August 12 OHIO: Boy's mother reacts: 'Where's my justice?' ---- Killer spared death because of retardation The mother of 10-year-old Aaron Raines, who was raped and beaten to death in Lower Price Hill 13 years ago, questioned Thursday why one of the boy's killers had his death sentence overturned because of mental retardation. Darryl Gumm is the 1st death-row inmate in Ohio to have his execution blocked for that reason. Barbara Raines sat through myriad court hearings during the prosecution of her youngest child's killer. She understood Gumm would have many opportunities to appeal. "I'm not the 1st person who had a child that was killed," Raines said Thursday afternoon as she sat in her kitchen in Sayler Park, drinking a Pepsi and blotting her eyes with a paper towel. "And I won't be the last. But where's my justice in this? He's already through with his appeals. "He should be killed." A judge noted Gumm was in special-education classes, functioned between a 2nd- and 3rd-grade level when he was in 8th grade and was always more of a follower than a leader. Even though Gumm's IQ is above 70, the generally accepted guideline for retardation, the convicted killer's intellectual functioning is sub-average enough that Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Dennis Helmick ruled he must be moved off death row, where he has been for the 1992 killing of Aaron Raines. Under a 2002 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, defendants like Gumm can have their death sentences overturned and be resentenced if a judge determines they are mentally retarded. In Gumm's case, Helmick issued his ruling Tuesday, surprising Raines and Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters. Gumm, now 39, is the 1st in Ohio to be successful in his mental retardation claim, said Kim Norris, spokeswoman for the Ohio Attorney General's Office. 23 others on death row - of 198 inmates there - claim they're retarded, too, according to statistics as of Dec. 31. Deters said Thursday he'll likely appeal, but he isn't sure he'll be successful. He remembered the beating as particularly brutal - Aaron was hit 19 times with a metal pipe. Deters was prosecutor when Gumm was convicted. The boy was still recovering from a head injury from being hit by a van while riding his skateboard, his mother said. If he were thinking right, she said, he never would have gone into the abandoned building near Eighth Street and State Avenue where he was found dead. When Gumm is resentenced, the laws in effect in 1992 will apply. That means, Deters said, that life without parole will not be an option because it didn't exist at the time. Deters said that, depending on the sentence is imposed, Gumm could have the possibility of parole. "I'm not saying that Darryl Gumm isn't stupid," Deters said. "I just don't think he's retarded." Raines doesn't either. "He knew enough to kill Aaron and run," she said. She wants to make sure judges at the courthouse downtown and at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington know how it feels to be the mother of a murdered little boy whose killer gets to live because someone decided he's retarded. She's still deciding how to get her message across. "I know this sounds terrible to say, and people probably won't think it's right," she said. "But if he gets out, I'll be there at the gate. He won't walk 5 steps." (source: Cincinnati Enquirer) CALIFORNIA: No blood, tissue discovered on knife found at Peterson home No blood or human tissue has been discovered on a 10-inch knife reportedly found at the home where convicted murderer Scott Peterson lived, authorities said. "It's exactly what we expected," Birgit Fladager, 1 of 3 prosecutors who helped convict Peterson, said Wednesday. Gerry Roberts, who recently purchased the home for $390,000, turned the knife over to police last month. Roberts said 2 of his friends found the knife inside a cabinet near the swimming pool in the backyard. Authorities then submitted it for forensic testing. Police still don't know how Peterson killed his pregnant wife, Laci, and her fetus. No murder weapon was ever found. Peterson was sentenced to death in December. (source: Associated Press) NORTH CAROLINA: House votes for an innocence-review board Responding to a series of publicized wrongful convictions, the state House voted 80-23 yesterday in favor of forming an independent panel to review the innocence claims of convicted felons. "This is an attempt to deal with a few cases in this state where we know human error has been made," said Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland, a co-sponsor of the bill, which now goes to the Senate. The state Supreme Court chief justice and the chief judge of the state Appeals Court would choose the 8-member panel of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission. The members would review claims and send the case on to a 3-judge Superior Court panel if 5 of the 8 members agreed. Charges would be dismissed if all 3 judges determine there "is clear and convincing evidence" that the defendant is innocent. A split decision could be appealed to the Supreme Court. A task force examining the state's criminal-justice system recommended the formation of the panel earlier this year. The task force was formed in part because of the murder case of Darryl Hunt, who spent 18 years in prison for the slaying of a Winston-Salem woman before new evidence exonerated him. The commission would rapidly examine credible claims of innocence that weren't considered during court appeals that examine legal procedure or claims stemming from new evidence. Before the innocence commission took up a case, the defendant would have to give up the right to the attorney-client or spousal privileges that might have been used in previous trials to withhold certain information. House members rejected several amendments, including one that would have barred defendants who pleaded guilty from going before the commission. (source: Associated Press)
