July 11
TEXAS:
San Antonio man facing death row in killing of 2 teens in 2015 takes plea
A San Antonio man facing death in the killings of two teenagers in 2015 entered
a guilty plea Wednesday and was sentenced to life in prison without the
possibility of parole.
It was about a year ago that proceedings in Brian Flores’ capital murder case
ended in a mistrial because one of his lawyers was injured in a fall. The
incident called into question whether the lawyer would be able to finish
selecting a jury, which in death cases can take up to a month to seat.
Flores was 33 and already in jail on 2 other charges when he was arrested and
charged with capital murder-multiple persons in the deaths of Joshua Rodriguez,
18, and Victoria Dennis, 17. The homicides occurred at the Churchill Park
complex in the 1200 block of Patricia Drive on the North Side on Sept. 29,
2015.
(source: mysanantonio.com)
PENNSYLVANIA:
DA to seek death penalty in child stabbing
Lawrence County's district attorney said he intends to pursue the death penalty
against Keith L. Burley Jr., who was arrested in Monday night's stabbing death
of an 8-year-old boy in Union Township.
Burley was apprehended Tuesday morning in Youngstown following the fatal
stabbing of Mark Edward Mason. The homicide took place in the presence of three
other boys who were inside the house on High Street where the attack occurred.
The other boys witnessed the stabbing but escaped the house.
"I can't get into specific details," Josh Lamancusa said Wednesday, "but I can
share that this little boy died a hero, saving his brother and the other
children in the house."
Lawrence County Deputy Coroner Rich Johnson, who attended the autopsy at
Heritage Valley Health System in Beaver County, determined that Mark Mason died
of multiple stab wounds to the neck, and that the manner of death was homicide.
Johnson would not say how many times the child had been stabbed, only that the
information would be released at later court proceedings once Burley is brought
to Lawrence County to face the charges.
An angry Lamancusa said that he has contacted the governor's office, demanding
to know why Burley was released from state prison a couple of months ago after
serving only the minimum sentence of a previous homicide conviction, when he
also has a trail of convictions of other violent crimes, some involving guns.
Burley also has a conviction for having stabbed an inmate in the neck in the
Lawrence County jail in 2002.
Burley had been released on parole from the March 19,1999, robbery shooting
death of 36-year-old Randall Stewart in the Halco Drive area. According to a
1999 police report provided by New Castle police chief Bobby Salem, Burley
initially faced 90 different charges in the Stewart shooting, including
homicide and robbery, but he entered a guilty plea to 1 count each of
3rd-degree murder and having a gun without a license. He was sentenced to 20 to
40 years in a state correctional institution as a result.
"The (state) parole board released a guy who is a repeat violent and dangerous
offender," Lamancusa said. "That is ridiculous. I can't imagine what the parole
board was considering when they released him at the minimum. I find it hard to
believe anyone could have looked at his past record and determined that he's
not a threat or danger to the community.
"Now we have the confirmation of the depth of his depravity, sadly."
"I will be pursuing the death penalty," Lamancusa declared of the Monday
stabbing. "It's a horrific case.
To do so, he will have to sign a notice of aggravated circumstances and file it
in the courts. The notice will set forth the reasons, including the aggravated
circumstances, to justify it.
"I think Burley meets several of the requirements," Lamancusa said.
Burley remains in the Mahoning County jail, awaiting an extradition hearing
that is scheduled for Thursday. It was unknown Wednesday when he would be
returned to Lawrence County to face his charges.
According to a criminal complaint and reports from authorities, Burley had
gotten into an argument that turned physical with his alleged girlfriend in the
parking lot of the New Castle Fire Department on Monday night. He allegedly
assaulted and injured the woman, and she was taken to the hospital for
treatment.
In the course of their argument, he is accused of getting into her vehicle
where her 2 sons — Mark Mason and his 7-year-old brother — were waiting, and
driving off with them to the house at 60 High St., which was the home of
another acquaintance.
2 other boys, ages 15 and 8, were upstairs playing video games when they heard
someone entering downstairs, the complaint states, about half an hour after the
dispute at the fire station. The boys went downstairs to see who was there and
Burley was there with the two boys and was holding a gun, according to the
account they gave the state police.
He directed the 2 boys to go and find the magazine for it, and when they came
out of a bedroom, the older one described how he saw Burley stabbing Mark
Mason. They ran out of the house to get help and call 911, according to the
paperwork. No one else was home at the time.
(source: New Castle News)
NORTH CAROINA:
Death penalty off the table for Dixon; new sentencing hearing scheduled for
next week
News 13 has learned convicted murderer Nathaniel Dixon no longer faces the
death penalty.
We confirmed with defense attorney Vicki Jayne on Monday, July 8 that the
Buncombe County District Attorney’s office took the death penalty option off
the table.
One expert says it's an uncommon move at this point in the trial.
“It is unusual for death to be taken off the table that late in the game,” said
Jeff Welty, a law professor at UNC’s School of Government. "Typically, a DA
makes that decision to proceed capitally at the beginning of a case. It might
be the victim’s family has decided they’re not interested in the death penalty.
It might be a change of heart on what the prosecutor feels is just. It could be
a lot of different factors.”
(source: WLOS news)
FLORIDA:
Death-penalty trial date set for Loxahatchee mother in starved infant case
Kristin Meyer will go on trial before her husband, Alejandro Aleman, in the
death of their 13-month-old, Tayla, in April 2016.
The mother accused of starving her baby girl with her husband is set to start
her death-penalty trial in September before a different judge, court records
show.
Kristen Meyer, 45, is scheduled to appear before Circuit Judge Cheryl Caracuzzo
on Sept. 20 to begin jury selection in her 1st-degree murder trial. According
to the order signed by Circuit Judge Joseph Marx, three weeks have been
reserved for the trial and the possible penalty phase if Meyer is found guilty
of killing her daughter, Tayla Aleman.
Meyer and her husband, Alejandro Aleman, are accused of starving Tayla, the
youngest of the couple’s 10 children at the time of her death on April 1, 2016.
When she died, the 13-month-old weighed 7 pounds. Investigators said that was 2
fewer pounds than when she was born. An emergency-room doctor called Tayla’s
starvation death the worst he had ever seen.
Originally, the parents were set to be tried together before Marx, but Meyer’s
attorney, Assistant Public Defender Stephen Arbuzow, and Aleman’s appointed
attorney, Michael Salnick, agreed to sever the cases during a hearing June 28.
Though Meyer’s case has been added to Caracuzzo’s docket, Aleman’s case will
remain before Marx, adding to a growing list of high-profile trials he’s
handled this year.
The day before the Aleman and Meyer’s case was severed, Marx finished the
nearly month-long death penalty trial of Christopher Vasata. Vasata was
convicted of fatally shooting Sean Henry, Brandi El-Salhy and Kelli Doherty in
Jupiter in February 2017, but was spared the death penalty by the jury.
This year, Marx also was the judge overseeing the trial of former Palm Beach
Gardens police officer Nouman Raja, the first police officer in Florida in 3
decades to be criminally convicted for taking a life while on duty. Raja was
sentenced to 25 years in prison for the 2015 fatal shooting of stranded
motorist Corey Jones.
Aleman will be back in court Oct. 28, when a possible trial date will be set.
(source: Palm Beach Post)
OHIO:
Life sentence for former Cleveland death row inmate Kelly Foust brings end to
long legal battle
A Cleveland killer and serial rapist who had his 2002 death sentence overturned
on appeal was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with no chance for parole.
Kelly Foust, 42, struck a deal with Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael
O’Malley’s office to avoid facing the death penalty once again in the 2001
claw-hammer killing of Jose Coreano and the rape of a 17-year-old girl.
Foust agreed to spend the rest of his life in prison and not to appeal any
aspect of his conviction or sentence in exchange for O’Malley’s office dropping
its pursuit to have the state execute him.
Common Pleas Court Judges Cassandra Collier-Williams, Hollie Gallagher and
William McGinty accepted the agreement and imposed the life sentence.
The 25-minute hearing brought a close to a protracted legal battle over Foust’s
re-sentencing that stretched over 8 years.
The woman Foust was convicted of raping when she was 17 years old said the
hearing was bittersweet. She told the judges she wanted Foust to pay with his
life, but was looking forward to trying to move on with her life.
“I’m done thinking about him," the woman, now in her 30s, told the judges
Wednesday.
Foust declined to say anything on his own behalf before the judges imposed his
sentence.
Foust broke into a home in the middle of the night in March 2001, looking for
his estranged girlfriend. He beat the sleeping Coreano to death with a claw
hammer, then raped the girl and set fire to the house.
The woman told judges Wednesday that memories of the attack haunted her for
years. She was afraid of being alone and afraid to go to sleep, in case another
attacker was lurking.
“Fear crept in as soon as the sun went down,” she said.
(source: cleveland.com)
TENNESSEE:
More Accused Fentanyl Dealers Charged With Murder As Tennessee Threatens Death
Penalty
2 men have been charged with 2nd-degree murder for dealing heroin laced with
fentanyl. They're accused of killing a 30-year-old from Murfreesboro as
Tennessee law enforcement is increasingly turning to homicide charges stemming
from overdose deaths.
These 2nd-degree murder charges in the death of Justin Brent of Murfreesboro
originated with a state investigation into a series of overdoses in Middle
Tennessee last year. Police say the heroin was cut with potent fentanyl, which
can be deadly in much smaller doses.
Tennessee is among 20 states where a drug dealer can face murder charges. This
month, it's joined a much smaller group of states. House Majority Leader
William Lamberth pushed through a new law that took effect July 1, permitting
capital punishment for a murder involving fentanyl.
"That would be an aggravating factor that could be placed in front of a jury
for them to decide whether the death penalty would be appropriate," he said
during one committee hearing.
The bill passed unanimously, resulting in no debate.
But addiction advocates say the heightened penalties are counterproductive and
might keep some drug users from calling 911 when a friend overdoses.
(source: nashvillepubicraio.org)
NEBRASKA:
Guilty: Aubrey Trail could face death penalty following murder conviction
The jury Wednesday night found Aubrey Trail guilty of the 1st-degree murder of
24-year-old Sydney Loofe, who was lured from her home in Lincoln on the guise
of a Tinder date and strangled in his basement apartment here in 2017.
Trail, surrounded by sheriff’s deputies, showed no emotion as Amber Mulbery,
clerk of the Saline County District Court, read the verdicts just after 7 p.m.:
guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
A friend of the Loofe family broke out in tears at the news, and Loofe's sister
and mother wiped away tears as they left the courtroom.
In the morning, they had been there, too, as the state painted a picture of
Trail and his fiance, Bailey Boswell, as a counterculture couple intent on
making a kill, stalking their prey as she drove to work that day and shopping
for the tools to dismember her body hours before they carried out the crime.
Assistant Attorney General Mike Guinan said at 6:59 p.m. on Nov. 15, 2017, when
Loofe got in Boswell’s car, her fate was sealed.
“She got in that car and she was dead. It was just a matter of when,” the
prosecutor said.
The defense painted a different picture using the state’s own cross examination
of Trail a day earlier, when Assistant Attorney General Doug Warner said Trail
had meticulously planned a half million dollar con of a Kansas couple,
suggesting Trail wasn’t one to act on impulse.
"This was not meticulously planned," Joe Murray told the jury. "There was no
rhyme or reason to it.”
No plan equals no premeditation and no 1st-degree murder, he argued before
Trail's case went to the jury of 6 men and 6 women shortly before 4 on
Wednesday afternoon, 3 weeks after opening statements in the closely watched
trial.
For months leading up to jury selection, Trail maintained that Loofe's death
was an accident, happening while being choked consensually during sex. But his
story changed Tuesday when he testified and admitted he hadn’t paid Loofe to
participate in a sexual fantasy, two other women weren’t there when it happened
and there was no video, all of which he’d previously told FBI agents.
In closing arguments, Murray admitted Trail had blindsided him, but said
Trail’s story never changed about one thing — that he’d strangled her
accidentally.
"The forensic pathologist can’t tell if the death was accidental or
intentional. I suggest neither can you,” he said.
But Guinan said it wasn’t just the pathologist’s findings, which were
consistent with Loofe’s death being intentional, it was all the rest of the
evidence. Three women who were part of their group testified that Trail and
Boswell had talked for months about wanting to kill.
“Who’s credible? Aubrey Trail?” the prosecutor asked. “He changed the story
about the death of Sydney Loofe before your eyes.”
Guinan said Boswell had isolated Loofe the night of her death, first taking her
away from her home and friends in Lincoln to the apartment in Wilber, then
taking away her last lifeline: her phone.
“This is clearly not some sexual fantasy gone wrong. This is a premeditated
murder gone right,” he said.
Guinan contends that between 8:08 that night, when Loofe’s phone connected with
a cellphone tower in Wilber, and 8:40, when her mom sent a text that never was
received, she died.
"They had her there, and they pounced on her,” he said.
Not by mistake, not by accident, Guinan said. He said she was intentionally
killed, backed up by evidence during the autopsy that pointed to Loofe fighting
to survive — scrapes and bruising on her back and shoulder and a bump on her
head — but it was two against one, and one of them was Trail, a 300-pound man,
he said.
Guinan said he believes Trail and Boswell followed Loofe to work at noon that
day and that Trail went inside, passing within feet of her, intending to see
who they were going to kill.
“The two of them had been planning, scheming and lusting after, desiring a
murder for months. That’s what we have here,” he said.
Then they dismembered her, cutting her into at least 14 pieces, something that
Guinan suggested was gratuitous, and disposed of Loofe's body on the side of
the road like it was garbage. The next day, they went to a casino, where over
the next two days they gambled and played strip poker in a hotel room with
another woman “and talked about killing more people,” he said.
Murray said it was just that -- talk -- and much of it coming from the Stephen
King book "Dr. Sleep."
“We’ve got a bizarre cast of characters in this case. You don’t need me to tell
you that,” the defense attorney told the jury.
There was the young woman fascinated by serial killers and torture who
sometimes liked to act like a cat, wearing a collar and nothing else and eating
out of a pet dish on the floor. And another young woman who, minutes after
meeting Trail, told him she wanted her stepdad who abused her years earlier
killed.
“There was a lot of talk by these people about a lot of things, but nothing
ever acted on,” Murray said.
He said Trail also lacked any kind of plan to get rid of the body or get away,
leaving most of their belongings behind in Wilber, apparently intending to
return. They bought maps of Iowa and the Texas-Mexico border but scrapped going
to Mexico because they didn’t have passports. They considered camping out in a
national park but didn’t know where to find one.
“Yeah, that’s some plan,” Murray said.
But Guinan, on the other side, said they just didn’t think they’d get caught.
“They thought they had committed the perfect crime. What they did not count on
were the dominoes that fell so soon after,” he said.
Within days, investigators had Boswell's and Trail’s names, Guinan said. He
said Loofe’s disappearance was the kind of case that could’ve gone cold fast
but for the actions of investigators, worried family and persistent friends.
"But what happens? Sydney Loofe solves her own crime,” he said, pointing to the
text Loofe sent a friend with a photo of the woman she’d met on Tinder and was
going on a date with that night. It was Boswell.
The jury of 6 men and 6 women who started hearing Trail's case June 18
deliberated for less than 3 hours before word spread that they had reached a
verdict.
After, attorneys outside the courtroom declined comment. In a news release, the
Attorney General’s Office said they were “pleased with the determination of the
jury in today’s decision."
"We offer our sympathy again to the Loofe family, hoping our system of justice
provides some form of solace to them for their loss of their daughter Sydney,"
the news release said.
Trail faces a possible death sentence, if the same set of jurors find evidence
of aggravating factors when they return to court for the second phase of the
trial on Thursday.
A 3-judge panel ultimately would determine if he gets capital punishment or
life in prison.
Boswell's trial is scheduled for later this year on a single count of
1st-degree murder.
(source: Lincoln Journal Star)
NEW MEXICO:
NM lawmakers visit state prison, view execution chamber
Behind fences topped with razor wire, New Mexico’s old death chamber sits
empty.
A red phone still hangs on the wall – a relic from when the governor could halt
an execution at the last moment.
But there’s no steel table – or much of anything else – left in the
80-square-foot room, which lies inside a small, musty building at the
Penitentiary of New Mexico.
A handful of New Mexico legislators this week got a rare peek at the execution
chamber as part of a tour led by state prison officials. It’s where
child-killer Terry Clark died in 2001, strapped down and pumped with a lethal
combination of drugs.
“I’m just relieved we don’t need this any longer,” Democratic Rep. Gail Chasey
of Albuquerque said after seeing the execution chamber.
She sponsored the 2009 legislation that ended New Mexico’s death penalty and
replaced it with a life sentence, without the possibility of parole. Just last
month, the state Supreme Court vacated the death sentences imposed on two
inmates convicted before the 2009 repeal.
The group of lawmakers touring the state penitentiary passed by a mural
honoring correctional officers who died in the line of duty, visited classrooms
where inmates pursue general equivalency diplomas, and stopped inside a library
filled with well-worn paperback books.
James Patterson – author of thrillers and other novels – is a popular request.
Chasey was 1 of 6 Democratic lawmakers who toured New Mexico’s 864-bed
maximum-security prison, just south of Santa Fe. The tour was part of Monday’s
agenda for the legislative Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, though
most committee members skipped the tour.
Chasey, co-chairwoman of the committee, said she wishes more lawmakers would
visit the prison, to see first hand the restrictive conditions imposed on
inmates.
Rep. Eliseo Alcon, a Milan Democrat and former correctional officer himself,
said it’s important for lawmakers to see for themselves the conditions inside
the prison.
“We’re responsible for these people,” he said.
Alcon worked in the old main prison from 1975-77 – later the site of a vicious
riot that killed 33 inmates in 1980.
Lawmakers this week didn’t have any direct contact with inmates during the
3-hour tour, but men in yellow prison jumpsuits could be seen through cell-door
windows and in day rooms. The penitentiary holds inmates of the
highest-security classifications.
Prison officials told legislators that they are trying to promote learning in a
classroom setting to help rehabilitate inmates, rather than in noisy prison
units. They also are tapping the inmates themselves to lead some programs – an
arrangement that promotes peer learning and also provides a sense of purpose.
“When they have to start caring for someone else, that’s when you see the
transformation,” said Anthony Romero, deputy director of adult prisons.
(source: Albuquerque Journal)
UTAH:
Mackenzie Lueck slaying suspect charged with murder and desecration
A man jailed on suspicion of killing Mackenzie Lueck, a 23-year-old University
of Utah student from El Segundo, was charged Wednesday with aggravated murder
and desecration of a human body days after police found the woman’s charred
remains buried in a shallow grave.
Ayoola Ajayi, 31, also is facing counts of aggravated kidnapping and
obstruction of justice related to Lueck’s slaying, Salt Lake County Dist. Atty.
Sim Gill said.
Ajayi would be eligible for the death penalty if convicted of the charge of
aggravated murder, but prosecutors have not decided whether they plan to pursue
it.
“I think it would be premature to talk about the death penalty,” Gill said.
Ajayi was arrested on suspicion of Lueck’s death last month after authorities
searched his house and found a human bone, charred human tissue that matched
the woman’s DNA and some of her personal items in a freshly dug area in the
backyard, Gill said.
Investigators also found burned black fabric and buckles in an alley near his
home that were taken into evidence, Gill said. Authorities, however, did not
find Lueck’s body until last week, when investigators say data from Ajayi’s
cellphone led them to a secluded area in Logan Canyon, roughly 80 miles from
Salt Lake City.
Lueck’s body was buried in a shallow grave in the heavily forested area. Her
arms had been bound behind her back with a zip tie and a rope. Coroner’s
officials determined that she died of blunt force trauma to the left side of
her head, Gill said.
Lueck, a pre-nursing student at the state’s flagship university in Salt Lake
City, went missing June 17 after arriving at the Salt Lake City airport
following her grandmother’s funeral in Los Angeles. Her disappearance, which
was reported to police by her father on June 20, quickly gained national
attention.
Investigators said that after Lueck arrived at the airport, she took a Lyft to
a park in North Salt Lake, where she was picked up by Ajayi in the early
morning. Records showed her phone was turned off shortly after she arrived at
the park and was never powered back up.
Records also showed Ajayi was the last person Lueck communicated with using her
cellphone, though he denied having contact with her that day, authorities said.
Gill said Ajayi purchased a red gas can — later found in the trunk of his car —
around 9 a.m. June 17. A neighbor told police she detected a “horrible smell”
coming from his backyard later that day, according to the district attorney.
Gill declined to comment on any prior interaction between Lueck and Ajayi or
the nature of their communications. Authorities have not provided a possible
motive in the slaying.
“This continues to be an ongoing, active investigation,” Gill said. “It has not
come to a conclusion.”
According to inmate records, Ajayi is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in
Nigeria. He joined the Utah National Guard and was discharged in June 2015
after six months of service, according to Maj. David Gibb. He had been a member
of the 214th Forward Support Company in Tooele, Utah, but did not attend
training.
Officials at Utah State University said Ajayi attended the school three
separate times for short periods between 2009 and 2016. He never earned a
degree, said Tim Vitale, a spokesman with the university.
Ajayi’s LinkedIn profile indicated he had worked in IT for companies including
Dell and Microsoft, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. His account has since
been deactivated. He also is an author, publishing the crime novel “Forge
Identity” last year. The novel is about a man drawn to crime after witnessing
gruesome murders at age 15.
Ajayi does not have a previous criminal record in Utah, according to court
records. In 2014, he became the suspect in a rape investigation, but the probe
was dropped after the woman decided not to press charges, according to a police
report.
Lueck’s parents, who have not spoken publicly about their daughter’s death,
asked Gill to share their gratitude for the generosity of the community.
“The support and the prayers have helped them through this very difficult
time,” Gill said. “They are genuinely appreciative and moved by the outpouring
of love and compassion, and they wanted me to expressly thank everyone who has
reached out to them in that capacity.”
(source: Los Angeles Times)
ARIZONA:
High court's ruling in death row case could affect 19 others
There is no question that James McKinney murdered Christine Mertens and James
McClain in two separate botched burglaries in the Phoenix area in 1991.
But should he be put to death for it?
That’s the question the Supreme Court will consider this fall, and experts say
its ruling in McKinney’s case could affect as many as 19 other Arizona
death-row inmates who were sentenced under the same guidelines as McKinney.
“The Arizona state courts in the 1990s were making the same mistake in a whole
bunch of cases, which is they weren’t considering the mitigation the way they
were supposed to,” said David Euchner, a Pima County public defender.
McKinney’s attorneys argue that the mistake in his case was a failure to fully
consider “mitigating evidence” – evidence that weighs against imposition of a
death sentence – of the post-traumatic stress disorder McKinney suffered as a
result of a “horrific childhood.”
They also argue that from the time McKinney’s original sentence was upheld in
1996 to the last time it was upheld by the Arizona Supreme Court, in 2018, the
law had changed.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that the death penalty could only be
imposed by a jury, not a judge, which means McKinney’s sentence should have
been reconsidered by a jury, not the court, they argue. The state disagreed,
saying McKinney’s case was final after his first round of appeals failed in
1996.
Attorneys for McKinney did not respond to requests for comment on the case. But
a spokeswoman for Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said the state supreme
court acted properly when it upheld McKinney’s sentence last year.
“We believe the Arizona Supreme Court previously addressed the Ninth Circuit’s
(Court of Appeals) concerns and therefore there is no need for the U.S. Supreme
Court to get involved at this stage,” said Katie Conner, the attorney general’s
spokeswoman.
“That being said, we feel confident in our arguments and believe we will
ultimately prevail at the federal level as well,” Conner said in a prepared
statement.
McKinney and his half-brother Charles Hedlund were convicted for a string of
burglaries in 1991 that ended with the murders of Mertens and McClain.
McKinney, Hedlund and two others first broke into Mertens house on Feb. 28,
1991, but left when she came home unexpectedly. They returned on March 10, this
time finding Mertens at home, where they brutally beat and stabbed, then held
her on the floor and shot her in the back of the head at point-blank range.
Nearly two weeks later, McKinney and Hedlund broke into McClain’s home, where
he was asleep on March 23 when the two men broke in and fatally shot the
65-year-old in the head with a sawed-off rifle.
McKinney and Hedlund were tried together in front of separate juries in 1992.
McKinney was convicted on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, 2 counts of burglary
and 1 count of theft, while Hedlund’s jury convicted him of the same theft and
burglary charges, 1st-degree murder or McClain’s death and 2nd-degree murder
for Mertens’ killing.
In July 1993, both were sentenced to death by a Maricopa County judge, who
cited aggravating factors of previous convictions and crimes committed for
monetary gain and, in McKinney’s case, that the murder was “especially heinous,
cruel or depraved.”
The judge considered mitigating circumstances of their childhoods – in which
they were frequently beaten, abandoned and neglected – saying it was “beyond
the comprehension of most people.” But he did not weigh it because, under
Arizona law at the time, evidence of a defendant’s background could only be
considered if it had a “causal nexus,” or direct link to the crime. The judge
determined it did not.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in McKinney’s case in 2015 that
Arizona courts had erroneously applied a “causal nexus” test for as long as 15
years after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the practice in a case known as
Eddings.
“They didn’t consider all of his mitigating factors unless it had a causal
nexus to the crime and that was wrong,” Euchner said. “They did it to a bunch
of cases back in the ’90s.”
Among the 19 cases that McKinney’s attorneys listed in his appeal are inmates
who have spent decades on death row, many found to have aggravating
circumstances that included “especially heinous, cruel or depraved” murders.
They include Alfonso Salazar, on death row for more than 30 years for the
murder of 83-year-old Sarah Kaplan, who was beaten and strangled with a phone
cord. And Robert Poyson, sentenced in 1988 for a triple-murder in which he
bludgeoned one victim with a cinderblock, shot another and pounded a bread
knife through the ear of a 15-year-old victim before crushing his skull,
according to court records.
Donna Leone Hamm of Tempe-based Middle Ground Prison Reform said there is a lot
more known about the effects of PTSD than there used to be, but “there are
still lingering doubts about the authenticity of the claim.”
“Just how real did the condition contribute to the crime and I think that’s
where it no longer relies on science but it relies on the gut feeling and the
hearts and minds of the judges,” she said.
“You have to look at what else the defendant do during the offense that
suggests that he was not suffering,” she said. “Was his state of mind 100% in a
PTSD mode, or was he doing things that showed a consciousness of guilt and
premeditation?”
Euchner said the 9th Circuit’s ruling had the effect of reopening McKinney’s
case and giving him “the right to question what set of rules that apply” to his
resentencing – those in effect in 1996 or those in effect now.
“In McKinney’s case, and many others like McKinney, it’s not just that they
were denied a jury trial but they’re getting their case reopened – so it
becomes unfinal,” Euchner said.
“The question that the U.S. Supreme Court is deciding is if McKinney’s appeal
was final or not final – and if it’s not final he will get a jury trial,”
Euchner said. “So all the other cases that have been reopened for the errors
made by the Arizona courts in the ’90s about mitigating circumstances will also
be awaiting the opinion to see if they also get jury trials.”
But Hamm cautioned that the court could write a “very narrow” opinion that
applies only to McKinney and not the others, “so you just don’t know until you
see how the opinion is written.” Even then, she said, it’s not a sure thing for
McKinney.
“I don’t think that anyone is very confident that this Supreme Court has great
sympathy toward prisoner rights, especially when they become aware that it
could result in overturning convictions on not just his case but many others,
even in other states,” she said. “It’s worrisome – you have to hope that they
will consider fairly the facts of the case.”
Euchner said he is hoping for a broad – and favorable – ruling, saying it’s
“more than just McKinney’s case … we really need this.”
(source: TucsonSentinel.com)
USA:
Spring 2019 ?“Death Row USA” Documents Further Shrinking of U.S. Death-Row
Population
The number of people on death row or facing capital resentencing in the United
States has continued its 19-year decline, according to a new death-row census
by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). The Spring 2019 edition
of Death Row USA, released in early July, reports that 2,673 people in 32
states or in U.S. federal or military custody were on death rows across the
U.S. as of April 1, 2019. That total reflects a 2.6% drop from the same time in
2018 and an 18.6% decline over the course of the past decade. The decline has
come at a time in which executions remain near historic lows, as more people
have been resentenced to life or less or come off of death row by exoneration,
clemency, or deaths other than by execution than have been added to death row
through new death sentences. Nearly 1,000 prisoners have come off death row in
the past decade by means other than execution, nearly tripling the 337
executions over that same period.
LDF includes in its total 230 people who have overturned their convictions or
sentences in the courts but still face the possibility of having their
sentences reinstated on appeal or reimposed after new trial or sentencing
proceedings. The other 2,443 people in the death-row census face active death
sentences, continuing the decline in the number of prisoners in current
jeopardy of execution. April 2018 was the first time in more than a quarter
century that the number of active death sentences fell below 2,500.
For the first time, the LDF census offered a count of individuals on death rows
in states with moratoria on executions (California, Colorado, Oregon, and
Pennsylvania). Death Row USA reports that 923 people, or 34.5% of all U.S.
death-row prisoners, are in these states. Excluding these states and the
individuals whose convictions or death sentences have been overturned, 1,570
death-row prisoners in the United States have what LDF describes as
“enforceable sentences.”
California’s death row remains the largest in the nation, with 733 prisoners.
Florida (349), Texas (225), Alabama (181), and Pennsylvania (155) are also
among the 5 largest state death rows. Nationwide, the death row population is
about 42% white, 42% black, 13% Latino/a, 2% Asian, and 1% Native American.
Among states with at least 10 prisoners, the highest percentages of racial and
ethnic minorities were in Nebraska (75%), Texas (73%), and Louisiana (71%).
Just 2% of all death-row prisoners are women.
(source: Death Penalty Information Center)
*********************
Pete Buttigieg Wants to Eliminate Death Penalty, Legalize Weed----Justice
reform plan released as presidential candidate reals from leadership test in
South Bend, Ind.
As out presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg continues to struggle with black
voters, his campaign released a plan to “dismantle racist structures and
systems.” That includes eliminating the death penalty and legalizing marijuana.
The New York Times reports that Buttigieg faces a difficult path to the
Democratic presidential nomination if he can’t gain traction with black voters.
The plan comes while Buttigieg deals with a racially sensitive test of
leadership as mayor of South Bend, Ind.
In addition to changes to capitol punishment and marijuana laws, Buttgieg also
wants to limit use solitary confinement in prisons and eliminate mandatory
minimum sentencing.
The plan also says he will be tightening the legal standard for police to use
deadly force; creating a federal database of officers fired from police
departments; and persuading states to disclose more data on law enforcment to
see a correlation with race.
A police-involved shooting in his hometown turned the spotlight on Buttigieg’s
history with race relations. Eric Logan, a 54-year-old black man, died after
South Bend Sgt. Ryan O'Neill shot him. O’Neill has said Logan came toward him
with a knife, but the officer’s body camera was off at the time.
Buttigieg addressed the issue with contrition at the st Democratic presidential
debate.
1 “I'm not allowed to take sides until the investigation comes back,” Buttigieg
said. “The officer said he was attacked with a knife, but he didn't have his
body camera on. It's a mess. And we're hurting.”
Then-opponent Eric Swalwell challenged Buttigieg at the time and said the mayor
needed to fire his police chief. Buttigieg hasn’t done so, but since he years
ago fired a black police chief, that’s only amplified tension with the black
community.
Christine Pelosi, a Democratic National Committee member, told the Times that
Buttigieg appears to have evolved on issues of race, but could still have a
tough time.
“It is one thing to get credit for evolution and change but it is quite another
to be there viscerally,” Pelosi said.
Many voters were exposed to Buttigieg for the 1st time at the debate, the Times
notes. So Buttigieg has continued to work through the public ordeal just as
national attention turns toward the presidential contest.
Buttigieg has, however, enjoyed continued fundraising success, raising a
stunning $24.8 million in the 2nd quarter. That ultimately turned out to be
more money than was raised by any other Democratic candidate.
(source: advocate.com)
*************************
Death sentences show slight uptick in 2018 after big decline, new report says
Death sentences imposed in the United States dropped to 31 in 2016, before
rising slightly to 39 in 2017 and 42 in 2018, according to a new report citing
estimates by the Death Penalty Information Center.
Death sentences peaked at 315 in 1996, then declined over time until reaching
the low point in 2016, according to the report by Ronald Tabak, a special
counsel for pro bono at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
25 executions were carried out last year. It was the 4th straight year with
less than 30 executions.
Tabak’s report is the 19th chapter in an ABA book called The State of Criminal
Justice 2019.
The death penalty tends to be geographically concentrated, Tabak said. Half of
the new death sentences last year were imposed in just four states: California,
Florida, Ohio and Texas. And just five states— Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
Tennessee and Texas—accounted for 88% of the country’s executions last year.
Some states that used to be among the leaders in imposing capital punishment
have gone years without any new death sentences, Tabak wrote.
One notable example is Georgia, which in March 2019 had gone 5 years without a
new death sentence. Prosecutors in the state are turning more often to
sentences of life without parole; last year only three death sentences were
sought, according to a January story by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
At the end of 2018, another Southern state, North Carolina, had gone 2 years in
a row without imposing any new death sentences.
Even though some states are providing better representation to capital
defendants and offering more alternatives to the death penalty, defendants
sentenced to death in the past aren’t benefiting, Tabak tells the ABA Journal.
When courts deal with older cases, they don’t take into account that the
defendant might not receive the death penalty if the case was heard today, he
says. Courts also avoid addressing the merits of constitutional issues because
of procedural technicalities, he says.
Tabak also says there is no consistency in carrying out capital punishment.
Defendants with the same level of culpability may get the death penalty in one
jurisdiction and a sentence well below life without parole in another.
Very often, Tabak says, a sentence “depends less on what you did and more on
the quality of your defense counsel, the nature of the prosecutors’ attitudes
toward and manner of pursuing the death penalty, and the way in which the court
system deals with your constitutional claims,” he says.
In 2014, Tabak received the Father Drinan Award for Distinguished Service to
the ABA group that is now known as the ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social
Justice. He is known for his advocacy for fairness in administration of the
death penalty and is the longtime chair of the section’s Death Penalty
Committee.
(source: ABA Journal)
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