July 30 CALIFORNIA: D.A. will not seek death penalty -- Prosecutors believe that chances of conviction would be more likely A man who pleaded no contest earlier this month to stabbing and raping an Oakland woman nearly 20 years ago won't receive the death penalty, Alameda County prosecutors said Thursday. Jim Anderson, Alameda County assistant district attorney, said his office won't seek the death penalty against Richard Dean Wilson, 39, because it was unlikely a jury would have returned a favorable verdict. Wilson pleaded no contest to the murder of Angela Marie Bledsoe earlier this month. Her partially decomposed body was found by hikers on Jan. 12, 1986 along Eden Canyon Road in Castro Valley. The charges were enhanced with special circumstances because the killing occurred during the commission of a rape and Wilson has a previous murder conviction. He now is serving a minimum 26-year murder sentence at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione. He is expected to be sentenced to life without parole on Monday for Bledsoe's rape and murder. "This was the best penalty phase mitigation I have ever seen," Anderson said. "We thought ... the likelihood of getting a death vote on this guy was small. The best we would have ever gotten was hung jury after hung jury." If prosecutors had sought the death penalty, Wilson would have been housed in an Alameda County jail for up to four years while the penalty phase of the case was argued. The decision to seek life saved taxpayers that cost, authorities said. Wilson has been in jail for more than 15 years for the Oct. 23, 1986 murder of 33-year-old Chester Ballard, a security guard at a San Leandro car lot. DNA recently connected Wilson to Bledsoe's death. She was found blindfolded, gagged and bound, stabbed more than a dozen times and wrapped in a blanket. James Giller, Wilson's attorney, said there was a "great deal of remorse" from his client who has been in custody for the past 18 years. "He didn't want to put this woman's family through a trial and just wanted to get this over with," Giller said. "He's already serving a prison term that has a life top and his chances of getting paroled on that were not very good." Giller admitted Wilson's move to plead no contest right away was a gamble. He said Wilson made statements about what happened to police as soon as investigators sat him down. "I think he thought if he made an early plea, he might have a pretty good chance of getting life without parole," Giller said. "At no time did (the District Attorney's Office) promise me if he did this we would get life without parole." (source: Tri-Valley Herald) USA: It's time to re-examine the death penalty Earlier this month, 48 nations and a host of religious groups and other organizations filed briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to abolish the execution of minors in this country. Those filing included former President Jimmy Carter, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, the American Bar Association, the American Medical Association, countries from the European Union, and Canada and Mexico. As the Supreme Court ponders whether or not the U.S. will continue to allow those under 18 to be subjected to the death sentence, perhaps it should consider whether or not the criminal-justice system is flawless enough to support the death penalty at all. In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled in Furman vs. Georgia that capital punishment as it was administered by the states was "cruel and unusual punishment" and therefore violated the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The decision was based on findings that the death sentence was disproportionately imposed on minorities and the poor; it resulted in the commutation of the death sentences from death to life with the possibility of parole for the more than 600 people on death row in 38 states around the country. Among these inmates was a man named David Keaton. He was sentenced to death in Florida in July of 1971, after he was convicted of killing a police officer during an armed robbery, based on a coerced confession. In 1974, he was exonerated. He was released from prison in 1979. Keaton has never fully recovered emotionally and psychologically from the experience. Had his sentence not been commuted under Furman, he may have been executed as an innocent man. The Supreme Court, however, left the door open for states to reform their death-penalty statutes to make them fairer and less discriminatory, and, in 1976, the court allowed the states to resume capital punishment. But has the system really been reformed? Last year, Illinois Gov. George Ryan decided to grant clemency to all 167 death-row inmates in his state after holding exhaustive clemency hearings prompted by the discovery that 13 inmates on death row were in fact innocent. Ryan, a conservative Republican who had long been a staunch supporter of the death penalty, was so disturbed by the uneven way in which capital-punishment cases were being handled that he could no longer allow the practice to continue in good conscience. As Ryan explained, "We now have 13 death-row inmates exonerated. That means that we have more people exonerated from death row than the 12 we executed out of 25. It's like flipping a coin, heads or tails. Live or die. Can you believe that?" It would be nave to think that Illinois is the only state in the union that was capable of putting an innocent person to death, and that the problems Ryan encountered were absolutely unique and isolated aberrations. In Washington state, Benjamin Harris was sentenced to death in 1984 for the alleged murder of an auto mechanic. In 1994, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Bryan ruled that his case had been handled so incompetently over the years (he was misadvised by his original attorney to confess to the murder in order to avoid the death penalty, among other things) that he had serious questions about Harris' guilt, and ordered that Harris be retried. During those 10 years of appeals, Harris came close to being executed on several occasions. Had one of his subsequent lawyers been as incompetent as his first, or an appellate judge not quite as attentive, Washington could have executed an innocent man. While the system did eventually prevent this from happening, it is chilling and unjust that Harris was ever in the position to be racing against the clock to save his own life because he was appointed a lawyer who didn't spend enough time to properly defend him. Discovering the innocence of any person who has had to live under the ominous shadow of execution is an alarming indication that there are still rampant problems with the machinery through which the death penalty is administered. Ryan, the former Illinois governor, is currently encouraging all governors to impose moratoriums on the death penalty in their states until these problems are truly resolved beyond any doubt. They would be wise to heed his call. (source: Guest Column; Kirsten Johnson is a documentary filmmaker originally from the Seattle area whose most recent film, co-directed with Katy Chevigny, is "Deadline," a documentary about capital punishment in the U.S. It will air in a special 2-hour presentation of "Dateline" on NBC tonight; Seattle Times) FLORIDA: Hodges faces death penalty Willie Hodges, a suspect in a 2001 Sumter County murder, will face a murder charge August 9, in a Florida Courtroom. 2 1/2 years have passed since Winnie Johnson was found dead in her home in Gainesville. On Monday, Nov. 26, 2001 at 9:45 a.m., Johnson was found lying on her bed by her husband Richard. Her hands had been bound, and she had suffered a fatal gunshot to the face. Her husband was in Livingston at the time of the shooting. According to Sumter County Sheriff Johnny Hatter, no forced entry or burglary was apparent. Several burglar arrests followed in the Epes area however, the killer was never found. Willie James Hodges, 44, most recently of 331 Massachusetts Ave., Pensacola, Fla., and formerly of 475 Pedetti, Cincinnati, Ohio, has been questioned in connection with Johnsons murder. Hodges has also lived in Sumter County. Hodges' alias is Willard Pratt. Around the time of Johnson's murder, an unusual number of burglaries had been reported in the Epes and nearby Greene County area. Epes is only about 10 miles from Gainesville and is considered as being in the same general area. Unusual numbers of burglaries, robberies and assaults on elderly women seem to occur near wherever Hodges makes his home. Both Ohio and Florida police have connected Hodges with a rash of similar crimes in their states. Hodges is currently being held in the Escambia, Florida County Jail where he has resided since he was arrested by Florida police on September 5, 2003. Hodges was initially arrested in Florida on May 1, 2002 as a fugitive from justice. He was released to Ohio on May 13, 2002. Hodges previously had been sentenced to 2 years in prison in Ohio for a 1998 robbery, according to the Cincinnati Post. Information was not readily available regarding Hodges 2002 extradition to Ohio. Hodges was again arrested in Florida on September 5, 2003 for attacking a woman. He was charged with Criminal Mischief, Burglary, Aggravated Assault and Battery. His bond was set at $25,000. On September 12, 2003, Hodges entered a plea of Not Guilty. The trial date was set for December 29, 2003. On November 26, 2003, nearly 2 years to the day that Winnie Johnson was found murdered in her home, Hodges was arrested again by Florida authorities for Murder in the First Degree (premeditated with a weapon). Hodges did not receive bond on this charge. After indictment by a 16-member grand jury, Hodges plead Not Guilty, and the trial was set for February 23, 2004. According to WEAR News in Pensacola, Hodges was arrested one day before Thanksgiving in 2003 for the December 19, 2001 murder of 58-year-old Patricia Belanger, of Pensacola, Fla. In the Belanger murder, family members witnessed a man escaping through a window of Belanger's home just before discovering she had been beaten to death. The family was able to provide police with a description of the man. However, according to Florida Investigator Frank Fillingin, it was Hodges' family who provided just enough evidence to locate Hodges who was already in the Florida jail. On December 27, 2003, Cincinnati, Ohio police alerted media that they were looking for Hodges for questioning regarding several robberies of elderly women, according to the Cincinnati Post. Cincinnati police told the Cincinnati Post that dozens of robberies and burglaries of elderly women had occurred in a concentrated area. Some of the women were seriously injured. On January 13, 2004, the Florida prosecutor filed an intent to seek the death penalty for the murder of Patricia Belanger. Hodges' trial was moved to April 19, 2004. By January 29, 2004, Cincinnati police had found Hodges in the Escambia County, Fla., jail. Sumter County investigators and District Attorney Greg Griggers have assisted Florida and Ohio police in the continuing investigation. "We are doggedly pursuing every lead," said Griggers. "They have enough to convict him in Florida, but neither we nor the Sumter County Sheriff's Office are giving up on the Johnson case." On March 8, 2004, the Florida court authorized the taking of Buccal swabs, photographs, major case fingerprints, palm prints, foot prints and foot impressions base upon information in the arrest report of Hodges. Swabs are used to collect DNA from a subject. On April 2, 2004, Hodges' public defender filed a motion to bar the imposition of the death penalty on the basis that the death penalty is unconstitutional citing Ring vs. Arizona. On April 6, 2004 the trial was reset for June 14, 2004. On April 20, 2004, the court allowed investigators to collect hair samples from Hodges. A motion to suppress evidence was filed and later dropped by Hodges' defense. Florida investigators have collected fingerprint and DNA evidence from crime scenes that match the fingerprints and DNA collected from Willie Hodges. The trial of Willie James Hodges was finally set for August 9, 2004. The most recent action in the case took place on Tuesday, July 27, 2004. Florida prosecutors continue to seek the death penalty. (source: Sumter County Record-Journal) CONNECTICUT: Death row inmate claims he had inadequate defense during penalty phase In Vernon, a lawyer has told a Superior Court judge that death row inmate Sedrick Cobb did not receive adequate representation from another attorney during the penalty phase of his murder trial 13 years ago. The comments came Thursday during a 2-hour hearing on Cobb's habeas corpus complaint challenging his incarceration. Judge Stanley T. Fuger did not immediately issue a ruling, and both sides waived the 120-day deadline for making a decision. At issue is whether public defender Gerard Smyth failed to provide adequate representation to Cobb, now 44, during the penalty phase of his trial in 1991. Cobb was sentenced to death for the 1989 kidnapping, rape and murder of Julia Ashe in Waterbury. She was abducted from a Waterbury parking lot while holiday shopping on Dec. 16, 1989. Her body was found on Christmas Day in a pond. Fuger heard final arguments in Cobb's case Thursday. He could order a new penalty phase, if he determines that Cobb was denied his constitutional right to effective counsel. He could also rule that Smyth had an appropriate trial strategy. Whatever the ruling is, the case is expected to be appealed to the state Supreme Court. Under scrutiny is Smyth's decision to not call psychiatrist Dr. Kenneth Selig to the witness stand. Selig was prepared to testify that Cobb was severely impaired with mental illness, and tie that illness to Cobb's actions on the night he kidnapped Ashe. "That was how you were going to save this man's life, by proving mental illness," David Golub, Cobb's new lawyer, argued. But Selig's testimony would have been graphic, and there was a real risk that additional and lurid details Cobb had told him about the killing of Ashe would have been revealed, The Hartford Courant reported. Cobb bound and gagged Ashe with duct tape, raped her, then heaved her off a remote concrete apron into an icy and junk-strewn culvert below. Selig would have said the attack was the result of uncontrollable rage that had been percolating within Cobb since childhood. Senior Assistant State's Attorney John Massameno argued that if Smyth had put Selig on the stand, "we would be here in this courtroom litigating Gerry Smyth's ineffectiveness for having opened the door and letting all that damaging information come in." "This was a judgment call, an informed judgment call, by the attorney with the most experience in capital litigation in the state," Massameno said. At Cobb's trial, Smyth did put on evidence of mental illness through psychologist Anne Phillips, but did not tie the illness to the crime. 2 expert witnesses who testified at Cobb's habeas corpus hearing - William Bloss and Hubert Santos - said that amounted to inadequate representation, well outside the standards of criminal practice. (source: Associated Press)
