Sept. 6 ILLINOIS: Ex-Ill. Gov. Gets 6 1/2 Years for GraftFormer Illinois Gov. George Ryan Sentenced to 6 1/2 Years in Prison for Graft Former Gov. George Ryan, who was acclaimed by capital punishment foes for suspending executions in Illinois and emptying out death row, was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison Wednesday in the corruption scandal that ended his political career. "People of this state expected better, and I let them down," the 72-year-old Ryan said in court before hearing his sentence. Federal prosecutors had asked for a sentence of eight to 10 years. Defense attorneys told U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer that even a sentence of 2 1/2 years would deprive Ryan of the last healthy years of his life. Ryan was convicted in April of racketeering conspiracy, fraud and other offenses for taking payoffs from political insiders in exchange for state business while he was Illinois secretary of state from 1991 to 1999 and governor for 4 years after that. The verdict capped Illinois' biggest political corruption trial in decades. Prosecutors said that Ryan doled out big-money contracts and leases to his longtime friend, businessman-lobbyist Larry Warner, and other insiders and in received such things as Caribbean vacations and a golf bag in return. Ryan also used state money and state workers for his campaigns, the government alleged. Defense attorneys pleaded for mercy, citing Ryan's advanced age, his health problems he is plagued by high cholesterol and the intestinal illnesses Crohn's disease, diverticulitis and the humiliation he has already suffered. "The public shaming that Ryan has endured combined with the impending loss of his pension greatly lessens the need for the court to punish through the sentencing process," Ryan's lawyers said in court papers. They said Ryan "has been publicly and universally humiliated." The scandal that led to Ryan's downfall began over a decade ago with a fiery van crash in Wisconsin that killed 6 children. The 1994 wreck exposed a scheme inside the Illinois secretary of state's office in which truck drivers obtained licenses for bribes. The probe expanded to other corruption under Ryan. Seventy-nine former state officials, lobbyists, truck drivers and others have been charged. 75 have been convicted, including Ryan's longtime top aide, Scott Fawell, a star witness at Ryan's trial. In 2000, Ryan, as governor, declared a moratorium on executions in Illinois after 13 death row inmates were found to have been wrongly convicted. Then, days before he left office in 2003, he emptied out death row, commuting the sentences of all 167 inmates to life in prison. He declared that the state's criminal justice system was "haunted by the demon of error." Even as he faced scandal back home, Ryan accepted speaking invitations across the country and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his criticism of the death penalty. With prosecutors closing in on him, Ryan decided not to run for re-election in 2002. He was indicted after leaving office. (source: Associated Press) ******************************* Some have reason to thank Ryan Former Gov. George Ryan's 1999 capital-works program, Illinois First, had $12 billion for transportation projects but no money for a new bridge over the Rock River. So state Sen. Denny Jacobs pleaded his case to Ryan in Springfield. "(Rep.) Joel Brunsvold and I went to George and said 'This is our number-one priority,'" Jacobs, an East Moline Democrat who left office last year, recalled Tuesday. "He said 'All right, you got your bridge.'" Other times, Ryan shot down his requests, Jacobs said. But the Kankakee Republican always gave Jacobs a fair hearing, Jacobs said. "Democrat or Republican, he wanted to make sure everyone got their fair share, because that made the process work," Jacobs said. "I think he was a good governor." Federal prosecutors would disagree with that assessment and are expected to ask for a stiff prison term when Ryan is sentenced today on racketeering and fraud charges. But some former colleagues, employees and observers say there was more to Ryan's long public service career than the allegations of bribe-taking that dominated his 7-month corruption trial. The 72-year-old Ryan was convicted of pocketing cash, gifts and other benefits from insiders who enjoyed state contracts and leases, primarily during his 2 terms as secretary of state in the 1990s. "I just think that he's been portrayed as many things - the poster boy for corruption, and that's not the case," said Ryan friend Joseph Hannon of Chicago, who sat through much of the testimony. "George was almost unrecognizable to people who knew him." Hannon, director of the state's trade office during Ryan's tenure as governor from 1999 to 2003, said his former boss should be remembered in part for his 2 trips to Cuba. Ryan took medical supplies to the island nation and promoted Illinois' agriculture industry, but made it clear to Cuban leader Fidel Castro he did not approve of the dictator's policies, Hannon said. "He let Fidel know that very strongly, eyeball to eyeball," Hannon said. Cynthia Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, has used Ryan as a symbol of state government's ethical abuses. But she said Ryan deserves a nod for taking some bold actions, such as the moratorium he imposed in 2000 on executions in the wake of flawed capital cases and his later commutation of the sentences of death-row inmates. "Governor Ryan, just like anyone else, isn't a one-dimensional character," Canary said. "I do think he accomplished a lot, and I still get a sense he doesn't know what hit him. ... I think Governor Ryan, like most elected officials, didn't go into office saying 'I'm going to rob everybody blind.' He came from the old school. He made some very poor judgments as to how to use state resources." Here's what others say about some of Ryan's accomplishments on the eve of his sentencing: Ryan's controversial stand on the death penalty inspired a national debate about wrongful convictions in capital cases and was an "extraordinary act of leadership," said Larry Golden, co-director of the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Ryan's commutation of death sentences in 2003 - switching them to life in prison - angered prosecutors and the families of murder victims, some of whom suggested Ryan was trying to deflect attention from the federal investigation that eventually led to his indictment. Golden said he believes Ryan, a former death penalty supporter, changed his mind about the issue after studying abuses that occurred in death penalty cases. "My own personal assessment is he was acting out of a sincerity and moral conviction," he said. Rick Garcia, political director of Equality Illinois, credits Ryan with appointing openly gay people to state boards and commissions even though it angered conservatives in his own party. He said Ryan supported gay-rights legislation but was honest to advocates about its slim chances of passage. A bill later became law under Ryan's Democratic successor, Rod Blagojevich. "He treated the gay community and viewed the gay community as part of the fabric of Illinois," Garcia said of Ryan. "Given the fact that he was a Republican from Kankakee, that was especially appreciated by the gay community." Ryan's Illinois First program was financed partly by hiking the fees that motorists pay to renew their license plates. The 5-year initiative was loaded with pork, critics said. But it also put delayed road projects on the front burner, said Kirk Brown, who served as Ryan's director of transportation. "He cared about making sure we had a good highway system in Illinois," Brown said. Former Springfield Mayor Karen Hasara said Ryan was good to the capital city by helping promote the local airport to state employees and by advancing construction of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which opened in 2005. "There are lots of people in Springfield who hate to see things like this happen to anyone who has really been good to Springfield, but that, of course, doesn't mean people condone some of the practices" for which Ryan was convicted, Hasara said. (source: Springfield State Journal Register) ******************* Killer of 3 women gets life in prison----Guilty plea spares him death penalty After hearing from the families of 3 women who were strangled during the summer of 2001, a Cook County judge on Tuesday ordered their convicted killer to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. Kevin Taylor, 32, a former Cheesecake Factory cook could have faced the death penalty for strangling the women, who were prostitutes, between June and August of 2001. In June, Taylor, of the 10700 block of South Eberhart Avenue, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for killing Cynthia Halk, 38. In an effort to avoid the death penalty Taylor last month pleaded guilty to killing Ola Mae Wallace, 39, Diane Jordan, 42, and Bernadine Blunt, 39. He also pleaded guilty to trying to kill another prostitute who survived the attack. Criminal Court Judge Michael Toomin sentenced Taylor after hearing from the families of the 3 women and from the surviving victim. "He was just slinging me around. When I came to, I was on the ground on my back, he was sitting on top of me. He looked like he was just mad, in a rage," the woman said. "He was strangling me." Toomin spared Taylor the death penalty after hearing from Christopher Anderson, his public defender, about the man's turbulent childhood in foster homes. Taylor's mother was a prostitute and drug addict who abused him before abandoning him; and his father was a convict, Anderson said. "The court has and will recognize that a plea of guilty is viewed as an act of contrition, perhaps one first step on the route of rehabilitation," Toomin said. Before the sentence, Taylor apologized to the families. In videotaped confessions he made to police on Aug. 22, 2001, Taylor said he strangled the prostitutes after he became enraged with them during sex. In a videotaped confession that was replayed during Tuesday's sentencing hearing, he reenacted the killings and took police to the scenes where he disposed of their bodies. The bodies were left in alleys, in garbage cans and in abandoned buildings. The families of the women tearfully read victim impact statements to the judge and asked him to sentence Taylor to prison. Keisha McClary, 26, who held a photograph of her mother, Diane Jordan, who was killed on July 10, 2001, said Taylor robbed her family. "My mother was my best friend, I loved my mother, we did everything together," McClary said. "All I want to know is how he could do this to someone who never hurt anyone." Sylvia Pierson, whose sister Bernadine Blunt was found on Aug. 18, 2001, addressed Taylor as he sat emotionless alongside his public defenders. "I keep telling myself it's not fair [but] I forgive you and I pray that maybe God will forgive you," Pierson said. (source: Chicago Tribune) OKLAHOMA: Court: Ex-Paper Carrier: Williford charged with 2 murders The felon is accused of killing 2 women on his Tulsa route. Prosecutors charged a former Tulsa World newspaper carrier Tuesday with murdering 2 women who were subscribers on his delivery route. Paul Eugene Williford is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, linked to the deaths of Geraldine Lawhorn and Donna Jo Stauffer. He is accused of choking Lawhorn, 75, and drowning her in a bathtub in September 2005 at her home in the 12500 block of East 20th Place. He is accused of strangling Stauffer, 73, in October at her home in the 12600 block of East 18th Place. 5 months ago, a Tulsa judge sentenced Williford, 65, to serve the rest of his life in prison on charges linked to an attack on another of his customers, who survived. In that case, Williford pleaded guilty in April to 4 felonies: 1st-degree burglary, sexual battery, assault and battery with an intent to kill, and 1st-degree robbery. District Judge Tom Gillert meted out four concurrent life terms, which means Williford must serve one life prison sentence that will keep him confined beyond his 100th birthday, if he lives that long. For parole purposes, a life sentence equates to 45 years, and Williford must serve at least 85 % -- or more than 38 years -- of that sentence before being considered for parole. Williford is housed at the Lawton Correctional Facility with a December 2043 parole hearing date, a Department of Corrections Web site shows. District Attorney Tim Harris said Tuesday that a request for the death penalty is under consideration in the two-count murder case but that no decision has been reached. "It is under review as we speak," said Harris, whose office has an internal Death Penalty Review Team. Regarding the murder charges, "I hope justice is done," said Stauffer's son Daren Stauffer. He declined to comment further until he had a chance to confer with other family members. In the case for which Williford is in prison, he admitted choking a 75-year-old woman at her Tulsa home on Oct. 21 but said that "she would not die," a police detective said. Williford, of Tulsa, said he "had a difficult time killing her" and indicated that he intended to finish her off by drowning her but couldn't get her into a bathtub, Sgt. Gary Stansill testified at a preliminary hearing. That woman survived and subsequently identified Williford in court as her assailant. Based on information obtained after Williford's Oct. 21 arrest, police investigated the deaths of Lawhorn and Stauffer as homicides. Their deaths had initially shown no signs of foul play. Police affidavits filed in support of the murder charges stated that Williford said he intentionally did not deliver newspapers to his victims because he knew they would call to complain about not getting the paper and "this would give him the opportunity" to contact and attack them. In Lawhorn's case, Williford said he "was having a very difficult time strangling the victim" because she "would not die," a police affidavit states. He said he put a pillow over her face with the intent of suffocating her and that he dragged her into the bathroom. He said he ran water in the tub and submerged her upper body in the water but that she continued to struggle, the affidavit states. Williford said that once he thought she was dead, he took money from her purse and left, police reported. Lawhorn was found dead Sept. 28 in her bathroom. After statements by Williford, her body was exhumed, and an autopsy showed that she died from asphyxia as a result of strangulation and drowning. Williford said he strangled Stauffer and rendered her unconscious. He said that as he was walking through the house, he saw someone he thought was her husband asleep in a bed, and he "backed out of the bedroom immediately" and resumed strangling the victim, a police affidavit says. Stauffer's husband, Marion "Bob" Stauffer, found her unconscious in their home Oct. 8. She was taken by an ambulance to a hospital, where she died Oct. 11, and her body was cremated. Marion Stauffer died Jan. 1 at age 74. He had repeatedly told the Tulsa World that he looked forward to seeing the man accused of killing his wife stand trial. Williford's contract as an independent carrier for the World was terminated after his arrest. In Tulsa County, Williford has a 1986 conviction for feloniously pointing a weapon and 1987 convictions for assault and battery with intent to kill and robbery. Regarding the timing of the murder charges, Assistant District Attorney Bill Musseman said Tuesday that "it was important that all the steps be taken to complete an investigation." Prosecutors will submit paperwork to get Williford brought from prison to the Tulsa Jail to await court proceedings on the murder counts. (source: Tulsa World) PENNSYLVANIA: Lehigh judge to rule on death-penalty case work----Ex-Bucks man was convicted 21 years ago of 1st-degree murder. Lehigh County's oldest death penalty case continued in court Tuesday 21 years after a jury convicted a former Bucks County man of killing an Ohio truck driver. And regardless of a judge's decision, the old case is likely to be extended with state and federal appeals. In 1985, a jury convicted Kenneth Williams of 1st-degree murder in the 1983 shooting of Edward Miller, whose body was found in a trailer in a Kuhnsville truck stop. Williams was the 1st person to be sentenced to death in the county in 35 years. The Williams case was featured in a national television show on people who maintained they were wrongfully convicted. A vocal support group had protested at the county jail and had tried to raise awareness of the case through fundraisers to get money for appeals. 2 of Williams' dozen or so supporters were in court Tuesday. Others are still involved in the case but could not attend the hearing, said Jim Pozza of Allentown, who met Williams when he was involved in self-help groups at the county jail more than 20 years ago, and Jeannette Eliason of Nazareth, who had been Williams' therapist in the county jail. Williams, who is on death row in Graterford State Prison, waived his right to be at the hearing. In 2003, Lehigh County Judge Carol K. McGinley threw out the death sentence and granted a new trial on the penalty for Williams, then 54. McGinley upheld the murder conviction. The judge ruled that Williams was denied effective assistance of counsel because his trial lawyer, Charles Sieger, didn't investigate and introduce mitigating evidence about Williams' mental health problems that may have persuaded a jury to give him life in prison. McGinley also found that the trial judge erred when he didn't allow Sieger to present testimony from a psychologist that Williams wasn't likely to be dangerous in the future, another possible mitigating factor. In June, the state Supreme Court set aside McGinley's order for a new trial on sentencing and sent the case back to Lehigh County for testimony on whether Williams' appellate lawyers were ineffective. The Supreme Court directed the county court ''to accord the matter special priority, given its substantial age.'' On Tuesday, McGinley heard testimony of lawyers John Karoly and James Lanshe, who handled post-trial motions and Williams' appeals. Both those lawyers previously raised the issue of Sieger's representation but did not address in court challenges the issue of Williams' likelihood of posing a future danger. The defense now is trying to show that Lanshe was ineffective for not alleging that Karoly was ineffective for not questioning whether Sieger should have raised the issue of whether Williams posed a future danger. Williams currently is represented by Michael Wiseman, a supervisor in the Defender Association of Philadelphia, capital habeas corpus unit. That group has won numerous appeals of other death row inmates in Pennsylvania, including several in Lehigh, Northampton and surrounding counties. McGinley will make a ruling after Wiseman and Deputy District Attorney Joan Reinsmith file briefs. (source: The Morning Call) ***************** Prosecutors Seek Death Penalty In Moonda's Murder----Doctor Fatally Shot Along Ohio Turnpike In Pittsburgh, the woman accused of getting a man to murder her millionaire husband could face the death penalty. In court papers filed Wednesday in federal court, the government will seek the death penalty for Donna Moonda, if she is convicted in the murder of her husband, Dr. Gulam Moonda. Prosecutors believe a sentence of death is justified for 3 counts of murder for hire and 2 counts of using a firearm in a crime of violence resulting in death against Donna Moonda. Moonda is accused of hiring her former lover, Damian Bradford, to kill her husband. Bradford has pleaded guilty and will serve 17 1/2years instead of a possible life sentence in exchange for testifying against Moonda. Bradford claims Moonda promised him millions of dollars from her inheritance and life insurance policies upon the death of her husband who was shot to death along the Ohio Turnpike in May 2005. Moonda's attorney, Roger Synenberg, told Target 11s Karen Welles that he's disappointed in what he calls a disproportionate sanction against his client as compared to the sentence for the admitted triggerman. Moonda is scheduled to stand trial next month. (source: WPXI News) ********************* Gacha death penalty trial continues today In Wilkes-Barre, testimony in the death penalty trial of Joseph Gacha Jr. is expected to resume this morning in Luzerne County Court. Gacha, 29, is accused of fatally stabbing 20-year old Carrie Lynn Martin inside her Larksville apartment in May 2004. Gachas brother, Chris Howell, testified Tuesday that Gacha admitted to being one of the two men who killed Martin during a robbery. The other suspect, Daniel Kukucka, committed suicide while jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility in July 2004. (source: Times Leader) MISSISSIPPI: 3 death penalty cases back before Supreme Court 3 death row inmates including 2 from Bolivar County are back before the Mississippi Supreme Court with post-conviction claims that they have found new evidence that could lead to new trials. The cases are among dozens the Supreme Court will hear during the September-November term. The court will not hear oral arguments in the cases. They will instead rely on attorneys' briefs to make their decisions. Death row inmates Leroy Lynch and Kevin Scott were convicted in separate trials in 1998 in Bolivar County for the shooting death of 74-year-old Richard Lee. The Supreme Court upheld Lynch's conviction in 2004, rejecting his arguments that he should not have been given the death sentence because he wasn't the triggerman. Lynch had argued that Scott fired the gun. Lynch claimed all he did was hide in the car. Prosecutors said Lynch was a willing participant as he and co-defendant Scott stalked Lee from a shopping center in Cleveland to his home intent on stealing the man's car. Authorities said Lee was shot once in the head and once in the back as he sat in his car in the carport of his Boyle home on Nov. 15, 1995. Prosecutors said Scott and Lynch left Clarksdale to go to Cleveland to steal a car to replace one Scott wrecked the day before. Prosecutors said the 2 men scouted store parking lots around Cleveland before finally spotting Lee's vehicle outside a grocery store. Lynch and Scott followed Lee to his home. Prosecutors said Lynch knew Scott had a gun, knew they were going to steal a car and he crouched down in the car as the shooting took place. The Supreme Court also upheld Scott's conviction in 2004, rejecting Scott's claims that he was mentally retarded. Scott had claimed that there was no clear-cut testimony at his trial about his mental state. Scott claimed there was evidence available that, at an early age, he had an IQ of 40, which rose to a level of 60 when Scott was evaluated for his trial. The Supreme Court said neither of the experts who were called to discuss Scott's mental condition testified that Scott was mentally retarded. In the 3rd case, the Supreme Court will consider the post-conviction petition of death row inmate Quintez Hodges. The court upheld Hodges' capital murder conviction and death sentence in 2005. Hodges, of Caledonia, was sentenced to death in 2001 for the July 21, 1999, fatal shooting of Isaac Johnson, 17, and of kidnapping Johnson's sister, Cora Johnson, and her baby. Authorities said Isaac Johnson's body was discovered in the bedroom of his mother's home in Caledonia. Johnson died of a single gunshot wound to the abdomen. Authorities said Hodges was the ex-boyfriend of Cora Johnson and the father of her child. The woman and her daughter were not harmed. Hodges was sentenced to 20 years for kidnapping. On appeal, Hodges unsuccessfully challenged his attorney's trial conduct on several fronts. The Supreme Court said defendants sometimes confuse an attorney's conduct with trial strategy. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Death row inmate, OU grad looks back While he studied at Ohio University in the early 1990s, James Filiaggi was known as a local boxing champion "Fooge," as his friends call him.Now they have to file forms to visit him, and he has a different identification: Inmate No. 311180 on Ohio's death row. As a Bobcat, Filiaggi studied business and accounting after spending 4 years of military duty, graduating with honors in 1992. He married Lisa Huff in 1990, while he was still in school, and they had 2 daughters before divorcing shortly after his graduation. Filiaggi, now 41, talks fondly about his days at OU from a small conference room at the Mansfield Correctional Institution. His cuffed hands jingle as he gestures. His voice becomes clinical when the subject is the conviction he received for fatally shooting Huff in 1994. His lawyers argued a defense based on doctors' findings of a chemical imbalance in his body that indicated bipolar disorder, a condition marked by mood swings. The appeals are over, and ultimately the courts upheld his conviction. "I'm done," he said. "I'm just waiting for a date." His execution date, usually given about 90 days in advance, likely will be set this month, he added. 'Crazy thinking' The divorce from his wife began a downward spiral of events that led Filiaggi to plan to shoot himself in front of his ex-wife, a plan he now calls "crazy thinking;" the result of a failure to see other options. On January 24, 1994, Filiaggi visited Huff in northern Ohio where she stayed with her fianc. "From there, it was just like a dream," he said.He describes the ensuing chase into a neighbors house with the tone of a distant outside. "It was so surreal. I can see it now, but it's like it wasn't me, but I'm watching from out of my body," Filiaggi said. Filiaggi found Huff hiding in a closet, and the gun he carried went off in a struggle, hitting Huff in the shoulder, he said. "Next thing I know, she's sitting on the bedroom floor with her head down, and I walked up behind her and pulled the trigger," he said. "She just sat there. And I turned around and walked out of the house, and that was that." He left the area for a week and eventually peacefully surrendered to olice. The same FoogeCollege friends and acquaintances of Filiaggi, a Lorain County native, say they still have trouble comprehending how the studious boxer and rugby player they knew is a man now convicted of murder. Athens resident Cindy Hayes attended OU with Filiaggi and was shocked by news of the shooting. She tried to keep contact with her friend but stopped as she struggled to make sense of the situation. When she decided to visit again 2 years ago, Hayes said she hoped she would find a man who fit some criminal image, an image that made sense. Instead, he seemed like the same Fooge she knew, she said. Herman Carson, the Athens attorney who represented Filiaggi after a 1-punch, college bar fight that resulted in a misdemeanor assault conviction, said he remembers his client as a very polite guy and bright student. "You wonder what went wrong, was there something someone could have done," Carson said. Filiaggi himself has no clear explanation. "How did I end up here? I dont know, he shrugs. He adds quickly, however, that hindsight has illuminated mistakes. Making peace Filiaggi has mixed thoughts about the appropriateness of his punishment, which he says he came to terms with more than a decade ago. People would empathize more if the situation were reversed with his ex-wife as the shooter, he said, but he makes no attempt at explanation of the crime. "How do you justify taking somebody's life?" he asked. "You don't." Thats exactly what Hayes said she has come to realize while she can't get her mind around it, her friend has accepted the circumstances and seems to have made peace with the course of his life. Filiaggi lives vicariously through the stories and photos of friends like Hayes. The visits are a welcome break from the solitary "concrete coffin" where Filiaggi spends most of his days, he said, days that offer plenty of time for reflection. "You never realize how good you got it out there until you dont have things," Filiaggi said. "I mean, hell, I ain't walked on grass in over a decade. What I wouldn't do to walk on some grass." (source: The Post)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ILL., OKLA., PENN., MISS., OHIO
Rick Halperin Wed, 6 Sep 2006 18:04:01 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
