Feb. 21
KANSAS:
Amman Reu-El defense attorney: 'People of color' underrepresented as potential
jurors in capital murder case
The number of prospective jurors in the retrial of King Phillip Amman Reu-El
who are African-American or biracial is below the 12.7 % of "people of color"
in Shawnee County, and the jury panel should be dismissed, the defendant's
attorneys said Friday.
The question of the racial makeup of the prospective jurors in the Shawnee
County District Court jury surfaced Friday during a motion hearing on Friday.
Amman Reu-El, 42, of Topeka, is charged with capital murder and is in the
process of being retried in the 2003 shooting deaths of 2 women in southeast
Topeka. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
The retrial is more than 11 years after the 2 women - Annette Roberson, 38, and
Gloria A. Jones, 42 - were killed and more than 9 years after Amman Reu-El was
tried, convicted and sentenced to death in 2005.
Defense attorney Paul Oller defined "people of color" as those who are
African-American or who identify themselves as biracial.
Oller said that, of 4 panels of prospective jurors reporting for duty earlier
this week, the 1st panel didn't have any "people of color," the 2nd had 6, the
3rd had 6, and the 4th had one, a total of 13.
"The representation of African-American-black and mixed race is less than 5.4 %
of the total jury panel and is not representative of the community at large,"
Oller wrote in the motion to discharge the jury panel.
In the 2010 census, the racial composition in Shawnee County was 8.8 % who are
African-American and 3.9 % of mixed race black, Oller wrote. That totals 12.7
%.
According to defense numbers, 240 people reported for jury duty in the 4
panels.
"Such under-representation of African-American-black and mixed race profiles
violates Mr. Amman Reu-El's right to be judged by a jury representative of the
community at large," the defense motion said. Amman Reu-El is African-American.
The jury panel should be discharged and a new panel should be called "in
accordance with the law," the defense motion said. 12 jurors and 5 alternate
jurors will hear the case.
Shawnee County District Court Judge Richard Anderson said he would take up that
motion before the jury is to be impaneled.
Earlier on Friday, Anderson denied a motion by Amman Reu-El seeking to fire his
defense attorneys in his capital murder retrial.
The courtroom was cleared of prosecutors and 2 spectators - including a Topeka
Capital-Journal reporter - so Anderson could hear the reason Amman Reu-El
wanted to dismiss John Val Wachtel and Oller as his defense attorneys.
Amman Reu-El, Anderson, Val Wachtel and Oller, were behind closed doors to
discuss the motion before it was denied. A court reporter and a corrections
officer also were in the courtroom.
Amman Reu-El is formerly known as Phillip Delbert Cheatham Jr.
The prosecutors in the case are chief deputy district attorney Jacqie Spradling
and assistant district attorney Lauren Kohn.
A new trial was ordered for Amman Reu-El in 2013 after the Kansas Supreme Court
overturned his capital murder conviction and death penalty sentence for the
killings in a home at 2718 S.E. Colorado in Topeka's Highland Park
neighborhood.
Court records said Amman Reu-El is charged with:
-- Capital murder in the Dec. 13, 2003, shooting deaths of Annette Roberson,
38, and Gloria A. Jones, 42.
-- 2 alternative counts of premeditated 1st-degree murder of Roberson and
Jones.
-- Attempted 1st-degree murder of Annetta D. Thomas, who was shot multiple
times.
-- Aggravated battery of Thomas.
-- Criminal possession of a firearm.
Amman Reu-El has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
When court resumes on Monday, prospective jurors will be questioned 1st about
hardships - financial, work and personal - they might face by serving on the
jury, then answer questions by prosecutors and defense attorneys about other
topics.
Finally, the 12-member jury and 5 alternate jurors will be selected after 51
prospective jurors are approved.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys will strike 17 people each, a total of 34
strikes, then 17 will remain. Those will be the 12 jurors and 5 alternates.
The capital murder case has 2 phases, the judge said earlier this week. First,
jurors consider whether to convict a defendant of capital murder. If they
convict him, they must decide whether to recommend sentencing him to death.
That requires a unanimous vote by jurors.
The jury trial is expected to start on March 5. The whole process is expected
to last 6 weeks. On Nov. 14, 2014, the Supreme Court disbarred Dennis Hawver,
of Ozawkie, the 1st attorney who represented Amman Reu-El.
The Supreme Court said Hawver violated Kansas rules of professional conduct
while defending Amman Reu-El in 2005. The court said Hawver engaged in
"inexplicable incompetence" when defending Cheatham.
(source: Topeka Capital-Journal)
CALIFORNIA
Judge Refuses to Step Aside in Los Alamitos Death Penalty Trial----The judge in
a Los Al actor's double murder trial rejects defense claim that he can't be
impartial because he once worked with an informant.
An Orange County Superior Court judge today said he won't voluntarily remove
himself from overseeing a double-murder suspect's trial as a defense attorney
has requested, setting in motion a legal process that will next have a judge in
another county decide whether there's a 4th jurist switch in the case.
It likely means another 2- to 3-month delay in the expected trial of Daniel
Patrick Wozniak, 30, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy.
That has angered family members of Wozniak's alleged victims, 26-year- old
Samuel Eliezer Herr and 23-year-old Juri Julie Kibuishi.
"It's just constant delays," said Herr's father, Steve, of the defendant's
attorney. "His case is against the prosecutors, the sheriff's investigators and
now the judges."
Wozniak's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, cited Orange
County Superior Court Judge John Conley's work with a jailhouse informant in a
case from the 1980s -- when Conley was a prosecutor -- as the reason the judge
should recuse himself.
Sanders argues in a motion summarizing why the death penalty should be
dismissed against his client that the Orange County District Attorney's Office
has a checkered past dealing with jailhouse snitches going back to a case
against Thomas Thompson, who was executed in 1998.
Sanders has also argued in court papers that Conley will be an "important
witness" in his motion to dismiss the death penalty for Wozniak because the
judge is "in the unique position of explaining how he and other members of his
office responded to questions about the veracity of an informant who was a
witness on multiple serious cases."
Conley said the only specific case cited by Sanders involved William Lee Evins,
a murder defendant prosecuted by Conley more than 30 years ago.
"I do not believe that a person who was aware of the facts might reasonably
entertain a doubt that I would be impartial, based on a case I handled over 30
years ago, where the defendant pled guilty and there was no appeal," Conley
said.
Conley noted he worked in the District Attorney's homicide division for less
than 2 years in 1980 to 1982.
Conley said he was unsure how the handling of jailhouse informants factors in
Wozniak's case.
Herr agreed.
"This case has nothing to do with informants," Steve Herr said. "It's a moot
point. Let's get this to trial."
An inmate did try to get information from Wozniak, but it was before he became
an informant and the prosecution has no intention of using the statements in
the trial, Murphy said.
If a judge from Los Angeles Superior Court or Riverside Superior Court or
elsewhere denies to install a new judge on the case, then Sanders has the
option of having Conley removed, but it's a 1-time chance.
There are only 2 other Orange County Superior Court judges left qualified to
preside over capital cases -- Gregg Prickett and Patrick Donahue. But Sanders
has signaled he will file a motion to have all of the county's judges recused.
If Sanders has Conley removed from the case, then he would have to file a
motion showing good cause to have Prickett and Donahue recused.
Judge James Stotler had been presiding over the case, but stepped down last
month when he concluded he could not guarantee he would be fair to Sanders.
The case was assigned to Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals,
who has been hearing evidence of misuse of jailhouse informants in the case of
convicted mass killer Scott Dekraai, another Sanders client.
Prosecutors, without saying why, objected to Goethals also considering the
Wozniak case.
Wozniak's alleged victims were friends. He is accused of killing Herr at the
Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base and using the man's cell phone to lure
Kibuishi home to her Costa Mesa apartment, where he allegedly shot and
dismembered her, then disposed of the body parts at the Eldorado Park Nature
Center in Long Beach.
(source: patch.com)
*******************
Death penalty levied for Thermal vineyard killings
A man who killed 2 farm workers in a Thermal vineyard, days after taking the
life of a teenager, is to be executed for the crimes, a judge in Indio ruled
Friday.
Angel Anthony Esparza, 30, showed no emotion as Superior Court Judge James S.
Hawkins upheld a jury's capital punishment recommendation.
2 separate groups of people in the courtroom for the sentencing hearing at the
Larson Justice Center declined to comment or say on whose behalf they attended
the hearing. At least 1 woman sobbed.
Outside the courtroom, Esparza's attorney reiterated his philosophical
opposition to the death penalty.
"This is an example of man's inhumanity to man," attorney John P. Dolan said.
"I understand that the population still supports the death penalty. I can't see
human beings being executed by the state -- referring to this case in
particular and in general."
Prior to issuing the ruling, Hawkins denied defense motions to dismiss the
conviction on grounds of insufficient evidence, and for a new trial.
"The court finds that the evidence supports the jury's verdict of death,"
Hawkins said.
Esparza was convicted last July of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder for the Dec.
19, 2009, vineyard killings. The jury also found true special circumstance
allegations of multiple murders and murder in the commission of robbery and
kidnapping, making him eligible for a death sentence.
Esparza was tried earlier in 2014 for the double murder and the Dec. 3, 2009,
shooting death of 16-year-old Angel Luna, but that jury deadlocked on the
vineyard killings, triggering a retrial on those counts.
"When you look at death and use your courage, you'll be able to look at Angel
(Anthony) Esparza and say, 'You deserve death for what you did to Gregorio
Juarez and Pedro Garcia,'" Deputy District Attorney Jake Silva told jurors
before they decided on a sentence last summer.
"Does he deserve something less than what he gave to Gregorio Juarez and Pedro
Garcia?" Silva asked rhetorically. "Make no mistake -- in that vineyard on Dec.
19, 2009, Angel Esparza chose the death penalty."
He said Esparza decided where, when and how the victims died, and showed no
remorse.
Dolan told jurors his client was born into "depravity'' to a mother who was a
chronic drug addict. Esparza took care of her and was a good student until high
school, when he was "crushed by our judicial system" and imprisoned for driving
a car in a pursuit during which shots were fired, Dolan said.
"Are we to conclude Angel Esparza is a stone-cold, evil person who has no
redeeming value?" he told jurors during the trial's penalty phase. "... Is life
without the possibility of parole enough? I hope each of you can see the answer
to that question is 'yes.' It is holding Angel Esparza accountable, it is
holding him responsible ... it's justice tempered with mercy."
In the last month of 2009, Esparza was staying at the Thermal residence of
Christina Zapata and her daughter, Cecilia Morin, while on the run from law
enforcement, and on Dec. 19, Juarez and Garcia arrived with plans to pay to
have sex with Morin, Silva said.
Esparza entered Morin's bedroom with a revolver and ordered Garcia and Juarez
to the floor, took their wallets and bound them with cords and duct tape. He
and Zapata drove them to a vineyard at Avenue 58 and Pierce Street, and Esparza
dragged them into the vineyard, the prosecutor said.
Later, Zapata's boyfriend, obtained a can of gasoline, drove Zapata and Esparza
back to the vineyard, and Esparza took the gas and a bag of the victims'
belongings into the vineyard. The next morning, Juarez and Garcia were found
shot in the head and burned "beyond recognition,'' Silva said.
Esparza was arrested at a relative's home in San Bernardino on Christmas Eve
2009, and authorities found a gun that matched markings found on a bullet in
Garcia's head, Silva said.
Morin and Zapata refused to testify in the trial -- their previous testimony
was read in court.
They each pleaded guilty in the case to 2 counts of 2nd-degree murder last year
in exchange for sentences of 15 years to life in prison.
Esparza was sentenced to 75 years to life in prison for the Dec. 3, 2009,
shooting death of the teenager in Coachella. In a complicated legal calculation
of his sentence, Esparza faces a total of 141 years-to-life in addition to the
death sentence.
(source: The Desert Sun)
OREGON:
New Oregon Governor Kate Brown to extend death penalty moratorium
Oregon's new Democratic Governor Kate Brown said on Friday she planned to
extend a moratorium on executions that her predecessor enacted in 2011, well
before an influence-peddling scandal forced him from office earlier this week.
But like fellow Democrat John Kitzhaber, Brown stopped short of formally
commuting death sentences for the 34 inmates currently awaiting execution in
the state, which has executed only 2 people in the past half century, both in
the 1990s.
"There needs to be a broader discussion about fixing the system," Brown said in
her 1st press briefing since she took Oregon's helm on Wednesday. "Until that
discussion, I'm upholding the moratorium imposed by Kitzhaber."
In a major salvo in the nation's long-running battle over capital punishment,
Kitzhaber imposed a blanket reprieve on all Oregon death row inmates in 2011,
saying he believed the death penalty was morally wrong.
He had faced growing calls in the waning days of his administration to commute
all Oregon death sentences to life in prison before leaving office following an
ethics scandal over accusations his fiancee used her role in his office for
personal gain.
But Kitzhaber, who has not been seen publicly since announcing his resignation
last week, remained silent on that issue, although he did commute the prison
sentence of a young man serving time for attempted murder in a non-capital
case.
Brown, who had been Oregon's secretary of state before this week, said she met
with Kitzhaber on Monday and he advised her of his legislative priorities and
recommendations. In addition to her death penalty plans, Brown told reporters
she supports raising the minimum wage, increasing transparency and improving
access to public records.
(source: Reuters)
USA:
Prosecutor opposes moving trial for man facing death penalty prosecution for
inmate's death
A prosecutor is urging a judge to reject a change of venue for the trial of a
West Virginia federal prisoner charged in the slaying of a fellow inmate.
The government is seeking the death penalty for 34-year-old Patrick Franklin
Andrews. He is charged in the 2007 stabbing death of 28-year-old Jesse Harris
at the U.S. Penitentiary at Hazelton.
The Exponent Telegram reports (http://bit.ly/1ECb1Kt ) that Assistant U.S.
Attorney Andrew Cogar says in court papers that there's no evidence that news
coverage of the case would prevent Andrews from getting a fair trial. Andrews
is scheduled for trial in may in U.S. District Court in Clarksburg.
A co-defendant, 34-year-old Kevin Marquette Bellinger, was
(source: Associated Press)
************************
Boston Marathon Bombing Trial Update: Defense Argues to Move Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
Death Penalty Case Out of Massachusetts in Federal Appeals Court
Lawyers representing accused Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
presented arguments before a federal appeals court on Thursday to move the high
profile case out of Massachusetts in order to give him a fair trial.
The 21-year-old suspected terrorist has pleaded not guilty to 30 charges
connected to the explosion at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April
15, 2013, which killed three people and injured 264 others. In addition to
planting 2 bombs at the race, prosecutors say that he and his now deceased
brother, Tamerlan, also fatally shot a Massachusetts Institute of Technology
police officer three days later. If found guilty, Tsarnaev faces the death
penalty.
Earlier this year, lawyers began sorting through hundreds of potential jurors
on Jan. 5. However, the process of selecting a panel of 18 people, which
includes 12 jurors and 6 alternates, is taking longer than the district court
had expected since many candidates have confessed that they already hold a bias
against the suspect, reports Reuters.
As a result, defense attorneys continue to push for the trial to be moved
outside of Boston, where the attack took place, in order to find an unbiased
panel of jurors. They argue that they are unable to assemble an impartial jury
due to "saturation publicity" about the case in addition to the many state
residents who were personally affected by the 2013 bombing.
The local jury pool is "connected to the case in many ways" and cannot be
counted on to be fair, said federal public defender Judith Mizner in arguments
before the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, reports the Associated Press.
"This attack was viewed as an attack on the marathon itself ... and an attack
on the city of Boston," Mizner added.
Mizner pointed out that there is continual media coverage of the marathon and
the recovery of the victims.
Tsarnaev's lawyers also made note that 68 percent of the 1,373 prospective
jurors who filled out questionnaires already believe that Tsarnaev is guilty.
However, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Weinreb argued that the presiding
judge in the case has been weeding out people who have preconcieved notions
about Tsarnaev. He added that people who have strong opinions about Tsarnaev
have "unhesitatingly admitted them" during the interview process, leading him
to conclude that the process is working, reports the New York Times.
Plus, the judge has already found 61 people he believes qualify to be impartial
jurors, he said.
(source: Latin Post)
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