May 16
TEXAS:
Hearing ordered for Amarillo death row convict
A woman on death row for a gruesome Amarillo murder has hope for life after the
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a hearing on her behalf.
Now 40-year-old Brittany Holberg fatally stabbed an elderly Amarillo man 58
times in 1996, and has since been denied dozens of writs and appeals.
On November 13, 1996 80-year-old A. B. Towery was found dead in his apartment,
stabbed 58 times with various items, hit with a hammer, and a lamp post shoved
6 inches down his throat.
3 months later, then 23-year-old, Holberg was arrested and charged with capital
murder and robbery.
Randall County District Attorney James Farren had only been DA for about a year
when the crime was committed, but he still believes Holberg got the punishment
she deserves.
"I went to the crime scene when the Special Crimes Unit called me and said
we've got a homicide and it looks bad," Farren said.
Today the Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a hearing for four of Holberg's
Defense Attorney's to testify.
Holberg's current defense says if those original lawyers had presented all
mitigating evidence, she wouldn't be on death row.
"The thing is they presented plenty of mitigating evidence about her childhood
and how sad her life was. The jury still gave her the death penalty," Farren
said.
Farren says cases reversed thanks to mitigating evidence are becoming
increasingly common, but he doesn't see it excusing 58 stab wounds.
"She had kind of a crappy childhood and teenage years, but lots of people do
and that doesn't make them go stab somebody 58 times," Farren said.
The hearing will take place within the next 3 months, likely at the Randall
County Justice Center.
An official date has not been set.
(source: KFDA)
****************************
Defense urges jury to spare life of man who drowned children; prosecutors
asking for death sentence
Naim Rasool Muhammad drowned his children because he feared they would grow up
just like he did, his attorney said Wednesday.
Muhammad, 34, was found guilty of capital murder Wednesday by a Dallas County
jury and prosecutors are now seeking a death sentence for a "horror
unimaginable" - murdering his sons Elijah, 3, and Naim, 5. Muhammad's attorneys
never disputed his guilt and are now trying to convince the jury to spare his
life.
Defense attorney Paul Johnson told jurors that Muhammad grew up in a life of
"abandonment" and "neglect." His mother was a crack-addicted prostitute. He
didn't know who is father was.
In Muhammad's "deranged mind," he believed his boys would suffer a similar
fate, Johnson told jurors. The boys' mother, Kametra Sampson, had sought
treatment for cocaine addiction in the months before the boys' deaths and,
Johnson said, had left her kids alone and was prostitute.
At times in Muhammad's childhood, Johnson said, no one can say to this day
where Muhammad was or who was caring for him.
"His life history is not a photo album you open up," Johnson said.
Johnson acknowledged that while the August 2011 deaths of the boys are a
"heartbreaking" and "horrendous crime," it didn't mean Muhammad should be
sentenced to death.
Prosecutors Tammy Kemp and Sherre Sweet said Muhammad deserved the death
penalty for drowning his sons in a smelly Glenn Heights creek and because he is
a continuing danger to society. They said has had a 20-year criminal record
that stretches back to when he was a juvenile.
Much of that criminal background involves stealing coins from a machine,
evading arrest, breaking into a home and stealing candy, burglary of a vehicle
and another burglary incident where candy was taken.
He also has a history of domestic violence, including assaulting his sister and
Sampson.
Kemp said that while Muhammad and Sampson dated, he beat her after she did
things such as burning rice. He controlled where she went and for how long. He
let her have 2 female friends - his sisters.
"He had complete control of Kametra Sampson," Kemp said. They started dating
when she was 15 and he was 25 and hid their relationship. They went on to have
3 children together. The youngest was not quite 1 when Naim and Elijah were
killed. The baby was not harmed.
In December 2010, Sampson took her boys and left Muhammad. Prosecutors say she
began using cocaine and sought treatment at a facility where she could live
with her boys. She completed treatment and was living with her mother and
waiting on an apartment when the boys were killed.
The control Muhammad tried to exert over Sampson culminated on the day Muhammad
killed the boys. He abducted them and Sampson as they walked to school. She was
able to escape and seek help from a county constable. Muhammad drowned the boys
as police searched for them.
Kemp said Muhammad killed Elijah and Naim to get back at their Sampson. He was
angry that she ended their relationship and was dating someone else.
Kemp reminded jurors how Muhammad led the boys down the creek and then walked
away and thought about what to do. Muhammad then took the boys down to creek
and told them to pretend like they were swimming. He held the kids' heads under
water until they stopped moving.
Kemp told jurors that the punishment phase of the trial was their time to think
about what to do to Muhammad.
"You gotta take him back down to the creek" and give Muhammad the death
penalty, she said.
Johnson said that jurors needed to consider what made Muhammad the man who sits
before them in a courtroom. Johnson told jurors that he will present evidence
that Muhammad had been failed by the schools, "the system" and his family.
If jurors don't give Muhammad a death sentence, he will be sentenced to life
without parole.
"He will pay with his life," Johnson said to jurors. "Either in the
penitentiary or on a gurney."
(source: Dallas Morning News)
****************************
Death penalty film trip: 5,000 miles of flaws and false confessions One for Ten
project comes to an end having filmed series of shorts highlighting injustice
in US capital punishment system
The journey has taken them from Philadelphia to Albuquerque via false
confession, unreliable witnesses, official misconduct and racism.
The One for Ten road trip comes to an end this week after a 5,200-mile
cross-country trek to interview 10 death row exonerees and make a short film
about each that highlights different flaws in the US capital punishment
process.
The name of the project is inspired by the more than 1,300 executions and 142
exonerations since the death penalty was reinstated in the US in 1976 - a
remarkably high number of errors considering the gravity of the punishment and
avowed thoroughness of the system.
London-based film-makers Will Francome and Mark Pizzey and producers Laura
Shacham and Megan Garner have shared a 30ft RV for the trip, editing footage as
they travel in order to publish two films a week on their website,
oneforten.com.
They have raised nearly 36,000 pounds to cover costs, including 19,500 pounds
from individual donors via crowd-sourced funding. The main innovation of One
for Ten is its interactivity, with viewers encouraged to participate through
social media.
"By doing it in this way people can submit questions, give feedback on the
films and give the project a sense of immediacy. No one had ever really tried
anything like this. People have been donating, submitting questions for
interviewees and we'll blog those back to them. We're tweeting out some answers
while the interviews are going on," said Francome.
The film-makers are now in New Mexico to meet Juan Melendez. He spent more than
17 years on death row in Florida, convicted largely thanks to testimony from a
convicted felon who held a grudge against him - even though another man had
made a confession in a recorded interview that was never played at trial.
The Guardian met up with the team in Conroe, Texas, as they interviewed
Clarence Brandley for a documentary themed on racism, which is now available on
the website.
Brandley spent nearly 10 years on death row, twice coming within days of
execution. His case was a notorious miscarriage of justice that garnered
immense media attention after being taken up by civil rights activists.
Brandley worked as a custodian at Conroe high school. In August, 1980, he and
another custodian, Henry Peace, found the body of Cheryl Fergeson in a loft
above the school's auditorium. Visiting for a volleyball tournament, the
16-year-old had been raped and strangled.
Investigators immediately focused on Brandley. During their interrogation a
police officer reportedly told Brandley and Peace, "One of you two is going to
hang for this." He turned to Brandley, adding: "Since you're the nigger, you're
elected."
There was no physical evidence linking Brandley to the crime, but he went on
trial before an all-white jury in December, 1980. A hung jury resulted in a 2nd
trial, which took place in 1981 before another all-white jury.
Months after Brandley was found guilty and sentenced to death, it emerged that
evidence that might have proved his innocence had been withheld and then lost
by the prosecution. Authorities subsequently failed to act on new information
linking other men with the crime.
It was not until 1990 that Brandley was finally freed. He mounted an
unsuccessful lawsuit for alleged civil rights violations and has been denied
compensation because the court order that freed him did not explicitly state
that he is innocent. He claims he is still being pursued for child support
payments that the state says were due during his time in prison.
Texas is the most prolific capital punishment state and is on target to execute
its 500th prisoner since 1982 next month. Brandley is 1 of only 12 Texas
exonerees, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
"I think the scariest thing about Clarence's case...it's in its own time,
right, but just how openly racist it could be and the lengths that people would
go to frame him when it seems pretty clear that it was other people," said
Francome.
According to 2010 Census figures, 11.8% of Texas' population is black. But
39.4% of the 284 people currently on Texas' death row are black.
Brandley said that he believes racism is still endemic in Conroe, a city of
about 60,000 inhabitants 40 miles north of Houston and 30 miles south of
Huntsville, the location of Texas' execution chamber. Now 61, he has let go of
his anger: "I had to, because it was going to destroy me, make me do something
that I would be guilty of."
Still, he will never forget the justice system's corruption and contempt. "They
lied to my family, they lied to the victim's family," he said. "And the way
[prison guards] treated my family when they came to visit ... One of the times,
they opened up the windows when it was cold. Summertime, they closed up the
windows."
Francome has observed recurring trends during the five-week trip. "I'm just
shocked at how many of the same things come up in everyone's cases. So few of
the people that we filmed with had adequate legal defence. Most people met
their lawyers once, twice, for a few hours before their trial started. When
you're facing death...that has shocked me," he said.
"And how much they all talk about how there are definitely still loads more
innocent people on death row. From their experiences of being on there and
knowing other people, they all say they know people on death row today who are
innocent.
"America's never admitted to executing anyone innocent, but here we are in
Texas and Cameron Todd Willingham and Carlos DeLuna are pretty clearly two guys
that were executed and were innocent. So there's obviously many flaws.
Hopefully this will do something to help raise awareness in coming to abolish
the death penalty. In my eyes it's just too great a risk to have it."
As Brandley put it: "One mistake is too many". He is sure that America will one
day abolish the death penalty. "There's no doubt in my mind, it's coming. When,
I don't know. It might not be in my lifetime but who would have thought in my
lifetime I'd have seen him?" he said, pointing to his T-shirt, which bore a
picture of Barack Obama with the slogan, "The Dream Comes True".
(source: The Guardian)
PENNSYLVANIA:
The Face of Evil: Kermit Gosnell
Last week my wife asked whether I believed there was evil in the world. In just
a short while we have experienced the Newtown shooting of grade school
children, the terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon, the lurid and graphic
trial of Jodie Arias, the equally graphic and horrifying trial of abortion
doctor Kermit Gosnell, and the discovery of serial kidnapper and rapist Ariel
Castro. Of course evil exists in the world.
Amongst all of these I would argue that the most evil is Kermit Gosnell. The
descriptions of the filth of his clinics, the cavalier treatment of his
patients, the proliferation of drugs by untrained personnel, and most
importantly the routine execution of children born alive during illegal late
term abortion procedures places Mr. Gosnell among the most vile creatures on
earth.
Mr. Gosnell was charged with 4 instances of murder and convicted of three of
them. Left for us to contemplate is the number of other babies that Mr. Gosnell
executed in precisely the same way - using scissors or a scalpel to sever the
spinal column - over a nearly 40 year career as an abortionist. And he did it
for the money - not for some charitable concern, and not for some political
belief in a woman's right to choose - it was for the money. The testimony in
the case described a person indifferent to his patient, mechanical in his
procedures and demanding of his employees.
His conviction of over 200 felony and misdemeanor counts, including the murder
of the 3 infants, ensure his imprisonment for the rest of his life and puts him
at risk for the death penalty. He is a monster. He will meet other monsters in
prison and he will dwell for eternity with other monsters before him.
But evil has a corrosive effect and draws others into its malevolence. And that
is true with the case of Mr. Gosnell. First, there is a mainstream media that
declined to report the story initially because it drew attention to the ugly
side of abortion. Abortion is the litmus test for liberalism which in turn
dominates the Democratic Party and the mainstream media. The bias of the press
is more apparent in what it chooses not to report than what it does report. To
be fair, it was former Democratic strategist and Daily Beast columnist, Kirsten
Powers that embarrassed her colleagues in the liberal media into eventually
reporting the latter part of Mr. Gosnell's House of Horrors.
And then there is former Gov. Tom Ridge (R-PA) who decided unilaterally to stop
inspections of abortion clinics - a decision that would have revealed the
criminal activities of Mr. Gosnell more than a decade before his arrest, trial
and conviction of murder and criminal abortion practices. Mr. Ridge is a
pro-abortion Republican who chose to ignore the law in furtherance of his own
political career. He will live - not in prison - but with burden of
responsibility for failing to prevent this butchery.
Add to that Planned Parenthood who had received repeated reports of the abusive
practices of Mr. Gosnell and also chose to remain silent. But then Planned
Parenthood is the largest abortion provider and advocate in the nation.
Criticism of abortion practices is simply not in its lexicon.
And finally, there is President Barack Obama who was the single vote opposing a
bill in the Illinois legislature that makes precisely the practices of Mr.
Gosnell illegal in Illinois. Despite Mr. Obama's latter day protestations,
equivocations and prevarications to the contrary, Mr. Obama voted not once, not
twice but 4 times in opposition to a bill that would have provided protection
to children born during a botched abortion. Someday he may well have to explain
to his children why he sided with the butchery of practitioners like Mr.
Gosnell over the well being of innocent children.
Yes, there is evil in the world. It not only manifests itself in the actions of
criminals like Mr. Gosnell, but it ensnares those who equivocate about human
life in the name of political correctness.
Despite all of this - maybe, in fact, because of all of this, I still oppose
the death penalty. Once the public safety has been secured by imprisoning
people like Mr. Gosnell for life, the death penalty becomes more like revenge
than like justice.
(source: Larry Russ, Oregon Catalyst)
FLORIDA:
Rape-murder suspect faces death penalty
A registered sex offender being held in the 2012 brutal rape and murder of a
29-year-old woman in Stanton will now face the possibility of a sentence of
death.
Last Thursday Charles Patrick Drew, 63, a transient, was indicted for the
special circumstances surrounding the death of the woman.
The Orange County Grand Jury issued indictments on 1 felony count of special
circumstances murder in the commission of rape, sodomy, oral copulation and
sexual penetration with a foreign object.
Additionally, he was indicted for the rape, sodomy, oral copulation and sexual
penetration by foreign object of an unconscious person, as well as assault with
a deadly weapon.
Drew has 2 previous convictions from 1995 for forcible rape and assault with a
deadly weapon. If convicted, he faces a minimum sentence of life in prison
without the possibility of parole. The special circumstances make him eligible
for execution.
He is being held without bail at Orange County Jail and is scheduled for a
pre-trial trial-setting conference on June 7 at Central Justice Center.
Drew is accused of assaulting the victim while at a Motel 6 on Beach Boulevard
in Stanton May 17-18, 2012. Authorities say the suspect asked a passerby to
call 911 when the victim became unresponsive.
(source: The Garden Grove Journal)
*****************
Florida law would speed up executions; The ill-named Timely Justice Act would
see 13 death row inmates immediately issued death warrants
A bill that has passed both the Florida House and Senate - and looks likely to
be signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott in the coming days - would speed up the
process that sees death row inmates executed in the state. It is, as the New
York Times editorial board commented, grotesque,"
especially in a state that has seen 24 death row exonerations (leading the
country in this regard) and should thus be weary of speedy executions.
The ill-named Timely Justice Act would require the governor to sign a death
warrant within 30 days of a review of a capital conviction by the State Supreme
Court. The state would then be required to execute the defendant within 180
days of the warrant. So if signed intolaw, 13 of Florida's 405 death row
inmates will be immediately issued death warrants. The legislation aims to save
money and time but, as Rania Khalek pointed out, at the possible expense of
innocent lives:
Proponents of the Act argue that the appeals process is too lengthy, costly and
delays justice. Indeed, the process can take decades and cost millions but that
is to ensure justice not delay it. After all, several Florida exonerees were on
death row for over a decade before proving their innocence. One example is Juan
Melendez, who spent 18 years on death row and lost three appeals in front of
the Florida Supreme Court before his release. Had the "streamline murder" Act
been in place at the time there's a good chance Melendez and others like him
would have been killed for crimes they did not commit.
In a most perverse admission, flagged by Khalek, Republican Senator Rob Bradley
said "this is not about guilt or innocence, it's about timely justice." So long
as proceedings through the Kangaroo court are swift, Bradley seems to admit,
the lives of inmates are expendable.
For the past 2 years in a row, Florida has sentenced more people to death than
any other state - owing to a number of issues in the state justice system
including the fact that while a judge makes the sentencing decision, Florida is
1 of only 3 states that allows non-unanimous jury recommendations in capital
sentencing.
The Florida Supreme Court and the Florida Bar have called for reviews of the
death penalty process in the state in order to make recommendations to improve
it; those studies have yet to be undertaken. In 2009, meanwhile, the American
Bar Association did study capital punishment in Florida, none of which have
been undertaken either. Capital punishment, especially when exacted through a
flawed judicial process like Florida's, is already barbaric; it needs no
acceleration.
(source: Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon)
*****************************
Kill, Kill, and Kill Again: Rushing to Execution Heightens Risks of Fatal Error
in Florida
Florida will start this long, hot summer with a bang. The state has announced
that in the coming months it intends to strap three separate men down, open
their veins, paralyze them, and force deadly chemicals into their hearts until
they die.
The men on Florida's current kill list are Elmer Carroll, scheduled to die on
May 29th; William Van Poyk, scheduled to die on June 12th; and Marshal Gore,
scheduled to die on June 24th.
Our hearts go out to the innocent victims. And certainly, before extinguishing
these men's lives, you would think Florida would want to be sure that these men
are not innocent as well.
If new legislation passed by the state's legislature is any indication, you
would be wrong. The Timely Justice Act will speed up executions, leaving
limited time to ascertain if the wrong man is to be executed.
Rushing to execution in Florida seems awfully dangerous, given the deeply
troubling history of innocent people suffering for years on Florida's death
row. Florida has already released 24 - TWENTY-FOUR - confirmed INNOCENT DEATH
ROW prisoners. (It is important to yell, so we do not get numb to the reality
that innocent people are put on death row and face certain death every year).
The risk of killing the innocent really must give us pause as a nation, as a
society. It should terrify us that the Governor of Florida, who had a hand in
crafting the Timely Justice Act legislation, is poised to sign it very soon.
We have had decades and decades of state-sponsored killing to teach people that
killing is wrong and it is not working. Murder rates remain highest in active
death penalty jurisdictions. This fact, alongside the risk of executing
innocent people, should motivate all of us to fight the Timely Justice Act
before it is signed into law.
Seth Penalver, the most recent Florida death row exoneree, and Herman Lindsey,
a Florida exoneree released in 2009, want to meet with Governor Scott to
discuss these issues before the bill becomes law.
At the very least, the Governor should take this meeting. But what the people
of Florida truly deserve is for Governor Scott to veto the Timely Justice Act.
A broken justice system should not rush to execution, especially when questions
about innocence remain.
(source: Tanya Greene, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU, blog)
ALABAMA:
In bizarre testimony -- against his lawyers' advice -- Mobile murder defendant
mostly says nothing
Against the advice of his court-imposed lawyers, capital murder defendant
Carlos Edward Kennedy took the witness stand this afternoon but said almost
nothing about the charge against him.
Kennedy, 27, largely complained that Mobile County Circuit Judge Joseph "Rusty"
Johnston took away his right to defend himself. He testified that he is not
cooperating with court-appointed lawyer Jason Darley and, therefore, "I will
not be answering any of your questions."
That left Darley only to ask an open-ended question about whether his client
had anything he wanted to say about allegations that he broke into the Midtown
Mobile house of Zoa White in June 2010, sexually assaulted her and then beat
her to death with the claw end of a hammer.
Kennedy testified that he had a relationship with White but told jurors he
would not elaborate.
"I feel it would be disrespectful on my part to divulge any information about
that relationship without her consent," he said, as the victim's daughter and
other relatives looked on from the courtroom.
Earlier today, jurors watched a videotaped interrogation in which Kennedy
claimed he had sex with the 69-year-old retired Realtor 2 or 3 times. It was 1
of 3 different versions he gave that day.
For months, Johnston had allowed Kennedy to represent himself, with Darley
assigned to give him assistance as needed. But Johnston last year reversed that
decision, and ordered Darley and attorney Art Powell to take charge of the
defense.
"That was taken away from me," the defendant testified.
Kennedy had a constitutional right not to testify, and the judge would have
instructed jurors that they should draw no negative inference from that. Murder
defendants usually do not take the stand.
Had Kennedy exercised that right, prosecutors would not have been able to bring
up the defendant???s criminal past. That was allowed during cross-examination,
though, and Assistant District Attorney JoBeth Murphree took the opportunity to
confront Kennedy about a 2009 arrest in which authorities accused him of
masturbating inside a woman's home where he was installing satellite equipment.
"You do sexual, weird things most people don't do, don't you?" she asked.
Murphree asked specifically about the September 2009 incident.
"Is she here?" Kennedy asked. "If she's not here, I'm not going to talk about
that."
Murphree asked Kennedy if he had any explanation for how police found his blood
inside White's house.
"In defending myself, I would have taken care of all that," he said.
Murphree pounded away, but Kennedy remained calm.
"You prey on defenseless women, don't you?" she asked.
With that, the defense rested, without calling another witness. Attorneys will
deliver closing arguments Thursday morning, and then the case will be in the
jury's hands.
Investigator doubted burglary
Earlier this afternoon, Powell used a police detective's own words in an
attempt to poke holes in the burglary allegation.
Burglary is one of the aggravating factors that can bump a murder to a capital
offense, punishable by the death penalty. But affidavits and a letter to the
FBI suggest that Mobile police Detective Mac R. "Rusty" Hardeman doubted the
burglary theory early in the investigation.
Powell confronted Hardeman with a pair of affidavits he filed on July 2, 2010,
and one dated July 12 of that year, as well as a letter that same day
requesting assistance from the FBI. In those documents, Hardeman laid out the
reasons why he believed the scene had been "staged" to create the impression of
a burglary.
Physical evidence suggested that the porch window at White's Spring Hill Avenue
home had been broken after her death, Hardeman wrote. He wrote that he did not
believe any of the furniture on that porch would support the weight of someone
crawling through the window to gain entry into the house.
"I will not be answering any of your questions." -- defendant Carlos Kennedy,
addressing defense lawyer Jason Darley.In addition, the detective wrote,
nothing on the porch seemed disturbed except for the broken glass from the
window.
Powell showed jurors a photograph taken of the window, with jagged glass around
the frame. Hardeman previously wrote that it would have been difficult for a
burglar to crawl past that glass without cutting himself. But there was no
blood inside the window or on the kitchen counter inside, he wrote.
The detective also noted a lack of footprints or bloody fingerprints inside the
house.
All of that evidence supported the conclusion that White may have invited her
attacker into her home, according to Hardeman's sworn statements.
"That's what I believed at the time," he testified today.
Powell showed Hardeman his written narrative from October 2010, a month and a
half after Kennedy's arrest, suggesting he had not changed his mind.
But Hardeman testified that he did not have all of the evidence when he made
those statements. It was before he had learned semen was present on or in the
victim's body.
According to earlier testimony, the semen did not contain sperm, which made it
impossible to obtain DNA. The defense has argued that it is unlikely the semen
came from their client.
The defense had hoped Johnston would allow jurors to consider convicting
Kennedy of the lesser alternative of murder, which would spare him from the
death penalty and make him eligible for parole one day. Murphree, though,
argued that the murder would be a capital offense even if the attacker did not
break into the house because the law makes it illegal to remain in someone's
home without permission.
Johnston sided with the prosecution.
Powell cited another part of Hardeman's narrative in trying to cast doubt on
the allegation against Kennedy. The detective wrote that it appeared the
attacker used his left hand to strike White in the face, since the most severe
injuries were on her right side. Powell played a portion of his client's
videotaped interrogation in which he used his right hand to sign a form waiving
his right to remain silent.
Questioned later by the prosecutor, Hardeman acknowledged this was speculation
and that it would depend on the position of White's head, whether it was
turned, during the attack.
Hardeman also defended his decision not to order tests of hair fibers found on
White's pajama shorts and body. The detective said police already had DNA and
fingerprint evidence pointing to Kennedy.
"My thoughts were that it would be redundant," he said. "I felt like there was
enough evidence already."
**********************************************************
Attorneys plan to seek dismissal in capital murder retrial of former Alabama
death row inmate
Attorneys for a Jefferson County man, who had been on death row and was granted
a new trial by an appeals court, plan to ask a judge to dismiss the cases
against him entirely after a hearing this week in which the key witness in his
1st trial recanted her testimony and revealed she had received more than
$10,000 in reward money.
The hearing before Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Stephen Wallace ended
today in the capital murder case of Montez Spradley. The hearing had begun
Monday.
While not ruling on any issues, Wallace set a status conference in the case for
June 25.
Spradley had been convicted in 2008 of capital murder in the death of Marlene
Jason, the 58-year-old lunchroom cashier at Mountain Brook Middle School who
was shot and killed as she returned to her Center Point home from shopping for
clothes for her grandchildren on Jan. 9, 2004.
The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, citing multiple errors committed during
his capital murder trial, on Sept. 30, 2011 reversed Spradley's conviction and
death sentence. The 1st trial was held before former Jefferson County Circuit
Court Judge Gloria Bahakel. A new trial date before Wallace has not been set.
Wallace did not rule on a Rule 32 motion appealing Spradley's conviction and
20-year sentence for intimidating a witness at the end of today's hearing. The
appeals court did not reverse that conviction. The hearing also was held to
discuss evidence regarding the receipt of reward money by a key witness -
Spradley's girlfriend - in the case.
Spradley's attorneys during the hearing had told Wallace that they ultimately
plan to file motions to dismiss the capital murder charge against Spradley.
Spradley's attorneys have maintained that his attorneys in the first trial
should have been told that the key witness, Alisha Booker, was going to get
reward money in the case from the Alabama governor's office and a Barber's
Dairy program. Half of the $10,000 was paid before Spradley was sentenced and
the remainder after that.
Booker also testified that she had gotten another $1,000 from Crime Stoppers,
but there is a dispute about when that money was paid.
"We know from many cases that these sorts of incentives play a part in wrongful
convictions, sometimes leading to the ultimate horror: an innocent man on death
row," Anna Arceneaux, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union
Capital Punishment Project and an attorney in Spradley's retrial, said in a
prepared statement. "Now that we have indisputable proof that the star witness
was paid, the state wants to call her a liar. It seems a search for the truth
is less important to the state than persisting in the accusation against Montez
Spradley."
Booker had testified that she had told investigators before the trial that her
statements to them that Spradley had confessed were not true. Defense attorneys
in the first trial had been aware of her efforts to recant and changes to her
story but were unaware of the reward money she was about to get, according to
attorneys.
Booker also testified that investigators told her it was too late to change her
story, threatened to prosecute her and take her children away, and told her to
take the $10,000 in reward money to help her and her children. None of that
information was revealed to defense attorneys at Spradley's original trial,
according to the ACLU press release.
"The death penalty in Alabama is broken. I see it in this case and so many
others," Birmingham attorney Richard Jaffe, who also represents Spradley.
"Never should a person be sentenced to death on the uncorroborated word of
informants. The amount of influence the state has to reward and punish those
informants is simply too great."
Investigators this week denied threatening or coercing Booker.
Deputy Jefferson County District Attorney Mike Anderton declined comment today.
During this week's hearing, as well as previous hearings, Anderton insisted
that he did not know Booker had been paid reward money in the case. No
documents about the reward money were in the case file, he said.
Documents relating to the reward money, however, were found after inquiries by
Spradley's attorneys in a separate file that had been maintained by an
assistant in former Jefferson County District Attorney David Barber's office.
Anderton told the judge he's inquired as to why a copy was not placed into the
case file.
During the hearing this week Anderton questioned Booker about the different
times she had told investigators about Spradley's involvement in Jason's death.
Anderton asked Booker a series of questions about domestic violence incidents.
She admitted telling law enforcement in January 2006 that, while assaulting
her, Spradley had stated he should have never told her about killing that woman
and that she was trying to send him to prison.
Anderton also asked Booker if she had gotten help from Spradley's family to
raise the children. She said she had.
(source for both: al.com)
ARKANSAS:
Jersey Bridgeman's Accused Killer Gets Mental Status Hearing
The results of a mental evaluation to determine whether the Bentonville man
accused of raping and killing 6-year-old Jersey Bridgeman can competently stand
trial are in court custody and have been sealed by a Benton County judge.
Zachary Holly's attorneys claimed earlier this year that the accused killer was
unfit to stand trial, leading Circuit Judge Brad Karren to delay the murder
case and grant the defense team a mental evaluation in February for Holly. The
evaluation took place last month, according to Benton County Circuit Clerk
records.
Karren's office has received the mental evaluation's results, but the judge
sealed the report, according to Circuit Clerk records.
Karren has set a mental status hearing for 8:30 a.m. on May 29, according to
the Circuit Clerk's Office.
In addition to determining whether Holly is mentally competent to stand trial,
the evaluation also will "determine if he was able to appreciate the
criminality of his alleged conduct at the time of the offense," said Benton
County Prosecutor Van Stone in February.
That type of evaluation is standard in any death penalty case, Stone said
Holly's lawyers filed a motion Jan. 17 seeking a mental evaluation for their
client, saying Holly may not be fit to stand trial. The motion also states that
Holly's mental status may affect the case, records show.
Holly remains in the Benton County Jail, charged with capital murder,
kidnapping, rape and burglary.
At his Jan. 7 arraignment, Holly pleaded not guilty to the charges. Stone said
he will seek the death penalty against Holly in the case.
The suspect has been held in Benton County Jail without bond on an order by
Judge Robin Green at the November bond hearing.
The Bentonville girl, who was found killed Nov. 20, died of asphyxiation,
according to an affidavit of probable cause released by authorities.
Jersey lived at 608 S.E. A St. with her mother, who called the police early in
the morning Nov. 20 to report her daughter was missing. Officers found Jersey's
body fewer than 15 minutes later, in a nearby vacant house at 704 S.E. A St.
The probable cause affidavit states Holly and his wife babysat Jersey the night
of her death while DesaRae Bridgeman and Bridgeman's boyfriend were working at
a nearby convenience store. Holly later carried Jersey back to her house
shortly after DesaRae Bridgeman returned around 11 p.m.. He told police he had
nothing to do with Jersey's death, according to the report.
A swab test on Jersey's body showed traces of sperm, according to the
affidavit. Holly consented to cheek swabs for DNA comparison. He also gave
authorities clothes he had worn since going to bed the night of Jersey's death,
the report states.
DesaRae Bridgeman called police at about 6:45 a.m. to report her daughter
missing. Jersey and her younger sister shared a bed, but Jersey was nowhere to
be seen, the report states. Police estimated her death to have been between
midnight and 6:45 a.m.
While on the phone with police, Bridgeman became so upset that she had to hand
the phone off to Holly's wife.
While searching for Jersey, an officer noticed the back door to 704 S.E. A St.
was open. Jersey???s body was found minutes later inside the vacant house.
(source: KFSM News)
***********************
Ark. loses pharmaceutical company account after revealing plans to use its drug
in executions
Weeks after Arkansas acknowledged buying an anti-seizure drug to use in
executions, the state correction department said Wednesday it's losing its
account with the pharmaceutical company that supplied the chemical.
West-Ward Pharmaceuticals notified the Arkansas Department of Correction on
Wednesday that the company was closing its account, prisons spokeswoman Shea
Wilson told The Associated Press.
Wilson said she didn't know why the drug company was closing the prison
system's account, but West-Ward's London-based parent company, Hikma
Pharmaceuticals, said Wednesday that it objects to its products' use in capital
punishment.
Hikma also said it has halted direct sales of injectable phenobarbital to U.S.
corrections departments after Arkansas' actions last month. However, Hikma
spokesman Matthew Cole would not discuss specifics about Arkansas' account.
"More broadly, we're working to try to ensure that there's no unintended use of
our product for capital punishment purposes," Cole said.
The AP first reported last month that Arkansas planned to use phenobarbital in
executions, even though the barbiturate has never been used in U.S. lethal
injections.
Arkansas and many of the more than 30 other death penalty states once used a
virtually identical three-drug process: The barbiturate sodium thiopental was
administered to put an inmate to sleep, and two other drugs were administered
to stop breathing and the heart.
As sodium thiopental supplies dried up, however, Arkansas and several other
states initially turned their attention overseas, obtaining the drug from a
different British supplier. But, in 2011, they lost their supplies to federal
agents amid legal questions about how they got the drug.
So, as drugmakers have continued to object to their products' use in lethal
injections, states have been looking for alternatives.
Arkansas this year said it was turning to phenobarbital, the drug it bought
from West-Ward Pharmaceuticals.
However, lawyers for 9 death row inmates are challenging the use of the drug,
contending that it could be inhumane.
Arkansas hasn't put a prisoner to death since 2005, and for now, the state
doesn't have any pending executions.
That's expected to change, though, as Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel
asked Gov. Mike Beebe to schedule execution dates for seven of the state's 37
death row inmates.
(source: Associated Press)
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