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Cecil Clayton Missouri Execution

Cecil Clayton was executed by the State of Missouri for the murder of a police officer. According to court documents Cecil Clayton was having an argument with his wife and when the police showed up to investigate Clayton would shoot and kill sheriff’s deputy Chris Castetter. Cecil Clayton was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. The argument against executing Cecil Clayton was that he was missing part of his frontal lobe due to a work place accident in the early 1970’s. Cecil Clayton would be executed by lethal injection on March 17, 2015

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Missouri cop killer Cecil Clayton was executed Tuesday night after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments he should be spared because he was missing a piece of his brain.

Clayton, who at 74 was the state’s oldest death-row prisoner, was pronounced dead at 9:21 pm CT, eight minutes after his lethal injection was administered, prison officials said in a statement.

“They brought me up here to execute me,” he said in his final statement.

Clayton was convicted of murdering sheriff’s deputy Chris Castetter after a domestic disturbance in 1996. His case drew extra attention because of his brain injury, the result of a 1972 sawmill accident that forced doctors to remove one-fifth of his frontal lobe. His lawyers contended the damage not only sparked a massive personality change that may have turned him into a killer, but also rendered him mentally incompetent and therefore ineligible for capital punishment.

“Cecil Clayton had — literally — a hole in his head,” his attorney, Elizabeth Unger Carlyle, said in a statement after the execution. “Executing him without a hearing violated the Constitution, Missouri law and basic human dignity.

“He suffered from severe mental illness and dementia related to his age and multiple brain injuries,” she added. “The world will not be a safer place because Mr. Clayton has been executed.”

Missouri had argued that medical experts found Clayton understood why he was being executed and that meant he was competent to face the needle. They maintained that his intellectual deficits had to be present before he turned 18 to let him escape execution and that he waited too long to raise his claim.

Castetter’s brother said in a statement that he had no doubt Cecil Clayton was in his right mind.

“We know this execution isn’t going to bring Chris back,” he said. “But it destroys an evil person that would otherwise be walking this earth.”

Clayton’s 11th-hour appeals delayed his execution for several hours. But ultimately, none of the U.S. Supreme Court justices accepted his claims arguments for a stay based on his brain injury.

Four justices from the liberal wing did say they would have granted a stay based on his claim that Missouri’s secrecy-shrouded process for obtaining the lethal dose of pentobarbital could lead to an unconstitutional death.

Gov. Jay Nixon also denied him clemency in the final minutes, saying he agreed with the state’s assessment that Cecil Clayton was competent.

“This crime was brutal and there exists no question of Clayton’s guilt,” he said in a statement.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/missouri-executes-cecil-clayton-missing-part-brain-n325081

Manuel Vasquez Texas Execution

Manuel Vasquez was executed by the State of Texas for a contract killing. Manuel Vasquez who was a member of the Mexican Mafia would strangle Juanita Ybarra as she was not paying the Mexican Mafia their ten percent of her profits. Manuel Vasquez would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Manuel Vasquez would be executed by lethal injection on March 11, 2015

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Texas used one of its two remaining doses of an execution drug to kill a Mexican Mafia hitman on Wednesday evening.

Manuel Vasquez, 46, had been sentenced to die for the 1998 slaying of a woman who balked at paying a gang tax on drug sales.

Vasquez, 46, was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m. CDT (7:32 ET), 17 minutes after the drug began being administered, according to the Associated Press.

Vasquez was the first of six death-row inmates slated for execution in the coming weeks, but the state only had enough pentobarbital for two of them.

Officials say they are trying to obtain more of the drug, but a recent court decision that says the names of suppliers must be public could make that difficult. States around the country are facing drug shortages because manufacturers refuse to sell their chemicals for capital punishment.

Utah has run out of drugs and lawmakers there approved a bill Tuesday night that would make firing squads the backup to lethal injection.

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/lethal-injection/texas-executes-killer-manuel-vasquez-one-last-two-doses-n321691

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A hit man for the Mexican Mafia gang was executed Wednesday night for the 1998 strangling death of a San Antonio woman, becoming the fourth inmate to face lethal injection in Texas this year.

Manuel Vasquez was declared dead at 6:32 p.m., 17 minutes after a lethal dose of pentobarbital was released through an IV into his arm. He was sentenced to death for his role in the murder of Juanita Ybarra, 51, who had refused to pay gang members a 10 percent street tax on illegal drugs she was selling.

Asked if he had a last statement, Manuel Vasquez, strapped onto a gurney, looked straight up at the ceiling and uttered a brief one.

“I want to say ‘I love you’ to all my family and friends. Thank you, Lord for your mercy and unconditional love. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen,” Vasquez said. His sister, Mary Helen Vasquez, cried loudly as she watched her brother take about two dozen breaths before becoming unconscious.

She declined to make any statement following the execution.

In 1999, jurors convicted Vasquez after hearing how he, Johnny Joe Cruz and Oligario Lujan, broke into Ybarra’s motel room and beat up her boyfriend before turning on Ybarra, who Vasquez strangled with a telephone cord. Prosecutors say Ybarra was killed after refusing to pay a street tax to the gang.

The trio robbed the couple of their valuables and left. According to court records, the three were working for Mexican Mafia boss Rene Munoz, who was on the Texas Department of Public Safety’s 10 Most Wanted List until his 2012 arrest. Cruz took a plea deal and served seven years. Lujan is serving a 35-year prison term.

Court records show Vasquez had a history of violence. He received a 10-year prison sentence for his role in the 1986 death of Robert Alva, who was beaten, choked and set on fire.

The execution of Vasquez leaves the Texas Department of Criminal Justice with enough pentobarbital — the drug it uses for lethal injections — for one more execution, unless a new supply of the drug is found. Six more executions are scheduled between now and mid-May.

Jason Clark, spokesman for TDCJ declined to elaborate specifically on what options the state’s prison system is considering if a new pentobarbital source is not found.

“I can’t speculate on that,” he said. “We are exploring all options including the conitnued use of pentobarbital or an alternative drug or drugs.”

Vasquez’ execution is the 522nd in Texas since the state reintroduced capital punishment.

On March 18, Randall Mays is set to die for fatally shooting two police officers in Henderson County, and he is expected to be the last to be put to death with pentobarbital, the one-drug method used by Texas since 2012.

In September 2013, TDCJ turned to compounding pharmacies, which are allowed to mix or “compound” drugs on site, for its lethal injection drugs after manufacturers stopped providing pentobarbital to U.S. prison systems. But this week, the state prison system confirmed it only had enough pentobarbital for the Vasquez and Mays executions.

While prison officials will not say if they plan to move to another drug combination, TDCJ has been buying midazolam since 2013 and has 40 vials on hand that have yet to expire. However, the drug is at the center of a legal challenge from Oklahoma inmates now before the U.S. Supreme Court. A ruling is expected in late May.

https://www.texastribune.org/2015/03/11/san-antonio-gang-member-set-die-tonight/

Walter Storey Missouri Execution

Walter Storey was executed by the State of Missouri for a murder committed in 1990. According to court documents Walter Storey would break into the victims, Jill Frey, home and would attack the school teacher so brutally that when he slit her throat he damaged her spine. Walter Storey would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Walter Storey was executed on February 10, 2015

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Missouri executed a man early Wednesday who was convicted of a brutal home-invasion murder 24 years ago, after a divided U.S. Supreme Court declined to stop his lethal injection just because the state won’t reveal where it got the deadly chemicals.

Walter Storey, 47, was on death row for the 1990 beating and stabbing death of a neighbor whose home he broke into so he could steal money for beer. He was pronounced dead at 12:01 a.m., officials said. His last meal was a cheeseburger and fries.

Victim Jill Frey’s brother, Jeff Frey, said in a statement that it had taken too long for Storey to be punished.

“Why do we continue to allow the argument about the secretive process of obtaining and using lethal injection drugs? Is it because this process might cause a brutal murderer to suffer a painful death? What is a painful death?” he wrote.

“What is cruel and unusual punishment? Is it a twitch of a finger? Is it a squinting of an eyelid? Is it a curling of a savage killer’s toes, or maybe violent tremors of the body for several minutes?

“Or is cruel and unusual punishment when a man breaks into a woman’s home in the middle of the night while she is in bed, proceeds to brutally beat and assault her, break six ribs, hit her in the face and head 12 times suffering injuries to her forehead, nose, cheek, scalp, lips, tongue and even her eyelid torn off?

“She had defensive wounds to her arms and hands, abrasions to her knee, a six-inch stab wound to the abdomen, and four internal impact injuries to her head all before she lost consciousness!

In Storey’s appeal, defense lawyers argued that Missouri’s refusal to disclose which compounding pharmacy supplied the killer dose of pentobarbital for his execution could lead to a death so painful it would violate his constitutional rights.

Storey’s legal team also objected to Missouri’s use of the drug midazolam as a sedative before the execution.

The high court voted 5-4 to let Storey’s execution go ahead. Last month, the justices agreed to hear an appeal out of Oklahoma that argues midazolam is not a strong enough anesthetic to use in lethal injections. Executions are on hold in three states as a result.

Midazolam came under scrutiny in the wake of several problematic executions last year.

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/lethal-injection/missouri-executes-walter-storey-1990-break-in-murder-n304111

Robert Ladd Texas Execution

Robert Ladd was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of a woman in 1996. According to court documents Robert Ladd would beat, bound and set the woman, Vickie Ann Garner, on fire. Robert Ladd would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Robert Ladd would be executed on January 29, 2015 by lethal injection

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Texas death row inmate Robert Ladd man was executed this evening for the killing a 38-year-old woman nearly two decades ago while he was on parole for a triple slaying years earlier.

Robert Ladd, 57, received a lethal injection after the US Supreme Court rejected arguments he was mentally impaired and ineligible for the death penalty.

The court also rejected an appeal in which Ladd’s attorney challenged whether the pentobarbital Texas uses in executions is potent enough to not cause unconstitutional pain and suffering.

Ladd was put to death for the 1996 slaying of Vicki Ann Garner, of Tyler, who was strangled and beaten with a hammer. Her arms and legs were bound, bedding was placed between her legs, and she was set on fire in her apartment

In his final statement, Ladd addressed the sister of his victim by name, telling her he was ‘really, really sorry.’

‘I really, really hope and pray you don’t have hatred in your heart,’ he said, adding that he didn’t think she could have closure but hoped she could find peace. ‘A revenge death won’t get you anything,’ he said.

Then Ladd told the warden: ‘Let’s ride.’

As the drug took effect, he said: ‘Stings my arm, man!’ He began taking deep breaths, then started snoring. His snores became breaths, each one becoming less pronounced, before he stopped all movement.

He was pronounced dead at 7.02pm, 27 minutes after the drug was administered.

Teresa Garner Wooten, Vicki’s sister who was on hand Thursday to watch Ladd put to death, told CBS19 on the eve of the execution that it has been a long time coming.

‘I did not think, 18-plus years ago, that I would still be fighting for justice for her,’ Mrs Wooten said, adding that she had forgiven her sister’s killer.

Ladd came within hours of lethal injection in 2003 before a federal court agreed to hear evidence about juvenile records that suggested he was mentally impaired.

That appeal was denied and the Supreme Court last year turned down a review of Ladd’s case. His attorneys renewed similar arguments as his new execution date approached.

‘Ladd’s deficits are well documented, debilitating and significant,’ Brian Stull, a senior staff lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Project, told the high court.

In a press release sent out immediately after Ladd’s execution, Stull said that his death ‘is yet another example of how capital punishment routinely defies the rule of law and human decency.’

Kelli Weaver, a Texas attorney general, reminded the justices in a filing that ‘each court that has reviewed Ladd’s claim has determined that Ladd is not intellectually disabled.’

Ladd’s lawyers cited a psychiatrist’s determination in 1970 that Ladd, then a 13-year-old in custody of the Texas Youth Commission, had an IQ of 67.

Courts have embraced scientific studies that consider an IQ of 70 a threshold for impairment. The inmate’s attorneys also contended he long has had difficulties with social skills and functioning on his own.

Ladd also was a plaintiff in a lawsuit questioning the ‘quality and viability’ of Texas’ supply of its execution drug, pentobarbital. The Texas Attorney General’s Office called the challenge ‘nothing more than rank speculation.’

When he was arrested for Garner’s slaying, Ladd had been on parole for about four years after serving about a third of a 40-year prison term for the slayings of a Dallas woman and her two children. He pleaded guilty to those crimes.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2931331/Man-faces-execution-Texas-1996-strangling-death.html

Warren Hill Georgia Execution

Warren Hill was executed by the State of Georgia for the murder of his cellmate. According to court documents Warren Hill was serving a life sentence for the murder of his girlfriend Myra Wright in 1985. In 1990 Warren Hill would beat to death his cellmate Joseph Handspike using a board imbedded with nails. Warren Hill would be convicted and sentenced to death. Warren Hill would be executed on January 27 2015 by lethal injection

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A prisoner who has twice come within hours of death on Georgia’s death row is once again facing execution.

Warren Lee Hill, who was sentenced to death for the 1990 beating death of fellow inmate Joseph Handspike, is scheduled to be executed at the state prison in Jackson at 7 p.m. Monday.

Authorities said Hill bludgeoned Handspike with a nail-studded board while his victim slept.

Hill has come within hours of death twice in the past year before scheduled executions were halted by last-minute court orders.

Hill’s lawyers have long argued that Hill is mentally disabled and therefore should not be put to death because the execution of mentally disabled offenders is prohibited by state law and a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Warren Hill Other News

Georgia on Tuesday executed a man who killed a fellow inmate despite arguments from his lawyers that his execution was prohibited by the Constitution because he was intellectually disabled.

Warren Lee Hill was put to death by an injection of pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson. The 54-year-old was pronounced dead at 7:55 p.m. He declined to make a final statement but did accept an offer to have a prayer read over him by a clergy member.

After reading the execution order, the warden left the room at 7:42 p.m. Records from previous executions show that the drug generally begins to flow within a minute or two of the warden leaving the room. Hill kept his head raised, looking out at the witnesses, for a couple of minutes and then laid back and took a few deep breaths before becoming still.

“Today, the Court has unconscionably allowed a grotesque miscarriage of justice to occur in Georgia,” Brian Kammer, a lawyer for Hill, said in an emailed statement. “Georgia has been allowed to execute an unquestionably intellectually disabled man, Warren Hill, in direct contravention of the Court’s clear precedent prohibiting such cruelty.”

Warren Hill was sentenced to serve life in prison for the 1986 killing of his 18-year-old girlfriend, who was shot 11 times. While serving that sentence, he beat a fellow inmate, Joseph Handspike, to death using a nail-studded board. A jury in 1991 convicted Hill of murder and sentenced him to death.

Warren Hill was previously set to die in July 2012, February 2013 and July 2013, but courts stepped in at the last minute with temporary stays so they would have time to consider challenges filed by Hill’s lawyers. State and federal courts rejected his lawyers’ filings this time around, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined his request for a stay of execution at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Lawyers for Warren Hill have long argued he is intellectually disabled and, therefore, shouldn’t be executed. State law and a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision both prohibit the execution of the intellectually disabled.

But Georgia has the toughest-in-the nation standard for proving intellectual disability. It requires capital defendants to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they are intellectually disabled in order to avoid execution on those grounds. The state has consistently said Hill’s lawyers failed to meet that burden of proof.

Hill’s lawyers have argued that Georgia’s standard is unconstitutional because mental diagnoses are subject to a degree of uncertainty that is virtually impossible to overcome. But the standard has repeatedly been upheld by state and federal courts.

Hill’s lawyers had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider Hill’s case in light of a ruling it issued in May that knocked down a Florida law. The high court said in that ruling that defendants should have a fair opportunity to show the Constitution prohibits their execution. Hill’s lawyers argued that ruling should also invalidate Georgia’s tough burden of proof.

Days before Hill was to be executed in February 2013, his lawyers submitted new statements from the three doctors who had examined Hill in 2000 and testified at his trial that he was not intellectually disabled. In their new statements, the doctors wrote that they had been rushed at the time of Hill’s trial, and new scientific developments had surfaced since then. All three reviewed facts and documents in the case and wrote that they believed Hill is intellectually disabled.

The State Board of Pardons and Paroles, the only entity authorized to commute a death sentence to life in prison, on Tuesday rejected Hill’s clemency petition.

https://www.valdostadailytimes.com/news/state_news/ga-man-executed-for-killing-fellow-inmate/article_c93fd93a-a69c-11e4-bddb-8f62055d4be7.html