Feb. 19
PENNSYLVANIA:
Hugo Selenski avoids death penalty, sentenced to life in prison
A jury on Wednesday spared the life of the man convicted of strangling a
pharmacist and his girlfriend in 2002 and burying their bodies in his yard,
granting a defense request to show mercy despite the brutal nature of the
crimes.
Hugo Selenski, 41, was convicted last week on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in
the killings of Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett during a robbery at the
pharmacist's home. He showed no reaction to the jury's decision, which means he
will serve life without parole.
Prosecutors had asked for a death sentence, saying Selenski and a
co-conspirator brutally beat Kerkowski to compel him to reveal the location of
tens of thousands of dollars he kept in his house and then plastic used flex
ties to strangle him and Fassett.
The pharmacist had pleaded guilty to running an illegal prescription drug ring
and was about to be sentenced when he and Fassett were reported missing in
2002. Authorities found their decomposing bodies about a year later, along with
at least 3 other sets of human remains on Selenski's property near
Wilkes-Barre.
Prosecutors argued Kerkowski was tortured, one of the aggravating circumstances
they urged jurors to consider in deciding Selenski's fate.
"The defendant has repeatedly used fear and lies and pain and death in order to
obtain frivolous, material things," Sam Sanguedolce, Luzerne County first
assistant district attorney, told jurors in his closing argument Wednesday.
"The defendant has earned his sentence."
Selenski's attorney, Edward "E.J." Rymsza, begged the jury to spare his
client's life, asking them to ignore "voices of vengeance and retribution."
The defense tried to cast Selenski as a good father, brother and uncle even
behind bars, with family members testifying earlier Wednesday that he wrote
frequently and gave life advice.
2 of Selenski's daughters and 4 of his sisters spoke of their love for him,
calling him an intelligent and caring man who's protective of his family - a
portrait starkly at odds with the greedy, manipulative killer described in
earlier trial testimony.
The 2 youngest sisters, both nursing students in their 20s, said he served as a
father figure while briefly taking care of them more than a dozen years ago
while their dad, now deceased, was ill.
"I wouldn't be who I am today without him," said Katlyn Selenski, 22.
Selenski has spent most of the last 20 years in prison, with convictions for a
1994 bank robbery, a 2003 home invasion and robbery, and now murder.
In 2006, he beat 2 other homicide charges in the deaths of 2 suspected drug
dealers whose charred remains were also found in his yard north of
Wilkes-Barre.
The 5th body found on the property was never publicly identified.
Selenski, who escaped from the county lockup in 2003 using a rope fashioned
from bed sheets, will now spend the rest of his days in a maximum security
state prison.
Even if the jury had sentenced him to die, Selenski would likely have spent
decades on death row - and might never have received a lethal injection.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf recently declared a moratorium on the death penalty,
called the current system of capital punishment "error prone, expensive and
anything but infallible." Philadelphia's district attorney has filed a legal
challenge to the moratorium.
Pennsylvania has executed only 3 inmates since the U.S. Supreme Court restored
the death penalty in 1976, the last one in 1999. All 3 had voluntarily given up
their appeals.
(source: Morning Call)
***************
DA Seth Williams challenges Gov. Wolf over death penalty
Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams filed a legal challenge Wednesday
to Gov. Tom Wolf's death penalty moratorium, telling the state's highest court
that the action was illegal and unconstitutional.
The challenge by Williams came 5 days after Wolf said he would issue reprieves
at least until he receives a report from a legislative commission that has been
studying the issue since 2011.
The case raised in Williams' filing involves Terrance Williams, who was
convicted of the 1984 robbing and fatal tire-iron beating of another man in
Philadelphia. His death sentence has been fought in state and federal courts.
"The governor's supposed reprieve is flagrantly unconstitutional, and should be
declared by this court to be null, void, and absolutely without legal effect,"
the district attorney's legal challenge said.
Williams' execution had been scheduled for March 4. But Pennsylvania inmates
facing execution have routinely been able to win delays, with the state's last
execution carried out in 1999.
Wolf, a Democrat, took office Jan. 20 after pledging on the campaign trail not
to sign death warrants until certain concerns raised about the death penalty
had been addressed.
Pennsylvania has executed only 3 people since the U.S. Supreme Court restored
the death penalty in 1976. All had voluntarily given up their appeals.
Wolf's office stands by the constitutionality of reprieves - Pennsylvania law
does not appear to place time limits on the length of a reprieve, legislative
lawyers say - and a spokesman said Pennsylvania's system of capital punishment
is "ineffective, expensive and many times unjust."
Williams has exhausted all of his appeals in state and federal courts,
according to prosecutors. His lawyer in his most recent case in front of the
state Supreme Court did not immediately return a telephone message Wednesday
seeking comment.
Williams, who was 18 at the time of the murder, testified at trial that he did
not know the victim and did not kill him. Prosecutors say he had had a history
of violent felony convictions, including another murder. In his later appeals,
Williams said both victims had sexually abused him for years, thus motivating
him to kill.
The reasons for the state's lack of executions are the subject of debate, with
some attributing it to death penalty opposition among judges on the 3rd U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals or to aggressive tactics by lawyers who defend people
facing execution. Others point to the number of stayed or overturned death
sentences as evidence of flaws in how those cases are handled, particularly
when it comes to providing adequate representation at trial.
(source: ABC news)
*****************
Wolf oversteps authority by suspending death penalty in Pa.
Gov. Tom Wolf's moratorium on the death penalty in Pennsylvania, imposed last
week, is the easy way out, politically speaking.
Wolf has circumvented a standing law of Pennsylvania, stretching the executive
power of his office beyond that of both existing legislation and judicial
decisions made over which he should have no say.
There may be arguments against the death penalty, both its continued use and
the means by which such sentences are carried out. And Pennsylvania has had an
essential moratorium against the death penalty for decades.
Just 3 state inmates have been put to death since 1976, and in all 3 cases the
convicted men decided to forgo additional appeals that, quite likely, would
have had them still drawing breath today absent the intervention of nature.
Criminal convictions are to be rendered beyond a reasonable doubt. That is not
entirely a comfortable level of certainty when it involves taking the life of
an individual, regardless of his crime. As has been shown in the last few
years, there have been inmates awaiting execution who did not deserve to be on
death row - or even in prison.
Science and technology, including DNA evidence, have become powerful tools of
justice often used by those fighting the death penalty.
But science is neutral. And while eyewitnesses can have questionable
recollections, prosecutors can be blinded by high-profile cases into
miscarriages of their offices, and juries can be too bloodthirsty, science
remains, implacably, science.
DNA evidence can, today, greatly increase the certainty of an individual's
guilt in a death penalty case. The presence of incontrovertible scientific
evidence, combined with eyewitnesses and strong police and prosecutorial work
can allow for verdicts far beyond those of reasonable doubt.
Had we done away with the death penalty decades ago due to its lack of
certainty, it would have been difficult to argue. But as technology advances,
so does the ability to have greater confidence in the development of
capital-punishment cases. And with greater confidence should come less patience
in the eternal appeals process now allowed in these cases.
Eliminating the death penalty now will be an argument not about the certainty
of guilt but the underlying morality of the sentence.
And we say without apology that there are some crimes so awful that no other
punishment will answer to the victims of them. We support the death penalty in
those cases.
We think of the families and survivors of the victims of these crimes. Is it
justice, especially now, if they have already been told that the perpetrator of
the crimes against their loved ones is going to be executed, to instead see
that sentence reduced to a life term? Yes, a life in confinement, but
nevertheless, a life.
Wolf's action has drawn sharp criticism from law enforcement, including the
Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association, which represents the state's top
county prosecutors, and the Pennsylvania State Trooper's Association, which
called the moratorium a "travesty" and "a sad day for Pennsylvania."
State Sen. John Rafferty Jr. blasted Wolf for pandering to his liberal
political base. "Gov. Wolf made a political decision to protect the worst of
the worst in our society and did so at the expense of the families of the
victims of these heinous crimes. This was the result of a single stroke of the
pen as opposed to the accepted principles of democracy, the voice of the people
expressed through our jury system."
If Gov. Wolf has the courage of his convictions, let him fight an open battle
on the death penalty. Don't ignore the law. It's a terrible precedent. Perhaps
he learned it from watching Washington, D.C., lately, where President Obama
routinely ignores Congress and imposes his will by executive fiat.
(source: Editorial, Potts Mercury)
**************************
Death penalty in Pa. deserves a hard look
Many of the men sitting on death row for murders probably deserve to die for
their crimes.
York County capital cases include the likes of Mark Spotz, who killed an
innocent local woman while in the midst of a murderous cross-state rampage,
Harve Johnson, who beat 2-year-old Darisabel Baez to death with a video game
controller, and Kevin Brian Dowling, who concocted a whodunnit-style alibi to
cover up the cold-blooded robbery and killing of an innocent frame shop owner.
There's little doubt that those men are guilty of the crimes that landed them
on death row.
But those 2 words - little doubt - nag at the conscience.
What if some of those men are not guilty?
Unlikely, you say? Perhaps. But here are 2 more words that should trouble the
conscience: Ray Krone.
This man was convicted - twice - of killing a young woman in Arizona. He spent
nearly a decade in prison, part of it on death row, before he was proved
innocent of the crime.
His case was hardly an anomaly. In fact, he was the "100th former death row
inmate freed because of innocence since the reinstatement of capital punishment
in the United States in 1976," according to The Innocence Project, a legal
group that has exposed widespread problems with capital punishment in the
United States.
If that many innocent people can be convicted of murder "beyond a reasonable
doubt," there's something wrong with the system.
And any system that risks the irreversible execution of an innocent person is
not worthy of a nation that espouses and aspires to the highest moral and
ethical standards.
That's why Gov. Tom Wolf was right last week to impose a moratorium on
executions in the state, calling for a thorough study of the process.
Granted, Pennsylvania has long had what essentially amounts to a moratorium on
executions. Just 3 have been carried out since 1976 - and those only because
the suspects suspended their appeals.
Many people chafe at the extensive appeals process in death penalty cases,
saying the families and friends of victims wanting "closure" are tortured by
the long process. Some have called for a streamlining of the appeals process
and a hastening of executions, Texas style.
The pain and loss experienced by those loved ones is terrible, but how could we
in good conscience short-circuit an appeals process that has uncovered so many
wrongful death penalty convictions?
Some have argued Pennsylvania is not plagued with the injustice we've seen in
other states, but The Innocence Project lists 10 wrongful Pennsylvania murder
convictions on its website. 3 were homicide convictions, 1 of which resulted in
a death sentenced. One of those 3 wrongful homicide convictions was Barry
Laughman, a mentally disabled Adams County man who was exonerated by DNA
evidence testing.
Let's take a good, hard look at the process.
Let's debate whether the death penalty is a moral or effective punishment.
Let's consider whether it is cost-effective - and whether capital punishment is
a deterrent to murder, as many contend.
These cases drag on for decades, and the litigation is expensive.
Might it not be more effective to put killers behind bars for life -
essentially in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day?
That way, if there's a wrongful conviction, we can partially rectify it, and
citizens don't have the blood of an innocent victim on their hands.
Let's study this issue and decide logically, unemotionally, unencumbered by the
hatred many understandably feel: Does a demonstrably flawed death penalty make
sense in Pennsylvania?
Can we live with the possible execution of an innocent person on our collective
conscience?
Obviously, Gov. Wolf can't.
(source: Editorial, Daily Local)
GEORGIA----impending female execution
Only woman on Georgia death row set to be executed
Georgia is set to execute its only woman on death row next week.
Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter told Channel 2's Tony Thomas
that the crime committed by Kelly Gissendaner has stuck in his mind since it
happened in 1997.
Gissendaner is accused of plotting to kill her husband.
Porter said the 1 thing that strikes him about her case is that there was such
an easy alternative to this murder: a simple divorce.
Years later, almost all the appeals are over and the same district attorney who
called for the death penalty then will now be a witness to the planned
execution.
"I think I'm obligated to be down there," Porter said.
Boxes of evidence from the trial sit outside Porter's office. He says he
remembers most details of the 1997 case.
"Kelly was pretty much at the controls," Porter said.
In 1997, Gissendaner's husband, Doug, disappeared. Kelly Gissendaner played the
loving and concerned wife, holding press conferences in her living room
pleading for help.
"If he's somewhere where he can get to a phone, just for him to please call
home and let someone know he's all right. That's all I want. I want him home,"
Kelly Gissendaner said back in 1997.
Days later, the man Kelly Gissendaner was having an affair with, Greg Owen,
confessed to Doug Gissendaner's murder, and said Kelly Gissendaner planned it
and even helped him burn the car after the fact.
"It's almost like she had to go back and take a trophy or something," Porter
said.
Kelly Gissendaner would plead for mercy at trial, but was sentenced to death.
She has been the only woman on Georgia's death row for 17 years, and is
scheduled to die by lethal injection next Wednesday night.
"I think I have a moral obligation to see the sentence carried out. Otherwise,
I think you are just playing politics," Porter said.
Thomas has been selected as a media representative to witness the execution.
One day before, on Tuesday, Kelly Gissendaner will have 1 last shot to ask for
clemency from state leaders.
(source: WSB TV news)
FLORIDA:
Avalos triple murder case----State seeking the death penalty for accused
Bradenton triple murderer Andy Avalos
The state attorney's office announced Wednesday that it is seeking the death
penalty for accused Bradenton triple murderer Andres "Andy" Avalos.
Assistant State Attorney Art Brown said he sent the death penalty notice to
Avalos' attorney, Franklin Roberts, Wednesday afternoon. Roberts declined
comment on the case.
Avalos, 33, is charged with 1st-degree murder in the deaths of his wife, Amber
Avalos, neighbor Denise Potter and pastor James "Tripp" Battle.
Investigators say on Dec. 4 Avalos hanged his 33-year-old wife from a cord in
the laundry room of their northwest Bradenton home, then beat and shot her. He
then shot Potter, 46, who was visiting their home, before going to Bayshore
Baptist Church and shooting Battle in front of his wife, Joy Battle.
"When we consider the death penalty for any case, we look at the aggravating
factors," Brown said. "In this case, we decided the death penalty was
appropriate."
Aggravating factors can include details such as the age and number of victims;
whether the suspect was convicted of previous felonies' if the suspect was a
criminal gang member; if the act was "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel;"
or if the act was committed, "in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner
without any pretense of moral or legal justification."
If convicted of 1st-degree murder, Avalos will be sentenced to either death or
life in prison without parole.
Brown said Avalos gave a full confession to the killings in early interviews
with Manatee County detectives, but Avalos pleaded not guilty to original
charges of 2nd-degree murder, according to court records.
Criminal defense attorney Adam Tebrugge in 2005 represented Joseph Smith, who
was convicted and sentenced to die for the rape and murder of Carlie Bruscia in
Sarasota. Tebrugge, who has an office in Bradenton, said he doesn't think the
death penalty would be appropriate for Avalos.
While the state tries to prove the aggravating factors beyond a reasonable
doubt, the defense will be looking into the suspect's life mitigating factors,
such as signs of mental illness or past good character, Tebrugge said.
"I understand that the crime in this case is outrageous and unsettling, but the
state seeks the death penalty far too often. It doesn't feel necessary here,"
Tebrugge said. "The family context gives a lot of opportunity for mitigating
circumstances."
Tebrugge added that seeking the death penalty means rather than a timeline of 6
months, the case could take 2 or 3 years to get to trial.
Tebrugge said he knows felons on death row now that have been there for more
than 30 years after being sentenced.
The family of Amber Avalos has hinted that Andy Avalos had problems with drug
abuse and drinking, and that his wife had tried to make him seek help. The
couple had 6 children together. Potter had 3 children and Battle had 2.
After the crimes, deputies searched for Avalos for 51 hours before he was
arrested near Bayshore Baptist Church.
Avalos's next scheudled appearance in court is April 9.
(source: Bradenton Herald)
ALABAMA:
Court document may reveal Alabama's death penalty drug manufacturer
Lawyers for an inmate on Alabama's death row say the state has kept them in the
dark about most of the details of its new protocol for execution by lethal
injection.
In a bid to get approval for Alabama's 1st execution since 2013, state
officials may have tipped their hand on something they tried for months to keep
secret: the identity of a supplier of drugs used in lethal injection.
Court documents filed this week suggest that Akorn Pharmaceuticals, an
Illinois-based drug manufacturer, made the anesthetic Alabama plans to use as
the 1st drug in its 3-drug death penalty protocol. That drug, midazolam, was
used in botched executions last year in Oklahoma, Arizona and Ohio.
It's unclear who made the midazolam used in those executions, largely because
states have become increasingly secretive about their use of death penalty
drugs.
"A number of states are protecting their sources," said Richard Dieter,
director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. "This information
is going to become harder and harder to find out."
1 year ago this week, Rep. Lynn Greer, R-Rogersville, presented an Alabama
House committee with a bill that would make the identity of death penalty drug
suppliers secret. Greer said he wanted to protect drugmakers from "blowback"
from death penalty opponents. Greer, who said he proposed the bill at the
request of corrections officials, acknowledged that the identity of drug
manufacturers isn't currently protected by law. Still, prison officials at the
time rejected requests by The Anniston Star and other newspapers for
information on the state???s death penalty protocol, saying it was not released
as a matter of department policy.
Greer's bill didn't get past the Senate, but prison officials still won't say
who makes their death penalty drugs.
Shortage
The blowback that worried Greer was real. Boycotts from Europe, where a number
of critical drugs are made, have had death-penalty states scrambling in recent
years to obtain enough drugs to kill inmates. In March of last year, Alabama
officials acknowledged that the state couldn't conduct executions because it
didn't have enough drugs on hand.
That changed in September, when the attorney general's office asked the Alabama
Supreme Court to set execution dates for nine of the 194 people now on death
row. State officials said they had a new lethal injection drug combination:
midazolam hydrochloride as an anesthetic, rocuronium bromide to relax the
muscles and potassium chloride to stop the heart. They also said they had
enough of the drugs on hand to execute all 9 men.
Thomas Arthur, imprisoned since the 1980s for the murder-for hire of a Muscle
Shoals man, was to be the 1st person executed under the new formula. The court
initially set Feb. 19 - this Thursday - as his execution date.
Arthur and 7 other inmates have challenged the new drug formula in court, on
the grounds that it will lead to a painful death - a violation of the Eighth
Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Midazolam is a key element of
their complaint. The drug was used last year in an Oklahoma execution that took
43 minutes, an Ohio execution that lasted more than 20 minutes and an Arizona
execution that lasted nearly 2 hours.
Arthur doesn't appear to be on the way to execution this week. A federal court
granted him a stay of execution until after a hearing in May. But in an appeal
to that decision filed earlier this week, lawyers for the attorney general's
office argued that Arthur's claims about midazolam were "inconsistent with the
manufacturer's package insert for midazolam." Attached to the court document is
a copy of the manufacturer's instructions for the drug - branded with Akorn's
logo.
No disclosure
The state's motion refers to Akorn's drug manual twice as "the manufacturer's
package insert." There's a 3rd reference to "the manufacturer's Material Safety
Data Sheet," with a link to a drug safety document put out in 2007 by
Ohio-based Ben Venue Laboratories.
Ben Venue would seem to be an unlikely source of Alabama's midazolam, however.
Accounts in Ohio newspapers and the magazine Crain's Cleveland Business
indicate that almost all manufacturing at the company halted in December 2013.
A new owner, London-based Hikma, bought Ben Venue in July, press accounts
indicate, but had not resumed production by the end of September - after
Alabama had acquired its new execution drugs.
State officials wouldn't comment on whether Akorn, the Illinois company, is
indeed the maker of Alabama's midazolam.
"Because of the ongoing litigation, we're not releasing any information about
the protocol," said Bob Horton, spokesman for the Alabama Department of
Corrections.
Alabama attorney general spokesman Mike Lewis said the office had no comment.
Arthur's lawyers, through their spokesman Paul Holmes, also said they had no
comment.
Multiple attempts to reach Akorn for comment Wednesday were unsuccessful.
State records show no purchases of Akorn products by the state in the past
year, though the state has done business with 2 medical suppliers, McKesson and
AmerisourceBergen, that are listed by Akorn as distributors of midazolam.
British activists called on Akorn last year to put controls in place to prevent
its midazolam from being used in executions. That call led to speculation in
the media that the company was a supplier of drugs for one of last year's
botched executions.
But lawyer Dale Baich, who represented Arizona inmate Joseph Rudolph Wood
before he was executed last year, said no one but the state knows who made
Arizona's midazolam.
"We asked for the information and the state would not disclose it," he said.
"We went to court in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. We have never been
provided with the information."
Baich was a witness to Wood's execution in July. At first, the drugs appeared
to be working.
"His breathing appeared to stop," Baich said. "About 10 or 12 minutes in, his
mouth opened and he gasped. The breathing went on for about an hour and 40
minutes" before Wood died, Baich said.
If defense lawyers had known the manufacturer of the drug, Baich said, they
would have been able to get more information about the quality of the drug and
its expiration date.
Dieter, of the Death Penalty Information Center, said there are several
companies that could be providing the drugs to various states. Earlier
mainstays of lethal injection, such as thiopental and pentobarbital, had few
suppliers and could more easily be shut off.
"That's the appeal of this drug," he said. "There's enough in the stream of
commerce that it can't be pinned on 1 company."
Greer, the lawmaker who first proposed the death penalty secrecy bill, said he
wasn't familiar with Akorn. He said corrections officials never told him who is
supplying the drugs for executions.
"We've never known where it came from," he said. "I don't think that's
something the Legislature would know."
(source: The Anniston Star)
OHIO:
Lawsuit over death penalty secrecy law dismissed
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by 4 death row inmates that
sought to overturn a law shrouding Ohio's execution process in secrecy.
U.S. District Court Judge Gregory L. Frost threw out the lawsuit at the request
of Gov. John Kasich and Attorney General Mike DeWine, rejecting the contentions
of the condemned men that the new law muzzled free-speech rights.
The inmates claimed that House Bill 663 unconstitutionally violated First
Amendment rights by depriving the public of access to government information
and proceedings surrounding the death penalty.
The law forbids the release of the identities of compounding pharmacies that
prepare lethal-injection drugs for at least 20 years and forever keeps
confidential the names of execution-team members and physicians.
"Rather, the statutory scheme simply cuts off Ohio and its employees as a
source of specific information for both proponents and opponents of the death
penalty."
Frost also found that the inmates lacked the standing needed to continue to
pursue their lawsuit, saying they could not demonstrate "actual or imminent
injuries" to their First Amendment rights.
Cleveland lawyer Tim Sweeney, who represents death row inmate Ronald Phillips,
said he would appeal Frost's ruling to the Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit U.S.
Court of Appeals.
"Ohio's secrecy law overreaches the Constitution by creating an entirely new
category of speech which can be legally suppressed. This extreme law needs to
be fully evaluated by the courts prior to its implementation. No one benefits
from shutting down debate about the death penalty and Ohio's lethal injection
process; in fact, the public is harmed by this suppression of free speech about
public policy, which is the cornerstone of democracy," Sweeney said.
Prison officials insist executions in Ohio cannot proceed unless the state
promises secrecy to compounding pharmacies that could face possible protests
and retaliation for providing the lethal drugs. No executions will occur before
2016 as the state seeks to secure the needed drug combinations.
The law permits the public and the condemned to learn what lethal-injection
drugs will be used and their quantity, but withholds the identities of the
pharmacies preparing the deadly drug cocktails.
The public and those scheduled to die need to know the identities of pharmacies
to check on their backgrounds and ensure the state is conducting executions in
a safe and humane manner, the lawsuit stated. The law violates free-speech
rights by forbidding communication with pharmacy owners, it claimed.
Frost wrote that part of the law appears to "defy common sense."
"in order to challenge the use of a drug that will be used to execute them,
inmates must explain why use of that drug presents a risk of substantial harm.
But the inmates are not allowed to know from where the drug came, how
specifically it was manufactured, or who was involved in the creation of the
drug."
Frost said the law does not grant death row inmates, and by extension the
courts, the ability to evaluate the reliability of the lethal
drug-manufacturing process.
"A proponent of Kafkaesque absurdity might be proud of such a byzantine method
for pursuing the protection of a constitutional right, even if the drafters of
the United States Constitution might not," Frost wrote.
Frost also is presiding over a lawsuit challenging the manner in which Ohio
administers lethal injections. He must approve the state's new drug combination
and procedures.
The challenge came after killer Dennis McGuire gasped and choked for about 10
minutes on Jan. 16, 2014 as he was killed with a never-before-used combination
of drugs. McGuire was pronounced dead after 26 minutes.
(source: Columbus Dispatch)
**********************************
Hager Church deemed borderline psychopath
As death penalty trials go, the penalty phase of the Hager Church murder trial
was off to a rather mundane start Wednesday until just after lunch.
After finishing with a forensic psychologist who testified about Church's
troubled childhood, that included the status as borderline psychopath, Church
made statements that he wanted the death penalty without the jury in the Allen
County Common Pleas courtroom.
"Please give me death row. I don't want to spend the rest of my life in prison.
Kill me today," he said looking at the media in the courtroom.
Church's attorneys attempted to calm him but his emotions remained elevated.
Deputies escorted Church out of the courtroom. The jury was out of the
courtroom at the time as attorneys set up for a presentation.
About a half-hour later, Church was brought back in and Judge Jeffrey Reed
announced the trial would be placed on hold until Monday after the sudden death
of a family member to one of the attorneys in the case. Reed did not say which
attorney.
The judge said it was only appropriate to give the attorney a chance to be with
his family and the judge offered condolences without naming the attorney.
Church, who had calmed down, remained calm.
The jury convicted the 30-year-old Church of 2 counts of aggravated murder and
1 count of aggravated arson the day before. The trial is now in the penalty
phase where the jury has to decide whether he should receive the death penalty
or life in prison.
Church already is serving a life sentence with no chance for parole for the
2010 killing of Deb Henderson at her home in Lima. In the case at hand, Church
was convicted of killing Massie "Tina" Flint, 45, and Rex Hall, 54, on June 14,
2009, by setting a house on fire at 262 S. Pine St.
The day started with Church's lead attorney, Greg Meyers, telling the jury
Church rose to the occasion when he alerted authorities of the murders when
they believed the 2 died accidentally in a fire.
"He is guilty of those crimes and he will be punished but with his life? Or for
the rest of his life?" Meyers said.
Prosecutor Juergen Waldick told the jury Church should pay with his life.
Forensic Psychologist Thomas Hustak was the only defense witness who testified
in the penalty phase Wednesday. He spoke of Church's poor behavioral record in
school and a learning disability. He said Church was not properly medicated for
mental illness as a child.
Church also suffered sexual abuse and has large mood swings, Hustak said.
"He isn't a fun guy to be around," Hustak said.
At 17, an evaluation showed Church was a borderline psychopath, Hustak said, a
point Waldick jumped on in cross-examination asking if that same person kills 3
people as an adult would it raise that score to psychopath level, which the
psychologist said it could.
Waldick also asked about Church's failed treatment for substance abuse and
other problems while incarcerated, and whether Church sought treatment when he
was outside of prison or jail. Hustak said no.
The judge told the jury to return Monday morning to resume the penalty phase.
(source: limaohio.com)
INDIANA:
McManus' Attorney: 'Right Decision' to Overrule Death Penalty Conviction
13 years on death row could end without execution for an Evansville man.
Paul McManus was convicted of killing his wife and 2 kids in 2001, but now a
federal appeals court overturns his conviction and sentence.
He could walk free because of his mental state at trial 13 years ago. His
defense attorney, Genn Grampp clearly remembers his demeanor, feeling McManus
was incapable of standing trial. He says Wednesday's ruling justifies what he
says should have happened in the 1st place.
February 26th, 2001, a toddler, 8-year-old and their mother are murdered in a
neighborhood north of Evansville.
After the murder, he drove to the twin bridges and jumped from the top in a
suicide attempt, but he was pulled from the frigid February waters and went on
trial a year later, facing the death penalty.
Grampp says, "there wasn't any question that he did it," but he believes he
didn't deserve to be executed.
"He became a mess during that trial, and he really did not know what was going
on," says Grampp. "He had a panic attack after we selected the jury, and during
the 1st day of evidence, he had a panic attack."
Grampp remembers McManus being taken out of the courtroom on a stretcher, he
"went to the hospital a couple times; they changed his medication unbeknownst
to us."
Despite repeated requests for a mistrial, Grampp says the judge continued and
McManus was convicted and sentenced to death.
A decision Grampp feels was wrong. "There was no question in my mind that he
was impaired to the point he could not assist his council, could not make
decisions."
It's because of that, what Grampp says was a drug-induced stupor, A U.S. Court
of Appeals overturned the 13 year-old decision Wednesday.
Vanderburgh County Prosecuting Attorney, Nick Hermann, didn't try the case in
2001, but he reacts today in "a little bit of a surprise, just that it came out
and what it was, but you know, its part of the business."
Grampp believe justice is now being served. "It might not make a lot of people
happy, but its the right decision taking the facts into account," he says.
But McManus isn't a free man just yet. There will be appeals, and potentially a
new trial in Vanderburgh Co. "There was a lot of strong evidence in it," says
Hermann, "We wouldn't hesitate in the slightest to try it again if it came to
that."
A plea agreement is also a possible outcome, but the prosecution says it needs
time to review.
"It's going to be a matter of getting the case and talking to all the parties
involved, and determine where we are and how to move forward from there," adds
Hermann.
The Indiana Attorney General's office is now reviewing the ruling and will
decide in the next 15 days whether to appeal to the U.S Supreme Court.
(source: tristatehomepage.com)
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