[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, USA

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 10




TEXAS----execution

Texas executes Mark Soliz for a 2010 Johnson County slaying. He said fetal 
alcohol disorder should have excluded him from death.

Soliz and another man were convicted in the shooting death of a Johnson County 
woman during a robbery in her home. His lawyers pushed to stop his execution, 
saying fetal alcohol spectrum disorder should be treated like an intellectual 
disability.


On Tuesday, Texas executed Mark Soliz for the 2010 home robbery and shooting 
death of a North Texas woman.

Soliz, 37, was convicted and sentenced to death in 2012 for the murder of Nancy 
Weatherly, 61, and the robbery of her Johnson County home, according to court 
records. Prosecutors said the murder was part of an 8-day crime spree during 
which Soliz and another man, Jose Ramos, robbed random people at gunpoint, and 
Soliz killed another man.

Soliz and his lawyers had long argued that his life should be spared because he 
had fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, which they claimed is the “functional 
equivalent” of an intellectual disability, a condition the U.S. Supreme Court 
has ruled disqualifies individuals from execution. Both state and federal 
courts rejected the claim during Soliz’s relatively short seven years on death 
row.

Shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday, Soliz was taken into the execution chamber in 
Huntsville and placed on a gurney. Soliz was apologetic in his final words, 
addressing Weatherly's family members.

"I wanted to apologize for the grief and the pain that I caused y’all," Soliz 
said. "I’ve been considering changing my life. It took me 27 years to do so. 
Man, I want to apologize, I don’t know if me passing will bring y’all comfort 
for the pain and suffering I caused y’all. I am at peace."

He was then injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital, the only drug used in 
Texas executions. He was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m.

In June 2010, prosecutors said, Soliz and Ramos terrorized residents in the 
Fort Worth area for eight days before they were arrested on suspicion of one of 
several crimes, including multiple robberies, carjackings and shootings, 
another of which was fatal. When police interrogated Ramos about one stolen 
car, he began talking about another crime — in which he said the two men forced 
their way into Weatherly’s house in Godley at gunpoint, and Soliz shot her in 
the back of the head as they robbed her home.

Soliz initially denied killing Weatherly, telling police he was outside by the 
car when he heard a gunshot and then saw Ramos exit the house. Later during the 
interrogation, he said he would confess “just to get this over with,” according 
to a 2014 ruling from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. A friend of Soliz’s 
later said he bragged to her about killing an “old lady.” Ramos received life 
in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder.

At his trial and in his appeals to state and federal courts, Soliz repeatedly 
raised the claim that he should not have been executed because of his disorder. 
Several defense experts testified before the jury that he was diagnosed with 
partial fetal alcohol syndrome, which his lawyers claim caused mental 
impairments like lack of impulse control, serious adaptive learning deficits 
and hyper-suggestibility. But the testimony did not keep the jury from handing 
down a death sentence, and appellate courts did not interfere, partially 
because the claim was raised at trial and failed.

But Soliz argued his execution would go against his constitutional rights and 
recently noted changes in what is clinically considered an intellectual 
disability. Legal precedent prohibits states from executing people with 
intellectual disabilities, but Soliz sought to expand that, saying there are so 
many similarities between intellectual disability and fetal alcohol spectrum 
disorder that the conditions should be treated the same way in capital cases.

“There are striking parallels between the diagnostic criteria for intellectual 
disability and FASD,” Soliz’s lawyers wrote in a court filing last month. 
“Those afflicted with FASD should be categorically ineligible for the death 
penalty just as the intellectually disabled are, and Soliz’s death sentence 
violates his Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment.”

The Texas Attorney General’s Office, which won the backing of the courts, 
countered that Soliz’s request to change legal precedent is “overbroad.”

“The Supreme Court has not held that individuals with FASD are exempt from 
capital punishment. Consequently, Soliz seeks to create — not rely on — a new 
rule of constitutional law,” wrote Assistant Attorney General Jefferson 
Clendenin last week in response to Soliz’s last appeals.

Clendenin also argued that Soliz was the leader in the crimes and was 
“sophisticated, calculated and dangerous.”

Soliz becomes the 6th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas 
and the 564th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 
1982.  Soliz becomes the 46th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas 
since Greg Abbott became governor in 2015

Soliz becomes the 15th condemned inmate to be executed this year in the USA and 
the 1,505th overall since the nation resumed executions no January 17, 1977.

Soliz’s execution was the 3rd carried out by Johnson County, which sits just 
south of Fort Worth, since the death penalty was reinstated nationwide in the 
1970s. The last one was in 2004.

Texas’ 6 executions so far this year make up more than 1/3 of the 15 that have 
taken place in the country. Of the 17 executions still scheduled in the country 
through December — including 3 federal cases — 9 are set to take place in the 
Texas death chamber in Huntsville, according to the Death Penalty Information 
Center. Last year, Texas executed 13 men.

(sources: The Texas Tribune & Rick Halperin)


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Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----46



Executions in Texas:  Dec. 7, 1982----present-----564

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



47---------Sept. 25---------------Robert Sparks-----------565

48---------Oct. 2-----------------Stephen Barbee----------566

49---------Oct. 10----------------Randy Halprin-----------567

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

51---------Oct. 30----------------Ruben Gutierrez---------569

52---------Nov. 6-----------------Justen Hall-------------570

53---------Nov. 13----------------Patrick Murphy----------571

54---------Nov. 20----------------Rodney Reed-------------572

55---------Dec. 11----------------Travis Runnels----------573

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)


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USA----impending/scheduled executions

With the execution of Mark Anthony Soliz in Texas on September 10, the USA
has now executed 1,505 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.


1506-------Sept 25------------Robert Sparks------------Texas

1507-------Oct. 1-------------Russell Bucklew----------Missouri

1508-------Oct. 2-------------Stephen Barbee-----------Texas

1509-------Oct. 10------------Randy Halprin------------Texas

1510-------Oct. 16------------Randall Mays-------------Texas

1511-------Oct. 30------------Ruben Gutierrez----------Texas

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

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

1514-------Nov. 13------------Patrick Murphy-----------Texas

1515-------Nov. 20------------Rodney Reed--------------Texas

1516-------Dec. 5-------------Lee Hall Jr.-------------Tennessee

1517-------Dec. 9-------------Daniel Lewis Lee---------Federal - Ark.

1518-------Dec. 11------------James Hanna--------------Ohio

1519-------Dec. 11------------Travis Runnels-----------Texas

1520-------Dec. 11------------Lezmond Mitchell---------Federal - Ariz.

1521-------Dec. 13------------Wesley Purkey------------Federal - Mo.

1522-------Jan. 13-----------Alfred Bourgeois----------Federal - Tex.

1523-------Jan. 15-----------Dusten Honken-------------Federal - Iowa

1524-------Jan. 16-----------Kareem Jackson------------Ohio

(source: Rick Halperin)