[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, IND., VA.

[Rick Halperin]

June 9



TEXAS:

Law officer's execution isn't new----Recent death of sheriff's deputy not
a first for Texas


As former Harris County sheriff's deputy Mike Griffith was executed this
week for the 1994 rape-robbery-murder of a Houston flower-shop owner,
prison officials speculated that he might have been the 1st erstwhile law
officer to meet such a fate in Texas.

Not so, said Rodger Koppa of College Station. Koppa noted that William H.
Roe, a former Huntsville town marshal and deputy sheriff, was hanged on
May 26, 1888, for killing his wife, Virginia, with strychnine-laced
coffee.

Koppa's wife is a descendant of the murdered woman.

The Galveston Weekly News reported that 2,500 people came to the Grimes
County hamlet of Anderson for the execution.

And much more recently, former Beaumont police officer Hilton Crawford was
executed in July 2003 for murdering a 12-year-old Conroe boy.

(source: Houston Chronicle)

************************************

State won't seek death again for killer


The state announced Friday it would not re-seek the death penalty for
convicted killer Carl L. Brooks, whose earlier death sentence was
overturned 2 years ago by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals
court panel upheld his conviction.

Brooks, 35, was given a life sentence on Friday by 175th District Judge
Mary Roman, with credit for time served. Defense lawyer Vincent "Denny"
Callaghan made a motion for appeal.

Brooks had been sentenced to death in the November 1996 robbery-slaying of
Frank Johnson Jr., 19, but the appeals court ruled that a juror with a
pending gun charge could conceivably have felt beholden to prosecutors.

(source: San Antonio Express-News)

*****************************************

Sheriff gets surprise call


Hours before his execution in Texas for the rape and murder of a Houston
woman, a former deputy sheriff surprised Bay County Sheriff Frank
McKeithen with a telephone call.

Michael Griffith, 56, and McKeithen were deputies together in Bay County
during the 1970s, but they had not spoken in more than 20 years before
Wednesday's call.

McKeithen would not discuss details of his 10-minute conversation with
Griffith, who was convicted and executed for the 1994 robbery, rape and
fatal stabbing of Houston resident Deborah McCormick at her family's
flower shop.

(source: Orlando Sentinel)


INDIANA----impending execution

Board rules against clemency in cop killing


The Indiana Parole Board voted unanimously against clemency for an inmate
facing execution for fatally shooting a Muncie police officer.

Michael Lambert is scheduled to die by lethal injection June 15. Lambert
shot Muncie Officer Gregg Winters 5 times in the head from the back of a
police cruiser after Winters arrested him for public intoxication 17 years
ago. Winters died 11 days later.

The Parole Board began hearing Lambert's clemency petition 2 years ago.
Today's vote was 3-0 against saving him from the death penalty. 2 board
members abstained because they were not present during Lambert's initial
clemency hearing. Now Gov. Mitch Daniels will decide whether to stay
Lambert's execution.

(source: Indianapolis Star)






VIRGINIA----impending execution

Killer asks U.S. Supreme Court to stay execution


A man convicted of robbing and killing a co-worker in 2001 is asking the
US Supreme Court to stay his execution while the court considers his
appeal.

Christopher Scott Emmett is set to die June 13th at the Greensville
Correctional Facility in Jarratt for the April 2001 slaying of John
Langley.

Jurors heard a taped confession in which Emmett admitted striking Langley
in the head with a lamp in the motel room they were sharing. The men were
part of an out-of-town roofing crew working in Danville.

Prosecutors say Emmett killed Langley, robbed him of $100, bought and
smoked crack cocaine and then called the police to report that something
had happened to his roommate.

In their appeal, attorneys for 35-year-old Emmett argue that he received
ineffective counsel because his public defender failed to investigate his
background and present it at trial.

Attorneys say Emmett also has asked Governor Tim Kaine for clemency. A
spokesman says the governor is reviewing the request.

(source: The Associated Press)