March 27
OHIO:
Man facing death penalty in double-slaying of Cleveland car dealership owners
wanted quick cash, prosecutors say
Michael Kuznik and Trina Tomola wanted to close up their used car dealership
and pick up fish dinners for their 2 kids before they returned home on Good
Friday.
Before they finished, Joseph McAlpin carried out a plan to steal cars to turn
into quick cash, killing the Euclid couple along the way, a prosecutor said
Tuesday during opening statements in McAlpin’s capital murder trial.
Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Russ Tye said that McAlpin shot the 2 at
close range and tried to cover his tracks by stealing the dealership’s video
surveillance system. He left behind DNA evidence that linked him to the April
14, 2017 slayings at Mr. Cars Inc. dealership in Collinwood that set off an
uproar in the community, Tye said.
“Joseph McAlpin went into Mr. Cars and did the unimaginable,” Tye said. “He
brutally murdered and viciously shot Michael Kuznik and Trina Tomola.”
McAlpin, in a rarity for a death-penalty case, is representing himself in the
trial in front of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Brian Corrigan. McAlpin
denied committing the crime in his opening statement.
Tye said along with DNA, cellphone data and surveillance video show that
McAlpin, 31, carried out the shootings of Kuznik and Tomola, who left behind 3
children between the ages of 6 and 19.
A co-defendant is slated to testify against McAlpin, prosecutors said.
McAlpin’s father founded the car dealership in 1977, and he took over
operations in 2005. The night of the shooting, about 4 p.m., McAlpin placed a
call to the dealership. His brother, Jerome Diggs, and his brother’s friend,
Andrew Keener, agreed to go to the dealership to steal cars, sell them and
split the cash, Tye said.
They drove together and parked on Winward Road about a block away from the
dealership. McAlpin went inside. The two others stayed near the car, Tye said.
Once inside he shot Kuznik, 47, in the showroom, Tye said. The bullet him in
the face. Kuznik ran to a backroom, where McAlpin stood over him and shot him
in the top of his head, Tye said.
Investigators found McAlpin’s DNA in Kuznik’s back pocket, where Tye said he
put cash from two car sales earlier in the day. The cash was stolen, Tye said.
Tomola, 46, tried to run from the building during the robbery. McAlpin shot her
in the back of her head, near an exit, Tye said. McAlpin’s DNA was found on a
modem inches from Tomola’s body, Tye said.
McAlpin also shot and killed the couple’s Doberman Pinscher, Axel, that
accompanied the couple to work every day for protection, Tye said.
He disabled and stole the surveillance system and calmly walked into the
parking lot, where he changed the license plates on a BMW and a Mercedes he
planned to steal, Tye said. He called Keener, who drove away in the Mercedes.
McAlpin took the BMW, Tye said. Cleveland police later found it with McAlpin’s
DNA inside, Tye said.
Tomola’s son grew concerned when the couple didn’t return home after work. He
drove to the dealership, spotted his mother lying in a pool of blood and called
911.
Keener, who pleaded guilty Feb. 25 to involuntary manslaughter, is expected to
testify against McAlpin as part of his plea agreement. Diggs has pleaded not
guilty to aggravated murder and other charges. His trial has not yet been set.
While McAlpin’s opening statement cannot be used as evidence in the case, he
denied the killings and never offered another version of events, including
where he was at the time of the killings.
He argued that Cleveland police rushed to place blame on someone for the crime
because of the outrage in the community over the slaying. Cleveland City
Councilman Mike Polensek, who attended opening statements on Tuesday, was a
vocal critic of the slayings, saying that the mayor failed to prioritize safety
in his ward.
“The mistake they made was jumping to conclusions,” he said. “The mistake they
made was that they needed a face. The mistake they made was me.”
McAlpin said surveillance video from another car dealership across the street
was poor quality. He said viewers wouldn’t be able to see a face, let alone the
race of the person stealing the cars from the lot.
He told the jury he had prior convictions for burglary and armed robbery, but
that he cooperated with investigators.
McAlpin said his DNA would have been around the dealership because he shopped
for cars there 3 times, including once with his wife. He also questioned
Keener’s motives for agreeing to testify at trial.
“A chicken is going to scream until it gets out of the oven,” he said.
(source: cleveland.com)
COLORADO:
Polis Opens Door To Death Penalty Reform As Democratic Repeal Plan Stalls
Gov. Jared Polis said state lawmakers should either revoke or reform Colorado’s
death penalty. He’s fine with whichever approach they decide, but he wants
something done this year or next — and would consider a special session on the
issue.
“It’s barely administrable as it currently is written,” Polis told Colorado
Matters. “It has a requirement for a drug that we have no legal way of
acquiring. It does provide for alternative methods, but those would be tied up
in courts and very costly for many years.”
There are currently 3 men on the state’s death row.
A mostly Democratic-backed measure to abolish the death penalty, SB 19-182, has
stalled because it may not have enough votes to clear the Democratic-controlled
Senate. Polis has long said he would sign such a bill, yet he’s also open to
keeping the death penalty on the books with changes.
Polis added he doesn’t feel capital punishment is fairly administered, is
disproportionate and depends largely on where a person lives and who the
prosecutor is.
“You have the Aurora theater killer, who killed a dozen people, who didn’t get
[the death penalty] and somebody else who killed 2 people got it. So why is
somebody who killed a dozen people not get it and somebody who killed two
people got it,” Polis asked.
The two people who were killed are Javad Marshall Fields, and his fiancé,
Vivian Wolfe. Javad’s mother is Democratic state Sen. Rhonda Fields. She said
the governor clearly doesn’t understand why her son’s murderers qualified for
the death penalty.
“My son’s case met all the elements of a death penalty case, so it’s not based
on one, or two or 12. It’s the aggravators that are involved,” Fields said. “My
son was going to be a witness in a murder trial.”
She also noted prosecutors had sought the death penalty for the Aurora theater
shooter, but a jury was not able to unanimously agree to it. Fields has been
critical of how some other members of her own party have failed to fully
communicate with her about the death penalty repeal measure, not briefing her
on details and the quick pace to move it through the legislature. There was
only one day between the measure’s introduction and first public hearing.
She said the governor hasn’t engaged her either. Fields supports the state’s
current law and doesn’t understand how Polis wants to “fix” it.
“I think you need to make decisions based on facts, and having a clear
understanding moving forward, and I’m just not sure he has that,” Fields said.
The Democratic sponsor of the death penalty repeal measure, Sen. Angela
Williams of Denver, said she would like a permanent solution.
“I appreciate the governor lending support to repealing the death penalty,”
Williams said. “Unfortunately our only option is to repeal. Reform does not get
to the crux of this morally driven debate. We need to decide whether it is
moral for the state to continue to decide who lives and who dies?”
(source: cpr.org)
CALIFORNIA:
Opinion: My wrongful conviction shows need to abolish death penalty----First
death row prisoner exonerated by DNA testing applauds Gov. Newsom’s moratorium
on executions
Kirk Bloodsworth is the first death row prisoner exonerated by DNA testing in
the United States.
I was so thrilled when I heard the news about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s moratorium on
executions last week. I spent 9 years on death row for a crime I didn’t commit.
Every day while I was in prison, I awoke to the threat of execution. Now I run
the country’s only organization made up of, and led by, death row exonerees. We
are living proof that the system makes mistakes.
I was wrongfully convicted of raping and murdering a 9-year-old girl in 1984 in
Maryland. I was a 23-year-old, honorably discharged Marine with no criminal
record or criminal history. I was arrested based on an anonymous tip that I had
been seen with the victim, even though there was no physical evidence linking
me to the crime. I lost nearly a decade of my life before DNA testing proved my
innocence. As a result, I became the first death row prisoner exonerated by DNA
testing in the United States.
Now, along with dozens of other innocent men and women who were also sentenced
to death in this country, I travel around the United States telling my story. I
have traveled across the country and up and down the state of California
because I don’t want what happened to me to happen to anyone else. Or worse
yet: the execution of innocent people before they can prove their innocence.
Unfortunately, California has a long history of wrongful convictions. Since
1989, 191 men and women have been exonerated of serious crimes in California.
And since the death penalty was reinstated in the state, five men have been
released from death row. The most recent exoneration involved Vicente
Benavides, who was released just last year after spending 25 years on death row
for a crime he didn’t commit.
California’s wrongful convictions involve the same sorts of errors that have
led to 164 innocent men and women being freed from death row nationwide since
1973. Errors such as witness misidentification, the use of junk science, false
informant testimony, misconduct by police or prosecutors, and false
confessions. Most cases involve more than one of these problems. Some of these
individuals came within hours or days of execution before their innocence was
discovered.
A study released by the National Academy of Sciences in 2014 found that at
least 4.1 percent of defendants sentenced to death in the United States are
likely innocent. Given that California has 737 men and women on death row, that
means approximately 30 of them could be innocent. The risk of a wrongful
execution is always there, even if it hasn’t happened yet. Is this a risk we’re
willing to take?
There is simply no way to bring an innocent man back from the grave if he is
executed. And as long as our justice system is run by human beings, there will
always be errors. Even the most well-intentioned prosecutors, judges, defense
lawyers and juries make mistakes. In my case, five witnesses claimed to have
seen me with the victim or near the crime scene, but they were mistaken.
There is one step we can take to ensure that an innocent person is never
executed, and that is to replace the death penalty with a sentence of life in
prison. This is a way to ensure that if new evidence is discovered or if
forensic science evolves, as it did with the advent of DNA testing, that the
state will have an opportunity to correct its mistake.
Executing an innocent person would be an unforgivable and grave mistake. I
applaud Newsom’s action, which ensures that such a mistake will never be made
on his watch.
Kirk Bloodsworth is the interim executive director of Witness to Innocence, the
only national organization composed of, and led by, exonerated death row
survivors and family members. A 2016 documentary “Bloodsworth – An Innocent
Man” is available on iTunes and for streaming on Amazon Prime.
(source: Opinion; Mercury News)
************************
Death penalty moratorium may affect suspected murderer of Zeeland couple
A moratorium on executions of inmates sentenced to death from California’s
governor may affect the fate of a California man suspected of killing a Zeeland
man and his fiancee on the beach in 2004.
Shaun Gallon, 40, was charged in 2018 with the murders of Jason Allen and
Lindsay Cutshall, who were shot and killed while asleep on the beach while
vacationing in 2004. Allen, 26, and Cutshall, 22, were shot at close range with
a .45-caliber rifle while they slept in their sleeping bags in Jenner, Calif.
Gallon is also suspected of killing his brother, Shamus, in March 2017 and has
a lengthy criminal history. For the 3 murder charges, Gallon could possibly
face the death penalty, if prosecutors choose to pursue such a penalty.
However, recent governmental changes in California may throw the possibility of
the death penalty for Gallon in question.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced earlier this month he was signing an
executive moratorium on the death penalty, effectively suspending all
executions for as long as Newsom remains in office. Currently, there are over
700 people on death row in California. The last execution in the state was in
2006.
In statements to the press, Newsom cited high costs to the state and the
possibility of killing an innocent person due to “human error.”
Michigan outlawed the death penalty in 1846, the 1st state in the U.S. to do
so.
However, the legal right to formally end the death penalty in California rests
with the voters, who supported capital punishment in 2016. Legislation is
making its way through the California assembly to have voters take up the issue
again in 2020 as a proposed constitutional amendment.
The Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to requests from
The Sentinel about whether they will be seeking the death penalty for Gallon in
either the Jenner beach case or the death of his brother.
Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch told the local newspaper, The
Sonoma County Press Democrat, that she does not support the death penalty.
“I have spoken with many survivors, some who don’t want to wait for the appeals
process to know the outcome for the killer and find closure knowing the final
sentence is life without parole,” Ravitch told The Press Democrat.
Gallon, who was 25 at the time of the Zeeland couple’s death, is known to law
enforcement in the area and was always a person of interest in the case. Along
with the 3 murder charges and an attempted murder charge for a package bomb
explosion case from June 2004, Gallon was convicted of assault with a deadly
weapon when he wounded someone in the head with a bow and arrow in 2009. He has
been described as a “survivalist” and there is no clear motive in the
double-murder case.
(source: Holland Sentinel)
USA:
James Fields, Jr. to Enter Plea Deal to Avoid Death Penalty
The federal case against James Alex Fields, Jr., will likely not head to trial.
The white supremacist who’s already convicted on a state murder charge is set
to enter into a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
Fields is set to go before a federal judge on Wednesday, March 27.
Sources say he will enter into a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in
order to avoid the death penalty.
Back in June, federal prosecutors announced indictments against Fields on 30
federal civil rights charges.
29 of Fields' federal charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison while
1 carries the death penalty.
This all stems from the car attack near Charlottesville's Downtown Mall
following the Unite the Right rally in August 2017.
A jury convicted Fields on a slew of state charges in December, including
1st-degree murder for the death of Heather Heyer.
He's facing a recommended life sentence along with hundreds of more years from
the state court.
Formal sentencing on that is set for July 15.
Fields will be present in-person at federal court on Wednesday.
His hearing gets underway at 2:30 p.m.
(source: WVIR news)
*********************
Researcher—Capital Sentencing Evidence Shows Death Penalty Race Bias is Real
For decades, studies have shown persistent racial disparities in the
administration of capital punishment. Saying “death sentences are unevenly and
unfairly applied based on race,” California Governor Gavin Newsom on March 13,
2019 imposed a moratorium on executions in the state with the nation’s largest
death row. Responding to the governor’s moratorium In an op-ed for the Los
Angeles Times, Stanford psychology professor Jennifer Eberhardt—one of the
leading researchers on social science and race—says race discrimination in the
death penalty “is real” and that the research supports the governor’s claim.
“In a state that is only 6% black, more than 1/3 of defendants sentenced to
death in California are black,” Eberhardt said. California, like other
death-penalty states, also shows evidence of bias in favor of white victims.
Defendants who kill white victims are much more likely to be sentenced to death
than those who kill black victims.
“But the truth is more complicated, and more insidious, than a simple
black/white divide,” Eberhardt explains. Her groundbreaking 2006 study of two
decades of death sentences in Philadelphia found bias operating at the
subconscious level based upon an African American’s physical appearance. “When
black men are judged by juries in capital cases, their sentences can hinge on
just how black they are perceived to be,” Eberhardt writes. “Those with darker
skin, wider noses and thicker lips are subject to far harsher sentencing than
lighter-skinned blacks with less prominent, so-called black features.” In the
study period between 1979 and 1999, black defendants with stereotypically
African features were much more likely to be sentenced to death than black
defendants with less stereotypical features (see image), but only if the victim
was white. In the study of Philadelphia capital convictions, “Of the men rated
low in stereotypical features, only 24% had been sentenced to death. But more
than 57% of the “highly stereotypical” black defendants were sentenced to die
for their crimes.” “Those strong distinctions signal that our perspectives, our
criminal justice process and our institutions are influenced by primitive
racial narratives that link people of African descent to darkness and evil,”
she says.
Eberhardt’s op-ed describes how racial bias has become ingrained in the
criminal justice system. “Research has shown that highlighting racial
differences in the justice system actually leads members of the broader public
to be more supportive of punitive policies, including the death penalty. When
the implicit narrative of black ‘wickedness’ is not challenged, it can seem to
perfectly explain the disparities in outcomes,” she says. In addition, unlike
any other equal protection challenge under the U.S. Constitution, the U.S.
Supreme Court’s 1987 decision in McCleskey v. Kemp barred defendants from using
statistical evidence as circumstantial evidence of racial bias, instead
requiring proof of “particularized discrimination” — that is, direct evidence
of intentional discrimination in their case. “The ruling came under heavy
criticism from legal scholars and civil rights activists, concerned that it
made institutional racial bias constitutional, and simply part of the status
quo,” Eberhardt writes, and was the one ruling Justice Lewis Powell, the author
of the 5-4 decision, said he regretted in his time on the Court.
(source: Death Penalty Information Center)
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