[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., N.C., FLA., ALA., ARK., NEB.

[Rick Halperin]

March 5




PENNSYLVANIA:

Could the Supreme Court kill Pennsylvania's death penalty?



In the past 15 years, courts in 5 states have struck down the death penalty. 
Could Pennsylvania become the 6th state?

That’s a question that is suddenly in play, after the Pennsylvania Supreme 
Court recently opened the door to a legal challenge that charges the state’s 
capital punishment law is unconstitutional.

Brought by 2 death row inmates, the petition asks the court to skip its usual 
procedures and hear a broad challenge to whether the death penalty violates the 
state constitution’s ban on cruel punishments.

It is a request that, a decade ago, likely would have gone nowhere, legal 
observers say. But with a shift in political power on the court — 5 Democrats 
versus 2 Republicans — the justices in December said they will consider whether 
to take up the issue.

That’s provoked a flurry of legal filings by groups opposed to the death 
penalty, who are urging the court to throw out the state’s ultimate punishment. 
It has drawn concern from capital punishment supporters, who say there is no 
reason for the court to intervene and undo the will of the Legislature.

The petition, filed by Federal Community Defender Office in Philadelphia, cites 
a recent legislative study that offered a blistering critique of the death 
penalty. Released in June, the report called for a host of reforms, saying that 
in the modern era of capital punishment, Pennsylvania has exonerated 6 death 
row inmates, while executing just 3.

So-called king’s bench petitions are rarely granted, because they ask the 
Supreme Court to leapfrog the typical process, under which the lower courts 
serve as the first arbiter of legal questions. But the attorneys for Jermont 
Cox and Kevin Marinelli, who were separately sentenced to death in 1995, argue 
that longtime problems with Pennsylvania’s death penalty make it one of those 
extraordinary cases.

The state “administers a system of capital punishment that is replete with 
error, a national outlier in its design and a mirror for the inequities and 
prejudices that plague American society,” the federal defenders wrote last 
month in a legal brief. “Although the system was intended to apply only to the 
worst of the worst, arbitrary factors, such as geography, poverty, mental 
illness and race, best predict who ends up on death row.”

Cox was convicted of 3 drug-related murders in Philadelphia and sentenced to 
death in 1 of them. Marinelli was found guilty of the torture killing of a 
Northumberland County man during a robbery.

The Pennsylvania attorney general’s office opposes the petition, saying it asks 
the Supreme Court “forgo all judicial norms and standards” to end capital 
punishment in the state. Doing so based on a legislative study would be 
“legally inappropriate” and “arguably dangerous,” state prosecutors wrote in a 
legal filing that charged the June report was flawed.

“The notion that this court would jettison the truth-determining function of 
the judicial branch and contract it out to an unregulated non-judicial 
political ‘commission’ is shocking,” the filing said.

In the Northeast, Pennsylvania’s death penalty is an anomaly. In the region, 
the only other state with capital punishment is New Hampshire, but it has only 
1 death row inmate — and no execution chamber with which to carry out the 
sentence. By contrast, there are 142 prisoners on death row in Pennsylvania, 
which has been under a moratorium on executions that Gov. Tom Wolf declared in 
2015.

The use of capital punishment in Pennsylvania is falling. An investigation by 
The Morning Call published Sunday found that prosecutors are increasingly 
reluctant to pursue it, given the high financial cost and lengthy legal battles 
it guarantees. The analysis reviewed 4,184 murder convictions over 14 years in 
the state.

In 2004, 40 % of murder convictions across Pennsylvania started as death 
penalty cases, according to the newspaper’s findings. By 2017, that number had 
dropped 70 %, to 12 % of murder convictions.

The timeline under which the Supreme Court will address the death penalty 
challenge remains unclear, and oral arguments have yet to be scheduled. 2 
justices — Max Baer, a Democrat, and Sallie Mundy, a Republican — dissented in 
December when the court kept the petition alive.

This century, courts in five states have thrown out death penalty statutes, 
finding unconstitutional flaws: New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida and 
Washington state, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a 
nonprofit that tracks developments in capital punishment.

Of those, only 1 state made fixes to revive the death penalty, when lawmakers 
in Florida enacted legislation to address their courts’ concerns. In the other 
4 states, the death penalty remains off the table.

Robert Dunham, a former federal public defender in Pennsylvania who now heads 
the Death Penalty Information Center, said it is impossible to predict where 
Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court will ultimately come down.

But that the challenge is even being considered speaks to a change on the 
court, in which several death penalty-friendly judges were replaced through 
retirement or resignation in recent years, he said.

“It does signify that the court is concerned about the way the death penalty is 
being administered, certainly enough to hear the issue,” Dunham said. “And that 
is something you wouldn’t have seen 10 years ago.”

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli agreed that times have 
changed. A Democrat who is a vocal death penalty supporter, he’s hoping the 
court will ultimately reject the petition.

“The old court, where the Republicans had the majority, they probably wouldn’t 
have heard it,” Morganelli said. “But this court, they’re more activist.”

(source: The Morning Call)

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

Judge denies Krasner office’s request to vacate death penalty in 1984 double 
murder



A federal judge on Monday denied a request by the Philadelphia District 
Attorney’s Office to vacate the death penalty for a Philadelphia man convicted 
of the 1984 strangulation and drowning deaths of a prominent pastor’s son and 
daughter-in-law in their East Mount Airy home.

U.S. District Judge Mitchell Goldberg wrote that for three decades, the DA’s 
Office had “consistently and zealously opposed” inmate Robert Wharton’s efforts 
to overturn his conviction and death sentence.

Early last month, the office informed the judge it would no longer fight the 
appeal. Max Cooper Kaufman, supervisor of the federal litigation unit under 
District Attorney Larry Krasner, wrote that the decision came after the office 
reexamined the case and communicated with the victims’ family.

In his written opinion, Goldberg described the deaths of Bradley Hart, 26, and 
his wife, Ferne, 31, as “particularly horrific” and noted the DA’s Office 
didn’t explain the reason behind what he called "this complete reversal of 
course.”

He ordered both parties to submit briefs explaining their positions.

Krasner, a former criminal defense lawyer who took office last year, campaigned 
on a platform of never seeking the death penalty. His spokesperson, Ben Waxman, 
said by email Monday that the office had no comment on Goldberg’s ruling 
“except to say that we are reviewing the opinion and considering next steps in 
the case."

The Federal Community Defender Office, which is representing Wharton, did not 
immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wharton’s co-defendant, Eric Mason, was sentenced to life in prison. Both men, 
construction workers from Germantown, were 20 at the time of the murders.

Now 56, Wharton is on death row at the State Correctional Institution-Phoenix 
in Montgomery County.

According to evidence in the case, on the night of Jan. 30, 1984, Wharton and 
Mason went to the Harts’ home, tied up the couple, and separated them. Wharton 
choked Ferne Hart with a necktie and drowned her in a bathtub. Mason denied 
killing anyone, but was accused by Wharton of killing Bradley Hart by forcing 
his face in water and strangling him with an electrical cord.

After the jury at his 1985 trial convicted Wharton of first-degree murder, 
Assistant District Attorney Thomas Bello argued that both defendants should be 
sentenced to die, noting that they turned the heat off in the house and left 
the couple’s 7-month-old daughter, Lisa, to die.

Hart’s father, the Rev. B. Sam Hart, a nationally known evangelist pastor, 
discovered the couple’s bodies. The baby was unharmed but suffering from 
malnutrition and dehydration.

Bello told jurors that Wharton wanted revenge against the Hart family after he 
was not paid for construction work he had done at a religious radio station in 
Phoenixville managed by Bradley Hart and owned by his father. The Harts had 
fired the subcontractor for whom Wharton worked because they were unsatisfied 
with the job.

The prosecutor also told jurors that Wharton had previously committed two 
burglaries at the Harts’ home and, with Mason, had burglarized the Rev. Hart’s 
church, the Germantown Christian Assembly in East Mount Airy.

In April 1992, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court partially granted Wharton’s 
appeal, ordering a new sentencing hearing. That December, a second Philadelphia 
jury reimposed the double-death sentence for Wharton.

In December 2002, then-Gov. Mark Schweiker signed his death warrant, but the 
execution was stayed after Wharton appealed to federal court.

Goldberg in 2012 denied his petition, but an appellate court sent it back to 
the district judge on just one claim — whether his lawyer was ineffective for 
failing to tell the jury about Wharton’s adjustment to prison. That was the 
claim the District Attorney’s Office last month said it would not fight.

The DA’s Office also asked the judge to grant summary relief by taking the 
death penalty off the table and said that if the judge did so, prosecutors 
wouldn’t seek a new death sentence in state court.

Krasner has received pushback by the judiciary in at least 1 other case in 
which his office tried to throw out a death sentence.

In October, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Christine Donohue wrote in a 
majority opinion that a jury had approved the death penalty for Lavar Brown, 
and the DA’s Office couldn’t change that result “based upon the differing views 
of the current office holder.”

Pennsylvania’s death penalty has been used just three times since it was 
reinstated by the state in 1978. Gov. Tom Wolf imposed a moratorium on its use 
in 2015. Wolf’s spokesperson said Monday that the governor believes the 
moratorium should continue in light of a June 2018 report by a bipartisan 
legislative task force and advisory committee, which found various problems 
concerning the death penalty.

(source: philly.com)








NORTH CAROLINA:

Public Support for Death Penalty Waning in North Carolina



A new poll from Public Policy Polling has found that a majority of North 
Carolinians believe the death penalty should be replaced with alternative 
punishments.

Voters question the fairness of the death penalty on several fronts, including 
racial bias, judicial error and mental health of the accused at the time of the 
crime.

Director of Public Policy Polling Tom Jensen says the change in public opinion 
has been gradual rather than swift.

“It’s definitely something where there is movement occurring over time away 
from support from the death penalty, and I think you can see that especially in 
the Democratic Party,” says Jensen.

The last Democratic President to voice public support of the Death Penalty was 
Bill Clinton.

While North Carolina still does have the death penalty as a sentencing option, 
no one has been executed in over a decade.

Jensen says one of the reasons the death penalty is rarely used in North 
Carolina anymore is there is no evidence that it helps to stop crime.

“It’s been over a decade now since we’ve had an execution, and that hasn’t led 
to some sort of increase in violent crime in the state,” says Jensen. “It’s 
really pretty steady, so I think that sort of throws the main argument of the 
death penalty out the window.”

While lack of political pressure on district attorneys to seek the death 
penalty has helped to minimize it’s use, Jensen also says that regional factors 
come into play.

“The more highly populated areas of the state, which will presumably have more 
murder cases, also have the most progressive voters in the state,” says Jensen. 
“So per capita, the places where the most crimes where you could seek the death 
penalty are happening are also the places where there’s the least will from 
their citizens for prosecutors to move forward with that as a punishment.”

Since the last execution in North Carolina, five people who were sentenced to 
death have been exonerated, and over 20 others have been removed from death row 
due to errors in their cases, according to the Center for Death Penalty 
Litigation.

Executions are temporarily barred in the state due to a case which challenges 
the lethal injection procedures.

(source: chapelboro.com)

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

Jury sentences man to death in 2016 double murder at a Raleigh hotel



A Wake County jury on Monday sentenced convicted killer Seaga Gillard to death 
in a 2016 double murder in a Raleigh hotel.

The case drew attention partly because District Attorney Lorrin Freeman’s 
office sought the death penalty, a rarity in North Carolina.

The state has not executed a prisoner since 2006, and Wake County juries had 
opted against capital punishment in nine straight murder trials prior to 
Gillard’s. The nonprofit Center for Death Penalty Litigation called Freeman “an 
outlier” for pursuing punishment the state increasingly rejects.

But Freeman also drew favorable attention in legal circles for seeking justice 
for victims many jurors might consider marginal. On the night she was shot, 
22-year-old April Holland was advertising her services as a prostitute in the 
former America’s Best Value Inn near Crabtree Valley Mall, and her boyfriend, 
Dwayne Garvey, was aiding the business.

April Lynn Holland and Dwayne Garvey, who were shot to death on the second 
floor of the former America’s Best Value Inn in Raleigh in December 2016. 
Courtesy of the Garvey family Holland and Garvey had three children together, 
none of whom were living with them at the time of their death, and Holland was 
12 weeks pregnant with a 4th child. Prosecutors brought testimony from multiple 
other women who said Holland and Garvey were targeted for robbery by Gillard 
and his co-defendant Brandon Hill, all while advertising for sex work on 
websites.

On Monday, Freeman noted the 13-year moratorium on the death penalty in the 
state. Still, she said, Gillard’s “path of destruction” merited seeking the 
toughest penalty after murder victims, the death of an unborn child and seven 
sexual assaults.

“These people mattered,” Freeman said, “and our community felt that they did 
not deserve to die.”

(source: newsobserver.com)








FLORIDA:

Not guilty plea entered in Triple Springs triple homicide case----Shelby Nealy, 
25, faces the death penalty in 3 of the 4 1st-degree murder cases against him.



The 25-year-old facing the death penalty for the triple homicide that took 
place in Tarpon Springs just before Christmas has pleaded not guilty to all the 
charges against him.

An assistant public defender entered the plea on his behalf during an 
arraignment hearing Monday. Nealy, who also goes by Shelby Svensen, did not 
attend the hearing. He is being held without bail in the Pinellas County jail.

Nealy faces a total of 4 counts of 1st-degree murder in the deaths of the 
Ivancic family, who authorities say were killed over a year’s time in Pasco and 
Pinellas counties.

The 1st murder he’s accused of took place in January 2018. He killed his 
21-year-old ex-wife Jamie Ivancic, according to Tarpon Springs police 
investigators, then used her phone to send text messages and photos of their 2 
kids to fool family and friends into thinking she was still alive.

But when Nealy feared her family was about to unravel his scheme, police say he 
targeted her family in Tarpon Springs. He is accused of bludgeoning his in-laws 
Richard Ivancic, 71, his wife Laura, 59, and their 25-year-old son Nicholas 
just before Christmas. He targeted them one at a time, police said, and also 
killed their 3 dogs.

Investigators believe Nealy killed his in-laws because he feared they would 
discover he had killed their daughter. Their deaths were discovered on New 
Year’s Day, which soon led to the discovery of her body about 12 miles north of 
the family’s Tarpon Springs home. The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office said she 
was found buried in the yard of a Port Richey home the couple once stayed at.

Authorities tracked Nealy and his 2 young children to Lakewood, Ohio, where he 
was arrested Jan. 3 on 3 counts of 1st-degree murder. The children were placed 
in state custody. He has confessed to the murders, investigators say, and was 
returned to Pinellas County on Feb. 2. A 4th-count of 1st-degree murder in the 
2018 death of Jamie Ivancic was filed on Feb. 22.

Nealy faces the death penalty in the 3 Tarpon Springs homicides. The 
Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s Office has not yet decided whether to pursue 
that penalty in the 4th murder case.

He also faces 3 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals in the deaths of the 
family dogs.

(source: Tampa Bay Times)








ALABAMA:

Suspect charged with capital murder in strangling death of 11-year-old Amberly 
Barnett



A suspect has been charged in the strangling death of 11-year-old Alabama girl 
Amberly Barnett, authorities said today.

Christopher Madison, 33, is held in the DeKalb County jail without bail on a 
capital murder charge, according to the sheriff’s office.

DeKalb County Sheriff Nick Welden said an initial autopsy report shows Barnett 
was strangled.

Barnett’s body was found about 200 yards behind Madison’s home early Saturday, 
Welden said. Barnett had been reported missing late Friday in the Mount Vernon 
community of DeKalb County, where she was living with her aunt on County Road 
822.

Mount Vernon is about 25 miles northeast of Gadsden.

Welden announced Madison’s arrest during a press briefing at the sheriff’s 
office in Fort Payne on Monday afternoon. the sheriff read a brief statement 
but didn’t take questions from reporters.

“Due to the ongoing investigation, and in order not to jeopardize that 
investigation, I am not at liberty to disclose any additional information 
concerning this case,” Welden said.

“My heart is still shattered,” the sheriff added. “Our main focus is justice 
for a sweet angel that gained her wings.”

Madison was initially arrested Saturday evening on charges of possession of 
drug paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance, records show. He 
was accused of having methamphetamine and a syringe, court records show. The 
capital murder charge was added Monday.

In Alabama, capital murder is punishable by the death penalty or life in prison 
without the possibility of parole.

Amberly’s mother, Jonie Barnett, wrote a Facebook post in memory of her 
daughter on Sunday evening.

“You were the jewel in our hearts,” the mother wrote, “you were loved in every 
way, now you're gone, you're truly missed each and every day... You always 
brought the sunshine and you brightened up our world, spreading happiness and 
kindness since you were a little girl.”

As of Monday, a GoFundMe account already raised about $7,000 for Barnett’s 
family. The online account was created by alumni of Cedartown High School in 
Georgia. Jonie Barnett was a member of the class of 2009.

(source: al.com)








ARKANSAS:

Arkansas bill would expand execution drug secrecy law



An Arkansas lawmaker on Monday proposed expanding the state's secrecy 
surrounding its lethal injection drugs, a move that death penalty opponents and 
press advocates said would give officials broad powers to keep information 
about executions from the public.

The proposal expands a 2015 law that keeps confidential the supply of Arkansas' 
execution drugs. Arkansas doesn't have any executions scheduled, and the 
state's supply of the 3 lethal injection drugs it uses has expired. Prison 
officials have said they won't search for new drugs until state law is changed 
to keep the manufacturers of its drugs a secret.

The proposal would prohibit the state from releasing documents or information 
that identify or could indirectly identify the suppliers and makers of its 
execution drugs. The proposal would make "recklessly" disclosing the 
information a felony.

"This bill will protect those who want to help us uphold the law and help 
protect the people of Arkansas," said Republican Sen. Bart Hester, the bill's 
sponsor.

The measure is in response to state Supreme Court rulings in late 2017 and last 
year that the state must release the package insert and labels for its 
execution drugs. Justices said the 2015 law did not specifically prevent the 
drugmakers from being identified.

Arkansas was sued in 2017 after it refused to release the labels and inserts. 
The Associated Press has previously used the labels — with the manufacturer's 
name blacked out — to identify drugmakers whose products would be used in 
executions. The state Supreme Court has allowed the state to redact other 
information from the labels, such as the lot and batch numbers of the drug.

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's office said she worked with the governor and 
Hester on the bill "to ensure that lawful jury sentences are carried out for 
the heinous acts committed by those individuals awaiting justice." A spokesman 
said Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who has called for expanding the secrecy to include 
manufacturers, supports the bill.

States have increasingly kept secret information about their execution drug 
supplies. Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information 
Center, said the bill's secrecy and its criminal penalties would make it the 
most extreme in the country. Jeff Rosenzweig, an attorney representing death 
row inmates in a federal lawsuit challenging Arkansas' execution protocol, said 
expanding the drug secrecy prevents the public from knowing whether the state 
is carrying out executions in a constitutional manner.

"Unless you know what they are and where they're from and the track record, 
you're hamstrung on the question of are you going to be able to prevent 
torture," Rosenzweig said.

Ashley Wimberley, executive director of the Arkansas Press Association, said 
executions require transparency and accountability throughout the process.

"In its current form, this bill keeps almost everything about this solemn 
government function shielded from public scrutiny," Wimberley said in a 
statement. "In addition, that it makes even an accidental disclosure of 
information a felony has a chilling impact on free speech and whistleblower 
rights."

(source: Texarkana Gazette)








NEBRASKA:

Justices: Nebraska County Owes $28M for Wrongful Convictions----The Supreme 
Court is rejecting an appeal from a Nebraska county that has to pay a $28 
million court judgment to 6 people wrongfully convicted for a 1985 slaying.



The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a rural Nebraska county's appeal of a $28 
million court judgment aimed at compensating 6 people wrongfully convicted of a 
1985 slaying.

The justices turned away Gage County's last-ditch effort to avoid the hefty 
judgment, after a federal appeals court in St. Louis found the award was 
justified because of egregious law enforcement conduct. In August, the county 
raised its local property tax levy as high as state law allows to pay off the 
debt — a move that could become a major drag on the local economy.

All 6 people were wrongfully convicted for the rape and murder of Helen Wilson. 
They spent more than 75 years combined in prison until DNA evidence cleared 
them in 2008. Wilson's death has since been linked to a former Beatrice, 
Nebraska, resident who died in 1992. Beatrice is about 100 miles (161 
kilometers) southwest of Omaha.

Jeff Patterson, an attorney for four of the 6 who were wrongfully accused, said 
his clients "are just happy that things are moving along" so they can collect 
what they're owed.

The lawsuit alleged that law enforcement officials recklessly strove to close 
the case despite contradictory evidence and coerced false confessions. The 3 
people who gave false confessions all had histories of psychological problems. 
1 of the 6, Joseph White, died in a workplace accident in Alabama in 2011.

Gage County expects to spend roughly $3.8 million per year over 8 years to 
cover the legal debt, attorney fees and interest, said Myron Dorn, a former 
county supervisor who helped approve the payment plan.

Because the county is mostly rural farmland, Dorn said roughly 1/2 of the total 
burden will fall on land-rich farmers whose incomes have plummeted because of 
low crop prices.

For a typical mid-sized farmer, the 12-cent increase per $100 of taxable value 
could mean an extra $14,000 in property taxes owed over the next eight years. 
Dorn said one major producer is bracing to pay nearly $100,000 in additional 
taxes.

Homeowners will feel the feel the pinch as well. The owner of a $100,000 home 
will pay an additional $120 in property taxes each year — nearly $1,000 in 
total — until the county pays its debt.

"We're going to notice it, big time," said Don Schuller, a farmer who has 
lobbied state lawmakers for help with the debt . "That's a big chunk of money 
out of the economy of Gage County."

Schuller said he was concerned the sharp increase could make voters more 
reluctant to approve bond measures for school construction and other projects 
that might help the economy. He argued that state officials should shoulder 
some of the burden because the 6 were threatened with the state-sanctioned 
death penalty , prosecuted under state law and served their time in state 
prisons.

Dorn, who is now a state senator, introduced legislation this year that would 
allow the county to apply for state assistance to help pay off the judgment, 
but he isn't optimistic lawmakers will approve it given the state's budget 
troubles.

"The probability of that happening is probably pretty slim this year," he said.

Many residents have complained they weren't responsible for the wrongful 
conviction, and some argue they didn't even live in Gage County at the time. 
Art Nietfeld, who owns farmland near the Kansas border, told a legislative 
committee last month that he'll owe an estimated $10,000 in additional property 
taxes to pay his share of the judgment.

"I sure didn't have anything to do with it," he said.

After the 1st trial ended in a mistrial in 2015, the 8th Circuit ruled that 
there was substantial evidence to support allegations that Gage County 
officials conspired to convict the 6 people. That included evidence that 
investigators conducted unreported interrogations, ignored verifiable alibis 
and suggested that three of the 6 had repressed memories of the crime.

The wrongfully accused, known as the Beatrice Six, are Joseph White, Thomas 
Winslow, Ada JoAnn Taylor, Debra Shelden, James Dean and Kathy Gonzalez. White 
was killed in a factory accident in 2011, about less than 3 years after winning 
his freedom.

(source: Associated Press)