June 3 CALIFORNIA: Alcala pleads not guilty to 5 murders----He is suspected of killing a 12-year-old O.C. girl in 1979. Rodney James Alcala, a former death-row inmate whose 2 convictions for killing a 12-year-old Huntington Beach girl in 1979 were both reversed, again pleaded not guilty in that slaying today, and to 4 other killings in Los Angeles County. Alcala, 62, has been in custody since July 1979 when he was arrested for the abduction and murder of Robin Samsoe, a Huntington Beach ballet student who disappeared from her neighborhood on June 20, 1979. Her decomposing remains were discovered 12 days later in the San Gabriel Mountains. While he was awaiting a 3rd trial in the Samsoe case, he was indicted on the 4 Los Angeles County slayings based on DNA evidence. DNA testing did not exist in 1979. Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseno ruled earlier that the 4 Los Angeles County cases can be prosecuted along with the Samsoe case in Orange County. While 2 of Samsoe's brothers and a sister-in-law watched from the courtroom gallery, Alcala officially pleaded not guilty to all 5 cases today. Members of Samsoe's family have been in court for every hearing on the case sine 1979. He is scheduled to face a jury Nov. 6, but court-appointed defense attorney George Peters said he would need more time to prepare a defense because of the new cases. The trial will probably not get under way until mid 2007, Peters said. These are the 4 Los Angeles County slayings: - Nov. 10, 1977: Jill Barcomb, 18, of Oneida, NY, had been in Southern California for about 3 weeks when her body was found on a dirt path on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. She was in a knee-to-chest position and naked from the waist down. She had been strangled with a pair of blue slacks and beaten. There were signs of sexual assault. - Dec. 16, 1977: Georgia Wixted, 27, was found in her Malibu home, naked, battered and sexually assaulted. A hammer was found next to her body. Wixted, a nurse at Centinela Hospital, was born in New York. 2 types of blood were found in her apartment. Alcala was linked to her murder in 2003 after his DNA popped up when authorities tested a sample found at the scene. - June 24, 1978: Charlotte Lamb, 32, of Santa Monica, was found naked and dead in the laundry room of a large apartment complex in El Segundo, according to the LA County coroner's office. Lamb, a legal secretary, had been sexually assaulted and strangled with a shoelace. The apartment manager found her body, but residents said they had never seen her before, according to published reports. - June 14, 1979: Jill Parenteau, a 21-year-old computer program keypunch operator, was killed after an intruder broke into her Burbank apartment by jimmying window louvers. Her nude body was found on the floor, propped up by pillows. (source: Orange County Register) NEW YORK: Life in prison for 'Kid Homicide'----2nd sentencing for 1996 murder A man known on the streets as "Kid Homicide" received the only possible sentence for the 1996 kidnapping and murder of a teenager -- life in prison. Still, that's an improvement over Charles Malloy's prior sentence, which had sent him to death row. Common Pleas Judge John S. Kennedy on Wednesday imposed a life sentence without the possibility of parole. He also sentenced the 30-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y., man to an additional 20 to 40 years in prison for Malloy's convictions on charges of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder. Malloy was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in March 2000 for the Nov. 8, 1996, slaying of 18-year-old Arthur "Gerber" Irick in an abandoned warehouse parking lot in York City. But in September 2004, the state Supreme Court overturned the death sentence, faulting his former defense attorney, Rick Robinson, for failing to provide mitigating evidence to the jury about Malloy's abusive childhood. Robinson has said he was unable to make contact with any of Malloy's family at the time of trial and that he doesn't recall his client informing him of the abuse. A new penalty hearing for Malloy began April 24, to determine whether he should get life or death. On May 3, the jury announced that, after about 21/2 hours of deliberation, it could not agree on a sentence. In such cases, the judge is required to impose life without the possibility of parole. Wednesday's hearing was to formally impose the sentence. Murder was ordered: Irick's execution was ordered by Willie "Skip" Gooding, who believed Irick was a "stick-up kid" who robbed Gooding's crack-cocaine crew and shot at them, police said. Gooding was convicted of 3rd-degree murder and kidnapping, and sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison. Police have said that Malloy and 2 others -- who weren't charged with homicide because they testified against Malloy -- lured Irick to an abandoned parking lot next to D&D Distribution Services Inc., near of the intersection of East Philadelphia and Broad streets. It was there that Malloy shot the teen in the face at point-blank range, police said. During the penalty hearing, defense attorney Ari Weitzman told jurors that what Malloy knew as a child was hatred, abuse, torture and neglect. Malloy's mother's boyfriend burned both his hands over a gas stove when Malloy was 8, scarring him for life. Malloy dropped out of high school and spent his youth on the streets. "Don't invite him to dinner. Don't correspond with him. Don't like him; don't love him," Weitzman said. "Just don't kill him." Everyone involved in Irick's murder is originally from Brooklyn, police said. (source: York Dispatch) TENNESSEE: On-and-off death row inmate to be executed -- Years of appeals gave man chance at life in 1989 murder-for-hire case The state Supreme Court, which has twice taken a Cocke County man off death row, on Friday set his execution date. In a stunning reversal of judicial fortunes, Jonathan Wesley Stephenson faces an October execution for the 1989 ambush slaying of his wife after years of appeals that had netted him a chance at avoiding death. In an opinion released Friday, the state's highest court opined that Stephenson deserved to die for luring his wife away from their 8-month-old baby and 4-year-old son after offering to pay for her death with cash, a boat, a truck and a motor. Lisa Stephenson was shot in the head at close range with a high-powered rifle in a remote section of Cocke County in December 1989. It was a murder-for-hire case, although the hired hit man, Ralph Thompson, insisted that Jonathan Stephenson was the one who wound up pulling the trigger. Stephenson countered that it was Thompson who fired the fatal shot. Under the law, it didn't matter which of the 2 men actually killed the Cocke County mother. Both were prosecuted with separate jury trials. A Cocke County jury sentenced Stephenson to death. A Sevier County jury imposed a sentence of life for Thompson, whose trial was moved because of publicity surrounding Stephenson's trial. Stephenson, testimony has shown, wanted his wife dead because his stripper girlfriend did not know he was married. He also feared losing "everything he'd ever worked for" in a divorce, according to trial testimony. In 1994, the state Supreme Court vacated Jonathan Stephenson's death sentence because of a procedural error and sent the case back to Cocke County for a new sentencing hearing. District Attorney General Al Schmutzer then offered Stephenson a deal to spare Lisa Stephenson's family further court grief. Under the deal, Stephenson would be sentenced to life without parole for murdering his wife and another 60 years for plotting with Thompson to kill her. Stephenson took the deal but then appealed. The state Supreme Court again sided with Stephenson, ruling that the law allowing a sentence of life without parole wasn't on the books when the slaying occurred. The court again took Stephenson off death row. This time, Schmutzer offered no deal and a jury again sentenced Stephenson to death. Stephenson appealed again, arguing, among other things, that it was unfair for him to be put to death when Thompson was allowed to live for the same crime. In an opinion written by Justice Janice M. Holder and released Friday, the state's high court disagreed. "In the present case, the defendant's relationship to the victim and his role as leader in instigating and planning the murder distinguishes him from Thompson," Holder wrote. "Moreover, this court has upheld death sentences in murder-for-hire cases where the actual killer received a sentence of life imprisonment." Retiring Justice Adolpho A. Birch Jr. issued a lone dissent, calling the majority to task for one of its legal conclusions and the panel's overall standard of reviewing death sentences for fairness. Although an execution date has been set for Stephenson, it is unlikely that it will be carried out. He is entitled under the law to another round of federal appeals. (source : Knoxville News Sentinel) **************************** Supreme Court Affirms Death Sentence For Inmate Who Appealed Life Sentence The Tennessee Supreme Court has affirmed the death sentence Cocke County jurors imposed on a truck driver for his role in the contract killing of his wife who was shot at close range after being lured to a remote area. Jonathan Wesley Stephenson was first sentenced to death in 1990 for the 1st degree murder of Lisa Stephenson. He also received a 25 year sentence for conspiracy to commit murder. A new sentencing hearing was ordered due to a legal error nullifying the jurors' verdict. By agreement with the prosecution and defense, the death sentence was later changed to life without parole for the murder and 60 years in prison for conspiracy. Stephenson then challenged the reduced sentence and the Tennessee Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing hearing. Jurors again imposed a death sentence which was upheld by the Supreme Court. "Having carefully reviewed the record and relevant legal authority, we conclude that none of the errors alleged by the defendant warrants relief," Justice Janice M. Holder wrote for the majority. Chief Justice William M. Barker and Justices E. Riley Anderson and Cornelia Clark concurred in the decision filed Friday. In a separate concurring and dissenting opinion, Justice Adolpho A. Birch, Jr., said he agrees with the majority that Stephenson's convictions should be affirmed, but disagreed concerning the majoritys conclusion regarding an issue raised by Stephenson in his appeal. "I respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority's opinion concluding that the Sixth Amendment right to confrontation of witnesses and the state constitutional right to confront witnesses 'face-to-face' does not apply to capital sentencing hearings," Justice Birch wrote. As in previous dissents, Justice Birch also wrote that the method used by the court to review and compare Tennessee capital cases is "inadequate" in his view. State law requires the court to conduct comparative proportionality review in each death penalty case to determine whether the sentence is disproportionate to the penalties in similar cases. Justice Holder said the court recognizes that no two cases involve identical circumstances. Quoting an earlier case, State v. Bland, she wrote that the court's objective is not to "'prove that a defendant's death sentence is perfectly symmetrical, but to identify and to invalidate the aberrant death sentence." "We conclude that the sentence of death has not been imposed arbitrarily, that the evidence supports the jury's finding of the statutory aggravating circumstance, that the evidence supports the jury's finding that the aggravating circumstance outweighs the mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt and that the sentence is not excessive or disproportionate," Justice Holder wrote. The court set an Oct. 11, 2006, execution date for Stephenson, who has appeals remaining. Stephenson and a co-defendant, Ralph Thompson, Jr., were found guilty of killing Lisa Stephenson, the mother of two young children, with a rifle as she sat in her vehicle in an isolated area in Cocke County. Thompson received a life sentence for the murder and an additional 25 years for conspiracy to commit murder. Each defendant blamed the other for the actual shooting. Stephenson had offered Thompson and others cash, a boat, a motor and a truck if they would kill his wife. He complained that he would "lose everything he had worked for" if they divorced. The court considered and rejected all issues raised by Stephenson in his appeal. The decision upholds a decision of the Court of Criminal Appeals, which also found his claims to be without merit. (source: Associated Press) ************************ US sets two executions for June 28 The state Supreme Court has set June 28 execution date for inmate Sedley Alley, who came within hours of being put to death last month before getting a short reprieve to pursue DNA testing on evidence in his case. It was the second setback for the condemned killer this week. On Tuesday a judge refused to release evidence from the 1985 rape and murder of Suzanne M Collins so Alley's defence team could pay for DNA testing. The state, which has put only 1 inmate to death since 1960, has set 2 executions for June 28. The other is Paul Dennis Reid, who received 7 death sentences in a 1997 string of murders at fast-food restaurants. Also yesterday, the state Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Jonathan Wesley Stephenson, who was twice convicted in the contract killing of his wife. An execution date of October 11 has been set, although Stephenson still has appeals remaining. Alley was scheduled to die by lethal injection May 17 until he got a 15-day reprieve to seek the testing. (source: The Times of India) VIRGINIA----impending execution As execution date nears, inmate's mental state debated Percy Walton's attorneys describe their client as a man who has lost all touch with reality: He keeps no personal effects in his death row cell, save for a mountain of salt and pepper packets. He rarely speaks, although occasionally bursts into random bouts of laughter. The guards call him "Horse" - short for "Crazy Horse" - and complain of his unbearable stench. And when asked what he believes will happen to him if he is executed, the triple killer's response, his attorneys said, was that he'd go to Burger King. Whether Walton - who is scheduled to die by injection June 8 - is indeed insane and mentally retarded has been debated for nearly a decade. Some believe he is faking his behavior to get off death row. Others argue he simply doesn't meet the legal definition of insanity or mental retardation. The issue is now before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has just days left to decide whether to take the case and determine if Walton should be executed for the 1996 slayings of 3 neighbors in Danville. Walton, 27, pleaded guilty in 1997 to the murders of Jessie and Elizabeth Kendrick, a couple in their 80s, and 33-year-old Archie Moore. The victims were robbed and shot in the head; Moore's body was found stuffed in a closet, his corpse doused in cologne. It was a crime Walton's own attorneys describe as bizarre and senseless. "The police told me later that Daddy was face down on the carpet in the living room with his hands above his head, as if in prayer," the Kendrick's daughter, Barbara Case, said softly, the memories of the murders still vivid and painful. "Mother was in the dining area. ... He said she had begged for her life - she had begged him not to kill her." The Supreme Court has ruled it unconstitutional to execute the insane and mentally retarded, but left it up to the states to define retardation. In their petition to the high court, Walton's attorneys argue that Walton is suffering from schizophrenia and is incapable of understanding the concept of death, therefore making him ineligible for execution. They have also filed a clemency request with Gov. Timothy M. Kaine further arguing that Walton is mentally retarded. No competency hearing was held before Walton was sentenced to death and various tests have yielded conflicting results on his mental state. The Virginia attorney general's office has argued that intelligence scores taken when Walton was 17 and 18 place him above the accepted range for mental retardation. Mental retardation under Virginia law requires "significantly subaverage intellectual functioning" at the onset of adulthood. They also said testing by Walton's own experts did not find him to be retarded. But a 2003 evaluation by the Department of Corrections did find that Walton appeared to be mentally retarded. Another evaluation found him to be schizophrenic and psychotic with an IQ of 66. IQ scores below 70 are generally considered in the realm of mental retardation. However, the evaluation also stated that the IQ test that returned the score of 66 is "not the gold standard for IQ testing," and noted that previous testing of Walton "shows no mental retardation." Walton was three days from execution in 2003 when U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson granted him a temporary stay so experts could explore his mental state. In the hearings that followed, prison guard Cecilia Turner testified that Walton wouldn't leave his cell to take a shower, complaining about a man in a white suit sitting on a gray box in his cell. Turner said she would have to convince him the imaginary man was gone before he would come out. Prison counselors and mental health specialists told the judge they thought Walton was psychotic and delusional. While the lawyers debated in court, Walton laughed and picked his nose. But Wilson ultimately ruled that despite Walton's problems, he understands his death sentence is punishment for his murder conviction and is therefore competent. In his 2003 order, Wilson noted the testimony of a prison psychiatrist who considered Walton a "mentally limited, street-wise predator" who misled people into thinking he was crazy. In March, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 7-6 to affirm Wilson's decision. "His guilt and competence have been determined by 15 judges and we agree with their findings," said Tucker Martin, a spokesman for Attorney General Bob McDonnell. But Walton's mental state has deteriorated so much that he would probably be unaware he was dying if he was executed, his attorney Nash Bilisoly said. "He does not comprehend any of the significance of what's going on," Bilisoly said. "He's so ill now that he just has no affect. He doesn't have understanding, comprehension nor emotion." Virginia's death row inmates are required to decide between lethal injection and electrocution. If they refuse to choose, the default method is injection. In 2003, Walton opted to die by electrocution, later telling The Associated Press in a phone interview he had no idea why he had chosen the chair. "I don't even know," he told The AP shortly before his scheduled 2003 execution. "I think my man with the blue shirt, he circled one of the words. He may have been my counselor. He asked me, 'Electrocution or lethal injection.' I told him I wanted electrocution. I don't know (why). I don't even know. I don't even know." Walton's decision to die by electrocution unnerved Case, the Kendrick's daughter, who does not believe Walton was insane or mentally retarded when he murdered her parents. "Maybe he's just gone stark raving mad being on death row," said Case, 68, of Brandon, Miss. "But who knows? Only God knows." On the Net: U.S. Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/ (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CALIF., N.Y., TENN., VA.
Rick Halperin Sat, 3 Jun 2006 11:54:27 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
