Oklahoma executes man for role in 2005 quadruple slaying

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma executed a man Thursday for his role in a quadruple slaying in 2005.

Gilbert Ray Postelle, 35, received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was declared dead by prison officials at 10:14 a.m. It was Oklahoma’s fourth execution since October, when the state resumed lethal injections following a nearly seven-year hiatus.

During a clemency hearing in December, Postelle did not deny his involvement in the Memorial Day 2005 shooting deaths of James Alderson, Terry Smith, Donnie Swindle and Amy Wright. But Postelle’s attorney, Robert Nance, argued that his client suffered from a learning disability, the abandonment of his mother at a young age and had begun abusing methamphetamine on a nearly daily basis beginning at age 12.

“He’s a different man than he was,” Nance told the Pardon and Parole Board. “I think he needs a certain amount of forgiveness because he grew up in an environment that was almost exclusively negative.”

Postelle himself also testified via video link from the prison that he had been using meth for days before the killings and remembered little about the crimes.

“I do understand that I’m guilty and I accept that,” he said. “There’s nothing more that I know to say to you all than I am truly sorry for what I’ve done to all these families.”

Prosecutors say Postelle, his brother David Postelle, father Brad Postelle and another man carried out the killings in a “blitz attack” motivated by their belief that Swindle was responsible for a motorcycle accident that left Brad Postelle seriously injured. But prosecutors said there was no evidence that Swindle was involved in the crash.

Gilbert Postelle received two death sentences for the killings of Wright and Alderson after evidence showed he pursued the two as they were trying to flee and shot them from behind with a rifle.

“In her final moments, Amy Wright was screaming and clawing the ground to escape from Gilbert Postelle,” Assistant Attorney General Julie Pittman told the board.

The board also heard powerful testimony from one of the victim’s mothers, Mary Joe Swindle, who said she never got to see her son’s body because it was so riddled with bullets. The panel ultimately voted 4-1 to deny clemency for Postelle.

Oklahoma once had one of the busiest death chambers in the country, but all executions were put on hold in 2015 after a botched lethal injection in 2014 and drug mix-ups that led to one inmate being executed with the wrong drug. Another inmate was just moments away from being led to the death chamber before prison officials realized the same wrong drug had been delivered for his execution.

In 2020, Oklahoma’s then-Attorney General Mike Hunter said the state had secured a source of drugs, fine-tuned its lethal injection protocols and was prepared to resume executions using a three-drug combination that includes the sedative midazoloam, vecuronium bromide, a paralytic, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

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By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press Writer

from Courthouse News

A country of snitches

Today’s Republican Party’s model of government is the East German Stasi.

What else can we think when Virginia Governor Glenn the Great Pumpkin Youngkin sets up a state-supported snitch line for parents, students — anyone, anywhere — to report public schoolteachers for teaching about “divisive” “concepts.”

For instance: Slavery existed in this land for more years than it did not (1619-1863 v. 1863-2022).

Q: “Class, which is greater, or rather, larger: 244 years or 159 years?

A: “No, I’m sorry, José, 159 is greater than 244. So sit down and shut up.”

But as Plato wrote, we must “give the palm” (cough up some money) to snitches in Texas who inform on their neighbors — and daughters, wives, sons and cab drivers — who assist, in any way, a woman who seeks an abortion, even if she would die without it.

And Texans’ tax money pays the snitches $10,000 a pop for it. Great deal, Gov. Abbott: Break up families by giving them financial incentives to inform on one another.

Imagine this, Gov. Greg Sturmfűhrer: An abusive, alcoholic husband with five kids beats them and his wife almost religiously; then the wife gets pregnant again and contracts endometriosis, suffers terrible pain, needs operations to save her life, and the husband beats all five of his kids into turning their mom in to Greg Abbott for seeking an abortion, which, with the husband’s testimony, will net that dysfunctional family $60,000, minimum, from the state — tax money. $10,000 apiece for turning in their mom, and another $10,000 for the husband: Money for snitches, while their mother dies at the hands of their father.

It could happen. And this fine Texas dad could be rewarded for it.

Meanwhile, one of Gov. SnitchMeister’s Gruppenfűhrers, state Rep. Matt Krause, has demanded that Texas public schools tell him whether they have any of 850 books on his list that he thinks have no business in school libraries. 

Would it surprise you to know that virtually all of these books are by or about Black folks and other people of color, and/or mention sex, in any way at all? According to the Dallas Morning News: “Krause is refusing to give details about how he generated the list and what could happen to districts that carry the titles.”

Five-term Republican Krause, chairman of the Texas state House General Investigating Committee — in common parlance, Gruppenfűhrer — told the Morning News he “doesn’t believe he’s read any of the books” on his burn list, which include William Styron’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Confessions of Nat Turner,” Joseph Conrad’s classic “Heart of Darkness,” Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” (available anywhere you’ve got a TV), and nonfiction titles such as “The Legal Atlas of the United States,” and “Teen Legal Rights.”

One book series that already has been burned is — get ready for this — Harry Potter.

What’s next, Gruppenfűhrer Krause? Should we prevent middle- and high-school teachers from whispering about Art. 1, Sec. 2, of the U.S. Constitution, which counts Black slaves as “three fifths” of a person?

Should we prohibit teaching Article 1, Section 2, in public schools, Herr Gruppenfűhrer? It might make three-fifths of a Black child uncomfortable.

Gruppenfűhrer Krause, by the way, is a paid speaker for WallBuilders, which is “educating the nation concerning the Godly foundation of our country’ and providing information to elected officials ‘as they develop public policies which reflect Biblical values.”

Good on ya, Gruppenfűhrer: Now, since you so godly and all, why’ntcha you g’wan out there and slay them damn Democrats with the jawbone of an ass. Or is you doing that already?

But snitching on neighbors and strangers is not the Republicans’ only plan for turning the United States into a godly police state. The Party also wants to learn us (as Mark Twain would say) about their perverted “understanding” of history.

Consider Oklahoma House Bill 1775, which prohibits public schools from teaching that “one race is the unique oppressor in the institution of slavery” or that “another race is the unique victim in the institution of slavery.” 

Damn. Now our kids will never learn about all those horrible Black plantation owners who whipped their White slaves and made them pick cotton. Such a shame our kids might never learn about this.

Now let us consider (sigh) Florida, where Gov. Mini-Him is exerting all of his tiny brain power to pass a bill that, the Associated Press reported, would “prohibit public schools and private businesses from making white people feel ‘discomfort’ when they teach students or train employees about discrimination in the nation’s past.”

Wow. Talk about some white snowflakes.

Here’s a short quiz: 

Q: When did President Harry Truman desegregate the U.S. Armed Forces by executive order?

A: 1948.

Q: When did interracial marriage become legal in California?

A: 1948.

Q: Who were Emmett Till, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney?

A: Do tell.

Q: Where were the Nov. 2, 1920, Ocoee Election Day massacre, the 1923 Rosewood massacre, and Ax Handle Saturday of 1960; and, after Mississippi, which state had the most per capita lynchings of Black people from 1880 to 1940?

A: Florida, Florida, Florida, Florida.

Q: Feeling any “discomfort” yet, Gruppenfűhrer de Santiti? (Little governor-Nazi saint).

A: O yeah? So what?

But let’s get back to East Germany and the Stasi (born Feb. 8, 1950 — died Jan. 13, 1990). At its dissolution after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Stasi had 91,015 “regular employees” and 174,000 “informal employees,” aka snitches: i.e., nearly twice as many patriotic snitches as paid government snitches. The actual number of “informal” snitches was almost certainly far greater.

This seems to be Republicans’ notion of an ideal state. More than 20 million people work for our federal, state and local governments today. If the Sturmfűhrerspersuade enough of us to live down to the ideals of the Stasi, we could have more than 40 million snitches spying on us. In addition to Facebook.

Wouldn’t that be efficient? With all of us spying upon one another, lured by money and Patriotism merit badges, wouldn’t it help reduce the “government spending” the Republicans are always whining about? 

Did a seventh-grade social studies teacher say something “divisive”? Haul her in. Did she mention a dangerous “concept”? Fire her.

Did a cabbie or a Lyft driver drop a woman off at a Planned Parenthood office, and did her husband pick her up 90 minutes later and drive her home? Bust all of them, and cash in on it.

This is sick. This is perverted. “Family values” my ass.

from Courthouse News

Push to ban lawmakers from stock trading gets Pelosi’s nod

WASHINGTON (CN) — Calling on Democrats to study legislation that would ban lawmakers from trading stocks during their time in office, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday marked an about-face from her previous and public opposition to the idea.

Back in December, Pelosi responded to questions about her support for stock trading by noting that lawmakers should be able to participate in the free market.

Demonstrating a decisive shift in a press conference Wednesday morning, however, Pelosi announced an order for the House Administration Committee to review legislation on the issue being worked on by members of her party.

Scrutiny of politicians’ financial portfolios took new heights during the pandemic, fueled by timely stock trades that several lawmakers made after closed-door briefings in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Along with Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein of California, three Republicans, Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina and Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia and Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, all faced anticlimactic investigations into stocks they offloaded after a classified Covid-19 briefing at the start of the pandemic. The investigation of Burr lasted the longest but sputtered out this past January.

While the 2012 Stock Act placed some regulations on Congress members’ financial dealings, requiring disclosures and banning the use of insider information in trading, the act is rarely enforced and when it is, sanctions are often minimal.

In addition to new reforms, Pelosi said any legislation should include stronger fines for anyone found in violation of the Stock Act.

Pelosi herself has been the target of some public criticism. Although she does not hold stocks herself, her husband is a venture capitalist and investor with millions invested in the stock market.

The speaker made clear that she supports reform that would not only target lawmakers, but the judiciary as well.

“It has to be government-wide,” Pelosi said. “The third branch of government, the judiciary, has no reporting. The Supreme Court has no disclosure, it has no reporting of stock transactions and it makes important decisions every day. I do believe in the integrity of people in public service, I want the public to have that understanding. We have to do this to deter something that we see as a problem, but it is a confidence issue and if that’s what the members want to do, then that’s what we will do.”

Pelosi’s support comes as more than two dozen lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have called on congressional leadership to back reform.

While there has been some bipartisan support behind the push for sanctions on stock trading among lawmakers, there are several bills and proposals floating around Congress about how to do so.

Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat from Georgia, and Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, introduced legislation that would require lawmakers and family member to put stocks in a blind trust, where an independent trustee would be responsible for selling and buying on the market.

This measure has drawn support from Representative Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas, who co-sponsored a similar proposal with Democrat Representative Abigail Spanberger of Virginia early last year.

Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced a bill similar to the Ossoff0Kelly proposal, but that would not apply to lawmakers’ spouses or dependents.

Some Democrats are calling for stricter reforms that would ban lawmakers and their spouses from owning or trading individual stocks at all, only allowing them to hold diversified portfolios such as mutual funds.

Early Wednesday, Representative Andy Kim, a Democrat from New Jersey introduced a bill that would go beyond previous proposals, banning individual stock ownership among members of Congress, the executive and federal judges.

Democrats will need to sort through these proposals to draft legislation they can get support for in the 50-50 Senate.

“What we’re trying to build is consensus,” Pelosi said, noting that Democrats will announce a united proposal “pretty soon.”

from Courthouse News

Unemployment programs

Read the opinion here.

from Courthouse News

Cold snap tests Texas’ electric grid improvements

HOUSTON (CN) — Heaters are cranked up and fireplaces are crackling across Texas Thursday night with a polar front dropping temperatures into the teens.

Yet state officials have assured residents they will not see a repeat of February 2021 when Winter Storm Uri pushed the state’s electric grid to the brink of collapse, and set off widespread, lengthy blackouts that left 246 dead, according to the state’s official tally, more than 60%from hypothermia.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid manager, has issued a Winter Weather Watch through Feb. 6, but says it is well-positioned to handle a spike in demand.

The state’s grid had reserves of 6,784 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 1.3 million homes, as of 7:30 p.m. Thursday, according to ERCOT’s real-time data tracker.

Those reserves are sure to dwindle as the National Weather Service in Fort Worth has warned of hypothermia-inducing wind chills of -5 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit from Thursday night to Friday morning, and more than 5 inches of snow has fallen in Haskell, pop. 3,195, near the Oklahoma border.

“I just hope it’s not like last year. That was horrible,” a Houston court clerk was overheard telling a coworker Thursday afternoon.

Governor Greg Abbott has tried to tamp down Texans’ fears about another grid disaster.

The Republican governor is running for a third term this year and pundits say more blackouts like the ones a year ago that shut off the power in bitter cold temperatures to millions of Texas homes and businesses, some for as long as four days, could irrevocably damage his reelection bid.

In the fallout of Winter Storm Uri, state lawmakers passed legislation requiring the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which oversees ERCOT, with implementing new weatherization rules for power plant operators, and raised the maximum penalty for those who do not comply to $1 million per day.

The commission tasked ERCOT with inspecting the plants. And ERCOT on Jan. 18 filed a winter readiness report stating 321 out of 324 electric generation units and transmission facilities had fully passed the PUC’s new regulations.

Still, Abbott warned early this week that isolated outages will occur and early Thursday 70,000 Texas homes and businesses were without electricity due to heavy winds and downed trees damaging power lines.

The number of customers without power in Texas had fallen to around 24,000 around 8:30 p.m. Thursday, according to poweroutage.us.

And the governor says downed lines will be quickly repaired.

“More than 10,000 linemen are already on the ground to assist with power issues and almost 2,000 more linemen are being deployed from outside of the state. Governor Abbott has issued a disaster declaration for 17 counties most affected by the icy conditions. This includes waiving regulations to ensure these additional linemen can more rapidly make repairs to power lines,” his office said in a statement.

The Texas Division of Emergency Management says those who lose power can also seek refuge at one of 185 warming centers. It has an online map with info about each site.

Dozens of Texas school districts have canceled classes Friday as officials are warning people to stay off the roads.

Temperatures in the state are expected to rise from highs of 35 to 43 degrees on Friday to 41 to 53, with the lowest of those temps in the Dallas area.

And by Sunday McAllen, Texas, near the Mexico border, will reach a relatively balmy 61 degrees, according to AccuWeather meteorologists.

from Courthouse News

‘Tiger King’ resentenced to 21 years in murder-for-hire plot

OKLAHOMA CITY (CN) — Convicted “Tiger King” star Joe Exotic was resentenced Friday morning to 21 years in federal prison for trying to kill rival tiger enthusiast and docuseries co-star Carole Baskin, only a slight reduction from his original sentence of 22 years.

U.S. District Judge Scott L. Palk lowered the sentence of Exotic aka Joseph Maldonado-Passage, 58, during a two-hour sentencing hearing in Oklahoma City federal court.

Maldonado-Passage was originally convicted by a federal jury in 2019 on two courts of murder-for-hire, eight counts of violating the Lacey Act for falsifying wildlife records and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act. Jurors found he tried to hire an undercover FBI agent to kill Baskin for $10,000.

Palk, a Donald Trump appointee, considered each murder-for-hire count separately when he originally sentenced Maldonado-Passage to 22 years in federal prison. The 10^th Circuit disagreed on appeal, remanding the case back to Palk for resentencing after concluding last July the similar charges should be grouped together concurrently.

U.S. Circuit Judge Gregory Phillips, a Barack Obama appointee, wrote Baskin “was neither murdered multiple times nor assaulted multiple times” during Exotic’s scheme.

“Her harm was one sustained, ongoing harm,” the 22-page opinion stated. “She learned that Maldonado-Passage intended to have her killed and lived with that fear.”

The recalculation means Maldonado-Passage faced a new sentencing range of 20 to 22 years Friday.

The Denver-based appeals court ordered the remand in spite of voicing reluctance during oral arguments over how small the sentence adjustment would be.

“So two months is all we are talking about,” Phillips remarked during the January 2021 hearing.

Maldonado-Passage’s appellate attorney, Brandon Sample, disagreed and stated his hope the court would impose a range of 210 to 262 months instead of the trial judge’s range of 262 to 267 months.

“Hope springs eternal,” Phillips deadpanned, with the rest of the three-judge panel audibly laughing.

Calling himself the “Tiger King,” Maldonado-Passage gained a following on YouTube and local television with his flashy blond mullet and expletive-filled videos featuring wild animals. Along with Baskin, he became a star when Netflix released the “Tiger King” docuseries in 2020 that chronicled their years-long feud between his for-profit roadside zoo in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, and her tiger rescue sanctuary in Tampa, Florida.

Some of Maldonado-Passage’s highest-viewed YouTube videos feature him lip-synching to original country music songs about his animals and about Baskin, including one where he accuses her of killing her husband and feeding him to her tigers.

The murder-for-hire scheme was the result of Baskin’s $1 million trademark judgment against Maldonado-Passage over his use of her Big Cat Rescue name. Palk ultimately awarded Maldonado-Passage’s former 16.4-acre zoo property to Baskin in 2020 to partially satisfy that judgment. The judge ruled Maldonado-Passage had fraudulently transferred the land to his mother to shield it from Baskin.

Baskin reportedly sold the former zoo last June for $140,000 to two private buyers.

Maldonado-Passage and Baskin have remained in the headlines since the docuseries, with Netflix’s release of “Tiger King 2” and Peacock’s release of “Joe vs. Carole,” a limited series starring Kate McKinnon and John Cameron Mitchell as the title characters.

Maldonado-Passage has not remained idle behind bars, as he filed a $93 million federal civil lawsuit against the federal government soon after his conviction. He accused federal officials of being biased, homophobic and animal rights supporters in going after him.

He filed a separate lawsuit against the Justice Department in December 2020 after its refusal to directly present a pardon request to former President Trump during his final months in office. Trump had joked with reporters that he would “take a look” at pardoning Maldonaldo-Passage before the lawsuit was filed, but ultimately did not pardon him. Maldonado-Passage has since asked President Joe Biden for a pardon, calling his incarceration an “injustice.”

Maldonado-Passage is currently fighting prostate cancer behind bars. He was transferred to federal court Friday from Federal Medical Center Butner in North Carolina. His lawyers say he has delayed treatment in order to attend the hearing in person.

Baskin has remained active in civil court as well. She filed suit in Tampa federal court in November, demanding the producers of “Tiger King” not use footage she made in 2016 and 2018 for the show without a separate appearance release for “Tiger King 2.”

“Throughout the appearance releases, there is only reference to and mention of ‘the picture,’” the 21-page complaint stated. “No mention is made of granting Royal Goode Production sequel rights, rights to create derivative works from ‘the picture’ or additional seasons or episodes.”

This is a developing story…

from Courthouse News

Ex-EPA workers ask Virginia senators not to confirm Wheeler

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — More than 150 former Environmental Protection Agency employees urged the Virginia Senate on Friday to oppose the nomination of former EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler to GOP Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin’s cabinet.

Youngkin announced last week that he had selected Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist who led the EPA during the latter years of the Trump administration, to serve as Virginia’s secretary of natural resources, a similar state-level role. The announcement sparked an immediate backlash from the state’s conservation community, and many Democratic state senators have publicly announced their opposition.

Ex-EPA officials who worked under both Republican and Democratic administrations detailed their concerns to the Democrat-led chamber in the sharply worded letter, which was first shared with The Associated Press.

“As EPA Administrator, Mr. Wheeler pursued an extremist approach, methodically weakening EPA’s ability to protect public health and the environment, instead favoring polluters. Mr. Wheeler also sidelined science at the agency, ignored both agency and outside experts, rolled back rules to cut greenhouse gases and protect the climate, and took steps to hamstring EPA and slow efforts to set the agency back on course after he left office,” they wrote.

Youngkin’s staff didn’t immediately respond to a request from the AP for comment from Wheeler or the governor-elect.

The 158 signatories on the letter include two deputy EPA administrators and two former administrators of EPA’s mid-Atlantic region, of which Virginia is a part. One of the former regional administrators was appointed during Republican President Ronald Reagan’s administration. Three former directors of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board signed on, as did assistant administrators, attorneys, scientists and other rank-and-file staff.

Wheeler worked at the EPA’s Pollution Prevention and Toxics office early in his career. He then worked from 1995 to 2009 as a staffer for Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, a fervent denier of man-made climate change, and for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, before becoming a lobbyist.

His client list included Murray Energy, one of the nation’s largest coal mining companies.

He took over the EPA job after President Donald Trump accepted the resignation of embattled administrator Scott Pruitt, who had been dogged by scandals that spawned federal and congressional investigations.

The EPA under Trump generally moved to delegate a range of public health and environmental enforcement to states and roll back protections put into place under President Barack Obama.

While Wheeler was in the top job, the Trump administration ordered  a sweeping about-face on Obama-era efforts to fight climate change, moving to ease restrictions on coal-fired power plants. EPA also moved to revoke California’s authority to set auto mileage standards and dropped an Obama-era regulation opposed by developers and farmers that shielded many U.S. wetlands and streams from pollution.

“Through our deregulatory actions, the Trump administration has proven that burdensome federal regulations are not necessary to drive environmental progress,” Wheeler told lawmakers in 2019.

The former EPA employees warned that Wheeler would “significantly undermine the progress that Virginia’s legislature has recently made to advance clean energy and address climate change.”

They also noted that Christine Todd Whitman, a former EPA administrator and Republican governor of New Jersey writing in a Washington Post opinion piece, warned Congress in 2019 not to confirm Wheeler to the EPA post.

In Virginia, cabinet secretaries are subject to confirmation by the state House, now controlled by the GOP, and Senate. The process is usually fairly perfunctory, with the approval of the governor’s choices seen as a courtesy absent major controversies. If Senate Democrats remain unified, their 21-19 majority could end Wheeler’s nomination, even without support from their Republican colleagues.

Christopher Zarba, a former director of EPA’s Science Advisory Board staff office, is among those urging senators to vote against Wheeler. He told the AP that he was used to accommodating the approaches of political appointees during his 38 years at EPA as a scientist and manager, but he said “atrocities on science” were committed under Pruitt and Wheeler.

“There was broad recognition that the previous administration, and Andrew Wheeler being part of that, there was broad catering to special interests at the cost of quality science and public health,” Zarba said.

Penelope Fenner-Crisp, a former deputy director in the Office of Pesticide Programs and a longtime Virginia resident, was the driving force behind the letter. She said more than 150 people signed on within two days after she used a mailing list of EPA alumni to circulate it, focusing on people who live in Virginia or the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

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By SARAH RANKIN Associated Press

from Courthouse News