Oct. 9 PENNSYLVANIA: Del Co. Man Escapes Death Penalty A Delaware County jury has failed to agree on the punishment for a Chester man convicted last week in a double murder 4 years ago. Jurors spent 3 1/2 hours deliberating life or death for 23-year-old Raheem Johnson, found guilty in the execution-style slayings of brothers Juan and JosDe Perez on a Chester street. Defense lawyer John Neumann Hickey says in death penalty trials, a deadlock is a win for a defendant. So Hickey says he and his client are happy for the outcome. Prosecutor Thomas Lawrie had sought an execution in this case, but says he is satisfied with the outcome: Judge Ann Osbourne will decide at formal sentencing in December whether Hickey's 2 life terms will be consecutive or concurrent. (source: WPVI News) USA: Congress approves DNA testing bill Congress passed and sent to legislation President Bush on Saturday that would give rape victims and convicted felons greater access to DNA testing. The bill was approved by the House and Senate on voice votes without dissent. Bush is expected to sign it. "This bill will have a profoundly positive impact on many people involved in our criminal justice system," said House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. The bill would provide an additional $350 million to improve legal representation in death penalty cases. It would ensure access to post-conviction DNA testing for those serving time in prison or on death row, and provide $755 million in grants over the next 5 years to clear the backlog of some 350,000 untested DNA samples in rape evidence kits. "It's estimated 40 percent of the outstanding rapes could be solved by comparing the database coming from testing these kits in the existing database in our state prison systems where DNA's on the record," said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del. The House passed similar legislation nearly a year ago. In an effort to win Senate approval, the House added a Senate-written plan that provides $155 million for victims' assistance programs. The Justice Department has complained that the bill could limit the use of DNA testing being done now and may make it more difficult for states trying to prosecute death penalty cases. Lawmakers said while the burden will be on prosecutors to show a DNA test should not be granted during the 1st 5 years after conviction, after that the burden is on the defense to show it should be conducted. Victims groups have pushed for the bill, which was inspired by 2 people: Kirk Bloodsworth of Maryland, who was cleared by DNA testing after spending 9 years in prison, including two on death row, on rape and murder charges; and Debbie Smith, a Virginia resident, who waited 6 years for DNA evidence to identify the man who raped her. (source: Associated Press) ARIZONA: Murderer is facing execution --Jury finds beating of tot merits death After a trial that lasted more than 11 weeks, a jury returned a death sentence on Friday for Juan Velazquez, who beat his girlfriend's 20-month-old daughter to death and threw her body in a canal. "He's never going to get what he deserves, but the sooner he meets his maker, the better. It's the cruelest thing you can do to a child," said Anthony Sandoval, the dead child's father. Both families stood vigil outside Judge Jeffrey S. Cates' Maricopa County Superior Court courtroom waiting for the jury to come back with a sentence of life or death. Prosecutor Jeanette Gallagher said the sentence was "exactly what we expected. You never know with a jury. We picked the right one." Sandoval and Virginia Venegas and their two children, Liana and Isabella, who was 3, shared an apartment. But Sandoval moved out when Venegas started seeing Velazquez, 26. Almost immediately after Velazquez moved in with Venegas, Sandoval's mother and sisters said they noticed bruises on the two Sandoval girls and notified Child Protective Services. CPS deemed the charges unsubstantiated. On Sept. 24, 2001, while in a fit of rage, Velazquez beat Isabella so badly that he fractured her skull. The next day, Sept. 25, he killed Liana, a child in diapers who had not yet learned to speak. Angered by her crying, he repeatedly kicked her legs out from under her until she couldn't get back up. Then he covered her with a pillow and left her to die. After Venegas realized the child was dead, Velazquez used a length of wire to bind a rock to the child's body. With Isabella in the back seat, Venegas drove Velazquez to the canal. He threw the body in, then went home to report the child missing. Within days, police extracted confessions from Velazquez and Venegas. Sandoval sued CPS for failing to protect Liana and Isabella. And while Velazquez's criminal trial was going on in early September, a civil jury awarded Sandoval and daughter Isabella $7.5 million. On Aug. 31, the jury found Velazquez guilty of 1st-degree murder and 7 counts of child abuse for beating Liana and Isabella. They immediately found aggravating factors that could earn him the death penalty. Defense attorneys Robert Storrs and Joey Hamby brought expert witnesses to testify as to Velazquez's borderline personality disorder and to explain why his life should be spared. Beaten as child Velazquez's cousins and aunts described how Velazquez was beaten as a child and how he watched as his father beat his mother. His mother, who is serving time for a DUI conviction, testified while wearing jailhouse stripes. She told how she and her ex-husband would pull guns on each other when they were angry. An aunt testified that she had once seen the father put a gun to 6-year-old Juan's head. "This is not a dysfunctional family. This barely qualifies as a pack," Hamby said during the defense's closing arguments. "What took so long for something to go wrong?" But Gallagher told the jury she thought Liana's death was more horrible than Velazquez's life. She started her closing statements by putting a photograph of Liana's battered face on the overhead projector and said, "That's horrible." 'My closure' Emotions ran high during the last days of the trial, which were attended by Vera Perez, maternal grandmother and guardian of Velazquez's 2 daughters. "Whenever I kiss them before they go to school, I think of little Liana who will never see a day of school in her life," she said. After the sentence she said, "This is my closure. He deserves death because Liana didn't deserve to die." No word from jury The Velazquez family did not speak after the sentence. Nor did the jury. "This has been hard on them," Gallagher said of the family. "They've never had to deal with this kind of thing." Anthony Sandoval told The Republic that he "thought the world of the jury." His mother Ofelia was breathless. "There's justice," she said. "And he still has to face the other judge." (source: Arizona Republic) TENNESSEE: An Inexplicable Vote for Death Paul Gregory House was convicted of murdering a neighbor in 1985, before the era of DNA typing. The Tennessee jury that found him guilty was told that the semen found on the body of the neighbor, Carolyn Muncey, matched his blood type. The jury, citing the fact that Mrs. Muncey had been raped, said Mr. House should be sentenced to death. It's hard to believe that the jurors would have come to that conclusion if they had known that the semen's DNA matched that of Mrs. Muncey's husband, Hubert, not the defendant. A 15-judge United States Court of Appeals panel in Cincinnati that heard a request to reopen the case knew that. Yet the judges recently voted, 8 to 7, that Mr. House should neither be freed nor given a new trial. They were not swayed by six witnesses implicating Mr. Muncey. 2 said Mr. Muncey had told them he had killed his wife while he was drunk. That 8 judges would condemn a man to be executed under these circumstances is shocking. What's worse is that the judges divided along partisan lines. The 8 judges appointed by a Republican president voted to keep Mr. House on the road to the death penalty. 6 judges appointed by a Democrat wanted to free him, and the 7th called for a new trial. It's hard to dismiss the thought that the Republicans voted as a show of support for capital punishment, not on the merits of the case. For Mr. House, the next stop is the Supreme Court. For the rest of us, his case should serve as a reminder that when we elect a president, we are also deciding the makeup of our courts. (source: Editorial, New York Times)
