[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., N.C., FLA., ALA., LA.
June 24 TEXAS: Love gets new attorneys for capital murder retrial Former convicted murderer Albert Leslie Love Jr. has 2 new lawyers for a retrial of his capital murder case, including one who represented him on appeal. In a brief hearing Friday, Love informed 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother that he requires court-appointed attorneys to represent him because he and his family can't afford to hire attorneys for the retrial of his death-penalty case. Love left death row and has been back in the McLennan County Jail since May 2. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his capital murder conviction and death sentence in December. Strother appointed Austin attorneys Ariel Payan, who worked on Love's appeal, and Jim Young to represent Love on retrial. Strother said Friday it likely will be 2019 before Love's case can be tried again. A Williamson County jury returned the death penalty against Love in 2013 in the 2011 shooting deaths of Keenan Hubert, 20, and Tyus Sneed, 17, at the Lakewood Villas apartment complex, 1601 Spring St. The Court of Criminal Appeals, in a 6-3 opinion, ruled that Love's Fourth Amendment rights were violated when Waco police seized the contents of his cellphone, including text messages, without a search warrant. Prosecutors then used the messages at his trial. In a motion for rehearing rejected by the Court of Criminal Appeals in April, prosecutors argued that Waco police officers relied on what they understood the law to be at the time and exhibited a "good-faith belief" that warrants were not necessary for the cellphones. Love was appointed new attorneys because his original trial attorneys, John Donahue and Jon Evans, bowed out of representing him again because Love's appellate attorneys alleged in briefs that the attorneys were ineffective, a common tactic on appeal. Love's trial was moved to Georgetown because one of his co-defendants, Rickey Donnell Cummings, was tried first in Waco. The appeals court affirmed Cummings' conviction and death sentence. Cummings' younger brother, D'Arvis Cummings, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2014. He pleaded guilty to murder as a party to the ambush slayings. Deontrae Majors and Marion Bible, who were in the front seat of the car Hubert and Sneed were in when they were killed, were wounded in the attack but managed to escape. Testimony from both trials showed Cummings and Love wanted to kill Hubert out of revenge because they thought he killed their best friend, Emuel "Man Man" Bowers III, at East Waco Park the year before. McDonald capital murder trial postponed In other court activity Friday afternoon, Strother indefinitely postponed the capital murder trial of Todric Deon McDonald to give his attorneys sufficient time to have DNA evidence analyzed. McDonald, 30, and 32-year-old Tony Olivarez are co-defendants in the shooting deaths of Justin Javier Gonzalez, 24, and Ulysses Gonzalez, 30, at the Pecan Tree Apartments in the 2600 block of Grim Avenue. The cousins died of multiple gunshot wounds, police said. Prosecutor Michael Jarrett told the judge his office likely will get a report back next week concerning 36 items that were tested for DNA, and then he will forward the information to the defense. Evans and Donahue, who represent McDonald in the death-penalty case, told Strother they would need time to have the evidence analyzed by defense experts to provide McDonald with a proper defense. Jury selection in the case had been set for October. Jarrett said the state has no objections to the postponement. (source: Waco Tribune-Herald) VIRGINIA: Judge hears motions in capital murder case in Danville A Danville judge this week denied a motion by defense counsel to declare a capital murder case unconstitutional. The Danville Commonwealth's Attorney Office filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty against Pierre Antoine Dixon, 30, in December 2016. Dixon, of Danville, is charged with capital murder in the November 2013 shooting death of Lynchburg resident Antwan Lamontah George Rucker. Police have said Rucker was believed to have been led to the Innkeeper hotel on Piney Forest Road to be robbed. Danville Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Petra Haskins said in an email Friday afternoon the state is seeking the death penalty in the case for numerous reasons. Rucker "was lured to the Innkeeper by [Sharika] Murphy who was in cahoots with Dixon to rob Antwan Rucker," Haskins said in the email. "A homicide in the course of a robbery is potentially a capital crime," Haskins continued. The death penalty is sought in this case due to the "aggravating factors of both future dangerousness and vileness," according to a motion filed by Steve Milani with the Roanoke Capital Defense Unit. Milani filed the motion to "declare 1 part of Virginia's capital murder sentencing scheme unconstitutional, the so-called
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., N.C., FLA., ALA., LA.
April 9 TEXAS: Putt-Putt killer gets stay of execution, but 'case is far from over' The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay of execution Friday for a man convicted in the 2006 murder of an assistant manager of a Putt-Putt golf park in Hurst. Paul Storey, 32, who was convicted in 2008 for the murder of Jonas Cherry, was scheduled to die on Wednesday. Storey did not immediately learn of his stay because he was in transport Friday afternoon from Fort Worth to Huntsville. He had been in the Tarrant County Jail for a recent hearing in connection with his case. "The 1st thing I did is rush back to the jail but he had already been sent back to prison to be executed," said attorney Mike Ware. While his conviction remains in place, the court's decision will put into motion a lengthy legal process that will eventually decide whether Storey should live or die for his crime. Storey's lawyers, his family and the parents of Cherry have all fought to save Storey's life. Cory Session, a justice reform advocate who fought for the posthumous exoneration of his convicted brother, Tim Cole, also pushed for Storey's execution to be stayed. "This case is far from over," Ware said. "At the time being I'm very relieved for Paul and Marilyn and for that matter, I'm relieved for the Cherrys." Said Marilyn Shankle-Grant, Storey's mom: "I am just elated. I am so happy. I know now it is an indefinite stay until we get some answers from the lower court." Cherry begged for his life during the crime at Putt-Putt Golf and Games at a highly visible location across Texas 121/Loop 820 from North East Mall in Hurst. It was about 8:45 a.m. on Oct. 16, 2006 and Storey and Mark Porter stood over Cherry, who pleaded: "Please! I gave you what you want. Don't hurt me." They refused and shot him twice in the head and twice in his legs and fled with between $200 and $700. Cherry, who was approaching his 1st wedding anniversary, was pronounced dead at the scene. Storey and Porter were convicted of capital murder, but only Storey got the death penalty. Porter got life without parole after making a deal with the Tarrant County district attorney's office. Session said Friday that the appeals court has called for another hearing at the trial court presided over by State District Judge Robb Catalano. That hearing will seek to determine whether defense attorneys were notified by prosecutors during Storey's trial that Cherry's parents, Glenn and Judy Cherry, were against the death penalty during the 2008 trial. "Judith and Glenn Cherry did not want death for Mr. Storey," an affidavit from the parents stated. "Unknown to the jury and contrary to the state's argument, they stood with the family members who pleaded for the jury to spare Mr. Storey's life." Prosecutors, however, have said that while the Cherrys were generally opposed to the death penalty, they were in agreement at the time of the 2008 trial that Storey should be executed because he had refused to accept a plea bargain for life without parole. Christy Jack, 1 of the prosecutors who is now in private practice, recently told the Star-Telegram that Storey's defense team was informed before the trial about how Cherry's parents felt. "Death penalty litigation is the most important thing that attorneys do," Jack said. "So I want everything that I do in these cases to be above reproach." Robert Foran, the lead prosecutor at the time of the 2008 trial, also confirmed Jack's account. "The defense decided not to call the parents to the stand," Foran said. "That was a tactical decision on their part, but we told them and they damn well know it." (source: star-telegram.com) VIRGINIA: Virginia's dark legacy of secrecy about executions The newly enhanced secrecy behind Virginia's capital punishment protocols underscores a legacy of death born in institutionalized racism that upcoming executions - including that of Ivan Teleguz, scheduled April 25 - do not just prolong, but exacerbate. In March 1879, after years of tolerating party atmospheres accompanying the public executions of blacks, Virginia first moved to shroud its execution process in secrecy after almost 1,000 revelers gathered after the hanging of 2 young black men at New Kent Courthouse for a grand "Gallows Ball" that lasted until daybreak. Afterward, a mortified General Assembly moved quickly to make hangings private, intending to stop the festival backdrops and remove black influence and traditions from the proceedings. Most newspapers that year, including the April 2 Petersburg Progress-Index, praised the new statute, reporting that "this (law) shall put an end to all such gallows picnics and jollifications as was witnessed at New Kent Court-house." There is little evidence to conclude that crowds gathered to condemn the crimes of the prisoner. On the contrary, the widespread prejudices in the judicial process, from
