[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MASS., PENN., GA., ALA., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

May 8



TEXAS----impending execution

San Antonio Man Sentenced To Die Requests Clemency



A San Antonio man scheduled to be executed this month is asking the governor 
for clemency.

Juan Castillo, who is scheduled to be executed May 16, was convicted of capital 
murder for the death of San Antonio hip hop artist Tommy Garcia Jr. during a 
failed robbery attempt on the city's west side in 2003. Castillo's attorneys 
argue DNA evidence does not place their client at the scene of the murder.

Castillo was sentenced to death based on eyewitness testimony from 2 of the 
co-defendants in the case and testimony taken from a jailhouse informant, who 
has since recanted parts of his story.

Castillo's attorney Greg Zlotnick said local and state courts denied his 
client's request to retest DNA and physical evidence taken from the crime 
scene. Zlotnick said the case should be re-examined due to advancements in 
technology.

"The testing that was done in connection with the trial did not implicate Mr. 
Castillo. It was inconclusive. It did not place him at the scene," he said. 
"And there was more evidence that could not be tested at that time. Now, 
obviously, since Mr. Castillo's trial there has been advances in forensic 
pathology."

Zlotnick said Castillo is asking for a reprieve or to have his sentence changed 
to a lesser penalty.

"And with that big of a question mark hanging out in the case, the potential 
for a wrongful execution - that's a thought that no state official should take 
lightly. I don't think that they do, but because of that, it makes clemency the 
right outcome in the case," Zlotnick said.

During his 2014 run for governor, Gov. Greg Abbott told the San Antonio Express 
News editorial board that he would not allow any execution to proceed unless he 
was 100 % certain that the correct person had been convicted.

(source: Texas Public Radio)

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

Juan Castillo worthy of clemency by Texas board



I attended a Catholic university and a Catholic law school. I was raised in the 
church, married in the church, and am now raising a family in the church. My 
faith has taught me that all life has value and every person has dignity.

Often, my work as an attorney fortifies these beliefs.

At its truest, our nation's system of justice makes the same claims. And yet, 
serving as the clemency counsel for Juan Castillo, who faces execution by the 
state of Texas on May 16, I cannot say that this has been my experience with 
his case.

Our system of justice cries out for clemency for Mr. Castillo, whose young life 
was defined by unfair and arbitrary decisions made by the very people who were 
supposed to be supporting him: his father, his sister and his mother.

Instead of protecting him, they left him alone - at only 7 years old - to roam 
and discover the worst of what the world has to offer.

This in no way resembled my childhood - or any childhood worthy of that name. 
This, rather, was an ordeal, one that stretched over years and across state 
lines, subjecting Mr. Castillo to uncertainty about his future and anxiety 
about his present.

Mr. Castillo's experience with our judicial system has also been marked by 
unfair and arbitrary decisions. Most recently, the courts rubber-stamped the 
denial of his latest state habeas petition with no regard for his opportunity 
to be heard.

In so doing, it relied upon speculation by the state that the recantation of 
one of the only non-co-defendant witnesses against Mr. Castillo - a jailhouse 
informant - would have had no impact on his conviction. (He was convicted in 
2005 of killing teenage rapper Tommy Garcia Jr. during a botched robbery that 
occurred at a so-called lovers' lane. )

His common-sense request for DNA testing on physical evidence that could have 
pointed to another perpetrator - a request that anyone charged with a capital 
crime today would automatically receive by law - was similarly denied by these 
same courts without a hearing.

Mr. Castillo's trial attorneys failed to actively investigate the case, speak 
with witnesses, question police, request additional evidence from law 
enforcement and district attorney offices, and properly plead legal claims in 
the courts.

They also neglected to prepare any mitigation evidence to present - or allow 
him to present - during the punishment phase of his trial, the critical 
juncture between life and death.

His state and federal postconviction attorneys failed to properly raise the 
constitutional failures in his case. Mr. Castillo even felt compelled to 
represent himself at sentencing - in the face of the harshest criminal penalty 
this country imposes.

Clemency plays an essential role in supporting our overall system of justice. 
The Texas Board of Pardons and Parole is not simply empowered to employ a 
broader lens than the courts to determine whether an execution should proceed. 
Rather, it is mandated to do so.

The board has the capacity to consider all facets of Mr. Castillo's case - not 
the technical questions of law and fact that remain unresolved, but the 
fundamental questions of fairness that arise again and again here.

The unfairness that has shaded every aspect of Mr. Castillo's life - before, 
during and after his trial - makes his request for clemency a moral imperative. 
Allowing his execution to occur would forever taint the system of justice that 
I have worked to advance in this great state and that I encourage our students 
to support.

(source: Opinion; Greg Zlotnick is a San Antonio attorney----San ANtonio 
Express-News)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----32

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----550

Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #

33----------May 16-----------------Juan Castillo----------551

34---------June 21----------------Clifton Williams--------552

35---------June 27----------------Danny Bible-------------553

36---------July 17----------------Christopher Young-------554

37---------Sept. 12---------------Ruben Gutierrez---------555

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)








MASSACHUSETTS:

Charlie Baker MIA on death penalty for cop killers----No effort despite cop 
killings



Gov. Charlie Baker's campaign-trail rhetoric to reinstate the death penalty for 
cop killers suddenly falls silent when he's on Beacon Hill, where the 
Swampscott Republican hasn't filed a single bill to back up his bluster despite 
2 police officers being killed on the job in the last 2 years.

The politically milquetoast governor is even ducking support for lawmakers and 
a law enforcement group currently crafting a death penalty bill in the wake of 
Yarmouth K-9 Sgt. Sean Gannon's killing.

Baker's office says only that the governor will "carefully review" any 
legislation that reaches his desk.

"How many deaths will it take? We've already lost 2 or 3 guys without any 
action," said Robert DeNapoli, a former Woburn police officer who was shot 6 
times and severely wounded busting a jewelry heist in 2011. "Charlie, where are 
you?"

Baker has given lip service to capital punishment for cop killers since his 1st 
gubernatorial campaign in 2010, and reaffirmed that support at the state 
Republican Party convention last month. But unlike nearly all Republican 
Massachusetts governors in the last 3 decades, Baker has failed to even push 
for the death penalty's reinstatement in the Legislature.

"I don't know what he's waiting for," said DeNapoli. "I know Massachusetts 
isn't that big on the death penalty, but he's the guy who could help overturn 
that. He could put the pressure on lawmakers."

The 2-year anniversary of Auburn police officer Ronald Tarentino Jr. shooting 
death comes on May 22. Tarentino was shot multiple times and died while 
conducting a traffic stop in 2016.

Gannon was killed last month in a cramped Marston Mills attic while serving an 
arrest warrant.

Baker said he was "heartbroken" following Gannon's death and reiterated his 
death penalty support.

But the governor's only action was to file and sign into law criminal reforms 
demanding a mandatory minimum for those convicted of serious assault and 
battery on a police officer. The law, part of the comprehensive criminal reform 
package passed last month, targets repeat offenders like the men who killed 
Tarentino and allegedly killed Gannon.

Meanwhile, legislators and law enforcement officials have been forced to craft 
their own bills in an effort to gain justice for Gannon.

"It's been a work in progress since the day Sean Gannon died," said Mark Leahy, 
executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police. The organization is 
actively considering filing a bill to reinstate the death penalty along with 
other measures to ensure police officer safety that could land on Beacon Hill 
in the next 2 weeks.

State Rep. Shaunna O'Connell (R-Taunton) also plans to file a bill legalizing 
the death penalty for cop killers.

"I haven't personally spoken to the governor," said O'Connell. "I think when 
the legislation is filed that would be a great opportunity to voice support."

(source: Boston Herald)








PENNSYLVANIA:

Death penalty looms in Fawn Twp. double-murder trial



Jury selection is underway for the man accused of murdering 2 people during a 
drug-related Fawn Township home-invasion robbery in 2016.

The selection process started Monday, May 7, for Paul Jackson Henry III.

District Attorney Dave Sunday, who is prosecuting the case, and defense 
attorney Farley Holt said jury selection will extend into Tuesday, and could 
possibly continue into Wednesday.

If Henry is convicted of 1st-degree murder, Sunday will ask jurors to impose 
the death penalty. The trial, including a penalty phase, is expected to take 10 
days.

Henry, 41, of East Manchester Township, is accused of fatally shooting heroin 
dealer Foday Cheeks and 26-year-old Danielle Taylor of Spring Grove inside 
Cheeks' 706 Brown Road home about 10 p.m. Sept. 13, 2016.

His wife and co-defendant in the double murder, Veronique Henry, committed 
suicide shortly after being committed to York County Prison, leaving him to 
stand trial alone.

The allegations: State police said the Henrys knocked on the back door of 
Cheeks' home and when Taylor answered the door, one of them fatally shot her in 
the neck.

Paul Henry then shot Cheeks, who had put up his hands and said, "Oh God," 
according to preliminary hearing testimony by two people who survived the 
alleged home invasion.

Cheeks suffered 8 gunshot wounds, according to state police.

The survivors testified the Henrys were looking for Cheeks' stash of heroin.

2 adult women and 2 teenage boys were robbed but not shot during the invasion, 
police have said.

At the time of his death, the 31-year-old Cheeks was free on $25,000 bail, 
charged with 2 felony counts of dealing heroin. The York County Drug Task Force 
raided his home in May 2016 and seized heroin and packaging materials, charging 
documents state.

Survivors robbed: Paul Henry made the 2 women and 2 teens lie facedown on the 
floor, at which point Veronique Henry guarded them at gunpoint while Paul Henry 
searched the home, according to preliminary hearing testimony.

The Henrys stole the cellphones of all 4 and a purse belonging to 1 of the 
women, according to testimony.

The couple told the foursome to stay on the floor for 20 minutes, then fled the 
home without any heroin, according to testimony.

At 10:43 a.m. Sept. 14, 2016, state police issued a be-on-the-lookout alert to 
area law enforcement for the Henrys.

The alleged pursuit: 7 minutes later, a state trooper spotted the Henrys' 
Nissan Altima on Route 322 at Fishing Creek Valley Road, according to charging 
documents. The trooper turned on his lights and siren and tried to pull them 
over.

The Henrys fled westbound on Route 322, at which point another trooper drove 
his cruiser in front of their Nissan, police said.

But Paul Henry hit the gas and rammed the rear of the cruiser, causing it to 
crash, documents allege.

Troopers were able to stop the Nissan and arrest the Henrys along Route 322 
near the Red Rabbit restaurant near Duncannon, in Reed Township, Dauphin 
County, documents state.

Evidence seized: After arresting the Henrys, troopers found items inside the 
car including a purse taken during the home invasion, Cheeks' wallet, 3 
handguns, 1 shotgun and multiple cellphones, police have said.

Because the pursuit arose from the York County homicide investigation, troopers 
were given approval by Sunday to file the chase charges in York County.

Paul Henry is to stand trial in both the double-murder case and the chase 
charges, according to court records.

Veronique Henry, 32, of Manchester Township was found unresponsive in her York 
County Prison cell Sept. 15, 2016, after hanging herself, according to the York 
County Coroner's Office, which has ruled the death a suicide.

(source: York Dispatch)








GEORGIA:

State Supreme Court: Pre-trial judge erred in Polk County death penalty case



A northwest Georgia judge should not have allowed prosecutors to learn that an 
accused killer's attorneys wanted him evaluated by mental health experts, the 
Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday.

Dustin Drew Putnal could face the death penalty if convicted of murder in the 
October 2016 death of 21-month-old Ella Grayce Pointer while her mother was at 
work. Ella was found unresponsive in a Cedartown apartment and taken to Polk 
County hospital before being flown to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. The 
toddler later died from her injuries, described as blunt force trauma to the 
head. She also had been sexually assaulted, according to investigators. Ella 
Grayce Pointer was 21 months old when she died of blunt force trauma.

Putnal, who remains in the Polk jail, has been charged with malice murder, 
aggravated battery, and aggravated sexual battery, plus 2 counts each of felony 
murder and cruelty to children in the 1st degree.

In June 2017, Putnal's attorneys requested that he be evaluated by 2 mental 
health experts. The request was made in "ex parte" motions - meaning the 
prosecutors would not be notified - in order to not reveal their planned 
defense ahead of the trial.

The judge signed the motions, but made them public instead of sealing them.

Prosecutors said they had expected Putnal's mental health would have been a 
defense at his trial. But Georgia's high court ruled the judge made a mistake.

"A defendant has a legitimate interest in making requests for access to expert 
assistance ex parte if not doing so would place him in the position of 
'revealing his theory of the case,'" the court wrote in its 28-page opinion.

The ruling doesn't explain what happens next or how the case will proceed. 
Instead, the court is leaving it up to the judge to decide what the proper 
remedy is, Gerald Word, Putnal's defense attorney, said Monday afternoon. The 
prosecutor was not immediately available Monday afternoon.

The state Supreme Court wrote in its ruling that it was impossible to know 
whether the judge's actions could affect the outcome of the case. They added 
that it could be so prejudicial that it would require any later conviction or 
sentence for Putnal to be set aside.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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

He's been a convicted killer for 40 years. Columbus court will decide if racism 
put him in prison



Attorneys for convicted Columbus killer Johnny Lee Gates spent hours Monday 
presenting evidence they say shows prosecutors here in the 1970s exhibited "a 
systematic pattern of discrimination" in keeping black residents off juries 
hearing the death-penalty cases of black defendants.

Gates' defense team also called a handwriting expert to testify prosecutors' 
notes that during jury selection in such cases described prospective black 
jurors as "slow," "cocky," "con artist" and "hostile" were written by William 
Smith or Douglas Pullen, both former district attorneys here.

Gates was convicted in the Nov. 30, 1976, rape and murder of Katharina Wright, 
19, found bound and shot in the head in the Broadway apartment she shared with 
her husband, a Fort Benning soldier the German woman had just married.

Sentenced to death in 1979, Gates since has argued he's innocent, despite a 
videotaped confession, an eyewitness who said he saw Gates at Wright's 
apartment complex that day, and a fingerprint police say they found at the 
scene.

The defendant's mental capacity became an issue in 1992, after Georgia outlawed 
executing the mentally disabled. After a jury deadlocked while trying to 
determine Gates' mental competency in 2003, the prosecution and defense agreed 
to change his sentence to life in prison.

Still attorneys have sparred over whether Gates got a fair trial in 1977, with 
the defense citing evidence of Gates' innocence that prosecutors did not 
disclose at the time.

Represented Monday by Katherine Moss and Patrick Mulvaney of the Southern 
Center for Human Rights and Clare Gilbert of the Georgia Innocence Project, the 
defense argued Gates' prosecutors routinely discriminated against potential 
jurors who were black, aiming to pick all-white juries to secure a conviction 
and a death sentence.

The jury pool in Gates' case totaled 47, and the state in its preliminary jury 
strikes eliminated 12 of those. 4 black people were in the pool, and Smith and 
Pullen struck all 4.

In the fall of 2017, Gates' defense attorneys had a law student working as an 
intern research Gates' and 6 other Columbus death-penalty cases tried between 
1975 and 1979. The intern found what the defense claims to be a pattern in 
cases involving Smith and Pullen.

The student found that Pullen over those years had 27 blacks in jury pools for 
such cases, and struck all 27. He found that Smith had 28 black prospective 
jurors in those cases and struck 25.

Georgia Assistant Attorney General Sabrina Graham countered the sampling was 
too limited, and the defense should have looked at other cases involving the 
prosecutors to establish any credible pattern.

Court precedent

Whether prosecutors intentionally discriminated could be a critical issue 
because of the 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision Foster v. Chatman, regarding a 
Rome, Ga., death-penalty case involving Pullen.

The defendant, Timothy Foster, was convicted of beating, raping and strangling 
79-year-old Queen Madge Wright during a burglary on Aug. 28, 1986.

Pullen in 1987 assisted District Attorney Stephen Lanier in Foster's 
prosecution. Prosecution notes from jury selection showed black candidates' 
names were highlighted in green and marked with an "N" for "No"; the black 
candidates' race was circled on jury questionnaires; the black candidates were 
on a prosecution list of jurors titled "definite NOs"; and beside the name of a 
black candidate who attended the Church of Christ was the notation, "NO. No 
Black Church," with "NO" and "Black" underlined.

In reversing Georgia court decisions upholding Foster's conviction, the U.S. 
Supreme Court wrote that "the focus on race in the prosecution's file plainly 
demonstrates a concerted effort to keep black prospective jurors off the jury." 
Foster was granted a new trial.

The defense in Gates' case also is citing prosecutors' written comments during 
jury selection in the 1970s death-penalty cases it examined, alleging Smith and 
Pullen kept notes designating potential jurors' race as "W" or "N," and at 
times calling the blacks "slow," "old+ignorant," "cocky," "con artist," 
"hostile" or "fat."

In 1 case, a black public school teacher was noted as "Hostile," the word 
underlined.

The defense also cites a scribbled comment regarding a white jury candidate in 
the trial of William Spicer Lewis, a black teen convicted of shooting white 
Columbus police Officer James Bowers in the head during a April 3, 1979, 
convenience store robbery.

The comment was "born and raised with G.B. and will (be) a top juror. He has to 
deal with 150 to 200 of these people what works for his construction co."

Gates' attorneys called a handwriting expert, Steven Drexler, to confirm the 
notes were written either by Smith or Pullen. "It was very easy to separate out 
the 2 writers," he testified, saying Pullen had the better penmanship.

The defense claims prosecutors also rated jurors on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 
being the most favored, and routinely ranked black candidates 1.

The DNA tests

Prosecutors have argued Gates' defense team has waited too late to raise issues 
regarding evidence that is not newly discovered and should have been addressed 
in his earlier appeals. Georgia law sets high standards for granting a convict 
a new trial, and Gates' attorneys have failed to meet those standards, 
prosecutors said.

Graham, who is assisting District Attorney Julia Slater and Assistant District 
Attorney Fred Lewis, said Gates' lawyers over the years have failed to show 
"due diligence" in seeking evidence they should have known was available.

Senior Judge John Allen adjourned court before the hearing was finished, so it 
continues Tuesday. Both sides have yet to address the issue of DNA testing on 
evidence from Wright's rape and murder.

Testimony from Gates' trial showed Wright's husband left for Fort Benning about 
6 a.m. that day, and found his wife slain when he came home for lunch right 
after noon.

Gates in his confession said he posed as a gas company worker to get Wright to 
let him in, and she directed him to the apartment's heater. Gates put some oil 
on it before he accosted the woman in the bathroom and said he would rob her.

He raped her and forced her to give him $480, then gagged and blindfolded her 
with her husband's army ties and bound her hands behind her back with the belt 
from her bathrobe. When she fought back and said she would identify him to 
police, he shot her in the right temple with a .32-caliber pistol.

For years after Gates' conviction, authorities thought the evidence had been 
lost or destroyed, but 2 Georgia Innocence Project interns in 2015 found the 
Army ties and a velour belt in a manila envelope in the district attorney's 
files.

That evidence has since been tested for DNA, yielding 3 or 4 profiles that do 
not match Gates.

But the prosecution notes DNA testing wasn't available in 1977, so authorities 
did not preserve evidence for that procedure. The ties and belt have been 
handled multiple times by people who weren't wearing gloves and could have left 
their DNA on the items, said Lewis, noting that during jury deliberations in 
Gates' trial, "the belt went back with the jury."

Born Nov. 20, 1955, Gates was 21 when a jury convicted him in Wright's murder. 
Today he's 62, and remained incarcerated in the Macon State Prison in 
Oglethorpe.

(source: ledger-enquirer.com)








ALABAMA:

Closing arguments could come soon in capital murder retrial of Derek Horton



By Thursday a jury could begin deliberations in the capital murder retrial of 
Derek Horton, sentenced to death in 2012 for the 2010 killing of a woman in 
Grand Bay.

Volunteer firefighters extinguished a fire at the residence of Jeanette 
Romprey, 59, and found her body inside. She had been shot twice in the head. 
Some of her belongings had been scattered along the edge of a nearby lake and 
her car was missing. The car was later found abandoned on I-65 near Brewton. 
Horton was found walking along the interstate in muddy clothes.

Prosecutors said Horton's palm print and DNA evidence was found inside the car; 
the defense argued that no evidence directly linked him to the crime scene.

On Aug. 31, 2012, a Mobile County jury recommended the death penalty pm a 10-2 
vote, and that December Mobile County Presiding Circuit Judge Charles Graddick 
sentenced him to death. However, in March 2016 the Alabama Court of Criminal 
Appeals reversed the verdict and remanded the case for a new trial. The appeals 
court held:

"The State's circumstantial evidence was minimally sufficient to warrant 
sending the case to the jury on the issue of Horton's guilt ... To buttress its 
weak case, the State presented substantial evidence regarding multiple 
collateral crimes and acts that, as already noted, painted Horton as a 
drug-using, drug-dealing, violent criminal. ... After thoroughly reviewing the 
record, we have no doubt that the improper admission of the collateral-act 
evidence had an almost irreversible impact on the minds of the jurors, drawing 
their minds away from the main issue, and leaving them with the impression that 
Horton was a dangerous career criminal who must have committed the murder."

As preparations for a new trial took shape, Horton notified Circuit Court Judge 
Michael Youngpeter via handwritten letter than he intended to defend himself. 
"After much prayer and consideration I feel the Lord Jesus Christ is leading me 
to make the very difficult decision to invoke this right," he wrote. "This is 
nothing personal against my court-appointed attorneys, but, at 25 years old, I 
am at a point where all the personal responsibility for my death needs to rest 
solely on me."

In an October 2017 order, Youngpeter found that "the Court is satisfied that 
the Defendant is knowingly, understandingly, and voluntarily waiving his right 
to the assistance of counsel in the defense. Consequently, the court permits 
the Defendant to represent himself." Youngpeter allowed Horton to keep 
court-appointed attorneys "as shadow counsel only." The order further said that 
"at any stage of the proceedings" Horton could opt to have them take over.

Horton's retrial began last week, with the first witnesses heard on Friday. 
Witness testimony continued until about 3 p.m. Discussion between prosecutors 
Youngpeter indicated that testimony had gone somewhat faster than expected, and 
the prosecution had gone through all the witnesses it had scheduled for the 
day.

Further discussion suggested that testimony could be concluded as soon as 
Tuesday, depending on how the defense presents its case, that closing arguments 
could be presented on Wednesday and the jury might be able to begin 
deliberations by early Thursday.

Testimony will resume Tuesday morning.

(source: al.com)








OHIO:

Suspected serial killer convicted of murder; death penalty on the table



The man suspected of raping and killing at least 2 women and confessing to 
killing at least 2 more has been found guilty of aggravated murder.

Shawn Grate was convicted by a jury in Ashland County late Monday afternoon for 
the 2016 strangulation deaths of Elizabeth Griffith, 29, and Stacey Stanley, 
43. Grate also was also found guilty on a kidnapping charge for abducting a 3rd 
woman who escaped from the Ashland home where the bodies of the 2 women were 
found.

Jurors had spent several days watching Grate's videotaped confession to Ashland 
police. Grate told police he killed 2 other women, but hasn't been charged for 
those deaths.

Last week, Shawn Grate, 41, unexpectedly pleaded guilty to 15 counts, but those 
didn't include aggravated murder and kidnapping charges.

Grate faces a minimum of 50 years in prison for the guilty pleas he's entered, 
the judge said.

Grate will be sentenced on May 18th.

(source: ABC News)