[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----PENN., UTAH, LA.

[Rick Halperin]

July 27



PENNSYLVANIA:

Death penalty for Fairfield man?


Adams County's decision whether to seek the death penalty for a Fairfield
man accused of stabbing a former co-worker more than 100 times and setting
his body on fire will become public this week.

District Attorney Shawn Wagner said Thursday he will address whether to
pursue the death penalty for Jason R. Armstrong at Armstrong's arraignment
in Adams County court on Monday. Wagner said he could not comment about
the county's decision about the death penalty for the case "other than the
public will find out Monday."

"If we would seek the death penalty, we would have to file notice at the
time of arraignment," Wagner said.

Armstrong's arraignment is scheduled for 1 p.m. in courtroom No. 1 at the
Adams County Courthouse in Gettysburg.

Armstrong, 34, of 16 Snow Bird Trail, is accused of killing 19-year-old
Andrew Bosley and setting Bosley's body on fire after a camping trip in
Carroll Valley on May 28. Armstrong is charged with criminal homicide,
possessing instruments of crime, arson, tampering with or fabricating
evidence, abuse of a corpse and driving under the influence.

Armstrong later told police he acted in self-defense. <

Police said Armstrong's wife Wendy told them her husband had returned home
early in the morning of the alleged murder covered in blood. He then left
to retrieve beer but crashed his vehicle into a bridge and subsequently
was charged with driving under the influence, police said.

Armstrong's wife led police to a pile of discarded clothes that were wet
and covered in a red substance, according to court documents. Police
seized a knife in a sheath, a pocket knife, hand towels, boots and 3
samples of blood, among other items, from Armstrong's home, according to a
search warrant inventory list.

(source: Evening Sun)






UTAH:

Execution documents ordered released


State Corrections officials have been ordered to turn over documents on
how they conduct executions.

The records are being sought by a public defender for Ron Lafferty, who
was condemned to death for the grisly 1984 slayings of his sister-in-law
and infant niece over a religious revelation.

The state Records Committee told the Department of Corrections to turn
over certain records earlier this month. A state attorney says she might
appeal the decision because of the sensitivity of executions.

The documents cover a number of practices, from the way the state picks
executioners to debriefing papers afterward, and procedures for lethal
injection. The state doesn't have to release training manuals or
executioners' personnel files.

The release of documents could bring security risks, said Tom Patterson,
executive director of the Utah Department of Corrections. "Certainly a
death row inmate has nothing to lose, so we have to plan for the worst,"
he said.

Any release of executioners' identities could amount to a death warrant,
said Sharel Reber, assistant attorney general. Condemned inmates have been
known to threaten to "take out an officer before they go down," she said.

In its 3-2 decision, however, the records panel ruled the state could
delete security secrets and the names of any participants to an execution.
The participants usually are lawmen from the county where the crime took
place.

Ken Murray, Lafferty's federal defender, said he was trying to hold
government accountable for executions.

(source: Deseret News)






LOUISIANA:

Death penalty sought


Sean Gillis walks through the halls of the Governmental Building before
the 2nd day of his trial, early Tuesday morning in downtown Baton Rouge.

Gillis described in own words as 'pure evil'

A prosecutor quoted Sean Vincent Gillis' own words in asking a jury
Saturday to recommend that the convicted murderer and alleged serial
killer be executed for strangling and mutilating a Baton Rouge mother of
5-turned-street prostitute in 2004.

"Sean Vincent Gillis is 'pure evil.' Sean Vincent Gillis deserves the
maximum penalty recognized by Louisiana law," First Assistant District
Attorney Prem Burns told jurors as the penalty phase of the defendants
1st-degree murder trial began.

That phase of the trial resumes at 10:30 a.m. today.

In a series of letters that Burns showed jurors during the guilt phase of
the trial, Gillis confessed to a fellow Parish Prison inmate who later
died that he was "pure Evil" the night he killed 43-year-old Donna Bennett
Johnston in February 2004.

Steven Lemoine, one of Gillis attorneys, countered Burns reference to the
letters by 1st acknowledging to the jury that Gillis crimes were
"incomprehensible."

"These things were done either by a person who is pure evil, or by someone
who has a serious mental illness," the attorney added.

Lemoine then asked, "Does pure evil confess? Pure evil doesn't confess. It
conceals itself."

The jury Friday convicted the 46-year-old Gillis of 1st-degree murder of
Johnston. Jurors now must choose between death by lethal injection or life
in prison for Gillis.

State District Judge Bonnie Jackson told members of the jury Saturday that
they must consider both aggravating and mitigating circumstances during
the sentencing phase.

Burns began presenting evidence that links Gillis to the slayings of 2
other Baton Rouge street prostitutes  Katherine Hall, 30, in January 1999
and Johnnie Mae Williams, 45, in October 2003.

DNA evidence implicates Gillis in the killings of Johnston, Hall and
Williams, authorities have said.

Burns said Gillis considered his victims "disposable members of society."
She said he "exterminated" the women.

The prosecutor said Gillis also expressed contempt for the 3 women,
telling then-Advocate reporter Josh Noel in a jailhouse interview about 3
months after his April 2004 arrest, "It was like they were already dead to
me."

In all, Gillis has confessed to killing 8 south Louisiana women between
1994 and 2004 and has been booked in 7 of those deaths. An investigation
into the 8th slaying is ongoing.

Johnston's nude body was found Feb. 27, 2004, along a drainage canal off
Ben Hur Road south of LSU. Her left arm was amputated at the elbow, her
left nipple was cut off and a tattoo from her right thigh was cut away.

Burns told jurors that Williams' hands had been amputated when her body
was found Oct. 11, 2003, off Pride-Port Hudson Road near the parish line.

East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner Shannon Cooper testified that Williams
died from "multiple blunt force trauma."

Burns said pictures of Williams were found in Gillis' house on Burgin
Avenue and in his car.

The prosecutor said Hall, whose body also was mutilated, was found Jan. 5,
1999, near Hoo Shoo Too Road.

Burns said Hall's body was positioned near a dead-end sign "as if to make
some kind of a joke."

Former Louisiana State Police DNA analyst Natasha Poe testified there is
only a 1 in 3.8 trillion chance that a hair found in Hall's mouth belonged
to someone other than Gillis.

Cooper said Hall died from a deep stab wound to the throat. The coroner
said she was stabbed 37 times, including 21 times after she had died.

Cooper also said Hall had ligature marks on her neck, even though she did
not die of strangulation.

It was at that point in Cooper's testimony that Gillis became visibly
agitated and upset and began complaining to lead defense attorney Kerry
Cuccia, who quickly asked for a break in the proceedings.

After almost an hour break, the penalty phase resumed and Gillis sat
stoically the rest of the day.

Lemoine said on behalf of the defense that Gillis, who was abandoned by
his father, met Norman Gillis Jr. for the 1st time at his grandfathers
funeral. He said Sean Gillis father, who is attending the trial and is
scheduled to testify in the penalty phase, has battled mental illness.

Lemoine asked the jury to try to understand what may have led Gillis to
kill.

"Not wipe away. Not forgive. But to try to understand," he said.

Lemoine said friends would testify that Gillis had a "kind and generous
nature."

"Sean Vincent Gillis," he told the jury, "is still one of our fellow human
beings."

Gillis already is serving a life term for the 1999 killing of Joyce
Williams, of Baton Rouge. He pleaded guilty in Port Allen last August to
2nd-degree murder in that case. Gillis confessed to killing the
36-year-old woman in a West Baton Rouge Parish sugar cane field.

(source: The Advocate)