September 3
NEW JERSEY:
A mother's empathy with Clara Severs----Prison sentence, not death, enough
for Weaver
Edna Weaver found long-awaited peace Friday with a guilty verdict that
spared the life of her daughter's killer.
"I'm so thankful it came out the way that it did," she said, noting she
did not support the death penalty for William Severs Jr.
Executing Severs for firing the fatal Jan. 10, 2002, shot that killed Tina
Weaver Labriola would have caused more heartbreak, Weaver said.
Weaver spoke graciously of Severs' mother, Clara, whom she wanted to spare
the pain of losing a child.
"Then she would be like me," Weaver said, resting her hand on her heart.
"I wouldn't want another mother to feel like I do -- it's a feeling I
could never put into words."
Severs will be aptly punished with time behind bars for killing Labriola,
she said. Just how much time will be determined during Severs' Oct. 21
sentencing.
"At least his mother will be able to write to him, she will be able to
send things to him," Weaver said.
Weaver can not do that for her lost daughter.
But she is thankful for the happy memories of her daughter and nature's
gift that genetically etched Tina's features upon the face of her
granddaughter, Christina Woody.
The verdict was a step toward closure.
In the days leading up the trial, Weaver said she was sometimes plagued
with worrisome thoughts.
"We have Bill, but I couldn't help but wonder if he was the right man,"
she said.
Listening to the daily testimony helped Weaver put the pieces together.
Any nagging doubts were banished by the guilty verdict, she said.
Woody, Labriola's daughter, agreed.
"I feel like a burden just went way," she said. "It's just so much
better."
The family was planning to gather for a dinner.
"Not to celebrate," said Labriola's sister Myrna Durand. "But to rejoice."
Bob Weaver, Labriola's brother, didn't attend the trial because he said he
couldn't stand the sight of Severs.
He learned of the verdict through a cell phone call from his mother.
"A weight has been lifted off our shoulders," Weaver said.
Now that the verdict is in, Weaver shifted his focus to the sentencing,
where he hopes Severs receives life in prison without parole.
And Weaver plans to tell the court just that when he makes his victim
impact statement before the sentencing.
He will stand being in the same room with Severs because it will be "last
time I ever see him and that's a great thing."
*****************
Death penalty has many hurdles
4 more crimes. 5 more homicide victims. And 6 more suspects, all facing
the death penalty if convicted in trials to be held in the coming months
and years at the Cumberland County Courthouse.
As a jury Friday morning convicted William Severs Jr. of murdering Tina
Weaver Labriola but spared him the possibility of being executed,
prosecutors saw they face a difficult task when dealing with capital
cases.
But as difficult as it may be, county Prosecutor Ronald Casella said New
Jersey has a death penalty statute on the books that must be followed.
"When any particular case meets the criteria, it's our job to seek the
penalty," Casella said.
"And it must be done on a consistent basis if the penalty is to be
considered fair."
In all criminal trials, the burden lies with the prosecutor to prove the
guilt of a suspect beyond a reasonable doubt.
But in cases where a jury can impose a death sentence, New Jersey's courts
and Legislature have set up additional roadblocks on the path from the
courtroom to death row to the execution chamber.
Cumberland County juries have been reluctant to take the step of sending a
convicted killer to die for his crimes.
Cumberland County's cases
Cumberland County currently has more defendants awaiting death penalty
trials than any other county in New Jersey. Cumberland and Morris counties
account for 1/2 of the 20 defendants facing death sentences, said Celeste
Fitzgerald, director of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death
Penalty.
"So it's a matter of geography that decides whether someone gets the death
penalty," she said. "That proves the death penalty is arbitrary and
unreasonable."
Fitzgerald said costs start adding up as soon as a prosecutor decides to
seek the death penalty.
Jury selection, trials, appeals and all other legal proceedings take
longer and cost more in capital cases because society abhors the idea of a
mistake in imposing the ultimate punishment, she said.
"The death penalty complicates everything because somebody's life is on
the line," Fitzgerald said. "Whether we like it or not, mistakes are made
and innocent people are executed."
Even some who believe the courts are subverting the public's demand for
the death penalty have their doubts about executing those convicted of
premeditated murder.
Bridgeton attorney Ted Ritter said the courts have reversed attempts by
state legislatures to pass death penalty laws.
"The legislatures and the people want a death penalty," Ritter said. "But
people in robes who are not elected impose their own beliefs on the
process."
The last death sentence
Ritter had a long professional relationship and personal friendship with
the late David L. Horuvitz, the last judge in Cumberland County to
sentence a man to a death sentence that actually was carried out.
On Aug. 18, 1951, Irving Donald Peterson shot and killed his wife with a
single rifle shot in a trailer near Bridgeton.
Although separated from his wife, who was living with another man,
Peterson worked with her and the woman's boyfriend.
After a few drinks at a local tavern, Peterson and his wife went to the
trailer, where she wanted to pick up her personal belongings. In
circumstances that still are uncertain, Peterson took a rifle out of a
closet and shot his wife once in the chest. She died immediately.
A jury later found Peterson guilty of first-degree murder, an offense with
a mandatory death penalty. Horuvitz reluctantly imposed the sentence,
Ritter said.
"He got off the bench and was sick after handing down that sentence,"
Ritter said. "He always said it was the most difficult thing he did while
on the bench."
The appeal of the sentence made it all the way to the state Supreme Court,
where it was upheld by a 5-2 vote.
One of the justices who wrote a dissenting opinion was William Brennan,
who later was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
His friend's stand on the death penalty, along with his own experience as
an attorney, leaves Ritter with serious doubts.
Even with public support for the death penalty, Ritter said he might vote
to abolish it.
"There is the question of whether it works," Ritter said. "And there are
deep moral issues."
Does society have the right or the duty to kill those who kill?
Ritter doesn't have the answer, but he remembers what imposing the death
sentence did to his friend.
"It haunted him for the rest of his life," Ritter said of Horuvitz. "And
he took it to his grave."
Major hurdles
In the county's 4 other pending death penalty cases, Casella and his staff
have topped a major hurdle --getting a grand jury to indict the defendants
on capital murder charges. Until a recent state Supreme Court ruling, it
was up to prosecutors to decide whether to seek execution.
"As we filed charges in these crimes, we felt the aggravating factors
existed for capital trials," Casella said.
In each case, Casella said, the suspects were charged with killing someone
during the commission of another crime, killing someone to avoid
prosecution of another crime, or met the criteria for one of several other
factors set by state statutes.
Casella said it's his job to follow state laws and ask for the death
penalty in homicides where those factors exist.
However, a state Superior Court appeals panel imposed a stay on all
executions in February 2004.
It ruled the state Department of Corrections needed to review all
procedures for executing condemned inmates before a death sentence could
be carried out, according to state officials.
Even if the court's stay is lifted, 2 bills under consideration by the
state Legislature could halt executions for a long time, if not
permanently.
One would create a study of the death penalty unprecedented in scope,
Fitzgerald said.
Another bill would abolish the death penalty altogether and create a life
sentence without chance of parole, a sentence that doesn't currently exist
in New Jersey, Fitzgerald said.
(source: The Bridgeton Daily Journal)
