Jan. 19
TEXAS:
Cardinal: Pope Francis is closely tracking death penalty case in Texas
Vienna's cardinal says he is in touch with a man condemned to die in Texas, and
that Pope Francis is following the case, too.
Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn said Monday that he has been in close touch with
Richard Masterson, scheduled to be executed on Tuesday. Masterson was convicted
of strangling a man who was a female impersonator. Attorneys for Masterson have
contended his earlier lawyers were deficient and that his confession about the
death of Darin Shane Honeycutt, who went by the stage name of Brandi Houston,
was improper.
The cardinal mentioned the case while speaking at the Vatican about church
initiatives to promote mercy, a quality Francis has been stressing.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Masterson's appeal in the
2001 slaying.
(source: Associated Press)
FLORIDA:
390 FL death row inmates could appeal after Supreme Court ruling
After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death penalty system as
unconstitutional, Florida's 390 death row inmates prepare to test the seismic
ruling.
Attorney Anthony Rickman explained, "it could open up a whole bunch of cases
and a slough of litigation."
On February 2, the Florida Supreme Court will hear the case of death row inmate
Cary Michael Lambrix. He was convicted of a double murder in Glades County.
As he sits just 30 feet away from the death chamber, his attorneys fighting to
keep him out of it.
Rickman explained what Lambrix's legal argument might be.
"I want this new law to apply to me and it's applied to me even though I was
sentenced to death 20 years ago," said Rickman.
Jurors unanamously agreed Lambrix was guilty of 1st degree murder, but did not
vote unanamously on whether he should received the death penalty.
The nation's high court said the way Florida hands down death sentences is a
violation of the Sixth Amendment, which Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor
said, requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a
sentence of death."
While the ruling could affect Florida's 390 death row inmates, it is unclear
how far it will go.
"If they apply it retroactively across the board then every single inmate
sitting on death row that has been sentenced under this sentencing scheme may
be entitled to a new sentencing hearing," Rickman explained.
If they don't, only death row inmates like cop-killer Dontae Morris, who have
just started their appeal process, can be re-sentenced under this landmark
ruling.
In the Lambrix case, his attorneys want the high court to spare his life. The
state wants the execution to go forward.
Whatever they decide could set the trend for the rest of the state's condemned.
Lambrix is set to be executed on February 11.
(source: Fox News)
*************
Death penalty trials up in the air
5 death penalty trials are scheduled between now and April 5 in the
Jacksonville-based 4th Judicial Circuit, including for the suspect in the
abduction, sexual assault and strangulation of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle.
That's a problem, considering the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that
Florida's death-penalty procedures are unconstitutional.
"The easy answer is that there is no easy answer," said attorney Abraham
Laeser, co-chairman of The Florida Bar's Capital Cases Committee.
The other co-chairman, Donald Murrell, said no lawyer knows what this means.
"Until the Legislature acts, Florida does not have a death penalty," Murrell
said.
The U.S. Supreme Court said Jan. 12 it made its ruling because the final
decision on death or life in prison is made by a judge instead of a jury. The
Florida Legislature will likely have to pass new procedures that comply with
the ruling, but that will likely take months, if not longer.
So people facing the death penalty remain in limbo.
Hours after the Supreme Court issued its decision, defense attorney Julie
Schlax filed a motion that Donald James Smith cannot go to trial with the
possibility of a death sentence because the state doesn't have any approved
procedures in place to put someone on death row. Smith is scheduled to go on
trial April 5, after Cherish was taken from a Jacksonville Wal-Mart and found
the next morning in a wooded creek area in 2013.
"Until such time as a new sentencing scheme is passed by the Florida
Legislature, the only possible penalty for first-degree murder is life
imprisonment without the possibility of parole," Schlax said.
Schlax told the Times-Union she will file a similar motion in the case of James
Leon Jackson, scheduled for trial March 14 in the 1984 rape and slaying of
10-year-old Tammy Welch. Jackson, 63, was not arrested until 2013, when DNA
linked him to the crime.
The State Attorney's Office has said it is ready to proceed.
"We are continuing to prepare for trial in the death-penalty cases on the
calendar in 2016," said spokeswoman Jackelyn Barnard. "... We are also prepared
to address any motions filed by defense counsel in these cases, and we will
respond accordingly in court, on the record."
Attorney Ann Finnell represents Michael Renard Jackson, 46, scheduled to go on
trial March 14 in Clay County. Jackson is charged with the rape and killing of
25-year-old Andrea Boyer in 2007.
Finnell said that the Florida Supreme Court could issue an emergency ruling or
the Legislature could act quickly to amend the death penalty sentencing laws.
"I doubt that any case will move forward absent one of the above taking place,"
she said, "so I doubt that any case will be tried within the next 90 days."
Laeser said judges will avoid taking any death-penalty case to trial until the
Legislature acts.
"If I were on the bench, I would wait for whatever scheme the Legislature had
in mind," Laeser said. "Not to vouch for the collective wisdom of that branch
of government, but why take the chance that whatever I were to cobble together
would not pass muster and require a 2nd trial in the future?"
Schlax said she will also argue that the state can't seek death for Smith or
Jackson again once a new death-penalty procedure is approved because the state
can't mandate death via a procedure that was passed after someone was charged
with a crime.
Murrell said Schlax has a strong argument.
"Assuming it [the Legislature] acts this session, can the defendants be tried
under a new statute passed after they committed their crimes? Or is that an ex
post facto violation?" Murrell said.
This issue is going on throughout the state, with some courts having a jury
recommendation of death and judges unsure if they should impose the sentence,
Murrell said.
"Florida courts are going to be very busy sorting all this out. And you can
blame it squarely on the Legislative branch," Murrell said.
The Florida Supreme Court and the American Bar Association both warned over a
decade ago that the state's death-penalty laws were constitutionally suspect,
and the Legislature did nothing, Murrell said.
Demetrius Kenyon Carter also is scheduled to go on trial Feb. 16. Carter, 22,
is charged with the kidnapping and murder of 52-year-old Kenneth Mark Brown.
The Public Defender's Office spokesman Sam Shiver said staff are reviewing the
Supreme Court ruling and will take appropriate steps to defend Carter.
Another upcoming Jacksonville death-penalty trial is planned for March 7 for
Corey Jamaine Dozier, 35. He is charged with the 1st-degree murder of his
27-year-old girlfriend, Sherryne Desravines, in 2011.
Attorneys for Dozier could not be reached for comment.
(source: St. Augustine Record)
*************************
Florida's death penalty chaos was no surprise
Florida's criminal justice system has fallen into a mess of our own making.
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision last week finding serious flaws in
Florida's death penalty sentencing procedures. Suddenly, there's considerable
uncertainty about the sentences imposed on the 389 condemned prisoners on death
row. Except for the absolute certainty that their lawyers are about to flood
Florida courts with petitions demanding reconsideration of their cases. And
that even more time and money and paper and patience will be devoured by
Florida's death penalty process.
All of which was utterly predictable. Utterly avoidable.
State legislators were warned by the Florida Supreme Court back in 2005 that
the state's singular sentencing scheme needed fixing: "We ask the Legislature
to revisit it to decide whether it wants Florida to remain the outlier state."
Then-Gov. Jeb Bush urged the Legislature to heed the court and revisit the
death penalty statute.
Legislators ignored the state Supreme Court and ignored Bush.
A year later, an American Bar Association panel of experts released a Florida
Death Penalty Assessment raising similar concerns about the sentencing
procedure and "Florida's failure to require jury unanimity when recommending a
death sentence, in addition to the state's practice of allowing judges to
override jury sentencing recommendations."
Again, there was no legislative response.
But lawmakers could hardly ignore the U.S. Supreme Court's 8-1 decision handed
down on the very opening day of the 2016 legislative session. "The Sixth
Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a
sentence of death," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the prevailing opinion. "A
jury's mere recommendation is not enough."
Of the 33 states with the death penalty, Florida had been 1 of only 3 that
allow a judge to override a jury recommendation. But here's the confounding
thing behind the tough-on-crime Legislature's obdurate refusal to fix the
problem. A change would have had no practical effect.
A Florida judge hasn't overridden a jury recommendation for life imprisonment
and imposed the death penalty since 1999. A Broward jury had voted 8-4 in favor
of a life sentence for Jeffrey Weaver, who had been convicted in the 1996
murder of Fort Lauderdale Police Officer Bryant Peney. But Circuit Judge Mark
Speiser, perhaps responding to public outrage around the case, imposed the
death penalty. That was the last time a Florida judge ignored a jury
recommendation for life. In 2004, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that Speiser
had erred. Weaver was re-sentenced to life without possibility of parole.
But who knows how the courts will deal with the 384 men and 5 women in Florida
who were sentenced to die under a statute found constitutionally wanting?
Florida judges must now wrestle with questions of whether last week's Supreme
Court ruling applies retroactively. Not to mention the logistics associated
with hauling dangerous convicts around the state to re-sentencing hearings.
All of which could have been avoided if Florida's legislative leadership,
terrified of looking soft on crime, had not been so pigheaded.
(source: Commentary, Fred Grimm----Miami Herald)
TENNESSEE:
As Sullivan County weighs death penalty for Bristol teen, history says it won't
stick
Ronald Harries killed an 18-year-old store clerk in Kingsport.
Bobby Godsey threw a 7-month-old child across a room, fracturing the child's
skull, causing his death.
Steve Rollins stabbed a bait shop owner more than 20 times.
Nickolus Johnson shot and killed a Bristol police officer during a domestic
dispute.
All 5 of these men have 3 things in common. They all committed these crimes in
Sullivan County, they were all sentenced to death, and they all had their
sentences vacated during the appeals process.
History may be a factor in whether prosecutors pursue the death penalty against
Robert Seth Denton, the Bristol teenager who last year was accused of killing
his mother, stepfather and grandmother.
Sullivan County District Attorney General Barry Staubus said he has not made a
decision about Denton's case.
Staubus has a lot to consider before pursuing the death penalty. The very 1st
step is whether the murder meets 1 of 17 statutory aggravating circumstances
set out by the state of Tennessee. If the murder does not meet at least 1 of
those factors, such as previous felony convictions of a violent crime or if the
murder is especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, then the death penalty cannot
be pursued.
But that's just the beginning.
"Of course, it's a very serious decision," Staubus said. "You have to look at
things that are not set out in statute. You go beyond to see if they're
eligible. If they're eligible, then you go beyond and you have to determine
whether or not you should go and seek it."
Staubus said his office examines a number of other factors when considering the
death penalty. The strength of the case is a big factor along with examining
past case law. Other factors considered are the age of the victim and the
mental history and IQ of the defendant. What the court has done in similar
cases is examined, and the victim's family is consulted about what they would
like to see happen.
The Times-News examined 5 death penalty cases in Sullivan County spanning 30
years and found each one had the death penalty vacated or new trials ordered.
Leonard Smith
In 1984, Leonard Smith, along with David Hartsock and Angela O'Quinn, robbed 2
grocery stores. Hartsock shot and killed a man during the 1st robbery, and
Smith shot and killed a woman during the 2nd robbery.
He was charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder. Both murders were joined for
trial and Smith was convicted on both counts. The state declined to seek the
death penalty for the 1st murder but did seek it for the 2nd. And a jury
imposed it.
On Smith's 1st appeal, the state upheld the 1st life sentence but vacated the
death penalty. The reasoning was the 2 charges should not have been tried
together. A new trial was ordered in which Smith was once again convicted of
murder and sentenced to death.
While the appeals court upheld the guilty verdict, the sentence of death was
vacated. The Supreme Court of Tennessee said Smith's prior conviction of the
1st murder was improperly used as an aggravating circumstance.
He was once again sentenced to death but it was again vacated because the
presiding judge in the case had previously prosecuted Smith, and the appearance
of bias was enough to vacate the death sentence. However, his life sentence was
upheld.
Ronald Harries
Ronald Harries shot an 18-year-old woman during the course of a robbery in
1981. He was convicted of 1st-degree murder in 1981 and because of his prior
convictions of a felony involving violence, the jury recommended the death
sentence.
On appeal, Harries claimed to have received ineffective assistance from his
attorneys. In 2005, the Tennessee Supreme Court agreed and vacated his death
sentence, but not his conviction. He was later sentenced to life.
Bobby Godsey
In the fall of 1995, Bobby Godsey was watching his girlfriend's 7-month-old son
while she drove a friend home. During that time, he became angry with the
victim because he would not stop crying. He grabbed the child by the arm and
leg and jerked the child up, even though the child's arm was caught in the crib
railing.
Godsey threw the victim toward the toddler bed 2 feet away. But the child
missed the bed and landed on the tile floor, slid under the bed and hit the
wall. As a result, the child's skull was fractured and he later died at a
hospital.
Godsey was eventually charged with murder after giving police several different
accounts of what happened. He was found guilty of 1st-degree murder by
aggravated child abuse and aggravated child abuse. He was sentenced to death
based on an aggravating circumstance of the victim being less than 12 years of
age and the defendant being 18 or older. Godsey was 22 at the time.
The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction of 1st-degree murder but
reversed the death penalty, saying the punishment was disproportionate for the
crime. Instead, Godsey was sentenced to life. Both Godsey and the state
appealed the decision to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which upheld the sentence
of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Steven Rollins
Steven Rollins was convicted in June 2003 of the premeditated murder of a bait
shop owner in order to buy drugs. He was sentenced to death based on 5
aggravating circumstances including being convicted of a felony for a violent
crime and the victim being 70 years of age or older.
Rollins appealed and said he received ineffective assistance of his attorneys
and that he was mentally retarded. The Tennessee Supreme Court agreed and
ordered a new trial to be conducted. Rollins eventually pleaded guilty and
received a life sentence.
Nickolus Johnson
In 2004, Nickolus Johnson went to the home of a 17-year-old woman whom he had
gotten pregnant. He was angry because she wouldn't have an abortion and showed
up at her house with 2 guns. The girl's father called the police and Bristol
officer Mark Vance arrived at the home.
Johnson shot Vance in the head. He was later convicted on 1 count of
premeditated 1st-degree murder and sentenced to death. In April 2015, Johnson
filed paperwork seeking a new trial, and in September Staubus and the Sullivan
County District Attorney's Office were removed from prosecuting the case after
Johnson's attorneys said the office looked at sealed records, which it was not
allowed to do.
(source: Kingsport Times-News)
MISSOURI:
Committee will consider today bill that would end death penalty in Missouri
Senator Paul Wieland (R-Imperial) has sponsored a bill for the past 6 years
that would repeal the death penalty in Missouri. Today is the 1st time a Senate
committee will consider his proposal. Wieland said more money is spent on
appeals for criminals given the death penalty than a sentence of life in
prison.
"I think it's fiscally responsible. From a moral standpoint, I'm a pro-life
person. I don't think the state should be taking someone's life, especially
because we are in a civilized society. If we lived in the old west and that guy
was going to get out and kill more people, then I could see the need to protect
society," said Wieland.
Under his proposal, those on death row would instead be given a sentence of
life without parole.
"In some ways I think that by having the death penalty and allowing all these
appeals, it creates more heartache for the families of the victims," said
Wieland.
Wieland used to support the death penalty but changed his mind because he
doesn't believe it stops someone from committing a crime. He said it's possible
to be against the death penalty and tough on crime.
"I would argue in some cases it's tougher for a person to have to live their
natural life in prison than for the state to execute them in a comfortable
way," said Wieland.
6 Republicans and 1 Democrat are co-sponsoring this year's House bill.
Missouri is 1 of 31 states that uses the death penalty.
(source: missourinet.com)
***************
Republicans vie for death penalty reconsideration
The Senate Committee on General Laws and Pensions will hear a bill to repeal
the death penalty Tuesday.
The bill, SB 816, is sponsored by Sen. Paul Wieland, R-Imperial, has received
immense grassroots support from a group called Missouri Conservatives Concerned
About the Death Penalty. The group, which is joined in support by members of
the Students for Life, College Republicans, and the Missouri Federalist
Society, credits growing grassroots support for the early session hearing.
"Sen. Wieland is the true pro-life leader in Jefferson City," said Daniel
Blassi, president of Students for Life at Southeast Missouri State University
and member of Missouri Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty. "We may
aim to execute only the guilty, but in practice, the death penalty puts too
many innocent lives at risk."
A similar bill has been filed in the House by Republican Rep. T.J. Berry,
R-Kansas City, and has received Republican co-sponsorship and support.
Both Republican House and Senate members have filed legislation to repeal the
death penalty. Lawmakers have shared various reasons for wanting to consider
repeal, ranging from possible exonerations to cowardice.
1 of the 4 new Republican cosponsors of this year's House repeal bill, Rep. Jim
Neely, R - Cameron, signed onto the bill for the 1st time this year after
feeling that the death penalty is too easy of a way out for criminals that
commit heinous acts.
"The perverts that perpetrate horrific crimes - people like David Zink -
deserve much crueler punishment than we can constitutionally carry out as a
State," said Neely. "Our best legal option is to lock these people away and
force them to do hard labor until they die."
In June of 2015, Zink, 55, was executed in Missouri for the abduction, sexual
assault and murder of 19-year-old Amanda Morton in 2001, a killing authorities
described as "an unspeakable act of violence."
"For those who remain on death row, understand that everyone is going to die,"
Zink said in his final statement. "Statistically speaking, we have a much
easier death than most, so I encourage you to embrace it . . . before society
figures it out and condemns us to life without parole and we too will die a
lingering death," he said.
Other grassroots supporters of the effort support it because of distrust in
government competency.
"The government is incompetent at just about everything," said Jennifer
Bukowsky, Esq. on Fire, a Republican attorney who takes on pro bono cases for
Missourians imprisoned for murder despite actual innocence claims. "So how can
we trust them to kill the right people and to do it in the right way?"
Gary Nolan, host of the nationally-syndicated conservative radio talk show, The
Gary Nolan Show, agrees with Bukowsky.
"I want to make it clear that I don't have a moral problem with executing some
people; what I have a problem with is our system of justice," said Nolan. "If
you've got people who are confessing to a crime of murder, who might ultimately
get the death penalty even though they didn't commit the murder, then you have
do a rethink."
Others have begun to feel the death penalty is at odds with the core
conservative values of fiscal responsibility, limited government, and value for
life.
"Heinous criminals deserve swift justice, but it's difficult to justify a
government program that siphons millions of dollars from Missouri taxpayers
despite the lack of evidence that it deters crime," said Jake Buxton, Chair of
the College Republicans at Truman State University. "Our State can't afford the
death penalty as it stands."
The Senate hearing will be held Tuesday at 3 p.m. in Senate Committee Room 1 of
the State Capitol. For more information visit moconservativesconcerned.org.
(source: The Missouri Times)
ARIZONA:
The Keystone Kops of Capital Punishment
There's nothing funny about executing someone.
But if there were to be a movie about Arizona's bumbling, stumbling (but, for
some reason, NOT humbling) experience with the death penalty it would have to
be a comedy.
A old Mack Sennett silent movie short, preferably, featuring the Keystone Kops
of capital punishment - Arizona politicians.
It's just 1 slapstick routine after another.
Most recently, lawyers for the state told the federal judge hearing challenges
to the state's execution procedures that Arizona's supply of the drug
midazolam, part of the state's killer cocktail, will expire in May.
According the reporting by The Arizona Republic's Michael Kiefer, lawyers for
the Federal Public Defender's Office in Phoenix who filed the lawsuit on behalf
of 5 death row prisoners facing imminent execution, the case won't be resolved
by May.
As you may recall the execution of Joseph Wood in 2014, which used midazolam
that had not expired, was a cruelly botched affair in which the executioner had
to administer the (eventually) lethal dose 15 times before Wood died.
And there's a problem with getting any more of the drug.
One manufacturer of midazolam sent a letter to the Corrections Department
demanding it return the midazolam it had purchased from that company. It said
that using the drug to execute someone "is contrary to Akorn's commitment to
promote the health and wellness of human patients."
Likewise, Kiefer has reported that Arizona was among several states that were
illegally importing from Europe another execution drug, sodium thiopental.
Now, the pharmaceutical firms in Europe are refusing to supply drugs to
American prisons for use in executions.
It could be that Arizona, after all the money and all the expense and all the
horror, will have to start from scratch and devise some new protocol to execute
the condemned.
How far back will we want to go?
We used to hang people, but then a condemned woman was decapitated by the noose
and we stopped doing that.
We tried the gas chamber, but that led to an entire new set of horrors,
writhing deaths in front of witnesses.
So we moved to a drug protocol, which hasn't gone well either.
Still, the people we elect seem willing and eager to find a new method for
execution, sparing no amount of effort or expense.
If only they were that dedicated helping people. School children. The poor. The
uninsured.
A junkie doesn't heed warnings, however, and Arizona is addicted to the death
penalty.
Capital punishment costs more than keeping killers in jail for life. It wastes
a tremendous amount of time and legal resources. It goes wrong.
It's the slapstick burlesque show of Arizona's criminal justice system.
Laughable. But not funny.
(source: EJ Montini, The Arizona Republic)
CALIFORNIA:
Long Beach father pleads not guilty to killing ex-girlfriend
A Long Beach man pleaded not guilty Jan. 14 to killing his 25-year-old
ex-girlfriend in front of their son during an argument in December, according
to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.
Eric Jerome Williams Jr. a 29-year-old black man, has been charged with murder,
child abuse, possession of a firearm by a felon and resisting or delaying a
peace officer, prosecutors said. Williams also faces 2 counts of injuring a
child's parent, which are charges from a previous incident.
The complaint also includes a special circumstance allegation that Williams
killed Jerica Owens because she was a witness to a crime and a special
allegation that he discharged a firearm which caused death.
Williams and Owens were in a relationship for several years, had a son together
and shared a home before they broke up, according to a news release from the
district attorney's office.
On Dec. 22, Williams met with Owens and their son in the 1900 block of Chestnut
in Long Beach, where the 2 adults got into an argument, according to the
release.
Williams allegedly pulled out a gun and shot Owens in the head several times in
front of their son, then fled the area with their child. He was arrested later
that day after witnesses reported seeing a toddler running nearly naked in the
area.
A Long Beach police officer spotted Williams at a friend's home near the
shooting scene. Williams refused to come out when police officers came to the
door, and the officers forcibly entered out of fear for the child's safety.
Williams was arrested at that time.
One of the charges stems from an incident on Oct. 10, 2015, when Williams met
with Owens to exchange their son, according to the release. Williams allegedly
became angry with Owens, choking her until she passed out and choking her again
when she regained consciousness, prosecutors say.
Williams was previously convicted of battery in 2008 and unlawful driving or
taking of a vehicle in 2010, according to prosecutors.
If convicted, Williams faces the death penalty or life in prison without the
possibility of parole, according to the release. The decision whether to seek
the death penalty will be made at a later date.
(source: Los Angeles Times)
***********
Defense team in 2013 slaying case of young girl seek to have charges dismissed
Defense attorneys for a Fairfield man facing a death penalty trial later this
year have filed numerous motions, including requests to bar the death penalty,
remove the Solano County District Attorney's Office from the case and dismiss
the case entirely over an allegation prosecutors withheld information.
The defense motions, filed last week by attorneys for murder defendant Anthony
Lemar Jones, 35, accuse prosecutors of withholding a statement made by family
members of the victim in the case in which they allegedly indicated they did
not want the death penalty sought. Jones, 35, is accused of the strangulation
death of 13-year-old Genelle Conway-Allen, whose naked and lifeless body was
found Feb. 1, 2013, in Allan Witt Park.
In April 2015, prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty in the
case.
Prior hearings have indicated that Jones is alleged to have followed Genelle in
his vehicle as she walked home from school on Jan. 31, 2013, before stopping to
ask her name. A student who was walking home with her that day testified during
a November 2014 hearing that he saw Genelle get in Jones' car.
Genelle, according to testimony, did not return home that day, leading her
foster mother to report her missing.
She was found dead the following morning.
In a motion to dismiss the case due to outrageous government conduct, defense
attorneys for Jones stated in a court filing they presented evidence before a
committee of prosecutors in March 2015, offering evidence that would mitigate a
decision to seek death. Defense attorneys now allege that prosecutors knew as
early as February 2015 that family members did not wish to have the death
penalty sought in the case and did not share that information with the defense
team prior to making a presentation to prosecutors.
"The District Attorney's failure to turn over material relevant to punishment
interfered with Mr. Jones's right to effective assistance of counsel and
prejudiced him. Mr. Jones is entitled to counsel who advocate at every turn,
using every mitigating circumstance, that death is not an appropriate
sentence," defense attorneys wrote in their motion.
In separate motions, defense attorneys are also asking a Solano County Superior
Court judge to bar the death penalty in Jones' case and remove the Solano
County District Attorney's Office and appoint the state Attorney General to
assume the role of prosecutor.
The motions, in part, reference issues that have already been litigated in the
case.
In making their argument, defense attorneys allege that prosecutors withheld an
e-mail from Dr. Susan Hogan, former forensic pathologist for Solano County, to
prosecutors, for 7 months.
Hogan, who performed the initial autopsy on Conway-Allen, retired from the
Solano County Sheriff's Office in December 2013, according to officials.
Hogan's e-mail to the prosecutor, according to a copy of the message included
in a prior defense motion to dismiss the case, suggests that the case is a
"very straight forward ligature strangulation case..." Hogan also casually
speculates in the e-mail that there may have been evidence of consensual sex.
A 2nd autopsy was performed in the case.
A motion to remove the District Attorney's Office followed as did months of
repeated hearings regarding evidentiary issues in the case.
A prior motion to recuse the District Attorney was argued before Judge E.
Bradley Nelson in October 2014, and ultimately denied.
Nelson, at that hearing stated that he hadn't seen the Solano County District
Attorney's Office pursuing anything other than "impartial justice."
In addition, Nelson acknowledging the prosecutor's willingness to comply with
repeated discovery requests from defense attorneys, described it as being
"above and beyond reproach."
Despite that, the defense team's renewed motion to recuse the District
Attorney's Office and a motion to bar the death penalty allege a "pattern and
practice" of discovery violations and references a "penchant" for hiding and
delaying the disclosure of exculpatory evidence.
The motions are set to be heard Feb. 2.
Prosecutors will likely file an opposition with the court.
Jones is charged with murder with special circumstances in connection with
Genelle's death.
The special circumstance allegations prosecutors have included allege the
murder was committed during the commission of a kidnapping, sodomy and lewd or
lascivious act.
Jones has pleaded not guilty and remains in Solano County Jail custody without
bail.
(source: The Reporter)
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