May 11
TEXAS----new execution date
Fort Worth man convicted of killing pregnant girlfriend gets October execution
date
A Fort Worth man convicted of killing his pregnant girlfriend and her
7-year-old son more than 10 years ago now has an execution date scheduled for
October.
Stephen Barbee, who has maintained his innocence for years and argued that his
confession to police was coerced, is now slated to die on Oct. 2, according to
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jeremy Desel.
The now-52-year-old was sent to death row in 2006, after a Tarrant County jury
found him guilty of the murder of Lisa Underwood and her son Jayden. The slain
woman's friends only realized she was missing when she didn't show up for her
baby shower.
The day of the slayings, a sheriff's deputy stopped Barbee walking along a
service road in a wooded area, but the man fled after giving a fake name.
Later, authorities found Underwood's car in a creek nearby, and decided they
wanted to talk to Barbee as a person of interest.
When officers first brought him in for questioning, Barbee said he hadn't seen
Underwood for months. But when he went to the bathroom, police said that he
copped to everything while alone with one detective in an unrecorded
conversation.
In that confession, prosecutors said, Barbee admitted to starting a fight with
his girlfriend before holding her face down in the carpet until she stopped
breathing and then holding his hand over Jayden's mouth until he did as well.
The North Texas man said he was afraid that Underwood was going to tell his
wife about their liaison, according to court records. After his admission,
Barbee took police to the shallow graves where he buried the slain bagel store
owner and her son.
A Tarrant County jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to death in
February 2006.
Early in his appeals, Barbee's attorneys argued that his trial team's work
wasn't up to par, that police withheld a videotape of their full interrogation
and that his trial lawyers abandoned their client.
But the judge overseeing the case at that point apparently disagreed,
rubberstamping the state's claims "without so much as changing a comma,"
current attorney Richard Ellis wrote in a later appeal. He also called into
question the confession used to convict Barbee, arguing that it was coerced and
pointing out that police never even wrote down parts of it.
His client, Ellis wrote, later recanted that confession and has since
maintained his innocence. But during a whirlwind 2.5-day-trial, the defense
team didn't do enough to show that or to investigate information that pointed
to another suspect, he said. His latest appeals focused on the claim that his
trial attorneys conceded Barbee's guilt even though he didn't agree to that.
But the courts weren't persuaded by those claims, and this year a Tarrant
County judge greenlit Barbee's execution date. The Lone Star State has already
executed three men this year, and - including Barbee - 4 more are on the
calendar.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
*************************
Covering capital punishment and death row execution: 8 tips from Michael
Graczyk
Before retiring in 2018, Michael Graczyk covered capital punishment for more
than 35 years as a criminal justice reporter for the Associated Press. He has
observed more than 400 prison executions in Texas, which leads the country for
the number of people executed since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital
punishment in 1976. Today, Graczyk still writes about death row inmates as a
freelancer.
“He built a reputation for accuracy and fairness with death row inmates, their
families, their victims’ families and their lawyers, as well as prison
officials and advocates on both sides of capital punishment,” AP reporter
Nomaan Merchant wrote in an article about Graczyk’s retirement. “He made a
point of visiting and photographing every condemned inmate willing to be
interviewed and talking to relatives of their victims.”
Nationwide, there were 2,814 men and women on death row at the end of 2016, the
most recent year for which the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics has released
data. Although more than 1/2 of U.S. states and the federal government allow
capital punishment, the vast majority of executions in 2017 occurred in 4
states — Texas, Florida, Arkansas and Alabama, according to a preliminary
federal report.
Later this month, four prisoners are scheduled to die by lethal injection in
Alabama, Florida and Tennessee. The governor of California instituted a
moratorium on the death penalty in March, but prosecutors there are still
seeking a death sentence for a former police officer accused of being the
notorious Golden State Killer.
Journalist’s Resource called Graczyk at home in Texas to ask him about his work
and for tips to share with other journalists who are reporting on capital
punishment, death row or executions. Here are the eight tips he gave us to pass
along:
1 — Get experience covering the criminal justice system.
“Some reporters are so isolated, they’ve never actually covered cops or courts
or crime,” Graczyk says. “They show up at an execution and they’ve never seen a
dead body …
“My advice is: Get familiar with the courts. Get some real-world experience.
See a dead body. Cover the cops. Cover the courts. Read the court opinions. All
these capital cases are going to wind up in federal courts — at least 99% of
them. You need to understand how judges write and how to read court opinions
and how supreme courts and circuit courts of appeals work. Talk to the appeals
attorneys … [and] prosecutors who actually put this person in a courtroom and
tried them.”
2 — Know the facts of the case you’re covering.
“It sounds pretty basic, but know the case — know what this person is accused
of, know what this person is convicted of, know who the players are,” Graczyk
says.
In Texas, inmates spend an average of 15 years and eight months on death row.
For some, the wait is much longer. According to the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice, the longest-serving inmates were David Lee Powell, executed
in 2010 for killing a police officer during a traffic stop 32 years earlier,
and Lester Leroy Bower, put to death in 2015 after serving 31 years behind
bars.
“In a lot of cases, reporters weren’t even alive when the crime occurred. Some
of these cases are really, really old,” Graczyk says. “Know the case and get
educated and understand how the courts work — or don’t work. … Stay away from
legal jargon … people don’t understand that. I find it’s always good to just
explain things. There is no need to make something more complicated than it
already is.”
3 — Remember the victim.
Coverage of capital punishment broadly and of executions specifically tends to
focus on the men and women who are accused or convicted of killing and injuring
people. Stories, especially those written years or decades after the crime,
sometimes barely mention victims and their families.
Graczyk says he tries to make sure victims and families remain a key part of
his stories, although it can sometimes take a lot of extra work to track down
those individuals.
“If I make this concerted effort to talk to the inmate, I make a concerted
effort to talk to the victims as well,” he says. “If no one is available, I say
that … Remember that executions can happen decades after someone is sentenced
and so lots of people may have moved or passed away or are unreachable.”
4 — Avoid asking victims’ families if an execution gives them “closure.”
“One of the questions I really wince at when I hear it from reporters —
especially when it’s said to a relative of a murder victim — is, ‘Does this
give you closure?’ This is so cliché. It ranks up there with ‘How do you
feel?’” Graczyk says.
At an execution, he suggests approaching victims’ friends and family members in
another way. “I usually ask them, ‘Why did you decide to be here?’ and ‘Are you
disappointed this has taken so long?’ if it’s a particularly long case,” he
says. “If the inmate ignored them, [ask] ‘How disappointed are you that they
didn’t acknowledge you or express remorse?’ I’ve talked to enough people to
understand there is no such thing as closure. I think it’s an inadequate
question.”
5 — When you cover an execution in person, focus on your role in providing a
factual account of the event. It will help you keep your feelings and opinions
in check.
“I don’t know how to phrase this without sounding insensitive, but if you go in
there with the idea that this person was innocent, was the victim of a broken
system, you’re not going to do a good story,” Graczyk says.
“I tell myself, ‘You’re there to do a job. Your job is to tell the story of
what happened in there. And if your emotions get the best of you, you can’t do
your job.’ I can’t tell you what it’s like at an electrocution or gas chamber
or hanging. … In Texas, here it has only been lethal injection. Essentially,
someone is lying there and you’re watching them and they quickly go to sleep
and they don’t wake up. I don’t mean to be insensitive, but that’s what
happens.”
6 — Take notes.
Graczyk said he has seen some journalists come to observe an execution but
don’t write anything down. That doesn’t make much sense to him because there
are so many details he says a journalist will need to remember — who came to
witness the execution, for example, and what the prisoner said and did before
dying. In Texas, recording devices and cameras are not allowed in the death
chamber room where witnesses gather to watch, but journalists can bring in
paper and something to write with.
“If you’re not able to take notes, you’re not going to be any good in there,”
Graczyk says. “I’ve seen reporters not take any notes and go back and talk
about what they saw. You might have a photographic memory and be the exception,
but I don’t know too many people like that.”
7 — Pay attention to key details.
Graczyk says reporters should note the various things they see and hear while
in the death chamber.
“You listen for the final statement,” he says. “We report what’s the last thing
this person decided to say and you want to get that right.”
He added that reporters should include key details they probably could not get
by calling a prison official.
“I had an editor once who was going through a story I wrote and he told me,
‘The story is OK, but it doesn’t reflect that you were there.’ It was something
we could get by calling the prison system and asking them what happened,”
Graczyk says, offering examples of what to look for before, during and after an
execution.
“Movements they [the inmates] may have made or whether they took a breath or
coughed when the drugs took effect. Whether they were looking at people as they
came into the death chamber to watch them die. If you get a glimpse of where
the needle went in, whether there was a tattoo there. It gives the reader more
of a picture of what’s happening …
“When you go in there, you want to tell people what you saw and what you heard.
I’ve talked to people who’ve done electrocutions and gas chamber stuff and they
can get into the fact that it doesn’t smell very good. But lethal injections
are very, very clinical. … You don’t dwell on it, but drop something in to
prove to the reader or the listener that you were there.”
8 — Have a plan for how to react if a prisoner addresses you personally inside
the death chamber.
Because Graczyk interviews inmates many times during the years and weeks
leading up to their executions, they know him. To his surprise, a couple have
tried to start conversations with him in the death chamber.
“A couple of things happened in there that I didn’t expect and you learn from
that. First of all, it’s happened to me at least twice now … When I walked in,
they looked up and said hello to me. You need to be prepared for that. You need
to know whether you’re going to react to it and how you’re going to react to
it. I remember walking in and the inmate said, ‘Hi, Mike!’ What do you say to
someone who’s about to die? I was taken aback. The second time, just because
I’d been through it once, I think I nodded. Especially if you’re standing next
to the relative of a victim, be cognizant. I wouldn’t want to say something
totally sympathetic or discourteous.”
(source: journalistsresource.org)
******************************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----43
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----561
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
44---------July 31----------------Ruben Gutierrez---------562
45---------Aug. 21----------------Larry Swearingen--------563
46---------Sept. 4----------------Billy Crutsinger--------564
47---------Sept. 10---------------Mark Anthony Soliz------565
48---------Oct. 2-----------------Stephen Barbee----------566
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
********************************************
USA----countdown to nation's 1500th execution
With the execution of Scotty Morrow in Georgia on May 2, the USA has now
executed 1,494 condemned individuals since the death penalty was re-legalized
on July 2, 1976 in the US Supreme Court Gregg v Georgia decision.
Gary Gilmore was the 1st person executed, in Utah, on January 17, 1977. Below
is a list of scheduled executions as the nation approaches a terrible milestone
of 1500 executions in the modern era.
NOTE: The list is likely to change over the coming months as new execution
dates are added and possible stays of execution occur.
1496-------May 16-------------Donnie Johnson-----------Tennessee
1497-------May 16-------------Michael Samra------------Alabama
1498-------May 23-------------Bobby Joe Long-----------Florida
1499-------May 30-------------Christopher Price--------Alabama
1500------July 31-------------Ruben Gutierrez----------Texas
1501-------Aug. 15------------Stephen West-------------Tennessee
1502-------Aug. 21------------Larry Swearingen---------Texas
1504-------Sept. 4------------Billy Crutsinger---------Texas
1505-------Sept. 10-----------Mark Anthony Soliz-------Texas
1506-------Sept. 12-----------Warren Henness-----------Ohio
1507-------Oct. 2-------------Stephen Barbee-----------Texas
Learn more about efforts to #StopThe1500th Execution and how you can be
involved at http://deathpenaltyaction.org/1500th [deathpenaltyaction.org]
(source: Rick Halperin)
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
An overriding concern: NH lawmakers should stick to their principles on the
death penalty
A week ago, Gov. Chris Sununu, as promised, vetoed House Bill 455, which would
repeal the use of the death penalty in New Hampshire. Lawmakers in both
chambers of the Legislature easily passed the bill earlier this session, and it
now lands back at their feet.
They should vote to override the veto and do away with capital punishment in
the Granite State once and for all.
Sununu, in announcing his veto, turned to an emotional appeal, tying the move
to the lone capital case in recent state history: the murder of a Manchester
police officer. To buttress his argument, he relied on the family of the slain
officer and police spokesmen, who regularly back the death penalty — especially
in cases involving police deaths.
“If a repeal occurs, there will be no penalty for murdering a police officer,”
said Mark Chase, president of the New Hampshire Chiefs of Police Association,
at last Friday’s veto media event at the Michael Briggs Community Center in
Manchester where, accompanied by the family of Officer Briggs, the chief of the
Manchester police also spoke in favor of capital punishment — specifically
citing Michael Addison, who shot and killed Briggs during a robbery in 2006.
Never mind that the bill Sununu vetoed was crafted purposely to not apply to
Addison.
We can’t fault their anger; what happened to Briggs was terrible and Addison
surely ought to be punished for it. What Mrs. Briggs and the Manchester police
officers are seeking, though, isn’t justice; it’s vengeance. Killing Michael
Addison wouldn’t bring Michael Briggs back, nor would it ease their loss. At
least, that’s what family members of other murder victims have said, both to
Sununu and lawmakers.
It’s old-school, eye-for-an-eye, life-for-a-life wrath — the type advocated in
the Old Testament. But even many denominations that once backed the death
penalty for that reason now oppose it as nothing more than state-sanctioned
murder. “The death penalty neither deters others, nor brings this perpetrator
to understanding, but instead, in the worst of ironies, publicly validates the
very act of taking a human life,” notes Bishop Peter A. Libasci, head of the
Diocese of Manchester.
Sununu’s avowed strong support of the opinions of law enforcement — especially
regarding their safety — was undercut when he first took office and pushed hard
for legislation allowing almost anyone to carry a concealed firearm in public
with a permit, something police chiefs across the state said puts their
officers at risk.
And Chase is wrong. Those who kill a police officer would still face a penalty
— the same penalty any murderer would face. We’d guess the courts and juries
will still consider the seriousness of killing a police officer, but studies
have shown capital punishment is not a deterrent, and that goes for crimes
against law enforcement, too.
Attitudes toward capital punishment have come a long way. Even many
conservatives who once backed the death penalty now oppose it simply on
economic terms. It costs far more to kill a convicted murderer than to keep him
or her locked up for life. That’s largely due to the extensive appeals process
involved, but those appeals are necessary as long as capital punishment exists.
As science has advanced, we’ve seen case after case in which those sentenced to
death were ultimately found to be wrongly convicted. Our legal system simply
isn’t perfect, and the chance that an innocent person will be murdered by the
state is too great.
There may always be cases where it’s clear the defendant is guilty of a heinous
act. But the law can’t be applied based on individual circumstances. Many of
those proven not guilty were, at one point, considered guilty beyond a
reasonable doubt.
Now that Gov. Sununu has vetoed HB 455, the House is set to take up a possible
override May 23, with the Senate to follow. Both should stick to their guns.
The cost of capital punishment is too high to be allowed. It strains the
state’s legal resources. It won’t prevent anyone from murdering in the future.
Most importantly, it makes all of us a party to murder.
(source: Editorial, Keene Sentinel)
SOUTH CAROLINA:
Here’s why a Horry County man facing the death penalty admitted to the crime
during trial
A man facing the death penalty in connection to a string of Sunhouse murder and
robbery and spree admitted to the jury his crime. The move was done so a jury
can decide whether he should face the death penalty.
In an unusual move, attorneys for a man facing the death penalty started by
telling a jury their client is guilty.
“Jerome Jenkins is guilty, he is guilty. He is guilty of the charges the state
brought against him,” Defense attorney Ralph Wilson Sr. told a jury on Friday.
His client, Jerome “JJ” Jenkins, faces the death penalty in connection to
murders and an armed robbery spree at Horry County convenience stores in
January 2015.
The admission was because of the way death penalty cases work in South
Carolina. Capital trials are split into 2 parts. One part is to determine if
the person is guilty. The 2nd part, if the person is found guilty, is for the
same jury to determine if the person should face life in prison or the death
penalty.
In typical cases, sentencing is left to a judge. For example, if a suspect
pleads guilty, the judge determines how long they will spend in prison.
Wilson explained Jenkins wanted to plead guilty before the trial and have the
jury — instead of the typical judge-decision process — decide his punishment.
Confusion on whether that plan is allowed under court rules led to a new
strategy in which Jenkins admitted to the crime to the 16-member jury. The
state will then present evidence and the jury will make its decision, in a de
facto guilty plea.
That decision guarantees the jury will decide his guilt and therefore will
decide Jenkins’ fate.
Jenkins — along with McKinley Daniels and James Daniels — is accused of robbing
convenience stores in the Conway area. Investigators believe the trio killed
Balla Paruchuri in January 2015 at a Sunhouse convenience store on S.C. Highway
905.
“Jerome Jenkins goes after Balla Paruchuri,” Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said
during his opening statement.
Richardson said Paruchuri was defenseless and he died in a “hail of bullets.”
Weeks later the team allegedly robbed the Scotchman on Lake Arrowhead Road and
the Sunhouse store on Oak Street, where clerk Trish Stull was shot and killed.
Prosecutors say Jenkins and McKinley Daniels entered the stores and robbed them
while James Daniels served as lookout and driver.
The community was on edge following the shooting, and officers visited shops at
night to help employees safely close their businesses.
Last year, a jury convicted James Daniels of murder and 2 counts of armed
robbery, and he was sentenced to life in prison. McKinley Daniels pleaded
guilty earlier this year to murder and armed robbery and will spend at least 45
years behind bars.
(source: charlotteobserver.com)
***********************
Life or death: Why a capital case in South Carolina can last decades
14 years.
That was the typical wait time between a death sentence in South Carolina
before an inmate was executed. Several appeals, all to make sure the punishment
was correctly applied, were the biggest reasons for the lengthy wait.
Today, the wait is indefinite as South Carolina doesn’t have the 3 chemicals
needed to carry out the lethal injection. There have been calls to bring back
firing squads or the electric chair so the state can carry out executions.
Even with the lengthy appeals and an inability to carry out executions, South
Carolina prosecutors continue to seek the sentence in the most severe cases.
Jerome “JJ” Jenkins in Horry County faces that punishment as his capital case
starts Friday, May 10. Jenkins — along with McKinley Daniels and James Daniels
— is accused of robbing convenience stores in the Conway area. Investigators
believe the trio killed Balla Paruchuri in January 2015 at a Sunhouse
convenience store on S.C. Highway 905.
Weeks later the team allegedly robbed the Scotchman on Lake Arrowhead Road and
the Sunhouse store on Oak Street, where clerk Trish Stull was shot and killed.
Prosecutors say Jenkins and McKinley Daniels entered the stores and robbed them
while James Daniels served as lookout and driver.
Pursuing the death penalty
Horry and Georgetown counties Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said he is selective
in seeking the death penalty.
“You don’t take death willy-nilly,” Richardson said. “It’s got to be the worst
of the worst.”
South Carolina statute requires not only a murder, but aspects making the case
worse than others — called aggravating factors. Some examples are killing
during an armed robbery, a sexual assault, during drug trafficking, killing a
police officer or a judge, lynching or creating a risk of death to others in a
public place.
If a prosecutor determines a crime meets those elements, the state can seek the
death penalty and identify those factors.
Death penalty trials are in 2 parts, Richardson explained. The 1st part is a
typical trial to determine a person’s guilt. That usually involves a prolonged
jury selection in which hundreds of jurors are questioned about their knowledge
of the case and death penalty beliefs.
Capital cases are often the only times when the jury is sequestered, which
means they stay in a hotel and are not allowed their phones or contact with the
public.
If a suspect is found guilty, the trial moves into its second phase in which
the sentence is determined. There is a mandated 24-hour “cooling off” period
for the jury between the 2 phases, so they aren’t deciding with emotion.
A judge typically determines a person’s sentence, but the jury does in death
penalty cases. Their only options are life in prison without parole or death.
The jury is aware of these 2 options.
“They are given a lot more information in part two of a death penalty case than
they are in a regular murder case,” Richardson said.
Arguing life and death
During the 2nd phase, prosecutors will try to prove those aggravating factors
as a defense attorney argues mitigating factors, basically reasons that a
person should not be executed.
Defense attorney Morgan L. Martin, who has defended death penalty cases, said
there is added stress given the nature of the cases. Lawyers will dig up a
person’s past to find reasons why the crime might not be as terrible as it
seems or why a person might have acted that way.
Mitigating factors could include reasons like abuse during a person’s
upbringing or mental health issues.
“You’re trying to put your client in the best light you can,” Martin said.
16th Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett said the death penalty option in South
Carolina is not a deterrent for crime because "it is never carried out."
Brackett said the death penalty law "overpromises and severely underdelivers."
By Tracy Kimball
If the jury decides to go with a death sentence, the process is hardly over.
There are several appeals — and appeals of the appeals — that can take more
than a decade to complete.
There could also be appeals heard in the federal court.
There are 38 people on death row in South Carolina and each of their cases are
in the appeals process.
Martin said the appeals process can be too long, but he didn’t know of a way to
streamline the process.
Appeals courts know that a death sentence is in play and Richardson said for a
time they were overturning about 75 percent of death penalty sentences. When a
sentence is reversed, it must be retried. Richardson said that is why many
capital cases are argued twice before a jury.
“It’s really not a perfect system. It really is just the best system we got,”
Richardson said.
He paused briefly and then highlighted the elephant-in-the-room with death
penalty cases.
“You don’t want anyone, with any probability at all that they didn’t do
something worthy of death, going to death; or getting death. Because you can’t
reverse that,” Richardson said.
(source: thestate.com)
FLORIDA----impending execution
Florida Supreme Court rejects stay of execution
The Florida Supreme Court on Friday rejected a stay of execution and turned
down a series of legal arguments made on behalf of condemned killer Bobby Joe
Long.
Gov. Ron DeSantis last month signed a death warrant for Long and scheduled the
execution for May 23.
Long was sentenced to death in the May 1984 murder of Michelle Simms after
picking her up on Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa.
In 1985. Long, now 65, also pleaded guilty to seven additional first-degree
murder charges and numerous charges for sexual batteries and kidnappings in the
Tampa Bay region.
Long’s attorney this week requested a stay of execution and filed what is known
as a petition for writ of habeas corpus that raised a series of legal arguments
in support of Long. As an example, the petition argued that Long should be
spared from execution because of a “significant history of mental illness” and
the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
“Given his severe mental illness and in light of the evolving standards of
decency, Long must be exempt from execution pursuant to the Eighth Amendment to
the United States Constitution,” the petition said.
Justices, however, issued 2 orders unanimously rejecting the request for a stay
of execution and the issues raised in the petition.
***************************
Kimberly Kessler asks about death penalty in jailhouse call----Woman accused of
causing March crash that killed bicyclist
Jailhouse phone calls that Kimberly Kessler, the woman charged with killing her
co-worker Joleen Cummings, made after she was arrested last year were obtained
Friday by News4Jax.
Kessler, 50, discusses jail conditions in a couple of the calls, all of which
appear to be with her mother, but in the first one, she asks about the death
penalty.
Kessler: “Florida and Texas, are those the only two states with the death
penalty?”
Caller: “I don’t know, I haven’t done the research on that. You might want to
YouTube that and get back to me on it.”
Kessler: “Yeah, I don’t think I’d want to know and then tell you bad news. I
thought someone said they weren’t doing that anymore, and they shouldn’t do it
anymore because the dumb***** get everything wrong."
The release of the calls comes ahead of Mother's Day weekend, which marks one
year since Cummings, a 34-year-old mother of 3, disappeared.
Investigators suspect Kessler, who worked with Cummings at Tangles Hair Salon
in Yulee, was the last person to see Cummings alive.
Following Cummings’ disappearance, her SUV was found parked outside a Home
Depot. Kessler was arrested May 16 after investigators said they found footage
showing her getting out of the vehicle. She was booked into the Nassau County
jail, where she went on a hunger strike that prompted her to later be moved to
the Duval County jail.
It's unclear from which jail the calls were made from, but Kessler complains
about the treatment in the jail in 2 of them.
“My attorney told me he has no control over them. They mistreat me. That’s just
how it is, basically. He didn’t say it exactly in those words. That’s my
interpretation of it. So I’m surprised they let me call you. Perhaps they were
looking to listen to a fascinating conversation in between us. I don’t know why
they let me call you, but they did. He said they should let me call him
whenever I want, and they didn’t, they didn’t let me do it. They make excuses,
like, ‘Oh we’re busy,’ then shut the door and walk away. It’s kind of funny
they keep me in solitary confinement, like, it’s a bad thing," Kessler said
with a laugh in one jailhouse call. "It’s heaven, girl.”
In another call, Kessler, who went by Jennifer Sybert, talks about wanting out
of jail. Authorities said she has used 17 aliases over the years.
Kessler: “Bail me out under my name that I’m going under, which is Jennifer
Marie Sybert. And then eventually everything’s going to come together, but,
with my real name Kim Kessler. But you know, go about it, jump through the
hoops.” Person on the other end of the call: “OK. You said bail you out under
Jennifer?"
Kessler: “Yeah, because that’s how they arrested me under. Until the FBI
corrects it, it’s going to be Jennifer.”
Caller: “The FBI? Oh, my God, they won’t correct.“
Kessler: “They will. You just put the money up as Jennifer Marie Sybert. I gave
you my Social, by date of birth, the name, my name my alias or whatever that
I’ve been living under for 19 years. You’re all set.”
Caller: “Oh, my God. Are you warm, sleeping all right? They gave you a
blanket?”
Kessler: “Of course not. It’s terrible. I’m in jail. It’s very, very bad."
Caller: “It would be nice if they treated you the way they would want to be
treated.”
Kessler: “Well, if you really want to help, come and get me out. So, that would
be great.”
Kessler is now charged with 1st-degree murder in Cummings’ death. The day after
she was indicted on Sept. 7, she discusses how unexpected the indictment was
during a call.
“I didn’t expect it to come, but I was, I guess it was always in the back of my
mind because I knew they were crazy like that because they did it to me before.
I don’t know. I guess I got too trusting, like, I thought their BS was over.
Tom Townsend (her lawyer) told me today that I was on the front page of the
newspaper, I’m all over the news. He said they had a bunch of people call the
public defender’s office -- Newsline or Dateline called, a bunch of entities or
whatever, like news channels, were calling today. I was (like), 'Really?’ He
said, 'They were all calling. You’re all over the newspaper, all over the
news.' And I was, like, 'Really?’” she can be heard saying in the call.
The caller later asks, "Is there absolutely nothing going on in the world?"
Kessler replies, “I say it's because of the illuminati. I think that her people
are definitely f***** seriously involved in it. So that is what is happening,
so I’ve got the illuminati on my a**.”
Since then, the state has released reams of evidence in the case through the
discovery process that suggest a struggle occurred at the salon and that steps
were taken to dispose of that evidence.
In one of the jailhouse calls, Kessler complains about the searches.
“They gave me a piece of paper that says they, for the search warrant for my
car, like 5 days after they searched my car and confiscated the car, and they
never gave me a search warrant for searching my storage unit, ever. They just
did it. They said they had a search warrant, but I have yet to see it," Kessler
said in that call.
According to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement DNA analysis that was
among evidence released last month by the State Attorney's Office, blood found
on one of Kessler's boots in her storage unit was an almost certain match with
that of Cummings. Investigators also found one of Cummings' fingernails in a
blue bin in the storage unit.
Last week, the defense for Kessler said a psychiatrist found their client
incompetent for trial. Her next hearing date was pushed back to June 27.
1 year after Cummings' disappearance, her body has not been found, despite an
extensive search at a Georgia landfill that turned up items of interest.
(source for both: news4jax.com)
TENNESSEE----impending execution
Governor Lee, his faith, and mercy for a death row inmate
Gov. Bill Lee took his furthest steps yet in talking about his religious faith
and the decision he must make in the next 6 days: whether to spare the life of
a death row inmate.
Donnie Johnson is scheduled to be executed on May 16 for the murder of his
wife, Connie Johnson, in 1984. He suffocated her by stuffing a garbage bag down
her throat.
Lee is currently considering a clemency application for Johnson he received
several weeks ago.
It will be his first time deciding whether the life of a death row inmate
should be saved. But unlike other cases previous governors have dealt with,
Johnson’s attorneys are not questioning legal aspects of his case, such as
earlier court decisions or the jury’s sentence of death it handed down
34-years-ago.
Instead, the application leans heavily on Lee’s Christian faith and the values
of forgiveness and redemption – an appeal to Lee’s religious convictions, which
he spoke about frequently during his campaign for governor. Johnson’s
supporters – including Cynthia Vaughn, the daughter of Johnson’s victim – say
Johnson has transformed his life on death row, even ministering to other
inmates.
“My faith is a very important part of my life,” Lee said during a press
availability this week. “It’s not disconnected from any decision I make. It's a
part of the value system by which I view things, and it has a role, and it is
part of the deliberative process we're in now.”
Kelley Henry, Johnson’s attorney, says she does not anticipate filing any
further suits or legal proceedings that could delay Johnson’s execution. She
says the outcome of whether Johnson lives or dies now rests solely in the hands
of Gov. Lee. That was a call she says was made by Johnson himself.
“We’ll have a decision on that in just a few days,” Lee said this week.
One legal appeal remains with the U.S. Supreme Court, concerning the drugs
Tennessee uses in lethal injections. Inmates have argued that the first drug in
the lethal injection sequence – Midazolam – doesn’t keep inmates from feeling
excruciating pain from the administration of the next 2 drugs.
Johnson’s attorneys expect to hear a ruling on that appeal by Monday. Until
then, Henry says Johnson has not yet signed a waiver to select his method of
execution – lethal injection or the electric chair.
A state law grants Johnson the choice between execution methods because he
committed his crime before 1999, around the time Tennessee adopted lethal
injection as its primary execution method.
If Lee grants a commutation for Johnson, it would be a departure from his
predecessor, Gov. Bill Haslam, who did not commute the sentences of any of the
three death row inmates executed during his governorship. In a statement
declining to grant clemency for Billy Ray Irick, Haslam said, “My role is not
to be the 13th juror or the judge or to impose my personal views, but to
carefully review the judicial process to make sure it was full and fair.”
Attorneys for Johnson hope their appeal beyond the legal system – to “a higher
authority,” as they call it – will bring about the 1st death row commutation in
Tennessee in nearly a decade.
(source: WTVF news)
************************
Investigators describe brutal 1984 killing that put Donnie Johnson on death row
Clyde Keenan was a police captain in the Memphis Police Department in 1984 and
worked the case when Donnie Johnson murdered his wife Connie, May 07, 2019.
Donnie Edward Johnson, 68, is scheduled to die May 16 for killing his wife,
Connie Johnson, in Memphis in 1984.
The body was found in a van at the Mall of Memphis.
There was a panic at first, said Clyde Keenan, who commanded the homicide unit
in 1984. People were worried about women shopping alone during the busy
Christmas season.
“It was an unusual murder scene of course,” Keenan said. “From the get-go, I
think everyone on the squad was suspicious that the husband was involved with
it.”
The husband was Donnie Johnson, a man who had grown up being “routinely and
mercilessly beaten” by the man he thought was his father. When he wasn’t
beaten, he saw his mother suffering the same treatment at the hands of her
husband.
He was “a frail little boy, with bad eyes, and no love,” his attorneys would
later write in a petition for clemency.
Donnie Johnson was 33 when he killed his wife, Connie Johnson, 30, and left her
body outside the Mall of Memphis.
What police saw at the scene
Donnie Johnson, who now goes by Don, is set to be executed by the state on May
16 for his wife’s murder, but has asked Gov. Bill Lee for clemency based on
what his attorneys call a “journey to redemption” and the forgiveness of Connie
Johnson’s daughter, whom he adopted.
Jerry Bursi, a retired officer in the Memphis Police Department, remembers
vividly the green garbage bag that Donnie Johnson used to kill his wife two
weeks before Christmas in 1984.
“If (Gov. Lee) made the scene with us that night, he wouldn’t grant any
clemency,” Bursi said.
The van was initially found by Donnie Johnson’s employer. Donnie Johnson had
told friends and family that his wife had gone Christmas shopping alone and
hadn’t returned home. He even filed a missing person’s report in Covington,
where they lived.
Bursi and John Garner, then a sergeant with the police department who lead the
investigation, remembered her lying in the van with the plastic garbage bag
stuffed down her throat. Her purse was missing. Only about two inches of the
30-gallon bag protruded from her mouth, Bursi said.
A Shelby County medical examiner would later say that she had cuts and bruises
on her head, that she bled internally and had fought back.
How police investigated
When Donnie Johnson gave his statement to the police, “red flags went off,”
Garner said. For one thing, he wanted to know when he could get the van back to
sell it. Some of his statements didn’t add up. A witness confirmed that she had
spoken with Donnie Johnson after his wife would have disappeared, contradicting
what he had told media.
Then, police got a call from the penal farm: A work release inmate there was
picked up every day by Donnie Johnson. At first, he said he’d had a normal day
with Donnie Johnson. Soon, he broke, Garner said.
Ronnie McCoy, the inmate, admitted that he’d seen Donnie Johnson and his wife
together at the camping store where he worked with Donnie Johnson. He left the
store to work on a project, and returned to find Connie Johnson dead, he said.
Then, he helped Donnie Johnson move Connie Johnson’s body to the mall, McCoy
told police and later testified at trial.
There was other evidence: police used a new technology with superglue fumes to
identify fingerprints. There were remnants of what seemed to be Connie
Johnson’s purse that had been burned at her home. Keys to the van were found in
Donnie Johnson’s car.
“Any good homicide detective will tell you, you’ve got to go where the evidence
takes you,” Keenan said. “In that case it didn’t take long before the evidence
appeared of him being responsible for that crime.”
‘A liar, a cheat, a con man and a murderer’
Donnie Johnson initially denied that he had killed his wife. During the
sentencing stage of his trial, he testified that it was McCoy who had murdered
his wife.
But today, Donnie Johnson acknowledges that he was once “a liar, a cheat, a con
man and a murderer.”
He was on his way to becoming one at an early age, according to a petition for
clemency from his attorneys.
“His father had taught him that women were to be used, denigrated, and beaten,”
they wrote.
By age 14, he “became a terror” and was sent away to Jordonia — a juvenile
institution in Tennessee. He was later committed to Pikeville, where he
suffered physical abuse and attempted sexual assault, the petition read.
What was the motive?
Garner, who lead the investigation, doesn’t remember much about a motive.
McCoy did testify that the Johnsons had been talking about divorce — and that
Donnie Johnson had told him he’d had several divorces before and couldn’t
afford another one.
After getting search warrants, police found organized laundry baskets with the
Johnsons' children’s clothes, Connie Johnson’s clothes and her makeup lined by
the door.
“To me, it said she was getting ready to leave him,” Garner said.
More than a year and a half before her death, Connie Johnson had purchased a
life insurance policy with Donnie Johnson as the primary beneficiary, according
to legal documents. After Connie Johnson's death, both Donnie Johnson and a
sister made claims for $50,000.
Execution is scheduled for next week
It’s been 35 years since Donnie Johnson murdered his wife. He’s scheduled to be
executed for it on May 16.
Since his conviction, Donnie Johnson has converted to Christianity. He’s now an
elder at Riverside Chapel Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nashville. He
preaches to fellow inmates and on a radio program.
That religious transformation — and the forgiveness of Connie Johnson’s
daughter — formed the basis of the clemency petition submitted to Gov. Bill Lee
last month.
"What is most remarkable about Don Johnson's life story is not that he ended up
on death row following a loveless and hate-filled childhood, it is that he
overcame that childhood to become the man of God he is today," the petition
reads.
Jason Johnson, the child the Johnsons had together after their marriage,
disagrees with his sister on whether their father should be executed.
Lee, the governor, said Thursday that he was facing a "very difficult
decision."
"We’re in the deliberative process about that decision itself and it’ll be
forthcoming in a few days, but it certainly is a difficult one,” Lee said.
Keenan, the former commander of the homicide unit, said the moral judgments —
like whether to grant clemency — are the most difficult ones to make.
“People think investigating homicides is difficult,” Keenan said. “I think we
have the easy part sometimes. We investigate, make a conclusion, and everybody
else picks up the case and runs with it — they make the hard decisions.”
(source: Commercial Appeal)
NEVADA:
Nevada Jury Asked to Reorder Execution for 1982 Murderer
Prosecutors are trying to persuade a jury to reorder the execution of a
convicted murderer who's been on Nevada's death row for 34 years but won a new
sentencing hearing when a federal appeals court ruled his rights were violated
his original trial's penalty phase.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld 67-year-old Tracy Petrocelli's
conviction 2 years ago in the 1982 killing of a Reno car salesman, months after
Petrocelli killed his girlfriend in Seattle.
But the court ruled Petrocelli should have been read his Miranda rights when he
thought he was speaking confidentially to a psychiatrist who later testified
for the prosecution.
It said the jury that sentenced him to death may have been unjustly influenced
by testimony that Petrocelli was a dangerous, incurable psychopath.
(source: nbclosangeles.com)
***************************
Jailhouse HiJack: The story of the 'Most Dangerous Man in Nevada'
He's been called the "Most Dangerous Man in Nevada", and has been on death row
for almost 4 decades.
Patrick Charles McKenna was sentenced to die for killing his cellmate in the
city Jail in 1979. He was also behind a desperate bid freedom that stunned Las
Vegas later that year.
Southern Nevada has never seen anything like it before or since. Three armed
prisoners holding police at bay for two days using jail guards as hostages.
Patrick McKenna was the brains of the outfit.
"We knew he was an intellectually bright person. Challenged morality-wise,
clearly," states historian and former KSNV News Director Bob Stoldal, who back
in 1979 was News Director at KLAS.
"He was a sociopath," adds former Clark County Sheriff Jerry Keller, who was on
the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's Hostage Negotiation Team 40
years ago. "Clearly defined by psychologists as a sociopath. He took no
culpability, accountability for himself. He blamed everything that happened on
everybody else's doings."
McKenna already had a long rap sheet starting with kidnap, rape, and assault in
1964 at age 17 followed by his 1st prison escape 2 years later. Recaptured, he
served time and was released, onto be jailed again for a different set of
crimes. While awaiting trial in 1979, a charge of murder was added when he
killed his cellmate. Then in August of that same year, e and 2 other inmates
made their move.
"They had gained access to the gun locker and each had obtained a weapon. A
nine-millimeter Smith & Wesson officer's weapon," says Keller. "And had taken
three corrections officers hostage. And were actually holding the other 106
inmates hostage as well."
The location might come as a surprise. The property on the northwest corner of
Las Vegas Boulevard and Stewart that is now home to the Zappos campus served as
Las Vegas City Hall from 1979 until 2012. Four decades ago, the north side of
the complex was also the city jail, where the three inmates were holding siege
and looking for outside help.
"The first call I received was from Pat McKenna himself," recalls Stoldal. "I
picked up the phone. It was a Saturday morning. I was strictly behind the
scenes, but I had been an anchor in town, so McKenna knew me by name."
"Pat McKenna and I had a conversation. And then not too long after that was a
call from Metro saying go ahead and come on down, so I did."
Stoldal became the go-between, delivering food and water to the inmates and
taking messages back and forth, all with Metro's blessing. One officer wanted
to make sure the newsman played it cool.
"He put his hands on me and said 'Listen, you're not John Wayne. These are bad
guys’. I remember thinking to myself, 'Well, if I don't think I'm John Wayne,
I'm not going back up there'."
"It's overcoming that nervousness and doing the role that we asked him to do
that made him such an integral part of the resolution of this situation,"
describes Keller. "We had a SWAT team on both sides of the door. Where Bob was
standing, there were SWAT team members. Three or four guys on each side of the
door should anything happen. Bob was well protected should anything start to
happen. But at the moment it started to happen, he was always under threat."
Since McKenna had specifically requested him, Stoldal also sometimes worked the
telephones along with members of the Hostage Negotiation Team. 44 hours into
the crisis, Stoldal was on the phone with McKenna when events started happening
fast.
"But while we were talking, that's when the 1...2...3...4...5...6 shots," says
Stoldal. We could all hear, and we looked at each other."
The 2 other inmates were 29-year-old Felix Lorenzo who faced a 150-year prison
term for robberies and kidnappings, along with 40-year-old Eugene Shaw who was
looking at up to 60 years for robbery and use of a deadly weapon. Tensions had
been running high between the 2 of them as well as with McKenna. Keller thinks
the catalyst for the shooting was the compressor on a water cooler in the room
next door.
"Started rattling against the wall and they thought we were trying to burrow
through," theorizes the former sheriff. "And as a result, the conflict between
Lorenzo and Shaw boiled over and they got involved in a gunfight. McKenna ran
to the back of the room, put on a corrections officer’s uniform and put a
mattress over himself."
When the smoke had cleared, Lorenzo and Shaw were both dead and McKenna was
back in custody. One of the hostage corrections officers took a bullet to the
hand during the shootout but was otherwise OK. All three were traumatized by
the event, however.
"There was no doubt in our minds that they were going to kill us," former guard
David Murray told News 3 a year later. "They made that very clear that we
weren't leaving there alive. And we were handcuffed crossways between bars so
that if SWAT would come through, they'd get us first. I was thinking the whole
time, 'When are they going to do it?' From minute to minute, 'When are they
going to shoot us?' After getting over it and taking my medical treatment, you
know no matter what happens, I'm just happy that I'm alive."
McKenna was convicted in 1980 of murdering his cellmate in 1980 and sentenced
to death. 2 years later an appeal with a change of venue to Minden ended with
the same result.
14 years and several escape attempts later, after the U.S. Supreme Court had
granted him a new penalty hearing, McKenna was returned to Las Vegas to face a
new jury. By now Keller was sheriff of Clark County, and took no chances.
"Mitts. A hood. Absolutely," Keller describes the precautions. "He is a threat
for escape at all times. He was a member of the Aryan--may still be--the Aryan
Brotherhood, and we always perceived a threat."
McKenna had his day in court and seemed to enjoy the proceedings. At one point
he described his view of a good man.
"If a guy's stand up if he's not an informer if he lives by the code," McKenna
told the judge and jury. "That's how you judge another person."
In the end, the result was the same as before.
"We the jury in the above-entitled case set the sentence and penalty to be
imposed on the defendant Patrick Charles McKenna at death," read the clerk.
"Dated this 19th day of September 1996."
"He's hurt people. He rapes, he robs. He kills," prosecutor Dan Seaton told
reporters after the penalty hearing. "He's done all of those things in this
city more than once. I don't know how much more you can damage a city."
But in a 1990 interview behind bars at the Maximum-Security Prison in Ely,
McKenna told News 3 he got a raw deal.
"The only reason I have the death penalty is because of who I am and because
and it was Las Vegas. And I was just involved in that jailhouse thing. Trying
to get out of there. Escaped and got caught in that sucker. That's why—because
of the avalanche of publicity that hit me. Then comes that murder trial. Any
other time, any other case on the face of it, we're talking 2nd Degree. And I
make no bones about it. I admit to that. But because of all that, so I ended up
with this thing. And I end up with the death penalty. They got me on ice for a
while."
Today McKenna is still on death row at age 72. Is he still dangerous at this
point in his life?
"He is who he is. And he is that psychopath," says Stoldal.
"Just as dangerous today as he was 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 50 years ago,"
observes Keller. "He is no less a threat to the community, and probably no less
a threat to some of the inmates in the Nevada State Prison."
Does McKenna hold an important place in the history of events in Southern
Nevada? Stoldal pauses a moment before answering.
"Covering [Mob enforcer Anthony] Spilotro and all of those things. Those are
the moments. The MGM [1980 fire] tragedy, the Hilton [1981 fire] Tragedy. Those
are the things. But Bozo McKenna. No, I don't put him in that category. He's
way down at the bottom."
Patrick McKenna is the 2nd longest-serving person on Nevada's death row. There
have been no executions in the state since 2006, and 11 of the 12 executions
since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977 have been voluntary.
(source: KSNV news)
USA:
Rep. Omar Introduces Legislation Opposing Brunei’s Gay Sex Death Penalty
Rep. Ilhan Omar is has introduced legislation in opposition to Brunei’s recent
pronouncements that would execute people convicted of such things as homosexual
intercourse and adultery.
The Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, later walked statements back, saying
that “For more than 2 decades, we have practiced a de facto moratorium on the
execution of death penalty for cases under the common law.”
He claimed that the country would not enforce the execution of offenders.
However, Omar called the penal code revisions — which mandate stoning for
multiple offenses that also include blasphemy and theft — “brutal and
draconian.”
The laws, which came into full effect in April, generated global backlash, with
protests made by the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France.
Celebrities like Elton John and George Clooney also denounced the laws.
Critics say that, even if execution by stoning is off the table, those
sentenced under Brunei’s sharia laws can still face lengthy jail terms or
caning. Women convicted of having sexual relations with other women face up to
40 strokes of the cane or a maximum 10-year jail term.
“These laws are anathema to our values as humans, and must be condemned in the
strongest possible terms,” Omar said. “The new statutes will violate the human
rights of women, children and the LGBTQ+ community. This brutality runs counter
to universal values of respect for human rights and freedom for people to
worship and love however they choose. The United States has a duty to protect
against this blatant disregard for humanity and the violation of basic rights
wherever we see them.”
The bill, called the Brunei Human Rights Act, would mandate that any government
official who actually implements the penal code would not be able to travel to
or do business with the U.S., and would extend to any official from any other
country enacting such punishments.
(source: WCCO news)
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