Oct. 22 NORTH CAROLINA---- volunteer execution Execution ends killer's odd saga----Charles Wesley Roache gave up his appeals to demonstrate his remorse for 6 murders in 1999 Charles Wesley Roache, whom the state put to death early today, was no ordinary killer. His execution before dawn this morning by lethal injection at Central Prison in Raleigh ended a most unusual murder case. To start, Roache and Christopher Wayne Lippard didn't kill just 1 person in 1999. Over 2 days in September, they shot to death 6, beginning in Alexander County with the slaying of Chad McKinley Watt, 22, of Statesville. Then they drove down Interstate 40 and murdered a Haywood County family that had just returned home from a local fair: Earl Phillips, 72; his wife, Cora, 71; their son Eddie, 40; their daughter-in-law Mitzi, 44, and granddaughter Katie, 14. It was one of Western North Carolina's worst mass murders. The motive was robbery. But then Roache did the unexpected. He waited nearby for police, surrendered and confessed right away, even going so far as to tell police about Watt's killing, which they didn't yet know about. Roache, now 30, was sentenced to die. Lippard, 25, got life in prison without parole. After one mandatory appeal, Roache did what almost no one else on death row does: He gave up years' worth of further possible appeals and told the state to go ahead and kill him. He said it was to show his remorse and to try to make up for his crimes. "It only takes words to say you're sorry," Roache told The Charlotte Observer last week, "but it takes your heart to show it." The chemicals involved in lethal injection are intended to stop the heart and the lungs, leading to an unconscious death. On Thursday night, as Roache awaited execution, he had a final, prison officials told The Associated Press. Assistant District Attorney Alan Leonard, who prosecuted Roache, said Roache has been contrite since his arrest. Death penalty opponents argued that the state shouldn't execute Roache without first examining his mental fitness. But Roache told his lawyers to let him die instead. Witnesses testified during Roache's sentencing hearing about his family's long history of violence and abuse of drugs and alcohol. Roache's maternal grandmother died in front of her daughter in 1958 after her husband doused her with gasoline and set her on fire. According to court filings, Roache's mother once made him pet a litter of kittens and then watch as she killed them one by one. She set puppies on fire in a barrel and once told Roache that if he went to church something might happen to another of his dogs. The puppy was dead on the doorstep when he returned home. 3 of Roache's teachers testified at his sentencing hearing that Roache was a quiet child who was teased about his stuttering and his last name. He abused alcohol and drugs, and was high and drunk during the slayings. Ken Rose, director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham, said Roache's abandoning his appeals amounted to state-sponsored suicide. Roache's lawyer, Jim Cooney of Charlotte, said he followed his client's request not to keep the case going, though he agreed the state should evaluate Roache. "Charles' reasons -- how can I argue with them?" Cooney told the Observer. "He's clearly rational. This isn't a fit of depression." Roache becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in North Carolina and the 33rd overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1984. Roache becomes the 52nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 937th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977. Nationally, at least 11 more condemned inmates face serious execution dates before the end of this year, including 2 more in North Carolina. (sources: News Observer & Rick Halperin) TEXAS----impending execution Attorneys file lawsuit seeking to halt execution Attorneys for a condemned Texas inmate have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to halt his execution until they are allowed access to boxes of evidence that recently were found by police. Dominique Green, 30, is scheduled to die Tuesday for the 1992 murder of Andrew Lastrapes Jr. in Houston. His attorneys filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the Harris County District Attorney's Office, the Houston Police Department and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. They allege Green's due process rights are being violated by the defendants' refusal to determine if there is any evidence in the boxes that is relevant to his case. Houston police in August found 280 boxes of mislabeled and improperly stored evidence from 8,000 cases dating back more than a decade. David Dow, a University of Houston law professor who is representing Green, said he does not know if the boxes contain any relevant evidence. But he said it would be unlawful to execute Green before police have time to review the evidence. The lawsuit was filed in federal court because the state courts have not yet ruled on the defense attorneys' request for a stay of execution or access to the evidence, Dow said in Friday's edition of the Houston Chronicle. The Texas Attorney General's Office did not return a call seeking comment placed by the newspaper. Green has acknowledged being at the slaying scene but has denied being the triggerman. Green's case has attracted the attention of several death penalty opponents. He received a visit on death row earlier this year from Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu. He has asked Tutu to be a witness if the execution is carried out next week. Andrew Lastrapes was one of 10 people robbed during a 3-day crime spree authorities said involved Green. 2 other men accused in the spree received lesser prison terms on a reduced charge for testifying against Green. A fourth man was not charged. The 3 who were charged and convicted were black. The one person not charged was white. Dow said he hopes something in the boxes of evidence might offer information on the 2 plea bargains and explain why the other man never was charged. (source: Associated Press) WASHINGTON: Death penalty sought in murder case Pierce County prosecutors will seek the death penalty for 2 men charged in the kidnapping and murder of a tool salesman earlier this year. County Prosecutor Gerald Horne announced his decision yesterday, saying he was swayed by the alleged acts of the 2 men, Jeremy Hosford, 25, and William Schorr, 29, during and after the crime. The pair were arrested in February and charged with aggravated 1st-degree murder for the death of Robert Shapel, 55. Shapel was a long-time Snap-On Tools salesman who drove a van loaded with tools. Investigators say the men flagged down Shapel Feb. 24 on the pretense that they needed a replacement for a broken tool. Instead, authorities say, they robbed Shapel at gunpoint, handcuffed him, wrapped his head in duct tape and plastic and left him to suffocate in a portable toilet. Horne said that amounted to torture. The pair also are accused of stealing Shapel's tools and cash, then burning the van. They later contacted his wife, pretending he was alive and threatening to hurt him if she didn't give them the code numbers to his credit cards. (source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer) OHIO---foreign national to face death penalty//re: Vienna Convention Prosecutor says he'll seek death penalty in deputy shooting death The Marion County prosecutor has notified the court of his intent to seek the death penalty for the man accused of killing a deputy sheriff. A grand jury Thursday indicted Juan C. Cruz, 20, on 1 count of aggravated murder in the death of Deputy Brandy Lyn Winfield, 29. The charge filed in Common Pleas Court asks for the death-penalty because Winfield was "engaged in his duties" at the time of the shooting. Winfield died Oct. 14 after he stopped to check on a van that apparently had run out of gas. A man he was trying to help allegedly shot Winfield in the back of his head after getting into the cruiser, investigators said. Cruz is scheduled to be arraigned Friday and is being held in the Multi-County Correctional Center in Marion. Mexican officials say they're following the case. Cruz is a Mexican citizen and his mother called the consulate Wednesday night seeking help, said Sergio Aguilera, Mexican consul in Indianapolis. "Since Mexico is against the death penalty, we look at this as very, very important," Aguilera said. Mexican officials and attorneys representing Mexican citizens say the rights of their clients often are violated when they are arrested in the United States. Prosecutor Jim Slagle said Municipal Judge William Finnegan told Cruz of his rights and Cruz told the court to contact the consulate. Slagle said his office called the consulate office in Indianapolis on Tuesday and sent written verification. Aguilera said Mexico employs attorneys who specialize in death-penalty cases, and that they would visit Cruz and work with his defense attorney. Cruz's attorney, Javier H. Armengau, said he hopes the sheriff's office will do an "unbiased and objective investigation." (sources: Associated Press & Columbus Dispatch) MARYLAND: Execution Set in Pr. George's Case----Prosecutor Goes Against Urging of Death Penalty Opponents A Prince George's County judge yesterday signed a death warrant for a convicted murderer from Capitol Heights, making him the 2nd man scheduled to be executed in Maryland this year. Heath W. Burch, 35, convicted in the slayings of an elderly couple nine years ago, is scheduled for a lethal injection the week of Dec. 6, according to the warrant signed by Circuit Court Judge Steven I. Platt. His execution would be the 1st for a crime committed in Prince George's since 33-year-old Lott Glover was hanged for murder in 1953. The judge also granted a stay of execution yesterday and gave Burch 30 days to file appeals. Burch's attorney, H. Mark Stichel, said he will seek to overturn the conviction based on a University of Maryland study that showed death sentences are imposed more often when the victims are white. Burch, who is black, killed an elderly white couple. Death penalty opponents had urged Prince George's State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey not to submit the death warrant to the judge. But Ivey said he did not want to disregard the verdict of a jury, which sentenced Burch to death in 1996. "I'm not going to overturn the death penalty unilaterally," he said. "I'm going to follow the laws that are in place." State officials, though, said Ivey was not required to submit the death warrant. Maryland law does not compel state's attorneys to forward death warrants to judges, said Kathryn Grill Graeff, chief of the criminal appeals division of the state attorney general's office. "It is within the state's attorney's discretion," she said. Ronald Walters, a University of Maryland political scientist, said the issue could become a political liability for Ivey (D) in a county where half the population opposes capital punishment. A 2004 poll by Bethesda-based Potomac Inc. found that 50 % of Prince George's residents oppose the death penalty and 36 % support it. "This is not going to be very popular in this county," Walters said. "Some people will probably resolve to remember this if he runs for higher office." But other analysts said Ivey's decision could be viewed as a tough-on-crime approach that would benefit him in a statewide election. The poll found that 53 % of Maryland residents support capital punishment. "There are a lot of middle-class and professional people in the state who are worried by crime, and I don't think they are going to be put off by the death penalty," said Matthew Crenson, another University of Maryland political scientist. Political observers have mentioned Ivey as a possible candidate for lieutenant governor in 2006, as the running mate of Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley (D) if O'Malley runs for governor. In an interview, Ivey declined to state his personal views on capital punishment but said he supports a statewide commission to review the issue. The decision to seek a capital sentence in Burch's case was made before Ivey took office in 2002. But he said he would have made the same decision. "I can't say that I have any basis to question the decision to seek the death penalty in this case," he said. Burch was sentenced to die for the slaying of Robert and Cleo Davis, who lived down the street from him. Burch admitted in court that he was high on crack and intended to rob the couple when he broke into their house on March 19, 1995. Robert Davis, 72, confronted Burch with a gun, but didn't fire the weapon after he recognized his neighbor. Burch then stabbed the couple dozens of times, stole 4 guns and $105 in cash and made off in their pickup truck, police said. Robert Davis's brother, Alton Davis, said Burch deserves the death penalty. "I'm not all gung-ho to put someone to death, but I think he should pay for what he did," said Davis, 79, of Inverness, Fla. "He should have been gone a long time ago." Burch's attorneys have until Nov. 22 to file their appeals in the case. Both Stichel and Ivey said it is likely that appeals will delay any execution until after Dec. 6. In June, Steven Oken became the 1st inmate executed by the state of Maryland since 1998. He was sentenced to die for murder and sexual assault. (source: Washington Post)
