Month: April 2012

Texas – TDCJ wants to block release of lethal injection drug info

april 3, 2012 source : http://www.chron.com

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is refusing to disclose the size of its stock of a key pharmaceutical used in executions, saying doing so would endanger its drug makers and suppliers.

The charge comes in a brief filed with the Texas Attorney General’s Office in response to a December query by an British newspaper concerning the contents of state’s death house medicine chest. The agency said releasing such information would provide ammunition for Reprieve, a British anti-death penalty group that successfully has pressured drug makers to stop selling to executioners.

Likening Reprieve’s campaigns to those of violent prison gangs, the brief written by TDCJ Assistant General Counsel Patricia Fleming asserts that releasing information “creates a substantial risk of physical harm to our supplier. … It is not a question of if, but when, Reprieve’s unrestrained harassment will escalate into violence…”

TDCJ is seeking authorization not to answer questions posed in a December public information request by Ed Pilkington, the New York correspondent for The Guardian, a national British newspaper. An attorney general’s response is expected this month.

Pilkington sought to determine how much pentobarbital, one of three drugs used in executions, the death house had in stock. He also asked how the agency met requirements that a second “back up” dose of lethal drugs be available at executions.

“I was very surprised by the language they chose to use, which was pretty inflammatory, really,” Pilkington said. “Obviously, there is an international disagreement over the death penalty. … Usually that discourse is conducted in a civilized manner.”

He called the claim that the prison system’s drug suppliers were in jeopardy, “pretty far-fetched.”

‘Public interest’

Joseph Larsen, a lawyer for the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, said Pilkington’s questions go to the “heart of how effectively TDCJ performs its official functions.”

“The whole idea behind the Texas Public Information Act is that the governmental bodies do not get to control the information that underlies political discussion,” he said. “Specifically, the governmental body does not even get to ask why a requestor wants certain information. How then can a governmental body base its argument for withholding on what use it anticipates will be made of the information if released?”

In a 2008 case, the Attorney General’s Office sided with TDCJ in denying Forbes magazine the names of companies that supplied execution drugs, noting that “releasing the names of the companies would place the employees of those companies in imminent threat of physical danger.”

Drug’s maker pressed

An appeals court rejected that ruling the following year.

Pentobarbital was added to the state’s lethal cocktail in May 2011, replacing sodium thiopental after that drug’s maker stopped production, in part because of Reprieve’s anti-drug agitation.

Reprieve followed by directing international pressure on Lundbeck, pentobarbital’s Danish maker, obtaining a July 2011 agreement that the company no longer would sell to prisons in death penalty states. The production plant later was sold, but the new owner abided by the agreement.

Reprieve also targeted a pharmaceutical company that had supplied sodium thiopental to Arizona. On its website, Reprieve posted photos of the supplier’s office along with its tax returns and the name, phone number and address of its owner.

Texas – Appeals Court Orders Re-evaluation of Death Row Case

april 4, 2012 source :http://www.texastribune.org

Dr. George Denkowski conducted psychological exams for 14 current death row inmates. 1) Anthony Pierce 2) Virgilio Maldonado 3) Calvin Hunter 4) Roosevelt Smith Jr. 5) John Matamoros 6) Derrick Charles 7) Kim Ly Lim 8) Coy Wesbrook 9) Joel Escobedo 10) Jamie McCoskey 11) Warren Rivers 12) Tomas Gallo 13) Steven Butler 14) Alfred BrownDr. George Denkowski conducted psychological exams for 14 current death row inmates. 1) Anthony Pierce 2) Virgilio Maldonado 3) Calvin Hunter 4) Roosevelt Smith Jr. 5) John Matamoros 6) Derrick Charles 7) Kim Ly Lim 8) Coy Wesbrook 9) Joel Escobedo 10) Jamie McCoskey 11) Warren Rivers 12) Tomas Gallo 13) Steven Butler 14) Alfred Brown

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today ordered a Harris County criminal court to re-evaluate whether death row inmate Coy Wayne Wesbrook is intellectually competent enough to face execution for the murders he was convicted of in 1998.

Wesbrook was sentenced to death for the 1997 fatal shootings of his ex-wife and three men. He appealed his death sentence, raising claims that he was mentally retarded. His claims were denied in 2007 after Dr. George Denkowski testified as an expert for the state in his case.

The state’s highest court has ordered similar reviews in at least two other death penalty cases involving Denkowksi, who was reprimanded last year for his work. (See story below.)

(12/15/2011) — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday ordered lower courts to review two death penalty cases that involved a psychologist who was reprimanded earlier this year for using questionable methods to determine whether defendants were intellectually competent enough to face capital punishment.

“What we’re seeing is a growing awareness on the part of the Court of Criminal Appeals for scientific integrity in criminal cases,” said Kathryn Kase, interim executive director of the Texas Defender Services, which represents death row inmates. “The evidence of retardation in both of these cases is pretty compelling.”

The state’s highest criminal court sent the cases of Steven Butler and John Matamoros back to Harris County courts to re-evaluate the evidence used to sentence the two men to death. Dr. George Denkowski examined both of the men and told the juries they did not suffer from mental retardation.

In April of this year, the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists (TSBEP), issued a reprimand against Denkowksi, whose methods were widely criticized. Denkowksi agreed not to conduct intellectual disability evaluations in future criminal cases and to pay a fine of $5,500. In return, the board dismissed the complaints against him. The psychologist admitted no wrongdoing and defended his practice. But defense lawyers were hopeful that the reprimand would prompt the courts to review other cases where juries relied on Denkowski’s evaluations to hand down death sentences.

Denkowski evaluated 14 inmates who are now on Texas’ death row — and two others who were subsequently executed — and found them intellectually competent enough to face the death penalty.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that states cannot execute mentally handicapped people. The court, though, left it to the states to create guidelines for determining whether a person is mentally handicapped. Texas courts have generally adopted a three-part definition that requires the convicted inmate to have below average intellectual function, lack adaptive behavior skills and to have had those problems from a young age.

Prosecutors regularly relied on Denkowski to perform psychological evaluations to determine whether a murder suspect would be eligible for execution. But in 2009, other psychologists and defense lawyers complained to the TSBEP that Denkowski used unscientific methods that artificially inflated intelligence scores to make defendants eligible for the death penalty.

In his 2006 evaluation of Steven Butler, who was convicted in the shooting death of a store clerk, Denkowski rejected other IQ test scores that indicated Butler was well below average intelligence. He discounted behavioral evaluations from Butler’s family and friends, who said that Butler couldn’t understand the rules of basketball, had to have others read menus for him and that he had failed basic classes.

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Butler’s execution pending the outcome of the complaint against Denkowksi. And on Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said it was acting on its own initiative to remand the case to the trial court in Harris County and “allow it the opportunity to re-evaluate its initial findings, conclusions, and recommendation in light of the Denkowski Settlement Agreement.”

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals had also stayed the execution of Matamoros, who was convicted in 1992 of stabbing to death a 70-year-old Houston man. As in the Butler case, the criminal appeals court said it was taking initiative to send the case back for re-evaluation based on the psychologist’s reprimand.

Kase said she hoped the court would also order re-evaluation of the other death penalty cases in which Denkowski examined the defendants.

“Exonerations, I think, have caused the court to become concerned about the integrity of forensic evidence,” she said. “That’s really, really important here, where the decision about whether someone has retardation is a matter of life and death.”

Ray’s Story – wrongfully convicted

Ray Krone was sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. He has been proven innocent and exonerated, and now helps other “exonerees” share their stories of unjust sentences and close calls with state-sanctioned death penalties. Ray works for Witness to Innocence, which receives support from Atlantic, toward abolishing the death penalty throughout America. Atlantic is the largest funder of work to abolish the death penalty in the U.S.

For more info see: http://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/rays-story-death-penalty-mistake

Serial killer Sowell’s execution date delayed

april 2 source : http://www.wtam.com

(Cleveland) — Convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell’s execution, originally set for October 29 of this year, has been pushed back. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Monday on a request by Sowell’s new defense team to delay the execution.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason tells WTAM that the delay is unexpected, given that there will be appeals in the case through the entire state appellate court system and also through the federal court system. Mason says the entire process in a death penalty case could take ten to 30 years.

The execution date of October 29 was set by Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose when Sowell was sentenced last year. It’s the third anniversary of the date that Cleveland Police went to Sowell’s house on Imperial Avenue and found the remains of the first of the 11 women he was convicted of killing.

Georgia – Daniel Greene – Execution – april 19 – STAYED 90 DAYS

april 4, 2012 source : http://www.correctionsone.com

TAYLOR COUNTY, Ga. — An April 19 execution date has been set for a former high school football star from Taylor County.

Daniel Greene was sentenced to death for the 1991 killing of 19-year-old Bernard Walker, who was trying to come to the aid of a Suwanee Thrifty store clerk in Taylor County.

Greene had forced the clerk to give him $142 from the cash register before he took her to a back room and stabbed her. She survived, but Walker, whom Greene stabbed in the heart, died in the parking lot.

Greene, a 6-foot-5, 350-pound former high school football standout, was tried in Clayton County in 1992 because of pretrial publicity.

After killing Walker, Greene drove to the home of a Macon County couple who had previously employed him as a farm laborer. Greene burst into their home, took their car keys and then stabbed Willie and Donice Montgomery multiple times. The couple survived.

Greene then drove to another convenience store in Warner Robins and pulled a knife on the store attendant, who gave Greene money from the cash register. Greene stabbed her in the back of the shoulder before fleeing. He was later arrested at a relative’s home and confessed to the crimes in a videotaped interview, saying he needed money for crack cocaine, according to court records.

Late last week, a judge signed an order scheduling Greene’s execution for a seven-day period beginning April 19. On Monday, Department of Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens set the execution for April 19 at 7 p.m.

The execution is to be carried out at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. Greene would be the 30th state inmate put to death by lethal injection.

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Death Row inmate who killed mother dies after illness

april 4, 2012 source : http://www.pressdemocrat.com

SACRAMENTO — A Death Row inmate has died of natural causes while awaiting execution for killing his own mother.

Lt. Sam Robinson, a spokesman for San Quentin State Prison, said Frank Manuel Abilez died in the prison’s hospital Tuesday.

Abilez, who was 53, had a long-term illness. Robinson says his death was expected but would not discuss the illness, citing privacy laws.

Abilez was on death row for sodomizing and strangling his 68-year-old mother in 1996. He was convicted by a Los Angeles County jury in 1997 and sentenced to die for killing Beatrice Abilez Loza, a mother of 10.

The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says 76 condemned inmates have died of natural causes or committed suicide since California reinstated the death penalty in 1978. Fourteen have been executed.

Related articles

US Debates The Execution Question

april 4 2012  source : http://news.sky.com

Courts in the United States condemned fewer people to death last year than at any time in the country’s modern history. Greg Milam reports.

watch the video : here  

Rob Will – Another Potentially Innocent Man On Death Row Faces Execution In Texas

april 2 2012  source : http://thinkprogress.org

Yet another death row inmate in Texas may in fact not be guilty of the crime that put him there. Robert Gene Will was convicted in the 2000 slaying of Deputy Sheriff Barrett Hill in Harris County, Texas. Will and another man, Michael Rosario, were caught trying to break into a car in December 2000. Both men fled, but Will says he was apprehended and placed in handcuffs by police. That’s when someone shot Deputy Sheriff Hill.

 

Will says that the shooter couldn’t have been him, on account of his hands literally being tied behind his back. And his lawyers argue that Rosario, the accomplice in the attempted car burglary, has admitted to at least five people that he was the one who pulled the trigger that morning. And now, Will’s case is attracting even more attention after a U.S District Judge voiced his own reservations about the initial conviction and the appeal that was conducted. TheHouston Chronicle reports:

“The questions raised during post-judgment factual development about Will’s actual innocence create disturbing uncertainties …,” [Judge Keith] Ellison wrote in a Jan. 17 memorandum. “On top of the considerable evidence supporting Will’s innocence and the important errors in the trial court, there must also be addressed the total absence of eyewitness testimony or strongly probative forensic evidence. With facts such as these, and only circumstantial evidence supporting Will’s conviction and death sentence, the court laments the strict limitations placed upon it.”

Judge Ellison was limited in his ability to hear new evidence before making a decision on whether to grant an appeal to Will, and despite his expressed dismay over the lower court’s verdict, was forced to deny the appeal on a technicality. But Will and his defense attorneys still have avenues open to them, including a recent Supreme Court ruling that allows for convicted criminals to, in some cases, challenge the competency of their state-assigned appeals lawyers. For Will, whose appointed attorney filed a legal brief that copied extensively from one he filed previously for a completely different case, the Supreme Court decision offers a ray of hope.

Texas has a well-earned reputation for unsympathetic governors who are undeterred at overseeing more executions than any other state in the country. Current Gov. Rick Perry presided over 235 executions during his time in office, by far the most of any governor in the modern era. This despite several questionable convictions that call into question the use of the death penalty at all.

 

my own opinion

Perry is more of a murderer than anyone who’s death warrant he has signed. Innocent isn’t  in Perry’s vocabulary, Perry loves the smell of burning flesh in the morning. What’s going wrong with him ? what’s going wrong with this state ? Maybe Perry may need psychotherapy, an event in his childhood of the trauma to become a man who happens to sleep at night knowing that he killed people and especially innocent people. I think sometimes the most dangerous people are not those caught, but those who elected to lead.

well we know  Texas-Bush-Perry .. murderers.. 

 

 

OREGON – Prosecutor agrees with OR death row inmate

april, 3 2012 source : http://www.dailytidings.com

PORTLAND, Ore. — As Oregon death row inmate Gary Haugen fights a reprieve, he has a supporter in Marion County District Attorney Walt Beglau whose office won the death penalty conviction.

Haugen wants to be executed and has asked a circuit court to rule that Gov. John Kitzhaber’s reprieve is legally ineffective because Haugen doesn’t accept it.

Beglau told The Oregonian that’s the central issue in the case. Beglau says he disagrees with Kitzhaber’s reprieve and won’t defend it. The Oregon Justice Department will.

Haugen was sentenced to die for killing another inmate in prison. The governor is opposed to capital punishment.

Michael Parrish gets death penalty in ’09 double-murder

april 02. 2012  source : http://www.poconorecord.com

A Monroe County jury has sentenced Michael Parrish to death for the 2009 double-murder of his ex-girlfriend and infant son.

Parrish was convicted last week of fatally shooting Victoria Adams and Sidney Parrish at their apartment in Effort on the night of July 6, 2009.

Sitting between his attorneys, Parrish showed no emotion to the verdict, staring straight ahead and blinking his eyes every few seconds. Though his father and a former co-worker had testified earlier on his behalf, none of Parrish’s family or friends were present for the jury’s penalty phase verdict.

Parrish remained as stoic as ever, saying nothing as sheriff’s deputies led him from the courtroom after the verdict.

“I wanted him to get death and I’m glad he got it, but it still doesn’t bring my daughter and grandson back,” a tearful Kim Adams, mother of victim Victoria Adams and grandmother of baby victim Sidney Parrish, told reporters afterward as she left the courthouse with other family members. “Nothing can ever bring them back.”

The family thanked the police, District Attorney’s Office and county Victim-Witness Coordinator’s Office.

A somber Wieslaw Niemoczynski, the county public defender who with attorney Jim Gregor has been representing Parrish, called the verdict “very sobering.”

“The jury has spoken,” Niemoczynski said. “We’ll see what, if any, issues should be appealed and go from there.”

The jury deliberated for about three hours Monday before returning its sentence just after 8:30 p.m. Testimony began in the morning with Parrish’s father.

Parrish’s father, Joseph A. Parrish, was an alcoholic who was violent toward his mother, according to Deborah Belknap, defense litigation specialist.

The elder Parrish said Michael was 5 when his mother filed for divorce.

Michael Parrish, a former prison guard, became exposed to Nazi Germany through a class at his mother’s college, his father said.

At age 14, he went back to live with his father, where he continued his obsession, his father said. His father said Michael believed he was reincarnated as a Nazi SS officer and would stand at the shoreline waiting for a German U-boat to come in.

Belknap testified that Parrish was under stress, trying to keep his job, his car running and having a baby with a heart transplant who was taking 12 medications.

During the afternoon, witnesses for the defense said Parrish had traumatic events in his life at a critical vulnerable age. Out of that came a need for imposing control in any way he could. Diagnosed as obsessive compulsive, experts said Parrish gets uptight if things are messy or out of place.

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