[Deathpenalty] [POSSIBLE SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, WASH., ALA., MD., NEV., ILL.

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 2


TEXAS:

Robert Sparks may face capital punishment for deaths of wife, stepsons


Nicoletta Agnew plans to walk into a Dallas courtroom this morning and
face the man she believes killed her daughter and 2 grandsons: her
son-in-law.

Although it will be the 1st time the 48-year-old woman will have seen
Robert Sparks since before his arrest days after the September 2007
slayings, she said she will harbor no malice toward him.

"I know he did a bad thing. But right now it's not like I want to hurt him
or anything," Ms. Agnew said. "I don't know what happened with him.
Robert's the one who has to live with it."

As he was being arrested after a three-day police hunt, Mr. Sparks told
reporters that his 30-year-old wife had been trying to poison him with the
help of her sons.

Mr. Sparks' attorney, Paul Johnson, could not be reached for comment.

If Mr. Sparks, 34, is convicted of fatally stabbing his wife, Chare Agnew,
and his stepsons, Harold Sublet, 9, and Raeqwon Agnew, 10, he faces the
harshest possible punishment  death. Prosecutors say he also sexually
assaulted his 2 teenage stepdaughters.

Nicoletta Agnew wants to see him punished, but she doesn't think taking
his life is the proper penalty.

"I would just want him to stay in prison and suffer day by day. I wouldn't
want him to die for that," Ms. Agnew said.

But Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins said other family
members have told his office they fully support seeking a death sentence.

"Collectively there are several victims of this crime. According to the
other victims that we have contacted, they want to go full speed ahead,"
said Mr. Watkins, who added that he plans to talk with Nicoletta Agnew
before the trial starts.

A couple of months ago, the district attorney's office honored the wishes
of Karen Lafon's family in another capital murder case. The family asked
the district attorney to give her killer a plea deal for life in prison
because Ms. Lafon did not believe in the death penalty.

But the way Chare Agnew and her sons died was so "heinous," said Mr.
Watkins  who has publicly acknowledged his own reservations about the
death penalty  that "this was a case that really shocked my conscience."

"Even though my personal views may not be in line with the law, I have to
enforce it," Mr. Watkins said. "This is one of those cases that I feel
needs to be enforced in this manner."

In a rare occurrence, Mr. Watkins said he will also help prosecute Mr.
Sparks by questioning at least one witness during the trial. Mr. Watkins
said he plans to actively prosecute more cases.

The case began Sept. 15, 2007, when 911 operators received a chilling
call.

"My name is Robert Sparks and I just killed my wife and the two boys," he
told the dispatcher, according to Mr. Sparks' arrest warrant affidavit.
"You need to get over there fast. ... I left two girls in the closet."

When Dallas police arrived at the couple's southeast Dallas home, they
found Chare Agnew and her sons dead. Inside a closet, they discovered Ms.
Agnew's two teenage daughters bound and gagged. Mr. Sparks also faces
aggravated sexual assault charges in the attacks on the girls.

Dallas police began a massive search for Mr. Sparks and announced that
they believed he had taken a bus to Austin. The next day authorities say
he returned to North Texas and hid in South Dallas hotels.

On Sept. 18, authorities say Mr. Sparks stole a van and led police on a
chase through Oak Cliff, shooting at officers along the way. Police
blocked him into a dead-end street, surrounded him and took him into
custody.

"I know my daughter and my grandchildren are gone," Nicoletta Agnew said.
"But I don't hate ... [Mr. Sparks]. I did at first. Now I don't know what
I'm going to feel when I see him in person."

(source: Dallas Morning News)

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

2 Texas death row inmates lose at Supreme Court


The U.S. Supreme Court refused appeals Monday from 2 Texas death row
inmates, including a Mexican national convicted of gunning down 3 El Paso
teenagers a dozen years ago.

Ignacio Gomez had asked the court to review his capital murder conviction
for the 1996 shooting deaths of 16-year-old twin brothers Michael and
Matthew Meredith and 19-year-old Toby Hatheway Jr. The 3 were shot in an
apparent retaliation for some broken windows at the home of Gomez's
mother. Their bodies were buried in a shallow grave in the desert.

In a 2nd case, Edward Lee Busby Jr. also was turned down by the high
court, which refused to review his conviction for the 2004 suffocation of
77-year-old retired TCU professor Laura Lee Crane, who was abducted from a
Fort Worth grocery store parking lot.

In the El Paso case, Gomez, whose 39th birthday is Tuesday, was turned
down earlier this year by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He had
argued that he was unconstitutionally deprived of his rights under an
international treaty. At the time of the slayings, court documents show he
was in the United States legally and living in El Paso with relatives.

His attorneys argued unsuccessfully even before his capital murder trial
that police who arrested him should have told him of his right to legal
assistance from the Mexican consulate, and that police who took his
confession knew he was a resident alien but didn't advise him of his
Vienna Convention rights.

Gomez also had argued potential jurors were excluded improperly from his
trial jury and that jurors should have been told a life sentence would
have meant 40 years in prison before he could be eligible for parole.

Testimony at his trial showed the three victims were walking along a dirt
road when they were approached by Gomez and several companions riding in
an SUV.

After a fight broke out, Gomez pulled a handgun and opened fire, hitting
one of the victims in the head. He continued to fire, striking the second
victim. After reloading, a fleeing 3rd victim was tracked down and shot in
the head, then all three were driven away and buried.

Gomez's companions turned themselves in and confessed. Their information
led authorities to Gomez, who also confessed and told detectives where
they could find the murder weapon.

In the Fort Worth case, Busby, 36, was arrested in Oklahoma City driving
Crane's car, 2 days after the woman's husband reported her missing.

2 days later, after telling police and the FBI several versions of how he
got the car, Busby led authorities to the woman's body along a service
road of Interstate 35 in Oklahoma's Murray County, just north of the Texas
border.

Court documents show Crane suffocated after her face was wrapped tight
with more than 23 feet of duct tape, then was thrown in the trunk of her
car. She also was robbed of a check and credit cards.

Crane was retired after working as an assistant education professor at
Texas Christian University. She also was a former principal at a TCU
school for children with learning disabilities.

The Supreme Court ruling came after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in
May turned down Busby's initial direct appeal. He still as other appeals
opportunities in the courts.

Neither Gomez nor Busy has an execution date.

(source: Associated Press)






WASHINGTON:

Supreme Court backs Clallam judge's stay; Sequim killer's Wednesday
execution canceled


Wednesday's scheduled execution of Darold Ray Stenson was canceled Monday
evening by the Department of Corrections after the state Supreme Court
earlier in the day refused to lift a stay.

If the Sequim bird farmer convicted in 1994 of two murders is executed in
the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla, it won't happen until at
least 90 days from now.

Stenson was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 8 p.m.
Wednesday.

But late-November legal maneuvers in Clallam County Superior Court in Port
Angeles and federal court in Yakima brought two separate stays of
execution last Tuesday.

The state Supreme Court earlier Monday refused to lift the Clallam County
judge's stay on Monday, prompting the Department of Corrections'
cancellation.

Stenson, 56, was convicted in 1994 in the shooting deaths of his wife,
Denise, and business partner, Frank Hoerner, at his exotic bird farm near
Sequim on March 25, 1993.

The state high court voted unanimously Monday to deny Clallam County's
request to vacate Superior Court Judge Ken Williams' stay of execution,
but allowed county prosecutors to renew their efforts before the trial
court in t3 months.

State Supreme Court Justice Susan Owens, a former Clallam County District
Court judge, recused herself from Monday's proceedings. Judge Teresa Kulik
sat in her place.

"We're relieved and pleased that the state Supreme Court ruled as it did,"
Robert Gombiner, one of Stenson's Seattle attorneys, told The Associated
Press.

Last Tuesday, Williams reversed a decision he made 4 days earlier on DNA
testing.

A new witness, Robert Shinn, came forth on Nov. 21 and claimed he had a
conversation with another man about 8 years ago while both of them were
high on drugs.

Shinn claimed that the 2nd man had told him that Stenson was not guilty
and that he had been framed.

Stenson has maintained his innocence throughout the years.

In light of the new evidence, Williams granted the stay and set a DNA
review hearing for Jan. 28 in Clallam County Superior Court.

State Assistant Attorney General John Samson said the high court's ruling
does not mean that the execution won't eventually take place.

"It does not rule invalid the sentence," Samson said.

"It simply provides additional time to litigate the DNA issue, and it's
the state's position that the hearings will show the sentence was
appropriate and it will be carried out in accordance with state law."

Federal level

On the federal level in Yakima, Stenson's lawyers asked U.S. District
Judge Lonny Suko for a temporary restraining order blocking the execution
on the grounds that the state revised its procedure for administering
lethal injections, without previously announcing any changes or going
through a rule-making process.

Suko granted the federal stay.

State Attorney General Rob McKenna asked an appeals court to vacate Suko's
order and allow Wednesday's execution to proceed as scheduled.

Meanwhile, the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty on Monday
filed a petition for clemency on Stenson's behalf.

Coalition president Jeff Ellis asked the board to postpone the matter
until the two stays are resolved in the courts.

The Supreme Court decision came after the state's clemency board postponed
action in Olympia on Monday morning on whether Stenson should be granted
clemency, noting the pending court action.

'Delay, and further delay'

"If there is anything that can be said, it is not that there is a search
for truth going on, but rather a search for delay, and further delay,"
Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly said at the clemency
hearing.

"That is unfortunate."

Prior to Monday's state Supreme Court ruling, prison officials were
preparing for the execution to go forward as scheduled.

The state Department of Corrections changed the execution time from 12:01
a.m. to 8 p.m. to accommodate late appeals.

"We have a responsibility to ensure the death penalty is lawfully applied
and that we are prepared to carry out the sentence in a dignified,
professional manner," Washington State Penitentiary Superintendent Stephen
Sinclair said in a Monday statement.

Ten years ago, a judge granted a stay for Stenson six weeks before his
scheduled execution.

If Stenson's current stays are dissolved, he would be the 1st inmate put
to death in Washington since James Elledge in August 2001.

Eight men currently sit on Washington's death row.

Since 1904, 77 men have been executed in Washington.

No woman has ever been sentenced to death in the state.

(source: Associated Press)






ALABAMA:

Arthur seeks DNA evidence in murder case


Convicted capital murderer Thomas Douglas Arthur is formally seeking DNA
evidence in an attempt to prove his innocence in a 1982 contract killing
in Colbert County.

Arthur's attorney, Suhana Han, has filed a motion in Jefferson County
Circuit Court asking for DNA from the Feb. 1, 1982, scene of the murder of
Colbert County businessman Troy Wicker.

The evidence collected 26 years ago includes a "rape kit" performed on
widow Judy Wicker, who originally claimed she was beaten and raped by an
intruder who killed her husband.

She later recanted and pinned the murder on Arthur, saying they were
having an affair. She was a key witness in the multiple trials held in the
case, all of which ended in capital murder convictions for Arthur. Another
Alabama prison inmate serving a life sentence said he killed Wicker and
had sex with Judy Wicker.

Attorney General Troy King's office has until Dec. 8 to file a response to
the latest motion, which was filed in November, according to Assistant
Attorney General Clay Crenshaw. In the motion, Han said physical evidence
from the scene could be tested to point fingers at another suspect or cast
doubt on Arthur's guilt. She couldn't be reached for comment Monday.

Successive Colbert County district attorneys James Patton and Gary
Alverson prosecuted Arthur. Current District Attorney Bryce Graham has now
inherited the case.

Graham said he hasn't looked for evidence in the case, including DNA,
because he hasn't been ordered to. Since Patton and Alverson technically
are supernumerary district attorneys, Graham said it's not clear who would
have jurisdiction over a search for evidence, if it even exists after 26
years.

Arthur has been convicted three times of capital murder. He was sentenced
to die three times, but his execution dates were stayed each time. The
latest action in the case came Sept. 23 when the Alabama Supreme Court
declined to set a new date.

A new development occurred this year when another Alabama prison inmate,
Bobby Ray Gilbert, said Judy Wicker paid him to kill her husband. Han
provided Gilbert's signed confession that she is trying to get admitted in
court. Jefferson County Circuit Judge Theresa Pulliam has set a Feb. 17
hearing date to hear that issue. Gilbert said he was 17 when he killed
Wicker, but Attorney General Troy King disputes his birth date and said he
was 15 on Feb. 1, 1982.

Arthur, who will be 67 this month, was convicted largely on Judy Wicker's
testimony and circumstantial evidence. Wicker was later convicted and
served time.

(source: The Times Daily)






MARYLAND:

Time to end the death penalty in Maryland


I spent 10 years as a law enforcement officer, including 7 in the
Baltimore Police Department. So I am no stranger to violence.

Indeed, my years surrounded by senseless crime filled me with outrage and
the desire for revenge  including the death penalty.

But I have learned a lot since then, including the scary fact that a
single mistake could be mean the execution of an innocent person.

As someone who has dedicated my life to enforcing the law, I can't live
with that. I testified before the Maryland Commission on Capital
Punishment this fall, sharing my journey from death penalty supporter to a
supporter of repeal. And last month the Commission validated my experience
by voting for the same - the repeal of Maryland's death penalty. It was a
smart decision and I hope the legislature will move quickly to enact it.

As I said, my opposition to the death penalty evolved. During my years in
Vietnam and later as a military policeman in Louisiana, I was exposed to
violence as a matter of routine. My anger at those who would harm innocent
people boiled over. Then, working in some of the poorest and crime-ridden
neighborhoods of Baltimore only strengthened my feeling that some people
were simply beyond redemption. It was a fairly simple conclusion for me to
think that the most evil people in our society deserved the death penalty.
In my view, those who opposed it were muddleheaded, knee-jerk liberals who
were just plain wrong.

I felt that way until about ten years ago. The last decade has seen a
broad shift in public opinion on the death penalty, and I was not immune
to the new information that was coming out about innocent people being
sentenced to death. I was also struck by a talk on the death penalty by
then Archbishop of Baltimore, William Cardinal Keeler, when he spoke at a
mass at my parish in Towson. I realized then that I had to learn more.

I read about Kirk Noble Bloodsworth  a man sentenced to die in Maryland
for a crime he did not commit. I could not begin to imagine the absolute
horror of languishing on death row an innocent man. I could not imagine
the anticipation of being lifted onto a gurney, strapped down and injected
with a combination of lethal drugs by an incompetent nurse's aide  knowing
all the time that I had done nothing wrong.

As I read about Mr. Bloodsworth and other innocent people that came close
to execution, my doubts about the death penalty grew. Human beings are
simply not right 100 percent of the time. No amount of reforms,
technological advances, or legal procedures can undo that fact. If the
death penalty remains, some state, perhaps even our state, will kill an
innocent person. Can we live with that?

Like many people, I have struggled to make sense of this issue. The death
penalty seems like a proportionate punishment for a grievous crime. At
least it brings justice to victims in the face of evil. But does it? My
religion teaches that the path to true peace is through forgiveness. John
Paul II traveled to an Italian prison to forgive the man who shot him. The
death penalty keeps us from following that noble example. It certainly
does not bring back or even honor the dead. It also does not ennoble the
living. It does nothing to assuage the sorrow of the victim's loved ones.
In fact, as I sat through the commission hearings waiting to testify, I
heard from victims' families who said the opposite  that the death
penalty's uncertainty only brought them more grief.

The closer you look at it, the less the death penalty makes any sense. As
the Maryland commission found, the risk of executing an innocent person is
just too high to justify maintaining a punishment that does not deter,
costs too much, and harms victims' families.

And as a former police officer, I would add that the death penalty is not
needed to protect the public. It is time for Maryland to make the
common-sense choice and replace the death penalty with life without
parole.

(source: Opinion, Michael May, of Rodgers Forge, is an attorney and
formerly served as a Baltimore City police officer and a military police
officer----Baltimore Examiner)






NEVADA:

Crawley found guilty of murder, could face death penalty


Justice will be served in the death of a local appliance store founder.

Monday, a jury found Bryan Crawley guilty of murdering John Herda. The
83-year-old businessman was killed during a home invasion two years ago.
Crawley could get the death penalty.

Herda's family welcomes the verdict but says this has been a difficult
process.

"He'll be missed by so many people," says Nick Herda. "Every day someone
comes in and asks about my father. He was a great man. He was a good man,
a fair man. He'll be missed by all of us, definitely."

Sentencing for Crawley begins Wednesday.

Herda was shot 6 times but managed to fire back and wound Crawley during
the attack.

(source: KVBC News)






ILLINOIS:

Alvarez sworn in as state's attorney; She is 1st woman and 1st Hispanic to
hold top Cook County prosecutor's post


The 1st woman and Hispanic to be elected Cook County state's attorney took
her oath of office Monday, pledging to use the full force of her office
when necessary but to temper power with compassion.

"The office wields great power and holds tremendous responsibility in
protecting the public trust," Anita Alvarez said moments after being sworn
into office by Circuit Judge Joseph Urso in the Chicago Cultural Center.
"The citizens of Cook County can be assured that I will use all those
powers with great force when necessary. But I also vow to lead the office
with other important characteristics that I have learned along my journey,
which are fairness and compassion."

In a 20-minute speech to several hundred supporters, Alvarez made no
mention of her historic victory last month. In speaking to reporters
later, she acknowledged that while her election as a minority and a woman
is significant, her qualifications as a prosecutor matter most.

"It's an awesome feeling to break that glass ceiling . . . and to be able
to prove that, yes, a person like me can do this job as a prosecutor," she
said. "Being a woman, being a Latina has certainly enhanced my candidacy
along the way. But I think the most important thing is that the voters got
a qualified person to do this job."

In her speech, the 48-year-old career prosecutor spoke of her childhood in
Pilsen, the sacrifices her parents made for her education and the lessons
learned over the last 2 decades that caused her to seek the elected
office.

She vowed to further combat gang and gun violence, to aggressively pursue
those who defraud the elderly and to increase prosecutions of public
corruption against "those who ignore their oath of office and violate the
public trust."

She also pledged to make good on her campaign promise to install satellite
offices within various communities to help repair distrust between
residents and law enforcement.

In a brief interview, Alvarez told the Tribune that she intends to keep a
review process put in place by predecessor Richard Devine to determine in
which cases to seek the death penalty. But she said she believes that the
state legislature should reduce the number of crimes for which capital
punishment is a possible penalty. Currently, Illinois has nearly 2 dozen
crimes for which the death penalty is an option.

And she also said she wants to craft legislation that would require that
gun owners report to the state within a week when a firearm has been lost
or stolen.

(source: Chicago Tribune)