[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, KY., IDAHO, NEV.

[Rick Halperin]

January 6



TEXAS:

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----40

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----558

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

41---------Jan. 15----------------Blaine Milam------------559

42---------Jan. 30----------------Robert Jennings---------560

43---------Feb. 28----------------Billy Wayne Coble-------561

44---------Mar. 28----------------Patrick Murphy----------562

45---------Apr. 11----------------Mark Robertson----------563

46---------Apr. 24----------------John King---------------564

47---------May 2------------------Dexter Johnson----------565

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)








KENTUCKY:

Bill would limit death penalty cases for mentally ill



A bill filed by a member of the state Senate's Republican leadership team would 
prevent people with certain diagnosed mental disorders from being subjected to 
the death penalty.

The bill was filed by Sen. Julie Raque Adams, a Louisville Republican and 
caucus chair for the Senate's Republican majority.

The head of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty said he has 
confidence the bill will pass if it is called for consideration in the upcoming 
legislative session that starts Tuesday. But the head of the Kentucky 
Association of Commonwealth Attorneys said the bill is unnecessary because 
there is already a system in place to determine if a person is too mentally ill 
to face the death penalty.

Adams' bill would exempt a person from the death penalty if "at the time of the 
offense" the person had a "serious mental illness" as defined by the Diagnostic 
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Mental disorders that would exempt 
a person from the death penalty include schizophrenia, schizoaffective 
disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and delusional disorder.

If the disorder were caused by alcohol or drug use, or was "manifested 
primarily by repeated criminal conduct," it would not be exempt under Adams' 
bill.

The Rev. Patrick Delahanty, a Catholic priest and head of the Coalition to 
Abolish the Death Penalty, said Adams proposed the same bill last year, but it 
was never called to the full Senate for a vote.

"(Adams) is in leadership, so I do have a feeling that bill will get out of the 
Senate," Delahanty said. The bill should have support in the House of 
Representatives, given public opposition to executing the mentally ill, 
Delahanty said.

"I have some inside polling data that shows ... a very high percentage don't 
want mentally ill people executed," he said.

Currently, "there nothing in the law that prevents (putting) mentally ill 
people on death row," he said.

There will also likely be a bill filed to abolish the death penalty entirely, 
but he didn't know if such a bill would be heard in committee, he said.

Of Adams' bill, Delahanty said, "I'm hoping to see it pass. It's not the ideal, 
(but) we could limit the number of people we end up putting on death row."

Shane Young, commonwealth's attorney for Hardin County and head of the 
commonwealth's attorneys association, said issues in the bill are already 
addressed in the court system, either through a ruling on a person's competency 
to stand trial or by juries.

A person judged incompetent to stand trial cannot be prosecuted until they are 
made competent through medication or treatment. For people who are found 
competent to stand trial, whether a person is found to be "guilty or mentally 
ill" is a jury question, he said.

"There's already a process built in for determining mental illness," Young 
said. If a person is competent to stand trial, an argument of mental illness is 
"an affirmative defense" that can be used in court.

"Even if someone is found guilty of murder, mental illness is a (mitigating 
factor) and is presented in the sentencing phase," Young said. Adams' bill 
would take the decision away from juries, he said.

/ "It's just essentially advocacy groups trying to take power away from juries, 
and away from people, because they don't agree with" the death penalty, he 
said.

Delahanty said "a lot of mentally ill people are quite competent, (but) that 
doesn't mean they aren't mentally ill." Competency in Kentucky is defined as 
whether a person understands the charges against them and can participate in 
their defense.

"Severe mental illness is to the degree where the person doesn't have 
culpability," Delahanty said. "They can't make a rational decision." He said he 
was for accountability for people who commit serious crimes, and the public 
should be protected from people with severe mental illnesses who are found to 
be dangerous.

Delahanty said he is hopeful Adams' bill will receive attention from 
legislators during the upcoming session.

"It's a short session ... but we think we'll make some progress," Delahanty 
said.

(source: messenger-inquirer.com)








IDAHO:

Attorneys object to testimony in Boise mass stabbing suspect's competency 
hearing



Attorneys representing the man accused of Boise’s June mass stabbing have 
objected to testimony heard during his competency hearings from Ada County Jail 
deputies and others who are not medical professionals, as the closed court 
proceedings are scheduled to continue.

Timmy Kinner Jr., 30, is accused of 13 felonies, including 1st-degree murder, 
in connection with the stabbing of 9 people June 30 at a Boise apartment 
complex. The victims, all refugees, included 6 children, 1 of whom died of her 
injuries. If convicted, Kinner faces the death penalty.

Early on in the case, Kinner’s attorneys said they were worried about his 
mental competency and his ability to understand the court proceedings. At a 
court hearing in December, attorneys said a psychiatrist who evaluated Kinner 
had found him unfit to stand trial. Only a judge can rule on a defendant’s 
mental competency, however, so attorneys scheduled multiple hearings during 
which 4th District Court Judge Nancy Baskin could hear evidence related to 
Kinner’s mental health.

Those hearings — the 1st of which took place Dec. 27, the second on Friday — 
have been closed to the public. But on Monday, Kinner’s attorneys filed a 
motion objecting to prosecutors calling witnesses who are not medical 
professionals to act as “witnesses to prove the absence of psychotic or 
psychopathic acts/behaviors” on Kinner’s part. “At (the Dec. 27) hearing the 
state presented testimony from a series of witnesses which included jail 
guards, a legal librarian, the jail psychiatrist, and other personnel employed 
by the Ada County Sheriff,” according to the motion. “All the state’s witnesses 
testified over objection that they did not witness any psychotic or 
psychopathic acts/behaviors by the defendant.”

Those witnesses provided what’s known as “negative evidence,” according to the 
motion — essentially, they testified to the fact that something did not happen. 
There are situations in which negative evidence is appropriate, according to 
the motion.

“An example where negative evidence would be proper is if a witness examined a 
book and then testified that the book did not contain a specific sentence, 
phrase or certain information,” attorneys wrote. “The book is a finite entity 
that could be examined for the information sought.”

That’s different, attorneys claim, from people without medical degrees 
testifying to Kinner’s lack of psychotic symptoms. Attorneys also wrote some 
witnesses “testified to very brief encounters with (Kinner) which could be a 
matter of seconds.”

“The last deputy that testified, Martin Lozano, essentially stated he hardly 
interacted with (Kinner) at all, as (Kinner) did not like him,” according to 
the motion. “The jail psychiatrist, Dr. Scott Eliason, spent a total of 2 to 3 
minutes attempting to speak with (Kinner) through a slat in the cell door at 
which time the defendant told the doctor to leave him alone.”

Kinner’s attorneys ended their motion with a plea to Baskin to disregard the 
testimony.

Kinner’s competency hearing was held Friday afternoon, and another one was 
scheduled — also closed to the public — for Jan. 15.

If Baskin finds Kinner unfit to stand trial, he will be committed to a state 
hospital where doctors will work to restore his mental competency through 
treatment and medication. Once his competency is restored and doctors are 
satisfied he can understand the court proceedings, he will return to court to 
face the charges filed against him.

Kinner’s trial is slated to begin in January 2020 and run for potentially 2 
months.

(source: Idaho Press)








NEVADA----death row inmate suicide

Nevada inmate whose execution called off found dead in cell



A twice-convicted murderer who had repeatedly said he wanted to die by lethal 
injection was found dead in his death-row prison cell from an apparent hanging, 
officials said Saturday.

Scott Raymond Dozier, 48, was found unresponsive in his solo death-row cell at 
the state's maximum-security prison in Ely, Department of Corrections 
spokeswoman Brooke Santina told The Associated Press.

Dozier's lawyer, Thomas Ericsson, declined to comment immediately.

Dozier had said repeatedly he wanted to die rather than live the rest of his 
life in prison. Nevada officials said he tried to kill himself several times 
after 2 scheduled lethal injections were postponed.

"I've been very clear about my desire to be executed ... even if suffering is 
inevitable," Dozier said in a handwritten note to a state court judge who 
postponed his execution in November 2017 over concerns the untried drug regimen 
could leave him suffocating, conscious and unable to move.

"Just get it done, just do it effectively and stop fighting about it," the 
frustrated inmate told The Associated Press in a telephone interview last 
August, a month after a different judge stopped his execution at nearly the 
final hour.

But his bid to become the first Nevada inmate put to death since 2006 was 
called off twice amid court fights over a three-drug combination that had never 
been used in the U.S.: the sedative midazolam, the powerful opioid fentanyl and 
a muscle-paralyzing agent called cisatracurium.

/ Fentanyl is a drug blamed for illegal-use, drug overdose deaths nationwide.

The starts-and-stops in Dozier's case propelled Nevada to the top of a national 
debate about the death penalty and shed light on extraordinary efforts some 
states take to try to obtain drugs from pharmaceutical companies that insist 
they don't want their products used for executions.

Dozier gave up appeals for the death sentence he received in 2007 for separate 
killings of methamphetamine drug trade associates in 2002 in Phoenix and Las 
Vegas.

But he allowed federal public defenders to challenge on his behalf the method 
that state officials planned to use.

? Those advocates argued that his lethal injection could be less humane than 
putting down a pet.

Drug companies joined the fight — with cases still pending before state courts 
and the Nevada Supreme Court. They argue their products should not be used in 
an execution.

Nevada has drawn backing in the state high court fight from 15 of the 30 other 
states in the U.S. with capital punishment. Friend-of-the-court briefs argue 
that harassment from advocacy groups and threats of company boycotts are 
keeping prison officials from enforcing the will of voters in states that have 
the death penalty.

Dozier, meanwhile, made it clear that he didn't like legal limbo.

Last month, state lawyers revealed in a separate federal lawsuit over Dozier's 
treatment behind bars that that he had tried several methods to kill himself in 
recent months, including attempting to obtain drops of a deadly drug on a piece 
of paper sent through prison mail.

The filings were in a lawsuit that challenged Dozier's housing on suicide watch 
in an isolation cell.

The state insisted the isolation was to protect Dozier from self-harm, but his 
lawyers argued he was deteriorating due to unconstitutional treatment. They 
said he was denied prison yard recreation time and the ability to read, 
communicate with his family or effectively consult with legal counsel.

Dozier's lawyers also revealed that he apparently cut his neck and wrist with a 
razor in October.

Prison officials reported that Dozier somehow obtained razor blades behind bars 
and that they had intercepted mail from Dozier's sister with instructions on 
how to cut the jugular vein in his neck.

Dozier was not on suicide watch Saturday, Santina said. He was found at 4:35 
p.m. at the prison in Ely, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of Las Vegas.

The prisons spokeswoman said she didn't immediately know when Dozier had last 
been seen by guards.

Santina said that would be part of investigations by the department's inspector 
general and White Pine County sheriff's office.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Nevada Killer Scott Dozier, Who Pushed For Execution, Dead of Suicide in 
Cell----Scott Dozier said there was no point in living on death row



A Nevada death-row inmate who tried to hasten his own execution apparently 
killed himself in his cell, correction officials said Saturday.

Scott Raymond Dozier, 48, was found hanging from a bed sheet attached to an air 
vent in Ely State Prison, according to a news release. No one else was in the 
cell.

“Responding staff made immediate notification to medical staff and attempted to 
provide emergency medical care until help arrived,” the state Corrections 
Department said in a news release.

“Dozier was pronounced dead at approximately 4:35 p.m. by emergency medical 
staff at the scene.”

Dozier, who was convicted in 2007 of killing 22-year-old Jeremiah Miller, was 
slated to be executed in July but his lethal injection was called after the 
maker of one of the drugs sued to stop its use.

Dozier had waived his appeals and told the court that he would rather be put to 
death than spend more time on death row.

“Life in prison isn’t a life,” Dozier told the Las Vegas Journal-Review at the 
time. “This isn’t living, man. It’s just surviving... If people say they’re 
going to kill me, get to it.”

He was placed on suicide watch after the execution was called off. This fall, 
according to the Marshall Project, he was placed in solitary confinement for 
mental health reasons, with just some clothing and an anti-suicide blanket.

Nevada has not executed an inmate in more than 12 years. When Dozier dropped 
his appeals, the state had to come up with a new protocol for a lethal 
injection.

That process was complicated when the drug manufacturers objected to their 
products being used as instruments to death and took legal action.

Many states have had difficulty buying execution chemicals because 
pharmaceutical companies have been pressured by anti-death penalty activists 
into barring their use for capital punishment.

As a result, some states have begun adopting older methods of execution as 
backups. 2 Tennessee inmates have been killed in the electric chair in recent 
weeks.

(source: thedailybeast.com)