In South Carolina, executions are on hold until at least February, when the supreme court will hold a hearing over a lawsuit filed by four people on death row who argue that electrocution and firing squad are unconstitutional methods of execution, WIS10 reports. The state’s default method of execution is the electric chair but offers the option of a firing squad or lethal injection if the drugs are available, according to the station. The lawsuit was filed after the state Department of Corrections announced it had lethal injection drugs and was ready to resume state killing. But because the announcement came after the legislature passed a shield law protecting the identities of those supplying the drugs or participating in an execution, defense attorneys, death penalty opponents, and many on death row asked for more information about the drugs.
In Oklahoma, the Pardon and Parole Board voted to recommend clemency for Phillip Dean Hancock, who is scheduled to be killed by the state on November 30, the Muskogee Phoenix reports. Hancock has maintained he acted in self-defense when he killed Robert Jett, Jr., and James Lynch in Oklahoma City in 2001. The board’s 3-2 decision came after it heard testimony from Hancock, his lawyers, and two state legislators, Kevin McDugle and Justin Humphrey, who support clemency, and from the victims’ family members, who do not, according to the Phoenix. The decision of whether to grant clemency now lies with Gov. Kevin Stitt, who has granted clemency only once during his tenure, to Julius Jones in 2021.
In Texas, Syed Rabbani, a Bangladeshi national who has been on death row since 1988 for a shooting in Houston, was resentenced to life with parole earlier this month, the Texas Tribune reports. Harris County District Attorney’s Post-Conviction Writ Division Chief Joshua Reiss told a district court judge his office would not pursue the death penalty because of what Reiss told the court was “a due process disaster,” according to the Tribune. Rabbani’s appeal, first filed in 1994, was lost for almost 30 years before being discovered last year. It was one of more than 100 similar appeals filed, but his was the only one lost. Now 58 and diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, as well as several other medical conditions that have left him in a vegetative state, Rabbani is eligible for parole based on time served, the Tribune reports.
In Idaho, Thomas Creech, on death row longer than any other person in the state’s history, filed a challenge to his death sentence earlier this month with the state Supreme Court, KTVB7 News reports. According to the station, Creech’s lawyers argue that his death sentence was unconstitutional because it was handed down by a judge and not a jury. In 2003, Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne signed into law a bill that calls for juries to sentence defendants in capital cases, and Creech’s lawyers argue that his execution violates the new law. The 73-year-old Creech was initially sentenced to death for killing two people in 1974 but was resentenced to life in prison. He was accused of killing another imprisoned person in 1981 and was sentenced to death. His attorneys are also asking for a full clemency hearing, noting that the “judge who put Thomas Creech on Death Row doesn’t think he should be executed, and neither do many prison officials who respect the man that Creech has become during his 40 years behind bars.
In Philadelphia in 1988, Walter Ogrod was convicted of killing his four-year-old neighbor, Barbara Jean Horn. He was sentenced to death in 1996. It took four years for police to arrest Ogrod; there was no physical evidence or eyewitness identification linking him to the crime, and Ogrod, who has autism, signed a 16-page confession after being interrogated for 14 hours without an attorney present. His death sentence was handed down in his second trial; his first trial in 1993 ended in a mistrial. But because the case reeked of injustice, Ogrod had influential people who believed in him. Among them was Thomas Lowenstein, whose book, The Trials of Walter Ogrod, we wrote about in 2017. Lowenstein never stopped believing in Ogrod, and he got others involved in the case, including Peter Neufeld, one of the co-founders of the Innocence Project, who told Lowenstein, “It is the most textbook case of a false confession I’ve ever seen.” Their faith was rewarded in 2020 when Ogrod’s conviction was overturned after DNA evidence proved he didn’t kill Barbara Jean, and he was released. Finally, earlier this month, Ogrod settled his wrongful conviction lawsuit against the City of Philadelphia and was awarded a little over $9 million, CBS News reported. “Walt getting his [his money] definitely puts the finishing touches on his happy ending,” Lowenstein told DPF after the settlement.
