Sept. 27 LOUISIANA: Death penalty given to man convicted of Caddo killing In Shreveport, a 21-year-old man received a death sentence Friday for killing a store clerk in rural Caddo Parish in a 2002 robbery. A jury deliberated for about an hour before sending LaDerick Campbell to death row. Campbell was convicted Wednesday of fatally shooting Kathy Parker, 51, of Queen City, Texas, in February, 2002. Prosecutors said the victim was working alone in the package liquor section of the Magnolia Club in Rodessa when Campbell and another man entered and demanded money. Campbell used a shotgun to kill her after she pleaded for her life, prosecutors said. Her husband was working at a bar next door the night she was killed. Deputies from Cass County, Texas, arrested Campbell and James Edward Washington Jr. the next day. Washington faces a 2nd-degree murder charge but has yet to be tried. (source: Associated Press) VIRGINIA: Man who killed four in Roanoke avoids possible death penalty In roanoke, Clinton A. Brathwaite avoided a possible death sentence Monday when he pleaded no contest to killing his girlfriend and her 3 children in their Roanoke home. Under a plea agreement reached in Roanoke Circuit Court, Brathwaite will serve life in prison without parole. Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell said he offered the plea bargain because Kierra Arrington, who was expected to be a key prosecution witness, has given several different accounts of the shooting that did not match the physical evidence at the crime scene. Brathwaite was convicted of fatally shooting Angela Arrington. Prosecutors believe he then shot her children--LaVoe, 13, DeVonte, 10, and Kedeesha, 8--because they witnessed the crime. Kierra, the daughter and sister of the victims, was shot in the head but survived. She was 14 at the time of the April 4, 2003 murders. After the hearing, Deon Hilton, the father of Kierra, LaVoe and DeVonte, declined to comment. Other family members said they were not upset Brathwaite was spared a possible death sentence. "Every day he lives, I want him to think about what he's done," said Delois Lovelace, Angela Arrington's aunt. "Because he'll bust hell wide open when he dies." Even for family members who might have wanted to see Brathwaite executed, the plea agreement meant Kierra would not be subjected to a bruising cross-examination. "That was the biggest thing," said Diane Kasey, another of Angela Arrington's aunts. "We didn't want her to go through all that again. She's suffered enough." Brathwaite felt the same way, defense attorney Tony Anderson said. "I think that probably was the linchpin for him and his decision" to plead no contest, Anderson said. "Because he really did ... show concern for how it would affect her and her recovery." Brathwaite, a 31-year-old native of the Bronx, N.Y., was paroled on a drug charge the year before the killings. Under the plea agreement, Brathwaite pleaded no contest to 4 counts of capital murder, 1 count of attempted capital murder and 5 gun charges. He received 5 life sentences plus 23 years in prison. He will not be eligible for geriatric release. (source: Associated Press) NORTH CAROLINA: Prosecutors unsure about death penalty In Lillington, the Harnett County District Attorney's Office said Monday that it needs more time before deciding whether to seek the death penalty against Jodie Lee Steele II. Steele, 22, of Fayetteville, is 1 of 5 men charged with killing a mother and her daughter while trying to elude lawmen in August. Steele appeared in Harnett County Superior Court on Monday for the Rule 24 hearing. Assistant District Attorney Peter Strickland asked the judge to delay the hearing to give prosecutors more time to collect evidence to determine whether to seek the death penalty. District Attorney Tom Lock decides whether the death penalty should be sought. "We are not prepared to have the conference," Strickland said. Steele's lawyer, Robert Reives, said he was not opposed to the request. Judge Jack Thompson agreed to delay the hearing. It was unclear Monday evening when the hearing would be held. Steele and the other 5 men were indicted by a grand jury Aug. 30 on 2 counts each of 1st-degree murder, attempted common-law robbery and conspiracy to commit common-law robbery. The men are accused of killing Wanda Finch Knox, 43, and her 17-year-old daughter Shannon Knox. The women died when the Lincoln Town Car carrying the men struck Knox's Jaguar near U.S. 401 and N.C. 210 Aug. 20. The driver of the Town Car, Roame Jackson, 26, of Benson, also was charged with speeding to elude arrest, exceeding 100 mph in a 55 mph zone and careless and reckless driving. Others charged were: Gregory Christopher King, 19; Stephen Darrell Swinton, 22; John Michael Kelly, 19. They are all from Fayetteville. Swinton and King are scheduled in court today. Kelly is scheduled to be in court Thursday. (source: Fayetteville Observer) MISSISSIPPI: Death penalty saves us money >From what I read on the subject of capital punishment, it costs $30,000 a year to keep a dangerous person in prison. As a Christian, I hate to see a life taken, but let us look at it in another way. If someone is put in prison with no possibility of parole, then he is just a taxpayers' burden the rest of his life. I think anyone born in this great state and country should strive to leave it better or as good as when he came into it and if he can't, then we don't need him. Let me estimate a taxpayer with a fairly good job would pay about $3,000 a year in taxes so it would take all of what 10 taxpayers would pay to keep just one person in prison. None of their tax money would go to schools. parks, etc. Let's say the criminal spent 32 years in prison. That would be just under a million dollars for a body worth about 5 dollars. Now let's say if we took this money and put 2 people each in 4 years of college who would have high moral standards and people who could maintain a 3.4 or 3.5 grade point average. If they would sign a contract to stay in Mississippi, their schooling would be free. If they leave Mississippi, they would have to pay back the total spent for their education plus interest. For what it costs to keep one person in prison we'd have 16 college graduates. Now lets say we have done a good job of selection of these people. Let's say 2 of them earn an average one million dollars a year for their 32-year work span, and let's say 2 more earn a half-million for their 32-year work span and 2 more earn a quarter-million for their 32-year work span and 10 earn $75,000 00 for their 32-year work span. Just look at the tax money that would be received. And if we have picked people with good moral standards, then the families of these people can be sent to college with great results expected from them. What would you like for your tax money to go for? Some well-educated, fine, upstanding people or a million dollar body? Jack Cox, Monticello (source: Opinion, Brookhaven Daily Leader) ARKANSAS----impending volunteer execution Prison Prepares for Newman's Execution While Court Handles Stay While the Arkansas Supreme Court considers the fate of Rickey Dale Newman, prison officials Monday are preparing for the confessed killer's execution as scheduled for Tuesday. Prisons spokeswoman Dina Tyler notes that the stay issued by the high court is a temporary one, so the execution preparations are proceeding. Newman was granted the temporary stay on Friday after lawyers submitted a motion on behalf of Newman's aunt, Betty Moore. Newman has said he wants to die for killing a woman in 2001 and fired his lawyers for trying to stop his execution. (source: KATV news) ALABAMA----impending volunteer execution Hocker faces execution for murder of his boss in Houston County David Kevin Hocker continues to waive any appeals and is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Thursday for stabbing his boss to death in Houston County in 1998 and stealing his money to buy crack cocaine. Hocker, 33, has filed no final-week appeal of his death sentence for the March 21, 1998, stabbing Jerry Wayne Robinson, 47, of Columbia in Houston County, state's attorneys said Monday. Hocker, who had been living in a Dothan motel, was accused of shooting Robinson as he sat in a truck in Headland and dumping Robinson's body in neighboring Henry County. A worker with Robinson's structural steel detailing company, Hocker used the victim's bank card to get cash to purchase $400 worth of crack cocaine. He later turned himself in at the Mobile County Sheriff's Department. Hocker's initial appeal was rejected by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. He then filed court documents waiving his right to further appeals. Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett said Hocker has given no indication that he has changed his mind. Corbett said prison officials are going on with plans for the execution by lethal injection Thursday at Holman Prison in Atmore. Hocker has not made a request for clemency to Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, said Jeff Emerson, the governor's communications director. During his trial 4 years ago, Hocker admitted killing Robinson. "I'm guilty," he told the judge. (source: Associated Press)
