June 23 TENNESSEE: Court will hear appeal by Tenn. death row inmate The Supreme Court is stepping into the case of a convicted murderer who claims authorities concealed evidence that might have spared him a death sentence. The justices have twice before reinstated the death sentence for Gary Bradford Cone, who was convicted of beating an elderly couple to death in Memphis during a robbery. Cone acknowledged that he killed the couple, but said he was temporarily insane because of drugs and the stress of his wartime Vietnam experiences. He argued that state and federal courts never considered his claims that the state withheld evidence of his drug use. A panel of the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that Cone's plea had no merit. The dissenting judge said Cone's claims were never fairly considered by either state or federal courts. The appeals court had twice before issued rulings favorable to Cone, but was overruled each time by the Supreme Court. The case is Cone v. Bell, 07-1114. (source: Associated Press) ALABAMA: Prosecutors Seeking Death Penalty In Man Charged With Killing His Cousin A 35-year-old Shelby County man charged with capital murder in the death of an 11-year-old relative stood before a judge. Ryan Gerald Russell showed no emotion at the hearing Friday. Prosecutors plan to pursue the death penalty for Russell because of the quote "particularly heinous, atrocious and cruel" nature of the child's death. The sheriff would not elaborate on what this meant exactly but said the details of her death would come out in the trial. The victim, Katherine Gillespie, was found dead last Monday night in the Inverness home where she and Russell lived. Russell has had a history of traffic charges including a DUI according to Chief Deputy John Samaniego. A hit and run close to Russell's home is not believed at this time to have anything to do with the death of the child. Russell was described as her legal guardian and her second cousin. (source: WAAY TV News) VIRGINIA: Judge imposes death penalty in guard, deputy slaying A jail escapee who set off a manhunt near Virginia Tech's campus by killing a hospital guard and later, a sheriff's deputy, was sentenced to death Monday despite his attorney's pleas for leniency. William Morva, 26, was convicted of capital murder in March in the August 2006 killings. A jury had previously recommended the death penalty. Before Morva was sentenced, defense attorney Thomas Blaylock pleaded for mercy. Morva said few people in the courtroom "understand what that means," a statement that evoked an angry outburst from the widow of one of his victims. "You didn't show no mercy when you killed my husband. ... You deserve to burn in hell," Cindy McFarland yelled before being escorted out of the courtroom briefly. Montgomery County Circuit Judge Ray Grubbs told Morva he was imposing the death penalty because "lives have been shattered" by crimes that were committed "all for no other reason than your own selfish motives." Morva was a jail inmate who had been taken to a Blacksburg hospital for treatment of an injury when he overpowered a Montgomery County sheriff's deputy there. He used the deputy's pistol to shoot security guard Derrick McFarland, 32, who was unarmed. He shot Sheriff's Cpl. Eric Sutphin, 40, one day later on a walking trail near the Virginia Tech campus, which had been shut down on the first day of classes during a police manhunt for him. The trial was moved 100 miles away because of difficulty seating a jury. Jurors heard emotional prosecution testimony about the 2 men's lives. Family members and those who witnessed McFarland's killing testified that they still suffer from nightmares. The defense portrayed Morva as an eccentric free spirit with a personality disorder. Defense attorney Tony Anderson argued that life in prison would be a more severe punishment than death for Morva, whose killing spree was spawned by a fear of returning to jail. Grubbs on Monday affirmed the jury's decision to agree with Commonwealth's Attorney Brad Finch that Morva's crimes met 2 legal conditions to qualify for the most severe punishment: presenting a danger to society and depravity of mind. He set an execution date of Oct. 21, but Morva will have an automatic appeal. (source: Associated Press) DELAWARE: Attorneys say Delaware execution went bad Delaware prison officials botched the execution of a murderer who was put to death 3 years ago, attorneys challenging Delaware's use of lethal injection said in court papers filed Monday. Attorneys representing Delaware death row inmates in a class-action lawsuit claim that Brian Steckel was executed in 2005 without the proper anesthesia. They are seeking to have Delaware's use of lethal injection to be declared unconstitutional. Prison officials noticed that the anesthetic being administered to Steckel before he received doses of two lethal chemicals began leaking into tissue surrounding the needle in his arm, the attorneys said. "Mr. Steckel was administered a paralytic drug and then an extremely painful heart-stopping drug without having received adequate anesthesia," federal public defender Michael Wiseman wrote. Steckel was sentenced to death in 1997 for the 1994 murder of Sandra Lee Long in her apartment near Wilmington. Long was burned to death in a fire Steckel set after strangling her into unconsciousness and raping and sodomizing her. Steckel's execution was so drawn out that Steckel himself wondered aloud why it was taking so long. Wiseman contends that Department of Correction officials never conducted an inquiry into Steckel's execution, and that there have been dosage errors in more than one-third of Delaware's lethal injection executions. Prison officials have repeatedly said there were no technical difficulties, and have suggested that they simply wanted to give Steckel more time to say goodbye to loved ones. DOC spokesman John Painter refused to respond in detail to the assertions in Wiseman's pretrial brief. "The Department of Correction disputes the plaintiff's allegations and will address them at the appropriate time," Painter said in a prepared statement. U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson scheduled a Monday afternoon hearing to help her decide whether Delaware's lethal injection procedure is significantly different from Kentucky's, which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in April, and whether it presents a substantial risk of unnecessary pain to the condemned inmate. Wiseman and other attorneys representing ax murderer Robert Jackson III and other death row inmates argue that Delaware's execution protocol is significantly different from Kentucky's. But deputy attorney general Elizabeth McFarlan has argued that Delaware's protocol is even more detailed than Kentucky's, leaving even less to chance. Nearly three dozen states use lethal injection. Despite the Supreme Court's decision upholding the procedure, it remains under legal challenge in multiple states. (source: Associated Press) LOUISIANA: Judge sets time table for death penalty appeal Rogers LaCaze was convicted of killing a New Orleans police officer and 2 others inside a New Orleans East restaurant in 1995, murders that brought the crime problem to a boiling point more than 15 years ago. Monday, an Orleans Parish judge gave LaCaze's attorneys 139 days to exhaust all legal maneuvers to stop the convicted killers execution, a similar move to what happened with Lacaze's co-defendant, former police officer Antoinette Frank. Judge Frank Marullo said he's trying to get the case wrapped up speedily as possible, as he said he is required to do by law. Frank and LaCaze were both convicted of the 1995 triple murder at a Vietnamese restaurant. Both have exhausted their appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, and now Marullo is putting a time limit on how long they have to file what's called post-conviction relief. It's one last legal maneuver to avoid the death sentences that juries have handed down. "It's absolutely ridiculous that it should take 15 or more years to get through the process," said Ron Williams, the murder victim's father. "Post-conviction review seems ridiculous. He's had 15 years of appeals already and we certainly don't need another one." LaCaze's mother, however, feels differently. "Rogers hasn't had counsel for the past 6 years and that isn't fair," Alice Chaney said. "Rogers is an innocent man and I say that because I'm his mother. I know he is innocent. We have enough evidence to blow this court apart." Marullo also was scheduled to sign the death warrant for a man convicted of capital murder I another case. Legal questions involving Juan Smith's case caused Marullo to schedule two more hearings on it this week before setting a similar deadline for defense attorneys in that double murder case. (source: WWL News)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TENN., ALA., VA., DEL., LA.
Rick Halperin Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:39:36 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
