May 24 FLORIDA: Fla. Supreme Court reverses 2 death sentences The Florida Supreme Court reversed the death sentences Thursday of a deranged dishwasher from Panama City and an Ocala man, both convicted of killing their estranged wives in unrelated cases. The justices reduced the death sentence of Christopher Offord, 31, who has a history of severe mental illness, to life in prison without parole. Offord moved to Panama City in February 2004, met Dana Noser at a bar in March or April, married her four days later and killed her in July with a claw hammer. The high court unanimously found the death penalty was a disproportionate punishment in Offord's case due to his mental disabilities. "In fact, Offord's case is notable because it is one of the most documented cases of serious mental illnesses this court has reviewed," the justices wrote in an unsigned opinion. Medical records show he suffers from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and has been in and out of institutions since he was 5 or 6 years old. Offord pleaded guilty to 1st-degree murder and then a jury unanimously recommended death. Circuit Judge Dedee Costello imposed that sentence although she found he committed the murder under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance and lacked the capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct. She ruled the heinous nature of the attack - the victim suffered more than 30 hammer blows - outweighed those mitigating factors. The Supreme Court ordered a new trial for William Michael Kopsho, 53, who was convicted of armed kidnapping and 1st-degree murder. Witnesses testified he shot his 21-year-old wife, Lynne, after she jumped out of a truck along a roadside in Marion County. The justices found Circuit Judge David B. Eddy erred by refusing to dismiss a prospective juror for cause. The prospective juror said he believed Kopsho should be required to testify at his trial although defendants have a constitutional right to remain silent. The case was moved to Sumter County because of extensive publicity in Marion. (source: Associated Press) LOUISIANA: Prosecutors want death penalty in killings of 5-year-old, mother In Covington, prosecutors will seek the death penalty for a man accused of ramming his estranged wife's car off the road, then killing her and their 5-year-old son and trying to kill their daughters. "I can say with great honesty, it was a very easy decision for me," St. Tammany Parish District Attorney Walter Reed said after a state grand jury charged James C. Magee, 29, of Pearl River, in the shotgun slayings of Adrienne Magee, 28, and Ashton Magee on April 18. Ashton was shot in back as he tried to run away, Reed said. The grand jury also charged Magee with 2 counts of attempted 1st-degree murder of Ashleigh Magee, 8, and Aliesha Magee, 7. The shootings occurred in the Tall Timbers subdivision north of Mandeville, where Adrienne Magee and their children were staying, 1 day after Magee was served with a court order to stay away from them. The trial could be held in 14 to 18 months, first assistant district attorney Houston "Hammy" Gascon said. (source: KATC News) CONNECTICUT: Jurors hear police details of confession in death penalty case In his 1st written statement to Hartford police about Elizabeth Garcia, Lazale "Choc" Ashby said he didn't know the pretty, single mother who lived a few buildings down from him on Zion Street. A few hours later, Ashby was again asked about Garcia, 21, who had been found strangled to death inside her apartment on Dec. 2, 2002. Why, detectives wanted to know, if Ashby didn't even know Garcia, was his DNA found in her body? "He dropped his head down for about a minute," Sgt. Andrew Weaver testified Tuesday in Hartford Superior Court. "He replied he did it, but he didn't mean to." Ashby, 22, is on trial for kidnapping, raping, and killing Garcia. If convicted, he faces the death penalty or life in prison without release. Prosecutors John F. Fahey and Thomas R. Garcia are seeking the death penalty. Ashby is represented by public defenders David G.E. Smith and M. Fred DeCaprio of the Capital Defense Unit. The Hartford Superior Court jury Tuesday heard for the first time what police say was Ashby's confession. On Sept. 3, 2003, Ashby had been arrested in Hartford on an unrelated gun charge. However, he was wanted for much bigger crimes: Garcia's murder and the October 2002 rape of a teenager in Broadview Terrace just weeks before Garcia's killing. Weaver had met Ashby about six months before, when he served a search warrant on him. Ashby had been identified by the raped teenager as someone who could've attacked her, and police obtained a search warrant to get a sample of his DNA. Weaver said at that meeting - Ashby was taken to police headquarters where police took a saliva sample as well as his photograph and a full set of fingerprints - he tried to establish "a rapport" with him. At the time, Ashby was just 18, had essentially dropped out of school, and wasn't doing much of anything. Weaver said he asked Ashby "where he was going with his life," and tried to encourage him to go back to school or find work. It was a pleasant encounter, Weaver testified, and Ashby was cooperative and easy to talk to. Within weeks, the state police lab identified Ashby's DNA as a likely match to the sample found in the rape victim - and in Garcia. Despite that, police were unable to locate Ashby until he was picked up by police on the gun charge. In that case, police say, a witness saw Ashby and recognized his face from "wanted" posters plastered in the area. The timing of Ashby's arrest was eerie: police say just two days earlier he shot to death Nahshon Cohen, a 1998 graduate of Manchester High School and married father of 2. Weaver testified how he was at home that Saturday when he got the call from headquarters that Ashby was in custody. As the lead investigator, Weaver said, he went to the Jennings Road building to speak to Ashby. Weaver testified that Ashby didn't appear high on drugs or alcohol, and that he freely and willingly spoke to a variety of officers over a 7-hour period. In all, police say, Ashby offered written statements confessing to Garcia's killing and Cohen's murder, and a statement implicating himself in a sexual encounter with the girl who says she was raped. DeCaprio and Smith had asked Judge Carmen E. Espinosa to suppress the statements, arguing police failed to properly protect Ashby's rights, but Espinosa ruled last week the state could introduce at least some of the confessions. Tuesday, Weaver read aloud portions of Ashby's initial denial in the Garcia case, and his later confession. Regarding the denial, Ashby said, "That was a lie," Weaver read from the confession. Ashby told detectives that he was high the night he went over to Garcia's apartment, and he thought she was too. Ashby said he and Garcia argued and that she - who at 5-foot-5 weighing 120 pounds was much smaller than the 6-foot-2 Ashby - "grabbed a knife." "She was wilding and screaming," Ashby told police. Nevertheless, Ashby claimed, in the middle of the violent fight he and Garcia had consensual sex, but Garcia grabbed the knife and tried again to stab him, and "that was when I stabbed her," police said. "I can't say for sure what happened because of the dust" - the PCP - Ashby said. "I didn't want any of that to happen." Weaver said Ashby told him he left the apartment, stripped off some of his bloody clothes, went home and took a shower. After Ashby confessed, Weaver said, he asked him what was going through his mind 6 months earlier, in March 2003, when police had come to take the DNA sample from him. (source: Journal Inquirer) NORTH CAROLINA: Deliberations in death penalty case expected Fri. Jurors are expected to begin deliberating Friday on whether William James Schreiber should be executed or serve life in prison. Superior Court Judge James Hardin sent them home Thursday afternoon so both parties could work on jury instructions. Jurors found Schreiber, 35, guilty of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder Wednesday afternoon for the slaying of Teri Marie Sokoloff, 31, and her 8-month-old daughter, Skye. They were killed Sept. 19, 2005, in a town house that Sokoloff sometimes shared with Schreiber. Teri Sokoloff was stabbed 14 times. The baby was drowned in a bathtub. Schreiber was later found driving Sokoloff's car in Virginia. The jury took 7 hours to convict Schreiber, deliberating over 2 days. (source: News-Record) UTAH: Federal appeal cleared for death row inmate Death row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner can take his appeals to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell on Wednesday provided Gardner with a "certificate of appealability" that will let the long-time prisoner, who faces execution, take his appeal to the next level in the federal system. Gardner, 45, already has exhausted all his appeals in the state court system. The Utah Supreme Court turned him down in January and Campbell just recently denied his appeal on the federal level. He faces execution after being convicted of fatally shooting attorney Michael Burdell and seriously wounding a bailiff, George "Nick" Kirk, while trying to escape the Salt Lake County courthouse in 1985. Gardner's girlfriend had sneaked a gun into the courthouse and managed to slip it to him. Gardner maintains in his latest appeal that several of his constitutional rights were violated; jury instructions in his original trial were poorly worded; and he claims there were several instances in which he received ineffective assistance from his lawyers. Assistant Utah Attorney General Thomas Brunker said Campbell already had rejected these claims, but what the judge is saying in her 7-page order is that for the claims Gardner has made, there is enough of an issue present that he can make them again to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Campbell, however, is not making any comment about them. In the event Gardner loses with the 10th Circuit Court, he could try to get the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his appeal, although that happens only rarely in death penalty cases. After that, the only other course of action left to him is to try to get a commutation from the state board of pardons. But there have not been any death sentence commutations since about 1973, Brunker said. Gardner's lawyer was unavailable for comment late Wednesday. (source: Deseret Morning News) OHIO: Shamed Again - Another Botched Execution in Ohio After the botched execution of Joseph Clark in May, 2006, a thorough review of Ohio's lethal injection protocol was performed. On June 27, 2006, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Director Terry Collins wrote a letter to Governor Taft describing several "refinements" to the lethal injection protocol and stating that "Our goal is to always complete the process in a professional and dignified manner for all parties." Today, barely a year later, the State of Ohio took even longer to execute Mr. Newton than it took to execute Mr. Clark. The "medical team" spent over an hour prodding Mr. Newton's arms and legs with needles in at least 10 different locations before intravenous access was obtained. The entire procedure took nearly 2 hours, so long that Mr. Newton required a bathroom break. He was declared dead nearly 2 hours after the procedure began. Why did all of the "refinements" fail? Because lethal injection is based on medical technology and therefore requires medical expertise. IV access problems occur every day in hospitals, but there are skilled medical professionals available in hospitals to help out. In difficult patients, sometimes sophisticated IV access procedures are performed by physicians. But if physicians were to assist with an execution, they would be violating fundamental principles of medical ethics. Thus, lethal injection is inherently flawed. Performing a lethal injection without medical professionals (such as physicians) can cause torture, but performing it with physicians is unethical. Therefore, no amount of "refinement" can fix Ohio's execution technique. Today's execution was both unprofessional and undignified. Future executions are likely to be botched as well. It is time for Governor Strickland to call for a moratorium on capital punishment in Ohio. (source: Jonathan I. Groner MD) VERMONT: Death Sentence Appeal Goes to Court An appeals court in New York City next month will hear arguments on whether the 1st death sentence handed down in Vermont in nearly 50 years should stand. Oral arguments on the appeal of the death sentence for Donald Fell, convicted of capital crimes for his role in the kidnapping and beating death of Tressa "Terry" King, 53, of North Clarendon, are set for June 27 before the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City. The case is the 1st direct appeal of a federal death sentence the federal court of appeals in New York City has heard in 40 years. The court's jurisdiction is Vermont and parts of New York state. Barbara Tuttle of North Clarendon, King's sister, said Wednesday she plans to travel to New York City with several family members to attend the appeal hearing next month. They have all strongly supported the death penalty for Fell. "I want the judges to see that her family hasn't gone away," Tuttle said. "We still care about justice for my sister and we're following the case through to the end." A group opposing the death penalty in the case will also be represented at the hearing. Rachel Lawler, a founding member of Vermonters Against the Death Penalty, an organization formed nearly 2 years ago during jury selection in Fell's trial, said Wednesday she plans on attending the oral arguments. "The defense appeal that I read was very well-written and had some very strong arguments in it," she said. "I want to be able to report back to everyone in Vermont how the oral arguments went." Lawler added that she wasn't sure at this point if other members of her organization would also travel to New York City to attend the hearing. Later this week, federal prosecutors are expected to file a brief stating why they believe the death sentence should be upheld for Fell. Oral arguments had originally been set for this week before the appeals court. However, both sides have been granted extensions to file briefs in the case, pushing back the date for oral arguments to next month. The hearing before the appeals court in New York will take place almost exactly a year from when federal Judge William K. Sessions formally imposed the death sentence for Fell on June 16, 2006, in U.S. District Court in Burlington. In March, Fell's attorneys filed a more than 200-page brief to the appeals court, arguing that the death sentence for their client should be overturned. The brief lists about a dozen reasons why the death sentence should be overturned, ranging from errors in the jury selection process to the admissibility of certain testimony. Once federal prosecutors file their appeals brief in support of the death sentence later this week, Fell's attorney will have until June 21 to submit their response. Fell's case has been before the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals once before. Judge Sessions made national headlines in September 2002 when he granted a motion by Fell's attorneys to declare the federal death penalty unconstitutional in Fell's case. Prosecutors appealed and the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Session's ruling. Fell's attorneys then sought to have the U.S. Supreme Court take up the case. However, the nation's highest court refused, sending the case back to federal court in Vermont, where a trial was held. The same federal jury that convicted Fell recommended that he be put to death, and last year Sessions formally imposed the death sentence. Fell, 27, is a Pennsylvania native who moved to Rutland shortly before his crimes. He was convicted of killing King in Dover, N.Y., on Nov. 27, 2000, after he and another man abducted her as she arrived for work early in the morning at a downtown Rutland supermarket. Earlier that night, the 2 men had killed Fell's mother, Debra Fell, and her friend, Charles Conway, after a night of drinking in a Rutland apartment, according to court records. No state charges have been filed in connection with the death of Fell's mother or Conway as state prosecutors have awaited the outcome of the federal prosecution. Fell said in a statement to police following his arrest that he killed King because she could identify him and Lee. Fell added that King prayed as she was beaten to death by the two men on the side of a road in New York state. The 2 men were arrested 3 after the killing in Arkansas. Lee died in prison in September 2001, his death was ruled accidental. Vermont does not have the death penalty. However, because the crime involved the crossing of state lines from Vermont to New York, the federal government prosecuted the case and filed charges that carried the death penalty. (source: Rutland Herald)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., LA., CONN., N.C., UTAH, OHIO, VER.
Rick Halperin Thu, 24 May 2007 21:15:06 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
