death penalty news July 30, 2004
IOWA -- federal death penalty trial: Judge delays death penalty trial The federal judge presiding over the first death penalty case in Iowa in more than 40 years has tinkered with the schedule and given attorneys three weeks to pick a jury. U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett delayed jury selection in the trial of Dustin Honken, accused of killing three adults and two childrein 1993, to August 17th, one day later than the original start.Bennett also said testimony would start no earlier than September 7th.The 35-year-old Honken is accused by federal prosecutors of beating, torturing and killing the victims and burying their bodies in a fields southwest of Mason City. He was charged with the murders in 2001, months after investigators discovered the graves using maps sketched by Honken's alleged accomplice, Angela Johnson.Honken is serving a 27-year prison sentence on a 1997 drug conviction. Two of the victims were once dealers for Honken who agreed to cooperate with federal investigators.The trial is expected to last three months. (source: AP) ======================================= NEW YORK: Murder trial to restart for Parker - Death penalty dropped in Spears' slaying case The Vernon E. Parker Jr. case will go forward as a first-degree murder trial, with jury selection starting Sept. 9, a judge said Thursday. The 24 prospective Broome County jurors selected in May and June, to possibly serve on what was then considered a capital murder trial, were dismissed Thursday by Broome County Judge Martin E. Smith. Prosecutors and defense attorneys will select a new jury from a remaining pool of 300 potential jurors, who were waiting to be questioned on the death penalty when the state's death penalty law was declared unconstitutional in June, Smith said. Jury selection, he said, is expected to take two or three days. "We'll proceed as scheduled as a non-capital case," Smith said. Two weeks ago, the judge put on hold a decision on proceeding with the case, because the state Legislature met to repair its now-unconstitutional death-penalty law. But no agreement was reached on how to fix the law -- and pursue nine pending death-penalty cases, including Parker's. The state Court of Appeals, in its June ruling, ordered the nine to be tried as first-degree murder cases. Parker's attorneys had asked the judge to dismiss all 24 pre-selected potential jurors and start fresh with a new jury. Smith met them partway with his decision Thursday. Parker, 34, of Randallstown, Md., is charged in the July 20, 2002, slaying of Valerie Spears, 50, and her 14-year-old daughter, Devin. Parker, who is married to Valerie Spears' older daughter, killed the two women to silence them as witnesses, prosecutors said. Parker was accused of molesting Devin when she was 13. Valerie and Devin were expected to testify against Parker in a Baltimore County sex abuse trial. The two were killed execution-style in their Binghamton home 10 days before the trial. (source: Press & Sun-Bulletin, Binghamton, NY)
