[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., VA., S.C., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 25




TEXAS----impending execution

Texas set to execute Robert Sparks after brutal deaths of his stepsons, 
wife----Sparks was convicted in the 2007 stabbing deaths of his family members 
in his Dallas home. His lawyers have sought to stop his execution with 
arguments of intellectual disability and a jury tainted by a bailiff wearing a 
syringe tie.



12 years ago, Robert Sparks told police he killed his wife and 2 stepsons, ages 
10 and 9, by repeatedly stabbing them in their Dallas home in the middle of the 
night. He then confessed to raping his 12- and 14-year-old stepdaughters.

He told investigators his family had been poisoning him; he wanted to be tested 
for poison and for the girls to undergo polygraph tests, according to court 
records. He said a voice told him to kill his family.

On Wednesday, Sparks, now 45, is set to be executed in the deaths of his 
stepsons, Raekwon Agnew and Harold Sublet Jr. Texas officials say his execution 
for the heinous crime should not be delayed, but Sparks’ attorneys filed 
multiple appeals within the last month.

They fought for more time and resources to fully prepare a filing arguing that 
Sparks is intellectually disabled, which would legally bar him from execution. 
And they have continued to contend his trial was tainted by false testimony and 
a bailiff who wore a tie with a syringe on it during jury deliberations.

“Without a stay of execution, it is likely that Texas will execute an 
intellectually disabled man,” Sparks’ attorney, Jonathan Landers, wrote in a 
recent federal district court filing.

That appeal, along with those filed in state court and the federal appellate 
court, has been rejected. Final requests to stop his execution reside within 
the U.S. Supreme Court chambers.

Sparks has been diagnosed as psychotic with delusions and with schizoaffective 
disorder, according to court records. At his trial, Dallas County prosecutors 
detailed how Sparks called police after the murders and later confessed on tape 
to killing the boys, as well as his wife, Chare Agnew. According to WFAA-TV, 
Sparks said he had been recording his family because he thought they were 
poisoning him, and he threatened to kill Agnew if he found out she had been.

When everyone was asleep in September 2007, he stabbed his wife 18 times in 
their bed, court records state. He then woke the boys and stabbed them 
repeatedly — Harold at least 45 times.

At the trial, emotions ran high. The court was disrupted several times by 
Harold’s father, who jumped up and ran toward Sparks when attorneys detailed 
how his son died, according to court records. A large blade found in the 
gallery disrupted court proceedings one day. And closing arguments were delayed 
in the guilt phase of the trial after Sparks apparently tried to kill himself, 
The Dallas Morning News reported. Ultimately, he was convicted of capital 
murder and sentenced to death in December 2008.

In recent court filings, Sparks’ attorneys asked for funds to hire a 
neuropsychologist to determine if Sparks was intellectually disabled. They said 
things like an IQ score of 75 (a borderline number for the disability), his 
struggle in special education classes, and poor learning and memory indicate a 
strong possibility Sparks would be ineligible for the death penalty under U.S. 
Supreme Court precedent that forbids execution of the intellectually disabled.

Intellectual disability is often discussed in Texas death penalty cases since 
the U.S. Supreme Court slammed Texas for a 2nd time in February and invalidated 
its method of determining whether a death penalty inmate is disabled. Sparks’ 
lawyers said the appeal wasn’t brought forward earlier because Texas’ old 
method of determining intellectual disability was more restrictive than current 
medical standards. They argued that now Sparks’ low functioning, in addition to 
his borderline IQ of 75, “necessitates a full intellectual disability 
analysis.”

A federal district court judge denied the request for funds and a stop to his 
execution last month. U.S. District Judge David Godbey said Sparks already had 
a full analysis before trial, when his IQ score was given, and he was not 
deemed intellectually disabled. An appellate court also rebuked Sparks for 
first raising the claim of intellectual disability months before his execution.

In final filings before the U.S. Supreme Court, Sparks’ argument hinges on 
behavior at his trial. His lawyers say false testimony from a witness and a 
bailiff’s wardrobe affected the jury.

Sparks’ lawyers said a state witness falsely claimed at trial that if sentenced 
to life in prison instead of death, Sparks would automatically be inserted into 
lower-security housing, providing the chance to eat and socialize with other 
inmates. Sparks’ attorneys said this influenced the jury to lean toward a death 
sentence and that it was likely he would have been in more restrictive custody 
based on his previous jail disciplinary action.

They also said his right to a fair trial and impartial jury were denied when a 
bailiff, Bobby Moorehead, wore a homemade tie depicting a syringe on the day 
the jury began weighing Sparks’ sentence. Moorehead sat directly behind Sparks, 
within view of the jury. He later admitted the tie was to show his support for 
the death penalty, according to Sparks’ filing.

The Texas Attorney General’s Office said the custody level testimony was 
corrected on cross examination to acknowledge Sparks could have had more 
restrictions and argued that the initial statements don’t outweigh the 
viciousness of his crime. It also argued that Sparks can’t prove any jurors 
even saw Moorehead’s tie and that the public’s interest lies in executing 
Sparks’ sentence.

“Certainly, the State has a strong interest in carrying out a death sentence 
imposed for a horrific capital murder wherein Sparks murdered two children and 
raped two more,” wrote Assistant Attorney General Ellen Stewart-Klein.

Unless the high court or Gov. Greg Abbott halts his execution, Sparks will 
become the 7th person executed in Texas in 2019 and the 16th in the nation. 7 
more men are set for execution in Texas this year.

(source: The Texas Tribune)

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

D.A. may seek death penalty after Marshall 5-year-old dies from alleged child 
abuse



After a 5-year-old boy died from injuries sustained during a suspected child 
abuse case in East Texas, the Harrison County District Attorney’s Office may 
seek to upgrade charges to murder punishable by the death penalty or life in 
prison.

When deputies arrived at the house of Danielle Faulkner and her boyfriend Larry 
Prudhomme, investigators were told the child fell off their porch causing him 
to have a seizure and trouble breathing.

While treating him the boy EMS noticed he was extremely bruised all over his 
body and told deputies that they didn’t feel the amount of bruising was 
consistent with falling off the porch.

Faulkner and Prudhomme were both arrested and booked into the Harrison County 
Jail. They were originally charged for Injury to a child causing serious bodily 
injury 1st-degree felony.

As a result of the child’s death, the Harrison County District Attorney’s 
Office is seeking to upgrade the charges to murder or capital murder.

In Texas, the murder of a child under 15 years of age can lead to the death 
penalty or life in prison without parole.

(source: KETK news)

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

DA’s Office weighing death penalty in Trooper Sanchez case



The Hidalgo County District Attorney’s Office will be meeting with the family 
of late Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Moises Sanchez to talk about 
whether to pursue the death penalty for the man accused of shooting the 
trooper.

“Our office has tentatively decided how they want to handle this case, but is 
meeting with Mr. Sanchez’s wife and family before the decision is made 
official,” Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez said.

He said he could not comment further on the case.

A grand jury indicted 24-year-old Victor Alejandro Godinez on Sept. 19 on a 
count of capital murder of a peace officer and a count of attempted capital 
murder of a peace officer.

Godinez, an Edinburg resident, is accused of shooting Sanchez, 48, on April 6 
after he fled a car crash the trooper responded to on North 10th Street and 
Freddy Gonzalez Drive in McAllen. Authorities have said Godinez fled on food 
and is accused of shooting Sanchez after the trooper caught up with him in the 
1500 block of South Maltese in Edinburg.

He had been shot twice, once in the shoulder and once in the head.

The suspect is also accused of shooting at 2 Edinburg police officers who 
eventually apprehended him east of Mon Mack Road and State Highway 107. Neither 
officer was injured and police recovered a .357 revolver authorities say 
Godinez used in the shooting.

Sanchez went through months of surgery and rehabilitation following the 
shooting, and through updates provided to DPS by the family, it appeared he may 
recover.

He died, however, on Aug. 24 following surgery.

The 2-count indictment against Godinez accuses him of shooting and killing 
Sanchez and shooting at Edinburg Police officer Sandra Tapia.

Court records do not reflect an arraignment date for Godinez, who remains 
jailed on $3 million in bonds on 3 counts of attempted capital murder.

(source: The Monitor)

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

Rodney Reed advocates draw new supporters, petition governor for clemency



The Reed Justice Initiative is pulling out all the stops in its fight for a new 
trial for death row inmate Rodney Reed as his Nov. 20 execution date inches 
closer.

On Saturday, the Reed Justice Initiative, an advocacy group mostly composed of 
Reed’s family members who have fought for his innocence since his 1998 murder 
conviction, held a rally in Bastrop decrying what it believes has been an 
unfair appeals process. Reed was convicted for the 1996 strangling death of 
Stacey Stites, whose body was found alongside a rural road outside Bastrop 
after she missed an early morning shift at a grocery store.

The group’s demand for a new trial for Reed has recently been buttressed by 
state Rep. Vikki Goodwin, D-Austin, who weighed in on the case in a letter she 
sent to Reed’s supporters last week.

“I haven’t known of Rodney’s case for long, but when it came to my attention, I 
felt strongly that I could not stand by to watch a grave injustice be 
committed,” her letter read. “When we look at the case, I do not believe that 
anyone can say that Rodney is guilty without a shadow of a doubt. And when 
there is doubt about the truth of a case, we cannot carry out the death 
penalty.”

Goodwin also wrote that “Rodney’s case has drawn the attention of a handful of 
legislators across the political spectrum. My hope is that our combined efforts 
will continue to draw attention to Rodney and in turn stop his execution in 
November.”

He and his lawyers have maintained that his conviction was based on false 
scientific evidence, and that a proper examination of forensic evidence would 
show that Stites was killed hours before she and Reed are said to have crossed 
paths the night of her death. Reed’s attorneys, who work for the Innocence 
Project of New York, have argued that Stites’ fiancé, Jimmy Fennell, who was a 
Giddings police officer at the time, is responsible for her murder.

In June, the Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Reed’s attorney’s claims. A 
month later, visiting judge Doug Shaver signed Reed’s execution order for Nov. 
20.

The Reed Justice Initiative has drummed up wide public interest in Reed’s case. 
In April, it launched a letter writing campaign that stuffed Bastrop County 
District Attorney Bryan Goertz’s inbox and mailbox with pleas to grant Reed a 
new trial. In July, the group also stood on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court 
in Washington calling for the abolition of capital punishment. In that same 
month, the group stood in front of the Bastrop County courthouse for a week, 
hoisting signs claiming Reed’s innocence that they hoped would get Goertz’s 
attention.

Goertz has said that the authority to grant Reed a new trial does not rest in 
his hands and that only the Court of Criminal Appeals can trigger a retrial.

Most recently, the group launched an online petition urging Gov. Greg Abbott to 
grant Reed clemency.

“We hate to say it, but Rodney Reed is the victim of racism and was framed for 
a crime he didn’t commit,” reads the Change.org petition, which also accuses 
Fennell as the “real killer.”

“Sometimes our court system makes mistakes, and this case is a prime example of 
those injustices of what happens when the system fails. Due to these mistakes, 
there’s been no justice for the victim, Stacey Stites, and the real killer has 
continued to be a serial violent offender,” the petition reads, referring to 
Fennell’s conviction for the 2007 kidnapping and sexual assault of a woman in 
his custody as a Georgetown police officer. Fennell was released from prison 
last year after serving 9 1/2 years of a 10-year prison sentence.

(source: Austin American-Statesman)

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

Voices from Solitary: Living on Death Watch



The following account was written by Billy Joel Tracy, who has spent nearly 19 
years in solitary confinement in various Texas prisons, including 1 stint of 13 
straight years in isolation. Tracy, a 41-year-old man with a psychiatric 
disability, has been incarcerated for 21 years in total, and received a death 
sentence for the murder of a prison officer. Tracy resides on what he calls 
“Death Watch,” a section of the Polunsky Unit that houses people who have 
received their confirmed execution dates, though Tracy has not received his 
own. In this piece, Tracy describes the psychological effects of living in 
conditions of severe isolation around people so close to their deaths. Tracy 
has also written a series for Minutes Before Six, expressing his farewells to 
thirteen of his fellow incarcerated men who have been executed. —Valerie 
Kiebala

================

“I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all 
the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added 
mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness, and the willingness to 
remain vulnerable.” —Joseph Addison

“Alright Warden, you can take Mr. Tracy to Death Row now.” —102nd District 
Court Judge Bobby Lockhart

November 15, 2017, I was sentenced to die by lethal injection for the death of 
Timothy Davison, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) guard. After 
being sentenced to death, I was immediately taken from the courtroom by TDCJ 
transportation officers and driven to the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas, 
where the men of Death Row are housed in solitary confinement.

4 hours after being sentenced to die, I found myself inside a cell the State of 
Texas had spent the previous two weeks modifying for me in anticipation of me 
receiving a sentence of death.

This specifically modified cell is housed on 12 building A Pod 1 Section and is 
the section named “Death Watch.” The Death Watch Section is for those Death Row 
inmates whose appeals have run out and have received their execution date. 
Their date to die. They each are given at least 91 days to prepare some last 
ditch appeals and get their affairs in order before their state sanctioned 
executions. On this section they are kept away from the other Death Row inmates 
who have not received execution dates.

The Death Watch Section has 14 cells—all with cameras inside the cells in the 
upper left hand corner with a view of the entire cell. There are monitors 
inside 2 separate control pickets, 2 different wardens officers and a 
surveillance office where the footage inside the cells can be viewed. A Texas 
senator even has access to this live footage. There is zero privacy. The 
cameras were installed years ago under the pretext of helping prevent suicide 
attempts. Allegedly so Texas could preserve the condemned life until they were 
ready to extinguish it themselves.

The Death Watch Section has more than one dark purpose. Texas is infamous for 
getting the maximum amount of suffering it can out of each taxpayer dollar. 
Texas also houses inmates it doesn’t like on Death Watch. Inmates who do not 
have execution dates.

Under the guise of “security,” TDCJ puts inmates on Death Watch without an 
execution date, so they will have to endure living with a camera in their cell, 
but more importantly so they are surrounded by men with just days from death, 
constantly reminded of their doom and constantly suffering the loss of friends.

Imagine the only people you are around are those with a few months to 
live—getting to know them, watching them experience their last days, then 
finally watching them be lead away to be killed. Now extrapolate that over 
YEARS. Can you imagine the psychological impact this would have on someone?

3 other Death Row inmates have been housed on Death Watch as punishment. 2 were 
moved after 9 and 13 months. The 3rd has been on this section over 8 years and 
has endured over 100 men being led to their death. 15 were his friends. In 2018 
he gave up his appeals because he could no longer take the psychological trauma 
of watching men live out their last days. His words to me were, “I’m done, 
Billy, I’m done.” He later decided to continue his appeals at the urging of his 
family, but not because he wants to live.

The cell my captors spent two weeks modifying is a psychological torture 
chamber. It is the only cell in TDCJ like it. They cut the steel table and 
shelf off of the wall. They cut out the steel locker box we store our property 
in, that was welded underneath the bunk. This is so I have no comfortable place 
to write, eat, or store my property. I must store my property in bags on the 
floor. This is a very bad situation in prison because the sewage pipes back up 
all the time. When that occurs, the raw sewage being flushed down the toilets 
backs up and comes out of the drains set into the floor outside of the cells. 
One such drain is 2 feet from my cell door. Multiple times now the drains have 
backed up and the sewer water has flooded into my cell, causing me to lose 
everything it touched on my floor. When this happens I must pile all of my 
uncontaminated property onto my bunk. This leaves me no place to sit or lay, so 
I must just stand in the sewer water or sit on my toilet, until a maintenance 
crew can unclog the pipes. I’ve had to stand/sit like this for HOURS several 
times. This creates extreme anxiety in me when I go to sleep. Will the run 
flood? I’m always waking up to check my floor for water. I cannot ever truly 
relax. With no table to eat from I must set my tray of food onto my sink. My 
toilet is directly under my tray of food. Eating directly over a toilet is an 
appetite killer.

TDCJ also welded metal plates with small holes in them over the inflow and 
outflow air vents. This restricts the heat and air conditioning into my cell to 
such an extent that it’s made my cell a hot box in the summer and an ice box in 
the winter. It’s almost always an extreme temperature inside this cell. What is 
worse is the outflow vent—the vent that sucks the air out—because slowly the 
screen will fill up with dust. It ends up looking like the filter in your dryer 
when you don’t clear it out for a long time. With a metal plate over the vent 
the only way to clear it of the caked up dust is to put my mouth over each hole 
and repeatedly suck the dust into my mouth and throat and then spit it out. 
There are 30 holes. I dread doing this. I’m left coughing for hours afterwards. 
I must do it though. If I do not the cell becomes even more oppressive with no 
air circulation.

My cell door was also rebuilt, adding a steel box over the food slot so that 
guards can open it and set whatever item inside the box and close it. Then they 
open a smaller door so I can reach into the box for the item(s). 2 layers of 
Plexiglas were placed over the outside of the door, covering the 2 observation 
slits. More metal was welded onto the bottom and sides of the door so the door 
is sealed. This restricts air flow and makes it very hard for others to hear 
anything I say.

On top of all this, I am also only allowed to recreate all alone outside with a 
supervisor standing there watching me the entire time. The rec yard has 2 cages 
in it—it’s designed for 2 people to utilize. Yet, I am only allowed to recreate 
alone. Alone everyday. Outside and inside my cell. Alone. Alone except for when 
I have a visitor—even then a supervisor stands directly behind me to intimidate 
my visitors.

Living under such oppression would be hard for anyone to cope with. It’s even 
harder to endure for someone like me, who has a disability. I have severe 
organic brain damage. The neurological issues I deal with cause issues commonly 
seen in people with mental illness. I grew up in and out of mental institutions 
because my brain damage was unknown and misdiagnosed as one mental illness or 
another, most commonly, Intermittent Explosive Disorder. I’ve never received 
treatment for brain damage. It went unknown until the day I committed the 
crime, in 1998, that I received a life sentence for.

TDCJ’s treatment plan for me has been to warehouse me in long-term solitary 
confinement. Solitary confinement which is proven to only worsen people with 
impulse/aggression problems like I have. I have spent almost 19 of the last 21 
1/2 years in solitary. At the time of the crime I’m on Death Row for, I’d been 
in solitary for nine and a half years. And now, at the time of writing this 
piece, I have been in solitary for 14 1/2 of the past 17 years.

As brutal as my living conditions are, the hardest by far to endure, 
psychologically, isn’t this cell, recreating alone and living under constant 
surveillance, or standing for hours in sewage. It is living around men who are 
living out their last days.

Over the past 18 months that I have lived on Death Watch, I have made more 
friends than in all of my other years incarcerated combined. Something about 
living so close to death causes most to drop their machismo front and open up 
with each other. It’s how we cope, I guess—reaching out to others for help, 
support, comfort, understanding. I have become very close, very quickly, with 
several of these men only to watch them taken away and poisoned until their 
lives are over. I’ve watched sixteen men walk away to their death. I have been 
in mourning since January 2018—a mourning that starts over and over, with layer 
upon layer added and I know it will never end.

I almost wish that all of these men were assholes with repugnant personalities 
so I wouldn’t mourn them. Several times I almost decided to quit getting to 
know these men—just to hibernate within myself, to armor my heart and not allow 
anyone in, to shut out the pain, to form a shell around myself so I can get 
some peace. I know living that way is not psychologically healthy either. For 
my personality type I need to interact with others as much as possible. I just 
don’t know what to do. Either way I choose to live is great emotional pain, 
great psychological pain.

I have at least 5 more years before my appeals would be over and I could be 
executed. Texas plans to keep me here, in this cell, until that day, whether it 
is in 5 years or 15 years. Can I make it that long and retain my sanity? Will I 
lose myself in this endless death march?

I fear for my sanity more now that I ever have in all of these years of 
solitary confinement. I’ve seen so many men go crazy from the effects of 
solitary that I’ve always kept myself on a strict sleep and exercise schedule 
to help counteract the effects of isolation. I get up and go to bed at the same 
time every day. This stops me from oversleeping which causes depression and 
saps your will to live. I exercise first thing after getting out of bed and 
then I do artwork and write to keep my mind active. Stay busy. Stay active. 
Regimented. Hard core regimentation. Regimentation mandated due to the terror 
of losing my sanity.

My strict regimentation is not working as well under the stress of living in 
this torture cell on Death Watch. Lately my weight is going up and down from 
muscle loss and muscle gain. Weight fluctuation caused by mini depressions, 
like someone with a mild bipolar disorder. I can’t sleep more than an hour or 
two without waking fully and lying there an interminable amount of time before 
falling into a fitful sleep. I never feel like I’ve slept. Sleep has always 
been my brief escape from prison. Now I do not have that respite.

I have been tormented with guilt for killing Davison. Guilt that seems to grow 
each day and not fade. I feel like the character is Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, 
who murdered someone and imagined he could hear his victim’s heart beating and 
it drove him crazy. Instead of a beating heart, I constantly hear the imagined 
voices of Davison’s two daughters—now fatherless—and his brother and niece, now 
without a brother and uncle… “Daddy, Daddy,” I hear… “Uncle!”… “Brother!”… I 
hear this like a mantra chanted endlessly.

Living on Death Watch has exacerbated my guilt greatly. Every time one of my 
friends is executed and I mourn them I think of what I put Davison’s family 
through. Then I keep thinking about it over and over.

(source: solitarywatch.org)








PENNSYLVANIA:

Lycoming County DA seeks death penalty for alleged Uni-Mart shooter



Lycoming County District Attorney Kenneth Osokow is seeking the death penalty 
for alleged Uni-Mart shooter Ikeem Fogan, 21, of Williamsport according to 
court documents.

Fogan is accused of killing Rhonda McPeak on the night of Aug. 4 when he 
allegedly entered the Uni Mart on West Fourth St. with a gun. JoBeth Wetzel, 
cashier at the Uni Mart on West Fourth St. who was on duty that night, 
testified during Fogan’s preliminary hearing.

Wetzel described the robbery on Aug. 4, saying an individual rushed into the 
store, took a female customer--a Dunkin Donuts employee who was identified as 
Rhonda McPeak--in his left arm, holding her by force at the counter while he 
pointed a small, black gun at Wetzel and demanded money from the register.

When Wetzel refused, he allegedly shot her in the shoulder and then shot and 
killded McPeak before fleeing the store.

Osokow cited 4 “aggravating circumstances” in his notice filed on Sept. 19, 
2019 that prompt the the death penalty for the offense of criminal homicide. 
First, he said, the victim was being held by the defendant for ransom or 
reward, or as a shield or hostage.

The 2nd circumstance notes that the victim was a prosecution witness to a 
murder or other felony committed by the defendant and was killed for the 
purposes of preventing testimony against the defendant in a grand jury or 
ciminal proceeding involving said offense.

Additionally, the defendant allegedly committed a killing while in the 
perpetration of a felony. The 4th circumstance notes that in the commission of 
the offense, the defendant knowingly created a grave risk of death to another 
person in addition to the victim of the offense.

Each of these circumstances in the Title 18 crimes code makes this defendant 
eligible, according to the document.

(source: northcentral pa.com)








VIRGINIA:

Virginia bishops support suit demanding public view of executions



The Virginia Catholic Conference has spoken in support of a lawsuit demanding 
that the public be able to view the entirety of the execution process in 
capital cases.

The suit, filed Sept. 23 in a U.S. District Court, was brought by several news 
media organizations. It argues that Virginia’s Department of Corrections 
violates the First Amendment by blocking public view of certain steps in the 
execution procedure, and that public oversight is an essential safeguard for 
prisoners’ rights.

The Virginia Catholic Conference, which speaks on behalf of the state's 2 
bishops, Bishop Barry Knestout of Richmond and Bishop Michael Burbidge of 
Arlington, praised the lawsuit.

In a statement to CNA Sept. 24, conference executive director Jeff Caruso said 
“As long as we continue to have the death penalty in Virginia, it is important 
to have public accountability for how the state exacts the ultimate 
punishment.”

“More importantly, Virginia should seek ways to curb and ultimately end its use 
of the death penalty.”

Virginia’s execution manual was updated in 2017, the same year as the state’s 
last execution. The update was ordered following concerns about the amount of 
time it took to place an IV line in convicted murderer Ricky Javon Gray. Gray 
was the second-most recent execution in the state.

The suit, brought by several media outlets, including the Associated Press, 
Guardian News & Media LLC, BH Media Group, and Gannett Co. argues that the new 
protocol prevents journalists from ensuring that the rights of the prisoner are 
not violated during the execution process.

The updated rules require that a curtain be drawn over the execution chamber’s 
observation window prior to the inmate entering the room. This curtain is to 
remain closed until the condemned inmate is either strapped to a gurney and 
given an intravenous line, or, in the case of prisoners to be electrocuted, 
until the inmate is secured in the electric chair and 3 unspecified actions are 
performed.

Prior to 2017, the curtains were drawn over the observation window only during 
the placement of the IV and heart monitors on the inmate.

“These limits on witnesses’s ability to view Virginia’s executions severely 
curtail the public’s ability to understand how those executions are 
administered, or to assess whether a particular execution violates either the 
Constitution or the state’s prescribed execution procedures, or is otherwise 
botched,” said the lawsuit.

The suit requests a court order to remove the curtains from the observation 
room, so that an execution can be viewed from start to finish.

Since the death penalty was once again made legal, Virginia has executed 113 
people, either through lethal injection or electrocution. There are presently 2 
people on Virginia’s death row.

In the decades following the reinstatement of the death penalty, there has been 
one person released from Virginia’s death row after being exonerated. Ten other 
formerly condemned prisoners have been granted clemency.

(source: Catholic News Agency)








SOUTH CAROLINA:

‘Everybody knew each other’: Teary friends start death-penalty part of 
double-murder trial ---- Pastor Kaleb Dees at NewSpring Church says Donna Major 
was very loving and compassionate. Major was one of two women killed in a 
Conway bank robbery Monday. Officials are asking for prayers to comfort the 
families.



Donna Major had no idea what fate held for her just hours after she started to 
journal about Aug. 21, 2017.

“Today is the big solar eclipse,” Major wrote as she detailed her memories of 
the 1979 eclipse. She noted how the kids were ready for the 2017 eclipse, which 
would happen around 2 p.m. Major ended the entry speaking about the next 
eclipse in 30 years and what is now an ominous line.

“I will be 94 if I am still alive,” Major wrote, “but probably not.”

Hours after writing the entry, and about 60 minutes before the eclipse, Major 
and Katie Skeen were murdered inside the Conway CresCom bank. Her journal entry 
was read to a federal jury on Tuesday that is considering whether their killer, 
Brandon Council, should be sentenced to death.

2 CresCom coworkers were the first people to take the stand as prosecutors 
detailed why Council should be executed. Tracy McClary, a security officer with 
the bank, testified she gave police an image from the bank’s security cameras 
showing Council. Police released that image to the media soon after the 
robbery.

McClary also said the killing had a significant impact on other CresCom 
employees and some didn’t return to work after the incident.

Days after the murder, McClary said the community provided support at the 
branch including painting messages on rocks that are still at the 16th Avenue 
branch.

Cathy Lambert was one of four employees who worked at the CresCom along with 
Skeen and Major. She was not at the branch on Aug. 21. She cried during her 
testimony and was unable to read Major’s journal entry. She said someone called 
her to tell her about the robbery and “there were fatalities.”

“Please just tell me ya’ll are OK,” Lambert texted both at 2:24 p.m.

Lambert said she knew Skeen since she was a teenager and the 2 worked at the 
same bank. Skeen loved her two children and was trying to raise them properly, 
Lambert said.

“I kind of watched her grow up,” Lambert said. “I kind of felt like her bank 
mom.”

Major loved her grandchildren and to quilt. Lambert said the bank had few 
customers, which allowed the employees to know each other, even what they each 
had for dinner the previous night.

“We were all family, it’s a small bank,” Lambert said, “and everybody knew each 
other.”

(source: myrtlebeachonline.com)








OHIO:

Ohio governor’s lethal injection comments allowed in lawsuit



A federal magistrate judge is allowing comments about the death penalty made by 
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to become part of a long-running lawsuit challenging 
Ohio’s lethal injection process.

Lawyers for death row inmates asked for the inclusion of “numerous statements” 
by the Republican governor that he would not authorize executions using the 
state’s current 3-drug method.

The lawyers argued the statements weren’t barred by rules preventing the use of 
hearsay and that they were relevant since DeWine has said executions won’t go 
forward for now.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Merz in Dayton on Monday ruled in favor of 
allowing DeWine’s comments into the court case.

Executions have been on hold in Ohio while the prisons system looks for new 
supplies of lethal drugs.

(source: Associated Press)