Feb. 25 NORTH CAROLINA: Defendant enters plea in murder Lonnie Berry didn't like it, but he said he could deal with it. His sister's killer agreed Thursday in court to plead guilty to first-degree murder in the 1999 asphyxiation death of 37-year-old Jessica Pettaway during a burglary of her home. In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to stop any death sentence proceedings against the defendant, Parish L. Matthews. But Matthews, who was sentenced to death in 2001 for the same crime and won an appeal for a new trial three years later, entered an Alford plea on Thursday. An Alford plea means he doesn't admit his guilt, but agrees to take the punishment for the crime. Judge Frank Brown sentenced the 26-year-old Matthews to life in prison without parole. "He admits he did it, but he's not responsible," Berry said after the sentencing. "Death is death; there's no such thing as half dead. "He could have at least said he was sorry." Matthews' attorneys said they advised him not to say anything in court. "There's nothing he could say that would make the family feel any better," said Durham attorney Jonathan Broun. "He wanted to say he was sorry, and he is genuinely sorry. "He is very remorseful." But Matthews entered the Alford plea, Broun said, because he said he never intended to murder Pettaway. Intent is a key element in capital murder. Matthews was originally convicted of first-degree murder in 2001, and a jury recommended that he die for the crime. Evidence in his trial indicated that Matthews met Pettaway about 2 weeks before she was killed while working together at McDonald's, and the became acquaintances. Pettaway ran a day care center out of her home. Mathews admitted that he intended to commit larceny but that he had no intentions of killing Pettaway. Pettaway died from asphyxiation after Matthews left her tied up with her mouth stuffed with toilet tissue and covered with duct tape. Assistant District Attorney Steve Graham, who prosecuted Matthews in 2001, told the judge Thursday that Matthews eventually took the gag out, "but it was too late." Matthews stole Pettaway's Nissan Pathfinder and was captured two weeks later in Illinois in the stolen vehicle. The woman's body was found by her then 13-year-old son. Matthews was on death row for 3 years before he won an appeal a year ago after his defense attorney admitted his guilt to jurors during closing arguments. During Matthews' trial, defense attorney Bo Simmons argued that the panel should find Matthews guilty of second-degree murder, not 1st-degree murder, in an effort to remove capital punishment from the equation. During Matthews' appeals, his new attorneys argued that Matthews never gave Simmons permission to admit his guilt. Although Graham said he felt he still had strong evidence in the case, he agreed to a deal with Matthews for various reasons, including to spare Pettaway's family of another trial. "The passage of time (between the crime and trial) never helps the state," Graham said. "But more importantly, I took the plea to resolve the case and get closure for the family. "Plus, we've all seen the evolution of the death penalty process in the past few years. Juries are getting away from giving the death penalty. It's not a guaranteed thing anymore, no matter how bad the case is." (source: Rocky Mount Telegram) GEORGIA----impending execution Victim's mother opposes death penalty----Convicted Gwinnett killer set to die Tuesday The mother of a man shot to death in a 1991 pizza store robbery is expected to plead for the killer's life Friday before the state parole board. Stephen Anthony Mobley, 39, of Lawrenceville is scheduled to die at 7 p.m. Tuesday by lethal injection at the state prison in Jackson in Butts County. Mobley was sentenced to death for the murder of 24-year-old John Collins during the robbery of a Domino's Pizza store in Hall County. At a 10 a.m. hearing before the state Board of Pardons and Parole, Mobley's lawyers - former Attorney General Mike Bowers and former DeKalb County District Attorney J. Tom Morgan - will argue that Mobley's sentence should be commuted to life in prison without parole. Collins' mother, Nina, and his 2 sisters are expected to meet privately with the board also to ask that Mobley's life be spared, the lawyers said in documents submitted Thursday to the parole board. "It's the byproduct of a long period of soul-searching and decision-making that would lead her to finding peace," said Bill Finch, Nina Collins' son-in-law. "And seeing Tony Mobley put to death is not going to achieve that goal." Finch, a classmate of John Collins at North Georgia College in Dahlonega, said the family's decision has not been easy. "It's very difficult for the parent of a child lost in this manner," said Finch. "It's remarkable to me, the strength she has displayed." Mobley's lawyers argue that life in prison without parole was not an option in Georgia when he was sentenced to death. The pleadings to the parole board contain affidavits from six of the 10 living jurors in Mobley's trial saying they would've chosen life in prison without parole if it had been an option. Prosecutors who sought the death penalty against Mobley also have written letters to the parole board saying they would not object if his sentence was commuted, even though they believe the sentence is justified. Commutation of a death sentence in Georgia has happened 8 times since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. During that time, 37 men have been put to death. Though governors in other states have the power to commute death sentences, that authority in Georgia lies solely with the parole board. The last time the board commuted a death sentence was in 2004 for Willie James Hall, convicted for the stabbing death of his estranged wife in DeKalb County. At the time, Morgan, then DeKalb district attorney, told the board he was OK with the commutation of Hall's sentence. Russ Willard, a spokesman for Attorney General Thurbert Baker, said a commutation of Mobley's sentence is a bad idea. "If the board is going to be base its determination solely on what a victim's family does or does not say, then no victim's family in the future will be safe from daily, if not hourly, bombardment from the condemned's lawyer asking them to intervene," Willard said. Mobley shot Collins, the store manager, in the back of the head shortly after midnight on Feb. 17, 1991. He then went on a three-week crime spree, committing 6 more armed robberies of restaurants and dry cleaning shops, according to Baker's office. While in jail, Mobley had the word "Domino" tattooed on his back and hung a Domino's Pizza box on the wall of his cell, according to Baker's office. He also boasted to guards that he was going to apply for a job as night manager at Domino's after his release "because he knew they needed one." Mobley's lawyers dispute the existence of such a tattoo, and Department of Corrections officials said Mobley currently does not appear to have such a tattoo on his body. His lawyers contend in documents that Mobley has been a "model inmate" during his time on death row at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. (source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution) USA: Prof Scrutinizes Fingerprinting Everyone has heard that no 2 fingerprints are exactly alike, but does that mean that fingerprint evidence is infallible? Prof. Michael Lynch '70, science and technology studies, and Prof. Simon Cole '98, criminology, law and society, University of Californa, Irvine, are coming to the end of their research on the history of fingerprinting and DNA profiling, funded by a $144,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. "Fingerprinting has not been put through the same process as DNA profiling to determine error rate, validity and statistics," said Cole. Lynch explained that there is a difference between latent fingerprints, prints left on a surface, rolled prints, which are the ones in the records where a finger was rolled in ink to make the print. He said that although no two prints are exactly alike, sometimes it can be very hard to determine a match, for example if the print is smudged. Both researchers conducted many interviews and looked at court cases, rulings, and transcripts to study fingerprint and DNA evidence. According to Lynch, there has been an inversion of credibility between fingerprints and DNA profiling: at first, fingerprints were the gold standard and DNA profiling was intensely scrutinized. Over time, however, DNA profiling has gotten to have much more credible and fingerprinting, more likely to be questioned. Judge Louis H. Pollack made a ruling which placed some restrictions on fingerprint evidence, questioning its validity. In a second ruling on the matter, Pollack changed his mind, saying that it was admissible evidence. "You can have perfectly matching DNA or fingerprint evidence, but that doesn't determine guilt, it's a question of testimony and circumstance, DNA evidence can't get you around that problem," said Lynch. He added that often this scientific evidence intimidates people, including juries, into thinking that thre is no way to criticize it. The Death Penalty Project at Cornell Law School, a program comprised ot two parts, the first studying how the death penalty works and the second, representing clients in cases, has worked with DNA testing and fingerprint evidence in some cases. According to Prof. John Blume, law, there was a case in which a client was on death row, largely due to fingerprint evidence. "We mounted a challenge to the fingerprint evidence, ultimately casted enough doubt on it and were able to get another trial and though the client is still in prison, he is no longer on death row," Blume said. "DNA can generally indicate that a person is not the perpetrator of an offense, but the fact that DNA evidence points towrard somebody doesn't always mean that the person is guilty," Blume said. In a current case, DNA testing is being done for a person who has been on death row for 21 years and this is his 1st access to DNA testing. People have come to different conclusions from the opportunity for DNA testing. The the Innocence Project, based in New York City, for exapmle, works on using DNA testing to exonerate those wrongfully convicted. On the other hand, "just as science can be used to free the innocent, it can be used to identify the guilty," said Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney who proposed bringing back the death penalty to Massachusetts by using DNA and other scientific techniques. (source: Cornell Daily Sun) PENNSYLVANIA: Death penalty could be sought Prosecutors could seek the death penalty in the beating death of 2-year-old Kellen Tate Koller if they decide to charge his alleged killer with 1st-degree murder, the York County District Attorney's Office said. Travis Matthew Laughman, 20, was arraigned Monday on criminal homicide and aggravated assault. He's being held without bail. It's routine for a criminal homicide charge to be filed initially, said David Cook, head of the family violence unit with the district attorney's office. Prosecutors won't declare what degree of murder Laughman will be charged with until charging documents are filed at his arraignment. Prosecutors can only file a notice of intent to seek the death penalty if they charge Laughman with 1st-degree murder, he said. There is a list of 18 statutorily defined aggravating circumstances that enable prosecutors to seek the death penalty. One such circumstance applies if the victim is a child under 12 years of age, he said. "There certainly will be questions of intent throughout this case in whether the intent was to cause serious bodily injury or whether it was to cause death," Cook added. (source: York Daily Record)
