Sept. 14
KENTUCKY:
Ky. justices zero in on self-defense argument in death penalty case
There is no dispute that Carlos Lamont Ordway shot and killed 2 men after a
dispute about drugs caused a car crash in Lexington in 2007. What his attorneys
and prosecutors disagree about is whether the fatal shots were fired in
self-defense and if jurors at Ordway's trial were misled about the situation by
a judge's rulings.
The Kentucky Supreme Court in Frankfort on Thursday zeroed in on the
self-defense aspect of Ordway's case. They questioned attorneys about whether a
judge improperly truncated Ordway's ability to tell his story and if the judge
mistakenly allowed a detective to offer expert testimony on how someone
claiming self-defense should have acted after the shootings.
"In a criminal case, does it matter what a typical person would do? Doesn't it
matter what this person would do?" Justice Mary Noble asked during an hour of
arguments.
Ordway, 31, was sentenced to death in 2010 for the slayings of 21-year-old
Patrick Lewis and 25-year-old Rodrieques Turner, both of Louisville, after an
Aug. 11, 2007 gun fight and car crash in Lexington. Ordway claimed the men
threatened to kill him for drugs, causing a shootout in a moving vehicle and
subsequent crash. Prosecutors say Ordway fired 2 fatal shots at Lewis and
Turner after the crash.
Fayette Circuit Judge Pamela Goodwine restricted some of Ordway's testimony
about his self-defense claim, saying he could not tell jurors what Lewis and
Turner allegedly told him as a confrontation over drugs heated up that night.
Goodwine also allowed a police detective to tell jurors how he thought an
innocent person would behave after a self-defense shooting.
Ordway's attorney, Brandon Neil Jewell, told the justices that stopping
Ordway's testimony undermined his defense because jurors were left with a story
that was hard to believe because it was quite vague about what precipitated the
shooting.
Jewell said Lewis and Turner threatened to kill Ordway unless he gave them the
rest of drugs he was carrying. That information would have explained his state
of mind at the time of the slayings, Jewell said.
"He had a right to tell them what was said," Jewell said. "He was forced to
give them a sanitized version. From his testimony, it's clear there were
continued threats."
Justice Lisbeth Hughes Abramson noted that the court record doesn't include any
proposed testimony by Ordway, making the claim that a self-defense argument was
undermined hard to consider.
"One of the things we're trying to determine ... is how did these statements
fit in to what was going on in the car?" Abramson said.
Assistant Attorney General Heather Fryman told the justices that Ordway got to
tell jurors that Lewis and Turner held a gun to his head, but the panel also
heard evidence that Ordway had no defensive injuries.
"They may not have been able to present it the way they wished to present it,
but they got to put on the defense," Fryman said.
The justices also quizzed attorneys on Goodwine's decision to allow a police
detective to say how he thought a person acting in self-defense should have
behaved after the shootings.
Jewell said the detective effectively told jurors that, because Ordway fled the
scene and was later uncooperative with investigators, he didn't fit the profile
of someone truly acting in self-defense. After shooting Lewis and Turner,
Ordway tried to carjack two different people at a nearby intersection and was
still there when police arrived moments later.
"He explicitly told the jury he's guilty ... that nothing supports the
self-defense claims," Jewell said.
Fryman told the justices that Ordway, who had taken ecstasy earlier in the day,
failed in the carjacking attempts after both drivers pulled away before he
could steal the cars. People in the neighborhood pointed out Ordway when police
arrived.
Abramson said she was "struggling" with telling jurors how a "typical
self-defender" acts.
"How's that anything other than opinion?" Abramson said.
"What everybody was really arguing about at this point is this guy (the
detective) can't say that," Noble said. "It's not relevant."
Fryman said the trial court was more focused on whether jurors should have been
allowed to decide the reasonableness of Ordway's behavior.
"The detective didn't tell them anything they didn't already know," Fryman
said. "He went back to the car and executed these 2 men. It was an execution of
2 men who Mr. Ordway called friends."
The justices did not indicate when they would issue a ruling.
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA:
Death penalty does no good for California
Zeke carried 4 pairs of new cowboy boots. His buddy, Zack, said, "Zeke you must
stop buying boots. You keep buying new ones, but you haven't worn boots for 20
years. They hurt your bunions."
"I know," said Zeke, "but buying them makes me feel good."
"You better stop feeling," said Zack, "and start thinking."
Zack would probably also say we Californians better stop feeling good about
capital punishment and start thinking about voting "yes" on Prop. 34.
If we pass Prop. 34 in November, it will abolish capital punishment and replace
it with life without parole. It will require convicted murderers to work in
prison to pay victim-restitution fines. And it will provide 4 years of grants
to police and prosecutors to hasten the solving of murders and rapes.
The Legislative Analyst's Office estimates ending capital punishment will save
$100 million per year at first, and $130 million per year in later years.
Most Californians used to feel good about capital punishment. In 1978, they
voted to reinstate the death penalty. Since then, about 900 people have been
sentenced to death in California.
But only 14 have been executed, including one executed in Missouri. 83 died in
other ways. And courts reduced the sentences of 75. California still holds 729
condemned prisoners. The last execution was in 2006.
Reinstating the death penalty didn't make us safer. It didn't prevent the
stabbing murder Aug. 22, 2011, of Robert Uyeno in his room at the Farmhouse
Motel in Paso Robles. A woman has been sentenced to 15 years to life for it. 2
men are awaiting sentencing. Another man was found mentally incompetent.
The death penalty didn't protect 15-year-old Dystiny Myers. Her burned, beaten
body was found 2 years ago near Santa Margarita. 4 men and a woman are awaiting
trial.
It also didn't shield Jerry Greer, 71, of rural Templeton. In 2009, he was
murdered in bed as he slept. He was shot in the head, neck and shoulder. His
case remains unsolved.
We've also had other killings. If capital punishment can't protect us, why have
it? Some say to be a penalty. But being locked up for life may, in some ways,
be a worse penalty. And judges and juries can make mistakes. There's no way to
reverse death to correct their mistakes.
Many people say capital punishment provides "justice," by which some people
mean vengeance. No legitimate government should ever kill a person in cold
blood. Calling it "capital punishment" doesn't justify it.
(source: Phil Dirkx's column is special to The (San Luis Obispo) Tribune)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Seeking Death: State seeks death in NC slaying
Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against a convicted serial
rapist charged with beating a Wilmington woman to death earlier this year.
Prosecutors announced in New Hanover County Superior Court on Thursday that
they will seek the death penalty against 56-year-old Andrew Bernard Adams if he
is convicted.
Adams is charged with bludgeoning 24-year-old Latricia Scott with a hammer and
then burying her in a shallow grave in January. Adams was arrested after police
found a cooler near his home containing bloody clothing and pillow cases.
Adams was 1st arrested in 1978 after he confessed to 7 rapes and attempted
rapes in the 2 cities. He spent nearly 30 years in prison until he was paroled
5 years ago.
(source: Associated Press)
CONNECTICUT:
Conn. Supreme Court takes up death penalty appeal
The state Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether the recent repeal of
Connecticut's death penalty applies only to future defendants.
The state's highest court granted a request on Thursday by Eduardo Santiago to
challenge the repeal's impact on those who committed capital crimes before the
law was passed. He was convicted in a murder-for-hire plot that promised him a
broken snowmobile.
The death penalty was repealed in April, but it was preserved for 11 inmates on
death row and for pending cases.
The Supreme Court overturned Santiago's death sentence in June, saying the
trial judge wrongly withheld key evidence from the jury.
Santiago's lawyers have until Nov. 13 to file legal papers. The state will have
60 days to respond and a hearing could be scheduled early next year.
(source: Associated Press)
INDIANA:
The Delbert Tibbs' story: Life after death row
Delbert Tibbs stood on a stage and spoke slowly and deliberately about the time
he spent 5 years as a death row inmate.
"God sent me to death row so I could be a witness," he said in front of an
audience at Peeler Auditorium Tuesday night.
Tibbs, now in his 70s, was featured in events on DePauw's campus this week to
tell the story of his 1974 arrest that eventually put him on death row for 5
years after he was wrongfully accused of rape and murder in Fort Meyers, Fla.
In 1974, Tibbs was enjoying his youth traveling across the U.S. -- by foot. He
had held several jobs before attending the Chicago Theological Seminary from
1970 to 1972, but after 2 years, he decided the seminary was not the right
place for him.
Tibbs was walking along a highway in Mississippi when was he stopped by a
police officer who informed him he was wanted for arrest in Ft. Meyers, Fla. He
was moved to the city and watched the news coverage of himself arriving in
handcuffs a few days later from a Fort Meyers jail.
He said it was only after he was picked out of a lineup that morning that he
realized the amount of trouble he was in.
"I was living in some sort of nightmare," he said.
Tibbs was found guilty for the rape of a 17-year-old woman and a 27-year-old
man in front of an all-white jury, despite the fact he did not meet the
witness's description. The woman said it was a 5'4" black man, and Tibbs is
well over 6'2". And he had never even been to Fort Meyers, Fla.
What followed was an 8-year battle that reached as high as the Florida Supreme
Court before the case was eventually dropped by the prosecutor who said his
witness may not be reliable.
But Tibbs still spent 5 of those 8 years in a maximum security Florida state
prison.
Tibbs spoke to the crowd Tuesday night about his experience in a casual,
informative voice - sometimes even with humor - but stressed the power of
"agitation" to create change.
A friend of his from Chicago started the Gilbert Tibbs Defense Committee to
raise awareness and money for Tibbs' case and created a small national movement
for his release.
"Agitation makes a difference," Tibbs said. "It lets the powers that be know
that people are not satisfied with the way things are."
Tibbs' continues to fight today through the Witness to Innocence advocacy
group. An organization dedicated to abolishing the death penalty in America.
Nicki Hewell '11, Graduate Fellow at the Prindle Institute, worked with the
Indiana Abolition Coalition and the Men of Justice, a DePauw organization, in
bringing Tibbs and was happy with the turnout.
She said about 20 students also met with Tibbs for a more intimate conversation
Wednesday afternoon at the Dorothy Brown Cultural Resource Center.
Senior Jorden Giger, President of Men for Justice, was impressed with Tibbs
"willingness to share his personal stories" and emphasized the importance of
his message.
"I think his story is incredibly important in an age in which men and women of
color are being incarcerated at enormously high rates," Giger said. "We are the
future of the United States and if we are unaware of the ways in which the
least empowered or least represented groups among us are being
disproportionately imprisoned, we run the risk of allowing injustice to
continue on for another generation."
(source: The Depauw)
OKLAHOMA:
Hearing set for Okla. man accused in deaths of 5
A hearing has been scheduled for an Oklahoma man set to go to trial Monday in
the 2009 deaths of his ex-girlfriend and her 4 children.
Friday's hearing for 29-year-old Joshua Durcho was announced in an email
Thursday afternoon from the prosecutor, Canadian County Assistant District
Attorney Paul Hesse. The email did not describe the nature of the hearing and
Hesse did not return a telephone call from The Associated Press seeking
comment.
Durcho is charged with 5 counts of 1st-degree murder for the deaths of
25-year-old Summer Rust and her children - 3-year-old Evynn Garas, 4-year-old
Teagin Rust and 7-year-old daughters Kirsten and Autumn Rust - in the family's
El Reno apartment.
All of the victims were strangled.
Durcho has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
(source: Associated Press)
USA:
RESOURCES: New Study Examines Effect of Death Penalty on Plea Bargaining
A recent study by Sherod Thaxton (pictured) of the University of Chicago Law
School examined the effect of the threat of the death penalty on plea
bargaining. Using statistical analysis of charging and sentencing data in
Georgia between 1993 and 2000, Thaxton found that the possibility of a death
sentence increased the likelihood of a plea bargain: "deterring two out of
every ten death noticed defendants from pursuing a trial."
However, the lower number of trials does not offset the high costs of the death
penalty, he found. "The empirical findings in this article suggest that the
threat of the death penalty has a substantial causal effect on the likelihood
that a defendant accepts a plea agreement. Nevertheless, the magnitude of the
effect is clearly insufficient to offset the substantial administrative and
financial costs arising from the occasional capital defendant taking her
chances at trial." In many cases, the author said, significant pre-trial costs
are incurred even before a plea agreement is reached. The study, Leveraging
Death, will be published in a forthcoming edition of the Journal of Criminal
Law and Criminology.
(source: Death Penalty Information Center)
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