May 19
GEORGIA: Death sentence overturned for man convicted of killing deputy The death sentence of a man convicted of killing a Baldwin County deputy has been overturned. Robert Wayne Holsey had been on death row for the 1995 killing of William Robinson IV. But Augusta Superior Court Judge Neal Dickert overturned the death sentence Tuesday because of ineffective counsel, Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Fred Bright said. "We feel this judge's decision overturning the death sentence is clearly wrong," Bright said. The judge ruled that Holsey's defense did not go far enough in detailing his troubled family background or mental health issues before the jury. Bright said he expects the Georgia Supreme Court to hear arguments in the appeal this summer with a decision by the end of the year. If it does not reinstate the death sentence, he will seek a retrial on the sentence. "We're not giving up on the death penalty," Bright said. (source: Associated Press) OREGON: Oregon court upholds man's death sentence A unanimous Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed the aggravated murder conviction and death sentence of Jeffrey Dale Tiner, who killed a Springfield man after a pizza party in 1993. The court rejected arguments about Tiner's right to a speedy trial and showing the jury his "various tattoos suggesting sympathy for white supremacy." Tiner and his girlfriend, Karlyn Eklof, and her 3 children had been living with James Salmu in 1993. Tiner killed Salmu, and Eklof helped him dump the body in a remote, forested area of the Cascades. Although Tiner and Eklof repainted the apartment and changed the rug, police found traces of blood. Tiner also bragged about killing Salmu. Police arrested Eklof in Salmu's murder in 1994. Tiner was indicted on aggravated murder in 1995, but he did not go to trial until 2000 because prosecutors appealed a lower court's ruling on the admissibility of some of Eklof's statements. The court concluded that the delay caused Tiner no significant harm. Eklof is serving 2 life terms after being convicted of aggravated murder. Tiner has 8 more stages of appeals before the state can execute him. He is one of 32 men on Oregon's death row. Since voters reinstated capital punishment in 1984, the state has executed 2 people: Douglas Franklin Wright in 1996 and Harry Charles Moore and 1997. Both had abandoned their appeals. (source: The Oregonian) FLORIDA: Court upholds death sentences In Tallahassee, the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday upheld 2 death sentences given to convicted Seminole County murderer Michael Reynolds. Reynolds, 50, a former roofer, was convicted of stabbing and beating to death three members of a neighboring Geneva family. The bodies of Christina Razor, 11, and her mother, Robin Razor, 31, were found inside their trailer July 22, 1998. Outside, face down on the ground, was the child's father, Danny Ray Privett, 33. His head had been struck with a concrete block. At Reynolds' 2003 trial in Sanford, he argued that Seminole County deputies arrested the wrong man. He said he was not at the victims' home that night. But authorities found his DNA inside and outside their trailer. Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. in 2003 sentenced Reynolds to die for the slayings of the child and her mother after jurors found him guilty of two counts of 1st-degree murder. Those are the convictions and sentences upheld Thursday. Reynolds also is serving a life sentence for killing Privett. Jurors convicted him of 2nd-degree murder in that homicide. (source: Orlando Sentinel) TENNESSEE: Summers files motion requesting Alley execution date Tennessee Attorney General Paul G. Summers has filed a motion with the Tennessee Supreme Court requesting a June 1 execution date for Sedley Alley, Summers office announced Thursday. Alley was convicted and sentenced to death for abducting and brutally raping and murdering 19-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Suzanne Collins on July 11, 1985. Hours before Alleys scheduled execution, Gov. Phil Bredesen granted a 15-day reprieve for the express purpose of allowing time for Alleys lawyers to return to the Shelby County trial court to request DNA testing under the Tennessee Post Conviction DNA Analysis Act. The motion points out that the Tennessee courts had already rejected Alleys prior request for DNA testing. Both the trial court and the Court of Criminal Appeals determined that "even if potentially favorable results were obtained through DNA analysis, it would not negate the remaining evidence, which strongly identified Alley as the perpetrator." The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded there was "compelling evidence of his guilt," which it found "strongly suggests that he could never accurately be considered actually innocent of the crime, no matter the result of the analysis he now seeks." General Summers said in his motion that Alley should not be "permitted to reap a judicial windfall from executive largesse by parlaying a brief executive reprieve into an extended stay." (source: The City Paper)
