June 23 GEORGIA: 2 indicted in slaying of hostage hero's husband A grand jury indicted two men Wednesday in the 2001 stabbing death of Daniel McFarland Smith, husband of the woman hailed as a hero for turning in a man accused of killing a judge and three other people in Atlanta. Columbia County Police Maj. Rick Whitaker said Cory Blaine Coggins, 22, of Grovetown, Georgia, and Barry Keith Tabor Jr., believed to be in his 20s, of Augusta, Georgia, were each charged with murder. They were being held without bond at the Columbia County Detention Center in Appling, Georgia, after their arrests Wednesday evening. Coggins was picked up at the Augusta Diversion Center, and Tabor was arrested at a home in Grovetown, outside Augusta, Whitaker said. Both were taken into custody without incident, police said. Whitaker didn't know why Coggins was at the diversion center, which he described as a halfway house. Smith was killed August 18, 2001, after he and his wife, Ashley, went to an apartment complex in Martinez, Georgia, to confront some acquaintances. He was stabbed during a melee in the parking lot, and Ashley Smith said her husband died in her arms. The reason for the meeting was unclear. "Some new evidence has come forward in the last few months," Whitaker said about the killing. Asked whether the recent publicity surrounding Smith's widow had led to new leads, the officer said he didn't know. Investigators are still working on the case, he added. He knew of no court dates."I'm not sure what tips, what developments, came forward after the Ashley Smith incident," Whitaker said. "This case has not been on the back burner." Smith has received more than $72,000 in reward money for her role in leading authorities to Brian Nichols, who is accused of killing three people at a downtown Atlanta courthouse and later killing a federal agent who was working at his home. In May, Nichols pleaded not guilty to multiple charges related to the case. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty. Smith said Nichols took her hostage outside her apartment in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth and held her for 7 hours. He agreed to release her after she spoke to him about her 5-year-old daughter, God and hope, Smith said. At one point, she said, she read Nichols a portion of the popular inspirational book "The Purpose-Driven Life." Nichols surrendered to police without incident, and authorities credited Smith with defusing what could have been a deadly standoff. Ashley Smith's mother, Mary Jo Davis, who lives in Norcross, northeast of Atlanta, told CNN Wednesday night that her daughter is "very excited and very happy" about the arrests. Davis said the family was in North Carolina for a family reunion. (source: CNN) ARIZONA: Suspect in 1987 murder case arrested in Florida, returned to Arizona A man wanted in connection with a 1987 murder case here has been returned to Arizona to face charges after being arrested in Florida. Tyrone James Kessler arrived in Tucson, Ariz., Wednesday after being taken into custody Saturday in Crestview, Fla. He was being held in Pima County Jail on a 1st-degree murder charge with his bond set at $1 million. Authorities said DNA evidence linked Kessler to the slaying of 33-year-old Katherine Young, who was found beaten, raped and strangled in her home in May 1987. Members of the Pima County Cold Case Unit traveled to Crestview a few months ago to interview Kessler and take a DNA sample, which authorities said matched evidence found at the crime scene. Investigators said Kessler had lived in the same town house complex as Young when she was killed. Police interviewed him 18 years ago but were unable then to tie him to her death. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Prosecutor to decide June 30 whether to retry Richey Putnam County Prosecutor Gary Lammers will make the biggest decision of his young career next week when he announces whether he will retry a death-penalty case against a man with dual British and American citizenship that has garnered international attention. Lammers met Wednesday with 7 state and local officials at his office to discuss the case against Kenneth Richey. Lammers said he will announce June 30 whether he will retry Richey or allow him to be released. "I just want to give my officers, and detectives and investigators an opportunity to make a little further investigation on a couple issues," he said. A decision may hinge on the answers he receives from his investigator, he said. "It may. Obviously I think it will have some bearing," he said. Lammers would not discuss what he was having his investigators check. If Lammers chooses to retry the case he likely will present it to a Putnam County grand jury to obtain an indictment on new charges, he said. "There could be new charges. If we can't try a death case under the current statute we may look at other alternatives under the law that still permits us," he said. Lammers said the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in January that overturned the conviction has taken away a section of law that was used to obtain a death sentence at a 1987 trial where Richey was convicted of setting a 1986 fire at a Columbus Grove apartment complex that killed 2-year-old Cynthia Collins. "That doesn't mean under the law, as it was in effect at the time, didn't permit an alterna-tive statute or section of law to be used," he said. That's a possibility. That may be a stretch, I don't know. It depends on what my investigator tells me." Lammers inherited the Richey case just weeks after he took office when the 6th Circuit over-turned Richey's conviction. The 6th Circuit ruled that Richey's trial attorneys provided inadequate representation and that the charge of aggravated murder, as the law read in 1986, did not apply. The court said prosecutors needed to show Richey killed the person he intended to kill in order to be convicted of capital murder. Part of the Wednesday meeting was spent discussing what evidence was available, he said. "We focused on what evidence we do have and where some of the weaknesses lie. How the weak portions of the case affect the potential likely outcome," he said. Some witnesses are no longer around but there may be one or two witnesses who were not used at the original trial that he could use, he said. Lammers said the meeting lasted several hours. "It was an open exchange of information, ideas and opinions," he said. In the meeting with Lammers was at least one Ohio assistant attorney general who handled the federal appeals, Putnam County Sheriff Jim Beutler, and at least one person from the State Fire Marshal's Office. Lammers said he listened to everyone, especially those with the Ohio Attorney General's Office who have lived with the case for the last 18 years. But he said he will be the one who makes the decision on where to go with the case. "The ultimate decision rests in my lap whether or not we recharge," he said. Lammers has been on the clock since June 2 to either retry or release Richey within 90 days. Although the circuit court issued its decision in January, procedural issues delayed the start of the time. Richey's attorney, Ken Parsigian, of Boston, said he will be sending a letter to the warden of Mansfield Correctional Institution asking that Richey be moved from death row to the Putnam County jail. Ohio law is clear that if an inmate is awarded a new trial the warden must release the inmate to the county jail, he said. If the state does not release Richey to the jail, Parsigian said he would ask the Ohio Supreme Court to order Richey's release. (source: Lima News) ********************************* Options reviewed to retry fire case Man may be freed in fatal 1986 blaze Next Thursday is the 19th anniversary of the death of 2-year-old Cynthia Collins, who perished in a Columbus Grove, Ohio, apartment fire. That same day, Kenny Richey will find out whether the state will retry him or set him free. He was sentenced to death after a 3-judge panel determined he set the fire that killed Cynthia on June 30, 1986. Putnam County Prosecutor Gary Lammers, who will make the decision, met yesterday in his Ottawa, Ohio, office with officials from the state attorney general's office, local investigators familiar with the case, and Ohio Fire Marshal officials to glean information that will help him decide. Mr. Lammers, in office six months, said he will spend the next week interviewing potential witnesses and researching case documents before releasing a statement next Thursday. That statement, he said, "likely will give a clear indication if we're going to [retry him]." Should Mr. Lammers opt to pass on returning Richey to court, he could sign documents that would lead to Richey's release in about a week, according to Andrea Dean, an Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction spokesman. "Once we receive the paperwork, we would start the process," Ms. Dean said. Typically, according to Ms. Dean, it takes two to four working days to receive the paperwork and 24 hours for the prison system to complete its process before releasing an inmate. If Mr. Lammers decides to retry Richey, he faces a significant obstacle, said Richey's Boston-based attorney, Ken Parsigian. After a U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals panel overturned Richey's conviction earlier this year because of serious issues the court had with the state's case, it was upheld by another court on June 1, giving the state 90 days in which to retry Richey. Kim Norris, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said the state merely has to begin the trial process to meet the court's 90-day requirement. Not true, Mr. Parsigian contends. "There is no case - none - that says an order that reverses all convictions and orders that the state release or try the prisoner within 90 days means that they can simply decide within 90 days," he said. Said Ms. Norris: "If there's a dispute, it will be resolved by the courts." She said her office will proceed with filing a U.S. Supreme Court appeal by the July 14 deadline in an attempt to have the Circuit Court ruling overturned. The Supreme Court is in recess and doesn't convene until October. Should the high court decide to hear the Richey case and overturn the Circuit Court decision, an unusual scenario in which Richey could be released from prison and then ordered to return could ensue. Mr. Parsigian said the odds of that happening are remote. For now, the spotlight is on Mr. Lammers. He is the same age as Richey - 41 - and was in college at the time of the incident, which gained little attention outside Putnam County at the time. Since then, the case has become widely known across this country and elsewhere, particularly in Great Britain, where Richey's Scottish mother lives along with his fianc, Karen Torley Richey. Ms. Richey, who changed her name to gain visitation rights to the Mansfield, Ohio, prison where Richey is held, began the campaign to free him in the mid-1990s. Shortly after, Mr. Parsigian's firm, Goodwin Proctor, signed on. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been involved, as has the Vatican. Documentaries have been made. Richey's brother, Tom Richey, in prison in Washington state, has written a soon-to-be-released book. The family has hired one of London's top public relations executives to field offers from newspapers that will pay for the story of Richey's release. Mr. Lammers said he will not be intimidated by all the fuss. "It's pretty amazing that it has as far-reaching [an impact] that it apparently has. But I'm not going to get mixed up in that. I'm going to interview witnesses and look at the scientific evidence to make my best call in this case. Whether it's an international story or petty theft, all cases are important to those who they affect," he said. Ms. Torley said she's glad it's Mr. Lammers who will decide. "He isn't being told he is wrong because he was not involved in the case," she said. "That's a good thing. This is a very important day for all of us, and I have a good feeling about the outcome." (source: Toledo Blade) NEW YORK: Disparity, injustice in death penalty cases When the dust settled in mid-April, New Yorkers had much about which to be proud. The Legislature had passed an on-time budget; the Assembly had held extraordinary hearings on capital punishment; and New York, while not repealing the death penalty outright, had left it suspended. But lurking beneath the surface of this legislative session's apparent success is a serious issue of equity and fairness. Prosecutors in New York continue to pursue cases under the death penalty statute with full financial support of the state, while the office that provides good lawyers in death cases has been gutted because there is no longer a death penalty in our state. The Court of Appeals derailed death prosecutions, saying that a part of the law was unconstitutionally broken. The Assembly, not convinced we needed a death penalty, declined to fix the law. At least for now. But the actual death penalty statute -- though broken -- remains on the books. And the Senate passed a "fix" bill that would apply retroactively, should the death penalty be reactivated. This all creates a loophole through which "death cases" can still be brought even without an enforceable death penalty. By threatening death, prosecutors can gain an upper hand in charging and, potentially, plea bargaining, all the while receiving 100 percent of their state death penalty funding thanks to the governor's budget. Meanwhile, that same budget has slashed funding for the Capital Defender Office, which ensures that capital clients have knowledgeable lawyers, declaring that if the death penalty were not "fixed," there would be no need for capital defense. The ongoing capital funding for prosecutors includes the New York Prosecutors Training Institute. Established in 1995, when the death penalty was reinstated, the institute has been involved in every New York case since then. It maintains that, "There is no impediment to seeking the death penalty in New York." With the institute's state-funded assistance, there are death-noticed cases pending today in New York trial courts. In more than a dozen additional cases, prosecutors are deliberating whether to seek death. And, finally, there are still two men on death row, and the district attorneys in their cases are working to secure their executions. The Capital Defender Office was set up to make sure that people facing prosecution in the most serious cases have competent lawyers -- something a large majority of New Yorkers and Americans support. Yet, thanks to the governor's budget veto, there is a scandalous imbalance between defense and prosecution -- an imbalance that is unfair under current circumstances and that would be wholly disastrous should the death penalty be restored as the governor confidently predicts. This threat of capital prosecutions funded with taxpayer dollars, while closing the office that provides the defendants with knowledgeable lawyers, has produced a bizarre spectacle of disparity and injustice. We hear of such things in places like Alabama and Texas. It almost looks as if the Capital Defender Office is being targeted for doing too good a job. The Senate, the Assembly and the governor ought to put politics aside and fund the requested skeletal staff needed to see the Capital Defender Office and its clients through the actual, decisive end of the death penalty in New York. That way, the office can represent its current clients with dignity and without a sword of Damocles hanging over its head. In seeking this common ground, our government can establish that it understands fundamental fairness. Michael Whiteman was a founding member of New Yorkers for Fairness in Capital Punishment. He is a partner in the law firm Whiteman Osterman & Hanna in Albany. (source: Albany Times Union) IOWA/USA: Even with heinous crimes, death penalty not the answer A government should not sink to level of criminals. A government should not kill its own people. In the 21st century, in a civilized country, this truth seems basic. Yet on Tuesday, an Iowa jury ordered the death penalty for Angela Johnson, a 41-year-old mother of 2. She joins her former boyfriend, Dustin Honken, in a sentence of death for murdering 5 people in 1993. If executed, they will be the first people sent to death by an Iowa jury since 1963. The couple's crimes are heinous. Their execution-style killings included the slaying of 2 children. They deserve to spend the rest of their lives staring at the walls of a prison, thinking about their wrongs. They deserve never to walk free again. What they did is unthinkable. But what's even more unthinkable: the U.S. government killing its own people. A government should not administer "eye for an eye" punishments for criminals. Juries do not order rapists to be raped or those guilty of assault to be beaten. The government should rise above the level of its criminals, not mete out equal retaliation. Strapping a person to a table, inserting a catheter needle into his arm and administering lethal doses of drugs is wrong. Public employees shaving a person's head, strapping him to a chair and electrocuting him is cruel and unusual punishment. Locking someone into a gas chamber while an audience watches him die is an act one might expect to be committed by terrorists in some other country. Not in the United States. Not in a country that properly protects the rights of everyone, even the convicted, even those among us who have committed the most despicable acts. Killing a killer accomplishes nothing. The victims will not be brought back to life. The families of the victims will continue to grieve. It will not deter others from committing crimes. In the long run, the death penalty will bring more media attention to Honken and Johnson, something neither deserves. If these two criminals are executed, the United States will not be a better place. 2 more people will be dead. And this time the blood will stain the hands of the U.S. government. (source: Editorial, Des Moines Register)
