[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., S.C., FLA., KY., NEB., S.DAK., IDAHO

[Rick Halperin]

July 4



TEXAS:

Law and Order----Ogg promised death penalty reform in Harris County, but hasn’t 
delivered it



Capital punishment is soon to be no more than a byword in America’s criminal 
justice system. Yes, even in Texas. That the death penalty remains in use at 
all, even in much smaller numbers, is testament to the fact that the decision 
to seek it is always at the discretion of the local elected district attorney 
and inevitably motivated by politics.

Under former district attorneys, Harris County was widely known as the death 
penalty capital of the nation. District Attorney Kim Ogg was elected as someone 
who would continue a recent downward trend in its use, but the county is 
currently seeking the death penalty in 8 separate cases. Prosecutors elsewhere 
refuse to waste precious resources demanding this morally and economically 
indefensible pursuit. Why is Harris County pursuing the opposite course?

In 2018, Texas juries sentenced 7 individuals to death, compared with a peak of 
48 in 1999. Of Texas’s 254 counties, only 21 have imposed a death sentence 
since 2014, and just 4 counties have imposed more than 1 death sentence in the 
last 5 years. More than 70% of those sent to death row are people of color. 
With that clear racial disparity, concerns about wrongful convictions and moral 
or religious opposition, it is no surprise that public support for the death 
penalty is lower now than at any point since 1972.

And then there is the cost. Nationwide, each death prosecution costs about $3 
million. The trial stage alone in a death penalty case costs a staggering $1 
million dollars— more than 333 times the cost of the average murder trial. From 
a dollars-and-cents perspective, Texas taxpayers shoulder a hefty price tag but 
do not purchase a better outcome. Nationally, more than 1/3 of death sentences 
imposed since 1973 have been overturned, and more than 10% of death penalty 
convictions are tossed. Wrongful convictions, which seem to occur with 
shockingly high frequency in death penalty cases, drive the cost of these 
prosecutions even higher. Texas has already spent well over $100 million on 
wrongful conviction settlements.

Because death penalty cases take up so much time in our courts, individuals 
sentenced to die remain in the prison population, just as if they received life 
sentences. In fact, the inmates currently on Texas’s death row have been there 
for an average of 15.5 years. A death sentence is almost no different from a 
life sentence for purposes of public safety, and it certainly does not bring 
timely closure or justice to victims’ families.

Given all of these facts, Ogg is right to be part of a national reform 
movement. She has acknowledged that the death penalty is “pure retribution.” I 
urge her to stand with other reform-minded Houstonians against this senseless 
practice.

(source: Susan Buchanan, The Texas Tribune)








NORTH CAROLINA:

Death penalty possible for man accused of killing, dismembering Winston-Salem 
couple and leaving bodies behind apartment



Forsyth County prosecutors will be allowed to pursue the death penalty against 
a Winston-Salem man accused of stabbing a man and a woman to death in their 
apartment before dismembering their bodies and leaving them in the woods near 
the same apartment.

Tyrone Donte Gladden, 47, is charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder and 2 
counts of dismembering human remains in order to conceal an unnatural death. 
Gladden was indicted on those charges May 6.

Prosecutors allege that Gladden killed Gary Michael Craig Jr., 36, and Devette 
Carnetta Campbell, 40, sometime between June 16 and June 30, 2017. Craig and 
Campbell were dating, and Campbell had just moved into Craig’s apartment at 
Willow Creek Apartments at 100 Stagecoach Road in northern Winston-Salem. 
Gladden had been living in Craig’s apartment, according to court documents.

Gladden, dressed in an orange jail suit, appeared in Forsyth Superior Court 
late Wednesday for what is known as a Rule 24 hearing. His attorney, Vince 
Rabil, was by his side.

Forsyth County Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Friel presented 2 
“aggravating circumstances,” which are required in order for prosecutors to 
pursue the death penalty.

One of the aggravating circumstances is that Gladden was previously convicted 
of a violent felony. Friel said Gladden was convicted of armed robbery in 1992 
in Rowan County.

The other aggravating circumstance is that the alleged murders of Craig and 
Campbell were part of a course of conduct that included other acts of violence.

Judge Todd Burke of Forsyth Superior Court declared the case a capital case in 
which prosecutors can request the death penalty if Gladden is convicted of 
1st-degree murder. Gladden will be appointed a second attorney.

According to autopsy reports, Campbell was stabbed in the chest and the neck. 
Craig was stabbed 18 times in the chest and neck.

Winston-Salem police officers were called to Willow Creek Apartments on July 
17, 2017, to check on Campbell after her family members hadn’t seen her for a 
month.

Tomeka Roberson, Craig’s sister, told police Craig had not picked up his 
children on July 4, 2017, and she had not been able to contact her brother, 
which she said was unusual.

Police found no one in the apartment, according to search warrants. The 
apartment had been stripped off all carpeting and carpet padding. Apartment 
managers told police that they had not removed the carpeting.

Police officers searched outside the apartment and found a human torso in the 
woods behind the apartment complex. Officers found other human remains and 
initially believed that they belonged to one person. By July 20, 2017, police 
determined that the remains belonged to two people and were later identified as 
those of Campbell and Craig.

A trial date has not been set for the case. It will likely be at least a year 
before either a trial date is scheduled or a plea agreement is reached.

Gladden is in the Forsyth County jail with no bond allowed.

(source: Winston-Salem Journal)








SOUTH CAROLINA:

Double murder suspect says Florence jail violating his constitutional rights



The man facing the death penalty in a deadly bank robbery is asking the court 
to return him to general population.

Brandon Council is awaiting trial in a federal capital case in which he's 
accused in the deaths of 2 bank employees killed during a robbery at CresCom 
Bank on 16th Avenue in Conway on the afternoon of Monday, Aug. 21, 2017.

Donna Major, 59, of Conway, and Kathryn "Katie" Skeen, 36, of Green Sea, were 
killed in the robbery.

Council is being held in the Florence County Detention Center, where he is 
currently in the Maximum Segregation Unit (MSU) "because he is a federal 
detainee, facing the death penalty, and concerns of general suicide ideations, 
and because Mr. Council violated the jail's policy against masturbation."

In the motion filed Monday, Council is asking for access to basic writing 
materials and to be returned to gen pop.

"He has never physically threatened, yelled, or even been in a fight with 
anyone there. He has never possessed a weapon. He has never expressed suicidal 
ideations. Yet, he is being punished by the jail because of his status. This is 
unconstitutional," the motion reads.

The MSU differs from gen pop, in that inmates are sequestered and are confined 
to their solitary cells for 23.5 hours each day.

"He has no opportunity to attend any programming or religious services. This 
extreme isolation and severe restrictions have been in place for no 
constitutionally valid reason and with no end date."

The motion goes on to state that Council has been deprived access to basic 
writing materials such as pencil, paper and envelopes, denying him the ability 
to write his attorneys, communicate, receive and review legal mails, despite 
reported repeated requests.

"The conditions of his confinement and the restrictions imposed on him in the 
MSU violate Mr. Council's First and Sixth Amendment rights, his due process 
rights to assist in the preparation of his defense, and interferes with 
effective communication with his defense team."

Council has prior convictions in North Carolina, including habitual felon, and 
he has been accused in a separate bank robbery in Wilson, North Carolina, 
around the same time as the CresCom robbery.

More than 2,000 people in South Carolina will be sent a summons to be a 
potential juror in the trial.

Council faces the death penalty if convicted.

(source: WPDE news)








FLORIDA:

Jose Martinez, The Hit Man Who Confessed To Killing 3 Dozen People, Avoids The 
Death Penalty



The confessed drug cartel hit man Jose Manuel Martinez had already been 
sentenced to 10 life terms in prison by the time he was sent to Florida to face 
charges on 2 murders here.

But Florida prosecutors thought they could do something that California and 
Alabama prosecutors could not: They thought they could get a death sentence.

After all, he had told multiple police detectives from multiple states about 
how he had killed 3 dozen people, many of them on behalf of drug cartels, over 
a 30-year run of impunity.

If the death penalty wasn’t appropriate for someone like Martinez, who 
sometimes laughed as he described the damage his bullets did, prosecutors asked 
the jury, then who was it right for?

But prosecutors hadn’t counted on the impact on the jury of hearing from more 
than a dozen members of Martinez’s family, who testified, often through tears, 
about how he had sacrificed himself to protect his siblings during a brutal 
childhood in California’s Central Valley and how he took his children and 
grandchildren to Disneyland and on swimming adventures.

At the end of the three-week trial, after less than two hours of deliberations, 
a jury of 7 women and 5 men decided late last week to spare Martinez’s life. 
For the 2006 murders of Javier Huerta and Gustavo Olivares-Rivas, whose 
bullet-riddled bodies were left to rot inside a Titan truck parked at the edge 
of Florida’s swampy Ocala National Forest, he was instead sentenced to 2 more 
life terms.

Martinez said that he executed the two men because Huerta had stolen 10 kilos 
of cocaine from Martinez’s employers. In the course of the killing, Martinez 
recovered $210,000 in cash, some of which he gave to his mother, and some of 
which he spent on a quinceañera party for one of his daughters.

One of Martinez’s lawyers, John Spivey, said the case came down to 2 opposing 
visions of his client: “the cold killer executing people for payment for over 
30 years” versus “a truly dedicated father, uncle, grandfather.”

“The human side outweighed the monster side, in the end,” he said.

After the jury gave its verdict, one of the defendant’s daughters, Joanna 
Martinez, cried in the courtroom. “I know it was in God’s hands,” she said. She 
added that she was “sorry to every single person that my dad has caused 
suffering. I’m sorry on his behalf. I hope they can find peace.”

Jose Martinez, whose reign of killing was chronicled in a BuzzFeed News 
investigation last year, was born in California’s Central Valley. He committed 
his 1st murders before he was 18 — to avenge, he said, the murder of a beloved 
sister.

His 1st murder-for-hire came shortly after his 18th birthday. He continued to 
kill with near impunity for more than 3 decades. By his own account, Martinez 
committed murders in Washington, Idaho, Oklahoma, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, and 
Colorado. But the worst of his violence was inflicted in the community where he 
was born and raised: the sunbaked flatlands of California’s San Joaquin Valley. 
Police there suspected him in numerous murders but never charged him.

As to how he got away with it, Martinez simply said he was “so damn good.” He 
left little evidence and few witnesses. But a key element of his success was 
that he understood the stark injustice of American law enforcement: Kill people 
who don’t matter — who are poor, who are immigrants, who may be criminals 
themselves and don’t have anyone to speak for them — and you can get away with 
it.

In the end, Martinez gave himself up to save his family.

It started in 2013, when police began investigating a murder in Alabama. 
Martinez had killed the man, an acquaintance of his daughter’s, as revenge for 
his calling her a bad mother. But in Mexico, where Martinez was safely out of 
reach of US law enforcement, he heard that police were planning to call his 
young granddaughter in for questioning. That he could not abide.

He came back to the United States and confessed to the murder. And then he kept 
going.

When T.J. Watts, a Florida detective investigating the 2006 cold case murder of 
Huerta and Olivares-Rivas, came calling, Martinez confessed to murdering them, 
too. Martinez also told Watts that it was “time for me to pay for all the 
things I’ve done in my life.”

Martinez insisted that unlike other contract killers, he lived by a moral code. 
He tried to kill only the intended target, not their family members. And he 
killed men, or so he at least claimed, who had hurt women or children.

Martinez pleaded guilty to one murder in Alabama and nine more in California, 
receiving multiple life terms. Then he was extradited to Florida.

It took jurors less than 30 minutes to decide that Martinez had murdered Huerta 
and Olivares-Rivas in cold blood. Then prosecutor Amy Berndt made the state’s 
case that he should be put to death.

She acted out some of the other murders for which he had been convicted, 
holding up her fingers in the shape of a gun. Current and retired detectives 
from around the country showed videos of Martinez confessing.

The jury also heard from the wife of Martinez’s 1st murder-for-hire, Cecilia 
Camacho. She told the jury what it was like, as a 21-year-old mother on her way 
to a day of work in the olive fields, when someone sped up beside them and shot 
her beloved husband in the head.

For 3 decades, until Martinez confessed, she never knew who had killed him or 
why.

Then it was the defense’s turn.

Throughout his long run of killing, Martinez had been lucky. Police had made 
mistakes, overlooking evidence that was sometimes right in front of their eyes. 
Even when Martinez had been a suspect, police had not charged him.

Now, with his life on the line, he got lucky again.

He got a public defender who was a seasoned trial lawyer in capital cases, 
working for an office that was prepared to spend money on experts and 
cross-country trips to interview witnesses.

Martinez’s lawyers brought in medical experts to argue that his brain was 
irreparably damaged from a head injury he’d suffered as a young man. He was a 
product of incest, they noted. His mother had been raped by her own uncle. They 
called in trauma experts to talk about his childhood amid violent drug 
traffickers and how it had given him a “skewed moral code.”

And finally, they flew in nearly 20 members of his family to testify about how 
much they loved him.

Daughters, sons, nieces, grandchildren — all told the jury a version of the 
same thing: He has done bad things, but he is always there for us, the one who 
takes us to the hospital, who makes us laugh away our tears, and who comes up 
with the money for doctors and funerals and other expenses.

Patricia Martinez, the defendant’s younger sister, told the jury the lengths to 
which her brother had gone, even as a child, to protect her. “He’s been more 
than a brother. He’s my guardian,” she said. “I’m alive because of him. He took 
beatings for us. He fed us. He saved me.”

The jury was out for 2 hours before coming back to say: No death penalty. Judge 
Anthony Tatti sentenced Martinez and offered him the chance to say something, 
but Martinez declined.

But afterward, Martinez said the testimony from his family saved his life.

Prosecutors declined to comment.

Cecilia Camacho was back home in California when the verdict was announced. She 
had remarried and had more children with her second husband. She worked picking 
oranges for decades to help send those children to college, and on to 
successful careers. The family was shocked that the jury had not voted for 
death, a relative said.

Camacho was philosophical: No matter what punishment they gave Martinez, her 
husband was still gone forever.

(source: buzzfeednews.com)








KENTUCKY:

Kentucky death penalty protocol declared unconstitutional by Kentucky judge



A Franklin County Circuit judge ruled July 2 that Kentucky’s death penalty 
regulations are unconstitutional because they fail to provide for an automatic 
stay of execution for intellectually disabled inmates.

Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled Tuesday on a petition brought forth by several 
inmates currently on death row in Kentucky. The motion alleged the “execution 
regulations fail to expressly prohibit the execution of an intellectually 
disabled person.”

The petition went on to say that the death penalty protocols for such cases are 
“invalid for failing to comply with state and federal law.”

Judge Shepherd said the current state law, as written, is “unconstitutional to 
the extent that it fails to provide for an automatic stay of the death penalty 
when the Department of Corrections review has disclosed reasonable grounds to 
believe the inmate is intellectually disabled.”

Judge Shepherd writes in his decision that the Department of Corrections, when 
presented with evidence of an inmate’s intellectual disabilities, has a 
“constitutional duty to suspend” capital punishment “until there has been a 
judicial determination of the condemned inmate’s intellectual disability.”

Failure to provide for an automatic stay of execution in these circumstances, 
he writes, “creates an unacceptable risk that an intellectually disabled person 
will be executed in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the United States 
Constitution.”

The Kentucky Supreme Court had previously issued a ruling which required an 
inmate to have an IQ lower than 70 to qualify as intellectually disabled. 
Subsequently, in 2018, the state Supreme Court cited the United States Supreme 
Court and said the use of a “bright-line IQ test, without more, cannot be used 
to conclusively determine that a person is not intellectually disabled” and can 
be subject to the death penalty.

Opponents of capital punishment — including the Catholic Conference of Kentucky 
and Father Patrick Delahanty — welcomed the decision by the Franklin Circuit 
Court.

The CCK, which represents Kentucky’s bishops on matters of public policy, 
expressed gratitude to the court for recognizing “the injustice” of executing 
intellectually disabled individuals.

The Catholic Conference has long supported legislative efforts to abolish the 
death penalty.

“Our legislators need to act soon to abolish the death penalty once and for 
all,” said Jason Hall, CCK executive director.

Father Delahanty, retired chair of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death 
Penalty, said the coalition appreciates the efforts of the public defenders to 
“force the state to adhere to laws governing executions.”

“However, the best way to ensure the state does not execute mentally disabled 
and mentally ill people is to abolish the death penalty. We will continue to 
push Kentucky’s lawmakers to repeal this immoral practice,” said Father 
Delahanty, a retired priest of the Archdiocese of Louisville.

The Catholic Church stands firmly against capital punishment. Last year Pope 
Francis ordered a revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to assert 
“the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability 
and dignity of the person.”

(source: therecordnewspaper.org)




NEBRASKA:

Sex Cult Leader Who Told Women They Would Gain Powers Through Killing Faces 
Death Penalty



A Nebraska couple, Aubrey Trail, 52, and Bailey Boswell, 25, face the death 
penalty if convicted for the 2017 murder and dismemberment of Sydney Loofe, a 
24-year-old store clerk. New testimonies from Trail’s trial, which was 
disrupted last week when he slashed his own neck in court, paint a bizarre 
picture of a sex cult leader who called himself a “vampire” and “daddy” to a 
dozen “witches,” whom he told they would gain powers if they tortured and 
killed, the Omaha World-Herald reported.

Loofe disappeared on November 16, 2017, after meeting Boswell on Tinder. The 
victim’s mother told HuffPost she last heard from her daughter the day before, 
when she was preparing for a 2nd date with a woman she had met online. Boswell 
and Trail were arrested on November 30, 2017, in Branson, MO, and Loofe’s 
remains were found a week later, wrapped in black plastic trash bags and 
scattered along rural roads near Edgar, NE.

Trail pleaded guilty to 1 of the 3 charges he is facing — improper disposal of 
human remains — and pleaded not guilty to the 2 other charges: 1st-degree 
murder, which can be punishable by the death penalty in Nebraska, and 
conspiracy to commit murder. Trail claims Loofe’s death was accidental; that he 
unintentionally asphyxiated her during a "sexual fantasy" that also involved 2 
unidentified women. During his (self-inflicted) violent outburst in court last 
week, Trail shouted, “Bailey is innocent, and I curse you all.”

3 young women, ordered by the judge to remain anonymous, shared their 
testimonies on Monday and Tuesday, bringing this story to an even darker place. 
One of them, a 22-year-old, said she met Boswell on Tinder during the summer of 
2017 and was convinced to start traveling with the couple, after Trail bought 
her clothing and manicures and began giving her a $200 weekly allowance.

The woman testified that Trail invited her to join his “cult,” members of which 
he called his “witches,” which entailed engaging in group sex and helping him 
steal and sell antiques. She said she called Trail “daddy,” and he referred to 
himself as the “vampire.” Trail claimed he had supernatural powers, like 
mind-reading, the ability to fly, and to put Boswell in a trance. The con man 
also told the woman that she had to torture and kill someone to join, claiming 
that she would gain more “powers” if the victim were tortured for hours.

“He said there was 12 (other girls) and I could be the 13th,” the woman said in 
court. “That’s when he explained that they were witches and everyone had their 
own roles to play in the cult.” FBI Agent Mike Maseth said a list of around a 
dozen women’s names was found in Boswell’s bag listing “special powers” for 
each woman, like “healer” and “see danger.” Boswell was the “queen witch” and 
was called “mommy.” The couple appeared to target young women who enjoyed 
submissive sexual relationships or had other kinks.

The 22-year-old woman testified that she had group sex with the couple on more 
than 1 occasion, at both their Wilber, NE, apartment and on a trip to Branson, 
MO. She said Trail told her that killing should “turn you on sexually.”

Trail, the woman said, suggested two potential victims for her, a short, 
blond-haired woman he and Boswell met on Tinder, and another “witch” in the 
group, who he said “cared too much” and “didn’t have the evil in her.”

She was told ritualistic killings were meant to be conducted in the woods at a 
certain moon stage. The woman testified that she never saw the couple murder 
anyone during her time in the group, although Trail once threatened to kill her 
family if she revealed the group’s activities, bragging that he had killed 
several people before.

The woman left the group in September 2017 before Loofe, who was short with 
blond hair, was killed. The woman said she made the decision while on a 
shopping trip in Lincoln, NE, to buy bags for Trail to use to steal items on an 
upcoming trip to Pennsylvania: “I didn’t recognize the person in the mirror. I 
told Bailey I wanted out.” She moved back home, but said she kept in touch with 
Trail, who continued to send her money.

All 3 women who testified said they first met Boswell on Tinder, like Loofe, 
and were later introduced to her boyfriend and “sugar daddy” Trail. The women 
would typically meet up with the couple individually and were each given an 
allowance between $150 and $200 a week. The payments came with requirements, 
including participating in group sex and punishments like whippings. (One woman 
fantasized about being a cat, and said she was humiliated when she was made to 
eat cat food.)

During Tuesday’s testimonies, 1 woman revealed that Boswell enjoyed masochistic 
sex, and wanted her to detail acts of torture during sex with her. The woman 
said Boswell also talked about breaking fingers and dismembering a body.

According to one of the women, Boswell and Trail wanted her to torture and kill 
someone on videotape, so they could sell it. “They said they would make $1 
million to do it, then split it and go separate ways,” the woman said.

One of the women who testified on Tuesday said she got a “weird vibe” from the 
couple when they picked her up in Omaha on November 17, 2017, the day after 
Loofe disappeared. Also revealed during the testimonies was that Trail was in 
possession of what he called a “kill bag,” containing pliers, a hammer, and a 
plastic sauna suit. A similar suit was found with Loofe’s remains.

The woman who met up with the couple on November 17, after Loofe’s slaying, 
said the trio checked into the Ameristar Casino in Council Bluffs, IA, where 
they stayed until November 19. They told the woman they were going on a 
“cocaine run” to Grand Island, NE, that would make them $25,000, a story that 
the woman said made “absolutely zero sense.” But she said she went along with 
it to be obedient. The drugs never came, but 3 days later, Trail and Boswell 
began talking about finding a victim “who would not be missed” to torture and 
kill in a town a mile away. She said Trail wanted to watch the two women commit 
the crimes.

She said she accompanied the couple to the next destination, but left after 
seeing a message on her cell phone from the Lincoln Police Department. “I 
freaked out,” she said. The woman said Trail and Boswell claimed they were 
getting blamed in the disappearance of Boswell’s ex, after which they dropped 
off the woman back in Omaha. “For the first time, I was super-scared,” she 
said. By late November, the Lincoln Police Department had identified the couple 
as persons of interest.

Before Loofe’s remains were found, her family and friends held a candlelight 
vigil in her honor on November 22, 2017. Shortly after her disappearance, her 
family started a Facebook page to keep community members up-to-date. On the 
“Celebrating Sydney Loofe” page, people have been sharing updates on the 
investigation and trial. One comment reads: “One of the most wonderful people 
I've ever had the joy of knowing! She seemed to always be able to make an okay 
day into a great day with just a smile.”

(source: refinery29.com)








SOUTH DAKOTA:

Bush: Death penalty is imperfect justice



Some come for justice

Others seek closure. Many hope for peace.

Few find what they are looking for in the death chamber.

As South Dakota prepares to take the life of a murderer this fall, peace, 
closure and justice will be on the minds of the family, law enforcement and 
prosecutors.

Only one thing will be certain. Another man will die.

Will his death bring closure for the family? In one way. Charles Rhines will 
never appear on front pages and televised news reports again. He will never 
again feel joy, something his crimes stole from the family. But that closure 
won't be complete. His death won't take away the pain of losing a loved one.

Will his death bring the peace that his heinous acts shattered? That isn't 
likely. Watching a man die isn't a peaceful event.

Will his death bring justice? Perhaps. Some argue that death gives an easy way 
out that living with his crimes behind bars doesn't allow.

I have been a witness to two executions and one more was halted by Oklahoma's 
governor after I arrived at the prison. One man claimed self-defense in killing 
his ex-father-in-law. He was really good at defending himself. He hunted and 
shot his victim 19 times. His final words were an angry attack on the justice 
system, especially the appellate system.

I left that chamber with his final words intact, feeling melancholy. I could 
see why some wanted him to die, but many more will live long lives after 
committing more and worse crimes. David J. Brown inspired no sympathy. But was 
justice served? That's above my pay grade.

The other man I saw die brought no peace or closure. His wife was jailed in 
another facility. The two combined efforts to kill their toddler child. After 
working nights, James Patrick Malicoat's cute little daughter didn't cooperate 
with his sleeping schedule. He answered her cries for attention with pokes so 
severe her ribs broke. He also bit her tiny body and broke the skin. In her 
final days he hit her so hard her forehead was actually dented like the hood of 
a car. When he punched her so hard that she stopped breathing, he performed a 
panicked resuscitation before laying her in her playpen with a bottle full of 
Pepsi.

She died that day.

Her mother, who never felt compelled to protect her from constant pain, 
returned from work. She had seen and ignored the bites and bruises for weeks. 
She knew he pinned up their daughter so the dogs could run loose in the house. 
She found her dead daughter upon arriving home and waited hours to call for 
help.

I was there when her cold, lifeless body was carried away. I was there when 
both parents were sentenced. I was in the death chamber when her father said he 
was sorry any of it had to happen. I would argue it didn't have to happen, but 
that was pointless semantics at that point.

I would have gladly played the role of executioner that day. My dreams will 
always be haunted with those photos and police reports. If I had climbed on 
that gurney myself and choked the life out of him, I would have felt no 
remorse. I don't think it would have brought peace. Justice feels hollow when 
it comes years too late. Closure is the only brass ring within our grasp and 
even it isn't complete when death sentences are carried out.

The evil acts live on within us. We can never escape the acts these monsters 
bring into our lives.

The problem with the death penalty is its inherent unfairness. The idea of 
retribution is fair, but an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.

What does it say about us when we allow our government to take a life? Some 
things just work better on paper than they do in practice. After all, this 
isn't a sentence that you can rescind. The list of men on death row who have 
been exonerated later is up to 166 after a North Carolina man was cleared last 
week, more than 40 years after police misconduct and tampered evidence cost him 
his freedom. About 15 of the more than 1,500 men whose death sentences have 
been carried out since 1976 are strongly believed to have been innocent of the 
crimes they committed. Who will apologize to them? Did those cases bring 
justice?

It is hard to argue for justice when whether a capital criminal receives the 
ultimate sentence depends upon where they commit their crimes, how wealthy they 
are and whether or not they are minorities.

Going into a death chamber seeking peace, closure or justice is likely to be a 
fool's errand. Carrying out the death penalty can't deliver any of those.

It is time for our society to move beyond barbarism.

We can do better. True justice demands that we do.

It isn't out of sympathy for killers. It isn't a soft answer to a hard problem. 
It is a realistic response.

A society that hasn't learned to handle income, racial and geographic 
inequality can't be trusted to mete out the death penalty.

(source: Kent Bush, Editor, Rapid City Journal)








IDAHO:

Idaho's supply of lethal injection chemicals runs out



Idaho has joined the growing number of states that have run out of the drugs 
used in lethal injections, a shortage prompted by major pharmaceutical 
companies refusing to sell drugs to states if those drugs will be used in 
executions.

While no executions are imminent in Idaho, the Idaho Department of Correction 
(IDOC) confirms it currently has no chemicals in its possession to carry out 
any execution at this time.

8 offenders are on death row in Idaho, according to the IDOC. 7 of them are 
men, incarcerated at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution south of Boise.

? The 1 woman, Robin Row, is incarcerated at Pocatello's Women’s Correctional 
Center.

3 inmates have been executed since Idaho enacted a new death penalty statute in 
1977.

The last person put to death in Idaho was Richard Leavitt in 2012.

LaMont Anderson, chief of the Office of the Attorney General’s Capital 
Litigation Unit, says the state can't say who may be next as death penalty 
cases can go for a long time.

"There's no answer to that," Anderson said. All I can tell you is where the 
respective death sentence murderers are at as far as the legal process. And it 
could be anywhere and it could be in multiple courts."

But what happens if an execution is slated and the Department of Correction has 
no chemicals?

A spokesman for the IDOC said the department is confident that when a death 
warrant is issued, "it will able to lawfully procure the chemicals necessary 
for an execution".

The shortage of drugs leaves capital punishment states with 2 choices: they can 
either suspend executions until they replenish their stocks, or they can go 
back to older methods such as the electric chair or firing squad.

But lethal injection is the only form of capital punishment permitted in Idaho 
by state law so it would take the legislature to change it or a referendum 
initiative.

(source: CBS News)