[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, IND., TENN., OKLA., ARIZ., CALIF., WASH., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 16




OHIO:

Death penalty indictment filed for suspect in kidnapping, rape, and murder of 
Rachael Anderson



The Franklin County Prosecutor says a death penalty indictment has been filed 
against 53-year-old Anthony Pardon, who is suspected of raping and killing 
24-year-old Rachael Anderson.

Pardon, a registered sex offender, faces charges including aggravated murder, 
aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, kidnapping, and rape. The indictment 
also includes a combination of several specifications, according to the 
prosecutor's office: Felony murder (death penalty specifications), repeat 
attempted murder, sexually violent predator, and repeat violent offender 
specifications.

The repeat violent offender specifications in the indictment are based on a 
prior aggravated robbery, rape and attempted murder conviction from 1982, 
according to the prosecutor's office.

Anderson, an aspiring funeral director, was found dead in the closet of her 
apartment the day after her 24th birthday.

She was nearing the end of her apprenticeship at the Shaw-Davis Funeral Homes 
at the time of her death. She was also on the verge of becoming the business' 
1st funeral director not from the Shaw family.

(source: WCMH news)








INDIANA:

Court rules against death row inmate Roy Lee Ward



The Indiana Supreme Court issued an opinion Tuesday upholding a lower court's 
dismissal of a complaint filed by death row inmate Roy Lee Ward.

Ward had challenged procedures followed by the Indiana Department of Correction 
when they announced a change to the lethal injection protocol. Ward, who was 
from the Perry County town of Leopold, was 29 when he raped and murdered 
15-year-old Stacy Payne at her Dale-area home.

In May 2014, the Department of Correction announced it would alter the 3-drug 
combination used for executions, replacing sodium thiopental with Brevital - a 
barbituate anesthetic in the same class.

On Dec. 22, 2015, Roy Lee Ward filed a complaint in the LaPorte Circuit Court 
against the Department of Correction alleging that the change to the lethal 
injection protocol violated his rights under the Indiana Administrative Rules 
and Procedures Act, among other rights. The trial court in LaPorte County 
granted the state's request to dismiss the complaint, a decision that was later 
reversed by the Indiana Court of Appeals before winding up in the Indiana 
Supreme Court.

In a unanimous decision written by Justice Christopher Goff, the Court held 
that the Department of Correction's lethal injection procedures do not 
constitute rules and are exempt from the rule-making restrictions of the ARPA. 
Since the Department's lethal injection protocol does not require Ward to alter 
his conduct in any way, it does not have the effect of law, the court wrote.

Ward, 45, remains on death row at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City 
where he has been since 2007.

He was first convicted and sentenced to death in 2002, but the Indiana Supreme 
Court reversed the conviction in 2004 because of pretrial publicity. Ward was 
retried, convicted and again sentenced to death in 2007. His convictions and 
sentence have thus far been affirmed on appeal in courts.

Spencer County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Wilkinson said he was pleased with the 
latest ruling.

"There is bitter irony in Roy Ward arguing against the method to be used in his 
execution," Wilkinson said. "Having been involved in the 1st trial and serving 
as co-counsel in the re-trial, I will never be able to forget the horrific 
images of what he did to Stacy Payne nor the innocent life he so coldly and 
brutally took away from her in July 2001.

"During the 2nd trial, Ward's own psychological expert testified that he was a 
psychopath incapable of feeling empathy or remorse. I am pleased that this 
particular hurdle to imposition of Ward's sentence has now been removed."

Having exhausted all of the normal appeals, Wilkinson said, it is his 
understanding is that the Department of Correction will proceed developing 
their new lethal injection protocol at which time the Indiana Supreme Court 
will set Ward's execution date.

"If there is only 1 case or 1 defendant where the death penalty is called for," 
Wilkinson said, "this is that case."

(source: duboiscountyherald.com)








TENNESSEE:

Attorney general: Tennessee should set 8 executions before June 1, when drug 
availability becomes 'uncertain'



The Tennessee attorney general wants the state Supreme Court to schedule 8 
death sentences before June 1, when the availability of lethal injection drugs 
would become "uncertain."

The proposed ramp up in Tennessee executions signals a potentially massive 
shift for a state that hasn't put someone to death since 2009.

"Years of delay between sentencing and execution undermines confidence in our 
criminal justice system," Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery wrote in a 
court document filed Thursday.

"Because there is no legal basis to deny or further delay the setting of new 
execution dates in these cases, the State of Tennessee requests that the court 
set the executions in these cases for dates before June 1, 2018."

In 2017, the general counsel for the Tennessee Department of Correction said 
the state did not have the drugs needed to carry out an execution but could get 
them if they were needed.

"The state, through the Department of Correction, is required by law to carry 
out executions by lethal injection; however, its ability to do so after June 1, 
2018 is uncertain due to the ongoing difficulty in obtaining the necessary 
lethal injection chemicals," reads the statement from the office of the 
attorney general.

Supreme Court spokeswoman Barbara Peck confirmed the high court received 
Slatery's filing.

"In all of these cases, previous execution dates have been set and the 
defendants have completed the 3-tier appeals process: direct appeal, 
post-conviction relief, and federal habeas corpus. The motion will be reviewed 
and the court will issue an order with its decision," Peck said Thursday 
afternoon.

Controversies around the country show a three-drug combination Tennessee is 
prepared to use may leave witnesses scarred and death row offenders in pain - 
and alive.

Documents obtained in January by the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee show the 
state has a new protocol for what drugs it will use to put inmates to death. A 
supplier of those drugs also warned the state they may not actually stop 
inmates from feeling pain before they die, according to emails also obtained.

The issues already prompted a legal challenge and will likely spur death 
penalty critics to characterize the use of the drugs as unconstitutional cruel 
and unusual punishment.

Lethal injection is the primary means of carrying out the death penalty in 
Tennessee, although the electric chair is also legal. The state had used 
pentobarbital, a barbituate, but manufacturers have largely stopped selling the 
drug to anyone using it for executions.

In January, the Supreme Court and Tennessee Department of Correction confirmed 
3 execution dates had been set for 2018.

2 of the inmates have additional avenues for appeal, while the 3rd - a Knox 
County man who has spent more than 3 decades on death row - has fewer remaining 
paths to avert execution this year.

That man - Billy Ray Irick, a 59-year-old convicted of the 1985 rape and murder 
of a 7-year-old girl - is set to be executed Aug. 9.

The 8 inmates referenced in Slatery's court request are:

Donnie Johnson, Shelby County: Convicted in 1985 of killing his wife.

Stephen Michael West, Union County: Convicted in 1987 of kidnapping, rape and 
murder.

Edmund Zagorski, Robertson County: Convicted in 1984 of murdering 2 people.

Leroy Hall, Hamilton County: Convicted in 1992 of murder and aggravated arson.

Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman, Davidson County: Convicted in 1987 of murder.

Charles Walton Wright, Davidson County: Convicted in 1985 of 2 murders.

Nicholas Todd Sutton, Morgan County: Convicted in 1986 of murder.

David Earl Miller, Knox County: Convicted in 1982 of murder.

There are 60 people on death row in Tennessee.

(source: The Tennessean)








OKLAHOMA:

Oklahoma Court Overturns Death Sentence for Convicted Killer



An appeals court has overturned the death sentence given to a 30-year-old man 
convicted of hiring someone to kill his estranged, pregnant wife.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals handed down the decision Thursday to 
Fabion Brown, who represented himself during a trial in Oklahoma County where 
he was convicted of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to death for 
the 2012 killings of his wife, Jessica Brown, and her fetus.

The court upheld the convictions but set aside the death sentence and ordered a 
new sentencing hearing. The court ruled Brown wasn't aware of his rights when 
he refused to be represented by an attorney during the penalty phase of his 
trial.

Brown's appellate attorneys, Bobby Lewis and Jamie Pybas, didn't immediately 
return a telephone call seeking comment.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Jurors choose death penalty for Bethany man who fatally beat his 
ex-girlfriend's 2-year-old son



Jurors Thursday chose death as punishment for a remorseless Bethany man who 
fatally beat his ex-girlfriend's 2-year-old son while babysitting in 2015.

The Oklahoma County jurors reached their decision in only 1 hour.

Dustin Melvin Davison, 25, showed no reaction as District Judge Cindy Truong 
announced the verdict. Davison hung his head as deputies handcuffed him and 
escorted him from the courtroom.

Afterward, relatives of the victim, Kreedin Paul Brooks, cried and embraced 
outside the courtroom. With tears in her eyes, the child's mother, Jennifer 
Young, also gave long hugs to the prosecutors.

"It's just a tragic, tragic case. This child suffered an indescribably painful 
and horrific death. And justice was done today," Assistant District Attorney 
Gayland Gieger told The Oklahoman.

Gieger said Davison has shown no remorse.

"There's no doubt in my mind that the jury made note of that and that factored 
into their decision," the prosecutor said.

Jurors also learned that Davison, while in jail awaiting trial, had the 
victim's name and the word "autopsy" tattooed on his right arm.

On Monday, the jury found Davison guilty of 1st-degree murder in the fatal 
beating. On Thursday, jurors chose the death sentence on grounds that the 
murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, and that Davison would be a 
continuing threat to society.

"On May 18, 2015, Dustin Davison made the choice to brutally beat a 2-year-old 
child to death," Assistant District Attorney Kelly Collins told the jury during 
closing arguments Thursday.

Collins then said she'll never know how many times Davison punched or beat the 
boy that day.

"But what we do know is the extent of Kreedin Brooks' injuries," the prosecutor 
said.

The child had a skull fracture, brain bleeding, a broken jawbone and 49 bruises 
below the neck.

After his arrest, Davison gave a dozen different accounts to investigators of 
how the child became injured in his care. Jurors were shown those recorded 
interrogations during the trial.

In one story, he said the boy was injured during a pillow fight. In another, he 
said the child fell off a 2nd-story balcony while he was sleeping. At one 
point, Davison even confesses to slamming the child's head to the floor.

Davison also testified during the trial, telling a 13th story about what 
happened. He testified a friend he sold drugs to beat the boy to death inside a 
Bethany apartment he shared with his ex-girlfriend. He claimed the friend 
killed the boy while he was high on meth in the bathroom.

There was no evidence of meth, a drug transaction or the friend at the 
apartment that day, according to prosecutors.

Even though the couple had broken up, Davison agreed to babysit Kreedin while 
Young was at work. Prosecutors alleged Davison may have beaten the child 
because he was angry Young was dating again.

During closing arguments Thursday, defense attorney Melanie Freeman-Johnson 
told the jury that Davison's actions that day were "out of the blue." She also 
said Davison wasn't in his right mind.

"No one saw anything like this coming," Freeman-Johnson said. "It's not who he 
is. There was something going on with him. Something was infecting him."

The defense attorney urged the jury not to choose the death penalty, calling 
the punishment "inappropriate" for the case.

(source: The Oklahoman)








ARIZONA:

Death Penalty Not Sought in Trial of Arizona Girl's Murder----State prosecutors 
say they're no longer seeking the death penalty for a man charged with killing 
an 8-year-old girl in Bullhead City in 2014.



The death penalty is no longer being sought for a man charged with killing an 
8-year-old girl in Bullhead City, state prosecutors said Thursday.

In a motion filed in Mohave County Superior Court, prosecutors withdrew the 
state's notice to seek the death penalty for Justin James Rector but said they 
still intend to seek a 1st-degree murder conviction whenever his long-delayed 
trial is held.

Rector, of Bullhead City, is charged with 1st-degree murder, kidnapping, child 
abuse and abandonment of a dead body in the September 2014 death of Isabella 
Grogan-Cannella.

Authorities say he strangled the girl. Her partially clothed body was found in 
a shallow grave near her Bullhead City home.

A police detective testified in a 2016 court hearing for Rector that there also 
was evidence the girl was sexually assaulted.

Prosecutors said last year that case has been stalled because the defense 
failed to provide Rector's mental health records and its completed witness 
interviews.

Rector's former lead defense attorney also withdrew from the case in July 2017 
after becoming aware of an ethical conflict of interest.

Prosecutors, who filed their intent to seek the death penalty against Rector in 
November 2014, said there were many reasons for their decision to withdraw it.

"The anticipated soonest trial date in this case will be 10 years after the 
events charged," County Attorney Matthew Smith wrote, adding there was "no 
realistic speedy resolution" for the families of the victim or the tight-knit 
community.

Smith said that even if the state was successful in the death penalty phase, 
"there is no reasonable likelihood of the death penalty actually being imposed 
in a realistic and efficient timeframe given the current state of affairs 
surrounding persons sentenced to death."

(source: Associated Press)




CALIFORNIA----new death sentence

Man gets death penalty in California homeless camp murders



A gang member has been sentenced to death for murdering 5 people at a Southern 
California homeless camp in 2008 and a separate killing.

City News Service says the penalty imposed Thursday on 37-year-old David Cruz 
Ponce was recommended by a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury in October.

2 women and 3 men were found shot to death in November 2008 at a homeless camp 
in Long Beach. The killings remained unsolved until police announced arrests in 
2012 and said the motive was drug debts owed by 1 victim to Ponce.

Co-defendant Max Eliseo Rafael was also convicted in the camp killings and was 
sentenced earlier this year to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Ponce was also convicted of murdering a man in Lancaster in 2009.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Gang member sentenced to death for mass killing at Long Beach homeless camp, 
Lancaster execution



A Watts gang member was sentenced to death Thursday morning for murdering 6 
people, including 5 victims at a Long Beach homeless encampment more than 9 
years ago in what became one of the city's worst mass killings.

David Ponce, 38, stayed silent during his hearing, only looking over at his 
family and saying "Love you guys," as he was led into the courtroom.

As she handed down the sentence, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge 
Charlaine F. Olmedo said Ponce's embrace of a gang lifestyle led him down a 
perilous, and ultimately deadly, path.

"All the people you murdered, regardless of their station in life, had hopes, 
dreams, loves and family," she said.

During trial, Olmedo heard Ponce describe the killings in his own words when 
prosecutors played recordings of him and a co-defendant bragging about the 
murders behind bars.

On Thursday, Olmedo referenced those tapes, telling Ponce that his crimes were 
horrific.

"And your glee in the number and manner of each victim's demise is distorted 
and shocking," Olmedo said.

In September, jurors convicted Ponce and 32-year-old Max Rafael of murdering 
44-year-old Lorenzo Villicana, 24-year-old Katherine Verdun, 34-year-old 
Vanessa Malaepule, 53-year-old Frederick Neumeier and 41-year-old Hamid "Sammy" 
Shraifat in Long Beach on Nov. 1, 2008.

On that night, Ponce and Rafael, who were both members of the Nuthood Watts 
gang, were looking specifically for Villicana at the encampment, which was 
tucked into the brush near Santa Fe Avenue and the 405 Freeway, authorities 
said.

After executing Villicana, the gang members killed the 4 others simply because 
they witnessed what happened, Deputy District Attorney Cyndi Barnes said.

Ponce was also convicted of a 6th murder.

"Because 5 was not enough he decided he needed to kill again," Barnes said as 
trial began in September.

Jurors found him guilty of executing 18-year-old Tony Bledsoe around the 
Lancaster area in March 2009.

Prosecutors said Bledsoe had been selling marijuana for Ponce but when he 
missed a payment, Ponce kidnapped him and shot him in the desert where he left 
his body.

The recordings of Ponce and Rafael behind bars ended up being key evidence at 
their trial.

Investigators had a jailhouse informant begin making the recordings after the 2 
men were arrested in 2010 on charges unrelated to the killings, authorities 
said.

In 1 of the tapes, Ponce says they went to the homeless encampment in 2008 
because Villicana had "turned state's evidence against his homie," according to 
prosecutors.

In another recording, 1 of the defendants describes how he shot someone that 
night.

"I hit his ass like 6 times, fool," a voice on the tape says. "I emptied a 
whole clip out. I had an 18-shot clip, 17 shot."

At trial, Ponce's attorney argued he was lying in the recordings. Ponce was 
falsely bragging to try to gain status behind bars, according to defense 
attorney Robert Schwartz.

The informant also plied Ponce with pruno, a jailhouse-brewed alcohol, Schwartz 
argued.

Prosecutors countered this by saying Ponce described the killings accurately 
and in detail.

In Bledsoe's case, Ponce said he made the 18-year-old get into a praying 
position before shooting him in the back of the head, prosecutors said.

The damage authorities found in Bledsoe's skull matched Ponce's description of 
the wounds, according to Barnes.

After hearing the evidence and convicting both men, a jury recommended Ponce 
receive the death penalty.

Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty for Rafael, who was sentenced to 
life in prison without the possibility of parole in January.

There are only 2 other times in Long Beach's history that as many as 5 people 
have been killed during a single crime, according to police:

-- On Dec. 4, 1985, 5 people died in a blaze set at an apartment complex in 
the 1300 block of Peterson Avenue. Police determined it was arson, but who 
started the fire remains unsolved.

-- On Oct. 28, 1993, 5 people were shot and killed during a robbery at a home 
in the 200 block of E. 68th Street, according to police. Police took the 
suspected gunman into custody the next year.

(source: Press-Telegram)








WASHINGTON:

Proposal to eliminate the death penalty passes the state Senate



A bill to eliminate the death penalty in Washington state is a step closer to 
being signed into law.

SB 6052 passed by a slim majority vote 26-22 that came just before the cutoff 
deadline, Wednesday, Feb. 14 at midnight to move bills out of their legislative 
chamber of origin.

"I have no sympathy for people who kill people, that is not why I'm doing 
this," said Senator Maureen Walsh, R-Walla Walla, one of the bill's sponsors 
during floor debate. "My motivation is simply that this is flawed policy."

As justification for the bill, Walsh pointed to inequality between large and 
small counties in their ability to pursue death penalty cases and instances 
where innocent people who were wrongly sentenced have been put to death. She 
also argued that some families of victims do not receive vindication from 
capital punishment.

Before the final vote, the bill went through dramatic procedural gymnastics.

Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane introduced an amendment that would have allowed the 
voters to decide whether or not the death penalty should be repealed. Senators 
ultimately voted against this amendment.

2 other amendments by Padden and Sen. Ann Rivers, R-Battle Ground, were 
rejected during the bill's discussion.

Lieutenant Governor and Senate President Cyrus Habib ruled that the amendments 
weren't relevant to the bill, and therefore couldn't be voted on.

One amendment brought by Padden would have made an exception to keep the death 
penalty for those who kill a law enforcement officer. Another amendment brought 
by Rivers would have allowed the person, once found guilty of aggravated 
1st-degree murder, to choose whether or not they want to die.

Several Republicans argued that maintaining the death penalty for those who 
kill police officers is necessary to maintain the rule of law.

Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, cited 4 officers who were killed in a shooting in 
Lakewood in November, 2009, while Sen. Randi Becker, R-Enumclaw, said that 
officers are increasingly at risk in rural counties. "It's open season on 
officers," she said.

Sen. O'Ban argued that with eliminating the death penalty there would be a 
"loss of order and respect for the rule of law."

The decision garnered bitter reactions from some Republicans. Senator Mark 
Schoesler, R-Spokane, objected to Habib's ruling to not hold a vote on the 
latter 2 amendments.

"I'm disappointed our debate on this issue was stifled today," he said.

Schoesler also raised concerns over the judiciary's ability to maintain 
sentences. "I have no trust in the judiciary that life without parole means 
life without parole."

Lt. Gov. Habib and Senator Mark Miloscia, R-Auburn, both wore a cross on their 
foreheads to mark Ash Wednesday, the 1st day of Lent in Catholicism.

"Coincidentally this is Ash Wednesday when we are supposed to reflect on our 
sins," Miloscia said. "I firmly believe that despite the evils people commit to 
each other, we must forgive them."

Bills to eliminate the death penalty have been introduced in the Legislature 
over recent years, but have never made it far.

In 2014, Governor Jay Inslee placed a moratorium on capital punishment, sparing 
8 people.

"There has been growing, bipartisan support for ending Washington's death 
penalty, and the Senate today voted to do just that," Inslee wrote in a press 
release. "I hope Washington joins the growing number of states that are 
choosing to end the death penalty."

"It is unfairly administered; expensive; and unavailable in wide swaths of our 
state," Chair of the Senate Law and Justice Committee and co-sponsor of the 
bill, Senator Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, said of capital punishment in a press 
release.

"Those convicted of aggravated 1st-degree murder should die in prison with no 
hope of parole. The taxpayers do not need to spend millions of dollars to 
hasten that death."

As former Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Pedersen held the 1st hearing 
on a death penalty elimination bill in the House of Representatives in 2013, 
according to the release.

The bill now moves over to the state House, where it has until Feb. 23 to get 
passed out of committee.

One of the legislation's sponsors, Sen. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, said after 
the vote that he is optimistic that it will be approved by the House. "I think 
there's substantial support," he said. "Many Republicans are openly advocating 
this position and I think the votes are there ... I'm optimistic that it's 
going to floor."

(source: Bainbridge Island Review)

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

Washington State Takes Crucial Step Toward Abolishing the Death Penalty



The Washington state Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would ban the death 
penalty, leading the state one step closer to ending the practice for good.

As the Seattle Times reports, the bill passed the Democratic-led Senate with 
bipartisan support. The measure would strike the death penalty from being 
considered as a sentencing option for aggravated murder. If the bill passes, 
the harshest sentence in the state would instead be life in prison without the 
possibility of parole.

The measure now heads to the Statehouse, which has a 2-person Democratic 
majority.

Thanks to Gov. Jay Inslee, there has been a moratorium on the death penalty in 
Washington since 2014.

Lawmakers cited the cost of maintaining the death penalty and incidences of 
wrongful convictions as reasons to abolish capital punishment. According to the 
Times, one Seattle University study from 2015 found that death-penalty cases in 
Washington "cost $1 million more than similar cases where capital punishment 
[was] not sought."

One of the co-sponsors of the bill, state Sen. Reuven Carlyle, said the vote 
was a reflection of the public???s evolution on capital punishment.

"You cannot read a front-page story about DNA mistakes that has someone in jail 
for 35 years and not be jolted to the core," Carlyle said, according to the 
Times. "That has transformed the public's view of this issue."

In Washington, as in other parts of the country, capital punishment 
disproportionately affects black defendants.

One 2015 study found that jurors in Washington state were 3 times more likely 
to recommend a death sentence for a black defendant than a white one - despite 
the fact that prosecutors were slightly more likely to seek the death penalty 
against white defendants. This unequal application of the punishment was among 
the reasons Gov. Inslee instilled the moratorium.

If the bill passes in the Statehouse, Washington will join 19 other states and 
the District of Columbia in ridding themselves of the death penalty. 3 other 
states aside from Washington - Oregon, Colorado and Pennsylvania - currently 
have moratoriums on the practice.

(source: Associated Press)








USA:

New bill would give federal prosecutors a do-over for the death penalty



During the latest budget debate in Congress, 4 Republican senators - Tom Cotton 
of Arkansas, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, and Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas 
- introduced a bill that is intended to give federal prosecutors who fail to 
convince a jury to impose a death sentence the legal equivalent of a do-over.

The bill would "require the impaneling of a new jury if a jury fails to 
recommend by unanimous vote a sentence for conviction of a crime punishable by 
death." Current federal law requires that a jury verdict of death in a capital 
trial be unanimous. If 12 jurors cannot agree on a sentence, the defendant is 
automatically sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

The bill is called Eric's Law for Eric Williams, a corrections officer savagely 
murdered by an inmate at the federal prison in Canaan, Penn., in 2013. 
Williams' killer (already sentenced to life on state charges) was tried and 
convicted of capital murder. When the jury could not agree, he was sentenced by 
the court to life without parole, sometimes called "pine box life" in 
courthouses because that's how the inmate will leave prison. Williams' murderer 
is currently serving his sentence in a 7-by-12 foot concrete cell at the 
federal supermax facility outside Florence, Colo., where he is confined 23 
hours a day, and where he will die.

Appreciating the folly of this bill requires an understanding of how juries are 
selected for capital trials. In order to be seated, each juror must be "death 
qualified." That means that several hundred people complete an exhaustive 
questionnaire and are then examined in court by the prosecution and defense. To 
be "death qualified," the court must find that the juror would give fair 
consideration to a death sentence or life without parole. That process rarely 
takes less than 2 weeks and often much longer. In 2015 the federal capital 
trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (1 of the Boston Marathon bombers), jury selection 
took nearly 2 months and involved an initial pool of 1,373 registered voters to 
select 18 death-qualified jurors and alternates before the trial could begin.

Cruz said in a press release that the bill will "prevent further miscarriages 
of justice" and equated the life-without-parole sentence with "allowing 
[Williams'] murderer to essentially go unpunished for his crime." If enacted 
into law, the Senate bill will face serious constitutional hurdles while 
raising stark questions of fundamental fairness and due process. But those who 
believe Eric's Law will lead to more frequent executions for federal capital 
convictions will be disappointed. Giving prosecutors a 2nd chance to convince 
12 jurors to impose a death sentence will only make a broken federal death 
penalty system substantially more expensive.

The statistics tell the real story. The current federal death penalty statute 
was signed into law in 1988. As of the 1st quarter of 2017, the Department of 
Justice sought death in 233 jury trials, according to the Death Penalty 
Information Center. These trials resulted in a total of 76 defendants sentenced 
to death. But the most notable number that should be considered by the Senators 
is 3. That number - 3 - is the total federal executions in the past 30 years 
and includes Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who effectively volunteered 
for execution by dropping his appeals. The last federal execution took place in 
March 2003.

Legal scholars offer no clear reason, despite the expenditure of hundreds of 
millions of dollars over 30 years, why federal death sentences are almost never 
executed. But the cost of a federal capital prosecution is extraordinary. A 
2010 report to the Judicial Conference of the U.S. concluded that the average 
cost of the trial defense alone in a federal death case is $620,932, or about 8 
times the $76,665 expended in federal murder cases in which death is not 
sought. The judge in Timothy McVeigh's case calculated the trial cost to be 
more than $13.8 million - in 1997 dollars. Just the expense of security for the 
2015 Tsarnaev trial in Boston generated more than $750,000 in police overtime. 
By comparison, the annual cost of incarceration of a federal inmate is less 
than $32,000 per year.

Giving prosecutors the opportunity to double-down for death - when they cannot 
convince a jury on their 1st try - will only add to the cost of a system that 
can never really work. The truth, as the federal budget deficit is pushed ever 
higher, is the bill will do what its sponsors would vigorously oppose in any 
other context: Expand another failed government program.

(source: Commentary: Mark MacDougall is a partner in Washington D.C. with Akin 
Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and a former federal prosecutor. Abigail Kohlman is 
an associate with Akin Gump in Washington----Dallas Morning News)

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

New charges to be announced in MS-13 gang case; death penalty could come into 
play



A 2nd superseding indictment returned Thursday charges 23 individuals alleged 
to be members and associates of the Columbus clique of MS-13 in a racketeering 
conspiracy.

The most recent indictment includes crimes that could make some of the 
defendants eligible for the death penalty.

The Department of Justice in Columbus will hold a press conference to announce 
the charges at 2:30 p.m. at the U.S. Attorney's Office.

In January the 1st superseding indictment was released, charging a total of 23 
defendants.

(source: 10TV.com)