Richard A. Leavitt - ID - 6/12/12

[Grinning Grim Reaper]

Idaho Court Sets Execution Date For Richard Leavitt

By Paul Johnson

Story Created: May 17, 2012 at 1:30 PM MDT
Story Updated: May 17, 2012 at 1:30 PM MDT

Boise, Idaho (KMVT-TV) If all goes as planned, Richard A. Leavitt will be Idaho’s next inmate to be executed. Seventh District Judge Jon J. Shindurling issued a death warrant today for the July 1984 murder of Danette Elg in Blackfoot, Idaho. The execution date is set for June 12, 2012.

On July 16, 1984, Danette Elg reported a prowling incident to the Blackfoot Police and identified Richard Leavitt as the prowler. Ms. Elg was acquainted with Leavitt, having met him through a mutual friend.

On or about July 17, Ms. Elg was murdered in her home. She had been attacked with a knife and sustained 15 separate stab and slash wounds. In addition, she had been sexually mutilated. Following her death, but before her body was discovered, Leavitt contacted the police and friends of Danette Elg and expressed curiosity about her absence. Leavitt claimed that Ms. Elg’s co-workers and employer called him after she did not appear for work. These calls could not be confirmed.

On July 21, after obtaining permission from Danette Elg’s parents, Leavitt and Blackfoot Police entered her home and discovered her body in a waterbed, which had also been slashed during the murder.

On September 25, 1985, a Bingham County jury found Leavitt guilty of first degree murder and use of a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to death by Seventh District Judge H. Reynold George on December 19, 1985.

Judge George held an evidentiary hearing on April 23, 1986, and denied Leavitt’s petition for post-conviction relief on May 1, 1987.

On May 30, 1989, the Idaho Supreme Court affirmed Leavitt’s conviction, but sent the case back to district court for resentencing. The Idaho Supreme Court reversed the sentence, because the trial court failed to “detail any adequate consideration of the ‘mitigating factors’ considered, and whether or not the ‘mitigating circumstances’ outweigh the gravity of any ‘aggravating circumstance’ so as to make unjust the imposition of the death penalty.” The state appealed to the United States Supreme Court, but the Court declined to hear the state’s appeal.

Judge George held a sentencing hearing on December 21, 1989. On January 25, 1990, Judge George sentenced Leavitt to death. The Idaho Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence on November 27, 1991. Leavitt appealed to the United States Supreme Court, but the Court declined to hear his appeal.

On April 29, 1993, Leavitt filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in United States District Court for the District of Idaho. He filed an amended petition on February 20, 1996.

On September 6, 2000, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill denied Leavitt’s claims and dismissed his habeas petition. Leavitt filed a motion asking the court to reconsider. On December 14, 2000, Judge Winmill granted habeas relief relating to jury instructions, and ordered the state to initiate new trial proceedings within 60 days or release Leavitt.

The state and Leavitt, on different grounds, appealed Judge Winmill’s decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

On June 14, 2004, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Judge Winmill’s decision granting habeas relief and ordering a new trial and affirmed his decision denying all other trial claims. However, the Ninth Circuit sent the case back to Judge Winmill for consideration of Leavitt’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel during his resentencing.

Leavitt twice petitioned the Ninth Circuit for reconsideration. Both petitions were denied. Leavitt then appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which, in 2005, declined to hear his appeal from the Ninth Circuit decision.

On September 28, 2007, Judge Winmill granted habeas relief relating to ineffective assistance of counsel. The state appealed to the Ninth Circuit.

On May 7, 2011 the Ninth Circuit reversed Judge Winmill’s decision, concluding that Leavitt was not entitled to habeas sentencing relief. The Ninth Circuit denied Leavitt’s petition for rehearing on September 13, 2011.

Leavitt filed an appeal to the United States Supreme Court on February 10, 2012. The Court declined to hear his case on May 14, 2012.

KMTV11.com

[JTiscool]

What are the chances this goes through? I'm going with a 45% chance that it does.

[k"KKK"hirschkorn]

I say 10 %..

[Naviator]

Oh, I have more faith than the previous posters, and say 75%.  I have yet to hear anything that would dissuade me, however, depending on potential legal issues, I am reserving the right to alter my number

[turboprinz]

Looking Back On Leavitt Case
http://www.kpvi.com/content/news/local/story/Looking-Back-On-Leavitt-Case/5wDnKnLu-UOTG5roYKKTYQ.cspx

[turboprinz]

Actual photo

[AnneTheBelgian]

http://www.idahopress.com/news/local/richard-leavitt-convicted-of-blackfoot-murder-to-be-next-idaho/article_46809ea6-a04d-11e1-9dc5-001a4bcf887a.html

Richard Leavitt, convicted of 1984 Blackfoot murder, to be next Idaho inmate executed

Posted: Friday, May 18, 2012 12:00 am | Updated: 10:49 pm, Thu May 17, 2012.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A 7th District Judge has signed a death warrant for condemned inmate Richard Albert Leavitt, ordering that he be executed by lethal injection.

Barring any last-minute court intervention, Leavitt will be executed June 12.

Leavitt was convicted in the July 18, 1984 brutal murder of 31-year-old Danette Elg in Blackfoot. Prosecutors said he stabbed her repeatedly with exceptional force, and then cut out her sexual organs either as she died or shortly thereafter. Leavitt's defense attorneys have argued he had ineffective counsel during his trial, and he has brain damage and a mental disorder that contributed to his actions.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider Leavitt's appeal on Monday, and Judge Jon Shindurling signed the death warrant Thursday.




Here is a link with a thread who talks about him : http://off2dr.com/smf/index.php?topic=12122.msg90881#msg90881




  GO IDAHO



Anne

[AnneTheBelgian]

Other article :


http://www.ktvb.com/video?id=151987335&sec=550617&ref=articlevidmod

(with video)

Out of appeals; death row inmate learns of execution date

by Andrea Lutz

AndreaRLutz

KTVB.COM

Posted on May 17, 2012 at 10:54 PM

Updated yesterday at 11:23 PM

BOISE -- On Thursday at around 4:00 p.m., Idaho death row inmate Richard Leavitt was served his official death warrant. He is set to be executed by lethal injection, June 12th.
 
In just seven months, Idaho will have two executions.

53-year-old, Richard Leavitt has been behind bars since 1985 for the murder of an eastern Idaho woman.  Leavitt was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder and mutilation of 31-year-old Danette Elg of Blackfoot.

A 7th District Court judge signed the death warrant early Thursday; Leavitt was moved to an isolation cell at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, which is policy.

Years of appeals followed the murder conviction. Attorneys claimed Leavitt suffered a brain injury which made him unstable at the time of the murder.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his final appeal. The Idaho Attorney General's office says Leavitt came to the end of his road of appeals.

“It takes a long time for justice to be done in a capital case,” said LaMont Anderson with the Idaho Attorney General’s office. “But at the same time we can’t be too speedy because we do want to make sure that it is justice that is done and that we are doing the right thing in these cases.”

In July of 1984, Elg was found stabbed 15 times and her body was sexually mutilated. Police said the two were acquainted and even days before her murder, Elg reported Leavitt was prowling around her Blackfoot home.

Upon her disappearance, Leavitt expressed concern to police, so much concern; police records indicated he was allowed to enter Elg's home with police where her body was found.

14 people are now on Idaho's death row, including Leavitt.

Paul Rhoades was put to death in November of last year, for the 1987 murders of two women. Until that execution, Idaho had not carried out the death penalty since 1994.





Photos : 1. The victim Danette Elg

              2. The murderer Richard Albert Leavitt in the courtroom during his 1985 trial for the murder of Danette Elg 






Anne

[Grinning Grim Reaper]

Idaho Opts For 1 Drug Only In Execution Policy

By Associated Press
POSTED: 12:28 pm MDT May 18, 2012
UPDATED: 12:36 pm MDT May 18, 2012

BOISE, Idaho -- Idaho's corrections chief says the agency is switching to a one-drug lethal injection for future executions of death row inmates.

Idaho Department of Corrections Director Brent Reinke said Friday execution teams will administer a single, lethal dose of the surgical sedative pentobarbital.

That's a change from the execution carried out by the agency last fall, when the condemned inmate was injected with three-drug mixture, which included pentobarbital.

Reinke says the change was driven by difficulties in obtaining the other two chemicals used to kill Paul Ezra Rhoades in November.

The decision makes Idaho the latest death penalty state to switch to using only pentobarbital in its lethal injection.
Reinke says the one-drug protocol will be used in the June 12 execution of convicted murderer Richard Leavitt.

www.kboi2.com/news/local/Idaho-opts-for-1-drug-only-in-execution-policy-152...

[Hangman1981]

She was very pretty. 

I doubt this one will go through.

[Grinning Grim Reaper]

Mediation ordered in Idaho execution policy suit

Posted: May 24, 2012 2:20 PM CDT Updated: May 24, 2012 5:01 PM CDT

By TODD DVORAK
Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - A federal judge has ordered mediation talks between Idaho prison officials and more than a dozen news organizations that are challenging a policy that limits public access to lethal injection executions.

U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge handed down the order Thursday, two days after The Associated Press and 16 other news organizations filed a lawsuit seeking to force the Idaho Department of Correction to let witnesses view the execution process from start to finish.

The lawsuit is not intended to obstruct the state's June 12 scheduled execution of convicted murderer Richard Leavitt. Instead, it focuses on a narrow section of the agency's execution protocol.

Like most states with lethal injection, Idaho's policy bars witnesses from watching as a condemned inmate is brought into the execution chamber, strapped to the table and has IVs inserted into his or her arms. The news organizations say reporters must be able to view executions from start to finish so they can accurately report the events - and any complications that may emerge - to the public.

Lodge's order requires the parties to quickly begin nonbinding mediation on or before June 1 under the supervision of Magistrate Judge Candy Dale.

"Any opportunity to mediate a case is a positive development for both parties," said Chuck Brown, the Lewiston attorney representing the news groups. "It avoids some of the uncertainty of how a third party, in this case a judge, might rule in the future."

An IDOC spokesman says agency officials are still waiting to be served with the initial complaint filed Tuesday.

"When we are, we will take appropriate action," said spokesman Jeff Ray.

The agency has defended its policy on grounds that keeping the first few steps private is essential to protecting the anonymity of the execution team. The agency also denied multiple requests by the news organizations to modify its protocol before the media turned to the federal courts.

The plaintiffs joining the AP include the Idaho Statesman, The Times-News, Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Spokesman-Review, Boise Weekly, The Idaho Press Club and Idahoans for Openness in Government. The plaintiffs also include newspapers with Pioneer Newspapers, including the Idaho State Journal and Idaho Press Tribune

The lawsuit relies heavily on a 2002 San Francisco-based federal appeals court ruling that found that witnesses should be allowed to view executions from the moment the condemned enters the death chamber until their final heartbeat.

Since the ruling, only two states under the court's nine-state jurisdiction are following it: California, where the case arose, and Nevada, which changed its policy after media challenged rules barring witnesses from viewing the entire process. Idaho, Arizona, Washington and Montana have all barred witnesses from the first portion of lethal injection executions.

Most states nationwide do the same. Of the 27 states that have lethal injection outside of the circuit's jurisdiction, only Ohio and Georgia allow witnesses to see the entire process.

The lawsuit comes at a time when questions have been raised about whether the lethal cocktail of drugs used in the procedure is effective and whether the execution staff is properly trained. Some death row inmates have challenged the constitutionality of lethal injection executions in court, contending that the insertion of the IVs can be easily botched, causing severe pain for the condemned.

www.myfoxhouston.com/story/18617506/mediation-ordered-in-idaho-execution-policy-...

[Grinning Grim Reaper]

IDOC director weighs in on upcoming execution

By Eric Fink

The Idaho Department of Correction is prepping for the state's second execution in less than seven months.
 
On Friday, IDOC director, Brent Reinke, said he and his team are ready to carry out the execution of 53-year-old Richard Leavitt with dignity, respect and professionalism.
 
"We never stopped rehearsing and preparing our practices," Reinke said. "All through the Rhoades execution, we were learning.
Practice makes perfect! 

In July 1984 Leavitt brutally murdered 31-year-old Danette Elg in her Blackfoot home and then cut out her sexual organs. Leavitt has called Death Row home for 27 years.
 
On Thursday, Leavitt was handed his death warrant. 
 
The execution is scheduled for June 12 at 10 a.m.
 
In November, Paul Ezra Rhoades received a lethal three-drug cocktail. The IDOC will administer a single drug to Leavitt.
 
"We were watching other capital states, we were watching Arizona and that is why for the execution this June we've selected a single drug option," Reinke said.

www.kivitv.com/news/local/152118915.html

[k"KKK"hirschkorn]

Yea the news media does not need to report every detail.  They need not report how painful the anti's make it out to be. As with in details of our government and our armed force's some things need to never be released to the public.

[Kitten Resq]

The lawsuit comes at a time when questions have been raised about whether the lethal cocktail of drugs used in the procedure is effective and whether the execution staff is properly trained

Personally I'd say if they end up dead it's pretty effective 

[Allencraft]

There are somethings that the public just doesn't need access to. The immate who is being executed deserves to have some measure of privacy as well. What is to stop the press from demanding they be allowed access to the immates when they enter the holding cell prior to their execution? This is just another way to harass those who are on the execution team as well as disrupt the execution itself. There is NO way the press will keep their mouths shut during the procedure. They will want to know "Does it hurt when they strap you down? Tell us what you are feeling as they insert the needles that will allow the drug to flow into your body bring about your death..etc etc etc" The press has shown no respect for any of the parties involved so why would they be circumspect now?

~ Brenda ~