Oct. 25
OHIO:
Man Will Face Death Penalty for Warren Murder
A Warren man accused of fatally shooting a man and injuring a woman in an
apparent robbery attempt last month will face the death penalty if convicted.
David Martin, 28, of Belmont St. N.E., was indicted by a Trumbull County grand
jury on Wednesday on 2 counts of aggravated murder with death penalty
specifications for the Sept. 27 fatal shooting of Jeremy Cole, 21.
Martin was also charged with attempted murder with sentencing enhancements for
using a gun during the crime and for being a repeat violent offender, 2 counts
of aggravated robbery, 2 counts of kidnapping, having weapons as a felon,
receiving stolen property and tampering with evidence.
Martin faces death penalty specifications for committing a murder in the
commission of aggravated robbery and another for committing the murder during
the kidnapping. In order for Martin to be death-penalty eligible, prosecutors
must prove the murder was committed during either the kidnapping, robbery or
both.
He also faces a death penalty specification that he killed or tried to kill 2
or more people.
Martin is being held in the Trumbull County Jail on $1.5 million bond.
Martin was arrested with a gun at an acquaintances home in Tallmadge by U.S.
Marshals.
Police believe Martin fatally shot Cole in the head Sept. 27 during an apparent
robbery attempt at his Oak St. S.W. home. Another woman who lived at the home,
Melissa Putnam, was shot in the hand and neck but was released from the
hospital a few days after the shooting.
Martin has served 2 separate stints in prison for convictions in Cuyahoga
County. Court records show Martin was sentenced to 6 years in prison in 2001
after he pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated robbery with a sentencing
enhancement for using a gun during the crime.
Shortly after he was released from prison, he was charged in another robbery.
Martin was sentenced to 3 years in prison in 2007 for attempted robbery with a
sentencing enhancement for using a gun, possessing weapons as a felon and
possessing drugs.
(source: WYTV News)
KENTUCKY:
Kentucky's Egregious Death Penalty
The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights voted unanimously last week to
recommend that the state abolish the death penalty. There is every reason for
Kentucky to take the advice and become the 18th state to prohibit capital
punishment.
The death penalty in Kentucky is colossally unfair, costly and riddled with
constitutional error. From 1976 through last year, of the 78 people sentenced
to death in the state, 50 had their sentences overturned on appeal, with 15 of
those for prosecutorial mistakes or misconduct.
In December, a report conducted by the American Bar Association based on a
2-year review by a team of lawyers, professors and former members of the State
Supreme Court found enormous problems with the state's capital system.
Kentucky's laws and procedures, the report said, failed to "protect the
innocent, convict the guilty and ensure the fair and efficient enforcement of
criminal law in death penalty cases."
For instance, among the state's 57 prosecutors' offices, some "will charge
every death-eligible case as a capital case" while most others do not. This
means that the pursuit of the death penalty in Kentucky is largely arbitrary
and capricious, determined by which office happens to be prosecuting the case.
Judges presiding over capital trials often give inadequate jury instructions so
that almost half of the jurors interviewed in a long-term study did not
understand that they could consider mitigating evidence at sentencing, which
could allow them to avoid imposing the death penalty. The system does not
protect the rights of people with severe mental illnesses who, the United
States Supreme Court has said, cannot be sentenced to death. And there are no
standards governing the qualifications for lawyers who handle capital cases,
with dreadful consequences: 10 of the 78 people sentenced to death had lawyers
who were later disbarred.
In 2010, a state court blocked Kentucky from executing anyone because of
"substantial legal questions regarding the validity" of its lethal injection
protocol. That ruling alone should be the end of capital punishment.
Kentucky can ensure that heinous criminals are no longer threats to society by
sentencing them to life without parole. It is time for the state to end the
death penalty.
(source: Editorial, New York Times)
USA (ALASKA):
New Search Warrant Executed at Accused Murderer Israel Keyes' Home----Accused
killer of barista Samantha Koenig allegedly connected to murders in another
state
Up until 7 months ago much of Anchorage had never heard of Israel Keyes, until
he was connected with 1 of the highest profile murders in recent city history.
Tuesday, the FBI and Anchorage police executed a federal search warrant at
Keyes' Turnagain home, where APD said Keyes was living at the time of
18-year-old Samantha Koenig???s murder. Law enforcement would not release
information about what they were looking for.
Accord to federal charging documents, at about 8 p.m. on February 1, Keyes
forced Samantha Koenig from her workplace, the Common Grounds Espresso shack on
Tudor Road, to his white 2004 Chevrolet Silverado, which was parked across the
street in the Home Depot parking lot.
That same night prosecutors said Keyes stole Koenig's debit card and cell
phone. Court documents state Keyes killed Koenig the following day, on February
2.
But that wasn't discovered until Keyes was in custody.
During the investigation authorities believed Koenig was alive because of text
messages Keyes was sending from the phone to demand ransom money, according to
the charging documents.
"Don't forget, we're still looking for Samantha, so this is a very sensitive
investigation, that is our primary objective is to find Samantha and hopefully,
as you asked before, yes, we do think she's alive and we're pursuing that,"
said APD Deputy Chief Steve Smith on March 16.
Within 3 weeks Keyes allegedly withdrew more than $2,400 dollars in ransom
money.
2 days after his last withdrawal, on March 13, Keyes was arrested in Lufkin,
Texas, charged with access device fraud, and named a person of interest in her
kidnapping.
He arrived in Alaska on March 26.
Then on April 2, Koenig's friends' and family members' worst nightmare came
true. Koenig's body was recovered from Matanuska Lake, off the Glenn Highway.
"I know 1 question both the Koenig family and people in Anchorage have asked
from the outset -- why Samantha?" FBI Special Agent Mary Rook said in April.
Keyes was charged with kidnapping resulting in death, as well as receipt and
possession of ransom money, on April 18.
"The indictment alleges that Israel Keyes abducted Samantha Koenig from the
Common Grounds coffee stand on Tudor Road on February 1, 2012," said U.S.
Attorney Kevin Feldis. "And that he took her against her will to his white
pick-up trick that was parked across the street. The allegations continue that
he confined her and intentionally killed her early the next morning."
New allegations, revealed on July 20, connected Keyes to the murders of a
Vermont couple in 2011.
"The evidence now establishes that on June 8, into the 9th, Bill and Lorraine
Currier were abducted from their home and murdered by the person who had
abducted them," said Chittenden County Prosecutor T.J. Donovan.
The suspect was never named, but officials said he was in custody in another
state. Jennifer Reading, a WCAX-TV reporter in the region, said her
investigation pointed directly to Keyes.
"In doing our investigation and speaking with various sources, we have learned
that while federal authorities were questioning Keyes about that Alaska
[murder], he told investigators where they could find the bodies of a missing
Vermont couple."
Federal prosecutors have until December 31 to pursue the death penalty against
Keyes. He is scheduled to be in court on March 11, 2013.
(source: KTVA News)
**********************
BOOKS: Injustice - Life and Death in the Court Room of America. By Clive
Stafford Smith
Having heroes when you are an adult nearly always ends in disappointment. Your
hero always seems to end up doing something unforgivable at some point.
Your favourite football player ends up playing for Manchester United. Your
party leader ends up invading Iraq. Yet hero failure seems to be a law that
Clive Stafford Smith seems destined to avoid.
Stafford Smith was born and brought up in the UK, yet has spent much of the
last 30 years working on "death row" cases in the United States. He left the UK
when he was 19, went to university in the US and then spent his working life
battling to prevent his clients being killed by state authorities.
In his new book - Injustice, Life and Death in the Court Rooms of America,
Stafford Smith paints a vivid picture of his own journey, through the lens of
one of his most famous cases - that of Kris Maharaj.
Kris Maharaj is also a British citizen who was accused of a double murder in
the 1980s in Florida. Maharaj was not the typical death row client - born in
what was to become Trinidad, he came to the UK, made his fortune through an
exporting business and had all the trappings of a rich lifestyle - with houses
in the US and the UK and even becoming a racehorse owner.
Maharaj was convicted of the murder of his business partner and his son in a
Florida hotel room. At his original trial, the prosecution alleged that the
murders were a culmination of a business dispute that spiralled out of control,
with the son being "executed" as he was a witness to his father's murder.
Maharaj's lawyer at trial seems to have done little to challenge the
prosecution case and failed to make his own defence investigations.
Investigations that Stafford Smith undertakes when he takes over the case on
appeal.
These new enquiries reveal that the police failed to disclose evidence to the
defence and the victims were potentially engaged with drug cartels with
capability and reason to kill them. None of this was at the trial convicted
Maharaj and that could have led to his death.
In the book, Stafford-Smith goes through each of the components of the criminal
justice system in the US and explains what happened (or what did not happen) in
the Maharaj case - the defence lawyer, the police, the jury, the judge, the
execution. While telling the story of the Maharaj case, Stafford Smith recounts
other experiences of his cases, to give a powerful polemic against the death
penalty.
For a British-based lawyer such as me, there is something humbling about
reading this account. Stafford Smith makes no bones about it - this work has
been his passion and he feels responsible for each of his clients.
He has watched 6 of his clients being executed - 2 in a gas chamber, 2 by
electric chair and 2 by lethal injection. Knowing that your advice, your
advocacy and your counsel has so much at stake is a frightening thought and one
can only imagine at the personal cost to Stafford Smith. It is not, one thinks
a normal 9-to-5 job with set annual holidays.
There is 1 particularly harrowing passage where Stafford Smith recalls the
electrocution of 1 of his previous clients. Stafford Smith watches him as 2,000
volts of electricity is passed through his client for 2 minutes and in Stafford
Smiths words, is roasted alive.
It brings home the absurdity and barbaric nature of the death penalty.
It recalls to me, an old Amnesty International document that asked how the
civilised world could say that if you strapped someone to a chair, passed 100
volts of electricity through them for 30 seconds to cause them pain - it would
be called torture and banned throughout the world.
If you did the same with a larger voltage and for longer - and killed them - it
is called the death penalty and is apparently lawful in the US. Absurdity and
barbarism indeed.
It is what Stafford Smith has spent his life fighting. It makes one pause,
remember what is important and why - and that fighting injustice should be a
cause that we all sign up to.
This book gives an insight into Clive Stafford Smith and his work - and I can
unashamedly say, that Clive is still one of my heroes.
(source: Camden New Journal)
US MILITARY:
Use of chains denounced by accused in Guantanamo
The Guantanamo Bay prisoner charged with orchestrating the attack on the Navy
destroyer USS Cole denounced his treatment at the hands of the U.S. military,
telling the judge in his case on Wednesday that he is subjected to painful and
unnecessary security measures.
Defendant Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri said he may boycott future sessions of his
war crimes tribunal if the military continues to use security measures such as
belly chains while moving him around the prison at the U.S. base in Cuba.
"If the guards do not treat me better I have the right not to come and let the
world know that the judge sentenced me to death because I did not show up to
court due to chains," the defendant, standing and gesturing as he spoke, told
the judge.
Al-Nashiri, allegedly a senior member of al-Qaida, faces charges that include
terrorism and murder for allegedly orchestrating the 2000 bombing of the Cole,
an attack that killed 17 crew members and wounded 37, as well as plots against
2 other ships. He could get the death penalty if convicted at a trial that is
likely more than a year away.
The 47-year-old al-Nashiri, born in Saudi Arabia to a Yemeni father and Saudi
mother, was held by the CIA for about four years before he was taken to
Guantanamo in September 2006. His lawyers say his treatment prior to being sent
to the U.S. base in Cuba was so harsh that they believe it may have caused
post-traumatic stress disorder.
Attorney Richard Kammen said al-Nashiri's treatment at Guantanamo may be
worsening his condition and has asked for a medical examination by doctors
experienced in treating torture victims. Prosecutors say there is no evidence
that security measures are harming the defendant, and the U.S. military denies
mistreating prisoners at the base.
Al-Nashiri, speaking through an Arabic translator, did not provide many details
about how he is treated in Guantanamo, where he is held in the
ultra-high-security section known as Camp 7. He said that he gets sick and
vomits when being transported from his cell in court and that the chains and
chair in which he has to sit during court sessions aggravate his "bad back" and
his "nerves." His chief complaint was the belly chains, which he insisted are
unnecessary.
"I hope that the judge can explain to these guards and the people in charge to
stop those aggressions," he said, making his most extensive remarks in public.
"I call them aggressions because they have nothing to do with security."
His pretrial hearing took place as Guantanamo was pelted by a steady rain from
the outer bands of the approaching Hurricane Sandy. Warning sirens wailed and
officials warned people on the base, which has a population of about 5,500, to
begin preparing for the storm. Nearly all of the 166 prisoners are housed in
solid-wall structures that are designed to withstand hurricanes and those who
aren't will be moved there, said Navy Capt. Robert Durand, a spokesman.
Al-Nashiri, who was clean-shaven and wore a suit jacket over a white tunic,
said he did not attend Tuesday's pretrial motions session in protest of the
chains. The judge required him to show up Wednesday to answer questions on the
record about his decision not to attend at the request of prosecutors, who
wanted to ensure that he was voluntarily skipping the hearing and that his
absence would not create any later grounds for appeal.
The hearing to address more than 20 motions was scheduled to run through
Thursday, but the court was trying to condense the agenda and finish early
because of the approaching hurricane.
Al-Nashiri chose to remain in court after his brief speech as the court turned
to other matters, including defense requests for additional evidence and expert
witnesses. Among them was a defense request for more information from the
government on an alleged senior al-Qaida figure killed in a November 2002 U.S.
drone strike in Yemen who was identified by media at the time as a "mastermind"
of the Cole bombing. The judge, Army Col. James Pohl, did not issue an
immediate ruling on the motion.
Pohl also put off ruling on a defense motion to dismiss the charges on the
grounds that the U.S. had not declared war at the time of the Cole bombing and
therefore al-Nashiri should not be prosecuted in the special tribunal for
war-time offenses known as the military commission.
Prosecutors responded that it would be up to the jurors in his eventual trial
to determine whether his crimes meet the standard of war crimes under the 2009
law authorizing military commissions, and the judge said he would rule later on
the question before he adjourned the session for the day.
(source: Associated Press)
ARIZONA:
Suit over Ariz. Execution procedures dismissed
A lawsuit challenging how Arizona conducts executions has been dismissed in the
wake of the state changing procedures that drew objections from lawyers for
death-row inmates.
The changes include using one execution drug instead of the 3-drug mix that the
state has used for nearly 3 decades, and allowing witnesses to watch the
execution team insert injection lines into the condemned prisoner.
Lawyers for the state and inmates on Wednesday jointly asked a U.S. District
Court judge to dismiss the suit, and he promptly did so.
The suit was filed in February, but it followed years of litigation concerning
some of the same concerns that inmates could be subjected to pain and suffering
in violation of the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual
punishment.
The request to dismiss the latest suit has been in the works for about a month
as lawyers for the inmates reviewed changes that the state made to its protocol
in September and consulted their clients.
"Because these matters have been addressed and the changes bring more
transparency to the execution process, it's time for this litigation to end,"
said Dale Baich, a federal public defender helping represent death-row inmates
who sued.
Kent Cattani, the state's top criminal appeals lawyer, said the state believes
its execution protocol was constitutional even before making what he called
"minor changes."
"It remains constitutional and this demonstrates the plaintiffs agree with that
assessment," the prosecutor said.
Like some other death-penalty states, Arizona this year began using 1 execution
drug, and the current protocol specifies that's now the chosen procedure. It
says that 1 of 2 sedatives will be used to kill the inmate, unless an inmate
and his lawyers are told in advance that a different drug will be used.
Inmate attorneys had criticized the three-drug mix, saying there was a
possibility that the sedative would not work properly. They said an inmate
could regain consciousness but be paralyzed and unable to communicate while
undergoing a painful death when another drug stops his heart.
Arizona this year also began allowing execution witnesses to observe the
insertion of injection lines, and that's now included in the protocol.
Witnesses typically include relatives and attorneys of the condemned man,
relatives of the victim, journalists and law enforcement officials.
Inmate attorneys had complained that insertions in the groin area could be
painful and that insertions into the prisoner's arms should be used instead.
The protocol leaves it up to the officials where to make insertions, but
specifies that a groin-area insertion be used only if the person that that type
of line is licensed or certified to do that procedure.
"When the process was going on behind the curtain, we had no idea what was
really happening back there," Baich said.
Other changes included in the current protocol deal with qualifications of the
medical personnel participating in the execution and with providing time for
inmates to meet with their lawyers during the 24 hours before executions.
Cattani said inmates have been provided time with their lawyers and that
practice is now in writing. He said the change on medical personnel set a
standard that should avoid further questioning that ends up being hashed out in
court.
A federal judge ruled last December in a previous case that the state's
procedures in place at the time didn't violate inmates' constitutional rights,
but inmates' lawyers complained that previous assurances provided by the state
hadn't proven to be reliable.
The state contended that the allegations by inmate attorneys hadn't resulted in
any proof that inmates were actually subjected to substantial risks, whether
from drugs or procedures used.
Corrections Director Charles Ryan testified in a previous lawsuit that it was
enough that the warden was in the injection room and could alert the injection
team to any problems, while a sheet draped over a sheet draped over most of the
inmate's body blocked it from the view of witnesses in an adjacent room.
Arizona has executed 33 inmates since resuming capital punishment in 1992, all
but 1 by injection.
Arizona has executed 5 men so far this year, most recently Daniel W. Cook on
Aug. 8 for 2 murders committed in Lake Havasu City.
No executions are currently scheduled, but prosecutors have asked the Arizona
Supreme Court to schedule one for Richard Stokley, convicted of 2 murders in
Cochise County.
(source: Associated Press)
FLORIDA----new death sentence
Jury recommends death in Hobart trial
After nearly 100 minutes of deliberations, a jury recommended 7 to 5 today that
Robert Hobart receive the death penalty in the murder of Tracie Tolbert, but
scaled back to recommend a life sentence in the killing of Robert Hamm.
Hobart was found guilty last week of murdering Hamm and Tolbert and leaving
their bodies on opposite sides of Jesse Allen Road in the Allentown community.
The State Attorney's Office is seeking the death penalty.
Ultimately, however, Hobart's sentence is up to Circuit Judge David Rimmer.
Hobart is scheduled to appear in court again early next month for the case.
During her closing arguments, defense attorney Michelle Hendrix detailed
Hobart's upbringing, which was rife with dysfunction and abuse.
His life was further complicated by drug addiction, Hendrix said, and his brain
was damaged by years of drug abuse.
She also told the jury that if they recommend life, Hobart will die in prison.
Assistant State Attorney Bridgette Jensen mentioned all these issues in her
closings, but also reiterated the murders that Hobart was convicted of last
week. Those crimes, presented as aggravating factors, far outweigh any reasons
the defense presented to spare his life, Jensen said.
Jensen also reminded jurors that only a majority of them need to vote for death
to reach their recommendation.
(source: Pensacola News Journal)
******************************
1970s Florida Killer Granted Stay Of Execution Due To Severe Mental Illness
The 1970s Florida killer John Errol Ferguson received a stay of execution in
the 11th hour after an appeals court considered the man's severe schizophrenia
as a mitigating factor in the decision to put him to death.
The 1970s Florida killer has been on death row for an astounding 34 years after
committing a brutal mass slaying more than 3 decades ago in the Sunshine State.
Ferguson's crimes were horrific in nature and breathtakingly wide-ranging in
scope, resulting in 8 deaths that are confirmed and more suspected.
The 1970s Florida killer was involved in the shooting of 8 people in Carol
City, 2 of whom survived the massacre. 6 months later, 2 teens on a date were
murdered, the girl raped before her death. When arrested in connection with the
Carol City crime, the 1970s Florida killer confessed to the teens' murder as
well.
In addition to those cases, Ferguson was also implicated in the shooting deaths
of an elderly couple. But while the acts committed by the 1970s Florida killer
are undoubtedly the sort for which the death penalty exists, execution has been
delayed due to the severe paranoid delusions and schizophrenia from which the
convicted mass murdered suffers.
The 1970s Florida killer was scheduled to be executed at 6 pm Tuesday, a
deadline that passed due to appeals court wrangling over the ethical
implications of executing a mentally ill man.
In a statement, lawyer for the 1970s Florida killer Christopher Handman says:
"A man who thinks he is the immortal Prince of God and who believes he is
incarcerated because of a Communist plot quite clearly has no rational
understanding of the effect of his looming execution and the reason for it."
Families of the victims, however, are not as forgiving when it comes to the
fate of the 1970s Florida killer, mental illness or not. Brother of victim
Belinda Worley, Michael Worley, told the Miami Herald:
"Outrageous is the fact that for 34 years our tax dollars have been keeping
Ferguson alive. Free food, medical care and the ability to communicate with his
loved ones and lawyers....My sister was brutally killed at the age of 17. Her
murder shattered our entire family. Life was never the same."
(source: The Inquisitr)
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