May 11
TENNESSEE:
Follis found guilty of 1st-degree murder in death penalty case
An Anderson County man who is facing the death penalty as a possible sentence
was found guilty of 1st-degree murder on Tuesday for killing his uncle in
Claxton more than 4 years ago.
A jury of 8 women and 4 men deliberated for about 1 hour and 40 minutes before
unanimously returning the guilty verdict against Norman Lee Follis Jr., 52, in
Anderson County Circuit and Criminal Court in Clinton. Follis was convicted of
killing his uncle, Samuel "Sammie" J. Adams, 79, sometime between December 5,
2011, and January 24, 2012.
It was the 1st death penalty trial in Anderson County since 1991, officials
said.
Adams' body was found hidden underneath an apartment staircase on Patt Lane in
Claxton on January 24, 2012, after he was reported missing in December 2011.
His decomposing body was buried under at least 10 blankets, and a couch had
been shoved up against the door of the closet where Adams was hidden, according
to testimony.
Defense attorneys did not dispute that Follis killed his uncle, a Korean War
veteran.
"We cannot whitewash that out," attorney Mart Cizek said.
But they argued that Follis was defending first his girlfriend and then himself
after he saw Adams on top of his girlfriend, Tammy Sue Chapman, 47, groping
her. Follis tried to get Adams off Chapman, but Adams attacked Follis, the
defense said. The 2 men fell to the floor, the defense said, where Follis
grabbed a extension cord to defend himself and force Adams off of him.
"I put it around his neck until he let go of me," defense attorney Wesley Stone
said, recalling Follis' explanation for the killing.
But prosecutors called it murder, a premeditated killing that profited Follis
and Chapman. They said Follis misled family, neighbors, and law enforcement
officers about where Adams was that last month - before his body was found in
the Patt Lane apartment closet on January 24, 2012 - and they cited testimony
that Follis sold Adams' car for $1,000 cash on January 16, 2012.
They characterized Follis' explanation for the killing - the defense of a third
party followed by self-defense - as a story that he latched onto and then
elaborated upon during an interview with Anderson County Sheriff's Department
Detective Don Scuglia. They said Adams was an ailing 79-year-old who sometimes
used a walker.
2 hours of taped interviews with Scuglia were "full of lies," said Tony
Craighead, deputy district attorney general in the Seventh Judicial District.
"You heard lie after lie after lie," Assistant DA Emily Abbott told jurors.
"He's making this up as he goes along."
The sentencing hearing for Follis begins at 8 a.m. Wednesday. The jury will
participate in that hearing, and they will weigh aggravating factors submitted
by the prosecution against mitigating factors submitted by the defense. If the
aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors, the jury can choose the
death penalty, Craighead said.
Besides 1st-degree murder, Follis was found guilty on Tuesday of one count of
property theft of more than $1,000. Indictments filed in February 2014 alleged
that Follis and Chapman obtained a 1997 Mercury Marquis owned by Adams, as well
as the keys to his home, without his permission.
An autopsy said Adams died of strangulation. He was bruised on the right side
of his neck, and part of his larynx was fractured on the left side.
During closing arguments on Tuesday morning, Stone said Follis hid his uncle's
body in the closet because he was scared and didn't know what else to do.
Abbott called the couch the most damning piece of evidence. There had been
testimony that the couch was either put in front of the closet door to conceal
Adams or prevent him from getting out. The couch showed cool contemplation and
not rage, Abbott said.
Chapman has also been charged with 1st-degree murder. Like Follis, she is
facing the death penalty, and an August trial has been scheduled for her.
(source: Oak Ridge Today)
************
Jury to decide: Death or life in prison for Anderson man guilty of murder
Jurors took 90 minutes Tuesday afternoon to convict an Anderson County man of
strangling his 79-year-old uncle.
Now, jurors must return early Wednesday morning to decide 52-year-old Norman
Lee Follis Jr.'s fate: whether he spends the rest of his life behind bars, with
or without the possibility of parole, or is sent to death row to await
execution.
"We're very pleased with the jury's hard work on this case and the verdict,"
Anderson County Deputy District Attorney General Tony Craighead said.
The death penalty trial was the 1st in Anderson County since 1991.
Follis was convicted following a 2-day trial in the December 2011 death of
Samuel J. "Sammie" Adams. His implanted pacemaker quit working at 9:43 a.m.
Dec. 12, court records show.
Adams' decomposing body wasn't found until Jan. 24, 2012, stuffed in a closet
of his Claxton area apartment home under a mound of blankets. Follis and
co-defendant Tammy Sue Chapman lived nearby on Patt Lane.
A medical examiner concluded Adams died of strangulation. Follis, in a lengthy
interview with an Anderson County investigator, admitted he used an extension
cord as the murder weapon, but insisted it was during a self-defense scuffle
while coming to his girlfriend's rescue.
Court-appointed defense attorneys Mart Cizek and Wesley Stone didn't present
evidence. In a hearing with jurors absent, Follis testified he had earlier
refused the state's plea bargain offer of life in prison without the
possibility of parole.
The defense case rested mainly on Follis' confession, made on Jan. 24, 2012,
shortly after Detective Donald Scuglia took a statement from Chapman, 47,
Follis' longtime girlfriend.
Follis told the detective he was going by Adams' home, peered in the front door
window, and saw his uncle had pinned Chapman down on a couch and was groping
her.
During an ensuing scuffle, Adams fell on top of him, Follis said. Follis said
he grabbed an extension cord off a heater and "just put it around his throat."
Authorities, after searching for weeks for Adams, finally learned during
Follis' admission that the body had been dragged into a closet and buried under
a stack of 10 blankets.
"Lies came out of his (Follis') mouth like honey," prosecutor Emily Faye Abbott
told jurors in closing statements.
Adams was known to carry a large amount of cash and wasn't hesitant to show it
off, witnesses testified.
Follis was seen driving Adams' 1997 Mercury Marquis shortly after Adams
disappeared and then forged Adams' name on the title when he later sold the car
for $1,000 to a Knoxville man.
"It's a profit he (Follis) made off that murder," Abbott said of the motive.
Abbott called the killing "an act of extreme violence that was perpetrated on a
vulnerable victim."
In the sentencing phase of the trial that begins Wednesday morning, defense
attorneys will present mitigating factors in a bid to convince jurors that
Follis doesn't deserve the death penalty.
The state will offer a list of aggravating factors that prosecutors contend
show Follis deserves the death penalty.
Then, the panel returns to the jury room for its life-or-death decision.
Chapman, meanwhile, is also charged with 1st-degree murder and remains in the
Anderson County jail in lieu of $1 million bond. No trial date has been set.
(source: Knoxville News Sentinel)
*******************
Social Work Grad's Degree to Strengthen Work with Death Row Inmates, Families
For many people, death row inmates represent the worst of society who deserve
the punishment they are getting.
Dana Harrison knows that their stories are often more complex than the crimes
they commit.
For the past twelve years, Harrison has worked with death row inmates, their
families and attorneys as their cases wind through the federal appeals process.
She is a mitigation investigator for the Federal Public Defender Office in the
Eastern District of Arkansas. Harrison will receive a Doctor of Social Work
from UT on Thursday.
Harrison said her research and studies at UT have made her "think more
critically about how to help inmates and family members with issues that affect
them during incarceration and the execution."
She completed her capstone project about the effects of grief on family members
of executed death row inmates.
As a mitigation investigator, Harrison conducts biopsychosocial histories on
death row inmates and their families to find information the courts should
consider when deciding whether a death sentence should be changed to a sentence
of life without parole.
"My background in mental health, as well as my social work skills, training,
and experience, has prepared me to work on these very complex cases and
recognize mitigating factors in my clients' lives - that do not excuse their
crime, but provide an explanation as to how they got on the path of committing
their crime," she said. "It is very rewarding work, and I especially love
working with the inmates??? family members."
Harrison pursued her Doctor of Social Work "because of the long-standing strong
history of research that UT is known for around the country." She chose to
research families of death row inmates because there is very little information
available in that area.
The online program was convenient as it allowed her to work full time and
travel around the country regularly.
"I am probably the only person who's done homework in more than 1/2 of the 50
states in a 3-year period," she quipped.
A native of Marion, Arkansas, Harrison overcame significant physical challenges
to complete her education. At 6 months old, she was diagnosed with
neuroblastoma, a cancerous tumor on her spinal cord, at St. Jude Children's
Research Hospital. After surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment, she
survived the cancer, but the nerves and muscles in her legs were weakened. She
walks with leg braces and forearm crutches. Throughout her childhood, her
parents fostered Harrison's love of school and drove home the importance of
education and independence regardless of her physical limitations.
"I was not treated any different than my 5 siblings, and I was expected to
excel as they did," she said.
Harrison graduated from West Memphis High School. She earned undergraduate and
master's degrees from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock before pursuing
her doctorate at UT.
"I am the 1st person to graduate in my family with an undergraduate degree, a
master's degree, and now a doctorate," she said.
In 2004, after 5 years of working in inpatient psychiatric treatment at a
Little Rock facility, Harrison moved to the Federal Public Defender Office in
the Eastern District of Arkansas. In 2012, the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish
the Death Penalty gave her the Abolitionist of the Year award for her work with
death row inmates and their families. She is the 1st non-attorney and the only
social worker to receive the award.
Harrison said her studies at UT have given her greater insight about cultural
considerations that must be taken into account, as well as evidence-based
treatment, interventions, and programs that can help inmates' families. She has
learned leadership skills that will be useful as she partners with prisons and
courts to advocate for better programs and policies.
Her UT experience also has given her ideas for ways to help colleagues. For
instance, she introduced mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) meditation
at her agency.
"Working with life and death appeals is very stressful for the entire staff, so
as a measure of self-care, MBSR mediation classes were made available with a
certified trainer," she said. "Staff can practice MBSR meditation now while
there are no executions pending, so if execution dates are set later the
practice of MBSR will be familiar and helpful during stressful times."
Harrison said Rebecca Bolen, her UT capstone project chair, was a great
influence on her work.
"I enjoyed my time with Dr. Bolen so much that we are continuing the research
on families of inmates who have been executed, are on death row, or were
condemned to life in prison," she said.
(source: Tennessee Today)
LOUISIANA:
Convicted murderer, Darrell James Robinson, could have death penalty sentence
vacated
There are new developments in a major murder case from 2 decades ago.
News Channel 5 has learned that Darrell James Robinson, the man convicted of
murdering 3 adults and an infant in Poland, Louisiana in 1996, could possibly
have his death penalty sentence vacated.
3 attorneys for Robinson submitted a "motion to vacate" Robinson's conviction
and sentence. That means that if Judge Koch signs off on that motion,
Robinson's death penalty sentence would be overturned and a new trial could be
granted.
Doris Foster, the woman who discovered her cousins billy lambert and Carol
Hooper brutally shot to death, along with Hooper's daughter Maureen and
Maureen's infant son, Nicholas, says she was blindsided by the news that their
convicted killer, Darrell James Robinson, could potentially become a free man.
"No," said Foster. "I haven't talked to any of them."
Robinson was sentenced to death for the 1996 murders and has been in Angola
ever since.
"What else can you say? He's not sorry," she said.
But, new developments could make Robinson a free man.
On Monday at a hearing before Judge Patricia Koch in Rapides Parish, his
attorneys filed a motion to vacate his conviction and sentence.
It was a move that the district attorney's office never objected to.
"We certainly will oppose any action that releases him," said District Attorney
Phillip Terrell.
Robinson's attorneys claim that a mistake was made back during the trial that
prevented the defense from obtaining the evidence they needed. The case was
prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Mike Shannon at the time.
Current DA Phillip Terrell explains: "That is the allegation, yes."
When asked by News Channel 5 if this was Mike Shannon's fault, Terrell
vehemently denied it.
Now, that motion to vacate will go before Judge Koch and a decision will be
made May 23.
Terrell says he'll fight it.
"I don't know really what's going to happen in the future, but it's the DA's
office position that if a new trial is granted, and there's enough evidence to
prosecute Mr. Robinson, that is what we'll do," he said.
But, when asked why the victims families weren't notified or the public that
Robinson could walk free or have a new trial, he had this to say.
"I can tell Ms. Doris what we're about to call her," he said.
Foster says, if released, Robinson will kill again.
"He loves to kill," she said. "Anybody who shoots watermelons to watch the
juice come out of them, they got a problem."
(source: KALB news)
OHIO:
Patsy Hudson bones identified, suspects charged
Patsy Hudson has been found.
Richland County Prosecutor Bambi Couch Page announced during a press conference
Tuesday Hudson's bones were those authorities found earlier this year scattered
at various sites across the northern part of the county.
The confirmation came after a DNA analysis from the Mansfield Police Department
and a biological profile from Mercyhurst University was completed.
Both analyses were taken from skeletal remains authorities recovered shortly
after arresting suspects Walter Renz and Linda Buckner at a campground in
Hohenwald, Tenn. on Thursday, Feb. 4. The couple was arrested for receiving
stolen property - a credit card - that belonged to Hudson.
Hudson, 62, of Mansfield, was last seen July 4, 2015.
Authorities recovered human remains Feb. 7, shortly after the couple's arrests.
According to Page, Renz and Buckner led authorities to the locations where they
found the skeletal remains.
Police searched 4 locations in northern Richland County for the skeletal
remains and requested that Forensic and Biological Anthropology professor
Dennis Dirkmaat from Mercyhurst University to process the bones.
Page said Renz faces charges for aggravated murder, murder, aggravated robbery,
robbery, aggravated burglary, 2 counts of burglary, abuse of a corpse, 2 counts
of tampering with evidence, receiving stolen property and misuse of a credit
card.
Renz pleaded not guilty on April 28 and has a trial date set for July 21 in the
Richland County Common Pleas Court to be heard by Judge James DeWeese at 9 a.m.
Buckner also faces charges. Her indictment shows charges for aggravated
robbery, robbery, aggravated burglary, 2 counts of burglary, abuse of a corpse,
2 counts of tampering with evidence, receiving stolen property and misuse of a
credit card.
Buckner pleaded not guilty on May 3 and has a pretrial hearing set for May 17.
(source: richlandsource.com)
MISSOURI----impending execution
Missouri man scheduled to die for killing deputy, 2 others
A man convicted of killing 2 people in a drug dispute and a sheriff's deputy in
a subsequent shootout is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday in what could
be Missouri's last execution for some time.
Earl Forrest, 66, is set to die for the December 2002 deaths of Harriett Smith,
Michael Wells and Dent County Sheriff's Deputy Joann Barnes.
Forrest's attorney, Kent Gipson, is seeking a stay of execution from the U.S.
Supreme Court, arguing that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster countered that the Supreme Court has
already resolved that debate. A clemency request also is pending before
Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon.
According to court documents, Forrest had been drinking when he went to Smith's
home in the southern Missouri town of Salem and demanded that she fulfil her
promise to buy a lawn mower and mobile home for him in exchange for introducing
her to a source for methamphetamine. Wells was visiting Smith at the time. An
argument ensued, and Forrest shot Wells in the face. He shot Smith 6 times and
took a lockbox full of meth valued at $25,000.
When police converged on Forrest's home, he shot Barnes and Dent County Sheriff
Bob Wofford, according to court documents. Forrest was also shot in the
exchange of gunfire, along with his girlfriend, Angela Gamblin. Wofford and
Gamblin survived.
Missouri has been one of the most prolific states for executions in recent
years, 2nd only to Texas. The state has executed 18 prisoners since November
2013, including 6 last year. Forrest would be the 1st in 2016.
Missouri's death row population is dwindling. Robert Dunham, executive director
of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, said juries today are
less likely to opt for capital punishment, in part because of greater awareness
of how mental illness sometimes factors in violent crime. Just 49 people were
sentenced to death nationally last year, the fewest since U.S. Supreme Court
reinstated the death penalty as a possible punishment in 1976. No one was
sentenced to death in Missouri in 2014 or 2015, Dunham said.
"As these executions take place, fewer and fewer people are being sentenced to
death, so the death penalty is withering on the other end," Dunham said.
None of the 25 other men on Missouri's death row face imminent execution.
16 have yet to exhaust court appeals and aren't likely to do so anytime soon.
Execution is on hold for 9 others. 2 were declared mentally unfit for
execution. 2 were granted stays because of medical conditions that could cause
painful deaths during lethal injection. 2 had sentences set aside by the courts
due to trial attorney errors. One inmate was granted a stay while his innocence
claim is reviewed. One case was sent back to a lower court to consider an
appeal.
And in one unusual case, inmate William Boliek was granted a stay by Democratic
Gov. Mel Carnahan in 1997. The case wasn't resolved before Carnahan died in a
2000 plane crash, and a court determined that only Carnahan could overturn the
stay. Nixon's office has said Boliek will not be executed.
Executions nationally are on the decline. In 1999, 98 people were executed.
That fell to just 28 in 2015 - a 24-year low - and 13 so far in 2016.
(source: news1130.com)
***********
Attorneys ask U.S. Supreme Court to block Missouri execution of Earl Forrest
It's up to the U.S. Supreme Court whether Missouri will carry out the execution
of a man convicted of 13 years ago killing 3 people, including a Dent County
Sheriff's Deputy.
Earl Forrest is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the state prison in
Bonne Terre between 6 p.m. Wednesday and 5:59 p.m. Thursday. His attorneys,
including Lance Sandage, have asked the Court to block the execution based on
their argument that the death penalty is unconstitutional.
Forrest does not deny killing Chief Deputy Sharron Joann Barnes, Harriett Smith
or Michael Wells in December 2002, but Sandage says the jury that sentenced him
to die didn't hear information about a brain injury he suffered years before.
"PET scans that were conducted showed that. That has really been the thrust of
Mr. Forrest's claim through post-conviction, was trial counsel's failure to
properly litigate that in the penalty phase of his trial," Sandage told
Missourinet.
The appeal to the Supreme Court, however, is solely that the death penalty
violates the 8th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution. A request for
clemency from Governor Jay Nixon (D) has also been filed. Other appeals for a
stay have already been denied.
Prosecutors said Forrest had gone to home of Smith to demand she keep her end
of a deal in which he introduced her to a source of methamphetamine. He killed
her and Wells at her home and killed Deputy Barnes in a shootout with law
enforcement at his own home. He also shot his then-girlfriend and then-Dent
County Sheriff Bob Wofford, both of whom survived. He was sentenced to death
for each of the 3 murders.
(source: missourinet.com)
ARKANSAS:
Allen to face capital murder charge, other charges may be filed as
investigation continues
Cody Allen, 23, will now face a capital murder charge in connection with the
death of 2-year-old Alithia Boyd, 14th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney
David Ethredge announced Tuesday during a press conference at the Marion County
Courthouse Annex.
Whether Allen will face the death penalty is something Ethredge said will be
determined at a later date. The only other punishment for capital murder is
life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Allen, of Mountain Home, had been in the Marion County jail. He is now being
held by the Arkansas Department of Correction without bond on a parole
violation charge.
The capital murder charge was filed Monday afternoon, Ethredge said.
Initially, Allen had faced the Class Y felony of 1st-degree battery. A Class Y
felony is the most serious charge a person face in Arkansas, short of a capital
murder charge. The charge stood while Alithia was alive. Alithia passed away at
approximately 1:50 a.m. on May 6.
"Subsequent to the filing of these charges, unfortunately the victim in this
matter passed away," Ethredge said during the Tuesday press conference. "As a
result of the continuing efforts and investigation by the officers of the
Marion County Sheriff's Office and the Flippin Police Department, on May 9,
2016, my office amended the charge against Cody Allen to the charge of capital
murder."
Ethredge said Allen's criminal history as an habitual offende,r and the facts
of the case, allowed prosecutors to seek the capital murder charge. The
prosecutor noted Allen has twice been convicted of felonies in the past 10
years, qualifying him for habitual offender status.
The prosecutor discussed the potential as to whether charges may be filed
against anyone else in connection with the case.
"There is a potential for other arrests and other additional charges being
brought in this case," Ethredge said during the press conference.
Allen was arrested May 3 by Flippin police and Marion County Sheriff's Office
personnel in connection with the girl's injuries following an intense, 48-hour
investigation. On May 1, police began the investigation into the girl's
injuries after they received a call about an unresponsive child at Hillside
Apartments in Flippin. Once on scene, they were told the girl fell down a set
of stairs.
However, authorities said the injuries appeared to be too severe for that
explanation. Flippin police were joined by investigators from the Marion County
Sheriff's Office in processing the scene of the incident.
Alithia was taken by Air Evac to Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Mo. Several
days later, she passed away as a result of her injuries.
(source: The Baxter Bulletin)
CALIFORNIA:
The drugs to execute criminals could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,
California prison agency records show
Internal California prison agency records suggest the state might have to pay
hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy execution drugs for lethal injection,
according to documents released Tuesday by a civil liberties group.
Public records obtained by the ACLU of Northern California show that prison
officials were busy in 2014 trying to find suppliers of execution drugs, which
many manufacturers have refused to sell to authorities for the purpose of
lethal injection.
At the time, court rulings had blocked executions, and the state planned to
propose a new single-drug execution method. The last execution in California
occurred in 2006.
A May 2014 email obtained in the public records by the ACLU said a compounding
pharmacy agreed to provide pentobarbital, one of four proposed execution drugs,
at an initial cost of $500,000 - and only if the company's name was not
released to the public.
Another email said the state had found a different source for buying
pentobarbital. That email noted that 18 inmates had exhausted their appeals and
about 324 grams of the drug would be required to execute them all.
The email said the cost would be $1,109 for 500 milligrams in addition to fees
to cover "service costs" and pay for lawyers.
"This is likely a 1-time window to acquire this drug because of
pharmaceutical/anti-death penalty activity," wrote Kelly L. McClease, whom the
emails identified as an attorney in the legal division of the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
There was no indication that the state purchased the drug, which would have
cost about $718,632 for the 18 executions, in addition to the unspecified fees.
The email said the drug had a shelf life of 24 months.
A Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman said she could not
comment on the documents because of "ongoing litigation." The protocol may be
challenged in court if approved by the state.
California unveiled a new single-drug execution method in November. The ACLU
sued the state to obtain internal records about how the new method was chosen.
Public comment on the proposed lethal injection protocol, which was supposed to
end in January, has been extended to July.
Ana Zamora, criminal justice policy director for the ACLU chapter, said the
emails about the drug costs contradicted statements in the department's
proposed lethal injection regulatory package. It estimated the drugs would cost
about $4,193 for each execution, based on what the state spent during past
executions, she said.
She said the documents suggest that drugs for a single execution could cost
between $133,080 and $150,000.
Michael Rushford, president and CEO of the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice
Legal Foundation, said the corrections department could obtain the drugs at
even less than $4,000 for each execution if it used prison compounding
pharmacies to make them.
(source: Los Angeles Times)
USA:
U.S. will not seek death penalty for accused ringleader in Benghazi attacks
The Justice Department announced Tuesday that it will not seek the death
penalty against Ahmed Abu Khattala, 54, a U.S.-designated terrorist whom
prosecutors accuse of leading the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed
four Americans.
The announcement, contained in a notice to the federal trial court in
Washington, clears the way for a major terrorism trial in the nation's capital,
the 1st in the U.S. since 2015, barring a plea agreement by Abu Khattala.
The decision ended a lengthy review after President Obama aired concerns in
October that while he supported capital punishment in theory, he found it
"deeply troubling" in practice.
The move marked somewhat of a shift for the department, one year after federal
prosecutors last May secured a death sentence in a capital terrorism case
against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, for the 2013 Boston marathon bombings.
The department approved its 1st new capital prosecution in November under
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch -- who called the death penalty an "effective
punishment" before her Senate confirmation in April 2015 - against Noe
Aranda-Soto, an illegal immigrant accused of human trafficking and murder in
Texas.
However, analysts said the government faced a difficult calculation in the
Benghazi case, pointing to complex legal, political and national security
concerns that have produced a mixed record in capital terrorism cases, and to a
history in which no D.C. jury has ever imposed the death penalty.
"We do these on a case-by-case basis," a Justice Department official said,
declining to elaborate. Legal observers noted challenges facing the U.S.
government in bringing witnesses from Libya to testify in a U.S. courtroom amid
sectarian conflict in the region.
A trial date before U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the District
has not been set.
Abu Khattala commanded a brigade absorbed by the extremist, anti-Western group
Ansar Al-Sharia, which committed the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks that killed U.S.
Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and 3 others, according to U.S.
investigators. The U.S. government in January 2014 designated Abu Khattala a
terrorist and Ansar al-Sharia, an armed militia that seeks to establish Sharia
law in Libya, a terrorist organization.
"The department is committed to ensuring that the defendant is held accountable
for his alleged role in the terrorist attack on the U.S. Special Mission and
annex in Benghazi that killed 4 Americans and seriously injured 2 others, and
if convicted, he faces a sentence of up to life in prison," Justice Department
spokeswoman Emily Pierce said in a statement Tuesday.
The Obama administration authorized Abu Khattala's capture in June 2014 U.S.
Special Operations raid in Libya after luring him to a villa south of Benghazi.
He pleaded not guilty after being indicted on 18 counts, including
death-eligible charges of murder of an internationally protected person, murder
of an officer or employee of the United States, killing a person in an attack
on a U.S. facility and providing material support to terrorists resulting in
death.
In unsealing a July 2013 complaint with death-penalty eligible charges,
then-attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. said an investigation was ongoing, and
that the arrest "proves that the U.S. government will expend any effort
necessary to pursue terrorists who harm our citizens."
A spokesman for U.S. Attorney for the District Channing D. Phillips referred
questions about the decision by the attorney general's office to the Justice
Department.
Federal Public Defender for the District A.J. Kramer declined to comment.
The decision returned focus at least briefly to the criminal prosecution for an
attack that remains so politically charged that it was raised in Republican
presidential debates and dramatized in a feature film released nationwide last
winter.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, testifying in October
before a House select committee investigating the attacks, repeated her
categorical denials of the long-debunked charge that she impeded rescue
attempts. However, a State Department review concluded that security was
inadequate for Benghazi, and the issue has continued to spur partisan
crossfire.
In the Abu Khattala case, it remains unclear what impact a decision not to seek
the death penalty might have on plea talks, even as national security concerns
surrounding the prosecution persist.
The situation is not unusual. The government's record in capital terrorism
cases has been mixed, with more success in cases brought against "lone-wolves"
acting on their own to kill on U.S. soil than in cases brought against
foreign-based or foreign-trained fighters.
Libya is in the midst of a civil war, complicating the investigation and
raising questions about how much prosecutors will rely on classified evidence
and on how any such disclosures might affect U.S. interests in the region.
Prosecutors have already turned over about 20,000 pages of material to Abu
Khattala's defense at last notice, most of it is classified, and much of the
government's case remains secret.
The Libyan government has previously protested the U.S. seizure of Abu Khattala
as a violation of Libyan sovereignty.
In court papers, U.S. authorities alleged that Abu Khattala told others he
believed the American diplomatic presence in Benghazi was cover for a U.S.
intelligence gathering facility, and vowed to "do something about this
facility."
Abu Khattala drove with attackers to the U.S. Special Mission and participated
in the assault that began about 9:45 p.m. that night, "coordinating the efforts
of his conspirators and turning away emergency responders," prosecutors
alleged. Stevens and State Department communications expert Sean Patrick Smith
died of smoke inhalation after attackers set ablaze a villa containing a "safe
room" at the compound.
Near midnight, Abu Khattala allegedly entered a mission office and oversaw the
looting of data about a nearby CIA annex, which soon came under mortar fire,
killing security contractors Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty.
Last year, a lawyer for Abu Khattala, standing next to the defendant, dressed
in a green prison jumpsuit and with a gray beard and swept-back hair, said in
court that "everyone agrees what happened in September 2012 was a tragedy and
Americans suffered a tragic loss." Defense attorney Jeffrey D. Robinson added,
"Mr. Abu Khattala agrees it was a tragic loss but disagrees he is the person
responsible for it."
Death penalty experts said they were not surprised at the government's move
noting that terrorism prosecutions for the deaths of Americans remain extremely
rare and highly case-specific.
Federal prosecutors have sought the death penalty for an accused terrorist at
least 14 times since 1993, but only one was executed - Timothy McVeigh, the
1995 Oklahoma City federal building bomber.
McVeigh is 1 of 3 people executed by the U.S. government since 1964.
Tsarnaev, the most recent addition to federal death row, also is a U.S.
citizen, of Chechen heritage, who purportedly was inspired by Islamic
radicalism but not in contact with any organized group.
Others who faced the death penalty but pleaded guilty and received life
sentences include serial bomber Eric Rudolph, an avowed white supremacist
convicted in 2005 for explosions at Atlanta's Olympic Park in 1996 and at an
Alabama abortion clinic, and Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, who was
convicted in 1998 of leading an 18-year-long anti-technology and anarchist
crusade from his remote Montana cabin that killed three and injured 28.
Since 2000, the U.S. government has failed to persuade federal juries to impose
the death penalty in other high-profile cases.
A jury in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2006 rejected the U.S. government's 4-year
long effort to obtain a death sentence against Al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias
Moussaoui, a French citizen who received life in prison for conspiring in the
2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Manhattan jurors in 2001 deadlocked in the al-Qaeda led bombings of 2 U.S.
embassies in East Africa in 1998 that killed 214 people, resulting in life
sentences for a Saudi and a Tanzanian man convicted in the attacks.
The Moussaoui prosecution in particular was criticized by some analysts from
both the left and right. Conservative critics said the result highlighted the
drawbacks of trying terrorists in civilian courts. Liberal experts said the
government wasted years and millions of dollars seeking Moussaoui's execution
when a plea deal and life sentence was an option from the outset.
Other observers questioned whether U.S. pursuit of the death penalty helps or
hinders foreign government cooperation with U.S. counterterrorism efforts.
"There are tensions between public trials and national security," said Robert
Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, including
what kinds of evidence can be admitted in a capital case and the need not to
compromise anti-terrorism efforts abroad. "This is a highly extraordinary
case."
The prospect of a death penalty trial in Washington poses hurdles for both
sides.
Trying a foreign terrorist accused of the overseas killing of a senior U.S.
diplomat and other federal employees could be expected to draw a sympathetic
jury in Washington, seat of the national government.
However since Congress reinstated the federal death penalty in 1988, only a
handful of eligible cases have gone to federal trial in the District, and none
resulted in a death sentence.
(source: Washington Post)
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