[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----OHIO, COLO.

[Rick Halperin]

July 19


OHIO:

Closing arguments expected Monday in Stark County death penalty case


CANTON's Zabe J. Jenkins guilty of the murder of Steven J. Hight Sr.

That's what a jury in Stark County Common Pleas Court may determine next
week.

Closing remarks in Jenkins' aggravated murder trial are expected Monday.

The 20-year-old is accused of killing 42-year-old Hight during a robbery
June 21, 2007.

5 witnesses  including, Michael V. Hall, who has already been sentenced in
the case  testified yesterday.

Hall put Jenkins at the scene of the robbery, but said he did not see him
shoot anyone. Hall only heard shots fired. Hall also said Jenkins carried
a .45 caliber gun, not a 9 mm pistol.

Hight died of multiple gunshot wounds  one to the head  from a 9 mm
handgun.

A day earlier, Hall refused to answer the prosecution's questions,
jeopardizing the plea bargain that allowed him to avoid his own aggravated
murder charges.

He is serving 15 years in prison for his role in the Hight's murder.

Judge John G. Haas gave the reluctant witness a night to think on it. Hall
returned yesterday and testified.

Hall said he didn't know his cousin, Raymond C. Byrd, 20, brought a
handgun to the robbery. He thought his cousin only had a shotgun.

Byrd, 20, also serving 15 years in prison for his role in the crime,
testified Thursday in court.

Byrd told jurors he had a 20-gauge shotgun and a .32-caliber pistol when
the group went to Hight's house.

Byrd said he, Hall and Jenkins barged into Hight's house in the 2300 block
of 20th Street NE. They held Hight at gunpoint while they looked for
marijuana and cash.

Hight's brother, Robert, told jurors that he and another man rushed to the
scene after he heard Steven Hight yell, "They're here. They're here," over
the telephone. They had been talking about fishing when the conversation
was interrupted.

Robert Hight said, when they arrived, he saw his brother struggle with a
man holding a shotgun. A shot was fired into the air.

He said the man with the shotgun then pulled a pistol in the driveway and
shot Steven Hight.

Robert Hight could not definitively describe the suspects involved in his
brother's murder, only that they were dark-skinned and had bandannas
covering their faces.

Hall said he didn't stick around to see who fired shots; he ran to the
getaway car.

Co-defendants, Elvis W. Wooten Jr. and Latoya S. Rutledge, were convicted
of planning the robbery and driving the getaway car, respectively.

Hall said the robbery was Wooten's plan.

(source: Canton Repository)

*************************

Life over death----Ohio prosecutors find the death penalty too
complicated, expensive to pursue.


On the surface, Laqwan Scandrick seemed a perfect candidate for a charge
carrying the possibility of a death sentence: He shot a man to death
during a robbery in Springfield in 2006.

Under Ohio law, committing a homicide during an aggravated robbery is one
of several elements allowing the state to seek capital punishment.

Clark County Prosecutor Stephen Schumaker, however, took advantage of a
new law that allows prosecutors to seek the second-toughest punishment
available for aggravated murders  life with no chance of parole  without
first seeking a death sentence. Previously, the sentence was an option
only for jurors weighing an alternative to a death sentence.

Prosecutors around Ohio, citing the ability to pursue harsh punishment
without going through the complication and expense of a death-penalty
case, are starting to take advantage of the 2005 law, according to a
review of state records by The Associated Press.

The number of death penalty indictments sought statewide dropped 32 % from
2004 to 2007, according to figures compiled by the Ohio Public Defenders
Office.

In contrast, the number of life without parole sentences rose by more than
2/3 in the 3 years since the law took effect compared with the three years
before, when 45 inmates entered prison with the permanent life sentence,
according to the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. 10 offenders
have received the sentence so far this year.

"Life without parole means it's over," said Don White, the Clermont County
prosecutor. "The only way they'll get out is in a pine box or if the
governor lets them out."

White used the new law last year in a plea deal that sent double-murderer
Brian Adams to prison for life without resorting to a death penalty
indictment first.

Judge Douglas Rastatter of Clark County Common Pleas Court gave Scandrick,
27, the life sentence without parole for killing Tim O'Connor.

"I have no reason to have any mercy on you whatsoever," Rastatter said at
sentencing. OConnor's father, Bill, said he is a death penalty supporter
but was satisfied that his son's killer got what he deserved.

"I call that appropriate justice," he said, "because of his age and the
fact that the guy's going to have to live with himself the rest of his
life."

North Carolina enacted a similar law in 2001. But Texas, which often
executes more offenders in a year than all other states combined, only
recently allowed life without parole as an alternate sentence in death
penalty cases. The state does not permit it in non-death penalty cases.

In Delaware County in north-central Ohio, prosecutor David Yost used the
new option when charging 2 men in April in the stabbing death of a
Delaware businessman in 2000. The move allows Yost to try William Allen
and James Brenson Jr. together to avoid holding 2 long and potentially
complex and costly trials back-to-back. Joint death penalty trials are
rare because of the cases complexity.

"We can assure the family that if a jury convicts, that sentencing option
is available to the judge," Yost said, referring to life without parole.

In Franklin County, where the number of death penalty cases has plunged,
the law is one of several factors that prosecutor Ron OBrien considers in
a new approach to capital punishment.

>From 2 dozen or more indictments a year for the past decade  including 34
in 2004, highest in the state that year  the number of death penalty cases
in the county dropped to 5 in 2005 and 3 last year.

"We want to try to focus on those cases that are the worst of the worst
homicide defendants that are death penalty eligible, and cases where we
believe a jury will return a death verdict," O'Brien said.

The new law is attractive to prosecutors because of the cost of capital
punishment trials and because juries increasingly prefer life without
parole as a death penalty option, said State Public Defender Tim Young.

A death penalty trial can easily top $100,000 for a county as extra staff,
investigators and psychological experts are hired by the defense and
prosecutors. Its not inexpensive for a large county but can drain the
annual budgets of smaller counties without help from the state.

"If you can come to a life without parole option without having to go
through that cost, and it satisfies the public's need for safety and
punishment, then that makes a real reasonable outcome for everyone
involved," Young said.

Schumaker said the Scandrick case fit the requirements for bringing a
death-penalty case but problems existed that would have made it difficult
for a jury to choose a death sentence. He wouldn't elaborate.

Not all prosecutors are changing their strategy. Hamilton County, which
accounts for one in every five of the state's approximately 180 death row
inmates, hasn't altered its approach. Nor has Cuyahoga County, which
indicted 31 capital cases last year, tied for the countys highest total in
the past eight years.

"If a defendant is eligible for the death penalty, the defendant is
charged with the death penalty," said Ryan Miday, a spokesman for Cuyahoga
County Prosecutor Bill Mason.

The North Carolina law gives prosecutors the option of seeking life
without parole in 1st-degree murder cases. Previously, all 1st-degree
murder charges automatically carried the possibility of a death sentence.

The state can't say yet what the law's effect is on death penalty cases.
But the number of death sentences there has dropped from 14 in 2001 to 3
in 2007.

Colon Willoughby, prosecutor in Wake County, which includes Raleigh, said
the new option allows for speedier justice that saves money and protects
citizens.

"Under the old law, I think prosecutors were sometimes forced to try cases
capitally in order to be able to get a life sentence, knowing that there
was very little chance a jury would render a sentence of death," said
Willoughby, a prosecutor for more than 2 decades.

No national data exists for the number of death penalty cases brought each
year. Last year, the number of inmates sentenced to death across the
country hit its lowest mark  about 110  since the U.S. Supreme Court
reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

Sentences have been falling steadily as more states adopt life without
parole as an option and as concerns continue about mistaken convictions
and whether lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

Ohio had five death sentences in 2005, two in 2006 and 4 last year.

The change in Ohio law was inspired by the 2000 killing of a 15-year-old
boy whose killer pleaded guilty to avoid a death sentence and is now
serving 50 years to life with a chance of parole. The boy's mother pushed
for the change to allow the stiffer non-death sentence.

"It gives you more discretion in your charging decisions," Schumaker said.
"If the death penalty is not appropriate in a case, it's a way to deal
with it and not have it on the table early on."

(source: Associated Press)






COLORADO:

Douglas DA to push for death in dragging fatality


Douglas County prosecutors are proceeding with seeking the death penalty
in the case of a man accused of dragging his girlfriend to death behind
his car.

Judge Paul King had been considering evidence and testimony concerning the
mental competency of Jose Luis Rubi-Nava. The defense argued that
Rubi-Nava was mentally retarded and therefore could not face the death
penalty if convicted of murder and kidnapping.

King's exact decision was unavailable tonight, but district attorney
spokeswoman Kathleen Walsh said the case could now proceed and the death
penalty would be sought.

The mangled body of Rubi-Nava's 49-year-old girlfriend, Luz Maria Franco
Fierros, was found September 2006 near Castle Rock. She had a nylon strap
around her neck, and her body lay at the end of a 1 mile trail of blood.

(source: Denver Post)