June 19 TEXAS: Convicted Texas carjacker set to die Wednesday A Texas man who acted out his crime fantasies by shooting a woman for her car on a Houston street is set to be executed Wednesday evening. Lionell Rodriguez, then 1990, was convicted of the 1990 shooting of Tracy Gee, a 22-year old assistant manager of a tennis pro shop, through her passenger window and then driving off in her Honda. He had just been released from prison 3 months before the crime after serving less than five months of a seven-year term for burglary and cocaine possession. The execution would be the 16th this year in Texas, the America's busiest capital punishment state, and the 1st of 2 this week. Another lethal injection is scheduled for Thursday. The U.S. Supreme Court in April refused to review Rodriguez's case and no additional appeals were filed to block his execution. Gee's random killing infuriated Houston residents, illustrated a growing crime problem in the city and put a focus on an overwhelmed criminal justice system in Texas, where crowded prisons had been forced by court orders to release convicts early because there was nowhere to keep them. "There was an incredible amount of publicity," recalled J.C. Castillo, the lawyer appointed to defend Rodriguez at his trial. Rodriguez was arrested the same night of the crime. He was sitting in a pool of Gee's blood as he drove her car, the inside splattered with skull fragments and brain matter. His cousin, with whom he had begun the night, was pulled over for a broken taillight, feared he was being sought for the shooting and blurted out that Rodriguez was responsible. Rodriguez confessed. At his trial, another motorist testified that Rodriguez had fired several shots at him that same night. Jurors convicted him of capital murder and decided he should die. Rodriguez's conviction, however, was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 1993 because of a procedural problem in jury selection. The following year, he was convicted a 2nd time and again sentenced to death. His cousin is serving 40 years in prison. Rodriguez, who declined to speak with reporters in the weeks preceding his punishment, blamed drug use as early as age 11 or 12 for his crimes. On the Net: Texas Department of Criminal Justice execution schedule http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/scheduledexecutions.htm (source: Associated Press) ******************** Execution Scheduled for 1998 Bailey County Murder This week, Texas is scheduled to execute a 33-year-old man for the 1998 murder of a Muleshoe teenager. Gilberto Reyes is set to die by lethal injection in Huntsville Thursday night. In 2000, a Bailey County jury convicted Reyes of capital murder. Yvette Barraz was 19 when she was kidnapped by Reyes on March 11, 1998. Her body was found in the border town of Presidio. Investigators say Barraz was raped, beaten in the head with a claw hammer and strangled. Police later arrested Reyes in Portales, New Mexico. (source: KCBD News) SOUTH DAKOTA----impending execution Elijah Page Ready For Execution The former girlfriend of a man who is scheduled to be executed at the state prison in Sioux Falls in about 3 weeks says Elijah Page has not changed his mind and wants to be put to death. Page and 2 other men tortured and killed 19-year-old Chester Allan Poage of Spearfish 7 years ago. Page stopped his appeal process last year and asked to be executed. The execution would be the 1st one in South Dakota since 1947, when a Minnesota man killed 2 lawmen and was electrocuted. South Dakota law now specifies that executions will be done by injecting lethal drugs. (source: Associated Press) OKLAHOMA: Execution Date Sought Attorney General Drew Edmondson asked a state court Monday to set an execution date for Frank Duane Welch, who was convicted of killing a Norman woman in 1987. Edmondson acted after the U.S. Supreme Court denied Welch's final appeal. The attorney general asked the Court of Criminal Appeals to set an execution date for Welch 60 days from Monday or the earliest date deemed fit by the court. Welch was convicted in the strangulation death of 29-year-old Jo Talley Cooper in a case that was unsolved for a decade. After Welch was linked to an almost identical unsolved murder, he was tied to the Cooper case through DNA evidence. (source: KOTV News) ******************** Decision allows death row inmate to escape execution A federal appeals court ruling has enabled a Grady County inmate to leave death row. Glenn Anderson, 48, was 1 of 3 men convicted in 1997 in connection with a triple murder near Alex. The appellate court ruled that Anderson's attorney provided insufficient mitigating evidence on behalf of Anderson during the sentencing phase of his original trial. The judge ruled that evidence that Anderson suffers from brain damage in his frontal lobe, is borderline "mentally defective," was only able to complete the 8th grade, and functions in the bottom 2 % of the general population could have been mitigating factors in his sentence. No evidence of these facts was presented to the jury and thus, the death sentences were overturned. District Attorney Bret Burns said that in conversations with the victims families, most wanted to get the situation behind them and not sit through another hearing where they had to testify about horrific incidents. Burns said that a few family members still wanted Anderson to die for his crimes, but he decided to allow Anderson to accept the 3 life sentences without parole if he would waive his right to further appeals. Anderson agreed to forgo future appeals so Burns allowed him to accept the new sentences and not force another hearing into the matter. Now, more than a decade later, Anderson agreed to serve three life sentences without parole for the murder of Keith Smith, Jim Poteet and Terry Shepard; one life sentence in the shooting of Donnie Scott, who survived the attack; 35 years for arson for burning the house; and 10 years for kidnapping during the incident. On Sept. 28, 1996, Anderson was one of three men seeking retribution for a prior shooting. Richard Thornburg - who was executed last year for his role in the crime - had been shot. The men went to the home of Marvin Matheson and forced him to accompany them the home of Jim Poteet to question them about the incident in which Thornburg was shot. While at Poteets home, Keith Smith, Terry Shepard and Poteet were shot and left for dead when the suspects set the home ablaze. Matheson and another victim, Donnie Scott, who survived the attack with a single gunshot wound to the chest, told investigators about what happened at Poteets house that night. Their testimony and evidence from the incident led to the arrest and subsequent conviction of Thornburg, Anderson and Roger Embrey. (source: The Chickasha Express-Saw) MISSOURI: Report expected soon in investigation into potential wrongful execution A 2-year investigation into whether a St. Louis man was executed for a crime he didnt commit is expected to wrap up soon, the lead investigator in the case told The Associated Press Monday. Rachel Smith, an assistant circuit attorney, is among 3 attorneys and 2 police investigators who have been looking into the case of Larry Griffin since July 2005. Griffin was executed in 1995 for a fatal 1980 drive-by shooting. Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce ordered the investigation after the victim's family, among others, came forward and expressed concern that Griffin was wrongfully convicted and executed. Smith said she expects to turn in her report to Joyce by the end of this month. Unless Joyce orders further investigation, the report could be released to the public soon after that, Smith said. Saul Green, a Detroit attorney who was among those pushing for Joyce to reopen the case, said the Missouri case is among 4 or 5 around the country in which investigators are looking into whether innocent people were executed. "It would be a first, and that would be extremely significant," Green said. Griffin was 40 when he died by injection June 21, 1995, at the Potosi Correctional Center in southeast Missouri. Griffin was convicted of killing Quinton Moss. Police said gunshots were fired from a moving car, striking Moss and another man. Moss was shot 13 times. A witness gave police a description of the car and identified Griffin from police photos as the man in the front seat who fired the shots. Also, investigators determined Griffin had a motive: Moss had been arrested earlier in 1980, but never convicted, in connection with the death of Dennis Griffin, Larry's other brother. In June 2005, Joyce was approached by a group that included Green, noted attorney Barry Scheck and Sam Gross, a University of Michigan professor who had looked into the case. All 3 raised questions about whether Griffin was the shooter, alleging police failed to contact some witnesses and that Griffin's trial defense was faulty. Perhaps most compelling, Joyce said at the time, was the fact that Moss' only family questioned Griffin's guilt. At the time of the execution, Griffin's lawyers said the sole eyewitness had recanted. They said another man claimed to have joined three others in killing Moss. Asked by The Associated Press days before the execution if he killed Moss, Griffin declared, "I did not! If I'm going to be punished for something, it ought to be for something that I did. Innocence doesn't mean anything." Smith said her investigation involved nearly 80 interviews of people ranging from police to prostitutes who knew Griffin. She declined to discuss the findings but said she was confident in them. (source: Associated Press) NORTH DAKOTA: 3 suspects in drug conspiracy will not face death penalty 3 suspects in a drug conspiracy case will NOT face the death penalty. U-S Attorney Drew Wrigley made that announcement today in Fargo, in the case known as "Operation Speed Racer." Authorities say it was a conspiracy to bring drugs from Mexico and the West Coast to North Dakota and other states. At least 44 people have been indicted in the case, including some charged in the 2005 death of Lee Avila (ah-VEE'-lah) of East Grand Forks, Minnesota. Jorge "Sneaky" Arandas, Gabriel Martinez and Alan Wessels all are charged in Avila's death and could have faced the death penalty. But Wrigley says today that prosecutors will NOT seek that penalty if the men are convicted. A 4th man who could face the death penalty is still at large. No decision has been made in regard to the possible punishment for Martin Carrillo. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, S. DAK., OKLA., MO., N. DAK.
Rick Halperin Tue, 19 Jun 2007 23:19:40 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
