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MISSOURI – EXECUTION MICHAEL TAYLOR EXECUTED AT 12:10 AM

February 26, 2014

Michael Taylor has been executed by Missour using compounded pentobarbital

Final Meal:

Taylor did not use his right to request a specific last meal and was served potato soup and a sandwich.

Missouri has gone ahead with executing a death-row prisoner using a drug from an unspecified source. The lethal injection of pentobarbital used to kill Michael Taylor, 47, who raped and murdered a teenage girl in 1989, was presumed to have been bought by the state from a compounding pharmacy – a supply arrangement that sparked legal challenges over the potential cruelty of using an unregulated drug.

In a brief phone conversation with The Kansas City Star just hours before the execution, Taylor said he had written a letter to Ann’s parents and that a prison official assured him it would be offered to them. In the letter, Taylor said, he expressed “my sincerest apology and heartfelt remorse.”

“I hope that they’ll accept it,” Taylor said of the letter.

Taylor offered no final statement. He mouthed silent words to his parents, two clergymen and two other relatives who witnessed his death. As the process began he took two deep breaths before closing his eyes for the last time.

Taylor was pronounced dead shortly after midnight. Federal courts and the governor had refused last-minute appeals from his attorneys, who argued that execution drugs purchased from a compounding pharmacy could have caused Taylor inhuman pain and suffering.

Taylor’s victim, 15-year-old Ann Harrison, was in her driveway holding her school books, flute and purse when she was abducted by Taylor and Roderick Nunley. The men pulled her into their stolen car, took her to a home, then raped and fatally stabbed the girl as she pleaded for her life.

Nunley also was sentenced to death and is awaiting execution.

In their appeal Taylor’s attorneys questioned Missouri’s use of an unnamed compounding pharmacy to provide pentobarbital. They also cited concerns about the state executing inmates before appeals were complete and argued that Taylor’s original trial attorney was so overworked that she encouraged him to plead guilty.

The Oklahoma-based compounding pharmacy Apothecary Shoppe agreed last week that it would not supply the pentobarbital for Taylor’s execution, which left Missouri to find a new supplier. The attorney general, Chris Koster, later disclosed that a new provider had been found but refused to name the pharmacy, citing the state’s execution protocol that allows for the manufacturer to remain anonymous.

Taylor’s attorneys argued use of the drug from an unspecified source could cause an inmate pain and suffering because no one could check if the maker was legitimate and had a record of producing safe drugs.

The official makers of pentobarbital refuse to sell it for executions.

AUDIO: Bernard interview 7:40
AUDIO: Post-execution news conference 8:23

James Bain – Freed by DNA after 35 years

James Bain’s case is unique. Not because he was wrongly convicted and freed by DNA evidence, overturning the entire case that convicted him. No, that stuff is commonplace now. What makes James unique is that he has the distinction of having served the longest amount of time behind bars who was ultimately freed on DNA evidence. And this highlights a huge problem. James was denied his requests for testing for years, saying that he had waited too long. It wasn’t until Florida passed a new law that allowed cases to be reopened for DNA testing that his fifth and final rejection was overturned on appeal, which led to his freedom. Such laws should be on the books in every state, no questions.

Picture

One night in 1974 in Lake Wales, Florida, someone broke into a home and took a 9 year old boy out of his bed to a local baseball diamond where the boy was raped. By the time he returned home, the police were already present. The victim described the perpetrator as between 17-18, whose name was Jim and who had a mustache and sideburns. The victim’s uncle, a principal at James’s school volunteered that that description fit James Bain. From that point forward the victim always referred to the rapist as ‘Bain’. The police went to Bain’s house where they found him. He had been home with his sister since approximately 10:30pm after attending a party and had fallen asleep watching television.

For the official identification of the perpetrator, the police arranged a photo lineup including Bain and only one other man with a mustache and sideburns! This does not make for an impartial identification. Not only that, according to the Florida Innocence Project, the police suggestively and improperly instructed the victim to pick out Bain’s photo (not the photo of the person who assaulted him) which the victim did.

The Trial

The case against Bain consisted mainly of the victim identification and the Serology findings from the victim’s underwear. Regarding the Serology findings, FBI Analyst William Gavin stated that the findings showed a blood group B and that Bain was AB with a weak A. Conversely, the expert for the Defense, Richard Jones testified that Bain was AB with a strong A and that he could not have been the rapist. The DNA evidence has shown which side was correct.

Post-Trial Chaos

As outlined in the opening, James had submitted for DNA testing several times and was each time rejected. I don’t know what it is about this system that makes it seem okay to deny someone DNA testing when their livelihood hangs in the balance. If not for the statute that enabled DNA testing on older cases and the appellate court confirming James’ right to have DNA testing, he would still be in prison today.
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Beaming, Bain watched the quick proceedings in a Polk County courtroom, where Judge James Yancey told him, “I’m now signing the order, sir. You are a free man. Congratulations.”

As for Bain’s defense, aside from the defense testimony mentioned above, there were plenty of witnesses to James having been at the aforementioned party prior to going home. The location of the rape was a full two miles from the party James was attending and his presence was noted to the degree that he would not have been able to sneak away, commit the crime, and be home by 10:30pm – Too many people had seen him. However, the defense only called four witnesses for his alibi, most of which were family. In case anyone hasn’t noticed, calling the mother or sister to corroborate an alibi for a man accused of rape just isn’t going to cut it. That is not enough for reasonable doubt for a lot of people. You have to corroborate the alibi with witnesses that have no reason to lie. And you have to bridge these witness statements across one another so that even if one or two are questionable, the whole of the witness statements creates a picture that resonates with the jurors and strikes at the prosecution’s case. Needless to say, that wasn’t done here, and it could have been.

 

link source :James Bain – Florida Innocence Project

Race factors in execution

february 22, 2014(thedalleschronicle)

SEATTLE — Two years ago, when Washington’s Supreme Court was reviewing the death sentence assigned to a black man accused of raping and murdering a 65-year-old woman, Justice Charles Wiggins found himself troubled by numbers.

Juries in the state were more likely to sentence African Americans, Wiggins noted; they did so in 62 percent of cases involving black defendants versus 40 percent for white defendants. In a dissenting opinion, the justice suggested further study was needed to determine whether the trend was statistically significant.

 

A new report from a University of Washington sociologist aims to answer the question. It finds that while prosecutors have actually been slightly more likely to seek the death penalty against white defendants, jurors have been three times more likely to impose it against black ones, other circumstances being similar.

 

Expense, differences in application by county, and the high rate of overturned death sentences — rather than racial disparities — were the main reasons Gov. Jay Inslee cited this month when he announced a moratorium on executions under his watch. But if true, the report’s findings echo his worry that capital punsihment is “unequally applied,” even in Washington, a state many consider to have the nation’s most restrictive death-penalty system.

 

“It’s positive to see that prosecutors aren’t unfairly considering race in making decisions about when to seek capital punishment,” Inslee’s general counsel, Nicholas Brown, said after reviewing the report. “At the same time, it brings up a lot of unfortunate implications about juries.”

 

Tom McBride, executive secretary of the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, said he has long known that prosecutors here aren’t more likely to seek execution against black defendants. But the association was less quick to accept the report’s findings on what effect a defendant’s race has on jurors, saying the study failed to control for some key factors that could help explain why some defendants received a death sentence while others didn’t.

 

The report, by Professor Katherine Beckett, was commissioned by Lila Silverstein and Neil Fox, attorneys for death row inmate Allen Eugene Gregory, a black man convicted of raping and murdering a white woman in Pierce County in 1996. Silverstein and Fox plan to submit the report to the high court as part of Gregory’s appeal next month.

 

Washington has executed five defendants under its modern death penalty law, adopted in 1981, and nine are on death row. Beckett reviewed the 285 cases involving adult defendants convicted of aggravated murder since 1981 for which trial reports are available. In 88 of those cases, the death penalty was sought, and in 35 of those, it was imposed. Many later had the sentences overturned.

 

Using the admittedly small sample size, Beckett’s team coded the cases for number of victims, number of prior violent convictions, number of defenses offered and number of aggravating factors alleged by prosecutors, and other circumstances. In a regression analysis, she found that among similarly situated defendants, blacks were three times more likely than whites to be sentenced to death.

 

“Washington is not a state that tolerates discrimination, even when it doesn’t involve a matter of life and death,” Silverstein said. “We can’t be putting people to death based on their race.”

 

But Pam Loginsky, a staff attorney at the prosecutor’s association, said Beckett’s report doesn’t prove that’s what’s happening and that it’s impossible to say why a single juror in any case might decide to block the death penalty. Under Washington law, a unanimous jury is needed to impose the death penalty; if there’s a single holdout, the sentence will be the only other alternative — life without the possibility of release.

 

“I don’t believe there is any conscious consideration of race, and I don’t believe the statistics bear out any impropriety based on race,” she said. “I can’t tell you that an individual juror in a given case doesn’t decide to extend mercy to the defendant because of his race, or because he has a cute smile, or because he resembles her favorite uncle. There can be any reason why a particular juror says, this person merits leniency.”

 

Loginsky pointed to what she described as several shortcomings with the study, noting that it did not control for factors that might well influence a jury’s determination. Those include the strength of a prosecutor’s case, the vulnerability of the victim, any mental illness of the defendant, and the nature of a defendant’s criminal record: “It lumps prior murderers in with prior robbers,” she wrote in an emailed critique.

 

Washington’s Supreme Court, which is charged with ensuring that capital punishment is administered proportionally, has previously said that “a review of the first-degree aggravated murder cases in Washington does not reveal a pattern of imposition of the death penalty based upon the race of the defendant or the victim.” But anti-death-penalty advocates are hoping to use momentum from Inslee’s moratorium to push the Legislature to abolish the punishment entirely.

 

Among the concerns the governor cited was the cost of capital cases and that whether prosecutors seek execution is “sometimes dependent on the budget of the county where the crime occurred.”

 

Beckett’s report bears out those geographic distinctions, noting that some counties, such as Thurston, request the death penalty in as much as two-thirds of their aggravated murder cases, while Yakima County, for example, has not sought execution at all in its nine death-eligible cases since 1981.

 

USA: Robert Redford’s “Death Row Stories” to Premiere on CNN

february 23, 2014

“Death Row Stories” is a new 8-part series premiering on March 9 on CNN that will examine actual death penalty cases.

The show is produced by Robert Redford and narrated by Dead Man Walking star Susan Sarandon.

Redford said, “This series is about the search for justice and truth, we are pleased to … tell these important stories and give a voice to these cases.”

Prior to the premiere, CNN is offering interested parties an opportunity for a preview and the ability to participate in a Google Hangout featuring a discussion by the producers and law professors John Blume of Cornell and Robert Blecker of New York Law School. The Google Hangout will be held March 5 at 6 pm EST and is open to the public, but an RSVP is required.

(Source: Death Penalty Information Center)

Jailhouse Interview With Man on Death Row for Shooting, Killing Daughters – John David Battaglia

february 21, 2014 (nbc)

A Highland Park man is on death row for shooting and killing his two daughters more than a decade ago.

John David Battaglia was arrested for the May 2, 2001 shooting deaths of 9-year-old Faith and 6-year-old Liberty in his downtown Dallas loft. The girls’ mother was on the phone and heard the gunshots.

Jurors found Battaglia guilty of capital murder and sentence him to death.

Battaglia, 58, is now on death row. Sarah Mervosh, a reporter with The Dallas Morning News, spoke with him for an hour in a jailhouse interview. Here is some of that interview.

Sarah Mervosh: “Do you feel like you were killing them to get back at your wife?”

Battaglia: “I don’t feel like I killed them.”

Mervosh: “You what?”

Battaglia: “I don’t feel like I killed them. I do not know why. If you read what I wrote, you will find that I am a little bit in the blank about what happened.”

Mervosh said Battaglia was persistent that he is innocent.

“From what he says and if I can infer that is true that he can’t remember what happened and he doesn’t feel like he did it,” Mervosh said.

During the interview, Battaglia talked about his late daughters.

“You think about your best little friends. Nicest little kids you’ve ever met. Not much you can do about that,” Battaglia said. “I have pictures of them up in my house. I have them on my table and on my wall, I have them around me all the time,” Battaglia said, speaking of his prison cell.

“I thought that was interesting that he wants to keep it in his line of sight, because it means something to him, and yet he killed them,” Mervosh later said.

Battaglia at one point turned on Mervosh, pointing his finger at her and yelling. But during the interview he saved most of his venom for the people he believes put him behind bars.

Sypnosis

John Battaglia was an abuser…. period.  Most of his abuse was directed at his two wives, however, there were others that were victims of his abuse.  As the classic abuser however, he was able to use charisma and charm to get out of things and to convince people that he was the victim.  Even when he was obviously caught he would blame the victim for pushing him to the point in which he abused.  Also, like many classic abusers, after he abused his spouse he would apologize and cool down to which the women would take him back and accept his apologies.   

Battaglia’s abuse to his first wife, to which he was often faced with legal problems began in the 1980’s.  During this time domestic abuse was not taken very seriously.  There was little talk about what went on behind closed doors and there was even less understanding as to the psyche of the abused woman.  His first wife, Michelle, saw a few personality things prior to their marriage and although it was still considered a bit taboo at the time Michelle considered not going through with the marriage and raising their daughter as a single mother.  While she was still pregnant with their daughter Michelle suffered mainly verbal abuse.  However, she began to see some signs of physical abuse towards her son from a previous relationship.  With each escalation of abuse Michelle would kick John out of the house but he would charm his way back in.  Finally the abuse to her and her son came to a point in which his charm had no affect on her and she worried that their daughter would be in danger.  She finally filed for divorce.  When John could no longer control or even charm Michelle this enraged him.  Michelle had gotten a restraining order against John but that did not stop him.  She repeatedly changed the locks to her home and he would charm a locksmith into making him a copy.  He would enter her home when she was not home and even when she was.  She often woke in the middle of the night to find him in the home.  At first it was even a challenge to prove that he was entering the home and doing things, then later it became a more challenge to get the authorities to do anything about it.  Generally they would set out an arrest warrant for him.  It would be a process of the police picking him up and taking him to the station where he would sign papers for his bail, pay the bail and walk out the door.  These arrests and legal troubles only infuriated John more, although he generally faced little to no repercussions for his actions. Finally John went too far.  He had hidden on a public street waiting for Michelle to pass and attacked her breaking her nose and dislocating her jaw…. and there was a witness.  He spent some time in jail for this offense, but, as I said domestic violence was not taken as serious.  Oftentimes the abused were (and still are at times) blamed for “pushing” the abuser.  At this point Michelle realizes the only way to get away was to move out of state to where her family lived.  Once she moved John’s criminal charges were still being debated.  She was informed that he likely would not serve anymore jail time than he had already but that he would get probation which would not allow him to leave Dallas, Texas where he lived.  At this point Michelle agreed with the agreement thinking the restrictions would keep her and her children safe.  Michelle never imagined that John would be given unsupervised visitation with their daughter.  

The ongoing belief at that time, and sadly still seems to be sometimes, is that when there is no evidence of abuse against the children but only against the spouse (or ex-spouse), there is no reason to limit contact between the abuser and their children.  Again, this goes back to the mentality that it is about pushing buttons and isolated abuse only to the one person. Michelle also never thought of the future and if her actions or decisions could ever possibly affect anyone else.  Her concern, as it should have been, was for the well being of herself and her children. 

After a few years John met Mary Jean.  They quickly married and over the course of the years had two daughters, Faith and Liberty.  Luckily for Mary Jean and her children for many years there was no physical abuse from John, but the verbal abuse was evident from the start of their marriage, just like it had been for Michelle.  For a long time Mary Jean knew little or at least believed little of what Michelle had been through with John.  For the most part after John met Mary Jean he left Michelle alone and their daughter visited her father one weekend a month.  John had always been fairly well about hiding things.  Then, like Michelle, after several outbursts of events in which John’s charm smoothed things over, Mary Jean also had had enough, kicked John out and filed for divorce.  

Just as Michelle did, Mary Jean obtained a protective order against John. And, just like Michelle, Mary Jean never imagined John would harm their children. Christmas of 1999 John came to Mary Jean’s house with his daughter with Michelle to pick up the girls.  Against her better judgment Mary Jean allowed him in the house because the girls wanted to show him their gifts and decorations.  While there John began attacking Mary Jean.  Ultimately he left, not taking any of the children with him.  Mary Jean filed charges against him. Just before they were to go to court John contacted Mary Jean and asked if they could sign the divorce papers the morning of court beforehand but at another location.  Mary Jean really did not want to risk being late to court but she also wanted the divorce to be over.  She went to where they were to meet only to find out that he had lied to her in attempts to make her late to court, to which she was.  She got a message to the lawyers that she was on the way but the judge refused to wait.  She was able to refile but ultimately John simply got two years of of probation after pleading guilty.  He was still not to contact Mary Jean and lost visitation for 30 days with the girls but that was all.  He repeatedly violated the order, just as he did when dealing with Michelle.  Once was for testing positive for drugs and also by contacting Mary Jean.  

By May 12, 2001 Mary Jean had filed charges against John more than two weeks before.  Earlier that day there was finally a warrant made for John’s arrest.  It was a day of visitation (for a 2 hour dinner) for him with Faith and Liberty.  Earlier in the day John had gotten someone to contact Mary Jean to see if she was going to allow visitation (there’s no prove of his claims that she ever denied him) and that they would meet in their normal public place.  He also became aware of the warrant for his arrest and talked to his probation officer as well as a detective.  Both assured him that he would not be arrested that evening while with his children.  However, he called the girls, on a phone line that was just for them, telling them that he would likely be arrested while he saw them that evening and that he likely would not see them for a year and that it was their mothers fault.  Mary Jean assured them that he would not be arrested that night and that even if he were put in jail it would not be for a year.  At this point neither girl was very interested in going to see their father but Mary Jean encouraged it and met him at the designated time and place. 


A short time after dropping them off and going to a friends house Mary Jean received a phone call from her mother.  John had contacted her asking that she get a hold of Mary Jean because the girls wanted to talk to her.  Although she was not at home they had called Mary Jean’s home phone and left a message for her to call them back.  When Mary Jean called back John answered and then turned on the speaker phone demanding to Faith,  “ask her.”  Through tears Faith asked Mary Jean why she wanted her Daddy to go to jail.  Always trying to keep her children out of the middle of their problems, Mary Jean chastised John for putting the children in that position.  Suddenly she heard Faith yelling “No, Daddy, please don’t” and Mary Jean heard several shots from a gun.  Suddenly John came back to the phone and said “Merry Fucking Christmas.”  


Rushing to his home Mary Jean called 911.  She expected to get to John’s home and see several police officers but no one was there and she was scared to go to his loft apartment, not only for her own life, but for what she would find.  Her call had not properly been handled.  First it was to be transferred to another district since that was where John lived and secondly it was listed as a simple domestic issue and had a low priority.  While outside John’s apartment building Mary Jean saw a police officer and flagged him down.  He called for backup before entering the apartment.  Once in they found the bodies of the girls each shot several times, with one shot through the head.  They also found several firearms in the apartment. What they did not find was John.  A man hunt was made for him.  He was found several hours later intoxicated by alcohol and drugs coming out of a tattoo parlor in which he had gotten a tattoo of two roses, telling the woman who had gone with him it was to represent his daughters so he had them forever.  The woman had no idea that John had killed his daughters.


John was ultimately convicted and currently sits on death row in Texas but the story does not end there.  While in some areas by 2001 domestic violence was taken more serious than it had been in previous years, it still was not a high priority everywhere. Further, it was widely believed that while a father may be physically abusive to a mother that did not mean they were a danger to their children and there was no need for supervised visitation with the abusive spouse.  Whether John has openly admitted it, I am not sure, but it is widely believed that this was solely done as an act of revenge against Mary Jean.  This case proved that domestic violence and child visitation and custody need to be more closely watched and related.  However, I must admit that in the recent case of Josh Powell, it was proven even those who are violent are capable of getting around even supervision.  


John Battaglia tormented and abused both of his wives for many years.  He never cared who was around, including his own children, when he abused them.  He never batted an eye to bad mouth the mothers to his children.  The courts allowed this behavior and in the end his children suffered the ultimately sacrifice. 

After Death Row in Texas, I’m Fighting to End the Death Penalty – Kerry Max Cook

february 22, 2014

My name is Kerry Max Cook, but for two decades, I was known as “Cook, Execution number 600.” Innocent of the murder and rape I was accused of in 1977, my home became a tiny death row cell in Texas, the state that kills more people than anywhere else in the U.S. by far — including 141 of my fellow inmates before my release in 1999. By then, my only brother had been murdered and my Dad had died of cancer. My Mom died soon after. I was stabbed, raped and routinely abused on death row. My ordeal spanned two generations of the Smith County District Attorney’s office, two wrongful convictions, two reversals of conviction, a walk to the execution chamber, and three capital murder trials. My legal team and I have been unable to find a worse case of prosecutorial misconduct in Texan history.

I avoided a fourth trial only by pleading no contest, while making no admission of guilt. I have never been officially exonerated. Author John Grisham said, “If it were fiction, no one would believe it …”

I am, in fact, innocent. Another man’s DNA was found on the victim’s clothing two months after my release. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals accused Smith County prosecutors of “willful misconduct” in my case. Nonetheless that office remains determined to stop me clearing my name. My lawyers are working to file an application for writ of habeas corpus in coming months, hopefully prompting the appeals court in Austin to officially exonerate me and end my 36-year-old nightmare.

It all began in 1977. I was 20 and working as a bartender when a waitress said the manager wanted to see me. I stepped into a pitch-black room that was usually lit by fluorescent lighting and fumbled for the switch. Suddenly, hands reached out to grab both sides of me. The silver Smith & Wesson handcuffs crashed down on my wrist and I heard the detective’s words, “Kerry Max Cook, you’re under arrest for the capital murder of Linda Edwards” — a name I didn’t even recognize.

At the police station, they used my head as a toilet plunger. I knew the policeman was lying as he rammed my head repeatedly down the bowl filled with dark urine, screamed at me to confess and told me they had found my DNA on the body. I wept for my mother and father, for anyone, to help.

Even though I still bear the mental and physical scars and ongoing indignities of my wrongful conviction and imprisonment, I consider myself lucky. I have a wife and son. I have powerful allies — including Amnesty International, which found me in a dark cell and helped raise awareness of my wrongful conviction in 1991. It literally saved my life. I was so proud to be introduced by Susan Sarandon at Amnesty’s Bringing Human Rights Home concert in Brooklyn February 5 and address the audience as my 13-year-old Kerry Justice Cook looked on. I was proud to honor a powerful, global movement of activists who carry Amnesty’s torch for human rights — including my right to life. That is why I support Amnesty’s abolition work and the efforts by courageous activists on the ground, most urgently in New Hampshire, where a repeal vote in the state House is anticipated early next month.

The death penalty should be abolished across the United States, and everywhere. We do not need any more mistakes. We know that 143 people have served time on US death rows for crimes they were wrongfully convicted of. And imagine this. On appeal, the only question becomes whether the defendant received a fair and impartial trial. So if the evidence is made up, like in my case, you die.

The price of this system is a life. Of course the odds are stacked in your favor if you have access to financial resources, but you won’t be surprised to hear that you don’t meet too many people like that on death row.

One of death row’s other dirty little secrets is that it is a repository for every conceivable mental illness. Its population consists largely of untreated, traumatized children who grew up into broken adults. There are exceptions, of course, but I do not believe that even the guilty on death row are irredeemable. As Rosalind says in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, “Time is the old justice that examines all such offenders.” If my case proves anything, it is that only time can tell if someone is guilty.

No prosecutor should have the power to end another human life. No other living soul should endure what I did. So I am praying now for victory, by Amnesty International USA and all those who are pushing to end this barbaric practice, in New Hampshire, and everywhere. Then, my nightmare will be over.

Click here to read more about Kerry’s fight for justice, and here to read about his work on self-empowerment.

PENNSYLVANIA – Gov. Tom Corbett on Thursday signed a death warrant ordering the execution of a man convicted nearly 25 years ago for the grisly murder of a 2-year old girl.

february 20, 2014 (tribune-democrat)

Gov. Tom Corbett on Thursday signed a death warrant ordering the execution of a man convicted nearly 25 years ago for the grisly murder of a 2-year old girl.

The execution of Stephen Rex Edmiston, now 55, has been ordered for April 16, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

Edmiston was convicted in 1989 by a Cambria County jury for the 1988 murder of Bobbi Jo Matthew.

Edmiston was living in Huntingdon County when he took the girl from the home of her grandmother, Nancy Dotts, in Beccaria, Clearfield County, during the early morning hours of Oct. 5, 1988.

The child’s body was found two days later in a remote area of Reade Township in northeastern Cambria County.

Edmiston maintained his innocence at his trial. But state police testified that he drew a map with an X marking the location where, he said, “You’ll find a dead, raped little girl.”

Police found the girl’s body at the location and Edmiston allegedly admitted to raping her in his truck, then hitting her three or four times until she became quiet.

An autopsy showed Bobbi Jo was partially scalped, had blunt force injuries to her torso and a skull fracture. Her body was burned and her genital area obliterated, according to trial testimony.

Edmiston, who has been housed at SCI-Greene for several years, has been involved in the appeals process for more than two decades.

Cambria County attorneys David Kaltenbaugh and Kenneth Sottile defended Edmiston at his trial, but the appeal process was assumed several years ago by Robert Dunham of the Federal Defenders Office in Philadelphia.

Dunham could not be immediately reached for comment late Thursday.

Kaltenbaugh said he had lost track of where Edmiston was in the appeal process, but said of death row inmates: “They never really exhaust their appeals.”

Executions in Pennsylvania are carried out by lethal injection, but it is highly unlikely that the execution will be carried out this spring.

The last time anyone was executed in Pennsylvania was in 1999, when Gary Heidnik of Philadelphia was executed, said Joshua Maus, of the Governor’s Office of General Counsel.

That execution occurred only after Heidnik voluntarily give up his appeal process so he could be put to death.

The Edmiston execution warrant was the 31st signed by Corbett, Maus said.

Trial testimony and information provided by the governor’s office was that Bobbi Jo went to bed in the home she shared with her grandmother and her father, Harold Matthew, on the night she was abducted.

Around 3:30 a.m., Harold Matthew, who was sleeping on a sofa in the home, was awakened by a man with a beard, the father later told authorities.

The man was wearing a baseball cap and apologized to Harold Matthew for waking him, according to trial testimony.

At some point, Edmiston went into a bedroom shared by three children, including Bobbi Jo, and removed her from the home.

Edmiston was said to be the nephew of the boyfriend of Dotts, the child’s grandmother, who discovered her missing when she came home at 5:30 a.m.

Edmiston is the last Cambria County inmate on death row. The death sentence for Larry Christie, convicted in the murder of a night watchman at the Oriential Ball Room in Gallitzin was reduced to life in prison after it became apparent the courts would rule in his favor of his appeal.

Ernest “Ernie,” Simmons, convicted in the 1990s  murder of Anna Knaze, had his status changed when an appeals court ordered a new trial and prosecutors allowed him to plead guilty to third-degree murder.

Simmons was expected to be given credit for time served, and released, but is now back in prison on a parole violation.

Late last year the state Supreme Court agreed to hear the Simmons appeal regarding the parole violation.

Final brief on lethal injections with judge; could affect fate of Ronald Smith

february 21, 2014

CALGARY – A ruling by a Montana judge is a step closer on whether the state can take a shortcut in its attempt to get approval to change the way it carries out executions.

Ron Waterman, lead lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, says the group has filed its final brief in a court challenge that could ultimately affect the fate of Canadian Ronald Smith.

Smith, originally from Red Deer, Alta., is on death row in Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge for murdering two men in 1982.

The civil liberties group filed a lawsuit in 2008 on behalf of Smith and another death-row inmate that argued the lethal injections used in state executions are cruel and unusual punishment and violate the right to human dignity.

Montana District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock ruled in September 2012 that the injections were unconstitutional. He pointed to a lack of training for individuals who administer the drugs and a discrepancy over whether two or three drugs should be used. He also questioned the method used to determine if an inmate is actually unconscious before receiving an injection.

His ruling gave hope to Smith.

But the Montana government convinced Sherlock to hear arguments from the state, which wants to bypass a requirement it would normally have to fill before getting the legislature’s approval to change the way executions are carried out.

The case has been dragging on ever since.

“They want to change the rules without going through the legislature and we’re saying not only can’t you change the rules without going through the legislature, but the way in which you changed the rules was totally incorrect,” Waterman said from Helena, Mont., in an interview with The Canadian Press on Friday.

“You have to go through a rule-making process, which means giving notice to the public, giving opportunities to be heard before adopting a rule.”

It’s now in the hands of Sherlock.

“This is the final briefing. This now puts all of those issues before the district judge and the judge will render a decision maybe within a couple of months — sometime in March or April,” Waterman said.

Smith, was convicted in 1983 for shooting Harvey Madman Jr. and Thomas Running Rabbit, while he was high on drugs and alcohol near East Glacier, Mont.

He had been taking 30 to 40 hits of LSD and consuming between 12 and 18 beers a day at the time of the murders. He refused a plea deal that would have seen him avoid death row and spend the rest of his life in prison. Three weeks later, he pleaded guilty. He asked for and was given a death sentence.

Smith later had a change of heart and has had a number of execution dates set and overturned.

Should we use the death penalty?

february 21, 2014

I was shuffling through one of my many boxes of “stuff” a few days ago (looking for my passport, which I successfully located) when I ran across a bevy of old writings.

Short stories and other creative writing I authored in junior high, poems, position pieces, and those “papers” we all had to do in junior high and high school.

One such handwritten paper was on my opposition to the death penalty. It was written in 1988.

Growing up, I fiercely opposed putting prisoners to death. Re-reading this paper, I was reminded why, at the time, I had such ardent resistance to it. Killing our prisoners, I reasoned, put us in some pretty awful company around the world. The vast majority of countries do not practice the death penalty on its prisoners. And, if we were to lead by example, we shouldn’t either.

In high school and college, I supported the efforts of Amnesty International, writing letters to foreign countries. I did then and still believe in the work that group does to shine a light on international countries that do not share our beliefs in human rights.

Groups like the Innocence Project, too, have put the spotlight directly on our justice system, helping free at least 18 people from Death Row since 1992. People that were wrongly convicted. This, too, back in 1988 was a concern outlined in my paper.

Over the years, though, it has been harder and harder to support a 100 percent, no death penalty stance.

Then, there was Pamela Butler in 1999. The sweet little girl rollerblading her way through the neighborhood, innocently enjoying her childhood when a monster named Keith Nelson took that away.

Nelson was convicted and sentenced to death for her rape and murder. Of course, he still sits on federal Death Row, where he has been since 2002. He’s been awaiting his execution longer than Pamela Butler had on this earth.

There is just something patently wrong with that.

Now, 15 years later, we have an eerily similar case with a girl the same age and in a circumstance that is just too awful to fathom.

Hailey Owens lost her life this week, likely at the hands of another monster, Craig Michael Wood.

In 1988 I couldn’t imagine strapping these two to a chair in our old gas chamber and flipping the switch to initiate the toxic fumes.

After following the Butler story and driving to the church field where she was murdered in 1999, I was so disgusted I think my views even then started to change.

Now with a daughter by my side, and reading the report on Wood and his alleged acts against a little girl, I can’t find my way to letting him live. I just simply cannot.

Much consternation around the death penalty filters from the amount of time it takes (see Nelson) to actually exact the justice.

The hosts of a local radio talk show, “Dana and Parks” on 98.1 KMBZ have coined the phrase, “If we know, you go” when referring to death penalty cases, a nod to some sort of compromise on cases where we do not have iron-clad proof of the killer. Otherwise, in their view, inject them and get it over with.

Anymore, I really don’t care if a Keith Nelson or, if he’s guilty, Craig Michael Wood can be rehabilitated or ever contribute something to society.

I don’t want to sound cold or heartless, but in these types of cases, 2014 John just cannot agree with 1988 John.

The deaths of Pamela Butler and Hailey Owens were just too painful to think otherwise.

 

John Beaudoin is the publisher of the Lee’s Summit Journal. To comment, call 816-282-7001 or e-mail jbeaudoin@lsjournal.com.

Jason Michael Hann has been convicted of killing his 2-month-old son and 10-month old daughter and hiding their bodies in storage units.

february 21, 2014

INDIO, Calif. — A man who has been convicted of killing two of his infant children and hiding their plastic-wrapped bodies in storage units in Arkansas and Arizona was sentenced to death Friday in a California courthouse.

Jason Michael Hann, 39, who is already serving a 30-year sentence for the murder of his 2-month-old son, Jason, received the death penalty for the slaying of his 10-month-old daughter, Montana.

“These kids never had a chance of life,” said Bruce Price, an alternate juror who supported the death penalty decision. “This guy was trying to cover up his crimes as he went along.”

Some jurors initially resisted sending Hann to his death, but they eventually agreed to recommend that he die for his crimes. Riverside Superior Court Judge James Hawkins upheld the death sentence, denying a defense motion to reduce the sentence to life without parole.

Hann did not speak in his own defense. He sat in court, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, showing no signs of emotion.

Montana’s mother, Krissy Lyyn Werntz, was also charged in the killing. Her trial is scheduled to start on March 17.

Hann killed his infant daughter with a blow to head in Desert Hot Springs in 2001. Prosecutors said Hann wrapped her body in duct tape and plastic bags, then hid it in a blue “Tupperware-type” container stashed in a storage unit in Arkansas.

The body was found a year later after Hann stopped making payments on the storage unit. The contents of the unit were auctioned off, and the body was discovered by the new owner.

Hann and Wertz were arrested in 2002 at a motel in Portland, Maine. A day after the arrest, investigators found the body of the second infant, Jason, in a storage unit in Lake Havasu, Ariz. The boy, who had been killed in Vermont in 1999, and was also in a rubber container.

When the couple was arrested in Maine, they had in their custody a new child, a month old boy who also showed signs of abuse, including broken ribs, bleeding under his skin and internal injuries.

After the court hearing Friday, Price said the abused child was more proof that Hann deserved death. If the boy had not been saved, he likely would have suffered the same fate as his siblings, the juror said.

“(Hann) had already committed a crime against someone and he was in the process of doing the same thing,” Price said. “He got what he deserved.”