Sept. 30 ILLINOIS: Death penalty sought in knifing Cook County prosecutors said Wednesday that they would seek the death penalty against a Crestwood man charged with killing a baby girl and wounding four people in a random stabbing spree at a Midlothian shopping center in June. Brett Carlson, 26, is charged with 1st-degree murder and multiple counts of attempted murder, attempted robbery, vehicular invasion and attempted carjacking. Tom Stanton, a spokesman for the state's attorney's office, said prosecutors determined that the charges against Carlson, including allegedly committing another felony during the act of murder, warranted a possible death sentence if he is convicted. Ashley Hurt, 16 months, of Chicago was killed in the attack, which started about 5:30 p.m. June 3 at a Walgreens in the Mid-Oak Plaza near 147th Street and Cicero Avenue. Police said the knife-wielding Carlson also injured Ashley's mother and 3 other adults before he was subdued by by-standers. He is scheduled to appear Oct. 28 for a status hearing and remains in custody in lieu of $5 million bail. (source: Chicago Tribune) MARYLAND: Death Penalty Opponent Accused Of Harassment Saying a charge of electronic harassment violates a death penalty opponent's constitutional right to speak her mind, the American Civil Liberties Union will represent a woman accused of sending harassing e-mails to the brother of a woman who was raped and murdered. Rachael Lee Riffee, 34, of Sykesville is accused of writing obscenity-laced e-mails and Web site postings to a pro-death penalty Web site hosted by Fred Romano, the brother of Dawn Marie Garvin. Garvin was killed in 1987 by Steven Oken, who was executed for the crime on June 17. The e-mails and postings were sent during the days around Oken's execution. Riffee was charged June 30 with 1 count of electronic mail harassment. When state police served her the warrant, Riffee told them that she sent the e-mails and that "she feels very strongly about some issues and feels she has to tell the people what she thinks," the court documents state. Andrew Dansicker, a Baltimore lawyer who will work with the ACLU on Riffee's case, told The (Baltimore) Sun on Wednesday, "She feels very strongly that she has a First Amendment right to express her views against the death penalty. She may have used intemperate language, but she has that right." One of the e-mails uses derogatory sexual terms to refer to the recipient. The same person sent another e-mail and other messages with similar references, according to the charging documents. E-mails and messages on the Web site's guest book, copies of which were made available to The Sun, make references to the Holocaust and compare the recipient to Hitler. Oken was Jewish. "Even in my darkest time, I couldn't think of something that mean to say to someone," Romano said Wednesday. He said he called the police because he feared for his family's safety. Riffee's trial is scheduled for Oct. 28 in Carroll County District Court. The charge of e-mail harassment is a misdemeanor that carries a possible penalty of 1 year in jail and a $500 fine. (source: WBAL News) LOUISIANA----new death sentence New Orleans-area man gets death sentence In Gretna, a man has been sentenced to death for killing a woman in her driveway as she shielded her daughter from an armed robbery attempt. In March, a jury convicted Christopher Arceneaux, 19, of 1st-degree murder in the shooting death of Dena Mansour, 33, on Oct. 27, 2002, in her driveway in the Terrytown section of Jefferson Parish. State District Judge Greg Guidry formally sentenced Arceneaux on Wednesday. Death sentences are automatically appealed to the Louisiana Supreme Court. Prosecutors said Arceneaux and Richard LaViolette, 20, were trying to rob Mansour as she cleaned her sport utility vehicle. Prosecutors said Arceneaux shot Mansour in the right side of her back as she shielded her 12-year-old daughter. In April, LaViolette was convicted of 2nd-degree murder and received a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. On Sept. 9, Arceneaux's attorneys asked Guidry for a new trial, saying two expert witnesses who testified against him testified beyond their qualifications. Defense Attorney Lee Faulkner said prosecutors also struck all potential black jurors during jury selection. Arceneaux is black, and all the jurors were white. The judge denied the request. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: Peterson defense implies botched investigation Scott Peterson's defense lawyers are again accusing police of narrowly focusing on their client while ignoring other possible leads. Defense lawyer Mark Geragos spent his fourth day Wednesday cross-examining Modesto police Detective Craig Grogan, pointing out how police failed to follow up on a number of reported sightings of Laci Peterson on the day she was reported missing. Geragos on Tuesday mentioned four calls to the police tip hot line within days of Laci's disappearance -- one from a man who said he saw a woman who looked like Laci "being forced into a van, correct?" Geragos asked the detective. "Yes," Grogan replied. Geragos returned to the same line of questioning Wednesday regarding the tipster who claimed to have seen Laci being dragged into a van the morning she vanished. "He commented specifically that there was that look on her face, remember? ... How did he describe her look?" Geragos asked. "A scared look on the face?" "Yes," Grogan said. Prosecutors allege Peterson killed Laci in their Modesto home on or around Dec. 24, 2002, then dumped her body into San Francisco Bay. Her badly decomposed remains -- and that of her fetus -- washed up in April 2003, not far from where Peterson launched his boat that Christmas Eve morning for what he claims was a solo fishing trip. Defense lawyers maintain someone else abducted and killed Laci while she walked the couple's dog. Geragos then hit several key points, offering reasonable explanations for some of Peterson's behavior police deemed suspicious and noting an alleged lie in an affidavit for a search warrant. Grogan acknowledged that Peterson told authorities he was fishing for sturgeon the morning Laci vanished and that he was using freshwater gear because he had accidentally left behind his saltwater tackle. Grogan has said that was one of the things that concerned officers about Peterson's story. Geragos also said police included in a Jan. 20, 2003, affidavit for a wiretap of Peterson' phones a comment that authorities were preparing to arrest Peterson at the time. Grogan said there were no such plans then. Geragos then brought up a burglary that occurred across the street from the Petersons' home. Grogan said a witness told him she saw several men that Christmas Eve morning loading a safe into a van parked in front of that home. Grogan said police posted a reward seeking information about the van and the suspects, and later even investigated the possibility that the incident may have been linked to Laci's disappearance. The woman whose home was robbed testified previously that she and her husband left their home on Dec. 24 around midday. When they returned, their home had been burglarized. Defense lawyers have hinted the burglars may have been involved in Laci's disappearance, but prosecutors contend it would be impossible given that the Petersons' dog was found wandering alone in the street before the couple left their home, indicating Laci met her demise before the break-in. Police also testified previously they recovered much of the stolen property, arrested 2 men in the case and ruled out any connection to Laci's disappearance. Geragos then moved on to another point. Defense lawyers have argued it would have been nearly impossible for Peterson to have dumped his wife's weighted body from his small boat without tipping. Grogan acknowledged Wednesday police discussed doing an experiment to see if it would be possible, but scrapped the idea. Prosecutors later began their redirect of Grogan, methodically noting Peterson's apparent duplicity that caused police to become so suspicious of him. Prosecutor Birgit Fladager asked Grogan if Peterson ever expressed concern about how the investigation was going. "Did he make inquiries ... about the status of the investigation into his missing wife?" Fladager asked. "On a daily basis, no," Grogan said. "Did he make those kinds of inquiries on a weekly basis?" she prodded. "No," Grogan replied, adding that Peterson inquired only about once a month. Grogan then recounted a conversation he had with Peterson 2 days after Laci vanished. "I asked him if he'd been able to get any sleep since this started, since Laci's disappearance," Grogan said. "He told me he didn't sleep well ... but he at least at home had the comfort of the smell of Laci in their bed." Fladager followed up quickly. "Were you aware that he was talking to (his mistress) Amber Frey at this time?" she asked. "At that time I was not," Grogan said. Grogan also read an e-mail Peterson sent to Laci's mother soon after the woman had inquired with detectives about retrieving two of Laci's lamps from the Petersons' home. "She loves her lamps and they should be in our home when they bring her home," Grogan read. Fladager then quickly noted that Peterson had inquired about selling the couple's home -- fully furnished -- within a few weeks of his wife's disappearance. (source: Associated Press) ********************* THE PETERSON TRIAL/Defense attacks police focus on one suspect/Others could have killed pregnant woman, it contends Modesto police detectives didn't follow up on reports of Laci Peterson sightings, ignored possible suspects in the missing-person investigation and had crackbrained theories about the case that never panned out, according to attorneys representing Scott Peterson. For the third day Tuesday, defense attorney Mark Geragos quizzed lead investigator Craig Grogan about the double-murder case, in a Redwood City courtroom. The day got off to a shaky start, when jurors felt their chairs moving from an earthquake centered in Monterey County. The court took a short break so members of the panel could calm their nerves, and then Geragos resumed his cross-examination. Geragos, whose mantra throughout the trial has been that police wrongly focused on Scott Peterson in the disappearance of his pregnant wife and ignored any information that undermined their theory, spent the day trying to show that the prosecution's case was riddled with holes. For instance, when, during the investigation, Grogan contacted Dr. Boyd Stephens, San Francisco's retiring medical examiner and an expert on bodies dumped in the bay, the coroner's theory of what would have happened to Laci Peterson's corpse had it been dumped in the water contradicted what police believed. Stephens, according to Grogan, doubted that 30 pounds of cement anchors would have held Laci Peterson in place and that her body most likely would have drifted along the bay floor. Prosecutors have suggested to jurors that Scott Peterson wrapped his wife's body in a tarp and then tied it up with 4 handcrafted anchors made of concrete that weighed about 8 pounds each. Despite exhaustive bay searches, no anchors were ever found. Stephens also told Grogan that if Laci Peterson's body had been wrapped in plastic and thrown into the deeper, colder waters of the bay, her remains could still be in pristine shape -- even after being submerged more than 3 months. Laci Peterson's badly decomposed remains washed ashore in April 2003, less than 2 weeks after Grogan's conversation with Stephens. Her head, hands and most of her legs were missing. A day earlier, the body of the couple's unborn son was found near the same spot. The baby's body appeared largely intact. Although authorities found a black tarp, a pair of panties, a piece of elastic and some fabric near the bodies, police never had the items tested, Grogan testified. Geragos also tried to show that police found nothing to support their belief that, because they found no physical evidence of a crime scene at the couple's Modesto home, Peterson might have drugged or poisoned his wife. Grogan said investigators had seized a mortar and pestle from the home to test it for chemicals but to no avail. By the afternoon Geragos had moved on to Kim McGregor, a mentally ill woman who had broken into the Petersons' home nearly a month after Laci Peterson had vanished. Geragos tried to show that although McGregor had stolen a number of Laci Peterson's clothes and rifled through the couple's belongings, no one looked at her as a possible suspect in the 27-year-old's disappearance. Geragos has contended that Laci Peterson was abducted by strangers and then kept alive for 2 to 3 weeks. He asked Grogan about the stolen clothing, suggesting that McGregor might have been aiding the abductors. Then, Geragos turned his attention to a mysterious van that was reported to have been seen by at least 3 different witnesses in the area at the time Laci Peterson disappeared on Dec. 24, 2002. "I know that we made some efforts to find that van or what people were talking about," Grogan said, adding that police were never able to locate the vehicle. Grogan admitted that not much investigation was put into tracking down several witnesses who said they had seen Laci Peterson with 2 unsavory characters on the day she disappeared. One witness, a reserve Martinez police officer in the 1970s, said he had seen a man pull a woman who looked like Laci Peterson into a van not far from the Petersons' home. Grogan said that by the time the sightings were reported, corroborating them was "not so much of a priority." Prosecutors say Scott Peterson began plotting to murder his wife and the couple's unborn child in early December, after he had fallen in love with a Fresno masseuse. The trial is scheduled to resume today. Judge Alfred Delucchi, who is presiding over the case, told jurors that the prosecution could rest their case and the defense start presenting their evidence by next week. He said he was hoping that the jury would begin deliberations in the capital-murder case sometime in October. (source: San Francisco Chronicle) ********************** Death-penalty moratorium The State Senate voted Sept. 24 to create a new commission to study the flaws in California's criminal-justice system. The panel will look at "the extent to which [the justice system] has failed in the past, resulting in wrongful executions or the wrongful conviction of innocent persons" and will recommend "ways of providing safeguards and making improvements." It's a good idea, and Sen. John Burton (D-San Francisco) deserves thanks for pushing it. But with so much evidence that innocent people are on the state's death row, the panel's first act should be to call for a moratorium on all executions. Death Penalty Focus, which works to abolish capital punishment, points to 2 cases in which California nearly executed innocent people. Harold Hall was released last week after serving 19 years for a double murder he didn't commit; Thomas Lee Goldstein served 24 years before winning release. But that's just the start. As A.C. Thompson reports on page 13, lawyers for Fred. H Freeman, convicted of a 1984 murder in Berkeley, say the judge and prosecutor illegally conspired to keep Jews and African American women off the jury, thinking they would be reluctant to vote for the death penalty. They have a sworn declaration from the prosecutor in the case to back them up. If that's true, there's a very serious problem here: The judge, the late Alameda County Superior Court Judge Stanley Golde, oversaw 11 cases in which defendants were sent to death row between 1980 and 1995. It's entirely possible he used his considerable influence as trial judge to improperly sway the outcome of some or all of those cases. Which means 11 people currently slated to die may have not had fair trials. The Alameda County D.A. needs to move immediately to reopen those cases. But they just demonstrate how reckless California courts can be about taking human lives. We've always opposed capital punishment, but at the very least, there should be no more executions until the criminal justice system provides a lot more clear and convincing evidence that innocent people won't wind up strapped to a gurney in San Quentin with a needle full of poison in their arm. (source: San Francisco Bay Guardian) USA: USS Cole dads' opinions differ on death sentences The father of a sailor killed during the bombing of the USS Cole nearly 4 years ago said he does not believe the 2 men sentenced to death for their involvement in the attack should be executed. The father of another local man who died in the Cole bombing said he believed that death by firing squad for the men was "absolutely appropriate." Washington County residents Michael Roy and Tom Wibberley said they were informed Wednesday that 2 men were sentenced to death during a proceeding in Yemen. Jamal al-Badawi, 35, a Yemeni, and Saudi-born Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were ordered executed for plotting the attack by 2 suicide bombers who blew up an explosives-laden boat next to the Cole as it refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden on Oct. 12, 2000. The attack killed 17 sailors aboard the Cole and wounded 40 others. Fireman Patrick Roy, 19, of Keedysville, and Seaman Craig Wibberley, 19, of Williamsport, died in the attack. Michael Roy said he does not believe a death sentence was the proper punishment. He said the most fitting punishment for the men is beyond him. "I don't believe in capital punishment and execution," Roy said. "It brings no peace or comfort for me. I don't think it solves anything." Roy said the decision to execute the men only "perpetuates violence." Tom Wibberley said he was pleased to hear the news Wednesday. "They killed my son and 16 other sailors," Wibberley said. "The only thing they were in that area for was to try to keep peace in the world." Wibberley said he hopes anyone found to be involved with the Cole bombing is subjected to the same punishment. Wibberley said the news that the death penalty is to be imposed has not brought him closure. "I don't feel that I'll ever have closure because the day has not come that I don't think about losing my son," Wibberley said. (source: The (Hagerstown, Md.) Herald Mail) ALABAMA----impending volunteer execution Hocker execution tonight at Holman Death row inmate David Kevin Hocker is scheduled to die tonight for killing his boss 6 1/2 years ago. The 33-year-old Hocker has declined his rights to appeal his conviction in the slaying of Jerry Robinson. His execution by lethal injection will take place at Holman Prison near Atmore. Hocker was sentenced to die for killing Robinson, stealing his truck and using his bank card to get 400-dollars to buy crack cocaine in March of 1998. He turned himself into authorities and admitted killing Robinson during his trial 4 years ago. Hocker would be the 2nd Alabama inmate put to death in the last 2 months. James Barney Hubbard was executed on August 5th. (source: Associated Press)
