[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OKLA., NEB., UTAH, NEV., CALIF., WASH., USA

[Rick Halperin]

May 2



OKLAHOMA:

Family Calls For Death Penalty For Norman Murder Suspect



A week after a brutal murder at a Norman apartment, the suspect, 29-year old 
Joseph Alliniece faces new charges.

Alliniece is accused of killing 27-year old Brittani Rose Young by stomping on 
her head, and injuring other parts of her body while she lay on the floor of 
her apartment.

"He took my Brittani Rose. He took my girl. He stole something from everybody. 
He didn't have the right. He didn't have the right. He is going to have to pay. 
There is going to be a reckoning," says the victim's father Todd Roberts.

Investigators say the murder happened last Tuesday at the Emerald Green 
Apartments around 3 p.m., and that Young's mother was one of the people who 
discovered her body.

Alliniece was formally charged Tuesday May 1, with 1 count of 1st-degree murder 
and 2 counts of kidnapping.

Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn says Alliniece pulled a woman 
and small child into Young's apartment with him at some point during the crime.

Later, witnesses say they saw him running from the scene.

"A friend came to check on her, with her child. And, he pulled them into the 
apartment, both the adult and child and held them there against their will. 
That's how we have 2 kidnapping counts," Cleveland County District Attorney 
Mashburn says.

Alliniece was arrested hours later. He was found in Oklahoma City at the OG 
Food Mart, and court records state there was blood on his shoes and cellphone.

Brittani's father says Alliniece should be sentenced to the death penalty.

"My sole purpose is to make sure her voice is heard, and justice served 
complete," says Roberts.

Court records indicate on the day of the crime, Alliniece quote "...did not 
remember anything that happened today..." he did recall making a phone call to 
a witness in the case, and "getting a ride to OKC..." The DA's office says he's 
recently offered up more information, but it is still too early to know how 
they will pursue the case.

"There is a 2nd interview wherein he does make some admissions in this case, so 
that will definitely be brought out in this case as well," says Mashburn.

Alliniece is being held on a 5-million-dollar bond.

His next court date will be May 22nd at 9:00 A.M.

(source: news9.com)








NEBRASKA:

Nebraska AG sues lawmakers to stop death penalty questioning of prisons 
director



Nebraska's attorney general has sued members of the State Legislature in an 
attempt to block their questioning of the prisons director about the death 
penalty protocol.

Attorney General Doug Peterson alleges in the lawsuit filed Tuesday that 
lawmakers voted unlawfully to issue a subpoena to the director of the Nebraska 
Department of Correctional Services to appear at a May 8 hearing at the State 
Capitol. Members of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee planned to question 
Scott Frakes about the lethal injection protocol his department updated in 2017 
to carry out executions.

The lawsuit names 16 state senators and the clerk of the Legislature as 
defendants. The senators are members of either the Executive Board of the 
Legislature or the Judiciary Committee.

State Sen. Laura Ebke, chairwoman of the Judiciary Committee, said last week 
that lawmakers will take the unusual step of issuing a subpoena because Frakes 
refused to answer questions voluntarily. In a recent letter, Frakes declined a 
request to appear before the committee "on the advice of legal counsel, and 
because of pending litigation."

5 lawsuits related to the death penalty are currently in state courts. In 
addition, the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska has filed a complaint 
with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, alleging that state officials 
violated federal regulations to obtain the lethal drugs.

Meanwhile, Peterson recently asked the Nebraska Supreme Court to set an 
execution date for 1 of the 11 men on death row. State officials are trying to 
carry out Nebraska's 1st execution in 21 years.

(source: Omaha World-Herald)








UTAH:

Roy man pleads not guilty to aggravated murder, death penalty still an 
option----Matthew Daniel Graves, 22, of Roy, is being held without bail on 
charges of aggravated murder, causing a child to be exposed to a controlled 
substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia.



A judge ruled Tuesday that an aggravated murder charge against a Roy man will 
move forward, which means the death penalty is still on the table for 
prosecutors.

Matthew Daniel Graves, 23, was in court Tuesday morning and pleaded not guilty 
to all 3 charges against him, including aggravated murder, a 1st-degree felony; 
causing or permitting a child to be exposed to a controlled substance, a 
3rd-degree felony; and use or possession of drug paraphernalia, a class A 
misdemeanor.

With the case going forward, the state has 60 days to file a motion as to 
whether or not they will seek the death penalty against Graves. Because the 
victim was under the age of 14, the homicide qualifies for capital punishment 
under Utah law.

Graves is accused of punching and ultimately killing a 41-day-old child in 
September 2017.

Deputy Weber County Attorney Letitia Toombs said during closing arguments that 
Graves admitted to police during an interview that he was responsible for the 
child's death.

Toombs said that Graves woke up to the sound of his alarm and the baby crying 
around 6:30 a.m. the morning of Sept. 7, prompting him to punch the baby then 
put a pacifier in the child's mouth in the effort to quiet the baby.

Later that morning, Graves dropped off a 5-year-old living in the house to 
daycare and brought the infant along for the ride. After dropping off the 
5-year-old, Graves noticed that the infant wasn't breathing, and Graves called 
his grandmother for advice, Toombs said. It was then that he called 911.

The child was first taken to Ogden Regional Medical Center and later flown to 
Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City. The infant was pronounced dead 
shortly after.

Graves allegedly told police in an interview that he "blacked out in rage" and 
punched the baby, according to a probable cause statement.

Tuesday's hearing consisted of testimony from doctors who outlined the severity 
of the child's injuries.

Dr. Antoinette Laskey, a pediatrician at Primary Children's Hospital, was the 
first to take the witness stand Tuesday. When the child arrived at the Salt 
Lake City hospital, he was already in "extremely critical condition" from head 
and neck injuries, Laskey said.

Laskey told the court she determined the child's injuries were consistent with 
physical abuse. Laskey concluded by saying there was evidence the child had 
suffered from traumatic injuries throughout his short life.

Dr. Jason Lozano, an assistant medical examiner for the Utah Medical Examiner's 
Office, performed an autopsy on the child, and found a number of injuries.

A significant amount of bleeding and swelling was found in the child's scalp 
and brain, Lozano said. Autopsy photos were shown to the court, depicting the 
injuries and trauma that caused the child's death.

The child died from blunt force injuries, Lozano said, and ruled the death as a 
homicide.

Graves is being held without bail at Weber County Jail, and his next court 
appearance is scheduled for Monday, July 9, in Ogden's 2nd District Court.

(source: Standard-Examiner)








NEVADA:

Former death row inmate denied parole



A Carlin man who was once on death row but is now serving a life sentence has 
been denied parole by the Nevada Parole Board.

Kelly Rhyne was 39 years old when he and co-defendant James Mendenhall stomped 
Donald "Lobo" Brown to death in a downtown Elko alleyway in 1998 and dumped his 
body in a large trash bin.

The 2 had been seen earlier exchanging words with Brown in a bar. Marks on 
Brown's face matched their shoe tread, and blood on their clothing matched the 
victim's DNA.

Rhyne was prosecuted by District Attorney Gary Woodbury and convicted of murder 
in 2000. A jury sentenced him to death.

After years of appealing his case, the Nevada Supreme Court remanded it back to 
district court in 2014. He pleaded guilty that October to 2nd-degree murder and 
was resentenced to life with immediate eligibility for parole.

Senior Judge Norman Robison said he thought prosecutors should have initially 
sought a 2nd-degree murder conviction.

"I also feel the penalty imposed by the jury was excessive," Robison said at 
the time, adding that jurors likely made the decision to punish Rhyne by death 
because of his courtroom behavior.

The Nevada Parole Board declined in March to grant Rhyne parole.

Mendenhall was paroled on his murder charge in 2014, but remained in prison on 
a charge of conspiracy.

(source: Elko Daily Free Press)








CALIFORNIA:

Next California governor may have to preside over executions



California's next governor could be forced to make a life-or-death decision 
that the state's top executive hasn't faced in over a decade: whether to spare 
an inmate facing execution.

There are nearly 750 people on death row at San Quentin State Prison, more than 
any other state, and decisions made by the next governor will help set the pace 
of executions going forward. 5 of the 6 top candidates oppose the death 
penalty. But few say they'd use the office's commutation power to broadly move 
inmates from death row to life in prison.

"Unless Jerry Brown steps in or one of these candidates for governor steps in, 
I think there's going to be executions in California," said Erwin Chemerinsky, 
the dean of UC Berkeley Law School. "It seems like it's a matter of time."

California hasn't executed an inmate since Clarence Ray Allen on Jan. 17, 2006. 
And more than 1/2 of the inmates on California death row have waited more than 
20 years since their convictions, according to state data. In 2016, Golden 
State voters narrowly approved a ballot initiative to speed up the death 
penalty, Proposition 66, and several legal barriers to execution have fallen 
since then.

It's too soon to say for sure when - or whether - executions will restart. Prop 
66 was upheld by the state Supreme Court last year, and the state corrections 
department put forward a new single-drug execution procedure in January. In 
March, a state judge in Marin County lifted one of several legal injunctions 
against carrying out executions.

Still, other legal barriers remain, including a long-standing federal court 
case in San Francisco questioning the legality of lethal injections. The judge 
handling that case, Richard Seeborg, has issued stays on the execution of 
roughly 20 California death row inmates who have exhausted their appeals. Any 
decision to lift those stays could be further appealed, although U.S. Supreme 
Court precedent makes it difficult to challenge lethal injection procedures.

A California governor hasn't commuted the sentence of a death row inmate since 
Ronald Reagan spared convicted murderer Calvin Thomas in 1967. But several 
anti-death penalty governors around the country, including Martin O'Malley in 
Maryland and Pat Quinn in Illinois, have issued blanket commutations removing 
inmates from death row in recent years.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the frontrunner in the race, said he wasn't planning to 
follow in their footsteps. Instead, he wants to put the issue of the death 
penalty "back on the ballot" even though Californians have rejected a repeal 
measure twice in the last 6 years. Newsom thinks he could change that by 
running a stronger anti-capital punishment campaign.

"We need to have a more sustainable conversation with the public, and I would 
like to lead that," he said. "We haven't had a governor, with respect, that's 
led this conversation. There's been a lot of timidity on the death penalty."

Antonio Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles, said he would be willing 
to commute the death sentences of individual inmates "where the record shows 
that that would be appropriate." However, "the next governor's going to have to 
enforce the law, and the death penalty's the law of the land," Villaraigosa 
stressed.

State Treasurer John Chiang, a Democrat, and San Diego County businessman John 
Cox, a Republican, have both cited their Catholic faith for their opposition to 
capital punishment. But both said they would respect the pro-death penalty 
decision in the last ballot initiative.

"I am personally opposed to the death penalty and voted for Proposition 62, but 
as governor, I would enforce the will of the voters," Chiang said.

Former state schools chief Delaine Eastin, who has trailed in the polls, 
sounded the most willing to make use of commutations. If elected, she said she 
would want to use the governor's clemency power to commute the death sentences 
of inmates "who've shown some sense of remorse or some sense of contribution to 
society."

"I actually think some of them would be better served if they had to live with 
the consequences of what they did, rather than spending a fortune to put them 
to death," she said.

The only candidate who personally supports the death penalty is Assemblyman 
Travis Allen, an Orange County Republican who vowed in an interview to "clean 
out this death row in California."

"Why should California allow these people the luxury of life when they have 
taken it so cruelly from so many others?" he asked. "Every single day that 
these people are alive is another insult to the families of their victims."

Unlike most states, the executive clemency power is limited in California - the 
state constitution says governors can't commute the sentence of an inmate who 
has 2 felony convictions unless 4 of the 7 State Supreme Court justices concur. 
About 1/2 of California death row inmates have 2 or more felonies on their 
record, experts estimate.

But the high court justices issued an order in March suggesting that they would 
give governors more latitude on the issue and only intervene if they believed a 
use of clemency would "represent an abuse of that power." That's a switch from 
past courts, which have rejected clemency grants based on justices' 
determinations about the merits of individual cases.

Even without issuing commutations, governors can influence how the death 
penalty is carried out in other ways, such as the procedures put forth by their 
corrections department.

Opponents of the death penalty argue that there are still many hurdles to 
overcome before the state executes another inmate.

"I don't think we're ever going to see an execution carried out in California 
because there are too many legal and practical obstacles," said Natasha 
Minsker, the director of the ACLU of California Center for Advocacy and Policy, 
which has challenged the death penalty.

Kent Scheidegger, the legal director for the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice 
Legal Foundation and 1 of the authors of Prop 66, said the courts should allow 
executions to proceed. He scoffed at Newsom's suggestion for another referendum 
on the issue.

"Are we going to vote on it again and again until he gets the answer he wants?" 
Scheidegger asked. "That's not asking the voters, that's nagging the voters."

There's at least a possibility that Gov. Jerry Brown, who personally opposes 
capital punishment, could issue a broad commutation of death row inmates before 
he exits the stage of California politics. In 2003, for example, just 2 days 
before leaving office, Gov. George Ryan of Illinois commuted the sentences of 
all 167 inmates on his state's death row.

Brown's office declined to comment. The governor, a former Jesuit seminarian, 
vowed to carry out the death penalty during his elections, and he hasn't 
commuted any death sentences in his 16 years as governor. But in his 20s, Brown 
joined anti-death penalty protesters singing "We Shall Overcome" outside the 
gates of San Quentin State Prison as an inmate went to the gas chamber inside.

"The only person who knows what's in Governor Brown's heart on this," Minsker 
said, "is Governor Brown."

(source: Marin Independent Journal)








WASHINGTON:

Washington lawmakers should abolish the death penalty----The use of the death 
penalty is a waste of time and resources and is applied inequitably across the 
state.



The state Supreme Court's recent ruling affirming the death penalty in a 
capital murder case is the latest reminder that allowing this flawed penalty 
squanders public resources and is unfairly applied across the state.

The Legislature, which failed to abolish capital punishment in its session that 
recently ended, must try again.

On April 12, the justices affirmed the conviction and death penalty for Conner 
Schierman, convicted of killing Olga Milkin, 28; her sister Lyubov Botvina, 24; 
and Milkin's 2 sons, Justin, 5, and Andrew, 3, in their Kirkland home 12 years 
ago.

Schierman will not face execution at least as long as Gov. Jay Inslee is in 
office. The governor, in 2014, declared a moratorium on the penalty being 
carried out. As intended, that spurred a conversation about whether Washington 
should continue to use this option.

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, who sought the death penalty in 
Schierman's trial, is now one of the strongest advocates for abolishing that 
punishment in Washington.

Because death-penalty cases cost an estimated $1.5 million to prosecute - as 
much as $1 million more than the cost of non-death-penalty cases for similar 
crimes - only a handful of Washington counties can afford to consider pursuing 
the penalty in a murder case. Smaller counties with smaller budgets often 
cannot afford to pursue the death penalty even if their prosecuting attorneys 
wanted to.

The majority of death-penalty cases tried since 1981 - when Washington 
reinstated the sentence - were overturned on appeal. Of 33 people sentenced to 
die, verdicts for 20 were overturned on appeal, 5 have been executed and 8 are 
currently on death row.

Hundreds more cases have been death-penalty eligible, according to the 
Washington Bar Association, but execution was sought in less than a third. 
Those 8 men on death row may just die in prison, just like they would under a 
sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

Washington would be better served by a legal system that accepted that reality 
and abolished the death penalty.

(source: Seattle Times Editorial board members are editorial page editor Kate 
Riley, Frank A. Blethen, Donna Gordon Blankinship, Brier Dudley, Mark Higgins, 
Melissa Santos, William K. Blethen (emeritus) and Robert C. Blethen (emeritus).








USA:

Suspect who fatally shot East Harlem teen may face death penalty



A Manhattan man could face the death penalty in the fatal shooting of an East 
Harlem teen who was gunned down last week in a turf battle at a public housing 
project, authorities said.

Gary Turner was arrested Tuesday, 7 days after 17-year-old Samuel Ozuna was 
shot and killed outside the George Washington Carver Houses along E. 104th 
Street.

Cops said the 17-year-old victim was walking along a footpath leading to a 
courtyard near Park Ave. when a barrage of bullets struck him in the chest 
shortly 8:30 p.m. on April 24.

Medics took Ozuna to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he died.

Police said a dispute preceded the gunfire. Turner was arrested on a federal 
murder indictment. Turner was charged with using a firearm to commit murder in 
aid of racketeering, which carries a maximum sentence of death, or life in 
prison, and a mandatory minimum term of 5 years in prison.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said Turner allegedly killed Ozuna, in part, "to 
maintain and increase his position in a racketeering enterprise operating in 
and around the George Washington Carver Houses."

He will be arraigned May 8.

(source: New York Daily News)

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

Death penalty won't be sought in Florida airport shooting



An Alaska man will not face the death penalty on charges of killing 5 people 
and wounding 6 in a shooting rampage at a Florida airport, authorities 
announced Tuesday.

Instead, Esteban Santiago agreed to plead guilty, serve a life sentence and 
give up all appeals rights under a plea deal between his attorneys and federal 
prosecutors that was announced in court. His actual guilty plea and sentencing 
would occur at a later date.

Santiago, 28, of Anchorage, Alaska, is charged in a 22-count indictment in the 
January 2017 shooting in a baggage claim area at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood 
International Airport. Trial had been set to begin June 11.

U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom asked Santiago, dressed in a tan jail outfit and 
in chains, if he understood the agreement he was making.

"Yes, your honor," he replied.

According to the indictment, Santiago flew on a one-way ticket from Alaska to 
Fort Lauderdale with a 9 mm handgun in a box he put in checked luggage. After 
landing he retrieved the weapon, loaded it in a bathroom and came out firing 
randomly until he exhausted his ammunition.

Since his arrest, Santiago has been treated at a Miami jail for schizophrenia 
but his lawyers say he is mentally fit for trial. He complained of mental 
problems before the shooting but was not barred from possessing a gun.

Bloom said she wanted a mental evaluation done before accepting the plea deal 
because of the rights Santiago would be giving up. She set a mental competency 
hearing for May 23.

"That is the court's utmost concern," she said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Del Toro said the agreement was approved by senior 
Justice Department officials and in consultation with families of the slain 
victims. In the federal system, all prosecutions in which the death penalty is 
a possibility must be approved by the attorney general.

"The attorney general has given us the authority not to seek the death 
penalty," Del Toro said.

After the shooting, the FBI says Santiago told agents in a confession that he 
acted under government mind control, then claimed inspiration by Islamic State 
extremists. No terrorism links have been found.

The FBI says numerous airport security cameras recorded the shooting on video 
and there are dozens of witnesses who can identify Santiago as the shooter.

Santiago, a National Guard Iraq veteran, was treated at an Anchorage 
psychiatric hospital last year after he showed up at the local FBI office 
saying he was under CIA mind control and was hearing voices. He was released 
after a brief stay and given anti-anxiety medicine.

His gun, which had been confiscated by police during that time, was returned to 
him and was used a few weeks later in the Florida shooting.

(source: Associated Press)

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

The very new report on the 2016 American capital punishment by the bureau of 
justice statistics

(see: https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=6246)

(source: Bureau of Justice Statistics)