April 6
TEXAS:
Neal Hospitalized; Mother Tries To Spare His Life----Defendant Faces
Possible Death By Lethal Injection
A capital murder defendant who refused to attend the punishment phase of
his trial was hospitalized Wednesday, KSAT 12 News reported.
Ronnie Joe Neal was being treated under heavy security at University
Hospital for an undisclosed reason, KSAT 12 News reported.
While Neal was hospitalized, his mother tried to spare his life by
testifying in his defense in the punishment phase of Neal's capital murder
trial.
Annie Pine, who at times was argumentative with lawyers, delivered heated
testimony during her 2 hours on the witness stand.
Pine told jurors that despite a jury finding her son guilty, Neal was
innocent in the slaying of Diane Tilly.
"No, I don't think he did it," Pine said. "I really don't. I can't tell
what's in the jury's mind, but if I'm breathing my last breath, I would
say, no, I don't believe Ronnie did it."
Pine said that Neal's daughter, Pearl Ann Cruz, who set the murder plot in
motion by getting Tilly to open her door, was the one who killed the
teacher.
"She knew what she was doing," Pine testified. "Ain't no way in the world
nobody ... would have got me to go ringing somebody's doorbell. And she
had all kind of opportunities to let this woman go, but she wouldn't let
her go."
Pine also told jurors that Neal was depressed and a slow learner as a
child and later turned to drugs, which led to a criminal record. She also
claimed that her son is mentally retarded, which defense attorneys plan to
use a defense in hopes of sparing Neal's life.
(source: KSAT News)
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Convicted Killer Attempts Suicide
A man who could face the death penalty after he was convicted of killing
an Alamo Heights teacher attempted to commit suicide in his jail cell
Wednesday, source told News 4 WOAI.
Ronnie Joe Neal took a handful of pills he had been hoarding for days,
sources said. They were dispensed by the jail's pharmacy. Neal was taken
to the jail's emergency room for treatment. He was being monitored
Wednesday, authorities said.
Neal's sentencing trial continued Wednesday without him. Neal was
convicted of killing Alamo Heights teacher, Diane Tilly in 2004.
Neal's mother told jurors in court Wednesday her son is depressed.
"All he did was just cry and cry," Neal's mother Annie Pearl-Pine said.
A former jailmate testified Wednesday that Neal even laughed after he was
convicted of murdering Tilly.
"He wasn't going to change how he felt," former jailmate Jeremey Munguia
said of Neal. "He doesn't regret what he did."
Neal has refused to show up for the sentencing phase of his trial, saying
he would rather kill himself than hear his family plead with jurors to
spare his life.
(source: WOAI News, April 5)
Mom points a finger at killer's daughter
The mother of a man who murdered an Alamo Heights teacher asked a jury
Wednesday to spare her son's life, saying she doesn't believe he did the
killing and instead blames his teenage daughter for the crime.
The defendant's mother, Annie Pine, broke into tears as she talked about
the difficulties of raising son Ronnie Joe Neal. She said he was troubled
from birth and, unlike the rest of her 4 children, impossible to control.
"He wasn't like the other babies had been," she said. "I don't know what
was wrong with Ronnie, but I knew there was something different."
Her testimony propped up Neal's main defense against a possible death
sentence on the grounds he has mental retardation, a disability that would
put him beyond the legal reach of lethal injection. She testified a day
after Neal apparently tried to commit suicide in while in jail awaiting
sentencing.
Neal was convicted last month for the November 2004 murder of Diane Tilly,
head teacher at an academy for alternative students.
Investigators solved the case after Neal's teenage daughter Pearl Cruz
struck a deal with prosecutors and admitted helping her father rob and
kill the teacher.
During the first part of the trial, Cruz said she followed her father's
instructions at every turn as they held the teacher captive for 4 hours
and rummaged through her home, then drove her to a dark field where Neal
shot her.
Cruz said her father's control over her was so complete it extended to a
two-year sexual relationship before she had his baby.
But Neal's mother, who took Cruz into her home and legally adopted her,
said she doesn't believe the girl's story.
"She had all the power over him," Pine said. "If I were breathing my last
breath, I would say no, I don't believe Ronnie did it."
While her son isn't prone to violence, she said, he has made several
attempts to kill himself.
Last week, Neal told the judge in his case that he planned to skip his
sentencing hearing and warned he would try to commit suicide.
He apparently made good on the threat Tuesday night when jailers said he
overdosed on a secret stash of prescription pills he'd hoarded in his
Bexar County cell.
Neal was found early Wednesday and was taken to University Hospital, where
he is recovering, said Dr. John Sparks, the jail's medical director.
Sheriff Ralph Lopez said Neal had been placed under administrative
segregation because of his violent tendencies and also had been under
suicide watch. Jail officials are investigating how he amassed the pills.
Although Pine couldn't put a name to her son's affliction, she said he
suffers from an unknown mental problem, which she believes stems from
medication she took before he was born.
If anything, she said Neal was the victim of school and prison systems
that ignored her pleas for someone to help her son.
"All his life, I knew there was something wrong with my baby. I tried so
hard to get him help," she said. "Nobody listened to anything I was
telling them."
One of Neal's fellow prisoners in Bexar County Jail, Raymond Rose,
testified Neal recently had been seeking help of a different kind:
pointers on how to fake an insanity defense.
Another inmate, Jeremy Munguia, said Neal bragged he would get away with
the ploy.
"He just told me that he was going to play that part, that he was insane
and retarded," Munguia testified. "He was laughing and saying
(prosecutors) weren't going to be able to get the death penalty on him."
The jury is expected to begin deliberating Neal's fate today.
(source: San Antonio Express-News)
**************
Murder convict won't cooperate in Arlington cases
An Arkansas inmate thought to be involved in the unsolved murder of 2
Arlington-area women two decades ago has refused to meet with Tarrant
County authorities, lessening the chances the cases will ever be solved.
Tarrant County investigators traveled to Arkansas in February to talk with
convict Michael Ronning about the murders of Annette Melia, 20, of
Arlington, and Melissa Jackson, 16, of Grand Prairie in the 1980s. But
Ronning, in prison for the capital murder of a 19-year-old Jonesboro,
Ark., woman, refused to cooperate, said Tarrant County prosecutor Alan
Levy.
"We wanted to see if he would talk to us, and he wouldn't sit down for an
interview," Levy said. "It's pretty obvious he's not going to cooperate."
Authorities decided to try to talk to Ronning after an NBC Dateline
producer wrote to Gov. Rick Perry and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush last November
saying he could get confessions from Ronning on several unsolved killings
in their states if both governors agreed to waive the death penalty in
those cases.
Producer Shane Bishop believes that Ronning killed Melia and Jackson,
according to an Austin American-Statesman story last year. Ronning was the
subject of a Dateline broadcast in 2002 during which he refused to answer
questions about the two Texas killings.
Levy said that he has contacted NBC officials to request an interview with
Bishop.
"Since there are no other witnesses or forensic evidence linking him to
the crimes, were looking at what we can get from the reporter," Levy said.
"He's serving life and there are no statute of limitations for murder, so
we have plenty of time."
Relatives of both women have said they believe Ronning is the killer.
Leslie "Bubba" Jackson, brother of Melissa Jackson, said Wednesday that he
didn't expect Ronning to cooperate.
"That's just the type of guy he is," Jackson said. "Why would someone, who
has done the things he's done, want to do right? But that's OK. He'll get
his in the end."
Ronning was convicted in August 1986 of capital murder for killing a
19-year-old Jonesboro, Ark., woman who was abducted, stabbed and found
under trash in a ditch, the Austin American-Statesman reported. By 2001,
investigators in Florida and Michigan had connected Ronning's DNA with
unsolved killings in their states, the Statesman reported.
(source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
WYOMING:
Family pleads for Yellowbear's life
An uncle spoke Tuesday about goals Andrew Yellowbear Jr. shared with him
as the 2 prepared for a Northern Arapaho sun dance in 2004.
"I want my life to change around," Byron Yellowbear recalled his nephew
saying. "I want good things for my family and kids."
Byron Yellowbear said the conversation took place July 2, 2004. Marcela
Hope Yellowbear, Andrew Yellowbear's 22-month-old daughter, died the same
evening.
On Saturday, jurors found Andrew Yellowbear guilty of 1st-degree murder
for abuse leading to the girls death.
Ed Newell, Fremont County's chief prosecutor, focused on the timing of the
remark as he briefly questioned Byron Yellowbear during the 2nd day of
Andrew Yellowbear's sentencing hearing.
"Did you see Marcela that day?" Newell asked.
Yes, Byron Yellowbear replied. He said she was happy.
"I remember her smile," Byron Yellowbear said.
Byron Yellowbear was among a group of friends and family members who
testified Tuesday as Andrew Yellowbear's attorneys built an emotional, if
sometimes unruly, case against putting him to death.
Jurors in the case have been sequestered since closing arguments were
delivered at Yellowbear's trial a week ago. They are expected to begin
deliberating today whether the 31-year-old should be sentenced to life in
prison or executed.
Testimony in the sentencing hearing often contrasted with what was seen
and heard during the trial. Prosecutors used graphic pictures during the
trial to show the severity of Marcela Yellowbears injuries. Witnesses said
the abuse leading to those injuries took place over a period of weeks.
During the sentencing hearing, Newell and Tim Gist, an assistant Fremont
County prosecutor, called only 2 witnesses.
Of the many witnesses called by defense attorneys Diane Lozano and Vaughn
Neubauer, Newell generally asked few, if any, questions.
One of Yellowbear's cousins testified about her brother's death in a car
accident. She spoke of her daughter's fondness for Yellowbear and the
challenge for many people of succeeding while living on the Wind River
Indian Reservation.
Newell asked about the possibility of succeeding on the reservation.
"I take it you mean, if you want to make a good life for yourself on the
reservation, you can?" Newell asked.
The woman agreed.
Several other cousins of Andrew Yellowbear testified at the sentencing
hearing. They said he was good with children, respectful and caring.
Neubauer and Lozano asked each of the cousins if he or she had a message
for Yellowbear.
"I love you, brother," several replied.
Newell asked one cousin to confirm her testimony that Yellowbear was
surrounded by people who cared for him. She agreed.
A major element of Lozano and Neubauer's argument against imposing the
death penalty is that Yellowbear himself grew up in difficult surroundings
on a reservation where poverty and alcoholism affect many people.
Martha Kilcrease, the elder of Andrew Yellowbear's 2 sisters, wept often
as she testified on Tuesday. She sorted through court documents
chronicling the placement of the 3 children with various relatives and
foster parents over a period of years. Although she was only 4 years older
than Andrew, Kilcrease said, her brother clung to her as if she were his
mother.
"I took on that responsibility of holding him when he would cry, feeding
him when he was hungry" as a 6-year-old, Kilcrease said. She said the 3
saw their parents fight, and also saw domestic abuse in other situations.
Both parents have died. They were young when father died of a knife wound
he received while struggling with his brother, Byron Yellowbear, Kilcrease
said.
Their mother later died of liver problems resulting from alcohol abuse,
Kilcrease said.
Kilcrease said she is close to her brother and talked to him "daily" even
since his arrest in 2004.
Newell asked if Kilcrease ever fought, asking her to read from a report
she apparently filed in tribal court detailing a conflict in 1995.
Yellowbear "choked" his sister to the ground while also injuring one of
her daughters, Kilcrease read.
Kilcrease confirmed that charges against Yellowbear in connection with the
report were dropped after she did not show up at trial.
(source: Casper Star Tribune)
NEVADA---execution date set//volunteer
April 26 execution set for Nevada death row inmate
Daryl Mack, who has refused to file an available appeal even though he
claims he didn't commit the murder that put him on death row, is scheduled
to be executed April 26 at Nevada State Prison.
State Corrections Director Glen Whorton on Wednesday set the date for
Mack's lethal injection, following an order issued last week by a judge in
Reno to proceed. The execution had been scheduled for late last year but
was stayed by the state Supreme Court.
The stay of the scheduled Dec. 1 execution was lifted in February when the
high court dismissed a petition filed by Viola Mack, the condemned
inmate's mother, who claimed that her son didn't get a fair competency
hearing.
The mother argued that Mack, 47, held "a delusional belief in his
innocence" and the U.S. Constitution bars the execution of someone who
isn't aware of how or why he's to be executed, justices said.
Mack says he'd rather be executed than spend the rest of his life locked
up on death row. He also claims he's innocent of the crime that resulted
in his death sentence, the 1988 sexual assault and strangling of Betty
Jane May, 55, in a southwest Reno boarding house.
He was serving a no-parole life term in prison for murdering Kim Parks in
1994 in a Reno motel when he was linked through DNA evidence to May's
murder and convicted. A three-judge panel sentenced him to death in 2002.
The execution would be the 1st of a black convict in this state since the
U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty. Mack also would be the
1st to be executed in this state based solely on DNA evidence, and he'd be
the 11th "volunteer," out of a dozen men executed here since 1976, to give
up available appeals that would stop his lethal injection.
The last execution in Nevada was that of Terry Jess Dennis, who died in
August 2004 for strangling a woman in a Reno motel in 1999.
Even if Mack is convinced he didn't kill May, the state Supreme Court said
in its Feb. 3 ruling that it doesn't mean "he is unable to understand that
he is to be executed and why he will be executed."
Justices also rejected the mother's argument that Mack is being
involuntarily injected with a powerful psychotropic drug to make him
appear competent. Also rejected were the mother's argument that a lower
court failed to conduct an adequate evidentiary hearing, and that he
didn't undergo psychological testing despite his history of mental
illness.
(source: Associated Press)
TENNESSEE:
Bill making child rape a capital offense would cost $15 million
A news release e-mailed by the Tennessee House Republican Caucus on
Wednesday touted state Rep. Matthew Hill pushing legislation that would
elevate child rape from a felony to a capital offense punishable by death
or life imprisonment.
What the release didn't say is how much the bill would cost Tennessee
taxpayers.
Hill, R-Jonesborough, who is up for re-election this year, said in the
release that child rape has a devastating effect on children.
"Statistics show that by the time a child sexual offender is caught for
the first time, they have usually molested six to eight children," Hill
said in the release. "The monsters who commit this crime deserve the most
severe punishment meted out by our justice system."
According to the state's Fiscal Review Office (FRO), the bill would cost
taxpayers an estimated $14.2 million in incarceration expenses, nearly
$750,000 in recurring costs to hire new public defenders and prosecutors,
and a one-time expense of about $100,000 for new computer equipment.
"The state incurs substantial out-of-pocket expenses in death-sentence
trials and appeals," the FRO's fiscal note on the bill said. "These
include costs of appointed attorneys, expert witnesses, investigation and
related matters. These additional costs are estimated to exceed $750,000
in each case."
An average of 64 persons in Tennessee have been convicted of child rape in
each of the last 3 years, according to the Administrative Office of the
Courts. The average age of each offender is 39 years, and the life
expectancy of each offender is 70 years.
It currently costs the state about $50 a day to house an inmate. According
to FRO, people convicted of child rape currently serve an average of 20
years.
Hill said the bill - which moved out of a House Criminal Practice
Subcommittee on Tuesday - was brought to him by state Sen. Raymond Finney,
R-Maryville.
"He wanted to see if we could kind of get the debate started and move it
through the process," Hill said of Finney's plans for the bill, which is
headed to the House Judiciary Committee.
Lawmakers on the subcommittee were informed of a state corrections
oversight committee's comment - that the bill could increase the number of
death row defenders and significantly increase the state's demand for
prison beds. Tennessee Supreme Court rules also require the appointment of
two defense attorneys in each death penalty case.
Tennessee has over 100 people on death row, and more than 20 of them have
more than 2 death sentences, according to the Department of Corrections.
Tennessee has executed 1 inmate - Robert Glen Coe for rape and murder - in
the past 45 years. The Coe execution occurred by lethal injection April
19, 2000, at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution and cost taxpayers
more than $11,000. The estimated cost of executing an inmate has since
moved past $15,000.
For more about the Hill-Finney bill go to www.legislature.state.tn.us and
click on "Legislation." The bill's number is HB 2924.
(source: Kingsport Times-News)
*****************
Stop Killing, Start Listening----Moratorium now
It might seem unnecessary to ask for a moratorium on the death penalty in
a state that has executed exactly one prisoner in the last 40 years. But,
as the anti-death penalty advocates running around the statehouse have
pointed out, camped on Tennessees death row is the 10th largest population
of death row inmates in the country.
Among the 101 men and two women on Tennessees death row is Oscar Frank
Smith, who eviscerated a stepson on the way to murdering his estranged
wife and another stepson. And Donald Middlebrooks, who tortured and
urinated on a black teenager before killing him in a racially motivated
attack. And Paul Reid, who shot and killed 5 fast food workers and slit
the throats of another two.
What to do with these types of vermin is a question as old as the Bible.
Unfortunately, left to the hands of men, state-sponsored killing doesnt
always work out very well. Over half of the death sentences issued in
Tennessee are overturned on appeal. And of those overturned on appeal, 75
percent are resentenced to something less than death.
Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, 120 inmates
scheduled for execution have been released from Americas death rows,
though none, thus far, in Tennessee. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme
Court agreed to hear the case of Paul House, an East Tennessee man
convicted of killing Carolyn Muncey. DNA evidence and witness testimony
now link Muncys rape and death to her husband, Hubert, according to
various news reports, including a March 31, 2005, Scene cover story.
Its cases like Houses that have enticed groups as varied as the American
Bar Association and NAACP to argue for a death penalty moratorium. It was
probably unthinkable to suggest a moratorium 4 years ago, when state Rep.
Rob Briley, a Davidson County Democrat, sponsored moratorium legislation
only to be pilloried by the Fraternal Order of Police.
As Briley indicates, attitudes about the death penalty have evolved in 4
short years. One day soon, it might be abolished altogether, leaving the
ultimate justice for killers like Don Middlebrooks and Oscar Frank Smith
in the hands of an entity less fallible than humankind.
(source: Nashville Scene)
OHIO:
Court upholds death sentence
The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the death sentence for Rocky
Lee Barton, according to Warren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel.
Barton, 47, was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to death in
September 2003 for the January 2003 killing of his wife, Kimbirli Barton,
44, in the driveway of their Wayne Twp. home.
He shot her at close range after she had gone to their marital residence
for personal belongings. Barton then shot himself in an apparent suicide
attempt. The trial judge followed the jury's recommendation of death.
The Supreme Court held that Barton retained the right to make a statement
not under oath and refuse to present other evidence in mitigation.
(source: Cox News Service)
***************
Is Joe's luck turning?
Like virtually all death-row inmates, Joe D'Ambrosio insists he is
innocent. The difference is D'Ambrosio might be right.
More than 4 years ago, Scene chronicled the North Royalton native's
conviction in the 1988 slaying of Tony Klann, whose nearly bloodless body
was dumped in Doan Brook near University Circle ("Unluckiest Man on Death
Row," November 22, 2001).
Another suspect pleaded guilty in exchange for ratting D'Ambrosio. But the
rat's testimony included a time and location of the slaying that were
later refuted by police evidence and a Little Italy barmaid, who claimed
she saw Klann, alive and alone, when D'Ambrosio was supposed to be killing
him. Further, the puncture wounds on the body didn't match the size of the
murder weapon pinned to D'Ambrosio.
(source: The Cleveland Scene)
*****************
High drama----Teen actors at Hartley tackle weighty issues in 'Dead Man
Walking'
The tough and gritty Dead Man Walking should pose almost as big a
challenge to the audience as to the Bishop Hartley High School students
performing it.
"The play is an emotional hurricane," said sophomore Cristin Day, 16, who
plays a reporter in the death-penalty drama. "You can't walk out of it
without feeling something."
This week, the Roman Catholic high school on the East Side will become the
1st central Ohio school to perform the play since it was made available to
high schools and colleges last year.
During the 2004-05 school year, actor and director Tim Robbins, who wrote
the screenplay, allowed only Jesuit high schools and colleges, which
emphasize social justice in Catholicism, to perform the play.
For 2005-06, all schools have been granted permission to stage the play.
The drama, based on the 1993 memoir of Sister Helen Prejean, reflects her
experiences as a spiritual adviser to death row inmate Patrick Sonnier in
1982. Sonnier, convicted of killing 2 teenagers, was executed in the
electric chair at Louisianas Angola State Prison.
The play's title refers to the phrase called out when a death row prisoner
is escorted to execution.
The Hartley cast and crew hope their production, opening Thursday, will
prompt debate and discussion on the death penalty.
"The play doesn't give an opinion," said senior Stephen Bennett, 18, who
plays fictional death row inmate Matthew Poncelet. "It really makes you
see both sides."
In the play, Poncelet, sentenced to die for the rape and murder of 2
teens, exchanges letters with Prejean, played by senior Erica Shannon.
As the execution date looms, the nun learns more about the prisoner and
the families of his victims and gets an intimate look into the death row
system.
The script for the high-school and college productions was adapted by
Robbins from his screenplay for the 1995 film. The film was directed by
Robbins and starred his partner, Susan Sarandon, who won an Oscar for her
role as the nun, and Sean Penn as the convicted killer. Dead Man Walking
was also made into an opera that has been performed in seven U.S. cities,
including Cincinnati.
Director Judith Manley said the script Hartley is using has undergone
slight changes to the language but doesn't pull punches.
"It takes us to a place we don't want to go," she said. "But we must go
there. The play forces us to face the grim realities of the execution
process. By emboding Sister Helen Prejeans spiritual call to witness for
both the victims of the crime and of the execution, our students and
audience can transform some of the guilt that diminishes all of us."
Sister Maureen Fenlon, national director of the Dead Man Walking Theatre
Project in Louisiana, said the play creates an intimacy with the
characters that the movie does not.
"It's not just the issue, but we're dealing with the human story," said
Fenlon, who is from New Orleans. "And the human story is not black and
white."
As part of the project, schools performing the play are asked to study
capital punishment in the classroom. At Hartley, students are talking
about the issue in religion class and Manley's English class. Government
teachers might also include it in their classes, Manley said.
The idea behind the project is to create a national discussion about the
death penalty, said Fenlon, who plans to watch Thursday's performance and
talk to students and staff.
"This is a life-and-death issue," she said. "The work of Sister Helen and
the work of this play is trying to create discourse on a major issue that
has not really been brought to the light of people's attention."
The theater project is part of the Death Penalty Discourse Network, an
organization dedicated to prompting discussion on capital punishment. The
network has a nationwide campaign seeking a moratorium on executions.
The issue is gaining momentum.
Last year, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops launched a campaign
calling for Congress and state legislatures to abolish the death penalty.
A Cleveland social-action group called Catholic Students for Peace and
Justice has spent the past four years raising awareness about the death
penalty. Before the 4 most recent executions at the Southern Ohio
Correctional Facility near Lucasville, the group has held prayerful
protests.
On Monday, more than 200 Catholic students who are part of the group will
stage a rally at the Statehouse to try to get lawmakers involved.
"Its somewhat hypocritical to teach someone that killing someone is wrong
when we're killing someone ourselves," said Augie Pacetti, a theology
teacher at Padua Franciscan High School in Parma, a Cleveland suburb, and
one of the co-chairmen of the Catholic Students for Peace and Justice.
According to the 2005 Capital Crimes report issued by Ohio Attorney
General Jim Petro, 20 inmates were executed in the state and 19 died in
prison during the past 25 years. Another 54 inmates originally slated for
death had their sentences vacated, reduced to life in prison or commuted
by the governor.
The Hartley students said they hope their staging of Dead Man Walking
prompts the sort of reaction that greeted a production at St. Ignatius
High School in Cleveland last year.
Social-studies teacher Tim Evans said the play, as well as a discussion
with Prejean at St. Ignatius, prompted emotional reactions and discussions
that lingered throughout the school year.
(source: The Columbus Dispatch)
