July 16 TEXAS: Clifton Williams Arrested In Brutal Murder Case Late Friday night, police arrested 21-year-old Clifton Lamar Williams. Police said Williams was wanted for the murder of 93-year-old Cecilia Schneider. Mrs. Schneider was found stabbed to death inside her home. Police believe Williams stole her purse and car, then set her home on fire to cover up the crime. He is being held at the Smith County Jail on a capital murder warrant. Police said neighbors spotted Clifton Williams Friday night in the same neighborhood, Mrs. Schneider called home. They said officers searched the area around Callahan Street and Fannin Avenue, where Williams lives. When they found him, police said Williams led officers on a brief foot chase, then ran to his father's home to hide. Police said William's father, brought his son to the police department. Police are not yet saying how Clifton Williams, is linked to Mrs. Schneider. However, when KLTV visited her neighborhood to talk with those who lived right beside her about his arrest, we spoke to a woman who declined to go on camera, but said her niece, who lives with her, has been dating Clifton Williams for the past two months. She said on many occasions Williams come to the house, including Friday night. She also told us she was one of the people who alerted police he was in the area. Their home is only a few doors down from Mrs. Schneider's home. "We have such relief that this guy is off the streets now and can't do this to anyone else," said Mrs. Schneider's daughter, Barbara Holder. Barbara was thankful for Williams quick arrest. "You have to understand this man was caught, almost to the hour of the time that he killed my mother, one week ago," she said. Barbara Holder wanted to meet with KLTV in front of the "Wall of Memories," where the names of violent crime victims are written. Her mother's name will one day be etched in the granite. Barbara said she suspects Williams had seen her 93-year-old mother as an easy target. "I don't know the circumstances totally, but I think he just saw an easy way to get some money, or whatever he was looking for." Barbara said she will leave Williams fate to a jury. "I don't wish anyone harm. I could say that I want the death penalty but I'm not sure that that's the answer." Her heart still hurts for the mother she has lost. But Barbara is grateful for all those she said helped find the man that took her mother away from her. "The people, the people are the ones that did this. They are trying to make the community safe and it's safer now with this guy off the streets." Again, authorities have not yet confirmed how Williams was linked to Mrs. Schneider's murder. His bond has been set at $1 million. (source: KLTV News) USA: Court Gutting in Congress Congress is quietly considering whether to destroy one of the pillars of constitutional law: the habeas corpus power of the federal courts to determine whether an indigent defendant has been unjustly sentenced to death in state courts. A bill making alarming progress in committee would effectively strip federal courts of most review power and shift it to the attorney general. That's right: the chief prosecutor of the United States would become the judge of whether state courts behave fairly enough toward defendants appealing capital convictions. If a state system was certified as up to snuff, then the federal courts would lose their jurisdiction and condemned defendants their last hope. It is appalling that lawmakers would visit such destruction on a basic human right that's been painfully secured across three centuries of jurisprudence. Repeatedly, federal court scrutiny has laid bare the shoddy state of capital justice in the states. DNA science has drawn attention to the frequency of false convictions. The injustices of the criminal court process flow considerably from the widespread lack of competent defense counsel in the first place. Yet the proposal would allow state courts greater cover in pronouncing their own flawed convictions as too "harmless and nonprejudicial" to merit further review. Proponents insist that truly meritorious complaints would somehow survive under this oppressive bill. In fact, it would make the execution of the innocent even more likely than it already is. (source: Editorial, New York Times) FLORIDA: Death penalty request denied A circuit judge denied a request to throw out the death penalty in the Joseph P. Smith case. Despite his argument that the indictment filed against Smith does not allege a "single aggravated circumstance," Circuit Judge Andrew Owens denied Assistant Public Defender Adam Tebrugge's motion, basing his decision on precedents set by the Florida Supreme Court. The request was one of 14 motions Tebrugge filed and Owens reviewed at the Sarasota County Courthouse on Friday morning. Smith, who is charged with the February 2004 abduction, rape and murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia, was not present at Friday's hearing. He may begin attending future court hearings as the Nov. 7 trial date approaches, Tebrugge said. On Friday, Owens also denied two similar motions filed by Tebrugge who, citing case law, asked the judge to declare the state's death penalty unconstitutional in the Smith case and to bar the death sentence on the basis that Florida's capital sentencing procedure is unconstitutional. "Even though I did not prevail today, I still continue to believe that our death penalty statute is unconstitutional," Tebrugge told The Herald after Friday's 3-hour hearing. Prosecutors declined to comment on the judge's decisions following the hearing, which was scheduled to address the 14 nonevidentiary motions Tebrugge filed. 6 of the motions were aimed at the State Attorney's Office. The defense attorney asked the judge to order prosecutors to provide the defense with favorable evidence they had gathered in their depositions, interviews and findings, which includes any information that indicates Smith is not guilty of any or all of the charges filed against him. Tebrugge also requested any information that may be considered mitigating evidence, such as police reports and witness statements, that could present Smith's character in a favorable manner. Another motion asked the judge to order prosecutors to share police lineups or other information that may have been used when witnesses were asked to identify the suspect in the car wash video. That video captured Carlie's abduction and a station wagon the suspect used. Tebrugge stressed that, by law, prosecutors must give this information to the defense and that "suppression violates due process." To counter Tebrugge's argument, Assistant State Attorney Debra Johnes Riva told the judge that prosecutors have been cooperative with Tebrugge's requests and that Tebrugge can obtain the information by conducting his own depositions. She also added that Tebrugge's motions were too broad. "I do not have an issue at all with the argument the defense made with regard to the state's responsibility to make sure that we have all written statements and to give them to the defense," Johnes Riva said. "We've done that, judge. . . . My main response to his motion is we don't need an additional order from the court to tell the state what its obligation is." Among his requests, Tebrugge asked the court to order prosecutors to disclose whether any jailed witnesses or those under prosecution on other cases will receive leniency by testifying in Smith's case. He asked that the court order prosecutors to release all of Smith's prior records and other old files and that they also be ordered to disclose their statement of particulars as to aggravating circumstances and theory of prosecution - or whether their argument against Smith is based on a premeditation or as a felony. Tebrugge's insistence mildly agitated prosecutors, who reiterated that they have cooperated with the defense, that, under state law, they are not obligated to give him the information he seeks and that they will provide the defense with requested documents during the trial. "We have provided hundreds of witnesses who are listed in police reports, and we have provided thousands of pages of discovery," Chief Assistant State Attorney Dennis Nales told the court. "We have given him everything in our possession that we physically have and have searched out through law enforcement records. What's left is the opportunity for the defense to take discovery depositions." In court, Nales said Tebrugge interviewed the lead detective in the case and failed to ask important questions, like whether witnesses saw a photo lineup. "Why do we have to go through the materials that we've provided to him and specifically categorize again and delineate or outline things that are included in those materials?" Nales said, posing a rhetorical question to the judge. "Why would we have a burden greater than what the rule provides?" Owens deferred a decision on the 6 motions Tebrugge filed against prosecutors. The judge denied the request to declare Florida's rule of criminal procedure unconstitutional. Owens also denied a motion to compel the disclosure of mitigating circumstances, and he rejected 3 motions concerning sentencing guidelines and another motion asking for a unanimous decision by a jury. All the motions were filed by Tebrugge. Owens asked the attorneys whether they are comfortable with the Nov. 7 trial date. While Tebrugge said he was, Riva said prosecutors still had a lot of discovery material to go through and preparation before they could be ready to go to trial. A future hearing date was not set during Friday's hearing. Smith is being held at the Manatee County jail without bond. Defense attorney Mark Lipinski said Tebrugge's motions are not uncommon in cases such as Smith's. "You just never know what's going to happen in court," he said. "What's the worst that could happen? The judge says no." He also considered Owens' responses standard in such a case, which are usually reviewed by the Florida Supreme Court for errors. "One thing trial judges never like is to go into cases with a built-in reversible error," Lipinski said. "They know death cases are the ones that receive review and if there is an error, they go back to square one." (source: Bradenton Herald) CALIFORNIA: Rincon man could face death penalty in double slaying Marlene Magee was nearly seven months pregnant when she was shot to death in February 2004. Now her boyfriend ---- the man accused of killing her ---- could face the death penalty for the slaying of Magee and her unborn baby girl. Prosecutor Geoff Allard filed an allegation Friday morning that makes Andree Francis Calac eligible for the death penalty if he is found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting. Calac pleaded not guilty Friday to 2 murder charges, as well as the newly added allegation that there were multiple slayings ---- a special circumstance for which he could be put to death if convicted. District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis will decide before the trial if her office will seek the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole as a punishment if Calac is convicted. In order for Calac to be convicted of the allegation of multiple murders ---- and thus the death penalty or life in prison without parole ---- at least one of those slayings has to be deemed to be 1st-degree murder. "We're contending the murder of Marlene Magee was murder in the 1st (degree)," Allard said after the hearing. According to testimony at a preliminary hearing last month, Calac was drinking and using drugs on the day before the early morning slaying. At some point, Calac picked up 22-year-old Magee from her home and the couple returned to his trailer on the Rincon Indian Reservation, according to police. The couple began arguing, and Calac snatched a shotgun, grabbed Magee by the face with his left hand and, using his right hand, pointed the barrel of the gun in her face, according to testimony from investigators. The medical examiner testified that the webbing on Magee's hand appeared to have been blown off by the blast. The thumb on Calac's left hand was also partially blown-off. After the shooting, Calac drove the woman to a nearby fire station, according to testimony. Fire Capt. Brian Beresford testified last month that Calac was bleeding, babbling and incoherent when he showed up at the station. Beresford said firefighters followed Calac back to his car, where they found Magee but were unable to find her pulse. Medical examiner Glenn Wagner testified on cross-examination that for as long as 34 minutes after Magee was shot, there was a chance Magee's unborn child could have survived. It is unclear at exactly what time Magee was shot and exactly when she died, Wagner testified. According to testimony, Calac has said he was the father of Magee's unborn child. Magee, 22, was also the mother of 3 little girls. (source: North County Times) ******************* Appeals Court Overturns Death Sentence----U.S. 9th Circuit blocks man's execution for a 2nd time after being told by Supreme Court to reconsider the 1st decision it made in 2003. For the 2nd time, a federal appeals court in San Francisco has overturned the death sentence of a man who has spent more than 2 decades on death row for beating a woman to death with an iron bar. In recent years, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has toppled more than a dozen California death sentences, on some occasions drawing rebukes from the Supreme Court. On Friday, the 9th Circuit overturned the death penalty for Fernando Belmontes, 44. He was 19 when he and 2 other young men went to the home of Steacy McConnell in Victor, Calif., just east of Lodi, to steal her stereo in the aftermath of an argument over drugs, according to trial testimony. McConnell's parents later found their daughter lying in a pool of blood. In mitigation, the defense presented evidence that Belmontes had a family history of poverty and violence. The 9th Circuit first blocked Belmontes' execution in 2003, ruling that the trial judge had failed to instruct the jury to consider all mitigating evidence before deciding on execution. On March 28, the Supreme Court vacated the decision and directed the court to reconsider its ruling in light of a decision a week earlier. That case concerned Orange County murderer William Payton, who raped and stabbed to death a Garden Grove woman in 1980. Payton had argued that his trial judge failed to instruct the jury to consider his behind-bars conversion to Christianity. In Payton's case, the high court noted that Congress in 1996 changed the law to say that federal judges should defer to state courts' reasonable judgments in death penalty cases. The 9th Circuit, however, ruled Friday that Belmontes' case was different because he filed his challenge before the 1996 law was enacted. Consequently, the state court rulings were due less deference, the court said, and it was appropriate to overturn the death penalty because of the judge's failure to issue the mitigation instruction. The ruling was written by Judge Stephen Reinhardt, an appointee of President Carter who is one of the court's most consistent skeptics about the validity of death sentences. Judge Richard A. Paez, a Clinton appointee, joined Reinhardt's opinion. Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain, a Reagan appointee who consistently votes to uphold death sentences, issued a strong dissent, just as he did 2 years ago. "The majority strains mightily - and unpersuasively - to perceive constitutional error in the comprehensive and perfectly proper jury instructions given by the state trial judge," O'Scannlain wrote. "Because there simply is no such error, and the Supreme Court has expressly told us so on 2 separate occasions, I must respectfully dissent." Mill Valley attorney Eric Multhaup, who has represented Belmontes in appeals for 23 years, called the ruling "really good news." The California attorney general's office had no immediate comment. The office almost always asks the Supreme Court to review a case when the 9th Circuit overturns a death sentence. (source: Los Angeles Times) PENNSYLVANIA: Is a man still a killer 25 years later? On the occasion of their 1st death sentences, Michael Travaglia and John Lesko were trotted from the courtroom in shackles when Travaglia paused a few inches from prosecutor Tim Geary. "I'm coming back to get you," Travaglia spat. "That's the kind of animal you are," Geary replied. "Mike," Lesko said, "let's not make this any worse than it already is." Here they were, sentenced to die for killing a policeman, the grand finale to an eight-day festival of mayhem that left 4 dead, and Lesko didn't want to complicate matters with harsh words. Since 1981 Pennsylvania's electric chair has been replaced by lethal injection. Geary has moved along to private practice as a lawyer. The very dome of the courthouse in which they were sentenced has changed in hue. More saliently, the animal Travaglia was that day he promised revenge no longer paces his cell on death row. A year after arriving in prison, Travaglia got religion, or perhaps religion got him. He heads a Bible study, counsels fellow prisoners, expresses neither remorse nor many excuses for the drug-and-alcohol abetted hell he and Lesko dispensed over Christmas season 1979-80. They shot a man they lured out of a seedy bar in Pittsburgh. They gunned down a young widow who picked them up as they hitchhiked in the fog. They tied a large rock around a bleeding church organist and dropped him 38 feet to the bottom of a lake. Still high on the thrill, they baited Officer Leonard Miller into chasing them across the Armstrong-Westmoreland line, then shot him twice. Geary was called to the scene when Miller's body was found on a roadside outside the town of Apollo. "Leonard was lying on the ground in his uniform. I thought to myself, 'He's the last protection between us and the Huns and the Visigoths,' " Geary said. With a young man's corpse on a roadside, another's at a lake bottom, and the earth just settling over the bodies of a young widow and an ordinary guy shanghaied from a bar, the depth of anger in the citizenry has lasted the quarter-century since a judge's error made the first death sentences invalid. Travaglia's fresh chance at a life sentence -- his murder conviction stands -- began this week with a new jury, new prosecutor, new judge and, if redemption is real, a new man in the defense chair. Quite possibly we are witnessing that rarest of rarities: the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections has actually corrected someone. Geary has given the matter some thought. The distance of time allows for that. He still comes down on the side of execution, something he did not believe in before he saw Miller's body on the roadside. What is interesting is the lack of stridency in this feeling. Were the jury to give Travaglia life, Geary will not be bothered. "It's up to a jury. That's why they don't leave it up to prosecutors," he said. What is left up to prosecutors is to argue that Travaglia deserves to die and to somehow convince a jury that the meek, balding, 46-year-old before them is still the man who killed Leonard Miller. They must somehow be convinced they are executing the person, not just his history, and that it somehow serves a social purpose beyond using law as a substitute for conscientious reflection. It remains for John Peck to overcome that distance of time that separates the two realities of Michael Travaglia. Peck is as gracious a man as walks the streets of Greensburg, a former seminarian from the Pontifical College Josephenum whose own church is unlikely to approve in the least of one of its own seeking a death penalty. "I realize what may result from prosecuting this case and I thought about it long and hard," Peck said. "I wouldn't get any satisfaction out of seeing him die." He sounds less relieved to be the prosecutor than to not be a juror. We cannot be about the business of killing people just in case they are insufficiently reformed, just as we cannot be about the business of killing people in roadside sprees. If Travaglia's self-redemption is borne out in the forthcoming days, jurors will have to ask themselves a question posed by Sophocles 2,500 years ago: "Who is the slayer, who the victim? Speak." (source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) MASSACHUSETTS: No guarantees in life - or in death penalty Gov. W. Mitt Romney told lawmakers Thursday that his proposal to reinstate the death penalty comes with a guarantee that no innocent person would ever be executed in Massachusetts if his bill becomes law. "This is as foolproof a death penalty as exists, and you will not have false convictions and false executions under this bill," the governor told the Judiciary Committee. "This won't happen." If lawmakers believe that, we've got a tunnel in Boston we could sell them. Since 1973, 119 convicted murderers in 25 states have been freed after evidence surfaced that they had been wrongly convicted, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Earlier this month, a prosecutor in Missouri said she will reopen the case of convicted murderer Larry Griffin after receiving evidence of his possible innocence - 10 years after he was executed by lethal injection. Romney believes his bill has safeguards to prevent such mistakes, including a requirement for conclusive scientific evidence such as DNA analysis. The death penalty, however, can never be made foolproof, as Romney later acknowledged when pressed by lawmakers. A commission created by George Ryan when he was governor of Illinois concluded in 2002 that "no system, given human nature and frailties, could ever be devised or constructed that would work perfectly and guarantee absolutely that no innocent person is ever again sentenced to death." 2 years ago, Romney vetoed funds approved by the Legislature to create a Department of Forensic Sciences - just the type of department that would be necessary to provide the strict burden of proof that the governor promises in his bill. In addition, the state's crime laboratory, medical examiner's office and local police departments are not funded at the levels needed to ensure that only the guilty are executed. This newspaper has long opposed the death penalty, and will continue to speak out against it each time an attempt is made to reinstate it in Massachusetts. The death penalty does not deter violent crime; it unfairly targets blacks and other minorities, and it relies on a judicial system that, while the best in the world, is not perfect. There are no guarantees in life - or in the death penalty. (source: The Republican) COLORADO: D.A. asks U.S. Supreme court to reinstate death penalty in bible jury case The Adams County District Attorney is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate the death penalty of a man convicted in a 1995 kidnapping, sex assault and murder. Juror whose Bible was used in Harlan case says she has no regrets -- Colorado Supreme Court throws out Robert Harlan's death sentence Robert Harlan was sentenced to death for the murder of Rhonda Maloney. His sentence was overturned by the Colorado State Supreme Court because one of the jurors brought a bible to deliberations. Jurors discussed 2 passages during their deliberations. Adams County District Attorney Don Quick says the jury's death penalty decision should stand because Harlan's crimes were, "extraordinarily evil." The Supreme Court won't decide if it will hear the case until it reconvenes in October. (source: 9News)
