June 9 OHIO: Prosecutor seeks death penalty Hamilton County prosecutors want to do to Roger Tucker what they say Tucker did to 83-year-old Herbert Abraham put him to death. A Hamilton County grand jury indicted Tucker, 37, of Columbus, for capital murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary following the May 30 discovery of Abraham's body in his East Price Hill home. Abraham was strangled to death. Tucker then is accused of stealing Abraham's car which was found in Covington the days later. The case was randomly rolled and assigned to Common Pleas Court Judge Jody Luebbers. In addition to it being her 1st death-penalty case, it's her 1st case. Luebbers was sworn in as a judge Friday. Tucker, 37, was arrested days after Abraham's body was found. Tucker was arrested in Covington where he is accused of trying to break in to other homes. Tucker will have to serve his Kentucky time before Ohio officials can try him. Since Deters returned as prosecutor in 2006, he's had one case where the defendant received the death penalty. Hamilton County has 36 inmates on the state's death row now. (source: Cincinnati Enquirer) VIRGINIA: Governor halts execution Governor Timothy M. Kaine today commuted the death sentence of Percy Levar Walton, who murdered 3 people in Danville in 1996. Walton was scheduled for execution tomorrow night. Kaine said that the Supreme Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional to execute a person who is mentally incompetent. His commutation of Walton's 3 death sentences means Walton will serve life in prison without parole. Twice in 2006 Kaine had delayed Walton's execution for further assessment of Walton's mental status. In a statement this afternoon announcing the commutation, Kaine said Walton has exhibited a "lack of mental competence" over an extended period. Kaine has allowed 5 executions to proceed. This is the 1st he has commuted. "Walton differs in fundamental ways from other death row offenders," Kaine said in the statement. "He lives in a self-imposed state of isolation that includes virtually no interest in receiving or understanding information. Walton communicates only infrequently, almost invariably in response to direct questions, and those responses are minimal in nature. "He has nothing in his cell other than a mattress, a pillow and a blanket. He shows no interest in contact with the outside world and has no television, radio, magazines, books or stationery. He has no personal effects of any kind. This minimal existence has been in evidence for the past five years. "In light of this information, I am again compelled to find that one cannot reasonably conclude that Walton is fully aware of the punishment he is about to suffer and why he is to suffer it. Kaine said that in reaching the decision he is "mindful of the terrible injustice that Walton perpetrated against Jessie E. Kendrick, Elizabeth W. Kendrick, and Archie D. Moore, Jr.," adding that "my thoughts and prayers are with the families of these honorable people." (source: Richmond Times-Dispatch) ****************** Kaine grants clemency a day before scheduled execution Gov. Timothy M. Kaine on Tuesday commuted the sentence of a death row inmate with a history of mental issues to life in prison. Percy Walton, 29, was sent to death row for robbing and killing 3 neighbors in Danville in 1996. He was set to die at 9 p.m. Tuesday at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. Walton's attorneys claim he suffers from schizophrenia and that he doesn't understand that his execution would mean the end of his life . A federal court stepped in 3 days before Walton's scheduled execution in 2003 to allow time to determine if Walton understood he was going to die and why. Kaine halted Walton's execution twice in 2006 for further evaluation of his mental condition. Va. set to execute triple killer Tuesday "Given the extended period of time over which Walton has exhibited this lack of mental competence, I must conclude that a commutation of his sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole is now the only constitutionally appropriate course of action," Kaine said in a new release. Kaine, a Roman Catholic, has personal, faith-based objections to the death penalty but has allowed five executions to proceed since he became governor in 2006, including one last month. Walton was the 1st inmate Kaine has spared the death penalty. Nash Bilisoly, Walton's attorney, was pleased with Kaine's decision but said Walton wouldn't know the difference. "Percy Walton will not know that it is Monday, much less that his sentence has been commuted," Bilisoly said. Bilisoly said he did not know where Walton would end up, but that he hoped Walton would get treatment. "I think it's apparent that he ought to be somewhere where he can get some mental health treatment," Bilisoly said. Attorney General Bob McDonnell was reviewing the governor's statement and would have a response later Monday, spokesman David Clementson said. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it unconstitutional to execute the insane or those with an IQ less than 70, established by the age of 18, who lack basic adaptive skills. No competency hearing was held before Walton was sentenced to death, and various mental evaluations have yielded conflicting results. Walton scored 90 and 77 on intelligence tests taken when he was 17 and 18, respectively. After he was sentenced to death, Walton's scores declined. Walton has said that after he is put to death he plans to go to Burger King and maybe ride a motorcycle. But he also has referred to execution as "the end" and said before his trial that the "chair is for killers." Walton pleaded guilty in 1997 to the murders of Jessie and Elizabeth Kendrick, a couple in their 80s, and 33-year-old Archie Moore, an aviation instructor at a nearby college. The Kendricks' bodies were found Nov. 26, 1996 in their townhouse, both shot in the head from close range. Jessie Kendrick's hands were clenched together above his head as if either praying or begging for Walton to spare their lives. Archie Moore's body was found in a closet of his apartment two days later. He had been shot above the left eye, a plastic bag placed over his head and his body doused in cologne. Kaine said he remained mindful of the victims' families in reaching his decision. "My thoughts and prayers are with the families of these honorable people," he said. Irene Jurscaga, 87, said she was disappointed her sister's killer would not be put to death. "It's just another person that our tax dollars have to feed," said Jurscaga, 87. "He isn't deserving to be alive, someone who created such a heinous crime. "He didn't give my sister and brother-in-law a chance. They begged for their lives." Walton would have become the 100th person executed in Virginia since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Only Texas, with 405, has executed more. (source: Daily Press) ILLINOIS: Plea spares woman who killed friend, fetus, kids----Plea deal spares Tiffany Hall, 26, from the death penalty She was sentenced to life in prison without parole Hall admits killing Jimella Tunstall, her unborn child and her 3 other kids Bodies of kids found in dryer A woman pleaded guilty Monday to killing her pregnant friend, the unborn child and the victim's 3 children in a plea deal that allowed her to avoid the death penalty. Tiffany Hall, 26, will spend the rest of her life in prison without the possbility of parole. Tiffany Hall, 26, pleaded guilty to all 5 charges against her -- 4 counts of murder and 1 count of intentional homicide in the death of the fetus -- and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Hall struck her friend Jimella Tunstall, 23, on the head repeatedly with a table leg, then cut Tunstall's fetus from her womb in a bathtub, prosecutor Robert Haida said. Tunstall bled to death, Haida said. Hall then dumped her friend's body in an East St. Louis lot. Hours later, Hall told police in Illinois she had given birth to a stillborn child. When police arrived, she had the dead fetus with her. She refused to be examined at a hospital. Three days later, Hall visited the father of two of Tunstall's children and the unborn child, Haida said. The father was caring for all the children, Haida said. Hall told the father that Tunstall wanted her to pick up the children and Tunstall's vehicle, he told police. The father told the officers that was the last time he saw his children, Haida said. Hall then drowned the three children -- DeMond Tunstall, 7, Ivan Tunstall-Collins 2, and Jinella Tunstall, 1 -- in the same bathtub where she killed their mother, Haida said. Authorities said Hall's story began to unravel on September 21, 2006, about a week after Tunstall's death, when she told her boyfriend that she killed a pregnant woman and stole the fetus. He told police. The bodies of the 3 children were found 2 days later hidden in a washer and dryer inside the East St. Louis apartment where the children had lived with their mother. One of Hall's attorneys, James Gomric, said he could not speak to a motive or discuss whether his client had shown remorse. He said Hall had been mentally fit to stand trial, but she also had unresolved mental health issues and had an IQ in the mid-70s. After the hearing, some of Tunstall's relatives said they had already forgiven Hall. Sandra Myers, Jimella Tunstall's mother, said taking one life would not have been justice for losing the lives of others. "I have to forgive her," she said. (source: Associated Press) USA: Supreme Court: 22 cases remain undecided Highlights of some high-profile Supreme Court cases, among the 22 that remain to be decided before the court begins its summer recess scheduled in late June: -Rights of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay naval prison, some of whom have been held more than 6 years without charges. The detainees want to be able to seek their release in front of a U.S. civilian judge. The government says the detainees have no rights under the Constitution and that the process for classifying them as enemy combatants contains sufficient opportunity to make their case in court. -Gun rights, and the fate of a handgun ban in Washington, D.C. The court is undertaking the first comprehensive review of Second Amendment rights in U.S. history, and will decide whether individuals have a right to own guns, or whether that right is linked to service in a militia. -Death penalty for raping a child. A man on death row for raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter is challenging a Louisiana law allowing the death penalty for the crime, even when it does not include the death of the victim. The last execution for a crime that did not also include murder was more than 40 years ago and the court outlawed the death penalty for raping an adult woman in 1977. -Punitive damages in the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Exxon Mobil Corp. is fighting a $2.5 billion judgment for the environmental disaster in Alaska 19 years ago that ensued after the supertanker ran aground on a reef. -Rights of Americans detained in Iraq. At issue is whether the U.S. military should be allowed to turn over 2 foreign-born U.S. citizens to the Iraqi government for criminal proceedings. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: Sex offender faces death penalty trial----Cold case DNA hit linked Lynn Dean Johnson to 1985 rape-murder just as he was about to be paroled from prison on a prior conviction. A sex offender who was about to be paroled when his DNA was linked to an unsolved 1985 rape-murder had a "propensity to commit violent sex crimes" against young girls, a prosecutor told a jury this morning. In an opening statement, Assistant District Attorney Kevin Haskins said the evidence shows that Lynn Dean Johnson, 52, committed the special circumstances murder of Bridget Lamon, who was 19 when she disappeared from her Anaheim neighborhood on May 25, 1985. Her bruised and battered body was found in an industrial area in east Anaheim the following day. Johnson faces a potential death sentence if the jury in Judge Frank F. Fasel's court finds that he murdered Lamon during the commission of rape and sodomy. The trial is one of four death penalty cases under way in Orange County Superior Court. Deputy Public Defender Lisa Kopelman told the jury that the bodily fluids that yielded Johnson's DNA could have been deposited up to 24 hours before Lamon's death. Kopelman suggested someone else had sexual contact with Lamon and then killed her. Lamon was a hostess at a Mexican restaurant in Anaheim when she was dropped off after work at her apartment by her mother on May 25, 1985. She was never seen alive again. Anaheim police detectives collected physical evidence from the crime scene, including genetic materials found on the victim's body. But DNA technology did not exist in 1985, and the case went unsolved. But in 2002, a law was passed requiring all violent felons to submit their DNA to the Department of Justice for archiving in a database. Johnson, who was serving a 32-year sentence for kidnapping an 11-year-old girl and sexually assaulting her in a church parking lot, was one of those inmates who was requires to donate a DNA sample. Two years later, just weeks before he was due to be released from prison, DNA testers got a cold case hit on his sample when they compared it with DNA recovered from the Lamon crime scene. He was arrested before his parole from Soledad State Prison in May 2004. (source: Orange County Register) ****************** Scott Peterson's in-laws are taking him to court Scott Peterson's civil wrongful death trial set to begin July 8 He is on death row for murder of wife, Laci, and unborn son Laci Peterson's parents filed the lawsuit against their former son-in-law Convicted killer Scott Peterson will be heading to trial again over the death of his pregnant wife, this time in civil court. Scott Peterson is on California's death row for killing his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son. The parents of Laci Peterson have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against him, seeking a multimillion-dollar judgment. A Stanislaus County Superior Court judge has ruled that Peterson would have to stand trial in the civil case. A jury found him guilty in 2003 of killing Laci Peterson and her fetus and dumping the body in San Francisco Bay on Christmas Eve 2002. At a hearing Friday, Peterson's defense attorney cited in court a videotape made at San Quentin State Prison in which he maintains his innocence. The judge stayed his ruling until June 23 to allow lawyers to appeal. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Slaying suspects could face death penalty 2 men charged with killing a Bradenton woman last month could be executed if convicted of the crime. A grand jury today indicted Marcos Herrera and Otis C. Mack, both 20, on first-degree murder and burglary charges in connection with the May 21 suffocation of 74-year-old Janice Fore in her northwest Bradenton home. The first-degree murder charges make them eligible for the death penalty, but prosecutor Art Brown said the state attorney's office had not decided whether to seek a death sentence for the suspects. If prosecutors do not seek the death penalty and they are convicted of 1st-degree murder, they would be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Herrera and Mack have been held without bond at the Manatee County jail since their May 24 arrest. Manatee County Sheriff's Office detectives believe that the suspects bound and gagged Fore with duct tape before fleeing her home in her car, according to court documents. Several hours later, when detectives entered Fore's home in the 1200 block of 67th Street Northwest, she was dead. An autopsy showed Fore, who suffered from asthma and emphysema, suffocated, according to sheriff's reports. Under the law, the men can be charged with murder even if they did not intend to kill Fore. The charge is applicable when someone dies during the commission of another crime, like burglary. Deputies found Fore dead when they went to return some items belonging to Fore that had been found behind a nearby apartment complex. Investigators believe Herrera and Mack tossed the items after fleeing from Fore's home in her convertible. Video surveillance caught two men exiting the car at a strip shopping center in the 2400 block of Manatee Avenue East. One of the men matching Mack's description is seen wiping down the passenger side of the vehicle, according to court documents. Herrera had rented a room in a house across the street from Fore. Authorities said both mens' fingerprints were found in Fore's house and in her car. (source: Bradenton Herald)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, VA., ILL., USA, CALIF., FLA.
Rick Halperin Mon, 9 Jun 2008 18:04:54 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
