August 10
TEXAS:
County Commissioner Proposes Moratorium on Capital Prosecutions in Dallas,
Texas
A Dallas, Texas, county commissioner has called for a two-year halt on
death-penalty trials, saying it would give the county time to study the
financial and ethical costs of capital punishment. On August 6, 2019,
Commissioner J.J. Koch (pictured) proposed a county moratorium on capital
prosecutions, with cost savings from not pursuing the death penalty redirected
toward investigating and prosecuting human trafficking cases. The proposal was
notable coming in a county that has executed more prisoners since capital
punishment resumed in the U.S. in the 1970s than any other county except
Harris, Texas.
Several county commissioners expressed support for Koch’s proposal, although
they acknowledged that the plan was aspirational and that they could not direct
the district attorney, who has exclusive charging authority, to enforce it.
District Attorney John Creuzot commended Koch "for having the courage to bring
up" the issue. Creuzot said he supported discussing the proposal but could not
commit himself to a moratorium on prosecutions "because I don’t know what’s
around the corner."
Creuzot recently announced that Dallas prosecutors will seek the death penalty
against Billy Chemirmir, accused in the deaths of more than a dozen elderly
women in North Texas senior living complexes. The trial and potential appeals
are expected to be extremely costly for the county. Creuzot told the Dallas
Morning News that he supports pursuing the death penalty in circumstances in
which a defendant poses a "continuing threat in the penal society." In other
cases, he said, a sentence of life without parole can equally and less
expensively protect public safety.
Citing the Dallas County case of Kenneth Thomas, Creuzot said "[i]t’s becoming
more and more difficult to sustain a death penalty conviction." Thomas has been
sentenced to death twice, with his first death sentence imposed in 1987.
However, his death sentences were overturned both times as a result of
prejudicial constitutional violations in each trial. Most recently, the Texas
Court of Criminal Appeals directed that he be provided a new sentencing hearing
on his claim of intellectual disability. A prior sentencing jury had rejected
that claim, but had applied a scientifically invalid and unconstitutional
standard for evaluating intellectual disability.
Commissioners John Wiley Price and Elba Garcia agreed with Koch’s proposed
moratorium on prosecutions, and Commissioner Theresa Daniel said she looked
forward to discussing the issue, with prosecutors and judges included in the
discussion. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins also voiced support for a
moratorium, but reiterated that it would be under the district attorney’s
discretion. Koch agreed, saying, "We can’t do anything unilaterally. It’s his
department." Nevertheless, he said, the commissioners could adopt a moratorium
resolution to express their views on capital prosecutions, noting that they
also control the budget of the district attorney’s office.
Dallas has executed 60 prisoners since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld its
capital sentencing statute in Jurek v. Texas in 1976, more than 28 current or
formed death-penalty states and the federal government. Only Harris County
(Houston), with 129, has carried out more executions. Dallas’s 31-person
death-row on January 1, 2013 was the 14th largest of any county in the U.S.,
and juries in the county imposed 3 more death sentences that year. Since 2013,
however, only 1 person has been sentenced to death in the county.
(source: Death Penalty Information Center)
FLORIDA:
Deadly carjacking victim's family face suspect in court
The family of an innocent man killed this week says the accused killer, James
Hanson should face the maximum penalty.
In this case, Hanson is eligible for the death penalty.
A wake was held for 68-year-old Mathew Korratiyil on the same day his family
went to court to face Hanson at his bond hearing.
"He was innocent," said son Melvin Korattiyil. "There was no reason for him to
suffer like this."
The wake was at the Sacred Heart Catholic Community Center in Valrico, which is
where Mathew was both member and where his body was found Tuesday.
Hanson told detectives he strangled him with a belt after carjacking him and
robbing a bank only a mile away. It's still unclear as to why Hanson took him
to the community center.
"He was taken away by an animal who never should have been let out," said
Melvin Korattiyil.
Hanson was denied bail, as a court heard Tuesday's grim details. Melvin's
brother, Nelson confirmed it was his father's belongings who detectives found
in Hanson's home.
Family is furious Hanson was let out of jail barely a month ago, his life
sentence for another armed robbery shortened by a judge who agreed his previous
lawyer was not up to snuff.
"They have given us their reassurances he will face the maximum penalty
available," said Melvin Korattiyil. "We know we have the support of the
community around us."
Detectives testified Hanson complained to a deputy he was "screwed" and that
his life was over.
Family could only say it's their loved one, a former convenience store owner,
husband, father of 3, and grandfather of 4, who deserves to be remembered.
"For the lives he has touched in a positive light, that is what I want people
to remember," said Korattiyil.
(source: Fox News)
ALABAMA:
Prattville capital murder case goes forward
A Prattville capital murder case will go forward, despite the defense seeking a
dismissal of the charges on a legal technicality.
Santwone Cornelius Jones, 26, of Montgomery, was indicted on capital murder
charges in connection with the 2016 shooting death of John Michael Taylor, of
Prattville. He is being held under no bond, a common practice in a capital
murder case.
Jones trial was set to begin Sept. 16. Circuit Judge Ben Fuller did grant a
continuance in the case during a status hearing Thursday. The case will be
heard in the spring, but an exact date hasn’t been set.
The defense was arguing that the charge be dropped, because the prosecution did
not supply a witness list as ordered by Fuller. That list was supposed to be
filed by June 1. The state went on and presented the list 17 days later, but
argued Thursday that they were under no compulsion to provide the list under
Alabama discovery rules.
"The only compulsion was that this court filed the order on Jan. 16 to provide
the witness list by June 1," said Steve Langham, one of Jones’ 3 attorneys.
"The state also had to June 1 to file an objection to having file a witness
list."
Fuller said he laid out the list requirement in "an overabundance of caution,"
because Jones is facing capital murder charges in a death penalty case. The
possibilities of appeals after a guilty verdict mean the standards are high in
a capital case, he said. Alabama law calls for an automatic appeal in cases
where the death penalty is handed down.
"It never occurred to me that the state would not comply with my order in a
capital murder case, or register an objection," Fuller told the lawyers. "We
are here dealing with exactly the situation I wanted to prevent.
"Nobody wants to see this case retried by someone else 2 or 3 years down the
road."
The district attorney’s office said that the defense’s case was not damaged by
having the witness list 17 days late.
"Except having trial by ambush in a capital murder case," Langham shot back.
"That’s not the term I would use," Fuller said, flashing a stern look in
Langham’s direction from the bench.
Attorneys often appeared exasperated at the other side’s comments and
arguments. Fuller granted the continuance in an effort to give the defense time
to go over the witness list. Lawyers on both sides did not comment after the
hearing, because Fuller has placed a gag order in the case, barring comment
outside of court proceedings.
On May 21, 2016, Taylor, 57, was shot and killed. The capital murder charges
were filed because prosecutors feel the murder was committed during the
commission of a robbery, said Chief Assistant District Attorney C.J. Robinson.
2 Montgomery teenagers are also charged with capital murder the case.
Lil’ Roderick Williams, 17 and Devonte Raymon Hill, 18, were each indicted on
capital murder charges by the Autauga County Grand Jury, courthouse records
show. Both Williams and Hill are being held without bond.
Taylor went to a convenience store in the 1900 block of Cobbs Ford Road in the
early morning hours of May 21, previous testimony at preliminary hearings and
court documents show. He was found by a passing motorist as he laid on Cobbs
Ford Road. Taylor told the first responding officers that three men forced him
into a minivan, drove him behind the store, and shot him, Police Chief Mark
Thompson said at the time. He walked back to Cobbs Ford Road after being shot,
records show.
Grand jury action involving Hill and Williams was delayed, because they were
charged as adults. Williams was 14 and Hill was 15 at the time of the shooting.
Autauga County District Judge Joy Booth adjudicated the teenagers as adults.
Her ruling cleared both the Court of Criminal Appeals and the Alabama Supreme
Court on review, records show.
Williams is the youngest person to be charged with murder or capital murder in
the 19th Judicial District, Robinson said then, which includes Autauga, Elmore
and Chilton counties. Under Alabama law, the minimum age a person can be
charged as an adult is 14.
"That would have to make Hill one of the youngest in the state to be charged as
an adult in a capital murder case," Robinson said, at the time. "Just
procedurally, there can’t be that many 14-year-olds charged as adults."
Capital murder is the highest charge sought by the state. The only sentencing
options upon conviction are the death penalty or life in prison without the
possibility of parole.
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that juveniles, people under the age
of 18 when convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death, cannot be
executed. That leaves life without the possibility of parole as possible
sentences for Williams and Hill. Even then, getting the sentence to pass court
muster is iffy, Robinson admits.
"In dealing with juveniles and capital murder sentences, there are a few more
hurdles, a few more court proceedings that you have to go through,"
he said, in a previous interview. "We felt in this case that Williams and Hill
needed to face the same charges as Jones."
The prosecution has not released who allegedly fired the shot that killed
Taylor.
"That’s evidence that will come out at trial," Robinson said, in the past
interview. "But under Alabama’s accomplice law, they are all equally criminally
culpable."
(source: Montgomery Advertiser)
LOUISIANA----female to face death penalty
Mother in Natchitoches burned baby case to face death penalty----The state has
filed its notice to seek the death penalty for Hanna Nicole Barker in the July
2018 burning death of her 6-month-old baby.
The state has filed its notice to seek the death penalty for Hanna Nicole
Barker, the mother facing a 1st-degree murder charge in the July 2018 burning
death of her 6-month-old son.
Barker was arrested on July 25, a week and a day after she called 911 to report
her son, Levi Cole Ellerbe, had been kidnapped from a travel trailer off the
La. Highway 1 Bypass in Natchitoches.
Barker told the Natchitoches Police Department that two men knocked on her door
and pepper-sprayed her in the face when she opened it. She said she ran past
them and that the men and Levi were gone when she ran back.
A search was launched for the boy, and he was found severely burned in a ditch
less than 2 hours later when a woman reported a fire near some railroad tracks
on Breda Avenue.
Levi died early the next day, July 18, at a Shreveport hospital. He had
suffered 2nd- and 3rd-degree burns over 90 % of his body.
Prosecutors cited circumstances of the alleged crime in seeking the death
penalty, including Levi being younger than 12 and that Barker was "engaged in
the perpetration and attempted perpetration of cruelty to juveniles and
2nd-degree cruelty to juveniles."
The notice also said it "was committed in an especially heinous, atrocious and
cruel manner."
During a preliminary examination hearing for Barker, a Louisiana State Fire
Marshal investigator testified Barker had asked Felicia Marie-Nicole Smith to
kill the child.
Lt. Jeremy Swisher, the Region 5 supervisor, also testified that Barker and
Smith were involved in a sexual relationship, but that Smith was more invested
in it than Barker. He said Barker told investigators during an interview that
she was using Smith for attention and money.
Barker's defense attorney, Dru Thompson, insisted during the hearing that there
was no evidence tying his client to Levi's death.
Smith is scheduled to have a preliminary exam hearing on Aug. 23. Normally,
such hearings happen before a defendant is indicted since the purpose is to
determine if there's enough evidence to proceed with the case.
But, in granting a defense motion for a preliminary exam hearing, 10th Judicial
District Court Judge Desiree Dyess said Smith didn't have an attorney appointed
for her until after her August 2018 indictment.
Barker's hearing was in September 2018, and she was indicted in November 2018.
Barker's trial has been set for Jan. 13, 2020, but Dyess told attorneys at a
recent hearing that they might discuss whether dates need to be changed.
(source: The Advertiser)
*****************
Jason Reeves execution date of August 19 stayed by federal judge
A federal judge has stopped the execution of Jason Reeves scheduled for later
this month. Reeves murdered 4-year-old Mary Jean Thigpen in 2001.
But he’s started what’s likely his last chance before execution: an appeal in
the federal court system.
A death warrant, signed by a local state district judge, set Reeves' execution
date for August 19. for the 2001 murder of the little girl, who was stabbed 16
times and raped.
Calcasieu District Attorney John DeRosier says defense attorneys always file a
federal appeal after all state appeals have been exhausted.
"The name of the game for them is to postpone, postpone, postpone. And the
longer they can carry this out the better off they think their defendant will
be. That's why appeals in these kinds of cases often last between 15 and 20
year," said DeRosier.
Executions are on hold right now in Louisiana--due to issues involving the
availability of drugs used for lethal injection.
"The State of Louisiana is not executing anybody because they say they cannot
get the drugs to do it. The Feds, in the federal system, they have an ability
to get the drugs, other states have an ability to get the drugs. I do not know
why the state of Louisiana says they cannot get the drugs. I think it is a
manufactured excuse, but none the less, i think that is a death penalty issue,"
said DeRosier.
Still, unless the death penalty is done away with, DeRosier believes Reeves
will one day die for his heinous crime.
"I expect that he’s going to lose all the way up and including the United
States Supreme Court and will ultimately be executed, unless there’s a
moratorium by law on the death penalty in Louisiana," said DeRosier.
DeRosier believes all relevant issues concerning Reeves have already been dealt
with by the courts.
If Reeves is denied relief in Federal District Court in Lake Charles, his case
will then go to the U.S. Fifth Circuit in New Orleans.
(source: KPLC TV news)
TENNESSEE----impending execution
Why Stephen Michael West should not be executed
Gov. Bill Lee should commute Stephen Michael West's sentence to life without
parole because of the inmate's severe mental illness and because he did not
kill the victims in the crime.
For the 2nd time in less than a year, Tennessee is set to execute a person with
severe mental illness. Both cases dramatically illustrate why doing so is
highly questionable.
In 2018, Tennessee executed Billy Irick, who had severe mental illness at the
time of his crime, and as a result fell well outside the “worst of the worst”
for whom the United States Supreme Court has said the death penalty is
reserved. The same can be said of Stephen Michael West, whom the state plans to
execute next week.
Unlike Irick and most people who are sentenced to death, West didn’t kill
anyone. While he did rape 1 of the 2 victims in his case, it was his
co-defendant who stabbed both of them to death, and who was clearly the
instigator of the crimes.
Further, West’s life history is beyond horrific. It started with birth in a
mental hospital and continued with repeated beatings by his mentally ill
mother. As a child, he was once swung against the wall so hard that he was
literally "knocked cross-eyed" and required multiple operations to correct his
sight problems. He also suffered multiple bone fractures; his ankles alone were
broken 7 times.
West's mental condition is relevant in this case
Yet the jury that sentenced him to death heard virtually none of this. The true
account of who committed the murders was never presented to the jury. And his
parents, who paid for his defense, wanted to keep their family life out of the
public eye.
Thus, one reason West should not be executed is because, like Irick, he is not
one of the "worst of the worst." West, like Irick, obviously committed a
terrible crime. If not legally insane, West deserves serious punishment. But
the death sentence is meant only for the truly depraved, and West does not fit
that category.
Furthermore, even if West was fully culpable for capital murder at the time of
the crime, his current mental condition is also relevant to whether he should
be executed.
In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed as a constitutional matter what
virtually every state had already provided by statute: that people who are
incompetent to be executed must have their death sentences commuted to life.
Lee should do the right thing and commute West's sentence
The standard for competence to be executed is very low, and back in 2001 a
court found, in effect, that West met it. But West’s mental state has
deteriorated to the point that he might not meet the competency test today,
were it not for the heavy antipsychotic drugs now being administered to him by
the physicians at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
Even the state’s doctors concede that West is suffering from schizoaffective
disorder and several other major mental disorders that are held in check only
by the medication.
An American Psychiatric Association Task Force has stated that treating a
condemned prisoner for the purpose of enabling an execution “violates the
fundamental ethical norms of the mental health professions.” While there is no
indication that the state’s doctors are medicating West solely to ensure his
execution, or that their goal is anything other than alleviating suffering, the
fact remains that their treatment may well be what is making execution
possible.
Given Stephen Michael West’s lifelong impairment and his current tenuous mental
condition, the state of Tennessee - which at this late point in the process is
represented solely by Governor Bill Lee - should commute his sentence to life
without parole.
(source: Opinion; Christopher Slobogin is the Vanderbilt Law School's Milton R.
Underwood Chair in Law Director, Criminal Justice Program, and an Affiliate
Professor of Psychiatry----The Tennessean)
CALIFORNIA:
Garden Grove mass stabbing suspect is charged with 4 counts of murder, other
crimes
Prosecutors have charged a 33-year-old man with four counts of murder after
police say he went on a violent stabbing spree in Garden Grove and Santa Ana
this week.
Zachary Castaneda, a documented gang member from Garden Grove, faces felonies
and enhancements that make him eligible for the death penalty, the Orange
County District Attorney’s Office said on Friday, August 9.
Castaneda faces a minimum sentence of life without the possibility of parole if
convicted on all charges.
He’s been charged with 4 felony counts of murder, 1 felony count of attempted
murder with premeditation and deliberation, 1 felony count of assault with a
deadly weapon, 1 felony count of aggravated mayhem, 1 felony count of 1st
degree residential burglary and 3 felony counts of 2nd degree robbery.
He also faces enhancements for multiple murders, murder during a robbery, for
committing additional crimes while out on bail on 3 separate criminal cases,
having committed a prior serious and violent felony, having committed a prior
serious felony and committing a felony within 5 years of having spent more than
a year in state prison.
On Friday afternoon, Castaneda had to be arraigned in his cell because he
refused to leave it, District Attorney spokeswoman Kimberly Edds said. He
pleaded not guilty.
Friday’s charges will add to Castaneda’s long criminal history that includes
busts for possessing drugs, gang vandalism and car thefts. His wife - who filed
for divorce in February - has also alleged domestic violence and at one point
filed a restraining order against the man.
He was not eligible for bail.
In a little more than 2 hours on Wednesday, August 7, police say, Castaneda
left a trail of destruction that ended lives and wounded people going about
their day, including 1 man pumping gas whose nose he nearly sliced off.
Castaneda led Garden Grove police and other law enforcement agencies on a
manhunt that spanned 8 crime scenes. On top of the heinous killings,
authorities said, he also committed robberies during his rampage, taking off
with money or property.
Undercover detectives arrested Castaneda when they saw him leaving a 7-Eleven
armed with a knife and gun stolen from a man he’d just killed inside the store.
Police have said that the victims were randomly targeted and Castaneda has not
said why he went on the killing spree.
(source: The Orange County Register)
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