Oct. 3
LOUISIANA:
Death penalty attorneys in Louisiana in short supply
The case against the 7 people accused in the Aug. 16 shooting of 4 St. John
Parish deputies is proceeding through the court system as investigators
continue to build what prosecutors hope will be an air-tight case.
2 of the suspects, 24-year-old Brian Lyn Smith and 28-year-old Kyle David
Joekel, are accused of 2 counts each of 1st-degree murder in the shooting
deaths of deputies Brandon Neilsen and Jeremy Triche.
Wednesday, Joekel is expected to appear in court as a judge attempts to appoint
his new attorney.
Smith's attorney Richard Bourke from the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center
said right now there is a shortage of lawyers available to handle this kind of
work.
"If the district attorney indicts someone on first-degree murder and is seeking
the death penalty, there is going to be a problem finding a lawyer almost
anywhere in the state because the system is full," said Bourke.
Eyewitness News legal analyst Chick Foret said Louisiana law ensures death
penalty defendants get proper representation.
"Someone who is declared indigent has to have 2 attorneys appointed by the
court who have previously been qualified to handle capital cases," said Foret.
Bourke said there are about 120 death penalty cases in the pipeline in
Louisiana.
While rare in New Orleans, right now Baton Rouge has about 30 capital murder
cases pending.
"Baton Rouge is in a real crisis of representation," said Bourke. "They've got
more capital cases pending than anywhere in the state. The local public
defender in Baton Rouge doesn't have the money to put lawyers on all of those
cases."
Bourke says the state Indigent Defender Board is also running out of money to
pay for death penalty defense.
"Death penalty cases are the most sophisticated, complicated and labor
intensive cases in the criminal justice system and the stakes are the highest.
If you as a lawyer are defending someone and you don't do your job, they are
going to be killed."
Foret said St. John District Attorney Tom Daley appears determined to seek the
death penalty.
"One of the issues that might come up is, well do you think the district
attorney will not seek the death penalty because there is a lack of capital
qualified attorneys? I don't think that's going to happen," said Foret.
"There's only a limited number of lawyers who are interested, willing and
qualified to do the work," said Bourke. "There's also a whole other bunch of
lawyers who stopped doing this or won't take it because the pay is so bad."
Attorneys at agencies such as the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center are paid
about $68 an hour by the state to handle death penalty cases.
Private attorneys appointed by a judge to represent a death penalty defendant
make up to $110 an hour.
Private attorneys hired by defendants who can afford representation usually
charge a retainer and can set their own hourly rates.
The other issue in the St. John Case is will the district attorneys office will
stay on since one of the deputies injured in the shootings worked as a district
attorney investigator.
Right now, Daley is personally prosecuting the case.
"There has been some talk that perhaps the district attorneys office in St.
John Parish will recuse itself," said Foret. "If that happens, the case would
go to the attorney general's office and the attorney general's office, the
criminal division of that office would prosecute the case."
Foret also says if the attorney general takes over, the attorney general would
make the charging decision as to whether to seek the death penalty.
(source: WWL TV news)
MISSISSIPPI:
Miss. death row inmate argues mental disability
Attorneys for death row inmate Howard Dean Goodin have renewed claims that he
is mentally retarded and told the Mississippi Supreme Court that examinations
support those arguments.
Teresa L. Norris, representing Goodin, told justices Tuesday that Goodin was
tested before the age of 18 and testing over 40 years have shown he is mentally
disabled.
Norris says every doctor who testified in the case has found that the testing
of Goodin was constant in showing mental illness.
Prosecutors say tests from 40 years ago are highly suspect because there is no
method of validating them.
Norris, however, said in five IQ tests Goodin never scored higher than 65.
Goodin was convicted of capital murder in 1999 in the death of a Union, Miss.,
shopkeeper.
(source: Associaed Press)
OHIO:
Judge refuses to grant relief from death sentence
A federal judge has refused to grant former Warren man Andre Williams relief
from his death sentence on his contention that he is mentally disabled.
Williams killed George Melnick and participated in an assault of his wife,
Katherine, in 1988 at the Melnick's house on Wick Street Southeast in 1988.
Williams was convicted of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder
aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and attempted rape.
Christopher W. Daniel, 42, the other man involved in the attacks, was sentenced
to 37 to 100 years in prison on convictions of involuntary manslaughter,
aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery.
Judge Donald Nugent ruled last week that Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull
County Common Pleas Court was correct when he ruled without a hearing that
Williams was not mentally disabled.
A ruling of mentally disabled would have made Williams exempt from the death
penalty on the grounds that executing the mentally disabled is cruel and
unusual punishment.
Dennis Watkins, Trumbull County prosecutor, said in a news release that the
most recent ruling removes an obstacle that prevented Williams' execution.
Williams' mental disability claims date back to 2003.
(source: The Vindicator)
PENNSYLVANIA:
On Pa. death row, executions follow state script
If Terrance Williams is executed, it will be an event strictly supervised by
the state.
For now, the 46-year-old Williams has a stay of his scheduled execution, which
would be the 1st in Pennsylvania in more than a decade. A state judge has
vacated his death sentence and ordered a new sentencing hearing after finding
last week that prosecutors hid evidence at his 1986 trial.
But Philadelphia prosecutors have appealed to the state's high court to
overturn that ruling and reinstate the death penalty in time to execute
Williams on Wednesday. His death warrant expires at midnight.
If he is executed, his death would be carried out according to a bureaucratic
script under the steely supervision of the state government.
Williams would spend the hours leading up to the 7 p.m. execution in a holding
cell in a converted field hospital on the grounds of Rockview state prison in
Bellefonte, Corrections Department spokeswoman Sue McNaughton said in
describing the procedure.
The inmate may have non-contact visits with members of his immediate family. He
can order his last meal - from a menu that includes hamburger, chicken, breaded
fish and pizza and chocolate, vanilla or strawberry ice cream - but must eat it
in his cell.
He can write his final statement, dictate it to be typed by someone else or
make no statement. He may meet with his attorney until 6 p.m., and with a
spiritual adviser until 6:30.
During the last hour, the inmate will be handcuffed and escorted to the
execution chamber by 6 corrections officers - 1 for each arm and leg, one for
his feet and 1 for his head - who will strap him face-up on the gurney to
receive a lethal injection.
Around the same time, on the other side of a curtained window, witnesses
including citizens, reporters and victims' representatives will be permitted
into a seating area where they can view portions of the execution, McNaughton
said.
An open telephone connection would be maintained between the governor's office
and the prison to expedite word of any last-minute action that would stop the
execution. Gov. Tom Corbett planned to be in Harrisburg, either at his Capitol
office or his office at the governor's residence, in case he needs to
intervene, said his spokesman, Kevin Harley.
The curtain over the execution chamber window remains closed as a mysterious
"lethal injection team" enters the chamber and inserts an intravenous line into
the prisoner's outstretched arm. Officials refuse to identify or discuss the
team members for reasons of safety and privacy, except to say they have the
necessary training.
The curtain will be opened for the 1st time after the injection team leaves the
chamber and administers the 1st drug in the deadly intravenous "cocktail" -
pentobarbital, a sedative. It will be closed again while the team returns to
confirm that the inmate is unconscious, then reopened after the team leaves to
administer the pancuronium bromide, a paralytic agent; and finally the
potassium chloride that will stop the heart.
Once the inmate's brain activity stops, the curtain is closed while a coroner
confirms he is dead. The curtain is opened again while the prison
superintendent announces that the inmate is dead and then closed as the
witnesses are escorted out.
The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Patriot-News sued state officials in federal
court this week to let witnesses view the entire execution process.
Unless the inmate makes other arrangements, his body is cremated at state
expense.
Williams, 46, of Philadelphia, was sentenced to death in 1987 for the
bludgeoning murder of an older man. He lives at Greene state prison in
southwestern Pennsylvania in a single cell where he spends up to 22 hours a day
and is allowed only non-contact visits.
On Friday, Williams' lawyers and death-penalty foes celebrated a ruling by a
Philadelphia judge who halted the scheduled Wednesday execution and granted
Williams a new sentencing hearing.
Judge M. Teresa Sarmina said prosecutors suppressed evidence that Williams'
victim was an alleged pedophile who abused boys, including Williams, so jurors
were not aware of those allegations when they voted to impose the death
penalty.
As the time left for the execution melted from days to hours, it was unclear
whether a pending appeal by the Philadelphia district attorney's office would
persuade the state Supreme Court to overrule Sarmina's ruling and put the
execution back on track for Wednesday.
If Williams is not executed by midnight Wednesday, Corbett would have 30 days
to issue a new death warrant, to be carried out within 60 days, unless Williams
is pardoned or granted a life sentence.
Kathleen Lucas, director of the York-based Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to
the Death Penalty, said the group's leaders had been starting to make plans to
stage a vigil outside the prison to protest Williams' execution.
The group wants to abolish capital punishment in Pennsylvania because of racial
and economic inequities in the way it is applied, but mainly because of its
finality.
"It's not a question of whether someone deserves to die for what they did. The
question is, 'do we have the right to kill?'" Lucas said.
(source: Associated Press)
*************************
Man who killed Officer Grove could receive the death penalty
Christopher Johnson was convicted of 1st degree murder Tuesday in the death of
state Wildlife Conservation Officer David Grove. The jury is now charged with
sentencing Johnson to death or life in prison with no chance for parole.
After 6 days of testimony, the jury decided that Johnson willfully and with
premeditation fired 18 shots aimed at killing the law enforcement officer. The
murder occurred November 11, 2010, in a rural area near Gettysburg.
Grove had pulled Johnson over on suspicion of poaching when a gunfight ensued.
Christopher Johnson left the Adams County Courthouse Tuesday afternoon
convicted of 1st degree murder. According to testimony, he told a friend with
him that evening as Officer Grove was pulling them over, that he was not going
back to prison.
As a convicted felon he was not allowed to have a gun. But before getting out
of his pickup, he tucked a .45 pistol in his pants.
The jury took only 45 minutes to reach a guilty verdict on murder and 3 other
felony charges.
The jury returned to the courtroom to begin the penalty phase of the trial. The
6 men and 6 women from Lancaster County must decide whether to sentence Johnson
to death or life imprisonment without parole.
In its opening, the defense called the only possible sentences "the 2 worst
punishments in a civilized country." It intends to show that Johnson is bright,
has empathy for the victim's family and that there's still much of value in
Christopher's life.
District Attorney Shawn Wagner said he will outline 4 aggravating circumstances
supporting the death penalty, including that the defendant killed Officer Grove
while committing a felony.
Other circumstances will be that Grove was a witness to a felony committed by
Johnson and was killed to prevent him from testifying, that Johnson has a
history of felony convictions involving the threat or use of force and that
Grove was a law enforcement officer killed in the performance of his duties.
In summation, Wagner asked, "Does any evidence out weigh the life of Officer
Grove?"
Upon objection, Judge Michael George ordered the courtroom cleared. After
meeting on a side bar with attorneys, when the jurors returned, he warned them,
"Do not weigh one life against another. It would be in violation of your oath."
The jury returns Wednesday morning. The defense will try to convince the
members why they should spare the life of a man who with premeditation killed a
law enforcement officer.
The judge expects testimony will end Wednesday and that deliberation of the
penalty phase could begin Thursday.
(source: WHP TV News)
******************
Killer's attorneys want chief justice off death-row case
Attorneys for double-murderer Terrance Williams have asked Pennsylvania Chief
Justice Ronald Castille to recuse himself in the case because they believe he
has a conflict of interest.
In a motion filed Monday with the state Supreme Court, Williams' attorneys
stated that Castille should not take part in ruling on Williams' death sentence
because he was Philadelphia's district attorney in 1986 when Williams was
tried, convicted and sentenced to death for the 1984 murder of Amos Norwood.
The motion states that Castille authorized the death sentence and notes that
his office opposed Williams' appeal of the sentence.
Art Heinz, spokesman for Castille, said that Castille would not comment.
Williams, 46, had been on death row for 26 years with an execution date
scheduled for Wednesday, but Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina on Friday
stayed the execution and vacated the death sentence.
She ruled that the trial prosecutor, Andrea Foulkes, had withheld evidence
about Williams' having been sexually abused by Norwood, 56, a churchgoing
married father living in Mount Airy.
District Attorney Seth Williams called Sarmina's ruling unjust and on Friday
appealed to the high court to have the death sentence reinstated. Defense
attorneys also on Monday filed a brief with the high court opposing the
district attorney's appeal.
(source: Philadelphia Daily News)
*******************
The death penalty for a killer is debated in state Supreme Court
Terrance Williams faced quite a dilemma back in 1984, in Philadelphia.
First, he beat Amos Norwood to death with a tire iron and then swiped his cash,
credit cards and car to go on a gambling spree to Atlantic City at the age of
18. This was only 41/2 months after he had killed another man under similar
circumstances.
When Williams went on trial in the Norwood case in 1986, he denied being
involved in the slaying at all, and said he did not even know Norwood.
That would make it difficult to also base his defense on a claim that Williams
was traumatized because Norwood had sex with him, frequently, well before the
murder. Williams also had sex with the other victim, Herbert Hamilton, before
killing him with a knife.
You can see Williams' logic. Chances of an acquittal probably were not as good
if he admitted to homicide, sex or no sex. Nevertheless, it didn't work. He was
convicted and got a death sentence. He got life in the Hamilton case.
His latest date with a syringe full of potassium chloride was set for
Wednesday, but by my deadline time on Tuesday, a court battle over his sentence
was still up in the air.
Having exhausted all other avenues of appeal, Williams and his defense team
decided to base the latest court challenge to his death penalty on the fact
that he killed Norwood only because he was traumatized by the sex (for which he
was paid).
That worked better, and a few days ago, Philadelphia Judge M. Teresa Sarmina
granted a stay of his execution, saying the prosecution improperly withheld
evidence about the sex-for-money angle.
I was a little confused by that, because only 2 people knew about it, Norwood
and Williams, and Norwood was not available to testify while Williams insisted
he never knew Norwood. Can you imagine what would happen if the prosecution
tried to present evidence it could not prove except by the word of the
defendant, who then was saying it never happened?
In any case, the prosecutor said she never withheld any mitigating evidence.
That's important in all death penalty cases, because jurors must weigh
mitigating circumstances (a defendant's age, mental problems, background, etc.)
against aggravating circumstances (torture of the victim, the intent to silence
a witness, the slaying of a police officer, etc.) when deciding whether to
impose the ultimate penalty.
The Sarmina stay was appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which still
was wrestling with it Tuesday.
You may recall another case that has seen delay after delay. Harvey Robinson of
Allentown has been on death row nearly two decades for multiple rape-murder
attacks, including one involving a 15-year-old girl. Robinson and his lawyers
successfully challenged his death sentences in two of them, and thus far have
avoided its implementation in a 3rd.
They recently argued he should not be put to death because he's mentally
compromised, stemming from a bump on his head when he was a boy. That trauma
did not seem to diminish his cunning as he planned his attacks, nor his legal
skills in court (he has acted as his own attorney on occasion).
Robinson and Williams have been among about 200 killers on Pennsylvania's death
rows at various state prisons, all but 3 of them men, lounging about and eating
3 squares a day at a cost to taxpayers of many millions of dollars a year.
I have long supported the death penalty for various reasons, including simple
logic.
Many crimes today, in practical terms, carry life sentences for crimes like
drug possession, rape, or "three strikes" offenses, which can be as minor as
swiping cookies.
One of my favorite arguments:
If you have committed a crime that could put you away for life, and the only
thing preventing your clean getaway is the policeman in your way, or maybe the
anticipated testimony of your victim, why not kill him or her? If there is no
death penalty, if there's no difference between the penalty for a lesser crime
and that for a savage murder, what reason could a criminal have for sparing
that life?
We need to dispatch people like Williams and Robinson if for no other reason
than to give the next potential killer a little pause.
As it stands, however, there are many people wringing their hands over the fate
of the poor dears, so, before today, not a single killer had been executed in
Pennsylvania since Gary Heidnik (who tortured and murdered women in
Philadelphia) in 1999.
The reason for that is the compassion of people like state Sen. Daylin Leach,
D-Montgomery, the ranking Democrat on a legislative task force studying the
death penalty. 3 weeks prior to Williams' execution date, the task force asked
Gov. Corbett to suspend executions until after it completes its work at the end
of next year.
Leach has long opposed the death penalty and in 2010 he proposed legislation to
eliminate it in Pennsylvania altogether, providing for life in prison instead.
Over the years, I have said more nice things about Leach, who practiced law in
Allentown before heading to Harrisburg, than any other state legislator. On
this issue, however, we could not disagree more.
Compassion is good, but not if compassion for a killer transcends any
compassion or concern for the killer's victims.
(source: Allentown Morning Call)
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