May 11 ILLINOIS: Murder victim's family tells death penalty jury of their pain As a child, Joyce Brannon carried her younger sister across jagged stones so they could reach a soft, green patch of grass and play. Joyce was 20 months older and grew taller and stronger first, her sister Janet Bunch tearfully testified Tuesday. Joyce defended Janet against boys picking on her. "I always looked up to her as my big sister," Bunch said as she and her mother tried to bring Brannon to life in a federal courtroom. Joyce Brannon, a disabled caretaker, was shot to death in 2002. The same 12-member jury that last week convicted Dr. Ronald Mikos of murdering Brannon and bilking Medicare of $1.2 million is hearing evidence this week on whether Mikos deserves the death penalty or life in prison. Testimony continues today. No remorse, says prosecutor Prosecutors say Mikos, 56, shot Brannon at close range 6 times in her garden apartment of a North Side church. She was set to testify against Mikos before a federal grand jury. Bunch said her sister told her Mikos had called to try to persuade her not to testify. Bunch's eyes grew red and she broke down when she said Brannon asked if she should call authorities and Bunch instead advised her to write down everything Mikos said. When a Chicago Police detective later told Bunch her sister was shot to death, she said she screamed. "I told him Dr. Mikos had done it," Bunch said, crying. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kocoras told jurors Mikos has shown no remorse and said depression or alcohol abuse shouldn't excuse his behavior. "There are a lot of doctors out there who have dealt with a lot worse. But they don't kill disabled women in the basement of churches," Kocoras said. Also taking the stand was Brannon's mother, Selma Brannon, a fragile 91-year-old who wept when she talked about a photo book she made for her daughter. "I decided to give it to her for her birthday and she never got to see it," she said, crying. Defense attorneys called witnesses to paint their client as a normal person who roared with laughter with other classmates as a kid, helped students when he worked as a school teacher, and was involved with at least one of his 5 children. Then his behavior grew bizarre, said one friend, Lawrence Gregory. He said Mikos walked up to a priest during his father's funeral and disturbed his eulogy. In recent years, Mikos descended into drugs, depression and alcoholism, his attorneys said. "He was a desperate man doing a desperate act, not a ruthless, calculating killer," defense attorney John Beal said. In a November 2001 letter found on his laptop, Mikos describes his situation: "I have lost my income, the Lincolnwood house, my dog. I've gotten fat, my alcoholism and depression have reared their ugly heads," Mikos wrote. "I am at the lowest and weakest point that I have ever been at in my life. . . . I have become worthless to people in particular and society in general." (source: Chicago Sun-Times) ************************************ Illinois Supreme Court hears arguments from man seeking new sentence The Illinois Supreme Court heard arguments today from attorneys requesting a new sentence for a man sitting on death row for the 2001 murder of an Eastern Illinois University student. Twenty-nine-year-old Anthony Mertz was convicted in 2003 of murdering 21-year-old Shannon McNamara. Mertz's attorney Steve Clark says he's arguing for a new sentence for his client. Defense attorney have said evidence about Mertz's character was improperly given to the jury. But Coles County State's Attorney Steve Ferguson says he wouldn't have entered evidence that would cause problems. And McNamara's family said today only a death sentence will do. Mertz was the 1st inmate to land on death row after former Governor George Ryan commuted all death sentences to life in prison. (source: Associated Press) ************************************** Father of slain girl charged with double murder A father recently released from prison was charged on Tuesday with murder in the weekend stabbing deaths of his 8-year-old daughter and her friend in a quiet town near Chicago, authorities said. Eight-year-old Laura Hobbs and friend Krystal Tobias, 9, went missing on Sunday during a bike ride in Beulah Park in Zion, Illinois, some 40 miles north of Chicago. Laura's father, Jerry Hobbs, 34, who was recently released from a Texas prison after an assault conviction, located the girls' bodies on Monday while ostensibly searching the park with his father in law. "This horrific crime has terrorized and traumatized the Zion community and, it's safe to say, people of goodwill everywhere," said Michael Waller, the Lake County, Illinois, prosecutor. Waller said there was no "rational or reasonable" motive for the murders but said Hobbs went looking for the girls and encountered them in the park where he beat and stabbed them. The coroner said the girls' bruised and bloodied bodies were found fully clothed, dead from multiple stab wounds. No weapon was found and the girls had not been sexually assaulted. The bicycle they were sharing was found nearby. The crime sent shudders through the community of 23,000, and many parents either kept their children at home or escorted them to heavily guarded Beulah Park Elementary school where Laura and Krystal were second-grade classmates. Hobbs' criminal record included an aggravated assault conviction in which he chased neighbors with a chain saw. The suspect could face the death penalty, Waller said. He was being held and a bond hearing would be held on Wednesday. Zion, which lies about halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was founded in 1901 as an Utopian community by an evangelist, according to the town's Web site. Residents pledged to "commit to living clean lives, have healthy habits and work together for the honor and glory of God." (source: Reuters) CONNECTICUT/VERMONT: Death penalty opponents protest in Vt., Conn. On May 8, about two dozen death penalty opponents began a 5-day walk to protest the Connecticuts plans to execute a serial killer who admitted murdering and raping 8 women in Connecticut and New York in the early 1980s. Protesters plan to walk for periods each day through May 12, stopping at the state Capitol, churches and for vigils along the way. The 30-mile journey will eventually lead to the prison where Michael Ross is scheduled for lethal injection Friday in what would be the 1st execution in New England in 45 years. So many people have asked me, 'Why are you doing this for Michael Ross?'" said Robert Nave, executive director of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty. "We're not doing this for Michael Ross. We're doing this because it is state-sponsored homicide." Though protesters acknowledged there was little hope it would be halted, they hoped to send a message about capital punishment. Walter Everett, whose 24-year-old son Scott was killed in Bridgeport in 1987, said he never wanted his son's killer to die, just to serve a long prison sentence. Everett, a Methodist pastor in Hartford, once testified before a parole board for the man to have an early release after serving time with good behavior. "I'm convinced the death penalty is society's way of admitting defeat," he said. In Vermont, activists are planning to hold a vigil in Burlington on May 18 to protest the death penalty trial of Donald Fell, which is getting under way there. The noontime vigil will be the first of the actions the groups will undertake to voice their opposition to the death penalty, said Josh Rubenstein, the Northeast Regional director of Amnesty International USA. Rubenstein met on Monday in Montpelier and Burlington with representatives of other organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Friends Service Committee, the Peace and Justice Center and Pax Christi to outline their strategy for opposing the death penalty component of the Fell trial, which is now in jury selection. "The central message is we think the death penalty is barbaric and inappropriate," said Allen Gilbert, the executive director of the Vermont Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "We think Vermont has been targeted by the federal Department of Justice because we are an abolitionist state and we don't have the death penalty." Fell is facing the federal death penalty if convicted on charges that he kidnapped 53-year-old Teresca King from the parking lot of a central Vermont supermarket in November 2000 and killed her in New York state. It is the 1st death penalty trial in Vermont in almost half a century. For practical purposes the state eliminated the death penalty in 1965, although it technically remained on the books until 1987. Gilbert said some activists were considering forming a group to oppose the death penalty, an organization that hadn't been needed before now. Rubenstein has protested against death penalty cases in other states. He said the Vermont effort was just getting organized. "We'll be approaching members of the Legislature. We will talk to leading religious figures and just be in the public square making clear we are opposed to the death penalty in this case and in every case," Rubenstein said. (source: People's Weekly World) ********************** Activists focus on death penalty trial Social activists are planning to hold a vigil next week in front of the federal courthouse in Burlington to protest the death penalty trial of Donald Fell, which is getting under way there. The noontime vigil on May 18 will be the 1st of the actions the groups will undertake to voice their opposition to the death penalty, said Josh Rubenstein, the Northeast Regional director of Amnesty International USA. Rubenstein met Monday in Montpelier and Burlington with representatives of other organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Friends Service Committee, the Peace and Justice Center and Pax Christi to outline their strategy for opposing the death penalty component of the Fell trial, which is now in jury selection. "The central message is, we think the death penalty is barbaric and inappropriate," said Allen Gilbert, the executive director of the Vermont Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "We think Vermont has been targeted by the federal Department of Justice because we are an abolitionist state and we don't have the death penalty." Fell is facing the federal death penalty if convicted on charges that he kidnapped 53-year-old Teresca King from the parking lot of a Rutland supermarket in November 2000 and killed her in New York state. It is the 1st death penalty trial in Vermont in almost half a century. For practical purposes, the state eliminated the death penalty in 1965, although it technically remained on the books until 1987. The trial will begin after the jury is chosen. Prosecutors and defense attorneys are now trying to qualify about 70 people, from whom the jury of 12 and a number of alternates will be chosen. After 3 days of jury selection last week, 18 potential jurors were qualified. Gilbert said some activists were considering forming a group to oppose the death penalty, an organization that hadn't been needed before now. Rubenstein has protested against death penalty cases in other states. He said the Vermont effort was just getting organized. "We'll be approaching members of the Legislature. We will talk to leading religious figures and just be in the public square making clear we are opposed to the death penalty in this case and in every case," Rubenstein said. "Something terrible happened that night and Mr. Fell is on trial. We are opposed to the death penalty," Rubenstein said. (source: Associated Press) NORTH CAROLINA: DA Will Seek Death Penalty in Mayer Murder A Johnston County man appeared in a Smithfield courtroom Tuesday, facing charges that he beat and strangled his stepdaughter to death. Ashley Reagan Jr. is charged with murdering Melissa Mayer on March 25. Investigators say the Garner Senior High student was killed inside a mobile home south of Clayton, where Reagan lived with Mayer's mother and 2 half-brothers. Investigators say Reagan confessed to the murder. Johnston County District Attorney Tom Lock says he intends to seek the death penalty. "One of the things we considered in making the decision to pursue the death penalty in this case was the manner or means by which Melissa was murdered," Lock said, calling the murder a "cold, heinous crime." None of the family members went to court Tuesday. Bob Denning is Reagan's attorney. He chose not to speak on their behalf and would not go on camera, but Denning told Eyewitness News that he's surprised this will be a capital case. The attorney says Reagan is remorseful about what happened. He will appear in court again June 13. (source: ABC News) INDIANA: Court tosses conviction of man on Death Row----Federal panel's ruling in '82 case from Madison County based on polygraph issue. A man who has spent more than 20 years on Indiana's death row could be freed because of a polygraph test whose results were never admitted in court. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago on Tuesday overturned Mark Allen Wisehart's 1983 murder conviction, ruling that a trial judge should have tried to determine whether one juror's knowledge of the polygraph test had tainted the verdict. Wisehart, 42, was sentenced to death in Madison Superior Court in the slaying of Marjorie R. Johnson, 65, in an October 1982 robbery. She was stabbed 26 times. In an affidavit presented at a 1994 appeal hearing, a juror said she reported for jury duty and was told court would not be held that day because Wisehart was scheduled for a polygraph test. The juror said she never learned the test's results. Polygraph results are not admissible as evidence in Indiana courts. The Indiana Supreme Court denied Wisehart's appeal, citing a lack of evidence that one juror's knowledge of the polygraph had swayed the entire jury. The federal court said Tuesday the trial judge should have questioned the juror to find out whether she or any other jurors had been influenced. "From the fact that the trial resumed after the test, had she assumed that Wisehart had flunked it?" the 3-judge panel wrote. The appeals court vacated Wisehart's conviction and directed the state to release him, retry him or conduct a hearing to address the issue of jury bias. The Indiana attorney general's office, which handled the appeal, plans to seek a rehearing in the 7th Circuit or appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, a spokeswoman said. (source: Associated Press)
