Feb. 13 TEXAS: Seeking straight answers on DNA----Agencies passing blame over where evidence was that set Mumphrey free A jury took about a week to convict Arthur Mumphrey on a charge of aggravated sexual assault but his attorney faced roadblocks for nearly 6 months before tracking down the DNA evidence that proved Mumphrey's innocence and led to his freedom last month. Since Mumphrey's release from prison after serving 18 years, law enforcement agencies involved in the case have been pointing fingers at each other. There's also contradictions about why it took so long to find the evidence after an official said it was available. Officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab in Houston - the agency that ended up having the DNA - said they originally were not given the right information to locate the DNA in its computer database. But documents show that the Montgomery County District Attorney's office gave DPS what it needed to produce the evidence, which included a vaginal swab cutting, a piece of the victim's panties, and samples of saliva and blood. One thing is clear: If it hadn't been for the persistence of Mumphrey's attorney, Eric J. Davis, Mumphrey might still be in prison. Mumphrey was found guilty of assaulting a 13-year-old girl in a south Conroe neighborhood on Feb. 28, 1986. The judge sentenced him to 35 years in prison on Aug. 12, 1986. Mumphrey's wife hired Davis three years ago to reopen the case. Davis discovered DNA was collected in the case and contacted the DPS crime lab in Houston in February 2005. He was told that the lab had the evidence and Davis immediately filed a motion for DNA testing. But when prosecutors tried to verify the DNA was available in April 2005, DPS said it did not have it. Only after Davis kept after DPS officials did the evidence resurface four months later. Was it a mix-up? A kink in the tracking system? Or a deliberate attempt to hide the DNA? DPS officials say it was none of those situations. They said had they been given a lab case number they would have found the DNA samples right away. Instead, they said, they were given Mumphrey's name, which was never entered into the lab's computerized database. Not buying it Mumphrey and his brother, Reginald Mumphrey, don't buy the explanation. ''The DA tried to play like they (DPS) didn't have it. If you read the obligation for DNA testing, if you don't have (the evidence), it's automatically denied," Arthur Mumphrey said. "That was the tactic they tried to pull." Assistant District Attorney Marc Brumberger, who handles post-conviction cases, said he contacted DPS and Conroe Police Department officials, asking them to search for the DNA samples after Davis filed a motion in February for the DNA testing. Because both agencies claimed they did not have the evidence, a judge denied the motion for testing on May 27. That's when Davis began making calls to the DPS lab. This time, he also was told the lab did not have the DNA samples. In August, he finally reached lab supervisor Keith Gibson, who located the evidence stored in a refrigerator. Conflicting information Gibson said he found the samples because Davis gave him the case number assigned to the DNA when it was submitted 20 years ago. He said other lab employees could not find the samples on previous requests because Davis and the DA's office gave them the suspect's name. But a record of the DA's request contradicts that claim. Gibson said he did not know who Davis or the DA's office talked to at the lab when they were told there was no evidence and no way to track that information. Davis and Brumberger each said they referenced the lab case number. Brumberger sent a letter to the lab dated April 29, 2005, asking lab officials to search for the DNA. The letter lists the lab case number, the suspects' names, the date of the offense, the Conroe Police Department as the submitting agency and police department's file number for the case. DPS officials could not explain what happened. Brumberger said DPS officials told his office in May 2005 that the DNA had been returned to Conroe police in 1986. He said lab officials also faxed him an evidence record sheet detailing what was collected. DPS spokeswoman Lisa Block said in DNA cases, it is normal procedure for the lab to return evidence to the investigating agency and to keep some samples. Conroe police officials acknowledged receiving the DNA from DPS in 1986, but when they searched for it last year they discovered that they had given it to the DA's office for Mumphrey's trial in 1986. Conroe police Lt. Russell Reynolds, of the criminal investigation division, said the DA's office never returned the DNA to the police department. Brumberger said the DA's office does not keep DNA evidence. So where is the bulk of the original DNA? No one seems to know. (source: Houston Chronicle) USA: Can unbiased jury be found for death penalty 'poster child'? Prosecutors and defense lawyers in the death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui are searching for the perfect jury, poring through hundreds of questionnaires from potential jurors and looking for clues to their perceptions of the case. Jury selection will be particularly difficult for the defense. The team must find an unbiased panel for a man who prosecutors say could have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, just a few miles from the courthouse where the trial takes place. "It'd be like trying Tim McVeigh in Oklahoma City," said criminal defense lawyer John Zwerling. Zwerling once waived his client's right to a jury trial in a terror-related case in Alexandria rather than risk jurors' visceral reaction to words such as al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden and Sept. 11. "It's a problem everywhere, but it's a particularly difficult problem in the shadow of the Pentagon," Zwerling said. Moussaoui pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with al-Qaida to use aircraft to destroy buildings in the United States. Moussaoui denies any involvement in Sept. 11 and says he was preparing to fly a plane into the White House as part of a 2nd wave of attacks. Jeffrey Frederick, a jury consultant, said his death penalty research has found that people often cite Moussaoui's case as exactly the kind that warrants the death penalty. "You have a situation where he is almost the poster child for the death penalty," said Frederick. Potential jurors were called in Feb. 6 to fill out 49-page questionnaires asking about religious practices, perceptions of Islam, reactions to Sept. 11 and feelings on the death penalty. Individual questioning of jurors begins Wednesday. (source: Chicago Sun-Times) **************** What has happened to America's Jesus? I remember when Jesus Christ was about religion. That goes back to when he was caring and compassionate all the time, not just during the political campaign season. He used to bring people together and give them hope. He wouldn't have his people get in your face and tell you to fight gay rights or you'll burn in hell. That's not what he was about. That's not the Jesus who made folks such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson rich and famous. He was a different guy from the 21st-century American Jesus Christ. When I recently visited Sicily, Italy, the old Jesus was all over the place. His statue was on the counter at the restaurant and the coffee house. His image was on the wall at the clothing store and in the hotel lobby. And there was a huge painting of him on the side of an apartment building. Sometimes he was with his mom and dad, and sometimes he was sitting with his pals - the apostles. Mostly he was hanging from the cross. Whatever he was up to, it was all about religion. It was interesting because I didn't go to Sicily looking for a religious experience. I went looking for what's left of my family. My grandfather and his brother came to the United States in 1904 and left behind their parents and 2 sisters. The sisters had kids, grandkids, great grandkids. I never met any of those people, and I knew nothing about Sicily except the obvious - pizza and the Mafia. My wife thought it was time to connect. She made some calls and let the family know we were coming. We landed in Palermo, got our bags and were met by my cousin Peppino Rizzuti, who was holding a handwritten sign with my name on it. He was there with 3 other cousins. They hooked us up with more family and spent the next 7 days driving us all over the island and stuffing us with mozzarella, prosciutto, olives and about 50 kinds of pasta. My cousin Maria made the sign of the cross before she ate. My cousin Antonio's car had a figurine of a saint on the dashboard. My cousin Gian Marco had a beautiful cross hanging from his neck. But nobody was going on about God, Jesus and religion. It didn't come up. I saw all that and was reminded that you can be a decent person - a good son, husband and father - and still oppose the war in Iraq. Samuel Alit0 should have been confirmed. Jesus won't get mad at you. Several times during the week, I thought about telling my family what's happened to Jesus in the United States - how he's been kidnapped by politicians and preachers who decide what he does and doesn't think. They speak for him, and it doesn't always make sense. They say Jesus is "pro life," but he doesn't seem to have a problem with the death penalty. And he thinks stem cell research - something that would save lives - is no different from murdering babies. They say he's the embodiment of kindness, love, decency and compassion. But he hates gays, lesbians and Muslims. And he's not too crazy about Buddhists, Hindus and the rest. Jews? He can put up with them if he has to. The Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka claims to speak forJesus and goes around the country talking about how " AIDS cures fags." Pat Robertson says it would be a good idea if the United States killed the president of Venezuela. It would be a lot cheaper than starting another war. All week I went over that stuff in my head and decided not to mention any of it to the family. It would make America look ridiculous. (source: Rob Borsellino, column, The Des Moines Register) FLORIDA: No Fame For A Killer There's a serial killer on Florida's death row who spends his days locked up in a 6-by-9-foot cell. He's "Gutterspit" to some of his victims' loved ones. Others won't say his name. All prefer to recall the people he murdered 15 years ago: Christina, Sonja, Christa, Tracy and Manny. The 5 college students had their lives stolen by a madman who came to Gainesville, seeking fame as a coed killer like Ted Bundy. "In each of the kids' lives, there's a story," said Ada Larson, mother of 18-year-old Sonja Larson, of Deerfield Beach. "I just think it's ridiculous. It's horrible that he gets to tell it." It was August 1990 when Larson, Christina Powell, Christa Hoyt, Tracy Paules and Manuel Taboada were stabbed to death in their off-campus apartments. It was the start of fall classes at the University of Florida. The slayings terrorized a community and drew hundreds of law enforcement agents to the hunt for a serial killer. A suspect was arrested, and 12 years ago this week, he pleaded guilty to the 5 1st-degree murders, 3 rapes and 3 burglaries. He's been on death row since. The families have maintained a gut-wrenching vigil for their children since the murders: sitting in courtrooms reliving the grisly details, stumbling across images of the crimes in newspapers and on television, realizing the killer's pen-and-ink drawings are still sold online. But they have also transformed a killer's madness into living memorials, from college scholarships to five sweeping sabal palms planted near Gainesville's landmark graffiti wall. There, a spontaneous tribute to the victims endures alongside lighthearted spray-painted testaments to young love and Gator basketball. UF freshmen passing the graffiti wall were in preschool when the murders took place. They know little about the five names painted in white on a black background next to a single, diagonal word: "Remember." "People have fallen into that trap of paying attention to the one who lived to tell about it rather than the ones who died," said Laura Knudson, who worked as a victims' advocate in Gainesville and remains in contact with all five families. "They bring a voice to those who cannot speak and, unfortunately for them, the burden is significant." Never Giving Up Since the killer's 1994 sentencing, time has taken its toll. Fathers of two victims have died; cancer and other health problems emerged for other parents. One family experienced another murder in 1997, when Sonja's sister-in-law, Carla Larson, was kidnapped and killed in Orlando. For support during this 2nd loss, Ada Larson relied on her Gainesville family of survivors. Through all this, the families continue to attend court hearings, lobby politicians in Tallahassee and speak to small groups. Now, 15 years after they met at a gathering with detectives hunting for the killer, these close friends claim all 5 victims as their own children. Manny, a 23-year-old Miami native, had just been accepted into UF's architecture school when he was killed. He and his roommate, Tracy, had been pals at Miami's American High. Tracy, 23, was a senior at UF with her eyes on law school. Christa, 18, had just graduated from Newberry High near Gainesville and planned a career in law enforcement. She had a job working the midnight shift at the Alachua County Sheriff's Office to help pay for classes at Gainesville's Santa Fe Community College. Christina was just 17 when she arrived at UF from her hometown of Jacksonville. Like her roommate, Sonja, she was the youngest child in her family. Like Manny, she wanted to study architecture. These are the details UF student journalists hear when Dianna Hoyt speaks to ethics classes each semester. Hoyt, Christa's stepmother, wants aspiring reporters to understand what it's like to be asked intimate questions about the murder and not about the child. Even now, talking about the killings is difficult. "You have a harder shell on, that's the only difference," said Hoyt, who considers the talks important steps in keeping the victims out front. Christa's mother, Ann Garren, takes her daughter's mission to youthful offenders at Lancaster Correctional Institution. Garren drives a truck with a bumper sticker that says, "Someone I love was murdered." She hopes she can steer potential career criminals and killers in a different direction. Larson says friends seem weary when she talks about the student murders. Still, she pours Sonja's voice into a memorial golf tournament in South Florida. The event, which raised $5,000 for college scholarships in 2005, is in its 11th year. "Those are the good things that happen from it," Larson said, "even though it was a horrible thing." Painful Process Getting the case resolved has been painfully slow. Despite the killer's guilty plea on the first day of the 1994 trial, he undergoes the same legal appeals process as Florida death row inmates who claim innocence. "He's already where he needs to be, but what irks me is that my tax dollars are supporting him." Garren said. "I'm supporting the killer of my daughter." On Thursday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta voted unanimously that the killer's constitutional right to a fair trial was not violated because the sentencing and jury selection took place in Gainesville. Carolyn Snurkowski, Florida's deputy assistant attorney general for criminal appeals, said the ruling keeps the case moving at a reasonable pace. "Truthfully, it's progressing," she said. Defense attorneys said they will seek another review in the next 90 days. "If the U.S. Supreme Court denies our petition, quite frankly we're out of gas," said Baya Harrison, one of two capital appeal attorneys in the case. If the Supreme Court declines to consider the case, that will effectively end the questions. "He really is down to the very end," Harrison said. "It does not bode well for Danny Rolling." Gov. Jeb Bush has yet to sign a death warrant in the case. Snurkowski said Bush usually waits until all appeals are exhausted and completes clemency hearings before setting a killer's date for death. She declined to estimate when that would be. The victims' parents express frustration at how long the appeals process has taken. During the past decade, several of the parents have worked to enact laws to speed the process. Some continue to try; others have given up that route of advocacy for their children. "I do not see why - with all the suffering he has caused everybody - why this has to go on for so long. I feel he can sit and remember everything," Hoyt said. "He can sit there and relive everything he has done again and again. To me, that's the reason he needs to be put to death." The longer the killer stays on death row, the families say, the longer he will create elaborate, ominous pen-and-ink drawings that show up online as "murderabilia." He no longer produces oil paintings because the Department of Corrections banned the materials several years ago. Hoyt knows the killer is guaranteed a right to free speech, but she won't dignify those who support his artwork by clicking on their Web sites. Garren, who has been involved in the "Murder is Not Entertainment" campaign by Parents of Murdered Children, also has little tolerance for his talent. "He could have changed his life with his artwork. But he didn't. He had 36 years to do it, but he didn't," Garren said. "He chose a different path. So now he needs to pay for what he has done." The killer has paid financially. Shortly after the 1994 conviction, Gainesville prosecutors were successful in seizing money made as a result of the crime spree. Profits from "The Making of a Serial Killer: The Real Story of the Gainesville Murders in the Killer's Own Words" were taken. The money was distributed to the victims' families and has helped create a victims' memorial park in Gainesville. Prosecutors have been unsuccessful in stopping the sale of the prison artwork, which the killer sends free to people who sell it. Campaign Prevails Although Gainesville is the place where their children died, Knudson said the survivor families who live elsewhere don't avoid Gainesville. The most recent visit came in August, when they gathered for a reunion lunch to share memories of their five children. Said Hoyt: "Our whole community stood behind us, and they still do." It's their collective strength that Knudson and other advocates see as the sacred power of the survivors of the student murder victims. She said they are still making sure the victims' voices are heard. She said their resolve will outlast the killer, regardless of what happens. "It hasn't taken him anything to speak. It takes no energy, no courage. Nothing," Knudson said. "For them to be there, it's the greatest tribute they can give." Larson wants to see the killer fade into obscurity, to dash his dream to kill for fame. "I know he wants his name out there," Larson said. "But when they talk about serial killers, they don't mention him. Let him be forgotten. He would like more than anything to be remembered." Larson, Garren and Hoyt realize today's Gainesville college students don't think a lot about their children. Still, they hope students treasure life the way their children did. Their Names Endure Brian Engel didn't know about the 1990 killings when he started classes last summer. But as service director for UF's Interfraternity Council, the 19-year-old Davie freshman became the sentry of the victims' memorial on the city's graffiti wall. The council adopted the memorial last year when Knudson and other victims' advocates stepped away from their 14-year vigil seeing that graffiti didn't spill over on the victims' names. Engel said fraternities check the large memorial each week and make sure the names of the victims are intact. Eventually, they want to cover the memorial with plexiglass to protect the names he knows by heart: Tracy. Manuel. Christa. Sonja. Christina. Asked to name the killer, though, Engel had to guess: David? Henry? Rawlings? No. Engel said he knows these students lived and died long ago. Still, they're part of the spirit of a university town that becomes a home away from home for thousands of young people who are just like the victims. No one should forget that, he said. "If it happened to me, I would want to be remembered." (source: Tampa Bay Online) ILLINOIS: Fix justice system so innocent don't go to jail On Jan. 27, the City of Chicago agreed to pay $9 million of our money to LaFonso Rollins. Chicagoans ought to be angry about this -- not because Rollins is getting the money -- he languished in prison 11 years as an innocent man -- but because the wrongful conviction didn't have to happen. Far from being a tragic consequence of our administration of justice, it was preventable. We should also be angry that our public officials have failed to take steps that would improve the quality of evidence relied upon in criminal cases and reduce the risk of future mistakes. The DNA establishes to everyone's satisfaction, including police and prosecutors, that Rollins was innocent of the series of attacks with which he was charged. Somehow, however, police got him to sign a confession, and two eyewitnesses picked him out of a lineup. The city surprised Rollins' attorneys with its sudden eagerness to settle the case, motivated by serious concerns about the Chicago Police Crime Lab's handling of evidence that may have exonerated Rollins. This case includes the hallmark sources of error in criminal cases: a false confession after an unrecorded interrogation, incorrect eyewitness identification, crime lab failures and an inept defense lawyer (who was later disbarred). The Illinois General Assembly has taken some significant steps to reduce the risk of mistakes. One of the most important took effect last summer, requiring police to electronically record the entire interrogation of suspects, but only in homicide cases. Rollins might have been spared his ordeal (and the taxpayers might have been spared the $9 million tab) if the interrogation that led to his false confession had been recorded. The electronic recording requirement must be extended beyond homicides to sexual assaults and all serious felonies. The longer we wait, the greater we risk another mistake, and perhaps another multimillion-dollar payout. The Legislature has much more work to do to address some of the other sources of error in the Rollins case. In 2002, the Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment recommended that the Illinois State Police Crime Lab be made independent of any police agency to better ensure its objectivity. This proposal has been stymied, but lawmakers and the lab itself should take the Rollins case as an occasion to look seriously at structural changes that will better guarantee the objectivity of forensic testing and testimony. The best system would put in place internal structures that make it virtually impossible for extraneous information or expectations to influence the way evidence is processed, thus inoculating the lab against charges of inadvertent or overt bias. Finally, a look at how Rollins became a suspect in the first place sheds light on another crucial problem. A manager at the housing project where the attacks occurred thought Rollins resembled a composite sketch of the perpetrator. While the victim in the case in which Rollins was convicted was unable to identify him as her attacker, two of the other victims did identify Rollins in lineups. For reasons now unclear, Rollins never went to trial in the other three attacks, so those victims' identifications were not a factor in his trial. But there can be no doubt that those mistaken identifications directed the investigation toward an innocent man and away from the true perpetrator, who remains unidentified and unpunished. Decades of research into the workings of eyewitness memory have yielded recommendations for modifying lineup procedures to guarantee the best quality evidence possible, including several endorsed by the Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment. These include having photo and live lineup procedures conducted by a neutral administrator -- someone who is unaware of which person in the lineup is the suspect (to avoid intentional or inadvertent cueing of the witness), and presenting the individuals in a lineup one at a time, instead of side by side (shown to dramatically reduce mistaken identifications). The Chicago Police are reviewing data from a pilot project (mandated by legislation) on these eyewitness procedures. Let's hope cases such as Rollins' will motivate them to do much more to guarantee the accuracy and fairness of lineup procedures. We know the sources of error, and we know how to minimize them. Extending recording of interrogations in all serious felonies, implementing more accurate lineup procedures, and creating an independent crime lab would go a long way. We must not wait for the next multimillion-dollar mistake to finish reforming the system. (source: Edwin Colfax is program director of the Criminal Justice Reform Initiative of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law, and a state projects director of the Washington, D.C.-based Justice Project; Chicago Sun-Times) ***************** Democrats favor keeping moratorium Neither Gov. Rod Blagojevich nor his Democratic rival would lift the moratorium and resume executions, though both said they support the death penalty. Even so, Edwin Eisendrath, a former Chicago alderman now seeking the party's nomination for governor, said as governor he'd support abolishing the death penalty should lawmakers ever muster the votes to get such a plan to his desk. 3 years ago, a proposed law ending the death penalty was approved by an Illinois House committee but never advanced further. Blagojevich said he'd veto any attempt to strike the death penalty from law books. The 2 Chicago Democrats also split on whether the number of crimes that warrant the death penalty should be reduced, as recommended by a commission that looked into ways to improve the capital punishment system. Eisendrath supports such a reduction. Blagojevich does not. Neither candidate supported a statewide vote on the future of the death penalty. "It's too complex an issue with enormous moral consequences to be left to a simple "yes" or "no" question on the ballot," Blagojevich said. And neither supported making the electric chair an option in executions. *********************** GOP hopefuls support return to executions ---- But candidates remain divided on other death penalty issues 3 years ago, a downstate jury sentenced Anthony Mertz to die for the brutal murder of Shannon McNamara, a 21-year-old Rolling Meadows woman studying at Eastern Illinois University. It made Mertz the 1st person to be sent to death row after Republican Gov. George Ryan switched every death sentence to life in prison just hours before leaving office in January 2003. To date, Mertz's convictions and death sentence have been upheld on appeal, raising the possibility that he could run out of appeals and face an execution date during the next governor's term in office. All 4 major Republican candidates for governor say they'd lift the current moratorium on executions and resume lethal injections if elected. And one - Sugar Grove dairy magnate Jim Oberweis - offered support for reinstating the electric chair. "I believe the electric chair is an efficient death penalty option," Oberweis said in response to a Daily Herald questionnaire. The other major Republican candidates vying for the March 21 nomination include Bloomington state Sen. Bill Brady, Chicago businessman Ron Gidwitz and Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka of Riverside. None of them supports the electric chair's return, which is still on Illinois' law books as a backup should lethal injection ever be declared unconstitutional. Oberweis also split with the other major Republican candidates in opposing the idea of a statewide vote on the future of the death penalty. "The legislature and the governor have the ability to express the will of the people on this issue," he said. But Gidwitz said the death penalty issue has received so much attention in Illinois with wrongly convicted men being set free, Ryan halting all executions and then clearing death row, that perhaps the time had come for such a vote. "I certainly think it would be healthy to take the public's pulse in light of these developments over the last several years," Gidwitz said. Brady and Topinka said they wouldn't oppose efforts to have a statewide vote on the death penalty. On death penalty reform, Gidwitz was the lone major Republican to support reducing the number of crimes that can warrant the death penalty. That's a recommendation put forth by a state commission that studied ways to improve the capital punishment system. The commission, assembled by then-Gov. Ryan, recommended reducing to five from 20, the number of crimes and factors that make someone eligible for a death sentence. That suggestion received little political support, mainly because lawmakers don't want to appear as if they're going easy on heinous criminals. "The death penalty should be a punishment available to prosecutors for the extreme crimes in society today," said Brady, who opposes any reduction. Topinka said lawmakers rejected any reduction and she saw no reason to oppose them. Beyond that, all 4 major Republican candidates said if elected, they'd veto any legislation that abolishes the death penalty. In 2003, an Illinois House committee endorsed such a plan. But it was never called for a vote before the entire House membership and has never been debated again. The last execution in Illinois was in 1999, when Ryan rejected the final appeal by Andrew Kokoraleis just months after being sworn in as governor. By the end of January 2000, Ryan declared he would sign no more death warrants for condemned inmates, saying he couldn't support a system "so fraught with error." Since the death penalty was reinstated in Illinois in 1977, a dozen inmates have been put to death, but 17 others were freed either because subsequent investigations found they weren't guilty or Ryan pardoned them. The current field of Republican governor hopefuls said enough reforms have been put in place since then for executions to resume. (source for both: Daily Herald) ARKANSAS: Motions hearing set for today in death penalty case Several motions involving the impending death penalty case in Washington County Circuit Court will be discussed during a hearing today. The pretrial hearing will be conducted in the case of Fernando Navarro, 24, of Springdale, who faces the death penalty as he is charged with accomplice to capital murder. Navarro is accused with accomplice to capital murder in the Nov. 26, 2004, death of a Springdale musician, 41-year-old David Edwards. Navarro is being represented by the Washington County Public Defenders Office. His co-defendant, Michael Chavez, 19, recently pleaded guilty to 1st-degree murder. As part of his plea negotiation, he is to testify against Navarro and is set to be sentenced to life in prison after this trial. Washington County Prosecutor Terry Jones said Friday that, if the case goes to trial, it will be the 1st death penalty case to go to trial in the county in nearly 20 years. In other recent capital murder cases, guilty pleas have been entered by defendants for life sentences or charges have been reduced to first-degree murder. Jones said, however, that he would not agree to a life sentence plea over the objections of victims family members in capital murder cases. Washington County Chief Deputy Prosecutor John Threet, who is handling the case, said, "We use our discretion. Its not the familys decision. Its going to be the prosecutors decision but certainly we give weight to what the family wants to do." Each case, he said, is determined on its own basis. Threet said there are many factors considered, including aggravating factors, when seeking the death penalty. "Its ultimately the prosecutors decision," he said. "Ill make the initial determination whether something falls under a death penalty case." At the present time, he said, it looks like the Navarro case will go to trial. There have been 27 executions in Arkansas since 1976, and the state has 39 men and no women currently on death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Jones, Threet and Deputy Prosecutor Matt Durrett attended a capital litigation conference last week in Little Rock. Arkansas and Florida received grants from the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance to conduct capital litigation programs. Other organizations involved in conducting the program in Arkansas included the Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys Association and the National District Attorneys Association. It is part of the BJAs Capital Litigation Improvement Initiative. Jones was on the planning committee for the program in Arkansas and was one of the speakers at the event, presenting an overview and discussing critical issues. There were speakers from across the country in attendance. Topics covered included charging decisions, pre-trial practice in capital litigation, discovery issues, ethics in capital litigation, jury selection in capital cases, issues and practices in the penalty phase of the trial and mental health issues in capital litigation. (source: Northwest Arkansas Times)
