Jan. 25 NORTH CAROLINA: Cleveland County DA searches for victim's family The Cleveland County district attorney has issued a public appeal for the family of a woman killed in October 1991 to contact him about the execution of the woman's killer. William D. "Bugsy" Powell, 58, is scheduled to die at 2 a.m. March 11 at Central Prison in Raleigh for the murder of Mary Gladden, 54, on Halloween night 1991 at the convenience store where she worked. District Attorney Bill Young said he lost contact with Gladden's family, who will have the opportunity to speak with the governor at Powell's commutation hearing before Gov. Mike Easley. Court documents show that a customer found Gladden's body about 3:45 a.m. Oct. 31, 1991, on the floor of the convenience store where she worked. "She was beaten so badly that she could not be recognized," Young said. The store's cash drawer was open and a small amount of cash was missing, Young said. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA----re: Vienna Convention issues SoCal judge puts Honduran man's death-sentence ruling on hold A judge who must decide whether to approve the death penalty for a Honduran man convicted of murder will wait for a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court before making her decision. Attorneys for Johnny Morales said he should not get the death penalty because police violated his international rights by arresting him without notifying Honduran officials. Other immigrants have tried unsuccessfully to make similar arguments in the past. But last month the Supreme Court agreed to hear the issue in a separate case after the International Court of Justice ruled the United States had violated the rights of 49 Mexicans on death row by not advising them they could contact their home governments. Morales, 27, was scheduled to be sentenced last Friday, but Superior Court Judge Ingrid Uhler postponed his sentencing until July 22. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the arguments this spring. Morales was convicted of fatally shooting a woman during a 2001 home invasion robbery as her horrified children listened from the next room. He was held for more than 2 years before Honduran officials were notified. Morales is asking the judge to disregard a jury's death penalty recommendation and reduce his sentence or grant him a new trial. He argues that police violated international treaties when they jailed him. The 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations requires that police notify foreign citizens who are arrested that they can contact their home governments. Consular officials are permitted to visit those arrested and help with their defense if they are charged. (source: Associated Press) NEW YORK: Lawmakers considering death penalty hear both sides A veteran prosecutor whose death sentence against a wife killer was overturned told lawmakers Tuesday that New York's capital punishment law needs serious fixes to work effectively. Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick sounded frustrated at times as he testified about how New York's highest court vacated the death sentence of James Cahill in 2003. The ruling was one of several by the state Court of Appeals that has effectively left the 10-year-old law in limbo. The Assembly is holding public hearings as it decides what should be done next. But testimony Tuesday _ ranging from a prosecutor who sought the death penalty to adamant opponents _ showed how controversial the issue remains. "We as a civilized people must not resort to vengeance," Albany Bishop Howard Hubbard, speaking for the New York State Catholic Conference, told Assembly members. "... Revenge through execution does not heal the wounds, control the rage, fill the emptiness or bring the anticipated `closure' so many hope to find." Fitzpatrick sidestepped arguing the merits of the death penalty to focus on the case of Cahill, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 1998 for poisoning his wife Jill to death with potassium cyanide. She was in a hospital at the time, recuperating from a severe beating Cahill inflicted on her 6 months earlier with a baseball bat at their home near Syracuse. A divided Court of Appeals vacated Cahill's death sentence, saying there was not enough evidence to support the aggravating factors that allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty. Specifically, they said a burglary charge could not be sustained because, although Cahill entered his wife's hospital room with the intent of poisoning her with potassium cyanide, he did not steal anything. The court ordered Cahill to be resentenced on a 2nd-degree murder count. He is now serving a 37 1/2-year prison term. Fitzgerald told lawmakers that Cahill meticulously plotted his wife's murder and that kind of premeditation should be enough to sustain a capital charge. He said the appeal court's ruling negated months of hard work by jurors. "To dismiss their decision with tortured reasoning is unacceptable," Fitzgerald told lawmakers. "And if indeed your decision is to reinstate the death penalty, then give the prosecutors of this great state a statute that is workable." The death blow to New York's capital punishment came in June in a Court of Appeals ruling that said jury instruction provisions in the law could result in some jurors voting for death against a defendant when they really don't want to. No inmate had been executed under the law. Gov. George Pataki and his fellow Republicans in charge of the state Senate say they're eager to get a law back on the books. Pataki was first elected governor in large part by promising to bring back the death penalty in his 1994 campaign against anti-capital punishment Gov. Mario Cuomo. The Assembly - where more majority Democrats voted against restoring the death penalty in 1995 than for it - has opted to move slower. Seeking momentum, New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty held a news conference before the hearing Tuesday featuring men wrongfully convicted of murder and relatives of murder victims. Bruce and Janice Grieshaber, who became advocates for eliminating parole after their daughter was slain, said killing her killer would not bring Jenna back. "Will our lives change if he were murdered?" Bruce Grieshaber asked. "No. Our lives remain the same." (source: Associated Press) KANSAS----re: federal death penalty to be pursued Kline pursuing federal charge in sheriff's death Prosecutors will pursue federal charges against the man accused of killing Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels to ensure he could face the death penalty if convicted. Attorney General Phill Kline said Tuesday he began to explore other options for prosecuting Scott Cheever, 23, because of uncertainty regarding this state's death penalty law. The Kansas Supreme Court last month struck down the law as unconstitutional, and Kline is appealing that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. "There is a cloud over the Kansas death penalty," Kline said. "It is uncertain, if convicted -- and if the jury would find that death is appropriate -- that the death penalty would be carried out." U.S. attorney for Kansas Eric Melgren, who joined Kline at a news conference Tuesday, said he intends to seek a federal grand jury indictment against Cheever within a month. A U.S. Department of Justice review committee then will make a recommendation whether to pursue the death penalty. The U.S. attorney general must grant final approval to pursue execution -- which could come about 2 or 3 months after an indictment is handed down, Melgren said. "We agree that the severity and the seriousness of this crime requires that we jointly pursue the options that would provide the severest possible sentence -- including, if possible, the death sentence," Melgren said. Melgren wouldn't speculate Tuesday on how likely the federal government might be to pursue the death penalty, and he said a review could take several months. If convicted under state law without the possibility of the death penalty, Kline said, Cheever could face a sentence of 94 years to life in prison. Under federal law, he likely would be charged with violence involving firearms in connection with an illegal drug manufacturing facility that resulted in death, Melgren said. Meanwhile, the state's case against Cheever will continue. On Monday, Kline charged Cheever with capital murder in Greenwood County District Court. Samuels was shot to death Wednesday while serving warrants at a northeast Greenwood County home. Cheever also was charged with 3 counts of attempted capital murder, manufacture of methamphetamine, conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine and criminal possession of a firearm. State prosecutors also charged five other people, most with conspiracy to manufacture meth. Lawmakers who represent the Greenwood County area said on Tuesday they supported the decision to pursue federal charges. "I had the privilege of knowing Matt Samuels personally. He was a man of honor," said Rep. Peggy Long-Mast, R-Emporia. "He was a man who wasn't afraid to put his life on the line." (source: Topeka Capital Journal) ******************* Capital-punishment options few for Kansas Legislature Kansas lawmakers face a death-penalty dilemma: Correct a flaw in the state's death-penalty law and risk erasing death sentences for 7 murderers, including Johnson County serial murderer John E. Robinson Sr. Or bet that the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the case this year, and risk leaving the state without a working death penalty in the meantime. Those are the choices left to the Kansas Legislature as it considers what to do with the state's hobbled capital-punishment law. The state Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional last month on the basis of one offending detail. Correcting that detail will be easy, lawmakers say, but they may have to sacrifice past - or future - death penalties in the process. "It's an extraordinarily impossible choice," said Attorney General Phill Kline, one of several persons who spoke Monday before a Senate committee studying the state's options. Kline's office began preparing an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court immediately after the Kansas court struck down the death penalty. In a 4-3 ruling, the Kansas justices criticized language in the law that required juries to vote for capital punishment when reasons for and against it were even. That was unfair to defendants, the court ruled, even though juries hadn't had to abide by those instructions. Kline hopes the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn the Kansas Supreme Court and leave in place the sentences of 7 men currently on death row - including Robinson, convicted of killing 3 persons in Kansas and 5 in Missouri. If the U.S. Supreme Court denies the request for an appeal, those 7 death sentences will be commuted. The odds aren't in Kansas' favor. Kline estimates there's only a 1-in-7 to 1-in-10 chance of the high court taking the death-penalty appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court receives more than 8,000 requests for appeals every year, and takes less than 1 %. Lawmakers had a proposal that would repair the death-penalty statute, but it could not be applied to the men now on death row. Prosecutors from Johnson and Sedgwick counties want the state to wait to see if the Supreme Court weighs in. Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison says it might be 6 months before the Supreme Court decides whether it will hear the case. Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston said the men on death row already committed their crimes and should be punished. "We owe that to the families of the victims," she said. Kline also asked the Kansas Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling. The court has temporarily stayed the ruling until it decides whether to reconsider. Kline says the chances of that happening are slim. Death-penalty critics also oppose the proposal to fix the death-penalty statute. Sen. David Haley, a Kansas City, Kan., Democrat, proposes abolishing the death penalty altogether. Sen. John Vratil, a Leawood Republican who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, says there are people on both sides of the issue, "both opposing this bill for opposite reasons. I find that very interesting." Sen. Kay O'Connor, an Olathe Republican, put it more simply: "What a mess." (source: Kansas City Star) CONNECTICUT: Ross preparing for death, believes he'll go to heaven Although condemned serial killer Michael Ross hasn't forgiven himself for his crimes, he believes God has. That's according to a friend and pastoral adviser who visits Ross daily as he faces his possible execution. Ross has become devout since his arrest in 1984, meeting regularly over the years with 2 priests and praying the rosary each morning. "He knows intellectually he's been forgiven by God," said Kathy Yeager, who graduated from Cornell University with Ross in 1981 and has been meeting with him in prison for the past 8 years. In an interview with The Associated Press, Yeager, a lay minister who lives in the Hartford area, said Ross is continuing to live out the remaining hours of his life as if he will be put to death soon. Ross participated in a special Catholic mass on Monday night. On Tuesday, he planned to meet with visitors until 11:30 p.m. Ross, 45, who admitted killing 8 young women and girls and raping most of them in the early 1980s, was 1st scheduled to be executed by lethal injection before dawn on Wednesday. But a federal judge's decision to stay the execution prompted the Department of Correction to postpone the execution. The earliest it can now be held is Friday morning. Yeager, one of Ross' chosen witnesses for the execution, met with Ross on Monday evening at Osborne Correctional Institution in Somers. She said he was "upset, frustrated and angry" about the execution being delayed. "He was derailed for a while and got back on track," Yeager said, asked how Ross reacted to news of the stay. She said Ross realizes he needs to remain emotionally prepared for the possibility of being put to death this week. "He expected just to be able to get the date set and prepare himself without all this legal distraction," she said. "He's so tired from it all." During her visits, Yeager said she often prays with Ross, discusses "end of life issues" such as burial arrangements, reminisces about Cornell and tries to shift the focus of their conversations from the execution to Ross going to heaven. "I'm trying to emphasize some of the positives," said Yeager. Yeager said Ross - who prays the rosary each day from 4:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m., according to one of his recent visitors - believes he will be going to "a better place" once he is finally executed. "He's not being punished. He's moving on to life eternal. That's (what is) ironic about the death penalty," Yeager said. "He's looking forward to the peace," she added. A death penalty opponent, Ross has written extensively about how believes he should not be executed because of his mental illness. But late last year, he fired his public defenders and announced he wanted to forgo any further appeals and move ahead with the execution. Yeager said Ross has come to believe there is no way his death sentences can be commuted to life sentences without forcing the families of his victims to suffer through more legal hearings. "He knows it's wrong. He doesn't want to be executed. He doesn't want to die, contrary to people using that," Yeager said. "He knows that his life has value in many ways." A group of about 10 people, including Yeager, Ross' father and two priests, have regularly visited with Ross during the final weeks leading up to his execution. Ross' former fiance, Susan Powers, an Oklahoma woman who met Ross while he was on death row and broke up with him two years ago, is also visiting him. Powers appeared at Monday's federal court hearing in Hartford. Yeager said Ross would have preferred life sentences for his crimes. She said Ross knows his life can be meaningful, even behind bars. Yeager ticks off a list of the killer's accomplishments, such as translating Braille, acting as a "big brother" to other inmates and he is sponsoring an impoverished child in the Dominican Republic. "He's had a horrible life and he's wanted to do good," she said. Yeager said she's uncertain whether Ross will make any final remarks at his execution. She said Ross is worried he'll say something that offends the family members of his victims. He is also afraid, Yeager said, of not being able to bring himself to speak. "The whole thing is overwhelming," she said. "He knows he shouldn't be killed." (source: Associated Press)
