August 14
MISSOURI:
Jury hung in sentencing of former Dent County deputy found guilty of two
murders
A jury that found a former Dent County sheriff's deputy and state correctional
officer guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend couldn't
decide Saturday whether he should be put to death for his crimes - a decision a
judge must now make.
On Thursday, the jury found Marvin Rice guilty of 1st-degree murder in the
shooting of Annette Durham, 32, and 2nd-degree murder in the shooting of Steven
Strotkamp, 39.
During the penalty phase of the trial on Friday, the jury decided Rice should
serve a life sentence for the 2nd-degree murder charge. The jury had a choice
between life without the possibility of probation or parole or death on the
1st-degree murder charge. The jury voted 11 to 1 in favor of the death penalty,
but the decision had to be unanimous.
Now the decision as to whether Rice will spend his life in prison or be sent to
death row rests with Judge Kelly Parker, who has set a punishment hearing for
Oct. 6.
The fatal shootings in 2011 sprang from a custody dispute between Rice and
Durham over their son.
Rice had an affair with Durham while he was a Dent County sheriff's deputy.
Durham, who struggled with drug addiction, had been in and out of jail several
times and their son was born in 2010 while she was serving a prison sentence.
Rice and his wife took custody, but no formal agreement was in place, Dent
County Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Curley told jurors in his opening statement
Monday.
When Durham got out of prison in 2011 after another short stay, she was
determined to get her life together and establish a relationship with her son,
Curley said. Rice initially allowed her only brief visits supervised by him.
But on Dec. 10, 2011, she was allowed an unsupervised visit and decided that
she wanted to keep her son overnight, Curley said.
When Rice found out, he went to the house Durham shared with Strotkamp outside
of Salem.
He shot both with a .40-caliber pistol, took his son and then gave the boy to
his wife before leading police on a high-speed chase that ended in a shootout
in a Jefferson City hotel during a Christmas party, Curley said.
Curley said Monday that Strotkamp was able to identify Rice as his killer
before he died. Durham's daughter also testified that she heard loud noises
that she later learned were gunshots before seeing Rice with a pistol. He took
his son and left without saying a word, she told jurors. She saw the 2 bodies
before running for help.
Public defender Charles Hoskins told jurors that Rice "snapped" when Durham
told him, "You're never seeing (your son) again, and neither is your family."
He said Rice was under "extreme emotional distress" at the time and that a
pituitary tumor and the 17 medications he was taking affected his impulse
control and made him misinterpret reality in a paranoid manner.
(source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
CALIFORNIA:
Veteran Marin public defender exits after 36 years
With his gaunt, stern, even brooding image, Chief Deputy Public Defender David
Brown has been one of the more distinctive characters at the Marin County
courthouse for decades. Yet his intense appearance belies a disarming modesty
and a soft spot for society's downtrodden.
"I hate bullies," he once said.
Brown, who became a Marin public defender in 1981 after earning a bachelor's
degree at Cornell and a law degree at Stanford, retired from the office on
Friday. The 63-year-old San Rafael resident, one of the few Marin defense
attorneys with the requisite qualifications to handle capital cases, plans to
pursue a private practice.
Q Why did you choose criminal defense as opposed to another area of law?
A Since I was a youngster, I always identified with and rooted for the
underdog. And, my mother always told me, "David, you should be a lawyer because
you argue about everything." For me, criminal law is the most exciting and
gratifying type of law.
Q Who's harder to represent, an innocent person who's likely to be convicted,
or a guilty person who's likely to get off?
A Having a client whom you believe to be completely innocent always puts
additional pressure on a lawyer. Hopefully, the lawyer representing such a
client will pull out all the stops to ensure that no injustice occurs. As
Thomas Jefferson said, "Better 100 guilty men go free than 1 innocent man be
condemned."
Q Is the rule of law stronger now then when you started your career, or weaker?
A In California, the pendulum has swung from the liberal Rose Bird (she's one
of my heroes) court to harsher penalties such as 3 strikes, and then back to
recent legalization of marijuana, reducing some felonies to misdemeanors, and
other reforms. California is OK. Nationally, I believe that the Trump
administration is engaged in an all-out assault on the rule of law.
Q Given student debt loads and the job market, would you recommend a law career
to undergraduates?
A If making money is your No. 1 priority, choose a tech career. If you have a
real passion for an issue or area of the law, go for it!
Q What's more important, verbal adroitness or strategic cunning?
A Both are important. Articulate arguments are obviously most effective. But
courtroom strategy is critical to an effective defense. You have to be able to
visualize and explain to your clients how the case will play out in court.
Q If you could overturn one Supreme Court decision, what would it be?
A Citizens United v. FEC. This case opened the door for corporations and
special interests to buy elections. I favor a system of publicly financed
political campaigns.
(source: marinij.com)
USA:
Death Row Exonerees Fight to Stop Executions
One day after Independence Day this summer, former death row inmate Joe
D'Ambrosio celebrated his freedom by starting a Change.org petition to stop 27
executions in Ohio.
D'Ambrosio was exonerated from Ohio's death row when he was 50. He was
convicted for a murder he didn't commit when he was 26. In his petition, he
states that he and his co-petition starters "are some of the 9 men exonerated
from Ohio's death row, proving that innocent people have been sentenced to
death in our state."
The state of Ohio has scheduled 27 executions between 2017 and 2020, the 1st of
which took place just weeks ago; Ronald R. Phillips's execution on July 26th
marked the 1st since the botched execution of Dennis McGuire in 2014. The drug
combination used to kill McGuire induced a choking sensation as a result of
restricted breathing. After McGuire's 25-minute-long execution, the ordeal was
called, a "failed, agonizing experiment," by his defense attorney. Similar side
effects to these lethal injection drugs were reported weeks earlier during an
execution that took place in Oklahoma.
The recurrence of botched executions is among the reasons why D'Ambrosio is
petitioning Ohio Governor John Kasich to call off the executions scheduled to
take place over the next 3 years.
Yet Ohio is moving forward with their most intensive execution schedule to date
- even though over 7,000 people are calling on Governor Kasich to call it off.
Many of those have spoken out against the death penalty, including James, who
wrote, "We have so many people in jail that have later been found innocent. How
can you support a system that has proven to be unjust?"
In Missouri, an execution is set to take place in less than 2 weeks that raises
similar concerns. Marcellus Williams has been on death row since 1998, despite
no DNA evidence linking him to the crime he was convicted for committing. In
fact, the sole grounds for his conviction 2 decades ago were the testimonies of
2 individuals. Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty started a
petition to save Marcellus on Change.org shortly after D'Ambrosio launched his
in July.
Nearly 200,000 people have spoken out against the death penalty and individual
executions on Change.org, resulting in 1 petition making victory in April when
Governor McAuliffe of Virginia commuted the death sentence of Ivan Teleguz. As
Teleguz was spared in Virginia, roughly 50,000 people were rallying to prevent
the execution of 8 men in Arkansas. Governor Asa Hutchinson didn't listen even
as community and faith leaders spoke out against the 8 executions scheduled to
take place in a mere 10 day period, but the courts did - resulting in 4 of the
8 executions being stayed.
Right now, 26 men on Ohio's death row and Marcellus Williams in Missouri need
you to take action to help prevent their executions. You can do so by signing
the petitions to save them and by sharing the petitions on social media and
elsewhere.
Looking for even more ways to help? Consider joining our Criminal Justice
program to support petitions like these seeking to right wrongful convictions
and work toward meaningful criminal justice reform.
(source: change.org)
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