Sept. 19
CALIFORNIA:
SoCal Businessman's Killer Faces Death Penalty
A man convicted Aug. 28 of murdering a Southern California businessman in 2008
now faces the death penalty.
Jurors deliberated for three days before finding Jeffrey Aguilar, 27, guilty of
the 1st degree murder of Oxnard, Calif., businessman Gurmohinder Singh. Aguilar
was also found guilty of 2nd-degree robbery and lying in wait.
Aguilar was 1 of 5 defendants charged with the murder of Singh, a 55-year-old
Indian American father of 2 children, who owned convenience stores and grocery
stores in Southern California with his brothers Nirmal and Kulwinder.
According to police reports, as Singh walked out of U.S. Bank on the morning of
Aug. 16, 2008, he was confronted by a man - Aguilar - who immediately shot him
and took his bag of cash, then ran off on foot. Aguilar had 4 accomplices:
Mario Cervantes, who allegedly surveilled the area around the bank the night
before the shooting; Lance Brown, who was convicted in 2010 of being an
accessory to murder and is currently serving a 3 1/2 year sentence; Christina
Deleon, Aguilar's girlfriend, who is awaiting trial on murder, 2nd degree
robbery, and receiving stolen property charges; and Maria Lissette Bucio,
Aguilar's aunt, who is serving 25 years to life for orchestrating the attack.
Cervantes and Deleon - who are awaiting trial - testified against Aguilar as
part of a plea-bargaining agreement. Cervantes is facing 22 years in prison,
while Deleon, who may have been the get-away driver, faces a 20-year sentence.
Prosecutors refuting Bucio's appeal earlier this year said that Singh and his
brothers owned several check-cashing businesses. Bucio herself had a
check-cashing store which was doing poorly; she started writing bad checks and
trafficking stolen goods in an attempt to raise $1 million that she owed to
several people and businesses, they alleged.
Prosecutors said Bucio talked to Aguilar, a member of a local gang, and
discussed with her nephew how to get money from Singh. "Bucio solicited a gang
member (Aguilar), selected a target she believed had slighted her (Singh
refused to buy her stolen goods)," noted prosecutors in their argument against
Bucio's appeal.
Bucio's appeal was denied.
Family and friends charted Singh's journey to financial success during the
penalty phase of Aguilar's trial. Gurmohinder Singh had come to Camarillo,
Calif., almost 25 years ago with the dream of owning his own business. He and
his brothers, Nirmal and Kulwinder, worked together to own a small chain of
grocery stores, known as GNK, Inc.
"He was very happy," Nirmal Singh told the Ventura Star in 2008. "He wanted to
see GNK everywhere. He wanted to open at least 10 stores, and he was working
hard for that every day. It was his dream."
Gurmohinder Singh was called "doc" by his friends, as he was a medical doctor
in India.
Singh leaves behind his brothers, his wife Manjit Kaur, and 2 grown children,
Jagdeep and Rajdeep.
The penalty phase for Aguilar is expected to conclude this week.
(source: India West)
****************
Moreno Valley Gang Member Charged With Murder of 6-Year-Old
A murder charge was filed Wednesday against a documented gang member who
allegedly shot a 6-year-old girl to death in Moreno Valley earlier this month.
Keandre Narkie Johnson, 21, appeared in court Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. He is
charged with the murder of Tiana Ricks, 6.
Keandre Narkie Johnson, 21, a "known gang member" and parolee, was arrested
without incident Monday in Hemet, according to the Riverside County District
Attorney's Office.
During a hearing at Riverside Superior Court Wednesday afternoon, Johnson's
arraignment was postponed to Oct. 1.
Tiana Ricks, of Victorville, and her father, 26-year-old Tyrell Ricks Jr., were
shot while attending a party at a house in the 25000 block of Harker Lane on
Sept. 7. Tiana was pronounced dead at Riverside County Regional Medical Center
after the shooting.
The victims and others were reportedly standing in the driveway about 9:45 p.m.
when 2 men walked up to them, asked a question and then opened fire.
Johnson was charged with 1 count of murder, 1 count of attempted murder and
participation in a criminal street gang, the the DA's office said in a news
release.
He faces allegations that the shooting was committed to further gang activities
along with other additional allegations that could affect sentencing. He could
be eligible for the death penalty, a prosecutor said.
Johnson is a documented member of the Edgemont Criminals, a Moreno Valley-based
street gang, according to the DA's office. He was on parole from a 2011
burglary conviction and had not reported to his parole officer as required,
according to the DA's office.
The Riverside County Sheriff's Department called Johnson a "self-admitted gang
member" in announcing his arrest Tuesday.
Tiana Ricks' death generated widespread interest, and 2 well-known musicians
have donated to her family. Snoop Lion, the rapper-turned-reggae artist
formerly known as Snoop Dogg, donated an undisclosed amount to the Ricks family
for funeral costs, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Compton native The Game donated $10,000 to help cover funeral expenses,
according to representatives for the musician.
(soure: KTLA)
***************
John Wayne Thomson asked for death penalty in 2006; Defendant's confession
includes anger problems, past abuse
The man accused of killing Longview???s Lori Hamm asked for the death penalty
when apprehended in California in 2006 and told police he was glad his violent
acts had been halted, jurors learned in day 3 of his murder trial.
John Wayne Thomson, 53, is on trial in California for the death of Beaumont
businessman Charles Hedlund. He also faces murder charges in Washington for the
deaths of Hamm and James Ehrgott of Spokane, which took place about a month
before the California death.
Thomson's interview with detectives was played for jurors Wednesday in the
third day of his California murder trial. He faces the death penalty if
convicted.
"I guess you guys think I'm pretty violent, and I probably am," Thomson told
San Bernardino County Sheriff's Lt. Frank Bell at the beginning of the
interview.
He also requested the death penalty, according to San Bernardino Sun posts on
Twitter during proceedings, saying "That's all I been tryin' to get. I can't do
it myself, so I've been tryin' to get somebody else to do it."
At the time of the slaying, Thomson was 46 years old and said he had no home.
Thomson said his car broke down along the side of the highway sometime in late
July 2006.
Hedlund drove up and told Thomson that he shouldn???t hang out in that area by
himself and offered the defendant a ride. Thomson said he accepted the ride,
but once he got in the truck Hedlund, 55, started touching him.
Thomson said it made him angry because when he was younger he was raped.
"Here I am, in a situation where I got hardly any means. I'm tryin' to go
somewheres, to go to a job, actually, and my car's not gonna make it. And here
comes this guy along and starts acting, you know, homosexual towards me,"
Thomson told Bell. "And that's what sets me off."
According to police, Thomson had fled to California in a stolen car after
police, and eventually the FBI, began searching for him in the wake of
Ehrgott's and Hamm's deaths. He was unemployed at the time and there's been no
mention of any job he found during his travels.
When Hedlund started to perform sexual acts, "I popped him in the head with a
piece of [expletive] iron," Thomson said.
Then Thomson said he stabbed Hedlund multiple times with a 4-inch blade.
"I tried to cut his throat so he'd stop talkin'," Thomson said.
Thomson said he dumped Hedlund's body out of the vehicle and covered up the
body with brush.
Authorities said Hedlund's blood-soaked and abandoned pickup truck was found in
the Cajon Pass area on Aug. 3, 2006.
On Aug. 5, 2006, Hedlund's body was found by a search crew beneath brush and
branches. Hedlund had been bludgeoned and stabbed several times in the head,
chest, leg and hands. He had also been stabbed in the side of the throat and
his tongue had been almost completely severed.
On Aug. 7, 2006, Thomson allegedly attacked a 70-year-old man with a hammer and
stole his car. That same day, he tried to steal cars from two different women
and was held by 2 witnesses in Victorville, Calif., until authorities arrived.
"Thank goodness that they did. ... I really don't like to hurt people, but I
do," Thomson said in the interview.
Thomson, who was raised in Cowlitz County, told police he's been treated badly
all of his life and he was sick of it. He was tired of being disrespected.
"I get angry and I get out of control," he told Bell.
Thomson was convicted of 3 rapes in Washington state, including 2 in Cowlitz
County.
In California, Thomson faces special circumstances for torture, aggravated
mayhem and murder during a robbery, in addition to felony murder and 5 other
charges.
Thomson has pleaded not guilty.
The trial resumes Thursday.
(source: The Daily News)
WASHINGTON:
Trial to resume Monday for former Sequim death row inmate
The re-trial for a former Sequim man accused of double murder will resume next
week.
A jury has been seated in Port Orchard for Darold Stenson.
Stenson is facing 2 counts of aggravated, 1st-degree murder for the 1993
killings of his wife and business partner at the Stenson's bird farm near
Sequim.
His previous conviction and death sentence was thrown out by the state Supreme
Court.
Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty this time.
Another bevy of motions are expected to come again at the trial Monday,
including another effort by the defense to have the prosecutor removed from the
case. Stenson's lawyers argue prosecutor Deb Kelly could be biased due to an
unpublished manuscript written by Kelly's mother during Stenson's 1st trial.
Stenson's re-trial has been moved to Kitsap County due to publicity and what a
judge called inflammatory statements made in the media by some people involved
in the case.
(source: KONP news)
USA:
Tsarnaev lawyers seek death penalty schedule
A joint status report submitted yesterday in the case of accused Boston
Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev indicates that the lawyers are doing what
lawyers do in federal court - agreeing to disagree about discovery.
According to a document filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney William D. Weinreb,
the government believes automatic discovery is complete.
But the defense - led by Federal Defender Miriam Conrad and death penalty
expert Judy Clarke - thinks otherwise.
"In part because of its belief that automatic discovery is not complete, the
defense is unable at this time to determine what, if any, substantive pretrial
motions it will need to file," Weinreb wrote.
The report also includes a defense request that U.S. District Court Judge
George A. O'Toole Jr. address "issues relating to the timing and procedure for
the death penalty protocol" at an initial status hearing on Sept. 23. In
support of its request, the defense cites to a 2008 memorandum from U.S.
District Court Judge John Gleeson, which recommends dates be set for:
(1) the submission by Tsarnaev of any reasons why the government should not
seek the death penalty;
(2) the submission by the prosecution to the Department of Justice a
recommendation and any supporting documentation concerning whether the death
penalty should be sought; and
(3) the filing of a notice under 18 U.S.C. 3593(a) that the government will
seek the death penalty or a notification to the court and Tsarnaev that it will
not.
(source: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly)
********************
Utah joins nation in increased use of life sentences, report finds
1 in every 9 inmates incarcerated across the country is now serving a life
sentence and 1/3 of those inmates are not eligible for parole, which means they
will die behind bars, according to a new report from The Sentencing Project.
Such sentences have quadrupled since 1984 and are now at an "unprecedented
level," said the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, which researches and
advocates for criminal justice issues. Its survey of all 50 states and the
federal prison system found 160,000 inmates have life sentences; of those
50,000 are ineligible for parole - up 22 % since 2008.
Utah is no exception to the trend, according to previous research by The Salt
Lake Tribune and data gathered by The Sentencing Project. There are 105
1st-degree felony inmates currently serving life sentences in Utah.
The Sentencing Project found another 1,943 Utah inmates are serving 5 years
-to-life sentences after being convicted of 1st-degree felonies; under Utah's
indeterminate sentencing scheme, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole will
ultimately determine whether those offenders receive natural life sentences or
are eventually paroled. In states with indeterminate sentencing, inmates tend
to be incarcerated longer, the report said.
"The board doesn't sentence anyone but rather has discretion about releasing
people who have a 1st-degree felony indeterminate sentence, which comes down
through a judge or jury, in which 'up to life' provides the possibility of
serving one's natural life in prison," said Jim Hatch, board spokesman. "Only a
judge or jury can sentence someone to life without parole, which we don't get
involved in, and there are more of those sentences occurring in recent years in
lieu of prosecutors seeking the death penalty." The Tribune found that it costs
the state about $3.2 million a year to house those inmates who now have
board-determined natural life sentences. It costs at least $30,000 a year on
average to house an inmate - and more as an inmate ages.
The report ranked Utah 2nd in the nation, after California, for percentage of
inmates facing up to life in prison. And it found a disproportionate number of
black and Latino inmates in Utah have life sentences - nearly 7 % and 21 %,
respectively - compared to their representation in the state's population.
Blacks make up 1.3 % of Utah's population, while Latinos comprise 13 %.
A life sentence was once reserved as an alternative to the death penalty for
homicide, but its use has been expanded under "get tough" laws to such crimes
as aggravated assault/robbery/kidnapping; sexual assault and rape; and even
property and drug crimes, the report found. According to The Sentencing
Project, approximately 10,000 offenders serving life sentences were convicted
of nonviolent offenses.
Among the examples cited in the report: a 23-year-old college student arrested
in 1993 received three life sentences after being convicted in federal court of
conspiracy for serving as a liaison between 2 drug dealers - although he was
not present or privy to the details of the transaction; the sentence was based
on the amount of drugs involved and federal mandatory minimum sentencing
guidelines. A 63-year-old Oklahoma man received life without parole for selling
an ounce of cocaine and 3 marijuana cigarettes; the state's parole board has
recommended the man, who has served 18 years in prison, be released but the
governor has so far refused.
The Sentencing Project also attributed the increase in life sentences to
skepticism about the effectiveness of rehabilitation.
The report said 5 states - Florida, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, California and
Michigan - account for nearly 58 % of the inmates with life sentences.
Across the nation there are 5,361 women serving life sentences, with 300
ineligible for parole; other studies have found nearly 84 percent of those
women were sexually or physically abused.
In federal prisons, at least 35 % of the inmate population have a life
sentences; there is no parole in the federal system, a policy adopted in 1987.
Congress is currently discussing revising federal mandatory minimum sentences.
The Judicial Conference, which represents the federal system, has "consistently
and vigorously opposed" mandatory minimums and supports changes in those
guidelines, according to a letter submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee
on Tuesday.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced last month that the Justice
Department would no longer purse mandatory minimum sentences for low-level,
nonviolent drug offenders.
The Sentencing Project report said the growing number of inmates serving life
sentences was particularly remarkable given the decline in violent crime and
sentencing reforms that have reduced prison populations. In 2011 and 2012 some
17 states closed some of their prisons, according to the report authored by
senior research analyst Ashley Nellis.
(source: Salt Lake Tribune)
****************************
America Tonight---Is hope a human right?
Larry Yarbrough is currently serving the 16th year of a life without parole
sentence for trafficking in illegal drugs. He's received commendations for his
work training guide dogs for the disabled, and his prison record is spotless.
The parole board has voted twice to commute his sentence, but the governor has
overturned both.
In July, the European Court of Human Rights decided that a sentence of life in
prison without parole was inhuman and degrading treatment, and so in violation
of international human rights. The 49 people currently serving life without
parole in the U.K. will be resentenced, but the ruling won't alter the fates of
the more than 49,000 people in that same situation in the U.S.
Until a few decades ago, it was rare for criminals to be sentenced to take
their dying breath in prison. But now their ranks are growing fast. The number
of prisoners serving life sentences without parole is 4 times higher than it
was 2 decades ago and 22.5 % higher than it was in 2008, according to a report
released Wednesday by The Sentencing Project, an advocacy group for sentencing
reform. This group is now 15 times larger than the number of Americans on death
row.
The population has exploded, in part, because of the rise of mandatory minimums
for "habitual offenders." But it's also a surprising byproduct of the
anti-death penalty movement, which has leaned on life without parole to achieve
its goals.
Bargaining with death
Life without parole has been a potent bargaining chip for death penalty
abolitionists. A 2010 poll found that seven in 10 Californians supported the
death penalty, but when presented with life without parole as an alternative,
support for capital punishment fell to 41 %. In 2004, U.S. Health and Human
Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic death penalty abolitionist,
enacted a life without parole law authored by other death penalty abolitionists
when she was governor of Kansas. In May, Maryland became the latest state to
abolish the death penalty, but only by replacing it with life without parole,
just as New Mexico did in 2009.
According to David Dow, who has represented more than 100 death row inmates in
Texas, the anti-death penalty community has come to accept life without parole
as a reasonable concession because it has suffered "psychological fatigue" from
"losing so frequently for so long." (Support for the death penalty is currently
higher than it was in 1972.)
"Once you have 2 or 3 decades of more deaths," Dow says of the activists'
campaign, "you begin to view as a victory what you would have otherwise viewed
as a defeat."
Death penalty attorneys have also helped drive the trend; for them, the win is
getting death off the table for clients, and life without parole is
increasingly the alternative. District attorneys too have become much more
eager to trade the death penalty down for life without parole, which can save
up to millions in court costs. Life without parole, it seems, makes strange
bedfellows.
The trauma of parole
David Biro, sentenced in 1997 to life in prison without parole for the murders
of Nancy and Richard Langert. He was 17 when he killed the couple.
There are few advocates fighting on the other side, except when it comes to the
approximately 2,500 inmates, according to Human Rights Watch, who are serving
life sentences without parole for crimes committed as minors. As the only
country to permit such sentences for juveniles, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty
International and bar associations from Japan to South Africa filed a joint
amicus brief in January 2012 urging the U.S. Supreme Court to outlaw the
practice as cruel and unusual -- which it did. So far, states have been mixed
over whether to apply the ruling retroactively.
Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins was unimpressed when a politician tried to lower the
death penalty eligibility age to 16 to "honor" her sister, who was brutally
murdered while pregnant. But she does believe that life without parole is
fitting for the exceptionally callous teen murderer.
"The 17-year-old who killed my family members was not a child," says
Bishop-Jenkins, who's now president of the National Organization of Victims of
Juvenile Lifers. "He planned the murder for months in advance, months. He was
not a poor kid from a gang-infested neighborhood. He was a white rich kid, who
lived in a $3 million house, and he did this because he was bored and was
thrilled by violence and evil."
Victims' rights advocates point out that life without parole is usually
reserved for the most-horrific offenses, and that the option of parole should
be balanced with the fresh trauma each new parole hearing would bring to
victims' loved ones. Notorious mass murderer Charles Manson has been up for
parole 12 times.
"He keeps coming up, and they're spending the money, and putting the victims'
families through hell," Bishop-Jenkins said. "They have to talk to the media,
and reopen the wounds."
Not all murderers
Life without parole is mostly reserved for murderers, but not always. At least
13 states and the federal government currently trigger a mandatory life without
parole sentence after a certain number of strikes, and sometimes these strikes
include drug felonies. The Sentencing Project found that in 8 states more than
30 % of the life without parole population is in for a nonviolent crime.
One of them is Larry Yarbrough, who owned a popular BBQ joint in Kingfisher,
Okla. until he was convicted of trafficking in illegal drugs in 1997. When his
life without parole sentence was handed down - Yarbrough had 5 previous
felonies - Dennis Will, one of the jurors, said "I felt like I'd been hit right
in the stomach." Will said he still thinks about Yarbrough, now serving his
16th year, about once or twice a week.
Yarbrough's record since has been clean, with commendations from the Department
of Corrections for his work training guide dogs. He's still married to his wife
Norma after 43 years, and has 5 children and 13 grandkids.
The state parole board twice voted to commute Yarbrough's sentence, and twice
the governor overturned it. His attorney Debbie Hampton is trying to campaign
for the repeal of life without parole, but says the state's defense bar hasn't
been very supportive. "They wanted the option of life without," she explains.
"... They wanted a lesser option than death."
Finding death the better option
Yarbrough is the kind of poster boy of excessive sentencing that activists
often hold up to make their claims. Many cases like his exist, but they are the
minority. Campaigning against life without parole more generally means
grappling with the heinousness of a lot of the crimes. Many note the enormous
expense of housing prisoners for life, and the evidence that long-term, older
convicts are extremely unlikely to offend again.
Prisoners make a different kind of argument. In the lead up to California's
vote last year on whether to replace the death penalty with life without
parole, Tom Young, a death row inmate in the state, wrote how it would diminish
the appeals process for people like him. When the Campaign to End the Death
Penalty sent surveys about the ballot initiative to death row prisoners, 47 of
the 50 respondents opposed it.
Dow, the death row attorney, says his clients aren't so solidly pro-death
penalty as the ones in California, noting that in California a death row inmate
is in fact very unlikely to be killed, while in Texas it's a near certainty.
But he added: "I've also had clients who get out of death row by agreeing to
life without parole. 2 to 3 years later they say they think they've made a very
bad decision and is there a way to undo it?"
The fact that life without parole extinguishes any chance for rehabilitation,
any chance that a human being can change, is why the European Court of Human
Rights ruled that life without parole violated their convention. The prisoners
in the case certainly weren't sympathetic characters; one killed four men for
his sexual gratification, another killed his parents, his sister and her 2
young kids. But that fundmantal question is largely absent from U.S. debate: Is
hope -- however slim, however faint -- a human right?
(source: Al Jazeera)
***********************
Defense asks for freeze on 9/11 plot death penalty case until Gitmo computer
problems are resolved
A computer system that was supposed to provide defense lawyers at a Guantanamo
Bay war crimes tribunal with a safe and secure place to store client documents
is so riddled with problems that they have sometimes resorted to using public
Wi-Fi at coffee shops on base and in Washington, D.C.
In a hearing this week, they are asking the judge, Army Col. James Pohl, to
freeze pretrial proceedings concerning the five defendants, who are accused in
the capital case of playing a role in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks,
until the computer system is functional, reports Reuters.
Claimed problems have included missing documents and email, corrupted documents
and a prosecutor given access by the system to some defense files. One lawyer
has suggested that U.S. intelligence agencies are responsible for security
breaches in the system.
If Pohl agrees to delay the case, it could be put on hold until next year.
(source: ABA Journal)
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