[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., GA., FLA.

Fri Feb 16 08:12:44 CST 2018

Feb. 16

TEXAS----impending execution

Urgent Action

FATHER APPEALS FOR SON'S LIFE TO BE SPARED

Thomas Whitaker, aged 38, is due to be executed in Texas on 22 February. He was 
convicted in 2007 of the murder of his mother and brother in a shooting in 
which his father was badly wounded but survived. The father is appealing for 
clemency for his son.

Write a letter, send an email, call, fax or tweet:

* Calling on the Texas authorities to commute the death sentence of Thomas 
Whitaker;

* Noting support for clemency from inmates, guards, and the prisoner's father, 
also a victim of the crime;

* Noting that the actual gunman received a life sentence and the very troubling 
claims surrounding the prosecution's alleged solicitation of the defendant's 
confession and its use in arguing for a death sentence.

Friendly reminder: If you send an email, please create your own instead of 
forwarding this one!

Contact these 2 officials by 22 February, 2018:

Clemency Section, Board of Pardons and Paroles

8610 Shoal Creek Blvd.

Austin, Texas 78757-6814, USA

Fax: +1 512 467 0945

Email: bpp-pio at tdcj.state.tx.us

Salutation: Dear Board members

Governor Greg Abbott

Office of the Governor

P.O. Box 12428

Austin, Texas 78711-2428, USA

Fax: +1 512 463 1849

Contact Form: https://gov.texas.gov/apps/contact/opinion.aspx

Salutation: Dear Governor

(source: Amnesty International USA)

PENNSYLVANIA:

DA to seek death penalty against man accused of killing ex-girlfriend

The Allegheny County district attorney plans to seek the death penalty for a 
man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend.

Matthew Darby is charged with criminal homicide, burglary, theft by unlawful 
taking and avoiding apprehension charges in connection with the death of Alina 
.

The University of Pittsburgh student was killed inside her Oakland home on Oct. 
8.

Darby was served with a PFA that Sheykhet took out against him just 2 days 
before her murder.

The former Pitt-Greensburg basketball player was on the run for several days 
until his capture in Myrtle Beach S.C.

Sheyhet's parents released a statement on the DA's decision:

"The Sheykhet family was asked for their input relative to DA Zappala's 
decision to seek the death penalty against Matthew Darby and they are in 
support of his decision."

(source: WPXI news)

NORTH CAROLINA:

NC prosecutors to seek death penalty in Mariah Woods case

The state intends to seek the death penalty in the case against Earl Kimrey, 
the boyfriend of Mariah Woods' mother.

That's according to District Attorney Ernie Lee. He said the state also intends 
to declare the 1st-degree murder case as capital.

Kimrey is facing charges of 1st-degree murder, felony child abuse inflicting 
serious bodily injury, felony common law obstruction of justice, felony 
concealment of death, 2nd degree burglary, felony larceny, and felony 
possession of stolen property.

Kimrey, whose full name is Adolphus Earl Kimrey II, was initially charged on 
December 2 with obstruction of justice, concealing an unattended death, 
possession of stolen goods, 2nd-degree burglary and larceny after breaking and 
entering.

Kimrey's court date was set for February 14 but he did not appear in court. 
Still, a small crowd gathered outside Wednesday morning to make sure all who 
passed by would know Mariah Woods is not forgotten.

Each of the community members who stood outside held balloons in various shades 
of pink. It's a color that's become synonymous with the toddler.

It's been nearly 3 months since Mariah went missing, and mothers like Heather 
Stevens gathered to show their love for her.

"She should be here celebrating with her family and with her brothers," Stevens 
said. "She should be here for every day and every occasion."

Also out front, Mariah's paternal grandmother, Debra Woods. She says the family 
is holding up, and wouldn't comment on Kristy Woods, except to say that she 
hadn't spoken with her.

"People are helping with the cause and it means a lot to know she's touched so 
many people without even knowing them," Debra Woods said.

Justice is all they want and Woods says she will continue to organize these 
peaceful demonstrations until it is served.

Kimrey has been in custody in the Onslow County Detention Center with no bond.

Kimrey's next court appearance in Onslow County Superior Court is scheduled for 
February 26.

(source: WAVY TV news)

GEORGIA:

State seeks death penalty in Foster re-trial

The state is seeking the death penalty in the re-trial of a man whose 1987 
murder conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016.

Preliminary hearings began Thursday in the trial of 50-year-old Timothy Tyrone 
Foster, who entered a not guilty plea to charges of murder and burglary. A date 
in mid-June has been set as the deadline for both sides to file motions in 
Floyd County Superior Court. Additional hearings could be held before that 
time.

Foster was sentenced to death for the murder of retired school teacher Queen 
Madge White during a 1986 burglary at her home at Highland Circle - he was 18 
at the time.

The 79-year-old White was first found by her sister the morning after the 
incident. She had a broken jaw and a gash on top of her head, and had been 
molested before being strangled to death.

In May 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Foster's conviction on the 
grounds of black jurors being excluded from his original trial. Then-district 
attorney Steve Lanier struck off all 4 black jurors before the trial. By filing 
an open records request for the prosecutors' trial notes, Foster's lawyers had 
discovered the exclusion.

"The focus on race in the prosecution's file plainly demonstrates a concerted 
effort to keep black prospective jurors off the jury," Chief Justice John 
Roberts wrote.

The Georgia Supreme Court had backed a 1987 ruling in Floyd County Superior 
Court that found Lanier had race-neutral reasons for striking the jurors.

This exclusion offered Foster a path for an appeal, despite him confessing to 
the crime when police found stolen items from White's house at his own 
residence.

On Thursday, Judge Billy Sparks read over the unified appeal, hitting each 
point on a checklist. The defense, led by Christian Lamar of the Georgia Public 
Defender Council, left its options open for challenges.

Sparks reminded lawyers that even with the re-arraignment of Foster, the case 
does not begin anew. With both sides still in the discovery stage, Sparks said, 
"I do realize this is a 30-year-old case and no one has been on this case," as 
they answered his questions.

Foster is currently being held without bond in Floyd County Jail, which he was 
moved to from the state's death row in Jackson in March 2017.

(source: Rome News-Tribune)

FLORIDA----impending execution

Florida Supreme Court denies Eric Branch's appeal; execution to take place next 
week

A final state appeal by death row inmate Eric Branch to stay his execution was 
denied by the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday, paving the way for the 
execution to take place Feb. 22.

Branch, who is convicted of killing University of West Florida student Susan 
Morris in 1993, has been on death row since his conviction in 1994.

Circuit Judge Edward P. Nickinson, who also oversaw Branch's jury trial, denied 
his appeal earlier this month, and Branch then appealed to the Florida Supreme 
Court.

The basis of the argument was the same in both courts: that Branch's nearly 25 
years on death row constituted cruel and unusual punishment and that when he 
committed the crime at age 21, his cognitive development was still at the level 
of a juvenile offender and he should have been treated as such.

The state Supreme Court denied both of those claims.

A State Attorney's Office news release issued Wednesday states Branch will most 
likely appeal that decision to the federal courts, but Wednesday's state 
Supreme Court opinion concludes the state court appeal process.

(source: Pensacola News Journal)

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

Former death row inmate seeks release for 1981 double murder in Glades

Nearly 40 years after newlyweds from Miami were fatally shot while on a hunting 
trip in western Palm Beach County, their anguished family returned to a county 
courtroom on Thursday to beg a judge not to let the couple's killer go free.

For more than 2 hours, the families of John and Gail Hardeman relived their 
initial pain of finding out the couple had been murdered and then described the 
agony that still grips their lives.

"We all have PTSD and we will always have PTSD," Lisa Hardeman Dunn, the 
youngest of John Hardeman???s three siblings, told Circuit Judge Laura Johnson. 
"The fact that we are here today is unfathomable."

"I'm so broken by this," said Vicki Autorino, the younger sister of Gail 
Hardeman. "There's no coping. Here I sit all these years later in a prison of 
my own. I'm tired of coming back to this, coming back to this and coming back 
to this. It feels like we're being molested."

What brought the family back to court is the couple's killer, Cleo LeCroy. 
After spending 37 years behind bars, including nearly 2 decades on Florida's 
death row, LeCroy is trying to take advantage of back-to-back U.S. Supreme 
Court rulings that struck down as unconstitutional sentencing juveniles to life 
with no chance for parole.

While LeCroy is now 54 with glasses and graying hair, he was 17 in January 1981 
when he shot John Hardeman, 27, in the head and then shot 24-year-old Gail 
Hardeman in the head, neck and chest when he met them while his family was on a 
hunting trip at what was then known as Brown's Farm, about 12 miles south of 
Belle Glade.

Sexually abused as a child, LeCroy is a poster child for the high court's 2010 
and 2012 decisions, said West Palm Beach attorney James Eisenberg, who has been 
representing LeCroy since 1981.

In its rulings - first outlawing life-without-parole sentences for juveniles 
who commit crimes other than murder, and later for those who commit murder - 
the high court said juveniles must be given special consideration because their 
brains aren't fully developed, which makes them impetuous and unable to fully 
comprehend the consequences of their actions.

Most important, Eisenberg said, the court ruled that because their brains are 
developing, juveniles are amenable to rehabilitation. In state laws passed in 
response to the high court's decisions, juveniles are entitled to have their 
sentences reviewed after 25 years to determine whether they are fit to return 
to society.

Since entering the state prison system in 1986, LeCroy has received only 1 
disciplinary reports and none in the past 11 years. Ron McAndrew, a former 
state prison warden who now works as a consultant, called LeCroy's clean record 
"extraordinary."

"I may have seen a record this good once before in the last 35 to 36 years," he 
told Johnson.

Further, LeCroy has worked to better himself, Eisenberg said. He earned his 
high school diploma and dozens of certificates for completing programs ranging 
from Bible study to character-building to health classes. "It was a sincere 
desire to better himself," Eisenberg said, explaining that, unlike other 
inmates, those serving life sentences don't earn gain time for taking 
self-improvement classes.

Assistant State Attorney Andrew Slater, like members of the Hardeman couple's 
family, bristled at the notion that LeCroy should be lauded for taking classes.

"He's already received more breaks than anyone could receive," Slater said. But 
for a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision, LeCroy would likely be dead, he said.

Gov. Bob Martinez in 1990 signed a death warrant for LeCroy. As his appeals 
made their way through state and federal courts, the Supreme Court outlawed the 
death penalty for juveniles. LeCroy's death sentence was immediately commuted 
to 2 life sentences.

Matthew Hardeman, who was 3 1/2 when his father and stepmother were murdered, 
could barely speak through sobs as he tried to describe the effect the loss has 
had on his life. His older brother, Charles, couldn't bear to attend the 
hearing.

"I hope the court does the right thing and never releases this evil human being 
back into society," he said in a letter read by his mother, Kathy Nichols, 
Hardeman's 1st wife.

Struggling to maintain his composure, Hardeman's younger brother, David, echoed 
his nephew's words. "A lot of people talk about 2nd chances," he said. "Well, 
he got a 2nd chance. He was supposed to be executed. ... He needs to rot in 
hell - and that's jail - and never get out."

Johnson said she will schedule another hearing next month to hear legal 
arguments from the attorneys. Then she will make her decision.

(source: Palm Beach Post)

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

Suspects in botched murder-for-hire plot will face death penalty----3 suspects 
charged with 1st-degree murder

The Orange-Osceola state attorney's office will seek the death penalty against 
the 3 people accused of being involved in an alleged murder-for-hire plot, 
according to court records obtained by News 6.

All of the notices have 5 aggravating factors including the capital felony 
being "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel."

Prosecutor Christopher Smith filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty 
Wednesday against Glorianmarie Quinones Montes, Alexis Ramos-Rivera and Ishnar 
Lopez-Ramos.

Investigators say Lopez-Ramos viewed another woman as a romantic rival, so she 
hired Ramos-Rivera, and his girlfriend Montes to kill the woman.

However, they mistook Janice Zengotita-Torres, 42, of Kissimmee, for the 
intended victim and killed her instead, according to Osceola County Sheriff 
Russ Gibson.

Gibson said the suspects followed Zengotita-Torres after she left work at Ross 
the night of Jan. 7 and accosted her when she got home. They forced her into 
the trunk of her own vehicle, officials said.

>From there, they went to an apartment near the Mall at Millennia. Deputies said 
Montes went inside the apartment while Lopez-Ramos and Ramos-Rivera stayed in 
the vehicle with Zengotita-Torres.

Gibson said that's when Lopez-Ramos and Ramos-Rivera realized they had abducted 
the wrong person, but decided to continue with their plan.

The suspects tied Zengotita-Torres with zip ties, covered her head with a 
garbage bag then Ramos-Rivera beat her until she was unconscious, according to 
authorities.

"The suspects showed no regard for this victim, causing her to die from 
suffocation because the garbage bags were wrapped around her head," Gibson 
said.

The suspects drove Zengotita-Torres' vehicle, with her body in it, to Ormond 
Beach and left her body near the intersection on Bennett Lane where she was 
found shortly before 9 a.m. Jan. 8 by a Spectrum employee who was doing work in 
the area, according to officials.

Zengotita-Torres' vehicle was later found in Orange County, Gibson said.

"The heinous murder of one of our own citizens will not be tolerated in Osceola 
County," Gibson said.

Lopez-Ramos was arrested while using Zengotita-Torres' card to withdraw cash 
from an ATM in the area, according to authorities. Gibson said she was wearing 
Zengotita-Torres' clothing when she was arrested.

She confessed and implicated Montes and Ramos-Rivera, who were arrested at a 
hotel in Orange County.

"All three confirmed that this was a murder-for-hire and that the victim was 
mistakenly -- again, mistakenly -- targeted and murdered as being the person 
they thought was the intended victim," Gibson said.

He described Zengotita-Torres as a truly innocent victim who had no involvement 
with the three suspects. He said she moved to Osceola County from Puerto Rico a 
year ago and lived with her husband, her 14-year-old son and her mother.

Gibson became emotional when discussing the case with reporters Friday evening. 
He described it as one of the most bizarre and heinous crimes he's investigated 
during his time in law enforcement.

"It was just a mistaken identity, I don't say that lightly, that this woman 
lost her life for no reason. This mother, this wife, this daughter -- for no 
reason, at all," Gibson said.

Montes, Ramos and Rivera are charged with 1st-degree murder.

The woman who was the intended target of the murder-for-hire plot has been 
notified about the scheme against her but has denied protective services, 
deputies said.

All of the defendants had arraignments Thursday.

(source: clickorlando.com)

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

Supreme Court upholds death sentence in Leesburg murder

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the death sentence of a man 
convicted of murdering a security guard in Leesburg in 2001.

A jury in 2004 unanimously recommended the death penalty for Quawn Franklin, 
now 40. Franklin was convicted of murdering security guard Jerry Lawley in 
December 2001. He also confessed to carjacking and murdering a pizza delivery 
man, John Horan.

Franklin had already been sentenced to 10 years in prison for a robbery in 1993 
and was on conditional release when he committed the murders, records show.

"I got scared - paranoid - and I pulled the trigger" on Horan, Franklin told 
the Orlando Sentinel in a 2002 jailhouse interview. "I never expected it. I was 
surprised that I did that."

During Franklin's trial, Florida law did not require jurors to be unanimous 
when recommending a death sentence - a method the U.S. Supreme Court found 
unconstitutional in 2016. Florida courts have since overturned many 
non-unanimous death sentences, but the state's Supreme Court ruled Thursday 
that Franklin's sentence can stand because his jury was unanimous.

(source: Orlando Sentinel)