June 14 TEXAS: Toddler's tragic death stuns even caseworkers The death of any child is heartbreaking and difficult to accept. That the child's mother is charged with murder in her death makes it even more tragic. And, when the child allegedly is beaten to death for wetting her pants, which all children do, what can be said or done? Everyone's immediate response is to lash out, to blame the child welfare system, which was supposed to take care of the child. >From all indications, however, Child Protective Services and the court system appear to have dealt with the case of 2-year-old Diamond Alexander-Williams by the book. The child had been in the state's custody since 2002 when her mother, Kimberly Alexander, 24, moved to Texas. Family service officials in Michigan, who had removed Alexander's four other children from her, alerted Child Protective Services officials in Texas. In mid-April, after Alexander concluded more than a year of parenting classes, drug testing and counseling, Diamond was returned to her mother, who also has an 11-month-old and is pregnant with her seventh child. Child Protective Services spokeswoman Mary Walker said there was no indication of violence or drug use at the time the family was reunited. Thus, judge, counselors, social workers and lawyers - professionals who deal with this kind of case regularly - agreed unanimously to return the child to her family. Walker quietly stated: "We can't predict human nature. We are all stunned and saddened." At least, while Diamond's mother remains in prison, she will not be able to have an 8th child. That's of little comfort to those who tried to help Diamond - and it doesn't bring back a little girl who wet her pants at the wrong time. (source: Editorial, San Antonio Express-News) CALIFORNIA: Peterson trial enters new phase with police testimony One of the first officers to search Scott Peterson's house after his wife vanished described it as a "model home" with little out of place and a husband whose fishing story didn't quite add up. Officer Derrick Letsinger testified Monday that the Petersons' Modesto, California, home was very much well-ordered, though several dirty white rags placed on top of the washing machine did stand out. "The rest of the room was almost like a model home," Letsinger said as the third week of Peterson's capital murder trial began. What also stood out was Peterson's recounting of his fishing trip to San Francisco Bay -- what would turn into his alibi after authorities charged him with murdering his pregnant wife, Laci. Letsinger said that when another officer asked Peterson what he had been trying to catch, the response was that he didn't know, though Peterson did say he used a 7-inch silver lure. Peterson, described by his in-laws in earlier testimony as eerily devoid of emotion that day, also had a small outburst, according to Letsinger. As he was walking outside the house, Letsinger said, "Mr. Peterson threw his flashlight down on the ground and I heard something under his breath like a curse word." Prosecutors charge Peterson killed his wife in their home on or around December 24, 2002, then dumped her body from his small boat into San Francisco Bay. His attorneys have argued someone else abducted her while she walked the dog in a nearby park. The remains of Laci Peterson and her unborn child, a boy the couple planned to name Conner, washed ashore nearly four months later, just 2 miles from where Peterson claims he launched his fishing trip. Peterson, 31, could face the death penalty or life without parole if convicted in the killings. Letsinger began what was expected to be a series of police witnesses, marking the next phase of the trial after two weeks of testimony from Laci Peterson's friends and family. Defense attorney Mark Geragos claims authorities bungled the investigation. He has charged that 2 of the lead detectives are lying. Prosecutors have spent most of their time so far laying out what they claim are repeated lies Peterson told in the days after his wife vanished. Defense attorneys have tried to explain away his behavior, indicating Peterson was simply distracted and in a state of shock. (source: Associated Press) ARIZONA: Phoenix woman could face death penalty in husband's slaying In Phoenix, a 33-year-old apartment manager accused of poisoning her terminally ill husband could face the death penalty when she goes on trial next month. Joe Andriano was fighting a rare form of cancer when his wife, Wendi Andriano, allegedly told friends he was worth more dead than alive, court documents said. She was supporting the couple's 2 small children while her husband underwent chemotherapy but also had affairs with two men, recruited other men to pose as Joe in a plan to fraudulently obtain a $1 million life insurance policy and forged a business license to buy poison, police and prosecutors say. If prosecutors can prove their case, Wendi Andriano could become the second woman on Arizona's death row. She is accused of first trying to poison her husband with sodium azide, which mimics symptoms of a heart attack, and then slashing his throat after the dose in his soup wasn't strong enough to kill him. Police found the spiked soup on the couple's stove and in Joe's body. They also found the poison in a storage shed. But defense attorney Dan Patterson contends his client was a battered woman acting in self-defense when her husband attempted to strangle her with a telephone cord during an argument Oct. 8, 2000. He conceded there are no police reports to document abuse, but police reports recount one incident when Joe Andriano smashed bedroom furniture and another when he smashed a cell phone during an argument. "Abuse is not necessarily about broken bones and chipped teeth. It's a control issue," Patterson said. Wendi Andriano's mother, Donna Ochoa of Casa Grande, said police and prosecutors misunderstand her daughter. "She's a person with a big heart and has been since she was a little girl," Ochoa said. "She's not the person they're talking about. She was always a wonderful mother and wife." The trial is set to begin July 13. (source: Associated Press) PENNSYLVANIA: Death Penalty Sought In Family Murder Case---Husband And Pregnant Wife Killed In 2002 A trial is scheduled to begin Monday for a Pottstown man accused of murdering a young couple and their unborn child. Chester County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case of 28-year-old Matthew Eshbach. He is accused of working with 29-year-old Michael McGrory to kidnap and kill the victims. Authorities said McGrory, who has struck a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty, led a gang that committed a string of armed robberies across the state in September and October 2002. Police said he and Eshbach, who was not involved in the robberies, killed the couple because they knew about the robberies and the suspects were afraid the victims were talking to police. The victims were 21-year-old Kerry Schadler, and his 20-year-old wife, Katherine Schadler, who was 22 weeks pregnant. Their bodies were found in a park in East Coventry Township, Chester County, on November 22nd, 2002. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Multiple killers leave mark in area South Florida's sunshine and anonymity has made it a haven for fugitives, even stone-cold serial killers. "They vacation here just like everybody else," said retired Detective Wayne Robinson. Here are some of the most notorious killers of Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast. Gerard Schaefer Schaefer, a former Martin County sheriff's deputy, was convicted of murder in 1973 in the deaths of 2 Broward County teenage girls, whose bodies were found in a wooded area near the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant. Authorities say he may have been linked to the torture, death and disappearances of 32 other women in 3 states, including 28 in South Florida, dating back to 1963. Schaefer was sentenced to 2 life terms in prison, where he was killed by another prisoner in December 1995. Christopher Wilder The soft-spoken, 39-year-old Australian transplant went on a 47-day cross-country trek of kidnapping, torture and killing after luring a 20-year-old model away from the 1984 Miami Grand Prix and killing her. At least 12 women were kidnapped and nine killed by the Boynton Beach resident, who posed as a photographer to lure victims into his gold Firebird. He was killed April 13, 1984, his heart torn apart by 2 bullets fired from his own gun in a struggle with a New Hampshire trooper. Duane Owen Owen sits on death row for the March 1984 slashing death of a 14-year-old Delray Beach baby sitter and for fatally beating another woman two months later with a hammer as she slept in her Boca Raton home. Owen raped the baby sitter's almost bloodless body in the belief that he could appropriate her hormones and thus transform himself into a woman. Scott Erskine The former fireworks stand employee was serving 70 years in a California state prison 2 years ago for the rape of a San Diego woman when DNA linked him to the strangling deaths of 2 California boys, aged 9 and 13. That case led San Diego detectives to Palm Beach County, where DNA matched him to the 1989 murder of Renee Baker, 26, who was found on the shore of the Intracoastal Waterway near the Southern Boulevard bridge. A test of saliva taken from the cigarette found near Baker's body partially matched Erskine's DNA. Palm Beach police have said they plan to file murder charges against Erskine. San Diego detectives say Erskine is the worst sexual predator they've ever seen. Terry Jon VanZile The North Carolina hog breeder confessed to police over a pay phone in 1996 that he killed 25-year-old Sonja Doss Porter 8 years earlier. Sheriff's detectives have said they were looking into whether Porter's murder was connected to the death of Paula Bailey, 18, who was found stabbed to death 4 days before Christmas 1988. Bailey, like Porter, was found wearing only tennis shoes. Detectives also looked at whether three other murders, including one found in Palm Beach, were connected to Porter's death. Louis Strunk Strunk, who lived in Palm Beach County for about 5 years in the late 1980s and early '90s, is serving life in Massachusetts for killing and dismembering a prostitute. Investigators found several of the victim's fingers in Strunk's refrigerator. Strunk kept volumes of diaries and photos of women. Strunk bragged to Robinson about popping the eyes out from another victim, but he told police he wouldn't cop to any murders in Florida because the state has the death penalty. (source: West Palm Beach Post, June 13) USA: Anti-Death Activists Buoyed by Nichols Verdict The refusal of a jury in Oklahoma to impose the death penalty on bombing conspirator Terry Nichols demonstrates again the inconsistency in the way capital punishment is applied in the United States, anti-death penalty activists said on Monday. Nichols was convicted on May 26 on 161 murder counts for his role in the April 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City. But the jury deadlocked on Friday during the punishment phase after three days of deliberations. Jurors said the 4 member of the panel who opposed the death penalty were influenced by Nichols' jailhouse conversion to Christianity. His lawyers presented evidence that he had become an avid reader of the Bible who spent many hours in religious study and prayer. "It really testifies to the inconsistency in the way the death penalty is applied. You get guys executed for killing one person and yet here you have a man convicted of a mass murder who ends up not getting the death penalty," said David Elliot of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Nichols' former Army buddy and co-conspirator Timothy McVeigh was put to death in 2001 for triggering the home-made truck bomb that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. The number of death sentences handed down in the United States has fallen from around 300 a year in the late 1990s to around 150 a year now, according to figures compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center. "There's been a much stronger hesitancy around the country to apply the death penalty and prosecutors are less likely to seek it," said Richard Dieter, the center's director. LIFE SENTENCES He cited 3 other recent high-profile cases that did not result in capital punishment: In March, Lee Boyd Malvo received life without parole for his role in the October 2002 Washington-area sniper killings, largely because he was a juvenile at the time of the 10 murders. His accomplice, John Allen Muhammad, was sentenced to death. In April, Charles Cullen, a former nurse who claimed to have killed 40 patients by giving them lethal doses of intravenous drugs, pleaded guilty to 13 murders in a deal that allowed him to escape the death penalty in New Jersey. In December, serial killer Gary Leon Ridgway received life without parole for 48 murders in the state of Washington. University of Virginia law professor Richard Bonnie said he was skeptical that these cases represented a trend, although he agreed they demonstrated the inconsistencies in the application of capital punishment. "Public opinion has been influenced by a drop in crime rates as well as recent cases highlighting mistakes that were made. People are feeling more secure. But if there was a significant increase in crime, you would probably see support for the death penalty go up again," he said. Recent polls suggest U.S. support for the death penalty has fallen from a high of around 80 % in the early 1990s to around 65-70 % now. When respondents are given a choice between the death penalty and life without parole as the most appropriate punishment for murder, opinion is almost evenly divided. (source: Reuters)
