June 10
PENNSYLVANIA:
Judge denies accused cop killer Rahmael Holt’s request to move jury selection
Jury selection in the capital murder trial of Rahmael Sal Holt will begin in
Westmoreland County, but could be moved to another county if finding impartial
jurors proves to be too difficult, a judge ruled Monday.
Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rita Hathaway rejected a defense
request to move jury selection to another county because of intense pretrial
publicity the case has generated since the November 2017 murder of New
Kensington police officer Brian Shaw.
Holt, 31, of Harrison, is charged with 1st-degree murder in connection with the
fatal shooting of Shaw. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty
should there be a conviction.
“We won’t be able to select a fair and impartial jury in Westmoreland County,”
said defense attorney Tim Dawson.
Jury selection for Holt’s November trial is scheduled to begin in late October.
Testimony is slated to begin Nov. 4.
Hathaway said an effort will be made to select jurors in Westmoreland County.
Should that prove to be difficult, the judge said she will reconsider the
defense’s motion.
Prosecutors said Holt gunned down Shaw as Holt fled from a from a traffic stop
in New Kensington. Holt was arrested 4 days later in Pittsburgh after an
intense manhunt.
Also on Monday, the judge rejected a defense effort to bar prosecutors from
seeking the death penalty.
Dawson argued that 2 cases pending before the state’s Supreme Court regarding
appeals seeking to overturn death penalty cases issued in Philadelphia could
ultimately invalidate capital punishment in Pennsylvania. Dawson also suggested
that state legislation proposed in Harrisburg would do the same.
The appeals are based on an argument that the death penalty is cruel and
unusual punishment.
Capital punishment has been the law in Pennsylvania since the late 1970s but
just 3 men have been executed in the state. Gov. Tom Wolf has placed a
moratorium on signing any death warrants as state officials continue to study
the impacts of the death penalty.
“At this time the death penalty is not declared unconstitutional, so at this
point the trial will proceed,” Hathaway said.
(source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
SOUTH CAROLINA:
Grandmother of dad who killed 5 kids asks to spare his life
The father and grandmother of a man who killed his 5 children asked a jury on
Monday to spare his life for the slayings because their family has seen so much
death and sadness.
Roberta Thornsberry testified that along with losing her five
great-grandchildren after Timothy Jones Jr. killed them in their Lexington home
in 2014, she has also had to deal with untimely deaths of other children and
grandchildren.
Defense lawyer Casey Secor asked her if the jury should sentence her grandson
to death for killing her 5 great-grandchildren.
"No, God no. I love him. Our family has been through enough. I don't think we
can take any more. This has broken us so bad I think that would be the final
nail in the coffin," Thornsberry said, wiping tears from her eyes.
Later Monday, Timothy Jones Sr. also urged the jury to spare his son's life,
taking off his dress shirt and tie to show the jury tattoos of all five of his
grandchildren's faces covering his back.
Earlier, he testified how he had torn down the pool he built in his backyard
for the grandchildren to play in after defense lawyers at trial had showed a
home movie of him holding the oldest 2 in floaties.
"I feel more responsible than anyone," Jones Sr. said of the murders of his 5
grandchildren at the hands of his son.
The same jury that convicted Jones Jr., 37, of five counts of murder last week
is deciding his sentence. They must unanimously choose the death penalty or
Jones automatically gets life in prison without parole.
Thornsberry talked about how Jones Jr. was mostly happy as a child. She
identified her five great-grandchildren from a photo of all of them in the bed
during a visit to her house.
Jones' lawyers are trying to get the jury to have mercy on Jones by showing how
his execution would just continue the heartache his family has endured.
Prosecutor Shawn Graham reminded Thornsberry of her testimony before Jones was
convicted, in which she said he was selfish because he was an only child. Then,
in a soft voice, he asked her if she heard testimony from Jones' confession
about how the older children begged for their lives or said they loved their
dad as he strangled them.
She cried and quietly agreed.
Jones confessed he exercised 6-year-old Nahtahn until he collapsed and died,
then several hours later decided to kill the other four children . Jones said
he strangled 8-year-old Merah and 7-year-old Elias with his hands and used a
belt to choke 2-year-old Gabriel and 1-year-old Abigail because his hands were
too big.
Earlier Monday, defense lawyers called 2 prison guards who said Jones has been
a model prisoner in his nearly 5 years behind bars, ignoring horrible things
said by other prisoners when they discovered who he was and what he had done.
They also called psychiatrist Donna Maddox who has treated Jones and said his
schizophrenia is getting worse, taking away his outward emotions and his
intelligence.
When he killed his children, Jones was a computer engineer making $80,000 a
year. Now he is scoring below average on a number of intelligence tests, Maddox
said.
Jurors have heard nearly four weeks of heart wrenching testimony in the case,
from the mother of the children breaking down in sobs that she didn't do more
to help her kids to teachers who said they have nightmares and can still see
the children they taught in the halls of their school.
Jones' own father testified he feared his son would break down mentally because
his mother has been in a mental institution with schizophrenia for more than 2
decades and a court appointed psychiatrist testified Jones mental problems came
from synthetic marijuana, not a disorder in his brain.
The trial is being livestreamed from the Lexington County courthouse.
(source: Associated Press)
LOUISIANA:
Death penalty abolitionists increasingly optimistic
A proposal to abolish the death penalty failed to pass this year, but
proponents are more optimistic about its chances going forward, citing the
progress it made this year. New Iberia Representative Terry Landy says his bill
got further this year than ever before, proof that legislative opinion may be
shifting.
“I think we have a lot of traction. For the 1st time in 3 years we were able to
get it out of committee and get it on the floor, when my expectations initially
were just to start the conversation.”
This was Landry’s last year in the Legislature.
The Democrat says despite a somewhat lopsided floor vote against abolishing the
death penalty, he’s encouraged about the effort’s momentum, because lawmakers
were more receptive to his arguments than ever before.
“I had members come up to me after the debate and tell me that I had put it on
there hearts, and that they were really really struggling with it, and some who
said I had changed their minds.”
Landry adds the incoming generation of lawmakers, set to replace 1/3 of the
legislature that is term limited, may be more progressive in their views of
this issue.
The death penalty ban failed to pass, but so too did an effort to make it
easier to get the drugs needed to carry out the death penalty. Landry says the
progress made this year has inspired him to make a bold prediction.
“We have moved the ball significantly, and I do believe in the next term that
the death penalty is going to be repealed in Louisiana, I really do believe
that in my heart.”
Louisiana has not carried out an execution since 2010, as pharma companies
refuse to sell the drugs the state legally needs to carry out lethal
injections.
(source: KPEL news)
ARKANSAS:
Ethics complaint against pastor/judge in death penalty protest hits snag
2 days after saying Arkansas Supreme Court justices do not have to testify in
an ethics complaint against a judge photographed at an anti-death penalty
demonstration more than 2 years ago, a statewide commission that monitors
judicial conduct canceled a hearing scheduled June 13.
It is the 4th postponement in proceedings by the state Judicial Discipline and
Disability Commission in a complaint against Judge Wendell Griffen. Griffen,
pastor of New Millennium Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, attended a
Good Friday 2017 prayer vigil on the eve of planned executions in his role as
pastor. Earlier in the day Judge Griffen issued a temporary order barring the
use of a lethal injection drug alleged to have been obtained illegally.
The state Supreme Court responded, without a hearing, by removing the judge not
only from the property dispute but barring him from any future death penalty
cases.
Griffen, who has served in leadership roles with the Cooperative Baptist
Fellowship, says he was exercising his constitutional right to religious
freedom and that his personal views on capital punishment had no bearing on his
ruling in the dispute over how the drug was acquired.
The commission canceled the most recent hearing after its own special counsel
recused herself due to competing interests.
Rachel Michel, a Mississippi attorney appointed to avoid conflicts of interest
by commission prosecutors, said the panel knows she is forbidden from working
on the case during office hours and serves weekends in the National Guard but
scheduled the hearing anyway, without her knowledge or consent.
Michel said in her notice of recusal she nevertheless requested personal leave
time from her employer to attend the hearing, scheduled on short notice, but
the request was denied. She said the rescheduled hearing and employer’s refusal
to grant leave time “creates an unresolvable conflict of interest.”
Griffen’s attorney, Mike Laux, said the debacle “further exposes the
retaliatory politics driving the prosecution of this non-existent ethics
violation.”
In a June 7 order saying that Griffen could not compel Supreme Court justices
to testify because they are “protected by judicial privilege,” the judicial
commission also gave its rationale for extending the case despite a rule
requiring dismissal of complaints that are not decided within 18 months.
“The haphazard, thoughtless and arbitrary nature of the JDDC’s handling of the
complaint against Judge Griffen is clear evidence of political ‘fire-ready-aim’
retribution at work here,” Laux said.
“Combined with the JDDC’s indefensible rulings which defy the letter of its own
rules, the unfortunate developments of the past week all but prove that the
JDDC case against Judge Griffen is totally baseless,” Laux said. “It should
therefore probably come as no surprise that when push comes to shove no one
wants to advance this case.”
(source: Baptist News)
UTAH:
Baum pleads not guilty to Juab Co. teens’ murders, death penalty on the table
Jerrod Baum pleaded not guilty to new charges leveled against him.
During a brief court appearance on Monday, Baum entered a plea to charges of
aggravated murder, a capital offense; aggravated kidnapping, a 1st-degree
felony; abuse and desecration of a body, obstruction of justice and possession
of a weapon by a restricted person.
"Not guilty," he said each time 4th District Court Judge Derek Pullan read a
charge.
Utah County prosecutors now have 60 days to decide whether to seek the death
penalty against him. Utah County Attorney David Leavitt told reporters outside
of court he anticipated a decision by late July.
"It's too early to tell at this point," he said.
Baum is charged in connection with the deaths of 17-year-old Brelynne “Breezy”
Otteson and 18-year-old Riley Powell. The two disappeared in 2017. Baum is
accused of tying them up, killing them and throwing their bodies down an
abandoned mine shaft. Their bodies were recovered in March 2018.
Prosecutors allege Baum was angry because the couple had been visiting with his
girlfriend.
Leavitt said no plea deal is being negotiated right now, but acknowledged the
death penalty could motivate one. However, he said he would consult with
Otteson and Riley's families before deciding any of that.
The families told FOX 13 they supported executing Baum, if he were to be
convicted.
"They didn't get a choice. They didn't get a voice," Bill Powell, Riley's
father, said. "They were prisoners and brutally murdered. He deserves the
same."
"Right now, it's death penalty," said Otteson's aunt, Amanda Hunt.
"Yesterday," Bill Powell added.
Baum will return to court in August.
(source: Fox News)
ARIZONA:
U.S. Supreme Court to hear Chandler death penalty case
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it will hear the death penalty
case of a man convicted of murder in Arizona.
The plaintiff in McKinney v. Arizona is current death row inmate James Erin
McKinney. McKinney was convicted of murdering Christene Mertens in her Chandler
home during a robbery, then doing the same to Jim McClain 13 days later in
March of 1991.
McKinney was sentenced to death in 1993. A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals overturned the sentence in 2015, ruling that the Arizona Supreme
Court did not properly weigh mitigating factors. McKinney's attorneys have
argued that the sentencing judge did not consider McKinney's post-traumatic
stress disorder due to severe child abuse, which could have resulted in a
lesser sentence. The case before the Supreme Court now will determine whether
Supreme Court rulings that have changed death penalty cases since McKinney's
initial sentence should be applied to McKinney, and, subsequently, other death
row inmates convicted before 2002.
McKinney's accomplice, Charles Hedlund, had his death sentence overturned for
the same reason in 2016.
In 2002, the ruling in Ring v. Arizona held that the 6th Amendment requires a
jury to find the "aggravating factors necessary for imposing the death
penalty." In 2015, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Arizona's
"causal nexus" rule unconstitutional. The rule requires any mitigating
evidence, such as mental illness or post-traumatic stress disorder, to be
directly tied to the crime committed in order to be considered in sentencing.
In 2018, the Supreme Court refused to consider a case challenging the
constitutionality of the Arizona death-penalty statute, which petitioners
argued is overly broad.
According to the Arizona Department of Corrections, there are currently 116
inmates on death row.
(source: azcentral.com)
************************
High Court to Clarify Appeals Standard in Death-Penalty Cases
The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear a convicted double murderer’s appeal
of his death sentence and decide whether Arizona’s high court should have
applied current law when reviewing mitigating and aggravating evidence in the
decades-old case.
In 1991, James McKinney and his older half-brother committed 2 burglaries, and
in each crime one of the brothers killed a victim with a gunshot wound to the
back of the head.
Although the brothers dispute who pulled the trigger in each crime, separate
juries found McKinney guilty of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, and convicted
his brother of 1 count each of 1st- and 2nd-degree murder.
A trial judge sent McKinney to death row in 1993, a ruling upheld by the
Arizona Supreme Court 3 years later
. The state’s highest court refused to consider evidence of McKinney’s severely
abusive upbringing because it found no “causal nexus” between his trauma and
his crimes. The court practiced its so-called “causal nexus” test for capital
crimes for 16 years before abandoning it in 2005.
After a Ninth Circuit panel initially rejected his habeas petition, a 6-5
majority of the en banc appeals court found in 2015 that the Arizona Supreme
Court’s refusal to hear mitigating evidence before imposing the death penalty
violated the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Eddings v. Oklahoma, which
found that a trial court in another case should have considered evidence of a
defendant’s difficult childhood and emotional disturbance.
The majority ordered the district court to grant McKinney’s habeas petition
unless Arizona reduced his sentence or allowed him to submit mitigating
evidence at another hearing.
The state challenged the ruling, and the Arizona Supreme Court affirmed
McKinney’s death sentence. It held that U.S. Supreme Court decisions requiring
juries rather than judges to make findings necessary to support the death
penalty did not apply to McKinney’s case because they were issued after 1996,
when his conviction became final.
In a petition for a writ of certiorari to the nation’s highest court, McKinney
urged the justices to resolve the “clear division in authority, which similarly
impacts a substantial number of death-row inmates in Arizona, and which has
significant implications for other capital cases across the country.”
“By refusing to remand McKinney’s case for resentencing, the Arizona Supreme
Court created a clear split with five other state and federal courts, which
have each held that resentencing is required to correct Eddings errors,” the
petition states.
The Supreme Court decided Monday to add the case to its docket for the next
term. Per their custom, the justices did not comment on the decision to take up
the case.
(source: Courthouse News)
CALIFORNIA:
Man Found Guilty of Murder in Death of McStay Family, 6 Years After Bodies Were
Found in Victorville
A Southern California man was convicted Monday of bludgeoning a couple and
their 2 little boys to death, then burying their bodies in a remote desert area
where the crime remained hidden until an off-roader stumbled across skeletal
remains.
After a trial that spanned more than 4 months and depended largely on
circumstantial evidence, jurors in San Bernardino found 62-year-old Charles
"Chase" Merritt guilty of the 1st-degree murders of business associate Joseph
McStay, McStay's wife, Summer, and the couple's 3- and 4-year-old sons.
Merritt closed his eyes and looked down when the court clerk said the word
"guilty" the 1st of 4 times. Sobs came from the packed courtroom. Someone
called out, "Yes!"
Prosecutors said Merritt killed the family with a sledgehammer at a time when
he owed McStay money and was being cut out of the victim's business making and
selling custom water fountains.
The jury also found the special circumstance of multiple murders.
The judge scheduled the penalty phase to begin Tuesday. Prosecutors have said
they will seek the death penalty.
Prosecutors declined to comment after the verdict, and families on both sides
left without speaking to reporters.
The McStay family vanished in 2010.
Authorities found bowls of uneaten popcorn at their San Diego County home,
which had no signs of forced entry, and their car parked at a strip mall near
the Mexico border.
For years, officials couldn't determine what happened to the McStays. At one
point, investigators said they believed the family had gone to Mexico
voluntarily, though they couldn't say why.
In 2013, their bodies were found in shallow graves in the desert after an
off-road motorcyclist discovered skeletal remains in the area. Authorities also
unearthed a rusty sledgehammer that they said was used to kill the family.
"It was blow, after blow, after blow to a child's skull," prosecutor Britt Imes
said during closing arguments.
Merritt, who worked with McStay in his water features business, was arrested in
2014.
Authorities said they traced Merritt's cellphone to the area of the desert
gravesites in the days after the family disappeared and to a call seeking to
close McStay's online bookkeeping account.
Merritt referred to McStay in the past tense in an interview with investigators
after the family vanished, and while the evidence linking him to the killings
is largely circumstantial, it is "overwhelmingly convincing," Imes said.
Merritt's attorneys said the two men were best friends and investigators
overlooked another possible suspect in the killings. Instead, they said,
authorities zeroed in on an innocent man, but the evidence didn't add up,
noting there were no signs of an attack inside the family's home.
"They tried his character and not the facts of this case," defense attorney
James McGee told jurors.
Many questions still remain about the family's disappearance. Prosecutors
acknowledge details of the killings aren't entirely clear but say the evidence
from the family's car, cellphone towers and financial accounts link Merritt to
the killings.
Authorities said McStay was cutting Merritt out of the business in early
February and the 2 met on Feb. 4 in Rancho Cucamonga, where Merritt lived at
the time.
Prosecutors say financial records show Merritt tried to loot the business bank
accounts just before and after the family disappeared and backdated checks to
Feb. 4, knowing it was the last day anyone had contact with McStay.
Phone records show McStay called Merritt 7 times after the Feb. 4 meeting, with
defense lawyers arguing that McStay wouldn't likely do that if he had just
fired Merritt.
(source: KTLA news)
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