Feb. 7
TEXAS:
Jury now selected in Andre Thomas case
Testimony in Andre Thomas' capital murder trial is expected to begin Feb.
15. Attorneys finished selecting a jury for the trial Friday afternoon.
Thomas is charged with capital murder in the death of his estranged wife
Laura Christine (Boren) Thomas, their son Andre Lee Borne and Mrs. Thomas'
daughter, Leyha Marie Hughes. All of 3 of the victims were found in
Mrs. Thomas' apartment on March 27. The trial will focus on the charge
Thomas faces for the death of Leyha Marie Hughes.
Retired State District Judge James Fry will hear the case in the East
Courtroom at the Grayson County Courthouse and has estimated that the case
could last as long as 3 weeks.
District Attorney Joe Brown and his 1st assistant, Keri Ashmore, will
prosecute the case. The trial is the 1st in which Brown, who is just a
little over a month into his 2nd term in office, has sought the death
penalty.
Thomas will be defended by R. J. Hagood and Bobbie Peterson, a former
first assistant Grayson county attorney. Both defense attorneys have tried
capital cases before.
The defense has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental illness
or defect and much of the evidence is during the trial is expected to
center around Thomas' mental state at the time of the killings. Both sides
have retained expert witnesses to address the mental health issues.
Thomas, who gouged out his own eyeball while in a cell at the Grayson
County jail, was declared incompetent to stand trial last year and sent to
a mental hospital. However, doctors there released Thomas from their care
several months later after saying his condition had improved to the point
that he would be able to understand the charges against him and help with
his own defense. Since that time, Thomas has been held at the Grayson
County jail.
(source: The Herald Democrat)
***********************************
Outgoing judge says low salaries weaken the bench ---- Unless the state
compensation is raised, he says, the courts will suffer
Texas will have a hard time convincing its best judges to stay in the
courtroom if the Legislature doesn't sweeten the financial rewards, one
outgoing Harris County judge warns.
While state District Judge Bruce Oakley said money was not a factor in his
decision, he said low compensation makes it difficult to keep good judges.
"We are on the brink of a crisis in the judiciary," he said. "We will not
retain the best and the brightest if the state continues to pay them less
than 1st-year (law firm) associates."
Oakley, 40, is stepping down from his civil bench to return to private
practice. He will be a partner in Pillsbury Winthrop's Houston office,
focusing on industries including energy and finance.
After 4 years as a judge, Oakley said he wanted to return to advocating
for clients.
"Being the referee is very interesting, but I want to be the one in the
game taking the shot," said Oakley, whose resignation is effective Feb.
15.
A graduate of Baylor University, from which he also received his law
degree, Oakley was a partner with Bracewell & Patterson before becoming a
judge. One of his most interesting experiences as a judge, he said, was
building relationships with people in the courthouse, particularly jurors.
"I appreciated the sacrifices jurors make and how the system and the
lawyers don't always treat them with the respect that they should be
treated with," he said.
Oakley's departure highlights two issues within the Harris County civil
judiciary: the increasing number of young lawyers taking the bench and the
concerns many share about their relatively low pay.
Oakley, who was 36 when Gov. Rick Perry appointed him, is part of a wave
of lawyers in their 30s who have become judges. The average age of a
Harris County civil district court judge dropped from 58.5 in 1978 to
younger than 44 in 2002.
One reason for that, said state District Judge Mark Davidson, is judges'
salaries.
Compensation has been an issue for years, with judges statewide receiving
only one pay raise since 1989 after the Legislature tied judges' pay to
lawmakers' pension rates. In 2003, the Legislature allowed four counties,
including Harris, to augment judges' salaries through 2007.
Harris County judges make $128,000 per year, which is more than justices
on the state Supreme Court.
"It sounds like a lot of money, and it is," said Davidson, chief of the
county's civil courts. "But any of us can resign the bench and instantly
double our income."
Until the Legislature allowed supplementary income, he said, Harris County
civil judges were resigning at a rate of 20 % a year, with many citing low
salary as the reason.
"If the public wants the judiciary to be a place where lawyers come for a
few years and then move on, there is no need to give judges a pay raise,"
Davidson said. "I think the public deserves better than institutionalizing
inexperience."
(source: Houston Chronicle)
ALABAMA:
Man's release creates backlash
Assistant Attorney General Don Valeska said he will ask the Alabama Court
of Criminal Appeals to reinstate capital murder charges against Daniel
Wade Moore in the death of a Decatur woman and return him to jail until
that appeal is settled.
Valeska reacted Saturday to Morgan County Circuit Judge Glenn Thompson's
ruling Friday that dismissed the charges against Moore in the March 12,
1999, death of 39-year-old Karen Tipton.
Thompson ruled that Valeska and a Decatur police sergeant had withheld
evidence at trial.
Moore was freed from jail.
Valeska contends Thompson "cannot throw out this case." He said he will
ask the appeals court this week to reinstate the indictments.
A jury convicted Moore in November 2002 and recommended life without
parole. Thompson instead imposed the death penalty. Then in March 2003,
Thompson granted Moore a new trial, stating that the prosecution refused
to follow his orders to share evidence with the defense that could have
freed Moore.
The victim's husband, psychiatrist David Tipton, now living in rural North
Carolina, says he's angry Thompson didn't give the state a chance to
prevent Moore's release from jail.
In a 17-page ruling reported by The Decatur Daily, Thompson criticized
Valeska, who prosecuted Moore. The judge also criticized Decatur Police
Sgt. Michael Pettey, who assisted in the inquiry.
"When Assistant Attorney General Don Valeska and Investigator Mike Pettey
willfully defied this court's orders they chose to defy justice," the
judge wrote.
Thompson said Valeska and Pettey denied the existence of evidence,
including FBI documents, that might have cleared Moore -- evidence to
which the defense was entitled.
Thompson said when he questioned Valeska about an FBI report during a
hearing in October 2002, he stated, "There ain't no such thing as an FBI
report."
"All of the material in question here passed through the hands of the
investigators for the Decatur Police Department or the Assistant Attorney
General Don Valeska and should have been provided to the defense as
ordered by this court," the judge wrote.
The victim's husband reacted: "Decatur is a more dangerous place today as
a result of Daniel Moore being free in it, and he's also a risk to just
take off. He could literally leave the country and be able to not ever
face a 2nd trial."
Tipton defended Pettey and accused the judge of showing no consideration
to the victims in this case.
"Mike Pettey did absolutely nothing wrong from end to end and is above
reproach in everything he did," Tipton told the Decatur newspaper for a
story Sunday.
He also said he believes Moore will be tried again.
"There could be years and decades of legal lawyering over this. The
victims fear it being over with now, but we also fear it going on for the
rest of our lives. Every time there's another round of lawyering, it is
further invasion and pain placed on the victims of this crime, and Judge
Thompson has clearly shown no consideration for me, for my late wife, for
the victims of this crime -- absolutely none."
(source: Associated Press)
VIRGINIA----juvenile might face death penalty
2nd Slaying's DNA Spurs Charges in Pr. William
Mac Selbe will always remember the trembling voice that came over the
speakerphone inside Comcast's Alexandria office Sept. 12, 2001. He and two
co-workers were preparing the budget when another colleague called about
cable guru and safety coordinator Paul R. Domaszek.
"'I have some terrible news. I am in Paul's place now, and he's been
stabbed to death,'" Selbe, 31, said, recounting the phone call. "I'll
never forget that conversation. We were deep into budgets and thinking
about numbers, and everyone was still upset from [the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks]. It knocked the wind out of me."
As Prince William County detectives began investigating the life of the
quiet, solitary 40-year-old, the alleged killer was living in Domaszek's
neighborhood and would soon be charged in another death.
Law enforcement officials now say they would not have been able to file
charges in Domaszek's slaying had his alleged assailant, Brandon M.
Crawford, not stabbed a hotel clerk more than 100 times 2 months later
in Virginia Beach -- and gotten caught.
Because of DNA samples that Crawford, now 20, had to submit upon his
conviction in the Virginia Beach slaying, local investigators were able to
charge him in Domaszek's homicide. Crawford is serving a life sentence in
the Virginia Beach killing.
Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert, who announced
Crawford's arrest on capital murder and burglary charges last month, said:
"It's an unusual case. It's horrifying to have someone on the street that
apparently kills just for the sake of killing."
Domaszek, a Wisconsin-born, cigar-smoking, bluegrass music fan, was found
in his Lake Ridge apartment, naked on his living room floor, stabbed
almost a dozen times and with his throat slit.
At the time of the slaying, Crawford was staying with his mother in
Domaszek's neighborhood in the 3200 block of Ridge View Court. Crawford
and Domaszek had no relationship, and officials say it is unclear what, if
any, contact they may have had before the killing.
Ebert may seek the death penalty if the Supreme Court upholds most
juvenile executions in a highly anticipated decision this year. Crawford
was 17 at the time of the stabbing.
Paul Maslakowski, one of Crawford's 3 attorneys, said he is evaluating
the case's background and would not comment extensively. "Sometimes, DNA
is a big and deciding issue. In other cases, it depends on the facts and
circumstances," he said.
A Prince William County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court judge has
ordered that Crawford undergo an evaluation to determine whether he is
mentally competent to stand trial. At a hearing next month, a judge is
expected to rule on his competency. Maslakowski said Crawford has
exhibited signs of paranoid schizophrenia.
Before his trial in Virginia Beach in 2003, Crawford initially had been
found to be incompetent but was later restored to competency, his former
attorney, Janee Joslin, said.
Domaszek relatives and colleagues were confounded and saddened by his
death. He had no enemies and led a thoughtful life, they said. Domaszek
was married in the 1980s for about a year, had no children and largely
kept to himself.
After graduating from Eisenhower High School in New Berlin, Wis., in 1978,
he worked for a cable company in Alabama. He began working at the Comcast
office in Alexandria in spring 2000 and became well-known for teaching
engaging courses to employees on installing and troubleshooting cable
systems -- classes considered technical and challenging, said Ernest
Johnson, the office's fleet and facilities manager.
Domaszek occasionally stepped out of his reserved personality to joke
around or test co-workers with tricky questions to which only he knew the
answers. Once, when everyone kept razzing Domaszek about his love of
bluegrass music, he pulled a prank that could be considered perfect only
at a cable company: He rigged an office television to a channel that
played only bluegrass music. The channel couldn't be changed.
"Everyone was trying to change it, and Paul was in his office with his
door closed, laughing," Johnson recalled.
One of his 8 siblings, Veronica Bierbower of Orlando, said her brother
visited her about once every other month, seeking a respite from the
frenzy of Washington. She said she still thinks of him lounging on the
porch, drinking a beer and smoking a cigar, or sitting inside, entranced
by the Discovery Channel.
When Bierbower was notified in August that a DNA match had linked a
convicted killer to her brother's death, she said she felt both relieved
and angry.
"I was pretty mad. It was for no reason. This was just a kid," she said.
"But it was about time for closure."
Harvey L. Bryant III, the Virginia Beach commonwealth's attorney, said the
killing at the Marjac Suites hotel Nov. 13, 2001, was just as unusual as
Domaszek's slaying.
Police found Crawford inside the hotel office with clerk Walter E. Otis,
who had been stabbed in the back. Crawford had blood on his clothes and
Otis's wedding band inside his sock.
"In our case, he close to cut the guy in half," Bryant said.
"Clearly, he was not your normal teenager. He hacks people. He was capable
of concocting a defense. I never doubted he was competent to stand trial
and was sane at the time of the offense."
(source: Washington Post)
*******************************
Hey, executioner, leave those kids alone
By an overwhelming 32-7 majority, Virginia's representatives in Richmond
passed a bill less than two weeks ago making ours the first state to ban
cell phone use in cars for drivers under 18. Sen. William C. Mims,
R-Loudoun, who proposed the bill, cited a study by the National Institutes
of Health that found the region of the brain that restrains risky
behaviors isn't fully developed until age of 25. The pediatric
psychiatrist that led that NIH study explained that the research suggested
that adolescence could be "a dangerous time."
Add talking on a cell phone while driving, then, to the list of things
that underage Virginians cannot do: legally purchase alcohol, cigarettes
or pornography, join the military or vote for the state legislature. Yet,
by its negligence that same week, the legislature decided that being
sentenced to death doesn't have a place on that list. Our legislators in
Richmond agreed that while teenage brains were too underdeveloped to
multitask, those brains and bodies were developed enough to execute.
On Jan. 26, the Virginia Senate Courts of Justice Committee considering, a
bill to ban the death penalty for juveniles, sent the issue to the
Virginia State Crime Commission for a year of study, dismissing it from
consideration in this legislative period. While supporters of that bill,
including its author, Sen. Patricia Ticer, D-Alexandria, are optimistic
about the scrutiny the practice will receive from the commission, there is
obviously a sense of disappointment that the embarrassing practice of
executing criminals under the age of 18 will remain legal in the
Commonwealth for at least another year. As the U.S. Supreme Court is
expected to rule on the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty
when it decides Roper v. Simmons later in its session, it's possible that
the end to the practice will come not from responsible and humane action
in Richmond, but by judicial fiat.
By now, the moral case against the juvenile death penalty is beside the
point. The shame of being the 2nd leading state (behind only Texas) in
the execution of juveniles could certainly stand as plenty of reason
alone. That shame should only be compounded by the insult of the company
America not only keeps, but leads. We are the only member of the United
Nations that has not ratified the body's Treaty on the Rights of the
Child, and our country's track record of 17 juveniles sentenced to death
in the past decade and a half (5 of which are in Virginia) makes us the
leader of the pack of the seven nations that still practice the juvenile
death penalty. Those 7 nations, for the record, include such human rights
superstars as the Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Congo.
Furthermore, it's simply not fiscally pragmatic for a state that cannot
afford sustained high quality education for its juveniles to continue to
sentence them to death. Duke University analyzed the cost of death penalty
cases in our neighbor to the south and discovered that the price of
adjudicating a capital case was "at least an extra $2.6 million per
execution compared to what the taxpayers would have spent if defendants
were tried without the death penalty and sentenced to life in prison."
If nothing else, the fact that the juvenile death penalty remains on the
books in Virginia is downright undemocratic, as the overwhelming majority
of Americans do not support it. According to a Gallup poll done in May of
2002, 72 % of Americans support capital punishment, but only 26 % support
it for juveniles convicted of murder.
There is absolutely no excuse and no justification for Richmond to be
dragging its feet or stalling on this issue. The immorality of executing
an individual deemed incapable of operating a cell phone while driving
doesn't even have to be part of the picture; the juvenile death penalty is
bad for Virginia on so many other grounds.Sen. Mims says that the ban on
underage cell phone use is necessary because teenagers can't multitask;
the hypocrisy of the legislature in passing that bill while ignoring the
juvenile death penalty proves that our elected officials can't either.
(source: Katie Cristol; The Cavalier Daily)
CALIFORNIA:
Murder review starts 2nd year----CHINO HILLS: Lawyers for Kevin Cooper,
convicted of killing 4, seek DNA tests to prevent his execution.
A year ago this week, a federal appeals court canceled Kevin Cooper's
appointment with death and ordered a San Diego judge to take another look
at the evidence that convicted him of murdering a couple and two children
in Chino Hills.
U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff is still looking.
Attorneys for Cooper convinced appellate judges there was new evidence of
his innocence in the June 1983 knife-and-hatchet murders of Doug and Peggy
Ryen, both 41, their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica, and an 11-year-old
friend of their children, Christopher Hughes. Eight-year-old Joshua Ryen
survived the attack.
Some blasted the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for halting a brutal
killer's long-overdue execution while others praised the judges for
preventing an irreparable injustice.
But all would agree that the appellate judges were overly optimistic on
one point.
"The district court may be in a position to resolve this case very
quickly," the Court of Appeals declared on Feb. 9, 2004, when it stopped
Cooper's execution with only hours to spare.
It hasn't been nearly that easy.
The proceedings before Huff spread over the last 12 months covered some
new territory, especially in the scientific realm, and revisited several
issues that surfaced during Cooper's trial 20 years ago.
'Enough is Enough'
Mary Ann Hughes, Christopher's mother, has been in Huff's courtroom
throughout the year and has seen nothing to support Cooper's innocence.
"We're hoping that Judge Huff says 'enough is enough' and sends it back to
the 9th Circuit," she said.
Crystal Bybee, a death-penalty abolitionist, maintains a "Save Kevin
Cooper" Web site. She said her group, the Campaign to End the Death
Penalty, continues to support Cooper.
"We are working to highlight his innocence and the flaws of the
death-penalty system that put him on death row," Bybee said.
Among Bybee's assertions are that Cooper, 46, had no motive, police
botched the investigation, others confessed to the killing and Cooper, who
is black, was the victim of a racist climate.
Officials with the San Bernardino County district attorney's office, which
prosecuted Cooper, and California attorney general's office, which is
handling the federal appeal, say Cooper's guilt is clearer than ever.
"We know this is the person who committed these murders," said District
Attorney Michael Ramos.
"There's no doubt in my mind, just as there was no doubt in the jury's
mind."
In 1985, jurors said multiple pieces of circumstantial evidence all
pointed to Cooper, a prison escapee, as the killer. A visit to the crime
scene, in which jurors saw that the Ryen home was about 50 yards from a
house where Cooper had been hiding out, clinched the verdict, they said.
Some jurors criticized the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department,
saying it used inexperienced investigators at the crime scene, but all
disbelieved Cooper's testimony that he was innocent.
The Tampering Theory
Cooper's defense team now is claiming authorities went beyond incompetence
to corruption, saying Cooper was framed by planted evidence.
There's still plenty of doubt that only further DNA testing can settle,
said David Alexander, Cooper's lead counsel.
Much of the recent court evidence has focused on a T-shirt, found near the
crime scene but not used to convict Cooper, which had a small blood stain
on it.
Cooper's lawyers contend that police planted the blood. To confirm their
suspicions, they had the shirt tested for EDTA, a preservative used in the
laboratory but also found in laundry detergent and household cleaners.
"Kevin Cooper's claim that police planted his blood on a T-shirt have not
been substantiated by recent EDTA and DNA testing," said Nathan Barankin,
spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer.
Alexander insists the tests are inconclusive and require further inquiry.
John Kochis, a San Bernardino County chief deputy district attorney who
prosecuted Cooper, said Alexander is stalling.
"As long as he can convince the court to do more testing, it buys (Cooper)
time," Kochis said.
Cooper's case suffered a serious blow in August when hair clutched by
Jessica Ryen at the crime scene turned out to be her own hair, not that of
one or more mystery killers other than Cooper. The Court of Appeals had
called for the hair testing along with the DNA and EDTA testing.
Last year, 3 jurors from the Cooper trial said they supported scientific
tests that were not available when they considered the evidence.
Other testimony before Judge Huff concerned shoe prints outside the Ryen
house linked to Cooper and men with blood on their shirts supposedly seen
at a bar a mile from the crime scene around the time of the murders.
Celebrity Attention
As Cooper's scheduled execution approached in January and early February
2004, celebrities, including actors Denzel Washington and Mike Farrell and
the Rev. Jessie Jackson, rallied to save his life.
Lanny Davis, former White House special counsel in the Clinton
administration, led the legal charge on Cooper's behalf.
But the hearings in San Diego have been anything but a star-studded
affair.
Davis stepped away from the case, deferring to Alexander, a law-firm
colleague who has since joined another San Francisco firm.
Cooper has not been present for the hearings to decide his fate and
remains on San Quentin Prison's death row. Nor have the proceedings drawn
much public attention.
Hughes said she attends the proceedings "so the judge can see real people
are involved on the other side. Also when we go to court, we keep (news)
reporters accountable."
Once Huff rules on the evidence, it could take another two years before
Cooper is cleared for execution again, Hughes said.
"It shows what a farce our system is," she said.
The convicted killer
Kevin Cooper had been treated at a mental hospital and imprisoned in
Pennsylvania before he moved to California in 1982 and assumed the alias
David Anthony Trautman. As Trautman, he was convicted of burglary in Los
Angeles County and escaped from the California Institution for Men at
Chino on June 2, 1983. He went to a vacant house on a horse-breeding farm
in Chino Hills near the Ryen house. Four days after the murders, Cooper,
using the name Angel Jackson, got a job in Ensenada as a deckhand and
sailed north. On July 30, 1983, he was arrested on suspicion of raping a
woman on another boat in Santa Barbara. Fingerprint comparisons
established his identity as a suspect in the Chino Hills murders.
The victims
Franklin Douglas Ryen and Peggy Ann Ryen were both chiropractors and were
active in breeding and showing Arabian horses. Jessica and Joshua Ryen
attended the Montessori Academy in Claremont. Their friend, Christopher
Hughes, was a competitive swimmer. On June 4, 1983, the Ryen family and
Christopher went to a barbecue at a friend's house. Christopher spent the
night with the Ryens. His father, William C. Hughes, discovered the
murders the next morning. Joshua had been left for dead but survived and
was raised by his grandmother in Temecula.
The trial
Cooper's trial was moved to San Diego County because of the possibility of
prejudicial pre-trial publicity in San Bernardino County, where the
offenses occurred. He was convicted of the four murders and, on May 15,
1985, was sentenced to death. State and federal appeals followed.
(source: The Press-Enterprise)
