June 30
TEXAS:
Nicaraguan on Texas death row loses at high court
A Nicaraguan man sent to Texas death row for fatally shooting a customer during
a robbery at a Houston-area dry cleaning store has lost a U.S. Supreme Court
appeal that contended he was under 18 at the time of the slaying, making him
ineligible for the death penalty.
Prison records show 36-year-old Bernardo Tercero gunned down Robert Berger
during a struggle more than 17 years ago as Berger's 3-year-old daughter stood
nearby. Tercero and a companion then fled with 2 cash registers.
Tercero wound up in Nicaragua and was returned to Texas to face trial.
Tercero had conflicting birth certificates. He insisted the accurate one showed
he was younger than 18 at the time of the shooting. The Supreme Court, without
comment Monday, refused to review his case.
(source: Associated Press)
**************************
Death-row inmates 'A blessing to me'
I am a Southern Baptist and a "missionary kid" from Mexico. My parents served
there 36 years as missionaries. I had no idea Baptists supported the death
penalty and was shocked when I found that out upon moving to the United States.
I totally agree with Pastor Jeff Hood's view of the death penalty as a
Christian.
I am ministering to 7 death-row inmates at Polunsky Unit. There were 9, but 2
have gone to be with the Lord through execution. It is a ministry God put on my
heart when I moved to the United States 7 years ago.
I can tell you that seeing the spiritual growth, changes, peace and joy in
these men is the greatest joy in my life. They are a blessing to me.
I want to commend Jeff Hood for being so brave and standing for what a true
follower of Jesus Christ is.
Dorothy Lee Ruelas----Rosenberg
(source: Letter to the Editor, Baptist Standard)
FLORIDA:
Judge blasts lawyer in Rasheem Dubose death-penalty case as status of appeal
becomes muddied
One of the most high-profile murder cases in recent Jacksonville history has
devolved into an ugly death-penalty appeal with the trial judge accusing the
defense lawyer of misleading him and the Florida Supreme Court in an effort to
get his client off death row.
Circuit Judge Lawrence P. Haddock accused attorney Richard Kuritz of hiding the
fact that he simultaneously represented Rasheem Dubose and 1 of the jurors in
the case after that jury convicted Dubose and recommended he be sentenced to
death.
Kuritz declined comment. Attorney Bill Sheppard, who is representing Kuritz,
said his client did nothing wrong.
"I'm confident this lawyer with 20 years' experience knows what he's doing,"
Sheppard said.
Death penalty cases tend to bring out the worst in people when it comes to
anger and allegations, and that's what's happening here, Sheppard said.
Dubose, 30, was convicted of killing 8-year-old DreShawna Davis and sentenced
to death. DreShawna, who died in 2006 protecting her cousins from a hail of
bullets into her home, became the face of Jacksonville's state-leading homicide
rate and galvanized city leaders to do something about it.
The Jacksonville Journey anti-crime initiative was launched soon after
DreShawna's death and is credited with helping lower the homicide rate.
Kuritz represented juror Tomi Chavez for 2 traffic tickets and in a civil
personal injury lawsuit while he was handling Dubose's appeal, which hinged on
Chavez's claim that juror misconduct occurred. Kuritz said in court filings
that he did his legal work for Chavez after she was a juror in the case.
"The days I served as a juror are a blur," Chavez said in an email to the
Times-Union on Thursday. "It was stressful and done wrong."
Chavez said other jurors, in a racist manner, made fun of the way Dubose spoke,
researched the case on their cellphones while they deliberated and debated
whether a teardrop tattoo on Dubose's face was a gang symbol or a sign that
he'd killed someone.
In her email to the Times-Union, Chavez, who now lives in Hawaii, said jurors
were already familiar with the case before the trial began.
"The other jurors had knowledge of this because they watched the news and lived
in Jax," Chavez said.
Haddock declined comment for this story because he said the 66-page order he
wrote on these claims was under seal and not supposed to be released to the
public. The Times-Union obtained multiple documents in the case from the
Florida Supreme Court after making a public records request, including
Haddock's order.
The Times-Union chose to publish this story, which extensively quotes Haddock
from that order, because of the seriousness of the allegations by a judge
against a lawyer in a high-profile case.
In his order, Haddock said Chavez was not credible and blasted Kuritz for his
conduct.
Kuritz took Chavez's concerns of misconduct to the Florida Supreme Court
without ever revealing she was his client in unrelated cases because he knew it
was a conflict of interest, Haddock said.
Haddock forwarded his allegations to the Florida Bar. Spokeswoman Francine
Walker said an investigation into Kuritz has begun.
Kuritz could face suspension or disbarment if the Bar sides with Haddock.
'THE COMPLAINING JUROR'
In July 2006, Dubose fired at least 20 shots at a Third Avenue house in
retaliation for being robbed at gunpoint and forced to drop his pants by
DreShawna's uncle an hour earlier. DreShawna was in the house and the only one
killed. Dubose's brothers, Tajuane and Terrell, also fired into the home and
were sentenced to life in prison.
Rasheem Dubose was convicted of 1st-degree murder in February 2010. Haddock
sentenced him to death in December 2010.
"Although you had no mercy in your heart for little DreShawna Davis, may God
have mercy on your soul," Haddock said while imposing the sentence.
But behind the scenes, trouble was already occurring.
Chavez, whom Haddock and the Supreme Court have both taken to calling "the
complaining juror" in court filings, began emailing and calling lawyers
expressing her unhappiness with what had happened in the case.
She contacted 2 attorneys, Assistant Public Defender Fred Gazaleh and private
attorney Mitch Stone, after Dubose was found guilty but before his penalty
phase began.
Stone said he advised Chavez to contact Haddock, but was limited in what he
could do himself because of attorney-client privilege issues.
After the penalty phase ended, Chavez contacted Kuritz.
After speaking with Chavez, Kuritz presented an affidavit she'd signed saying
that other people on the jury made fun of Dubose because he is black and said
they needed subtitles to understand his police interview, which was played
during the trial.
The affidavit also said jurors used their phones to research details of the
case online, which a jury is not supposed to do. They checked to see whether a
tattoo Dubose had on his face was a gang symbol and also tried to determine why
the house owned by DreShawna's grandmother burned down during the trial and
wondered if it was arson related to the murder trial.
Chavez also said she didn't want to vote to convict but was pressured to do so
by the others.
But Haddock said Chavez backed off those claims when she was brought before him
in August 2010 after Dubose was found guilty and jurors recommended death, but
before Haddock imposed his sentence.
Chavez said under oath she saw other jurors using cellphones during the penalty
phase but didn't know what they were doing with them and never saw them doing
research on the case. She was also noncommittal about some of her other
allegations and invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination,
Haddock said.
The discrepancies between what was in Chavez's affidavit and what she said in
front of him, together with her demeanor, which was nervous, evasive and
extremely emotional, led Haddock to conclude Chavez lacked credibility. He
dismissed her written claims, decided it wasn't necessary to speak with the
other jurors and went ahead with putting Dubose on death row.
Anyone sent to death row gets an automatic appeal with the Florida Supreme
Court. Kuritz repeated the claims Chavez made in her affidavit to the Supreme
Court justices in court filings and during oral arguments in October 2013.
The justices expressed alarm over what Chavez said had happened.
"I've never seen anything like this," Justice Jorge Labarga said. "I'm
concerned that it took this much effort on behalf of a juror to bring something
to the attention of the trial judge."
Labarga and other judges wondered why Haddock hadn't interviewed the other
jurors in the case to determine whether Chavez's claims had any credibility.
Rather than rule on the merits, the Supreme Court ordered the case sent back to
Haddock and instructed the circuit judge to inquire into the allegations made
by "the complaining juror" within 90 days and file a fact-finding order back to
the Supreme Court.
'NOT A SCINTILLA, NOT AN IOTA, NOT A SHRED'
In that order, Haddock ripped into both Kuritz and Chavez.
"There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever, not a scintilla, not an iota, not
a shred, that supports Tomi Chavez's accusation that her fellow jurors
committed any juror misconduct," Haddock wrote.
The only juror who acted improperly during the trial and penalty phase was
Chavez, the judge said.
"She admitted under oath that she contacted at least 2 attorneys during the
trial, before the 2nd phase had even started, and the evidence indicated a
strong probability that she contacted a 3rd before the trial ended," Haddock
said.
That 3rd lawyer was Kuritz, who denies speaking to Chavez until after the
penalty phase of the trial concluded. Haddock said he and the Florida Supreme
Court were "duped" because Kuritz represented both Dubose and Chavez, which is
unethical.
Kuritz has been Chavez's lawyer for the last 3 years at least, representing her
in a personal injury case as well as 2 traffic citations, while continuing to
represent Dubose. Evidence also exists that Kuritz wrote the deposition Chavez
signed about jury misconduct, Haddock said.
During oral arguments before the Supreme Court, Kuritz implied that Mitch Stone
was the lawyer who helped Chavez write the affidavit. But when the case came
back from the Supreme Court, both Stone and Gazaleh testified they had nothing
to do with it, Haddock said.
Chavez testified in 2010 that Kuritz met with her in a Starbucks and gave her
the affidavit to sign. Haddock said he couldn't question Kuritz under oath as
Dubose's attorney, but common sense suggests he's the one who wrote the
affidavit and Chavez signed it without carefully reading it, which explains why
her affidavit was so different from her verbal testimony.
"Were it not for Mr. Kuritz's unethical conduct and lack of candor with the
court, this entire 'issue' would never have existed," Haddock said. "All of the
inquiries for which the Supreme Court relinquished jurisdiction arise from the
affidavit, not Ms. Chavez's testimony."
But Chavez disputed that in her email to the Times-Union.
"I wasn't influenced by Richard Kuritz or [fellow defense attorney] Shelly
Eckels," Chavez said. "I tried telling someone during trial."
Stone also said he didn't think Kuritz did anything wrong when it came to the
affidavit.
It's common for a lawyer to speak to a client about something and then write
out an affidavit based on what the client said.
"You show it to the client and stress they need to read every word and make
sure it's correct," Stone said. "And if they're OK with it, you have them sign
it."
Efforts to have Chavez testify under oath when the Supreme Court sent the case
back to Haddock last year were unsuccessful.
Other jurors testified and said they followed the rules set forth during the
trial and never spoke in a racist manner and did no research on their own into
the case, Haddock said.
The testimony of those other jurors suggests Chavez didn???t want to convict
Dubose because she was opposed to the death penalty, but her fellow jurors
convinced her that it was not lawful to do that, and the evidence justified a
finding of guilty, Haddock said.
Kuritz also never revealed his attorney-client relationship with Chavez until
after the Supreme Court sent the case back to Haddock.
"By his own admission, he agreed to represent her in a civil litigation
regarding an automobile accident, and court records indicate he made
appearances for her regarding 2 civil traffic infractions in the County Court,"
Haddock said. "Neither Mr. Dubose nor Ms. Chavez waived the obvious conflict."
After Haddock issued his order, Kuritz asked to supplement the record with
cellphone and email records that would demonstrate that Chavez initiated
contact with him after the trial and penalty phase concluded, and discussed her
affidavit with him before signing it.
Kuritz said the records will show that he and Chavez didn't commit misconduct
or fraud, while adding that he did not anticipate the allegations against him
that were included in Haddock's order.
Kuritz also asked the Supreme Court to send the case back to Haddock again so
Chavez and another juror can be questioned under oath. The other juror moved to
Atlanta and also was not interviewed last year. She was the only black person
on the jury, and Kuritz has said in court filings that she was never served a
subpoena to compel her testimony.
Kuritz also said in his court filings that if the case is sent back to Haddock,
and Chavez doesn't cooperate, he will need to withdraw from the case and ask
for a new lawyer to be appointed to adequately protect Dubose's rights.
Chavez claimed she emailed Haddock twice expressing her concerns. The judge
said in his order that he never got an email from Chavez, but after Haddock
issued his order, Kuritz included a copy of an email Chavez sent to Haddock on
May 14, 2010, in a later court filing to the Florida Supreme Court.
The subject line on the email says "Re: Verdict Need to Speak With You." There
is no writing in the body of the email.
The Florida Attorney General's Office, representing the case on appeal, has
opposed sending it back to Haddock again.
But Assistant Attorney General Patrick Delaney said in court filings that if
Kuritz chooses to withdraw, the state would not oppose sending it back to
Jacksonville for the limited purpose of appointing a new lawyer.
Officials with the office of State Attorney Angela Corey, which prosecuted the
case at trial, and the Office of Attorney General Pam Bondi, which is handling
the case at the appellate level, declined comment.
It's now unclear if the Supreme Court will rule on whether Dubose will get a
new trial or the case will revert back to Haddock for more inquiry into
potential misconduct by both Kuritz and the jurors.
Dubose technically remains on death row but is unlikely to be executed for
years, if not decades, because of the uncertainty over what happened during his
trial and the appeals that are likely to continue if his conviction is not
reversed.
(source: Florida Times-Union)
********************
Notorious Leesburg murderess Marie Arrington dead at 80 ---- Murderess who
killed Leesburg legal secretary, escaped death penalty finally meets fate
More than 45 years have passed since Marie Dean Arrington wiggled through the
window of her prison cell, scaled 2 wire fences in her pajamas and disappeared
into a chilly March night.
The convicted Lake County murderess and death-row inmate remained on the run
for nearly 3 years, eluding bloodhounds and the FBI, which made her the 1st
Florida woman ever named to its 10 Most Wanted List. While lawmen searched,
Arrington was working as a waitress in New Orleans, where she amused herself by
reading newspaper stories of Florida's $5,000 bounty for her capture - dead or
alive.
"That reward business," she told a reporter, chuckling, in a 1973 jailhouse
interview. "It sounded like the old wild wild West and the Jesse James Gang."
Arrington's 1969 jailbreak wasn't her only escape - she also dodged her death
sentence for gunning down and running over a public defender's office
secretary. But she couldn't avoid fate. Arrington died quietly of heart
problems May 10 at the Lowell Correctional Institution Annex in Marion County -
the same prison from which she had escaped. She was 80.
Her long-ago crime is a fading memory for many in Lake County. When word
finally reached Gordon Oldham III, 61, the son of the state attorney who
prosecuted Arrington, it was welcome news.
"I'm glad you told me she was dead," he said. "That makes me feel good. She's
in hell for sure, if there's a heaven or a hell."
At the height of her infamy Arrington was branded a "mad-dog killer" who would
kill again in an instant. The label stems from her vengeful killing of Vivian
"June" Ritter, 37, a Leesburg mother who was secretary to Public Defender Bob
Pierce.
Arrington was furious with the outcome of criminal cases against her 2
children, whom Pierce unsuccessfully defended. Both received prison sentences.
On April 22, 1968, Arrington went to Pierce's Leesburg office. The lawyer was
out, so Arrington abducted Ritter.
Ritter's sudden disappearance rattled Leesburg. The search got so desperate
that even a Cassadaga psychic attempted to locate her. 2 days later, Ritter's
blood-stained car was found and 3 days after that came the awful reality - her
crushed, bullet-riddled body was discovered in the woods along State Road 44
near Cassia. She'd been run over repeatedly with her own car.
Investigators learned Ritter's killing was part of a plot by Arrington to get
her son and others released from prison. They found Arrington's fingerprint
after a burglary at the home of Circuit Judge Troy Hall, who had sentenced her
son, Lloyd Dean, to life in prison for armed robbery. Investigators later found
a note in her coat threatening to kill Hall's wife and another in her room
calling for law officers to stand down or face seeing Ritter returned piece by
piece.
After her capture in New Orleans, Arrington was returned to death row for
Ritter's killing - but not for long. She sidestepped the electric chair when
the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972. Her
death sentence was commuted to life in prison.
"She was an aberration," said Howard "Skip" Babb Jr., who succeeded Pierce as
public defender for Lake and several other counties. Now retired, Babb said
Arrington's case was a "chapter in the public defender's office" that lingered
for years.
Much of Arrington's notoriety has faded with time. Her son remains in prison.
Hall and Pierce are deceased. Gordon Oldham Jr., a longtime state attorney who
once described Arrington as a "mad-dog killer who has the cunning of a wild
animal," is also gone. His memory, however, lives on in a scrapbook of
yellowing newspaper clippings his son keeps.
Oldham III, 61, a Fruitland Park businessman, was 15 when Arrington killed
Ritter. He checked online occasionally to see if Arrington was still in prison.
"She would have killed more and she would have killed the judge and she would
have killed Dad," he said.
But his father wasn't afraid, he said.
Arrington's life of crime began while she was in her 20s when she robbed a
motel and ran drugs and counterfeit cash. Prison only seemed only to be a new
arena for her misdeeds. Over the years, Arrington received 61 violations for
possessing weapons and drugs, lying to staff, battery and inciting a riot,
according to state Department of Corrections records.
"I've never been afraid of the law," she said while smoking a cigarette during
a prison interview with The Associated Press four decades ago. "I always knew
if I broke it I would go to jail. I was willing to take that chance."
(source: Orlando Sentinel)
OHIO:
Gov. John Kasich has been a nationwide leader in death-row clemencies
While Gov. John Kasich has been much more sparing than his predecessor overall
in granting clemencies to criminals, it's a different story when it comes to
inmates facing execution.
Since he was sworn into office on January 10, 2011, Kasich, a Republican, has
granted 5 of the 9 death-row clemencies issued nationwide in death-penalty
states.
It's also the same number of times Kasich's predecessor, Democrat Ted
Strickland, has shown mercy to a death-row inmate.
In each of the 5 cases, Kasich commuted a murderer's death sentence to life in
prison.
When granting clemency, Kasich has offered a number of reasons for sparing
their lives. For Shawn Hawkins and Arthur Tyler, they had questions raised
about their guilt. Joseph Murphy had been abused as a child, while John Eley
had a limited mental capacity. Ronald Post's attorneys made sloppy mistakes and
dubious decisions during his trial.
Mike Brickner, senior policy director for the anti-death penalty American Civil
Liberties Union of Ohio, said while he'd like to see Kasich issue more
clemencies overall, he's "pleased" with the number of death-row commutations
he's granted.
"Certainly on capital punishment commutation, the governor has been, I think,
very thoughtful about these," Brickner said.
Kasich denied an interview request for this story. But administration spokesman
Rob Nichols said the governor takes care to examine each clemency request he
receives and doesn't measure his record to what other governors have done.
"Each case is unique unto itself...and he tries to come to the best decision he
can on it," Nichols said.
Here's a list of death-row clemencies granted in the United States since Kasich
took office:
Death-sentence commutations nationwide since Gov. John Kasich took office*
Name------Date------State------Granted by
Richard Clay---Jan. 10, 2011---Missouri---Gov. Jay Nixon
Edward Jerome Harbison---Jan. 11, 2011---Tennessee---Then-Gov. Phil Bredesen
Shawn Hawkins---May 12, 2011---Ohio---Kasich
Joseph Murphy---Sept. 23, 2011---Ohio---Kasich
Robert Gattis---Jan. 17, 2012---Delaware---Gov. Jack Markell
Daniel Greene---April 20, 2012---Georgia---Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles
John Eley---July 10, 2012---Ohio---Kasich
Ronald Post---Dec. 17, 2012---Ohio---Kasich
Arthur Tyler---April 30, 2014---Ohio---Kasich
[source: Death Penalty Information Center]
*Does not include 15 death-row inmates in Illinois who had their sentences
commuted to life in prison in March 2011 when the state abolished the death
penalty.
(source: cleveland.com)
TENNESSEE:
Anti-meth law among those taking effect July 1
A law limiting the purchase of cold and allergy medicines used to make illegal
methamphetamine is among those taking effect Tuesday, as are statutes that
require more disclosure from the Tennessee Department of Children's Services
and allow use of the electric chair to execute death row inmates.
Under the new execution law, the state will be allowed to electrocute death row
inmates in the event prisons are unable to obtain lethal injection drugs, which
have become more and more scarce following a European-led boycott of drug sales
for executions.
Tennessee is the 1st state to enact a law to reintroduce the electric chair
without giving prisoners an option, said Richard Dieter, executive director of
the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit
organization that opposes executions and tracks the issue.
"There are states that allow inmates to choose, but it is a very different
matter for a state to impose a method like electrocution," he said. "No other
state has gone so far."
(source: Associated Press)
OKLAHOMA:
House interim studies requested
Oklahoma House members have requested more than 90 interim studies on topics
ranging from the death penalty to the cost of propane.
Rep. Mike Christian, R-Oklahoma City, is seeking an interim study on the death
penalty following the April 29 botched execution of Clayton Lockett, which
generated national attention.
Department of Corrections officials halted Lockett's execution 33 minutes after
it began after he spent 3 minutes writhing, mumbling and rising up from the
gurney. He died about 10 minutes later.
Investigations are ongoing.
Christian requested an interim study of execution procedures and possible
execution alternatives.
He said the study could result in legislation proposing to do away with lethal
injection and using hanging, a firing squad or electrocution.
"These are the worst of the worst," said Christian, a former Oklahoma Highway
Patrol trooper. "These are animals. These are monsters. You can even call them
demons. These are the worst of the worst. They need to be put down like animals
for the crimes they committed."
Christian said the public expects government to administer justice. If the
public can't rely on the government, it could result in vigilantism.
(source: Tulsa World)
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