[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, MD., FLA., ARK.

[Rick Halperin]

May 22


TEXAS----impending execution

Son is eager to see parents' killer die


Leonardo Chavez III, who as a 9-year-old boy saw his mother and father
beaten and killed, said he hopes the execution this week of the man
responsible for their deaths will calm his dreams, especially the
recurring one in which his slain parents' eyes glow red.

"I still have nightmares - weird nightmares - about it," said Chavez, now
20, who sleeps next to a large photograph of his parents, Annette and
Leonardo Chavez Jr. "The dreams never leave me alone. I see little
monsters right where I sleep."

Chavez's parents were killed while house-sitting at a trailer near here
for relatives making a drug run to Mississippi.

A Cameron County jury in 1996 convicted Jesus "Jesse" Ledesma Aguilar, a
laborer and ex-convict, of capital murder and his 17-year-old nephew
Christopher Quiroz of murder in the execution-style slayings.

Both are from the tiny town of Primera on this city's outskirts. Quiroz is
serving a life sentence, and Ledesma, described in court as a ranking
member of the Texas Syndicate prison gang, was accused of orchestrating
the killings and is on death row.

Ledesma is scheduled to be executed Wednesday.

"They had no reason to do that to my parents," said Chavez, who like his
father is a plumber's assistant and carpenter. "That's why I don't believe
in the Lord. I haven't gone to church ever since that happened. My parents
were on their knees, and I just saw them get blown away."

Ledesma maintains his innocence. His latest court-appointed attorneys on
Friday filed a request for a stay of execution, partly based on arguments
that he was denied fair sentencing and that lethal injection causes
"impermissible pain and anxiety and constitutes cruel and unusual
punishment."

"I think (Ledesma) was a neighborhood bully, but he certainly wasn't going
to kill the fattened goose that was giving him handouts every week," said
Jon Karl Schmid, one of his attorneys, calling it a "classic case of
misidentification by a young traumatized boy."

Appeals courts ruled otherwise in the Palm View killings the morning of
June 10, 1995.

The Chavez family was staying at the trailer home of Rick Esparza, Annette
Chavez's brother, while he and his wife were in Mississippi.

Esparza, who was on parole at the time, agreed to testify against Ledesma
under an agreement with prosecutors that his parole not be revoked.

Esparza and Ledesma had taken loads of marijuana to Southern states and
sold them, but friction developed between the 2 over 7 pounds that
disappeared. Esparza stopped working with Ledesma and made subsequent
trips with his wife. The Chavez couple, according to court records, also
made at least 1 trip.

Esparza testified that Ledesma would stop by his trailer, make comments
about new clothes and furniture he and his wife had bought, ask for money
and express anger that Esparza was using Ledesma's Mississippi connection.

At one point, Ledesma threatened to take Esparza "out of the picture,"
Esparza told jurors.

The younger Chavez, testifying when he was 10, said he was awakened by a
scuffle around 5:30 a.m. He said he watched from the kitchen as Quiroz
shot his beaten father in the living room, then handed the gun to Ledesma,
who shot his mother.

Dressed for bed, both were shot in the back of the neck and died on the
living room carpet near a large television and ceramic geese. Police found
20 pounds of marijuana in a suitcase at the trailer.

Chavez told police that a Hispanic and an Anglo man with blue eyes and a
half-circle scar did it.

About two weeks later, he told his grandfather that he recognized Quiroz
and Ledesma in a newspaper photograph as the killers, but he failed to
identify them in a police lineup.

Neither of the two is Anglo or has blue eyes, but Quiroz had the scar.
Esparza's testimony about being threatened by Ledesma, who had sold a .22
caliber revolver shortly after the killing to a relative for $18, seemed
to resonate with the jury.

There were no fingerprints, fibers or blood splatters that linked Quiroz
or Ledesma to the crime, but an expert witness testified that two bullets
found at the scene were likely shot from the weapon that was sold.

"We've all seen 'The Sopranos.' You don't sell the murder weapon for 18
bucks in your neighborhood," said Schmid, arguing that detail doesn't fit
the style of a well-thought-out execution-style killer.

Former Cameron County prosecutors Oscar Ponce and Toni Trevio tried the
case; both are now federal prosecutors. Trevio declined to comment on the
execution. Ponce said he didn't immediately recall the case.

According to court records, Trevio told the jury in closing arguments that
the Chavez couple had the misfortune of taking the brunt of Ledesma's
threats.

"You've heard the saying, 'Being at the wrong place at the wrong time?'"
Trevio said. "Well, Annette and Leonardo Chavez were at the wrong place at
the wrong time. They were at Rick Esparza's trailer on the night when the
defendant decided to make good on his promise, his promise to take Rick
Esparza out of the picture, his promise to drop him."

U.S. Magistrate Judge Felix Recio recommended a new trial for Ledesma
because the jury didn't have the opportunity to consider murder, with its
maximum penalty of life in prison. U.S. District Judge Hilda Tagle
rejected the recommendation.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Tagle, and a petition to
the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case was denied last week.

Chavez, meanwhile, plans to attend the execution on Wednesday with a few
of his uncles. If it goes forward, he will see more death with still-young
eyes.

"I want to see him die," he said.

(source: San Antonio Express-News)






MARYLAND:

Malvo Expected to Testify in Sniper Trial

Since his October 2002 arrest, Lee Boyd Malvo has vacillated between anger
at his accomplice in the sniper spree that left 10 people dead and loyalty
to the man who accepted him as a son.

This week, Malvo may give the world an account of where he stands when he
is expected to testify for prosecutors against John Allen Muhammad, the
man who allegedly molded him into a ruthless 17-year-old sniper.

Muhammad, already convicted of a sniper killing in Virginia and sentenced
to death, is on trial now for the six homicides in Montgomery County
during a 3-week rampage that terrorized the Washington area. Malvo has
been convicted of a sniper killing in Virginia and was sentenced to life
in prison.

Malvo is expected to plead guilty to the Maryland charges against him and
testify for prosecutors, according to a person close to the case who spoke
on condition of anonymity because the deal was not final. Neither Malvo's
attorney, Tim Sullivan, nor Montgomery County prosecutors would comment; a
gag order is in place.

Malvo's testimony, which could come as early as Monday, will be
particularly compelling because no one knows exactly what he will say.

Shortly after his arrest, Malvo confessed to being the triggerman in all
the shootings. But he later recanted and told mental health experts hired
by his lawyers that Muhammad, 45, was the shooter in nearly all the
deaths.

Malvo's court-appointed lawyers in Virginia have said that Malvo also
changed his mind frequently about his feelings toward Muhammad, even more
than a year after the 2 were arrested and separated.

Malvo's lawyers contended Muhammad brainwashed the teenager and turned him
into a killer, and that Malvo never fully separated himself from Muhammad,
despite being angry about the path on which Muhammad led him.

Muhammad, meanwhile, continues to view Malvo as his son, frequently
referring to him as such during the Maryland trial.

Muhammad promised in his opening statement that he would prove not only
his innocence but Malvo's. Muhammad described how Malvo saved his son,
John Jr., from drowning on a Caribbean beach.

"Ever since then, I swore to Lee -- my son Lee Boyd Malvo -- and my
children, that I would always protect them," Muhammad said.

He went on to say that he and Malvo came to Washington, D.C., in October
2002 to look for Muhammad's children, whom he had lost in a custody
battle. When they were arrested Oct. 24, "all hell broke loose.

"My son is dragged from the car. He is screaming and yelling. We are
trying to figure out what is going on," Muhammad said.

The pair is also suspected of earlier shootings in Maryland, Alabama,
Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana and Washington state.

Malvo's anticipated testimony may electrify a trial that so far has
largely been devoid of drama: Muhammad was sentenced to death at his
Virginia Beach trial in 2003 and faces at most a life sentence if
convicted in Maryland. Much of the testimony at the Maryland trial, now
beginning its 4th week, has been a carbon copy of the evidence introduced
at Muhammad's 1st trial.

Muhammad is representing himself in the second trial -- something he did
briefly in the 1st trial -- and that has added an element of
unpredictability.

(source: Associated Press)






FLORIDA:

Death Penalty May Be In Jeopardy


Legislators passed on tweaking Florida's death penalty law this session,
despite warnings from legal experts and the Florida Supreme Court that the
statute could be in jeopardy.

To convict someone of murder, a jury's vote must be unanimous. But in
Florida and a few other states, jurors can recommend a death sentence by a
simple majority vote. And unlike in most states, judges, not juries,
sentence people to death here.

Despite the Florida Supreme Court's suggestion that lawmakers review the
state's death penalty statute, the Legislature took no action on bills
that would have required a unanimous jury vote to recommend a death
sentence.

Leaving the law as is seems risky to Robert Batey, a professor at Stetson
University's College of Law.

"I think if there is the Constitutional train wreck some have been
predicting for the death penalty system in Florida, that's a problem that
should be laid at the door of the Legislature," he said.

Florida's death penalty law has been under increased scrutiny since the
state Supreme Court issued a ruling in the case of Alfredie Steele Jr.,
the Lacoochee man accused of killing Pasco County sheriff's Lt. Charles
"Bo" Harrison in 2003. Steele, 22, who faces a possible death sentence, is
scheduled to stand trial in November.

After striking down a lower court's pretrial ruling, the state's high
court asked the Legislature to review the death penalty law to "decide
whether it wants Florida to remain the outlier state."

Rep. Jack Seiler, D-Pompano Beach, and Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami,
responded by introducing legislation to require unanimous jury votes in
recommending death sentences.

Villalobos' bill died in committee, and Seiler withdrew his bill after
realizing it had little chance of passing. In fact, the House of
Representatives last month took a stand for the current law, adopting a
resolution saying unanimous jury votes shouldn't be required.

"It's not good government, and it's not good policy," Seiler said of the
resolution. "The Florida Supreme Court showed great restraint in that
ruling from October, and for us to come back with that resolution out of
the House is like poking a stick in their eye. It's not right."

Seiler said he will pursue the bill next session and hopes to discuss the
legislation with the new governor.

Without reform, Florida's death penalty law could run afoul of a 2002 U.S.
Supreme Court decision, which said that juries should be entrusted with
imposing the death penalty. In Florida, judges decide, though they must
give "great weight" to jurors' recommendations.

Not changing Florida's system could have serious consequences, said
Christopher Slobogin, a professor at the University of Florida's Levin
School of Law.

"If the statute is declared unconstitutional, it could put a major wrench
in the death penalty system," Slobogin said.

(source: Tampa Tribune)






ARKANSAS:

Tested on death penalty


When I give talks about my opposition to the death penalty, somebody
always declares that I wouldn't feel this way if somebody I loved had been
murdered. Unfortunately, I got put to the test.

In February 2005, in Texas, my precious 21-year-old niece, Heather, was
tortured, raped, mutilated and murdered. Somebody destroyed her dreams and
her life, and destroyed our family's hopes for her. I am desperate for
justice. I want the Texas Rangers to find the man who committed this
horror. I want him caught so he won't do such a thing to anybody else. I
want him found so that Heather's mother can sleep again instead of
worrying about her other daughters. I find myself praying that he will
just plead guilty because I don't want the hideous things he did to
Heather talked about in a public trial.

But I don't want him executed. That would be revenge, not justice. I
believe the words of the Bible that say revenge is God's, not ours. I
shudder at the idea of government imitating this killer by killing him.
All the talk about the "closure" given by an execution is a myth. Heather
is gone. Her chair is forever empty, and killing her murderer will not
change that. The closure I want is his incarceration. I don't want to be
jolted back into horrible memories whenever there is an appeal to a death
sentence And I don't want his family to be forced into grief and sorrow.
Why create another family of another slaying victim? Executions are the
most premeditated of all killings, and shamefully, they are legal in 38
states.

I know firsthand from my work with death row inmates that a family can
maintain a loving connection with a prisoner. A child can bond with, and
love, a parent or grandparent who is in prison.

As a Christian, I am facing one of the hardest challenges of my life to
forgive the man who took Heather from us. I know I must forgive, and I
know it can be done, but it is going to be unimaginably difficult. I keep
remembering when I bought Heather her computer for college. I remember
showing her the sights in Washington, D.C. I remember how adored she was
by her younger sisters. Oh my - it is going to be so hard to forgive.

And as a Christian, I want the man who took our Heather to be redeemed. He
is a child of God and God loves him as much as He loves me. My church, the
United Methodist Church, begins its statement of opposition to the death
penalty with this sentence: "We believe the death penalty denies the power
of Christ to redeem, restore and transform all human beings." I can't say
it better than that.

My opposition to the death penalty has not wavered because of this
horrible murder. I have joined 2 associations of families of murder
victims that oppose the death penalty. And it is now common, when I am
speaking about the death penalty in Arkansas, for a family member of a
murder victim to identify himself or herself, also stating opposition to
the death penalty.

(source: Arkansas Times - Betsey Wright, whose career as a political
adviser included a decade of work for Gov. Bill Clinton, lives in Rogers;
May 11)