With thanks to Amnesty.org for keeping track of the national execution schedule (correct as of February 6, 2013), let’s consider what is going on in the United States right now.  In all the states that allow for capital punishment, consider this:

  • There are 27 executions scheduled from March 1, 2013 to December 31, 2015 right now in the United States.  
  • One is in Arizona (Edward Schad on 3/6) and one is set in Oklahoma (Robert Thacker on 3/12).
  • The rest are all in Texas and Ohio.  

That’s right: due in no small part to the efforts of Terence Lenamon (as discussed here in prior posts), there are no death penalty executions scheduled this year, or in 2014, or in 2015, in the State of Florida.

Here are the Executions Scheduled in Texas and Ohio:

 

OHIO

3/6/2013              Frederick Treesh            

5/1/2013              Steven Smith   

8/7/2013              Billy Slagle         

9/25/2013            Harry Mitts, Jr.

11/14/2013         Ronald Phillips 

1/16/2014            Dennis McGuire             

3/19/2014            Gregory Lott    

5/28/2014            Arthur Tyler      

8/6/2014              William Montgomery   

10/15/2014         Raymond Tibbetts         

1/7/2015              Warren Henness            

05/14/15              Jeffrey Wogenstahl      

TEXAS

4/3/2013              Kimberly McCarthy       

4/09/2013            Ricky Lewis       

4/10/2013            Rigoberto Avila               

4/16/2013            Ronnie Threadgill           

4/24/2013            Elroy Chester   

4/25/2013            Richard Cobb   

5/7/2013              Caroll Joe Parr 

5/15/2013            Jeffrey Williams              

5/21/13                Robert Pruett  

7/16/13                John Quintanilla              

07/18/13              Vaughn Ross    

7/31/2013            Douglas Feldman

03/12/15              Robert Van Hook             

 

 

 

As reported earlier here on the blog, Terence Lenamon was successful in his arguments to keep Vernon Stevens off of Florida’s Death Row as Mr. Stevens was sentenced to life imprisonment earlier this month.

Meanwhile, news coverage of the James E. Bannister murder case out of Ocala earlier this month had Terry Lenamon’s co-counsel reporting to the trial judge that Terence Lenamon could not be actively participating in the Bannister proceeding because he was busy in the Stevens case.

Added to that, explained Tania Alavi, she and Terence Lenamon were also co-defense counsel in the pending Florida death penalty murder case against Michael Woods, set for trial later in 2013 – and it’s assumed that the Woods trial may be delayed in order for the Bannister case to proceed.

Here is Terry Lenamon’s Opening Statement in the penalty phase of the Stevens trial: 

 

 Terry Lenamon just finished a six week trial in Florida, where state prosecutors were seeking the death penalty for Vernon Dwayne Stevens.  Mr. Stevens, however, will not face capital punishment:  Terence Lenamon’s arguments for mitigation were successful and a life sentence was reached.

For details, check out the following documents in the Terry Lenamon Online Library, from Cause No. 07-00068CF, State of Florida v. Vernon Dwayne Stevens in the Circuit Court of the 20th Judicial District in and for Hendry County, Florida:

1.  Terry Lenamon’s Penalty Phase Opening Statement

2.  Prosecutor’s Closing – Part One

3.  Prosecutor’s Closing – Part Two 

Congratulations to Terry Lenamon on a job well done  – and another victory against the Death Penalty!

This week, the Miami Herald ran an article discussing the current state of QEEG technology as a means to study the human brain and understand how the brain works and how it can be permanently damaged.

However, the article was more than a dry discussion of scientific methodology.  Reporter David Ovalle wrote about how QEEG brain mapping was successfully presented by Terry Lenamon in the Grady Nelson death penalty trial, having been approved for use by the jury by the Honorable Jacqueline Hogan-Scola.

You can read the article, “Use of controversial ‘brain-mapping’ technology stymied in Florida courts,” online for free at the Miami Herald web site.

Here’s the thing:  QEEG brain mapping is still controversial and prosecutors are still fighting hard against its admission by death penalty defense attorneys who are wanting to use the brain mapping technique in mitigation evidence.

While Terry Lenamon was successful in getting the brain mapping of Grady Nelson as a factor for consideration in his trial, other defendants have not been able to use QEEG in their trials.

Meanwhile, QEEG brain mapping continues to garner respect in the medical community.  Consider this video (it’s long, almost an hour – be forwarned here!) where Retired Brigadier General Dr. Stephen Xenakis discusses uses of QEEG brain mapping in the treatment of several conditions suffered by post-combat servicepersons.

The Report has been released in the disciplinary proceeding involving former Broward County, Florida judge Ana Gardiner (see our earlier post for details) and you can read the report in its entirety at Terry Lenamon’s Online Library.  

Here’s a key paragraph from the Report, which results in a recommendation that the former trial judge receive a one year suspension of her Florida law license: 

The Respondent’s failure to disclose her social encounter with the
prosecutor, the significant emotional relationship that developed during the
pendency of the trial, and her extensive telephone and text message
communications tainted the entire legal process. The Respondent’s argument that
there were no discussions about the trial, only an appearance of impropriety and no
reversible error in the trial misses the point. Due process embodies the
fundamental concept of fairness, and "especially in a death penalty case, [the
proceedings] must both be and appear to be fundamentally fair. Steinhorst v. State,
636 So.2d 498, 501 (Fla. 1994). [Emphasis supplied.] The public’s perception of
fairness and impartiality of the judiciary is the bedrock of our legal system.

 

Up in Maryland, there are some folk who are fierce in their efforts to get the Maryland death penalty statute overturned this year.  Today, news reports out of Baltimore are that their efforts have brought things down to one, single vote needed to get their proposal through the state senate.  

Then, things will move to a floor vote.  What if the law passes?

Well, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley is ready for it.  He’s been against capital punishment for a long time, and he’s been a force in getting things to this juncture.  

If the state legislature opts to repeal the Maryland death penalty statute, this is one governor who will not do anything to keep that repeal from going forward.  He’ll celebrate it as a victory.  

Is the repeal being driven by dollars and cents?  

To some extent, apparently.  Whatever the reasons, odds are high that capital punishment will soon be no more in the State of Maryland.  

Image:  Maryland Governor O’Malley, who has been quoted as believing the Maryland death penalty is "a waste of money" and "ineffective."  

 

 The Death Penalty Information Center has compiled its annual report on capital punishment in the United States.

According to the DPIC, the four states of (Florida (21), California (14), Texas (9), and Pennsylvania (7)) accounted for 65% of the country’s death sentences.  Texas, however, led the nation once again in the number of executions, with fifteen people being executed this year in the Lone Star State.  

Click on the image to read the full report:

 

 Most folk interested in the death penalty, whether they are for or against capital punishment, have read the non-fiction novel by Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, or seen the film based upon that book which starred Robert Blake and Scott Wilson as the two men executed by the State of Kansas for the killings of the Clutter family back in 1959.  

Most people know that Perry Smith and Richard Hickock were sentenced to death by hanging for the killing of an entire family in their rural family home but not as many people are aware that after the Kansas crime, the two men left Kansas and roamed the country — including stints in Nevada and Florida.

Which means that it is very possible that Smith and Hickock were in the State of Florida at the time of another set of homicides close to Miami: that of the Walker family, crimes that have remained unsolved even today.

Through a set of facts tying Smith and Hickock to the Walker homicides that has been deemed sufficient to support a court order allowing exhumation of their bodies, the two In Cold Blood killers may now be tied by DNA evidence to the Walker homicides as well.

For details, read the continuing coverage at the Huffington Post or the Miami Herald.  The bodies were exhumed yesterday and DNA testing has already begun.  It’s not clear when any results or findings will be announced.