August 19 KANSAS: Olson helping Kansas defend death penalty Attorney General Phill Kline has recruited one of the countrys legal heavyweights to help defend the Kansas death penalty law before the U.S. Supreme Court. Theodore Olson, former solicitor general of the United States, is part of the team that put together the states legal brief, which was filed with the Supreme Court this week. Kansas officials are asking the court to overturn a Kansas Supreme Court decision that declared the states death penalty law unconstitutional. In December, the court ruled 4-3 that language concerning jury instructions was unfair to defendants. At stake are the fates of some of the states more infamous murderers, including John Robinson Sr. and brothers Reginald and Jonathan Carr, who were convicted of killing 5 persons in Wichita. The decision could also affect the case of Benjamin Appleby, who is charged with capital murder in the 2002 killing of Leawood teenager Ali Kemp. Oral arguments will be Dec. 7 in Washington. Kline plans to personally argue the states case. Attorneys representing Michael Marsh II, whose death sentence was overturned by the Kansas Supreme Court, will have 35 days to file their written answer, although they are expected to ask for an extension, said Whitney Watson, director of communications for Klines office. Marsh was sentenced to die for murdering a woman and her young daughter in 1966. Olson, who represented Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the legal battle after the contested 2000 presidential election, is in private practice in Washington. Olson declined to speak about his role in the case and referred questions to Klines office. The case is Kansas v. Marsh, 04-1170. (source: Kansas City Star) CALIFORNIA: Man pleads not guilty in doctor's slaying The man accused of murdering a prominent San Francisco doctor pleaded not guilty Wednesday. Prosecutors say Ellison Millare, 30, used a knife, hammer and a device that fixes car dents to bludgeon and stab Dr. Robert Lull in Lull's home May 18. They believe the motive was robbery. Millare spoke often, sometimes ramblingly, during a hearing Wednesday before Superior Court Judge Donna Little, and several times asked the judge to repeat herself. Millare refused to waive his right to a speedy trial. "I don't want to waive anything," he told the judge, who ordered him to return to court today to be appointed a public defender to represent him. Lull, 64, was found dead in his Diamond Heights hilltop home May 19. Police found a trail of cherry pits, which authorities said were linked by DNA to Millare. Millare faces special circumstances allegations and could be sentenced to death or to life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted. District Attorney Kamala Harris has said she is opposed to the death penalty. (source: San Francisco Chronicle) NORTH CAROLINA: N.C. Tailgate Shooter Convicted of Murder In Raleigh, 1 of 2 brothers charged with killing 2 men tailgating outside a North Carolina State University football game last year was convicted of murder Thursday. After 3 days of deliberations, jurors found Timothy Johnson, 23, guilty of 1st-degree murder in the death of Chicago insurance broker Kevin McCann and 2nd-degree murder in the death of Marine 2nd Lt. Brett Harman. Both victims were 23 when they were shot outside the university's home opener on Sept. 4. Johnson's brother, Tony, had argued with the victims shortly before the shootings. Although prosecutors say Timothy Johnson pulled the trigger, Tony Johnson, 20 at the time of the deaths, is also charged with 1st-degree murder. He will be tried later. Timothy Johnson, an NCSU student, told the court he unintentionally shot the two while trying to defend his brother. Harman and McCann had fought with Tony Johnson after he drove erratically through a tailgating area outside the stadium. "I know what I should have done," Timothy Johnson testified. "But it happened so fast. I couldn't let them hurt my brother." After the verdict was read, Johnson's mother, Ann Johnson, sobbed with her head in her hands. "Tim, I love you," she said to her crying son as he was led out of the courtroom. The penalty phase of the trial is scheduled to begin Friday. Defense lawyers argued Timothy Johnson had consumed a dozen beers, at least 7 shots of rum and smoked marijuana before the shootings and didn't know what he was doing. ******************** Police search for man wanted in North Carolina murders, Georgia crimes In Pinnacle, a man wanted on two counts of 1st-degree murder in the deaths of a retired mail carrier and his wife also is wanted for crimes in Georgia and Missouri, Stokes County authorities said. Authorities are searching for Cobey Wade Lakemper, 28, in connection with the deaths of William Dennis Covington, 72, and Joyce Culler Covington, 65, who were found dead in their home Aug. 7. Both were shot with a handgun - the husband twice and the wife once, Stokes County Sheriff Mike Joyce said at a news conference Thursday. The Covingtons raised corn and cattle in a community where few people lock their doors. "This family kept very little money at home," Joyce said. Authorities also are searching for Lakemper in connection with a robbery and assault in Newton County, Ga., early Thursday. In addition, Lakemper is wanted in Johnson County, Mo., on an allegation of violating probation and is a suspect in an armed robbery there, authorities said. Lakemper has relatives in Stokes County, and he had a Danbury address about a year ago, Joyce said. Stokes County authorities do not believe that Lakemper knew the Covingtons. Joyce declined to say what evidence links Covington to the homicides. Deputies, some of whom knew the Covingtons, said they interviewed more than a 100 people in hopes of getting a break in the case. "Well, somebody's life has been taken, somebody who was at home minding their own business," Joyce said. "We all take it personally." (source for both: The Associated Press) USA: Too Old To Kill The title of this article has 2 meanings. Some can believe it refers to being too old to kill another, while others, especially those concerned about the death penalty, can recognize the increasing dilemma facing the State and Federal governments when the time comes to execute an elderly prisoner on death row. Many people are aware of the "graying" population in America's prisons, and this extends to the death row population. Elderly convicts grow older, weaker and sickly waiting to die. The problems of old age are the same behind these walls as they are in the free world. I sometimes suspect that we even age more rapidly due to the environmental factors: being closed off from society, loss of hope, no opportunity for work or adequate exercise to keep the mind and body sound. Add to that the psychological stress of spending years anticipating the day you will be hauled out of your cell and deliberately killed, and you age beyond your chronological years. It is no wonder that more and more elderly death row prisoners suffer from dementia and Alzheimer's disease. As a civilized society, one could imagine we'd refrain from executing such old and sick prisoners, but that is not the case. Recently, a bedridden 74 year old man who suffered from dementia, named J. B. Hubbard, was executed in Alabama. However, since executions do not seem to be newsworthy these days, this sad and deliberate murder of an old and mentally deficient person went virtually unnoticed. Statistics tell us that at the age of 55, a prisoner is considered to be beyond his crime-prone years. In good or poor health, it appears that most people don't seem to care that an elderly convict would pose practically no threat to society if they had a chance at freedom. However, what seems to concern politicians and prosecutors is that as more and more elderly prisoners are executed, the public may start to show some scorn. Here in Arizona, a 74 year old prisoner on death row succumbed to Alzheimer's while awaiting execution. Kent Cattone, who is the chief counsel in Arizona's Capital Litigation section has acknowledged that this death row prisoner's death sentence has been stayed indefinitely. The reason, of course, is that the person being executed must understand and be conscious of why he is being executed. This leads me to the topic of Viva LeRoy Nash. He was on the Row when I arrived 22 years ago. He was 68 then, well past the aforementioned 55 year old crime prone age. On September 10, 2005, LeRoy will be 90 years old. I have lived around him for many years. When I was a law clerk in the prison library, I read a number of the pleadings he submitted to the courts. I always wondered how his case seemed to linger in the courts and lack any progress, when numerous other men who arrived here years later were already executed as their appeals were exhausted. I finally came to the realization that behind the scenes a concerted effort was secretly underway to delay the exhaustion of this octogenarian's appeals. Now that LeRoy is 90 years old, could you imagine what a spectacle and horror show it would be for the state of Arizona to execute the oldest prisoner on death row in America? A man who must be assisted by officers to walk to the shower would have to be wheeled into the gas chamber or carried and lifted onto the lethal injection table. The State still contends that age is not a factor when it comes to carrying out executions. Former deputy warden Madeleine Perkins, who used to help supervise executions here, stated during an interview that it would be a waste to execute a 90 year old man - what is the threat to society? But the reason this case has lingered in the courts with no execution warrant being issued is now apparent. In a recent article in the L.A. Times, it was reported that a gentleman's agreement is in the air, and that the State foresees a day when the old man simply does not answer his morning bed check. To die quietly lets everyone off the hook. There seems to be some hypocrisy going on here. All of these tough on crime politicians and prosecutors stand behind this false rhetoric that the death penalty exists to protect society from the monsters of death row. Now it seems they are afraid that the public will be revolted to see old geezers wheeled and carried to the execution chamber to be killed in cold blood. Men older than your grandfather and totally harmless to society if they were released tomorrow. Their sand castles will crumble when the absurdity of their sacred death penalty is thus spotlighted and seen for what it is. Not even their gentlemen's agreements or the prayers to their Gods will provide them with shelter from the storm. This problem can not and will not go away because we are an aging population on death row. Sooner or later the executions of older prisoners will reveal the cruel and unusual punishment the death penalty is along with the fact that it is purely senseless murder. The only way any compassion could be shown would be to eliminate capital punishment. And that can not happen without lots of effort by all. The death penalty is not an old man who will fail to wake up one morning for his bed check and thus solve the problem. We must continue the fight and not be lulled into believing that the death penalty is "too old to kill." (source: Richard Rossi, 50337, P.O. Box 3400, Florence, AZ 85232 Death Row, August 8, 2005) ************************************* Rush to execution leaves justice in the dust----CONGRESS SHOULD DROP PROPOSAL TO LIMIT APPEALS IN FEDERAL COURTS In the last 6 years, 44 inmates on death row have been freed because new evidence or further review of their cases showed them to be innocent. Those cases provide proof, beyond a reasonable doubt, of the need to keep courthouses open to appeals from prisoners facing execution. Except in Congress -- where reason seems not to reach. When the House and Senate return from their summer recess, they will have before them a bill that addresses the problem this way: Let's get the execution over with quicker. The Streamlined Procedures Act, introduced in both houses, would sharply limit the ability of inmates to get federal courts to review death sentences handed down in state courts, where most criminal trials are held. What's notable about the bill is who opposes it. It's not just the usual opponents of the death penalty in general. - 2 weeks ago, the national Conference of Chief Justices passed a resolution against the bill, with only the chief justice of Texas not joining the opinion. - Although the bill's sponsors contend it will not prevent genuine claims of innocence from being heard, a dozen former federal judges wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee to say that "the language of the exception is so narrow that it will cover virtually no one." - 50 former prosecutors have written to oppose the law. One of them is Bob Barr, a former member of Congress who drafted a law in 1996 that limited death row appeals. He wrote to the Judiciary Committee that the 1996 law is "working well." He calls the new bill "legislation that is being pressed without sufficient deliberation, and without any real evidence that it is needed." California Chief Justice Ronald George believes the bill would overturn recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that granted new hearings to inmates on death row. In recent cases, the Supreme Court -- not exactly known for mollycoddling criminals -- has agreed with inmates' appeals that prosecutors had hid information from the defense and that blacks had been improperly excluded from the jury. Those appeals would have been blocked by the new law. There's no denying that a long time -- often a decade or more -- can pass from the time a criminal is sentenced to when the death sentence is carried out. The cases in which prisoners are wrongly convicted prove that such delay is not a problem to be streamlined away, but a protection to be valued. (source: Opinion, Mercury News)
