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Ronald Phillips Ohio Execution

Ronald Phillips was executed by the State of Ohio for the rape and murder of a three year old girl. According to court documents Ronald Phillips would repeatedly sexually abuse and beat the three year old girl who was the daughter of his girlfriend Fae Evans. Eventually three year old Sheila Evans would die from her injuries. The three year old’s mother Fae Evans would be sentenced to thirty years in prison for allowing the abuse to happen and would die in prison of leukemia in 2008. Ronald Phillips would be executed by lethal injection on July 26 2017

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After a three-year break, Ohio resumed executions on Wednesday by giving a lethal injection to Ronald Phillips, who was convicted of raping and beating to death his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter.

Phillips, 43, whose execution had been postponed six times, was killed with a three-drug formula that has become popular with states struggling to obtain execution chemicals.

It includes a sedative that has been featured in several other executions that did not go as planned, though there were no reports of complications in Phillips’ case. Media witnesses said it was far different than Ohio’s last execution, in which the inmate gasped and heaved and took 26 minutes to die.

“It was too easy,” Renee Mundell, half-sister of victim Sheila Marie Evans, told reporters after Phillips was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m.

Phillips apologized to Sheila Marie’s family for his “evil actions,” according to NBC affiliate WKYC, which had a reporter in the witness room

“All those years, I prayed you’d forgive me and find it in your heart to forgive and have mercy on me. Sheila Marie did not deserve what I did to her. I know she is with the Lord and she suffers no more,” he said.

Phillips’ attorneys said in a statement that while he committed an “unspeakable crime” in 1993, at the time of his death he “did not in any way resemble that troubled and broken teen.”

“He had grown to be a good man, who was thoughtful, caring, compassionate, remorseful, and reflective. He tried every day to atone for his shameful role in Sheila’s death. In the past years, Ron has studied for and earned his certification to be a minister, and was preparing his first sermon.

“Ron’s case suggests we should thoughtfully reconsider our laws that permit the harshest punishment for those who committed their crimes as teenagers, especially the irrevocable punishment of death.”

Phillips spent the night before the execution in prayer, officials said. He saved unleavened bread from his last meal of pizza and cheesecake and used it as communion shortly before the execution.

The execution was witnessed by Sheila Marie’s half-sister and two other relatives. The little girl’s mother, Fae Evans, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and died of cancer in 2008. Phillips’ brother was also present, and the execution was briefly delayed so they could meet.

Ohio’s last execution was in January 2014 when murderer Dennis McGuire appeared to struggle for breath and took far longer to die than usual after being given an untested combination of drugs.

After his family sued, the state abandoned that protocol. It switched to the three-drug injection last year, but Phillips’ execution was held up when a federal judge ruled that one of the components, the sedative midazolam, might contribute to a cruelly painful death.

An appeals court overturned that decision, and the U.S. Supreme Court turned down Phillips’ request for a stay of execution late Tuesday, paving the way for his lethal injection hours later.

Phillips would have been executed in 2014 but Gov. John Kasich granted him a temporary reprieve to consider whether he should be allowed to donate his organs to relatives. Instead, the state executed McGuire next.

Ohio has planned executions for 26 inmates, stretching all the way to 2020, though some of those are sure to be postponed. The next one to face the needle is Gary Otte, scheduled to die Sept. 13.

Executions hit a historic low last year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment. Phillips was the 15th prisoner executed this year

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/lethal-injection/ronald-phillips-executed-ohio-ending-three-year-break-n786676

William Morva Virginia Execution

William Morva was executed by the State of Virginia for the murder of a police officer and a security guard following a prison escape. According to court documents William Morva was being held awaiting trial on armed robbery when he attempted to escape from a hospital and in the process would murder Sheriff’s Deputy Corporal Eric Sutphin and hospital security guard Derrick McFarland in 2006. William Morva who had severe mental health issues would be executed by lethal injection on July 6, 2017. This would be the last execution in the State of Virginia who abolished Capital Punishment in 2021

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A Virginia man who killed a hospital security guard and a sheriff’s deputy after escaping from custody in 2006 has been executed after an unsuccessful campaign to spare the inmate’s life over concerns about his mental health.

William Morva, 35, was pronounced dead at 9.15pm on Thursday after a lethal injection at Greensville correctional center in Jarratt. It was the first execution in Virginia under a new protocol that makes more of the lethal injection procedure secret.

Morva, who was wearing jeans and a blue shirt, said “no” after he was asked whether he had any last words. A few minutes later, he could be heard speaking, but it was not clear what he was saying.

The lethal injection began about 9pm after the warden read him the court order of his execution. Shortly after the drugs began flowing, his stomach moved up and down quickly several times before he became motionless.

Morva’s execution came hours after Virginia’s Democratic governor announced he would not spare Morva’s life despite pressure from mental health advocates, state lawmakers and attorneys who said the man’s crimes were the result of a severe mental illness that made it impossible for him to distinguish between delusions and reality.

In denying a clemency petition, Governor Terry McAuliffe concluded Morva received a fair trial. He noted that experts who evaluated the man at the time found he didn’t suffer from any illness that would have prevented him from understanding the consequences of his crimes. He also said prison staff members who monitored Morva for the past nine years never reported any evidence of a severe mental illness or delusional disorder

I personally oppose the death penalty; however, I took an oath to uphold the laws of this Commonwealth regardless of my personal views of those laws, as long as they are being fairly and justly applied,” McAuliffe said in a statement.

Morva was the first inmate executed in Virginia since officials made changes to the state’s protocol that have drawn fire from attorneys and transparency advocates. Those changes came after attorneys raised concerns in January about how long it took to place an IV line during the execution of convicted killer Ricky Gray.

Execution witnesses used to be able to watch inmates walk in and be strapped down. A curtain would then be drawn during the placement of the IV and heart monitors. After the curtain was reopened, inmates would be asked whether they had any final words before the chemicals started to flow.

In Morva’s execution, the curtain was closed when the witnesses entered the chamber and was not opened until he was strapped to the gurney and the IV lines were in place. Virginia used a three-drug mixture, including midazolam and potassium chloride that it obtained from a compounding pharmacy whose identity remains secret under state law.

Morva is the third inmate to be executed since McAuliffe took office in 2014. In April, McAuliffe granted clemency to Ivan Teleguz, saying jurors in the murder-for-hire case were given false information that may have swayed sentencing.

Among those who had urged McAuliffe to spare Morva’s life were the daughter of the slain sheriff’s deputy, two United Nations human rights experts, and representatives from the Hungarian embassy. Morva’s father was born in Hungary and Morva was a Hungarian-American dual national.

“Our message and William’s story and his family’s story were resonating with a lot of people, and I don’t know why it didn’t resonate with the governor,” Morva’s attorney Dawn Davison said after the execution.

Morva was awaiting trial on attempted robbery charges in 2005 when he was taken to the hospital to treat an injury. There, he attacked a sheriff’s deputy with a metal toilet roll holder, stole the deputy’s firearm, and shot an unarmed security guard, Derrick McFarland, in the face before fleeing. A day later, Morva killed another sheriff’s deputy Eric Sutphin with a bullet to the back of the head as Sutphin searched for him near Virginia Tech’s Blacksburg campus.

Experts who examined Morva for his trial said he suffered from personality disorders that resulted in “odd beliefs”.

After his trial, a psychiatrist diagnosed him with delusional disorder, a more severe mental illness akin to schizophrenia that made him falsely believe, among other things, that he has life-threatening gastrointestinal issues and that a former presidential administration conspired with police to imprison him, his attorneys said.

His lawyers argued Morva escaped and killed the men because he was under the delusion that he was going to die in jail.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/07/virginia-executes-william-morva-using-controversial-three-drug-mixture

Robert Melson Alabama Execution

Robert Melson was executed by the State of Alabama for a triple murder. According to court documents Robert Melson would attempt to rob a Popeye’s Restaurant and in the process would shoot and kill three workers. Robert Melson would be executed by lethal injection on June 8 2017

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A man convicted of killing three people during the 1994 robbery of an Alabama fast-food restaurant was put to death Thursday by lethal injection.

Robert Melson, 46, was pronounced dead at 10:27 p.m. CDT Thursday at a southwest Alabama prison, authorities said. The execution was the state’s second of the year.

State prosecutors said Melson and another man who used to work at the restaurant, robbed a Popeye’s in Gadsden, 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of Birmingham. They said Melson opened fire on four employees in the restaurant’s freezer. Nathaniel Baker, Tamika Collins and Darrell Collier were killed.

The surviving employee, Bryant Archer, crawled for help and was able to identify one of the robbers as the former worker. While he could not identify Melson, prosecutors said Melson told police he had been with the former employee that night. A shoeprint behind the store matched Melson’s shoes, they said.

Melson’s attorneys had filed a flurry of last-minute appeals seeking to stay the execution. The filings centered on Alabama’s use of the sedative midazolam which some states have turned to as other lethal injection drugs became difficult to obtain.

Midazolam is supposed to prevent inmates from feeling pain before other drugs are given to stop their lungs and heart, but several executions in which inmates lurched or coughed have raised questions about its use. An inmate in Alabama coughed and heaved for the first 13 minutes of an execution held in December.

Melson’s attorney argued that midazolam does not anesthetize an inmate, but they might look still, because a second drug, a paralytic, prevents them from moving.

Alabama’s execution protocol is an illusion. It creates the illusion of a peaceful death when in truth, it is anything but,” Melson’s attorneys wrote in the filing to the Alabama Supreme Court.

The Alabama attorney general’s office argued midazolam’s use has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court and it has allowed multiple executions to proceed using the drug, including the execution of an Alabama inmate last month.

“The State, the victims’ families, and the surviving victim in this case have waited long enough for justice to be delivered,” the attorney general’s office wrote in a court filing as they urged the courts to let the execution proceed.

https://www.gadsdentimes.com/news/20170608/melson-executed

Thomas Arthur Alabama Execution

Thomas Arthur was executed by the State of Alabama for the murder of Troy Wicker in 1982. According to court documents Thomas Arthur would break into the home of Troy Wicker and fatally shoot the victim, Arthur was paid to murder Wicker. Thomas Arthur had already served a prison sentence for murder. Thomas Arthur would be executed by lethal injection on May 25, 2017

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Thomas Arthur, who had escaped execution seven times in the past, was put to death for the 1982 killing of Troy Wicker. He was pronounced dead at 12:15 a.m. Friday, according to Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Horton.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution at 10:45 p.m. Thursday, an hour and fifteen minutes before Arthur’s death warrant was set to expire.

ADOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn said Arthur made the following statement before being put to death: I am sorry I failed you as a father. I love you more than anything on earth.

Media witnesses said Arthur’s oldest daughter, Sherrie Stone, was present for the execution. They also reported that there appeared to be no complications as Arthur was being put to death.

Shortly after his execution, Stone spoke on her father’s life and death at an Atmore Holiday Inn Express.

“First of all, I would like to express my deepest sympathy for the family of Troy Wicker. I hope what has transpired today will allow them to have some peace and closure. I’ve never known for certain whether my father killed Troy Wicker,” Stone said.

“At times I was convinced he did. At times I believed he was innocent. Over decades you go through a roller coaster. Now I’ll never know the truth because the evidence that could prove if my father was innocent or guilty has not been tested using the latest DNA testing procedure.”

Arthur’s attorneys had earlier called for DNA testing that could implicate another person in the crime.

Gov. Kay Ivey on Thursday denied Arthur’s request for testing, saying that hair samples found at the scene that Arthur wanted tested were presented to the juries that heard Arthur’s conviction, “all of whom convicted Arthur of capital murder beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Stone went on to call for mandator DNA testing on all available evidence on all capital cases across the United States.

SCOTUS reviews a petition filed by Arthur’s attorneys asking that they have access to a cellphone while witnessing his execution.

“Deprived of access to a telephone, Arthur will be unable to seek legal redress if during the execution process, Alabama begins to subject him to cruel and unusual punishment. Arthur’s right of access to the courts will have been thwarted,” the petition reads.

U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins had previously denied the request on April 12, then the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld that decision. The Alabama attorney general’s office argued in a brief Thursday that Arthur was just trying to delay his execution and had not filed the request in time

“It is clear that, had he so desired, Arthur could have brought this claim in a more timely fashion,” the brief said. “Because he did not, this court should protect the state’s enforcement of its criminal rules and procedures.”

Arthur had separately petitioned for a stay on the basis that the state’s method of execution would cause him cruel and unusual pain.

Multiple death row inmates have filed suit over the state’s use of the sedative midazolam, arguing that it does not properly render a person unconscious before administering the second and third drugs, allowing for cruel and unusual pain in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

In December, witnesses said death row inmate Ronald Smith writhed and coughed for the first 13 minutes of his execution after being injected with Midazolam; his attorneys called the execution botched.

Arthur’s attorneys cited Smith’s execution as a reason why they should be allowed access to a phone as they witness his execution.

“(Smith’s) counsel were powerless to do anything — having been barred from having access to a phone, they had no way to access the courts,” his petition reads.

Sonia Sotomayor was the lone justice to dissent from the court’s decision not to halt the execution.

“Alabama plans to execute Thomas Arthur (Thursday night) using a three-drug lethal-injection protocol that uses midazolam as a sedative. I continue to doubt whether midazolam is capable of rendering prisoners insensate to the excruciating pain of lethal injection and thus whether midazolam may be constitutionally used in lethal injection protocols,” she wrote.

The Supreme Court held in Glossip v. Gross that if death row inmates wished to not be executed with midazolam, they have to suggest an alternate way to die that is readily available.

Arthur has asked for death by firing squad or by a different assimilation of drugs. ADOC has successfully proved through litigation that neither of these alternatives are readily available.

He was sentenced to death in 1991 after asking a jury to give him capital punishment. Arthur reasoned that it would give him more time to successfully appeal his case.

“If I was permitted, I’d shake your hands,” he told them. In a recent interview with the Associated Press, with his scheduled execution days away, Arthur’s tone had changed.

“They are going to kill me this time,” he said.

Arthur, 75, most recently escaped death Nov. 3, winning a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court after his attorneys filed an appeal challenging the state’s method of execution.

His 1991 death sentence came after he was convicted for the third time of Wicker’s murder-for-hire. He had been found guilty twice before but both convictions were overturned.

It was Arthur’s second murder conviction. He was in prison for the 1977 murder of his sister-in-law. He was participating in a work release program, the court found, when Arthur disguised himself as a black man, broke into Wicker’s home, and shot him in his bed.

Arthur maintains that he didn’t kill Wicker. His attorneys say that no physical evidence links Arthur to the scene and that a key witness testified against him to win early release.

He also had an appeal pending in the Alabama Supreme Court which questioned whether the Alabama legislature improperly delegated authority over execution methods to the Alabama Department of Corrections, but that appeal was denied.

Despite the dwindling options of recourse left for him in the time leading up to his execution, Arthur remained determined to fight his sentence.

“I won’t give up ‘til I draw my last breath,” he told the AP. “I won’t give up.”

The Office of the Alabama Attorney General wrote in its responses to Arthur’s petitions that Arthur had spent the last two decades abusing the justice system.

“The prior seven execution dates were stayed as a result of Arthur’s long-term manipulation of the federal and state courts through civil litigation and successive collateral attacks. In the most notable instance, Arthur received a reprieve based on the presentation of perjured testimony,” the response read.

Horton said Arthur refused his breakfast and final meal. He has not had visitors, though he has spoken with attorneys and some of his children in the past 24 hours.

He requested to have a photo of his children in the execution chamber, which ADOC officials said he was allowed.

Arthur’s execution was the first carried out in the state this year. Two were carried out in 2016 — Christopher Brooks in January and Ronald Smith in December.

Before Brooks, the state didn’t carry out an execution for 21/2 years.

Executions halted due to a shortage of drugs used in executions, particularly the sedatives meant to render the condemned inmate unconscious before the injection of the fatal chemicals. Legal challenges to lethal injection also slowed the execution process.

https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2017/05/25/thomas-arthur-executed-thursday-evening/345627001/

JW Ledford Georgia Execution

JW Ledford was executed by the State of Georgia for the murder of his elderly neighbor. According to court documents JW Ledford would fatally stab to death seventy three year old Dr. Harry Johnston during a robbery. When it was time for his execution on May 17, 2017 he would make a statement that would lead to the warden cutting off the mic. JW Ledford would be executed by lethal injection

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Georgia on Wednesday carried out its first execution this year, putting to death a man convicted of killing his 73-year-old neighbor 25 years ago.

J.W. Ledford’s time of death was 1:17 a.m. after an injection of compounded barbiturate pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson, Warden Eric Sellers told witnesses.

Ledford, 45, was convicted of murder in the January 1992 stabbing death of Dr. Harry Johnston in Murray County.

Ledford smiled broadly as witnesses entered the viewing area. When given a chance to make a final statement, he appeared to quote from the movie “Cool Hand Luke.”

“What we have here is a failure to communicate. Some men you just can’t reach,” he said, later adding, “I am not the failure. You are the failure to communicate.”

“You can kiss my white trash ass,” he added, continuing to smile.

As the warden exited the execution chamber at 1:09 a.m., Ledford began talking again, but the microphones had been cut off so his words weren’t audible.

Records from past executions show the lethal drug generally starts flowing within a couple of minutes of the warden exiting the execution chamber. Ledford raised his head to look at his right arm right after the warden left and about a minute later appeared to speak to a guard to his right.

He then rested his head, closed his eyes and appeared to take several deep breaths before falling still within two or three minutes of the warden leaving the room.

Ledford told police he had gone to Johnston’s home on Jan. 31, 1992, to ask for a ride to the grocery store. After the older man accused him of stealing and smacked him, Ledford pulled out a knife and stabbed Johnston to death, according to court filings. The pathologist who did the autopsy said Johnston suffered “one continuous or two slices to the neck” and bled to death.

After dragging Johnston’s body to another part of Johnston’s property and covering it up, Ledford went to Johnston’s house with a knife and demanded money from Johnston’s wife, according to court filings. He took money and four guns from the home, tied up Johnston’s wife and left in Johnston’s truck. He was arrested later that day.

Ledford told police he had several beers and smoked marijuana in the hours before the killing.

Ledford’s lawyers had asked the parole board to spare him, citing a rough childhood, substance abuse from an early age and his intellectual disability. After holding a hearing Monday, the board declined to grant clemency. Following its normal practice, the board did not give a reason for its denial.

Ledford’s lawyers also tried to get the courts to stop his execution. The challenges were appealed all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which rejected them shortly after 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Because of changes in brain chemistry caused by a drug Ledford has been taking for chronic nerve pain for more than a decade, there was a high risk that the pentobarbital Georgia planned to use to execute him would not render him unconscious and devoid of sensation or feeling, his lawyers wrote in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday. That would violate the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment enshrined in the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the lawsuit said.

When challenging an execution method on those grounds, a U.S. Supreme Court precedent requires inmates to propose a known and available alternative. Ledford’s lawyers, therefore, proposed that he be executed by firing squad, a method that is not allowed under Georgia law.

Ledford’s lawyers also asked a state court judge to halt the execution because he was only 20 and his brain wasn’t done developing when he killed Johnston. Just as juvenile offenders are considered less culpable and not the “worst of the worst” for whom the death penalty is reserved, the execution of those under 21 is also unconstitutional, Ledford’s lawyers argue.

The state executed nine inmates last year, more than any other state and the most Georgia had executed in a single calendar year since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume 40 years ago.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/05/17/georgia-executes-man-who-killed-elderly-neighbor-in-1992/