June 26 FLORIDA: Jurors seek death penalty in Deerfield murder case A split Broward Circuit Court jury Friday recommended that Russell Scott Hudson receive a death sentence for executing a Deerfield Beach man moments after letting his victim call his father to say goodbye. Jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes before voting 7-5 that Hudson should be sent to Death Row for the October 2001 murder of Lance Peller, 22. Hudson, from west of Boca Raton, wiped his eyes with a tissue as Circuit Judge Paul Backman individually polled the 8-woman, 4-man jury to see if the vote tally was correct. Backman ultimately will be the one to determine Hudson's fate, but it's rare for a judge to go against a jury's recommendation. Hudson, 34, terrorized Peller and Peller's girlfriend, Jennifer Fizzuoglio, after coming to the victim's Tivoli Lakes Club apartment armed with a gun he had stolen from Peller a few weeks earlier. After shooting Peller once in the head, Hudson kidnapped Fizzuoglio, but she managed to escape by jumping out of a moving car and fleeing. Moments before killing Peller, Hudson allowed his victim to leave a voice mail on his father's cell phone. Jurors heard Peller's haunting words Thursday as prosecutor Peter Holden made the case why Hudson should be sentenced to die. The message lasts only a matter of seconds. "Hi dad, it's Lance. I love you. I wanted to tell you and mom I love you both. I'm about to die. Bye." Lance Peller's father said Friday that justice was served with the jury's recommendation. "Our prayers were answered," Alan Peller said. "Lance, you're watching down. I know you're happy." Just two years before killing Peller, Hudson had been released from prison after serving 12 years of a 25-year sentence for the fatal stabbing of a Miami man. Hudson attacked Lloyd William Rosenbrock, 55, in the victim's bedroom, plunging a butcher's knife into him about 35 times. Hudson refused to speak at his sentencing hearing. He had testified at his 1st-degree murder trial in April that he had nothing to do with the killing despite confessing to the murder to police detectives. Hudson never gave a reason to police why he killed Peller except that he had to do it or a person whose name he wouldn't reveal would murder him. At least one witness thought the shooting was drug related. Mitchell Polay, one of Hudson's attorneys, argued that his client was scarred by his childhood -- he was virtually abandoned by his mother and was victimized by a child prostitution ring. Rosenbrock had been one of those people preying on Hudson, Polay said. (soure: South Florida Sun-Sentinel) CALIFORNIA: DA seeks death penalty in '89 murder case San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has decided to seek the death penalty for a man charged with murdering a 68-year-old Vista woman during a sexual assault in 1989. Deputy District Attorney Karl Eppel, the prosecutor assigned to the case, announced the decision at a short hearing Friday morning in Superior Court. Jaime Isla Pena, 35, has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge and the special-circumstances allegation that allows prosecutors to ask for a death sentence. Pena's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Karsten Boone, declined to comment after Friday's hearing. Eppel said a major case review committee within the district attorney's office made a recommendation to Dumanis about what penalty to seek. Dumanis also met with the slain woman's surviving family members and Boone before making her decision. DNA evidence led authorities to arrest Pena last year on suspicion of murdering Ida Marie Nance on Dec. 5, 1989. At the time of his arrest, Pena already was serving 25 years to life in prison under the state's "three strikes" law for a series of burglaries and a weapons charge he incurred in prison, Eppel has said. A retiree who lived with her daughter, Nance was found dead in her apartment in the 100 block of The Circle Road, a sheriff's lieutenant said in 1989. She had been beaten and stabbed after a struggle with her attacker, a sheriff's homicide sergeant said at the time. Pena did not appear to have any connection to Nance, Eppel has said. At a preliminary hearing in March, Eppel argued that blood and hair evidence from Nance's apartment ---- including a mixture of Pena's and Nance's blood on a belt in the hallway and Pena's hair found on a bedsheet ---- linked Pena to the crime. Evidence presented at the preliminary hearing also indicated that more than one person may have been involved in the attack on Nance. Eppel said Friday that no other arrests have been made in the case. Boone argued at the preliminary hearing that while the DNA evidence showed Pena had been in Nance's apartment "at some point in time," it did not show he committed murder. Boone said there was no evidence that Pena inflicted any injuries or that any sex acts occurred before Nance's death. Referring to an autopsy report prepared by a deputy medical examiner who retired in 1997, Chief Deputy Medical Examiner Christina Stanley testified in March that Nance suffered about 20 injuries to the head, which generally were superficial and small. But one of the wounds was inflicted by an object that broke off a piece of Nance's jawbone, produced an "exit wound" to the neck, resulted in a re-entry wound to the body, and severed an artery near the thyroid gland, Stanley said. The combination of all of the injuries was listed as the cause of death, Stanley said. Pena is jailed without bail. He is scheduled to return to court July 16 for a conference between the attorneys in his case and a Superior Court judge, Eppel said. (source: North County Times) SOUTH DAKOTA: New death penalty, drug law coming Your young teenager is about to get a new excuse for staying out a couple of hours later at night: a law that allows drivers with restricted licenses to be on the road until 10 p.m. That state law is among nearly 300 that go on the books Thursday. Most bills passed by legislators take effect each year on July 1. Some other new laws deal with prescription drug prices, capital punishment and college scholarships. A new law outlaws capital punishment for anyone younger than 18. State Rep. Casey Murschel, R-Sioux Falls, said adolescents generally should not be held to the same level of accountability as adults. But fellow Republican Rep. Tom Hennies, former police chief in Rapid City, said young people who commit horrible crimes should not be excluded in all instances from capital punishment. 4 inmates are on death row in South Dakota, although none is a juvenile and no one has been executed since 1947. (source: Associated Press)
