July 22 PENNSYLVANIA: Travaglia's wife shows killer's soft side Frances Andrasy didn't plan on finding a husband when she began corresponding with death row inmate Michael J. Travaglia. Although twice divorced, she wasn't desperate or lonely. She was just a hairdresser from New Kensington -- a Christian woman who found the writings of a convicted murderer "encouraging." Slowly their relationship grew -- from letters to visits to romance -- until April 27, 1992, when Frances Andrasy became Frances Travaglia. She testified on her husband's behalf Thursday in Westmoreland County Court -- the final witness in a day filled with testimony from corrections officers and a psychiatrist who said amphetamine abuse caused Travaglia to exhibit a psychotic disorder 25 years ago. Testimony may wrap up as early as today in the resentencing trial for Michael Travaglia, 46, formerly of Washington Township. Travaglia, along with John C. Lesko, murdered Apollo police Officer Leonard C. Miller on Jan. 3, 1980, at the end of an 8-day "kill-for-thrill" spree that left 3 other people dead. The pair were convicted and sentenced to death for Miller's killing in 1981. Both won new sentencing trials on appeal. Lesko was again sentenced to death in 1995. Testimony in Travaglia's case began last Friday. Frances Travaglia, 58, has retired after 40 years as a hairdresser. She now works as a caregiver for a woman with Parkinson's disease. She lives with her mother. Her father died recently. She is soft-spoken. Defense attorney Ned Nakles Jr. had to ask her to speak louder when she began to testify. She wears her brown hair in a short, soft style and has a penchant for wearing long skirts. During the trial she's brought along a sweater daily to combat the cold in the air-conditioned courtroom. Frances Travaglia began her journey to marrying a killer back in 1990. Her nephew had just gone through drug rehabilitation and offered testimony on his newfound faith at her church. A woman in the congregation approached her afterward. "There was another man she knew whose life had been changed by his conversion," Frances Travaglia said. She read the letters Michael Travaglia had sent to the other church member. "They were such encouraging letters, mostly about the Lord," she said. So she wrote him a letter, but she didn't hear back. "He was on death watch, so he decided since he was going to be executed he didn't want to respond to the letter," she said. But when Travaglia received a stay shortly before his scheduled execution date, he wrote back. They met for the 1st time on Christmas Day 1990. She expected the "hairy, grisly" man she had seen in newspaper photographs. When she saw him through the glass barrier, she picked up the phone to talk. "I said I was here to see Michael Travaglia and he said, 'I am Michael Travaglia,' and I was surprised because I saw someone who looked normal and not what I saw in the paper." Psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Noffsinger testified that Travaglia is a different man than he was when he killed Miller 25 years ago. He said chronic amphetamine abuse caused an underlying psychotic disorder to surface, making Travaglia suffer delusional thinking at the time of Miller's murder. But Noffsinger admitted to District Attorney John Peck that Travaglia showed no sign of psychosis during the murder of William Nicholls a few hours before Miller's killing. Frances Travaglia did not testify to her husband's murderous past yesterday. She told the jury romance did not come right away. "The first feelings I felt for Michael were not love feelings," she said. "I began to admire the man he became." Admiration turned to love. And love turned to marriage. "We were allowed to hold hands," Frances Travaglia said of the wedding. "After the ceremony, we were allowed one kiss and then he had to go back behind the glass." Their wedding was the only day they've ever had physical contact. She visits him in prison every Monday. They speak every Sunday evening by telephone. And every night they set aside time to read the same passages in the Bible and say the same prayers. "I love him with all my heart," she said. Michael Travaglia never asks his wife for money. He uses the money he makes as a janitor at SCI Greene to pay for telephone cards to call her. Corrections officials testified that Travaglia is a rare commodity on death row -- a capital inmate with a job. "A select few of death row inmates have been chosen to work," said Kenneth Miller, who was the death row unit manager at SCI Greene for several years during Travaglia's time there. Death row inmates typically spend nearly 22 hours a day in a 6- by 8-foot cell, which is sealed by a metal door with a small opening for food trays. Miller said Travaglia was always mature and polite. "His work skills were requested by other units," Miller said. "He was known as a good worker." Corrections officer Dana Twaddle has known Travaglia for 10 years. "He treats me with respect and like a human being," Twaddle said. "Mike's the real deal," he continued. "He's a Christian." Twaddle said despite the fact Travaglia killed a police officer, he felt comfortable testifying on his behalf "because I'm telling the truth." (source: Tribune-Review) USA: House reauthorizes USA Patriot Act The House of Representatives, ignoring protests from civil liberties groups, renewed the USA Patriot Act on Thursday mostly along party lines, to make permanent the government's unprecedented powers to investigate suspected terrorists. 16 provisions of the 2001 law, hastily enacted in response to the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, are due to expire at the end of this year unless renewed by Congress. President Bush, who has repeatedly called on lawmakers to make the entire law permanent, commended lawmakers for approving the measure. "The Patriot Act is a key part of our efforts to combat terrorism and protect the American people, and the Congress needs to send me a bill soon that renews the act without weakening our ability to fight terror," the president said in statement. The House reauthorized the act by 257-171 with several changes designed to increase judicial and political oversight of some of its most controversial provisions. In the Republican-controlled chamber, 44 Democrats supported the bill while 14 Republicans opposed it. Republicans repeatedly argued throughout the 11-hour debate that the latest explosions in London showed how urgent and important it was to renew the law. "Passage of the ... act is vital to maintaining the post-9/11 law enforcement and intelligence reforms that have reduced America's vulnerability to terrorist attack," Wisconsin Republican James Sensenbrenner told lawmakers. Republicans also added a new provision to apply the federal death penalty for terrorist offenses that resulted in death and another establishing a new crime of narco-terrorism to punish people using drug profits to aid terrorism. These offenders will now face 20-year minimum prison sentences. The original act allowed expanded surveillance of terror suspects and gave the government the ability to go to a secret court to seize the personal records of suspects from bookstores, libraries, businesses, hospitals and other organizations -- the so-called "library clause." House Republicans agreed last week that this clause -- perhaps the most contentious -- and another allowing so-called roving wiretaps, which permits the government to eavesdrop on suspects as they switch from phone to phone, would be renewed for only 10 years instead of being made permanent. The Senate judiciary committee voted unanimously to recommend its own version of the act on Thursday, which included only four-year renewals of these 2 clauses. The full Senate is expected to take its bill up in the fall. The House also passed an amendment requiring the director of the FBI to personally approve all requests for library or bookstore records and a number of other amendments designed to add civil liberty safeguards to the bill. 'GRAVE THREAT' However, Democrats who mostly supported the original law in 2001, were not mollified and said the law still posed a potentially grave threat to personal freedoms. "The bill before us fails to assure accountability," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. "Today, we are deciding whether the government will be accountable to the people, to the Congress and to the courts for the exercise of its power." Republicans said there had been no documented instances of civil liberty abuses since the act was originally passed in 2001. However Democrats said the government had requested individuals' library records more than 200 times. Democrats also complained that the Republican leadership refused to allow debate on several of their key amendments and opted instead to ram the law through on a party-line vote. "This is an abuse of power by the Republican majority which has deliberately and purposely chosen to stifle a full debate," said Maryland Democrat Steny Hoyer. A coalition of liberal and conservative civil liberties groups, formed to oppose reauthorization of the law in its current form, this week called on lawmakers not to rush to reauthorize the bill without further debate. "Certain sections of the law extend far beyond the mission of protecting Americans from terrorism and violate ordinary citizens' constitutional rights, especially the right to privacy," said former Republican Rep. Bob Barr. Leading opposition from the left, the American Civil Liberties Union said the bill gave the FBI extraordinary power to obtain personal records, search individuals' homes or offices without their knowledge and to use a secret court to obtain personal date on ordinary Americans. (source: Reuters) ********************** Some crimes do merit death penalty I am totally in favor of the death penalty for certain crimes, especially against children. Oftentimes, they have no voice except through the court and the punishment delivered there. There is never an excuse for a crime against a defenseless child, not of a physical nature and most certainly of a sexual nature. If they get the death sentence in court, they should be taken within the next few days and immediately put to death, period. No lingering on "death row," where my hard-earned tax dollars will pay for their room and board for the next 20 years of their lives. If criminals have no fear that they will die when they get the sentence, they will have no fear of doing whatever crimes are in their black hearts. They will thumb their noses at the judicial system. The rest of their lives in jail? They will have it better than some of our homeless in America. That is not punishment. Death penalty? Follow through, carry out the punishment immediately and prevent some other innocent person from suffering at the hands of these monsters. Brenda Smith Reed----Valley City, Ohio (source: Letters to the Editor, Herald-Dispatch) OHIO: Death Penalty Sought For Suspect In Banks Murder Greene County prosecutors want the death penalty for a man charged in a Sugarcreek Township homicide. During a news conference Thursday, they announced Roger Shawn Green is responsible for the death of John Banks. They said Green shot banks in February 2004. Investigators have been working the case for a year and a half. Green has been charged with aggravated robbery and aggravated murder. Investigators said Green shot Banks 6 times, killing him. Prosecutor Bill Schenck said drugs were definitely involved in the shooting. Prosecutors said Banks knew Green and believe he was murdered on Feb. 7, 2004 at the Sugarcreek Reserve. His body was discovered 12 days later. Authorities said interviews and ballistic evidence helped investigators identify Green as the suspect. Green is currently behind bars in Chillicothe on an unrelated charge. He is expected to be brought to the Greene County Jail as early as next week. Officials said someone else who feels relief is Banks' wife, Angela. She said it is a feeling she can't describe. Angie Banks would have been married to her husband 7 years this year. She said they have 2 children together. (source: WHIO TV News) ILLINOIS: Ex-Death Row inmate criticizes DNA test limit In Cook County, a request by a former death row inmate for DNA testing was limited Thursday by a Cook County Circuit judge, who agreed only to a specialized test. "This is an outrage," Ronald Kliner, the inmate, said after the decision by Judge Karen Thompson Tobin on a request by Kliner and co-defendant Michael Permanian for broader tests. Kliner was among 3 men convicted of killing Dana Rinaldi, who was found shot 5 times in the head outside her Palatine apartment building in 1988. Rinaldi's husband, Joseph, was convicted of ordering the killing and sentenced to 60 years in prison. Permanian, the best man at Rinaldi's wedding, was sentenced to 75 years. In 2003 Kliner's death sentence was commuted to life in prison by Gov. George Ryan. Kliner plans to appeal and is seeking a clemency hearing. (source: Chicago Tribune) *********************** Former death row inmate behaves during trial Former death row inmate Aaron Patterson mostly behaved in court Thursday, his first day back at his drug and firearms trial since a judge banished him earlier this month for causing disruptions. Patterson had remained behind at the Metropolitan Correctional Center since before the start of the July 12 trial because of his behavior, which included taking verbal potshots at prosecutors, bickering with the judge and using profanity. On Thursday, prosecutors accused Patterson of gesturing to the jury at one point during testimony from a witness. They did not say what the gesture was, but U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer instructed Patterson not to communicate with jurors. "It can only prejudice him to behave in any improper way," she told Patterson's attorneys. Patterson, 40, is charged with masterminding two drug conspiracies, dealing in heroin and marijuana, buying guns despite a previous felony conviction and illegally owning a machine gun. Patterson served 17 years in state prison, 13 on death row, for a double murder. As one of former Gov. George Ryan's last acts before leaving office in 2003, he pardoned Patterson and 3 other death row inmates while commuting the sentences of 160 other condemned prisoners to life without parole. Ryan, who said he was acting out of concern over a system that sent 13 wrongly convicted prisoners to death row, declared that none of the evidence against Patterson was credible. In Patterson's latest trial, testimony Wednesday centered on a drug dealer who now is cooperating with the government and who explained audio recordings of discussions he allegedly had with Patterson about buying guns. Defense attorneys tried to discredit the witness by pointing out his background as a drug dealer and highlighting the deal he cut with prosecutors that allowed him to testify. (source: Associated Press) MISSISSIPPI: Indigent defense ruling upheld----High court says state doesn't have to help pay poor defendants' legal fees The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Thursday the state isn't obligated to help counties pay the legal tabs of the poor charged with crimes. In a 6-2 decision, the high court sided with Circuit Judge Ann Lamar, who said she would not declare unconstitutional a state law requiring local governments to pay for indigent defense. In 1999, Quitman County sued the state after being forced to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay legal expenses for Robert Simon and Anthony Carr, sentenced to death row for the Feb. 12, 1990, torture and burning deaths of 4 members of a family from Lambert. To pay for the trial and appeal, the county had to take out a $150,000 loan and raise taxes for 3 years. The killings of the Parkers still anger many residents in Marks, such as Sandy Pruitt. "They should have been put to death themselves," she said. She said she remains puzzled why Quitman County got stuck with the legal bills: "I never did understand it." Chris Klotz of Jackson, the attorney for the county, called Mississippi's current system a hodgepodge that can devastate rural counties. The court's decision, he said, "is not good news for poor people or for people who can't afford attorneys. The state needs to seriously revamp (the present system)." Lawyers may ask the court to reconsider, he said, and "there is the potential to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court." The ruling came the same day the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Southern Center for Human Rights sued the city of Gulfport, accused the Gulfport Municipal Court of routinely incarcerating poor people unable to pay their fines and violating their right to counsel. As a result of these practices, the Harrison County Jail has become a modern day debtors' prison, said Miriam Gohara, assistant counsel for the fund. "We are very concerned that poor people with old fines for minor violations of the law, such as riding a bicycle without a light, are being jailed for their inability to pay, and worse yet they are not being provided with a lawyer before sentencing, in clear violation of the Constitution." In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Clarence Earl Gideon that right to counsel in criminal cases was necessary to achieve a fair system of justice. In his initial trial, Gideon represented himself because he could not afford an attorney. After his conviction was overturned, he was retried, and his appointed attorney discovered new witnesses and won an acquittal. The Legislature passed an $11 million statewide program, which would have placed a public defender in each Circuit Court district, but lawmakers never funded the program, and it was eventually repealed. (Nearly half the states are funding such programs.) A 2004 study by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund concluded full-time public defenders could help generate $5.3 million in tax revenue by getting suspects out of jail sooner and back to work. Quitman County argued the Legislature's failure to fund a statewide public defender program violated the U.S. Constitution by not providing defendants representation as the high court ruled in the Gideon case. "Everybody deserves to have a fair share in court, no matter whether they're innocent or guilty," Klotz said. "That's the reason we fought wars. To say people who are charged with crimes shouldn't get as fair a trial as someone who makes $100,000 does a disservice to those who've gone to fight." Judge Lamar said Quitman County never proved its main points: that the county's 2 part-time public defenders were overburdened and gave their clients poor representation because of a bad system. The Mississippi attorney general's office argued Quitman County was not seeking relief for poor defendants but relief for its taxpayers. The Supreme Court said part of the expense to the counties was alleviated when the Office of Post-Conviction Counsel and the Office of Capital Defense Counsel were created in 2000. A 2005 law created the Office of Indigent Appeals, which now handles appeals for indigent defendants convicted of noncapital crimes. Chief Justice Jim Smith, writing for the court, said, if Quitman County officials had been concerned about indigent defense, they would have budgeted more for it. He said county officials also failed to prove county indigent defense systems have resulted in widespread ineffective assistance of counsel. Smith's predecessor, Edwin Pittman, had recommended passage of a statewide system along with a judicial advisory committee, but Smith wrote the high court had no authority to take on the matter: "The county urges this court to implement a remedy that falls within the purview of the Legislature instead of the judiciary." Justice James E. Graves, in a dissent joined by Justice Jess H. Dickinson, said Quitman County showed deficiencies in the indigent defense system that justified some remedy from the state. "Because the (U.S.) Supreme Court has deemed the right to counsel for indigents in state prosecutions to be fundamental, the state of Mississippi bears the ultimate responsibility to ensure that this right is preserved," Graves wrote. Graves said the flaws in Quitman County's system are "the result of the fundamental problem in a part-time, county-based system that lacks state funding and uniformity. "In essence, the state of Mississippi has failed to establish or fund a system of indigent defense that is equipped to provide all defendants with the tools of an adequate defense and has therefore fallen short of its constitutional obligation." By the numbers 4 of Mississippi's 82 counties - Hinds, Jackson, Washington and Forrest - have full-time public defender offices. The rest rely on lawyers working part time to pick up the slack, often for a flat fee far below the cost of providing services. (source: The Clarion Ledger)
