April 1
DELAWARE:
Prosecutors: Delaware death penalty law is constitutional
Prosecutors are arguing to the Delaware Supreme Court that the state's capital
punishment process is constitutional, despite 2 recent U.S. Supreme Court
rulings that raise questions about the state's law.
Attorneys from the Delaware Department of Justice earlier this week filed a
44-page brief refuting arguments made by public defenders that Delaware's
statute is unconstitutional because judges, not juries, have the final say in
imposing a death sentence.
In January, a Superior Court judge requested the Delaware Supreme Court weigh
in on the current law in light of a federal decision that Florida's capital
punishment system is unconstitutional.
Prosecutors say Delaware's death penalty process is different from Florida's
struck-down statute, most notably because of a change made by the General
Assembly in 2002 regarding aggravating circumstances.
(source: Associated Press)
GEORGIA:
Condemned man's last words: 'Our Father . . .'
Joshua Bishop nodded an acknowledgment to the men who sent him to prison,
mouthed "I love you" to his attorney and then uttered his last words Thursday
night.
"Our Father . . ." and his voice trailed off as he slipped into
unconsciousness, unable to continue the Lord's Prayer aloud as the poison
entered his bloodstream.
At the age of 19, Bishop beat a man to death with a curtain rod. 22 years
later, at 41, he was put to death at the Georgia prison in Jackson.
As he lay on the gurney, Bishop apologized "to the people of Baldwin County,"
where his crimes took place, and to the family of the man he killed.
(source: Atlanta Journal Constitution)
LOUISIANA:
Public defense funding at 'critical moment' in Louisiana and can't be cut,
American Bar Association official claims
Public defense funding in Louisiana must be spared the state budget ax, the
president of the American Bar Association stressed this week in a letter to
Gov. John Bel Edwards and other elected state officials.
Paulette Brown's 4-page letter to the governor, leaders of the Louisiana Senate
and House of Representatives, and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette
Johnson comes as the state-funded Louisiana Public Defender Board has been
threatened with a more than 61 % reduction of its $33 million budget.
"Louisiana's $1.6 billion budget shortfall undoubtedly requires difficult
decisions, including cuts to critical services," Brown said in her Wednesday
letter. "But public defense is one service that cannot be cut."
Edwards, while noting that the recent special legislative session failed to
fully address the state's budget problems, pledged Thursday to work with the
ABA to make sure the criminal justice system is properly funded.
"I recognize the immense challenges that public defenders across Louisiana are
facing at this time. I have great respect for the men and women who provide
legal representation for those who need it but can least afford it," he said.
"The work they do is important and necessary.
"We must work to keep the criminal justice system functioning while allowing
meaningful and substantive reform to take place to address the problems
outlined by ABA," Edwards added.
Brown said Louisiana public defenders, many of whom carry excessive caseloads,
have an ethical, constitutional and statutory duty to maintain reasonable
workloads.
"Cutting nearly 62 % of the public defense budget would exacerbate the current
workload problem, threatening mass constitutional and ethical violations, as
well as likely increasing wrongful conviction and mass incarceration," she
warned.
"It also would require additional service restrictions on a scale unprecedented
in the history of American public defense," she added.
Brown's letter came 2 days after a judge halted the prosecution in Baton Rouge
state court of alleged members and associates of the violent Gardere-area Big
Money Block Boyz gang after court-appointed lawyers on the case complained
there is no state money to pay their bills.
In Lafayette, a judge was told the public defense funding problem could delay
Landon Broussard's death penalty trial, set to start this summer. Broussard is
accused of killing Julian Madera, the 3-year-son of his girlfriend, Laura
Smith. In that case, the Lafayette Indigent Defenders Office canceled the
contract with Broussard's lead attorney and accepted the resignation of another
attorney in the case.
That development came on the heels of an announcement March 21 from Mike
Mitchell, East Baton Rouge Parish's chief public defender, that his office will
cease taking some new cases in state and juvenile court as of July 1 without
additional funding for the local office. Mitchell had announced a hiring freeze
last spring.
The indigent defense funding woes also have caught the attention of Johnson,
the chief justice of Louisiana's highest court. In her annual state of the
judiciary address to the Legislature, she told state lawmakers March 15 that
roughly 85 % of all criminal defendants are represented by public defenders.
"It is our constitutional obligation to provide adequate representation. We
cannot try felony cases - cases where folks are subject to imprisonment at hard
labor - without them having an attorney," she said. "While not usually
considered as a cost savings method, if we fail to provide adequate counsel at
the outset, we will not be able to avoid the exorbitant costs associated with
reversal and retrial of case."
Johnson said 33 of Louisiana's 42 judicial district public defender offices are
now operating under a restriction of services. It is foreseen that 1/2 of the
state's public defender offices will be insolvent within months, she stated.
The ABA's Brown called it a "critical moment for public defense" in this
country.
"Louisiana has an opportunity to serve as a model for governments balancing
budget shortfalls and lawyers' constitutional and ethical duties," she said.
The Louisiana District Attorneys Association has been contending for several
years that the state Public Defender Board's fiscal management of limited state
funds needs to be more fully scrutinized.
The ABA, along with a Louisiana accounting firm, is now conducting a public
defender workload study in the state.
Steve Hanlon, the ABA project leader on the study, said Thursday he anticipates
the release of a final report in September. 1 part of the 2-part study involves
time-keeping in several public defender offices, including those in Baton Rouge
and New Orleans, he said.
In the 2nd part, public defenders and private attorneys have taken electronic
surveys dealing with various case types and how much time is needed to perform
the tasks associated with those cases.
(source: The Advocate)
OHIO:
Killer resentenced to life in prison after corpse abuse case----Steffen agrees
to new sentence
A man once facing the death penalty for the rape and murder of a Hamilton
County woman has a new sentence.
David Steffen agreed Thursday to a sentence of life in prison plus 19 years for
the death of Karen Range in 1982.
Steffen had admitted killing Range, but repeatedly said that while he had tried
to rape her, he didn't actually do it.
Steffen appealed his case in both state and federal courts. The state courts
affirmed his conviction and death sentence but in 2006, the United States
District Court granted Steffen's request to remand the case back to state court
to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the rape conviction.
It was discovered in 2008 that Range's corpse was 1 of at least 3 that Hamilton
County morgue worker Kenneth Douglas had sex with. Douglas was convicted and
sentenced to 18 months in prison.
After years of protracted litigation following the federal court decision
concerning the scope of the new hearing, all sides came to an agreement
Thursday.
The new sentence carries no chance of parole.
"Even if the jury said 'Life with the eligibility of parole,' realistically he
wasn't going to receive parole anyway. We just wanted to make sure he didn't
have that death penalty," Steffen's attorney Massimino Ionna said.
Under older Ohio sentencing guidelines, without this agreement, if Steffens
death penalty sentence had been vacated, he would be eligible for immediate
release because of the time he's already spent in prison.
In a statement, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said "Finally there is
some justice for Karen Range and closure for her family. This has been a long
time coming. This case has taken many twists and turns but my office never lost
sight of the fight for justice for Karen and her family."
"Karen was a beautiful young woman who did not deserve to die at the hands of
Steffen and then have her corpse brutalized by Kenneth Douglas. I am satisfied
that justice has been served today and will not take any further action on this
case."
"I hope that Karen may now rest in peace and her family can find some closure
and comfort knowing that Steffen will be locked up until he is no longer
breathing," Deters said.
(source: WLWT news)
INDIANA:
Prosecutor Considering Death Penalty Charge Against Kyle Parker
Owen County Prosecutor Don VanDerMoere says he could make a decision on whether
to pursue the death penalty in the Shaylyn Ammerman case within the next 2
months.
The case could go to trial as early as August.
Kyle Parker is charged with the 1-year-old's murder.
He is currently in solitary confinement and on a suicide watch at the Owen
County Jail.
Assistant jail commander Marjie Ryan said it is standard practice to place
inmates in solitary confinement and on suicide watch when they face charges "of
this magnitude" and until they can be evaluated by medical professionals.
Indiana has 12 people on death row, but hasn't executed anyone since 2009.
In order for a case to qualify for the death penalty, it must meet at least one
of 18 circumstances outlined by the general assembly. One of those
circumstances is murder of a child.
The number of death penalty cases in Indiana has declined over the past 5
years.
"We used to average between 25 and 40 death penalty cases filed each year
throughout the state," says Assistant Executive Director of the Indiana Public
Defender Council Paula Sites. "Over the last 10 years our average is actually
fewer than 2 per year."
The cause of that - cost.
A 2010 report from the Legislative Services Agency found, on average, it costs
more than ten times as much to prosecute a death penalty case to the end than a
life without parole case.
"Only about 1 in 5 death penalty cases that are filed actually result in a
death sentence," Sites says. "The rest are usually resolved by plea agreement,
most often with a sentence of life without parole."
(source: WBIW news)
WASHINGTON:
Accused killer could face death penalty in Moneytree murders
New developments in the double-murder that happened outside the Yakima
Moneytree: the suspected killer could face the death penalty. As the community
struggles to understand why Marta Martinez and Karina Morales-Rodriguez were
murdered in cold blood, Yakima County Prosecutor Joe Brusic vows to bring the
suspect to justice.
"It's devastating to the community; we take this exceptionally seriously," said
Brusic."It's the most serious kind of crime that we prosecute"
Brusic announced 5 days after the murders outside the Moneytree, he plans to
pursue a more serious charge against Manuel Verduzco: aggravated 1st-degree
murder. Authorities believe Verduzco killed the 2 Moneytree employees in a
robbery gone bad.
If found guilty, the 26-year-old could be behind bars for the rest of his life
without parole, or face the death penalty. That's a tougher sentence
possibility than the standard range for 1st-degree murder, which would have
been between 20-30 years behind bars.
"I still feel very sad, and very devastated about the situation," said Laura
Curiel, who knew Marta Martinez, 1 of the victims in Saturday's shootings.
But those who knew the victims say a stiffer sentence may not be enough for
closure.
"They can give him 100 years in prison, and they're still not going to have
peace. That's still not going to be enough," said one woman, who didn't want to
be identified in this report."We still feel it. We still cry the same. Because
it's tragic. It's violent. It should never have happened."
Brusic has about 30 days to decide after formal charges are filed whether he'll
include the death penalty as a possibility. Court papers say Verduzco used to
work at the Moneytree where the women were killed -- though authorities won't
yet say how he knew the women.
(source: KIMA TV news)
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