Oct. 18 MASSACHUSETTS----federal death penalty issues Court rejects 2-jury proposal in death penalty case The Supreme Court has refused to consider whether 2 men charged in a Boston gang killing should have two juries ready to consider their case. Justices did not comment in declining to hear an appeal filed on behalf of Darryl Green and Branden Morris. At issue was whether 1 jury should consider whether the men are guilty, and if necessary, a 2nd jury consider if they should receive the death penalty. An appeals court said 1 jury would do both. This appeal did not involve the separate issue of picking a racially balanced jury. A federal appeals court earlier this month rejected a selection plan designed to produce a more racially balanced jury in the federal death penalty case. Green and Morris are charged in the 2001 gang killing of Terrell Gethers. (source: Associated Press) OHIO----female faces possible death sentence Woman convicted in son's murder, could get death penalty In Elyria, a woman who was severely burned as a child has been found guilty of killing her 4-year-old son and setting his body on fire. An Ohio jury convicted Nicole Diar on ten counts, including 2 of aggravated murder. The 28-year-old woman could receive the death penalty. Her son Jacob's body was so badly burned that the coroner was unable to determine a cause of death. Prosecutors believe Jacob was suffocated or drowned before Diar burned his body and his new puppy. The woman was burned as a child when her brother ignited her nightgown with a lighter. She underwent years of surgery so that she could move her arms and neck. (source: Associated Press) *********************** Spirko lawyers want FBI to follow up on old lead With John Spirko's execution a month away, his lawyers want the FBI to investigate an 8-year-old lead into the 1982 murder that put their client on death row, claiming that federal and state authorities have failed so far to pursue the information. Spirko's lawyers say that failure is reason enough for the Ohio Parole Board to recommend clemency for Spirko. The board plans to issue its recommendation Wednesday. Spirko is scheduled to die Nov. 15 for the murder of Elgin, Ohio, postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger. Mottinger was kidnapped in August 1982 and stabbed more than a dozen times. Her body, wrapped in a paint-splattered shroud, was found 6 weeks later. Spirko's lawyers want the FBI to interview the source of the 1997 lead and to conduct forensic tests on the shroud. They made their requests Monday in letters to the parole board and federal authorities. The lead came from John Willier, a former house painter who told a Wyandot County investigator that the man he painted houses for during the summer of 1982 was involved in Mottinger's murder and threatened to kill him if he ever told. That investigator has said he tried to get federal authorities to pursue the tip, but nothing happened. During Spirko's clemency hearing last week, a parole board member pointedly asked state officials why they never followed up. Willier told The Plain Dealer he remains eager to meet with federal officials. He is convinced that the shroud Mottinger's body was wrapped in is the drop-cloth his boss, Dale Dingus, used on painting jobs that summer. Dingus, currently in a Louisiana prison for rape, has denied any involvement. Spirko lawyer Thomas Hill said he wants the FBI to interview Willier because of questions about the "competence and integrity" of the original investigation, conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. (source: Cleveland Plain Dealer) ************************* Richey must wait another fortnight to learn his fate Death Row Scot Kenny Richey will have to wait 2 more weeks before finding out if his conviction for murdering a toddler in an arson attack will remain overturned. Kenny Richey, who was brought up in Edinburgh, has been on death row since 1987 for murdering 2-year-old Cynthia Collins by setting fire to an apartment in Ohio. Earlier this year a state appeal court overturned his murder conviction. However the prosecution lodged an appeal against that ruling. The Supreme Court was expected to decide yesterdaywhether to uphold the appeal but the case was delayed. Ken Parsigian, Richey's Boston-based lawyer, said: "They did not get a ruling today. It is unclear why but such delays usually occur when someone is asking for time to issue a dissent. "It could also have been referred to the solicitor general's office but really it is impossible to tell." The court is now in recess for two weeks. The next conference will be held on October 31. Richey, 41, could face a retrial even if the prosecution appeal is thrown out. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Richey's murder conviction and sentence in January on the grounds that his trial was seriously flawed. But prosecutors in Putnam County said the court exceeded its powers. They stated then that they would retry Richey for the murder if their appeal was rejected. In 1986, Richey was accused of starting a fire at an Ohio apartment in a bid to kill former girlfriend Candy Barchet, who was asleep with her new boyfriend. But the blaze claimed the life of Cynthia Collins in a neighbouring apartment. (source: Edinburgh News) INDIANA: Justices to decide whether judge keeps murder case The Indiana Supreme Court will decide whether Marion Superior Court Judge Robert Altice Jr. has jurisdiction to try Jeffrey Voss, 40, on a murder charge arising from the rape, torture and slaying Dec. 24 of 12-year-old Christina Tedder. Her body was found frozen 6 days later in a creek near McCordsville. Voss could face the death penalty. Voss' attorneys object to how his case was assigned to Altice after Marion Superior Court Judge Grant W. Hawkins recused himself from the case. Hawkins removed himself after Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi questioned whether Hawkins was biased against the death penalty. The case then was randomly reassigned to Altice. (source: Indianapolis Star) ALABAMA: Jury selection begins in Jones' capital murder trial Jury selection began Monday in the capital murder trial of suspected serial killer Jeremy Jones, who is accused of raping and killing a woman near Mobile last year. Jones, 32, is accused of killing Lisa Nichols, 44, on or around Sept. 18, 2004. The woman's burned and mutilated body was found in her Turnerville trailer home. Mobile County Circuit Judge Charles Graddick ruled Friday that state prosecutors can use an alleged confession and DNA evidence against Jones, who has been held in the Mobile County Metro Jail since his Sept. 21 arrest. If convicted, Jones, 32, of Miami, Okla., could be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole. The Mobile Register reports that one of Graddick's first questions Monday was who in the jury pool had, either through print or broadcast media, heard about Jones' case. So many hands went up he reversed the question and asked how many hadn't heard about it. More than two-thirds of the pool - 69 out of 100 - were later counted as having been aware of some aspect of the case. Jones faces murder charges in other states, including Louisiana, and investigators handling several unsolved slayings have expressed interest in him. Jones is charged with murder in the death of Amanda Greenwell, a 16-year-old neighbor in Douglasville, Ga., whose remains were found in April 2004, and Katherine Collins, a 45-year-old New Orleans woman whose body was found in February 2004. Authorities have said Jones confessed to or is being investigated in the deaths of a couple and the disappearance of 2 teenage girls in Oklahoma, as well as the killing of another woman in Georgia. Attorneys have said jurors will not hear about other the charges against Jones nor the term "serial killer," during the trial. The trial could begin Wednesday or Thursday and is expected to last about two weeks. Jury members will be sequestered in an undisclosed Mobile hotel and Graddick says he might order that televisions be removed from their rooms to prevent exposure to news reports on the trial. Attorneys on both sides said Monday that they expect to call nearly 50 witnesses. (source: Associated Press) IOWA: Iowa senator will push death penalty The question of whether to reinstate the death penalty in Iowa is bubbling to the surface after months in the background. Next week, a legislative committee will convene to look at penalties and sentencing for sex offenders. Several members of the panel, including Sen. Larry McKibben, R-Marshalltown, were among the Republicans who sought to reinstate the death penalty this spring in the wake of the kidnapping and murder of Jetseta Gage, a 10-year-old Cedar Rapids girl. Also fueling the debate is the news last week that an Iowan is heading for death row for the first time since the early 1960s. A federal judge issued the sentence to convicted murderer Dustin Honken, following the recommendation of a Sioux City jury. Federal courts allow for the death penalty, even in places where it is banned for state cases. Honken's accomplice, Angela Johnson, has also been recommended for the death penalty and is awaiting sentencing. Honken would be executed in Indiana. McKibben plans a yearlong campaign for the death penalty, which he said he thinks will help his party reclaim control of the Senate after a year of a 25-25 tie. "I intend to campaign very hard on the issue. I'm not up for re-election and I can assure you I know which seats are key to giving us enough votes," he said. Keith Kreiman, D-Bloomfield, co-chairman of the legislative committee and a death penalty opponent, said he doesn't think Republicans will get far by focusing on the death penalty. "I think what's more important is the total safety of our communities and our children," he said. This spring, McKibben proposed giving juries the option of capital punishment in cases where a child has been kidnapped, raped and murdered. The idea was stymied by Senate Democrats who accused Republicans of grandstanding. McKibben said he is happy to hear about the death sentence for Honken. "One, it's a deterrent and 2, it's justice," he said. Kreiman said he opposes the federal death penalty for the same reason he opposes a state death penalty, because he believes only God can decide when a life ends. "I have more concerns as a Christian than as a lawyer or a state senator," he said. Other opponents of the death penalty are troubled to see an Iowan go to death row, but even more troubled by the intensifying campaign for a state death penalty. Ben Stone, executive director of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, said death-penalty backers are exploiting high-profile crimes. "There are a lot of politicians who will take the current environment and maximize the political gains that can be made," he said. He said he expects the debate to culminate in the 2006 election for governor and three quarters of legislative seats. Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat who opposes the death penalty, is not running for re-election. Both of the Republicans running -- U.S. Rep.Jim Nussle and Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats -- support the death penalty. Among the Democrats running or considering running, Secretary of State Chet Culver is the only death penalty supporter. (source: Sioux City Journal)
