Sept. 7
NEBRASKA:
Judge grants change of venue for Bailey Boswell's trial
The jury trial of a woman accused of killing and dismembering a Lincoln woman
will be moved from Wilber to Lexington.
In a Saline County court filing on Friday, Judge Vicky Johnson approved the
change of venue for Bailey Boswell, 25, who is facing charges of 1st-degree
murder, improper disposal of human remains and conspiracy to commit murder.
Boswell and Aubrey Trail, 52, are accused in the November 2017 killing and
dismemberment of Sydney Loofe, 24, after prosecutors said she was lured in on
Tinder, a dating app. Loofe's remains were discovered in separate bags in rural
Clay County.
Boswell's attorneys had previously filed the request for a new trial location,
citing the "extraordinary amount of news coverage" received during Trail's
trial.
Her attorneys also said the publicity has made it so it will be difficult to
find impartial jurors in Saline County.
Her new trial date is set for March 16, 2020.
Trail was found guilty of murder and conspiracy back in July. Trail waived the
jury's aggravated circumstances hearing, which would have let the jury decide
if his sentence could include the death penalty.
With the jury now out of the picture, the decision will be left to Nebraska
judges. They could decide if the crime is worthy of the death penalty or life
in prison. A date for the panel's meeting has not been set, and Trail's
attorneys said it could be months before a decision is made.
Trail pleaded guilty to improper disposal of a body on June 17, but maintained
not guilty pleas for the other 2 charges.
When claiming that Boswell couldn't get a fair trial in Saline County,
attorneys cited several pieces of evidence in the form of web searches for key
terms on Nebraska media websites and social media. They include the following:
•(a) Exhibit 5. A woman displayed a sign of support for the victim outside of
the Saline County Courthouse during trial. This sign was broadcast on Omaha
station Fox 42 KPTM.
•(b) Exhibit 6. KOLN-KGIN TV, Lincoln and Grand Island. A search for “Sydney
Loofe” on the web page yielded 144 results.
•(c) Exhibit 7. WOWT, Omaha. A search for “Sydney Loofe” on the web page
yielded 125 results.
•(d) Exhibit 8. KMTV, Omaha. A search for “Sydney Loofe” on the web page
yielded 269 results.
•(e) Exhibit 9. KLKN TV, Lincoln. 390 results on the web page.
•(f) Exhibit 10. KETV, Omaha. 48 results on the web page.
•(g) Exhibit 11. KPTM, Omaha. 19 results (not a complete listing, according to
counsel).
•(h) Exhibit 12. NTV, Central Nebraska. 18 listings on the web page.
•(i) Exhibit 13. NET, Statewide. 7 or 8 listings on the web page, depending on
the search term.
•(j) Exhibit 14. Lincoln Journal Star. 105 search results on the web page for
Aubrey Trail.
•(k) Exhibit 15. Beatrice Daily Sun. 123 results on the web page for Aubrey
Trail.
•(l) Exhibit 16. Seward Independent. 49 results on the web page.
•(m) Exhibit 17. Omaha World Herald. 19 results on the web page for the last 30
days, retroactive from July 18, 2019.
•(n) Exhibit 18. KOLN-KGIN Facebook page, July 29, 2019. Under a story
regarding Boswell’s request for a change of venue, 12 pages of comments. There
are numerous expressions of belief of Boswell’s guilt and opinions in favor of
a death sentence.
•(o) Exhibit 19. A different iteration of Exhibit 18.
•(p) Exhibit 20. KOLN-KGIN Facebook page, no date noted. Headline: BREAKING:
Aubrey Trail has been found guilty. 38 pages of comments. There are numerous
expressions of belief of Boswell’s guilt and opinions in favor of a death
sentence.
•(q) Exhibit 21. Lincoln Journal Star, July 29, 2019. Facebook post on
Boswell’s Motion to Change Venue. 17 pages of comments. There are numerous
expressions of belief of Boswell’s guilt and opinions in favor of a death
sentence.
•(r) Exhibits 22-24. Comments of a witness regarding the unwanted publicity
that she has received due to her testimony and her reluctance to testify again.
•(s) The record reflects that 15 requests were received for expanded media
coverage of the Trail trial.
(source: foxnebraska.com)
NEVADA:
Nevada Man Convicted by Prosecutorial Misconduct and ‘Woefully Inadequate’
Defense Counsel Released After 33 Years on Death Row
33 years after a trial a federal appeals court described as “a mixture of
disturbing prosecutorial misconduct and woefully inadequate assistance of
counsel,” a Las Vegas trial court freed Paul Browning from Nevada’s death row.
On August 21, 2019, Clark County District Judge Douglas Herndon — who in March
had dismissing murder and related charges against Browning — ordered state
corrections officials to release Browning from custody pending the outcome of
the prosecution’s appeal of his order dismissing the charges. Browning’s
lawyer, Tim Ford, had questioned Browning’s continued detention, arguing: “How
can Mr. Browning be sitting on death row, as he is now, when this court has
said all charges against him are dismissed? He’s not even a pretrial detainee,
and he’s on death row. That can’t be.”
Browning was convicted and sentenced to death in 1986 for the robbery and
murder of Las Vegas jeweler, Hugo Elsen. Browning was represented at trial by a
lawyer who had been practicing criminal defense for less than a year and failed
to interview the police who responded to the scene, examine the evidence
against Browning, or investigate the crime. The Nevada Supreme Court overturned
Browning’s death sentence in 2004 as a result of counsel’s ineffective
assistance in the penalty phase of trial, but a second jury — hearing the same
evidence against him — resentenced Browning to death in 2007.
In 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned Browning’s
conviction based on “extreme malfunctions” during the trial. With the death of
prosecution witnesses whom Browning’s trial counsel had failed to adequately
cross-examine at trial, Judge Herndon dismissed the murder and related charges
against Browning, saying “a fair trial consistent with due process is no longer
possible.”
Browning has consistently maintained his innocence. In his post-conviction
appeal, he presented evidence that police and prosecutors had withheld evidence
of a bloody footprint found at the scene that did not match Browning’s shoes or
foot size, misrepresented blood evidence in the case, manipulated eyewitness
testimony, failed to disclose benefits it offered to a key witness who may have
committed the murder and framed Browning, and that the stab wounds suffered by
Elsen did not “coherently coincide” with the knife prosecutors claimed Browning
had used to commit the killing. Browning also argued that a minimally competent
defense investigation would have revealed the flaws in the prosecution’s
evidence and the falsity of the representations the prosecution had made to the
jury.
The prosecution’s case unraveled in the post-conviction proceedings.
Prosecutors had told the jury that Elsen’s blood had been found on a tan jacket
owned by Browning. However, Elsen — who was able to describe his assailant
before he died — told police the killer had worn a blue jacket and later DNA
testing showed that of the blood on Browning’s jacket was not Elsen’s. Elsen
also said his assailant had shoulder-length Jheri curls, which was completely
inconsistent with Browning’s Afro-styled hair. Elsen’s wife failed to identify
Browning in a lineup, but later testified at trial that he was the killer. A
white witness who worked near the crime scene told police she had seen a man
run by after the murder and thought it could have been Browning, but when
police asked if she could be “more sure” about whom she had seen, she said,
“No, I wouldn’t think so. No … They all look the same, and that’s just what I
think when I see a black person, that they all look the same.” At trial,
though, she unhesitatingly testified that Browning was the man she had seen.
Following his release, Browning told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “I just want
to find a little bit of peace after coming through all this madness.” Speaking
about his time on death row, he said: “Being in there that long, you see a lot
of things that affect you. You get to know people, no matter how horrendous
their crimes were. You see a lot of death — natural causes, suicide. It affects
you.” He also spoke about the misconduct in his trial: “It’s about me sitting
there in court, starting with the preliminary hearing, and you see the
witnesses testifying against you — all of the misconduct that occurred during
trial. It’s just unjust. And it kind of hits you, right here in your gut. And
that’s what has driven me.”
(source: Death Penalty Information Center)
CALIFORNIA:
Moreno Valley women charged with murder in slaying of 84-year-old at Pechanga
casino
Mary Assad and her family drove Assad’s elderly parents to the Pechanga Resort
Casino near Temecula on Aug. 31 before continuing on for a day trip to Julian
in San Diego County.
“We dropped them off at the valet and waved to them,” Assad said. “You would
think it’s a safe place to take your parents.”
As Long Beach residents Afaf Anis Assad, 84, and her husband, Youanness, 94,
walked inside the casino just before 7:30 a.m., the Riverside County Sheriff’s
Department said, Kimesha Monae Williams and Candace Tai Townsel were walking
out. But when the women saw a pink purse dangling from Afaf Assad’s left arm,
they did an about-face.
Casino surveillance tape showed Williams and Townsel follow Assad into the
women’s bathroom, according to court documents. Four minutes later, the women
were gone, and Assad was found unconscious in the bathroom, her skull broken,
her brain bleeding and the purse with about $1,000 inside missing.
Williams, 35, and Townsel, 39, both Moreno Valley residents, were arrested
Sept. 3. Assad died Sept. 4. On Friday, Sept. 6, they were charged with murder,
robbery, elder abuse and a special circumstance of committing a robbery during
a murder that makes them eligible for the death penalty. The District
Attorney’s Office has not decided whether to seek that penalty or life in
prison without the possibility of parole, spokesman John Hall said.
Both women are being held without bail. They are due to be arraigned Sept. 19
at Southwest Justice Center in French Valley.
“Williams has a violent history and targeted a feeble elderly female and robbed
her,” a sheriff’s investigator wrote in a court document that asked a judge to
hold the 6-foot-2, 320-pound Williams without bail. She has convictions for
petty theft, grand theft, misappropriating lost property, grand theft auto and
attempted robbery, court records show. Townsel has a conviction in Riverside
County for petty theft.
Mary Assad cried Friday as she talked by telephone about her mother’s death.
Assad was preparing to head to a mortuary to make funeral arrangements.
“It was just all very unexpected and tragic and unnecessary,” she said.
Casino surveillance videos helped investigators identify suspects.
One video shows Assad and the defendants cross paths at 7:27 a.m., the court
document says. At 7:28 a.m., Assad walked into the bathroom followed by Townsel
as Williams waited outside for a few seconds before entering. 2 minutes later,
a witness went into a stall and heard someone fall.
At 7:32 a.m., Townsel left the bathroom but headed back when she noticed a
casino custodian walking toward the bathroom, the document says. Townsel cut
off the employee, bumped into her and said in a loud voice, “Oh are you working
here?”
A minute later, Williams and Townsel left the casino, got in a dark grey sedan
and drove away. At the same time, the witness and the employee reported finding
Assad.
Earlier that day, a video had shown Williams retrieving a cell phone from lost
and found. She showed her driver’s license and players club card and filled out
a form. And in November 2015, according to a video, Williams had taken a slot
player’s wallet after another woman distracted her. That other woman appeared
to be Townsel, an investigator wrote.
“We are absolutely saddened over this incident and are praying for the victim
and her family,” Jared Munoa, president of the Pechanga Development
Corporation, said in an emailed statement: “We pride ourselves on putting the
safety of our guests and team members first and are fully cooperating with law
enforcement to bring these perpetrators to justice.”
(source: The Press-Enterprise)
OREGON:
Gov. Signs Law Ending Death Penalty For Killing Cops Unless It's Premeditated
The world’s largest organization of sworn law enforcement officers is urging
Oregon’s governor to call a special session of the State Legislature over a law
change that narrows the instances in which cop killers will face potential
death sentences.
Oregon Governor Katherine Brown signed off on Senate Bill 1013 earlier in
September.
The new law “redefined and narrowed” the offense of aggravated murder “with
respect to the application of the death penalty” by adding the requirement of
premeditation, National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) President Patrick Yoes
said in a letter to Brown on Sept. 4.
Aggravated murder is the only crime in the state of Oregon in which the death
penalty can be applied, The Oregonian reported.
“Prior to the enactment of SB 1013 Aggravated Murder included the murder of any
on-duty law enforcement officer – there was no requirement that the killing be
premeditated,” Yoes wrote. “SB 1013 weakens this protection and…throws past and
future cases of these crimes into legal uncertainty.”
“Requiring premeditation is too narrow for a person willing to kill a law
enforcement officer,” the FOP president declared.
Yoes noted that law enforcement officers devote their lives to serving and
protecting the community.
“They have very difficult and dangerous jobs and when one of them falls in the
line of duty, it does not matter if their killer planned to murder them or
simply did so as a result of a violent encounter,” he wrote. “In both
situations, an individual makes a conscious decision to kill and in both
situations, an officer is lost.”
34 of the 205 law enforcement officers who have been shot in the line of duty
this year have died, Yotes said.
“Of these fatalities, we can say with certainty that only 9 of the killings
were premeditated because those officers were ambushed,” he explained. “Our
members view the erosion of these protections as a lack of support for them and
for the dangerous work they perform. This impacts their morale and makes it all
the more difficult for agencies to retain and recruit quality officers.”
On behalf of the 349,000-member FOP, Yoes urged Brown to call a special session
of the State Legislature in order to “repeal SB 1013 or amend it by striking
the premeditation requirement for those who murder or attempt to murder a law
enforcement officer.”
The Oregon District Attorney’s Association has also publicly requested the
governor call a special session to address problems with how the bill will
affect the justice system, according to the letter.
(source: defensemaven.io)
USA:
Conservative foes of death penalty meet in Louisiana
Conservative death penalty opponents gathered in New Orleans on Friday for two
days of discussions on how best to convince their political allies in Louisiana
and other right-leaning states that capital punishment should be abolished.
The organization, Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, which has
been lobbying against capital punishment for several years, billed the
gathering as its 1st national meeting. With about 25 participants from 2 dozen
states, it was taking place in a state where lawmakers overwhelmingly defeated
the latest attempt, in May, to abolish executions.
But national manager Hannah Cox said the organization believes Louisiana can
eventually be moved to join 21 other states that have abolished or overturned
the death penalty. She noted the state's large Catholic population and the
pope's declaration last year that capital punishment is "inadmissible" in all
cases, as well as a strong anti-abortion movement whose participants could be
convinced that a "pro-life" movement should include opposition to executions.
She says the organization also sees capital punishment opposition growing in
conservative states such as Utah and Wyoming, where a death penalty repeal bill
narrowly failed this year. The group has since announced plans to hire a
Wyoming field director to aid in grassroots efforts to repeal the state's
rarely used death penalty.
"This is a failed big government program," Cox said of capital punishment. She
noted the numerous examples of death row inmates who have been exonerated and
the costs of extensive legal proceedings needed to carry out executions — money
the organization argues could be better spent trying to enforce the law and
solve crimes.
In Louisiana, a legislative effort to end the death penalty failed
overwhelmingly in the Senate, despite its sponsorship by Sen. Dan Claitor, a
Republican former prosecutor. The state last executed someone in 2010. Death
sentences have been stalled because the corrections department has been unable
to find companies willing to provide lethal injection drugs: The companies
don't want their products associated with executions.
In debates this year and in years past, death penalty proponents have pushed
back against religious and moral arguments from death penalty opponents, citing
biblical passages calling for death sentences and arguing that taking the
option off the table deprives prosecutors of a crime-fighting tool and
survivors of homicide victims a measure of justice.
During the Senate debate in May, Sen. Gerald Long, a Natchitoches Republican
who opposed Claitor's measure, said Louisiana uses the punishment rarely and
includes a lengthy appeals process to review cases before anyone is executed.
"It seems our legal system provides a number of checks and balances," he said.
(source: Associated Press)
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