March 22
TEXAS----impending female execution
Texas Women's Death Row Inmate Seeks Delay In Execution
Convicted killer Kimberly McCarthy, who's held on women's death row in
Gatesville, is asking a state district judge in Dallas to halt her execution,
which is now scheduled for April 3.
McCarthy, who avoided execution with a last-day reprieve in January, asked
State District Judge Larry Mitchell in a court filing Friday to put off the
April 3 lethal injection until the fate of a bill related to issues in her case
that was introduced March 6 in the Texas Legislature is determined.
Attorney Maurie Levin contends McCarthy's 1998 trial jury may have been
unfairly selected on the basis of race.
A bill proposed by Sen. Royce West and Rep. Eric Johnson, both Dallas
Democrats, would bar racial discrimination in capital case prosecution.
Levin argues that McCarthy, who's black, was the subject of racial
discrimination by the jury of 11 whites and only 1 black that convicted her.
McCarthy was convicted and sentenced to death in November 1998 for the July 21,
1997 murder of her neighbor, Dorothy Booth, 71, at Booth's home in Lancaster.
Evidence showed McCarthy went to Booth's home on the pretense of borrowing
sugar and then stabbed the retired professor 5 times and hit her in the face
with a candelabrum.
She cut off Booth's left ring finger to take a diamond ring and nearly severed
Booth's left little finger as well, evidence showed.
She fled with Booth's purse and wedding ring and later bought drugs with the
stolen money, used the stolen credit cards and pawned the stolen ring, evidence
showed.
On Jan. 7, the U.S. Supreme Court without comment, refused to review McCarthy's
case.
McCarthy is 1 of 10 women on women's death row at the Mountainview Unit in
Gatesville, but the only one with an execution date.
(source: KWTX News)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Man will face the death penalty in stabbing case
Fayette County District Attorney Jack R. Heneks Jr. announced Thursday that he
will seek the death penalty against Henry Clay Crawford, the man accused in the
stabbing death of a North Union Township woman in January.
The announcement came just before the formal arraignment for Crawford, 56, of
North Union Township, who pleaded not guilty to criminal homicide and burglary
for allegedly killing Lisa Tupta, 49, inside her 326 Easter St. home.
In seeking the death penalty, Heneks alleged certain aggravating circumstances
exist, including prior violations of protection-from-abuse orders, a felony
murder, torture and a significant history of felony convictions.
"The acts of domestic violence occur in our county and across our nation on a
disturbingly frequent basis," Heneks stated. "There is no single method to
reduce and terminate domestic violence. However, as a prosecutor, I am
determined to use all available tools at my disposal to do so."
State police said neighbors called to say someone had broken into Tupta's home
on Jan. 28, and when they arrived to investigate, Crawford was found hiding in
a closet with the knife. Tupta suffered a stab wound to the chest as well as
other injuries during the assault, and died later at the Uniontown Hospital.
Tupta had a protection-from-abuse order in place against Crawford at the time.
After entering the not guilty plea, Crawford???s attorney, Public Defender
Jeffrey Whiteko questioned the death penalty notice. "The Commonwealth needs to
a be a little more specific on the aggravating circumstances," Whiteko said.
Specifically, he told President Judge John F. Wagner Jr. that simply saying
Crawford tortured Tupta was not sufficient.
Heneks indicated he was confident prosecutors could prove the element of
torture, but he asked Wagner for 10 days to file more specific information
about that aggravating circumstance.
In a press release, Heneks said he consulted with investigators and prosecutors
about seeking the death penalty, and did not make the decision lightly.
"I am acutely aware of the ultimate consequence my decision can bring," he
said.
Heneks said that through a grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and
Delinquency, he will have additional resources to take a comprehensive approach
toward domestic violence. With the help of newly appointed domestic and sexual
violence prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Meghann Mikluscak, and a
yet-to-be-hired detective dedicated to those types of cases, Heneks said his
office will establish protocols to support victims through the criminal justice
process.
"It saddens me when our office is requested by victims to drop charges against
perpetrators of these crimes," Heneks said. "While I understand the reasons
articulated by those victims for doing so, the consequences of halting
prosecutions are haunting," as demonstrated in the case against Crawford, he
added.
In seeking the death penalty against Crawford, Heneks said he wanted to make it
clear to those who commit domestic violence, that their actions are harmful to
the victims, and that in the gravest instances, perpetrators could face the
ultimate penalty.
Prosecutors last filed notice to intent to seek the death penalty in December
2011, against Patrick Haney, 28, of Point Marion, who is charged with beating
4-year-old Trenton St. Clair to death. The child, the son of Haney's
then-girlfriend, had multiple injuries, including bruises and contusions, that
led an emergency room doctor to say the abuse the boy allegedly suffered was
one of the worst cases she had ever seen. That case has yet to be set for
trial.
In that case, Heneks cited 2 aggravating factors: St. Clair's age and that the
child was tortured.
There are several aggravating factors prosecutors can allege under Pennsylvania
law. To impose the death penalty, a jury has to find that evidence of
aggravating factors presented outweigh any evidence of mitigation. A death
sentence can only be imposed by a unanimous jury vote, and only in the event
that someone is convicted of 1st-degree murder.
The death penalty was last imposed by a Fayette County jury in 2007, when
jurors returned a sentence of death by lethal injection for James VanDivner of
Grindstone. The 63-year-old shot and killed Michelle Cable, his ex-girlfriend,
outside her Grindstone home in 2004. Prosecutors in that case argued that
VanDivner's record of violent crimes, which stretched back 30 years, was 1 of
the aggravating factors that could be considered by jurors. His conviction and
death sentence are currently the subject of a post-conviction appeal in which a
judge has yet to rule.
Before that, Mark D. Edwards Jr., 30, of Uniontown was sentenced to death in
2004 for killing Larry Bobish Sr., his wife, Joanna, and their daughter Krystal
in their North Union Township home 2002. Krystal Bobish was pregnant at the
time, and he also was convicted of trying to kill Larry and Joanna Bobish's son
before burning their home down.
(source: Herald-Standard)
******************
Horrifying testimony at murder trial for abortion doctor
It's one of the macabre mysteries in the case of Kermit Gosnell: Why did the
West Philadelphia abortion doctor keep the severed feet of fetuses preserved in
specimen jars?
In testimony Tuesday, Adrienne Moton, a former worker at Gosnell's Women's
Medical Society, told a Philadelphia jury that Gosnell once explained that he
did so in case patients requested them for future identification or DNA
samples.
But an expert on fetal development, testifying Wednesday at Gosnell's
abortion-murder trial, said that was news to him.
"Do you think there is any medical reason to save the foot of a baby?"
Assistant District Attorney Edward Cameron asked.
"In my practice, we would have no reason to save the foot, and I've never seen
that done," replied Daniel H. Conway, a physician and neonatologist at St.
Christopher's Hospital for Children.
Questioned by Gosnell attorney Jack McMahon, Conway acknowledged that the
creases on the bottom of the foot are one factor sometimes used to determine
the age of a stillborn or premature baby.
But Conway maintained he had never heard of physicians or researchers
preserving and saving severed fetal feet.
Prosecutors have cited the dozens of jars of severed baby feet as an example of
Gosnell's idiosyncratic and illegal practice of providing abortions for cash to
poor women pregnant longer than the 24-week cutoff for legal abortions in
Pennsylvania.
In her opening statement to the Common Pleas Court jury, Assistant District
Attorney Joanne Pescatore mused that the jars of feet were some kind of bizarre
"trophy" Gosnell kept.
Gosnell, 72, is charged with 7 counts of 1st-degree murder -- newborns whose
spines he snipped with scissors after late-term abortions. He faces the death
penalty if found guilty.
Also on trial is Eileen O'Neill, 52, of Phoenixville, an unlicensed medical
school graduate who worked as a doctor in Gosnell's clinic at 3801 Lancaster
Ave. She is not charged with performing abortions.
Gosnell is also charged with 3rd-degree murder in the death of a Virginia
woman, Karnamaya Mongar, 41, who was allegedly administered too much anesthesia
during a 2009 abortion.
In addition to the mystery of the fetal feet, Conway also estimated the age of
"Baby Boy A," the 1st of 7 who prosecutors allege were born alive and killed by
Gosnell.
Baby Boy A was dead after a July 12, 2008, abortion involving a 17-year-old
Chester student.
Moton, the former clinic worker, testified that she was so upset at the sight
of the large baby's bloody, mangled body that she took a photo with her
cellphone.
That case -- and Moton's photo -- have been the focus of the trial's 1st 3 days
of testimony.
The Chester woman testified Gosnell told her the fetus was 24 weeks old when
she went for the abortion.
Conway, however, said his reading of the photo and ultrasounds of the fetus
Gosnell took before the abortion made him estimate the fetus was 27 to 31 weeks
old at the time of the abortion.
Conway said at that age, the boy had an 85 % chance of surviving and thriving
into adulthood.
Had the child been born alive but premature, Conway told Cameron, "my duty [as
a doctor] would have been to provide care for that infant."
Conway said state law requires doctors to try to save any fetus -- even as
young as 22 weeks -- born prematurely if there are signs of a heartbeat,
breathing, or movement.
Questioning Conway, McMahon elicited from the doctor that, based on Moton's
photo, there was no way to determine whether Baby Boy A was alive on July 12,
2008.
McMahon argued that the evidence suggested just the opposite, because Gosnell
used Digoxin to trigger the abortion.
After the federal government banned the rare, so-called live-birth abortion
procedure in 2007, late-term abortion providers like Gosnell switched to
Digoxin, a heart drug, to kill fetuses in the womb. The remains are then
removed.
"The fact is that baby was not alive because the mother was injected with
Digoxin to bring about fetal demise," McMahon said.
(source: Philadelphia Inquirer)
*****************
Maryland has done it; time to kill death penalty
The pragmatic case that Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley made in getting his state
to join the growing number repealing the death penalty should also appeal to
Gov. Corbett and his Republican colleagues in Harrisburg.
"Capital punishment is expensive, and the overwhelming evidence tells us that
it does not work as a deterrent," O'Malley said after the Maryland General
Assembly's vote last week to repeal capital punishment. It became the 6th state
in recent years to scrap executions, following the progressive example of New
Jersey by instead providing life sentences without the possibility of parole in
capital cases.
The move by Maryland offers Pennsylvania leaders yet one more reason to, at the
very least, enact a moratorium on executions, as recommended by a bipartisan
legislative task force in September. The group's two ranking members - State
Sens. Daylin Leach, a Democrat, and Stewart Greenleaf, a Republican, both from
Montgomery County - said it was "particularly prudent" to delay any death
sentences while the panel finishes its study.
When the panel submits its report by year's end, it's likely Keystone State
officials will have a full picture of all the ways that capital punishment
fails the state's citizens - and then take the "prudent" next step.
Make no mistake, O'Malley also fought for repeal of the death penalty on moral
grounds, calling capital punishment "unjust as historically applied" and citing
"imperfections [that] can and do result in the occasional killing of innocent
people." It's the risk of such tragic injustices that has prompted even the
deeply split U.S. Supreme Court to narrow the application of capital
punishment, banning it for juveniles and the mentally impaired.
In addition to lessening the risk of sending the wrong person to death row -
which Pennsylvania has done, although, fortunately, it exonerated some
defendants in time - Maryland, the first Southern state to ban executions,
wanted to halt the endless litany of legal appeals inherent in the system. The
inevitable appeals are costly, but they are also critical to assuring that a
badly flawed system doesn't make more mistakes.
Without such an appeal, the Corbett administration in November would have
proceeded with the state's first execution in 50 years of a death-row inmate
who was still fighting his sentence.
Halting executions would also be in line with the effort by Corbett's state
corrections chief, John Wetzel, to reduce Pennsylvania's inmate population,
both to save money and to apply alternatives to incarceration that have been
shown to reduce recidivism.
The fact that poor and minority defendants are more likely to face the death
penalty only adds to the litany of flaws in capital punishment that should lead
to the timely demise of death row.
(source: Editorial, Philadelphia Inquirer)
GEORGIA:
Georgia bill would classify names of companies that supply execution drugs as
'state secret'
The names of companies that supply execution drugs would be a "confidential
state secret," off-limits for release to the public, under legislation that was
approved Friday by the Georgia Senate.
The Senate approved the House bill, but only after adding language to prevent
the disclosure of any records that reveal the name and contact information of
any person or entity who participates in an execution. That includes any
company that "manufactures, supplies, compounds, or prescribes the drugs."
Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill so that it
would only protect the identity of people who administer executions, not
companies.
The bill now returns to the House, where members will consider the Senate's
changes.
Supporters of the bill say it's necessary to protect people and companies
involved in court-ordered executions from retaliation by angry families of the
condemned or opponents of capital punishment. But critics say it eliminates
government transparency surrounding the most serious act the state can perform:
taking someone's life.
The sponsor, state Rep. Kevin Tanner, R-Dawsonville, worked with the state
Department of Corrections to craft the language that was added by the Senate.
The department has endorsed the bill.
"This not a pro-death penalty bill or an anti-death penalty bill. It's just
about protecting the individuals involved that are carrying out a process on
behalf of the state," he said. "This does not change the ability of the public
to know all the facts surrounding how it's done, the methods that the state's
using. All of that's very transparent."
In some instances, Tanner said, guards who were on hand for executions have
been contacted at home and harassed. There are also doctors and pharmacists who
live in the community who could see their businesses picketed or otherwise
protested because of their participation in a court-ordered execution, he said.
Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center,
said the bill is "overprotective and risky and perhaps precedent-setting in a
bad way." Other states have passed laws to protect the individual people
involved in executions, but he said he doesn't know of other states protecting
the companies that manufacture, supply or compound the drugs.
"Basically, executions are done in the name of the people of the state, Georgia
or wherever, and people ought to be able to know what drugs, whose drugs, where
did they come from, what's the reputation of that company," Dieter said.
Some states have grappled with difficulties securing drugs for executions in
recent years as manufacturers of the drugs, which generally have other medical
purposes, said they didn't want their drugs used for executions.
Some states have begun to talk about turning to compounding pharmacies, which
are licensed to create small batches of drugs for specific clients, as
traditional pharmaceutical companies make their drugs unavailable for
executions. That could make secrecy surrounding the source of execution drugs
especially worrisome, Dieter said.
"States are turning to compounding pharmacies because the drugs have been
difficult to obtain," he said. "That may be fine or it may be problematic, but
it's something that people should know. There are reputable companies and
disreputable companies."
Sara Totonchi, executive director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, said
the bill is troubling because of Georgia's history with regard to execution
drugs.
"This bill shields from public scrutiny records related to lethal injection
processes," she said. "Very recently, Georgia has acted in ways that were
shameful when it comes to getting drugs by any means necessary."
The Drug Enforcement Administration in March 2011 seized Georgia's entire
supply of sodium thiopental, which the state used in executions at the time,
because of concerns that the state circumvented federal regulations in getting
the drug.
A short time later, the state started using pentobarbital in its 3-drug
execution method instead of sodium thiopental. Last July, the state switched
from a three-drug method to a single lethal dose of pentobarbital.
But the state's supply of pentobarbital expired this month, and its
manufacturer has put it off limits to states for executions. The Department of
Corrections has declined to comment on its efforts to procure more, saying only
that has no intention of changing the lethal injection protocol.
(source: Associated Press)
**********************
Difficulty Increases For Procurement Of Death Penalty Drugs
When you hear Georgia's legislators talk about most items of integrity in
governance, you'll hear them talk about the need for transparency. When you
hear them talk about the natural competitive advantages Georgia has to attract
business, you'll generally hear talk about logistics. And when you start
talking about the logistics of how Georgia procures the drugs needed to conduct
executions...wait. What was that part about transparency again?
The ongoing battle over how to stop executions in Georgia has been led by the
Southern Center for Human Rights, which a couple of years ago adopted a
strategy to focus on the supply chain of Georgia's lethal injection drugs. It
remains a tit for tat battle between the group and the state, with the group
demonstrating an effective mix of creativity and tenacity over the issue.
In January 2011, Hospira Inc announced it would quit making Sodium Thiopental;
one of the most commonly used drugs for lethal injection. International groups
pressured the company to quit making the drug, with Italy refusing to allow
production in the company's only facility which produced the drug unless the
company could certify that the product would not be used for lethal injection.
Days later, the Southern Center for Human Rights sought an injunction in a
Georgia execution case, revealing that Georgia's supply chain for the drug
included an unlicensed pharmacy in London England which was being run from the
back room of a driving school. They also argued that the drugs were mislabeled,
and based on the paperwork on file for the drugs' procurement, appeared to be
expired.
In June of 2011, the group was back before the Georgia Composite Medical Board,
asking for the physicians' license of Dr. Carlo Anthony Musso to be suspended
or revoked, claiming his importation of Sodium Thiopental was done without a
license and violated federal and state controlled substances acts. The U.S. DEA
had seized Georgia's supply of the drug in March based on the SCHR's earlier
claims.
Various other battles between the state and the group culminated in a general
stay in executions was issued last August because Georgia's final supplies of
execution drugs had expired and newer drugs were being substituted. That stay
was lifted in February, but drug expiration and procurement remains a constant
topic of concern. Published reports as Georgia was preparing to execute Andrew
Allen Cook and Warren Hill last month indicated Georgia's current supply was
set to expire on March 1st. Cook was executed while Hill received a stay based
on mental competence.
Transparency - the magic elixir that is said to fix all ethics woes - is being
proposed as a late amendment to a bill before the legislature to fix this
problem. More specifically, the removal of all transparency from the death
penalty administration is offered. An amendment offered by Representative Kevin
Tanner of Dawsonville proposes to make "state secrets" of those who conduct
executions, act as pharmacist to dispense the drugs, and those who supply,
dispense, compound, or prescribe the drugs.
Those supporting the amendment say that this is about keeping the personnel
involved from being the victims of harassment or protest. It would seem that
making those protesting or harassing these individuals illegal may be a more
corrective solution if that was the true motivation.
Instead, the state appears to be trying to shield the fact that the supply
channels for the drugs needed to conduct the procedures as outlined by Georgia
law are closing. Many of the ways to procure the drugs to conduct lethal
injections must be obtained outside of legal and licensed protocols. Making
this fact a "state secret" appears to be motivated much more by the desire to
thwart those who have found multiple legal loopholes to stop the procedure than
it does to shield employees from harassment.
The Death Penalty is one of the state's most powerful forms of power. As such,
it is afforded the most stringent oversight available from our legal system.
These items are facts and truisms. They will not change.
Georgia's attempt to slide in legislation to avoid embarrassment as the state
walks a fine line of quasi-legality in procuring drugs for a process that will
remain under the highest review is likely folly. The motivation is quite
transparent in this ill-advised attempt to shield legal processes from public
view.
(source: Peach Pundit)
FLORIDA:
Elijah James trial begins Monday
Despite no body, the trial against a Tallahassee man accused of murdering his
girlfriend will move forward next week.
Jury selection will begin Monday in the death penalty trial against Elijah
James.
James is charged for the presumed murder of his girlfriend, Danielle Brown. In
the past deputies have described the pair's relationship as
"on-again-off-again."
Leon County Deputies say Brown was last seen the evening of Friday, February 5,
2010 leaving her home on the 7200 block of Springhill Road, leaving with James.
The following Monday, February 8, 2010, Brown's car was found at a city dump in
Pavo, Georgia in Thomas County. Investigators there say Brown's car had
intentionally been set on fire.
Despite an extensive search of more than 400 miles in 5 counties in Florida and
Georgia, investigators failed to find Brown's body. But, they did find enough
evidence they say to convince a grand jury to indict James in August of 2010
for the robbery and murder of Brown.
In February 2011 James was convicted by a Georgia jury for the arson of Brown's
car. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison before being extradited to Leon
County for the murder trial.
(source: WTXL News)
MISSOURI:
McClellan: Convicted killer still waiting for an execution day that is on hold
Jeffrey Ferguson, 57, was sentenced to death in 1995 for the 1989 murder of
17-year-old Kelli Hall. Hall was abducted from the St. Charles service station
where she worked, raped and strangled and her body was later found in Maryland
Heights.
"Long time," said Jeffrey Ferguson, as he gave me a friendly nod.
"Yes," I said. "Long time."
I wrote about both of his trials. The 1st was in 1992. He was convicted and
sentenced to death for the 1989 abduction, rape and murder of 17-year-old Kelli
Hall. His conviction was overturned because of a problem with jury
instructions. He had his 2nd trial in 1995. He was again sentenced to death.
In between the trials, I saw him in the visiting room at the maximum security
prison in Potosi. I was there to see another inmate. Ferguson was at a nearby
table, talking to his wife and two young daughters. At one point, the little
girls went to a vending machine. Ferguson was left alone with his wife. I
wondered, "What do you say to your wife at a moment like that?"
Maybe you deny things. At both trials, Ferguson pleaded not guilty. The case
against him was overwhelming and included DNA evidence. But DNA was still
relatively new, and his supporters dismissed it as witchcraft. One of those
supporters was his father, a Post-Dispatch photographer.
Missouri does not have a death row. There is no Green Mile. The condemned men
live in general population at Potosi. Executions are carried out at the prison
in Bonne Terre. Since Ferguson entered the prison system, 61 men have been
executed.
When Martin Link was executed in February 2011, Ferguson called his family and
told them he was next. The officials come for the condemned man on a Friday.
They could come for me any Friday, he said.
But they didn't. The Department of Corrections had run out of sodium
thiopental, a drug that was used to put the condemned man to sleep before 2
other drugs were injected to stop breathing and the pumping of the heart. The
only company that made sodium thiopental has quit producing it.
Last year, the state announced it would replace its 3-drug procedure with a
single drug, propofal. The proposed change was immediately challenged in
federal court by Rick Sindel, an attorney representing several men facing
execution. The lawsuit argues that the new procedure would cause a painful
death and thereby constitute cruel and unusual punishment. That lawsuit is
still in its early stages, but no matter its outcome, it is not certain that
Missouri will be able to obtain the drug for purposes of execution.
So we have a de facto moratorium on the death penalty in Missouri.
What effect does this have on the men sentenced to die? I sent Ferguson a note
and asked him. He responded that the uncertainty was tough on everybody. "It's
hard on our families, and I'm sure it's hard on our victims' families," he
responded.
Our victims. I visited him Monday. Has he admitted his guilt?
Yes, certainly, he said. He said he acknowledges his guilt, but he doesn't
remember any of the crime. He said he used to drink himself into oblivion every
night, and it was common for him to black out. It was insane, he said. I
honestly don't remember anything of that night, he said.
He added that he was not trying to minimize the crime. He said he had killed a
girl and destroyed his family and hers. "None of those people did anything to
deserve this. Not my family, not her family."
He said his wife eventually divorced him. She has since remarried, and he is
not part of her life. His parents have died. His daughters grew up and married.
He said that for many years, he was close to them. They no longer answer his
phone calls or respond to his letters. He said he thought the uncertainty and
pressure got to be too much. He has three grandchildren.
He works in the prison factory making chairs. In the past, he has worked as a
butcher and in an administrative position and in the hospice program. He liked
doing that. "I'm the guy who's giving back. I figure I owe," he said. He has
become religious. He said God had forgiven him. I asked if he had forgiven
himself. "Of course," he said. "Otherwise I could not go on."
He said he had known all of the men who have been executed. "You're not really
on death row when there are guys in front of you. When you're at the edge of
the cliff, then you're there."
He has sometimes wished he were dead, but he is against the death penalty. I
think it is murder, he said. And pointless. "The guy who did this crime died a
long time ago," he said. His cellmate is Steven Horne, the civil engineer from
Breckenridge Hills who murdered his wife and 2 young children on Father's Day
in 2003. He is serving life without parole. "He's a good cellie," said
Ferguson.
I asked Ferguson if he was happy: "Happy? How could I be happy? I'd say I'm at
peace."
(source: Bill McClellan, St. Louis Today)
INDIANA:
Accused rapist/murderer Richard Hooten faces death penalty if found guilty;
Southern Indiana man confessed to killing Clarksville teen Tara Willenborg
The Clark County, Ind., prosecutor announced Thursday that he will seek the
death penalty against Richard Hooten in the murder and rape of a 17-year-old
Clarksville girl early this month.
"The death penalty is for the worst of the worst," Prosecutor Steve Stewart
said in an interview after filing notice of his intent during a hearing in
Clark Circuit Court.
Hooten, a 49-year-old registered sex offender previously convicted of 6 violent
felonies and other crimes, told reporters in an interview at the Clark County
sheriff's office March 7 that he murdered and raped Tara Willenborg in her
apartment at the Cambridge Square Apartments off Kopp Lane near Interstate 65.
Hooten lives in the same building.
Chris Sturgeon, a public defender who also serves as Clarksville's town
attorney, has been assigned as Hooten's attorney; however Jeff Stonebraker, the
county's chief public defender, appeared in court and explained the charges to
Hooten.
Sturgeon said when reached by phone that he's not prepared to comment about the
case.
Stewart also filed amended charges against Hooten on Thursday that include
criminal deviate conduct and being a habitual offender.
Todd Willenborg, Tara's father, said the pursuit of the death penalty doesn't
change the fact that his daughter is gone. When Hooten passed him in the narrow
hallway outside the courtroom, he told Hooten that he "should do us all a
favor" and hang himself in jail to save the state the expense of a lengthy
trial.
A couple of family members also hurled obscenities at Hooten as he passed, the
first time that the family had come to face to face with Hooten since the
slaying.
"I've been shaking ever since I was told earlier he was going to be here,"
Willenborg said in an interview after the short hearing.
Hooten limped into the courtroom Thursday wearing a cast boot on his right leg.
He has been held in the county jail since he was arrested the morning of March
2, a few hours after Tara was found dead.
Maj. Chuck Adams, spokesman for the sheriff's office, which also oversees the
jail, said Hooten's injury happened before he got to jail and he has been
isolated from other inmates.
Autopsy results from the Kentucky medical examiner's office in Louisville
showed Tara suffered asphyxiation and had bruises on her neck.
Stewart said the death sentence is the only adequate and appropriate punishment
that fits in some cases and it didn't take very long to realize it fit this
time.
"It should be reserved for those cases where there's a certainty of guilt and
the absence of any significant mitigating circumstances," Stewart said.
There are no such mitigating circumstances in this case, said Stewart.
Said Todd Willenborg, "Either way it goes, he's (Hooten is) going to be around
for a while."
Hooten's trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 13.
(source: Courier-Journal)
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