April 22 FLORIDA: XBox murder trial will begin July 5 In Daytona Beach, jury selection in the trial of 3 men accused of killing 6 people because of a video game system will begin July 5 in St. Augustine, a judge announced Friday. Circuit Judge William A. Parsons, who earlier this month moved the trial from Volusia County to St. Johns County, said the 6-week trial could require interviewing nearly 1,000 potential jurors. Prosecutors and defense attorneys had agreed that intense media coverage of the case would make it difficult to find an impartial jury in Volusia County. Potential jurors were less likely to be tainted by pretrial publicity because the St. Augustine region is in a different television and newspaper market, Parsons said. "At the (St. Johns County) courthouse, they asked me, 'Where is Deltona?'" Parsons said. Jerone Hunter, 19, Troy Victorino, 29, and Michael Salas, 20, all face six counts of 1st-degree murder, 5 counts of mutilating a dead human body and 3 other felonies. Prosecutors allege Victorino organized the baseball bat attack in 2004 to retrieve an Xbox video game system that he lost. The men face the death penalty if convicted. A 4th man, Robert Cannon, 19, faced the same charges as the others and he pleaded guilty in October to all of them. He will get a life sentence instead of the death penalty in exchange for his testimony. Erin Belanger, 22; Francisco Ayo-Roman, 30; Anthony Vega, 34; Roberto Gonzalez, 28; Michelle Nathan, 19, and Jonathan Gleason, 17, were all killed in the attacks. The victims, some of whom were sleeping, did not put up a fight or try to escape, investigators said. All were stabbed, but autopsies determined they died of the beating. (sources: Orlando Sentinel & Associated Press) ************************ House passes bill to end time limit on DNA tests for inmates Inmates who believe DNA can prove their innocence would no longer face a deadline for pursuing the issue under a measure passed Friday by the House. When lawmakers 4 years ago gave prisoners the right to seek DNA tests to try to prove their innocence they put a time limit on the measure. The deadline came in October, but was extended to this coming July by the state Supreme Court. The measure, which passed 113-1, removes the time limit and allows anyone convicted of a felony and sentenced in the past, or in the future, to petition for DNA testing. Starting July 1, the bill, if passed, will also allow prisoners who plead guilty or no contest to crimes to seek to have their plea thrown out if new DNA evidence that they didn't have access to before they entered their plea arises. "Justice should have no deadline," said Rep. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa. "It's never too late to do the right thing," added Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach. Earlier in the week, 2 men who were exonerated by DNA evidence after spending years in prison visited the House to watch debate on the bill. Alan Crotzer of St. Petersburg, was set free earlier this year after spending more than 24 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit. Wilton Dedge received $2 million from lawmakers last year to compensate for doing 22 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit. Both men were in the chamber when the House took the bill up Thursday, although they weren't there for the vote on Friday. The only dissenting vote in the House came from Rep. Bruce Kyle, R-Fort Myers, who said he was standing up for victims of crime. He said the measure could allow prisoners to seek to be freed or get lighter sentences years after a crime when prosecutors may no longer be able to strongly refute the prisoner's claims. The measure also requires DNA evidence from crimes to be kept as long as the person's sentence. The bill (HB 61), sponsored by Rep. John Quinones, R-Kissimmee and Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, now goes to the Senate where a similar measure is still in the committee process. (source: Associated Press) VIRGINIA: Jury poised to get 9/11 death penalty case THE US government admitted there was no proof to back Zacarias Moussaoui's dramatic courtroom confession that he was to have been a key player in the September 11 attacks. Prosecutors meanwhile presented the final evidence in the trial, laced with emotion since it opened on March 6, in a bid to debunk defense claims the Al-Qaeda plotter is a paranoid schizophrenic so he should not be put to death. Judge Leonie Brinkema told jurors they will be sent out to start deliberating on Monday on the fate of Moussaoui, the only man tried in the United States in connection with the 2001 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. As the trial drew to a close, defense lawyers dipped into the pain left by the world's deadliest terror strikes, in a bid to blunt harrowing testimony from other grief-stricken relatives who testified for the prosecution. The most startling revelation on Thursday came as defense lawyers tried to undercut Moussaoui`s claim that he and British shoebomber Richard Reid were to have hit the White House with a fifth hijacked jet in the 2001 attacks. Information on Reid was contained in a stipulation agreed between defense and prosecution lawyers and read out in court by defense lawyer Alan Yamamoto. "To date, there is no information available to indicate that Richard Reid had pre-knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, or was instructed by the Al-Qaeda leadership to conduct an operation in coordination with Moussaoui," the document said. The statement said that while the 19 September 11 hijackers were in the United States before the attacks, Reid was travelling between Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Netherlands, Israel and Turkey. "It is highly unlikely that Reid was part of this operation," the declaration said, attributing the comment to two unnamed FBI analysts. (source: GG2.net News) NORTH CAROLINA: Execution didn't need extra drugs----Lawyers argued inmate could awaken, suffer pain during process Willie Brown Jr. was executed early Friday for the 1983 killing of a woman during a convenience store robbery in Martin County. He was pronounced dead at 2:11 a.m., said Keith Acree, a spokesman for the state Department of Correction. Before he died, Brown looked at his sister and appeared to mouth "I love you." The execution came after Gov. Mike Easley rejected Brown's clemency request Thursday evening and the U.S. Supreme Court and a 3-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., also ruled against him. Brown, 61, was sentenced to death for the slaying of Vallerie Ann Roberson Dixon. He was sentenced in 1983 in Martin County Superior Court and received an additional 40-year sentence for armed robbery. Brown's attorneys had argued that the death penalty is unnecessarily cruel because Brown might remain conscious and suffer pain while being put to death by injection. Before the Supreme Court, they had argued that he was poorly represented by his trial lawyer and that the judge gave erroneous instructions to the jury. At one point, his attorneys convinced a federal judge to order the state to change its procedures to ensure that condemned inmates stayed asleep during their executions. U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard said he would stop Brown's execution without such an assurance. But, he allowed the state to proceed after it agreed to bring in a brain wave monitor to measure Brown's level of consciousness and have medical personnel ready to sedate him again if necessary. A 3-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Howard's decision in a split ruling Thursday. Judge Blane Michael dissented, saying the state failed to prove that the monitor by itself would be a reliable gauge of Brown's level of consciousness. Given the dissent, Brown's lawyer, Don Cowan, filed a motion asking the full court to consider the appeal. The full appeals court denied the request. After the execution, Acree said Brown did not need any additional sedatives before the lethal drugs were administered, but Cowan said he doesn't "think we'll ever know if Judge Howard's concerns were met tonight." At Central Prison, about 40 people protested and 8 were arrested on trespassing charges. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., VA., N.C.
Rick Halperin Sat, 22 Apr 2006 11:17:37 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
