August 31 MISSISSIPPI: Capital murder cases slowed by mental tests Mississippi courts have reached the point where mental evaluations for individuals accused of capital crimes are commonplace. For example, Ernest Lee Hargon. Last week, a Yazoo County judge didn't blink in ordering a second mental evaluation requested by the defense and not opposed by prosecutors. Hargon underwent a mental evaluation shortly after his arrest on charges of killing his cousin and the cousin's family in rural Yazoo County. The mental evaluation likely pushes Hargon's trial into next year. Little guidance was given Earlier this month, the capital murder trial of Terrance Chandler in the killing of a Mississippi State student was postponed for a mental evaluation. In May, 3 Marshall County men accused of capital murder in the death of an 83-year-old woman were ordered to undergo evaluations at the request of District Attorney John Champion. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision prohibiting the execution of mentally ill inmates may have protected the severely mentally retarded, but it provided little guidance for the far greater number of inmates who are borderline cases. Ruling on a Virginia case, the Supreme Court did not specify standards for states, though it referred to guidelines set out by the American Association of Mental Retardation. The court said it would be a violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishment" to execute anyone with a combined IQ of 75 or lower. IQ is intelligence quotient. An IQ of 100 is said to represent normal intelligence. An IQ lower than 75 is said to reflect mental retardation. The Supreme Court was quite specific. It said that an IQ of 76 would not grant criminals protection from execution under the Virginia case. Most states have followed nationally accepted guidelines that define retardation as significantly below-average intellect combined with low "adaptive" skills at such things as communicating and taking care of oneself. Retardation line murky But when drawing the line between inmates with low intelligence and those who are retarded, states have disagreed, making it easier to get off death row in some states and harder in others. In Mississippi, the state Supreme Court has told local judges to follow the guidelines in the Virginia decision. In dispensing with dozens of mental retardation claims from Mississippi's death row, the justices have required the inmates to produce an expert opinion that the defendant possessed an IQ of 75 or below and that further testing showed the inmate was not malingering. About a dozen death row inmates have been ordered to undergo mental evaluations while a half dozen others have been denied. 2 inmates David Blue and Mack C. Wells have had death sentences changed to life in prison based on mental evaluations. Other such appeals are pending before the Mississippi Supreme Court, many from death row inmates are post-conviction claims, which address mental retardation as a new issue and grounds for a new trial. The Mississippi high court has not yet ruled that new guilt-or-innocence trials are in order for condemned inmates under the mental retardation issue. Blue and Wells were re-sentenced to life without parole; not retried on their guilt or innocence. Prosecutors, such as Marshall County's Champion, want to know ahead of trial whether defendants are mentally competent to stand trial, if any are legally insane and whether they are capable of assisting their attorneys in preparing their defense. (source: Clarion-Ledger) TENNESSEE: Workman denied prosecutor notes----State files not open as fight moves to federal court Philip Workman, scheduled to die Sept. 22 for the murder of a Memphis policeman in 1981, cannot have access to a state prosecutor's personal files and notes, the Tennessee Court of Appeals has ruled. The ruling, made public yesterday, rejected a defense request for the work files that assistant prosecutor John Campbell put together while defeating a state court attempt to get Workman a new trial. The appeals court said those files are exempted from the state's open records law because the issues at the center of the defense arguments are now before a federal court. Having exhausted their appeals in state court, Workman's lawyers are asking a federal court in Nashville to spare his life. Workman has acknowledged firing a handgun at police the night Lt. Ronald Oliver was killed while responding to a robbery call. But Workman argues that Oliver was killed by a bullet fired by another officer. Authorities say only Workman and Oliver fired weapons during the shooting. Workman twice has come within hours of execution when court rulings have spared his life. The state Supreme Court ruled 4-1 in May to set the latest execution date for Workman. (The Tennessean) CALIFORNIA: Scott Peterson Murder Trial Resumes Prosecutors in the Scott Peterson murder trial introduced evidence from dog-handlers that authorities claim places his dead wife at the same marina where the former fertilizer salesman said he launched his boat the day he reported her missing. Christopher Boyer, a volunteer for the Contra Costa County search and rescue team, was to return to the witness stand Tuesday. Prosecutors claim search dogs picked up Laci Peterson's scent at the Berkeley Marina where Peterson launched what he claims was a solo fishing trip on the morning of Dec. 24, 2002 -- the day he later would report his wife missing. Earlier Monday, defense lawyers suggested Laci Peterson may have been alive and surfing the Web as late as midmorning on the day she disappeared, hoping to raise doubts about the prosecution's timeline of the crime. Lydell Wall of the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department, returning to the stand for cross-examination, testified that someone used Peterson's home computer to search shopping Web sites for a scarf and a sunflower umbrella stand on Dec. 24, between 8:40 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. "Who was the person who logged on at 8:40 a.m.?" defense lawyer Mark Geragos asked. Wall could not answer. He said authorities never asked him to determine exactly who used the home computer that morning. Laci Peterson had a tattoo of a sunflower on her ankle. Prosecutors allege Peterson killed his pregnant wife in their Modesto home either late on Dec. 23 or early on Dec. 24, then drove to San Francisco Bay and dumped her body from a boat he kept at a warehouse. The remains of Laci Peterson and her fetus washed ashore months later, not far from where Peterson claims he set out on a solo fishing trip the day his wife vanished. Defense lawyers contend someone else abducted and killed Laci, then framed their client after learning his widely publicized alibi. Police allege Peterson disposed of the body on the morning of Dec. 24. With Monday's cross-examination, defense lawyers tried to show the prosecution's timeline left little time for Peterson to get rid of the body. Prosecutors allege Peterson made a cell phone call at 10:08 a.m. Dec. 24 at or near his home. Wall testified that Peterson was browsing Web sites at his office at 10:30 a.m.the same morning. Records indicate Peterson surfed Web sites there for 26 minutes. Former prosecutor and trial watcher Michael Cardoza said the defense was trying to establish Laci Peterson was alive in the morning. "That really is important to their case," Cardoza said. "It really shoots holes in the prosecution's timeline." Later, Geragos played for jurors one of many wiretapped telephone conversations made by police in the weeks after Laci Peterson vanished. Jurors last week heard only a portion of the call between Laci Peterson's brother, Brent Rocha, and Scott Peterson. Geragos played the entire call Monday. Rocha is heard confronting Scott Peterson about his affair with Amber Frey, and Peterson admits to the affair but expresses love for his missing wife. "You know Laci and I are happy together," Peterson says. "I told you, Scott, the day after she left she loved you so much," Rocha says. Peterson is heard expressing concern a volunteer center set up to help find Laci Peterson had closed after the affair became public. "I still want to go down there and, you know, open it up and work," Peterson says. "I had nothing to do with her disappearance, Brent." (source: Associated Press) PENNSYLVANIA: Jury To Decide Whether Wholaver Gets Death Penalty A jury will begin deliberations Tuesday on whether a Dauphin County man convicted of killing his estranged wife and 2 daughters on Christmas Eve 2002 should be put to death. Ernest Wholaver was convicted Monday in the killings, but the jury acquitted him of all charges related to accusations that he had molested the girls for years. He was found not guilty of raping and molesting his daughters, Victoria, 20, and Elizabeth, 15. Closing arguments wrapped up Monday morning in the case and a jury reached its verdict just before 6 p.m. The defense took an hour and a half to make its final arguments. Most of the arguments focused around Jeff Martin, an on-again, off-again boyfriend of Victoria Wholaver who was a suspect in the murders. "If there's a chance he murdered these people then there's a reasonable doubt," defense attorney Spiro Lappas said. "I did not come to this courtroom to let these people roll over an innocent man." Ernest Wholaver was found guilty of killing his wife and 2 daughters and then trying to hire a hit man to hill his daughter's ex-boyfriend. Do you think he should get the death penalty? Wholaver is also charged with trying to hire a hit man to kill Frank Ramos, an ex-boyfriend of Victoria and the father of her child. An inmate testified that Wholaver wanted Ramos killed and the death made to look like a suicide in order to pin the deaths of Wholaver's family on Ramos. "Ernest Wholaver is a man who uses people, and now in this trial, he is trying to use Jeff Martin as a scapegoat," prosecutor Fran Chardo said. "The 12 of you are the only thing standing in the way of Ernest Wholaver getting away with murder," Chardo said in his final statement to the jury. (source: TheWGALChannel) VIRGINIA: Prosecutors plan to seek death penalty----But they are waiting on reports on evidence in the killings of a Henrico couple Henrico County prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against 21-year-old Adam Russell Baumann in the June beating deaths of his father and stepmother. "I would say it's a high probability," Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Gerrard said yesterday. The brutality of a killing is an important factor in deciding whether to pursue the death penalty, Gerrard said, and the slayings of Russell and Diana Baumann "appear to be a brutal attack." Gerrard noted that prosecutors are still waiting on forensic reports from the state laboratory on evidence submitted by police, including several potential murder weapons. Although the results of those reports could influence the prosecution's decision, Gerrard said, "our current intention is to seek the death penalty." Baumann was indicted Aug. 19 by a Richmond-area multijurisdictional grand jury on capital and 1st-degree murder charges. He originally was charged with a single count of murder, but that charge was withdrawn yesterday in Henrico Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court. The new charges supersede the earlier one. Baumann is accused of bludgeoning to death his 61-year-old father and 58-year-old stepmother inside the family's home in the 10700 block of Brookley Road, less than a block from the Glen Allen Community Center. Among other items, investigators found a baseball bat and a hammer, both with red stains, in the house near the bodies. Police said they believe both victims' heads had been covered with black trash bags, although only one was still covered when police entered. Adam Baumann disappeared after the couple's bodies were found on June 4. But investigators were able to track him as he drove south and allegedly used his father's bank card to withdraw money. He was arrested a week later in Jacksonville, Fla., after authorities said he jumped from the top of his speeding car while being pursued by police. The 24-minute chase reached speeds of 120 mph, police said, but it was unclear how fast Baumann's car was traveling when he jumped. He escaped serious injury and was returned to Virginia on June 24. Authorities have not offered a possible motive for the slayings. Baumann is scheduled to appear Sept. 30 in Henrico Circuit Court for a status hearing. A trial date has not been set. Richmond defense attorney Christopher Collins has been appointed to represent Baumann. (source: Richmond Times-Dispatch) KENTUCKY: 500 may be in Chapman jury pool Court officials in Boone County are prepared to bring in as many as 500 jurors to ensure that a man charged with killing members of a Gallatin County family receives an unbiased panel. When Marco Chapman goes on trial for his life in October, it will be the 1st death-penalty trial in Boone County in more than a quarter century. So during a hearing Friday, attorneys debated how they would go about picking a jury that would sit for the trial, which is expected to last 6 weeks. Chapman, charged with two counts of murder and a host of other crimes, is scheduled to stand trial beginning Oct. 26. At least the first week, perhaps longer, will be taken up with choosing the jury, which includes individual questioning of potential jurors about their views on the death penalty. And because of extensive publicity about the killings, potential jurors will be asked how much they have heard and remember about the case. Defense attorneys consider jury selection a key part of keeping a person from dying from a lethal injection of drugs -- especially in a case where the evidence appears to be overwhelming. Prosecutors said Chapman has admitted his role in the slayings that stunned the tiny community of Warsaw more than 2 years ago. According to police, Chapman entered the home of Carolyn Marksberry in the early morning hours of Aug. 23, 2002, while her husband was in Europe on a business trip. Chapman pulled a knife, robbed Mrs. Marksberry, then forced her into a back bedroom, where he tied her up and raped her while stabbing her repeatedly, police said. He then killed Cody Sharon, 6, and Chelbi Sharon, 7, police said. Their sister, Courtney Sharon, 10, was also stabbed but survived by playing dead. Afterward, Chapman fled to West Virginia, where he was picked up by Kanawha County deputies. Although the crimes occurred in Warsaw, the trial is being held in Boone County after defense attorneys successfully argued that Chapman could not get a fair trial in Gallatin County. Mrs. Marksberry was a city clerk for Warsaw, and was well-known in the county of about 8,000 people. A defense survey showed that 98.9 percent of the people questioned believed Chapman was probably guilty of the crimes. Boone County, with a population nearing 100,000 people, is seen as better able to have people who have not heard about the crimes or are willing to view the case with an open mind. Linda Tally Smith, who prosecutes cases in both counties, announced the day of Chapman's indictment that she would seek the death penalty. For Boone Circuit Judge Tony Frohlich, the trial will complete a circle of sorts. In 1978, when Eugene Gall was sentenced to die in Boone County for raping and killing a 12-year-old girl -- in the first death penalty case in Kentucky since the U.S. Supreme Court found the procedure constitutional. Frohlich was a public defender. 2 years later, when Paul Kordenbrock was sentenced to die for shooting to death a Florence auto supply clerk during a robbery, Frohlich was an assistant commonwealth attorney. Now, in the biggest case since he became judge in April, Frohlich will preside over the third death penalty case in Boone County. Defense attorneys have a lot to overcome. Both Mrs. Marksberry and her surviving daughter are expected to testify and identify Chapman as the man who assaulted them. While in West Virginia, Chapman gave a statement to sheriff deputies that prosecutors have termed a confession. Defense attorneys were unsuccessful in their efforts to have the statement suppressed. Part of the defense is that Chapman is not competent to stand trial, or that a mental illness made him incapable of having the required competence to be guilty of the crimes. Chapman already has undergone a mental evaluation, and Frohlich has scheduled a competency hearing for Oct. 1. (source: Kentucky Post)
