Rick Halperin
2018-11-15 14:53:24 UTC
November 15
TEXAS----execution
Mexican citizen executed in Texas for killings of wife, kids
A Mexican citizen on death row in Texas was executed Wednesday night for the
sledgehammer killings of his wife and 2 children more than 26 years ago.
Roberto Moreno Ramos was condemned for the 1992 deaths of his 42-year-old wife
Leticia, 7-year-old daughter Abigail, and 3-year-old son Jonathan at their home
in Progreso, located along the Mexico border.
When asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Ramos thanked the Mexican
consulate for assisting with appeals in his case and said he was grateful for
“the humane treatment I got in prison in Texas.”
“I’m getting my gold watch that it took the governor 30 years to forge,” he
said without elaborating. “Thank you God. Lord, send me a chariot. I’m ready.”
As the lethal dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital began taking effect,
the 64-year-old Ramos took a couple of deep breaths, sputtered once and began
snoring. Within seconds, all movement stopped.
11 minutes later, at 9:36 p.m. CST, Ramos was pronounced dead.
He became the 21st inmate put to death this year in the U.S. and the 11th given
a lethal injection in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state. No
friends or relatives of Ramos or his victims witnessed the execution.
Mexican officials had called for his execution to be stopped, arguing he was
part of a group of Mexican citizens condemned in the U.S. who were never told
when first arrested that they could get legal help from the Mexican government.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday night cleared the way for the punishment
when it denied two appeals seeking to halt the lethal injection. Ramos’
attorney on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to stop his execution, arguing
that Ramos’ constitutional rights were violated as lower courts refused to
fully review his claims that his trial lawyers failed to present any evidence
about his mental illness and abusive childhood that could have persuaded jurors
to spare his life.
3 retired justices who had served on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals filed
court documents with the Supreme Court on Wednesday in support of stopping the
execution. The ex-judges alleged the appeals court appointed an incompetent
appellate attorney who early in the post-conviction process failed to
investigate Ramos’ case.
Also Wednesday, a federal judge in Austin dismissed Ramos’ request to
temporarily block the execution. The request had been part of a lawsuit Ramos
filed against the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals a day earlier. The suit
alleged the appeals court had not allowed Ramos to present claims he had
ineffective trial and appellate lawyers.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
had previously turned down requests to halt Ramos’ execution.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday declined to recommend either a
commutation of his sentence or a six-month reprieve.
In court documents, Ramos’ appellate attorney, Danalynn Recer, had argued Ramos
suffered from bipolar disorder most of his life, including during the time of
his family’s killings, as well as brain damage that affected his ability to
control his impulses and regulate his emotions.
Recer said Ramos was also brutally beaten as a child by his father.
Ramos was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico, and grew up in Guadalajara and
Tijuana before his family moved to the United States in 1970.
“No fact-finder or decision-maker entrusted with Mr. Moreno Ramos’ life has
ever been provided with evidence of (his) ‘diverse human frailties’ to assist
them in dispensing the most severe punishment under law,” Recer said.
But the Texas Attorney General’s Office said Ramos’ death sentence was
appropriate due to his “violent and dangerous nature.”
Authorities said Ramos bludgeoned his family members and then buried them
underneath his home’s bathroom floor so he could marry the woman he was having
an extramarital affair with at the time.
In court filings, the attorney general’s office highlighted testimony from
Ramos’ then-19-year-old son, who told jurors at Ramos’ 1993 trial that his
father “would continue to commit criminal acts of violence.”
In 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, found
Ramos was part of a group of 52 Mexican citizens awaiting execution in the U.S.
who weren’t advised of their consular rights under the Vienna Convention when
first arrested. It recommended they be tried again to determine if consular
access would have affected their cases. Then-President George W. Bush directed
states to reopen the cases.
But the Supreme Court in 2008 overruled Bush’s directive, saying only Congress
can require states to follow the international court’s ruling.
Including Ramos, 6 Mexican citizens have been executed since being named in the
international court ruling and all the executions were carried out by Texas,
according to the Mexican government.
Ramos becomes the 11th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas
and the 556th overall since the state resumed capital punishmen on December 7,
1982. Ramos becomes the 38th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since
Greg Abbott became Governor in 2015.
Ramos becomes the 21st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA
and the 1, 486th overall since executions resumed in the nation on January 17,
1977.
(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)<P>
*******************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----38
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----556
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
39---------Dec. 4-----------------Joseph Garcia-----------557
40---------Dec. 11----------------Alvin Braziel, Jr.------558
41---------Jan. 15----------------Blaine Milam------------559
42---------Jan. 30----------------Robert Jennings---------560
43---------Feb. 28----------------Billy Wayne Coble-------561
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
***************
Dallas County DA's office says testing is being done on items in Darlie Routier
case
For people who say Darlie Routier was unjustly sentenced to death row for her
son's murder, their argument often comes back to DNA.
Routier, 48, was convicted of fatally stabbing her 5-year-old son Damon in June
1996. Her 6-year-old son, Devon, was also slain, but she has not been tried in
his death.
Routier said she could not remember much of what happened that night and
claimed a stranger came into her Rowlett house and attacked her and her sons.
Investigators have said evidence at the house was inconsistent with her
account, and police suggested Routier may have inflicted her own neck wounds.
For Darlie Routier's mother, Darlie Kee, and others, the hope for a successful
appeal may hinge on the results of DNA testing that was granted a decade ago.
The Dallas County district attorney's office said that "multiple items of
evidence" have been tested this year after court orders from November and
December 2017, and that DNA testing is ongoing.
"When testing is completed, the court will schedule a hearing to review the
results," the district attorney's office said.
Stephen Cooper, an attorney for Routier, said 10 to 12 items are being tested,
but he did not specify what they were.
Statutes have changed since the original request for the DNA testing was filed
a decade ago, which has allowed the defense to test additional items, he said.
"Frankly, the DA's office has been cooperative in allowing ... [the defense] to
expand to anything that might be possible," Cooper said.
The defense asked that testing be done at a private facility, but the state has
insisted the process go through the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab
in Garland.
DPS referred questions about the testing to the district attorney's office.
"We've got more reason to look at additional items that were not tested before,
so we're just working through that list we've had for several years," Cooper
said. "It's not really new; we're just now getting to it. We've taken
bite-sized chunks out of our request at a time with the really chaotic crime
scene, focusing on things that should be tested and what order they should be
tested. It's been a long process but necessary."
In November 2008, U.S. District Judge Royal Furgeson granted additional testing
of items including a bloody sock found a few houses down, a knife that is
thought to be the murder weapon and the fibers from another knife found in a
butcher block in the Routier home. Furgeson also gave permission to have 4
fingerprints submitted to the FBI to check for matches.
Furgeson wrote in the order that even if another person's DNA were found on the
sock, that would not necessarily prove the intruder argument.
A 3rd person doesn't answer who might have killed the boys, but "could prove
helpful in determining whether their murders were the products of a conspiracy,
rather than the wanton act of an individual suffering from severe postpartum
depression, as suggested" during the trial, the court document stated.
It's unclear whether testing or federal database checks were done on the bloody
fingerprint that was found on a table near the body of one of the boys.
"If ... [the fingerprint is] not reasonable doubt, I don't know what is," Kee
said. "That's enough to make you pause and say, 'Well, whose fingerprint is
it?'"
In letters sent to the court and entered into Routier's case file, people have
pleaded with Dallas County Judge Gracie Lewis to run tests of the fingerprint
in the hope that it may point to the person they think is the real killer.
Earlier this year, The Last Defense, a seven-part documentary series aired on
ABC, drew new attention to Routier's case and examined what led to her
conviction.
In early October, a group of people following the case organized a 3-day rally
outside the Dallas County courthouse to sustain public interest and ask why
testing has not been completed.
Routier was convicted in February 1997 in Kerrville after a change of venue.
Kee, who has staunchly maintained her daughter's innocence, thinks that if the
trial had been conducted in Dallas County, the outcome would have been
different.
Kee said she thinks her daughter's fate was sealed when the jury was shown
video of Routier spraying Silly String at her son's grave during a birthday
party for Devon shortly after his death.
Prosecutors said Routier's behavior showed a lack of grief and remorse. The
defense said it was the family's way of trying to cope with sorrow.
Kee said prosecutors never proved her daughter guilty.
"They never could explain the sock, and they never could explain her wounds,"
she said.
In June, Kee intends to hold a "convoy of justice" at the graveyard where the
boys are buried, on what would have been Devon's 30th birthday.
"I'm just very tired of it after 22 years," Kee said. Routier's "family and
friends, we've all been going through this for 22 years with no closure at all
with the threat of ... [death row] hanging over her head."
(source: Dallas Morning News)
*****************
Ken Paxton’s Strange Quest to Execute an Intellectually Disabled Man
Prosecutors have agreed to spare Bobby Moore’s life due to his intellectual
disability. Texas’ highest criminal court and top legal official want to kill
him anyway.
As a teenager, Bobby Moore couldn’t tell time. Before dropping out of school in
the 9th grade, he was so far behind his peers that teachers told him to draw
pictures rather than try to keep up with reading and writing assignments.
According to court filings, Moore repeatedly got sick from eating out of
neighbors’ garbage cans in his Houston neighborhood, apparently unaware that
the rotting food kept poisoning him.
For the past year, the Harris County DA’s Office has sided with appellate
lawyers arguing that Moore, who was convicted in the 1980 murder of a Houston
convenience store clerk, is too intellectually disabled to execute. Even as the
death penalty loses momentum in Texas, it’s highly unusual for prosecutors to
argue that a defendant’s life should be spared. But that hasn’t stopped Texas
Attorney General Ken Paxton from fighting to have Moore executed.
In an extraordinary move last week, Paxton’s office filed a motion with the
U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in Moore’s case, arguing to uphold his death
sentence. Typically, the AG’s office only gets involved with death penalty
cases if local prosecutors ask for assistance, and Texas law doesn’t authorize
the office to contravene the decisions of local prosecutors.
In his filing to the Supreme Court, Paxton cautions against moving forward on
the case “without the benefit of an adversarial presentation.” Since
prosecutors won’t fight to uphold Moore’s death sentence, Paxton has asked the
court for permission to “to file a true brief in opposition” to Moore’s claims.
“The DA, who represents just one of Texas’s 254 counties, does not represent
the Attorney General’s interest,” he wrote.
Paxton is virtually alone in his support for Moore’s execution. Numerous
medical groups, legal organizations and prominent conservative lawyers,
including former Baylor University president and Whitewater investigator Ken
Starr, have filed amicus briefs urging the court to side with Moore.
Paxton’s office did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday,
and Moore’s attorneys declined to comment.
Moore’s legal saga speaks to the recalcitrant way Texas, the epicenter of the
American death penalty, has responded to the Supreme Court’s prohibition on
executing intellectually disabled offenders. For years, Texas has executed
inmates whom other death penalty states likely would have spared. That’s
because the state relied on a legal standard rooted more deeply in stereotypes
about intellectual disability than in medical consensus.
In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that executing intellectually disabled people
violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, but it
didn’t tell states how to determine who should be exempt. Most states turned to
a combination of intelligence tests and clinical assessments. The Texas Court
of Criminal Appeals (CCA), the state’s highest criminal court, instead
established a slippery standard: the “level and degree of mental retardation at
which a consensus of Texas citizens would agree that a person should be
exempted from the death penalty.”
In 2004, the CCA made it possible for Texas inmates to meet clinical benchmarks
for intellectual disability yet still not be disabled enough to avoid the death
penalty. The ruling established a checklist for courts to weigh, the so-called
Briseno factors, which went beyond clinical assessment and emphasized outdated
stereotypes of intellectually disabled people. To illustrate the bar it wished
to set, the court referenced John Steinbeck’s character Lennie from Of Mice and
Men as an example of someone everyday Texans would exempt from the death
penalty.
“What we’re seeing in Texas is not just extraordinarily rare, it’s essentially
a rogue action, in contradiction of state law, in support of an outlier
decision that every responsible organization agrees is wrong.”
Thus, Texas continued to put to death inmates who — to use a few real-world
examples — couldn’t count money, got lost if they wandered a few blocks from
home, or drooled during class. One study blamed the Briseno factors for the
“strikingly low” success rate of Texas death row inmates challenging their
executions on the grounds of intellectual disability.
That’s the legal situation that Moore confronted. In 2014, after a two-day
evidentiary hearing, a trial court concluded that Moore should be spared the
ultimate punishment due to his intellectual disability. However, applying the
Briseno factors, the CCA overturned that ruling and blessed Moore’s execution
the following year, putting his life in the Supreme Court’s hands.
In a 5-3 ruling, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called Texas’ method for
determining intellectual disability “an invention of the CCA untied to any
acknowledged source.” Her majority opinion declared the Briseno factors invalid
for creating “an unacceptable risk that persons with intellectual disability
will be executed” and sent Moore’s case back to the CCA for re-evaluation.
Last year, in a filing with the CCA, Harris County DA Kim Ogg took the
remarkable step of asking the court to reduce Moore’s sentence to life in
prison and urged the court to conform to American Psychiatric Association
standards for determining the intellectual disability of death row inmates. In
June, the CCA upheld Moore’s death sentence anyway.
That puts the case back in front of the Supreme Court. In a filing with the
high court last week, the American Bar Association argued that Texas has
effectively resurrected the much-maligned Briseno factors “under the guise of a
new standard for intellectual disability.”
Even prominent conservatives disagree with the way Texas has handled Moore’s
case. In an amicus brief, a group of lawyers including Ken Starr argued that
the CCA seems unconcerned with the rule of the law. The Texas court’s
insistence on upholding Moore’s death sentence “reflects a disturbing
disregard” for Supreme Court authority, the lawyers argued. The high court made
it clear last year that “Moore is intellectually disabled and constitutionally
ineligible for the death penalty.”
According to Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information
Center, it’s rare for a state attorney general to supplant local prosecutors in
death penalty cases. He says it’s unprecedented for an AG to argue for killing
a death row inmate whom local prosecutors have already agreed to spare.
“What we’re seeing in Texas is not just extraordinarily rare, it’s essentially
a rogue action, in contradiction of state law, in support of an outlier
decision that every responsible organization agrees is wrong,” Dunham said.
(source: Texas Observer)
*****************
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals grants new trial for death row inmate Albert
James Turner----The court threw out Turner's conviction because his defense
attorneys said at trial that he had committed murder, even though Turner wanted
to maintain his innocence.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has taken the rare step of overturning the
capital murder conviction of a death row inmate, granting Albert James Turner a
new trial based on issues with his defense attorneys at his trial.
Turner was convicted in 2011 of killing his wife and mother-in-law in Fort Bend
County shortly after Christmas 2009. His daughter, who was 12 at the time,
called the police and said she had witnessed the crimes.
At Turner’s trial, he wanted to maintain his innocence. When put on the stand,
he told jurors “I didn’t kill anyone” and claimed instead that the murders
resulted from a conspiracy involving a local mayor, according to court
documents.
But Turner’s defense team, believing they could secure a life sentence as
opposed to the death penalty if Turner pleaded guilty, told jurors he had
committed the crime and “still hasn’t accepted what has happened,” according to
court documents.
In a 7–1 decision Wednesday, the high court ruled that Turner had a
constitutional right to attorneys who would represent his interests at trial.
Their reasoning was based heavily on a May 2018 U.S. Supreme Court case, McCoy
v. Louisiana, that ruled defendants have “the right to insist that counsel
refrain from admitting guilt, even when counsel’s experience-based view is that
confessing guilt offers the defendant the best chance to avoid the death
penalty.”
(source: Texas Tribune)
*******************
Death penalty is satanic ritual
The death penalty is a Satanic Ritual and should have been abolished long ago.
Actually killing convicts bring them peace far sooner than if he has to reflect
on his crime for the rest of his natural like in the confines of a prison cell.
Life in prison is a far greater punishment than killing them and putting them
out of their misery.
As a theologian, I am appalled that any person who purports to be a “Christian”
would promote the death penalty. Personally participating in voting to kill
should be considered by genuine followers of Jesus to be a mortal sin.
Many innocent humans have been put to death right here in Huntsville, known
worldwide as “The City of Death”. I was told by “Christians” involved in the
vandalism and theft of our church’s anti-death penalty sign at 1405 University
Avenue, that it doesn’t matter if innocent people are executed if they believe
in Jesus because they will go directly to Heaven which is a good thing.
Theologically speaking, this religious philosophy is more than bizarre in my
opinion.
Not only does the United States execute more humans than 190 of the 195
countries on our planet but Texas executes more humans than any other state.
More humans are put to death in Huntsville in an average year than in many
Muslim dictatorships.
Even more insane than killing people in Texas is that it can cost over $2
million dollars before the prisoner is finally injected after many years of
appeals when life in prison would save the taxpayers over half that amount.
(source: Letter to the Editor, George Russell, Huntsville Item)
ALABAMA:
A Dothan man previously given the death sentence, resentenced to 99 years
A Dothan man condemned to death for a 2004 murder will now serve a 99-year
sentence following a new trial.
Lameco Dechawn Turner was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death
in Jan. 19, 2010. However, the case came back on appeal and a new trial was
held in August. Tuesday, Turner was given a 99-year prison sentence.
Dothan police investigators charged Turner with capital murder in the April 20,
2004, death of Prakash Shah, who died after being shot during a robbery of the
Southeast Mini Mart located at Cottonwood Road and Third Avenue.
During Turner’s previous trial, former Dothan Police Officer Frank Meredith
stated Turner admitted he pulled the trigger in the fatal shooting, and that
there was no evidence to show it was an accident.
On appeal, however, Turner argued that his case suffered irreparable damage
when confessions of his non-testifying accomplices’ were admitted into evidence
through the testimony of the lead investigator. Turner argued he shot Shah by
accident. The lead investigator testified that witness accounts indicated that
Turner shot Shah after Shah grabbed a nearby phone to call police. Turner
argued on appeal that introduction of the confessions violated Turner’s
constitutional right to confront the witnesses against him.
The conviction was reversed and remanded back to court for a new trial.
According to lead counsel Aimee Smith, during Turner’s new trial Judge Michael
Conaway imposed a 110-year prison sentence, which she said was out of the
jurisdiction of the courts.
“We filed a brief imposing a sentence of 20 years in prison up to 99 years in
prison, and we are thankful the court corrected the sentencing,” Smith said.
(source: Dothan Eagle)
OHIO:
Experts disagree over Melvin Knight's mental capacity to face death penalty
2 mental health experts on Wednesday gave Westmoreland County jurors different
opinions as to whether Melvin Knight suffers from an intellectual disability
that renders him ineligible for the death penalty.
During the 7th day of Knight’s sentencing trial, defense expert Christine Nezu,
a clinical psychologist from Philadelphia, testified for the defense that
Knight was not able to function in society and was “profoundly adaptively
impaired,” both conditions that render him intellectually disabled.
“I believe Melvin has severe deficits and trouble adapting to the real world,”
Nezu testified.
Bruce Wright, a prosecution-hired psychologist from Pittsburgh, told jurors
Knight knew right from wrong, could function adequately and is not
intellectually impaired.
Knight, 29, formerly of Swissvale, is seeking to have his life spared for his
role in the 2010 torture and slaying of a mentally disabled Mt. Pleasant woman
in 2010.
Prosecutors want Knight sentenced to death.
Testimony in the trial is expected to conclude Thursday with a final defense
witness, followed by closing arguments and jury deliberations. Knight on
Wednesday told Common Pleas Court Judge Rita Hathaway he would not testify.
Prosecutors contend Knight was one of six Greensburg roommates who in February
2010 held 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty captive for more than two days. She
was beaten and tortured before being bound with Christmas lights, fatally
stabbed, stuffed into a garbage bin and discarded in a snow-covered parking
lot.
Nezu told jurors she found three mitigating factors why Knight should be spared
from the death penalty:
Knight did not have the capacity to appreciate his conduct;
his emotional and mental ages ranged between 9 and 12; and
he was susceptible to be dominated by another person.
The defense maintains that Knight was under the influence of co-defendant Ricky
Smyrnes when he stabbed and participated in the beatings and torture of
Daugherty during her captivity. Knight pleaded guilty in 2012 to first-degree
murder and was sentenced to death — a penalty that was later overturned by a
state appeals court, which ordered a new trial to determine whether he lives or
dies.
Wright, offering rebuttal testimony for the prosecution, told jurors that since
Knight’s death sentence was overturned, he started working in his prison’s
cafeteria, earning 14 cents an hour, routinely visits the facility’s law
library to research legal cases and attends education classes, including
recently having signed up to learn heating, ventilation and air conditioning
repair skills.
Wright said Knight is an avid reader, having recently completed a biography
about President Donald Trump.
Knight’s intelligence scores on IQ tests range between 77 and 97 indicate he is
not disabled, although he was diagnosed with depression, psychosis, substance
abuse, attention deficit disorder and antisocial behavior, Wright testified.
“He had the capacity to appreciate his criminal conduct. He chose not to, but
he had the capacity,” Wright said.
Knight’s mother, Yolanda Rue, told jurors that her son had dealt with mental
health issues since he was first diagnosed at age 6. She testified Knight
enrolled in special education classes and later attended schools better
equipped to deal with his mental health and learning needs.
Rue said her son was routinely bullied as a child.
“He couldn’t be without supervision because of poor choices he made. He could
be talked into anything if he thought it was fun,” Rue testified.
She said Knight as a late teen rebelled against her authority and moved away
from home after he turned 18. She learned through a friend he became homeless
and later reunited with her son after he briefly came home with his pregnant
girlfriend, identified as co-defendant Amber Meidinger, a few weeks before
their arrest for Daugherty’s murder.
Rue testified she would not allow Meidinger to live in her home with Knight and
offered to find her a shelter for pregnant women until her son was able to find
a home of his own.
“Amber and Melvin weren’t good with that,” she testified.
(source: triblive.com)
************
Ohio Family Of 4 Charged In ‘Cold-Blooded’ Massacre Of Another Family
--George Wagner III, his wife and their 2 sons have been arrested in the 2016
slayings of 7 Rhoden family members and a victim’s fiancée.
4 members of a southern Ohio family are in custody as suspects in the
execution-style slayings of eight people from another family, authorities said.
George “Billy” Wagner III, his wife and their 2 adult sons were taken into
custody Tuesday in connection with the cold case slayings of seven members of
the Rhoden family and the fiancée of 1 of the victims. The bodies were found at
4 separate homes in the rural town of Piketon in April 2016.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said the arrests were made after a grand jury
indicted the 4 on aggravated murder charges. If convicted, they could be
sentenced to death.
“We promised the victims’ families that the day would come when this case would
be solved, and today is that day,” DeWine said in a news release. “The
indictments allege that these suspects developed a calculated plan to execute
the victims in the middle of the night and then carefully cover their tracks.
Their alleged plan was sophisticated, but not sophisticated enough for our team
of investigators and prosecutors.”
The victims were Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40, his ex-wife Dana Manley Rhoden,
37, and their 3 children, Hanna May Rhoden, 19, Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16, and
Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20. Frankie Rhoden’s fiancée, Hannah “Hazel” Gilley,
20, was also killed, along with the elder Christopher Rhoden’s brother Kenneth
Rhoden, 44, and cousin Gary Rhoden, 38.
“The Wagners were friends with the Rhodens and had been for years,” DeWine
said. “They knew the layouts of the Rhodens’ homes, and they knew the victims’
routines. It is our belief that the suspects used this knowledge to
meticulously plan these horrendous, cold-blooded murders.”
At the time of the slayings, Hanna Rhoden and Edward “Jake” Wagner were
allegedly fighting over the custody of their child.
In addition to murder, the Wagners face numerous other charges, including
conspiracy and aggravated burglary.
(source: Huffington Post)
TENNESSEE----impending execution
Tennessee says court should reject death row inmate's plea
Attorneys for the state of Tennessee say the courts should reject a plea by
condemned inmate David Earl Miller to halt his execution.
Miller is scheduled to be executed Dec. 6. He has filed a lawsuit in federal
court in Nashville arguing that electrocution is unconstitutional and lethal
injection is even worse. Miller suggests in his suit that the firing squad
would be a more humane method of execution than either of the methods currently
practiced in Tennessee.
In a response filed Friday, attorneys for the state say Miller's claims have
already been decided by the court. They say Miller's execution has been delayed
twice to allow challenges to Tennessee's lethal injection methods.
The state has given Miller until Nov. 20 to choose between lethal injection and
the electric chair.
(source: Associated Press)
NEVADA:
36-year Nevada death row inmate gets new hearing
A study by the Crime and Justice Institute says even as the nation is putting
fewer people in prison, Nevada is putting more behind bars and keeping them
there longer.
A man convicted of fatally stabbing a pregnant woman 38 times during a home
burglary in Reno is going to get a new hearing on his death sentence.
The U.S. Ninth Circuit of Appeals on Tuesday granted the petition of Cary W.
Williams who maintained his attorney was deficient during the penalty hearing
before 3 judges in Washoe County.
Williams pleaded to the killing of Katherine Carlson who was alone in her home
on June 27, 1982. Her husband, a firefighter was gone that night.
The court said Williams, who was 18 at the time, believed the home was empty.
He had been in several other home burglaries when the residents were away,
Carlson was in the bedroom and heard Williams enter. He took a butcher knife
and there was a struggle before the victim was stabbed.
Williams then took money, a camera, jewelry and a .22 caliber pistol before
fleeing. He was captured in Los Angeles while trying to pawn some of the
jewelry.
In ordering a new penalty hearing, the appeals court said the attorney for
Williams failed to present "substantial and mitigating evidence" involving his
abuse and traumatic childhood.
His mother died at an early age and he was shuffled from home to home and
school to school in a violent section of Los Angeles, according to the appeals
court.
He has been on death row 36 years.
(source: nevadaappeal.com)
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TEXAS----execution
Mexican citizen executed in Texas for killings of wife, kids
A Mexican citizen on death row in Texas was executed Wednesday night for the
sledgehammer killings of his wife and 2 children more than 26 years ago.
Roberto Moreno Ramos was condemned for the 1992 deaths of his 42-year-old wife
Leticia, 7-year-old daughter Abigail, and 3-year-old son Jonathan at their home
in Progreso, located along the Mexico border.
When asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Ramos thanked the Mexican
consulate for assisting with appeals in his case and said he was grateful for
“the humane treatment I got in prison in Texas.”
“I’m getting my gold watch that it took the governor 30 years to forge,” he
said without elaborating. “Thank you God. Lord, send me a chariot. I’m ready.”
As the lethal dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital began taking effect,
the 64-year-old Ramos took a couple of deep breaths, sputtered once and began
snoring. Within seconds, all movement stopped.
11 minutes later, at 9:36 p.m. CST, Ramos was pronounced dead.
He became the 21st inmate put to death this year in the U.S. and the 11th given
a lethal injection in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state. No
friends or relatives of Ramos or his victims witnessed the execution.
Mexican officials had called for his execution to be stopped, arguing he was
part of a group of Mexican citizens condemned in the U.S. who were never told
when first arrested that they could get legal help from the Mexican government.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday night cleared the way for the punishment
when it denied two appeals seeking to halt the lethal injection. Ramos’
attorney on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to stop his execution, arguing
that Ramos’ constitutional rights were violated as lower courts refused to
fully review his claims that his trial lawyers failed to present any evidence
about his mental illness and abusive childhood that could have persuaded jurors
to spare his life.
3 retired justices who had served on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals filed
court documents with the Supreme Court on Wednesday in support of stopping the
execution. The ex-judges alleged the appeals court appointed an incompetent
appellate attorney who early in the post-conviction process failed to
investigate Ramos’ case.
Also Wednesday, a federal judge in Austin dismissed Ramos’ request to
temporarily block the execution. The request had been part of a lawsuit Ramos
filed against the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals a day earlier. The suit
alleged the appeals court had not allowed Ramos to present claims he had
ineffective trial and appellate lawyers.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
had previously turned down requests to halt Ramos’ execution.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday declined to recommend either a
commutation of his sentence or a six-month reprieve.
In court documents, Ramos’ appellate attorney, Danalynn Recer, had argued Ramos
suffered from bipolar disorder most of his life, including during the time of
his family’s killings, as well as brain damage that affected his ability to
control his impulses and regulate his emotions.
Recer said Ramos was also brutally beaten as a child by his father.
Ramos was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico, and grew up in Guadalajara and
Tijuana before his family moved to the United States in 1970.
“No fact-finder or decision-maker entrusted with Mr. Moreno Ramos’ life has
ever been provided with evidence of (his) ‘diverse human frailties’ to assist
them in dispensing the most severe punishment under law,” Recer said.
But the Texas Attorney General’s Office said Ramos’ death sentence was
appropriate due to his “violent and dangerous nature.”
Authorities said Ramos bludgeoned his family members and then buried them
underneath his home’s bathroom floor so he could marry the woman he was having
an extramarital affair with at the time.
In court filings, the attorney general’s office highlighted testimony from
Ramos’ then-19-year-old son, who told jurors at Ramos’ 1993 trial that his
father “would continue to commit criminal acts of violence.”
In 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, found
Ramos was part of a group of 52 Mexican citizens awaiting execution in the U.S.
who weren’t advised of their consular rights under the Vienna Convention when
first arrested. It recommended they be tried again to determine if consular
access would have affected their cases. Then-President George W. Bush directed
states to reopen the cases.
But the Supreme Court in 2008 overruled Bush’s directive, saying only Congress
can require states to follow the international court’s ruling.
Including Ramos, 6 Mexican citizens have been executed since being named in the
international court ruling and all the executions were carried out by Texas,
according to the Mexican government.
Ramos becomes the 11th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas
and the 556th overall since the state resumed capital punishmen on December 7,
1982. Ramos becomes the 38th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since
Greg Abbott became Governor in 2015.
Ramos becomes the 21st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA
and the 1, 486th overall since executions resumed in the nation on January 17,
1977.
(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)<P>
*******************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----38
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----556
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
39---------Dec. 4-----------------Joseph Garcia-----------557
40---------Dec. 11----------------Alvin Braziel, Jr.------558
41---------Jan. 15----------------Blaine Milam------------559
42---------Jan. 30----------------Robert Jennings---------560
43---------Feb. 28----------------Billy Wayne Coble-------561
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
***************
Dallas County DA's office says testing is being done on items in Darlie Routier
case
For people who say Darlie Routier was unjustly sentenced to death row for her
son's murder, their argument often comes back to DNA.
Routier, 48, was convicted of fatally stabbing her 5-year-old son Damon in June
1996. Her 6-year-old son, Devon, was also slain, but she has not been tried in
his death.
Routier said she could not remember much of what happened that night and
claimed a stranger came into her Rowlett house and attacked her and her sons.
Investigators have said evidence at the house was inconsistent with her
account, and police suggested Routier may have inflicted her own neck wounds.
For Darlie Routier's mother, Darlie Kee, and others, the hope for a successful
appeal may hinge on the results of DNA testing that was granted a decade ago.
The Dallas County district attorney's office said that "multiple items of
evidence" have been tested this year after court orders from November and
December 2017, and that DNA testing is ongoing.
"When testing is completed, the court will schedule a hearing to review the
results," the district attorney's office said.
Stephen Cooper, an attorney for Routier, said 10 to 12 items are being tested,
but he did not specify what they were.
Statutes have changed since the original request for the DNA testing was filed
a decade ago, which has allowed the defense to test additional items, he said.
"Frankly, the DA's office has been cooperative in allowing ... [the defense] to
expand to anything that might be possible," Cooper said.
The defense asked that testing be done at a private facility, but the state has
insisted the process go through the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab
in Garland.
DPS referred questions about the testing to the district attorney's office.
"We've got more reason to look at additional items that were not tested before,
so we're just working through that list we've had for several years," Cooper
said. "It's not really new; we're just now getting to it. We've taken
bite-sized chunks out of our request at a time with the really chaotic crime
scene, focusing on things that should be tested and what order they should be
tested. It's been a long process but necessary."
In November 2008, U.S. District Judge Royal Furgeson granted additional testing
of items including a bloody sock found a few houses down, a knife that is
thought to be the murder weapon and the fibers from another knife found in a
butcher block in the Routier home. Furgeson also gave permission to have 4
fingerprints submitted to the FBI to check for matches.
Furgeson wrote in the order that even if another person's DNA were found on the
sock, that would not necessarily prove the intruder argument.
A 3rd person doesn't answer who might have killed the boys, but "could prove
helpful in determining whether their murders were the products of a conspiracy,
rather than the wanton act of an individual suffering from severe postpartum
depression, as suggested" during the trial, the court document stated.
It's unclear whether testing or federal database checks were done on the bloody
fingerprint that was found on a table near the body of one of the boys.
"If ... [the fingerprint is] not reasonable doubt, I don't know what is," Kee
said. "That's enough to make you pause and say, 'Well, whose fingerprint is
it?'"
In letters sent to the court and entered into Routier's case file, people have
pleaded with Dallas County Judge Gracie Lewis to run tests of the fingerprint
in the hope that it may point to the person they think is the real killer.
Earlier this year, The Last Defense, a seven-part documentary series aired on
ABC, drew new attention to Routier's case and examined what led to her
conviction.
In early October, a group of people following the case organized a 3-day rally
outside the Dallas County courthouse to sustain public interest and ask why
testing has not been completed.
Routier was convicted in February 1997 in Kerrville after a change of venue.
Kee, who has staunchly maintained her daughter's innocence, thinks that if the
trial had been conducted in Dallas County, the outcome would have been
different.
Kee said she thinks her daughter's fate was sealed when the jury was shown
video of Routier spraying Silly String at her son's grave during a birthday
party for Devon shortly after his death.
Prosecutors said Routier's behavior showed a lack of grief and remorse. The
defense said it was the family's way of trying to cope with sorrow.
Kee said prosecutors never proved her daughter guilty.
"They never could explain the sock, and they never could explain her wounds,"
she said.
In June, Kee intends to hold a "convoy of justice" at the graveyard where the
boys are buried, on what would have been Devon's 30th birthday.
"I'm just very tired of it after 22 years," Kee said. Routier's "family and
friends, we've all been going through this for 22 years with no closure at all
with the threat of ... [death row] hanging over her head."
(source: Dallas Morning News)
*****************
Ken Paxton’s Strange Quest to Execute an Intellectually Disabled Man
Prosecutors have agreed to spare Bobby Moore’s life due to his intellectual
disability. Texas’ highest criminal court and top legal official want to kill
him anyway.
As a teenager, Bobby Moore couldn’t tell time. Before dropping out of school in
the 9th grade, he was so far behind his peers that teachers told him to draw
pictures rather than try to keep up with reading and writing assignments.
According to court filings, Moore repeatedly got sick from eating out of
neighbors’ garbage cans in his Houston neighborhood, apparently unaware that
the rotting food kept poisoning him.
For the past year, the Harris County DA’s Office has sided with appellate
lawyers arguing that Moore, who was convicted in the 1980 murder of a Houston
convenience store clerk, is too intellectually disabled to execute. Even as the
death penalty loses momentum in Texas, it’s highly unusual for prosecutors to
argue that a defendant’s life should be spared. But that hasn’t stopped Texas
Attorney General Ken Paxton from fighting to have Moore executed.
In an extraordinary move last week, Paxton’s office filed a motion with the
U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in Moore’s case, arguing to uphold his death
sentence. Typically, the AG’s office only gets involved with death penalty
cases if local prosecutors ask for assistance, and Texas law doesn’t authorize
the office to contravene the decisions of local prosecutors.
In his filing to the Supreme Court, Paxton cautions against moving forward on
the case “without the benefit of an adversarial presentation.” Since
prosecutors won’t fight to uphold Moore’s death sentence, Paxton has asked the
court for permission to “to file a true brief in opposition” to Moore’s claims.
“The DA, who represents just one of Texas’s 254 counties, does not represent
the Attorney General’s interest,” he wrote.
Paxton is virtually alone in his support for Moore’s execution. Numerous
medical groups, legal organizations and prominent conservative lawyers,
including former Baylor University president and Whitewater investigator Ken
Starr, have filed amicus briefs urging the court to side with Moore.
Paxton’s office did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday,
and Moore’s attorneys declined to comment.
Moore’s legal saga speaks to the recalcitrant way Texas, the epicenter of the
American death penalty, has responded to the Supreme Court’s prohibition on
executing intellectually disabled offenders. For years, Texas has executed
inmates whom other death penalty states likely would have spared. That’s
because the state relied on a legal standard rooted more deeply in stereotypes
about intellectual disability than in medical consensus.
In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that executing intellectually disabled people
violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, but it
didn’t tell states how to determine who should be exempt. Most states turned to
a combination of intelligence tests and clinical assessments. The Texas Court
of Criminal Appeals (CCA), the state’s highest criminal court, instead
established a slippery standard: the “level and degree of mental retardation at
which a consensus of Texas citizens would agree that a person should be
exempted from the death penalty.”
In 2004, the CCA made it possible for Texas inmates to meet clinical benchmarks
for intellectual disability yet still not be disabled enough to avoid the death
penalty. The ruling established a checklist for courts to weigh, the so-called
Briseno factors, which went beyond clinical assessment and emphasized outdated
stereotypes of intellectually disabled people. To illustrate the bar it wished
to set, the court referenced John Steinbeck’s character Lennie from Of Mice and
Men as an example of someone everyday Texans would exempt from the death
penalty.
“What we’re seeing in Texas is not just extraordinarily rare, it’s essentially
a rogue action, in contradiction of state law, in support of an outlier
decision that every responsible organization agrees is wrong.”
Thus, Texas continued to put to death inmates who — to use a few real-world
examples — couldn’t count money, got lost if they wandered a few blocks from
home, or drooled during class. One study blamed the Briseno factors for the
“strikingly low” success rate of Texas death row inmates challenging their
executions on the grounds of intellectual disability.
That’s the legal situation that Moore confronted. In 2014, after a two-day
evidentiary hearing, a trial court concluded that Moore should be spared the
ultimate punishment due to his intellectual disability. However, applying the
Briseno factors, the CCA overturned that ruling and blessed Moore’s execution
the following year, putting his life in the Supreme Court’s hands.
In a 5-3 ruling, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called Texas’ method for
determining intellectual disability “an invention of the CCA untied to any
acknowledged source.” Her majority opinion declared the Briseno factors invalid
for creating “an unacceptable risk that persons with intellectual disability
will be executed” and sent Moore’s case back to the CCA for re-evaluation.
Last year, in a filing with the CCA, Harris County DA Kim Ogg took the
remarkable step of asking the court to reduce Moore’s sentence to life in
prison and urged the court to conform to American Psychiatric Association
standards for determining the intellectual disability of death row inmates. In
June, the CCA upheld Moore’s death sentence anyway.
That puts the case back in front of the Supreme Court. In a filing with the
high court last week, the American Bar Association argued that Texas has
effectively resurrected the much-maligned Briseno factors “under the guise of a
new standard for intellectual disability.”
Even prominent conservatives disagree with the way Texas has handled Moore’s
case. In an amicus brief, a group of lawyers including Ken Starr argued that
the CCA seems unconcerned with the rule of the law. The Texas court’s
insistence on upholding Moore’s death sentence “reflects a disturbing
disregard” for Supreme Court authority, the lawyers argued. The high court made
it clear last year that “Moore is intellectually disabled and constitutionally
ineligible for the death penalty.”
According to Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information
Center, it’s rare for a state attorney general to supplant local prosecutors in
death penalty cases. He says it’s unprecedented for an AG to argue for killing
a death row inmate whom local prosecutors have already agreed to spare.
“What we’re seeing in Texas is not just extraordinarily rare, it’s essentially
a rogue action, in contradiction of state law, in support of an outlier
decision that every responsible organization agrees is wrong,” Dunham said.
(source: Texas Observer)
*****************
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals grants new trial for death row inmate Albert
James Turner----The court threw out Turner's conviction because his defense
attorneys said at trial that he had committed murder, even though Turner wanted
to maintain his innocence.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has taken the rare step of overturning the
capital murder conviction of a death row inmate, granting Albert James Turner a
new trial based on issues with his defense attorneys at his trial.
Turner was convicted in 2011 of killing his wife and mother-in-law in Fort Bend
County shortly after Christmas 2009. His daughter, who was 12 at the time,
called the police and said she had witnessed the crimes.
At Turner’s trial, he wanted to maintain his innocence. When put on the stand,
he told jurors “I didn’t kill anyone” and claimed instead that the murders
resulted from a conspiracy involving a local mayor, according to court
documents.
But Turner’s defense team, believing they could secure a life sentence as
opposed to the death penalty if Turner pleaded guilty, told jurors he had
committed the crime and “still hasn’t accepted what has happened,” according to
court documents.
In a 7–1 decision Wednesday, the high court ruled that Turner had a
constitutional right to attorneys who would represent his interests at trial.
Their reasoning was based heavily on a May 2018 U.S. Supreme Court case, McCoy
v. Louisiana, that ruled defendants have “the right to insist that counsel
refrain from admitting guilt, even when counsel’s experience-based view is that
confessing guilt offers the defendant the best chance to avoid the death
penalty.”
(source: Texas Tribune)
*******************
Death penalty is satanic ritual
The death penalty is a Satanic Ritual and should have been abolished long ago.
Actually killing convicts bring them peace far sooner than if he has to reflect
on his crime for the rest of his natural like in the confines of a prison cell.
Life in prison is a far greater punishment than killing them and putting them
out of their misery.
As a theologian, I am appalled that any person who purports to be a “Christian”
would promote the death penalty. Personally participating in voting to kill
should be considered by genuine followers of Jesus to be a mortal sin.
Many innocent humans have been put to death right here in Huntsville, known
worldwide as “The City of Death”. I was told by “Christians” involved in the
vandalism and theft of our church’s anti-death penalty sign at 1405 University
Avenue, that it doesn’t matter if innocent people are executed if they believe
in Jesus because they will go directly to Heaven which is a good thing.
Theologically speaking, this religious philosophy is more than bizarre in my
opinion.
Not only does the United States execute more humans than 190 of the 195
countries on our planet but Texas executes more humans than any other state.
More humans are put to death in Huntsville in an average year than in many
Muslim dictatorships.
Even more insane than killing people in Texas is that it can cost over $2
million dollars before the prisoner is finally injected after many years of
appeals when life in prison would save the taxpayers over half that amount.
(source: Letter to the Editor, George Russell, Huntsville Item)
ALABAMA:
A Dothan man previously given the death sentence, resentenced to 99 years
A Dothan man condemned to death for a 2004 murder will now serve a 99-year
sentence following a new trial.
Lameco Dechawn Turner was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death
in Jan. 19, 2010. However, the case came back on appeal and a new trial was
held in August. Tuesday, Turner was given a 99-year prison sentence.
Dothan police investigators charged Turner with capital murder in the April 20,
2004, death of Prakash Shah, who died after being shot during a robbery of the
Southeast Mini Mart located at Cottonwood Road and Third Avenue.
During Turner’s previous trial, former Dothan Police Officer Frank Meredith
stated Turner admitted he pulled the trigger in the fatal shooting, and that
there was no evidence to show it was an accident.
On appeal, however, Turner argued that his case suffered irreparable damage
when confessions of his non-testifying accomplices’ were admitted into evidence
through the testimony of the lead investigator. Turner argued he shot Shah by
accident. The lead investigator testified that witness accounts indicated that
Turner shot Shah after Shah grabbed a nearby phone to call police. Turner
argued on appeal that introduction of the confessions violated Turner’s
constitutional right to confront the witnesses against him.
The conviction was reversed and remanded back to court for a new trial.
According to lead counsel Aimee Smith, during Turner’s new trial Judge Michael
Conaway imposed a 110-year prison sentence, which she said was out of the
jurisdiction of the courts.
“We filed a brief imposing a sentence of 20 years in prison up to 99 years in
prison, and we are thankful the court corrected the sentencing,” Smith said.
(source: Dothan Eagle)
OHIO:
Experts disagree over Melvin Knight's mental capacity to face death penalty
2 mental health experts on Wednesday gave Westmoreland County jurors different
opinions as to whether Melvin Knight suffers from an intellectual disability
that renders him ineligible for the death penalty.
During the 7th day of Knight’s sentencing trial, defense expert Christine Nezu,
a clinical psychologist from Philadelphia, testified for the defense that
Knight was not able to function in society and was “profoundly adaptively
impaired,” both conditions that render him intellectually disabled.
“I believe Melvin has severe deficits and trouble adapting to the real world,”
Nezu testified.
Bruce Wright, a prosecution-hired psychologist from Pittsburgh, told jurors
Knight knew right from wrong, could function adequately and is not
intellectually impaired.
Knight, 29, formerly of Swissvale, is seeking to have his life spared for his
role in the 2010 torture and slaying of a mentally disabled Mt. Pleasant woman
in 2010.
Prosecutors want Knight sentenced to death.
Testimony in the trial is expected to conclude Thursday with a final defense
witness, followed by closing arguments and jury deliberations. Knight on
Wednesday told Common Pleas Court Judge Rita Hathaway he would not testify.
Prosecutors contend Knight was one of six Greensburg roommates who in February
2010 held 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty captive for more than two days. She
was beaten and tortured before being bound with Christmas lights, fatally
stabbed, stuffed into a garbage bin and discarded in a snow-covered parking
lot.
Nezu told jurors she found three mitigating factors why Knight should be spared
from the death penalty:
Knight did not have the capacity to appreciate his conduct;
his emotional and mental ages ranged between 9 and 12; and
he was susceptible to be dominated by another person.
The defense maintains that Knight was under the influence of co-defendant Ricky
Smyrnes when he stabbed and participated in the beatings and torture of
Daugherty during her captivity. Knight pleaded guilty in 2012 to first-degree
murder and was sentenced to death — a penalty that was later overturned by a
state appeals court, which ordered a new trial to determine whether he lives or
dies.
Wright, offering rebuttal testimony for the prosecution, told jurors that since
Knight’s death sentence was overturned, he started working in his prison’s
cafeteria, earning 14 cents an hour, routinely visits the facility’s law
library to research legal cases and attends education classes, including
recently having signed up to learn heating, ventilation and air conditioning
repair skills.
Wright said Knight is an avid reader, having recently completed a biography
about President Donald Trump.
Knight’s intelligence scores on IQ tests range between 77 and 97 indicate he is
not disabled, although he was diagnosed with depression, psychosis, substance
abuse, attention deficit disorder and antisocial behavior, Wright testified.
“He had the capacity to appreciate his criminal conduct. He chose not to, but
he had the capacity,” Wright said.
Knight’s mother, Yolanda Rue, told jurors that her son had dealt with mental
health issues since he was first diagnosed at age 6. She testified Knight
enrolled in special education classes and later attended schools better
equipped to deal with his mental health and learning needs.
Rue said her son was routinely bullied as a child.
“He couldn’t be without supervision because of poor choices he made. He could
be talked into anything if he thought it was fun,” Rue testified.
She said Knight as a late teen rebelled against her authority and moved away
from home after he turned 18. She learned through a friend he became homeless
and later reunited with her son after he briefly came home with his pregnant
girlfriend, identified as co-defendant Amber Meidinger, a few weeks before
their arrest for Daugherty’s murder.
Rue testified she would not allow Meidinger to live in her home with Knight and
offered to find her a shelter for pregnant women until her son was able to find
a home of his own.
“Amber and Melvin weren’t good with that,” she testified.
(source: triblive.com)
************
Ohio Family Of 4 Charged In ‘Cold-Blooded’ Massacre Of Another Family
--George Wagner III, his wife and their 2 sons have been arrested in the 2016
slayings of 7 Rhoden family members and a victim’s fiancée.
4 members of a southern Ohio family are in custody as suspects in the
execution-style slayings of eight people from another family, authorities said.
George “Billy” Wagner III, his wife and their 2 adult sons were taken into
custody Tuesday in connection with the cold case slayings of seven members of
the Rhoden family and the fiancée of 1 of the victims. The bodies were found at
4 separate homes in the rural town of Piketon in April 2016.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said the arrests were made after a grand jury
indicted the 4 on aggravated murder charges. If convicted, they could be
sentenced to death.
“We promised the victims’ families that the day would come when this case would
be solved, and today is that day,” DeWine said in a news release. “The
indictments allege that these suspects developed a calculated plan to execute
the victims in the middle of the night and then carefully cover their tracks.
Their alleged plan was sophisticated, but not sophisticated enough for our team
of investigators and prosecutors.”
The victims were Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40, his ex-wife Dana Manley Rhoden,
37, and their 3 children, Hanna May Rhoden, 19, Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16, and
Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20. Frankie Rhoden’s fiancée, Hannah “Hazel” Gilley,
20, was also killed, along with the elder Christopher Rhoden’s brother Kenneth
Rhoden, 44, and cousin Gary Rhoden, 38.
“The Wagners were friends with the Rhodens and had been for years,” DeWine
said. “They knew the layouts of the Rhodens’ homes, and they knew the victims’
routines. It is our belief that the suspects used this knowledge to
meticulously plan these horrendous, cold-blooded murders.”
At the time of the slayings, Hanna Rhoden and Edward “Jake” Wagner were
allegedly fighting over the custody of their child.
In addition to murder, the Wagners face numerous other charges, including
conspiracy and aggravated burglary.
(source: Huffington Post)
TENNESSEE----impending execution
Tennessee says court should reject death row inmate's plea
Attorneys for the state of Tennessee say the courts should reject a plea by
condemned inmate David Earl Miller to halt his execution.
Miller is scheduled to be executed Dec. 6. He has filed a lawsuit in federal
court in Nashville arguing that electrocution is unconstitutional and lethal
injection is even worse. Miller suggests in his suit that the firing squad
would be a more humane method of execution than either of the methods currently
practiced in Tennessee.
In a response filed Friday, attorneys for the state say Miller's claims have
already been decided by the court. They say Miller's execution has been delayed
twice to allow challenges to Tennessee's lethal injection methods.
The state has given Miller until Nov. 20 to choose between lethal injection and
the electric chair.
(source: Associated Press)
NEVADA:
36-year Nevada death row inmate gets new hearing
A study by the Crime and Justice Institute says even as the nation is putting
fewer people in prison, Nevada is putting more behind bars and keeping them
there longer.
A man convicted of fatally stabbing a pregnant woman 38 times during a home
burglary in Reno is going to get a new hearing on his death sentence.
The U.S. Ninth Circuit of Appeals on Tuesday granted the petition of Cary W.
Williams who maintained his attorney was deficient during the penalty hearing
before 3 judges in Washoe County.
Williams pleaded to the killing of Katherine Carlson who was alone in her home
on June 27, 1982. Her husband, a firefighter was gone that night.
The court said Williams, who was 18 at the time, believed the home was empty.
He had been in several other home burglaries when the residents were away,
Carlson was in the bedroom and heard Williams enter. He took a butcher knife
and there was a struggle before the victim was stabbed.
Williams then took money, a camera, jewelry and a .22 caliber pistol before
fleeing. He was captured in Los Angeles while trying to pawn some of the
jewelry.
In ordering a new penalty hearing, the appeals court said the attorney for
Williams failed to present "substantial and mitigating evidence" involving his
abuse and traumatic childhood.
His mother died at an early age and he was shuffled from home to home and
school to school in a violent section of Los Angeles, according to the appeals
court.
He has been on death row 36 years.
(source: nevadaappeal.com)
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