Oct. 30
SOUTH DAKOTA----execution
Man convicted in 1990 SD child killing executed
A man convicted of killing a 9-year-old South Dakota girl was executed Tuesday
night, ending a 22-year saga that included his initial conviction being
overturned and a flurry of attempts to stop his lethal injection even as he
insisted he was ready to die.
Donald Moeller was given a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Sioux
Falls in what will be South Dakota's 2nd execution this month but only the 2nd
since 2007.
The 60-year-old had fought his conviction and sentence for years, but in July
said he was ready to accept death as the consequence for killing Becky
O'Connell in 1990.
"I don't want to die," Moeller said during a hearing earlier this month. "I
want to pay for what I owe."
Moeller kidnapped the girl from a Sioux Falls convenience store where she'd
gone to buy sugar to make lemonade. He then drove her to a secluded area near
the Big Sioux River before raping and killing her. Her naked body was found the
next day; she had been stabbed and her throat was slashed.
Moeller initially was convicted in 1992, but the state Supreme Court overturned
it, ruling that improper evidence was used at trial. He was again convicted and
sentenced to die in 1997. The state Supreme Court affirmed the sentence, and
Moeller lost appeals on both the state and federal levels.
Even as Moeller began insisting he was ready to die, several motions were filed
on his behalf to stop the execution.
Earlier this month, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit that challenged South
Dakota's execution protocol after Moeller said he wanted no part of it. Moeller
also distanced himself from a motion filed by a woman with loose family ties
who argued that his decades in solitary confinement had made him incapable of
voluntarily accepting his fate. The judge dismissed that motion Monday.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said the case demonstrates that the
criminal justice system needs to place more focus on the victims and their
family members.
"You look at the demonstrations and legal proceedings in Moeller, sometimes I
think the victims get lost in ensuring that a defendant receives due process,"
Jackley said Monday.
But executions are rare in South Dakota, which has carried out death sentences
just three times since the 1913 hanging of Joseph Rickman for the murder of a
woman and her daughter.
The most recent was the Oct. 15 execution of Eric Robert for killing South
Dakota prison guard Ronald "R.J." Johnson during a failed escape attempt.
George Sitts was electrocuted in 1947 for killing 2 law enforcement officers,
and Elijah Page died by lethal injection in 2007 for the murder of Chester
Allan Poage, who was abducted and killed in a scheme to burglarize his mother's
home.
Moeller becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in South
Dakota and the 3rd overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 2007.
Moeller becomes the 34th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the
USA and the 1311th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17,
1977.
(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)
TEXAS----impending execution
Louisiana parolee set to die in Texas Wednesday
When Louisiana parole violator Donnie Lee Roberts was arrested for fatally
shooting his girlfriend at her East Texas home 9 years ago, he had an immediate
request: the death penalty.
Roberts, 41, is scheduled for lethal injection Wednesday for the October 2003
murder of Vicki Bowen, a 44-year-old dental assistant from Lake Livingston.
Besides making his preferred punishment known in a videotaped statement,
Roberts, who was violating parole, also confessed that he was responsible for
an unsolved killing in that state 12 years earlier.
"I just remember it was very very bad to try to overcome his own mouth from the
beginning," said Stephen Taylor, one of Roberts' lawyers at his 2004 capital
murder trial in Polk County, Texas. "It's very difficult when he's expressed
himself on videotape to the jury that 'I want the death penalty' and that he
confesses to this unsolved homicide."
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review Roberts' case, rejecting
arguments that the trial judge improperly barred some testimony from a
psychologist and that testimony from a victim of the robbery Roberts committed
should not have been allowed.
The Texas Attorney General's office said they were not anticipating any late
appeals from Roberts' lawyer, Douglas Barlow, who did not respond to messages
left by The Associated Press.
In 2003, a coworker went to Bowen's house after the normally punctual woman had
failed to show up at her job. The coworker knocked, but got no answer. The
front door was unlocked. Inside, she found Bowen covered with a blanket, face
down in a pool of blood. A medical examiner determined Bowen had been shot
twice in the head.
Detectives found that a truck was missing from Bowen's home. Later that day,
Roberts was spotted driving the vehicle. It was found outside a suspected crack
house where Roberts was apprehended.
"When arrested, the first thing out of his mouth was: 'I want the death
penalty,'" Taylor recalled.
Polk County District Attorney Lee Hon said Roberts quickly was a suspect in
Bowen's death after Roberts' family told authorities they suspected he was
using crack cocaine. Roberts had relatives in Polk County, where he went after
fleeing a drug treatment program in Louisiana and apparently met Bowen in a
bar.
It appeared their relationship had been deteriorating, Hon said, as Roberts
wasn't working and Bowen was about ready to toss him out.
"He admitted that he had threatened her and robbed her and demanded money from
her after she had gotten home from work the preceding afternoon and she had
told him she wasn't going to give him any money," Hon said. "It all just kind
of came to a dramatic and tragic conclusion. "He picked up a .22 rifle by the
door of the home and shot her a couple of times."
His previous conviction in Louisiana was for a holdup at a Baton Rouge
convenience store. Based on Roberts' disclosure, authorities reopened the case
in a more than decade-old death of a Baton Rouge-area man whose body was found
in his burned-out RV and determined the victim also had been shot. Roberts was
not tried in the case.
"He made it almost impossible from the get-go," said Taylor, who described
Roberts as "doing stupid things."
Roberts declined to speak with reporters as his execution date neared. During
his trial, he tried changing his story, saying he shot Bowen in self-defense
after he believed she was reaching into a couch to grab a pistol.
"He already had given 3 or 4 confessions and never once indicated she had done
a threatening thing," Hon said. "He very early on had acted like he didn't want
to live but by the time of the trial he'd changed his mind a bit."
Roberts would be the 12th Texas inmate executed this year. 3 more are set for
lethal injection next month, including 1 next week.
(source: Associated Press)
************************
Death row inmate didn't commit murders, witnesses say
In a day of dramatic testimony Monday, 2 women implicated a gang of drug
dealers in the 1983 slaughter of 4 men in a Grayson County airplane hangar.
After 29 years on Texas' death row for the crimes, Lester Leroy Bower, who was
a chemical salesman living in Arlington when he was arrested, hopes their
accounts will help him win his freedom, or at least a new trial.
One of the women, identified in court as Witness No. 1, said her boyfriend told
her that he participated in the killings on the October night they happened.
"He said he and his friends had gone there for a drug deal," the witness said.
"It didn't go right and they had to kill some people."
The boyfriend was identified in court as Lynn. Others in the gang were
identified as Bear, Ches and Rocky, part of a methamphetamine ring operating in
southern Oklahoma at the time, she said.
Several days after the killings, the woman testified, she heard Lynn and Ches
discussing it.
"Ches was laughing, telling Lynn, 'Did you see the guy's face when you shot him
in the head?'" the witness testified. "Lynn said, 'I had to shoot him. He was
running for the door.'"
The witness, who said she was the mother of a slaying victim, said she went to
Bower's defense lawyers in 1989 after learning that Bower had been convicted
and faced the death penalty.
"As the mother of a homicide victim, I know how important it is to make the
right person pay for what they did," the witness testified. "I don't believe
Mr. Bower is that person."
Bower's lawyers have filed an appeal with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals,
arguing that new evidence points to the innocence of their 64-year-old client,
the fourth-oldest man on Death Row. The appellate court ordered state District
Judge Jim Fallon to hold this week's hearing in Sherman, in part to build a
record of testimony that can be used later in a decision on Bower's fate.
Bower, a graying man dressed in orange prison coveralls, also testified Monday,
the first day of the hearing.
The condemned man, who did not take the stand at his 1984 trial, denied killing
the men but said his own lies contributed to his conviction. Bower admitted
lying repeatedly to investigators to try to steer clear of the case, and to his
wife, fearing that she would have been upset by his secret purchase of an
ultralight aircraft.
Bower said he bought the aircraft from the victims shortly before they died.
"This is my doing," Bower said Monday. "I'm responsible for my actions, my
trying to stay out of this and lying to authorities. Lying to my wife, that's
probably where this started."
Monday was the first time the testimony of Bower and other defense witnesses
had been heard in state court. When Bower was sentenced to die, state law
specified that new evidence could not be presented unless it had been
discovered within 30 days of the conviction. That law has changed.
Some time after this week's hearing, Fallon is expected to issue a ruling that
could suggest upholding the conviction, recommend that Bower be released, or
recommend a new trial. Ultimately, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will
decide the case.
Grayson County prosecutors have vigorously contested alternate theories
presented by the defense, saying Bower was convicted on the basis of strong
circumstantial evidence. That included Bowers' repeated lies to FBI agents and
that he was known to have owned a firearm and exotic ammunition similar to that
used in the crimes. Additionally, parts of the ultralight aircraft were
discovered in his home.
The victims -- Bob Tate, Philip Good, Jerry Mack Brown and Ronald Mayes -- were
found shot to death in a hangar 5 miles from Sherman, the Grayson County seat.
During Monday's hearing, friends and relatives of the victims sat on one side
of the crowded courtroom, supporters of Bower on the other. Robbie Dutton,
Brown's widow, listened from the first row, just behind the prosecution table.
"Just rehashing, you know," she said of her feelings after Monday's testimony
concluded. "We're not wanting him to be punished for something he didn't do,
but the evidence presented in 1984 was so damning."
Nothing she heard Monday changed her belief in Bower's guilt, she said.
"It's hard to hear all of this again," Dutton said.
Witness No. 1 testified that she was told of the killings hours after they
occurred, while she and Lynn drove through Sherman.
"When he told me about all this, it was like my whole world shifted at that
point," she said. "It was like I just stepped into a TV movie."
She also described her boyfriend's behavior in the days after the killings.
"He would have a hard time sleeping," she said. "He would have nightmares. He
would be up pacing. He said he could see the man's eyes he shot and he could
hear the noise reverberating off the tin building."
The 2nd witness, identified as Witness No. 5, said she was the wife of Bear,
who died of cancer five years ago. She testified that several times she heard
her husband and the other men talk about a shooting in an airplane hangar in
which 4 men were killed.
"I believe they committed the crime, yes," she said.
Grayson County prosecutor Kerye Ashmore attacked the credibility of both women,
citing their heavy drug use at the time of the slayings, and in the case of
Witness No. 1, a felony conviction for forgery.
Bower also faces what likely will be a vigorous cross-examination as the
hearing resumes today.
On Monday, Bower described meeting the men in the hangar and paying $3,000 cash
as a down payment for the ultralight. But he hid his purchase.
"I was concerned how my wife would react," Bower said. "I was quite sure she
would not have approved."
He said he was stunned and frightened when he heard of the slaughter a few days
after it happened. The following January, FBI agents tracked Bower down through
telephone records of his calls to one of the victims. When questioned, he said,
he admitted inquiring about the aircraft but did not say he had visited the
crime scene.
"Once I headed down the proverbial bad path, I kept on going," Bower said. "I
told them the same lie."
(source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
FLORIDA:
Jacksonville man faces death penalty again after getting life in first murder
case
For the 2nd time, the state is attempting to put DeShawn Leon Green on death
row.
Tuesday the state began prosecuting Green, 28, in the murder of Robert Lee
Kearney and the attempted murder of Katherine George. The two were both victims
of a drive-by shooting outside Jacksonville's Confederate Point Apartments in
March 2009.
Police said Kearney, 24, and George, then 20, were outside the apartments when
a vehicle pulled up and more than a dozen shots were fired from a rifle.
Prosecutors are arguing that Green fired those shots with a AR-15 assault rifle
he'd nicknamed "Baby."
Assistant State Attorney Richard Mantei said Green shot the 2 because friends
of his had been shot at earlier in the night by Kearney, and Green was out for
revenge.
"The defendant in this case pulled the trigger at least 13 times," Mantei said
to the jury. "He was there to settle a score."
But defense attorney Francis Shea argued that the real shooters blamed Green
and pointed the finger at Bruce Brice Jr., the man police believe Kearney fired
a gun at earlier in the night but didn't wound.
When police questioned Brice and another witness, they didn't mention Green at
all. It wasn't until months later that they fingered Green as the culprit, Shea
said.
"Mr. Brice had everything at risk," Shea said. "While Mr. Green had no motive."
Green was previously convicted in the August 2009 shooting of Willie Golden,
28, in a home on West 26th Street. The prosecution withdrew seeking the death
penalty because the jury said premeditation wasn't proven.
Prosecutors said Green killed Golden in retaliation of a drive-by shooting on a
drug house that Green ran just 2 streets over from the shooting.
Green also faces a 3rd trial for the murder of Bryan Clemons, 23, who was
gunned down with an assault rifle in April 2009 as he sat in a chair in a home
on West 13th Street.
The Clemons killing was the result of an ongoing dispute between 2 groups of
men from Green's Grand Park neighborhood and the nearby Flag Street area.
The dispute began in November 2008 when the two groups fought over a drink
thrown at a nightclub. The next day, Clemons' brother, Jerry, was slain in a
drive-by shooting at West 14th and Canal streets.
Green is also eligible for the death penalty in the killing of Clemons.
(source: Florida Times-Union)
OKLAHOMA:
Jury considering sentence in Okla. triple killing
McClain County prosecutors have begun presenting evidence to a 12-member jury
that will decide whether a man convicted of killing an Oklahoma woman and her 2
young children should be sentenced to death.
Jurors deliberated about 4 hours Monday before convicting Shaun Michael Bosse
on 3 counts of 1st-degree murder and of 1st-degree arson. The 30-year-old was
charged in the 2010 deaths of 25-year-old Katrina Griffin, 8-year-old Christian
Griffin and 6-year-old Chasity Hammer.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty and presented opening statements on
Tuesday to the jury of nine women and three men and began questioning witnesses
in the penalty phase of the trial.
Bosse faces possible sentences of death or life in prison on the murder
convictions. Jurors recommended a 35-year prison sentence for the arson
conviction.
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA:
Suspect in Downey Craigslist killings could face death penalty
Suspect Jade Douglas Harris remained in jail without bail Tuesday on multiple
murder charges for his alleged role in a Downey shooting rampage last week that
left 3 people dead and 2 wounded.
Prosecutors said Harris' spree began with a Craigslist ad a family had posted
in an attempt to sell their Chevy Camaro. Harris, 30, apparently responded to
the ad but then for reasons still unclear began the bloody attack that started
at the family's business and ended at their home, authorities said.
According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's online inmate
databank, Harris was still in jail Tuesday and there was no immediate
possibility of bail.
Harris, who has a long criminal history and is a known gang member, was placed
on parole in July. Prosecutors said he went to United States Fire Protection
Services, the family's business on Cleta Street on Wednesday in response to the
Craigslist ad and ended up shooting and killing two employees, 26-year-old
Josimar Rojas and 35-year-old Irene Cardenas Reyes, and seriously wounding
Maria Fuentes, the mother of the business' owner.
Harris then allegedly forced the wife of the business owner, Susana Perez
Ruelas, to take him and her 13-year-old son to their home nearby where the
Camaro was parked. At the home, he killed Perez Ruelas and shot the boy, who
reportedly played dead until Harris left.
Authorities said they were still trying to figure out why an apparent
carjacking turned into such a violent rampage. Depending on the charges he
might be convicted of, Harris could face the death penalty.
(source: Los Angeles Times)
USA:
Should The United States Of America Abolish The Death Penalty? [Tim Dees is a
retired police officer and freelance writer. He is a columnist at
PoliceOne.com, a member of the Public Safety Writers Association, and the
author of "The Truth About Cops," published by Hyperink Press.]
I think we should abandon the death penalty. My rationale is as follows:
1.The death penalty does not act as a deterrent any better than other
punishments. If it did, death penalty states would have lower rates of murder
than non-death penalty states. This is not the case.
2.The death penalty is hugely expensive. Keeping an adult inmate in prison for
life costs about $1 million (although there is considerable variance here).
Prosecuting a death penalty case from trial to exhaustion of all appeals and
execution costs typically $5 million, as the government is paying the costs for
both sides in the case. An appeals process is especially critical in capital
cases, as there is no way to go back and make an executed prisoner whole again.
3.With the possible exception of Texas, the death penalty is seldom used.
California has 725 inmates on death row. They have not executed anyone in 6
years, and only a handful in the last 30 years.
4.Because states won't re-open cases once an inmate has been executed, it's
impossible to determine positively if an innocent man has ever been executed.
However, 18 people who were exonerated of their charges through The Innocence
Project after conviction served time on death row. It seems almost certain to
me that some people executed before DNA evidence became available were wrongly
convicted. There is no way to fix that.
5.The death penalty satisfies the need some people have for retribution - an
eye for an eye. We don't exact this kind of retribution for other crimes.
Rapists aren't thrown helpless to people who will rape them; drunk drivers who
injure or kill others in accidents aren't made to stand in front of speeding
cars.
Prisons incapacitate the offender from victimizing more people, and that is
probably about the best we're going to do for now. Rehabilitation efforts are
hit and miss, and there's little evidence that harsher penalties have a
deterrent effect on offenders. The other costs and hazards of the death penalty
don't justify the benefit of making a few people satisfied a killer has paid
the ultimate price. Knowing that you're going to die in prison and never again
walk as a free man is a pretty harsh penalty in itself.
(source: Forbes.com)
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