[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----VA., OHIO, NEB., IDAHO, WYO.

[Rick Halperin]

January 26



VIRGINIA:

Capital murder defendant granted expert to help avoid death penalty



A man facing a capital murder charge and — if convicted — the potential of the 
death penalty will be able to add an expert in prison violence risk assessments 
to his team, a judge determined Friday.

Kevin Josue Soto Bonilla, 21, also faces charges of gang participation, robbery 
and abduction for pecuniary benefit. He’s 1 of 5 men charged with murder in the 
March 2017 death of 17-year-old Raymond Wood, of Lynchburg. All 5 have been 
charged with participating in the violent street gang MS-13 and 2 have either 
faced jury trial or pleaded guilty to their charges.

None of the defendants have been sentenced. 4 of them, including Soto Bonilla, 
are charged with capital murder, which can result in the death penalty if 
convicted.

Soto Bonilla was scheduled for a jury trial starting Feb. 26. Aaron Houchens, 
one of his attorneys, said at the end of a motions hearing Friday he 
anticipates asking to postpone the trial to provide time for a prison violence 
risk assessment.

Defense attorneys sought the assessment because Bedford County Commonwealth’s 
Attorney Wes Nance has indicated he’ll be pursuing the death penalty if Soto 
Bonilla is convicted. Further, Nance said he’ll be asking for the death penalty 
by arguing 2 legal factors: vileness of the alleged crime and Soto Bonilla’s 
future dangerousness.

Houchens and Anthony Anderson, Soto Bonilla’s second attorney, filed a motion 
to hire an expert on prison violence risk assessments to help establish he’s 
not likely to commit another violent crime “if he is sentenced to life 
imprisonment rather than death,” the only two sentencing options for a 
conviction of capital murder.

“Given the length of the Defendant’s pre-trial incarceration, his lack of a 
criminal record, his age and other particularized factors applicable to this 
Defendant, a prison risk assessment is one form of mitigation evidence that the 
jury in this case should be permitted to consider,” Houchens wrote in the 
motion.

Houchens said in court the jury likely will be left with a “strong inference” 
that members of the MS-13 gang commit crimes while in prison by the time any 
sentencing phase of the trial would occur.

(source: The News & Advance)








OHIO----impending execution postponed/re-set

Gov. Mike DeWine delays killer’s execution, orders review of lethal-injection 
drugs



Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday postponed the execution of murderer Warren Henness 
from Feb. 13 to Sept. 12 following a recent judicial ruling that Ohio’s 
lethal-injection cocktail will “very likely cause him severe pain and needless 
suffering.”

In a release, DeWine said that he has also directed Ohio’s prisons agency to 
assess the state’s current options for execution drugs and examine possible 
alternative drugs.

On Jan. 15, federal magistrate judge Michael Merz ruled that the three drugs 
Ohio has used since last year for executions – midazolam (as a sedative), a 
paralytic drug, and potassium chloride (to stop the heart) – are likely 
unconstitutionally “cruel and unusual punishment.” Merz cited testimony from 
medical witnesses that high doses of midazolam and other drugs cause pulmonary 
edema, causing a painful drowning sensation comparable to the torture tactic of 
waterboarding.

However, Merz allowed Henness’ execution to proceed because, under a 2015 U.S. 
Supreme Court ruling, death row inmates challenging how they will be put to 
death must show that an alternative means of execution is “available,” 
“feasible,” and can be “readily implemented.”

Henness’ proposed alternatives -- drinking secobarbital in a sweet liquid such 
as apple juice, or an oral injection of four drugs – were rejected by Merz on 
the grounds that neither method has ever been used to carry out an execution, 
they would take more than an hour to kill Henness, and that there isn’t a 
proven way to obtain the drugs.

DeWine, in his statement, noted that Henness has appealed Merz’s ruling, but 
the governor said he delayed the execution because of the magistrate judge’s 
opinion.

David Stebbins, Henness’ attorney, said in a statement Friday: “We commend 
Governor DeWine for his leadership and for ensuring the justice system operates 
humanely in Ohio.”

Henness was convicted of murdering his drug-abuse counselor, Richard Myers, in 
1992. Prosecutors said Henness kidnapped Myers, shot him five times at an 
abandoned water-treatment plant, severed Myers’ finger to get his wedding ring, 
then drove around in Myers’ car for several days forging his checks and using 
his credit cards to get cash and buy crack cocaine.

Henness has maintained his innocence.

Ohio, like many other states with the death penalty, has struggled to obtain 
lethal-injection drugs since European pharmaceutical companies cut off further 
sales on moral and legal grounds.

After the controversial execution of killer Dennis McGuire in January 2014, 
Ohio imposed a three-year moratorium on executions as it worked to find a new 
lethal-injection protocol – and suppliers willing to sell the state the drugs.

Since the moratorium was lifted in 2017, Ohio has executed three people using 
the current three-drug cocktail – all without complications or unexpected 
problems.

(source: cleveland.com)








NEBRASKA:

Nebraska Supreme Court dismisses suit from death-row inmates



The Nebraska Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit Friday filed by 8 death-row 
inmates who argued that their sentences were invalidated by the Legislature's 
repeal of capital punishment in 2015, before voters overturned the ban.

Justices denied the inmates' request for a declaration that their sentences 
were no longer valid, upholding a decision issued by a district court judge. 
But the state's highest court left open the possibility that the inmates could 
raise similar arguments when challenging their convictions individually.

"We conclude that the inmates have equally serviceable remedies and accordingly 
affirm the district court's dismissal" of the case, Chief Justice Michael 
Heavican wrote in the opinion.

The inmates argued that the Legislature's 2015 vote to override Republican Gov. 
Pete Ricketts' veto and abolish the death penalty effectively reduced their 
sentences to life in prison. A petition drive led by death penalty supporters 
suspended the repeal law before it could go into effect and placed the issue 
before voters, who reinstated capital punishment in the 2016 general election .

The lawsuit also contended that the petition drive was invalid because Ricketts 
helped finance it, which the inmates said violated constitutional separation of 
powers. It further claimed that Ricketts should have been listed as an official 
sponsor of the petition because of his contributions and his close ties to 
activists who spearheaded the petition drive.

The court rejected those arguments.

In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska said the ruling 
doesn't address its clients' claims that they may no longer be executed.

"We look forward to resolution of these claims in the individual 
post-conviction proceedings the court has ruled that each prisoner must 
undertake," said Danielle Conrad, the group's executive director. "While we 
respect that Nebraskans of goodwill hold different viewpoints on the death 
penalty, these and other concerns about transparency, accountability and 
fairness will persist beyond this case."

Nebraska carried out its 1st execution in more than t2 decades in August, using 
a never-before-tried combination of lethal injection drugs. Days before the 
execution, Nebraska corrections director Scott Frakes acknowledged in an 
affidavit that the state probably wouldn't be able to obtain another batch of 
drugs in the future.

State officials refused to disclose their supplier, despite doing so in past 
cases, which prompted still-pending lawsuits from the ACLU of Nebraska and the 
state's 2 largest newspapers. The Nebraska Supreme Court is expected to rule in 
those public-records lawsuits as well.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Nebraska Supreme court rules to uphold validity of death sentences



Inmates on Nebraska's death row will continue to face the death sentence after 
a ruling Friday by the Nebraska Supreme Court.

The ACLU of Nebraska had challenged the validity of their death sentences. The 
group argued that when the Nebraska Legislature repealed capital punishment in 
2015, the law was in effect long enough to convert the death sentences of the 
11 men then on death row to life in prison.

The civil rights organization claimed that the 2016 vote by Nebraskans to 
restore capital punishment only pertained to future cases.

But on Friday, the State Supreme Court agreed with a district court judge's 
decision to dismiss the lawsuit.

The court ruled the inmates on death row had other legal avenues to challenge 
the validity of their death sentences, rather than ruling directly on the 
declaratory action sought by the ACLU.

Because of the dismissal on technical grounds, the seven-page ruling, written 
by Supreme Court Chief Justice Mike Heavican, did not address the arguments 
raised by the civil rights organization.

The ACLU, in a statement Friday, said it plans to pursue those issues in 
individual, post-conviction appeals on behalf of the inmates.

"Today’s ruling does not resolve our clients’ claims that, after the 
Legislature’s 2015 repeal of the death penalty, they no longer may be 
executed," said Danielle Conrad, executive director of the ACLU of Nebraska. 
"We look forward to resolution of those claims in the individual 
post-conviction proceedings the court has ruled that each prisoner must 
undertake."

The ACLU has actively opposed the death penalty, saying it is a waste of 
government resources, that minorities and low-income offenders are more likely 
to have the sentence imposed, and that the process lacks transparency.

Supporters of the death penalty, including Gov. Pete Ricketts, say it is a just 
penalty for the most heinous crimes and that it be a deterrent to keep those 
those sentenced to life in prison from harming prison guards or other inmates.

Attorneys with the Nebraska Attorney General's Office rejected the ACLU's 
arguments, saying that the Legislature doesn't have the power to overturn 
sentences imposed by judges, and that the will of the people, in restoring the 
death penalty, would be frustrated by nullifying the death sentences.

(source: Omaha World-Herald)








IDAHO:

Ohlson defense files motions to take death penalty off the table



The defense for Jackson, Wyo., resident Erik Ohlson filed 5 new motions with 
the court this week looking to thwart the Teton County Prosecutor’s Office from 
seeking the death penalty at sentencing.

Ohlson is charged with murdering Driggs resident Jennifer Nalley in 2016. He 
also is charged with killing Nalley’s unborn baby of 12 weeks and with one 
count of burglary. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

In the motions, the defense is looking to, “declare the death penalty 
unconstitutional,” and “unguided, arbitrary, and capricious.”

In another motion the defense is also hoping to control jury selection.

Ohlson’s court-appointed defense attorneys Jim Archibald and John Thomas are 
arguing that excluding jurors who have a moral objection to the death penalty 
results in juries that tend to be “whiter, more conservative, more male, more 
sexist, more conviction-prone, more death-prone, and more biased against 
defendants.”

And finally, the defense is making a motion seeking a “proportionality review” 
whereby Ohlson is requesting that his “defense be allowed to present evidence 
in a pretrial setting to determine whether the prosecution’s decision to seek 
the death penalty is disproportionate to the punishment imposed on others 
accused of similar crimes.”

Teton County Prosecutor Billie Siddoway wrote in an email to the Teton Valley 
News that the only motion set to be heard in front of Seventh District Judge 
Bruce Pickett on Jan. 31 is whether her office should have to disclose its 
email messages to Nancy Nalley, the victim’s mother.

Siddoway said the Feb. 21 hearing could consider the new motions filed this 
week.

”I previously filed a memorandum arguing that challenges to the death penalty 
are premature until the death penalty has been or is about to be imposed,” she 
said. “The court’s decision on that argument may influence when it hears these 
new motions.”

According to the Idaho Department of Correction website, nine Idaho inmates are 
on death row. Also according to the department, three inmates have been 
executed since Idaho enacted a new death penalty statute in 1977.

Pickett heard the motion from the defense seeking to dismiss the second count 
of murder earlier this month. As for the dismissal of count 2 of murder, 
Ohlson’s defense argued in its submitted brief, “An embryo or fetus in its 1st 
trimester does not have a right to life,” as cited from Roe v. Wade. “A woman 
and her doctors can kill an embryo or fetus in its first trimester without 
repercussions from the law.”

Pickett is still considering the motion.

The defense also made a direct appeal to Pickett to allow a contact visit with 
Ohlson’s mother, Virginia Ohlson. The defense’s request was made, “To help Mr. 
Ohlson sort through offers to settle and advise him with regard to possible 
outcomes and ramifications of such outcomes on settlement negotiations.”

Pickett granted two contact visits for Ohlson with his mother at the Madison 
County Jail .

Ohlson was arrested in July 2016 after he crashed his truck into an electrical 
pole on 2500 South, just 3 miles from Jennifer Nalley’s cabin in Driggs where 
she lay dead from 8 gunshot wounds suffered that same night, according to the 
Teton County Coroner’s report. Ohlson was arrested for a DUI and later 
confessed to killing Nalley. However, his confession was thrown out after the 
court determined that the Idaho State Police failed to provide legal counsel to 
Ohlson during the interrogation.

Ohlson is being held in Madison County Jail and his court trial is set for July 
in Bingham County.

(source: The Post Register)








WYOMING:

Legislators should support repeal of the death penalty



Our Wyoming legislators have proposed a repeal of the death penalty with the 
introduction of House Bill 145. I support this bill for the following reasons.

Even the guilty have a right to life. Not even a murderer can lose his dignity 
as a person created in the image and likeness of God. As Pope Francis recently 
stated, “In the light of the Gospel, the death penalty is inadmissible because 
it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.” This teaching 
centers on the awareness of the respect due to every human life.

(source: Letter; Bishop Steven Biegler, Diocese of Cheyenne----wyomingnews.com)