Feb. 28 SOUTH CAROLINA: Death penalty trial to start Mon. for man charged with 2 '00 Barnwell killings A man accused of killing two teens in a Barnwell fast-food restaurant during a robbery more than four years ago faces a death penalty trial this week. Jury selection begins Monday in Edgefield County in the trial of Alfred Walker. Authorities say Walker walked into a Sonic Drive-In after closing time in October 2000 and killed 17-year-old Joshua Brewer and 18-year-old AJ Still, Junior. A 3rd employee was wounded, but locked himself in a bathroom and survived. Walker was 18-years-old at the time of the killings. (source: Associated Press) VERMONT: Lawyers for accused killer seek to have death penalty Defense lawyers are trying again to have the death penalty thrown out in the case of accused killer Donald Fell. They have filed motions in federal court to declare the death penalty unconstitutional. Fell is charged in the killing of Teresca King of North Clarendon more than 4 years ago. Judge William Sessions made national headlines in September 2002 when he granted a motion to declare the federal death penalty unconstitutional in Fell's case. Prosecutors appealed and in June the second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City reversed Session's ruling. Fell's attorneys then sought to have the U-S Supreme Court take up the case. But the nation's highest court refused in October. (source: Associated Press) INDIANA: Legal appeals near end for 8 Indiana death row inmates A report Sunday said Indiana could execute 8 prisoners during Governor Mitch Daniels' first year in office. The Evansville Courier and Press reports 8 of the 34 inmates on Indianas death row are "at" or "near" the end of their legal appeals. They include Donald Ray Wallace, Jr. of Evansville, who's scheduled to die March 10th for the 1982 murders of a family of 4. While Wallace isn't seeking clemency, other inmates may. Those involved in death penalty appeals know the potential for a significant number of death row inmates who may soon ask the governor for leniency. (source: WNDU TV News) ******************* Death penalty advocated----Bristol woman wants former governor to lift moratorium Kathy Woodsmall is angry and she wants everyone to know it. To that end, Kathy, her husband, Jim, and friend, Marla LaVanture, plan to attend the speech by former Illinois Gov. George Ryan tonight at the University of Notre Dame. Ryan will be discussing his end-of-term decision to commute the sentences of all inmates on the state's death row and place a moratorium on future death penalty sentences. Kathy has a personal interest in seeing the moratorium lifted. On June 12, 2001, her niece, Shannon McNamara, a student at Eastern Illinois University, was murdered in her apartment near campus in Charleston, Ill. Anthony Mertz was apprehended, tried and received the death penalty. He is now sitting on death row and, unless the moratorium is lifted, will be there for life. According to Kathy, in spite of the efforts of Shannon's parents, the current governor, Rod Blagojevich, has done nothing to lift the moratorium. "My sister contacted the governor's office but all she got was a postcard that said something like 'thank you for your interest,'" Kathy said. To illustrate her feelings, Kathy plans to take a homemade banner to the talk. "I don't know if they'll let us in," she said, adding that revisiting the murder to protest the moratorium "is a nightmare. Now we have to go through it all over again. "All we want is justice for Shannon." If You Go What: Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan will speak at a presentation titled "The Death Penalty: A System of Justice & Reconciliation?" When: 7 p.m. tonight Where: The Decio Mainstage Theatre in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center at the University of Notre Dame Background: Once a proponent of capital punishment, Ryan changed his views after being convinced the justice system should not take a human life. He instituted the nation's 1st moratorium on state executions in January 2000, and just before leaving office 3 years later, he commuted sentences of all 167 Illinois death row inmates. The moratorium is still in effect. (source: etruth.com) ILLINOIS: Judge wants city to settle with Burge accusers A federal judge is ordering the Daley administration and 4 former death row inmates to try settling lawsuits that allege torture by former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge and others as the cases mount hefty legal fees -- partially paid from public coffers. Senior U.S. District Judge Marvin Aspen last week told both sides to pick a mediator by March 10 or else he'd pick one for them. Mediators can help opposing sides settle their differences before sometimes long and costly trials get under way. 4 death row inmates pardoned by former Gov. George Ryan -- Aaron Patterson, Madison Hobley, Stanley Howard and Leroy Orange -- filed separate lawsuits accusing Burge and detectives under him of torture. The City of Chicago fired Burge in 1993 for allegedly torturing a confession out of a murder suspect, but the city still is legally obliged to pay for his defense in the pending cases. It isn't uncommon for a judge to order a mediator in such cases, and while the plaintiffs are open to a settlement, the city hasn't indicated whether it's willing to settle. Aspen's order comes as the city sees its legal fees rising for these four suits. Fees surpassed $1 million last fall, and taxpayers are footing the bill. If the cases go to trial and the city loses, it would be forced to pay out a jury verdict and the plaintiffs' legal costs, which already are in the millions. Chicago Law Department spokeswoman Jennifer Hoyle said that, since January, the city has compiled a list of mediators to cooperate with the judge's request. "It's too early to say how successful this will be," Hoyle said of possibly settling the cases. Aspen's order also comes as plaintiffs increasingly apply pressure to question public officials under oath -- last week winning approval to depose Chicago Police Supt. Phil Cline -- which could result in the same media spectacle Burge underwent last fall during his own deposition. When Burge arrived for his deposition, he was served with another subpoena to testify before a special grand jury looking into widespread allegations of police torture. Hearings in the matter are ongoing. In the civil cases, about 30 police officers have taken the Fifth Amendment in depositions. And plaintiffs' attorneys keep coming up with new people who claim they too were tortured at the hands of Burge or his people. New request for Daley Attorneys for Hobley won a limited two-hour deposition of Cline to ask him whether he knew of, but failed to report, police torture when he took over for Burge as Area 2's detective commander. City officials challenged the deposition in part because Hobley's attorneys previously questioned Cline, in 1999. "We're not saying Cline was involved in Hobley's torture. We think everybody who had anything to do with Area 2 knew what was going on there," said Kurt Feuer, one of Hobley's lawyers. Hobley claims detectives took him from Area 2 to 11th and State -- where Burge was working at the time -- to torture him into confessing to an arson that killed 7 people, including Hobley's wife and son. Police at the time said Hobley confessed to setting the fire to kill his family because he was having an affair. Attorneys for Patterson also recently renewed their request -- denied once before -- to depose Mayor Daley, who was the Cook County state's attorney from 1981 to 1988. Patterson attorney Flint Taylor alleges Daley failed to investigate allegations of torture. (source: Chicago Sun-Times) CALIFORNIA: Rocha, Peterson families argue at couple's house----Officers called out 'to keep the peace' Police stood watch over the home once shared by Scott and Laci Peterson after Laci Peterson's mother angrily confronted Scott Peterson's family as they hauled furniture and other belongings from the vacant house. Police stood by Saturday while the Petersons loaded the truck and then left. Officer Derrick Letsinger said authorities were called out "to keep the peace." No one was arrested. Neighbors reported a loud argument between Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, and Scott Peterson's mother, Jackie Peterson, and his brother, John, as the Petersons carried belongings to a rental truck, police said. Rocha left shortly after police arrived, but two people who had accompanied her stayed behind to photograph items loaded into the truck. Jackie Peterson carried a number of boxes from the house and angrily snapped at reporters gathered outside. Both women attended almost every day of Scott Peterson's nearly yearlong trial. Peterson, 32, was convicted in November of killing his pregnant wife just before Christmas 2002. The jury recommended the death penalty, and he is scheduled to be formally sentenced in March. Laci Peterson's estate owns at least half of the home. Scott Peterson and his parents own the rest. The home will be listed for sale in the next couple of weeks, according to Rocha's attorney, Adam Stewart. (source: Associated Press)
