July 6
TEXAS:
Mexican man charged in crash that left 6 dead
A 23-year-old Mexican man has been arrested and charged with smuggling migrants
in a run that ended death for 6 migrants.
A statement Friday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Corpus Christi says Ivan
Dario Puga-Moreno of Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon, Mexico was arrested Thursday in
Houston. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
Police in Robstown, about 17 miles west of Corpus Christi, say its officers
tried to stop a sport utility vehicle on suspicion of speeding late Tuesday,
but the SUV got away. Hours later, Nueces County sheriff’s deputies found the
SUV’s wreckage in a ditch, 6 of its occupants dead and 9 others injured
severely. The federal complaint says Puga-Moreno had been the driver of the
vehicle containing 18 migrants and had fled the scene.
(source: Associated Press)
FLORIDA:
The murder was caught on stunning surveillance video. The accused now faces
execution----David Paneque, 29, is accused of murdering Leandro Lopez, 31, at a
West Miami-Dade strip mall on March 4, 2019.
The reputed Miami gang member accused of murdering an associate on stunningly
clear surveillance video now faces the death penalty.
Prosecutors on Friday announced they would be seeking to execute David Paneque,
29, who is charged with the killing of 31-year-old Leandro Lopez. A grand jury
on Wednesday indicted Paneque for first-degree murder, armed robbery and
possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Lopez was gunned down in March atop a parking garage in West Miami-Dade;
surveillance footage showed that Lopez begged for his life before Paneque
gunned him down, took something off of his body and drove off in a truck.
Paneque did not appear for Friday’s court appearance. He pleaded not guilty,
through his defense attorney. Lopez’s family and supporters were in the gallery
wearing shirts with the slain man’s photo.
Detectives are unsure of a motive, but the 2 men had spent the night drinking
at strip clubs.
At the time of the killing, Paneque was on probation after he served 10 years
in prison for stabbing a man during an armed robbery. Born in Cuba, Paneque had
been ordered deported because of his criminal conviction.
Even under renewed diplomatic relations established under former President
Barack Obama, the island accepts back relatively few of its criminal citizens.
Deportations to Cuba have risen under the aggressive policies pursued by
President Donald Trump but still number only in the hundreds.
More than 37,000 Cubans in the United States are facing orders of removal for
convictions of crimes or immigration violations. Most of those are living
freely under orders of supervision, which require them to check in at least
once a year.
Cubans were rarely ever deported in the years before diplomatic relations
resumed in 2015 under Obama. Even now, the country is considered “recalcitrant”
and will not accept back most of its nationals.
***********************************
Ex-assistant principal likely faces death penalty in case of murdered Norland
High teacher----Ernest Joseph Roberts appeared in a Miami-Dade court Friday for
arraignment as prosecutors announced they will go to a grand jury to get an
indictment for 1st-degree murder.
Prosecutors plan to seek an indictment against the ex-Norland High assistant
principal accused of murdering a teacher — which means he’ll likely face the
death penalty.
Ernest Joseph Roberts appeared in a Miami-Dade court Friday for arraignment as
prosecutors announced they will go to a grand jury to get an indictment for
1st-degree murder. In Miami-Dade, prosecutors automatically seek the death
penalty on all 1st-degree murder cases when they are filed.
For now, Roberts is charged with 2nd-degree murder. Roberts pleaded not guilty,
through court documents filed by lawyer Rod Vereen.
“There shouldn’t be a rush to judgment. My client is being convicted in the
court of public opinion, and they don’t know the facts of the case,” Vereen
told the Herald on Friday. “Let justice run its court. My client is innocent
until proven guilty.”
Roberts, 39, is accused of murdering Kameela Russell, a teacher and test
proctor at Norland High in North Miami-Dade. The popular educator disappeared
on May 15, failing to pick up her daughter at a relatives’ home in Miami
Gardens.
Her body was found days later in a canal near Roberts’ home. From the
beginning, he was the chief suspect — Russell was last seen alive pulling her
car into the front his home that evening.
Court documents paint a compelling circumstantial case against Roberts, who had
been friends with Russell since childhood and was even the godfather of her
children.
Miami Gardens police detectives say Russell’s blood was found on an Amazon box
inside his bedroom, which had been thoroughly cleaned with bleach. Surveillance
video from a neighbor showed her pulling in his house. He is seen putting
something — believed to be her body — in her trunk, then driving her car away,
according to the arrest warrant.
He also tried enlisting the help of a school janitor to get rid of her car,
even penning him a note and leaving it for him hidden inside a cabinet at Linda
Lentin K-8 Center in North Miami, where he’d been most recently working.
“Do you know anyone that can chop up a car? If so or make it ‘disappear’ take
these keys,” Roberts’ note read, according to the warrant. “Its behind the
speedway racetrack on 441 by County line. Friends are gone and need it to
disappear. If not leave it + I’ll work it out later. THROW THIS NOTE AWAY!”
According to police, Roberts also told the janitor that an intruder broke into
his home and he hit and killed the person with a baseball bat. Roberts even
asked the janitor “how to get rid of the blood stains,” the warrant said.
The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office ruled that Russell died of blunt force
trauma. Investigators have not determined a motive.
(source for both: Miami Herald)
COLORADO:
Repeal the death penalty
DEAR EDITOR:
Murder the innocent. That is what the death penalty has done. Joseph Arridy, a
23-year-old who had the mental capacity of a 6-year-old was executed.
He was found to be a victim of a misled prosecution only after his death.
Lengthy and costly procedural protections put in place since then are no use to
Joe. The finality of an execution left him with nowhere to turn after the fact.
In 2011 Joe was granted a posthumous pardon citing an overwhelming body of
evidence indicating his innocence. More than 70 years after he gave away his
favorite toy train and entered the gas chamber, the pardon didn’t bring about
his resurrection and freedom. He was murdered because we had the death penalty,
and although nothing we do now can make it right for Joe, we can extinguish the
possibility of repeating this mistake.
It is tempting to dismiss Joe’s case as a mistake of a different era. A mistake
that could only happen because we didn’t have a mandatory appeals process, or
DNA evidence, or other techniques and procedural protections. However, we must
not forget that the reason we employ these new technologies and continue to
develop additional procedures is because we know that mistakes do occur.
Furthermore, despite all the wisdom of modern science and procedural
protections, wrongful conviction on capital offense cases still happen today.
This fact is completely unacceptable when we hold presumption of innocence as a
prime value in our criminal justice system. We must acknowledge that it is also
entirely unavoidable. Whether it be due to malice, ambition, or chance, as long
as humans are making the judgment, there will be wrongful convictions.
We cannot eliminate the possibility of a wrongful conviction, so we must remove
the possibility of murdering another innocent soul by repealing the death
penalty.
— Ray Higashi
(source: Letter to the Editor, Sentinel Colorado)
UTAH:
LDS Church appears in court over accusations it interfered in a death penalty
case
Lawyers for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appeared in court
for a hearing on accusations that the faith pressured some of its clergy
assigned to the prison not to testify in support of a death row inmate.
Doug Lovell has accused the faith of meddling in his case by telling a group of
prison bishops they shouldn't be character witnesses at his trial.
"It has been a focal point of this case," Second District Court Judge Michael
DiReda acknowledged as he began Friday's hearing.
3 of the now-former bishops who were assigned to minister to the Utah State
Prison's maximum security unit ultimately testified on Friday. Only one
suggested he broke ranks with church superiors to testify in support of Lovell.
Lovell was convicted and sentenced to die for the 1985 murder of Joyce Yost. He
was accused of killing her to prevent her from testifying against him for
kidnapping and raping her. Yost's body has never been found.
Lovell originally pleaded guilty the day his original trial was to begin. He
promised to lead police to her body, which he claimed was in Ogden Canyon. He
was then sentenced to die and appealed. In 2011, the Utah Supreme Court ruled
he had not been properly advised of his trial rights and overturned his
conviction. He went on trial all over again in 2015 and was convicted and
sentenced to execution.
Lovell's defense believes the Church put pressure on the prison bishops from
serving as character witnesses on his behalf and testifying about his
redemption efforts while on death row. The Church, they believe, was concerned
it would look like they were siding with a murderer (the faith is officially
neutral on capital punishment).
"Ultimately, I had to decide if I should agree to testify in a case of a member
of my congregation or follow a suggestion from a higher ecclesiastical
authority," said Dr. Jack Newton. "And I chose to not be limited by what an
ecclesiastical authority would say to me."
In court filings, attorneys for the LDS Church have argued they are not
necessarily seeking to prevent prison bishops from testifying -- but from
getting into attorney-client privilege and having witnesses incorrectly speak
for the faith itself.
"As Mr. Lovell’s counsel is aware, there is a long-standing Church policy that
bishops and other Church leaders generally should not involve themselves in
civil or criminal cases of members over whom they preside," Church attorney
David Jordan wrote. "The purpose for the policy is, in part, to prevent
misunderstandings about whether the Church leader is testifying on behalf of
the Church or in the Church leader’s personal capacity. When Church leaders are
asked to testify about matters of Church policy, their personal views may be
incorrectly attributed to the Church."
That became evident when Lovell's defense attorney, Colleen Coebergh, sought to
ask Newton about who suggested he not testify. Jordan objected. When he was
allowed to answer, Newton said a letter from the Church had been shared with a
stake president.
"If I had to decide between testifying about experiences I had with Doug vs.
filtering those through a third-party, I would prefer to just give my own
testimony," Newton told the court.
Another former prison bishop, Gary Webster, testified to Coebergh that he had
no responsibilities as a clergy after he was released from his calling. Nor did
Brent Scharman, the 3rd witness.
Church attorneys agreed to provide the defense with copies of the Handbook of
Instruction, a guide given to LDS bishops on various matters involving the
faith. All sides will return to court in August for a month-long hearing as a
part of Lovell's appeal of his death sentence, and whether or not character
witnesses may have been prevented from testifying.
Jordan declined to comment to FOX 13 outside of court. Lovell's attorney also
left without commenting.
(source: Fox News)
ARIZONA:
Prosecutors can't seek execution in case against immigrant
Prosecutors can no longer seek the death penalty against a Mexican immigrant
charged with murder in the 2015 shooting death of a convenience store clerk in
a Phoenix suburb because the accused is intellectually disabled, a judge has
ruled.
The ruling Wednesday means Apolinar Altamirano will face life in prison if he's
convicted of 1st-degree murder in the killing of 21-year-old clerk Grant
Ronnebeck at the store in Mesa.
The case against Altamirano has been cited by President Donald Trump, who has
railed against crimes committed against American citizens by immigrants who are
the United States illegally.
Trump, who has created a new office to serve victims of immigration crimes and
their relatives, has invoked such crimes at rallies, pointing to case after
case in which people were killed by immigrant assailants who slipped through
the cracks.
It's unclear whether prosecutors will appeal the ruling. "We are reviewing the
analysis and the record to assess next steps," according to a statement from
the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, which is prosecuting Altamirano.
Altamirano is a citizen of Mexico who has lived in the United States without
authorization for about 20 years. He was deported and returned to the United
States.
He is accused of fatally shooting Ronnebeck after the store clerk insisted that
Altamirano pay for a pack of cigarettes. Authorities say Altamirano stepped
over Ronnebeck to get several packs of cigarettes before leaving the store.
He led officers on a high-speed chase before his arrest, and a handgun and
unopened pack of cigarettes were later found in his vehicle, police said.
Altamirano has already been sentenced to 6 years in prison for his earlier
guilty pleas in the case to misconduct involving weapons.
He still faces murder, robbery and other charges in Ronnebeck's death. He has
pleaded not guilty to the remaining charges. His trial is scheduled for Aug. 1.
(source: Associated Press)
*************************************
Advocates: High court’s ruling in death-row case could affect 19 others
There is no question that James McKinney murdered Christine Mertens and James
McClain in 2 separate botched burglaries in the Phoenix area in 1991.
But should he be put to death for it?
That’s the question the Supreme Court will consider this fall, and experts say
its ruling in McKinney’s case could affect as many as 19 other Arizona
death-row inmates who were sentenced under the same guidelines as McKinney.
“The Arizona state courts in the 1990s were making the same mistake in a whole
bunch of cases, which is they weren’t considering the mitigation the way they
were supposed to,” said David Euchner, a Pima County public defender.
McKinney’s attorneys argue that the mistake in his case was a failure to fully
consider “mitigating evidence” – evidence that weighs against imposition of a
death sentence – of the post-traumatic stress disorder McKinney suffered as a
result of a “horrific childhood.”
They also argue that from the time McKinney’s original sentence was upheld in
1996 to the last time it was upheld by the Arizona Supreme Court, in 2018, the
law had changed.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that the death penalty could only be
imposed by a jury, not a judge, which means McKinney’s sentence should have
been reconsidered by a jury, not the court, they argue. The state disagreed,
saying McKinney’s case was final after his 1st round of appeals failed in 1996.
Attorneys for McKinney did not respond to requests for comment on the case. But
a spokeswoman for Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said the state supreme
court acted properly when it upheld McKinney’s sentence last year.
“We believe the Arizona Supreme Court previously addressed the Ninth Circuit’s
(Court of Appeals) concerns and therefore there is no need for the U.S. Supreme
Court to get involved at this stage,” said Katie Conner, the attorney general’s
spokeswoman.
“That being said, we feel confident in our arguments and believe we will
ultimately prevail at the federal level as well,” Conner said in a prepared
statement.
McKinney and his half-brother Charles Hedlund were convicted for a string of
burglaries in 1991 that ended with the murders of Mertens and McClain.
McKinney, Hedlund and two others first broke into Mertens house on Feb. 28,
1991, but left when she came home unexpectedly. They returned on March 10, this
time finding Mertens at home, where they brutally beat and stabbed, then held
her on the floor and shot her in the back of the head at point-blank range.
Nearly two weeks later, McKinney and Hedlund broke into McClain’s home, where
he was asleep on March 23 when the 2 men broke in and fatally shot the
65-year-old in the head with a sawed-off rifle.
McKinney and Hedlund were tried together in front of separate juries in 1992.
McKinney was convicted on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, 2 counts of burglary
and 1 count of theft, while Hedlund’s jury convicted him of the same theft and
burglary charges, 1st-degree murder or McClain’s death and 2nd-degree murder
for Mertens’ killing.
In July 1993, both were sentenced to death by a Maricopa County judge, who
cited aggravating factors of previous convictions and crimes committed for
monetary gain and, in McKinney’s case, that the murder was “especially heinous,
cruel or depraved.”
The judge considered mitigating circumstances of their childhoods – in which
they were frequently beaten, abandoned and neglected – saying it was “beyond
the comprehension of most people.” But he did not weigh it because, under
Arizona law at the time, evidence of a defendant’s background could only be
considered if it had a “causal nexus,” or direct link to the crime. The judge
determined it did not.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in McKinney’s case in 2015 that
Arizona courts had erroneously applied a “causal nexus” test for as long as 15
years after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the practice in a case known as
Eddings.
“They didn’t consider all of his mitigating factors unless it had a causal
nexus to the crime and that was wrong,” Euchner said. “They did it to a bunch
of cases back in the ’90s.”
Among the 19 cases that McKinney’s attorneys listed in his appeal are inmates
who have spent decades on death row, many found to have aggravating
circumstances that included “especially heinous, cruel or depraved” murders.
They include Alfonso Salazar, on death row for more than 30 years for the
murder of 83-year-old Sarah Kaplan, who was beaten and strangled with a phone
cord. And Robert Poyson, sentenced in 1988 for a triple-murder in which he
bludgeoned one victim with a cinderblock, shot another and pounded a bread
knife through the ear of a 15-year-old victim before crushing his skull,
according to court records.
Donna Leone Hamm of Tempe-based Middle Ground Prison Reform said there is a lot
more known about the effects of PTSD than there used to be, but “there are
still lingering doubts about the authenticity of the claim.”
“Just how real did the condition contribute to the crime and I think that’s
where it no longer relies on science but it relies on the gut feeling and the
hearts and minds of the judges,” she said.
“You have to look at what else the defendant do during the offense that
suggests that he was not suffering,” she said. “Was his state of mind 100% in a
PTSD mode, or was he doing things that showed a consciousness of guilt and
premeditation?”
Euchner said the 9th Circuit’s ruling had the effect of reopening McKinney’s
case and giving him “the right to question what set of rules that apply” to his
resentencing – those in effect in 1996 or those in effect now.
“In McKinney’s case, and many others like McKinney, it’s not just that they
were denied a jury trial but they’re getting their case reopened – so it
becomes unfinal,” Euchner said.
“The question that the U.S. Supreme Court is deciding is if McKinney’s appeal
was final or not final – and if it’s not final he will get a jury trial,”
Euchner said. “So all the other cases that have been reopened for the errors
made by the Arizona courts in the ’90s about mitigating circumstances will also
be awaiting the opinion to see if they also get jury trials.”
But Hamm cautioned that the court could write a “very narrow” opinion that
applies only to McKinney and not the others, “so you just don’t know until you
see how the opinion is written.” Even then, she said, it’s not a sure thing for
McKinney.
“I don’t think that anyone is very confident that this Supreme Court has great
sympathy toward prisoner rights, especially when they become aware that it
could result in overturning convictions on not just his case but many others,
even in other states,” she said. “It’s worrisome – you have to hope that they
will consider fairly the facts of the case.”
Euchner said he is hoping for a broad and favorable ruling, saying it’s “more
than just McKinney’s case … we really need this.”
(source: azpbs.org)
USA:
Jury To Consider Death Penalty In Chinese Scholar Killing Case
A federal jury must now decide whether a former University of Illinois doctoral
student should be put to death for the murder of young Chinese scholar Yingying
Zhang.
The federal jury convicted 30-year-old Brendt Christensen of her kidnapping,
torture and death. But while there is no death penalty anymore in the state of
Illinois, capital punishment is still in play in this case because it was
brought under federal law, which does allow it.
If one juror holds out against the death penalty, Christensen would get life in
prison without parole. The rules of evidence are looser in the federal penalty
phase, allowing hearsay, opinion and emotion. If the jury votes for death,
appeals can delay executions for decades.
(source: WBBM Radio news)
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