May 30
TEXAS:
Man found guilty of capital murder
A Bell County jury found a Central Texas man guilty of capital murder Tuesday
afternoon.
Rico Doyle, 38, was charged in the shooting deaths of Kysha D. Edmond-Gray, 42,
and De-anna Louise Buster, 38, both of whom were killed on April 21, 2015 in
downtown Killeen.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
The trial lasted a week and closing arguments were heard on Tuesday afternoon.
Doyle and Damiee Kendrick Johnson, 21, of Harker Heights both were charged in
connection with Haskins' murder, but Doyle took a plea deal and pleaded guilty
to lesser charges including criminally negligent homicide, unlawful possession
of a firearm by a felon and possession of cocaine.
He was sentenced to serve 4 years in prison in 2008.
Doyle has remained in the Bell County Jail since his arrest where he is held on
a $1.2 million bond.
Punishment phase begins Wednesday afternoon.
(source: KWTX news)
*******************
THE LIVING DEAD----The chilling account of a convicted murderer who was
sentenced to death and dragged to his execution cell ... only to be saved with
hours to spare
Kenneth Foster is not a typical death row inmate: although he was convicted of
murder, he's never actually killed anyone. More incredible still, with just
hours before his execution, he received the news every inmate wants to hear
"YOU don't understand death row until you're there," says Kenneth Foster, Jr.,
speaking from behind a thick pane of glass.
"Every day there were executions mounting up. Some of those people became my
friends, and one day that was going to be me."
At 41, Kenneth Foster has been in prison for almost 1/2 his life, with the
threat of execution hanging over him for 10 years.
In 1996 he was convicted for his role in the murder of Michael LaHood Jr, who
was shot dead outside his home in San Antonio, Texas - a state which still has
the death penalty.
Foster, then 19, was found guilty of the killing and sentenced a year later,
when the aspiring rapper became death row prisoner #99232.
But Kenneth Foster Jr. is not your conventional death row inmate, as proven by
new documentary I Am A Killer, which tells the incredible story of his crime
and punishment firsthand.
The night of the murder
On the night of August 14, 1996, Kenneth Foster was cruising between clubs with
a few mates, smoking and drinking the night away.
He was driving when his friend, "class-clown" Mauricio Brown, decided to "jack"
a few people - robbing them by jumping out of the car with the pistol he
carried.
With their pockets bulging from the $300 (224 pounds) they had robbed, Kenneth
Foster says his friends wanted to check out a new club.
As they drove towards the venue, they followed a pair of cars which, Foster
says, they assumed were going to the same place or, if not, to a nearby party.
However, they ended up down a winding residential street, where the cars
stopped outside the LaHood family home.
Kenneth Foster turned around, but when they passed back by the house, they were
surprised to see a woman standing at the bottom of the driveway gesturing at
them.
Mauricio Brown got out of the car and started talking to her, and he was
following her back up the drive when the woman's boyfriend, Michael LaHood Jr.,
appeared on the scene.
After a brief altercation, a gunshot rang out and Michael LaHood was dead on
the tarmac.
Kenneth Foster was arrested and tried alongside Mauriceo under Texas' 'law of
parties'
Knocking on death's door
Brown claimed he saw LaHood reaching for a weapon and shot him in self-defence,
although no weapon was ever found.
The state prosecution argued Brown had been planning to rob LaHood all along,
but somehow botched it and ended up murdering his target instead.
Either way, there's no doubt that Brown fired the shot, before running back
into the car and being driven away from the crime scene by Foster.
In the end, Foster was charged with murder under the Texas "law of parties",
which says guilt can fall on anyone involved in a crime, even if they didn't
carry it out themselves.
The 2 other passengers in the car were sentenced to life in prison, while Brown
and Foster were sentenced to death.
That sentence was handed down over 20 years ago, and Foster, 41, is still in
prison today.
Grey hairs are tangled in his black beard, and the tattoos which cover his neck
and sleeves and poke out from beneath a white collar.
"You don't know if people are going to try to kill you or fight you," he says
on the show, speaking in a distinct Texan accent, talking about the day he
arrived on death row at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
"It was scary and a traumatic process."
Meeting a murderer
Danny Tipping, one of the producers behind I Am A Killer, told Sun Online:
"Very little of what you read online will tell you about the characters in the
series.
"We weren't looking for anybody who denied their role in the crime, and these
guys have had a lot of time to come to terms with what they've done.
"Kenneth is genuinely remorseful - he hasn't often had the opportunity to
discuss what happened and his role in it. He just seemed very honest.
"His life has been a living hell on death row and then in maximum security, but
the people left behind - like the LaHoods - have had their lives changed
forever as well.
"You may not feel sympathy or empathy for these guys, but you'll probably come
to a level of understanding you hadn't expected before."
Dodging death
By 2006, when Mauricio Brown was executed by lethal injection, large-scale
protests were taking place across the US, with anti-death penalty campaigners
arguing that Foster's punishment was too severe for his role in the crime.
A year later, Foster received his execution date, and thousands took to the
streets to demand his life be spared.
Typically, on the day before prisoners are executed, they are moved away to a
special ward - dubbed the "death house" - where they can eat their final meal
and see their families for the last time.
But Foster was dragged away from his cell early.
Mass protests took place as the date of Kenneth Foster's execution loomed
He feared he would never be able to see his family again, and lay down on the
floor in protest, forcing wardens to carry him towards his death.
"I was scared to death," he said. "I didn't know why they were coming. I know
that I can't get executed before my execution date, but when they came to take
me out of my cell I went to the ground and refused to walk.
"There were a lot of officers armed to the teeth with handguns, shotguns,
assault rifles... enough of an arsenal to wage a small war.
"I didn't feel like I should be getting executed and I made them carry me into
the van and drive me away."
He was allowed to see his family one final time, but as Foster's relatives were
arriving, a call came from the warden.
Thanks to the public pressure, his sentence had been reduced by Texas governor
Rick Perry - just 6 hours before he was scheduled to be put to death.
Kenneth's life was saved, but he still faced 40 years in jail as a punishment
for his crime.
Life behind bars
Foster chokes up when he starts talking about the guilt he feels, and how he
has let his family down.
"This man shouldn't have lost his life," he says. "I wasn't the one who killed
him, but nevertheless I was there.
"Michael was a young man who had a lot of potential.
"A potential that was cut short."
Foster's sentence was reduced to 40 years in prison just hours before he was
due to be executed
The Foster family is campaigning to have Kenneth's sentence reduced, but
they've had a major obstacle in the way.
Only one person had the power to further amend Foster's sentence, and that's
the district attorney: Nico LaHood, the brother of murdered Michael.
"I helped my pop wash my brother's blood off the driveway," he says. "Kenneth
Foster is still saying he didn't know what they were doing, but there's no
reconciliation without truth.
"We weren't dealing with a boy scout. I will not expend resources to do
anything for him."
An uncertain future
Foster still has 18 long years left behind bars before he is eligible for
parole, and he intends to spend them building bridges.
"I want to say something which Nico and some of my supporters don't know," he
says, straight faced.
"When Michael LaHood was at the top of the driveway, he gave us the bird. In a
joking fashion, I told Maurico, 'You going to let that guy flick us off like
that?'
"That's when Mauricio jumped out the car and got up to the driveway. He just
wanted to be a tough man.
"I feel that if I hadn't said that, we'd have just drove off. I'm accepting the
guilt, and I'm accepting the blame.
"That's something I wanted to sit in front of Nico and tell him."
Since revealing this, there was another glimmer of hope for Kenneth Foster.
Having lost his election for a 2nd term, Nico LaHood is no longer the district
attorney, and he is now considering a meeting with him.
But it will take more than that for death row inmate #99232 to clear his
conscience.
"It's the worst feeling in the world to have somebody treat you so good and
give you everything you could have wanted, and for you to hurt them in the way
I've done my family," he says, speaking through tears.
"They did their best, so for me to sit here and say that I didn't have
opportunity would be wrong.
"They deserve better than what I did."
I AM A KILLER airs Tuesdays, 9pm on Crime + Investigation starting from
tonight.
(source: The Sun)
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
New Hampshire Governor Invokes Police And Victims To Justify Vetoing Death
Penalty Abolition Bill - But They Support It
New Hampshire's governor vows to veto a bill that would abolish capital
punishment in the state, citing his allegiance to law enforcement and homicide
victims' survivors - both groups that have voiced support for the legislation
and said they do not benefit from the death penalty.
The bill, SB 593, was introduced by Republican lawmakers and changes the
punishment for capital murders from death to a life sentence without parole. It
passed through the state's Republican-controlled Senate by a vote of 14-10 in
March and 223-116 in April. The legislation now awaits action from Republican
Governor Chris Sununu, who has repeatedly said he refuses to back it.
"I stand with crime victims, members of the law enforcement community and
advocates for justice in opposing a repeal of the death penalty," Sununu said
in a statement to the media after the bill passed in the House. "A top priority
of my administration has been to strengthen laws for crime victims and their
families."
But some murder victims' survivors and members of law enforcement say that
preserving the death penalty in their name is ill-informed and doesn't have any
impact on their ability to heal.
Representative Renny Cushing, a 6-term Democrat and founder of Murder Victims'
Families for Human Rights, has firsthand experience with the issue. His father
was shot to death in front of his mother nearly 3 decades ago, and his
brother-in-law was murdered by a military assault rifle seven years ago.
"I dislike it when politicians try to speak in the name of victims in
supporting the death penalty," Cushing told Shadowproof. "I resent that
proponents of the death penalty often hold up an execution as a balm for
victims' pain, but they don't realize or recognize that with the death penalty,
people don't get better. It's not a healing process."
Working 20 years as a victims' advocate in the anti-death penalty movement,
Cushing said there are hundreds of family members of victims who oppose capital
punishment.
On average, death penalty cases take more than a decade to come to a conclusion
as they move through appeals, a process that many victims' loved ones say draws
out their pain while doing nothing to provide closure.
"Like many other victims' survivors, I muddled along and came to the conclusion
that filling another coffin with an executed prisoner doesn't do the one thing
that every survivor of a murder victim wants, and that is to have their loved
ones come back," he said.
The list of crimes in which capital punishment can be used in New Hampshire is
relatively limited, applying to murders of police officers, judges, or
prosecutors, or killings during kidnappings, robberies, or rape.
The state has no execution facilities, no protocol for an execution, and no
plan for obtaining drugs for lethal injection.
It hasn't executed anyone since 1939 and there is currently just 1 man on New
Hampshire's death row: Michael Addison, who was sentenced to death for fatally
shooting police officer Michael Briggs in 2006. He is not eligible to benefit
from the legislation, which applies to persons convicted on or after January 1,
2019.
The state already spent $5.5 million on Addison's case, which includes the cost
of defense (he is an indigent defendant), prosecution, and appeals. And because
there is no one in the state's public defense office with experience with
federal post-conviction motions, taxpayers must pay out-of-state lawyers to
conduct appeals, which is expected to add several more million dollars to
expenses.
The state must also build a $1.7 million death chamber if he loses those
appeals, according to John-Michael Dumais, the campaign director for the New
Hampshire Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
This price tag is much steeper compared to non-capital homicide cases, which
can cost up to $549,995 for trials and appeals or as little as $16,350 for
cases in which there is a plea deal, according to the legislation.
There is no evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent for those who murder
law enforcement officers.
One 2008 study sponsored by the Death Penalty Information Center looked at 13
years of police homicides between 1976 and 1989 and concluded capital
punishment didn't do anything to protect officers in the field. Instead,
officers say the state should enact real reforms to help officers by
redirecting the money used on capital cases to investments in programs
assisting with issues such as suicide, post traumatic stress disorder, and
divorce.
"If those in favor of the death penalty are genuinely concerned about the lives
of officers and their families then offer real solutions and programs that are
effective in ensuring their health and safety as well as preserving the quality
of the relationships within those families," Paul Lutz, a retired 30-year
veteran of New Hampshire's Derry Police Department, said in a press conference
in May where he was joined by police and corrections officials. "The death
penalty succeeds in none of that."
John Breckinridge, who was Michael Briggs' partner, also opposes the death
penalty, penning a 2014 op-ed in the Concord Monitor in which he chronicles his
transformation from supporting capital punishment to his religious journey, in
which he concluded that it is not fit for "even my worst enemy."
Supporters of the bill delivered a petition with more than 56,000 signatures to
Sununu\'s office on May 15 asking him to back the legislation. If he does veto
the bill, the legislature could override it. There may already be enough votes
to override it in the House and proponents need to convince 2 more members of
the Senate to pass it through, according to Barbara Keshen, a former prosecutor
turned defense attorney and the chair of the New Hampshire Coalition to Abolish
the Death Penalty.
The state's lawmakers came close to passing a bill abolishing capital
punishment in 2000. It made its way through the House and Senate before being
vetoed by Democratic Governor Jeanne Shaheen.
New Hampshire is the only state in New England that allows capital punishment
and 1 of 31 states in the nation where it is still legal.
Although the use of the death penalty in the state is relatively rare, Keshen
said she and her coalition members hope their work will make a lasting impact
nationwide.
"It's important to move the needle towards a more compassionate country,"
Keshen declared. "We don't need the death penalty to protect people."
Sununu's office did not return requests for comment from Shadowproof.
(source: shadowproof.com)
MASSACHUSETTS:
Reinstate death penalty: Killers endanger prison personnel
This is a rebuttal to the Times' editorial on May 12, which opposed the death
penalty.
No prison is escape-proof: a life sentence without parole does not mean an
inmate won't attempt to or succeed in escape. This has happened enough to be a
cliche in real life and in the movies.
Prison personnel and prison guards, who have contact with a prisoner who "has
nothing to lose," are at risk of physical attack, slashed or killed by a "shiv"
(a weapon made by one who has the time and desire to injure or kill).
Prison guards, male or female, may be (and have been) taken hostage, raped,
tortured, or used as bargaining tools for inmate demands, while fellow inmate
"targets" have been beheaded, dismembered, and otherwise brutalized.
Violent prisoners are violent to other prisoners, especially the most
vulnerable. Half of the prison population is nonviolent, subject to the other
half. Prison changes environment, not behavior. We outside those walls are
"safe."
Prisoners have time and opportunity to "bulk-up" and increase their physical
strength against others in the population, or upon guards or other personnel,
and you or me, if released or escape. "Life-sentence inmates" are
opportunistic. Anything that benefits them is perceived as "good": they don't
give a damn about the lofty principles within your editorial. Given the chance
to kill or harm, violent ones will hurt, maim, kill, any who get in their way.
Solitary confinement is less and less available to contain serial killers,
in-house violators, or vicious offenders.
Prisoner advocates fight to remove or reduce solitary confinement, even for the
most dangerous inmates: the sensibilities of outsiders puts prison personnel at
constant risk: restraint, solitary, removal from the population is argued as
"cruel and unusual" without any regard to the safety of correction officers,
male or female.
We, the State, provide protein, a balanced diet, clothes, bedding, pillows,
mattresses to those who have and will set any flammable material on fire, and
risk the safety of personnel who put out these fires.
We, the State, are responsible for medical care, transport to a hospital, where
opportunistic inmates will do anything to escape, harm, destroy others or
medical equipment, in spite of "being sick, or requiring treatment" outside
prison.
We, the State, pay for TV, magazines, books, slippers, shoes, any and
everything required to house and clothe the inmate. We pay for any expensive
medications and treatments for the prisoner.
Violent prisoners use feces, urine, saliva as weapons against prison personnel.
If the inmate has HIV, or any number of communicable infections or disease,
this is dangerous to personnel. Body products may be smeared to decorate their
cell, block the window that permits personnel to check what happens beyond that
cell door. The inmate does not clean this up. State employees are charged with
cleaning dangerous "gifts" from inmates who may be sadists, obtain pleasure
from inflicting pain upon others.
Given the opportunity, violent inmates will join others, gang versus gang:
attacks, riots, chaos, organized "mayhem," turf wars, revenge against
corrections personnel or inmates. None of the above can occur when someone has
been put to death through legal execution. (This option is not here in
Massachusetts and a significant number of states).
It is lovely that some can forgive the unforgivable, but this does not protect
us.
When someone is dead they cannot harm again: no more slain police officer,
widow or widower, no brutalized K-9's or humans. Death is the only way to
prevent sadists, serial killers, killer-rapists, sociopaths who have no guilt
about harm to others, from doing heinous acts to another adult, adolescent,
child or children, the elderly, frail or disabled. Death is the only assurance
that a killer will not kill or harm innocents again.
We humans kill in war, and yet refuse to execute someone who would kill anyone
or any number of others, and has already demonstrated this. The best predictor
of future action is past behavior. To strip away the death penalty has placed
everyone in the commonwealth at risk. The illusion that this restraint is moral
or righteous is a paradox: laudable and laughable.
Ask yourself: Will this give pause to one who is about to kill a first
responder, or you?
(source: Letter to the Editor; Sebastian Mudry lives in West Harwich----Cape
Cod TImes)
**************************
Could The Death Penalty Come Back To The Commonwealth?
Following the April killing of Yarmouth police Officer Sean Gannon, Gov.
Charlie Baker called on the legislature to consider passing a law that allows
prosecutors to seek the death penalty for anyone convicted of murdering a
police officer.
Gov. Baker's call for reinstating the death penalty could fall on deaf ears.
After Yarmouth police Officer Sean Gannon was shot and killed while serving a
warrant in Barnstable on April 12, Gov. Charlie Baker and conservative
lawmakers began calling for the legislature to consider giving prosecutors the
power to pursue the death penalty against so-called cop killers. However, the
state Supreme Judicial Court struck down capital punishment in 1984 and no
legislature since has successfully reinstated the practice. Capital punishment
in general is rarely used across the country and isn't legal in 11 other states
besides Massachusetts. WGBH legal analyst and Northeastern law professor Daniel
Medwed tells Morning Edition that there's good reason capital punishment is
becoming less frequent because executions are sometimes mishandled and there
are troubling trends that show race and geography heavily influence when a
death penalty is issued.
A transcript of their interview is below and the full audio is in the link
above:
Joe Mathieu: This is WGBH's MORNING EDITION. Earlier this month Gov. Baker
announced he was considering the idea of working with lawmakers to reinstate
the death penalty in Massachusetts to apply to so-called cop killers. Joining
us to talk about the history of capital punishment in the commonwealth and to
put this development in the national context is WGBH News legal analyst and
Northeastern law professor Daniel Medwed. Morning Daniel, welcome back.
Daniel Medwed: Good morning Joe.
JM: So Massachusetts has not had the death penalty for a long time. What were
the circumstances that led the state to abolish it?
DM: That's right. Massachusetts has had a complicated relationship with the
death penalty. It was one of the first states to embrace it back in colonial
times, infamously executing dozens of people based on their religious beliefs -
including 19 people accused of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials back in the
1690s. What a history. And up until 1951 every 1st-degree murder conviction
carried with it an automatic death sentence. Things began to change
significantly in the 1970s as they did across the country and in 1984 the SJC,
our Supreme Judicial Court, formally abolished the death penalty and ruled it
unconstitutional. Now every governor or virtually every governor since then has
talked about reinstating the death penalty. Most notably and aggressively was
Gov. Romney back in the 2000s but the legislature has never bought in
completely to this initiative.
JM: How about this time? Would a possible death penalty bill fare better today
or have we seen this movie already?
DM: We've seen this movie. I think it depends. On the one hand Gov. Baker has
proposed a very limited circumscribed death penalty, one that would apply to
people accused of killing police officers. That would obviously appeal to
certain segments of the law enforcement community and also resonate with many
voters who want to reserve the death penalty for the so-called worst of the
worst. But on the other hand, polling in the last few years, especially a
Gallup poll last fall, has indicated that support for the death penalty is at
almost an all-time low. At least at numbers not seen since about 1972.
JM: We're talking with WGBH News legal analyst Daniel Medwed about the history
and perhaps future of capital punishment in Massachusetts. Why do you think
support for the death penalty has fallen so much to your point the numbers
we're seeing showing some of the lowest numbers ever?
DM: I think there are several reasons. First there is data that shows that the
death penalty is applied arbitrarily and discriminatorily based on geography
and race. For instance, in New York City there was sort of an ill-fated
experiment with the death penalty it turned out that the district attorney in
the Bronx didn't like it and never sought death whereas the district attorney
in Queens used it quite often. So your likelihood of getting the death penalty
in New York City depended on which borough you committed your crime in, sort of
an absurd result. Even worse there are statistics showing that the race of the
victim is often the determinative factor in dictating whether someone receives
death. If the victim is Caucasian, the suspect is more likely going to get a
death sentence than if the victim is African-American or Latina suggesting a
profound devaluation ... a very troubling devaluation of the lives of victims
of color.
Second there have been a lot of high-profile well-publicized botched executions
where the lethal injection cocktail simply didn't work and caused visible agony
on the part of the defendant in front of the public. Finally the emergence of
DNA technology over the past 30 years has proven beyond all shadow of a doubt
that we make mistakes, that some people are sent to death row even though
they're factually innocent.
So I think it's a combination of all those factors that led to the decline of
support for the death penalty.
JM: So back to where we started Daniel. Do you think Gov. Baker will work with
lawmakers to develop a bill and could it pass?
DM: Gosh, I like to leave those political prognostications to the scrum folks
and WGBH's Peter Kadzis, it's probably smart of me but but it won't stop me
here. I don't think it's going to happen, capital punishment is largely an
historical anachronism. It's time I think has passed for good reason. Lots of
evidence suggesting that it's cruel and unusual and abolition is likely in the
future nationwide. So I don't see it being resuscitated here in Massachusetts.
JM: WGBH News legal analyst and Northeastern law professor Daniel Medwed. We
have this talk every week on MORNING EDITION. Thanks for being with us.
(source: WGBH news)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Change of venue request denied in Stroupe trial
A judge on Tuesday denied a request to move the murder trial of Phillip Stroupe
II from Henderson County.
Stroupe is charged with the murder in the shooting death of Thomas Bryson, of
Mills River, last July.
Proseuctors say they will seek the death penalty.
Superior Court Judge Gregory Horne, of Watauga County, will preside over the
trial. On Tuesday, Horne heard pretrial motions, including the change of venue
request and a motion to delay the trial.
The trial, which was supposed to start in July, will now begin no sooner than
Jan. 28, 2019.
(source: WLOS news)
SOUTH CAROLINA:
SC father accused of killing his 5 children to claim insanity
Timothy Jones will use a rarely argued defense when he goes on trial in
Lexington County for the murder of 5 children - not guilty by reason of
insanity.
According to records in the Lexington County Courthouse, Jones' lawyers have
notified 11th Circuit Solicitor Rick Hubbard that they intend to offer an
insanity defense.
Hubbard has said he will seek the death penalty against Jones in a trial set to
begin Oct. 15.
Jones, 36, is charged with murder in the August 2014 deaths of his 5 children -
Merah, 8; Elias, 7; Nahtahn, 6; Gabriel, 2; and Elaine, 1.
Up to now, Jones' lawyers - Boyd Young and Robert Madsen - have not commented
on what defense they would offer. Neither Young nor Madsen could be reached
Tuesday.
The Red Bank father who is charged with the killing of his 5 young children
will face the death penalty and is required to undergo a psychiatric
evaluation.
Columbia defense attorney Jack Swerling, who has tried scores of murder cases
and death-penalty cases in his 40-plus years of practicing law, said Tuesday
the legal defense of not guilty by reason of insanity - called the M'Naghten
rule after a precedent-setting British case - rarely is used in South Carolina.
Sterling could not recall a single instance of the defense being successful in
a S.C. murder case.
S.C. juries want to hold a killer responsible for his or her crimes, and the
idea of finding someone not guilty by reason of insanity is contrary to that
desire, Swerling said. "People want some sort of punishment."
A defendant found guilty by reason of insanity would be committed to the state
mental facilities.
The standard for finding a person not guilty by reason of insanity is extremely
high, Swerling said.
"It, basically, means that they (the defendant) cannot tell legal or moral
right from legal or moral wrong," Swerling said. "To get to that standard, you
really have to be psychotic or delusional."
In a case involving an insanity defense, the jury likely will hear psychiatric
testimony from witnesses for both the defense and prosecution, Swerling said.
"It will be a battle of psychiatrists."
The violent deaths of Jones' children sparked national media coverage. It was
one of the largest mass killings in the Columbia area in decades.
Jones killed his children on Aug. 28, after picking them up from school and day
care, according to records in the case. 4 of the children were strangled.
Nahtahn, 6, was beaten to death, records say. All the killings took place at
his home at 2155-B South Lake Drive, records say.
6 days later, the mother of the children, Amber Jones, reported them missing
and authorities began a search. At the time, the Jones were living apart
because of marital problems, according to court records.
On Sept. 6, 2014, Jones was stopped by police in Raleigh, Miss., for driving
under the influence. During that stop, police found a "large amount of blood
and handwritten notes with directions" on how to kill and mutilate bodies.
Police also found computers.
3 days later, Jones led police to the children's bodies in a rural area near
Camden, Ala. He had transported the bodies from Lexington County to that site
in plastic garbage bags, court records say.
Jones told investigators that he thought his children planned to kill him and
then "chop him up and feed him to the dogs," records say.
A death-penalty trial has 2 phases - the guilt or innocence phase and, if there
is a guilty verdict, a sentencing phase. In that phase, jurors decide whether
the defendant gets the death penalty or life without the possibility of parole
in prison.
Evidence about Jones' claim of insanity would be presented to the jury during
the guilt or innocence phase, Swerling said. If the jury finds that Jones was
guilty in the traditional sense - responsible for actions - the defense still
could offer evidence concerning his mental state during the punishment phase as
a way of showing Jones was not fully responsible for his actions.
Amber Jones, the children's mother, is suing the S.C. Department of Social
Services, alleging that state agency failed to safeguard her children despite
repeated reports that Jones posed a danger to them. She also has filed a 2nd
lawsuit seeking damages from Lexington County retailers, alleging they sold
Timothy Jones a synthetic marijuana product that he was under the influence of
when he killed the children.
Solicitor Hubbard was not available for comment Tuesday.
However, in court documents, the solicitor asks for a judge's order to require
the defense to disclose "any and all information relating to the defendant's
mental health."
(source: thestate.com)
FLORIDA:
State attorney seeking death penalty against man accused of killing Highlands
deputy----Joseph Ables is accused of shooting Highlands Co. Deputy William
Gentry in the head.
A state attorney announced Tuesday he will seek the death penalty against the
man accused of killing Highlands County Deputy William Gentry.
Deputy Gentry was responding to a dispute in Lake Placid earlier this month
when investigators say 69-year-old Joseph Ables shot and killed him.
On Tuesday, a grand jury indicted Ables on charges of 1st-degree murder of a
law enforcement officer and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
After the indictment, Tenth Circuit State Attorney Brian Haas announced he
would seek the death penalty against Ables.
Highlands County Sheriff Paul Blackman released this statement in response to
the announcement: "Thank you to the men and women of the grand jury for their
important work. Their decision to indict this suspect for 1st-degree murder is
an important step on the road toward justice for Deputy William Gentry, his
family and all of us here at the Highlands County Sheriff's Office.
Taking the life of a law enforcement officer shows ultimate contempt for the
rule of law. The evidence uncovered by the detectives charged with the
difficult task of investigating the cold-blooded murder of their fellow deputy
fully justifies pursuit of the ultimate punishment, and I am grateful to Mr.
Haas for his decision to seek the death penalty."
(source: WFLA news)
****************************
William Reaves, who killed a sheriff's deputy in 1986, still on death row after
8 appeals
William Reaves, the man who confessed to killing an Indian River County
sheriff's deputy in 1986, inched closer to execution this month when the
Florida Supreme Court denied his 8th appeal for a re-sentencing.
Reaves, 69, fatally shot Cpl. Richard Raczkoski along State Road 60, west of
Vero Beach. He was sentenced to death in 1992 after 7 of 12 jurors recommended
the sentence.
Raczkoski is the only Indian River County deputy to have been killed in the
line of duty.
The lack of unanimity in the jurors' decision was the latest reason Reaves gave
as he petitioned for relief, since the Florida Supreme Court changed the rules
in 2016 to require a 12-0 jury vote for a death sentence.
The Florida Supreme Court shot the request down May 2. Assistant State Attorney
Ryan Butler, who is prosecuting the case, said Reaves has few options left.
Florida has been carrying out executions since the 1920s. When a jury convicts,
prosecutors seeking the death penalty must then convince a jury why that's
appropriate.
"To be eligible for the death penalty in Florida, you have to have aggravating
factors. A regular old 1st-degree murder doesn't count," Butler said.
Aggravating factors include committing a crime that is especially heinous,
atrocious, or cruel; killing for monetary gain or to evade capture; and
murdering law enforcement officers or elected officials.
"The jury's recommendation on penalty was just that - a recommendation. It
wasn't binding on the trial judge," Butler said. "The judge would make the
actual decision."
If 7 of 12 jurors recommended death, the court would typically give that
recommendation great weight, Butler said.
But in Hurst v. Florida in 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that violated
the constitution.
"The U.S. Supreme Court held that the way that Florida imposed the death
penalty on defendants violated the Sixth Amendment, because a judge, not the
jury, made the determination about whether somebody was eligible for the death
penalty," Butler said.
After the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Hurst Case, the
Florida Supreme Court in 2016 ruled juries must unanimously recommend the death
penalty for a judge to hand down the sentence.
"Then the question was - OK, what do we do now? We've got all these people on
death row," Butler said. "Is this retroactive to everybody?"
The court decided to extend the relief only to those whose direct appeals were
finalized after June 24, 2002. At least 75 pending cases were affected by that
decision, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Reaves' direct appeal was finalized in 1999, making him ineligible, the Florida
Supreme Court ruled May 2.
More than 80 death row inmates whose direct appeals were final before June 24,
2002 also have had their petitions denied, the center found. More than 80
percent of those juries were not unanimous.
The night of the murder
Deputy Raczkoski was dispatched to a pay phone booth along a rural stretch of
State Road 60 on Sept. 23, 1986. Reaves had called 911 because he had no money
for a taxi, court records show.
When the deputy showed up at the phone booth where Reaves was standing,
everything went well until a .38-caliber pistol tumbled out of Reaves'
waistband.
The deputy pleaded for his life, turned and ran. Reaves shot Raczkoski in the
back 4 times.
Reaves fled 7 miles on foot and then made it to Georgia before his arrest 2
days later.
"He confessed. There's never been an issue about his guilt. It's all been about
penalty," Butler said.
During initial interviews with sheriff's deputies, Reaves said he was high on
cocaine at the time. Reaves, who had been in and out of prison since the early
1970s, also said he didn't want to go back to prison.
Raczkoski, known by his friends and family as "Raz," was posthumously awarded
the Medal of Valor by the International Police Association. A section of State
Road 60 in Vero Beach is named the Richard Raczkoski Memorial Highway in his
honor.
Raczkoski's only son, Matthew, was born after his death.
Raczkoski worked for the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office and the Vero Beach
Police Department before joining the Indian River County Sheriff's Office in
1983.
Life on death row
Reaves has spent the past 26 years in a maximum security cell at Union
Correctional Institution in Raiford. There have been 8 appeals - 6 state and 2
federal - in Reaves' case.
A death warrant has not yet been issued, a Department of Corrections official
said. There are 347 people on death row in Florida, about 50 of whom arrived
before Reaves.
3 other convicted murderers from Indian River County are on death row:
Harold Harvey, 55: ??Shot to death William and Ruby Boyd during a robbery at
their dairy ranch in 1985. Sentenced June 20, 1986.
Rodney Lowe, 47: Fatally shot store clerk Donna Burnell at Nu Pack Market on
County Road 512 in 1990. Sentenced May 1, 1991.
Paul Evans, 46: Hired by Connie Pfeiffer to execute her estranged husband, Vero
Beach resident Alan Pfeiffer, in 1991. Sentenced June 16, 1999. Evans' sentence
is under review. Connie Pfeiffer received life in prison.
(source: tcpalm.com)
**********************************
Death penalty trial in Winter Park killing will be delayed
The murder trial of Scott Nelson, who had insisted on a trial date about 8
months after his arrest despite the lengthy preparations involved in death
penalty cases, will be delayed after all, a judge said Tuesday.
Scott Nelson faces the death penalty in the murder of Jennifer Fulford, whom he
is accused of kidnapping from her employer's Winter Park home.
Nelson wrote a letter to Circuit Judge Keith White last month in which he
complained of not having enough food at the jail and said he wanted to keep his
June 11 trial date. He was not in court Tuesday.
White did not say why proceedings will be delayed. Most of the roughly
15-minute-long hearing was held as a sidebar with attorneys. At the end, White
announced that the case will be taken off the trial docket and attorneys will
meet to discuss various motions. He did not set future court dates.
(source: Orlando Sentinel)
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