Mar. 3
NORTH CAROLINA:
DA to seek death penalty in North Carolina triple murder
The man accused of killing 3 Muslim students in Chapel Hill last month kept
pictures and detailed notes on parking activity in the condominium complex
where the shootings occurred, according to a search warrant released Monday.
Craig Stephen Hicks kept the parking lot information in 1 of 2 desktop
computers seized from his condominium, according to a Feb. 13 application for a
warrant to search 3 cellphones.
The documents were released several days after Durham district attorney Roger
Echols filed notice in court files that he plans to seek the death penalty
against Hicks.
Hicks is accused of murdering Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23; his wife, Yusor Mohammad
Abu-Salha, 21; and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19.
Police have said the shootings Feb. 10 were over a long-running parking dispute
between neighbors. Family of the victims - students at the University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University - have suggested
that religious bias played a prominent role in the violence.
Federal investigators opened an inquiry shortly after the homicides to
determine whether to pursue a deeper investigation into the allegation of
religious bias and the possibility of federal hate crimes.
Hicks is accused of 3 counts of 1st-degree murder. He also has been charged
with discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling.
A hearing is set for April during which Echol will be asked to further
elaborate on his reasons for pursuing the death penalty in the case.
Prosecutors often start out pursuing the death penalty in a case and use the
possibility of capital punishment as a bargaining chip to negotiate a plea deal
for life in prison or a lesser punishment that spares the expense of a trial.
Since his arrest, Hicks has been in Central Prison in Raleigh, where jailers
can keep him isolated from others and in what they describe as "safe-keeping."
(source: News & Observer)
SOUTH CAROLINA:
Death row murderer Stephen Stanko seeking new trial in Conway man's killing
The attorney, who represented twice-convicted murderer Stephen Stanko,
testified Monday he continues to support his defense theory that the
47-year-old suffers from brain damage that caused him to be insane during his
2005 double killing spree.
However, members of the defense team in the separate murder cases in Horry and
Georgetown counties testified they never thought such a defense was viable.
Stanko, who is awaiting the death penalty in both cases, is seeking a new trial
in the shooting death of 74-year-old Henry Turner of Conway.
It took about an hour in 2009 for an Horry County jury to sentence Stanko to
death after convicting him of Turner's murder, and the South Carolina Supreme
Court upheld that conviction and sentence in 2013.
Stanko is seeking post-conviction relief, which is the next step in the
judicial process where a judge decides the outcome, and testimony began Monday
in Conway.
In this proceeding, Stanko claims his attorneys failed to properly defend him
in the Horry County capital murder case.
Stanko also was sentenced to death after being convicted in 2006 by a
Georgetown County jury in the death of his 43-year-old live-in girlfriend,
Laura Ling. Decisions in this week's proceedings will have not bearing on
Stanko's conviction or his sentence in Ling's murder.
Stanko's crime spree took place in April 2005, when Stanko killed Ling in the
Murrells Inlet home that he shared with her and Ling's then-15-year-old
daughter, who also was assaulted. Stanko took Ling's car, drove to Turner's
home in Conway and killed him before stealing Turner's pickup truck.
Stanko then fled to Columbia, where he claimed he was a New York millionaire
and flirted with several women at a downtown restaurant. From there, Stanko
traveled to Augusta, Ga., and met another woman and spent the weekend with her
before he was arrested there. Stanko told the woman he was a businessman in
town for a golf tournament.
In both trials Stanko's defense was that he suffered a brain defect that caused
him to not be aware of the criminal responsibility for his actions.
Myrtle Beach attorney Bill Diggs testified for nearly 3 hours Monday about his
representation of Stanko in both trials.
"Stephen did some pretty terrible things. He doesn't seem like the kind of
person who would do that. . . . I wanted to explain why he did that," said
Diggs, who was suspended from law practice in October and is under
investigation by the state Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
Diggs testified his suspension doesn't impact Stanko's case or his truthfulness
in the proceedings.
The use of scans to detect Stanko's brain function and medical experts, who
testified Stanko was insane at the time of his crimes, was new in criminal
defense at that time of both trials, Diggs said.
"At the time he pulled the trigger on Mr. Turner I don't think his brain was
working," Diggs said Monday. "When he killed Laura Ling he walked through the
house and cleaned up. He did all those events in a blackout state."
During the trial in Turner's death, experts testified that the frontal lobes of
Stanko's brain were damaged. They pointed to the complicated pregnancy Stanko's
mother had with him and an episode when Stanko was 16-years-old and struck in
the head with a beer bottle as the causes of the damage.
The frontal lobe defense was used in both trials, and Diggs said Monday he
never considered changing his strategy for the Turner trial. He also said he
understood Stanko would argue he was ineffective when Stanko filed for
post-conviction relief.
"It's not something I focused on . . . I understand it was something he had to
do," Diggs said. "I always understood Stephen to be happy with the defense
because it allowed him to understand why he did those things."
But 2 women, who worked as investigators for Diggs on both trials, testified
they didn't think the defense was appropriate for the case.
Dale Davis, who worked as a mitigation specialist on the Ling case, testified
Monday that she refused to help with the Turner case because Diggs was using
the same defense in both trials.
"The theory was that [Stanko] was a psychopath and couldn't help but kill
people," Davis said. "I thought it was a crazy theory to expect a jury to spare
your client's life."
Davis testified Monday she noticed similarities in Stanko's defense compared to
that of Augusta, Ga., serial killer Reinaldo Rivera, who is awaiting his death
sentence. An expert from that 2004 trial was used in Stanko's trial and deemed
both defendants psychopaths, she said.
"I was extremely upset in the way the case was handled. I thought it was a
crazy defense. I thought it was a prosecution case, not a defense case. I
thought it was like walking someone to death's door," Davis testified Monday.
Vicki Childs, who was a defense investigator in both of Stanko's trials, said
changing the defense was never discussed and there was no debriefing after the
Georgetown County conviction and sentence, before they represented Stanko in
the Conway murder.
"I don't believe Stephen is insane," Childs said. "Stephen was happy there was
some indication in his brain that helped him understand why he did what he
did."
Testimony resumes Tuesday.
(source: myrtlebeachonline.com)
GEORGIA----execution postponed
Georgia woman's execution postponed because drugs appeared 'cloudy'
For the 2nd time, a Georgia woman's execution has been postponed -- this time
because of concerns about the drugs to be used.
Kelly Renee Gissendaner was scheduled to die at 7 p.m. ET Monday.
"Prior to the execution, the drugs were sent to an independent lab for testing
of potency. The drugs fell within the acceptable testing limits," the Georgia
Department of Corrections said in a statement.
"Within the hours leading up to the scheduled execution, the Execution Team
performed the necessary checks. At that time, the drugs appeared cloudy. The
Department of Corrections immediately consulted with a pharmacist, and in an
abundance of caution, Inmate Gissendaner's execution has been postponed."
The 47-year-old was originally scheduled to die on Wednesday, but that
execution was called off because of winter weather.
Thousands of supporters A petition saying the mother of 3 has turned her life
around, even earning a theology degree while in prison, had garnered about
80,000 signatures as of Tuesday morning. Organizers plan to deliver it to Gov.
Nathan Deal, though in Georgia, the governor has no authority to grant
clemency.
Gissendaner has become a "powerful voice for good," the petition says of the
woman convicted of orchestrating her husband's death in 1997.
"While incarcerated, she has been a pastoral presence to many, teaching,
preaching and living a life of purpose," the petition states. "Kelly is a
living testament to the possibility of change and the power of hope. She is an
extraordinary example of the rehabilitation that the corrections system aims to
produce."
On Sunday night, about 200 people attended a vigil at Emory University's Cannon
Chapel, where they sang her praises.
"Killing her is not going to bring anything back. It's not going to undo what's
been done," priest Kelly Zappa told CNN affiliate WSB.
The pleas did not sway Georgia's high court or its board of pardons. In a 5-2
decision Monday afternoon, the state Supreme Court denied her request for a
stay, and it also dismissed a constitutional challenge claiming that her
sentence was disproportionate. And the State Board of Pardons and Paroles said
Monday evening that its decision last week to deny clemency in the case stands.
A few days' reprieve
Not since Lena Baker, an African-American convicted of murder and pardoned
decades later, has Georgia executed a woman. The state was scheduled to snap
that 70-year streak last week before Gissendaner's execution was first
postponed.
Just hours before she was scheduled to die by injection at the Georgia
Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson last Wednesday, the
Georgia Department of Corrections announced it had postponed the execution
until Monday at 7 p.m. "due to weather and associated scheduling issues,"
department spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan said.
Gissendaner was convicted in a February 1997 murder plot that targeted her
husband in suburban Atlanta.
She was romantically involved with Gregory Owen and conspired with the
43-year-old to have her husband, Douglas Gissendaner, killed, according to
court testimony. Owen wanted Kelly Gissendaner to file for a divorce, but she
was concerned that her husband would "not leave her alone if she simply
divorced him," court documents said.
The Gissendaners had already divorced once, in 1993, and they remarried in
1995.
A nightstick and a hunting knife
Details of the crime, as laid out at trial and provided by Georgia Attorney
General Sam Olens, are as follows:
Kelly Gissendaner and Owen planned the murder for months. On February 7, 1997,
she dropped Owen off at her home, gave him a nightstick and hunting knife, and
went out dancing with girlfriends.
Douglas Gissendaner also spent the evening away from home, going to a church
friend's house to work on cars. Owen lay in wait until he returned.
When Douglas Gissendaner came home around 11:30 p.m., Owen forced him by
knifepoint into a car and drove him to a remote area of Gwinnett County.
There, Owen ordered his victim into the woods, took his watch and wallet to
make it look like a robbery, hit him in the head with the nightstick and
stabbed Douglas Gissendaner in the neck 8 to 10 times.
Kelly Gissendaner arrived just as the murder took place, but she did not
immediately get out of her car. She later checked to make sure her husband was
dead, then Owen followed her in Douglas Gissendaner's car to retrieve a can of
kerosene that Kelly Gissendaner had left for him.
Owen set her husband's car on fire in an effort to hide evidence and left the
scene with Kelly Gissendaner.
Story unravels
Police discovered the burned-out automobile the morning after the murder but
did not find the body. Authorities kicked off a search.
Kelly Gissendaner, meanwhile, went on local television appealing to the public
for information on her husband's whereabouts.
Gregory Owen is serving life in prison for his role in the murder of Douglas
Gissendaner.
Her and Owen's story started to unravel after a series of police interviews. On
February 20, Douglas Gissendaner's face-down body was found about a mile from
his car. An autopsy determined the cause of death to be knife wounds to the
neck, but the medical examiner couldn't tell which strike killed Douglas
Gissendaner because animals had devoured the skin and soft tissue on the right
side of his neck.
On February 24, Owen confessed to the killing and implicated Kelly Gissendaner,
who was arrested the next day and charged.
While in jail awaiting trial, Kelly Gissendaner grew angry when she heard that
Owen was to receive a 25-year sentence for his role in the murder. (Owen is
serving life in prison at a facility in Davisboro, according to Georgia
Department of Corrections records.)
She began writing letters to hire a 3rd person who would falsely confess to
taking her to the crime scene at gunpoint.
She asked her cellmate, Laura McDuffie, to find someone willing to do the job
for $10,000, and McDuffie turned Kelly Gissendaner's letters over to
authorities via her attorney.
Seeking clemency
Kelly Gissendaner has exhausted all state and federal appeals, the attorney
general said in a statement last week.
In the clemency application, Gissendaner's lawyers argued she was equally or
less culpable than Owen, who actually did the killing. Both defendants were
offered identical plea bargains before trial: life in prison with an agreement
to not seek parole for 25 years.
Owen accepted the plea bargain and testified against his former girlfriend.
Gissendaner was willing to plead guilty, her current lawyers said, but
consulted with her trial lawyer and asked prosecutors to remove the stipulation
about waiting 25 years to apply for parole.
According to her clemency appeal, her lead trial attorney, Edwin Wilson, said
he thought the jury would not sentence her to death "because she was a woman
and because she did not actually kill Doug. ... I should have pushed her to
take the plea but did not because I thought we would get straight up life if
she was convicted."
Her appeal lawyers also argued that Gissendaner had expressed deep remorse for
her actions, become a model inmate and grown spiritually. They said her death
would cause further hardship for her children.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center: -- Between 1973 and 2012 --
the most recent data available -- 178 death sentences were imposed upon female
offenders. These sentences constitute about 2% of all death sentences.
-- 5 states -- North Carolina, Florida, California, Ohio and Texas -- account
for over 1/2 of all such sentences.
-- As of December 31, 2012, there were 61 women on death row.
-- Women on death row range in age from 28 to 79. They have been on death row
from a few months to over 26 years.
Currently the only woman on Georgia's death row, Gissendaner would be the 2nd
woman in the state's history to be executed.
The 1st was Baker, an African-American maid who was sentenced to death by an
all-white, all-male jury in 1944. She claimed self-defense for killing a man
who held her against her will, threatened her life and appeared poised to hit
her with a metal bar before she fired a fatal shot.
60 years after her execution, Georgia's parole board posthumously pardoned her
after finding that "it was a grievous error to deny (her) clemency."
Such pardons are rare, but so are executions of women.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, only 15 women have been
executed in the United States since 1977.
(source: CNN)
ALABAMA:
Public barred from jury selection in girl's running death
Potential jurors reported amid secrecy Monday for the capital murder trial of
an Alabama woman charged in her granddaughter's running death, with the judge
refusing public access to process that typically is open.
Dozens of prospective jurors assembled at the Etowah County Courthouse for
questioning by attorneys in the trial of Joyce Hardin Garrard, 59, of Boaz.
Jury selection will take days but it's unclear exactly how long, partly because
Circuit Judge Billy Ogletree barred the media from being present as prosecutors
and defense lawyers talked to would-be jurors.
University of Alabama law professor Joseph Colquitt, a former circuit judge,
said judges often allow attorneys to ask some personal questions of jurors in
private, but he had never been involved in a case involving an adult defendant
where the entire process was closed.
"Basically the idea is that the proceedings in criminal cases are open to the
public," said Colquitt.
Authorities contend Garrard killed 9-year-old Savannah Hardin 3 years ago by
making her run for hours as punishment for a lie about eating candy. The woman
could receive the death penalty if convicted.
Garrard has pleaded not guilty, and her attorneys blame the child's death on
pre-existing medical problems and unspecified things that happened after her
collapse. Jury selection will be critical. The panel must eventually decide
whether the woman meant to kill the child.
Criminal trials generally are open to the public, and the Alabama Rules of
Criminal Procedure state that "all proceedings shall be open to the public,
unless otherwise provided by law."
Ogletree previously issued an order setting rules for media coverage of
Garrard's trial, but it makes no mention of the public being banned from jury
selection.
Etowah County Circuit Clerk Cassandra Johnson told The Associated Press that
judges in the county, located about 60 miles northeast of Birmingham, typically
don't allow the public to witness jury selection.
Attorneys involved in the case cannot comment publicly because of a gag order
that Ogletree imposed following Garrard's arrest in 2012.
(source: Associated Press)
OHIO:
Not guilty plea entered in death penalty case
A man facing the death penalty for allegedly beating a man to death inside a
Uniopolis apartment pleaded not guilty Monday.
Joseph Furry, 30, of Van Wert, pleaded not guilty to 2 counts of aggravated
murder and 1 count each of aggravated burglary, kidnapping and intimidation of
a witness.
Bond was continued at $5 million and a pretrial scheduled for April 6.
Furry and 2 other men are facing the death penalty over the June 9 death of
Charles Hicks, 54, who was found dead in his apartment at 2 Main St.,
Uniopolis.
The indictment said Hicks was killed to prevent his testimony as a witness in a
criminal case.
(source: limaohio.com)
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