August 23
TEXAS----impending execution
Lawyers seek to block execution----Friendswood killer's attorney says the
case was 'a trespassing that got ugly'
There's little doubt that Robert Alan Shields had been in the house next
door to his parents' home where a 27-year-old woman was found repeatedly
stabbed with a kitchen knife and beaten with a hammer.
His fingerprints and bloody shoeprints were in the laundry room of the
Friendswood home where Paula Stiner's husband found her body in September
1994. She was covered with blood, lying near the washer and dryer. Shields
used her credit card within two hours of her death to buy a suit. When he
was arrested a few days later 50 miles away, he had her car.
But lawyers trying to block his execution today in Huntsville were arguing
in the courts that Shields, then 19, was trying to defend himself and
never intended to kill Stiner. She had left her job at a Pasadena
insurance agency early, and may have surprised the intruder at her home
where he took a shower after spending the night in their garage unknown to
them.
"If the death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst, this is
certainly not it," said Richard Ellis, Shields' appeals attorney. "At
worst, this was a trespassing that got ugly and resulted in a tragic death
and there was no intent to kill."
Michael Guarino, the former Galveston County district attorney who
prosecuted Shields at his 1995 capital murder trial, disagreed. "He
absolutely chose to butcher her," Guarino said. "He could have burglarized
the home and taken valuable things. But that wasn't his intent. His intent
was to take the car and kill her."
Shields would be the 12th Texas inmate to receive lethal injection this
year in the nation's most active death penalty state.
"I have not heard any news, but it's not looking so good," Shields, 30,
said in a letter posted on an anti-death penalty Web site. "Do you people
see how insane it is to know the exact date and time of your own murder
and sit patiently waiting for it. Its definitely playing with my mind.
"It will not be long before my blood too is greasing the wheels of Texas
Death Machine."
Testimony at his trial showed he probably broke into the Stiners' home
using a screwdriver taken from his parents' garage. Shields had moved out
earlier, saying he couldn't live under his father's rules after a 1992
theft and burglary arrest resulted in probation, which he disregarded.
Police told his mother of the killing, and she alerted officers of her
son's possible involvement after learning a wood-handled screwdriver like
the one belonging to her husband had been used in the break-in. She also
said she found items out of place in the garage, along with her son's
pager and a shirt, court records showed.
She provided phone numbers of his acquaintances, and police traced him to
The Woodlands, where Shields had friends and was living in empty houses.
Shields also had been arrested earlier in 1994 for auto theft in Florida
after breaking into a car in Friendswood and stealing a checkbook and
credit card. In July 1994, 2 months before the Stiner slaying, he was
involved in stealing credit cards and a cell phone from another car,
according to testimony.
A social worker testified Shields had consumed alcohol continuously since
he was 14, and by the time he was 17, "70 to 75 percent of Shields' time
was related to procuring, using or recovering from drugs and alcohol," a
court document said.
At least 10 other Texas inmates have execution dates later this year,
including Frances Newton, 40, set to die Sept. 14 for the 1987 fatal
shootings of her husband and 2 children.
(source: Associated Press)
***************************
Decade on death row set to end tonight
A decade on death row and a mans life are scheduled to end tonight when
the killer of a Friendswood woman faces execution by lethal injection.
Robert Shields was 20 in October 1995 when a Galveston jury sentenced him
to death in the capital murder of Paula Stiner.
Stiners husband returned home from work on Sept. 21, 1994, to find the
27-year-old womans bloody body in the laundry room of their Friendswood
home. She had been beaten with a hammer and stabbed with a knife from her
own kitchen.
Detectives matched Shields fingerprints with one collected at the scene.
Shields had left a bloody shoeprint and a cigarette butt. Detectives also
found the screwdriver they believed he used to break into the house.
Former Precinct 8 Constable Daniel Cooper arrested Shields 3 days later in
The Woodlands, 45 miles north of Houston. Shields was driving Stiners car
and wearing bloody clothes at the time of his capture.
During Shields trial, witnesses established that Shields was likely inside
Stiners house hours before she got there.
Shields, 30, declined to speak to The Daily News. The only interview he
granted was to Christian Networks Journal, a monthly magazine.
Gordon McClellan, an Oklahoma-based Presbyterian minister and
founder/editor in chief of the Journal, said Shields proclaimed his
innocence and talked about the spiritual conversion he had undergone in
the past decade.
"He claims he was there, but did not actually wield the hammer, himself,"
McClellan said. "Mostly, he talked about how his faith really grew once he
was in prison and was forced to really look at his own life and not view
it as what he thinks it is, but to really look within himself, to see what
really it is and grow from there."
In February, Shields exhausted the last of his appeals, which reached the
U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The court rejected his claims that he
received ineffective assistance and was wrongly denied the chance to
represent himself.
"Shields' argument, although novel, is meritless," the justices wrote.
"(N)either we nor the Supreme Court has established a constitutional right
to self-representation."
The only thing that legally can stop tonights execution is a 1-time-only,
30-day clemency from Gov. Rick Perry.
(source: Galveston County Daily News)
****************************
Defendant admitted role in Edinburg massacre
Jurors on Monday heard an audio recording of Rodolfo "Kreeper" Medrano
telling Edinburg police that he lent lower-ranking gang members weapons to
"rip off" a large amount of marijuana.
"Thats what was supposed to have happened," Medrano said to retired police
Sgt. Reyes Ramirez on Jan. 25, 2003, the day after police arrested him and
two others in connection with the Jan. 5 shooting deaths of six men found
in two small homes on Monte Cristo Road.
Medrano, 26, is the third of 13 indicted on capital murder charges to
stand trial in the shootings. His trial began Aug. 15 in Judge Mario
Ramirezs 332nd state District Court. 2 men, Juan Raul Navarro Ramirez and
Humberto "Gallo" Garza, are on death row after being found guilty of
capital murder in connection with the shootings.
Though prosecutors acknowledge Medrano was not at the crime scene, he is
facing the death penalty if found guilty. Texas law of parties allows a
person who conspires with others to commit a criminal act that ends in
murder to face the same punishment as the murderer.
In the recording, Ramirez asks Medrano if he wants a lawyer and if he
understands his right to remain silent. Medrano pauses briefly before
affirming that he will answer police questions.
Responding to Ramirezs questions, Medrano said he is a sergeant in the
Tri-City Bombers gang, which he joined in 1996.
On Jan. 4, 2003, Medrano received a call from Garza, the gangs captain,
asking him to take weapons to the home of Juanon, or Juan Arturo
Villarreal Cordova, who is also a sergeant.
Medrano dropped off SKS 7.62 millimeter weapons at Cordovas home and then
spent the night with his wife watching movies they rented, he told Ramirez
in the recording.
The slayings occurred shortly after midnight on Jan. 5.
Medrano said he found out by watching the evening news.
"I understood they were just going to rob some marijuana, some pounds,"
Medrano told Ramirez. "When they first called me, they asked me if I
wanted to go. I told them no. Ive never done something like that. I dont
do that."
Ramirez asked what happened that changed the robbery into a slaying.
"They found letters que eran Chicanos (that they were Chicanos)," Medrano
said, referring to the victims as members of the rival gang Texas Chicano
Brotherhood. He said he didnt know who made the call to begin shooting.
Medrano told Ramirez he acted as the gangs treasurer and had purchased the
weapons for $300 from a gun dealer at a McAllen gun show. He did not
register the weapons, and told Ramirez he knew that was illegal.
When police arrested the first gang member involved in the case, Medrano
said he hid the weapons at a friends house and told him to destroy them if
police arrested Medrano.
Medrano identified Robert "Bones" Gene Garza as a shooter and told Ramirez
the names of the other gang members that he believed had participated in
the raid.
Ramirez also questioned Medrano about the shooting of four women in Donna.
A jailed gang member named Juan Carlos Rodriguez, or Roach, ordered a hit
on the owner of Garcias place, the main witness against him in his
attempted murder trial.
Robert "Bones" Gene Garza, indicted in the Edinburg slayings, is already
on death row for the Donna murders. Medrano is also charged with capital
murder in the Donna case.
"They messed up and killed the waitresses," Medrano said. "We were all
upset because (Rodriguez) just jumped the gun and ordered (the hit). There
was no chain of command."
Hidalgo County Assistant District Attorneys Judith Cantu and Cregg
Thompson are using the recording Ramirez made of his interview with
Medrano to prove he should have reasonably anticipated the killings when
he lent gang members his weapons. They are expected to finish their case
against Medrano today.
On cross examination from Medranos defense attorney Hector Villarreal,
Ramirez acknowledged that Medrano didnt indicate he knew the murders were
going to happen.
(source: The Monitor)
***********************
Jury hears argument for death--Prosecutor: Rivas handed knife to killer
Maria Raquel Rivas didn't stab James Timothy Haynes in March 2004, but a
prosecutor told a jury Monday that she would prove Rivas deserves the
death penalty because of the role she played in the crime.
Rivas, 30, is the first woman in Nueces County to face the death penalty.
Prosecutor Gail Gleimer began her case by telling 12 jurors and 2
alternates that Rivas, who prosecutors and her lawyer describe as a
prostitute, lured Haynes back to the apartment in the 2500 block of West
Broadway she shared with her boyfriend, Leonard Ray Haskins. Gleimer said
Haynes, 44, was robbed in the apartment and then stabbed by Haskins with a
knife Rivas handed him.
Haskins, 21, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced in June to life
in prison.
Rivas' lawyer, Grant Jones, said during his opening statement that the
case would not meet the requirements for capital murder because his client
did not stab Haynes.
Several law enforcement officers testified Monday about the investigation,
including how officers discovered the crime scene, a block away from where
Haynes was found slumped over the steering wheel of his pickup March 20,
2004.
Lt. Rocky Vipond said a beer can in the grass in front of the apartment
caught his attention.
"I just thought it was odd that it appeared to be the same brand as the
can in the truck," Vipond testified.
The pickup was found crashed into a telephone pole in the 2400 block of
West Broadway.
An emergency medical technician testified the call initially came in as a
traffic accident and they didn't realize he had been stabbed until the
wound on the left side of Haynes' chest was found.
Nueces County Medical Examiner Ray Fernandez said Haynes had a deep knife
wound that penetrated his heart.
He also said toxicology tests on Haynes' blood showed no sign of alcohol
in his system.
Testimony ended Monday with Haynes' sister, Angel Wetz, crying as she
identified her brother in photos with his youngest daughter and with his
wife and 2 daughters. Haynes' mother, who was in the courtroom, also wept
in her wheelchair in the aisle.
The trial is expected to resume at 9:30 a.m. today in 117th District Judge
Sandra Watts' courtroom.
(source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times)
********************
Jailhouse jam----Judicial practices contribute to a packed house at the
Harris County jail.
When it comes to occupancy rates, the Harris County Jail has the opposite
problem from downtown Houston hotels, which usually have plenty of room
available. While it wouldn't rate a star in a hospitality guide, the jail
is bursting at the seams. As many as 1,900 inmates are sleeping on
mattresses on cell floors this summer, according to a critical report by
the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.
The situation is reminiscent of the nearly-quarter-century legal battle
waged by a former jail inmate who filed a federal suit charging that jail
conditions created intolerable and cruel punishment for prisoners. The
suit led to a settlement in 1995 that forced the county to build a new
jail and new adult probation facilities. The case cost taxpayers millions
for legal fees.
The previous jam resulted in part because state officials delayed the
transfer of convicts from county jails to state prisons. As reported by
the Chronicle's Steve McVicker, today's overcrowding has a different
cause.
A 2003 law mandates community service and drug treatment programs, and the
suspension of prison time, for persons convicted of possessing small
amounts of narcotics.
To circumvent the law, some Harris County judges sentence drug users to a
stretch in the county jail, creating a large in-house population of state
felons that strains the capacity of the understaffed downtown facility.
An ACLU study indicates Harris County is the only large county pursuing
such a policy. As a result, the Harris County Jail is home to 941 state
felons. The runner-up is Dallas, with only 196.
A study by the Colorado-based Justice Management Institute found that many
defendants judged to be low risk remain in the county jail here after
their arrests because they cannot afford to pay the bond for release. It
also found that judges take insufficient advantage of the county Pretrial
Services agency, which evaluates defendants to determine eligibility for
free or low-cost bonds.
State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairs the Senate Criminal Justice
Committee and has long faulted the high number of parole revocations for
minor infractions ordered by Harris County judges. "You would not have a
Harris County jail overpopulation problem if we had a more reasonable,
pro-active pretrial release system with personal recognizance bonds," he
said.
The county's judiciary is drawn almost exclusively from the ranks of
former prosecutors and is known for tough sentencing. However, it makes no
sense to fill the jail to overflowing with nonviolent defendants who lack
the financial wherewithal to buy a get out of jail pass.
Likewise, throwing prisoners convicted of minor drug offenses into the
county jail is bad justice. State law recognizes that society is
best-served by rehabilitating minor drug offenders through treatment and
counseling in a nonpenal setting. Activist judges here, ignoring the
conservative mantra that judges should follow the law, decided on their
own to thwart the intent of Texas lawmakers.
Tough justice is not achieved by filling jails with defendants accused of
minor offenses who are only there because they can't afford to make bond,
or because judges flout state law for fear of looking weak on drugs.
Rather than provoke another round of expensive jail overcrowding
litigation, Harris County judges should act now on a number of reasonable
options at their disposal to lower the jail population without creating
any additional risk to the community.
(source: Editorial, Houston Chronicle, Aug. 22)
MARYLAND:
Convicted Sniper Faces 2nd Murder Trial
Nearly 3 years after they were arrested at a rest stop, John Allen
Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo are back together in the county where the
Washington area sniper shootings began.
Montgomery County sheriff's deputies picked up Muhammad, 44, from his
death row cell in Waverly, Va., and drove him in the pre-dawn darkness
Monday to the Montgomery Correctional Facility. Already there is Malvo,
20, his co-defendant in a pending trial on 6 counts of 1st-degree murder.
Muhammad and Malvo were held separately at the jail. It is "theoretically
possible'' that the 2 could come in contact there, but "that's not in our
plans,'' said county Corrections Director Arthur Wallenstein.
Malvo was transferred in May, but Muhammad had fought extradition. On
Friday, a Virginia judge ordered him sent to Montgomery.
Muhammad refused to be photographed or give fingerprints, according to
Deputy Chief Darren Popkin of the sheriff's office. "He doesn't want to
listen to anything you have to say," Popkin said.
Muhammad will be represented by the public defender's office. A phone call
to the office was not immediately returned Monday. A court commissioner
ordered him held without bond and Muhammad waived a hearing to review that
decision.
The pair was indicted in June for the 6 Maryland killings. It will be the
second trial for both -- Muhammad was convicted in 2003 of a sniper
shooting in Manassas, Va., and sentenced to die. Malvo is serving a life
term in prison for a shooting in Falls Church, Va.
Malvo was held at Red Onion state prison in southwest Virginia before he
was sent to Maryland, while Muhammad was on death row at the Sussex state
prison south of Richmond, Va.
The 2 once formed what Virginia prosecutors said was a mobile "killing
team." They are accused of driving through the Washington area shooting
victims with a high-powered rifle from a hole drilled in the Caprice's
trunk. While not related, prosecutors said Muhammad served as a father
figure to the young Malvo.
Other than a brief appearance by Malvo and Muhammad's trial, the two have
been apart since their arrest. They are scheduled to have a status hearing
Sept. 2 in Montgomery Circuit Court.
Montgomery County State's Attorney Douglas Gansler said he plans to try
Muhammad and Malvo together. He has said additional prosecution is a
needed insurance in case the Virginia convictions are overturned. Muhammad
could be sentenced to death if convicted and Malvo, who was 17 at the time
and a minor, could be sent to prison for life.
The 2 are accused of killing 10 people and wounding three in Virginia,
Maryland and Washington, D.C., during the October 2002 spree. They have
also been linked to shootings in Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and
Washington state.
Virginia agreed to send the pair north for prosecution after Maryland
promised to return them when their trials are over. Louisiana and Alabama
both also have plans to prosecute Muhammad and Malvo on murder charges.
(source: Associated Press)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Sentencing exhausts jurors
When the doors shut Monday, 12 jurors sat down together for the last time
to decide what to do with Timothy Wayne Johnson.
It was just after 12:35 p.m. They had to decide whether to sentence
Johnson to death or to life in prison for killing Kevin McCann.
The 1st try was on the death penalty. Only 4 of the jurors would support
it, one juror, Rebecca Carver of Raleigh, said later.
So after a lunch break, a debate and some tears, the 12 jurors unanimously
voted for life. They had deliberated just 2 hours.
"We had a hard job. We did the best we could with the information we had
and the decision we made," said another juror, Rebekah White of Raleigh.
White, 45, a mother of 4 sons, was emotionally and physically worn out
late Monday afternoon as she stood in front of her parents' North Raleigh
home.
"You saw people coming out of the jury room crying -- even men," White
said.
White, Carver, and a 3rd juror said three weeks of testimony and
deliberations will affect them for the rest of their lives.
"It was very, very stressful," said Carver, 60, a legal secretary for a
downtown law firm. "Some of the jurors did not sleep well, and if they did
they had nightmares. I don't think we will ever put it totally behind us.
But you know time is a river. We have our lives."
Carver said no single piece of evidence swayed the jury.
The third juror, Jerry Smith of Willow Spring, said the statements from
victims and the Johnson family during the sentencing hearing Friday were
"gut wrenching" but had minimal impact on the life or death decision.
"There was not a lot of discussion," Smith said. "[The law] was cut and
dry."
Smith said Johnson came off as cold and callous to jurors who listened
again to Johnson's jailhouse calls shortly after his arrest.
Carver said despite the fact that he killed 2 men, Johnson did not come
off as the worst of the worst.
"I think there was enough reasonable doubt as to whether he deserved to
die," Carver said. "He wasn't an Eric Rudolph. He didn't torture people.
He wasn't a BTK killer. I'm not against the death penalty, but it has to
be pretty severe. 'Course, killing two people is pretty severe."
The jurors said the defense's arguments about Johnson's chaotic childhood
or that he has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder also had little impact.
"My son has ADHD," Carver said. "He suffered brain damage at birth. He has
more problems in that regard than Timothy. So his ADHD did not cut any ice
with me. He got help. He got medications and he sold his medicine to kids
at school. [Prosecutor] Susan Spurlin kept talking about the choices we
make. Timothy made a lot of bad choices."
Carver said the jury's decision represented one more opportunity in
Johnson's life.
"Timothy has had a lot of advantages that a lot of people don't have, and
he's blown every one of them," she said. "So he's got one more. Let's see
what he does with it."
(source: News & Observer)
**********************
An overdue study----N.C. must make sure it administers death penalty
justly
Most North Carolinians support using the death penalty to punish the most
horrific murders, public opinion polls show. But many of those same
citizens also have reservations about the way the government administers
the death penalty.
They have good reason. As an Observer investigation found, an individual's
chance of being executed by the government varies widely -- according to
where a murder was committed and whether the accused has a good lawyer,
even according to the race of the victim.
Prosecutors in some counties routinely press for the death penalty while
others elsewhere don't. Defendants who can afford a good lawyer may escape
the death penalty; those who get a court-appointed lawyer often get an
inadequate defense -- and a death sentence. And those who kill a white
person are more likely to get the death penalty than those who kill a
black person.
These are among the reasons a 2001 Legislative Research Commission study
on executions of mentally retarded inmates recommended suspending all
future executions to give the state time to determine whether it can
administer the death penalty justly. The theory was the state shouldn't
execute an offender while it was still studying whether executions can be
administered equitably across the state. The 2003 Senate passed a
moratorium on executions, but the House declined to act.
This year, the House brought up similar legislation and made a significant
change. Because a number of legislators opposed an outright ban, House
leaders drafted a bill calling for the study while permitting executions
to proceed. In cases where there are credible questions of innocence or
other legal problems, a judge can delay the execution during the study.
This is a reasonable alternative. It keeps the death penalty in place and
allows most executions to move forward. It creates a commission to pursue
a long-overdue study of the death penalty. And it creates a way for a
judge to delay an execution in cases where there are serious questions
about innocence, legal mistakes or unjust convictions.
We believe most North Carolinians agree on three important precepts: The
state should not execute an innocent person. The state should administer
the death penalty evenhandedly, so that what's a capital crime doesn't
vary from county to county. And the state should make sure that defendants
in death penalty cases have adequate lawyers. This study would help make
these ideals a reality.
With the House and Senate aiming to finish legislative work this week,
there's not much time left to act on this matter. But there is enough.
Lawmakers should approve the death penalty study and let the Study
Commission on Capital Punishment get on with this important work.
(source: Opinion, Charlotte Observer)
ARIZONA/USA:
Death penalty is arbitrary and unjust
At the risk of boring columnist John MacDonald with "irrelevant" arguments
against the death penalty, his words, if not his thoughts, describe
exactly why the death penalty should never be imposed (" 'BTK Killer'
should face cruel death," Opinions, Sunday).
Not only does the "freak" Dennis Rader escape the death penalty but so
does the Green River killer who stalked and terrorized the Northwest for
so many years, leaving 48 victims in his wake.
Rader escapes because Kansas, at the time, did not impose the death
penalty; Gary Ridgeway escapes because Washington authorities chose, in
the exercise of their discretion, not to seek the death penalty. Yet right
here, the Maricopa County attorney is seeking the death penalty for a
young man who is alleged to be responsible for the deaths of others in a
drunken-driving accident.
No matter your views on the death penalty, no one can reasonably assert
that the application of the death penalty is anything but arbitrary.
Indeed, the Arizona Capital Case Commission statistics reveal that the
location of the murder (i.e., county) and the race of the victim are stark
indicators of who receives the ultimate punishment.
Yet MacDonald writes that Arizona's death row is filled with the "worst of
the worst." Does someone who drives drunk and kills qualify as the "worst
of the worst" when considered against those who receive life imprisonment
for serial murders or the murder of youngsters?
Anyone who understands how the death penalty is actually imposed cannot
justify the arbitrariness of its application.
(source: Marty Lieberman, Phoenix - The writer is the founder and
president of the Arizona Death Penalty Forum; Arizona Republic)
