July 23 INDIANA----impending execution Convicted murderer to get wish: execution Condemned killer Kevin A. Conner said he would rather die than remain in prison. He'll get that wish. Convicted of multiple murders, the former Southside Indianapolis man will be executed by injection Wednesday at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. "I'm not going to beg and grovel anyone for my life," Conner, 40, said during a telephone interview from prison last week. "I got here when I was 22. I've got no desire to grow old in prison." Conner killed three men in Indianapolis in 1988 and a 4th in prison in 2002. He has asked Gov. Mitch Daniels not to halt his execution. He killed Steven Wentland, 19, Anthony Moore, 24, and Bruce Voge, 19, during an hourlong rampage on the city's Southside and at a Downtown business. Last week, he admitted stabbing to death inmate Jerry Thompson, 41, during a recreation break at the prison on Oct. 27, 2002. Police dubbed him "Iceman" for his cold demeanor. Conner liked the nickname and, according to trial testimony, asked friends to sell souvenir T-shirts depicting an ice block and a bloody knife. He wanted to use the proceeds to bribe the judge, officials said. The Indianapolis police detective who investigated the murders still remembers Conner's matter-of-fact tone as he confessed to the killings. "He was proud of what he did," said Edmund Stamm, now assigned to the city's East District. "He showed no remorse." Sharon Wentland still grieves over the death of her son Steven but holds no hatred toward Conner. "I feel that we have suffered the loss of a son. I let go of it at that point," said Wentland, who lives in Seymour. "The punishment for his crime is not in my hands. It's in the hands of the judicial system." Meanwhile, Conner's upcoming execution is dredging up pain and tears for Moore's sister. "It seems like to me prison hasn't helped him," Dianna Bevers said. "He's been on death row for 18 years. He's still not remorseful." Death, Bevers said, is the only suitable punishment. "In one night, four young men's lives were totally gone," Bevers said. "He has destroyed numerous lives. There's just been so much heartache." But Conner's sister said her family doesn't deserve to go through the pain of losing him. "I felt pretty sickened, and desperately helpless, that my brother's going to be murdered at the hands of the state," Debbie Noll said. Noll still sees Conner as the big brother who protected her, the joker who made her stomach hurt with laughter, the creative boy who loved to write stories and draw pictures. She was reminded of that boy Thursday when a package from her brother arrived in the mail. It was a picture of Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam he had drawn in ink for her daughter. As painful as it is, Noll supports her brother's decision not to ask for clemency. She doesn't want him to endure jail any longer, she said. Conner's lawyers wrestled with whether to comply with Conner's refusal to ask for clemency, defense lawyer Linda Wagoner said. For years, Conner has consistently said he preferred death to life in prison. "Kevin is very bright, very articulate," Wagoner said, "and he has been extremely consistent with the reasons why he doesn't want the clemency." And his lawyer acknowledged that Conner would have virtually no chance in front of the Indiana Parole Board, which makes recommendations on clemency to the governor. Prisoners often emphasize their good behavior at clemency hearings. But Conner has been a problem for authorities since his arrest, officials said. The day after a judge sentenced Conner to die, he jumped a wall and escaped from the Marion County Jail. He ran for about 3 minutes before being recaptured. In 1994, Conner and 4 others on death row used hacksaw blades, makeshift knives and a grappling hook in an attempt to escape from prison. Conner and 3 others made it to the base of the outside wall before being spotted and captured. "If it's built by man, it's capable to be gotten out of," Conner said last week. He also claims to have killed a fellow death row inmate in 2002. Conner was among 7 inmates present when Jerry Thompson was stabbed to death. Thompson was convicted in the March 14, 1991, shooting deaths of Melvin Hillis and Robert Beeler. Conner refused to talk to The Star about the stabbing, but Wagoner said Conner admitted he killed Thompson and gave a statement last week to lawyers defending another inmate linked to the crime. Despite his past, Conner said he has no regrets. He said he's not one who dwells on the past. "I'm not trying to sound cold or inhumane; that's always been me," he said. "What's done is done." Death, Conner said, is a more humane alternative to life devoid of meaning in prison. "I'm not bugging about it," Conner said. "What is there to be afraid of? It's an inevitable fact of reality that at some point you have to die." (source: Indianapolis Star) OHIO: Appellate court orders Richey be moved to Putnam County jail An Ohio appellate court has issued an order to release Kenneth Richey from death row to the Putnam County jail. The order was issued late Thursday by the 5th District Court of Appeals which has jurisdiction over Richland County where Richey is held in prison. The mandamus action gives the state until Aug. 3 to transfer Richey to the Putnam County jail or show good cause for not doing so. Ohio Attorney General spokeswoman Kim Norris said her agency plans to fight the action. Her agency also has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the ruling by a federal appellate court that tossed Richey's 1987 conviction. Richey was convicted in the June 30, 1986, death of 2-year-old Cynthia Collins, who died in a Columbus Grove apartment fire. Richey's attorney, Ken Parsigian of Boston, said it will be hard to change the order and doesn't understand why the state would fight it especially since Richey still would be behind bars at the jail. "It's just another example of them being told they were wrong. One of these days they're going to get it," Parsigian said. Meanwhile, Putnam County Prosecutor Gary Lammers said he plans to retry Richey. Lammers said he would seek new charges through a grand jury but did not give a date when that would take place. Lammers was forced to decide whether to retry or release Richey following a ruling by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals which tossed Richey's capital murder conviction. That court said Richey's trial attorneys did not provide an adequate defense and under Ohio law at the time, prosecutors needed to prove Richey intended to kill the young girl to convict him of capital murder. Prosecutors said Richey's target was his ex-girlfriend. Lammers said Richey would remain on death row until he had new charges. If the grand jury failed to indict Richey, he would be set free, Lammers said. (source: Lima News) ******************************* Kenny Richey could be freed from Death Row within weeks Supporters of Kenny Richey hope he will be freed from death row within weeks after a fresh legal ruling in the United States. A court has ordered state prosecutors in Ohio to transfer the 41-year-old to a low-security county jail unless they can provide "good cause" for keeping him on death row. If he is moved, Richey's legal team are hopeful a bail application will be successful. Richey should have been moved from the maximum security prison earlier this year after his conviction was overturned. But prosecutors have been reluctant to transfer him as they move to take the case to a retrial. Richey's lawyer, Ken Parsigian, said today the court ruling meant that Richey was likely to be transferred from death row by August 3. Richey, who grew up in Edinburgh, has spent the last 19 years on Death Row for the murder of 2-year-old Cynthia Collins, despite overwhelming evidence which his supporters believe proves he did not start the fire which killed her. Mr Parsigian said he was pleased by the latest ruling, and admitted he could not understand why the state had fought so hard to keep Richey on death row. He said: "It may be that they want to avoid the bail hearing, because once Kenny is transferred to a county jail we will be applying for bail. "Most of their actions in this case, though, seem to have more to do with a reluctance to perhaps admit they have done something wrong." Prosecutors are currently putting their case for a new trial before the Grand Jury, after Putnam County prosecutor Gary Lammers announced last month that he felt that there was sufficient evidence to seek new charges. Mr Parsigian admitted the way the system worked meant it was very likely there would be another trial. He said: "The Grand Jury process is entirely secret, so I do not know what is going on at the moment. "It is just the prosecutor and the jury. Because of that we have a saying that prosecutors could get the Grand Jury to charge a ham sandwich, as they can tell them whatever they like. "So the odds are good that there will be another trial, but what is less likely is whether they will make another attempt to get the death penalty. "This was never a death penalty case, even if you believe all the evidence and it is one of the most bizarre points of this case, so I would be very surprised if they went for that." Richey's fiance, Karen Torley, said he had been "up and down" lately and admitted the continual delays to the process, which have seen him remain in his cell for more than 6 months after he won his appeal, were beginning to affect all of them. She said: "It is just endless waiting, waiting, waiting. They are going before a Grand Jury with the same evidence that has been discredited time and time again." She added: "There is nothing new they can present and it is just frustrating. "But we just have to keep waiting and I will go over to see him later this year and will be there with him if there is a trial. "This is a positive step, but they will fight it because they seem to think they can keep him on death row indefinitely, even though he's an innocent man." (source: The Scotsman) USA: Death-Row Appeals----Don't rush to judgment In a gutsy move in pursuit of justice, the top city prosecutor in St. Louis plans to test the plausible theory that convicted murderer Larry Griffin didn't gun down a drug dealer 25 years ago. But even if prosecutor Jennifer Joyce's reinvestigation exonerates Griffin, it won't matter to the convicted man. He was executed a decade ago. Whether or not Griffin is cleared posthumously, his case should stand as a chilling warning to Congress. Amid Washington lawmakers' latest drive to further restrict the appeals of defendants, they need to recognize what could be at risk with their tough-on-crime crackdown - innocent lives. In both Senate and House versions, the innocently titled Streamlined Procedures Act amounts to an unconscionable assault on federal court oversight of the fairness of criminal trials in the state courts. The Republican-sponsored measure would deny or sharply restrict the reach of federal judges in hearing habeas-corpus claims from convicts. These claims range from whether adequate legal counsel was provided to indigent (and often minority) defendants, on up to whether an innocent person may have been convicted wrongly. In death-row cases, the stakes are as high as they come. In other criminal matters, the federal judiciary's policing of such cases assures that our criminal justice system is truly just. Strict limits on such appeals were already imposed in 1996 under a post-Oklahoma City bombing, Clinton-era antiterrorism law - and there's no good reason to tighten them further. At a recent Senate hearing, proponents argued unimpressively that the appeals delayed "closure" for crime victims, while running up government legal bills. Isn't the cost of responding to appeals simply the price of successful anticrime efforts that have put 2.1 million people behind bars? Lock up the bad guys, by all means, but don't turn around and scrimp on fairness. The impact of lengthy appeals on crime victims cannot be ignored. But there is a psychological toll, too, on convicts sitting behind bars who know they are innocent, some of them on death row. There have been dozens of people exonerated while awaiting execution in recent years, often after years of painstaking appeals and probing of their claims of innocence. What if these inmates had not succeeded in their appeals in time? Surely advocates of limiting convicts' federal appeals don't mean to respond to the troubling fact of death-row exonerations by strapping the possibly innocent to a gurney sooner. Isn't it odd how some in Congress - mostly Republicans, but some Democrats, too - regard the federal courts as the best venue for class-action lawsuits involving consumer-product safety, environmental pollution and civil rights. Yet they don't want to bother the same highly regarded federal bench with cases concerning the fundamental rights of life and liberty? A system of justice streamlined to the degree proposed under this measure would not be justice at all. (source: Editorial, Philadelphia Inquirer) ARKANSAS: Stay issued in Newman case In Little Rock, a federal judge on Friday afternoon issued a stay in the execution of convicted killer Rickey Dale Newman and a hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 9. Newman's execution was set for 9 p.m. Tuesday. Friday's order marks the 2nd time a stay has been issued just days before Newman was to be executed. Last year, his execution was set for Sept. 28 and the state Supreme Court issued a temporary stay on Sept. 24. In the 7-page order issued Friday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Robert T. Dawson said questions have been raised about a document Newman signed on July 13. Dawson's order said the document details how Newman wants his remains handled after the execution. The state argues that the document also waives any further appeals by Newman. Assistant Federal Public Defender Bruce D. Eddy, who filed the motion seeking the stay on Wednesday, said Newman never understood the full meaning of the document and argued that the document does not prohibit attorneys to continue to pursue a stay. Dawson in his order said "it is apparent that (Newman) has vacillated whether he wanted counsel to represent or assist him in appealing his state court conviction and sentence." The judge continued by saying that Newman signed the document without an attorney present and that it was witnessed by the prison warden. "There may be questions regarding any ethical violations regarding the creation and signing of the July 13, 2005, document," Dawson wrote. The judge said a stay of the execution is necessary "to resolve any legal consequences of the 13 July 2005 statement and the actions surrounding said statement." In his motion for a stay, Eddy also asked the federal court to look at the June 2002 trial to see if there was enough evidence to convict Newman. Newman has been on death row for the February 2001 stabbing death of Marie Cholette, whose body was found under a makeshift tent in a wooded area where transients camped in Crawford County. In June, Gov. Mike Huckabee set the execution date for Tuesday. Last September's stay was issued after lawyers filed a motion on behalf of Newman's aunt, Betty Moore. The Supreme Court said the lawyers did not have standing to seek a stay, but they granted a temporary stay after lawyers argued that Moore had standing as a "next friend" of the convicted murderer. In November, Newman apparently had a change of heart and decided to fight his execution. He asked that a briefing schedule be vacated so attorneys from the federal Public Defender's Office could raise whatever claims are available to prove his innocence. However, in December he asked that the briefing schedule be dismissed and that the stay of execution be lifted. (source: Arkansas News Bureau) CALIFORNIA: Killer of Samantha Gets Death----Avila is sentenced to die for murdering the 5-year-old O.C. girl. The child's mother tells the man: 'You are a disgrace to the human race.' Alejandro Avila was sentenced to death Friday for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion, moments after her mother unleashed 3 years of pent-up fury. "You don't deserve a place in my family's history," Erin Runnion said, berating Avila through her tears. "I want you to disappear into the abyss of a lifetime in prison where no one will remember you, no one will pray for you and no one will care when you die." Orange County Superior Court Judge William R. Froeberg told the courtroom that with his crimes, Avila, 30, "has forfeited his right to live." Friday's sentencing produced some of the most intense moments in the 3-year-old case that prompted a statewide expansion of the Amber alert system and impelled the girl's mother to launch a neighborhood child-watch program. The jury convicted Avila, a Lake Elsinore factory worker, on April 28 after nine hours of deliberation. Afterward, Runnion said Avila deserved to die. That also was the urging of the jurors, 9 of whom attended the sentencing. But on Friday, Samantha's mother reversed herself and told Avila she wanted him to live and think about what he had done. "Everything in me wants to hurt you in every possible way," she told Avila, who sat expressionless, his back turned to her. "But when I'm very honest with myself, what I want more than anything is for you to feel remorse." A woman interrupted Runnion's eight-minute discourse, yelling: "Take him out of protective custody." She was escorted from the packed Santa Ana courtroom by one of the 6 bailiffs. Avila will become Orange County's 50th - and California's 645th - inmate on death row. He will be transferred within 10 days to San Quentin State Prison to wait, possibly for decades, for his execution. The last man executed in California was Donald Beardslee, in January, after 20 years and 10 months on death row. None of Avila's relatives, some of whom were accused by his attorneys of beating and molesting him during his childhood, attended the half-hour hearing. "His family has never done anything to him except try to destroy him from the day he was born," said one of Avila's attorneys, Assistant Public Defender Denise Gragg. Testimony from the six-week trial this spring showed that Avila kidnapped Samantha in the early evening of July 15, 2002, after asking the girl and her friend for help in finding a lost Chihuahua as they played outside their families' homes in Stanton. When Samantha approached him and asked how big the puppy was, Avila forced her into his car. As Samantha clawed and scratched at her attacker during the ordeal, she left DNA consistent with tears in Avila's vehicle and some of his DNA was found under her fingernails. A day after the abduction, a hang-glider found her nude body on a cliff overlooking Lake Elsinore. "As a final insult to her humanity," Froeberg said, "the defendant posed the victim as if she were some sort of trophy." After Avila's arrest, TV interviewer Larry King hailed Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona as "America's sheriff" and called Samantha "America's little girl." President Bush praised Carona for arresting Samantha's killer. After convicting Avila and sentencing him to death, jurors said they based their decisions largely on the DNA evidence. "It was a pretty open-and-shut case," jury foreman Terry Dancey, 67, of Newport Beach said after the verdict was read. As the courtroom filled for Friday's sentencing, Dancey distributed buttons bearing Samantha's photo to the 8 other jurors and alternates in the courtroom. Several jurors, including Dave Peterson, 35, of Brea, brought spouses. One woman brought her teenage daughter. "I spent 2 months of my life here, and I wanted to see it end the right way," said Peterson, a UPS driver with 3 children. Peterson said he wasn't surprised by Avila's lack of emotion on Friday. Avila had betrayed feelings only once, he said, when his mother had a seizure on the witness stand. Otherwise, Peterson said, "There's no heart, there's no soul there. It's tragic." Peterson said he and his wife hosted a barbecue with Erin Runnion last weekend so they could plan a Brea chapter of Samantha's Pride, a program launched after her death to monitor neighborhood children. Runnion said in court that she wrote her statement a week ago, on the 3rd anniversary of Samantha's kidnapping: "The night you took my baby and hurt her and scared her and crushed her until her heart stopped." The crime is incomprehensible, she said. "I know she looked at you with those amazing, sparkling brown eyes and you still wanted to kill her," Runnion said as Samantha's stepfather, Ken Donnelly, embraced her. "I don't understand it. I never will." She said she has tried not to let anger and vengeance consume her. "In choosing to destroy Samantha's life, you chose to waste your life to satisfy a selfish and sick desire," Runnion said. "You are a disgrace to the human race." Samantha would have turned 9 on Tuesday. (source: Los Angeles Times) OKLAHOMA: Officer responsible for McVeigh arrest shares his story Noble County Sheriff Charlie Hanger says he still wonders why Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh didn't kill him 10 years ago. The former state trooper shared details Friday of his arrest of McVeigh at the Oklahoma National Memorial Museum as part of the museum's First Person: Stories of Hope series. McVeigh was charged and convicted for the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which killed 168 people and left more than 800 injured. About an hour after the explosion, Hanger stopped McVeigh on Interstate 35 in Perry because his getaway car had a missing license tag. Hanger said when he asked McVeigh to step out of the car, he noticed that McVeigh had a gun holstered to his shoulder. "I wonder why he didn't try to kill me," Hanger said choked up and in tears. "I know that it was divine intervention. The good Lord put me in the right place at the right time." "I know McVeigh was a coward, and didn't want to put himself in any personal danger." Seeing the gun made all the difference, Hanger said. "If he'd had the gun in his glove box, I may not have arrested him because I wouldn't have had probable cause to search his car," he said. "Well, I don't know. Maybe I would've taken him in. I was a pretty hard-nosed trooper." After the arrest, Hanger said he began to fear for the lives of his wife Beverly, and their two daughters, who were 15 and 22 at the time. He's still not comfortable with releasing their names to the public. "Fortunately, we never received any threats, just constant calls from reporters," he said. "You never appreciate your privacy until you don't have it anymore. "My phone was ringing so much, I literally could not dial out. There was one young man in my community who sold maps of how to get to my house to reporters for $20. Other reporters tried to send us flowers and follow the delivery truck to our house." Worse than dealing with the media was the initial talk with the victims' families, Hanger said. "My words to them were: if this individual is responsible, I'm glad to be the first person to put the nail in his coffin," he said getting choked up again. "This was a very heinous crime, very violent; a crime I will never be able to understand." Hanger said the arrest changed his perspective on life. "I have a greater appreciation for life," he said in tears. "And I know not to take things for granted." Hanger also offers advice to officers. "I tell new officers there is no such thing as a routine traffic stop," he said. "McVeigh was way too calm - it was evil," he said. The First Person series will last through the first week of September, including discussions with survivors, rescue workers and victims' family members. (source: Associated Press)
