[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, TENN., USA
Dec. 9 OHIO: Supreme Court to hear appeal of Canton man's conviction On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Ohio will hear the death penalty appeal of James Mammone III, a Canton man convicted of murdering his 2 young children and ex-mother-in-law in 2009. In Mammone v. State, attorneys for James Mammone III assert that publicity about the case was so pervasive in the Canton area that no impartial jury could be found. They contend that the failure to change venues deprived Mammone of his right to a fair trial. Among several other claims of errors made during the trial, Mammone's attorneys argue that his trial lawyers were ineffective because during the jury selection process they did not adequately ask potential jurors about what their views were on the death penalty, what they knew and thought about the case based on pre-trial publicity, and whether they could consider mitigating circumstances. His attorneys also assert that the trial lawyers should have better prepared Mammone's parents for their testimony and limited Mammone's own 5-hour statement made to the court. They also claim that the prosecution inflamed the jury by repeatedly showing grisly crime scene and autopsy photos to a point beyond the boundaries set by the Ohio Supreme Court. (source: WKYC news) TENNESSEE: Public defender's office says it can't take on new death penalty case Nashville's public defenders say they can't take on any more death penalty casesright now. Resources and manpower are simply too limited to take on the case of Lorenzo Jenkins, 40, a man accused of murdering 3 people over drugs in October. That's according to Assistant Public Defender Mike Engle, who told Criminal Court Judge Randall Wyatt Jr. Monday that the state should instead hire Jenkins a private attorney to handle his defense. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the deaths of Patrick Sullivan, 56, his wife, Deborah Sullivan, 48, and their daughter, Wendy Sullivan, 28, who were all found stabbed Oct. 22, 2012. "Because of the state's filing of a death motion in this case, our office quite frankly lacks the resources to defend a death penalty case," Engle told Wyatt in court Monday morning. Engle said the American Bar Association estimates a typical death penalty case requires upward of 2,000 hours of preparation. He explained that the office only has a few attorneys qualified to defend capital cases, 2 of whom are already on 1 case, and one of whom is retiring soon. The others, he said, have supervisory duties over other public defenders, making it impossible for them to take on a case of the magnitude of the one against Jenkins. Deputy District Attorney General Tom Thurman, who is prosecuting the case, disagreed. He said the public defender's office has plenty of people and could simply reassign lesser cases to free up one of the five attorneys qualified to handle a death penalty case. Besides, he said, he's handling more than 1 case. "I am involved in three cases," Thurman told the court. "So, I guess according to the ABA, I should be in the psych ward." Dawn Deaner, Nashville's elected public defender, said she was surprised by Thurman's comments. She said it's unfair to compare workloads of prosecutors, who have police officers, detectives, forensic experts and witnesses at their disposal before a case is even filed, with those of public defenders, who must start their own investigations after a case has already moved to court. "I don't understand why the state takes the position that they take. I don't know why they're concerned about it, quite frankly," Deaner said. "You can't compare their workload to our workload. It's 2 different measurements." She said her office has been chronically underfunded and understaffed and that taking on another death penalty case would require significant reshuffling of personnel and criminal cases that could, in the end, require more private attorneys hired to take over the reshuffled cases. "There are maximum caseload standards that are recommended for public defenders in Tennessee," she said. "If you apply those standards to the number of cases we handled in fiscal year '13, we were 22 lawyers short in our office to be able to handle the workload that we have." Her office is already participating in 2 other death penalty cases. The charges against Jenkins began last October, when the Sullivans were found dead in their Maxon Avenue home, the victims of a crime police say could have been the result of a dispute over drugs that were dealt out of that home. Jenkins is charged with 3 counts of 1st-degree murder, 3 counts of felony murder and 1 count of especially aggravated robbery. He's being held without bond because of a 6-year sentence for violating his probation on a previous conviction for aggravated burglary and theft. At Monday's hearing, Wyatt said he'd need some time to think the matter over, but not before
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, TENN., USA
May 28 OHIO: Judge orders temporary halt to Ohio executions A federal judge has ordered a 2 1/2-month moratorium on executions in Ohio to allow time for arguments over the state's new lethal injection procedures. The order delays executions scheduled for July and August while attorneys prepare filings about the state's decision to boost the dosages of its lethal injection drugs. The 1-page order by Columbus federal judge Gregory Frost on Tuesday affects the state's latest death penalty policy change, which was announced in late April. Ohio uses 2 drugs injected simultaneously in executions. The policy change considerably increases the amount of the sedative and raises the amount of the painkiller. The procedure update followed the Jan. 16 execution of Dennis McGuire, who repeatedly gasped during the record 26 minutes it took him to die (source: Associated Press) * Death penalty courses among Siegal summer offerings A course on Ohio's death penalty will be among the summer offerings at The Laura and Alvin Siegal Lifelong Learning Program's beginning June 2 at the Siegal facility in Beachwood. The course, which will take place on Wednesdays, June 11, 18 and 25, is entitled, "Ohio's Death Penalty: Recommendations of the American Bar Association and the Ohio Supreme Court's Death Penalty Task Force." Margery Koosed will teach the class. The course is unique to the program because the Supreme Court of Ohio Commission on Continuing Legal Education has approved it for 2 CLE hours per session. Attorneys that need continuing legal education could receive up to 6 CLE hours of instruction for an extra fee of $10 per session. The third session on June 25 for 2 hours of death penalty training. All classes at Siegal facility, 26500 Shaker Blvd. in Beachwood. (source: Cleveland Jewish News) TENNESSEE: Judge: State may seek death penalty in 4 slayings on Renegade Mountain An accused killer has lost the 1st round in his bid to stay off death row if convicted. A Cumberland County judge Wednesday denied a motion filed by attorneys for Jacob Allen Bennett, accused of killing 4 young people, that his blurted admission of guilt during the start of an arraignment should stand. Defense attorneys in their motion had sought to nix the state's move to seek the death penalty, which was filed soon afterward. Judge David Patterson ruled that Bennett's proclamation of his guilt on Sept. 20, 2013, occurred before he was given the opportunity to represent himself, that Bennett wasn't properly arraigned then and, that as judge, he didn't accept the plea. "The court is concerned that the defendant didn't understand what was going on," Patterson said. During a reconvened arraignment on Oct. 3, Bennett, 26, was given a court-appointed attorney, who entered not guilty pleas on the Crab Orchard man's behalf. Bennett is accused of shooting 3 teenagers and a young mother to death on a secluded gravel road on Renegade Mountain, a would-be resort community that has fallen on hard times. The shootings occurred either late Sept. 11 or early Sept. 12, 2013, officials said. The shooting occurred during a botched drug deal involving a quarter-pound of marijuana, according to records. Killed were Danielle Rikki Jacobsen, 22, her nephew Domonic Davis, 17, John Lajeunesse, 16, and Steven Presley, 17. "I think he (Bennett) ought to be put before a firing squad and done just like they done our kids," Peggy Davis, grandmother of Steven Presley, said during a break in the hearing. Also accused in the case is Bennett's girlfriend, Brittany Lina Yvonn Moser, 25, of Dayton, Tenn. Bennett is charged with 4 counts of premeditated murder, 4 counts of felony murder, and 2 counts of attempted aggravated robbery. Moser, with Bennett at the time of the killings, is charged with four counts of felony murder and 2 counts of attempted aggravated robbery. Deputy District Attorney Gary McKenzie said the state will likely move to have separate trials for Bennett and Moser. The judge set an Aug. 13 hearing on other motions in the case and to schedule a trial date for Bennett, now in maximum security in the Morgan County Regional Correctional Facility. "If we can, we'll try to do that (a trial) this year," Patterson said. (source: Knoxville News Sentinel) USA: The Shrinking Death Penalty 12 years after it banned the execution of intellecutally disabled people, the Supreme Court on Tuesday clarified and thus reaffirmed the essence of its ruling by striking down a Florida law requiring that defendant claiming that condition show an I.Q. score of 70 or below. In 2002, the court held that people with intellectual disabilities were less culpable because of their "diminshed capacities" to process information, control their impulses and understand the nature of their crimes. The condition also made them more likely to give false confessions
