April 20 ARIZONA: DNA test upsets death conviction New DNA testing has cast enough doubt to overturn the conviction of a death-row inmate who has spent 15 years trying to prove his innocence. Clarence David Hill, 56, was condemned for the 1989 murder of his landlord, Dale Edmundson, who was burned alive in Mohave County. At Hill's trial, prosecutors said he hit Edmundson on the head, wrapped him in a bedsheet and drove him in Edmundson's truck to a desert area south of Bullhead City, where Hill doused Edmundson with paint thinner and set him on fire. Recent DNA testing found that Edmundson's blood was not the blood found on Hill's clothing and on the bedsheet, said Hill's attorney, Rick Williams. In fact, Williams said, the blood on the bedsheet was from a female. "It is our position that it exonerates Mr. Hill," Williams said of the evidence. "Mr. Hill has been on death row for 15 years, and he has always maintained his innocence." At the very least, the DNA evidence could have changed the way the case was argued and might have affected the jury's verdict. "It is more likely than not that no reasonable juror would have convicted Mr. Hill in light of the present DNA evidence," Judge Richard Weiss of Mohave County Superior Court wrote in an April 14 ruling to overturn Hill's conviction. But Assistant Attorney General Kent Cattani said, "We still are of the view that it would not have changed the jury's verdict." Since the country's first DNA exoneration in 1989, more inmates have attempted to overturn their sentences with genetic tests that weren't available when they were convicted. Nationwide, 157 inmates have been exonerated, including 2 in Arizona. In other cases, like this one, DNA testing doesn't clearly exonerate a suspect but raises enough doubt to force new trials. Two other Arizona death-row inmates have had their convictions or sentences overturned because of post-conviction DNA testing. One is awaiting a new sentence. The other was allowed to plead guilty to 2nd-degree murder and sentenced to time served; he walked free in August. The state Attorney General's Office is expected to decide within weeks whether to appeal Weiss' ruling. If they don't, the case will be sent back to Mohave County, where prosecutors will decide if Hill will face a new trial, be offered a plea bargain or if the case will be dismissed. Cattani said the blood evidence was "one minor piece of evidence" and "certainly was not the linchpin of the state's case." "It's not DNA evidence that shows that somebody else committed this crime," Cattani said. "It may have changed the way the case was argued, but it does not exonerate the defendant." Hill's shoe prints were found at the scene and leading from where the truck was found to the victim's home, according to a 1993 Supreme Court ruling on Hill's case. Hill lived in a mobile home on Edmundson's property and witnesses testified the two had quarreled over money about a week before the murder. Hill, who had no steady source of income, had more than $200 and the victim's grocery receipt in his wallet when he was arrested. Edmundson's wallet was empty. Still, Williams said, "There's no way Mr. Hill could have killed Mr. Edmundson, wrapped him in a bedsheet and carried him that far without getting blood on his clothes or on the bedsheet." Williams said he would file a motion within the next few days asking for Hill's release. Hill, he said, is in poor health. He uses a wheelchair and uses oxygen to breathe. "Naturally, he was ecstatic," Williams said of Hill. "He broke down and cried from the news." (source: Arizona Republic) NEVADA: Nevada Senate panel votes to abolish death penalty for juveniles A Senate panel voted without recommendation Wednesday to advance a measure bringing Nevada into line with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that abolished the death penalty for killers who commit capital crimes as minors. Judiciary members sent AB6, approved by the state Assembly last month, to the Senate floor for final legislative action. Judiciary Chairman Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, said he's certain that the bill will move from there to the governor's desk despite the lack of a committee recommendation. Amodei also said he didn't think any Judiciary debate was needed since the change in Nevada law is mandated by the nation's highest court. Once the bill comes up for a Senate vote, he added, "it will allow Senate members to proselytize, editorialize, comment and any other sort of 'ize' they feel is appropriate before we pass the bill on the floor." Nevada was one of 19 states that allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty for juveniles when the Supreme Court ruling was issued on March 1. In holding such executions to be cruel and unusual punishment, the court spared the lives of 72 death row inmates across the country, including Michael Domingues in Nevada. Domingues, who had been sentenced to die for a double murder in Las Vegas, is one of just 3 juvenile offenders ever placed on Nevada's death row. The state's last execution of a juvenile offender was in 1949. Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, authored AB6. She said that recent scientific evidence has proven that juveniles don't have the same capacity as adults to understand consequences, learn from mistakes and control impulses, and shouldn't be held to the same standard of culpability. Writing for the majority, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said the "stark reality" that can't be ignored is that the United States has stood almost alone in the world in officially sanctioning juvenile executions. Juvenile offenders have been put to death in recent years in only a few other countries, including Iran, Pakistan, China and Saudi Arabia. (source: Associated Press) INDIANA: Only one witness to see convicted murderer's death Other than select members of the three teams conducting the execution, only one person will witness Bill Benefiel's death. Barring any last minute stay, Benefiel is scheduled to be executed early Thursday in the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. Benefiel was convicted of the February 1987 murder of 18-year-old Delores Wells, and sentenced to death in November 1988. According to Indiana law, Benefiel has the final say in who will be allowed to witness his lethal injection. "We're the only state in the U.S. that does it that way," said Barry Nothstine, spokesman for the prison, said Tuesday. Other states make other provisions, he said, but in Indiana, the convict makes the choice. "He [Benefiel] has selected one witness," Nothstine said, adding that the name is not released to the public, though the witness or witnesses have the option of speaking to the media after the execution. Wells' mother, Marge Hagan, who will be traveling to Michigan City on Wednesday to be near the prison during the execution, said she doesn't agree with the state policy. "I think it should be our choice, not his," she said. She would witness the execution, if given the chance. "The State of Indiana doesn't allow that. I sure would like to." Nothstine said only 2 other individuals would be in the execution room throughout the process: the project manager and the manager's assistant. Three teams will be used to accomplish the execution. An extraction team will bring Benefiel from his cell and strap him to a gurney, on which he is transported to the execution room. In there, a second team will attach the catheters to Benefiel in places that a medical examination have determined are best suited to accept them. That team leaves as soon as its work is finished. After the execution warrant is read, Benefiel has a chance to make a final statement. Nothstine said inmates are encouraged to make the statement in written form for release after the execution. At the scheduled time, the project manager places a call that goes simultaneously to the governor's office and to the Indiana Attorney General's office. Those officials are in contact with the state and federal Supreme Courts. If there is no stay, a series of five injections are made into the catheters already inserted. A saline solution is placed in the catheters between injections of sodium pentathol, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. (source: Tribune-Star)
