June 6
USA:
Unabomber's brother, victim forge unique friendship
If Gary Wright wanted nothing to do with anyone with the last name of
Kaczynski, few would blame him. Even David Kaczynski would understand.
After all, it was Kaczynski's brother, Ted, who tried to kill Wright with
a bomb outside his Utah office in 1987. The blast sent him flying through
the air, and more than 200 pieces of shrapnel tore into his body, some
shards severing nerves in his left arm.
But David Kaczynski and Wright have forged the type of bond that has taken
them canoeing in the Adirondacks together and touring the Baseball Hall of
Fame in Cooperstown, New York. They also travel the nation for speaking
engagements about pain and reconciliation.
"He helped me see that I could reconnect," Kaczynski told CNN. "There was
hope that things would get better and not worse. Gary was, in some sense,
my psychological lifeline through this terrible ordeal."
Kaczynski recalls the moment just a few days before Thanksgiving in 1996
when he finally called Wright.
He took a deep breath before dialing the phone number. The answering
machine picked up. "Hello, you've reached the Wright house at the wrong
time, please leave a message."
Kaczynski left a voice mail telling Wright that he was Ted Kaczynski's
brother and that he would call back in a few days.
Unlikely Friendship
CNN's "American Morning" explores the unique relationship between the
"Unabomber's" brother and a victim.
It was David Kaczynski who earlier that year turned in his own brother to
federal authorities as a suspect in the "Unabomber" attacks.
Ted Kaczynski had just been arrested for carrying out a nearly 20-year
bombing crusade against technology. He killed 3 people with his homemade
bombs and wounded more than 20 others.
Wright was the Unabomber's 11th victim. He was severely wounded outside
his computer company in 1987 when he bent down to pick up a piece of
lumber in the parking lot. It turned out to be a bomb planted by Ted
Kaczynski.
"For some reason, I thought someone had come around the corner of the
building and shot me with a shotgun," Wright said.
When David Kaczynski and Wright finally spoke by phone, Kaczynski offered
his apologies and then braced himself for Wright to lash out in anger.
"It's not your fault," Wright recalls telling Kaczynski. "You really don't
have to carry that [burden]."
An intense feeling of relief overwhelmed Kaczynski.
He had written letters to every victim's family. Only a few responded. And
those who did had not offered Wright's warmth and compassion.
The 2 men didn't know it at the time, but it was the beginning of their
unlikely friendship.
Kaczynski and Wright recently detailed the evolution of their relationship
for CNN during a speaking appearance in Miami.
"I have learned things that no other victim of these set of crimes will
ever know, and it's because of that relationship," Wright said. "There's
more knowing you have a good family that raised this person [Ted] and that
one person inside the family doesn't define the whole family."
They say that after their initial conversation, the phone calls became
more frequent. Their families soon met. In fact, Wright traveled to New
York and met David Kaczynski's mother and sat down in her living room,
thumbing through family photo albums, looking at the childhood pictures
and hearing stories of the boy who would become the Unabomber, the very
man who tried to kill him.
"I've been able to see things, see photos that were outside of the norm,"
Wright said. "See a family that was a family unit before something went
wrong."
In 1999, Wright and Kaczynski started traveling the country together
telling their story. Thousands of miles on the road have developed a
brotherhood born of tragedy. They admit their relationship is unique.
"There is a lot of pain for me with the word 'brother,' a lot of emotion,"
Kaczynski said. "But I see Gary as my brother."
Wright added, "I don't take that lightly, either. I don't use that word,
'brother,' lightly."
Kaczynski says Wright has not replaced Ted as his older brother, but
Wright has clearly filled in. David Kaczynski says he doesn't know what
his brother would think of the friendship.
Ted Kaczynski has not spoken to his family since April 3, 1996, the day he
was arrested. He's serving a life sentence at the "supermax" federal
penitentiary in Florence, Colorado.
David writes him letters on his birthday and holidays. Their mother writes
Ted every month, he said. But a return letter has never arrived.
Kaczynski and Wright see each other only a few times a year, typically
when they give a speaking engagement. Kaczynski lives in New York; Wright
still lives in Utah where he now works as a technical sales engineer in
the biopharmaceutical and medical device industries.
But both men say dealing with the aftermath of the Unabomber tragedy would
have been a much lonelier road without this newfound brotherhood.
"I liken it to like World War II vets. They went through something so
traumatic that they're bonded for life," Wright said.
Kaczynski added, "I know that this friendship is for life. We'll be there
for each other for as long as we're alive."
(source: CNN)
**********************
9/11 suspects reject defense lawyers at Guantanamo despite facing death
penalty
The accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks said he welcomed
martyrdom at U.S. hands, as he and four codefendants asked to be tried for
war crimes without the benefit of lawyers.
Thursday's arraignment at this isolated U.S. Navy base marked the first
time that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the former No. 3 leader of al-Qaida, has
been seen since he was captured in Pakistan in 2003.
Mohammed said he would welcome being executed after the judge warned him
he faces the death penalty if convicted of organizing the attacks on
America.
"Yes, this is what I wish, to be a martyr for a long time," Mohammed said.
"I will, God willing, have this, by you.
Mohammed wore dark-framed prison-issue glasses, a turban and a bushy, gray
beard, and was noticeably thinner - a stark change from the slovenly man
with disheveled hair, unshaven face and T-shirt from the widely
distributed photograph after his capture in Pakistan. He looked older than
his 45 years.
One of the civilian attorneys he spurned, David Nevin, later told The
Associated Press that he would attempt to meet with Mohammed to hear him
out and see if we can give him information that is helpful.
Asked how any attorney could defend a man who wants the death penalty, the
Boise, Idaho, lawyer said: "It's a tricky matter. I don't have a good
answer for you."
Waleed bin Attash, who allegedly selected and trained some of the
hijackers, asked the judge whether the Sept. 11 defendants - who all face
possible death sentences - would be buried at Guantanamo or if their
bodies would be shipped home if they were executed.
Judge Ralph Kohlmann, a Marine colonel with a crewcut who was dressed in
black robes, refused to address the question.
The five co-defendants were at turns cordial and defiant at their
arraignment, the first U.S. attempt to try in court those believed to be
directly responsible for killing 2,973 people in the bloodiest terrorist
attack ever on U.S. soil. All 5 said they would represent themselves.
But defense attorneys said 4 men intimidated a fifth defendant to join
them in declaring they didn't want attorneys.
At a news conference, the military defense attorneys denounced the court
for allowing the defendants to talk among themselves before and during
their joint arraignment, saying this is when Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi was
pressured into going without a lawyer.
"It was clear Mr. Mohammed was trying to intimidate Mr. Hawsawi," said
Army Maj. Jon Jackson, his lead military attorney. "He was shaking."
Chief military defense counsel Stephen David, an Army colonel, said the
fact that the alleged coconspirators were allowed to talk unhindered in
the courtroom in their first meeting since they were captured years ago
was troubling.
"We will have to investigate," David said.
The other defendants appeared to be in robust health but al-Hawsawi, who
allegedly helped the Sept. 11 hijackers with money and Western-style
clothing, looked thin and frail and sat on a pillow on his chair.
Army Col. Lawrence Morris, the chief prosecutor at the military trials
here, said his office was not responsible for controlling when defendants
talk to each other, but added that they should not be pressured into
renouncing their lawyers.
"The government is as concerned as the defense on the integrity over
counsel relationships," he said.
The war-crimes tribunal is the highest-profile test yet of the military's
tribunal system, which faces an uncertain future. The tribunals have faced
repeated legal setbacks, including a Supreme Court appeal on the rights of
Guantanamo detainees that could produce a ruling this month halting the
proceedings.
The arraignment, in which no pleas were entered, indicated that hatred for
the United States among some of the defendants remains at a boil.
One defendant said he deeply regrets not joining the hijackers who crashed
passenger airliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a
Pennsylvania field.
"I have been seeking martyrdom for 5 years," said Ramzi Binalshibh, the
alleged main intermediary between the 19 hijackers and al-Qaida leaders.
"I tried for 9/11 to get a visa but I could not.
Asked if he understands that he could be executed if found guilty,
Binalshibh said: If this martyrdom happens today, I welcome it. God is
great. God is great. God is great.
Mohammed, seated at the defense table closest to the judge, was careful
not to interrupt him. He lost his composure only after the Marine colonel
ordered several defense attorneys to keep quiet.
"It's an inquisition. It's not a trial," Mohammed said in broken English,
his voice rising. "After torturing they transfer us to inquisition-land in
Guantanamo.
As the judge closed the session, which lasted nearly 10 hours with breaks,
he asked the defendants to rise, but they refused. He said he would set a
trial schedule later.
The trial also threatens to expose harsh interrogation techniques used on
the men, who were in CIA custody before being transferred to Guantanamo in
2006.
The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has acknowledged that
Mohammed was subjected to harsh interrogation techniques including
waterboarding - a technique that gives the sensation of drowning - in
secret CIA custody before he was transferred to Guantanamo in 2006. His
attorneys have said they will challenge evidence obtained through
coercion.
The military tribunals plan to allow coerced testimony, although evidence
obtained by torture is not allowed. Air Force Brig. Gen. Tom Hartmann, a
top tribunal official, told reporters it was up to the judge to determine
whether to allow as evidence statements obtained during waterboarding.
Mohammed said he was tortured after being captured in Pakistan in 2003 but
didn't elaborate, indicating he understood he should not discuss it in the
courtroom.
"I can't mention about the torturing," said Mohammed, who received an
engineering degree from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State
University. "I know this is the red line."
The other defendants are Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, known as Ammar al-Baluchi, a
nephew and lieutenant of Mohammed; and Waleed bin Attash, who allegedly
selected and trained some of the hijackers.
(source: PR-Inside.com)
***************************
Arraigned, 9/11 Defendants Talk of Martyrdom
When at last he got the chance to speak, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the
self-proclaimed planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, on Thursday called
President Bush a crusader and ridiculed the trial system here as an
inquisition.
Mr. Mohammed, the former senior operations chief for Al Qaeda, said he
would represent himself and dared the Guantnamo tribunal to put him to
death.
"This is what I want," he told a military judge here, in his 1st
appearance to answer war crimes charges for the terrorism attacks that
killed 2,973 people and set America on a path to war.
"I'm looking to be martyr for long time," he said in serviceable English,
improved, perhaps, by five years of custody, including three in secret
C.I.A. prisons.
The arraignment on Thursday of Mr. Mohammed and four other detainees the
government says were high-level coordinators of the Sept. 11 attacks was
the start of hearings in the case, which is the centerpiece of the Bush
administrations war crimes system here.
But it was also the first public appearance by Mr. Mohammed, who has long
cast himself in the role of superterrorist, claiming responsibility in the
past not only for the 2001 plot, but for some 30 others, including the
murder of Daniel Pearl, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal.
A bushy gray beard all but covered Mr. Mohammeds face, so familiar from
the well-known photograph of him in a baggy undershirt that was taken the
day of his capture in Pakistan in 2003. On Thursday, he worked to get as
much control as possible over the proceedings.
Peering through big black-rimmed glasses, he rejected American lawyers as
agents of the Bush administration's "crusade war against Islamic world."
He said the lawyers could stay to help him as advisers.
He quickly staked out his position as the leader of the accused men. He
gestured to them, shared animated conversations while the proceedings
droned on and, at one point, turned his chair toward the back of the
courtroom to face his co-defendants, lined up in a row behind him.
His strategy seemed to work. One of the detainees, a military lawyer said,
decided to reject his lawyers on Thursday, after a few minutes in the
courtroom. Another, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, was intimidated by Mr.
Mohammed, said his designated lawyer, Maj. Jon Jackson.
By day's end, each of Mr. Mohammed's 4 co-defendants had said he wanted to
represent himself. That could turn a trial into a jumble of rhetoric and a
new opportunity for critics to attack the Guantnamo system as designed to
get easy convictions.
Each of the 5 men remained seated when the judge asked that they rise for
the formal arraignment.
"I reject this session," said Walid bin Attash, a detainee known as
Khallad, who investigators say selected and trained some of the hijackers.
Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who was to have been one of the hijackers, said that
he too, like Mr. Mohammed, was ready for martyrdom.
He recalled that he had "tried for 9/11" but was denied an American visa
so had missed his chance.
The judge, Col. Ralph H. Kohlmann, agreed to permit 3 of the men to
represent themselves. He said he wanted more information on Major Jacksons
assertion. In Mr. Shibh's case, he said he wanted to investigate a new
report on Thursday from a military lawyer that Mr. Shibh has been on
psychotropic medication.
When Judge Kohlmann asked Mr. Shibh why he was taking the medication,
security officials cut the sound fed to reporters in a glassed-in gallery
and a satellite press center. It was one of half a dozen times in a long
court day when a private national-security consultant to the court cut the
sound when detainees appeared to be discussing what several of them said
had been years of torture.
Mr. Mohammed managed to get the reference through the censor twice.
"After torturing," he said, warming to his subject, "they transfer us to
Inquisitionland in Guantnamo."
Central Intelligence Agency officials have said that Mr. Mohammed was 1 of
3 detainees subjected to the simulated drowning technique known as
waterboarding.
The sound was cut twice when Mr. Mohammed seemed to be discussing his
claim.
He was far from shy, and he looked lean compared with the photograph taken
of him after his 2003 capture. He chanted verses in Arabic and then
translated them into English. He vied with Judge Kohlmann for control of
the courtroom.
"Go ahead," he told the judge from time to time when there was a pause, as
if he, at the shiny new defense table in a specially built courtroom here,
and not the man in the black robe on the bench, were in charge.
He was, Mr. Mohammed said cheerfully, unable to accept lawyers who knew
little of Islamic law. He asked that the 5 men facing terrorism,
conspiracy and other charges for the Sept. 11 attacks be permitted to
meet. They needed, he said, to plan "one front."
The request for a meeting, like most requests from the defense on
Thursday, was rejected by Judge Kohlmann.
All 5 accused men were held in the secret C.I.A. program and transferred
to Guantnamo to face charges in the military commission system.
"Sit down," the judge barked out a few times as defense lawyers assigned
to the cases by the military and by the American Civil Liberties Union
tried to slow the proceedings.
The lawyers said that Mr. Mohammed and the other men had not had enough
opportunity to meet with them. As a result, they said, the detainees could
not understand the implications of representing themselves with their
lives potentially on the line. No one would prevail with the argument that
the arraignment could not proceed as scheduled, Judge Kohlmann announced.
The Pentagon has been pressing to move its war crimes cases quickly after
years of delays and legal setbacks. Critics, including a former chief
military prosecutor, have said there is intense political pressure to
start the trials by the end of the Bush administration.
The Pentagon general who has become the most visible advocate of the
commission system, Thomas W. Hartmann, has repeatedly said that
accelerating the filing and prosecution of charges is not motivated by
politics.
Whatever the motivation, it was clear inside the wire of the new court
complex in the bright sun here that the Guantnamo trial system had begun
its most important test. Reporters from Italy, Pakistan, Britain and
Canada mixed with Americans crowded into a press center for the first
glimpse of Mr. Mohammed and his co-defendants.
The expansive new courtroom, built specifically for the Sept. 11 case,
provided an austere setting. It is a big, windowless white room, decorated
only with a large American flag and the seals of each of the American
military branches.
The reporters and a handful of observers from human rights, military and
legal groups sat in an observation room at the rear. Sound to the room was
delayed 20 seconds, so people in the proceedings rose and sat on occasion
before their voices could be heard.
In the courtroom, the prosecutors sat to the right at 3 long tables. On
the left, there were 6 long tables, the final one unused. At the end of
each table, a detainee sat, in a white prison uniform. Only one, Mr.
Shibh, was shackled to the floor.
Mr. Mohammed, who is sometimes known as K.S.M., was at the first table. He
could not, he explained, work easily with lawyers trained in the American
legal system, which he described as evil. "They allow same sexual
marriage," he said, "and many things are very bad."
He held his own in rapid fire back-and-forth with the judge dealing with
the particulars of the proceedings, but then would retreat into another
world. When Judge Kohlmann explained the risks of going through a death
penalty case without a lawyer, Mr. Mohammed answered: "Nothing shall
befall us, save what Allah has ordained for us."
(source: New York Times)
OHIO:
6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals orders new trial for death-row inmate
Joe D'Ambrosio----Vital evidence withheld, court says
A Cleveland man who has spent nearly 2 decades on death row must be given
a new trial or be let out of prison, a federal appeals court ruled
Thursday.
The 3-judge panel agreed with a ruling made in 2006 by U.S. District Judge
Kate O'Malley that Joe D'Ambrosio is entitled to a new trial because
prosecutors withheld several pieces of crucial evidence that could have
exonerated him.
Turning over the evidence would probably have resulted in a different
verdict for D'Ambrosio, who was found guilty and sentenced to death after
a trial in 1989, the court said in its opinion.
Supporters of D'Ambrosio, 47, hailed Thurs day's decision by the 6th U.S.
Cir cuit Court of Ap peals and called on prosecutors to release him from a
state prison near Youngstown.
"We're hoping the state does the right thing," said John Lewis, part of a
team of lawyers from the firm of Jones Day that is representing D'Ambrosio
for free. "In our view, the evidence that was withheld shows D'Ambrosio
did not commit this crime."
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, through a representative, said he
is still considering whether to appeal the decision or retry the case.
"We're disappointed in the ruling," Mason said in the prepared statement.
D'Ambrosio says he was wrongly convicted for the 1988 murder of Tony
Klann, 19. Klann was found dead in Doan Brook, stabbed in his chest and
with his throat slashed.
Following a weeklong hearing in 2004, O'Malley ruled that prosecutors
withheld 10 pieces of evidence that could have helped exonerate D'Ambrosio
and should have been turned over to the defense under court rules.
In one instance, prosecutors did not tell D'Ambrosio's lawyer that the man
who accused D'Ambrosio of the murder had his own motive for killing Klann.
The man, Paul Lewis, was charged in a rape case in which Klann was the
only witness.
Also, defense attorneys were not told that the 2 homicide detectives
investigating the case believed Klann was killed elsewhere and then dumped
in Doan Brook. That directly contradicted the testimony of Eddie Espinoza,
the state's only eyewitness. Espinoza pleaded guilty to manslaughter and
served a reduced sentence - 12 years - for his testimony.
"The most telling piece of evidence was from the police officers," John
Lewis said. "These are police officers who came willingly to a hearing and
testified that they did not believe the crime was committed where
[Espinoza] said the crime occurred."
Shortly after Klann's body was found on Sept. 24, 1988, Paul Lewis pointed
investigators to D'Ambrosio, Thomas "Michael" Keenan and Espinoza, who
worked together landscaping.
The 3 were looking for Lewis because Keenan believed Lewis had stolen
drugs from him. Espinoza later testified that they found Klann in Little
Italy and forced him into their truck because they thought Klann could
lead them to Lewis.
Espinoza testified during the 1989 trial that the men drove to Doan Brook,
where Keenan slit Klann's throat and pushed him into the creek. Klann
begged for his life and tried to escape, but D'Ambrosio caught him and
killed him, Espinoza testified.
However, detectives said they found no blood on the creek bed, signs of a
struggle or tire marks leading to the creek.
At the time of the murder, Lewis faced charges for raping Klann's
roommate. Klann was the only witness subpoenaed to testify against Lewis.
Ralph DeFranco, D'Ambrosio's lawyer in the murder trial, testified that
prosecutors never told him about the rape case. Former Assistant County
Prosecutor Carmen Marino knew about Lewis' rape case but did not inform
DeFranco, as he was obligated to do, O'Malley said in her order 2 years
ago for a new trial.
O'Malley said in that ruling that defense lawyers could have crafted a
different strategy had they known about the case.
The appeals court Thursday upheld O'Malley's ruling and concurred that
D'Ambrosio would probably not have been found guilty if the evidence had
been turned over.
The state can ask that the ruling be reconsidered by the whole appellate
court. The state can also petition the U.S. Supreme Court. Neither body is
obligated to hear the case, John Lewis said.
D'Ambrosio is likely to remain jailed during the appeals process. He has
remained in prison since O'Malley initially ruled in March 2006 that he
deserved a new trial.
(source: Plain Dealer)
*********************
Cold-Case Murder May Lead to Death Penalty
At 63 years of age, Eugene Blake has spent more than 1/2 his life in West
Virginia's penal system for the murder of 2 women. If convicted in the
1982 murder of Lansing resident Mark Withers, he could be taking up
residence on Ohio's death row.
Blake was named in a 3-count indictment Wednesday charging him with the
March 19, 1982, murder of then 21-year-old Withers, who resided at 13 East
Center St., Lansing.
Withers was shot to death, and his 17-year-old female companion was raped
during the early morning hours while the 2 were parked at Gould Park in
Bridgeport.
During a Thursday news conference, Belmont County Prosecutor Christopher
Berhalter said Blake is charged with 3 counts of aggravated murder.
Berhalter said the 3 murder charges stem from different specifications
associated with the Withers murder, pointing out that Blake faces the
death penalty if convicted.
Blake had been housed at the Mountain State's medium security Huttonsville
Correctional Center but was moved recently to the Mount Olive Correctional
Complex, West Virginia's only maximum security prison.
Berhalter said Blake was moved within the past couple of months after Ohio
authorities expressed interest in him. The Mount Olive facility was opened
Feb. 14, 1995, as a replacement for the aged West Virginia Penitentiary at
Moundsville.
Blakes prison time began in the late 1960s in Wayne County, W.Va.
He was convicted March 29, 1968, of the Jan. 15, 1967, stabbing death of
Donna Jean Ball, 18, a Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co. operator who
was on her way home after work. Trial documents indicate Blake forced
Ball's car off the road on a secluded area of W.Va. 75 in Wayne County. He
stabbed her 8 times before she broke away long enough to stop a passing
motorist.
After getting into the motorist's vehicle, Ball pointed toward Blake.
"That's the car. That's the man," she screamed.
Blake sped away. The motorist drove to Balls home to alert her family then
continued to Cabell-Huntington Hospital, where Ball was pronounced dead.
The woman died in the rear seat of the car en route to the hospital.
Blake was sentenced to life without mercy in the West Virginia
Penitentiary, but he only served 10 years because on Dec. 23, 1976,
then-Gov. Arch Moore commuted Blake's sentence to life with mercy. Blake
was paroled in 1979.
Moore could not be reached for comment Thursday.
While awaiting trial for the Ball murder, Blake was sent to the Weston
State Hospital for mental evaluation and on Aug. 25, 1967, he and 8 others
escaped from the facility.
Blake was recaptured 3 days later in a car he had stolen after
overpowering a Pickle Street farmer and his wife. Police found a shotgun
in the stolen car.
Another murder conviction for Blake came in Ohio County on Oct. 18, 1985,
when Blake was found guilty of the Oct. 17, 1984, rape and murder of
Maryann Hope Helmbright, a 13-year-old Wheeling girl. Prosecutors proved
Blake had taken Helmbright from the former Silver Fox Bar he managed on
Market Street.
A former bartender testified he saw Blake and Helmbright emerge from a
back room of the bar between 1:30 and 2 a.m. on Oct. 24. The witness said
as the 2 were leaving the bar, Blake muttered to him, "Take a good look
..., it's the last time you'll see her pretty young face."
Testimony said Blake took Helmbright to Wheeling Island, where he shot her
in the head. He then transported her body to the Morgantown area, where a
hunter found her body 75 feet off Chapline Hill Road.
Blake was again sentenced to life without mercy. In addition, under West
Virginia's 3 strikes law he received yet another life without mercy
sentence to be served consecutively with his sentence for for killing
Helmbright.
Those sentences were later vacated by the West Virginia Supreme Court of
Appeals; Blake was returned to Ohio County for a new trial.
Rather than face another jury, Blake pleaded guilty to the charge and, as
part of a plea agreement, he was sentenced to 15 years to life. As a
result of that plea agreement, he is eligible for parole again in 2011.
At Thursday's news conference, Berhalter said Ohio authorities are seeking
to have Blake extradited from West Virginia to face the Withers murder
charges. Berhalter also credited work of the Bridgeport Police Department,
the Ohio Attorney Generals Office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal
Identification and Investigation in solving the case.
"I would be remiss if I didn't specifically note all the outstanding work
of BCI&I Agent Charles Snyder," Berhalter added.
BCI&I Superintendent Robert Fiatal commended those who solved the crime
and pointed to the expertise of forensic scientists who developed DNA
evidence.
"DNA was a lead producer in this case," he said.
Berhalter also read a statement from the Withers family in which they
expressed gratitude for the case being solved.
"For our family, these past few days have been bittersweet," the family
wrote. "Even though we now have some resolution, it has caused us to
relive a horrible event from the past. We ask you (the media) respect our
privacy."
At the time of the Withers murder, Bridgeport Patrolman Tony Leonard told
reporters the assailant walked up to the car, knocked on the window and
began screaming for Withers to unlock the door and give him their money.
A newspaper account of the crime reported there were two theories of what
had happened: One source reported the man knocked on the car window and
when Withers rolled down the glass, he was shot in the temple; another
report said Withers was dragged from the car and then shot.
The reports said the female companion, a Wheeling resident at the time,
described the assailant as a white male, 6 feet, 4 inches tall, between
250 and 260 pounds with blond hair. She said he was wearing a ski mask,
tan cowboy boots, a silver wrist watch and a silver belt buckle with the
initial "G" on it. Police told reporters after Withers was shot, "his body
was thrown over a fence down a hill near the park."
Published reports said the girl was raped after Withers was killed and,
when the assailant left the area, she walked to a nearby residence and
awakened the residents and called the police.
Former Bridgeport Patrolman Brad Johnson said he and Leonard found the
body and later found the girl, who "took off from the park by herself."
The girl reportedly told authorities that after the shooter threw Withers'
body over the fence, he returned to the vehicle and demanded she have sex
with him or he would kill her.
According to the report, the girl was forced into a wooded area, raped 3
times within 1 1/2 hours and told to walk for several minutes before
returning to the car.
The assailant then walked out of the woods. She was treated and released
at the former Martins Ferry Hospital.
(source: The Intelligencer)
MISSISSIPPI:
Death penalty: Can Hinds win a capital case?
Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith says the death penalty
will be on the table in cases where the crimes call for it - a departure
from his predecessors.
If successful, he will be confronting an awkward issue in Hinds County
while also laudably sending a message to criminals that he's serious about
crime-fighting.
Smith defeated Faye Peterson last year. In seven years as district
attorney, she sought - and secured - the death penalty once.
Convicted child killer Eric Moffett was sentenced to death in 2006 for the
1994 sexual assault and death of Felicia Griffin, his then-girlfriend's
5-year-old daughter.
Peterson's longtime predecessor, Ed Peters, also rarely sought the death
penalty.
Peters, who held the prosecutor's job 30 years, successfully sought the
death penalty in at least 10 cases. But near the end of his career, he
angered many by saying he had largely abandoned seeking capital punishment
for racial reasons.
Peters, who is white, said while testifying in a hearing in 1987 that it
was almost impossible to get a Hinds County jury to agree on a death
sentence because the racial make up of the county ensures black jurors.
Black Mississippians were more likely to oppose the death penalty because
"they've been subjected to much crueler treatment at the hands of law
enforcement," he said, and are "more likely to be against the system."
Peterson, who is black, as is Smith, maintained during her career that she
was not opposed to the death penalty, but that the evidence had to be
overwhelming, and the time needed to prepare for a death penalty case -
more than a year - was a deterrent.
Peterson and other criminal lawyers have said that the circumstances of
the crime are the most pertinent factors, not race.
Black jurors, they say, are more likely to give the death penalty when
there are multiple victims, a child is killed or the crime is heinous.
Plus, they say, with more black elected officials, prosecutors, police,
and black citizens themselves being victimized by crime, attitudes are
changing.
Smith has said his decision will be based on the wishes of the victim's
family.
Capital punishment appeals can last for decades; a life sentence can bring
closure quicker. For example, last month Earl Wesley Berry was the most
recent inmate executed nearly 20 years after the crime. One of the state's
64 death row inmates has been waiting 30 years for sentence to be carried
out.
Then, there's the expense of trials and appeals that can be costly to
taxpayers.
It's not an easy decision, but it is laudable that Smith is making the
death penalty part of his prosecutorial arsenal. Some crimes clearly
dictate it.
PENNSYLVANIA:
Prosecutors to seek death penalty in Houtzdale woman's murder
Prosecutors in Clearfield County will seek the death penalty againt Jesse
James Campbell, the Houtzdale man accused of killing his mother March 13.
District Attorney William Shaw cited 2 aggravating circumstances in making
the decision. Shaw noted the use of torture during the crime and
Campbell's "significant history of felony convictions involving violence"
in making his decision.
Ultimately, Shaw said, a jury will have to decide whether, if convicted,
Campbell heads to death row.
The case is expected to go to trial in late September.
Today's formal arraignment was in the Clearfield County Courthouse before
Judge Paul Cherry.
Mirror reporters are working on a story for Saturday's paper.
(source: Altoona Mirror)
********************
Death penalty is no deterrent
REGARDING Robert Boyden's op-ed ("The Mumia factor in the killing of
cops," June 2): His analysis is surprisingly misguided and callow,
especially coming from a former police officer and, ostensibly,
professional consultant in the criminal- justice system.
He asserts a direct connection between Mumia Abu-Jamal's continued
incarceration and the death of at least three police officers here in
Philadelphia in recent years. The conclusion is not just a gross
oversimplification, it is also unsupported by the facts behind violent
criminal activity.
As any prosecutor or defense attorney can tell you, the majority of
serious, violent crimes are not pre-planned or meticulously arranged by
the perpetrators. They are the result of spur-of-the-moment decisions,
often arising out of fights, arguments, surprise, or other conditions
characterized by immediacy.
Most murderers are not even thinking about consequences of the crime they
are about to commit, let alone will they stop to consider the quality of
the punishment for those crimes.
Under those circumstances, the argument for the death penalty made by
Boyden - that swift, certain executions would act as a deterrent to the
homicide of police - fails utterly.
Boyden contributes another false note: He plays on the well-founded fears
we have of street-roving murderers, especially those craven enough to
shoot at the police.
But any attempt to assuage that fear with appeals to speedy executions
isn't a solution.
It is only an invitation to create more problems in our already
overburdened and under-resourced criminal justice system and to risk
executing innocent men and women.
Andrew Wallace----Philadelphia Daily News)
(source: Letter to the Editor, Philadelphia Inquirer)
LOUISIANA:
Accused serial killer may face death penalty
Prosecutors may seek the death penalty against an accused serial killer
when he is tried for murder, the Louisiana Supreme Court decided.
It refused without comment Wednesday to hear Sean Vincent Gillis' appeal
of a ruling by state District Judge Bonnie Jackson. She scheduled jury
selection for Monday.
The judge on Thursday refused to delay the trial for a brain wave test
that she ordered at the request of Gillis' attorney. Jackson's law clerk
said that because jury selection will take several weeks, the court felt
that was enough time to secure the results before the trial begins.
Gillis has confessed to killing Donna Bennett Johnston, 43, and 7 other
women between 1994 and 2004. He is serving life in prison for 2nd-degree
murder in one of those cases and has been booked in all but one of the
rest. Investigation of the 7th continues.
Prosecutor Prem Burns called the high court's refusal "absolutely
delightful" news.
It left untouched Jackson's ruling that, if jurors find that Gillis
kidnapped Johnston before killing her in 2004, they may consider the death
penalty.
Louisiana defines 1st-degree murder as one committed as part of specific
other crimes, including kidnapping and armed robbery.
Prosecutors could argue that Gillis committed armed robbery when he took a
blanket, belt and earring backing that were hers. Gillis also took one of
her arms and a tattoo from one of her legs, but Jackson ruled that didn't
amount to robbery.
Defense attorney Kerry Cuccia contends that Johnston wasn't kidnapped but
got into Gillis' car voluntarily for prostitution. That's something for
jurors to decide, Jackson ruled in a decision also upheld by an appeals
court.
Johnson's body was found in February 2004 in a secluded area of Baton
Rouge. Gillis was arrested 2 months later at his home.
(source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news---USA, OHIO, MISS., PENN., LA.
Rick Halperin Fri, 6 Jun 2008 14:38:06 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
