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

[Rick Halperin]

April 23



TEXAS----impending execution

Texas Board of Pardons and Parole denies John William King 120 day reprieve



The Texas Board of Pardons and Parole voted 7-0 Monday afternoon not to 
recommend a 120 day reprieve to John William King, convicted and sentenced to 
death for the capital murder of James Byrd Jr.

The Board also voted 7-0 not to recommend commutation.

King is scheduled for execution this Wednesday in Huntsville for the June 1998 
dragging death of Byrd on Huff Creek Road in Jasper County.

Lawrence Russell Brewer has been executed for the crime and Shawn Allen Berry 
is serving a life sentence.

(source: cbsaustin.com)

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

2nd man to be executed this week for 1998 dragging death of James Byrd Jr.



A technology company was almost ready to bring up to 300 new jobs to Jasper, 
Texas, but in the final stages of recent negotiations, a potential deal-breaker 
emerged: the community's history as the place where three white men dragged a 
black man behind a pickup, killing him.

The 1998 death of James Byrd Jr. was one of the most gruesome hate crimes in 
U.S. history, and it gave the company president pause in the discussions about 
where to locate his firm's newest facility. Local clergy and community leaders 
made their case that the town of 7,600 people is not defined by a murder that 
happened almost 21 years ago.

They were able to convince the executive "that we are a lot different than what 
the world sees us as," said Eddie Hopkins, head of the Jasper Economic 
Development Corporation.

The town's past will be revisited this coming week, when the convicted 
ringleader in Byrd's slaying is scheduled to be executed. Local leaders insist 
Jasper is a welcoming place that punished Byrd's killers and will never forget 
what happened to him. But other townspeople, as well as members of Byrd's 
family, believe Jasper has never fully accepted the crime's place in its 
history. They say some tensions between the white and black communities remain 
unresolved.

"I think, quite frankly, people in Jasper are tired of talking about it. They 
want to forget it," said Mylinda Washington, 66, one of Byrd's sisters. "It 
happened here, and we need to always have that in front of us."

In the early morning hours of June 7, 1998, three white men beat Byrd after 
offering him a ride. They then chained the 49-year-old to the back of a truck 
and dragged his body for nearly 3 miles along a secluded road in the piney 
woods outside Jasper. Byrd was alive for at least 2 miles before his body was 
ripped to pieces. Prosecutors said he was targeted because he was black.

John William King, 44, an avowed racist who orchestrated the attack, is slated 
to be put to death Wednesday. He will be the 2nd man executed in the case. 
Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed in 2011. The third participant, Shawn 
Allen Berry, was sentenced to life in prison.

Before Byrd's death, the community about 140 miles northeast of Houston, near 
the Texas-Louisiana border, was known more for the timber industry and for 
tourism at nearby Sam Rayburn Lake.

Back in 1998, the city was "incredibly progressive" as it was led by an African 
American mayor and had other African Americans in local leadership positions, 
said Cassy Burleson, a researcher at Baylor University who has been studying 
Jasper since the dragging.

The current interim mayor, Gary Gatlin, recalled how community leaders of all 
races came together and helped the town heal. "It certainly doesn't go away, 
and we certainly remember what happened," Gatlin said.

But racial tension resurfaced after Jasper's first black police chief was fired 
in 2012, and 2 of the 3 black city council members who hired the chief were 
ousted in a recall election. The recall effort was marred by racial slurs.

City council member Rashad Lewis, who is black, was 12 when Byrd was killed. He 
said the dragging death unearthed racial hostility in his hometown. He 
remembers classmates wearing Confederate belt buckles and shirts right after 
Byrd was killed.

When he moved back to Jasper several years ago, Lewis said he ran for office 
because of a lack of minority representation. He is the only African American 
on the 5-member council, which runs a community that is more than 1/2 African 
American. About 34 % of the African American population lives below the poverty 
line.

Lewis, 33, is now running against Gatlin, hoping to become the 2nd African 
American mayor in Jasper history. The election is May 4.

"As long as we keep a blindfold to the incident, we will never be able to move 
forward," he said.

During his mayoral campaign, Lewis said, he's had at least one online racial 
slur directed at him.

One of Jasper's religious leaders, the Rev. Ronald Foshage, acknowledges that 
there is some prejudice in the town. But he said "you are going to find that 
anywhere."

"It's not the majority of our people, and it's not who we are," Foshage said.

Lewis said he proposed an annual day to come together in honor of Byrd, but his 
idea was rejected. While a park was named for Byrd and a bench in his honor was 
placed outside the courthouse where 2 of his killers were tried, nothing in 
Jasper memorializes the dragging death itself.

Gatlin said Jasper has not minimized Byrd's death but "we've just tried to move 
on."

In the years since the dragging, Byrd's relatives created the Byrd Foundation 
for Racial Healing. Louvon Byrd Harris, 61, another of Byrd's sisters, said her 
family still hopes to build a multicultural center and museum in Jasper to 
promote diversity and education.

Both sisters, who live in Houston, said they hope their brother's death 
continues to spur people to combat hate, wherever it may occur.

"Hate has not gone away," Washington said. "Every week in the news, we're 
reminded of that."

(source: ABC News)

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

James Byrd Jr.’s Family Ready for Execution of Racist Who Dragged Him to 
Death----It’s been 20 years since three men chained Byrd to a pickup 
truck—shocking the nation’s conscience.



Louvon Byrd has already watched 1 man die for the horrific hate crime against 
her brother. Later this week, she intends to do it again.

John William King, the ringleader of a trio of racists who dragged James Byrd 
Jr. to death 20 years ago, is set to be executed by the state of Texas on 
Wednesday. Louvon will witness the lethal injection, barring the success of any 
last-minute appeals.

“He’s trying to save his life by all means necessary,” she told The Daily 
Beast. “But he did live 20 years longer than my brother… and I think that 
speaks a lot. The punishment would be just to take an injection and go to 
sleep, and even at that I still think he’s getting off easy.”

Byrd, a 49-year-old father of three, was walking home from a friend’s 
anniversary party on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Jasper, Texas, during the 
early hours of June 7, 1998, when three white men kidnapped him and brought him 
to an isolated rural road.

They chained Byrd by his ankles to the back of a pick-up truck and drove for 
nearly three miles, dismembering him. They left parts of Byrd in front of a 
local black cemetery. The rest of him was found a mile and a half up the road.

Byrd’s family had to relive the gruesome details at 3 capital murder trials.

“Imagine the family going through 3 trials and listening to that over and over 
again to prove kidnapping… at what point was he bound, at what was his head 
decapitated,” Louvon Byrd said. “But we had to do it, because for justice you 
have to go beyond what you’re feeling, because it’s nothing close to what James 
went through that night.”

King and his accomplices, Shawn Allen Berry and Lawrence Russell Brewer, were 
convicted. King and Brewer were sentenced to death, and Brewer was executed in 
2011. Berry is eligible for parole in 2038.

In recent years, King, 44, has filed a string of unsuccessful appeals to avoid 
the needle, claiming his defense was inadequate. It would be stunning if 
King—who is covered in white-supremacy tattoos, including one of a black man 
hanging from a tree—were granted clemency.

The crime—along with the torture murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard 
four months later—shocked the nation’s conscience and spurred Congress to pass 
hate crimes legislation in their names.

“I really believe if we had a strong hate crime law they would have thought 
twice,” Byrd said of her brother’s killers. “They were so convinced that they 
would be OK and that they would get away with it.”

Byrd’s family is also trying to make sure that he is remembered in Jasper, a 
town of less than 8,000 evenly divided between black and white residents which, 
even after 20 years, is known mainly for the depravity that took place there.

“I know there are individuals who hate that it happened in Jasper and want it 
to be forgotten, but we never can do that, the family will not let that happen. 
Because, once you are quiet about anything, before you know it you’re back in 
that situation,” Louvon Byrd said. “We’re trying to by all means keep his 
legacy going, with or without the town’s support.”

“I always look at the anniversary and (the town’s) participation to see where 
their mindset is, and so far this has been the family trying to keep it going 
rather than the town,” Byrd said.

Last year, on the 20th anniversary, the Byrd Foundation for Racial Healing, 
which was started and is run by the family, installed a bench at the town’s 
courthouse inscribed with the words: “Be the change you want to see in the 
world.”

His sister says the bench has since been moved to a less accessible location 
and she feels there is waning support for the family’s efforts, which include 
plans for a multicultural center and an archive of oral histories of hate.

The interim mayor, Gary Gatlin, told the Associated Press that no one is trying 
to minimize the tragedy, but added, “We’ve just tried to move on.”

The Byrds, though, cannot move one. And one of their goals is to have the 
public remember James for not just how he died but how he lived.

He was, his sister said, “a people person,” a salesman by trade, and a musician 
by heart.

“He played the trumpet, he was a piano player… He was known for his music,” she 
said.

“He always would say: You laugh now, but one day I’m going to put Jasper on the 
map. Just wait and see.”— Louvon Byrd

Today, Byrd would be 70 years old. His daughter is now a police officer in 
Houston, Texas, and a granddaughter is about to graduate from college.

“He missed out on a lot... Most people identify him as a crime, but I like when 
people identify him as a person,” Louvon said. “James loved people, and he’d 
like to make a difference.”

“Since he loved music so much, he always would say: ‘You laugh now, but one day 
I’m going to put Jasper on the map. Just wait and see,’” she recalled. “At the 
time he was thinking it would be because of his music—but never in his life was 
he thinking it would be because of his death.”

(source: thedailybeast.com)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----42

Court reaches required number of qualified jurors in Tiffany Moss death penalty 
case

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----560

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

43---------Apr. 24----------------John King---------------561

44---------May 2------------------Dexter Johnson----------562

45---------Aug. 21----------------Larry Swearingen--------563

46---------Sept. 4----------------Billy Crutsinger--------564

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)








NEW HAMPSHIRE:

NH legislature passes death penalty repeal



On April 11, the New Hampshire Senate voted 17-6 to repeal the death penalty. 
With the House passing an identical version of the bill, House Bill 455, last 
month in a vote of 279-88, the legislature has the necessary two-thirds 
majority to override a potential veto from Gov. Chris Sununu (R). If approved, 
this will make New Hampshire the 21st state in the U.S. to abolish the death 
penalty, following Washington in September 2018.

HB 455 would change the state’s punishment for capital murder from death to 
life imprisonment without parole. Last year, the House and the Senate both 
voted for the repeal but did not have the necessary votes to override Sununu’s 
veto. Following last November’s midterm elections, in which Democrats gained 
control of both chambers, the House and the Senate acquired the necessary 
majority.

The state hasn’t executed an inmate in 80 years and currently has only one 
inmate on death row — Michael Addison. Addison was sentenced to death in 2008 
for the 2006 murder of Manchester police officer Michael Briggs. Although the 
repeal would not apply retroactively to Addison, Mark Chase, president of the 
New Hampshire association of chiefs of police, believes that Addison’s sentence 
will soon be converted to a life sentence. He added that death penalty in New 
Hampshire has only been used rarely.

“We have a pretty good record of not just throwing [the death penalty] around,” 
Chase said.

New Hampshire currently permits the death penalty under certain circumstances: 
murder of a member of law enforcement, a judge or a prosecutor while in the 
line of duty; murder committed during a robbery, aggravated felonious sexual 
assault or kidnapping; murder related to drug offenses; contract killing; and 
murder after already being sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

Sen. Bob Giuda (R-Warren) said he is not in favor of the death penalty and 
believes that the current circumstances that merit the death penalty are not 
equitable.

“We place a greater value on the lives of certain citizens than others,” he 
said. “An ordinary citizen’s life being taken isn’t worth the death penalty. I 
have a problem with that. A life is worth no more or less than any other.”

Giuda said his decision to support the repeal comes as a result of his Catholic 
faith as well as what he calls his “consciousness” of the imperfections of the 
American legal system. He said he is concerned with the discrepancy of legal 
capabilities between the poor and the rich, the politics of death penalty 
trials and the frequent exonerations of people on death row.

“It is better that nine guilty men should live than one innocent person should 
be put to death,” he said.

Sen. Tom Sherman (D-Rye), shared the same concern for potentially innocent 
people being put to death. In addition to the moral cost, he expressed distaste 
for the monetary cost of the death penalty. Millions of dollars are spent on 
appeals and trials, according to Sherman. He additionally noted that New 
Hampshire does not have a death chamber to conduct executions and would need to 
build a new one for any future executions.

“I can think of a number of places where that money is better spent,” he said.

Sen. Harold French (R-Franklin), Giuda, Sen. Martha Hennessey (D-Hanover) and 
Sherman all said they believe that the repeal will have few tangible effects on 
daily life in the state but see symbolic and moral value in the repeal.

“It creates a moral and ethical standard for our state that is clearly the high 
ground in how we treat people and how we value life,” Sherman said.

Hennessey added that many people find the death penalty to be antiquated and 
logically unsound.

“[The death penalty repeal is] absolutely necessary and long past time,” she 
said. “I don’t see why we kill people who kill people to tell them that killing 
people is wrong.”

French believes that Addison will soon be serving life in prison rather than 
facing death but said that he believes a lifetime prison sentence is enough of 
a punishment.

“[We would be] doing him a favor by putting him to death,” he said. “We have a 
motto in the state: Live Free or Die. Who wants to live in a 6-by-9 foot box 
forever because of what you did? Gives you every day of your life to realize 
why you’re there.”

(source: thedartmouth.com)








VIRGINIA:

Mom wants death penalty for man charged with murdering his daughter, niece



Saveeta Barnes felt compelled to travel from Long Island, New York to Henrico 
County on Easter Weekend to visit the site where her daughter was murdered.

"She was my baby. I hope she knows how much I loved her though," Barnes said.

Earlier this month, a Henrico grand jury indicted 39-year-old Abdool Zaman on 2 
counts of capital murder. He now faces those charges along with the use of a 
firearm in the commission of a felony 1st and 2nd offense.

Zaman is accused of shooting his daughter, Vanessa Zaman, and her cousin by 
marriage Leona Samlall on December 13, 2018.

Abdool Zaman, Vanessa Zaman, and Leona Samlall

Henrico Police said the victims were walking near the Oakmeade Apartments on 
Airport Drive and East Nine Mile Road in Highland Springs when they were 
killed.

Sources tell CBS 6 that Zaman got out of his car and confronted the girls 
before shooting them to death in what appeared to be a fit of rage.

Barnes says she had a short relationship with Vanessa's father, but ended it 
when her daughter was a toddler.

The mother was devastated about the loss of her first born and only daughter 
Vanessa who she says reconnected with her father in Florida last year.

"She wanted that relationship with him and she was seeking a love that wasn’t 
there," Barnes explained.

She said the cousins ran from an abusive situation in Florida to Henrico along 
with Leona's baby. That baby was fathered by Samlall's uncle, Abdool Zaman, 
according to Barnes.

"Leona was innocent too. She was just a child," Barnes stated.

The grieving mother described Vanessa as a honor student, a gifted writer and 
beloved daughter.

"I never ever thought in a million years that she would die in the hands of her 
own father," Barnes said. "I still think it’s a bad dream. I think I'm going to 
wake up tomorrow and see it’s the worst dream I ever had."

After the shooting, police say Zaman fled to Queens, New York where he was 
captured on December 18.

Zaman fought extradition but was returned back to Virginia on March 28 after 
losing his challenge in court.

The 39-year-old had previously been charged with 2nd-degree murder.

Barnes said she hoped Zaman will be found guilty and sentenced to the death 
penalty.

"He sentenced me to a lifetime of pain and suffering," she explained. "The 
death penalty is what he deserves."

Zaman is now facing a capital murder charge for killing multiple persons as a 
part of the same criminal act and a 2nd capital murder charge for killing more 
than 1 person within a 3-year period.

(source: WTVR news)



GEORGIA:

Process of selecting final jury to begin Tuesday



After a week and a day of grueling, though often repetitive, questions asked 
during jury selection in the Tiffany Moss death penalty case, the court has 
reached the required number of qualified jurors to begin the process of 
selecting the final jury.

Shortly after 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge George 
Hutchinson announced the court had reached its 54th qualified juror, a 
determination made through a series of questions asked by the judge, 
prosecution -- District Attorney Danny Porter and Assistant District Attorney 
Lisa Jones -- and Tiffany Moss, who is defending herself in the trial.

The 56 total qualified jurors -- the court continued interviewing potential 
jurors until after 5 p.m. on Monday -- come from a pool of more than 100 
potential jurors who the court began questioning last Monday.

Questions on the final day of juror qualification remained largely the same as 
in the previous week, with Porter and Jones attempting to get insight into how 
each potential juror would act, should he or she be selected for the final 
jury.

When speaking with nearly every potential juror, the prosecution asked whether 
he or she would be able to consider all 3 punishment options -- life with the 
possibility of parole, life without parole and death by lethal injection -- 
with the majority indicating they could consider all 3 options.

Some, however, said they could not, explaining that they were opposed to either 
life with the possibility of parole or the death penalty.

Juror 100, who was interviewed on Monday, said he could not consider either 
option, however, and that life without parole was the only form of punishment 
he would consider, should Moss be found guilty.

"(Death) would be the easy way out," he said. "I believe, excuse my language 
here, that there's a special place in hell, if (Moss' crimes) are true."

Moss, whose trial comes 5 1/2 years after she and her husband, Eman Moss, were 
arrested and charged with murder, cruelty to children and concealing the death 
of another in the murder of 10-year-old Emani Moss, is accused of starving the 
child to death, to the point where the girl weighed only 32 pounds, the Daily 
Post previously reported.

The prosecution is expected to argue when the trial begins on Wednesday that 
after starving Emani Moss to death, Moss, alongside her husband, burned the 
girl’s body and left her in a dumpster outside their apartment complex.

Eman Moss pleaded guilty in 2015 for his role in his daughter’s death. At the 
time, his attorney said the man didn’t bring Emani Moss to the hospital in the 
weeks before she died because Tiffany Moss had previously been arrested for 
beating the girl.

The lawyer also claimed Eman Moss was unaware of the abuse and starvation his 
daughter endured, saying Tiffany Moss was responsible for taking care of Emani 
Moss while he was at work all day.

Eman Moss’ plea, in which he agreed to testify against Tiffany Moss if her case 
went to trial, spared him the death penalty — something Porter said he has 
offered Tiffany Moss.

But Moss has not only refused to accept a plea deal, she’s also refused to 
accept legal representation — something Porter and Jones frequently touched on 
during jury selection, asking whether that would affect a potential juror's 
ability to be far and impartial.

While most of the jurors replied "no" throughout the week-long process, several 
offered more detailed answers, which included responses such as, "Yeah, it's 
kind of odd" and "Personally, I think it's unwise, but it's a decision (Moss) 
is making."

Because Moss is representing herself, Hutchinson also took time on Monday after 
the 56th qualified juror was interviewed to explain future court proceedings to 
the woman, who had remained largely quiet and demure on the final day of 
questioning -- a contrast to the sometimes joking and smiling person seen in 
last week's courtroom.

"Each side gets 15 strikes; that's 30 jurors that can be removed based on the 
number of strikes each side has," Hutchinson explained to Moss. "Twelve will 
actually hear the case, and that means to actually select the jury, we will 
need a total of 42 jurors (on Tuesday)."

The prosecution and defense will be presented with more than the 42, however; a 
certain number of alternate jurors is also always selected in jury trials. In 
this case, Hutchinson is requiring four alternates.

"What we intend to do is create short, three-person panels for the alternates, 
so the 43rd, 44th and 45th qualified jurors make up a short panel, from which 
we will select alternate number 1," Hutchinson said. "Each side gets an 
additional strike and whoever is left will be the alternate. Same thing for 
(alternate) 2, 3 and 4."

Once the final jury and its alternates are selected, the court will recess 
until Wednesday, when opening arguments will begin, Hutchinson said. It's not 
exactly clear how long the actual trial will last.

(source: Gwinnett Daily Post








FLORIDA:

Florida Prosecutors to Seek Death Penalty for YNW Melly----The Florida rapper 
has been charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder



The State of Florida plans to seek the death penalty against rapper YNW Melly, 
TMZ reports and Pitchfork can confirm. Pitchfork has reached out to YNW Melly’s 
lawyer for comment and more information.

Earlier this year, YNW Melly was arrested and charged with 2 counts of 
1st-degree murder. Prosecutors claim that he and his co-defendant YNW Bortlen 
killed 2 members of their own YNW crew in South Florida last autumn. Melly has 
pleaded not guilty to the charges.

(source: pitchfork.com)

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

YNW Melly Facing Death Penalty in Best Friend Murder Case



YNW Melly's murder case just got way more serious than it already was ... 
because the State of Florida is seeking the death penalty.

As you know ... YNW Melly has been charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder. 
Cops say the rapper shot 2 of his friends back in October, then staged the 
crime scene to look like a drive-by shooting.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, the State intends to seek the 
death penalty against Melly.

In the docs, the State says it believes it can prove beyond a reasonable doubt 
that Melly killed his friends for financial gain, the murder was especially 
heinous, atrocious or cruel, and he committed homicide in a cold, calculated 
and premeditated manner. The State also believes Melly is a criminal gang 
member.

As we've reported ... cops say YNW Melly and his friend, Cortlen Henry, shot 
victims Anthony Williams and Christopher Thomas Jr. in the head, torso and 
back. Police say Melly and Henry shot up their own car to make it look like a 
drive-by, and then dropped the victims off at the ER, where they were 
pronounced dead.

Florida is one of 30 States where capital punishment is legal.

(source: tmz.com)








ALABAMA----new execution date

Execution date set for man convicted in 1997 Pelham quadruple slaying



A man convicted of a quadruple slaying in Pelham over 20 years ago is set to 
die next month.

Michael Brandon Samra, 42, is set to die by lethal injection on May 16 at 
William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. The Alabama Supreme Court 
set his execution date last week.

Samra is currently housed on death row at William E. Donaldson Correctional 
Facility in Jefferson County. He was convicted of capital murder in 1998 and 
was sentenced to death for his role in the killings of Randy Duke, his fiancée 
Dedra Mims Hunt, and her 2 daughters, 6-year-old Chelisa Nicole Hunt and 
7-year-old Chelsea Marie Hunt.

The slayings happened on March 22, 1997 after, according to court records, 
Randy Duke’s 16-year-old son Mark Anthony Duke came up with the murder plot 
because Randy Duke refused to allow his son to use a pickup truck.

Records state Samra and Mark Duke went to the Duke home, along with 2 other 
friends, David Collums and Michael Ellison. Those 2 friends waited outside 
while Samra and Mark Duke went inside, according to an appeals court ruling.

Randy Duke and Dedra Hunt were shot to death, court records state, while the 
girls throats’ were slashed. According to court records, Mark Duke shot and 
killed his father, while Samra wounded Dedra before Mark Duke shot her to 
death. Mark Duke slit 6-year-old Chelisa’s throat, and Samra slit Chelsea’s 
throat as Mark Duke held her down.

In 2015, a 3-member panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a 
lower court’s denial of Samra’s appeal. That appeal focused on two claims, both 
centering on ineffective counsel.

Samra argued that his appellate lawyer was ineffective for not raising an 
argument on appeal that he was entitled to pretrial notice of the specific 
aggravating factor prosecutors would rely upon in pursuing the death penalty 
against Samra at his 1998 trial.

He also argued his trial lawyer was ineffective for failing to investigate 
evidence of brain dysfunction and for introducing and emphasizing evidence of 
his membership in a Satanic gang called Forever Our Lord King Satan. Samra 
claimed the gang membership evidence strengthened the state’s case regarding 
aggravating factors.

The appeals court rejected Samra’s arguments, stating Samra’s own confession 
provided overwhelming evidence. "By Samra’s own admission, after he assisted in 
killing 3 people, he slit the throat of a seven-year-old girl who was pleading 
and struggling for her life. We find no reasonable probability that, absent 
evidence or discussion of Samra’s gang involvement, the jury would not have 
found these murders to be as especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel as it 
found them,” the court wrote.

Mark Duke was also sentenced to death for the killings but is now serving a 
sentence of life without parole. In 2005 the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals 
overturned the death penalty for Mark Duke because he was 16 at the time of the 
murders, and ordered he be resentenced to life imprisonment.

In 2013, Samra lost an appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court after he argued his 
punishment was unfair because his “more culpable” co-defendant Mark Duke’s 
sentence was reversed. In court filings, Samra claimed his constitutional 
rights were violated because Duke’s sentence was changed.

(source: al.com)

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

USA----countdown to nation's 1500th execution



With the execution of Billie Wayne Coble in Texas on February 28, the USA has 
now executed 1,493 condemned individuals since the death penalty was 
relegalized on July 2, 1976 in the US Supreme Court Gregg v Georgia decision. 
Gary Gilmore was the 1st person executed, in Utah, on January 17, 1977. Below 
is a list of scheduled executions as the nation approaches a terrible milestone 
of 1500 executions in the modern era.

NOTE: The list is likely to change over the coming months as new execution 
dates are added and possible stays of execution occur.

1494-------Apr. 24------------John King------------------Texas

1495-------May 2--------------Scotty Morrow--------------Georgia

1496-------May 2--------------Dexter Johnson------------Texas

1497-------May 16-------------Donnie Johnson-----------Tennessee

1498-------May 16-------------Michael Samra------------Alabama

1499-------Aug. 15------------Stephen West-------------Tennessee

1500-------Aug. 21------------Larry Swearingen---------Texas

1501-------Sept. 4------------Billy Crutsinger---------Texas

1502------Sept. 12------------Warren Henness-----------Ohio

(source: Rick Halperin)








LOUISIANA:

Governor Edwards Backs Lethal Injection Secrecy Bill



Hammond Representative Nicky Muscarello has legislation that would conceal the 
identities of companies that sell lethal injection drugs or equipment to the 
state.

The state has not performed an execution since 2010, and Muscarello says a big 
part of that is because drug companies fear retaliation from anti-death penalty 
consumers.

“A lot of these drug companies do not want to be associated with it because 
they are afraid of having a negative association with their buisiness, so they 
are willing to provide us the concoction if we can keep them private.”

The legislation is similar to that which is in place in neighboring states like 
Arkansas and Texas.

The Tangipahoa Parish Republican says he was inspired by the testimonies of the 
families of victims who’s attackers are awaiting their final moments. 
Muscarello says those families were promised an execution, and this would help 
increase the odds of that happening.

“They have been promised that the person who committed the crime will be 
executed and we have not done anything as a state to make that progress.”

Courts, tribunals, commissions, agencies and individuals would not have access 
to the information if this law were to pass.

Muscarello says the death penalty is law, and it’s the legislature’s 
responsibility to make the enforcement of law as feasible as possible.

“When legislators before me decided to make the death penalty part of the law, 
then we as legislators have a duty to follow through with that.”

Governor Edwards says he would sign the legislation if it were to make it to 
his desk.

(source: KPEL news)