[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 24



BAHRAIN:

Bahrain Reverses Death Sentence Against 2 Citizens



Bahrain's Court of Cassation accepted the verdict in form and turned down the 
appealed death penalty in substance against defendants Hussain Ali Moussa and 
Mohammed Ramadan Essa.


It also returned the case for reconsideration by the issuing court to be 
constituted from another jury to issue a new ruling, Advocate General and Head 
of Technical Office at the Public Prosecution Haroon al-Zayani said.


The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) submitted a memorandum to the Public 
Prosecution regarding its investigations in both complaints lodged by the two 
convicts, who were sentenced to death for killing a policeman and attempting to 
murder several others by detonating a bomb.


SIU suggested in its memorandum the possibility of reconsidering the sentence 
against the convicts on the basis of new reports that were issued in the course 
of its investigation and which were neither submitted to the two degrees of 
litigation courts nor to the Cassation Court.


The verdict was based on various pieces of evidence in addition to one derived 
from the defendants’ statements that included technical evidence proving that 
the suspects exchanged mobile text messages, indicating that they agreed and 
coordinated to commit the crime.


Based on SIU's memorandum and the presentation by Acting Head of the SIU and to 
achieve the required justice, the Public Prosecution agreed with the memorandum 
and referred the matter to the Minister of Justice for initial reconsideration 
by the SIU and reconsideration of the said verdict according to his 
jurisdiction stipulated in the Court of Cassation Law.


The Ministry of Justice took the initiative to review the matter and requested 
the President of the Court of Cassation to reconsider the verdicts against both 
convicts in light of conclusions of the SIU and the discovery of new reports.


This decision was a result of its conclusions after the study and reliant upon 
the provision of the Cassation Court Law, which permits the Minister of Justice 
to request a reconsideration of final penalizing verdicts issued in specific 
cases.


The Court of Cassation, therefore, considered the request and issued its 
aforesaid ruling by accepting the request, reversing the verdict against both 
convicts and referring back the case to the issuing court to obtain a new 
ruling by another jury.


(source: aawssat.com)
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[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., GA., OHIO, ARK., MO., ORE.

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 24



NORTH CAROLINA:

Alamance DA seeks death penalty against 2 of 4 Gone Fishing suspects



Shamar Ramel Holloway, 35, and Jimal Edward Jenkins, 28, could face the death 
penalty if they go to trial in the murder of a security guard at a North Church 
Street sweepstakes parlor in April.


The Alamance County District Attorney's Office announced its intention to seek 
the death penalty against those 2 defendants in the Gone Fishing robbery murder 
in so-called "Rule 24" hearings Monday, Oct. 22.


Prosecutors said they would not seek capital punishment against 2 other 
defendants in that case, Anthony Lamar Cason, 23, and Tanesha Annette Jeffries, 
24.


Michael Thomas Le, 25, was shot dead in the robbery of Gone Fishing 
Sweepstakes, 1365 N. Church St., Burlington, where he was a security guard.


Police responding to Gone Fishing Sweepstakes after 9 p.m. Sunday, April 8, 
found an employee and a patron suffering from head wounds, and Le suffering 
from a single gunshot wound. Le was pronounced dead upon arrival at Alamance 
Regional Medical Center, and the employee and patron were left with bruising 
and swelling to their heads.


On April 17, police caught up with Cason and Jenkins. Jeffries was arrested 
Friday, April 20. Burlington police arrested Holloway in High Point on April 25 
with the help of the State Bureau of Investigation, High Point and Greensboro 
police.


There are 141 people now on death row, according to the state Department of 
Public Safety. No one has been executed since 2006 partly because of 
cruel-and-unusual punishment arguments against the lethal-injection cocktail, 
and the state Medical Board objects to doctors participating in executions. It 
is widely considered a de facto moratorium.


This makes 5 pending death-penalty trials in Alamance County.

Sean Damion Castorina, 43, and Penny Michelle Dawson, 41, are accused of 
killing Harold D. Simpson, 84, in rural Caswell County in August 2017, then 
fleeing to Virginia where, according to the District Attorney's Office, they 
shot a woman and left her for dead. Ultimately they were arrested in Fergus 
Falls, Minn.


The oldest pending capital case is that of Cesar "Chilango" Torres Acevedo, 37, 
accused of setting Juan Mario Martinez Trujillo, 56, of Hillsborough on fire 
the evening of June 13, 2015, in an alleged drug dispute. Trujillo died the 
following Aug. 24 as a result of his injuries.


State law requires evidence of at least one of 11 aggravating factors in a 
murder case before prosecutors can pursue capital punishment, like committing 
the crime while incarcerated, or against a law-enforcement officer, or in the 
furtherance of a violent crime like rape, or for financial gain, or for an 
crime that was "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel."


(source: The Times-News)








GEORGIA:

Hearings in 1987 death penalty case re-trial set for this week



More than 200 motions have been filed in the lead-up to a hearing this week for 
Timothy Tyrone Foster, who is being re-tried on a murder charge in Floyd County 
Superior Court.


At a preliminary hearing in February, the 50-year-old entered a not guilty plea 
to charges of murder and burglary. At the same hearing, the state expressed its 
intent to seek the death penalty.


Foster was sentenced to death for the murder of retired school teacher Queen 
Madge White during a 1986 burglary at her home at Highland Circle - he was 18 
at the time. The 79-year-old woman had been hit in the head and face, breaking 
her jaw, and was molested before being strangled to death.


The re-trial was prompted by his 1987 murder conviction being overturned by the 
U.S. Supreme Court 2 years ago, on the grounds of black jurors being excluded 
from his original trial.


Then-district attorney Steve Lanier, who died this year, struck off all 4 black 
potential jurors before the trial. By filing an open records request for the 
prosecutors' trial notes, Foster's lawyers discovered notes from an 
investigator in the DA's office which the Supreme Court ruled pointed toward 
the specific exclusion of those jurors based on race.


On June 13, attorneys from the Georgia Public Defender Council representing 
Foster filed more than 100 motions. Earlier this month, the District Attorney's 
Office filed responses to counter each of the motions.


Included in the motions from the defense are calls for the indictment to be 
dismissed on the grounds of the makeup of the grand jury being 
unconstitutional; for the state to choose either malice murder or felony murder 
in charging Foster; and for the imposition of the death penalty and the use of 
lethal injection for the execution to be deemed unconstitutional. Another 
motion also seeks the barring of the death penalty as a possible sentencing 
outcome, on the basis it is "cruel and unjust."


The hearing is expected to last 2 days.

Foster is currently being held without bond in Floyd County Jail, which he was 
moved to from the