May 14
GEORGIA:
Alday Murders: 40 years later
Tuesday marks the anniversary of one of the worst crimes in the history of
Georgia; the Alday family murders in Seminole County.
6 members of the Alday family were brutally murdered by a trio of prison
escapees, on May 14, 1973.
9 days after 3 inmates escaped from a Maryland prison they would end up at the
home of Jerry Alday looking for money and guns. The men fatally shot Jerry, his
father Ned, brothers Chester and Jimmy, and Uncle Aubrey. His wife, Mary was
brutally raped and killed. Her body found 2 days later in a wooded area.
The suspects were quickly identified as Wayne Coleman, George Dungee, and ring
leader Carl Isaacs, who following their escape picked up his half brother, 15
year old Billy in a car stolen from a Pennsylvania man later found shot dead.
4 days after the killings, the men were caught hiding out in West Virginia.
Years later, Dungee, Coleman, and Carl Isaacs were convicted and sentenced to
death. The younger Isaacs testified against the trio. But more than a decade
later, a re-trial was ordered due pre-trial publicity.
Only Carl Isaacs would again receive the death penalty. In an interview from
death row, Isaacs was asked the question if he had to do it over, would he have
acted differently.
Nearly 30 years after the Alday murders, Carl Isaacs, the nation longest
surviving death row inmate, was put to death. He died by lethal injection at
the state prison in Jackson. It was process that left many bitter at the legal
system questioning whether justice was ever really served.
Billy Isaacs served 20 years in prison and died a free man in 2009. George
Dungee died in prison in 2006.
Wayne Coleman is the only surviving Alday killer. He's serving a life sentence
at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville.
(source: WALB News)
FLORIDA----new exectuion date
Miami-Dade killer Marshall Lee Gore to be executed next month, Gov. Rick
Scott's office says
A death row inmate has been scheduled to be executed next month for the murder
of an exotic dancer whose nude body was discovered in a South Miami-Dade trash
heap, Gov. Rick Scott's office said Monday.
The killer: Marshall Lee Gore, 49, who raped, stabbed and strangled 30-year-old
Robyn Novick in March 1988.
He will be executed at 6 p.m. June 24 at the Florida State Prison in Starke.
Gore is also on death row for the 1990 murder of a Tennessee woman, Susan
Roark, whose body was found upstate in Columbia County.
He is also serving 5 life sentences and 3 30-year prison terms for an attack on
another Miami-Dade exotic dancer whom he also beat, raped and stabbed in 1988.
She survived - after Gore dumped her near the same spot where he discarded
Novick's body.
Gore's 1995 trial in Miami was marked by disruptive behavior. He cursed,
laughed and howled during the trial, angering the victim's family and
frustrating his own lawyer.
The Florida Supreme Court, in 1998, overturned the conviction after ruling that
the prosecutor on the case "exceeded the proper conduct and professionalism" in
taunting Gore and telling a jury "he deserves to die."
In 1999, Gore was re-tried, convicted and sentenced to death.
Novick, a native of Ohio who drove a 1987 Corvette convertible, had worked as a
credit representative for a car loan company. The woman later turned to nude
dancing at Fort Lauderdale's Solid Gold but disappeared after going to meet a
mysterious man named Tony.
Miami-Dade police said that man was Gore, then 24 and just out of federal
prison. Gore was later captured in Kentucky after kidnapping the son of the
dancer who survived.
(source: Miami Herald)
***************************
Innocent Men Previously on Death Row Ask for Meeting with Governor Scott
At least 13 people currently on death row have exhausted their post-conviction
appeals and gone through the clemency process. Should Governor Scott sign HB
7083 into law today, he could effectively be putting them all to death without
ample time and adequate assurance that they truly are guilty of the crimes they
are accused of.
Juan Melendez was on Florida's death row for almost 18 years for a crime he did
not commit. A "lost" confession by the real perpetrator, which was in the
possession of the prosecution, was presented some 16 years after his
conviction. Melendez was exonerated and freed.
"Under the Timely Justice Act, innocent men like me would have been executed,"
said Melendez. "No one knows how many more innocent people are now awaiting
execution on Florida's death row - and will be executed, if the Legislature
places limits on their appeals."
The Governor has 15 days to act on this bill. Were he to sign it, he would be
the Governor to execute more people during his tenure than any other Governor
in Florida's history. 2 former death row inmates both of whom were exonerated
have reached out to Governor Scott privately to ask for a meeting to plead
their case. Ultimately, they would like the Governor to consider vetoing this
bill that would increase the likelihood of killing innocent people.
"A veto of this bill does not abolish the death penalty; but a veto will
hopefully reduce the chance that Florida executes innocent people. I was a
supporter of the death penalty," says Penalver. "Until I saw so many others
like me, innocent on death row, who only wanted another chance to prove their
innocence and ask the state to consider new evidence.
In 2012 Florida led the nation in new death sentences and death row
exonerations. Time to execution in Florida is already 18 months less than the
national average.
(source: Mark Elliott, Executive Director----Floridians for Alternatives to the
Death Penalty, FADP)
OHIO:
Defendant still faces possible death sentence, judge rules
Aubrey F. Toney will still face a potential death sentence when he goes on
trial for the Sept. 25, 2010, shooting death of Thomas Repchic, a judge has
ruled.
On Monday, Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court
overruled a motion by Toney's lawyers to dismiss the death-penalty
specification against their client. The jury trial for Toney, 32, of West
Judson Avenue, who is charged with aggravated murder, attempted murder and 2
counts of felonious assault with firearm specifications, is to begin July 15.
The defense lawyers, John B. Juhasz and Paul C. Conn, argued that Ohio's death
penalty is racially discriminatory, violates the equal-protection clause of the
U.S. Constitution and imposes cruel and unusual punishment.
In her judgment entry, Judge Sweeney wrote that she agrees with the defense
that she "has an obligation to act as a constitutional backstop and make sure
that there is no risk of discriminatory imposition of the death penalty."
She added that defense counsel has a duty "to question any aspect of a
death-penalty case in a proper motion to make the court aware of a possible
error," so she has not and will not limit the number or length of defense
motions.
The defense lawyers said there are "2 separate penalty systems in America, one
for those accused of killing blacks, and another for those accused of killing
whites." The defense lawyers also said: "A person who kills a white person,
rather than a black or minority, is almost twice as likely to receive the death
penalty."
But Judge Sweeney said the defense has failed "to present any statistical data
regarding the percentage of crime committed by the various ethnic races." For
example, if 90 % of defendants charged with aggravated murder were black, "then
it would logically follow that a greater percentage of African Americans would
be indicted with a death-penalty specification," the judge wrote.
Repchic was white, and Toney is black.
The death specification says Toney killed Repchic while trying to kill 2 or
more people.
Repchic, 74, of Trenton Avenue, was the victim of a drive-by shooting at Market
Street and Southern Boulevard in the city's Uptown district.
His wife, Jacqueline, then also 74, suffered a gunshot wound to her leg, which
required that it be amputated.
Toney's co-defendant, Kevin D. Agee Jr., 28, of Garfield Avenue, was convicted
by a jury last year of murder, attempted murder, and two counts of felonious
assault with firearm specifications. Judge Sweeney sentenced him to 39 years to
life in prison.
Police said the shooting was a case of mistaken identity, and that the
defendants were looking to shoot 2 other men who drove a car similar to that of
the Repchics.
(source: Youngstown Vindicator)
*********************************
With Ariel Castro, Precedent Suggests No Death Penalty
The lawyer for freed Cleveland captives Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina
DeJesus said last week that he may seek the death penalty against Ariel Castro
on the grounds of his alleged forced abortions. After repeatedly raping and
impregnating Knight, police sources said, Castro would starve and beat her
until she miscarried. Pro-life types have already been using the possible
murder charge to suggest abortion is immoral, but most states, including Ohio,
recognize forced miscarriage as a crime (though the laws are increasingly used
to prosecute women who lose fetuses in suicide attempts and due to drug
addictions). Legal experts told Reuters that the case would be hard to prove
without medical records, meaning Castro's brother Onil, who told ABC he hopes
"he rots in that jail," might get his way after all. Indeed, Castro would be
the 1st of his kind - men, with a history of sexual violence and religious
delusions, who abduct young women and hold them as captives and wives for years
on end - to receive the death penalty. Although their crimes stand out for
their duration, cruelty, and often insanity, their trials end quietly, with
life sentences in maximum security prisons, as their victims, like Jaycee
Dugard and Elizabeth Smart, go on to cover People and write memoirs. Here's
what happened to other Ariel Castros.
Phillip Garrido
Crime: In 1991, Garrido, then a convicted rapist, abducted 11-year-old Jaycee
Dugard on her way to the schoolbus stop. He raped and held her captive for more
than eighteen years, fathering two children with her and employing her as a
graphic designer for his print shop while penning a manifesto on how other sex
offenders could be cured through his "God's Desire" church.
Punishment: Garrido and his wife pleaded guilty to kidnapping and rape. An
earlier rape victim of Garrido's appeared in the court room, but did not speak.
Phillip was sentenced to 431 years imprisonment; Nancy got 36 to life.
Additionally, Dugard was awarded $20 million by the State of California for the
lapses by the parole officers assigned to Garrido. Dugard did not appear at the
sentencing, but had her mother read a written statement. "I chose not to be
here today because I refuse to waste another second of my life in your
presence," it read, in part. "Both of you can save your apologies and empty
words. For all the crimes you have both committed I hope you have as many
sleepless nights as I did."
Wolfgang Priklopil
Crime: Austrian Priklopil kidnapped 10-year-old Natascha Kampusch on her way to
school in 1998. He kept her in a cellar beneath his garage and, later, his home
until she escaped in 2006, when he left her alone to take a phone call. (In
light of Cleveland, the Guardian has extracted her 2010 book about the
aftermath.)
Punishment: When Priklopil, 44, found out the police were after him, he threw
himself in front of a train outside Vienna.
Josef Fritzl
Crime: Fritzl kept his daughter Elisabeth imprisoned in his basement for 24
years, starting in 1984, when she was 18. He had 7 children with her, one of
which died in infancy. Fritzl brought 3 upstairs and presented them to his
unwitting wife as children Elisabeth had abandoned at the house before
returning to the religious cult she had joined.
Punishment: Fritzl, 73, was charged with incest, rape, coercion, false
imprisonment, enslavement, and negligent homicide. Before trial, he spoke with
a local news magazine about his Nazi upbringing and abusive mother - possibly
with the hopes of laying down the groundwork for an insanity plea. He pleaded
guilty to all charges except murder, but changed his plea after spotting
Elisabeth, who had given her testimony over video, sitting in court in
disguise. In 2009, he was sentenced to life in a prison for the criminally
insane, with the possibility of parole after 15 years. His wife Rosemarie was
never charged.
Brian David Mitchell
Crime: In 2002, Mitchell abducted 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart, whose family had
employed him for odd jobs. He repeatedly drugged and raped her over 9 months.
Punishment: After Smart was recognized in public, Mitchell and wife Wanda
Barzee were arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual
assault, and aggravated burglary. Barzee pleaded guilty to her part in Smart's
kidnapping - after having her trial delayed twice due to incompetence and being
forcibly medicated with antipsychotics - and was sentenced to 15 years in
prison, which she is still serving. After three competency hearings, during
which he sang Mormon hymns, Mitchell was deemed an "effectively misleading
psychopath," found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Despite attempts by his lawyer to have him placed in a mental health facility,
he is currently serving his sentence in a high-security federal prison in
Tucson.
Marc Dutroux
Crime: Belgium's most famous serial killer, Dutroux had already served 3 years
of a 15-year sentence for rape and abduction and was on parole when he
kidnapped and molested 6 more girls, between the ages of 8 and 19, in 1995 and
1996, only 2 of which survived. Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, both 8,
starved to death in his basement. Another 2, An Marchal, 17, and Eefje
Lambrecks, 19, he drugged and buried alive. He was finally arrested again in
1996, for the kidnapping of 14-year-old Laetitia Delhez. When she was rescued,
another girl, Sabine Dardenne, 12, was discovered in his basement.
Punishment: At trial in 2004 - and after briefly escaping his guards in 1998 -
Dutroux admitted to the abductions, but pleaded not guilty to the killings. His
wife, Michelle Martin, was tried as an accomplice. Both were found guilty on
all counts. Dutroux was was given the maximum sentence, life in prison, while
Martin was sentenced to 25 years. Her early release last year was protested by
thousands in Brussels.
(source: New York Magazine)
INDIANA:
Death penalty recommended for accused Clark County rapist, murderer
The Clark County Prosecutor's Office is seeking the death penalty against a
convicted sex offender accused of raping and murdering his teenage neighbor.
Richard Hooten is accused of raping and strangling Tara Willenborg, at her
Cambridge Square apartment in Clarksville this past March.
Hooten did not appear in court Monday for a pretrial conference set before
Judge Vicki Carmichael. Instead, Clark County Prosecuting Attorney Jeremy Mull
met with defense attorneys for Hooten. The brief meeting ended with Mull
recommending the death penalty in the case.
"We're going to take the next few days and the parties are going to submit the
paperwork to the court as far as when some deadlines ought to be in the case,"
said Mull. "We're going to try to keep the case moving as efficiently and
quickly as possible."
In April, Hooten confessed to WAVE 3 News he raped Willenborg along with at
least 4 other women. He maintained, however, that Willenborg was the only
victim he ever murdered.
Despite the recorded confession, Mull said Hooten's case won't be a cake walk.
"Any death penalty case is a challenge. There are a lot of requirements that
the state is required to go through to do one of those properly," said Mull.
"We will just move forward carefully and follow the law on all points and
hopefully at the end of it that the jury comes back with a decision for death
in the case."
Mull expects a decision in the timeframe of Hooten's case to be made within the
next 30 days.
(source: WAVE)
KANSAS:
Flack represented by death penalty attorney at hearing----Next appearance set
for July 8
In a roughly 3-minute hearing, Kyle Trevor Flack declined to have capital
murder charges and allegations he killed 4 people read to him Monday afternoon
in Franklin County District Court.
Flack, whose hands were cuffed and legs shackled, was escorted by 5 law
enforcement officers into a small and crowded courtroom minutes before the
hearing started.
The difference between the hearings Friday and Monday was Flack, 27, was
represented Monday by attorney Ron Evans, head of the state death penalty
defense unit. Evans was appointed to represent Flack by the state of Kansas.
On Friday, Flack didn't have a defense attorney representing him.
Flack next will appear in court July 8 so Judge Thomas H. Sachse can determine
the status of the case and the judge can schedule Flack's preliminary hearing.
Flack is charged in Franklin County with:
-- Capital murder in the slayings between April 28 and May 6 of Andrew Adam
Stout, Kaylie Bailey and Lana Leigh Bailey, 18 months old.
-- 3 alternative counts of premeditated 1st-degree murder of Stout and the
Baileys.
-- Premeditated 1st-degree murder between April 20 and 28 of Steven White.
-- Capital murder in the killing of Kaylie Bailey during or after she was
raped.
-- Rape of Kaylie Bailey.
-- Criminal possession of a firearm by a felon.
Franklin County Sheriff Jeff Richards fielded reporters' questions after the
hearing.
The sheriff declined to talk about the motive in the 4 slayings but did say
Flack knew the victims.
Richards talked about the impact the discovery of the youngest victim had on
his deputies.
Lana-Leigh Bailey, an 18-month-old toddler, was the last of the 4 victims to be
found. After several days of searching by hundreds of law enforcement officials
and volunteers, the search ended late Saturday in Osage County, where a deputy
found what authorities said were the remains of the toddler. That is tough to
deal with, the sheriff said.
"It takes a toll," Richards said. When it came time to recover the child's
body, "it became very quiet."
The hours were long during the early part of the investigation when the sheriff
said he worked 38 hours, slept 2 hours, then worked another 30-plus hours.
Everyone in the sheriff's office of 64 deputies and civilian employees worked
on the case.
Richards earlier said authorities think Lana-Leigh was killed at the Franklin
County farm, then moved to Osage County. But on Monday, Richards declined to
expand on where in Osage County the toddler was found by a deputy.
The bodies of Lana-Leigh Bailey's mother, Kaylie Bailey, 21, of Olathe, and the
2 men - White, 31, and Stout, 30 - were discovered May 6 and 7 at 3197 Georgia
Road. Stout and Bailey reportedly had been dating.
The 3197 Georgia address is 7 miles northwest of Ottawa, 5 miles northeast of
the town of Pomona, and 6 miles east of the Franklin- Osage County line.
Richards declined to comment Monday on whether two sheriff's deputies had
mishandled an initial call to the farm on May 5 when a friend of the residents
complained there was a foul odor emanating from the house and a garage. The
deputies said the odor was trash.
Richards said Monday wasn't the time to deal with it, that it wasn't in the
public domain, and that it was for the sheriff to handle.
Flack was apprehended at 2:30 a.m. May 8 in Emporia on an Osage County warrant.
Flack, who resided in Quenemo when he lived in Osage County, was charged with
failure to register as a violent offender.
Kaylie Bailey's vehicle also was found in Emporia on May 7.
(source: Topeka Capital-Journal)
MISSOURI:
MO Senate defeats study of death penalty costs
The Missouri Senate has rejected a proposal to study the costs of the state's
death penalty.
The measure by Democratic Sen. Joe Keaveny, of St. Louis, would have required
the state auditor to analyze the costs of convicting, housing and executing
people sentenced to death for murder.
That would have been compared to the costs of cases in which the death sentence
was sought but not given, and to murder cases in which the death penalty was
never sought.
Senators defeated the measure 20-10 on Monday.
The study itself was estimated to cost nearly $170,000 over 2 years.
Some opponents said the study seemed designed to show the death penalty is more
costly than life prison sentences, but that such a finding wouldn't change
their support for the death penalty.
(source: Associated Press)
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