June 9 ILLINOIS----female faces death penalty Tiffany Hall to appear in court; faces death penalty but may accept plea deal An East St. Louis woman accused of killing her pregnant friend and 3 children is scheduled to appear in a St. Clair County courtroom this morning. Tiffany Hall faces the death penalty but may accept a plea deal during a hearing scheduled for 10:30 a.m., according to St. Clair County State's Attorney Bob Haida. Hall is charged with the 2006 murders of Jimella Tunstall and Tunstall's three young children. The children were later found stuffed into an apartment washer and dryer. Hall is also accused of cutting Tunstall's unborn child from her womb and attempting to pass the baby off as her own. (source: Belleville News-Democrat) ******************************* Death row inmate found dead in his cell at Pontiac prison A death row inmate known as the "Bully of Toulon" has died in his cell at the Pontiac Correctional Center. Officials say Curt Thompson was found dead Friday night of an apparent suicide. Livingston County Coroner Michael Burke says autopsy results should be ready in about 3 weeks. Derek Schnapp is a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Corrections. He says Thompson lived in his cell alone. Thompson's wife, 66-year-old Virginia Thompson, died Wednesday at her home. Thompson received the death penalty in 2003 after being convicted in the 2002 murders of a Stark County deputy and 2 neighbors. Schnapp says Illinois State Police and the Department of Corrections are investigating Thompson's death. (source: Associated Press) **************** A commuted sentence, and a life reborn 10 days ago, I took a trip I wouldn't have predicted. This is a story about a near-execution, a graduation and a decision by former Gov. Jim Edgar that has delivered unexpected consequences. It's a story about rising up and reaching down. In January 1996, Guin Garcia, an inmate on death row at Dwight Correctional Center in Downstate Illinois, was on the verge of execution. Months earlier, Garcia, a 36-year-old convicted double murderer, had dropped her court appeals, said she was done "begging for her life" and put the wheels in motion for her death by lethal injection. It would mark the 1st execution of a woman in the U.S. in two decades. It became an international story. Garcia's biography wasn't pretty. At age 2, she saw her mother jump out a window and die. Her father split. She was reared by grandparents and an uncle. The uncle began raping her when she was 7, giving her alcohol to calm her and shut her up. Family members confirm the grandmother knew but did nothing. By 16, she was an alcoholic and a prostitute. By 17, she was married and pregnant. Her baby, Sara, was not yet 1 when she suffocated her with a plastic dry cleaning bag rather than face the prospect of DCFS taking Sara away to live with the grandmother and the pedophile uncle. She confessed, went to prison for 10 years, married one of her tricks, an older man named George Garcia, who once, according to Supreme Court records, genitally mutilated her with a broken bottle. Drunk one night, she shot and killed George. Her sorrow over Sara is something Guin Garcia lives with every day. She is not sorry about George. 14 hours before her scheduled execution in 1996, Gov. Edgar, who had signed off on the executions of 4 men, suddenly stopped the wheels from turning on this one. For a Republican who supported the death penalty, it was not an easy decision. Edgar commuted her sentence to natural life. Last week, I went back to the prison at Dwight. With a 3.95 "A" average, Garcia was graduating magna cum laude from Lake Land College. Dressed in caps and gowns, marching to "Pomp and Circumstance," 57 other women received GEDs and certificates in computer technology, commercial cooking, dog training and business management. Friends and family filled the prison gym. Small children were in their Sunday best, waving to their mothers. There aren't many happy days in prison, said Warden Mary Sigler. This was one. As one of the inmates rose to claim her diploma, a young man in a back row proudly cried out, "That's my Mom!" Garcia was last to be called up, the only one that day to accept a college degree, an associate in liberal studies. You might be asking, what's the point? Why waste tax dollars on a lifer? There's an answer. It's what Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anna Quindlen calls "Rising up, reaching down." Graduates I talked to that day, including one who is 28 and has been locked up since she was 15, told me the reason she earned her GED last year and got a certificate in professional dog grooming this year was that Garcia, whom younger inmates call "Granny," demanded that she straighten up and fly right. Garcia's quest for education helped motivate hers. That young woman -- a slight, pretty African American -- will get out in 2 years better prepared to go forward because Guin Garcia, in life's depths, somehow found it in herself to rise up and reach down. Today, Garcia is 49, with no illusions about getting out. And yet, thanks to a decision by a pro-death penalty governor to spare one life, new life has been given. Rise up. Reach down. It can happen anywhere. (source: Column, Carol Mann, Chicago Sun-Times) MISSOURI: Mo. governor candidate's legal work draws scrutiny As a star prosecutor, Kenny Hulshof's commanding presence and oratorical skills led to convictions in some of the state's most gruesome death penalty casesand paved the way to 6 terms in Congress. Now Hulshof wants to be governor of Missouri, a job that includes the ability to grant a pardon or commute a death sentence. But in the midst of his Republican primary campaign against state Treasurer Sarah Steelman, his 7-year record as a state prosecutor specializing in small-town murder cases is coming under scrutiny. An Associated Press review of court dockets, state and federal appellate decisions and other legal records shows that in 4 cases over that 7-year period prosecutorial errors by Hulshof led to death sentence reversals. Another man accused of murder won acquittal at a 2nd trial after his Hulshof-prosecuted conviction was rejected on appeal. A sixth defendant sentenced to life in prison without parole briefly won his freedom when his conviction was thrown out by a federal judge, although it was later restored. And a sheriff who helped Hulshof convict a man in the 1992 killing of a college student has reopened the investigation into her violent death. On Monday, a judge will hear a request for a new trial in that case. No appeals court has faulted Hulshof's conduct in that case. Hulshof's errors cited by appeals courts often occurred during closing arguments, or in a trial's penalty phase. Judges said Hulshof too readily embellished arguments with his own opinions, or with facts outside the court record. In one case, a murder conviction was tossed because a highway map given to jurors during deliberations hadn't been introduced as evidence. In another, an undated note from a woman allegedly killed by her husband describing the couples' marital troubles was rejected as hearsay by an appeals court after Hulshof introduced it as evidence. "This is kind of the way he operates," said Sean O'Brien, a University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor who represented Faye Copeland and Dale Helmig2 of the 6 defendants whose Hulshof-led sentences were overturnedas an appellate defense lawyer. "He's always very aggressive. He is extremely skilled. And he creates suspicion out of no evidence." Hulshof says the 7 disputed cases show that the legal system and its inherent checks and balances worked as intended. "The tension of the system working is that you have an aggressive defense attorney, and you have a tough but fair prosecutor," he said. "And once you walk into the courtroom ... you have equal adversaries presenting a case to a jury. The judge is the referee. And then whatever the jury says is justice." Hulshof, 50, began his legal career in 1983 as an assistant public defender. His clients included Jerome Mallett, who was convicted in 1986 of murdering a state trooper. Mallett was put to death in July 2001, with Hulshofby then an incumbent congressmanviewing the execution at his own request as a state's witness. Hulshof joined the office of Cape Girardeau prosecutor Morley Swingle in 1986, spending three years as Swingle's top assistant before joining the attorney general's office. Swingle called his protege a tenacious courtroom advocate with a flair for connecting with the jury. "Kenny was one of the best trial lawyers I had ever seen," Swingle said. "He is such a persuasive speaker. He could really get a jury to see the facts his way. He could tell a suspenseful story and keep people's attention." Hulshof's courtroom adversary in the Mallett trial, state special prosecutor Tim Finnicalknown as "Dr. Death" for his success at death penalty casesrecommended that then-Attorney General Bill Webster, a Republican, hire Hulshof as his successor. When Democrat Jay Nixon defeated David Steelman in 1992, the new attorney general kept the Republican attorney on board. Nixon, who remains attorney general, is the likely Democratic nominee for governor. His role as Hulshof's former boss makes it unlikely that Hulshof's prosecutorial record will become a campaign issue, Hulshof acknowledged. The Steelman campaign, however, is not reticent. "Kenny Hulshof has been running away from his overspending and earmark record in Congress," said Steelman spokesman Spence Jackson. "Now these revelations bring into question his overall competency and ability to do the job it takes to be governor. This is a very disturbing pattern of behavior from Congressman Hulshof." Hulshof says his courtroom conduct, like his 12-year congressional record, is fair game for scrutiny as he runs for governor. He's confident that any inquiry would reveal nothing less than a fair and impartial advocate. "My father never finished college, he never made a lot of money, but still was the wisest man I ever knew," said Hulshof. "And he said that the only thing worth keeping in life is your good name. "That has motivated me through these past 12 years in Congress. It would motivate me as governor. And it certainly motivated me throughout those years in the criminal justice world." (source: Associated Press) ALABAMA----re: foreign national faces possible death sentence Albarran trial set to start Monday afternoon The trial for capital murder suspect Benito Ocampo Albarran is scheduled to begin Monday in Madison County Circuit Court. Albarran, 34, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, is charged in the fatal shooting of Huntsville police officer Daniel Golden on Aug. 29, 2005. The incident occurred in the parking lot of the Jalisco restaurant/grocery store operated by Albarran on Jordan Lane. Albarran, who will be assisted by a Spanish-speaking interpreter, has been held in the Madison County Detention Facility without bail since. If convicted of capital murder, Albarran could face a sentence of life in prison without parole or execution by lethal injection. When he was shot, Golden, 27, was responding to a domestic violence call at the business around 3:30 p.m. The call was phoned in to the 911 center by Albarran's wife, Laura, police said. Witnesses told investigators that Albarran came out the front door and started firing at Golden. Golden was walking backward returning Albarran's fire when his pistol jammed. Golden, hit 3 times, fell to the ground, investigators said. The wounded officer was holding his hands in front of his body in a gesture of surrender, when Albarran stood over him and shot him twice in the face, investigators said. An autopsy report prepared by a state medical examiner concluded that Golden died from several gunshot wounds. One of the facial wounds had powder burns indicating the shot was fired at close range. Albarran has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect - the insanity plea. His defense lawyers, Bruce Gardner, Richard Jaffe and Derek Drennan, argue their client's mental impairment was so severe at the time of the shooting that he did not understand right from wrong. The attorneys admitted Albarran fatally shot Golden. They have the burden of proving to the jury with clear and convincing evidence he did not understand the wrongfulness of his action. Prosecutors Robert Broussard and Jay Town must prove beyond a reasonable doubt, a higher standard than for the defense, that Albarran intentionally killed Golden, a police officer on duty, while trying to evade arrest. According to police, witnesses said Albarran, after shooting Golden, bummed a cigarette and a light from a bystander and smoked until other officers arrived. He initially denied shooting Golden and told investigators he was mowing grass behind his business when he heard shots. Eight of about 14 witnesses police interviewed said they saw some portion of the shooting, investigators said. All eight identified Albarran as the man who shot Golden. The court spent last week selecting 12 regular jurors and four alternates to hear the trial. Circuit Judge Karen Hall swore in the panel of 9 men and 7 women Friday. The lawyers are scheduled to make their opening statements Monday at 2:30 p.m. The trial could last up to 2 weeks. (source: The Huntsville Times) PENNSYLVANIA: Death Penalty Will Be Sought In Clearfield County Murder Case The death penalty will be sought in the case against a Houtzdale man accused of a grizzly murder. 20-year-od Jesse James Campbell is accused of killing his mother, 49-year-old Cindy Jo Coleman March 13 over a disagreement about a computer. Pointing to Campbells history of violent felonies and the fact that he tortured his mother during the murder, Clearfield County District Attorney Robert Shaw said in court Friday that the death penalty in this case was justified. Court records show that Campbell pleaded guilty in 2005 to stealing a car and was ordered to stand trial as an adult due to his extensive prior criminal history. His juvenile record isnt available to the public. Campbells murder trial will probably get under way in late September. (source: (source: WRTA News) USA: 9/11 Families' Have Differing Views Of Justice After years in detention, this week marked the 1st time that 5 men accused of direct involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorism attacks on America made their first joint appearance in a military court, at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It was the start of a process which, the government expects, will bring justice for the families of 9/11 victims. But, as heard from 2 close relatives of the victims, those families don't view the Guantanamo proceedings the same way. "We must not forget the 2,973 people that were so brutally murdered as a result of this conspiracy," said Debra Burlingame. Her brother, Charles, was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, the hijacked plane that crashed into the Pentagon on September 11. She was among a handful of observers who witnessed the first round of these military commissions unfold at Guantanamo. "This is a way to be there for him, to witness for him these men getting American justice," she said. The 5 men arraigned this week are accused of planning 9/11, training the 19 hijackers, and wiring them money to carry out the attacks. "They are being given a great deal more of due process then they deserve, quite frankly," Burlingame said. The long-delayed commissions are controversial - such as allowing government prosecutors to use hearsay evidence and statements coerced from the detainees under torture ... while limiting the witnesses whom detainees may call. But Burlingame supports the process wholeheartedly. "We mustn't let this turn into a focus so much on process that we forget who it is we are dealing with and what it is they did," she said. Process is a focus for Carie Lemak, whose mother Judy was aboard American Airlines Flight 11, the first hijacked plane to crash into the World Trade Center. She said she rejects any mistreatment of detainees that's occurred and, she says, so would her mother. "These are not good people, but I'm also very concerned about the system of justice that this country stands for, and want to make sure that we have trials that aren't perceived as kangaroo courts around the world," Lemak said. "She would want to see the American system of justice demonstrated around the globe for what it is, which is a beacon of hope - that even though they can treat us terribly, we are going to treat them humanely." At his arraignment, defendant Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged architect of 9/11, told the commission he would welcome becoming a "martyr" - and that worries Lemak, who opposes the death penalty sought by the government in this case. "I want them to go to jail for the rest of their lives," she said. "Since my mom's been murdered, the biggest kind of torture for me is not being able to hug her ever again, and to me that's the fate that these people deserve - to be locked up in a jail cell for the rest of their lives and never get to hug anyone they love again." This month, the Supreme Court is expected to weigh in, again, on the constitutionality of the Guantanamo commissions. The Pentagon calls them fair; critics call them a "show." "I'm concerned that it could turn into that, and I want to make sure it doesn't," Lemak said. "It's still some form of holding these men responsible for what they did," Burlingame said. No start date has been set for the trial of the five 9/11 detainees, who say they want to represent themselves in the proceedings. (source: CBS News) ******************** Defense lawyer: U.S. urged interrogators to destroy notes Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler is defense lawyer for Toronto-born Omar Khadr Kuebler says interrogators were asked to destroy notes to prevent legal difficulties Kuebler says he will use evidence to try to get charges dismissed Instructions contained in "standard operating procedures" manual, says Kuebler The Pentagon urged interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to destroy handwritten notes in case they were called to testify about potentially harsh treatment of detainees, a military defense lawyer said Sunday. The sun sets over Camp Justice and its adjacent tent city at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba last week. The lawyer for Toronto-born Omar Khadr, Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, said the instructions were included in an operations manual shown to him by prosecutors and suggest the U.S. deliberately thwarted evidence that could help terror suspects defend themselves at trial. Kuebler said the apparent destruction of evidence prevents him from challenging the reliability of any alleged confessions. He said he will use the document to seek a dismissal of charges against Khadr. A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, said he was reviewing the matter Sunday evening. The "standard operating procedures" manual that contained the purported instructions was made available to Kuebler last week as part of a pretrial review of potential evidence, the Navy lawyer said. "The mission has legal and political issues that may lead to interrogators being called to testify, keeping the number of documents with interrogation information to a minimum can minimize certain legal issues," the document is quoted as saying in an affidavit signed by Kuebler. The document could support challenges by other detainees to suppress confessions at Guantanamo, where the U.S. military says it plans to prosecute as many as 80 of roughly 270 detainees before the 1st U.S. war-crimes tribunals since World War II. The case against Khadr, who was captured in Afghanistan when he was 15, is on track to be one of the 1st to trial. He faces war-crimes charges including murder for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. Special Forces soldier during a 2002 firefight. Kuebler said the nature of the interrogations is particularly relevant in Khadr's case because prosecutors are relying on evidence "extracted" from him at Bagram air base in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo. "If handwritten notes were destroyed in accordance with the SOP, the government intentionally deprived Omar's lawyers of key evidence with which to challenge the reliability of his statements," Kuebler said in an e-mail to reporters. The operations manual, which dates to January 2003, was attached to a 2005 report on an investigation into detainee abuse allegations at Guantanamo, Kuebler said. A summary of the findings was released at the time, but the defense lawyer said the section including the manual has not been made available publicly. The so-called Schmidt-Furlow report documented degrading treatment, including one instance of a top terror suspect forced to dance with another man and behave like a dog. But investigators stopped short of saying torture occurred. (source: Associated Press) **************** Capital Punishment Capital Punishment is something that is not used, and is frowned upon. It is said to be negative by the church and not many people agree with it. In Canada we do not really have Capital Punishment anymore because of the government morals but in the States it still goes on. There are many pros and cons to this topic because so many people have different views on it. Some of the pros of Capital Punishment would be we wouldn't have to pay for prisoners from our taxes. When there is a person in jail we pay for it through our taxes. If they killed someone why should they have the right to life? When they are in jail they are eating, they are breathing, they are still alive, even though they killed someone. They shouldn't have the right to life because if they took a life away they have no right to live. Capital punishment gets rid of prisoners, instead of having them live out the rest of their lives in a prison. The prisoners are healthy; they have friends in there and they get to work out also. So what kind of a punishment is that? They don't deserve to be somewhere where they get treated as good as they do. The negatives to Capital Punishment is, what happens if they get the wrong guy, and he get killed for something that he didn't do, that's not right. Capital punishment is not something that you can re-do or fix if you're wrong. If the person is killed you cannot bring them back, and now a life is gone, so how much better are we after that happens. The legal aspect of Capital Punishment is different from place to place. In The States Capital punishment is what they use most. In the U.S they are all about Retribution and revenge, if you kill someone then your life is taken as well. They don't care what the reason is, because of that there is so many people that have been killed for the wrong reasons. Even if they didn't commit the crime they are still killed. This is mainly because the evidence is sometimes wrong. "Section 7 of the charter declares that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of the person and cannot be deprived of these rights except in accordance with principals." Capital punishment has been taken out of Canada permanently and it is now only used in the USA. Capital punishment is shown differently in the Media, it depends where it's from and what it is about. When someone is killed and they didn't really do anything the media makes it out to be really bad. They say that capital punishment is bad and a life shouldnt be taken away. Yet when a serial killer rapist gets put to the death the media makes it a really good thing and they show it as a positive. The media can change their mind very quickly and make you think different things that what you believe. The Media decides on what you hear and what you believe, so if they want you to like capital punishment than they can do that. In quote from the catechism "legitimate public authority has the right and the duty to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of the defense". Also the church says "Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility has been fully determined the traditional teaching of the church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor." I agree with capital punishment because of retribution. If you take the life of someone then you have no right to live. Yes there have been mistakes in the past with capital punishment but if someone is going to get capital punishment then the CSI teams should do everything that they can to prove that it was them, and make sure that there are no mistakes about it. Capital punishment should be for people that get life sentences. This is because if you are sentenced for life than you are in jail, your still living, breathing, eating, this isnt fair to the person that you have killed. When someone is being sentenced to capital punishment some people feel bad for them, but they should really feel bad for the person that got killed. Unless someone got murdered in their own family they don't want capital punishment to happen. Capital punishment should not be taken likely. This is because a life is being taken away. Nobody should have the right to take away a life, but when someone, kills another person, they don't deserve to live. This is the worst punishment of all and I think that it should only be used for murder cases and other really bad sentencing. In jail the prisoners eat, exercise, breath, has clean clothes, a shelter and a warm bed at night. Why should they have all this when they took all that away from someone else and so much more? Capital punishment is one of the only ways to get retribution with prisoners. (source: Brittany Coughlan is a student from Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School, currently on co-op placement with the Standard-Freeholder; Cornwall, (Can.) Standard Freeholder)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ILL., MO., ALA., PENN., USA
Rick Halperin Mon, 9 Jun 2008 14:03:54 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
