Oct. 19 TEXAS: Opponents of execution share stories As Tracy Spirko stood before a group of students Tuesday night, she had to walk back and forth in order to stay awake. Spirko said she has had trouble sleeping recently because she is anxious about the future of her husband. John Spirko, Tracy Spirko's husband, was accused of murder in 1982 and is sitting on Ohio's death row. His execution was scheduled for earlier this month, but he was granted a reprieve until Nov. 15. Wednesday, Ohio's state parole board will reveal the results of his clemency trial, which could halt his execution. Spirko shared her experiences with the death penalty Monday night in Rudder Theater during Journey of Hope, a program hosted by Aggies Against the Death Penalty. The program featured three speakers who have been affected by the death penalty and who said that the death penalty does not make sense ethically or financially. Spirko said her husband was convicted of murder by the testimony from a truck driver driving by the crime at 20 mph. The truck driver said John Spirko was the man he saw commit the crime, but Spirko said her husband is innocent. "Killing a person who killed another person does not make sense," she said. Spirko said there were other options available aside from death penalty, such as life in prison without parole. Amanda Lacey, vice president of the Aggies Against the Death Penalty, said her organization held the event in order to encourage discussion about the issue. "We are at an academic setting, and we want to educate people and encourage academic discussion, no matter what people's view are," she said. George White, another speaker, said he was falsely convicted of murdering his wife in 1992. He was given a life sentence and served more than 2 years in prison before his conviction was thrown out because of an unfair trial. White then spent 5 years waiting to stand trial before it was revealed that the prosecution withheld evidence proving his innocence, and he was set free. "If the state of Alabama had their way, I would be dead right now," White said. White said after the death of his wife, he hated the man who killed her and wanted him to die, but his feelings, like the feelings of many other victims' families, were misguided. Jason Fite, a junior history major, said he agreed something should be done to prevent executing innocent people, but that the action should not be eliminating the death penalty altogether. "I definitely don't think that people should be sentenced to death based on circumstantial evidence," Fite said. "I think that there should be overwhelming data, not just testimony. But if you kill someone, you deserve to lose your life. You have forfeited that right by taking it away from others." Fite said he believes the death penalty works as an effective deterrent in preventing crime. "We were not thinking from our heads, we were screaming from our broken hearts," he said. Speaker Eloise Williams, whose son, grandson and sister were all murdered on 3 separate occasions, spoke out against the death penalty. "I am here to tell you all what can happen to you in the judicial system," she said. "It's not working for us. It only works for the chosen few. I look forward to justice, but I want to be able to say 'Don't kill anybody in my name'... I have no right to tell someone to kill somebody because they killed my family. If you do that, the killing goes on and on and on like it's a disease." (source: The (Texas A & M) Battalion) ********************* Houston policeman's killer convicted of capital murder----Death penalty will be sought as punishment phase of the trial begins A Harris County jury convicted a man Tuesday of capital murder in the slaying of a Houston police officer during a robbery 2 years ago. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Alfred Dewayne Brown, 23, one of three men who participated in a robbery-turned-bloodbath at an Ace America's Cash Express in April 2003. Jurors in District Judge Mark Kent Ellis' court concluded Tuesday that Brown was the person who shot Houston police officer Charles R. Clark at close range when the officer tried to stop the robbery in the 5700 block of the South Loop. Brown had no visible reaction to the jury's decision. Clark's family and friends quietly shed tears when the guilty verdict was announced. Brown is the second person convicted in the case. One of his friends, Elijah Dwayne Joubert, 26, is on death row after being convicted of capital murder for the slaying of Alfredia Jones, 27, an Ace America's store clerk who also was shot to death during the robbery. Both victims were killed after Clark's gun jammed as he interrupted the robbery, testimony revealed. Other police officers arrived moments later to find Clark, 45, and Jones mortally wounded and the robbers gone. The punishment phase of Brown's trial begins this morning. If he does not receive the death penalty, he automatically will be sentenced to life in prison. A 3rd man arrested in the crime, Dashan Vadell Glaspie, 23, testified against Brown and Joubert and is expected to receive a 30-year sentence for aggravated robbery. (source: Houston Chronicle) *************************** Wrong on death penalty The Lufkin Daily News is a fine newspaper. But it has a serious blind spot, when it comes to the death penalty. They seem to accept standard anti-death penalty claims, without fact checking. The LDN writes: "There is no debate on whether the death penalty is a deterrent to murder. Statistics prove overwhelmingly that it isn't." (The Lufkin Daily News, Oct. 11) That is untrue. The deterrence debate is quite robust, particularly in light of 8 recent studies, all finding a strong deterrent effect of the death penalty. The LDN likely took an inaccurate (and common) approach to considering deterrence: Are murder rates higher in death penalty states than in non-death penalty states. The answer is, in the United States, in the majority of cases, yes. But that doesn't mean that many are not deterred from committing murder because of the presence of the death penalty. The LDN is correct that murderer/rapist Penry was not deterred. But one example does not make a broad case. For example, although many millions of people smoke, many millions have quit, or chosen not to smoke, because they are deterred by the prospect of the many negative medical outcomes which occur from smoking. History tells us, unequivocally, that all prospects for negative consequences stop some people. The most severe criminal sanction does not contradict that finding. (source: Letter to the Editor, Dudley Sharp, Houston; Lufkin Daily News) NORTH CAROLINA: Death penalty focus in selection of jury For the first time in six years, prospective Durham jurors are being forced to scour their consciences and probe their deepest feelings about the death penalty. Prosecutor Tracey Cline is trying to find 12 people who would have no religious or moral scruples against voting for capital punishment if Dennis Lamonte Hargrove were convicted of killing a woman, shooting out a toddler's eye and wounding two others on Markham Avenue in June 2003. But defense attorneys are trying to weed out prosecution-oriented panelists who automatically would opt for execution if Hargrove were found guilty of first-degree murder. No one has been sentenced to die in Durham since 1999, when a jury voted that Donald John Scanlon should be executed for the asphyxiation death of a retired schoolteacher. Scanlon's death penalty was set aside last year, but he remains in prison. Tuesday was the 2nd day of full-fledged jury selection for Hargrove's trial in Durham County Superior Court, and it produced a host of opinions about capital punishment. "I could be fair, but I do not believe in the death penalty," one woman reported. "I'd just have to let all my feeling go and go along with the law." If Hargrove were convicted, could the woman recommend he be put to death, Judge A. Leon Stanback asked. "If the evidence is there, yes. I could do it," she replied. "If it's proven, I could do it." Cline excused the woman. Another prospective juror, a male minister, said a decision to execute someone "should be God's choice." "It's kind of hard to make a decision about an individual's life," he added. "Can any of us say, 'You either die or you live?' It would be kind of hard, but I would do the right thing if it came down to that. ? We have to abide by the laws of the land." Cline also excused the minister. "I am extremely opposed to the death penalty," said another man, who also was dismissed. "It's immoral to kill for any reason," the man said. "It's contrary to my religious beliefs." He identified himself as a Unitarian Universalist. Defense lawyer Mike Howell explained the procedure used in North Carolina to arrive at capital punishment. First, jurors must find at least 1 so-called aggravating factor in a case, and they must be convinced it outweighs any offsetting factors in mitigation, said Howell. Finally, jurors must decide the aggravating factor is "so substantial or so momentous" that the death penalty becomes appropriate, Howell added. Did the prospective juror understand, the defense attorney asked. "Yes, but I would not be able to consider death under any circumstances," the man answered. "It would be immoral for me to do so." Jury selection continues today and is expected to last through most or all of this week. First-degree murder is the only crime in North Carolina for which jurors, rather than the judge, decide punishment. Death or life in prison without parole are the only options. Hargrove is accused of fatally shooting Colette Moss in her Markham Avenue apartment. A 2-year-old girl lost an eye in the gunfire, and two other women also were wounded. The shootings allegedly resulted from an unpaid debt on a large drug deal. Cline said in court earlier that Harold Thomas Garner, who shared the apartment with Moss, was affiliated with Hargrove in a transaction involving 35 pounds of marijuana and more than a pound of cocaine. Garner was not at the apartment when Hargrove went looking for him, bent on collecting the drug debt, but Hargrove opened fire anyway, according to Cline. Hargrove's cousin, Brian Keith Hargrove, also is charged with first-degree murder and related offenses in the case. He will be tried later unless he accepts a plea bargain first. (source: Durham Herald-Sun) OHIO: Morality aside, death penalty far more costly than life terms In the past few months, Franklin County juries have been asked 4 times whether the death penalty should be imposed. On Sept. 27, convicted killer Herman Ashworth was executed for a murder he committed in Newark. The morality of the death penalty is a subject of debate, but maybe there is a better question to ask: Is the death penalty cost-efficient? Few in-depth cost studies have been done on this, but most information suggests that death-penalty cases are too costly. The Indianapolis Star reported in February 1999 that 2 high-profile capital cases in 1996 and 1997 cost $571,000 and $352,000, respectively. In February 1999, The Dispatch reported the estimated cost of prosecuting Wilford Berry to be approximately $1 million and the cost of his defense at approximately $500,000. According to The New York Law Journal in April 2002, the district attorneys in Monroe and Queens counties in New York estimated that the death penalty increases the cost of prosecuting a case at least threefold. An audit of the Kansas Department of Corrections in 2003 estimated the median cost of a case where the death penalty was imposed to be about 70 % more than the median cost of other cases. Perhaps the most comprehensive study was by Duke University in May 1993: Researchers estimated the cost of a capitalcase murder trial in North Carolina to be $84,000 and the cost of a noncapital murder trial to be $17,000. Why such a great difference? Juror questioning is more involved and much longer and, often, more experts are hired. A capital case involves a two-part trial, the first to determine liability and the 2nd for sentencing. Noncapital cases do not involve the second phase. By statute, defendants in a capital case must be represented by two attorneys. Often those facing the death penalty are indigent, meaning the cost of defense is borne by the state. Death sentences lead to a lengthy series of post-conviction proceedings in state and federal courts. Hard data for related costs are scant, but the Duke study found that these proceedings alone in 2 cases cost $293,000 and $219,000. Because convicted killers generally spend several years on death row, the Duke study compared the total cost of a capital case resulting in the death penalty (including post-conviction proceedings) and 10 years of incarceration with the cost of a noncapital murder case and 20 years of incarceration. The result? The capital cases in which the death penalty was imposed cost an additional $216,000 each, and because not all capital cases result in the death penalty, the cost per execution was estimated at $2.16 million. The expense associated with capital cases in Franklin County becomes evident when taking into account fees and expenses paid to court-appointed defense counsels. In fiscal year 2004, Franklin County paid $2.84 million to courtappointed attorneys to handle 2,364 felony cases, which included noncapital murder cases, but $1.03 million for just 37 capital cases. In fiscal 2003, the numbers were $2.7 million for 2,372 felony cases and $528,000 for 24 capital cases. These numbers do not reflect the other fees or expense associated with the Public Defenders Office or the prosecuting attorney's office, as neither separates capital cases from other cases in its budget. The death penalty has 3 significant aspects. First, capital cases seldom result in the imposition of the death penalty. Since 1981, Franklin County juries recommended the death penalty 18 times, but the number of capital cases tried is much larger. In 2003 and 2004 alone, only 3 of 19 capital cases in Franklin County state and federal courts resulted in the death penalty. Also, death sentences result in lengthy imprisonment. In Ohio, 189 inmates are on death row. Of these, 112 have been there since at least 1995, and 52 have been there since at least 1987. The average age at death for inmates serving a life sentence is 56, and the average age of inmates when admitted to death row is 30. If we eliminate the death penalty and award only life sentences, we would be incarcerating killers on the average for 26 years, just 16 years longer than we incarcerate them during their post-conviction proceedings. Instead of incarcerating death row inmates for 10 years during their post-conviction proceedings, why not dispense with the death penalty and imprison all killers for life and, where appropriate, without the possibility of parole? Based on the Duke study, the additional years of incarceration would be offset by substantial savings that come with less-expensive trials and the absence of lengthy postconviction proceedings. But what are the real numbers for Ohio? What would a well-defined and administered study reveal? The results might be alarming. Debating morality is tough stuff. But money? We probably can agree on that. Jack D'Aurora is an attorney in Columbus. (source: Editorial, Columbus Dispatch) ***************** Death-row inmates facing transfer cut themselves 3 death row inmates who lost their legal fight to stop a forced transfer to a new prison hurt themselves with self-inflicted cuts in the past 5 days in an apparent attempt to avoid the move. 2 inmates who cut themselves Monday were hurt badly enough to be taken to a hospital for stitches, said Andrea Dean, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Inmates were given final notice of the move last week and on Tuesday the state transferred the first 31 of 194 men on death row from Mansfield Correctional Institution to the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown. Prison officials are investigating but believe the men injured themselves to avoid the transfer, Dean said. She wouldn't say how the men cut themselves but said such behavior, dubbed "self-injurious treatment" by the state, is relatively common. The last such self-inflicted wound on death row involved an inmate who cut himself in July. Death row prisoner Martin Koliser committed suicide in May after telling a fellow inmate he feared for his life if he were transferred because he killed a Youngstown police officer. The state proposed the move to Youngstown months ago as a way to save money. The American Civil Liberties Union sued over the move, arguing it would deny inmates' constitutional due process rights because a prior court ruling blocked inmates from being sent to the Youngstown prison unless they prove to be a security risk. A federal judge rejected their lawsuit Oct. 3, paving the way for the move to begin. Inmates were given a list of privilege changes last week, including a ban on smoking but the possibility of more time out of the cell. "A lot of them are OK with this move. Some of them don't want to make the move, for whatever the reasons," Dean said. "Whether they won't be able to smoke, or they feel they'll be further away from their families." Death row inmate Fred Treesh cut himself Friday and did not need treatment outside the hospital. Inmates Dennis McGuire and Raymond Twyford cut themselves Monday and were treated at a hospital and released. Ohio moved death row to Mansfield in 1995 following the prison riots in Lucasville in 1993 that killed nine inmates and a guard. Treesh, 40, was sentenced to die for the 1994 murder of a security guard at an adult bookstore in Cleveland. McGuire, 45, is on death row for raping and killing a pregnant woman in Preble County in 1989. Twyford, 43, was sentenced to die for killing a man in 1992 whom his girlfriend's daughter had accused of assault. (source: Associated Press) NEBRASKA: Death-row inmate: Drugs influenced my guilty plea Nebraska death-row inmate David Dunster says he should get a new trial because he was under the influence of prescription medication when he pleaded guilty to the 1997 strangulation death of his cellmate. In a wide-ranging appeal to the Nebraska Supreme Court, defense lawyer Jerry Soucie argues that Lancaster County District Judge Paul Merritt Jr. erred by not granting Dunster a new trial last year. The high court issued a stay of Dunsters execution in 2001 based on Soucies argument that Dunster had several health problems, including hepatitis C and bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression. He said that Dunster was taking the prescription drug Depakote to treat bipolar disorder and might not have been thinking clearly when he pleaded guilty. Dunster has twice fired his court-appointed attorneys and told judges he would rather be executed than spend the rest of his life in prison, where he has lived since he was 17. He pleaded guilty while representing himself. After his plea was accepted, Dunster asked if he could be sentenced to death that day without a separate hearing or pre-sentence investigation. "It is really a pain in the ass to get you people to kill me," he said at the time. He later wrote the court and said he no longer wanted to be executed.<>P> In denying the motion for a new trial, Merritt said that although Dunster's mental and physical condition may have fluctuated, he was "sufficiently aware" of his rights and "the possible consequences of a decision to forego the aid of counsel." Dunster also is challenging the constitutionality of Nebraska's capital punishment statutes when he was sentenced. Lawmakers changed the statutes in a special session in 2002 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case known as Ring vs. Arizona. The high court said in Ring that the constitutional guarantee of a trial by a jury extends to weighing whether a killing merits a death sentence or life in prison. In other words, juries, not judges, must decide if aggravating circumstances exist to merit the death penalty. In Nebraska, judges had made that determination since the Legislature decided in the 1970s that there was the potential of bias by juries. Dunster argues that the Ring ruling made his death sentence void, even though the U.S. Supreme Court later said its ruling in Ring was not retroactive. Soucie, of the Nebraska Commission of Public Advocacy, is also relying on a ruling in May by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a Missouri murder case. The 8th Circuit noted that Ring did not address whether the Fifth Amendment also requires aggravating factors to be found by a grand jury and included in the indictment outlining the charges. "We think that Ring necessarily implies such a Fifth Amendment requirement," the court said. The Nebraska Supreme Court will hear Dunster's appeal on Nov. 3. Dunster went to prison in Oregon in 1972 for killing a mother of 8. He was transferred to a Montana prison in 1978, where he later killed an inmate. In 1993, he requested to be transferred to the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, where he killed Larry Witt of Grand Island. Nebraska has agreements with several states to transfer prisoners. On the Net: Nebraska Supreme Court: http://court.nol.org/ U.S. Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/ 8th Circuit: http://www.ca8.uscourts.gov Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy: http://www.nol.org/home/ncpa/ (source: Journal Star) VIRGINIA: On Va.'s Gubernatorial Stage, National Politics Gains a Role People who study Virginia politics often recite this fact: In every governor's race since 1973, voters have selected the candidate from the opposite party of the one that controls the White House. That means two Democrats for Ronald Reagan. Two Republicans for Bill Clinton. A Democrat for each Bush. Politicians and strategists are not sure whether Virginians use their status as the first to go to the polls after a presidential election to send a message to the party in power, or whether the streak is a coincidence. But the role that national politics plays in the gubernatorial race is gaining attention as President Bush's popularity fades in the state, as Republican fortunes falter in Washington and as the contest for the governor's mansion in Richmond grows tighter. Most politicians and consultants believe that the national political debate is only a tiny factor in voters' decisions about who should run their state, but that even minuscule shifts can affect a campaign that is seen as a toss-up. "In the end, each campaign becomes a choice between two candidates, with 2 different philosophies," said Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), who was part of the 24-year streak when he was elected governor in 1993 and who puts himself in the "coincidence" camp. "But everything has an impact on voters' minds." Until now, Bush's drop in the polls has been about the only thing that has not gone according to script in the governor's race. Republican Jerry W. Kilgore, the former attorney general, characterizes himself as a perfect fit for the conservative-leaning state and tries to portray Democratic Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine as too liberal. His emotional ads on Kaine's opposition to the death penalty last week were the latest attempt to paint Kaine as out of step with the state. Kaine has steadfastly promoted himself as the logical successor to popular outgoing Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) and has branded Kilgore as eager to halt the "progress" that Virginians have respected the past four years, according to public opinion polls. But few could have predicted the growing public dissatisfaction with the GOP leadership in Washington and Bush's declining popularity in a state that he won in November with nearly 54 percent of the vote. The litany of reasons is familiar: rising gas and heating oil prices, the continuing war in Iraq, scandals involving some of the nation's most powerful Republicans and a federal government that did not look its best in response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Although polls have shown Bush being more popular in Virginia than nationally, the numbers are far from his triumphant reelection 11 months ago. At the time, Ken Hutcheson, who was Bush's campaign manager in Virginia and who now runs Kilgore's campaign, said Democrats should be crestfallen that Bush reclaimed Virginia after Warner's win in 2001. "How on earth do they have the spirit and the heart to move forward? This was such a crushing defeat," Hutcheson said. But much has changed. "I know that Northern Virginia is very anxious to send a message to the White House," said Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.). "I think Tim Kaine is going to be the beneficiary of that." Other Democrats think it is possible to overstate the significance of Bush's troubles and of voters' inclination to make decisions about who should lead their state based on what is happening in the White House. "If I'm trying to decide between two guys who I'm going to vote for for governor, I don't run that through a prism of who's running the White House," said Steve Jarding, a Democratic political consultant who ran Warner's campaign in 2001. He said that Virginia's streak of electing governors from the opposite party of the president's "doesn't mean anything." That said, he agrees that the problems for Bush and national Republicans create a changed environment for the Virginia race. That change probably will affect the Washington suburbs the most. "Northern Virginia being so close to Washington and so many people working in the federal government, what goes on [in national politics] is much more important to them," said Allen. "Off-year elections have always been used to send a message to the president," said Professor Larry J. Sabato of the University of Virginia, an expert on the state's elections. Because Northern Virginia as a region recently has been more hospitable to Democrats, Moran said he thinks Kaine would do well to appeal to voters who see politics more through the national lens. "Tim is somewhat more moderate than the national Democratic Party, but Kilgore is just as conservative as the national Republican leadership," Moran said. "It is not an unfair" proxy. Allen and others do not think federal issues work for state candidates. But Allen laughingly acknowledged that he was quick to use voter unhappiness with the first year of President Bill Clinton's administration in his campaign against Mary Sue Terry, the Democratic attorney general. "One of my favorite lines of that campaign was when I was having a fundraiser" in Pulaski County on the same day Terry was at Sen. John D. Rockefeller's mansion in Washington. "I said, 'I'd rather be eating hot dogs with you in Pulaski County than sipping wine and nibbling cheese with Mary Sue Terry and Hillary Clinton up in Washington, D.C.,' " Allen said. He said he saw how a loss can energize one's political base. "My campaign was a good motivator for people who wanted to get back to winning," Allen said. It's unclear whether such a mood blossomed after last year. A Washington Post poll of Virginia registered voters conducted Sept. 6 through 9 indicated some anger at the president; asked whether Bush's endorsement of Kilgore made them more likely to support him, less likely or had no effect, 45 % said less likely, compared with 28 percent who said more likely. By comparison, 37 percent said Warner's endorsement of Kaine made them more likely to support the Democrat, compared with 27 % who said less likely. Mo Elleithee, communications director for the Kaine campaign, said that voters will decide on which candidate to support based on state issues and that their opinion of how Virginia is being run compared with the national government is a comparison that would help Democrats. Jarding agreed. "Virginians seem to like the direction Warner took the state and they clearly don't think, according to polls, that President Bush is taking the country in the right direction," he said. "It could be a very small sliver of voters [that makes that analysis], but in a very close race, that could make a difference." Tim Murtaugh, Kilgore's press secretary, said what happens outside the state is immaterial. Bush came for a fundraiser for Kilgore in July, and "we're still very pleased to have the support of the leader of the free world," Murtaugh said. He said he did not know whether Bush would return to Virginia before Election Day. (source: Washington Post) PENNSYLVANIA: Death penalty looms for Eichinger Accused serial killer John C. Eichinger, attempting to spare himself the same fate of his victims, offered no defense Tuesday to charges that he stabbed and killed three area women and a 3-year-old girl. Montgomery County Judge William R. Carpenter, presiding in the nonjury trial, then convicted Eichinger, 33, of Somers Point, N.J., on 4 charges of first-degree murder and related offenses. The murder charges stem from the 1999 slaying of 20-year-old Jennifer Still in her Bridgeport apartment and the Good Friday killings of 27-year-old Heather Greaves, her 23-year-old sister Lisa Greaves and Heathers 3-year-old daughter Avery Johnson at the Greaves family residence in the 500 block of Kingwood Road in King of Prussia. Eichinger, a former Acme supermarket employee, has told authorities that he killed both Still and Heather Greaves because they spurned his romantic advances while Lisa Greaves and Avery Johnson had to die because they were witnesses to Heathers murder. With Eichinger and his team of defense attorneys not contesting the evidence against him as detailed in the transcript of a prior pre-trial hearing, the trial and the judges ruling took less than 15 minutes. The next step in the process will be the selection of a jury panel that will decide whether Eichinger should receive the death penalty for the killings or should spend the rest of his life behind bars. The selection of that jury will begin on Monday, with the death penalty hearing to begin on Nov. 1. "We are certainly obliged to take 4 1st-degree murder convictions, but I have not taken the death penalty off the table," said Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. who is personally prosecuting the cases along with co-counsel Assistant District Attorney Carolyn Flannery. The pair had been prepared to prosecute both cases, with the selection of a jury in the non-death-penalty murder trial of Jennifer Still already completed and in the middle of selecting jurors for the Greaves murders in the process, when the defense changed its strategy. The jurors for both of these panels now will be released. Castor said he will not be seeking the death penalty for the Still murder because it was the 1st killing and there are not sufficient aggravating circumstances to warrant a death penalty for that slaying. However, he will be asking the jurors to come down with the death penalty for the Greaves murders, using the Still murder as an aggravating circumstance in those killings. "This is about the most egregious series of crimes you can have," said Castor. "Certainly, the murders are just horrific and then you have the 3-year-old child who was pinned to the ground with a knife in her back. This is pretty bad and not the type of case where I believe the death penalty should be taken away. "I think we have a pretty strong death penalty case," said Castor. "I was there (at the scene of the Greaves murders) and this was an ugly series of crimes and the jurors will get the full flavor, I assure you." The decision not to challenge the case against him is the 1st public step by Eichinger in expressing his remorse, according to defense attorney Paul A. Bauer III, who is representing Eichinger along with defense attorney William R. McElroy. "Mr. Eichinger wanted to spare the Still family and the Greaves family the grief of having to go through the ordeal of a trial," said Bauer. "This is the quickest way to start that healing process and to end that pain." Still and Greaves family members and supporters were in the audience during the proceedings. Stills mother -- Wendy Lavin, who lives in the Mont Clare area and is the co-founder of the Montgomery County Chapter of Parents of Murdered Children -- tightly squeezed the hands of family members on either side of her as the judge found Eichinger guilty of murdering her daughter. All declined comment after the proceeding, stating they would speak out after Eichingers fate is decided. Admittedly, Bauer said, the defense will use the fact that their client did not challenge the charges and accepted his responsibility as a mitigating factor when they argue for Eichingers life before the penalty-phase jury. The decision to not challenge the evidence in a nonjury trial as opposed to offering a guilty plea to all four murders was for strategic reasons, according to Bauer. By going forward with a trial, Eichinger retains his rights to appeal, Bauer explained. Specifically, the defense last month had attempted to have the statements Eichinger gave to authorities admitting to the murders barred as evidence against him. Eichinger later recanted those statements. Eichinger, a former clerk with the Acme supermarket chain, last month testified he only gave those statements because of store policy. The supermarkets policy requires employees to fully cooperate with anyone wielding a gun, according to his testimony. He said that detectives, who came to the supermarket to question him, were wearing guns. Carpenter, not buying the theory that Eichinger confessed to the murders simply to comply with supermarket policy, ruled that those statements could be used against him at the time of trial. Eichinger is currently in the Montgomery County Prison, where he has been held without bail since his arrest on March 26. (source: Pottstown Mercury)
