Feb. 5 KANSAS: Death penalty cases moving forward----Kansas attorney general isn't waiting for high court decision With the legality of Kansas death-penalty law in serious question, a handful of capital murder cases are still going forward around the state. Is that a wise approach? Atty. Gen. Phill Kline's office, which is prosecuting the cases, says justice demands it. Others aren't so sure, given the legal cloud and the high financial costs: a typical Kansas death-penalty case costs $1.2 million, compared with $700,000 for a nondeath-penalty murder case. "The fact is that millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent," said Pat Scalia, director of the Kansas Board of Indigents' Defense Services. "At least at this point, a sentence has not been carried out. It's a huge concern." Kansas reinstated its death penalty law in 1994, and although 6 people have been sentenced to death, no one has been executed. In 2004, the Kansas Supreme Court found the law was unconstitutional because of how it instructed jurors to weigh evidence. But the decision was put on hold shortly afterward, as Kline appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that was argued late last year. In the meantime, a handful of death-penalty cases around the state went forward. Trial got under way last week in Seward County in southwest Kansas for Bob Fox, a man charged with capital murder in the deaths of his 2 small children, though a mistrial was declared Friday because of a missing report; the court plans to reschedule the trial during a motion hearing that is set for March. 2 other men facing death, Sidney Gleason in Barton County and Bob Moore in Harvey County, are scheduled to go to trial later this year. "The attorney general made the decision that we would proceed as if Kansas still had the death penalty with the hope that the Supreme Court would overturn the Kansas Supreme Courts ruling," said Whitney Watson, a Kline spokesman. If the death penalty isn't allowed to stand, Watson said, defendants convicted and sentenced under the law would instead receive the maximum remaining penalty available. "This is the most appropriate way to do it," Watson said. Donna Schneweis, coordinator of the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty, takes a different view. "We're putting jurors through a process where we don't even know that their work is going to be used at the end of the day," she said. "We're putting out a lot of bucks when we don't even know whether a case is going to be eligible" for the death penalty. A 4th defendant, Nathaniel Hill of Montgomery County, has already been convicted of capital murder, but the court has postponed sentencing until after the U.S. Supreme Court case is decided. Usually, a death-penalty case has 2 parts involving the same jury: the trial 1st, followed by a phase where jurors decide whether to put the person to death. But because of the delay in Hills case, it's likely that a new jury will need to be impaneled for his sentencing - something Scalia said would be costly and could be legally problematic. "We don't know how an appellate court will look at a situation where one jury heard the case regarding guilt and a different jury hears the case regarding sentencing," she said. (source: Lawrence Journal-World) ILLINOIS: Mother of Amanda Hamm attends Clinton death penalty forum, questions wisdom of such punishment The mother of accused murderer Amanda Hamm attended a town hall meeting Saturday to discuss the death penalty and how two pending death cases affect the small rural community. Speaking hypothetically, Ann Powers questioned whether humans have the power to put others to death. "If God can forgive, who are we to make the decision to kill somebody," Powers asked the 25 participants. Powers said she did not consider the issue of the death penalty before her daughter was charged with 9 counts of murder. The state is seeking the death penalty against Hamm and former boyfriend Maurice LaGrone Jr. in the September 2003 deaths of Hamm's 3 children. "The death penalty was not an issue in my life, but I know that God is about forgiveness, and I know he'll forgive if we ask for forgiveness," Powers said. The town hall meeting was sponsored by the Coalition for Non-Violent Communities, an organization that delves into the causes of violence in communities. Tricia Teater, board president of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said Powers' attendance at the meeting was a powerful reminder that violent crime affects small communities. "It's shocking to me that we would sit in this room with our neighbor and discuss whether it's appropriate to kill her daughter or not. She lost her babies. That she can sit here is a testament to her love for her daughter and her neighbors," Teater said. Clinton native Kari Sommers traveled from Chicago to support Powers and attend the meeting. She said the decision to seek the death penalty against Hamm and LaGrone may have more to do with money than justice. A state fund assists counties with the costs of death penalty cases. "It's like a price has been put on someone's life, and that's appalling," said Sommers. Tom Farris, a candidate for DeWitt County sheriff, said law enforcement and the legal system play important roles in the criminal justice process. Farris said he is neither opposed nor supportive of the death penalty. Community dialogue on the issue is helpful, he said, as the town braces for the start of the LaGrone trial Feb. 21. The majority of those at the town hall session oppose the death penalty. Capital punishment supporter Bruce Butler commented that premeditated murder calls for the most serious penalty. "If a person has had a reasonable number of appeals, they should pay the ultimate price for killing someone," said Butler. Supporter Dixie Montgomery challenged the group to suggest an alternative deterrent to the death penalty. One participant suggested that life in prison without parole has been used in many states where violent crime crates are at or below the Illinois rate. The factors of poverty, race and education often are behind the lives of those on death row, according to comments Saturday. "It's not an easy road for a large number of people who are uneducated, unloved and unparented," said Cheryl Lietz. (source: Clinton Herald-Review) ALABAMA: Morgan jury to consider Sneed penalty in retrial A Morgan County Circuit Court jury will reconvene Monday to decide whether to recommend that a convicted murderer be sentenced to death or to life in prison without parole. The jury found Ulysses Charles Sneed guilty Friday of murder in the fatal shooting of Clarence Terry, 51, during a robbery 13 years ago at a Bud's convenience store. Sneed and John Hardy were convicted in a 1995 trial and both were sentenced to death by Judge Sherrie Paler. The state Supreme Court overturned Sneed's conviction in 2000, citing a statement that should not have been allowed as evidence. That forced a new trial, which ended Friday with four hours of jury deliberation. Hardy remains on death row at a state prison. Even if the jury recommends a life sentence the judge could impose the death penalty. Police blotter The following incidents were reported to Huntsville Police on Friday and Saturday. In items with incomplete or no addresses, police withheld the information: North precinct A CD player, CDs and cologne were stolen from a car in a parking lot on University Drive. A blue Cadillac Fleetwood valued at $9,000 was stolen from a residence on Creighton Drive. A DVD player and modulator were stolen in a home burglary on Griffith Drive. A ceramic dog valued at $200 and a ceramic squirrel valued at $150 were stolen from a Vernon Street residence. South precinct A laptop computer, plasma TV and six watches were stolen from a residence on Mountain Brook Drive. A green 1997 Nissan Altima valued at $3,000 was stolen from the corner of East Clinton Avenue and Jefferson Street. A digital camera valued at $650 and a cell phone were stolen from an automobile on Pale Dawn Place. A diamond ring valued at $40,000 was stolen from a Appalachee Drive address. A large grave monument in Maple Hill Cemetery valued at $3,000 was vandalized. West precinct A car at an 11th Street residence was burglarized. A compressor valued at $100 and some tools valued at $230 were stolen. (source: The Huntsville Times) OREGON: For 4th time, killer gets death sentence----Robert Paul Langley Jr. faces lethal injection for 1987 murder The seemingly never-ending legal saga of 3-time convicted killer Robert Paul Langley Jr. appears to be nearing its final chapter. Langley, who three times has escaped a death sentence on legal technicalities, formally was sent to death row for a 4th time Friday in a Marion County Circuit Court sentencing hearing. "The defendant has never shown one iota of remorse for his crimes," Judge Joseph Ochoa read in a statement that included a list of Langley's character flaws. Langley is set to die by lethal injection for torturing and killing Anne Gray, 39, in 1987. He twice was sentenced to death for that crime, but the Oregon Supreme Court overturned the sentences. In 1992, the Supreme Court found that the jury failed to give proper consideration to mitigating evidence during the penalty phase of Langley's original 1989 trial. Then, after a Marion County jury in 1994 sentenced Langley to death for the same crime, the high court ruled that the jury should have had the alternative of a life sentence without the possibility for parole. Langley also received a death penalty in the 1988 slaying of Larry Rockenbrant, 24. An erroneous admission of evidence caused the Supreme Court to overturn that sentence. In a 2nd round of the Rockenbrant case, a jury gave Langley life in prison. In November, a jury unanimously decided after deliberating for 7 minutes that Langley should be put to death for the Gray murder. Gray's daughter, Terralissa Lee, wasn't in the courtroom Friday, but a statement she wrote was read by prosecuting attorney Matt Kemmy. "Look at the monster that is before you," Kemmy read. "He is the personification of evil." Steve Dingle, another deputy district attorney working the case, called Langley one of the worst people he has encountered in his 20 years of work as a prosecutor. Throughout the hearing, Langley did not look at anyone. He thumbed through his legal documents and offered no statement. Langley's younger brother, Andrew, who was sexually abused by Langley for 10 years as a child and supported the death sentence, fought back tears as he left the court. "The one thing he didn't do was break me," Andrew Langley said. "As bad as he is, I'm good." Oregon law states that every death sentence automatically is appealed to the state Supreme Court, but Kemmy thinks that this time, the verdict will stick. "I'm optimistic that they'll uphold this decision," he said. (source: The Statesman Journal) CALIFORNIA: California execution method on trial----LETHAL INJECTION CHALLENGED IN COURT IN NUMEROUS STATES When a California death row inmate is strapped onto a gurney inside San Quentin's execution chamber, "Protocol 770" begins. This is the lethal injection procedure the state uses to send 3 drugs through the condemned killer's veins, causing death within minutes. But death row inmates in California and dozens of other states have mounted furious legal challenges to lethal injection, arguing that the seemingly antiseptic process masks the potential for a searingly painful death that amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Largely unsuccessful in the past, this legal argument has gained unprecedented momentum in the past week because of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to stop a Florida execution as an inmate was being prepared to die by lethal injection. The Supreme Court's dramatic 11th-hour stay to consider how challenges to lethal injection should proceed has rippled across the country, casting doubt on dozens of execution dates, including the scheduled Feb. 21 execution of condemned killer Michael Morales at San Quentin. Morales has challenged the constitutionality of California's lethal injection procedure, and a San Jose federal judge is scheduled to hold the state's first substantial hearing on the issue Thursday. The Supreme Court's intervention in the Florida case has added drama to Morales' fight, as well as to looming executions in Ohio and Maryland scheduled for this week. Even death penalty supporters say that lawyers for death row inmates could have a window of opportunity to postpone executions. "The uncertainty gives them ammunition," said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento. "How many executions they will actually succeed in delaying is unknown." Waiting on court Legal experts say the uncertainty could extend at least until the Supreme Court issues a ruling in the Florida case, not expected until the end of its term in June. "I don't think it's inconceivable there could be a mini-moratorium on the death penalty over this," said Deborah Denno, a Fordham University law professor and lethal-injection expert. Many legal experts doubt the conservative Supreme Court, which has never specifically struck down a method of execution, will eventually ban lethal injection. But until the high court rules, the issue will continue to simmer in the federal courts -- and one of the next battlegrounds is California. "So much will depend on particular judges and courts," said Elisabeth Semel, head of Boalt Hall School of Law's death penalty clinic. San Jose U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel, who is hearing Morales' challenge, on Thursday will consider specific evidence on the issue, and has ordered the state to release partial medical records from the state's last 2 executions. Morales' lawyers hope to persuade Fogel to at least postpone the execution. Morales, 46, is on death row for the 1981 rape and murder of a 17-year-old Lodi girl, Terri Winchell. Fogel has rejected previous lethal-injection challenges, primarily because they were brought too close to execution dates. In one of those cases, the execution of San Mateo County killer Donald Beardslee, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Fogel, but said the state's method raise "extremely troubling questions." California and most other death penalty states have relied almost exclusively on lethal injection for the past decade, choosing the method in large measure to neutralize challenges to other forms of execution such as the gas chamber, electric chair and hanging. In fact, California turned to lethal injection after a federal appeals court found the gas chamber to be cruel and unusual punishment in 1996. 3-drug protocol In recent years, lawyers for death row inmates have argued that medical evidence suggests the progression of drugs used in most lethal injection executions violates the constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. California's Protocol 770, which is virtually identical to other states' protocols, calls for administering three drugs -- the 1st, sodium thiopental, to render the inmate unconscious; the 2nd, pancuronium bromide, to paralyze the muscles used in breathing; and the 3rd, potassium chloride, to stop the heart. The crux of the legal challenge is that the 1st drug may not always render the inmate fully unconscious, and the 2nd paralytic drug then conceals the inmate's suffering when the lethal -- and, some argue, painful -- third dose is administered. Defense lawyers point out that the American Veterinary Association has outlawed using sedatives in combination with paralyzing drugs like pancuronium bromide in euthanizing animals because of the prospect of "pain and distress." This protocol, Morales' lawyers wrote in court papers filed last month, "creates a significant risk that the inmate will experience a prolonged, agonizing death." State officials and death penalty supporters say the argument is unsupported by medical evidence, and is a thinly veiled attempt to abolish capital punishment. Deputy Attorney General Dane Gillette, who supervises the state's defense of death sentences, said the courts have repeatedly refused to stop executions based on the argument because there is no proof inmates suffer. "It's not an issue that has any legs, as far as I can tell," Gillette said. "There has been no showing that the execution protocol in California or any other state is unconstitutional." The courts appear poised to put both sides to the test, although it may still be years before the Supreme Court resolves the ultimate question of whether lethal injection meets society's standards. The Supreme Court is considering a procedural question in the Florida case, not the central fight over the constitutionality of lethal injection. At the same time Morales is pressing his lethal injection challenge in San Jose, he is trying to persuade Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant him clemency. Morales, who is represented by former Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr in the clemency bid, received extraordinary support last week from the judge who had sentenced him to death. In a rare move, the now-retired judge, Charles McGrath, urged the governor to spare Morales because of proof that a jailhouse informant and key witness lied at the 1983 trial, influencing the jury's decision to return a death verdict. The San Joaquin district attorney's response to the clemency petition is due to the governor on Monday. (source: Mercury News) OHIO----impending execution 3 women are strangled in 5 months, their underwear tied around their neck. One survives. The attacker faces death----Budding serial killer on verge of execution On New Year's Day in 1986, Trina Bowser was munching nachos and watching the horror movie Christine with her best friend. Minutes later, the 21-year-old would find herself in her own horror story -- strangled, raped and left to die in the trunk of her burning car. Her killer left what had come to be his ugly signature: her underwear tied and knotted around her neck. It was to be the last of the crimes attributed to Glenn "Bimbo" Benner II, a man whom Bowser knew and trusted as a casual friend, and who is to be put to death by lethal injection Tuesday. The 43-year-old Springfield Township man has been on death row since his conviction for murdering Bowser and another woman, and raping and assaulting others 20 years ago. Throughout those years, he has fought to delay his execution -- appealing his conviction and taking the state of Ohio up on its offer to test his DNA, in the thought that advanced testing would absolve him of his crimes. The testing didn't. Detectives believe Benner was a serial killer in the making. "He was a cold, cold person, and he looked right through you," recalled Summit County Sheriff's Capt. Larry Momchilov, one of the detectives to investigate Benner's crimes. "There's nothing good you can say about Benner." Benner's background By many accounts, Benner had a normal childhood. He was the youngest of 5 children, the only son of a long-distance truck driver. He got his nickname from his father's, "Bim." The younger Benner was a football player and wrestler, an average student who started drinking and smoking marijuana in his early teens. At 17, upset over falling grades and problems with his girlfriend and football coach, Benner tried to commit suicide by sticking an exhaust pipe hose through his car window. His only serious brush with the law came in his senior year when he pleaded guilty to credit-card misuse. A year after Benner's 1982 graduation from Springfield High, his mother died of a heart attack. He was close to her and was despondent, according to reports. In 1984, he married his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Rhonda Golec. The 2 lived with Benner's sister and brother-in-law in the family home on Broadview Road in Springfield Township. The future looked rosy: Benner had a job working for Michael's Construction Co. in Akron; Rhonda was a licensed practical nurse. The couple were poised to move into their own home -- a $50,000 bilevel in Canal Fulton -- in January 1986. But something else had been going on in those preceding months: Several area women fell prey to vicious assaults. They were choked until death, or nearly so. "Each victim suffered an extremely brutal and violent end," Summit County Coroner William Cox said at the time. Blossom murder 'Benner's' first known victim was Cynthia Sedgwick, 26, a secretary from Cleveland Heights. She had attended the private Laurel School in Shaker Heights, where she received an art award and graduated in 1978. She was attending night classes at Cuyahoga Community College when she met Benner at Blossom Music Center on Aug. 6, 1985. Sedgwick was on a double date, but she largely ignored her friends and roamed the grounds, tipsy, to the music of blues-rock guitarist George Thorogood. When the concert ended, Benner's friends saw him steering a pretty blonde toward a wooded area. They waited by their car for him to show up; finally, they left. Sedgwick's friends waited for her, too. Finally, they figured she had found a lift back home. They left. 6 days later, a Blossom parking lot attendant discovered Sedgwick's nude and decomposing body in a densely wooded area. Her bra was tied around her neck. Her father, James Sedgwick, put up a $10,000 reward that supporters quickly matched, but it would be months before he learned what had happened leading up to the murder of his only daughter: that Benner had lured her into the woods, held her there while the crowd left, and then raped and strangled her. Because Benner's own ride had left, he then walked to a Lawson's store at state Route 8 and Steels Corners Road and called an unsuspecting female friend for a ride home. He told her his friends had left without him. He was more honest the next day at work. "I killed a chick at Blossom last night," Benner told co-worker Robert Tyson, then 26, of Springfield Township. "That's the last time. I'm not going to do it again." 2 assaults in fall On Sept. 26, Benner and Tyson were pouring concrete in Akron's Goodyear Heights neighborhood. A 38-year-old woman who lived nearby asked for a quote on a job. Days later, she was hanging a picture in her home when Benner and Tyson slipped through an unlocked door. Benner slapped her, pushed her down and raped her repeatedly while Tyson stole $12 from her purse. Benner was so violent that Tyson eventually pulled him off the woman and apologized for the assaults, he later told police. Meanwhile, Benner stole a wine bottle containing coins and fled. The 2 left separately and didn't meet until the next day at work. "Did you finish her off?'' Benner asked, according to police reports. When Tyson said no, Benner smelled trouble: ``Now we're going to get caught." At 6:30 p.m. Nov. 19, 1985, the two men were driving around when Benner saw a woman jogging along Howe Road in Tallmadge. At Benner's instruction, Tyson dropped him off. Benner pushed the 18-year-old University of Akron student off the road and tied masking tape around her head and eyes. She asked him to remove the tape because it hurt her eyes, and he did, giving her a chance to see his face -- one she later would identify from police mug shots. She tried to run, but he pounced on her, choked her and left her for dead; he did not rape her. When she revived, she ran naked to a nearby home for help. Her bra was wrapped so tightly around her neck that a hospital surgeon had to cut it off. She returned to class at UA two days after the attack. Today she is an orthopedic surgeon in another city. Trina Bowser As for Trina Bowser, she was cautious and neat, a wholesome girl, recalled Momchilov of the sheriff's department. She was a good student in the Tallmadge schools, helped clean a church on Saturdays and worked for a real estate agent in high school. She loved snow so much she would store a ball of it in the freezer each winter, her mother, Joyce Bowser, later would say. She was a much beloved daughter, the last of 5 children, the only girl. "She was one of the greatest kids you'd ever want to meet. She could talk to anybody," said Dennis Leeks, father of Trina's best friend, Cheryl. Trina and Cheryl (Leeks) Schrengauer became friends at Hammel Actual College. They talked every day and were planning a trip to Myrtle Beach. "She was really classy, a nice dresser," Schrengauer recalled. "There weren't many things that were wrong with her." Trina was at the Leeks family's Stow home until about 9:45 p.m. on New Year's Day 1986. She had turned 21 a week earlier, on Christmas Day. She was wearing a favorite gift -- a fake rabbit coat from the Fashion Bug. Trina begged off early. She was going home, she said. She had to work the next day at the Arnold Corp., where she was a secretary. To this day, the Leekses believe she had no plan in mind other than a good night's sleep. Murder of Bowser What happened next remains unclear. Trina lived with her parents, whose home was only two doors from the house that Glenn and Rhonda Benner shared with Lori and Michael Quinn, although the Bowsers' address was in Tallmadge and the Quinns' was in Springfield Township. Did Trina meet Benner on the road? As she pulled into her driveway? The hours are lost. She wouldn't have been afraid of Benner, her friends and family told police. She knew him from the neighborhood. Just after midnight, on Jan. 2, passers-by saw fire flickering in Trina's 1982 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme on the berm of eastbound Interstate 76 in Tallmadge. Someone had started a fire by igniting Trina's Pound Puppy stuffed animal. The passer-by found Trina's identification and called her family. The Bowser family still relives the horror of those next minutes, according to statements they made at Benner's clemency hearing in late January. Joyce and Willard Bowser and their son, Rodney, opened the trunk to find Trina's body. Her legs were bound with silky curtain tiebacks that police later matched to those in Benner's new home. She was wearing pink socks; her body was covered by her new coat. Her bra and panties were bound around her neck. Footprints led from the car to a body shop. The shop owner later would testify that he had seen an off-white Ford pickup truck -- one later found to be Benner's -- there around midnight. Tyson comes forward "We worked 24 hours that day," recalled Tallmadge Police Chief John Kafka, then a detective. "There was an extreme amount of pressure" to solve the murder of such an "apple pie and mom and USA" type of girl. The key was to come from Benner's inner circle -- his co-worker Tyson, who haltingly approached a minister, then police, with the details he knew of the crimes. Benner had to be stopped, Tyson insisted. "We told him, 'As long as you're not involved in the murders, you can walk out of here,'" Momchilov recalled. Although both Benner and Tyson later admitted to the Goodyear Heights assault, Benner in the following months denied any other wrongdoing. The only problem he had, he told Norton psychologist James Siddall, who interviewed him for the court, was the "bad things" other people and newspapers were saying about him. But he already had been found guilty in the assault of a 19-year-old bicyclist in Portage County on Aug. 29, 1985, and he was suspected though not charged in a rape in Stow. Just weeks after Bowser's murder, Benner was indicted in it and in the Sedgwick murder, and in the assaults on the two other women. Benner's trial By April, he was being tried before 3 judges in Summit County Common Pleas Court. Evidence was plenty, detectives say, including pieces of Trina's fake fur coat found at Benner's home in Canal Fulton. Larry Whitney, one of two lawyers to represent Benner, said the trial was difficult. ``It was hard for him to overcome the number of counts and the prejudice that brought with it," he said. Whitney tried to find inconsistencies in Tyson's accounts to police. "It was important that the jury not believe him," Whitney said. "Obviously, they did believe him." It took the judges three hours to find Benner guilty of 17 counts. Those who knew Benner were shocked, Whitney said. "No one could believe he was capable of doing what he was alleged to have done," he said. Few people, however, publicly are defending him now. His father, sister, brother-in-law and ex-wife did not return phone calls. His former friend Tyson, who spent 3 years in prison for the attack on the Goodyear Heights woman, also declined to talk, but his story did not end after prison. Because Tyson was the link to solving the Sedgwick murder, he pursued the $19,500 in reward money. When he received only $600, he sued Blossom Music Center and others in 1991. His lawyer, Douglas Maher, said that the case was settled and that Tyson got about 1/3 of the full amount. As for Benner, he has said in statements issued from death row that he has changed and is "now a new person." He says drugs fueled his "horrific" crimes. He has said he will address the Sedgwick and Bowser families at his execution. 20 years after their murders, it will be the 1st time he has spoken to them. (source: The Beacon Journal) **************** Letter from Benner's attorney to parole board [Editor's note: The following is the letter Kathleen McGarry, the attorney for convicted murderer Glenn L. Benner II, sent to the state concerning his clemency hearing. Benner is scheduled to be executed Feb. 7.] ** January 3, 2006 Cynthia Mausser Ohio Parole Board Adult Parole Authority 1050 Freeway Drive North Columbus, Ohio 43229 RE: Glenn L. Benner II, #190-672 Ohio State Penetentiary Dear Ms. Mausser and the Ohio Parole Board: I am writing at the request of Judy Coakley. Ms. Coakley contacted me regarding a possible date for a clemency hearing for Glenn Benner, who is currently scheduled for execution on February 7, 2006. She was trying to schedule the hearing, and I indicated that my client was not applying for clemency. Evidently, he gets a hearing whether he wants one or not. I am writing to confirm that Mr. Benner is not seeking clemency nor will we participate in the clemency process. I am sure by now you have received a letter to this effect from Mr. Benner; if not, I am attaching a copy of the letter. Unfortunately, as my client points out in his letter, the clemency process in Ohio is not a way of "administering justice with mercy.'' There is not mercy in the clemency process. Therefore, a person who has taken responsibility for their offenses will never be granted clemency. Only if a person is innocent, as in the case of Jerome Campbell, might a death row inmate stand a chance of being spared. This process offers no hope for many of the men on death row. Mr. Benner cannot change the time in his life when these offenses were committed. He can change himself, and he has done that over the last 20 years. However, that does not matter in Ohio. If, as the past hearings have illustrated to us, the clemency process is just going to be a hearing in which the facts of the crimes are again set forth in much detail, in an attempt to show why Mr. Benner should not be granted clemency, this will only serve to cause pain and heartache to the victim's family as well as his own, and we will not participate in such a hearing. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me. Sincerely, Kathleen McGarry ---- CC: Glenn L. Benner, II (source: Letter to the Editor, Akron Beacon Journal) *************** In 1978 News Journal interview, Cotton maintains his innocence (Editor's note: This story was published in the News Journal on Aug. 20, 1978, based on an interview in prison then-reporter Tom Brennan did with Charles Cotton. Brennan is the publisher of the newspaper today. The News Journal's request to interview Cotton for this package of stories was denied by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections.) Charles Cotton has no interest in escaping from the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, even though he is serving a life sentence there for killing a Mansfield police officer. "What do I have to escape for when I will be free one day?" the determined 34-year-old Cotton said. "If there is justice in America, I will be back on the street someday." Cotton was sentenced in October 1976 to die in the electric chair for the Feb. 6, 1976, shooting death of Patrolman Michael Hutchison. Ohio's death penalty was struck down last month, however, by the U.S. Supreme Court, and Cotton's sentence was later changed to life in prison. Cotton said at no time did he accept the fact that he might die in the electric chair. He said he was convinced the death penalty would be dumped, just as he is certain he eventually will be cleared. "I never pulled the triggers on either one of those guns that day in the parking lot," the muscular Mansfielder said, pointing out the Ohio Supreme Court still has to rule on his appeal of his murder conviction. "My trial transcript alone will prove my innocence." Cotton was convicted of aggravated murder by a panel of three common pleas court judges. The judges felt evidence indicated Cotton gained control of at least one police revolver to kill Hutchison. The officer was slain during a struggle in the South Diamond Street parking lot of a T & A Thrif-T-Mart grocery store. Hutchison and auxiliary officer Roger Casler were attempting to apprehend Cotton for trying to pass a stolen check. Cotton is sticking to the account of the shooting that he told in court. He says Hutchison was shot twice and Casler wounded during a series of accidental discharges that took place while he was wrestling with Casler for control of the policeman's pistol. "I didn't go out there to commit no crime and I didn't shoot a gun that day," Cotton maintains, adding he still does not know if his wife, Alice, was trying to buy groceries with a stolen check. "I was on my way to the car to return the groceries because they wouldn't take the check or a credit card. That's when it all jumped off," Cotton said. He said when he first gained control of the handguns from both officers, the shooting was over. The inmate said the struggle between him and Casler began when the officer grabbed him from behind and stuck a gun in his side. Cotton's contention that he did not have control of the guns until the shooting was over is a direct contradiction of witness testimony that indicated shots were fired at the officers after Cotton had a gun in his hand. The former employee of the Ontario Fisher Body plant is bitter about his conviction. At 1 point during the interview, he wept while talking about his wife and 2 children. He says he does not know their whereabouts now, and he believes a statement given to police by his wife was made as a result of threats. Cotton views himself as a victim of circumstance -- "a black dude who was blamed for the death of a white cop." He feels the same way about a probation violation that sent him to the Ohio State Reformatory in 1968 and an auto theft charge that resulted in a trip to the Ohio Penitentiary in 1971 and a later move to the Marion Correctional Institution. He says both of the early sentences resulted from what he thought were legitimate moves. Cotton arrived at the maximum security prison in Lucasville on Oct. 26, 1976. He has spent his entire stay on death row. Prison officials describe him as an average inmate who has adjusted well and who has no record of causing trouble within the institution. Inmates on death row are not given prison jobs. Cotton says he spends most of his time reading, exercising and "laying around." He says much of the material he reads consists of legal books and records of other murder cases. He prides himself on being a jailhouse lawyer and he now handles all his own legal work. "I read about anything that might be of value to me in getting out of here," he said. Cotton describes life on death row as slow and generally boring. The bearded prisoner said many inmates on death row greeted the recent Supreme Court ruling with relief. Cotton says some death row inmates entertain themselves by using marijuana, a drug that he says is easier to obtain "inside the joint" than it is on the street. "You give me $100 and I'll have some drugs for you in the morning," Cotton said jokingly. "It's that easy to get." The former Mansfielder suspects most drugs find their way into the hands of inmates through prison workers who bring it in. He said some workers are "making a lot of money" from drug sales. He said the "smart ones" have inmates send money out of personal prison accounts to post office boxes the workers rent on the outside. The inmate said people who have difficulty getting marijuana when they want it can always fall back on prison employees who will write a prescription from the prison pharmacy on request. "All you have to say is that you need some pain medicine for something and they will write it out," Cotton said. The Mansfielder's only goal now is to be free and "be back with my family." Cotton said that if he does make it back on the street, he would like to return to Mansfield and pick up with his job at Fisher Body and his life. When asked if he feels people in the city would hold the murder against him even if his conviction is overturned, he said, "No. The community would get over it if it has any kind of mind or conscience." (source: News Journal) NORTH CAROLINA: Capital inequity----Declining numbers of N.C. death sentences since 2001 reforms argue for a halt to executions while earlier cases are examined Under the harsh light of questioning, warts have shown up on North Carolina's system of capital punishment. That's good. Problems can be eliminated once they've been discovered. What's happened since some reforms took effect in 2001 leads to the inescapable conclusion that many unfair aspects of the system have been corrected. During that time more than 2/3 of all 1st-degree murder charges -- charges that can bring a death sentence -- have been dismissed or reduced to lesser charges. The number of death penalty verdicts has fallen from 14 in 2001 to 6 last year. But now that snakes have been found crawling under the rock of capital punishment, North Carolina ought to pay more attention to the death row inmates convicted beforehand. It's certainly true that most condemned prisoners have committed terrible crimes deserving of harsh punishment. But in the event that any of those inmates was treated unfairly, by 2001 standards, the state ought to thoroughly review their cases and hold off on further executions until it's completed. The state's capital defender confirms what has long been suspected about 1st-degree murder charges. Prosecutors use them as a bargaining chip against defendants, the official, Bob Hurley, told a legislative committee on capital punishment last week. Surely 2/3 of the 1st-degree murder charges wouldn't have been dismissed or reduced if that weren't true. Hurley works for the Indigent Defense Service, which was started in 2001 to ensure that all defendants receive qualified representation in capital cases. To be eligible, lawyers have to be screened by the agency and receive continuing education on the rigors of capital defense. A strategy session with experienced defense lawyers is legally mandatory before trial. Incompetent or misbehaving lawyers made those reforms necessary -- for example, lawyers who admitted to heavy drinking while defending people on trial for their lives. Yet for all the improvements the Indigent Defense Service has made, it has changed nothing for the 150 or so inmates condemned before 2001. Most of them couldn't afford to hire legal talent. So judges used to assign lawyers to them from a list of volunteers. Some of those volunteers were 1st-rate. Others were simply out of their league. Chances are that the larger number of death penalty verdicts before 2001 bears some relation to the caliber of defense. To those who may have been directly affected, the state of North Carolina owes them a systematic review of the record. Flaws found in their representation ought to be disclosed to a judge. While that sort of process is under way, the state would be hard-pressed to justify continuing the rituals of execution. The next is scheduled March 17 for Patrick Moody, convicted in Davidson County years before North Carolina began wondering if the death penalty was being administered fairly in every instance. Unless a moratorium on executions is called while the pre-2001 cases are reviewed, North Carolinians will have to continue wondering. (source: Editorial, The News & Observer)
