Jan. 25 TEXAS: Death Penalty Trial He was out on bond for 1 murder when he allegedly killed another person... Now Justen Grant Hall is standing trial for that 2nd murder, and he faces the death penalty if found guilty. Hall is accused of murdering Arturo Diaz in April of 2002. Then, 6 months later, he allegedly killed his friend, Melanie Billhartz. He's charged with Capital Murder for her death, and that trial is what began today. The state says Hall strangled Melanie Billhartz with an electrical cord. Prosecutors say he dumped her body in the desert, and drove her car around for the next month. A prisoner serving time for drugs testified about the night this happened. He says he was with Hall and others at a methamphetamine lab that night -- and remembers Hall telling him he had killed Melanie. The defense argues Hall didn't kill Melanie, someone else did, and he was only present when they dumped her body. "A friend of Melanie is responsible for her death...he didn't have anything to do with it, he heard about what happened and that's about it," Attorney Frank Macias said. Melanie's grandfather also testified today. He says he went to look for Melanie the night she was killed because of a suspicious message on the answering machine. He also says Melanie told him she was worried someone was going to kill her in the weeks before her death. A trial date for Hall's other murder charge has not been set. (source: KTSM News) GEORGIA----impending execution State rejects Macon man's appeal; execution set for Tuesday night A Macon man is set to die tonight by lethal injection after state officials Monday denied his appeal for clemency in the 1992 murder of a Warner Robins teenager. Timothy Carr, 34, is scheduled to be executed at 7:05 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson for the slaying of 17-year-old Keith Young. If executed, Carr will be the 37th person put to death in Georgia since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. The Board of Pardons and Paroles met for about 5 hours before returning its decision. Carr's lawyer, Brian Kammer, said in a petition to the parole board that his client was the puppet of girlfriend Melissa Burgeson. Burgeson, also 34, was sentenced to life in prison for her role in Young's death. She is currently serving her sentence at the Pulaski State Prison outside Hawkinsville. During a hearing Monday morning, Kammer and Carr's family members argued for a 90-day stay of execution and contended that his sentence should be commuted to life in prison. Members of Young's family and prosecutors also spoke to the board. Kim Patton Johnson, the board's acting public information officer, said she could not comment on the victim's family's visit with the board. Prosecutors said Carr and Burgeson were the masterminds in a plan to kill Young for his car and less than $100 in cash. The couple and 2 juveniles took Young out to a dirt road in Bolingbroke and asked him to get a bag out of the trunk. When Young reached in to get the bag, Carr allegedly grabbed him from behind and cut his throat. Although Carr and the 2 juveniles testified that Burgeson told Carr to continue his assault against Young, she has denied having any knowledge of a plan to kill him. Last week, Burgeson told The Telegraph that she only knew Carr was planning to steal Young's car. (source: Macon Telegraph) VIRGINIA: Senate panel defeats death penalty moratorium Legislation that would have effectively ended executions in Virginia has been killed in committee. The bill by Senator Henry Marsh of Richmond would have imposed a moratorium on the death penalty. Anti-death penalty bills do not fare well in the conservative General Assembly. In fact, this year there are bills to expand the use of capital punishment. The Reverend C. Douglas Smith with the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy used a story in the bible to urge the committee to approve the bill. He reminded them of Jesus stopping the crowd from stoning the woman caught in adultery. (source: Associated Press) CONNECTICUT: Postponed execution tests a region's views on crime The death penalty was to be used this week in Connecticut - and New England - for the 1st time since 1960. A federal judge in Connecticut said Monday he will order a postponement of the execution of serial killer Michael Ross, who had been scheduled to be put to death at 2:01 a.m. Jan. 26. It would have marked the 1st use of the death penalty in New England in 45 years - and has revived debate over capital punishment in a region where it runs against the political grain. Nearly 950 people have been put to death since capital punishment was reinstated in this country in 1976, but none in states north or east of Pennsylvania. That could change with Mr. Ross, whose 1980s killing spree in Connecticut and New York terrified an entire region. He killed 8 young women in all, raping most of them. He faces death by lethal injection for 4 of those murders. Ross himself decided not to appeal, but public defenders and opponents of the death penalty, as well as Ross's father had tried to intervene, arguing that he cannot make rational decisions regarding his execution. Monday's hearing was at the request of the state's Division of Public Defenders Services. Judge Robert Chatigny said he wanted to hear more evidence about Ross's mental capacity. His scheduled execution had caused a firestorm in a state where the death penalty hasn't been used since 1960. If the execution does finally go forward, some observers say the event would reverberate across the region. "Will it start an avalanche in New England? No. Will it open the door to make it thinkable again? Yes," says Robert Blecker, a professor of law at New York Law School and a supporter of the death penalty for the most vicious offenders. "It is already on the mind in Massachusetts. It makes it more imaginable. It makes it real again." New England's resistance to the death penalty stems in part from having the country's lowest murder rate, says Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Experts also cite its liberalism overall and the impact of its renowned universities. Yet some in Connecticut worry that with this execution, that distinction would no longer hold as firmly. "It can no longer call itself an enlightened state," says Paula Montonye, a lawyer who represents some of the state's death row inmates. The execution "is a stamp of approval on killing. It creates an atmosphere of death. And life begets life; death begets death." In Connecticut, 70 % favor the death penalty for Ross, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. For some death penalty supporters, that illustrates that a 45-year lapse since the last execution may be too long a period. "I do not understand why the state of Connecticut is so long in providing the rule of law," says Dianne Clements, the president of Justice For All, a Texas-based victim-advocacy group. "In a state with death penalty on the books, juries have found for death as punishment and yet there has been no execution in 40 years." Romney prods for Bay State change Within New England, it is Massachusetts that has been the most vigorous in pursuing a reinstatement of the death penalty. It was banned in the state in 1984. Legislation to reinstate it failed in a tie vote in 1997. Now Gov. Mitt Romney (R) is trying his hand at it. He formed a committee to explore a foolproof death penalty that would narrowly define the qualifiable crimes and require a standard of "no doubt" in assessing guilt using scientific evidence. Yet despite Romney's moves and Ross's pending execution, the support for the death penalty has been waning nationally over the past several years. According to the Gallup Organization, 80 % of Americans supported the death penalty in 1994. That number dropped to 66 % in 2004. Experts say that the use of DNA, which has helped reverse many erroneous convictions, has made some Americans skeptical. Today, only two of New England's six states even have the death penalty: Connecticut and New Hampshire. The other 4 - Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont - are among a dozen states nationwide without it. For many New Englanders, capital punishment relates more to the era of witches being hanged than to the current day. New Hampshire has not executed anyone since 1939 and has no one on death row. Rhode Island's last execution was in 1845, Maine's in 1885, Massachusetts' in 1947, and Vermont's in 1954. In contrast, Texas has executed 337 people since 1976, followed by Virginia at 94, and Oklahoma with 75, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington. Domino effect may be small Connecticut's overwhelming support for putting Ross to death may reflect that residents want the worst possible punishment for a confessed serial killer - and in Connecticut that punishment is execution. That is appropriate punishment, says Mr. Blecker. "Ross represents the worst of the worst. If anyone deserves to die, he is among them." After appealing his execution several times, Ross has resigned himself to the punishment. He has maintained that he believes in the long run his appeals will be unsuccessful and would like not to cause the family of the victims more pain. Whether experts believe his assertion or not, some say it is one reason the execution probably would not have a domino effect in the region. For one thing, there are few people on death row in New England. And, says Dieter. "If people challenge a statute or their own convictions, that has nothing to do with someone who isn't challenging anything." (source: Christian Science Monitor) ********************* Legislator Takes Stand Against Death Penalty Bill Dyson is no stranger to taking a lonely stance. The veteran Democratic legislator was at it again Monday, staging a high-profile, 1-man protest against the death penalty by sitting alone in the center of the Legislative Office Building's grand atrium on a gray folding chair. Wearing 4 red stickers that said, "Do Not Kill In My Name," Dyson could not be missed by anyone walking in the building. He wore a hand-made sign around his neck: "Abolish the death penalty in Connecticut." Dyson, the legislature's senior Democrat with 28 years at the Capitol, has spent a career advocating for issues of principle, even when the odds seemed against him. Monday he was trying to draw attention to the legislature's lack of debate over the planned execution of serial killer Michael Ross, an Ivy League graduate who has admitted killing 8 girls and women. Dyson's protest, lasting more than 5 hours, started before the announcement that a federal judge postponed Ross' execution Wednesday so he could conduct a mental competency hearing. "We ought to be having a debate," Dyson said as he sat. "I wanted to point some light on the issue, and that's why I'm here. I'm not sure people are fully aware of what is about to happen in their name. We're talking about taking a life. We're talking about whether we're going to engage in killing." House Speaker James Amann, who defeated Dyson in a bitter battle for speaker, said the consensus of the House Democrats was to deliberately avoid a debate until after Ross' execution. As for Dyson, "the majority of his caucus disagrees with him," Amann said. "I disagree with him on this issue. ... I don't think the votes are there to abolish it at this point." Since the House is in session Wednesday, Amann said he expects that some members will want to speak about the death penalty during "points of personal privilege" allowed by the speaker. Amann, however, said he will not allow a free-wheeling debate this week. "I'm hoping people will not try to make a mockery of the session Wednesday," Amann said. "Wednesday is not the proper time to have a debate." The full debate is scheduled to start Jan. 31 in front of the legislature's judiciary committee, which will hear from invited speakers and the general public on the death penalty. The committee's co-chairman, Sen. Andrew J. McDonald, D-Stamford, said that at least 1 legislative attorney worked throughout the weekend on drafting death-penalty bills - including one that would abolish it entirely. "Notwithstanding what Bill Dyson might say, we are moving as rapidly as possible to have a debate on this issue," McDonald said Monday. At the Capitol complex, a steady stream of legislators, lobbyists and state employees stopped Monday to chat with Dyson as they were on their way to the cafeteria or various offices. Riding up the escalator to the 2nd floor, lobbyist Fritz Conway called out to Dyson on whether he could provide some refreshment: "Bill, hot chocolate? Coffee? Tea?" Dyson, 64, said he purposely chose the prominent spot in the middle of the atrium so that he would be seen by a wide variety of people. "If they go in and out of this building, they're going to see me," Dyson said. "If they go up the escalator, they're going to see me." A longtime anti-war activist, Dyson said he opposes the death penalty on principle - while conceding that Ross was guilty of heinous crimes. "I don't want to engage in being party to taking somebody's life," Dyson said. "I refuse to be a part of it." He said he was glad to hear the execution had been put on hold. "It says somebody is taking note that it's worth taking a review. That may create some momentum. Any momentum against the death penalty is good." (source: Hartford Courant) ********************** Conn. death penalty hits too close to home Michael Ross has spent 18 years on Connecticut's death row. As the day of his scheduled execution neared, he urged Gov. M. Jodi Rell not to grant him a reprieve - and she did not. Is this a man who now feels remorse and wants to give closure to his victims' families? Or is this a man not capable of making rational decisions about his own execution after 18 years on death row? A federal judge yesterday said he will issue a stay to postpone the execution until he can determine whether Ross is mentally competent to make such a decision. Ross had been scheduled to die by injection tomorrow in the Osborn Correctional Instituion in nearby Somers, the first execution in New England since 1960. We will leave it to others to judge Ross' mental competency but we will question the competency of Connecticut lawmakers who have not taken steps to abolish the death penalty. In this space in the past, we have repeatedly opposed the death penalty, arguing that no judicial system could ever be constructed that could guarantte no innocent person would ever be executed. Michael Ross is guilty. Of that, there is no doubt. He admits he killed eight women in Connecticut and New York in the 1980s, and he raped most of his victims. We have no sympathy for this serial killer, nor will we make any attempt to hide our contempt for him. We still oppose his execution. One day, we hope, the United States Supreme Court will rule that the death penalty is unconstitutional. Only two states in the Northeast - Connecticut and New Hampshire - allow captial punishment. Efforts to restore the death penalty in Massachusetts have fortunately failed. Still, an execution in Somers, which borders the Massachusetts towns of East Longmeadow and Hampden, is too close to home. If Michael Ross is eventually executed, we will not be saddened by his death. We will be saddened for our neighbors in Connecticut because the state as executioner will be acting in the names of each and every resident in Connecticut. And we will be saddened for the relatives of Michael Ross' victims because his death will not make their grief go away. If he isn't executed, it may be that life on death row is a crueler fate than a lethal injection. (source: Editorial, Republican) ****************** Executions in liberal U.S. states grab attention 2 of the year's first executions, 1 planned and 1 completed, are set in strongly liberal U.S. states, prompting bursts of attention on capital punishment in places where it is rarely used. California, a Democratic stronghold, executed three-time murderer Donald Beardslee last week. And in Connecticut serial killer Michael Ross was due to die this week until a federal judge stepped in on Monday to delay the date. The execution in Connecticut would be the first in the liberal northeast in more than 40 years. The one in California, where 640 people are on death row, was only the 11th execution since the state reinstated capital punishment in 1978. A third execution passed virtually unnoticed in Texas, a conservative Republican stronghold that has executed more people than any other state. The novel cases in Connecticut and California each have spawned hundreds of newspaper articles over the last month, according to one database that counts such stories. The Texas case prompted just 11 articles. "The symbolism and significance of individual executions vary dramatically depending on the part of the country," said Douglas Berman, a death penalty expert and law professor at Ohio State University. He drew a distinction between the so-called blue, or Democratic, and red, or Republican states. "In the blue states, there's always going to be a large population that wants to seriously question and put a halt to these processes. In the red states, there just isn't," he said. "The more the state kills people, the more comfortable and acclimated and uneventful those killings become." Richard Dieter, head of the Death Penalty Information Center, put it simply: "It's just not news in Texas." The case in Connecticut showcases a way to push the debate over capital punishment to the forefront, Berman added. "It's an incredible turning point in the state's history with the death penalty," he said. "But once you've turned that corner, it gets quieter and quieter. It's ironically one of the reasons to maybe fight the first one so hard." Death penalty opponent David Kaczynski, the brother of convicted "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, agreed: "Once you kill 1 person, it's easier the 2nd time." But the case in Connecticut may be hard to fight. Ross has asked that the appeals process be abandoned and a federal judge has ordered that a new psychiatrist should evaluate whether he is mentally capable. Ross, 45 and a graduate of Cornell University, has admitted to killing 8 women in the early 1980s. His execution by lethal injection had been set for Wednesday. Death-penalty advocate Dudley Sharp noted that support in Connecticut for the Ross execution was higher than might be expected. He cited a poll showing 81 % of residents supported the governor's refusal to step in and block it. "That's impressive," Sharp said. "I don't think anybody would have thought that would have come out of Connecticut." Kaczynski, who became an activist after turning in his older brother to the FBI but later saying he felt betrayed by authorities who sought the death penalty, regularly lobbies lawmakers. He said he meets quite a few legislators who support the death penalty for its symbolic value. "What's happening in Connecticut shows that it's more than a symbol. This is real. The machine is designed to kill and sooner or later, it's going to do what it's designed to do," Kaczynski said. "The sense of denial about this being a matter of life or death ends." (source: Reuters)
