August 24
INDIANA:
Death penalty for federal inmates in Indiana should appall Hoosiers
I understand that the federal government wants to begin again executing federal
prisoners. They plan to do this in the state of Indiana because we have a
federal prison in Terre Haute and we still have the death penalty. I believe
the residents of Indiana should be appalled.
I spent 8 years visiting death row prisoners in the state prison in Michigan
City. I was chaplain in the St. Joseph County Jail in South Bend.
I do not believe in the death penalty. As one death row inmate in Arkansas
declared, “I executed the man I was long ago, the state only takes me out of
the cage.”
Why is the federal government planning this action? What is the motive of those
responsible for this effort? It smells foul to me.
Hank Mascotte
South Bend
(source: Letter to the Editor, SOuth Bend Tribune)
KENTUCKY:
State Supreme Court could save young lives with death penalty decision
In August 2017, Fayette County Circuit Judge Ernesto Scorsone conducted a
hearing concerning the range of punishments that a young man charged in a
murder might face at trial. After hearing recent research findings and noting
that “there are currently 30 states in which a defendant under the age of 21 at
the time of their offense would not be executed,” he determined that “the death
penalty would be a disproportionate punishment for crimes committed by
individuals under 21 years of age” and therefore “Kentucky’s death penalty
statute is unconstitutional insofar as it permits capital punishment for
offenders under twenty-one (21) at the time of their offense.”
The ruling does not mean that young offenders should not face serious
consequences, just not execution.
The judge’s decision was grounded in a thriving body of research that includes
a capacity to visually record brain activity while varying the tasks and
emotional stress to which subjects are exposed. Hard data also shows that
myelination, the coating of neurons that improves mental efficiency is still
underway in young adults. The prefrontal cortex, the last area to undergo
myelination, is critical to the exercise of judgment and emotional control.
Younger adults remain highly vulnerable to peer pressure and while they can
perform reasoning tasks as well as adults in their mid and upper 20s, under
stress (fear, anger, threat) the brains of 20 year-olds function more like
those of 16 and 17 year-olds. Developing brains are also more amenable to
rehabilitation A number of states and re-entry programs concentrate significant
rehabilitative resources on young offender with striking success.
In 2005, earlier data from developmental and brain research led the Supreme
Court of the United States, in Roper v. Simmons, to outlaw the death penalty
for youth under the age of 18. As a psychologist and member of a committee that
helped rewrite Kentucky’s juvenile statutes in 1978, I have followed developing
brain research closely. I remember the first time I told my wife that men did
not reach neurological maturity until about 25 and women several years earlier.
She marveled at how we waste money researching the obvious. Statisticians who
track auto accidents and recommend higher insurance rates for males under 25
might roll their eyes as well.
While we grant many adult functions to youth at 18, we restrict the sale of
alcohol below age 21. At least 320 localities prohibit tobacco sales under age
21, including 5 states. Because mental maturity can be further encumbered in
youth who experience early and chronic adversity, many youth are clearly not
prepared for adult responsibility at age 18. Accordingly, a majority of states
authorize extension of foster care until age 21. (Kentucky offers transitional
living support up to 21).
While in the Navy, I saw young servicemen on shore leave who were far from
home, drinking, and vulnerable to conflicts with locals or other servicemen. I
thanked God they weren’t carrying firearms. In my psychology career, I’ve
evaluated or counseled a dozen young people charged with homicide—almost all
male. Tragic shootings were not planned. They were impulsive reactions to
situations usually entered foolishly. Few youth had prior felony convictions
that would have made it illegal to carry a firearm. Typically, they were not in
touch with their positive potential, long stymied by circumstances. They are
seriously sobered and chastened as they face shattered hopes, trial and prison.
Where restorative justice is in practice, they are usually remorseful.
The government appealed Judge Scorsone’s decision to the Kentucky Supreme
Court, where oral arguments will be heard this Sept. 19 in Somerset. I
fervently hope the Kentucky Supreme Court justices find the wisdom to attend to
the both the science and the serious potential for changing young lives. I hope
they place Kentucky among the majority of states that does not execute these
young adults.
(source: Op-Ed; T. Kerby Neill is a retired child psychologist, community
volunteer, and board member of the Central Kentucky Council for Peace and
Justice----Lexington Herald-Leader)
ARKANSAS:
April trial set in '18 killing of roommate
An April jury trial is scheduled for a Springdale man charged in the killing of
his roommate.
Zachary Harlan, 34, is charged as a habitual offender with capital murder,
aggravated residential burglary and theft of property. He has pleaded innocent
to the charges.
.. Harlan is accused of killing Steve March.
Harlan was in court Monday, and Benton County Circuit Judge Robin Green
scheduled his jury trial to begin April 14.
Green wanted to know whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty.
Stuart Cearley, chief deputy prosecutor, told her that at the moment it is a
death-penalty case and that he expects it to take 3 weeks to try the case.
Springdale police officers found March's body on May 14, 2018, at his Moulton
Lane home, according to a probable-cause affidavit. He was lying on his bed
with dried blood on his head and face, the affidavit said. He had an injury on
the left side of his face and a cut on his neck, according to the affidavit.
Police found a broken knife -- believed to be the murder weapon -- under
March's body, according to the affidavit. The knife was taken from a set on the
kitchen counter, according to court documents.
An inmate housed with Harlan while he was in the Washington County jail told
police that Harlan confessed to killing March, according to court documents.
The investigation found that Harlan downloaded an app called SMS Tracker and
was able to track his former girlfriend's location and whom she was
communicating with by accessing her text messages, according to court
documents.
Police said Harlan was able to read messages between his former girlfriend and
March, according to the affidavit.
(source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
ARIZONA:
Department Of Justice Action Prompts Arizona To Renew Pursuit Of Death Penalty
Drugs
Assistant Federal Public Defender Dale Baich has witnessed 11 executions by
lethal injection.
“It’s ... eerily silent,” he said recalling the experience. “In the witness
room, the witnesses don’t speak. There is a low hum of the air-conditioning
unit and occasionally a voice coming over the speakers announcing that 'the
prisoner is sedated' or that 'the execution is complete.'"
But in 2014, during the execution of his client Joseph Wood at the state prison
in Florence, something went wrong. The announcements kept repeating. "The
prisoner remains sedated. The prisoner remains sedated." But Wood wasn’t acting
sedated.
“We could hear the sound that was coming from Mr. Wood," Baich said, "and it
sounded like, like a freight train."
Wood’s mouth was open. He was bucking against the restraints and making a
sucking, gulping, gasping sound. It went on for 2 hours before the announcement
finally came that the execution was complete.
The dramatic nature of Wood’s death prompted the state to suspend executions.
'Time To Resume'
There are currently 116 people on death row in Arizona. 14 of them have
exhausted the appeals process.
Attorney General Mark Brnovich said a recent opinion from the Department of
Justice has cleared the way to import the drugs necessary to resume executions
by lethal injection.
“I think we have an obligation to uphold the rule of law and make sure those
sentences are carried out,” Brnovich said.
(source: KJZZ news)
CALIFORNIA:
Cal State Fullerton man charged with murder in fatal stabbing could face death
penalty
The Cal State Fullerton employee accused of stabbing his co-worker to death on
campus this week was charged with murder on Friday morning, Aug. 23.
He did not enter a plea; his arraignment was continued to Oct. 4.
Chuyen Vo, 51, was charged with murder, including enhancements of personal use
of a weapon and special circumstance allegation of murder by lying in wait. He
was being held without bail.
If convicted, Vo faces a minimum sentence of life without the possibility of
parole.
If Vo is convicted of the murder with the lying in wait enhancement – which
means the defendant intentionally hid and waited to attack the victim – he
could be eligible for the death penalty. But it’s unclear whether that decision
has been made.
Vo was arrested on Wednesday at his Huntington Beach home.
Fullerton police say he killed 57-year-old Steven Shek Keung Chan, a retired
administrator who still worked with the university, who they found with
multiple stab wounds in a campus parking lot on Monday morning.
The slaying led to a multi-day search for the suspect, who was initially
described as an Asian man in his mid-20s, and was captured on surveillance
footage fleeing after the stabbing.
Police say they recovered a backpack that Vo left behind under the victim’s
car, with weapons and items that could potentially be used in a kidnapping
attempt, including zip ties, a knife and disguises.
Vo has no criminal record in Orange County, according to court records.
Law enforcement officials at a Thursday press conference on Vo’s arrest did not
disclose how they found Vo or a potential motive. And a Cal State Fullerton
representative did not say how long Vo’s worked for the university or his
employment status.
Neighbors in the quiet Huntington Beach cul-de-sac, where Vo and his family
lived, said they were shocked upon hearing the news of his arrest. Several
people who lived near Vo described him as a friendly man they would never
suspect would be capable of murder.
(source: The Orange County Register)
***********************
A jailhouse informant’s lies put him in prison for 37 years. Now he‘s free
As soon as Samuel Bonner entered the Long Beach courtroom with his wrists
chained to his waist, the judge made a simple, yet for Bonner, unprecedented,
request: Could the bailiff please remove his shackles?
This is the moment, Bonner thought. This is it.
It was the closest thing to freedom he had felt in 37 years. The hour or so
that followed was just as remarkable for the man who always insisted he was
innocent of murder.
The hearing that day in July was spurred by the approval of California’s new
felony murder law, which retroactively limits who can be charged with murder to
those accused of actually killing or intending to kill. In L.A. County, Bonner
and more than 1,600 others have sought relief, and about 10 convictions have
been undone to date.
But the reprieve for Bonner that day went far beyond that. Superior Court Judge
Daniel J. Lowenthal declined to resentence him and instead ordered him
released, citing misconduct by a prosecutor who used a shady jailhouse
informant. Besides the informant’s testimony, he said, there was little linking
Bonner to the crime at all.
“That the death penalty was sought against someone based on testimony that was
known to be false is horrifying and shocks the conscience,” the judge said.
The saga began on Veterans Day 1982, when Leonard Polk was found inside his
Long Beach apartment in a pool of blood, severely beaten with 2 bullets through
the back of his head.
Bonner and an acquaintance, Watson Allison, were charged with killing Polk
during a robbery, making both eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
At Bonner’s trial, the prosecutor at the time, Kurt Seifert, argued that Bonner
was the gunman, despite a weak connection to the crime scene.
An undercover officer testified that he saw Bonner and Allison driving around,
Bonner’s 1964 Ford rumbling and smoking, and thought they looked suspicious.
The officer began to tail them, and when the car was idling at an intersection
he observed a bicyclist leaning up against the car talking with Allison. The
officer then saw Allison and the bicyclist, Polk, walk into a nearby apartment.
Later, a neighbor saw Allison making several trips in and out of the apartment
carrying property including a TV set, and then driving off.
No one saw Bonner go inside Polk’s apartment. Authorities did find an envelope
in his car addressed to Allison with Polk’s cross streets. A speaker found in
Allison’s home — 11 days after the robbery — was marked by Bonner’s palm print.
And a fuse found outside Polk’s apartment building matched fuses found in
Bonner’s pocket.
The most conclusive link to Bonner came from the testimony of a key witness: A
prolific jailhouse informant who claimed Bonner confessed to him that he shot
Polk.
Before Bonner’s trial, the informant, Michael Hayes, appeared in court on his
own murder charge. As part of a deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to
manslaughter and was sentenced to four years in state prison. The leniency was
attributed to his cooperation in several serious cases, court documents show.
By then, one defendant in another murder case had already accused him of lying.
During a preliminary hearing, Hayes testified that he saw the defendant shoot a
man, then take his jewelry.
“You are lying,” the defendant blurted out, according to a transcript of the
1983 proceeding.
The judge tried to stop the defendant.
“He sits there and lie on me, just straight out lie on me like that. Why don’t
he tell the truth?” the defendant said.
Hayes took the stand a few months later in Bonner’s trial, which involved just
three days of testimony. Bonner’s lawyer, Ron Slick, who was known in legal
circles as Dr. Death because so many of his clients ended up on death row, did
not call a single witness in his defense.
Bonner was convicted of murder and robbery, but the jury concluded that he was
not the shooter, so Seifert dropped the death penalty.
At Allison’s trial soon after, Seifert presented a separate panel of jurors
with a different theory, in which Allison was the gunman and Bonner had a
“relatively minor” role as the wheelman who never even entered the apartment.
The prosecutor never brought up Bonner’s alleged confession.
Allison was convicted and sentenced to death.
In a deposition decades later in Allison’s habeas case, Seifert called his
strategy — arguing at Allison’s trial that Bonner never set foot in Polk’s
apartment — a “boo-boo” and “the big oops,” court documents show. A detective
deposed around the same time said based on the evidence, he and his partner
didn’t think Bonner killed Polk. He couldn’t remember if he formed that
conclusion before or after Bonner’s trial, or if he relayed it to Seifert,
court documents show.
Allison’s death sentence was eventually overturned and he was resentenced in
2012 to 25 years to life, according to the Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation. He will come up for parole again by January.
19 days after his verdict in 1983, Bonner wrote a letter to the judge saying he
didn’t get a fair trial. He had wanted to tell his side of the story, he wrote,
but his attorney didn’t let him testify.
Slick, the attorney, could not be reached for comment.
Bonner continued his fight for decades, losing his appeal and habeas petitions
— once because the paperwork was filed late. He said he was found unsuitable
for parole several times because he wouldn’t accept responsibility for the
crime.
“I expressed my empathy for the family,” Bonner told The Times recently. “I
can’t say I take back something I didn’t do.”
The repeated rejection left him numb, he said, but he never stopped believing
that one day he’d be free.
In 2002, another case was overturned because Hayes lied about a jailhouse
confession. As it turned out, Hayes had been trading information with
authorities in Kentucky for years, but they cut him off as an informant because
of repeated dishonesty.
Even still, Bonner’s case was never reopened.
A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office said it had no record of
receiving a conviction review request from Bonner and was not notified of the
two habeas petitions he filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in recent
years. Both petitions were denied by Lowenthal, the spokeswoman said.
It wasn’t until January, when the new felony murder law went into effect, that
Bonner had a fresh chance to fight. The law says that murder charges can be
filed only against people who actually killed or were a major participant with
reckless indifference to human life. Bonner filed a petition seeking relief,
triggering a hearing.
Prosecutors opposed on constitutional grounds, as they have done in many other
cases, arguing in court papers that the new law improperly changes
voter-approved crime-fighting initiatives, including a proposition that set
stricter penalties for murder and another that expanded the definition of
first-degree murder. They also argued that because it’s retroactive, the law
improperly reopens judgments that were final.
Some judges across the state have agreed, others have not. Five people have
been released, one was resentenced and four others are awaiting resentencing,
the district attorney’s office said. Nearly 650 petitions have been denied.
A dozen or so of Bonner’s relatives showed up to his hearing last month in Long
Beach, anxiously hoping for good news. His girlfriend said she noticed the
judge looked over and smiled at them, which she thought was a positive sign.
She took a deep breath.
“We’re really hoping,” Bonner’s sister said.
The judge started the hearing by saying he was going to do more than just
address the constitutionality of the new law, and instead ran through the legal
history of Bonner’s case. Lowenthal said that other than Hayes’ testimony,
there was “scant evidence” that Bonner was involved in the crime at all. And
Hayes’ lies, he said, began as soon as he took the stand, starting with his
name.
“His name is Charles Jones,” Lowenthal said. “Everything thereafter appears to
have been a lie as well.”
Lowenthal then recounted the inconsistencies: Hayes testified that Bonner said
he shot Polk with a .357 magnum, but Polk was shot with a .22-caliber gun.
Hayes testified that Bonner told him he stole money, but the evidence shows no
money was taken. Hayes testified that Bonner told him he woke Polk up and shot
him, but the evidence shows Allison and Polk had just entered the apartment.
Hayes testified Bonner told him that he entered Polk’s home alone, but
Allison’s fingerprints were found inside. Hayes testified that Bonner told him
he’d shot Polk once, but Polk had been shot twice.
Seifert, the original prosecutor, would admit decades later in a deposition
that when he heard Hayes describe the gun as a .357 magnum, he knew the
informant was lying. Seifert, now retired, could not be reached for comment for
this article.
Lowenthal also said Seifert’s presentation of inconsistent theories at the two
trials, with no new evidence, violated due process.
“It’s axiomatic that a prosecutor’s function is not merely to seek convictions
but also to honor truth,” Lowenthal said. “Here, that did not happen.”
The district attorney’s office said there was no record that Seifert, whose
deposition came eight years after he retired, communicated his concern to a
supervisor. His deposition, conducted in Allison’s federal case in which the
district attorney’s office wasn’t a party, did not trigger a review of Bonner’s
case.
The prosecutor who appeared in court last month urged Lowenthal to give her
office more time to evaluate the merits of Bonner’s petition, setting off a
fiery exchange.
“You are considering releasing a convicted murderer,” said Deputy Dist. Atty.
Evelis De Garmo, who did not try the case and was standing in for a colleague.
“Convicted because of prosecutorial misconduct,” Lowenthal replied.
De Garmo said she was not in a position to respond.
“If that has happened, we will be the first to concede, as we have in the
past,” she said. “Justice is important to us, your honor, as you’ve indicated.”
“Apparently not in this case,” Lowenthal quipped.
De Garmo said she had come to court that day only prepared to address the
constitutional argument.
“You have ambushed us, your honor, by setting it for one motion and hearing an
entirely different motion, when we have no documentation about it.”
Ultimately, Lowenthal declined to resentence Bonner for the underlying robbery
charge, citing “gross prosecutorial misconduct.”
Judges who have vacated felony murder convictions in other cases have
resentenced defendants for whatever underlying offense led to the killing,
whether it be a robbery, assault or other crime. In one recent case, a
25-years-to-life sentence for murder was reduced to four years for the
remaining assault with a firearm charge.
Instead, Lowenthal dismissed both the murder and robbery charges, and urged the
district attorney’s office to evaluate whether any other convictions were
“procured in the same unscrupulous manner.”
De Garmo objected.
“Don’t interrupt me,” the judge said.
“That is very offensive,” she said.
“Don’t interrupt me or you are going to be removed from court,” he said.
A spokeswoman with the district attorney’s office said allegations of
prosecutorial misconduct are taken “extremely seriously no matter how old the
case,” and noted that the office is now reviewing Bonner’s case and other cases
involving the jailhouse informant.
Lowenthal ordered Bonner released from custody. Bonner, who turned 57 this
month, showed little emotion at the time. Behind him, his relatives cheered and
applauded. Some wept; they all smiled. His sister and his girlfriend hugged
each other tightly.
“Thank you, Jesus,” someone said.
Outside the courtroom, a niece FaceTimed one of Bonner’s sons.
“Your daddy’s coming home,” she told him.
Bonner was released from L.A. County Jail, where he had been held while
awaiting his court appearances, on July 11, jail records show. He spent that
day with his sisters in Long Beach, meeting nieces and nephews he never got to
know. He visited his kids, including a daughter who was born just a month
before he was locked up. She grew up speaking with him regularly over the phone
and in letters, visiting when she could. So having him home was easy.
“We never lost touch,” said Tomeka Bonner, who turns 37 in October. “He’s a
really good supporter mentally ... and spiritually; he just wasn’t around
physically.”
Bonner is now continuing the schooling he started in prison. He’s enrolled in
culinary courses and hopes to one day open a restaurant. He’s also interested
in a trucking career, because “it’ll allow him to travel and be outdoors and
see a lot of the things he wasn’t able to see,” Tomeka Bonner said.
“Whatever he wants to do I’m behind him 100%,” she said.
Bonner and his mom chat at least twice a day: Once to say good morning, again
to say goodnight. Sometimes they just sit on the phone, not even exchanging
words, because they can.
“I don’t have to wake up to the control of somebody else,” Bonner said. “I have
more control of my life now, which is a good thing.”
(source: Los Angeles Times)
USA:
Lengthy trial in North Miami Terrorist Boyz gang case ends in hung jury, 3
verdicts
After more than 6 weeks of trial, a jury deadlocked Friday on more than a dozen
counts against a reputed member of North Miami’s Terrorist Boyz gang, while
convicting him of one charge, and acquitting him of two others. The hung jury
led a Miami-Dade judge to declare a mistrial against Benson Cadet, who was
accused of participating in a bloody street war over a decade ago that led to
the killings of at least 12 people, and dozens of other shootings.
The jury did agree to convict Cadet of 1 count of conspiracy to commit
racketeering, while acquitting him of 1 murder charge, and 1 attempted murder
charge. The jury began deliberating on Tuesday, but could not reach a unanimous
verdict on 15 counts.
Cadet had been facing the death penalty. Friday’s mistrial means Cadet faces a
second trial that could last months between jury selection, testimony,
arguments and deliberations.
“We will continue to prosecute Benson Cadet upon retrial of this case because
we believe the evidence speaks to his direct involvement in these vicious
street crimes in the cities of North Miami and North Miami Beach,” State
Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement Friday afternoon.
Prosecutors say the Terrorist Boyz began their reign of terror in March 2002,
after ramming a car through the front door of a Broward County gun shop and
stealing 33 firearms. Dressed in all-black, wearing ski masks and gloves, the
Terrorist Boyz used the weapons and stolen cars to mount a series of “missions”
to gun down their enemies, prosecutors said.
Cadet, 36, himself was accused of taking part in four murders and over a dozen
attempted murders in North Miami-Dade, a spate of violence that alarmed city
leaders and led to the creation of a police task force.
Five suspected members of the gang were indicted on murder charges in 2007. The
Terrorist Boyz gang case has the notoriety of being the most expensive
death-penalty case in recent Florida history.
Those indicted were Jean-Marie, Cadet, Max Daniel, Robert St. Germain and the
suspected ringleader, Johnny Charles, also known as the “Angel of Death.” St.
Germain pleaded guilty 3 years ago and agreed to a 12-year prison sentence.
Daniel and Charles are awaiting trial.
Last year, after 7 weeks of testimony, another jury convicted Frantzy
Jean-Marie, 36, of committing two murders and four attempted murders, as well
as conspiracy and racketeering. The same jury declined to mete out the death
penalty, and Jean-Marie is now serving life in prison.
In Cadet’s trial, prosecutors presented testimony from police detectives,
eyewitnesses and former gang members who agreed to testify. Cadet’s defense
lawyer, Scott Sakin, said the state was relying on scant evidence and the word
of “snitches” and “rats.”
(source: Miami Herald)
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