Apr. 23 NEW HAMPSHIRE: Proposed death penalty study meets opposition Attorney General Kelly Ayotte squared off against a Roman Catholic bishop and retired judges Tuesday over whether a proposed commission studying the death penalty would prejudice two capital murder trials set to start this summer. Ayotte urged the state Senate to kill legislation creating the first comprehensive review of New Hampshire's death penalty since the Supreme Court allowed states to carry it out in 1973. In August, Jay Brooks will face a potential death penalty for the June 2005 kidnapping and murder of Jack Reid who was found in Saugus, Mass., beaten to death and left in the back of a truck. A month later, Michael Addison goes on trial for the Oct. 16, 2006, handgun slaying of Manchester patrolman Michael Briggs. "I am concerned the study commission itself, the way it is framed, will directly interfere with the Addison and Brooks cases,'' Ayotte said. Manchester Police Lt. Nick Willard has been the lead detective on the Addison case since Officer Briggs fell to his death. "We lost one of our best men that night and many of us have not recovered from it, including yours truly,'' Willard told the Senate Judiciary Committee about this House-approved bill. "My chief concern with this is why now? I question the whole motive of trying to engage in a study while we are considering 2 capital murder cases.'' Roman Catholic Bishop John McCormack quoted a Supreme Court justice's writing of a week ago in an Oklahoma test to buttress his argument that this is the time to begin the study. "I know the death penalty arouses strong convictions, as well as deep passions among people of goodwill. Not everyone in the church agrees with the church's moral teaching on this subject,'' McCormack said. "Whatever our thoughts about capital punishment, I think that the time has arrived for us to give fulsome study about the value of the death penalty.'' Retired Superior Court Chief Justice Walter Murphy was the trial judge in 1991 when the state Supreme Court declared a previous death penalty law unconstitutional because it called for electrocution. The Legislature scrambled and quickly amended the law to lethal injection. "I would suggest that nothing this commission does or any ensuing legislation will have any impact at all on the currently existing capital murder cases,'' Murphy said. "Absolutely no quarter should be given those defendants but we should make sure in the future that we do it right.'' (source: Nashua Telegraph) CALIFORNIA: Death penalty is now on table----2 CHARGES AMENDED IN L.G. MURDER CASE If he is convicted, a San Jose businessman accused of paying about $10,000 to have Mark Achilli killed in Los Gatos last month may face the death penalty. And so may the suspected hit man. But Santa Clara County prosecutors, who filed legal papers late Monday to give them the option of seeking capital punishment, have not yet decided to pull that legal trigger. The amendment adds special circumstances to the murder charges Esequiel "Paul" Garcia, 30, and Lucio Estrada, 24, of Burbank already face in the high-profile case that shook Los Gatos with its cold-blooded violence and scandal. If a jury eventually convicts the 2 men and finds them guilty of the "special circumstances," they can either be sentenced to death or life without parole. 3 other men face murder charges in connection with the case. None of the men has yet entered a plea to the charges. "I predicted what they are now doing," attorney Harry Robertson said Tuesday morning, on his way to jail to tell Garcia of what he now faced. "It doesn't surprise me - and it's unfortunate." Achilli, a popular 53-year-old businessman, was gunned down point-blank in broad daylight March 14 in the carport of his Overlook Road townhouse. 5 men have been arrested in the case, including Garcia and Estrada. Garcia, a mortgage broker and real estate agent with no previous criminal record, bought Mountain Charley's and the 180 Restaurant & Lounge in Los Gatos last year from Achilli. The 2 had also dated the same woman since the sale. Also arrested were Daniel Chaidez, 23, a San Jose bouncer at Mountain Charley's; 2 of Chaidez's cousins from Southern California, Miguel Chaidez, 22, and Estrada; and Robert Jacome, 27, also of Southern California. For Garcia, the amendment to his charge was added because he is accused of having "solicited" the homicide, according to a court document. This is the first time prosecutors have publicly hinted at Garcia's role in the sealed case. Sources last week told the Mercury News of Garcia's suspected role as the leader in the murder-for-hire and how much it may have cost him. Estrada, previously identified as the suspected shooter, is facing special circumstances that he laid in wait for Achilli and then used a gun to slay him. "The investigation has progressed to a point where we have evidence that supports these special circumstances," said prosecutor Jeff Rosen, without elaboration. (source: Mercury News) ALABAMA: Death row inmates deserve DNA testing----Putting science and conscience on the shelf, Alabama is getting back into the execution business with a vengeance. Vengeance can be the only explanation for the state's eagerness to resume executions as soon as possible after last week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that lethal injections do not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. We have had almost two centuries of legal executions in Alabama. In all of that time, no one has shown that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime. That leaves only retribution - an eye for an eye - as a reason for state-sanctioned execution. That, and the politicians' perception that most voters support capital punishment. Polls tend to bear out that perception. Yet many who support the death penalty in principle would have second thoughts about applying it to a person whose guilt has not been proven conclusively. That's the case with Tommy Arthur, now 65, who was convicted of the 1982 murder-for-hire killing of Troy Wyker Jr. of Muscle Shoals. Arthur was scheduled to die last September. Just hours before the execution, however, Gov. Bob Riley issued a stay so the state could add a step to its lethal injection procedure. In early December, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked Arthur's execution again, just a day before it was scheduled, to allow it to hear arguments in a Kentucky case challenging lethal injection. Arthur's attorneys also appealed to the high court, arguing that lethal injection is cruel and unusual. In the interim, Riley said he was considering whether to order DNA testing for Arthur. Arthur has consistently maintained that DNA tests would exonerate him. The technology was not available when he was convicted. But Alabama is 1 of only 8 states that do not have mandatory DNA testing in capital cases. The Innocence Project, which champions the use of DNA tests nationwide, said it has no position on Arthur's guilt or innocence but said the tests could at least shed light on a dodgy case. Witnesses, claiming they were bribed or pressured, have changed their stories about Arthur's involvement and direct evidence was scant. Riley, however, decided ultimately that he has no authority to order DNA testing. And when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Arthur's appeal on Monday, Attorney Gen. Troy King wasted little time in asking the state Supreme Court to set an execution date. All indications are that the state will go ahead and kill him. We had hoped, naively perhaps, that Alabama's leaders would use the national hiatus on the death penalty as a time to launch a re-examination of the state's flawed capital punishment procedure. That won't happen. For now, at least, vengeance and political expedience have trumped science and conscience. (source: Tuscaloosa News) ********************* Judge overrides jury and imposes death penalty In Birmingham, a Jefferson County judge has overridden a jury's decision and imposed the death penalty on Montez Spradley for stalking and killing a woman. A jury convicted Spradley in February and voted 10-2 to recommend life without parole. Jefferson County Circuit Judge Gloria Bahakel imposed the sentence of death by lethal injection on Monday after a brief hearing. Spradley is the fourth person in Jefferson County in the last three years to be sentenced to death after 10 jurors called for the lesser sentence. Seven votes are needed for a jury to recommend life without parole. Alabama allows judges to override a jury's sentencing verdict. The 25-year-old Spradley was convicted of capital murder in the January 9th, 2004, death of 58-year-old Marlene Jason after a struggle outside her home. Authorities say Spradley followed her home from a shopping trip to buy clothes for her grandchildren. One of Spradley's lawyers, Robert Sanford, said jurors think their decisions mean something "when in Alabama, it doesn't mean anything." Prosecutor Mike Anderton says Spradley shot Jason, beat her and broke her hand. Jason's 2 adult children favored life without parole for Spradley but said they would accept death. The woman's husband, Edward Jason, says death was the proper punishment. (source: Associated Press) KENTUCKY: Judge recommends overturning death sentence in 1981 murder In Lousiville, a federal magistrate recommended on Tuesday that a death sentence for Kentucky's 3rd-longest serving death row inmate be overturned even though the evidence of guilt is "quite clear." Prosecutors did not make the case that David Eugene Matthews was not suffering from extreme emotional distress when he killed his wife and mother in law, which should have prompted a judge to issue acquittals, U.S. Magistrate James D. Moyer of Louisville wrote in a 220-page decision. The judge failed to order the acquittals, so Matthews should get a new trial, Moyer said. "The evidence adduced by the Commonwealth at trial was substantial, and it is quite clear to this court that Matthews perpetrated the acts for which he stood trial," Moyer wrote. "It is equally clear, however, that two of Matthews' many challenges to the constitutionality of his convictions and sentence present problems of such a constitutional magnitude that this court must recommend issuing the requested writ of habaes corpus." Matthews, 59, was sentenced to death Nov. 11, 1982 in Louisville for the murders of his wife, Mary "Marlene" Matthews, and mother-in-law, Magdalene Cruse, on June 29, 1981. U.S. District Judge John Heyburn II must review the opinion and either order Matthews retried or overturn Moyer's ruling. Allison Martin, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Jack Conway, said prosecutors will petition Heyburn to set aside Moyer's recommendation and let the conviction stand. "We are disappointed with the magistrate's report," Martin said. Alan Freedman, an attorney with the Midwest Center for Justice in Evanston, Ill., who represents Matthews, did not immediately return a message asking for comment. Matthews raised multiple issues in a federal appeal. Moyer rejected nearly all the claims, but said the trial judge erred in handling Matthews' claim of suffering from "extreme emotional disturbance" at the time of the killings. "Matthews made a sufficient showing of EED at the trial," Moyer wrote. Moyer also found that Matthews' attorney failed to argue on appeal that jurors were not properly instructed about how to handle the extreme emotional distress defense. Kentucky's law at the time Matthews went to trial required prosecutors to prove a beyond a reasonable doubt that Matthews did not suffer from extreme emotional distress. Prosecutors failed to put on any expert witnesses to rebut Matthews' claim. Because of that failure, the trial judge should have ordered Matthews acquitted on the murder charges, and the jury should have been instructed about what prosecutors had to prove, Moyer wrote. Because the judge didn't do either, Matthews is entitled to a new trial, Moyer wrote. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.H., CALIF., ALA., KY.
Rick Halperin Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:22:18 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
