July 22
KANSAS:
Kansas Supreme Court upholds death sentence of man who killed Greenwood County
sheriff
The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday upheld the conviction and death sentence of
Scott Cheever, the man who shot and killed Greenwood County Sheriff Matt
Samuels during a drug raid in 2005.
It was only the 2nd time the state's high court has upheld a death sentence
since Kansas reinstated capital punishment in 1994.
And the decision comes amid intense political scrutiny of the court during an
election year in which the Kansas Republican Party has openly called for 4 of
the 7 Supreme Court justices to not be retained this year, in part over
controversy stemming from earlier death penalty cases.
In 2012, the court initially overturned Cheever's conviction and death
sentence, saying in part that the trial court in Greenwood County violated his
Fifth Amendment privilege against self incrimination by allowing evidence to be
introduced from a court-ordered psychiatric examination.
The court said the testimony of Dr. Michael Welner should never have been
admitted. It did not address the question of whether Welner's testimony
unfairly influenced the jury.
But the U.S. Supreme Court the following year reversed the Kansas court in a
unanimous opinion written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, saying the prosecution
was entitled to present that witness to rebut Cheever's claim that he was not
mentally competent at the time of the killing because he had been abusing
drugs.
In a 52-page opinion released Friday, written by Justice Eric Rosen who is not
up for retention this year, the Kansas court, in a 6-1 ruling bowed to the U.S.
Supreme Court by agreeing that Welner's testimony was admissible.
The court went on to say, "Welner's testimony, while questionable in form, did
not, in substance, exceed the proper scope of rebuttal, either constitutionally
or under state evidentiary rules."
It also said none of the other issues that Cheever's attorneys raised on appeal
warranted reversing the verdict or death sentence.
Justice Lee Johnson, who is also not up for retention this year, wrote a
dissenting opinion saying he believes the death penalty violates the Kansas
Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
(source: Lawrence Journal World)
NEBRASKA:
Journey of Hope brings message of healing to fight against death penalty
2 people on opposite sides of the criminal justice system brought a message of
healing Thursday evening in their quest to see that the death penalty in
Nebraska remains banned.
Shujaa Graham and SueZann Bosler, both representing the organization called
"Journey of Hope ... from Violence to Healing," shared their stories with a
group of about 2 dozen people Thursday evening at the Immaculata Monastery in
Norfolk.
Both encouraged Nebraskans to vote to retain the state's ban on capital
punishment in the November general election.
Graham spoke first and told his story of how he was sent to death row in
California after being wrongly convicted of murder. Later, Bosler spoke of
learning to forgive her father's killer and how she spent many years fighting
to see that man's death sentence overturned - a fight she finally won in 1997.
Graham lived in southern California during the 1960s and was in and out of
trouble as a teenager before being sent to prison for robbery. While he was
incarcerated, Graham was wrongly convicted of murdering a prison guard in 1973
and was sentenced to die in California's gas chamber.
"I'm not here because of the system," Graham said. "I'm here in spite of the
system."
Graham spent time on San Quentin's death row before his death sentence was
overturned in 1979. After the case was retried for a 4th time, he was finally
acquitted in 1981.
After leaving prison, Graham dealt with bitterness over his wrongful conviction
before receiving healing via the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"What helped me is I continued to study and read the philosophy of Dr. King,"
Graham said. "And it kept me straight in terms of loving everyone, but you
don't necessarily have to like it. You can't pick and choose whose human rights
you want to respect. It was hard and it took a lot of strength."
Bosler told the crowd of how James Bernard Campbell came to the door of her
father's house in Florida and stabbed him 24 times before turning the knife on
her and stabbing her 5 times. While Bosler survived the attack, her father, a
Church of the Brethren minister, did not.
Bosler spent more than a decade fighting to see Campbell receive a life
sentence instead of the death penalty because of her and her late father's
opposition to capital punishment. That fight often put her at odds with the
prosecutors and judges in the case - even being threatened at one point with a
contempt of court citation if she spoke out about her views on the death
penalty.
"My father said, 'Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me,' but I
say let it begin with every single one of us in this world," Bosler said. "We
all have a place to help society, to bring peace and to bring this to the
world."
Bosler also spoke of her internal struggle to forgive Campbell and how
forgiving him for her father's murder helped her find the peace she sought.
"Some people think that if you forgive the other person, you're above them and
you're better than them," Bosler said. "It doesn't work that way. I am a better
person within myself, but I am just as equal to him as anybody else in the
world and will always be equal to anybody in this world."
Graham and Bosler will continue their tour of Northeast Nebraska this weekend,
visiting Wayne on Friday evening and Dakota City on Saturday morning.
It's part of organized efforts to encourage Nebraskans to retain the ban on the
death penalty, which was approved by the Nebraska Legislature. That led to a
successful petition drive to put the question on the November ballot.
(source: Norfolk Daily News)
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