death penalty news
July 17, 2004
OREGON:
Prosecutor won't pursue death penalty against mom - Charlene Dorcy's family
history and mental problems are cited in her daughters' shootings, and
arraignment waits until August
The Skamania County prosecutor said Thursday he won't pursue the death
penalty in the case of a Vancouver-area mother accused of killing her two
young daughters June 12.
Charlene A. Dorcy, 38, was expected to enter a plea Thursday in Skamania
County Superior Court, but the arraignment was delayed, for a second time,
to allow her to undergo a mental evaluation.
Dorcy has not been evaluated, and it is unlikely the evaluation will be
completed until September, her attorney Robert Lewis said during the
hearing. The arraignment was rescheduled for Aug. 12.
Dorcy faces two counts of aggravated murder in the shootings of her
daughters, Brittney, 2, and Jessica, 4, in a rock quarry in the mountains
about 30 miles north of Carson, Wash.
After the hearing, prosecuting attorney Peter Banks said Dorcy's "history
in regards to her family and prior mental health problems" were the main
reasons he decided not to seek the death penalty.
He said he didn't think he could persuade a jury to vote unanimously for
the death penalty given such "mitigating circumstances."
Robert Dorcy has said publicly that his wife suffers from paranoid
schizophrenia.
If convicted, Dorcy could face life in prison without parole.
According to court records, Dorcy confessed to police and led them to the
scene where they found the girls.
She has had few visitors since her arrest, said Skamania County Sheriff
David Brown. Robert Dorcy saw his wife for the first time since the girls'
deaths when he slipped into the courtroom during Thursday's hearing. He has
said that he forgives his wife.
Shackled around the waist as she stood facing the judge, Charlene Dorcy
didn't appear to see her husband.
During the hearing, Washington Superior Court Judge E. Thompson Reynolds
said he was concerned that Dorcy's attorneys have not allowed the girls'
bodies to be released.
"The bodies need to be turned over to the family," said Reynolds, who
signed an order June 28 allowing the attorneys as long as four weeks to
determine whether they want independent autopsies of the bodies.
Lewis said a forensic specialist is reviewing the autopsy documents
recently received from the county and will determine whether a second
autopsy is warranted.
Until the bodies are released, the family must postpone funeral plans for
the girls.
Robert Dorcy made no comment as he left the hearing trailed by several
reporters. He could not be reached for comment at his home Thursday afternoon.
(source: The Oregonian)
===========================
WASHINGTON:
Dorcy won't face death penalty
Skamania County Prosecutor Peter Banks said Thursday he will not seek the
death penalty for Charlene A. Dorcy, a Hazel Dell woman who allegedly shot
and killed her two young daughters last month.
Banks made the decision after reviewing psychiatric files that
documented Dorcy's history of paranoid schizophrenia.
The prospect of potentially spending $500,000 over the next decade to
prosecute a death penalty case was not the determining factor, said Banks,
whose annual budget is $330,000. Cash-strapped counties can ask for
financial assistance from the state, he said.
Instead, he made the decision after concluding 12 jurors would not
unanimously agree Dorcy should be executed.
Mental health issues can prompt jurors to say, "My goodness. Look at
this. How can we impose the death penalty?" Banks said.
Dorcy, 38, told The Columbian in 1997 that schizophrenia was a "curse"
she'd lived under for years and that she'd made seven suicide attempts.
Four years ago, her husband encouraged her to stop taking prescription
medication because he feared the side effects.
Robert Dorcy said his wife tried herbal remedies such as St. John's
wort, which has been touted for treatment of mild depression.
Charlene Dorcy faces two counts of aggravated murder. If convicted,
she'll be sentenced to life at the Washington Corrections Center for Women
in Gig Harbor with no possibility of release.
Before Banks' announcement, Dorcy made a brief appearance before
Skamania County Superior Court Judge E. Thompson Reynolds.
She'd been scheduled to enter a plea, but that was postponed until
Aug. 12.
Reynolds asked Dorcy if she understood she had the right to be
arraigned. She began to answer but was interrupted by one of her two
court-appointed defense attorneys, Robert Lewis of Camas. He told the judge
the delayed arraignment was requested by defense attorneys because they
want to determine whether Dorcy is competent to stand trial.
Lewis said Seattle psychologist Kenneth Muscatel has yet to do an
evaluation.
If Dorcy is found incompetent, she would be committed to a state
mental hospital until her competency is restored by medication.
Robert Dorcy attended the court hearing but quickly left the Skamania
County Courthouse without speaking to reporters. In a June 21 interview he
said he has forgiven his wife and regrets not showing her more love and
support.
The evening of June 11, the couple had argued over money and she
allegedly said, "All three of you are against me. You know what I'm going
to do."
On June 12, she drove 4-year-old Jessica and 2-year-old Brittney to an
abandoned gravel pit in Skamania County and allegedly shot them after
feeding them snacks. She drove back to Vancouver and turned herself into
police.
No longer on suicide watch
Charlene Dorcy remains in the Skamania County Jail on $1 million bail.
Sheriff Dave Brown said Dorcy is no longer on suicide watch but is
separated from the other inmates for her own safety.
Banks' decision not to seek the death penalty isn't surprising, given
the state's history with capital punishment.
While Washington is one of 38 states that endorses the death penalty,
it has one of the most narrowly defined statutes, Banks said. A death
sentence is the presumed punishment for aggravated first-degree murder
unless there are mitigating circumstances. More often than not, those
circumstances are found by either prosecutors or juries.
Of 241 defendants convicted of aggravated murder, only 11 are on death
row at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. The rest are
serving life sentences at institutions around the state.
The reluctance to execute has saved taxpayers millions.
Death penalty trials are more than twice as expensive to prosecute and
defend on appeal. Those cases cost counties as much as $500,000 while
non-death cases cost approximately $200,000, according to the Office of the
Administrator of the Courts.
In the past century, Washington has executed 76 people.
Only four people, Clark County child-killer Westley Allan Dodd among
them, have been executed in the past 40 years. Dodd wanted to die and
waived appeals, which can go on for two decades.
In contrast to Washington, Texas leads the nation in executions. Texas
has 456 offenders on its death row, and it executed 24 people last year.
Stephanie Rice covers the courts. She can be reached at 360-759-8004,
or [email protected].
Did you know?
The last person to face the death penalty in Skamania County was Sean
Stevenson. Stevenson, then 16, was convicted of the 1987 New Year's Day
slayings of his mother, stepfather and sister. During the penalty phase,
former Skamania County Prosecutor Bob Leick stunned jurors by reversing his
stance. Leick agreed with defense attorneys who argued Stevenson's life
should be spared because of his mental illness. Jurors concurred. Stevenson
is serving his life sentence at the Washington State Reformatory at the
Monroe Correctional Complex.
(source: The Columbian, Washington)
================================
ILLINOIS:
Salgado won't face death penalty
The State of Illinois will not seek the death penalty against Antonio
Salgado of Savanna, Ill.
Salgado is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in connection
with the February stabbing death of his wife in Savanna.
Carroll County States Attorney Scott Brinkmeier said this morning that
under Illinois law, there are several qualifications for seeking the death
penalty, one of which includes the killing of a police officer or two
people during commission of a crime. This case does not meet that criteria,
according to Brinkmeier.
In another development, Brinkmeier said Salgado's trial will not begin July
27 as originally planned; however, a pre-trial conference will begin at 10
a.m. Aug. 9.
Salgado, 43, was indicted by a grand jury after it determined there was
enough evidence to formally charge Salgado with the death of his wife,
Theresa Salgado, 37, of Savanna. He pleaded innocent to the charges in April.
He is being held without bond at the Carroll County Jail.
(source: Herald Online)
==============================
TEXAS (federal trial):
Serving life term, inmate faces death penalty in 2nd slaying
A federal prisoner serving a life sentence for the murder of an Arkansas
banker was sentenced to death Friday for the 2001 slaying of another inmate.
Shannon Wayne Agofsky, 33, was convicted July 8 of stomping fellow inmate
Luther Plant to death at the federal prison in Beaumont, Texas. Video
recorded by a prison guard showed Agofsky, who is adept at martial arts,
stomping on Plant's head and neck inside of a prison exercise cage.
A federal jury in Beaumont took 75 minutes to convict Agofsky.
Experts testified that Plant died two hours after the Jan. 5, 2001, attack
because he had a crushed throat and drowned in his own blood.
Plant, 37, was a heroin addict who suffered from hepatitis C. He was
serving a prison sentence for convictions on charges of arson and being a
felon in possession of a firearm.
Agofsky is serving a life sentence in the 1989 murder of Dan Short of
Sulphur Springs, Ark. Agofsky and his older brother, Joseph, were convicted
of robbing the State Bank of Noel in Noel, Mo., where Short was president.
The older Agofsky is also serving a life sentence.
Investigators said the brothers kidnapped Short from his home and forced
him to open a bank vault at the bank, then strapped Short to a chair and
threw him off a bridge into an Oklahoma lake while he was still alive.
Shannon Wayne Agofsky was 18 at the time of the murder.
During the recent trial, prison guard Christopher Matt said he put Agofsky
and Plant in the exercise cage and detected no hostility between the two.
But jurors heard of Agofsky's violent desires from a November 2000 letter
he wrote.
"All I do is work out, wait to leave and hope the cops mess up and let me
around some other (person) so I can test out my hand," Agofsky said in the
letter.
(source: Kansas City Star)
