[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., FLA., OHIO, ARK.
July 6 TEXAS: San Antonio death penalty case ends in mistrial over attorney's health A lawyer's injury prompted a judge here Thursday to declare a mistrial in what would have been the 1st capital murder death case tried in San Antonio since 2015 when a man got death for killing a Bexar County Sheriff's sergeant. Brian Flores was 33 and already in jail on 2 other charges when he was arrested and charged with capital murder-multiple persons in the deaths of Joshua Rodriguez, 18, and Victoria Dennis, 17. The homicides occurred at the Churchill Park complex in the 1200 block of Patricia Drive on Sept. 29, 2015. The teens allegedly were killed over a sex tape that involved Rodriguez and a female not identified in an arrest warrant affidavit released at the time. Reports indicate Rodriguez was threatened over social media involving a photograph of him and another woman. That woman told authorities her boyfriend might have asked Flores to intervene. Prosecutors Jason Goss and Gretchen Flader began jury selection weeks ago with Flores' attorneys, Ed Camara and David Woodard. However, Camara recently suffered a concussion after he fell and hit his head June 18, which delayed proceedings. His doctor, Burton Shaw, said he examined Camara, 77, on Monday and that he has post-concussion syndrome, can't walk a straight line, and "is a little slower and muted in his responses." In a hearing Thursday, Goss and Woodard argued before Visiting Judge Susan Reed, who is presiding over the case, regarding Camara's competency since the injury. Each questioned Shaw on his health and whether he could continue seating a jury, which, in a death penalty case, can take up to a month, as compared to one day to seat a panel for other cases. "I think you'd have difficulty making the case that he's competent," Shaw said under direct questioning by Goss. "Sometimes (recovery time for concussions) can be a matter of weeks, sometimes months. Most people, 3 months." Shaw did say he felt Camara could do "office work," sit at a desk, and agreed with Goss that he likely could continue picking a jury. But Woodard contended the doctor had no idea what goes into jury selection. Goss asserted Flores' attorneys were attempting to drag out the case with continuances. "He wants a continuance that takes us into the next (district attorney) administration," Goss told Reed. "Even with this break, we still can seat a jury in August. We can finish it (the trial) before September. As the doctor testified, this is a bump on the head." Goss also stressed that the state had subopoenaed more than 100 witnesses, and if proceedings halted, they would have to find them all over again. Woodard countered that the court should grant a mistrial because there's no telling when Camara will be ready. "This is a 77-year-old man with a concussion. We're not talking about a small child or a teen," Woodard said. He also accused the state of rushing to put Flores, now 36, to death, and without the attorney requirements for defendants facing execution. Texas law holds lawyers representing capital murder defendants to a higher standard and gives specific experience requirements for 1st- and 2nd-chair attorneys. "We need to take our time," he said. "He (Flores) only has 1 attorney." Reed acknowledged 4 jurors already had been seated, but said she would order them to be released. "If we want to call it a mistrial, that'll be what it's called. Mr. Camara is removed, another (attorney) will be appointed," she said. Reed was expected to set a hearing for a later date. Flores' case would have been the 1st death penalty case in Bexar County since 2015 when a jury sent Mark Anthony Gonzalez to death row for killing Sgt. Kenneth Vann. On May 28, 2011, Vann was shot 26 times and nearly decapitated while he sat at a stoplight in Southeast Bexar County. (source: San Antonio Express-News) More testimony expected in Houston 'honor killings' as death penalty trial resumes The capital murder trial of a devoutly religious father who is facing the death penalty for allegedly orhestrating the "honor killings" of both his son-in-law and his daughter's best friend is expected to resume Thursday, after a break for the 4th of July holiday. Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, 60, a Jordanian immigrant and fervent Muslim, is accused of killing his son-in-law, Coty Beavers, 28, and his daughter's best friend because she supported his daughter's conversion to Christianity and marriage to a Christian. Prosecutors have said Irsan, who lived in a rural Montgomery County compound with his 12 children, planned to kill his daughter, Nesreen, as well. He wanted to slay the people she loved first "so she would suffer more," prosecutors said. Opening statements are set to begin Monday in the death penalty trial of a Jordanian immigrant accused in a pair of "honor killings" that shocked Houston.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., FLA., OHIO, ARK., OKLA., CALIF., USA
April 23 TEXAS: Death Sentence on Line for Would-Be Rapper in Triple KillingA former University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff student who once aspired to become a famous rapper now faces a possible death penalty in a Dallas triple slaying. A former University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff student who once aspired to become a famous rapper now has his life on the line after his capital murder conviction in the shooting deaths of three people at a Dallas drug house. The Dallas Morning News (http://bit.ly/2pSU8ee) reports the penalty phase opens Monday in the trial of 24-year-old Justin Pharez Smith, in which prosecutors will present evidence in their bid for a death sentence. Prosecutors say a need for money compelled Smith to kill a man and 2 women in the August 2014 holdup. A woman and a man survived the attack and identified Smith as the killer. Prosecutor Kobby Warren said Smith came to Dallas intending to get "on the dope game." The problem was "he was a terrible drug dealer." (source: Associated Press) PENNSYLVANIA: Prosecution faces tough challenge in Frein death sentence phase If Pike County prosecutors succeed in putting convicted cop killer Eric Matthew Frein on death row, they will buck the national trend of death sentences dramatically dropping over the past few decades. Death sentences reached a peak between 1992 and 1994, when 315 defendants were sentenced to die, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The rate continued to drop over the years. In 2016, just 30 defendants were sentenced to death, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that provides information and analysis on death penalty issues. Legal experts say the decline is the result of several factors, including a reduction in the murder rate, increasing scrutiny by prosecutors in evaluating which cases to seek death, and the reluctance of jurors to impose death in all but the most heinous cases. Pike County District Attorney Ray Tonkin went to great lengths to try to convince the Chester County jury deciding Frein's fate that he deserves to die by lethal injection for the Sept. 12, 2014, sniper attack at the Blooming Grove state police barracks that killed Cpl. Bryon K. Dickson II,38, of Dunmore. Frein, 33, of Canadensis, was convicted of 1st-degree murder, 1st-degree murder of a law enforcement officer and 10 other charges on Wednesday, stemming from the ambush that also severely injured Trooper Alex Douglass, 34, of Olyphant. During the penalty phase that began Thursday, Tonkin presented several witnesses, including Dickson's widow and mother, who talked of the devastating impact his death had on them. The defense began presenting its case Friday afternoon. The hearing resumes Monday. The case comes at a time when public support for capital punishment is at an all-time low. A 2016 survey by Pew Research Center shows 49 % of Americans support the death penalty. That is down from a peak of 80 % who supported it the mid-1990s. "There has been a very effective effort by anti-death penalty folks to convince people the death penalty is unfair to minorities and is not being imposed fairly," said Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli, a vocal death penalty supporter. "Some of that public campaigning has an impact on jurors." The decline in support has been fueled, in part, by the number of death row inmates who have been exonerated, said Robert Dunhan, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Since 1972, 158 people sentenced to death have been exonerated, according to the center. "Americans are reaching the point that they feel they can't trust the government," Dunhan said. "The public does not want a system that has a high risk of sentencing innocent people to death." Joshua Marquis, a board member of the National District Attorney's Association, said he believes the decline in death sentences is tied more to the reduction in the nation's murder rate. In 2015, the murder rate was 4.9 murders per 100,000 people, according to the Department of Justice. Throughout the 1980s and '90s, the per capita murder rate ranged from a low of 5.7 in 1999 to 10.2 in 1980. Morganelli and Marquis agree jurors today closely scrutinize cases and are only willing to impose death in the most egregious cases. That is how it should be, they said, and has led prosecutors to be more selective in the type of cases for which they seek death. Marquis, a district attorney in Clatsop County, Oregon, said he prosecuted about 12 cases where he could have sought death, but has only done so in 2. "As a prosecutor you have to ask, should you really be seeking death except only in the worst of the worst cases?" he said. "I have to look at the likelihood of success because it's extremely expensive for both sides." There is no dispute Frein's crime was heinous. His attorneys face a monumental task in
