Jan. 13
PENNSYLVANIA----foreign national to face death penalty
Death penalty sought -- Accused killer in Motel 6 murder case pleaded not
guilty in arraignment
Montgomery County prosecutors Tuesday announced that they will be seeking
the death penalty for a 22-year-old Norristown man charged with the
October slaying of a North Penn High School graduate at an Upper Merion
motel.
The announcement came during Patrick Alexi McCarthy's formal arraignment
in Montgomery County Court on charges that he stabbed 19-year-old Anna
Nicole Fowler to death.
McCarthy, a Jamaican national who has been held in the county prison
without bail since his arrest on Oct. 20, pleaded not guilty to charges of
1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-degree murder, kidnapping, rape, involuntary deviate
sexual intercourse, robbery and related offenses in connection with
Fowler's death.
The not-guilty pleas came before a packed audience of Fowler's family
members and friends in Judge Paul W. Tressler's courtroom.
In a petition filed with the court, First Assistant District Attorney Risa
Vetri Ferman and Assistant District Attorney Steven Latzer stated that
their intention to seek the death penalty if McCarthy is convicted of
1st-degree murder is based on 2 aggravating factors.
The 2 aggravating factors, according to the pair, include: a killing
committed while committing another felony; and, a killing committed by
means of torture.
Neither Vetri nor Latzer would commit further on the aggravating
circumstances.
Police found Fowler's partially clad body when they responded to a call at
about 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 6 concerning a vandalized car after a motel guest
reported shattered glass on his car in the parking lot at the Motel 6 on
DeKalb Pike in King of Prussia.
Spotting a shattered window on the 2nd story of the motel, police entered
the room, said the criminal complaint. The lights were out, the television
was blaring and the shower was running but there were no occupants in the
room, which was in general disarray.
Underneath the shattered window was a blanket bedroll. Opening the
bedroll, police found the lifeless body of a woman later identified as
Fowler, who worked at a deli counter in a Lansdale supermarket and whose
legal address was her father's residence in Lansdale although she also
lived with her mother in East Norriton. Fowler was wearing a blindfold and
was gagged. The room was in McCarthy's name. McCarthy, of the 1000 block
of Powell Street, listed his address as 1567 Brown St., Norristown, which
is an address that does not exist.
Norristown police found Fowler's 1999 gold Mitsubishi Galant sedan at
about 8:45 p.m. that same day. The abandoned car was found in the 600
block of Jamison Alley, next to Chain Street.
Witnesses told police that they saw McCarthy driving the car early on the
morning before Fowler's body was found. Surveillance cameras also captured
McCarthy driving the car and using Fowler's bankcards at three automated
banking machines prior to her body being found, according to the criminal
complaint.
An autopsy report revealed that Fowler died from four stab wounds to the
chest. Her throat also had been slashed, according to authorities.
There was a defensive wound on her finger and markings on both her wrists
and ankles that indicated that she had been bound, said Castor.
The coroner, who ruled the death a homicide, said the time of death was
approximately 9 p.m. Oct. 5.
(source: King Of Prussia Courier)
MISSISSIPPI:
Judge to wait
Judge Lee Howard will wait several weeks before issuing a ruling following
a Wednesday evidentiary hearing in the case of an Oktibbeha County man who
was convicted more than 10 years ago of the murders of 2 Mississippi State
students.
Willie Jerome Manning was convicted in the summer of 1994 of the December
1992 murders of Tiffany Miller of Madison and Jon Steckler of Natchez.
Manning was in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court Wednesday before Howard in a
Supreme Court-ordered hearing to determine whether Manning should be
granted a new trial based on the grounds that his initial defense
attorneys did not have all the prosecution evidence in the case during
Manning's 1994 trial.
All evidence that is gathered by the police and prosecution against a
defendant is required to be made available to the defense.
At the center of Wednesday's proceedings were 3 taped recordings of
conversations between Manning and his then-girlfriend Paula Hathorn. David
Voisn of Mississippi's Office of Capitol Defense claimed that the tapes
were inadvertently left out of the main body of collected evidence kept by
the Oktibbeha County Sheriff's Department.
Since Hathorn was one of the major witnesses against Manning, the
petitioning legal team, made up in part of the original defense team of
Mark Williamson and Richard Burdine, felt that the recorded conversations
could have aided significantly in their defense.
District Attorney Forrest Allgood called Sheriff Dolph Bryan and former
legal aide Amy Walker as witnesses, and both testified that all known
evidence was placed in six large boxes, and that is was probable that the
defense team simply missed the microcassettes and accompanying incomplete
transcript among the huge volume of gathered evidence.
The existing transcript for the tapes is incomplete because the Sheriff's
Department determined the tapes to be of little use in the prosecution of
Manning, and were therefore considered of minor significance, Allgood
argued.
Howard ordered that a complete transcript of the tapes be made and
submitted to the court on Feb. 12.
These proceedings will determine the need for a new trial on the grounds
that the defense was not provided sufficient access to all evidence.
In the early morning hours of Dec. 11, 1992, the bodies of Miller and
Steckler were discovered on Pat Station Road in just outside the
Starkville city limits. Both students had suffered fatal gunshot wounds,
among other injuries. Miller's car was found the next morning on Old
Mayhew Road.
Manning was arrested for the murders of Miller and Steckler in May 1993.
Manning was linked to the murders after it was claimed that he had
attempted to sell or was found to have possession of certain personal
effects of the victims. The prosecution also relied heavily on the
testimony of Hathorn, who began cooperating with deputies against Manning
after a physical altercation occurred between the 2.
Manning has since been convicted of 2 additional murders. Howard is
expected to rule on the evidence issue shortly after all briefs and
transcripts have been submitted on Feb. 12.ruling in Manning case.
(source: Starkville Daily News)
USA:
Where is 'logic' in no death verdict?
Imposing the death penalty should never be taken lightly; however, there
are times when the crime committed mandates this action be taken for
justice, not vengeance, to be served.
According to Eric Brown ("Basic argument for more executions definitely
illogical," Dec. 23) capital punishment is not a deterrent to crime. I'll
agree with him on that point, but apparently neither is any amount of
prison time.
All one has to do is look at the number of repeat offenders we have in our
prisons today. Some of these offenders have a list of prior convictions
longer than a child's wish list to Santa.
His letter states "I have yet to come across a criminal who believes he
will ever be caught for his offensive behavior, therefore, the punishment
makes no difference." Apparently, he believes that capital punishment
should be abolished because crime is inevitable and cannot be deterred by
any amount of punishment, yet he calls us a "civilized" society.
He believes that supporters of capital punishment are "illogical
barbarians" for wanting individuals such as Timothy McVeigh to be given
the death penalty. Instead he would have us show these individuals and
others like them a measure of respect and decency they denied their
victims. Where is the "logic?"
Derek Rooker----Flowood
**************************************
Court can't define the term 'heinous'
9 U.S. Supreme Court justices, who have been appointed by past presidents
for their expertise in the realm of legal academia, cannot decisively tell
the American people what legislators had in mind when they determine
crimes to be "heinous."
Yet, Mr. Hayes can ("Death penalty is a 'logical' solution," Jan. 3).
I have visited Parchman and Angola prisons for research. There I encounter
individuals who "never believed" they would be caught, much less
convicted, for their crime.
Hence the reason for the statement I made about punishment not factoring
into the criminal's way of thinkingl("Basic argument for more executions
definitely illogical," Dec. 23).
Eric Brown----Terry
(source for both: Opinion, Clarion-Ledger)
