[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., S.C., USA, CONN.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 29


NORTH CAROLINA:

Time to prosecute criminal prosecutors


When North Carolina's district attorneys cheat and lie to send people to
prison or death row, they ought to be charged and tried for a serious
crime.

This is not a hypothetical problem. In the past few years, death sentences
have been thrown out six times because North Carolina prosecutors - who
are politicians, after all - got caught withholding evidence.

In one particularly egregious case, the State Bar accused 2 prosecutors of
withholding evidence, altering documents and lying to the court in order
to send a punk named Alan Gell to death row. He was acquitted in a 2nd
trial, which was forced by Attorney General Roy Cooper.

But if Cooper was eager to re-try a man who'd already spent 9 years in
prison for a crime he probably didn't commit, the attorney general was
less eager to prosecute the prosecutors who apparently tried to murder
him. Cooper pointed out that the local district attorney gets that honor,
unless he asks the attorney general to take over.

He did not. And in this case, that local district attorney had himself
participated in the tainted prosecution and would be investigating his
former boss, to whom he owed his job. That DA would also be investigating
another colleague, who by then was a judge who presided over trials in
which the DA's staff was participating.

If the screaming conflicts of interest were obvious to Cooper, he did not
ask the General Assembly to give him the authority to take over such
cases. The General Assembly should give it to him anyway.

And it should respond appropriately to the unpleasant facts being rehashed
by a legislative committee that's looking into the way North Carolina
sentences people to death.

Given the number of cases in which we know innocent people were convicted
of capital crimes, it's almost a certainty that we've executed innocent
people - most likely, poor people without the money to hire good lawyers.

(source: Editorial, Wilmington Star)

*******************

Death penalty possible in slaying of ex-Mahopac man


The accused killer of a former Mahopac man who was gunned down just days
after becoming a sheriff's deputy in North Carolina could face the death
penalty if convicted, according to a court ruling.

Montellus Dyshawn Burchette, 18, is charged with 1st-degree murder and
attempted robbery in the Sept. 5 shooting death of 31-year-old Michael
Leonforte, a 1993 graduate of Lakeland High School who had relocated with
his wife to Norlina, N.C.

Warren County Superior Court Judge Henry Hight ruled on Monday that
prosecutors can proceed with a capital case against Burchette, who is
accused of shooting Leonforte as the Mahopac native returned to his North
Carolina home after law enforcement training and shopping in a nearby
Wal-Mart store.

Susan Thompson, an assistant district attorney in North Carolina's 9th
Judicial District, said no decision had yet been made, but "at this point
we're looking at it very seriously as a capital case."

A 2nd man, Quante Ali Seward, 28, faces murder and attempted robbery
charges in the shooting.

In a brief statement yesterday, Leonforte's wife, Cynthia Qui, told The
Journal News that "family and friends are pleased with (Monday's) court
ruling."

Steven DeCillis, a Henderson, N.C., attorney representing Burchette,
refused to comment on the case yesterday other than to say, "I don't
believe any case should be a death penalty case."

Leonforte was killed less than 1 week after being hired as a deputy by
Warren County Sheriff Johnny Williams. Leonforte and his wife had moved to
North Carlina in November of last year. The couple had quickly become part
of the community, as evidenced by a memorial service following his death
that drew hundreds of mourners.

But Leonforte's roots at home remained intact as well. He had been a
member of Grace Lutheran Church in Yorktown Heights, where a memorial
service was held for him on Sept. 30.

Leonforte has a brother in Mahopac and another in Wappingers Falls, while
his mother, Ellen, worked for the Peekskill school district for 17 years.

His death was also not the 1st tragedy for the family. Michael Leonforte's
sister, Katherine, died in a traffic accident in 1988. His brother,
Andrew, was killed in another accident in 1993. And in 2003, his father,
Peter, died after falling from a ladder.

"Even after all these years in the ministry, I still am not that fluent in
the language of grief," the Rev. Tim Kennedy, pastor of Grace Lutheran
Church, said during the Sept. 30 memorial service in Yorktown.

"I don't know Latin, but I would translate Leonforte as, 'the strength of
the lion,'" Kennedy said. "I don't know if that is at all accurate, but it
surely applies to Ellen."

(source: The Journal News)






SOUTH CAROLINA:

Death penalty trial expected to begin in killing off-duty Orangeburg
officer


Opening arguments are expected this afternoon in the death penalty trial
of a Virginia man accused of killing an off-duty Orangeburg police officer
in 2004.

Authorities say 23-year-old Mikal Deen Mahdi was on the run when he shot
Captain James Myers at Myers' Calhoun County property.

Prosecutors have said Mahdi killed a clerk at a Winston-Salem, North
Carolina, convenience store a week before Myers' death.

Mahdi was also wanted for stealing a car in Virginia and a carjacking in
Columbia when he was arrested in Florida in Myers' unmarked police pickup
truck 3 days after the officer was killed. Prosecutors have said the truck
was filled with weapons, ammunition and body armor.

Mahdi has pleaded --not-- guilty to charges of murder, 2nd-degree burglary
and grand larceny.

(source: Associated Press)






USA:

Kurtis closes book on 'Cold Case Files'


Bill Kurtis, the legendary Chicago anchorman who put A&E on the television
map, has wrapped up the last of his "Cold Case Files" for the cable
network. While Kurtis ponders his next move after more than 15 years with
A&E, production has ceased on the series that combined long-unsolved
crimes with the latest in forensic science and created the public's
appetite for "CSI" and similar prime-time dramas.

At one time, Kurtis had three series running simultaneously on A&E --
"Investigative Reports," "American Justice" and "Cold Case Files."

While he called the cancellation "a temporary dip" for his production
team, Kurtis said he's close to a new deal with A&E to produce a series of
specials ("kind of like Ted Koppel") and provide other programming.

"My future with A&E will continue," he said Tuesday. "They've asked us to
do some pilots and be very creative."

With negotiations in the hands of William Morris Agency, he added: "I'm
very happy that it will also open up Kurtis Productions to do other
programs for a variety of cable systems."

Although Kurtis remains upbeat about his association with A&E (and will
continue to be seen in reruns "all day and all night"), some of his fans
aren't so happy about the latest turn.

A Web site protesting the cancellation of "Cold Case Files" is at:
pepperbay.com/billkurtis/ccf.html (source: Chicago Sun-Times, Nov. 8)


CONNECTICUT:

Father Accused Of Suffocating Son Won't Face Death Penalty


The state is treating the murder case of former sailor Jared Beekman as a
capital crime but will not be seeking the death penalty.

Beekman, 31, is accused of suffocating his 5-month-old son, Matthew, in
New London in 1996. He has rejected a plea offer from the state, and on
Tuesday was added to the trial list in New London Superior Court.

The state is treating the case as a capital crime because the victim was
under 16, according to Senior Assistant State's Attorney John P.
Gravalec-Pannone. The "capital" designation means that Beekman could face
life in prison without the possibility of release, if he is convicted.

Beekman has been held on a $1 million bond since his arrest in 2004.

Matthew Beekman's death on Jan. 13, 1996, was not immediately treated as a
homicide, though police were suspicious. The state Office of the Chief
Medical Examiner could not conclusively determine a cause of death, and
Beekman and his wife, Agnes, claimed the boy died of sudden infant death
syndrome.

Beekman had left the Navy, moved to Jacksonville, N.C., and fathered 2
more children when New London police, the Navy Criminal Investigative
Service and other authorities caught up with him 8 years after he
allegedly killed his son because the baby had awakened him in the middle
of the night.

Beekman was stationed as a hospital corpsman at the Naval Submarine Base
in Groton when he took the baby to a friend's apartment on Granite Street
in New London for an overnight stay in 1996, according to court documents.
When authorities questioned him about the death 8 years later, Beekman
said he and his son fell asleep on a couch. Matthew woke up some time
later and woke Beekman. Beekman said he became angry and frustrated
because he did not like to be awakened. Beekman said he pushed the baby
behind him on the couch and leaned over on top of him with his body until
the boy was silent, then went back to sleep.

Beekman's wife was restricted to the submarine base and had limited access
to her son at the time of the boy's death because she had concocted a
story to keep her husband from being sent overseas, according to the court
record. She said she was pregnant with twins who had both been diagnosed
with Down syndrome.

(source: The Day)