Ohio | Execution Vacated for Elwood Jones Ahead of December 6, 2023

Elwood Hubert Jones was scheduled to be executed at 10 am local time, on Wednesday, December 6, 2023. His execution date has been vacated pending retrial. 71-year-old Elwood was convicted of murdering 67-year-old Rhoda Nathan in the Embassy Suites Hotel in Blue Ash, Ohio. Elwood spent 26 years on Ohio’s death row before being released on bond, pending a new trial.

At the time of the murder, Elwood Jones was employed by Embassy Suites Hotel in Blue Ash, Ohio.

On September 2, 1994, Elaine Schub, Joe Kaplan, and Rhoda Nathan, all checked into a room at the Embassy Suites Hotel. They had come to town to celebrate a bar mitzvah. Elaine and Joe got up early the following day to go for a complimentary breakfast in a banquet room, however, Rhoda stayed in the hotel room for some more sleep. Joe took the only room key for the group and made sure the door was locked before leaving the room around 7:28 am.

40 minutes later Joe and Elaine returned to the room. Rhoda’s nude body was lying on the floor. Further investigation revealed that she had suffered severe head trauma. Elaine, who had left her purse in the room during breakfast, discovered that money was missing from her wallet. Elaine also notices that Rhoda was missing a pendent necklace that she always wore. It was a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry made by Rhoda’s late husband.

Rhoda was pronounced dead later that day and police quickly began investigating, narrowing down their suspects to 3 hotel workers who had prior criminal histories. 2 of the suspects were cleared through further investigation. Elwood “Butch” Jones, was the 3rd suspect identified by the police. Further investigation revealed that Jones had injured his hand on the day of Rhoda’s murder, later filing for worker’s compensation benefits. After subpoenaing and receiving medical records, the police spoke to a physician who treated Jones. The physician confirmed that Jones’ hand injury appeared to be a “fist-to-mouth,” type injury.

Police went to the home of Earlene Metcalfe, Jones’ girlfriend, who was also listed as a witness to the hand injury. Both agreed to be questioned by the police. Once at the station, Jones was read his Miranda rights and signed a waiver form. Jones confirmed that he and Earlene arrived at work on September 3, around 5 am. Upon arriving, Jones signed out a hotel master key and began helping his girlfriend. Around 6 am, Jones went to the second floor of the hotel to clean banquet rooms. Jones claimed that around that time he slipped on some steps outside, cutting his left hand, while taking out some trash.

Jones forcefully claimed that he spent from 6:30 am to 8 am that day working the complimentary breakfast area. Jones also denied entering room 237 that day. When police asked if he was involved in the murder, Jones asked to speak to an attorney. Meanwhile, Earlene agreed to have police search her residence. Police also obtained a warrant to search the vehicle owned by Jones. Inside a toolbox in Jones’ car, police found the unique pendant that belonged to Rhoda and a master key to the hotel. The evidence was sent for testing and after the results came back, police arrested Jones.

Jones was charged and convicted of the murder of Rhoda Nathan, and sentenced to death. Jones had previously received at least 1 other execution date of April 21, 2021. That execution was delayed to December 6, 2023, due to ongoing problems obtaining execution drugs in the state of Ohio.

Elwood Jones has always maintained his innocence of the crime that sent him to death row. In 2022, Elwood was granted a new trial. At a hearing to determine if Elwood should be granted a new trial, his attorney presented 4,000 pages of evidence that was withheld by prosecutors during his initial trial. Additionally, in the years since the crime, another person has confessed to carrying out the murder, however, that person’s confession is considered unreliable due to mental illness. A guest staying at the hotel the morning of Rhonda’s murder has also come forward and testified that they saw a man with a light complexion sprinting from the scene of the crime that morning. Elwood has a dark complexion.

After being granted a new trial, Elwood has been released from prison on an unsecured bond, with an electronic monitoring device. He must report bi-weekly to the Hamilton Country Probation Department for random drug screens. Hamilton County prosecutors have opposed his release. His trial is currently scheduled to occur in 2024.

Source: theforgivenessfoundation.org, Staff, November 29, 2023

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South Carolina executes Mikal Mahdi

Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year. Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier. According to a statement from the prison, "the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT)," with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later.

Afghanistan | Four men publicly executed by Taliban with relatives of victims shooting them 'six or seven times' at sport stadium

Four men have been publicly executed by the Taliban, with relatives of their victims shooting them several times in front of spectators at a sport stadium. Two men were shot around six to seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Afghanistan's Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city. The men had been 'sentenced to retaliatory punishment' for shooting other men, after their cases were 'examined very precisely and repeatedly', the statement said. 'The families of the victims were offered amnesty and peace but they refused.'

USA | Why the firing squad may be making a comeback

South Carolina plans to execute Mikal Mahdi on Friday for the murder of a police officer, draping a hood over his head and firing three bullets into his heart. The choice to die by firing squad – rather than lethal injection or the electric chair – was Mahdi’s own, his attorney said last month: “Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils.” If it proceeds, Mahdi’s execution would be the latest in a recent string of events that have put the spotlight on the firing squad as a handful of US death penalty states explore alternatives to lethal injection, by far the nation’s dominant execution method.

I spent 16 years in solitary in South Carolina. This is what it did to me. | Opinion

South Carolinian Randy Poindexter writes about the effects 16 years of solitary confinement had on him ahead of South Carolina’s planned execution of Mikal Mahdi , who spent months in solitary as a young man. For 16 years, I lived in a concrete cell. Twenty-three hours a day, every day, for more than 3,000 days, South Carolina kept me in solitary confinement. I was a young man before I was sent to solitary — angry, untreated and unwell. I made mistakes. But I wasn’t sentenced to madness. That’s what solitary did to me. My mental health worsened with each passing day. At first, paranoia and depression set in. Then, hallucinations and self-mutilation. I talked to people who weren’t there. I cut myself to feel something besides despair. I could do nothing as four of my friends and fellow prisoners took their own lives rather than endure another day of torturous isolation.

Florida executes Michael Tanzi

Florida on Tuesday executed a death row inmate described by one local detective as a "fledgling serial killer" for the murder of a beloved Miami Herald employee. Florida executed Michael Tanzi on Tuesday, 25 years after the murder of beloved Miami Herald employee Janet Acosta, who was attacked in broad daylight on her lunch break in 2000. Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford and pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET.

South Carolina | Man who ambushed off-duty cop to face firing squad in second execution of its kind

Mikal Mahdi, 48, who was found guilty of killing an off-duty police officer and a convenience store worker, is the second inmate scheduled to executed by South Carolina's new firing squad A murderer who ambushed and shot an off duty police officer eight times before burning his body in a killing spree is set to become the second person to die by firing squad. South Carolina's highest court has rejected the last major appeal from Mikal Mahdi, 41, who is to be put to death with three bullets to the heart at 6pm on April 11 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Mahdi's lawyers said his original lawyers put on a shallow case trying to spare his life that didn't call on relatives, teachers or people who knew him and ignored the impact of weeks spent in solitary confinement in prison as a teen.

Louisiana | Lawyers of Jessie Hoffman speak about their final moments before execution

As Louisiana prepared its first execution in 15 years, a team of lawyers from Loyola Law were working to save Jessie Hoffman’s life. “I was a young lawyer three years out of law school, and Jessie was almost finished with his appeals at that time, and my boss told me we needed to file something for Jessie because he’s in danger of being executed,” Kappel said. Kappel and her boss came up with a civil lawsuit to file that said since they wouldn’t give him a protocol for his execution, he was being deprived of due process, and the lawsuit was in the legal process for the next 10 years.

Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away. The curtain shrieked as it was yanked open to reveal a 67-year-old man tied to a chair. His arms were pulled uncomfortably behind his back. The red bull’s-eye target on his chest rose and fell as he desperately attempted to still his breathing. The man, Brad Sigmon, smiled at his attorney, Bo King, seated in the front row before guards placed a black bag over his head. King said Sigmon appeared to be trying his best to put on a brave face for those who had come to bear witness.

Arizona | The cruelty of isolation: There’s nothing ‘humane’ about how we treat the condemned

On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones.

Execution date set for prisoner transferred to Oklahoma to face death penalty

An inmate who was transferred to Oklahoma last month to face the death penalty now has an execution date. George John Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is scheduled to die on June 12 for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday set the execution date. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board has a tentative date of May 7 for Hanson’s clemency hearing, executive director Tom Bates said.

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