[Deathpenalty] [POSSIBLE SPAM] death penalty news-----TEXAS, GA., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

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
fingerprints tying Mr. Davis to the killing but instead relied heavily on
testimony from witnesses. Since the trial, 7 key witnesses have recanted,
saying they were bullied by investigators into lying under oath.

The case has received international publicity; 20,000 people signed
petitions asking that Mr. Davis be spared the death penalty.

"Troy's case represents everything wrong with the death penalty  from
procedural obstacles to racial bias to witness mishandling to inadequate
counsel, said Jared Feuer of Amnesty International.

The head of the Southern Center for Human Rights, Stephen B. Bright, a law
professor at Yale, called the decision "shocking."

"For somebody to be executed," Mr. Bright said, we really should be sure
beyond doubt that the person is guilty."

(source: New YOrk Times)






OHIO:

Pigge could face death penalty----Pigge indicted on 8 felony counts in
murder, arson case


Officials are remaining tight-lipped in the Sept. 5 death of Rhonda
Sommers, but a 5-page indictment reveals burglary may have been a motive.

The Ross County Grand Jury indicted Casey L. Pigge, 20, on 8 felony counts
Friday, including 2 aggravated murder counts that could carry the death
penalty.

"At this point in time, we're going to proceed in that fashion,"
Prosecuting Attorney Mike Ater said of pursuing the death penalty.

The 1st count of aggravated murder alleges Pigge had "purposefully, and
with prior calculation and design cause[d] the death of Rhonda S.
Sommers," while the 2nd count alleges he killed her while "committing or
attempting to commit or while fleeing immediately after attempting to
commit the offense of aggravated burglary." Ater said Pigge was after
Sommers' money and car.

Sommers' body was discovered in the living room of her apartment at
Western View Town Homes after the Chillicothe Fire Department extinguished
a fire, which Pigge also was indicted for setting. Ater indicated Sommers
had been killed prior to the fire with a "sharp instrument" but wouldn't
reveal any further information on the weapon used or if it was recovered.

"We've collected several pieces of evidence we're testing," he said.

Pigge also could face charges in a separate incident involving abuse of
his 7-month-old child, Sommers' grandchild. An abuse petition has been
filed in juvenile court, Ater said.

"The injuries to the child are minimal," he added.

Pigge was initially picked up by police on a misdemeanor warrant when
police then charged him with Sommers' death less than a day after the
fire. Because the charges against him are felonies, a grand jury had to
review evidence to determine if the charges were viable. However, the
indictment does not conclude guilt or innocence in any case.

Pigge was indicted on 2 counts of aggravated murder; aggravated robbery, a
1st-degree felony; aggravated burglary, a 1st-degree felony; aggravated
arson, a 2nd-degree felony; burglary, a 2nd-degree felony; tampering with
evidence, a 3rd-degree felony; and gross abuse of a corpse, a 4th-degree
felony.

Pigge remains incarcerated at the Ross County Jail under a $1 million
bond.

(source: Chillicothe Gazette)

*****************

Gov. Ted Strickland is reviewing the case and will issue his clemency
decision in coming weeks.


An Ohio man sentenced to die next month for the grisly rape and murder of
2 college students more than 20 years ago said he did not kill the women.

Richard Wade Cooey II blasted prosecutors for investigating allegations he
murdered another man (a misunderstanding stemming from something he said 5
years ago while awaiting execution), railed against lethal injection and
state-sponsored capital punishment and countered suggestions hes seeking a
delay based solely on his weight.

"I did not beat these girls," he said. "Yeah, I'm supposed to be in prison
for what I did. I'm not denying that. I didn't do the beatings in this
case, and it can be proven scientifically, not just from what I'm saying.
... It can be proven."

Cooey, scheduled for execution Oct. 14, spoke to a representative of the
Ohio Legislative Correspondents Association Tuesday during an interview at
the Ohio State Penitentiary, the maximum-security prison in Youngstown.
The stocky inmate (about 5 feet 7 inches tall and about 270 pounds) wore
dark green prison-issue clothing and sat handcuffed behind a glass
partition in a divided interview room.

In September 1986, Cooey, now 41, and 2 accomplices threw a chunk of
concrete over the side of an interstate overpass into a passing car.

He and another man, Clint Dickens, then played good Samaritan to the
victims, 21-year-old Wendy Jo Offredo and 20-year-old Dawn McCreery,
before kidnapping them, raping and murdering the 2 in an isolated area in
Norton.

Cooey was convicted on multiple counts of aggravated murder, kidnapping,
rape, aggravated robbery and felonious assault. He was admitted to death
row in December 1986. Dickens was 17 at the time and tried as a juvenile;
he was sentenced to life in prison.

Cooey has argued he received inadequate and incompetent legal counsel
throughout his case, with multiple attorneys who failed to challenge
evidence, question filings or fight to have new evidence introduced. He
estimated he's had 14 or more lawyers representing him at different times.

"There isn't a competent capital litigation attorney in Ohio," he said.
"Not one."

Cooey also continued to deny hitting either of the women and said evidence
collected in the case (namely a shoestring tied around a club and blood
taken from a passenger-side door of the car involved) would exonerate his
involvement in the bludgeoning.

"I admit to what I did in this case, you know what I mean?" he said. "I
wanted to go in and plead guilty to the stuff that I did in my case. The
co-defendant in my case pled no-contest and was a juvenile at the time...
. I'm the only one that could get the death penalty," he said. "I couldn't
put [my co-defendent] out there. ... I couldn't get him to testify, I
couldn't use his statements. ..."

Cooey was nearly executed about 5 years ago but was granted a last-minute
stay.

During a clemency hearing last month, the prosecutor and representatives
from the attorney general's office and victims' families argued Cooey has
had ample legal proceedings and hearings, the legal process had run its
course properly, and it was time for the death sentence to be carried out.

In a statement he read during the hearing, Robert McCreery Jr. told board
members, "Every day that goes by is an insult to my sister's memory and a
stain on the reputation of the court system that he uses at will. Please
grant our family and the people of this community some peace even in its
smallest measure by honoring Cooey's death penalty sentence."

Parole board members agreed, writing: "22 years of exhaustive judicial
scrutiny at both the state and federal level has failed to sustain many of
the claims, including ineffective counsel, raised by Mr. Cooey in support
of clemency.  No court has found the errors sufficient to impact the
appropriateness of the penalty decision."

It added, "Nothing in our independent inquiry into the appropriateness of
clemency for Richard Wade Cooey suggests that any manifest injustice has
occurred or that mitigating factors known today outweigh the aggravating
circumstances of this offense. A sufficient, justifiable basis for mercy
cannot be found."

Gov. Ted Strickland is reviewing the recommendation and other information
about the case and will issue his clemency decision in coming weeks.

Cooey has filed a lawsuit in federal court, seeking to halt the execution
based on his weight, sparse veins and migraine medication he takes. He
said he understands the filing has become known as the "fat man lawsuit,"
but he said weight isn't the issue, and obesity isn't the focus.

"It has to do with, the vein that they didn't have access ...," he said.
"When I was down there in 2003, they only found one vein that was viable.
... They only found one vein, in my hand. ... I didn't want them down
there poking and prodding on me like they did them guys, just like when I
was down there before.

"Also with regard to the medication I'm on [for migraines] that will
counteract the 1st drug, and just like it did with the other guys, like I
was trying to talk about before. The previous executions, they don't put
all the drugs in you."

Cooey cited timelines from past executions that detail how lethal drugs
were administered. He said the injection times are inconsistent and prove
those sentenced to die aren't receiving full doses or units were injected
improperly.

"I see numerous botched executions in Ohio," he said.

Cooey said he supports the victims' families' stance on his execution.

"If I was them, I'd be saying that I believe in the same thing," he said.
"If I was them, I would want everyone involved in this... if somebody
witnessed it, I would want them dead. ... And I would never speak against
the family on anything they say or do. ... They have that right."

But Cooey added he does not support the death penalty.

"I'm not pro capital punishment for the state," he said. "Like I said, I
believe in an eye for an eye when it comes for the family. ... [But] I
would never be a proponent of it, because, like I said, it's financially,
racially and politically motivated, without a doubt. I mean you're always
going to have the rich ... have you ever seen a millionaire end up on
death row all alone? Have you ever seen anybody that could afford a good
lawyer ... end up on death row? Never."

(source: Youngstown Vindicator, Sept. 11)