[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., FLA., ARK., MO.

[Rick Halperin]

June 26




TEXAS:

State Won't Compensate Wrongly Convicted Ex-Death Row Inmate----The Texas state 
comptroller has denied compensation to a man who served 12 years on death row 
for a murder prosecutors and a judge have said he didn't commit.



The Texas state comptroller has denied compensation to a man who served 12 
years on death row for a murder prosecutors and a judge have said he didn't 
commit.

A judge had ruled Alfred Dewayne Brown, at the request of Harris County 
prosecutors , innocent last month of the 2003 slaying of a Houston police 
officer. Brown had been convicted and condemned in 2005 for Officer Charles 
Clark death during a robbery of a check-cashing store.

Officials had said Brown is entitled to almost $2 million under state law. 
However, the Houston Chronicle reports the state comptroller's office offers 
little insight to the reason for its denial of compensation.

Brown's attorney, Neal Manne, says he'll ask the comptroller to reconsider. If 
nothing results, he can appeal to the Texas Supreme Court.

(source: Associated Press)








NORTH CAROLINA:

What does it take to bring a death penalty case to trial in NC?



Just 43 people have been sentenced to death in North Carolina since 1984. Even 
more are waiting in prison for their execution dates.

"There are many cases where it is fully justified and very appropriate,” 
Henderson County district attorney Greg Newman said.

He said, when considering the death penalty, prosecutors need to consider 
multiple factors, including the strength of the case.

"In other words, do you have strong facts that support a charge of murder?” 
Newman said.

Newman said prosecutors also need to consider the defendant's criminal history.

The majority of people currently on death row in North Carolina face multiple 
charges in addition to 1st-degree murder. "The 3rd thing that I consider is who 
is our victim?" Newman said. "Is this person a very active and productive and 
valued member of our community."

Newman said another consideration is the people sentencing the suspect to 
death.

"What is the likelihood that a jury will feel strongly enough about the case to 
return a death verdict?" Newman said.

Even once a jury returns a death penalty verdict, it's likely the case will go 
through decades of appeals, exhausting the court system and placing a burden on 
the victim’s family.

"Any time that we decide to embark upon this road, it is a major undertaking in 
terms of our time, in terms of what families are going to experience, in terms 
of what we are asking witnesses.” Newman said.

(source: WLOS news)








FLORIDA:

'Judicial activism' raised in key death penalty case



Reversing the state’s retroactive consideration of certain death-penalty cases 
would amount to “the most egregious judicial activism in the history of 
Florida,” a lawyer for a Death Row inmate argued in a brief filed Monday with 
the Florida Supreme Court.

The filing, in the case of convicted murderer Duane Eugene Owen, comes as a 
revamped Supreme Court is exploring whether to reverse course on decisions that 
allowed dozens of convicted murderers to have their death sentences 
reconsidered.

Justices are looking at the issue after Gov. Ron DeSantis reshaped the Supreme 
Court early this year, turning what had been widely viewed as a liberal-leaning 
majority into a court dominated by conservative justices.

The issue stems, in large part, from rulings in 2016 by the U.S. Supreme Court 
and the Florida Supreme Court about the state’s death-penalty sentencing 
system.

In a case known as Hurst v. Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 
state’s death-penalty sentencing system was unconstitutional because it gave 
too much power to judges, instead of juries, in deciding whether defendants 
should be sent to death row.

That ruling, premised on a 2002 decision in a case known as Ring v. Arizona, 
led to sentencing changes, including requiring that juries be unanimous in 
finding necessary facts and in recommending imposition of the death penalty.

In a pair of decisions in December 2016, the Florida Supreme Court decided that 
the sentencing changes would apply retroactively to cases that became final 
after the 2002 Ring ruling. Re-sentencing should only be an option for cases in 
which jury recommendations for death were not unanimous, the court also 
decided.

But the revamped Florida court in April ordered Owen’s lawyer and the state to 
address the retroactivity issue. That prompted Attorney General Ashley Moody’s 
office to urge justices to make a relatively rare move of receding from the 
previous retroactivity rulings in what are known as the Mosley and Asay cases.

Moody’s office said the Supreme Court should rule that the death-penalty 
sentencing changes should apply only to new cases, not retroactively to older 
cases. Moody’s office also contended that “stare decisis,” the concept of 
relying on court precedent, should not prevent the Supreme Court from 
revisiting the issue.

“The decisions in Asay and Mosley were premised on ignoring long standing 
existing precedent without justification,” the attorney general’s brief said. 
“Consequently, neither should be protected by stare decisis.”

But the “presumption in favor of stare decisis is strong,” Owen’s lawyer, James 
L. Driscoll, argued, relying on previous court rulings.

“The citizens have the right to rely on the death penalty being imposed or 
maintained under a constitutional system in a fair and non-arbitrary manner. 
Each pre-Hurst condemned individual was denied that,” Driscoll wrote in the 
21-page reply brief Monday. “This court should never reverse stare decisis when 
the result would be to take away the availability of a remedy for 
constitutional violations that cause unfairness and unreliability.”

Roughly 1/3 of the inmates resentenced since the 2016 retroactivity decisions 
have received life sentences instead of the death penalty, according to 
Driscoll.

The state “offers no compelling reason” for the court “to take the 
extraordinary step of overturning its precedent,” he wrote.

“The state has invited this court to engage in the most egregious judicial 
activism in the history of Florida,” Driscoll wrote. “If this court accepts the 
state’s invitation, the ability of individuals to seek a remedy for state and 
federal constitutional violations will be hindered for generations. ... This 
court should avoid judicial activism, maintain stare decisis and apply 
Florida’s consistent and workable retroactivity framework.”

Owen, 58, has spent more than three decades on death row after being convicted 
of the 1984 rape and murder of Georgianna Worden in Palm Beach County.

Driscoll also argued that retroactivity should apply to all of the state’s 
death row inmates, not just those whose sentences were final by 2002. Cases 
with resentencing since the Hurst decisions “show that what previously produced 
a death sentence would not necessarily do so now,” he argued.

(source: Fox News)








ARKANSAS:

Arkansas Judge Asks to Be Put Back on Death-Penalty Cases



An Arkansas judge whose participation in a 2017 anti-death penalty rally led to 
his lifetime ban from hearing capital-punishment cases is asking the state 
Supreme Court to restore his ability to hear cases involving the death penalty.

Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffen, who is black, said in his 
filing on Monday to the high court that it had no legal grounds to disqualify 
him from overseeing criminal and civil death penalty cases, and that no white 
member of the Arkansas judiciary “has ever been summarily banned from hearing 
and deciding an entire category of cases.”

Griffen stepped into the death-penalty debate 2 years ago at the peak of 
Arkansas’ rush to execute an unprecedented 8 inmates before its supply of the 
lethal-injection drug midazolam expired.

Just hours after ruling in favor of a pharmaceutical company’s request to block 
the state from using vecuronium bromide in its executions, Griffen joined 
protesters in front of the governor’s mansion in Little Rock, strapped to a 
makeshift gurney and sporting an anti-death penalty button. Photos showed the 
judge, who is also a Baptist pastor, lying on a cot appearing to be loosely 
tied down by rope and surrounded by demonstrators who carried signs opposing 
the state’s execution plan.

The Arkansas Supreme Court removed Griffen from the case and his order was 
lifted 2 days later. The state proceeded to execute four men in eight days 
before its batch of the drug expired.

In his restoration petition filed Monday, Griffen argued that a white judge who 
pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated and reckless driving was only 
removed from presiding over any DWI cases for 8 month. He also noted that the 
dismissal of his ethics case by the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability 
Commission earlier this month eliminated any basis to punish him.

That ethics case was dismissed on June 14 because of the commission’s failure 
to prosecute the allegations within the 18-month time limit.

Griffen’s civil rights lawsuit against all 7 members of the Arkansas Supreme 
Court was dismissed last year for failure to state plausible claims for relief. 
The Eighth Circuit upheld the ruling.

Griffen was elected to the bench in 2010 and re-elected in 2016.

(source: Courthouse News)

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

Prosecutor will seek death penalty for stepmom accused in 3-year-old’s death



Prosecutors in Miller County will seek the death penalty for a stepmother 
accused of capital murder in the death of her husband’s 3-year-old daughter.

McKenna Faith Belcher, 26, appeared before Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson with 
Andrea Stokes and Adam Chandler of the Arkansas Public Defenders Commission for 
arraignment Tuesday afternoon at the Miller County jail courtroom in Texarkana, 
Ark. Stokes entered a not guilty plea on Belcher’s behalf to capital murder in 
the death of McKinley Cawley and to 2nd-degree domestic battery for allegedly 
abusing McKinley’s 2-year-old brother.

Miller County Prosecuting Attorney Stephanie Potter Barrett said her office 
will seek the death penalty for Belcher. The only other punishment option for 
capital murder is life without parole. If found guilty of 2nd-degree battery, 
Belcher faces 3 to 10 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.

Belcher’s husband, Everette John Cawley, 23, pleaded not guilty to 2 counts of 
permitting the abuse of a minor at a hearing June 11 before Circuit Judge Brent 
Haltom. One of the counts facing Everette Cawley is connected to McKinley’s 
death and the other relates to injuries allegedly found on his son. The charge 
relating to the death of his daughter is punishable by five to 20 years in 
prison and a fine up to $15,000. The charge connected to injuries allegedly 
found on his son, Everette Cawley faces up to 6 years in prison and a fine up 
to $10,000.

Everette Cawley is accused of knowing that his wife was abusing the children 
and failing to intervene to protect them.

Everette Cawley brought McKinley to a local emergency room at about 4:30 a.m. 
April 2, according to a probable cause affidavit. Hospital staff immediately 
suspected child abuse caused the severe blunt force injuries noted on the child 
and contacted police.

Everette Cawley allegedly told investigators that McKenna Cawley kicked and 
beat McKinley with a wooden slat from a bed. Investigators seized a pair of 
steel toe boots belonging to McKenna Cawley and noted there were clumps of hair 
discovered in the couple’s Texarkana, Ark., duplex when it was searched and 
clumps of hair were found in McKinley’s underwear.

McKinley’s head had been shaved when she arrived at the hospital and 
investigators theorized this was done to hide that clumps of her hair had been 
ripped from her head.

Belcher is being held in the Miller County jail without bond. Cawley’s bail is 
set at $1 million. Both remain in custody.

Johnson set a trial date of Oct. 28 for Belcher. Cawley’s case is set for jury 
selection before Haltom on Aug. 26.

(source: txktoday.com)








MISSOURI----new execution date

Execution date set for Missouri death row inmate convicted of 1996 murder



The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a warrant of execution for Russell 
Bucklew, who was convicted of killing a southeast Missouri man in 1996 during a 
crime rampage.

The state’s high court set Bucklew’s execution date for Oct. 1.

The warrant comes after the U.S. Supreme Court in April ruled against Bucklew’s 
bid to halt his death by lethal injection. Attorneys for Bucklew, now 51, 
argued his medical condition would lead to extreme suffering when put to death 
by lethal injection.

Bucklew’s medical condition, cavernous hemangioma, causes weakened and 
malformed blood vessels, and tumors in his nose and throat could rupture and 
bleed.

“The Eighth Amendment has never been understood to guarantee a condemned inmate 
a painless death,” Justice Neil Gorsuch said in April. “That’s a luxury not 
guaranteed to many people, including most victims of capital crimes.”

Bucklew’s execution has been delayed numerous times in the 22 years since he 
was convicted of 1st-degree murder.

In 1997, a Boone County jury recommended the death penalty for Bucklew after 
convicting him of killing Michael Sanders, 27, the boyfriend of Bucklew’s 
ex-girlfriend. The murder trial was moved to Boone County on a change of venue.

Sanders was killed at his Cape Girardeau County mobile home in March 1996. 
Bucklew was also found guilty of abducting and raping his ex-girlfriend, who 
was living with Sanders. Bucklew eventually drove the ex-girlfriend to the St. 
Louis area. He was captured after a shootout with police on Interstate 270 in 
Town and Country.

During the penalty phase of the trial, the ex-girlfriend’s mother and the 
mother’s fiance testified that during Bucklew’s 2-day escape from the Cape 
Girardeau County Jail, he attacked them with a hammer.

Bucklew is currently imprisoned in the Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral 
Point, Mo.

Steele Shippy, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Parson, did not say whether the 
governor would commute Bucklew’s death sentence.

"Our office will conduct a thorough review of this matter," he said in a 
statement.

These are the men the state has executed since 2000

The 47 men Missouri has executed since 2000

Executed March 22, 2000: James Henry Hampton

Executed June 28, 2000: Bert Leroy Hunter

Executed Aug. 30, 2000: Gary Lee Roll

Executed Sept. 13, 2000: George Bernard Harris

Executed Nov. 15, 2000: James Wilson Chambers

Executed Feb. 7, 2001: Stanley Dewaine Lingar

Executed March 28, 2001: Tomas Grant Ervin

Executed April 25, 2001: Mose Young, Jr.

Executed May 23, 2001: Samuel D. Smith

Executed July 11, 2001: Jerome Mallett

Executed Oct. 3, 2001: Michael S. Roberts

Executed Oct. 24, 2001: Stephen K. Johns

Executed Jan. 9, 2002: James R. Johnson

Executed Feb. 6, 2002: Michael I. Owsley

Executed March 6, 2002: Jeffrey Lane Tokar

Executed April 10, 2002: Paul W. Kreutzer

Executed Aug. 14, 2002: Daniel Anthony Basile

Executed Nov. 20, 2002: William Robert Jones, Jr.

Executed Feb. 5, 2003: Kenneth Kenley

Executed Oct. 29, 2003: John Clayton Smith

Executed March 16, 2005: Stanley L. Hall

Executed April 27, 2005: Donald Jones

Executed May 17, 2005: Vernon Brown

Executed Aug. 31, 2005: Timothy L. Johnston

Executed Oct. 26, 2005: Marlin Gray

Executed May 20, 2009: Dennis James Skillicorn

Executed Feb. 9, 2011: Martin C. Link

Executed Nov. 20, 2013: Joseph Paul Franklin

Executed Dec. 11, 2013: Allen L. Nicklasson

Executed Jan. 29, 2014: Herbert L. Smulls

Executed Feb. 26, 2014: Michael Anthony Taylor

Executed March 26, 2014: Jeffrey R. Ferguson

Executed April 23, 2014: William L. Rousan

Executed June 18, 2014: John E. Winfield

Executed July 16, 2014: John C. Middleton

Executed Aug. 6, 2014: Michael Worthington

Executed Sept. 10, 2014: Earl Ringo, Jr.

Executed Nov. 19, 2014: Leon Vincent Taylor

Executed Dec. 10, 2014: Paul Goodwin

Executed Feb. 11, 2015: Walter Timothy Storey

Executed March 18, 2015: Cecil L. Clayton

Executed April 15, 2015: Andre Cole

Executed June 9, 2015: Richard Strong

Executed July 14, 2015: David Zink

Executed Sept. 1, 2015: Roderick Nunley

Executed May 11, 2016: Earl Forrest

Executed Jan. 31, 2017: Mark Christeson

(source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch)