Sept. 28
TEXAS:
Utah man convicted in murder of ex-wife's family, faces death penalty
A Utah man, who claimed to hear voices in his head when he killed 6 members of
his former wife’s family in Texas, faces the death penalty after a Houston jury
rejected his insanity defence and found him guilty of murder on Thursday,
officials said.
District Attorney Kim Ogg in Harris County, Texas announced the verdict against
Ronald Lee Haskell, 39, and said in a statement that prosecutors are seeking
the death penalty in the July 2014 slayings, which included 4 children.
Police said Haskell posed as a FedEx delivery man when he entered the Stay
family’s suburban Houston home, looking for his former wife, but instead only
found his ex-wife’s sister and family.
He tied up the family and shot and killed his former sister-in-law Katie Stay,
34 and her husband, Stephen Stay, 39 and their children Bryan, 13, Emily, 9,
Rebecca, 7 and Zach, 4, Ogg said in a statement. A 5th child, Cassidy Stay,
then 15, was left for dead but survived. Media accounts of the trial say that
Cassidy Stay described family members begging for their lives, and she prayed
her uncle would not shoot.
She survived the head-shot by playing dead, media including NBC News reported.
A forensic psychiatrist testified at the trial that Haskell suffered from a
severe mental illness that prevented him from knowing right from wrong, media
reported.
Prosecutors said that Haskell was motivated by vengeance against the family and
not mental illness.
“There was never a reasonable doubt that Haskell meticulously planned and
carried out the slaughter of the Stay family,” Ogg said in a statement.
Prosecutors tried him only on 2 counts of murder, as part of a strategy to hold
other potential charges in abeyance in case there are unforseen legal issues,
media reported.
Haskell’s attorneys were not available for comment early on Friday.
The sentencing phase of the trial is scheduled to begin Monday.
(source: ottawacitizen.com)
MASSACHUSETTS:
Death penalty bill for cop killers before lawmakers
As police, elected officials and loved ones honored the line-of-duty loss of
police officers in a ceremony outside the State House Friday, lawmakers inside
have before them a bill that would allow the death penalty for anyone convicted
of killing a cop.
“Men and women in law enforcement put their lives on the line every day for us.
They are under attack, they never know if something as simple as a traffic stop
could result in their death,” state Rep. Shaunna O’Connell told the Herald. “I
think we have to send a strong message that we will not tolerate the murder of
law enforcement officers and if you murder a police officer, you could face
that same fate.”
O’Connell (R-Taunton) filed a bill with Rep. David DeCoste (R-Norwell) to allow
death sentences for anyone over the age of 18 who is convicted of murdering a
police officer. DeCoste and O’Connell said they look forward to a hearing on
the bill before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, which has yet to be
scheduled.
The state representatives were prompted to act by the deaths of Weymouth Sgt.
Michael Chesna, Yarmouth Sgt. Sean Gannon and Auburn police officer Ronald
Tarentino, who were all shot dead in the line of duty in recent years. The
Chesna family are constituents of DeCoste, who has long been a proponent of
instituting the death penalty in Massachusetts.
“It is important for us as a society to be able to say that some behavior is
absolutely unacceptable and that in some cases, we have the option of taking a
person’s life,” DeCoste said, “of executing a person for egregious activity,
egregious crimes.”
DeCoste noted that Gov. Charlie Baker indicated support for the concept after
Chesna died last summer, when Baker stated, “I certainly do support the death
penalty for people who kill a police officer, for a lot of reasons.”
The bill also has the support among law enforcement professionals, including
Chelsea Police Chief Brian Kyes, president of the Major City Chiefs
Association, who said the level of concern has “heightened significantly” after
the recent deaths of Massachusetts police officers.
“People understand that police officers that are out there are sworn to protect
and serve members of public. To take the life of an officer, the consequences
should be the highest, the death penalty,” Kyes said. “We hope that it would
never have to be used. We hope no one would take the life of a law enforcement
officer, but we should put it on the books, lay it out there to act as a
deterrent.”
(source: Boston Herald)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rejects Petition to Rule Death Penalty
Unconstitutional
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected a petition on behalf of 2 death row
inmates to declare capital punishment unconstitutional in the commonwealth.
The 1-page ruling, which came down Thursday but was made public Friday morning,
squashed what some hoped would mark the formal end to capital cases in
Pennsylvania because of what critics call the cruel and arbitrary way it's
applied to poor and black defendants.
"We’re disappointed," Shawn Nolan, chief of the Capital Habeas Unit at the
Federal Defender Office in Philadelphia, said. "We thought the evidence was
clear that the sentence isn’t fair and we thought the time was now."
The state's highest court did leave room, however, for individual sentences to
be revisited through the post-conviction appeals process.
Nolan, who represents both death row inmates in question, said his clients were
not yet aware their petition was rejected.
"They're in solitary," he said, adding that he couldn't comment on next steps
because the ruling was "so new."
The petition centered around Jermont Cox, of Philadelphia, and Kevin Marinelli,
of Northumberland County. Both men were convicted of murder and have been on
death row since the 1990s.
Earlier this year, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office filed a brief
with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court calling application of the death penalty
unreliable because it has historically, and unevenly, targeted men of color.
District Attorney Larry Krasner lamented this week's ruling, but said he
remained hopeful the death penalty would eventually end in Pennsylvania.
“While political realities indicate that a statutory remedy to the unjust
application of the death penalty in Pennsylvania is not imminent, there is
growing support for fair and just prosecution in the Commonwealth, which
includes abolishing capital punishment," he said in a statement.
More than 80% of Philadelphia death row inmates are black men and 91% are
non-white minorities, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office found after
an internal review of 155 cases between 1978 and 2017.
Most of these defendants were represented by "under-compensated,
inadequately-supported" court-appointed lawyers, the DAO found. As a result,
72% of all capital punishment convictions involving Philadelphia inmates were
later overturned during post-conviction appeals.
"It wasn’t the worst of the worst," Philadelphia District Attorney Larry
Krasner said earlier this month. "It was the poorest and it was blackest and
brownist."
Assistant Federal Defender Timothy Kane echoed a similar refrain before the
justices earlier this month.
"The reliability of the system as a whole is cruel and the systemic problems
affect every case," Kane said, adding that more than 1/2 of the 441 death
sentences handed down since capital punishment was reinstated in the late 1970s
have been overturned.
Most of the time, the sentence or verdict was reversed on appeal as a result of
inadequate counsel, Kane said.
During oral arguments, the justices repeatedly questioned if the unusual King's
Bench petition, which calls on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to assert
extraordinary jurisdiction over its lower courts, fulfills an "immediate need"
requirement.
Justice Debra Todd asked why abolishing the death penalty was urgent, given the
moratorium on executions that Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf imposed after taking
office in 2015.
"If the system is cruel, then it is incumbent on this court to say so," Kane
said.
But a lawyer for Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who opposed the petition, said
it was not the court's role to legislate capital punishment. Shapiro's office
said that any amendments to the death penalty should be decided by state
lawmakers, who issued troubling findings last year.
The nearly 300-page report outlined racial and geographic disparities inherent
to the application of capital punishment. The Pennsylvania’s General Assembly
Joint State Government Commission noted that a large number of people on death
row were diagnosed with mental health disorders or intellectual disabilities.
Also, because not all prosecutors seek the death penalty, defendants in
conservative municipalities were more likely to receive the harshest sentences
compared to people in more liberal jurisdictions.
"The questions the report raises are important, and should be thoroughly
considered and resolved, by the General Assembly," Shapiro's office said in its
brief.
Counsel from Republican state Sen. Joe Scarnati's office further cautioned that
the report was not intended to "bind the court," but rather serve as an
"adjunct" to further understand the death penalty as applied in Pennsylvania.
Across the nation, capital punishment remains legal in 29 states, although four
of them, including Pennsylvania, imposed a moratorium on executions.
Only 3 people have been executed in Pennsylvania since capital punishment was
reinstated in 1978, the last of them in 1999. No Pennsylvania women are
currently on death row.
(source: nbcphiladelphia.com)
*********************
Pennsylvania high court passes on death penalty review
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has declined a special petition to review the
constitutionality of the death penalty but says it will still consider the
fairness of individual cases.
The decision Friday comes after the court heard arguments this month from
critics who call the punishment cruel and arbitrary in the way it's applied to
poor and black defendants. Public defender Shawn Nolan represents the two men
whose petitions were at the heart of the petition.
Nolan said he is disappointed, given "overwhelming evidence that Pennsylvania's
death penalty system is broken." But his office will continue to litigate the
issue in state courts, he said.
Statewide, just under half of the current death row inmates in Pennsylvania are
black, compared with 11% of state residents.
The death penalty remains legal in 29 U.S. states, although 4 of those states,
including Pennsylvania, have a moratorium on executions.
More than half of the 441 death sentences handed down since the death penalty
was reinstated in the late 1970s have been deemed flawed and overturned,
Assistant Federal Defender Timothy Kane said at the Sept. 11 hearing. Among the
155 from Philadelphia, the reversal rate is 72 %. "The reliability of the
system as a whole is cruel, and the systemic problems affect every case," Kane
argued before the overflow crowd at Philadelphia City Hall.
Most of the time, the sentence or verdict was reversed on appeal because of the
work of court-appointed lawyers working with limited public funds, he said.
Justice Debra Todd asked why the issue was urgent, given the moratorium on
executions that Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf imposed after taking office in 2015. A
lawyer for Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who opposed the petition, said it was
not.
Shapiro's office said that any amendments to the death penalty should be
decided by the Legislature, which issued a troubling report on the issue last
year.
"The questions the report raises are important, and should be thoroughly
considered and resolved, by the General Assembly," Shapiro's office said in its
brief.
However, Kane hoped the Supreme Court would step in given the lack of action by
lawmakers.
The average appeal in Pennsylvania takes 17 years, straining the resources of
the court system, critics said.
5 Democrats and 2 Republicans sit on the state Supreme Court.
(source: Associated Press)
FLORIDA:
Jury recommends death penalty for convicted child killer Granville Ritchie
Granville Ritchie, the man convicted of sexually battering and killing
9-year-old Felecia Williams in 2014, could receive the death sentence after
Friday's juror recommendation.
The same jury who found Ritchie guilty of first-degree murder, sexual battery
and child abuse gave a unanimous recommendation to give Ritchie the death
penalty.
During the trial, Ritchie's lawyer argued his brain scans show "abnormalities"
and did not have a serious criminal record before he killed Williams.
Family friend Eboni Wiley brought Williams to Ritchie’s apartment on May 16,
2014. She testified that she left the little girl alone with him to go buy
marijuana.
When she came back, she says Williams was gone.
Wiley testified that Ritchie told her he let the child walk to CVS to buy
candy, but there was no sign of her there.
(source: ABC News)
TENNESSEE:
Tennessee AG wants to speed up death penalty court battle ahead of April
execution date
State Attorney General Herbert Slatery's office announced his intention to
appeal Friday, weeks after a judge ordered Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman off death row.
Michael Fant, Nashville Tennessean
Tennessee's attorney general wants its latest death penalty battle to skip
straight to the state's highest court in an attempt to speed up the process and
keep a steady pace of executions on schedule.
Attorney General Herbert Slatery's office is appealing a deal to take inmate
Abu-Alu Abdur'Rahman off of death row months before his scheduled execution
date. The state has asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to consider the matter
immediately, rather than waiting for the Court of Criminal Appeals to rule
first.
In a filing Wednesday, the state said the deal — brokered by Nashville District
Attorney Glenn Funk and defense attorney Brad MacLean — improperly "nullified
and subverted" Abdur'Rahman's death sentence. The attorney general said it was
essential that the Supreme Court intervene now in order to settle the issue in
time to keep Abdur'Rahman's scheduled April 16 execution date.
Slatery has pushed to increase executions in Tennessee since he was appointed
in 2014. The state has executed 5 inmates since August 2018. 3 more executions
are scheduled, including Abdur'Rahman, and this month Slatery's office asked
the state's high court to set nine new additional execution dates.
Abu-Alu Abdur'Rahman's deal stems from claims of racial bias
Abdur'Rahman, 68, was convicted of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to death for
the 1986 stabbing death of Patrick Daniels in Nashville. The death row inmate
has long held that racial bias during jury selection tainted the trial and its
outcome.
Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins agreed to reconsider Abdur'Rahman's case in
2016, following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that reopened a Georgia case
because of racism during jury selection.
Nearly 3 years later, Funk and MacLean announced a deal that acknowledged
racial bias throughout the trial and replaced Abdur'Rahman's death sentence
with life in prison. Watkins approved the deal in August and ordered
Abdur'Rahman off death row.
The attorney general responded in fiery terms. In the filing requesting a
Supreme Court review, Slatery's team said "the proceedings in the trial court
sidestepped the rule of law."
"The question of the authority of District Attorneys General and trial courts
to modify final judgments at will affects the rights and interests of innocent
victims and of the people of this State," the filing states. "In the absence of
guidance from this Court, the practice of modifying final judgments threatens
to undermine the public’s trust in the integrity of the criminal justice
system."
The attorney general's posture pits the state against a deal the state itself
approved in the first place, through a local prosecutor. Legal experts say this
puts the ongoing appeal on new and unpredictable ground.
Abdur'Rahman's legal team will defend the deal on appeal. Federal public
defender Kelley Henry, part of a unit that defends death row inmates, said the
attorney general's appeal was improper.
“It is unfortunate that the appointed Attorney General is attempting to usurp
the power and discretion that belongs solely to the elected district attorney
general,” Henry said.
Funk, defense team stand by deal
Funk has said he stands by the deal. During the August court hearing, Funk
essentially acknowledged prosecutorial misconduct had marred Abdur'Rahman's
trial.
"Overt racial bias has no place in the justice system," Funk said at the time.
"Further, and most importantly, the pursuit of justice is incompatible with
deception. Prosecutors must never be dishonest to or mislead defense counsel,
courts or juries."
Slatery's office has said Abdur'Rahman's previous attempts to raise issues of
misconduct failed, and that it is wrong to revive those concerns at this phase.
The state argues the only possible recourse Abdur'Rahman has now rests with
Gov. Bill Lee.
"What the parties and the post-conviction court purported to do in this case —
modify the petitioner’s sentence to life imprisonment — is a power conferred
upon the Governor, who has sole authority under the Tennessee Constitution to
grant reprieves and pardons," the attorney general's filing states.
(source: The Tennessean)
***************************
Tennessee Attorney General Asks State Supreme Court to Schedule Nine Executions
and Undo Plea Deal that Took A 10th Prisoner Off Death Row
Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery (pictured) has asked the Tennessee
Supreme Court to set execution dates for an unprecedented 9 death-row
prisoners, the largest execution request in the modern history of Tennessee’s
death penalty. On the same day, September 20, 2019, Slatery attempted to
intervene in the case of death-row prisoner Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman to reactivate
his death warrant and undo a court-approved plea deal with Nashville
prosecutors that would overturn his death sentence and replace it with three
consecutive life sentences.
Slatery’s actions drew fire from defense lawyers but silence from Tennessee
Governor Bill Lee, who said the attorney general had the prerogative to seek
the execution dates and challenge Abdur’Rahman’s plea deal. Assistant Federal
Public Defender Kelley Henry, whose office represents 7 of the 9 prisoners
targeted in Slatery’s motion said the attorney general’s “request for mass
executions” came as a “surprise.” “Each case is unique and represents a number
of fundamental constitutional problems including innocence, racism, and severe
mental illness,” Henry told the Nashville Scene. “We will oppose the appointed
Attorney General’s request.” According to media reports, many of the prisoners
targeted by the execution requests have significant histories of mental
illness.
Slatery also filed a notice of appeal in the Tennessee Supreme Court seeking to
overturn a plea deal reached between Abdur’Rahman and Davidson County
(Nashville) District Attorney General Glenn Funk. Abdur’Rahman, who faced an
April 16, 2020 execution date, had sought a new trial alleging that prosecutor
John Zimmerman had discriminatorily excluded black prospective jurors from
serving in Abdur’Rahman’s capital trial. Based on these and other misconduct
allegations against Zimmerman, Funk agreed that justice would be served with
Abdur’Rahman’s sentence being reduced to life in prison.
Funk told Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins that “[t]he
pursuit of justice is incompatible with deception” and conceded that
Abdur’Rahman’s trial had been infected by “overt racial bias.” “Prosecutors
must never be dishonest to or mislead defense attorneys, courts or juries,” he
said. Judge Watkins approved the plea deal and resentenced Abdur’Rahman to
three consecutive terms of life in prison on August 30, 2019.
In a statement issued in conjunction with his court filing, Slatery said that
the plea deal “essentially grant[s] clemency through a court and a district
attorney that both lack the authority to do so.” He claimed the resentencing
order “uproots decades of established legal procedure and lacks any legal
justification.” Funk did not respond to Slatery’s comments, except to say that
his office stands by the plea deal. Abdur’Rahman’s lawyer Bradley MacLean said
the plea deal was binding on the state and called Slatery’s intervention in the
case “unprecedented.” “By attempting to undermine the authority and the
prosecutorial discretion of the District Attorney,” MacLean said, “the Attorney
General is turning a blind eye to the gross injustices in Mr. Abdur’Rahman’s
case and is attempting to sanction the kind of racial bias and egregious
prosecutorial misconduct that occurred in the case. The Attorney General is not
seeking to uphold our most cherished constitutional principles. Instead, the
Attorney General is taking a stand for racism and a prosecutor’s violation of
his constitutional and ethical duties.”
Tennessee has carried out 11 executions since reinstating the death penalty in
1974. Between 1974 and 2017, it had never executed more than 2 prisoners in any
year. However, it executed 3 prisoners in 2018 and has executed 2 so far in
2019, with 1 more execution still scheduled this year.
Slatery is seeking execution dates for four death-row prisoners from Davidson
County—Byron Black, Oscar Smith, Henry Hodges, and Donald Middlebrooks—as well
as Pervis Payne and Tony Carruthers from Shelby County, Farris Morris (Madison
County), Gary Sutton (Blount County), and Harold Nichols (Hamilton County).
(source: Death Penalty Information Center)
MISSOURI----impending execution
Death penalty opponents want governor to block Missouri inmate’s execution
Several groups are trying to halt next week’s scheduled execution of Missouri
inmate Russell Bucklew. He’s serving a death sentence for the 1996 murder of
Michael Sanders of southeast Missouri’s Cape Girardeau.
Bucklew also severely attacked his ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Ray, and beat her
mother and mother’s fiance over the heads with a hammer. They managed to
survive Bucklew’s wrath. During the crime spree, he also got into a gun battle
with law enforcement and survived a gunshot to the chest and head.
Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, the NAACP, Empower Missouri,
the American Civil Liberties Union and others want Gov. Mike Parson to stop
Bucklew’s execution. They argue that Bucklew’s rare brain condition could cause
him to suffer a cruel death.
On Wednesday, they delivered some 57,000 petitions to Parson’s office making
the request and resoundingly stating that the death penalty is not what
Missouri stands for. According to ACLU volunteer Danielle Spradley, the
petition signing has been circulated online for the past couple of months.
During Wednesday’s press conference at the state Capitol in Jefferson City,
Jeff Stack with the Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation says Bucklew
would be the 89th person executed in the state since 1989.
“That’s a horrible number to think about. Missouri has been, sadly, a serial
killer and we should be getting out of the business,” says Stack. “Mr. Bucklew
committed some horrible crimes – no doubt. But we need to get out of this
business of defining a human being by an action – a horrible action in their
lives. We have no right to do that.”
Nimrod Chapel with the Missouri NAACP says the state’s high murder rate shows
the death penalty does not prevent people from killing others.
“It’s almost as if murder has become passe,” says Chapel. “Well how does it get
that way? We normalize it, right? The only other thing we could do with a
state-sanctioned execution such as Mr. Bucklew’s, or any other for that matter,
would be to show it on tv. Why not livestream it – if it has that effect? The
truth is it doesn’t. Everybody recognizes that this is gross, that we as human
beings shouldn’t be killing each other.”
If Missouri carries out Bucklew’s execution, Chapel says the state could likely
face a higher level of scrutiny. The American Bar Association recommended that
Missouri freezes the use of the death penalty.
“As I understand it, there will be an international inquiry as to whether
Missouri has violated human rights laws by executing a man in Mr. Bucklew’s
condition. So that’s what I think is next,” he says.
Chapel says there have been meetings with the governor and his staff about the
case. He goes as far to say that Bucklew’s health warrants the man getting
released from prison because Chapel says Bucklew is beyond the capacity to harm
others.
Conner Kerrigan of Empower Missouri says the system is broken.
“We are not here because of a single bad decision by the Supreme Court. We are
here because we have become dependent on a criminal justice system that was not
built to consider any solution other than righteous punishment. We are here
because of failure after failure after failure after failure of the system,”
says Kerrigan. “Russell received no mitigation investigation for 20 years
following his trial. This is a failure of the system. His family history of
abuse, lead poisoning and opioid addiction were not mentioned at all during his
trial, despite documentation that showed the effect that they had on him. This
is a failure of the system. A secret payoff of a post-conviction lawyer muddied
the waters of his investigation. This is a failure of the system.”
Parson spokesperson Kelli Jones says the governor takes seriously both his duty
and responsibility to see that lawfully entered capital sentences are carried
out in accordance with state law. Jones says each case of capital punishment
will be thoroughly reviewed before any decision for pardon or clemency is made.
She says Parson has consistently supported capital punishment when merited by
the circumstances and all other legal remedies have been exhausted and when due
process has been satisfied.
The Missouri Supreme Court has scheduled Bucklew’s execution to occur during a
24-hour window beginning Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the state prison in southeast
Missouri’s Bonne Terre.
(source: missourinet.com)
**************************
Sept. 28, 1958: A tale of evil and stupidity becomes Missouri's crime of the
20th century
On the night of Oct. 4, 1953, Carl Austin Hall drove his rented Ford along a
wooded stretch of U.S. Highway 40 east of Kansas City. He turned down a quiet
county road toward a bridge but didn't see the duffel bag he expected.
When a Cadillac drove by, Hall was stricken by guilty panic. He had intended to
put stolen plates on the Ford, but forgot. The duffel drop was to have been by
Cadillac. Had the 2 men who drove by seen his plates? Hall waited, braced
himself and headed back to the bridge. He saw the bag and grabbed it.
Hall picked up his girlfriend, Bonnie Brown Heady, and drove east. In the
duffel was $600,000 in tens and twenties, the ransom for the life of Robert C.
Greenlease Jr., 6-year-old son of one of Kansas City's richest men.
The case had been national news since Sept. 28, when Heady, posing as the boy's
aunt, managed to lure Bobby from his grade school. On the day of the ransom
drop, Hall had sworn yet again to the Greenlease family that the boy was alive.
It was a cruel lie. Hall had shot the boy shortly after the kidnapping, then
buried him in Heady's backyard in St. Joseph, Mo.
Early on Oct. 5, Hall and Heady slipped into St. Louis, rented a flat at 4504
Arsenal Street, indulged their taste for heavy drinking and fought. While Heady
slept off her bender, Hall hailed a cab, procured a call girl and took her to
the Coral Court, the old no-tell motel on Watson Road in Marlborough. His free
spending attracted notice.
The cabbie tipped off his boss, mobster Joe Costello, who called Lt. Louis
Shoulders, a crooked St. Louis cop. Shoulders and his driver, patrolman Elmer
Dolan, arrested Hall on Oct. 6. Sometime that evening, half of the ransom
disappeared.
Shoulders had figured Hall as an embezzler, an easy mark for a shakedown. At
the police station, Hall suddenly confessed he was the Greenlease kidnapper but
blamed the murder on a mystery man. 6 days later, he and Heady confessed to
everything.
They were executed in Missouri's gas chamber on Dec. 18. Shoulders insisted
that he confiscated all the money Hall had with him, but investigators didn't
buy it. He and Dolan were convicted of perjury. Dolan eventually told FBI
agents he had lied to protect his family and that Shoulders had taken the
missing half of the ransom to Costello's house. Dolan won a presidential
pardon. Shoulders never fessed up.
Only a little of the missing money ever surfaced. The tale of evil, stupidity
and corruption endures as Missouri's crime of the 20th century.
(source: stltoday.com)
OKLAHOMA:
Court Upholds Death Penalty in Oklahoma Woman's Fiery Death----The Oklahoma
Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the death penalty for a man convicted of
the fire-related death of his girlfriend.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the death penalty given a man
convicted of setting his girlfriend on fire, causing her death.
The court Thursday handed down the ruling to 36-year-old Donnie Harris of
Talihina, who was convicted of 1st-degree murder for the death of 25-year-old
Kristi Ferguson of Pocola.
Among other things, the court rejected claims that Harris did not receive a
fair trial.
Harris was accused of dowsing Ferguson with gasoline and setting her on fire on
Feb. 18, 2012. She suffered 2nd- and 3rd-degree burns over 50% of her body and
died 19 days later.
A Le Flore County jury convicted Harris and recommended the death penalty after
finding the murder especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.
Harris' attorney, Kristi Christopher, declined comment on the ruling.
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA:
Merritt murder sentencing postponed as 2 of his 3 attorneys attempt to pull out
of case
The scheduled sentencing for convicted murderer Charles “Chase” Merritt was
postponed Friday, Sept. 27, amid a discussion about two of Merritt’s attorneys
withdrawing from the case.
Merritt, 62, was convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of former
business associate Joseph McStay, his wife and their 4- and 3-year-old
children; the family lived Fallbrook.
Jurors have recommended the death penalty.
Lawyer James E. McGee said an undisclosed conflict of interest has emerged that
prevents him and a fellow attorney from continuing to represent Merritt.
Co-defense counsel Rajan Maline has said he was not joining the motion.
A hearing on McGee’s motion to withdraw was set for Nov. 1. No new date has
been set for sentencing, which had been scheduled for this past Friday. A
hearing for other motions has been set for Dec. 3, Superior Court records show.
(source: Press-Enterprise)
*********************
Sentencing postponed for man convicted in McStay family's murder
Sentencing was postponed Friday morning for Charles "Chase" Merritt who was
convicted of killing a family of 4 with a sledgehammer and burying their bodies
in shallow graves in San Bernardino County.
Merritt was scheduled to be sentenced Friday morning.
Joseph McStay, his wife Summer, and their 2 young sons vanished from their San
Diego area home in 2010. Their bodies were found years 3 later in the
Victorville desert and Merritt was arrested in 2014.
Jurors found 62-year-old Merritt guilty of 4 counts of 1st-degree murder in the
bludgeoning deaths of his business associate. He pleaded not guilty and his
lawyers did not offer any witnesses during the penalty phase of his trial,
insisting he was innocent.
The jury recommended the death penalty for Merritt.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has placed a moratorium on executions while he’s in office.
California hasn’t executed anyone since 2006.
A judge moved Merritt's sentence hearing to December.
(source: foxla.com)
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