CHRISTY ANN FORNOFF -13 yo-(1984) Phoenix AZ

Arizona inmate set to die this week wants stay


May 22, 2011
PHOENIX — Lawyers for an inmate set to be executed this week want the Arizona Supreme Court to withdraw his death warrant because the justices toured death row and met with prison officials.
Court papers filed Sunday also ask the entire five-member high court to step away from the case and appoint a panel of judges to hear Donald Beaty's appeals.
Beaty's lawyers wrote in their court filing that Chief Justice Rebecca White Berch and Justice Andrew Hurwitz met with Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan last month to discuss execution scheduling and protocols. Four justices toured two prisons and the death chamber May 10.
Defense lawyers say they were not invited and found out about the visits from Beaty. They argue the visits and discussions were improper because the justices were considering their client's case at the time, and defense attorneys were not allowed to participate. Lawyers for the state were notified of the meetings.
The court filings call the meetings "ex parte communications" that are barred under court rules because judges are expected to rule only on information in the formal record. Defense attorneys argue the justices should recuse themselves from the case to avoid an appearance of impropriety.
Supreme Court spokeswoman Jennifer Liewer declined to comment, saying the high court does not discuss pending matters.
The state's top death penalty prosecutor, Kent Cattani, said in an email Sunday that there was no improper communication between the judges and Ryan because Ryan is not a party to the case. He said the discussions between Ryan and Berch were to go over scheduling and were not improper communications. Cattani said Ryan requested that executions be scheduled for midweek to minimize overtime.
"Accordingly, Beaty's allegations of ex-parte contacts are baseless," he wrote.
Beaty, now 56, was convicted in the 1984 rape and murder of 13-year-old Christy Ann Fornoff, a case that riveted the Phoenix area.
The girl was killed while she was collecting on her newspaper route at an apartment complex where Beaty lived and worked.
Late last week, federal public defenders filed a lawsuit accusing the Arizona Corrections Department of violating the state public records law by withholding requested records on the acquisition of execution drugs.
They argued in a court filing Thursday that they need the records "to pursue appropriate remedies" to the department's "potentially unlawful behavior. The public defenders asked for quick consideration of the lawsuit but a judge denied that motion Friday without comment.
Beaty's attorneys then filed a new appeal Friday, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block his execution.
Daniel Barr, a lawyer representing the public defenders office, said it wasn't immediately clear what would happen next in the records lawsuit.
The office's suit asked that the department be ordered to produce the requested records, which include communications with federal agencies and a customs broker. The defender's office, which represents death row inmates, contends Arizona may have illegally imported at least one execution drug.
State officials previously said they've acted legally in obtaining and using execution drugs.
Courts have permitted two Arizona executions since October despite defense lawyers' arguments that the state's supply of execution drugs may not work properly.
The state Supreme Court on Thursday refused to block Beaty's scheduled execution as it denied his appeal over claims of ineffective representation in his sentencing and in later proceedings.
Beaty's attorneys renewed that argument Friday in the appeal filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. It claimed that Beaty was denied effective representation at key points in his case. Beaty already has an appeal pending with the federal high court that challenges the death penalty on religious grounds.
The appeal argued Beaty had the constitutional right to effective representation in post-conviction proceedings in trial court. They argued Beaty's attorneys did not present evidence during his sentencing hearing that he suffers from a brain impairment and was abused as a child.
A Corrections Department spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment Sunday evening.

http://azstarnet.com/article_92ac61a4-84e0-11e0-918c-001cc4c03286.html

Arizona inmate put to death by lethal injection

May. 25, 2011


FLORENCE - An emotional Donald Beaty used his last words to apologize to the family of his victim, 13-year-old Christy Ann Fornoff, moments before he was put to death by lethal injection Wednesday at Arizona State Prison Complex-Florence.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Beaty, 56, said, his lips quivering as he lay on the death gurney awaiting the injection of a lethal three-drug cocktail. "God will let you see her again."
Beaty was convicted of the 1984 murder in Tempe of the young Phoenix Gazette newspaper carrier. After he died, Fornoff's family could be seen hugging and consoling each other.

"We are here to bring closure to the loss of our beloved daughter and sister, Christy Ann Fornoff," the victim's mother, Carol, said in a statement she read after the execution. "Her life was not in vain. Even in death, she has brought light to the darkness of evil that surrounded her when she was murdered."
Beaty was pronounced dead at 7:38 p.m., more than nine hours after his execution had initially been scheduled. When the lethal drugs were injected, Beaty almost immediately appeared to go sleep, letting out a large yawn.
Beaty's execution had been delayed for most of the day Wednesday as his defense team tried to challenge the Arizona Department of Corrections' decision to substitute pentobarbital for sodium thiopental in the state's execution-drug formula.
Eight hours of legal debate took place in three cities - Phoenix, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco - before appeals were exhausted and final preparations were made for the execution.
In arguing for a stay, Beaty's attorneys said more time was needed to determine if the last-minute drug substitution, which was announced late Tuesday, would infringe on Beaty's constitutional rights or constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
They also suggested that corrections officials should have taken more time to train executioners in the use of pentobarbital, since it was not a part of the state's existing execution-drug protocol. One filing called the last-minute change "unconscionable."
Those arguments were first made before the Arizona Supreme Court on Wednesday morning, but the state's high court rejected them several hours later after meeting on the matter behind closed doors. Rejections continued throughout the afternoon: first in U.S. District Court, then twice at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected two other legal arguments put forth to block the execution.
Final decision


In the end, the courts recognized the state's right to substitute pentobarbital for thiopental. One judge noted during oral arguments that pentobarbital already had been reviewed by other courts and approved for executions.
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, meanwhile, called the daylong delay a "slap in the face" to the Fornoff family.
By 6 p.m., however, prison officials were cleared to proceed with the execution after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider further appeals.
Disappearance


Fornoff disappeared on the evening of May 9, 1984, while collecting money on her newspaper-delivery route at a Tempe apartment complex. Her mother, who was accompanying her, had let her out of her sight just long enough to chat with a neighbor, and within hours, police were combing the complex with canine units as Fornoff's parents and neighbors knocked on doors.
Two days later, Beaty, the complex's maintenance man, was seen standing over Fornoff's body, which had been wrapped in a sheet and laid next to a garbage bin. Beaty told the man who saw him that he had just found the body and had already called police.
But his story didn't add up. He had not called police when he said he did, for example. He was arrested May 22, 1984, and charged with murder and sexual assault.
Evidence linked Beaty to the crime. Fornoff's vomit was found in his closet, along with hairs that matched hairs found on the body.
Beaty's first trial ended in a hung jury, but during his second trial, prosecutors learned that a psychiatrist had been overheard saying that Beaty had confessed to the murder. Prosecutors took the matter to the Arizona Court of Appeals to overrule the doctor-patient privilege that would ordinarily attach to conversations between Beaty and the psychiatrist. The doctor was ordered to testify.
On the stand, he testified that Beaty had not intended to kill the girl, but had put his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams and she suffocated on her own vomit. Beaty was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Finally at peace


Beaty was fed a last meal Tuesday night of a chimichanga, a double cheeseburger with fries, ice cream and a Diet Pepsi.
Afterward, he was transported from the state's death row at the Eyman Complex to a holding cell at ASPC-Florence. He wasn't taken to the death chamber to prepare for his lethal injection until early Wednesday evening.
After Beaty was pronounced dead, the Fornoff family stood together before the media and said they felt at peace with the outcome. But the Fornoffs also said that, in hindsight, they do not condone the death penalty. When their daughter was murdered, a sentence of life without parole was not a legal option.
"We pray for the family of Donald Beaty, as they too have suffered through the years," Carol Fornoff said.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/pinal/articles/2011/05/24/20110524arizona-supreme-court-stops-execution-donald-beaty.html#ixzz1OAWcsAdv