[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., MASS., GA., FLA., ALA.

Wed May 9 08:22:44 CDT 2018

May 9

TEXAS----2 new serious execution dates

Troy Clark has been given an execution date for September 26 and Daniel Acker 
has been given an execution date for the following night, September 27; both 
dates should be considered serious.

(source: MC/RH)

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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

38---------Sept. 26---------------Troy Clark--------------556

39---------Sept. 27---------------Daniel Acker------------557

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)

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

Judge says Texas death row inmate's sentence should be reduced due to false 
evidence at trial----Paul Storey's case had been granted another review less 
than 1 week before he was scheduled to be executed.

A Tarrant County judge has recommended that a death row inmate's sentence be 
changed to life without parole after reviewing evidence that there was false 
evidence introduced at his trial.

Paul Storey was sentenced to death in September 2008 for the 2006 murder of 
Jonas Cherry, the assistant manager at a miniature golf course near Fort Worth 
that Storey and another man were robbing. Storey was set for execution in April 
2017, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted Storey's execution less 
than a week before it was set to take place. His defense attorneys accused 
prosecutors of lying to jurors during his original trial. The state's highest 
criminal court sent the case back to the Tarrant County trial court to review 
those claims.

According to court documents, a prosecutor told the jury during Storey's 2008 
trial that "it should go without saying that all of [Jonas Cherry's] family and 
everyone who loved him believe the death penalty was appropriate." But Cherry's 
parents, Glenn and Judith, say that was a lie.

"We do not want to see another family having to suffer through losing a child 
and family member," the Cherrys said in a letter to the governor about Storey's 
case. "Due to our ethical and spiritual values we are opposed to the death 
penalty."

Judge Everett Young wrote Tuesday that "had this evidence been disclosed, there 
is a reasonable probability" that the jury would have decided differently. 
Those omissions amounted to several constitutional violations, Young said.

The case now returns to the Court of Criminal Appeals, which has final say over 
Storey's case.

(source: Texas Tribune)

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

Judge recommends state spare death row inmate convicted in Hurst Putt-Putt 
murder

A judge ruled Tuesday that prosecutors in a Hurst capital murder case lied and 
that a convicted killer should spend the rest of life in prison instead of 
being put to death.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals could commute Paul David Storey's death 
sentence, but appeals court judges are expected to decide whether to accept or 
reject the judge's findings, according to Keith Hampton, who is representing 
death row inmate Paul David Storey along with defense attorney, Mike Ware.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which sent the case to a lower court for 
further review in April 2017, is the highest criminal court in the state.

The state could appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of the United States if 
it loses, but odds are slim that the Supreme Court would grant the state a 
hearing, Hampton said.

"Basically, it is now up to the Court of Criminal Appeals," Hampton said.

Visiting State District Judge Everitt Young ruled that Storey's sentence is 
entitled to further review on multiple constitutional grounds, which include a 
violation of his right to due process, the suppression of mitigating evidence 
by prosecutors, the introduction of false evidence to a jury and his right to a 
fair punishment hearing.

Efforts to save Story's life turned in April 2017, days before his scheduled 
execution date, when the court granted the convicted killer a stay because the 
murdered man's parents, Glenn and Judy Cherry, said they never wanted to see 
their son's killer put to death.

Ware argued in his petition to the court, Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Board 
of Pardons and Paroles, that prosecutors were not truthful when they told a 
jury that the family agreed to the imposition of the death penalty in Storey's 
case.

Prosecutors argued that the defense was made aware of how the murdered man's 
parents felt about the death penalty ruling in Storey's case and that Cherry's 
parents were in agreement with the death sentence for Storey because he refused 
to accept a plea bargain for life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The court was ordered to take a look at whether prosecutors were being 
truthful, and in Tuesday's ruling Young said they were not.

The Tarrant County District Attorney's Office, which earlier recused itself 
from the Storey case pending review, said the attorneys who prosecuted the case 
are no longer with the district attorney's office.

"This trial took place during a different administration, and those prosecutors 
are no longer with this office," said Sharen Wilson, Tarrant County district 
attorney. "We created a conviction integrity unit to ensure best practices that 
wouldn't allow something like this to happen on our watch."

Storey, 33, was convicted of capital murder in 2008 in the robbery-slaying of 
Jonas Cherry, who was an assistant manager of Putt-Putt Golf and Games located 
at Texas 121/Loop 820 across from the North East Mall in Hurst. Jonas Cherry 
was killed during a robbery at Putt-Putt Golf and Games in Hurst on October 16, 
2006 where he worked as the assistant manager.

Law enforcement personnel argued that on the morning of Oct. 16, 2006, Storey 
and his co-defendant Mark Porter stood over a kneeling Cherry, who pleaded: 
"Please! I gave you what you want. Don't hurt me."

They refused and shot him twice in the head and twice in his legs. Cherry, who 
was approaching his 1st wedding anniversary, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Storey and Porter were convicted of capital murder, but only Storey got the 
death penalty. Porter got life without parole after making a deal with the 
Tarrant County district attorney's office.

Christy Jack, one of the prosecutors who is now a partner at Varghese 
Summersett, told the Star-Telegram at the time the stay was issued that 
Storey's defense team was informed before the trial about how Cherry's parents 
felt about the death penalty in this case.

"Death penalty litigation is the most important thing that attorneys do," Jack 
said at the time. "So I want everything that I do in these cases to be above 
reproach."

Jack said Tuesday she stands by what she has said about this case in the past.

"I faithfully served the citizens of Tarrant County for nearly 24 years," Jack 
said. "I stand by my testimony and the personal note from the victim's family, 
thanking me for speaking on their behalf after the jury returned a unanimous 
decision for the death penalty."

Robert Foran, the lead prosecutor at the time of the 2008 trial, confirmed 
Jack's account.

"The defense decided not to call the parents to the stand," Foran said during a 
Star-Telegram interview at the time. "That was a tactical decision on their 
part, but we told them and they damn well know it."

(source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

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

DA seeks death penalty for Richardson officer shooting suspect

The Collin County District Attorney's office will pursue the death penalty for 
Brandon McCall, 26, of Garland, suspected in the shooting death of Richardson 
Police Officer David Sherrard and Rene Gamez II of Richardson.

A grand jury recently indicted McCall on 9 felony charges from the February 
shooting at a Richardson apartment complex. The shooting resulted in the death 
of Gamez II and Sherrard, the 1st line-of-duty death in Richardson PD's 63-year 
history.

Around 7 p.m. Feb. 7, Richardson officers responded to a disturbance call with 
shots fired in the 4200 of Renner Road. When officers arrived, they found a 
person was shot. As they rendered aid and investigated the scene, they were led 
to an apartment, entered the residence and were met with gunfire. Sherrard was 
wounded in the gunfire. Fellow Richardson officers entered the apartment and 
eventually arrested McCall. Sherrard was transported to Medical City Hospital 
in Plano and later died from his injuries.

"This is just the 1st step in a judicial process, trying to get justice for 
both Mr. Gamez and Officer Sherrard," said Sgt. Kevin Perlich, spokesman for 
Richardson PD. "We are thankful for everything that's been done so far, and we 
look forward to continuing progress of this case through the judicial system."

Plano police took over the investigation to offer Richardson officers a chance 
to mourn their comrade. On April 26, a grand jury returned 2 indictments for 
the deaths of Sherrard and Gamez and seven additional indictments connected to 
aggravated assault and discharging a weapon at 7 other Richardson officers.

Following McCall's indictments, Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis 
submitted notice pursuing the death penalty for McCall's capital murder cases. 
According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the murder of a peace 
officer is considered capital murder and grounds for lethal injection. Several 
details of the case are still unavailable, but according to Willis, his choice 
to pursue the death penalty was based on the facts surrounding the 
investigation.

"In this case, I relied on both a meticulous investigation of the facts 
surrounding this crime by the Plano Police Department and a full investigation 
of the background of Brandon McCall by prosecutors and investigators from my 
office," he said via email.

Sherrard was a 13-year veteran with the Richardson Police Department. Sherrard 
graduated from Mesquite High School in 1999.

(source: Plano Star Courier)

NEW HAMPSHIRE:

Will N.H. Repeal the Death Penalty?

For the 1st time since 2000, state lawmakers are sending a bill repealing the 
death penalty to the governor's desk, despite his vow to veto it. We examine 
the arguments on both sides, recap the history of the death penalty in N.H., 
and look at how a repeal might affect the state's sole inmate on death row, 
Michael Addison.

This program will air on Wednesday, May 9, at 9 a.m., and will be rebroadcast 
again at 7 p.m. Audio of the discussion will be available after the show.

GUESTS:

Kevin Avard - N.H. State Senator and prime sponsor of the bill (SB593) to 
repeal the death penalty; he's been in the Senate representing District 12 
since 2015.

Ethan DeWitt - Concord Monitor statehouse reporter.

Chuck Douglas - trial lawyer, former N.H. U.S. Representative, and a New 
Hampshire Supreme Court Associate Justice. He testified against repeal of the 
death penalty.

Here is Governor Sununu's full statement on the death penalty from February 
2018:

"I stand with crime victims, members of the law enforcement community, and 
advocates for justice in opposing a repeal of the death penalty. A top priority 
of my administration has been to strengthen laws for crime victims and their 
families. Repealing the death penalty sends us in exactly the wrong direction, 
and I will veto the bill if it reaches my desk. There is no doubt that the most 
heinous crimes warrant the death penalty."

(source: nhpr.org)

MASSACHUSETTS:

Governor Charlie Baker mulls reviving death penalty----Cop killers would face 
punishment

Gov. Charlie Baker said his office is talking with lawmakers and law 
enforcement officials about crafting a bill to reinstate the death penalty for 
cop killers, a regular campaign issue for the popular Republican that's gained 
steam in the wake of Yarmouth police K-9 handler Sgt. Sean Gannon's killing 
last month.

Baker said yesterday he's approaching the issue the same way his administration 
did after career criminal Jorge Zambrano shot dead Auburn officer Ronald 
Tarentino Jr. during a traffic stop in 2016. Zambrano was free on low bail at 
the time despite having been accused of assaulting a cop. In response, Baker 
filed a bill making that charge a felony.

"We are currently talking to the same people to figure out the best way to deal 
with capital punishment as it relates to the murder of a police officer, and 
when we finish those conversations we will put something before the Legislature 
and we will work it," Baker told reporters yesterday, following a Herald report 
noting his failure to act on past campaign rhetoric touting a death penalty for 
cop killers.

Baker said past attempts to reinstate the death penalty shot down by the 
lawmakers or the Supreme Judicial Court warrant a deliberate process.

"That's 1 of the reasons why we need to spend time talking to a lot of people 
about it, to make sure when we file something, we think it's something that 
will be able to garner public support for it and stand," Baker said.

The death penalty has been shut down in Massachusetts since a 1984 high court 
ruling found it encouraged defendants to plead guilty because prosecutors could 
only seek the death penalty only after a jury trial.

Prior efforts to restore the death penalty failed on Beacon Hill in 2005 and 
1997.

Lawrence Friedman, constitutional law professor at New England Law, said anyone 
crafting a bill to reinstate the death penalty will have a difficult task given 
the myriad legal challenges it could face.

(source: Boston Herald)

GEORGIA:

Atlanta attorney opposed to death penalty protests at prison

Daniel H. Kolber leaves his law office in Atlanta and drives to Butts County 
every time the State of Georgia plans to execute someone by lethal injection.

His latest trip to the Georgia Diagnostic Classification Prison near Jackson 
was last Friday where the state carried out its 49th such execution shortly 
before 10 p.m. against 40-year-old Robert Earl Butts, Jr., of Milledgeville.

"I'm out here out of a deep sense of frustration," Kolber told The 
Union-Recorder while sitting in a chair in a grassy area directly across from 
the main entrance to the state prison. "I sit here and wonder what else I can 
do over the fact that at 7 o'clock or a few hours thereafter, the State of 
Georgia, in the name of its citizens of which I am a member, will murder a 
man."

Kolber said corrections officers would take him into a room and kill him.

"If he doesn't come willingly, then they will force him to come," Kolber said. 
"And then they will poison him to death."

Kolber said 2 wrongs simply don't make a right, which is what his sign revealed 
to dozens of passing motorists near Interstate 75, about 7 miles outside the 
city of Jackson.

"Even if you think this man, Mr. Butts, is the most evil creature on the face 
of the earth, we shouldn't step back and allow government, even with its past 
mistakes, to kill somebody. To murder this person is the height of barbaric, 
immoral, illegal, stupid behavior."

He said that is what brings him to the state prison every time an inmate is 
scheduled to die.

Kolber was joined later by members of a group known as Georgians Against the 
Death Penalty.

Butts was 1 of 2 men in their teens, who in 1996 asked Donovan Corey Parks for 
a ride from the Milledgeville Walmart. A few minutes after the 24-year-old 
Parks agreed to give Butts and his friend, Marion "Murdock" Wilson, now 41, a 
ride in his car the 2 men ordered Parks out of his car, brandishing a sawed-off 
shotgun at him.

Parks was ordered to lay face down in the roadway by the 2 reputed members of 
the Folk Gang and shot to death execution-style, Baldwin County lawmen said.

Parks, who worked as an officer with the Georgia Department of Corrections, had 
gone to the store earlier to buy some cat food and other items after a prayer 
meeting at his church in Milledgeville.

The co-defendant in the execution-style murder still sits on death row at the 
Georgia Diagnostic Classification Prison. He like Butts, also grew up in 
Milledgeville.

(source: Union-Recorder)

FLORIDA:

Judge will weigh death sentence for man convicted in 83-year-old woman's 
murder----After more than 6 hours of deliberating, a jury recommended late 
Friday that a man convicted of murdering an 83-year-old woman should be 
sentenced to death in Orange County's 1st capital case in nearly 2 years.

Lawyers for a man convicted in an 83-year-old woman's murder will try to 
convince a judge not to sentence him to death, despite a jury unanimously 
recommending capital punishment 11 months ago.

Juan Rosario was convicted of 1st-degree murder in the death of Elena Ortega, 
who lived in his neighborhood. Prosecutors said he broke into her Turnbull 
Drive house to rob Ortega. He set 3 fires around the house to cover his tracks 
and, when Ortega woke up and saw him, beat her with a blunt object, prosecutors 
said.

Rosario's attorneys are arguing that he is intellectually disabled and should 
not be sentenced to death. A neuropsychologist examined him and said his IQ is 
72 - meaning he has "significantly below average intellectual functioning," 
court records show.

The hearing is set to begin at 9 a.m., though Rosario's attorneys have asked 
the judge to delay it and give them more time to prepare. He has been awaiting 
sentencing since a jury recommended a death sentence on June 2, 2017.

The case against him was based in large part on testimony from his 
then-girlfriend, Janet Gutierrez, who told investigators that he came home the 
morning of Sept. 18, 2013 with blood on himself and confessed to her. 
Investigators found some of Ortega's belongings buried in Rosario's yard, where 
Gutierrez said she buried them to help cover Rosario's tracks.

Gutierrez was not charged in the case.

Ortega was a Cuban immigrant who escaped in her youth and built a life in the 
U.S., having a son and a daughter.

"She was my cheerleader, my best friend, my guardian angel," her daughter, 
Elena Wilson said last year. "I truly don't wish this on anyone. Until this 
day, I still repeat the word 'mom' many times every day, looking for her love, 
her attention, her guidance."

(source: Orlando Sentinel)

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Judge rejects bid for new trial in 1984 murder of Delray babysitter

Convicted double-murderer Duane Owen doesn't deserve a new trial for the 1984 
stabbing death of 14-year-old Delray Beach babysitter Karen Slattery, a Palm 
Beach County judge ruled this week.

In a 19-page order, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley on Tuesday 
rejected Owen's claims that he is entitled to a new trial for the 34-year-old 
murder because the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 threw out Florida's system of 
imposing the death penalty.

The nation's high court, followed by the Florida Supreme Court, ruled that the 
state's system was unconstitutional because it gave judges, not juries, the 
power to impose death. Juries, that had been asked merely to recommend an 
appropriate punishment, must unanimously agree that defendants deserve to die 
for their crimes, both courts ruled.

Dozens of death row inmates, including several who are awaiting execution for 
Palm Beach County murders, have asked for new trials because juries didn't vote 
unanimously that they be sentenced to death.

A jury in 2002 voted 10-2 that Owen should be put to death for stabbing and 
then raping the teen as her young charges slept in a nearby room. Kelley noted 
that there is no way of knowing why two jurors did not vote for death.

"This is why courts are required to look at the totality of the evidence," he 
wrote. "The record evidence in this case can only support 1 conclusion ... 
death was the appropriate penalty."

In his decision, Kelley noted that Owen, now 57, had previously been convicted 
of beating a Boca Raton single mother to death with a hammer. Georgianna 
Worden's bloody body was found roughly 2 months before Slattery was murdered.

There is no doubt that the murder of Slattery, who was stabbed 18 times and 
sexually assaulted, was "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel," particularly 
considered against the backdrop of his conviction for Worden's horrific murder, 
Kelley wrote.

He also rejected Owen's claims that his conviction should be tossed out because 
he was mentally ill. Owen undoubtedly endured a horrific childhood that shaped 
his life, Kelley wrote. The son of alcoholics, he watched his mother being 
raped and Owen was physically and sexually abused as well. After his mother 
died and his father committed suicide, he was placed in an orphanage where the 
abuse continued.

But, Kelley pointed out, the Florida Supreme Court in 1996 rejected Owen's 
claims that he was delusional. "Owen never even suggested to the officers who 
questioned him, and to whom he confessed, in 1984 that a mental illness caused 
him to kill," the high court wrote. "He did not attempt to justify his actions 
... by explaining to the officers that he needed a woman's bodily fluids to 
assist in his transformation from a male to a female."

Owen's attorney, James Driscoll, wasn't immediately available for comment. But, 
in court papers filed after Kelley's ruling, he signalled he planned an appea

(source: Palm Beach Post)

ALABAMA:

Man charged with murder of 4-month-old weeps in court

A man charged with capital murder for allegedly killing his girlfriend's 
4-month-old son openly wept and sobbed in court in Mobile Tuesday morning.

Markeise Caldwell, 25, was arrested and charged with capital murder and 
aggravated child abuse after the baby's death. The child died after being 
treated at Providence Hospital Sunday for "blunt force trauma," according to 
authorities.

Caldwell entered a non-guilty plea Tuesday, and a preliminary hearing was set 
for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.

According to authorities, 4-month-old Kendrick Cole suffered lacerations and 
injuries to internal organs. The lower part of his liver was completely 
dettached. Prosecutors claim Caldwell struck the baby's head multiple times on 
the footboard of a bed, causing a skull fracture and massive brain bleeds that 
eventually led to his death.

In court, the prosecution said Caldwell???s reasoning for inflicting these 
injuries on the child was because the the infant was crying and wouldn't take a 
bottle.

Caldwell also faces a charge of aggravated child abuse for injuries inflicted 
on the infant's 1-year-old brother. Authorities say the older child also 
suffers from blunt force injuries and severe internal injuries. The prosecution 
says he is still fighting for his life in a pediatric intensive care unit.

Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Keith Blackwood says there is also an 
investigation into a third child Caldwell may have hurt.

Caldwell's attorney, Jason Darley, says his client "is distraught. He can 
barley talk." He also stated that Caldwell "has undergone some emotional 
trauma."

The prosecution plans to seek the death penalty in the case.

(source: WALA news)