Date set for next Georgia execution

 ATLANTA -- Hours after Troy Davis was put to death, Georgia has set the execution date for its next death row inmate.

RELATED: Davis' last words: I am innocent

Marcus Ray Johnson's execution has been scheduled for 7 p.m. on Oct. 5. 

Johnson was convicted in 1998 of murdering Angela Sizemore in Dougherty County in 1994. Her body was found in her truck with 41 stab wounds not long after the she and Johnson were seen leaving an Albany bar together.

In his appeals, Johnson argued his trial lawyers were ineffective because they failed to bring up evidence of his childhood struggles, including his father's abandonment of him when he was 15.

According to the State Attorney General's office, Johnson has exhausted his direct appeals and state and federal habeas corpus options. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied this past June.

http://www.11alive.com/news/article/206392/40/Date-set-for-next-Georgia-execution

I just had to return for this one. Hopefully this saga will finally be over. Wow 4 yrs ago we were having a discussion on this very thread and had to slap down a thieving Nazi scumbag for proclaiming his innocence. This has been an eternity and truly a living hell for the family to get justice.

Congrats on the new arrival!!

Here's some facts Twosides:

Fact #1 : Benge WAS a murdering POS.

Fact: 2 Benge IS Ding Dong Dead.

Fact #3: Justice was served for Ms. Gabbard and her family when Fact #2 occurred.

Fact #4: Benge did this to his family and not the state, not us, and certainly NOT Ms Gabbard's family.

Fact #5 and one of the most important ones to remember: No matter how much BS you want to continue to spew, Benge ain't NEVER ever coming back. Halle freakin leujah and have a nice day. 

The peition to the US Supreme Court for Williams was Denied in today's Orders.

Landrigan's petition to the US Supreme Court was Denied in today's Orders.

Baze's petition to the US Supreme Court was Denied in today's Orders.

Gary's petition to the US Supreme Court was Denied in today's Orders.

Wooten was Denied Cert in today's US Supreme Court Orders.

Basso was Denied Cert in today's US Supreme Court Orders.

MONTGOMERY -- A state appeals court today agreed with a Marshall County judge that a man sentenced to death in 1994 deserves a new trial because his lawyer was ineffective.

Larry Reynolds Smith was convicted of capital murder in August 1996, and his conviction and sentenced was affirmed by the Alabama Supreme Court on Jan. 8, 1999.

But Smith continued to appeal on grounds that his lawyer did a poor job in defending him. Following a hearing on Nov. 6, 2006, the Marshall County Circuit Court granted Smith a new trial on Jan. 12, 2007, but the state appealed.

Smith was convicted in the Sept. 23, 1994 robbery and shooting death of Dennis Harris, identified at his trial as a friend.

Harris disappeared and his decomposed body, decapitated by a shotgun blast, was found Oct. 3, 1994.

In agreeing that Smith deserved a new trial, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals said his lawyer was inexperienced in capital murder cases and the lawyer's "performance was deficient in the investigation and the presentation of Smith's defense at the guilt phase of Smith's trial."

With an experienced attorney, "the outcome of Mr. Smith's might well have been different," the appeals court wrote.


http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/10/state_appeals_court_orders_new.html

Miami man sentenced to die for 1997 quintuple murder
 

Tavares Calloway, convicted of executing five men in a Liberty City drug heist in 1997, must be executed for his crimes, a Miami-Dade judge ruled Friday.

Calloway and another man seeking drugs and money stormed an apartment in January 1997, hogtied five men, taped their mouths shut and removed their pants. After debating whom to leave alive, Calloway methodically shot each in the head, prosecutors said.

In July 2009, Miami-Dade jurors convicted Calloway on five counts of first-degree murder. They later recommended death as punishment.

Four of the dead were drug dealers Adolphus ``Tank'' Melvin, 27; Gary St. Charles, 22; Thomas, 26; Frederick McGuire, 31. Also killed: Melvin's visiting nephew, Derwin Bernard Copeland, 28.

``Nothing, sir, can right the wrong the jury found you committed against these innocent victims,'' Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Dava Tunis said Friday.

Calloway, 32, showed no emotion when Tunis announced the sentence.



http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/01/1852516/miami-man-sentenced-to-die-for.html

Florida death row inmate found dead in prison

A Florida death row inmate who won a stay of execution seven months ago died of apparent natural causes early Thursday, prison officials said.

David Johnston, 50, who was convicted of killing an elderly woman at her Orlando home in 1983, died about 3:40 a.m. at Florida State Prison in Starke, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Jo Ellyn Rackleff.

An autopsy has been scheduled to determine the cause of death.

"We cannot comment on any particular medical condition, medical treatment, or the medical status of inmate Johnston," Rackleff said, citing privacy laws.

The Florida Supreme Court issued a stay March 4, just five days before Johnston's scheduled execution, so a hearing could be held on the validity of a new IQ test that could have spared Johnston's life by showing he was mentally disabled.

After the hearing, though, a judge ruled he was not mentally disabled. Johnston's appeal of that decision was pending in the state Supreme Court when he died, leaving Florida's death row population at 390. He also had an appeal pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Johnston was convicted of stabbing and strangling 84-year-old Mary Hammond. He had called police after the killing, identifying himself as "Martin White," and reported "Somebody killed my grandma."

Hammond was not Johnston's grandmother, but court records indicated he was seen washing dishes in her apartment, near a demolition site where he'd been working, five days before the murder.

Then-Gov. Bob Martinez signed an initial death warrant in 1988, but the state Supreme Court also stayed that execution date. Gov. Charlie Crist signed a new death warrant last year.

The Florida justices issued another stay for DNA testing of Johnston's clothing and the victim's fingernail clippings because she apparently had scratched her attacker.

The tests showed no evidence of blood on Johnston's clothing but that material from the fingernail clippings was consistent with his DNA. The justices lifted that stay Jan. 21, and Crist set the March execution date.

(source: Associated Press)

Judge extends execution stay for Oklahoma death row inmate


Confusion about what sedative prison officials want to use when Jeffrey David Matthews is executed for killing his great uncle, has led a federal judge to extend a stay of execution for the death row inmate.
 
A federal judge has extended the stay of execution for a death row inmate condemned for killing his great uncle.

The extension was issued after Judge Stephen P. Friot noted prison officials switched several times what sedative they plan to use for the lethal injection of Jeffrey David Matthews.


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 The judge extended the stay until Nov. 20. The stay was to expire on Oct. 16.

Once the stay expires, the Attorney General's Office can ask the state Court of Criminal Appeals to set a new execution date, which is generally scheduled for about 30 days after the request.

Matthews 38, of Purcell, was convicted of killing Otis Earl Short, 77, and assaulting Short's wife, Minnie Delores Short, whose throat was slashed, during a 1994 McClain County robbery near Rosedale.

Friot's action is the fourth time Matthews has been granted more time before his execution. Gov. Brad Henry granted two stays of execution to give defense attorneys time to examine fingerprint evidence. Previous to those stays, Matthews was scheduled for execution on June 17 and again on July 20.

After the second stay expired, Matthews was set for lethal injection on Aug. 17. Hours before the execution was to happen, Friot issued a third stay after Matthews objected to the Corrections Department's substitution of the sedative used in Oklahoma's execution process.

During lethal injection, the sedative is administered first, followed by a drug that stops breathing and then a drug that stops the heart.

The third stay was set to expire on Oct. 16, but Friot extended it to Nov. 20 after a hearing earlier this week.

In his order, issued Wednesday, Friot wrote that "in less than six weeks, the compound designated to be used as the first agent administered in the execution of Jeffrey Matthews by lethal injection has gone from sodium thiopental to Brevital, then back to sodium thiopental, then perhaps, by implication, back to Brevital (or to a compound to be identified), then to pentobarbital."



http://newsok.com/judge-extends-execution-stay-for-oklahoma-death-row-inmate/article/3500334

Man Gets Life For Killing LA Liquor Store Owner


LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man who robbed and killed the owner of a South Los Angeles liquor store has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

City News Service says 51-year-old Larry Stewart was sentenced Friday for the 2005 death of Sang Yun Kim. Prosecutors say the 58-year-old merchant was beaten, choked with his own belt and burned with bleach.

Stewart was convicted of murder with special circumstances, robbery, burglary and taking a vehicle.

Prosecutors dropped their bid for the death penalty after two juries deadlocked on whether to recommend execution.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2010/10/01/man-gets-life-for-killing-la-liquor-store-owner/