THIS MONTH FROM DEATH ROW: APRIL 2021
In 2021’s third consecutive month without an execution anywhere in the U.S., there were some notable moments. This is what happened this month.
THE IMPORTANT MOMENTS
04/03, Oklahoma — Derrick Laday was sentenced to death despite Laday being confident about being able to convince a jury while representing himself in court. Laday was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Dennis Johnson Jr. in Oklahoma city in 2015.
04/05, Texas — A trial court judge in Texas agreed to move Ramiro Felix Gonzales’s execution from April 20th to November 17th. The order was officially entered and Quintin Jones became the next person scheduled for execution in the state of Texas
04/05, Mississippi — A judge allowed Mississippi death row inmate David Neal Cox to waive his future appeals and request an execution date. The state has not executed an inmate since 2012 when Gary Simmons was executed in Sunflower County. The decision came after Cox was determined to be mentally competent for execution just a few days earlier. Cox was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2010 fatal shooting of his former wife. It is now up to the state to decide when they plan to execute him.
04/06, Arizona — Attorney General Mark Brnovich of Arizona filed motions of the state’s intent to seek execution warrants for two inmates on the state’s death row, Clarence Wayne Dixon and Frank Jarvis Atwood. Since both Dixon’s and Atwood’s crimes, the ones they were sentenced to death for, occurred before 1992, they are both eligible to elect lethal gas as an execution method. No one has been executed in the state of Arizona since 2014 when the execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood took a total of 2 hours. Along with that, no one has been executed by lethal gas since 1999 when Walter LaGrand, a German national, was executed in Arizona’s gas chamber. After the A.D.C.R.R. (Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry) acquired the execution drugs used in its newly revised lethal injection protocol, they did also mention that the gas chamber is ready to use.
04/08, Pennsylvania — The P.A.D.O.C. (Pennsylvania Department of Corrections) scheduled the execution for Paul Gamboa Taylor for May 14th. The state of Pennsylvania is currently under a governor-imposed moratorium by Governor Tom Wolf. The state also hasn’t executed an inmate since 1999 when Gary Heidnik was executed by lethal injection. For those reasons, it is highly unlikely that Taylor will be executed when May 14th comes around.
04/09, Tennessee — The reprieve of execution for death row inmate Pervis Payne expired. Payne was originally scheduled for execution on December 3rd of last year but was granted a reprieve by Governor Bill Lee less than a month before. Payne’s case has gained millions of supporters, from the U.S. and internationally, as he has claims of intellectual disability and innocence ever since he was sentenced to death. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a mother and her child in 1987. Recent DNA testing showed that the DNA of an unidentified male suspect was also at the scene. It was clear to see that people all over social media didn’t understand the meaning of a “reprieve.” People were claiming that Payne has been scheduled for execution on the 9th, however, this was false. A reprieve of execution, in the state of Tennessee at least, means that an execution cannot be scheduled or be carried out for an inmate until it expires.
04/09, Ohio — Governor MikeDeWine granted reprieves to the three remaining men that were scheduled for execution this year, Timothy Hoffner, John Stumpf, and Lawrence Landrum. All of their executions were rescheduled to different times in 2024. DeWine has stated last December that there will not be another execution in Ohio until lawmakers agree on an alternate execution method to lethal injection, ad the state doesn’t have its authorized drugs for it. It is not at high legislative priority, so it doesn’t look like it will be happening anytime soon.
04/13, Nevada — A.B. 395, or the death penalty repeal bill, passed the Nevada State Assembly in a 26–16 vote. The bill has been passed on to the state Senate Judiciary Committee. Clark County prosecutors are still pushing for the execution of Zane Floyd. Whether efforts to pass the bill and sign it into law clash with this, we may find out soon.
04/14, Nevada — Clark County prosecutors formally requested an execution warrant for Zane Floyd on the 14th. No further movement on the bill was made, neither did any action with moving forward with Floyd’s execution take place.
04/15, Wyoming — After being sentenced to life without parole in 2014, Dale Eaton may be headed back to death row after a mental evaluation to determine if he is mentally competent for the death penalty. The mental evaluation is expected to last 30 days in a hospital in Evanston, Wyoming. Eaton was the last death row prisoner in Wyoming before he had his sentence commuted.
04/15, Montana — The Montana State Senate voted in opposition to H.B. 244, which is a bill that would allow the state to resume executions after a judge ruled a drug used in the original execution drug protocol cannot be used in 2015. The bill was made to comply with this order. The state of Montana hasn’t executed an inmate since 2006.
04/19, Supreme Court — The first out of two dates in which the Supreme Court decided petitions for a writ of certiorari for death row inmates around the country. The following death row prisoners exhausted their appeals on the 19th:
- Freddie Owens (South Carolina)
- Tony Bakersdale (Alabama)
- Peter Capote (Alabama)
Freddie Owens became the third person on South Carolina death row to exhaust their appeals, along with Brad Sigmon and Richard Moore, who were both scheduled for execution in the recent months. Both were spared from execution because of a lethal injection drug shortage in the state. The following death row prisoners were not included on the order list and had their petition decision date rescheduled:
- David Martinez (Arizona)
- Frederick Whatley (Georgia)
- James Calvert (Texas)
04/22, Arizona — Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich requested a bid hearing to schedule the execution of death row inmate Frank Atwood. Atwood’s lawyers responded, stating, “There are too many unresolved problems with Frank Atwood’s case for the state to single him out for an execution date…The Court should put the brakes on this to prevent a miscarriage of justice.” Atwood’s execution could happen in as little as two months and he may be the first person executed in the state of Arizona in nearly seven years.
04/26, Supreme Court — The second and final date in which the Supreme Court of the United States decided petitions for a writ of certiorari for death row prisoners around the country. The following death row prisoners exhausted their appeals on the 26th:
- Leon Tollette (Georgia)
- Kosoul Chanthakoummane (Texas)
The following death row prisoners were not included on the order list and had their petition decision date rescheduled:
- Anthony Hines (Tennessee)
- James Calvert (Texas)
Rodney Berryman Sr. from California was included on the order list. Berryman exhausted his appeals last February but asked for a rehearing in the Supreme Court. This was, however, denied.
04/26, Texas — The Texas Department of Criminal Justice amended its execution protocol to permit a spiritual advisor in the execution chamber during an execution. This was similar to Alabama’s execution protocol amendment in March after the state was prohibited from executing Willie B. Smith, III in February by the Supreme Court due to religious freedom problems. Smith was granted a preliminary injunction because of Alabama’s execution protocol not permitting a spiritual advisor in the execution chamber during an execution. Since then, Smith’s execution date has not been reset.
04/26, Tennessee — The Tennessee House of Representatives passed H.B. 1062, which is a bill that would create a system to allow inmates on Tennessee death row to litigate mental illness claims in court, in a huge 89–4 vote. This bill was filed after the legislation turned down a similar bill. The bill may be crucial to Pervis Payne’s case. Payne was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering a woman and her child in 1987. Payne and his attorneys, however, claim that he didn’t commit it. Payne was originally scheduled to be executed on December 3rd of last year but was granted a reprieve less than a month before. That reprieve expired on the 19th and since then a new execution date hasn’t been set. Even with millions of supporters around the country calling for his exoneration, Payne remains on Tennessee death row until further action happens.
04/28, South Carolina — The South Carolina House Judiciary Committee, in a 13–9 vote, passed H.B. 3755. The bill, if signed into law by Governor Henry McMaster, would replace the primary method of execution in the state with electrocution if the state doesn’t have the lethal injection drugs in their execution protocol. An amendment to the bill would also add firing squad as an alternate method to electrocution. This bill came after Richard Moore and Brad Sigmon were spared from execution because of the execution drug shortage in the state. The state would have to force inmates on death row to choose between the electric chair or firing squad to be executed if lethal injection is not available. If the bill passes, Governor McMaster has said that he will sign anything that comes to his desk. For the firing squad, the Department of Corrections would have to decide how to carry it out due to the fact of there being no specifics to the amendment. However, lawmakers have said that it would be carried out similar to the execution of Gary Gilmore in 1977 in Utah.
APRIL’S EXECUTION SCHEDULE
April 8: Black, Byron
- State: Tennessee
- Result: STAYED (No further information given)
April 20: Gonzales, Ramiro Felix
- State: Texas
- Result: RESCHEDULED (Granted by a trial court judge in West Livingston on April 5, 2021. Rescheduled to Nov. 17, 2021)
April 21: Jones, Elwood Hubert
- State: Ohio
- Result: REPRIEVED (Granted by Governor Mike DeWine on Dec. 18, 2020. Rescheduled to Dec. 6, 2023)
MAY’S EXECUTION SCHEDULE
May 14: Taylor, Paul Gamboa
- State: Pennsylvania
- Outcome: PENDING
May 19: Jones, Quintin
- State: Texas
- Outcome: PENDING
May 26: Martin, David
- State: Ohio
- Outcome: STAYED (Granted by the Ohio Supreme Court on April 8, 2021, pending “exhaustion of all state post-conviction proceedings, including any appeals.”)
May 27: Lott, Gregory
- State: Ohio
- Outcome: REPRIEVED (Granted by Governor Mike DeWine on Dec. 18, 2020. Rescheduled to Feb. 15, 2024)
