Oct. 3
KENTUCKY:
US Supreme Court Won't Hear Meece's Death Sentence Appeal
The United States Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an
appeal of William Harry "Bill" Meece's death sentence he received for the 1993
murders of Adair County veterinarian Dr. Joe Wellnitz, his wife Beth and son
Dennis.
After Meece's conviction and death sentence was upheld by the Kentucky Supreme
Court, Meece's attorneys applied for consideration for his case to be heard by
the US Supreme Court. The US Supreme Court's decision to not hear the case
brings Meece's direct appeals to an end.
"This is a tremendous step in the case," Commonwealth Attorney Brian Wright
said in a telephone interview. "It basically ends any allegations of errors in
the trial and exhausts Meece's line of direct appeals.
"He still may try to appeal the case on a basis of ineffective counsel or
something else, but those appeals are much more difficult."
In one of the most heinous crimes in the history of Adair County, the
bullet-riddled bodies of Joe, Beth and Dennis Wellnitz were found in their
Conover Lane home next to their veterinary clinic on the morning of Feb. 26,
1993.
The Kentucky State Police immediately launched an intensive investigation into
the murders, but the case remained unsolved for almost 10 years.
Both Meece and the Wellnitz' daughter, Margaret Ann "Meg" Wellnitz Appleton,
became suspects early on in the case, but it took almost 10 years of work
before law enforcement officials got the break in the case needed to arrest the
pair.
The break came when Meece's ex-wife, Regina, who had been married to him at the
time of the murders but divorced later on, was contacted by detectives and
agreed to talk. She told them what Bill Meece and Meg Wellnitz had told her
about the murders after they occurred, and also provided a key piece of
evidence - a safe that had been taken from the Wellnitz home.
In February 2003, detectives from the Columbia State Police Post presented an
Adair County grand jury with their evidence, and the grand jury returned
indictments against both Meece and Wellnitz Appleton charging them with 3
counts of murder, robbery 1st degree and burglary 1st degree.
Commonwealth Attorney Brian Wright filed motions with the court stating that he
would seek the death penalty for both Wellnitz Appleton and Meece.
Just as her trial was set to begin in late 2003 in Adair Circuit Court,
Wellnitz Appleton's attorneys reached a plea agreement with the Commonwealth,
and she pleaded guilty to the charges and was given a sentence of life in
prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years, plus 20 years for
robbery and 20 years for burglary - a sentence she is currently serving.
In early 2004, as Meece's trial was set to begin, he also entered a plea
agreement in an effort to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to life
without parole for 25 years, plus 20 years for robbery and 20 years for
burglary.
As part of his plea agreement, Meece gave a detailed statement of how the
murders occurred. He said that Meg Wellnitz Appleton had driven him to Columbia
that night and he had entered the residence and killed the 3 victims. With her
parents and brother dead, Wellnitz Appleton would receive several hundred
thousand dollars in life insurance, and Meece was to receive a share for
killing them.
However, after he was sentenced, Meece made a decision that could cost him his
life - he filed motions to have his guilty plea withdrawn and to have a trial
by jury.
The late Circuit Judge James Weddle granted Meece's motion for a trial, and
after a motion by his attorneys for a change of venue, the trial was moved to
Warren County and got underway in October 2006.
Following a week-long trial, the Warren County jury found Meece guilty of 3
counts of 1st-degree murder, robbery and burglary. The jury returned the
following Monday for the penalty phase of the trial, and after deliberating for
slightly under 3 hours, recommended Meece be sentenced to death for the crimes.
They also recommended 20-year sentences for both the robbery and burglary
convictions.
Judge Weddle set final sentencing for Oct. 20, 2006, and on that date went
along with the jury's recommendation and formally sentenced Meece to death.
Meece has remained on death row since that time.
(source: The Adair Porgress)
CALIFORNIA:
California's Historic Opportunity to End the Death Penalty
This Sunday I met with John Dear, a longtime Jesuit priest and peace activist
who has been arrested many times during acts of peaceful civil disobedience,
including with the late Phil Berrigan. He is also an editor and curator of
Daniel Berrigan's works. We spoke at length and I decided that it was vital for
me to introduce John to the HuffPost community and help push forward one of the
issues he is working on now, which he believes is at a tipping point.
He wrote me this letter that I'd like to share with you, and I urge all
activists to follow Mr. Dear, learn about what he's up to and get involved
yourselves.
-- John Cusack
****
California is on the verge of an historic moment. On November 6th, Californians
have the opportunity to vote Yes on Proposition 34 and abolish the death
penalty. After traveling through California these past few days, I'm hopeful
that it's going to happen, and I encourage everyone in California to join the
campaign to abolish the death penalty once and for all.
All summer long, churches throughout the state have been mobilizing to get out
the vote and get rid of the death penalty. This week, Sr. Helen Prejean, author
of Dead Man Walking, arrives for an 8 day, statewide speaking tour. She told me
how excited she is, too, because the churches are at the front of the movement,
and there's a palpable sense of hope in the air. Friends at Death Penalty
Focus, one of the state's leading grassroots groups, are working overtime to
end the death penalty.
Proposition 34 will replace California's death penalty with life in prison
without the possibility of parole. It will require inmates to work and pay
restitution to the victims' compensation fund and allocate $100 million over
the next three years to solve more murders and rapes in California and protect
our families.
As Death Penalty Focus of California explains, California needs to use its
limited state resources instead on real human needs, among them, "to
investigate and solve the crimes of murder and rape to help keep our families
safe -- instead of spending more money on our broken death penalty system." 46
% of murders and 56 % of rapes go unsolved every year in California.
Also, California still risks the possibility of executing an innocent person.
Nationally 139 people have been freed from death row over the past few decades
after they were found to be innocent. The death penalty always holds the
possibility of killing an innocent person, and that's simply a risk that can
never be taken ever again.
But California, like other states, can't afford the death penalty! Since
California voted to reinstate the death penalty in 1978, they have spent $4
billion dollars to execute 13 people. Each execution costs about $308 million
-- about 20 times the cost of a trial for life in prison without parole.
If Prop 34 is passed by California voters on November 6th, it will save
California $1 billion in the next 5 years. This expensive policy of
state-sanctioned murder has to be voted down because that money is desperately
needed instead for schools, jobs, healthcare and real human needs.
The good news is that the tide is turning. 20 years ago, the vast majority of
Californians supported the death penalty. But last week's poll showed that 54 %
of Californians favor life in prison without parole over the death penalty.
Just as Illinois, New Mexico, New Jersey and Connecticut have recently ended
the death penalty and saved their states an enormous amount of money, so should
Californians.
There are many other arguments for abolishing the death penalty in California
and throughout the nation: It's clearly racist. It does not provide a deterrent
against violent crime. It is often applied at random. One-hundred thirty-nine
nations around the world have abolished the death penalty; we're one of the
last nations to practice state-sanctioned murder. Bad lawyers are consistently
part of the problem. More money should be spent instead on the murder victims'
families and their needs. And life without parole is a sensible option. (See
DeathPenalty.org for more details.)
But I would like to point out that every major religion condemns the death
penalty. It is morally and spiritually bankrupt. In particular, no Christian
can support the death penalty because Jesus adamantly forbid killing, taught us
to forgive, love and show compassion, and even intervened, on one occasion, to
save the life of a woman about to be executed by stoning, saying, "Let the one
without sin be the first to cast a stone." Because of his nonviolent resistance
against the empire, Jesus himself suffered capital punishment for the capital
crime of inciting revolution. He was executed. He was a victim of the death
penalty. He did not side with the executioners, but literally with the
executed. No one can claim to be a follower of this person and support the
death penalty.
Being in California these last few days and speaking with friends about this
historic moment reminded me of my work twenty years ago, when I lived in
Berkeley and Oakland, to end the death penalty. Twice, I arranged for Mother
Teresa to speak with the governor of California in an appeal for clemency for
someone about to be executed on San Quentin's death row.
In 1990 and 1992, Mother Teresa told Governors Wilson and Deukmejian: "Do what
Jesus would do." She was opposed to California's killing of death row inmates,
and invoked Jesus as her rationale. Killing people who kill people is not the
way to show that killing people is wrong -- that was the message. But more:
aspire to the nonviolence of Jesus. That is our holy ideal.
Several times on the phone, Mother Teresa asked me to call upon the people of
California and the whole country to end the death penalty. She told me several
times that she was praying for the miracle of the end of the death penalty. I
bet she's still praying for that miracle. Now it might actually happen.
I hope and pray that every Californian will take a stand on November 6th and
"do what Jesus would do" -- which means, stop the killing, vote Yes on Prop 34,
and abolish the death penalty.
Californians have the chance to make history on November 6th. Perhaps then,
they might inspire the rest of the country to throw the death penalty in the
dust bin where it belongs.
(source: John Dear and John Cusack; Huffington Post)
*******************
North state officials oppose repeal of death penalty; ex-state prison head
slams their 'unbelievable' views
A handful of north state officials voiced their staunch opposition to a
proposed repeal of California's death penalty on Tuesday, drawing criticism
from a former state prison official who called some of their remarks
"irresponsible" and said the rarely-used death penalty is "an illusion."
Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko, Chief Deputy District Attorney Josh Lowery,
Assemblyman Jim Nielsen and McGregor Scott, a former Shasta County district
attorney and U.S. attorney, said at a news conference Tuesday that they urge
voters to reject Proposition 34, the measure that would abolish California's
death penalty in favor of life sentences without parole.
Bosenko said the death penalty "sends a clear message and a clear signal."
Nielsen, on the other hand, called it "the silent scream from the grave of the
victim of that murderer," when a convicted killer eligible for execution is
handed a lesser sentence.
But Jeanne Woodford, a former San Quentin State Prison warden and director and
undersecretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation,
said the death penalty is so expensive and rarely used that people would be
safer if it were abolished.
"I think the facts speak for themselves, and the facts would tell anybody who's
thinking about public policy, in my opinion, that the death penalty is so
broken and so expensive that we have to do something different," Woodford, the
proposition's proponent, said Tuesday.
The measure would create a $100 million fund dedicated to solving existing
crimes and force would-be death-row inmates to work while in prison, with their
pay going to the victims' compensation funds. The nonpartisan California
Legislative Analyst's Office said in a study that Proposition 34 would save the
state around $130 million annually.
But Nielsen said it's "reprehensible and hypocritical" for the American Civil
Liberties Union, a supporter of the measure, to use that figure as fodder
against the death penalty, noting that the death penalty is about "fundamental
justice."
Woodford said she finds it "unbelievable" that law enforcement officials are
opposed to a measure that would ensure killers stay in prison for life but also
would pad badly cut budgets.
"We can better utilize those dollars on the science, and what does the science
of criminal justice say? It says the best way to prevent crime is to solve it,"
she said. "Bringing an answer to those crimes ... is really what keeps our
community safer, not pretending that we have the death penalty, because we
don't. We haven't had an execution in over 6 years."
Nielsen also asserted that family members of death-row inmates would "make
sure" prisoners get parole if the death penalty is repealed, a remark Woodford
called "so irresponsible."
That's because Proposition 34 would give former death-row prisoners life
without parole, and only a ballot initiative passed by California voters would
change that policy, she said.
"(He) was trying to scare the public," she said. "It's just unfathomable that
all the inmates' family members would somehow get together and get their family
members released."
Some Redding residents also favor Proposition 34, such as Sue Morehouse.
Morehouse, who was on a committee to bring an exonerated death-row prisoner to
speak in Redding, said her opposition to the death penalty began when she was a
teenager and one of her neighbors was murdered. Rather than seeking the death
penalty for the woman's killer, Morehouse said the family now travels
throughout the state with other families of victims speaking against the
policy.
"They feel like the death penalty ... has a false hope for families, that
they're going to feel better when they get revenge against the murderer, and
instead it drags it out for years," Morehouse said.
Morehouse said she's also concerned about the cost of the death penalty and the
chance that innocent people will be executed.
"So many violent crimes go unsolved right now, and some of the money saved with
this proposition ... could go back into law enforcement to solve some of those
violent crimes," she said.
Scott said it's "a fantasy" to think there won't be lengthy trials even without
the death penalty, though.
Redding residents Laura Hugo, 57, and Debbie Schanuth, 55, who stopped to
listen to the No on 34 presentation as they passed by, also favor the death
penalty, though they said reform is needed to speed up the execution process.
The group of north state officials told stories of horrific murders committed
by death-row inmates, including the local murder of Annette Selix, an
11-year-old from Cottonwood who was thrown from a bridge in 1978. The group is
among 37 state district attorneys, 22 sheriffs and 42 state legislators who
oppose Proposition 34, according to text they passed out at the gathering.
But Woodford said life without parole is "justice that works." "What we know
about the death penalty is that it really never happens," she said, noting that
only 13 executions have been carried out in California since 1978. "It really
is an illusion and a false promise for victims."
(source: Record Searchlight)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Unresolved challenges put death penalty on hold in N.C.
New Hanover County prosecutors decided last month to seek the death penalty
against Cornell Haugabook Jr. for the June killing of a Chinese food delivery
driver, despite doubts about whether such a sentence will ever be carried out.
North Carolina has not executed an inmate in 6 years because issues with the
state medical board and unresolved litigation have led to a de facto
moratorium. So while the state continues to pay for costly capital trials, no
one is actually being put to death.
New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David, who is also president of the
N.C. Conference of District Attorneys, said the moratorium has become a point
of concern among prosecutors. "Any decision to move forward (with the death
penalty) has to include a frank discussion with the victim's family about the
realistic possibility of the punishment being carried out," he said.
The issue is particularly timely for New Hanover County, which is preparing to
try Haugabook for his alleged involvement in the robbery and fatal shooting of
Zhen Bo Liu. The 60-year-old immigrant was attempting to bring a food order to
an address on South 13th Street when he was robbed and shot in the foot and
face. Haugabook, 20, is one of six men facing charges in connection to the
crime, but he is the only one legally eligible for the death penalty.
The district attorney's office is also seeking death for Andrew Adams, 56, who
is accused of bludgeoning 24-year-old Latricia Scott with a hammer and then
burying her body in his backyard. Adams was arrested in January.
Prosecutors face a litany of hurdles when seeking death. For one, jurors have
shown a growing reluctance to impose the penalty, a shift that some scholars
attribute to a string of highly publicized exonerations. Even after a death
sentence is secured, ongoing appeals and litigation challenging the
constitutionality of lethal injection, the state's sole execution method, have
tied up executions for the indefinite future.
Critics say pursuing capital punishment amid a moratorium is an expensive
gamble. That argument has gained traction as shrinking budgets and the
frustratingly slow growth of the economy prompt some states to re-examine their
criminal justice policies.
Philip Cook, a professor at Duke University, authored a study 2 years ago that
analyzed costs associated with North Carolina's death penalty in 2005 and 2006.
He concluded the state would save $11 million annually by abolishing capital
punishment.
But supporters of the death penalty fear cost concerns might undermine what
they view as an appropriate form of justice for especially heinous crimes.
"Justice should not have a price tag," David said. "Ask a victim's family
whether it's too costly."
With 46 executions since 1976, North Carolina had been among the most active
users of capital punishment, according to data from the nonprofit Death Penalty
Information Center, based in Washington, D.C.
But recent years have seen a turnaround. Even before the state's moratorium
took hold, executions had grown exceedingly rare for several reasons. The
number of death sentences handed out has trended downward since 2000, dropping
from 18 that year to three in 2007, according to Isaac Unah, a political
science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The decline coincides with the state's creation of the Office of Indigent
Defense Services, which scholars say is the single biggest contributor to the
drop.
The office has led to enhancements in the way poor defendants are represented.
"Prosecutors stop asking for death so easily knowing they're going to be faced
with much more substantial defense teams on the other side," said Frank
Baumgartner, another UNC Chapel Hill professor who has studied the death
penalty.
In New Hanover County, the decision on whether to seek death is made by a
committee of senior prosecutors, who analyze so-called "aggravating factors,"
which include things like whether the crime was especially heinous or was
committed for monetary gain. David said prosecutors have one month after the
indictment is issued to declare if they are seeking the death penalty.
"This is not arbitrary or capricious," David said. "This is a thorough review
of the facts and the law that the legislature has set forth."
(source: Star News)
OKLAHOMA:
Okla. death row inmate seeks reversal of sentence
An attorney for an Oklahoma death row inmate told a state appeals court Tuesday
that the circumstantial nature of the evidence against him and legal errors
during his trial warrant a sentence reduction to life in prison without parole.
But judges of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals expressed skepticism that
Tulsa County court officials and a 12-member jury acted improperly during the
trial of Victor Cornell Miller, who was convicted of 2 counts of 1st-degree
murder and sentenced to death.
"Why should we go behind what the jury saw?" Judge Charles Johnson of Ponca
City said during oral arguments in Miller's appeal. Members of the 5-judge
court did not indicate when they will hand down a ruling.
Miller, 49, is 1 of 2 men convicted of killing retired Tulsa banker Mary Agnes
Bowles, 77, and Owasso trucking company owner Jerald Thurman, 44, on Aug. 31,
1999. The appeals court last year upheld the murder convictions and death
sentence of Miller's co-defendant, John Fitzgerald Hanson, 48.
Investigators say Miller and Hanson carjacked Bowles from the Tulsa Promenade
mall parking lot and drove her to a secluded area in north Tulsa County, where
Thurman happened to be picking up a load of dirt.
Prosecutors allege Miller repeatedly shot Thurman before Hanson shot Bowles.
Officials have said bullets fired in the shootings came from guns recovered in
a Muskogee motel room where Miller and Hanson were found on Sept. 9, 1999.
Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris, who prosecuted Miller and observed
the appellate arguments, said the victims were brutally shot to death.
"They threw her down in a ditch face down and executed her," Harris said of
Bowles. "I don't know how much more egregious a kidnapping and murder can be."
In a formal appeal filed in January 2011, Miller accuses Harris of
prosecutorial misconduct when he cross-examined Miller, who testified in his
own defense. Among other things, Miller's appellate attorney, Lanita
Henricksen, charged that Harris expressed his personal opinion about the
evidence in the case, made improper references to other crimes and shouted his
questions at Miller, accusations that Harris denied.
"There wasn't any yelling," Harris said. In addition to the murder convictions,
Miller is serving life in prison plus 157 years for convictions on 16 federal
counts for a variety of robbery and firearms counts.
Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Dickson rejected accusations that Miller's
trial was marred by legal errors and said the evidence strongly supports the
aggravating circumstances prosecutors said merited the death penalty, including
that Miller is a continuing threat to society and posed a risk of death to more
than one person.
"The evidence is so strong," Dickson said.
Henrickson told the appeals court that the evidence against Miller "was purely
circumstantial."
"It was weak, very weak," she said. "The circumstantial evidence in the case is
insufficient."
But Judge Gary Lumpkin of Madill said the evidence includes Miller's
fingerprint inside Bowles' abandoned car.
"Sometimes circumstantial evidence is more convincing than eyewitness
testimony," Lumpkin said.
The cases are the 2nd time Miller and Hanson have received the death penalty in
the case. The appeals court reversed death sentences imposed previously and
ordered new proceedings.
(source: Associated Press)
AMERICAN SAMOA:
American Samoa House opposes death penalty
The American Samoa House of Representatives has approved the Togiola
administration bill to repeal the death penalty.
But with only 2 days left in the current legislative session, which ends at the
close of business tomorrow, there is no chance of the measure getting any
endorsement by Senators.
Repealing the death penalty would leave life in prison as punishment for a
person convicted of 1st degree murder.
A person sentenced to life in prison, is not eligible for parole for 40 years.
Arguments to abolish the death penalty included statements that American Samoa
is a Christian territory.
(source: Radio New Zealand International)
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