July 24 TEXAS: Mental aptitude may be key in trial of Diamond's mother The woman accused of killing 2-year-old Diamond Alexander-Washington has an IQ of 69, one preliminary test shows. Some say such an IQ is an indicator of mental retardation. Others say those with an IQ of 69 are capable of basic reasoning skills. In the capital murder case of a mother accused of beating her daughter, the distinction could be critical. The purported mental disabilities of Kimberly Alexander may prove pivotal in her upcoming trial. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Alexander, charged in the death of Diamond. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that executing the mentally retarded is unconstitutional. No one has proven Alexander is mentally incompetent. But it appears the defense is trying to show just that. Last week, attorneys for Alexander tried to use a preliminary IQ test score to protect her from statements she made to police statements that could be used against her. During a 1-hour, 45-minute interrogation, Alexander told authorities she had never whipped Diamond. Alexander also said that Diamond's father, Tarri Washington Sr., spanked the toddler. Washington has not been charged. In a pretrial hearing Thursday, attorneys argued that Alexander's statements should be ruled inadmissible. They said she is mentally retarded and wasn't competent to be interrogated alone. After watching a DVD recording of the interrogation and listening to testimony from police, District Judge Mark Luitjen ruled against the defense. As Express-News reporter Tom Bower wrote in Friday's story, "At no time during the recording, which was played for the court, does Alexander appear confused or unable to answer questions put to her by homicide Detective John David Slaughter." It's not clear how much Alexander's attorneys will depend on a defense of mental incompetence. But such a defense is neither unique nor unusual. "It is not something that is commonly used as a defense in front of the jury," says First Assistant District Attorney Michael Bernard. "It is more often used as a pre-trial tactic to keep a confession out of evidence. It doesn't often prevail." In this case, there is no confession. And no one knows if a diagnosis of mental retardation will help Alexander secure a not guilty verdict. I've seen a defense of mental incompetence used before. I've seen it fail. As an intern for the San Antonio Evening News in July 1981, I covered the capital murder trial of Jesse De la Rosa. De la Rosa was accused of fatally shooting a South Side convenience store clerk for a 6-pack of beer. After an officer read him his rights in Spanish, De la Rosa confessed to the crime. But defense attorneys argued that De la Rosa's IQ of 76 rendered him incapable of understanding his rights when he confessed. The medical examiner, however, testified that De la Rosa's account of the shooting - a bullet to the back of the head, another bullet to the cheek - was consistent with an autopsy report. The jury found De la Rosa guilty. When jurors sentenced him to death, it was as if the cauldrons of hell opened. Friends wept. Family members wailed. Spasms of anguish filled the courtroom. De la Rosa was guilty, no doubt. And the family of a convenience store clerk demanded justice. But death penalty opponents might wonder: If the Supreme Court ruling on mental retardation had been in place, would De la Rosa have been executed? Very possibly. Testimony indicated that De la Rosa was on the edge of mental retardation. In court, IQ is only one measure of mental competence. A broader measure is whether a defendant has basic reasoning skills. The De la Rosa jury didn't decide the specific question of retardation. But it ignored the argument he wasn't intelligent enough to understand the consequences of a confession. In the Alexander case, prosecutors say they will pursue the death penalty in the absence of substantial evidence that she is mentally retarded. The blood of a little girl knows nothing about IQ's or Supreme Court rulings. It only cries for justice. (source: San Antonio Express-News) ********************** Department still looking for closure----Deadly 1999 raid has led to departure of 12 In North Richland Hills, more than 5 years after a high-profile, fatal police shooting, a dozen officers, supervisors and investigators connected to the tragedy have left the department. City and department leaders say the drug raid -- during which an officer killed the 25-year-old son of a true-crime writer -- has been difficult for the agency to overcome. At the very least, it was among the most serious in a series of troubling police episodes that have culminated with a change in department leadership. Relatives of Troy Davis are still pressing claims in federal court that officers used excessive force and violated his civil rights. When former Irving police Lt. Jimmy Perdue takes control of the department Monday, he'll find an agency eager to restore its public image, North Richland Hills police officers say. "We're excited about getting a new moving in a positive direction," said Greg Trickey, president of the Fraternal Order of Police lodge for the North Richland Hills department. "He's a really strong leader, which is what we are looking for." In all, 12 officers have left since the 1999 raid -- a turnover of more than a 10th of the department's authorized force of 109 officers. Among them: - Allen Hill, who shot and killed Davis, the son of author Barbara Davis. Hill resigned five months after the shooting. He told the Star-Telegram at the time that he was being harassed by his superiors. He could not be located recently to comment. - Detective Edwin Luna, who resigned in late February after being caught viewing pornography on a city computer. He maintained the crime-scene log for the Davis shooting investigation and has not been reached for comment. - Detective Timothy Gilpin, who resigned in April 2003. Gilpin said he was forced out because of testimony he provided in the Davis case. In his resignation letter, he said he was leaving so that he would no longer be subjected to retaliation, harassment, intolerable working conditions and character assassinations. He is now a Fort Worth lawyer. - Sgt. John "Andy" Wallace, who was in charge of the SWAT team and special investigative unit at the time of the raid. Wallace retired in May. - Police Chief Tom Shockley, who retired in January after more than 25 years with the department. His retirement came a month after he was suspended without pay for erratic driving that he attributed to prescription medication. Correlation questioned City Manager Larry Cunningham believes that the departures are unrelated -- that there is no correlation between them and the Davis shooting. "Any organization experiences turnover, and the turnover in past years has not been excessive," he said. "A department operates as a unit, and there will be other people behind those who leave who are knowledgeable about what's going on and they can carry on." Yet Cunningham and City Attorney George Staples said experienced officers such as Wallace will be missed. Staples said he was surprised when Wallace, in particular, chose to retire. Shockley, in an e-mail interview, disputed suggestions that any officer was prompted to leave by difficult working conditions. "I do not agree with Mr. Gilpin nor do I know of the situation with Luna," Shockley said. "I do not believe, however, that any of the circumstances have anything to do with the Davis case and will not have any impact on the case." Regardless of turnover, North Richland Hills residents have not complained about or commented on any changes in the Police Department at City Council meetings, city spokeswoman Mary Edwards said. The inside politics of the Police Department may simply be too complicated to garner much interest from the public, said Allan Saxe, an associate professor of political science at the University of Texas at Arlington. "Whenever you have a complex issue like this -- where rumors and innuendo are involved -- people are reluctant to involve themselves and turn away because it's so hard to understand," Saxe said. "That's not good citizenship, but it is human. Who needs any more problems?" Raid turns deadly Troy Davis' death was the 2nd time in recent memory that an on-duty North Richland Hills police officer had killed a civilian. The 1st was Oct. 7, 1985, when officer Edward R. Lynn's shotgun discharged and killed Manuel Fernandez, a 25-year-old from Fort Worth, during an arrest after a high-speed chase. Lynn -- who was allowed to remain on the force after he completed a 1-year probationary term -- had only a limited role in the Davis investigation. He quit Feb. 28, 2003, citing personal reasons. He did not mention the 1985 shooting in his resignation letter. Plans for the raid began after police received a tip from Bob Davis, Troy Davis' uncle, that marijuana was being grown in a closet at the house where Troy Davis lived with his mother. Bob Davis had been involved in a long-running dispute with Barbara Davis, his sister-in-law. After two tries, Andy Wallace, the sergeant in charge of both the SWAT team and the narcotics squad, obtained a no-knock search warrant. On Dec. 15, 1999, a team of 17 tactical officers set up for the raid at the Davis home in the 8200 block of Ulster Drive. Officers believed Troy Davis had weapons and was dangerous. Once inside, officers said, Troy Davis pointed a loaded 9 mm pistol at them. Hill fired the fatal shot. Later, investigators found 16 guns, all legally possessed, at the Davis home. Police found 3 marijuana plants in pots in the backyard; a plastic bag containing a green, leafy substance in a bedroom; and 5 pill bottles and film canisters containing marijuana seeds in a bedroom. But Barbara Davis, who was home at the time of the raid, has long contended that her son was not armed when he was killed and that police placed the gun near his body. A Tarrant County grand jury declined to indict Hill in the shooting. The dispute moved to federal court in May 2000, when Troy Davis' estate sued the city over the shooting. North Richland Hills has asked a federal judge to find that the case lacks merit and dismiss it. The judge is expected to rule this fall. The fallout from the raid was dramatic. Barbara Davis -- best known for her book Precious Angels about Darlie Routier, the Rowlett woman on death row accused of killing her 2 young sons in 1996 -- posted messages decrying the Police Department on the Internet, allegations she repeated in numerous media interviews. The aftermath Some former North Richland Hills officers said the fallout from the shooting led them to resign. Others and some department observers say that Shockley tried to distance the department from the shooting, but that at the same time he was being unusually harsh with several of the officers involved in the case. Throughout the aftermath, the city and department have uniformly maintained that the case was not mishandled. For years, the department had trouble moving past the shooting -- at least as far as the former chief's handling of the aftermath was concerned, said Kevin Brown, a patrol officer who has been on the force for 13 years. "The attitude I perceived from Shockley was if he were to make changes and move forward, then he would somehow be admitting the situation had been handled wrong," Brown said. Brown was placed on paid leave for 15 days and reassigned from police detective to patrol officer in March 2003 for disclosing information related to the Davis shooting to two officers, Allen Hill and Greg Crane, who provided the information to lawyers representing Barbara Davis. Gilpin said the Davis shooting caused department morale to plummet. "It didn't seem like the rank and file trusted the administration after that," said Gilpin, a criminal defense lawyer who has been practicing for the past 10 months. He obtained his law degree after attending Texas Wesleyan University between 1999 and 2003. Robert Taylor, chairman of the University of North Texas' criminal justice department, said the aftermath of the shooting was a difficult time for the Police Department. "There was a lack of leadership, a lack of direction, and the department kind of floundered," said Taylor, who has tracked developments in North Richland Hills through newspaper accounts. Taylor also has known the incoming chief for nearly 12 years, having met him at a law enforcement institute in Collin County. Gregory Stilley, a former North Richland Hills tactical officer, said he left in July 2002 because he was not pleased with the way the administration reacted to the shooting, pointing fingers at one another and not taking responsibility. He said the incident divided the agency. "You can look at the history of an agency and you'll find that line," Stilley said. "I don't think anyone who was there then, who has left, or even now, would dispute that." Gregory Crane, a supervisor in the Davis raid who resigned from the department in June 2002, said he quit because there was "nothing honorable" about working there after the Davis shooting, which he believes the department mishandled. Crane said he believes that Hill, the shooter, did his job that day, but that the department was wrong to dispatch anyone to the Davis home at all based on the tipster's information. Brian Petty, a former North Richland Hills tactical officer who resigned in September 2000, said Hill's departure -- after he had been no-billed by a grand jury -- upset some of his fellow officers. "It leaves a sour taste in your mouth to see that you can do the job you're trained for and still end up in the wrong," said Petty, who resigned after supervisors accused him of lying about report paperwork. "I'm not saying he was right or wrong, but there are some people who think he's a villain and some who think he's a saint. There's not a lot of middle ground." Petty said the Davis shooting stirred turmoil in the department -- as would any department in similar circumstances. Since the 1999 shooting, Trickey said, North Richland Hills has had difficulty recruiting qualified police candidates. Some officers who might be lured to the city from smaller agencies have been reluctant to come, he added. "The consensus has been that they don't want to come to a department that appears to be in 'trouble,'" he said. But a new chief should change that, Trickey said. Leadership change Mickey Shelley, president of the nearly 100-member North Richland Hills Police Association, said Perdue is well-respected within the Irving Police Department and is considered a law enforcement administrator of the highest caliber. "There's a real feeling of excitement," Shelley said. Officers expect Perdue to be a leader who stays in touch with the front lines, said Brown, the patrol officer. "We have been lacking that the last few years," Brown said. "He's the kind of person who listens to the ideas we have instead of shooting them down." Taylor, of UNT, said Perdue will involve the community in department efforts. He expects Perdue to build an effective partnership between police and residents. "He will make changes with this community-based approach, and he will be very solid," he said. "North Richland Hills is lucky they got him." Perdue said he is looks forward to the challenges. "The officers of North Richland Hills are a group of very good, dedicated officers -- an excellent police department that has had difficulties and needs to prove to the community they have their best interests at heart." Officers tell how raid changed force These North Richland Hills police officers have left the employ of the city since the Dec. 15, 1999, drug raid that led to the shooting death of Troy Davis, 25: - Former Police Chief Thomas Shockley -- Retired Jan. 5, nearly a month after he was suspended for erratic driving. Was in charge during the raid. - Former officer Allen Hill -- Resigned from the department in May 2000, 5 months after he shot and killed Troy Davis during the SWAT team no-knock drug raid at the Davis house. He told the Star-Telegram that he quit because he was being harassed by his superiors. - Sgt. John "Andy" Wallace -- Retired in May, offering no particular reason. Supervisor in charge of the SWAT team at the time of the raid, as well as heading the special investigative unit. - Edwin D. Luna -- Resigned from the city in late February after being caught accessing online pornography while working at city computers. Maintained the crime-scene log at the scene of the raid. - Timothy Burch, a four-year officer with the department -- Fired in October 2002 for having an affair during his lunch breaks and for mishandling a stolen-car case. Was not directly involved in the Davis case. - Gregory J. Crane -- Resigned in June 2002. A supervisor for the Davis raid. He said he quit the department because there was "nothing honorable" about working there after the raid, which he believes should never been conducted. - Timothy Gilpin -- Quit in April 2003. Gilpin said he was forced out by department heads because of testimony he gave in the Davis case. - Gregory Stilley -- Quit the department in July 2002. A detective and tactical team member on the Davis case. He said he quit because he was not pleased with the negative effect that the Davis shooting had on the department. - Brian Petty -- Retired in September 2000. Not directly involved in the Davis case but said he also saw the negative effect it had on the department. The officer said he resigned at the request of supervisors after he was caught lying about whether he had filled out reports. - Bob Curtis -- Quit in January 2001, citing "personal reasons." Curtis was involved in limited capacity with the department's criminal investigation division investigation of the Davis case. - Steven E. Carney -- Retired in January 2004 without citing any reasons. Involved in the raid as a CID sergeant in the Davis case. - Detective Edward R. Lynn -- Quit Feb. 28, 2003, citing personal reasons. Had a limited role in the Davis investigation. In an unrelated case, he was convicted of negligent homicide for the accidental shotgun killing of a man he was frisking in 1985. He was allowed to remain on the force after he completed a one-year probation. (SOURCES: Documents submitted to the City of North Richland Hills, officer resignations and Star-Telegram archives.) Davis lawsuit timeline A timeline of the Troy Davis lawsuit against North Richland Hills. December 1999 -- SWAT team officer Allen Hill shoots and kills Troy Davis -- 25-year-old son of true-crime author Barbara Davis -- during a drug raid. May 2000 -- Troy Davis' estate sues the city. The federal lawsuit against the city and former and current officers involved in the raid alleges that officers used excessive force and violated Davis' civil rights. March 2002 -- Officers are called to then-Police Chief Tom Shockley's house after he reports seeing an armed woman on his porch. He later says a prescription drug made him hallucinate. July 2004 -- At the request of the Star-Telegram, the city calculates that the Davis legal case had cost North Richland Hills taxpayers at least $437,000 in legal fees as of July 2004. Dec. 6, 2004 -- Shockley's car nearly hits a North Richland Hills patrol car. Shockley tells the Star-Telegram that the incident happened because he had taken a muscle relaxant, Soma, on an empty stomach. Jan. 5, 2005 -- Shockley retires about a month after he is suspended without pay for erratic driving. April 11, 2005 -- An appeals court dismisses claims that Shockley and police Sgt. Andy Wallace, supervisor of the SWAT team, failed to adequately supervise Hill when he shot Davis. Hill and North Richland Hills are the only remaining defendants in the case. June 29, 2005 -- Jimmy Perdue, former assistant police chief in Irving, is announced as Shockley's replacement. He starts work Monday. (SOURCES: Star-Telegram interviews, police reports, documents from North Richland Hills) ONLINE:www.ci.north-richland-hills.tx.us (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) MISSOURI: Victim's sister tries to live on Elaine Wild can still see her sister scampering around the yard after the dog. They were just kids, the 3 sisters: Elaine, Pertie and Shirley Ann Arras. They lived with Momma and Daddy in a house with no running water on the outskirts of New Hanover, a small Monroe County farming town 20 miles east of St. Louis, a town with a one-room schoolhouse. The family's basset hound had just had babies, and Daddy said the girls could each pick one puppy. Elaine named her white-faced dog Zip. Pertie named her pup Sandy. Shirley called her wrinkle-faced dog Ruffles. The three sisters took their new friends to the front yard, a half-acre plot ringed by a fence and splashed in early spring sunlight. The puppies bounded through the green grass, and the girls laughed as they put the dogs in a red Radio Flyer wagon and pulled them around the yard. Elaine and Shirley wore white blouses and striped shorts. There was no rage in Elaines blue eyes, no yearning to see another man put to death. Not yet. It was the mid-1950s, when the United States was executing more than 60 people a year. But that number was on the way down. From 1968 to 1976, the United States didn't execute anyone. But starting in 1981, the rate once again soared, hitting a peak of 98 executions in 1999. One year later, on Jan. 31, 2000, Illinois Gov. George Ryan drew worldwide attention by declaring a freeze on executions in his state after 13 death-row inmates were proven innocent. The move injected the death-penalty issue with life and resulted in public discussions and court rulings over the next five years. But in 1954, in the yard of a small house in a quiet town in Illinois, Elaine had no opinion on the death penalty. She laughed as she called out to Shirley, "Sheba!" That was her nickname for her 7-year-old sister. Always "My Little Sheba." The name came from the movie "Come Back, Little Sheba," about an unhappy woman who misses her lost dog, Sheba. Elaine was 10 right then and was always with Shirley. She didnt miss her Sheba. Not yet. Horrific crime At 2 a.m. on Sept. 9, 1993, Christopher Simmons, 17, and Charlie Benjamin, 15, broke into a trailer near Fenton. They heard a noise and found Shirley Ann Arras Crook in the bedroom. Simmons placed duct tape over her mouth and eyes. He bound her wrists with a dog leash. He tied her ankles to her wrists with a bathrobe cloth belt. He and his accomplice then beat her. They broke her ribs. Then they walked her out to her Ford Aerostar van and drove 16 miles to the Castlewood State Park in southwest St. Louis County. Simmons, Benjamin and John Tessmer had talked days before about committing a murder. Tessmer pulled out at the last second. Simmons stopped the van at a railroad trestle inside the park and pulled Crook out. He covered her entire face with duct tape, walked her to the edge of the bridge and pushed her - still alive, still conscious and still bound - into the Meramec River 30 feet below. Twelve years later, that push would place Simmons at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court case debating whether people who commit crimes when they are under 18 years of age can be executed. Forty-two miles away in a mobile home in the Illinois community of Freeburg, Shirley's sister, Elaine Wild, slept soundly. Praying for justice The night before her death, Shirley called Elaine at 9:30. Shirley thanked her for the yucca plants Elaine had planted in the yard for Shirleys upcoming birthday. Then Shirley told Elaine a story. That day as she was at work as a driver for a courier service, she saw a mother and what appeared to be her children at the side of the off-ramp. She pulled off and read a sign the woman held: "My children are hungry." Shirley opened her door and handed her sack lunch to the woman. "If those boys had wanted money, all they would have had to do was knock on Shirley's door and ask," Elaine said. "Shirley would have given it to them." But they didn't knock, and they didn't ask. Late on Sept. 9, 1993, Elaine was at the house of her older sister, Pertie, along with the rest of the family. Shirley had been missing for hours now. The phone rang and Pertie's husband picked up. The cop on the other end was heard crying. Shirley's body had been found. Elaine didnt believe it. She didn't sleep for nights on end, instead crying into her pillow. She heard how Shirley was beaten, and she swore there would be no peace while Christopher Simmons was alive. Before this, Elaine didnt really believe in the death penalty. Things had changed. Elaine began to pray. Every morning before throwing off her covers, she prayed. Every night after crawling under her sheets, she prayed. She prayed that she could make it through the upcoming trial. She prayed that Shirley was without pain. But more than anything she prayed that Christopher Simmons got justice. Justice to her meant the death penalty. Death sentence The first day of Simmons' trial was on June 13, 1994, nine months after Shirley's murder, in Hillsboro, Mo., 45 miles southwest of St. Louis. Charlie Benjamin, Simmons' younger accomplice, had already received a life sentence for his part in the murder. Elaine was there to see Simmons, to study his face, to hope he showed some remorse. He did not, in her opinion, and she was happy when on June 18, 2 days after he was convicted, Simmons received a death sentence. Elaine would have some peace. "Simmons didn't give Shirley a chance," she said. "Why should he get a chance?" Over the next 12 years she repeated this over and over. When reporters called or neighbors inquired, she repeated the line. It became a mantra. * * * The most recent Gallup survey in May 2004 showed 71 % of Americans favor the death penalty. But a 2002 Gallup survey showed that only 26 % favor the punishment for juveniles convicted of murder. For Elaine, this is irrelevant. She pointed out that Simmons was 8 months away from turning 18. Does that make much of a difference? she wondered. Yes it does, according to many leading medical groups. Recent research from sources such as the Harvard Medical School and the Institute on Mental Health show that adolescents brains are still developing at age 18. Their behavior, according to studies, is dominated by the amygdala, the area of the brain associated with aggression and impulse, while the prefrontal cortex, the region that controls such aggression and impulse and allows anticipation of consequences, doesnt fully mature until after age 18. For Charlene Hall, this science makes little difference. After her friend, Jenny Ertman, was murdered in 1993 by five men, two under age 18, she joined Justice For All and helped create the groups Web sites, www.murdervictims.com and www.prodeathpenalty.com. "My response (to the science) would be So what?" she said. "I am much wiser than I was at 30, and my rationality is at an all-time high, yet that does not make me not responsible for decisions I made when I was 30." She now helps maintain a list of more than 300 testimonials from victims loved ones on www.murdervictims.com. One such testimonial from Ann Scott in Oklahoma City, whose daughters killer turned 18 only two weeks before the murder, captures the rage felt by so many families on the Web site: "I want (the murderer) to disappear off the face of this earth. I want him to rot in hell for all of eternity. He is a bad seed that never should have been born. He is an animal, and when you have a vicious animal that attacks people, you take it to the pound and have it 'put away.'" Surrounded by death Christopher Simmons was scheduled to be "put away," which gave Elaine some measure of peace. Still, in the years after Shirleys death her life changed. Momma, Gracie Arras, died two months before the trial, and Shirley's husband, Steven Crook, died in 1996. Neither of the 2 recovered from Shirley's murder, and Elaine blames Simmons for both of their deaths. Elaine's husband of 34 years, Willard Wild, died in 2002. She began keeping a mental tally of family members from her and her husband's sides who died since Shirleys murder. It now stands at 72, she said. At St. Paul's United Church of Christ in Freeburg where Elaine had gone for years, something changed; she stopped caring. If God would allow something to happen to Shirley, why should she go to church? As she grew more uncomfortable, she attended less often. Then she quit going altogether. In her neighborhood, Elaine felt the stares of people. They all knew she wanted that boy to be executed. Some would look at her funny, and others would stop and tell her, "It's not right to want another man to die." Although she had stopped going to church, she'd stare those people in the eyes and quote the Bible. "An eye for an eye." She tried to keep living. She went to the local senior center a lot. Then she'd try to catch "The Young and the Restless" at 11 a.m., followed by "As the World Turns" at 1 p.m. and "Guiding Light" at 2 p.m. She didnt watch them every day, but she followed the plot lines. Neighbors would stop by, and her older sister, Pertie, who had moved to Florida, would often call at night. But it seemed like everything had gone downhill after Shirleys death. There used to be those big gatherings. Ten, 15, 20 people would show up every Saturday at Momma and Daddy's house. Aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, neighbors and friends. They'd have a feast of homemade bread, roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob and all kinds of great soups. People played Monopoly and cards and the guys sat in the living room and watched TV with Daddy, who wasnt feeling too good. Nothing much had changed since childhood when the three sisters played with their puppies. 10 years later, without Shirley, things were different. If asked how she was doing, Elaine would most likely respond in her tired, cracked voice, "Oh, not too well." Supreme judgment Illinois freeze in 2000 sparked a renewed look at the death penalty. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Atkins v. Virginia that mentally retarded offenders could not be executed, because of the Eighth Amendments ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The judges said mentally retarded people lack the capacity to make rational decisions. It signaled the flow of the judicial tide. On August 26, 2003, Elaines phone rang. It was the Missouri attorney general's office. The Missouri Supreme Court had resentenced Simmons to life in prison. Unbelievable, she thought. The court, following the Atkins train of thought, ruled that juveniles are similarly unable to make rational choices. Two months later, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon said he was appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. Elaine started praying again for justice, for Simmons execution, to be done. Every morning for the next two years she prayed. Before the senior center, before her soap operas, even before she walked to her dresser where a picture of Shirley rests, she stared at the ceiling from her bed and prayed. Give him justice. Let that be death. Last October, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Roper v. Simmons. Five months later Elaine got an answer to her prayer. It wasnt the answer she wanted. On March 1 of this year, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that offenders under 18 years of age cannot be executed. The courts decision was based primarily on two factors. The first was that the culpability of offenders under 18 is diminished because their sense of reason is not fully developed. 6 medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, signed a brief in support of Simmons' case, citing all the research on adolescent brain development. The 2nd factor the Supreme Court considered was a world-consensus. Justice Anthony Kennedy noted that the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which lays out a ban on executing juvenile offenders, had been ratified by every country in the world except Somalia and the United States. The U.S.s lone stance in the world community, Kennedy said, is a "stark reality" that cant be ignored. The ruling affected 72 prisoners across the country that were on death row for crimes committed as juveniles. Elaine cared about only one. She couldnt believe the verdict. She didnt buy the underdeveloped brain defense. "He knew what he was doing the whole time," she said. In fact, Simmons had talked about killing someone in the days leading up to the murder. And the world consensus just didnt make sense to her. Couldnt those justices in Washington understand? He didnt give Shirley a chance. Why should he get a chance? March 1, 2005, the day the Supreme Court handed down its ruling, was a day of tears. "I don't know what to do," Elaine said through big sniffles that day. Every short phrase was punctuated with a pause to catch her breath. "That was it. There's nothing else to do. And it tears my heart out." By May, however, Elaine was resigned to the fact that Simmons would not get the death penalty. "Life has to go on," she said. Shes got a couple of good friends, even more close relatives and a granddaughter who is getting married soon. There were still some things to be happy about. But every night she sat down and thought of how things used to be. She remembered Shirley's generosity toward a homeless woman, and the family feasts filled with good food and a time so many years ago when Elaine and her sisters ran and laughed and played with Zip, Sandy and Ruffles. Elaine would get no justice, no death penalty. Sheba was gone for good. Simmons continues to live in prison. (source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (James Carlson wrote this story while a student at the Missouri School of Journalism and is currently a free-lance writer in Orlando, Fla. He is the winner of the Hearst Journalism Award for profile writing and winner of the Hearst National Writing Championship.) USA: Relationship with father sets tone for how son will live life Question: Why is early supervision and discipline of a son by his father so important? Dr. Dobson: Let me illustrate this principle with a recent finding from the world of nature. Other than dogs, which I have always loved, the animals that fascinate me the most are elephants. These magnificent creatures are highly emotional and surprisingly intelligent. I suppose that's why it is disturbing to see them suffering the encroachment of civilization. That is happening in the Pilanesberg National Park in northwestern South Africa. Rangers there have reported that young bull elephants in that region have become increasingly violent in recent years - especially to nearby white rhinos. Without provocation, an elephant will knock a rhinoceros over and then kneel and gore it to death. This is not typical elephant behavior, and it's been very difficult to explain. But now, game wardens think they've cracked the code. Apparently, the aggressiveness is a byproduct of government programs to reduce elephant populations by killing the older animals. Almost all of the young rogues were orphaned when they were calves, depriving them of adult contact. Under normal circumstances, dominant older males keep the young bulls in line and serve as role models for them. In the absence of that influence, "juvenile delinquents" grow up to terrorize their neighbors. I know it's risky to apply animal behavior too liberally to human beings, but the parallel here is too striking to miss. Let me say it one more time: The absence of early supervision and discipline is often catastrophic - for teenagers and for elephants. Prisons are populated primarily by men who were abandoned or rejected by their fathers. Motivational speaker and writer Zig Ziglar quotes his friend Bill Glass, a dedicated evangelist who counseled almost every weekend for 25 years with men who were incarcerated, as saying that among the thousands of prisoners he had met, not one of them genuinely loved his dad. 95 % of those on death row hated their fathers. In 1998, there were 1,202,107 people in federal or state prisons. Of that number, 94 % were males. Of the 3,452 prisoners awaiting execution, only 48 were women. That amounts to 98.6 % males. Clearly, as author Barbara Jackson said, "it is far easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." Some years ago, executives of a greeting-card company decided to do something special for Mother's Day. They set up a table in a federal prison, inviting any inmate who so desired to send a free card to his mom. The lines were so long, they had to make another trip to the factory to get more cards. Due to the success of the event, they decided to do the same thing on Father's Day, but this time no one came. Not one prisoner felt the need to send a card to his dad. Many had no idea who their fathers even were. What a sobering illustration of a dad's importance to his children. Contrast that story with a conversation I once had with a man named Bill Houghton, who was president of a large construction firm. Through the years, he had hired and managed thousands of employees. I asked him: "When you are thinking of hiring an employee - especially a man - what do you look for?" His answer surprised me. He said: "I look primarily at the relationship between the man and his father. If he felt loved by his dad and respected his authority, he's likely to be a good employee." Then he added: "I won't hire a young man who has been in rebellion against his dad. He will have difficulty with me, too." I have also observed that the relationship between a boy and his father sets the tone for so much of what is to come. He is that important at home. (source: The Sun Herald - Dr. Dobson is founder and chairman of the board of the nonprofit organization Focus on the Family, P.O. Box 444, Colorado Springs, CO. 80903; or www.family.org. Questions and answers are excerpted from "The Complete Marriage and Family Home Reference Guide," published by Tyndale House.) MISSISSIPPI: Tip led to serial killing suspects As law enforcement officials from 7 states searched for a serial killer last summer, John Robert Williams and Rachel Cumberland sat in the Neshoba County Detention Center in Philadelphia, Miss., accused of killing a woman they had met at a casino. No one had linked them to the torture, rape and murder of several other women who had been kidnapped from truck stops across the country and then dumped, including one off a Grapevine bridge. An officer or 2 had scanned their files in connection with the truck stop slayings of women believed to be prostitutes. But there seemed little similarity between those and the death of a casino patron. Luck and a relative who liked watching real-crime TV shows changed all that. Williams' relative watched the June 4 episode of America's Most Wanted detailing the death of Casey Jo Pipestem, whose body was found in Grapevine. The relative called the program's 800 phone number and said the killing sounded like one that her relative bragged about when she had talked to him. "As much work as all the investigators had done on these cases, I just knew that one day we would get a break," said Grapevine Detective Larry Hallmark, assigned to a multi-state task force investigating the truck stop killings. "That tip was it." Now law enforcement officials from throughout the country believe the couple -- who recently were convicted in the casino patron's death -- are responsible for the truck stop killings. Williams was a long-distance hauler who had worked for several companies during the past 3 years; Cumberland rode with him. They were arrested and charged in August 2004 with the fatal shooting of Nikki Hill of Shuqualak, Miss. The couple met her at a casino. Hill's body was found July 18, 2004, off a Neshoba County road near Philadelphia, Miss. She had been shot once in the back of the head and once in the back with a shotgun. One of the 2 suspects called Mississippi authorities to report that they found the body, police said. Williams pleaded guilty July 5 to kidnapping and murder in the Hill slaying. He was sentenced to life in prison. That same day, Cumberland pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the case and received 20 years in prison. "He claimed he shot her by accident and decided, 'Well now I've got to go ahead and kill her,' which makes no sense," said Mark Duncan, the Neshoba County District Attorney in Mississippi. "Exactly what their motivation, nobody knows." News of their arrests reached Grapevine last summer, but the pattern of the slaying didn't seem to fit the truck stop killings, Hallmark said. Investigators continued to look for clues. Their break came with the telephone tip last month. With the new information, Hallmark and Grapevine police Sgt. Bob Murphy went to Mississippi in late June to talk to the couple. The Grapevine officers took along 6 photos of women who had been kidnapped from truck stops and later killed. Murphy and Hallmark spent 11 hours interviewing the couple -- 8 hours with Williams and 3 hours with Cumberland. "They were very talkative," Hallmark said, enough to persuade officials that he was involved in Pipestem's death. Williams also discussed other cases in his interview with Grapevine police, some involving slayings that police were not aware of, leading to new investigations. "You have to be careful because when you get someone that talkative you discover that 30 % is the truth and 70 % is not," Hallmark said. Mississippi authorities have declined to make additional comments about the couple, although they have filed charges in a 2nd murder case, said Warren Strain, a spokesman with the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. The couple have been moved from the Neshoba County jail to the Lafayette County Jail in Oxford, Miss. The other cases in which the couple are suspects: - The slaying of Jennifer Hyman of Oklahoma City. A railroad engineer found her nude body Aug. 20, 2003, below a Tallahatchie River railroad bridge near Oxford, Miss. - The killing of Samantha Patrick. Charges are expected to be filed against the couple in Patrick's slaying in Yukon, Okla., about 12 miles west of Oklahoma City. - The death of Pipestem. Pipestem's nude body was found Jan. 31, 2004, in Big Bear Creek. Her body had been dropped from a Texas 360 bridge. She had last been seen 3 days earlier at an Oklahoma City truck stop. Duncan, the Neshoba County district attorney, said he's not surprised that the couple are accused serial killers. "Anybody that cold-hearted, I suppose it wouldn't bother them to do it again," Duncan said. (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
