Oct. 21
KENTUCKY----new death sentence Judge sentences killer to death in slayings of Adair family The Lexington man convicted of murdering 3 members of an Adair County family was sentenced to death Friday. William Harry Meece, 33, received 3 death sentences, and 40 years in prison on robbery and burglary charges. Circuit Judge James G. Weddle imposed the sentence, which followed the jury's recommendation. A jury convicted Meece last month in the murders of veterinarian Joseph Wellnitz, his wife, Beth, and their son, Dennis. The 3 were gunned down at their farmhouse outside Columbia in February 1993. The couple's daughter, Margaret "Meg" Wellnitz Appleton, pleaded guilty to plotting the crime with Meece and is serving a sentence of life without parole for at least 25 years. The 2 had met while attending what was then Lexington Community College in the early 1990s. Money was the motive for the crime. Appleton received a sizeable inheritance, and Meece told authorities in one statement he was to have gotten a share of the money. Meece, however, said his statement -- in which he also admitted guilt -- was false. He made it up to get a new attorney, he said, and testified at his trial that he had nothing to do with the murders. Jurors rejected his claim in short order. The 13-year gap between the murders and Meece's trial occurred because police did not receive enough information to arrest Meece and Appleton until 10 years after the crime. (source: Kentucky.com) ********************* Meece Receives Death Penalty A Lexington man has been sentenced to death in a 13-year-old triple slaying. William Henry Meece was found guilty last month in the 1993 deaths of Adair County veterinarian Joseph Wellnitz, his wife Beth and son Dennis. He was also found guilty on charges of burglary in the 1st degree and robbery in the 1st degree. After a 4 week trial, jurors deliberated less than 2 hours before delivering a guilty verdict and three more. Before recommending a death sentence. Meeces final sentencing was this morning in Warren Circuit Court. He made a statement but showed little remorse for the killings. He becomes the 37th inmate on Kentuckys death row. (source: WBKO News) ******************** Ky. Supreme Court upholds Pike death penalty case The death sentence for a Pike County man who was convicted of being part of a murder-for-hire scheme in 1972 was upheld yesterday by the Kentucky Supreme Court. William Eugene Thompson, who was convicted of the 1971 murder of Gladys Deskins, appealed his conviction in 2003 to the Pike County Circuit Court after learning that a key witness against him had received immunity for his testimony. Despite that finding, Circuit Court Judge Eddy Coleman denied Thompson's motion asking that his conviction be overturned. Years earlier, Thompson had been subcontracted to murder Deskins by Willard Woody Christian. Deskins' estranged husband, Boone, who was frustrated by a lengthy divorce process, had offered Christian $7,000 to kill his wife; however, apparently too squeamish to commit the murder himself, Christian subcontracted the job to Thompson and Robert Sykes, according to court documents. During Thompson's trial, Christian testified that on July 12, 1971, he went to the Deskins' home with Thompson and Sykes and was waiting outside when the men went into the home and murdered Gladys Deskins. Christian said he heard a gun shot and Thompson joined him outside shortly after, shotgun in hand. The trio then buried the shotgun, threw away Thompson's shoes and split the money. Deskins was later found with a gunshot wound to the head and several stab wounds. Boone Deskins, Skyes and Thompson were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Although a pivotal player in the murder plot, Christian was never tried, according to court documents. After coming into office, Coleman noted the backlog of cases- which between 1995 and 2002 took an average of nearly 30 months to get through the court system- and made it a priority to resolve the cases as quickly as possible. An indictment against Christian lay dormant for about 27 years before Coleman set a status hearing in the case. Christian's attorney filed a motion to dismiss, claiming the court had violated his right to a speedy trial. But the motion was overruled and the case was set for trial, according to court documents. In September 1999, Christian claimed he could not be prosecuted because he was offered a plea agreement by the 1971 Commonwealth's Attorney, John Paul Runyon. The trial court ultimately determined that Christian must have been given immunity for his testimony and told by the Commonwealth to deny the existence if asked about it at trial. Therefore he was never tried. After learning of Christian's deal, Thompson asked the circuit court to overturn his conviction claiming that the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence and condoned perjury. The court denied Thompson's claims, finding that he "failed to prove that the use of this information to impeach Christian would have resulted in a different outcome in his trial." Thompson then appealed to the supreme court asking for relief. While the supreme court found that he had missed the deadline for relief, they did believe that his claims were worth consideration. "The fact that such evidence was not disclosed or reasonably discovered for such an extended period of time enhances the extraordinary nature of Appellant's claims and warrants a closer look," the judges state in their opinion. The supreme court found that insufficient evidence exists to infer any perjury actually occurred at trial; that significant evidence exists to corroborated Christian's story, therefore, the outcome of his trial did not hinge on that testimony, and upheld the circuit court's ruling. Thompson, who was also convicted of a prison guard's murder, is currently awaiting his sentence on death row. (source: Appalachian News-Express) ***************** Convicted murderer spared the death penalty A man convicted of murdering a Lexington music store employee was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years. A jury had recommended the death penalty. The sentence was imposed after an unusual legal move that included lawyers withdrawing a request for a new trial for Taquan Neblett, who waived his right to appeal. Fayette County Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Larson asked Judge Gary Payne to set aside the jury verdict and grant a new trial so he could seek the death penalty again. Payne refused but will allow Larson to submit a legal brief in support of his motion. "The whole thing baffles me," Larson told the Lexington Herald-Leader. "The only people who came out of this event suffering any significant punishment were the victims, the survivors of the homicide of Derek Elam and the juror," Gayla Webb. Webb was at the center of Neblett's motion for a new trial. Payne found her in contempt of court for failing to disclose during the trial that she had knowledge of Neblett's prior murder conviction at age 16. Payne fined Webb $250 and ordered her to perform 60 hours of community service. In August, a jury found that Neblett robbed Sami's Music store in Lexington in July 2004, murdered Elam, 22, by shooting him in the back of the head and shot store owner Sami Hajibrahim. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA----impending execution Grim memories haunt campus as execution looms The terror started late on a Sunday afternoon in August 1990, just before the fall semester began. A police officer, summoned by worried parents, discovered the 1st 2 bodies in an apartment near the University of Florida campus. Freshmen roommates Sonja Larson, 18, and Christina Powell, 17, were fatally stabbed and sliced up with a razor-sharp hunting knife. Just after midnight, before the news of the gruesome killings had a chance to take hold, Christa Hoyt, 18, a Santa Fe Community College student and sheriff's office employee, was found mutilated in her apartment, her severed head placed on a shelf. The next morning, UF students Tracy Paules and Manuel Taboada, both 23, were found slaughtered in the apartment they shared nearby, plunging the laid-back college town into a full-fledged panic. Students fled, neighbors huddled together for protection, residents armed themselves. Innocence was lost. Many lives were changed forever. The manufacturer of this nightmare was a drawling police officer's son and career criminal from Shreveport, Louisiana, named Danny Harold Rolling. After a dozen years on death row, the now 52-year-old Rolling is preparing to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Florida State Prison in Starke. Criminal ambitions Thousands of UF students have come and gone since Rolling arrived on a Greyhound bus, pitched a tent in the woods near campus and set out to become, as he would say later, a "superstar" among criminals. But those students and residents who lived through the worst chapter in the city's history locked away indelible memories that are surfacing again as the execution date nears. "We didn't know the magnitude of it until we were in the middle of it. To wake up each morning to news that another young person was found dead was terrifying," recalled Larry Reimer, a minister whose United Church of Gainesville offered shelter to frightened college students. As the body count rose, Gainesville Police Chief Wayland Clifton called for help from the FBI, the Florida Highway Patrol and other agencies. By midweek, heavily armed officers were ubiquitous on the streets, and helicopters with searchlights a nightly reminder that a serial killer was still on the loose. UF President John Lombardi canceled classes for the week, and the world's media descended on Gainesville to cover the story. College town in fear "What was interesting was how quiet the student areas got," said Ronald Dupont Jr., who was attending UF and working as a night police reporter at The Gainesville Sun. "A lot of people left town, and a lot of people were holed in their homes genuinely afraid. It turned the town from a happy-go-lucky college town into almost like a wake." Steve Spurrier was preparing for the 1st game of what would be a storied football coaching career at his alma mater when the murders shook campus. "It was a terrible time in Gainesville," said Spurrier, now head coach at the University of South Carolina. "We actually allowed a lot of our older players to stay where their girlfriends were because of it. Maybe football helped (the healing), but it was certainly one of the worst tragedies that ever happened in Gainesville." The focus of the task force first fell on a UF student who was unfortunate enough to go off his psychotropic medication and begin acting strangely around town after the slayings. He was eventually cleared. Meanwhile, Rolling robbed a bank and stole a car before leaving Gainesville the day after the last bodies were discovered. Belongings he left at the campsite in the woods would eventually link him to the slayings. Rolling's name first came to the attention of investigators because he was suspect in the similar mutilation slayings of 3 people back in Shreveport (he later confessed, but was never prosecuted). But it would be December 1990 before they would find him sitting in the Marion County jail a half hour south of Gainesville, awaiting trial for robbing a grocery store there. DNA confirmed he was the killer. Guilty plea Rolling pleaded guilty as trial began on February 15, 1994. In the penalty phase, jurors rejected arguments that he should be spared because of an abusive father, unhappy childhood and history of drug use and mental illness. Judge Stan R. Morris sentenced him to die. Dianna Hoyt, Christa Hoyt's stepmother, said Rolling's execution has been eagerly awaited by the victims' families. Some will be inside the prison to witness it. "What he did was so horrendous, how he tortured our children," Hoyt said. "I think this man can still find enjoyment from that. I just need his mind put to sleep. I don't need him thinking about it anymore." Sadie Darnell, who was the police department's media spokeswoman at the time and developed enduring friendships with the victims' families, said Rolling's execution still matters, even if it also provides him more of the notoriety he sought. "It does not symbolize closure for any of the family members. Retribution, though, is important because it represents that our society is holding that person accountable," said Darnell, now a candidate for Alachua County sheriff. Today's UF students may know the names of the victims because they're painted on a panel on the edge of campus, a memorial that fraternities took responsibility for preserving. Besides being part of the university's history, said Christopher Bucciarelli, president of the UF Interfraternity Council, it's a reminder -- "for everyone to be careful and to be safe." (source: Associated Press) OHIO: LaTourette to head for site of execution ---- Lundgren's death on hold, but could still happen Tuesday if ruling comes in lawsuit The congressman who spent 2 years of his life prosecuting convicted cult killer Jeffrey Lundgren will start his six-hour drive to the site of Lundgren's execution Monday afternoon - even as the execution remains on hold. U.S. Rep. Steven C. LaTourette, R-Concord Township, announced plans Friday to begin his trek to Lucasville while waiting for a decision that could ultimately cancel the lethal injection originally scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday. Lundgren, 56, was allowed to join a class-action lawsuit in the 6th District Court of Appeals earlier this week that delayed his execution. The lawsuit, filed by 5 other inmates, argues that lethal injection is a form of cruel and unusual punishment - a form Lundgren said could be even more painful because he is overweight and diabetic. LaTourette, who quickly slammed the delay as "ludicrous," said he heard Friday that the court expects to issue its ruling Monday and that a similar case decided by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ended in an execution proceeding as scheduled. So after a scheduled tour of the control tower at Cleveland Hopkins Airport, LaTourette said he will be "getting in the car, starting to drive, and if it's not going forward, I'll stop at a rest area, buy a Coke and turn around. "It is important that I be there. The case took 2 years of my life, took 2 years of the lives of the people who worked for me, and it certainly took more than that for the Avery family." State Attorney General Jim Petro has also asked the court to overrule the delay. Lundgren was convicted of killing five members of the Avery family in 1989, including 3 children, as they stood in a pit dug inside his barn in Kirtland. LaTourette, who is running for reelection Nov. 7, said members of the Avery family asked to meet with him before they witness the execution together. "We've been advised to be at the prison at 8 a.m. in the morning of the 24th," he said. "I owe them that, and I'm going to do it." (source: The News-Herald) WISCONSIN: Bible invoked by both sides at forum on death penalty The Bible is being held up by people on both sides of the death penalty argument. At a panel discussion Thursday night at Edgewood College about a statewide advisory referendum on restoring the death penalty, the Rev. Mike Mayhak of Faith Baptist Church in Madison repeatedly used biblical quotations in support of its use. From the book of Genesis: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." From Exodus: "He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death." And from Romans: "The wages of sin is death." But Bishop Robert Morlino of the Diocese of Madison said he relies on the interpretation of Scripture by the pope. "I am convinced it's never a good thing to kill someone when it's not necessary," Morlino told the audience of about 200. "If we do, it contributes to the cycle of violence. I can't see where killing people ... helps protect society." The referendum question, which will be on the Nov. 7 ballot, asks if the death penalty should be an option in murder cases that are backed by DNA evidence. Wisconsin has not had the death penalty for 153 years and is one of only 12 states that do not have it. 6 people were on the Edgewood panel Thursday night, 3 on each side. Keith Findley, who co-directs the Wisconsin Innocence Project, said "killing is simply wrong" as well as being bad public policy because it is discriminatory, arbitrary and costly. But Daniel Suhr, a conservative activist and Marquette University Law School student, said the issue involves the "retributive nature of justice." "When you make the decision to take someone's life, you forfeit your own life," Suhr said. "When you kill someone, you incur a debt to society. You don't pay back a $10 loan with $5." Those opposing the death penalty argued that life imprisonment was an appropriate alternative that avoided the chance of executing an innocent person. But Marquette University Professor John McAdams countered that life without parole is not something the state can guarantee. Convicts can escape or be pardoned, he said, and they can kill other people in prison. In the early 1990s, the governor of Ohio released women from prison because the people they killed had battered them, McAdams said. He added that numerous other reasons are argued for murder - "urban psychosis, black rage, gay panic." Such doctrines could lead to the release of murderers, he contended. Panelists also disagreed on whether the death penalty is a deterrent. Findley said states such as Texas with the death penalty often have high murder rates, while Wisconsin has a relatively low rate. McAdams responded that Texas and Wisconsin have radically different cultures and histories. "Wisconsin is radically different," countered Barbara Sella, associate director for education and social concerns at the Wisconsin Catholic Conference. "There is no great demand for the death penalty here." "As long as there is a substantial probability that the death penalty deters, we have a responsibility to use it," McAdams insisted. "It is the responsibility of the state to exercise God's justice in the world," added Suhr. But Morlino said, "I am very concerned about the motive of revenge. I would much rather that the Lord do vengeance instead of the government. I don't think we can credibly fight violence if we are contributing to it. ... Prudence moves to us to choose mercy." (source: The Capital Times) OREGON: Death Row inmate not tied to Oregon murders In July, media reports regarding San Quentin death row inmate William Richard Bradford resulted in a research of the Oregon State Police Homicide Tracking System database to determine if there were any crimes that may be linked to him in Oregon between 1977 and 1984. The research initially identified 5 possible Oregon cases, but more detailed review eliminated four of the five cases from consideration. The remaining case, a 1980 death investigation conducted by Oregon State Police, led to a review of all reports, available evidence, and some forensic latent print work during the last couple months. As a result of this review, Oregon State Police Criminal Investigations Division could not find any evidence or information that positively linked convicted murderer Bradford to this specific case. No detailed information regarding the case will be released. The Oregon State Police HITS database was established in 1991. It is a cooperative project between law enforcement in Oregon and Washington; a violent crimes investigation system that serves as a support to the field investigators involved in major crimes. The HITS unit enters data from homicides throughout Oregon, stranger to victim sex assaults and violent crimes into the databases. This information is used to compare information to other crimes with similar methods of operations, to link crimes, or to identify unknown assailants. The Oregon State Police HITS unit does not release any information regarding cases other than to the originating agency, coordinating communication between police agencies if the originating agency believes there is sufficient similarities to further investigate a suspect related to their case. Oregon Revised Statute 181.580 requires any criminal justice agency within the State of Oregon to provide information relating to any suspected criminal homicide (solved or unsolved) to the HITS unit. (source: KTVZ News) VIRGINIA: Anti-execution activists to speak during a 17-day statewide tour Bud Welch, a former Oklahoma gas station manager, and Terri Steinberg, a Fairfax surgical technician, never used to think much about the death penalty. Now they can't stop talking about ending it. Welch, who lost a daughter in the Oklahoma City bombing, and Steinberg, who has a son on Virginia's death row, are part of Journey of Hope, a group of anti-execution activists on a 17-day statewide speaking tour. The tour will swing through Hampton Roads from Sunday through Tuesday, with about two dozen engagements at schools and churches. Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty is coordinating the events. Virginia has executed 97 prisoners since 1982, and Journey activists are pushing for a moratorium by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine that would stop execution of the 19 Virginians on death row. Kevin Hall, Kaine's spokesman, said this week that the governor "does not see a need to impose a moratorium." There have been three executions under Kaine, who has said he will uphold the state's capital punishment laws even though he personally is opposed to the death penalty as a Catholic. Like many in Journey of Hope, Welch and Steinberg each fit one of two life-changing categories: people who have had loved ones killed, and people with loved ones now or formerly on death row. Welch's transforming nightmare began when his 23-year-old daughter, Julie Marie, was one of 168 people killed in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. At the time, Welch wanted death for the bombers, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, who were right-wing extremists. "I was so angered and bitter, I would close my Texaco station at night, and the first thing I'd do is make a drink," he said. But after 10 months, Welch realized his thirst for vengeance violated both Julie's opposition to the death penalty and his own as a Catholic. "She'd demonstrated 2 different times at the governor's mansion on evenings there were going to be executions" in Oklahoma, he said. Welch, 67, said his parents and grandparents had cited their Catholic faith in also opposing capital punishment. "I really realized the day we might take Terry Nichols or Timothy McVeigh from their cage and kill them would be revenge-hate, and hate was the reason Julie and the others were killed," Welch said. McVeigh was executed in 2001. Nichols was imprisoned for life. Steinberg, 46, is desperately hoping she won't have to bury her son, Justin Wolfe, who entered death row in 2003 after being convicted in Prince William County of hiring someone to commit murder. To Steinberg, execution is murder. "They'll be killing my son, which would make me a murder victim's family member," Steinberg said. According to the attorney general's office, a date for Wolfe's execution has not been scheduled, pending the outcome of his attempt to have a federal court review his case. Like Welch and Steinberg, many on the Journey of Hope cite religious grounds for opposing the death penalty. "The death penalty is a moral issue," said Steinberg, who is Catholic. The tour also includes speakers of no religious affiliation who say executions violate basic human rights, said Jack Payden-Travers of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Nonetheless, Journey of Hope's itinerary in Hampton Roads includes more than a dozen churches where Payden-Travers hopes to mobilize congregants' support for a death penalty moratorium. "It's the faith community that is moving the U.S. toward the abolition of the death penalty," he said. "It's not an issue of whether the death penalty - the issue is, when is it going to end." (source: The Virginian-Pilot)
