March 31 FLORIDA: Ray Facing Death Penalty Quinton Ray is facing the possibility of the death penalty for allegedly murdering his estranged wife, Sue Ann. The 2 were embroiled in a custody battle over their 6-year-old daughter. Ray's father is also charged with helping to bury Sue Anns body in a wooded area. Family members were there to support them as Danny Ray and his son Quinton appeared in court on Friday morning. Both face charges in connection with the murder of Quinton Ray's estranged wife Sue Ann, who disappeared last August. Her body was found in a shallow grave in northern Cherokee County in February. Sue Ann's father, Danny Jenkins, clutched her photo as district attorney Joe Hendricks announced he'd seek the death penalty. "It was hard seeing Quinton," said Jenkins. "He used to be like a son to me. I don't know why he had to kill her. Why anybody should kill anybody?" But Jenkins also said hed like to see Quinton Ray put to death. "Without a doubt, that should happen, because he brutally murdered her," said Jenkins. Quintons arraignment was postponed, but his father pleaded not guilty to concealing a death. Prosecutors say his son bury the body. Quinton Ray's next court appearance is set for April 12. He is expected to have a new attorney, appointed by the states Capitol Defender Program. Authorities have not yet released a cause of death for Sue Ann Ray. Her father says he expects there will be more arrests in the case. (source: First Coast News) CALIFORNIA: Condemned Killers Challenge to Californias Lethal Injection Method Continues Attorney's for condemned inmate Michael Morales still have doubts about Californias method of administering lethal injections, even after accompanying a federal judge on a tour of the execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison. The scheduled execution of Michael Morales on Feb. 21 was postponed when attorneys filed a suit challenging the constitutionality of Californias lethal injection procedure. Defense counsel John Grele argues that the three drugs administered cause the condemned person tremendous pain, and therefore are cruel and unusual punishment. Officials with the Dept. of Corrections say they have complied with a court order to minimize chances of an agonizing execution, by administering a continuous sedative drip that renders the inmate unconscious. Grele said the lawsuit would disappear if executions were carried out in what he calls a more humane way. "They didn't want to do it in a way that would ensure adequate sedation for Mr. Morales," Grele told KCBS reporter George Harris on Thursday, after a hearing inside the walls of the prison. "That's, I think, what we're going to end up really fighting about in this case." Morales was sentenced to death for the 1981 rape and murder of a 17 year old girl. During the hearing on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel inspected the execution chamber and the equipment, while a member of the prisons execution team answered questions about the protocols the team follows in carrying out sentences. Reporters for the Sacramento Bee and the San Jose Mercury News were present during the hearing, after Judge Fogel ruled against a motion by the Attorney Generals office that members of the news media be excluded from the hearing to protect the identity of the executioner. Fogel said the media had a compelling reason to observe the court proceedings, but compelled the reporters to sign a protective court order that they would not disclose the name of the execution team member. (source: KCBS News) VIRGINIA: 3rd Day Of Moussaoui Deliberations End With No Death Penalty Decision Day 3 ends with no decision in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui. According to AP reports, the federal jury in Alexandria is considering whether the al-Qaida conspirator is eligible for the death penalty. The judge told the jury on Thursday that a plane used as a missile can be considered a weapon of mass destruction, the distinction is important because it can justify the use of a death penalty sentence. Deliberations will resume on Monday. (source: All Headline News) WASHINGTON (state): After close ruling, is court edging away from death penalty? Death penalty critics sense a growing shift away from capital punishment in Washington state after nearly half of the state Supreme Court signed a blistering opinion that attacked the system's basic fairness. The case also brought renewed attention to a fundamental question about the system after Green River Killer Gary Ridgway's life sentence in a plea deal with King County: how can anyone be put to death if not the state's most prolific killer? "I think this is the court starting to take a look at this and saying it's crazy," said Tim Ford, an experienced capital defense attorney. "And I don't see the majority saying it's great - I think I see the majority saying, 'We can't stop it.'" Prosecutors, however, were heartened by the court's narrow defense of the state's death penalty laws and a system that relies on elected county prosecutors to make the initial decisions about seeking death. In a statement, King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng said, "the Court recognized that each aggravated murder case is unique and that the disposition in any other single case should not invalidate the entire death penalty statute." Washington state is one of 38 states with the death penalty, and has executed four people since the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for capital punishment in 1976. The state Supreme Court is required to review every death sentence handed out, and in its review it must consider "whether the sentence of death is excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases, considering both the crime and the defendant." Dayva Cross, 46, who stabbed to death his wife and 2 of her children in 1999, challenged the constitutionality of Washington's death penalty by arguing it was not proportionally applied. He pointed specifically to Ridgway's life sentence as proof. On Thursday, the court ruled 5-4 to uphold Cross' death sentence. Its majority opinion, written by Justice Tom Chambers, acknowledged the extraordinary circumstances of Ridgway's case. But the majority said Ridgway's plea deal - no matter how unfair it may seem - does not automatically invalidate the state's death penalty for everyone else. "We do not minimize the importance of this moral question. But it is a question best left to the people and to their elected representatives in the Legislature," Chambers wrote for the court. But the 4-person dissent, written by Justice Charles Johnson, was a withering legal attack on the fairness of the state's capital punishment system. The prison sentence granted to Ridgway and several other mass killers "reveals a staggering flaw in the system of administration of the death penalty in Washington," the dissenters said. "These cases exemplify the arbitrariness with which the penalty of death is exacted. ... The death penalty is like lightning, randomly striking some defendants and not others," the dissenters wrote. On Friday, current and former prosecutors who defended the majority ruling said perfectly proportional treatment can't be attained in every criminal case - much less every murder. "The statute is designed to make it extremely difficult in Washington to impose a death sentence. The flip side is, it means that some individuals who you may believe deserve the death penalty may not receive it," said Pam Loginsky, a staff lawyer with the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys. "It would be impossible to have sort of mathematical precision or guaranteed proportional treatment, because every case is different," said Jerry Costello, Pierce County's chief criminal deputy prosecutor and a death penalty supporter. Some death penalty critics, however, said the high court now appears strikingly close to overturning its current capital punishment statute. Mark Larranaga, the former director of the Death Penalty Assistance Center, was among the observers who said four of the high court's justices now seem fundamentally opposed to the state's present death penalty system. "That, I think, is an incredible change in the landscape of capital jurisprudence in Washington state," said Larranaga, who was a defense lawyer in Cross' original case. On the Net: Supreme Court: http://www.courts.wa.gov Death Penalty Assistance Center: http://www.wdpac.org Prosecutors' association: http://www.waprosecutors.org (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., CALIF., VA., WASH.
Rick Halperin Fri, 31 Mar 2006 23:40:13 -0600 (Central Standard Time)
