May 24 INDIANA----impending execution No clemency hearing planned for killer A man facing execution next month for killing a Muncie police officer won't get a new hearing on his effort to avoid death, a state Parole Board spokesman said Wednesday. Instead, the board will pick up where it left off two years ago when a federal appeals court blocked the scheduled execution of Michael Lambert hours before the Parole Board was to vote on whether to recommend clemency, said Earl Coleman, the board's assistant. "We're trying to get all the information without having to go through it all again," he said. Michael Lambert is scheduled to be executed June 15 for the fatal shooting of Officer Gregg Winters on Dec. 28, 1990. The Parole Board's recommendation on whether the execution should proceed goes to Gov. Mitch Daniels, who decides whether to grant clemency. Telephone messages seeking comment on the Parole Board's plan were left Wednesday at the office of Lambert's attorney, Alan Freedman. Asked what the board would do if Lambert's attorneys demand a new hearing, Coleman said: "They'll have to convince us." Board members have files they can review as well as videotapes of the hearings held at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, where Lambert spoke, and the hearing in Indianapolis where Winters' widow, Molly, and other family members and friends spoke. In June 2005, Lambert asked the Parole Board to recommend clemency. Lambert said he was so drunk at the time of the shooting that he could only remember brief snippets and that he didn't know what he had done until his mother told him the next day. Lambert said he was angry at the time that his marriage was breaking up and he was seeking sole custody of his 10-month-old son, who had been placed in foster care because of neglect. He said he doesn't know why he shot Winters. "All I can come up with was that I was angry," he said. Molly Winters said Wednesday she agreed with the Parole Board's decision on handling the hearings. "If we can stop from having to go through all that again, I will be very happy," she said. Coleman said because 2 Parole Board members -- Bill Harris and Chairman Christopher Meloy -- were not on the panel at the time of the 1st clemency hearing, they might not vote when the board takes up Lambert's case on June 8. "In the event it's not unanimous, then the other 2 might vote," Coleman said. "But if they're unanimous, it won't matter what the other 2 think." The board will send letters to Lambert, his attorneys, the Muncie police chief, the Delaware County prosecutor and Winters' family asking whether they have any new information or comments they want to provide. Molly Winters said going through the full clemency process a 2nd time would be even more difficult for her children and her late husband's family. "We believe it is past time for justice to be served, and the only way they'll be able do that is by carrying through with this execution," she said. (source: Associated Press) KENTUCKY: Death row inmates sue again over lethal injection 3 inmates on Kentucky's death row are suing the state a 2nd time claiming lethal injection violates federal laws because a doctor doesn't obtain or administer the drugs. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Frankfort, the inmates claim that the federal Controlled Substances Act and the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act require a doctor to buy and prescribe sodium thiopental, a controlled substance used in lethal injections. Trained corrections staff administer drugs at executions in Kentucky. Inmates Thomas Clyde Bowling, Ralph Stevens Baze and Jeffrey DeVan Leonard also are asking for an injunction barring the state from using sodium thiopental unless a licensed doctor administers it. American Medical Association guidelines bar doctors from taking part, directly or indirectly, in executions. Kentucky requires doctors to follow the association's ethics guidelines. A federal judge dismissed a previous lawsuit by the men, saying they needed to challenge the drugs through the prison grievance system. The Kentucky Department of Corrections rejected the grievance. (source: Courier-Journal) CALIFORNIA: Rivera gets death penalty----Family: justice was served by jury, not closure The rural town of Colusa was inundated with TV and newspaper reporters, camera crews, microphones and extra security in recent weeks during the trial for murdered Merced Police Officer Stephan Gray, 34. Gray's family, the defendant's mother, attorneys on both sides, authorities and the media waited on pins and needles until Tuesday afternoon when a death sentence was finally handed down. Cuitlahuac Tahua "Tao" Rivera, an accused Merced Gangster Crips member, was 21 years old when he shot and killed Gray in April 2004. Gray was the first officer killed in the line of duty in Merced's 118-year history, and was assigned to the gang suppression unit at the time. Due to the pre-trial publicity, a change of venue was granted in the hope of selecting from a fair jury pool. The 12-person jury, along with 3 alternates, found Rivera guilty of premeditated, 1st-degree murder on Thursday, May 3. 2 out of 3 "special circumstances" were also found true by the jury: Rivera knew Gray was a police officer when he intentionally killed him with a gunshot wound that severed his spinal cord, and that Rivera shot him to avoid arrest. Rivera was eligible for capital punishment due to these special circumstances, which the prosecution pursued and obtained 5 days after the penalty phase of the trial began. Unlike most criminal cases where the judge determines a sentence after a verdict, the jury in a capital punishment trial is responsible for the verdict and sentencing. In Rivera's case, the jury deliberated over 2 options: life in prison without parole, or execution. They spent 3 days in deliberations, during which time they requested to review testimony, see photos and re-examine evidence. Rivera was escorted back from the Colusa County Jail each time, exercising his right as a defendant to be present during the proceedings. The penalty phase of the trial began May 16 with testimony from Gray's family and colleagues. It was an emotionally charged day that left most in tears. Gray's now-16-year-old daughter was a seventh grader when her father was killed. Through tears she told the courtroom, "We were as close as a father and daughter can be." Gray's widow, Michelle, also gave painful testimony. "The other half of me is not with me," she said. Michelle has not been able to return to work as a operating room nurse since her husband's murder, which is the last place she saw him. She stayed with his body for 8 hours, because, she told the court, she knew when she left she would never see him again. Gray's mother, brother and several colleagues also testified to the agonizing impact of the loss. Gray's brother is on medication and has attempted suicide. The defense called expert psychiatrist Dr. Abak Howsepian to the stand Thursday, who had worked with Rivera and interviewed his family and associates. He testified that Rivera suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and an impulse control disorder, among other findings. He explained to the court that the defendant's motivation in joining a gang was not to harm society, but for reasons of belonging, comfort and security, lacking in his home life. Rivera's mother, Erika, gave a tearful testimony, translated from Spanish, about the situation. "I don't know why this is happening to him," she said. "He knows God." While her testimony was also emotional, it did not seem to touch the jury or the court the way the prosecution's witnesses did. Howsepian's testimony also seemed to lack somewhat in credibility; the prosecution said Howsepian's information was from the defendant, who was not honest about his behavior during parole. Finally, while Gray's and Rivera's families, and others, paroused Colusa's streets with anxiety, a bell tolled, literally and figuratively, at 2:30 Tuesday afternoon. "The appropriate penalty is death," read the clerk from the jury's unanimous findings. "Closure is not really the right word for us today," Michelle told the press after the decision. "Justice would be a better way to describe us today." Defense attorney Logan McKechnie said, "(Rivera ) has known since day one that's what the jury would do. He's been waiting for three years for someone to tell him he's going to die." The California Supreme Court will soon assign council to Rivera for his automatic appeal. An appeal can take 4 to 5 years to even begin. According to the Department of Corrections, inmates spend an average of 17 years on death row before execution. The last time a capital punishment trial took place in Colusa, the circumstances were similar. Andrew Hampton Mickel killed a police officer in Tehema County, and was also granted a change of venue for the trial. He was found guilty in 2005 and sentenced to death. His appeal is currently pending. (source: Daily Democrat) *************** Jury begins deliberations in Bakersfield death penalty trial In Bakersfield, a jury began deliberating Wednesday on whether to recommend the death penalty for a former elementary school vice principal convicted last week of killing his wife, 3 children and mother-in-law. Jurors found Vincent Brothers guilty of 5 counts of 1st-degree murder and the special circumstance of committing multiple murders in the July 2003 slayings. Because he is eligible for capital punishment, the jury reconvened to hear testimony in the penalty phase of Brothers' trial. The panel also could recommend that a judge sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Brothers, 44, pleaded not guilty to the murders of his estranged wife Joanie Harper, her mother Earnestine Harper, and the couple's 3 small children, Marques, 4, Lyndsey, 2, and Marshall, 6 weeks old. Defense attorneys said he was in Ohio visiting his brother when the crimes occurred, but prosecutors said the visit was an attempt to establish an alibi and that he drove more than 2,000 miles back to Bakersfield to kill his family. (source: Associated Press) ALABAMA: Death penalty debate The death penalty. When people hear those words, it draws an immediate reaction. It is a debate that has long caused division in many communities, and it raises religious issues among many. But death penalty cases are few and far between in Pike County. "Thank goodness," said District Attorney Gary McAliley. The last time the state sought the death penalty in a capital murder case in Pike County was in 2001, McAliley said. That case involved a robbery and murder at Huckabuck Barbecue. In the Huckabuck case, McAliley said the state initially started out seeking the death penalty, but there were things in the case that lead to an agreement of a conviction of life without parole. The state is once again seeking the death penalty in the murder of 76-year-old Hoover Simmons. On Monday, officials with the Pike County Sheriff's Department and the District Attorney's office announced that Steve Debose, 41, a nephew of the victim, has been charged with capital murder. Simmons was found dead on Feb. 22 by relatives in his home on County Road 1166 in the Bon Air subdivision just outside of Troy. Simmons was badly beaten and laying in a pool of blood. According to autopsy results, Simmons had been strangled to death after being bludgeoned. Sheriff Russell Thomas said on Monday that investigators recovered DNA evidence that links Debose to the crime. Blood found on clothing in Debose's home was found to be that of Hoover, according to an analysis by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. "The state feels very confident that it has the evidence necessary to prove the capital offense, and we will ask a jury and a judge for the death sentence," McAliley said. McAliley said he has been a judge in Pike County for 27 years, and he has never had the death penalty imposed in Pike County. "I did in Coffee County," he said. "And I don't know of anybody from Pike County on death row," McAliley said. >From a religious standpoint, the issue of the death penalty becomes a little muddied. Alan McBride, pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Troy, said, "Since 1956, the Methodist Church has officially opposed the death penalty as a form of punishment, but allows that this is a difficult issue on which Christians will fall on both sides," he said. "Our church affirms that there are scriptural supports both for and against the practice." But on a personal level, McBride said, "while I regard the death penalty as a regrettable part of living in society, given careful safeguards, I do support the practice as a means of a society deterring crime and holding this practice as a just consequence to a heinous volitional sin." The Rev. Bo Weed, pastor of Southside Baptist Church in Troy, is an advocate of capital punishment. "I don't have a problem with the issue because I think our government has been ordained by God to carry out the law of the land. They are charged with punishment of evil-doers," he said. "If people don't break the law, they don't have to pay the price." But Weed said he does believe the government should carry out the death penalty in a more expeditious manner, and if it did so, it would serve as a greater deterrent to crime. As it stands now, some criminals don't realize the consequences of their actions. "There is no fear," he said. "If it were carried out in a more expeditious manner, it would have a greater effect and we wouldn't have people sitting on death row 25 or 30 years." Weed said his views may not line up with those of many Christians. "It is a horrible thing, not a desirable thing, but a necessary thing," he said. God does forgive sin, Weed said, but just because there is forgiveness does not mean that negates the consequences of sin. "I am strong supporter of police and authority, otherwise chaos reins and that doesn't do anything for anybody," he said. (source: The Troy Messenger) **************** Church leaders speak on death penalty Local church leaders weighed in on the death penalty versus life in prison while jurors were deliberating the fate of convicted murderer Richard Anthony Martin. Martin was convicted Monday in the September 2005 death of 26-year-old Joseph Scott Laney. Laney had been shot 3 times in his head with a small caliber pistol. Martin was a chronic drug user. According to testimony during the trial, Martin injected a near-lethal dose of crystal methamphetamine the night of the murder. During sentencing proceedings on Tuesday, jurors heard from Martin's mother, Angela Feltman, who asked the jury not to give her son the death penalty. Feltman told the court that she had tried several times to help her son get off of drugs. She said she checked her son into multiple treatment centers, had him arrested once and even call the governor's office, all to no avail. Pastor Bob Kurtz of St. Johns Evangelical Protestant Church said that everyone knows in their heart and in their conscience what is right and what is wrong. "Even the most hardened criminal knows what's right and what's wrong," he said. They tend to choose the wrong way, he said. Kurtz said methamphetamine and drugs color everything. "Martin lost his choice when he started methamphetamine," said Kurtz. Because Martin chose the meth, he's not a normally functioning human being any longer, said Kurtz. "In that case, I would have trouble with the death penalty," he said. The Catholic Church teaches that in very rare cases the death penalty is permissible. But those cases are almost nonexistent, according to Father Miguel, a member of the Franciscans Missionaries of the Eternal Word. "It's something that is permitted if there is no way of keeping the person from harming the community," he said. Prisons are capable of keeping people incarcerated with no chance of escape, so "today the death penalty just doesn't make any sense," said Father Miguel. Deputy Anthony Dotson said Martin is being held at the Cullman County Detention Center. "He will be here pending an opening to be transported to a state facility once hes sentenced," said Dotson. The Detention Center holds city, county state and federal prisoners. Dewey Sims and Roger Hestla have been providing prison ministry to men held at the facility for the past 2 years. Sims said he is against the death penalty but realizes Martins case is a "serious situation." Sims said he and Hestla teach bible classes every Monday night from 7 to 9 p.m. Father Miguel said, there are stories where people serving life sentences have conversions. "The Church is always seeking the salvation of souls including those that have murdered because God always seeks the conversion of a sinner not the death of the sinner," said Father Miguel. Jurors recommended to Circuit Judge H. Frank Brunner that Martin be given a sentence of life in prison without parole. Brunner can accept that recommendation or change it. Sentencing will be in late June. (source: Cullman Times) NEW MEXICO: Jury selection about halfway finished in death penalty case-----Evidence slated to be introduced Tuesday Jury selection is roughly half-finished for the death penalty case of a Portales man accused of killing an elderly Portales couple. Bedford, 43, of Portales is charged with 2 counts each of 1st-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and evidence tampering, and 1 count of possession of stolen property. So far, 9th District Attorney Matt Chandler said, 100 potential jurors have been questioned individually. Of those, 32 have been placed on a panel. Of those knocked out, Bedford attorney Gary Mitchell said, some couldn't be there for 6 weeks due to family and work obligations, some would give the death penalty in numerous circumstances and some would never give the death penalty for any reason. "Under our present law, they do not qualify," Mitchell said. "You want a juror that would consider both sides and be fair to both sides." About 100 more will be questioned in efforts to make a 60-person panel. >From those jurors, each side will have the opportunity to challenge specific jurors. Mitchell of Ruidoso, will have 24 challenges while the state will receive 16. "There are some who qualify (as jurors), and you (still) don't think you'd get a fair trial from them, Mitchell said. "It's all in trying to get to the fairest possible jurors you can get." Mitchell said there may be some jurors neither side would want. He likened it to a basketball game where the referee's daughter is playing. The daughter doesn't want her father refereeing because she thinks he'll be harder on her, Mitchelle said, and her opponents think he'll be easier on his daughter's team. 12 jurors and as many as 4 alternates are needed. The trial was moved to Albuquerque after Chandler and defense attorney Gary Mitchell of Ruidoso agreed on the difficulty of finding an impartial jury in Roosevelt County. Chandler said even in Albuquerque, the court is finding many people who have heard of the case through a television or newspaper account. He realized the death-penalty case is high-profile, and basic knowledge was acceptable. "As long as they have not drawn a conclusion or an opinion about the case," Chandler said, "then they're jurors we continue to question." Judge Stephen Quinn of the 9th Judicial District is presiding over the trial. The bodies of Odis Newman, 70, and his wife, Doris Newman, 69, were found March 3, 2005. According to court documents, the Newmans were alive when they were put into the trunk before the car was set on fire. Jerry Fuller of Portales, a co-defendant in the case, pleaded guilty Jan. 17 and was sentenced to 127 years in prison. (source: Portales News-Tribune) PENNSYLVANIA: DA seeks death penalty in gang-related shooting of Bethlehem teen An 18-year-old Bethlehem man who, police have said, admitted he was following gang orders when he shot and killed a 15-year-old city boy in what has turned out to be an apparent case of mistaken identity could face the death penalty. Northampton County District Attorney John M. Morganelli today filed notice he will seek a 1st-degree murder conviction and the death penalty against Paul Serrano III, a native of the city's South Side. Serrano, police said, opened fire from a .25-caliber handgun Dec. 18 when Kevin Muzila opened the door at the 54 W. Union Blvd. home he shared with his family. Police arrested Serrano in March. According to court records, he told police he was sorry for having killed Muzila and gave 2 versions of what happened the night he killed the well-liked Northeast Middle School student. Initially, police said, Serrano claimed his target was a gang member who had jumped him in September. Later, he said a member of the Crips gang had instructed him to kill a man over a drug sale dispute. Serrano said he wasn't looking when the door opened and began firing into the foyer until his gun was empty. One shot hit Muzila in the chest. To seek the death penalty in Pennsylvania, a prosecutor must prove that at least one "aggravating circumstance" existed at the time of a killing. The law spells out many such circumstances, including the 2 Morganelli is claiming apply in the Serrano case. However, the question of whether a person should be put to death is not put into play unless a jury, or in a nonjury case, a judge, first convicts the person of 1st-degree murder. If that happens, a sentencing hearing is convened. Defense attorneys are given the opportunity to present mitigating factors. If a jury or judge determines that at least one mitigating factor outweighs any aggravating circumstance, the death penalty cannot be imposed. The last time a Northampton County jury deliberated on the death penalty was in 2002, after convicting Ramon Luis Benitez of first-degree murder in the 2001 shooting death of Tyrone Gattis in Bethlehem. The panel was unable to reach a unanimous decision, and Benitez was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. (source: The Morning Call)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----IND., KY., CALIF., ALA., N. MEX., PENN.
Rick Halperin Thu, 24 May 2007 13:43:38 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
