Jan. 11 TEXAS----female to face death penalty Florida woman's trial set in South Texas capital murder case In Wharton, a Florida woman who is 1 of 5 suspects in the slaying of a Maine man found dead along a rural South Texas road was scheduled to go on trial next month on a capital murder charge. Athena Gandy, 23, of Lakeland, Fla., was arrested in June and is being held in the Wharton County Jail on $500,000 bond. She's set to go on trial Feb. 27 in the death of 21-year-old James Junkins, of Biddeford, Maine. His body was found in a roadside ditch in Wharton County, about 55 miles southwest of Houston, in February. Junkins went unidentified for several months until a homeless man, 22-year-old Edward Bachelder, turned himself in to in Portland, Maine, authorities and said he had witnessed the murder of his traveling companion. Gandy's trial is 1 of a possible 3 trials still pending in Junkin's death, Wharton County District Attorney Josh McCown told the Victoria Advocate for its Wednesday edition. Bachelder was charged with capital murder and is awaiting trial. Also awaiting trial for capital murder is Sean Flanders, 22, of Lakeland, Fla. They are each being held in Wharton County Jail on $1 million bond. 2 other suspects, 22-year-old Tasha Kersey, of Lakeland, Fla., and 27-year-old David Anthony Theriot, of Lexington, Ky., both pleaded guilty to murder in December as part of plea bargains that resulted in 40-year sentences for each. McCown would not comment on whether the 2 convicted suspects will testify in the pending trials. (source: Associated Press) USA----re: federal death sentences 2 Iowans on federal death row appeal convictions 2 Iowans sentenced to death for the drug-related slayings of 3 adults and two children have appealed their convictions to the Eighth U-S Circuit Court of Appeals. Dustin Honken and Angela Johnson were each convicted of planning and carrying out the slayings near Mason City in 1993. Both were sentenced to death last year and became the 1st Iowans to receive the death penalty in more than 40 years. Besides filing his appeal, Honken was appointed 3 new attorneys to handle his case. He is currently incarcerated at the federal death row in Indiana. Johnson was sentenced last month and her notice of appeal was received last week. Federal prosecutors say the average length of appeals for federal death penalty cases is 7 years. Honken and Johnson were convicted in the murders of 2 federal drug informants who once peddled methamphetamine produced by Honken. Their bodies were discovered in 2 graves outside of Mason City in 2000 after Johnson gave information about the locations of the graves to a jailhouse informant. (source: Associated Press) ****************** FBI checking prints in death row cases The FBI is reviewing the cases of all state and federal prisoners scheduled for execution to determine whether bureau fingerprint examiners made errors that led to death sentences. The monthly reviews were first disclosed in a Justice Department report released Friday. They began 18 months ago, after FBI examiners mistakenly matched a print found near the site of terrorist bombings in Madrid to a lawyer in Portland, Ore., said Joseph DiZinno, the FBI's deputy assistant director for forensic analysis. The lawyer, Muslim convert Brandon Mayfield, was held as a material witness in the bombings for 2 weeks. He was released after Spanish police matched the print in Madrid to an Algerian linked to Muslim terrorists. The bombings killed 191 people, most of them on commuter trains. The episode embarrassed the FBI. It prompted the bureau to focus on fingerprint analyses it had done in death penalty cases, out of concern that an error could lead a wrongful execution. Since the reviews began, the FBI has examined at least 92 death penalty cases and found 10 in which it had analyzed fingerprints, DiZinno said. No error has been found, he said. The FBI is continuing to examine death row inmates' convictions at least a month before their scheduled executions, DiZinno said. 9 inmates across the USA are scheduled for execution later this month, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington, D.C., group that opposes capital punishment. There are more than 3,000 death-row inmates across the nation, but it's unclear how many of their cases involved fingerprint analysis. "There is no doubt in our minds about the scientific basis or validity of fingerprint identification," DiZinno said. "We wanted to ensure we didn't make a mistake." He said the FBI also reviewed analysts' work in about 100 convictions for various crimes in which fingerprints were matched through IAFIS, a computer system that compares prints of potential suspects to crime scene evidence. IAFIS, which the FBI says is the world's largest biometric database, contains prints from 47 million criminals and suspects, plus millions more people, including former military personnel. No errors were found in that review, which dated to the system's launch in 1999, DiZinno said. Mayfield's prints, held in IAFIS because he had been in the Army, were among 20 sets of prints the system flagged as possible matches to the Madrid site, according to the Justice Department report released Friday. An FBI examiner compared a Mayfield print to one from the bomb site and declared a match. His erroneous conclusion was confirmed by 2 other FBI examiners and a consultant. The FBI did not back away from its stance until Spanish police matched the print to the correct suspect, the report said. The FBI review comes as the death penalty is under increased scrutiny. Virginia Gov. Mark Warner has ordered DNA tests to check whether coal miner Roger Coleman was innocent of the murder for which he was executed in 1992. It also comes amid increased attention to fingerprint analysis. Fingerprints, long thought to be unique to individuals, have been used in U.S. courts since the early 1900s. But critics such as Simon Cole, a professor of criminology at the University of California-Irvine, say fingerprinting is not backed by sufficient scientific research. This month, Bruce Budowle, the FBI's chief scientist, called for more scientific "validation" to improve fingerprint ID techniques. He wrote in Forensic Science Communications, the bureau's online journal, that there is "overwhelming evidence" fingerprints can be used to make "reliable identifications." (source: USA Today) DELAWARE: Capano death sentence overturned Tom Capano's death sentence has been thrown out by the Delaware Supreme Court, which ordered a new penalty hearing and a resentencing for Capano. A former state deputy attorney general, Capano was convicted and initially sentenced to death for the 1996 murder of Anne Marie Fahey. The justices overturned the death sentence based on new legal considerations of whether death sentences must be voted on unanimously. In Capano's case, the jury's 11-1 vote that the murder was premeditated meant it failed to find Capano eligible for the death penalty "beyond a reasonable doubt" - just as an 11-1 vote in a criminal trial fails to result in a conviction, Capano's attorney Joseph Bernstein argued before the Delaware Supreme Court last October. The court, however, split on the question of changing Capano's death sentence to life in prison or picking a new jury, ordering a 2nd, and costly, penalty hearing and resentencing. 2 of the 5 justices, including Chief Justice Myron T. Steele, said altering the sentence to life was appropriate, but the majority ruled in favor of new proceedings. The court ruled Tuesday, but as is its practice, waited a day to release the opinion. "I'm a little disappointed about the new penalty phase issue, but I can't say I'm surprised," Bernstein said today. Bernstein, who received the opinion Tuesday evening, said he has contacted Capano, but he would not say how the former prosecutor took the news. At trial, prosecutors said Capano killed Fahey, the scheduling secretary to then-Gov. Tom Carper, in 1996 because she was about to break off their affair. Although the state Supreme Court turned down a previous appeal by Capano, Bernstein said the U.S. Supreme Courts 2002 decision in the Ring v. Arizona case has changed the law. In the Ring decision, the justices ruled that a jury, not a judge, had to determine whether a case merited the death penalty. Bernstein said Capano's case is unique among the death-penalty cases reconsidered in Delaware since the Ring decision because of the 11-1 vote. In the other cases, juries were unanimous in their findings about death-penalty eligibility, he said. (source: News Journal) GEORGIA----(death penalty-related issues) Debutante's slaying splits Savannah----Downtown crime: Response to tragedy may bring change, but highlights racial, economic divide. They started coming to St. John's Episcopal Church off Madison Square by 9 a.m. Thursday. By 11 a.m., an hour before the funeral started, mourners packed the pews and lined the walls. Others spilled onto the street. By noon, when weeping pallbearers carried Jennifer Ross' casket up the steps, more than 500 people sat or stood inside and 500 more had gathered quietly on the sidewalk. The number of wealthy, mostly white mourners was a solemn tribute to the popularity of this 19-year-old debutante killed by a mugger. But the assembly of Savannah's elite in the heart of the city also served a political purpose, putting the Coastal Empire's politicians on notice that they want violent crime in the city's historic downtown to stop. "Crime in Savannah now has a face, and it is the face of a 19-year-old girl who is the daughter of a friend to many of us," David Simons, a Republican political consultant, wrote in an e-mail sent last week to local politicians and business leaders. "The wake up call has been sounded and we must respond." The e-mail was seen by many business leaders as a catalyst leading to the creation of a new anti-crime citizens group called Save Our Savannah. But exactly whose Savannah is threatened has become an increasingly bitter point of dispute, hashed out in public meetings and City Council hearings, on local radio and in the opinion section of the Savannah Morning News. Slaying touched a nerve It all started with tragedy. At 3 a.m. Christmas Eve, Ross was walking with friends through Orleans Square after leaving a cotillion. The well-dressed children of Savannah privilege were approached by three black men demanding money. When they grabbed for Ross' purse she resisted, and one of the men shot her. The muggers are still at large. The shooting - which resulted in the young woman's death New Year's Day - has sparked a firestorm. What began as outrage over the death of an innocent has degenerated into an increasingly bitter exchange among political leaders. Anger and bombast have obscured a family's deep loss, and reopened old wounds in this port city that has long struggled with race, class and crime. Simons says the core issue is simply how to stop criminals in downtown Savannah. "It's not about black guys shooting white guys, or white women," Simons said. "It's about freaking criminals out there robbing and stealing with no regard for human life." But racial divisions appeared soon after Ross died. At a recent public meeting about the shooting, 1 white man suggested building walls around public housing to keep in criminals and posting video cameras on all city lampposts. In the Savannah Herald, a black weekly, columnist Michael Porter wrote last week about the shooting, arguing that the core issue of crime is this: "The 'system' works for Whites and does not address the true needs of Blacks. ... Are Savannah's political and business elite concerned about helping to erase or reduce Black poverty?" Political divisions have become apparent as well. Simons, as well as Jennifer's father, "Rusty" Ross, vice president and chief legal counsel to Savannah's largest hospital, both have strong ties to the Republican Party. Helen Stone, a Republican county commissioner, was Jennifer Ross' godmother. Both Savannah Mayor Otis Johnson and Chatham County Board of Commissioners Chairman Pete Liakakis are Democrats. Johnson has been singled out for criticism by white leaders who say he has not done enough to combat crime, a claim Johnson denies. Johnson says he worries racial divisions will undercut any progress on crime prevention. "We've got to get past the emotional part first before we have a rational discussion. We aren't there yet," he said. "I am praying every day that we get there in a hurry, because we are teetering on a brink of it going in the wrong direction." 'It's a city. There's crime.' Savannah has transformed its downtown into a beautiful district of million-dollar homes, high-end restaurants and antique shops. The center city area's residents and visitors are mostly white. Yet outside downtown, much of the city of about 130,000 has remained, for the most part, squalid, poor, crime-ridden and black. Savannah is about 60 % black and its median household income is below the national average. Josh Mauser, 19, a sophomore at the Savannah College of Art and Design, said students get mugged "all the time." "People fall into a complacency, I guess," he said. "They think 'it's historic Savannah, how could anything go on here?' It's a city. There's crime." While crime in the city as a whole has gone down in recent years, according to police statistics, violent crime has recently spiked in the downtown area. Across the city, views of the city's violent crime problem tend to differ based largely upon race. Carrie Michlig, 29, a white woman who moved to Savannah from a small town in Wisconsin about a year ago, said she was surprised at the amount of crime in the city and moved to Pooler, a suburb, for safety reasons. Standing outside a parking lot only a block from where Ross was shot, Michlig said black leaders in the city bring up race when they talk about crime. "When there is a crime, the racism card comes out," she said. "It's getting old." Inga Kahn, a historic district resident who gave her age as "middle," said she felt safer when she traveled to New York on business than she did in her home, where she has twice had young men try to break in. "The crime is just too much for a small, little town," she said. But violence in the poor sections of town doesn't engender the same outrage among whites who live in the suburbs or downtown. Simons said many murders in the poor areas are of little concern to average citizens. "We don't really care if a couple of crackheads want to shoot each other," he said. Mayor Johnson calls that remark racist. And in the poor sections of the city, people echoed Johnson's view. Blacks in a run-down section of East Savannah said crime in their neighborhood does not spark concern from civic leaders. "When a black person gets killed, it will be on the news, but when a white person gets killed, they launch special committees to look into the problem. It makes you wonder," said Vivian Cooper, 55, standing on her stoop across from what used to be a drug house. Angel Young, 24, walking down Waters Avenue past empty lots, said her cousin was killed nearby and police never charged anyone with the crime. "It's more of an issue when a white person dies," she said. The differing views among some whites and blacks have political leaders anxious. County Commission Chairman Liakakis said the board was working to keep the issue of downtown crime from becoming partisan. "Accusations are not going to solve the situation we have," he said. No memorial to Ross So far the board has set about putting county deputies on city streets on overtime pay to supplement city patrols and fill vacant police posts. The city is planning to implement more crime prevention plans in coming months, Johnson said. Since he took office, the council has been working on a crime prevention strategy paper. Save Our Savannah, the fledgling group backed by the Ross family and leading members of the city's business community, last week released its own plan. It has as its first item to simply "admit we have a crime problem in Savannah," implying city leaders have not publicly acknowledged the downtown crime. Other proposals call for the group to monitor crime and raise money to combat it. The plan also calls for legislative changes to increase funding for crime prevention downtown. In a public meeting last week, Johnson and City Council members painted the group as a Johnny-come-lately on the issue, complaining that most of the proposals already were part of the City Council's plans. Such open bickering has sparked divisions in the city that are only expected to widen as Savannah and the county head toward their next elections. No one is sure - only a week after she died - how Ross' death will affect the city's future. In Orleans Square, where Ross was fatally shot, not even a simple bouquet of flowers memorializes what happened there. For a city that habitually marks every tragic event that occurred within its boundaries, from duels to epidemics, the lack of any marker speaks to the political and racial sensitivities surrounding Ross' death. The modest park, blocks from River Street, poorly lit and less ornate than the popular Forsyth or Johnson squares, has never been a tourist destination. Yet now Orleans Square - its trees draped in Spanish moss that waves in the wind like spectral hair - adds its own tragic story to this haunted city. (source: Atlanta Journal Constitution) SOUTH CAROLINA: Defendants in death penalty trial to be tried together The 2 people facing a death penalty trial in the killing of a Greenville executive more than a year ago will be tried together, a judge has ruled. Circuit Judge John C. Hayes III also has ruled the trial for David Wendell Edens, 35, and Jennifer Annette Holloway, 28, will stay in Greenville County. The 2 have been charged with murder in the death of 71-year-old Jim Cockman. Defense attorneys wanted the trial moved because they said Cockman, the former chief executive of Sara Lee's PYA/Monarch division, was too well-known in Greenville County for the defendants to get a fair trial. Holloway's lawyer wanted a separate trial because her defense might put her at odds with Edens. Edens' lawyer wanted the 2 tried together so the prosecution couldn't emphasize 1 defendant's role at 1 trial, then go after the other defendant at the 2nd trial. Prosecutor Bob Ariail wanted to keep the trial in Greenville County and try both defendants at the same time to not add any more delays to the proceedings. The judge has already ruled the trial won't start until at least mid-April. Cockman disappeared after he was supposed to meet a couple who said they were interested in buying a car from him. His body was found 9 days later in a freezer in Sevierville, Tenn., where Edens and Holloway lived. (source: Associated Press)
