March 17 ALABAMA----new execution date Execution date set for Mississippi prison escapee An execution date has been set for prison escapee and convicted murderer Mario Centobie. Officials say Centobie will be executed on April 28th. He was sentenced to death in the slaying of Moody police officer Keith Turner during a 1998 crime spree. Turner stopped Centobie and another inmate of Mississippi's Parchman Prison in a stolen car on June 27th, 1998. The inmates had escaped from officers who were escorting them to a court hearing 2 days earlier. Centobie shot the officer 3 times, including once in the hip and in the back of his head. Authorities captured Centobie on July 5th, 1998 near Biloxi, Mississippi. The Supreme Court declined to accept Centobie's appeal for review in 2003. He was also sentenced to 3 life prison terms in the wounding of Tuscaloosa police Captain Cecil Lancaster during his crime spree across Alabama. (source: Associated Press) TEXAS: Judge rejects new lab tests in woman's death row case A judge on today refused to approve additional scientific tests on evidence used to send a Houston woman to death row for the shooting deaths of her husband and 2 children. The decision by state District Judge Jim Wallace brings Frances Newton another step closer to the lethal injection she avoided Dec. 1 when she won a rare 120-day reprieve from Gov. Rick Perry. New ballistics test results disclosed in Wallace's court last week confirmed the pistol Newton hid in a vacant house was the gun used in 1987 to kill her husband, 7-year-old son and 20-month-old daughter. Newton, now 39, has acknowledged stashing the weapon in a burned-out house the day of the slayings, but contended the pistol she found in her living room belonged to her husband and she hid it to keep him from getting into trouble. Newton's lawyers had questioned the original ballistics tests used at her 1988 trial because they were conducted by the Houston Police Department crime lab, which has been under fire for providing unreliable evidence. Wallace rejected requests from Newton's attorneys for more testing to include the dress she was wearing the night of the shootings. The original testing detected traces of possible gunpowder on the skirt, but her attorneys said that may have been garden fertilizer which, like gunpowder, has nitrates and can trigger a false-positive test result. Prosecutors argued new tests would be unreliable because the dress likely was contaminated after being stored with other evidence from the trial, including clothing of the victims. "I think the judge's decision to deny our motion was completely reasonable, but the only reason is because the state was so incompetent in the manner it stored the evidence," Newton's lawyer, David Dow, said. Dow said he believed rather than being deliberate, the lack of care in preserving evidence was "colossal ignorance." "I don't know what's next," he said. Roe Wilson, a Harris County assistant district attorney, said she would wait for the 120-day reprieve to expire next month, then request an execution date. "It will probably be in the summer," she said of the likely death date. Newton has argued she is innocent and the slayings probably were committed by a drug dealer she knew only as Charlie, who was upset that her husband failed to repay a $500 debt. Prosecutors contended she hoped to collect on insurance policies. Perry's action in December came after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, in an equally rare move, recommended the 120-day delay. Only 2 of the 340 convicted killers executed in Texas since capital punishment resumed in the state in 1982 have been women. Newton is 1 of 9 women now on death row in Texas and would be the 1st black woman executed in the state. (source: Associated Press) ************************* Police take stand in TCB trial A search warrant executed in Humberto "Gallo" Garzas home in connection with the 2003 Edinburg massacre turned up photographs and phone numbers of other known Tri-City Bombers also charged in the crime. Hidalgo County Sheriff Department Investigator Noe Canales told jurors in Garzas capital murder trial on Wednesday that deputies recovered an address book, photos, a cell phone and a paper with written telephone numbers on Jan. 24, 2003, the day Edinburg Police arrested Garza. Deputies spent 6 hours collecting evidence at the Mission mobile home that Garza lived in with his mother and stepfather, Canales said. Garza, 30, is charged with two counts of capital murder for allegedly planning the Jan. 5, 2003, raid on two homes in north Edinburg that left 6 men dead. He pleaded not guilty and is the second of 13 men charged in the crime to stand trial in front of 370th state District Judge Noe Gonzalez. If found guilty, Garza could face the death penalty. The victims - Jimmy Edward Almendariz, 22; brothers Jerry Eugene Hidalgo, 24, and Ray Hidalgo, 30; half brothers Juan Delgado Jr., 32, and Juan Delgado III, 20; and Ruben Rolando Castillo, 32 - all died of multiple gunshot wounds. Hidalgo County Assistant District Attorneys Murray Moore and Joseph Orendain allege that Garza was a captain of the Tri-City Bombers gang and helped organize the robbery by calling other gang members and driving them to the property at 2915 E. Monte Cristo Road. They acknowledge Garza did not participate in shooting the victims, but say he is still guilty of capital murder under the law by planning the raid and should have anticipated the killings knowing the other men were armed with assault weapons. Garzas trial began Monday and prosecutors have called several law enforcement officers to testify. Jurors have seen photos of the bloody crime scene, recovered bullets and the SKS and AK-47 assault weapons police say were used in the murders. But defense attorney Ralph Martinez claims there is no evidence showing Garza had prior knowledge that the murders would occur. Garza told law enforcement the gang planned to steal a large amount of marijuana reportedly stored at the house, according to law enforcement testimony in pre-trial hearings. Canales testified that about 15 law enforcement agencies conducted a search warrant of Garzas home and found photographs lying on the kitchen table and in his bedroom. The date on the photos indicated they were taken in September 2002. An address book contained the phone numbers and address in Sugarland of Jeffrey "Dragon" Juarez, who police identify as the leader of the Tri-City Bombers. Juarez, 30, is also charged in the case. The nicknames of several other men arrested in the crime were written in the address book and on a piece of paper, including "Juanon," Juan Arturo Villarreal Cordova; "Kito" Reymundo Sauceda; "Bones" Robert Gene Garza; "Choche," Jorge Norberto Martinez; and "Ram" Juan Raul Navarro Ramirez. A jury sentenced Robert Gene Garza, 21, to death row in 2003 for the murders of 4 Donna women. That slaying was also connected to the Tri-City Bombers. Ramirez, 20, was sentenced to death row for the Edinburg massacre in December 2004. The other men are awaiting trials in Hidalgo County Jail. In the photos, Canales identified Juarez, "Kreeper" and "Snoop." "Kreeper" is the nickname of Rodolfo Medrano, 25, who is charged in both the Edinburg and Donna massacre. "Snoop" is the nickname of Mark Anthony Reyna, 26, who was also charged in the Donna slayings and is serving a life sentence for pleading guilty to aggravated robbery. Canales also testified that deputies found a packet of Rophynol or "Roche" pills in the closet of the room where Garzas parents slept. The packet contained a sticker indicating it was purchased at Pharmacia Regis, a chain of pharmacies in Mexico. Under cross-examination from Martinez, Canales said he did not know if the pills were prescribed to any family members and said he did not question them about the drug, which is illegal in the United States. The pills are prescribed for insomnia in Mexico, South America, Asia and Europe. Jurors also heard from Edinburg Police Detective Robert Alvarez, who is the departments expert on gang intelligence. Many gang members identify their gang affiliation to police, Alvarez said. Other telling factors of gang associations are tattoos and associating with other gang members. He said the gang is organized and has a leadership hierarchy that rewards and punishes other members for their actions. He told jurors that the Tri-City Bombers, also called the Bombitas, began in the Pharr-San Juan- Alamo area 2 decades ago as either a break-dancing group or a football team. The group developed into a criminal street gang in the mid 1980s. In the late 1980s, some of the Tri-City Bombers split off into the Texas Chicano Brotherhood. The two are rival gangs and in January 2003 the two had a "green light" to attack or kill other members without seeking permission from the gangs hierarchy, Alvarez said. He will continue to testify today beginning at 8:30 a.m. (source: The Monitor) **************** Life means life The U.S. Supreme Court was right to recently ban the execution of murderers who killed when they were younger than 18. Tempering our agreement, though, the ruling means at least some of the 28 Texas death row inmates who won a reprieve from the high court now may one day go free. That's because in Texas, if you are convicted of capital murder, you are either sentenced to death or to life in prison. But life does not mean "life," only that you have to serve 40 years before you become eligible for parole. That is major time, but it does not have the finality of the death penalty. An inmate serving life for capital murder in Texas, even if previously on death row, always has hope - a hope that most of them don't deserve - they will be released before their life sentence becomes just that. It is time for Texas juries to have a 3rd option - life without parole. The Senate Criminal Justice Committee on Tuesday approved by 4-2 a bill that would allow juries to sentence capital murder defendants to life in prison without the chance of parole. Juries in capital cases would have 3 choices for sentencing: death; life with the possibility of parole after 40 years; and life without parole. Texas may have the busiest execution chamber in the nation, but it lags behind most other states in the sentencing options it makes available for juries in capital cases. Life without parole is an option in 36 of 38 states, as well as the federal and military judicial systems, with the death penalty; New Mexico is the other holdout, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. And of the 12 states without the death penalty, only Alaska does not have life without parole. "The sentence of life without parole is not some untested proposal," said Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, the sponsor of the bill. Opponents of life without parole say it would weaken the death penalty. We would hope so, if only it reduces the chance of the state executing someone who received poor legal representation or someone who is truly innocent. But under Lucio's bill, sentencing an adult killer to death would still be an option for juries. Life without parole - which could apply to the type of juvenile killers just spared by the Supreme Court - would in many cases be a better alternative than what is currently available. Victims' families would know their loved one's killer would never be set free, a certainty that is elusive when death sentences are appealed in the courts or when cases are heard by the parole board. And juries would be able to relieve their slightest doubts about whether the person they just convicted should live or die, while making sure they will never again enjoy freedom. The full Legislature should approve Lucio's bill, and Gov. Rick Perry should sign it into law. (source: Lufkin Daily News) **************************** No More Juvie Executions On March 1, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 ruling outlawing the execution of juvenile offenders, opining that the practice violates the Constitution's Eighth Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment. "The differences between juvenile and adult offenders are too marked and well understood to risk allowing a youthful person to receive the death penalty despite insufficient culpability," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority, reversing the court's 1989 opinion (in Stanford v. Kentucky) - authored by Justice Antonin Scalia, which Kennedy joined - affirming the constitutionality of executing 16- and 17-year-olds. "An unacceptable likelihood exists that the brutality or cold-blooded nature of any particular crime would overpower mitigating arguments based on youth as a matter of course, even where the juvenile offender's objective immaturity, vulnerability and lack of true depravity should require a sentence less severe than death." Nationwide, there are 70 so-called youthful offenders who will be affected by the ruling - 28 of them on Texas' death row. Gov. Rick Perry has asked the Board of Pardons and Paroles to review the cases of the Texas 28 and to "recommend appropriate action." In practical terms, that means commuting their sentences to life in prison - the only other sentencing option in capital cases. Under current law - since Texas has no real life-without-parole sentencing option - a commutation means, theoretically, that the inmates could be paroled after serving 35 years. But the Supremes' ruling - coupled with its 2002 ban on executing the mentally retarded - may provide a final push for lawmakers to pass a third, life-without-parole sentencing option in capital cases. (That option is a perennial favorite at the Capitol that consistently earns the ire of prosecutors who argue that having 3 sentencing options in capital cases would be too confusing for jurors who are, apparently, too addled to be trusted with three possible outcomes.) Indeed, on Friday, state Sens. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, and Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville - 2 lawmakers who, despite prosecutorial protestations, insist on pushing for a life-without-parole option - asked Perry to grant "emergency status" to 2 pending bills - Lucio's SB 60, this year's life-without legislation, and SB 226, Ellis' (also perennial) bid to ban execution of juvie offenders, which would put them on the fast-track for legislative consideration. "Until this week, America stood alone in executing juveniles, and Texas was at the front of the line," Ellis said. (Actually, before the Supremes banned the practice, the U.S. was one of a small minority of nations - including the ever-progressive governments of Somalia and Pakistan - that give the practice of executing children a thumbs-up.) "As the state most affected by the - ruling, I believe Texas cannot be passive in its reaction. We should take a positive, proactive step and pass legislation codifying the ruling into Texas law." Whether that plea will work remains to be seen - the state has yet to pass a law codifying the Supremes' nearly 3-year-old ban on executing the mentally retarded, primarily because lawmakers disagree on what procedure the courts will use to determine whether a defendant is legally retarded. The Supremes' ruling earned approval of the many groups that have been publicly supportive of a ban - including 16 Nobel Laureates, the American Medical Association, and the American Bar Association. "This is truly a landmark decision," said ABA President Robert J. Grey Jr. "Scientific research shows that juveniles, like the mentally retarded, are less morally culpable than adults due to their reduced capacity for moral judgment, self-restraint, and ability to resist the influence of others." Indeed, the court's decision to ban the practice turned on several factors, including the question of moral culpability, a weighing of international standards, and an evaluation of the practice within the context of "evolving standards of decency," Kennedy explained in an opinion joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer. The decision drew a scathing dissent from Scalia - joined by Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice William Rehnquist - who wrote that the decision makes a "mockery" of the founding fathers' constitutional intentions. (Justice Sandra Day O'Connor authored her own, less strident, dissent.) Only one of the juvenile offenders on Texas' death row, Robert Springsteen IV, is from Travis Co. Springsteen was convicted and sentenced to die for his role in Austin's infamous 1991 yogurt shop murders, committed when he was 17. Springsteen's case is also the only one in Texas that is currently on direct appeal before Texas' Court of Criminal Appeals - where it has been pending since October 2002. Interestingly, although Springsteen's sentence is covered by the high court's ruling, the CCA has yet to affirm Springsteen's conviction. The central issue is whether the court erred in allowing the state to present redacted portions of co-defendant Michael Scott's "confession" into evidence at Springsteen's trial - which Springsteen's appellate attorney, Mary Kay Sicola, argues is a violation of Springsteen's Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses against him. Last year, the Supremes ruled that the Sixth Amendment's protection is absolute - a ruling that Sicola said should form the basis for overturning Springsteen's conviction. "There are now two Supreme Court decisions that address the issues in the Springsteen case," Sicola said. "And I have no more excuses to make for [the CCA's] failing to render a decision." (source: Austin Chronicle) *************************** Limit life without parole Should life without possibility of parole be a sentencing option in Texas? My answer is a qualified yes. Neither judges nor juries should be able to assess a sentence of life without possibility of parole. The governor, on recommendation from the Board of Pardons and Paroles, should have the power to commute a death sentence to life without possibility of parole based on the behavior of a convict awaiting execution. If, like Karla Faye Tucker, the convict demonstrates a complete turnaround from previous behavior, a death sentence could be commuted to life without possibility of parole. Otherwise, we will face even more overcrowding in our prisons when death-penalty opponents seize on life without possibility of parole to keep alive monsters like serial killer Kenneth McDuff, draining the taxpayers' pockets for decades on end. C.F. Eckhardt, Seguin (source: Letters to the Editor, San Antonio Express-News **************************** Woman charged in stabbing death indicted on new charges A Hardin County woman charged in the 2000 stabbing death of a trailer park owner has been indicted on four new charges. Patricia Mae Podhorsky, 42, of Lumberton was indicted last week on 4 counts of solicitation of aggravated robbery and 1 count of solicitation of burglary of a habitation with intent to commit robbery. According to witnesses, Podhorsky attempted to induce 3 people to enter Bennett Jones Jr.'s home to assault and rob him, Hardin County District Attorney Henry Coe said. Jones was found stabbed to death in his mobile home Dec. 4, 2000. Podhorsky, a former live-in girlfriend, was indicted on murder and capital murder charges in January 2003. Podhorsky, who was free on a bond on the previous charges, turned herself in last week. She was being held Tuesday in lieu of a $200,000 bond. Her attorney, Douglas Barlow, said Podhorsky "insists on her innocence on all the charges." He said he believes the murder and capital murder charges will be dismissed and she will go to trial on the more recent charges. "The tragedy of this whole thing is that the person who killed (Jones) is still at large somewhere," Barlow said. Coe said there was no indication the murder and capital murder charges against Podhorsky would be dismissed. (source: The Beaumont Enterprise ) OKLAHOMA: Death row trial pushed back A formal request by 2 Garvin County death row inmates, turned down a month ago, has now been reversed allowing for a postponement of new sentencing trials. Defense attorneys for Brian Spears of Pauls Valley and Dudley Powell of Maysville were successful in getting their clients' trials pushed back as they argued for the move during a hearing earlier this week in Garvin County District Court. Convicted of 1st-degree murder more than a decade ago and sentenced to the death penalty, Spears and Powell had been scheduled to face jurors again during a joint sentencing trial scheduled to begin May 16. That proceeding won't take place now after District Judge Tom Lucas of Norman agreed to a postponement. No arguments opposing the continuance were made by Assistant District Attorney Richard Sitzman of Norman. It was Lucas who denied the same request in February by Powell's defense attorneys, Mary Bruehl and Matthew Haire, and Diane Box, who is representing Spears. With Lucas' reversal, a hearing has been scheduled for March 23 to look closer at new trial dates in the case. Both Spears and Powell were convicted in the beating and stabbing death of 22-year-old Jimmy Dewayne Thompson of Maysville on Sept. 21, 1990, near the Klondike Cemetery southwest of Pauls Valley. They were convicted in March 1991 and sentenced to die by lethal injection. A 3rd suspect in the original murder case, Claiborne Johnson III, pleaded guilty in exchange for a recommended sentence of life without parole. Spears was 21 years old at the time of the conviction while Powell was 18. Johnson was 20 when he submitted his guilty plea. The death penalties for both Spears and Powell were overturned in 2003 leading to the need for new sentencing trials. The outcome of the future proceeding will have no impact on the murder convictions of either defendant. Lucas ruled last month the sentencing trials for both inmates will be done together rather than in separate proceedings. (source: Pauls Valley Daily Democrat) FLORIDA: Lawmakers want to set rules for the Florida Supreme Court A legislator who wants to speed up death penalty appeals also wants to change the constitution so the Florida Supreme Court can't again strike down the changes. In a 2-pronged approach, Rep. Dick Kravitz is seeking to pass a law similar to one struck down by the Supreme Court 4 years ago that was designed to get death row inmates executed a little quicker. At the time, the court said court rules and procedures are a responsibility of the courts, not lawmakers. So Kravitz wants to take that responsibility away from the Supreme Court. His measure (HB 1007) would ask voters to change the constitution to create a judicial conference that would propose and implement rules over court procedures in criminal cases and in the appeals that follow. The Legislature would then approve or reject those proposals. While the House Criminal Justice Committee unanimously approved the bill (1005) to speed up death row appeals, there was less enthusiasm about meddling with the Supreme Court's authority. The proposed amendment was approved 5-3. Even if the proposal to place the issue on the 2006 ballot passes the House, there may not be enough support in the Senate. A three-fifths vote is required in each chamber. "As much as some of us may disagree with court decisions, we don't have the power to overturn them whenever we want, we don't have the power to take away their own power. They're an equal branch of government and they don't depend on the Legislature for their authority," said Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres. "I'd be stunned if that went through in the Senate." Kravitz insisted the proposal isn't an attack on the Supreme Court. "This is not an anti-Supreme Court kind of thing. I have all the respect in the world for them," Kravitz, R-Orange Park, said after the vote. "I just feel fundamentally that we're the people elected by the public to create laws that reflect public policy. That's what we should do." He said a similar system is used in California, Texas, New York and at the federal level. Former Justice Major Harding told the committee the current system has worked well. "Has there been a significant change that would warrant an amendment to the constitution of the state of Florida to require this new procedure, which is modeled after the federal, but which has also been shown to be cumbersome?" Harding said. Gov. Jeb Bush strongly supports the idea of giving the Legislature oversight of court rules, said Randy Ball, the governor's public safety policy director. "He does feel the Legislature has a right to feel some frustration and maybe some justified indignation because we have seen over the course of the years some very carefully crafted pieces of legislation that you have passed be overwritten by the court," Ball said. (source: Associated Press)
