July 1 GEORGIA----execution Paroled Rapist Executed in Georgia for 1985 Murder A convicted rapist who fatally stabbed a woman 9 months after he was released from prison was executed on Thursday in Georgia after courts rejected last-minute appeals. Robert Hicks, 47, was put to death by lethal injection at a state prison in Jackson, Ga., about 50 miles south of Atlanta. He died at 5 p.m. EDT, according to Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Peggy Chapman. The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Thursday to block the execution. "I'm sorry for my part in all of this," Hicks said in final statement before a sedative, lung-paralyzing drug and the poison potassium chloride were injected into his arms. Hicks was sentenced to die for killing 28-year-old Toni Rivers in 1985. Her partially nude body was found in a field in Griffin, Ga., about 35 miles south of Atlanta. She was stabbed 8 times with a pocket knife, and her throat slit. Prosecutors said Hicks committed the crime after following the woman home from a grocery store. The murder weapon and items belonging to the victim were found in his car shortly after the murder, according to witnesses at his trial. Hicks, who had been released from prison in 1984 after serving less than half of a 15-year sentence for raping a 16-year-old girl, pleaded insanity during his murder trial. He later said that somebody else killed Rivers. Hicks becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Georgia this year and the 35th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983. Hicks becomes the 32nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 917th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Reuters & Rick Halperin) KENTUCKY: Attorney wants record cleared The defense attorney for Eugene Gall, whose murder conviction and death sentence were overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals, says Kentucky is maintaining the legal fiction that Gall is guilty of the crimes of raping and killing a 12-year-old girl some 27 years ago. Ed Monahan, who has represented Gall though all of his appeals, appeared Monday before Kenton Circuit Judge Steve Jaeger to ask that the state formally wipe Gall's convictions off the books. While the Court of Appeals reversed the convictions and instructed that Gall could never be retried, the final judgment certifying his guilt has never been changed, Monahan said. Assistant Attorney General David Smith argued against the change because it would be mean-ingless. Monahan, though, said it should be done because it's the right thing to do. "It should be vacated so that the law is recognized," Monahan said. "If this were a routine case, this would have been routinely done -- without opposition from the commonwealth." Jaeger, who is serving as a special judge in the case, said he would research the issue before making a decision. Gall, 57, is serving a life sentence for the murder of an 8-year-old girl in Ohio and was not in the courtroom for the legal arguments. He was convicted in 1978 of kidnapping, raping and killing 12-year-old Lisa Jansen of Hamilton County. After a jury recommended his execution, former Boone Circuit Judge Sam Neace sentenced him to death. He remained on Death Row at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville for 23 years before the federal appellate court, ruling that he was insane at the time of the crime, threw out his sentence. Smith said that, while a federal court can reverse a state conviction, it has no authority to alter or amend a final judgment. He also argued that Jaeger no longer has any jurisdiction over the case. (source: Kentucky Post) WASHINGTON (state): 3 teens charged in man's slaying----Prosecutors will seek to move charges against a 15-year-old boy to adult court. An 18-year-old Pierce County man fired multiple shots to the head of Larry Kloes during a robbery, county prosecutors say. 1st-degree aggravated murder charges were filed Wednesday against the Puyallup man and 2 boys, one 15, the other 16, in connection with Kloes' fatal shooting on Saturday. Prosecutors allege the murder was motivated by revenge because Kloes, 49, previously reported thefts by the 15-year-old to police. The prosecutor also alleged Kloes was killed to prevent him from calling police. An aggravated murder conviction in adult court would mean life in prison without release, at least in the case of the juveniles. The prosecutor could decide to seek the death penalty against Perry Marshall Rothermel, 18, of Puyallup. "We never comment on death penalty decisions until they have been made," said Mark Roe, chief criminal deputy prosecutor. State law prohibits seeking death for juveniles, he said. During the robbery of his home, Kloes, of Snohomish, was beaten with a baseball bat and forced to open his gun safe, which contained several firearms, deputy prosecutor Matt Hunter said in court documents. Just before he was shot, Kloes was lying on a couch pleading with the trio to just take his property and leave, asking them to call an ambulance because of his injuries from the beating. Instead, the 15-year-old somehow fashioned a makeshift silencer for one of Kloes' guns. That gun was used to shoot Kloes, documents alleged. Also charged with aggravated murder in Everett District Court is Jeremy Richard Boone, 16, of Sumner. Rothermel and Boone were scheduled to appear today in Everett District Court. The prosecutor will have about 2 weeks to move the case to Snohomish County Superior Court, where felonies are tried. The 15-year-old, a former neighbor of Kloes who had previously stayed at his home, will appear in Snohomish County Juvenile Court today, where Hunter will seek a hearing for a judge to determine if he will be tried as an adult or a juvenile. Hunter said he will recommend jurisdiction be transferred to Superior Court, where the state intends to prosecute him as an adult. That hearing must be conducted within 2 weeks, unless the deadline is waived by the defense. The Herald normally does not name juveniles prosecuted in Juvenile Court. For 16- and 17-year-olds accused of serious violent crimes, state law allows for automatic transfer to adult court. All 3 were being held on $1 million bail. Hunter alleged that the 15-year-old Bonney Lake resident had stolen property from Kloes several times in the past, and Kloes had called the police on him. The prosecutor said the plan to rob and kill Kloes was formed a month ago, and the youngest defendant recruited the other 2. Police arrested the 3 Sunday in Pierce County. Boone turned himself in, telling officers he wanted to confess. It was Boone who told Snohomish County sheriff's detectives that the 15-year-old high school dropout fashioned the silencer, Hunter said. Boone walked out of Kloes' home before the shooting, but said Rothermel walked out later with a gun that appeared to have blood on the silencer. He later told Boone that he "shot Larry in the head," the document said. The 15-year-old drove away in Kloes' black Pontiac Firebird while the others were in another car. The guns and other stolen property were found hidden in a barn in Fife. (source: Everett Herald)
