[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, TENN., MASS., S. DAK.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 6


TEXAS:

Killer's fate gets closer to jury's hands


In Hondo, Ramiro F. Gonzales' fate today will be placed in the hands of
jurors who last month needed little time to convict him of capital murder
for the kidnapping, rape, robbery and slaying of Bridget Townsend on Jan.
15, 2001.

The jury of 9 women and 3 men will decide if Gonzales should get the death
penalty or a life sentence for the brutal crimes to which he confessed,
but pleaded not guilty. Gonzalez did not testify during the trial.

The jury convicted Gonzales on Aug. 25 after brief deliberations on the
evidence that Gonzales killed Townsend, 18, after a cocaine-driven
burglary of the Bandera County home she shared with boyfriend Joe Leal,
who was described in court as Gonzales' drug dealer.

Since then, jurors have learned that the defendant already is serving a
life term for kidnapping and raping another woman in 2001.

Testimony in the trial's punishment phase concluded Tuesday. The jury is
slated to hear closing arguments today.

Among the final witnesses was Daneen Milam, a psychologist hired by the
defense to offer evidence intended to lessen Gonzales' punishment.

She described Gonzales, 23, as immature, insecure, paranoid and socially
ill-adjusted. Interviews with Gonzales' family painted a portrait of a
neglected orphan who was sexually abused as a child and began using
alcohol and drugs at 12, Milam said.

Gonzales' mother, Julia Saldaa, abandoned him at birth to his
grandparents, who raised him on a ranch, where Townsend was slain.

Saldaa refused to assist in her son's defense, Milam said.

"Ramiro basically raised himself," the psychologist said.

His father, Jacinto Sanchez Jr. of Hondo, was absent, Milam said, but the
father and son met in Medina County Jail, where both are inmates.

Gonzales failed kindergarten, 6th grade and 7th grade before dropping out
of school as a 16-year-old 8th-grader.

However, under cross-examination by Assistant Attorney General Laura
Baymouth Popps, Milam confirmed that Gonzales spoke of hurting people and
expressed doubt about being able to behave as an inmate.

And although the defense described Gonzales as remorseful for his
misdeeds, he denied the crimes for which he's convicted.

"I never hurt either girl," Gonzales once told Milam, according to
interview notes read at trial. "I've never hurt a girl in my life."

(source: San Antonio Express-News)

**************

Mom testifies in retrial


When Grace Keller opened the door to her northwest Arlington trailer home
nearly 20 years ago and found her fiance's body stretched across the
kitchen floor, she thought he was unconscious and needed help.

It wasn't until a 911 operator asked her whether anyone else was in the
home that she thought about her 4-month-old son.

"I ran to his room and didn't see him in his crib and thought he had been
kidnapped," Keller said Tuesday, sobbing as she sipped water on the
witness stand. "I turned around, and he was in the sink. He was face-down,
so I picked him up, laid him on the bed and told the operator that he was
dead."

Keller recounted for a Tarrant County jury the 1987 Christmas Eve she
found her infant son, Jayson Trekell, and her fiance, Mike Trekell, dead.

She would later learn that her son and fiance were the first 2 victims in
a killing spree committed by family friend James Eugene Bigby.

Bigby, now 51, was convicted of capital murder in 1991 for the 2 slayings.

The jury sentenced him to death, but the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
overturned his sentence last year. It ruled that jurors were improperly
blocked from considering whether his mental illness was a mitigating
factor.

On Tuesday, testimony began in state District Judge Elizabeth Berry's
court in the sentencing retrial.

Jurors also heard that 20 years ago, Bigby thought that there was a
conspiracy to prevent him from collecting on a workers compensation claim
he filed while working at Frito-Lay in Fort Worth.

Bigby believed that in the late 1980s, the company had sent 32
investigators to follow him, was trying to kill him by piping green gasses
through air vents and had persuaded his friends to join the conspiracy,
according to court testimony.

The defense said Bigby's paranoia led to the 1-day killing spree that left
four people dead, including Jayson and Mike Trekell.

Bigby is also accused of killing two other friends, Frank C. Johnson, 33,
of Arlington and Calvin W. Crane Jr., 38, of Fort Worth shortly after the
Trekells' deaths. Those cases are pending.

Dressed in a navy suit and a red tie, Bigby looked more like a history
professor than a convicted murderer. He constantly tugged at his
salt-and-pepper beard and mustache during opening statements.

Crane's only son, Kevin, now 35, said Tuesday after the jury broke for the
day that Christmas Eve is the worst time to tell a 16-year-old that his
father has been killed.

"Dads are invincible," Kevin Crane said. "That ruined Christmas for some
years after that."

Crane, who said he was recently diagnosed with progressive pulmonary
hypertension, said the stress from his father's death caused the health
problem.

Even though the conviction is not at issue, the new jury heard and viewed
evidence from the original trial. Prosecutors are trying to show that
Bigby would be a threat to society if he is allowed to live.

Prosecutor Alan Levy said the slayings led to one of the largest manhunts
in recent Tarrant County history. Levy recalled that one of the 1st things
Bigby said when he was apprehended was, "You know I'm guilty, and I know
I'm guilty."

But Bigby's attorney said his client has a 15-year prison record of good
behavior.

"You'll hear minor incidents where he had a picture of Jesus Christ on the
wall and hung a curtain over the cell door but not one single act of
violence," defense attorney Wes Ball said during opening statements.

During the first trial in 1991, Bigby grabbed a loaded gun from behind
state District Judge Don Leonard's courtroom bench and barged into
Leonard's private chambers, telling him, "Let's go, judge." Bigby was
captured after the judge and a prosecutor wrestled him to the floor and
pulled the gun away.

Leonard continued presiding over the case, and jurors, who were told about
the attack, later rejected Bigby's insanity defense and sentenced him to
death.

Ball said Bigby's mental illness led to the killings.

"He had been admitted to a psychiatric treatment center 3 times before
this incident," Ball said.

(source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

***********************

For this bill, ex-con will be key lobbyist----Measure aims to increase
compensation for the wrongly convicted


5 years ago, Anthony Robinson's testimony helped persuade the Texas
Legislature to begin compensating men and women sent to prison for crimes
they didn't commit.

Since then, Robinson, who spent a decade in prison after being wrongfully
convicted of rape, has received nearly a quarter of a million dollars from
the state. He's earned a law degree from Texas Southern University and
begun an advanced law program in China.

And when the Legislature convenes again in January, he will be back in
Austin to lobby lawmakers to expand the amount of money it provides for
people who find themselves in the same unenviable position.

"I mean it's just sad that people don't realize that even if you gave them
a million dollars a year, the injury goes beyond what the compensation can
possibly give to make up for it," said Robinson, 45.

After being paroled in 1996, Robinson worked and saved up enough money to
pay for a DNA test that exonerated him. His story was so compelling that
state Sen. Rodney Ellis sought Robinson's testimony in favor of a bill to
pay exonerated people $25,000 for each year they were incarcerated. He
later called it key to getting the 2001 bill passed.

The Texas law has a $500,000 cap, but Ellis' proposed bill would eliminate
the cap and increase the payments  to $50,000 a year for a noncapital
crime and $100,000 for capital case  to match the law for people
exonerated from federal courts.

"Robinson is just a poster child for why we need to have Texas mirror the
federal standard," Ellis said.

Ellis said he introduced the bill in 2005, but it failed to get enough
votes to come up on the Senate floor.

This time around, Ellis is banking on Robinson's continued success to help
get the bill passed.

Robinson was sentenced to 27 years in prison for a 1986 sexual assault at
the University of Houston. He served 10 years before he was released on
parole.

After the DNA test exonerated him, he received a pardon in November 2000.

Robinson, who already had a college degree before his arrest, found a lot
of support after his release. Ellis, for instance, hosted fund-raisers to
help pay for law school, and Robinson graduated from TSU's Thurgood
Marshall School of Law in 2004.

'A life back in order'

Unlike Robinson, Ellis said, most ex-prisoners are unable to get their
lives together after serving time for a crime they didn't commit.

The existing law provides $5,000 in counseling services, Ellis said, but a
person would have to pay for the services and then get reimbursed by the
state.

Ellis said his bill would provide services such as assistance in
developing work-force skills, securing affordable housing as well as
medical, dental and psychological care.

"I think the state has a responsibility to do as much as possible to put a
life back in order when a mistake has been made," Ellis said. " ... I mean
we put the burden on the individuals as if they made the mistake instead
of the government."

Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo and a member of the Senate's Criminal Justice
Committee, supports more compensation.

"I don't know why more money would not be in order," said Seliger. "How
many would volunteer to be locked up away from our families for $25,000 or
even $50,000 a year? Not many of us."

Seliger voiced skepticism about providing additional services, however,
saying that would depend on what they would cost.

Another Houston case

Josiah Sutton, a Houston man who served 4 1/2 years in prison for rape
before DNA evidence exonerated him, said he hasn't received any counseling
since his release in 2003 and he is having a hard time finding employment
because the state hasn't formally taken the criminal conviction off his
record.

"It's pretty hard when you're bouncing back from a criminal conviction
period," said Sutton, who was pardoned in May 2004.

"A lot of people don't want to hire a convicted felon."

Sutton, 24, has received $118,749 in compensation, according to the state
Comptroller's Office. He said he faced an even tougher challenge because
he was still in high school at the time he was sent to prison.

He credited Robinson's maturity for the positive choices he made after his
release.

The proposed bill would not benefit Sutton, Robinson and others who have
already received state compensation.

Robinson, however, said he's involved in the movement for the "next
Josiah."

(source: Houston Chronicle)






TENNESSEE:

Holton judged competent for death


A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a Shelbyville man knows what he's doing
and so his Sept. 19 execution remains on schedule.

Daryl Holton's mental competency was the issue before U.S. District Court
Judge Thomas Phillips Tuesday, according to Alex Wiesendanger, associate
director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing.

Divorced from his wife, Holton killed his three sons and step-daughter in
November 1997, believing that their lives were ruined and that he was
doing what was best for them, Wiesendanger said after the federal court
hearing in Nashville where Phillips ruled from the bench.

"Daryl Holton's murder of his 4 children was a horribly tragic event, but
it might never have happened if Holton had been receiving proper
treatment," Wiesendanger said. "To contend that a person suffering from
severe mental illness is competent to make rational decisions is to
gravely misunderstand how mental illness affects the human mind."

Many men who commit such crimes do so while suffering major depression, a
condition causing them to project their feelings of helplessness and
hopelessness onto the lives of their children, Wiesendanger said. These
men, like Holton, then act in what they believe is an altruistic manner,
attempting to "save" their children from pain by ending their lives.

Last week, Holton selected the electric chair instead of lethal injection
as the method of execution. He has that choice because the state changed
the system after he was convicted by a Bedford County jury that also
returned 4 death sentences, one for each child killed in the auto repair
shop where Holton was living.

(source: Shelbyville Times-Gazette)






MASSACHUSETTS:

Family of man killed by Bulger awarded $3 million


In Boston, a federal judge awarded $3.1 million yesterday to the family of
a man who was killed by fugitive mobster James "Whitey" Bulger, ruling
that the federal government is liable for the man's death because a former
FBI agent leaked his identity to Bulger.

The family of John McIntyre, 32, a fisherman from Quincy, sued the federal
government for $50 million.

They alleged McIntyre was killed by Bulger in 1984 after former FBI Agent
John Connolly Jr. tipped him that McIntyre had talked to U.S. Customs
agents in an investigation of Bulger and his cohort Stephen "The Rifleman"
Flemmi's involvement in a failed plan to send guns to the Irish Republican
Army aboard a Gloucester fishing boat.

Connolly, who has not been charged criminally in McIntyre's killing, was
convicted of warning Bulger to flee on the eve of his 1995 racketeering
indictment. He is now serving a 10-year sentence and is currently awaiting
trial in Florida in connection with the 1982 slaying of Miami gambling
executive John Callahan.

In June, Flemmi testified that McIntyre was killed after Connolly told
them 1 of the 2 people aboard the fishing boat was cooperating with
authorities.

In a 110-page ruling yesterday, U.S. District Judge Reginald Lindsay found
that Connolly was the "proximate cause" of McIntyre's death and the
federal government should be held responsible.

"I find that the United States is liable to the plaintiffs, because
Connolly, acting within the scope of his employment, disclosed information
to Bulger and Flemmi sufficient for them to identify McIntyre as a
government informant, and McIntyre's death was a forseeable consequence of
that disclosure," Lindsay wrote.

Flemmi testified that McIntyre was lured to a party on Nov. 30, 1984, then
chained to a chair, interrogated, strangled and shot in the head by
Bulger.

During the trial, an attorney for the Department of Justice said the FBI
had no way of stopping Bulger and Flemmi, leaders of the notorious Winter
Hill Gang, from committing crimes. Both men were also FBI informants who
gave agents information about the Italian Mafia, the Bulger gang's main
rival for criminal rackets in the Boston area, including gambling, drugs
and loan-sharking.

The government also said that U.S. Customs agents offered to put McIntyre
in the witness protection program, but he declined.

Flemmi is serving a life sentence for 10 killings as part of a plea deal
that spared him the death penalty.

Bulger is wanted in 19 murders and is on the FBI's "10 Most Wanted" list.

Jeffrey Denner, an attorney who represented McIntyre's mother, Emily, and
brother, Christopher, in the lawsuit, said the ruling is significant
because it is the 1st time a judge has found that the government is liable
in the death of someone killed by the Bulger gang.

A total of 17 federal lawsuits have been filed against the government by
alleged Bulger victims. Ten of those lawsuits have been dismissed because
they were filed too late. The McIntyre case was the first one to make it
to trial.

"I think what is being said here by the judge is that Flemmi, Bulger, the
government and the FBI are culpable for the suffering and death of John
McIntyre," Denner said.

Gail Marcinkiewicz, a spokeswoman for the Boston office of the FBI,
declined comment on the ruling.

"We are reviewing the decision and considering our options," said Gina
Talamona, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department in Washington.

In his ruling, Judge Lindsay found that Connolly was motivated to leak
McIntyre's identity "in part by greed and his friendship with Flemmi and
especially Bulger." He cited testimony from Flemmi, who said he and Bulger
gave Connolly more than $200,000 in cash and gifts from 1981 through 1990.

Attorney William Christie, another attorney for the McIntyre family, said
McIntyre's mother was gratified by the ruling.

"Emily McIntyre kept the flame alive for 20 years in many ways," Christie
said.

"They raised every legal defense throughout the case and continued to deny
responsibility throughout the trial ... Judge Lindsay's order sends a
clear message that individuals can seek redress for wrongs by the
government and obtain justice," he said.

The judge awarded $3 million as compensation for John McIntyre's conscious
suffering and $100,000 as damages for loss of consortium for Emily
McIntyre.

(source: Milford Daily News)






SOUTH DAKOTA:

Prosecutor wary of execution law change


The man who prosecuted condemned killer Elijah Page said Tuesday that the
South Dakota Legislature could give death-row inmates material for legal
appeals by rewriting the state law on lethal injections.

Lawrence County State's Attorney John Fitzgerald, who prosecuted Page,
Briley Piper and Darrell Hoadley for the March 2000 murder of Chester
Allan Poage of Spearfish, said state lawmakers should be especially
careful if they rewrite the statute defining the method of lethal
injection. About four hours before Page's scheduled 10 p.m. execution Aug.
29, Gov. Mike Rounds issued a reprieve until at least July 1. Rounds said
the statute on lethal injections and the procedure planned for Page were
in conflict.

State law calls for a 2-drug method of execution, with a fast-acting
barbiturate and a paralytic drug, but the state Department of Corrections
procedure calls for a 3rd drug, potassium chloride, to be used. Rounds
wants the 2007 state Legislature to amend the existing law to allow the
use of 3 drugs, clearing the way for Page's execution sometime after July
1.

But Fitzgerald said it's likely that the re-written law would be
challenged in court, a process that would further delay the execution that
Page says he wants.

"You've got to be careful when you change the law," Fitzgerald said. "The
definition of ex post facto law is changing the punishment after the
crime. Some could argue that if you change from two drugs to three, in
essence, you change the punishment.

"I'm not saying that it is ex post facto law. I'm saying these people on
death row will probably raise it as an issue, or they could."

South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long said he expects an appeal if the
Legislature rewrites the lethal-injection provisions in the law. The
doctrine of ex post facto applies to laws that retroactively make certain
actions illegal or increase the penalties for existing crimes, Long said.

"One of the guys on death row will make an argument that since the
protocol in statute changes from two to three drugs, the law prohibits
them from being executed under the new procedure," he said. "I think most
likely it will be disposed of on the basis of the penalty is death, and
the penalty doesn't change."

Page is 1 of 4 people on death row in South Dakota. He and Piper were
sentenced to death by Circuit Judge Warren Johnson after pleading guilty
to murdering Poage. Hoadley was found guilty at trial and was sentenced to
life in prison by a jury.

Charles Rhines and Donald Moeller are the other death-row inmates. Rhines
was convicted for the 1992 murder of Donnivan Schaeffer in Rapid City.
Moeller is on death row for the 1990 rape and murder of 9-year-old Becky
O'Connell of Sioux Falls.

During a hearing before Johnson last month in Deadwood, Page clarified
that he had previously declined the opportunity, offered by his lawyer, to
challenge the planned use of three drugs in his execution.

Moeller has raised the lethal-injection issue in federal court in Sioux
Falls. Lawyer Mark Marshall of Sioux Falls, who represents Moeller in that
action, has asked U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol to determine
whether the state's execution statute is constitutional. Marshall said the
law is clearly in conflict with the policy by the state Department of
Corrections.

"We have a statute that clearly calls for only 2 drugs and a state policy,
or a DOC policy, that calls for three drugs," Marshall said.

Despite that apparent conflict, Fitzgerald believes that the state could
have executed Page using either 2 or 3 drugs, particularly because Page
himself waived his legal argument against the policy last month. But he
also believes that the use of the 3rd drug, potassium chloride, could open
the state to arguments that use of the drug causes pain before death.

Inmates in other states already are making that legal argument.

Long expects that issue to land in South Dakota, now that the state is
preparing for its 1st execution in almost 60 years, apparently with the
3-drug procedure. He believes that the current state law would allow the
use of 3 drugs, even though it says 2.

"The statute says you have to use 2. It doesn't say you can't use 3," Long
said. "9 states with statutes perfectly identical to ours have been
executing people (using 3 drugs)."

Marshall argues that three drugs are not permissible under the law,
pointing to a separate statute on the meaning of "shall" that he believes
clarifies legislative intent. In part, that statute says: "The punishment
of death shall be inflicted by the intravenous administration of a lethal
quantity of an ultra-short-acting barbiturate in combination with a
chemical paralytic agent."

When added to the other statute, the intent is clearly that 2 drugs be
used, Marshall said.

"We have another statute that says when 'shall' is used in a statute, it
is a mandatory directive that allows no discretion in carrying out what is
to be done," Marshall said.

Piersol could rule any day on Moeller's motion, Marshall said.

Regardless of that ruling, Fitzgerald said that if the Legislature revises
the lethal- injection language, it should remember the ex post facto
doctrine.

"If they've got to go ahead and change the law, I'd say the Legislature
should say you can have 2 drugs or 3 drugs, by choice of the inmate,"
Fitzgerald said. "But if he refuses, he should be executed in accordance
with the drugs in effect at the time of the murder."

Long said that even if the Legislature revises the law specifically to say
3 drugs will be used, the most that current death-row inmates are likely
to get on appeal is the option to die according to the 2-drug policy that
was in law at the time of their crimes.

"The best results that Moeller and the other death-row inmates could get
would be a choice," Long said.

Long said he expects DOC officials and members of the governor's staff to
write the "remedial legislation" to revise the lethal-injection language
in law.

"We help with some of that stuff," Long said. "I expect we'll be involved
in this one."

(source: The Rapid City Journal)