[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARIZ., CALIF., VA., USA, UTAH

[Rick Halperin]

July 23

ARIZONA:

Death penalty sought against Mesa man linked to 2 murders


Trent Benson The Maricopa County Attorney said Wednesday he intends to
seek the death penalty against an accused murder linked to 4 rapes, 2 of
them ending in murder.

In a news release, Andrew Thomas said, "We are pursuing the death penalty
to seek justice for the victims and punishment commensurate with the
defendant's alleged crimes."

Police have linked 36-year-old Trent Benson to the attacks that began in
August 2004 and ended in November 2007.

Benson is accused of raping 4 women; 2 of them were strangled to death.

3 of the attacks happened in Mesa. One occurred in Phoenix.

Benson was arrested in May by Mesa police.

A grand jury indicted Benson on charges including 1st degree murder,
sexual assault, and kidnapping.

Police believe Benson had help during at least one of the attacks, but so
far an accomplice has not been found.

(source: ABC News)

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

Death penalty sought against accused serial predator


Maricopa Country Attorney Andrew Thomas announced Wednesday he is seeking
the death penalty against accused serial strangler Trent Benson.

Thomas stated, "we are pursuing the death penalty to seek justice for the
victims and punishment commensurate with the defendant's alleged crimes."

Police said Benson, 36, is tied to several attacks that began in August
2004 and ended in November 2007. He is also accused of raping four women,
and strangling 2 of them to death.

3 attacks occurred in Mesa and 1 in Phoenix.

Benson was arrested in May by Mesa police.

(source: KTAR News)






CALIFORNIA:

Triple murder turns focus on S.F. sanctuary policy


The scene repeats itself every day on city streets: A driver gets stuck
bumper-to-bumper, blocking the intersection and another car's ability to
complete a left turn.

San Francisco authorities say that was enough to prompt Edwin Ramos to
unload an AK47 assault weapon on a man and his 2 sons, killing all 3.

The murders immediately sparked public outrage, which only intensified
when authorities revealed that Ramos, 21, is an illegal immigrant who had
managed to avoid deportation despite previous brushes with the law.

The case has put San Francisco's liberal politics to the test, igniting a
nationwide debate over its sanctuary law that shields undocumented
immigrants from deportation and putting pressure on the district attorney
to break her anti-death penalty pledge.

On Wednesday, Ramos pleaded not guilty to 3 counts of murder in the deaths
of Anthony Bologna, 49, and his sons, Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16.

Bologna, a supervisor at a San Mateo grocery store and a youth sports
coach, and his older son died in the intersection in the city's Excelsior
district on June 22. His younger son succumbed to his injuries a couple
days later.

Shortly after that, police arrested Ramos, an El Salvador native and a
reputed member of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang, known as MS-13.
Investigators believe he was the gunman, although 2 other men were seen in
the gray Chrysler 300M with him.

The heinousness of the crime has put considerable pressure on San
Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris to seek the death penalty
against Ramos. Harris, who campaigned on an anti-death penalty platform
and has never pursued capital punishment during her more than 4 years in
office, has declined to directly address how she intends to proceed.

"This case has been charged as a special circumstance case," making it
eligible for the death penalty, said Erica Derryck, a spokeswoman for
Harris. "No additional announcement has been made about this aspect of the
charging."

Outside court Wednesday, Ramos' attorney, Robert Amparan said his client
was not the shooter. "They have the wrong person," he said.

Amparan declined to discuss details of the case but also denied that his
client was involved in "gang activities" and said that Ramos "entered the
country legally," even though federal officials contend Ramos is
undocumented.

The victims' family learned that Ramos had been arrested at least 3 times
prior to the shooting and evaded deportation, largely as a result of San
Francisco's self-imposed sanctuary status.

The policy, adopted in 1989 by the city's elected Board of Supervisors,
barred local officials from cooperating with federal authorities in their
efforts to deport illegal immigrants.

Officials in the juvenile offenders agency interpreted the law to also
shield underaged felons from deportation by refusing to report their
undocumented status. Mayor Gavin Newsom said he rescinded the nearly
2-decade policy regarding juvenile offenders after learning about it in
May.

Bologna family members say Ramos apparently benefited from this policy for
juveniles when he reportedly was convicted twice of felonies in 2003 and
2004 but never was turned over for deportation.

"All San Francisco's sanctuary ordinance has done is bring violence and
death to this once-great city," said Bologna's brother-in-law Frank
Kennedy, who attended Ramos' court hearing Wednesday. "We want other
sanctuary cities in the country to observe this closely and end their
policies of non-cooperation."

Kennedy is married to Anthony Bologna's sister and it was his Fairfield
home where the 3 victims spent their last hours at a family barbecue
before embarking on the fatal road trip home. He called for an
investigation of the city's sanctuary policy and demanded "prosecutions
for violating the law."

Meanwhile, local authorities and federal officials were pointing fingers
of blame at each other over Ramos' most recent arrest prior to the
shooting.

Ramos was arrested in the city's Tenderloin neighborhood in late March
with another man after police discovered a gun used in a double homicide
in the car Ramos was driving.

The district attorney's office decided not to file charges against Ramos,
and he was released on April 2 even though he was in the process of being
deported after his application for legal residence was turned down,
according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as
ICE.

San Francisco Sheriff's Department spokesman Eileen Hirst said jail
officials had faxed ICE on March 30 asking if Ramos should remain jailed.
Ramos was freed after Hirst said immigration officials didn't respond.

ICE spokesman Timothy Counts said his agency did not receive word of Ramos
arrest in March. He contends that the only communication received about
Ramos was an "electronic message" from the sheriff's department 3 hours
after his release.

The case has since garnered national attention, prompting Republican Rep.
Tom Tancredo of Colorado and an anti-immigration group called Californians
for Population Stabilization to ask the U.S. Department of Justice to take
over because of San Francisco's alleged mishandling of the case.

"Because San Francisco's political leaders have already demonstrated their
willingness to act in flagrant violation of federal law, I do not believe
that local judicial institutions can be trusted to fairly try the case or
mete out an appropriate punishment," Trancredo said in a letter sent
Tuesday to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

Diana Hull, president of the anti-immigration group, also called on about
a dozen cities nationwide who have similar sanctuary policies to end those
programs.

"We need to remember always that a death-dealing policy like 'sanctuary'
hides behind the false mantle of compassion," Hull said.

Charles Miller, a Justice Department spokesman, said he was unaware of the
San Francisco case or the congressman's request. Miller said it's routine
for the attorney general to respond privately to requests such as
Tancredo's.

Nathan Ballard, a spokesman for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, said
city officials were wrong to shield undocumented, juvenile felons from
federal immigration authorities.

"The sanctuary program was never intended to shield felons," Ballard said.
"The policy was inappropriate."

However, Newsom "still supports the worthwhile aims of denying the federal
government" assistance in deporting otherwise law-abiding undocumented
residents, Ballard said.

(source: Associated Press)






VIRGINIA:

Death penalty to be sought in Navy man's killing


Federal prosecutors say they plan to seek the death penalty for a West
Virginia man if he's found guilty in a murder-for-hire plot against a Navy
officer.

David Runyon of Morgantown is charged with fatally shooting Ensign Cory
Voss outside an automated-teller machine in April 2007. Prosecutors
alleged he killed Voss at the request of the slain sailor's wife,
Catherina, for a $20,000 fee.

Catherina Voss pleaded guilty last week to five counts, including
conspiracy to commit murder for hire. Under a pending agreement with
prosecutors, she would be spared the death penalty and sent to prison for
life.

Voss is accused of conspiring with Michael Draven to have her husband
killed, partly to get a $400,000 life insurance policy he held through the
Navy. Trials for Draven and Runyon are scheduled for March in U.S.
District Court.

(source: Richmond Times-Dispatch)






USA:

Key evidence in Rosenberg trial to remain secret


Testimony that could help clear executed American communist Ethel
Rosenberg of charges she helped pass atomic secrets to the Soviet Union in
the 1950s will remain secret, a judge ruled on Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein rejected a petition from the
National Security Archive seeking the release of grand jury testimony by
Ethel's brother, David Greenglass. Greenglass was a key prosecution
witness in the famed 1951 spy trial that ended in the 1953 execution of
Ethel and her husband, Julius Rosenberg.

The case, which has been described by Rosenberg supporters as a frame-up
amid anti-communist McCarthyism hysteria and Cold War fear, hinged on
Greenglass and his wife, Ruth Greenglass, fellow communists who became
prosecution witnesses.

David Greenglass, 86, admitted in interviews for a book published in 2000
that he gave false testimony under pressure from prosecutors. But unlike
most of the other surviving witnesses who testified, he has asked that his
grand jury testimony not be made public.

Hellerstein said the public's right to know was outweighed by the
tradition of grand jury secrecy following arguments in a hearing held
Tuesday in Manhattan federal court.

"He may be a scoundrel, he may be a hypocrite, he may be a liar," said
Hellerstein. But he added, "It's no easy task to compare the value of
accountability with grand jury secrecy."

Hellerstein reserved a ruling on whether the transcript would be released
following Greenglass' death.

Greenglass' lawyer, Daniel Arshack, said in a letter to the court that
Greenglass' objection was based on an expectation of privacy.

As a rule, grand jury proceedings are secret. In June, the government
agreed to release transcripts in the Rosenberg case, so long as each of
the original 46 witnesses who testified was dead or had given consent.

Greenglass, who confessed to helping Julius and served 10 years in prison,
testified at the 1951 trial that Ethel, a secretary, had aided the
conspiracy by typing notes that included top secret information on the
U.S. Manhattan project to develop the atomic bomb.

In interviews, Greenglass has said that he had fabricated that detail in
order to protect his wife, Ruth Greenglass, who was also implicated in the
conspiracy, from being prosecuted, said David Vladeck, the attorney
representing the National Security Archive.

Ruth Greenglass died earlier this year at 83.

Other witnesses testified that Ethel Rosenberg had not been present when
national secrets were discussed, Vladeck said.

"He has, in our view, forfeited any reasonable right to privacy" by
speaking publicly about the case, Vladeck told the court, referring to
Greenglass.

It was not discussed in the proceedings whether Ethel Rosenberg would be
eligible for a posthumous pardon if evidence came to light clearing her.

(source: Reuters)






UTAH:

Prosecutors continue to weigh death penalty in Ragsdale case


Prosecutors will have another two months to decide if they'll seek the
death penalty for David Ragsdale in his capital murder case.

Ragsdale appeared before Judge Claudia Laycock in 4th District Court
Wednesday after the prosecution filed a stipulation Friday to extend the
time period in which it would give notice of intent to seek the death
penalty.

The stipulation was granted by Laycock and a date for a pretrial
conference was set for 1:30 p.m. Oct. . Both prosecution and defense also
agreed to strike a hearing set for Aug. 6.

Ragsdale was charged with aggravated murder after police said he fatally
shot his wife, Kristy Ragsdale, numerous times in the parking lot of a
Lehi LDS church on Jan. 6. On July 9, Ragsdale fired his defense attorney
in the case, Greg Skordas, and was given a court-appointed attorney.
Ragsdale's sister, Tamara Ragsdale, said her brother's actions on Jan. 6
were influenced by prescription drugs.

Police said Ragsdale pulled into the church parking lot in his car, on his
wife's 30th birthday, and shot her 12 times with a handgun. A number of
churchgoers either heard or saw the shooting, as well as some children
which led to two charges for domestic violence in the presence of
children.

After the shooting, witnesses said Ragsdale left the parking lot in his
car. He later turned himself into Lehi police through his brother.

(source: Deseret News)