April 29
TEXAS:
Terrell man found guilty in 2013 killing spree----Man convicted of killing mom
in murder spree
A man was found guilty in a 2013 Terrell killing spree that claimed the lives
of 5 people, including his mother, his aunt, and a convenience store clerk.
It took a Kaufman County jury just 20 minutes to find Charles Brownlow Jr.
guilty Thursday morning in the killing of the clerk. They rejected his defense
team's contention that he had been insane at the time of the killings.
A jury is now hearing testimony to determine his sentence.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the Oct. 28, 2013 killing spree
that claimed the lives of his mother, Mary Brownlow; his aunt, Belinda Walker;
an acquaintance who was a fellow Terrell High alum, Jason Wooden, 33; Woodens'
girlfriend, Kellye Lynnette Sluder; and convenience store clerk Luis
Leal-Carrillo.
The punishment phase of the trial is expected to last at least a week.
Testimony resumes Monday afternoon.
"He took somebody precious off the face of this earth that I love, that loved
us, that I'm sure he loved to," said his brother, Terrence Walker. "I don't
understand how you can take somebody off this earth that loves you and does
everything for and provides for you... But not only her, but my aunt, and all
the other 3 victims that were impacted by this situation."
Dressed in a suit Thursday, Brownlow acted nonchalant and even waved at the
media as he was escorted by the Kaufman County sheriff's deputies. He looked
very different than the sweaty, half-naked man taken into custody by the
authorities in 2013.
As they seek the death penalty, prosecutors are portraying Brownlow as a
predator with a history of violence dating back 2 decades. Among those
testifying was a woman who said he got her drunk and then raped her when she
was 13 in a Terrell motel room in 1996.
"He got on top of me and he put himself inside me. [...] I told him it hurt
really bad. I said, 'Stop. Stop,'" the woman said.
She said she dropped the charges after her family began receiving threatening
phone calls.
"The way I looked at men for a very long time was not very good. I could not
trust anyone," she said. "I blamed myself for a long time, thinking I had done
something wrong when I didn't. I was a child."
For decades, Brownlow was in out and out of trouble with the law.
Then came that fateful day in October 2013.
It was a killing spree that stretched over hours and multiple bloody, horrific
scenes.
His 55-year-old aunt's body was the first to be found in her home, east of
downtown Terrell. She had been shot in the head.
A short time later, firefighters saw flames coming out of the home that
Brownlow shared with his mother. She was found in her bedroom and her body had
been set on fire. Her car was missing and police launched a manhunt looking for
him.
After killing his mother and aunt, Brownlow also paid a visit to an
acquaintance. He asked the friend where the party was, but was asked to leave
when he insulted the acquaintance's girlfriend.
Brownlow showed back up later, forcing way into the home as they barricaded
themselves in the bedroom. Brownlow managed to get his hand in the door and
began firing a gun while they hid under a king-size mattress.
The acquaintance and his girlfriend were the only victims to survive the
rampage.
From there, about 5 hours after the initial killings, Brownlow's classmate
Jason Wooden and his girlfriend were shot in their home in the presence of
their then-3-year-old son.
Afterwards, surveillance video showed Brownlow walking into a Mexican
restaurant in Terrell. Witness said he was wearing a football jersey, mumbling
to himself, and asked to see someone before he left without further incident.
About 15 minutes later, Brownlow entered the Ali's Market on U.S. Highway 80.
Police say he took a single can of Bud Light from the convenience store after
shooting Leal-Carrillo, 22, in the forehead. The clerk did not know Brownlow.
An off-duty sergeant who was working an security job heard radio traffic about
the shootings, and spotted Brownlow's mother's car and the suspect inside the
store. It appeared to the officer that Brownlow was buying something. He did
not realize the clerk had been shot.
The off-duty sergeant tailed Brownlow as he left, providing information to
on-duty officers. That led to a high-speed chase through town.
Brownlow wrecked his mother's car, fled on foot, and was captured hours later,
hiding in a creek.
A former girlfriend of Brownlow, who is the mother of his 17-year-old daughter,
testified that Brownlow's mother doted on her daughter. She also said
Brownlow's mother was very protective of him and sheltered him, although she
had told her that he was "acting crazy."
"She was always taking up for him," the former girlfriend said.
Walker, Brownlow's brother, said their mother did everything for his younger
brother. He said his brother rarely had a job and was a drug user.
He says he's visited Brownlow once since his arrest in the killings.
"He talked to him once and he didn't want to talk, so I didn't go back," he
said. "He has to be held accountable, and if that means the death penalty, then
that's what it means."
(source: WFAA news)
NORTH CAROLINA:
DA to ask judge for death penalty in case of man found burned in hotel
If a judge approves, the Guilford County District Attorney's Office intends to
seek the death penalty in a high-profile slaying of a former city worker
accused of setting fire to a hotel room with a man inside.
Garry Joseph Gupton, 27, of 1312 Wiley Lewis Road, is charged with 1st-degree
murder and 1st-degree arson in the death of Stephen Patrick White, 46, of 1722
Aftonshire Drive.
The district attorney's office announced in court filings that it will seek the
death penalty in the case on two factors, according to Howard Neumann, chief
prosecutor with the district attorney's office. The factors are that the
slaying was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel and the death was committed
during an arson.
The hearing to determine whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty
against Gupton will be scheduled during the week of May 16 in Guilford County
Superior Court.
Gupton and White met at Chemistry nightclub Nov. 8, 2014 in Greensboro, then
went to the Battleground Inn at 1517 Westover Terrace, police said. White was
found assaulted and burned in a 4th-story room of the hotel in the early hours
of Nov. 9. He died from complications of his injuries at Wake Forest Baptist
Medical Center on Nov. 15, 2014.
According to court documents, Gupton activated the fire alarm at the
Battleground Inn, then ran screaming throughout the hotel. When responding
police officers arrived to talk to Gupton they saw smoke coming from a room
officers later learned had been rented by White, documents stated.
In a publicly released 911 call made by a hotel employee, the caller says a
man, later identified as Gupton, is running around the hotel shirtless and,
"just flipped out." He can be heard in the background yelling obscenities.
During the investigation, Gupton told police, "he believed he was possibly
given an unknown drug that altered his mental state," according court
documents. He had his blood drawn at Wesley Long Hospital and sent to the N.C.
State Crime Lab for testing. It's not known publicly what the results are.
Responding officers tried to enter the hotel room where White was unconscious,
but the smoke was too heavy, according to court documents. Firefighters went in
and found White on the floor of the room with severe burns.
Firefighters said, "There were items, possibly items of furniture, laying on
top of (White) when they found him," court documents state. White had
significant trauma to his head.
Neumann has said it appeared White had also been struck with a telephone, TV
and other furniture.
White was initially brought to Moses Cone Hospital for his injuries, then taken
to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Both of his arms were partially
amputated because of his wounds.
Gupton was initially charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to
kill for White's injuries. When White died on Nov. 15, 2014, the charge was
upgraded to 1st-degree murder. The district attorney's office has since
dismissed the assault charge due to the murder charge, according to court
documents.
The case has garnered wide interest in part because Gupton was employed by the
city of Greensboro in the water resources department. The city fired him on
Nov. 16, 2014. The case has also generated national interest from the gay
community. Police and the district attorney's have determined White's death was
not a hate crime.
(source: Greensboro News & Record)
TENNESSEE:
Death penalty trial opens in killing of Memphis motel clerk
17 years after he was sentenced to death in the killing of 45-year-old Ricci
Ellsworth, Michael Rimmer walked into Shelby County Criminal Court and sat
beside his attorneys.
Rimmer's new trial, which was ordered in 2012, opened Thursday. The trial comes
after a judge found Rimmer's defense counsel, both in 1998 and at a later
resentencing, failed to effectively investigate the capital case. Shelby County
Criminal Court Judge James Beasley Jr., a former prosecutor, found that the
Shelby County lawyer who prosecuted Rimmer, Thomas Henderson, "purposefully
misled" Rimmer's defense counsel about evidence.
Ellsworth disappeared in February 1997 from the Memphis Inn near Interstate 40
and Sycamore View where she was a night clerk. Her body was never found. Large
amounts of blood and the ring she always wore were found in the employee
bathroom.
"Revenge and robbery," said Pam Anderson, of the Davidson County District
Attorney's office, who is one of the prosecutors of the retrial. "That's what
this case is about."
In 1989, Rimmer raped Ellsworth and was sent to prison, Anderson said.
Ellsworth forgave him and visited him in prison.
"She was a very forgiving woman," Anderson said.
While incarcerated, Rimmer talked to another inmate about Ellsworth. He felt
she owed him money, Anderson said. In 1996, before he was released from prison,
he told another inmate he planned to kill her and talked about how to dispose
of a body, Anderson said.
"February 8, 1997, was the last time that anyone saw Ricci Lynn Ellsworth
alive," Anderson said.
Her son and daughter never heard from her again.
On Feb. 8, 1997, between about 8:30 and 9 a.m., Rimmer came to his brother's
house. He was muddy and had a shovel, Anderson said. The backseat was wet. The
brother dumped the shovel and it was never seen again, Anderson said.
Rimmer was stopped March 5, 1997, in Johnson County, Indiana for speeding.
Blood consistent with the female offspring of Ellsworth's mother was found in
the car.
Ellsworth was kind-hearted, said her sister, Dianne Faulk.
"We were devastated by my sister's murder," she said.
Faulk said there is "no doubt in any of our minds and hearts, that he did kill
her."
Defense attorney Paul Bruno said two people had something to do with what
happened to Ellsworth, but neither were Rimmer.
"There is actually no definitive proof that she's deceased," Bruno said.
Bruno said one of the inmates who came forward with information against Rimmer
had been convicted of eight felony drug offenses. Another had a lengthy history
of forgery and a conviction for voluntary manslaughter.
Bruno said a credible witness, an Army sergeant named James Darnell, had been
at the motel and saw two men who did not fit Rimmer's description with blood on
their hands. Darnell saw a person put something heavy into the trunk of car.
The object was wrapped in something cloth-like.
Bruno said Darnell described 2 men and a composite sketch was printed in The
Commercial Appeal.
A lady in Arkansas identified one as Billy Wayne Voyles. Police put together a
photo lineup with 44 white males, including Rimmer in jail clothing and a hat,
Bruno said.
"Of 44 people, who does he pick out? Billy Wayne Voyles," Bruno said. He did
not pick out Rimmer.
Bruno said the second person in the composite sketch had a full head of hair.
While Rimmer, who looked similar in 1997 as he does today, is bald on the top
of his head, Bruno said.
(source: Commercial Appeal)
INDIANA:
DNA evidence in Vann case cited in judge's ruling
Prosecutors allege that a suspected serial killer used the same pair of gloves
to clean up crime scenes.
A swab taken from the outside of the gloves was consistent with the DNA profile
of Afrika Hardy and included a mixture of DNA from two other people, according
to court records.
The information about the DNA evidence was included in Lake County Criminal
Judge Samuel Cappas' findings of fact and conclusion of law when he recently
ruled that Darren Vann will be tried during one jury trial on charges accusing
him of strangling to death Hardy and Anith Jones.
Vann has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder. The Lake County prosecutor's
office is seeking the death penalty against him.
In court last week, Cappas briefly indicated that he denied the defense's
motion to separate the cases, which would have required 2 jury trials.
Vann's attorneys argued in their motion to sever the cases, because he could be
convicted in one of the homicides based on evidence from the other homicide,
based on the complexity of the evidence. They also argued the state's theories
as to the motives in the homicides were distinct.
In Cappas' findings, it states the investigation into Vann produced overlapping
evidence such as the statements he made to police and DNA found on a brown cord
that is consistent with the DNA profiles for Hardy and Jones.
A swab taken from Vann's shoe also indicated there was a mixture of at least
three people. According to court records, one of the profiles is consistent
with Jones' DNA profile.
The ruling also states that there wasn't enough reasoning to indicate that the
evidence was so complex it would confuse jurors.
Cappas determined the alleged acts were of "similar conduct and a series of
acts connected together or constituted parts of a single scheme or plan,"
according to court records.
Among the similarities are that Hardy and Jones used backpage.com while working
as prostitutes. The women also were killed within 10 days of each other in
low-income areas, were paid to have sex, were strangled with a brown cord and
had their cell phone stolen from them, according to court records.
Hardy, 19, had arranged to meet Vann at a Hammond motel room, according to
court records. She was found strangled to death Oct. 17, 2014, inside the
motel.
When Hammond detectives questioned Vann, he allegedly confessed to killing
Hardy along with 6 other women, which included Jones, 35, of Merrillville. Her
body was found in an abandoned home in Gary.
In a separate capital case, Vann faces murder charges in the homicides of
Teaira Batey, Kristine Williams, Tracy L. Martin, Sonya Billingsley and Tanya
Gatlin. He also has 2 other pending criminal cases in front of Cappas.
His next court hearing is scheduled for May 20.
(source: nwitimes.com)
MISSOURI:
For Joe Amrine, Life 13 Years After Being Freed From Death Row Is Tough, But
Worth It
On Monday, July 28, 2003, Joe Amrine was released from prison, after serving 17
years on death row for a murder he did not commit.
4 days later, shell-shocked from his first few days of freedom and swarms of
media attention, Amrine appeared on KCUR's Up To Date with Steve Kraske,
wearing sunglasses.
"I didn't want people to see the fear in my eyes," Amrine says.
Amrine returned to Up To Date this week to give a glimpse of what life looks
like for him after 13 years of freedom.
"I'm still shell shocked," he told Kraske.
He describes the fear that he still feels everyday, fears that are different
than the ones he had immediately after his release.
"I'm scared of not doing what I should do, I'm scared I'm not going to amount
to what I should amount to, I'm really scared that my situation is just going
to be forgotten," he says.
Back in 1985, Amrine was given the death sentence for stabbing a fellow inmate
at the state prison in Jefferson City to death. The supreme court overturned
his conviction in April, 2003 and he was released a few months later.
Amrine says life for him now has more down than ups.
"Being locked up 26 years has a lot of baggage with it. Getting back into
society, dealing with my inner self. It's hard to find a job, it's hard to be a
relationship ... it's like Rip Van Winkle," he says.
After his release, Amrine didn't receive any assistance from the state, other
than a $14 check that was leftover from his commissary account while in prison.
He gave that check to his brother, who still has it today.
Sean O'Brien is the attorney who helped Amrine get his conviction overturned.
The irony of Amrine's situation, he says, is that Amrine would be better off
now had he plead guilty and been released on parole. That way, he would have a
parole officer helping him get public assistance to get reestablished in
society.
"As an innocent person, unless you can find someone at fault who you can sue,
and overcome this really difficult governmental immunity doctrine, then you
don't get anything, O'Brien says.
Amrine says he's harbored a lot of animosity towards the state of Missouri, but
he's trying to let that go. He says he only wants one thing from the state.
"I actually went on record and said that the only thing that the state of
Missouri owed me was an apology, and that was 13 years ago and I still haven't
gotten it. Actually, I just feel like the state of Missouri, to me, it's like
still trying to keep me down," he says.
"Because I have nothing, I have no support."
Still, he reiterates how much he loves life and loves his freedom.
Amrine came close to being executed four times during the 17 years he spent on
death row, but he says his lowest point came when he was watching the news on
the day of a fellow inmate's execution. He says the 1st story on the news was
about a protest against animal cruelty that drew more than 50,000 people.
"The very next segment was the execution and the 7 people who was [sic] outside
protesting. And I'm like, 50,000 people show up to protest animal cruelty, 7
people came out to protest this man's execution. That really hit home for me,"
Amrine says.
Amrine fears that he's not doing enough in the fight to abolish the death
penalty, but keeping up the the daily struggles of his new life is already a
persistent battle.
He got his GED and a paralegal certificate, which he hasn't been able to use
because of difficulties getting a job. Right now, he's working at Habitat For
Humanity for $7 an hour. He doesn't have a cell phone - too confusing, he says
- and he admits he isn't great at saving money. Instead, he usually spends it
all buying things for his nieces and nephews.
"I don't sense the value of money ... People make fun of me ... I get a lot of
pleasure out of that, helping my nieces and my nephews, or just helping people,
period. I feel my life was saved for that reason," he says.
Amrine's sister tells him that at nearly 60 years old, he's still a work in
progress, and he agrees - there's still a lot left for him to do in his life,
and he's grateful every day for that opportunity.
(source: KCUR news)
OKLAHOMA:
Defense in LeFlore County murder trial in question
The 1st-degree murder trial of Elvis Thacker took a turn Thursday in the
LeFlore County Courthouse when the prosecution argued against a new defense
strategy of the accused being an "accessory to the murder after the fact."
The 6-man, 6-woman jury will receive instructions today from District Judge
Jonathan K. Sullivan on exactly how they may proceed in deciding the fate of
the 28-year-old Cedarville man accused, along with his younger brother
Johnathen Thacker, 27, in the September 2010, slaying of Briana Ault of Fort
Smith.
Multi-district issues surfaced Thursday in the "accessory" defense due to
"conduct that was made in Arkansas," Sullivan said as part of the responses to
First Assistant District Attorney Margaret S. Nicholson's rebuttal in which at
least 2 defense objections were sustained on the basis of "confrontation clause
violations."
Essentially, the judge said, if Elvis Thacker was an "accessory in another
state" then it is out of Oklahoma's jurisdiction.
The defense's expert witness, forensic scientist Brent E. Turvey of Sitka,
Alaska, testified Wednesday there was no evidence the murder was committed at a
pond in Pocola off Texas Road where the body was found by a fisherman. A family
member testified that Elvis never left his apartment the 2 days before and
after the murder.
There also was no evidence, Turvey said, that 2 people committed the murder and
it was most likely one person. Ault's car was found burning by a janitor at
Southern Steel & Wire in Fort Smith and only 1 person was seen running from the
vehicle by the janitor and surveillance video. Elvis Thacker was not able to
run at the time, according to several family members, who said that Elvis
Thacker had been in a leg brace and had a torn ligament from a truck wreck a
month prior to the slaying.
Cellphone records showed that the Thackers had been in contact with Ault the
night she was killed. Police were also led to the Thackers in an unrelated rape
claim, which later was not substantiation. The phone was in Elvis' name.
Johnathen Thacker did not have a job.
Gretchen Mosley of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System has said in opening
arguments April 12 that her client, Elvis Thacker, is innocent of the crime and
previous confessions were made under duress to get medial attention or stay
alive. Turvey claims what police did to him were "torture." There was also no
evidence of a rape of Ault, Turvey said, and he indicated that post-mortem
mutilations of the body were indicative of a budding serial killer. The defense
claims Johnathen Thacker acted alone in the murder and had solicited sex from
his sister and mother in prison letters.
"It's not a lesser defense," Mosely said of the "accessory" claim in rebuttal
exchanges. "In Oklahoma, the criteria can be met. Multiple jurisdiction is
coming together to undermine the right of a fair trial."
To Mosley's question "if he is acquitted here, what about Arkansas?" Sullivan
replied "I have no jurisdiction there."As it stands, Elvis Thacker's jury might
be only getting instructions today for either charging the accused with
1st-degree murder or to acquit him.
The younger Thacker pleaded guilty to murder in April 2014 but has yet to be
sentenced. Having made a deal to avoid the death penalty, Johnathen Thacker
testified against his brother earlier in the trial this month. Both of the
Thackers are being held at the LeFlore County Detention Center.
Elvis Thacker, faces the death penalty if convicted in a crime that has caused
more than 5 years of emotional turmoil and suffering for the Ault family.
Bethany Ault-Pyle of Fort Smith, mother of the late Briana Ault, formed a
support group for families grieving relatives lost to murder. Homicide
Survivors United meets at 6:30 p.m. the 2nd and 4th Thursday each month at
Central Chrisitan Church in Fort Smith.
(source: Times Record)
COLORADO:
Planned Parenthood shooting suspect due in Colorado court for competency
hearing
A man accused of fatally shooting 3 people and wounding nine others at a
Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado last year is set to return to court on
Thursday for a hearing to determine if he is mentally competent enough to fire
his lawyers.
Robert Lewis Dear, 58, has said he wants to represent himself against multiple
charges of murder and attempted murder, after previously declaring he was
guilty and calling himself a "warrior for the babies" at a hearing in December.
El Paso County District Court Judge Gilbert Martinez ordered the South Carolina
native to undergo a competency examination after Dear said at previous hearings
he wanted to dismiss his lawyers.
Those attorneys have since said in court papers that evaluators concluded Dear
was mentally incompetent, but it is up to Martinez to rule whether the case can
proceed and if Dear can represent himself.
If the judge rules Dear is mentally unfit, the case will be suspended while he
undergoes treatment at the state mental hospital until he is restored to
competency.
Dear has been held without bond at the El Paso County jail since he surrendered
on Nov. 27 at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs following a
5-hour siege in which 3 people were killed, including a police officer, and 9
others suffered gunshot wounds. It marked the 1st deadly attack on a U.S.
abortion provider since 2009.
Dear, who police said was armed with several rifles and opened fire in the
parking lot of the clinic before storming the building, told detectives after
his arrest that he was upset with Planned Parenthood for performing abortions
and what he said was the "selling of body parts," the documents showed.
Among those scheduled to testify at Thursday's hearing include a detective who
interviewed Dear after his arrest and at least one of the mental health
evaluators who examined Dear, a onetime self-employed art dealer who lived in
Hartsel, Colorado.
District Attorney Dan May said he would not announce whether he would seek the
death penalty until some time after Dear formally enters a plea.
(source: rawstory.com)
CALIFORNIA:
North Hills man eligible for death penalty after charge in wife's death
A 69-year-old North Hills man was charged with murder Thursday in connection
with his wife???s death weeks after he was charged in his son's death, making
him now eligible for the death penalty, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Prosecutors allege that Shehada Issa killed his wife Rabihah Issa, 68, with a
knife sometime between March 27 and March 29. The matriarch was found dead in
the bathroom of the home with multiple stab wounds on March 29, according to
authorities.
Issa was charged earlier this month with the slaying of his 38-year-old son
Amir Issa, who lived in the back of the family's house and was shot in the head
and torso outside the home.
Issa told police at the time that he shot his son in self-defense and claimed
that his son had killed his mother.
However, Operations-Valley Bureau Homicide Detective Rich Wheeler said in a
previous interview that investigators believe the father may have killed the
son to cover up his wife's death.
The case has attracted national headlines because prosecutors also charged Issa
with a hate crime, alleging that he killed his son because he is gay and had
threatened to kill him on prior occasions for that same reason. However, LAPD
detectives have said they don't believe that was the primary factor in the
man's killing.
Issa, who is being held without bail, is scheduled to be arraigned on May 17 at
the San Fernando Courthouse.
****************
Homeless man could face death penalty in 7-Eleven stabbings that killed clerk
A homeless parolee pleaded not guilty Thursday to murdering a Valley Village
convenience store clerk and to trying to kill the clerk's girlfriend after
allegedly trying to steal a sandwich and beer from the store.
Hasaan Blunt, 42, is charged with murder in the March 25 stabbing of Washi
Uddin Ahmed, 55, of North Hollywood, along with the attempted murder of Ahmed's
girlfriend, also a clerk at the 7-Eleven store at Laurel Canyon and Chandler
boulevards.
The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegation of murder during
the commission of a robbery. Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the
death penalty against Blunt.
He also is charged with 2 felony counts of 2nd-degree robbery and 3 misdemeanor
counts of vandalism of vehicle tires with under $400 damage.
Blunt allegedly slashed the tires on 3 vehicles before going into the store,
grabbed a sandwich and beer and walked out without paying, according to
prosecutors.
Blunt allegedly stabbed the clerks after they chased him outside the store and
confronted him, according to prosecutors.
The criminal complaint alleges that Blunt was convicted in 1998 of assault with
a deadly weapon, battery causing serious injury and assault with a deadly
weapon by a state prison inmate.
He is being held without bail and is due back in a Van Nuys courtroom June 21,
when a date is scheduled to be set for a hearing to determine if there is
enough evidence to require him to stand trial.
(source for both: Los Angeles Daily News)
**********************
Father who confessed to killing his son is charged in wife's death
A 69-year-old man was charged Thursday with fatally stabbing his wife at their
North Hills home before shooting their son to death, prosecutors said.
Shehada Issa faces 2 counts of willful, deliberate and premeditated murder with
a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, Deputy Dist. Atty. Emily
Cole said.
Issa is accused of killing his wife, Rabihah Shibi Issa, 68, with a knife on or
between March 27 and 29, according to the charging document.
The complaint also includes a special allegation that Issa intentionally fired
a shotgun, which killed his son, Amir Issa, 38, as well as a hate crime
allegation. Amir Issa was gay, authorities said.
Authorities said officers arriving at the home late last month walked into a
gruesome scene: The son's body lay outside the house, while the wife's body was
found inside a bathroom.
Police said the condition of the wife's body indicated that she may have been
dead "for a while" before her son was shot. LAPD Officer Mike Lopez said she
was "stabbed numerous times."
Shehada Issa told police that he had shot his son but said it was in
self-defense, according to detectives. He told police that he had heard noises
inside the home and, suspecting a burglar, grabbed a shotgun only to find
himself confronted by his son, who he said threatened him with a knife.
Turmoil appears to have reigned behind closed doors at the Issa home since Amir
moved back in with his parents, which neighbors said occurred within the last 2
years.
LAPD Sgt. Greg Bruce said officers had been called to the home to help evict
Amir, whose parents were attempting to sell the house against their son's
wishes. The son had even vandalized the house, according to police.
A neighbor who lived across the street from the Issas for 15 years said Shehada
Issa complained to him about what he described as his son's problems with drugs
and mental illness.
"He was a good guy. The son was a bad guy," Joel Munoz said. "I'm so sorry for
the old man."
Those problems were evident, among other places, on Amir Issa's Facebook page.
In his last post, 10 days before his death, he said he worried that his
parents, brother and sister were "literally controlling me in my sleep" and
that "they tell people to rape and molest me and make it seem like I enjoy
that."
Shehada Issa's arraignment is scheduled for May 17 at the Los Angeles County
Superior Court's San Fernando branch. He is being held without bail.
If convicted, he faces the death penalty or life in prison without the
possibility of parole.
(source: Los Angeles Times)
USA:
Is the death penalty moral?----In Franklin Lakes, a Jewish look at capital
punishment
There are some hot-button issues that can destroy friendships - abortion, gun
control, immigration, to name just a toxic few.
There are other issues that are just as important, just as emotional, and that
seesaw just as precariously on the knife edge dividing justice and mercy, but
for some reason allow people to discuss and disagree without thinking that
people on the other side are inhuman brutes.
For some hard-to-pinpoint reason, the death penalty seems to be in that 2nd
category. Reasonable people can disagree civilly - and in fact reasonable
people at times break with the consistency of their own political positions as
they take their own stands.
On May 9, Rabbi Joseph Prouser's Moral Literacy series will tackle the question
of the death penalty, asking such questions as who is bad enough to deserve it,
who is good enough to impose it, and what does Jewish law and tradition say
about it.
Rabbi Prouser, who heads the Conservative Temple Emanuel of North Jersey in
Franklin Lakes, is a registered Republican and describes himself as "pretty
conservative. But I really break with conservative thinking on this issue. I am
absolutely opposed to capital punishment."
It is not a live issue in New Jersey, he conceded. Capital punishment has not
been legal here on the state level since 2007, although it still is possible in
federal cases. No one has been executed in New Jersey since 1963. But it is
both legal and not infrequent in other parts of the country.
And, of course, "this debate is an area that shows that Jewish tradition has an
important voice to contribute to the moral discussion," he said. "Jewish
tradition has evolved in a way that should be heard by everyone. We have an
important perspective to share with other Americans in this debate, but it's
not being heard, because Jews instinctively keep these debates internal, so it
becomes just a Jewish debate.
"We are reluctant to have a public voice on the big questions, although we have
well developed and evolved things to say. Our voice generally isn't heard by
the American public because we don't raise it. Jewish morality has been an
internal Jewish issue, and we haven't felt authorized to impose our perspective
on the broader public."
His own view, which "I have held my entire adult life, has been shaped by
Jewish sacred texts and Jewish tradition," he said. "The Torah certainly
prescribes capital punishment for all sorts of things, from Sabbath violations
to high crimes, but the rabbis so dramatically limited our ability to impose
capital punishment that they rendered it virtually nonexistent." Citing the
talmudic idea that a Sanhedrin - the Jewish court of that period - that oversaw
one execution in 7 years (or others say, in 70 years) was a "bloody Sanhedrin,"
"the rabbis understood that the kind of perfect moral perspective that is
required to take human life is not accessible to us," Rabbi Prouser said. "It
is ideologically presumptuous to take human life when there are other options
available. Doing so in the heat of combat is different, and even targeted
assassinations of people plotting a terrorist attack is different, but when you
have someone who already is imprisoned, you have options. There is no immediate
compelling moral need to take their lives."
Then, he added, there always is the chance that when you sentence someone to
death, you'll get it wrong. "Israel has sentenced two criminals to death," he
said. One was Adolf Eichmann, the absolutely and horrifically guilty Nazi mass
murderer whom Israel tried and executed in 1962. The other was John Demjanjuk,
nicknamed Ivan the Terrible, who was convicted of being a Nazi guard and mass
murderer at Treblinka. But the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the lower
court's verdict, saying that there wasn't enough evidence proving Demjanjuk was
Ivan. He was released. "So even Israel got it wrong 50 % of the time," Rabbi
Prouser said. "And I'm not sure that Texas" - which executes more prisoners
than any other state - "uses the same methods in correcting misguided
decisions.
"I say this while acknowledging that some crimes are terrible, and I have no
problem with locking people away for life. I'm not sure that's more merciful
than capital punishment. I just think it's more defensible because it's
reversible. It's an expression of theological humility. We can't be sure we're
right."
Rabbi Prouser's panel is still being formed, but the three speakers he's
gathered so far have interesting takes on the subject.
Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky of Congregation Ansche Chesed on Manhattan's Upper
West Side is a member of the Conservative movement???s Committee on Jewish Law
and Standards. In 2013, he wrote a teshuva - a response to a question about
halacha, or Jewish law - on capital punishment. The question was about whether
it is halachically acceptable for a Jew to participate in the American legal
system in a capital case, whether as a prosecutor, a judge, a juror, or a
witness.
The short answer is yes.
Although "the United States is the only country in the world with a significant
Jewish population that has the death penalty" - leaving aside Israel's special
circumstances - "the question is not if we???d prefer that it not be there, but
if the policies are so bad that you have to resist them and refuse to
cooperate."
Because of the directive that unless there is a compelling reason to disagree
with it, "dina d'malkhuta dina" - the law of the land is the law of the land,
and because "every state has to create order, and that always involved criminal
justice, there is no prima facie reason to refuse to participate in this.
"This is a contested question, and in democracies the people get to decide
contested questions," Rabbi Kalmanofsky said. "It's a bad policy, and they
should change it, and there are all sorts of reasons why it should be changed -
not the least of them is the not inconsiderable number of false convictions -
but it would not be correct to say that the canons of Jewish law mandate not
cooperating with the state on it."
Rabbi Simon Rosenbach, who heads Congregation Ahavas Sholom in Newark, also is
a lawyer and a former assistant prosecutor in Middlesex County.
New Jersey's death penalty was struck down in 1972 and revived in 1982, the
result of political machinations (and the source of many good stories best told
elsewhere).
In 1982, Rabbi Rosenbach, who was (and is) against the death penalty, found
himself arguing for it in court, in charge of death penalty litigation,
motions, and appeals. "This was a new adventure," he said. "The defense
attorneys made every challenge that had already been rejected in the U.S.
Supreme Court because maybe it would be accepted by New Jersey courts."
There was "a very narrowing set of factual surrounding circumstances" that kept
all but the most egregious criminals from being eligible for the death penalty,
Rabbi Rosenbach said. "If you killed a law enforcement officer, or if you kill
for hire, or if you hire someone as a killer. If you killed someone in a
barroom brawl, you probably weren't getting the death penalty, but if you hired
someone to kill your wife, or if you were the hired killer, you would be
eligible."
Next, in the penalty phase, aggravating factors would have to outweigh
mitigating factors for capital punishment to be imposed. And of course all this
took time. By 2007, when capital punishment again was stopped, no one had been
executed in New Jersey. (Or at least "not by the criminal justice system,"
Rabbi Rosenbach said. "Maybe by fellow inmates in jail.")
Although Rabbi Rosenbach was opposed to the death penalty, "I thought it was
not something that reasonable minds could not differ about. It is an individual
person's moral judgment, but it doesn't mean that society as a whole is morally
bankrupt for executing it."
Like Rabbi Prouser and Rabbi Kalmanofsky, Rabbi Rosenbach talked about the real
possibility of mistakes, and the irrevocability of the punishment. Although it
wasn't true in New Jersey, where a full web of safeguards were in place, that's
not so true in other parts of the country, where many people are executed, some
of them wrongly. "A lot of institutions, like the Innocence Project, show us
that we make mistakes a whole lot of times," he said.
Moreover, "it's against Jewish law to commit suicide, even in the case of
terminal illness, because it's not your body. You might inhabit the body, but
it's not yours. It's God's. So who are we to execute someone? It's not his
body. It's God's."
Plus, he said, it is expensive to prosecute capital cases. On the other hand,
"It's crass and immoral" to argue that we should execute people because it's
cheaper than keeping them alive, he said.
David Feldman, an Essex County assistant prosecutor, defines himself as Rabbi
Prouser's mirror image. "I tend to be pretty liberal on most issues," he said.
"But having spent as much time in the court system as I have, I know that there
are some people who are not redeemable, and some acts that are so heinous, that
to me there is a place for capital punishment.
"Everyone has to come to terms with their own moral compass," he added.
Yes, mistakes happen, he said, but despite what we hear, they are rare. The
thought of "putting an innocent person in jail keeps me up at night.
"The second I get wind that I might have the wrong person, I do everything
possible, I explore every avenue, to find out the truth."
That's a position that the prosecutors he knows share, he added. "Our motto is
to do justice. To seek justice. It is not to get convictions. It is to protect
the community. We have to get both those things right.
"And if we convict someone who did not do the offense, we are not getting the
person who did do it." These, he said, are strong safeguards against mistakes,
although, he added, he knows that some mistakes are inevitable, and that is a
terrible truth. "There is nothing you can say to a person who has lost someone
wrongly to the death penalty," he added.
"I am sure that there are people who would find my position morally repugnant,"
Mr. Feldman said. "It is a deeply personal, deeply emotional topic, and there
is no one right answer to it."
(source: New Jersey Jewish Standard)
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