May 22
TEXAS:
Brownlow sentenced to death
Even up to the last moment before convicted murderer Charles E. Brownlow Jr.
was sentenced to death on Friday he tried to blame his father for the
executions he committed.
Brownlow was convicted of capital murder on April 28 for the Oct. 28, 2013,
slaying of store clerk Luis Gerardo Leal-Carillo at Ali's Market.
The 422nd Judicial District Court jury spent the next 3 weeks hearing testimony
about whether Brownlow had an intellectual disability or anti-social
personality disorder.
The jury on Friday began deliberations at 12:25 p.m. after the prosecution and
defense teams gave their closing arguments and returned with its verdicts at
about 3 p.m.
There were 3 special issues upon which the jury had to consider.
The jury determined that based upon the preponderance of evidence Brownlow does
not have an intellectual disability (mentally retarded); that beyond a
reasonable doubt it believed there was a probability Brownlow would commit
criminal acts of violence, thus constituting a continuing threat to society;
and there were no mitigating circumstances warranting a sentence of life
imprisonment without parole instead of the death penalty.
When 422nd Judicial District Court Judge B. Michael Chitty read the jury's
findings, he asked Brownlow if there was a legal reason to not pronounce
sentence.
Brownlow said there was. He said his father shot him in the head when he was 4
years old, which he testified about while taking the stand during the guilt and
sentencing phases of the capital murder trial.
Chitty said that was not a legal reason and sentenced Brownlow to death.
Several family members sobbed when the sentence was handed down, including
Leal-Carillo's fiance, Sylvia Sanchez and Cindy Crecy, Jason Wooden's mother.
Roshondra Walker, Brownlow's cousin, placed her head on Terence Walker's
shoulder, seeking comfort. Terence Walker is Brownlow's brother.
Brownlow was 36 when he murdered his mother, 61-year-old Mary Brownlow at her
Stallings Street home and set her body on fire; his 55-year-old aunt, Belinda
Young Walker, at her home on Tyler Street; Kelleye Lynette Pratt Sluder, 30,
and Jason Michael Wooden, at their home on Eulalia Street; and Leal-Carillo.
After the sentencing, family members were given an opportunity to give victim
impact statements.
Cindy Crecy, Wooden's mother, was the 1st to take the stand.
"You have evil in your head," Crecy said. "You have hurt a lot of people in
your life. I hope to live long enough to see the needle [put] in your arm.
"You shot Kelleye 6 times," she said.
Crecy told Brownlow she wished the state still had the electric chair so he
could feel the fear that Leal-Carillo, her son, Sluder, Mary Brownlow and his
aunt Belinda Walker felt before he shot them.
"Devil, you did not win," Crecy said.
Sylvia Sanchez, next up, hugged Crecy after she left the stand
Sanchez, who was Leal-Carillo's fiance and testified during the trial, also
spoke.
"You did not give [Luis] a chance," Sanchez said. "You are evil. You killed
your mother, the woman who gave you life."
She said every holiday, including Father's Day, she takes her son to the
cemetery to see his father.
Sanchez was then hugged by Carillo's brother, Edgar, was the last to take the
stand.
Twice he asked Brownlow to look at him and told him he did not like the games
Brownlow played while testifying in court.
"I hope you live up to what you did," Carillo said.
(source: Terrell Tribune)
GEORGIA:
Timothy Foster appeal ruling may come soon
With just 8 justices currently sitting on the U.S. Supreme Court, several
defendants still await a ruling, including convicted murderer Timothy Foster.
In 1986, Timothy Tyrone Foster murdered a retired fourth-grade Johnson
Elementary School teacher, Queen White, during a burglary. He was arrested a
month after the incident, with the police finding the stolen items in his home.
He later confessed to the crime. Court records show that White's jaw was
broken, and she had a severe gash on the top of her head. Before she was
strangled to death, she had been molested.
An all-white jury convicted the 18-year-old black man of murder and burglary,
and sentenced him to death.
On Nov. 2, 2015, Foster's appeal reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The question
was whether or not then-Floyd County District Attorney Steve Lanier improperly
excluded potential black jurors from the death penalty trial in 1987.
"Mr. Foster's case is still pending in the U.S. Supreme Court," said Foster's
attorney, Stephen Bright with the Southern Center for Human Rights.
The court usually ends its term in June and could hand down a decision any day
now, Bright said.
"The court will issue decisions again on Monday and from time to time after
that until all the cases have been decided," Bright said. "Unfortunately, the
court provides no warning with regard to when it will decide a case, but we can
expect the case to be decided in the next 6 weeks."
In April 1986, the Supreme Court ruled in Batson v. Kentucky that it is
unconstitutional to remove a potential juror because of race.
Prosecutors' notes discovered 19 years after Foster's trial show the names of
each potential black juror highlighted in green and the word "black" circled
next to the race question on the questionnaires.
The court is obviously split evenly over its general philosophy, according to
Rome attorney Bob Brinson, who has argued before the nation's highest court.
He doesn't think an even number of judges will affect the effort of the court.
Additionally, he doesn't think it will cause a delay or a reversal in previous
rulings on the Foster case.
Foster's isn???t the only case that the 8 justices may have trouble with.
The 8 Supreme Court justices say they'll take care of business until a new
ninth justice joins them. Their actions say otherwise.
Monday's unsigned, unanimous decision returning a high-profile dispute over
access to birth control to lower courts was the latest example of the
ideologically split court's struggle to get its work done with an even number
of justices since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February.
The decision averted a 4-4 tie, which would have left different rules in place
in different parts of the country concerning the availability of cost-free
birth control for women who work for faith-affiliated groups.
But the outcome was itself inconclusive and suggested that the justices could
not form a majority to issue a significant ruling that would have settled the
issue the court took the case to resolve.
(source: northwestgeorgianews.com)
LOUISIANA:
Judge to Decide If Death-Row Inmates Need Air Conditioning
As summer approaches in Louisiana, prison officials insist that ice, fans and
cold showers are enough to protect death-row inmates from dangerous heat and
humidity.
If not, a federal judge may order them to install air conditioning for inmates
awaiting execution at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson expressed frustration Friday as he questioned
why prison officials won't spend roughly $1 million to install air conditioning
on death row, since the state has already spent much more to fight the matter
in court. He scheduled a June 15 hearing for testimony about the effectiveness
of the prison's current heat-control measures.
Jackson already has ruled it unconstitutional to keep inmates where the heat
index exceeds 88 degrees. During the summer, the heat index on death row
routinely soars above 100 as temperatures and humidity levels rise.
Jackson said it is "stunning" how much the state has spent defending itself for
three years now against this request from 3 death-row inmates with medical
problems. Louisiana has struggled to close repeated budget shortfalls, and yet
the judge said the state may have spent tens of millions of dollars on outside
attorneys and experts, heat monitoring and other costs of litigation.
"One must wonder: Is this really what the state wants to do?" he asked. "It
just seems so unnecessary."
Assistant Attorney General Colin Clark told the judge he would convey his
frustrations to the office of Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who succeeded
Republican Bobby Jindal in January.
Jackson ruled in December 2013 that extreme heat on death row violates the
Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The state appealed his
order to develop a plan to keep the heat index at or below 88 degrees.
In July 2015, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the plaintiffs
could get relief without air conditioning, and in response, the state crafted a
new "heat remediation plan" involving cold showers, fans and ice chests for the
inmates.
"We believe we're providing adequate remedies to deal with the heat index,"
Clark said.
But the inmates' attorneys said the plan isn't working: It's not even summer
yet, and yet the heat index on death row already exceeded the 88 degree
threshold on May 12.
The judge told the state's new legal team, from the office of newly elected
Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican, that he has sensed "serious
pushback" from them on the 88-degree threshold even though the 5th Circuit
didn't overturn the standard.
"That will not be re-litigated," Jackson warned.
Louisiana's new death row facility was built just 10 years ago. An engineer
hired by the state said it would take nine air-conditioning units to cool all 8
tiers of the building. The judge suggested a $1 million price tag for that, but
the real cost could be much lower - an attorney for the state said at an
earlier hearing that buying each unit would cost only a few thousand dollars.
"My sole concern is to their health and safety," Jackson said. "I cannot sit
back and allow the constitutional rights of those inmates to continue to be
violated."
(source: Associated Press)
ARKANSAS:
Innocent is plea in death of girl, 1
A Flippin man pleaded innocent to capital murder in what police said was the
beating death of 1-year-old girl.
Cody Allen, 23, entered the plea Wednesday in Marion County Circuit Court. He
was being held in the Marion County jail in Yellville without bail. Court
documents about the case are sealed under a judge's order, a Marion County
Circuit Court clerk's deputy said Friday.
Allen was charged initially with f1st-degree battery after police found Alithia
Boyd, 1, seriously injured May 1 at a Flippin apartment complex where the girl,
her mother and Allen lived. Allen told police the girl fell down the stairs,
Prosecuting Attorney David Ethredge of Mountain Home said.
Medical personnel transported the girl to an out-of-state hospital, where she
died May 6.
Ethredge amended the charge to capital murder. He has not said whether he will
seek the death penalty.
Pretrial motions are set for Allen in Marion County Circuit Court on Sept. 21.
(source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
MISSOURI:
Missouri plans to seek death penalty for Mexican national
Missouri prosecutors on Friday filed their formal plan to pursue the death
penalty against a Mexican national in the shooting death of a man a day after
he allegedly killed 4 people in Kansas.
Prosecutors in Montgomery County submitted court papers saying they will seek
capital punishment for Pablo Serrano-Vitorino if he's convicted of 1st-degree
murder in the March 8 death of Randy Nordman at that man's home in New
Florence, about 70 miles west of St. Louis. Serrano-Vitorino also is charged
with armed criminal action and burglary.
A judge last week ordered Serrano-Vitorino, 40, to stand trial on the Missouri
charges and scheduled a June 1 arraignment. A message left Friday with
Serrano-Vitorino's attorney seeking comment on the case was not immediately
returned.
Serrano-Vitorino, who federal immigration officials have said is in the U.S.
illegally, is accused in Kansas of killing a Kansas City, Kansas, neighbor and
three other men at the neighbor's home the night before Nordman was slain
nearly 200 miles away. Serrano-Vitorino was captured after a manhunt and is
jailed in Missouri without bond.Authorities have not discussed a motive for any
of the killings.
In his court filing Friday, Montgomery County Prosecutor Nathan Carroz cited
"aggravated circumstances" related to Nordman's slaying that make the case
eligible for the death penalty. Among them: The Missouri killing was a
continuation of the Kansas shooting rampage, Nordman's killing involved
burglary and robbery, and that slaying was "outrageously or wantonly vile,
horrible or inhuman" in its randomness and its "callous disregard for the
sanctity of human life."
Carroz also cited Serrano-Vitorino's previous legal issues that have included
California charges involving spousal battery and threats with the intent to
terrorize, as well as Kansas charges since 2012 involving domestic battery and
2 cases of driving under the influence.
(source: Associated Press)
*****************
Death sentence sought for KCK man accused of 5 killings
A Missouri prosecutor said Friday he will seek a death sentence for the Kansas
City, Kan., man accused of killing 5 men this year.
Montgomery County Prosecutor Nathan Carroz filed the notice to seek the death
penalty against Pablo Serrano-Vitorino on Friday.
Serrano-Vitorino, 40, is charged in Montgomery County with 1st-degree murder in
the March 8 shooting death of Randy Nordman of New Florence, Mo.
Several hours before Nordman was killed, authorities say, Serrano-Vitorino shot
and killed 4 men in Kansas City, Kan.
He was allegedly fleeing from those killings when his vehicle ran out of
gasoline on Interstate 70 near where Nordman lived. Serrano-Vitorino was
arrested several hours later carrying the rifle allegedly used in the killings.
Wyandotte County prosecutors have charged him in the killings of Michael Capps,
41, Jeremy Waters, 36, and brothers Clint Harter, 27, and Austin Harter, 29.
Serrano-Vitorino, who was in the country illegally, is to be arraigned in
Montgomery County on June 1.
(source: Kansas City Star)
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