Nov. 26
PENNSYLVANIA:
Court upholds death sentence in Willard murder
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Nov. 21 affirmed the order of Delaware County
Common Pleas Judge Frank T. Hazel, issued on Sept. 4, 2012, which denied the
Post Conviction Relief Act petition of Arthur Bomar.
Bomar was sentenced to death in 1998 for the brutal kidnapping, rape and
1st-degree murder of 22 year old college athlete Aimee Willard, daughter of
former Chester police officer, Paul Willard. Aimee Willard had been out
socializing with friends at a bar in Wayne one night in June, but she never
made it home. Her abandoned vehicle was found on the Blue Route, near the Media
bypass, with the lights on and a pool of blood by the car. Her naked and
battered body was later found, face down, in a vacant lot in North
Philadelphia. DNA evidence tied Bomar to the crime, along with statements he
made to others, including a former girlfriend, his brother-in-law and another
inmate.
"For the 2nd time, the Supreme Court has upheld the defendant's conviction and
sentence, finding there was overwhelming evidence of his guilt and that and
that he was effectively represented by trial and death penalty counsel," said
District Attorney Jack Whelan in a press release. "It is time for his sentence
to be carried out without any further delay."
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied Bomar's direct appeal in 2003; however,
in 2004, he then claimed that his previous attorney's provided ineffective
assistance, entitling him to a new trial.
Bomar alleged, among other things, that he was not competent; that the
prosecution made secret, undisclosed deals with certain witness; that he had
been incompetent to stand trial; that his penalty please attorney had failed to
find, and introduce, certain mitigating evidence; that the DNA results were
unreliable; that the District Attorney's office illegally questioned him; that
erred in conducting jury selection and erred in allowing certain outside
information to effect the jury. Between 2008 and 2011, Judge Hazel conducted
evidentiary hearings regarding Bomar's allegations. Judge Hazel, in a 213 page
comprehensive opinion, found these allegations to be meritless and, now, so has
the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Last week's decision means the governor will soon be required to sign a death
warrant for the execution of Arthur Bomar. It is anticipated that Bomar and his
attorneys will file a federal habeas corpus petition seeking relist in federal
court, now that they have lost in state court.
Deputy District Attorney Daniel McDevitt tried the case for the prosecution,
and Assistant District Attorney William Toal Jr, III has successfully handled
all of the appeals and post-conviction litigation.
(source: chaddsfordlive.com)
**********************
Delco Man On Death Row For Killing Soccer Star Loses Another Appeal
Arthur Bomar, convicted in the 1996 murder of college soccer star Aimee
Willard, has lost his 2nd state appeal to get off Pennsylvania death row, but
any execution is not likely to come for months, or maybe years.
The 22-year-old Willard was killed after leaving a bar with friends...her body
dumped along a Blue Route on-ramp.
"The family had to endure these appeals, had to endure the tragic and vicious
death of Aimee Willard and it's time to try to get these issues resolved," says
Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan.
Bomar's lawyers tried and failed to convince Delaware County Common Pleas Judge
Frank Hazel to throw out the conviction based on alleged ineffective counsel at
trial. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is siding with Hazel.
Whelan hopes outgoing Governor Tom Corbett will sign a death warrant, even
though the legal fight is far from over:
"We do expect Mr. Bomar's attorneys on the federal level to attempt appeals
through the federal court system. However, we're anxious to have the Governor
sign the warrant."
That's because Corbett's successor, Governor-elect Tom Wolf, supports a
moratorium on death warrants while the death penalty is studied in the
Commonwealth.
(source: CBS news)
MARYLAND:
Death Row Inmate May Receive Lesser Punishment for Prince George's County
Murders; The victim's daughter urges against commutation of the sentences.
An inmate who killed a couple in their Prince George's County home may receive
a commuted punishment.
According to The Washington Post, the victim's daughter asked that Governor
Martin O'Malley not commute the sentences during a 20-minute phone call Monday.
Heath Burch was convicted of killing Mary Francis Moore's father and stepmother
with a pair of scissors in 1995.
Although the death penalty was abolished in Maryland in 2013, it does not
extend to the 5 inmates that were already on death row.
"They died a horrible death, I told him," Moore told the WP. "I said,
'Governor, if I was you, I'd leave this alone and let the courts decide.' ...
Whether it did any good, God knows."
According to Moore, O'Malley told her that he has not decided about the
commutations and does not believe the state has the power to execute death-row
inmates anymore, reports the WP.
(source: patch.com)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Charlotte death-penalty case goes to jury
Demarcus Ivey's freedom - and perhaps his life - hinges on whether a
Mecklenburg County jury believes he is the hooded gunman in a grainy 2009
video, pausing at the door of the Charlotte strip club he has just robbed to
fatally shoot a man kneeling on the floor.
Adrian Youngblood, 25, died almost instantly at Club Nikki's on Little Rock
Road.
On Tuesday, 7 men and 5 women began deliberating whether to hold Ivey
accountable for the Sept. 10, 2009, killing. If convicted, the 33-year-old
Charlotte man and career criminal faces a possible death sentence.
Lawyers began picking a jury within days of the 5th anniversary of Youngblood's
death. After more than 2 months in the courtroom, Ivey's attorneys told the
jurors on Tuesday that the prosecution had not proved their case.
Grady Jessup and Norman Butler argued that the weeks of evidence fell on their
client's side. They said no witnesses had identified Ivey as the gunman at the
robbery. They said police botched the DNA testing, never tested Ivey for any
gunshot residue nor produced any weapon linking their client to the crime.
Butler told the jurors that Assistant District Attorneys Bill Stetzer and Bill
Bunting "want to take you for a ride."
"They want you to do what they can't do - to figure out this case because they
can't. ... It's one thing to imagine what happened. But that's not what the law
tells us to do. They don't know what happened. They don't know who did this."
During his final remarks, which stretched out over 2 days, Jessup picked up a
Bible by the witness stand and tapped on it to emphasize what he described as
the lack of sworn testimony incriminating his client.
He said the evidence presented falls far short of what is needed to send Ivey
to prison for the rest of his life or even to death row.
"Make the state prove its case," Jessup said, his voice climbing to a roar.
"Hold them to that burden of proof. Make them follow the law."
Given the final say with the jurors, Stetzer focused on what he described as
the stubbornness of facts. Follow them, the prosecutor said, as he strode
across the courtroom to where Ivey sat, and they lead to 1 person and 1
conclusion: Demarcus Ivey shot and killed a helpless man. Stetzer described it
as a "sport killing."
The centerpiece of Stetzer's 90-minute closing was a compilation surveillance
video from Club Nikki's. It opens with 2 men driving up to the club in a Ford
pickup. Stetzer said the driver was Kevin Bishop, now serving a 20-year
sentence for 2nd-degree murder in connection with the case. His passenger wears
a dark gray sweatshirt. That's Ivey, Stetzer said.
Inside the club, the video shows the 2 gunmen ordering about a dozen of the
club's patrons, dancers and staff on the floor. The robbers go group to group,
taking cash, cellphones, jewelry and other items.
As they leave, the man in the dark sweatshirt stops by Youngblood and rips
something off the back of his neck. He steps to the doorway and then looks back
into the club. Then he fires his handgun directly down at Youngblood, who
crumples to the floor.
At 2 p.m. that day, police began chasing a Ford pickup up Interstate 85. The
truck crashed shortly after exiting onto Beatties Ford Road. 2 men fled. Bishop
and Ivey were arrested nearby.
Inside the truck, police found loot taken from Club Nikki's, Stetzer said. They
also found a dark gray sweatshirt on the passenger side.
Tests later revealed that it carried Ivey's DNA.
The jury began deliberating Tuesday afternoon. The case will then be on break
until Monday.
If they find Ivey guilty, the jurors will begin a sentencing trial to decide
whether Ivey should be sent to prison for the rest of his life or placed on
death row.
(source: Charlotte Observer)
FLORIDA:
Murder case finally concludes
On Monday, Gov. Rick Scott signed the death warrant of a Pensacola man
convicted of murdering a prominent local banker and raping his wife.
Johnny Shane Kormondy will be executed Jan. 15, some 20 years after he and 2
accomplices forced their way into the home of Gary and Cecelia McAdams, shot
the banker in the back of the head and repeatedly sexually assaulted his wife.
Such lengthy delays between conviction and execution are not unusual in death
penalty cases. The average Florida prisoner spends nearly 15 years on death
row. However, Kormondy's case has been long and convoluted, even by Florida
standards.
Kormondy went through roughly a half dozen appeals in the case, including
having his initial death penalty sentence overturned by the Florida Supreme
Court.
Kormondy was originally convicted and sentenced to death in 1994 after being
identified as the mastermind in a plot to rob the McAdams household. He
reportedly enlisted co-defendants Curtis Buffkin and James Hazen to help him
commit the crime, and the group attacked the McAdams family one evening after
the spouses returned home from a high school reunion.
The trio reportedly pushed their way into the residence, closed all the
curtains, pulled the phone cords out of the walls and forced Gary McAdams to
kneel in the kitchen at gunpoint. After the men assaulted his spouse in a
backroom, Gary McAdams was murdered.
All 3 men were convicted and sentenced to death in 3 separate trials. Buffkin
was allegedly the man holding the gun when the group pushed its way into the
residence, but attorneys say that it was Kormondy who pulled the trigger.
After agreeing to testify against his accomplices, Buffkin had his sentence
reduced to life in prison. Hazen's sentence was reduced to life in prison after
the court decided his sentence was inappropriate in comparison to Buffkin's,
who had played a larger role in the crime but received a lesser sentence.
After Kormondy's initial sentencing, he filed a direct appeal to the Florida
Supreme Court.
In 1997, the Florida Supreme Court granted Kormondy a new sentence hearing
because during the original sentencing hearing Buffkin's lawyer was allowed to
testify that Kormondy vowed to kill Cecilia McAdams and another witness if he
ever got out of jail. The testimony regarding a threat of future violence
should have been inadmissible in the hearing by Florida law.
A new jury reviewed the facts of the case in 1999 and recommended death by vote
of eight to four. Kormondy filed a second direct appeal, which was dismissed by
the Florida Supreme Court. In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review
his case.
Kormondy was denied other motions contesting his conviction in 2005 and 2007.
His clemency review began in 2013 and was denied.
Kormondy's is the 21st death warrant signed by Scott during his tenure as
governor.
The last person to be executed for a case stemming out of Escambia County was
Clarence Hill, who shot and killed Pensacola police officer Stephen Taylor in
1982. Hill spent 23 years on death row before his execution in 2006.
(source: Pensacola News Journal)
ARIZONA:
Judge grants stay on Arizona execution suit
It could be months before Arizona officials seek execution warrants for
death-row inmates after a judge granted a joint request by the state and
defense attorneys.
A judge on Monday put on hold a lawsuit challenging the secrecy of execution
protocols in Arizona pending the investigation of the nearly 2-hour execution
of Joseph Rudolph Wood.
The agreement stipulates that the Arizona Department of Corrections will not
seek any death warrants for death-row inmates until the lawsuit is resolved.
Officials had already suspended executions pending the Wood investigation.
The mutual agreement also states that Arizona officials will consider changing
execution protocols and make any possible changes public.
The July 23 execution of Wood, who was convicted of murdering his estranged
girlfriend and her father, called into question the efficacy of the drugs used
after it took nearly two hours for Wood to die. He gasped repeatedly before
taking his final breath.
Wood's attorney, Dale Baich, says the execution was botched, which state
officials adamantly deny. The agency has said it is not commenting on pending
litigation.
The lawsuit was filed in June on behalf of Wood and other death-row inmates. It
claims the inmates have a First Amendment right to know about specific
execution protocols such as the types of drugs used in lethal injections and
the companies that supply them.
The First Amendment Coalition of Arizona later joined the lawsuit, saying the
information should be released to the public.
The secrecy that surrounds executions has been a source of contention since
officials in states that have the death penalty stopped making public details
such as the drug manufacturers and drug combinations in 2010. European drug
companies had stopped supplying lethal injection drugs, and states said they
were protecting the privacy of local suppliers.
A group of media organizations including The Associated Press has filed a
separate lawsuit contending that the information is of public interest.
Wood was given 15 doses of the sedative midazolam and a painkiller before he
died.
(source: Associated Press)
*********************
Prosecutor Attacks Defense's Sex Expert During Death Penalty Trial
Things heated up in Arizona's Maricopa County Superior Courtroom on Monday
during a fiery exchange between the state prosecutor and a star witness on the
defense in the Jodi Arias death penalty retrial.
Back in May 2013, Arias was convicted of brutally murdering her ex-boyfriend,
Travis Alexander, 30, inside of his Phoenix home in June 2008. According to
medical examiners, the 34-year-old boyfriend killer stabbed him 27 times,
primarily in the back, torso and heart. She also slit his throat from ear to
ear, nearly decapitating him, and shot him in the face. Although she was found
guilty of 1st-degree murder, the jury failed to reach a unanimous decision on
her sentencing. As a result, the jury in her current retrial will determine
whether she should be sentenced to death, life in prison or life with a chance
of release after serving 25 years.
On Monday, Dr. Miccio Fonseca, a clinical psychologist who specializes in
twisted sexual behavior, returned to the witness stand to be cross-examined by
prosecutor Juan Martinez. For the past 2 weeks, the relationship expert has
testified on behalf of the defense about Alexander's inner conflict between his
religious conviction and sexual desires.
She stated that Alexander had a mastery of deception and a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde" personality. She also alluded that he communicated having sexual desires
about minors, reports ABC 15 Arizona. As a result, her testimony served to
build the defense's argument that Alexander was a sexual deviant who
emotionally abused Arias.
During a very contentious cross-examination, Martinez repeatedly attacked the
doctor's credibility, objectivity and memory. In turn, Fonseca turned to the
jury and accused Martinez of traveling down a "slime highway," reports AZ
Family.
Judge Sherry Stephens also confirmed on Monday that the Arias re-trial will not
end by Dec. 18, and instead go on until January.
"We knew it," said courtroom blogger Jen Wood. "We knew it would go into
January. We knew it would never end in December."
"The judge notified the jury that they probably aren't going to finish until
January," she continued. "When in January we don't know. But they need to
submit any concerns that have to the judge so they can go over that with the
lawyers and make sure they can still retain a jury."
(source: latinpost.com)
USA:
Measuring evil: Noted psychiatrist seeks tool to quantify wickedness
Is a "perp" who attempts to permanently scar a victim with a knife more or less
depraved than one who forces a child to witness a murder? How evil would you
rate a terrorist who targets civilians in comparison to a serial killer who
picks victims according to their race or ethnicity?
A leading forensic psychiatrist who has testified in some of America's most
infamous violent crime cases seeks the nation's collective opinion on these and
other imponderables to complete more than 13 years of pioneering research aimed
at codifying the concept of evil for the justice system.
Dr. Michael Welner and his team at the Forensic Panel in New York have issued a
survey that asks participants to rate 25 violent crime elements for input into
the group's so-called Depravity Standard. Behind the scenes, talks are already
under way with state officials around the country to introduce them to the
standard, which Welner says would provide evidence-based guidelines aimed at
helping reduce the degree of subjectivity that occurs throughout the judicial
process, not least at the prosecutorial stage.
"In criminal courts today, the decision to charge a case as heinous, atrocious,
cruel, depraved or vile rests with the prosecuting authority," Welner - who's
given expert testimony in such cases as Andrea Yates' drowning of her 5
children in their bathtub, and the prosecution of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapper,
Brian David Mitchell - said in an interview with FoxNews.com. "But because the
law does not include a standard to what constitutes an evil crime, that
decision is either visceral, or one that may be driven by political
considerations, bias, or sensationalism."
"A Depravity Standard that is rooted in specific hallmarks of intent, actions,
attitude and victimology keeps prosecutors accountable to fully investigate a
crime for these unique qualities so that evidence informs decision making."
According to Welner, the Depravity Standard would complement the principle of
legal precedent, which exists in varying capacities throughout the United
States to standardize the application of justice.
Together with Forensic Panel Research Director Kate O'Malley, Welner is calling
on all adults to participate in the survey, which would crown 2 earlier public
surveys involving 30,000 participants.
"At the conclusion of this phase, we will be able to assign weights to
homicides, sex crimes, assaults, and non-violent crimes to enable all crimes to
be compared against one another - and to actually determine the level of evil
in a crime," Welner said.
Welner is founder and chair of the Forensic Panel, a peer-review forensic
consultancy whose advisory board for the Depravity Standard includes a wide
spectrum of experts from the judicial, law enforcement, medical and academic
fields.
Welner is a noted criminal psychiatrist who has worked on several high-profile
cases.
According to the organization, taking society's temperature on what constitutes
depraved crime is reflective of the spirit of the US Supreme Court's 1976 Gregg
v Georgia ruling which, in addition to effectively ending the court's de facto
moratorium on the death penalty in 1972, called for societal standards to guide
deliberations of aggravating factors raised in capital sentencing.
Beyond informing prosecutors, the completed Depravity Standard will be made
available to detectives to more fully draw out evidence illustrating intent;
judges and juries in sentencing and other decision making; corrections
officials in making early release recommendations amid prison overcrowding;
prison review officials and governors regarding pardon requests; war crimes
tribunals in order to transcend the political controversies that sometimes
plague such institutions; and academics in order to more carefully study
severity within classes of crime, such as hate crimes, domestic violence,
drug-related crimes, and other distinct areas of interest.
"We have received requests to use the Depravity Standard in actual cases by
criminal defense attorneys and by prosecutors," Welner said.
"Each of these requests was motivated by, respectively, a defense attorney who
recognized that his crime was being overcharged and wanted to demonstrate the
unfairness for a court; or a prosecutor who believed his case reflected an
exceptional crime and wanted to educate a jury as to why."
The survey is believed to be the 1st criminal justice project to reflect the
influence of 1 person, 1 vote, in a manner that enables future jurors, future
families of victims and even perpetrators - because they're invited to
participate as well - to directly fashion an aspect of criminal sentencing that
may one day affect any person's life.
"We have more confidence in the laws we directly have a hand in making," Welner
argued. "Standards that reflect the will of many are the essence of E Pluribus
Unum - out of many, one."
Additional examples of the 25 elements include targeting victims who are not
merely vulnerable, but helpless; disregarding the known consequences to a
victim; and showing intent to carry out a crime for excitement of the criminal
act.
You can participate in the survey at
https://depravitystandard.org/register.html
(source: Fox News)
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