[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., S.C., FLA., ALA., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 25


NORTH CAROLINA:

Donovan Richardson sentenced to life in prison for 2014 double murder



A Wake County jury on Wednesday sentenced Donovan Richardson to life in prison 
without the possibility of parole for the murders of 2 elderly men nearly 4 
years ago in Fuquay-Varina.

The verdict capped several hours of deliberations in which the jury could have 
sentenced him to death penalty. Jurors found him guilty of the murders of two 
senior citizens - Arthur Lee Brown, 78, and David Eugene McKoy, 66 - on July 
19, 2014 at their Howard Road home.

Richardson was 1 of 3 men accused in the crime:

Gregory Crawford pleaded guilty in May 2016 to charges of 1st-degree murder, 
robbery with a dangerous weapon and burglary in connection with the slayings. 
He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Kevin Britt was charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, robbery with a 
dangerous weapon and burglary. He has not been sentenced yet, but he did plead 
guilty to being an accessory to murder. He also testified against Richardson 
during his trial.

The jury began deliberations on Tuesday after attorneys finished their closing 
arguments. While formally sentencing Richardson, Judge Graham Shirley pointed 
out in no uncertain terms that Richardson will never taste freedom again in his 
life.

"You have a life expectancy of 52.35 years, so I want you to know for the next 
27.5 million minutes of your life that (prison) is where you are going to 
remain," Shirley said. "Never to be a free man again."

Wednesday's decision was the 9th time Wake County prosecutors have sought the 
death penalty in the last decade in a case, but was rebuffed when the jury 
handed down a life sentence.

"This was a case that we felt strongly (that) under the law (and) under the 
facts of the case, it was appropriate to go to a jury on that issue," said 
Lorrin Freeman, the Wake County district attorney. "And we respect the jury's 
decision."

Prosecutors said the 2 men did not deserve to die in their own home.

"This is everybody's worst nightmare of 2 men who worked hard (and) loved their 
families (but) were murdered in the sanctity of their home at night," Freeman 
said.

Rick Gammon, the defense attorney, said he and his client, respected the jury's 
decision.

"He's not good, but he's not as bad as he could be quite frankly," he said. 
"He's very appreciative of the jury's consideration."

(source: WRAL news)








SOUTH CAROLINA:

S.C. Senate panel advances bills to address lethal injection drug shortage for 
death penalty



A South Carolina Senate subcommittee advanced 2 bills Wednesday that would help 
the state work around a long-running shortage of lethal injection drugs to 
carry out the death penalty.

The 1st measure would protect the identity of pharmaceutical companies that 
provide the drugs needed for lethal injections. Gov. Henry McMaster called on 
the Legislature to pass such a bill, known as a "shield law" or "secrecy law," 
in November.


The 2nd bill under consideration would allow the state to use the electric 
chair for executions if a lethal injection is not possible. Under current law, 
death row inmates are given the right to choose between electrocution and 
lethal injection.

Both bills are sponsored by state Sen. William Timmons, R-Greenville. The 
committee favorably reported both by a 3-1 vote. The lone objector was Sen. 
Marlon Kimpson, D-Charleston, who argued the shield law would reduce public 
transparency.

"I think we're going to find ourselves in more legal trouble than where we 
started," Kimpson said.

The full committee is scheduled to consider both measures on Feb. 1. If 
approved there, the bills would head to the Senate floor for a vote.

Privacy

"I'm glad we were able to move the legislation forward so that the full 
committee can take a look at it," said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, 
R-Edgefield. "I think everybody has to acknowledge that there's a problem right 
now that the Department of Corrections can't carry out the law."

All 35 death row inmates in South Carolina are currently winding through the 
legal appeals process, so there are not any executions the state could not 
complete due to the drug shortage.

Massey said he hopes the measures can move forward before the state reaches 
that point.

"It's important that people know that the law will be carried out," Massey 
said. "So it would be a bit of a stain if the state has a law and does not 
empower the agencies of the state to carry out the law."

(source: Post and Courier)

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

South Carolina must be able to carry out death penalty



While it can be a controversial topic, South Carolina has the death penalty. 
This has been the law in our state for a very long time. There are 2 ways for 
this punishment to be carried out: by electrocution or by lethal injection. 
Under current state law, a person sentenced to death may choose which method is 
used for execution. Right now, the drugs used for lethal injection are not 
available. This means that death row inmates can choose lethal injection 
knowing that this is a punishment that will likely never happen. Simply put, 
they are using a loophole in the law to turn a death sentence into a life 
sentence.

I have introduced 2 bills designed to correct this issue. One bill makes the 
second method of execution available if the inmate's chosen method is not. If 
an inmate chooses electrocution, but this is not available for any reason at 
the time of the scheduled execution, then lethal injection may be used. If the 
necessary drugs are not available for lethal injection at the time of 
execution, then electrocution will be used. The goal of the bill is for justice 
to be carried out as determined by the judicial process.

The 2nd bill is commonly referred to as a "shield law." The bill provides 
confidentiality to pharmaceutical companies that sell lethal injection drugs to 
the state. Right now, these companies fear legal challenges and retribution for 
selling these drugs to states that have the death penalty, so they will not 
sell them to us. These companies are merely providing the ability to carry out 
lethal injection and should not be punished for that.

What these bills do not do is revive the debate for discussion about whether we 
have the death penalty, nor does it debate the methods. It does not "bring back 
the electric chair" as some have said. The electric chair never went away; it 
simply has not been chosen as a method in the recent past. My goal with these 
bills is to ensure that the rule of law is carried out as determined by a jury 
of our peers after weighing information presented in a court of law.

In a Senate subcommittee recently, we heard testimony from the director of the 
Department of Corrections, prosecutors, and victims' families speaking in favor 
of this legislation. For the Department of Corrections, the inability to 
execute inmates as prescribed by law violates the department's mission and is 
expensive. Prosecutors testified that they are wary of pursuing the death 
penalty because it is a sentence that cannot be fulfilled. For victims' 
families, the pain and anger they feel knowing that death row inmates can get 
around their sentences is consuming.

This is a miscarriage of justice for the victims and their families. The 
victims were not given an option when faced with unspeakable pain and terror, 
before their lives were ended at the hand of another. The victims' families and 
friends have to live with that knowledge every day. We owe it to them to fix 
this so that justice may be served as prescribed.

(source: Opinion; William Timmons is an attorney, entrepreneur and State 
Senator for District 6----Greenville News)








FLORIDA:

Supreme Court rejects 10 more death penalty appeals



With the total number of similar rulings reaching 30 over t3 days, the Florida 
Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected appeals by another 10 death row inmates 
challenging their death sentences.

Justices, in a highly unusual move, have released batches of 10 rulings each 
day this week, with all of the cases dealing with issues about jury unanimity. 
The appeals were based on a 2016 U.S.Supreme Court opinion in a case known as 
Hurst v. Florida and a subsequent Florida Supreme Court decision.

The 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling found Florida's death-penalty sentencing 
system was unconstitutional because it gave too much authority to judges, 
instead of juries.

The subsequent Florida Supreme Court ruling said juries must unanimously agree 
on critical findings before judges can impose death sentences and must 
unanimously recommend the death penalty. But the Florida Supreme Court made the 
new sentencing requirements apply to cases since June 2002.

That is when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling known as Ring v. Arizona 
that was a premise for striking down Florida's death-penalty sentencing system 
in 2016. In each of the cases Wednesday, the death row inmates had been 
sentenced to death before the Ring decision and argued that the new sentencing 
requirements should also apply to their cases.

The inmates who lost their appeals Wednesday were Donald David Dilbeck in a 
Leon County case; Steven Maurice Evans in an Orange County case; Etheria 
Verdell Jackson in a Duval County case; Gregory Alan Kokal in a Duval County 
case; Harold Gene Lucas in a Lee County case; John Christopher Marquard in a 
St. Johns County case; William Earl Sweet in a Duval County case; Steven 
Richard Taylor in a Duval County case; William Gregory Thomas in a Duval County 
case; and Robert J. Trease in a Sarasota County case.

(source: news4jax.com)

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

Florida governor wants death penalty on the table in alleged murder-for-hire



The brutal killing of a Florida woman has renewed debate in the state over the 
use of the death penalty.

Gov. Rick Scott sent a letter on Tuesday to State Attorney Aramis Ayala to 
confirm that the death penalty was up for consideration in the killing of 
Janice Zengotita-Torres, a spokeswoman said.

The married mother was abducted and killed on January 8 in a murder-for-hire 
plot gone awry, the Osceola County Sheriff's office said.

3 people have been arrested on murder charges in the death of Zengotita-Torres, 
Sheriff Russ Gibson said. They are accused of killing her even though they 
realized they had wrongly identified her as the target of their plot.

"Governor Scott sent the letter to confirm that every option is on the table to 
hold those accused of this horrific crime fully accountable," spokeswoman Kerri 
Wyland said in an email.

This isn't the 1st time Scott and Ayala -- the lead prosecutor in Orange and 
Osceola counties -- have tangled over the death penalty.

A contentious relationship

Ayala made national headlines in 2017 when she announced her office would not 
seek the death penalty.

Scott responded by reassigning more than 30 cases from her office to another 
one. Ayala sued Scott, arguing the death penalty is expensive, inhumane and 
does not increase public safety.

Florida's Supreme Court sided with Scott, saying he was within his executive 
right to reassign the cases. As for Ayala, the court said that by imposing a 
blanket prohibition of the death penalty instead of judging each case on its 
own, Ayala was exercising "no discretion at all."

Ayala said she would follow the court's ruling. To that end, she created a 
panel of prosecutors in her office to review each case eligible for the death 
penalty. She vowed not to interfere with the panel's decisions and said she 
expected it to result in some death penalty cases.

Ayala's office said in October that it would seek the death penalty in the case 
of a woman accused of robbing and killing 2 men in a Kissimmee hotel. 
Prosecutors then missed a deadline to file a notice of intent to seek the death 
penalty, leading Gov. Scott's general counsel to send Ayala a strongly-worded 
letter criticizing the misstep.

The case ended in a plea deal that gave defendant Emerita Mapp a life sentence.

A 'heinous' crime

The latest controversy stems from what law enforcement describes as a love 
triangle that turned into a murder-for-hire plot, leading to the murder of the 
wrong person.

"I've seen a lot of very bizarre, heinous crimes, and this ranks in the top," 
Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson said of Zengotita-Torres' killing.

According to Gibson, Ishnar Marie Lopez-Ramos, 35, moved to Florida from Puerto 
Rico in December and fell in love with a man already in a relationship with 
another woman. She enlisted the help of Alexis Ramos and his girlfriend 
Glorianmarie Qui???ones, both 22, to kill her romantic rival, the sheriff said 
in a January 12 news conference.

The morning of January 8, they waited outside a Ross Department Store for their 
intended target. Instead, they abducted Zengotita-Torres, Gibson said.

They stole her ATM card and used it to withdraw money from her bank account. 
When they realized they had the wrong person, they decided to kill her anyway, 
Gibson said. The suspects bound the victim with zip ties and wrapped her head 
in duct tape and garbage bags, said Gibson.

"The victim struggled and Alexis began beating the victim until she was 
unconscious," Gibson said. They dumped her body in Ormond Beach and disposed of 
her car, he said.

Lopez-Ramos was arrested on January 12 after she tried to use the stolen ATM 
card, Gibson said. She gave a full confession and led police to Ramos and 
Quinones, who also confessed, he said. The 3 suspects have been charged with 2 
counts of murder each. Court records did not list defense attorney names or 
pleas.

"It touches me deeply that one of our citizens was killed in such a manner over 
a mistaken identification and in the end it appears to be a lovers triangle," 
he said. "We are going to put a solid case to send to the state attorneys 
office to make sure it gets prosecuted to its full extent," he said.

A process in place

State representative Bob Cortes said the circumstances of the case make it 
worthy of death penalty consideration. Fearing Ayala may not pursue the death 
penalty, Cortes asked Gov. Scott to remove her office from the case.

"She has proven her lack of objectivity in seeking appropriate justice in 
capital cases," he said in a letter to Scott.

Cortes' letter, dated January 16, was sent before Scott sent his to Ayala.

In response to Scott's letter, Ayala said in an email to CNN that her "position 
and process" for seeking the death penalty "has already been made clear."

"If there are any changes, I will make it known publicly," she added.

(source: CNN)

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

Discovery en Espanol Presents "LATINOS EN EL CORREDOR DE LA MUERTE"----The 
documentary features the story of Juan Balderas and his wife's struggle to 
prove his innocence after being sentenced to death row



A murder, a man charged with the crime and a desperate woman willing to do 
anything to save her husband's life. Time is quickly running out and he will be 
executed by lethal injection if the appeal is denied. This is the story of Juan 
Balderas a prisoner on death row. LATINOS EN EL CORREDOR DE LA MUERTE premieres 
Sunday January 28 at 10pm E/P as part of the "Discovery a Fondo" investigation 
block.

There are currently 2,843 prisoners on death row in the United States including 
375 Latinos.

The Texas Polunsky Unit houses 60 of those inmates. 1 of them is Mexican born 
Juan Balderas, accused of murdering a fellow gang member. Balderas spent 8 
years waiting for trial while claiming his innocence and is currently running 
out of options to avoid lethal injection.

For the last 12 years his wife Yancy Balderas, a Salvadoran immigrant, has been 
desperately trying to demonstrate irregularities in the sentence and claiming 
the need for a new trial.

On December 6, 2005, a hooded man breaks into a house in Houston, Texas, and 
kills Eduardo Hernandez, a member of a local gang called La Tercera Crips. Days 
later, Wendy Bardales, sister of the victim's girlfriend, identifies the 
murderer as Juan Balderas and he is sent to Harris County jail, where he waited 
for a trial for 8 1/2 years. Yancy decides to quit her job and study legal 
courses at Houston University.

Narrated and directed by acclaimed "Clandestino" journalist and producer David 
Beriain, LATINOS EN EL CORREDOR DE LA MUERTE features testimonies from some of 
Balderas' relatives, Department of Criminal Justice spokespeople, attorneys who 
are experts in capital punishment, and Juan Melendez, the last Hispanic who 
managed to rectify the United States judicial system in a death penalty case.

The new 1-hour documentary is a Discovery en Espa???ol production headed by 
Michela Giorelli, Rafael Rodriguez, and Carlos Cediel, and produced by 93 
Metros.

For more about network programming, please follow us on 
facebook.com/discoveryenespanol, Twitter @DiscoveryenESP and Instagram 
@discoveryenespanol.

About Discovery en Espanol

Discovery en Espanol connects Spanish-speaking viewers in the U.S. to the world 
and all its wonder and possibilities. It provides quality programming focusing 
on bold storytelling across core genres including adventure, ingenuity, natural 
history, investigation and current affairs. Created by Discovery 
Communications, Discovery en Espanol is widely distributed on Hispanic tier 
packages throughout the country. It also reaches audiences on the "Discovery en 
Espanol Go" TV Everywhere app. For more information, please follow us on 
Facebook at facebook.com/discoveryenespanol, Twitter: @DiscoveryenESP and 
Instagram @discoveryenespanol.

(source: prnewswire.com)

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

Jury selection begins in Alexandria Chery murder case



Jury selection began Monday for the death penalty trial of man accused of 
killing his girlfriend's 16-year-old daughter and leaving her body in the woods 
near the Osceola-Polk county line.

Sanel Saint-Simon, 46, is charged with 1st-degree murder in the death of 
Olympia High School student Alexandria Chery. Attorneys and Judge John Marshall 
Kest asked jurors about whether they can fit a 2-week-long trial into their 
schedules, whether they know about the high-profile case, and what their 
personal opinions are about the death penalty.

Alexandria was reported missing July 28, 2014. She was supposed to go to work 
with her mother that morning, but stayed home because she did not feel well. 
When her mother came home, she found Alexandria's belongings missing, her 
bedsheets stripped, and blood on a large stuffed bear's foot, records show.

Alexandria's body was found Aug. 1.

Saint Simon was arrested on charges of providing false information to a 
law-enforcement officer and attempted destruction of evidence. A grand jury 
indicted him on a 1st-degree murder charge 2 about months later. This is the 
4th death penalty case prosecutors from Ocala-based State Attorney Brad King's 
office will bring to trial in Orange and Osceola counties. Gov. Rick Scott 
reassigned 29 death penalty cases to King in 2017 after Orange-Osceola State 
Attorney Aramis Ayala announced she will not seek the death penalty for anyone.

(source: Orlando Sentinel)








ALABAMA----impending execution

Alabama Is Going to Execute an Inmate Who Can't Remember His Crime----After a 
series of strokes, Vernon Madison doesn't know why he is on death row.



On Thursday, Alabama plans to execute Vernon Madison, an inmate who has been on 
death row for more than three decades for the 1985 murder of a police officer. 
Madison was scheduled to die in May 2016, but his lawyers successfully 
intervened when a rather drastic competency issue presented itself: As as 
result of several strokes and neurological deterioration, Madison could no 
longer remember the crime for which he was charged. "I never went around 
killing folks," he told a psychologist in 2016.

Madison's case goes to heart of the question of how competency is judged in 
death penalty cases. The Supreme Court has ruled that mentally incompetent 
prisoners cannot be executed, but even that standard is not cut and dry. An 
inmate with a severe mental illness may be ruled competent to be executed as 
long as he or she understands their punishment and why it's happening, leaving 
states plenty of room for interpretation.

Madison, now 67, has spent almost 1/2 of his life on Alabama's death row. 
According to court documents he is legally blind, cannot walk without 
assistance, and slurs his speech. "[Madison] is failing mentally and 
cognitively," Angie Setzer, a lawyer for Madison, tells Mother Jones.

In April 1985, Madison, who is black, killed Julius Schulte, a white police 
officer who had been called to Madison's residence for a domestic issue. 
Madison shot Schulte twice before turning his gun on Cheryl Greene, his 
girlfriend, who survived the shooting. He was charged with capital murder and 
convicted, and though his case ran into legal complications resulting in 3 
different trials, he was sentenced to death each time.

Madison was no stranger to life behind bars before coming to Alabama;s death 
row in 1985. He had previously been charged with robbery and assault, and spent 
14 years incarcerated in Misssissippi. During his time in prison in 
Mississippi, Madison received "psychiatric assistance" more than 30 times. A 
prison doctor concluded that he suffered from "a paranoid illness of profound 
proportion."

"He can't really connect the offense to the punishment. There's a real 
disconnect."

Madison's case was further complicated by bad luck and incompetence. Madison 
was first convicted and sentenced to death in 1985, but a state court sent the 
case back to trial because prosecutors improperly struck black people from the 
jury. He was tried again in 1990, but the case was sent back to trial yet again 
because of an improper testimony from an expert witness for the prosecution. At 
his 3rd and final trial in 1994, the jury recommended life in prison, but Judge 
Ferrill McRae overruled the panel and sentenced Madison to death. According to 
court documents, Judge McRae has overruled 6 life sentences, more than any 
other judge in Alabama.

Madison's lawyers believe that his memory problems began when he suffered 2 
major strokes in 2015 and 2016. The 2015 stroke affected his vision and his 
motor coordination. Afterwards, he asked prison staffers to tell his mother 
that he had a stroke even though his mother had passed away years before. After 
the 2016 stroke, medical records indicate that Madison was "very confused" and 
"disoriented" as well as showing signs of memory loss. In February 2016, after 
Madison told his legal team that he planned to move to Florida after he was 
released from prison - a clear sign of confusion given that he was sentenced to 
death - they decided to ask a state court for a competency hearing.

The hearing was granted and in April 2016, Madison was evaluated by Dr. Karl 
Kirkland, who was retained by the state of Alabama, and Dr. John Goff, who 
Madison's counsel hired. The 2 conclusions could not have been more different.

Dr. Goff diagnosed Madison with major vascular neurological disorder and said 
Madison suffered from retrograde amnesia and could not recall certain events 
that occurred before his stroke in 2016. He said that Madison could not 
describe the sequence of events from the day of his crime to his arrest or to 
the trials. According to court documents, Madison said that other people had 
told him that he had 3 trials and Judge McRae had overridden the jury. The 
doctor testified that it didn't appear that Madison remembered he had murdered 
Schulte in 1985. Madison was able to tell Dr. Goff that he "must have been" 
convicted in Mobile and that the crime "must have been a murder" but denies 
that he actually committed the crime. As a consequence of his memory issues, 
"he can't really connect the offense to the punishment," Madison's attorney 
Setzer says. "There's a real disconnect."

But Dr. Kirkland offered a different diagnosis. While noting that Madison's 
strokes had caused a cognitive decline, according to court documents the 
prosecution's doctor said that he could still recall memories from his 
childhood and could describe his previous appeals and the fact that a judge had 
overridden the jury during his 3rd and final trial. "Mr. Madison...appears to 
be able to have a rational understanding of the sentence, the results or 
effects of the sentence," Kirkland's report concluded, "and to still be able to 
discuss defense and legal theories with his attorneys."

Kirkland's report was the more persuasive. A state court ruled that Madison was 
competent to be executed the following month.

The state supreme court subsequently denied a request for a stay of execution 
just 1 day before Madison was scheduled to be put to death on May 12, 2016. 
But, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals intervened in the final hours and 
granted the stay. The same court found Madison incompetent to be executed in 
March 2017, and the state of Alabama appealed the decision to the US Supreme 
Court.

In November 2017, the 9 Supreme Court justices overturned the 11th Circuit 
ruling saying that the lower court had overstepped, but did not address the 
question of whether or not a state may execute an inmate who cannot remember 
his crime.

In the days leading up to the execution, Madison's team of lawyers have not 
stopped trying to get the execution called off. Setzer and her colleagues filed 
another pleading to the US Supreme Court, this time asking the court to stay 
the execution based on how his declining health has affected his memory. "At 
this point," Setzer says, "We're hopeful the court will do the right thing."

(source: Mother Jones)

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

Julius Schulte, officer killed by Vernon Madison, remembered as execution nears



It has been nearly 33 years since Mobile Police Cpl. Julius Schulte died in the 
line of duty. As Alabama Death Row inmate Vernon Madison faces execution at 6 
p.m. today for his murder, a fellow officer says Schulte's legacy lives on.

"I knew Julius when I was a young kid," said Det. Raymond Grissett, now 59. "I 
grew up in this department.

He means that literally. His father, Raymond Grissett Sr., was a homicide 
detective. "I rode with him when I was young," he said. "That's how I met 
Julius."

SCOTUS had ruled in November that Alabama can execute Vernon Madison, a death 
row inmate who claims to be mentally incompetent. Madison had initially been 
granted a stay of his execution by SCOTUS just hours before his scheduled 2016 
execution.

Later, fresh out of the Marine Corps, the younger Grissett joined the force in 
1982. Now Schulte was a colleague and an example.

"He was a big ol' teddy bear," Grissett said Wednesday. He "always made time to 
listen," for those who needed it.

And one more thing, said Grissett: "He took it personally when it involved 
kids."

On April 18, 1985, it did. Cheryl Greene, who lived with Madison at the time, 
had gone to work and left her daughter in Madison's custody. When she came 
home, she couldn't locate either of them. Because of Madison's 
sometimes-violent treatment of her, she was worried for her daughter and called 
police.

The relationship between Greene and Madison was "very volatile, for lack of a 
better word," said Grissett. Madison had a troubled past, having served time 
for robbery and assault in Mississippi. And Greene later testified that since 
the murder of his sister in February 1985, he'd been angry and sometimes 
irrational.

Despite that background, Schulte wasn't responding to a typical domestic 
violence call. He was a juvenile officer responding to a child welfare call, 
and the girl was determined to be with Madison's mother. According to trial 
testimony, Schulte was wrapping things up with Greene when Madison approached. 
They had a brief conversation and Madison left - only to return and shoot 
Schulte twice in the head as he sat in his car filling out paperwork.

He also shot Greene as she fled. She survived to testify; Schulte died after 
about a week on life support. Grissett said that Madison was found and arrested 
the next day.

Grissett wasn't in Mobile at the time. That January he'd moved to Colorado. He 
got the news in a call from his dad, who'd retired by then, and his brother 
Kenny, who was on the force. It shocked him.

"It opened my eyes up to how dangerous police work was getting," he said.

It also illustrated the particular danger of domestic confrontations. "A 
domestic violence call can go sideways on you in a heartbeat," said Grissett.

He got a personal reminder the day after Christmas in 1988, when he was with 
the sheriff's office in Adams County, Colorado. His partner and a rookie had 
arrived at the scene of a domestic violence call when the man involved opened 
fire on them, killing the veteran officer and wounding the rookie.

(source: al.com)








OHIO:

Moritz alumnus featured in new documentary "The Penalty"



Director Will Francome brings to light one of America's most divisive issues in 
his latest documentary, "The Penalty," which makes its Columbus debut this 
weekend.

The feature-length documentary uncovers the human costs of capital punishment 
by following the stories of 3 central characters affected by the death penalty 
in the course of four years, including an alumnus of the Moritz College of Law, 
Allen Bohnert.

"The Penalty" takes an in-depth look at stories that have dominated headlines 
in the United States, humanizing capital punishment by following Ohio's botched 
execution of Dennis McGuire; the wrongful conviction of Damon Thibodeaux that 
led to 15 years on death row; and the family of Darlene Farah, whose daughter 
Shelby was brutally murdered in 2013.

"The death penalty is not really serving [families]," Francome said. "We were 
always told that it's for the families - to give them closure. But we think 
that for most of them, it does exactly the opposite. It prolongs their grief, 
it prolongs their time in court [and] it prolongs their having to deal with 
it."

Francome said the idea behind "The Penalty" grew out of his previous work "One 
For Ten," a series of films that profiles 10 wrongly convicted people on death 
row. From that project, Francome knew there was a larger story to tell, one 
that focused on a different aspect of the issue.

"There's been many great films about someone who sits on death row, but we 
wanted to show that there was more than that, that it affected families, it 
affected the exonerees and the lawyers," he said. "It was so much more than 
that sort of classic image of a person sitting behind the glass and waiting for 
their death."

In the case of Allen Bohnert, assistant public defender for the Southern 
District of Ohio, his role began in 2014, 2 weeks before the execution of 
McGuire and the 1st-ever use of a lethal-injection method.

Francome said Bohnert's role wasn't originally slated to be a driving story 
throughout the film, but after his client, McGuire, endured an unprecedented 
degree of suffering during his execution - it took 26 minutes to pronounce him 
dead - Bohnert immediately became a source to be followed. "It's a story that 
could be any of my colleagues all across the country who do this kind of work, 
who represent unpopular clients [and] who do it to the best of our abilities," 
Bohnert said. "There's always a price to be paid for the work that we do 
because the work that we do is toxic."

McGuire's botched injection resulted in a 3 1/2-year hiatus of executions in 
Ohio, which ended in July 2017.

As the execution of Ohioan Raymond Tibbetts approaches on Feb. 13, "The 
Penalty" is being screened throughout Columbus as a push for a favorable 
clemency decision for Tibbets and a way to encourage Gov. John Kasich to stop 
the execution.

"I just want [the audience] to really consider how the death penalty affects 
America and where it fits within society here," Francome said. "I really didn't 
want to make a film that preaches too hard one way or the other. I wanted it to 
be something that feels more balanced and allows people to come in and make 
their own decisions after they watch these few stories and consider how it's 
affected the people within the film."

Four screenings of "The Penalty" will take place in Columbus on Friday, Sunday 
and Monday including a showing at the Moritz College of Law's Saxbe Auditorium 
at 9 a.m. Monday. Francome will hold a discussion after each screening and 
Bohnert will be present at Monday's showing to answer questions from the 
audience. Admission to all screenings is free.

(source: The Lantern)