Nov. 24 NEW HAMPSHIRE: Penalty phase of NH death penalty case continues Jurors deciding whether to sentence Michael Addison to death for killing a Manchester police officer heard more about the defendants violent past. Manuel Andrade testified Monday that Addison put a gun in his face and pulled the trigger twice when the 2 were high school students in 1996. He said he felt lucky when none of the bullets discharged. Several Boston police officers familiar with Addisons early criminal activities also took the stand, including officers who said Addison threatened to kill his mother when he was a teenager. The jury already has convicted Addison of capital murder in the 2006 death of Officer Michael Briggs. (source: Associated Press) WASHINGTON----impending execution Bishops ask Gov. Gregoire to stop Wash. execution The state's Catholic bishops are asking Gov. Chris Gregoire to commute the death sentence of Darold Ray Stenson. The bishops are asking that Stenson instead receive life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Stenson, 55, is set to be executed Dec. 3. He was convicted of aggravated murder for the 1993 shooting deaths of his wife and a business partner while his 3 young children slept nearby in his Clallam County farmhouse. Seattle Archbishop Alex Brunett, Spokane Bishop William Skylstad, and Yakima Bishop Carlos Sevilla made the request in a letter to Gregoire on Friday. Gregoire's office did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment. The bishops wrote that while they understand the responsibility of the state to punish Stenson, "there remains no moral justification for imposing a sentence of death." "Violence begets violence both in our hearts and in our actions," they wrote. "By continuing the tradition of responding to killing with state-sanctioned killing, we rob ourselves of moral consistency and perpetuate that which we seek to sanction." Stenson would be the 1st inmate put to death since 2001 if none of his pending appeals is granted. Stenson has long claimed he didn't commit the murders, and is one of just two inmates in recent years to continue to appeal his death sentence. When Stenson called authorities in 1993 to report the deaths, he suggested that his business partner, Frank Hoerner, had killed Denise Stenson and then shot himself in another room. Prosecutors have said Stenson, struggling financially and in dire business straits, shot the 2 in order to collect $400,000 in life insurance. A federal appeals court lifted a stay last month, and prison officials are preparing for the execution to go forward as scheduled. Several walkthroughs have already been conducted, with another still to come this week. Because he declined to choose between lethal injection and hanging, Stenson would be killed by lethal injection if the execution goes forward as planned. Since 1904, 77 men have been executed in Washington, the last being James Elledge in August 2001. No woman has ever been sentenced to death in the state. (source: Associated Press) IDAHO: Duncan to stand for appeal hearing In Boise, defense attorneys for Joseph Edward Duncan III are criticizing a hearing scheduled by a federal judge to determine whether the convicted killer wants to appeal his death sentence. The defense lawyers, who are in only a standby role, contend the U.S. District Court in Boise no longer has jurisdiction. They contend in court papers that any issues related to Duncans appeal should be heard in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Duncan, 45, has been sentenced in federal and state courts for a 2005 rampage that started in northern Idaho and stretched into western Montana. A convicted pedophile, Duncan murdered 3 members of a Coeur dAlene family, then abducted, sexually abused and tortured 2 children before killing 1 of them at a Montana campsite. After his legal team filed a notice of appeal last week, Duncan sent a letter to the court stating that he didnt want the appeal. Lodge set a hearing for Monday. (source: Associated Press) USA: Convictions upheld in embassy bombings In New York, a federal appeals panel has upheld the convictions of three men in the 1998 bombings of 2 U.S. embassies in Africa. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the men received a fair trial. The Aug. 7, 1998 attacks at U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. A trial of 4 men in the attacks ended with convictions just weeks before the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. The ruling only pertains to 3 of the 4 defendants because one of them initially appealed but then withdrew his appeal. All of them were sentenced to life in prison, including 2 who were eligible for the death penalty. Authorities said Osama bin Laden, who remains under indictment in the case, directed the attacks through his al-Qaeda network. Besides bin Laden and these 4, 17 others have been indicted in the case. (source: The Associated Press) US MILITARY: Defense rests in Martinez trial An Army criminal investigator testified this morning about evidence he collected that could show a murder scene had been tampered with. Investigating the office where Capt. Philip Esposito and Lt. Louis Allen died in a claymore mine blast, Jeffrey Tellock said he was told to collect 2 grenade pins and a latex glove because they "might prove that someone was trying to tamper with the crime scene." Esposito and Allen were killed at Forward Operating Base Danger in Tikrit, Iraq in June 2005. New York National Guardsman Alberto Martinez has been charged with their murder and could be sentenced to death if convicted. The defense rested at 10:43 a.m. today. Martinez, 41, declined to testify. The defense also declined to call 2 of the expert witnesses on its list without saying why. The prosecution will begin its rebuttal at 1 p.m. and expects to finish tomorrow. (source: Fayetteville Observer) PENNSYLVANIA: Reading suspects waive hearing in 2006 shooting death----Judge rules Berks prosecutors can seek death penalty in killing of Bernville woman and her daughter Berks County prosecutors are allowed to seek the death penalty against Albert Perez in the strangulation of his ex-girlfriend and her daughter in Bernville, a judge has ruled. Perez, 28, of the 300 block of Chestnut Street is accused of killing Duceliz Diaz-Santiago, 22, and her 5-year-old daughter, Kayla, and trying to stage the deaths to look like Diaz-Santiago had hanged her daughter and herself in her apartment on Main Street on Jan. 15, 2007. Perez's lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Kevin M. Beals, had asked Judge Linda K.M. Ludgate to block the prosecution's request to seek the death penalty for both deaths and to dismiss the murder charges in the girl's death. Beals argued there is insufficient evidence to prove Perez committed the slayings. "Any evidence linking him (Perez) to the death of the child is so remote," Beals said. Assistant District Attorney Adrian Shchuka said Perez was the only one who had a motive to kill the pair. "Duceliz Diaz was a devoted mother that would never harm her child," Shchuka said. Ludgate ruled there is enough evidence to support first-degree murder charges. "The defendant admitted to killing Duceliz Diaz, fabricating an alleged suicide note and staging a scene to look like a murder-suicide by Diaz," Ludgate concluded in her 12-page ruling available Monday. State police said Perez and Diaz-Santiago had a stormy relationship and had broken up months before he killed her and her daughter. During a hearing in September, prosecutors presented medical evidence to prove the mother's death preceded her daughter's. The mother and daughter each had a ligature tied around their necks and died of asphyxiation, medical officials said. Police said DNA evidence collected from Diaz-Santiago matched the defendant's DNA. Ludgate reserved a request from Beals to use and out-of-county jury to hear the case because of the pretrial publicity. Shchuka said Miosotis Diaz, Diaz's sister, previously told police that Perez told her he knew how to kill some one and make it look like a suicide. According to court records: The girl was hanged with pajama bottoms from a towel rack in the bathroom. Diaz-Santiago was hanged with an electrical cord from a bar in a bedroom closet. The cord had snapped before the body was found. Perez took a Sony PlayStation from the apartment after the slayings. Troopers later found the console in the closet in his apartment. Perez is in the county jail without bail awaiting trial in April. (source: Reading Eagle)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.H., WASH., IDAHO, USA, US MIL., PENN.
Rick Halperin Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:01:23 -0600 (Central Standard Time)
