[Deathpenalty] death penalty news------S.C., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

June 25



SOUTH CAROLINA:

Death penalty cases pending against women in South Carolina


Jennifer Annette Holloway probably did not expect to spend her birthday
fighting for her life.

The Tennessee woman, who turned 29 on Sunday, faces the death penalty for
the kidnapping and murder of a South Carolina businessman. She was
convicted Friday.

According to prosecutors, Holloway and her common-law husband, David
Wendell Edens, lured the 71-year-old victim from his Upstate home on Sept.
14, 2004, on the premise they wanted to buy a vehicle he was selling.

The body of Sara Lee executive Jim Cockman was found nine days later in a
freezer in a Sevierville, Tenn., storage unit rented by the couple. His
head was wrapped with tape.

Prosecutor Bob Ariail told jurors last week that the evidence would leave
no doubt on their minds of the couple's collective guilt.

"Jim Cockman looked like a human silver Q-tip, and he suffocated," Ariail
said. "They knew when they wrapped his head with duct tape that he was
going to suffocate."

It's been nearly 60 years since South Carolina executed a woman, but
prosecutors are now seeking the ultimate punishment against Holloway. In
another case, a judge will decide whether 73-year-old Rita Bixby will be
eligible for the death penalty, even though she wasn't at home when two
law enforcement officers were shot there in 2003.

There are no women currently on South Carolina's death row.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, only 1 woman has been
condemned to die by the state. Rebecca Smith was convicted of killing her
husband, and her sentence was reversed by the state Supreme Court in 1992.
A second jury sentenced her to life in prison.

North Carolina has executed one woman since 1976; Velma Barfield died by
lethal injection in 1984 for killing her boyfriend. Sixteen women have
been sentenced to die in North Carolina since 1973, and four women are on
North Carolina's death row.

Among the states, California has the most women on death row with 14
followed by Texas with 10.

Nationally, women account for about 10 percent of murder arrests but for
only about 2.1 percent of people sentenced to die and 1.4 percent of
people currently on death row, according to a study by Ohio Northern
University law professor Victor L. Streib.

Death penalty cases frequently receive heightened media attention, and
that's especially true when the person to be executed is a woman,
according to Dianne Clements, spokeswoman for Houston-based Justice For
All, which assists the families of victims in death penalty cases.

The executions of men "in no way compare" to the attention surrounding
women's executions, Clements said. Since 1976, three women have been
executed in Texas, home to more than a third of the nation's 1,000-plus
executions carried out since reinstatement.

Clements was involved in the 1998 execution of Karla Faye Tucker, who was
convicted of two murders. The media attention was unprecedented, said
Clements, who estimated that more than 50 satellite TV trucks were staked
out near the Texas death house.

"It was an unbelievable episode. You would never anticipate or expect
that," Clements said.

One capital punishment opponent says many prosecutors and jurors don't
want to consider executing a woman, regardless of the crime.

"It's unbecoming to kill a woman," said Abe Bonowitz, director of Citizens
Against the Death Penalty. "And I think people are going to see it in
different ways, depending on how you approach the whole gender thing."

The prosecutor in the Bixby case said he doesn't act differently when
trying female or male defendants.

"From my perspective, gender makes absolutely no difference in the
situation of the crime," said Jerry Peace, solicitor for Abbeville County.
"You look at the crime, you look at the circumstances, you look at the
defendant's record ... and their impact on society, and you say, 'Should
this case be a death penalty case?'"

Peace said jurors theoretically should have the same mind-set, although
there is no guarantee. "You would hope that that (gender) is not a
consideration," he said. "You would hope ... they would look the
circumstances of the crime, and those would be the considerations."

Many prosecutors make their decision to seek the death penalty based on
whether they can win the case, Streib said.

"Almost all prosecutors think about their odds of winning the death
penalty case," he said. "And if the defendant is a woman, then the odds
are much less."

Streib said defense lawyers go to great lengths to make sure jurors will
be sympathetic to their female clients.

"Attorneys generally will try to package the female client in the image of
being very feminine, in the old-fashioned, traditional way, as a mother or
a grandmother," Streib said. "And the prosecutor has to dehumanize the
defendant before they will sentence them to death."

Columbia attorney Dick Harpootlian has been on both sides of death penalty
cases.

"Death penalty cases are legal minefields," said Harpootlian, a former
prosecutor. "And if you cover that with a patina of a very sympathetic
defendant, it becomes even more difficult."

(source: Associated Press)






OHIO:

Unruly Juror Jailed for Lying


A potential juror went to great lengths to get out of jury duty and ended
up in jail!

A Columbus judge sent Benjamin Ratliffe to jail for the night when he
claimed to be a heroin addict and a murderer, just to be removed from the
jury pool. The case involved the death penalty, which according to his
lawyer, Ratliffe is against.

Ratliffe was charged with contempt of court and obstruction of justice but
those charges have since been dropped. Ratliffe got what he wanted and is
he out of the jury pool.

(source: Ohio News Now)