July 20
VIRGINIA:
Artist Protests Death Penalty
An artist spent all day on the downtown mall, not painting, but protesting
the death penalty.
Randall Sinner wrote down all 345 names of people executed in Texas since
1982 on cards and threw each card onto the Texas State Flag. This protest
will become part of an exhibit in which he did similar performances in the
38 states that practice the death penalty.
"My pieces are to inform those that walk by the table. I'm not here to try
to convince people to think differently. It's more a question of just
thinking and feeling," said Sinner.
Most of Sinner's work involves flags. The entire exhibit is at "New Art
Across on the Bridge" until Friday, July 22.
(source: SCAV, Charlottesville)
CALIFORNIA:
DA Will Seek Death Penalty In Aiello-Loreck Trailside Slaying
In Martinez, the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office said
Wednesday it would seek the death penalty against a man accused of raping
and murdering a 49-year-old mother of three on a walking trail in 2003.
A death-penalty review committee has recommended that the district
attorney's office pursue capital punishment in the case of Robert Ward
Frazier, prosecutor John Cape said.
"If it is likely that a jury would return a death verdict, we will seek
it," Cape said.
Frazier is accused of killing Kathleen Aiello-Loreck on a walking trail
near her Concord workplace on May 13, 2003.
Frazier became the prime suspect when saliva left on cigarette butts he
allegedly dropped on the trail matched DNA from bodily fluids found on the
victim's body, according to investigators.
Described as a drifter, Frazier was tracked in September 2003 to a jail in
Indiana. He was extradited to Contra Costa County and charged with the
murder of Aiello-Loreck.
Frazier will appear in a Martinez courtroom on Aug. 16 to set trial date.
(source: KTCU News)
