August 23 Georgia murder trial begins over missing Miami college student A man accused of killing an Emory University student in 1994 admitted to murder in later conversations with fellow prisoners, prosecutors argued in opening statements at the defendant's trial Monday. Prosecutors conceded their case against Colvin C. "Butch" Hinton III lacks a lot of physical evidence - including Melendi's body, which was never found - but they said Hinton's confession to other prisoners while serving time on unrelated charges, along with other physical evidence linking him to the crime, is enough to convict him of murdering 19-year-old Shannon Melendi of Miami. "'I didn't kill her. The demon inside me killed that girl.' ... Those are the words of that man," prosecutor Mike McDaniel, pointing to Hinton, told jurors. Hinton has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer, B.J. Bernstein, blasted the lack of physical evidence in her opening statement. She acknowledged that jurors will likely not warm up to Hinton once his past is revealed, but Bernstein said no one knows what really happened to the college sophomore. "The only certainty is that we haven't seen Shannon Melendi," she said. Melendi was last seen on March 26, 1994, working as a scorekeeper in a softball game. Hinton, 44, was the umpire in that game. The disappearance dominated Atlanta news for weeks, but the woman was never seen again. Hinton, who was accused 3 times previously of abducting women in Illinois and Kentucky, served 15 months in prison for kidnapping a 14-year-old girl from Neponset, Ill., in 1982. He was long considered a suspect in Melendi's disappearance, but was not charged until last year after new evidence, including the alleged statements to fellow inmates, surfaced. One of those inmates, Adonis Cornwell, was the 1st prosecution witness to testify Monday afternoon. He told jurors he met Hinton in 2001 when the 2 were holding cellmates in a facility in Talladega, Ala. The 2 were asleep in the cell, Cornwell said, when he awoke to Hinton screaming, sweating and crying in the bunk below. "I didn't kill her," Cornwell said Hinton told him. "The demon inside me did." When Cornwell asked what he was talking about, he said Hinton told him, "the girl who worked at the softball park near Memorial Drive." Defense attorneys tried to paint Cornwell, who is from the DeKalb County area where Melendi disappeared and is serving a 35-year federal prison sentence for bank robbery, as an inmate familiar with the case through the media who was trying to get a reduced sentence in exchange for his cooperation with prosecutors. Cornwell maintained he came forward because it was his "civic duty" and had no knowledge of the case before running into Hinton. "I couldn't live with myself knowing what he shared with me," Cornwell said, adding that he wasn't paying attention when Melendi disappeared in 1994 because he "was too busy robbing banks." The trial, which is expected to last 4 to 6 weeks, began Aug. 10 with prospective jurors being questioned. The jury was seated Monday. (source: Associated Press) INDIANA: Defense: Killer not fit to be executed----Death penalty called unjust for mentally ill Convicted killer Arthur P. Baird is "grossly psychotic and delusional" and is not competent to face execution early Aug. 31, a psychiatrist said in report filed by Baird's attorney Monday with the Indiana Supreme Court. The case could test whether executing the mentally ill constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Indiana law prohibits the execution of people who are mentally retarded but doesn't say whether the lives of severely mentally ill killers also should be spared. The U.S. Supreme Court also has not addressed the question. Indiana's high court in July set Baird's execution date after citing procedural reasons for rejecting the death row inmate's claim that he should not be executed because he is mentally ill. The court said Baird's legal claim was flawed because it had not been raised in earlier judicial reviews. Baird's pro bono attorney, Sarah L. Nagy, is preparing an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. She's also trying to buy time for her client by challenging his legal competence to face execution. Indiana law also does not address the question. Baird, a 1964 Ben Davis High School graduate, does not comprehend the nature of the murders he committed in 1985 well enough to face lethal injection, according to an 11-page written evaluation by Dr. Philip M. Coons, a professor emeritus of psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Coons is a forensic psychiatrist whose work has been widely published in peer-review medical journals. "He thinks the sentence is unjust because he did not choose to murder his wife and parents. His hands murdered his wife and parents while under the control of unseen forces and persons," Coons wrote in a psychiatric evaluation. "It would be unjust to execute an individual who suffers from a severe mental disease or defect." Nagy also has filed a sworn statement with the court from Howard E. Wooden, a forensic psychologist who believes Baird killed his wife and parents during a psychotic episode. Wooden last evaluated Baird more than 10 years ago. He said in his statement that Baird's mental illness was unlikely to improve without treatment. In prison, Baird has not received medicine or treatment for his delusions, court records show. In a written response to Baird's filings, Deputy Attorney General Andrew A. Kobe said the state "continues to respectfully oppose" efforts by Baird to delay -- and ultimately lift -- his death sentence. Without offering any evidence the state might have regarding Baird's ability to comprehend why he's facing execution, Kobe called the psychiatric evaluation's findings "vague and contradictory." Four Indiana inmates have been executed so far this year -- the most in one year since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1977. Baird would be the 5th. Baird, 59, formerly of rural Montgomery County, has been held in the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City since a jury found him guilty of 3 counts of murder and one count of feticide. The jury could have found him "guilty but mentally ill," though such a finding does not guarantee treatment in prison or spare convicted killers from death. Baird strangled his pregnant wife, Nadine, on Sept. 6, 1985, and fatally stabbed his parents, Arthur and Kathryn Baird, the next day. Baird, who had never before been in legal trouble, has consistently maintained that a "big, burly man" controlled his actions during the slayings. Every mental health professional who has examined Baird, including those appointed by courts, has concluded he was unable to control his actions at the time of the crime. Last month, Nagy asked the state's high court to delay Baird's execution so she could file a new petition for post-conviction relief, a maneuver that allows courts to consider evidence unavailable at trial. She also asked the court to appoint 2 independent psychiatrists to determine whether Baird is legally competent to face execution. The court has not ruled on either request, but a ruling is expected soon. Nagy wants the nation's high court to determine whether executing a mentally ill person constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The court has never addressed the question of executing people who kill due to an "irresistible impulse" inspired by mental illness. Clemency request being considered Along with his petition before the Indiana Supreme Court, Arthur P. Baird also is asking the Indiana Parole Board to recommend that Gov. Mitch Daniels grant him clemency, which would spare Baird from execution. The 4-member board, appointed by the governor, heard testimony Friday from Baird during a hearing at the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City. The Parole Board will reconvene at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the Indiana Government Center South Auditorium, 302 W. Washington St., to hear testimony from witnesses on behalf of Baird and his victims. The board will vote at 2:30 p.m. (source: Indianapolis Star) OHIO: Analysis shows varied application of death sentence in 1983 cases A review of some of Ohio's earliest death penalty cases found little consistency comparing the seriousness of the crime with the outcome, including whether offenders were sentenced to death. The lawyers for one of those defendants scheduled to die Sept. 20, killer John Spirko, planned to prevent evidence Tuesday to a state board weighing whether to recommend mercy. Prosecutors cited two factors in the state's capital punishment law for charging Spirko with a crime carrying the death sentence: the murder occurred during a robbery, and Spirko had a previous murder conviction. 47 other offenders charged in 1983 with death penalty crimes had 2 or more factors - called specifications under Ohio law - but only 10 were sentenced to death. 42 offenders charged in 1983 had only 1 specification, yet 10 of those were also sentenced to death. In total, prosecutors charged 99 offenders in 1983 with crimes whose sentence could have resulted in execution, including Spirko and his co-defendant, Delaney Gibson, according to the first-ever study of capital cases by The Associated Press. Some of those indictments included cases such as Spirko's in which the crime was committed in 1982. Spirko, 59, says he did not abduct from work and stab to death Betty Jane Mottinger, a postmistress in Elgin. The number of factors included in a possible death sentence case don't matter as much during the trial, when the issue is guilt or innocence, said Timothy Prichard, a senior deputy attorney general who oversees capital cases. Instead, the specifications matter most during sentencing, but juries also consider other factors then, such as a bad childhood or mental illness, he said. "You weigh those and the jury comes up with its conclusion individualized for this offender," Prichard said. The AP analysis shows there's little validity to sentencing in Ohio, but the findings do not relate directly to the facts of his case, said Spirko's Washington, D.C.-based attorney William Hill. "Our position is he's innocent of charges that bring him here to begin with," Hill said Monday. Numerous offenders charged like Spirko with two specifications had far different outcomes. In a Cuyahoga County case, for example, four people were charged with the April 1983 execution style shooting death of Pamela Mayer, 28, in Cleveland, during what was described as a drug deal gone bad. Each of the 4 was charged with aggravated murder and 2 specifications: kidnapping and committing the murder during an aggravated robbery. 3 of the 4 accepted plea deals to escape possible death sentences; the 4th, Andrew Majoros, went to trial where a jury convicted him of the crime but sentenced him to 30 years to life in prison instead. Majoros died in prison in May 1999. Jurors likely considered that Majoros, 38 at the time, would probably never leave prison even if they didn't sentence him to death, said Thomas Lobe, a former Cuyahoga County prosecutor who tried the case. He also believes testimony of Majoros' children begging for his life played a role. It's hard to say whether Spirko's case can be compared to others, since his prior murder is one of the most serious death penalty factors, said David McCord, a Drake University Law School professor who studies outcomes of capital cases. More telling is that only 20 of the 99 capital cases resulted in death sentences in 1983, he said. Of those, 5 offenders have been executed, six offenders have had their sentences overturned by federal courts or been allowed to seek new appeals and one offender died in prison. "If only a very small percentage end up being executed, and it's not ones with the most specifications, that raises a very strong inference that the system is not operating rationally," McCord said. Ohio has executed 16 men since 1999 and plans 3 executions this fall. ON THE NET Department of Rehabilitation and Correction: http://www.drc.state.oh.us/ ************************ Highlights of prison system findings on death row suicide Highlights of findings by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction into the May 7 suicide of death row inmate Martin Koliser: - There was no evidence a nurse assigned to death row had completed CPR training in 2003, nor did she receive training in 2004 or become recertified this year until 10 days after Koliser's death. - An officer unnecessarily delayed an ambulance's arrival at the prison in response to Koliser's suicide by searching the vehicle. That violated department policy which says emergency vehicles should be stopped only long enough to verify the employment of emergency workers. - Institutional logbooks were lacking proper documentation of shift activities. - The cells of Koliser and other inmates were so filthy that the view into them was blocked, indicating that officers are not requiring inmates to keep their living areas clean. Staff failed to follow up on a memo dated May 4 regarding cell cleanliness. - Metal loops extended from the top and bottom bunks of the beds in Koliser's cell, and Koliser used the top loop to hang himself. The report recommended the loops be removed from death row beds. - No supervisor visited Koliser's unit the night of May 6, a violation of department policy. - Guards apparently didn't know how to work night lights in the cells that are operated from a central control area. - Seals were broken on first aid kits and supplies were missing from the kits. (source: Department of Rehabilitation and Correction) (source for both: Associated Press) KANSAS: BTK KILLER----The difference between 1 and 10 Last week, Dennis Rader, better known by his chosen pseudonym of "BTK," was sentenced to ten consecutive life sentences for a series of brutal murders committed in Kansas over a period of over 20 years starting in the early 1970s. As I moved across the country this last week, I caught a bit of a discussion on CNN with a guest commentator, I believe an attorney, decrying the fact that Rader was not eligible for the death penalty. That sentence was not an option in his case because, at the time his crimes were committed, Kansas did not have the death penalty. The attorney's protests against allowing Rader to live in prison, however, disturbed me greatly. He claimed that Rader would have gotten a life sentence for 1 murder, so to simply add more life sentences for the other 9 murders for which he was being sentenced was essentially not punishing him for those murders - that his life sentence simply wasnt bad enough. He also postulated that other murderers could say, "Wait a minute, if you didn't kill Dennis Rader for killing 10 women, how could you possibly put me to death for killing only 8?" The failure of the state of Kansas to put Dennis Rader to death, therefore, would lead to scores of murderers escaping the long arm of justice. The most immediate reaction I had to the objections was that imposing more than 1 life sentence is different than only one, in a number of ways. First of all, it can be taken as a sense of closure for a victims family to have a charge and a sentence that are specifically for their relative. Being sentenced to multiple life terms also changes the potential terms of parole - in Kansas, as well as 2 other states, all life terms include the possibility of parole. One life sentence, therefore, would put Rader up for parole in only 15 years. With multiple life terms, there are 2 options for how the sentences would be served - were Rader serving all 10 terms concurrently, he would be eligible for a parole hearing in 15 years, but the number of terms he was serving would be a factor taken into account at any such hearing, making it much more difficult to be granted parole. The judge, however, sentenced Rader to serve his terms consecutively - meaning that he is not eligible for parole until 175 years from now; 15 years each for nine victims and 40 years for the 10th, as the judge considered that crime to be particularly heinous. In a more abstract sense, however, the feeling that somehow Rader isnt being punished enough - that to be fair, we would have to kill him - unsettles me greatly. On the most superficial level, even putting Rader to death doesn't meet the "eye for an eye" philosophy that the sentiment implies. To truly mete out a punishment equal to his offenses, the state of Kansas would have to kill Rader 10 times. So facing that obvious impossibility, what is the state to do? What if we could bring Rader to the brink of death, in the same way that he strangled his victims, only to painstakingly revive him only to torture him again? Can't we cause him more pain, perhaps to also compensate for the pain that the families and friends of all his victims went through - some creative torture, perhaps? Or make it truly an eye for an eye, and pick out his ten dearest friends and relatives and torture them to death too, before finally putting him to death? I don't mean to be flippant about the pain that Rader has caused scores of people over the last few decades, and I certainly wouldn't blame anyone who lost someone close to them for wanting to torture Rader themselves. If a family member of mine was murdered, I am sure that I would want nothing more than to cause as much pain to their murderer as I possibly could. I cant imagine the pain that the relatives of Rader's victims went through, particularly as he was caught so long after most of his crimes were committed, and in a way I can understand the feeling that the amount of pain he has caused is so much greater than the amount of punishment he will experience. The American justice system, however, is not meant to be an equalizer of pain. That would be an entirely fruitless enterprise, and the job of the government is not to try to be some kind of karmic insurance that you will get back what you put out. Rather, the point of the justice system is twofold. In less serious offenses, at least in theory, rehabilitation is a worthy goal - trying to turn men and women from a life of harmful wrongdoing toward becoming productive members of society. For more heinous crimes, however, there is a sense of both punishment and protecting the larger society from dangerous and perhaps irredeemable members. We cannot inflict a punishment upon Dennis Rader equal to the harm he has caused, but we can keep him from committing further harm. And in that sense, spending the rest of his life behind bars is just as effective a method as putting him to death. Dennis Rader will never kill another woman in Kansas. 10 consecutive life sentences, each the consequence of one victim, ensures that. He was the source of more pain than he will ever probably experience, but that scale cannot be balanced by the efforts of the state of Kansas, and it seems impotent brutality to try. (source: Dara Purvis, The Raw Story)
