June 23 WASHINGTON: Lawyers point to Ridgway case to spare killer----If Green River murderer escaped execution, then so should Dayva Cross, his attorneys tell high court Lawyers for a triple-murderer urged the state Supreme Court yesterday to overturn the man's death sentence -- and Washington's death penalty itself -- now that the Green River killer's life has been spared. They argued that although Dayva Cross' crime of stabbing his wife and two stepdaughters in Snoqualmie was unquestionably awful, serial murderer Gary Ridgway's lengthy string of calculated slayings of young women was much worse. It was the 1st time the state's highest court has heard arguments on whether Ridgway's controversial 2003 plea deal should change whether killers who have taken far fewer lives can fairly be executed. A decision isn't expected for months. "I believe that all eyes are on this court to see what (it) has to say about the Ridgway case," said attorney Todd Maybrown, who is handling Cross' appeal with attorney Kathryn Ross. "The fact that the worst offender in the state doesn't face the death penalty must make this court re-evaluate." King County deputy prosecutors Lee Yates and James Whisman, however, maintained that Ridgway's case was "unique in the history of the state of Washington" and can't be compared with Cross'. "The nature and brutality of Cross' crimes would rank very high on any scale of comparison with other aggravated murders," they argued. Ridgway could have been prosecuted for only seven of his 48 murders if he hadn't agreed to trade information about his crimes for his life, according to Yates, because there simply wasn't evidence tying him to the vast majority of his crimes. Ridgway's plea deal left him facing life in prison -- and some legal observers wondering if it might put an end to capital punishment in Washington. Under state law, justices must compare aggravated murder cases to decide whether a death sentence "is excessive or disproportionate to the penalty in similar cases" by considering the defendant and the crime. The court has interpreted this to mean that it must ensure a death sentence has not been imposed "wantonly and freakishly." Yesterday, Chief Justice Gerry Alexander asked Cross' attorneys if they were trying to argue that only defendants who have killed more people than Ridgway could be executed. Maybrown said Ridgway's case highlights how disproportionately and arbitrarily this state applies the death penalty -- and why it should now be set aside. "The worst offender in the state was able to plea bargain out of the death penalty because he knew where the bodies were buried," he said. Justice Richard Sanders asked prosecutors whether someone would be able to tell, just by reviewing each past aggravated-murder case in Washington, who ended up facing execution and who didn't. He suggested that the inability of anyone to do that was "the personification of arbitrariness." But Justice Susan Owens noted that Ridgway's case could help bolster one argument for capital punishment because Ridgway likely wouldn't have pleaded guilty if it hadn't been a threat. Yates said state law was designed to help ensure that the death penalty is fair. Prosecutors decide whether to seek it in each case, but it takes a unanimous jury to impose it, and each death sentence is automatically reviewed by the high court. He said the notion that a murderer such as Ridgway should be able to absolve all other murderers -- especially when the state's death-penalty law has been repeatedly found constitutional -- seems absurd. The court's role, he argued, is simply to make sure a jury's decision to impose death isn't drastically out of line with other cases or the evidence. "You're going to have disparity, but again, the focus has to come back to: 'What did the defendant standing before you do?' " he said. Cross stabbed to death his new wife, Anouchka Baldwin, 37, and her daughters, Salome Holly, 18, and Amanda Baldwin, 15, in their small Snoqualmie rambler in March 1999. He then held his youngest stepdaughter hostage for hours as he drank wine, smoked and chuckled at a movie. When he finally fell asleep, the 13-year-old girl ran to a neighbor's house. After his arrest, Cross tried to kill himself in jail. A head-first dive onto the floor left him in a wheelchair. King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng agreed not to seek the death penalty for Ridgway last year but sought it in 1999 for Cross. A 2001 jury agreed it was the right punishment. Yesterday, Cross' attorneys also argued that his trial lawyers shouldn't have been able to present psychologists' testimony that he suffered from mental problems. Cross repeatedly asserted in court -- sometimes in expletive-filled tirades -- that he disagreed with his lawyers' strategy. Several justices expressed concern about possible legal issues surrounding the modified guilty plea that Cross entered. Cross admitted that he stabbed his family but denied the crimes were premeditated. (source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer) CALIFORNIA: THE PETERSON TRIAL ----Jury shown video of cop quizzing suspect; Peterson was calm, emotionless, detective testifies Scott Peterson appeared calm and emotionless even as a police detective grilled him on his whereabouts the day his wife disappeared and later when the detective accused him of having multiple extramarital affairs, according to testimony at his double-murder trial Tuesday. Peterson sipped from a coffee cup, stuck his hands in his pockets, talked in a steady and calm voice and even joked about misfiring his gun, during the interview by Detective Al Brocchini at the Modesto Police Department. The interview, recorded by video camera and played for jurors Tuesday, took place just after midnight Dec. 25, 2002, 6 hours after Peterson reported his wife, Laci, missing. Throughout the hourlong video, Peterson expresses little concern for his missing pregnant wife. He also appears unconcerned about questions relating to what he'd done and where he'd been earlier that day. Peterson was arrested four months later and charged with killing his eight-months pregnant wife and their unborn baby. Brocchini testified that his job in the investigation was to eliminate Peterson as a suspect since he was the last person to see his wife alive. But it wasn't long before police focused on the fertilizer salesman as their prime suspect. On Feb. 1, 2003, Brocchini, acting on information culled through a wiretap, started tailing Peterson in Fresno, the hometown of Peterson's mistress Amber Frey. Peterson, however, spotted Brocchini and approached him, thanking the detective for appearing on America's Most Wanted about the case. But Brocchini didn't return the pleasantries and instead challenged Peterson. "I said you've got some explaining to do, you're not acting like a man who's missing his wife," Brocchini testified. When Peterson tried to explain why he had stopped on the side of the road, Brocchini again confronted him, this time about evidence of other girlfriends. "I've got pictures," Brocchini said he told Peterson, who then walked away. "He was emotionless, matter of fact, calm." The taped interview shows Brocchini testing Peterson's hands for gunpowder residue, because police found a pistol in his glove box. Peterson shows little concern when he asks Brocchini if exhaust from the boat would test positive for gunpowder. He tells the detective that he hadn't fired the gun in the past year and kept it because he was a hunter. He laughs as he describes trying to shoot the gun once, only to have it misfire. In the interview, Peterson tells the detective that he left his home at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 24 to go fishing at the Berkeley Marina. He had recently purchased a new fishing boat and tells Brocchini, "A lot of the reason I went there was to get that boat into the water." Earlier trial testimony from other police officers described Peterson at a loss for an answer when they'd asked what he'd been fishing for earlier that day. During the Christmas interview, Peterson tells Brocchini that he stopped off at his warehouse, where he kept the boat and trailer. He says he fiddled around a bit, sending a holiday greeting to his boss in an e-mail. Then he says he left for the marina. He tells the detective that while he was fishing, his wife intended to mop the floor, walk the dog and shop for the fixings to make a large Christmas breakfast for family and friends. When he got home later that day, Laci Peterson was nowhere to be found. The couple's dog was in the backyard with a leash dangling from its neck and the french doors were unlocked -- both seemed unusual, Peterson told the detective. In the tape, Brocchini asks Peterson if he has a good marriage. Peterson answers that he does. Weeks later, police would learn that Peterson was having an affair with a Fresno woman. They would also find out that it wasn't his first extramarital affair. In the video, when Brocchini wrongly suggests Peterson isn't telling the truth about the timing of phone calls made to his wife on Dec. 24, Peterson remains calm, showing the detective his cell phone and the date and time stamp of the call. Brocchini admits he's wrong. During testimony in a Redwood City courtroom, Brocchini tried to clear up what was seen as one of the prosecution's most embarrassing moments during opening statements in the trial. In doing so, the detective brought forth a discrepancy in Peterson's stated timetable. Peterson told police in the taped interview that on the morning of Dec. 24, he and his wife watched the Martha Stewart show in which Stewart talks about meringues. Brocchini reviewed a tape of the show from that day and found no mention of meringues, indicating that Peterson was lying and suggesting that the show on meringues actually aired the day before. But during opening statements, Peterson attorney Mark Geragos took much pleasure out of showing a video of Martha Stewart mentioning meringues on the very show Peterson said they'd watched. On Tuesday, Brocchini acknowledged to prosecutor Rick Distaso that he'd missed the reference to meringues, which was mentioned only once in the Dec. 24 show, but eight times on the Dec. 23 show. However, Brocchini noted that Stewart didn't mention meringues until 9:48 a.m., nearly 20 minutes after Peterson said he'd left his Modesto home to go fishing. Police are trying to prove that Peterson left his home later than he has stated -- and are expected to produce cell phone records that place him at the home as late as 10:08 a.m. Their contention is that it would have been improbable that Laci Peterson mopped the floors, changed her clothes, walked the dog and was kidnapped all before 10:18 a.m. That's the time the Peterson's next-door-neighbor said she found the dog with its leash wandering in the middle of the street in front of their house. Peterson's lawyer, Mark Geragos, is scheduled to start cross-examining Brocchini today. ** Day 13 -- Gun removed from truck On the night Scott Peterson reported his wife missing, Modesto police Detective Al Brocchini removed a loaded handgun from the glove compartment of Peterson's truck. Brocchini questioned Peterson about the gun in an interview at the Police Department 6 hours later. Peterson called Brocchini at 2:15 a.m. and asked him if he'd removed the gun from the truck. Brocchini said that when he told Peterson he had, Peterson said he had wished the detective had informed him that he was taking it. Camera shy After Brocchini took pictures of Scott Peterson's boat in the warehouse unit where he stored supplies for his job, Peterson, a fertilizer salesman, told Brocchini he didn't want him to show the photographs to his boss. Peterson interested in dogs One day after Laci Peterson was reported missing, Scott Peterson asked Brocchini if police were using cadaver dogs to search a heavily wooded park near their house and he wanted to know where police were concentrating their efforts. Brocchini said police hadn't used the dogs, which are specially trained to find dead bodies, because he did not consider Laci Peterson dead yet. Cement anchor displayed Brocchini held up a cement anchor found in Scott Peterson's boat for the jury to see. The homemade anchor was about the size of a child's sand bucket and had a rebar ring embedded in the top. Peterson told police he made the anchor for his newly purchased boat out of a 90-pound bag of cement and used the rest of the cement on his driveway. But police believe it was one of several anchors he made and used to weigh down his wife's body, which they say he dumped in the bay. Testimony was surprise to prosecution Before Brocchini took the stand, Judge Alfred Delucchi warned the jury that some of what Debra Wolski, Laci Peterson's prenatal yoga teacher, testified to Monday had never before been told to prosecutors or police. Wolski testified that Laci Peterson was so weak from her pregnancy and her feet were so swollen that she needed help from class to her car in December 2002. Wolski said Laci Peterson also needed help walking on the uneven surfaces. The prosecution was trying to show that the mother-to-be was too fatigued to have left her house on the day she disappeared. Under cross-examination by defense attorney Mark Geragos, Wolski said she'd told prosecutors and police about Laci Peterson's condition and difficulty walking. But prosecutors admitted today that Wolski had never before told such a story until she testified Monday. (source: San Francisco Chronicle) ALABAMA: Attorney general vows to speed death penalty cases Alabama Attorney General Troy King vowed Tuesday to do whatever he can to speed up death penalty reviews that delay executions on average by more than 13 years. Speaking to law enforcement officers from Mobile and Baldwin counties at Mama Lou's restaurant, King said many death penalty appeals have been pending for 2 and 3 years. "We're not going to allow these appeals to wait around any longer," he said. But Byran Stevenson, an anti-death penalty activist from Montgomery, said in an interview that delays have far more to do with deficiencies in the state's criminal justice system than with inattention from the attorney general's office. "It's a very politically popular thing to say, and every attorney general for the last 20 years has made similar statements," said Stevenson, director of the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama. "But the kinds of things that need to be done are not the kinds of things they want to do." Stevenson said Alabama is the only state in the nation that does not provide lawyers for death row inmates after their initial appeals. That slows down cases moving through the system, he said. "To me, the question is not how fast we can execute somebody, but how fair the process can be," he said. In his speech, King recounted a watershed event from his youth that made him a strong supporter of capital punishment. He recalled growing up in Elba, where Coffee County Sheriff C.F. "Neil" Grantham was shot to death in 1979. A jury convicted his killer, Billy Joe Magwood, of capital murder 2 years later. But a quarter-century later, Magwood remains on death row. King said shortly after winning appointment as attorney general in March, he returned to Elba and stopped at the county jail. "I stood right where the sheriff was shot," he said. In an interview after his address, King said the average death row inmate in Alabama spends 13 years and 4 months on death row before he is executed. "That is unconscionable," he said. King said some cases have languished so long partly because assistant attorneys general have feared judges would reverse convictions on technicalities if prosecutors pressed too hard. But he said he believes that if an appeals court is going to overturn a conviction or death sentence, "sooner rather than later is better." Stevenson said the 13-year, 4-month statistic applies only to the relatively small number of executions that have been carried out. He said dozens of others have been reversed by appeals courts. "I agree that it takes too long to get to a fair resolution," he said. King, a former aide to Gov. Bob Riley who was appointed in March to replace Bill Pryor, covered a range of other topics in his speech. On the same day Birmingham buried the last of 3 police officers who were fatally shot last week, King noted that 9 law enforcement officers in Alabama have died in the line of duty this year. "That's too many," he said. King also decried the performance of Alabama's state government -- which Governing magazine recently ranked last in the country -- and vowed to fight any attempt to recognize gay marriage in the state. King expressed his admiration for police officers and promised to do all in his power to aid their cause. Robertsdale Police Chief Brad Kendrick said he looks to maintain the good relationship his department long has enjoyed with the attorney general's office. He said the collegial relationship extends to other police departments, as well. "Here in Baldwin County, we've got a unique situation because the individual municipalities work so closely together," he said. "Communication is the key." (source: Mobile Register) ******************** Abortion Bomb Suspect Rudolph to Face Alabama Trial Eric Rudolph, accused of the fatal 1998 bombing of a Birmingham, Alabama, abortion clinic, will be tried in Birmingham before a jury selected from other parts of the state, a judge said on Tuesday. The defense had sought a change of venue for Rudolph, charged with bombing the New Woman All Women Health Care Clinic in Birmingham, citing prejudicial publicity. The January blast killed an off-duty police officer and maimed a nurse, who was blinded in one eye by the nail-packed bomb. At a hearing in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith approved a compromise that would keep the trial in Birmingham but use a jury chosen from 31 northern Alabama counties. "This is a true effort on behalf of all parties to reach a fair and reasonable compromise," said defense lawyer Richard Jaffe. Rudolph, 37, also accused of a bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, George, was captured in May 2003 in North Carolina after five years on the run. He sat quietly through the hearing. Asked if he understood the compromise, Rudolph answered simply, "Yes, your honor." At the hearing, results of a study by sociologists at Georgia State University were presented that determined media coverage of Rudolph's case occurred mostly during 1998, had been mainly factual and confined to metropolitan Birmingham as opposed to elsewhere in the state. "That publicity is fairly described as persuasive but not qualified as inflammatory or prejudicial," Judge Smith said. Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty if Rudolph is convicted in the clinic blast. Smith said 12 jurors and six alternates would be selected for Rudolph's trial and potential jurors must complete detailed questionnaires. He said he would decide later on a trial date. Rudolph's trial had been scheduled to begin in early August, but defense attorneys requested more time, saying they have hundreds of documents to organize. Rudolph is also charged in three bombings in the Atlanta area -- one during the Olympics, one at an abortion clinic and one at a nightclub frequented by gays. He will be tried separately in Georgia on those charges. (source: Reuters) VIRGINIA: Muhammad Has Hearing In Fairfax For 2nd Trial John Allen Muhammad left the 73-square-foot prison cell he had occupied on Virginia's death row early yesterday, climbed into a state corrections department vehicle and rode 150 miles to the Fairfax County courthouse to begin the process of his second sniper trial. Muhammad, 43, already faces a death sentence for a slaying in Prince William County in October 2002 -- 1 of 10 during the 3-week sniper rampage that terrorized the Washington area. Fairfax authorities have charged Muhammad with another of those killings, the shooting of Linda Franklin outside a Home Depot store, and Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. said he was determined to follow through with the case despite criticism that a second Virginia prosecution would be costly and vulnerable to the same appeals as the first. Franklin's daughter, Katrina Hannum, traveled from her home in Norfolk and watched Muhammad's first court appearance in Fairfax from the front row -- as she did during the trials of both Muhammad and his co-conspirator, Lee Boyd Malvo, last fall. She did not comment after the brief hearing. Muhammad did not enter a plea yesterday. In Virginia courts, pleas are not entered until shortly before trial. Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Jonathan C. Thacher set a trial date of Oct. 4. He also told Muhammad's attorneys that if they wanted to move the trial out of Fairfax, they must make the request by July 22, the 1st deadline for pretrial motions. Muhammad's attorneys, Peter D. Greenspun and Jonathan Shapiro, said they had not decided whether to seek a move. Muhammad was convicted in the slaying of Dean H. Meyers at a Prince William gas station and sentenced to death. Malvo, 19, was convicted last year of capital murder in Franklin's slaying and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Malvo and Muhammad also are charged in Alabama, Louisiana, Maryland and the District, and there had been considerable speculation as to whether and where the pair might be tried next. Greenspun, appointed by Thacher to represent Muhammad, as he did in the Prince William case, argued that no trial date should be set in Fairfax because Muhammad's right to a speedy trial had been violated. Greenspun noted that Muhammad was indicted in Fairfax, and a bench warrant issued, in November 2002. But Muhammad was not served with the warrant until May 27. Virginia law requires a trial within five months of an arrest. Horan said later that "the arrest in this case was in May" and so the speedy-trial clock didn't start until then. Muhammad wore a dark green jumpsuit and was held in handcuffs and leg shackles throughout the 30-minute hearing. His hair and beard appeared somewhat neater than at his last court appearance in March, when a judge imposed the death penalty. Thacher read him the three charges he faces: murder as an act of terrorism; murder of more than 1 person in a 3-year period; and use of a firearm during a felony. The 1st 2 carry the death penalty. When he entered the courtroom, Muhammad stood and glared briefly at Horan before taking his seat. He did not speak and was not asked any questions. In his 1st trial, Prince William prosecutors characterized him as the "mastermind" of the sniper shootings, in part because there was no evidence that Muhammad had fired any of the shots. At Malvo's trial a month later, Horan declared that the then-17-year-old pulled the trigger on the rifle that killed Franklin as she loaded supplies into her car. Prince William prosecutors were able to convince Circuit Court Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. that Muhammad could face the death penalty even though he wasn't the "triggerman," arguing that he was equally culpable. Millette's decision is believed to be the first time in Virginia that a defendant was sentenced to death in a shooting without pulling the trigger. Millette's ruling, as well as the 1st test of Virginia's anti-terrorism law in Muhammad's case, are certain to be focuses of Muhammad's appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court. That case is expected to be argued in the fall and decided by early next year. Horan would not say whether he would use the same arguments as did Prince William prosecutors. The question of who actually fired which sniper shots is still unresolved. Muhammad has never spoken publicly about them. Malvo initially told investigators that he fired many of the shots, including the one that killed Franklin. But after months in jail, he recanted and told mental health interviewers that he had fired only the last shot, which killed Montgomery County bus driver Conrad E. Johnson. Muhammad has been held on death row at the Sussex I maximum-security prison in Waverly, and he arrived in Fairfax shortly after 8 a.m., less than 2 hours before his hearing. Fairfax Sheriff's Lt. Tony Shobe said Muhammad would be held in a single cell, segregated from the rest of the Fairfax jail population, and would not have recreation or standard visiting privileges because of his status as a condemned prisoner. Horan told the judge he estimated the trial would take 4 to 6 weeks, which he said later was based on the length of the 1st trial. That trial was moved to Virginia Beach so a jury that was unaffected by the sniper shootings could be selected. After the hearing, Horan said, "I don't think there's any question [Muhammad] can get a fair trial here." (source: Washington Post)
