Jan. 8
TEXAS:
Violent deaths in Hidalgo County sheriff's jurisdiction in 2013 down from past
2 years, in line with median under Trevino
Criminal acts ended 15 lives in the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office
jurisdiction in 2013, authorities say. All told, at least nine people allegedly
involved in killing someone last year have yet to be arrested, according to a
Monitor analysis of Sheriff's Office records released last week.
Sheriff's Office homicide investigators closed 8 of the cases. 9 suspects were
arrested in 7 deaths. One suspect killed himself after allegedly shooting a
neighbor to death. Another may or may not be charged with capital murder for
allegedly shooting 2 men on his own property. Investigators continue looking
for at least 2 additional suspects in 1 capital murder case. In 1 open case,
none of the 3 or 4 suspected gunmen who allegedly killed a man in a drive-by
shooting has been arrested - or even publicly identified.
The 15 violent deaths represented a drop from the past 2 years, but Hidalgo
County Sheriff Lupe Trevino hesitated to take credit for the decline.
"Homicide is one of those crimes that it's almost impossible to prevent and
it's also impossible to predict," he said.
MURDER BY NUMBERS
Authorities classified 9 of the deaths as simple murders. They called 5 more
capital murder, meaning additional circumstances - the killing occurring during
the undertaking of another felony, for example - added to the cases' severity.
One death, that of Enrique Medina Jr., was categorized as manslaughter by
negligence on the part of the victim's 21-year-old father, who told authorities
he'd drunkenly dropped the baby in a canal.
Arrests have been made in 7 deaths, signifying a crucial step in the execution
of justice, Trevino said.
"The homicide investigator is the one that's going to avenge that criminal
death," he said. "The (victim's) family can't do it. Vigilante groups can't do
it."
Investigators closed another case because the primary suspect killed himself
shortly after the slaying.
In another ongoing investigation, authorities are working to determine if the
man who shot and killed 2 men trying to rob him at his home should be charged
with murder.
Though all of the crimes occurred outside of metropolitan police department
jurisdictions, Sheriff's Office documents all listed mailing addresses that
included cities. Nearly 1/3 (4 of 15) of the crimes occurred at or near Mission
addresses. 2 crimes apiece were closest to the cities of Alamo, Edinburg, San
Juan and Weslaco. Donna and Mercedes each accounted for one criminal death.
The decline in Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office jurisdiction is in line with big
cities in the rest of the country. According to The Daily Beast, 8 of the 10
cities with the highest number of slayings in 2012 saw decreases in 2013. The
cities with decreasing murder numbers include Houston - whose 201 slayings
represent a 7 % decline from last year and the second-lowest number since 1965
- and Dallas, which has seen violent deaths decline almost 40 % in the past 10
years.
GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER
Homicide investigators have yet to solve 5 cases outright.
"All I can I say right now at this point is that we're still actively
investigating all of them," said Rick Enriquez, a captain in the Sheriff's
Office Homicide Unit.
Though he could not specify which ones, Enriquez said investigators were
"pretty close" to solving a couple of the open cases. A case is considered
solved when an arrest warrant is issued for a suspect.
"2 of the 5, like I said, we're pretty close," he said. "And we're very hopeful
that we'll be issuing warrants."
One case investigators did not seem imminently close to cracking was the April
shooting death of corrido singer Jesus "Chuy" Quintanilla, which Enriquez
singled out as a particularly frustrating case because it produced a wealth of
leads but a dearth of useful ones.
"A lot of information came in," he said. "Every lead gets looked into, but a
lot them" were unhelpful.
In particular, rumors circulated that Quintanilla was targeted by Mexican
cartels because some of his songs referenced the notorious criminal
organizations. But they remain only rumors.
"We don't have the evidence to prove that," Enriquez said.
An arrest in 1 case allowed investigators to count it as a clearance, but they
continue to search for 2 more people suspected of being involved in the
slaying.
"My thing is: At least they have 1," said Ernesto Berraza, whose father,
62-year-old Jose, was killed during a botched marijuana robbery attempt in the
driveway of his rural Weslaco home July 11. The Berrazas had no connection to
the marijuana.
Deputies arrested Brandon Gonzalez, 19, shortly after the shooting.
But Gonzalez - whose last name is spelled with an "s" in court records, but a
"z" in Sheriff's Office documents - claimed he was only a driver and did not
fire the fatal shots. 2 accomplices - Anthony Moralez and Domingo Gonzalez -
were believed to have fled to Mexico in the aftermath of the slaying.
They remain at large. But Berraza is not worried about justice being served to
them.
"I know they'll get caught eventually," he said. "I know they'll get what's
coming to them. Either the correct method of law enforcement and going to a
trial, or they'll be killed by associates of the people they were trying to
steal the marijuana from."
'A SLOW YEAR'
After 29 days, the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office was on pace for almost 38
slayings in 2013.
The 3rd killing of the year for the department occurred Jan. 29. The Sheriff's
Office released few details at the time.
And though the case remains under investigation, and no arrests have been made,
the records released last week reveal the victim's name: Luis Fernando Tamez of
Pharr. His date of birth was redacted from the records.
But 2013 ended up a less deadly year than one could have projected after
January. It was also less bloody than previous years.
The 15 violent deaths in 2013 are down from 22 in 2012 and 19 the year before
that.
"It's considered a slow year this past year," Enriquez said. In fact, the 15
violent deaths represent the exact median of Trevino's 9 years in office. The
yearly average, 18, is 20 % higher than the median due to a few years with
numbers in the low to mid-20s.
1 DEATH PENALTY CASE
Prosecutors are so far seeking the death penalty in only 1 killing from the
past year.
Benjamin and Marco Hernandez - both 20, no relation to each other - are accused
of choking 19-year-old Stephanie Gonzalez until she lost consciousness, raping
her, then repeating the process when she awoke then strangling her with an
extension cord Aug. 12. Authorities say they then set her body on fire, which
eventually burned the entire house down. Gonzalez was pregnant.
Prosecutors announced in October they would seek the death penalty for both
defendants.
(source: The Monitor)
FLORIDA:
Florida executes 1st US inmate of 2014
The United States put to death its 1st inmate of the year yesterday in Florida,
after a drop in executions during 2013.
Askari Abdullah Muhammad, previously known as Thomas Knight, was convicted of
abducting and killing a Miami couple in 1974 and fatally stabbing a prison
guard 6 years later using a sharpened spoon. He appealed his conviction
numerous times.
Muhammad, 62, died by lethal injection. He was pronounced dead at 6.45pm (2345
GMT), Florida Department of Corrections spokeswoman Misty Cash told AFP.
He made no final statement.
As his last meal, Muhammad ate 1 1/2 slices of sweet potato pie, a piece of
coconut cake, half a slice of banana nut bread, a quarter bottle of Sprite, 2
tablespoons of strawberry and butter pecan ice cream, an entire small container
of vanilla ice cream and a small handful of corn chips.
The inmate was 1st sentenced to death for killing his boss Sydney Gans and his
wife Lillian after abducting them to extort money.
He then was served a 2nd death sentence for killing corrections officer Richard
Burke in 1980.
His death sentence, reversed several times for procedural wrongdoings, was
reestablished in September, decades after he was initially convicted.
Muhammad's death marked the 1st execution this year in the United States.
Florida is putting more people to death faster, despite worries over a new
cocktail of barbiturates used for lethal injections.
Nationwide, however, 2013 saw the number of executions and death penalties drop
to one of the lowest levels in decades, according to the Death Penalty
Information Centre.
Last year, 39 inmates were executed, down from 43 in 2012.
Since 1999, which saw a record 98 executions, the number of people put to death
has decreased 60 per cent across the country.
A total of 3,108 prisoners sat on death row on April 1, compared to 3,170 the
year before.
The number of states that have abandoned the death penalty now stands at 18 out
of 50. 6 of those states gave up the practice since 2007.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
ALABAMA:
Attorney General Luther Strange seeks to quicken the pace of executions in
Alabama
Attorney General Luther Strange is seeking to accelerate the pace of death
penalty appeals in Alabama, noting decades can go by before inmates see the
execution chamber.
Strange said a bill to streamline the death penalty appeals process will be a
top priority for him in the upcoming legislative session.
"It shouldn't take decades through the appeals process to get justice for
families," Strange said in an interview.
The attorney general said death penalty appeals in Alabama currently "seem
endless with excessive delays that serve only to prolong pain and postpone
justice for the victims of these heinous crimes."
Strange is announcing his legislative agenda today in a series of press
conferences around the state.
He is also backing proposals that would make it a capital offense to kill
someone at a school or day care and also to give state law enforcement the
power to do wiretaps during murder, drug and other certain investigations.
Currently, a person given the death penalty has a series of direct appeals,
first to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, and then to the Alabama Supreme
Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. After those are complete, the defendant can
begin Rule 32 appeals, post-conviction appeals that look at other issues such
as the trial lawyer's competence.
The proposed legislation, dubbed The Fair Justice Act, would run both sets of
appeals simultaneously. Capital defendants would be required to file Rule 32
petitions within 180 days of filing their 1st direct appeal.
Strange said the proposal is similar to what Texas and Virginia have done.
The average stay on the state's death row has been nearly 16 years since the
U.S reinstated the death penalty. However, the time between sentencing and
execution is expected to increase since the inmates currently on death row have
already been there an average of 13 years.
The longest-serving death row inmate in Alabama has been there for 34 years.
Arthur Lee Giles was sentenced to death in 1979 when he was 19 years old.
The legislation is backed by district attorneys across the state.
"The Fair Justice Act takes a comprehensive approach to streamlining the
appeals process in death penalty cases so that family members of victims will
not have to suffer for decades awaiting justice to be done," St. Clair District
Attorney Richard J. Minor said in a statement about the bill. Minor is
president of the Alabama District Attorneys Association.
Strange said the expedited process would not infringe on defendants' rights.
"You get the same level of appeals, but you do them on a dual track," Strange
said. The defendant would still have a round of federal appeals.
But the proposal is expected to draw opposition from death penalty opponents
and others who say it will get quicker executions but not necesarily better
justice.
The attorney general is also backing legislation:
- To allow state law enforcement the ability to do wire taps for investigations
into murder, kidnapping, child pornography, human trafficking, sex offenses
involving children under 12, and felony drug offenses. Alabama law enforcement
organizations currently do not have the ability to seek wiretaps, although
police in many other states do. The wiretaps would have to be approved by the
court.
- To include murders at a school or day care in the list of crimes that can be
prosecuted as a capital offenses.
- To let prosecutors grant immunity and compel testimony from witnesses.
Alabama is the only state that allows the witness to decline immunity and thus
to withhold testimony, according to the attorney general's office.
The 2014 legislative session begins as Strange is seeking a 2nd term as
attorney general. The session begins Jan. 14.
"We are proposing fair and sensible changes to make the system work better for
everyone. We also send a clear message that we will not tolerate the slaughter
of our children at schools, with changes in the law that specify it is a
capital crime to murder them and others who are particularly vulnerable,"
Strange said. (source: al.com)
********************
Electing judges could be matter of life and death
In a recent dissent, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor shined a light on
the complicated world of electing judges, and rekindled a debate on justice in
America. Her fear is that the Constitution's guarantee of due process and a
fair trial could be threatened by campaign pressure on judges who must stand
for election.
For Mario Dion Woodward, it's literally a matter of life and death. Woodward
was convicted of fatally shooting a Montgomery, Ala., police officer. In 2006,
a jury recommended by a vote of 8-4 that he serve life without parole. But a
trial judge ordered Woodward executed anyway.
When the U.S. Supreme Court denied Woodward's request for an appeal in
November, Sotomayor noted that among the 3 states where judges can override
juries to impose the death sentence, 26 of the 27 life-to-death overrides since
2000 were in Alabama. She warned that "Alabama judges, who are elected in
partisan proceedings, appear to have succumbed to electoral pressures."
An Equal Justice Initiative study on Alabama's death penalty, cited by
Sotomayor, says, "The proportion of death sentences imposed by override often
is elevated in election years." As, Tommy Nail, the presiding judge in
Birmingham's criminal court says about the effect of elections on fair trials,
"It has to have some impact. ... Let's face it, we're human beings."
The problem goes well beyond Alabama. More than 4 out of 5 state judges must
stand for election.
In recent years, interest groups have poured millions into state Supreme Court
elections, often for attack ads accusing judges of being soft on crime. In
2011-12, a record $33.7 million was spent on TV ads, including $20.7 million by
non-candidates. Polling shows that more than 90 % of Americans think this
campaign cash affects courtroom decisions. Nearly 1/2 of state judges agree.
In recent elections, judges and candidates were accused of having "expressed
sympathy for rapists," "volunteer(ing) to help free a terrorist" and protecting
a priest accused of molestation. Such ads are routinely used against judges of
both parties, who often defend themselves by bragging about how tough on crime
they will be. Many are bought by groups who don't even concentrate on crime
issues. In 2010, an Illinois group focused on civil lawsuits ran an ad
featuring actors posing as convicted criminals who boasted about their crimes,
then thanked the incumbent justice for siding with them over their victims.
The combination of crass electioneering and big money lend credence to
Sotomayor's fear that judicial elections cast "a cloud of illegitimacy over the
criminal justice system." Indeed, a study by the Center for American Progress
shows that in states where judicial campaign spending increased, courts ruled
more often against criminal defendants.
Alabama's election-eve death warrants might be an extreme case. But it's clear
that elected judges can be made uncomfortably vulnerable to outside pressures.
To insulate the courts that protect our lives and liberties from bumper-sticker
politics, all 39 states that elect judges must enact reforms, such as public
financing of judicial elections and merit-based selection systems. As retired
Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor warns, when "many people in our
country think of judges as just politicians in robes," our democracy is in
trouble.
(source: Commentary; Bert Brandenburg is the executive director of Justice at
Stake----The Northwestern)
LOUISIANA:
Killer gets new execution date, but state might not have lethal-injection drug
then
A death-row inmate who has seen several execution dates come and go since he
was convicted in 1993 of killing his stepson has a new date scheduled for early
March - but the state may have trouble killing him.
That's because lawyers and a state official indicate that the state has
disposed of the lethal-injection drug because it was expired. The drug's only
manufacturer has said it will not sell current doses to officials who plan to
use them for lethal injection.
Death-penalty opponents say that expired drugs could lose their effectiveness,
resulting in an agonizingly painful death, or simply agonizing pain without
death, which violate a prisoner's protection from cruel and unusual punishment.
Others, though, scoff at the thought and say many drugs lose little to no
potency and could be used for executions.
Christopher Sepulvado has had execution dates set and has been granted stays
while he's argued his Constitutional rights in court in the past year. In the
latest development, criminal court Judge Robert E. Burgess on Monday set an
execution date of March 7, according to the clerk's office of the 42nd Judicial
District in DeSoto Parish, where Sepulvado was convicted.
However, the executive director of the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy indicated
Monday that the state had gotten rid of its supply of Nembutal, the type of
pentobarbital that a lawyer for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and
Corrections said in February would be used for Sepulvado's lethal injection.
"Yes, that's my understanding. They have been disposed of," Executive Director
Malcom J. Broussard told The Lens, when asked to confirm reports that the drug
had been tossed out.
Gary Clements, an attorney for Sepulvado, received a letter Monday from the
Pharmacy Board confirming that the state no longer has any supply of expired
pentobarbital.
"We have confirmed that the [state penitentiary's] pharmacy does not have any
expired stock of pentobarbital," the letter read.
The only supply of pentobarbital that the Louisiana Department of Public Safety
and Corrections has admitted to having are 6 units of Nembutal that were
purchased in May 2011, according to records the department's lawyer gave The
Lens. Those drugs have a shelf life ranging from 24 to 36 months.
2 manufacturers have produced the drug, but since 2011, Lundbeck, the original
manufacturer, decided not to supply it to prisons for executions, and Akorn
Inc. followed suit when it took over the drug's production later that year.
In October, Clements said that the state's supply for executing inmates had
expired in September. Clements based his conclusion on documents that were
attached to a legal filing accusing the state of not handing over all of the
information on the drug.
The Louisiana Board of Pharmacy requires that any drugs that are expired be
properly disposed of, whether they come from a run-of-the mill pharmacy on
Canal Street or whether they are housed in the Louisiana State Penitentiary
Pharmacy, Broussard said.
Like all other pharmacies licensed by the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy, the
prison dispensary must follow the rules of the board, or it faces fines, risks
losing its pharmacy permit or a faces number of other disciplinary actions,
Broussard said.
The board conducts routine, unannounced inspections of pharmacies as often as
once a year.
In fact, the Louisiana State Penitentiary Pharmacy was cited in March for
failing to comply with the board's rules of quarantining expired drugs before
they're shipped off for proper disposal, according to Broussard. Reports given
to The Lens don't say which drugs were expired.
In addition to the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, the
state of Louisiana would be breaking the law if officials allowed the use of
expired drugs, said Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty
Information Center.
The law is upheld by a 1976 Supreme Court decision, Estelle v. Gamble, which
states that inmates may not be subject to unnecessary pain and suffering
brought on by the government, Dieter said.
Sepulvado's attorneys say they will be pressing the state to find out more
information about how exactly prison officials intend to execute their client.
Not knowing, his lawyers say, violates Sepulvado's due-process right, though a
federal appeals court has disagreed with this argument in the past.
Still, the Capital Post Conviction Project of Louisiana Tuesday filed an
expedited motion "to find out what drugs they do have and what they will be
using," said lawyer Kathy Kelly.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in December upheld an August decision
by the same court that Sepulvado's due-process right was not violated when the
state withheld details of how it performs executions.
"Perhaps the state's secrecy masks 'a substantial risk of serious harm,' but it
does not create one," the 3-judge panel said in August.
The December ruling was made by 11-judge majority, and 4 dissenting. However,
Kelly points to the published opinion of three of the 4 dissenting judges,
which echoes the complaints of Sepulvado's lawyers: that the state is too
secretive about its lethal-injection process.
"If the district had not stayed Sepulvado's execution scheduled for February
13, 2013, Sepulvado likely would have been the first person to be put to death
without definite official notice as to what drug or combination of drugs would
be used to execute him and without an opportunity to object and be heard at a
meaningful time and in meaningful manner," Judges James L. Dennis, Carolyn
Dineen King and James E. Graves, Jr. wrote.
The Louisiana Department of Correction's lawyer, Jacqueline Wilson, did not
immediately respond to calls for comment.
(source: The Lens)
************
New execution date for DeSoto child killer
For the 3rd time in just over a year, an execution date has been set for a
DeSoto Parish child killer.
District Judge Robert Burgess on Monday set March 7 as the next date with death
for Christopher Sepulvado of Mansfield. If it's carried out, the execution will
fall one day shy of 22 years since the 69-year-old beat and scalded to death
his stepson, Wesley Allen Mercer, 6.
Sepulvado's attorneys already are mounting an appeal. A writ will be filed with
the U.S. Supreme Court, attorney Gary Clements said.
Burgess took action after the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans
on Friday issued a mandate reversing its previous injunction and stay of
execution.
The federal appeals court in November overturned U.S. District Judge James
Brady's ruling canceling Sepulvado's Feb. 13 execution. Burgess later set the
death date for Nov. 5. But because a mandate had not been issued, that, too,
was vacated by the Louisiana Supreme Court.
Brady's delay of the death sentence was at the request of Sepulvado's attorneys
who contend the state had not provided information about the execution protocol
and the single-dose drug that will be used. Another death row inmate, Jessie
Hoffman, filed suit in December 2012 challenging the execution process,
claiming it was "cruel and unusual punishment."
Sepulvado was allowed to intervene in the legal action in January 2013. His
objection was based on a challenge to the constitutionality of executing a
convicted prisoner without telling him the means and matter he will be killed.
During a hearing last summer, corrections officials testified the state no
longer uses a 3-drug protocol and instead will rely upon the injection of 5
grams of pentobarbital, a sedative/hypnotic drug, in the execution procedure.
Hoffman's lawsuit is continuing. Friday, the state filed a motion seeking to
delay until March 3, the deadline to disclose witnesses who will testify
related to his complaint. There is no mention of Sepulvado's case in the
motion.
DeSoto District Attorney Richard Johnson is not surprised Sepulvado's attorneys
are asking the nation's high court to consider an appeal.
"They do not have to look at it," Johnson said of the writ request. "But that's
pretty much the norm in death penalty cases. If they deny the writ, which means
they refuse to hear it, then it's over."
A lengthy list of state and federal court challenges has been filed by
Sepulvado through the years. While they caused delays, none has been successful
in stopping eventual plans for his execution by lethal injection.
A DeSoto Parish jury convicted Sepulvado in 1993 and sentenced him to death.
Sepulvado killed Allen on March 8, 1992, by beating him in the head with a
screwdriver then putting him in a bathtub of scalding water.
(source: The Town Talk)
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