[Deathpenalty] [POSSIBLE SPAM] death penalty news-----TEXAS, GA., OHIO
Sept. 13 TEXAS: Man gets death penalty for killing Putt-Putt employee Paul David Storey killed Jonas Cherry during a 2006 holdup at the Hurst Putt-Putt Golf Games and robbed the business of less than $700. He will now have to pay with his life. A Tarrant County jury took less than 2 hours Friday morning to sentence the 23-year-old Fort Worth man to death by lethal injection. That decision came despite pleas from Storey's family, former teachers and friends to spare his life during testimony Thursday. Defense attorneys Bill Ray and Larry Moore also said the former Putt-Putt employees life was worth saving. People make bad decisions, but do they deserve to die? Marilyn Grant asked during her testimony Thursday for her son. They dont. Please spare my sons life. Prosecutors Christy Jack and Robert Foran sought the death penalty against Storey for killing Cherry, 28, on Oct. 16, 2006, at the Hurst business in the 600 block of Northeast Loop 820. Time after time, Foran and Jack reminded the jury of seven men and five women that Cherry, an assistant manager at the Hurst Putt-Putt, begged for his life after giving the robbers the money. The same jury convicted Storey of capital murder on Wednesday. A possible accomplice The man police say was Storeys accomplice, Mark Porter, 22, is also charged with capital murder in the shooting death. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Porter, whose trial is scheduled to begin in the next few weeks. The victim Cherry, a Keller resident and 1997 graduate of Paschal High School, had worked at area Putt-Putt businesses for more than 10 years. Cherry was married with no children. The holdup and killing Storey and another person rushed into the Hurst business on the morning of Oct. 16, 2006, and took Cherry into an office, according to testimony in the trial. After removing surveillance tapes in the office, the robbers ordered Cherry to open a safe and fill a bag with cash. Cherry was shot twice in the head and twice in the legs as he knelt, according to the testimony. The robbers then fled. The arrest Investigators got a lead after they found a surveillance tape that the robbers missed. The images showed a maroon 2-door Ford Explorer leaving Putt-Putt. Hurst police received a tip that the vehicle belonged to Storey. (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) GEORGIA: Troy Anthony Davis' execution stands, Georgia parole board says-7 of the 9 witnesses against the convicted cop killer have changed their stories. The Supreme Court is set to hear his appeal, after his execution date. Georgia's parole board on Friday denied clemency for a man set to be put to death for killing a police officer, even though seven of the nine witnesses who testified against him have since changed their stories. Troy Anthony Davis, 38, is set to be executed at 7 p.m. Sept. 23 at a prison in Jackson, Ga. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Davis' appeal Sept. 29. On Friday, Davis' attorney, Jason Ewart, said he would file an emergency stay with the high court, asking the justices to take up the case as soon as possible. It's probably the hardest thing I've ever had to hear, Ewart said of the parole board's decision. The hardest thing I've ever had to do was to tell Troy we're denied. Davis was convicted of killing Mark MacPhail, a Savannah, Ga., police officer, in August 1989. At the time, MacPhail was working his 2nd job, as a Burger King security guard. He was fatally shot after rushing to help a man who had been beaten outside a bus station. Police did not recover a weapon, and prosecutors relied on witness testimony to convict Davis. Since then, most of the witnesses have altered or cast doubt on their versions of events sworn in affidavits. Some said they were pressured by police to make their original statements. In March, the Georgia Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, rejected Davis' request for a new trial after reviewing the recantations. (source: Los Angeles Times) Death Penalty Is Upheld in Publicized Georgia Case A Georgia parole board on Friday upheld the death sentence of a man convicted of killing a Savannah police officer in 1989, despite a group of witnesses who recanted their testimonies against the convict. It was the 2nd time in 2 years that the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency for the man, Troy A. Davis, despite his lawyers claims of police misconduct. Mr. Davis, 39, is scheduled to die by lethal injection in Jackson, Ga., on Sept. 23, unless the United States Supreme Court agrees to hear an appeal. A county jury in 1991 convicted Mr. Davis in the 1989 murder of Mark Allen MacPhail, an off-duty police officer moonlighting as a security guard who was shot to death while responding to a late-night fight at a Burger King in Savannah. Mr. Davis testified he was at a nearby pool hall and left before Officer MacPhail arrived. The prosecution offered no murder weapon, DNA or
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide
Sept. 13 IRAN: President Ahmadinejad Will Face Wall of Shame at the UN Headquarters via Stop Child Executions The President of Iran will have to get past the Ahmadinejad Wall of Shame -- a visual display and demonstration across the United Nations Headquarters -- before entering the opening of the General Assembly. The rally will run from 12-2pm on September 23rd at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (47th St. 2nd Ave.) and feature Iranian/American groups each directly challenging Ahmadinejad on the surge in human rights abuses in Iran. Organizing the event, Nazanin Afshin-Jam, an international human rights activist and former Miss World Canada, will lead off the line up of the Wall of Shame by asking: Ahmadinejad why are you executing children? Nazanin's actions on behalf of the children on death row in Iran began when she was told of a young girl on her namesake that was going to be executed for stabbing one of three men who attempted to rape her. Nazanin was instrumental in saving this girl and since then has been dedicated to saving more lives. There has been 6 children hanged this year alone in Iran and over 130 children on death row awaiting execution, said Nazanin Afshin-Jam, President and co-founder of the Stop Child Executions (SCE) organization. While the UN legitimizes Ahmadinejad as the leader of Iran by having the door open to him at the General Assembly, the Iranian people feel betrayed by the false representation. In face of the west's obsession with Iran's nuclear development, the voices of the Iranian people have been stifled and human rights abuses have been overshadowed. This 'Wall of Shame' demonstration is hoping to give a 'voice to the voiceless' and address the concerns of the vast majority of Iranian people who believe in a united, secular, democratic Iran based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and no military intervention on Iran, said Nazanin. Groups and individuals participating in the Wall of Shame demonstration include those who have faced oppression under the current regime such as women under gender apartheid, students who have been imprisoned and tortured and ethnic and religious minorities who have been persecuted. Focus will also be given to other human rights atrocities in Iran including stoning to death, dismembering of limbs, and throwing people from heights as methods of punishment. Nazanin states, The government of Iran cannot on the one hand expect the international community to trust its leaders with nuclear energy while it openly disregards the most basic internationally recognized child rights conventions such as the UN's International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Charter of the Rights of the Child (CRC) to which it is state party. Stop Child Executions invites all media and the general public to join this demonstration for Human Rights. SCE will release the latest list of minors facing the death penalty, and an 8 part plan of recommendations addressed to Iran's heads of state, Parliament, Judiciary, United Nations and international community which will also be made available on the http://www.stopchildexecutions.com/ website following the rally. For Further information or an interview with Nazanin Afshin-Jam please contact Leslie Taylor at Big Machine Media at 212-572-0760 or leslie at bigmachinemedia.com. Stop Child Executions is the leading organization providing information and updates on the situation of minors on death row in Iran. It is a volunteer based, independent, non-political human rights group whose aim is to put a permanent end to child executions in Iran and abroad. http://www.stopchildexecutions.com/ (source: Market Wire) CHINA: China police killer appeals against death penalty Yang Jia, the jobless Beijing man who intruded into Shanghai police bureau and killed 6 officers, has appealed against the death penalty handed down earlier by a Shanghai court. His appeal was received by Shanghai Higher People's Court Friday, according to the court sources. Yang Jia, 28, was sentenced to death on Sept. 1 in the first verdict by the Shanghai No.2 People's Intermediate Court, for killing six officers and injuring four others in the assault on July 1. He stabbed a security guard at the police branch in Zhabei District and started a fire at its gate at about 9:40 a.m. He then forced his way into the building and attacked nine police officers, according to the prosecution. 6 police died. Three others and the security guard were injured. Yang was apprehended at the scene and confessed to the killings, the prosecution said. The court ruled Yang had perfect capacity for criminal responsibility according to a forensic psychiatric assessment conducted by a qualified and specialized institute entrusted by the police. But it didn't give a specific name. The court revealed Yang turned down the defence lawyer his father had found for him before turning to Xie Youming and Xie Jin, 2 lawyers with Shanghai
