April 23 NEVADA: Nevada court rejects death penalty notice The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled there were several flaws in a prosecution notice of intent to seek the death penalty against a man accused of suffocating a mentally handicapped woman in Henderson. The court says Clark County District Judge Jennifer Togliatti abused her discretion in not granting a motion by Cornelius Rogers to strike 4 of the 5 aggravating circumstances in the notice to seek the death penalty. The court says Togliatti should rule that the 4 circumstances were defective and should be eliminated from the notice. Rogers, an ex-convict, was charged with the March 2001 death of 33-year-old Julie Holt, found dead by her father when he returned home. Police later arrested Rogers on possession of stolen property charges after police found items from the Holt home in Rogers' apartment. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: More appeals expected in 1980s hatchet case A San Diego federal judge rejected death row inmate Kevin Cooper's bid for a new trial yesterday, saying DNA testing that was supposed to prove his innocence only strengthened the murder case against him. Cooper was just a few hours from execution by lethal injection Feb. 10, 2004, when a federal appeals court ordered the additional testing based on claims by his lawyers about new evidence and that he was framed. In 1985, he was convicted by a San Diego jury of murdering a San Bernardino County couple, their daughter and a young family friend in a hatchet attack that left an 8-year-old boy clinging to life. The boy, now a 30-year-old man, told Judge Marilyn Huff before her ruling that he was forever scarred by the attack. "I don't want to be here," Josh Ryen read from a prepared statement. "I came because I owe it to my family who can't speak. . . . By coming here it shows that he still controls me. I will be free, my life will start, the day Kevin Cooper dies. I want to be rid of him, but he won't go away. "Every day when I comb my hair I feel the hole where he buried the hatchet in my head and when I look in the mirror I see the scar where he cut my throat from ear to ear and I put four fingers in it to stop the bleeding." Cooper's lawyer. David T. Alexander, said he was "really disappointed" by the judge's ruling, but wouldn't comment on his next step in the effort to save the condemned killer's life. "We have to look at everything," he said. Outside court, Deputy Attorney General Holly Wilkens said she expects the case to be returned to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which had granted Cooper a delay, while delivering the opinion that "a simple test" could quickly determine whether he was framed. Now, more than a year later, Wilkens wouldn't guess how long Cooper's appeals will continue. Cooper was convicted in the June 4, 1983, Chino Hills murders of Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica and 11-year-old family friend Christopher Hughes. Heavy publicity forced the trial to be moved to San Diego. Prosecutors say Cooper, who had escaped from a nearby prison 2 days earlier, killed to steal the Ryen's station wagon as a getaway car. In its ruling, the appeals court ordered Judge Huff to take a fresh look at the case and order tests on blond hair and a bloody shirt. Cooper's lawyers argued that 10 strands of hair found in Jessica's hand came from a stranger and that the blood found on the shirt - which earlier DNA tests linked to Cooper - was planted by police. DNA testing that cost $5,000 per strand of hair found they belonged to members of the Ryen family, Huff said in her ruling. Tests on the shirt found near the Ryen house proved much more problematic than the appeals court ruling envisioned, she said. She had to meet with scientists to come up with a protocol for testing for EDTA, a chemical used as a blood preservative, but which also exists in many other products, including laundry detergent. After several months, different spots from the T-shirt were tested, one of which investigators believed contained Cooper's blood, another that didn't. The results, Huff said, didn't indicate the blood was planted. In any case, she said, the science behind the testing doesn't meet the standards needed for a jury to hear them. Once the case returned to Huff's courtroom - she first ruled on the case in an earlier appeal in 1997 - Cooper's lawyers asked her to rule on numerous issues. Among their claims: Cooper is innocent. His defense lawyer did a shoddy job at the trial. Prosecutors hid evidence. Sheriff's deputies destroyed a pair of bloody overalls linked to another man. Jurors should have been told shoes that matched a bloody footprint in the Ryen home were available outside prisons and not exclusive to prisoners. 2 women who saw men in bloody clothes at a nearby bar proved someone other than Cooper was the killer. Huff rejected each of the claims. She cited the evidence linking Cooper to the crimes, including his admission that he stayed in a vacant house 126 yards from the Ryen home after his escape. The hatchet used in the killings came from that vacant house, Huff said. Investigators found a rope with Douglas Ryen's blood in a closet in the house where Cooper said he slept. And she noted that a drop of blood on a wall in the Ryen home matched Cooper's blood. Josh Ryen told the judge he's frustrated by the endless appeals. "Every time Cooper claims he's innocent and sends people scurrying off on another wild goose chase, I have to relive the murders all over again," he said. "It runs like a horror movie, over and over again, and never stops because he never shuts up." (source: San Diego Union-Tribune) CONNECTICUT: Serial killer competent to appeals; Execution set for May 11 Serial killer Michael Ross was relieved after a judge ruled that he is mentally competent to abandon his death row appeals, removing a major hurdle to New England's first execution in 45 years, his attorney said. "He's hopeful that this time around maybe this will put an end to the court proceedings, so he can spend some time to get mentally and emotionally prepared for May 11," attorney T.R. Paulding said Friday. Ross, 45, is scheduled to be die by injection May 11. He has admitted killing and raping 8 young women in Connecticut and New York in the early 1980s. Ross fought off attempts by public defenders, death penalty opponents and his own family to stop his execution last year and came within hours of death in January. His attorney asked for a new competency hearing only after being chastised by a federal judge for helping Ross hasten his execution. New London Superior Court Judge Patrick Clifford's ruling Friday came after a six-day hearing in which psychiatrists gave conflicting assessments of Ross' mental competence. "Michael Ross, a competent individual, has the right to make this voluntary decision concerning whether to pursue any further appeals regardless of what others may feel about his decision," Superior Court Judge Patrick Clifford wrote. Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano said the state "will proceed in accordance with today's decision to carry out the sentence." Ross' attorney, T.R. Paulding, who faxed a copy of the ruling to the serial killer, said Ross was relieved by the decision. "He's hopeful that this time around maybe this will put an end to the court proceedings, so he can spend some time to get mentally and emotionally prepared for May 11," Paulding said. Evidence brought up during the competency hearing may be enough to deflect any appeal from anyone other than Ross, Paulding said. Ross remains firm in his decision to accept death, he said. "It wouldn't surprise me if people do attempt to find some mechanism to stop this," Paulding said. Where those appeals will come from remains unclear. Clifford appointed a special counsel, Hartford attorney Thomas Groark, to argue that Ross was incompetent, but attorneys do not know whether that status carries forward into the appellate process. "Right now the only person with standing to appeal is Groark," said Antonio Ponvert III, who represents Ross' father in an effort to keep the killer alive. "It's not clear to me or anybody else whether he's going to do that and I don't know if he has standing to do that anymore. We have to wait to see what he's going to do." Groark said Friday he is carefully considering his options, The Hartford Courant reported. Clifford has not said whether Groark's duties as special counsel continue once the hearing ends. "There are a variety of questions that have to be answered here, including whether attorney Groark has fulfilled his duties as a friend of the court," Morano said. During the competency hearings, two doctors said Ross suffers from a narcissistic personality disorder forcing him to make decisions that make him look good publicly. They believe he is incapable of choosing to live because looking cowardly would be a blow to his ego. Others said they believe Ross when he says he is genuinely sorry for the pain he caused and does not want to force the victims' families to endure years of additional court battles and media coverage. Clifford said he found the latter argument more persuasive. "His decision is a product of his free will," the judge wrote. "A rational choice does not have to be a sensible decision, although Ross' choice flows logically from his expressed moral views." Dr. Stuart Grassian, one of the psychiatrists who testified that Ross was incompetent, said Friday's decision would taint the execution because it gives Ross the last word. "I am a little surprised," Grassian said. "I thought the judge was likely to rule against us, but not by finding that Ross' motivation was a noble one." Of the 6 New England states, only Connecticut and New Hampshire have the death penalty. No one is on New Hampshire's death row and the state has not executed anyone since 1939. Rhode Island has not put anyone to death since 1845; Maine, 1885; Massachusetts, 1947; and Vermont, 1954. "We are greatly saddened that the state of Connecticut is continuing on its course to state sponsored murder," said Robert Nave, executive director of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty, who lobbied unsuccessfully to have the state's death penalty laws overturned. ___ On the Net: Judge's Opinion: http://www.ct.gov/csao/cwp/view.asp?aP>1801&qP>292090 (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Jury rejects death penalty----Startling prosecutor, ruling doesn't suggest execution of murderer A jury recommended life in prison Friday, not execution, for a man convicted of killing two Jacksonville boys and their aunt in a drive-by shooting. State Attorney Harry Shorstein said he was "stunned" by the recommendation and predicted it would make seeking the death penalty more difficult in future cases. "This has a very serious impact on death penalty litigation," Shorstein said. Carlton Lumpkins, 39, was convicted last month of three counts of first-degree murder in the drive-by deaths of Johnnie Gatlin and her 12- and 13-year-old nephews, Chris and Deon Kirkland, in September 2002. She had just picked the boys up from football practice, where both were stars with dreams of playing professionally. Circuit Judge Henry Davis is not bound by the jury's recommendation and could sentence Lumpkins to death, but that rarely happens in Florida. The judge hasn't scheduled a sentencing date. Defense attorney Refik Eler said he was "encouraged that jurors will look beyond sensationalism and ... try to be objective." "It was a very emotional case," Eler said. Lumpkins and another man, Maurice Silas, shot at the car Gatlin and the boys were sitting in on Third Street because they mistakenly believed it carried a rival drug dealer they thought had killed Lumpkins' brother, Silas testified. Silas pleaded guilty but still faced the death penalty, Shorstein told jurors. After Friday's jury recommendation, however, Shorstein might have to reconsider whether Silas or a 3rd defendant, driver Maurice Bouknight, should face the death penalty. Jurors left the courtroom without commenting on their recommendation. During Friday's proceedings, jurors heard from members of both families. The Kirkland boys' parents testified about the gaping hole their deaths have left. "My heart is empty," their father, Leon Kirkland, told the jury. "I still have sleepless nights. There are so many things I'll never be able to do again. You just think about what you share with your children." Through it all, Lumpkins' face remained fixed in the same scowl he wore during his trial. He showed emotion just once, when his 16-year-old daughter, Brittany, said she's missed him in the 2 years he's been in jail awaiting trial. "Please don't take him away," she asked jurors. "That's all I have." Eler said he thinks Brittany Lumpkins' testimony helped sway the jury to recommend life instead of death because it forced them to consider breaking the chain of violence. Eler asked jurors how they would feel if they recommended death and Silas, whom Eler said was more culpable, got life. "How many lives will it take before the violence ends?" he asked. "All life is precious. ... Even Carlton Lumpkins'." But Shorstein, who handled Lumpkins' prosecution, wondered who merits the death penalty if Lumpkins didn't deserve to die for gunning down 2 children and their aunt at close range. "He took a semiautomatic assault weapon and fired it point-blank at 2 children," Shorstein said. "Some crimes are so horrible and some losses so great that the person who commits them deserves to die." His concern about future death penalty prosecutions will be put to the test almost immediately when Chip Carter goes on trial next month in another triple homicide. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Carter, who fled to Mexico in 2002 after police said he fatally shot a former girlfriend and her boyfriend and 16-year-old daughter. Carter was captured in Kentucky last year. (source: The Times-Union)
