March 1 LOUISIANA: High court decision spares four in Louisiana from death penalty 4 murderers in Louisiana who were 17 when they committed their crimes have been spared the death penalty by a Supreme Court. In a 5-to-4 decision, the nation's highest court said that the death penalty can't be applied to anyone who was under 18 at the time of the crime. Nick Trenticosta, an attorney with the New Orleans-based Center for Equal Justice and an anti-death penalty activist, said the ruling will "absolutely lead to the eventual abolition of the death penalty. Before the Supreme Court's ruling, state court decisions and state law made 17 the minimum age for a death penalty crime. The ruling affects four inmates on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary and potentially a fifth who had been sentenced to death, but was awaiting a new trial ordered by an appellate court. According to Trenticosta, those affected by today's ruling included: - Dale Dwayne Craig, convicted in 1994 of the 1992 carjacking and murder of Louisiana State University student Kipp Earl Gullett in Baton Rouge. - Cedric Howard, convicted in Rapides Parish for the October 24th, 1994, killing of 82-year-old Rita Rabalais in her Alexandria home. - Roy Bridgewater, convicted in Jefferson Parish of the 1996 killings of 45-year-old Nelson Beaugh, and his mother, 70-year-old Della Beaugh, in Marrero. A co-defendant who received the death penalty, Lawrence Jacobs, who also was 17 at the time, is awaiting a new trial following an appellate court ruling dealing with jury selection in his case. - Aaron Wilson, convicted in Caddo Parish of the 2000 carjacking, rape and murder of 48-year-old Vickie Lynn McGraw. (source: Associated Press) SOUTH CAROLINA: Prosecutors to seek death penalty for killing of Darlington teen Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a man accused of sexually assaulting and killing a 17-year-old last August. James Williams is charged with murder, 1st degree criminal sexual conduct and 1st degree burglary in the slaying of Meshia Samuel. Samuel was visiting her aunt when she was found dead. Williams, a neighbor, was arrested later that day. Williams was supposed to be in prison at the time of the killing, serving a sentence for violating his probation on a 2001 assault charge. But a Darlington County magistrate didn't realize he was supposed to be sent away and offered him a $15,000 bond on an unrelated charge. Williams posted the bond and was released. (source: Dateline Alabama) OKLAHOMA: Edmondson: Death Penalty Ruling Won't Affect Oklahoma----State Has No Death Row Inmates Who Committed First-Degree Murder As Minors Oklahoma will not be substantially affected by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling knocking out the death penalty for some teenage killers, Atty. Gen. Drew Edmondson said Tuesday. Edmondson said no one is on death row in Oklahoma who committed 1st-degree murder when under the age of 18. He also said district attorneys and jurors have been reluctant to impose the ultimate penalty on teenagers. The state has executed 2 teen killers in the past, however. The latest was Scott Hain, convicted of helping kill 2 restaurant workers who were burned to death in a car. Hain was executed in 2003. In 1999, the state executed Sean Sellers of Edmond, who shot his mother and stepfather as they slept and also killed a convenience store worker. Edmondson said he was not surprised by the Supreme Court decision issued Tuesday. "That's the direction the court has been moving in for a number of years," he said. He said prosecutors can still seek "very severe sanctions" for juveniles who commit 1st-degree murder. "Someone who is under the age of 18 who commits a murder today may be prosecuted as an adult and may be sentenced to either life or life without parole," he said. He said it also is possible a teenager may be handled in the juvenile system. The 5-4 Supreme Court ruling ended the practice of executing teenage killers in 19 states, including Oklahoma. It threw out the death verdicts of 72 murderers. The ruling continues the court's practice of narrowing the scope of the death penalty, which justices reinstated in 1976. Executions for those 15 and younger when they committed their crimes were outlawed in 1988. Three years ago justices banned death sentences for the mentally retarded. Oklahoma has executed 2 teenagers by drug injection, but no teens are now on death row. Sellers was 16 when he killed 3 people during a time he said he was practicing Satanism. He converted to Christianity in prison and began an outreach ministry. He was the 1st person executed in 40 years who was 16 when he committed a capital crime. Hain was 17 when he and Robert Lambert, 21, kidnaped 2 restaurant workers from Tulsa and burned them alive in a car trunk in 1987. Hain claimed he was under the influence of the older Lambert at the time of the killings. Lambert has yet to be executed. A jury ruled in 2002 that Lambert was not mentally retarded as his attorneys claimed. (source: Associated Press) MISSISSIPPI: Miss. death row inmates spared by Supreme Court decision 5 Mississippi death row inmates have been saved from lethal injection following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that it is unconstitutional to execute those who committed capital offenses when they were under 18. The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision throws out the death sentences of 72 juvenile murderers in 19 states. A dozen of the states, including Mississippi, have juvenile offenders currently on death row. "They will be coming off death row and at most they will be sentenced to life in prison without parole," Andre DeGruy, director of Mississippi's Office of Capital Defense Council, said Tuesday. The 5 are: Stephen Virgil McGilbery, age 16 when a jury found he used a baseball bat to kill four family members; Kelvin Dycus, 17 when he robbed and murdered a 76-year-old woman; Roderick Eskridge, 17 when he was charged with robbery and murder for killing a woman; Ronald Chris Foster, 17 when he killed convenience store worker George Shelton; and William Joseph Holly, also 17 when police say he robbed and murdered a Grenada cab driver. DeGruy said the most likely scenario is for the inmate's lawyers or the attorney general's office to file a motion to commute the sentences of the juvenile offenders. Attorney General Jim Hood said the ruling was not unexpected. "Our office believes that many people under the age of 18 present just as serious a threat as those over 18," Hood said. "However, the court has ruled and five death row inmates will be sentenced to life without parole and probably suffer a fate worse than death." The Mississippi Supreme Court last year upheld the death sentence of Dycus, DeGruy said. He said that case was scheduled to be heard before the U.S. Supreme Court at the time of Tuesday's decision. Dycus' attorney, Robert McDuff of Jackson, said the U.S. Supreme Court will send the Dycus case back to the state Supreme Court, which will then have to set aside his death sentence. McDuff said the United States is one of the few countries in the world that had continued to execute people for crimes they committed as teenagers. "Our society punishes teenagers for severe crimes but the practice of executing them is far too extreme," McDuff said Tuesday. "I'm just glad the Supreme Court has put an end to it." Debra Sabah-Press, a San Francisco lawyer who joined McDuff on Dycus' appeals, said the "decision recognizes a wealth of biological and psychological evidence that children neither function nor make decisions as adults." Leonard Vincent, general counsel for the Mississippi Department of Corrections, said the agency will do nothing about moving the inmates off death row until a court order. "What we'll do is wait until the court resentences them," Vincent said. "We'll then do whatever the court orders. After they are resentenced they probably will be moved to a different part of the building where they are now, be reclassified, and then moved to less restrictive housing." The nation's highest court ruled that executing juvenile murderers violates the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The ruling continued the court's practice of narrowing the scope of the death penalty, which justices reinstated in 1976. Executions for those 15 and younger when they committed their crimes were outlawed in 1988. 3 years ago justices banned death sentences for the mentally retarded. The last time Mississippi executed a juvenile offender was in 1950, according to the American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Project. (source: Associated Press) *********************** High Court Ruling Takes McGilberry Off Death Row A U.S. Supreme Court ruling handed down Tuesday morning means a Jackson County man won't get the death penalty. Stephen McGilberry was 16 when he beat 4 of his family members to death with a baseball bat in 1995. Tuesday, justices decided anyone who was under the age of 18 when they committed a crime can not be put to death. Mississippi is one of 19 states affected by the ruling. The ruling means no death penalty in seventy existing murder cases involving juveniles. It also bars the execution of minors for future crimes. (source: WLOX News) ************************ Mississippi juvenile death penalty cases Mississippi death row inmates under 18 at the time of their crime: Kelvin Dycus White male, age 17 at crime and now 24; sentenced 1998 in Bolivar County. Dycus was convicted for the Dec. 24, 1996, murder of an elderly Rosedale woman. Prosecutors said Dycus and his brother entered the Bolivar County home of neighbor Mary Lee Pittman and beat, shot and robbed the 76-year-old woman. The court record showed Pittman answered her door and was struck in the face and head. She was pulled to a back room by a rope tied around her body and struck in the head with a lamp. Her body was found in the living room with gunshot wounds to her head and wrist. Dycus and his brother were arrested later that day driving Pittman's car. Roderick Eskridge Black male; age 17 at crime and now 24; sentenced 1999 in Attala County. Eskridge was convicted for his part in Dec. 2, 1997, robbery-murder of a retarded Grenada woman. He pleaded guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to death by an Attala County Jury. Testimony showed Eskridge, along with 4 others, planned and carried out a plan to rob specific people. Prosecutors said the 5 then attacked 34-year-old Cheryl Johnson, who was struck in the head with a beer bottle, robbed of an unspecified amount of money, and ordered to remove her clothes. She was shot in the chest at close range. Authorities said a gun taken from Eskridge at the time of his arrest was tested and found to be the murder weapon. Ronald Chris Foster Black male; age 17 at crime and now 32; sentenced in 1991 in Lowndes County. Foster was convicted of killing George Shelton, a worker at Hankins Superette in Lowndes County, on June 10, 1989. Shelton's body was found behind the counter by a customer who contacted authorities. He had been shot in the head. A friend of Foster's testified at trial that Foster had admitted killing Shelton. Foster claimed Shelton was shot after the 2 struggled over a gun Shelton pulled from under the counter. William Joseph Holly White male; age 17 at crime and now 29; sentenced in 1993 in Grenada County. Holly was convicted in the July 12, 1992, killing of a Grenada cab driver. Holly claimed that he accidentally shot David Norwood Jr. while trying to steal the man's money and cab. Norwood had picked up Holly and two friends at the railroad station in Grenada. An accomplice testified Holly shot the cab driver in the back with a shotgun after ordering him to run into the woods. Holly had claimed the shotgun fired accidentally when he tripped. Stephen Virgil McGilberry American Indian/white male; age 16 at crime and now 26; sentenced in 1996 in Jackson County. McGilbery was convicted of using a baseball bat to kill 4 relatives on Oct. 23, 1994, in the St. Martin community. McGilberry's stepfather, Kenneth Purifoy; mother, Patricia Purifoy; stepsister, Kimberly Self; and step-nephew, Kristopher Self, were murdered. He took a money order from his mother's purse and drove away in the family's vehicle. McGilberry told lawmen where to find the murder weapon. (source: ACLU Capital Punishment Project, http://www.aclu.orh/death-penalty Mississippi Department of Corrections, http://www.mdoc.state.ms.us ) (source: Associated Press)
