Dec. 14 USA: Rehnquist Won't Vote in Every Case Heard This Term Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, ill with thyroid cancer, will not vote in every case that has been argued this term, and will instead participate in certain cases only when necessary to prevent a tie vote, the Supreme Court announced yesterday. Rehnquist, 80, will be strictly a tie-breaker in the 12 cases that were argued during the first two weeks of November, none of which he could attend, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said. Arberg added, however, that Rehnquist "is going to participate" in 12 cases the court heard during its subsequent 1-week sitting, between Nov. 29 and Dec. 8. Rehnquist also missed those arguments. He participated in the 10 cases argued during October, including 2 in which he wrote the opinion for the court. The announcement was the first public indication that Rehnquist's illness has prevented the court from conducting business as usual -- that it has had one member who, at least for a while, has been unable to carry out his most important duty. He is receiving both chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Rehnquist's condition has been the focus of intense speculation since he announced Oct. 25 that he had undergone a tracheotomy in connection with a diagnosis of thyroid cancer. If Rehnquist died or were forced to retire because of ill health, it would give President Bush the chance to nominate the 1st new Supreme Court justice in more than a decade, possibly triggering a major political battle between Republicans and Democrats. The court has been tight-lipped about Rehnquist's condition, and Arberg declined to comment yesterday on the precise reasons for the chief justice's decision. While presiding over oral arguments in the chief justice's absence, John Paul Stevens, the senior associate justice, had said that Rehnquist "will participate in the decision of the cases on the basis of the briefs and the transcripts of the oral arguments." In that sense, this is the 2nd time that Rehnquist has had to retreat from an optimistic assessment of his ability to work. The 1st came on Nov. 1, when he was obliged to stay home rather than attend oral argument, as he had promised in an Oct. 25 written statement disclosing his diagnosis. Rehnquist did not vote in either of the court's two unanimous rulings yesterday in cases that were argued in November. In one case, the court reversed a Florida Supreme Court ruling that had overturned a death row inmate's death sentence; in the other, it rejected the claim of a Washington state man that he had been wrongly arrested. The court also issued a ruling, written by Rehnquist, in a case from early October, reversing a lower federal appeals court's decision on a technical issue involving double jeopardy in criminal cases. Supreme Court analysts differed as to whether yesterday's announcement was a hopeful indicator of Rehnquist's staying power. Noting that Rehnquist said he would vote in the December cases, and that he last week accepted Bush's invitation to administer the presidential oath of office on Jan. 20, lawyer Thomas C. Goldstein said that it was "doubly a good sign." "I took it to mean that in November he was maybe getting the most aggressive treatment," Goldstein said. But David J. Garrow, a professor of law at Emory University, sounded a more pessimistic note. "Should [it] be read as an acknowledgment that his mental ability to focus or concentrate has slipped, and he has to husband his strength for when it really counts?" he said. Garrow said the chief justice's decision was "very puzzling," given that the bulk of his work involves not argued cases, but decisions on hundreds of appeal petitions each week. When justices do not vote on these petitions, their non-participation is noted on the court's list of orders. There has been no such notation for Rehnquist. Rehnquist's approach appears unprecedented in court history -- in part because no two illnesses, and no two justices, are exactly alike. Thurgood Marshall stayed on the court for several years while in declining health at an old age. William J. Brennan Jr. retired at age 84 after suffering a sudden stroke. Yet each eventually retired when the court was not sitting. Justice William O. Douglas, however, insisted on staying in office for months after suffering a devastating stroke on Dec. 31, 1974. His mental and physical deterioration was such that the 8 other justices at the time -- including Rehnquist -- voted not to count Douglas's vote if it would decide a case. But the approach adopted by Rehnquist while undergoing cancer treatment, Garrow said, "is the reverse of the William O. Douglas scenario. In this case, you only vote when it counts, as opposed to only voting when it doesn't count." (source: Washington Post) KENTUCKY----new death sentence--"volunteer" Confessed Killer Seeking Death Penalty Awaits Sentence----Chapman Stabbed; Judge grants request by killer, issues death sentence in Ky. case A man who brutally attacked a northern Kentucky family in 2002, killing two children, was sentenced to death Tuesday at his own request. Marco Chapman, 32, pleaded guilty last week to the murders of 6-year-old Cody Sharon and 7-year-old Chelbi Sharon. He had asked the judge to give him a death sentence. The children's' mother, Carolyn Marksberry, who was also attacked, described Chapman as a "monster" during the sentencing hearing Tuesday. Her voice was steady and she displayed little emotion. "For many children, the word monster is enough that it requires no name. Our monster has a name," she said. Marksberry showed family pictures of her slain children to Chapman and Judge Tony Frohlich. She also asked Frohlich to impose the death penalty. Chapman sat motionless as the death sentence was handed down. He apologized to the Marksberrys, acquaintances of his before the killings in rural Gallatin County. "All I know is, I can't undo what I've done," Chapman said after he was sentenced to death. "She may not believe it or anybody else, but I did love those kids." Chapman also was charged with attacking Carolyn Marksberry, and the children's sister, 10-year-old Courtney Sharon, who survived. He also pleaded guilty to those charges last week. Authorities said Chapman was upset with Marksberry because she told Chapman's girlfriend to end a relationship with him. The case was moved to Boone County after defense attorneys argued that Chapman could not get a fair trial in Gallatin County where the crimes occurred. Commmonwealth's Attorney Linda Tally Smith said it could be a year or more before Chapman would be executed. That's because the state Supreme Court automatically reviews death sentences and the state Department of Public Advocacy is likely to pursue appeals on Chapman's behalf, Smith said. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA----another new death sentence Death Penalty for 'Sausage King' An Alameda County Superior Court jury Tuesday recommended the death penalty for Stuart Alexander, a San Leandro sausage plant owner it previously convicted of 3 counts of 1st-degree murder for killing 3 meat inspectors 4 years ago. The jurors deliberated for the equivalent of 5 full days before reaching their verdict. Deliberations were interrupted Monday when jurors said they were deadlocked and 1 panel member asked to be excused, but jurors changed their mind Tuesday morning and said they thought further deliberations would be productive after all. No one was removed from the panel. Alexander, 43, who calls himself "The Sausage King," killed the inspectors on June 21, 2000, when they visited his factory, the Santos Linguisa Factory, to investigate allegations that he was violating food safety regulations. Alexander also was convicted of attempted murder for attempting to kill a 4th inspector who managed to escape and then testified against Alexander at his trial. Killed in the incident were 2 U.S. Department of Agriculture compliance officers, 56-year-old Jean Hillery of Alameda and 52-year-old Tom Quadros of Hayward, and 57-year-old state inspector Bill Shaline of Sacramento. Alexander's sentencing hearing was scheduled for Feb. 15. (source: KPIX TV News) *************************** LIFE ON DEATH ROW: High-profile killer faces bleak existence with few amenities Life will take a surreal turn for Scott Peterson when he is led in shackles into the echoing cacophony that is Death Row at San Quentin State Prison. The inmates "know what he looks like," said Vernell Crittendon, the spokesman for San Quentin. "His case was a high-profile case, and he has a lot of notoriety. These types of individuals are not warmly received in the prison." The contrast to Peterson's suburban, middle-class life before his arrest for the murder of his wife, Laci, and unborn child, Conner, could not be more dramatic. But as the days, weeks and years go by, life for Peterson will become what it is for most of the 641 other prisoners on death row -- boring. The 32-year-old former fertilizer salesman will stay in his San Mateo County jail cell until Feb. 25, when Judge Alfred Delucchi is expected to affirm the jury's recommendation of death. He will then be brought to San Quentin in secret, possibly in an unmarked car, according to corrections officials. Once inside the prison, Peterson will be strip-searched and issued white underwear and blue denim prison garb with "CDC Prisoner" written on them in yellow. He will then be taken in handcuffs and under armed escort to his assigned cell in the adjustment center, a maximum security housing unit where all prisoners newly sentenced to death are confined. He can expect obscenities and other disparaging remarks to be directed his way as he passes other inmates, Crittendon said. "They won't have access to him, but they will see him," Crittendon said. "It might be a little unnerving for him to have people with muscles and tattoos on their bodies yelling at him." Peterson will stay in the adjustment center as a so-called Grade B prisoner -- those designated to be either threatened or a threat -- for a few weeks while psychiatrists assess his educational background, personality and compatibility with other inmates. The moral code among prisoners at San Quentin has historically meant child killers and molesters are targeted for violent death. Guards say Richard Allen Davis, for example, who molested and killed Polly Klaas, is well aware that any prisoner who gets a chance will try to kill him. Peterson's slaying of his nearly full-term baby when he murdered his wife is probably enough to put him on the prison hit list, prison officials said. Peterson is likely to end up in East Block, a crumbling, leaky cell block housing 450 inmates stacked up five tiers high, according to Eric Messick, another San Quentin spokesman. He will probably remain in East Block until a proposed new death row is built several years from now. Messick said it would be a trying process getting to know the other inmates. "It's normal for anybody who is new to be probed," he said. "There will be somebody getting at him. There isn't much else for them to do. It's more of a curiosity thing." Peterson would be well served to make a friend at this point, preferably someone with influence over others, according to ex-cons, guards and others. "The rules in prison aren't all that different from anyplace else," Messick said. "Personality goes a long way anywhere you go." Money goes pretty far, too. Crittendon said an investment of, say, $25 a month on a potential friend can make life in the joint a whole lot easier. For the most part, however, life will be brutally monotonous for Peterson. Breakfast will be served in the cell between 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., then he will be allowed to go out into the yard with "compatible inmates" until 11:30 a.m. or noon. A bagged lunch will be provided daily. Showers will be offered three times a week. Peterson will be able to sign up for religious services, go to the law library or receive visitors for two hours in the afternoon Thursday through Sunday. Attorney visits will be allowed Monday through Friday. Whatever choices he makes, he will be handcuffed and under escort whenever he steps outside his cell. Dinner will be served inside his cell at 5 p.m., after which he will be confined until morning. In short, it will be a bleak and numbing daily routine, devoid of intimacy or meaningful human contact. "No matter what he does," Crittendon said, "he can rest assured that for the next thousand months that same activity will be exactly what he will be doing at the exact same time every day." Or until the day he dies. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHART 1: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executions -- Name, year executed and time spent on death row: Robert Alton Harris (1992; 13 years, 1 month) Keith Daniel Williams (1996; 17 years) Robert Lee Massie (2001; 21 years, 10 months) Darrell Keith Rich (2000; 19 years, 1 month) Kelvin Malone* (1999; 15 years, 6 months) Stephen Wayne Anderson (2002; 20 years, 6 months) William George Bonin (1996; 13 years, 1 month) Manuel Babbitt (1999; 16 years, 10 months) Jaturun Siripongs (1999; 15 years, 9 months) David Edwin Mason (1993; 9 years, 7 months) Thomas M. Thompson (1998; 14 years, 1 month) * Extradited to Missouri and executed in that state. (sources: California Department of Corrections, Associated Press) ************************ PETERSON JURY: DEATH ---- THE JURORS: How they decided he should die They never felt a sense of relief. Nor any happiness. Instead, when the 6 men and six women of the jury found Scott Peterson guilty of murdering his wife and unborn son, they broke down in tears and gave each other a hug. "There was nobody giving each other high fives," juror Greg Beratlis said Monday. "It was a big massive hug and crying." Beratlis, a youth-sports coach from Belmont, was one of three jurors who agreed to speak with reporters at length about the reasons the panel had convicted Peterson and recommended that he be sentenced to die and about the emotional toll the six-month trial had exacted. "That was not a happy event for anybody," said Beratlis, 46, who teared up several times during a press conference at the Redwood City courthouse. "I was not happy." No one issue or piece of evidence swung the panel toward conviction, the jurors said, but the cumulative weight of Peterson's deceptions and even his courtroom demeanor worked against him. "It was hard to narrow it down to one specific issue, there were so many, '' said Steve Cardosi, the jury foreman. "Collaboratively, when you add it all up, it doesn't appear to be any other possibility." The jurors said that when they adjourned to the deliberation room last month, they had looked at the case as the prosecution had asked them to during closing arguments: as a giant puzzle, with many pieces. The evidence was circumstantial from the start, but the jurors said a few simple truths stood out. The bodies of Laci Peterson and the couple's unborn son washed up near where Scott Peterson said he had been fishing the day she was reported missing. Peterson told a web of lies to those around him. And his odd behavior -- including continuing to woo his secret girlfriend as police, family and total strangers were looking for his missing wife -- were not the actions of a man who had been wrongly accused. "If he was innocent, and he'd lost his wife and child, it didn't seem to faze him," said Cardosi, a 29-year-old firefighter and paramedic who lives in Half Moon Bay. Beratlis said he didn't believe Peterson would have been put on trial if the bodies of his wife and unborn son hadn't washed up near where he said he'd been fishing that day. "If those bodies had never been found or had been found in the desert or Yosemite National Park, we wouldn't be here," Beratlis said. Jurors said they had taken just one vote during the guilt-or-innocence phase of the trial, and the vote -- although agonizing -- was unanimous. Richelle Nice, 34, a mother of four from East Palo Alto who served as an alternate until a juror was excused midway through deliberations, said Peterson's muted response and vacant stare after the guilty verdict had troubled her. "At the end of the verdict, there was no emotion, no anything," Nice said. "That spoke volumes. That was loud and clear." Beratlis said he would have liked to have heard Peterson testify on his own behalf; Nice said she'd heard all she needed to hear from the defendant. During the trial, prosecutors played dozens of taped phone conversations of Peterson wooing and lying to his girlfriend Amber Frey. They also showed jurors several television interviews conducted after his wife had disappeared. "I heard enough from him," Nice said. The jurors said they felt sympathy toward the families of Laci and Scott Peterson and came to view the defendant's family as more victims of his "charade." "There is no winner in this," Beratlis said. Deliberations during the penalty phase proved to be far more difficult for Cardosi and other jurors. After hearing two weeks of testimony from family and friends, the jury began deliberations late Thursday afternoon and spent a full day Friday weighing their 2 options before taking their first vote on a sentence. The vote was split: six voted for death, two voted for life in prison without parole, and four said they were not ready to make a decision. Cardosi said those four just needed more time to think about the decision that they would have to live with for the rest of their lives. "Sometimes, a little time helps," Cardosi said. The jurors gave high marks to defense lawyer Mark Geragos -- and Beratlis said he'd hire him if he were ever to be in Peterson's shoes. In the end, the jurors said, there probably wasn't anyone who could have served Peterson better. "I respect Mr. G," said Nice, a flamboyant woman with dyed pinkish hair and nine tattoos, who said she'd developed a nickname for most everyone in the courtroom. "I think he's a great lawyer. I think this wasn't a good test for him because I think it gave him a bad name." The jurors said that they had finally concluded that death was the right sentence for Peterson because he had betrayed the woman closest to him and the unborn son whose name the couple had already chosen. "Scott Peterson was Laci's husband and Conner's dad -- the one person who should have protected them," Nice said. The jurors said the proceedings had not only been wrenching in court but had changed them outside of court as well. Beratlis' voice cracked as he talked about how the trial had made him look at his two teenage boys differently. "I think I appreciate life more," he said. "I appreciate my family more." Nice called herself "an emotional wreck. I look at life a lot differently. I hold my family close." Other jurors also made it clear the case had turned their lives upside down. One, 55-year-old Tom Marino of San Carlos, blinked away tears during a brief interview at his home and said the experience had been "really difficult, harrowing and horrible. "We need to get on with our lives and put this horrid thing behind us," Marino said. ***************************** THE APPEAL: Possible routes appellate lawyers may pursue Scott Peterson's trial judge once called the case "an appellate lawyer's petri dish," with fertile material for resourceful lawyers and reviewing courts. The ingredients of Peterson's appeal will almost certainly include the site of the publicity-drenched murder trial, the removals of jurors before the guilty verdict, evidence about the boat that allegedly carried Laci Peterson's body and the tape recordings that may have sealed her husband's fate. Another possibility is the competence of Peterson's high-profile attorney, Mark Geragos -- an issue seemingly raised by Geragos himself during the penalty phase of the trial. If Superior Court Judge Alfred Delucchi upholds Monday's death verdict by a San Mateo County jury at a Feb. 25 hearing, the next step will be an automatic appeal to the state Supreme Court. That court upholds more than 90 percent of the death sentences it reviews. Peterson's best hope may lie in the federal courts, which overturn nearly half of all death sentences. According to some legal analysts, the defense has 1 potentially strong issue on appeal: Delucchi's removal of 3 jurors, 2 of them in the last days before the guilty verdict. The 1st juror to be dismissed, for misconduct 3 weeks into the trial, said he was leaning toward acquittal. "To dismiss a juror during deliberations, there has to be good cause," said University of San Francisco Law Professor Robert Talbot. "If it was in any way connected with a juror being a holdout for the defense ... that would be a good issue." Most of the potential issues for appeal arose during the guilt phase, which ended with Peterson's convictions for the murder of his wife, Laci, and her fetus. The odds against winning such an appeal are always long, particularly in a case in which most of the rulings to be challenged are decisions that the law leaves to the judge's discretion, said Laurie Levenson, a Loyola University law professor. "The law very much puts the burden (of proof in an appeal) on the defendant, and appropriately so, since we like to stick with jurors' verdicts, " she said. One issue certain to be raised is Delucchi's refusal to move the trial out of San Mateo County. The trial was transferred initially from Modesto to Redwood City because of intense media coverage and sympathy for the victims. Geragos requested another change of venue before the trial, saying questionnaires showed that virtually all prospective jurors had heard about the case and nearly half had prejudged it. Delucchi denied Geragos' request for a transfer to Los Angeles, saying there was no evidence that publicity would be less pervasive in "the media capital of the world." Geragos renewed his motion before the penalty phase, saying the jurors must have been influenced by the public celebration that greeted them after their guilty verdict, but the judge again refused. Other potential issues involve Delucchi's rulings on evidence. One was his refusal to let the defense try to demonstrate that Peterson's fishing boat would have capsized if, as the prosecution contended, Peterson had weighed his wife's body with anchors and tossed it into San Francisco Bay. The judge also allowed evidence that a trained dog traced Laci Peterson's scent from the Berkeley Marina parking lot to a pier 4 days after she disappeared. Daniel Horowitz, a criminal defense attorney from Oakland, called the evidence "close to a smoking gun" and said the judge's ruling was scientifically questionable and thus vulnerable on appeal. On the other hand, dog-sniff evidence has been allowed in other cases, and Loyola's Levenson said appellate courts seldom 2nd-guessed judges in such matters. The defense also may appeal Delucchi's decision to let the jury hear dozens of tapes of phone calls between Peterson and his secret girlfriend, Amber Frey, in the weeks after his wife disappeared. The tapes revealed him as anything but a grieving husband -- he is reciting love poems to Frey while lying repeatedly to her about his plans and even his whereabouts. Prosecutors argued that the conversations showed consciousness of guilt. But attorney Jonna Spilbor, a former San Diego prosecutor, said the tapes should have been excluded because, she said, "The tapes provided the jury with a reason to hate Scott Peterson" and "allowed the prosecution a convenient shortcut on the road to guilty." Her remarks were in a commentary for Findlaw. com. Peterson's appellate attorneys may also argue that he was denied his constitutional right to competent legal representation. Geragos seemed to foreshadow that argument when he told jurors that he hadn't been fully prepared for the penalty phase because he'd expected an acquittal. "Legally, I think he was setting the grounds for ineffective assistance of counsel," said Levenson. "He was falling on his sword." While his attorneys try to persuade the courts to over the verdicts, Peterson will join 641 inmates currently on California's death row at San Quentin. 10 inmates have been put to death since the state resumed executions in 1992 after a 25-year halt. (source: San Francisco Chronicle) PENNSYLVANIA---female to face death penalty DA to seek death penalty for mom A Cumberland County assistant district attorney said Tuesday his office will seek the death penalty against a pregnant woman accused of murdering her 3-year-old son. First Assistant DA David Freed said Candice Marie Staruh, 22, of the 200 block of Running Pump Road, North Newton Township, should face a capital trial "because it's a 1st-degree murder case with aggravating circumstances: The victim is under the age of 12." He added a final court decision regarding Staruh's death is "a long way down the road." She would have to be convicted of the 1st-degree murder charge for capital punishment to be considered. Staruh is also charged with 3rd-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child. She was arrested Oct. 6 after a year-long investigation into the death of Jordan Jackson. The toddler died Oct. 27, 2003, at their home, with bruises all over his body. Cumberland County Coroner Mike Norris ruled the case a homicide resulting from blunt-force trauma to the head and neck. Police say Staruh and her mother Lois, 48, were home with Jordan and his 2 brothers when he died. But Staruh's attorney Karl Rominger says the courts have failed to prove they have any case against her, and he refused to enter a plea in a formal arraignment before Judge Wesley Oler Tuesday. Rominger said his client would enter a plea only if the courts determine habeas corpus in the case. The hearing on whether there is enough evidence to accuse Staruh is scheduled for Dec. 30 before Judge Kevin Hess. Oler entered a "not guilty" plea into the record. Staruh is scheduled for a Feb. 22 pre-trial and a March 7 trial, but Rominger said the trial may have to be delayed, noting she is expected to give birth to her child "in mid-April." (source: The Carlisle Sentinel) NORTH CAROLINA: Suspects In NCSU Tailgate Shootings To Face Death Penalty Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for 2 brothers accused of killing 2 friends at an tailgating party near a North Carolina State football game. Tony and Timothy Johnson each face 2 counts of 1st-degree murder. Investigators say they shot and killed Brett Harman and Kevin McCann in September outside a football game. Both men will be tried separately. Timothy Johnson's trial is scheduled to start first. (source: WRAL News)
