[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ALA., TENN., USA

[Rick Halperin]

May 16


ALABAMA----execution

Alabama executes Michael Samra, convicted of killing 4 in 1997


An Alabama death row inmate was executed by lethal injection Thursday night, 
more than 22 years after the quadruple slaying of a family in Pelham.

Michael Brandon Samra, 42, was executed at William C. Holman Correctional 
Facility in Atmore. The Alabama Supreme Court set his execution date in April.

Samra was 19 when he and his co-defendant, then 16-year-old Mark Anthony Duke, 
were charged with killing Mark Duke’s father Randy Duke, his fiancée Dedra Mims 
Hunt, and her 2 daughters, 6-year-old Chelisa Nicole Hunt and 7-year-old 
Chelsea Marie Hunt. Samra was convicted of capital murder in 1998 after 
confessing, and was sentenced to death for his role in the killings.

The curtains opened to the execution chamber at approximately 7:09 p.m. When 
approached by the warden, Samra smiled.

His last words were a prayer. “I would like to thank Jesus for everything he’s 
done for me,” he said. “I want to thank Jesus for shedding his blood for my 
sins. Thank you for your grace Jesus, amen.”

Samra lied on the gurney with his eyes open, facing the witness room that 
contained his 2 attorneys, his spiritual adviser, and members of the media. At 
7:14 p.m., his eyes closed.

1 minute later, his chest heaved 3 times. His breathing appeared labored for 
several minutes.

Samra did not respond to a consciousness check, performed by a corrections 
officer at 7:17 p.m. 2 minutes later, he stretched both hands and slightly
raised his left arm, then curled his fingers and dropped his arm.

The curtain to the chamber closed at 7:26 p.m. The official time of death was 
7:33 p.m., according to prison officials.

Samra’s attorneys appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing his age at the 
time of the 1997 slaying should prohibit him from being executed, but the 
nation’s highest court ruled Tuesday they would not review the case and would 
not stay Samra’s execution.

Gov. Kay Ivey also refused a reprieve for Samra, the prisoner’s lawyer said. 
One of his attorneys, Steven Sears, said he received the denial from Ivey’s 
office about eight hours before the execution.

Following the execution, Ivey released a statement: “For more than 20 years, 
the loved ones of Randy, Dedra and the 2 young daughters Chelisa and Chelsea 
have mourned an unbearable and unimaginable loss. Four lives were brutally 
taken far too soon because of the malicious, intentional and planned-out 
murders by Michael Brandon Samra.

“Alabama will not stand for the loss of life in our state, and with this 
heinous crime, we must respond with punishment. These four victims deserved a 
future, and Mr. Samra took that opportunity away from them and did so with no 
sense of remorse. This evening justice has been delivered to the loved ones of 
these victims, and it signals that Alabama does not tolerate murderous acts of 
any nature.

“After careful consideration of the horrendous nature of the crime, the jury’s 
decision and all factors surrounding the case, the state of Alabama carried out 
Mr. Samra’s sentence this evening. Although this can never recover the lives 
lost, I pray that their loved ones can finally find a sense of peace.”

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a statement following the 
execution, detailing the crime. He added, “Randy Duke was shot in the head. 
Dedra Hunt was shot multiple times as she attempted to flee with one of her 
daughters. Samra and Duke then proceeded to kill both of the young girls, 
cutting their throats. Samra was convicted of capital murder in 1998 and 
received his just punishment: a sentence of death. After too many years of 
delay, justice has finally been served. Tonight, we pray for the victims and 
for their families, that they might find peace and closure.”

Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn spoke after the 
execution and read a statement from the Mims and Hunt family. “This has been a 
painful journey. Today justice has been carried out,” it said. The statement 
also included thanks for all police and investigative agencies who worked on 
the case. “We ask that you keep all families involved in your prayers,” the 
statement said.

Dedra Mims Hunt and her daughters, Chelsea and Chelisa Hunt, were slain on 
March 22, 1997. Thursday, one of their killers is set to die.

Dunn did not give any reasons for the hour delay, and said to his knowledge 
there were no problems preparing the inmate for the procedure.

Wednesday, Samra was visited by six friends, two attorneys, and his spiritual 
adviser. He also made a phone call to his father. Thursday, he was again 
visited by six friends and his spiritual adviser.

Samra did not eat breakfast Thursday and did not request a last meal. He did 
not have any special requests.

6 witnesses from the victims’ families witnessed the execution, along with 2 
attorneys from the Alabama Attorney General’s Office.

The crime

According to court records filed by the Alabama Attorney General’s Office to 
the U.S. Supreme Court, Mark Duke and Samra brought two guns to Randy Duke’s 
home on March 22, 1997, where the teenagers planned to kill everyone inside.

Mark Duke fatally shot his 39-year-old father in the head, while Samra shot 
Hunt in the face. Although injured, 29-year-old Hunt fled upstairs with her 
daughters. Hunt and Chelisa sought shelter in an upstairs bathroom, while 
Chelsea hid under a bed.

Samra and Mark Duke ran after them, and Mark Duke shot and killed Hunt after he 
kicked in the bathroom door. Then, out of bullets, Mark Duke got two knives and 
pulled Chelisa from behind the shower curtain and slit her throat. The teens 
then pursued Chelsea, who was fighting back from under the bed. As she 
struggled, Mark Duke held her down and Samra slit her throat.

Mark Duke was also originally sentenced to death, but his sentence was later 
overturned and changed to life in prison pursuant to a U.S. Supreme Court 
ruling banning execution for offenders who committed their crimes while they 
were juveniles. He was 16 at the time of the slaying.

According to court records, Mark Duke came up with the murder plot because 
Randy Duke refused to allow him to use a pickup truck. He was called the 
“mastermind” of the plot.

The arguments

Samra’s attorneys, Sears and Alan Freedman, have argued in court filings that 
the Eighth Amendment bans the execution of offenders- like Samra- who were 
under the age of 21 at the time of their crimes.

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court banned execution for people who were under the 
age of 18 at the time of their crimes. Sears has said this ruling should be 
modified due to “evolving standards of decency.”

In his U.S. Supreme Court petition, Samra’s attorneys argue the 2005 rule 
should be extended to include offenders up to the age of 21 at the time of 
their crimes. “The mitigating qualities of youth do not dissipate the day a 
youthful offender turns 18 years old,” the petition states. “Since [the 2005 
decision], scientific studies have shown that during a person’s late teens and 
early 20’s, the brain continues growing and undergoes rapid changes in 
self-regulation and higher-order cognition.”

Last week, Sears sent a letter to Ivey asking for a reprieve until another 
state’s supreme court can decide whether offenders who committed their crimes 
under the age of 21 should be eligible for the death penalty.

Sears wrote in the letter, “The question of whether the U.S. Constitution 
permits the execution of 18-to-21-year-old offenders is percolating in the 
courts and is currently pending in the Kentucky Supreme Court. The Kentucky 
case arose after a trial court judge ruled that the reasoning supporting the 
U.S. Constitution’s ban on executing juvenile offenders extends to those over 
the age of 21. To prevent a miscarriage of justice and ensure that Alabama does 
not carry out an unconstitutional execution, Samra respectfully requests a 
reprieve until the Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled on the question that would 
determine whether Samra is categorically eligible for the death penalty.”

The U.S. Supreme Court petition also mentions the Kentucky case and states, 
“Also, there is a burgeoning national consensus against executing young adult 
offenders. Since [the 2005 ruling] was decided, only 13 states have handed down 
4 new death sentences to offenders under 21, and a majority of states, 30, 
would not permit the execution of a youthful offender. Notably, one Kentucky 
court, surveying the scientific research and national consensus, has concluded 
that Eighth Amendment line drawn in Roper must now be drawn at 21.”

“In the 14 years since this Court decided [case law], society’s standards have 
evolved rapidly to the point that the line drawn [in the 2005 case] can no 
longer be justified. Accordingly, Samra has shown a reasonable likelihood that 
he will prevail on his Eighth Amendment claim... Before it is too late, this 
Court should ensure that the Eighth Amendment does not categorically preclude 
him from receiving the law’s most severe and irreversible penalty.”

The Alabama AG’s Office called Samra’s claim “meritless” and argued in a filing 
about the high court’s jurisdiction over the claim.

“Finally, to the extent that Samra relies on a supposed national consensus 
against imposing capital punishment on persons who were under the age of 
twenty-one when they committed capital murder, his claim is meritless. There is 
no such consensus, which is made most obvious by Samra’s failure to point to a 
single state that has specifically eliminated the death penalty for defendants 
who are between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one when they murder their 
victims,” the Alabama AG’s Office wrote.

“Simply put, Samra’s allegation does not withstand scrutiny. His ‘national 
consensus’ and ‘clear and growing trend’ are made up out of whole cloth. Rather 
than citing to any instance in which any state has adopted his position, Samra 
points to two red herrings… What Samra ignores is that all of the states that 
fall in these categories still retain the death penalty as a sentencing option 
for persons who committed capital murder between the ages of 18 and 21. At 
bottom, Samra has failed to show a ‘clear and growing trend’ because there is 
none.”

Samra’s attorneys have also argued that putting Samra to death isn’t just, 
since the crime’s mastermind Mark Duke is spending his life in prison. Sears 
called the quadruple slaying a “terrible tragedy,” but said he and his 
co-counsel “don’t think that killing one more person is going to help.”

“It’s not fair to kill the small fish and let the whale go,” Sears said, 
referring to Mark Duke’s sentence change. Sears said the fact Samra was several 
years older than his friend at the time of the slaying has made more of a 
difference than anything in the case.

The lead investigator on the case at the time, and now the mayor of Helena, 
Mark Hall said he believes it’s time Samra face his punishment. “I am not 
surprised by the request for a stay by the offender, but I’m reminded that the 
innocent victims of these horrific and senseless murders-- two adults and two 
small children-- did not have that option on that terrifying night when they 
were brutally murdered," Hall wrote in a statement.

“…Convicted murderers, who have exhausted all means of the possibility of 
acquittal in a capital murder case should serve every day, every hour and every 
minute of the sentence they were given, and that includes the death penalty 
when it is imposed.

"Those innocent victims, and the families of those victims, deserve no less.”

2 other men, David Collums and Michael Ellison, were convicted of lesser crimes 
in the case and served time in prison. They have since been released.

Samra becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Alabama 
and the 65th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.

Samra becomes the 6th condemned death row inmate to be put to death this year 
in the USA and the 1496th overall since the nation resumed executions on 
January 17, 1977.

(sources: al.com & Rick Halperin)








TENNESSEE----execution

Tennessee executes Donnie Edward Johnson by lethal injection


Death row inmate Donnie Edward Johnson died at 7:37 p.m. CDT Thursday after 
Tennessee prison officials executed him by lethal injection. He was 68.

He was the 136th person put to death by Tennessee since 1916 and the 4th person 
since the state resumed executions in August.

Johnson was sentenced to death for the 1984 murder of his wife, Connie Johnson, 
in Memphis. He suffocated her by stuffing a 30-gallon trash bag down her 
throat.

Moments before officials began administering the fatal doses, Johnson, held 
down by straps over his chest and arms, said as part of his final words: "I 
commend my life into your hands. Thy will be done. In Jesus’ name I pray, 
Amen."

Then, for 2 minutes, he sang.

Johnson and his legal team have not questioned the horrific nature of his 
crime.

But they had stressed his religious transformation behind bars while urging 
Gov. Bill Lee to grant him mercy. Johnson became an elder in the Seventh-day 
Adventist Church on death row, and leads prayer services for his fellow 
inmates.

Connie Johnson's daughter Cynthia Vaughn, whom Donnie Johnson adopted, became 
an advocate for her stepfather in the lead-up to the execution, begging the 
governor to intervene. Johnson's son said the state should carry out the death 
sentence.

An hour before the execution, a group of people believed to be witnesses walked 
into the prison with their arms linked. Johnson’s spiritual adviser John 
Dysinger and his wife came and met with him and left.

He didn’t want them to witness the execution.

"This tragedy has come to an end for us all," Johnson's family said in a 
statement through their attorney. "For some, the pain will remain forever."

While Johnson has recently received a lot of media attention surrounding his 
execution, the family said they hope the victim is remembered.

"Connie was loved and has been missed these many years," the statement said. 
"Connie had a great laugh and the kindest heart. We pray for peace for her 
children and for her family. We hope today will give Connie's family some 
closure they so deeply deserve."

Connie Johnson’s brother Jackie Duvall, who was not a witness at the execution, 
said Thursday night that “it came to justice.”

“Justice was done,” Duvall said. “It took 35 years, but I hate it on both ends, 
but mostly the way he didn’t have to murder my sister like that. That was — a 
very dirty, evil murderer.

“We have been through total hell with all of this.”

The execution

Johnson is the 2nd death row inmate to die by lethal injection since the state 
resumed executions last year. Billy Ray Irick died by lethal injection on Aug. 
9. The state electrocuted Edmund Zagorski and David Miller.

The curtain to the execution room lifted at 7:17 p.m. Minutes later, officials 
administered the cocktail of powerful and deadly drugs, starting with 
midazolam, intended to render Johnson unconscious.

As the sedative began coursing through his veins, Johnson sang. His voice was 
weakened by 2 strokes, but the words to the hymns were clear for more than 2 
minutes.

"No more crying there, we are going to see the king. No more dying there, we 
are going to see the king," he sang out.

He was in the middle of the lyrics when he fell silent.

By 7:24 p.m. Johnson made a raspy, snoring noise and the warden checked to see 
if he was conscious.

"Don? Don?" he asked.

Then came vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride, drugs to stop his lungs 
and heart.

Minutes later, there was a high-pitched "ah," gasp, media witnesses reported.

His face appeared purple then slowly turned ashen.

Then the room was quiet. All movement stopped.

Then the curtain fell.

He was declared dead at 7:37 p.m. local time in Nashville.

Kelley Henry, a member of Donnie Johnson's legal team, claimed that there were 
many elements that had not been included in written protocol. Ayrika L Whitney, 
The Tennessean

His attorney, Kelley Henry, said she thought she saw Johnson's eye open after 
the 1st drug was injected. Then she heard gasping, choking and gurgling.

She saw that as evidence that the sedative midazolam had not rendered Johnson 
unconscious, but had left him aware of searing pain and the sensation of 
drowning.

"To my ears, it became louder," she said. "It is my belief that I did witness 
my client, observing, feeling and being aware of the pulmonary edema."

Johnson, Henry said she believed, felt the sensation of being "buried alive" 
from the paralytic and the sensation of "liquid fire," from the potassium.

She recalled how she woke up Thursday to a call from Johnson, who wanted to 
check in on her.

He recited Bible verses to her that she wrote down to look up again, Henry said 
in an emotional statement following the execution.

"He was tired but at peace," she said. "We prayed together at the end."

He sang to her as she stood standing outside the execution chamber door to 
leave.

No last-minute legal maneuvers

Unlike past executions, Johnson's legal team did not pursue myriad last-minute 
legal maneuvers. Instead, they put their hopes in the governor. Lee on Tuesday 
denied Johnson clemency.

“After a prayerful and deliberate consideration of Don Johnson's request for 
clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence 
of the State of Tennessee and will not be intervening,” Lee said.

Religious leaders and others had hoped Johnson's plea would appeal to Lee's own 
Christian faith, something he touted during his successful campaign for 
governor last year.

Many felt that, if any Tennessee death row inmate deserved mercy because of a 
transformation behind bars, it was Johnson. Some had argued that Johnson should 
have remained in prison for life, allowing him to continue to minister to 
others.

Leaders of several Christian faiths, including the president of the worldwide 
Seventh-day Adventist Church and Catholic and Episcopal bishops in Tennessee, 
had urged Lee to halt the execution.

Still, while Lee's decision was a blow to religious leaders, they along with 
Johnson's legal team said the inmate was at peace with the decision.

The Rev. Charles Fels, Johnson's clemency attorney, said Johnson "accepts it as 
God’s will."

"Although we appreciate Gov. Lee and his staff for carefully considering our 
application for clemency for Don, we, along with thousands of Christians in 
Tennessee and around the world, are deeply saddened by today’s decision," Fels 
said in a statement Tuesday.

"Also disappointed are thousands of citizens who had hoped that Governor Lee 
would use his unique constitutional clemency power to consider matters that no 
court could, including moral transformation, forgiveness, and the entire 
positive arc of Don’s life after 1984."

Outside the prison Thursday about 50 people stood in a circle in a field, 
protesting Johnson's execution. They sang and shared stories of redemption as 
they hoped for a last-minute call from Lee to stop the execution.

"I am not thankful for what is happening but I am happy for the testimony he 
has shown," said Pastor Kevin Riggs, adding the last time he saw Johnson, he 
appeared tired.

"I was discouraged but Don told me not to worry," Riggs said.

On the other side of the fence from the group stood Rick Laude, 56, a lone 
supporter for the execution.

Johnson, he said, brought his fate upon himself.

Though usually loud and boisterous in his demonstrations at past executions, 
Laude was silent Thursday.

The crime and the victim

Johnson, who once told police he did not kill his wife, stopped contesting his 
guilt. In his clemency application, he said a childhood of abuse and neglect 
led him to become "a liar, a cheat, a con man and a murderer."

The Tennessee Supreme Court described Connie Johnson's death as "inhuman and 
brutal to an almost indescribable degree.” Other relatives said her death tore 
the family apart.

Some victim advocates had lobbied for Lee to allow the execution to proceed, 
including Johnson's estranged son Jason, who disagreed sharply with his 
half-sister Cynthia Vaughn about Donnie Johnson's fate.

Jason Johnson also reached out to Lee to make his case.

“If he found redemption, that doesn’t matter. That’s between him and God,” 
Jason Johnson has said. “His forgiveness is to come from the Lord and his 
redemption is to come from the Lord, not the government. The Bible also says, 
‘An eye for an eye.’ ”

The crime occurred about 2 weeks before Christmas, when Donnie Johnson — aided 
by a co-worker — left his wife’s body in a van outside the Mall of Memphis.

Retired Memphis Police officers Jerry Bursi and John Garner remember her lying 
in the van with the plastic garbage bag stuffed down her throat. Her purse was 
missing. Only about 2 inches of the 30-gallon bag protruded from her mouth, 
they said.

John Garner was a sergeant in the homicide division of the Memphis Police 
Department in 1984 when Connie Johnson was murdered, May 06, 2019. Donnie 
Edward Johnson, 68, is scheduled to die May 16 for killing his wife, Connie 
Johnson, in Memphis in 1984. Brad Vest, Memphis Commercial Appeal

A Shelby County medical examiner would later say that she had cuts and bruises 
on her head, that she bled internally and had fought back.

Donnie Johnson had killed her earlier that day at his workplace. During his 
trial, witnesses testified that they had been talking about divorce — and that 
Donnie Johnson had said he couldn’t afford one.

Connie Johnson was only 30 at the time of her death. The couple were 
approaching their seventh wedding anniversary.

Relatives recalled that she loved to dance and joke and cared deeply for her 
two children. She had grown up on a farm in a large family and was a hard 
worker. At times, she juggled her studies with a job and being a mother.

“He took such a good person and a good mother and a good daughter and a good 
sister. I don’t understand why,” said Wanda Clark, one of Connie Johnson’s 
sisters. “Connie wanted to live too. She loved her home, she loved her family, 
and she loved her kids. For somebody to come and take all this away, it don’t 
make no sense. Not a bit.”

Johnson becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in 
Tennessee and the 10th overall since the state resumed capital punishment
in 2000.

Johnson becomes the 7th condemned death row inmate to be put to death this year 
in the USA and the 1497th overall since the nation resumed executions in 1977.

(sources: The Tennessean & Rick Halperin)







USA----countdown to nation's 1500th execution

With the executions of  Michael Samra in Alabama and Donnie Johnson in 
Tennessee on May 16, the USA has now executed 1,497 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 scheduled executions as the nation approaches a terrible 
milestone of 1500 executions in the modern era.


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




1498-------May 23-------------Bobby Joe Long-----------Florida

1499-------May 30-------------Christopher Price--------Alabama

1500------July 31-------------Ruben Gutierrez----------Texas

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

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

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

1504-------Sept. 4------------Billy Crutsinger---------Texas

1505-------Sept. 10-----------Mark Anthony Soliz-------Texas

1506-------Sept. 12-----------Warren Henness-----------Ohio

1507-------Oct. 2-------------Stephen Barbee-----------Texas


Learn more about efforts to #StopThe1500th Execution and how you can be
involved at
http://deathpenaltyaction.org/1500th [deathpenaltyaction.org]

(source: Rick Halperin)