Oct. 6
NEBRASKA:
Bruning calls for Nebraska to change lethal injection protocol
Nebraska needs a new lethal injection protocol to keep the death penalty
viable, Attorney General Jon Bruning said Friday.
The state's supply of sodium thiopental, 1 of 3 drugs currently required for
lethal injection in Nebraska, expires in December. The drug is no longer made
domestically, and it has become the target of successful legal challenges.
The solution, Bruning said, is to change the state's lethal injection protocol.
While such a change could be done legislatively, it could also be accomplished
by amending regulations within the state Department of Correctional Services.
"My goal is to ensure the death penalty is carried out," Bruning said. "It's
very frustrating to me that the constant litigation over the drug used to carry
out these sentences has produced constant delays."
Nebraska has not carried out an execution since 1997, when the method was the
electric chair. The state switched to lethal injection in 2009 after the
Nebraska Supreme Court declared electrocution cruel and unusual punishment.
None of the 11 men on death row currently have an execution date, although
several are nearing the end of their appeals.
Death penalty opponents have argued Nebraska could end lawsuits and save legal
costs by abolishing capital punishment in favor of life in prison without
parole.
"I'm concerned with the victims and I'm concerned with their families," Bruning
said as he rejected that argument.
Nebraska's current execution protocol requires the injection of sodium
thiopental as an anesthetic followed by 2 other drugs that paralyze and stop
the heart. Bruning advocated creating a more general protocol that would give
the Corrections Department broader authority to select drugs for lethal
injection.
Gov. Dave Heineman, a supporter of capital punishment, could direct the
Corrections Department to change the protocol. Heineman declined to comment on
the issue Friday.
The department would be required to hold a public hearing on a proposed change
to the protocol. Such a change could prompt a new set of legal challenges.
An attorney for Michael Ryan, sentenced to death in 1986 for the gruesome
torture and murder of James Thimm near Rulo, Neb., filed a court brief this
week asking the state to review how the Corrections Department obtained its
current supply of sodium thiopental. The Swiss manufacturer of the drug said it
was stolen by a broker in India.
In July, a federal appeals court ruled the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
violated its own policies by failing to approve the import of sodium thiopental
to corrections departments in Arizona, California and Tennessee. The ruling was
viewed as yet another avenue that could be pursued by opponents of capital
punishment in Nebraska.
A broader protocol would give corrections officials the ability to avoid drugs
dogged by legal challenges, Bruning said. He criticized death penalty opponents
for shifting attention away from the criminal acts that led to death sentences
being handed down.
"It's very frustrating to talk about an anesthetic being used on the men on
death row," he said. "I have very little concern about the moment of pain
Michael Ryan might feel before he meets his maker."
During the last legislative session, 28 state senators voted to end a
filibuster on a death penalty repeal bill. Although it wasn't enough votes to
stop the filibuster, it indicated there may have been the 25 votes necessary to
advance the bill.
(source: Omaha World-Herald)
WYOMING:
Local attorney talks trials, career and defending the (allegedly) dangerous
The small house converted into a law office in the 300 block of South Fourth
Street in Laramie is strictly out of place with the surrounding neighborhood.
There's a church on the opposite corner, newspaper across the street,
professional building to the rear and a salon next door.
The atmosphere inside Neubauer, Pelkey & Goldfinger LLP, like the exterior,
goes against the grain: a less button-down, formal environment than a typical
law firm.
However, the atypical locale, interior and demeanor fit for at least the lead
name in the firm's title, criminal defense attorney Vaughn Neubauer.
He pulls no punches and is beyond honest and blunt when describing his work as
one of Laramie and Albany County's most prominent and visible defense
attorneys.
"If I'm going to join a partnership, my name's going to be the 1st name, man,
c'mon," he quipped. "I'm the (expletives) death penalty lawyer here."
Neubauer, 45, originally of Casper, is a military veteran, history and
Holocaust scholar, and a product of the University of Wyoming's College of Law.
He's practiced for about 13 years and defended accused sex offenders and
murderers, including 3 death penalty cases - 1 of which is considered one of
the state's most notorious.
The counselor has been asked numerous times, including once by his mother, why
he stands up and advocates for people charged with violent crimes often beyond
society's comprehension.
His response, though perhaps disagreeable to some, is multi-faceted: It's an
answer blending legal system fundamentals, a challenge to authority and
humanism.
"When I was up in Gillette, when my mom was still alive, when I was
representing all those child molesters, she goes, 'Vaughn, how can you
represent all these child molesters and rapists?'" he recalled. "I said, 'You
know, if guys like me lay down every time they call someone a child molester,
all they have to do is call you a child molester.'
"They've got a small army of cops. They've got a fleet of cars, they've got
drug dogs, they've got paid snitches, they've got helicopters. If they can't
beat my stupid (expletive), they've got no business sticking people in cages.
... And, you know, we're all better than the worst thing we've ever done."
It's an answer that makes sense on paper, though in practice is sometimes more
difficult.
Take, for example, Neubauer's work on the defense team 7 years ago for Andrew
John Yellowbear, Jr.
The case originated in Riverton, was tried in Thermopolis and centered on the
torture throughout several weeks of Yellowbear's 22-month-old daughter,
Marcela, and the likely outcome of the abuse - the girl's death.
Yellowbear and his wife, Macalia Blackburn, were charged with the girl's
murder.
In Yellowbear's death penalty case, he was sentenced to life in prison with no
possibility of parole.
Blackburn pleaded guilty to accessory to 2nd-degree murder and was sentenced to
60 years in prison. She later testified against Yellowbear.
The content of the case, the visuals of the damage and harm done to the girl,
disturbed Neubauer.
"Yellowbear," he said, "was a tough one."
"I was in combat (invasion of Panama), saw dead bodies there, I went to
graduate school for Holocaust studies, my (infant) daughter only died a year or
so before that. Just the pictures in Yellowbear made me cry. Even back then, I
was a seasoned vet. It takes quite a bit to ruffle my feathers."
Why then represent a man charged with such vicious acts?
"First and foremost, I disagree with the death penalty to my core," the defense
attorney said. "The death penalty is wrong, period. ... If Adolf Hitler and the
Ghost Battalion of the Waffen-SS came through here, I'd try to keep them off
death row.
"The state, I don't think they should have the authority to kill somebody. ...
I'm not going to give Matt Mead and those boys the power to kill somebody. No,
no, no."
Neubauer, according to his profile on the law firm's website, is one of the
"very few Wyoming lawyers qualified to serve as lead defense counsel in a death
penalty case, and (has) kept 2 people off of Wyoming's death row."
"When you or a member of your family are charged with a crime, you need a
lawyer who knows what he is doing," the bio states. "One cannot simply learn
this business in a book or seminar. It takes years of fighting out tough cases
against experienced prosecutors."
"I am proud to say that I have achieved miraculous results for many clients in
very tough cases. I believe I have a responsibility to go to bat for my
clients, not just represent them."
Neubauer is currently lead counsel in three of Laramie's most publicized
criminal cases: a 2nd-degree murder case against Tim Harnden; aggravated
assault and felonious restraint charges against local attorney and former
Laramie City Council member Joe Hageman; and an interference charge against Meg
Lanker-Simons, a former UW student who allegedly authored a social media threat
against herself.
He's also part of the team litigating a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court
in Cheyenne against the town of Shoshoni, police chief Andy Rodriguez and
police officer G. Cruce, alleging civil rights violations against town resident
L.J. Faith.
The ongoing status of the cases prevents Neubauer from commenting.
However, he makes no claims as to being the area's most sought-after defense
attorney.
"It would be unethical for me to say that," Neubauer said. "There are
(attorneys) here in town who know what they're doing. ... I've done a lot of
good cases, a lot of complex and difficult cases. I'd like to think people
understand that experience means a lot in this business."
Neubauer said he feels pressure for each client he represents, to be his or her
advocate and ideally engineer a favorable legal outcome.
Death penalty cases, in particular, involve tension - pre- and post-verdict.
"When you go on to a death penalty case, you're either going to be the hero or
it's damn near going to end your career," he said. "If your client goes on
death row, your work is going to be reviewed by literally hundreds of lawyers
across the nation."
And, it's not uncommon for Neubauer to hear from people, particularly those
connected to criminal cases, critical of him for defending the accused.
Here, he has an answer balancing certainty, resolve and self-examination.
"The thing is, to hell with those people," Neubauer said. "I'm right, they're
wrong. I know I'm the guy wearing the white hat.
"I'm a realist, not a philosopher, but I try to self-reflect as much as
possible. But no, I'm not always absolutely certain. ... Yes, I know a lot of
guys I've seriously gone to bat for belong in prison. They're truly dangerous.
I've had clients try to kill me."
But ...
"I feel like I'm doing the right thing in that I'm standing up," he said.
"You give the powers that be just unfettered discretion to do to (defendants)
what they want to do, we'll be back in Pennsylvania in the 17th century. ...
You gotta have people constantly challenging (people), even the
well-intentioned ones."
(source: Laramie Boomerang)
ARIZONA----impending executions
Edward Schad, Robert Glen Jones Jr executions: State provides drug information
to court
Arizona has handed over information on the execution drug it plans on using in
2 upcoming executions after a judge ordered the release.
The documents filed in federal court in Phoenix Saturday show the pentobarbital
to be used at Wednesday's execution of Edward Schad and that of Robert Glen
Jones Jr. on Oct. 23 expires in November. It comes from Denmark-based Lundbeck,
Inc., which stopped selling it for executions in July 2011.
Lawyers for the inmates were worried the state may not have unexpired, FDA
approved drugs. Arizona uses just 1 drug in its executions.
U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver ordered the release Friday. Federal public
defender Dale Baich says he doesn't know why the state tried to hide the
information.
Last-minute appeals are ongoing for both inmates.
(source: ABC News)
**************************
Arias lawyers want to bar live coverage of trial
Jodi Arias has sought the spotlight at every turn, granting national television
interviews in the months after her arrest, another on the day of her
conviction, and about a half dozen the day jurors began deliberating whether
she should live or die for her crimes.
Now facing a retrial to determine her sentence, Arias' lawyers are asking a
judge to bar live TV coverage inside the courtroom, an irony not lost on
prosecutors and a lawyer representing CNN.
"She has voluntarily thrust herself into the vortex of this public
controversy," the news network's attorney, David Bodney, told the judge at a
hearing Friday. "It is unfair to deprive the public ... because someone can't
control her own speech."
Arias was convicted of 1st-degree murder May 8 in the 2008 stabbing and
shooting death of boyfriend Travis Alexander in his suburban Phoenix home. The
same jury failed to reach a decision on whether she should get the death
penalty, setting the stage for a 2nd penalty phase.
Arias' attorneys are arguing that the same intense publicity that enveloped her
trial will no doubt come in the second penalty phase as well, hindering her
ability to get a fair trial. They also are seeking to have the new jury
sequestered, citing thousands of television news shows and newspaper articles
about Arias throughout her roughly 5-month trial, as well as a Lifetime movie
about the case that attorneys said attracted 3.1 million viewers.
In addition, Arias' lawyers want the retrial moved out of the Phoenix
metropolitan area because of excessive publicity, and they want the judge to
compel all jurors eventually seated to reveal their Twitter user names so the
accounts can be monitored to ensure jurors aren???t communicating about the
case.
Arias herself has operated a Twitter account, even throughout the trial, using
a 3rd party to post comments on her behalf as she remains jailed. As of Friday,
she had more than 78,000 followers.
In one recent motion, prosecutors shot back, noting that the defense efforts
fail to acknowledge Arias' "own role in creating publicity about the trial."
"She cannot create what she now considers a problem and then expect the court
to change its procedure to solve the problem," the motion read.
The judge excluded the press and the public from the remainder of Friday's
hearing, despite objections from various media outlets. No rulings have yet
been issued on any of the defense motions.
Under Arizona law, while Arias' murder conviction stands, prosecutors have the
option of pursuing a 2nd penalty phase with a new jury in an effort to get a
death sentence. If the 2nd jury fails to reach a verdict, the death penalty
would be removed as an option, and the judge would sentence Arias to ether
spend her entire life behind bars or be eligible for release after 25 years.
Arias, 33, admitted she killed Alexander but claimed it was self-defense after
he attacked her. Prosecutors argued it was premeditated murder carried out in a
jealous rage after the victim wanted to end their affair and planned a trip to
Mexico with another woman.
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA:
Judge overturns murder conviction: Former Chico State student was on death row
for slaying of doctor, wife
A man convicted in the slaying of a physician and his wife decades ago had the
verdict overturned earlier this week by a federal judge because of alleged
racism in jury selection.
Steven Edward Crittenden, a former Chico State University student, was
sentenced to death in 1989 for the murder of Dr. William Chiappella, 68, and
Katherine Chiappella, 67, in January 1987, according to an Aug. 24, 2010,
article in the Enterprise-Record. Because of publicity surrounding the case,
the trial was moved to Auburn, in Placer County.
That ruling was overturned because a federal judge in Sacramento claimed the
sole black juror in the jury selection process was dismissed for racial
reasons, said Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey, who became district
attorney before the trial began in 1989.
Crittenden's attorneys told the Sacramento Bee that "U.S. District Judge
Kimberley J. Mueller made the right decision."
Jerry Flanagan, the prosecutor in the case against Crittenden, was not
motivated by race in the case against Crittenden, who is African-American,
Ramsey said in a phone interview Saturday. The judge in the original trial
determined that race was not a factor in the jury selection when the defense
brought the issue up.
The District Attorney's Office is working with the attorney general to get a
stay to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for an appeal of the judge's ruling.
The Chiappellas were beaten and stabbed to death in their home, and Crittenden
was found guilty, in part, for cashing a $3,000 check from Katherine Chiappella
that the prosecution said had been written under torture, according to the E-R
article. Crittenden had done yard work for the couple and claimed the check was
given to him by Katherine Chiapella for sex.
"There was no dispute that Mr. Crittenden was guilty of butchering Dr. and Mrs.
Chiapella," Ramsey said. "Overturning the verdict had nothing to do with
evidence. This shows that there is a reluctance in the federal courts to
enforce the death penalty."
(source: ChicoER News)
********************************
Serial killer's death sentence revives capital punishment debate
In 1977, 19-year-old Larry Roggasch cracked open a 6-pack of beer, pouring 3 on
his little sister's freshly covered grave in their native San Jose, and made a
promise: He would see that the man who raped, strangled and dumped her on a
Marin County hillside be punished.
36 years later, judgment day looms for serial killer Joseph Naso, who at age 79
will become the oldest person ever sentenced to death in California when a
judge next month pronounces his penalty for the murders of 18-year-old Roxene
Roggasch and three other Northern California prostitutes.
But Larry Roggasch doesn't know whether he can bear to watch Naso receive what
seems to him a hollow sentence. With an ongoing moratorium on executions in
California and hundreds of convicted murderers awaiting capital punishment,
there is virtually no chance the state will ever put Naso to death.
"It's a joke; he's never going to be executed," said Roggasch, a 56-year-old
commercial fisherman. "He's going to live out the rest of his life safe and
comfortable in his own cell on death row.
"That's why I want him to go to mainline prison," Roggasch continued. "He needs
to suffer, like them -- not just my sister, all of them."
In California, the death penalty appeals process takes so long that men half
Naso's age on death row are more likely to die of natural causes or kill
themselves than be executed by the state. And while they wait on San Quentin
State Prison's death row, they lead a relatively comfortable existence, with
single cells and access to the best attorneys fighting for prisoners' rights.
But on the heels of voters narrowly choosing to preserve the death penalty last
year, California's district attorneys and peace officers are readying a
proposition for the 2014 ballot that they say would expedite executions once
the state lifts its moratorium on lethal injection drugs.
Among those spearheading the effort are District Attorneys Steve Wagstaffe of
San Mateo County, Jeff Rosen of Santa Clara County and Mark Peterson, whose
Contra Costa County territory has been the scene of death penalty defendants
mocking the threat of capital punishment in recent years.
"Some individuals facing murder charges would prefer the death penalty to life
without parole because they believe the conditions on death row are better than
among the general population," said Larry Barnes, a private defense attorney
and death penalty expert. "They harbor the opinion that with some 720 men on
death row, unless they are very young, they don't stand a chance of being
executed."
Such was the case with Richmond-San Rafael Bridge toll plaza killer Nathan
Burris, who practically begged Contra Costa County jurors to give him the death
penalty at his trial last year for the jealousy-fueled ambush killing of his
ex-girlfriend and her friend.
"If I was in Texas, I'd be terrified," Burris said from the witness stand in
2012. "California is not real. The death penalty means nothing to me but time
to hang out and do what I'm going to do."
In the same courtroom 3 years earlier, Edward Wycoff received the death penalty
for the ambush slayings of his sister and brother-in-law in El Cerrito. He told
jurors that he deserved an award, not the death penalty, but still wanted the
1-to-a-cell status that death row provides.
Between California resuming executions in 1992 and the beginning of the state's
judicially imposed moratorium in 2006, just 13 men who exhausted their appeals
have been executed. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
counts 722 men and 20 women currently on death row, nearly 300 of whom have had
their sentences affirmed by the Supreme Court. Experts say it takes 12 years on
average for condemned inmates in California to exhaust their appeals, more than
twice the national average for death penalty states.
Meanwhile, the costs mount; by one estimate, the state has spent more than $4
billion on death penalty trials, appeals and incarceration since 1978.
"The death penalty process is broken, there is no dispute about that," said
Peterson, who is part of Californians for Death Penalty Reform and Savings, a
coalition of district attorneys, law enforcement professionals and victims'
rights advocates in the process of raising $1.7 million to get on the November
2014 ballot an initiative they believe would cut the appeal process in half and
save the state hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Among the initiative's proposals is a plan for appeals to be handled first by
the state's appellate courts, alleviating the severe backlog in the state
Supreme Court. It calls for a revamping of the defense attorney program to
shrink the 5-year delay for condemned inmates to get representation. It would
give the state freedom to double up condemned inmates in cells, and house them
in prisons other than San Quentin.
"This would be more fair to everyone involved, more fair to the victims, and
more fair to the defendants because their legal issues would be expedited in a
timely manner," Peterson said.
But Ana Zamora, senior policy advocate at the American Civil Liberties Union of
Northern California, said Peterson and his coalition face "a serious uphill
battle."
"The death penalty system is so broken beyond repair, there is no fixing the
system that won't cost millions and millions and won't put at risk executing
innocent people," she said.
In the meantime, San Quentin's death row more and more resembles a geriatric
ward.
Killer and serial rapist Darryl Kemp currently holds the distinction as the
oldest person to be sentenced to death in advance of Naso's Nov. 8 sentencing.
Kemp was 73 when he slept through his 2009 trial and sentencing for the rape
and murder of a Lafayette mother 3 decades earlier.
It was the 2nd death sentence for Kemp, who killed just four months after he
was released from San Quentin in 1978 after a California Supreme Court ruling
that made capital punishment unconstitutional and commuted all death sentences
to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Today, at age 77, Kemp is in
the preliminary stage of his appeal that will stretch for years.
Naso, acting as his own attorney, fought for an acquittal and then life without
parole at his trials for 4 murders in the 1970s and 1990s. He had escaped
prosecution until 2010, when a search of his Reno home produced a diary
documenting a half-century of rapes, a kill list and incriminating photographs
of women. Prosecutors linked him to 2 other uncharged murders during the
penalty phase of his trial.
Still, the notion of sentencing a 79-year-old to death provoked some
controversy.
"Regardless of where one stands on the death penalty, with regard to Mr. Naso,
it is clear before his appeals are exhausted, he will be long gone," said
retired Santa Clara County judge and death penalty foe LaDoris Cordell. "People
want to kill him before he dies. There are those of us who think this is
ludicrous, that we are going to rush to kill people before they die."
Marin County District Attorney Edward Berberian does not back the proposed
ballot initiative to revamp the death penalty because he doesn't believe the
appeals process should be sped up. Nevertheless, he defends his prosecution of
Naso, the 1st time his office had sought capital punishment in more than 20
years.
He said Naso's advanced age was considered in reaching his decision, but it was
outweighed by the lives Naso had destroyed over his lifetime.
"This is a serial killer," Berberian said, "and with regard to use of the death
penalty, if it's a law in this state, which it is, this is a case where a jury
needed to make a decision."
(source: Contra Costa Times)
**********************
Prosecutors consider death penalty in Forestville drug killing
Sonoma County prosecutors are still deciding whether to seek the death penalty
against a Colorado man accused of shooting to death 3 would-be partners in a
marijuana deal gone bad.
Mark Cappello, 46, of Central City, Colo., is suspected of killing the men
execution-style in a house near Forestville on Feb. 5 as they prepared at least
69 pounds of pot for transport to New York.
If convicted of 3 counts of murder with special circumstances, Cappello could
be eligible for death by lethal injection under at least 3 scenarios. Judge
Robert LaForge last week ruled there was enough evidence presented at a
preliminary hearing to prove Cappello was lying in wait, committed multiple
murders and did it for financial gain - all grounds for the death penalty.
District Attorney Jill Ravitch, who has yet to pursue capital punishment in any
case since taking office in 2011, is not expected to announce a decision when
all sides come back to court Thursday to set a trial date.
Assistant District Attorney Christine Cook said Friday prosecutors were
following an official protocol for making such decisions that involves
presenting a case to a review committee and soliciting input from the victims'
families. Defendants are also permitted to make arguments against it.
Cook did not say when a decision would be made.
"The process is still underway," Cook said.
Cappello's attorney, Michael Meehan, said he believes prosecutors will
eventually go for it. But he doesn't think they can prove the charges, in part
because the district attorney's case relies so much on testimony from a
co-defendant, Odin Dwyer, 38, also of Colorado, who along with his father
profited most from the slayings, Meehan said.
He said Odin and Francis Dwyer, 66, of New Mexico, ended up with all of the
weed taken from the house on Ross Station Road. Also, father and son were the
ones who dumped the suspected murder weapon, a .45 caliber semi-automatic
pistol, Meehan said.
"The evidence points as equally to Odin Dwyer as it does to Mark Cappello,"
Meehan said. "He never received anything from this."
Meehan said Cappello's role in the deal was to transport pot purchased by
victims Todd Klarkowski, 43, of Boulder, Colo., and Richard Lewin, 46, of
Huntington, N.Y., from the 3rd victim, Raleigh Butler, 24, formerly of
Sebastopol.
Cappello enlisted the Dwyers to do the actual driving, Meehan said.
But statements Odin Dwyer made to police suggest Cappello planned to
double-cross the victims all along. At a hotel on Santa Rosa Avenue, Cappello
wiped his gun and bullets with alcohol, Dwyer said.
Once inside the Forestville house the morning of Feb. 5, he insisted the
victims remove the batteries from their cellphones to prevent detection by law
enforcement, Dwyer said.
Cappello also made up a fictitious person named "Vick" whom he told the victims
was waiting in a car nearby to make sure no one was surveilling the house,
Dwyer said.
Also, he said Cappello was expected to bring $275,000 the day of the killing.
He told the victims he left it at the hotel and would get it later, creating
tension among him and the group, Dwyer told police.
"He thought the tension was elevated, heated," Detective Brandon Cutting of the
Sonoma County Sheriff's Office testified last week.
Meehan called the account "a fiction."
"There is no evidence that Mr. Cappello had any money at all," Meehan said.
Still, the group - not including Francis Dwyer, who waited at a Santa Rosa
hotel room - proceeded to prepare the pot for driving it across country, Dwyer
told police.
Within 15 minutes of arriving, all the men moved to a back bedroom and had
begun heat-sealing 2-pound plastic bags of marijuana and spraying the bags with
enzyme to reduce odor, Dwyer said.
Everyone was on the floor, busily working, except Cappello, who stood by the
door, Dwyer said.
At one point, Dwyer said Cappello nodded to him and asked him to call Vick.
Dwyer said he got up and walked into the kitchen when he heard three "fairly
quick" shots.
He turned and saw Cappello standing with his arm extended and a gun in his
hand, he said.
In the room, the 3 men lay sprawled on the floor, Dwyer said, each with a
bullet in his head.
Lewin appeared to be gasping for air and Butler was staring at him with a
bullet hole over his eyebrow, Dwyer told police. Klarkowski was face-down, he
said.
That's when Dwyer said Cappello looked at him and said, "It had to be done,"
Dwyer told police.
Both men packed the weed in Cappello's Ford Bronco, he said. They drove back to
Cappello's hotel room, where Cappello shaved off his beard and changed his
clothes, which he later dumped near I-80 in Solano County, Dwyer said.
Cappello instructed the Dwyers to dispose of his gun in a creek near Sonoma
State University. It was later found by police.
The men drove back to Colorado in separate vehicles. When they arrived, they
split up the weed. Cappello gave his share back to the Dwyers to sell for him.
He asked for $90,000 in return, Dwyer said.
Cappello also gave each man up to $4,000 in cash, Dwyer said.
All 3 were later arrested in different states, in part with help from
surveillance camera photos. Detectives recovered about 60 pounds of marijuana
and some cash from the Dwyers, Cutting said.
Cappello was captured in Mobile, Ala., after a traffic stop. He had a passport
and credit cards but none of the pot.
All 3 await trial in the Sonoma County jail. If prosecutors decide to pursue
the death penalty for Cappello, he will get a 2nd lawyer appointed at public
expense.
Lethal injections have been halted in California since 2006 pending the outcome
of legal challenges claiming the procedure constitutes cruel and unusual
punishment. The last Sonoma County defendant sent to San Quentin's death row
was Robert Scully, who was convicted of the 1995 shotgun slaying of Deputy
Frank Trejo.
(source: Press-Democrat)
**************************
Death row: Where does San Diego rank?
Of the nation's counties that have inmates on death row, San Diego ranks among
the top, with 40.
The Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that studies the death
penalty, released a county-by-county breakdown this week on the hot-button
topic, showing where death sentences are being pronounced, and where the
executions are actually happening.
As of Jan. 1, Los Angeles County had the most death row inmates at 228. Other
California counties - Riverside, Orange and Alameda - followed, with San Diego
rounding out the top 10.
But look at the list of 62 counties where executions have happened since the
penalty was reinstated in 1976, and our state doesn't appear. Texas alone
accounted for 38 % of the nation's executions, the report says.
Part of that can be explained by California's unofficial moratorium on
executions since 2006, with an appeals court ruling that the state must adopt a
new lethal injection protocol. The appeals courts that handle death penalty
cases in both the California and Texas regions have also traditionally had
wildly differing viewpoints on the issue, said Dan Lamborn, San Diego County's
chief deputy district attorney.
Both New York and Illinois, with high populations, are among several states
that have done away with the death penalty.
The report argues that the data shows how unevenly the death penalty is
practiced in the nation. The decision is most often made by individual elected
district attorneys. And while a minority of counties use the death penalty, the
high costs associated with those cases are spread to the entire state, the
report contends.
In San Diego, the District Attorney's Office currently has 3 pending death
penalty cases involving 6 defendants.
Lamborn said a small amount of murder cases are legally eligible for the death
penalty. Those cases are carefully reviewed by a panel of prosecutors and with
consideration from the victim's family.
The last San Diego inmate to be put to death was Robert Alton Harris in 1992.
He killed 2 teenagers.
(source: Union-Tribune)
US MILITARY:
Fort Hood trial cost government about $5 million
The U.S. government spent nearly $5 million to court-martial and convict an
Army psychiatrist in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage, according to records
reviewed by a North Texas television station.
The biggest pre-trial expense in Maj. Nidal Hasan's trial was more than $1
million for transportation for witnesses, jurors and attorneys, according to
Army records obtained by KXAS-TV (http://bit.ly/GBNPnu ) of Fort Worth and
Dallas. About $900,000 was spent on their accommodations.
Hasan was convicted in August of killing 13 people during the Nov. 5, 2009,
shooting. More than 30 people were wounded.
The records also show that in the months before his trial, Army helicopters
ferried Hasan 40 miles from the Bell County Jail to Fort Hood at a cost of more
than $194,000 so he could work on his defense in his private office - one of
the trailers the Army set up for the trial at a cost of more than $200,000.
In the past, Army officials have said the helicopter rides were needed to
protect Hasan and his team from threats.
Hasan was not allowed to plead guilty to the charges under a military law
regarding cases that could bring the death penalty. So, he served as his own
defense attorney, called no witnesses and asked few questions.
More than $1 million was spent on transportation for witnesses, jurors and
lawyers, with another $1 million put toward expert witness fees and $90,000 on
lodging for them all, the records show.
Hasan also remained on the Army payroll until 10 days after his conviction,
collecting nearly $300,000. Most was donated to charity, Hasan's civil
attorney, John Galligan, has told The Associated Press.
The expenditures have outraged many of Hasan's victims and their relatives.
Some victims have struggled to find jobs or pay medical bills since Hasan
opened fire inside a crowded building on the Central Texas military base.
(source: Associated Press)
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