Nov. 15 TEXAS: 2 Charged in Hearne Murders A pair of Waco men have been charged with capital murder in the shooting deaths of 2 Hearne residents. D'nard Anderson and Dameon Laws, both 21, are in jail, accused of killing Harry Monson and Chandell Lewis on October 25. Laws was arrested Thursday, and also faces two aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charges after being implicated in an August 1 shooting in Waco. He is in the McLennan County jail on a $1.6 million bond. Anderson is in the Robertson County jail on a $1 million bond following his arrest on November 7. Monson and Lewis were each shot multiple times outside a home on Navasota Street. Capital murder charges carry with them a possibility of the death penalty. Since 1976, Texas Department of Criminal Justice records show no executions based on crimes committed in Robertson County. No current death row inmates committed crimes in that county. (source: KBTX news) WYOMING: Wyoming Supreme Court delays execution of man who killed Billings woman The Wyoming Supreme Court has halted the execution of Dale Eaton, convicted of killing a Montana woman, while he seeks a U.S. Supreme Court review of his case. The ruling, written by Chief Justice Barton Voigt, was released Friday. In 2004 a jury sentenced Eaton to die for killing 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell, who disappeared in 1988 while driving from Colorado. Fishermen found her body floating in the North Platte River near Casper eight days later. It was not until 2003 that prosecutors, with the help of DNA evidence, charged Eaton with her death. Kimmell, whose hometown was Billings, Mont., had been sexually assaulted, hit in the head and stabbed. The Wyoming Supreme Court rejected Eaton's appeal in August and directed Natrona County District Court to set a new date for his execution. In October, Eaton's death was scheduled for "no later than Dec. 19, 2008." Because a specific date was not set, the Wyoming Supreme Court had to vacate the execution warrant in its ruling Friday. In the same ruling, the court set an execution date of Dec. 19, then delayed the execution. "This court believes that setting a new date of execution, rather than remanding to the district court to set a new date of execution, may help avoid some inherent delays in this case, as well as conserve resources of the courts and the parties," Voigt wrote. Numerous appeal options are available to Eaton. His attorneys were ordered to notify the Wyoming Supreme Court and prosecutors when submitting their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Eaton has until May to file an appeal with the District Court on the grounds his constitutional rights were violated. An appeal on that basis would enter the federal court system. The entire process could be complicated, with multiple filings moving through the legal system simultaneously. The last person executed in Wyoming was Mark Hopkinson, who received a lethal injection in 1992 after 13 years on death row. He is the only person executed in Wyoming since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. (source: Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune) FLORIDA: Defense: Suspect In North Port Death May Be Incompetent The man accused of kidnapping Denise Lee from her North Port home and killing her may be incompetent to stand trial, his attorney says. Michael King's attorney has asked for a competency hearing to determine whether King has the ability to help in his own defense. No hearing date has been set. "Conversations with defendant reveal an irrational thought process on the part of the defendant," assistant public defender Carolyn Schlemmer wrote in the motion. Defendants are required to show an understanding of the charges against them and facts behind the charges so they can help in their defense. The charges won't be dropped if King, 37, is determined to be incompetent, and he is not considered not guilty by reason of insanity. A defendant who is declared incompetent is sent to a state hospital for treatment until doctors determine the person meets the legal criteria for competency. The motion comes 6 months after a judge ordered an examination to see if a past head injury has affected King's brain function. Attorneys for King said in a motion that he had suffered a head injury and they wanted doctors to do a test known as a PET scan. Experts say such injuries can change a person's personality and behavior later in life. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for King, who is charged with kidnapping, rape and murder. Lee, 21, was reported missing from her North Post home on the afternoon of Jan. 17. Her body was found 2 days later in a shallow grave 6 miles from her home. King was arrested on a kidnapping charge the night of the abduction and was charged with murder after the body was found. He is being held in solitary confinement at the Sarasota County jail. A lab has matched King's DNA to DNA found on Lee's body, according to court documents filed by the prosecution. (source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune) NEVADA: Death penalty under consideration ---- 2-YEAR-OLD CLINGS TO LIFE A 2-year old boy tentatively clings to life after allegedly being struck in the head by his mother's live-in boyfriend at the Dandelion Apartments in Pahrump. Preliminary medical reports say surgery was performed to alleviate brain swelling due to bleeding, but the child is not expected to live. On Tuesday, Nye County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to a call from Desert View Hospital about an unresponsive child. When they arrived, doctors reported that the child's injuries were not consistent with a fall, which is what they had been told happened. There were also injuries to the child's penis and groin area and possible burns on his thigh. The child was flown by Flight for Life to University Medical Center in Las Vegas for further treatment, where his father was by his side at last report. Danny Ernest Linville, 16, was arrested for attempted murder and child abuse after telling deputies he was baby sitting and showering with the 2-year-old when the child fell in the bathtub. Linville and the child's mother, Michaele Christine Griffin, 28, live together with Griffin's three children. Det. Joseph Close interviewed Linville and determined the suspect hit the 2-year-old so hard, using the palm or heel of his hand, that the child was knocked backward into a corner of the bathroom wall. The resulting injury allegedly caused extensive head trauma. Additionally, Close's interview found the couple previously argued over Linville's discipline of the children and that Griffin had witnessed him slapping and pulling her children's hair. The detective's report also said neighbors saw the children left outside to play unattended. Griffin's other children, an 8-year old boy and a 6-year old girl, were not home at the time of the incident. However, according to Close's report, they told their mother Linville harshly disciplined them in the past. Nye County District Attorney Bob Beckett alleges Griffin left her 2-year-old son in the care and custody of her 16-year-old lover, ultimately leading to the child's grave condition. "As the investigation continues, if there is evidence of persistent, systematic abuse, we will consider asking for the death penalty," said Beckett. "Our office jumped on this immediately when we were notified by the sheriff's office as to what happened." Beckett said his office last asked for the death penalty in 1995, and that too was a case of child abuse. "We will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law because we want to send a strong message that will hopefully be a message of deterrence," said Beckett. "We would like to see these types of crimes prevented rather than to react to them." Although he is 16, Linville has been charged as an adult and is in the adult section of the jail. He is being held without bail with a preliminary hearing scheduled for Dec. 4. Griffin has been charged with 3 counts of child abuse and is being held on a total of $15,000 bail. (source: Pahrump Valley Times) USA: Where is the outrage on the death penalty? CARDINAL O'MALLEY and the rest of the Catholic bishops may be worried about having a president who supports women's reproductive rights, but is O'Malley at all concerned about having a president who supports capital punishment? The Catholic Church is as staunchly against the death penalty as it is against abortion, yet the fact that President-elect Barack Obama and the strengthened Democratic leadership in Congress won't abolish the death penalty at the federal level doesn't seem to bother the cardinal. This election cycle, as in many others, both major party candidates supported the death penalty, but where was the church in bringing it to the table? Will Catholic priests be denying Eucharist to politicians who support the death penalty? Will the Conference of Catholic Bishops be holding a national meeting about it? Where's Kathleen Walker and the American Life League to tell people they can't be Catholic and support the death penalty? To vote in compliance with church doctrine, Catholics shouldn't vote for Democrats or Republicans. IAN BOUCHARD -- Jamaica Plain (source: Letter to the Editor, Boston Globe)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, WYO., FLA., NEV., USA
Rick Halperin Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:37:37 -0600 (Central Standard Time)
