May 12
MISSOURI:
Missouri's 1st Execution of 2016----The state executed Earl Forrest on
Wednesday night by lethal injection for a triple homicide in 2002.
Missouri executed Earl Forrest on Wednesday night by lethal injection, marking
the state's 1st execution in 2016.
A Missouri Department of Corrections spokesman said Forrest was executed at
7:10 p.m. local time at a state prison in Bonne Terre. He was pronounced dead 8
minutes later.
Forrest received a death sentence in 2004 for the 2002 slayings of Harriet
Smith, Michael Wells, and Dent County police officer JoAnn Barnes. St. Louis
Public Radio has more details:
According to court documents, Forrest went to Smith's house to demand she buy a
mobile home and a lawn mower for him, in exchange for his introducing her to
someone who could provide her with methamphetamine. He fatally shot Wells in
the face during the confrontation, then shot Smith 6 times, killing her.
Forrest later killed Deputy Barnes during a shootout at his home with law
enforcement. He also shot his then-girlfriend, Angela Gamblin and Dent County
Sheriff Bob Wofford during the standoff. Wofford and Gamblin survived.
In his final filing to the U.S. Supreme Court, Forrest challenged his death
sentence as a violation of the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual
punishments. The petition cited Justice Stephen Breyer's lengthy dissent last
year in Glossip v. Gross urging the court to reconsider the death penalty's
constitutionality.
"The death penalty has outlived any conceivable purpose," the filing stated.
"It is imperfect in application, arbitrary in result, and serves no legitimate
penological purpose."
Missouri officials stood by Forrest's death sentence. "Earl Forrest callously
murdered 3 people, including a deputy sheriff, over a box of methamphetamine,"
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said in a statement after the execution.
"Missouri's law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every day.
They need to know that we will fight just as hard for justice for them and
their families."
The U.S. Supreme Court denied the last-minute request for a stay of execution
on Wednesday with no recorded dissents. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon also issued
a statement declining to grant clemency to Forrest hours before the scheduled
execution.
Forrest was the 14th person to be executed in the U.S. this year and the
1,436th person executed since the Supreme Court revived capital punishment in
1976.
(source: The Atlantic)
NEBRASKA:
Nikko Jenkins declared competent to face death penalty proceeding
Here comes Round 3.
Lincoln Regional Center doctors have declared spree killer Nikko Jenkins
competent to face a death penalty proceeding.
Now, Douglas County District Judge Peter Bataillon likely will set the case for
a competency hearing this summer, when he will weigh opinions from the Regional
Center and from a psychiatrist hired by the defense.
It has been 6 months since Bataillon ordered Regional Center psychiatrists to
evaluate Jenkins.
Since then, Jenkins has continually cut himself - once doing so with a badge a
prison guard had left on a chair just outside Jenkins' cell.
He also has filed fruitless appeals with the U.S. Supreme Court - citing
various constitutional rights, federal and state laws.
And he often has been required to wear a mask over his mouth because of his
propensity to spit on prison or Regional Center officials who come near him.
Jenkins' case has been pending since early September 2013, shortly after he
killed 4 Omahans in a spree. Fresh out of prison after serving 10 years for
robberies, Jenkins killed Juan Uribe-Pena and Jorge Cajiga-Ruiz on Aug. 11,
2013; Curtis Bradford on Aug, 19, 2013 and Andrea Kruger on Aug. 21, 2013.
All told, his case has been delayed a year and 3 months by competency
evaluations alone.
Bataillon will have to decide between polar-opposite opinions.
About 1/2 of the 8 or so psychiatrists who have evaluated Jenkins over the
years believe he is feigning mental illness and is concocting grandiose
descriptions of how an Egyptian snake god speaks to him.
The other 1/2 have diagnosed Jenkins with everything from bed-wetting (as a
child) to bipolar disorder to schizophrenia.
The competency hearing is not designed to determine Jenkins' mental state at
the time of the killings.
It is designed to determine only whether Jenkins understands the proceedings
against him and whether he is able to assist Public Defender Tom Riley in his
defense against the death penalty.
Court observers have watched Jenkins in action - representing himself,
questioning witnesses and defiantly declaring his rights.
If or when he's declared competent, Judge Bataillon will set a death penalty
hearing, the fourth time he has done so.
Jenkins then would go before a 3-judge panel that will decide whether his
crimes merit the death penalty.
(source: omaha.com)
COLORADO:
Planned Parenthood shooting suspect found incompetent to stand trial
The man who admitted to killing 3 people at a Planned Parenthood clinic here
was found incompetent to stand trial Wednesday and indefinitely confined to a
state mental hospital.
2 state-appointed doctors said Robert Lewis Dear Jr. suffers from the delusion
that the federal government has persecuted him for more than 20 years for his
anti-government and anti-abortion beliefs. Judge Gilbert Martinez on Wednesday
accepted those findings and ordered Dear to undergo unspecified "restoration
treatment" at the state hospital.
In a court order issued Wednesday, Martinez wrote that experts determined Dear
suffers from "delusional disorder, persecutory type." During psychiatric
evaluations, Martinez wrote, Dear "engaged in a somewhat rambling monologue
that was confusing to follow" and often lapsed into "significantly paranoid
ideas about him being targeted for persecution by federal authorities."
Dear also professed several other delusional beliefs since his arrest,
according to the judge's order. They include that "Obama is the antichrist" and
funds ISIL, the holy spirit has spoken to him, Alex Jones is a double agent,
Princess Diana's death was a professional hit, and that the White House plans
to declare martial law.
During the hearing, Dear mocked Martinez when the judge verbally stumbled while
reading his 8-page order. Dear also told reporters to examine a Bible verse to
find the justification for his actions.
"Justice delayed is justice denied," Dear interrupted.
As Dear was escorted from the courtroom following the hearing, he yelled
"filthy animal" at the judge.
Dear has confessed repeatedly to the Nov. 27, 2015, attack, saying he intended
to save the lives of unborn babies.
Killed in the attack were police officer Garrett Swasey, a father of 2, Army
veteran Ke'Arre Stewart, a father of 2, and Jennifer Markovsky, a mother of 2.
None of the victims worked for Planned Parenthood. The attack injured 9 others.
Police ended the assault when they crashed armored SWAT vehicles into the lobby
of clinic where Dear had holed up.
Prosecutors charged Dear with 179 counts, including 1st-degree murder.
Those charges remain pending until a judge deems Dear competent to stand trial.
The court must find that Dear understands the proceedings against him and can
assist in his defense. The court will review Dear's mental status every 90
days. If eventually found competent and convicted, he could face the death
penalty.
Dear told police he attacked the clinic because he was "upset with them
performing abortions and the selling of baby parts," according to documents
released last month. He also admitted to fatally shooting an arriving police
officer through a tinted window because he knew the officer couldn't see him,
the documents said.
Dear had confessed previously in open court to the shootings, and claimed he
was a "warrior for the babies."
The attack came after months of publicity over what Planned Parenthood says
were deceptively edited video recordings purporting to show clinic staff
elsewhere offering to sell fetal tissue for research purposes.
(source: KGW news)
NEVADA:
Nevada Supreme Court denies petition in 30-year-old death case
The Nevada Supreme Court has rejected a Las Vegas inmate petition for a new
trial in a murder case now more than 30 years old.
The core of Rodney Emil's petition charges that he was not provided with
counsel in his 1992 post-conviction proceedings.
"His claim lacks merit because he had no right to the effective assistance of
post-conviction counsel," says the order signed by all members of the court
except Justice Mark Gibbons.
His previous petitions for a writ of habeas corpus, the justices wrote, were
all filed before enactment of the statute that now mandates appointment of
counsel for habeas petitions in a death penalty case. If he were convicted
today and sentenced to death, he would be entitled to effective appointed
counsel.
The decision also points out that this appeal of his conviction is his 4th
petition and was filed 23 years after the Supreme Court denied his direct
appeal.
He was convicted of the 1984 shooting of his step father on Father's Day.
(source: Nevada Appeal)
CALIFORNIA:
Prosecutor plans to show 'Grim Sleeper' killed 5 more women
If the "Grim Sleeper" took a break from murdering women in Los Angeles, it was
shorter than originally believed, according to prosecutors seeking the death
penalty against the serial killer.
Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman plans to begin outlining evidence
Thursday of 5 additional slayings she said Lonnie Franklin Jr. committed,
including one during the apparent hiatus that earned him the moniker.
Jurors in Los Angeles Superior Court will decide during a second phase of trial
whether Franklin is sentenced to death or life in prison without parole for the
killings targeting young black females over more than 2 decades.
Franklin, 63, a former trash collector and onetime garage attendant for the Los
Angeles police, was convicted last week of murdering 9 women and 1 15-year-old
girl from 1985-1988 and then between 2002-2007.
Silverman plans to present evidence of similar killings connected to Franklin
that will expand the range of rage from 1984 to 2010 and include a slaying from
2000, during the serial killer's so-called "sleep," which police originally
attributed to him laying low after 1 victim survived in 1988.
Evidence of the additional killings came to light after Franklin was indicted.
Silverman said she chose not to charge Franklin with those killings because it
would have delayed the case that took nearly 6 years to bring to trial.
She also plans to present testimony from a German woman Franklin was convicted
of kidnapping and raping, and another German he attempted to kidnap when he was
stationed there in the U.S. Army in 1974.
The defense failed to persuade a judge Wednesday that the evidence should be
barred from the penalty phase of trial that could last a month.
Defense attorney Seymour Amster said that 2 of the additional women Silverman
accused Franklin of killing have never been found and it's just speculation
that his client had anything to do with their disappearances.
"There's no evidence of a violent crime," Amster said. "It was the crack
epidemic ... anything could have happened."
Judge Kathleen Kennedy said the evidence was admissible during the penalty
phase, but she suggested Silverman consider taking a more "conservative route"
and omitting it because it could present issues during an expected appeal.
Silverman said prosecutors had long debated the issue, but said she was trying
to bring closure to families who had waited a long time to find out what
happened to their loved ones.
The student identification card of one of the women, Ayellah Marshall, 18, who
has been missing since 2006, was found in Franklin's garage after his arrest in
2010, along with the driver's license of Rolenia Morris, 29, who was last seen
in 2005.
2 photos of Morris were found in a garage refrigerator, which prosecutors have
referred to as Franklin's "trophy chest" because it contained photos of scores
of women, including one of the women he was convicted of murdering.
(source: Associated Press)
**************
Death penalty needs to be put down
The U.S. Justice Department announced Tuesday to the federal trial court in
Washington that it will not submit Ahmed Abu Khattala to the death penalty.
Prosecutors labeled Khattala as a terrorist who spearheaded the 2012 attacks in
Benghazi, Libya, that resulted in the loss of four American lives.
The Justice Department's decision is a great step forward to upstart the trend
to abolish capital punishment. The death penalty is an unjustified and
unconstitutional act that has casted a dark shadow on U.S. history. Killing is
no way of gaining justice for acts committed in the past.
"The department is committed to ensuring 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 four Americans and seriously injured 2 others. If
convicted, he faces a sentence of up to life in prison," said Emily Pierce,
Justice Department spokeswoman.
Instead of stealing the life of the convict, if convicted, the district court
will instead put Khattala in prison for life. And in prison, the convicted will
work for the rest of his life to repay the debt of his immoral actions. This is
more in tune with the ideologies of justice.
The death penalty should be classified as cruel and unusual punishment since
there is no justice being gained from the execution.
According to a study published by the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology,
"there is overwhelming consensus among America's top criminologists that the
empirical research conducted on the deterrence question fails to support the
threat or use of the death penalty."
Also, "91.6 % said that increasing the frequency of executions would not add a
deterrent effect," according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Criminals are not weary of the capital punishments when committing a crime.
When someone is killed, the public seeks revenge. But another factor that the
public is unaware of is the harmful effect that executing someone has on the
person in charge of said execution.
"You can't tell me I can take the life of people and go home and be normal. If
I had known what I'd have to go through as an executioner, I wouldn't have done
it. It took a lot out of me to do it," said former state executioner for the
Virginia Department of Corrections Jerry Givens, in an interview with
ThinkProgress.
There is an emotional toll that weighs on those carrying out these death
penalties for the so-called justice the public calls for.
It goes against all humane behavior to take lives away and not be affected by
it. Asking someone to execute someone is almost impossible.
Killing a criminal is also a very expensive process. Over the past 30 years,
each of the 13 convicts put to death in California cost the state approximately
$300 million each, according to a 2011 study by Arthur Alarcon, a senior judge,
and Paula Mitchell, a professor at Loyola Law School. This exorbitant price
comes from the judicial process' exhaustive length.
Instead of killing the inmates, the funding for the executions should be used
for other resourceful programs. If the process long and expensive, yet only
brings 13 convicts to justice, then maybe the most effective decision would be
to stop altogether.
"The millions of dollars in savings could be spent on: education, roads, police
officers and public safety programs, after-school programs, drug and alcohol
treatment, child abuse prevention programs, mental health services, and
services for crime victims and their families," according to the Death Penalty
Focus Organization, a nonprofit organization.
Thus, it's a good decision that the department decided not to take part of this
wasteful process. Ahmed Abu Khattala will live a life indebted to the families
affected. This will bring about more of a sense of justice, instead of choosing
to place the burden of the criminal's death on someone else's hands while
costing the state millions.
(source: The (Cal. State Univ., Fullerton) Daily Titan)
USA:
Suspected 9/11 mastermind's defense wants prosecution to step down, alleges
destroyed evidence
Suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's defense team is calling for
the entire prosecution at Guantanamo Bay to relieve themselves of their duties
after suspicions arose that they secretly destroyed evidence in the
long-running case.
They also believe the entire case against Mohammed should be dismissed, based
on the alleged actions of the prosecution, which the defense labeled as "at
least the appearance of a collusion."
"Now, and indeed over other matters previously, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's
military commission is fatally flawed," lead defense attorney David Nevin told
the Guardian.
US President Barack Obama's term is nearly up, and if the defense gets its way,
it will be the new administration that has to figure out what to do with the
suspect, who has been in custody for 12 years now for his suspected role in the
September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, DC.
The prosecution is seeking the death penalty for Mohammed, who confessed under
interrogation to being the architect of the attacks.
The court wouldn't provide further details of the defense's allegations, which
are contained in an unclassified legal filing made Tuesday. The document has
still not passed the mandatory security check.
Pentagon spokesman Commander Gary Ross added that "it would be inappropriate to
comment on a document not yet released to the public."
Mohammed's other attorney Marine Corps Major Derek Poteet was disheartened at
the prospect of filing the allegations against members of the prosecution.
"I have great respect for Colonel Pohl and Brigadier General Martins, and
accordingly I am disappointed, disturbed and sad that we found it necessary to
file this motion," Poteet said.
Although Nevin and Poteet have only been given permission to discuss the
surface details of the court filing, they said there had been a request by the
government to Pohl to destroy the evidence, which pertains to both Mohammed's
guilt and the handling of his trial. But Pohl ordered to keep the documents,
pending further investigation, and no complaints from the defense team
followed.
It wasn't until December 15 that Nevin says he received, in his words, a "hint
from the prosecution that the evidence was no longer available to us." By early
February the defense received a sealed order from Pohl outlining that the judge
had already sanctioned the destruction of the documents 20 months prior.
"There's at least the appearance of collusion between the prosecution and the
judge. We're not saying more than that, but there is that appearance," Poteet
said, adding that had they known of the order to destroy, they would have
contested it.
The defense added that no matter if the prosecution steps down - or if Mohammed
goes to trial and is found guilty - they will still likely seek to address the
evidence destruction during sentencing.
The government has 14 days to respond to the current motion, with the next
pre-trial hearing set for end of May. Time is of the essence, and Pohl may not
get to the allegations in time, as there are other outstanding matters to be
settled as well before the case goes to trial.
There is disagreement among the defense as to whose fault it is ultimately that
the documents vanished into thin air. But the lawyer for co-defendant Ammar
al-Baluchi says they agree on 1 thing: that "at the very least, the prosecution
team manipulated the system that resulted in the destruction of evidence."
Mohammed's trial has been wrought with uncertainty and legal wrangling by both
teams. The case is considered to be the most important remaining 9/11-related
trial.
The self-described architect of the attacks, Mohammed had been kept in US
custody at Guantanamo since 2003, with 183 documented cases of waterboarding in
a single month. The upcoming trial is the culmination of a very long-winded
process: previous federal and criminal trials couldn't go forward, because of a
law passed by Congress, preventing the Pentagon from transferring Guantanamo
detainees onto US soil. The current tribunal, which is the 2nd, has now gone on
for 4 years without going to trial.
(source: rt.com)
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