April 4
TEXAS----new execution date
Execution date set for killer in Houston vice officer's death
A Harris County judge on Monday signed a death warrant for 58-year-old man who
fatally shot a Houston police officer in 1988.
State District Judge Denise Collins set Sept. 14 as an execution date for
Robert Mitchell Jennings who was convicted of killing vice officer Elston
Howard at an adult bookstore.
Howard's mother, 83-year-old Era Mae Howard, watched the proceedings with HPD
interim chief Martha Montalvo and several other officers.
Before the brief hearing, the 2 women shared a laugh because the octogenarian
use to babysit Montalvo's children, 1 of whom grew up to be an HPD officer.
Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson also attended the hearing to see
the proceedings against Jennings, who appeared in a yellow jail uniform.
Jennings and his co-defendant David Lee Harvell, were robbing their 2nd adult
bookstore on July 19, 1988 when Jennings went in to one alone on Richmond,
court records show.
Jennings saw Howard, who was wearing an HPD jacket, arresting the store clerk
for municipal violations and shot him twice.
Jennings shot the officer a 3rd time after he fell and then robbed the store.
After he fled, Jennings told Harvell he shot a "security guard" and Harvell
tried to get him out of the car, court records show. When Jennings refused,
Harvell shot him in the hand.
Harvell was later convicted of aggravated robbery and sentenced to death.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
***************************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----18
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----536
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
19---------April 6------------------Pablo Vasquez---------537
20---------May 11-------------------Terry Edwards---------538
21---------June 2-------------------Charles Flores--------539
22---------June 21------------------Robert Roberson-------540
23---------July 14------------------Perry Williams--------541
24---------July 27------------------Rolando Ruiz----------542
25---------August 23----------------Robert Pruett---------543
26---------September 14-------------Robert Jennings-------544
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
GEORGIA----impending execution
The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles has set a clemency hearing for a
death row inmate scheduled to be put to death next week
The board announced Monday that it will hear from advocates for Kenneth Fults
on April 11. Fults was convicted of killing Cathy Bounds, who was shot 5 times
in the back of her head. Prosecutors say Fults killed Bounds after breaking
into her house during a weeklong crime spree in January 1996.
Fults is scheduled to die April 12 by injection of the barbiturate
pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson.
The parole board is the only entity in Georgia that can commute a death
sentence.
Georgia has already executed 3 other inmates this year.
(source: Associated Press)
FLORIDA:
Man who admitted killing his wife and five children by slitting their throats
should be spared death penalty because of traumatic brain injury, his lawyers
argue
A Florida man who admitted to killing his wife and 5 children more than 6 years
ago suffered a traumatic brain injury that should keep him from the death
penalty, his lawyers now argue.
Mesac Damas, 39, has been in custody since 2009 after he confessed to murdering
wife Guerline, 32, and children Michzach, 9, Marven, 6, Maven, 5, Megan, 3, and
11-month-old Morgan.
The 6 victims were found in the family's North Naples home with stab wounds and
their throats slashed on September 18. Prosecutors are seeking the death
penalty.
Damas' mental health, in addition to challenges to Florida's death penalty
laws, have delayed his case going to trial for years.
His competency and mental health could be cited as 'mitigating factors' during
sentencing that may be significant enough to keep the jury from sending Damas
to death row, according to Naples Daily News.
James Ermacora, one of Damas' attorneys, would not elaborate on the traumatic
brain injury but said the claim was made using information from an expert
report.
The filings claim that Damas has a 'long and documented history of mental
illness, beginning even in his youth in Haiti'.
It also states that both sides from Damas' family show evidence of 'alcohol
abuse, spousal abuse, and serious mental illness on both genetic sides'.
The lawyers claim records from hospitals and prisons back up these claims, and
Ermacora plans to travel to Haiti to obtain more evidence of Damas' history of
mental illness.
Guerline Damas, who had been married to her husband for 10 years, and her
children were discovered dead after a family member asked police to conduct a
welfare check.
Damas' car was found at Miami International Airport, where he had boarded a
1-way flight to Haiti.
He was found hiding near a hotel in Port-au-Prince and taken into custody by
the Haitian National Police, according to CNN.
Damas admitted to killing his family to a Naples News reporter, telling him
'Only God knows' when asked why he did it.
He then blamed the 6 murders on his mother-in-law, saying she 'pretty much made
me do it - the devil, her spirit, whatever she worships'.
He told the reporter he wanted the jury to immediately send him to death before
adding that his children and wife were innocent, 'everybody's innocent'.
'Then why, why would you kill them?', the reporter asked.
'The devil,' he responded. 'The devil exists...When I did it my eyes was
closed, right now my eyes are open.'
When the reporter asked him if he believed he would go to heaven when he died,
Damas said yes.
'I was gonna kill myself, but I didn't have the courage to do it, because if
you kill yourself you're not going to heaven,' he said.
'But I didn't have the courage to do it myself.'
Damas said he went to Haiti to say goodbye to his family and claimed he was
going to turn himself in. He was charged with 6 counts of 1st-degree murder.
In 2014 Damas, who was arrested for battery charges against his wife 5 months
before her death, was found incompetent to stand trail. He was determined to
have a 'major mental illness' by doctors.
But in October a judge found that Damas could be 'manipulative and deceitful',
engaging in 'cooperative behavior when necessary to get something he wanted'.
Collier Circuit Judge Fred Hardt temporarily put Damas' trial on hold in until
the Supreme Court ruled whether the state's death penalty laws and procedures
were constitutional.
The Court ruled in January that it was unconstitutional to allow judges to
reach a different decision regarding death penalties than juries.
The Florida House voted last month for a death penalty bill that requires a
minimum of 10 out of 12 jurors to recommend the death penalty.
(source: Daily Mail)
ALABAMA:
In grisly murder, judge agrees with jury's call for death penalty
In keeping with a jury's recommendation, Circuit Court Judge Charles Graddick
sentenced Dennis Hicks to death Monday for murdering and dismembering a man in
the presence of children.
Wrapping up a 2-hour sentencing hearing for Hicks, Graddick ruled that "there
can be only one penalty, and that is the penalty of death."
The case began in October 2011, when human remains were found at a west Mobile
site previously used as a law enforcement shooting range. The body was
identified as that of 23-year-old Joshua Duncan, a mentally challenged man who
had been missing for a month. According to investigators, Duncan's body was
decapitated and disemboweled.
Hicks, then 53, quickly was identified as a person of interest in the case.
According to a police investigator, he had befriended Duncan at church, and was
the last person seen with him before his disappearance. At the time, Hicks was
on parole after serving 25 years for a double murder in Mississippi. In that
case, according to an MPD investigator, Hicks had shot and stabbed 2 victims,
then left their bodies in the trunk of a car.
In November 2011, Hicks was arrested for violating his parole, and eventually
was charged with Duncan's murder. He remained incarcerated through his trial;
he was convicted of Duncan's murder in late January, and the jury recommended
the death penalty in early February.
Hicks entered Monday's hearing with a list of objections and motions, arguing
that the trial should be thrown out on several grounds. His hair now gray, and
his voice nervous, he attempted to argue that his alibi hadn't been properly
considered, that evidence had been planted and that his attorneys hadn't
effectively represented him. "I just don't think they did me right," he said.
"I was disinformed and lied to by both my counsel."
Because Hicks' objections weren't always formulated in language the court
understood, Graddick repeatedly asked him to stop the narrative and explain
exactly what his motion was. In response to one of them, Graddick said, "Let's
see, I've never done this. I'm denying the motion for me to correct myself." He
denied all Hicks' motions, except to stipulate that Hicks' attorneys, Glynn
Davidson and Deborah McGowin, would not represent him on appeal.
For his part, Graddick said that Davidson and McGowin had "done an outstanding
job for you" and "provided effective assistance," regardless of the outcome. It
was a view shared by Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Wright, who said
after the hearing that she was familiar with the defenders and that they were
"very strong and ethical lawyers" who had done an excellent job under the
circumstances.
Hicks maintained that he had been helping Duncan learn to live independently by
renting him a room, letting him work on odd jobs and teaching him to drive. He
never would have harmed "Josh," he said.
"I'm 100 % innocent," said Hicks, describing the murder and his prosecution as
"a double tragedy."
As he approached his ruling, Graddick said investigators had found that three
small children had been present in the residence where Duncan was murdered. 2
of them had testified to details confirmed in forensic analysis of his body:
That Duncan had been stabbed and disemboweled, and that his head and hands had
been cut off.
"It was very horrific," said Wright afterward. "It was horrific we had to put
the children on the stand."
Given the opportunity to speak to the court and Duncan's family one last time,
Hicks remained defiant.
"Had I been on the jury, I would have found myself guilty, because this is so
rigged," he said.
He disdained any half-measures. "Since all y'all think I killed Josh Duncan,
please sentence me to death," he said, adding that he'd rather face true
justice in the afterlife. He even asked Graddick to give him the maximum
sentence on a theft charge related to the case; the judge declined to oblige,
sentencing him to time served.
Speaking to Duncan's grandmother, Dorothy Duncan, Hicks said, "My Bible tells
me to forgive. I forgive. I don't hate y'all."
In her own turn to speak, Duncan also referred to the afterworld. "A quick
death is too good for you. You deserve to live on death row forever," she said.
"I pray my father gives you the justice you deserve when you are very old."
Dorothy Duncan and other family members did not speak to media after the
hearing. But in her own remarks to the court, she said that she planned to push
for a law that would require people with violent crimes on their record to
notify neighbors, as sex offenders are required to do.
"My Joshua deserves his rights, that he didn't get," she said. "I plan to make
a 'Justice for Joshua' law. I'm working on it."
Wright said she anticipated that appeals in the case would last "for years to
come."
(source: al.com)
LOUISIANA:
Moreese Bickham, Freed Death Row Prisoner, Dies at 98
And former death row prisoner Moreese Bickham has died at the age of 98. In
1958, Bickham, an African American, was sentenced to death for shooting and
killing 2 police officers in Mandeville, Louisiana, even though Bickham said
the officers were Klansmen who had come to kill him and shot him on the front
porch of his own home. Multiple other people in the community also said the
officers worked with the Ku Klux Klan, which was a common practice in small
Southern towns. Bickman served 37 years at Angola State Penitentiary, in
solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. He won 7 stays of execution, but
Louisiana's governors repeatedly denied him clemency until, under enormous
pressure, he was finally released in 1996. This is Moreese Bickham speaking on
WBAI's "Wake Up Call," when co-host Bernard White and I interviewed him in
1996.
Moreese Bickham: "I know how it feels now to be free. When I was flying over
the West Coast going to Oakland, I looked down, and I seen all them little
lights, looked like stars up in heaven. I said I've always been looking up and
see the stars. I know heaven is up that way. But, Lord, these look like stars
down there. Is that heaven down there? Some say it can be."
That was Moreese Bickham speaking only days after he was freed. It was Martin
Luther King Day when we spoke to him on WBAI. He died Sunday night in
California.
(source: democracynow.org)
OHIO:
Trial launches for suspected Ohio serial killer
The discovery in 2013 of three women's bodies wrapped in garbage bags raised
fears and drew national attention to the possibility that anotherserial killer
like Anthony Sowellhad been killing women in and around Cleveland.
East Cleveland resident Michael Madison was arrested within days of the
discovery, and after an exhaustive search around the neighborhood where he
lived, no other bodies were found. The national media spotlight largely faded.
More than 2 1/2 years after Madison was indicted on multiple charges of
aggravated murder, kidnapping and rape, jury selection for his trial is set to
begin Monday in a Cleveland courtroom. He faces the death penalty if convicted.
Jury selection is expected to stretch into next week, and prosecutors have
lined up at least 50 witnesses that could take an additional 3 weeks to
question. Madison's attorneys aren't commenting on what evidence or witnesses
they plan to present, but attorney David Grant said last week that if Madison
is convicted, the defense team will work to save his life during the mitigation
phase of the trial.
In Ohio, a jury can recommend the death penalty, but the ultimate decision is
left to the judge.
"We're prepared to do whatever we have to do," Grant said.
The case involving Madison, 38, began with a cable television worker reporting
to police in July 2013 a putrid smell coming from a garage shared by Madison at
the apartment building where he lived. Once inside, police found the decaying
body of a woman wrapped in garbage bags that were sealed closed with tape. The
next day, searchers found bodies in the basement of a vacant house and in the
backyard of a home close to where Madison lived.
Madison was arrested at his mother's home in Cleveland after a 2-hour standoff.
Cuyahoga County prosecutors have said Madison confessed to killing 1 of the
women and disposing her body and to disposing the body of a 2nd woman. He told
investigators he couldn't remember killing the other 2 women, blaming his
faulty memory on drugs and beer.
Coincidentally, attorneys on Tuesday will present oral arguments to the Ohio
Supreme Court on why Sowell shouldn't be put to death. The bodies of 11 women
were found in and around his Cleveland home in 2009. He was convicted 2 years
later.
The mayor of East Cleveland speculated that Madison might have been inspired by
Sowell's crimes. Madison's trial judge agreed to a defense motion that forbids
prosecutors from invoking Sowell's name during the trial because it would be
prejudicial.
"It's not a comparable situation," Grant said.
Yet similarities exist.
Issues of abuse in their childhood homes have been raised. There was graphic
testimony during the sentencing phase of Sowell's trial about the horrific
abuse he witnessed in the East Cleveland home where he grew up. In court
documents, a psychologist hired by the defense concluded that Madison likely
suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms because of the "extreme
trauma and abuse" he experienced as a child.
Madison's attorneys included in an appellate court filing items from a report
by the Cuyahoga Department of Children and Family Services that said Madison
was abused by his mother and stepfather as a child in the early 1980s.
Caseworkers concluded that it was not safe for Madison to return home, and he
was sent to live with his grandmother.
Both Madison and Sowell served time in prison for sex offenses. Madison served
4 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape in 2002. Sowell
served 15 years after pleading guilty to attempted rape in 1990. Madison's
charges include 1 count of rape for what prosecutors said was the sexual
assault of one of his victims. A jury convicted Sowell of 4 counts of rape
during his aggravated murder trial.
The Cuyahoga County medical examiner determined that two of the three slain
women - Shirellda Terry, 18, and Angela Deskins, 38 - were strangled. Shetisha
Sheeley, 28, died of "homicidal violence by unspecified means," the medical
examiner ruled.
Authorities believe all of Sowell's victims were strangled.
A woman who described herself as the ex-girlfriend of Michael Madison told CBS
affiliate WOIOin 2013 that Madison had a fixation with Sowell.
The woman, who asked to remain unidentified, told the station that Madison
would frequently watch YouTube videos about the Sowell case and cry. She says
he expressed sympathy for Sowell and disdain for his female victims.
(soruce: CBS news)
USA:
Feds seek anonymous jury, more security in death penalty trial
Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to shield the identities of prospective
jurors and to order increased security for them in the upcoming death penalty
trial of an alleged Newark gang member.
Prosecutors Friday made their request to U.S. District Judge Esther Salas,
arguing that such measures would protect potential jurors while respecting the
rights of Farad Roland, only the second person to face the death penalty under
the federal court system in New Jersey.
Roland, alleged to be a co-founder of the South Side Cartel, an arm of the
Bloods street gang, faces the death penalty for violations of the Racketeer
Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act, including conspiring in murders,
robberies, carjackings and drug deals.
At least one of those alleged murders involved another gang member who Roland
feared would "snitch" on him, prosecutors say in their motion. Prosecutors
allege Roland, 31, executed 19-year-old Fuquan Billings so that he would not
report Roland's involvement in other alleged crimes to authorities, the motion
says.
"Such conduct aimed at interfering with the judicial process warrants an
anonymous jury," the motion says.
Family members or associates also could disrupt the trial process, it says,
even with Roland imprisoned.
"Any argument that he himself cannot facilitate jury tampering should be
rejected and ignores the reality of prior gang cases in this district where
such interference happened despite the defendant being incarcerated," it said.
Michael K. Bachrach, one of Roland's lawyers, said Roland's defense team will
file its response opposing the government's motion later this month.
In its motion, the government asks that Salas protect the names, addresses and
places of work of prospective jurors in the trial, scheduled to begin Dec. 5.
Their identities would not only be shielded from the parties, but also their
attorneys and the public, it says.
Jonathan Sander faces three murder charges in the deaths of Sandy Mazzella, 47,
his wife, Stephenie Ann, 43, and Elaine Toby Mazzella, 76, who was Sandy's
mother.
It also asks Salas to order that the jury be sequestered during lunch and
recesses, and that they meet at an undisclosed location daily to be transported
anonymously to the federal courthouse.
The filing also says that media attention in the case may raise apprehension
among potential jurors, another reason, it argued, for an anonymous jury.
Not knowing the identities of the jurors will not interfere with the defense
team's ability to select and reject potential jurors, the filing says - a claim
supported by George Thomas, a professor of law at Rutgers School of Law-Newark.
"The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to an impartial jury but as jury
deliberations are secret, I don't see how anonymity in any way undermines
objectivity," he said.
The government's motion is not the only item before the court regarding the
jury in Roland's case.
Later Monday, lawyers for both sides will appear before Salas on a number of
issues, including Roland's request for a jury pool consisting only of Essex
County residents. The defense also will be seeking to bar the use of the death
penalty, claiming it is unconstitutional.
New Jersey abolished the death penalty in 2007. However, capital punishment was
reinstated in the federal system in 1988.
(source: nj.com)
_______________________________________________
A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
