• Sex offender yells 'Go Cowboys!' as he's executed

    By Michael Graczyk, NBCDWF.com

    A convicted child sex offender was executed Wednesday in Texas for the beating death of a 10-month-old boy he was baby-sitting at a home in Dallas.

    Jesse Joe Hernandez smiled and laughed at times before receiving a lethal injection for the slaying of Karlos Borja 11 years ago.

    "God bless everybody. Continue to walk with God," the 47-year-old Hernandez said. Moments later, he shouted "Go Cowboys!" in honor of his favorite football team.

    For more, visit NBCDFW.com

    As the drugs took effect, the condemned man repeated his appreciation for those he knew who had gathered to witness the execution. "Love y'all, man," Hernandez said. "... Thank you. I can feel it, taste it. It's not bad."

    He took about 10 deep breaths, which grew progressively weaker until he was no longer moving. Ten minutes later, at 6:18 p.m. CDT, he was pronounced dead.

    No one related to the slain child attended the execution, the fourth this year in Texas. It was carried out about two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied last-ditch appeals for Hernandez.

    Ten-month-old Karlos was taken to a Dallas hospital in April 2001 with a skull fracture and bruises to his head, thigh and abdomen. A week later, he was taken off life support and died. His 4-year-old sister had similar beating injuries to her head, ears and eyes but survived.

    Hernandez's DNA was found in Karlos' blood on a pillowcase and on the child's clothing. The boy's sister drew stick figures for detectives to help describe her attack.

    Hernandez denied beating the children but later told a detective he may have hit the boy with a flashlight. He did not include the flashlight reference in a written confession in which he said he "just exploded" and struck them with the back of his hand.

    "They were being very bad by crying a lot for nothing," Hernandez wrote.

    Howard Blackmon, the former assistant district attorney in Dallas County who prosecuted Hernandez, recalled seeing photos of the badly bruised boy connected to tubes while in the hospital and his sister's red, bruised forehead.

    "I don't think Hernandez admitted to any intent to kill," he said. "He did admit to striking."

    Jurors saw those images and also learned that Hernandez had a previous conviction for molesting a child and drug possession, had beat his ex-wife with a baseball bat, burned a girlfriend's child with cigarettes and was found with a shank while locked up in jail.

    Court records showed Hernandez and his wife of six years had been living with the two children and their 22-year-old mother about three days in a Dallas house that had no running water. Hernandez and his wife were to watch the children while their mother was working as a waitress.

    On April 11, 2001, Hernandez's wife left to run some errands. When she returned he told her the kids were sleeping and not to disturb them. Hours later, after their mother returned from work, the girl complained her head was hurting and the mother took her to a hospital. While they were gone, Hernandez's wife checked on Karlos, discovered his injuries and called paramedics. Police were then notified.

    In trying to stop the execution, Hernandez's attorneys unsuccessfully argued that his trial lawyers were deficient because they didn't pursue evidence that the boy was prematurely removed from life support and had toxic levels of the drug pentobarbital in his blood. The same barbiturate is used in the execution process in Texas.

    The attorneys also claimed an initial appeals lawyer did not investigate the case beyond the trial record and that failure cost Hernandez his lone opportunity to raise substantive legal claims following his conviction.

    Brad Levenson, director of the Texas Office of Capital Writs, said a more thorough investigation could have shown Hernandez wasn't responsible for the child's death.

    The Texas attorney general's office opposed any delay, questioning whether the high court even had jurisdiction in the case because constitutional claims weren't raised earlier in state courts.

    At least six other condemned Texas inmates have execution dates scheduled for the coming months.

    More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

    308 comments

    One child killer down...how many more to go?

    Show more
    Explore related topics: , ,

  • Too crazy to kill? Lawyers try to stop execution of inmate they say is mentally ill

    Lawyers for condemned inmate Edwin Hart Turner say it would be cruel and unusual punishment to execute someone who is mentaly ill.

    By James Eng, NBC News

    Edwin Hart Turner is no stranger to mental illness.

    According to his lawyer and acquaintances, his grandmother and great-grandmother were committed to state hospitals. His mother attempted suicide twice. His father was killed in a dynamite explosion that some believe was a suicide.

    At age 18, Turner tried to kill himself with a rifle but the barrel of the weapon slipped just enough to spare his life; the bullet that blasted through his face left him permanently disfigured. He was hospitalized five years later when he tried to slit his wrists in another suicide attempt.

    So when Turner robbed a gas station near Carrolton, Miss., early on Dec. 13, 1995, and fatally shot a clerk in the face and a customer in the head, his lawyers say, it’s almost certain that he was – and still is  – mentally unbalanced.

    For that reason, says Turner’s attorney, Jim Craig of the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center, Turner should not be put to death.

    Turner’s accomplice, Paul Murrell Stewart, pleaded guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to life without parole. Turner was convicted at trial and sentenced to death by lethal injection.

    In what he hopes will be a precedent-setting case, Craig is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court and to Mississippi’s new governor, Phil Bryant, to halt the scheduled Feb. 8 execution of the 38-year-old Turner.

    “The Supreme Court has not decided the question of whether a prisoner with a severe mental disorder or disability which significantly impairs that person’s ability to rationally process information, to make reasonable judgments and to control their impulses, whether people in that category can be executed,” Craig told msnbc.com in a telephone interview Thursday.

    “So we’re asking the Supreme Court to establish that it would be contrary to consensus of moral values, that it would be cruel and unusual punishment, to execute someone with severe mental illness.”

    The Supreme Court in 2002 banned the execution of mentally retarded criminals. In 2005, justices ruled that it was also unconstitutional to put to death juvenile criminals. But the circumstances regarding the execution of inmates who are mentally ill - but not insane - are less clear-cut, though previous high court rulings have held that the mere presence of mental illness doesn’t necessarily exempt someone from execution.

    Craig said he will also ask a federal judge on Friday to order the state to put the execution on hold so Turner can get a mental exam, including a modern type of neuroimaging scan that wasn’t available in 1995. Craig said he thinks the so-called “functional MRI” scan will show that the portion of Turner’s brain “that controls conduct that works for everyone else in this country just doesn’t work for him.”

    “It’s like expecting someone with a broken arm to quarterback the Super Bowl,” Craig said. “It’s just not fair.”

    Other rights groups are also backing Turner's cause.

    “We’ve come a long way in our understanding of mental illness and the deep and terrible pain it inflicts on sufferers – but not far enough, at least not in Mississippi,” wrote Denny LeBoeuf, the American Civil Liberties Union's Capital Punishment Project director, in a blog post titled "Too Crazy to Kill." 

     “Most mentally ill people are not violent. Those who are should not be executed."

    Gov. Bryant’s office and Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood’s office did not immediately return telephone calls Thursday from msnbc.com for comment.

    On Wednesday, Hood told The Associated Press that Turner has been evaluated numerous times in the past.

    "He has raised the issue of mental health problems at every level and has been denied relief at every turn. We argue that his mental health claims have been fully addressed, and that this present action is nothing more than an attempt to re-litigate a claim that has been properly adjudicated at every turn," Hood said, according to the AP.

    Earlier, in asking the state to set the Feb. 8 execution date, Hood said in a press release that Turner has exhausted his state and federal appeals. “These crimes were brutal and nothing short of cowardly,” he said.

    Ann Dugger, executive director of the Justice Coalition, a victims' advocacy group, said mental illness in and of itself is not a reason to rule out execution.

    "What's cruel and unusual is that a perpetrator would have taken the life of someone else and murdered him," she said.

    More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

  • Board rejects clemency for Ohio man facing execution over son's arson death

    By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A man sentenced to death for intentionally setting a blaze that killed his 3-year-old son was denied clemency on Wednesday by the Ohio Parole Board, despite his attorneys' arguments that there was another viable suspect and that authorities should re-examine the case due to scientific advances made in fire investigation.

    Michael Webb, 42, was found guilty of aggravated murder in the death of Michael Patrick Webb in a Nov. 21, 1990. fire in Goshen Township in Ohio (Webb's wife and his three other children survived the blaze). He was also convicted of aggravated arson, attempted aggravated murder and aggravated theft. His lawyers wanted his sentence commuted to life without parole to give him time to pursue a new trial.

    In its recommendation to the governor to deny clemency, the Parole Board discounted the possibility of another suspect, saying it would require "an extraordinary stretch of the imagination," and noted that Webb's "stealing money from his daughters' trust fund for years" had created a "powerful motive."

    "This crime was very heinous," said the eight-member Parole Board, which voted unanimously. "The courts have reviewed the claim that the prosecutor withheld important evidence, and determined that it is without merit. ... Given the overwhelming evidence of guilt, there is no manifest injustice in this case that would warrant the grant of executive clemency."

    Township Fire Chief Virgil Murphy's investigation revealed that gasoline had been poured on the bed of one of Webb's daughters and he smelled it on the bedclothes of his other daughter. Other "trailer" patterns that contained gasoline were found on Michael Patrick's bed and at the base of the bed in the master bedroom, according to the Ohio Supreme Court opinion in the case, the board said.

    AP Photo/Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

    Undated photo provided by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections of Michael Webb.

    The board interviewed Webb on Jan. 13 via video conference from the Chillicothe Correctional Institution. In it, he "asked for clemency claiming that he is innocent of the crime of setting his house on fire and killing his son. He said that he would like to get a new trial and clear his name," the board noted.

    Webb's execution, initially set for Feb. 22, has been delayed due to problems with Ohio's lethal injection method. A new date has not been set, said one of Webb's attorneys, Jim Owen.

    At a hearing last week on the clemency request, Owen and another attorney for Webb, Keith Yeazel, said the jury was "deprived of two key pieces of evidence" in the case: the information about another suspect and the modern scientific interpretation about the fire's site of origin, according to the board decision.

    The site of origin was important because a report, submitted by Webb's attorneys, showed it could have started elsewhere on the first floor -- not just outside the bathroom where Webb was standing. This made "it plausible that someone besides Webb started the fire and that Webb would not have seen the actual arsonist," his lawyers argued, the board said in its finding.

    The report, by Texas-based arson expert Gerald Hurst, said the fire chief relied on methods that 20 years of arson science have found unreliable, according to The Associated Press.

    However, the Parole Board noted that Hurst's report did "not preclude the state's version of the offense as it indicates that the point of origin of the fire could have been anywhere on the first floor. Therefore, the point of origin could have been the bathroom and the closet as was testified to by (Township Fire) Chief (Virgil E.) Murphy."

    Owen said the decision was not “unexpected” and they were working with other lawyers to file a motion for a new trial. He noted that new trials have been granted in cases based on "improper fire science evidence."

    “The clemency board really didn’t address the issue we raised, which was that the testimony about the point of the origin of the fire at trial was wrong and not based on science. As a matter of fact in their statement of facts, they cited Murphy’s testimony that we’ve proved was not based on science and that fact is uncontroverted," Owen said. "There’s no scientific expert opinion offered by the state that says that the trial testimony was correct. Every person that’s looked at this and given a scientific opinion concludes that the testimony was wrong.”

    Death-penalty cases need a higher standard, than "beyond a reasonable doubt," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which in mid-December reported an "historic drop" in the number of death sentences imposed in the U.S. over the last 15 years.

    "With the advancements in science I think these cases do present some doubts ... changes in what the jury would hear today from what they heard at the original trial," he said. "Given the stakes here that the person's life will ride on this decision, I think that should be part of the governor’s ultimate decision, is there any doubt? Is there a lingering doubt?”

    In a statement submitted to the board, Webb's ex-wife, Susan Beck, asked for "no leniency" for him, saying he "showed us no mercy on the morning of November 21, 1990."

    Looking back at journals she kept for three years after the fire, "it becomes more unbelievable that my family survived what Mike Webb did to us, plus its aftermath. I can't believe we stood behind this murderer ... this baby-killer ... who saturated us with gas, lit us on fire and made no attempt to save us. ... Because of Mike Webb, my dreams of raising a family literally went up in smoke."

    More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

  • Death sentences, executions take 'historic drop,' report says

    Erik S. Lesser / AFP - Getty Images file

    A Georgia State Patrol trooper watches over demonstrators calling for Georgia state officials to halt the scheduled execution of Troy Davis on Sept. 21. The protests were unsuccessful.

    By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The number of death sentences imposed in the U.S. has taken an “historic drop” -- about 75 percent -- over the last 15 years, accompanied by a nearly 60 percent decline in the number of executions, a death penalty awareness group reported Thursday.  

    The release of the annual report by the Death Penalty Information Center follows recent polls showing a withering of support for capital punishment over controversial cases like that of Troy Davis, who was executed in Georgia in September. The decline in the use of the death penalty also has likely been influenced by states’ worsening financial conditions, said Richard Dieter, the center’s executive director.

    Capital punishment was imposed in 78 cases this year, down from 315 in 1996 -- the first time that number was below 100 since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, the report said. There were also 43 executions -- including that of Davis -- in 13 states, down from 98 in 1999, according to the report.

     

     

    Untitled Document
    Executions by state
     
    State
    2011
    2010
      Texas
    13
    17
      Alabama
    6
    5
      Ohio
    5
    8
      Georgia
    4
    2
      Arizona
    4
    1
      Oklahoma
    2
    3
      Mississippi
    2
    3
      Florida
    2
    1
      Virginia
    1
    3
      South Carolina
    1
    0
      Missouri
    1
    0
      Delaware
    1
    0
      Idaho
    1
    0
      Louisiana
    0
    1
      Utah
    0
    1
      Washington
    0
    1
      Total
    43
    46
    SOURCE: Death Penalty Information Center
    msnbc.com

    "This is a historic drop in death sentences and I think it’s indicative of deep concerns about the death penalty in the public and it’s mirrored in falling executions, falling support in polls and even in legislation which has abolished the death penalty in a number of states," Dieter said.

    Dieter was referring to the abandonment of the death penalty in Illinois, New Mexico, New Jersey and New York in recent years. Three other states – California, Connecticut and Maryland – are considering doing away with capital punishment, he said, and Oregon's governor recently declared a moratorium on executions during his tenure.

    Dieter said that the legislative action and decline in public support is the result of people being freed from death row because of DNA testing, investigative work by the media and the international outcry over the Davis case, in which seven of the nine eyewitnesses changed their stories.

    “I think that shook the confidence that some people had about the death penalty, that it really does risk innocent lives -- even though many are guilty -- there’s still the danger and so juries are returning less death sentences, prosecutors are seeking it less,” he said. “Courts are looking at these cases more closely and governors are sometimes granting clemency, all because of the doubts and disfavor of the death penalty as it has been applied in the past 10 years.”

    Texas led the way in executions in 2011 with 13, followed by Alabama at six, Ohio, 5, and Georgia and Arizona each with four. The South and West accounted for 87 percent of the death sentences, while the Midwest and Northeast made up 12 percent. Meanwhile, many death penalty states, such as Indiana, Maryland and South Carolina, did not impose it during the year, the center said.

    A Gallup poll released in mid-October showed that 61 percent of Americans approve of capital punishment as a sentence for those convicted of murder -- the lowest level of support since 1972, when the Supreme Court voided state death penalty laws since they were seen as "being infrequently applied in an unpredictable and arbitrary way," the center said. (The court allowed executions to restart in 1976 after some states revised their death penalty statutes to "limit the haphazardness of the death penalty," the center said.)

    Scott Burns, executive director of the National District Attorneys Association, said Wednesday that he “strongly” disagreed that public sentiment against the death penalty was growing.

    “I think that the numbers show that the majority of the public still believe that in those rare and outrageous cases that the death penalty is an appropriate sanction,” he said, noting that murders were down about 50 percent nationwide in the last 20 years. “One of the reasons for that, I believe, is because … the criminal justice system has done a good job at targeting those violent offenders nationwide” and handing out “long and stiff sentences.”

    “It hasn’t been a revolving door for the last 20 years, they’re out of commission and as such, crime in every category has gone down,” he added.

    Burns also noted that the number of life-without-parole sentences imposed began to grow in the late 1990s, which could account for any decrease in death sentences.

    “There were a number of states that passed … for lack of a better term, a ‘truth in sentencing’ (law), which said life or life without parole really does mean life without parole,” he said. So in those states, that "could also be a reason as (to) why we are seeing fewer death penalties. Frankly, there are some people that think it’s a more severe penalty to have somebody sit in prison for their entire life than be executed.”

    Dollars and cents were another factor contributing to states shuttering their death penalty program, Dieter said. In California, the state’s former prison director and the former prosecutor who penned California's current death penalty statute are pushing to end it, with a citizens’ initiative expected to be on the ballot next year. A recent study there found that the state has spent more than $4 billion on its capital punishment system since 1978, under which there have been 13 executions.

    “All of the states are facing the questions of cutting back on schools, libraries, even police forces and so they’re trying to find programs that are expensive and aren’t really serving the public well or aren’t working, and I think the death penalty fits into that category,” Dieter said. “This is not a system that ... makes practical sense and it’s still costly.”

    The problems with the death penalty could lead to attempts to fix the system or to abandon it entirely, said Dieter, noting his group is not necessarily opposed to capital punishment, only to what he termed its unfair and inaccurate application in the U.S. As for its future, he noted: “I think we’ll see ... not any one grand move, but probably a continuation in 2012 of declining use of the death penalty.”

     

  • Ore. governor bans executions; condemned inmate gets reprieve

    By The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff

    SALEM, Ore. – What was supposed to be Oregon’s first execution in 14 years won’t be taking place -- at least not while Gov. John Kitzhaber is in office.

    Calling the death penalty “morally wrong,” the Democratic governor on Tuesday announced a state moratoriumon on executions and granted a reprieve to death-row inmate Gary Haugen.

    The twice-convicted murderer was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Dec. 6.

    Oregon Dept. of Corrections / AP

    Death-row inmate Gary Haugen

    Kitzhaber said he has no sympathy or compassion for murderers. But he said Oregon's death penalty system is broken and applied unevenly.

    The death penalty has been carried out in Oregon only twice in the last 49 years: Douglas Franklin Wright was executed in 1996 and Harry Charles Moore was put to death in 1997. Both inmates voluntarily waived their appeals and both executions occurred during Kitzhaber's first administration as governor. (Kitzhaber served as the 35th governor of Oregon, from 1995 to 2003. He was re-elected to a nonconsecutive third term in 2010, becoming the state's 37th governor).

    "I allowed those sentences to be carried out despite my personal opposition to the death penalty. I was torn between my personal convictions about the morality of capital punishment and my oath to uphold the Oregon constitution," Kitzhaber said.

    "They were the most agonizing and difficult decisions I have made as governor and I have revisited and questioned them over and over again during the past 14 years. I do not believe that those executions made us safer; and certainly they did not make us nobler as a society. And I simply cannot participate once again in something I believe to be morally wrong."

    Haugen, 49, waived his legal appeals and has been preparing for his execution by lethal injection. Haugen was sentenced to death in 2007 for his part in the the killing four years earlier of David Polin, who was found with 84 stab wounds and a crushed skull in the prison’s band room. At the time of Polin’s death, Haugen was serving a life sentence for fatally beating his ex-girlfriend’s mother in 1981.

    Kitzher said that while he had "no sympathy or compassion" for criminals who commit the most heinous of acts, the death penalty is not applied equally.

    "Oregonians have a fundamental belief in fairness and justice -- in swift and certain justice. The death penalty as practiced in Oregon is neither fair nor just; and it is not swift or certain," he said. "It is not applied equally to all. It is a perversion of justice that the single best indicator of who will and will not be executed has nothing to do with the circumstances of a crime or the findings of a jury."

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Two versions of justice in Troy Davis case

    By Thanh Truong, NBC News Correspondent

    JACKSON, Ga. – On Highway 36 in Jackson, Ga. the truck stop across from the Georgia Diagnostic Prison is a busy place. On Wednesday morning truckers were gassing up; commuters were getting their coffee. For the most part it's an average day. But at 7 p.m. this evening, death row inmate Troy Davis is scheduled to die by lethal injection inside the prison.
     
    In the days leading up to Wednesday's execution, supporters of Davis staged mass marches, protests and rallies. Those calling for a halt to his execution include everyday people, death penalty advocates and opponents alike, from President Jimmy Carter to Pope Benedict. All of them saying there's too much doubt about Davis guilt for the state to move ahead with the execution.
     
    Davis was convicted for the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail. At the time, MacPhail was off duty working a security detail. Investigators say as he got off his shift, MacPhail came across a homeless man being attacked. According to police, MacPhail went to his aid but was shot in the face and chest.

    Witnesses put Davis and another man at the Burger King parking lot in Savannah. They testified Davis was the triggerman. Prosecutors presented shell casings at the trial. They said those casings matched those of a previous shooting earlier that night. Davis was convicted in that previous shooting. In 1991, Davis was convicted for the MacPhail murder and was sentenced to death.  

    Years of appeals
    Davis has maintained his innocence through the years. Seven of the nine witnesses who testified against Davis later recanted or changed their statements. Several claimed police coercion. One of those witnesses, Jeffrey Sapp, said, "I got tired of them harassing me… I told them that Troy told me he did it, but it wasn’t true… I didn’t want to have any more problems with the cops, so I testified against Troy." 
     
    Davis' defense also claims a lack of physical evidence. The murder weapon was never recovered.  All of it was presented during previous appeals and attempts at a retrial. Those attempts failed.

    Prosecutors have been resolute. Joining them are the police and family of MacPhail. All say they have no doubt that Davis is the killer and deserves death.       

    Davis had one last chance at clemency on Monday.  The Georgia Pardons and Parole Board heard from both the defense and prosecution. On Tuesday it denied Davis clemency. With virtually all of his legal options now exhausted, Tuesday's decision was seen as the one final shot to have Davis's sentence commuted to life in prison instead of death. Georgia's governor can not intervene. 

    Two different visions of justice
    Now in a matter of hours, the years of appeals, moral debates about the death penalty and pleas from both families will come to a head. I've spoken to relatives of both Davis and MacPhail. All want justice, but their visions of justice differ. 

    Before the clemency hearing Davis's nephew, DeJuan Davis-Correia told me the justice they were seeking would help both families.

    “We have the utmost respect for that family. I also pray at night for that family. We hope they find understanding in their hearts that we are actually trying to get the wrong person out of jail and the right person in," said Davis-Correia. 

    Following Monday's hearing the family MacPhail left behind expressed their feelings. Joining his widow Joan, were his son, daughter and mother. After years of delays and hearings, they said they were thirsty for justice, not blood.

    “We have lived this for 22 years. We know what the truth is and for someone to ludicrously say he [Davis] is a victim? We are the victims. Look at us. We have put up with this stuff for 22 years and it's time for justice today," said Joan MacPhail

    Davis has declined to request a specific last meal.  

Newer posts