Dec. 11 FLORIDA: Mother charged with daughter's murder in court In Orlando, the Florida mother charged with murder over his missing daughter will be back in court. A status hearing was scheduled Thursday in Orlando for 22-year-old Casey Anthony. No motions are to be addressed. She remains behind bars, charged with 1st degree murder. Her child's body hasn't been found. State prosecutors have decided not to pursue the death penalty. 3-year-old Caylee hasn't been seen since June. Her mother did not report her missing until July and has said she left the girl with a baby sitter, who has not been found. Casey Anthony's defense attorney is seeking a court order for a mall surveillance video that may show the little girl alive last month. (source: Associated Press) GEORGIA: 3 picked for jury had misgivings about death penalty Many people in the original jury pool expressed opposition or ambivalence to the death penalty during jury selection for the Brian Nichols murder trial. 3 of the people who expressed strong misgivings about imposing a death sentence were assigned to the Nichols jury. It is not known, of course, how these jurors figure in the panels reported 9-3 split. If the jury remains hung, the judge can sentence Nichols to life in prison, with or without parole but only if the majority of the jury favor either a sentence of death or life without parole. The 3 unnamed jurors indicated opposition to the death penalty before they were selected. A black woman who lives in Union City. She said she feared being in the same courtroom with Nichols because she believed he was a dangerous man. But she also said she wouldnt want to be the deciding vote on whether to execute Nichols. "I wouldn't want to be the one who says, 'Yes, kill him.'" A black woman who works as a supervisor at a company that distributes nuts, bolts and screws. She does the books for her church. She disclosed that she owns a .380-caliber pistol but has never fired it. In her jury questionnaire, she said she strongly opposed the death penalty. "So many people are wrongly sentenced, and the death penalty will cause them death for something they didn't do." The jury foreman, a south Asian man who recently became a U.S. citizen. He has a master's degree and works for Equifax, the company that employs the woman who accused Nichols of rape. He said he has met that woman in company meetings. He told attorneys he opposed the death penalty because it is ineffective. "Unless I'm given a good enough reason, I do not see how I can convince myself [to vote for death]. I would impose death if I felt he was a danger to other people." The jury, which deliberated 12 hours before convicting Nichols on Nov. 7, has so far deliberated 20 hours. In capital murder trials, juries decide both guilt and whether the defendant should be executed or be imprisoned for life. (source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution) ***************** Jury Deadlock in Death Penalty Case A state jury announced Thursday that it could not reach a unanimous decision on whether Brian G. Nichols deserves the death penalty for committing a spree of murders, assaults and hijackings in 2005 that terrified Atlanta. The jurors, deadlocked after 20 hours of deliberation, told Superior Court Judge James G. Bodiford that they were split 9-3, but did not say if the majority favored death or life in prison. The defense called for a mistrial, but the judge ordered jurors to continue deliberating until 1:30 p.m. while he met with the lawyers. The jury convicted Mr. Nichols on Nov. 7 of murdering 4 people, stealing 5 cars, kidnapping a woman and evading police in a chase across Atlanta. He was on trial for rape on March 11, 2005, when he stole the gun of a sheriffs deputy, shot a judge, a court reporter and a deputy at the Fulton County Courthouse, then killed a customs official during his escape. The spree, known here as the Courthouse Shootings, has transfixed Atlanta for three years and cost the county more than $3 million in legal fees. Jurors have 3 sentencing options: the death penalty, life in prison with parole, or life without parole. Under state law, their decision must be unanimous in order for Mr. Nichols to receive the death penalty. If the jury remains hung, the judge will determine the sentence, although he may not select the death penalty. (source: New York Times) ************* Nichols jury asks to hear controversial phone call The deadlocked jury in the Brian Nichols trial asked the judge today to allow it to listen to an audiotape of a telephone calls made by Nichols from the Fulton County jail in which Nichols appeared to threaten the life of District Attorney Paul Howard and other prosecutors. Defense lawyers, who had unsuccessfully tried to block the calls from coming into evidence during the trial in November, renewed their objections to Judge James Bodiford to playing the tape. "It highlights how prejudicial that telephone call was," said lead defense lawyer Henderson Hill. "You should instruct the jury that prejudicial evidence should not play a part in their deliberations that is the minimum." The jury reported earlier Thursday that it was deadlocked at 9-3 without indicating whether the majority of the jurors favored the death penalty or life in prison. Bodiford ruled the tape was in evidence. "If I should have declared a mistrial, I should have done it on November 19, and it would be over." On the audio tape of the July 30, 2006, phone call from the jail, Nichols sounds like he is threatening to kill Howard. He tells his brother, Mark Nichols, that he is frustrated dealing with prosecutors. The prosecutors office is on the 3rd floor of the Fulton County Courthouse, where Nichols escaped on March 11, 2005, and went on his rampage, murdering 4 people. On the tape, Brian Nichols tells his brother that if he had he known then what he knows now, he would have "stopped on the third floor and shot" the prosecutors during his rampage. The defense objected to the tape, calling it a "bombshell" that irreparably damaged their defense as they try to convince a jury that Nichols should get life in prison for the murders instead of the death penalty the prosecution is seeking. The prosecution admitted it violated the court's rule that it could not play tapes before the jury without first providing transcripts of the tapes to the defense team. But they argued they only discovered the contents of the tape recording at the last second and introduced it into testimony so fast they forgot the courts order to first provide the defense with a transcript. Bodiford ruled that the prosecution had violated the courts order, but not in bad faith, and he allowed the tape to stay in evidence. (source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution) ARKANSAS: Man, 29, convicted in killing of student Zachariah Scott Marcyniuk was convicted of capital murder and residential burglary for killing a University of Arkansas student in her Fayetteville apartment. It took 2 1/2 hours for a jury of 11 women and one man to find Marcyniuk guilty of the March 9 murder of 24-year-old Katharine "Katie" Wood, a senior from Greenbrier. Marcyniuk, 29, testified to breaking in to Wood's apartment at 1211 N. Leverett Ave., where he attacked her. Wood suffered more than 40 wounds, including 6 severe stab wounds. She died of blood loss. Defense attorneys conceded from the outset of the 3-day trial that their client killed Wood, but argued his mental state precluded any charge higher than 2nd-degree murder. Sentencing is set to begin today, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the brutal killing they say was premeditated. Doctors agreed Marcyniuk has mental problems but differed on whether he could take responsibility for the murder. Wood's family and friends wept after the verdict was handed down but declined to comment, as did attorneys in the trial. Marcyniuk wore the same oversized sport coat, which hid the electric belt restraint around his waist throughout the trial. He sat in the courtroom quietly waiting for the verdict, still fidgeting but not rocking as he had throughout the proceedings. Psychiatrist Bradley Diner told jurors he believed Marcyniuk could not control his actions when he killed Wood. Diner said Wood set off the violent attack by screaming when she found Marcyniuk in her apartment. Diner described the attack as a "cathartic release of anger." Wood's screams triggered a dissociative rage that caused Marcyniuk to break from reality, Diner said. Marcyniuk was aware of what happened before and after the killing but not during, he said. "Dissociation defense serves to protect you from unwanted feelings or thoughts," Diner said. Crime scene and autopsy photos depicted the brutal assault on Wood, which left her apartment covered with blood. Diner said he did believe Marcyniuk was on some level aware he had a knife during the struggle and that he could kill her. Marcyniuk's blackouts were a symptom of his borderline personality disorder, Diner said. Marcyniuk, a former UA student, was convicted of aggravated assault in 2005 after an incident involving a former girlfriend. Defense attorney W.H. Taylor argued the mental problems were what caused him to kill Wood. "Look at him - he's fairly pathetic," Taylor said. "I'll say it. But the reason we feel that way is because we are different than him and because he is sick." Taylor urged jurors to find his client guilty of 2nd-degree murder because Marcyniuk's mental disorder kept him from being able to form the intent to kill Wood. Marcyniuk was arrested in Sayer, Okla. the evening of the killing, after having left his pug dog Bartelby with his parents. He was stopped for speeding and was about to be let off with a warning before dispatchers reported the murder warrant. "I decided I wanted to see the ocean for Katie, then I wanted to kill myself," Marcyniuk offered as a reason for him leaving the state after killing Wood. Marcyniuk went to Wood's house on March 8 to return her cell phone, which he had stolen to check for signs she was seeing someone else, he said. He fell asleep there. Wood had broken up with him 3 weeks before her death. She was staying at her new boyfriend's house and didn't return to her home until about 7:10 a.m. March 9. Marcyniuk woke up to Wood opening the door. He said he tried to hide but Wood started screaming. "I guess I grabbed her, then we were on. ... I just remember Katie screaming. I didn't know why she was screaming. I remember pulling her in and we both, we hit the floor, we just kind of went in the kitchen and hit the cabinets," Marcyniuk testified. Marcyniuk said he didn't remember stabbing Wood, but did remember dragging her to the bathroom and putting her in the tub. Police found Wood's twisted body in the bathtub, her neck looking as if it were broken. Washington County Prosecuting Attorney John Threet drilled Marcyniuk, agitating him by asserting the killing was planned. Threet said Marcyniuk knew Wood was at another man's house and he went to her apartment to kill her. Evidence shows Wood was attacked as soon as she turned the key to her front door. If stress caused blackouts, Threet asked why Marcyniuk remembered leaving the scene with the murder weapon. "You had about 10 minutes between the 911 call and police showing up," Threet said. "When they kicked the door in, you weren't there. You'd gone out the window, closing it behind you." Threet asked Marcyniuk whether he remembered how he managed to see the knife on the counter or in the drawer as he claimed, while wrestling on the floor. "You're making it sound like I knew I was going to kill her, and that's horrible," Marcyniuk said. Threet questioned Marcyniuk's behavior during the trial. "You make a lot of noise, but I don't see any tears coming out," Threet said. (source: Northwest Arkansas News)
