July 9 ILLINOIS: Man who killed cop ruled eligible for death penalty A Cook County judge on Thursday found Aloysius Oliver, convicted this year in the 2001 shooting death of a Chicago police officer, eligible for the death penalty. Oliver, 28, was convicted in January on charges of killing Eric Lee, a plainclothes officer, after Lee broke up a fight between Oliver and a homeless man on the South Side in August 2001. Circuit Judge John Moran ruled after prosecutors argued that Oliver should be eligible for death because he knew he was shooting at an officer. Witnesses testified that Lee cursed at the police and then fired the gun. Moran set a sentencing date of Sept. 17. (source: Chicago Tribune) NEVADA----new (impending) exectuion date//volunteer Nevada sets July 22 execution for man convicted in Reno killing Nevada death row inmate Terry Jess Dennis, who withdrew an appeal that could have helped him avoid a lethal injection for strangling a woman in Reno in 1999, is scheduled to be executed July 22, state prison authorities said Thursday. If Dennis, 57, is executed, it will be the 2nd this year at the Nevada State Prison. Lawrence Colwell Jr. was executed in March for the 1994 strangling of an elderly tourist in Las Vegas. State Corrections Director Jackie Crawford said Dennis, who has been held at the state's maximum-security prison in Ely, doesn't want to talk to reporters. When the state Supreme Court agreed March 12 to let Dennis withdraw his appeal, justices noted he has repeatedly said he opposes any efforts to delay or stop his execution. The court quoted from a Washoe County District Court hearing in which Dennis stated, "Basically, I took a life and I'm ready to pay for that with mine." Dennis also said, "I would rather not live than continue to live and be a doddering old man in prison." While Dennis has a history of mental disorders, justices also said there's substantial evidence to support the lower court finding that he's competent to make a rational choice to drop "further and possibly lifesaving litigation." At a December court hearing in Reno, justices said Dennis denied telling a doctor that he had hallucinations, although he said he had attempted suicide in the past. He also said that he had been getting medications in prison that had "pretty much squared (him) away." The doctor's report said, among other things, that Dennis' desire to seek the death penalty and refuse further appeals stemmed from "his depressed state and self-hatred." Justices also rejected efforts by federal public defenders to intervene on Dennis' behalf, saying he already has a lawyer who hasn't withdrawn from the case and they're not convinced the public defender's involvement "will assist this court." Reno attorney Karla Butko has filed a "next friend" petition seeking to block Dennis' execution, but that was rejected on Tuesday by a federal judge in Las Vegas. Butko has until Monday to file an appeal brief with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, and the state attorney general's office will have to file a response by July 15. Dennis pleaded guilty to the March 1999 murder of Ilona Strumanis, 51, an Eastern bloc immigrant. He was accused of using a belt to strangle the woman, who he had met several days before. He told police she made fun of him when he was unable to perform sexually. (source: Associated Press) GEORGIA----new and impending execution date Convicted murderer's execution set for this month The execution of a Griffin man who suffocated and sexually assaulted his 2-year-old niece has been scheduled for July 19. Eddie Albert Crawford, 57, was sentenced to death for the 1983 murder of Leslie Michelle English. He was originally set to die last December before the Georgia Supreme Court put it on hold pending DNA testing of several items taken from the crime scene. But the high court ruled last month that even if the items tested positive for someone else's DNA, that wouldn't clear Crawford. Crawford was linked to the 1983 crime by hair and carpet fibers found on the girl's body. He kidnapped English from her home after her mother - his sister-in-law - refused to have sex with him, prosecutors argued at trial. The girl's body was found in a wooded area a couple of miles away, strangled and raped. Crawford would be the 2nd person executed this month in Georgia after Robert Karl Hicks was killed July 1 for another Spalding County murder. (source: Associated Press) INDIANA: AG candidate backing death penalty----But Hogsett says he's not criticizing governor's clemency last week 6 days after Gov. Joe Kernan commuted a Gary man's death sentence, the Democratic candidate for attorney general said he supports the death penalty and will aggressively enforce it. Joe Hogsett said he will provide all the assistance that local prosecutors request when pursuing capital cases and make sure the resulting sentences are ably briefed and argued in appeals courts. Hogsett made the pledge Thursday as he announced a 5-point anti-crime agenda focused on the death penalty, methamphetamine abuse and identity theft. Hogsett, who is challenging incumbent Attorney General Steve Carter, a Republican, said he will seek harsher penalties for identity thieves and the authority to investigate such cases directly. He also said he will promote a statewide "Meth Watch" program to monitor the sale of legal precursor ingredients that can be used for illegal meth production. "As the state's chief law enforcement officer," Hogsett said, "the attorney general has to take a leadership role on issues related to crime." Hogsett said the timing of his remarks are unrelated to Kernan's commutation decision and are based solely on his desire to present his campaign views on crime. Hogsett also said he in no way disputes Kernan's decision to reduce the sentence of Darnell Williams to life in prison without parole. Kernan, also a Democrat, commuted Williams' sentence based on substantial doubts about Williams' exact role and culpability in a double murder in Gary in 1986, among other reasons. Hogsett said Indiana's death penalty policies are rightly determined by state lawmakers, with appropriate comment from the attorney general. But he said he fully supports existing law, which lets prosecutors pursue capital punishment based on individual circumstances. "I do believe it sends a powerful message to the criminal element" that Indiana won't tolerate "the most heinous and barbaric of crimes," Hogsett said. The death penalty does no such thing, according to retired Indiana University law professor Thomas Schornhorst. Schornhorst said Hogsett -- a former law student of his -- is engaging in "the usual schtick" of candidates who want to present an anti-crime face. But Schornhorst, who has been active in capital appeals, said there is little evidence that capital punishment deters murder or that murder rates are higher in states without the death penalty, such as Michigan and Iowa. "We're certainly not a better place, and not a safer place" because of the death penalty, Schornhorst said. (source: South Bend Tribune)
