July 20
TEXAS:
Jury: Man guilty of capital murder in death of Bellaire police officer
After a one-week trial, it took a Harris County jury just 2 hours to find a
23-year-old man guilty of capital murder for the death of a Bellaire police
officer and an innocent bystander - murders recorded on the officer's own
police dash camera.
Closing statements ended Friday around 1:30 p.m.
Defense attorneys asked the jury to opt for a lesser charge of murder that
would essentially spare Harold Lewis III the death penalty. Lewis' attorneys
contend, that despite the fact that the shootings of both Bellaire Police Cpl.
Jimmie Norman and innocent bystander Terry Taylor were captured on the
officer's dash cam, that no one can be completely sure what happened during the
1-minute struggle between the officer and the suspect inside Lewis' car.
Lewis was indicted for capital murder based on the allegation that he
intentionally killed more than 1 person. Defense attorney Patrick McCann asked
the jury to consider that the gun might have gone off accidentally during the
struggle inside the car.
In her closing statement Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson scoffed
at the theory and said that Lewis' entire actions that day must be taken into
account.
"He decided he was going to kill this officer because he was not going to
jail," Anderson said referring to Lewis leading police on a high speed chase
Christmas Eve 2012, hitting 2 other vehicles, then refusing the officers
commands and repeatedly telling the officer he was trying to find his cell
phone.
Lewis had an outstanding warrant for marijuana possession and his .380 caliber
handgun was stolen. Evidence showed his cell phone was right next to him the
entire time in the car. Anderson told the jury the 1-minute struggle showed
Lewis' continued attempt to escape and that the shot that hit the officer
point-blank in the head - and the shot 2 seconds later that killed Taylor -
were both intentional.
When the sentencing phase begins on Monday prosecutors will ask the jury for
the death penalty.
"The jury's held Mr. Lewis accountable at this point. He is going to spend the
rest of his life, he is a very young man, in prison, this doesn't need to be
another death in this tragedy, that's all we have to say,??? said defense
attorney Patrick McCann.
(source: KHOU news)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Mass murderer who butchered four in Northampton: 'I'm not afraid to die' ----
Michael Ballard says death penalty 'makes the most sense.'
Mass murderer Michael Eric Ballard casts his decision to abandon his appeals
and seek his own execution as a simple one.
It's not meant as a public expression of remorse for having "butchered" - his
own chilling word - 4 people.
It's not meant as atonement, to even the scales of justice just a little for
the lives he took in 2010 in that Northampton home.
It's not a political protest against the death penalty. It is also not, he
said, an act of despair by a suicidal man.
Rather, Ballard told The Morning Call in a 2-hour interview on death row, it is
the cold and reasoned choice he has made after coming face to face with just 2
stark options: to accept his own death; or appeal his sentence for years, if
not decades, from the cramped and "dehumanizing" walls of solitary confinement.
"The jury made their decision, and I'm not about to spend the next 20 years
begging the state of Pennsylvania for a mercy they're not going to give,"
Ballard said.
"There's no emotionality. There's no apprehension," he insisted. "I'm not
afraid to die."
Ballard was interviewed 1-on-1 July 10 at the State Correctional
Institution-Greene, where the state's largest death row is housed. Sitting in a
small booth feet from a reporter, a plate of security glass between them,
Ballard called his resolution a straightforward one, though he acknowledged
that he struggles to picture the end he has chosen for himself - strapped to a
gurney and lethally injected with a cocktail of drugs.
But he said he is a man who keeps his word.
"This is the decision I have made," Ballard said.
Death, "to me, it makes the most sense."
The clock is ticking.
The day after Ballard spoke to the newspaper, Gov. Tom Corbett received the
certified record of his case, bringing into motion a state law that requires
Corbett to schedule Ballard's execution, according to Joshua Maus, a spokesman
for the Office of General Counsel.
Under the rules, an execution date will be set for no later than early
December, though Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said
legal wrangling will all but guarantee the day comes and goes without Ballard's
being put to death, even if he sticks to his course.
When Ballard was sent to death row in 2011, it was Northampton County's 1st
capital verdict in nearly 25 years. Morganelli calls him the "poster boy" for
the death penalty. The state Supreme Court upheld his sentence in November,
citing overwhelming evidence in support of it.
By his own admission, Ballard savagely knifed to death his former girlfriend,
Denise Merhi, 39; her father, Dennis Marsh, 62; her grandfather, Alvin Marsh
Jr., 87; and Steven Zernhelt, 53, a neighbor who heard screams at their
Northampton home and tried to help.
"We want it done. We want it over with," Zernhelt's older sister, Maryann
Trimmer Banko of Whitehall Township said last week, speaking for her family.
"We do not want to hear his name again or see his face again," she said of
Ballard. "We want to move on."
Alvin Marsh, a World War II veteran who was deaf and blind, was slain in his
wheelchair. Zernhelt's split-second valor left a widow and 3 children. Merhi
had 2 children of her own. Her father was the 1st killed; afterward Ballard
wrote in blood on a wall next to him that Merhi was a "whore."
Ballard said he "constantly" thinks about the killings. He'll never offer a
public explanation for them, he said.
"An explanation does nothing to change the fact that I butchered everyone in
that house," Ballard said. "It doesn't bring anyone back, and it's just a vain
attempt to salvage how I look to other people.
"I've already told you, I don't give a [expletive]," Ballard said.
At the time of the June, 26, 2010 massacre, Ballard had recently been paroled
from prison, where he served 17 years for murdering an Allentown man nearly 2
decades before. Donald Richard, 56, was knifed to death in 1991 after
apparently making a pass at Ballard while showing him an apartment for rent.
Ballard waved away questions of whether his execution could be a bid for
redemption.
"I can't sit here and tell you that there isn't a part of me that feels that
guilt, but I'm not making this some sort of altruistic endeavor," Ballard said.
The interview came as Ballard has publicly sparred with the self-appointed
defense lawyers who might otherwise save his life. He charges they have acted
against his interests and without his authorization.
In March, an appeal on Ballard's behalf was made to the U.S. Supreme Court by
the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, a Philadelphia nonprofit active
in the anti-capital punishment movement. When Ballard learned of the petition
through a Morning Call article, he wrote the justices directly, saying it was
done behind his back and should be thrown out.
Ballard said he also has barred the highly successful Federal Community
Defender Office in Philadelphia from even visiting him on death row, though one
of its attorneys, Billy Nolas, told Morganelli in June that he plans to
represent Ballard in further legal challenges.
If Nolas or any other federal defender tries to do so, Ballard said, he will
fight them.
"They have no business on my case whatsoever," Ballard said of the lawyers who
have managed to reverse scores of death sentences in Pennsylvania.
One of Ballard's defense attorneys at trial, James Connell, said he believes
Ballard is sincere about abandoning his appeals. Connell said a "very upset"
Ballard phoned him after learning of the Supreme Court petition, and they spoke
at length about his desire to "let the legal system take its course."
"He didn't tell me he wanted to die," Connell said. "He told me he wanted the
legal system to take its course."
But Connell said he has no doubt Ballard understands what that means and is
mentally competent to make that decision.
"I think he knows exactly what he's doing," Connell said.
Personally, Connell said, he disagrees with Ballard's plans.
"If he asked my opinion, I'd certainly talk to him and tell him every life is
worth living, despite what the circumstances might be," Connell said.
Like Connell, Morganelli said he concludes that Ballard is sincere. But as the
reality of his execution nears, Ballard could still reverse himself, as
happened in another case Morganelli handled: that of Martin Appel, who murdered
3 people during a 1986 bank robbery in East Allen Township and is now serving
life in prison after successfully appealing his death sentence.
"This is up to Mr. Ballard. This is his decision," Morganelli said. "At this
moment, I believe this is what he wants. Will he change his mind when things
get closer? Perhaps."
On Monday, Morganelli filed court paperwork seeking to have the federal
defenders barred from the case unless Ballard expressly authorizes them to
appear on his behalf. The filing, described by Morganelli as a "preemptive
strike," also asks that Ballard be brought to Easton from death row for a
hearing to confirm that he is competent, as was determined before his trial.
Nolas has not responded to repeated requests for comment, including a phone
call and email last week.
'Torture for me'
For inmates who fight their sentences, Pennsylvania has a de facto legal
moratorium on executions, having not put a killer to death against his will
since 1962, when John F. Kennedy was president. But 3 prisoners were executed
in the 1990s after they volunteered for it by abandoning their appeals.
Though that is the path Ballard said he wishes to take, he maintained he is not
eager to die, and said he is not "hanging by a bedsheet" - a reference to
suicide. He also objected to a reporter's characterization that he has decided
to "embrace" his death.
Nonetheless, Ballard's position represents a sea change from two previous
interviews with The Morning Call - conducted just before and just after his May
2011 trial - in which he insisted he was not going to be a volunteer.
"I don't have a death wish. That still stands," Ballard said in June 2011. "I
don't view myself as so worthless that I need to check out."
Ballard, 40, has now been at the prison in Greene County for 3 years. His
optimism is gone, he said, and the reality of remaining on death row is
"torture for me."
And the hope of winning at appeal on a "technicality" isn't enough, he said,
considering that even after years of legal fights, his "prize" would be to one
day die in prison as a lifer.
"This isn't a suicide mission. I'm not committing suicide," Ballard said. "I
was sentenced to this. If I had an option, this is the last [expletive] one I'd
be picking."
Throughout the interview, Ballard, who was not handcuffed, used his hands to
help make his points, slapping the walls as he talked of the restricted life of
solitary confinement - 22 hours a day alone in a 7-by-12-foot cell, cages
awaiting every time he is let out to exercise.
Occasionally, he popped into his mouth small fruit candies that he had smuggled
out of his cell in his sock. Often his sentences were punctuated with
profanity, and he at one point put up both his middle fingers to underscore his
explanation of why he won't try to stop the state from fulfilling its
intention.
"It's their sentence. If they don't want to carry it out on me or anybody else,
then get it off the books," Ballard said.
If history is any guide, Ballard's decision will provoke a flurry of legal
filings on his behalf that question whether he is mentally fit to make it.
Ballard said he is expecting that Nolas or another anti-death-penalty lawyer is
"going to do his damnedest to say that I'm completely bat [expletive] crazy and
I don't know what I'm doing."
Ballard said his competency shouldn't be in question, and "no lay person is
going to argue against that."
According to Ballard, the federal defenders have already made efforts to get
him to change his mind. They visited his father in his native Arkansas to see
if he could persuade Ballard to accept their representation. They also tracked
down a daughter that Ballard said he had as a teenager - a child who was never
mentioned in testimony or court paperwork in his case.
"I was not in her life. I wasn't there as a father to begin with," Ballard
said. "It's very unfortunate for her to be brought into this."
A long-lost daughter also made an appearance for the last person to be executed
in Pennsylvania, "house of horrors" murderer Gary Heidnik of Philadelphia, who
was put to death in 1999. Heidnik's case demonstrates just how long Ballard's
fate could be delayed, even with his decision not to contest it.
Though Heidnik wanted his end to come, lawyers from the federal defender office
unsuccessfully tried to appeal on behalf of his daughter, who had been raised
in foster care. Though he never sought to challenge his 1988 sentence, it still
took 11 years for Heidnik to be executed, said A. Charles Peruto Jr., a
Philadelphia lawyer who represented him at trial and supported him in his
decision to volunteer.
Peruto predicted Ballard "is going to have a long, long wait" of at least 5
years before he is executed.
Ballard said he has no idea when he could be put to death.
"My best guess? Middle of next year," he said, throwing up his arms.
Though seemingly an aberrant decision, a surprisingly high number of death-row
inmates ask to be executed, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the
Death Penalty Information Center.
Nationwide since 1976, one in 10 prisoners put to death was a volunteer, 141
out of 1,383 executions, according to the Washington nonprofit.
The reasons are varied, Dieter said. Some inmates suffer from mental illness
that may affect their decisions. Some do so out of guilt for their crimes.
Others feel that life on death row is pointless. For still others, it is a
chance to wrestle their fates back from the justice system, he said.
"Even if it is a negative sort of control, you get to call the shots, so to
speak," Dieter said. "It draws attention. You are the commander."
In describing his decision, Ballard bristled over the "warehousing" he said is
the reality of death row. He said he is not a "house pet" who can accept 4
walls and his every move being dictated by guards.
Ballard also said he "absolutely" believes that he had a fair trial, and that
his public defenders - Connell and Michael Corriere - served him well during
it.
Ballard doesn't even blame the jurors for reaching the verdict they did.
"Based on the letter of the law, they came back with the right sentence,"
Ballard said, before shrugging his shoulders.
He spoke the words after being asked if the jury got it right, a question he
answered only after a long pause and a chuckle, saying it was a difficult one
for him.
"They made their own decision," Ballard said. "It's not unlike the decision I
made the year before."
Since that mass killing, Ballard believes he deserves credit for the road he
has taken.
"I've pleaded guilty. I'm not trying to fight and claw and scratch on some
asinine technicality, so it's going to be carried out," Ballard said. "What
more could the family - those families - expect. What more could the community
expect?"
If the public is seeking an expression of remorse from him, Ballard said, it is
not going to get it.
"You can vilify me in whatever manner you so choose. What's done is done,"
Ballard said. "If I don't seem remorseful to somebody, they can interpret my
demeanor or my lack of emotion as they see fit."
"People," Ballard said, "fill in their own blanks."
(source: Morning Call)
VIRGINIA:
Questions surround future executions in Virginia
Virginia has 8 inmates currently on death row and one of the main questions is
how they will be executed.
Virginia's lethal injection protocol consists of 3 drugs: a sedative, paralytic
and a heart stopping drug.
The sedative used is now nearly impossible to find, forcing the Commonwealth to
turn to a less tested drug called Midazolam. The Virginia Department of
Corrections says the new drug cocktail went through an extensive, multi-step
process before being selected.
However, those tests have not been released publicly.
"The Constitution exists to protect all of us and prevent the government from
torturing any one of us," said Matthew Engle, the interim head of the Virginia
Capital Case Clearinghouse, a resource for defense attorneys run through
Washington and Lee Law School. "We can't effectively check the government if
they're allowed to develop this entire protocol behind closed doors and not
answer any questions."
2 years ago Rex Taylor struck up a friendship with one of the most infamous
names in the New River Valley, William Morva.
Morva is on death row after being convicted of killing a hospital security
guard and a Montgomery County Sheriff's Deputy in August 2006.
Taylor and Morva have sent each other dozens of letters over the last 2 years
and have repeatedly spoken over the phone.
But 1 letter sent recently stuck with Taylor.
It was to the point, including the words "I don't want to die here."
"I knew when we first started talking that he was going to be put to death
eventually," Taylor said. "But after getting to know him and becoming friends
with him, when I read something like that it really does get to me. It bothers
me."
Now the question for Morva and the seven other death row inmates in Virginia is
how they will be executed. It's usually done through lethal injection, but
getting the drugs needed is becoming a big problem.
We requested the lethal injection protocol from the Virginia Department of
Corrections (VADOC).
A 3 drug cocktail is used consisting of a sedative, paralytic and a heart
stopping drug.
The 2 sedative drugs traditionally used, Pentobarbital and Thiopental Sodium,
are now nearly impossible to come by as manufacturers worldwide have refused to
sell drugs used for capital punishment.
The Commonwealth's solution is to use Midazolam as its sedative.
It's the same drug used during a January execution in Ohio where it took the
inmate 24 minutes to die, raising concerns of cruel and unusual punishment.
The VADOC said its protocol is not comparable to Ohio's, since the midwestern
state uses a 2 drug cocktail.
"We've seen states sort of on the fly swap drugs out, substitute drugs, change
their protocols, and in Virginia that's been going on as well," said Matthew
Engle, the interim director of the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse run
through Washington and Lee Law School. "What is most troubling about it is that
it's been going on behind closed doors."
Engle is concerned the Commonwealth is turning to a new drug without releasing
any of its studies or research.
"What will happen is what's happening in Ohio and what's happening in Oklahoma
which is that we will have problems with executions and there will be lawsuits
afterwards," he said. "That's when we'll find out what's actually going on, but
that's not what it should take."
However, another option being explored by the General Assembly is changing how
death row inmates are executed.
"We have the death penalty on the books, we're supposed to enforce the law yet
we don't have a mechanism to actually do so," said Delegate Greg Habeeb
(R-Salem).
Habeeb is one of more than 60 delegates that voted this year to make the
electric chair the primary form of execution, an option now used only if
requested by the inmate.
That bill passed the House of Delegates but stalled in the Senate.
"I'm one of those people that isn't aggressively seeking to expand the death
penalty," Habeeb said. "But Virginia has a public policy and what's happening
is Virginia is unable to enforce (it) because of policy decisions made in
Europe. That's frankly sort of a backwards way for us to be setting our
policy."
It's a policy that is at the mercy of the companies manufacturing the drugs.
For now, it's unclear how William Morva and the lives of the other death row
inmates will end.
No executions are on the schedule, so Engle and Habeeb agree there's still time
to get it right.
"We should be looking at this process ahead of time, we should be preventing
these problems from happening," Engle said. "The only way to do that is through
an open process."
Governor Terry McAuliffe did not respond to our request for an interview and
Attorney General Mark Herring declined to comment.
However, while in the Senate Herring voted to expand the death penalty 5 times.
(source: WWBT news)
******************
Va. inmate can't manage own death-penalty appeal
A judge has denied a Virginia inmate's request to manage his own federal
death-penalty appeal.
William Morva was convicted of killing a hospital security guard and a
sheriff's deputy in 2006 during an escape. He exhausted his state appeals in
April 2013.
In the federal appeal case, Morva had sought a dismissal of his court-appointed
attorneys.
The Roanoke Times (http://bit.ly/1oYtYxJ ) reports that U.S. District Judge
Michael Urbanski ruled Friday that a federal appeal's technicalities are too
complex for a lay person to manage. Urbanski also rejected Morva's request for
new attorneys.
Urbanksi also ordered Morva to undergo a mental evaluation. He said he would
rule on Morva's competence later.
Morva's lead attorney, Jonathan Sheldon, had asked Urbanksi to declare Morva
incompetent and have him evaluated and treated.
(source: Associated Press)
GEORGIA:
Prosecutors seek death penalty in Jefferson County slaying
Prosecutors say they plan to seek the death penalty for an east Georgia man
charged with raping and killing a woman whose body was found near trash
dumpsters in Jefferson County.
The Augusta Chronicle reports Middle Circuit District Attorney Hayward Altman
announced his intention Friday to pursue a death sentence for 37-year-old
Anthony Mereal Lemon of Wadley.
Lemon was charged last month with murder, aggravated assault, kidnapping, rape
and sodomy in the slaying of 29-year-old Jamillah Mia Holmes of Sandersville. A
county worker found her body May 12 at a garbage collection site near Wadley.
The decision to seek death of Lemon was announced during a preliminary hearing
in Superior Court. Lemon has been jailed without bond.
(source: Athens Banner-Herald)
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