May 3
TEXAS:
District Attorney to Seek Death Penalty for 3 in San Angelo Capital Murder Case
On Aug. 31, 2015, at approximately 4:05 a.m., 4 suspects forced entry into
69-year-old William Valdez's home, demanding money before they shot him. The
gunshot caused severe injury to Valdez, and resulted in the loss of a kidney,
spinal chord injury and a perforated colon. Valdez succumbed to his injuries on
Sept. 16.
The 4 suspects involved in the case, Elisa Victoria Losoya, 29, Eric Martinez,
26, Fernando Lavaris, 29, and Jonathan Marin, 27, all from San Angelo, were
arrested for the crime and indicted on Nov. 23, 2015 for Capital Murder by
Terror Threat.
Last month, on April 5, 2016, 51st District Attorney Allison Palmer submitted
the State of Texas' Notice of Intent to Seek the Death Penalty should Losoya,
Lavaris and Marin be found guilty. On Nov. 23, 2015, Palmer submitted the
State's intent to waive the death penalty on Martinez.
According to court documents, during the early morning hours of Aug. 31,
William's son, G. Valdez, heard his dog barking and someone banging on his
sliding glass door. G. Valdez went outside to the front yard and observed
Losoya in the driveway. Losoya approached G. Valdez and told him they needed to
talk.
"[G. Valdez] was fearful and retreated back inside the house to call police,"
said the complaint. "[He] locked the front door. [He] heard [the] sliding glass
door being broken into as he entered his bedroom."
At that point, G. Valdez closed his bedroom door and heard the front door being
kicked open. He heard a male voice ask, "Where's the money?" The man also
warned, "Do not call the police."
That's when G. Valdez heard gunshots in his father's bedroom. Because he was
fearful of being shot, G. Valdez waited before exiting his bedroom.
"[G. Valdez] observed the back door open and believed [Losoya] and an unknown
male had fled through [it]," read the complaint.
G. Valdez found his father on the floor by his bed, and stayed with him until
SAPD officers arrived. The complaint notes that William Valdez had been shot
under his left arm, approximately 4-6 inches from his armpit. When officers
arrived, they assisted William with his gunshot injury and transported him to
Shannon Hospital for emergency surgery.
Later, G. Valdez was presented with a composed photo lineup and positively
identified Losoya, who "frequents his game room (Silver Sweeps) businesses."
G. Valdez believes, based on the unknown male's statement referencing money,
that a robbery attempt had taken place.
In addition to William's injuries, Detective Jason Chegwidden and SAPD Crime
Scene personnel recovered a bullet and bullet fragments from the scene.
Additionally, 2 9mm casings were recovered.
Losoya, Lavaris and Marin will be the 1st capital murder suspects to face the
death penalty in Tom Green County in almost 17 years.
The last individual to face the death penalty in Tom Green County was Luis
Ramirez, who was sentenced to death by a jury on May 14, 1999 for the murder of
San Angelo Firefighter Nemecio Nandin. He was executed Oct. 20, 2005.
At the time, in regards to the death penalty, Palmer said, "We have to do what
we believe is the right thing; we do what we believe justice dictates, and we
try to stay with what we believe our community standards have been."
Recently, Palmer stated she will not confer with San Angelo LIVE! on any of her
cases; however, she acknowledged the rise in capital murders since 2013
previously, and said execution will always remain an option in capital murder
cases unless repealed by the Texas Legislature.
(source: sanangelolive.com)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Prosecution cites DNA evidence as trial begins in killing of Wolfe
sisters----Prosecution relying on DNA evidence to link Allen Wade Jr. to the
crime scene. Defense says case is sloppy and contaminated.
Matthew Buchholz and Sarah Wolfe had been together about 8 months after meeting
in May 2013 on an online dating site.
So, on Feb. 7, 2014, when Sarah, 38, didn't show up for work at Western
Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, her colleague sent Mr. Buchholz a message
asking if he could check on her. He immediately drove to her home on Chislett
Street to see if she was there. As he was knocking on the door, a Pittsburgh
police officer arrived to check on Susan Wolfe, Sarah's sister, because she had
not shown up at work as a teacher's aide at the Hillel Academy in Squirrel Hill
that day.
"It was not like either one of them not to show up," he said.
After Mr. Buchholz drove to his nearby home to get a spare key, he and the
officer went inside. First, Mr. Buchholz glanced in the living room and saw
nothing. Then, he noticed that the basement door was ajar. He stuck his head
down the steps.
"I just saw a pair of bare legs in the basement," he testified Monday. "I
immediately pulled back and shouted for the officer."
As he turned to run out of the home and collapse on the front porch, he
continued, Mr. Buchholz noticed the table in the entryway was broken, and there
was blood on the walls. He alternated, he said, between numbness and sobbing.
"All I ever saw was a pair of legs."
Mr. Buchholz was the 1st of 5 witnesses called by the prosecution on Monday in
the opening day of trial for Allen Wade. The 45-year-old is charged with 2
counts of criminal homicide, burglary, robbery, theft and related charges.
The trial before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski is
expected to last about 3 weeks. The prosecution is seeking the death penalty.
During the afternoon, Kenneth Clark, the forensic pathologist who conducted the
Wolfe sisters' autopsies, testified, telling the jury that both victims died of
a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. Susan Wolfe, 44, who was found
naked and prone in front of the washer and dryer, also sustained seven blunt
trauma strikes to the back of her head.
Sarah Wolfe, who was found clothed and with a comforter covering her face, had
some injuries to her extremities but not the severe wounds to her head.
During opening statements on Monday morning, assistant district attorney
William Petulla outlined the prosecution's case.
"The commonwealth is going to prove its case through the blunders and mistakes
of Allen Wade - through time, math and science," the prosecutor said. "All
roads lead back to Allen Wade."
Police believe that Susan was killed first, and that Sarah was killed when she
returned home later.
Mr. Petulla described in brutal detail the savage beating endured by Susan
Wolfe, telling the jury that the steps and walls of the home's unfinished,
"dungeon-like" basement were smeared in blood, like a "sinister and sadistic
and vulgar tapestry."
But, he continued, "As vulnerable as Susan Jeanette Wolfe was, she didn't go
down without a fight. Whether through a clutch, a scratch, a grab, she reached
out to her attacker that night, and she got DNA from him under her nails."
It was the DNA of Wade, their next-door neighbor, which had not been masked by
bleach and detergent poured on the scene.
"If this was the 1st mistake Allen Wade made, it was far from the last."
Mr. Petulla showed the jury a map of the neighborhood, showing where, he said,
he believes Wade drove Sarah Wolfe's car near the Carnegie Library's East
Liberty branch and parked at 12:32 a.m., and then a few minutes later, when he
walked past the security cameras of an apartment complex on Highland Avenue,
before walking to a Citizens Bank branch where he used Sarah Wolfe's ATM card
to take out $600. The prosecutor showed the jurors where police believe Wade
removed his sweatpants and left them near a Midas muffler shop and later when
they said that same man went to a Sunoco station to buy cigarettes and threw
away a pen with the words "Iowa Prison Industries."
The sisters grew up in Clinton, Iowa.
Later, when police found the sweatpants, Mr. Petulla said, there was a business
card with them with the name of a UPMC social worker on it. Susan Wolfe was one
of his clients, the prosecutor continued. A knit cap was found nearby, as well.
And near there, a pair of socks.
"Each one of these items has Allen Wade's DNA on them," the prosecutor said,
noting that the socks also had trace amounts of Susan Wolfe's DNA on them.
But defense attorney Lisa Middleman, in her opening, told the jury that the
computer program linking her client???s DNA to the crime, TrueAllele, should
not be trusted.
The Allegheny County crime lab purchased the program from Mark Perlin's Oakland
company, Cybergenetics, years ago, Ms. Middleman said, but still does not use
it.
"This man will not tell anyone, precisely, how this program works," she said.
Dr. Perlin will not release its source code.
"The Allegheny County crime lab won't use it. They won't use it, but you're
supposed to?" she asked. "In a murder case? If he can't explain to you in a
clear, concise manner, what the results are, and how he arrived at them, you
should reject them."
Ms. Middleman said she'd show "the horrible folly of developing a theory and
trying to force your evidence to fit that theory."
Prosecutors were so determined to make its evidence fit Wade, she continued,
that they ignored things.
"You will hear, generally, about a lack of integrity in the prosecution's
case," Ms. Middleman said. "You will hear a story of sloppy investigation and
contamination - both at the scene and at the crime lab."
The defense attorney discounted the prosecution's video evidence, saying that
the suspect at the ATM was unidentifiable because he was covered from head to
toe in clothing, and that in another video, the suspect appears to be white.
She believed there was pressure on detectives because the victims were white,
employed women from an influential family.
"They needed an arrest, and they got one," she said.
Ms. Middleman told the jury that her client has an alibi - that he was home
that night, sitting on the couch, with his sleeping girlfriend's head in his
lap. It was also not a robbery, she said, as jewelry, electronics and
prescription drugs were left behind.
"It was personal."
(source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Winston-Salem man charged with killing 2-year-old now faces death penalty
A Forsyth County judge approved a request to seek the death penalty against a
Winston-Salem man accused of killing a 2-year-old boy.
Daryl Jerome Reed, 26, is charged with 1st-degree murder in the death of Corey
Joseph Plater on Aug. 12, 2014.
On Monday, a Rule 24 hearing, in which prosecutors formally ask for the death
penalty, was held. Judge Stuart Albright of Forsyth Superior Court granted the
prosecutor's request.
Assistant District Attorney Belinda Foster said in court that one of the
aggravating factors in pursuing the death penalty was that Reed had previously
been convicted of abuse. Foster said Reed also was convicted in 2007 of armed
robbery. According to the N.C. Department of Public Safety, Reed served 5 years
and 7 months in prison.
Reed rejected a plea deal on March 2 that would have taken the death penalty
off the table. Under the plea arrangement, Reed would have pleaded guilty to
1st-degree murder in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without the
possibility of parole. He said in court that taking the plea would not be in
his best interest.
He also told Albright that he wanted to fire Julie Boyer, who was his attorney
at the time. Albright denied that request but Boyer withdrew from the case
after she received information about a conflict she had in the case. She
consulted with the N.C. State Bar, which said she had to withdraw and that she
could not disclose what the conflict was to anyone, including Reed.
Marie Hutto, a Winston-Salem lawyer, has been assigned to represent Reed and
was at Monday's hearing. Because Reed is now facing the death penalty, he will
be assigned a 2nd attorney, who will be appointed by the Capital Defender's
Office.
Winston-Salem police went to a house in the 2800 block of Piedmont Circle about
5:50 p.m. on Aug. 12, 2014. They found Corey in the bathroom, according to the
autopsy report. Corey died from a laceration of the liver caused by blunt force
trauma to his abdomen, meaning the 2-year-old boy was punched or hit in the
stomach, according to the medical examiner's findings. Corey also had bruises
on the left side of his face near his mouth and contusions on his upper right
chest and on his forehead.
The autopsy report said police believed Corey had been struck, possibly with a
belt.
Police said Reed and another adult had been taking care of Corey and that Reed
had been dating one of Corey's relatives. Police have not released the names of
either the other adult or the relative Reed had been dating.
No trial date has been set. Reed is in the Forsyth County Jail with no bond
allowed.
(source: Winston-Salem Journal)
FLORIDA:
3 former Florida Supreme Court chief justices urge court to overturn hundreds
of death sentences
3 former chief justices of the Florida Supreme Court and a group of legal
scholars and death penalty opponents want the state's highest court to overturn
hundreds of death sentences in Florida.
Former chief justices Harry Lee Anstead, Rosemary Barkett and Gerald Kogan
issued a friend-of-the-court brief in the pending case of Timothy Lee Hurst, a
death row inmate from Pensacola whose precedent-setting case resulted in the
U.S. Supreme Court declaring Florida's death row sentencing system
unconstitutional because it gave too little power to the jury in death cases.
The 7 justices will hear oral arguments Thursday on Hurst's petition to have
his death sentence reduced to life without parole for 1st-degree murder.
The 3 former chief justices write that "a straightforward application" of
Florida's death penalty law should now be interpreted to mean that "persons
previously sentenced to death for a capital felony prior to the decision in
Hurst v. Florida are entitled to have their death sentences replaced by
sentences replaced by sentences of life without parole." If the court agrees
with that argument, all 390 inmates currently awaiting death for capital crimes
would spend the rest of their lives in state prison.
Anstead, Barkett and Kogan were all appointed by Democratic governors. In their
brief, the justices were joined by Sandy D'Alemberte, a former American Bar
Association president, FSU president and state legislator; Martha Barnett, a
retired senior partner of the Holland & Knight law firm; Henry (Hank) Coxe, a
Jacksonville criminal defense lawyer and former president of the Florida Bar;
the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; Florida Capital Resource
Center; and Florida Center for Capital Representation at the FIU College of Law
in Miami.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, on behalf of Florida's 20 million residents, has
taken the position that executions in Florida should continue.
(source: tampabay.com)
ALABAMA:
Innocence Commission proposal likely to die in Alabama House
A bill to create an Innocence Commission to review Alabama death penalty cases
is on its last legs in the state Legislature, which ends its session this week.
If the bill fizzles, so does much of the chance for a retrial for Billy
Kuenzel, the Goodwater man who still claims innocence in the 1987 murder that
sent him to death row.
"I'm extremely disappointed," said Sen. Dick Brewbaker, R-Montgomery, the
bill's sponsor. "I think the House chose to sit on this bill until it was
killed by committee inaction."
Brewbaker's bill would have created a 9-member commission to review the
convictions of death row inmates who make a claim of innocence and who can
bring evidence that has never been heard in a court before.
From the outset, the bill seemed tailor-made to 1 inmate: Kuenzel, who was
convicted in 1988 of the murder of Sylacauga convenience store clerk Linda Jean
Offord.
Kuenzel was convicted on the testimony of a co-defendant, Harvey Venn, who told
investigators he waited in a car while Kuenzel entered the store and shot
Offord. The only other witness to place Kuenzel at the scene was a teen who
said she spotted Kuenzel at the store while riding by in a passing car. Police
found blood on Venn's pants, but there was no physical evidence tying Kuenzel
to the crime.
Kuenzel's lawyers in 2010 found grand jury testimony in which the passer-by
witness said she wasn't sure who she saw at the store. Arguing that state law
prohibits a murder conviction based solely on a co-defendant's testimony,
Kuenzel's lawyers have tried to seek a retrial, but courts so far have rejected
the case, largely because the inmate's earlier legal team missed a filing
deadline.
Days after the Alabama Supreme Court rejected Kuenzel's most recent appeal,
Brewbaker acknowledged on the Senate floor that his bill was inspired by
Kuenzel's case, and would allow him and perhaps one other inmate to have their
cases reviewed. The Senate passed his bill 20-6.
A month later, with the legislative session set to end as early as Wednesday,
the House Judiciary Committee has yet to act on the bill. The committee held an
impromptu meeting Thursday night, but voted to carry the bill over to a future
meeting. No such meeting has been scheduled so far.
Attempts to reach Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Jones, R-Andalusia,
since Friday were unsuccessful. A committee member, Rep. Chris England,
D-Tuscaloosa, says Brewbaker himself called for the bill to be put on hold
Thursday.
"It was carried over at the request of the sponsor," England said. "I don't
know why; you'll have to ask him."
Brewbaker said he did stop pushing for the bill on Thursday, but only because
the long delay in the House committee made it clear there was little chance of
passage.
"With everything that is going to be happening on the House floor in the next
couple of days, I didn't see how this bill would make it," Brewbaker said. "I
didn't want to get anyone's hopes up."
England said he supports the basic idea of the bill.
"I think it's at least a good concept," he said. "It may need some work, but we
should do as much as we can to make sure people who are convicted are in fact
guilty."
He described the bill as "dead" after Thursday's meeting.
A House staffer said the Judiciary Committee could meet with as little as 4
hours' notice and still send bills to the full House on Tuesday. The bill would
still have to pass other hurdles, including a vote in the powerful Rules
Committee, before it reaches the House floor.
Kuenzel's lawyers have repeatedly declined comment on the bill.
The Legislature reconvenes at 1 p.m. Tuesday. (source: Anniston Star)
LOUISIANA:
Louisiana conservatives rethinking the death penalty ---- Some death penalty
advocates are rethinking their position as Louisiana grapples with a huge
deficit
In 1999, 6 men attempted a notorious escape from the Louisiana State
Penitentiary at Angola. In the mayhem, a guard was beaten to death with a
hammer.
One of the inmates was killed, and the others, who became known as "the Angola
5," already were serving life sentences for other crimes. Prosecutors sought
the death penalty, and 5 capital murder trials ensued. 17 years later, none has
been executed. 3 either have pleaded guilty and received life sentences or
gotten juries that refused the death penalty.
Estimates show that last year more than $14 million was spent on just one of
those death penalty cases. Since then, a court ruling has reduced the number of
death sentences in that case to 2 - but because both defendants are still
exhausting appeals, the cost of trying to execute the 2 continues to climb.
Recent estimates also show that Louisiana spends about $10 million a year on
indigent capital defense - a number that doesn't cover the total cost of the
death penalty. That cost also includes housing inmates on death row, jury costs
and prosecutorial fees.
"Now, as Gov. John Bel Edwards attempts to close a nearly $600 million state
budget shortfall - a deficit that will result in cuts across numerous state
agencies - the price of the death penalty has lawmakers and taxpayers alike
questioning its value in Louisiana.
Among those shaking heads is state Rep. Steve Pylant, a conservative Republican
and the retired sheriff of Franklin Parish. Pylant long had supported the death
penalty as a moral issue, but in April he said he's shifting his viewpoint
given the fiscal burden the policy puts on the state.
"I think we've gotten to a place in a society that we live in that we have
regressed," Pylant said during a House committee meeting. "Maybe it's time we
rethink the situation and look at the death penalty. It may have come to that
point."
Many in Louisiana still publicly support the death penalty, at least in
concept, and experts who oppose it say it's unlikely the state will abolish the
practice any time soon.
But longtime conservatives who conclude it's too expensive in today's climate
aren't a political novelty. According to Death Penalty Information Center
Executive Director Robert Dunham, it's a trend.
"If money grows on trees, what it costs to finance the death penalty doesn't
matter," Dunham said. "But when Louisiana, for example, faces an extreme budget
crisis and cannot fund basic services, the question becomes, 'What is more
important for the public good: health care and education, or death sentences?'"
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a project of the reform group
Equal Justice USA founded in 2013, backs up Durnham. The group supports the
death penalty's growing opposition among conservative - and "very conservative"
- Americans who believe in fiscal responsibility and are pro-life, yet see
those qualities as incompatible with capital punishment.
"People have been against the death penalty for years, but didn't have an
outlet," Marc Hyden, national coordinator of Conservatives Concerned About the
Death Penalty, told Red Alert Politics, an online publication for young
conservatives, in March.
Like other pro-death penalty states, Louisiana has faced scrutiny recently for
its death penalty practices.
In March, Michael Wearry became the 58th death row inmate in the state since
2000 to have his conviction overturned. His case is one of 129 reversals
(versus 28 executions) since 1977. Former inmate Glenn Ford was exonerated in
2014, after spending 30 years on death row. After his release, the prosecutor
in the case issued a public apology, calling the trial "fundamentally unfair"
because of an inexperienced defense and key evidence being withheld.
But when considering abolition of the death penalty, what resonates most with
legislators across party lines isn't the risk of wrongful conviction, the
question of prosecutorial conduct or argument over cruel and unusual punishment
- it's money.
"We hear about innocence and DNA and all that, but the point at which you to
begin to see an emerging drop in support of the death penalty among
conservatives was after the recession," Dunham said. "When you don't have money
to pay for basic functions and you're watching government collapse, you have to
ask questions you would of any other policy: Is it cost-effective?"
No comprehensive study has been completed that determines exactly how much the
death penalty costs Louisiana taxpayers. In 2014, the Legislature tasked the
Fiscal Impact Commission to study costs associated with capital defense,
prosecution and time on death row. It was slated to be finished this year, but
now isn't due until January 2018.
The issue has been researched in other states, however, and the results are
stark. In Nevada, the public spends an average of $500,000 more on death
penalty cases than it does on similar cases that call for lesser sentences,
such as life without possibility of parole, according to a 2014 state audit. In
Washington, a Seattle University study last year found that each death penalty
case cost an average of $1 million more than non-capital cases. A study
released in California in January found that the state spends roughly $307.7
million per execution. The number was based solely on incarceration costs and
doesn't take into account the additional costs of the appeals process, capital
trials or legal representation for inmates facing the death penalty.
Given the fiscal burden of the death penalty, legislators now are considering
bills to ensure new capital cases don't drive Louisiana further into debt.
The Louisiana House of Representatives has passed House Bill 1137 by Rep.
Sherman Mack, R-Albany, which would require the Louisiana Public Defender Board
to spend more of its budget on local public defender districts. Mack chairs the
House Criminal Justice Committee.
The bill, which was headed to a Senate judiciary committee in April, calls for
65 % of the state public defender board's $33 million in direct state funding
to go to local districts - a significant increase over the 50 % that goes there
now.
During an April hearing, local public defenders were divided on the proposed
law. Some felt it would secure much-needed funds to critically strapped
offices, while others said it wouldn't solve the bigger problem: that indigent
defense as a whole needs more money to work effectively.
Last week, a group of Louisiana district attorneys accused the statewide public
defender board of spending too much on private law firms that handle capital
cases and not enough on local public defender boards, which are struggling
financially. The Louisiana District Attorneys Association even alleged fiscal
mismanagement.
State Public Defender Jay Dixon disputed those claims. He told The Advocate the
private law firms are all nonprofits, and when local funds for public defender
offices are added in, only about one-sixth of the $66 million total spent
statewide on public defenders goes toward capital cases.
Supporters and opponents of the bill agree on one thing: The additional money
for local boards likely would come at the expense of statewide indigent capital
defense. With the state facing public defender budget crises, the board would
have nowhere else to draw money.
Currently about 28 % of the state public defender board's budget, or $9.5
million, is spent providing death penalty defense. It pays for mostly private
lawyers in nonprofit agencies to litigate about 40 capital cases.
By comparison, about $15 million of the public defender board's $33 million
budget goes to the local districts.
2 other bills filed in April - HB 1090, authored by state Rep. Cedric Glover,
D-Shreveport, and Senate Bill 450, authored by state Sen. Wesley Bishop, D-New
Orleans - would establish a Capital Cost Commission to determine if funds are
available before allowing capital prosecutions to proceed.
As of late April, the bills remained in committee. Opponents questioned whether
they would be too arbitrary, but supporters called the commission a best-case
scenario for limiting death penalty sentences.
Meanwhile, as lawmakers in Louisiana grapple with how to control death penalty
costs, a local criminal justice nonprofit has unveiled a new study showing the
majority of taxpayers in Louisiana no longer want to put their dollars behind
capital punishment.
According to a survey commissioned by the Promise of Justice Initiative, which
seeks to reform Louisiana's criminal justice system, 52 percent of taxpayers
throughout the state want to eliminate the death penalty.
The statewide poll of 600 Louisiana voters shows that respondents, by a 2-1
margin, prefer life sentences to the death penalty as a punishment for
1st-degree murder (the only crime in Louisiana punishable by a death sentence).
The declining support for capital punishment corresponds with a decline in
death sentences in Louisiana over the last 2 decades. During the 1980s and
1990s, Louisiana was sentencing approximately 80 people to death per decade.
Since then there's been a nearly 75 % decrease in new death sentences in the
state. Louisiana has sentenced 54 people to death since 2000, and only 1 person
was sentenced to death last year, according to Beth Compa, a staff attorney for
the Promise of Justice Initiative.
"People are coming away from the mid-'90s thought where 'tough on crime' was
best policy," Compa said. "With the number of wrongful executions and wrongful
convictions, it's so basic that people don't have to get into the weeds of
policy to understand it."
Local death penalty lawyers agree, including local attorney Nick Trenticosta.
Trenticosta, who has worked to abolish the death penalty since 1980, points to
his research: data compiled on every death sentence, exoneration and reversal
since 1977. It shows an 82 % reversal rate of death sentences handed down in
Louisiana in the past 40 years. That research was reinforced last month in a
new study released in the Journal of Race, Gender and Poverty, which also
showed Louisiana had double the number of exonerations than the national rate.
Statistically speaking, that means more than 60 % of inmates currently on death
row are likely to have their cases overturned - after the state spends millions
fighting their appeals.
"Are we getting our bang for our buck?" Trenticosta asked. "I'm still waiting
for someone to explain to me the cost-benefit analysis."
Louisiana long has been a pro-death penalty state, and high-profile politicians
have echoed that preference. During his tenure as governor, Bobby Jindal was an
outspoken supporter of applying the death penalty for cases of rape as well as
first-degree murder. "Child rape is in some ways worse than homicide," Jindal
has said.
Last year, then-Caddo Parish District Attorney Dale Cox gained notoriety for
saying Louisiana "should kill more people."
Hugo Holland, one of the prosecutors involved in the Angola 5 case, is another
outspoken supporter of capital punishment. In April, Holland told legislators
that attempts to fund capital defense is the work of "anti-capital punishment
zealots" on the Louisiana Public Defender Board, who are "trying to price it
out of existence" in the court system.
Holland spoke during a hearing on Mack's HB 1137, which the House subsequently
passed, saying the potential siphoning of funds from capital defense was one
reason he supported the bill, citing "the amount of time wasted in capital
cases because of the current system, the amount of money that's thrown at it."
Most Americans still support the death penalty for serious crimes. Last year,
61 % of Americans in a Gallup poll said they favor the death penalty; that
number represents a decline over previous decades. In 1994, 80 % supported the
death penalty. The Pew Research Center says support for the death penalty is at
its lowest since the early 1970s.
In Louisiana's current legislative session, at least some leading conservatives
are seriously reconsidering their support for the death penalty. In an April
interview with Gambit, House Criminal Justice Committee Chairman Mack said he,
too, might be changing his mind.
"Sometimes, you don't realize something until it hits you in the face," Mack
said. "While I can't say I've changed my position, I can tell you I'm thinking
about it. And that's what debate is about ... it allows you to consider
opinions of people around you that you normally might not have.
"As times change, opinions evolve."
(source: myneworleans.com)
UTAH:
Inmate admits murdering cellmate, now faces possible death sentence
An inmate pleaded guilty Monday to murdering another inmate at the Central Utah
Correctional Facility and now faces a possible death sentence.
No plea deal was offered to Steven Crutcher, 35, who pleaded guilty as charged
to aggravated murder, a capital offense.
A 12-member jury will be seated in January to determine whether Crutcher should
be sentenced to die or remain in prison without the possibility of parole.
On April 20, 2013, Rolando Cardona-Gueton, 62, was found dead in his prison
cell in Gunnison. After several months of investigation, Crutcher was charged
in Manti's 6th District Court. In July of 2014, prosecutors filed notice of
their intent to seek the death penalty.
Cardona-Gueton, a native Cuban, was in prison on a conviction of drug
possession.
Race is believed to be a motivating factor in the murder.
At the time of the killing, Crutcher was serving a sentence of 10 years to life
in prison for kidnapping an Iron County Jail officer in July of 2009 after
finishing a jail visit.
(source: KSL news)
IDAHO:
Lake Lowell sex rendezvous suspects could face death penalty
The 4 men who police say severely beat a man who later died of cardiac arrest
could face the death penalty.
On Monday, 3 Nampa residents, Kelly Schneider, 22, Kevin Tracy, 21, Jayson
Woods, 28, and Daniel Henkel, 23 of Caldwell were all arraigned in Canyon
County court.
The crime occurred just a few days ago, but deputies say they were able to make
arrests quickly because the victim lived long enough to tell law enforcement
what happened.
According to the Canyon County Sheriff, 49-year-old Steven Nelson was
responding to an internet add for sex which had been posted by 1 of the
defendants. Sheriff Donahue said Nelson then got in a car and was taken to
Gotts Point where the other defendants were waiting.
Court documents say Nelson was kicked repeatedly by someone wearing steel toed
boots, before being left stranded, beaten, and naked.
Between the 4 men who were arrested, there are a dozen charges and all of them
could face the death penalty. All of them are being held without bond and have
preliminary hearings scheduled for May 13.
(source: KBOI news)
CALIFORNIA:
Prosecutor: Evidence speaks for 10 'Grim Sleeper' victims
The victims were all young black women, some were prostitutes and most had been
using cocaine before their bodies were discovered in alleys in a rough part of
Los Angeles, hidden in trash bins or covered by mattresses or debris.
For decades, the serial killer dubbed the "Grim Sleeper" eluded police, dumping
at least 10 bodies and leaving one woman for dead after shooting her in the
chest.
After months of testimony, a prosecutor Monday said that the evidence
overwhelmingly points to Lonnie Franklin Jr. and speaks for the vulnerable
victims he silenced as he spent years hiding in plain sight.
"How do we figure out what happened here? How do we know who committed these
crimes?" Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman asked as she closed her case
in Los Angeles Superior Court.
"10 of the victims can't tell you themselves. The defendant took their voices
when he brutally murdered them. ... The evidence in this case is the voice of
the victims."
Franklin, 63, a former garbage collector who also worked as a mechanic for the
Los Angeles Police Department, could face the death penalty if convicted of the
slayings of a 15-year-old girl and nine young women. He has pleaded not guilty
to murder, as well as to attempted murder in the case of the woman who
survived.
Defense attorney Seymour Amster said victims had DNA from more than 1 man on
their bodies, and that more than 20 DNA tests excluded his client. Franklin is
1 of 3 men to face charges in slayings originally attributed to a single killer
called the "Southside Slayer" during the crack cocaine epidemic, when crime
spiked.
The killings Franklin is charged with were later dubbed the work of the "Grim
Sleeper" because while the 1st victim was found in 1985 and the last in 2007,
there was a 14-year gap when no bodies turned up, although prosecutors believe
his violence never ceased.
The most riveting witness was the sole known survivor.
Enietra Washington described being shot in the chest and sexually assaulted in
1988. She noticed her attacker taking a Polaroid picture of her as she slipped
into unconsciousness.
When Franklin was finally arrested 22 years later, the same photograph -
showing the wounded woman slouched over in a car - was one of many pictures
found in his house. When his arrest was announced six years ago, authorities
displayed dozens of photos of black women and appealed for the public's help in
identifying them. This trial has been focused on 11 victims, but police suspect
there were more.
Silverman said Franklin was connected to all 11 victims through ballistics or
DNA evidence. She also pointed out the similarities: Most were shot in the left
side of the chest with a .25 caliber pistol, or strangled.
Their bodies were all found in alleys, where they were dumped in bushes or
dumpsters or hidden under mattresses. Franklin targeted women who were "willing
to sell their bodies and their souls in order to gratify their dependency on
this powerful drug," Silverman said earlier. Family members wept, and some
doubled over to avoid looking as photos of partly naked and decomposing bodies
were shown to the jury on a big screen.
Franklin, wearing black-framed glasses and a blue dress shirt, stared straight
ahead in court, showing no emotion during all-day arguments that continue
Tuesday.
The body of Janecia Peters, the final victim, was found in a fetal position in
a trash bin, her red nails visible through a hole in a garbage bag that was
discovered by someone rifling through the trash. Franklin's DNA was found on a
zip tie securing the bag.
20 years earlier and only a block away, another victim, Bernita Sparks, was
found.
"Is that merely another coincidence?" said Silverman, who described the
agonizing way Peters had been strangled for 2 to 3 minutes after suffering a
paralyzing shot in the back.
Franklin was finally arrested in 2010 after a police officer posed as a pizza
parlor bus boy to collect DNA samples from dishes and utensils he used at a
birthday party.
Amster said in his closing that prosecutors had built a circumstantial case
using inferior science and patterns that were nothing more than illusions. He
said Franklin was obsessed with sex and could have spread his DNA to the
breasts of murder victims because he often gave women bras and other garments.
"His DNA is probably on more women out there than we'll ever know," Amster
said, noting it wasn't a morality case.
Amster compared government work in the case to a rancher who calls himself a
marksman after drawing bullseyes around bullet holes in his barn.
(source: Associated Press)
*******************
U.S. Supreme Court turns down appeal of O.C. killer on death row
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal by an Orange County killer
who has spent more than 2 decades on death row.
The appeal by convicted murderer Richard Boyer argued that keeping someone
incarcerated for so long under the threat of execution is a violation of the
inmate's Constitutional rights.
In dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer noted that a 2008 report by the California
Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice described the state's death
penalty system as "dysfunctional."
The report pointed out that more California death row inmates have committed
suicide than have been executed by the state.
More than 900 people have been sentenced to death since 1978, including 64
people from Orange County. Only 13 have actually been executed, none since
2006.
Boyer was convicted of stabbing and bludgeoning to death an elderly Fullerton
couple during a December 1982 home robbery.
His 1992 trial ended in conviction and his current death row sentence.
(source: Orange County Register)
*********************
Justice Breyer Insists Death Penalty Is Cruel, Even When Supreme Court
Won't----The latest case comes from California, where 743 people wait on death
row.
Justice Stephen Breyer wanted to hear the California case, but the court said
no.
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up the case of a death-row inmate
that might have struck down California's death penalty system.
The court's rejection was just the usual two words: "Petition denied." But in a
separate dissenting opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer felt compelled to go
further, if only to beat the drum he's been beating since last summer: that the
death penalty overall is likely unconstitutional.
He suggested there's probably no better example of this than the dysfunctional
regime run by the Golden State.
"Put simply, California's costly administration of the death penalty likely
embodies three fundamental defects about which I have previously written,"
Breyer noted, pointing to his own 2015 dissent in Glossip v. Gross, the Supreme
Court's last major showdown over the constitutionality of sentencing a person
to die.
Breyer wrote that those 3 defects - "serious unreliability," "arbitrariness in
application" and unconscionably "long delays" in meting out the punishment -
were all evident in the case of Richard Delmer Boyer, the inmate whose appeal
the court turned away on Monday.
Boyer was first sentenced to death 32 years ago for the robbery and murder of
an elderly couple. But that was only the beginning of his court battles, which
by now include a mistrial, a conviction reversed on the grounds that it was
unconstitutional, and multiple appeals. There was even an earlier trip to the
Supreme Court in 2006.
"In all, 22 years elapsed between his 1st trial and our denial of his petition
for certiorari on direct appeal," Breyer wrote, referring to Boyer's 2006
appeal.
In this latest round, Boyer petitioned the Supreme Court to consider whether
this whole painfully slow process leading up to execution - which he called
"psychologically inhumane" - violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition
against cruel and unusual punishment.
Without directly addressing that claim, Breyer recited the facts: that the
system is prohibitively expensive, that more than 10 % of the death sentences
doled out in California are ultimately reversed, that many prisoners on death
row die "of natural causes" long before they are put to death, that there are
more death row suicides than actual executions, and that the small percentage
of those who are actually executed seem to constitute a "random" group.
All of this, the justice said, was reason enough to take Boyer's case.
One detail Breyer left out: California has the most populous death row in the
country with 743 inmates, some of them waiting for decades. And not a single
execution has taken place since 2006. Only 13 men have been put to death in
California since 1978, when the state restored the punishment after a Supreme
Court-driven hiatus.
Maybe California's experiment with capital punishment, on which it has spent
some $4 billion since 1978, should be called off for good.
(source: Huffington Post)
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