[Deathpenalty] death penalty news---FLA., N. DAK., N.Y., S.C., IND.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 9


FLORIDA:

Mother of missing boy dead----Police say woman shot herself at her
grandparents' home


The mother of a 2-year-old Leesburg boy missing since Aug. 27 committed
suicide Friday at the home of her grandparents, police said Friday.

Melinda Duckett, 21, died of "an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound,"
said Leesburg Police Capt. Steve Rockefeller.

Trenton Duckett is still missing.

"Time is of the essence," Rockefeller said. "Even though Melinda is
deceased, we're not giving up hope. We don't want the public to quit
looking for Trenton," he said.

Police were searching Melinda's home at Windermere Apartments in Leesburg
and the home at The Villages for any clue that might lead to the missing
child.

Melinda Duckett's grandparents, Bill and Nancy Eubanks, made the upsetting
discovery at their home at 638 Rainbow Blvd. in the Lady Lake portion of
The Villages.

A Lady Lake detective told the Star-Banner that a 911 call was forwarded
to the Lady Lake Police Department at 3:15 p.m. It was not clear who made
the call. No one could be reached at the home Friday night.

"The family's very somber right now. They want to be by themselves,"
Rockefeller said, including the boy's father, Joshua.

News of the tragedy also upset the retirees in the gated retirement
community.

"I can't believe this is happening," said Virginia Snowden, whose father
lives on an adjoining street. "We were talking about it all day today."

The normally quiet street lined with mobile homes, was blocked by yellow
crime scene tape and a Lady Lake police officer who sat in an unmarked
police car to prevent reporters from getting close.

Several live broadcast trucks from TV stations were parked nearby,
anxiously awaiting any word from investigators, who were roughly 400 to
600 yards away.

"Shocking," was the way Angelika McCarty described it. She lives in a
neighborhood across busy U.S. 441, which runs through the community.

"Nothing like this happens here," McCarty said. "You can hear a pin drop."

Jackie Campbell, who was returning from dinner with her husband, described
the Eubanks as Christians and "very, very nice people."

Some neighbors had at least a passing relationship with Melinda Duckett.

Joe Humphrey, who was walking his dog, said, "I walk 2 miles in the
mornings and afternoons, and she would wave and say hello."

Campbell, who said she saw Melinda at her grandparents' home Thursday, had
a theory about why she would commit suicide at the home in The Villages.

"In my opinion, she came here for absolution before she killed herself,"
she said.

Melinda Duckett, told police she last saw Trenton on Aug. 27 at 7 p.m. in
his bedroom.

According to police, she refused to take a polygraph examination, but her
estranged husband, Joshua, not only took the test 24 hours after the
child's reported disappearance, but investigators said they were
"satisfied with his responses."

Her refusal to take the lie detector test thrust her into the limelight,
especially when police began asking the public to call them if they saw
her or Joshua with Trenton on that weekend. Detectives are trying to
verify their investigative timeline.

Police never did label Melinda as a suspect.

"We're not focusing on any one person, and no one has been eliminated,"
Leesburg Police Capt. Ginny Padgett said.

Duckett told police she tucked Trenton into his bed at her apartment at
1416 Griffin Road in Leesburg at 7 p.m., but when she went back to check
on him at 9, he was gone.

Police said the screen on his window had been cut.

The disappearance, which has been treated as an abduction, eventually
attracted national media attention. Mark Lunsford, whose daughter,
Jessica, was kidnapped from his home and slain in Homosassa in February
2005, has shown up to lend his support to Joshua Duckett, and helped pass
out fliers with the boy's picture.

The child is the grandson of James Duckett, who, as a Mascotte police
officer, was convicted in 1988 of raping and killing an 11-year-old girl
while on duty. He is on death row.

He has been described as an Asian-Caucasian, 2 to 3 feet tall, between 30
and 40 pounds with brown hair.

Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is also assisting with their
mobile crime lab.

(source: Ocala Star-Banner)






NORTH DAKOTA----re: federal death penalty

Death penalty phase of Rodriguez begins this week


Government witnesses in the trial of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. so far have
outnumbered the defense by 55-to-1. That is likely to change this week,
with mental health experts, family members and perhaps Rodriguez himself
testifying to try to spare his life.

Jurors will hear another phase of testimony and attorneys' arguments
before deciding whether Rodriguez, 53, of Crookston, Minn., should be
sentenced to death or to life in prison without parole for the death of
University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin.

The jury of seven women and five men ruled last week that Rodriguez was
eligible for the death penalty based on a number of criteria. Jurors found
that Sjodin, 22, of Pequot Lakes, Minn., was tortured and died during a
kidnapping. They also found that 3 other women - two in 1974 an one in
1980 - suffered serious injuries during attacks by Rodriguez.

"I'd always expected that the government would be able to prove at least a
couple of aggravating factors beyond a reasonable doubt," said David
Lillehaug, former U.S. attorney from Minnesota who has followed the case.
"The defense will have to mount a pretty powerful case of leniency to
avoid the death penalty."

Rodriguez's lawyers indicated during jury selection that they will attempt
to show he was sexually abused as a child, was exposed to harmful
chemicals and suffers from psychological problems.

During the guilt phase of the trial, they called only one witness, a
forensic science professor from California. Government witnesses included
law enforcement officers and people who had last seen or spoken with
Sjodin.

U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson ruled Friday that friends and family
members of Rodriguez would be allowed to talk during the sentencing phase
about their experiences with him and how they would feel if his life is
spared. The judge said he will not allow emotional pleas to the jury,
including expressions of love or affection for Rodriguez, or opinions
about a possible sentence.

"The court will take the same approach to testimony from defendant's
family members that it will take with respect to victim impact testimony,"
the judge wrote.

Sjodin's parents are expected to be among those testifying for the
prosecution.

Sjodin disappeared from the parking lot of a Grand Forks shopping mall on
Nov. 22, 2003. Prosecutors said she was beaten, raped, stabbed and left to
die in the ravine near Crookston where her body was found the following
April.

Prosecutors have filed a motion to prevent Rodriguez from giving an
unsworn statement to jurors without cross-examination. Erickson is
expected to rule on that motion before the jury reconvenes Monday
afternoon.

North Dakota does not have the death penalty, but it is allowed in federal
cases. Historians say North Dakota's last legal execution was a hanging in
October 1905.

The last man known to receive a death sentence in the state was spared in
1915, when the Legislature restricted the death penalty to cases involving
someone already in prison for murder. A revision of criminal laws in the
1970s abolished it.

(source: Associated Press)






NEW YORK----federal death penalty trial

Jury selection postponed in death penalty case


Jury selection has been postponed in the murder trial of a man accused in
the execution-style killing of 2 undercover detectives, authorities said.

Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty against Ronell Wilson, 24, the
alleged shooter. Wilson and 4 other defendants were named in a 30-count
racketeering indictment. The men allegedly were members of a violent gang
that dealt crack cocaine and illegal weapons out of a housing project on
Staten Island. Wilson has pleaded not guilty in state court to
first-degree murder.

Detectives James Nemorin, 36, and Rodney Andrews, 34, were shot in the
head and dumped on a Staten Island street in March 2003 after their sting
operation aimed at buying a Tec-9 submachine gun went awry.

Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday, with about 600 potential
jurors summoned to the federal courthouse in Brooklyn. U.S. District Court
judge Nicholas G. Garaufis postponed the case for 2 weeks. Wilson's
defense lawyers, Ephraim Savitt, Kelley Sharkey and Mitchel Dinnerstein,
asked for the postponement in a letter filed with the court.

2 other suspects, Paris Bullock and Michael Whitten were sentenced in
August to prison terms of 25 years and 27 years, respectively. The 2
pleaded guilty in December to charges linked to the shooting deaths.

(source: Associated Press)






SOUTH CAROLINA:

Prosecutors to seek death penalty for Orangeburg man


Prosecutors say they'll seek the death penalty for an Orangeburg man
accused of killing his daughter.

Last year, 5-year-old Talia Williams died in the custody of her father,
Naeem. Talia had gone to live with her dad, who was a soldier stationed in
Hawaii.

Williams admitted to brutally beating his daughter on a regular basis, and
prosecutors say those assaults led to her death.

Williams is charged with 1st degree murder.

(source: WIS TV News)






INDIANA:

Harrison County denies use of jail for 'hanging'----Corydon historical
group wanted to re-enact the 1816 execution of a woman


Harrison County leaders have rejected a request to use the former county
jail to stage a re-enactment of a hanging that took place nearly 200 years
ago.

The rejection came as a surprise to Corydon Capitol State Historic Site
staff members.

"We were just assuming it was going to be OK," said cultural administrator
Bec Riley.

Staff members said they will have to find somewhere else for the
re-enactment, which would feature a dummy being hanged as part of a local
history tour.

The staff planned to display an original whipping post -- used to conduct
public floggings -- in front of the former jail.

Staff members wanted to position two actors on a staircase and landing at
the back of the jail. A dummy would then be pushed off the landing to
re-create the 1816 execution of Mary Burgher, a local woman convicted of
killing her baby.

The Harrison County Commissioners said using the former county jail for
the event may not have been appropriate.

"We've got these things in our history, but I don't think (they) should be
promoted or celebrated," said Commissioner J.R. Eckart.

Nancy Snyder, a senior interpreter at the historic site, said Burgher was
convicted of suffocating her baby by stuffing leaves and rags in the
child's mouth.

"She had said the devil made her do it, so there was a question of her
sanity," Snyder said.

The tour, called "Corydon's Unsavory Past," will be held Oct. 13-14.

(source: Associated Press)