Sept. 13
FLORIDA:
State to seek death penalty on man accused of killing girlfriend, her
uncle----2 killed July 7 in Southside mobile home park; suspect arrested in
Georgia
A man accused of killing his girlfriend and her uncle on the Southside in July
will face the death penalty if convicted.
Thomas Brown, 34, is charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the deaths
of 59-year-old Robert Massey and 32-year-old Amy Lynn Hatfield, who were found
in Massey's home.
Detectives say they searched Hatfield's phone and discovered she had recently
drove to the area, from Pennsylvania with her boyfriend, "T.J." Brown.
Detectives said they were able to track the rental car the 2 drove down to
Thomasville, Georgia, through to a GPS tracker. They were able to find Brown at
a drug treatment facility not far from there and he was arrested and extradited
to Duval County to face the charges.
At a pretrial hearing Tuesday, prosecutors told the judge they indent to seek
the death penalty on Brown. The next court date is set for Oct. 11.
(source: WJXTnews)
OHIO:
Death penalty upheld in execution-style killing
The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for a man who was
convicted of choking his girlfriend to death and a year later killing a man to
prevent his testimony about the strangulation.
Calvin McKelton, 39, was known in Cincinnati as "C-Murder." He was convicted in
Butler County of killing Fairfield attorney Margaret "Missy" Allen, who was
McKelton's girlfriend, and in the 2009 execution-style shooting of Germaine
"Mick" Evans Sr.
McKelton lived with Allen and her 2 nieces in her Butler County home, and
prosecutors said he was physically abusive. Her body was found in Schmidt Field
in Cincinnati's East End in July 2008, several days after she went missing.
According to testimony, Evans saw McKelton strangle Allen and helped cover up
the crime and dispose of her body. McKelton found out police wanted to talk to
Evans about Allen's death, and prosecutors connected McKelton to the
execution-style shooting of Evans in Mount Auburn's Inwood Park in February
2009.
McKelton was convicted in 2010 in Butler County of charges including murder and
aggravated murder. He received the death penalty for the killing of a witness
to prevent testimony.
The state Supreme Court, in a ruling announced Tuesday, upheld the death
sentence, finding that the evidence showed McKelton was properly convicted of
murder and that the aggravating circumstances supported the death penalty. 2
justices, William O'Neill and Paul Pfeifer, said the death sentence should be
dismissed because McKelton had inadequate representation during the case's
sentencing phase.
(source: cincinnati.com)
NEBRASKA:
Nebraska death penalty repeal referendum: Here's what's at stake in the
November 2016 vote
For more than a year, politicians and organizations have lobbied voters for and
against the death penalty in Nebraska. Capital punishment split Nebraska's
Republican governor and its conservative state senate over cost and whether it
is moral.
In 2015, Nebraska's senate - the state is unicameral, meaning there is only one
legislative body - voted to repeal the death penalty. Some conservative
legislators argued the death penalty wastes millions of dollars while others
objected to the government killing its citizens. A recent study said Nebraska
pays more than $14 million annually for the death penalty.
But Gov. Pete Ricketts disagreed. He argued the death penalty gives families
justice and vetoed the senate's bill. Nebraskans for the Death Penalty says the
state estimates there is "minimal" to "no" cost for capital punishment. But in
May 2015, the Republican legislature overrode Ricketts veto.
The battle over whether Nebraskans who commit heinous crimes should be put to
death will be settled on the ballot in November.
Conservatives vs. Conservatives
Americans are used to Democratic vs. Republican political debates. But raucous
contests among Republicans are rarer. While 31 states have the death penalty,
19 states and the District of Columbia do not use capital punishment.
The quirk that makes Nebraska stand out is the state's conservative politics
linked to an anti-death penalty stance. Bluer states typically oppose capital
punishment, while red states support death for certain crimes. Nebraska's
legislature is solidly Republican. The state has gone Republican in every
presidential election since 1968. But a majority of the votes to repeal
Nebraska's death penalty came from Republicans.
Nebraskans for the Death Penalty and Retain a Just Nebraska, a group opposed to
the death penalty, say they both have polling showing a majority of Nebraskans
support their position. In October 2015, 61 % of Americans said they favored
the death penalty.
A win for anti-death penalty supporters in Nebraska would show conservative
voters will buy-in to an argument the death penalty is immoral and too
expensive.
November Decision
The lives of 10 inmates are in the hands of voters this fall in Nebraska. Those
prisoners, previously on death row, were given lifetime prison sentences when
the senate overruled Gov. Ricketts.
Nebraska has not executed anyone since 1997 and there have only been 3
executions in the state's history, according to a report commissioned by death
penalty opponents. The report added that only 2 % of convicted murderers were
sentenced to the death penalty.
For Nebraska voters, a vote this November to "repeal" would reinstate the death
penalty in Nebraska because the senate-passed law still stands. A vote to
"retain" would keep Nebraska death-penalty free.
(source: mic.com)
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