Jan. 9 TENNESSEE: Supreme Court to review Shelbyville slaying case The Supreme Court said yesterday it would review victories by death-row inmates in Tennessee and Ohio, adding to an already busy year for capital punishment cases. While neither appeal involves blockbuster issues, they demonstrate the court's continuing interest in the death penalty and how it is imposed. In the Tennessee appeal, justices will decide if the same appeals court was wrong to order more study of Gregory Thompson's case. Tennessee lawyers argued that the appeal was wrongly reopened by the lower court as Thompson's execution neared. Thompson was convicted of abducting Brenda Lane from a Shelbyville Wal-Mart parking lot on New Year's Day 1985, driving her to a rural area and stabbing her to death. Lane was a former reporter with the Times-Gazette newspaper in Shelbyville. The Ohio case gives the court a chance to clarify murder defendants' rights when they plead guilty. An appeals court had set aside John Stumpf's conviction in the 1984 slaying of a woman, on grounds that he was not fully informed about the details of the charge when he pleaded guilty. Ohio argued in its appeal that the decision could unsettle thousands of guilty pleas in all types of criminal cases. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also found that Stumpf's rights were violated because the state argued that Stumpf shot the victim, Mary Jane Stout, but in a separate prosecution maintained that his companion, Clyde Wesley, was the shooter during the robbery. The cases were among nine that justices announced yesterday they would hear this spring. The court had been running out of time to fill the April argument schedule, but yesterday's additions put it back on track. (source: Tennessean) MISSISSIPPI: Appeal filed in '70s slaying----Longest-running death-row case back in court Condemned killer Richard Gerald Jordan, who has trudged a well-worn path between death row and the courthouse, is back before the Mississippi Supreme Court for a 5th time. Jordan's is the longest-running case on Mississippi's death row. Jordan, 58, was convicted of kidnapping and killing Edwina Marta in Harrison County on Jan. 13, 1976. Jordan was accused of collecting a $25,000 ransom from Marta's husband, then taking the woman to a wooded area in north Harrison County and shooting her in the back of the head. Over the past 28 years, Jordan has been sentenced to death 3 times only to have the sentences overturned in federal or state courts. He has been on death row for nearly 20 years. Jordan is back before the Supreme Court on a post-conviction petition. Inmates use post-conviction petitions to claim they have found new evidence they believe would justify a new trial. Jordan's appeal is among dozens the justices will decide this term using written briefs submitted by attorneys rather than hearing oral arguments. On Dec. 2, 1991, Jordan agreed to a sentence of life without parole to avoid the death penalty. Within three years, Jordan had changed his mind and asked for a new sentence of life that did not bar parole. A judge denied his motion in 1995. Jordan appealed to the Supreme Court, saying he had agreed to the sentence but it was invalid under state law. The Supreme Court in 1997 agreed, ruling life without parole as a sentencing option did not exist until July 1, 1994. The justices said the only sentences available to Jordan were death or life imprisonment with parole. The justices ordered a new sentencing hearing. In 1998, a Harrison County jury sentenced Jordan to death. In 2001, the Mississippi Supreme Court rejected 34 issues raised by Jordan as errors in the 1998 sentencing hearing. Other cases under review this term by the Supreme Court include: A DeSoto County man sentenced to life in prison for raping a 5-year-old girl. Scott Foley, of Walls, was convicted in 2004 of capital rape and sexual battery. Foley was sentenced to life in prison for the rape charge and 30 years - the maximum - for the sexual battery conviction. The Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance's call for the removal of Rankin County Justice Court Judge Billy Ray Brown. The commission cited Brown for trying to influence other court officials, a sheriff's deputy and a prosecutor to release or drop domestic violence charges against his son. Kelvin Jordan of Clarke County convicted of capital murder in 1996 and sentenced to death. He was sentenced for the 1995 killings of Codera Bradley and Tony Roberts. The 2 gave Kelvin Jordan and a friend a ride from a Pachuta truck stop. After stopping to let his passengers out, Roberts was shot in the head as was 2-year-old Codera when the child began to scream and cry. (source: Associated Press) *********************** Death Penalty Not Option in Civil Rights Case A reputed Ku Klux Klan leader indicted in the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County will not face the death penalty. Edgar Ray Killen, 79, was brought into court Friday on charges he organized one of the most heinous crimes of the civil rights era. Mississippi attorney general Jim Hood said prosecutors cannot seek the death penalty in the 41-year-old crime, without charging Killen with capital murder. Capital murder in Mississippi is defined as murder committed along with the commission of another crime. Meanwhile, Hood said the families of the victims deserve the prosecution of this case. (source: Associated Press) KANSAS: Death Penalty The issue: In December the Kansas Supreme Court struck down the state's death penalty law, saying it was unconstitutional. The background: The court said the law unfairly gave the state an advantage in sentencing, contrary to the U.S. Constitution, which places the burden of proof on the prosecution. The decision called into question the validity of all death sentences imposed since 1994, when the death penalty was reinstated. Seven inmates are on death row. State lawmakers must decide if they want to fix the law or abolish it. The problem, the court said, is that the law requires jurors to impose the death penalty when the reasons for capital punishment equal the arguments against it. The state supreme court ruled a tie should not require the death penalty. (source: Kansas.com) CALIFORNIA----impending execution Time running out for death row inmate----EXECUTION SET FOR REDWOOD CITY MAN When a San Mateo County jury sent Donald Beardslee to death row more than 20 years ago, his violent, seedy story came and went without much notice. His accomplices were drug dealers and thieves. Police had mug shots of the two young women he killed, both drifting through lives of drugs and petty crime. Beardslee was a lonely parolee who had killed before. But after two decades on death row, Beardslee, barring an unlikely last-minute reprieve from the courts or the governor, is about to gain statewide attention for his life -- and his crimes. He is scheduled to be executed Jan. 19. He would become just the 11th man put to death in California since the state restored capital punishment in 1978 and the 1st from San Mateo County. To those fighting his execution, Beardslee is a figure to be pitied, sort of an accidental murderer. He is described in recent documents as a brain-damaged, 61-year-old man who was so passive he allowed himself to be dragged into a murderous scheme by a prostitute he befriended, a dangerous drug dealer and the estranged husband of one of his victims. Beardslee's lawyers will make this argument Friday in a clemency bid before the state Board of Prison Terms, which will then forward a recommendation to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. To the state and the families of Beardslee's victims, he is a sociopath who deserves the ultimate punishment for his role in the 1981 slayings of Patty Geddling and Stacy Benjamin. Those who want to see Beardslee executed can't shake the fact that he was already on parole for strangling a Missouri woman to death in 1969. "The guy murdered 3 women total," said Ivan Geddling, now a Peninsula construction worker who was 5 years old when his 23-year-old mother was killed. "It's not like a brawl at a bar where he beat some other guy to death. These are just women. He should be put to death." The road to execution Beardslee's road to execution traces back to Missouri, where he grew up in a middle-class family with a younger sister and a brother who eventually became a Southern California police officer. In documents recently filed in Beardslee's clemency request, family members described him as an ``odd,'' socially awkward man who never displayed a violent streak or a particular propensity for breaking the law while growing up. Beardslee, withdrawn and uncommunicative in social settings, didn't spend time in juvenile courts like many inmates who wind up on death row, his record shows. Family members say he bore the brunt of his mother's overbearing ways, and that he took it the hardest when his father died of cancer when he was 11 years old. He was sexually abused by other men when he attended a military prep school, according to his clemency papers. But Beardslee eventually graduated from high school and enlisted in the Air Force, where he spent four years before being honorably discharged in 1966. 3 years later, Beardslee committed the crime that prosecutors would later use as the chief ammunition for executing him. Beardslee came forward to police and confessed to choking an acquaintance named Laura Griffin and drowning her in her bathtub. Beardslee told investigators he was drunk and had little memory of the crime. He eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 19 years in a Missouri state prison. 7 years later, the Missouri prison system paroled Beardslee to California to temporarily live with his mother, recommending that he undergo mental health treatment. But after a few months, he discontinued the treatment. Beardslee stayed crime-free from 1977 until the 1981 weekend of the murders that put him on death row. He worked for Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto and lived in a rented Redwood City apartment. Things didn't go wrong until early 1981 when he took in a prostitute named Ricarda "Ricki" Soria so he could help her clean up her life. Instead, Beardslee became enmeshed in Soria's world of drug dealers. And it led to this month's date in San Quentin's death chamber. The fateful night While there are conflicting accounts of the murders, there is no dispute that Geddling and Benjamin were lured to Beardslee's apartment at the urging of Frank Rutherford, a drug dealer with a history of violence and a friend of Soria's. Others implicated were William Forrester, who had felt ripped off by Benjamin over a drug deal, and Soria. Records show that Edgar Geddling, Patty's estranged husband, also may have played a central role in encouraging Rutherford to go after the 2 women because he had discovered they were in a romantic relationship. Rutherford actually shot Patty Geddling first, in the shoulder, and instructed Beardslee and Forrester to take her away. They then took her to a secluded area around Half Moon Bay, where she was shot in the head several times and dumped. Beardslee fired what prosecutors say were the fatal shots, although he claimed he believed she was already dead and that he feared Rutherford would kill him if he didn't participate. Beardslee and the rest of the group then took the 19-year-old Benjamin to a remote spot in Lake County. Rutherford strangled her while Beardslee slit her throat. Beardslee cooperated with the police from the start. He confessed to his role in the crimes; he even testified at Rutherford's trial. But the case turned out worse for Beardslee than for anyone else. He got the death penalty. Rutherford got a life prison term, although Beardslee, ironically, has outlived him. Rutherford died in prison of cancer in 2002. Soria is still serving a 15-years-to-life prison term. Forrester was acquitted. And Edgar Geddling, still living in San Francisco, was never charged. The ultimate punishment "I just always believed that in this cast of characters, when none of the others got the death penalty, it shouldn't have been given to him,'' John Balliet, one of Beardslee's trial lawyers and now a prosecutor in Kentucky, said of Beardslee's fate. "But I guess when you are talking about somebody's second murder, it's not surprising jurors and prosecutors are going to say that's just one too many." Prosecutor Carl Holm, now a judge, used the Missouri murder to urge the jury to give Beardslee a death sentence. The jury did struggle with Beardslee's fate. At one point, records show, the panel was leaning 10 to two in favor of giving him life in prison without the possibility of parole. But after four days of deliberations, they decided Beardslee deserved to be executed. In documents filed with the governor on Friday, San Mateo County prosecutors insist that Beardslee earned the death penalty, being the only person in the conspiracy to take active part in murdering both Geddling and Benjamin. And they say those two murders and the killing of Griffin in Missouri 35 years ago have left a long trail of victims -- Geddling's children, Benjamin's family and Griffin's children. Sandra Curry, one of Griffin's daughters, believes a reason her husband committed suicide in 1973 was the trauma of finding her mother's body. She told Schwarzenegger that Beardslee should never have been let out of prison to kill in California, and should be executed now. "He did not show mercy to my mother or those 2 young women," Curry, now a 62-year-old grandmother, wrote in a recent letter. "Why should he receive mercy now?" (source: Mercury News) ******************************* Prosecutor: Killer deserves no mercy Local prosecutors say condemned inmate Donald Jay Beardslee should be granted the same amount of leniency he showed the two young women he killed more than two decades ago - none. In a 13-page response to Beardslees plea for clemency by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, San Mateo County prosecutor Martin Murray argued that leniency is unwarranted by the 61-year-old mans crimes and his life. Murray also asks for the Jan. 19 execution to move forward on behalf of the victims families. "They trust that you will not grant him mercy that he refused to grant to his victims, despite their pleas," the response states. The response also dismisses defense claims Beardslee suffers from brain damage, is a model prison inmate and was sentenced too harshly compared to 3 others tried in the April 24, 1981 murders. After being uniformly denied by the courts, Beardslees chances at avoiding death are dwindling. In the weeks since Beardslee learned his execution date in mid-December, his newly appointed defense team has routinely tried de-railing it. So far, it has been unsuccessful. On Friday, federal Judge Jeremy Fogel dismissed Beardslees claim lethal injection is cruel and unusual because the drugs involved could leave him paralyzed but in pain before his heart stops. His attorneys plans to appeal the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which has upheld previous contentions by condemned inmates. Last week, the same appellate court also refused to grant Beardslee a new trial on the basis jurors were biased by four special circumstances. Three were later invalidated by the state Supreme Court. Beardslee has always admitted involvement in the deaths of Stacy Benjamin, 19, and Paula "Patty" Geddling, 23, over an alleged drug debt. However, he also claimed he only participated at the direction of Frank Rutherford and out of fear of his own life. "Beardslee needs no encouragement from others to kill women. He is quite willing and capable of doing so on his own initiative," Murray wrote. Geddling and Benjamin were lured to Beardslees Redwood City apartment by his roommate, "a 19-year-old drug addicted prostitute" named Ricki Soria. They believed Benjamin cheated another associate, William Forrester, in a drug deal and wanted to "get back at" her. The 4 planned to trap the victims, constructing a garrote and buying tape for gagging. When the women arrived, Rutherford shot Geddling in the shoulder with a shotgun. They told the victims Geddling would be taken to a hospital but instead all but Rutherford drove her to a rural road off Highway 1. Forrester shot Geddling twice before Beardslee fired the final two shots. Her body was left in a ditch. Around 5 a.m. the following morning, they took Benjamin to Lakeport and walked her up a hill. Rutherford strangled Benjamin with the wire and his hand before Beardslee punched her, helped pull the wire tight around her throat and then slit her throat twice. Beardslee pulled her pants down to make it look like a sexual assault. All four were eventually tried but only Beardslee, 37, was condemned to die. Forrester, 19, was acquitted; Soria was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison and has yet to be approved for parole. Rutherford, "an evil individual" according to prosecutors, was acquitted of Geddlings murder and sentenced to life without parole in Benjamins death. He died in prison in 2002. At the time of the killing, Beardslee was on parole after serving seven years in a Missouri prison for strangling and stabbing Laura Griffin in her bathtub. The chilling similarities to earlier murder is yet another reason why Beardslee deserves to die, prosecutors said. One last chance Beardslees plea and Murrays response will form the backbone of the Jan. 14 clemency hearing before the Board of Prison Terms. The board will either recommend Schwarzenegger proceed with the execution or commute Beardslees sentence to life in prison without parole. Schwarzenegger has not announced whether he will personally attend the hearing. Prosecutors plan to bring the children of all 3 murdered women to the upcoming hearing and have submitted letters from them asking Schwarzenegger to uphold the execution, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. Beardslees defense team argue he has been a model prisoner but Murray replied it is only due to the restrictive conditions of death row. Claims Beardslee is brain damaged are also bunk, he said, citing his high school grades, completion of courses in prison and high IQ score. "It appears that his alleged mental problems only exhibit themselves when he is murdering women," Murray wrote. Murray personally drove to Sacramento Friday afternoon to file the document with the governors office and the state Supreme Court. The defense has until Monday to file its secondary reply. What remains to be seen, though, is how Schwarzenegger reacts to potentially the first execution on his watch as governor. He refused to halt the execution date for Kevin Cooper who was ultimately spared by an 11th hour stay by a federal court. Nobody originally involved in Beardslees case is working on his behalf any longer. Prosecutor Carl Holm became a Superior Court judge and the original defense attorney died. Even Beardslees long time counsel, Stephen Lubliner, resigned last fall right before an execution date was set with the explanation he felt incapable of preparing for a clemency hearing. (source: San Mateo Daily Journal)
