Dec. 17 INDIANA: Parolee who killed 3 in Indiana given life -- Murderer pleaded not to be freed; then he murdered again Minutes before an Indiana man was sentenced to spend his life in prison for murdering and burying 3 Hammond teens under a basement floor in 2003, prosecutors blasted Illinois prison officials for letting him out of jail. David Maust, 51, confessed to the murders of Nicholas James, 19, on May 2, 2003; James Raganyi, 16, on Sept. 10, 2003, and Raganyi's friend Michael Dennis, 13, on Sept. 11, 2003, after the prosecutor took the death penalty off the table. During the sentencing, Lake County prosecutor Bernard Carter said that Maust warned prison officials he would kill again and asked not to be released from an Illinois prison where he had been serving 17 years of a 35-year sentence for murdering a teen in Elgin in 1981. Maust also admitted killing 2 other teens. "He wrote that he would go out to be a law-abiding citizen and go back to killing," Carter said. "He has an insatiable urge to kill." Illinois officials said they could not hold Maust because he served his sentence and, in 2002, completed his parole. He lived in Oak Park after his prison sentence. Carter said he does not believe Maust committed any murders in Oak Park. Maust did not speak at the hearing, but in portions of a psychiatric interview his lawyer, Thomas Vanes, read in court, Maust described himself as an evil man and apologized. "As a child, I was not planning on growing up to hurt people, and I never wanted to be labeled a serial killer," Vanes read in court. "They were good, non-violent, and innocent young people who did not deserve to die." Judge Clarence Murray said he accepted the deal knowing Maust would never go free. "You will nevertheless die behind prison walls," he said. "You will just do it one day at a time." Lynn Smith, Raganyi's mother, said Maust should never have been released from prison in Illinois. "He's going away," Smith said. Referring to Maust's prior release from prison, she said: "I wish he never got out to hurt anybody else. I'm glad he's never going to hurt anybody else again." Family friend Melissa Garcia told the court Michael Dennis' death had left "gaping holes" in the Dennis family, adding, "a young man who had so many things left to achieve in his life will never have the opportunity to do any of them." Nicholas James' family did not attend the hearing. (source: Chicago Tribune) NEBRASKA: Death row inmate loses appeal Death row inmate David Dunster's claim that his guilty plea should be vacated because he was under the influence of medications was rejected by the Nebraska Supreme Court Friday. Dunster was later sentenced to death in the case, which stemmed from the 1997 strangulation of his cellmate at the Nebraska State Penitentiary. In subsequent communications with the Lancaster County District Court in the case, Dunster fired his court-appointed lawyer, at one point telling the Judge Paul D. Merritt Jr. he would rather receive the death sentence than spend the rest of his life in prison. In a July 1999 hearing, Dunster told the judge he was taking Prozac and Depakote, among other medications, but that the drugs did not affect his ability to understand the court proceedings. Dunster suffers from hepatitis C, diabetes and bipolar disorder. Merritt, finding that Dunster knowingly waived his right to an attorney, accepted the guilty plea, but strongly urged Dunster to have an attorney at the sentencing. Dunster refused, at one point saying, "It is really a pain in the ass to get you people to kill me." At the sentencing hearing that November, Dunster submitted a letter in which he wrote a death sentence would be his "'parole and pardon all in one.'" Merritt sentenced Dunster to death in January 2000. Dunster's current attorney, Jerry Soucie, then filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that Correctional Services medical records, some of which were unavailable earlier, showed that Dunster had serious health problems that made him unable to waive his right to an attorney. The Supreme Court rejected the claim Friday, finding that many of Dunsters health problems arose after he was sentenced. In addition, the court said, Merritt would have reached the same conclusions on Dunsters competence even if all the records had been available to him. (source: Lincoln Journal Star) MARYLAND: Death sentence upheld in murder-for-hire case In a 4-3 decision, Maryland's highest court upheld a death sentence yesterday for a drug kingpin convicted of hiring someone to kill 2 witnesses scheduled to testify against him in a federal narcotics case. The Court of Appeals rejected 3 appeals from Anthony Grandison, who argued that Baltimore County prosecutors suppressed evidence favorable to his case, that Maryland's process for sentencing capital cases is flawed and that he was not eligible for the death penalty because he did not kill the witnesses. Grandison and Vernon L. Evans Jr. were convicted and sentenced to death in the April 1983 killing of David Scott Piechowicz and Susan Kennedy at the Warren House Motor Hotel in Pikesville. Grandison was found guilty of paying Evans $9,000 to kill Piechowicz and his wife, Cheryl, who were witnesses in the drug case. Kennedy was working for her sister Cheryl that day, and prosecutors said at trial that they believed Evans mistook Kennedy for her sister on the day of the killings. Four judges found no evidence that prosecutors had suppressed witness statements in Grandison's case or that the witness testimony would have changed the outcome of the trial. They also ruled that Maryland law is clear that a defendant convicted in a contractual murder is eligible for the death penalty. The 3 dissenting judges -- Chief Judge Robert M. Bell and judges Irma S. Raker and Clayton Greene Jr. -- refer in their opinion only to Grandison's arguments regarding Maryland's capital sentencing procedures. Raker wrote that the 3 judges dissented for the same reasons they had laid out in previous similar cases. In those cases, the judges agreed with death row inmates' arguments that judges or juries at sentencing should weigh mitigating factors, such as a defendant's troubled childhood, against aggravating factors, such as another felony committed along with a murder, by the standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt" before sentencing a convicted killer to death. Maryland law sets the standard of proof for such decisions at "by a preponderance of the evidence" -- a significantly lower legal threshold. ************************* Judge refuses to dismiss death-penalty drug case A judge rejected a motion yesterday from an often-charged but rarely convicted West Baltimore man who tried to have his death-penalty case thrown out of court because he argued the federal court has no jurisdiction over his "flesh and blood." Solothal "Itchy Man" Thomas, 29, was charged in U.S. District Court in Baltimore last year with 3 other men whom federal prosecutors called violent "enforcers" for a marijuana organization. They allegedly shared $10,000 for their suspected roles in killing a Baltimore County man in 2001. Prosecutors say the men were part of a widespread marijuana trafficking organization that supplied various "markets," violently retaliating against those who tried to interfere. In court yesterday, Thomas quickly read from a prepared script, ignoring pleas from his attorney and the judge to speak more slowly so he could be understood. He called attorneys Arcangelo M. Tuminelli and Teresa Whalen "incompetent" and said he could hire no other attorney who didn't have a conflict of interest. The case marks at least the seventh time a prisoner from the state's maximum-security prison in Baltimore has tried to argue that the federal courts do not have the right to try defendants, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason M. Weinstein. They argue, so far unsuccessfully, that the court may try them only if they had a contractual relationship under the Uniformed Commercial Code. In recent years, Thomas became known for his ability to absorb criminal indictments and avoid conviction in state court. He was charged with killing two people and attempting to kill a dozen more. But time after time, he won acquittals or pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and received relatively short stints in jail. U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake said yesterday that the case against him would proceed and he would be unable to fire his attorneys, who will continue to represent him. "I think it's extremely unfortunate," Blake said of Thomas' motion. "It's a travesty." Thomas is scheduled for trial early next year. (source for both: Baltimore Sun) NEW JERSEY: New Jersey Legislates a Moratorium on the Death Penalty On December 15, New Jersey became the 1st state to legislate a moratorium on the use of the death penalty. Celeste Fitzgerald, director of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, who has been advocating for the moratorium said, "the Senate has signaled its deep concern with the State's current death penalty system and sent a clear message that the death penalty just does not work." In a week in which the international community has been condemning the United States and Governor Schwarzenegger of California for allowing the execution of Stan Tookie Williams, New Jersey has hopefully set an example for the rest of the country to follow. The only countries that allow state sponsored murder and have executed as many people as the United States in a year are China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Congo. Since 1976, 1000 people have been executed, three quarters of them since 1992. President Bush, set a new standard when Governor of Texas, signing 152 death warrants on his watch. Contrast that against Governor George Ryan of Illinois, who famously granted commutations to all death row inmates before leaving office last year. Ryan was convinced to do so because 13 men had been found innocent after receiving their sentence. Thats one more than the twelve persons executed in Illinois since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The death penalty is a system plagued by racial and economic prejudice and a flawed legal system. While the majority of Americans still support the use of the death penalty; its faults clearly call for a nationwide moratorium. Here are some facts compiled by the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and the Death Penalty Information Center: The death penalty is racist. Black Americans are 13 % of the US population, but 43 % of prisoners on death row. Almost all capital cases83 % - involve white victims, even though nationally only 50 % of murder victims are white. A black person who kills a white person is 19 times more likely to receive the death penalty than a white person who kills a black person. The death penalty punishes the poor. More than 90 % of defendants charged with capital crimes cannot afford to hire an experienced attorney. In Texas, for instance, there is no public defenders office and judges often appoint lawyers that are unable to mount an adequate defense. The death penalty condemns the innocent to die. Since 1976, 119 death row inmates have been found innocent - some within minutes of their scheduled execution. That means for every 7 people executed, 1 has been found innocent. The death penalty is not a deterrent to violent crime. The majority of states with the death penalty have higher murder rates than states without it. The death penalty is "cruel and unusual punishment." Since 1982, the United States has executed 17 people who were under 18 at the time of their crime. 70 more juveniles await execution on death rows throughout the country. (source: Michael Shtender Auerbach is a press officer at The Century Foundation)
