Nov. 11 NORTH CAROLINA----execution N.C. death row inmate executed for murder of mother, stepfather Steven Van McHone was executed early Friday for the shooting deaths of his mother and stepfather after he appeared to apologize to the half brother who supported the execution. McHone, 35, was pronounced dead by injection at 2:10 a.m., said Pam Walker, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections. He issued no last statement, but appeared to say "I'm so sorry," to half brother Wesley Adams Jr., who supported the execution and drove from Ohio to witness it. "We have sympathy and pray for comfort for those who will grieve Steve's passing," Adams said in a statement. "We do, however, feel that justice was upheld and that this fate was sealed many years ago." McHone lost his last chance to halt the execution when Gov. Mike Easley denied clemency late Thursday. That decision was announced after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down McHone's appeal without comment. The court rejected the appeal from McHone's lawyers to stop the execution so that his mother's dying statement that he didn't intend to shoot her could be considered. Last week, the governor and his legal adviser met with prosecutors, defense lawyers and members of McHone's family. 2 half sisters and a half brother had asked that McHone not be executed, saying they forgave him and wanted to forge a relationship with him. But Wesley Adams Jr., who caught his father after he was hit by a shotgun blast, told Easley that justice demanded the execution. Wesley Adams Jr. and wife, Wendy, drove from their home in Dayton, Ohio, to witness the execution. Evidence showed McHone and his 52-year-old mother argued over money and that he chased her around the yard before shooting her in the back of the head. Wesley Adams Sr., 52, disarmed McHone and went to help his wife while McHone found another weapon and shot his stepfather before being disarmed by Wesley Jr. McHone becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in North Carolina and the 37th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1984. McHone becomes the 50th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 994th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977. There are currently 7 more executions scheduled across the USA this month, and if all are carried out, the nation's 1000th execution will be in Ohio on November 29. (sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin) ********************* N.C. Death Row Inmate Executed For Murder Of Mother, Stepfather Steven Van McHone smiled and laughed with friends, then turned serious and apologized to his half brother for the murders of McHone's mother and stepfather minutes before he was executed early Friday. "I'm so sorry," McHone, 35, mouthed through thick glass panes separating the execution chamber from the witness room to Wesley Adams Jr., who disarmed McHone after the killings 15 years ago. Strapped to a gurney, he turned his head to rub a teary eye on the light blue pillowcase. Shortly afterward, about 2 a.m., McHone stopped talking and breathed deeply. He looked at the ceiling, then shut his eyes and never reopened them. There were a few muscle movements and color drained from his skin before he was declared dead at 2:10 a.m. McHone made no final statement. "We have sympathy and pray for comfort for those who will grieve Steve's passing," Adams said in a statement. "We do, however, feel that justice was upheld and that this fate was sealed many years ago. "We feel that the enforcement of duly deliberated and prescribed sentences send a stronger message, as to the sanctity of human life, than does the sparing of those who have taken life willfully and brutally." McHone lost his last chance to halt the execution when Gov. Mike Easley denied clemency late Thursday. That decision was announced after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down McHone's appeal without comment. Defense lawyers had asked the court to stop the execution so that his mother's dying statement that he didn't intend to shoot her could be considered. Last week, the governor and his legal adviser met with prosecutors, defense lawyers and members of McHone's family. Two half sisters and a half brother had asked that McHone not be executed, saying they forgave him and wanted to forge a relationship with him. A Superior Court judge gave McHone a brief reprieve this week when he stopped the execution to allow a paramedic who treated 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 didn't mean to fatally shoot her. McHone also killed Adams' husband, Wesley Adams Sr. Prosecutors said the statement was suspect, largely because Mildred Adams was in pain and had trouble talking and because it wasn't recorded in the paramedic's original report. The state Supreme Court rejected the defense argument and McHone's lawyers sought a last-ditch stay from the federal high court. McHone, housed alone in a cell block near the death chamber since Wednesday afternoon, visited with family members who supported his try for clemency _ his half sisters, Tina Walker and Cheryl McMillian, and a half brother, Randall Adams. As they left the prison about 11 p.m., they expressed disappointment that Easley didn't change the sentence to life. (source: WRAL News) MARYLAND: Drug Dealer's Killer Receives Death Sentence----Execution Ruled Out In Another U.S. Case In a state where federal death penalty prosecutions are rare, members of two juries in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt found themselves yesterday in the extraordinary position of deciding, in adjoining courtrooms, the fates of two defendants who federal prosecutors believed should be put to death. One jury decided that a man who kidnapped and murdered an alleged PCP dealer, who happened to be the son of a D.C. police lieutenant, should be put to death. Next door, a jury convicted a man of shooting a federal informant three times, inflicting 174 knife wounds and setting the victim's apartment on fire. But it found the defendant guilty of murder in the second degree, not the 1st degree, which means that the maximum sentence is life in prison. In the 1st case, the jury sentenced Kenneth J. Lighty, 23, to die for the kidnapping and killing of Eric L. Hayes II, 19. Hayes was abducted in the District and killed in Prince George's County nearly 4 years ago. Lighty was convicted Oct. 21 after a trial that took place over about two months. The jury also found a co-defendant, James E. Flood III, 28, of the District, guilty of kidnapping and murder. He faces a mandatory life sentence. In April, a separate jury convicted a 3rd defendant, Lorenzo A. Wilson, 22, of Hillcrest Heights, of conspiracy to kidnap. He faces a maximum life sentence. Under federal law, U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte is required to impose the jury's sentence on Lighty. He scheduled formal sentencing for Feb. 3. Lighty would become the second man sentenced to death in federal court in Maryland. In 2001, Messitte sentenced a Laurel man to death for ordering the murder of 3 young District women in Beltsville in 1996. D.C. police Lt. Eric Hayes, the father of the victim, said the jury did the right thing by choosing the death sentence. "It was just," said Hayes, 51, who went to court yesterday in his police uniform. "The way this guy Lighty and the other defendants did my son . . . it was unbelievable." Hayes said the murder of his son was an "execution." One of Lighty's attorneys, Jeffrey O'Toole, said he was disappointed in the jury's decision. He said the conviction and the death sentence would be appealed. The victim was abducted at gunpoint from the 3200 block of Eighth Street SE shortly after 8 p.m. Jan. 3, 2002. About 45 minutes later, Hayes was shot three times in Oxon Hill. A government witness testified that Hayes was trying to sell "dippers," cigarettes laced with PCP, to his attackers, a defense attorney said. During the penalty phase, O'Toole said, prosecutors opened their case by saying Lighty fired all three shots into Hayes's head, but in their closing statements, they said it didn't matter whether a second gunman had shot the victim. O'Toole argued that there was evidence that three other people -- the 2 co-defendants and a man who was not charged -- might have shot Hayes. Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah A. Johnston argued that Lighty's actions warranted the death penalty. In the other case, a federal jury convicted James Allen Irby III, 29, of second-degree murder in the killing of a federal informant. Irby also was found guilty of arson and using a handgun in a crime of violence. Irby would have been at risk of a death sentence if the jury had convicted him of 1st-degree murder. On the night of March 28, 2003, Irby forced his way into the District Heights apartment of a longtime friend, Terrence Deadwyler, 27. Irby shot Deadwyler 3 times, twice in the head, stabbed him 130 times, and sliced him 44 times, federal prosecutors said. Then, Irby used Deadwyler's clothes to set his victim's apartment on fire. Assistant U.S. Attorney James Trusty said Irby was enraged when he learned that Deadwyler had told a federal agent that Irby had an illegal handgun in the apartment he shared with his father. Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had conducted a raid, and about 2 months later, Irby's ailing father died. Irby blamed Deadwyler's actions for the death, Trusty said. Assistant Public Defender Daniel W. Stiller acknowledged in his closing statement that Irby killed Deadwyler, but he said there was more to the attack than a desire to retaliate against a federal informant. A jury member said the jury acquitted Irby of 1st-degree murder because the government had not proved premeditation. The juror did not want to be identified by name because he did not want to antagonize anyone involved in the case. (source: Washington Post) ********************* Federal jury imposes second death penalty A federal jury sentenced a Hillcrest Heights man to death yesterday for kidnapping and shooting the son of a D.C. police officer in 2002, only the second time the death penalty has been imposed in a Maryland federal court since the punishment was reinstated in the 1970s. Kenneth Lighty, 23, leaned back in his chair at the defense table but otherwise showed little emotion as the foreman of the jury of 11 men and one woman read the verdict. His family and friends in the courtroom let out a loud groan as the sentence was announced. Lighty was convicted Oct. 21 of murder and kidnapping for abducting Eric L. Hayes II from a Southeast street on Jan. 23, 2002. Mr. Hayes was driven to Prince George's County, where he was shot execution-style in the head and body. Another man, James Flood III, 28, of the District, also was convicted of kidnapping and murder but faces a life sentence, not death, when he is sentenced Jan. 11. Two others also were found guilty of lesser charges. During his trial, prosecutors said Lighty took part in a fatal drive-by shooting 3 weeks after Mr. Hayes was killed. He was also on probation for a drug crime at the time of the murders. "The way they did my son and later on killed someone else was unbelievable," Metropolitan Police Lt. Eric Hayes, father of the victim, said after the verdict. He called the death sentence "just." Lighty's attorney, Jeffrey O'Toole, said an appeal would be filed. Lighty will join Dustin Higgs as Maryland's only inmates on federal death row when he is formally sentenced Feb. 3 by U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte. Higgs was sentenced to die in 2001 for killing three women in 1996. In a case that took place at the same time in a courtroom next to Lighty's, a District Heights man escaped a possible death sentence when a jury convicted him yesterday of 2nd-degree murder for shooting and stabbing a federal informant. James Allen Irby could have been sentenced to death if found guilty of first-degree murder for killing Terrence Deadwyler on March 28, 2003. Instead, he faces a penalty of life in prison without parole when he is sentenced Feb. 13. He also was convicted of arson and a gun charge. Irby was accused of shooting Mr. Deadwyler three times, stabbing him 174 times and setting his apartment on fire to conceal the crime. Prosecutors said the murder was revenge for Mr. Deadwyler telling federal authorities about an illegal gun in the D.C. apartment Irby shared with his father. Under federal law, a defendant can be sentenced to death if convicted of killing a federal informant. Irby's attorneys admitted during his trial that he murdered Mr. Deadwyler, but said it was not retribution. They argued that Irby blamed Mr. Deadwyler for his father's death, thinking a search of the Irby home in 2001 by federal agents traumatized the elder man and led to his death 2 months later. (source: Associated Press) WEST VIRGINIA----possible federal death penalty trial Death penalty possible in Mingo U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will decide by May 1 whether 2 Mingo County defendants will face the death penalty. They are accused of killing a government informant in an attempt to stop a drug probe. George Michael "Porgy" Lecco, 56, of Red Jacket and Valerie Suzette Friend, 43, of North Matewan will go to trial at some point after May 1, U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver ruled Thursday. West Virginia outlawed capital punishment in 1965. Federal authorities passed a law in the mid-1990s allowing it in certain federal cases, including a death caused while committing a drug crime. Since then, only one federal West Virginia case has been prosecuted as a death penalty case. Prosecutors failed to gain a conviction in the 2000 trial of a Weston couple accused of starting a fire that killed their children. Lecco and Friend were allegedly involved in a cocaine-selling ring linked to the death of Carla Collins, 33, of Matewan, who had been working as a government informant. Collins body was found in June in a shallow grave adjacent to a burned mobile home in the Newtown area. She had been fatally beaten and shot months earlier. Attorneys for Lecco and Friend will submit mediation briefs to the federal Department of Justice in February arguing why the death penalty should not be sanctioned in the case. Gonzales will then decide about seeking capital punishment. No trial date was scheduled during Thursdays brief hearing. One reason was a dispute about who will be representing Lecco. A U.S. magistrate judge appointed 2 federal public defenders to the case last week, one with experience in capital cases. Leccos family, however, hired Charleston attorney Ed ReBrook to represent him. ReBrook has previously successfully dealt with several murder cases in state courts. After a hearing behind closed doors, Copenhaver did not decide who will represent Lecco. ReBrook said the judge decided to appoint an "independent party" next week to explain the circumstances to Lecco and allow him to make a decision. Last month, 2 defendants in the case entered guilty pleas and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. James Michael Kitchen, 32, of Columbus, Ohio, pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute cocaine in a plea bargain agreement. He told the court he sold cocaine to Lecco. Charles T. "Jake" Hatfield, 31, of Red Jacket also pleaded guilty to 1 count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Hatfield told the court he drove Lecco to Columbus to make cocaine purchases and made a number of drug deliveries for him in Mingo County. Also charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine in the case is Patricia Burton, 36, while Walter Harmon Jr., 35, of Wharncliffe faces a charge alleging he helped to bury Collins body. (source: The Charleston Gazette) FLORIDA: Witness: Victim's Hair, Hair in Car Alike In Sarasota, an FBI witness said Thursday that hair samples taken from Carlie Brucia's head had the same characteristics as 2 hairs found in a station wagon driven by the man on trial for abducting, raping and strangling the 11-year-old girl. The testimony from FBI evidence examiner Karen Korsberg came on a day that prosecutors focused on scientific evidence in building their case against Joseph Smith, 39. Korsberg also testified that 7 fibers found in the station wagon were consistent with reddish-pink fibers from a shirt Carlie wore the night of her disappearance in February 2004. On cross examination, defense attorney Adam Tebrugge raised concerns about whether evidence was contaminated and questioned the accuracy of the FBI analysis. Earlier in the week, jurors watched images from a security camera that showed Carlie being led away from a car wash parking lot by a tattooed man in a uniform. They also heard Joseph Smith's brother testify that the defendant had confessed to the crime and told him where to find Carlie's body. Smith, a former auto mechanic and father of 3 daughters, is charged with 1st-degree murder, kidnapping and capital sexual battery in the girl's death. If convicted, he may face the death penalty. In other testimony Thursday, two FBI agents said they found no semen stains on samples gathered from the crime scene, Carlie's autopsy and the station wagon. Tebrugge questioned why a crime scene technician from the Sarasota County sheriff's office did not taken forensic samples from a man who lived at the house where Carlie attended a slumber party the night before she disappeared. The defense throughout the trial has tried shifting suspicions to Ron Choquette, although law enforcement officials have testified that he was cleared of suspicion because his alibi checked out and he did not have tattoos on his arm like the abductor in the security camera images. Earlier Thursday, jurors viewed photos and a video of the scene where Carlie's body was found. The television in the courtroom was positioned so that only jurors could view the video, which Judge Andrew Owens said was "very graphic and unsettling." The judge prohibited the crime scene photos and video from being viewed publicly, saying to do so would be "an intrusion on the privacy of the family." The trial resumes on Monday. ******************* Supreme Court gives Palm Coast killer new sentencing hearing Death row inmate David Snelgrove, convicted of robbing and murdering an elderly couple in their Palm Coast home, won a new sentencing hearing from the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday. The high court unanimously upheld his murder convictions but lifted his two death sentences because his jury had submitted a single 7-5 recommendation covering both killings. Jurors should have voted separately on each of the sentences, the justices wrote in an unsigned opinion. A new jury will be impaneled to receive sentencing evidence and then make two recommendations, one each for the murders of Glyn and Vivian Fowler, both in their mid-70s. Vivian had been fatally stabbed while Glyn was beaten and died from brain injuries. Judges are not required to follow jury recommendations but must give them great weight. (source for both: The Associated Press) ********************** High court reverses death sentence -- Justices say jury erred The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday reversed the death sentence of a man convicted in the 2000 beating and stabbing deaths of an elderly Palm Coast couple. The court upheld the 1st-degree murder convictions of David Snelgrove but said he should be sentenced again because of an error in the way jurors recommended the death penalty to the trial judge. State Attorney John Tanner said he "absolutely" will seek the death penalty again when a new jury hears the case and recommends a sentence. Snelgrove, now 32, was convicted of murdering Glyn and Vivian Fowler after breaking into their home to take money. The unanimous court ruling upset the Fowlers' daughter, Pamela Norko, an elementary-school teacher in Long Beach, Calif. During her lessons Thursday morning, she said she could not get her mind off the fact that the case would drag on. "I'm devastated," she said between tears during a telephone interview. "Devastated. He should have been put to death the day he was found guilty." Snelgrove, who lived near the Fowlers, was arrested after the couple's battered bodies were found June 25, 2000. Vivian Fowler, 80, died of a stab wound to the heart, while Glyn Fowler, 84, died of a head injury, according to the court opinion. A Flagler County jury convicted Snelgrove in 2002 on two counts of first-degree murder and voted 7-5 to recommend the death penalty. Circuit Judge Kim C. Hammond followed the recommendation, sending Snelgrove to death row. But the Supreme Court ruled that the sentence was flawed because jurors made only one sentencing recommendation for the two murders. Justices said separate recommendations are required because jurors sometimes must weigh different circumstances when dealing with more than 1 murder. James Wulchak, chief of the appellate division for the public defender's office, said separate recommendations were particularly important in the Snelgrove case because the jury split 7-5 about whether the death penalty should be imposed. "We've had several cases involving multiple murders where the jury has recommended life for one and death for the other," said Wulchak, who argued the appeal before the Supreme Court. The court, however, rejected arguments that it should overturn Snelgrove's convictions. As a result, Snelgrove will face life in prison if he is not sentenced again to death. But the murders have continued to haunt people such as Wilma Reinholz, a former neighbor of the Fowlers. Reinholz said she and her husband, Hans, had to move out of their newly built Palm Coast house after their neighbors were murdered. The couple now lives about three miles away in Palm Coast. "We just couldn't handle it," said Reinholz, 71. "We couldn't sleep at night -- we just had to get out of there." (source: Daytona Beach News) CALIFORNIA: Lawyers Pursue Longshot Bid to Stop Execution----Motion seeks data on ballistics, crime scene evidence in the Stanley 'Tookie' Williams case. Attorneys for 4-time convicted murderer Stanley "Tookie" Williams are trying to get access to a wide array of trial evidence in a longshot bid to stop his execution on grounds that his convictions were unconstitutional. Williams, 51, a co-founder of the Crips gang, is scheduled to be executed Dec. 13. This week, his attorneys asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant him clemency for his work as an anti-gang activist on death row. On Thursday, Pasadena attorney Verna Wefald filed an 82-page motion with the California Supreme Court in San Francisco. The motion seeks information about ballistics and crime scene evidence, as well as records about witnesses who testified against Williams in return for immunity or other benefits. Wefald's motion, which was filed under a 2003 California law enacted in the aftermath of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart corruption scandal, said she was seeking material "that was not disclosed by the prosecution but should have been." The state Supreme Court immediately issued an order directing the state attorney general's office to respond to the motion by Nov. 18. Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, questioned the motion's premise, saying the information requested "has been provided to Williams and consistently made available to Williams for over 2 decades." "It is clear that Williams' legal strategy is to try to re-litigate the trial. Each court that has heard Williams' claims has affirmed the judgment," Barankin said. Williams has been on death row since 1981 for the 1979 killings of Albert Owens, a clerk at a Pico Rivera 7-Eleven; and Yen-I Yang, Tsai-Shai Chen Yang and Yu-Chin Yang Lin, who were shot to death 12 days after Owens at their Vermont Avenue motel. One of the key items in the voluminous papers filed by Wefald on Thursday was a declaration by a forensic expert disparaging work done by law enforcement after the slayings in 1979. "After having reviewed numerous documents in Mr. Williams' case, I believe that it is critical to reexamine the firearm evidence, the only physical evidence purporting to link Mr. Williams to the crimes," wrote David L. Lamagna, a Massachusetts scientist who is president of American Forensic Technologies, who added that the testimony offered by a sheriff's deputy at Williams' 1981 trial was "junk science at best." Lamagna said that "the overall police forensic examination was substandard and less than thorough" and did not include a formal crime-scene reconstruction. Among the witnesses who Wefald is seeking information about is James Garrett, whose apartment Williams used periodically at the time of the murders. Law enforcement officials came to talk to Garrett shortly after the 1979 killings to ask him about another slaying. Garrett told the authorities that he knew nothing about that death but that Williams had murdered the Yangs and Lin. Garrett gave authorities Williams' shotgun. Although members of the family of three who were killed at the South-Central motel Feb. 28, 1979, were shot numerous times, only one spent shotgun shell was found at the crime scene, according to police reports cited in Wefald's motion. Court records show that Sheriff's Deputy James Warner examined the shell and compared it to test firings of Williams' shotgun. Warner said in a report March 15, 1979, that he could not determine if the shell came from Williams' gun because there were "not enough" characteristics "for a positive comparison." Robert Martin, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted Williams, directed Martin to redo the tests. On April 18, 1979, Warner filed a supplemental report, this time saying he was positive that the shell came from Williams' gun. In his second report, Warner testified that the shell could not have been fired from any other shotgun because he was able to "find sufficient patterns within the [breech] face and the firing pin." However, Lamagna wrote that Warner's claim had "no scientific basis" because he did not follow "standard practice" in documenting the shell's markings. "The fact that Warner changed his opinion, without any real scientific basis for such an opinion change, seriously undermines the reliability of his testimony," he wrote. Garrett, his wife, Esther, and a man named Samuel Coleman testified that Williams told them he had committed the motel murders. Years later, Coleman filed a sworn declaration that he was severely beaten by police and that he later was offered immunity in exchange for testifying against Williams. The Garretts were facing criminal charges at the time and later received probation on those charges. No physical evidence linked Williams to Owens' murder. The key witness against Williams was Alfred Coward, who testified that he, Williams and two other men went to the store to rob it and that Williams shot Owens. Coward testified under a grant of immunity from prosecution. He is now in prison in Canada for killing a man during a robbery. (source: Los Angeles Times)
