Sept. 26
USA (PUERTO RICO)----possible federal death penalty
Puerto Rico jury deliberates death penalty case in highly anticipated verdict
A jury in Puerto Rico was deliberating Wednesday whether a convicted drug
dealer should be executed for killing a girlfriend who was an informant for the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
It could be a landmark case for the U.S. territory, where the death penalty is
constitutionally illegal and where the last execution occurred in 1927 by
hanging.
Although the local jury has the last word, the case against Edison Burgos
Montes is being tried in a federal court, which allows for the death penalty.
If the jury opts for capital punishment, Burgos would be executed on the U.S.
mainland in a state selected by the Bureau of Prisons, said Lymarie Llovet,
spokeswoman for Puerto Rico's U.S. Attorney's Office. If the jury rejects the
death penalty, Burgos would be sentenced to life imprisonment, she said.
Burgos was found guilty in late August of killing Madelyn Semidey Morales in
July 2005.
The jury began deliberating Tuesday morning and requested clarification
Wednesday on several aggravating factors presented by prosecutors. In addition,
an alternate juror replaced one juror who was dismissed for medical reasons.
As they deliberated, dozens of people held a vigil outside the federal
courthouse to protest the case. Among those are members of the United
Evangelical Church, which condemned the death penalty.
"Today we are allergic to forgiveness and to the respect for life," the church
said in a statement.
The case also has stirred anger among Puerto Ricans who resent U.S. involvement
in what they say are local affairs. Julio Muriente, co-president of a political
party that favors independence, accused U.S. authorities of ignoring Puerto
Rico's constitution.
"The U.S. government unilaterally imposes its will through the federal court,"
he said.
The victim's mother, Georgina Morales, told El Nuevo Dia newspaper when the
trial began in April that she does not believe in capital punishment.
"It's not sufficient punishment for me," said Morales. "I want the justice
system to impose the punishment, but I want it to be prison."
Morales and other relatives have since declined to speak to the media, though
the victim???s father, Carlos Semidey, gave news outlets a handwritten note
this week lamenting that his daughter's body had not been found. "If anyone
knows where we can find her remains, please contact the necessary agencies so
we can give her a Christian burial," it said.
Madelyn Semidey also left behind 3 young daughters.
Puerto Rico juries previously rejected death sentences for federal cases in
2005 and 2006.
The U.S. Attorney's Office expects that 2 other death penalty cases will go to
trial in January, Llovet said.
In an effort to fight crime, Puerto Rico's government has asked federal
authorities to assume prosecution of certain cases, including carjackings,
drive-by shootings and weapon possessions. The island of nearly 4 million
people reported a record 1,117 homicides last year.
Puerto Rico banned the death penalty in 1929, 2 years after farmworker Pascual
Ramos was hanged for beheading his boss with a machete. Prior to that, the U.S.
military government had executed 23 people, all black and most of them poor or
illiterate, after troops seized the island in 1898 during the Spanish-American
War.
When Puerto Rico approved its 1st constitution in 1952, it reiterated that
capital punishment was illegal and constituted a human rights violation.
But federal prosecutors have continued to seek the death penalty in certain
cases.
In 2000, Puerto Rican Judge Salvador Casellas ruled that applying the death
penalty would violate Puerto Rico???s constitution as well as the federal
statute concerning its status as a self-governing entity. His decision was
overturned in 2001 by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, which
ruled that Puerto Rico is subject to federal law. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld
that decision.
Puerto Rico joins 17 U.S. states that do not apply the death penalty.
(source: Associated Press)
OHIO:
Ohio woman pleads guilty in gruesome burning death
In a move that would allow her to escape the death penalty, an Ohio woman
pleaded guilty Wednesday in the gruesome killing of a woman found covered in
burns and wailing in agony on the side of a rural road.
As part of a deal with prosecutors, 20-year-old Katrina Marie Culberson pleaded
guilty to 1 count each of aggravated murder, kidnapping and aggravated arson.
Muskingum County Prosecutor Mike Haddox said that his office offered the
agreement to Culberson in exchange for her guilty plea and on the condition
that she testify against 2 others charged in the killing of 29-year-old Celeste
Fronsman, of Akron.
On Aug. 26, a driver found Fronsman on a road northeast of Zanesville in
eastern Ohio. She had been raped and burned and had a strap around her neck.
She died 2 days later at a Columbus hospital.
Culberson's Columbus attorney, Jerry McHenry, did not immediately return a call
seeking comment Wednesday. Culberson still faces life in prison when she is
sentenced, although a date for her sentencing has not been set.
"She understood all the terms and conditions," Haddox said. "She entered into
it knowingly and willingly."
Prosecutors can cancel the agreement if Culberson becomes uncooperative or
unwilling to testify against LaFonse Darney Dixon and Monica Jean Washington,
Haddox said.
Both Dixon and Washington have pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder,
kidnapping and aggravated arson. They face a potential death sentence if
convicted.
Haddox has repeatedly declined to discuss what authorities believe is the
motive in the killing and whether there was a ringleader, saying it would be
unethical for him to do so before trial and could compromise the prosecution.
Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz also has declined to discuss the motive. He
did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday.
In a jailhouse interview with the Times Recorder in Zanesville this month,
Culberson declined to discuss specifics but said she, Washington and Dixon "all
had a part" in the killing.
"I want to be a human being again, not some monster," she said. "I want to ask
God for forgiveness for everything I've ever done."
Dixon denied involvement in a separate interview with the newspaper.
Lutz has called Culberson's killing "one of the most gruesome things I've ever
seen in 23 1/2 years in law enforcement."
The man who found Fronsman, who didn't want to be named to avoid the media
spotlight, told the Times Recorder that Fronsman threw herself toward his
vehicle in a scene that looked like "something out of a horror show."
He said that Fronsman was pleading for help and comfort and was burned from
head to toe, with all her hair gone.
"I caught her and picked her up in my arms," he told the newspaper. "I told her
I was going to lay her in the grass and knew then that God had put me there for
her."
Court records show that Fronsman was involved in prostitution and was living a
dangerous life before she was killed.
She had been arrested more than 20 times since 2003, mostly for domestic
violence, cocaine possession and prostitution.
Fronsman's family has said the young woman was a good person with a good heart
who was devastated by the death of her 2-year-old daughter in 2005 and her
mother in 2009.
(source: Associated Press)
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