April 20
TEXAS----impending execution
The Lynching of James Byrd Jr.: 2 Decades Ago This Racist Murder Shocked
America. Now His Killer Faces Execution
For the past 2 decades, John William King has sat on death row in Texas,
waiting to die for his part in an atrocious hate crime that shocked America.
Now, finally, it is his time. This is the story of his victim.
James Byrd Jr., 49, left a party in his hometown of Jasper, Texas, at around 2
a.m. on June 7, 1998, and began walking home down a dark rural road.
Along the way, 3 young men passing by in a gray pick-up, one of whom Byrd Jr.
recognized from around town, and let him hitch a ride in the back.
Byrd Jr., a father of 3, didn’t make it home.
The trio were white supremacists. The ringleader King, 23, with his friends
Shawn Berry, 23, and Lawrence Russell Brewer, 31, drove Byrd Jr. up a dirt
logging road. They beat him and chained him to the back of the truck by his
ankles.
For a mile and a half, they dragged Byrd Jr. along Huff Creek Road.
He held his head up to protect it, rolling his body from side to side to cope
with the pain as the friction wore his skin and flesh down to the bone, his
ribs breaking on the bumps.
Suddenly, Byrd Jr. hit an exposed culvert, tearing his right arm, neck, and
head from his body.
Byrd Jr.’s chained remains were hauled further down the road and dumped in
front of a black church, left to be discovered on Sunday morning.
Police traced the rest of Byrd Jr.’s body back up the road and the dirt track.
They began an investigation into a sadistic lynching that would change the law
in America.
‘There was no other verdict’
The 3 trials of the accused in the Byrd Jr. lynching were straightforward
because the case against them was compelling.
They were known hardcore racists. They were seen on the night driving with Byrd
Jr. in the back of the pick-up by his friend who, fatefully, couldn’t give him
a ride home from the party. And they clumsily left a trail of forensic and
circumstantial evidence behind them.
“I had a lot of confidence in the DA system and the criminal justice system at
that time,” Clara Taylor, Byrd Jr.’s sister, who sat in on all 3 trials, tells
Newsweek.
“I think because of the time we lived in, some were saying they’d never get a
conviction of a white man for killing a black. Well, I knew by listening to the
evidence and with everything going on there was no other verdict for them to
come [to].”
During King’s trial, the jury was shown the racist tattoos all over his body,
including one of a hanged black man.
The court heard how King, who fetishized the KKK, would proudly show off his
tattoos and say: “See my little n***** hanging from a tree.”
“King was the leader of a Klan group called ‘Confederate Knights of
America—Texas Rebel Soldier Division’,” Guy James Gray, the former Jasper
County district attorney who prosecuted King, tells Newsweek.
“His particular group was formed in the Beto I unit of the Texas prison system.
He was a prolific writer with impressive skill for a high school drop-out.”
Dr. Tommy Brown, a forensic pathologist who carried out the victim’s autopsy,
testified in harrowing detail about the extent of Byrd Jr.'s injuries.
As Brown’s description shows, the term “dragging” neutralizes the depravity of
what murder by this method really means for the victim.
Almost all of Byrd Jr.’s front ribs were broken. Most of his body was covered
in what Brown described as "massive brush burn abrasions."
His testicles were missing and Brown found gravel in the scrotal sac. The
knees, feet and buttocks were worn down. So was the flesh on the left cheek,
exposing the jawbone.
Toes were missing. Muscle was exposed on the legs.
But there were no injuries to Byrd Jr.’s brain and skull. Brown concluded that
Byrd Jr. was conscious and holding up his head until the culvert killed him.
Moreover, the formation of some of Byrd Jr.’s wounds left Brown to conclude
that he was moving deliberately during the dragging to relieve the pain.
“I think I can probably remember all the details of evidence, of trials, of
juries. Everything about it. It's just about as raw today as it was 20 years
ago to me,” Gray says. “It was tremendously emotional.”
King was the 1st to be convicted of capital murder and sentenced. On February
25, 1999, a little over 20 years ago, King received the death penalty.
“I thought it was truly amazing that in this state that they were able to find
a guilty verdict because there was no sign of remorse in him whatsoever,”
Taylor tells Newsweek.
In September that year, Brewer also received the death penalty. He was executed
by lethal injection on September 21, 2011.
“This had never happened before,” Gray says. “Never in the history of the state
of Texas had a white man been given the death sentence for the murder of a
black man. The old heads around said it couldn't be done.”
Berry was spared the death penalty but sentenced to life imprisonment for his
part in the murder at the culmination of his trial in November 1999.
Hate crime needs better data
Statistics suggest the number of hate crimes against black people have reduced
significantly over the past 2 decades.
FBI data shows that in 1999 there were 3,679 victims of anti-black hate crime,
accounting for 67 % of the total, the largest proportion of any victim
sub-group.
The most recent data is for 2017 when there were 2,458 victims of anti-black
hate crime, or 48.5 % of the total.
Between 1999 and 2017, the number of black victims of hate crimes fell by 33 %.
Heidi Beirich, a director at the anti-hate group Southern Poverty Law Center
(SPLC) and an expert on extremism, tells Newsweek that “anti-black hate crimes
are always a large portion of the data, especially if you take into account the
size of the black population in the U.S.”
Beirich added: “So a historic problem that comes from our long history of white
supremacy continues to result in violence directed at the black population.”
While the longer-term picture is improving, things appear to have worsened
again during the Donald Trump era.
Between President Barack Obama coming to power in 2009 and him leaving office,
the number of black victims of racial hate crimes fell by 23.5 % to 2,220.
But in the 3 years between Trump announcing his candidacy in 2015 and the end
of his first year as president in 2017, the number of black victims is on the
rise again.
Between those years there was an 11.5 % increase in the number of victims of
anti-black hate crimes, the FBI data shows.
Racist murders of black people are not consigned to American history because
they never stopped. They are a constant through the country’s 242 years of
existence.
In 2015, the 21-year-old white supremacist Dylann Roof shot and killed 9
African American worshippers at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina,
hoping to trigger a race war.
3 years later, Gregory Bush, 51, allegedly tried to do the same in Louisville,
Kentucky.
Police say Bush, who was armed, attempted to enter the First Baptist Church of
Jeffersontown, a black church, but the doors were locked. He was heard banging
on them.
Thwarted, Bush is alleged to have walked to a nearby Kroger supermarket where
he shot dead Maurice Stallard, 69, and Vickie Lee Jones, 67, who were both
black.
A witness told WAVE3 News that Bush declared: “Whites don’t kill whites.”
Throughout his campaign and presidency, critics accused Trump of inflaming
social tensions, playing to white America’s fears about crime, race and
immigration.
Michael Cohen, the president’s disgraced former attorney and fixer, told
Congress under oath that Trump is a racist who thought black people were too
stupid to vote for him.
“I don't mean to be political,” Gray tells Newsweek, “but the current
administration, their choice of words and the way that they present things and
argue things, it polarizes everybody.
“I think it encourages some of these fringe white supremacist-type groups to be
more active. In general, I think the trend is going in the right direction, but
the current tone in our politics is not helpful.”
The data isn’t yet strong enough to draw robust conclusions about the impact of
Trump on hate crimes. “It’s really hard to know given how poor the data is,”
SPLC’s Beirich says.
And underreporting by victims is a real problem, obscuring the reality of hate
crime in America.
“It’s a problem for all hate crimes,” Beirich says. “The DOJ says there are
about 250,000 hate crimes a year in the U.S. and the FBI only reports about
6,000. That’s 5 % of the data.
“So we really don’t know how serious a problem hate crimes of any kind are
because we don’t have good data.”
When Jussie Smollett, 36, a star of the show Empire, came forward with his
story of a racist hate crime, it played all the right notes.
Smollett, a black man, was out in Chicago in the early hours of the morning to
get a sandwich when, he claimed, 2 men shouting Trump campaign slogans and
racist remarks assaulted him.
These men, Smollett said, sprayed him with a chemical substance and put a rope
around his neck before running off.
The lynching imagery was lost on nobody. The story spoke to fears about Trump
giving new life to old hatred in modern America.
But after investigating and then arresting 2 suspects—a pair of black
brothers—Chicago Police charged Smollett with making a false police report.
The department accused Smollett of paying the 2 brothers to stage the hate
attack to win sympathy for himself and advance his career.
Police said Smollett wanted to negotiate a better contract.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel decried Smollett on CNN because the incident will
have terrible consequences for the many real victims of hate crime.
“What about the person in a workplace facing…racial discrimination?” Emanuel
asked CNN’s Don Lemon.
“What about the young man who is dealing with his own sexual orientation and is
attacked for it in high school or in some school who's now going to doubt
whether people will believe him?
“You have put all those real stories at risk for your fake story. That is not
right.”
Smollett maintains that he has told the truth. After agreeing to community
service and forfeiting his $10,000 bond to the city of Chicago, prosecutors
dropped the charges against him.
But the Cook County State’s Attorney said in a statement that it stood behind
the police investigation despite dropping the charges in an alternative
prosecution deal.
Emanuel was furious. “This is a whitewash of justice," the mayor said at a news
conference.
“If this turns out to be a hoax, I would be very saddened,” Louvon Byrd Harris,
another of James Byrd Jr.’s sisters, told Newsweek before the charges against
Smollett were dropped.
“Because hate crime is a very serious issue and many victims have and are still
suffering from damages because of hate.
“Therefore, hate crimes are real and shouldn't be made a mockery of.”
As Emanuel predicted, the damage may already be done. America’s hard-right
conservatives seized on the doubt to bring all hate crime into question.
“Alright, this particular hate crime turned out to be a hoax, but let's
remember, ALL OF THEM are hoaxes,” tweeted Ann Coulter, the right-wing pundit.
Underreporting is already a problem. Smollett’s case risks making it an even
bigger one.
Legacy
? To bring about good from evil, and to secure a legacy for James Byrd Jr. that
is more than the story of his murder, the family set up The Byrd Foundation for
Racial Healing.
Its motto: Stop the hate, educate.
Through training workshops, school visits, community programs and keeping James
Byrd Jr.’s memory alive, the foundation hopes to combat the racism that leads
to tragedies like their own.
The foundation’s work to fight hate and raise awareness of what happened to
Byrd Jr. helped bring about a major change in the law.
In 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr.
Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which reformed, strengthened and broadened federal
hate crime laws.
Matthew Shepard, a gay 21-year-old student, was beaten and tortured to death in
Laramie, Wyoming, because of his sexuality in October of the same year as Byrd
Jr.’s lynching.
Louvon Byrd Harris still runs the foundation.
“When this crime happened to James the hate crime laws were very weak. No one
would or could ever get convicted of a hate crime using the current law that we
had at the time,” Byrd Harris tells Newsweek.
“But now with this new hate crime law I do feel a little safer simply because
the criminals have to think long and hard about the crime they are about to
commit because if caught he or she will pay dearly perhaps with their own life.
“I feel if we had such a law in 1998 perhaps James would still be alive.”
She warned that America is today “dealing with a new generation of people who
were not born during the time of James and also with people who still feel that
they are above the law no matter what,” and blamed a lack of education.
“The Byrd Foundation provides the tools that are necessary to educate and
change the mindset of what that individual [has] been taught about people that
are different than them,” Byrd Harris says.
“People often hate because of fear and they fear because they do not know each
other, and they do not know each other because they do not communicate, and
they do not communicate because they are separated.
“The foundation is determined to break down the barriers that separate us as a
people.”
Taylor, who described what happened to her brother as “a modern-day lynching,”
is likewise focused on a brighter future.
“He did not deserve to have this happen to him. But [at] the cost of his death,
his legacy should be one of the good things that happens as a result of it,”
Taylor says.
2 decades on death row
Berry is still in prison serving out his time for killing Byrd Jr.
And King is still alive on death row, two decades after receiving his sentence,
the execution delayed by appeals. He is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday.
He is 44 now and, according to prison mugshots, looks it; heavier, his eyes
sunken and dark, but as hollow as ever.
“His execution is long overdue,” Gray, tells Newsweek. “I'm not a big fan of
the death penalty. I never have been. But there are cases from time to time
when it just feels like it's the only reasonable thing to do. This is one of
those.”
There was no remorse during his trial. As far as the Byrd family knows, King
has shown none since.
“Throughout the trial he looked like he was just bored, sitting there with no
interest, nothing that was shown, and so I think he wanted to make a name for
himself. And that’s what he did,” Taylor tells Newsweek.
“When he left the courthouse that day on being given the death sentence he used
an expletive as he referred to our family.
“Ever since then, he’s shown no remorse whatsoever and so I think that in his
case the death penalty is completely justified.”
Richard Ellis, King’s attorney, declined to be drawn on King’s remorse or
otherwise.
“As for any of my client's feelings, I hope that you can appreciate that I am
ethically forbidden to divulge such information,” Ellis tells Newsweek.
The appeals process is not yet dead for King. In February 2018, the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the 5th Circuit gave King permission to proceed with an appeal.
King claims his trial counsel failed to properly present the case for his
innocence.
Ellis said the appointment of King’s Federal Public Defender as co-counsel for
clemency was approved only recently. Funding for the clemency investigation
proceeds from that.
“There are still remaining areas of investigation in this case and legal
avenues to present this,” Ellis says, and one of those areas “will probably
center around the issue upon which the 5th Circuit granted a certificate of
appealability.”
By the end of March, Ellis had filed a clemency petition for King with the
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. He planned in early April to file a
subsequent petition at the state court.
The execution, and some sense of closure for the Byrd family, it being the
final loose end from the trials, hangs tauntingly in the near distance.
They have waited many years for the execution of King. But they fear it will be
snatched away.
? “I feel like he had a right to appeal as much as the system allows him to,”
Taylor says.
“Sometimes technicalities can get a person off, or you get a judge leaning one
way or the other who can cause another appeal to be approved, and going through
the whole trial over again, we’re not looking forward to that at all.”
She adds: “I think that 20 years was an extremely long time because even in
that time period he didn’t seem to be any worse off for being on death row. He
looked healthy, he’s gained weight.
“He looked like he’s just enjoying life to the extent that he could enjoy it.
It makes you think about your loved one not being given that time to see what
he would be like if he grew older.”
Gray says he has been asked repeatedly to attend the execution of King, but he
has no plans to.
“If this execution had been 10 years ago, I'd actually be more inclined to be
there. But when you wait 20 years to execute someone on a jury's verdict, I
don't know, it's anticlimactic I guess,” he says.
But Taylor will be in the room whenever King finally gets his lethal injection,
be it April or beyond, just as she was for Brewer.
She made a promise to her late mother, Stella Byrd, who died aged 85 in 2010.
“Some of us will be there to represent our family and especially our mum who
asked that we see this through,” Taylor tells Newsweek.
“When we attended the execution of Brewer, it sort of takes a few minutes. It’s
kind of a quiet, peaceful time. A time for meditation. But it also brings back
the memory of how James died. A horrific death. And [King] just peacefully goes
to sleep.
(source: Newsweek)
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
N.H. Death Penalty Repeal Will End 'Cycle Of Pain,' Says Lawmaker Who Lost
Father To Murder
New Hampshire lawmakers in both the state Senate and House have passed a
bipartisan bill with a veto-proof majority to repeal the death penalty.
Gov. Chris Sununu has said he'll veto the bill, but if he's overridden, New
Hampshire will become the 21st state in the country to abolish capital
punishment.
Renny Cushing, the lawmaker behind the bill, is no stranger to death.
He founded "Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights" after both his father
and brother-in-law were murdered.
Cushing said he supports repealing the death penalty because it "only continues
the cycle of pain."
(source: WBUR news)
*******************
Murder by state: The Legislature says repeal capital punishment; the governor
should listen
Repeal of the death penalty in New Hampshire is headed to the desk of Gov.
Chris Sununu. He’s repeatedly vowed to veto the measure, but he ought to
rethink that stance.
To begin with, it’s simply wrong for the state to be in the business of killing
people. As a punishment, even for the most heinous of crimes, it’s uncivilized,
overly costly and — importantly — irrevocable; it cannot be undone, even in
cases where mistakes or injustices have been done. Further, one can reasonably
make the case that a lifetime in prison is a harsher penalty than a relatively
quick ending.
Moreover, it’s a political battle those with his view are likely going to lose.
We say that not only because both the House and Senate backed House Bill 455 by
wide enough margins to override a veto — though there is no guarantee the
governor can’t sway enough lawmakers to his side to ultimately sustain such a
move — but also because capital punishment is falling out of favor.
Nationally, a growing number of conservative lawmakers, traditionally the core
of death penalty backers, are moving away from that stance. Efforts this year
in Wyoming, Kentucky, Montana and Virginia to repeal or diminish capital
punishment statutes have widespread Republican backing.
And in New Hampshire, support for repeal efforts has been growing among GOP
lawmakers. In 2014, 56 Republican House members backed a repeal bill. Last
year, 71 did. And HB 455 passed the House this term with 72 GOP votes, even as
that party lost many seats in last November’s election.
Among the groups calling for repeal is Conservatives Concerned About the Death
Penalty, which argued before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that
“the death penalty does not comport with conservative principles such as
limited government, fiscal responsibility, and a commitment to life.”
New Hampshire has not executed anyone for a capital crime in 80 years. One man
stands convicted of a capital murder and sentenced to die — Michael Addison,
who shot and killed Manchester police Officer Michael Briggs during a robbery
in 2006. Although the repeal bill ostensibly affects only future cases, former
state attorney general Kelly Ayotte told the Judiciary Committee that she
believes Addison’s death sentence would likely be commuted if it passes.
Addison’s future has been a central point in death penalty debates in recent
years. Several gubernatorial candidates have said while they supported repeal,
it would only be if it didn’t apply to him. Briggs’ widow testified before the
Judiciary panel last month that her husband was a death penalty supporter, and
she urged the senators to kill the repeal measure.
Such appeals are based on emotion, as is the death penalty statute itself. The
idea of “an eye for an eye, a life for a life” may feel just, but it is born of
rage, not logic.
As for the notion that putting a murderer to death will serve as a warning and
deter others from similar crimes, that is, as Cheshire County jail
Superintendent Richard Van Wickler testified, a fallacy that’s been debunked by
many studies. “There’s no deterrent effect, specifically or generally. ... It
doesn’t exist.”
Sununu looks to be ready to veto quite a number of bills this session. Many of
them have been passed along partisan lines and there remain enough Republicans
in both chambers to support his vetoes.
House Bill 455 is not in that category. If he cannot flip a handful of Senate
votes or a larger number of representatives, Sununu stands to see a veto of
this measure overridden. He ought to accept that it has bipartisan support and
sign it, or if unwilling to do so, allow it to become law without his
signature.
(source: Editorial, Keene Sentinel)
PENNSYLVANIA----new death sentence
Jacob Sullivan Sentenced to Death for 14-Year-Old Grace Packer’s Rape, Murder
Jacob Sullivan was sentenced to death Thursday morning for the rape and murder
of his partner’s 14-year-old adopted daughter, Grace Packer, The Morning Call
reports. Last month, Sullivan pleaded guilty to plotting the Pennsylvania
teen’s rape and murder for months before finally carrying it out on July 8,
2016. Police said previously that the couple beat her and Sullivan raped her,
before they forced her to overdose on medications and stuffed her in a closet
to die. When that didn’t work, Sullivan strangled her—but he had difficulty
carrying it out, and prosecutors said that the murder took about 2 minutes.
The jury was initially torn between life imprisonment and the death penalty—but
after a judge refused to declare a deadlock Wednesday, the group decided to
sentence him to death. The judge urged jury members to seek counseling, if
necessary. “The butchery in this case was beyond my ability to describe,” she
reportedly said. “To live through it vicariously through the photos and the
tapes and the recordings... must have taken a toll.” Sullivan will now join 142
other inmates on death row, The Morning Call notes, although no one has been
executed in the state since 1999.
(source: thedailybeast.com)
VIRGINIA:
Virginia dad could face the death penalty for shooting dead his daughter, 18,
and the teenage niece who he got pregnant
A Virginia father who police say shot dead his daughter and niece has been
charged with capital murder.
Abdool Zaman, 39, was originally charged with second degree murder for
allegedly killing his daughter, Vanessa Zaman, and his niece Leona Samlall,
both 18. Zaman had impregnated Samlall, who gave birth to the man's son.
Investigators say Abdool opened fire on the teen girls while they were walking
near the Oakmeade Apartments in Highland Springs around 12.17pm on December 13.
Vanessa's mother, Saveeta Barnes, said her daughter had wanted to re-establish
a relationship with her estranged father even thought she had warned he was
'not a good person'.
'Her biological father was out of her life for most of her life. Vanessa always
wanted his love and for him to be a part of her life,' Barnes wrote on a
GoFundMe page set up to pay for a memorial site for her daughter.
'When she turned 18, she got in contact with her father. Even after telling her
countless times that he was not a good person, she still went ahead and moved
in with him... She told me, "Mom, I'm going to give you 18 years of my life. I
want to give my dad the next 18." Apparently she gave him her entire life.'
Not long after moving in, Vanessa saw her dad abusing the woman she thought was
his girlfriend and the mother of his son. Vanessa later discovered the abused
woman, Leona, was actually Abdool's niece who had been missing from her own
mother's home for 2 years.
That's when Abdool's daughter tried to help his niece escape back to her
mother's home, but she never made it.
'On 12/13/18 [Abdool] shot and killed his own daughter,' Barnes wrote. 'Vanessa
died a hero protecting others while paying with her dear life. Gone but will
never be forgotten.'
Abdool fled to New York where he was arrested on December 18. He tried to fight
extradition, but was sent back to Virginia on March 28, according to WTVR.
Prosecutors recently raised the severity of the charges against Abdool after
further investigating the circumstances surrounding the teens' deaths.
Authorities determined seeking the death penalty was appropriate because Abdool
allegedly killed multiple persons as a part of the same criminal act.
A 2nd capital murder charge was added for killing more than 1 person within a
3-year period.
Zaman was also charged for use of a firearm in the commission of a felony 1st
and 2nd offense.
Barnes told Newsday in January that life without her daughter has been
'torture,' and that she hopes her child's father gets sentenced to death.
'It’s what he deserves,' she said.
(source: dailymail.co.uk)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Defense aims for life in prison for Godwin
After listening to evidence in the sentencing hearing for David Isaiah Godwin
this week, a jury will decide Monday on the fate of the man who has been found
guilty of murdering Morehead City resident Wendy Tamagne in 2016.
The jury determined April 12 that Mr. Godwin, 28, of Newport, is guilty on 5
counts of 1st degree murder in the case. Next, the panel will determine whether
to sentence him to life in prison without possibility of parole or impose the
death penalty.
Defense attorneys Ernest Conner Jr. and Philip Clarke III called upon expert
witnesses and family and friends of Mr. Godwin to testify this week. In total,
about a dozen witnesses testified in the hope Mr. Godwin will escape death row.
The prosecution, led by assistant district attorneys David Spence and Ashley
Eatmon, did not bring any additional witnesses to the stand during this phase
of the trial.
The defense enlisted the help of mitigation specialists with the Center for
Death Penalty Litigation, a nonprofit group based in Durham that seeks to
reduce instances of capital punishment. According to the group’s website,
investigators “delve into clients’ backgrounds and social histories to uncover
evidence of factors that may reduce their culpability, such as mental illness
or severe childhood abuse.”
Among the defense’s witnesses were psychologists who reaffirmed prior testimony
that Mr. Godwin suffers from a number of mental illnesses, including bipolar
disorder and depression. They also said he experienced early childhood trauma
and abuse, as well as attempted suicide multiple times.
During the guilt determination phase of the trial, the defense argued Mr.
Godwin did not possess the “specific intent to kill” Ms. Tamagne on July 4,
2016 because he was influenced by a combination of factors, including a
medication he was taking at the time, alcohol and sleeplessness.
Mr. Godwin beat, strangled and stabbed Ms. Tamagne, 38, in her Morehead City
apartment before dismembering her body. She was found July 5, 2016, tied up in
garbage bags in the apartment, while Mr. Godwin fled to Oregon and later turned
himself in to authorities.
One witness testifying this week was Dr. Dan Chartier, a psychologist who
specializes in quantitative electroencephalography, a tool that measures and
analyzes brainwave patterns. He said based on his examination of Mr. Godwin,
the defendant has an “abnormally” functioning brain, perhaps due to brain
trauma earlier in life.
Dr. Chartier said during cross-examination Thursday Mr. Godwin may have entered
a dissociative state when the murder took place.
Another witness was James Aiken, a consulting expert in the correctional field,
who said he believes Mr. Godwin would acclimate well to life in prison. He said
based on his review of Mr. Godwin’s jail records and other relevant
information, the defendant would not pose a threat to prison staff, other
inmates or himself if sentenced to life in prison.
Mr. Godwin would be placed in a maximum-security state prison if that is his
sentence.
Other witnesses included family friends, former teachers, an ex-girlfriend and
family members of Mr. Godwin. They all said they were “shocked” to learn Mr.
Godwin had been charged with murder, and many said he deserves a second chance
at life.
“That’s not the David I knew,” Deborah Belknap, his former high school drama
teacher, said.
Those who were closest to Mr. Godwin said they knew he was troubled and could
fall into periods of depression, but they said he never appeared aggressive or
violent. They described him as creative, funny and intelligent.
“He was always lost, he could never find his way,” his ex-girlfriend,
Bernadette Opra, said.
The defendant’s final witness Thursday was Linda Godwin, Mr. Godwin’s adoptive
mother. She also testified last week during the guilt determination phase of
the trial.
She viewed old family photographs and reflected on the happy times with her
son, showing the jury Mr. Godwin “wasn’t always bad.”
The courts are closed for the Good Friday holiday and the jury will reconvene
Monday morning to deliberate Mr. Godwin’s punishment.
The case is being presided over by Judge Joshua Willey.
(source: carolinacoastonline.com)
ALABAMA:
Convicted killer of north Alabama jeweler dies after extended illness in prison
A man serving life without parole for the 1990 shooting death of a north
Alabama jeweler has died.
James David Beard, 59, died at Brookwood Baptist Medical Center after being
transferred there from William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility. Beard was
pronounced dead just after 9 p.m. Thursday from an extended illness, according
to the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office.
Beard was convicted of capital murder in the shooting death of 72-year-old
Jesse Pitts, who was shot and killed during a burglary in February 1990 in
Marshall County. Pitts was found dead in his home after having been shot 3
times.
Less than two weeks after Pitts’ was found dead, Beard was arrested on a
probation violation charge while driving a rented truck on Interstate 59 in
Etowah County. He had previously been convicted of drug possession, receiving
stolen property and escape.
Beard was twice found guilty in Pitts’ death of the Alabama Court of Criminal
Appeals overturned Beard’s 1st conviction because of an improper charge given
to the jury by the judge. Though sentenced to death following the 1st
conviction, the victim’s family agreed not to pursue the death penalty at the
2nd trial.
(source: al.com)
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