April 5 FLORIDA----impending execution//volunteer Woman's killer scheduled for execution, wants no appeals An inmate who pleaded guilty to strangling a woman who gave him a ride home from a bar and dropped his legal appeals faced execution Tuesday at Florida State Prison. Unless his execution is stayed, Glen Ocha, 47, is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. EDT. An anonymous executioner, who is paid $150 for his services, was hired to inject a lethal cocktail of chemicals to stop Ocha's heart and his breathing. Ocha, who changed his name in prison to Raven Raven, asked for a final meal which was scheduled to be served to him Tuesday morning. Ocha received final visits from 2 Catholic priests, the Rev. Dale Recinella of Macclenny and retired Bishop John Snyder from Jacksonville, plus a visit with his brother, Martin Ocha, said Sterling Ivey, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections. Defense attorney Greg L. Hill, and Carolyn Snurkowski, a capital appeals attorney for Attorney General Charlie Crist, said there are no appeals pending to stop his execution. Ocha pleaded guilty to the Oct. 5, 1999, killing of convenience store employee Carol Skjerva, 28. He met her at a bar in Kissimmee, where he engraved beer mugs. He was drunk and high on Ecstasy when she drove him home and they had sex. He said he became enraged when Skjerva told Ocha she was going to tell her boyfriend and made fun of his anatomy. He made her sit in a chair, got some rope from his garage and strangled her 3 times until his arms got tired. He hanged Skjerva from a kitchen door and drank a beer while she died. After hiding her body inside a home entertainment system in his garage, Ocha took Skjerva's car and drove to Daytona Beach. He confessed to the killing when he was arrested for disorderly intoxication. Ocha would not let a public defender present evidence to avoid execution. After the state Supreme Court affirmed his conviction in 2002, Ocha filed a motion with the trial court to drop his appeals and dismiss his attorneys. In May, the Supreme Court ordered the trial court to hold a hearing on his mental competency. He Ocha discharged his state lawyer, Mark Gruber, when he was ruled competent June 11. Ocha has warned that he will kill again if he does not receive the death penalty. "He had demonstrated the kind of behavior that was at times erratic," said Gruber, who fought to get Ocha ruled incompetent. In a letter to Assistant Attorney General Stephen D. Ake, Ocha asked that his execution be carried out without delays. "Sir I wish for my execution to come swift and unhampered." Court records show Ocha has exhibited suicidal behavior since 1978 when he asked police to shoot him. He once tied his jacket to his jail bars and attempted to hang himself. He has a long history of drug and alcohol abuse. After a 2-year stint in the Army, he was given a general discharge for drug use. Snurkowski said Ocha's case was recently reviewed by Osceola Circuit Judge Margaret Waller, who agreed to allow the 10th-grade dropout to end all of his appeals. Abe Bonowitz, director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, claims the execution of Ocha is another case of "suicide by governor." Of the 16 inmates executed under death warrants signed by Gov. Jeb Bush, 7 have dropped appeals and did not fight their execution. "This was a very heinous crime," Bush spokesman Jacob DiPietre said after the governor signed the death warrant. "After a thorough and thoughtful appeals process, that was the end of it." Ocha will be the 60th person executed in Florida since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty and the 1st since May 26, when John Blackwelder who was so intent on being executed that he killed a fellow inmate and pleaded guilty. On the Net: Florida Department of Corrections: http://www.dc.state.fl.us/ Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty: http://www.fadp.org *********************** Jacksonville man convicted of killing three in drive-by shooting In Jacksonville, a man was convicted Monday of the drive-by shooting murders of a woman and her two young nephews September 2002. Carlton Lumpkins, 39, was found guilty of 1st-degree murder for the deaths of Deon Kirkland, 13, and Christopher Kirkland, 12, and their aunt, Johnnie Gatlin, 46. More than 24 bullets were fired at the 3 people as they sat in a car, which was outside Gatlin's Jacksonville house. She had just picked the boys up from football practice. Circuit Judge Henry Davis said the penalty phase would begin April 22. State Attorney Harry Shorstein will try to persuade the jury to recommend the death penalty, while Lumpkins lawyers Quentin Till and Refik Eler will ask that his life be spared and request a sentence of life in prison without parole. "This has been hell for me," said Leon Kirkland, the boys' father. Lumpkins is one of three men charged the murders. Another man charged, Maurice Silas, is a key witness against Lumpkins. Silas pleaded guilty to 3 counts of 1st-degree murder in the case. Shorstein also told the jury he will ask that Silas be sentenced to death. Latroy Bouknight has not yet been tried. (source for both: Associated Press) *********************** Lumpkins guilty----2 boys, aunt slain while sitting in a car in '02 Leon Kirkland looked straight ahead stoically as the court clerk read the verdicts late Monday afternoon. Carlton Lumpkins, 39, was guilty of 1st-degree murder in the brutal shooting deaths of his 2 boys, Deon Kirkland, 13, and Christopher Kirkland, 12, and their aunt, Johnnie Gatlin, 46. More than 2 dozen bullets were fired from semiautomatic weapons at the 3 as they sat in a car in front of Gatlin's Jacksonville residence in the 1800 block of West Third Street after football practice on Sept. 26, 2002. Lumpkins, sitting between his lawyers Quentin Till and Refik Eler, also showed no emotion as he heard the verdicts. Circuit Judge Henry Davis told the jury to return to court April 22 for the penalty phase of the trial. Jurors will hear arguments from State Attorney Harry Shorstein on why they should recommend the death sentence for Lumpkins. Till and Eler will ask the jury to spare his life and recommend a sentence of life in prison without parole. Whatever the jury decides in the penalty phase, it is only a recommendation to the judge, who has the final say. Kirkland sat through every day of the 8-day trial, sometimes shedding tears as graphic testimony about his sons' numerous gunshot wounds was given. Around his neck he wore a small silver plaque engraved with a picture of himself with his boys. "This has been hell for me," Kirkland said while awaiting the jury's verdict Monday. "But I don't have a choice. There are some things a father must do and I know what I've got to do. My boys are here with me now." Deon was a student at Southside Middle School where he was a member of the baseball team. Christopher was a student at Hogan-Spring Glen Elementary School. Both played football for the Sweetwater Pop Warner Association. "You can't dare to start to feel the pain I am feeling," Kirkland said. Meredith Gatlin, the boys' mother, declined to comment after the trial. Lumpkins is one of three men charged with the Kirkland-Gatlin murders. A key witness against him was Maurice Silas, who has already pleaded guilty to 3 counts of 1st-degree murder in the case. Silas testified that he has not been promised any concessions for his testimony. Shorstein told the jury he intends to ask that Silas be sentenced to death. Yet to be tried in the case is Latroy Bouknight. During his summation to the jury, Shorstein reviewed the explicit and sometimes emotional testimony from investigators who were called to the scene. Noting that Till had criticized photographs of the death scene as being too graphic, Shorstein said, "Mr. Lumpkins created those photos. Children are not supposed to die that way." Till told the jurors they could consider a lack or insufficiency of evidence during their deliberations. He said he saw what he called barricades to his client's conviction as he enumerated what he termed the state's failures: investigators didn't follow up on Lumpkins' alibi, they rushed to judgment in arresting someone for the crime because the community was outraged, and they ceased their investigation once they arrested Lumpkins. "And Mr. Silas took two years to change his plea to guilty," Till said. He also said his client's confession to the murders came only after police used psychological inducements and questioned him for more than 14 hours in a 10-by-10-foot room. "These barricades I've mentioned have a name," Till said. "The name is reasonable doubt." (source: The Times-Union) WEST VIRGINIA: Tri-State residents, courts split over death penalty Once again this legislative session, a bill to reinstate the death penalty in West Virginia was introduced. And once again, the bill is going nowhere. That will leave the Mountain State among only 12 states and the District of Columbia without the death penalty. Both Ohio and Kentucky have it, and death penalty cases are scheduled later this month in Ironton and in June in Catlettsburg. The number of executions in America peaked at 98 in 1999, the highest since the Supreme Court declared death penalty laws unconstitutional in 1972, requiring the states to write new laws. Texas led the nation last year with 23 executions. **** Do you support the death penalty? "I do not support the death penalty mainly because if it could turn up later that the person was not guilty, they would not be able to redirect, to incriminate someone else and that person would never be able to brought to life again."----Julie Barker, 25, Coal Grove, Ohio -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I dont believe in it. Somebody could go and just have a whole massacre and just wipe out half of a country, but they are still a creation of God and no one should be killed. I guess Im a little bit religious on that."----Damartae Wiggins, 19, Huntington -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I dont support it because, generally, I think life in prison is more of a punishment. If youre wrong, you can always release someone from prison. You cant resurrect them."----Travis Conner, 25, Huntington -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I guess Im pro-life, and I think to be consistent as a person that supports life, even if a person is a criminal, their life still has value."----Richard Dixon, 42, Huntington -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I support it because I think if youre going to take somebodys life, tit-for-tat. I mean it should come back to you."----John Trippe, 21, MU student from Jackson, N.C. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Its tit-for-tat. I believe it should only be for the death of another person."----Katie Garrison, 19, MU student from Jackson, N.C. **** Ohio put 7 people to death at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville. That caused the Buckeye State to have the 2nd highest number of executions in the country last year. There were none in Kentucky last year, but there are 36 on death row in the Bluegrass State while there are more than 200 on death row in Ohio. Mike Bellomy, a former Lawrence County resident currently living north of Indianapolis, supports the death penalty. It wasnt an option when the man who killed his brother was sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison in 1987 but was released from prison last year and has returned to Lawrence County. "We werent given the option for the death penalty," Bellomy said Wednesday. "It should be used more often. Instead of the death chair, they should use a couch and do 4 or 5 at a time." Charles "Chuck" Knight, a Meigs County lawyer who represented Leon Aliff several years ago in a death penalty case in Ironton will represent Roger K. Marshall, an Ironton man charged with setting a fire last year that killed 3 people in an Ironton motel. Knight, a former Meigs County prosecutor, has handled 17 death penalty cases as a defense attorney. None have resulted in the death penalty. "Life in prison without the possibility of parole has allowed a number of defendants in Ohio to avoid the death penalty," he said. Even though hes among a handful of lawyers in southeastern Ohio qualified to be lead counsel in death penalty cases, Knight believes it should be an option only in certain cases. "Not every murder case is a death penalty case," he said. "There have to be aggravating circumstances. You cant get the death penalty for murder, but for aggravating circumstances. I believe the law was designed appropriately in Ohio." For most cases, though, life in prison is an appropriate punishment, he said. "Life in prison isnt an easy punishment," he said. "West Virginia would be wise not to get into the death penalty." Dudley Sharp, a death penalty proponent from Houston, disagrees. He believes West Virginia juries should have the same death penalty option as do juries in Ohio and Kentucky. A victims rights advocate for a dozen years, Sharp said the majority of Americans still support the death penalty. Last summer, a poll showed 74 % approved of the death penalty. "Virtually every argument against the death penalty is false," he said. "I studied the issue for 2 1/2 years. The pro death penalty arguments are stronger. It is a significant deterrent." An argument that death penalty prosecutions can cost $2 million dont take into the factors the cost of the trial, appeals process and geriatric costs which can reach $69,000 annually, he said. Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-death penalty group, said the attitudes about the death penalty are changing in America. 10 years ago, polling data showed 80 % of Americans supported the death penalty. Recent polls show that number has declined to 65 %, he said. "Theres more skepticism about the death penalty," Dieter said. Advances in DNA evidence have exonerated 13 people on death row, he said. The number of executions are going down, too. In 1999, there were 98. Last year, the number was 59, he said. "No state has added the death penalty since 1995," he said. "The outlook is toward less use of the death penalty." Jeff Gamo, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Ohio, called the death penalty "morally reprehensible. The government shouldnt be in the business of killing its people. There are no reputable studies showing it deters crime." Many murders are done in the heat of passion and people arent thinking of consequences, Gamo said. "The death penalty doesnt make (victims) families feel better," he said. "It doesnt bring back their loved one. It doesnt bring closure and it cost a fortune. Its far more expensive to kill someone that put them in prison for life." Another reason against the death penalty is that mistakes sometimes can be made and innocent people are convicted to die, he said. "Were human," Gamo said. "We make mistakes. If we kill enough people, were going to kill innocent people. The United States is the only western democracy that continues to execute people. Every other one has stopped." Cabell County Prosecutor Chris Chiles has been prosecuting murder cases for more than 20 years and, of the estimated 30 to 50 hes been involved in, he would have sought the death penalty only in less than a handful if West Virginia had had the death penalty. "Just because someone commits murder doesnt automatically mean they qualify or deserve the death penalty," he said. "West Virginia has the option to give life in prison sentences without the possibility of parole. While death penalty cases are costly, "expense shouldnt be a factor, but in reality money is always a factor." Commonwealths Attorney J. Stewart Schneider withdrew from prosecuting a death penalty case in Boyd County last year citing his religious beliefs. The Boyd County prosecutor is a licensed minister for the Disciples of Christ, a Christian church in Ashland. When it comes to the death penalty, hes a minister first and a prosecutor second, Schneider said. "I cant get up and say Ive decided you no longer have the right to share in Gods creation," he said. While several Kentucky prosecutors have called for him to resign, Schneider said, a number of people have been supportive. He cited religious reasons, cost and ethical consideration for his decision not to prosecute the death penalty case in Catlettsburg later this year. West Virginia House of Delegates member Don Perdue,D-Wayne, hopes the death penalty bill stays bottled up in the House judicial committee this session. About 2,000 to 2,200 bills are introduced in each 60-day legislative session, and about only 400 are passed, he said. "Im philosophically opposed to it," he said. "Too many mistakes are made. No one has shown me its an effective deterrent." To kill an innocent person is a mistake government cant take back, he said. "I anticipate it staying in committee," Perdue said. "Cost is a factor. We need to do what is reasonable." If the death penalty is to be approved, it would take money from other needed programs, he said. Del. Kelli Sobonya, R-Cabell, has mixed emotions about the death penalty. "Its a contentious issue," she said. "Im undecided. The bill is in committee and it may not come out this session. Its been introduced for the past 20 years or so and never seems to get out of committee." "I can see both sides of the issue. Its not on my radar screen right now. Ill reserve judgment on it" for now. (source: Herald-Dispatch) GEORGIA: Hearing starts death penalty process -- Gordon DA plans to seek the death penalty against Jerry Jones, who is accused of kidnapping, murders Attorneys for Jerry William Jones were in Gordon Superior Court on Monday to schedule motions related to his death penalty case. A number of preliminary motions must be filed under Georgias unified appeals process for death penalty cases, said Rodney Mathis, the Calhoun attorney originally appointed to defend Jones for the January 2004 murders of Tom and Nola Blaylock, their daughter, Georgia Mae Bradley, and Jones 10-month-old daughter, Jerri Georgia Jones. Judge Carey Nelson has scheduled an arraignment hearing for June 3. "Todays hearing was a 1st proceeding," Mathis said. "There are numerous motions that must be filed before the trial can begin." Jones defense has been turned over to attorneys Michelle Drake and Chris Adams with the Georgia Capital Defenders Office, Mathis said. District Attorney Joe Campbell announced in January that he will seek the death penalty in the case. Jones was in court Monday, but he did not enter a plea, Mathis said. The former Rome resident is accused of killing former girlfriend Melissa Peelers mother, stepfather and sister at their home in Ranger as well as his infant daughter with Peeler. Authorities believe the murder spree was committed in a jealous rage on Jan. 7, 2004, shortly after Peeler left him. Police said Jones then took off with Peelers 3 surviving young children - 2 of them his own - and fled just across the border to East Ridge, Tenn., where he was caught after a car chase the following evening. The girls, now 11, 5 and 4, were recovered safely in Jones car and are living with Peeler in Calhoun. Jones was indicted last September on a number of charges, including malice murder, kidnapping, criminal violations of interstate interference with custody, 1st- and 2nd-degree cruelty to children, motor vehicle theft, burglary, concealing a death and various firearms violations. (source: Rome News-Tribune) KANSAS: Witness to execution -- Prison director Charles McAtee recalls killers Charles McAtee's phone rang about 2 p.m. It was April 13, 1965, and Truman Capote was calling to say he wouldn't be visiting condemned killers Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith on the eve of their executions. Capote had spent the past 4 years documenting the brutal murders of a rural Kansas family and the lives of the killers for what would become the book "In Cold Blood." He said the emotional buildup to the execution would be too much to bear. The next 10 hours would change McAtee's life. He would spend every minute with the killers, getting arare glimpse into their personalities in their most vulnerable moments -- scenes that never made it into Capote's book. "I got to know them as human beings," McAtee said, "And I got to know them as people who committed an absolutely horrendous, horrific crime that killed four innocent, beautiful people who had a great deal to contribute to their community and this state." McAtee's position as director of Kansas state penal institutions required him to be at the Kansas state penitentiary at Lansing the day of the executions. Capote's absence leaves him as one of few witnesses to the killers' final hours. [Charles McAtee has a photo of a painting of Jesus that Smith made while in the Kansas state penitentiary at Lansing. The prison chaplain, James Post, had the original painting of Jesus.] For the past 40 years, McAtee's public identity has been defined by that moment in time. Rather than just lawyer Charles McAtee, he became the man who "oversaw the hangings of the Clutter family killers." But unlike many affiliated with the case who refuse to relive the past, McAtee, now 76, accepts that the case changed his life and made him a living link to history, an experience he feels obligated to share. When he is asked to do so, McAtee pulls out a white storage box inside his home near Topeka. Among the items are telegrams Capote sent while he was writing the book and postcards the author later sent from his winter home in Switzerland. He also has photos of sea scenes Smith painted from death row on bed sheets with water colors and gave to prison chaplain James Post. Each time he opens the box, memories flood back, memories not of characters in Capote's book, but of real people he came to know and experiences he had in the first half of the 1960s. Letters from the killers McAtee's position as a pardon and parole attorney and special assistant to the governor, and later director of penal institutions, allowed him to receive and send uncensored letters to the killers on death row. >From the spring of 1961 until their execution in April 1965, Hickock and Smith frequently wrote to him because he was one of the few people who saw their uncensored letters. Letters the killers wrote to the governor crossed McAtee's desk. Once he became director of penal institutions in early 1965, the letters went directly to McAtee. The killers wrote together at first but then started sending individual letters. Hickock often denied that he'd killed the Clutters. Sometimes they just wrote to complain about the food. McAtee said many of the letters are stored at the Kansas Historical Society in Topeka. One of the more memorable ones came just weeks before the executions. The killers wrote to McAtee asking for radios in their cells. Although prison officials initially refused the request, McAtee OK'd transistor radios and headphones to help break the tension and isolation on death row. "Their letters really hit me," McAtee said. "I couldn't live without music, and the thought occurred to me that these guys had been over there since the early '60s, and to have never heard music?" **** About this series This year marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood," considered one of the 20th century's great works of literature. It also was among the 1st books in which the reporting techniques of journalism were assembled with the flair of traditional fiction writing. The book is set in the community of Holcomb in 1959, when 4 members of a prominent farming family were killed in a fruitless robbery. Herbert and Bonnie Clutter and their children Nancy, 16, and Kenyon, 15, were shot by Perry Smith and Richard Hickock. The book details the crime, the lives of the 2 paroled criminals and law enforcement's search and eventual capture of the men. A class of 7 reporting students, a photography student and 4 documentary film students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln spent the fall studying Capote's work and its impact on literature and journalism, the community where the story unfolded and some of its principal characters. The students obtained exclusive interviews from people who had refused to talk publicly about the crime or the book, including Nancy Clutter's boyfriend, Bobby Rupp, who was the last to see the family alive and was initially questioned about the murders; Walter Hickock, Richard Hickock's younger brother, who describes for the first time the agony the family endured after the crime and publication of Capote's book; and the family that lives in the former Clutter home as well as exclusive photographs from inside the house. Because the nationally renowned book is set in Kansas, it seemed natural to publish the students' work in a Kansas newspaper. The results are part of a 4-day series that begins today in the Journal-World. Wednesday: --The family that lives in the former Clutter home is witness to the book's enormous impact still today. --Holcomb has changed much from the time Capote wrote his book. --The death penalty has divided Kansas many times. --See the documentary "In Cold Blood: A Legacy" at 11:30 p.m. on Sunflower Broadband Channel 6. **** McAtee was a casual acquaintance of one of Hickock's childhood friends, a common point of discussion when he saw Hickock on death row. His memories of the afternoon before the executions include Hickock's visitors and what both killers talked about. The 2 men had very different demeanors in those final hours. Hickock was more jovial and talkative, telling stories about his childhood; Smith thought deeply about the meaning of life. Hickock told of a 1949 Packard he and some friends covered with purple house paint. When they hit 60 mph on the highway, the paint started to peel off the car. McAtee saw Hickock say goodbye to his ex-wife, who had come to pay her respects and apologize for a sharply worded letter she'd sent weeks before. Hickock told her to tell his children goodbye. After she left, McAtee said, Hickock was aware of the pain his crimes had caused. "He said, Mr. McAtee, I should've had my neck broke long ago, before we pulled that caper out in Kansas for what I did to that woman and my kids,'" McAtee recalled Hickock as saying. While Hickock was busy telling stories, Smith pondered life and death. He quoted several passages from Henry David Thoreau's "On Man and Nature" and showed signs of remorse that some said had never come from the convicted killer. "Perry did say, 'Mr. McAtee, I would like to apologize to someone, but to whom? To them? To the relatives? To their friends and neighbors? To you? To the state of Kansas? But you know you can't undo what we did with an apology,'" McAtee recalled Smith saying. Final hours of Smith, Hickock McAtee's recollection of Smith -- as the more intelligent, sensitive killer -- mirrors Capote's descriptions of him in the book. Capote saw Hickock, though, as crude and uneducated, while McAtee said he developed a different view of Hickock because of their common acquaintance, Don Simons. "I gained a better insight into Hickock than Capote did," McAtee said. That Capote and McAtee held somewhat similar views of the killers should come as no surprise. They corresponded frequently while the case threaded its way through the courts. McAtee first met Capote in 1961 as the author was trying to gain visitation and unfettered letter-writing privileges with Hickock and Smith -- rights usually reserved for family members and significant others, rights Capote eventually gained. Although many have disputed the truth of some of Capote's book, McAtee said he thought Capote's version of the Clutter case closely mirrored the actual events. His insight made McAtee a popular public speaker about the book and case. Because he didn't know the family, he said, it's easier for him to talk about the case. "It was a part of my life and part of my career," McAtee said. "It was just part of my official duties, and I became personally acquainted with (Smith and Hickock)." After McAtee left his job with the Kansas Penal System in 1969, he became a successful attorney and in some ways is better known in Kansas for his work in the courtroom than the murder case. For years he was associated with one of Kansas' oldest and most respected law firms, Eidson, Lewis, Porter & Haynes. In 2002, he ran an unsuccessful grassroots campaign for Kansas attorney general while also continuing to practice law. McAtee was diagnosed with leukemia almost two years ago, and the disease and treatments have taken their toll. He has lost 62 pounds and undergone more than 40 blood transfusions. "I'm still trying to practice law, though I don't make it to the office often," he said. Complex feelings about justice Although McAtee developed a rapport with the killers, he hasn't softened his stance on the death penalty. He said he still supports capital punishment, though not in its current form. He said capital punishment isn't a deterrent to capital crimes and that standardizing the requirements for capital punishment would be a good first step to fixing the problem. "They're standing around the penitentiary with their candlelight vigil, mourning the poor soul of the inmate, but they've forgotten the victim," McAtee said of death penalty opponents. As he sits on a brown vinyl couch in his basement, he plays a DVD of a Feb. 26, 2003, speech he presented to the Downtown Topeka Rotary Club. On the video he recalls his discussion with Smith on the day of the murders and the moment when Smith recited a poem he wrote called "Eternal Hope." One of Smith's 5 original copies is scrawled on a frail paper wrapped in a plastic cover and stored in the white box with the newspaper clippings and memories. "Perry Smith was a very bright guy and had a lot to offer; there was a lot of depth to Perry Smith," McAtee said. "You couldn't have talked to Perry, can't have heard Perry recite these excerpts of Thoreau 'On Man and Nature' or read Perry's poem, or look at his paintings without realizing there was some innate talent or ability and a depth of soul that he never really had an opportunity to work through." The poem doesn't read like the prose of a man convicted of brutally murdering a family of 4. Its lines are filled with the introspection of a man coming to terms with his imminent death -- each alternating rhyme written in perfect script on the yellowing page. But he who thinks man is bare Discarded of pride by force. Has not the depth of soul to share Emotions at its source Perhaps my eyes shall never reach The light of freedom's skies But forever my hopes will span the breach To keep my human ties. "And with that," McAtee said, "an hour later, we took him to the Kansas gallows and hanged him." (source: Lawrence Journal-World) ILLINOIS: Convicted killer asks judge to review death sentence A lawyer for a man convicted of killing his estranged wife and her child filed a motion Monday asking a Cook County judge to reconsider the death sentence he imposed last week. The sentence for Jesus Alvarez-Garcia, handed down by Judge Thomas Sumner, was the seventh in the state since clemency was granted to all Death Row inmates in 2003. Alvarez-Garcia, 41, had been convicted of shooting and killing his estranged wife and her infant daughter in 2002. Alvarez-Garcia's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Woodward Jordan, wrote in the motion that two mitigating factors should have taken capital punishment off the table. Alvarez-Garcia had no criminal background and he was under extreme mental duress because of the breakup of his marriage, Jordan wrote. Argument on the motion was scheduled for April 14. (source: Chicago Tribune) LOUISIANA: Court upholds death sentence in Plain Dealing slaying The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal of a man sentenced to die in the kidnapping and killing of a 62-year-old Plain Dealing woman in December 2000. Without comment, the nation's highest court announced Monday that it declined to review the 1st-degree murder conviction of Jeremiah D. Manning in the slaying of Mary Ann Malone. But Manning likely will not be executed anytime soon. Defense attorney Marcia Widder of Capital Appeals Project said she might ask the Supreme Court for a rehearing. If she does not or if a rehearing is denied, there can be no death warrant signed in the case until Manning has been assigned a post-conviction attorney by the state. That could take a while because there are too many death cases involving indigent defendants for the number of defense lawyers Louisiana pays to handle them, Widder said. "Jeremiah is entitled to appointment of counsel. ... And I couldn't tell you when that will happen. The state needs to give a lot more money to fund capital post-conviction." Bossier District Attorney Schuyler Marvin said he would push for a death warrant as soon as possible. Capital Defense Project's claim of a backlog in death cases is "a convenient ploy to avoid the death penalty," he said. "Obviously, our evidence was real strong. I didn't expect the U.S. Supreme Court to tinker with it any. And I'm glad they didn't. I want to see the jury's verdict carried out." Prosecutors said Manning, who had done yard work for Malone, kidnapped her from her home, forced her to drive to a remote area then beat her and slit her throat. Authorities arrested Manning as he ran along a highway after crashing Malone's car into a ditch. In his appeal, Manning argues that his low IQ and his drinking on the day of the killing made it impossible for him to knowledgeably waive his right against self-incrimination before he made statements to investigators. Those statements should have been thrown out, his appeal contends. Manning also complained that pretrial publicity made it impossible for him to get a fair trial in Bossier Parish and that prosecutors failed to prove he had committed aggravated kidnapping, a compounding felony that qualified him for the death sentence. The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the conviction in October, rejecting all of Manning's contentions and leading him to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. (source: Associated Press)
