March 8 OHIO----impending execution U.S. Supreme Court declines to delay execution of Ohio prisoner The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday night declined to delay the execution of an Ohio prisoner who claims he has a brain abnormality that may have affected his behavior in 1987 when he raped and murdered a woman. William H. Smith, 47, is to receive a lethal injection at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility for the 1987 rape, robbery and murder of Mary Bradford at her Cincinnati apartment. Justice John Paul Stevens, who handles appeals from Ohio, referred the matter to the full court, and the court denied the request to hear Smith's appeal without issuing further comment, officials with the Supreme Court said Monday night. Smith's lawyer, Jennifer Kinsley, said Monday night her client is out of appeals and no further actions were planned on his behalf. "We're done with our appeals," she said. Smith, 47, claims the abnormality detected during a brain scan after he fainted in prison may have affected his behavior when he stabbed Bradford, raped her as she lay dying and then made 3 trips to his car to steal her stereo and 2 television sets. The defense is not challenging Smith's conviction but says the abnormality could have spared him from the death sentence at trial. Smith's attorneys had argued that an independent analysis of tests on his brain needed to be done. 13 judges from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed Monday with a 3-judge panel that lifted a stay of execution, saying that 2 brain tests did not prove Smith has an abnormality. The appeals court said the defense introduced no new issues that warrant reconsideration of the sentence and rejected the argument that Smith's trial lawyers failed to develop evidence that he had brain damage. Smith and Mary Bradford met a bar in 1987, where they drank together for several hours before going to her Cincinnati apartment, police said. After using cocaine and having sex, authorities said the 2 argued when Smith accused Bradford of owing him money for cocaine. Smith, also of Cincinnati, told police Bradford grabbed a knife that he took away, and she was stabbed during the struggle. Bradford, 47, had 10 stab wounds in the neck and chest, and Smith had sex with her again as she lay on her bed bleeding, police said. After Smith fainted in December when told his execution date had been set, a CT scan showed a lesion to his brain, Kinsley said. She would not describe the abnormality further. Prosecutors had a more precise magnetic resonance imaging test done on Smith on Feb. 25 as recommended by doctors. Smith's attorneys say he received electric shock treatment at a state hospital from age 9 through 14 for hyperactive behavior, which could have caused the abnormality. State lawyers said they could not find hospital records to establish that he received shock treatment. The abnormality was detected in the cranial nerves that control facial muscles and the sense of taste and relay sound and balance information from the ear to the brain, prosecutors said. "This condition does not in any way explain why Smith stabbed Mary Bradford 10 times, carried his bleeding victim to the bedroom and then raped her," Attorney General Jim Petro's office said in a federal court filing. On Monday, Gov. Bob Taft rejected a request to commute Smith's sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole, citing a lack of evidence to support his brain abnormality claim. Ohio has executed 15 people since resuming executions in 1999. The three appeals judges overturned a decision by U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel, who ruled on Feb. 28 that Smith's execution should be postponed to allow for more medical tests. Smith was moved Monday morning from death row in Mansfield to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville, where executions take place. He listened to music on a cassette player, flipped through television channels, read his Bible and remained upbeat and cooperative on Monday, prison spokeswoman Andrea Dean said. Bradford's grandson, Timmy Bradford, of Cincinnati, was to witness the execution. Kinsley said Smith had rejected witnesses, but Dean said Monday night that two brothers and a cousin planned to ask him to reconsider and allow them to be witnesses. (source: Associated Press) INDIANA: Death penalty sought in child slaying case Death penalties The Jeffrey Voss case became the 13rd in which Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi requested the death penalty since he took office in 2003. Here are synopses of the other 2. Thomas Holland: Accused in the November 2003 death of Westside gas station clerk Christopher Larsen. Holland also is accused of the March 2003 killing of Dipak Patel, the owner of a Mars Hill supermarket. Kenneth Lee Allen: Accused last month of killing his mother, Sharon Allen, 53, and his grandparents Leander Bradley, 91, and Betty Bradley, 75, then burying their bodies in the basement of an Eastside home. Trial dates are pending on all 3 cases. ** Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said Monday he is seeking the death penalty against a man accused of killing a 12-year-old girl on Christmas Eve. Authorities say Jeffrey Voss, 39, abducted Christina Tedder, then strangled her and dumped her body in a Hancock County creek. New forensic tests also show that she was sexually assaulted. "A person who would steal the innocence of a 12-year-old is deplorable," Brizzi said. Voss was charged in January with murder, three counts of criminal confinement and obstruction of justice. Brizzi intends to file an additional charge of child molest in response to the new evidence of sexual assault. This is the 3rd time that Brizzi has requested the death penalty since he took office in 2003. The move comes as the number of death penalty cases in Indiana has diminished -- from a high of 26 in 1991 to 6 in 2004. The decision also comes as Indiana prepares for the state's 1st execution since June 2003. Donald Ray Wallace Jr. is scheduled to be executed early Thursday morning for murdering an Evansville family. In seeking the death penalty, Brizzi cited the sexual assault of Christina and the fact that Voss was on probation when the killing occurred. Voss was released from prison in November 2002, having served part of a 30-year sentence for robbery. The death penalty is "reserved for the worst of the worst," Brizzi said, adding that Christina's family supports seeking it. "He's a sick individual," Christina's father, Guillermo Mendoza, said Monday night. "My daughter didn't deserve that at all." Christina's mother, Michelle Tedder, could not be reached for comment Monday. Whether Christina was sexually assaulted had been unclear until DNA tests returned last week, Brizzi said. Christina's body, dressed only in socks, was found Dec. 30 frozen in a creek near McCordsville, and Brizzi said it was difficult for medical examiners to tell if she had been molested. Voss, a friend of the Tedder family, had formed a bond with Christina, often giving her his spare change so she could buy candy, according to police. On the day Christina disappeared, Marion County sheriff's deputies said, Voss gave her four rolls of pennies when he visited the Tedder family at their apartment in the 7000 block of East 10th Street about 7:30 p.m. Voss left after a few minutes and waited at a nearby Shell gas station. Christina walked up and climbed into the passenger seat of his 1994 Lincoln. Police said Voss handcuffed Christina and took her to the home he was house-sitting in. There, police said, Voss bound the girl with duct tape and strangled her with a vacuum cleaner cord. Voss was arrested Dec. 30 after he admitted killing the girl and led police to her body, according to authorities. (source: Indianapolis Star) SOUTH CAROLINA: Columbia man, already sentenced in N.C., begins S.C. sentencing A Columbia man who pleaded guilty last week to killing 2 people in South Carolina fidgeted in his seat as a parade of witnesses described part of his multistate crime spree Monday, the first day of his sentencing trial. Quincy Allen, 25, whose crime spree also left 2 dead in North Carolina is fighting for his life. Already serving a life sentence for the North Carolina killings, he faces the death penalty in the shotgun slayings of Dale Evonne Hall, 44, and Jedidiah Harr, 22, in the summer of 2002. He pleaded guilty to those killings and other crimes including shooting a man at Finlay Park here and setting fires to 2 cars and 1 home. Allen is serving a life sentence in North Carolina for the August 2002 killing of convenience store clerk Richard Hawks, 53, and customer Robert Shane Roush, 29, in Dobson, N.C. Allen's lawyers say his life should be spared because he is a paranoid schizophrenic with other mental disorders and takes anti-psychotic medication. James White testified Monday that he was sleeping on a bench in Finlay Park in the early morning of July 7, 2002, when Allen woke him up in the right shoulder and left forearm with a shotgun. "I didn't know him at all," White said. "I just know he's the man that shot me." Prosecutors played an audiotape on which Allen bragged about the shooting. "Hello, this is Quincy, AKA weird man, AKA serial killer," the tape began. "I tried to kill somebody in Finlay Park ... He saw the gun and was like, 'Man, don't do this,' and I blasted at him." On the tape Allen said he tried to shoot White in the head, but missed. Family members and friends of Harr sobbed openly in court as several witnesses testified about his Aug. 8, 2002, killing at a Columbia restaurant. Brian Marquis, one of Allen's co-workers at the restaurant, said he considered Allen a friend but confronted Allen after he threatened Marquis' fiance and the couple's unborn son. Allen fired a shotgun through back windshield of the car Marquis was riding in, fatally wounding Harr, who was driving. The car crashed into another vehicle in the parking lot of a gas station across the street, Marquis said. "After we hit the car I saw Jed just lying there against the steering wheel. I knew he needed help," Marquis said. Over the next few days, Marquis said he received 3 threatening phone calls from Allen and someone lit the front porch of his house on fire with two trash cans full of gasoline. Richland County Sheriff's Deputy Rachel Flowers testified she worked security for the restaurant the night after Harr's killing and took a phone call from Allen in which he threatened to return and kill more people. When Flowers identified herself as an officer, Allen said, 'I don't care about no cop. I'll kill you too,' she said. Finally, Sarah Gregory testified she was working as a Web site producer for the Columbia television station WIS in August 2002 and received an e-mail from Allen after posting a story about Harr's killing. In the e-mail, Allen wrote that he also killed Hall, whose body was found shot to death and burned on July 10, 2002. Prosecutors could wrap up arguments Tuesday. Circuit Judge Thomas Cooper isn't expected to make a decision until early next week. (source: WVEC News) KANSAS: Federal Prosecutors Could Seek Death Penalty Against Cheever The state will step aside from prosecuting the man accused of killing the Greenwood County sheriff, if federal prosecutors can seek the death penalty against him. Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline made that approach to the case of Scott Cheever, 23, clear again over the weekend. Kline and U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren both attended a weekend town meeting in Eureka. About 100 people gathered in the southeast Kansas town, to discuss the Greenwood County problems with methamphetamine. Sheriff Matt Samuels was shot and killed Jan. 19 while attempting to serve a search warrant on a suspected meth lab. Cheever's mother says he has struggled with addiction to meth since he graduated from high school. Now he's charged with capital murder and other charges, including manufacturing the illegal drug. Kline said in January that federal prosecutors want to charge Cheever, potentially removing the uncertainty of whether a state jury could sentence him to death if convicted. (source: Associated Press)
