October 15
TEXAS----new death sentence
Ronald Haskell Jr. sentenced to death in fatal shooting of 6 members of
ex-wife's family
Ronald Lee Haskell Jr. has been sentenced to death in the fatal shooting of 6
members of his ex-wife's family in 2014 — which included the execution-style
killing of the 4 of the family's children, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors say Haskell, of Utah, traveled from California to Texas on a
mission to kill anybody who helped his ex-wife, Melannie Lyon. The couple had
recently divorced after more than a decades-long abusive relationship.
Haskell spent months planning the murders and 2 days in the Spring, Texas, area
stalking the Lyon and Stay family, according to prosecutors.
On July 9, 2014, he disguised himself as a FedEx delivery driver and made his
way into the Stay residence in Spring, Texas. There, prosecutors say he held 5
of the Stay children hostage at gunpoint until the parents, Katie and Stephen
Stay, arrived, forced them all to the ground, and shot them 1-by-1. Katie, who
was Lyon's sister, Stephen, and 4 of their 5 children; 4-year-old Zach,
7-year-old Rebecca, 9-year-old Emily, and 13-year-old Bryan, were killed.
The 5th child, then-14-year-old Cassidy Stay, survived the shooting despite
being shot in the head by playing dead. Now 20, she testified in the case
against Haskell.
"I hope that when you die, you will get the punishment you deserve from God,"
she told Haskell at sentencing.
After the fatal shooting at the Stay residence, Haskell had reloaded his gun at
started for Lyon's parents and brother's residences — but was stopped and
arrested before arriving. Law enforcement commended Cassidy in preventing
further killings, despite her injuries.
"After the murderer left, Cassidy’s quick actions prevented Haskell from
carrying out the remainder of his plan to kill 22 members of his ex-wife’s
family," read a statement from the Harris County District Attorney's Office.
Haskell's defense attorney's argued he should be found not guilty by reason of
insanity. At sentencing they shifted to life behind bars without a death
sentence arguing Haskell suffered from several mental illnesses.
Prosecutors rebutted, stating Haskell was a vengeful, manipulative liar who,
upon expert witness testimony, faked his mental illnesses.
A jury rejected Haskell’s insanity defense Sept. 26 and found him guilty of
capital murder. He was sentenced on Friday, October 11, 2019.
“The death penalty is only for the worst of the worst,” stated Harris County
District Attorney Kim Ogg. “Haskell meticulously planned and carried out the
slaughter of the Stay family and the death sentence handed down by a jury of
his peers is appropriate.”
(source: mytexasdaily.com)
*******************
Sheriff: Abilene man used pocket knife to kill common-law wife, infant daughter
The Abilene man charged with capital murder in the deaths of his common-law
wife and infant daughter used a pocket knife to stab them to death, according
to the Callahan County Sheriff's Office.
Cody Edmund Dixon, 34, was transferred from the Callahan County Jail in Baird
to the Taylor County Jail in Abilene on Monday afternoon for security reasons.
He will be kept in a jail cell by himself and is on suicide watch.
Dixon is accused of killing Alia Rae Hutchison, 22, and their 9-month-old
daughter, Aria Ellen Dixon, on Saturday.
The Sheriff's Office says Dixon stabbed them with a pocket knife after the
couple had a fight.
Deputies believe Dixon and Hutchison -- who were living with his sister in
Abilene -- were possibly moving back to Wisconsin.
Hutchison's body was found on CR 324 between Baird and Putnam.
The baby's body had been thrown over a fence.
Deputies said Dixon confessed to the murders and said God told him do it.
His bond was set at $1.8 million.
Investigators say the couple had moved to Abilene a few months ago from
Wisconsin, but things weren't going well.
"He moved to his mother's house and then to his sister's house and it wasn't
going well," said Chief Deputy Rick Jowers of the Callahan County Sheriff's
Office.
Investigator say Dixon used a pocket knife to kill his wife and baby. Dixon,
according to investigators, admitted to the murders. He faces 2 counts of
capital murder and he could face the death penalty.
(source: KTXS news)
NORTH CAROLINA:
2 people may face death penalty for allegedly running over woman at Greensboro
Exxon
Why?
That's what a family is asking after their daughter was run over twice outside
an Exxon gas station over the weekend — a bizarre incident that involved five
other people who were hit for reasons that are still not clear.
Meranda Chantel Watlington, 28, and Fana Anquette Felton, 27, could face the
death penalty after allegedly striking the 6 people — critically injuring 3 —
and killing 30-year-old Zanelle Tucker.
On Monday night, family and friends of Tucker gathered at the Exxon on West
Gate City Boulevard to hold a vigil. More than 75 people attended, holding
balloons and embracing each other.
It was the climax of a somber day. Hours earlier, some of those same people
were in court to see Watlington — who police say was the driver — and Felton,
her friend, appear before a judge.
A man who said he was Tucker's father asked to address Watlington. "I want to
ask the court: Why did she have to kill my daughter?
The incident occurred at 3:04 a.m. Saturday. By the time police arrived,
several bodies were on the ground.
According to several cellphone videos posted on social media, a fight had
preceded the homicide. The video shows Tucker and Watlington trying prevent
Felton from fighting an unidentified person.
It's unknown to what extent, if any, the other 5 people hit were involved in
the fracas.
A 22-minute video on YouTube details a chaotic scene, punctuated by screaming
and yelling.
At one point, Watlington falls to the ground. Tucker helps her up.
"Come here!" Felton shouts. "Come here!"
Watlington and Tucker try to hold Felton back. But others join the fight.
Then the crowd, inexplicably, turns on Watlington.
She falls to the ground and is kicked, punched and dragged.
The video later shows a black SUV going into reverse — allegedly driven by
Watlington — and plows into a group of people between gas pumps, sending them
sprawling to the ground. They were still prone when the vehicle rolls over them
again.
The video cuts away to police hovering over several bodies.
Blood is pooled in several spots around the gas station.
In court Monday, Watlington and Felton had very different reactions to possibly
facing the death penalty.
Felton looked up toward the ceiling and shook her head as a tear rolled down
her cheek.
Watlington looked unaffected, but asked to "say something" after Tucker's
father spoke.
Judge Larry Archie denied her request.
(source: Winston-Salem Journal)
FLORIDA----impending execution
As execution looms in Pinellas case, fuzzy memories squander defense efforts --
James Dailey’s execution remains set for Nov. 7. On Monday, a judge denied
efforts to overturn his death sentence after a former prosecutor testified.
Days after the governor signed James Dailey’s death warrant, defense lawyers
spoke with James Slater, a former prosecutor, who remembered visiting the scene
in Indian Rocks Beach where 14-year-old Shelly Boggio was murdered in May 1985.
Slater signed an affidavit saying he remembered law enforcement officers
telling him that a man named Jack Pearcy was responsible for the crime. He said
he remembered being told Pearcy wanted to have sex with the girl, but had
trouble performing. He said he was told that Pearcy became angry when Boggio
teased him, and that he’d stabbed the girl.
Dailey’s lawyers wanted to use Slater’s memories to corroborate their claim
that it was Pearcy alone who killed Boggio. They say Dailey is innocent.
But on the witness stand Monday in a Pinellas County courtroom, Slater’s memory
was foggy.
He couldn’t remember whom he talked to that day 34 years ago. He couldn’t
remember if Pearcy was a suspect. He couldn’t even remember the victim’s name.
“I don’t know if I got it confused with another case,” Slater said.
After hearing the testimony, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Pat Siracusa denied
the defense’s request to overturn Dailey’s conviction and death sentence.
Shelly Elizabeth Boggio was killed at the age of 14 on May 5, 1985. The Kenneth
City girl was beaten, choked and stabbed 31 times, then held underwater until
she drowned, authorities said. She was found the next day near the Indian Rocks
Beach bridge. James Dailey, 73, was sentenced to death for the crime. Dailey
maintains his innocence. [Tampa Bay Times]
Dailey, 73, listened to Monday’s hearing via phone. He is set to be executed
Nov. 7.
His lawyers can still seek a stay of execution from the Florida Supreme Court.
There is also an appeal pending in federal court.
Dailey and Pearcy were both convicted of killing Boggio. While Dailey got the
death penalty, Pearcy is serving a life sentence.
Boggio’s body was found the morning of May 6, 1985, in the Intracoastal
Waterway, near the Walsingham Road Bridge. She had been stabbed more than 30
times, choked and ultimately drowned.
Pearcy implicated Dailey in the crime, but over the years, according to court
documents, he has been inconsistent about whether Dailey participated in the
killing.
Most recently, he signed an affidavit that contained the statement: “I alone am
responsible for Shelly Boggio’s death.” But when questioned under oath at a
2018 court hearing, Pearcy said statements in the affidavit were not true. He
invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked about specific paragraphs.
Slater’s testimony was the sole issue on which the judge allowed the defense to
hold a hearing this week.
Defense lawyers have raised a number of other issues, which they say bolster
their claim that Dailey is innocent. Those include the words of men who have
served time with Dailey, who say they remember a detective showing them news
articles about Boggio’s murder and asking if Dailey ever talked about his case.
Dailey’s conviction was largely based on the words of 3 jailhouse informers,
who testified in his 1987 trial that they heard him make incriminating
statements.
Attorneys for the state have argued that Dailey’s claims are not new, that he
has argued the same things for more than 30 years, and that courts have always
rejected his appeals.
Since the signing of his death warrant, Dailey’s case has attracted the
attention of capital punishment opponents. Among them are members of the
Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg, who called on Gov. Ron DeSantis to withdraw
the death warrant amid doubts about Dailey’s guilt.
(source: tampabay.com)
******************
'I experienced a life sentence,' mother of Dan Markel tells jurors as they
weigh death penalty----Ruth Markel said the pain of her son Dan's murder has
left her living a life of "unimaginable pain and heartbreak."
Ruth Markel didn’t ask jurors to sentence Sigfredo Garcia to death. But she
told them during the killer's sentencing hearing that losing her son Dan Markel
shattered her own life.
She took the stand Monday as jurors began to weigh whether to recommend the
death penalty against Garcia, who was convicted of first-degree murder Friday
in his killing.
“There’s no word in the English language for someone who loses a child. Yet
because of the acts of a few, our son Dan's life was cut short and we were
forced to live with the unthinkable,” Ruth Markel told the 12-person jury.
"From the day I learned of Dan’s death I experienced a life sentence. Dan’s
murder will continue to torment me for the rest of our lives."
Calmly reading from a prepared statement, she told jurors about the impact of
Markel’s death on the rest of the family; her husband Phil and daughter Shelly
Markel watched silently from the 3rd pew inside courtroom 3G.
The 13-minute statement was the first time anyone in Markel’s family has spoken
during the trial about the Florida State law professor’s murder on July 18,
2014.
She said the longest lasting impact though is on Markel’s 2 young sons, who
were just 3 and 4 at the time he was shot in broad daylight in his Betton Hills
garage.
In addition to his academic and legal acumen — Markel was educated at Cambridge
and Harvard and a successful legal blogger who was active in the FSU Law School
community — his devotion as a father was immeasurable.
“It's hard to capture the words, the joy and excitement I felt when Dan became
a father,” she said, calling her late son “selfless, attentive, and active” in
their lives.
“He was their world.”
Garcia faces either life in prison without the possibility of parole or the
death penalty, which must be a unanimous decision. Jurors will hear closing
arguments in the death penalty phase Tuesdayand begin deliberations on Garcia’s
sentence.
Historically, Leon County jurors have been reluctant to sign off on death
sentences.
The last person sentenced to death in Leon County was serial killer Gary
Michael Hilton in 2011. Before that, 19 years passed since a jury recommended
death for a convicted murderer.
Ruth Markel read a statement on behalf of the Markel family during Sigfredo
Garcia's sentencing hearing. Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman worked
to present aggravating factors to the jury that could push them to approve a
death sentence.
“This murder was committed for money… for greed,” she told jurors during her
opening statement. “This murder was committed in a cold, calculated and
premeditated manner.”
Cappleman described the way Garcia and Luis Rivera, a 2nd man who traveled to
Tallahassee from Miami to kill the law professor for cash, stalked Markel as he
dropped his kids off at daycare and went to the gym before shooting him twice
in the head.
“This is about as premeditated a crime as they come,” she said.
Garcia’s attorney Saam Zangeneh asked the jury for mercy. He argued that the
47-year-old was under mental duress and emotionally disturbed at the time he
shot Markel.
He also argued Garcia’s role in the murder was minor. Garcia, who opted not to
testify during the trial, declined to testify again during sentencing.
“All we can ask of you guys is to be human. Even if you find there’s an
aggravating circumstance here, you don’t have to find death,” Zangeneh said.
“Is this the type of case, with his role and the big picture, that should get
him the needle?”
Rivera confessed to traveling from Miami to Tallahassee to kill Markel in what
investigators say was a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by the family of his
ex-wife Wendi Adelson.
Forensic psychologists for the defense and the state differed on whether Garcia
suffered from major depressive disorders and long-term anxiety that could have
affected his mental state.
Dr. Julie Harper detailed Garcia’s childhood, including the first memory he had
of his dad at age 5 when he was being released from prison.
Garcia was isolated in a stressful home environment as his father engaged in
extramarital affairs and dragged his sister along as he committed his own
crimes. His father left Miami when he was facing prison and Garcia was 11.
Sigfredo Garcia Sr. left for Mexico and told his family he was going to play
the lotto, Harper told jurors.
“I think the departure of his father was the first root of depression,” Harper
said. “He felt abandoned, unlovable.”
Garcia's arrest record dates back to 1988 — he was arrested for the 1st time
when he was 6 years old for jumping on the roof of a teacher's car. Since then,
he was arrested more than 10 times, half of which happened when he was a
juvenile.
He smoked marijuana, drank alcohol and tried cocaine with his father at a very
young age, Harper said.
She testified that Garcia went through several Department of Juvenile Justice
programs. He invested time and effort into a career as an aeronautical engineer
but found that his criminal record prevented him from working at places like an
airport.
Harper testified Garcia was shot in the lung and liver in 2005 defending two
Miami teens who a man was pestering to pose nude. She said as a result, he is
anxious about people creeping up behind him and can't watch movies with
violence or gunshots because they gives him nightmares.
Katherine Magbanua, whose trial ended in a hung jury last week, held
substantial domination over Garcia, Harper said.
The mother of his 2 children chided him about his inability to secure long-term
employment and regularly threatened to take the couple’s kids away. They broke
up often during their long relationship.
“He was feeling hopeless like the relationship had ended and there was no
chance of reconciliation," Harper testified.
Cappleman pointed out that throughout Garcia’s extensive interactions with
authorities, he wasn’t diagnosed with mental health issues until his arrest and
evaluation while in the Leon County Detention Facility.
The state’s forensic psychologist Dr. Greg Prichard refuted that Garcia
suffered from major depression, saying he instead displayed a devious pattern
that started in childhood and continued into adulthood.
“He’s a capable guy. He’s a smart guy,” Prichard said. “He could have done a
lot with his life were it not for his choices of his criminal conduct.”
Garcia, a father of 2 himself, showed little empathy toward Markel’s family
when he decided to kill him, Prichard said.
“That is a lack of empathy classically, especially coming from somebody.
(source: tallahassee.com)
OHIO:
Sitting on Death Row: Willie Gene Wilks Jr.----Wilks was admitted into the
Chillicothe Correctional Institution in May of 2014
One woman died and a man holding an infant was injured after 47-year-old Willie
Gene Wilks, Jr. fired a rifle at them in 2013.
Wilks is facing the death penalty in the case.
On May 21 of that year, Ororo Wilkins was on a porch with Alexander Morales
Jr., who was holding the 5-month-old daughter of homeowner Renea Jenkins. Wilks
pulled up in a car holding the rifle, looking for William Wilkens, Jr.
Wilks was upset with Wilkins and Morales over borrowed bank cards.
Morales turned to take the child inside, and Wilks shot him in the back. As
Wilkins tried to pick up the child, Wilks shot her in the head. Wilkins, Jr.
yelled at Wilks from the window, leading Wilks to shoot at him and the house.
After the shooting, Wilks left the scene and was eventually captured by police
after a chase.
Wilkins died from her injuries.
In Masy of 2014, Wilks was admitted into the Chillicothe Correctional
Institution where he awaits execution.
***********************
Sitting on Death Row: John Drummond----Drummond was admitted into the
Chillicothe Correctional Institution in March of 2004
A 3-month-old baby was killed in a 2003 drive-by shooting after 42-year-old
John Drummond fired shots at a Youngstown home.
Drummond is now facing the death penalty for the shooting.
March 24, Drummond and an accomplice fired 11 shots from an assault rifle into
2 homes on the street.
Jiyen Dent Sr. was in one of the homes with his girlfriend and their
3-month-old son, Jiyen Dent Jr. The infant was in a swing in the living room of
the Rutledge Drive home.
Dent Sr. was watching television when bullets started to come through the
windows and walls. He picked up his son and ran toward the bathroom, noticing
that the child was shot in the head.
He made sure that his girlfriend, who was in the kitchen, was safe before
calling 9-1-1.
The child died from his injuries.
While searching the area for shell casings, investigators found Drummond and
the accomplice leaning against a car in the dark nearby.
Drummond was identified as a suspect in the case and was arrested at his home 3
days later.
While searching the home, police also found a drum containing 75 rounds of
7.62x39 mm ammunition, an empty AK magazine, a Taurus 9 mm handgun with no
barrel, a bulletproof vest and other boxes of ammunition.
Drummond was admitted into the Chillicothe Correctional Institution in March of
2004.
His execution is scheduled for April 21, 2022.
************************
Sitting on Death Row: Danny Lee Hill----Hill was admitted into Chillicothe
Correctional Institution in March of 1986
Danny Lee Hill, 52, has been on Ohio’s death row for the 1985 attack, rape and
murder of a young boy.
Raymond Fife was 12 years old when he was killed in Warren. His mother last saw
him alive on September 10, when he left on his bike and headed to a friend’s
house before a Boy Scout meeting.
When he didn’t show up, the friend called Fife’s residence.
Fife’s family searched for the boy, and around 9:30 p.m., his father found him
naked in a wooded field behind Valu King. He had bruises, a burned face, and
his underwear was also burned and tied around his neck.
The coroner said the victim had a hemorrhage in his brain, multiple burns,
damage to his rectal-bladder area and bite marks on his genitals.
Earlier in the day, a witness said he saw Fife riding his bike through the Valu
King parking lot. He also saw Hill and Combs walking through the parking lot
toward the store.
Other witnesses said they were heading to a trail behind Valu King when they
saw Combs walking in the opposite direction. They later heard a child scream in
the area.
Between 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m., another witness saw Combs coming out of the
wooded field, zipping up his blue jeans.
Prosecutors and police say Hill, who was 18 at the time, and Timothy Combs, who
was 17, attacked, raped, tortured and murdered Fife.
Both were convicted of aggravated murder and several other charges. Since Combs
was a juvenile, he was sentenced to life in prison.
Hill was sent to death row. He was admitted into Chillicothe Correctional
Institution in March of 1986.
Combs died in the Grafton Prison on November 9, 2018 at the age of 50.
Hill has been appealing his death sentence for years.
Hill is still arguing that he should not be eligible for the death penalty due
to his mental state. His case is set for arguments this fall.
(source for all: WKBN news)
TENNESSEE:
Sedley Alley, Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman and Tennessee’s Devotion to the Death
Penalty ---- The cases of 2 men raise a fundamental question: Are we pursuing
justice?
To believe in the death penalty — not as some hypothetical moral issue but as
it is actually practiced — one must buy into the idea that a criminal justice
system that is inarguably flawed and corrupted in myriad ways is suddenly above
reproach when the stakes are life and death. Its failures, like the 166 death
row exonerations that have occurred nationwide since 1973, must only be the
exceptions that prove that rule. If not that, one must have the stomach to
ignore the death penalty’s failings and to resist any effort to expose them.
Such is the devotion of Tennessee officials to the killing of condemned
prisoners. It's not so much a matter of policy to them, it seems, but rather a
matter of faith. They conform to its will as if it were a god.
2 death penalty cases being contested in Tennessee courts right now reveal this
obscene dynamic. One is the case of Sedley Alley, who was executed at Riverbend
Maximum Security Institution on June 28, 2006. The other is the case of Abu-Ali
Abdur’Rahman, who the state is seeking to execute in that same death chamber on
April 16.
Alley’s case was brought back to the fore in May, when attorneys and Alley’s
daughter, April, announced they were seeking DNA testing in an effort to
confirm what they believe: that Tennessee executed an innocent man 13 years
ago. In a court filing in Shelby County and a letter to Gov. Bill Lee, they
asked for DNA testing on evidence taken from the crime scene where Suzanne
Collins' body was found in 1985. In particular, men’s red underwear that the
police believed were worn by the murderer. Such testing had been blocked by the
courts — despite a recommendation from Tennessee's Board of Probation and
Parole — before Alley’s execution, but the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled in
2011 that they’d been wrong to do so.
Even in the immediate aftermath of Alley's execution, his attorneys were vowing
to seek the truth.
“God help the people in this process if the DNA proves he didn’t do it,” Kelley
Henry, an assistant federal public defender who represented Alley, was quoted
in The Tennessean as saying after the execution. “We will test the DNA.”
Alley had confessed to the rape and murder of Collins, but his attorneys say
his case had all the hallmarks of a false, coerced confession. They point to
parts of his confession that matched police theories at the time, but ended up
being false. Alley told his daughter before his execution he did not remember
committing the crime.
Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan heard arguments Monday morning
about whether that testing will happen, and a prosecutor was on hand to argue
that it should not.
From the Memphis Commercial Appeal:
Steve Jones, assistant district attorney, argued that Tennessee law guarantees
a right to post-conviction relief for "a person" who has been convicted or
sentenced. In this case, the petition was filed by the estate for Sedley Alley,
not the person, he said.
He also argued that the circumstances under which the Tennessee Supreme Court
ruled on post-conviction DNA testing were different than Alley's case.
"He would not be entitled to post-conviction DNA testing if he were alive
today," Jones said.
It’s not clear yet what position state officials higher up the ladder will take
on the case. But for now, the fact is simple: DNA testing could answer the
question of whether Tennessee executed an innocent man 13 years ago. A
representative of the state stood in court Monday morning and argued that we
should not find out.
Meanwhile, state Attorney General Herbert Slatery is fighting to make sure that
Abdur’Rahman, a black death row prisoner from Nashville, is executed next year
despite clear prosecutorial misconduct in his 1987 trial, including racial
discrimination in jury selection.
Abdur’Rahman has been on death row for 32 years, since he and an accomplice
were convicted of killing Patrick Daniels and stabbing Norma Jean Norman during
a robbery. Norman survived, and her 2 daughters — both of whom were in her home
during the attack — were in the courtroom in August when Nashville District
Attorney Glenn Funk submitted a proposed order vacating Abdur’Rahman’s death
sentence and replacing it with a life sentence. They later told reporters that
they believed it was a just result, and that Zimmermann should be disbarred.
“Overt racial bias has no place in the justice system,” Funk told the court,
adding that “the pursuit of justice is incompatible with deception. Prosecutors
must never be dishonest to or mislead defense attorneys, courts or juries.”
You can read more details about then-Nashville prosecutor John Zimmermann’s
conduct during the trial. But suffice it to say that it was blatant and clear
enough that the city’s current elected district attorney took the remarkable
step of agreeing with Abdur’Rahman’s attorneys and telling a judge to spare his
life. And the judge agreed.
But several weeks later, Slatery announced that his office would be fighting
that agreement in court, arguing that it was “unlawful.” On the same day, his
office filed motions with the Tennessee Supreme Court seeking execution dates
for 9 more death row prisoners.
Slatery has declined to be interviewed about these decisions but his absolute
faith in the death penalty is illustrated by his deeds. In his press release
announcing that he would challenge the decision to drop Abdur’Rahman’s death
sentence, Slatery did not address or refute the claims of serious misconduct by
the prosecutor in the case, except to wave them away by claiming they had
already been litigated.
Even still, the effect is the same.
“When the appointed attorney general is appealing this decision, he is not
representing the state of Tennessee,” Henry, the assistant federal public
defender, said during a press conference at Christ Church Cathedral last week.
“The state of Tennessee has been spoken for by the duly elected district
attorney general, who was given the authority by the Constitution and the
statutes of Tennessee to do justice in this case. No, instead, the appointed
attorney general is defending the rogue prosecutor’s racism and deceit. That’s
what he’s standing up for.”
Later, Abdur’Rahman’s attorney or more than 20 years, Bradley MacLean,
questioned what master Slatery was serving.
“The AG claims he is upholding the ‘rule of law',” MacLean said. “Our question
is what rule of law is he talking about? Is he talking about a rule that says
it’s OK for a racist prosecutor to use race in jury selection? Is he talking
about a rule that says it’s OK for a prosecutor to be dishonest? Is he talking
about a rule that says our criminal justice system cannot correct a grave
error? Is he talking about a rule that says it’s OK to inflict cruel and
unusual punishment? Is he talking about a rule that says a district attorney
general is not to gain justice, but rather he is to pursue a victory at any
cost? Those are not our rules of law.”
MacLean went on to note that 2 judges have set aside Abdur’Rahman’s death
sentence, something that has never happened before in a Tennessee death penalty
case. He also emphasized that every judge and court that has reviewed the case
acknowledges that Abdur’Rahman’s trial lawyer failed to provide him with an
adequate defense.
MacLean quoted 4 judges in different courts lamenting the problems with
Abdur’Rahman’s case. Among them was Sixth Circuit Chief Judge R. Guy Cole Jr.
“The prosecutor desecrated his noble role,” Cole wrote. “He failed grossly in
his duty to act as ‘the representative of a sovereignty whose interest in a
criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be
done.’ Abdur’Rahman may face the ultimate penalty as a result; Justice will
bear a scar.”
As it stands, some of Tennessee’s most powerful officials would rather
sacrifice Sedley Alley and Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman on the altar of the death
penalty, preserving their faith in it at all costs — lest they be forced to
truly reckon with the failures of the system they oversee.
(source: Nashville Scene)
USA:
Pat Robertson: Parents Should Have Disobedient Children Executed Because The
Bible
More of that Christian love: Televangelist Pat Robertson sees nothing wrong
with the death penalty, noting that the Bible says parents should have their
disobedient children executed.
Speaking on his televisioon program The 700 Club lat last week, Robertson went
on a rant defending the death penalty as being Biblical andn right, even going
so far as to suggest that parents should turn disobedient children over to “the
authorities” so that they can “be executed.”
When a viewer asked a question about the death penalty Robertson said:
Are you kidding? Read the Bible. Read the Old Testament. I tell you, if a son
is ungovernable and will not listen to his parents, the parents can bring the
son before the authorities and the son will be executed. Jesus said, you know,
I don’t condemn you, neither should anybody else condemn you.
But I think the whole idea of forgiveness is absolutely there, but in terms of
— the Apostle Paul said, ‘He that wields the sword wields it not in vain but
he’s a minister of God to execute judgment on the unbeliever’ — on those who
are disobedient. He’s a minister of God wielding judgment.
And I do think the death penalty — you got Charles Manson! Why should the state
have to pay hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to
incarcerate a stone-cold killer? I mean, the death penalty is certainly
biblical. Absolutely biblical!
Previously the influential televangelist claimed that anyone opposing Trump is
satanic. Prior to that Robertson argued that Democrats and others who are
working against President Trump are actually working against the will of God.
And before the 2016 election, the televangelist defended Trump after the
president was caught bragging about his sexual assault of women in a lewd video
released before the election. Robertson dismissed Trump’s confession that he
sexually assaulted women and could get away with it, arguing that Trump was
simply “trying to look like he’s macho.”
Bottom line: Pat Robertson thinks the death penalty is a good idea, and notes
that the Bible instructs parents to bring their disobedient children to the
authorities for execution.
Can you feel the Christian love?
(source: patheos.com)
***************************
Stay of Execution Granted for Sole Native American on Federal Death Row
A 3-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has granted
a stay of execution for federal death row prisoner Lezmond Mitchell to prevent
the U.S. government from executing him before the court can review an on-going
appeal concerning possible anti-Native American bias in his case. Mitchell, who
was scheduled to be executed on December 11, 2019, is a member of the Navajo
Nation and the only Native American on federal death row. His case is one of
several in the past year highlighting the tension between tribal sovereignty
and the pursuit of the death penalty by state and federal officials.
When the Department of Justice announced in July its intention to execute
Mitchell and four other federal death-row prisoners in a five-week span from
December 9, 2019 through January 15, 2020, it falsely claimed that the
prisoners had all exhausted their appeals and that it was carrying out the
executions to advance the interests of the victims’ families. In fact, although
Mitchell’s initial appeals had been denied, he was in the midst of litigation
in the federal courts and had been granted a “certificate of appealability,”
meaning that the courts considered the issues he raised to be worthy of further
judicial review. Both the Navajo Nation and the victims’ family told federal
prosecutors at the time of trial that they opposed the government seeking the
death penalty in the case.
Mitchell’s attorneys argued that his scheduled execution would interfere with
continuing legal challenges to the constitutionality of his death sentence.
They asked “for a stay of execution such that he may litigate his appeal
[concerning anti-Native American bias] to conclusion.” A split panel of the
federal appeals court voted 2-1 on October 4 to grant the stay so that briefing
could be completed in the case and scheduled argument on the appeal for
December 13.
In 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado that
statements by jurors that their verdict was influenced by racial stereotypes or
animus were admissible to challenge the constitutionality of a defendant’s
conviction. Mitchell’s lawyers sought to interview jurors about potential
racial bias in his case, citing bias in the charging decision, the exclusion of
Native American prospective jurors, and a closing argument that “was riddled
with comment” disparaging Mitchell’s “religious beliefs and Navajo culture.”
The district court refused to permit Mitchell to talk to jurors, relying on an
Arizona procedural rule barring juror interviews. Mitchell then asked the Ninth
Circuit for permission to appeal. On April 25, the Ninth Circuit found that he
had presented sufficient basis for appeal and set a briefing schedule for the
case. Notwithstanding this ruling, Attorney General Barr announced Mitchell’s
execution date on July 25.
Mitchell was sentenced to death for the 2001 murders of Alyce Slim and her
9-year-old granddaughter on Navajo lands in Arizona. Mitchell was arrested on a
tribal warrant and initially held in a Navajo jail. During this time period, he
was not appointed a lawyer, but he was questioned repeatedly by FBI agents and
eventually confessed to the crimes.
Before Mitchell’s trial, Navajo Nation officials wrote a letter to the federal
prosecutor explaining that they opposed the death penalty for Mitchell and that
the “the taking of human life for vengeance” is counter to Navajo culture and
religion. Slim’s daughter and the mother of the deceased 9-year-old also
opposed the prosecution seeking the death penalty. The prosecutor assigned to
the case recommended to the United States Department of Justice that the case
be tried non-capitally. However, Attorney General John Ashcroft disregarded
these opinions and ordered the prosecutor to seek the death penalty. In a
dissent from a prior Ninth Circuit ruling in the case, Judge Stephen Reinhardt
noted that prior to this case, the federal government had never executed any
Native American for an “intra-Indian crime that occurred in Indian Country.”
In November 2018, federal prosecutors in New Mexico withdrew their notice of
intent to seek the death penalty against Kirby Cleveland in the killing of a
tribal police officer after Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch wrote
to prosecutors reiterating the tribe’s opposition to the death penalty. In
Patrick Murphy’s death-penalty case in Oklahoma, the Supreme Court will review
a federal appeals court decision that state prosecutors lacked jurisdiction to
prosecute Murphy—a member of the Muskogee (Creek) Nation—because the murder
occurred on Indian lands within the borders of the Creek Reservation.
(source: Death Penalty Information Center)
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