Sept. 15 MISSISSIPPI----juvenile offender removed from death row Miss. death row inmate ordered re-sentenced to life in prison Kelvin Dycus was 17 when he participated in the brutal 1996 slaying of an elderly Rosedale woman. On Thursday, the Mississippi Supreme Court ordered Dycus re-sentenced to life in prison - a move 6 justices angrily denounced. Dycus was 1 of 5 Mississippi death row inmates saved from lethal injection following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this year that it is unconstitutional to execute those who committed capital offenses when they were under 18. A dozen of the states, including Mississippi, had juvenile offenders on death row. Dycus was sentenced to death in 1998 in Bolivar County. Dycus was convicted for the Dec. 24, 1996, murder of an elderly Rosedale woman. Dycus was 17 at the time. Prosecutors said Dycus and his brother entered the Bolivar County home of neighbor Mary Lee Pittman and beat, shot and robbed the 76-year-old woman. The court record showed Pittman answered her door and was struck in the face and head. She was pulled to a back room by a rope tied around her body and struck in the head with a lamp. Her body was found in the living room with gunshot wounds to her head and wrist. Dycus and his brother were arrested later that day driving Pittman's car. The Mississippi Supreme Court last year upheld the death sentence of Dycus. On Thursday, the justice reaffirmed Dycus conviction but sent the case back to Bolivar County for re-sentencing. However, Justice Michael K. Randolph, joined by 5 other justices, said the viciousness of Dycus' crime should be an exception to ban on executing juveniles. "The people's will can best be determined by the nation's legislatures, both federal and state, for social policy and in individual cases, by a jury of one's peers," Randolph wrote. "I would respectfully urge the (U.S.) Supreme Court to exercise judicial restraint, as the function of all courts is to adjudicate, not to legislate. Courts are charged with the responsibility to interpret, not create law." Randolph said, in his opinion, the majority of the nation's high court had rearranged the Constitution "to fit their personal whims and declaring that to be the law du jour, without sufficient deference to the intent of the framers of the Constitution; the rule of law; legislative acts; and finally, the decision of a jury." "Such heinous and atrocious crimes, as committed by Dycus, as well as the ever-increasing multitude of other heinous crimes involving the abduction, torture, molestation and murders by sexual predators should cause the (Supreme) Court to pause, reflect, and then reconsider the existing framework by which it analyzes the United States Constitution," he wrote. Randolph was joined in his concurring opinion by Chief Justice Jim Smith, Presiding Justices Bill Waller Jr. and Kay Cobb, and Justices Chuck Easley and George C. Carlson Jr. Justices James E. Graves Jr. and Jess H. Dickinson had agreed to the re-sentencing of Dycus but did not sign onto Randolph's comments. (source: Associated Press) PENNSYLVANIA----stay of impending execution Pottsville man receives stay of execution A Pottsville man who was scheduled to be executed next week for the 1993 murders of his grandmother and uncle received a stay of execution from a judge. U.S. Middle District Judge Sylvia H. Rambo will allow attorneys for Daniel M. Saranchak, 37, to pursue a claim that Saranchak did not receive adequate legal representation during his trial. Saranchak, who confessed to shooting his grandmother and uncle as they slept at home, was sentenced to death in 1994. His execution had been scheduled for Sept. 22. With Wednesday's ruling, Saranchak's attorneys with the Defender Association of Philadelphia have until Oct. 16 to file documents supporting their claim that Kent D. Watkins did not effectively represent Saranchak. Watkins was not immediately available for comment. On Nov. 8, 2000, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also halted Saranchak's execution, which had been scheduled for that day. Saranchak, an inmate at SCI/Graterford in Montgomery County, had previously filed direct appeals with state and federal courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Those appeals were rejected. Saranchak shot to death his grandmother, Stella T. Saranchock, 78, and his uncle, Edmund J. Saranchak, 57, sometime between Oct. 15 and Oct. 16, 1993. His co-defendant, Roy W. Miles, of New Philadelphia, pleaded guilty in October 1994 to 2 counts of 3rd-degree murder. Miles is serving an 11- to 40-year term in state prison. (source: Associated Press)
