May 17
TEXAS----execution-----and 2 new execution dates
Texas executes "Lovers' Lane Killer," who has
maintained innocence since 2003 slaying
A Texas inmate who insisted he wasn't involved in a San Antonio "lovers' lane"
killing more than 14 years ago has been executed for the slaying. Juan Edward
Castillo received lethal injection Wednesday evening for the fatal shooting and
robbery of a 19-year-old man that testimony showed was carried out by Castillo
and several friends on a secluded road where the victim was enticed by the
promise of drugs and sex.
Castillo became be the 11th convicted killer executed this year in the U.S. and
the 6th in Texas.
He gave a brief final statement before receiving the lethal dose of
pentobarbital, thanking "everyone."
"You know who you are. I love you all," Castillo said. "That's it."
As the powerful sedative took effect, he lifted his head off the gurney and
used an expletive to say he could taste the drug and that it burned. He took
several quick breaths that became snores and then stopped all movement.
Castillo was pronounced dead 23 minutes later at 6:44 p.m. CDT.
The victim's mother and stepmother were among the people watching through a
window. After a doctor pronounced Castillo dead, one of the other relatives
exclaimed: "We've got justice. Thank you."
Castillo lost appeals earlier this week at the U.S. Supreme Court and the Texas
Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest court. No last-day appeals were
filed in the courts to try to block his punishment and Gov. Greg Abbott
declined a request from his lawyers for a 30-day reprieve.
Castillo, 36, denied any involvement in the slaying.
"I didn't do it," Castillo told the AP last week in an interview outside death
row. "I was so positive I'd get the case dismissed I refused to plead guilty.
So I go to trial."
He said he rejected several plea offers that would have removed the death
penalty as punishment, knew the woman, Debra Espinosa, who testified against
him and who was in the car with Garcia, but denied her assertion that she was
Castillo's girlfriend.
Castillo's appeals lawyers contended no physical evidence tied him to the
slaying of Tommy Garcia Jr. and argued in appeals that trial testimony from
witnesses who said he either told them about the slaying or they heard Castillo
talk about committing the crime was false or misleading.
At his trial, 2 eyewitnesses testified they saw Castillo shoot Garcia, 3 people
said they heard him talk about the killing and another witness testified he was
wearing jewelry that belonged to the victim, prosecutors said.
Castillo in an interview last week from outside death row denied any
involvement in Garcia's Dec. 3, 2003, killing and said he had "no idea" who
fatally shot the San Antonio rapper with a reputation for carrying a lot of
cash and wearing flashy jewelry.
"I was offered a plea bargain 3 times," Castillo told The Associated Press. "I
refused to plead guilty. ... I don't want to die but at the same time I would
hate myself every day if I did that."
Testimony at Castillo's 2005 trial showed Castillo's girlfriend, Debra
Espinosa, offered Garcia drugs and sex if he'd take her in his car to a San
Antonio lovers' lane. Garcia didn't know he was being set up.
Once they were parked, testimony showed Castillo smashed a car window with the
butt of his pistol, opened the door and demanded Garcia's money. But Garcia,
also known as rapper J.R., refused and was shot.
Espinosa and Francisco Gonzales, who authorities said accompanied Castillo to
the ambush, accepted 40-year prison terms in plea agreements. A 4th person,
Teresa Quintero, pleaded no contest to a robbery charge and received 20 years.
Testimony showed she was the driver who took Castillo and Gonzales to the dark
San Antonio road for what was supposed to be a simple robbery.
Relatives said Castillo talked about the killing and a witness said she saw him
a day later wearing a distinctive medallion on a thick gold chain that had
belonged to Garcia. Castillo said last week from prison the jewelry was his,
not Garcia's, and said Espinosa was not his girlfriend.
Castillo was 22 and already had been in prison on a 2-year sentence for deadly
conduct with a firearm when he was arrested for Garcia's killing. At his trial,
the mother of Castillo's son told of repeated domestic violence incidents.
Other witnesses linked him to shootings, robberies, assaults and drug dealing.
(source: Associated Press)
**************************
Execution dates for 2 Fort Worth inmates on death row
Texas prison officials have received court documents setting execution dates
for 2 prisoners from the Fort Worth area, bringing to 8 the number of inmates
set for lethal injection in the coming months.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jeremy Desel says Juan Segundo
is set to die Oct. 10 for the rape-slaying of an 11-year-old Fort Worth girl in
1986. He was arrested nearly 19 years later after a DNA match tied him to the
slaying of Vanessa Villa. He also was tied to the rape-slayings of 2 women in
the Fort Worth area in 1994 and 1995.
Also, Kwame Rockwell is facing execution Oct. 24 for the 2010 killing of
22-year-old Fort Worth convenience store clerk Daniel Rojas during a robbery. A
bread deliveryman also was killed.
(source: Associated Press)
*******************************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----33
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----551
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
34---------June 21----------------Clifton Williams--------552
35---------June 27----------------Danny Bible-------------553
36---------July 17----------------Christopher Young-------554
37---------Sept. 12---------------Ruben Gutierrez---------555
38---------Sept. 26---------------Troy Clark--------------556
39---------Sept. 27---------------Daniel Acker------------557
40---------Oct. 10----------------Juan Segundo------------558
41---------Oct. 24----------------Kwame Rockwell----------559
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Cosmo DiNardo's cousin rejects plea deal, faces possible death penalty in 4
murders
Sean Kratz, the cousin of Cosmo DiNardo and his alleged accomplice in the
killing of 4 Bucks County men, rejected a plea deal Wednesday afternoon and
prosecutors put the death penalty back on the table.
Kratz, of Philadelphia, and DiNardo, of Bensalem, both 21, are each charged
with multiple counts of criminal homicide in the July 7 killings of Dean
Finnochiaro, 19, Thomas Meo, 21, and Mark Sturgis, 22. DiNardo is also charged
with killing 19-year-old Jimi Taro Patrick, who was killed July 5, authorities
say.
Prosecutor says Cosmo DiNardo killed and liked it, became 'man-eater'
Kratz rejected a plea bargain in which he'd serve 59 to 118 years in prison for
3rd-degree murder and related charges. The case will now go to trial.
Kratz's attorneys, Craig Penglase and Niels Eriksen, declined to comment on
their client's decision. A hearing before Bucks County Judge Jeffrey Finley was
delayed nearly an hour Wednesday as the lawyers and District Attorney Matt
Weintraub spoke to Kratz in a courthouse holding cell.
Lawyers on both sides of the case said earlier that they expected Kratz to
accept the plea deal.
Kratz did not testify during the brief hearing but answered "yes sir" as
Penglase questioned him in open court about his rejection of the plea deal.
Families of the 4 homicide victims were in the courtroom when the deal fell
apart. They left without a word, walking behind a wall of deputy sheriffs who
shielded them from news cameras.
Weintraub said he and the families were "disappointed" by Kratz's decision, but
that he remained resolute to get justice for "our boys."
Kratz's change of heart sets the stage for a trial that could pit cousin
against cousin. DiNardo, who appeared in court Wednesday morning, pleaded
guilty to 4 counts of 1st-degree murder and was sentenced to 4 consecutive life
sentences in prison.
Weintraub said at a news conference following Wednesday's hearings that DiNardo
has agreed to testify against Kratz. He also said prosecutors have Kratz's
confession on video, and it could be played at trial.
"We'll see if we can get the death penalty against him," Weintraub said.
While DiNardo has no chance of ever being paroled, Kratz woul have been
eligible for parole in 59 years. Since Kratz's rejected the plea deal, it's now
off the table, Weintraub said.
"The only way that I could be moved to change my mind, is if the families urged
us to do so," Weintraub said. "Because as you know, from the minute we started
this case back at the farm, we always had them uppermost in our minds and our
thoughts. And if if could spare them some of the anguish that they are going
through right this minute, we would potentially consider it."
Prosecutors say DiNardo lured the 4 young men to the DiNardo family's Solebury
Township farm with the promise of selling them marijuana before shooting them
to death then burning and burying their bodies with a backhoe.
After a 5-day manhunt, investigators found 3 of the bodies in a mass grave, but
were unable to locate Patrick's remains. DiNardo told them where Patrick was
buried after his lawyer negotiated a deal with prosecutors to take the death
penalty off the table.
A Bucks County detective testified at a prior hearing that Kratz admitted he
heard DiNardo shoot Finocchiaro and saw his body, and that he watched DiNardo
shoot Sturgis and Meo.
Detective Martin McDonough said Kratz recounted seeing DiNardo run a backhoe
over Meo to make sure he was dead. He claimed he vomited after seeing the
bodies, according to McDonough's testimony.
After the shootings, Kratz told police he watched DiNardo move the bodies into
a metal "pig cooker," which DiNardo doused with gasoline and set on fire,
according to court records. The cousins then went to a Philadelphia cheesesteak
shop for dinner, the records say.
The next afternoon, Kratz told police, the cousins returned to the farm and
DiNardo buried the bodies with the backhoe, according to court records.
Kratz allegedly confessed and showed police where he hid the 2 guns used in the
homicides, police say.
Kratz's trial is unlikely to start until 2019, Weintraub said.
(source: The Morning Call)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Prosecutors to seek death penalty in Lake Gaston home invasion, fatal fire
Prosecutors said Wednesday that they plan to seek the death penalty in a home
invasion and fatal fire in the Lake Gaston area in March.
Lester Kearney, 34, is charged with murder in the death of Nancy Alford.
Alford was killed in a fire at her home on March 9, following a home invasion
in which her husband was beaten and tied up and she was driven to Roanoke
Rapids and forced to cash a check at a credit union.
During a court hearing last month, Rev. John Alford identified Kearney as the
knife-wielding man who broke into his home on Mulberry Court in Littleton,
attacked him and kidnapped his wife.
John Alford said he later heard a loud noise and his wife screaming and
discovered a fast-moving fire in the house. He said he tried several times to
reach his wife but couldn't get to her through the flames and smoke.
Firefighters later found Nancy Alford's body in the rubble of the burned-out
house.
Co-defendant Kevin Munn, 30, pleaded guilty 2 weeks ago to a 1st-degree murder
charge in the case to avoid a possible death sentence. He also agreed to
testify against Kearney.
(source: WRAL news)
INDIANA:
What Indiana officials want to keep secret about executions
How much does the public have a right to know about how the state of Indiana
executes people?
It is a question that, effectively, strikes at the heart of capital punishment.
And it's the issue in a 4-year-old case in Marion Circuit Court that started
with a public records request by Washington attorney A. Katherine Toomey to the
Indiana Department of Corrections (DOC).
"If we win ... the Indiana public will know more about one of the most
consequential areas of decision making that the state of Indiana engages in,"
attorney Peter Racher said in an interview.
The state, however, sees it as contrary to a state law limiting what the public
can see pertaining to executions. The law was controversial because of how it
passed. After midnight on the final day of the 2017 legislative session, it was
added to a budget bill, 2 pages out of 175.
"The budget is now a death penalty bill," Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, said
at the time. "There's been no public debate. There's been no public scrutiny.
Everyone knows once it's in the budget, it's going to be law."
But Indiana is hardly alone in its desire for secrecy around what it, and 30
other states, have decided is just punishment for heinous crimes. An American
Bar Association publication last year listed at least 10 other states that
conceal how they procure execution drugs and whether those drugs are
"legitimate and effective."
The Indiana attorney general, in a court filing this week defending the DOC,
said of the public records case, "What (Toomey) truly craves ... is information
identifying the entities which provide execution drugs to the DOC."
That could be tantamount to ending or impeding capital punishment in Indiana.
Nationally, 55 % of Americans favor the death penalty, according to a 2017
Gallup poll.
The DOC and House Speaker Brian Bosma said last year, in the wake of the new
secrecy law, that anything less than anonymity would prevent companies from
selling lethal drugs for executions.
American companies want to be known for life-saving, not life-ending, drugs.
Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Company said in a statement, "We don't make or
distribute any drugs used in lethal injections."
The American maker of the drug sodium thiopental, used to render a person
unconscious before other lethal drugs are administered, stopped producing it in
2009. A federal court later banned imports of the drug.
States had to change their cocktail for executions. Last year, Indiana lost an
appeal to use a mix of drugs that had never been used before in an execution in
the United States.
As states try new mixes of lethal drugs, there have been botched executions,
one of which took 43 minutes.
Transparency in government?
Toomey's biography on the website for her law firm described her in part as
representing "groups opposing the death penalty"
Her 2014 public records request to the Indiana DOC asked for detailed
information, including how the state carries out executions, the drugs used,
the inventory of drugs intended for executions and where the drugs came from.
She also asked for certain correspondence by public officials that would
provide a window into how they arrived at their policy decisions on carrying
out executions.
After initial setbacks, she won a non-binding decision by the Public Access
Counselor and summary judgment in the Circuit Court in October 2016. The state
appealed, and lost. The state asked the Supreme Court to hear the case, and was
denied.
But that wasn't the end.
The state passed the secrecy law tacked onto the budget bill. Then state
attorneys went back to the judge, asking her to change the previous summary
judgment ruling in favor of Toomey. The secrecy law contains a provision that
it is retroactive.
Racher said the legislature's action was a thinly veiled attempt to thwart
Toomey specifically.
"You can't enact a statute directed specifically at Kate Toomey," Racher said.
"You can't say, 'This law is to affect her.' We contend that's exactly what
happened here. The state had no other request other than the one our client
made."
In its court filing this week, the state said that argument "is entirely
without merit and unsupported by prior decisions of our appellate courts."
The case will ultimately focus on the state's retroactive confidentiality law,
which Racher said is more narrow than it seems when read closely. But within
that battle, the court heard arguments Tuesday on another secrecy issue -
whether sealed evidence in the lethal injection case, obtained during
discovery, should be made public.
Again, the state fought for secrecy.
Deputy attorney general David Dickmeyer said the material is "deliberative" and
an exception to public records law. He also said the records could identify
"individuals who are involved in crafting public policy as it relates to the
death penalty. Revealing the identity of these individuals could subject them
to harassment, public shaming and even violence from those who oppose the death
penalty."
In depositions, Racher said, DOC officials said no member has received threats
regarding implementation of the death penalty. Names in the sealed documents
are also redacted.
The material, he told the court, involves "high government officials. The
notion that those individuals are unwilling to carry out Indiana public policy
for fear that their titles might become publicly accessible strikes me as
speculation."
Racher said the documents are not deliberative debates but "largely
transmittals of materials."
The state contends it has provided Toomey with all the records she requested
within the law. In a late motion last week, the state wanted Tuesday's public
hearing cancelled, saying it should not have been scheduled based on an
administrative rule. The judge denied the request. There were 5 people in the
audience at Tuesday's hearing.
Racher said in an interview the request symbolized the state's position
throughout the case.
"That's when we realized," he said in an interview, "this is insult upon insult
to anyone who cares about transparency in government and openness in
representative government."
(source: Indianapolis Star)
MICHIGAN:
How Michigan became the 1st English-speaking government to abolish the death
penalty
This Friday marks the 172nd anniversary of a uniquely Michigan milestone. On
May 18, 1846, Michigan became the 1st English-speaking government in the world
to vote and pass a measure to abolish the death penalty.
Mark Harvey, State Archivist with the Michigan History Center, joined Stateside
to talk about Michigan's progressive past. Judge Avern Cohn, the Senior United
States District Judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of Michigan, also joined the conversation.
Listen above to hear about how Michigan came to abolish the death penalty 172
years ago, and how, despite a few desperate attempts, Michiganders never felt
comfortable reviving the policy.
(source: michiganradio.org)
KENTUCKY:
Death penalty sought against man charged in Ky. officer's killing----John
Russell Hall is charged with the killing of Officer Scotty Hamilton
An attorney announced Tuesday that he will seek the death penalty against a man
charged in the murder of a Kentucky police officer.
WTVQ reported that Attorney Rick Bartley announced the move during the Officer
Appreciation Ceremony in Pikeville. John Russell Hall is charged with the March
killing of Pikeville Officer Scotty Hamilton.
On March 13, Hamilton responded to a call with Kentucky State Police and was
patrolling the area with a trooper when they saw a suspicious vehicle. After
speaking with people in the vehicle, the LEOs separated and searched around
when shots were fired.
Hamilton was found with a fatal gunshot wound. Hall led police on a 24-hour
manhunt before being captured and taken into custody.
Hall pleaded not guilty during his arraignment in March.
(source: policeone.com)
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