[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., OHIO, MO., NEB., COLO.

[Rick Halperin]

May 6


GEORGIA:

Prosecutors seek death for accused killer of DeKalb officers


Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the accused killer of 2 DeKalb
County police officers, District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming announced
today.

William Woodward, 27, is accused of murdering officers Ricky Bryant Jr.,
26, and Eric Barker, 33, on Jan. 16. Witnesses said the officers were shot
while trying to frisk a man at the Glenwood Gardens apartment complex,
where they were working an extra security job in police uniform.

Each officer left a wife and 4 children.

"It is our hope that we will send a strong message to individuals who
commit crimes in this county that we will not tolerate such horrific acts
of violence," Keyes Fleming said.

Georgia law permits a death sentence when jurors find a murder was
accompanied by certain "aggravating" factors. Keyes Fleming said those
factors in Woodward's case are the multiple killings, killing officers on
duty and killing to avoid lawful arrest.

Woodward is being held without bond in the DeKalb County jail.

His case becomes 3rd death penalty prosecution awaiting trial in DeKalb.
Among the other large metro counties, Fulton has the most pending death
penalty cases with 12. Cobb has 3 and Gwinnett 2.

No DeKalb jury has returned a death sentence since state law was changed
in 1993 to allow a sentence of life without parole. The county's last
death penalty trial was for Bautista Ramirez in 2003. A jury found him
guilty of murdering a Doraville police officer but sentenced him to life
with a chance of parole.

In the other 2 DeKalb death penalty cases: Clayton Jerrod Ellington is
accused of killing his wife and 2-year-old twin sons with a hammer; and
Willie Kelsey is accused of killing a 7-year-old boy in a home invasion.

Another DeKalb death penalty trial was averted last month when Aaron
Nicholas Webb pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life without
parole in an agreement with prosecutors.

Webb, 20, admitted to strangling Oladotun Adedeji, a 53-year-old mother of
4, in a robbery at her clothing store on Memorial Drive on May 23, 2007.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)






OHIO:

Attorneys suggest humane way to execute


Defense attorneys for 2 accused killers challenging the legality of Ohio's
lethal injection process conceded earlier today that a single dose of a
fast-acting sedative would be enough to humanely execute someone  as long
as its done correctly.

The concession came during the second part of a hearing county Common
Pleas Judge James Burge is holding to review whether the state's execution
protocols violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment
and an Ohio law that requires executions to be quick and painless.

Jeff Gamso, an attorney for Ruben Rivera and Ronald McCloud, said he still
plans to argue that the current 3-drug cocktail could be painful for a
condemned inmate if its not administered correctly.

But prosecutors aren't buying the concession, saying that even if the
state changed how it carries out executions death penalty opponents,
including Gamso, will simply find fault with the new procedure.

"They will continue to complain and it doesn't matter what we do,"
Assistant County Prosecutor Tony Cillo said during the hearing.

Burge ordered both sides to provide written arguments on how he should
rule.

(source: The Chronicle-Telegram)






MISSOURI:

Prosecutor seeks death penalty for murder of Rowan Ford


2 men charged for the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl last fall could
face death penalties if they're convicted. Barry County Prosecuting
Attorney Johnnie Cox filed notice with the court on Monday that he plans
to seek the death penalty for David Spears and Chris Collings.

Rowan Ford disappeared from her home in the small village of Stella on a
Friday night in November. Her body turned up a week later in a cave in
McDonald County, a few miles south of Stella.

Spears was Rowan Ford's stepfather. Collings is his friend, who lived in a
mobile home near Wheaton in Barry County, a few miles east of Stella.
Investigators believe Rowan was raped and murdered in Collings' home.

Both men are charged with 1st-degree murder, forcible rape and statutory
rape. Investigators said both men admitted the crime in interviews with
detectives after they were arrested. Detectives are trying to reconcile
discrepancies between their accounts.

Rowan's mother, Colleen Munson, divorced Spears after her daughter's
murder and moved from Stella to Neosho.

In his notice of intent to seek death penalties against Spears and
Collings, Cox cited three aggravating factors in the murder, any one of
which a jury and judge could use to impose a death penalty. The factors,
listed in state law, are:

-- "The murder in the 1st degree was outrageously or wantonly vile,
horrible or inhuman in that it involved torture, or depravity of mind;"

--"The murder in the 1st degree was committed while the defendant was
engaged in the perpetration or was aiding or encouraging another person to
perpetrate or attempt to perpetrate a felony of any degree of rape . . . "

-- "The murdered individual was a witness or potential witness in any past
or pending investigation or past or pending prosecution, and was killed as
a result of his status as a witness or potential witness."

Defense attorneys for both men have asked for the trial(s) to be moved out
of Barry County because of the many news reports about the murder and
kidnapping. Cox expects a judge to approve that request, and isn't
opposing it. The prosecutor expects the trial will not be held close to
the KY3 viewing area.

(source: KY 3 News)






NEBRASKA:

3-Judge Panel Named in Roy Ellis Death Penalty Case


The Nebraska Supreme Court has named the 3 judges who will decide if
convicted sex offender and murderer Roy Ellis gets life or death.

They are Douglas County District Court Judges Gregory Schatz, Michael
Coffey and Patrick Mullen.

A week and a half ago, a jury found Ellis guilty of the 1st degree murder
of 12-year-old Amber Harris. Prosecuters argued that Ellis abducted, raped
and murdered Amber in November of 2005. The same jury came up with 2
aggravating circumstances that would suggest Ellis deserves the death
penalty: the crime was heinous and Ellis has a substantial criminal
history including several violent crimes.

No date has been set yet for the 3-judge panel to meet. The judges will
weigh the aggravating circumstances and any mitigating circumstances that
might exist.

(source: Action 3 News)






COLORADO:

Defense Rests In Death-Penalty Murder Trial


In Centennial, defense lawyers have rested their case in the Arapahoe
County trial of a man accused of killing 2 people, including a witness who
was scheduled to testify against him.

Sir Mario Owens could face the death penalty if convicted of 1st-degree
murder in the June 2005 shooting deaths of Javad Marshall-Fields and
Vivian Wolfe.

Owens' attorneys finished their case Tuesday. It's not yet known when both
sides will make closing arguments and the jury will begin deliberating.

Marshall-Fields was to testify against Owens and another man in a separate
shooting death. Owens was convicted of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to
life in prison without parole in that case.

Wolfe was Marshall-Fields' fiancee.

(source: Associated Press)