March 3
SOUTH DAKOTA:
Supreme Court denies prison guard killer's appeal
A South Dakota death row inmate scheduled to die in May still has legal options
left to attempt to stop his execution despite the decision by the nation's
highest court Monday to decline to hear his appeal.
Rodney Berget can challenge his death sentence and lethal injection status by
filing a habeas corpus action. The action could seek to determine if the
application of the death penalty in Berget's case is lawful.
Death row inmate Charles Rhines, the longest serving death row inmate, has a
continuing federal habeas appeal for the 1992 stabbing death of 22-year-old
Donnivan Schaffer during a burglary at a Rapid City doughnut shop.
Berget was sentenced to death for the 2011 killing of the correctional officer
during a failed escape attempt at the prison. At the time, Berget was serving 2
life sentences for attempted murder and for raping a convenience store clerk.
Berget's initial appeal to the South Dakota Supreme Court claimed that the
lower court should have accepted the additional evidence he wanted to present.
His case was remanded for a limited re-sentencing in 2013 after the high court
found that Judge Brad Zell had improperly considered evidence from a
psychiatric report that hadn't been admitted into evidence. The admission of
the evidence violated Berget's right against self-incrimination.
Berget did not call the psychiatrist as a witness at the re-sentencing, but
sought having new evidence admitted. He was again sentenced to death by lethal
injection.
"The United State Supreme Court has denied Rodney Berget's request to overturn
this conviction and capital sentence for the murder of Correctional Officer
Ronald 'RJ' Johnson," Attorney General Marty Jackley said. "I believe due
process has been satisfied and that the interest of justice has been served."
His lawyer, Jeff Larson, filed a motion on Feb. 13 asking for the execution to
be delayed until Berget's application for appeal is reviewed by the U.S.
Supreme Court.
Berget and another prisoner, Eric Robert, killed Ronald Johnson during an
escape attempt in 2011.
Johnson was alone in an area where inmates work on projects. Robert put on
Johnson's uniform and tried to move a large box with Berget inside it toward
the prison gate.
They were caught before making it out of the prison.
Robert was executed in 2012. A third inmate, Michael Nordman, was sentenced to
life in prison for providing plastic wrap and a pipe used to kill Johnson.
Berget is scheduled to be executed the week of May 3.
Jeff Larson declined to comment.
Current death row inmates:
Charles Rhines: Rhines, of Rapid City, was convicted in the 1992 stabbing death
of 22-year-old Donnivan Schaffer during a burglary at a Rapid City doughnut
shop. His death penalty case has been appealed.
Briley Piper: No date has been set for Piper's execution. The Anchorage, Ak.,
man was convicted of the 2000 torture murder of Chester Allan Poage.
Rodney Berget: The state will move forward with Berget's May 3 execution. The
United State's Supreme Court decline to her Berget request to have his
conviction overturned. He was sentenced to death in 2012 for the murder of
Correctional Officer Ronald "R.J." Johnson.
Recent death row inmates:
Donald Moeller: The Sioux Falls man was executed in 2012 for the 1990 rape and
murder of 9-year-old Becky O'Connell.
Eric Robert: The Sioux Falls man was executed in 2012 after pleading guilty to
murdering Correctional Officer Ronald "R.J." Johnson during a botched prison
break.
James McVay: McVay was found dead in his cell in 2014 after hanging himself
with a bed sheet. McVay was convicted in the 2011 murder of Maybelle Schein.
(source: Argus Leader)
*************************
Death Penalty Stands for Convicted Murderer of State Prison Guard
A South Dakota death penalty sentence stands.
Rodney Berget was sentenced to die for his role in killing a state penitentiary
guard. On Monday, Attorney General Marty Jackley said the U.S. Supreme Court
denied Berget's appeal.
Berget was convicted of killing guard Ronald Johnson during an April 2011
escape attempt.
Berget is scheduled to die by lethal injection the week of May 3, 2015.
Of the rejection of the appeal, Jackley said, "The interest of justice has been
served."
Another inmate charged in the guard's death, Eric Robert, was executed back in
2012.
(source: newscenter1.tv)
COLORADO:
Time for abolition death penalty
Despite its poor record on deterring violent crime, we've gone ahead in most
states, including Colorado, maintaining a death row, arguing the efficacy of
executions, spending millions to prosecute capital cases while shortchanging
victims' families, rehabilitation programs, and cold cases.
At last, departing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has disavowed support for
capital punishment and is weighing a nationwide moratorium on executions. The
governor of Pennsylvania has just announced a death penalty moratorium in his
state.
This is not just folks jumping on a bandwagon. In fact, it's more like people -
regular concerned citizens, officials, and community leaders - jumping off a
bandwagon, off the senseless continuation of a grisly civic punishment regime
that doesn't work and traumatizes those in law enforcement and prison
administration who have to carry out the macabre dance of death.
Let's abolish the Colorado Death Penalty and really take care of victims'
families, law enforcement professionals, and criminals that can be
rehabilitated.
Ellen V. Moore
Chair, Coloradans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Amnesty International USA Colorado State Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator
Nederland
(source: Letter to the Editor, Daily Camera)
UTAH:
Firing squad bill passes Senate panel, prompts proposal to reconsider death
penalty
A bill to reinstate Utah's firing squad as a backup execution method easily
passed in a Senate committee Monday.
The bill advances closer to becoming law, but not without the committee making
an official motion to submit a request to take up the issue of the death
penalty after the legislative session.
HB11 would legalize firing squad executions in Utah if drugs needed for lethal
injections aren't available 30 days before the date of the death warrant, which
would add to current Utah law that allows the firing squad if lethal injection
executions ever become unconstitutional, said bill sponsor Rep. Paul Ray,
R-Clearfield.
Utah may require a backup method to lethal injections, Ray said, in wake of
recent botched executions that have lead to a U.S. Supreme Court case that may
cause lethal injections to become unconstitutional.
He said Utah potentially faces the same costly litigation risks if the state
continues to carry out lethal injections, as drugs previously used for lethal
injections have become unavailable because European pharmaceutical companies
that sell the drugs oppose the death penalty and refuse to sell to U.S.
prisons, Ray said.
Anti-death penalty groups spoke against the bill, saying the Legislature should
instead be spending its time having serious discussions about the moral issue
of the death penalty itself, especially as it considers moving the state
prison.
"That's the only way that we'll ensure we won't be back here over and over
engaging in what is ultimately a doomed effort of deciding on a decent way for
the government to kill people," said Anna Brower, public policy advocate with
American Civil Liberties Union of Utah.
Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, said the purpose of HB11 is not to
change the Utah law regarding to death penalty.
"The fact of the matter is that is the law, and if we don't like it then that
is a separate conversation to have," Thatcher said. "What we shouldn't be doing
is allowing a manufacturer of a product to tell the state of Utah that because
they don???t like our policy they will deny us the product and use that to get
around existing law."
Senate Minority Leader Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City, proposed a motion for
legislative leadership to address Utah's death penalty during the upcoming
interim session. The proposal passed with 1 dissenting vote from Sen. Lyle
Hillyard, R-Logan, who said the motion would just "clog up" the system with
another "misfit bill" that no lawmaker wants to address.
Davis said Utah's death penalty is an appropriate issue that an interim
committee needs to debate.
"If we can't get those cocktails, then we need to change the law," he said.
"And it's looking like we cannot get those cocktails anymore - not without
horrendous side effects."
The Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee voted 4-1
to favorably recommend HB11 to the full Senate. Sen. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake
City, was the sole dissenting vote.
(source: Deseret News)
********************
Brother of executed Utah killer Ronnie Lee Gardner opposes reviving firing
squad
The brother of the last man executed by firing squad in Utah urged lawmakers
Monday not to bring back the practice as an alternative to lethal injection,
calling it cruel and unnecessarily brutal.
"I got a chance to look at my brother's chest after he was shot," said Randy
Gardner, the brother of Ronnie Lee Gardner, who was executed by firing squad in
Utah in 2010.
"I could have stuck all 4 fingers in his chest," Gardner said, adding he
believed it blew his brother's heart through his back. "To me that's totally
cruel and unusual punishment."
But a committee endorsed 4-1 and sent to the full Senate HB11, which would make
the firing squad the alternative to lethal injection if the state is unable to
get access to the chemical cocktail used in the executions. The bill already
passed the House.
"[A firing squad] may seem a little more barbaric, but it does what we need it
to do in the end," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield.
Oklahoma, Arizona and Ohio have recently experienced botched executions by
lethal injection, when the drugs administered did not kill the condemned men
quickly, leaving them gasping or convulsing on the gurney.
Ray said a study by the University of Utah found that there is a 34 percent
chance executions using a new blend of lethal chemicals will be botched. So an
alternative is needed if the state can't get the chemicals it has traditionally
used, and that alternative, he argued, should be the firing squad.
Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, the Catholic Diocese of Salt
Lake and the Coaltion of Utahns Against the Death Penalty argued that the state
should look at doing away with all executions.
The Utah prison inmate who may be the closest to execution is Douglas Carter,
convicted of killing Eva Olesen during a 1985 robbery at her Provo home,
although he still has legal actions pending in state and federal courts.
(source: Salt Lake Tribune)
IDAHO:
Idaho Supreme Court rejects death row inmate's appeal
The Idaho Supreme Court on Monday found substantial evidence existed to find
Boise resident Azad Abdullah guilty of the 2002 murder of his wife, Angie, and
setting the family home on fire with gasoline.
Abdullah, now 37, was convicted in 2004 of 1st-degree murder, 1st-degree arson,
3 counts of attempted 1st-degree murder and felony injury to a child. He was
the 2nd Idahoan sentenced to death under a 2003 Idaho law that requires juries
to make that determination rather than judges.
Abdullah is 1 of 10 men and 1 woman who now sit on death row in Idaho.
The Supreme Court considered 23 challenges from the defendant during the guilt
and penalty phases of his trial and another 15 post-conviction challenges,
upholding his convictions and his death sentence.
"In this case, the jury was instructed that the State must prove Abdullah
engaged in conduct which caused Angie's death. The jury was provided with
substantial evidence to make this finding. The State was not required to prove
the specific cause of Angie's death," retired Justice Jesse Walters, who sat on
the appeal case, wrote in the 189-page ruling.
Abdullah, who continues to maintain his innocence, was accused of using a
plastic bag to suffocate Angie Abdullah before setting the house - located at
2292 N. Siesta Way, near North Five Mile and West Fairview roads - on fire. The
indictment accused him of killing his wife by suffocation and or Prozac
poisoning.
3 children who were inside the house and another 1 sleeping outside were able
to escape the fire and get to safety. The 3 attempted murder counts were
brought in reference to the children inside the house.
The defense suggested Angie Abdullah took a lethal dose of Prozac, a drug
prescribed to her for depression. A forensic toxicologist testified at trial
that Prozac may have debilitated Angie Abdullah and was a contributing factor
in her death but that it was not a "competent cause of her death."
Azad Abdullah originally told police he was in Salt Lake City at the time of
his wife's death. During closing arguments at the end of the guilt phase of the
trial, which lasted 6 weeks, his attorney said Abdullah lied to police and did
return to Boise on Oct. 5, 2002, the night his wife was killed, but that he did
not enter the house or kill his wife.
The Supreme Court ruled that the Ada County jury could have found Abdullah
killed Angela by suffocating her with a plastic bag. The justices ruled that
"the evidence produced at trial revealed that it was unlikely that (her)
overdose was self-imposed," Walters wrote.
(source: Idaho Statesman)
CALIFORNIA:
Suspect in Forestville triple homicide seeks to avoid death penalty
Sonoma County prosecutors are considering a bid by a Colorado man to avoid the
death penalty in a case where he is charged in the execution-style slaying of 3
would-be drug dealers in Forestville 2 years ago.
A lawyer for Mark Cappello, 49, presented information to a District Attorney's
Office panel last month about why Cappello is not among the "worst of the
worst" offenders and therefore not deserving of execution.
The presentation came after District Attorney Jill Ravitch announced in May
that she would seek the death penalty against Cappello. However, she left the
door open to "mitigating factors" that might later arise.
"It's under review," Chief Deputy Spencer Brady said Monday after an
evidentiary hearing in the case. "We're looking at everything he provided us."
He did not say when a decision would be made.
Cappello's lawyer, Joe Stogner, wouldn't disclose details of his presentation,
saying he wanted to "respect the process." It's assumed he might argue the
victims died while participating in an illegal drug transaction with inherent
risk.
Both sides will return to court next Monday, possibly to set a trial date for
Cappello and co-defendants Odin Dwyer, 40, also of Colorado, and his father,
Francis Dwyer, 67 of New Mexico.
All are charged with murder in the Feb. 5. 2013 slayings of Todd Klarkowski,
43, of Boulder, Colo.; Richard Lewin, 46, of Huntington, N.Y.; and Raleigh
Butler, 24, formerly of Sebastopol.
Only Cappello faces a possible death sentence.
Evidence in a preliminary hearing suggests Cappello shot each man in the head
with a .45-caliber pistol as they were packaging 50 to 100 pounds of marijuana
at a house off Ross Station Road. Odin Dwyer told police he heard gunfire,
walked into the room and saw Cappello holding the gun Francis Dwyer, who is
accused of agreeing to help his son and Cappello transport the marijuana out of
state, was not present at the shooting, according to evidence.
His lawyer, Walter Rubenstein, is expected to negotiate a plea bargain with
prosecutors.
A trial in the case, now more than 2 years old, has been delayed by a number of
factors, including the complexity of evidence and a change in Cappello's
lawyer.
Whether a jury will hear the case before the end of the year was uncertain,
lawyers said.
"A case of this magnitude always takes a long time," Stogner said.
The last case in Sonoma County where a person was condemned to death was tried
in 2 years. Robert Walter Scully was sent to San Quentin's death row in 1997
after being convicted in the 1995 slaying of Sonoma County Deputy Frank Trejo.
2 other Sonoma County residents, Ramon Salcido and Richard Allen Davis, have
also been on death row since the 1990s.
No executions have been carried out in the state since 2006 when a federal
judge ruled there were flaws in the lethal injection process.
(source: Press Democrat)
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