Nov. 6
KENTUCKY:
3 people facing possible death penalty take plea
They faced the death penalty if convicted of murdering a mother and her son at
a Shively apartment complex, instead on Monday one of those people is walking
free.
It took a week to seat a jury in the murder trial of Laquita Townsend, 32,
Marcus Greene, 32, and Zachary Kilgore, 36. Opening statements were set to
being Monday, when instead all three pleaded to lesser charges.
A hug and an apology is about all the Wood's are left the courthouse with
Monday. "I think it's been an emotional morning," said Assistant Commonwealth's
Attorney Alice Jones. "We prepared for trial and reached a last minute
settlement."
Originally police said Townsend went to the Shively apartment in November 2009,
lured Diana Wood and Steve Wood Junior outside where Greene and Kilgore shot
and killed them both. Diana Wood was hit once in the head. Steve Wood Junior
was struck several times. In court, Townsend admitted to helping Greene kill
only Diana Wood and assaulting her husband. "She pled to misdemeanors that will
result in her being home with her children tonight," said Townsend's attorney
Kenyon Meyer. "I think it was a reasonable business decision on her part to
take the deal."
Kilgore admitted to helping Greene kill both Steve Wood Junior and his mother.
He also pleaded to being a convicted felon with a gun and leaving the scene
with the weapons. He will serve 5 years in prison.
Greene took an Alford plea for the manslaughter of Steve Wood Junior, meaning
he doesn't admit to killing him, but knows there's enough evidence to convict
him. He also pleaded to manslaughter second degree for the death of Diana Wood.
His sentence will likely be 20 years.
Jones said within the last 2 weeks some facts came out that concerned them,
including new inconsistencies with witness statements. "This is an old case.
It's been 3 years people's memories are bound to change."
Greene's sister said it's a plea that allows justice for all. The Wood family
had nothing to say after the hearing.
Greene will be formally sentenced in December. 2 others charged in connection
with the Wood deaths are still awaiting trial.
(source: WAVE News)
US MILITARY:
Prosecutors seek death for U.S. soldier charged in Afghan rampage
Military prosecutors said on Monday they would seek the death penalty for a
U.S. soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers when he ventured out of his
camp on 2 revenge-fueled drunken forays earlier this year.
The lead prosecutor, Lieutenant Colonel Jay Morse, told a preliminary hearing
he would present evidence proving "chilling premeditation" on the part of Staff
Sergeant Robert Bales, a decorated veteran of 4 combat tours in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
The shootings of mostly women and children in Afghanistan's Kandahar province
in March marked the worst case of civilian slaughter blamed on an individual
U.S. soldier since the Vietnam War and eroded already strained U.S.-Afghan ties
after more than a decade of conflict in the country.
Bales faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and 6 counts of attempted murder
as well as charges of assault and wrongfully possessing and using steroids and
alcohol while deployed.
Morse said he was submitting a "capital referral" in the case, requesting that
Bales be executed if convicted.
The hearing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state was expected to
last 2 weeks and include witness testimony from Afghanistan carried by live
video, including testimony from villagers and Afghan soldiers.
At the end, military commanders will decide whether there is sufficient
evidence for Bales to stand trial by court-martial.
Bales, dressed in camouflage Army fatigues with his head shaven, embraced his
wife in court before the hearing began. He then sat silently watching the
proceedings from the defense table as Morse summarized the prosecution's
account of the events of March 10-11.
According to Morse, Bales had been drinking with 2 fellow soldiers before he
left his base, Camp Belambay, and went to a village where he committed the
first killings.
Morse said Bales then returned to the camp and told a drinking buddy, Sergeant
Jason McLaughlin, "I just shot up some people," before leaving for a 2nd
village and killing more people. Morse called Bales' actions "deliberate,
methodical."
According to McLaughlin, Bales asked him to smell his rifle and said "I'll be
back at 5 (a.m.). You got me?" McLaughlin said he did not think Bales was
serious, and "didn't think too much about it," going back to sleep for guard
duty that started at 3 a.m.
DESCRIBED AS WEARING A CLOAK
Prosecutors showed a video shot by night-vision camera from a surveillance
balloon over the camp, showing a figure they identified as Bales walking back
to the post wearing a dark blue bed sheet or throw rug tied around his neck
like a cloak.
He is seen being confronted by 3 soldiers, including the 2 men prosecutors said
he had been drinking with, who ordered him to drop his weapons and took him
into custody as he is heard saying, "Are you fucking kidding me?"
1 of the 3, Corporal David Godwin, testified that Bales kept repeating the
words, "I thought I was doing the right thing," and "It's bad. It's bad. It's
really bad." Several witnesses said Bales' trousers were spattered with blood.
One said he had a "ghost-like look."
Godwin recounted that he, Bales and McLaughlin had been drinking whiskey
together in McLaughlin's room while watching the Hollywood film "Man on Fire,"
which stars Denzel Washington as a former assassin bent on revenge.
Several witnesses from the camp said Bales had been aggrieved over the lack of
action over an improvised explosive device attack on a patrol near the camp
several days earlier, in which 1 U.S. soldier lost the lower part of a leg.
Prosecutors said Bales had been armed with a rifle, a pistol and a grenade
launcher on the night in question, and that the killings took place over a
5-hour period in 2 villages. The dead included members of 4 families, most shot
in the head.
When Bales returned to the camp and surrendered his weapons, he was brought to
Captain Daniel Fields, team leader, at the camp's command center. "What the
fuck just happened?" Fields said he asked Bales. He said Bales avoided eye
contact and just said "I'm sorry, I let you down."
Bales, who was not expected to testify during the so-called Article 32 hearing,
had been confined at a military prison in Kansas from March until he was moved
in October to Lewis-McChord, where his infantry regiment was based.
John Henry Browne, Bales' civilian lawyer, has suggested Bales may not have
acted alone and may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Bales' wife, Kari, told a local NBC affiliate, KING5-TV, before Monday's
hearing she believed he was innocent, as a massacre of innocent civilians was
"not something my husband would have done ... not the Bob that I know."
The shootings highlighted discipline problems among U.S. soldiers from
Lewis-McChord, which was also the home base of 4 enlisted men from the former
5th Stryker Brigade who were convicted or pleaded guilty to murder or
manslaughter over 3 killings of unarmed Afghan civilians in 2010.
(source: Reuters)
USA:
See Whether Obama Or Romney Is Tougher On Crime
Crime policy has not been a central issue in this year's presidential race,
Berkeley law professor Barry Krisberg pointed out today in the blog The Crime
Report.
While crime dropped recently for the 5th year in a row, several U.S. cities are
among the most dangerous in the world. There was also a spate of mass shootings
over the summer.
So, what do Obama and Romney propose to do to lower crime rates even more?
Here's where they stand on major crime issues:
Death penalty
Obama doesn't state his position on the death penalty on his website. He has
advocated for death penalty reform while saying he still favors it for heinous
crimes, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Romney seems to be a more fervant supporter of the death penalty and even
pushed to have it restored in Massachusetts when he was governor there,
according to Boston.com.
Federal funding for law enforcement
The president has defended the DOJ's role in helping out local and state law
enforcement, and would continue substantial funding for the DOJ, the FBI, and
other federal agencies, according to The Crime Report.
Romney has proposed big cuts to federal law enforcement and the Federal Bureau
of Prisons, Krisberg writes in the crime report. But, according to Krisberg,
Romney has been short on details on that front.
Guns
Obama has pushed for reinstating the assault weapons ban but promised in 2008
that he wouldn't "take away" citizens' guns, according to the Washington Post.
For his part, Romney signed an assault weapons ban when he was governor of
Massachusetts in 2004.
But the Washington Post reported Romney subsequently back-pedaled and told a
group of conservative bloggers he didn't support "any gun-control legislation"
- including an assault weapon ban.
(source: Business Insider)
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