[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MISS., OKLA., S.DAK., N.MEX., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

June 29




TEXAS----2 new execution dates

Execution dates set for 2 more Texas death row prisoners



2 more Texas death row prisoners — a North Texas man man who stabbed his family 
and an Aryan gang member from El Paso who strangled a woman — are now scheduled 
for execution this year.

Robert Sparks was sentenced to die in 2008 after a chaotic trial in Dallas 
County, where he was convicted of murdering his wife and 2 stepsons before 
raping his stepdaughter. He still has pending appeals in the case, but a judge 
this week greenlit a Sept. 25 execution date, court records show.

Justen Hall was sent to death row in 2005, 3 years after strangling a woman 
with an electrical cord. He is slated to die on Nov. 6, according to a prison 
spokesman.

The Lone Star State has executed 3 men so far in 2019, and with the addition of 
the 2 new execution dates, there are 8 more prisoners scheduled to die this 
year.

Just after midnight on Sept. 15, 2007, Sparks put his hand over the mouth of 
his wife, Chare Agnew, and stabbed her 18 times in her bed, according to court 
records. Then, one at a time, he woke up his stepsons — 9-year-old Harold and 
10-year-old Raekwon — and stabbed them 45 times each, dragging their bodies 
into the living and stashing them under a comforter.

Next, he went after the girls, raping his 14-year-old stepdaughter on the couch 
while her younger sister watched. Afterward, he apologized to them for the 
rapes and murders — but said their mother had been trying to poison him.

He was arrested a few days later and tried the following year. On appeal, he 
raised concerns about the possibility of false testimony offered by A.P. 
Merillat, a state expert who told the court about the prison classification 
system and claimed that Sparks could still pose a threat behind bars.

That claim is currently in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, along with one 
about how a bailiff’s courtroom attire may have biased the jury. During the 
punishment phase of trial — when jurors decided on whether Sparks deserved to 
die by lethal injection — one of the bailiffs wore a necktie with an image of a 
syringe on it.

It’s not clear whether the jury could see that tie, and so far courts have 
decided it wasn’t enough to make a difference in the outcome of the case.

The attorneys representing Sparks — Seth Kretzer and Jonathan Landers — this 
week questioned the decision to set an execution date with litigation still 
pending in court.

“The Office of the Attorney General, which represents the state, filed a motion 
asking for more time,” Kretzer told the Chronicle, “and yet the district 
attorney’s office wants an immediate execution date. There’s no reason to force 
the Supreme Court’s hand.”

The other condemned prisoner added to the list of upcoming executions has been 
on death row for nearly 15 years for a murder stemming from a fight outside 
drug house in El Paso.

On Oct. 28, 2002, Melissa Billhartz got in fight with a man she knew, and the 
dispute escalated into an assault. Afterward, she said she wanted to call 
police - and Hall and his friends became worried, fearing authorities would 
discover the meth house.

The others opposed that plan, according to court records, but Hall left and a 
few hours later showed up with the woman’s body in the back of a truck. He then 
ordered a friend to go bury her and cut off her fingers with a machete so 
police couldn’t find any DNA.

In the early years after he was sentenced to die, Hall asked to give up his 
appeals. Later, his attorneys raised concerns about DNA testing on the cord 
used to kill Billhartz, and suggested his confession was coerced.

But in 2016, Hall again asked to waive his appeals in a letter to the court.

“These walls 24/7 have broken me,” he wrote. “It is taking every last ounce of 
will to even make it from day to day.”

The following year, he told a judge he was guilty and ready to die, assuring 
the court he was mentally competent to make that decision. His attorney on 
Friday did not respond to a request for comment.

(source: Houston Chronicle)

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

State to seek death penalty in 2 capital murder cases



McLennan County prosecutors announced Friday that they will seek the death 
penalty against 2 capital murder defendants.

For the first time since the cases were indicted, the district attorney's 
office announced Keith Antoine Spratt and Christopher Paul Weiss will face the 
death penalty in separate cases.

First Assistant District Attorney Nelson Barnes made the announcements Friday 
during a status hearing in Spratt's case, saying that "with the facts of this 
case and the defendant's background," his office will seek the death penalty.

Barnes declined additional comment on the case. Waco attorney, Russ Hunt, who 
will represent Spratt along with his son, Russ Hunt Jr., said he was surprised 
by the announcement.

"We will be ready and we will do our best for Mr. Spratt," Hunt said.

At the close of the hearing, 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother inquired 
if prosecutors had made determinations in other pending capital murder cases. 
Barnes said his office also had made a similar decision in Weiss' case.

Spratt, 30, is charged with shooting and killing Joshua Ladale Pittman in 
December 2015. Spratt's co-defendant, Tyler Sherrod Clay, was sentenced to life 
in prison with no parole after his capital murder conviction in December. 
Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty against Clay.

Trial testimony showed that Clay hired Spratt to kill Pittman out of revenge 
because Pittman reportedly robbed Clay after a dice game. A four-time felon 
testified at Clay's trial that Clay first asked him to kill Pittman, but the 
man was arrested and could not complete the task.

The man testified that Spratt, who later was jailed with him, told him that 
Clay paid him $15,000 to kill Pittman, and that Clay still owed Spratt $5,000 
for the hit job.

Strother said Friday that a large panel of potential jurors will be summoned to 
court Oct. 18 to fill out questionnaires in Spratt's case. Potential jurors are 
questioned individually in death penalty cases, and that process, which can 
take 4 to 6 weeks, will start Oct. 28. Testimony in Spratt's trial is expected 
to start Jan. 27, 2020, court officials said.

Weiss, 27, of Temple, is charged in the November 2017 shooting deaths of his 
1-year-old daughter, Azariah, and the child's mother, Valarie Martinez, 24.

Both victims were shot in the head at Tradinghouse Creek Reservoir. Martinez’s 
body was found outside her car at McLennan Park 3, off Willbanks Drive. Her 
daughter was found shot in the head in a car seat inside the car, officials 
said. (source: Waco Tribune-Herald)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----43

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----561

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

44---------Aug. 15----------------Dexter Johnson-----------562

45---------Aug. 21----------------Larry Swearingen--------563

46---------Sept. 4-----------------Billy Crutsinger----------564

47---------Sept. 10----------------Mark Anthony Soliz-----565

48---------Sept. 25----------------Robert Sparks-----------566

49---------Oct. 2------------------Stephen Barbee----------567

50---------Oct. 16-----------------Randall Mays-----------568

51---------Nov. 6-----------------Justen Hall---------------569

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)








MISSISSIPPI:

Supreme Court denies review in death row case of Mississippi woman----Lisa Jo 
Chamberlin was convicted for the March 2004 killings of Linda Heintzelman and 
Vernon Hulett in Hattisburg.



The U.S. Supreme Court announced it will not review a Mississippi death row 
inmate’s case after her sentence was reinstated by the Fifth Circuit Court of 
Appeals last year.

Lisa Jo Chamberlin is the only woman on death row.

She and her then-boyfriend, Roger Lee Gillett, convicted for the March 2004 
killings of Linda Heintzelman and Vernon Hulett in Hattiesburg.

Their bodies were found in a freezer at an abandoned farm in Kansas.

Gillett also got the death penalty.

(source: Associated Press)








OKLAHOMA:

Court reinstates death penalty for man in Oklahoma slaying



A federal appeals court has reinstated the death sentence of an Oklahoma man 
convicted in the fatal shooting of his lover’s estranged husband.

The full 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday voted 10-3 to overturn a 
three-judge panel’s 2-1 ruling in 2017 that overturned the death sentence of 
66-year-old James Pavatt on the grounds that the state failed to prove the 
November 2001 shooting death of Rob Andrew was “especially heinous, atrocious 
or cruel.”

Pavatt’s attorneys declined to comment.

Pavatt and Brenda Andrew were both convicted and sentenced to death after being 
arrested in February 2002 while crossing back into the United States from 
Mexico, where they had fled with Andrew’s 2 children following the shooting.

Rob was gunned down in the garage of his Oklahoma City home as he was picking 
up his 2 kids for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Rob and his wife, Brenda, were separated at the time of his death.

Prosecutors said Brenda and Pavatt killed Rob for the insurance money, and both 
were sentenced to death for the murder.

(source: Associated Press)








SOUTH DAKOTA:

During National Pride Month, South Dakota Schedules Execution in Case Tainted 
by Anti-Gay Bias



In the midst of National Pride Month commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 
Stonewall Riots and the birth of the modern LGBTQ rights movement, South Dakota 
has issued a death warrant seeking to execute a gay man whose death sentence 
was tainted by anti-gay bias. Charles Rhines (pictured) was sentenced to death 
by a jury that, according to juror affidavits, was influenced by bigoted 
stereotypes in reaching its decision. On June 25, 2019, in response to a motion 
filed by state prosecutors, Pennington County circuit court Judge Robert A. 
Mandel issued an order scheduling Rhines’ execution for the week of November 3 
– 9, 2019.

Rhines’ sexual orientation became an issue in his trial after prosecution 
witnesses testified that Rhines was gay. According to the affidavits, that 
testimony provoked “lots of discussion of homosexuality” during jury 
deliberations. One juror said “[t]here was a lot of disgust. … There were lots 
of folks who were like, ‘Ew, I can’t believe that.’” In a 2016 sworn statement, 
juror Frances Cersosimo reported that another juror had said “If he’s gay, we’d 
be sending him where he wants to go” by sentencing Rhines to life in an 
all-male prison. Juror Harry Keeney said in a sworn statement, “We also knew he 
was a homosexual and thought he shouldn’t be able to spend his life with men in 
prison.”

Following a 2017 U.S. Supreme Court decision that defendants could use 
statements by jurors to show that racial stereotypes or animus had denied them 
an impartial jury, Rhines’ lawyers asked the Court to extend that ruling to 
include juror bias based upon a defendant’s sexual orientation. In April 2019, 
the Court declined to review his case. Rhines’ attorney, assistant federal 
defender Shawn Nolan, said at the time, “As Chief Justice Roberts wrote in an 
earlier case, ‘[o]ur law punishes people for what they do, not who they are.’ 
New evidence – which has never been heard by any court – shows that some of the 
jurors who sentenced Mr. Rhines to death did so because of who he was, not for 
what he did.”

Rhines’ case highlights concerns about the persistence of bias against LGBTQ 
people throughout the U.S. criminal justice system. A 2009 study of mock juror 
questionnaires found that nearly half (45%) of respondents believed that being 
gay “is not an acceptable lifestyle.” A 2011 study in the journal Pediatrics 
found that nonheterosexual youth are disproportionately punished in school and 
the justice system. Researchers from UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, a 
think tank dedicated to research on sexual orientation and gender identity in 
law and public policy, found that lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) people “were 
three times more likely than straight people to be held in prisons and jails” 
and face harsher sentences and prison conditions. LGB people were also more 
likely to be sexually victimized while in custody, and more likely to be 
subjected to solitary confinement.

Death sentences tainted by anti-gay bias and stereotypes are not uncommon in 
the United States. In Calvin Burdine’s case—which gained notoriety because his 
attorney slept through major portions of the trial—the prosecutor told the jury 
that “sending a homosexual to the penitentiary certainly isn’t a very bad 
punishment for a homosexual.” In a post-trial hearing, Burdine’s lawyer used 
anti-gay slurs to refer to Burdine and other gay men. The book Queer 
(In)Justice, which explores anti-LGBT bias throughout the criminal justice 
system, says, “In capital cases a prosecutor must successfully undertake what 
should be a morally difficult, ethically complex task of convincing a jury or 
judge to kill another human being. To succeed, the prosecution must demonize, 
dehumanize and ‘other’ the defendant … the process of dehumanization required 
to obtain a death sentence is easier when the defendant is of a different race, 
class, sexual orientation and/or gender identity than the jurors or judge.” One 
example it offers is the trial of Wanda Jean Allen, who was executed in 2001 
for the murder of her lesbian partner. Prosecutors emphasized Allen’s gender 
non-conformity, calling her the “man” who “wore the pants in the family.” Judge 
James F. Lane, who heard Allen’s appeal, wrote, “I find no proper purpose for 
this evidence, and believe its only purpose was to present the defendant as 
less sympathetic to the jury than the victim.”

(source: Death Penalty Information Center)








NEW MEXICO:

New Mexico sets aside final 2 death sentences



The New Mexico Supreme Court on Friday set aside the death penalty for the 
final 2 inmates awaiting execution after the state's 2009 repeal of capital 
punishment.

In a split decision, the state's highest court concluded that the death 
sentences issued to Timothy Allen and Robert Fry were disproportionate in 
comparison with comparable murder cases.

The cases were returned to a district court to impose life sentences to prison. 
Allen and Fry, ages 56 and 45 respectively, will be eligible for parole after 
serving 30 years, but would immediately begin serving additional sentences of 
at least 25 years. Fry will not be eligible for release, the court said.

New Mexico repealed the death penalty in 2009. Allen and Fry remained on death 
row because of prior convictions and their death sentences.

Allen was found guilty of kidnapping, attempted rape and the murder of 
17-year-old Sandra Phillips in 1994.

Fry was sentenced to death in 2000 for fatally stabbing and bludgeoning Betty 
Lee, a mother of 5.

In separate cases, Fry was sentenced to life in prison for 3 murders in 1996 
and 1998 in San Juan County.

New Mexico's dormant capital punishment statute prohibits death sentences that 
are excessive and disproportionate.

Justice Barbara Vigil, in the lead majority opinion, said there was little to 
differentiate between the inmates' crimes and equally horrendous cases in which 
defendants were not sentenced to death.

"We find no meaningful distinction which justifies imposing the death penalty 
upon Fry and Allen," she said.

In the dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Judith Nakamura said the decision 
overrides the Legislature's intention to preserve the death penalty for prior 
sentences.

"The majority misstates the governing law and has done what our Legislature 
would not: repeal the death penalty in its entirety," she said.

The Supreme Court previously affirmed the death sentence convictions issued 
before the state's repeal of the death penalty as constitutionally allowable.

It agreed in 2013 to consider new appeals by Fry and Allen, and wavered for 
years on ground rules for deciding whether the death penalty still fits the 
crimes when considering other cases.

Defense attorneys urged the court to cast a wide net for sentencing in 
comparable cases with more appalling murders involving defenseless children and 
the elderly.

New Mexico's last execution in 2001 put to death child-killer Terry Clark after 
he dropped all appeals.

He was the 1st person executed by the state since 1960.

Under New Mexico's 1979 death penalty statute, juries imposed death sentences 
in 15 cases. State court officials say 7 of those sentences were reversed, 5 
were commuted in 1986 by former Gov. Toney Anaya, a Democrat, and 1 inmate died 
on death row.

In recent years, former Republican Gov. Susana Martinez sought unsuccessfully 
to reinstate the death penalty in limited circumstances. She termed out of 
office last year.

The court's 3-2 decision included 3 justices who remained on the complex case 
involving Allen and Fry after retirement.

In a concurring opinion with the majority, retired Justice Charles Daniels said 
he could not "honestly look anyone in the eye and say that executing these 2 
defendants would be proportionate when compared to non-deadly punishment our 
state has meted out in virtually all equally serious 1st-degree murder cases."

(source: Associated Press)








CALIFORNIA:

Freed Farmworker Sues After Spending 25 Years on San Quentin’s Death Row



Vicente Benavides, a 69-year-old Californian native who spent 25 years on San 
Quentin’s death row on false grounds, has filed a lawsuit against those who he 
believes framed him back in 1991.

“I continue suffering from the injustice I lived through and the pain I must 
carry for the rest of my life,” said Benavides through an interpreter, 
according to ABC7.

On Wednesday, June 26, Benavides held a press conference together with his 
attorney Ron O. Kaye outside First Street Courthouse in Los Angeles, where they 
announced they had filed a lawsuit against Kern County, the City of Delano, 
four law enforcement officials, the prosecuting district attorney, and a county 
forensic pathologist, reported 23ABCNews.

They claim that Benavides was wrongfully imprisoned based on a trial featuring 
fabricated evidence and witnesses who were pressured by law enforcement 
officials to make false statements, which ultimately led to Benavides’s death 
sentence for a crime he never committed.

“He was sent to death row in San Quentin as a child rapist. Do you understand 
what that means?” his attorney Ron Kaye said. “They framed — and I don’t say 
this lightly — they framed this innocent man,” said Kaye, according to NBC New 
York.

Benavides was freed from San Quentin prison on April 19, 2018. That same day, 
Kern County District Attorney Lisa Green announced that prosecutors had dropped 
all charges against Benavides.

“Our professional and ethical standards require us to decline to re-try the 
case when, upon an objective review of the facts, there is insufficient 
evidence to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” she said, The Innocence 
Project reported in 2018.

It was on November 18, 1991, when Benavides was arrested, and he was 
incarcerated from that day on, for more than 25 years.

He was convicted in 1993 of 1st-degree murder and sexual assault of his 
girlfriend’s daughter, 21-month-old Consuelo Verdugo. Initially, a forensic 
pathologist concluded that the girl died from sexual assault, and several 
medics also attested in court that the injuries were caused by sexual assault.

But in March 2018, the non-profit Habeas Corpus Resources brought the case to 
the attention of the Supreme Court of California, which reexamined all evidence 
and the medical experts’ statements, most of which were recanted by the 
officials involved, because they said they hadn’t had full access to all the 
medical files.

Those documents indicated that no traces of sexual violence were apparent. An 
expert found the 1993 testimony against Benavides was deemed to be “so unlikely 
to the point of being absurd,” Death Penalty Information Center noted in 2018 
on its website.

It wasn’t until the child was admitted to a second hospital, that the child 
incurred what appeared to be injuries to the anal and genital area, which were 
likely caused by nurses struggling to insert a catheter into the urethra of the 
dying child, DPIC said.

“All the evidence shows that she likely died from being struck by a motor 
vehicle,” NBC recorded Kaye saying. And that was the probable cause why, 
despite medical care, on November 25, 1991, Consuelo died.

The state Supreme Court concluded that there was no evidence of sexual abuse 
before her death, and there were no legal grounds to hold Benavides any longer 
in detention.

Deputy District Attorney Robert Carbone told 23ABCNews he still believes 
Benavides is guilty of murder.

“I believe he killed this child — inflicted blunt force trauma on this child,” 
he said.

(source: ntd.com)

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

California seeks to end execution lawsuit, cites moratorium



Gov. Gavin Newsom sought to end a long-running federal lawsuit challenging 
California's lethal injection process on Friday, arguing that it is no longer 
valid because of his moratorium on executions.

Death penalty opponents are challenging the state's plan to use a single 
powerful barbiturate, instead of 3 drugs, to execute criminals.

Newsom's administration said in a court filing that there is no need to debate 
the process because the Democrat halted executions in March for at least as 
long as he is governor.

(source: Associated Press)








USA----impending/scheduled executions



With the execution of Marion Wilson Jr. in Georgia on June 20, the USA has now 
executed 1,500 condemned individuals since the death penalty was re-legalized 
on July 2, 1976 in the US Supreme Court Gregg v Georgia decision.

Gary Gilmore was the 1st person executed, in Utah, on January 17, 1977. Below 
is a list of further scheduled executions as the nation continues its shameful 
practice of state-sponsored killings.

NOTE: The list is likely to change over the coming months as new execution 
dates are added and possible stays of execution occur.

1501------Aug. 15-------------Dexter Johnson-----------Texas

1502-------Aug. 15------------Stephen West-------------Tennessee

1503-------Aug. 21------------Larry Swearingen---------Texas

1504-------Aug. 22------------Gary Ray Bowles----------Florida

1505-------Sept. 4------------Billy Crutsinger---------Texas

1506-------Sept. 10-----------Mark Anthony Soliz-------Texas

1507-------Sept. 12-----------Warren Henness-----------Ohio

1508-------Sept 25------------Robert Sparks------------Texas

1509-------Oct. 1-------------Russell Bucklew----------Missouri

1510-------Oct. 2-------------Stephen Barbee-----------Texas

1511-------Oct. 16------------Randall Mays-------------Texas

1512-------Nov. 3-9-----------Charles Rhines-----------South Dakota

1513-------Nov. 6-------------Justen Hall--------------Texas

(source: Rick Halperin)