Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 22:51:49 EDT From: McClearyE@aol.com Subject: Fwd: FW: Upcoming Arizona execution 11/8/00 To:Please excuse double postings.....
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 09:03:26 -0700 From: Ann Nichols <Ann.Nichols@asu.edu> Subject: FW: Upcoming Arizona execution 11/8/00 To:
CAADP Alert List:
The clemency hearing for Don Miller has been scheduled for Tuesday, November 7 at 8:30 am. It takes place at the prison (Rynning Unit, in Florence) and is open to the public.
There will be a Tucson demonstration on Tuesday, 11/7, from 4:30-6:00 pm at Speedway & Euclid. The Phoenix demonstration will take place noon-1 pm Wednesday 11/8 on the Capitol Mall.
The vigil at the prison grounds will begin at 2 pm on Wednesday 11/8.
For more information about these observances, call Ann Nichols at (520) 884-5507 ext. 12.
Julie Hall, on of Don Miller's attorneys, says that he has struggled with depression all his life, and increasingly repressive prison conditions have contributed to his decision to let his appeals go. She points out that there are issues related to prosecutorial misconduct which have not been heard by any court, but unless Don changes his mind, he will be executed November 8.
-----Original Message----- From: Rick Halperin [mailto:rhalperi@POST.CIS.SMU.EDU] Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2000 8:21 AM
ARIZONA:----impending execution//volunteer
Unless the killer calls it off, Arizona will execute Donald Miller next month for the 1992 murder of an 18-year-old Tucson woman.
Miller decided not to continue the appeals process in federal court, authorities said, but he can change his mind at any time before the lethal injection is administered at 3 p.m. on Nov. 8.
"Even after he is on the table, with the I.V.s attached, all he has to do is say, 'No, I'm not going,' and everything stops," said Camilla Strongin, a Department of Corrections spokeswoman. "It's up to him."
Jennifer Geuder was an honors student who graduated from Sunnyside High School in 1991. Jose Anthony Luna, the father of her 6-month-old son, arranged her murder after she asked for $50 a month in child support.
Luna and Miller took the victim to a drive-in movie on June 12, 1992, then stopped by Miller's home to get his .25-caliber handgun. They drove to Mount Lemmon, where Luna shot the young mother once in the back of the head.
Geuder didn't die, though. The men took her to a desert area east of Tucson, where Miller shot her 5 more times and yanked out clumps of her auburn hair.
Luna pleaded guilty to 1st-degree murder and is serving a sentence of at least 39 years. 2 years were added to his sentence after he escaped from prison in 1996. He surrendered a week after he climbed a razor-wire fence at the Tucson prison complex on South Houghton Road.
The Arizona Supreme Court issued a death warrant in September for Miller after he exhausted his state appeals, said Kent Cattani, chief of the death penalty appeals unit in the Arizona Attorney General's Office.
"He had filed a preliminary notice for post-conviction relief, but he didn't pursue it," Cattani said. "That deadline passed without him filing anything, and he expressly indicated that he didn't intend to file anything."
The execution will be stayed if Miller decides he wants to exercise any of his existing options at the federal level, Cattani said.
Said Strongin: "He's got federal appeals left, but he's already made it clear to us that he's not going to exercise them."
Miller, 37, would be the 1st Arizona inmate put to death since Patrick Poland was executed on March 15.
Arizona has 120 people on death row, and Miller would be the 22nd inmate executed since the state resumed capital punishment in 1992.
(source: Arizona Daily Star)
Rick Halperin AI-Texas