Sept. 24 COLORADO: Law of Bible Tangles With Law of Colo. What was Moses doing in Colorado in 1995? Put another way, how did the venerable gentleman get so deeply involved in a murder trial? If the Supreme Court takes the pending case of People vs. Harlan, some light may yet be cast upon a judicial realm of outer darkness. The ugly case of Robert Eliot Harlan goes back to a night in February 1994 when Rhonda Maloney finished her shift at Harrah's Casino in Central City, Colo., a few miles west of Denver. She picked up her car and headed north on Interstate 25. She never made it home. Before the night ended, Maloney would be abducted, briefly rescued by a passing motorist, Jacquie Creazzo, and finally raped, assaulted and shot to death. Creazzo, in the ill-fated role of the Good Samaritan, also was shot. She was left paralyzed for life. In another biblical twist, Harlan's father found evidence that incriminated his son in the murder. He summoned police. In June 1995, a jury in Adams County found the defendant guilty of 1st-degree murder and kidnapping. After a sentencing hearing, the court ordered Harlan put to death. Colorado's Supreme Court at first affirmed. The usual motions ensued. Among them was a motion to vacate the death sentence because of a juror's use of the Bible during the penalty phase. Eight years passed. Most of the defense motions died on the vine. Finally the court ordered a hearing on this one. Sure enough, it turned out that at least 1 juror had brought a Bible into the jury room. Some of the sequestered jurors had consulted a Bible in their hotel rooms the night before they voted. They found guidance in Leviticus 24:16-21. There the Lord, speaking to Moses, repeatedly sanctions the death penalty. "Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. And he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death." Several of the jurors went also to the New Testament, where they found guidance in Romans 13. Here Paul expounds the civil law of the empire and urges that it be obeyed. On the Saturday morning in Brighton, Colo., when they agreed unanimously upon a death sentence, the jurors first read and discussed the biblical passages. That discussion in June 1995 was more than the trial court could tolerate in May 2003. After an extended hearing, the trial judge ruled that use of the biblical passages violated Harlan's right to have his sentence decided solely on the evidence and the law. 6 months ago, the Supreme Court of Colorado affirmed 3-2, with 2 justices abstaining. The effect was to vacate the death sentence and to replace it with life imprisonment instead. Speaking for the majority, Justice Gregory Hobbs held that the jurors' use of the biblical texts constituted reversible misconduct. Exposure of a jury to influences "outside of the trial process itself" was improper. The biblical materials "were neither admitted into evidence nor permitted by court instruction." Hobbs added: "The Bible and other religious documents are considered codes of law by many in the contemporary communities from which Colorado jurors are drawn. . . . The Leviticus text is written in the first-person voice of God and commands death as the punishment for murder. The Romans text instructs human beings to obey the civil government. . . . Drawn from an array of typical jurors in Colorado, at least one juror in this case could have been influenced by these authoritative passages to vote for the death penalty when he or she may otherwise have voted for a life sentence." Justice Hobbs emphasized that the court was not expelling God from the jury room. Indeed, "We expect jurors to bring their backgrounds and beliefs to bear on their deliberations, but to give ultimate consideration only to the facts admitted and the law as instructed. . . . We hold only that it was improper for a juror to bring the Bible into the jury room." The questions raised in the Harlan case have divided lower appellate courts. Virginia's Supreme Court (and the federal 4th Circuit) have found no error in permitting jurors in capital punishment cases to consult the Bible. The supreme courts of Oklahoma, Kentucky, Tennessee, and now Colorado have indicated that a jury's use of a Bible may indeed be prejudicial. I don't understand why it was reversible error for jurors to read physically from a Bible, but would not have been error for a juror to quote Moses from memory. Let us pray. (source: The Ledger) CALIFORNIA: Jury asks execution for killer of girl, 9 ---- Ex-neighbor tripped up by DNA after 14 years A jury recommended yesterday that a former Chula Vista bus driver be executed for the abduction and murder of 9-year-old Laura Arroyo 14 years ago. The decision brought the wrenching drama of the pony-tailed third-grader's slaying a step nearer to closing. The jury's recommendation will be weighed by San Diego Superior Court Judge John Thompson, who will formally impose the sentence at a hearing Dec. 14. While the judge can reject the recommendation and opt to sentence Manuel Bracamontes to life in prison without parole, such a step is rarely taken in death penalty cases. As the verdict was read, the 42-year-old defendant did not react. But several of his relatives seated in the second row of the courtroom began to cry. Across a narrow aisle separating two sides of the spectator seats, Arroyo's parents and about 10 other relatives looked on grimly. Outside of court, Laura's father, Luis, said he was grateful. "Justice has been made today," Arroyo said. "He has to pay for all the damage he did to my little girl." Jurors left the courthouse and declined to comment. The panel convicted Bracamontes on Sept. 2 of kidnapping, molesting and murdering Laura with a pickax. She was abducted from her San Ysidro home during evening bath time June 19, 1991. She was found the next morning on the sidewalk of a Chula Vista business park by 2 women on their way to work. An autopsy showed she was choked, stabbed 10 times in the chest and once in the face and had a half-dozen chopping wounds about her face and one of her ears. She had also been molested, the key to eventually breaking open the case more than a decade later. Bracamontes, a former neighbor of the Arroyos' who had once lived in the same apartment complex, was linked to the slaying in October 2003. DNA from semen that was captured on swabs taken from Laura's body was matched to Bracamontes' DNA. At the time of the killing, police said there was no evidence she had been molested. But more sophisticated DNA technology allowed a San Diego Police Department criminalist to find the genetic material when he re-examined the evidence in 2003, prosecutors said. Defense attorneys at the trial tried to discredit that evidence, suggesting it could have been planted or tampered with. They asked that Bracamontes's life be spared for the sake of his family and put on witnesses who testified he was a hard-working and gentle person incapable of such a vicious crime. Police had suspected Bracamontes when investigating the slaying and had plucked hair samples from him as part of the investigation. Witnesses placed him in the complex around the time Laura disappeared. After coming inside from playing with friends, Laura heard the doorbell ring. She ran to answer it, chirping, "Who is it? Who is it?" About 10 minutes later her parents realized she was gone. The front door was open. Her shoes were still neatly placed inside the threshold. At the time, seasoned detectives were stunned at the brutality of the crime. Laura, a 3rd-grade student at Nicoloff Elementary School, was stabbed with such force that the sidewalk beneath her body was chipped. As weeks went by without an arrest, a curious phenomena took shape at a blank billboard on Broadway in Chula Vista. For several weeks that summer, at night, passers-by said that they could discern Laura's image across the white expanse of the billboard. Some said it was no more than the play of light and shadow. Others - eventually numbering in the thousands who crowded the street in what became a nationally known event - believed it was the spirit of the girl, a spectral plea in the night sky to find her killer. Yesterday, Luis Arroyo thanked police and prosecutors who worked the case. He said it was still hard to wake up each day without his daughter, but he felt a small measure of relief now. "I knew sooner or later," he said, "that he would have to pay." (source: San Diego Union-Tribune) PENNSYLVANIA: Judge setsOct. 3 date for Banks hearing 10 months after the state Supreme Court ordered a competency hearing held "expeditiously" for mass murderer George Banks, a date has finally been set. Luzerne County President Judge Michael Conahan scheduled the hearing for Oct. 3 inside the Bernard C. Brominski Courthouse building in Wilkes-Barre. Banks lawyer, Albert J. Flora Jr., had requested to move the competency hearing to the more secure federal courthouse in Scranton due to several death threats he received after the appellate court issued Banks, 63, a temporary stay of execution on Dec. 2. Judge Conahan and Mr. Flora could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon. Mr. Flora said previously that Banks would have to attend the competency hearing in person. However, Judge Conahans order does not say whether the hearing will be held via videoconference or with all parties together in one courtroom. As of late Friday afternoon, there was no hearing scheduled by videoconferencing for Oct. 3 and the Luzerne County Sheriffs Department had not received a court order to transport Banks from the State Correctional Institution at Graterford, Bucks County. If Banks does attend in person, Sheriff Barry Stankus said security will likely be elevated. "We're going to have to address the security issue on Monday or Tuesday of next week to find out where Banks is going to be," Mr. Stankus said. "We're going to have to find out where he is going to be housed, either at the county (correctional facility) or at the state prison in Dallas." Banks was granted a stay of execution less than 29 hours before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection for killing 13 people, including five of his children, during a Sept. 25, 1982, shooting rampage in Wilkes-Barre and Jenkins Township. The appellate court sent the case back to Luzerne County for the competency hearing to determine if Banks is sane to be put to death and to determine if he is mentally stable to initiate clemency proceedings with the state Board of Pardons. In its order that stayed Banks execution, the Supreme Court ordered the competency hearing to be held expeditiously. Mr. Flora claimed Banks suffers from severe mental illnesses and is unable to make rationale decisions about his case. (source: The Times-Tribune) OHIO: Spirko lawyers seek probe of ex-inspector Lawyers for convicted murderer John Spirko are asking a judge to let them investigate the credibility of a man who helped put their client on death row. Spirko's lawyers filed a motion with U.S. District Judge James Carr on Friday asking for a chance to respond to questions raised about former Postal Inspector Paul Hartman. Hartman's testimony was key to winning Spirko's 1984 murder conviction for the death of a rural Ohio postmaster. That conviction was based largely on a series of jailhouse interviews by Hartman, during which Spirko reportedly revealed details of the crime. The motion Friday stems from a letter that one of Hartman's former co-workers wrote to a supervisor criticizing Hartman's conduct and expressing concern Spirko will be executed for a crime he didn't commit. Postal Inspector Gregory Duerr, who worked with Hartman in Cleveland during the 1990s, wrote that about 15 postal inspectors filed complaints in 1998 against Hartman for actions that sometimes were "bordering on criminal." Duerr also wrote that press reports and conversations with other postal inspectors have led many in his office to believe the wrong person was convicted of murdering Betty Jane Mottinger. Alvin Dunn, one of Spirko's lawyers, said the letter raises serious questions about Hartman. "We need to learn what's at the bottom of all this before an innocent man is put to death," Dunn said. Spirko is scheduled to be executed Nov. 15. No one in Attorney General Jim Petro's office was available for comment Friday afternoon. Hartman testified in June that he didn't know of any complaints against him when he worked as a postal inspector. Dunn said that if Hartman had been truthful, Spirko's lawyers would have investigated the complaints months ago. "We're not asking for them to delay the execution," Dunn said. "We're just asking for the opportunity to gather more information." Dunn was not sure when Carr would decide on the motion, but he said he hoped for a quick response. (source: Cleveland Plain Dealer)
