[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KAN., ALA., GA., FLA.

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 11



KANSAS:

Fox pleads not guilty


A man accused of shooting his pregnant girlfriend has pleaded not guilty.

The plea came during an arraignment for Sedale L. Fox Friday in
Leavenworth County District Court. Fox was presented a notice indicating
the county attorney plans to seek the death penalty in the case.

Fox, 23, is charged with capital murder and conspiracy to commit
first-degree murder. He is accused of murdering Olivia Jackson Jan. 22 in
Lansing which also resulted in the death of her unborn child. He also is
accused of plotting to kill Jackson in an earlier bombing in Leavenworth.

County Attorney Frank Kohl handed copies of the notice regarding the death
penalty to Fox and his attorney. Kohl said he is seeking a bifurcated
proceeding at trial.

This means that if Fox is found guilty of capital murder, jurors will be
asked to decide whether the defendant should receive the death penalty or
a life sentence without parole.

Kohl said he was required to serve the notice within 5 days of the
arraignment.

I noted on the courts copy that this was done at 11:25 a.m. on 8-8-08,
Kohl told Stewart.

Foxs attorney, Sarah G. Swain, told Judge Frederick Stewart that she needs
a second attorney to assist with what is now a death penalty case.

Swain, who was retained, said she is looking to have the 2nd attorney
appointed by the court.

A court appearance with the new attorney was scheduled for Sept. 19.

Kohl asked that the defense request to schedule an appearance with the new
attorney not result in a penalty against the prosecution in regards to
meeting speedy trial requirements. No trial date has been set.

Swain said she was filing a motion to obtain evidence to be tested by
defense experts. She said she planned to have experts test ballistics
evidence. She also wanted swabs that had been collected in the
investigation to be tested for gunshot residue.

Fox remains in custody at the Leavenworth County Jail.

(source: Leavenworth Times)






ALABAMA:

Speak Out ... Death penalty barbaric


There seems to be a thirst for blood by many Alabama prosecutors,
including Alabama's attorney general. There is a steady push for the
barbaric death penalty as if it is a deterrent to violent crimes,
including murder.

Cold-blooded murderers are those with a barbaric mentality. Those who
advocate and those who carry out the death penalty are just as barbaric as
those who commit cold-blooded murder. The death penalty does not square
the murderers' deeds with society, it only satisfies the offended and the
prosecutors' barbaric desire to lay claim to the act of "get even" for a
crime that should not have taken place. To kill the criminal is not an act
of justification, it is a satiable thirst for a blood revenge.

Those who claim to be godly or Christian can in no way believe in the
death penalty. The commandment "thou shalt not kill" was not followed with
an exception. It ended with the stated four preceding words. How often do
men quote the author who attempted to express God's view with reference to
vengeance. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay saith the Lord." Believe it or
not, the death penalty is barbaric and those who carry it out are
barbarians.

Lindsey Ray----Montgomery

(source: Letter to the Editor, Anniston Star)






GEORGIA:

Jury selection begins in death penalty trial----Vergara charged in 2 2002
deaths


Hall County's 1st death penalty trial in more than 3 years began Monday
with the start of jury selection that is expected to last at least a week.

Ignacio Vergara, 26, is on trial charged with murder in connection with
the March 2002 drug-related shooting deaths of 2 men in a parked car in
South Hall. He has maintained his innocence through a not guilty plea.

The last death penalty case tried in Hall County was in March 2005, when a
jury sentenced 49-year-old Winston Clay Barrett to death for the shooting
death of a friend in Towns County. That trial was moved to Hall County due
to pre-trial publicity.

The most recent death penalty trial connected to a crime committed in Hall
County was in 1999, when Scotty G. Morrow was convicted of murder and
sentenced to death for a 1994 rampage in which he shot and killed his
ex-girlfriend Ann Young, 26, her friend Tonya Woods, 21, and seriously
wounded another woman.

The decision to seek the death penalty against Vergara was made by
then-District Attorney Jason Deal, who is now a superior court judge.

Vergara's case has been delayed by numerous pre-trial motions, including
one issue that was decided just this year by the Georgia Supreme Court.

On Monday, about 140 jurors filed into Senior Superior Court Judge John
Girardeau's courtroom for the the 1st steps in what promises to be a
meticulous jury selection procedure. Some 280 jurors  about 5 times the
number that would be called for service on a typical jury trial will
report this week for Vergara's case. About 500 jurors were initially
summoned for the case, but more than 200 summons were either undeliverable
or Girardeau excused potential jurors for various hardships.

The final panel of 16 jurors, including 4 alternates, will be sequestered
in an area hotel for the length of the trial in order to insulate them
from any news media coverage of the case.

Potential jurors will go through general questioning as a group about
their knowledge or familiarity with the case and the parties involved,
before being brought into the courtroom individually to answer questions
about their thoughts on the death penalty.

In order to serve on a death penalty trial, a juror must be open to the
possibility of three sentencing options: life with the possibility of
parole, life with no parole, or death. Those who cannot consider the
option of a death sentence are generally disqualified to serve.

Court officials hope to finish jury selection in a week and try the case
the following week. The courtroom had been reserved for the trial for
three weeks, though officials are hopeful the trial wraps up before then.

(source: Gainesville Times)

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

Prosecution shares blame for Nichols trial delays, former judge says


The former judge in the Brian Nichols' murder trail, Hilton Fuller, said
Saturday that prosecutors share the blame with defense attorneys for all
the delays and millions of dollars spent in the case.

Nichols is charged in the March 11, 2005 murder of Fulton Superior Court
Judge Rowland Barnes and 3 others.

This week, Superior Court Judge James Bodiford, Fuller's successor in the
case, announced a trail date of Sept. 22  more than 3 years after the
killings, and more than 18 months after jury selection was started and
then delayed.

According to the Associated Press, Fuller told a panel Saturday morning at
the American Bar Association's annual meeting in New York that prosecutors
from Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard's office could have
scaled down their case without compromising it, saving money and time.

Prosecutors presented a 54-count indictment, including four murders, for
crimes that took place at 13 separate crime scenes, and they identified
487 witnesses, Fuller said.

"Prosecutors could have proceeded with one or two counts," Fuller told the
panel. "Ten witnesses could prove that case."

Howard declined to comment Saturday, saying there is a gag order in the
case.

Fuller, reached by telephone Saturday, played down the significance of his
comments.

"This was a small educational seminar for professionals studying capital
indigent defense funding issues," Fuller said. "There is nothing new here.
I said nothing that I have not previously said in court-filed documents."

A retired Superior Court Judge from DeKalb County, Fuller was brought in
when all the Fulton County bench recused itself from the case.

He was harshly criticized by state lawmakers and others for his handling
of the case, including his decision to hire 4 attorneys for Nichols,
running expenditures in the case up to $1.8 million.

Fuller suspended the trial indefinitely last year when state money for the
case was cut off. He resigned from the case in January after he was quoted
in The New Yorker magazine saying, "Everyone in the world knows he
[Nichols] did it."

Nichols' attorneys have not disputed their client is the killer. They have
entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Bodiford, a Cobb County judge, took over the case in February. Jury pool
selection entered its 25th day Saturday. Bodiford predicted the pool will
be complete in 2 weeks.

Through court spokesman Don Plummer, Bodiford declined to comment Saturday
on Fuller's comment or whether Fuller violated a gag order by commenting.

Even though Bodiford has said many times from the bench during jury
selection that jurors and parties in the case cannot talk about it,
Plummer said there is no gag order, just a "gentleman's agreement ... that
none of the parties in the case would talk about it."

Michael Mears, a professor at John Marshall Law School who was head of the
Georgia Public Defender Standards Council when funding the Nichols defense
became an issue and Fuller suspended the case, said Saturday he agreed
with Fuller's statement that the defense wouldn't have spent as much if
the prosecution had narrowed its case.

"I am somewhat surprised that this level of candor has been expressed by a
judge involved in the case," Mears said. "However, I find myself in full
agreement with Judge Fuller. This is something I've said in the past."

Georgia lawmakers approved new measures this year to ban senior judges
such as Fuller  who are not elected  from hearing death penalty cases.
They also tightened the public defender system's budget.

Fuller told the ABA panel that political pressure in a capital case is
intense and rarely works in a defendant's favor. Yet judges have to ensure
a fair proceeding, no matter how unpopular, he said.

"I was doing my job, and I would do the same things again," Fuller said.
With a lengthy trial to follow and appeals sure to come after that, he
said, the case "will be pending for the rest of my lifetime."

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Aug. 9)






FLORIDA:

Last woman on Florida's death row spared death penalty


Virginia Larzelere, who was the last woman on Florida's death row, has
been spared the death penalty.

The 56-year-old inmate, who was sentenced to die for setting up the 1991
murder of her husband Dr. Norman Larzelere, was resentenced today to life
in prison.

Larzelere won the chance for a new sentence after the Florida Supreme
Court agreed that her attorneys failed to present key evidence during the
penalty phase of her 1992 trial.

She appeared in court for the 1st time in many years, first smiling as she
walked into the courtroom of Circuit Judge Joseph G. Will.

Orange-Osceola chief assistant state attorney William C. Vose, the
prosecutor assigned to the Volusia murder case, could have scheduled a new
sentencing trial. But he told the judge it would be difficult to retry the
case, with key witnesses dead and memories fading, so the state would be
willing to give up the death penalty.

That only leaves one punishment, life in prison with eligibility for
parole in 25 years, since she must be sentenced under the laws in place in
the early 1990s.

The judge agreed to impose the life sentence, but not before giving
Larzelere a chance to speak.

Addressing the judge, she maintained that she was wrongfully convicted and
planned to continue to appeal her case.

(source: Orlando Sentinel, Aug. 1)