death penalty news July 28, 2004
PENNSYLVANIA: Jury to see letters in death penalty case A Bucks County judge this week ruled that an accused killer's love letters to his girlfriend - including one that contains an alleged confession - can be shown to the jury in the man's death penalty trial. Judge Rea Boylan, in an opinion filed Tuesday, sided with prosecutors who argued that Edward Boback, 25, of Philadelphia, did not have a right to keep the letters private. Boback had mailed the letters to his girlfriend, Brandy Kulow, 20, from the county prison after he was arrested last year in the murder of John George, 46, of Falls. Police found them after Kulow, of Lower Makefield, died of an apparent heroin overdose in March. Boback is charged along with Gregory DeYoung, 33, of Lower Makefield in George's December 2002 stabbing death at the Villager Motor Inn in Bristol Township. Police say the suspects stabbed the victim more than 50 times during an argument over a $4,000 drug debt. Boback's attorney, Robert Repko, had argued last week that the letters shouldn't be allowed in court because they were private correspondence between a husband and wife. Although Boback and Kulow were not married, they had dated for more than a year and considered themselves married, Repko said. Boylan ruled that the letters were not protected under the spousal immunity privilege, and that Boback had no legal expectation of privacy once the mail was opened. The judge also ruled that a coroner legally seized the letters while investigating Kulow's death. "We're certainly disappointed with the judge's decision. It's an issue we may pursue on appeal,'' Repko said. Contacted about the ruling Tuesday, Deputy District Attorney Robert Mancini declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation. Boback and DeYoung will stand trial in Bucks County court in Doylestown in October. Prosecutors say the men are blaming each other for the crime. Before the trial, Boylan is expected to rule on a defense request to hold two separate penalty phases if the men are convicted. Defense attorneys argued that the "mutually antagonistic positions of the defendants ... create a certainty of prejudice," and that putting them both before the same jury in a capital case could create "a literal fight to the death." Mancini, in a legal brief, argued that the men should face a jury together, saying that going through the sentencing phase twice would cause emotional trauma to George's family, including his three children. (source: Bucks County Courier-Times) ============================ VIRGINIA --- federal death penalty trial: Death deal nixed - Suspect's lawyer protests penalty The lawyer for a man who faces execution if convicted of capital murder argued Tuesday that a prosecutor reneged on his promise not to seek the death penalty against her client. Attorney Denise Y. Lunsford told a federal judge that before Shawn A. Breeden was indicted on federal capital murder charges, an assistant U.S. attorney told her that he would not seek the death penalty if Breeden cooperated and came forward with truthful information about the killing of Kevin Lee Hester. Breeden, 27, provided frank details, but did not receive any benefit, the defense contends. His attorneys are asking that the death penalty be tossed out and that the government be banned from using Breeden's incriminating statements at trial, which is set to begin Sept. 27. "If I thought that by providing honest and truthful information that the government would seek the death penalty then, no, I would not have provided the information," Lunsford said. Though Judge Samuel G. Wilson said he would issue a written opinion on the matter, he announced that he believed Lunsford and Assistant U.S. Attorney William F. Gould simply had a misunderstanding. Gould testified that he remembers the phone conversation about Breeden's cooperation in the case, which took place before Breeden was charged. He maintained he was careful to inform Lunsford that the decision on whether to seek the death penalty would include U.S. Attorney John L. Brownlee and the Department of Justice. "There was a discussion about what could happen, not what would happen," Gould said. Lunsford disputes the prosecutor's assertion. She said Gould mentioned Brownlee and the Department of Justice in a later conversation. "What he said was, he would not seek the death penalty," Lunsford said. The judge speculated that Lunsford misconstrued Gould's promise that he - personally - would not seek the death penalty. Under questioning by the judge, Gould said his recommendations were not followed by a Justice Department committee, which decided to seek the death penalty. Wilson said that with just a few weeks to go before trial, he was bothered by the timing of the defense claim, "irrespective of the merits." Lunsford explained that she and co-counsel Steven D. Rosenfield had agreed to pursue other legal avenues toward banning the death penalty. Those issues were not resolved until May, when a federal appeals court in Richmond affirmed Wilson's decision not to bar capital punishment. Further, Lunsford testified that in the only other federal death penalty case she defended, the assistant U.S. attorney fought successfully to keep the death penalty off the table, tangling not once, but twice, with the Department of Justice. Lunsford said she did not want to upset Gould or make him look bad in front of his superiors by announcing the supposed promise he made to her, knowing what influence he had as the local prosecutor. Two of Breeden's co-defendants have already pleaded guilty to their involvement in Hester's killing. The government struck a deal with Kevin Thomas Cassell and Robbie D. Outterbridge that allowed the men to avoid the death penalty. The pair could be the prosecution's most important witnesses at trial, though Gould and Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy would not elaborate on their witness list. Michael A. Carpenter is also charged with the killing. The men were all living in Washington at the time, according to court filings, and hoped to rob Hester, Breeden's drug connection. Court documents state that authorities discovered Hester's body Sept. 9 at the Meadows at Mountainwood apartments in Albemarle County. He had been shot in the head and leg and stabbed in the throat and chest. (source: The Daily Progress) ============================== ARIZONA: Judge denies request for speedy sentence A Yuma man convicted of killing a woman and her two children in 1989 was denied a request for speedy sentencing Tuesday by a Yuma County Superior Court judge. The motion, had it been granted, would have spared 42-year-old Alvie Copeland Kiles the death penalty in the 1989 bludgeoning deaths of Valerie Gunnell, 26, and her two children, Shemaeah, 5, and LeCresha, 9 months. In denying the motion, Judge Kirby Kongable said, "We'll let the higher courts grapple with this one." Treasure Van Dreumel, one of Kiles's attorneys, said the defense filed the motion for speedy sentencing on Aug. 1, 2003. That happened to be the same day the Arizona Legislature enacted a new set of guidelines for sentencing defendants who face the death penalty. The new guidelines were required when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Arizona's method of handling capital cases was unconstitutional because judges, not juries, decided whether a defendant would be put to death or be given a life term in prison. Defense attorneys had wanted Kiles to be sentenced in the time frame between the Supreme Court ruling and when Arizona adopted the new sentencing rules. During that time, Kiles would not have faced the death penalty. Prosecutors have requested the death penalty since Kiles was first convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and two of child abuse. The Supreme Court ruling was just one of the reasons Kiles' case is still pending after more than 15 years. Kiles was first convicted of in the bludgeoning deaths of Gunnell and her two children during a trial in December 1989. The three were beaten to death with a tire iron on Feb. 9, 1989, at a north Yuma apartment shared by Gunnell and Kiles. He was sentenced to death after the first trial, but the convictions were overturned by then-Yuma County Superior Court Judge H. Stewart Bradshaw, who ruled in 1996 that Kiles didn't have an adequate defense. In a second trial that ended July 20, 2000, Kiles again was convicted of the same murder and child abuse charges. He again faced the prospect of being sentenced to death, but the sentencing process hit a snag as a result of the Supreme Court's ruling. During Tuesday's hearing, Kongable scheduled Aug. 24 as the next hearing for Kiles. (source: YumaSun.com)
