[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MD., S.C., FLA., ALA., OHIO, KAN., S. DAK., UTAH, ARIZ.

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 10



MARYLAND:

Shoemaker proposes death penalty bill for cop-killers, mass murderers



Almost 5 years after former Gov. Martin O'Malley signed legislation repealing 
the state's death penalty, one Carroll County delegate is trying bring the 
option back in certain cases.

Del. Haven Shoemaker, R-District 5, and Del. Jason Buckel, R-District 1B, are 
primary sponsors on House Bill 887, which would make the death penalty an 
option when someone is convicted of 1st-degree murder of a police officer, a 
correctional officer or a first responder, or in the case of a mass murder of 3 
of more people. The death penalty was repealed in Maryland in 2013.

Shoemaker said punishment is supposed to be a deterrent and rehabilitative, but 
those who kill law enforcement or are mass killers are "irredeemable."

"I think that they should be slipped the juice," Shoemaker said. "There are 
numerous safeguards that are in place to make sure the wrong person is not 
executed."

The U.S. broke records in 2016 with 19 separate flooding events - the most in 
recorded history, according to USA Today [ and this year's wildfires continue 
to threaten homes in the West.

With DNA, witnesses and technology, he added, there is barely a chance someone 
who is wrongfully convicted or accused would be sentenced to death.

"Given the fact that we're seeing basically police officers walk around with 
targets on their back, something has to be done," Shoemaker said.

Shoemaker said he knows of a lot of other lawmakers who want to sponsor the 
bill, and also said he has support from local leaders in Carroll. Both State's 
Attorney Brian DeLeonardo and Sheriff Jim DeWees are in support.

"They've indicated that they'd both be willing to come down and testify at the 
bill hearing," he said.

DeWees said "obviously I support it," adding that he was never in support of 
repealing the death penalty in the first place. He said he believes the death 
penalty is a deterrent.

If someone is "brazen enough" to take a law enforcement officer's life, he 
said, and is convicted, the state should be able to seek the death penalty.

"I appreciate Haven Shoemaker putting the bill in on behalf of law 
enforcement," DeWees said.

DeLeonardo said the death penalty is called for when someone has killed a law 
enforcement officer or a number of people. When someone kills a police officer, 
he said "it really is an attack on law and order."

There should be a clear line, he said, to save the most serious punishment for 
those most serious crimes. If someone is already serving a life sentence and 
kills a corrections officer, DeLeonardo said, the death penalty is appropriate.

"Giving them another life without parole is doing nothing," he said.

The bill was introduced Feb. 5 and assigned to the House Judiciary Committee. 
Carroll County Dels. Susan Krebs and April Rose, R-District 5, as well as Del. 
Kathy Afzali, who represents Carroll and Frederick counties in District 4, have 
signed on as co-sponsors of the legislation.

Wesley Eugene Baker was the last person executed in Maryland prior to the 2013 
repeal of the death penalty. Baker was killed by lethal injection Dec. 5, 2005, 
after his 1992 conviction for killing a 49-year-old grandmother in the parking 
lot of Catonsville's Westview Mall after a holdup in June 1991.

(source: Carroll County Times)








SOUTH CAROLINA:

SC Statehouse: Debate over more death penalty options



South Carolina lawmakers want to make sure the state is able to carry out the 
death penalty. And right now, there are already 3 bills being considered this 
year that would make sure that happens.

The 1st bill would keep the name of the companies that make lethal injection 
drugs a secret.

Senator Eddie Tallon, (R) Spartanburg - "We've been unable to purchase drugs. 
The drug companies and compounders do not want to be known as furnishing drugs 
that take lives."

Right now inmates on death row can choose death by electrocution or lethal 
injection, but if the drugs aren't available, a separate bill would default the 
inmate to the electric chair.

But an Upstate lawmaker wants to add another option. Representative Joshua 
Putnam from Anderson filed a bill that would add a firing squad. Some say this, 
if it became law, would help teach a lesson to would be killers, others say the 
option is inhumane.

So far only one of the bills, requiring an inmate to be electrocuted if lethal 
injection drugs are not available, has made it to the Statehouse floor. That 
bill will be up for a 2nd statewide reading later this month.

The firing squad bill has been referred to a Judiciary committee.

(source: counton2.com)








FLORIDA:

Stubborn about death sentences



"A miscarriage of justice." That's what the Florida Senate's Criminal Justice 
Committee says about the death march taking place at the Florida Supreme Court.

By a 3-2 vote this week, the Senate committee approved legislation that calls 
on the court to abandon its arbitrary distinction between death row inmates who 
do or don't deserve new sentencing hearings since Florida's old sentencing law 
was found unconstitutional.

The Florida court refuses to make the U.S. Supreme Court's 2016 ruling 
retroactive to 163 inmates whose death sentences were considered "final" before 
June 24, 2002. That's when a ruling in an Arizona case put Florida on notice 
that its death sentencing law would likely be thrown out. But it took 14 more 
years for that shoe to fall. For prisoners whose sentences became "final" 
during that interval, the Florida court has been granting new hearings, for the 
most part, to those whose juries didn't vote unanimously for death.

In a series of identical orders over the past 2 weeks, the court rejected all 
80 petitions for new hearings. In only 15 of those cases did the jury 
unanimously recommend the death penalty.

The bill is, of course, a long way from passage, a prospect that must be rated 
unlikely given the Legislature's history of embracing the death penalty. But 
the committee's bipartisan vote is a welcome note of conscience on an issue 
that cries out for it.

Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

(source: Letter to the Editor, Kearney Hub)








ALABAMA:

Court affirms death penalty for convicted Krystal killer



Final Court of Appeals upheld the capital murder conviction and death penalty 
for a man who shot and killed 2 employees of a North Alabama restaurant.

Jordaan Creque admitted to killing Jeff Graff and Jessie Aguilar while they 
worked the overnight shift at the Decatur Krystal in August 2011. Creque was 
scheduled to work the overnight shift on the night of the murder, but did not 
show up.

Ezekiel Gholston and Cassandra Eldred helped him commit the murder. Creque 
knocked on the drive-through window to get the attention of the employees. 
Graff opened a side door to let him in the restaurant. Creque and Gholston 
rushed into the Krystal while Eldred waited in the car.

Police found cash from the restaurant at Eldred's home and Creque's apartment. 
Gholston led investigators to the gun used in the crime.

A jury convicted Creque in 2013 and voted 11-1 in favor of the death penalty.

Creque appealed, stating his statements were not legally obtained and should be 
banned from trial. The judge disagreed and allowed the statements to be 
presented to the jury.

Creque also argued a juror was biased and initiated contact with the lead 
investigator at a department store during a weekend break during the trial. The 
investigator and juror were questioned by the judge. The judge did not declare 
a mistrial. According to testimony, the juror worked at the store and 
recognized the detective. The detective testified he did not immediately 
recognize the juror and the facts of the case were not discussed. The judge 
allowed the trial to continue based on the testimony.

The Appeals Court upheld that decision, stating nothing in the juror or 
investigator's testimony supports Creque's argument the juror was biased.

Creque's 3rd argument states the court should have allowed him to present 
testimony from a forensic expert who would tell jurors Creque shot Graff 
accidentally. The appeals court states the record refutes that argument and 
noted testimony from the expert during trial.

In his appeal Creque also challenged the jury selection process, arguments by 
the prosecutor, and jury instructions.

The appeals court ruled against each claim in Creque's appeal. He remains on 
death row at Holman Prison. Gholston and Eldred are both serving prison 
sentences for murder.

(source: WAFF news)








OHIO:

Prosecutor urges Ohio attorney general to appeal Danny Hill ruling



Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins has sent a letter urging Ohio 
Attorney Mike DeWine to appeal the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals decision 
that ordered a judge to resentence Danny Lee Hill to something other than the 
death penalty.

Hill, 51, was sentenced to death in 1986 in the 1985 murder of Raymond Fife, 
12. The sentence was upheld through numerous appeals and also when visiting 
Judge Thomas Curran considered whether Hill was too mentally disabled to 
qualify for the death penalty.

But 3 judges on the 6th Circuit recently disagreed with whether Hill is too 
mentally disabled to be executed.

In the letter, Watkins called that "an improper substitution of the Sixth 
Circuit's view of the law and facts."

Watkins said Fife's murder was "1 of the worst murders in Trumbull County 
history. Everyone in the Mahoning Valley who remembers 1985 will will never 
forget the smiling face of Little Raymond."

Miriam Fife, Raymond's mother, "has been at every court proceeding since her 
son Raymond was kidnapped, tortured, raped and murdered on Sept. 12, 1985," 
including the hearings before the 6th Circuit, Watkins said.

Watkins, who has spoken with several representatives of the attorney general's 
office about the case since the ruling, quoted statistics showing the number of 
times the 6th Circuit has been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, including 
cases in which the death penalty was reinstated.

He said the 6th Circuit wrongly reversed state court rulings in 19 of 24 cases 
before the U.S. Supreme Court between 2012 and 2016.

"The victim's family and the citizens of Trumbull County should not at this 
time be faced with Danny Lee Hill being brought back to a Trumbull County 
courtroom for resentencing when it is unnecessary and for the wrong reason," 
Watkins wrote.

(source: Youngstown Vindicator)

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

Death sentence for Craigslist killer upheld by Ohio Supreme Court



The Ohio Supreme Court on Friday upheld the death sentence of Richard Beasley, 
who posted fake job offers on Craigslist to lure men for him to rob and kill.

Beasley, 58, teamed up with a teenager to use the free classified ad website to 
put up postings promising jobs on a southeastern Ohio farm. He killed Ralph 
Geiger, David Pauley and Timothy Kern. He also shot Scott Davis, who survived.

A Summit County judge sentenced him to death in 2013.

The Ohio Supreme Court voted 7-0 that the evidence presented at trial was 
enough for a jury to convict him and that any errors he alleged either were not 
errors or were harmless.

The justices also voted 6-1 that the death sentence was appropriate. 
Then-Justice Bill O'Neill was the lone dissenter, relying on a dissent he wrote 
in a previous case that said the death penalty is unconstitutional.

"Without question, the aggravating circumstances in this case, Beasley's murder 
of 3 individuals as part of a single course of conduct, outweigh the mitigating 
factors beyond a reasonable doubt," Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor wrote for 
the majority.

Despite his death sentences being upheld, the Ohio Supreme Court sent Beasley's 
case back to Summit County, ruling the judge did not take the proper steps when 
sentencing Beasley for his noncapital convictions.

Donald Gallick, Beasley's attorney, acknowledged that fighting death penalty 
cases in Ohio is difficult. Even designating the re-sentencing as a small 
victory would be "a bit of an overstatement," he said.

He said Beasley will likely ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case.

Brogan Rafferty, Beasley's co-defendant who was 16 years old at the time of the 
killings, is serving life in prison.

(source: cleveland.com)



KANSAS:

Kansas Supreme Court upholds Kahler death sentence



The Supreme Court affirms Kahler's Osage County District Court jury trial 
convictions of aggravated burglary and capital murder for fatally shooting his 
wife, his wife's grandmother, and his 2 daughters.

Kahler raised 10 issues on appeal, including allegations of misconduct by the 
prosecutor and trial judge, challenges to the instructions given to the jury, 
and an argument the death penalty is unconstitutional when applied to a person 
who has a severe mental illness at the time he or she committed a crime.

None of Kahler's arguments convinced the majority of the court to overturn his 
convictions or death sentence.

The majority held that the prosecutor did not commit an error by raising an 
objection during Kahler's attorney's closing argument. Although the majority 
found that the trial judge committed errors during the trial, the majority held 
that none of the errors affected the trial's outcome and, therefore, the errors 
did not justify reversing either the guilty verdict or the death sentence.

Furthermore, the majority reaffirmed the constitutionality of a Kansas statute 
that eliminated the insanity defense, and instead permits a jury to consider 
evidence of a person's mental disease or defect solely to determine whether the 
person possessed the requisite mental state for the crime.

The majority also reaffirmed its prior decision that the Eighth Amendment does 
not categorically prohibit the execution of persons who were severely mentally 
ill when the person committed the murder.

Lastly, the majority concluded there was sufficient evidence that Kahler's 
crime was committed in an especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel manner to 
justify a death sentence.

Justice Dan Biles wrote a concurring opinion, agreeing that Kahler's conviction 
and sentence should be affirmed, but disagreeing with the majority that certain 
comments by the trial judge to the jury should be characterized as judicial 
misconduct.

Justice Lee Johnson wrote a dissenting opinion, contending that the majority 
inadequately analyzed whether the statute removing mental disease or defect as 
a defense is constitutional in a death penalty case.

Furthermore, the dissent agreed that the trial judge's errors did not require 
reversal of Kahler's guilty verdict, but they did warrant giving Kahler a new 
sentencing trial.

Additionally, the dissent rejected the majority's conclusion that the Eighth 
Amendment allows for the execution of the mentally ill.

Lastly, the dissent argued the death penalty violates the Kansas Constitution's 
prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment.

(source: wibwnewsnow.com)








SOUTH DAKOTA:

Man Charged in Sioux Falls Killings Could Face Death Penalty



A man accused in a double homicide in Sioux Falls could face the death penalty.

The Argus Leader reports that 34-year-old Manuel Frias was charged Thursday 
with 1st-degree murder, 2nd-degree murder and 4 counts of manslaughter.

2 other people were arrested for the Jan. 5 shooting deaths of 28-year-old 
Samuel Crockett and 30-year-old Corey Zephier. Maria LeClaire is charged with 
1st-degree robbery and Crystal Habben is charged with misprision of a felony.

Police say the drug-related incident happened outside an apartment building. 
Crockett was allegedly being held up by Zephier when Crockett grabbed his gun 
from his waistband and shot Zephier. Police say Frias then shot Crockett.

Authorities arrested Frias on Jan. 16, after a 3-hour standoff in Nebraska 
involving 2 police departments, 2 sheriff's offices and federal law 
enforcement.

(source: Associated Press)








UTAH:

New study of Utah's use of the death penalty suggests life without parole costs 
less, prompts another call to abolish capital punishment



A group of Utah attorneys, advocates and state staff have spent the last year 
studying the state's death penalty. The working group, created by Utah's 
Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, examined several areas, including 
costs, aggravating factors and public attitude.

The CCJJ report, released Friday, noted there were "fundamental difficulties 
inherent in analyzing death penalty policy." The group did not make any 
recommendations or proposed changes to Utah's current capital punishment 
system.

But a group called Utah Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty said 
the report shows that a significant amount of money has been spent seeking 
death sentences without much in return. They called on lawmakers to abolish 
capital punishment in Utah.

"This report should give pause to anyone who thought that because capital 
punishment is so rarely used in Utah that the cost of maintaining a death 
penalty would be negligible," director Kevin Greene said in a statement. "... 
The millions of dollars that we have been wasting on the death penalty should 
either be returned to the taxpayers in the form of a tax cut or used for crime 
prevention or to help victims of crime."

Here's what the study found:

Costs

Cost estimates for the price of the death penalty in Utah are limited, the 
group noted. Legislative analysts in 2012 estimated that a death sentence and 
decades of appeals costs $1.6 million more than a life-without-parole sentence.

Another more recent report estimated that Utah and its counties have spent 
almost $40 million to prosecute the 165 death-penalty eligible cases that have 
been filed in the last 2 decades. Only 2 cases in that time have resulted in a 
death sentence.

The CCJJ group also looked at studies in 15 other states - where costs ranged 
from a $136,000 estimate in Arizona in 2001 to a $1.5 million estimate in 
Nebraska in 2017 - and noted that Utah's estimates are "consistent with 
national findings." All of those estimates, the CCJJ report says, concluded 
that a life-without-parole sentence costs less than a death sentence.

Legislators are currently considering a bill requesting that legislative 
auditors conduct a more in-depth study of death penalty costs in Utah to 
determine whether it's cheaper to instead give a prisoner a life sentence.

Aggravating factors

Utah currently has over 60 aggravating factors in the homicide law that allow 
prosecutors to seek the death penalty - and state lawmakers are contemplating 
adding even more. At a recent legislative hearing, some expressed concern that 
Utah may have too many crimes that qualify for the death penalty, and that an 
appeals court could torpedo the capital punishment law for being too broad.

In the CCJJ report, the group noted that they could not come to an agreement 
about whether the number of aggravating factors should be limited. They noted 
that most states rarely remove aggravating factors - and instead have been 
adding more through the years.

The public's attitude

The working group looked at several polls about Utahns??? attitude toward the 
death penalty, noting that there have been conflicting results. 2 polls showed 
Utahns support the death penalty, while two others showed less support for 
execution in favor of life-without-parole sentences. The group concluded it was 
"probably reasonable to suggest simply that public support for the death 
penalty in Utah is declining over previous highs."

Utah legislators came close to outlawing the death penalty in 2016 - but the 
bill never reached the House floor before the midnight deadline on the last 
night of session.

Criminal justice reforms groups have said another push to end capital 
punishment in Utah is likely during this legislative session - though a bill to 
abolish it has not yet been public.

Since 2010, Utah prosecutors have filed 119 aggravated murder cases, according 
to Utah court data. Such cases can result in punishments of 25 years to life, 
life in prison without the possibility of parole, or death.

Only 1 of those cases - a retrial of a 1993 case - resulted in a death 
sentence.

Of the 9 men currently on Utah's death row, 2 were originally convicted as long 
ago as 1985. All but 1 of the rest were convicted before 1999, although 1 case 
was retried in 2015 and resulted in a 2nd capital murder conviction. All 9 have 
ongoing appeals underway in state or federal court.

The last execution was carried out in 2010, when Ronnie Lee Gardner was 
executed by firing squad for the 1984 murder of Michael Burdell, a Salt Lake 
City lawyer, during Gardner's failed escape attempt from the 3rd District 
courthouse.

(source: Salt Lake Tribune)

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

Support for the death penalty waning in Utah, study says



A new study about the costs and public opinions concerning the death penalty in 
Utah suggests support for capital punishment may be waning in the state.

But perhaps more than anything, the study released Friday by the state's 
Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice highlights the complexities of 
trying to evaluate the expense and impact of the death penalty.

>From June 2016 to July 2017, the 13-person working group considered the costs 
and public opinions associated with the death penalty, as well as the 
aggravating factors that push a crime to a capital level, victims' rights and 
practices in other states.

In most of the areas it focused on, the working group came up inconclusive.

While Utahns have traditionally viewed the death penalty favorably, the study 
notes, 5 polls about the issue over the past 3 years yielded somewhat 
inconsistent results.

Three polls by Dan Jones & Associates, an in-state pollster, showed half to 
two-thirds of Utahns surveyed favor the death penalty, the study states. 
However, 2 polls by Public Policy Polling, an out-of-state company, showed less 
support for the death penalty, with more than 1/2 of respondents supporting 
replacing it.

Based on those findings, the working group concluded, "It is probably 
reasonable to suggest simply that public support for the death penalty in Utah 
is declining over previous highs, based on national data and consistently lower 
support from younger respondents in the Utah polls."

Regarding the costs of death penalty cases in Utah, the study pointed to 2 
previous evaluations. The Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers found 
last year that over 20 years, the state spent nearly $40 million prosecuting 
165 death-penalty eligible cases, 2 of which ended in executions.

That translates to an extra $237,900 spent on each case as compared to a murder 
case, the study states.

A 2012 evaluation by the Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst estimated 
that from trial to execution, a death penalty case in Utah costs nearly $1.7 
million more than a case ending instead in life in prison without parole, the 
commission's study notes.

The findings prompted Utah Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty to 
call Friday for lawmakers to take a closer look at the costs of capital 
punishment in the state.

"This report should give pause to anyone who thought that because capital 
punishment is so rarely used in Utah that the cost of maintaining a death 
penalty would be negligible," said Kevin Greene, the organization's state 
director. "We have been spending tons of money without much in return and we 
hope lawmakers will closely examine the report and agree that the death penalty 
is anything but fiscally conservative."

The Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice study did not reach any 
conclusions regarding limiting or expanding aggravating factors that would make 
a case eligible for the death penalty. It also did not make any findings about 
the impacts on the rights of victims in capital cases, and noted without 
further conclusion that states across the nation are moving away from the death 
penalty.

(source: Deseret News)








ARIZONA:

Vail man could face death penalty in deaths of wife, daughter



A Vail man accused of killing his wife and daughter last week could face the 
death penalty in the case.

Hernando Enriquez, 44, was charged with 1st-degree murder when he appeared in 
court Friday morning. He was booked into the Pima County Jail on Thursday 
night.

Enriquez is accused of killing his wife, Sandra Enriquez, 44, and daughter, 
Isabelle Enriquez, 15.

He is being held without bond, and is forbidden contact with his 17-year-old 
son, whom he also attacked, police said. Enriquez also faces attempted murder 
charges in the case.

His next court appearance will be Feb. 20.

(source: KVOA news)