May 4 ARIZONA: Jury to deliberate death penalty in Mesa restaurant killings One day after convicting a man of 3 counts of 1st-degree murder, the same jury returned today with a verdict that sufficient evidence exists for the death penalty to be considered. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office says the jury will begin deliberating the death penalty phase Monday against Steven Boggs. The panel will be deciding whether Boggs should be put to death. If the jury decides against the death penalty, it will then be left to the judge to determine if Boggs will be sentenced to life with 25 years minimum in prison or natural life with no release. During the trial, prosecutors painted Boggs as a racist. In a letter that prosecutors produced, Boggs says his motive was to quote: "rid the world of a few needless illegals." The victims, 2 Hispanics and an American Indian were killed and stuffed into the freezer of a fast food restaurant in Mesa. (source: KOLD-TV News) NORTH CAROLINA: State moves closer to execution of man convicted in triple murder A former Army drill sergeant convicted in the grisly slayings of 2 children and their mother waited Thursday on word from the state Supreme Court about whether his execution will go ahead as scheduled. Earl Richmond Jr., 43, was sentenced to death by a Cumberland County jury in 1995 for the killings of 27-year-old Helisa Stewart Hayes, her son 8-year-old son, Phillip, and her 7-year-old daughter, Darien. He also received a life sentence for the rape of Hayes. Richmond is scheduled to be executed at 2 a.m. Friday at the state's Central Prison in Raleigh. He declined an interview request made through his attorneys. A state Superior Court judge denied a motion last week claiming that Richmond's death sentence was unconstitutional because it was based on hearsay evidence. His appellate lawyers have asked the state's highest court to review that decision. A federal appeals court also rejected arguments in July that Richmond was denied adequate legal representation. His lawyers argued his trial attorneys failed to present expert evidence that he couldn't form intent to kill his victims because he had consumed 20 beers, a 5th of liquor and smoked crack cocaine on the night of the slayings in November 1991. Attorneys have also appealed to Gov. Mike Easley to commute the sentence to life in prison. Easley has not issued a decision in the case. Testimony at Richmond's trial indicated he raped and strangled Hayes, the ex-wife of Richmond's longtime best friend, Wayne Hayes, after an argument. Phillip witnessed the attack and Richmond dragged him to a bathroom, where he strangled him with the cord to a hair curler and stabbed him more than 20 times with a pair of scissors. He then went into Darien's room and strangled her with an electrical cord as she slept. A few days later, he was a volunteer pallbearer at the 3 funerals and rode in a limousine with Wayne Hayes to the services. After his arrest in North Carolina, Richmond was charged in the April 5, 1991, slaying of Army Spec. Lisa Ann Nadeau at Fort Dix, N.J. Nadeau, 24, of Plainfield, Conn., was found bound, beaten, stabbed and strangled in her Army base residence. She had also been sexually assaulted, authorities said. Richmond was stationed at Fort Dix from 1988 until he was administratively discharged from the Army for misconduct in the fall of 1990. He remained at Fort Dix with friends after his discharge and returned to his hometown of Fayetteville a month after Nadeau's killing. He was convicted of Nadeau's murder in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison. Richmond would be the 2nd person executed in North Carolina this year and the 36th since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977. (source: Journal Now) FLORIDA: Stay calm in Florida: New law expands citizens' right to deadly force It's time for Florida to scrap its namby-pamby nickname and put criminal scum everywhere on notice: So long to the "Sunshine State." Welcome to the "Make My Day State." Just to be safe, police probably also ought to post signs warning panhandlers, substance abusers and any mentally ill residents given to angry outbursts that a new state law gives Floridians the right to use deadly force against anyone when they fear for their lives outside their homes, in their cars or businesses, or on the street. Back off, squeegee man. This ain't no foolin' around. The new Florida law, the first of its kind in the nation, expands the "castle doctrine" - one's home is one's castle - to include one's car and one's body. It extends the right to "stand your ground" and defend your castle to virtually any location where you might experience reasonable fear that a person's aggressive actions could lead to your injury or death. Just to make sure armed citizens wouldn't hesitate before dispatching a threat, Florida legislators wrote into the law an automatic presumption that anyone who forcibly and illegally enters a home, a car or a boat is intent on threatening the lives of the people within. That presumption can't be countered with contrary evidence. Lawmakers also removed the earlier requirement that citizens first seek a safe retreat from the threatening situation before resorting to deadly force. This law would allow an armed citizen to shoot to death an aggressive drunken student who yanked open the citizen's car door in the parking lot at a high school football game. If the citizen can prove that he feared imminent injury, the shooting is not only legal, it's protected from civil lawsuits, as well. Naturally, the National Rifle Association's fingerprints are all over the Florida legislation. NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told The Washington Post that the Florida law is the "first step of a multistate strategy" that he hopes can capitalize on a political climate dominated by conservative opponents of gun control at the state and national levels. Florida lawmakers certainly gave their friends in the NRA an impressive jump start for a national campaign. The Florida law, which goes into effect Oct. 1, passed unanimously in the state Senate and 94 to 20 in the House. "It's common sense to allow people to defend themselves," Republican Gov. Jeb Bush said when he signed the law last week. Common sense self-defense is one thing, but Florida's "stand your ground" law has the potential to dramatically change the legal and moral dynamics of self-defense. The real tragedy with such bloodthirsty legislation is that it is based on the premise that human life is ultimately worth less than property or peace of mind. To create legal and moral absolution for killing, the law presumes the perpetrators "deserve what they get." But what they get is the death penalty for certain property crimes or aggressive behavior in which the actual threat to life and limb is known only by the executioner. (source: Editorial, Register-Guard) ********************* Sex offender indicted in slaying of 13-year-old girl A sex offender was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday in the slaying of a 13-year-old girl whose disappearance last month prompted a massive search effort before her body was found in an abandoned fish pond. David Lee Onstott, 36, was charged with 1st-degree murder and attempted sexual battery in the death of Sarah Lunde, whose disappearance April 9 made national news as the residents of her rural Hillsborough County community mobilized to look for her. Pam Bondi, a spokeswoman for the state attorney's office, declined to talk about details of the attempted sexual battery charge. Prosecutors have not yet determined whether to seek the death penalty, but that "decision will be made next," she said. Sarah was last seen shortly after returning to her Ruskin home from a church trip. Authorities said Onstott confessed to strangling Sarah after showing up at the house early the next morning looking for the girl's mother, Kelly May, whom he had once dated. He told investigators that he killed Sarah after the two got into an argument. Sarah's 17-year-old brother came home later and found the front door wide open and his sister gone, but the family initially assumed Sarah had gone to a friend's house. She was not reported missing until April 11. Her partially clothed body was found April 16 in an abandoned fish pond near her house. The indictment said her death was caused by "blunt impact to the head and/or strangulation and/or other unknown means." Onstott's legal representation could not be determined Wednesday. A message left with the public defender's office was not returned. Sarah's slaying came on the heels of the kidnapping and killing of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in Homosassa in March. She was found buried inside two plastic bags, her hands bound with stereo wire. Registered sex offender John Evander Couey has been charged. Sarah's mother, along with Jessica's father, Mark Lunsford, appeared in Tallahassee this week as Gov. Jeb Bush signed legislation to get tougher on sex offenders. The Jessica Lunsford Act establishes a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life behind bars for people convicted of certain sex crimes against children 11 and younger, with lifetime tracking by global positioning satellite after they are freed. (source: Associated Press) VERMONT: Juror Selection For Death Penalty Trial Jury selection began Wednesday in Burlington's federal court for Vermont's first death penalty trial in more than a half century. For the victim's family it was the long-awaited beginning of a process they hope will end with the execution of Donald Fell. Federal Judge William Sessions anticipated it could take up to 2 months to select an impartial jury for Donald Fell's murder trial. Based on the results of this 1st day of the process, the judge's scheduling appears justified. Jury selection began nearly 5 years after Fell and an accomplice were charged with the interstate car jacking and murder of Terri King of North Clarendon. In November 2000, police say Fell and Robert Lee murdered Fell's mother and her boyfriend over a small amount of cocaine. Police say the pair then car-jacked Teresca King from a West Rutland parking lot as she left work.The men then allegedly drove her to New York state where they beat her to death, dumped her body, and drove her car to Arkansas where they were captured during a routine car stop. Lee later died at the Vermont Northwest Correctional Facility in St. Albans prison when he accidentally hanged himself in his cell. Terri King's daughters and sisters came to court Wednesday vowing to attend every day of jury selection and the trial. "We hope that justice is served and the only justice for us is the death penalty," said Karen Worcester, Terri King's daughter, as she entered the courthouse . "So we're hoping that people will come up and support us," she added. Donald Fell, weighing at least 50 pounds more than when he was arrested in December 2000, took notes and looked on quietly as eight of the 14 potential jurors were dismissed during the 1st day of the jury questioning by prosecutors and defense lawyers. Three were rejected because they indicated they would never impose the death penalty even if ordered to by the judge. 2 were excused because they indicated they would ignore psychological evidence alleging that Fell was the victim of severe child abuse and should therefore be spared the death penalty. By day's end just 5 men and 1 woman had been selected as the 1st members of a pool of 70 potential jurors who will go through a 2nd round of questioning in late June. Trial is scheduled to start on July 5 and conclude in late August. (source: WCAX News)
