March 28 NEBRASKA: Senators to consider death penalty again Less than 2 weeks after debating the death penalty, lawmakers are scheduled to take up the issue again. An amendment was filed Tuesday in the Legislature that could make it tougher to sentence people to death, with a public hearing scheduled for Friday. The current law requires juries and judges to determine at least one aggravating circumstance exists in a crime for the death penalty to be imposed. The amendment would require that they first find criminals would pose a substantial risk to others even while incarcerated. A bill that called for the repeal of the death penalty was voted down by the Legislature last week. Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha crafted the new amendment, which he has said is not specifically aimed at keeping death-row inmate Carey Dean Moore from being executed on May 8. On the Net:----Nebraska Legislature: http://www.nebraskalegislature.gov (source: Associated Press) ARIZONA: Man could face death penalty in slayings of mother and sister In Phoenix, a man could face the death penalty after pleading guilty to beating his mother and sister to death with a hammer. 40-year-old Louis D'Ottavio plead guilty yesterday to 2 counts of 1st-degree murder. He now faces a death sentence when the penalty phase of his case begins in Maricopa County Superior Court. D'Ottavio has waived his right to have a jury decide the penalty phase of the case. A judge will decide if D'Ottavio will get the death penalty or spend his life behind bars. Authorities said D'Ottavio killed his mother and sister by striking them with a hammer in September 2004. (source: Associated Press) ************** Death penalty sought in domestic murder case Yavapai County Prosecutor Joe Butner has filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty for Tomas Mendoza-Macias. Mendoza-Macias is jailed on 2 counts of 1st degree murder, aggravated assault and burglary. He is charged with killing his estranged wife in her apartment. Alma Delia Trejo Gonzales was stabbed with a kitchen knife and killed as she returned from a convenience store Jan. 9. Alma was living with her sister, a nephew and 12-year-old granddaughter in the apartment on Mingus Avenue. The couple was separated and getting a divorce. But Tomas expressed to an officer that he was jealous that she was seeing another man. Tomas had a history of abusive behavior toward his wife, especially when he drank heavily, according to police investigators. The defense and prosecution discussed the mental examination that is required by law when a notice is given to seek the death penalty. The court must order a mental screening to test a defendant's intelligence quotient and to make sure he does not suffer mental retardation. The court agreed that Mendoza-Macias will be evaluated. At the urging of the prosecution, Judge Warren Darrow also restricted Mendoza-Macias' access to two family members. Butner said the defendant has contacted members of the family since he has been jailed. Some of the family did not object to the defendant's contact, but the communications must be written not verbal according to the Darrow. Butner told the court that the medical examiner's report on the death has been filed, but it is not complete, since the toxicology tests have not been finished. Judge Darrow gave the attorney's 2 more months to finish interviews in the case and scheduled a status conference for May 21. (source: Verde Independent) WYOMING: Jury deliberates death sentence In Gillette, a jury was deliberating Tuesday evening whether a man it convicted of conspiring to commit 1st-degree murder in the death of a 16-year-old boy should be put to death. Jurors agreed with prosecutors that Kent A. Proffit, 43, directed local teenagers to kill Bryce Chavers, 16, in late 2005 because the teen was about to testify against Proffit in a sexual assault trial. Chavers was shot in bed at his home. The jury returned the verdict late Monday after deliberating for about 3 hours. Deliberations over whether Proffit will be sentenced to death began Tuesday. In a separate case, jurors in November convicted Proffit of ordering 2 men to strangle 19-year-old Jeremy Forquer. Proffit was sentenced to life in prison without parole in that case. Co-defendant Jacob Martinez, who pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty, told jurors that Forquer was killed because Proffit feared Forquer would snitch on them about some unspecified crime. In closing arguments Monday, defense lawyer Dion Custis said there was no evidence that Proffit had enough influence to cause other people to kill for him. "We know who killed Bryce Chavers," Custis said, mentioning a group of teenagers he referred to as a "murderous clan." "We know who planned the killing of Bryce Chavers," Custis said. "We know who went up to a 16-tear-old defenseless kid sleeping. We know." Christopher Hicks, 20, was found guilty last year of 1st-degree murder and conspiracy to commit 1st-degree murder in Chavers' death. Martinez pleaded guilty to the murder in exchange for a life prison sentence recommendation and his testimony against the other defendants. Prosecutor Bill Edelman told the jury that Proffit was the president of the "murderous clan." "It's that man," Edelman said of Proffit. "He's the only person -- the only person -- who would stand to gain anything by the death of Bryce Chavers." (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Ohio death row inmate gets 6th reprieve Gov. Ted Strickland granted a death row inmate a 6th reprieve Tuesday to allow more time for DNA testing in a 1982 murder. At the request of John Spirko's lawyers, Attorney General Marc Dann asked the governor this month to delay Spirko's execution, set for April 17, for 4 months. Spirko, 60, was convicted of killing Betty Jane Mottinger of Elgin based on witness statements and his own comments to investigators. He has said he is innocent. Mottinger was abducted and stabbed, then dumped in a field. Her body was found 3 weeks later. Dann said he was willing to give more time for testing because the case is "totally dependent on circumstantial evidence." No physical evidence ties him to the killing, and charges against a co-defendant have been dropped. Courts have upheld his conviction and death sentence. (source: Associated Press) **************** Ex-death row inmates popping up for parole ---- Families of victims from before '78 often are unaware Wondering when his brother's murderer was going to be executed used to be one of Greg Nicholas' biggest concerns. Now, his concern is whether the killer will be released from prison, like 19 other former death row inmates have been. "Frankly, it would be appalling if he were let out," Nicholas said of Clifton Rhodes, who killed his brother, Randall, in 1975. Rhodes was one of dozens of Ohio death row inmates who had their sentences commuted from death to life in 1978, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state's capital-punishment law of that time. That made them eventually eligible for parole hearings. Though prison records differ through the years, a list released this month by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction says the sentences of 97 inmates were commuted when the Supreme Court acted. In 1978, there was no program for letting families of victims know about parole hearings, prison spokeswoman Andrea Dean said. That means they might not know about the state's victim-notification registry. Seventeen inmates have been set free since 2000, and two were released in the 1990s. 3 of those released have committed new crimes and been sent back to prison, records show. 10 of the 97 died in prison. The rest are scheduled for parole hearings, many in the next 5 years. Being scheduled for a hearing is no guarantee of being granted parole. Nicholas said he heard about the registry about a dozen years ago and signed up to be notified when Rhodes was granted a parole hearing. Rhodes got a hearing recently, and Nicholas was among those who opposed his release. Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien wrote to the Ohio Adult Parole Authority in February, asking that Rhodes be denied parole. "The inmate marched young Randall Nicholas up an alley in Columbus while checking garage doors, and finally finding a rear door to a garage open, he gagged him with a bandana and put the victim on his hands and knees and shot him multiple times in the back of the head," O'Brien wrote. "That young man begged for his life." Prosecutors contend that Rhodes robbed and then killed Randall Nicholas. Rhodes also had been convicted of shooting with the intent to kill in Adams County and of involuntary manslaughter for killing another man in Columbus. The parole board this month denied Rhodes parole; his next hearing is scheduled in 10 years. The thought that Rhodes, who is now 55, could be released even in 10 years is disturbing, Nicholas said. He had understood the commutation to "life" meant no chance of parole. But, "there was no 'life without parole' in the 1970s," Dean said. "That is unbelievable," Don Hallowes said when told that Rhodes had been given a shot at parole. Hallowes said he and Randall Nicholas were listening to music at a laundry near Ohio State University when they started talking and drinking beer with 3 other men. Hallowes left, expecting Nicholas to come over to his home later. The only former death row inmate from Franklin County to be granted parole as a consequence of the 1978 court ruling was freed in 2005. Mark A. Davis, now 47, was convicted of killing Kathryn Miller in Franklin County in 1976. A man at Davis' mother's home said Davis has married and moved to Arizona since his release. The man, who said he was Davis' stepfather, referred all other questions to Davis, who could not be reached last night. Family members looking to be added to the victim notification registry can do so by filling out a form at www.drc.state.oh.us or by calling 614-728-9947. (source: Columbus Dispatch)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----NEB., ARIZ., WYO., OHIO
Rick Halperin Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:38:40 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
