August 6 TEXAS: Arrests made in '91 cold case----Ex-mistress's husband, hired gunman charged in man's death Almost 2 years after ending an affair with another man's wife, Jimmy Sims had straightened out his marriage and become a devout Christian. He had been unfaithful for 5 or 6 years, but when he came clean his wife accepted his apologies. The couple moved on. Still, the 54-year-old machinist worried aloud that he would one day pay with his life. For months, his wife recalls, the former mistress's husband had made threats. Then on Sept. 5, 1991, Sims was fatally shot in his driveway by 2 men. Police this week charged the husband and another man with capital murder. On Friday, Sims' wife, Jeneanne, recalled the night her husband was gunned down in the driveway of their Channelview home. At first she thought she'd heard fireworks, but then her husband cried out, "Oh!," and she quickly realized that the sounds were gunfire. Grabbing a pistol, Jeneanne Sims raced outside, where she saw 2 men continuing to shoot at her husband while he lay beside his truck. When she screamed for the men to stop and pointed her gun at them, she said, the men ran off. "He told me he was going to die, that he was dying," recalled Jeneanne Sims Bishop, who has since remarried. "The next thing he said was a prayer of thanksgiving, for God having loved him and forgiven him." Sims later died at a Houston hospital. Investigators quickly surmised Sims was the victim of a murder-for-hire plot over the affair. The case, however, stalled when witnesses were afraid to come forward. In January, the Harris County Sheriff's Department cold case squad reopened the investigation. Almost 14 years after Sims' slaying, 2 men were charged Thursday with capital murder: Ronald Robinson, 54, is accused of hiring Robert Dwain Mason, 33, to kill Sims. Mason, already in prison on an unrelated charge, and Robinson, of Galena Park, now are both being held in a Harris County Jail without bail. "This was one of those cases we knew we wanted to look at when we had a chance," said sheriff's Detective Harry Fikaris, who worked on the case along with a partner, Detective Roger Wedgeworth. Fikaris said the initial investigators "felt pretty strong they had all the players," but they did not have key witnesses needed to bring charges. "The case went up and down and we felt like we were close," Fikaris said. "We got a couple of witnesses who came forward and talked to us who had never talked to us before." Fikaris said Mason is accused as one of the 2 men who gunned down Sims. He said more charges may still be filed in the case. "We felt like when you know who did it, you have to do something about it," Fikaris said. Bishop said she is pleased that the detectives never gave up on the case and that the suspects "will have to face some sort of justice while they're here on Earth." Bishop said her late husband had apologized profusely for the affair. She is left wondering why her life was not taken that September night along with her husband's. "He did everything he could to make things right," Bishop said. "I must say it was like I had a new husband after he became a Christian. He did everything he could to do right, live right and make things right with me and the Lord, especially." (source: Houston Chronicle) VIRGINIA----new execution date Precedent-setting inmate ruled competent; execution date set A death row inmate whose case led to the Supreme Court's ban on executing the mentally retarded was found mentally competent by a Virginia jury Friday, and a judge immediately scheduled his execution. Jurors deliberated 13 hours during two days before finding Daryl Atkins not mentally retarded. York County Circuit Court Judge Prentis Smiley Jr. scheduled Atkins execution Dec. 2 for the robbery and slaying 9 years ago of an Air Force enlisted man. Atkins, 27, flashed a peace sign to his family and blew a kiss as he was led from the courtroom. His mother left the court in tears. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Atkins' case 3 years ago that executing the mentally retarded is unconstitutional. The court, however, left it up to states to determine whether inmates are retarded. The York County prosecutor said she agreed with the justices decision regarding capital punishment and the mentally retarded but added that Atkins was "the wrong case" for the court. "We never disagreed that he was probably a slow learner," Commonwealth's Attorney Eileen Addison said. "That's not the same as being mentally retarded." Atkins' lawyers maintained they had established their client's mental retardation. "People in this community rejected that. We don't know why," attorney Richard Burr said. One juror wiped away tears as the panel was polled, but none would comment on the case afterward. If the jury deemed Atkins retarded, he would have been spared execution and instead sentenced to life in prison. The jury of 6 men and 6 women did not include any blacks, and had been watched closely by member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Atkins is black. Testimony in the case centered on Atkins mental capabilities. The defense portrayed him as so limited he was cut from the football team because he couldnt understand the plays. The prosecution blamed his poor performance in school on the use of drugs and alcohol, and said the claim of mental retardation was a ploy to avoid execution. Both sides called expert witnesses who disagreed on whether Atkins fell into the category of mentally retarded. An IQ of 70 or lower by the age of 18 is required to be considered mentally retarded in Virginia, which also takes into account social skills and the ability to care for oneself. Atkins had scores of 59, 67, 74 and 76 on IQ tests, but they were given when he was older than 18. Atkins was 18 when he and William Jones killed Airman 1st Class Eric Nesbitt, 21, for beer money. Nesbitt was abducted outside a convenience store, forced to withdraw money from an automated teller machine and driven to a desolate road, where he was shot 8 times. Prosecutors said Atkins was the triggerman. A plea agreement was reached with Jones, who testified against Atkins and received a life sentence. Nesbitt's family attended the trial, and his mother declined to be interviewed outside the courthouse Friday. "It was distressing to them that we went through 2 weeks never mentioning their son's name," Addison said. 18 states already had laws on the books exempting the mentally retarded from execution before the Supreme Court's ruling in Atkins case. 8, including Virginia, have revised their laws to comply with the ruling. Atkins' lawyers said they planned to appeal. (source: Associated Press) USA: Top Jurists Pan Faster Death Penalty Appeals----Chief justices from all over the U.S., with the exception of Texas, call for the Senate not to pass a bill that would streamline the process. Chief justices of state courts from around the country have urged the U.S. Senate not to pass a bill aimed at speeding death penalty appeals. The resolution passed overwhelmingly by the Conference of Chief Justices this week was the latest opposition to the Streamlined Procedures Act, introduced in the Senate by Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and in the House by Dan Lungren (R-Gold River). Only the chief justice of Texas' Supreme Court voted against the resolution, according to several justices who were present. This year, Kyl and Lungren introduced virtually identical bills in the Senate and House to remedy what they called "endless delays" between convictions in capital cases and executions. Kyl and Lungren said restrictions that Congress passed in 1996 had not been sufficient. Critics said the legislation would sharply restrict federal courts' ability to consider petitions from state prisoners who claimed that their constitutional rights had been violated or that they had evidence that they were innocent. In addition to the chief justices, the measure has drawn criticism from some conservative legal organizations, including the Rutherford Institute, whose president said the measure could lead to the execution of innocent people. About 50 former prosecutors and a dozen former federal judges have also weighed in against the bill. "I am very much in favor of trying to speed up the criminal justice process, including capital cases," said Ronald M. George, California's chief justice, who supports the death penalty and twice argued death penalty cases before the U.S. Supreme Court when he worked for the California attorney general's office. "But there is an overriding concern I, and my fellow justices, have with fairness," said George, whose state has 630 people on death row - the most in the nation. George said his review of the legislation indicated that it would overturn some recent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court that had given new hearings to people on death row. "Those Rehnquist court decisions would not have been possible if this legislation had been in effect," George said. "That is troubling to me; it was troubling to my colleagues." Ohio Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer expressed similar views. "What we are saying to the [Senate Judiciary] Committee members is: 'Don't rush this through,'" said Moyer, a Republican, the longest-serving chief justice in the nation. The proposed restrictions could significantly reduce the legal rights of death-row inmates, said Ralph Cappy, Pennsylvania's chief justice and a Democrat. "In a very delicate area where you are concerned with possible actual innocence in post-conviction hearings that gives us great pause," said Cappy, whose state has the nation's fourth-largest death row. Prisoners on death row generally reach federal courts using a legal petition known as habeas corpus - a centuries-old method of challenging allegedly illegal imprisonment. The petition gives an inmate a day in court to assert that his constitutional rights were violated at trial, leading to a serious error in the case. The pending measures "may preclude state defendants in both capital and noncapital" cases from seeking relief in the federal courts "and may deprive the federal courts of jurisdiction in the vast majority of these matters, all with unknown consequences for the state courts and the administration of justice," the chief justices said in their resolution, passed at the group's annual meeting, in Charleston, S.C. The justices urged additional study and analysis of the 1996 law "and the causes of unwarranted delay, if any" before Congress passed any new legislation on the subject. The "interpretation and effect" of the 1996 law has "only recently begun to be settled," the resolution noted. Making new and far-reaching changes in the law could spawn years of further litigation, the state judges noted. "The ostensible purpose [of these bills] is to expedite matters," but that could "easily be subverted - by another decade of litigation," Cappy said. Wallace B. Jefferson, chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, said he voted no on the resolution because he had not had sufficient time to review the measure. Texas is 1 of 2 states that has, in effect, two supreme courts: the one Jefferson heads, which reviews civil cases, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. "My point was that the whole complex area of habeas corpus is somewhat foreign to a court with only civil jurisdiction," Jefferson said. He said he had started to review the bill, but added that he had "not made any final decision." Shortly before Congress adjourned for the summer, Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill that would substantially amend the Kyl measure. The committee is supposed to take up the bill this fall. (source: Los Angeles Times) ALABAMA: Phenix City man convicted of capital murder in couple's killing A jury convicted a Phenix City man of capital murder in the killing of an Opelika couple who were robbed of $25,000 by him and two cohorts who killed a 12-year-old boy in a chilling abduction and robbery attempt a month later. James Edward Gary Jr., 29, was found guilty Thursday in the slaying of Thurman Ratliff, 68, and his wife, Katherine Ratliff, 62. According to prosecutors, Gary and two accomplices, Jimmy Lee Brooks of Smiths Station and Michael David Carruth of LaGrange, Ga., broke into the Ratliff's home in January 2002. Gary and Brooks then tortured the couple, shooting them in their outer extremities in an effort to make them disclose where they kept their money. When the couple refused, Brooks shot them both in the head, authorities said. The 3 men then took about $25,000 from the home, dividing it among them. But witnesses said they didn't find $87,000 locked in a safe in the bathroom. Defense attorney Dan Hamm, who did not call a single witness, argued in his closing that Gary did not intend to kill the Ratliffs and should only be convicted of felony murder. But Lee County District Attorney Nick Abbett told jurors that Gary's intent at the time of the crime was enough to convict him of capital murder. Carruth and Brooks were not tried for the Ratliff murders, but already have been convicted and sentenced to death for the February 2002 murder of a 12-year-old Phenix City boy, Brett Bowyer, and the attempted murder of his father, who was left for dead with his son in a makeshift grave but survived. Gary is already serving a 30-year prison sentence for cocaine possession. (source: Associated Press) ******************************** Moore's defense is dealt a setback----Jurors will not hear video game testimony Jurors won't get to hear testimony about video games, Fayette County Circuit Judge James Moore ruled Friday in Devin Moore's capital murder trial. Moore is charged with 6 counts on 3 capital murder charges in the fatal shootings of Fayette Police officers Arnold Strickland and James Crump and dispatcher Leslie "Ace" Mealer. He is accused of grabbing Strickland's pistol while he was being booked on a stolen vehicle charge and using it to shoot the 3 men. If convicted, he faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole. The defense claims that Moore is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and that triggered the shooting. They also claim that compulsively playing the video game "Grand Theft Auto" programmed him to kill. The ruling appeared to be a major setback for the defense. Defense Attorney Jim Standridge, during his opening argument, promised jurors they would hear the testimony and see the tape. Standridge told Judge Moore that he planned to have psychologist Marianne Rosenzweig testify that Devin Moore was in a "dissociative state" and reverted to behavior drilled into him by repetitively playing the video game "Grand Theft Auto." He planned to follow that by showing the jury a video game in which the player steals a car, is arrested, kills police officers while escaping from a/spolice station and then escapes in a patrol car. Standridge wanted the judge to consider two issues separately. First he wanted to present evidence that people in a dissociative state react to fear by going to their "default setting." That default setting will be behavior they learned through repetition. In Devin Moore's case, he claimed this was the video game Grand Theft Auto. Second, he wanted to present evidence that violent video games contributed to violent behavior. Judge Moore said the 2 issues were so closely entwined that they couldn't be separated. Judge Moore asked Rosenzweig questions to determine if she was qualified to testify as an expert on the issue. But Judge Moore defined the issue in very narrow terms, a situation where a person with PTSD is in a dissociative state and reverts to violent behavior because of exposure to video games. Rosenzweig said she believes that is what happened with Moore. She said she was relying on testimony from Moore, Moore's family members and other people about how often Moore played video games. Standridge told the judge the military trains pilots using video technology. The military hopes that when pilots repetitively use a video simulator it allows them to react reflexively when they are in dangerous situations. The military uses video technology to train infantry, he said. Judge Moore said he saw a major difference between military training and playing video games. Aircraft simulators put pilots in an environment that is an actual mockup of the aircraft they fly. But a video game uses a control box and a television screen. He said he didn't see how that translated directly to firing a gun. Under Judge Moore's questioning, Rosenzweig said she knew of no psychological test she could give to predict how a person with PTSD would react in a dissociative state after exposure to video games. She said she'd never had a client where this was an issue before nor had she offered an opinion on this issue in a court of law before. She said she knew of no studies or literature specifically on this issue. She also said her opinion on this issue was not the generally accepted opinion of her profession. Standridge objected to the narrow constraints placed on expert testimony. Moore said his ruling was final. However, he might hold another hearing with another expert witness the defense plans to present to determine if he has the background to offer expert testimony on this issue. The day started with McCool cross-examining Rosenzweig before the jury on her testimony about her diagnosis that Moore had PTSD. On Thursday, she testified that Moore's mental illness interfered with his ability to determine right from wrong and reality from fantasy. During the shooting and the chase that followed, Moore believed that he was in a dream because he was in a dissociative state that interfered with his perception of reality, she said Friday. "He thought he was in a bad dream," Rosenzweig said. "He thought he was in a nightmare that he couldn't wake up from." Rosenzweig pointed particularly to Moore telling police "just shoot me" when they captured him. "When you're about to be shot, that's when you wake up," Rosenzweig said. "He wanted them to shoot him so that he could wake up." McCool cited several examples of behavior that he believed indicated Moore knew what was happening and knew right from wrong: going back into the police station to get his shoe, running from the scene in a patrol car, changing his escape route when he heard on the police radio that police had spotted him, running with his hands up to keep Lamar County Deputy Larry Perkins from shooting him. To each example, Rosenzweig responded that Moore believed he was in a dream and responding accordingly. Standridge cast his actions in a different light. Rosenzweig agreed with Standridge that Moore was acting illogically when he went back into the station for a shoe but left crucial evidence like a mug shot and fingerprint card behind. She agreed that trying to escape in a marked police car didn't seem logical and neither did sitting in a field until police came to arrest him. McCool ended by asking her about a statement Alabama Bureau of Investigation Agent Johnny Tubbs said Moore made to him. Tubbs claimed Moore said, "May God have mercy on my soul." "In his dream, he was dreaming he did something wrong," Rosenzweig said. "So he appreciated the wrongfulness of his actions, he just appreciated it while he was in a dream?" McCool asked. Rosenzweig said that that was correct. The trial will resume at 9 a.m. Monday. The Tuscaloosa News)
