Aug. 7 TEXAS: Walker defendant's attorney to seek change of venue Attorney Steven R. Miears, of Bonham, said he will ask Collin County District Judge Charles Sandoval to move Kosoul Chanthakoummane's murder trial out of McKinney. Chanthakoummane, 26, of Dallas, faces a charge of capital murder and possibly the death penalty for the murder of Sarah Anne Walker, 40, of Frisco. A househunting couple from Plano found Walker's body in a D.R. Horton model home in McKinney where she worked as a real estate agent at 1:23 p.m. July 8, 2006, in the 5700 of Conch Train Drive. Walker was stabbed, beaten and strangled to death, according to reports from the Collin County Medical Examiner's Office. Police arrested 25-year-old Kosoul Chanthakoummane on Sept. 5, 2006, at his home in the 3600 block of Frankford Drive in north Dallas in connection with Walker's murder. He is being held in Collin County Detention Center on a charge of capital murder and a $1 million bond. Miears filed 39 subpoena requests July 11 in 380th District Court for various media outlets across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, including the McKinney Courier-Gazette, the Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, WFAA, KXAS, FOX4, CBS11, WBAP and KLIF, asking editors and station managers to testify before the court and supply them with any and all notes, stories and circulation and ratings records related to the Walker murder case, according to documents filed in the 380th District Court. Miears said he subpoenaed members of the news media "in anticipation" of the change of venue motion. "What I'm concerned about is being able to get a jury picked that can still follow the law as far as the defendant's right to a fair trial and whether or not there's enough publicity in the case to have affected the jury pool so that we can find 12 people who can follow the law," Miears said. "Not only to follow the law as far as it applies to the guilt-innocence phase, but also to be able to rationally go through the special issues on whether or not he should receive life without parole or the death penalty." Miears also filed 76 motions June 22 asking the court to "suppress evidence and statements" claiming search warrants didn't authorize police to seize parts of his vehicle. The motions also asked the court to "preclude Mr. Chanthakoummane from being shackled in public," prevent uniformed police officers from attending the trial against his client to "limit the show of force in the courtroom," allow his client's family to testify on how a death sentence would affect them and allow Chanthakoummane to sit at the table nearest to the jury box, according to court records. He also filed a "restrictive order regulating news accounts, comments and editorials concerning certain circumstances of the case" June 22, but he said he doesn't plan to pursue that motion. "It's one that should any type of pre-trial publicity or anything that would have occurred that could prejudice [Chanthakoummane's] right to a fair trial," Miears said. "We were looking for some relief from the judge for protection for that." Sandoval will rule on the motion Aug. 30. Miears said Sandoval will choose the new location of the trial if he approves Miears' change of venue motion. Prospective jurors will fill out questionnaires Aug. 31, and the court will begin voir dire proceedings the following week to choose a 12-person jury, Miears said. The trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 1 in McKinney, according to court records. (source: McKinney Courier-Gazette) ******************** 5 Jurors Dismissed In KFC Jury Selection Several people state prosecutors plan to call as witnesses in the capital murder trial detailing the 1983 Kentucky Fried Chicken murders were once suspects themselves. Romeo Pinkerton, 49, is accused of taking part in killing five people abducted from what was then a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore. The victims, including 2 mothers and 3 Kilgore College fraternity brothers, were found shot to death miles away on a secluded oil lease. The list of potential witnesses, which was released Monday, includes Darnell Hartsfield, a co-defendant in the case, and Jimmy Earl Mankins Jr., who was once indicted for the murders but cleared through DNA. During the 1st day of jury selection, State District Judge Clay Gossett of Rusk County did not allow a continuance in the case and told both prosecution and the defense he plans to pick a jury with voir dire beginning next week. After the jury is selected, Gossett said there will be at least 1 week before any testimony is heard to give both sides adequate time for last minute DNA testing. Gossett moved the trial to New Boston on a change of venue because of lengthy coverage of the case in the media. Mary Tyler, 37; Opie Ann Hughes, 39; Joey Johnson, 20; David Maxwell, 20; and Monte Landers, 19, were abducted Sept. 23, 1983, from the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore. Their bodies were found the next day on a rural Rusk County oil lease. Authorities said the victims had been shot to death. The judge excused 5 potential jurors who were qualified to be excused under state provisions and expects 345 more potential jurors will report to the courthouse as jury selection continues Wednesday. A questionnaire released Monday shows potential jurors will be quizzed on their knowledge of the case - one of the most notorious unsolved mass murders in Texas - as well as the victims and the suspect. Potential jurors will have to answer questions that will also reveal their thoughts on using the death penalty, the questionnaire shows. The Texas attorney general's office, which took over the investigation and is now prosecuting the decades-old crime, filed papers indicating it could call as many as 120 people to the stand as part of the case against Pinkerton. Hartsfield was convicted of aggravated perjury in 2005 for his involvement in the case. He told a grand jury he had not been at the crime scene. Prosecutors, however, said DNA taken from blood at the restaurant matched that of Hartsfield and also placed Pinkerton at the scene. The defense team, including Jeff Haas and David Griffith, asked the state if a tape was available and had been enhanced. The state said the enhancement had been complete and would be given to the defense quickly. Haas also voiced concerns over new witnesses who may be called by the state. "Here we are week before the commencement of this case and here we are given notice to 60-70 new potential witnesses for the state," he said. Gossett did not toss Haas' motion or approve it, but said the court would carry it for the time being. Outside the courthouse, Lisa Tanner, the lead prosecutor, said the state is ready for the trial, but had no way of knowing how long it would last. Griffith, standing in front of the statue of Jim Bowie, who the county was named after, said he believes the actual trial could take months and that thousands of pages of documents would be introduced as evidence. "Yes this is a big case, but it's like every other case in that you have to work the case through the evidence and that's what we intend to do," he said. "I expect it to take months." (source: Tyler Morning Telegraph) USA: 7 executions scheduled for August, 5 in Texas Frank Welch is scheduled to be executed by the state of Oklahoma on August 21. Luther Williams is scheduled for execution by the state of Alabama on August 23. Read more about these and the other cases below -- and ACT! Do Not Execute Kenneth Parr! The state of Texas is scheduled to execute Kenneth Parr on August 15, 2007, for the January 1998 murder of Linda Susan Malek. Parr maintains his innocence as verified in a document written by a witness to the crime. The witness states that Parr was not present during the crime ACT NOW by contacting Gov. Rick Perry requesting that Kenneth Parr's execution be halted! Read More and Take Action at: http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12236 Do Not Execute John Amador! On August 29, Texas is scheduled to execute John Amador for the January 1994 murder of Reza Ayari. Executing Amador would violate the right to life as declared in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and constitute the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Furthermore, Amador claims ineffective assistance of counsel during his initial trial and appellate proceedings. ACT NOW by contacting Gov. Rick Perry requesting that John Amador's execution be halted! Read More and Take Action at: http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12295 August 15: Kenneth Parr, TX http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12236 August 21: Frank Welch, OK http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12239 August 22: Johnny Conner, TX http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12241 August 23: Luther Williams, AL http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12242 August 28: DaRoyce Mosley, TX http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12292 August 29: John Amador, TX http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12295 August 30: Kenneth Foster, TX http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12296 (source: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty) CALIFORNIA: Death Sentence Upheld in Killing of Court Clerks Daughter The California Supreme Court yesterday unanimously affirmed the death sentence for a woman who killed the daughter of an Orange Superior Court clerk while burglarizing the familys home. Chief Justice Ronald M. George, writing for the high court, said Orange Superior Court Judge Theodore Millard properly considered Maria Alfaros young age and other mitigating evidence before imposing the maximum penalty for the murder of Linda Wallaces daughter Autumn. Alfaro was a mother of 4, including twins she was carrying at the time of the murder, who "became a drug addict at 13, a prostitute at 14 and a single mom at 15...a murderer at 18 and the 1st woman in Orange County to get the death penalty at 20," the Orange County Register reported. The evidence, the chief justice said, supported Millard's conclusion that she was sufficiently mature to comprehend the magnitude of her crime. The trial judge called the murder "senseless, brutal, vicious and callous." Autumn Wallace was 9 years old when she was murdered in 1990, shortly after coming home from school. Alfaro, who had once been a friend of Autumn's older sister, later said she killed the little girl in order to avoid being identified. She read a letter during the penalty phase of the case saying how sorry she was for taking Autumn's "innocent life." Linda Wallace found her daughter's body in a pool of blood in the bathroom. She had been stabbed more than 50 times. The Wallace house had been ransacked, and property was missing including a portable television, a VCR, a typewriter, a telephone and a Nintendo set. Alfaro later sold all of it for $300 in order to buy drugs. Alfaro, whose fingerprint was found at the scene, confessed, but later changed her story and claimed that man she called "Beto" but refused to further identify, out of what she said was fear he would harm her family, forced her to start stabbing the girl, and then he finished the slaying. The defense argued at trial that Beto was involved in the killing and pressured Alfaro into participating, diminishing her responsibility. Jurors at Alfaro's 1st trial found her guilty of 1st degree murder with special circumstances of burglary and robbery, but deadlocked 10-2 in favor of the death penalty. A 2nd jury found for the death penalty, and Millard denied the automatic motion to modify the verdict. George rejected the defense contention that Alfaro should have been allowed to plead guilty to the murder charge, which counsel argued might have persuaded the first jury to return a life-without-parole verdict. Alfaro did not testify at the 1st trial. The chief justice cited Penal Code Sec. 1018, which prohibits a capital defendant from pleading guilty without consent of counsel. George rejected arguments that Sec. 1018 is unconstitutional, and that counsel's refusal to allow her to plead guilty was unreasonable. The chief justice noted that in the trial court, Alfaro sought to plead guilty not because she was remorseful or thought the plea might help her avoid the death penalty, but because she wanted to avoid implicating the man she called Beto. A tactical dispute between attorney and client was not a reason for the judge not to follow the statute, George wrote. The case is People v. Alfaro, 07 S.O.S. 4889. (source: Metropolitan News Company) FLORIDA: Couey not mentally retarded, eligible for the death penalty The man convicted of kidnapping and raping 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford is not mentally retarded and is eligible for the death penalty, a Citrus County judge ruled Tuesday. Defense attorneys for John Evander Couey, 48, argued that their client suffered life-long mental abuse and possessed a below normal IQ. A 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibits the execution of mentally retarded people. Circuit Judge Ric Howard ruled the most credible intelligence exam rated Couey's IQ at 78, slightly above the 70 level generally considered retarded. "The conclusion is inescapable and irrefutable that the defendant John Evander Couey, is not retarded by any legal or societal standard,'' Howard wrote in a 16-page ruling, according to the St. Petersburg Times. "The defendant stealthily entered the Lunsford family home and kidnapped Jessica. ... A person who is mentally retarded simply could not have planned such a sophisticated crime, and escape.'' A telephone message could not be left for Couey's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Daniel Lewan by The Associated Press after hours Tuesday. Couey spent much of his March trial in Miami drawing in coloring books. The jury brushed aside the defense's pleas for mercy, voting 10-2 to recommend that Couey be executed for Jessica's slaying. Florida law puts the final sentencing decision in the hands of a judge, who must give great weight to a jury recommendation. Sentencing has been scheduled for Friday. The jury convicted Couey of taking Jessica in February 2005 from her bedroom to his nearby trailer, where he raped her and buried her alive. Despite a massive search, the 3rd-grader's body was found about 3 weeks after she disappeared in a grave in Couey's yard, about 150 yards from her own home. Couey, already a convicted sex offender when he committed the crime, was arrested in Georgia and confessed to the killing. That confession was thrown out as evidence because Couey did not have a lawyer present. The trial was moved to Miami because of intense media coverage in Citrus County. (source: Sun-Sentinel) GEORIGA: Parole Board Puts Davis Death Case On Hold----Georgia Supreme Court To Hear Appeal The state parole board on Monday said it will suspend any consideration of the death sentence of convicted cop killer Troy Davis until the Georgia Supreme Court has finished studying the case. The high court granted an appeal by Davis's lawyers last week after a lower court denied him a new trial. Davis' lawyers have asked for a new trial in part because they say several witnesses who initially testified against their client have since recanted or contradicted their testimony. The state Board of Pardons and Paroles had been scheduled to hear from witnesses in the case on Thursday concerning Davis' request for clemency. But the board decided to put consideration of Davis' request on hold until the Supreme Court has acted. "The board's policy has always been not to look at death cases for clemency as long as there's some viable court case going on," said Tracy Masters, an attorney for the board. "We thought this one was at the end and it now appears it may not be." The parole board granted Davis a 90-day stay of execution on July 17 -- the day before he was set to die by lethal injection. The Supreme Court voted 4-3 last week to hear his appeal. Davis, 38, was convicted of killing Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail, who was shot twice after he rushed to help a homeless man who had been assaulted. The 1989 shooting happened in a Burger King parking lot next to a bus station where MacPhail, 27, worked off-duty as a security guard. Davis' lawyers say seven of nine witnesses who testified against Davis at his trial have either changed their stories or told differing versions of them. Also, 3 people who did not testify at trial have sworn in affidavits that another man, Sylvester Coles, confessed to killing the officer after Davis was convicted. The case has won Davis some high-profile support. U.S. Rep. John Lewis, an Atlanta Democrat, testified on his behalf during the parole board's clemency hearing last month. The Vatican also joined a list of international supporters, sending a letter to Gov. Sonny Perdue urging the state to commute Davis's sentence. MacPhail's family members have argued that many of the arguments being made on Davis' behalf also were made during earlier, unsuccessful appeals and are based more on opposition to the death penalty than the details of the case. They say they remain convinced that Davis was the shooter. Masters said Monday's order doesn't prevent the board from considering the clemency request again after the Supreme Court has ruled. "When it comes out of the court, if the posture's unchanged then the board, I would anticipate, would pick up the case pretty much where it left off," he said. Jason Ewart, an attorney for Davis, verified that Thursday's hearing will be called off "because the board has suspended its decision until after the Supreme Court has made a decision." (source: News4Jax) OHIO: Prosecutor to seek death penalty in July slayings The Cleveland firefighter who shot 5 people, killing 3, over the 4th of July holiday could face the death penalty if convicted. A Cuyahoga County grand jury has indicted Terrance Hough Jr., 35, on 3 counts of aggravated murder and 2 counts of attempted murder, Prosecutor William Mason announced Tuesday. The charges include for firearms, mass murder and death-penalty specifications, Mason said. He said he considered the killings brutal and premeditated because 2 of the victims were shot in the back from as close as 2 feet. "He brutally and cold-heartedly killed those people on July 5," Mason said. Hough's lawyers could not be reached for comment. Hough is scheduled to be arraigned in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on Friday.. Hough, a resident of Sky Lane Drive in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland, shot next-door neighbor Jacob Feichtner, 24, in the chest and Bruce Anderson, 30, of Parma and Katherine Rosby, 26, of Lakewood in the back, according to police. He also shot 2 others, 23-year-old Donny Walsh, who lived down the street, and Walsh's fiancee, 24-year-old Katherine Nicholas. Hough and his wife, Regina, had been feuding with neighbors since 2003, according to a string of police reports that started about a year after the Houghs moved onto the street. (source: Cleveland Plain Dealer) ********************* Mantua men seek declaration of innocence 2 Mantua men are pursuing a legal declaration of their innocence in the 1988 Connie Nardi murder. Bob Gondor and Randy Resh last week filed a civil complaint in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, seeking such a verdict from a jury. After spending more than 16 years in prison, Resh was acquitted in April, and charges were subsequently dropped against Gondor. Both have all along said they had no involvement in the strangling death and attempted rape of the 31-year-old mother from Randolph Township. Her body was found in a Geauga County pond. The Common Pleas Court filing is the 1st step in the men's attempt to pursue monetary damages in the Ohio Court of Claims. Steven L. Bradley, Gondor's lawyer, said the initial case could go on for 12 to 18 months. "We bear the burden of proof," he said. "Assuming the jury finds in our favor, then we file a 2nd complaint. "We do not have to show that there was fault on anybody's side for malicious prosecution," he said. Should the men prove successful in the first step, they could eventually be entitled to more than $1 million. In Ohio, an emergency fund will pay exonerated people up to $40,330 for each year of incarceration. State law also allows them to collect lost wages and attorney fees. Bradley said there "really is not much history" with which to calculate the men's chances of success. Down the road, once the state court litigation is concluded, there is potential for the men to file a civil rights claim in federal court against some individuals involved in their prosecution, Bradley said. "We're trying not to get too far ahead of ourselves," he said. The case against Gondor and Resh, now both 43, rested largely on the testimony of a third man, Troy Busta, with whom Nardi was last seen. Busta pleaded guilty to murder but avoided the death penalty by implicating the other 2. The Ohio Supreme Court ordered Resh and Gondor new trials last year, overturning the decision of the 11th District Court of Appeals. (source: The News-Herald) NORTH CAROLINA----death row inmate commits suicide Inmate hastened his death----Queen, 28, was on death row 7 years Eric Queen came of age in a prison cell while waiting to die. On Sunday night, prison officials say, he decided to wait no longer. Department of Correction officials say Queen, 28, hanged himself with a bed sheet in the janitor's closet of his death row cell block at Central Prison in Raleigh. A prison officer noticed the closet door ajar Sunday evening. He found Queen inside when he went to inspect the closet. Death row inmates have access to the janitor's closet to fetch supplies used to clean their cells, said Keith Acree, a spokesman for the N.C. Department of Correction. Queen has spent his adulthood behind bars after Cumberland County authorities charged him and 8 others with a gang-initiation double murder in August 1998. The killings rocked Cumberland County, evoking fear in residents worried about a gang problem. Investigators said Queen and the teenagers had taken part in an initiation ritual for the Crips gang; defense lawyers argued it was merely a "wannabe gang." Nonetheless, the crew kidnapped, robbed and executed 2 strangers traveling home from a nightclub where they worked. They shot another woman and left her for dead on a remote military road near Fort Bragg. The tips of their bullets were painted blue -- the Crips' signature color. Queen was convicted in 2000 of two counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder. Richard Lambert, father of Tracy Lambert, one of the slain women, heard Queen's name and the word "suicide" on his television set Monday morning. "For me, it's a relief that it's over. The death penalty's been stopped, and we had no idea when the end would come," Lambert said. He hopes Queen's death will ease the burden his wife has been carrying since their 18-year-old daughter's death. "She's been struggling since 1998," Lambert said. "Our relationship's gone downhill, and she's overprotective of our other girls. I hope it releases some of her stress." One other defendant, Christina Walters, is also on death row for the gang-related murders. Queen is the 1st inmate on death row in at least a decade to commit suicide, Acree said. 22 inmates in the regular population have killed themselves since 2000. "If you really want to find a way to kill yourself in prison, it's difficult for us to stop it," Acree said. He said prison officials would, however, probably review their policy of allowing unsupervised access to the janitor's closet, which officers cannot visually monitor. In 2006, Queen's attorneys filed a motion in Cumberland County Superior Court asking for a new trial. They argued that jurors hadn't heard evidence about significant mental illness in Queen's family that affected their client and could have swayed the jury to grant him life in prison instead of the death penalty. The matter hasn't been heard. A halt to the death penalty in North Carolina in January cast more uncertainty on Queen's future. Queen seemed to be taking the delays in stride, said one of his lawyers, Marilyn Ozer. He was even positive, Ozer said, in a May letter to her and Bill Massengale, another of his attorneys. Queen wrote: "Even though things are idle, the situation can and will get better. Believe in yourselves and your work." Queen thanked his attorneys for their efforts and asked them to send some meditation books written by an African priest. Recently, though, Queen started to get homesick, Ozer said she learned Monday. "His family was going on vacation together," Ozer said. "It could be as simple as he really, really missed them." Queen's family could not be reached for comment. His father is a retired Army officer; his mother battles schizophrenia, Ozer said. Queen's attorneys and prison officials didn't see clues that Queen might have been feeling desperate. "He was the kind of person who would have kept it to himself," Ozer said. (source: News & Observer)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news------TEXAS, USA, CALIF., FLA., GA., OHIO, N.C.
Rick Halperin Sat, 11 Aug 2007 22:20:54 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
