May 3 TEXAS -- impending execution 3-time parolee set to die for fatal beating 3times Lonnie Wayne Pursley was sent to prison. 3 times he was let out on parole. A jury in Polk County ensured he wouldn't get out a fourth time when they decided in 1999 he should be put to death for the fatal beating and robbery of a 47-year-old East Texas man. The lethal injection of Pursley, 43, was scheduled for Tuesday evening. Because of bed shortages and court-imposed population limits, Texas corrections officials in the late 1980s and into the 1990s were forced to release convicts early until new prisons were built that eased the problem. "It's not our decision who stays in or who gets out," said San Jacinto County Sheriff Lacy Rogers, who has known Pursley for years because of the convict's run-ins with the law. "It happens a lot. During most of those times, it was overcrowding there." The U.S. Supreme Court refused last month to review Pursley's capital murder conviction. Attorneys trying to keep Pursley from becoming the 6th Texas inmate to be executed this year were back in the courts, challenging the trial testimony of a medical examiner. Pursley, a Houston native who grew up in Coldspring in San Jacinto County, was on parole when he was arrested, tried and condemned for the death of Robert Earl Cook, of Livingston. Court documents indicated Cook was driving on U.S. Highway 59 near Shepherd, in San Jacinto County, where Pursley had gotten into an argument with his wife while attending a gathering at his mother-in-law's house. Prosecutors speculated Pursley was walking along the highway and Cook, who was known to pick up hitchhikers, offered Pursley a ride. Somehow both wound up at Cook's trailer home March 28, 1997, and at some point the pair drove into the woods in the northeast part of Polk County where Cook was beaten to death and robbed of his rings. Witnesses told authorities they saw Pursley driving Cook's car later and that he traded the rings for drugs. Pursley, who declined to speak with reporters on death row, said on a prison pen pal Web site that the case and testimony against him were false. "Most of the evidence used against me was fabricated, botched, tainted, and yes, even planted!" he wrote. "There was not anything planted," Polk County Sheriff Kenneth Hammack, who was a Texas Ranger at the time and investigated the slaying, said last week. Pursley turned himself in after a warrant had been issued for his arrest. Stephen Taylor, one of Pursley's trial lawyers, said his client was less than cooperative in helping develop a defense. "He wouldn't tell us anything," Taylor said. "He never told us how they got together, what happened, anything. We don't know what happened to trigger the incident, how they happened to get to the victim's residence, if he was at the victim's residence and how he came into possession of the victim's car. "We did the very best we could do. It was very difficult." About a week after Cook's mother filed a missing person report, a passer-by found his decomposing body in a wooded area at the end of a dead-end dirt road about 2 1/2 miles from his home. 9 days later, Cook's car was found abandoned in a wooded area in neighboring San Jacinto County, where Pursley was well known to authorities. "Lonnie's just one of those souls that got involved in drugs and totally devastated his life and went downhill," Rogers said. DNA evidence found 18 months later on a cigarette butt in the ashtray of Cook's car was used to link Pursley to the vehicle, according to court documents. In 1987, Pursley received five years in prison for burglary and was paroled 3 years later. Within 5 months he wound up back behind bars with a 10-year term for theft but was paroled after 14 months. The following year, he picked up a 20-year term for burglary but was out in 3 1/2 years. 16 months later, Cook was killed. At least 3 other Texas inmates have execution dates for later this month. ON THE NET--------------Texas execution schedule http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/scheduledexecutions.htm Pursley Web page http://www.ccadp.org/lonniewaynepursley.htm (source: Associated Press) *********************** Texas Prepares For 6th Execution Of 2005 Final appeals are pending for Texas death row inmate Lonnie Wayne Pursley, 43, who is scheduled to die just after 6 p.m. Tuesday in the state's death chamber in Huntsville. Pursley was sentenced to die for the robbery and beating death of Robert Earl Cook, 47, of Livingston. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case last month. Attorneys trying to halt the punishment are challenging the trial testimony of a medical examiner. Pursley is a Houston native who grew up in Coldspring. Court documents indicated Cook was driving near Shepherd, where Pursley had gotten into an argument with his wife while at his mother-in-law's. Prosecutors believe Pursley was walking along the highway and Cook offered him a ride. Pursley says, on a prison pen pal web site, that the case and testimony against him were false. Investigators deny the allegations. (source: KWTX) ************************** Murder cases set for trial State District Judge Jim Lovett has denied a defense motion that District Attorney Gary Young and his staff be disqualified from prosecuting Christopher Cobb for capital murder in the deaths of his great-grandparents last year. Lovett on Friday rejected the argument of defense attorney Steven Miears of Bonham that Young should not be allowed to prosecute Cobb because he represented him in his divorce trial several years ago. The judge then set a trial date for late November. Fridays pretrial hearing was a continuation of arguments initiated a week earlier. After day-long testimony by several law enforcement officers involved in questioning and arresting Cobb, Lovett denied motions by Miears to suppress statements by Cobb before he was charged with capital murder and various items seized from Cobbs room. The district attorney has said hell seek the death penalty for Cobb, 22, in the Aug. 29, 2004, deaths of his great-grandparents, Charley Smith, 89, and Ruth Smith, 88, who were killed in their home at 3715 Smallwood Road. At the conclusion of proceedings Friday, Lovett set Cobbs trial date to begin with jury selection Nov. 28, the Monday after Thanksgiving. Because the death penalty is sought, jury selection is expected to take 2 weeks, because prospective jurors must be questioned individually. Testimony is expected to begin about Dec. 12. Meanwhile, another capital murder trial is scheduled just three weeks from today. Jury selection is scheduled to begin May 23 in the trial of James Darrell Larson, 21, in the stabbing death of Roy Lee Williams, whose body was found April 2, 2004, in a downtown alley behind Grand Cleaners, near the intersection of Grand Avenue and Southwest Second Street Street. Larson, a suspect early on, was apprehended in Roswell, N.M., more than three weeks after the owner of the cleaners found Williams body behind his establishment. The death penalty is not sought in that case, Young said. Meanwhile, Paris police continue to investigate the 1st homicide of 2005. Joe Cavasos, 48, was found dead Tuesday of last week from a gunshot to the chest. "We're hopeful we can get something going on this case. Were working leads and talking to people, but it looks like it may take a while," said Lt. Randy Tuttle, head of the Criminal Investigation Division. Funeral services for Cavasos, who was wheelchair-bound, were Saturday afternoon in Paris. Cavasos lived alone at 1555 W. Walker St. in a duplex. Neighbors said they saw him in his wheelchair at the front of his residence Sunday afternoon. A home health care worker flagged down police officer David Whitaker about 1 p.m. Tuesday when she got no response at the residence for the 2nd straight day. Cavasos was a truck driver until he was paralyzed 9 years ago when his truck overturned. Cavasos, who was divorced, moved to Paris 7 years ago. He was survived by 2 daughters, Airman 1st Class Shannon Cavasos, 21, a life support specialist with the 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron in Iraq, and Joe Evin Cavasos, 26, of Midland. (source: Paris News) CONNECTICUT: Connecticut serial killer's execution date moved Connecticut's highest court on Monday pushed back by 2 days the scheduled execution of a convicted serial killer who would be the 1st person put to death in New England in 45 years. The Connecticut Supreme Court moved Michael Ross' execution date to May 13 from May 11, citing a procedural issue. Ross, who admitted to killing 8 women in the 1980s, has waived all remaining appeals and says he wants his death to give closure to his victims' families. A judge last month ruled Ross was mentally competent when he decided to forgo his appeals and be put to death. But an appeal has been filed to that ruling, and the top court changed the execution date to comply with a mandatory 20-day appeal period. The appeal was filed by Thomas Groark, a Hartford attorney who has argued that Ross is incompetent to waive all appeals and be executed. The court also agreed to hear oral arguments on Thursday regarding Groark's appeal. Ross was originally set to die in January, but appeals have delayed his execution several times. In March, convicted killer and rapist Sedrick Cobb became the 2nd inmate on Connecticut's death row after Ross to waive his appeals and volunteer to be put to death. (source: Reuters) MISSOURI: Court reinstates death penalty for inmate The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday reinstated the death penalty for a man convicted of robbing a St. Louis bank and murdering a guard. The full court ruled that Billie Jerome Allen's death sentence was constitutional, rejecting his attorneys' claims that the grand jury's indictment of Allen failed to properly charge him with crimes punishable by death. Allen and another man, Norris Holder, were convicted of killing guard Richard Heflin, 46, in a 1997 holdup at the Lindell Bank & Trust branch at 6900 Clayton Avenue. Their getaway van crashed and burned in Forest Park. The case has been through a series reversals. A 3-judge panel of the appeals court upheld the death sentence for both men in a 2-1 vote in 2001, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned those rulings in 2002 and sent the case back for further review. In February 2004, in another 2-1 vote, an appeals court panel vacated the sentence, but in May 2004 the appeals court reversed that decision and decided to have all of the court's judges review the case. Holder remains sentenced to death, though he still has pending appeals. (source: St. Louis Dispatch) NORTH DAKOTA----re: federal death penalty Death penalty challenged An attorney representing murder suspect Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. says his client shouldn't face the death penalty because the process to decide capital punishment cases is unconstitutional. A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that changes how criminal defendants are sentenced also applies to those facing the death penalty, Rodriguez's attorney, Richard Ney, said Monday. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in January that juries must consider all evidence that could affect sentences. Before the high court's decision, federal judges were allowed to determine drug amounts, fraud amounts and other specifics that could drastically increase defendants' sentences. Ney argues in court records that the federal death penalty statute doesn't authorize the changes mandated by the Supreme Court. "The federal death penalty doesn't exist in a usable form, just as sentencing guidelines no longer exist in their original form," said Ney, a Kansas attorney who specializes in federal death penalty cases. In a three-page motion, Ney asked a federal judge to declare the death penalty unconstitutional. "We will resist that motion," U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley said. "There wasn't anything in there that I would categorize as unexpected." Wrigley announced in October that then-Attorney General John Ashcroft decided to seek Rodriguez's death if prosecutors can prove he kidnapped and killed Dru Sjodin. The 22-year-old University of North Dakota student disappeared in November 2003 from a mall in Grand Forks, N.D. Searchers found Sjodin's body in April 2004 near Rodriguez's hometown of Crookston, Minn. Rodriguez has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and killing Sjodin. A federal grand jury indicted Rodriguez, a convicted sex offender, last May. The grand jury also approved a notice of "special findings," a list of aggravating factors prosecutors will use in the sentencing phase if Rodriguez is convicted. The notice includes Rod-riguez's three prior convictions and alleges that he killed Sjodin "in an especially heinous, cruel and depraved manner." Ney argues that under the federal death penalty statute, Wrigley could have admitted the special findings into court without bringing them to the grand jury for review. "The statute, in its current form, simply does not require the government to plead aggravating factors by indictment," Ney said in court records. "The statute must be amended." Rodriguez's trial is set to begin in March. (source: In-Forum News)
