[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----N.Y., TENN., CALIF., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 5


NEW YORK:

Let killers rot! ---- Angry widow fumes


The anguished widow of a hardworking Staten Island cook savagely slain for
a mere $60 said yesterday she wants her husband's killers to rot in jail
"for the rest of their lives so they suffer."

"I want them to suffer so they will know every day how I feel," said
Fabiola Salinas, 22, whose husband, Ricardo, 33, a Mexican immigrant, was
beaten to death by three punks Saturday night while out to buy his wife a
phone card.

The young widow with soft features and gentle eyes balled her fists and
clenched her jaw as she said, "I am really angry and I want to hurt them.
I want them to pay, but I don't want them to die."

She explained she was against the death penalty for religious reasons.

Police said 3 teenagers jumped Salinas on Van Pelt Ave. in normally
peaceful Mariners Harbor at 9 p.m.

As he fought for his life, Salinas somehow managed to call his wife, who
heard his desperate cries for help.

John Messiha, 17, and Daniel Betancourt and Travis King, both 19, were
arrested in the slaying. They were to be arraigned today.

Fabiola Salinas said through an interpreter, "I feel horrible; I don't
even have the strength to cry."

Nearby, her 2 children, Emily, 3, and Eric, 1, played on the living room
floor, unaware that their dad was gone.

"If I could talk to these boys I would ask them, 'Why did you do this to
him? Why didn't you just take his money? Why did you have to kill him?'"

She said she probably wouldn't accompany her husband's body back to Mexico
for burial, fearing visa restrictions might prevent her from returning to
the U.S.

"I have no future in Mexico," she said sadly. "For my kids, I want to stay
in America."

Some of Salinas' co-workers at the IHOP restaurant on Richmond Ave. stood
vigil outside his neatly kept rented home to show support for the family.

Co-workers have raised $2,000 for their friend's wife and kids, and their
boss has promised to match that sum.

Meanwhile, King's mother was struggling to come to grips with what
happened.

"This is a devastating moment in my life. My son had a lot of friends, but
he was never in trouble before. I don't understand," she said. "I have to
find a lawyer for him now."

(source: New York Daily News)






TENNESSEE:

Holton chooses electrocution over injection


Daryl Keith Holton has selected electrocution instead of lethal injection
for his execution scheduled for Sept. 19.

A Bedford County jury imposed four death sentences on the Shelbyville man
for the November 1997 shooting deaths of his three sons and step-daughter.

Because Tennessee changed its method of execution in 1999, inmates
previously placed on death row are offered the choice between
electrocution and injection, according to Riverbend Maximum Security
Institution Warden Ricky J. Bell during a media tour in anticipation of
the execution of Gregory Thompson.

Thompson's execution was set for May 17, but placed on hold by a federal
judge to consider arguments that he was not mentally competent to know the
state wanted to kill him for his murder of Brenda Blanton Lane of
Shelbyville.

Another argument raised to prevent executions has been that lethal
injection is cruel and inhumane -- that the poison causes an excruciating
pain which can't be detected by others after the condemned is heavily
sedated and then administered muscle relaxers.

Holton's refusal to speak with anyone but his mother has led to a
Tennessee Supreme Court decision that he has no legal counsel to argue
against his execution, regardless of his mental condition.

On May 15, Holton made a rare public statement. He would not oppose the
setting of an execution date.

It was probably no surprise to his uncle, Gary "Red" Holton who employed
and housed his nephew at his auto repair shop here.

"Daryl will not try to stop that execution," Red Holton said last week

Daryl Holton killed the 4 children in Red Holton's garage.

On Aug. 30, the warden at Riverbend announced that Times-Gazette staff
writer Clint Confehr, who's assigned to write about the criminal justice
system, had been selected as 1 of 7 news media representatives to witness
Holton's execution. State law provides for such witnesses with relatives.

"They asked me and I declined," Red Holton said. "I had to kind of deal
with all of it. He worked here. I deal with it every day when I open this
building ... but this is where I make a living."

"I wouldn't want to spend the rest of my days like that," Red Holton said
of incarceration faced by his nephew.

Former district attorney Mike McCown, who supervised Holton's murder
trial, has said another legal maneuver will postpone the execution, and
the condemned man's uncle sees it the same way.

"Laws aren't written for average, law-abiding people," Red Holton said.
"They're written for the criminals.

"If we had public executions and made the elementary school children
witnesses, it would make an impression.

"We have nothing to deter crime," he said.

Holton divorced his wife, Crystle, in 1993 after she became pregnant by
another man. Reconciliation had failed. He concluded that his children's
lives were ruined because they'd be raised in a broken home, so he killed
them. He planned to go to Rutherford County and kill their mother and
himself but realized if he died, he couldn't explain himself, so he
surrendered to police in Shelbyville.

Daryl Holton was in the military during the Gulf War. That was "not
directly" related to the crimes, "but when he came out of the military,
because of her (Crystle), he had nothing and he gave up."

Daryl Holton "was the nicest guy. If your oil plug came out, he'd put it
back in and not charge you. The next day, he'd not talk with you," Red
Holton said, calling that a "split personality."

However, "His IQ was brilliant. He's very intelligent."

(source: Shelbyville Times-Gazette)






CALIFORNIA:

Family of Winchell calls on renowned attorney


Family and friends of Stockton teen Terri Lynn Winchell, slain 25 years
ago in a crime that put Michael Angelo Morales next in line for
California's death chamber, want to make sure his victim, rather than the
killer, fills the public's eye. So they have turned to Gloria Allred for
help. The famed Los Angeles attorney and victims' advocate has experience
chaperoning clients, such as Scott Peterson's one-time girlfriend Amber
Frey, through the onslaught of media attention that comes with
high-profile cases.

She is in the news so much that some critics - including Morales' attorney
- accuse her of seeking out the spotlight. But others who depend on her,
such as Winchell's aging mother, Barbara Christian, believe Allred
provides needed guidance and assurance.

Allred said in a phone interview from her Los Angeles law office last week
that she's there to support relatives of murder victims, who are really
victims themselves. Allred said she only goes when she is invited, as in
Christian's case.

"I think what she is enduring is every mother's worst nightmare," she
said. "I'm happy that there are many people supporting her. I'm just one."
Christian, now in her 70s, said she shunned publicity in the years after
her daughter's Jan. 8, 1981, brutal murder in an Acampo vineyard that
shocked the community. Morales killed her as a favor to his cousin Ricky
Ortega, jealous because he was in love with the same young man Winchell
was seeing.

As Ortega drove north from Stockton, Morales attacked Winchell, repeatedly
hammering the 17-year-old on the head. At the vineyard, Morales stabbed
and raped her. Morales was sentenced to death and Ortega received a life
sentence in prison.

A quarter century later, the state prepared to execute Morales on Feb. 21,
prompting Christian to speak out publicly against Morales. That execution
was delayed amid wrangling over the state's use of lethal injection.

Commotion of the impending execution, answering media calls and opening
the newspaper every day to see Morales' photo staring at her proved
emotionally draining, Christian said. And then his execution was delayed -
another emotional blow.

Morales' case is about to drag Christian into another whirlwind when
attorneys on Sept. 26 are expected to meet in a San Jose courtroom to
resolve those wranglings over lethal injection. It is unclear when the
execution could follow.

Christian said she welcomed Allred as somebody to lean on.

"I feel like I found a new wonderful friend," Christian said. "She just is
right there for everybody who's hurting."

Allred, 65, is a founding partner of Allred, Maroko & Goldberg, a law firm
that takes on discrimination, civil rights, sexual harassment and murder
case. According to her Web site, Allred was raised in a working-class
Philadelphia home and overcame her own obstacles, such as being a single
mother, before her career in law took off.

She also is an advocate for crime victims, but when asked in the phone
interview last week, she declined to spell out the terms of her
relationship with Christian.

David Senior, Morales' attorney, said he never met Allred personally, but
he doubts she has Christian's best interests in mind. Allred, whom he
accused of "grandstanding," has a knack for showing up in front of the TV
cameras.

"It seems like (she's) exploiting a victim's family for her own profile,"
Senior said. "I don't understand what her program is."

The attorney drafted his own star power. Kenneth Starr, the independent
counsel in the Whitewater investigation that led to the impeachment of
President Clinton, led Morales' request for clemency from Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger. That request was denied.

However, Trish Costa, a former classmate at Tokay High School of the slain
Winchell, said she is sure Allred's motivation's are sincere. Allred
contributes her connections and well-schooled know-how about cases like
this, something Costa said she does not have.

Costa and a small group calling themselves Terri's Voice first invited
Allred to a candlelight vigil at Tokay High shortly after Morales'
execution was delayed. That is where Allred first met in person with
Christian and her close supporters, Costa said.

Allred in April also spoke at legislative hearings in Sacramento with
Christian beside her in an attempt to pass a law speeding up the appellate
process, so condemned men such as Morales do not wait on death row for so
long. The bill failed. Christian and Allred are planning more appearances
together.

"Gloria's been able to take Terri's story to a higher level than we could
have ever done," Costa said. "She's getting the point across about Terri
and who Terri was and what kind of evil person Morales is."

(source: Stockton Record)






LOUISIANA:

Death-row inmate still making appeals


T he arrest and prosecution of Allen "Lil Boo" Robertson was big news in
the early 1990s. He was twice convicted of first-degree murder - the 1st
conviction erased by the trial judge's error during jury selection - and
twice sentenced to death.

Robertson was 23 when he confessed to police that he stabbed an elderly
couple, Morris Prestenback, 76, and his wife, Kazuko, 71, during a robbery
at their Dalton Street home in 1991.

Some of Morris Prestenback's wounds were more than 7 inches deep, and some
penetrated the bedroom floor. His 90-pound wife was stabbed as she tried
to hide under her bed after witnessing the attack on her husband, police
have said. While Robertson's case has stalled, other death-penalty cases
have moved along the appellate road.

The last significant action in Robertson's case occurred in 1998 when both
the Louisiana Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court refused to overturn his
2nd conviction and death sentence.

Those rulings marked the end of the 1st of a 3-legged appeals process.
Robertson's court-appointed attorney, John deGravelles of Baton Rouge,
explained the case remained stalled for years because constitutional
questions remained about the funding of death-penalty cases when the
defense attorney works for free, as deGravelles is for Robertson.

DeGravelles says the Louisiana Supreme Court halted appeals in cases such
as Robertson's because the Louisiana Indigent Defense Assistance Board was
not providing money for expert witnesses to "pro bono" attorneys such as
deGravelles. Defense attorneys hired by the indigent board or the Capital
Post Conviction Project of Louisiana get money for appeals, DeGravelles
said.

That required pro bono lawyers either to dig into personal accounts for
thousands of dollars to launch appeals on broad constitutional grounds, or
the defendant had no means of mounting an appeal.

DeGravelles informed state District Judge Mike Erwin this summer there was
a good chance the indigent board would provide money soon to hire experts
to investigate possible areas of appeal.

"I think Allen Robertson will be on death row longer than I'll be a
judge," Erwin told deGravelles.

DeGravelles said he put in a request last year for part of the $300,000
the indigent board put up to help pro bono lawyers cover costs for
experts.

The money went to other cases - such as the defense of Henri Broadway,
convicted in the 1990s in the killing of Betty Smothers, a Baton Rouge
police officer.

"That money almost immediately got sucked up," deGravelles said. "It isn't
an issue any more."

Kevan Brumfield, Broadway's co-defendant, already has completed the 2
layers of appeal on the state level.

And on Aug. 11, he had his 1st hearing on the final leg in federal court.

Broadway and Brumfield were convicted and sentenced to death in 1995, the
same year as Robertson's 2nd conviction and sentence.

Ed Greenlee, the indigent board's executive director, said Robertson will
get funding during this fiscal year, which began July 1. The Louisiana
Indigent Defense Assistance Board again put up $300,000 to cover experts
for defendants represented by pro bono attorneys.

"If it comes out that we need more, we'll have to readdress it," Greenlee
said.

Prosecutor Jeanne Rougeau, assigned to handle Robertson's appeal, is
cautiously optimistic that Robertson's case could shift back into gear
with indigent board funds.

She's concerned deGravelles wants experts to challenge some of the facts
presented during trial. The time for that ended in 1998 when the Louisiana
and U.S. Supreme courts upheld Robertson's conviction and death sentence.

Now is the time to bring up broader, constitutional challenges, such as
whether Robertson had sufficient representation at trial, Rougeau said.

In legal filings before the Louisiana Supreme Court, Rougeau says
Robertson now claims to have been molested as a child and needs an expert
on sexual abuse.

That's a new claim not raised during either of Robertson's trials or
during his initial appeal.

"They want a 2nd bite at the apple," Rougeau said. "They want to hire an
investigator to look at every aspect of the case."

(source: The Advocate)