[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----NEV., CALIF., AK., USA
Dec. 12 NEVADA: Lawyers raise questions about defendants' mental capacity in death-penalty cases A Clark County judge recently found that a man accused of fatally stabbing his pregnant girlfriend should not face the death penalty after defense lawyers raised questions about his mental capacity. District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez concluded earlier this month that psychological analysis revealed that 33-year-old Eric Covington "demonstrates significant subaverage general intellectual functioning," which started before he was 18, and that he had "significant deficits in adaptive behavior." That met the 3 concepts the Nevada Supreme Court has determined clarify the definition of intellectual disability. In addition to determining intellectual and adaptive functioning, a judge must decide whether the mental deficiencies began at an early age. Covington's case is the latest example of a judge granting a seldom-used defense in line with requirements set by the U.S. and Nevada supreme courts. The U.S. Supreme Court has found that executing inmates with intellectual disabilities violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In 2014, the high court wrote: "to impose the harshest of punishments on an intellectually disabled person violates his or her inherent dignity as a human being." In Covington's case, prosecutors allege that he stabbed his 24-year-old pregnant girlfriend, Sagitarius Gomez, more than 100 times because he did not want her to be with another man. Prosecutors have said they plan to appeal Gonzalez's ruling. Although another doctor had previously found that Covington has an IQ of 77, a psychologist who analyzed him in October found that he has an IQ of 62. A psychologist for the prosecution examined him in November and found his IQ at 76. The judge's decision also meant that the trial, which had been delayed in October and was scheduled to resume last week, was canceled. Around the same time Gonzalez made her ruling, attorneys in two other capital cases presented similar arguments, contending that defendants have intellectual disabilities that should automatically disqualify them from execution should they be convicted. Next month, District Judge Doug Smith is expected to consider findings from Sharon Jones-Forrester, a Las Vegas clinical neuropsychologist who determined that suspected serial killer Nathan Burkett has an IQ of 59. "Burkett is functioning at an extraordinary low level of intelligence," his attorneys, Christopher Oram and Betsy Allen, wrote in court papers. Burkett attended segregated schools in the Deep South and received mostly D's and F's before dropping out as a high school sophomore in 1962, his lawyer wrote. His IQ was tested at 55 while he was serving time in a Mississippi prison on a manslaughter conviction in the death of his mother. Gonzalez is also scheduled to hear arguments next month regarding the mental capacity of Gustavo Ramos, facing the death penalty for 2 counts each of murder, armed robbery and sexual assault in the 1998 killing of 75-year-old Wallace Siegel and 86-year-old Helen Sabraw, who were found on back-to-back days at their assisted-living home. His attorneys, Ivette Maningo and Abel Yanez , filed court papers last week, saying a California psychologist determined Ramos-Martinez has an IQ between 67 and 77. Authorities linked Ramos-Martinez to the slayings in 2010 after he gave a DNA sample while serving time in federal prison on an illegal immigration charge. Raised in "extreme poverty," Ramos-Martinez struggled in school while in Mexico and the United States, according to the documents from his lawyers. "His relatives thought he was 'dumb' because he couldn't learn, and his siblings often had to do his homework for him," the lawyers wrote. He had trouble following simple instructions as a child, and as an adult "he was unable to separate lemons from limes." He had difficulty maintaining employment for more than a few months, never lived independently and does not know how to maintain a banking account. Ramos-Martinez was first deported in 1998 after pleading guilty to trying to stab his girlfriend in a drunken fight a month after the killings. His home at the time was an apartment complex less than a quarter-mile from the victims' assisted living home. Prosecutors have yet to file opposition in the cases of Burkett or Ramos-Martinez. At times, both sides agree that a defendant may not be mentally fit for the death penalty. Late last month, 25-year-old Jerry Howard was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after prosecutors agreed to withdraw the death penalty. Howard pleaded guilty to 1st-degree murder with a deadly weapon, 1st-degree kidnapping, sexual assault with a deadly weapon and robbery with a deadly weapon for a vicious attack on 54-year-old Kathy Shines while she was collecting cans in the 3300 bl
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Dec. 12 TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: T&T Priest urges reinstatement of death penalty Disgusted by the daily bloodshed and lawlessness sweeping the country, Roman Catholic priest Father Ian Taylor is calling for the death penalty to be swiftly reinstated. In delivering the sermon during Mass on Saturday night at the St Charles RC Church in Tunapuna, Taylor said the country may never come to terms with last week's killing of bank employee Shannon Banfield. Saying that the "country was in a state," Taylor demanded that Banfield's killers from "top to bottom" face the hangman within the soonest possible time, as he prayed for justice to be delivered to the young woman's family. "Don't think that criminals are sorry. These men have become hardened criminals. We should feel sorry for the victims and you should be sorry for the victims' families," he told the congregation. "If you take someone's life then you will pay the penalty of your life." He explained that this was the right of the State, which the Roman Catholic Church had previously asked the State not to carry out in a show of mercy to criminals. However, said while he himself would like to see the death penalty reinstated due to the current level of lawlessness, the Church cannot demand that the State hang criminals. "If the State needs the death penalty to protect its citizenry then let it (State) do so and let it exercise it knowing that God has given the State the right to take life if you murder," Taylor said. "We need to pray that the laws in this country are implemented and let it be done so that criminals will take heed. The country has gone lawless and people need to be punished for breaking the laws and that includes people in high places because they are the real criminals. Corrupt men must be brought to justice." Banfield, 20 of Mc Carthy Street, Cantaro Village, Santa Cruz, was last seen leaving her work place - RBL's Independence Square branch - around 4 pm last Monday. She had told her mother, Sherry-Ann Lopez, via phone she was leaving work to purchase items at IAM and company. Her decomposing body was found last Thursday in a storeroom of the 3rd floor of the building located at Charlotte Street, Port-of-Spain. Taylor said criminals had become so brazen that they were unafraid of the police and of being locked up, adding that jail had become "a nice thing where there were cellphones and even a flat screen TV." The priest also lambasted the Police Service for its poor response when his own church was recently robbed. He said he had given the police footage from CCTV cameras showing a man pretending to be a member of the congregation before stealing the offering and calmly walking out of the church. "After I put everything on a flash drive and give it to the police, the policeman turn and ask me, 'Well father, what you want to do?' Imagine that. I should have told him show me where the man is so I could run after him myself," Taylor said. He called for prayers to be offered up to the Police Service, which he said desperately needed to weed out its rogue cops. On the case where a murder accused was allowed to conduct business at a bank unsupervised by police, Taylor said, "That is how we operating now. Somebody smoking something." He called on the congregation and the wider community to join forces to combat the crime scourge, firstly by taking communities back from criminal elements. He said discussions were being held to have activities within the parish so that peace could be restored. Taylor's sermon was not the only case in which citizens showed their disgust over Banfield and other people's murders over the weekend. There were 2 public events in memory of Banfield yesterday in Port-of-Spain, while the families of those murdered over the weekend also spoke openly about the crime scourge and the police and Government's inability to get a handle on it. Asked after the Mass whether the death penalty would be a deterrent, Taylor said no one, not even criminals, wanted to die, adding, however, that the death penalty must be exercised frequently. He said personally he did not hold the position that the death penalty should be abolished. "Secondly, it must be a form of retribution. There must be a form of punishment to suit the crime. When you commit murder the penalty is your life and that is what the scripture says," he said. "And the State also has the duty to protect its citizens, because when a person's life is gone they cannot repeat crimes but when a person gets 15 years and they come out they can repeat what has happened." On whether he was worried there may backlash regarding his statements, Taylor said, "I think for myself." (source: Trinidad Guardian) TANZANIA: Geita Resident Escapes Death Penalty Procedural irregularities have saved a resident of Geita Region, Sabasaba Enosi, from being hanged to death for allegedly killing 2 family
