Oct. 20
KANSAS:
Anit-death penalty advocate to visit PSU
The worst thing that can happen to a mother happened to Vicki Schieber.
One of her beloved children, daughter Shannon Schieber, 23, was raped and
murdered on May 7, 1998.
"When I got that call, I would have said what any normal person would have
said, that whoever did it, I wanted him dead," Schieber said in a telephone
interview on Friday.
But, in the 4 years that it took authorities to apprehend her daughter's
killer, Schieber and her husband, Sylvester, did some studying and some
thinking and came to a different conclusion.
Now Schieber calls for the abolition of the death penalty, traveling across the
nation to speak, to testify before legislators in states that still retain
capital punishment.
She is currently in Kansas, and was keynote speaker Saturday at the annual
Abolition Conference of the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty. She
will speak Monday at Benedictine College and at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday will speak in
the Sharon Kay Dean Recital Hall in McCray Hall, Pittsburg State University.
"When we looked, we saw the problems with the death penalty system, the flaws,
the inequalities of its application in various states," Schieber said. "Almost
every day in the news you see stories about somebody being exonerated after
being on death row or in prison for other crimes they did not commit. Innocent
people have been executed."
Furthermore, the death penalty often does not bring peace or resolution to the
victim's grieving survivors.
"Because of the appeals system, the average time between sentencing and the
application of the death penalty is 17 years," Schieber said. "The family has
to go through that."
Another tragedy, she said, is that the death penalty turns society's
perspective away from the victim. Instead, the focus switches to the killer.
"I work with the families of murder victims, and we have seen firsthand that if
you let it, the anger eat you," Schieber said. "It is like an acid that
corrodes you. We have seen marriages fall apart, and even illnesses result.
Many times we have heard people say that they wish they had gone for life
imprisonment rather than the death penalty. I'm not saying, though, that all
families feel this way."
The district attorney sought the death penalty for the man who killed her
daughter, but the Schieber family publicly opposed this plan. The murderer was
convicted of Shannon's death and also confessed to committing numerous other
rapes and sexual assaults. He is now serving multiple life sentences.
Schieber said that her family also opposes the death family because it is
inconsistent with their Catholic faith, which upholds the sanctity of life.
"Shannon deeply believed in the sanctity of life," Schieber said. "She was in
her 1st year of graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania when she
died, and she was also doing volunteer work in inner-city schools. I know she
would be proud of what I'm doing."
(source: Morning Sun)
NEBRASKA:
Jenkins' sister says idea of death penalty for brother is 'sinful'
It seems Nikko Jenkins isn't the only Jenkins family member who bides his time
writing letters from jail.
His sister and co-defendant, Erica Jenkins, wrote to The World-Herald this
month - decrying the prison system, the governor's calls for her brother to get
the death penalty and the concept of killing.
"We are all human beings," she wrote. "None of us has the right to take another
human being's life, no matter what! It's sinful."
Erica Jenkins is charged with 1st-degree murder on allegations that she killed
Curtis Bradford with a shot to the back of his head.
Besides the Aug. 19 execution-style shooting of Bradford, she is accused of
helping her brother lure Juan Uribe-Pena and Jorge Cajiga-Ruiz to their deaths
in Spring Lake Park on Aug. 11.
She also is accused of conspiring with her brother to attack Andrea Kruger, who
was shot and killed Aug. 21 at 168th and Fort Streets.
Nikko Jenkins, 27, faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted of 4
counts of 1st-degree murder. The 10-day killing spree followed his July 30
release after a decade in prison.
Erica Jenkins railed on the prison system that released her brother with "no
effort to help rehabilitate" him.
"What do you expect will be the result and outcome of all these years of
punishment in a prison ... being locked up and isolated from the community ...
institutionalized, punished, mistreated and looked down on as criminals?"
The 23-year-old woman, who twice yelled at a judge and once overturned a
lectern during court hearings, pounded a theme that the Jenkins family has
tried to advance: that Nikko was mentally ill and in need of treatment, even a
commitment to a psychiatric facility, following his prison sentence. The family
has cited several suicide attempts and the idea that Nikko was schizophrenic.
Law enforcement officials have questioned just how concerned the Jenkins family
was about Nikko, alleging that Erica was with him during all 4 killings and
that their mother, Lori Jenkins, bought the ammunition that Nikko used in some
of the killings.
Authorities also say a state psychiatrist evaluated Nikko Jenkins in 2010 and
concluded that his only mental illness was antisocial personality disorder.
The psychiatrist essentially concluded that Nikko Jenkins was a sociopath who
manipulated others and lacked empathy - a condition for which there is no
prescribed treatment plan. Last spring, corrections officials transferred Nikko
from the Tecumseh State Prison to the state penitentiary in Lincoln to be
closer to social workers preparing him for release in July.
In contrast to some of her brother's erratic writings from prison, Erica
Jenkins was coherent and critical throughout her 4-page letter. She wrote in
response to a World-Herald article about state proposals to beef up penalties
for violating prison rules.
She wrote that her letter was directed "mainly towards" Gov. Dave Heineman,
Director of Nebraska Correctional Services Michael L. Kenney and Omaha police
union officials.
She criticized Heineman for "changing the subject by injecting the death
penalty into debate rather than focusing on solutions and producing a plan to
address relieving the state's chronically overcrowded prisons."
Heineman had written to Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine, applauding him for
pursuing the death penalty against Nikko Jenkins.
But mostly, Erica's letter focused on her brother.
"Blame and point your fingers at the Nebraska Department of Correctional
Services for my brother. Nikko Jenkins' mental state basically deteriorated by
keeping him segregated ... refusing him mental treatment and help. ...Why
didn't anyone in corrections act on his repeated proclamations that he was
mentally ill and homicidal?"
(source: Omaha World-Herald)
NEW MEXICO:
Penalty phase of Ariz. inmate murder opens Monday
The penalty phase opens Monday in an Albuquerque courtroom in the murder trial
of John McCluskey, who faces a possible death sentence for the killings of a
retired Oklahoma couple following a 2010 Arizona prison break.
Jurors who convicted McCluskey earlier this month after a 4-month trial come
back for what could be an even longer round of testimony on whether he should
be executed or sentenced life in prison.
Much of the testimony is expected to focus on McCluskey's psychological state.
Family members of the victims say they also will be called to push for the
death sentence.
The 48-year-old McCluskey was convicted Oct. 7 of murder, carjacking and other
charges in the August 2010 deaths of Gary and Linda Haas of Tecumseh, Okla.
(source: Associated Press)
OREGON:
Suspect in 62-year-old Ashland man's death captured at Vancouver grocery store
A suspect in the slaying of a 62-year-old Ashland man has been arrested at a
Vancouver grocery store.
U.S. Marshals swarmed an IGA grocery store and arrested Othon Robert Campos,
Jr., of Medford, on Saturday morning.
Campos has been indicted on murder, robbery and burglary charges in connection
with the death of Frank Ronald Damiano, also known as Tony Della Pena.
Police say Campos and Merlin Elmo Bound III broke into Damiano's home at a
mobile home park to rob him.
Bound was arrested Tuesday.
Campos is accused of aggravated murder. That charge could carry the death
penalty.
(source: Associated Press)
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