Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Stays Ramiro Gonzales’ Execution
Jul 12, 2022
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has stayed the scheduled July 13, 2022 execution of Ramiro Gonzales (pictured) and directed the trial court to consider his claim that his death sentence was a product of false expert testimony concerning his alleged future dangerousness. The stay order, issued July 11, 2022, marked the eleventh time since 2019 that the TCCA has halted an execution to direct a trial court to consider new evidence or intervening caselaw that could establish the unconstitutionality of a death-row prisoner’s conviction or death sentence.
Gonzales presented the TCCA with new evidence that the psychiatrist who served as a prosecution expert in his trial had recanted his testimony that Gonzales posed continuing threat of violence if the jury voted to spare his life. The expert, Dr. Edward Gripon, now admits that his opinion was based on false information about recidivism rates and, after reviewing Gonzales’ prison record and conducting a new interview, concluded that Gonzales is not a future danger.
The TCCA denied relief to Gonzales based upon Gripon’s recanted opinion, saying that “the determination of future dangerousness is made at the time of trial and is not properly reevaluated on habeas.” However, the court ruled that Gonzales had “also presented at least a prima facie showing that testimony of recidivism rates Gripon gave at trial were false and that that false testimony could have affected the jury’s answer to the future dangerousness question at punishment.” The TCCA granted a stay of execution and remanded the case to the trial court for further review of that portion of Gonzales’ claim.
Malaysian Government Pledges to End Mandatory Death Penalty
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- Human Rights Watch
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Jun 12, 2022
The cabinet of the government of Malaysia announced on June 10, 2022 that it had reached agreement to abolish the nation’s mandatory death penalty laws and submit legislation to parliament to provide judges discretion to impose other penalties for capital crimes. Law Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the cabinet also agreed to study proposals to substitute sentences for those currently on death row for offences carrying the death penalty.
Amnesty International reports that as of February 2022, Malaysia had 1,341 people on its death row, with 905 having been condemned under mandatory death sentences for drug trafficking.
The announcement comes three years after the government of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad made a similar pledge. However, Mahathir’s coalition government collapsed in February 2020, one month before parliament was scheduled to table the abolition legislation.
Human rights groups offered cautious praise for the government’s action. Amnesty International Malaysia’s Executive Director Katrina Jorene Maliamauv called the announcement “a welcome step in the right direction” and urged the government to “table the necessary amendments in Parliament without delay and establish a full review of all cases involving the mandatory death penalty with a view to commuting these sentences.”
Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson said the cabinet decision was “an important step forward. … But,” he added, “before everyone starts cheering, we need to see Malaysia pass the actual legislative amendments to put this pledge into effect because we have been down this road before, with successive Malaysian governments promising much on human rights but ultimately delivering very little.”
Kareem Jackson Receives Fourth Execution Reprieve in Ohio, Execution Date Re-Set for 2025
May 14, 2022
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has issued a reprieve to death-row prisoner Kareem Jackson, calling off his scheduled September 15, 2022 execution and setting a new December 10, 2025 execution date. In a news release, the governor’s office said that the reprieve had been issued “due to ongoing problems involving the willingness of pharmaceutical suppliers to provide drugs to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC), pursuant to DRC protocol, without endangering other Ohioans.”
Pharmaceutical companies have told DeWine that they will not sell their medicines to the state for use in executions and that if the state diverts drugs sold for therapeutic use to carry out executions, they may stop selling their medicines to the state. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that such an action could “endanger the ability of thousands of Ohioans — such as Medicaid recipients, state troopers, and prison inmates — to get drugs through state programs.”
Jackson was convicted of two murders and sentenced to death in 1997. This is the fourth time Governor DeWine has issued a reprieve of Jackson’s execution and the eighth reprieve of an Ohio execution scheduled for 2022. On March 7, 2019, DeWine halted Jackson’s execution, then scheduled for July 10, 2019, and rescheduled it for January 16, 2020. He issued a second reprieve on October 30, 2019, rescheduling Jackson’s execution for September 16, 2020. That execution was halted on June 5, 2020 and rescheduled for September 15, 2022.
Florida Death Penalty Lawyer Marty McClain, the ‘Gold Standard’ of Capital Representation, Has Died
Mar 11, 2022
Marty McClain, a Florida capital defense lawyer who represented the state’s death-row prisoners for more than 30 years, died March 7, 2022 at the age of 67. McClain was a towering presence in Florida capital litigation, representing more than 300 death-sentenced petitioners in post-conviction appeals before the Florida Supreme Court. He was responsible for the exonerations of multiple innocent death-row prisoners, including Juan Roberto Melendez, and is credited with leading efforts to eliminate the electric chair as Florida’s primary execution method. His advocacy for Terrance Phillips McClain, a Black capital defendant sentenced to death by Circuit Judge Mark Hulsey, who reportedly said Blacks should “go back to Africa,” led to Hulsey’s resignation from the bench.
McClain received accolades from colleagues, as well as judges who presided over his cases. Former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Barbara Pariente told The News Service of Florida, “Marty McClain, in my view, set the gold standard for advocacy for Death Row inmates.” Former Florida Supreme Court Justice James E.C. Perry called McClain “the best I’ve seen.” “He was compassionate and he cared about it and he was prepared and he was not afraid to push the envelope,” Perry said. “He was creative and on point as it relates to the law. He’s one of the few attorneys whose names I remember. I’m telling you the truth. You see them. They come and go. But Marty McClain, he was an icon. He’s a loss to the whole justice system and the legal system.”
Todd Scher, a fellow death-penalty lawyer, called McClain a “passionate advocate for his clients and for the cause of exposing injustice and unfairness in the criminal justice system.” He wrote, “In the world of capital litigation, Marty was and will forever be a titan, a peerless mentor.”