May 2
TEXAS:
DA Will Seek Death Penalty In Deadly Double Shooting
McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna announced Friday his office is
seeking the death penalty for a man who is accused of capital murder in a May
13, 2014 double shooting.
Todric McDonald, 28, is accused of killing Justin Javier Gonzalez, 24, and
Ulysses Gonzalez, 30, both were shot to death inside an apartment at the Pecan
Tree Apartments in the 2600 block of Grim Avenue.
The 2 victims were cousins.
Reyna said the killings were particularly brutal, but could not shed any light
on the motive for the shootings.
Online McLennan County Jail records show McDonald is held in lieu of $1,506
million in bonds on the capital murder and 6 other charges.
Neither man actually lived in the apartment but had been there visiting
friends, Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said at the time of the shootings.
They were inside the apartment when 1 or more suspects entered and gunfire
erupted, Swanton said.
Both men were pronounced dead at the scene.
McDonald was arrested on May 16, 2014, after a short chase that reached speeds
of 85 miles per hour on a city street.
A female and a toddler were in the car with him, police said.
McDonald also was named in an indictment charging evading arrest in a vehicle
in connection with a chase on the day of his arrest and for 1 count of
aggravated assault and 2 counts of aggravated robbery in separate incidents,
also reported in May.
The aggravated assault charge stems from another shooting incident that
happened in the 2300 block of Morrow just 5 hours before the double murder
happened.
A co-defendant in that shooting, Tony Olivarez, also was named in an indictment
charging aggravated assault.
Olivarez remains held in the McLennan County Jail in lieu of $504,000 bond.
(source: KWTX news)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Death penalty case moves forward against Ashtabula man accused of causing fatal
injuries to baby
The death penalty case is moving forward against a 23-year-old Ashtabula man
accused of causing fatal injuries to a 6-month-old baby while camping in
Washington County, Pa., authorities said.
Chad Chadwick's defense attorneys are reviewing the discovery and obtaining
experts to review the baby's medical records, said Mark Aaron, district
attorney in Clarion County, Pa.
Chadwick was arraigned in May 2014 on charges of criminal homicide, conspiracy,
aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of children, simple assault and
reckless endangerment, according to court records.
Chadwick was on a holiday camping trip with his girlfriend's infant nephew and
2 other children Labor Day weekend 2013, babysitting for the children's
parents, who live in Geneva, the baby's family members have said.
Police said the youngest of the three children, 6-month-old Zeke Hamilton, was
later found in a car seat, and had suffered injuries to his head, chest and
arms. Zeke was rushed to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, and spent 11 weeks
in a coma. He died Nov. 15, 2013.
The Allegheny County medical examiner ruled the death a ???non-accidental blunt
force trauma to the head," reports show.
Pennsylvania State Police arrested Chadwick in January 2014 at home in
Ashtabula, with the help of local law enforcement, Ashtabula Police Chief
Robert Stell has said.
Aaron has said he is seeking the death penalty based on the aggravating
circumstance that the victim of the homicide was a child under 12 years of age.
No date has been set for Chadwick's trial.
(source: Star Beacon)
NORTH CAROLINA:
North Carolina lawmakers approve bill to resume executions
North Carolina lawmakers on Wednesday approved a measure aimed at resuming
executions after nine years. The law removes the requirement to have a doctor
present at all lethal injections and instead would allow nurses, physician's
assistants or paramedics to oversee lethal injections in the state. North
Carolina's House of Representatives passed the legislation in an 84-33 vote.
The measure still must pass the Senate. Currently there are 149 inmates on
death row in North Carolina. The state has not executed any inmates since 2006,
partially due to conflicts with policy changes of the North Carolina Medical
Board. The Medical Board believes physician participation in capital punishment
is a departure from the ethics of the medical profession. However, in September
2007 a state judge ruled that the North Carolina Medical Board does not have
authority to discipline doctors that participate in state death penalty
procedures.
Lethal injection and execution methods have been at the forefront of the death
penalty debate for the past few years. Earlier this week the US Supreme Court
heard oral arguments on the constitutionality of Oklahoma's lethal injection
procedure. Oklahoma became the face of the legal injection drug debate last
year after death row inmate Clayton Lockett died of an apparent heart attack
shortly after doctors called off a failed attempt to execute him using a lethal
injection drug called midazolam. Also in April the Delaware Senate voted to
repeal the death penalty, but the legislation includes an exemption for the 15
inmates currently on Delaware's death row. In March Utah Governor Gary Herbert
signed a bill to restore the firing squad as a method of execution, making Utah
one of the few states with that option. Like in Oklahoma, if drugs used for
lethal injections are unavailable, a firing squad would be allowed.
(source: jurist.org)
ALABAMA----female may face death sentence
Judge to decide Lisa Graham's fate on May 28
A Phenix City woman convicted of capital murder for her actions in hiring a
worker to kill her daughter will find out whether she is sentenced to life in
prison or death on May 28th.
In March, a jury recommended the death penalty for Lisa Graham after she was
found guilty of capital murder in the 2007 killing. Judge Jacob A. Walker, III
will either confirm the jury's recommendation and sentence her to death or
sentence her to life in prison.
During the sentencing phase, jurors heard from Lisa Graham's mother and a
doctor who diagnosed Graham with depression and anxiety.
Graham's attorney wanted jurors to consider her son, Kevin Graham, Jr., and
lack of criminal history in the sentencing process.
The prosecution said Graham's daughter will never be able to live her life
since her own biological mother took that away from her.
After an hour of deliberations, the jury came back with a 10-2 recommendation
for the death penalty.
Russell County District Attorney Kenneth Davis was thankful that closure had
finally come.
"Of course the first thing I think of is we have a resolution after 8 years.
You have murder, terrible brutal murder, almost 8 years ago and you know it is
well past time that there be a resolution. So I am thankful for that," Davis
said.
Graham was convicted of hiring Kenny Walton to kill her 20-year-old daughter
Shea Graham. Police found her body on Bowden Road in Russell County in 2007.
During the 5 days of testimony, Walton admitted on the stand to shooting Shea
Graham 6 times the night of July 5th.
The prosecution had a final plea to jurors to convict Lisa of capital murder
while making its closing arguments. The defense hinted that Walton may have
killed Shea for other reasons.
(source: WRBL news)
LOUISIANA:
Prosecutor focuses on DNA samples in Carquest murder trial, testimony likely to
continue throughout weekend
Attorneys spent much of Friday listening to testimony from Louisiana State
Police employees in the 2nd day of Lee Turner Jr.'s capital murder trial.
A State Police firearms examiner, according to the Advocate, testified that 9
shell casings found inside an Airline Highway auto parts store warehouse where
2 employees were shot to death in 2011 were fired from a .380-caliber
semiautomatic pistol discovered in thick brush behind the store.
Turner, who was 21 at the time, is accused of shooting and killing his then
co-workers Randy Chaney and Edward Gurtner at the auto parts store with
intentions on robbing the store. Gurtner and Chaney were found shot to death
shortly after the store closed on Sunday, March 27.
Turner, who was hired less than 2 weeks before the incident, previously worked
at other locations, one on Plank Road and another on Government Street.
A State Police DNA crime analyst testified late Friday that he could not
exclude Turner's DNA found on a safe inside the store or the handgun found at
the scene.
Crime analysts, according to East Baton Rouge Parish First Assistant District
Attorney Tracey Barbera, cannot definitively say whether someone's DNA was
found on a particular item but they can narrow down the possibilities.
Attorneys will continue to hear witness testimony throughout the weekend.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Turner, which would be the 1st
death penalty prosecution in East Baton Rouge Parish since 2010.
(source: Times-Picayune)
******************
Judge: Reeves not disabled, maintains death sentence
Judge Mike Canaday on Friday ruled Jason Manuel Reeves is not intellectually
disabled and can be put to death for killing a Moss Bluff girl in 2001.
Reeves was convicted of 1st-degree murder in the death of Mary Jean Thigpen,
the Moss Bluff child whose body was found in LeBleu Cemetery days after her
disappearance in 2001. Reeves was sentenced to die in 2012, but his execution
was delayed after his attorneys requested a review of Reeves' intellectual
ability.
A 5-day hearing was held in March 2015. The state argued Reeves is not
intellectually disabled and should be put to death. The state noted Reeves was
not diagnosed as intellectually disabled until after his conviction, and that
the diagnosis came from experts hired by the defense.
The defense claimed Reeves is intellectually disabled and therefore not
eligible for the death penalty.
(source: KPLC news)
****************
Man indicted in death of Monroe woman
A Ouachita Parish grand jury has indicted a Monroe man on a charge of
1st-degree murder in the death of 85-year-old Shirley Cagle in her home last
week.
Prosecutors say 26-year-old Robert Nelson could face the death penalty if
convicted.
Assistant District Attorney Neal Johnson said Thursday he hasn't decided
whether the prosecution will pursue the death penalty.
Cagle was well known in the community from her role as the long-time assistant
director of the Ouachita Council on Aging. She was the sister of state Rep.
Frank Hoffmann.
Nelson was arrested last week after police responded to a burglary complaint.
Monroe criminal defense attorney LaValle Salomon told The News-Star
(http://tnsne.ws/1GBSduh) he expects to be retained by Nelson's family in the
murder case.
(source: Associated Press)
TENNESSEE:
Supreme Court to hear arguments on challenge to electrocution
The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next week regarding
whether a death row inmate can properly challenge the constitutionality of
electrocution as a possible method of execution.
The Court will consider only 1 issue of many that are part of a lawsuit by 34
death row inmates challenging Tennessee's death penalty protocol. The
electrocution issue is before the Supreme Court as an interlocutory appeal -
that is an appeal of only part of a case that is continuing in a lower court.
The Court agreed to hear the State's request to dismiss the plaintiffs'
challenge to electrocution as a method of execution. The State asserts that
none of the plaintiffs are currently subject to execution by electrocution,
making their challenges unready for litigation at this time
Although there has not been a final decision in the case at the trial court
level, some elements of the lawsuit have already been reviewed by the Supreme
Court. In addition to hearing this claim regarding electrocution, the Supreme
Court ruled in March that the state was not required to release to the
plaintiffs the names of those involved in carrying out an execution in
Tennessee.
The Schofield case is among seven cases in which the Court will hear oral
arguments in Knoxville on May 5 and 6. The others are:
(source: local8now.com)
*******************
Minister on death row recalls moments before men died----'What I saw ... was a
lot of broken spirits and a lot of broken people,' Frank Bainbridge says.
'People who had committed terrible things - and had terrible things happen to
them.'
In the minutes before his execution, Robert Glen Coe finished his brief remarks
and was asked by the prison warden if he wanted a prayer.
Coe turned to the chaplain, Deacon Frank Bainbridge, and together they began to
recite the Our Father. Then the chaplain read Psalms 23, a version Coe favored.
"The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want."
Bainbridge remembers that day in 2000, when Tennessee carried out its 1st
execution in 40 years, and he recalls what it felt like to take part in the
intimate moments before a man's death.
There had been many times before when Bainbridge questioned what he should be
doing with his own life. But there, at the foot of the gurney to which Coe was
strapped for lethal injection, Bainbridge sat. His left hand on a red Bible,
his right hand on Coe's knee.
"That was one occasion I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be," the
79-year-old says. "I was his disciple in that setting."
Coe is just 1 of the many Tennessee inmates to whom Bainbridge has ministered.
On May 2, Bainbridge, a 35-year prison ministry veteran, will receive the
inaugural Award for Compassionate Leadership presented by Dismas House of
Nashville. Dismas is a transitional residential program that has helped more
than 1,000 former offenders successfully re-enter society after leaving jail or
prison.
Bainbridge is a man who has assisted many prisoners who may never have the
chance to leave.
"What I saw, and what I found, was a lot of broken spirits and a lot of broken
people," the now-retired minister says of his years sitting in maximum security
cells. "People who had committed terrible things - and had terrible things
happen to them."
As Bainbridge speaks, stained glass windows in the Cathedral of the Incarnation
cast rainbows on his face.
It was at this Catholic church, four decades ago last Sunday, that Bainbridge
received holy orders. Born in a house on Hayes Street, he converted to
Catholicism at age 24, the year after he got out of the Marines. Not too many
years later, he felt called to do more.
The 1st mass for which he ever presided was at the old Tennessee State
Penitentiary, where he visited for 13 years as a catholic Chaplin. After it
closed in 1992, he moved his service to Riverbend Maximum Security Institution,
which now houses the majority of the state's male death row inmates.
There he would go at least 3 nights a week and share scripture with hardened
men.
He would visit them in their cells, small boxes for 2 men with a toilet and a
sink, where he could stand in the middle and touch the wall on either side. On
some occasions, he would hold communion services in a broom closet. He visited
1 prisoner every week, for 17 years.
Some of these men were wounded, he says - sometimes as much as those they had
wounded. They were men who, as children, had been beaten. Burned. Broken. If
all a person experiences as a child is violence, he says, if all he is made to
feel is worthless, then that is how he will grow up.
"How can we expect them to turn out any differently?" he asks.
He found that by giving these men something real, something part of him, they
would open up. They trusted him with their emotions, and that, in turn, brought
healing to Bainbridge. It confirmed his faith.
With some he saw changed men, prisoners whose life sentences were long enough
to clear their heads. Of course there were others, he says, where confinement
made them mean. Men who became sociopaths. Some who need to be locked up
forever.
But even then, deep inside them, something beats.
That rhythm is what called Bainbridge.
And when he retired in 2011, he believed it was time to get out of God's way.
He doesn't understand his role in it all. Then again, he says, "I guess I don't
have to."
What he does understand is this:
"God heals us through each other," he says.
With spirit and grace.
--
About Dismas House
Founded in 1974 by the late Father Jack Hickey, a Vanderbilt University
chaplain, Dismas House is a nonprofit organization that provides transitional
housing and support services to men coming out of prisons and jails.
The Dismas House Forgiveness Dinner is a fundraiser for the organization.
Deacon Frank Bainbridge, a 35-year prison ministry veteran, will receive the
inaugural Award for Compassionate Leadership at the event.
When: 6 p.m., Saturday
Where: OZ Arts Nashville (6172 Cockrill Bend Circle, Nashville)
Tickets: $150 per person. Purchase tickets or donate at www.dismas.org
Electrocution discussion in Tennessee Supreme Court
The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next week about whether a
death row inmate can properly challenge the constitutionality of electrocution
as a method of execution.
The electrocution issue is before the Supreme Court as an interlocutory appeal
- meaning it is only part of a case that is continuing in a lower court. It is
one issue of many that are part of a lawsuit by 34 death row inmates
challenging Tennessee's death penalty protocol.
The Court agreed to hear the state's request to dismiss the plaintiffs'
challenge to electrocution. The state asserts that none of the plaintiffs are
currently subject to execution by electrocution, making their challenges not
ready for litigation.
Although there has not been a final decision in the case at the trial court
level, some elements of the lawsuit have already been reviewed by the Supreme
Court. In addition to hearing this claim regarding electrocution, the Supreme
Court ruled in March that the state was not required to release to the
plaintiffs the names of those involved in carrying out an execution in
Tennessee.
(source: The Tennessean)
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