[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----US MIL., VA.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 17



U.S. MILITARY:

Frank Wuterich knew before he finished boot camp that he didn't want to be
a Marine for life, but he may wind up one anyway. Wuterich is the central
suspect in the Iraq war's most notorious massacre, at Haditha, where 24
Iraqis were killed by U.S. Marines-Marines led by Wuterich. During his
first media interview, the former high school band member and honor
student is exceedingly polite. Wearing jeans, black sneakers and a light
blue polo shirt, he shows a visitor around his 2-story semidetached house
at Camp Pendleton in southern California, patiently answers questions and
waits good-naturedly for a photographer to set up his equipment. There is
no military paraphernalia cluttering his home, which is filled instead
with family pictures, knickknacks, and souvenirs from his wife Marisol's
sorority days. His 4-year-old daughter is just up from her nap, and he
kisses her forehead. He allows Marisol, who is expecting their third child
in January, to finish his sentences.

Wuterich, 26, who grew up in Meriden, Conn., signed up for the Marines at
17 and volunteered for the infantry, the grunts who are the heart and soul
of the corps. Finding boot camp a dull grind compared with what he felt
the recruiting videos had promised, he asked to switch out of the
infantry. "I thought I could use my mind a little differently," he says.
But he was turned down. He tried again in 2002, requesting a transfer to
counterintelligence, but his eight tattoos disqualified him; those kinds
of markings make a man too easy to identify. Among the tattoos on his
arms, chest, neck and leg are a series of musical notes, the kanji
character for endure and a heart for an ex-girlfriend. The one tattoo he's
reluctant to exhibit, on the inside of his right forearm, is of a skewer
running through a bunch of severed fingers and eyeballs. "That's the one I
really don't like," Marisol says sternly but with a smile.

Wuterich long imagined the corps as just a stop on the way to a career as
a music producer, but he re-enlisted after 9/11, in part to support his
family while Marisol finished her nursing degree but also because he was
itching for action. With the rank of sergeant, he was dispatched to Iraq
with Kilo Company of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, in September
2005. He saw his first firefight that month in the town of Hit when his
team suddenly came under fire. "Was I scared? Sure," he says. It turned
out that the shots were coming from a Marine officer, who quit shooting
once Wuterich's guys sent up 3 red flares letting him know they were
friendly. While under fire, the squad members, none of whom were hurt,
took cover and waited to identify the threat before shooting back. They
performed just as they were supposed to, Wuterich says. His remark hangs
in the air.

Wuterich is under investigation for what happened on another day, just 2
months after his arrival in Iraq. On the morning of Nov. 19, 2005,
Wuterich's squad, on patrol in Haditha, was hit by an improvised explosive
device that killed one of his men. Iraqi witnesses and sources familiar
with the two Pentagon investigations under way claim that several of the
squad's 12 Marines then went on a rampage of killing in the town, leaving
24 Iraqis dead, including five women and 6 children. Wuterich's lawyer
Neal Puckett would not permit Wuterich to talk about those events. Puckett
has said publicly that Wuterich felt his unit was under attack in Haditha
and acted appropriately under the rules of engagement that allow Marines
to defend themselves if they are in reasonable fear for their lives.

According to sources familiar with the Haditha inquiries, six to eight
Marines will probably be charged in the episode as early as next week.
Wuterich is expected to be among those charged with the most serious
crimes, which could include murder, for which he could face the death
penalty.

"I'm mystified by a lot of this," he says. He wonders, for instance, why
the investigators have not pushed harder to speak to him. But it was his
lawyer who did not allow him to talk to them, as is common practice among
defense attorneys. Wuterich was scheduled for retirement 3 months ago, but
is being involuntarily held in the corps while the probes continue.
Transferred to Pendleton with the rest of his unit in April, he is
officially on duty, but he is not a full member of his platoon. When it
goes on a training exercise soon, he is not likely to participate; the
corps doesn't want to train him and then lose him if he goes on trial.
Wuterich says he occasionally sees members of his Kilo Company squad at
Pendleton, but they keep their distance. "It is sort of uncomfortable," he
says.

There are small, subtle signs of Wuterich's detaching himself from his
military life: his boots are too scuffed and worn for a Marine. And he
hasn't updated his old dress uniform by sewing on the chevron that shows
his higher rank. His superiors put in for his promotion to staff sergeant
last October, and it came through on Jan. 1-six weeks after Haditha. He
says the jacket's too tight, anyway.

(source: Time Magazine, September 25, 2006)






VIRGINIA:

Information on the death penalty in Virginia


Here are some facts about the death penalty in Virginia:

Virginia has executed 333 people since October 1908. Blacks have made up
73.9 % of that total. 58 of the 333 were executed for a crime other than
murder (rape, robbery or attempted rape).

The youngest person executed since 1908 was 16-year-old Percey Ellis in
March 1916. The oldest was Joe Lee, 68, in April 1916. The only woman
executed was Virginia Christian in August 1912, although there is a woman
currently on death row.

Since 1908, nobody has been executed for a crime committed in either
Fredericksburg or Stafford County. The following numbers of people have
been executed for crimes committed in other area counties, with the most
recent execution in parentheses:

Caroline County: 8 (March 1959)

Spotsylvania County: 4 (February 1936)

Culpeper County: 2 (October 1954)

Orange County: 2 (May 1922)

King George County: 1 (November 1912)

Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976,
Virginia has executed 97 people, all of whom were convicted of capital
murder. Only Texas has executed more people during that time.

Since 1976, there have been 51 whites, 44 blacks and 2 Hispanics executed
in Virginia. The average age of people executed since 1976 is 36.

Virginia Beach, Prince William County and Chesterfield County tie for the
most people sentenced to death and executed since 1976 in Virginia. 7
people sentenced in each of those three localities have been executed
since 1976.

[source: Virginia Department of Corrections]

***********

Juries rejecting death sentences


By any standard, Lisa Madaris suffered a horrific death.

Her teeth and part of her jaw were on the ground beside her when her
battered body was found in a field off Telegraph Road in Stafford County
last year. The 35-year-old Woodbridge woman had more than 50 wounds on her
body.

Jose Rogers, Madaris' former boyfriend, was recently convicted of capital
murder and other charges by a Stafford jury. Jurors said the evidence was
overwhelming.

But though there was considerable sentiment for giving Rogers the death
penalty, the jury instead decided on life in prison without the
possibility of parole.

"All of us were sickened by what he did to her, and at one point it could
have gone either way," said a member of the jury who asked not to be
identified. "But in the end, you see how it turned out."

It was the second time in just over a year that a Stafford jury settled on
life in prison after wrestling with the death penalty.

In June 2005, Antwon Whitten avoided death for his 2003 slaying of Crystal
Michelle Jacobs in the satellite post office in Earl's True Value Hardware
in southern Stafford. Sources said the majority of the 12 jurors favored
the death penalty in that case, but several wouldn't budge.

The reluctance of some Stafford jurors to impose the death sentence isn't
just a recent phenomenon, nor is it unique to the Fredericksburg area.

Nobody has been executed for a crime committed in Stafford, Fredericksburg
or Westmoreland County since at least October 1908, which is as far back
as data are available from the Virginia Department of Corrections.

In addition, nobody has been executed for crimes committed in Caroline,
Culpeper, King George, Orange or Spotsylvania counties since the U.S.
Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

2 men with local ties have received death sentences in Prince William
County. Michael Carl George, a Stafford man, was executed in 1997. He was
convicted of capital murder for abducting and killing a 15-year-old
Woodbridge boy in 1990.

Paul Warner Powell, a one-time Spotsylvania County resident, was sentenced
to death in 2003 for attempting to rape, and then killing, a Manassas girl
in 1999. He is sitting on death row.

There haven't been numerous opportunities for death sentences locally.

Spotsylvania Commonwealth's Attorney William Neely said just 2 people have
been charged with capital murder in his 18 years as Spotsylvania's top
prosecutor. Both got life sentences.

Daniel Chichester, the commonwealth's attorney in Stafford, said there
have been only a handful of capital cases during his 35 years in office,
and only a couple made their way to a jury.

The most recent death penalty case in Fredericksburg was in 2001, when
Ashby Hall was sentenced by a judge to life in prison for brutally killing
an 89-year-old city woman in her home. Hall pleaded guilty to capital
murder, so a jury never got to consider the case.

Still, the area's tendency to decide against death sentences is consistent
with a state and national trend against capital punishment, according to
the data.

Virginia has executed 97 people since 1976, second only to Texas. But the
number of executions has dropped of late. Nobody was executed in Virginia
in 2005, the first time that's happened since 1983, according to the state
Corrections Department.

Between 2002 and 2006, 14 people were executed in Virginia, the same
number put to death in 1999 alone. In the 5 years before 2002, there were
46 executions in the Old Dominion.

The number of people getting death sentences also is dropping in Virginia.
10 years ago the state's death row population was in the mid-50s. There
are now 19 people on death row for crimes committed in Virginia.

Neely and other prosecutors attribute the trend partly to the General
Assembly's decision to abolish parole starting in January 1995. Neely said
jurors have been reluctant to impose a death sentence since life in prison
without parole has become an option.

The juror in the Rogers case said that was one of the factors considered
in the deliberations.

"Though some of us felt he deserved to die for what he did, the fact that
he can never get out made it easier for those favoring death to switch,"
the juror said.

Some jurors believe that life in a maximum-security prison without any
chance of future freedom is worse than death, said Jack Payden-Travers,
director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

He added that news of death row inmates being exonerated has made jurors
hesitant to impose a death sentence. Jurors must unanimously agree on a
death sentence in a capital case--otherwise the defendant gets life.

Virginia's slowdown on death sentences and executions mirrors a national
trend.

A May 2006 Gallup poll found that overall support for the death penalty in
the U.S. had dropped to 65 percent; it was 80 % in 1994. The same poll
found that when respondents were given the choice, by a slim margin more
chose life without parole than the death penalty.

Most states now allow jurors to choose life without parole in capital
cases, according to a 2005 report by the Death Penalty Information Center.
The report also cited recent court decisions banning the execution of
juveniles and the mentally retarded, state moratoriums on executions and
opposition by the Catholic Church.

Perhaps as a result, executions in the U.S. have been dropping since their
post-1976 peak in 1999. There were 98 executions that year, and just 60 in
2005.

Further, according to Death Penalty Information Center data, the number of
death sentences in the U.S. dropped by more than half between 1999 and
2004, although the murder rate stayed relatively constant.

One place where the death penalty has not been uncommon is Prince William
County, directly north of Stafford. Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney
Paul Ebert has sent more defendants to death row than any prosecutor in
the state.

7 defendants prosecuted by Ebert have been executed, and 4 more are
currently on death row. The county also has three pending capital cases,
Ebert said.

"This office believes in prosecuting capital cases," Ebert said. "Capital
cases are reserved for the worst of the worst, and we've just happened to
have our share here."

Chichester, the Stafford prosecutor, said the recent life-sentence
decisions prove nothing, and said he will continue to seek the death
penalty in appropriate cases.

"It's never an easy decision," Chichester said. "It takes a lot of
soul-searching to decide that someone deserves to be put to death. But the
criteria are set out clearly in the law, and I will always follow the
law."

(source for both: The Free Lance-Star)