April 21
TEXAS----stay of impending execution
State delays execution of child killer Richard Vasquez
Richard Vasquez was sentenced to death for the killing of a 4-year-old girl in
Corpus Christi.
The man who beat his 4 year old stepdaughter to death won't be executed this
week. Nueces County District Attorney Mark Skurka says Richard Vasquez has just
received a stay of execution. There's no word yet on why.
Vasquez was set to be put to death on Thursday for the death of Miranda Lopez
in 1998. According to court records the girl was beaten with a fist several
times. She took a nap and later fell off a stool while brushing her teeth. The
girl died the next day
This is the 2nd time this year his execution has been delayed.
(source: KRIS news)
*******************************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----6
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----524
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
7-----------Apr. 28--------------------Robert Pruett--------525
8-----------May 12--------------------Derrick Charles------526
9-----------June 3----------------------Les Bower------------527
10----------June 18-------------------Gregory Russeau------528
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
********************
Capital murder trial begins in Red Wing store clerk's killing
The capital murder trial of a 22-year-old Arlington man accused of killing a
shoe store clerk during a robbery in 2014 began Monday, WFAA reported.
Jacob Everett faces the death penalty if convicted. He pleaded not guilty to
the murder charge but pled guilty to a charge of aggravated robbery.
On Feb. 25, 2014, the clerk, Randy Pacheco, 23, was working his shift as a
manager at the Red Wing Shoes store on Cooper Street in Arlington, when Everett
shot and killed him while stealing $200, police have said.
During opening arguments Monday, a prosecutor said Pacheco was shot once
between the eyes.
(source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
DELAWARE:
Poll shows Delawareans open-minded to death penalty alternatives
As Delaware legislators debate a bill that would repeal the death penalty, a
recent survey provides some insight on how Delawareans feel about the issue.
When asked what the appropriate punishment for murder should be, a majority of
those polled were in favor of an alternative to the death penalty.
"A significant majority of Delaware residents, 64 %, support some form of life
without parole as an alternative to the death penalty," said Eugene Young, with
the Delaware Center for Justice.
However, in a separate question, 63 % of those polled say they still strongly
support or somewhat support the death penalty.
The survey was conducted among 573 registered voters in all 3 counties in
Delaware.
This is the 1st time the Delaware Center for Justice has conducted a public
policy poll on the death penalty.
The Senate passed the death penalty repeal bill earlier this month. It now
heads to the House.
Lawmakers tried to pass a similar bill in 2013 but it stalled in the House
Judiciary Committee.
(source: WDEL news)
***********************
Delaware residents support death penalty unless given alternative
A recent poll found that 63 % of people in Delaware initially support the death
penalty, but its support decreases when alternatives are given.
About 34 % of people polled either strongly opposed or somewhat opposed the
death penalty, but a follow up question found that people favor life
imprisonment over the death penalty.
"A significant majority of Delaware residents, 64 %, support some form of life
without parole as an alternative to the death penalty," Eugene Young, advocacy
director at the Delaware Center for Justice, said.
Young said support for capital punishment decreases when alternatives are
given.
The Public Policy Polling firm was hired by the Delaware Center for Justice,
one of several groups attempting to cease the death penalty in the state.
Legislators are currently debating a bill that would repeal capital punishment.
The bill passed the state's Senate earlier this month and now faces voting in
the House.
The poll asked 17 questions to 573 Delawareans on the phone between over a
2-day period in April.
It is the 1st time the Delaware Center for Justice conducted a poll on the
death penalty.
"This issue has lingered in the ether for far too long," Democratic Rep. Sean
Lynn said. "The death penalty is morally bankrupt, legally bankrupt and it is
intellectually bankrupt."
Support for the death penalty in the United States has reached a 40-year low --
with 56 % of people favoring the death penalty for murder convictions and 38 %
opposing, according to Pew Research Center.
(source: United Press International)
GEORGIA:
DA Slater seeks death penalty in Connor case
Muscogee County District Attorney Julia Slater is seeking the death penalty
against a Columbus man charged with killing his girlfriend and their son.
35-year old Brandon Conner is charged with 2 counts of murder and arson for the
deaths of Rosella Mitchel and their 6-month-old son Dylan.
Their bodies were found burned beyond recognition in their Winifred Lane home
in August of last year.
An autopsy revealed Mitchel was stabbed several times before the house was set
on fire.
On Monday, Slater and Chief Ricky Boren discussed the decision to seek the
death penalty.
Conner was found by a police officer with blood on his face, and clothes less
than an hour after the fire sitting in his car near his workplace at Cedar
Avenue and Wynnton Road.
He was questioned and released; then he later turned himself in a week after
the murders.
This is the 2nd time during Slater's tenure as district attorney that she has
sought the death penalty.
(source: WLTZ news)
FLORIDA:
Motion to delay trial denied in Volusia triple murder case
A judge denied a motion on Monday to delay the trial of a man accused of
killing his wife and her 2 daughters.
Luis Toledo is accused of killing Yessenia Suarez and her two children in 2013.
A hearing in the case started Monday morning.
Toledo's attorney made a strong argument as to why he believes the U.S. Supreme
Court will change Florida's law when it comes to the death penalty, and he
asked for the judge to wait to try the case.
Suarez and her 2 young children's bodies were never found, and Toledo has been
awaiting his trial for their killings ever since.
Felicia Perez, the mother of Suarez, said the deaths of her daughter and
grandchildren is constantly on her mine.
"It's every day. You wake up, you go to sleep, through the whole day. I know I
keep going, but it's not easy," Perez said.
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take on another death penalty case
where Florida's death penalty scheme is being challenged.
Specifically, the Supreme Court will look at the constitutionality of not
requiring a unanimous jury to sentence someone to death if they are convicted
of murder.
Florida is one of only a few states that do not require a unanimous jury.
Toledo's attorney said not knowing what Florida's law on the death penalty will
make it difficult to advise Toledo through his trial.
The judge didn't agree and said Toledo would be entitled to an automatic appeal
if he is convicted and sentenced to death.
"He's going to get what he deserves, OK? What he deserves , that's what he's
going to get," said Perez.
(source: WFTV news)
ALABAMA:
U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear death row inmates' appeals in Auburn and
Franklin County cases
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear appeals by 2 Alabama inmates
who were sentenced to death by judges who overrode jury recommendations for
life without parole.
Justices - with 2 dissenters - declined to hear the appeals of Courtney
Lockhart and Christie M. Scott based on Alabama's judicial override - a
practice that has become part of the debate over the death penalty.
Lockhart is on death row at Holman prison for his conviction in Lee County for
the March 2008 slaying of Auburn student Lauren Burk.
Scott is on death row at Julia Tuwiler prison for her conviction in Franklin
County for the August 2008 arson fire that killed her 6-year-old autistic son,
Mason.
The juries in both the Lockhart and Scott cases had recommended they be
sentenced to life without parole. But the judges in both of the separate cases
overrode the juries' recommendations and sentenced Lockhart and Scott to death.
Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Montgomery-based Equal Justice
Initiative represented both Scott and Lockhart in their appeals to the U.S.
Supreme Court attacking the Alabama practice of judicial overrides.
Efforts to reach Stevenson for comment prior to the publication of this story
Monday were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile on Monday a Jefferson County judge was faced with whether to
override, for the 2nd time, a jury's recommendation for life without parole.
Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Clyde Jones had overridden a jury's
recommendation (a vote of 10-2) for life without parole and he sentenced
Jeffery Tyrone Riggs to death after Riggs' 1st conviction in the case in 2010.
Riggs won a re-trial based on an appeal regarding jury instructions given at
the first trial.
At Riggs' 2nd trial this year a jury again convicted him of capital murder and
in an 8-4 vote recommended Judge Jones sentence Riggs to life without parole.
Jones at Monday's hearing, however, did not override a 2nd time after a
prosecutor told him they were now pushing for life without parole to get
closure for family in the case.
Riggs had been convicted in the 2008 shooting death of his estranged
girlfriend, who also was his cousin.
In Monday's U.S. Supreme Court decision Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen G.
Breyer were the only 2 on the high court to argue for a review of the Lockhart
and Scott cases.
While a written dissent by Sotomayor and Breyer was not available, the 2
justices had dissented when the court refused in 2013 to review a similar
judicial override in Alabama in the case of Mario Dion Woodward.
Woodward was convicted by a jury of capital murder in the shooting death of
Keith Houts, a city of Montgomery police officer. The jury, by a vote of 8 to
4, had recommended he be sentenced to life without parole instead of death.
Justice Sotomayor, who wrote the dissenting opinion in the Woodward case,
stated that the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995 upheld the Alabama law allowing
judicial overrides but she still holds deep concerns that the practice is
unconstitutional. "18 years have passed since we decided Harris, and in my
view, the time has come for us to reconsider that decision," she stated.
"Since Alabama adopted its current statute, its judges have imposed death
sentences on 95 defendants (including Riggs) contrary to a jury's verdict. 43
of these defendants remain on death row today," she wrote in the 2013 dissent.
One of Riggs' defense attorneys, Deputy Jefferson County Public Defender Texys
Morris, cited the dissent by Sotomayor and Breyer in a sentencing memorandum
arguing for a life without parole sentence for Riggs.
"2 other states, Delaware and Florida, allow judicial override but the override
in favor of death is rarely- if ever- applied," Morris wrote. "Delaware has no
one on death row due to judicial override and Florida has had no override for
death since 1999."
"The standard required for judicial override in Florida reflects a far greater
respect for the jury's verdict and the sanctity of life than the system used in
Alabama," Morris wrote.
(source: al.com)
TENNESSEE:
Man convicted, sentenced to death for killing Tennessee officer petitions court
for new trial
A man convicted of killing an East Tennessee police office is seeking a new
trial.
The Bristol Herald-Courier (http://bit.ly/1P51oKf ) reports that lawyers for
36-year-old Nikolas Johnson are petitioning for post-conviction relief, arguing
that his constitutional rights were violated.
Johnson was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 2007 in the killing
of Bristol police officer Mark Vance, who was shot in the face in 2004 while
responding to a domestic call.
The 155-page petition filed with Sullivan County court argues that Johnson's
original attorneys were incompetent, his jury was racist, that there was
prosecutorial misconduct and that lethal injection is unconstitutional.
It also argued that he should be exempt from the death penalty because he
suffers from mental illness. The petition states previous attorneys did not
present evidence from mental health experts and did not continue to evaluate
Johnson's mental health after he was found competent.
"Due to his severe mental illnesses, Mr. Johnson suffers diminished capacities
that are substantially similar to the diminished capacities of intellectually
disabled defendants," the petition stated. "Accordingly, Mr. Johnson should be
categorically exempt from the death penalty."
A hearing in the case was set for June 23.
(source: Associated Press)
INDIANA:
Rape added to charges against man accused of murder, cannibalism
A count of rape has been added to the charges against a man accused of killing
a woman and eating her organs.
According to court records, Joseph Oberhansley initially confessed to police
that he stabbed 46-year-old Tammy Jo Blanton in September at her home in
Jeffersonville, then removed her organs and ate them.
But in subsequent court appearances, Oberhansley has maintained his innocence.
When Blanton was killed, an autopsy was performed -- including a rape kit.
The results from the kit just came back.
According to new court documents, evidence found on Blanton is indicative of
sexual intercourse, prompting prosecutors to file a rape charge.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Oberhansley.
Prosecutor Jeremy Mull said Blanton's family was not surprised by the addition
of the rape charge.
"The family has been understanding of the process. I just they are devastated
by the events that have occurred, but they've been very brave," Mulls said.
Prosecutors said a few things in this case could help them get the death
penalty for Oberhansley.
The 1st, they said is that the intentional murder happened during the course of
a burglary.
The 2nd, Blanton's body was dismembered.
Authorities said Blanton was raped before she was killed.
Oberhansley was convicted in Utah of killing his 17-year-old ex-girlfriend. He
also shot himself and his mother in that incident. He was released from prison
in 2012 and moved to Southern Indiana.
(soruce: WLKY news)
OKLAHOMA:
The Trouble with Oklahoma's New Execution Technique----A more humane way to
die? The history of American executions says don't bet on it.
On Friday, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed a law giving the state a new
tool to use in executions: a chamber filled with nitrogen gas. If lethal
injection - Oklahoma's preferred execution method - is declared
unconstitutional or becomes unavailable due to a drug shortage, the law would
authorize use of a gas chamber that executes inmates by depleting the oxygen
supply in their blood.
In her signing statement, Fallin reiterated both her support for the death
penalty as well as her belief that nitrogen hypoxia would deliver death
"effectively and without cruelty." As Fallin put it, "The bill I signed today
gives the state of Oklahoma another death penalty option that meets that
standard" and insures that execution is painless and humane.
Oklahoma's revival of the gas chamber is a response to the well-documented
crisis now plaguing lethal injection, arising from drug shortages and a series
of botched executions. Other states reliant on lethal injection have revived
long-abandoned execution methods as well: Tennessee last year brought back the
electric chair, and Utah recently reinstated the firing squad.
Compared to those, nitrogen seems humane. Coverage since Fallin's announcement
has focused on the fact that nitrogen is an inert gas that would be
administered directly by having the condemned breathe it in through a device
like those used when anesthesia is given before surgery, simply putting the
inmate to sleep.
But we have been down this road before. Each new technology for execution used
in the United States - the electric chair, the gas chamber, lethal injection -
was introduced with claims and promises about its humanity. Lethal injection
itself was adopted for its ease of administration, with claims that it would be
"more humane relative to other methods."
It has not worked out that way.
In fact, every method of capital punishment used in the United States has
suffered from a significant failure rate. In recently completed research, I
examined every American execution from 1890 to 2010 and found that, during that
period of time, 3 percent of those executions were botched. In raw numbers that
means that about 300 executions involved some kind of prolonged suffering or
significant technological failure.
It might seem frivolous to worry about the humanity of capital punishment.
After all, these offenders are handed the worst sentence our legal system can
mete out. But the Constitution guarantees even criminals liberty from cruelty
in punishment. Over the decades, the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear
that the legitimacy of capital punishment depends precisely on the belief that
there is a way to insure that executions will be safe, reliable and humane.
Yet the long history of American executions suggests that no such magic bullet
exists - and the gas chamber itself is an excellent illustration. What is now
being said in Oklahoma about nitrogen gas has eerie parallels to what was said
almost a century ago when the gas chamber first became part of America's
panoply of execution techniques. That occurred in 1921, when 2 Nevada
Assemblymen, J.J. Hart and Harry Bartlett, introduced the so-called "Humane
Execution Bill" to replace hanging with new gas-chamber technology. So
convincing was the gas chamber's promise of humane execution that the
Hart/Barlett bill passed the state assembly almost unanimously, before being
sent on to the Nevada Senate, where it was approved the very same day. Less
than 2 weeks later, Governor Emmett Boyle, a longtime opponent of capital
punishment, nonetheless signed the bill into law.
The Nevada law - in line with the most advanced thinking of its time - called
for executions to take place while the condemned was asleep. Death row inmates
were to be housed in air-tight, leak-proof cells, separate from other
prisoners. On the day of the execution, valves would be opened that would fill
the chamber with gas, killing the prisoner painlessly.
Around the same time that Nevada embraced the gas chamber, the Medical Society
of Pennsylvania, reviewing that state's execution methods, also focused its
attention on gas as the most humane way to extinguish life. A Medical Society
committee recommended that carbonic acid be used as the lethal agent in all
Pennsylvania executions. At the time, a doctor named J. Chris Lange wrote in
the Pennsylvania Medical Journal, "Death will happen quickly after the gas
ascends to a level with the mouth and nose of the prisoner. To insure the
absence of all punishment but death itself it is a necessity that the action of
the heart be stilled during natural sleep. ... Experiments on animals have
convinced the committee that the gas does not act as a poison in the usual
sense of the word; it merely deprives the animal of oxygen by displacement of
the air, the consequent death being the result of an auto-intoxication, at
least in large part. ... It is a species of starvation which is fatal in from 3
to 8 minutes."
Lange concluded that such a death - "without preliminaries" and "without the
possibility of accidents" - would "leave the criminal little more to dread of
the future than the common lot of all mankind." While Pennsylvania did not end
up adopting the gas chamber, 11 other states did so.
As it turned out, the actual practice of execution by lethal gas diverged
substantially from the promises of its proponents. Many of those who died in
the gas chamber did so neither quickly nor painlessly. Instead, they suffered
grisly, prolonged, agonizing deaths as they slowly suffocated. By the close of
the 20th century, my research shows, 5 out of every 100 executions by lethal
gas had been botched, and the eventual demise of the gas chamber came as death
penalty proponents, propelled in part by gruesome spectacles of the people
dying by oxygen deprivation, sought new alternatives.
The lesson of this history is that, no matter their views about capital
punishment, Americans should be wary of those who now would have us believe
that nitrogen - or any execution method - will do what no other technology of
execution has been able to do, namely insure that the deaths we impose are
neither gruesome nor cruel. The American belief in scientific progress has
helped to legitimate the death penalty, reassuring citizens that somewhere,
behind the wall, a death is taking place that meets constitutional standards of
punishment.
Sometimes it does. But it is statistically certain that sometimes it won't -
and that a policy of executing prisoners is simply inseparable from
occasionally botching those executions. Despite the reassuring pronouncements
of politicians like Fallin, the revival of the gas chamber reveals more about
the lengths to which some states will go to retain the death penalty as a
criminal punishment than about their concern to minimize the suffering of those
we execute.
(source: Austin Sarat, associate dean of the faculty and William Nelson
Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College,
is author of Gruesome Spectacles: Botched executions and America's Death
Penalty----politico.com)
USA:
FBI Gave Flawed Testimony For Decades, Including 32 Death Penalty Cases
"The FBI's 3-decade use of microscopic hair analysis to incriminate defendants
was a complete disaster," according to Innocence Project co-founder Peter
Neufeld. The Justice Department and FBI recently admitted that almost every
examiner in the elite forensics team exaggerated their findings. What this will
mean for the wrongfully convicted remains to be seen.
According to the Washington Post, Neufeld added "We need an exhaustive
investigation that looks at how the FBI, state governments that relied on
examiners trained by the FBI and the courts allowed this to happen and why it
wasn't stopped much sooner."
The Innocence Project and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
(NACDL) are collaborating with the federal government in a massive review of
suspected problems with forensic microscopic hair comparisons. They've found 26
out of the FBI's specialized 28 person unit exaggerated their findings in a way
that benefited the prosecution. The flawed testimony was present in over 95 %
of the 268 convictions reviewed so far.
The project aims to analyze 2,500 cases, but the results are already deeply
disturbing, according to Senator and former prosecutor Richard Blumenthal.
"These findings are appalling and chilling in their indictment of our criminal
justice system, not only for potentially innocent defendants who have been
wrongly imprisoned and even executed, but for prosecutors who have relied on
fabricated and false evidence despite their intentions to faithfully enforce
the law."
Experts even exaggerated testimony in 32 convictions that led to the death
penalty. 9 of those death row inmates have already been executed; another 5
died while waiting in prison.
Microscopic hair analysis was considered the cutting edge of crime forensics
before DNA testing became mainstream. Nevertheless, finding a match between a
defendant and hair found at a crime scene comes down to the subjective opinion
of the analyst. Deutsche Welle reports that there is no scientific protocol to
support an analyst's testimony.
Furthermore, there's a conflict of interest with having such experts working in
the same offices as the prosecutors, according to Penn State University's
forensic expert David Kaye.
"You've got a laboratory in the FBI working with a prosecutor from the
Department of Justice in which the FBI sits - they have a relationship. You
want to please people. It's easy to see how people could be overconfident."
The subjectivity of the tests and blind authority given to the experts created
a perfect storm of flawed testimony and perjury.
Still, that might not mean much for the hundreds of people convicted in trials
using erroneous testimony. Of course, many of the trials utilized other
evidence to convict the defendant.
Defense attorneys who did not object to the FBI testimony during the trial will
also have more difficulty challenging previous rulings.
Kaye told Deutsche Welle the future is still "very unclear."
"The FBI, the Innocence Project, the National Association of Criminal Defense
Lawyers are going around telling the old defense lawyers here's a problem with
the testimony, but whether they're going to get relief from that is very
unclear."
FBI hair analysis has largely gone out of fashion because of modern DNA
testing, but the review still has major implications for expert testimony on
ballistics, bite marks, fibers, tool marks and other forensic fields.
(source: inquisitr.com)
********************
Victims in Boston Marathon Bombings Are Split on Death Penalty
The jury in the Boston Marathon bombing trial reconvenes Tuesday at the federal
courthouse here to decide whether to sentence Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the convicted
bomber, to death or to life in prison with no chance of parole.
The 1st phase of the trial, which lasted a month, was a foregone conclusion,
once Mr. Tsarnaev's lawyers admitted he was involved in the bombings and all
but told the jury to find him guilty. But the penalty phase will be far more
contentious, emotional and unpredictable, with Mr. Tsarnaev's life on the line
at a time when the debate over the death penalty is intensifying.
Prosecutors will argue for death, even as some of the survivors and the
families of victims who died have asked that Mr. Tsarnaev's life be spared. A
few days ago, the parents of Martin Richard, the 8-year-old boy killed at the
marathon, asked the government to take the death penalty off the table because
it would mean endless appeals and delay their ability to move on.
The Richard family helped Mayor Martin J. Walsh of Boston unveil a banner at
the site of 1 of the blasts that hit the 2013 Boston Marathon, on the 2nd
anniversary of the attack.
Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes, a newly married couple who both lost legs
during the 2013 bombings, made a recent statement, saying: "We must overcome
the impulse for vengeance." And the sister of an M.I.T. police officer whom Mr.
Tsarnaev killed has said she thought that the death penalty would bring neither
peace nor justice.
Calls by survivors or victims' families for the death penalty, however, have
been more muted. Among those who feel strongly is Liz Norden; 2 of her sons
each lost a leg in the blasts. She has said that because he destroyed so many
lives, Mr. Tsarnaev deserves "the ultimate justice."
These expressions both pro and con have presumably not reached the ears of the
jurors, who have been ordered to avoid all media coverage of the case and were
even told not to attend this year's marathon on Monday.
Carmen Ortiz, the United States attorney who is prosecuting the case, is
pursuing the death penalty, arguing that Mr. Tsarnaev acted in a heinous, cruel
and depraved manner, betrayed the United States after becoming a citizen, and
has shown no remorse. The government is expected to argue that if the death
penalty were ever justified, it is justified in this case.
The debate here is particularly intense because Massachusetts abolished the
death penalty in 1984, but this is a federal case and so federal law applies.
On April 8, the jury found Mr. Tsarnaev, 21, guilty on all 30 charges against
him in connection with the 2013 bombings, which killed three people and wounded
264 others. The same jurors are now settling in for the sentencing phase, which
will unfold like a regular trial. Judge George A. O'Toole Jr. of Federal
District Court, who is presiding, has said it could take about 4 weeks.
The defense will have broad leeway to argue the "mitigating" circumstances that
it says should spare Mr. Tsarnaev from execution. One will be his age: He was
19 at the time. Another will be the powerful influence of his older brother,
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, whom the defense has cast as a violent jihadist bent on
revenge against Americans for the killings of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tamerlan was killed a few days after the bombings after a shootout with the
police and after Dzhokhar drove over him in a getaway car.
In her closing argument in the guilt phase of the trial, Judy Clarke, Mr.
Tsarnaev's lead defense lawyer, said that while her client's actions were
inexcusable, the bombings would not have taken place if not for his elder
brother.
George Kendall, a New York lawyer who has handled hundreds of death penalty
cases but is not representing Mr. Tsarnaev, said he expected that to be Ms.
Clarke's central theme in the penalty phase.
"She will explain how this guy goes from cradle to crime," Mr. Kendall said.
"The jury will receive a lot of information about him, his life, how he grew
up, where he was emotionally." And that information, he said, will become the
building blocks to her larger thesis that Mr. Tsarnaev's brother carved out the
path that led to the bombings.
The point is to show that Mr. Tsarnaev, while culpable, is less culpable than
his brother.
"In highly aggravating cases, juries often see differences between the levels
of responsibility for each person," Mr. Kendall said.
The prosecution, which argues that the 2 brothers were equal partners, will
probably reject any gradations of responsibility and lay the blame squarely on
Mr. Tsarnaev.
As in the guilt phase, the prosecution, which has the burden of proving its
case beyond a reasonable doubt, will be the 1st on Tuesday to make opening
statements and present its case.
Neither side has made its witness list public. From court filings, most of
which are under seal, it is possible to glean that some foreign witnesses will
be testifying, but their identities are not known.
It is not clear whether Mr. Tsarnaev's parents, Anzor and Zubeidat, who are
believed to be living in Dagestan, a Russian republic, or his sisters, Bella
and Ailina, who live in the New York metropolitan area, will be testifying or
whether they will even be in court; so far, they have not attended the trial.
In federal cases, the odds favor life sentences. Since the federal death
penalty was reinstated in 1988, federal juries have considered it in 230 cases
and opted 2/3 of the time for life sentences instead, according to the Federal
Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project. In that time, only 3 people in federal
cases have been executed, including Timothy J. McVeigh, the Oklahoma City
bomber.
A vote for the death penalty must be unanimous.
(source: New York Times)
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