Nov. 10 NORTH CAROLINA----impending execution McHone closer to execution after state supreme court rejects stay The state Supreme Court placed the execution of a Surry County man back on track Thursday, overturning a stay issued by a lower court that gave Steven Van McHone a temporary reprieve from his death sentence. McHone was sentenced to death for the 1990 slayings of his mother and stepfather. He is scheduled to die at 2 a.m. Friday at the state's Central Prison in Raleigh. He would be the 3rd person executed this year in North Carolina. On Wednesday, Surry County Superior Court Judge Anderson Cromer ordered the execution stopped to allow a paramedic who treated victim Mildred Adams, McHone's mother, to testify about her patient's dying statement. Paramedic Teresa Durham said in an affidavit that Adams told her that McHone, 35, didn't mean to fatally shoot her. McHone also killed Adams' husband, Wesley Adams Sr. The state's high court rejected the defense argument, but didn't say why in its 1-page order vacating the stay. Defense lawyers said they would next ask the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution. Meanwhile, McHone ordered a last meal, prison officials said. McHone's half brother, Wesley Adams Jr. and wife Wendy, drove from their home in Dayton, Ohio, to witness the execution. Wesley Jr. caught his father's body after McHone shot him and supports the execution. Wendy Adams said in a telephone interview that the paramedic's testimony was suspicious. "There was another paramedic with her and do we have any word from whoever it was that they heard it, too?" she said. "It was iffy because from all accounts she didn't tell anybody about it until years afterward." While the legal machinery worked, McHone visited other family members who supported his try for clemency - his half sisters, Tina Walker and Cheryl McMillian, and a half brother, Randall Adams. Randall Adams said in an affidavit that his mother told him before the shootings that McHone, her son by a previous marriage, was drunk when he come to his mothers home that day. The jury never heard about that conversation, but the lower court rejected a defense argument that it constituted new evidence. Defense lawyers Ken Rose and Cynthia Adcock argued that the statements might have persuaded a jury not to vote for a death sentence. The defense doesn't deny that McHone committed the crimes. But prosecutors said the statements didn't prove anything because Mildred Adams might not feel the same way had she known that McHone killed her husband and threatened Wesley Jr. and Wendy Adams. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: Death Penalty Sought Against Man Indicted For 4 Murders Los Angeles County prosecutors said Thursday they will seek the death penalty against a man indicted for the murders of 4 women in the 1970s and awaiting a retrial in Orange County for a 5th slaying. Rodney James Alcala is expected to be tried in Orange County for the Los Angeles killings, where he is awaiting his 3rd trial for the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe. The girl disappeared near the Huntington Beach Pier in July 1979, and her remains were found 12 days later in the San Gabriel Mountain foothills. Alcala -- who has spent some 20 years on death row in connection with the Samsoe case -- has twice had his convictions for Samsoe's killing thrown out on appeal. An indictment unsealed Sept. 19 accused Alcala of the 4 Los Angeles County murders, and he is awaiting arraignment Nov. 22 in a Santa Ana courtroom. Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said in September that he and his staff had met with Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, and that they decided "the best place to try these cases is in Orange County, where the defendant is facing retrial on a similar murder." Defense attorney George Peters has said he would oppose a bid to consolidate the cases and move to keep the Samsoe retrial separate. The indictment, returned Sept. 9, accuses Alcala of the murders of Jill Barcomb, 18, Georgia Wixted, 27, Charlotte Lamb, 32, and Jill Parenteau, 21, between late 1977 and mid-1979 in areas of Los Angeles County ranging from El Segundo to Burbank. The women -- who were all sexually assaulted -- were strangled or beaten to death, according to prosecutors. 3 of the 4 Los Angeles County murders involve DNA evidence, according to prosecutors. "DNA is one of the major investigative tools of our time," Cooley said after the indictment was unsealed. "The Alcala case shows that DNA evidence can stretch back into time to help prosecute murders such as these that go back nearly a quarter of a century." Along with the murders, the indictment alleges the special circumstances of torture, multiple murder, robbery, rape, burglary and oral copulation. Alcala, who has been in Orange County awaiting a new trial in the Samsoe case since 2003, has steadfastly maintained his innocence. The retrial was delayed by the death of attorney David A. Zimmerman, who had represented Alcala on his first appeal of the case. (source: NBC4 News) USA: Death penalty costs As the United States draws closer to its 1,000th execution, we might want to examine the social injustices and economic burden that the death penalty has placed on common Americans. Since 1973, the United States has released 121 people from death row due to evidence of their wrongful conviction. This suggests that many innocents still could be behind bars awaiting execution. Recent disturbing evidence also indicates that among the 989 executed thus far, some might have been innocent. Missouri officials believe that they might have executed an innocent person, Larry Griffin, in 1995, and are investigating the case. The more people we put to death, the greater the risks of killing the innocent. To take the lives of 989 people since 1977, conservative estimates indicate that more than $2 billion has been spent. A large portion of these funds could have been better spent on social programs like improving education, strengthening law enforcement and providing services to the victims. Instead of spending money to exact vengeance, it is better to use funds on those in need. Americans should consider the unnecessary costs of the death penalty and make sure that the money is spent to improve life, not destroy it. JEFFREY WICKS----Olathe (source: Editorial, The Hutchinson News) ********************* Rove, in rare appearance, blasts judicial activism White House political adviser Karl Rove, still under threat of indictment in the CIA leak probe, made a rare public appearance on Thursday to decry the growth of judicial activism and praise President George W. Bush's conservative court appointments. Stepping into the spotlight for the 1st time since his closed-door testimony to a grand jury probing the CIA leak last month, Rove told a conservative legal group that Americans supported Bush's efforts to appoint judges who will strictly interpret the U.S. Constitution. "For decades the American people have seen decision after decision after decision that strikes them as fundamentally out of touch with our Constitution," Rove, the deputy White House chief of staff, told the annual convention of the Federalist Society. "They are clearly concerned about too many judges too ready and eager to legislate from too many benches," Rove said, citing as examples court decisions declaring unconstitutional the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and barring the death penalty for juveniles. Rove made no mention of his own legal jeopardy in the investigation into the leak of a CIA covert operative's name. Rove, who Bush called the chief architect of his 2004 re-election, was not indicted in the case but remains under investigation and may still be charged. His White House colleague, Lewis Libby, was indicted in the probe and resigned as Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. Rove referred to recent battles with Senate Democrats over Bush's most conservative judicial appointments, saying more than 200 of Bush's nominations had been confirmed -- "not easily, not quickly, but confirmed after a hard effort." He praised White House counsel Harriet Miers, whose Supreme Court nomination was withdrawn under heavy fire from conservatives, and predicted new Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito would soon join recently confirmed Chief Justice John Roberts on the court. Rove told members of the Federalist Society, an influential group founded in 1982, that conservative judicial principles would prevail. "The will of the American people cannot be subverted in case after case, on issue after issue, year after year, without provoking a strong counter-reaction," Rove said. "In America, conservatives are winning the battle of ideas on almost every front, and few are more important than the battle over our judiciary," he said. (source: Reuters) ILLINOIS: Lawyers train together for capital cases For lawyers, the stakes do not get any higher than death penalty cases. With a person's life on the line, it is critical the best of the best handle the worst of the worst cases. The state Supreme Court recognized this three years ago when it established the Capital Litigation Bar to certify attorneys in death penalty cases. Lawyers are required to have strict qualifications before appearing in a capital case - your cousin Vinny does not even get through the door. Part of those qualifications involve a required 12 hours of training every two years, and 57 lawyers are getting that this week in a two-day seminar hosted by the Lake County Bar Association and the 19th Judicial Circuit. The sessions, at the Harrison Conference Center in Lake Bluff, are unique in that defense attorneys and prosecutors attend the same classes at the same time. The 2 tribes generally train apart, among their own kind and promoting their own interests in the way a death penalty case is handled. Organizers say these classes are aimed at giving both sides a look at what the other is doing. "It is a bold experiment, and I suppose we will see if both sides can learn something about what their opponents have to go through," said Assistant Public Defender Keith Grant, who attended Wednesday's session. "I believe it is something that can only improve practice on both sides of the courtroom." There are 12 instructors scheduled to make presentations, among them attorneys and judges with battle stripes from capital cases. They include Assistant State's Attorney George Strickland, Public Defender David Brodsky and Circuit Judge Victoria Rossetti, who have all stood at the lawyers' tables when juries came back with the final word on the life or death of a defendant. Also on tap are two judges, 19th Circuit Chief Judge Christopher Starck and Cook County Circuit Judge Daniel Locallo, who were among 17 jurists appointed by the Supreme Court to study the death penalty in 2001 and recommend reforms. The classes cover the gamut, from the technicalities of notice to the other side, to evidence rules and mental health and sentencing issues. "The 2 sides tend to get overly combative in capital cases, and this seminar will help them understand what the other side is doing and why," said Strickland, one of the seminar organizers. "A good trial lawyer always knows what the other side is doing," he said. Our job as attorneys is to seek justice; and anytime we become contentious with each other, it detracts from the system and detracts from the public's confidence in the system." Training sessions for capital case lawyers have been hosted by the state appellate prosecutor and defense offices, the National College of District Attorneys and the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education. But, according to Joseph Tybor, state Supreme Court press secretary, only a seminar held early this year by the Chicago Bar Association combined defense attorneys and prosecutors in the same classes. Tybor said people organizing training sessions must submit full information about the information and materials to be used, as well as instructor resumes to the Supreme Court Committee on Capital Cases to be certified for qualification under the court rules. (source: Daily Herald)
