March 4
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
The death penalty: What of victims' rights?
The same New Hampshire Legislature that seems gung-ho to amend our state
constitution, ostensibly to protect victims' rights, is also considering
eliminating the death penalty. What is wrong with this picture?
We have long held that the death penalty should be abolished only if and when
life imprisonment for pre-meditated murder actually and without exception means
life imprisonment, period.
But that is not the case. Memories fade, victims' families move or give up,
prison and parole officials cite how the murderer has become a "model
prisoner." Motions are made for pardons.
That "model prisoner" phrase is a beaut. Becoming one earns the individual an
easier time behind bars. If it can also win eventual freedom, it isn't heavy
lifting.
But the murderer's victim, or victims, remain dead. Their families or friends
or fellow officers have to get on with their lives. The victim's "rights" -
with or without the so-called "Marsy's Law" - may be no match for a persistent
effort to play on the sympathies of a public or politicians decades removed
from the time and memories of the crime.
New Hampshire has rarely meted out the death penalty, which is now restricted
to a certain few and specific types of murder. There is one inmate currently
facing that penalty. Would he be included in a repeal? Would it be cruel and
unusual punishment not to do so?
If lawmakers could find an ironclad means to ensure all such killers would stay
behind bars for the rest of their natural lives, then the punishment might fit
the crime. But that's a huge "if."
Until it happens, let's stick with New Hampshire's law as is.
(source: Editorial, Union Leader)
NORTH CAROLINA----female may face death penalty
Girlfriend accused of killing man in Nash County also faced poisoning charges
The Nash County woman accused of killing her boyfriend by setting his house on
fire while he was sleeping could face the death penalty.
A judge denied Tiara Danielle Drake bond at her 1st court appearance Friday
after a deadly fire that occurred around 4:45 a.m. on Red Oak Battleboro Road
on Thursday.
The sheriff's office said Drake and her boyfriend, James McNair, had been in an
ongoing verbal dispute between the 2. Law enforcement had been called to the
boyfriend's residence earlier and asked Drake to leave.
Drake returned to McNair's home when he was asleep and started a fire in the
home, the sheriff's office said.
Responding firefighters found McNair's body inside the home.
"He was a great person, he helped anyone he could," said Rosaline Spivey,
McNair's ex-wife. "If he could help you, he'd help you. It's wrong how he
went."
"I don't care what went on with them, nobody deserves to die like that," said
De'Sean Bunn, a neighbor. "That's just a terrible situation and I hurt most for
the family."
In 2013, prosecutors charged Drake with 5 counts of attempted 1st-degree murder
after she tried to poison family members by putting Ajax in the cheese they
were eating.
As part of a plea agreement, Drake's attempted murder charges were dropped. She
instead pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and a judge only sentenced her to
probation since she was a 1st-time offender.
"We never were best friends or anything, but we always spoke to each other and
I just never pictured her doing something like that," said Bunn, who went to
school with Drake.
Drake's been charged with 1st-degree murder and 1st-degree arson in connection
with the deadly blaze.
(source: WNCN news)
OHIO:
Ohio death row inmate Campbell dies of natural cause
Alva Campbell cheated death the morning of Nov. 15 when, while strapped to a
gurney in the Ohio prison system's death house, a medical team couldn't find a
suitable vein to send the lethal brew of drugs coursing through to kill him as
a judge had ordered done 2 decades ago.
But death eventually came calling anyway, just of a different manner. Campbell,
69, was found unresponsive in his cell at Chillicothe Correctional Institution
in Ross County early Saturday, and was pronounced dead at a local hospital at
5:24 a.m. JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of
Rehabilitation and Correction, said there was no evidence of foul play and
nothing suspicious about his death.
When the execution in November had to be halted, Gov. John Kasich ordered a
temporary reprieve and set a new execution date for June 5, 2019. At that time,
Campbell's public defenders said it was unlikely he would live long enough for
a 2nd attempt: They said he suffered from a host of sicknesses, including
serious heart and lung disease.
Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O???Brien has never mustered any sympathy for a
man whose violent criminal past dated back to at least 1967 and included 2
murders, multiple kidnappings and assaults, the non-fatal shooting of a state
trooper, and almost too many armed robberies and burglaries to count.
O'Brien had often called Campbell a "poster child' for the death penalty.
Kasich's office notified him of Campbell's death early Saturday. O'Brien sees
it as justice denied.
"Due to 20 years of frivolous post-conviction litigation, he successfully ran
the clock out on justice due to the state and the victim's family," O'Brien
said of Campbell after hearing the news.
He prosecuted the death-penalty case against Campbell 20 years ago, when he was
charged with the aggravated murder of 18-year-old Charles Dials, a man who just
happened to be leaving the Franklin County Courthouse after paying a traffic
ticket on the day Campbell launched an attack on April 2, 1997.
Already a convicted murderer for killing a man in a Cleveland bar in 1972,
Campbell was in the Franklin County jail then and facing charges for a string
of robberies. Campbell claimed paralysis, and was taken to the courthouse in a
wheelchair.
Once there, he leapt from his wheelchair, attacked a deputy and stole her gun,
carjacked Dials and escaped. They drove around for hours, until Campbell
eventually shot Dials - who was crouched in the pickup's footwell - twice in
the head, killing him.
Over the years, Campbell's legal team has mounted vigorous legal challenges to
spare his life.
Attorneys for Campbell and for condemned killer Raymond Tibbetts had previously
challenged the constitutionality of Ohio???s latest lethal-injection method for
execution. The attorneys argued that the 3-drug concoction wasn't yet a proven
method and could lead to unacceptable pain and suffering for the inmates. At
one point, Campbell had asked to be put to death by firing squad instead if he
must die. Just last month, however, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in
Cincinnati upheld an earlier ruling that said the inmates had not proven that
case.
Tibbetts, of Cincinnati, was scheduled for execution last month but Kasich
issued a reprieve after a juror on his case expressed doubts about casting his
vote for a death-penalty verdict for Tibbetts 20 years ago.
As for Campbell, the public never bought his arguments for leniency, either.
After the failed execution attempt, a letter to the editor appearing in The
Dispatch, written by Michael Flynn, of Pickerington, noted that "Campbell was
given a pillow to aid in his breathing, people were present rubbing his arm to
keep him calm, and it was reported he may have teared up" as the medical team
tried to start the injection.
"I dare say no one gave Dials a pillow to ease his breathing nor was there
anyone there to trying to calm him when Campbell shot him twice in the head.
Campbell is not a victim. The victims are the innocent people Campbell has
killed and their families," Flynn wrote. "I am quite sure there have been many
tears shed by the people touched by Campbell's violent past. Let us not forget
the real victims."
(source: limaohio.com)
*******************
Death row inmate William T. Montgomery seeks new trial
When a lawyer for William T. Montgomery appears before the Ohio Parole Board on
Thursday, he will not admit his client's guilt but instead argue that the wrong
man is headed for the lethal injection gurney.
The clemency hearing will take place 32 years to the day that Montgomery is
believed to have killed Debra Ogle, 20, of South Toledo, during a robbery.
Montgomery, 52, faces execution on April 11 for the March 8, 1986, killing.
He's also serving a life sentence for killing Ms. Ogle's roommate, Cynthia
Tincher, 19, whom the prosecution theorized was shot because she could connect
Montgomery and co-conspirator Glover Heard, Jr., to Ms. Ogle.
Montgomery will not be in the room as the parole board hears from his lawyer, a
Colorado forensics expert, the Ohio attorney general's office, and potentially
members of the victims' families, including Ms. Ogle's mother, Jane.
He declined to be interviewed by a board member at Chillicothe Correctional
Institution, where death row is based, before the hearing.
Rather than use the clemency process to admit guilt, express remorse, and seek
mercy, Montgomery's lawyers will argue that he still deserves the new trial
that a federal judge once ordered. The parole board can't give him that new
trial, but it could recommend that Gov. John Kasich grant him clemency.
The petition does not specify what type of clemency Mr. Kasich should grant.
Often death row inmates suggest commutation to life in prison without parole, a
sentencing option not available when Montgomery was tried.
"The main thing we want is to avoid the death penalty," said his Cleveland
attorney, Jon W. Oebker. "W.T. Montgomery has been adamant that his trial was
not fair and that he is poised to be executed on a false set of facts.
"What he really wants is a new trial and a fair trial," he said. "... He wants
to get out. He's maintained his innocence for 30 years. But the first step is
we have to stop the execution."
Lucas County Common Pleas Court Judge James Bates, who prosecuted the case,
said he sent a letter to the board urging it not to recommend clemency.
"In my 45 years involved as a prosecutor and judge, this was one of the most
heinous crimes I've ever dealt with," he said. "If anybody deserves the death
penalty ... this person is probably the worst I've ever dealt with."
His wife, Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates, plans to attend the hearing but
does not expect to testify. Judge Bates will not attend.
U.S. District Court Judge Solomon Oliver, Jr., ordered a new trial in 2007, and
a 3-judge panel of the Cincinnati-based U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals
agreed. But in 2011, the full 6th Circuit bench voted 10-5 to reverse those
rulings and reinstate his convictions and sentences.
Montgomery has argued it was Heard, a childhood friend, who used Montgomery's
.380-caliber semiautomatic pistol, purchased about 2 weeks earlier, to shoot
the 2 roommates.
But Heard, now 55, struck a deal with the prosecution to point the finger at
Montgomery. He is serving a sentence of 15 years to life at Lebanon
Correctional Institution for conspiracy and could get a parole hearing in 2021.
His lawyer points to eyewitnesses who told police they saw Ms. Ogle alive 4
days after she was believed to have been killed. And a Colorado forensics
expert who in 2012 reviewed 26-year-old autopsy records and photos will argue
Ms. Ogle could not have been dead as long as the prosecution theorized.
Together, Mr. Oebker contends, these disrupt the prosecution's timeline and
motives for both murders. Although believed to have been killed 1st, Ms. Ogle's
body was found in a wooded area 4 days after Ms. Tincher's was found in her
car. Both had been shot with the same gun.
Ms. Ogle's abandoned car was found near Heard's home the day after she was
believed to have been murdered. Her wallet, driver's license, and credit cards
were found in his home.
It was the pretrial police report from former high school classmates of Ms.
Ogle, saying they saw the then missing Ms. Ogle and waved to her in a car at
her apartment complex, that triggered the federal order for a new trial.
The witnesses said she was with a white male and did not seem to be in
distress. That report was not given to the defense before the trial, and the
defense contends the state pressured 3 of the witnesses into later recanting
their statements, saying they actually saw Ms. Ogle's younger sister.
"This case contains a number of troubling elements - no independent, direct
evidence of guilt; the Prosecution relied exclusively on the testimony of an
accused murderer and child molester who cut a deal; withheld evidence; gross
prosecutorial misconduct; and confused, tainted jurors - that taken alone are
cause for concern if they resulted in a death verdict," the clemency petition
reads.
"But taken together, these elements are cause for alarm as the execution
approaches," it reads.
The petition contains affidavits from 2 jurors who in hindsight expressed being
either confused by the case or suggested they would have recommended a
different sentence if they knew about this other information at the time.
While the full 6th Circuit bench agreed that the police report had been
suppressed, it said the report would not have undermined the state's case.
It noted that the murders were committed with Montgomery's gun, which was back
in his possession after the murders.
A witness placed the gun in Montgomery's possession that night, and his mother
delivered it to police. Montgomery took police to the wooded areas where Ms.
Ogle's body was found.
The court also noted that the report that Ms. Ogle was still alive 4 days after
the theorized murder date undermined Montgomery's contention that Heard had
killed the women using his gun.
"The murder weapon was already in custody when the [witnesses'] phone call was
made," Judge Bates said. "Heard was in custody when the phone call was made.
Nobody had to change any testimony. It was the same weapon used to kill both
girls. [Debra Ogle] couldn't have been alive on that day."
Ohioans to Stop Executions contends that if 13 of the proposed reforms sought
by a task force convened by the state Supreme Court to examine Ohio's death
penalty process had been in place 3 decades ago, Montgomery likely wouldn't
have been sentenced to death.
"There's too much doubt, and the state of Ohio should not carry out this
execution," organization spokesman Abe Bonowitz said. "And this guy still needs
his justice. He should have his new trial. This evidence should all be in a
courtroom."
Among the proposed reforms is barring a death sentence when a case is based
solely on jailhouse informant testimony and requiring prosecutors to provide to
grand juries all exculpatory evidence.
Montgomery has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal of more recent
lower court rulings that found he had waited too long to bring a motion for a
new trial based on the 2012 forensics report. Mr. Oebker said another case will
soon be filed before Judge Oliver in hopes of staying the execution.
(source: Toledo Blae)
TENNESSEE:
Urshawn Miller found guilty of first degree murder, could face death penalty
A jury found Urshawn Miller guilty Saturday of all 8 counts in a crime that
took place back in November of 2015, including felony 1st degree murder and
other charges.
Investigators say when Miller attempted to rob Bull Market on Hollywood Drive
in Jackson, he shot and killed Ahmad Dhalai, a clerk at the store, and also
shot another employee who was there.
Judge Don Allen proceeded with the sentencing hearing for Miller, who could
face the death penalty.
The victim's cousin took the stand and shared how much Dhalai is missed by
everyone who knew him.
"He always had mild manners, he smiles, talks to people nicely, never raised
his voice to anybody. Everybody's heart broken still to the day," said Ali
Dahli.
The prosecution brought up the fact that this is not Miller's 1st offense,
having spent 8 years in prison for robbing a gas station. This is surveillance
video from the robbery, where Allison Deaton says she was working at the time
of the incident.
"1 of them said, 'give me all your money or I'm going to shoot you in the
face,'" recalled Deaton.
3 forensic psychologists shared their evaluations of Miller's mental state.
"He was abused and neglected. He was raised in poverty. There was a lot of
instability where I think there were 8 moves before he was 10 years of age,"
said Dr. Keith Caruso.
This evening both the prosecution and the defense rested their case in the
sentencing phase.
Judge Allan says the trial will resume Sunday morning for closing statements,
final arguments, and then the sentencing of Urshawn Miller. The jury can decide
on anything from life in prison with the possibility of parole to the death
penalty.
We tried to speak to the family of both the defendant and the victim, but
neither of them wanted to comment. Attorneys on both sides also say they are
withholding statements until the end of the trial.
(source: WBBJ news)
NEW MEXICO:
Murder case revives debate over tribal sovereignty, death penalty
Federal prosecutors want the death penalty for Kirby Cleveland, a Navajo man
accused of killing a tribal police officer last year.
The case could signal that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will take a more
aggressive approach with the death penalty in Indian Country, though most
tribes, including the Navajo Nation, are opposed to capital punishment.
Regardless of how it plays out, Cleveland's case is likely to revive a debate
on race, sovereignty and just who can deliver justice on reservations across
New Mexico - and the country.
New Mexico abolished capital punishment in 2009, but the federal government
still has a death penalty and jurisdiction over certain crimes on tribal land.
Congress gave tribes a choice in the 1990s on whether to opt out of the federal
death penalty, and most did.
The Navajo Nation, the largest tribe in New Mexico, officially has opposed the
death penalty in the past.
And in a letter about Cleveland's case last year, the tribe's attorney general
told the U.S. attorney for New Mexico that while the killing of Officer Houston
Largo during a traffic stop in March 2017 was a tragic loss, the Navajo
Nation's position remained the same.
"The death penalty is counter to the cultural beliefs and traditions of the
Navajo People who value life and place a great emphasis on the restoration of
harmony through restoration and individual attention," Attorney General Ethel
Branch wrote, citing past testimony to Congress.
But President Donald Trump and Sessions, his attorney general, have been vocal
supporters of the death penalty.
Even before taking office, Trump was known for having issued public pleas for
death sentences in prominent cases.
The Wall Street Journal reported in January that the Trump administration
expects to approve more death penalty cases than his predecessors, citing a
senior U.S. Justice Department official who said Sessions views capital
punishment as a "valuable tool in the tool belt."
In a statement, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico said
the decision to seek the death penalty in federal cases must be "based upon the
facts and law applicable to each case."
"Although the Navajo Nation has stated its general opposition to the death
penalty and the Justice Department has great respect for the Navajo Nation's
traditions and position on this issue, the Tribe's position is not binding on
federal prosecution and the Justice Department must still pursue the consistent
and even-handed national application of the federal death penalty," a
spokeswoman said.
The case also comes following recent calls on the Navajo Nation for tribal
leaders to embrace capital punishment.
The mother of Ashlynne Mike, the 11-year-old girl kidnapped and murdered near
Shiprock in 2016, started a petition urging the Navajo Nation government to opt
in to the federal death penalty and allow capital punishment in the case of her
daughter's killer - who ultimately got a life sentence.
Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye told The New Mexican last month that he
supports capital punishment for the killing of a police officer on duty.
"Police officers are out there doing jobs they are trained to do in order to
deal with threats and protect the public," he said in a statement. "A person
like Kirby Cleveland has no respect for the uniform, or for the people who wear
it. He should face the death penalty."
The president's office did not respond to follow-up questions about whether he
supports a broader change in the Navajo Nation's policy on capital punishment.
Death sentences for Native Americans are exceedingly rare in federal court.
Lezmond Mitchell, a Navajo man convicted of carjacking and murdering a
63-year-old tribal woman and her 9-year-old granddaughter in 2001 as part of
the robbery of an Arizona trading post, is the only Native American on the
federal death row.
Despite opposition from the victims' family and the Navajo tribal government,
federal prosecutors sought a death sentence in Mitchell's case. They argued
that tribal authorization was not necessary because the case involved a crime -
carjacking resulting in death - that would have given the federal government
jurisdiction regardless of whether it occurred on the reservation.
Critics contend that reasoning created a sort of loophole to impose the death
penalty, despite tribal opposition.
Unclear is how often federal prosecutors might use that provision to pursue
death sentences in cases from Indian Country.
Under the last Republican president, George W. Bush, the Department of Justice
was known for pushing the death penalty, overruling in some cases prosecutors
who had recommended different sentences.
Still, the federal government has a somewhat elaborate process for determining
whether to seek the death penalty in particular cases, with prosecutors
consulting victims' families and, when applicable, tribal officials.
And Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Information Center, cautions
that whatever the president or his attorney general might say, it may be too
early to tell whether the Trump administration's tone on capital punishment
will lead to more death sentences in Indian Country.
Cleveland's case is extraordinary in that he is accused of killing a law
enforcement officer, he noted.
"I don't think this tells us whether there is a difference in the way they are
pursuing the death penalty on Native lands," he said of the Trump
administration. "We have to have more experience with what actually happens.
It's hard to tell whether what we???re seeing is an increase in actual usage."
After all, President Barack Obama had called the death penalty "deeply
troubling," but under his administration, the federal government still won
death sentences in cases against one of the Boston Marathon bombers and a young
man who killed nine worshippers in a South Carolina church. The Obama
administration also sought the death penalty in less high-profile cases, such
as the murder of a postal worker and the killing of a federal prison inmate by
his cellmate, who prosecutors say has threatened to kill any other cellmates
until he is sentenced to death.
But Kevin Washburn, the former head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a
professor at The University of New Mexico School of Law and a member of the
Chickasaw Nation, noted that the death penalty is particularly complicated in
Indian Country.
At the state level, the death penalty has been applied disproportionately
toward people of color, he said.
And cases against Native Americans in the federal system often play out far
from reservations, rather than in front of a jury of peers, he noted. That
means a murder committed in Nageezi or Shiprock might actually be tried in
front of a jury in Albuquerque.
(source: santafenewmexican.com)
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