[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CALIF., LA., FLA., ALA., N.Y.

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 30



CALIFORNIA:

Potential jurors quizzed on death penalty views


Jury selection in the Vincent Brothers case hit some bumps Monday because
many jurors were confused about questions on the death penalty.

Kern County Superior Court Judge Michael Bush quizzed about 30 potential
jurors with Deputy District Attorney Lisa Green and defense attorneys
Michael Gardina and Anthony Bryan.

In this phase of jury selection, the judge and attorneys hope to weed out
jurors who cannot fairly consider the death penalty or who have been
overly influenced by publicity.

The judge and attorneys asked many of the potential jurors if they would
automatically vote for the death penalty if they found Brothers guilty of
planning and executing the deaths of his wife, 3 children and
mother-in-law.

Many said yes. But Green insisted this line of questioning wasn't fair
because the jurors do not understand the process.

First the jurors must decide if Brothers is guilty of first-degree murder.
If he is convicted, each side presents further evidence before the jury
decides on a sentence -- life in prison without the possibility of parole
or the death penalty.

Without this explanation, many jurors didn't realize they were expected to
listen to more evidence before making their final decision, Green argued.

The judge explained in greater detail during the afternoon session, which
eased some of the juror confusion.

After much questioning, some of the potential jurors said they would
consider both options.

But others said that if Brothers killed 5 people and planned the killing,
they would vote for the death penalty without considering the other
evidence at the penalty phase. The people who said they could not consider
both options were dismissed.

A few jurors said they were against the death penalty and could not
sentence anyone to death for any reason.

One woman welled up with tears after intense questioning about the death
penalty. She was dismissed.

Another woman said she was against the death penalty and discussed the
issue at length during college classes.

But she said she could vote for the death penalty in this case because of
the severity of the alleged crime.

"This isn't the abstract," Green told the woman. "This is looking this man
in the eye and because of what you say, he dies. He dies. ... Do you have
what it takes to return a death penalty verdict?"

"Yes," the woman said quietly.

She was kept in the jury pool.

The names of the jurors have been withheld from the public to protect
their privacy.

Only about 9 jurors were asked to return for further questioning.

The rest were dismissed for various reasons.

Brothers, a former vice principal, is accused of killing his wife, Joanie
Harper; their 3 children, Marques, Lyndsey and Marshall; and Joanie
Harper's mother, Earnestine.

Brothers has pleaded not guilty.

His family was found dead on July 8, 2003, and he was arrested in April
2004 on suspicion of committing the murders.

More jurors will be questioned today.

(source: Bakersfield Californian)

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

DA may seek death penalty for man accused of poisoning daughter


Santa Clara County prosecutors served notice today they will seek either a
life sentence without parole or the death penalty against a San Jose man
accused of killing his 2-year-old daughter by giving her a sippy cup
filled with a date-rape drug.

An amended complaint against Minh Phu Le, who has been held in jail since
the Dec. 1 death of his daughter, Skyla, was handed to his defense
attorney, John Vaughn, during a brief Superior Court appearance.

The new complaint cites poisoning as a special circumstance. If a jury
agrees, it would allow the district attorney the option to ask for the
death penalty.

Le, 32, was in court today for a scheduled plea hearing before Judge
Jerome Nadler, but the hearing was reset for March 7.

Police say Le, a married man, poisoned Skyla on Dec. 1 in an act of
revenge against the little girl's mother -- Le's mistress -- who had
broken off their relationship.

Skyla's body was discovered by her mother, Serena Garcia, at Le's
apartment. Le was also in the residence, unconscious after overdosing on
GHB in a suicide attempt. Paramedics and physicians saved Le's life.

He had left a note saying the child did not suffer. But evidence indicated
otherwise: Skyla had vomited blood after drinking a lethal dose.

Investigators also allege that Le peddled GHB or gamma hydroxybutyric
acid, the so-called "date rape'' drug capable of rendering a person
unconscious when a few drops are mixed in a drink.

Defense attorney Vaughn said Le continues to grieve over Skyla.

"Mr. Le is heartbroken at what happened,'' Vaughn said. "I believe he is
hopeful that a settlement can be arrived at in this case. He knows the
consequences can be significant . . . He is sad about what happened and he
is sad that he survived.''

(source: Mercury News)

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

Dumanis To Consider Death Penalty In Stabbing Case


A decision will be made in the next 2 months whether a man accused in the
fatal stabbing of a San Diego high school student will face the death
penalty.

An arraignment for 20-year-old Raul Ponce was put off until April 17 so
his lawyer can meet with District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis about the case.

If Dumanis decides to pursue the death penalty, trial could be put off
until 2008.

Ponce is charged with murder and torture in the stabbing death of Tania
Bataz last April.

(source: KFMB News)






LOUISIANA:

Prosecution won't seek death penalty in Webster double murder


Prosecutors in Webster Parish Tuesday dropped their intent to seek the
death penalty for a man accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend and her
7-year-old daughter, citing psychiatrists' conclusions he is mentally
retarded.

Omar Gipson has an IQ below 70. The U.S. Supreme Court prohibits the
execution of the mentally retarded.

The district attorney Tuesday filed amended second-degree murder charges
and set the case for trial on April 23. Gipson, who pleaded not guilty,
faces mandatory life in prison without parole if convicted as charged.

Gipson, 30, is accused of killing Yolunda Warren and her daughter,
Anastasia, at their apartment in Cullen. They were stabbed to death in
what investigators said was a savage attack.

(source: KTBS News)





FLORIDA:

Warden: Inmate showed no signs of pain in botched execution


A convicted killer whose execution was botched last year was never in any
pain, the death row prison's supervising warden told a panel reviewing
Florida's lethal injection procedures Monday.

But the man's lawyer said his client was clearly hurting from the
incorrectly injected deadly chemicals.

Angel Nieves Diaz appeared to be straining to see a clock, not grimacing
in pain as other witnesses have said, Florida State Prison Warden Randall
Bryant told the 11-member commission.

"He had the opportunity to be able to scream, cry, yell and that sort of
thing and that did not happen," said Bryant, who stood about 2 feet from
Diaz during the Dec. 13 execution.

But it would have been difficult for Diaz to see the clock because it was
behind his strapped-down head and a guard would have blocked his view.

"He was looking at a clock? What, was he late for an appointment? Come on,
that's ridiculous," said Diaz's attorney Neal Dupree, who also witnessed
the execution and testified before the commission Monday. "I certainly
thought he knew something was wrong and he was looking to the closest
(Department of Corrections) guy."

The procedure took 34 minutes - twice as long as usual - and required a
rare second dose of lethal chemicals because the needles were incorrectly
inserted through his veins and into the flesh in his arms, a medical
examiner reported. An autopsy found chemical burns in both his arms.

Then-Gov. Jeb Bush created the commission to examine whether improvements
can be made to the way lethal injections are administered - not whether
the system should be scrapped. Executions in Florida have been halted
until the commission releases its report, due to new Gov. Charlie Crist by
March 1.

"The only thing that seemed different was the length of time," Bryant said
of the Diaz execution. It was the 4th lethal injection execution he has
supervised on Florida's death row.

Earlier Monday, Dupree told the commission his client was clearly in pain.

"He appeared to be grimacing. It looked like he was in pain to me," Dupree
said. "He almost appeared to be a fish out of water. He was gasping. And
that went on for period of about 10 to 12 minutes. You could see body
movement. You could see clutching and unclutching."

Dupree also said Diaz also appeared to be saying something. Bryant said he
heard only unintelligible muttering from Diaz, which was not out of the
ordinary. Several people on the prison's execution team have said Diaz
said "What's happening?" twice during the process.

Death penalty opponents point to the Diaz execution to bolster their
claims Florida's lethal injection procedure violates the U.S.
Constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Condemned
inmates have also pushed that issue in court, so far to no avail.

State Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, said he found testimony from officials
who were actually in the death chamber compelling when compared to the
limited view from the witness chamber.

"I went from thinking, 'What went wrong?' to, 'How can we do this
better?'" said Crist, who pushed to switch Florida's execution method from
electrocution to lethal injection.

Panelists asked to hear from the executioners and medical team, whose
identities are closely guarded by the Florida Department of Corrections.
American Medical Association guidelines bar doctors from taking part,
directly or indirectly, in executions.

No date was set to take their testimony for the commission, which
reconvenes on Feb. 5. Officials testified Monday that the prison medical
team was satisfied with the insertion of the needles before they continued
with the execution.

Diaz, 55, a career criminal, was sentenced to death for killing a Miami
topless bar manager 27 years ago. He had proclaimed his innocence until
his execution.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Execution put under microscope


Sitting 6 feet away, death row defense lawyer Neal Dupree said he saw
Angel Diaz grimace and gasp in apparent pain during his execution.

Florida State Prison Warden Randall Bryant stood about three feet away
that evening and said Diaz was merely straining to look at a clock in the
execution chamber.

The conflicting testimony came Monday before a commission assembled to
review the state's lethal injection procedures, spurred by irregularities
in Diaz's Dec. 13 execution.

Diaz took twice as long as usual to die and an autopsy found that plastic
catheters tore through his veins, splashing chemicals into his flesh that
caused foot-long burns. Because state and federal law prohibits cruel and
unusual punishment, whether Diaz felt pain is crucial to the commission's
study.

If Monday's meeting is any indication, it may not be an easy question to
answer.

In addition to Dupree, several news reporters, including some who have
viewed multiple executions, reported in articles that Diaz appeared to
grimace, wince or squint during the execution.

Dupree, who was behind soundproof glass in the witness room during the
execution, said he saw Diaz breathing furiously, his Adam's apple bobbing
up and down.

"It looked like he was in pain to me. He almost appeared to be a fish out
of water," said Dupree, supervisor of the Capital Collateral Regional
Counsel office for South Florida, which represented Diaz in his appeals.
"He was gasping. And that went on for a period of about 10 to 12 minutes."

Bryant, who was inside the chamber, said Diaz only looked strained when he
craned his neck to look at the clock on the wall.

Bryant said he turned his back on Diaz several times to answer phone calls
placed to the death chamber from the governor's office, so he probably did
not see all of Diaz's expressions.

"The only thing that seemed different was the length of time," said
Bryant, who has overseen 4 executions at the prison.

An assistant warden, Randall Polk, who said he could not see Diaz's face
during the execution, said staff found the execution so routine that they
had an unremarkable debriefing about it that night. They met again the
following day because of "media scrutiny and attention," Polk told the
panel.

The 11-person commission, which includes lawyers, doctors and lawmakers,
is supposed to make an initial recommendation to Gov. Charlie Crist later
this week and a final report by March 1. The commission will meet again
Monday.

A summary from another task force asked to study just the Diaz execution
found that corrections officials didn't strictly follow the state's
protocols during the execution.

For one, medical staff decided to flush a 2nd dose of chemicals into Diaz
without first checking the catheter going into his arm.

Before adjourning Monday, members of the commission said they would like
to interview the medical team. Those people likely will testify
anonymously over the telephone so their identities can be shielded, which
officials say is required by law.

The meeting Monday was attended by 2 members of Diaz's family and their
lawyer, D. Todd Doss.

Doss said he thought the commission asked softball questions.

"I wish there were a lot more pointed questions and candid answers," Doss
said.

As for the conflicting testimony about whether Diaz felt pain, State Sen.
Victor Crist, R-Tampa, a member of the commission, said he believes
personal opinions about capital punishment may color what people saw that
evening.

"It's personal observation," he said. "I would think someone opposed to
capital punishment would have seen pain and those who support it may have
not."

(source: St. Petersburg)






ALABAMA:

State needs effective attorneys if death penalty is to exist


Almost by definition, says an Ohio State law professor, an attorney whose
client gets the death sentence was ineffective.

The dark humor of his observation mirrors the frustrating task of defining
an effective defense.

But in Alabama, at least, the quality of attorneys who draw assignments to
capital cases is no laughing matter. In fact, its one of the main
arguments for the Legislature to enact a temporary ban on executions so
that the issues of effective representation and a number of other critical
issues can be sorted out.

A story in Sundays edition of The Tuscaloosa News showed the kind of
problems in representation that low-income defendants face.

ToForest Johnson, convicted of capital murder in the 1998 execution-style
slaying of a sheriffs deputy, William Hardy, who was working off-duty as a
security guard in Birmingham, appealed on the grounds of ineffective
representation.

His trial counsel hadnt investigated his background and had hired no
experts to evaluate him, he argued. But the Alabama Court of Criminal
Appeals rejected his appeal because Johnson, who was unable to afford a
lawyer to do a thorough investigation, could not detail what his trial
lawyers had missed.

Catch-22. Its all too common in the legal system of Alabama, which not
only lacks any guarantee that death penalty defendants will have good
trial lawyers but also offers no assurance that convicted inmates will
have legal representation of any kind in the days leading up to their
execution.

Another questionable aspect of the way this state administers the death
penalty is the issue of judicial override.

Alabama is one of only a handful of states where a judge has the power to
override a jurys recommendation of life in prison without the possibility
of parole and impose the death penalty instead. According to one study,
judicial override is responsible for between 20 percent and 25 percent of
the capital sentences in Alabama.

An assessment team from the American Bar Association cited judicial
override as the leading reason why this state, which ranks 23rd in
population, has the 6th-largest death row in the United States. Though
Alabama has only 1/2 the population of Georgia, which does not permit
judicial override, it sentences 4 times as many people to death.

Does that fact serve as a deterrent to crime? There is no way to quantify
an answer, but the states spiraling murder rate speaks for itself.

There are other troublesome aspects of the death penalty in Alabama that
need to be explored, like guaranteed DNA testing for death row inmates and
racial and geographic disparities in sentencing.

At least 37 local governments in Alabama have called for a moratorium to
allow careful consideration of the death penalty. Every year, a legislator
proposes such a suspension -- only to see it shot down by colleagues who
dont want to appear "soft on crime."

The real issue, however, is one of fairness. Until Alabama can ensure that
defendants have been treated fairly at every stage of a capital case, no
matter how gruesome the crime, capital punishment will weigh heavily on
the conscience of the state.

(source: Tuscaloosa News)

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

Judge refuses to step aside----Thompson plans to preside over Moore
retrial


Morgan County Circuit Judge Glenn Thompson says he will preside over the
retrial of Daniel Wade Moore in the Karen Tipton capital murder case.

The judge also ruled that Moore will remain in jail until his trial, set
for July 30.

Thompson issued a ruling Monday in response to a motion that Assistant
Attorney General Don Valeska filed, asking the judge to recuse himself.

The judge did not give a reason for his ruling on Valeska's motion, which
was filed Aug. 17.

Assistant Attorney General Will Dill, who helped Valeska prosecute Moore,
said the state could appeal Thompson's ruling to the state Court of
Criminal Appeals.

"We are considering our options," said Dill. "One that we have is to
appeal the denial of our motion."

Valeska said in his motion that Thompson made comments about evidence that
were inappropriate.

The prosecutor said comments Thompson made when dismissing capital charges
against Moore in February 2005 indicate the state cannot get a fair trial.

He asked Thompson to get out of the case.

"This court has made numerous disparaging comments about the state's lead
prosecutor and lead investigator," Valeska stated in the motion. "This
court found as fact and stated in its order dismissing the case that the
chief prosecutor, Don Valeska, and one of the key witnesses for the
prosecution (Decatur police) officer Mike Pettey intentionally withheld
information in this case and that the prosecutor engaged in prosecutorial
misconduct."

Valeska's motion for recusal came shortly after the appellate court
reversed Thompson's ruling and reinstated capital murder charges against
Moore.

A jury convicted Moore, 32, of capital murder and recommended life without
parole for his punishment in 2002. Thompson sentenced him to death but
later overturned the conviction and sentence to grant a new trial.

The appeals court agreed with Thompson that Moore deserved a new trial but
reversed a subsequent ruling by Thompson to free Moore.

Dill said he is confident that the 2nd trial will result in conviction.

"We are looking forward to the re-trial of this case and we are extremely
confident that when the 2nd jury sees the DNA evidence in this case that
we'll get the same verdict that we got in the 1st trial," said Dill.

The court petitions and rulings are part of an on-going legal web that
started almost 8 years ago when Tipton's body was found in her Chapel Hill
home in Decatur.

Authorities developed Moore as a suspect after he told an uncle that he
was present in the home March, 12, 1999, when a friend stabbed the
39-year-old housewife to death.

Moore recanted the statement, saying he made up the story because he
feared going back to jail. At the time he faced a theft charge.

He remains in Morgan County Jail.

(source: The Decatur Daily)






NEW YORK----new federal death sentence

Killer of 2 N.Y. Detectives Is Sentenced to Death


A federal jury sentenced a 24-year-old Staten Island man to death
yesterday for killing 2 undercover police detectives in 2003. It was the
1st successful federal capital punishment prosecution in more than 50
years in New York.

After the verdict was read, the defendant, Ronell Wilson, 24, rubbed his
palms, looked at his mother and then stuck his tongue out at the families
of his victims. His younger brother loudly cursed the jurors, while their
mother declared them "the murderers now."

The widows and other relatives of the slain detectives applauded briefly
from the gallery, crying, "And the Lord rejoices."

In December, the anonymous jury of 7 men and 5 women convicted Mr. Wilson
of shooting the two detectives, James V. Nemorin and Rodney J. Andrews, in
the back of the head in a car during a weapons sting on March 10, 2003.

They reached their verdict yesterday after deliberations that started
Monday afternoon. They found Mr. Wilson devoid of remorse and directed
Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis to impose death sentences on 5 counts.

3 men have been executed in federal cases in the United States in recent
decades, first among them Timothy McVeigh, for the bombing of the Alfred
R. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. There are 46 defendants on
the federal death row, not including Mr. Wilson.

But prosecutors in New York have failed to win death sentences even in
prominent terrorism trials, including those involving the 1998 embassy
bombings in East Africa and f Zacarias Moussaoui, who was tried in
connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.

Since a moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in 1988, federal
prosecutors in New York have brought death penalty charges against 40
defendants, according to Kevin McNally, the director of the Federal Death
Penalty Resource Counsel Project, which coordinates the defense of federal
death penalty cases nationwide.

Of those, juries have rejected the death penalty in at least 13 of the
cases that have gone to trial, , resulting in sentences of life without
parole. One a week and a half ago, was in the same court. 9 other cases
are pending, including 8 in Brooklyn.

But the murder of 2 undercover detectives, found bleeding on the streets
of Staten Island in the aftermath of a miscarried gun transaction,
resounded in a city still shaken by the terror attacks. Past twilight on
March 10, 2003, the victims became the first 2 officers killed by gunfire
in a single day since 1988.

The murders proved a defining passage for the city, bridging a period of
great sentiment for the police that began to erode when officers killed an
unarmed teenager, Timothy Stansbury. By a quirk of fate, the trial of Mr.
Wilson began 2 days after an undercover police team in Queens fired 50
bullets and killed an unarmed man, drawing more scrutiny to undercover
police operations.

Federal prosecutors vigorously sought the death penalty against Mr.
Wilson, taking the case from state prosecutors in Staten Island after New
Yorks death penalty was largely invalidated in 2004. They endorsed plea
bargains with seven defendants, young men based around the Stapleton
Houses project in northeastern Staten Island.

The group members had forged their camaraderie on admiration for a
slightly older man, nicknamed Keyo, who had been killed under
circumstances that are unclear.

Bearing Keyo tattoos and T-shirts, the men gave themselves nicknames like
O and Mal-G, evidence and testimony showed. Between the humdrum stuff of
growing up, community college courses, talent shows and trips to an
amusement park, they mastered gang signs, sold crack cocaine and beat and
robbed their rivals.

On March 3, 2003, the men sold a handgun to Detective Nemorin, 36, a
Haitian immigrant and father of three who was admired by other officers
for his ability to convincingly shed dapper silk scarves for the trappings
of a street tough.

As his supervisor would later testify, Detective Nemorin arranged to buy a
second gun, a Tec-9 assault pistol of the sort favored by drug runners, at
a rendezvous by the Stapleton Houses a week later. For backup, he brought
Detective Andrews, 34, a divorced Navy veteran and father of two with a
reputation for making tough arrests.

In a police-issued Nissan Maxima, the detectives approached the towering
Stapleton Houses with a handgun for protection and a surveillance
transmitter.

On the other side of the telephone line, plans for the transaction were
shifting from sale to robbery, members of the group later testified.
Outside the housing project, Mr. Wilson climbed into the back seat with
Jessie Jacobus, at 16 a 6-foot-3, 240-pound enforcer for the group.

As they circled the streets, Mr. Wilson voiced suspicions of a police
presence in the neighborhood.

He also questioned the presence of Detective Andrews, who Detective
Nemorin said was his brother-in-law. The detectives sought to reassure him
with canny street talk and evasive driving, to little discernable effect.

On a darkened dead-end street, with no apparent warning, Mr. Wilson
propelled a single 44-caliber bullet into the skull of each man, starting
with Detectives Andrews. It was never proven whether Mr. Wilson knew his
victims were police officers. But Mr. Jacobus testified that Mr. Wilson
gave a reason for the shootings in the minutes after he pulled the
trigger.

"Because I dont give... ." he quoted Mr. Wilson as saying, using a
vulgarism to describe just what he did not give, "about anybody."

Mr. Wilsons lawyers, Ephraim Savitt, Mitchell Dinnerstein and Kelley J.
Sharkey, sought to save Mr. Wilsons life by recounting the circumstances
of his childhood. Before the jury retired, Mr. Wilson read a brief,
heavily edited statement of remorse.

Working from 29 pages of questions, the jurors dissected a series of
factors weighing for and against the death penalty. Affirming elements of
their conviction, they found that Mr. Wilson had acted with the intent to
kill. They endorsed all of the prosecutions assertions, including one that
Mr. Wilson would remain a danger in prison.

The jurors, who declined interview requests conveyed by the judge,
unanimously endorsed nearly all of the defense teams mitigating factors,
finding that Mr. Wilson had grown up depressed, sick and trapped in a
realm of poverty, deprivation, drug abuse and violence. They wrote in
another factor weighing against the death penalty: "Ronell Wilson was
possibly subject to peer pressure.

But they unanimously rejected the notions that he has adjusted well to
federal prison, taken responsibility for his actions or "has remorse for
the murder of Detectives Andrews and Nemorin."

The jury foreman, dressed in a suit and tie, gave the panels answers in a
loud crisp voice, glancing now and again at Mr. Wilson.

(source: New York Times)