July 15 VERMONT: In Rare Case, Vermont Jury Backs Death for a Killer A federal jury in Burlington, Vt., recommended on Thursday that a man convicted of kidnapping and killing a supermarket employee be sentenced to death in Vermont's 1st capital trial in nearly 50 years. The defendant, Donald Fell, was found guilty last month of carjacking a 53-year-old Rutland woman, Terry King, on Nov. 27, 2000, as she arrived for work. Prosecutors said Mr. Fell and an accomplice, Robert Lee, abducted Mrs. King and drove her car into New York State, where they bludgeoned her on the side of a road in Dutchess County as she prayed. Prosecutors said Mr. Fell stole Mrs. King's car to flee the state after killing his mother, Debra Fell, and her friend Charles Conway in Rutland hours earlier. Mr. Fell and Mr. Lee were arrested in Arkansas three days later. Mr. Lee hanged himself in prison in 2003. "Today, a Vermont jury considered the death penalty and imposed it on Donald Fell," the United States attorney in Vermont, David Kirby, said in a statement. "We respect that jury's findings. They have spoken and expressed the conscience of the community." Vermont abolished the death penalty in 1987, but the federal government took jurisdiction of the case because the crime involved crossing state lines. In 2001, prosecutors brokered a deal in which Mr. Fell would be sentenced to life in prison without parole, but Attorney General John Ashcroft rejected it. In 2003, federal prosecutors intervened in a similar case in Massachusetts, where capital punishment was abolished in 1984. In that case, a federal jury in Boston convicted Gary Sampson of killing 2 men several days apart in July 2001, after each man picked him up as he was hitchhiking. He was sentenced to death. On June 24 a Burlington jury convicted Mr. Fell, 25, of the kidnapping and killing of Mrs. King. The sentencing phase of his trial began on June 28, and the jury spent just under 10 hours deliberating over the past 2 days before recommending death. Judge William K. Sessions will formally impose the sentence later this year following the jury's recommendation; the verdict will automatically be appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. "I definitely think they made the right decision," Lori Hibbard, Mrs. King's daughter, said in a telephone interview. "I think that if there was ever a case in this state that deserved the death penalty it was this one. My mother was an innocent victim in this, and she definitely didn't deserve this." Prosecutors painted Mr. Fell as a man who committed a brutal, premeditated murder against an innocent woman who spent hours pleading for her life. They said that he killed Mrs. King because she could identify him, and that he beat her so savagely that he knocked out her teeth, which were found next to her body. During the sentencing phase, prosecutors also played a tape of Mr. Fell's confessing to the police. Mr. Fell's lawyers said that as a child their client endured years of sexual and physical abuse, which led him down the road to a violent life, one that should be spared. They said Mr. Fell was raised by parents who constantly drank and fought; his sister testified during the sentencing phase that Mr. Fell started drinking when he was 8 years old and that his parents made no effort to stop him. The constant abuse so damaged Mr. Fell that it rendered him unable to make correct moral decisions, his lawyers argued. After the jury returned with the death sentence, Mr. Fell's lawyer Gene Primomo read a statement from Mr. Fell in the courtroom. "He respects your decision. He appreciates your hard work and wants to tell you and the family of his sincere remorse," Mr. Primomo said. The case struck a nerve in Vermont, a state that had just 9 murders last year and whose legislature has not even proposed a death penalty bill in years. But despite its liberal reputation, polls have shown Vermonters to be divided on capital punishment. "I'm shocked, but not surprised," Michael Mello, a professor at Vermont Law School, said after the verdict. "The people of Vermont are much more ambivalent about the death penalty than our elites, our chattering classes. This was, by Vermont standards, an exceptionally brutal crime." Mrs. King's two daughters and her sisters had long lobbied for Mr. Fell to receive the death penalty. Ms. Hibbard, who drove almost 70 miles each day from Rutland to attend Mr. Fell's trial, said she now hoped to return to "some kind of normalcy." "After almost five years," she said, "I am so glad we had a jury decide, just hard-working, normal everyday Vermonters. This is what we've wanted from the beginning." (source: New York Times) ************************* History of the death penalty in Vermont The death penalty has not been imposed in Vermont since 1957. In that case, 21-year-old Lionel Goyet was sentenced to death for the murder of Archie Webber, a 26-year-old farmhand, in the town of Barton. Six months after the court sentenced Goyet to death, his sentence was commuted. In 1969, Gov. Deane Davis signed a conditional pardon for Goyet and he was released from prison. Goyet died of heart failure in 1980 in Littleton, N.H. Vermont's 1st public execution was a hanging in Bennington in 1778 -- 13 years before statehood. David Redding, a Tory from New York who had fought with the British in Saratoga, was convicted and hanged for stealing American horses for the British army. The prosecutor was Ethan Allen. The General Assembly of the Republic of Vermont embraced capital punishment in 1779. Legislators considered not only murder and treason punishable by death, but extended the penalty to rape, blasphemy, sodomy, bestiality (whose perpetrator "shall surely be put to death, and the beast shall be slain and buried"), certain cases of burglary, arson, maiming, and killing an illegitimate child. Still, after Redding was hanged, Vermont executed no one for anything other than murder. Vermont has executed 27 people, including an Abenaki sentenced to death by tribal and Colonial efforts. The Legislature, in effect, outlawed capital punishment in 1965, although technically the death penalty remained a part of state law until 1987. The state's death-penalty law was invalidated in 1972 by the U.S Supreme Court decision that commuted all death sentences in the country. 8 pro-death-penalty attempts have been introduced in the Legislature since 1986. The last execution in Vermont was in 1954. Francis H. Blair, 31, of Barre and Donald Demag, 29, of Burlington were escaped convicts who randomly beat a farmer, left him for dead, and then murdered his wife just outside Springfield. Both were executed in the electric chair. (source: Burlington Free Press) ***************** Victim's family feels 'justice is finally done' Donald R. Fell is heading to death row. In the 1st capital punishment trial in Vermont in nearly a half century, a federal jury decided late Thursday morning that the 25-year-old Pennsylvania native should be executed for the November 2000 carjacking and slaying of Tressa King, 53, of North Clarendon. "I feel it's finally justice for my sister after a long four and a half years," Barbara Tuttle of North Clarendon, King's sister, said after the verdict. "Now, he's going to get his punishment." "It's what he deserves," said Charlotte Tuttle of Florida, King's other sister. The jury of 7 men and 5 women deliberated for a little more than 9 hours over 2 days. They began their deliberations at 2:47 p.m. Wednesday, breaking around 9 p.m. and then returning to the courthouse again Thursday morning. At about 11:40 a.m. Thursday, it was announced that the jury had reached a verdict. Court officials, King's family members, several death penalty opponents, reporters, and other spectators quickly filled the courtroom. Fell, wearing thin-framed glasses and dressed in a blue button-down shirt, black pants and dark sneakers, showed little emotion as the verdict was read. He sat still at the defense table as he has throughout much his capital trial, looking straight ahead. King's relatives, seated in the rows behind the prosecutors, wept. Several death penalty opponents in the courtroom also cried. Shortly after the verdict was announced, Gene Primomo, a federal public defender representing Fell, asked to approach the bench to discuss a matter with Judge William Sessions. Primomo then returned to the defense table and stood next to Fell, telling jurors he wanted to deliver a statement on his client's behalf. "He respects your decision, appreciates your hard work, and wanted to tell you and the family of his sincere remorse and did not want to do it any other time publicly as it could be construed to be less genuine," the defense attorney said. Primomo later spoke more on Fell's statement outside the courthouse. "He wanted to speak to the jurors and the King family and offer his remorse and he didn't want it to be construed other than sincere," Primomo said. "If he could trade his for Mrs. King's, he would." As Primomo and King's family members met in front of the courthouse, they exchanged hugs."We appreciate your professionalism," Hibbard, King's daughter, said as she was embraced by Primomo. Reporters then asked Primomo how Fell was taking the verdict. "He tried to cheer us up, typical Donny," the defense attorney said. U.S. Attorney David Kirby did not take questions from reporters after the verdict, but did read from a brief statement. "(The jurors) have spoken and expressed the conscience of the community," the state's top federal prosecutor said, later adding, "The jury heard all the evidence in this case, and returned a verdict consistent with the law and the facts." As the press interviewed attorneys and King's family members after the verdict, a small group of protestors stood outside the courthouse holding signs in opposition to the death penalty. The same jury that handed down the death sentence Thursday for Fell found him guilty of the capital offenses in King's death on June 24. Prosecutors said Fell kidnapped King as she arrived to work at the Price Chopper supermarket in downtown Rutland early on the morning of Nov. 27, 2000. King was then taken from Vermont into New York state where she was beaten to death as she prayed and pleaded for her life. Prosecutors said at the time of King's abduction, Fell and his late accomplice, Robert J. Lee, were fleeing Rutland after stabbing to death Fell's mother, Debra Fell, and her friend, Charles Conway, in a Rutland apartment. Fell, nicknamed Binker by his mother, and Lee were arrested three days later in Arkansas, still driving King's car. Lee has since died in prison, his death ruled accidental by authorities. Fell has been held at the St. Albans jail since his arrest. Michelle Lane of Essex, Conway's daughter, also was in the courtroom Thursday for the verdict. "I was here to support the King family; they are a great family," she said after the jury's verdict was announced. "This was for all 3 victims, my dad, Charles Conway, and Debra Fell, and Terry King." A formal sentencing hearing still must be set when the judge will hand down the jury's death sentence. According to federal law, the judge must impose the death penalty as recommended by the jury. A federal court will automatically review Fell's sentence. During the guilt or innocence phase of the trial, Fell's attorneys mounted almost no defense to charges against their client. Fell's defense team essentially conceded Fell's guilt, appearing to focus more on trying to spare their client's life in the penalty phase of the case. His attorneys argued during the penalty, or sentencing, phase of the case that Fell had a miserable upbringing, growing up in a home with 2 alcoholic parents who abandoned him by the time he was 13. They also contended that Fell suffered from neglect and physical and sexual abuse, drinking alcohol and using drugs to excess at a young age. "You're his last chance," Primomo told jurors in his closing argument Wednesday. He asked the jury to impose a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors called the killing spree a series of deliberate acts by Fell, and took issue with the contention by Fell's defense team that their client was in a drug and alcohol stupor on the night of the killings. The prosecutors said Fell's actions did not appear to be those of a drunken person, pointing out that Fell took a shower in his mother's apartment after she and Conway were stabbed to death, packed his belongings, and then headed downtown with Lee with a shotgun to find someone to carjack when they came upon King. "(Fell's) crimes were unbelievable," Assistant U.S. Attorney William Darrow said in his closing remarks to jurors Wednesday. "He earned the death penalty. He worked hard for it. It's what he deserves." Fell did not testify during the trial. However, jurors did hear from Fell as prosecutors played a recorded statement he gave police shortly after his arrest. In that tape, perhaps one of the most damning pieces of evidence presented against Fell, was his description of King's killing in chilling detail. Fell said he pushed King down to the ground and kicked her with his boots and Lee grabbed a rock and beat King in her face with it. "She didn't even try to struggle, she just took it," Fell said on the tape. "And prayed?" Vermont State Police Detective Sgt. James Cruise asked him. "Yeah," Fell replied. The beating then continued. "So, after Bobby slammed the rock down, I was pretty sure she was dead and I wiped my boots off with her shirt and we left," Fell said. Jurors also heard from Fell in two profanity-filled videotapes showing him fighting with prison guards, one from March 2004 and then another in April, only about a month before the start of jury selection for his trial. The last time a defendant was sentenced to death in Vermont was in 1957. However, that sentence was later commuted. The last execution to take place in Vermont was in 1954. Vermont is one of 12 states that does not have the death penalty. However, because King's death involved the crossing of state lines from Vermont into New York the case against Fell was brought under federal law. 3 people have been executed under federal law since 1988 when Congress restored the federal death penalty, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Fell becomes the 45th person sentenced to death under federal law since 1988. Fell is likely heading to a federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., home of death row for federal prisons. His case has been working its way through the legal system for more than 4 years. Twice during that time, it appeared as though Fell would avoid execution. Sessions in November 2002 drew national headlines when he found the federal death penalty statute unconstitutional in Fell's case. That decision was later reversed by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City. About a year earlier, Fell had reached a "tentative" plea deal that would have spared his life, but would have required him to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. However, then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft rejected the plea deal. Several of King's family members had sent letters to Ashcroft supporting the death penalty and asking that the matter be decided by a jury. "That's all we've ever wanted," Tuttle said Thursday after the verdict, "for a jury to decide this case." Tuttle and other King family members said they plan to attend Fell's execution. "We'll be there in the front row," Hibbard said. (source: The Times Argus) FLORIDA: Court OKs death sentence----Kissimmee murderer faces lethal injection in 1995 case A Kissimmee man convicted in the gruesome murder of a mother of 6 in 1995 is one step closer to lethal injection after the Florida Supreme Court upheld his death sentence. Scott Mansfield, now 44, appealed his punishment, arguing that the trial judge, now Chief Circuit Judge Belvin Perry, showed bias in favor of the death penalty during sentencing deliberations in 1997. Mansfield was convicted of killing Sara Robles, 31, and dumping her mutilated body near a Winn-Dixie supermarket in Buenaventura Lakes on Oct. 15, 1995. Earlier this year, Mansfield's lawyer, James Driscoll, argued in front of the state Supreme Court that his client did not receive a fair trial because of a comment made by Perry regarding a plea deal offered by the state. The state had offered Mansfield life in prison without parole and asked him to waive his rights for appeal. Mansfield declined the offer, according to court documents. Last week, the high court said there was no basis for the defense argument. The comment in question was delivered in front of counsel while the jury was out of the courtroom. Perry said, "What really concerns me is why would this court and this jury be asked to consider the ultimate sanction in this particular case, and then at the ninth hour, it just suddenly goes away?" Last week, the Florida Supreme Court said Perry's statement did not indicate any bias or predisposition about future rulings. "We read Judge Perry's statement to be a statement concerning the timing of a plea offer," the opinion stated. "We find nothing in the statement that indicated bias or prejudice against Mansfield -- rather, the statement was plainly directed at the State." It is standard procedure for the state's Supreme Court to hear death penalty appeals. Attempts to reach Mansfield's attorney were unsuccessful. On the night Robles was found dead, she and a friend had been at Rosie's Pub, a bar in the same shopping strip as the Winn-Dixie. Robles' friend left the bar about 1:30 a.m. and Robles stayed to play pool with Mansfield, according to court records. After the bar closed, Robles and Mansfield were last seen at the grocery. The next day, after finding the body, police searched Manfield's bedroom and found a knife and sheath. During a 2 1/2-hour interview, Mansfield confessed to killing Robles, records say. For nearly 10 years, the case has been going through the appeals process, which is typical of a capital-punishment case. There is a standard chain of appeals from the trial court that can go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Afterward, the case enters a post-conviction appeals process. Once that is finished, the case goes to the governor for him to sign a death warrant. Even then, there can be another set of appeals. In the early 1990s, it took about 20 years for a capital case to go through the entire process. Now, a case can take about half that time. (source: Orlando Sentinel) OKLAHOMA: Prosecutors argue for death penalty against man In Muskogee, prosecutors say a man who killed a Hurst, Texas, couple in Oklahoma's Ouachita National Forest 2 years ago watched them, shot them, then stole their belongings. A federal court hearing began yesterday in Muskogee, Oklahoma. It'll determine if Edward Leon Fields Junior should get the death penalty or life without parole for the July 2003 deaths of Charles and Shirley Chick. Fields already has pleaded guilty to murder and other counts, but federal law requires a sentencing phase. Prosecutors told a jury that the Chicks were sitting next to each other at a campground picnic table when a .22-caliber bullet ripped through Charles Chick's head. They say Shirley Chick was shot once while fleeing, then shot in the head twice as she tried to crawl into the couple's van. Defense attorney Julia O'Connell says Fields is mentally ill and his medication was doubled three days before the killings. (source: KLTV News) OHIO: State seeks appeal with U.S. Supreme Court in Richey case State prosecutors asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to reconsider a ruling that tossed the death penalty conviction against a man charged over a 1986 fire death of a 2-year-old girl. Prosecutors with the Ohio Attorney General's Office made the legal filing asking the court to consider taking an appeal against Kenneth Richey. Prosecutors argued the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overstepped its bounds by tossing the conviction. They argued the 6th Circuit erred when it rejected the Ohio Supreme Court's reading of Ohio law. The 6th Circuit found that in order to sustain Richey's conviction, prosecutors at trial had to prove Richey intended to kill the little girl, when in fact his target was his ex-girlfriend, according to state records. The prosecution argues the Ohio Supreme Court previously ruled it didn't matter whether Richey killed Cynthia Collins or his ex-girlfriend, he still killed someone and therefore is guilty of capital murder, according to state records. Richey was convicted at a 1987 trial of setting the June 30, 1986, fire at a Columbus Grove apartment complex that killed Cynthia. Richey's attorney, Ken Parsigian said the state is "flat out wrong." The Ohio Supreme Court never made that ruling since the argument never was made to that court. He said the state misstated what was never said. The chances of getting the nation's highest court to take the case are next to nothing. The court only takes cases that have an effect on existing law, and Ohio has since changed its capital law so that issue can never be raised again, Parsigian said. "This is a desperation Hail Mary," he said. The state also disputed the 6th Circuit's findings that Richey's trial attorneys didn't do an adequate job of representing him. The state argued state courts denied the claim and the 6th Circuit again overstepped its bounds by exceeding its scope of review, according to state records. In other action, Putnam County Prosecutor Gary Lammers is preparing to present Richey's case to the grand jury in hopes of getting new charges, including those that carry the potential for the death penalty. Lammers has to follow the ruling by the 6th Circuit, unless changed on appeal, that says Richey must be retried or released within 90 days. (source: Lima News) *********************** 1986 MURDER CASE -- Petro asks high court to overturn reversal Attorney General Jim Petro is going after Scotsman Kenneth Richey in the U.S. Supreme Court at the same time the Putnam County prosecutor is seeking to retry Richey on a 19-year-old murder charge. Petro yesterday asked the Supreme Court to reverse a decision by the 6 th U.S. Circuit of Appeals. Earlier this year, the appellate court overturned Richey's conviction and death sentence for the June 30, 1986, murder of 2-year-old Cynthia Collins, of Columbus Grove. The decision, hinging on a finding that Richey had incompetent counsel at his original trial, said that he had to be retried or set free within 90 days. In a motion filed yesterday, Petro argued that the appeals court acted improperly and exceeded its powers. On June 30, Putnam County Prosecutor Gary L. Lammers announced that he would seek an indictment to retry Richey for the girl's death in a house fire. Richey's attorney, Kenneth J. Parsigian, of Boston, said of Lammers' decision, "It's not fair, it's not right, and we will be challenging it." Richey is a native of Scotland who has U.S.-British citizenship. He was convicted for setting fire to an apartment to seek revenge against his former girlfriend. The woman survived, but the young girl died in another apartment. Richey has insisted that he's not guilty, although he acknowledges being drunk that night and doesn't recall clearly what happened. In Great Britain, which does not have the death penalty, the Scotsman's quest for freedom has become an international cause, drawing the attention of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, members of Parliament and the pope. (source: Columbus Dispatch) NEW JERSEY: Court gives death row inmate chance of a retrial One of the 11 men on death row in New Jersey won a legal victory from the state Supreme Court on Thursday that could move him closer to being granted a retrial. Sean Padraic Kenney, once known as Richard Feaster, was convicted in 1996 of killing gas station attendant Keith Donaghy during a robbery three years earlier. During the trial, the state used the testimony of Kenney's friend Michael Sadlowski. Sadlowski told jurors that Kenney told him he had killed the man. But since then, Sadlowski has twice changed his story, according to court documents. He said in a statement for Kenney's lawyer in 2001 that his testimony was false. But in 2003, when he was called to give testimony before a post-conviction relief court, he withdrew that statement and refused to testify further. Kenney's lawyers contend that Sadlowski did not testify because prosecutors threatened that he could be charged with lying on the witness stand in Kenney's trial if he changed his story. "We cannot say that defendant did not receive a fair trial. We do hold, however, that defendant did not receive a fair PCR hearing because the prosecutor's conduct made Sadlowski unavailable as a defense witness," Justice Barry T. Albin wrote in the majority opinion. In its 6-1 ruling, the Supreme Court said that Sadlowski's story is important enough that he should be offered immunity to testify. With that testimony, the court ruled, a lower court judge can decide whether Kenney should get a new trial. And if Sadlowski again refuses to testify, it will be up to the judge to decide whether Kenney would have been convicted without Sadlowski's testimony. If so, he would get a new trial. New Jersey has not executed someone since 1963. The majority of death sentences handed down since the death penalty was reinstated in 1982 have been overturned by courts. Even if Kenney, 34, is ultimately cleared of killing Donaghy, he would not be released from prison. He is serving a life sentence for murdering a second gas station attendant in another robbery. (source: Associated Press) MASSACHUSETTS: Romney backs capital punishment bill Governor Mitt Romney's bill to create a "foolproof" death penalty faced heavy criticism yesterday from legislators, activists, lawyers, religious leaders, and scientists during a public hearing on Beacon Hill that lasted more than 7 hours. Nearly all of them testified against the governor's proposal before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, which is considering the measure to bring back capital punishment for extremely heinous crimes. Senator Robert S. Creedon Jr., cochairman of the committee, said Romney's bill wasn't likely to pass. "Skepticism is the word," said the Brockton Democrat, describing the committee's majority opinion. Romney has repeatedly called for a return of the death penalty, which was abolished by the Supreme Judicial Court in 1984. He defended his bill for about an hour yesterday before the committee and a crowd of more than 100 in the committee room, calling it a "gold standard" for capital punishment. "I would have complete confidence in any judgment resulting from the judicial processes outlined in this bill," Romney said. "It gives a standard that will assure the innocent will not be guilty." Created out of recommendations by a commission Romney convened in 2003, the bill attempts to settle concerns of critics who say capital punishment is flawed and who fear that innocent people will be executed. Under his plan, the death penalty could only be used in cases involving deadly terrorism, killing sprees, murders involving torture, or slaying of law enforcement. The proposal would require scientific evidence, a "no doubt" standard of guilt, a two-jury system for establishing guilt and for sentencing, review by an independent panel and the SJC, and mandatory appointment of defense lawyers qualified for capital cases. "It's not a gold standard; it's a platinum standard," said Representative Philip Travis, a Rehoboth Democrat, one of only a few people testifying for the bill. But opponents challenged the governor's contention that scientific evidence, such as DNA, could ever be completely conclusive and also argued that the death penalty doesn't deter the types of crimes it would punish. And they said the resources spent on trying a death penalty case, often millions of dollars, would be better used to fund crime-prevention programs and more law enforcement. "It's a diversion from the real problems we face in the criminal justice system," said former governor Michael S. Dukakis, pointing to Boston's shortage of police officers. Romney said he expected only 1 or 2 cases a year to be eligible under his bill. The Rev. Diane C. Kessler, executive director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, said that church leaders in the state are "unified in opposing the death penalty as unnecessary, unjust, and intolerable." Deval L. Patrick, a former assistant US attorney general who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2006 gubernatorial race, said he believes that the potential for corruption is too great. He cited a 1983 phone conversation with a federal judge in Alabama who bluntly asked, "Mr. Patrick, don't you think there are just some people who ought to die?" Patrick also took a verbal jab at an opponent for the Democratic nomination. Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly once opposed the death penalty and now supports capital punishment in some circumstances, but still opposes the governor's bill. "He's occupied several positions over the years on this, and I think whatever position he's occupying today you'd need to ask him about," Patrick said. Reilly did not attend yesterday's hearing. "While the attorney general supports the death penalty, he continues to believe this proposal is the wrong bill at the wrong time," Reilly spokesman David R. Guarino said. "The governor should focus on bringing jobs back to Massachusetts, reining in health care costs and improving our schools, not a headline-grabbing bill that he knows has no chance of passing." Opponents charged that the governor was trying to look good in the national spotlight as he eyes a presidential bid in 2008. "[Romney] has a national agenda," Creedon said. Patrick called the measure "shorthand politics." Romney said the proposal was part of a campaign promise. (source: Boston Globe)
