Jan. 24 TEXAS: Senate announces review of troubled crime labs The Senate will conduct a sweeping review of Texas' troubled crime labs and consider whether to create statewide standards for how they test evidence in criminal cases, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst announced Monday. Officials have discovered problems at crime labs around the state in recent years. The Department of Public Safety's DNA crime lab was closed for three months in 2003 after an internal review uncovered problems including poor documentation of DNA profiles and failure to establish the sensitivity of instruments before processing samples. The Houston Police Department crime lab has been under fire for mislabeling and improperly storing old cases, possible evidence contamination and training problems in its DNA section, which closed in 2002. In December, an El Paso man was released after nearly 17 years in prison for a rape that new DNA tests showed he didn't commit. A DPS serologist had testified at Brandon Moon's trial in 1987 that semen evidence pointed to him as the culprit. "In Texas we want to be tough on crime," said Dewhurst, a Republican. "But to be tough on crime, we have to be fair and just." Since March 2003, the Harris County district attorney's office has been reviewing evidence processed by the Houston lab's DNA researchers and ordered retests in approximately 400 cases. The retests have resulted in the release and pardon of a man convicted in a 1998 rape case. "I'm interested in removing this cloud of lack of credibility on the results that come out of our crime labs around the state," Dewhurst said. Asked if the state should place a moratorium on executions until the problems are resolved, Dewhurst said, "None of us want to see and innocent person executed. I think we've got to bend over backwards to make sure that on any execution, that there's not controversy about tainted evidence." (source: Associated Press) NORTH CAROLINA---new execution date Execution scheduled for William D. Powell An execution has been scheduled on March 11 for convicted murderer William Dillard Powell, who was sentenced to death for the slaying of Mary Gladden, the Department of Correction said Monday. The execution was scheduled for 2 a.m. at Central Prison in Raleigh, said Correction Secretary Theodis Beck. Powell, 58, was sentenced to death April 29, 1993, in Cleveland County Superior Court. Gladden was killed Oct. 31, 1991. (source: Associated Press) CONNECTICUT----execution (temporarily) stayed) Judge Stays Execution of Serial Killer A federal judge on Monday stayed the execution of a Connecticut serial killer, who had been scheduled later this week to become the first person put to death in New England in 45 years. U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny said it should be determined whether Michael Ross, who admitted to killing 8 women in the 1980s, is mentally capable of waiving appeals to his death sentence. A new psychiatrist will have to evaluate the serial killer. "There's no doubt in my mind that there is an issue which needs to be explored," Chatigny said at a hearing. "It is inevitable I will be entering a stay until the outcome of this proceeding." He then told public defender T.R. Paulding to inform Ross that "he will not be executed this week." State prosecutors filed an appeal immediately with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan. The Connecticut Department of Correction said it was proceeding as scheduled. "We are prepared and we will now await further direction from the court," the department said in a statement. The execution warrant for Ross specifies that he is to be put to death on Jan. 26, or within five days thereafter. Ross, 45, has repeatedly said he does not want to fight his execution by lethal injection. The execution, which had been set for Wednesday, would be the 1st since 1960 in any of the 6 New England states -- Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont -- which have tended to oppose capital punishment. Ross has accused the public defenders who want to save his life of lying in their attempts to have him declared incompetent. The Connecticut Supreme Court earlier this month rejected a bid for such a declaration. Hubert Santos, a lawyer with the team of public defenders, said Ross' decision not to appeal stemmed from a desire to end his suffering on death row. "By sentencing someone to death and putting him into a condition that you wouldn't put a prisoner in Iraq, you've broken his will to live and you've induced him to opt for death," Santos said, adding that he hoped the judge's decision withstood prosecutors' appeals. Although Ross has declared himself opposed to the death penalty, he has said for at least 10 years that he wants his execution to ease the pain of his victims' families. "There is no need to drag the families of my victims through more lengthy and disturbing court proceedings," Ross wrote in a 1994 letter to prosecutors. (source: Reuters) KANSAS: Victim's parents say Kansas should wait on death penalty fix Legislators should wait for a potential U.S. Supreme Court decision before attempting to rewrite the state's death penalty law, the parents of a capital murder victim said Monday. Barbara and Duane Oblander, of Goddard, attended a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on a bill drafted in response to a Kansas Supreme Court decision in December that struck down the 1994 law. Attorney General Phill Kline plans to appeal the ruling to the nation's high court. The Oblanders agreed with prosecutors who worry the U.S. Supreme Court won't review the Kansas court's decision if legislators rewrite the law. A U.S. Supreme Court decision is the only way to reinstate death sentences for seven men, including Gavin Scott, convicted of capital murder for the 1996 shooting deaths of the Oblanders' son, Doug Brittain, and his wife, Beth, in their rural Goddard home. "In my mind, I think they should wait," Duane Oblander said after the committee's hearing. The couple did not testify. In a 4-3 decision, the Kansas court said the state's death penalty law is unconstitutional because of a provision on how juries weigh evidence for and against imposing a death sentence. The law says that if the evidence is about equal - which prosecutors contend will be rare - a jury must recommend death. The court said a defendant should receive the benefit when the evidence is about equal. Since then, prosecutors and lawmakers have debated how quickly legislators should respond. Kline testified that legislative action would lessen the chances of the U.S. Supreme Court reviewing the Kansas ruling. But, he said, if legislators wait and the U.S. Supreme Court declines to step in, prosecutors could lose the chance to seek death in some cases - including last week's shooting of Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels. Sen. Kay O'Connor, R-Olathe, said, "Oh, man, what a mess." Kline said he believes his office has at best a 1 in 7 chance of having the case heard, then a 50-50 chance of prevailing. But district attorneys Nola Foulston, of Sedgwick County, and Paul Morrison, of Johnson County, were more confident the court will review the case and overturn the Kansas ruling. "I think it's an easy call for you to say, 'Let's wait on this," Morrison told the committee. Kline and Foulston continued to criticize the Kansas court's decision, and Duane Oblander said the ruling left him feeling betrayed. Barbara Oblander said of the men on death row: "We just hate to see them get anything less than what a jury sent them to." The committee plans further hearings Tuesday and Wednesday. It also is considering legislation to strengthen provisions against executing mentally retarded defendants, as well as a bill that would end capital punishment in Kansas. Kristi Smith, of Kechi, whose father was murdered in 1978, favors the repeal. She and other death penalty opponents argue that courts will find other flaws in the Kansas law should it be reinstated. "I don't think they can fix this," she said after the hearing. Death penalty bill considered Monday is SB 28. Others are SBs 6, 14 and 32. ON THE NET----Kansas Legislature: http://www.kslegislature.org (source: Associated Press) GEORGIA----clemency denied//impending execution Parole board denies stay, appeal for Carr After deliberating for four hours, the state parole board on Monday denied clemency for a 34-year-old man sentenced to die Tuesday for his role in the 1992 stabbing and beating death of a Monroe County teen. Among those pleading for his life during a two-hour hearing were Timothy Don Carr's mother, brother and aunt. His lawyer, Brian Kammer, said in his petition to the board that his client was the puppet of girlfriend Melissa Burgeson when he killed 17-year-old Keith Patrick Young near Macon. "This crime truly would not have happened without her involvement, and it is simply unjust that Tim Carr should be executed while Burgeson may go free one day," Kammer wrote. Carr is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. His execution would be Georgia's 37th since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1973. Kammer asked the board to stay Carr's execution for 90 days and to commute his sentence to life in prison to match Burgeson's punishment for the crime. Neither Kammer nor Carr's family members spoke to the media after the hearing, which was closed. According to court records, Carr, Burgeson and two 16-year-olds drove in Young's car to a remote area near Bolingbroke, about 65 miles southeast of Atlanta, on Oct. 8, 1992. There, Carr cut Young's throat at Burgeson's urging and then beat him in the head with a baseball bat as Young pleaded for his life. Prosecutors argued Carr and one of the juveniles dragged Young's body to the roadside and left him there to die before fleeing to Murfreesburo, Tenn., in the victim's Pontiac Grand Prix. They were arrested there following a high-speed chase. Both Carr and Burgeson were convicted of murder and theft, but Carr received the death penalty while Burgeson received life in prison with the possibility of parole. The 16-year-old boy was given 18 months in a juvenile facility, while the 16-year-old girl was turned over to state social service officials, parole board spokeswoman Kim Patton-Johnson said. At the hearing, Kammer argued his client recieved a disproportionate sentence to Burgeson's and that prosecutors portrayed Carr as less culpable in Burgeson's trial, but more culpable during his trial to obtain a death sentence. Kammer also told the parole board jurors in the Carr trial were unaware of Burgeson's lighter sentence and of her role in the killing, or of Carr's family history or mental illness. (source: Associated Press) ****************** Man will face death penalty in murder-kidnapping Gordon County District Attorney T. Joseph Campbell announced Monday that he will seek the death penalty against a North Georgia man accused of kidnapping the daughters of his former girlfriend and killing four members of her family, including his own child. Jerry William Jones, 32, was making his 1st court appearance since he was captured last January. Monday's hearing was delayed because Jones had shot himself in the face after wrecking his truck while being pursued by police in East Ridge, Tenn. His capture just over the Georgia-Tennessee border ended a 19-hour, region-wide manhunt. The 3 children with him were physically unharmed. Jones entered the packed northwest Georgia courtroom Monday morning after Judge Carey Nelson warned onlookers that no emotional outbursts would be tolerated. Security was increased for the hearing. Dressed in an orange-and-white striped prison uniform, his face disfigured from the gunshot wound to his mouth, Jones continually strained to look into the audience where his former girlfriend, Melissa Peeler, sat among surviving family members. Authorities allege Jones beat and shot Peeler's mother and stepfather, Nola and Tom Blaylock, and strangled their adult daughter, Georgia Bradley, and his own 10-month old daughter, Harley, at the Blaylock's home in Ranger on Jan. 7, 2004. The last death penalty trial in Gordon County was in 1980. (source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution) OHIO: Man Avoids Death Penalty After Killing Co-Worker----Chef At Marriott Killed In 2003 The man convicted of stabbing his co-worker to death at the downtown Marriott was sentenced to life in jail without the chance of parole, NewsChannel5 reported. It was a year ago that jurors found Eroge Thomas, 46, of Maple Heights, guilty of stabbing 29-year-old Amy Brinn, a chef at the hotel. Thomas allegedly grabbed a knife from the counter and stabbed Brinn 13 times in July 2003. Police believe Thomas killed her in a fit of rage. Thomas was convicted of murder in December 1981 and paroled in July 1997. He violated his parole and was sent back to prison, then released again in 2001. (source: NewsNet5)
