[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., S.C., FLA., ALA.

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 21



TEXAS:

Texas parole board recommends killer be spared from death



The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, in a rare decision, unanimously 
recommended Tuesday that the death sentence of convicted killer Thomas " Bart" 
Whitaker be commuted.

Whitaker is scheduled for lethal injection Thursday for masterminding the fatal 
shootings of his mother and brother at their suburban Houston home in 2003. 
Whitaker's father, Kent, also was shot in the attack but survived. He said he 
wants his 38-year-old son to live.

The recommendation from the 7-member panel goes to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, 
who can accept it or reject it. The governor appoints the parole board.

It's only the 4th time since the state resumed executions in 1982 that the 
parole board has recommended clemency within days of an inmate's scheduled 
execution. In 2 of those cases, then-Gov. Rick Perry rejected the board's 
recommendation and those prisoners are among the 548 executed in Texas, more 
than any other state.

David Gutierrez, the parole board's presiding officer, said the panel 
recommended the governor commute Whitaker's sentence "to a lesser penalty." 
Jurors who convicted him and sentenced him to death in 2007 had only 1 other 
option, life imprisonment.

In the clemency petition, Whitaker's attorneys said his execution would 
"permanently compound" his father's suffering and grief, and compared the case 
to the biblical story of Cain and Abel, where God sent Cain to "restlessly 
wander" after killing his brother.

Kent Whitaker has said he's seen "too much killing already," has forgiven his 
son and believes his son is a changed person.

Whitaker, his son's attorney and supporters awaited the decision in a 
conference room in the Texas Capitol. As lawyer Keith Hampton read the outcome, 
Whitaker covered his face with his hand and wept softly. After about 15 
seconds, he looked at Hampton and murmured, "Thank you."

"I never, ever believed that we were going to get a unanimous decision in 
favor," he said as he and Hampton headed immediately across the building to 
Abbott's ceremonial office - even though the governor wasn't there - to plead 
with the governor that he honor the board's recommendation.

"The best we were hoping was a 4-3," he said. "This is beyond amazing. I can't 
tell you."

At his trial, Bart Whitaker said he took "100 %" responsibility for planning 
and carrying out the killings. Prosecutors said he hated his parents and hoped 
to collect an inheritance.

"I think it's the wrong decision and clearly the wrong decision," said Fort 
Bend County District Attorney John Healey, whose office prosecuted Whitaker and 
convinced a jury to convict him and send him to death row.

He said Tuesday that he didn't know if he could speak with Abbott before the 
governor made a decision.

"I don't know if that's part of the allowed protocol," Healey said. "It's a 
unique situation."

Evidence showed the murder plot included two of Whitaker's friends and was at 
least Whitaker's 3rd attempt to kill his family. The shooting was made to look 
like an interrupted burglary at the family's home in Sugar Land, southwest of 
Houston, and Bart Whitaker was shot in the arm to draw attention away from him.

About 6 months after the shootings, he disappeared. A year later, he was 
apprehended in Mexico.

The gunman, Chris Brashear, pleaded guilty in 2007 to a murder charge and was 
sentenced to life in prison. Another man, Steve Champagne, who drove Brashear 
from the Whitaker house the night of the shootings, took a 15-year prison term 
in exchange for testifying at Whitaker's trial.

In 2007, death row inmate Kenneth Foster was spared and his sentence commuted 
to life. The board had voted 6-1 in favor of a commutation. Perry said Foster 
and a co-defendant in a fatal robbery in San Antonio should not have been tried 
together for capital murder. Foster was the getaway driver in the slaying and 
both he and a partner received death sentences. His co-defendant was executed.

In 2004, Perry overruled the parole board's 5-1 vote favoring clemency and 
convicted killer Kelsey Patterson was executed. He took the same action in 2009 
in the case of death row inmate Robert Lee Thompson, who was executed despite a 
favorable a 5-2 ruling from the board.

(source: Associated Press)

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

A call for clemency: Abbott should halt execution



Kent Whitaker lost his wife and son to a criminal act.

Now he's about to lose his last remaining child. We call on Gov. Greg Abbott to 
end this chain of death and grant clemency to Thomas "Bart" Whitaker.

In 2007, Bart was convicted of a murder-for-hire plot to kill his mother and 
brother. His execution is scheduled for Thursday.

There is no questioning the sickness - the evil - that must course through a 
man's veins if he is driven to such a horrific act. But compounding violence 
upon violence will not bring a family back to life, nor will it further the 
cause of justice or bring peace to the victims.

Kent Whitaker himself is asking the state of Texas to spare his son, and it 
falls to Abbott to grant this father's request.

"For 18 months pre-trial, every victim - my wife's entire family, me and all of 
my family - actually begged the district attorney to accept two life sentences 
and spare us the horror of a trial and an eventual execution," Whitaker wrote 
in the Chronicle last month. "But we were ignored."

Now, just 2 days before his son's scheduled execution, the notoriously tough 
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has issued a unanimous recommendation for 
clemency. The final decision rests with Abbott and he should not delay in 
following the board's guidance.

To allow this execution to continue will only perpetuate a state-sanctioned 
machinery of death - to use the language of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice 
Harry Blackmun - which churns with a rusty inexactitude and unconstitutional 
malevolence.

As we have written before, the death penalty is Texas is unconstitutionally 
arbitrary because race, not the severity of criminal act, is a better predictor 
of capital punishment.

The death penalty in Texas is unconstitutionally cruel because the appeals and 
delays of a torpid criminal justice system force defendants to wait for decades 
in essentially solitary confinement.

The death penalty in Texas is unconstitutionally unusual because our national 
standards of justice have shrunk its application to only a small number of 
jurisdictions.

Leading legal minds of our state, such as former Court of Criminal Appeals 
Judge Tom Price and current Judge Elsa Alcala, have peered into the inner 
workings of our capital punishment system and recognized its fatal flaws.

A study by Harvard Law School's Fair Punishment Project called it "too broken 
to fix."

Yet it doesn't take a jurisprudential expert to witness the moral heart of 
Whitaker's plea.

"This appeal isn't about releasing him, or forgiving him," Whitaker wrote. "It 
is about saving his life."

Abbott has the opportunity to make Texas a place that honors a request for life 
in the face of death. Spare Bart Whitaker from execution.

(source: Editorial, Houston Chronicle)

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

Rosendo Rodriguez Claims Egregious Conduct, Asks to Stop Death Penalty



The defense for Rosendo Rodriguez filed a motion in court records Tuesday 
morning to delay his execution.

Rodriguez was convicted and sentenced to death for the September 2005 slaying 
of Summer Baldwin, but also implicated in the disappearance and murder of 
Joanna Rogers.

Both bodies were both found at separate times by workers at the city landfill. 
In October, the United States Supreme Court refused to intervene in the case - 
clearing the way for State District Court Judge Jim Bob Darnell to set an 
execution date.

The date is March 27, 2018.

In the newest court record - the motion for a stay of execution - allegations 
were made against Lubbock County Medical Examiner Sridhar Natarajan and the 
Lubbock County Criminal District Attorney's office.

The motion said that on February 16 the Rodriguez' defense team became aware of 
a 2015 lawsuit against Natarajan that was ultimately settled. The motion for 
stay said Lubbock County settled out of court with Dr. Luisa Florez, MD for 
$230,000.

Florez' lawsuit made a long list of claims including the allegation that 
Natarajan was taking credit for autopsy work that he did not personally do.

The motion for stay said, "The Lubbock County District Attorney was therefore 
aware of the above lawsuit and failed to disclose it to Mr. Rodriguez."

If true, that would be a so-called Brady violation. The motion for stay 
explained what that means.

"Under Brady, the Lubbock County District Attorney's Office had an ongoing duty 
to disclose both the existence of the lawsuit and the subsequent settlement to 
Mr. Rodriguez," the motion for stay said. "The failure to do so in this case is 
a clear violation of Mr. Rodriguez' Due Process rights under the United States 
and Texas Constitutions."

"Such conduct by the Lubbock County District Attorney's Office is sufficiently 
egregious to necessitate a stay of execution," the motion for stay said.

Court records did not yet indicate that the judge made a ruling. Court records 
also did not yet indicate that the prosecution filed written response.

EverythingLubobck.com left a message for Natarajan to invite comment.

The Lubbock County District Attorney's office cited it as a "pending case" and 
declined comment.

(source: everythinglubbock.com)

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

Denton County DA candidates talk court efficiency, professional experience in 
2018 race



Brent Bowen will once again use his years of experience in criminal defense law 
against District Attorney Paul Johnson in the race to be Denton County's top 
prosecutor in 2018.

After an unsuccessful bid for district attorney in 2010, Bowen now brings more 
experience and criticism of the current administration. A Denton defense 
attorney since 2004, Bowen said he's observed a lack of communication between 
prosecutors and defense attorneys in active criminal cases. He also believes 
the county hasn't tapped the full potential of its technology in the courts 
building.

Johnson, a Highland Village resident who was first elected district attorney in 
2007, defends his position by touting ongoing improvements to the case intake 
process and his efforts to create specialty courts. The Veterans Treatment 
Court Program and the Mental Health Treatment Court, which gives eligible 
defendants a chance to have their cases dismissed, took shape during his 
tenure.

Early voting starts today as the candidates make their final push before the 
March 6 primary. They don't have a Democratic challenger for the general 
election.

Of the topics at the center of the race, the candidates continuously focus on 
experience, efficiency and communication in the office.

Bowen said he believes there's a systematic problem in the district attorney's 
office when it comes to technology in courtrooms. For example, software issues 
routinely interrupt evidence videos, he said.

County officials say they recently implemented an online discovery system in 
which attorneys have access to police reports and other case records through an 
online portal. Bowen, however, is skeptical of the system's availability. He 
said he used email to share case records with a prosecutor last week, and he 
hasn't been notified about the new discovery system since then.

"I would be suspect on whether it would even be functional," he said.

Johnson, who is only the county's 2nd district attorney since 1990, claims 
Bowen doesn't have enough trial experience to oversee thousands of felony cases 
filed each year in the district attorney's office. He said Bowen has never 
worked a felony jury trial, though Bowen said he has worked one.

Bowen said he's represented clients in "3 or 4" felony cases and sat 2nd chair 
on a capital murder case. Bowen said his 17 years practicing criminal law, 
including 13 years in criminal defense, has given him a broader range of 
experience than most Denton County prosecutors.

"My position would still be that it's a lot harder to defend somebody than it 
is to prosecute," he said.

Bowen has also described Johnson as soft on crime because he's only sought the 
death penalty for capital murder suspects twice since 2007 - once in 2011 and 
again in 2016. Johnson said he and his assistant district attorneys consider a 
number of factors when determining whether to seek the death penalty.

"You don't play a game with that stuff," Johnson previously told the Denton 
Record-Chronicle.

Brent Bowen

Age: 41

Born in: Topeka, Kansas

Education: Bachelor of Arts in political science from Baylor University, 1999; 
juris doctorate from Washburn University, 2002

Experience: assistant district attorney/intern prosecutor, Shawnee County 
District Attorney's Office, 2001-02; juvenile prosecutor, Johnson County 
District Attorney's Office, 2003; assistant district attorney in the 
misdemeanor trial division, Denton County District Attorney's Office, 2003-04; 
private practice criminal defense attorney, 2004-present

Website: http://www.brentbowenforda.com/about-brent/

Population growth is bringing more cases to the Denton County District 
Attorney's Office - so much that the county is making space for additional 
courtrooms in the Denton County Courts Building and the Joseph A. Carroll 
Building. Aside from more personnel, what other changes would need to happen to 
support the increasing caseload?

One of the things that has to happen is the intake process needs to improve in 
terms of electronically filing cases with the DA's office. ... For some reason, 
it's taking months, if not several months, to even get misdemeanor cases filed. 
With improved technology, then you can integrate that with an online discovery 
system like Dallas and Tarrant [counties] have where the defense attorneys can 
access police reports and video.

... Prosecutors spend a lot of time making copies of police reports and videos, 
and I think that's an inefficient use of their time.

The number of death penalty cases in Texas has dramatically declined since the 
mid-2000s. What are some basic requirements the crime has to meet before 
requesting the death penalty ?

No. 1 you have to look at the crime. How heinous was it? Who are the victims? 
Was it law enforcement? Were they children? That'll be No. 1 - the facts around 
the crime. Then you have to look at the criminal history of the person, because 
in order to get death, you have to show future danger. And you're typically 
going to show that by past bad acts.

I think if they have, not necessarily a substantial criminal history, but a 
severe criminal history - like assaulting 3 police officers - I think it 
warrants the death penalty in that situation.

It can be frustrating when police work on a tough case for weeks or months and 
it's ultimately dropped before indictment. How do you decide whether to drop a 
case?

You have to have good communication with law enforcement. So if you see a case 
that's going to be a tough case where they need more evidence, I think you need 
to communicate that with law enforcement.

You also don't want to go forward on a case you know you can't win. if you try 
a bunch of cases and you lose a bunch of case, that's taxpayers' dollars. 
There's got to be a confidence level both ways, for the police department and 
the DA's office. If you have police officers that say, 'Hey, why didn't you 
prosecute?' and you identify where they have shortfalls and they have 
confidence in the DA, then I don't think they're going to question the DA.

I think training is part of it. I think a lot of times law enforcement gets 
upset because they don't understand the criteria the DA is looking for ... if 
they're seeing a pattern, we need to communicate why there's a pattern.

District Attorney Paul Johnson

Age: 59

Born in: Washington, D.C.

Education: Bachelor of Science in criminal justice from the University of Texas 
at Arlington, 1981; juris doctorate from the University of Houston School of 
Law, 1984

Experience: Private practice attorney in civil law; misdemeanor 
prosecutor-felony chief, Denton County District Attorney's Office, 15 years; 
private practice attorney in civil law; Denton County district attorney

Website: http://www.pauljohnsonda.com/

Population growth is bringing more cases to the Denton County District 
Attorney's Office - so much that the county is making space for additional 
courtrooms in the Denton County Courts Building and the Joseph A. Carroll 
Building. Aside from more personnel, what other changes would need to happen to 
support the increasing caseload?

In case intake, our turnaround is less than 60 days as a general rule. So when 
we have the cases come in, we have it in place where we have intake attorneys 
review them. If they need additional information, they can reach out. But in 
some of our larger police agencies, we have liaisons that are actually in our 
office. If [attorneys] need more details or a clarification on something, we 
can go straight to them.

And the state has done a good job with [improving] the blood draw [testing]. It 
was backing up for a time ... but in the last several years they've gotten more 
chemists to do the analysis. So the turnaround is a lot quicker now that before 
... right now things are running pretty smoothly.

The number of death penalty cases in Texas has dramatically declined since the 
mid-2000s. What are some basic requirements the crime has to meet before 
requesting the death penalty?

People naturally assume if there's a murder, that it's automatically 
death-penalty eligible. But that's not the case. It has to be something that's 
aggravating - a child under the age of 10, a peace officer killed in the line 
of duty, two or more people in the same criminal episode. So, that triggers the 
possibility that seeking death can be put on the table.

... There's a lot of murders that don't trigger the possibility you can seek a 
death sentence. With that in mind, on the ones that do come into the district 
attorney's office that could qualify for seeking the death penalty, we take a 
look at the offense, we look at the defendant and we look at the circumstance. 
We then go back and look at the defendant's prior criminal history. We go back 
further and contact his friends and family members. We go back to where he grew 
up. We find out which schools he went to. So we do a very thorough vetting 
process.

... Ultimately I make the decision to seek death or not to seek death.

It can be frustrating when police work on a tough case for weeks or months and 
it's ultimately dropped before indictment. How do you decide whether to drop a 
case?

When that happens, sometimes the police agency may be waiting for more 
information. And if they don't get it, sometimes they don't ever send it to us. 
That's a possibility sometimes.

Sometimes, we ask for information and the [victims or witnesses] won't return 
phone calls for somebody that we need information on. If they aren't 
cooperating, sometimes it dies on the vine that way. That's generally what will 
stall it. We don't have cases that just sit there. ... Some things can get lost 
in the cracks waiting for testing. ... It can be a myriad of things.

(source: Denton Record-Chronicle)








DELAWARE:

Delaware law is overturned, yet 2 remain on death row



2 men remain on death row a year and a half after the state Supreme Court ruled 
Delaware's death penalty unconstitutional.

Michael R. Manley and David D. Stevenson have been fighting their convictions 
since being sentenced 20 years ago. Ironically, those decades-long battles are 
what is keeping them on death row.

"It's routine," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty 
Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.

That's because what typically occurs when the state or U.S. Supreme Court 
declares a law unconstitutional is if the case is pending on appeal it will be 
modified the next time it comes to the sentencing court.

For example, when Ohio's death penalty was declared unconstitutional in 1978 
there were 54 cases pending in the that state's Supreme Court, Dunham said. As 
a result, all of those were immediately resentenced to life in prison. But 
there were another 50 in the appellant process. Those cases took longer to 
resentence.

Ohio has since reinstated its death penalty.

The same is being seen in Connecticut where its Supreme Court ruled the state's 
death penalty unconstitutional in 2015.

"The Connecticut Supreme Court was still deciding issues in its death penalty 
cases as recently as last month," Dunham said.

While some might think it's a waste of time to wait to modify the sentence, 
Dunham explained the appeals are not always challenges to the death penalty. In 
some cases, prisoners are challenging their convictions.

"They may not be guilty of `st-degree murder and they were wrongly sentenced to 
death, so this would take the death penalty off the table but it doesn't affect 
the fairness of their underlying conviction," Dunham said.

He pointed to Jermaine Wright who spent more than 20 years on death row before 
a Delaware court, in 2012, overturned his conviction and death sentence on the 
premise he wasn't properly advised of his rights during the police 
interrogation - a nearly 13-hour event in which Wright provided a confession 
while high on heroin.

Wright, in 2016, pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and was sentenced 
to time served.

Delaware's top court decided the state's death penalty was unconstitutional in 
August 2016, months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's law 
because it gave judges, and not juries, the final say to impose a death 
sentence. Florida's law was similar to Delaware's law.

Amid outcry over 2 Delaware law enforcement officers being killed last year - 
correctional officer Lt. Steven Floyd and state police Cpl. Stephen J. Ballard 
- state House lawmakers in May passed a revised death penalty statute that 
addresses the constitutional infirmities noted in the state and federal court 
rulings by requiring unanimous jury approval. The bill is now in the Senate 
where it has been assigned to the Judicial and Community Affairs Committee.

Attorney Herbert Mondros, who represents Stevenson, said the 2016 Supreme 
Court's order vacated all the state's death sentences. What remains is a 
procedural thing function.

"As a result, there is no death row in Delaware, the DOC website 
notwithstanding," Mondros said. "I believe that all but 2 of the former death 
row inmates have been re-sentenced to life without parole, David Stevenson, who 
is my client, and Michael Manley. Presently there are motions pending before 
[Superior Court] Judge [Paul] Wallace concerning these two defendants, and a 
sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Manley and Stevenson were convicted for Nov. 13, 1995, 1st-degree murder of 
25-year-old Kristopher Heath, a Macy's security officer who was about to 
testify against Stevenson in a theft case. Manley shot Heath at Stevenson's 
direction to prevent him from testifying in the theft case.

Despite claiming on its website that Manley and Stevenson remain on death row, 
the Department of Correction has done away with the actual area that was 
historically housed in Building 18 at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center.

"Execution protocol referred to them as ISDP (inmates sentenced to the death 
penalty)," said Jayme Gravell, a DOC spokeswoman.

Their cells were no different from other single cells in the Security Housing 
Unit or SHU, which is where inmates who have demonstrated they cannot be housed 
in lesser security settings are kept.

Gravell added that neither Manley nor Stevenson are housed in SHU and that they 
are not separated from the other inmates at Vaughn.

"Their housing is based on classification," she said.

(source: delawareonline.com)








SOUTH CAROLINA:

South Carolina death penalty: Lowcountry solicitor says default electric chair



The state of South Carolina hasn't executed an inmate since 2011. With lethal 
injection drugs being hard to get, there is talk of bringing back the electric 
chair.

Today, there are 36 inmates on death row in South Carolina, and the longest has 
been there since 1983.

"Worst of the worst of the worst," said Solicitor Duffie Stone of the 14th 
Circuit Judicial Court, "They have committed crimes that are so heinous, that 
they have literally voided their right to live amongst us."

One of them, Stone worked hard to put there.

"I was on the death penalty team, with then-Solicitor Randolph Murdaugh who 
prosecuted Tyreen Roberts for the killing of the 2 deputies in Beaufort," he 
said. "That was in 2003...It's now 15 years later, and he's still on death 
row."

In this death penalty state, there hasn't been an execution in 7 years.

"At this point in time, they are not capable of carrying out the order because 
of the shortage of lethal-injection drugs," Stone said.

Lethal injections started in 1995 after the General Assembly passed a law 
allowing death row inmates to choose the electric chair or lethal injection.

"What's happening now is they're choosing lethal injection because the 
Department of Corrections can't get the cocktail to make up the lethal 
injection," Stone said.

The state's supply of the drugs has expired and they're now facing issues with 
drug companies whose identities aren't protected under the law.

"They don't want the repercussions for being known as the company that's 
selling death penalty drugs," he said.

While a Shield Law to protect companies has been filed in the General Assembly, 
Stone supports a Default Bill taking away the option for inmates.

"Certainly none of the crime victims had a choice in the way they died. Just go 
back to the standard we had prior to 1994," he said. "If lethal injection is 
available, then the inmate can choose it if it's not available, the inmate 
doesn't get to avoid the death sentence by choosing something that's not 
available. It then defaults to the electric chair."

A death penalty is only an option in sentencing if there is a murder with what 
the law calls an 'aggravated circumstance' such as multiple murders or killing 
a police officer or a child under the age of 11.

"When we choose the death penalty," Stone said it's for a crime "that shocks 
even us."

The Default Bill is waiting for a vote in the Senate.

(source WSAV TV news)








FLORIDA:

Sentencing phase begins in the murder trial of Cherish Perrywinkle



On Tuesday, jurors began the penalty phase in the Donald Smith trial. Smith was 
found guilty on last week in the kidnapping, murder, and rape of 8-year-old 
Cherish Perrywinkle.

The penalty phase could last a number of days.

9:44 a.m. State Attorney Melissa Nelson said that the State is asking the 
jurors to seek the death penalty for Smith.

9:56 a.m. Smith's defense attorney began his opening statements.

10:01 a.m. Fletcher said there is documentation of mental illness all the way 
back to 1977.

10:11 a.m. Kerri Anne Buck who says Donald Smith tried to kidnap her when she 
was 13 in 1992 was first to testify.

10:24 p.m. State will not call anymore witnesses.

10:44 a.m. The defense's first witness is late. They are trying to workout 
timing.

After less than 15 minutes of deliberation on Wednesday morning, a jury found 
61-year-old Donald Smith guilty of kidnapping, raping and murdering 8-year-old 
Cherish Perrywinkle in 2013.

Smith now faces the death penalty.

Right before putting Donald Smith???s fate in the jury's hands, his defense 
attorneys decided not to deliver a closing argument.

During the trial, Smith's defense attorneys did not call any of its own 
witnesses and barely cross-examined the prosecution's witnesses.

During Monday's 5-minute opening statement, Smith's attorney Julie Schlax 
offered no alternative explanation for Cherish's death.

So, why did Donald Smith bother to go through with a trial instead of pleading 
guilty?

Action News Jax Law and Safety Expert Dale Carson said there could be a legal 
strategy behind it.

"If you want to appeal the conduct of the police, or the prosecutor, or even 
your own defense attorney, you have to go through a trial. Because when you 
plead, you waive those particular rights," said Carson.

As a former FBI agent, Carson spent decades exploring the criminal mind.

Carson said Smith may have wanted to go through with the trial because he 
enjoyed the attention.

"He is able to relive his entire crime. He gets to see crime scene photographs. 
He gets to see medical examiner photographs," said Carson.

Carson said Smith likely felt powerful and in control when he watched 
witnesses' and jurors' emotional responses.

"Donald Smith has played us in a way that is rather extraordinary. Because 
everyone in the community who saw or participated in this is just absolutely 
horrified. So, in that narrow context, he wins," said Carson.

The jury will return to the courthouse on Tuesday for the sentencing phase of 
Smith's trial.

Under a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the jury's decision on the death 
penalty must be unanimous.

(source: actionnewsjax.com)

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

Former death row inmate takes life sentence deal in Milton double homicide



A former death row inmate will spend the rest of his life in prison without the 
possibility of parole after taking a plea deal from the state to avoid another 
jury trial.

Robert Hobart, 48, has been on death row since 2012 for the murder of Robert 
Hamm and Tracie Tolbert in Milton two years prior. The jury in his case was 
split 7-5 in sentencing him to death.

Since that decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down Florida's death 
penalty law and now requires juries to unanimously recommend the death penalty. 
Because of the retroactive application of that ruling, Hobart's case came back 
to Santa Rosa County court.

That meant Hobart was entitled to a new jury that would hear the aggravating 
and mitigating factors behind the double murder to determine whether or not he 
should remain on death row or if he should instead serve a life sentence. 
Either way, Hobart???s original conviction would still remain, and the new jury 
would only have decided on the death penalty aspect.

In court Tuesday, Hobart waived the penalty phase re-trial and accepted a plea 
agreement for a life sentence. He also waived his right to make any 
post-conviction claims once the sentence was finalized.

According to court records, Hobart had a prescription drug addiction and 
purchased narcotics from the victims. He said he was meeting the couple in a 
secluded area to purchase drugs when Hamm attacked him with a metal pipe, but a 
medical examiner later established Hamm died of a close-range gunshot wound to 
the back of the head.

DNA and ballistics evidence linked Hobart to the murder weapon and his DNA was 
found on Tolbert???s arm.

The original jury recommended life in prison in Hamm's death and the death 
penalty for Tolbert.

The court Tuesday imposed the agreed upon life sentence for Tolbert's murder to 
run consecutive to Hobart???s existing life sentence for Hamm's death.

(source: Pensacola News Journal)

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

British junior barrister who started death penalty internship just weeks ago 
now assisting on Florida school shooter case



A British junior barrister who started a death penalty internship in the United 
States just weeks ago is now involved in a case concerning one of the country's 
worst school shootings of recent times, Legal Cheek can reveal. Jodie Woodward, 
a criminal barrister at London's 15 New Bridge Street (15 NBS), is offering 
legal support to suspect Nikolas Cruz as part of her intern role at Broward 
County Public Defender's Office in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

19-year-old Cruz is accused of killing 17 people after opening fire at Stoneman 
Douglas High School, where he was once a pupil, on Valentine's Day. This is 
understood to be the deadliest school shooting since 26 people were killed at 
Connecticut school Sandy Hook in 2012.

Woodward - who was called to the bar in 2006 and is a former pupil of 187 Fleet 
Street - only started volunteering in the US last month after receiving funding 
from legal charities Amicus and The Kalisher Trust, according to her LinkedIn 
profile.

Yesterday, Woodward sat alongside Cruz for a brief procedural hearing in Fort 
Lauderdale. Judge Elizabeth Scherer upheld a decision made by another court to 
keep defence documents sealed from the public. Cruz is being represented by 
lawyer Melissa McNeill, the assistant public defender in the homicide division 
of Broward County's Public Defenders.

Woodward's chambers profile reveals she has a "strong commitment to 
representing defendants vulnerable through age, mental health and other 
incapacity". Woodard has completed secondments at international outfit Kingsley 
Napley, the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Conduct Authority.

Legal Cheek has contacted Woodward and her chambers for comment.

(source: legalcheek.com)








ALABAMA----impending execution

Court denies stay for Alabama inmate, orders execution through IV in legs or 
feet



Alabama is set to go forward with its planned Thursday execution of a death row 
inmate, but a judge's order today specified the Department of Corrections will 
not use the inmate's arms or hands to insert its execution drugs.

U.S. Chief District Judge Karon O Bowdre's order on Tuesday comes after a 
months-long legal battle over whether Doyle Lee Hamm's cancer has made his 
veins unable to handle the 3 drugs the state uses for lethal injections. The 
federal court has ordered that Hamm is able to be executed, and his veins will 
not impede the process.

His lawyer Bernard Harcourt has argued that inserting the catheter required for 
the drugs in Hamm's one accessible hand vein would be cruel and unusual 
punishment; the Alabama Attorney General's Office argued Hamm's cancer is in 
remission and there is no reason he shouldn't be executed after spending 30 
years on death row.

Bowdre's order states Thursday's execution can go forward, and she denied 
Hamm's emergency motion for a stay. She says the state of Alabama has agreed 
not to use any veins in Hamm's arms or hands. But, the DOC can use veins in 
Hamm's legs and feet, or any of his "lower extremities," she states.

"The court's independent medical expert reported that Mr. Hamm has accessible 
peripheral veins in his lower extremities, and that the peripheral veins in his 
upper extremities, while accessible, would be more difficult to access and 
would require a more advanced practitioner using ultrasound guidance," Bowdre 
wrote in her order. "Based on that report, [the state] agreed to stipulate that 
they would not attempt peripheral venous access in Mr. Hamm's upper 
extremities, and the court denied Mr. Hamm's request for a preliminary 
injunction."

(source: al.com)