Thread: DP ? - is lethal injection inhumane ?

Utah to use firing squads if lethal drugs are unavailable
By MICHELLE L. PRICE and BRADY McCOMBS - 8 hrs ago

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah became the only state to allow firing squads for executions if lethal injection drugs are unavailable when Gov. Gary Herbert signed a law approving the method, even though he has called it "a little bit gruesome."

The Republican governor has said Utah is a capital punishment state and needs a backup execution method in case a shortage of the drugs persists. "We regret anyone ever commits the heinous crime of aggravated murder to merit the death penalty, and we prefer to use our primary method of lethal injection when such a sentence is issued," Herbert spokesman Marty Carpenter said. However, enforcing death sentences is "the obligation of the executive branch."

The governor's office noted other states allow execution methods other than lethal injection. In Washington state, inmates can request hanging. In New Hampshire, hangings are a fallback if lethal injections can't be given. The firing squad also is on the books in Oklahoma — but as a third option to be used only if the courts someday find lethal injection and electrocution unconstitutional. The firing squad could be bumped down even further, to Oklahoma's fourth option, if lawmakers approve a bill that would authorize the use of nitrogen gas as another possible method.

Gary Herbert: FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2015, file photo, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert speaks to members of the media during a news conference at the Utah State Capitol, in Salt Lake City. Utah became the only state to allow firing squads for executions Monday when Herbert signed a law approving the controversial method's use when no lethal-injection drugs are available. Herbert has said he finds the firing squad "a little bit gruesome," but Utah is a capital punishment state and needs a backup execution method in case a shortage of the drugs persists.  © AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2015, file photo, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert speaks to members of the media during a news conference at the Utah State Capitol, in Salt Lake City. Utah became the only state to allow firin… Utah's use of firing squad carries no such legal caveat. Under the new law, inmates would be executed by firing squad if the state is unable to get lethal injection drugs a month in advance.

The proposal's approval represents the latest example of frustration over botched executions and the difficulty of obtaining lethal injection drugs as manufacturers opposed to capital punishment have made them off-limits to prisons.

The bill's sponsor, Republican Rep. Paul Ray of Clearfield, argued the use of trained marksmen is faster and more decent than the drawn-out deaths that occur when lethal injections go awry — or even if they go as planned.

Ray said he wants to settle on a backup method now so authorities are not racing to find a solution if the drug shortage persists. Ray didn't return messages seeking comment Monday.

Opponents say firing squads are barbaric, with the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah saying the bill makes the state "look backward and backwoods."

Utah lawmakers stopped offering inmates the choice of firing squad in 2004, saying the method attracted intense media interest and took away attention from victims.

Utah is the only state in the past 40 years to carry out such a death sentence, with three executions by firing squad since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

The last was in 2010, when Ronnie Lee Gardner was put to death by five police officers with .30-caliber rifles. Gardner killed a bartender and later shot a lawyer to death and wounded a bailiff during a 1985 courthouse escape attempt.

The bailiff's widow, VelDean Kirk, who witnessed Gardner's execution, said she supports the new law. "I don't think it's barbaric," she said. "I think that's the best way to do it."



Randy Gardner: FILE - In this March 11, 2015, file photo, Randy Gardner, of Salt Lake City, the older brother of Ronnie Lee Gardner, the last inmate to be killed by firing squad in Utah in 2010, stands in front of the Utah State Capitol, in Salt Lake City. Utah became the only state to allow firing squads for executions Monday, March 23, 2015 when Herbert signed a law approving the controversial method's use when no lethal-injection drugs are available. Herbert has said he finds the firing squad "a little bit gruesome," but Utah is a capital punishment state and needs a backup execution method in case a shortage of the drugs persists.  © AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File FILE - In this March 11, 2015, file photo, Randy Gardner, of Salt Lake City, the older brother of Ronnie Lee Gardner, the last inmate to be killed by firing squad in Utah in 2010… Gardner's brother, however, has spoken out against the method. Randy Gardner of Salt Lake City said he doesn't condone his brother's actions, but he opposes the death penalty and said firing squads make the state look bad.

"My god, we're the only ones that are shooting people in the heart," he said.

One person nearing a possible execution date in Utah is Ron Lafferty, who claimed God directed him to kill his sister-in-law and her baby daughter in 1984 because of the victim's resistance to his beliefs in polygamy.

Lafferty has requested the firing squad — an option available to him because he, like Gardner, was convicted before 2004.

The other Utah inmate who could be next up for execution, Doug Carter, has chosen lethal injection. Under the new law, Carter would get the firing squad if the state can't get lethal injection drugs 30 days before.

The state currently has no lethal injection drugs on hand.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/...?ocid=apnews11

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

The Murder of Travis Alexander

Travis Victor Alexander was born on July 28, 1977, in Riverside, California. After his father's death in July 1997, Alexander and his seven siblings were taken in by their paternal grandmother, Norma Jean Preston Alexander Sarvey (1932–2012), who eventually introduced them to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Alexander was a salesman for PPL - Prepaid Legal Services (later renamed LegalShield), a legal services company using multi-level marketing. He also worked as a motivational speaker for PPL.

Jodi Ann Arias was born on July 9, 1980, in Salinas, California. She and Alexander met in September 2006 at a Prepaid Legal Services conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. On November 26, 2006, Arias was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Alexander. Alexander and Arias began dating in February 2007. After the two broke up in June 2007, Arias moved to Mesa, Arizona. In April 2008, she moved to Yreka, California, and lived with her grandparents.

§Death

The killing of Travis Alexander occurred on June 4, 2008. On June 9, 2008, Alexander's body was discovered by his friends in a shower at his home in Mesa, Arizona. Alexander had sustained 27 to 29 stab wounds, and had his throat slit and suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head.

Medical Examiner Kevin Horn testified that Alexander's jugular vein, common carotid artery, and trachea had been slashed and that Alexander had defensive wounds on his hands. Horn further testified that Alexander "may have" been dead at the time the gunshot was inflicted, and that the back wounds were shallow. Alexander's death was ruled a homicide. He was buried at the Olivewood Cemetery in Riverside, California.

§Discovery and investigation

On May 28, 2008, a burglary occurred at the residence of Arias' grandparents, with whom she was living. Among the missing objects was a .25-caliber gun, which was never recovered. (This is significant as a spent .25 caliber round was later found near Travis Alexander's body at the murder scene.)

On June 2, Arias rented a car in Redding, California, approximately 100 miles (160 km) south of her home. Arias told the rental company staff that she would only be driving the car locally, but when Arias returned the car on June 7, it had been driven about 2,800 miles (4,500 km). The car was missing its floor mats and had red stains on its front and rear seats. The car was cleaned before police could examine it.

On June 5, Arias called Alexander several times and left several voicemail messages for him. She also accessed Alexander's voice mail system.

Alexander missed an important conference call on the evening of June 4. On June 9, having been unable to reach Alexander, a concerned group of his friends went to his home. His roommates initially said he was out of town. After finding a key to Alexander's master bedroom, his friends entered the room and found large pools of blood in the hallway to the master bathroom, where his body was discovered in the shower. In the 9-1-1 call made to authorities (not heard by the jury), Alexander's friends mentioned an ex-girlfriend, Arias, who Alexander had said was stalking him, accessing his Facebook account, and slashing tires.

Alexander was scheduled to leave on June 10, 2008, for a work-related trip to Cancún, Mexico. In early 2008, Alexander told his company that Arias would be joining him. In April, Alexander asked to change his travel companion to another female friend.

While searching Alexander's home, police found Alexander's recently purchased digital camera damaged in the washing machine. Police were able to recover deleted images showing Arias and Alexander in sexually suggestive poses, taken at approximately 1:40 p.m. on June 4. The final photo of Alexander alive was taken at 5:29 p.m. that day. Alexander was in the shower when the photo was taken. Photos taken moments later show an individual believed to be Alexander "profusely bleeding" on the bathroom floor. A bloody palm print was discovered along the wall in the bathroom hallway; it contained DNA from both Arias and Alexander.

On July 9, 2008, Arias was indicted by a grand jury for the first-degree murder of Alexander. She was arrested at her home on July 15 and extradited to Arizona on September 5. Arias pleaded not guilty on September 11. Arias gave several different accounts about her involvement in Alexander's death. She originally told police that she had not been in Mesa on the day of the murder and claimed that she last saw Alexander in April 2008. Arias later told police that two intruders had broken into Alexander's home, murdering him and attacking her. Two years after her arrest, Arias told police that she killed Alexander in self-defense, claiming that she had been a victim of domestic violence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Travis_Alexander

Arizona judge sentences murderer Jodi Arias to life without parole
David Schwartz - 1 hr ago

PHOENIX, April 13 (Reuters) - An Arizona judge sentenced former waitress Jodi Arias to life in prison with no possibility of parole on Monday for shooting and stabbing her ex-boyfriend to death in 2008.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens said Arias' crime, which attracted national attention, was "especially cruel ... (and) involved substantial planning and preparation."

Arias, 34, had escaped a possible death sentence last month after a lone juror at her sentencing retrial refused to back the death penalty throughout five days of deliberations.

She was found guilty of murder in 2013 after a trial packed with lurid details and graphic testimony. Prosecutors said she killed her former partner in a jealous rage, while Arias argued she acted in self-defense.

Shackled and clad in jail stripes, Arias told the court she had long wanted to be put to death for the crime. "But I had to fight for my life just like I did on June 4, 2008, because I realized how selfish it would be for me to escape accountability for this mess I created," Arias said.

She said she remembered the moment she plunged the knife into Travis Alexander's throat. "He was conscious. He was still trying to attack me. It was I who was trying to get away, not Travis, and I finally did," she said. "I never wanted it to be that way."

The 30-year-old victim was found in a shower at his Phoenix-area home. He had been shot in the face and stabbed more than 20 times, and his throat was slashed almost from ear to ear.

NO LENIENCY

Eleven of the jurors from Arias' retrial were in court for the sentencing, wearing blue clothing and ribbons in memory of the victim. The holdout juror did not attend.

After they failed last month to reach a unanimous verdict on whether she should be executed, Stephens had to choose between sentencing Arias to life in prison or to life with the possibility of parole after 25 years. "The defendant did not render aid to the victim ... (and) destroyed evidence at the crime scene. The defendant went to great lengths to conceal her involvement," Stephens said. "The court finds the mitigation presented is not sufficiently substantial to call for leniency and that a natural life sentence is appropriate."

Samantha Alexander, a younger sister of the victim, told the court Arias had sought to smear Travis throughout and that she deserved to be put to death. "She continuously makes atrocious lies about my brother, dragging his name through the mud like she dragged his body through his own blood," she said. "I wouldn't waste my time addressing her because she isn't worth my breath."

Defense attorney Jennifer Willmott said Arias was remorseful and had urged the judge to give her the hope of release one day. "Ms. Arias is not a monster," Willmott said. "For two minutes in her life she did something reprehensible ... she is disgusted by what she did."

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/...d=ansnewsreu11

Texas executes Daniel Lee Lopez, who pleaded for his own death for killing cop
August 12, 2015 at 8:26 PM

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Texas inmate Daniel Lee Lopez got his wish Wednesday when he was executed for striking and killing a police lieutenant with an SUV during a chase more than six years ago.

The lethal injection was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals from his attorneys who disregarded both his desire to die and lower court rulings that Lopez was competent to make that decision.

"I hope this execution helps my family and also the victim's family," said Lopez, who spoke quietly and quickly. "This was never meant to be, sure beyond my power. I can only walk the path before me and make the best of it. I'm sorry for putting you all through this. I am sorry. I love you. I am ready. May we all go to heaven."

As the drugs took effect, he took two deep breaths, then two shallower breaths. Then all movement stopped.

He was pronounced dead at 6:31 p.m. CDT — 15 minutes after the lethal dose began.

Lopez, 27, became the 10th inmate put to death this year in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any other state. Nationally, he was the 19th prisoner to be executed.

Lopez's "obvious and severe mental illness" was responsible for him wanting to use the legal system for suicide, illustrating his "well-documented history of irrational behavior and suicidal tendencies," attorney David Dow, who represented Lopez, had told the high court. Dow also argued the March 2009 crime was not a capital murder because Lopez didn't intend to kill Corpus Christi Lt. Stuart Alexander.

The officer's widow, Vicky Alexander, and three friends who were witnesses with her prayed in the chamber before Lopez was pronounced dead by a doctor. Some people selected by Lopez as witnesses sang "Amazing Grace" from an adjacent witness area.

Alexander, 47, was standing in a grassy area on the side of a highway where he had put spike strips when he was struck by the sport utility vehicle Lopez was fleeing in.

Lopez, who also wrote letters to a federal judge and pleaded for his execution to move forward, said last week from death row that a Supreme Court reprieve would be "disappointing."

"I've accepted my fate," he said. "I'm just ready to move on."

Nueces County District Attorney Mark Skurka said Lopez showed "no regard for human life" when he fought with an officer during a traffic stop, then sped away, evading pursuing officers and striking Alexander, who had been on the police force for 20 years. Even when he finally was cornered by police cars, Lopez tried ramming his SUV to escape and didn't stop until he was shot. "He had no moral scruples, no nothing. It was always about Daniel Lopez, and it's still about Daniel Lopez," Skurka said Tuesday. "He's a bad, bad guy."

Lopez was properly examined by a psychologist, testified at a federal court hearing about his desire to drop appeals and was found to have no mental defects, state attorneys said in opposing delays to the punishment.

Deputies found a dozen packets of cocaine and a small scale in a false compartment in the console of the SUV.

Records showed Lopez was on probation at the time after pleading guilty to indecency with a child in Galveston County and was a registered sex offender. He had other arrests for assault.

Testimony at his trial showed he had at least five children by three women, and a sixth was born while he was jailed for Alexander's death. Court records show Lopez had sex with girls as young as 14 and had a history of assaults and other trouble while in school, where he was a 10th-grade dropout.

http://www.cleveland.com/nation/inde..._lee_lope.html

Pro-police bikers drown out Texas cop killer's final words with revved engines during execution
BY Meg Wagner / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS / Thursday, August 13, 2015, 12:12 PM

Texas bikers standing in solidarity with a slain police officer muffled the final words of his killer by loudly revving their engines outside of the prison during the Wednesday night execution.

Daniel Lee Lopez — who wrote multiple letters to a judge pleading for an earlier execution date — was executed by lethal injection Wednesday.

The 27-year-old was convicted of striking and killing a Corpus Christi officer during a 2009 police chase.

A group of bikers supporting police gathered outside of the Huntsville prison before the execution. As Lopez gave his final words, the racers revved their engines in unison — a roar so loud it could be heard inside the execution chamber.

“I hope this execution helps my family and also the victim's family," Lopez said as the engine noises muffled his speech. "This was never meant to be, sure beyond my power. I can only walk the path before me and make the best of it. I'm sorry for putting you all through this. I am sorry. I love you. I am ready. May we all go to heaven.”

He was pronounced dead at 6:31 p.m. CDT — 15 minutes after the lethal dose began.

After his 2009 sentencing, Lopez wrote letters to a federal judge and pleaded for his execution to move forward. Last week, as his lawyer challenged his death sentence, he said that a Supreme Court reprieve would be “disappointing.”

Lopez’s attorney David Dow argued that the inmate’s desire to die demonstrated “obvious and severe mental illness.” Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeals.

Dow also argued the March 2009 crime was not a capital murder because Lopez didn't intend to kill Corpus Christi Lt. Stuart Alexander.

The 2009 police chase started when Lopez started fighting with an officer during a routine traffic stop. He sped away, evading cops trying to nab him.

Alexander, 47, was standing in a grassy area on the side of a highway after putting down spike strips to help catch Lopez when the fugitive fatally struck him with his SUV.

When he was finally was cornered by police car, Lopez tried ramming his SUV to escape and didn't stop until he was shot.

Deputies found a dozen packets of cocaine and a small scale in a false compartment in the console of the SUV. Records showed Lopez was on probation at the time after pleading guilty to indecency with a child in Galveston County and was a registered sex offender. He had other arrests for assault.

During the Wednesday night execution, the officer's widow, Vicky Alexander, prayed as the lethal injection drugs took effect.

“This has nothing to do with revenge,” she said later, after hugging more than a dozen police officers who stood at attention as she departed the prison. "This has to do with the law.”

A nurse of 25 years, she said watching an execution is “totally against (her) grain.”

“But it's justice for my husband,” she added.

Lopez is the 10th inmate put to death this year in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any other state. Nationally, he was the 19th prisoner to be executed.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crim...icle-1.2324450

William Petit, Dad of Murdered Family, Reacts to Connecticut Death Penalty Ruling
Aug 13 2015, 7:19 pm ET by Tracy Connor and Stephanie Siegel

It was a crime of epic cruelty, and the culprits were sentenced to pay the ultimate price. But a decision by Connecticut's highest court means the two men who carried out the chilling Petit family murders will be spared execution, along with nine other death-row inmates.

Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky now get life sentences for a 2007 home invasion robbery in which they raped and strangled Jennifer Petit, tied her daughters Hayley and Michaela to their beds, and set the home ablaze.

Petit's sister, Cynthia Hawke Renn, told NBC News that she is "disheartened" by the Connecticut Supreme Court's finding that a 2012 legislative repeal of the death penalty should also apply to those who committed their crimes earlier. "I really do think that cruel and unusual crimes really do deserve cruel and unusual punishment," she said.

"For people who commit such heinous and horrific crimes — when you torture and rape them and their children, douse them with gasoline and burn them alive — is there not something that should be worse?

"Shouldn't there be a worse punishment out there for someone who takes a life in such a cruel and unusual way?"

Jennifer Petit's husband, Dr. William Petit, who was beaten during the siege but escaped to call for help, had fought against the 2012 repeal of the death penalty. He noted in a statement Thursday that the court was divided in its ruling. "The dissenting justices clearly state how the four members of the majority have disregarded keystones of our government structure such as the separation of powers and the role of judicial precedent to reach the decision they hand down today.

"The death penalty and its application is a highly charged topic with profound emotional impact, particularly on their victims and their loved ones."

Connecticut's death row includes killers who have been there since 1989. The latest addition is Richard Roszkowski, who was sentenced last year, after legislative repeal, but was still eligible because the crime occurred in 2006. He was convicted of killing a former neighbor, Holly Flannery, her 9-year-old daughter Kylie and a landscaper, Thomas Gaudet.

Kylie's grandmother, Flo Tipke, said the court ruling was a blow. "We went through two trials and now it kind of feels like it was a huge waste of time and money," she said. "We're very sad. We feel that the way he murdered our grandchild and our daughter-in-law was cruel and heinous and I don't feel any punishment they could have given him would be too cruel or heinous."

Mary Jo Gellenbeck — whose sister Diana was kidnapped and killed by another death-row prisoner, Daniel Webb — said she favors Thursday's ruling. "I don't support the death penalty so I'm happy to see that Connecticut is moving in the direction of eliminating that," she said.

Gellenbeck said her opposition to capital punishment stems in part from the danger that someone innocent could be put to death, though she is certain Webb murdered her sister. "I think David Webb is a danger to society," she said. "But if he is behind bars without parole, it's what everybody wants."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...ruling-n409511

Half Of All Executions This Year Have Occurred In Texas



By Oren Peleg, Fri, February 19, 2016

It took 16 minutes for the lethal drug to flow through his body and kill Gustavo Garcia. The Texas prisoner was executed Tuesday, Feb. 16, for a murder-robbery he committed in Dallas some 25 years ago.

“God bless you. Stay strong. I’m done,” Garcia’s final statement reads.

Garcia was charged and convicted for robbing a liquor store in Plano, Texas, and fatally shooting store clerk Craig Turski, 43, with a shotgun. Garcia was 18 at the time.

According to court documents, Garcia shot Turski in the abdomen during the hold-up, then reloaded and shot him in the back of the head, reports CBS News.

Garcia defended that he ordered Turski to his knees but when a customer entered the store his plan changed. “I…panicked,” he said, according to CBS News. “[So] I shot the clerk with the shotgun.”

On Thanksgiving night 1998, Garcia and five other death row inmates escaped from their Texas prison. After scaling the facility’s 10-foot-high fences, officers opened fire on the escapees and all accept one surrendered.

“At least I can say I tried,” Garcia commented on the escape attempt during a 1999 interview with the Associated Press. “Facing execution is scarier.”

Last year, Texas accounted for 13 of the 28 executions nationwide. So far this year, Texas has accounted for three of the nation's six executions.

Following a series of dissenting opinions last year by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, it is widely anticipated that the Court will take up the issue of capital punishment.

“The unfairness inherent in treating this case differently from others which used similarly unconstitutional procedures only underscores the need to reconsider the validity of capital punishment under the Eighth Amendment,” Breyer wrote in his opinion on Hurst v. Florida, reports the Huffington Post.

The Court had delayed any such reconsideration throughout January 2016. And now that Justice Scalia has died and left a looming (and lengthy) battle over his replacement, considering the validity of capital punishment is sure to take a backseat.

http://www.americanews.com/story/cri...occurred-texas


DA Statement regarding Gustavo Julian Garcia
--Feb. 16, 2016

Today Gustavo Julian Garcia was executed in Huntsville, Texas.

In December 1990, in Plano, Texas, Garcia murdered Craig Turski, a store clerk, during a robbery. Less than a month later, Garcia murdered store clerk Greg Martin during another robbery. Plano police officers caught Garcia and his accomplices at the scene of the second murder. Garcia possessed the weapon used in both murders, and he confessed to murdering Turski. Garcia was tried for Turski’s murder and sentenced to death. In 1998, Garcia participated in a highly publicized attempt to escape from Death Row with six other inmates. One inmate died during the escape, and the attempt resulted in Texas opening an entirely new Death Row unit with improved security. Garcia received a retrial on sentencing in 2001 and again received a sentence of death.

“Justice was done today. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims,” said Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis.

http://www.collincountytx.gov/public...execution.aspx


Also : http://cnsnews.com/news/article/late...ng-store-clerk

Sadly - I can find no background on Craig Turski - the victim - a guy who just went to work and happened to be in the way of this person's pursuit of robbery. I can find ALL kinds of details about the sad, abused, ill-treated life of the misunderstood murdered.

Twenty years later, Baton Rouge child killer’s death sentence has yet to be carried out as legal appeals proceed at snail’s pace

Joe gyan jr.| June 25, 2016; 6:36 p.m.

Twenty years ago to the month, Dr. Stephen Speeg and 11 other residents of East Baton Rouge Parish convicted Frank Ford Cosey in the 1990 rape and murder of a 12-year-old Baton Rouge girl and decided he should die for what Speeg described on the jury verdict form as “an especially heinous, atrocious and cruel” crime.

Two decades later, Cosey’s appeals continue to move at a snail’s pace in the 19th Judicial District Court, the very court where he was unanimously found guilty of first-degree murder by Speeg — the jury foreman — and his fellow jurors, and sentenced to death. But much to the chagrin of at least one Louisiana Supreme Court justice, and to Speeg to a degree, the 56-year-old Ford is no closer today to the death chamber than he was 20 years ago.

Speeg said Thursday he is all for a defendant receiving his due process under the law. But, he added, “It’s just absurd that it takes this long.”

He said his only concern is with the victim’s family. “That’s where my prayers are,” Speeg said.

In a ruling earlier this month in Cosey’s case, Justice Scott Crichton voiced concern over what he described as “the inordinate span of time” that has elapsed since the jury recommended in June 1996 that Cosey die for his crime. A Baton Rouge state judge formally imposed the death penalty three months later.

Crichton noted that after the state Supreme Court affirmed Cosey’s conviction and sentence in 2000 and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case the following year, Cosey himself filed in 2001 what is termed in legal circles as a “shell” application for post-conviction relief in the 19th Judicial District Court.

Crichton characterized Cosey’s petition as “an apparent place-holder strategic maneuver.”

Then, in 2012 and 2013, Cosey’s post-conviction attorneys supplemented the bare-bones petition he filed more than a decade earlier.

Last year, state District Judge Don Johnson denied most of Cosey’s claims, which include allegations that he received ineffective assistance from his trial and appellate attorneys. “Now, in 2016 (after the savage murder, two decades after the verdict, and more than a decade after the ‘shell’ application) this case, on collateral review, has finally reached this Court,” Crichton wrote June 17. “In my view, this gamesmanship and delay is unreasonable and unacceptable.”

Cosey’s current attorney, Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana director Gary Clements, believes gamesmanship is a poor choice of words. “It’s not a word I would have chosen. I wouldn’t call it gamesmanship. I’d call it defense,” he said.

Clements stressed that post-conviction cases are complicated and take time to resolve. “The system has moved on,” he said. “We’re doing the best we can.”

Johnson, the 19th Judicial District Court judge presiding over the Cosey post-conviction case, did offer Cosey perhaps more than a glimmer of hope in May 2015 when he ruled the condemned killer is entitled to an evidentiary hearing on his claim that he is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for execution.

The state Supreme Court, on June 17, did not disagree with Johnson on that point.

Clements said it is possible the hearing on Cosey’s claim of intellectual disability, formerly called mental retardation, could be held this year.

Cosey served time for an armed robbery conviction and was on parole when he raped and killed 12-year-old Delky Nelson on July 6, 1990. She lived across the street from Cosey on El Scott Avenue off Joor Road.

Cosey was accused of beating the child; stomping on her face so hard that the last two letters of the word “Reebok” were imprinted on her left cheek; slitting her throat and leaving her nude body spread-eagled on her back in her mother’s bedroom.

Cosey’s fingerprints were discovered near the body, and DNA results proved his semen was found on a blanket near her body.

Cosey contends, and his trial attorneys argued to Speeg and his fellow jurors, that another neighborhood man — now-deceased Patrick Jenkins — killed the girl. Jenkins committed suicide in 1994, two years before Cosey’s trial, after killing his girlfriend and their 8-month-old child.

Speeg said the jury was an educated group that looked at all of the evidence, which he called indisputable. He said the death penalty was a just decision.

The state Attorney General’s Office has been handling the case since 2009, the year East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III was sworn in and recused his office. Moore was one of Cosey’s attorneys in the 1990s.

“In the best interest of our state, the Louisiana Department of Justice has and will continue to pursue this case fairly, diligently and efficiently,” Ruth Wisher, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Jeff Landry, said Friday.


Cosey’s trial attorneys included Tony Marabella, now a 19th Judicial District Court judge, and Frank Holthaus, a prominent Baton Rouge lawyer.

“That’s counsel that you and I probably couldn’t afford together,” Speeg said when told of Cosey’s claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel.

http://theadvocate.com/news/16217325...as-legal-appea