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

[Rick Halperin]

March 8


TEXAS:

Shock belt use cited as part of James Calvert's death penalty appeal



A man on death row for a brutal Smith County murder says the electric shock he 
received during trial violated his constitutional rights.

James Calvert was convicted in 2015 of capital murder and sentenced to death 
for fatally shooting his ex-wife, Jelena Sriraman, and abducting their child in 
October 2012.

Calvert was sentenced to death after a lengthy, if somewhat bizarre, trial in 
Smith County's 241st District Court.

Calvert's death penalty sentence automatically triggered an appeal, which was 
filed this past October with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Several points of error are presented in the appeal. The 1st point alleges that 
the electric shock violated Calvert's rights to, "substantive and procedural 
due process," while a 2nd point alleges the trial court erred by refusing to 
grant a mistrial after the electric shock incident.

"The trial court had lesser alternatives, and allowing bailiffs to use a 
50,000-volt shock device in these circumstances shocks the conscience and 
contributed to a violation of Calvert's right to a fair trial," the appeal 
states.

Records show the shock was administered to Calvert after the jury had left the 
courtroom for the day, after Calvert refused the judge's order to stand while 
speaking. The contentious back-and-forth discussion led a deputy in the 
courtroom to administer a shock to the belt worn by Calvert. The defendant 
screamed for about 5 seconds, according to a witness.

Smith County is one of several in Texas who use electric shock devices to 
control defendants who are determined to be a security risk. The use of the 
device during Calvert's trial made headlines across the country.

The issue is bubbling up once again due to a decision last month by the Texas 
Eighth Court of Appeals in El Paso. An appeals judge ruled that judges are not 
allowed to use the shock belt to penalize defendants for not answering 
questions, or because the defendant failed to follow rules of decorum in the 
courtroom.

Calvert is requesting oral arguments, saying there are "substantial issues, the 
record is exceedingly large, and oral arguments will assist the Court to gain a 
full understanding of the case."

The Smith County District Attorney's Office was granted a time extension on 
filing their response to Calvert's appeal. It is expected to be filed on or 
before May 28.

After that is done, the next move is up to the appeals court.

(source: KLTV News)








VIRGINIA----female may face death penalty

Death penalty possible in 2017 double homicide



Danville prosecutors could seek the death penalty for a woman recently indicted 
in a 2017 double homicide, said a Virginia capital crimes expert.

Amanda Lynn Willhite, 35, was charged with capital murder, first-degree murder 
and robbery after being indicted by a grand jury on Feb. 26.

"That combination of things fits the definition of capital murder," said Robert 
Lee, executive director of the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center, 
a non-profit law firm that represents death penalty cases. It is based in 
Charlottesville.

Willhite, accused of the January 2017 slayings of Kelly Fears Wrenn and Ashley 
Lauren Joy Jones, has charges that potentially meet several legal definitions 
of capital murder, Lee explained.

For example, the Code of Virginia defines the killing of more than one person 
in a single act as a capital offense. Additionally, a killing in commission of 
a robbery could qualify as a capital murder.

Prosecutors will have to prove the slaying was willful, deliberate and 
premeditated in either case, Lee said.

"There might be some cases where it's harder to prove that," he added.

Wrenn, 49, and Jones, 28, were found dead on Jan. 8, 2017, in their home at 334 
Wrenn Drive in Danville.

They died of stab wounds, according to the Roanoke Medical Examiner's Office.

Willhite lived with Wrenn and Jones around the time of the slayings and was 
missing when their bodies were discovered, Danville Police reported at the 
time.

Willhite is currently being held by police in Jacksonville, North Carolina, on 
drug charges that are unrelated to the Danville investigation. Police are 
planning to extradite her back to Virginia but don't have a timeline for 
completing it yet.

Lee, whose office also assists attorneys representing capital cases, said 
prosecutors have the say on whether to try a case as a capital murder.

"The facts could have an impact on that, and how strong the evidence is," he 
said.

Additionally, prosecutors also have the discretion on whether or not to seek 
the death penalty, even if the capital case goes to trial.

Danville Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Newman did not respond to requests for 
comment on whether he would seek the death penalty by press time.

(source: Danville Register & Bee)



SOUTH CAROLINA:

South Carolina Senate empowers state to use electric chair



After years without the drugs to do lethal injections, the South Carolina 
Senate has agreed to require condemned inmates go to the electric chair 
instead.

South Carolina law has empowered residents of death row to make a choice 
between lethal injection and the electric chair since 1995, so the lack of 
drugs enabled them to stay alive by choosing injections. Capital punishment 
essentially ended in 2011 in South Carolina, a state that had been averaging 
close to 2 executions a year. "He picks out the option that can't be carried 
out, extending his life indefinitely," complained a sponsor of the bill, state 
Sen. William Timmons.

The proposal passed 26-12 on Tuesday and faces a last procedural vote Wednesday 
before being sent to the House, where it is expected to face even less 
opposition.

South Carolina has electrocuted more than 200 inmates since first installing 
the electric chair in 1912, according to the Death Penalty Information Center , 
including 14-year-old George Stinney in 1944, who remained the youngest person 
executed in the United States in the 20th century. A judge finally vacated the 
black teen's conviction in 2014, saying he didn't get a fair trial in the 
deaths of 2 white girls.

The drugs South Carolina uses to perform lethal injections expired a few years 
ago, and pharmacies have refused to sell the state new drugs, either because 
they are ethically against their use in executions, or because they don't want 
their names made public if they do sell them.

Another execution bill that would shield the names of drug companies from the 
public has been introduced in the Legislature, but isn't as far along.

Some opponents said South Carolina could use the lack of execution drugs to 
show that the state truly cherishes life, by protecting fetuses in their 
mothers' wombs as well as inmates on death row.

"An unborn child is innocent," responded Timmons, a Republican from Greenville. 
A murderer who has committed heinous crimes is guilty."

State Sen. Gerald Malloy said he opposed the bill both on moral grounds and for 
practical reasons. The Hartsville Democrat said he expects lawsuits from 
inmates who were sentenced to death when the execution method was up to them. 
He also predicted a higher taxpayer burden for public defenders as prosecutors 
become more likely to seek the death penalty, knowing it can be carried out.

"I think we are going to spend a lot of money proving a point," Malloy said.

The Senate rejected an amendment from Democratic state Sen. Brad Hutto from 
Orangeburg, who proposed bringing back the firing squad. He said it's a more 
humane execution method, and South Carolina will never run out of guns or 
bullets.

Currently 35 inmates are on South Carolina's death row. The state has executed 
39 inmates since lethal injection became an option 23 years ago, and only 3 of 
them chose the electric chair.

(source: Associated Press)








FLORIDA:

Palm Springs man found guilty of murder, may face death penalty



Jurors found Elton Taylor guilty of 1st-degree murder and 3 of the 4 aggravated 
assault charges against him in a potential death penalty case today.

The verdict means prosecutors will ask jurors to consider sentencing Taylor, 
39, to death in a sentencing hearing beginning Monday.

Taylor, a Palm Springs man, was found guilty of murder in the shooting of his 
estranged wife, 41-year-old Watisha Wallace, on Oct. 2, 2013.

The jury found Taylor not guilty of a 4th aggravated assault charge, but also 
guilty of a gun charge and false imprisonment, which was a lesser offense than 
the kidnapping charge originally brought.

Attorneys on both sides will meet with Judge Laura Johnson on presentencing 
matters.

(source: mypalmbeachpost.com)

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

Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz charged, faces death penalty over Parkland 
massacre



Florida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz has been formally charged with 17 
counts of 1st-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder, which could mean 
a death sentence if he's convicted.

A grand jury in Fort Lauderdale returned the indictment against the 19-year-old 
Cruz for the Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School 
in Parkland in which 17 people died and 16 were wounded.

Cruz's public defender has said he'll plead guilty if prosecutors take the 
death penalty off the table, which would mean a life prison sentence.

The Broward County state lawyer hasn't announced a decision on the death 
penalty.

The news came the New York Post reported that Cruz has been "smiling and 
giggling" while in isolation behind bars, with insiders describing him as 
"well-groomed??? with a "quiet demeanour" and restless at night.

Cruz was housed in a single-man cell in the infirmary and away from the general 
population because of his high-profile status, CNN reported.

The 19-year-old's behaviour was noted on February 20.

"Appeared to break out in laughter both during and immediately following his 
professional visit at 1848 hours and later at 1910 hours," a deputy wrote.

Other notes from three deputies from that day described Cruz as "well-groomed, 
calm/quiet demeanour," "follows commands, talks softly and very little," 
"follows commands and responds to questions," "appears slower than normal in 
his movement."

Cruz was moved to a different cell February 23 and received a visit from his 
lawyers.

He appeared to be "coherent" during the chat, according to a deputy who noted, 
"inmate was also observed smiling and giggling."

Cruz was described as having trouble sleeping February 21, 22 and 24.

On February 22, a deputy wrote at 2:48am that Cruz was "restless" and "tossing 
from time to time."

That observation was repeated at 3:36am by another deputy.

Another noted at 11:20am, "restless, tossing from time to time in his bunk, 
staring at ceiling."

On some days, Cruz is described as avoiding eye contact and looking "downward 
with a blank stare."

Deputies also said he "often sits with a blank stare, appears to be in thought" 
and that his thinking appeared "logical."

On February 24, Cruz ate his entire breakfast, showered and brushed his teeth 
and was "given time to walk outside his cell and did so."

He then was visited by an unidentified family member.

Cruz requested to read a Bible before trying to turn in for the night.

"(Twists) and turns in bunk, does not sleep, stares at wall in deep thought, 
eyes closed, appears to be resting, not asleep," a deputy wrote.

Cruz's lawyer Gordon Weekes warned against reading too much into the jail 
notes.

"They are snippets, observations from corrections officers and are not clinical 
impressions made by his treating psychologist or psychiatrist at the jail. They 
don't show a complete picture," he said. "They are generated because Mr. Cruz 
has a high-profile case and is on suicide watch."

(source: news.com.au)








ALABAMA:

Bill allowing death row inmates to be executed by nitrogen gas sails through 
Alabama House panel



A bill to allow death row inmates to be executed by nitrogen gas passed the 
Alabama House on Wednesday.

"It's about options. It's not a debate about the death penalty," the bill's 
sponsor, state Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Montrose, told the committee.

Pittman said the execution method, formally known as nitrogen hypoxia, is a 
humane way to put someone to death. He said nitrogen hypoxia eventually leads 
to unconsciousness and then death.

"It's not like asphyxiation where you build up pain and your have some issues 
and you understand you're under duress," Pittman said.

The bill gives death row inmates the option to choose nitrogen hypoxia, 
electrocution or lethal injection. The executions would be conducted at Holman 
Correctional Facility at Atmore, and the bill gives the Department of 
Corrections the ability to choose the accommodations for them.

Rep. Mike Holmes, R-, said the bill would create a valid option in the wake of 
the state's struggles with lethal injection.

"We're having problems getting chemicals," Holmes noted.

Pittman said 2 states - Mississippi and Oklahoma - allow for death by nitrogen 
hypoxia but the method has yet to be used in an execution.

The state Senate passed the bill late last month. It now heads to the full 
House.

(source: al.com)

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

Alabama death row inmate sues after 'botched' execution



An Alabama death row inmate whose execution went wrong is asking that his death 
sentence be vacated. The attempted execution was "botched and bloody," as the 
inmate's lawyer put it, and left the inmate under "physical and mental duress."

Doyle Lee Hamm was convicted in 1987 of committing murder during a robbery and 
sentenced to death. On February 22, the 61-year-old was being prepped for 
intravenous lethal execution at the Holman Correctional Facility when staff and 
medical personnel tried and failed for 2 1/2 hours to find veins in his groin, 
feet, and legs.

A federal judge ordered a medical exam by an outside physician; it was 
completed Sunday by Dr. Mark Heath, an anesthesiologist who practices at 
NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center.

In two civil actions filed Wednesday with the Alabama US District Court and the 
state circuit court, Hamm maintains that the execution was called off after 
"hours of physical and psychological torture, forcing needles into his lower 
extremities" and the right femoral vein near his groin, "causing severe 
bleeding and pain."

Hamm's defense team is asking for relief from his "now unconstitutional 
sentence of death." They claim that the painful procedure, during which their 
client wished he could die, was cruel and unusual punishment and a 
"constitutionally prohibited cruel, unnecessarily painful, slow, and lingering 
process to death." They also claim that attempting a second execution would be 
double jeopardy, protected by the Fifth Amendment, which states that no person 
shall "be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or 
limb."

11 puncture wounds

Hamm's court filings state that the execution team made numerous attempts to 
gain access to veins in his legs and ankles. In at least 2 attempts, the 
documents state, "an execution team member inserted a needle into Doyle Hamm's 
leg and kept the needle in his leg for several minutes, moving it around in a 
painful and futile attempt to enter Doyle Hamm's veins." "Multiple times, the 
execution team tried to insert a needle or catheter into Doyle Hamm's right 
groin, causing severe bleeding and pain," the filings state. "The staff put a 
pad on his groin to absorb the blood and had to change the pad during the 
procedure when the pad became completely soaked with blood."

In his medical report, Heath says he found 11 puncture wounds on Hamm's body, 
with "approximately 6 puncture wounds ... with partial overlap" in the right 
groin area.

Pictures attached to the filings show puncture wounds and intense bruising in 
his feet, legs, and groin.

Heath also documented a "large" hematoma, or swollen blood clot, that "could 
possibly be caused by an unusually large leak from the femoral vein." He stated 
that the pain Hamm is having in his lower abdomen "may be related to bladder or 
other visceral injury."

The entire process to place an IV, the filings state, took at least 2 1/2 
hours. In a blog post March 4, Hamm's attorney, Bernard Harcourt, wrote that 
"This was clearly a botched execution that can only be accurately described as 
torture."

'It's disturbing'

Robert Dunham, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information 
Center, said he found the pictures and court documents "disturbing."

"To say this was a botched execution is an understatement," Dunham said. "When 
you see the pictures of the groin, you don't see bruising like that in a 
properly set line. This man was strapped to a gurney for 2 1/2 hours, and 
during that period, they literally poked holes in him."

After the execution was aborted, Alabama correction officials denied that there 
was any problem with the procedure and said they halted it when they ran out of 
time before the midnight execution deadline.

"I wouldn't necessarily characterize what we had tonight as a problem," Alabama 
Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said shortly after the 
execution was stopped. "The only indication I have is that in their medical 
judgment it was more of a time issue, given the late hour."

Dunham disagrees. He cites the fact that Alabama keeps its execution protocols 
secret as an issue in the resolution of the case.

"They don't allow witness to observe critical points of the process," he said. 
"This is an illustration of why secrecy is such bad public policy."

Oral lethal injection' was requested

Hamm's defense team states in the court filings that the inmate is struggling 
with "active lymphatic cancer" that has created abnormal lymph nodes, including 
in his groin. The abnormal lymph nodes had "previously been identified by this 
Court's independent medical expert" as problematic.

Because of this finding, Hamm's attorney had argued for months that killing his 
client by lethal injection would amount to "cruel and unusual punishment" 
because Hamm's veins had become severely compromised by both the cancer and 
"years of intravenous drug use," the filings state.

Instead, Harcourt says, he and his client had asked for death by "oral lethal 
injection," which he says the court denied. In earlier court filings, Alabama 
Attorney General Steve Marshall's office argued that Hamm had waited too long 
to challenge Alabama's method of execution and had failed to present proof that 
his medical condition had deteriorated.

Alabama carries out executions by lethal injections unless an inmate requests 
the electric chair.

(source: Fox News)

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

The Cruel and Unusual Punishment of Doyle Lee Hamm----The State of Alabama was 
warned that its planned execution of Hamm would be painful and torturous. It 
kept going anyway.



Last Thursday the state of Alabama tried and failed to execute Doyle Lee Hamm, 
a prisoner who has spent more than half his life on death row for a murder 
committed in 1987. The botched execution attempt, which lasted hours and left 
Hamm covered in blood, was 1 of 3 lethal injections scheduled in the United 
States that day. Its gruesome outcome has horrified criminal-justice advocates 
across the country, who see this execution as yet another blatant violation of 
the Constitution's guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment.

According to Hamm's attorney, Bernard Harcourt, the 2-person execution team 
stuck needles in Hamm's legs half a dozen times, but were unable to locate a 
surface-level vein. They then moved on to Hamm's groin, which they stabbed 
another half-dozen times. In the process, they may have punctured his bladder 
and femoral artery - Hamm was gushing blood as the execution proceeded, and he 
urinated blood for most of the following day, Harcourt reported. At the urging 
of the state employee who was there, the execution team gave up just before 
midnight, worried that Hamm???s death warrant would expire.

Harcourt, a Columbia law professor who has represented Hamm since the 2 men met 
in 1990, describes the process as "torture," and there is certainly every 
indication that the multi-hour execution attempt was cruel, harrowing, and 
painful. Hamm was "remarkably stoic" and "emotionally mature" as the date of 
his execution drew nearer, the lawyer said, but when the 2 men saw each other 
after the botched execution, Hamm was "traumatized," shaken up and clearly 
still in pain.

Hamm's botched execution is the latest in an expanding list of execution 
attempts gone horribly wrong (think Clayton Lockett and Joseph Wood, both in 
2014, along with many others). But the likely reason for the failure adds a 
disturbing twist to the tradition. In addition to a history of drug use that 
makes surface-level vein access difficult, Harcourt says that Hamm has 
lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph system that causes his nodes to swell, blocking 
access to veins in his groin. After Hamm was diagnosed in 2014, he underwent 
radiation therapy to remove a large tumor from behind his left eye, but it is 
not clear that he received any treatment since. Multiple independent examiners 
have observed swollen lymph nodes on his body since then.

Well before the date of the execution, Harcourt began pleading with the court 
to deliver the execution chemicals orally, but the court dismissed his concerns 
as unfounded. In recent weeks, Harcourt hired Dr. Mark Heath, an 
anesthesiologist affiliated with New York Presbyterian Hospital, to evaluate 
Hamm, and he said an execution would be unlikely to succeed. At Harcourt's 
request, the court then appointed its own doctor, who noted the inflamed lymph 
nodes in Hamm's right groin - the very area the executioners punctured half a 
dozen times - but concluded that "[they would] not impede venous flow." One 
vein in particular, he went so far as to declare, would be a "piece of cake."

Hamm was originally sentenced to death for shooting a motel clerk in the head 
during an armed robbery. While he has been imprisoned, Alabama has executed 
more than 50 people, for many years by means of its infamous electric chair 
"Yellow Mama" and, more recently, by means of lethal injection. Harcourt has 
appealed his sentence several times to successively higher courts, and in the 
process has exposed a number of disturbing facts about the case. When arguing 
for the death penalty, for instance, prosecutors cited a robbery Hamm 
supposedly committed while drunk at age 20, but that robbery may never have 
happened. And in ruling on Hamm's case in 1999, a judge copied verbatim an 
89-page "proposed memorandum opinion" on the case that had been drafted by the 
Alabama attorney general; in a consummate act of disregard, the judge did not 
even bother to remove the word "proposed" from the title of the version he 
signed.

According to Harcourt, Hamm has not been provided with medical attention 
sufficient to determine how advanced his cancer is or how long he has left to 
live. His case and his life now hang in legal limbo, awaiting a hearing next 
week at which the state will announce whether it intends to try again to 
execute him.

At that hearing, Harcourt hopes to present a medical report that reviews the 
execution attempt. He confesses he has no idea what will happen next, 
describing the case as "completely uncharted territory," but feels confident 
that it would be unconstitutional for the state to seek another execution given 
how much warning he gave them about the difficulty of finding a suitable vein.

In the meantime, Hamm's case will stand as testament to the state's 
determination to exercise its monopoly on violence, no matter how impractical, 
time-consuming, or cruel that exercise becomes.

Recent decades have seen district attorneys in most counties pull away from the 
death penalty and the Supreme Court limit its use to 1st-degree murder cases 
with unanimous juries. A growing body of evidence attests that not only is 
capital punishment expensive and inhumane; it is also more or less useless: A 
2012 review of death penalty studies found no evidence that capital punishment 
deters crime, and a recent survey of criminologists found that nearly 90 % of 
them doubt the death penalty is effective.

Without any practical justification for carrying on this tradition, 
law-and-order prosecutors and legislators have argued that the death penalty 
functions as symbolic justice, the only fit way for the state to respond to the 
worst of crimes. In Hamm's case, though, this "symbolic justice" involved 
strapping an infirm, long-incarcerated man to a gurney and stabbing him 
repeatedly in the groin until he gushed blood. Such torture is certainly 
symbolic of something, but that something is not justice.

(source: Jake Bittle, The Nation)