Aug. 26
KENTUCKY:
Space issues force move of accused killer, Madden
The man suspected in the death of a 7-year-old Scottsville girl has been moved
from jail in Barren County to the Christian County Detention Center.
Barren County Jailer Matt Mutter said that Timothy Madden was moved from Barren
County Detention Center in Glasgow on Tuesday because space was needed for
other inmates at the jail.
Madden, 39, has been charged with murder, kidnapping, 1st-degree rape and
1st-degree sodomy in connection with the death last year of Gabriella "Gabbi"
Doolin, who was found dead in a wooded area near Allen County-Scottsville High
School on Nov. 14.
He has pleaded not guilty to all counts in the case in which he faces the death
penalty if convicted.
Madden had been housed in Barren County in an isolation unit since his arrest
on Nov. 20.
The decision was made to transfer Madden to Christian County after contacting
officials at the Allen County Detention Center, Mutter said.
"We're going to be getting all the inmates from Monroe County at the end of
this month," Mutter said. "We try to help out other counties as much as we can,
but our main priority is having enough space for Barren County inmates."
(source: Kentucky New Era)
NEW MEXICO:
Grisly killing of 10-year-old set to stoke debate over death penalty
The grisly killing of a 10-year-old Albuquerque girl is sure to intensify
debate over whether New Mexico should reinstate the death penalty, a subject
that in the past week has tussled with the sagging economy as the state's
pre-eminent political issue leading into next year's legislative session.
Emerging details of Victoria Martens' death, including allegations that she was
drugged, raped and dismembered on the same day she planned to celebrate her
birthday, have sent shock waves through the state. 3 adults, including the
girl's mother, have been charged in connection with the case.
The murder comes just 1 week after Republican Gov. Susana Martinez called for
the return of capital punishment in cases involving the murder of children or
law enforcement officers.
Martinez did not mention the death penalty in a statement Thursday about the
girl's murder but said: "Justice should come down like a hammer on the monster
who committed this murder."
Last week, a spokesman for Martinez said "the governor supports reinstating the
death penalty and, at minimum, we can all agree that it should apply to cop
killers and child murderers."
Those comments came after a police officer in Hatch was shot dead. A fugitive
wanted for murder in Ohio faces state and federal charges in the case.
The New Mexico Legislature and then-Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, abolished
capital punishment in 2009.
Martinez, a Republican who was a longtime district attorney before being
elected governor in 2010, has renewed her own years-old proposal to return the
death penalty to New Mexico. She raised the topic in her first State of the
State speech in 2011 but never pushed the idea until recently.
A spokesman for the governor on Thursday would not say whether Martinez would
amplify her call for reviving the death penalty based on Victoria's case.
The horror elicited by the elementary school student's death paralleled the
shock following the shooting death of 4-year-old Iliana "Lilly" Rose Garcia in
a road rage case in October.
Lilly's death and the shooting deaths of 2 police officers in the Albuquerque
metropolitan area led Republican state representatives to introduce a host of
bills aimed to crack down on violent crime. In the 30-day legislative session
that followed, crime-and-punishment measures dominated debate much of the time,
even though the "short" session was supposed to focus mostly on the state
budget.
Now, with the state's cash reserves depleted and legislators planning to return
to the Capitol in September for a special session to balance the budget, and
with a 60-day legislative session scheduled to begin in mid-January, the return
of capital punishment and other crime measures could once again dominate debate
in the Roundhouse.
Critics of the governor's focus on crime while the state's budget is in
disarray expressed a combination of horror at Victoria's death and the prospect
of the case becoming part of the argument for reinstating capital punishment.
"It's a terrible tragedy that I believe was easily preventable had this state
invested in a comprehensive early childhood education and child welfare
system," said Rep. Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque. "I believe the fullest
extent of the law should come down on the monsters that did this, but I think
discussions of the death penalty are distractions."
Rep. Martinez and the governor are not related and agree on little in terms of
public policy.
Even before state legislators abolished the death penalty in 2009, New Mexico
had used it sparingly.
The only person executed in the state after the death penalty was reinstated in
1976 was convicted of a crime similar to Victoria's case.
Terry D. Clark kidnapped, raped and murdered a 9-year-old Roswell girl in 1986.
Clark dropped his appeals in 1999 and was executed by lethal injection in 2001.
2 convicted murderers in New Mexico still could be put to death because they
committed their crimes before legislators repealed capital punishment. One
kidnapped and murdered a 17-year-old Flora Vista girl in 1995. The other
committed multiple murders.
After New Mexico outlawed the death penalty, Illinois, Connecticut Maryland and
Nebraska followed suit. 30 states, the federal government and the U.S. military
still have the death penalty. Several states, though, rarely execute prisoners.
Reinstating capital punishment would be an unusual step as other states move
away from it, and the process of carrying out executions is complicated by
difficulties in obtaining drugs for lethal injections.
Rep. Martinez said the state, with a budget crisis likely to lead to cutbacks
that will fall on the backs of children and the poor, will see yet more
tragedies.
Allen Sanchez, executive director of the New Mexico Conference of Catholic
Bishops, said he anticipates the murder of Victoria will be used in the debate
over capital punishment.
"Our hearts are broken. And as humans, our instincts are to protect," he said.
"But this is why you create laws - to govern us and help us through the
difficult times that are emotional."
The emotions that arise during such times are important, Sanchez said. "Let's
hope that this tragedy is not used for politics but good work," he said.
An opposing view comes from Rep. Andy Nunez, R-Hatch, who says New Mexico needs
to bring back the death penalty. Nunez voted to repeal the death penalty in
2009 when he was a Democrat. Now, he says, he will carry the legislation to
reinstate capital punishment if Gov. Martinez asks him to do so.
(source: Santa Fe New Mexican)
WYOMING:
Utah man accused of stabbing 2 women, 1 fatally, at a Wyoming hotel is set to
stand trial
The Draper man accused of fatally stabbing 1 woman and injuring her friend at a
Wyoming hotel will stand trial in January.
Bradley Ross Fairbourn, 19, was charged with murder, a 1st-degree felony, for
the June 23 slaying of Naisha Rae Story, 29, of South Jordan, as well as
attempted murder, also a 1st-degree felony, for the injuries her friend
suffered.
Sweetwater County, Wyo., Attorney Dan Erramouspe will decide by Sept. 9 whether
to pursue the death penalty. The jury trial, scheduled to begin Jan. 17, likely
will be a week long, but it could be extended, Erramouspe said, if his team
seeks the highest punishment under the law.
Fairbourn allegedly was responding to an online ad for sexual services posted
by the 2 women, he told police, when he went to their hotel room about 1 a.m.
Either Story or her friend - Fairbourn said he was unsure which woman he was
communicating with - apparently posted about "full service" massages, charging
documents state.
After forcing his way into the room, he purportedly attacked the 2 women with a
knife. When police arrived - after Story's friend escaped and ran for help -
they transported Story to a local hospital, where she died from the injuries.
Her friend has recovered.
Officers also found and arrested Fairbourn, who had left the scene, in the
surrounding area. He was passing through Wyoming the day of the incident on his
way to Utah, documents state.
He is being held at Sweetwater County jail on $1 million bail and denied the
charges at a preliminary hearing.
(source: Salt Lake Tribune)
CALIFORNIA:
Oakland man accused of killing Hayward police officer pleads not guilty
The Oakland man accused of killing Hayward police officer Sgt. Scott Lunger
pleaded not guilty Thursday afternoon in the Hayward courthouse.
It's been more than a year since Lunger, 48, was fatally shot during a traffic
stop July 22, 2015, in Hayward. Mark Estrada, 22, has been jailed without bail
since being released from the hospital with a gunshot wounded inflicted by
Lunger's cover officer.
Estrada has no previous criminal record, and his family says they believe he is
innocent. His charges make him eligible for the death penalty.
Estrada's attorney, Christopher Morales, addressed questions outside the
Hayward courthouse back in July, at least the 3rd time the entry of plea
hearing had been postponed. Morales said he was waiting for a bulk of evidence,
such as police reports and lab reports, before entering a plea. At a hearing in
April, dozens of uniformed Hayward police officers filled the courtroom for
Estrada's appearance.
(source: The Mercury News)
*********************
Missing the other side of capital punishment: innocent people wrongly convicted
I realize that when writing a piece about California's death row it's much more
interesting to focus on an inmate whose crimes are the stuff of horror movies.
But it seems that in a story written by a columnist who describes himself as
"ambivalent" about capital punishment, it would be edifying to also look at
those on death row whose guilt is questionable, or whose crimes were not
horrendous but occurred in the wrong county, or whose conviction was the result
of a woefully inadequate defense attorney. ("A macabre and failed system of
justice"; Forum, Aug. 21)
Dan Morain writes that, "No doubt, many death row inmates received less than
perfect trials. But they are on death row for good reason." The facts show
otherwise. Since 1973, 156 innocent people have been exonerated and freed from
death rows around the country. And, as U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge
Alex Kozinski once said, "For every exonerated convict, there may be dozens who
are innocent but cannot prove it."
Morain focused on Lawrence Bittaker in his column, a poster boy for supporters
of the death penalty. He could just as easily have focused on Kevin Cooper, a
death row inmate whose conviction was so controversial his supporters include a
former FBI investigator of violent crimes, the American Bar Association, some
of the jurors who convicted him, and a Louisiana prosecutor who wrongly
convicted a man in a similar case years ago.
Finally, Morain has been a reporter in California for a long time. Doesn't he
find it strange that California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is
now giving reporters regular tours of death row? When I was a reporter in the
'90s, I visited San Quentin 3 times, but death row was always completely off
limits. I was at San Quentin when Mother Teresa visited, and we weren't allowed
to accompany her to death row because "it was too dangerous."
It strikes me as more than coincidence that with Proposition 62 on the November
ballot, San Quentin's death row is now open to the media. What better way to
make an argument for the need for the death penalty than to introduce the press
to the men whose crimes give people nightmares? And who better to have as your
messenger than the "objective" media? Wasn't there at least part of him that
suspected he was being used?
(source: Opinion; Mary C. DeLucco of Petaluma is a former television reporter,
writer and producer in the Bay Area. She now works as a freelance writer and
producer in San Francisco----Sacramento Bee)
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