Dec. 4
TEXAS:
Attorney seeks to clear name of executed killer
Sister Tadea Benz was sound asleep in her 2nd-story bedroom in the St.
Francis Convent in Amarillo on Halloween night in 1981 when Johnny Frank
Garrett slipped into the room.
According to his confession, Garrett raped the 76-year-old Roman Catholic
nun and choked her to death. Garrett, 17 at the time, told police that the
Swiss-born nun recited the Lord's Prayer during the attack.
Now, 22 years after jurors convicted him and 12 years after Garrett was
executed for the slaying, an Amarillo attorney is trying to prove his
innocence.
"No reasonable mind would believe otherwise," Jesse Quackenbush said. "The
old and newly discovered evidence of Johnny Frank Garrett's innocence is
so compelling it will cause even the most bloodthirsty proponents of the
death penalty to shake their heads in doubt."
Quackenbush, who was hired by Garrett's family, questions whether evidence
was ignored, the authenticity of the confession and the handling of DNA
evidence. He wants to retest DNA evidence on a man charged with a similar
rape and killing.
Quackenbush asked Potter County District Attorney Rebecca King in a Nov.
23 letter to release evidence for testing. King said her office will
provide whatever evidence a judge finds should be released.
"But there are procedures of criminal and civil law that have to be met,"
she said. "We're not trying to hide anything. It's whether the case needs
to be reopened or not. That's for a judge to determine."
Leroy Matthiesen, the former bishop of the Amarillo diocese who knew Benz
for decades, said the sisters at the convent are "distressed" that the
case is being revisited.
"I know it upsets the sisters very much," he said. "If the wrong person
was convicted, that has to be recognized and his good name restored."
Since the death of Benz, a popular seamstress who tended the convent
garden after she moved to Amarillo in the 1930s, nuns at the convent have
turned her room into a chapel and kept a candle burning continuously.
Garrett proclaimed his innocence to the end. He did not write or sign the
confession, Quackenbush said. In the confession, Garrett indicated he was
drunk and high on LSD when he broke out a convent window to steal a
stereo.
Shortly before his 1992 execution, at the urging of Pope John Paul II,
Gov. Ann Richards granted Garrett a 30-day reprieve. It was the 2st time
since Texas resumed executions in 1982 that a governor had intervened.
But the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted against commutation
despite arguments that Garrett was mentally ill as a result of physical
and sexual abuse as a child. His sister, Janet Dobbins, said her brother
didn't finish high school and had a history of petty crimes. He was
"always a little slow" and was a follower, she said.
Quackenbush's letter draws comparisons between Benz's slaying and that of
Narnie Box Bryson, 77. The 2 were slain 3 months apart in a similar manner
in the same part of town, the letter states.
The similarities were so striking that the district attorney at the time,
Danny Hill, and detectives were convinced the same man killed both women,
the letter states.
Leoncio Perez Rueda, 54, remains in jail charged with Bryson's slaying.
Quackenbush said that during a recent interview Rueda described raping and
beating a nun on Halloween night in 1981. Rueda, a Cuban refugee, was
indicted in July after authorities matched his DNA with semen samples
collected during Bryson's autopsy, the letter states. Rueda's attorney,
Maria Lopez, declined to comment.
Quackenbush said Amarillo police at the time concluded a Hispanic raped
and beat 10 women in their homes. Also, black hairs were found at the
scene of both slayings; Garrett was white and had brown hair. Amarillo
Police Chief Jerry Neal did not immediately return a call Friday seeking a
comment.
Garrett's case involved Ralph Erdmann, West Texas' main forensic
pathologist in the 1980s who pleaded no contest to falsifying autopsies
and tampering with evidence after serious omissions were found in about
100 of his cases. Erdmann's felony conviction raised questions in dozens
of cases he had handled.
Quackenbush said Erdmann discarded semen samples taken during Benz's
autopsy. At Garrett's trial Erdmann testified he threw the samples away
because no one told him to save them, Quackenbush's letter states.
Erdmann, who lives in San Antonio, said Friday that he did not recall the
case.
Quackenbush said he will pursue a civil case against several government
agencies if King does not release the evidence.
(source: Associated Press)
*********************
Death penalty foe brings her message here--'Dead Man Walking' book, film
about nun
Sister Helen Prejean, a nun, author and activist against the death
penalty, said she believes change comes only when people get involved.
Prejean spoke Friday to help promote the formation of a Corpus Christi
chapter of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
"This is a journey like I never dreamed and I'm still on it," Prejean said
in front of an audience of about 80 people at First United Methodist
Church.
In 1981, Prejean dedicated her life to the poor of New Orleans and began
living in a housing project. It was during that time she said that she
began to see the inequities that face minorities in the judicial system.
"I have a deep abiding respect for the law," she said. "My father was an
attorney. We were raised to respect it."
It was also during that time that agreeing to write a letter she really
didn't think would be responded to changed her life and the lives of so
many others. She began corresponding with Louisiana death row inmate
Patrick Sonnier. Sonnier was convicted of killing two teenagers and was
sentenced to the electric chair.
Prejean's book about her efforts to save Sonnier, "Dead Man Walking," was
made into a 1995 movie starring Susan Sarandon as Prejean and Sean Penn as
Sonnier.
Since 1981, Prejean has been an outspoken critic of the death penalty and
the judicial system that allows it.
"Texas is responsible for half of the executions in 2004," she said before
the event. "You have to ask yourself if everyone has the same Constitution
what is it about Texas that is so enthusiastic about the death penalty."
She said that in a state where candidates seem to get points for their
stand on the death penalty and attorneys run for office touting the number
of death penalty cases they have successfully tried, it is more than just
a simple answer.
"It's the climate," she said. "We have to educate people. The death
penalty isn't really a deterrent, even though that's what they'll tell
you."
But not everyone at the discussion was there because they support or are a
borderline supporter of stopping executions.
During the discussion period, a young woman stood up, holding a
beautifully framed picture. She said it was of her sister, who had been
murdered by a serial killer. She said that because of death threat letters
that she and family members of other victims received from the convicted
murderer on death row, the only way she would ever feel safe was to know
that he was dead.
It was a long event, but many walked away as energized to be a part of the
coalition as they had before it started.
"I was excited to hear that she would come talk in Corpus Christi," Sr.
Rosa Ortiz said. "We need to change. We need to wake up."
MORE INFORMATION:
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
602 W. 7th St., Suite 202, Austin, TX 78701
(512) 441-1808 ext. 106
(source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times)
*********************
Was deacon's murder a hate crime?
A Port Arthur man who claims to be a Muslim was charged with capital
murder Friday in the October 2003 shooting death of a church leader in
what might have been a hate crime targeting a Christian.
Kerron Lavern Otis, 36, who has a history of arrests and mental illness,
was at the Jefferson County Correctional Facility on Friday night in lieu
of $500,000 bond on the capital murder charge and $30,000 bond on an
unrelated aggravated perjury charge.
Otis is accused of killing Frederick Wayne Arnold, 55, who was fishing at
a canal near New Covenant Church, 2601 Texas 73, and stealing Arnold's
car.
Assistant District Attorney Ed Shettle said Otis professes to be a Muslim.
"We believe he sought out someone who was Christian to murder," Shettle
said.
Otis already was in jail about 2 months ago when he asked to talk to Port
Arthur police. Based on what Otis told them about Arnold's death,
officials searched a portion of the same canal where Arnold was killed.
Divers with the Department of Public Safety found keys to Arnold's house
and car and a shotgun that might have been used to kill him, Shettle said.
Fahmi Al-Uqdah, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Port Arthur and the
Islamic Society of the Triplex, said he did not recognize Otis' name and
doubts he belonged to the group.
"We disavow any affiliation with anybody like that. That's totally
un-Islamic," Al-Uqdah said. He said he has Christian siblings whom he
loves and that Islam requires peaceful co-existence.
Charles Wolfe, pastor of New Covenant Church, said Arnold was a faithful
Christian, a deacon, a great hunting and fishing buddy and his best
friend.
Arnold, who had retired after managing McCoys Building Supply Center,
played guitar and led the praise group at the church for about 16 years,
Wolfe said. Arnold's wife, son and daughter remain active in the church.
"We'd been praying that the Lord would really convict somebody's heart,
and I think that's about what happened," Wolfe said. "... I think that's
an answer to our prayers."
Shettle said his office will try to present the case to a grand jury
before the end of the year.
But it might be difficult to prosecute, he said; Otis had been found
incompetent to stand trial in another case and has a history of mental
illness.
Otis' attorney in the unrelated perjury case, Hugh O'Fiel, was out of the
office Friday afternoon.
Otis had served time in prison after convictions for aggravated robbery
and car thefts. Since 2002, he has had 3 misdemeanor convictions,
according to Department of Public Safety records obtained online.
(source: The Beaumont Enterprise)
***************************
Questions remain in merchant's death
The suspect in the shooting death of Gulf Coast Market owner Daniel
Kohlhofer made his first court appearance Friday, as officials continued
to investigate the case.
James Earl Cutsinger, 28, is charged with capital murder in the death of
Kohlhofer, whose body was found Sunday morning among the weeds beside
state Highway 87.
Kohlhofer had been shot 4 times with a 9mm pistol.
Cutsinger swore out a paupers oath, a written statement that he could not
afford a lawyer, Friday morning. He will receive a court-appointed defense
attorney.
That appointment might not become firm until after county prosecutors
decide whether to seek the ultimate punishment in Cutsingers case, as only
a small percentage of criminal defense attorneys are licensed to try
death-penalty cases.
"We're still collecting evidence, and theres no decision made yet on
whether well ask for the death penalty," County Criminal District Attorney
Kurt Sistrunk said.
One of the definitions of capital murder under Texas law is a murder
committed in the course of another felony. Capital murder carries a
possible term of life in prison or death by lethal injection.
Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo, commander of the criminal law enforcement bureau of
the sheriffs office, said investigators believed robbery was the motive
for the killing.
"The biggest thing taken was the victim's pickup truck, but we believe
there might also have been some money stolen," Tuttoilmondo said.
He also repeated his belief stated Thursday that the two men were not
acquainted prior to last weekend.
"We actually have some theories on how they managed to come together, but
it's a question were still following up on," he said. "Unfortunately, some
of that may be stuff we never really know."
Detectives used witness accounts to track the discovery of Kohlhofers
truck in Liberty County on Sunday night, and found a possible connection
to another stolen truck found in a vacant stretch of farmland in Jefferson
County. That trail led to Mont Belvieu, where Tuttoilmondo said they found
Cutsinger staying at a motel under an assumed name.
Cutsinger was taken into custody on outstanding warrants from Harris
County, about the same time as the Beaumont memorial service for Kohlhofer
was getting under way Thursday. Cutsinger was charged in the killing after
Galveston County detectives questioned him Thursday afternoon. He remained
in the county jail Friday, under $500,000 bond. He was also being held
without bond on unrelated Harris County auto theft and assault charges.
(source: Galveston County Daily News)
