[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KY., ARIZ., USA

[Rick Halperin]

July 28



KENTUCKY:

Trial date set in death penalty case



A trial date has been set for next spring in a capital murder case involving a 
Tennessee man accused of killing a Eubank grandmother.

Bradley Allan McMahan, 35, of Louisville, Tenn., is charged with Murder and 
1st-degree Burglary in connection to the death of 59-year-old Johnnie Faye 
Davis, whose body was discovered inside her Eubank home the morning of November 
1.

In a status hearing held Friday, Special Judge Samuel Todd Spalding scheduled 
McMahan's trial for March 16, 2020.

It was the Lebanon-based judge's 1st appearance in the case after taking up the 
case last month upon Pulaski Circuit Judge David Tapp's recusal. Also new to 
the case is defense attorney Sarah Fightmaster, who is taking over for DPA 
(Department of Public Advocacy) Capital Trials Manager Teresa Whitaker as she 
retires.

Commonwealth's Attorney Eddy Montgomery filed notice in April that his office 
would be seeking the death penalty against McMahan amid aggravating 
circumstances. In Kentucky, death penalty consideration is generally reserved 
for murder cases in which the homicide occurs during the commission of another 
violent crime or where the accused has a prior murder conviction.

In this case, McMahan is accused of killing the mother of his former 
girlfriend.

According to preliminary hearing testimony last fall from Detective John 
Hutchinson of the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office, authorities responded to the 
scene on Goodhope Church Road around 6:43 a.m. on November 1. Once inside the 
home, the officers found Davis lying unresponsive in the foyer -- with blood 
covering her face from what turned out to be a broken nose and the electric 
cord from a nearby oscillating fan wrapped around her neck.

Davis lived with her 2 grandchildren, who had been getting ready for school 
when the assault began. Det. Hutchinson said Davis' 11-year-old grandson 
recognized the assailant as his mother's ex-boyfriend. The boy reportedly ran 
to the bedroom of his 15-year-old sister, where together they barricaded the 
door and left the home through the bedroom window to seek help at a neighbor's 
house.

McMahan was located later that afternoon by Somerset Police Department at the 
Dollar General on East Mt. Vernon Street. Once in custody, the suspect 
allegedly admitted that he strangled Davis but claimed that "she came at him 
with a knife and it was self defense."

Preliminary autopsy results were consistent with Davis dying from 
strangulation. Det. Hutchinson also testified that blood evidence was taken 
from the home and McMahan's truck, as well his clothing.

DNA results are reportedly back from the Kentucky State Police lab. Fightmaster 
advised Judge Spalding that she and her co-counsel Peyton Sands are currently 
reviewing discovery that Montgomery's office had provided.

McMahan remains lodged at the Pulaski County Detention Center in lieu of a $1 
million cash bond.

(source: somerset-kentucky.com)








ARIZONA:

Arizona to resume executions for first time since 2014 lawsuit over alleged 
botched lethal injection



Arizona is poised to resume executions after a five-year hiatus brought on by 
an execution that critics said was botched, a subsequent lawsuit challenging 
the way the state carries out the death penalty, and the difficulty of finding 
lethal injection drugs, Attorney General Mark Brnovich said.

Brnovich said in a letter Friday to Gov. Doug Ducey that the now-resolved 
lawsuit removed legal barriers to carrying out executions. He also said a 
recent U.S. Justice Department opinion clears the way for states to import 
pentobarbital.

"Justice must be done for the victims of these heinous crimes and their 
families. Those who commit the ultimate crime deserve the ultimate punishment," 
Brnovich said in the letter. He asked the governor for help in obtaining 
pentobarbital.

It's unknown when the next execution will be scheduled. 14 of the 116 inmates 
on death row in Arizona have exhausted all appeals of their sentences.

It's also unclear where the state will get the drugs. A judge ruled in 
September 2017 that the state does not have to reveal who provides its 
execution drugs.

"Regardless of where they go to get the drugs for executions, we expect the 
state will be transparent about the transactions and how it is spending 
taxpayer dollars," said Dale Baich, chief of the unit in the Federal Public 
Defender's Office in Arizona that represents inmates in death penalty appeals.

The American Civil Liberties Union issued a statement condemning Brnovich's 
decision, claiming that the attorney general "is so eager to resume killing 
people given the Arizona Department of Corrections' long history of illegally 
obtaining lethal injection drugs and conducting botched executions. Arizona 
should work toward smarter, more humane approaches to justice."

Brnovich's letter comes after the U.S. Justice Department's announcement 
Thursday that the federal government intends to carry out several executions in 
the coming months.

Executions in Arizona were put on hold after the July 2014 death of Joseph 
Wood, who was given 15 doses of a 2-drug combination over 2 hours. His attorney 
had said the execution was botched.

Wood, 55, was executed for the August 1989 shooting deaths of his estranged 
girlfriend, Debra Dietz, and her father, Eugene Dietz, at an automotive shop in 
Tucson.

In recent years, Arizona and other states have struggled to buy execution drugs 
after U.S. and European pharmaceutical companies began blocking the use of 
their products in lethal injections.

Four years ago, the state tried to illegally import sodium thiopental, which 
had been used to carry out executions but was no longer manufactured by 
companies approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The state never received the shipment because federal agents stopped it at the 
Phoenix airport and lost an administrative challenge to the seizure.

(source: CBS News)








USA:

U.S. Bishops react to revival of federal death penalty----The Catholic Bishops 
of the United States express concern over the U.S. Justice Department’s 
announcement scheduling the executions of 5 people on death row.



The last time the U.S. federal government executed someone was 16 years ago. 
Over the past 2 decades, an informal moratorium on the death penalty at the 
national level in the United States has seen the annual number of death 
sentences decrease by 85%.

Justice Department announcement

On Friday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, announced that 5 death-row 
inmates would be executed by lethal injection within the next 6 months. “We owe 
it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by 
our justice system”, he said.

Catholic Bishops’ reaction

The Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development 
is Bishop Frank Dewane of Florida. In a statement reacting to Mr Barr’s 
decision, he said the Catholic Bishops of the United States are “deeply 
concerned” by the move and urge the Trump Administration to reconsider.

Pope Francis and the death penalty

“In 2015 Pope Francis, echoing the views of his predecessors, called for ‘the 
global abolition of the death penalty’”, reads the statement. At that time, the 
Pope added that a “just and necessary punishment must never exclude the 
dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation”.

Pope Francis: ‘death penalty inadmissable’

In August last year, Pope Francis made a formal change to the Catechism of the 
Catholic Church, declaring the death penalty to be “inadmissible” and 
describing it as “an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”. 
U.S. Catholic Bishops and the death penalty

In 2005, the United States Catholic Bishops Conference issued a statement 
echoing the position of the popes and the catechism, and entitled “A Culture of 
Life and the Penalty of Death”. “In light of these long held and strongly 
maintained positions”, says Bishop Dewane, “I am deeply concerned by the 
announcement of the United States Justice Department that it will once again 
turn, after many years, to the death penalty as a form of punishment, and urge 
that these federal officials be moved by God’s love, which is stronger than 
death, and abandon the announced plans for executions”.

According to Amnesty International, 170 countries have already abolished the 
death penalty in law or in practice, while Pope Francis continues to call for 
the Church to work “with determination for its abolition worldwide”.

(source: vaticannews.va)

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

Death penalty incompatible with Christianity----How does executing prisoners 
square with the administration's pro-life stance?



On July 25, Attorney General William Barr announced that the Federal Government 
would resume executing prisoners. Does anyone else see the hypocrisy here?

The current administration courted the “Christian Right” with the promise of 
embracing the sanctity of life by abolishing legal abortions. We are taught 
that all life is sacred and man should not decide who will live and who will 
die, with the exception of self-defense.

Certainly, those who have committed heinous crimes and have been fairly and 
justly convicted, have forfeited their place in society and should spend the 
rest of their lives in maximum security prisons with no parole.

It is a fact, that those who are executed in the United States generally are of 
lower socioeconomic status and less well educated.

It is also known, that there is a large error rate in the judicial system and 
once a person is dead there is no chance for exoneration.

What is troubling with the pro-life stance is that it is applied narrowly to 
the unborn and elderly and ignored in years comprising the majority of peoples’ 
lives.

Last time we checked, one of the Ten Commandments was, “Thou shalt not kill.”

Mary Frances and William Frank

Sanford

(source: Letter to the Editor, Portland Press Herald)