Tag Archive for 'Death Row'

Judge: Clear Ky. record of former death row inmate

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Steve Lannen
on December 5, 2008
in U.S. District Court
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered Kentucky to expunge the record of a man who was once on Death Row.

U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves’s order on Thursday clears the record of 62-year-old Eugene Williams Gall in the kidnapping, rape and death of 12-year-old Lisa Jansen in 1978.

A federal appeals court overturned Gall’s conviction in 2001 saying prosecutors failed to prove key elements of the case and that the prohibition against double jeopardy forbade a retrial.

Kentucky turned Gall over to Ohio, where he is serving a life sentence for rape and murder.

Gall’s attorney, public defender Tim Arnold, says the decision may make it easier for him to argue for parole in 2021. A message left with the Montgomery County, Ohio, prosecutor’s office, was not immediately returned Friday.

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Ky. high court rejects requests to halt execution

Published
by
H-L Justice Team
on November 19, 2008
in Courts
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By Brett Barrouquere
The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE — The Kentucky Supreme Court has rejected two requests to halt the scheduled execution of Marco Allen Chapman, saying the death row inmate is competent to make his own decisions about whether to die.

The high court on Wednesday ruled that Chapman, who has asked to be executed, is competent to make his own decisions. Because of that finding, Chief Justice John Minton said, the court must dismiss the remaining appeals that were filed by the Department of Public Advocacy against Chapman’s will.

Justice Mary Noble issued a one-page concurring opinion saying the court properly applied the law, but that she would be open to legislative action on the death penalty.

“If state executions are not the will of the people, then they must demand a different approach,” Noble wrote. “I would welcome such legislation.”

Barring a last-minute change of heart by Chapman, the ruling could clear the way for Chapman to die by lethal injection at the Kentucky State Penitentiary on Friday.

Chapman, 36, pleaded guilty in 2004 to killing a 7-year-old girl and her 6-year-old brother, as well as attacking their 10-year-old sister and mother in the northern Kentucky town of Warsaw. He asked to be sentenced to death.

The public advocates asked the high court to stop the execution, questioning Chapman’s competency in one motion and citing a pending challenge to Kentucky’s execution protocol in another.

Two other death row inmates, convicted cop killer Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling, convicted of killing a couple in Lexington, sued the state saying it improperly adopted the current execution protocol. That challenge is pending before the Kentucky Supreme Court. Chapman did not take part in that suit.

The high court’s ruling comes about a week after a circuit judge in Frankfort found Chapman competent to fire his attorneys and waive his appeals.

Chapman wrote directly to the justices with a plea to allow his execution.

“So I ask this court one last time to dismiss all motions and allow my execution go forward as planned without any further delays or proceedings,” Chapman wrote.

Kentucky has executed two people since states resumed the practice in 1977 after a four-year, court-imposed hiatus. Harold McQueen was put to death in the electric chair in 1997 for the shooting death of Rebecca O’Hearn in Richmond in 1980.

The last person executed in Kentucky was Eddie Lee Harper, who died by lethal injection in 1999. Harper was sentenced to death for killing his adoptive parents in 1982. Harper waived all appeals and asked to be executed after 16 years on death row.

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Ex-death row inmate reaches deal, get 55 years

Published
by
H-L Justice Team
on October 6, 2008
in Uncategorized
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The Associated Press

HARLAN — A former death row inmate pleaded guilty and received 55 years in prison for the 1981 murder and robbery of an eastern Kentucky man.

Hugh Marlowe, who spent 19 years on death row, accepted the deal on Friday in the death of 78-year-old Henry Hamblin of Dartmont on Nov. 13, 1981.

The deal came after nearly a year of legal wrangling that promted Special Judge Cletus Maricle to set an Oct. 3 deadline for prosecutors and Marlowe’s attorneys to reach a deal, the Harlan Daily Enterprise reported.

Marlowe was convicted in 1982 of murdering Hamblin, who was shot with a pistol and beaten to death. Maricle ordered a new sentencing hearing for Marlowe in August 2001, a decision upheld by the Kentucky Supreme Court in 2007. Maricle rejected a motion for a new trial.

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More DNA tests in 1979 slaying case requested

Published
by
H-L Justice Team
on September 23, 2008
in Courts
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By Brett Barrouquere
The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE — A judge is weighing whether to order more specific testing on evidence in a 1979 murder case that defense attorneys say could definitively implicate or clear their client.

Jefferson Circuit Judge James Shake told attorneys Monday he would have a ruling in the case of Death Row inmate Brian Keith Moore soon.

Moore was convicted of killing Virgil Harris in August 1979. Preliminary tests on a shirt, jacket and a check showed DNA from multiple people and could not definitively include or exclude Moore.

Moore’s attorney, David Harshaw, asked for a more specific kind of test that could tell whether the genetic material came from Moore.

“Mr. Moore has told us he didn’t do this,” Harshaw said.

Assistant Attorney General David Barr told the judge Moore isn’t entitled to any more testing because only one test is required under a law that allows condemned inmates to seek testing on evidence that predates DNA technology.

“He got what he asked for. He got what he was entitled to,” Barr said. “The results didn’t show what they thought it would.”

Moore was the first Kentucky Death Row inmate to request DNA testing under the law.

In granting the first DNA tests, Shake said there was a “reasonable probability” that Moore wouldn’t have been tried or convicted if DNA tests had been available at the time and had shown he didn’t wear the clothes.

Moore was convicted of killing Harris, but claims another man set him up.

The case has taken several turns since Shake ordered DNA tests on the pants, shoes and three other items. Prosecutors initially said a pair of shoes and pants were among the items available for testing. But when the evidence was sent to Kentucky’s crime lab, the shoes and pants weren’t among the items.

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Death Row inmate wins hearing

Published
by
H-L Justice Team
on September 19, 2008
in Courts
. 1 Comment

The Associated Press

FRANKFORT — A Death Row inmate will have a hearing to determine whether he had a secret deal with a judge before admitting to the 1989 murder of a Laundromat worker, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

Donald H. Johnson contends he was coerced into pleading guilty to his role in the stabbing death of Helen Madden, 62, and thought he would get life in prison without parole for 25 years if he did so.

“We are happy that we won the claim we won,” said David Harshaw, Johnson’s attorney. “We are looking forward to a hearing.”

Johnson, 41, pleaded guilty in June 1994 to murder in the death of Madden, who was found with fatal stab wounds at the laundry where she worked. She had been stabbed more than 20 times, sexually assaulted and left to die. Johnson was sentenced to death in 1997.

Johnson claims he and his attorneys had an off-the-record deal with Floyd County Judge John David Caudill that he would avoid execution if he pleaded guilty.

Caudill denies the allegation.

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Court allows new hearing in death row case

Published
by
Steve Lannen
on September 19, 2008
in Courts
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By JOE BIESK

Associated Press Writer

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A death row inmate will have a hearing to determine whether he had a secret deal with a judge before copping to the gruesome 1989 murder of a Laundromat worker, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

Donald H. Johnson claims he was coerced into pleading guilty to his role in the gruesome 1989 stabbing death of 62-year-old Helen Madden. Johnson claims he thought he would get life in prison without parole for 25 years if he pleaded guilty.

“We are happy that we won the claim we won,” said David Harshaw, Johnson’s attorney. “We are looking forward to a hearing.”

The 41-year-old Johnson pleaded guilty in June 1994 to murdering Madden, who was found stabbed to death at the coin-operated laundry where she worked. Madden had been stabbed more than 20 times, sexually assaulted and left to die. Johnson was sentenced to death in 1997.

Johnson claims he and his attorneys had an off-the-record deal with Floyd County Judge John David Caudill that he would avoid execution if he pleaded guilty.

Caudill denies the meeting occurred.

At issue is whether Johnson either had a deal or was led to believe that one was in place, Harshaw said.
Kentucky’s high court agreed, without opposition, that Johnson should have had a hearing on the alleged coercion before it was dismissed at trial.

The high court, however, denied some of Johnson’s other claims such as his contention that he had ineffective counsel at trial. He also claimed that he is mentally ill and incompetent to face execution.

“There has been no showing that Johnson is insane,” the court ruled.
Johnson should have a special judge appointed to oversee the hearing because Caudill will likely be a witness, the high court ruled.

In a different case, the court on Thursday upheld the death sentence of Melvin Lee Parrish, who murdered a pregnant woman and her 8-year old son in Louisville in 1997.

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