[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARK., KY., NEB., UTAH, ARIZ., NEV., USA

Thu Mar 29 08:52:55 CDT 2018

March 29

ARKANSAS:

Ark. says inmate working to 'frustrate' execution law----Lawyers say an inmate 
is trying to "frustrate" the enforcement of the states's execution law by 
raising appeals the state and SCOTUS have already considered

Lawyers for the state of Arkansas say an inmate is trying to "frustrate" the 
enforcement of the states's execution law by raising appeals the state and U.S. 
supreme courts have already considered.

The Arkansas Supreme Court on March 1 dissolved a stay of execution for Don 
Davis, who was convicted in 1992 of killing a northwest Arkansas woman. Davis 
says he didn't receive aid from an independent mental health provider during 
his trial, but the state contends he wasn't entitled to it.

Davis last week asked the Arkansas high court to set aside the effect of its 
ruling so he could take the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a filing 
Wednesday, lawyers for Arkansas said courts affirmed Davis' conviction and 
sentence during cases resolved in 1994 and 2011.

(source: Associated Press)

KENTUCKY:

Kentucky seeks death penalty in 71-year-old veteran's death

Prosecutors in Kentucky are seeking the death penalty against the man they say 
killed a 71-year-old Army veteran during a robbery.

The News-Enterprise reports the Hardin County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office 
filed aggravators Tuesday against 25-year-old Aaron Lee Pearson in the 2016 
death of Norman Hall.

Authorities believe Pearson and 18-year-old Eloysia James-Venerable broke into 
Hall's home to rob him. Hall, who lived alone and used an oxygen tank, died 
from multiple blows to his head and face and being stabbed in the neck.

Pearson is charged with complicity to commit murder, complicity to 1st-degree 
robbery and complicity to tampering with physical evidence charges. It's 
unclear whether he has a lawyer.

James-Venerable took a plea deal in February recommending a 20- to 50-year 
sentence and requiring her to testify against Pearson.

(source: Associated Press)

NEBRASKA:

Norfolk bank robber on death row asks court to stay execution, vacate sentence

Convicted Norfolk bank robber Erick Vela this week filed a petition asking a 
federal judge to stay his execution and vacate his sentence, saying his death 
sentence is unconstitutional.

The 211-page petition filed in U.S. District Court Tuesday argues in part that 
Vela is intellectually disabled and that executing him would violate his Eighth 
Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

Vela's petition for habeas corpus, which was filed by his attorneys, marks his 
latest appeal following unsuccessful efforts in state court to overturn his 
death sentence.

"Mr. Vela accepted responsibility for his role in the murders when he (pleaded) 
guilty," the petition said. "Central issues in his case are whether he is 
ineligible for the death penalty ... because he is intellectually disabled, and 
whether mitigating circumstances existed so that his life should be spared."

Vela, 37, has been incarcerated on Nebraska's death row at the Tecumseh State 
Correctional Institution since January 2007.

Vela, Jorge Galindo and Jose Sandoval were sentenced to die after being 
convicted in the botched robbery at the U.S. Bank branch in Norfolk in 
September 2002, that killed Lisa Bryant, Lola Elwood, Samuel Sun, Jo Mausbach 
and Evonne Tuttle.

The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services has already notified Sandoval, 
38, that they intend to seek his execution.

A death warrant setting his execution has not been issued, and lawsuits 
fighting the execution in Sandoval's case are pending.

(source: Hastings Tribune)

UTAH:

After prison officials withhold medical records, a Utah death penalty case ends 
in a plea deal. Now, an angry judge wants the state to investigate 'sneaky' and 
'deceitful' actions by Corrections Department.

A Utah prisoner who was weeks away from a trial where jurors would have decided 
whether he should be executed for killing his cellmate was instead sentenced on 
Wednesday to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Steven Douglas Crutcher, 36, admitted last May that he killed 62-year-old 
Roland Cardona-Gueton inside their shared cell at the Gunnison prison in 2013.

A weekslong sentencing hearing was expected to begin on April 9 - but 
prosecutors on Wednesday suddenly withdrew their intent to seek the death 
penalty for Crutcher.

One big factor that led to the decision, according to Sanpete County Attorney 
Kevin Daniels, was the recent discovery by Crutcher's defense attorney that the 
Department of Corrections had withheld nearly 1,600 pages of medical records - 
even after 8th District Judge Wallace Lee ordered last October that they be 
turned over.

"I'm about as angry about this as I have been about anything in my career," the 
judge told attorneys on Wednesday. "I am beyond angry about this. I am angry 
with the Department of Corrections. This was totally wrong, and makes me doubt 
the credibility of everything I hear about the Department of Corrections."

Calling the department's actions "sneaky" and "deceitful," Lee went so far as 
saying he would write a letter to the governor asking for an investigation of 
the Department of Corrections.

"This is totally wrong," the judge said. "That is something I would expect from 
Russia or North Korea, not a society like we have under the Constitution. It's 
got to stop. I've worried that if it's happened in this case, it's happening in 
other cases out there."

Defense attorney Edward Brass said the documents "went to the heart" of his 
client's defense at trial, and it was important to know what kind of medical 
treatment and medications Crutcher was receiving around the time of his 
cellmate's death.

But Brass said the Corrections department failed to hand over all of the 
documents that were ordered released by the judge, and medical doctors at the 
prison were extremely difficult to work with. One doctor, he said, would not 
even disclose what medical school he went to during an interview with defense 
counsel.

"This could have been a disaster," the defense attorney said. "If it wasn't for 
the integrity of the county attorney, it would have been a disaster."

Amanda Montague, an assistant Utah attorney general who represents the 
Corrections department, told the judge Wednesday that the department was 
"sincerely sorry" for what happened. She said employees are being retrained on 
what constitutes a record and disciplinary action may be taken.

Cardona-Gueton's death April 20, 2013, was originally investigated as a 
suicide.

But prosecutors have said in court papers that Crutcher penned a letter to the 
Sanpete County attorney in July that year, confessing that he strangled his 
cellmate with a ligature.

Prosecutors wrote in court papers filed last year that Crutcher's letter 
contained "racial epithets and white supremacist slang" and the defendant 
described himself as a "neo-Nazi skinhead."

Crutcher also wrote in the letter that he killed his cellmate to get "his 
bolts," prosecutors wrote. "At trial, the state will argue that 'the bolts' are 
'Schutzstaffel bolts,' which white supremacist gang members use to identify 
themselves," prosecutors wrote, apparently referring to tattoos.

The homicide qualified as a death-penalty-eligible crime because it was 
committed inside a prison, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said a bedsheet torn into strips and braided together was used to 
kill Cardona-Gueton, who had been at the prison since 2011, serving time for 
theft and drug distribution.

The 2 inmates had shared a cell for just a few days before the murder.

Crutcher was serving a sentence of up to life in prison for a 2009 aggravated 
kidnapping conviction, according to court records.

According to The Associated Press, Crutcher attempted to escape the Iron County 
jail in June 2009 by cornering a deputy and threatening to detonate a bomb if 
he wasn't released. It was later discovered that the "bomb" was fashioned from 
toilet paper rolls, headphone wires and a pencil eraser.

Crutcher was at the jail at the time on suspicion of stealing a car. He pleaded 
guilty that year to 2nd-degree felony theft by receiving stolen property in 
Cedar City and was sentenced to another 1 to 15 years at the prison.

(source: Salt Lake Tribune)

NEVADA:

Nevada Supreme Court to hear Dozier death row case

The Nevada Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in the cases involving a 
death row inmate who wants to die.

The justices will hear hear arguments in the case of twice-convicted murderer 
Scott Dozier, who was scheduled to be executed in November and has said he 
wants to die.

Dozier's death was postponed after a district judge denied the use of a 
paralytic drug called cisatracurium and granted a request from the lawyers for 
the Nevada Department of Corrections to stay the execution as the lethal 
injection process is reviewed by the Nevada Supreme Court.

The Dozier case is scheduled for 11 a.m. on May 8.

The case will be heard at the Supreme Court building in Carson City.

(source: Las Vegas Review-Journal)

ARIZONA:

Hearing in Serial Killings Case Set Over Video

An April 13 court hearing is scheduled for a judge to consider a request to 
take the death penalty off the table for a former bus driver in Phoenix charged 
in a string of nighttime killings.

Attorneys for Aaron Saucedo say authorities should no longer be able to seek 
the death penalty as a punishment for releasing video of their client in his 
jail cell.

They argue the release of the video to news organizations violates Saucedo's 
rights.

Judge David Cunanan declined a request Wednesday from Saucedo's attorneys to 
bar authorities from releasing any videos while the request to dismiss the 
death penalty is being resolved.

Saucedo has pleaded not guilty to charges in attacks that killed 9 people 
during a nearly 1-year period that ended in July 2016.

Saucedo has chosen not to attend 6 previous hearings.

(source: Associated Press)

USA:

Rodriguez trial attorney expects appeals to linger for years

The federal death penalty appeal of Alfonso Rodriguez will likely linger for 
several more years. That's according to West Fargo attorney Bob Hoy, a member 
of Rodriguez's defense team during his 2006 trial.

Rodriguez is on death row for the kidnapping and murder of Dru Sjodin in 2003.

Hoy tells KFGO News that the timeline of Rodriguez's appeal has been typical. 
Hoy says federal death penalty cases are time consuming and expensive.

"In my judgment, our society would be much better served by spending the money 
that they spend on these appeals and things in capital cases--instead of 
spending it on that, spending it on ways to avoid the problems in the first 
place" Hoy said.

"Here, for instance, if someone had spent more money and time trying to make 
sure that Mr. Rodriguez adhered to the conditions of his probation, provided a 
means of staying out of trouble, that may have been a better use of the money 
than what we're doing now."

A mental health hearing scheduled for last December has been pushed back a 2nd 
time. The hearing is now set for August and scheduled to last up to nine days.

Hoy says he thinks the case could take another four years to reach the U.S. 
Supreme court, where it may, or may not be granted a hearing.

(source: KFGO news)

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

Atlantic Editor Defends New Hire Who Called For Death Penalty For Abortions

Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg earlier this week defended his 
decision to hire conservative columnist Kevin Williamson, who once tweeted that 
women who'd had abortions should be hanged.

"I don't think that taking a person's worst tweets, or assertions, in isolation 
is the best journalistic practice," Goldberg said in a memo sent to the 
Atlantic staff, which Slate published on Tuesday. "I have read most, or much, 
of what he has written; some of his critics have not done the same."

The Atlantic did not immediately respond to TPM's request to obtain Goldberg's 
full memo.

Goldberg's memo came after the publication was criticized for bringing on such 
an extreme figure in an effort to make its newsroom "ideologically diverse."

"By hiring Williamson, The Atlantic is sending a clear message: That the worst 
kind of harassment and intimidation women face - extremism that has been 
directly linked to real life violence - is acceptable," Guardian columnist 
Jessica Valenti wrote in a Medium post.

In the memo, Goldberg stated that it's "my mission to make sure that we outdo 
our industry in achieving gender equality," a claim critics say is difficult to 
square with this latest hire, which could be seen as disregarding any female 
Atlantic employee who may or may not have had the procedure Williamson believes 
should subject her to execution.

Williamson's tweet wasn't his only controversial "assertion." The former 
National Review writer also described a black child as a "3/5-scale Snoop Dog" 
while comparing him to a primate, and insisted trans actress Laverne Cox "is 
not a woman."

Williamson later defended his description of the black child.

(source: talkingpointsmemo.com)