May 19
TEXAS:
Cameron Todd Willingham's Ex-Wife Changed Her Opinion After The Events Shown In
Trial By Fire
One of the most fascinating yet heartbreaking events in America’s legal system
history is brought to the big screen with Trial By Fire. The film, based on the
2009 New Yorker article also title Trial By Fire, chronicles events around late
Texas native Cameron Todd Willingham. In 1992, Willingham was convicted of
arson-related triple homicide and was executed 12 years later by the death
penalty after his 3 daughters were killed in a 1991 house fire.
While Willingham always insisted he was innocent, later evidence suggested he
was wrongly convicted and executed. His then-wife, Stacy Kuykendall, was, too,
convinced of his innocence until ultimately believing he was guilty. Kuykendall
played a major role in Willingham’s life and fate, but in the movie version she
is quite prominent. So where is Willingham’s wife now?
Since her ex-husband’s execution, Stacy Kuykendall has remained completely
under the radar. The sole exception was when she spoke out about his ultimate
fate in a 2012 interview with The Huffington Post, 8 years after his execution,
while his family members sought Willingham’s pardon. “Todd is guilty, the
criminal justice system and the courts confirmed his guilt, and he should not
be pardoned for his crimes,” Kuykendall said at the time. “My girls would have
been 23 and 21 years old today. I miss them so much.”
While Kuykendall was in Willingham’s corner and also persistent about his
innocence for years, she changed her stance shortly before his execution.“I
read that Todd’s stepmom and cousin are asking the governor for a pardon. I
don’t blame Todd’s stepmom for fighting for her son,” she continued to The
Huffington Post in 2012. “Mothers love their children and always will, no
matter what happens in their lives… I understand why she does not want to face
the facts of what he did to our girls.”
In the case, Willingham refused an offer to plead guilty in return for a life
sentence. Their daughters killed in the 1991 fire were two and one (twins), and
Willingham escaped. Kuykendall and Willingham had a tumultuous past and both
had come from troubled backgrounds. According to The New Yorker article,
Willingham had been unfaithful, drank heavily, and would physically assaulted
his partner, even while she was pregnant. They married a few months before the
fire and were a significant part of each other’s lives.
“Me and Stacy’s been together for 4 years, but off and on we get into a fight
and split up for a while and I think those babies is what brought us so close
together,” Willingham had said, per The New Yorker. “Neither one of us… could
live without them kids.” While Kuykendall admitted to investigators that she’d
been hit by Willingham, she initially defended his innocence and didn’t believe
he’d kill their children.
She also previously campaigned for his release and wrote to the governor of
Texas, “I know him in ways that no one else does when it comes to our children.
Therefore, I believe that there is no way he could have possibly committed this
crime.” However, her letter didn't work and within a year she’d filed for
divorce. Days before Willingham's execution, fire scientist Gerald Hurst
concluded there was no foul play and the fire was caused by a space heater,
however the governor declined Willingham’s reprieve. Unfortunately, by then,
Kuykendall had been swayed by the other court documents and findings.
Although Kuykendall, who was eventually convinced of her ex-husband’s guilt,
turned down many of his last requests, she was there for his execution by
lethal injection. Wilingham’s last words reinstated his innocence, but given
Kuykendall’s last public words about him, it seems that wherever she is, she
still doesn’t believe him.
(source: refinery29.com)
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Just 2 votes away from death penalty repeal
New Hampshire has debated repeal of the death penalty since Gov. Badger called
for its abolition in 1834. This year, if House and Senate vote tallies hold
during upcoming override votes, repeal will become a reality.
In 2019, bipartisan coalitions in the House and Senate passed a death penalty
repeal bill by veto-proof (66%-plus) margins. Gov. Chris Sununu then made good
on his promise to once again veto the legislation that would replace the death
penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Death penalty repeal has passed the Legislature three times, in 2000, 2018 and
2019, only to fall to the respective veto pens of Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and Gov.
Sununu, so if repealing the death penalty is important to you, now is the time
to reach out to your state representatives and senators.
The New Hampshire House has signaled that it may vote as early as this Thursday
to override the governor’s veto and if does, we strongly encourage
representatives to override the veto by once again voting in favor of repeal.
If the House overrides the governor’s veto it will move on to the Senate, where
repeal also passed by what appeared to be a veto-proof margin.
Seacoast Media Group’s editorial board has consistently called for the repeal
of the death penalty, arguing the risk of human error is too high, minorities
and poor people are disproportionately sentenced to death, it has not been
proven a deterrent to violent crime and is far more expensive to taxpayers than
sentencing someone to life without parole.
The bill’s prime sponsor, Rep. Renny Cushing, D-Hampton, who lost his father
and brother-in-law to murder, has repeatedly testified that for him and many
other family members, the death penalty hinders rather than helps healing.
“When a family member is killed, quite frankly, you don’t think about what to
do with the killer,” Cushing said. “You try to figure out what to do with the
empty chair at the kitchen table, what to do with the emptiness in your heart
and you go through a whole process that lasts forever of trying to regain
control over your life.”
Cushing was one of many House members to provide moving testimony in February.
Rep. David Welch, R-Kingston, a longtime death penalty supporter, said the
recent death of his wife had given him insight into the grief felt not just by
the victim’s family but the killer’s family as well.
“Both families are innocent and they’re both going through the same thing,”
Welch said. “I just don’t think it’s a good policy for our government to
execute people.”
We also appreciated the testimony of former Attorney General Phil McLaughlin,
who said he kept a photo on his desk of a man he successfully prosecuted, who
was sentenced to death only to later be exonerated by DNA evidence. The photo
served as a reminder that he was “absolutely certain about something, but was
dead wrong.”
We also take McLaughlin’s words to heart regarding our own position on death
penalty repeal. Our endorsement of repeal should in no way be interpreted as
disrespectful to those who believe the death penalty provides justice and
serves as a deterrent to violent crime, particularly to law enforcement
officers like Michael Briggs, a Manchester police officer who was killed in the
line of duty in 2006 and whose killer, Michael Addison, is New Hampshire’s lone
death row inmate.
In February, the editorial board wrote: “We need to be humble when discussing
matters of life and death and to our best to objectively and dispassionately
weigh the evidence and then act as our consciences dictate.”
When the House and Senate voted on the death penalty bill in February and
March, veto-proof majorities supported repeal. We fervently hope to see those
majorities hold when the two bodies vote in response to the governor’s veto.
(source: fosters.com)
******************
End the death penalty once and for all
New Hampshire has debated the merits and morality of the death penalty for
nearly 2 centuries.
In 1834 New Hampshire Gov. William Badger became the 1st state chief executive
to call for its abolition. Since then, every developed nation and 20 U.S.
states have renounced capital punishment. New Hampshire is poised to join them.
On Thursday, the House is expected to vote on Gov. Chris Sununu’s veto of House
Bill 455, which would repeal the death penalty and replace it with prison for
life with no hope of parole as the state’s ultimate punishment. A Senate vote
would then follow.
There are many reasons for lawmakers to do so. Here are just some of them.
The death penalty is final, but humans are fallible. More than a dozen people,
according to the Death Penalty Information Center, are believed to have been
executed despite their innocence. In 2013, Kirk Bloodsworth, a recently
discharged Marine who was convicted of raping and murdering a 9-year-old
Maryland girl, met with the Monitor’s editorial board. He was sentenced to
death and spent nearly nine years behind bars before becoming, in 1993, the
first person to be exonerated by DNA evidence.
In 1997, acting on the advice of then New Hampshire Attorney General Philip
McLaughlin, police charged a man for the rape and murder of Elizabeth Knapp, a
Hopkinton 6-year-old. DNA evidence proved the charged man innocent. Another man
was convicted and sentenced to 60-100 years in prison. McLaughlin is now a
prominent death penalty opponent.
This year Concord Reads, the city’s one city, one book program, read Ghost of
the Innocent Man by author Benjamin Rachlin, a 2004 Concord High graduate. His
book tells the tale of a North Carolina man wrongly convicted of rape who
served 25 years before he was cleared, again by DNA evidence. His alleged crime
could have been punished with death.
It’s human to make mistakes. No system can guarantee that society won’t put an
innocent person to death. Because it cannot offer that guarantee, it should not
levy the death penalty. All evidence shows that the death penalty has not and
cannot be administered impartially. Sadly, the race of the victim and of the
accused matter. Money matters.
Hundreds of studies have proven that capital punishment does nothing to prevent
future murders, not of civilians, not of members of law enforcement.
For the third time since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in
1977, New Hampshire lawmakers voted to repeal the death penalty. All 3 efforts
were vetoed, the first by then Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, and twice by
the state’s current governor, Chris Sununu.
New Hampshire’s volunteer Legislature is the most representative body in the
United States and perhaps on Earth. It is the voice of the people, and it has
again said “No” to the death penalty. Its vote deserves to prevail.
Life in prison, as many inmates have said, is a penalty worse than death. It is
not leniency and does not dishonor victims, as many who’ve lost family members
to murder have testified.
A state, nation or society that sanctions killing in the government’s name
cannot simultaneously be a society that says all killing save in defense of
self or others is wrong. Let the bells toll in celebration when the governor’s
veto is overridden, and New Hampshire joins all the governments that have come
to see that capital punishment is an artifact of a more barbarous past.
(source: Editorial, Concord Monitor)
DELAWARE:
General Assembly to consider bringing back death penalty
Some Delaware lawmakers want to reinstate the death penalty in the First State.
The bill to bring back capital punishment is similar to 2017 legislation passed
by the House, but died in a Senate committee.
This new version, which has bipartisan support, would reinstate capital
punishment for serious crimes. The sponsors, like State Rep. Steve Smyk
(R-Milton), say the death penalty acts as a deterrent and reduces crime.
“Delaware has a history of having the death penalty, having it actually either
discontinued or being questioned so there’s a stay on the death penalty and
that’s when it seems that heinous crimes actually occur,” said Smyk.
The Delaware Supreme Court struck down the state’s death penalty as
unconstitutional in 2016 because the sentence was left in the hands of a judge
after a jury recommendation. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled a similar system in
Florida unconstitutional.
The new legislation would require a jury to find unanimously there were
aggravating factors to sentence a defendant to death and have the judge agree.
Gov. John Carney (D) says he would only consider supporting the death penalty
for people who kill law enforcement officers.
He points to the 2017 riot at Vaughn Correctional Center where an officer died.
“Many of those people involved in it were serving life, life without parole. So
there’s nothing that you could… nothing that… worse frankly for them to do if
they go and kill their correctional officer and we know that that happened,”
said Carney.
The Delaware Democratic Party released a statement opposing reinstatement of
capital punishment. It says the death penalty has been arbitrarily and unjustly
applied.
(source: Delaware First Media)
SOUTH CAROLINA:
Woman faces new charge of murder in connection with fatal home invasion,
reports show----An 8-year-old boy was killed early May 14 during a home
invasion at a home in the Oak Grove community of Lexington County. Police said
the intruder wore a ski mask.
New charges against a woman who lived in a house where a child was killed offer
potential clues in what may have transpired that night.
Linda Lyn Monette lives at the Cedar Vale Drive home in Lexington where a
Tuesday home invasion and shooting occurred, a warrant says.
According to court records filed Saturday, she is now being charged with murder
and attempted murder in an alleged conspiracy to commit robbery. Authorities
also charged her with 1st-degree burglary, records show.
On Tuesday, the house was the site of a shootout just after midnight. A man
pulled up to the house and broke in, Lexington deputies said. What happened in
the house is unclear, but shots were fired and 8-year-old Mason Hanahan was
shot. He was pronounced dead shortly after being taken to a hospital, Coroner
Margaret Fisher said.
Later Tuesday, Lexington deputies charged Monette with intent to sell
marijuana. Police found a large amount of money in the home as well as packing
materials typically used to sell marijuana, according to the warrant. The items
were found while investigators searched the house following the shootout.
Police have not yet identified a man seen driving away from the house after the
shots were fired. Authorities have no description of him because he wore a
mask. The intruder may have been shot, police said in a news release.
Warrants says Monette has hindered the investigation, prompting police to
charge her with obstruction of justice, according to jail records.
She is currently at Lexington County Detention Center on $40,000 bond. She will
wait in jail for a state court judge to set bond for the murder charge.
Murder and 1st-degree burglary are punishable with life in prison. At minimum,
a murder conviction comes with a 30-year sentence. If found guilty of burglary,
a person must serve at least 15 years. A murder conviction can lead to the
death penalty if it’s proved the murder was committed while in the commission
of a burglary or robbery or if the victim is a child less than 11-years-old.
Attempted murder carries a mandatory minimum of 30 years. For robbery, a judge
can give someone 10 to 30 years. The crime of conspiracy is punishable with up
to 5 years.
(source:thestate.com)
FLORIDA----impending execution
Justices reject appeal as execution looms
With the scheduled execution of serial killer Bobby Joe Long less than a week
away, the Florida Supreme Court on Friday rejected a challenge to his death
sentence.
Justices unanimously turned down a series of arguments filed by Long’s
attorney, including that Long should be resentenced because scientific advances
have increased knowledge about brain injuries and brain damage. Those issues
related to arguments that Long has a brain injury and a type of epilepsy.
“None of the scientific advances at issue establishes that traumatic brain
injury or temporal lobe epilepsy is the sole cause of offenses such as those
that Long committed against the victim in this case; nor do they negate the
sentencing court’s finding that the evidence is inconsistent with Long’s claim
that he could not control his behavior,” the Supreme Court opinion said. “In
light of the evidence that would be available in any resentencing proceeding,
including evidence establishing some of the weightiest aggravators in Florida’s
capital sentencing scheme, the alleged newly discovered evidence is not of such
a nature that it would probably yield a less severe sentence in a new penalty
phase.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis in April signed a death warrant for Long and scheduled the
execution for next Thursday.
Long was sentenced to death in the May 1984 murder of Michelle Simms after
picking her up on Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa. In 1985. Long, now 65, also
pleaded guilty to 7 additional 1st-degree murder charges and numerous charges
for sexual batteries and kidnappings in the Tampa Bay region.
(source: Northwest Florida Daily News)
ALABAMA:
Lionel Francis set to go on trial Monday in the fatal shooting of 20-month-old
daughter
A Huntsville man is set to go on trial Monday for capital murder in the May
2016 killing of his 20-month-old daughter.
Lionel Francis and Ashley Ross were the parents of Alexandria Francis.
Ashley Ross told WHNT News 19 after the shooting that Lionel Francis was never
abusive to her or their daughter.
Madison County Assistant District Attorney Tim Douthit said that during
Francis’ preliminary hearing police investigators found the shooting followed
an argument between the couple at their home on Lockwood Court.
“As a result of that fight, or maybe for some other reason,” Douthit said. “He
essentially went into the bedroom, took the gun, cocked it, pointed it at his
daughter’s head and pulled the trigger.
Francis waited for police at the scene. He told investigators it was an
accident. He is represented by Huntsville attorney Bruce Gardner.
The state of Alabama wants the ultimate punishment.
“We are seeking the death penalty in this case,” Douthit said.
The jury panel will include about 80 people.
Douthit said the jury pool will get a lengthy questionnaire. He expects it may
take into Wednesday before a jury is finalized.
Shortly after the shooting Ross also told WHNT News 19 that Lionel Francis was
an active, devoted father.
(source: WHNT news)
OHIO:
Ohio House bill would end death penalty for killers with ‘serious mental
illness’
A bill working its way through the state legislature seeks to prevent a death
sentence for killers with a “serious mental illness.”
House Bill 136, which has bipartisan support, aims to prevent a death sentence
in cases of aggravated murder in which the offender is deemed by professionals
to have had a serious mental illness at the time of the offense.
Rep. Brett Hudson Hillyer, a Uhrichsville Republican and the bill’s primary
sponsor, testified last month before the House Criminal Justice Committee,
saying the death penalty should be reserved for only the worst offenders.
“Ohioans may be split on the issue of legality concerning the death penalty,”
he said, “but most will concede executing an individual found to be suffering
from a serious mental illness at the time of the crime is neither fair nor
just, and this punishment should be reserved for those who have intentionally
done.”
The bill has support from several mental health advocacy groups, including the
Ohio Psychological Association, the Ohio Psychiatric Physician’s Association
and the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Ohio (NAMI Ohio).
“We are not asking for people to not be responsible for their behavior,” said
Terry Russell, executive director of NAMI Ohio. “However, people with these
mental illnesses don’t always know what they’re doing. We don’t think it’s
ethically or morally right to take their life because of it.”
The bill gives two criteria for deciding whether a person has a “serious mental
illness,” both of which must apply. The first is that a person must be
diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, major
depressive disorder or delusional disorder.
Second, at the time of the murder, the person’s condition must have
“significantly impaired the person’s capacity to exercise rational judgment” in
following the law, or appreciating the consequences or wrongfulness of their
actions. The condition in these cases would not meet the standard to be found
“not guilty by reason of insanity” or “incompetent to stand trial.”
The diagnosis of one of the listed conditions can come before or after the
murder in question. Having the diagnosis after the fact does not prevent the
person from proving that he or she had a “serious mental illness” at the time
of the crime.
Under the bill’s provisions, if a capital defendant is found to have had a
“serious mental illness” when he committed the crime, he cannot be sentenced to
death.
Instead, the judge handing down the sentence must give the person life in
prison without parole, life in prison with parole eligibility after 25 or 30
years, or a special type of life sentence under the Sexually Violent Predator
Sentencing Law.
In addition, the law allows death row inmates to petition for resentencing if
they had a serious mental illness when they committed their crimes. If
successful, those inmates would be given a life sentence instead.
Ohio prosecutors have opposed the legislation throughout the process. Allen
County Prosecutor Juergen Waldick, testified that the resentencing provision
will overwhelm the courts.
“Proponents have argued that they believe only a few people on death row would
meet the standards provided by the bill,” he said. “Nevertheless, it is likely
that every single person on death row would file such a motion. This would
create even more litigation just to confirm that the person was properly
sentenced 10, 15 or 20 years ago.”
Despite that, proponents still stand behind the bill.
“The stigma of these illnesses is so misunderstood in the community,” Russell
said. “When the law is broken, we’re not going to use mental health as an
excuse. We send them to treatment facilities instead of prisons.”
(source: Columbus Dispatch)
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