[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CALIF., MD.

[Rick Halperin]

April 16


CALIFORNIA:

Death penalty upheld in teen's '85 slaying


A federal appeals court upheld the death sentence Friday of a security
guard who took two teenage girls on a tour of a deserted Hillsborough
mansion, then raped and stabbed them, tied them up and threw them down a
ravine, killing one of them.

The 3-0 ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals moves David
Raley one step closer to execution for the 1985 murder of 16-year-old
Jeanine Grinsell of San Mateo.

His lawyer, Robert Bacon, said he would ask the full appeals court for a
rehearing on the grounds that his trial lawyers should have presented
psychiatric testimony to the jury. If a new hearing is denied, his only
remaining appeal would be to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The jury that sentenced David Raley to death didn't really have a good
sense of his background, didn't know who he was or what led to the
terrible events involving these 2 young women,'' Bacon said. He noted that
the jurors at one point had sent the judge a note asking whether
psychiatric evidence was available.

But the appeals court pointed out that the jurors had heard testimony
about physical and emotional abuse by Raley's alcoholic mother, and said
his lawyers had made a "reasonable strategic decision" not to call
psychiatric witnesses, whose assessment of his mental condition was mixed
and might not have helped his case.

Raley was 25 and had no criminal record when he led Grinsell and her
friend, 17-year-old Laurie McKenna, on a tour of the 97-room Carolands
Mansion in February 1985. According to trial testimony, he then took them
to a cellar, sexually assaulted them at knifepoint, stabbed them 30 to 35
times each and locked them in the trunk of his car.

After driving home, where he watched television and played a game of
Monopoly, he drove to a ravine and threw both girls down the hillside,
with their hands tied. McKenna crawled up the hill to find help, survived
and testified against Raley, who was convicted of attempting to murder
her. Grinsell, a high school sophomore, died during surgery.

Raley confessed his guilt to police. The jury at his 1st trial deadlocked
7-5 in favor of a death sentence. A new jury voted unanimously for death
at a penalty retrial.

(source: San Francisco Chronicle)

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

State needs smart transit, not a larger death row


When Californians are asked about the most vexing problems they face, the
most frequent answers are transportation, affordable housing and
containing the cost of government. By expanding death row at San Quentin
State Prison in Marin County, the state will trample upon all of these
concerns and commit an act of zero vision and colossal waste.

Expanding at San Quentin wipes out every chance to share the site for
regional benefit while maintaining most prison uses. The lost opportunity
is immeasurable. A chance to create a transit hub serving ferry, rail, bus
and multiuse paths dies, even though the Water Transit Authority cited San
Quentin as a superior bayside ferry site because of its deepwater
shoreline. In comparison, the existing Larkspur terminal is located in a
sensitive marsh. Equally important, the North Bay's rail project
desperately needs a seamless ferry connection to be viable. The State
plans to rebuild the dilapidated Death Row and expand its capacity to 768
cells from 612 cells at a cost of $233 million. Preparation of the site
for construction is expected to start in early summer of this year.
Additionally, over the expansion's life, taxpayers will bear a
billion-dollar burden in higher operating costs and be denied a
world-class opportunity to creatively tackle the public's key issues for
the next century. How ludicrous.

No one questions the need for additional housing for the condemned, but
the state Department of Corrections is heaping unwarranted wasteful
spending upon Californians by expanding San Quentin instead of state
prisons near Folsom or Tracy. It will cost tens of millions more to expand
San Quentin because construction costs are higher in the Bay Area than in
the Central Valley. Renovating death row is also likely to continue to be
more much more costly than anticipated.

The Department of Corrections initially planned to build a 1,000-bed
facility. Recognizing that costs were already rising, the Department of
Corrections has announced that it is reducing the expansion to 768 cells
to stay within the quarter-billion-dollar construction budget. Corrections
staff members estimate 42 new death row prisoners per year - that means
the expanded facility will be full a few years after opening. To address
this, the state plans to double-bunk up to 384 prisoners, previously
unheard of on death Row.

There is another cost factor to consider: Currently San Quentin's labor
costs exceed comparable services at other prisons by $25 million every
year due to chronic staffing shortages related to the high cost of living
in the Bay Area. The result is use of overtime and more expensive contract
services. How did we land in this morass?

Like so much of what happens in California's prison system, a complete
void in critical thinking in the Department of Corrections was filled by a
political power play to benefit a few. Reporting to the Legislature, State
Auditor Elaine Howell said it was impossible to evaluate the project's
economics because Corrections didn't even consider alternative sites or
operating cost impacts.

Defense attorneys insist that their clients must be close by, in spite of
constantly advancing telecommunications. And, even though only 1 of 6
death row inmates is from the Bay Area, prisoner rights advocates say that
visitors would be inconvenienced by a move. Fear of inmate abuses that
might occur at remote locations is often mentioned by the advocates, but
Tracy and Folsom are hardly remote. According to the Department of
Corrections, officials from those communities say they want to avoid the
stigma of executions.

If, however, Corrections had done its homework, it would have found that
Marin County supports keeping the death chamber at San Quentin along with
sufficient high-security cells to house a smaller population of inmates
during their final appeals.

Imagine San Quentin as a vibrant, bayside community, reborn like the
Embarcadero of San Francisco. It would provide regional benefits - jobs,
housing, shoreline parks and community services. Most important, it would
address one of the North Bay's most key issues - transportation - by
providing an attractive and efficient hub, linking rail, bus, ferry and
bicycle and pedestrian trails. Consider the green building and model water
and energy conservation approaches that will be thwarted. To deny these
and other opportunities at San Quentin is pitifully misguided.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger frequently talks about restoring the Golden
State's shine. He has called for wide-ranging prison-system reform. He
speaks passionately about investing strategically in California's future.

Now is the time for him to show that he can deliver on his vision by
acting to stop this wasteful San Quentin debacle. He must act immediately.
A century of waste and our region's future hang in the balance.

(source: San Francisco Chronicle - Steve Kinsey represents the 4th
District of Marin County, including the San Quentin area. He is a member
of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and chaired the Bay Area's
multi-agency Committee on Smart Growth.)

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

Death penalty sought for defendants in 2004 killings


The district attorney's office is seeking the death penalty against 2 of 3
defendants accused in a series of 2004 homicides, including the killing of
a University of Redlands graduate found dead in an unincorporated area of
northwest Redlands.

Yucaipa residents Christopher Weaver, 30, and Christopher Lantiegne, 26,
face death if convicted of murdering 27-year-old UR graduate Kareem
Radwan, who was found shot to death in September 2004. Weaver and
Lantiegne are also accused of the separate shooting deaths of Scott
Fisher, 42, of San Bernardino, and Clayton McCobb, 44, of Ramona. The
killings occurred between Aug. 25 and Sept. 10, 2004.

Allegedly, there was friction between the defendants and acquaintance
Fisher, but police called Radwan and McCobb "the truest of victims."
Radwan and McCobb were strangers to the suspects, each at the wrong place
at the worst possible time, according to police. Police believe Radwan was
kidnapped from his apartment complex's parking lot. McCobb was shot to
death during morning rush hour on the side of Interstate 10 in Beaumont.

Special circumstances charges that the defendants murdered the victims
while committing robberies and carjackings opened the door for the death
penalty or life in prison without parole.

Co-defendant Camille Vredenburg, 24, of Yucaipa, is also charged in the
Radwan and McCobb killings and robberies. She is not charged in the Fisher
killing and was not charged with special circumstances. She does not face
the death penalty if convicted.

Vredenburg, Lantiegne's girlfriend, will appear in court Monday for
discussion of "some developments in the case that are important with
regards to (her)," said Judge J. Michael Welch.

Lantiegne and Weaver won't appear before a judge again until July 28
because their attorneys must now prepare for a death penalty case.

Friday's open court announcement that the prosecutors will seek the death
penalty came almost exactly 10 years after the conviction in Redlands'
last death penalty case.

On April 15, 1996, a jury convicted Keith Desmond Taylor of murdering a
33-year-old mentally handicapped woman in her Redlands home. The murder
was committed during a burglary.

That case, which was tried by District Attorney Mike Ramos before he was
elected to his current position, was particularly unusual because Taylor
acted as his own attorney.

Taylor remains on death row in San Quentin State Prison, according to
reports.

The 1986 kidnapping, robbery, rape and murder of a 21-year-old Redlands
woman is the only other Redlands death penalty case Police Department Sgt.
Dave Anady can remember.

In that case, James Gregory Marlow and Cynthia Lynn Coffman were convicted
and sentenced to death.

Their convictions and death sentences were upheld by the California State
Supreme Court in August 2004. Anady recalled that Coffman was the 1st
woman to be sent to death row following the 1977 reinstatement of capital
punishment in California.

Kinzie Noordman and Damien Guerrero, accused of the 2003 killing of
Redlands teen Kelly Bullwinkle, were eligible for the death penalty
because they had been charged with lying in wait for their friend. The
prosecution sought life without parole instead; some people cited the
defendants' ages - both were younger than 21 at the time - as the reason
capital punishment was ruled out.

Noordman was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to 45 years to life in
prison. Guerrero, who was tried by a jury that deadlocked 11-1 in favor of
convicting him, is awaiting retrial.

Redlands may yield another death penalty case this year.

Three alleged gang members accused of murder, attempted murder, robbery
and carjacking in connection with a series of April 2005 crimes on
Delaware Avenue could face the death penalty if convicted.

The prosecutor on the case has not announced what penalty the district
attorney's officer will seek.

San Bernardino County has 9 death penalty cases pending trial or other
resolution in the court system, according to officials.

(source: Redlands Daily Facts)






MARYLAND:

Steele calls for further study of death penalty----He completes 3-year
investigation and says a group should examine fairness, accuracy


After 3 years of study into Maryland's use of capital punishment, Lt. Gov.
Michael S. Steele announced yesterday that he wants another study.

He said a work group should study potential sources of flaws in the death
penalty system, an acknowledgement of broader possible flaws than those
that sparked a one-year moratorium on executions in 2002.

Although the results of Steele's inquiry came later than death penalty
critics hoped and didn't include a direct condemnation of executions, the
lieutenant governor's move is being seen by both sides of the debate as a
blow to capital punishment in Maryland.

Steele, a former seminarian who opposes capital punishment on religious
grounds, gave Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. a report of his findings Friday
in a confidential memorandum.

In a statement yesterday, Steele said he wants a broad-based group,
representing the state's legal system and advocates on both sides of the
issue, to investigate the fairness and accuracy of executions in Maryland.
He did not suggest a timeline for the study or say whether executions
should stop in the meantime.

"Whether one supports or opposes the death penalty, all reasonable people
understand that before the State exercises the ultimate sanction, we must
be confident that the system is fair and accurate," Steele said in a
statement. "This memorandum is my attempt to make sure that Marylanders
ultimately have a system they trust to be fair, accurate and just for both
the guilty and the innocent."

A spokeswoman for Ehrlich said the governor would not comment on Steele's
report until he has had time to study it.

Steele said in an interview with reporters in November that he had
conducted interviews for his study with advocates for victims' families
and with members of anti-death-penalty groups. He did not hold public
hearings. He said then that he had planned to send a memo with his
findings to Ehrlich in January.

Steele's statement yesterday noted "pressing issues that could contribute
to incorrect and unfair death sentences in Maryland - mistaken eyewitness
identifications; false confessions; negligence, misconduct and poor
training in forensic laboratories; use of jailhouse and other informants;
ineffective assistance of counsel; prosecutorial discretion and conduct;
and racial, economic and geographic disparities."

The statement did not elaborate on the potential flaws, and a spokesman
for Steele did not respond to a request for an interview with the
lieutenant governor yesterday.

Death penalty foes said yesterday that they see Steele's statement as a
key step to stopping executions in Maryland.

"It's a good thing, and he should be commended for it," said Terry
Fitzgerald, an organizer with the Baltimore Campaign to End the Death
Penalty. "It's taken 3 years, and they've killed 2 people since then, but
it's a good thing."

Ehrlich has signed two death warrants since taking office, and death
penalty foes have expressed disappointment that Steele hasn't taken a more
public stand in opposition to those executions. Steele said at the time
that he gave his counsel to the governor privately.

Fitzgerald said an important element of Steele's statement is that he is
calling for a much broader analysis of the death penalty than the one Gov.
Parris N. Glendening ordered in 2002. That study examined possible racial
and demographic disparities in how the death penalty is administered. It
concluded that blacks who kill whites are much more likely to receive the
death penalty than any other group and that criminals are more likely to
be sentenced to death in Baltimore County than anywhere else in the state.

Glendening ordered a halt to executions while the study was conducted.
When it was released in 2003, Ehrlich did not extend the moratorium. Since
then, the state has executed Steven Oken and Wesley Baker, both convicted
of murders in Baltimore County.

Michael Stark, a spokesman for the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, said
the questions Steele is asking the panel to investigate are similar to
those that led to a halt to executions - and ultimately the commutations
of all death sentences - in Illinois.

Stark said it would be difficult for Ehrlich to justify executions while
such a study took place.

"With each of these things, if you're studying them then you're
entertaining the possibility that flaws exist," Stark said. "If there is a
possibility that flaws exist, then all of them warrant a halt to
executions until there is clarity on these matters."

Steele, the likely Republican nominee for U.S. Senate this fall, has
worked in recent months to establish a public identity separate from
Ehrlich.

Fred Romano, whose sister, Dawn Garvin, was killed by Oken, said he was
upset by Steele's action. Romano said he saw nothing in his fight, more
than a decade long, to have Oken's sentence carried out that led him to
believe the system is unfair.

"It's a stall tactic is all it is," Romano said of Steele's statement.
"When you're convicted, you're not going to be put to death in the state
of Maryland for 15-20 years. If you can't prove you're innocent in 15-20
years, you're not innocent. ... They've been given every fair shake."

(source: Baltimore Sun)