
cocaine, marijuana and alcohol addiction, as well as a mood disorder, in a 
report expected to be presented during the 2nd phase of Whitaker's trial on 
aggravated murder and other charges that make him eligible for the death 
penalty.

Prosecutors cited the report and its findings in a Monday request asking Judge 
Carolyn Friedland to order Whitaker to undergo another examination by a 
different psychologist in an effort to rebut the defense's report.

Friedland has yet to rule on the motion.

The filings come in the middle of the guilt phase of Whitaker's trial and offer 
a glimpse into the strategy Whitaker's lawyers could use to convince jurors 
that the 44-year-old should not be executed for what he did to Alianna on Jan. 
26, 2017.

If convicted, the trial enters the so-called "death-penalty phase" where the 
jury will decide whether to recommend a life sentence or execution for 
Whitaker.

One of Whitaker's lawyers, Tom Shaughnessy, said during opening statements last 
week that the they will not contest the charges. Whitaker confessed to 
kidnapping the girl in a voluntary statement to police, and investigators 
matched his DNA to that found on Alianna's body.

Whitaker was examined by Robert Kaplan, a Beachwood-based forensic and clinical 
psychologist who often consults as a mitigation expert on behalf of defendants 
in criminal cases.

In addition to his various addictions and mood disorder, Kaplan also says that 
Whitaker blocked out some of the details of the killing. This includes 
information outlined by the prosecution that Whitaker used power tools to 
inflict dozens of wounds on the girl while she was still alive.

Prosecutors believe that Kaplan's findings are "unsupported and incorrect," and 
want their own psychologist to examine Whitaker and avoid jurors hearing only a 
"one-sided and potentially inaccurate" picture of Whitaker's mental state at 
the time of the crime.

He testified as a mitigation expert in the trial of Douglas Shine Jr., who 
faced the death penalty after jurors convicted him of shooting and killing 5 
men inside a Warrensville barbershop in 2015.

Jurors recommended that Shine be sentenced to death, but Cuyahoga County Judge 
Joan Synenberg instead sentenced him to 5 separate life-sentences.

Shaughnessy was also one of Shine's lawyers.

(source: cleveland.com)








MISSOURI:

Prosecutor to Seek Death Penalty in Slaying of Clinton Officer



The prosecuting attorney in Henry County, Missouri filed notice Wednesday of 
his intent to seek the death penalty in the murder of a Clinton, Missouri 
police officer last year.

Ian McCarthy is charged with 1st degree murder in the shooting death of Officer 
Gary Michael, who was killed during a traffic stop August 6 near Highway 13 and 
Green Street in Clinton.

Michael had been with the Clinton P.D. for less than a year when he was shot. 
Investigators say McCarthy fled the scene of the shooting, but crashed his 
vehicle about 2 blocks away, and ran off on foot. He was arrested 2 days after 
the shooting.

In his notice to seek the death penalty, Henry County Prosecuting Attorney 
Richard Shields calls the killing a "callous disregard for the sanctity of all 
human life," and was "random and without regard to the victim's identity."

Shields also noted as grounds for the death penalty, that McCarthy had a 
previous conviction for a serious assault conviction. In July, 1997, McCarthy 
pled guilty to robbery after threatening a woman with a knife in New Hampshire. 
He was also convicted by a jury in New Hampshire of another assault in May, 
2002.

McCarthy has requested a change of venue and a change of judge. His next court 
hearing date is set for March 26.

(source: ozarksfirst.com)








OKLAHOMA:

Oklahoma appeals ruling overturning murder conviction



Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter wants the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn 
an appeals court that overturned a murder conviction on the grounds that Indian 
reservations in the state were never dissolved by Congress.

An appeal filed Wednesday says Congress effectively dismantled reservations 
when Oklahoma became a state and that the ruling throws thousands of 
convictions in eastern Oklahoma into question.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in August overturned the murder conviction 
and death penalty of Patrick Dwayne Murphy in McIntosh County. The court says 
Murphy is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and that the crime took place 
on what was established in 1866 as the Creek reservation.

In rejecting a requested rehearing, Chief Judge Timothy Tymkovich wrote it is 
"a good candidate for Supreme Court review."

(source: Associated Press)








UTAH:

Attorney who withdrew from death penalty case sues county



An appellate attorney based in Montana has sued a Utah county alleging his 
free-speech rights were violated when he was fired after speaking publicly 
about a lack of funding in a death penalty case.

Samuel Newton filed the lawsuit in federal court last week against Weber County 
and its 3 commissioners.

Newton had a contract with the county to represent death row inmate Douglas 
Lovell in his appeal. He withdrew from Lovell's case in September, saying the 
county had created conflicts of interest and that payment problems were causing 
stress-related medical issues.

The county severed Newton's contract to represent indigent defendants after 
finding his comments "harmful to the county's reputation."

(source: Associated Press)








USA:

GOP Senators Introduce 'Eric's Law' to Reform Death Penalty Cases



A group of Republican senators has introduced a bill to give federal 
prosecutors the option of impaneling a 2nd jury for sentencing in federal death 
penalty cases where the 1st jury failed to reach a decision.

Sens. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), Pat Toomey (R., Penn), John Cornyn (R., Texas), 
and Ted Cruz (R., Texas) introduced Eric's Law Wednesday, so named for federal 
correctional officer Eric Williams who was murdered in 2013 by an inmate 
serving a life sentence. Because one member of the sentencing jury would not 
affirm the death penalty, Williams' killer continued serving life in prison. In 
a press release, Cotton argued the continued life sentence was a way of 
receiving no punishment.

"It's disturbing that the man who murdered Officer Williams escaped punishment. 
Eric's Law will protect against such a gross miscarriage of justice and allow 
more hardened criminals to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," 
Cotton said.

Toomey echoed Cotton's point and said families should not have to see violent 
criminals escape justice.

"[Williams'] murderer essentially received no punishment for his crime, even 
though 11 out of 12 jurors voted for the death penalty, because he was already 
serving a life sentence. The lack of any consequence in this case highlights a 
flaw in our justice system that this legislation will address," Toomey said in 
a press release. "I hope my colleagues will swiftly consider this important 
piece of legislation so no other families have to see violent criminals avoid 
justice."

Current law does not permit federal prosecutors to impanel a 2nd jury for 
sentencing in death penalty cases. Instead, when a jury is unable to reach a 
unanimous decision, the judge must choose a punishment besides death.

Cornyn argued Eric's Law is consistent with federal law's death penalty 
provision.

"Federal law provides for the penalty of death in the most severe crimes, 
including those involving the vicious murder of law enforcement officers and 
prison guards like Eric Williams," Cornyn said. "This legislation will help 
keep our communities safe and give federal prosecutors the option to impanel a 
2nd jury to decide the ultimate penalty if the 1st panel cannot reach a 
unanimous decision."

Cruz also said he was "proud" to join the senators to support the legislation, 
arguing it could prevent future miscarriages of justice.

Eric's Law is based on similar procedures in place in states such as Kentucky, 
California, and Arizona.

(source: freebeacon.com)