Sept. 7 TEXAS: Slain Livingston family ID'd Authorities have revealed the identities of 4 family members found shot to death last week at their burning mobile home in East Texas. Floyd Thompson, 75, is charged with 4 counts of capital murder in the shooting deaths of his wife, daughter, son-in-law and grandson. The slayings took place Thursday at the Escapees RV Park, about 75 miles northeast of Houston in the wooded outskirts of Livingston. Investigators say the bodies were found after Thompson surrendered to authorities and told them he'd killed 4 people. Polk County Sheriff Billy Ray Nelson identified the dead as Thompson's wife, Betty Thompson, 74; his daughter, Eva Lou Thompson-Saad, 47; son-in-law Edmond Mitri Saad III, age unknown; and grandson Edmond Mitri Saad IV, 14. (source: Associated Press) ************************* Court of Criminal Appeals: Keasler deserves return to bench Michael Keasler agonizes over the death penalty because of what he considers the practice's questionable morality and the slim possibility that the state could execute an innocent. Still, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals justice holds it lesser than another evil: freeing a murderer to possibly kill again. He's unsure that the solution is to create a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole, since prisoners who can't be paroled have little incentive to behave. Texans should return the thoughtful Republican for a second consecutive term. Justice Keasler, a Dallas native who graduated from Grand Prairie High School, holds bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. A former Dallas County prosecutor and criminal district judge, he has interpreted the law through a restrained and scholarly lens during 23 years on the bench. His opponent is J.R. Molina, about whom little is known. The Democrat declined to return our written and telephoned requests for an interview. Nor did he complete an online questionnaire. The Houston Chronicle reported in October 2002 that he was 57 years old then, had graduated from St. Edward's University and the University of Texas at Austin and that he was a former president of the Mexican-American Bar Association of Fort Worth. Mr. Keasler, 62, believes that justices should be appointed and maintain their seats through retention elections. It's another good reason to recommend him for the court's Place 6. More than 7 of 10 respondents to a Dallas Bar Association survey preferred Justice Keasler over Mr. Molina for the spot on the bench. (Results of the bar's surveys are online at dallasbar.org/public/publicpoll.asp.) (source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News) ARIZONA: Prosecutors seek death penalty in former Flint woman's slaying Prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty against an Arizona man charged with killing a former Flint woman and dumping her body in the desert. Raymond S. Deruyter, 23, is charged with 1st-degree murder in Maricia Anne Limmer's death and is in a Tucson jail in lieu of $1-million bond. A court-appointed psychiatrist will help determine if he is competent to stand trial, said Deputy Pima County Attorney Teresa Godoy. A trial could be held within 18 months barring delays. Deruyter was a stranger to Limmer but gave her a ride the night she was killed, Godoy said. Police reports indicate she suffered "sharp force" and "blunt force" injuries, but prosecutors have not revealed other specifics. "The aggravating circumstance we listed is the murder was committed in an especially cruel, heinous or depraved manner," said Godoy, who filed the notice to pursue the death penalty Aug. 24. Deruyter's attorney, David Darby, declined comment. "I'm not going to comment. The state is trying to kill my client," he said. If convicted, Deruyter would be the 1st person sentenced to the death penalty from Pima County since 2001, according to the state's Department of Corrections Web site. The state has executed 86 people since 1910, but none in nearly 4 years. There were 128 inmates on Arizona's death row on Aug. 13. On Jan. 24, Limmer's body was found in the Arizona desert. The 34-year-old mother of 4 had been killed and dumped, partially nude, in a dry stream bed near Saguaro National Park West outside Tucson. Police reports and interviews with her mother suggest Limmer might have been killed over a drug debt and her journals, which could contain information about possible crimes committed by people she knew. Prosecutors dismissed first-degree murder charges in June against 2 cousins who were acquaintances of Limmer: John Julio Martinez and Ismael Roque Martinez. Charges could be reinstated after additional investigation and pending lab test results, Godoy said. William Cates, who is raising 2 sons from a previous relationship with Limmer, said the death penalty would be appropriate. "I've been raised all my life not to hurt people and I raise my kids not to," Cates, 40, said. "But in something this severe, let 'em have it." (source: Flint Journal) ARKANSAS: When capital punishment is assisted suicide----A death penalty opponent argues that the condemned Rickey Dale Newman has manipulated the state. Gov. Mike Huckabee has set Sept. 28 for Rickey Dale Newman's execution. His death, by lethal injection in the state's death chamber, will in reality be a suicide Rickey manipulated the state of Arkansas into helping him commit. Governor Huckabee, who signed the death warrant, is his Kevorkian. For many years, Rickey Dale Newman has said he is tired of living. He just wants to die. There probably haven't been many things in his 47 years of life he has wanted as much. He thinks, however, that committing suicide is "cowardly." He wants somebody else to end it all for him. I am an opponent of the death penalty and some will resist what I say for that reason. But the justice system should work as fairly as possible when it is imposed. Let's look at how it worked in this case. In 2001, Rickey confessed to a horrible murder in Crawford County. He's been demanding to be executed ever since. He made sure there was no defense presented at his trial. The jury heard no mitigating factors. He did everything he could, with the state's active cooperation, to inflame the jury. It was an inflammatory case without Rickey's help. Marie Cholette, a 46-year-old Fort Worth woman who, like Newman, was a railroad transient, was found dead Feb. 15, 2001 in a makeshift camp near Lee Creek Park. The police identified her from a photograph taken for a recent public drunkenness arrest. She and Newman (known by fellow railroad tramps as "Hardhead" and "Renegade") had just met a day or two before. Police found a security videotape of them buying wine and cigarettes at a liquor store. Newman said he killed her because she'd lied about being a member of a gang that hung out with him in the camp by the railroad. He said he cut her from head to toe. "I killed her until I got tired of killing her, then I walked away," he told the jury, which gave him the death penalty. The Evidence Did Rickey commit the murder? Who knows? I talk with him regularly as part of my work with inmates on death row. He tells me he has no memory of it and doesn't believe he did, but he wants to be executed. No witnesses were found. One witness mentioned by Rickey died before a public defender could locate him. The only real evidence is Rickey's confession and letters proclaiming his guilt that he wrote before his trial to the judge, the prosecutor and the media. The confession of a person who demands to be executed should be regarded warily. The phenomenon of false confessions is not uncommon. In a recent study of 42 defendants with wrongful convictions in Illinois murder cases, 25 either confessed falsely or were convicted largely on a codefendant's false confession. His confession was the only evidence against Rickey. Items from the crime scene, the victim, and from Rickey, including found on the victim and Rickey's clothing, were sent to the State Crime Lab for DNA and other testing. No DNA match for Rickey was found. No fiber matches were found. No fingerprints from Rickey were found. Rickey knew the victim, there's no doubt. But there the trail goes cold. While awaiting trial, he offered to take law enforcement officials to the place where the murder weapon was supposedly hidden. They arrived to find that the house and shed frequented by transients had been torn down. By then, more than two months had passed since Rickey's confession - 2 months of lost opportunities to find physical evidence. The Trial Surely, you say, a jury trial is a good test of the evidence. You have not heard about the trial of Rickey Dale Newman. It was a charade, designed largely by Rickey to make sure he would receive the death penalty. He says, too, that he was coached on elements of his performance by somebody. True or not, the system was his pawn. When a death penalty is being sought by the state, our legal system does not allow somebody to just plead guilty, even though Rickey tried. At the arraignment, Rickey said: "I waive all my rights, your honor, I plead guilty to these charges." At the inquiry hearing, he said, "I know I want the death penalty and that's all I care about.I don't wanna go to trial.." But our law says there has to be a trial, an adversarial proceeding. So Rickey made certain that no defense was presented. He made a mockery of the law. A state psychologist determined that Rickey was competent to assist a lawyer in his own defense. Against advice from the judge, Rickey insisted on representing himself. The law allows that. But Rickey didn't want to defend himself. Rickey wanted to die. He represented himself so no favorable evidence could be introduced in his behalf. None was. A public defender was appointed to assist Rickey. But Rickey prevented him from presenting any defense. The 1-day trial was mostly devoted to proving that there had been a grisly murder in a hobo camp. Many photographs of the victim's mutilated body were shown. Manipulating the jury Rickey wore his orange jail uniform and leg shackles during the trial. He refused the street clothes that had been arranged for him. He thought the jury might not want to kill him if he looked like a regular person. Rickey took the stand to explain why and how he killed the victim. ".I bought her alcohol. I drugged her up. I got her drunk and killed her.." But the medical examiner had testified that he'd found only a trace of alcohol, maybe due to decomposition, and insignificant traces of therapeutic drugs. In his closing argument, the prosecutor speculated that Rickey might have been sexually rejected by the victim or might have been sexually impotent. Rickey didn't mind being accused of murder, but sexual inadequacy was another matter. He threw a fit, a profanity-filled tantrum that led the judge to have packing tape put over his mouth. The jury retired with no knowledge of the things that should have been presented in Rickey's defense. They heard a confession, inaccurate in some particulars. They saw a man in a jail jumpsuit and leg shackles. They saw an explosion of rage. He was the perfect image of a crazed killer. The Sentencing Phase Rickey took no chances after he'd been found guilty. He told the jury they had to give him the death penalty. He made sure they knew he wasn't the sort who deserved to live. "I first cut her a little at a time to make it hurt and then I stabbed her for fun and to watch her bleed. Then I cut her from her neck to her groin, and then I took some of her insides out and cooked some of her organs to see how long they would cook. Let's see - take to cook - how long it takes to cook them. I enjoyed murdering her very much and I had a lot of fun killing her and making her hurt real bad." Gruesome. Also a falsehood. The medical examiner had found all body organs "in normal anatomic position." During sentencing hearings, defendants can offer mitigation testimony - from experts and family members who talk about difficult childhoods and the like. Rickey had refused a defense attorney who would do an investigation, but State Hospital and police reports suggest a history worth exploring. The records mention his discharge from the Marines due to alcohol and drug abuse and treatment at numerous VA hospitals for drug abuse and mental disorders. He told the state psychologist that he had been granted veteran's disability benefits because he was disabled due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and "intermittent explosive disorder." Nobody told the jury that he was taking anti-depressants. He told the psychologist he had used meth and marijuana on the day he confessed, and that he was probably smoking marijuana at the time of the murder. No mention was made of his low IQ. No investigation was done to learn about his IQ in the years before he turned 18, a factor specifically required by the U.S. Supreme Court in its decision that mentally retarded people cannot be sentenced to death. Nobody was told that he was a seventh-grade dropout who had nearly always been in special education classes. All of these items were mentioned in the psychologist's report, but none was shared with the jury. Appeals. State law requires one appeal, and Rickey had no choice but to let that go forward. The court appointed an attorney to present the appeal. Acting for the defense, she said no errors were made in the trial and the verdict should be affirmed. She made no argument about the adequacy of Rickey's self-representation or the lack of anything resembling adversarial proceeding. She addressed none of Rickey's lies. She did not try to point to mitigating factors in possession of the prosecution. To a lay person, it was a non-appeal. This is fine with Rickey. He is irritated that he has been trying to get executed for 2 years and only now has his death been scheduled. The victim Marie Cholette died a horrible death, made unimaginably worse by torture and mutilation. The murderer removed her nipples, one of which was placed on her buttock. Her labia majora, minora and vagina were cut out. There was extensive tearing of the anal muscles. She was cut open from neck to groin, and her intestines were hanging out of her body. Whoever committed this murder is a dangerous and deranged person. The possibility that he might still be at large terrifies me. Rickey Dale Newman In my work with death row inmates, I have developed a good phone and letter relationship with Rickey. I like talking to him and he knows that I strongly disapprove of his intent to be executed. He becomes irritated when I call it state-assisted suicide. He disapproves of suicide. He has told me a few things about his life. He was born in Rudy, Arkansas. His mother died when he was 8, and he had 11 brothers and sisters. He doesn't know who his father was. He remembers being tied to the tree in the back yard a lot. After his mother's death, all of the siblings went to live with various relatives, but Rickey says the saddest time of his life was learning that no one wanted him. He went to a Boys Ranch at Lavaca and says the time spent there is his happiest childhood memory. He was adopted by a family in Fort Smith and acquired four more siblings, at least one of whom was also adopted. Almost immediately, he started running away. He discovered the rails and the "family and friends" of his gang. He has had a lifetime of being in and out of trouble, in and out of prison, in and out of treatment. He loved doing roofing work and he really liked the Northwestern U.S. He helped build a homeless shelter in Van Buren and he is very proud of it. This is what he wrote to me about why he wants to die: "I want death to have my peace in life. And to get away from what I am and was and to pay for all I have done wrong in life. And I am just tired of life. To me death is better than life." I am his friend, but I have failed to talk him into making appeals. What he trusts me with is to claim his body and to scatter his ashes at a place on the railroad tracks. Arkansas law I don't know whether the governor can be persuaded that execution of Rickey is inappropriate because the trial was such a farce. But I think his case illustrates the need for changes in Arkansas law. a.. Under no circumstance should a defendant accused of capital murder be allowed to represent himself, certainly not when it becomes clear his aim is to prevent a defense. b.. A confession in a capital case should not be enough. Corroborating physical evidence should be required. Any risk of "false confession" is too great. c.. Since the U.S. Supreme Court has said that mentally retarded people cannot be executed, no case should be submitted to a jury without a full investigation of the defendant's history. In all cases, a jury should have information about pre-adult IQ and retardation. I hope people who feel like I do will write Governor Huckabee. Our government has no business helping somebody commit suicide. No death sentence should be based solely on the confession of the accused. Especially when the jury never saw the "real" confessor - a borderline retarded, unwanted and abused, mentally disturbed, substance-abusing loner who wants the state to end the recurring horrors of his life. (source: Betsey Wright, Arkansas Times, Sept. 2)
