May 5 TEXAS: Camacho to hear findings on mental retardation As part of a highly-anticipated moment in a high-profile case, mother and accused murderess Angela Camacho is set to appear in court today to learn whether a state expert agrees with her defense attorneys claims of mental retardation. Camacho, 25, and her common-law husband John Allen Rubio, 24, allegedly strangled and decapitated their 3 children ranging in age from 2 months to 3 years in March 2003. Camacho and Rubio were arrested and charged with capital murder. Rubio was convicted and sentenced to death for the killings. Camachos case has been tied up in court for more than 2 years, pending mental capacity testing. Camacho was found competent to stand trial but defense attorneys contend that she is mentally retarded and would not be eligible to receive the death penalty. According to a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the execution of the mentally retarded is considered "cruel and unusual" punishment and prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. First Assistant District Attorney John Blaylock said their experts review for Camachos mental retardation claims is expected to be submitted to the 107th state District Court this morning. Depending on the outcome of a conference, Blaylock said several motions could also be heard today before Judge Benjamin Euresti. Camachos attorney Ernesto Gamez told The Brownsville Herald on Wednesday that he recently filed three more motions using temporary insanity and post-partum depression as a defense that could postpone his clients mid-May trial. In one motion, Gamez said he wants the same expert he hired to determine that Camacho was retarded to evaluate if she was insane at the time of the crime. If Camacho is found insane at the time of the crime, Gamez said another motion would invalidate a confession that she gave to Brownsville police on the night of her arrest. (source: The Brownsville Herald) ****************** Convicted Yogurt Shop Murderer Files Appeal Lawyers for convicted yogurt shop murderer Michael Scott last week filed a motion with the Third Court of Appeals, asking that the full court review the 3-judge panel's March decision to uphold Scott's conviction in the murder of 13-year-old Amy Ayers, 1 of 4 teen girls found murdered on Dec. 6, 1991, inside a North Austin yogurt shop. Indictments in the quadruple murder were not brought until 8 years later, when the state announced it had hard evidence against 4 men: Robert Springsteen was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in 2001; Scott was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to life in prison. A 3rd defendant, Maurice Pierce, remained in jail until 2003, when District Attorney Ronnie Earle dismissed the charges against him, citing insufficient evidence to secure a conviction. The case against the fourth defendant, Forrest Welborn, was dropped in 1999 after 2 grand juries failed to indict him. The state's case against the four relied heavily on "confessions" that Springsteen and Scott made to Austin police during separate interview sessions in 1999. During those interviews, each man incriminated himself, and the other, as actors in the crime. Although Springsteen and Scott were tried separately, at each trial prosecutors offered jurors salient portions of the nontestifying defendant's confession, in an effort to corroborate the state's theory of the crime. However, neither defendant could be compelled to testify, and face cross-examination, at the other's trial - that would have violated their Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights. In the end, District Judge Mike Lynch allowed the state to introduce portions of the nontestifying defendant's confession - but only those portions during which the defendant incriminated himself. That decision satisfied prosecutors, who argue that the arrangement legally circumvents the confrontation clause. Citing last year's Supreme Court ruling in a case styled Crawford v. Washington, the Third Court disagreed with the state, ruling that Scott's Sixth Amendment right to cross-examine Springsteen was violated when the trial court allowed the confession into evidence. In Crawford, the court ruled that "[w]here testimonial statements are at issue, the only indicium of reliability sufficient to satisfy constitutional demands is the one the Constitution actually prescribes: confrontation." According to the Third Court, prosecutors were wrong in arguing that the Crawford decision did not apply to the Scott's trial. "[T]he State's labored effort to define a .... statement in terms of what is said ignores Crawford's teaching," the court opined. "We believe that Crawford means what it says." Nonetheless, the court found that the constitutional violation did not "harm" Scott because the "error did not contribute to the conviction," which "turned on whether the jury believed or disbelieved his statements to the police." The court also wrote, however, that it "would not hesitate to reverse this conviction if Springsteen's statement were the only corroboration of Scott's statements to police." That caveat is encouraging to Springsteen's attorney, Mary Kay Sicola, who notes that there is a dearth of corroborating evidence against her client, whose appeal turns on the same Sixth Amendment challenge. Unlike Scott, Springsteen's statements were less revealing and he did not give police a signed statement, Sicola said. Although Springsteen's appeal was filed more than a year before Scott's, the Court of Criminal Appeals, which considers all death row appeals, has yet to rule on his case. (source: Austin Chronicle) **************** Motion For a New Trial Filed for Andre Thomas Just 9 weeks ago a Texoma man was convicted of capital murder for the brutal killing of a 13-month old girl. The defendant, 22-year-old Andre Thomas is now on death row. Thomas's attorneys have filed a motion for a new trial. KTENs Emily Graham spoke with Thomass attorney about the motion Filing a motion for a new trial is standard procedure, but Thomass attorneys say this will lay the groundwork for the future of this case. In the motion for a new trial the defense states Andre Thomas was deprived of a fair trial due to the jury's misconduct. The motion says the jurors wanted to hear "true remorse," which means Thomas would of had to testify. The jurors also indicated once they saw the photographs of the three victims along with the video of the crime scene their minds were made up to convict Thomas. This is all stated in the motion filed April 8th. "I think basically he got a fair trial. There were some things that we requested and were denied and that is why we think we're entitled to it. Most if the things involved constitutional issues that a higher court will have to decide," says R.J. Hagood, Thomass attorney. If Judge James Fry denies the motion for a new trial all the evidence will go to the Texas Court of Appeals in Austin. The case could go as high as the Supreme Court. R. J. Hagood says Thomas is in isolation and fears he is becoming more suicidal. (source: KTEN News) NORTH CAROLINA----impending execution Victims' family to witness killer's execution Tara Clark plans to hold her niece's favorite jacket with her for comfort during the execution. Earl Richmond, Jr. is scheduled for execution Friday. He's on death row for the murders of Helisa Hayes and her 2 children. It's been 14 years and the loss of her sister is still fresh in the mind of Tara Clark. Clark will watch Richmond die at Central Prison for the 1991 murders of her sister Helisa, her niece, Darien, and her nephew, Desmond. There's nothing in his final statement she wants to hear. "The whole idea of him having a chance to say something, I don't feel it's necessary, honestly, as someone who has suffered the loss of 3 people at his hands," Clark said. Clark said she hopes Richmond's time at Central Prison has left him sorry and ashamed. She wants him to hurt just as she hurt when her loved ones were raped, stabbed, and strangled. "For him to just be able to go to sleep, sometimes it doesn't seem like it's enough," she continued. Clark said the last minute flurry of appeals has been very difficult for her because her sister never got a chance to appeal her fate. Clark wrote the state attorney general's office to tell them why Richmond doesn't deserve to live and how vividly she remembers her father coming up to her house to tell her about the murders. "My house was very small and I just ran," Clark continued. "I don't know where I was going. I just ran. And so when I wrote the letter, I just really wanted people to know, the AG's office, to know what I was feeling every second of every day. I can't forget." Although she said this closes a chapter in her life, she is unable to forgive. "I don't want to be ugly. I don't want to be cruel but I just don't see it. And maybe Im just not ready and I don't know when I will be." Clark plans to hold her niece's favorite jacket with her for comfort during the execution. Although the murders happened in 1991, Richmond wasn't arrested and found guilty until 1995. He even served as a pallbearer at the funerals. His execution is set for 2 a.m. Friday. The governor's office has not yet ruled on Richmonds appeal for a stay. (source: News 14 Carolina) SOUTH CAROLINA: Judge delays execution of man convicted of killing wife, son A federal judge has delayed the execution of a man convicted of killing his wife and son to collect life insurance money, a release from the state attorney general's office said. Luke A. Williams III was convicted in November 1993 for the beating death of his wife, Linda, and the strangulation of their 12-year-old son, Shawn. Their bodies were doused with gasoline and set afire in the family van, which was driven into a tree in Edgefield County in June 1991. Williams' execution was set for May 20, but U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie ruled Wednesday evening to stay the execution to allow Williams to pursue federal appeals, the release stated. Telephone messages left by The Associated Press for Williams' lawyers were not returned Wednesday night. The state Supreme Court recently reversed the granting of a new trial for Williams. (source: Associated Press) ILLINOIS: Cook County fighting DNA testing in case No one knows if the killer smudged his bare fingers against the brass when he loaded the round - the one dud that didn't fire when 6 other bullets seared into Dana Rinaldi and killed her as she sat in her car in front of her Palatine apartment in 1988. So no one knows whether the oils from his hand - too little to leave a traditional fingerprint - might have trapped skin cells that contain his genetic fingerprint somewhere on the shell. No one knows if there's any DNA on the bullet because no one's ever tested it. Cook County prosecutors want to keep it that way. They don't want to test the unspent round or the 6 shell casings of the rounds that were fired. Nor do prosecutors want further DNA testing on hair fragments found on Rinaldi's gloves and sweater. But today, lawyers for the man convicted of killing Rinaldi will challenge them on the matter, squaring off in front of Judge Karen Thompson Tobin in Rolling Meadows. Previous analysis has concluded at least one of the hair fragments came neither from Rinaldi nor from Ron Kliner, the man convicted of pulling the trigger, but no one knows whether modern forensics can pull the right kind of DNA profile from the fragment to run it through new DNA databases and match it to someone. Prosecutors say they've got their man, so there's no point in wasting time with DNA. Kliner, 44, was convicted by a jury in 1996 of killing Rinaldi in a murder-for-hire scheme. No physical evidence tied him to the scene, and his attorneys want the evidence they do have tested because, they say, it could point to the real killer. They also want prosecutors to look harder for Rinaldi's purse, which was found on her lap with an apparent bullet hole through it. It's missing. Testifying in exchange for a recommendation that he not be executed, Rinaldi's husband, Joseph, told authorities he hired Kliner, a former real estate broker, and Michael Permanian, a former Chicago firefighter, to kill his wife. Permanian was sentenced to 60 years and Kliner got death following jury trials. Kliner, whose sentence was reduced to life when former Gov. George Ryan cleared death row in 2003, and Permanian have always maintained their innocence. At trial, Joseph Rinaldi testified Kliner confessed to him and said he tried to grab Dana Rinaldi's purse. Kliner's uncle, then-Chicago police detective John Apel, testified Kliner also confessed to him and said he grabbed Rinaldi's hair before pulling the trigger. But in recent years, prosecutors have taken a different stance, arguing Kliner shot Rinaldi from a distance. "There is no evidence that (Kliner) had any contact with the victim," prosecutor Carmen Aguilar wrote in a recent filing to Tobin. As far as DNA from the dud bullet and spent shell casings, Aguilar has argued the evidence could have been contaminated over the years by evidence technicians and even jurors who handled it. But Kliner's attorney, Allan Sincox, a state appellate defender who specializes in crime scene evidence, said recent advances in DNA testing often allow scientists to distinguish DNA from different people. In fact, he said, prosecutors are using that very technology to link Brown's Chicken suspect Juan Luna to a piece of partially eaten food found inside the Palatine restaurant following the murders of 7 workers in 1993. Prosecutors want Luna executed if convicted. "If (such tests) are good enough to kill someone, they ought to be good enough to free someone," Sincox has told Tobin. Aguilar could not be reached for comment, but John Gorman, spokesman for State's Attorney Richard Devine, denied there was a conflict between prosecutors' steadfast opposition to exploring the evidence in this case and Devine's oft-praised policy of re-examining DNA in old cases. Devine implemented the policy following repeated revelations, made possible by advances in DNA testing, that innocent people have been convicted. "We believe in DNA use where it serves a purpose," Gorman said. "But we don't believe that DNA testing in this case will go anywhere. The evidence of guilt of this man is, in our view, overwhelming." Gorman declined to comment on the purse, which Sincox said could have been handled by the killer, who might have left DNA on it. In court papers, Aguilar said Joseph Rinaldi was given the purse after his wife's death and it can't be found in evidence lockers. But Cook County sheriff's police records from the time tell conflicting stories. Some say it was preserved as evidence, others say it was destroyed. "I am not at all satisfied the purse isn't there (in an evidence locker)," Sincox said. Whatever Tobin decides - to order testing for all, some or none of the evidence - her decision is likely to be appealed, as Kliner continues his bid for a new trial and prosecutors continue their campaign to deny him one. (source: Daily Herald)
