Jan. 15
PENNSYLVANIA:
Death penalty sought in KOP double murder
The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office will seek the death penalty
against Raghunandan Yandamuri, the man accused of killing a baby and her
grandmother in King of Prussia last year.
"We filed the notice to seek the death penalty today," said Kevin R. Steele,
first assistant district attorney and the chief prosecutor on the case.
Charges against Yandamuri, 25, include 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, 2 counts
of 2nd-degree murder, and kidnapping for ransom.
On October 22, 2012, the body of Satayrathi Venna, 61, was found with knife
wounds to her neck and chest on the floor of her son's apartment in the Marquis
Apartment Complex on West Dekalb Pike. Yandamuri knew the Vennas and lived in
the same complex.
He admitted to Upper Merion Township Police that he cut the grandmother, who
was visiting from India, as he took 10-month-old Saanvi Venna.
Yandamuri claims that her killing and that of the baby - whom Yandamuri
abducted, gagged, and put in a large blue suitcase - were accidental. The baby
was found dead Oct. 26 elsewhere in the apartment complex.
Investigators found a ransom note in the apartment that asked for $50,000,
which, they believed, Yandamuri would use to pay gambling debts.
"We only seek the death penalty in limited cases, reserving it for the worst of
the worst. In this case we carefully evaluated the evidence before deciding to
file the notice of our intention to seek the death penalty," Steele said
Tuesday. "In the 2 murders of Saanvi and Satayrathi there is evidence of a
number of aggravating factors including: murder while the victim was being held
for ransom, killing in perpetration of a felony, multiple murders, murder of a
child under 12, and murder of a witness."
"It doesn't take me by surprise. I anticipated this might happen," said
Yandamuri's attorney, Stephen G. Heckman. "We'll take it from there."
The trial is assigned to Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Steven T.
O'Neill. No trial date has been set.
(soruce: Philly.com)
*****************************
'Prosecutors Want Death Penalty in King of Prussia Kidnap-Murder Case
Montgomery County prosecutors say they will pursue the death penalty for the
King of Prussia man accused of murdering a 10-month-old and her grandmother
during what prosecutors say was a botched kidnapping in Upper Merion last
October.
Raghu Yandamuri, 26, is still awaiting formal arraignment in the case, but
prosecutors have filed the necessary paperwork to seek the death penalty
against him.
Montgomery County prosecutor Kevin Steele says there are a number of
aggravating factors that make it a capital punishment case:
"They involve a killing in the course of a felony, they involve the killing in
the course of a kidnapping," he tells KYW Newsradio. "There's also aggravating
factors involving taking of a hostage."
Another aggravating factor, he says, is the murder of a child under the age of
12.
Steele says the DA's office filed 2 notices of the death penalty: 1 for the
grandmother and 1 for the child, Sannvi Venna.
Authorities say Yandamuri stabbed the woman when she tried to prevent him from
taking the child from their apartment. He suffocated the child and left her in
the basement of a building.
Defense attorney Steve Heckman says he's not shocked that prosecutors are
seeking the death penalty for his client and he's in the process of reviewing
the court filing.
(source: CBS News)
VIRGINIA----impending execution
Federal appeals court won't block Virginia execution
A federal appeals court panel will not block Wednesday's execution of a
Virginia man who killed a man in Amherst County, strangled 2 inmates and vowed
to keep killing unless given the death penalty.
Former attorneys for 42-year-old Robert Gleason asked the 4th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals on Monday to appoint them to his case so they can order a
mental health evaluation. They argue Gleason wasn't competent to waive his
appeals.
The court rejected the motion Tuesday. The attorneys can ask for a hearing of
the full court or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Gleason is set to die by electrocution at 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Gleason was sentenced to life in prison in 2008 for the Amherst County murder
of Michael Kent Jamerson, of Madison Heights, the previous year.
While serving that sentence, he killed his cellmate in 2009. After threatening
to kill again, he strangled another inmate as he awaited sentencing in 2010.
(source: Associated Press)
MARYLAND:
O'Malley Pledges Death Penalty Repeal
Governor Martin O'Malley says he believes the Maryland General Assembly has the
will to repeal capital punishment this session.
O'Malley, who said Tuesday he will be making repeal a priority, says the death
penalty is a waste of resources that could be better used to fight crime in
more productive ways.
"Is it worth wasting taxpayer dollars on a policy that does not work," O'Malley
told a rally hosted by the NAACP.
O'Malley said that later this week he will submit a death penalty repeal bill
to the Maryland General Assembly later this week.
The potential repeal of capital punishment has received added attention
recently, after Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said he believes it will
pass this year. Miller, who supports the death penalty, also predicted a repeal
bill will be petitioned to the ballot for voters to decide in 2014.
Voters approved ballot questions on same-sex marriage and Maryland's version of
the Dream Act in November. O'Malley said Tuesday: "I don't fear the judgment of
the people of Maryland."
4 years ago, the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, blocked a floor vote on
a death penalty repeal bill, but now Miller believes the bill will be voted out
of committee, allowing a floor vote.
He says senators who favor a repeal will not have to use a parliamentary move
to bypass a committee vote.
"It's not going to be petitioned out of committee. A majority of the members of
the committee will bring the bill to the floor," Miller told reporters after
today's Senate session.
Miller says that he expects one of the opponents to the repeal will vote to
support the bill just to get it before the full Senate.
Committee Chairman Brian Frosh agrees with Miller.
Baltimore County Senator Norman Stone who sits on the committee, is not going
to change his vote.
"I don't generally do that. I don't vote to get a bill out of committee that I
generally oppose," Stone told WBAL News.
Stone said he has not heard from the governor, Miller or anyone else asking him
to change his vote.
"I guess they've given up on me," Stone told WBAL News.
O'Malley has been an outspoken opponent of the death penalty.
In 2009, he made a death penalty repeal part of his legislative agenda.
When the bill could not make it out of the Senate Judicial Proceedings
Committee, lawmakers approved restrictions on death penalty prosecutions.
Miller said those restrictions are reasonable.
Executions have been on hold in Maryland since a 2006 Maryland Court of Appeals
decision ordering the state to come up with a new execution protocol.
The governor has pointed out that it is costly to keep an inmate on death row,
and no executions can move forward until a legislative committee comes up with
new protocol.
"We're kind of stuck right now, where we're at. We have a protocol by statute,
I do believe, a 3 drug protocol, 1 of which is not available in the United
States," O'Malley told reporters last week.
A Baltimore Sun poll, released this week, shows that 48 % of voters oppose a
death penalty repeal, and 42 % support it.
(source: Associated Press)
US MILITARY:
Soldier who faces potential death penalty in Afghanistan massacre to be
arraigned Thursday
The Army says the staff sergeant accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers during
nighttime raids last year is due to be arraigned Thursday at Joint Base
Lewis-McChord in Washington state.
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales could face the death penalty if convicted in the
massacre early on March 11. He faces premeditated murder and other charges in
the attack on 2 villages in southern Afghanistan.
Prosecutors say Bales left his remote base, attacked 1 village and then
returned to the base before slipping away again to attack another nearby
compound. Of the 16 people killed, 9 were children.
Bales, an Ohio native who later moved to Washington state, is being detained at
Lewis-McChord.
(source: Associated Press)
UTAH:
Accused Ogden cop-killer challenges legality of death penalty
The attorney for an accused Ogden cop-killer has filed a motion challenging the
legality of the death penalty.
In the motion filed in 2nd District Court, Matthew David Stewart's attorney
Randall Richards argues that the death penalty violates Stewart's due process
rights under the U.S. and Utah constitutions.
Stewart, 38, has been charged with aggravated murder for the fatal shooting of
Weber Morgan Narcotics Strike Force agent Jared Francom, 30.
Weber County prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death penalty for
Stewart.
The strike force agents were attempting to serve a no-knock search warrant on
Stewart's Jackson Avenue home on the night of Jan. 4, 2012, when a shootout
erupted between Stewart and the officers.
Stewart is also charged with 7 1st-degree felony counts of attempted aggravated
murder for allegedly trying to kill other officers, and 1 2nd-degree felony
count related to alleged marijuana cultivation. Stewart has pleaded not guilty
on all counts.
In the motion, Stewart's lead defense attorney Randall Richards notes that the
death penalty may be imposed only if the jury finds that the aggravating
factors of the crime outweigh the mitigating factors.
But, given that murder "is conceivably the single most egregious act known to
man. The weight ... of the ultimate evil act would by its very nature outweigh
any possible mitigation," the motion states.
The upshot, Richards argues, is that the Utah Legislature has enacted a law
where a life sentence is only allowed "through an act or series of acts that
are impossible to achieve. Therein lies the due process and cruel and unusual
punishment violations of requiring the criminal defendant in a murder case to
save his life only by establishing something that is impossible to establish."
Typical arguments in favor of mitigation include that the defendant is
youthful, has little or no prior criminal history, or was under the influence
of an emotional or mental disturbance.
But "the defendant does not believe those mitigating circumstance ... outweigh
the aggravation of murder," Richards writes.
"To suggest that any criminal defendant could set forth any single or combined
mitigating factors in an effort to overcome the aggravation of murder is simply
illusory," the motion states.
Richards notes that while prosecutors may argue that various Utah juries have
awarded life sentences in capital murder cases, "the defense believes that
these are unusual examples and are in essence a jury nullification of a
mandatory death sentence."
(source: Salt Lake Tribune)
**************************
Stewart attorneys file motion challenging death penalty
Lawyers for Matthew David Stewart, accused of gunning down a police officer
during a pot raid at his Ogden home, are challenging Utah's death-penalty law.
Weber County prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty if Stewart is
convicted of aggravated murder and other charges.
The defense lawyers, including Randy Richards, recently filed a motion saying
Utah's law is unconstitutional because it leaves juries with no choice but the
death penalty in cases of aggravated murder.
In court papers, lawyers conclude: "...the defendant respectfully requests this
court to find that the sentencing scheme...violates the due process clause of
the Utah and the United States Constitution in that it requires a defendant,
once convicted of aggravated murder, to meet a standard that is impossible to
meet in order to avoid a sentence of death as set forth in that statute."
"Specifically," it continues, "given the nature of the aggravation of a murder,
trying to establish that there are 1 or several mitigating factors that somehow
outweighed the enormity of the murder is impossible, and therefore violative of
the due process claused of both constitutions."
Also in the court papers, the lawyers refer to Stewart as a youthful defendant
with no criminal history who was under mental or emotional duress.
Stewart's family said the 38-year-old Army veteran was growing marijuana to
ease his anxiety and depression. Stewart told investigators he believed he was
being robbed when a narcotics task force broke into his house on Jan. 4, 2012.
In November, Stewart entered not guilty pleas to all charges from the Jan. 4
shootout at his home that left 1 police officer dead and 5 others wounded.
Stewart faces the death penalty if convicted in the death of officer Jared
Francom.
He is also charged with 7 counts of attempted aggravated murder for allegedly
shooting at 7 other officers, hitting 5, plus 1 count of 2nd-degree felony
cultivation for the 16 marijuana plants taken from his home after the shootout.
(source: The Standard-Examiner)
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