Feb. 7
CALIFORNIA:
Death Penalty Could be Sought For Sierra LaMar Suspected Killer; Antolin Garcia
Torres' plea date is now scheduled for April 4
The death penalty could be sought for Morgan Hill teen Sierra LaMar's suspected
kidnapper and killer Antolin Garcia Torres, a county prosecutor said Wednesday.
"Death can be sought [in this case] but a decision to seek death has not been
made," said Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney David Boyd.
Boyd's comments came after a brief court hearing in Department 23 of the San
Jose Hall of Justice where Garcia Torres' new plea hearing was set for 9 a.m.
April 4.
Boyd said such a hearing will be preceded by a motion's hearing for subpoenaed
records by Garcia Torres' attorneys on Feb. 20.
The prosecutor said he had agreed to file his response to their motion by the
end of this week.
Every document being filed on the case is being posted online due to Santa
Clara County Superior Court Judge Richard Loftis Jr.'s order that all records
in the case must be scanned and uploaded to the Santa Clara County Superior
Court's website.
Garcia Torres, 21, was arrested May 21, 2012 and has sat incarcerated for more
than 8 months without entering a plea, but Boyd said such a delay in not
unusual.
Sierra, who was 15 at the time, vanished the morning of March 16, 2012 on her
way to Sobrato High School in Morgan Hill. Her body is still missing.
His DNA was found on the girl's clothing located in a field near her school bus
stop and two miles away from her home. And Sierra's DNA was found in Garcia
Torres' red Volkswagen Jetta.
Torres lived about seven miles from Sierra's home. In April of 2012,
investigators seized the vehicle and submitted it to the crime lab for
processing and analysis.
"When you're dealing with a case that involves a kidnapping and a murder and
special circumstances where death can be sought this is quite common," he said.
Boyd said he believes Garcia Torres is guilty and wants to make sure he's held
accountable for the crime.
If the death penalty is not sought and he's found guilty of the charges, he
could face life in prison without the possibility of parole.
If Boys seeks the death penalty, a trial could take longer to occur. If not, a
trial could come sooner, he said.
Garcia Torres is also facing felony kidnap and carjacking charges related to 3
incidents in 2009 in Morgan Hill, where's he's from.
Tom Barrett, of Hollister, drove all the way to San Jose Wednesday to attend
the hearing. He said he's been helping search for Sierra's body since she was
reported missing.
"I'm one of her searchers," he said. "We're still looking for her, but our hope
is starting to diminish."
Barrett said missing-children advocate Marc Klaas has worked hard to bring
attention to the case and has been attending court proceedings.
About 40 people gather at Morgan Hill's Burnett Elementary School to search for
the girl on Saturdays in South County, he added.
(source: Los Gatos Patch)
***********************
High court upholds death penalty in 1995 murder of 2 Orinda women
The California Supreme Court Thursday unanimously upheld the death penalty of a
man who killed a Concord restaurant owner and her disabled adult daughter
during a robbery of their Orinda home in 1995.
Corey Williams, 36, was sentenced to death in Contra Costa County Superior
Court in 2000 for the 1st-degree murders of restaurant owner Maria Corrieo, 74,
and her daughter, Gina Roberts, 53.
Another of Corrieo's daughters discovered the 2 women dead of gunshot wounds to
their heads and with their hands tied behind their backs on Aug. 16, 1995.
Williams, then 19, was 1 of 3 men who had planned to rob Corrieo. They had
learned from a restaurant cook that the owner, who mistrusted banks, carried
large amounts of cash and had an estimated $30,000 in the trunk of her car.
1 of the other men, David Ross, testified against Williams at his trial and
said Williams told him he shot the women because Ross called him by his
nickname, "C-Dog," during the robbery, and Williams was afraid he could be
recognized. The nickname was tattooed on his hand.
The men stole between $40,000 and $50,000 as well as a television set.
Ross was sentenced to 20 years in prison and the third defendant, Dalton
Lolohea, was sentenced to life in prison.
The high court, in a ruling issued in San Francisco, rejected Williams' appeal
claims of errors in jury selection and in evidence rulings.
The panel also turned down Williams' claim that he should not have been allowed
to act as his own lawyer during the penalty phase of the trial.
Justice Carol Corrigan wrote for the court that Williams had a right to
represent himself and that the trial judge, Superior Court Judge Richard
Arnason, adequately "questioned him at length about his request for
self-representation and his understanding of the consequences."
During the penalty proceedings, Williams expressed no remorse and told the
jury, "My actions are my actions and mine alone. I chose the life I led."
Williams has the right to pursue further appeals in the federal court system.
(source: KTVU News)
**************
Prosecutor seeks death for rapist, killerJason Balcom was convicted of the 1988
killing of a pregnant woman; now, a jury will determine if he should receive
life in prison or die.
A convicted rapist deserves the death penalty for murdering a 22-year-old
pregnant housewife during a sexual assault in Costa Mesa as part of a brutal
crime spree in the summer of 1988, an Orange County prosecutor told a jury
Wednesday.
Jason Michael Balcom, 43, terrorized and raped 4 women during a 6-week period
after he was released from juvenile hall in July 1988, and inflicted a life of
grief and anguish on the family of Malinda Godfrey Gibbons, who was beaten,
sexually assaulted, bound and stabbed to death, Deputy District Attorney Matt
Murphy said.
The aggravating factors of the murder, the violent attacks on the other women
and the lingering devastation to those who cared about Gibbons warrants a death
sentence, Murphy told the jury in his opening statements of Balcom's 2nd
penalty-phase trial here.
But defense attorney Dolores Yost said Balcom, who was 18 when the crimes
occurred, was the product of a horrible upbringing by a destructive and abusive
single mother who was manipulative, self-absorbed and possibly bipolar.
Yost told the jury in her opening statement that Balcom's mother rebelled
against her racist parents by consorting with black men, and that she twice
became pregnant with biracial children, including Balcom. Her parents rejected
her and her son, and she went on to a series of dysfunctional relationships
with other men, none of whom provided an appropriate father figure for Balcom,
Yost said. His mother was a "broken woman," Yost said, who years later
committed suicide by lying on railroad tracks.
The deputy public defender said she will ask the jury in Judge Francisco
Briseno's courtroom to recommend a life term in prison without the possibility
of parole because of the mitigating factors surrounding Balcom's childhood.
Balcom, who is serving a 50-year prison sentence for a September 1988 rape in
Battle Creek, Mich., was convicted last year of special-circumstances murder
for killing Gibbons during a sexual assault, robbery and burglary. But that
same jury deadlocked at 10-2 in favor of death during a penalty phase, setting
the stage for the retrial that's now under way.
It is the 1st of what could be 10 death-penalty trials in Orange County in
2013.
According to police reports and news accounts, Malinda Godfrey Gibbons was 22
and pregnant in the summer of 1988 when she and her husband moved into a Costa
Mesa apartment to start their new life together. She was, her brother said,
"the sweetest person in the world."
But a few days later - on July 18, 1988 - Kent Gibbons returned home from work
and found the semi-nude body of his wife. She had been bound and gagged with
his ties, stabbed in the chest and sexually assaulted. The case was unsolved
for more than 25 years.
In 2004, the Michigan state crime lab contributed to a national DNA database of
convicted felons, allowing Costa Mesa police detectives to compare genetic
materials recovered from Gibbons' body to past and present Michigan inmates.
Jason Balcom was a match.
The penalty phase is scheduled to last about 3 weeks.
If Balcom receives the death penalty, he will join 59 convicted killers from
Orange County on death row. There are more than 700 murderers statewide who are
under a sentence of death, but there has not been an execution in the state for
more than 7 years.
(source: Orange County Register)
**********************
Father of killed, dismembered son shares frustration on 'Dr. Phil'
The father of a Costa Mesa man killed and dismembered more than 2 years ago
said on the "Dr. Phil" show that he he was frustrated he had to appear on TV to
defend his son's memory.
"I find it offensive I have to come on TV and do this. I think I should do this
in a court of law," said Steve Herr, whose son, Sam Herr, was killed in May
2010.
Police arrested Sam Herr's neighbor, Daniel Patrick Wozniak, more than 2 years
ago and prosecutors charged him with the murders of Herr and Juri "Julie"
Kibuishi. Her body was found in Herr's apartment, and authorities said she may
have been sexually assaulted.
Wozniak could face the death penalty if convicted of the murders. Police
recently arrested his former fiancee, Rachel Buffett, on suspicion of accessory
after the fact in connection with the crime.
On Tuesday's "Dr. Phil," show, host Phillip McGraw outlined 3 inconsistencies
he said Buffett told police, including the existence of a 3rd man she said she
saw with Herr before his death. Police later determined the man was fictitious.
Buffett defended her statements, saying she believed her fiance implicitly.
"You have a wife right?" Buffett asked McGraw. "If your wife told you she just
made a pot of coffee and it was in the kitchen and then you didn't see it, but
later on somehow it became really important whether or not it was there and a
cop asked you, 'What was in your kitchen?' you'd say, 'Oh, a spatula, a fork
and a pot of coffee.'"
"I trusted him, and I trusted what he said was true. And especially before I
thought it really mattered I didn't question it," Buffett said on the show.
Among those in attendance was Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas,
who said his office chose to press charges against Buffett after 2 years after
the investigation yielded no other leads for further charges.
"Well, it's been a long and hard investigation," Rackauckas said. "By the time
we finally got to the point where it seems its going to be pretty clear
additional evidence isn't going to come out, it was decided Rachel could only
be charged with accessory after the fact."
Herr's father said he doesn't believe Buffett???s professed innocence.
"I absolutely believe she's guilty of what she's being tried for," he said,
later adding, "My son is dead, my son and his friend, his tutor, they're both
dead. He was cut up into pieces. And for you to come on here, to go on the TV
stations and 'poor me' that offends me. That offends me. And I'll just leave it
at that."
Buffett said she understood their frustrations.
"I feel their pain and I know they're hurting more then I am," she said. "...I
know I'm not the main victim."
(source: Los Angeles Times)
MASSACHUSETTS:
Brockton child killer up for parole hearing in March
Convicted child killer, Charles Jaynes, is scheduled for a parole hearing on
March 19, according to the state's Parole Board.
Jaynes, formerly of Brockton, is serving a life sentence in Old Colony
Correctional Facility in Bridgewater for 2nd-degree murder in the 1997 slaying
of 10-year-old Jeffrey Curley.
Jaynes was found guilty in December 1998 of 2nd-degree murder and kidnapping
and sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility.
He will go before the Parole Board on March 19 at 9 a.m. at the department's
central offices in Natick, said Caitlin Casey, Parole Board executive director.
Robert Curley, Jeffrey Curley's father, said he intends to appear at the
hearing and speak in opposition.
"He said in court (at a recent name change hearing) that he never planned on
being paroled because he would never admit to the court that he killed Jeff,"
said Curley. "And as far as I know he was under oath."
Jaynes recently tried to change his name, citing Wiccan religious beliefs, but
was denied by a Brockton District Court judge.
At the parole hearing, Jaynes will face the full board, 6 members, and give his
statement. There will also be an opportunity for up to 5 supporters and
opposers to speak, said Casey.
On Oct. 1, 1997, Jaynes and Salvatore Sicari of Cambridge lured the boy into a
car with the promise of a new bike. When Curley fought back against their
sexual advances, Jaynes smothered him with a gasoline-soaked rag, according to
trial testimony at the time.
Sicari was found guilty of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison
without parole in November 1998. He is currently 36 and serving his sentence in
MCI-Norfolk.
Curley???s gruesome murder re-ignited the debate over the death penalty in
Massachusetts. In response, a bill to re-establish the death penalty in
Massachusetts was filed in the Legislature; it was defeated by 1 vote in the
House of Representatives in 1998.
(source: wickedlocal.com)
USA (NEW YORK):
2 Officers' Killer Eligible for Death Penalty, Judge Says
A New York City man who was sentenced to be executed for the murder of 2
undercover police officers in 2003 - and who made headlines once again this
week after it was revealed he impregnated 1 of his prison guards - was found by
a judge on Thursday not to be mentally retarded and therefore eligible to be
put to death.
The man, Ronell Wilson, shot and killed 2 undercover detectives - James V.
Nemorin and Rodney J. Andrews - during a failed gun-buy operation on Staten
Island in 2003. A federal jury found Mr. Wilson guilty of murder and handed
down the 1st death sentence by a federal jury in the city in more than half a
century.
An appeals court later upheld the conviction but suspended the death sentence,
saying the prosecution unfairly prejudiced the jury during sentencing. That
meant the question of whether Mr. Wilson would face capital punishment or would
face life in prison would have to be heard before a new jury.
Lawyers for Mr. Wilson sought to block the prospect that he could receive
another death sentence by arguing that he was mentally incompetent. But Judge
Nicholas G. Garaufis of United States District Court in Brooklyn ruled that Mr.
Wilson was not mentally retarded, either at the time he committed the crime or
now.
The 55-page ruling did not mention the latest controversy surrounding Mr.
Wilson - that he had a sexual affair with one of his prison guards at the
Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and that she is now 8 months pregnant
with his child. The guard, Nancy Gonzalez, 29, was arraigned in federal court
on Tuesday on charges of sexual abuse of a person in custody, because an inmate
cannot legally consent to sex.
If he had been found to be retarded, a death penalty ruling would violate the
Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishments, as well as the Federal
Death Penalty Act passed by Congress in 1988 and amended in 1994 that states a
"sentence of death shall not be carried out upon a person who is mentally
retarded."
The issue of whether inferior mental capacity should stop someone from being
sentenced to death has long been one of the most fraught issues surrounding the
death penalty. On June 20, 2002, the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling
ending the execution of those with intellectual disability.
Judge Garaufis noted that over the course of his life, Mr. Wilson had been
issued nine I.Q. tests. The methods of the testing varied, but Judge Garaufis
found that because 8 of those tests showed him to be at least 3 points above
the benchmark for legal retardation, which is 70, Mr. Wilson was not retarded.
In addition to the I.Q. tests, Judge Garaufis said he based his ruling on the
opinions of the clinicians who administered the tests.
"The clinical judgments of Wilson's test administrators support the court's
analysis," he wrote. "And most of them believed his observed scores represented
an underestimate of his true intelligence."
But the judge noted that the ruling did not mean Mr. Wilson would ultimately
face execution for his crimes. "This does not mean that he will receive - or
deserve to receive - the death penalty," he wrote. "But only that any such
penalty would not violate the Federal Death penalty Act or the Eighth
Amendment."
(source: New York Times)
************************
The Death Penalty, Life Imprisonment, and Other Punitive Measures: What's the
Point?
If you ask children what the purpose of a punishment is, most will say "to
learn your lesson." This is why life imprisonment and the death penalty don't
make much sense to them. Yet in the United States alone, 140,000 people are
currently serving life sentences, and 41,000 of them have no chance of ever
getting released. Meanwhile, more than 3,200 people were on death row by the
end of 2011, also in the United States.
Recently, a 10-year-old child from my daughter's class asked me this pertinent
question: "What's the point of learning your lesson if you never get a chance
to show that you did?" The answer is simple: not much. Unfortunately,
rehabilitation (the adult word for "learning a lesson") is often not at the
heart of criminal justice reform. In fact, the harshness of a punishment is
frequently not determined by the possibility of recidivism, but rather by
public opinion.
Take, for example, sex offenders in the United States. Long sentences and
additional punitive measures such as sex registries and zoning laws are often
imposed with the explicit goal of preventing further crime after news reports
of particularly heinous acts, notably those involving children or that end in
death. Yet the majority of former sex offenders do not re-offend and most sex
crimes are not committed by former offenders. Meanwhile, most sexual abuse
against children goes unreported. Further, about 30 % of child sexual abuse is
perpetrated by a relative of the child, and another 60 % by someone the child
knows well.
In other words: the imposition of harsher punishment does little to generate
the lesson-learning and change we need to prevent abuse in the 1st place. But
punitive measures meted out through criminal laws and restrictive policies
often have other objectives than rehabilitation, the 2 most prominent being
deterrence and control.
Deterrence is perhaps the most frequently mentioned reason to strengthen
sentencing laws. This Sunday, India's president approved new sexual assault
provisions, including for the 1st time the possibility of death sentences for
rape cases in which the victim dies. The Indian government's sudden and
accelerated interest in sexual violence was fueled by the public uproar after 5
men viciously raped a young woman, Joyti Singh Pandey, on December 16, 2012.
Pandey later died as a result of the rape. The new ordinance has been
criticized by Indian women's groups for side-stepping several very real issues,
such as for example marital rape, which is rife in India (and many other places
too).
Equally to the point, not very many of the rapes that do occur in India (or
elsewhere) are reported, let alone investigated and prosecuted. An infinitely
small proportion of rapes committed end with convictions and actual sentences
imposed. The resulting impunity means that perpetrators have little incentive
to look at or think about the potential consequences of their acts in terms of
jail time.
Social control through stigma is another objective for longer sentencing. The
length of the punishment assigned by the law signals the weight of our
disapproval of that act. This is the reason we are offended by laws that mete
out stronger sentences for stealing a cow or growing pot than for rape: we
expect the law to be proportional and "fair." And control through stigma
certainly has a role in rehabilitation and lesson-learning. Studies show that
people are less likely to engage in behavior they believe is wrong than in
behavior they know to be illegal but don't think of as morally wrong.
But stigma cuts many ways. When we criminalize an act, the stigma attaches both
to the act and to the person doing it -- or even to persons associated with the
act. The stronger the stigma, the more likely the person will be vulnerable to
abuse and discrimination. It is, for example, virtually impossible for a
convicted felon to find a job after jail, yet studies are clear that getting a
job is key to preventing recidivism.
Obviously, the relationship between morality, the law, and criminal behavior is
complex and has been subject to study for decades. But at the most basic level,
whenever we as a society agree to impose sanctions and punitive measures, we
should be asking ourselves the question of a 10-year-old: what's the point? In
many cases, we'll find that even if there was an original point, it doesn't
bear out in practice.
(source: Marianne Mollmann; Senior policy advisor, Amnesty International)
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
UNH School of Law Social Justice Institute to host death penalty symposium
THE UNH SCHOOL of Law Social Justice Institute in Concord is hosting a
symposium Wednesday on New Hampshire's death penalty.
The symposium will take place in Room 282 and will consist of 2 panel
discussions with a half-hour cocktail break. The 1st panel will run from 3:30
to 5 p.m. and will address logistical and administrative issues. The 2nd panel
will run from 5:30 to 7 p.m. and will focus on social and political impacts the
death penalty has on the New Hampshire community.
Speakers include Tina Nadeau, chief justice of the state's superior courts;
Corrections Commissioner William Wrenn; attorney Chris Keating, the head of the
N.H. Judicial Council; former attorney general Phil McLaughlin; attorney David
Rothstein, who has represented death row inmate Michael Addison; and Timothy
Anderson, who has served as a juror on a capital murder trial.
(source: Concord Monitor)
WISCONSIN:
Restorative justice conference explores death penalty vs. life without parole
The death penalty vs. life without parole and their effects on victims'
families and their communities will be the topic of the 2013 Restorative
Justice Conference at Marquette University Law School Feb. 21-22.
Speakers will include Marilyn Peterson Amour, associate professor in the School
of Social Work at the University of Texas, who co-authored a 2012 study
comparing the impact of sentences meted out in Texas and Minnesota.
The conference explores the effects of both sanctions through the personal
stories of survivors, prosecutors, defense lawyers, victims' advocates, and
judges. The conference is based on a groundbreaking study by Marilyn Armour of
victims' families in Texas (affected by the death penalty) and Minnesota
(affected by life without the possibility of parole) and the implications of
these punishments for healing.
Register at www.Marquette.edu.
(source: The Journal Sentinel)
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