August 27 KENTUCKY----female could face death penalty 2 Martin County People Could Face the Death Penalty 2 Martin County people could face the death penalty after a couple was murdered. Clarence Raines Jr. and Nancy Messer are charged with killing an elderly Tomahawk couple. Robert and Jane Allen were found dead in their burned home around two weeks ago. Friday in court both Clarence Raines Jr and Nancy Messer pleaded not guilty to robbery, burglary, arson and murder charges. It was the 1st time the victim's family faced the 2 people accused of Bob and Jane Allen's brutal murders. Robert and Jane Allen were found dead in their home after it had been set on fire. At first police did not suspect foul play until an autopsy revealed they died before the fire started from blunt force trauma to their heads. Raines and Messer were later arrested after police found several pieces of jewelry and liquid morphine in their possession that had been stolen from the Allen's home. Facing multiple charges, including a double homicide, they face the death penalty as well. So far there has not been a formal notification, but the commonwealth attorney says she does plan to seek the death penalty against both suspects. If convicted and sentenced to death it would be the 1st death penalties since the 1940s and Clarence Raines attorney says he hopes that's not the case here. In the event that there is some formal notification that death will be one of the penalties being sought, then we may have some specific motions that challenge that. The next step will be a pre-trial conference that has been scheduled for November 22nd at 11am. (source: WYMT News) ARIZONA: Man whose death sentence in fatal robbery is overturned may again face death penalty A Pima County jury has decided a man whose death sentence in a fatal 1998 robbery spree was overturned by new laws may again face execution. Keith Royal Phillips, 26, and another man, Marcus Lasalle Finch, 34, were convicted of 48 crimes in a robbery spree in which Kevin Hendricks was killed and 4 people were seriously wounded. Both men had their death sentences overturned after a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that juries, not judges, must decide capital punishment sentences. Friday, a jury determined that Phillips' role in the armed robbery in which Hendricks was killed was significant enough to warrant the death penalty. On Tuesday, defense attorneys will begin presenting evidence they hope will spare Phillips' life. The jury will then have to decide whether to impose death or have Pima County Superior Court Judge Howard Fell choose between life in prison with or without parole. Finch's resentencing trial is scheduled for April. (source: Tucson Citizen) CALIFORNIA: Focus shifts to second bloody shirt----COOPER HEARING: A witness tells of finding it on a roadside. The judge raises rules for new tests. A former Chino Hills resident testified Thursday in federal court in San Diego that she found a bloody blue shirt on the side of a road not far from where four people were slain in 1983. Attorneys for death-row inmate Kevin Cooper, who was convicted in the killings, say the woman's testimony supports their theory that investigators withheld evidence in the case and that Cooper's conviction should be overturned. "Ms. (Laurel) Epler found a blue shirt with blood that was turned over that apparently has been destroyed," David Alexander, Cooper's lead counsel, said outside court. But Deputy Attorney General Holly Wilkens challenged Epler's recollection of events. Outside court, Wilkens said Epler's memory was "all over the map." Wilkens said the only shirt recovered from the area was a brown one stained with Cooper's blood. Cooper was convicted in 1985 and sentenced to death for the June 4, 1983, hatchet killings of Doug and Peggy Ryen, both 41; their daughter Jessica, 10; and family friend Christopher Hughes, 11. Cooper admitted escaping from the California Institution for Men and hiding in a vacant house next to the Ryens' Chino Hills home for several days before the killings but denied any role in the slayings. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of Cooper's execution in February and ordered a hearing in U.S. District Court in San Diego to review some of the evidence. In a separate issue, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff on Thursday signaled that she was ready to issue an order outlining how she wants attorneys to proceed with a set of blood tests that Cooper's attorneys contend could exonerate him. Huff said she would like the tests performed by 2 independent scientists, one chosen by each side. Bar's Patrons Also on Thursday, a San Bernardino County sheriff's detective assigned to the case, Timothy Wilson, testified that he had learned from employees and patrons at the Canyon Corral Bar in Chino Hills that 3 men who were at the bar on the night of the killings didn't seem to fit in. Wilson said there was talk in the community that the men had blood on them, but nobody had a firsthand account and he didn't pursue that angle. Cooper's attorneys contend that investigators didn't fully follow up on those leads. More testimony is scheduled for next week. Alexander, Cooper's attorney, declined to say Thursday whether he was still seeking testimony from a former bartender, Al Ward, who had worked at the Canyon Corral Bar. On Wednesday, Alfred Ward, who had testified he was at the bar the weekend of the killings and saw 3 men wearing bloody shirts walk into the bar, turned out not to be the bartender who Cooper's attorneys were looking for. Ward said he was a 1st-time patron at the bar. Further, Alfred Ward is black. The bartender Cooper's attorneys are looking for is white. (source: The Press-Enterprise) ******************** Court to rehear death penalty appeal A federal appeals court granted a new hearing Thursday to a Stockton man who was sentenced to death for killing a motel manager during a 1980 burglary that netted $23 and some cigarettes. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said a majority of the 24 judges taking part in the vote had agreed to rehear Blufford Hayes Jr.'s challenge to his conviction and death sentence, which had been upheld by a 3-judge panel of the court exactly 2 years ago. The case will now be reassigned to an 11-judge panel. Hayes, now 49, was convicted of fatally stabbing Vinod Patel in a room of the Stockton motel Patel managed in January 1980. Cartons of cigarettes and $23 in cash were taken from the motel office. Hayes testified that he had acted in self-defense and blamed the killing on motel resident Andrew James, who drove him from the scene. But James testified at Hayes's trial that Hayes had told him he had committed both the murder and the theft. Hayes' conviction of murder in the course of a burglary made him eligible for the death penalty. James was given immunity from prosecution for the murder in exchange for his testimony, but he told the jury that he had gotten no other benefits. In fact, according to the August 2002 appellate court ruling in Hayes' case, prosecutors had agreed to drop unrelated theft charges against James but had not told him about the agreement and allowed him to deny its existence to the jury. The panel then upheld Hayes' death sentence in a 2-1 ruling, criticizing the prosecution's conduct but saying it had not affected the verdict because jurors heard other critical information about James. The panel also rejected defense claims of incompetence by Hayes' trial lawyer, who called only 2 witnesses in a 23-minute penalty phase and presented no evidence of Hayes' drug use or his drug-filled family background. No date has been scheduled for the new hearing. (source: San Francisco Chronicle) ALABAMA: Alabama Appeals Court Rules In Four Death Penalty Cases----Offenses Range >From Kidnapping To Shooting A state appeals court has given a convicted murderer from Atmore a chance to overturn his death sentence, but the court, in rulings issued Friday, upheld death sentences from Etowah, St. Clair and Tuscaloosa counties. In the case of John Morrow, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a Baldwin County judge to consider the Atmore man's claim that he is mentally retarded and should be exempt from the death penalty. Morrow was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to die for the kidnapping and murder of a Baldwin County man in November 2000. Prosecutors said the motive was robbery. In 2 other cases, the appeals court rejected arguments from Michael Shannon Taylor and Frederick D. Woods that they had ineffective counsel. Taylor and Woods are pursuing a second round of appeals in their cases and can now ask the Alabama Supreme Court to review their cases. Taylor was convicted of the November 1991 beating deaths of an elderly Etowah County couple. Woods was convicted of the shooting death of a store owner in St. Clair County in September 1996. In another case, the appeals court upheld the capital murder conviction and death sentence of Willie Dorrell Minor for the death of his 2-month-old son in April 1995 in Tuscaloosa County. Minor can also take his case to the Alabama Supreme Court. (source: Associated Press) NEVADA----execution stayed Ybarra's execution stayed Robert Ybarra's reservation in the Nevada State Prison death chamber for today will go unused... at least for a while longer. Federal District Court Judge Edward C. Reed ordered a stay of execution last week for the 51-year-old killer. After Ybarra's last appeal to the Seventh Judical District Court was denied in July, an Aug. 27 exection date was set for the 51-year-old rapist. Ybarra was sentenced to death on July 2, 1981, for the 1979 kidnapping, rape and murder of Nancy Griffith -- a 16-year-old Ely teen-ager. But in the 23 years since his sentence was imposed, Ybarra has litigated 3 state-court, post-conviction appeals -- all of which were denied -- and 3 federal-court, habeas corpus petitions -- the first 2 denied. That 3rd petition has been pending in federal court since May 2, 2000. Judge Reed stayed the execution until Ybarra "has had reasonable opportunity to have his claims in this case reviewed by the federal courts." (source: Ely Times)
