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August 2010

Aug. 30th

CALIFORNIA: Execution date set

A Sept. 29 execution date was set for a man who raped and murdered a teenager nearly 30 years ago.
Albert Greenwood Brown's death warrant was signed by Judge Roger A. Luebs. His execution will take place at San Quentin State Prison.
"Justice has been delayed for 30 years since Susan Jordan was murdered," Chief Assistant District Attorney William Mitchell said. "It's time we moved forward with this."
Brown's attorneys filed a request for an emergency stay, but it was denied by the California Supreme Court.
The judge said he was allowed to set the execution date as soon as 30 days and no later than 60 days after the D.A. filed a request for a death warrant. The execution date he set is the earliest possible by law.
(source: Southwest Riverside News Network)

CALIFORNIA: George Smithey Found Hanged in San Quentin Cell

Smithey, 70, was found hanged with bedsheets in his cell. He had just successfully convinced a judge last week that he shouldn't face death as he is mentally retarded.
The family of Cheryl Anne Nesler - whom Smithey knifed and attempted to rape in 1988 during a robbery for meth money - chalked up the judge's ruling as a success for "bleeding hearts."
(source: AP)

Aug. 28th

TEXAS: Federal judge overturns death sentence

A federal judge overturned Michael Yowell's 1999 death sentence, citing ineffective assistance of trial counsel and error by the trial court.
Yowell, 40, will receive a new punishment hearing if the ruling by U.S. District Judge Sam Cummings is not appealed or the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit denies the appeal.
Cummings ruled Yowell's trial attorney, Jack Stoffregen, did not adequately defend him during the punishment phase of the 1999 trial and that Judge Jim Bob Darnell violated Yowell's constitutional rights by not allowing testimony that could have persuaded jurors to spare his life.
Yowell shot his father and strangled his mother in 1998 before turning on the gas jets in the house. When his grandmother opened a door, the home blew up. The grandmother later died.
(source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

USA: Anesthesia shortage may delay executions

A nationwide shortage of several anesthesia drugs has left several states scrambling to find enough doses to carry out lethal injections potentially delaying executions well into next year.
Kentucky announced this week that it would not be able to carry out two executions.
Oklahoma has also been forced to delay an execution after a federal judge said a hearing needs to be held before the state could substitute a drug for the state's remaining dose of sodium thiopental.
Ohio prison officials have been closely watching the nationwide shortage after they feared they may not be able to carry out a lethal injection last spring because of limited supplies.
The lack of sodium thiopental developed after a more commonly used anesthetic called Propofol grew scarce, said Bona Benjamin with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. The shortages have led to major disruptions for hospitals, doctors and patients, who have postponed some elective surgeries as a result.
(source: USA Today)

Aug. 27th

OHIO: Inmate can fight 2nd execution attempt

A death row inmate who underwent a botched execution attempt can continue to argue that a 2nd try would be an unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment, a federal judge ruled Friday.
U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost denied a motion by the state to dismiss the challenge against another lethal injection attempt on Romell Broom. The inmate also can continue arguing that he should have access to attorneys during any future execution attempt that might go awry, the judge ruled.
Broom's execution last year was stopped by Gov. Ted Strickland after an execution team tried for 2 hours to find a suitable vein. Broom has said he was stuck with needles at least 18 times, with pain so intense that he cried and screamed.
Broom was sentenced to die for the 1984 rape and slaying of 14-year-old Tryna Middleton after abducting her in Cleveland as she walked home from a Friday night football game with 2 friends.
(source: AP)

VIRGINIA: Plan to end face-to-face death row visits cancelled

Spokesman Larry Traylor said the department decided against changing the policy to require all death row visits be done via video beginning Sept. 1.
Traylor would not say why the department changed its plans, but said it would continue to review the policy "as well as other related issues and technical capabilities."
Virginia would have been only the 2nd death penalty state to end face-to-face visits.
Inmates' families and prisoner advocates condemned the planned policy change, calling it "cruel and unnecessary."
Traylor said video-only visitation was implemented for inmates in segregation on Aug. 1 and will remain in effect.
(source: AP)

Aug. 26th

FLORIDA: Death Sentenced Overturned

A 78-year-old Brevard County man was re-sentenced to life in prison after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his death sentence. George Porter's original death sentence was tossed out because his defense attorney didn't tell
jurors about Porter's abusive childhood or his traumatic experience as a soldier in the Korean War.
Not only did Porter get off death row, prosecutors say other defense attorneys could try to use the court's decision to help other convicts with military backgrounds.
George Porter said he never came to ask the judge to save his life, but decades of appeals did get his death sentence thrown out and said the appeals will continue.
Porter was convicted in 1988 of murdering his ex-girlfriend, 50-year-old Evelyn Williams and her new boyfriend, William Burrows. But last November the Supreme Court threw out his death sentence because Porter's attorney failed to bring up at his original sentencing, childhood abuse or possible post traumatic stress disorder from combat in the Korean War.
"I got 3 bronze stars, one silver star. I don't know what they are all for. They don't mean nothing to me hardly, but I was proud to wear them and I'm still proud of my country," he said.
Because of Porter's age prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty again.
(source: WFTV News)

Aug. 25th

GEORGIA: Judge Rejects Troy Davis's Innocence Claim

A federal judge has ruled Georgia death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis has not proven he's innocent of the 1989 death of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail, after Davis was granted a rare evidence hearing by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Tuesday's ruling against Davis sets the stage for Georgia officials to move forward with executing him for the 1989 shooting death of Savannah Police Officer Mark MacPhail.
In June, U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore Jr. heard 2 days of testimony from witnesses seeking to cast doubt on Davis' conviction. The Supreme Court ordered the hearing for Davis a year ago.
Davis has been spared from execution three times as his attorneys pushed their argument that new evidence showed police ignored MacPhail's real killer as they rushed to pin the shooting on Davis. Attorneys said it was would be unconstitutional to execute Davis because he's innocent.
Moore's ruling apparently sets important legal ground in that he concludes that the State killing a person who's innocent would violate the Constitution.
However the judge said Davis had not proved innocence to him.
"For the reasons that follow, the Court concludes that while executing an innocent person would violate the United States Constitution, Mr. Davis has failed to prove his innocence. Accordingly, the petition is DENIED," writes Judge Moore.
Court documents say that in July of 2007 Davis filed an extraordinary motion for a new trial in Chatham County Superior court, arguing he was innocent and that new evidence showed someone else (Sylvester "Redd" Coles) had murdered Officer MacPhail.
Then in May of 2009, Davis filed a petition for a writ of Habeas Corpus within the original jurisdiction of the United States Supreme Court. In the petition, Davis again argued that his execution wold be unconstitutional under both the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
Judge Moore wrote that "the court begins its analysis by considering the feasability of a freestanding claim of innocence and then the Court determines the appropriate burden of proof and whether Davis has met that burden."
Judge Moore wrote that Davis needed to show by "clear and convincing evidence that no reasonable juror would have convicted him in the light of the new evidence.
At the end the court decided that he failed to meet that burden.
(source: WSAV News)

Aug. 22nd

WASHINGTON: Execution delayed

A convicted double-murderer's stay of execution will lapse Wednesday as previously ordered by a Clallam County judge, but he will not face death by lethal injection quite yet.
In an expected move, the state Supreme Court last month gave Darold Stenson another stay that will be in effect until it determines whether the former Sequim man should get a new trial.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams in May ordered his last stay to be terminated, effective Wednesday, after further DNA testing failed to provide evidence that someone other than Stenson killed his wife and business partner over 17 years ago.
Stenson's 28-year-old wife, Denise, and his 33-year-old business partner, Frank Hoerner, were shot to death in 1993 at Stenson's bird farm southwest of Sequim.
Stenson was convicted by a Clallam County jury of 2 counts of 1st-degree aggravated murder in 1994.
The Supreme Court now is considering whether to give Stenson a new trial over possible evidence contamination.
(source: Peninsula Daily News)
 

Aug. 18th

OKLAHOMA: Stay of execution

A federal judge – judge Friot – has issued a stay of execution for Jeffrey David Matthews, 38, who was scheduled for lethal injection August 24, 10 for killing his 77-year-old great-uncle in 1994.
The stay was issued after defense attorneys raised concerns about the sedative to be injected. It was the 3rd stay of execution for Matthews.
Gov. Brad Henry has granted 2 stays of execution to give defense attorneys time to examine fingerprint evidence. Matthews was scheduled for execution on June 17 and again on July 20.
Judge Friot set a hearing for Oct. 15. If the execution is allowed to happen, a new date would likely be set for about 30 days.
(source: The Oklahoman) 

Aug. 14th

CALIFORNIA: Death row inmate dies

A former nurse sentenced to death for the killing of 12 patients at two hospitals in Riverside County in 1981 has died.
Officials at San Quentin State Prison say Robert Rubane Diaz died of natural causes in a hospital Wednesday morning.
The 72-year-old Diaz had been on death row since June 1984.
Prison officials say since 1978 when California reinstated capital punishment, 51 condemned inmates have died from natural causes, while 17 have committed suicide. By comparison, during that same time, 13 inmates have been executed in California.
(source: AP)

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