August 12 PENNSYLVANIA: DA seizes letter to reporter from suspect in death penalty case A prosecutor got a search warrant to seize a letter a defendant wrote to a newspaper reporter. The letter was written by Paul Aaron Ross, 33, of Hollidaysburg, to Mark Leberfinger of The Mirror, an Altoona newspaper. Ross is scheduled for trial in October in the June 2004 killing of 26-year-old Tina Miller, whose bound and beaten body was found at Canoe Creek State Park. City Editor Jay Young initially refused give the letter to Blair County District Attorney David Gorman, but the newspaper turned over the letter Thursday after Gorman got a judge to sign a search warrant for it. "A member of the public should be allowed to correspond with the local newspaper knowing we're not an agent of the government," Young said. "We still believe that, and it's unfortunate the Blair County Court system does not agree." Gorman deflected those concerns by saying there's not much to the letter, but didn't otherwise describe it. "Really, there's nothing big in this. I don't know why he didn't turn it over," Gorman said. Gorman said he is prepared to try Ross in the death penalty case, but felt he should examine and consider any potential piece of information about the case. "There's an old saying that goes: You can never have enough evidence," Gorman said. Gorman contends Ross sexually assaulted and tortured Miller before killing her. The alleged torture is the aggravating circumstance Gorman must prove to obtain the death penalty for Miller's killing, and authorities want some of Ross's ex-girlfriends to testify about his alleged propensity for rough sex. Gorman learned of the letter Ross wrote to Leberfinger after talking to him and another Mirror reporter, Phil Ray. Ray had called Gorman for comment and showed the prosecutor a letter that Ross wrote to Ray complaining about the prosecutor's tactics in obtaining evidence and other issues. (source: Associated Press) NORTH DAKOTA: Prosecutors deny ethnic bias in seeking death penalty in Sjodin case Federal prosecutors say their decision to seek the death penalty against the man accused in the death of University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin had nothing to do with his ethnic background. Attorneys for Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., 52, have asked a judge to bar the death penalty on the grounds that capital punishment is arbitrary and discriminatory, saying the Justice Department has disproportionately sought the death penalty against minority defendants. "We're seeking the death penalty for Mr. Rodriguez purely for legal and factual reasons," U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley responded in court documents this week. "Ethnic motivation plays no role in it." Rodriguez, a convicted sex offender, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of kidnapping resulting in the death of Sjodin, 22, of Pequot Lakes, Minn. She disappeared in November 2003 from a mall in Grand Forks, and searchers found her body the following April in a ravine near Rodriguez' home in Crookston, Minn. Rodriguez' trial is set for next March. (source: Associated Press) ALABAMA: Judge orders death sentence in killing of 6 in Alabama In Luvurne, a judge ordered a death sentence Friday for a man convicted of gunning down 6 members of his girlfriend's family at their rural home, a ruling that rejected the jury's recommendation that the killer's life be spared. Circuit Judge Ed McFerrin imposed the sentence on Westley Devon Harris, 25, who was convicted of capital murder in the 2002 slaughter at Rutledge. "This was not an easy decision because of my personal beliefs," said McFerrin, who has never before imposed the death penalty. Attorney General Troy King had called the killings an "unspeakable horror" and urged McFerrin not to feel bound by the jury's 7-5 vote recommending life without parole. "It's obvious to me that Judge McFerrin struggled with this legally and has chosen to put aside his personal convictions to rule with the law," King said. Harris was convicted of gunning down six members of Janice Ball's family - her grandmother, mother, father and three teenage brothers - at their south Alabama farm during a daylong killing spree on Aug. 26, 2002, and then fleeing for 3 days with his girlfriend and child. Janice Ball, 16 at the time of the crime, later became the government's key witness. Harris showed no reaction when the sentence was read. His father, West Robinson, said his son remained calm and was looking hopefully toward the appeals process. "It ain't over yet," Robinson said. But relatives of the victims said they felt great satisfaction after hearing McFerrin order Harris put to death. "When they put that needle in his arm, I'll feel at ease," said Roger Hasley, brother of Janice Ball's father, Willie Hasley. Coleman Ball, whose sister was Janice Ball's mother, JoAnn Ball, also said he felt the sentence was justified. "This is what I wanted all along," he said. "It's still hard knowing that we can't go down there and visit anymore." Prosecutors said during the trial that Harris killed the victims because he was angry they tried to keep him away from Janice Ball and their 18-month-old daughter. Defense attorneys argued that she had motives to want her family dead - including claims of being sexually abused by her father and brothers. The defense also argued that the prosecution's forensic evidence and statements from Harris were either unreliable or did nothing to prove he pulled the trigger. The victims were killed over the course of the day, some as they returned home from work or school. The bodies of Janice Ball's mother, JoAnn Ball, 35, and brother Tony, 17, were found in a trailer; brother John, 14, and grandmother Mila Ruth Ball, 62, in the kitchen of the main house; brother Jerry, 19, stuffed in a car trunk; and father Willie Hasley, 40, who also went by the name Willie Haslip, at a hog pen behind the trailer. (source: Associated Press)
