June 23
TEXAS----impending execution
Judge rejects Houston serial killer's claims he's too ill to be executed
Danny Bible is scheduled for execution Wednesday.
A federal judge this week rejected a Houston serial killer's argument that he
should get a stay because he's in such bad health he can't be executed.
Danny Bible is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday, but in recent
weeks his attorneys have said the aging quadruple murderer has such bad veins
that any attempts to execute him could end in a gruesomely botched procedure.
But federal judge on Thursday deemed his claims "speculative" and
"hypothetical" and faulted the defense for not raising such concerns sooner.
Any difficulty finding a usable vein would fall into the category of an
"isolated mishap" that wouldn't rise to the level of cruel and unusual
punishment, the court said.
"In the end, the Constitution does not guarantee a painless death," Judge
Kenneth Hoyt wrote. "Bible surely shows that his execution will result in
discomfort and some level of pain. The pain he describes, however, does not
rise to the level requiring this Court to take the drastic step of intruding
into the execution process."
After the federal district court denied his legal claim, Bible on Thursday
filed a notice of appeal in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The
66-year-old also still has an appeal pending in state court, where he's arguing
that his lawyers in 2003 should have demanded a new trial after he was severely
disabled in a head-on car wreck on the way to prison. That crash, his current
lawyers argue, left Bible in a wheelchair and made him no longer a future
danger - one of the requirements for a death sentence in Texas.
The death row inmate is also waiting on word regarding a clemency petition
filed with the state's parole board. In the 27-page plea for reprieve, Bible
argues that he's a changed man, one who's found God, feels remorse and is no
longer capable of posing a threat. He also delves into his abusive childhood,
psychological problems, a past suicide attempt and current medical problems,
including everything from Parkinson's to diabetes to chronic necrotizing
pancreatitis.
Bible was sentenced to death in 2003, after he confessed to the 1979 slaying of
Inez Deaton. The young mother had been stabbed 11 times with an ice pick and
left along the slope of a Houston bayou.
For 2 decades, the murder went unsolved, but Bible's violent streak continued.
In 1984, he was sent to prison for killing his sister-in-law Tracy Powers and
her infant son Justin. Then, he killed her roommate, Pam Hudgins, and left the
woman's body hanging from a roadside fence.
He was released after 8 years behind bars, and went on to rape and molest
multiple young relatives, including a 5-year-old. In 1998, he raped a woman in
a Louisiana motel room, then stuffed her in a duffel bag before she broke free
and called for help.
Bible was eventually caught in Florida, and freely confessed to his crimes
under questioning.
Texas has already executed 6 men this year, including another Houston serial
killer, Anthony Shore. Aside from Bible's, there are 8 other death dates on the
calendar in Texas.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
*********************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----33
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----551
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
34---------June 27----------------Danny Bible-------------552
35---------July 17----------------Christopher Young-------553
36---------Aug. 30----------------Joseph Garcia-----------554
37---------Sept. 12---------------Ruben Gutierrez---------555
38---------Sept. 26---------------Troy Clark--------------556
39---------Sept. 27---------------Daniel Acker------------557
40---------Oct. 10----------------Juan Segundo------------558
41---------Oct. 24----------------Kwame Rockwell----------559
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
*************************
Death penalty sought in trial of inmate accused of killing Abilene corrections
officer
The death penalty will be sought during the Capital Murder trial of an inmate
accused of killing a corrections officer at an Abilene prison in July of 2016.
Dillion Gage Compton, 21, will stand trial for the death of Officer Marianne
Johnson in Jones County beginning on August 13 - a proceeding which could take
weeks to complete due to the high-profile nature of the crime.
Compton appeared in court for a pre-trial hearing Friday, where legal teams
reviewed evidence with the judge, a date was set, and State Prosecutors made it
known they were seeking the death penalty.
Officer Johnson was found unresponsive in the kitchen area of the French
Robertson Unit in Abilene around 3:00 a.m. the morning of July 16, 2016.
A press release says Compton, "who was assigned to the kitchen area, allegedly
attacked Officer Johnson when she entered a storage area near the kitchen."
The TDCJ says Compton was serving time at the French Robertson Unit in Abilene
after he was convicted on an Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child Under the Age
of 14 charge issued out of Dallas County in December of 2011.
Compton is no longer in the French Robertson Unit and is being held in maximum
security at an undisclosed location.
A Serious Incident Review took place following the murder, which led to
disciplinary against the following TDCJ employees:
-- Jimmy Webb - Assistant Warden. 4 months probation, 7 days suspension
-- Edward McQuade - Major Correctional Officers. Recommended for dismissal
-- Gregory Cruse - Food Service Manager. Recommended for dismissal
-- Patrick Roach - Food Service Manager. Recommended for dismissal
(source: bigcountryhomepage.com)
*****************
Cheers for 'Abolish death penalty'
The Juneteenth Parade, an annual event in Houston, memorializes the day in 1865
when the Emancipation Proclamation was put into effect, ending slavery across
Texas.
This year it was celebrated on June 16. As the parade wound its way from Texas
Southern University down Emancipation Avenue to Emancipation Park, the crowds
were treated to beauty pageant participants, politicians, bands and community
organizations.
But real emancipation was on the minds of many as the Texas Death Penalty
Abolition Movement entry in the parade rolled by. It was warmly received with
loud cheering, applause and fists in the air. Lots of photos were taken.
The contingent focused on several cases of innocent people on death row,
including Big Lou Perez, Gerald Marshall, Tony Medina and Linda Carty. But the
main focus of the Abolition Movement was on Christopher Young. There were
posters and signs with a photo of Young along with his artwork - a graphic of a
clenched fist crushing the needle of a lethal injection device.
Texas has set July 17 for Young's execution, despite several jurors saying they
voted to convict him because their god had told them that Young, who is
African-American, should not have had a white spouse and 2 children with her.
Showing the blatant bias in jury selection, a member of the jury pool in
Young's case was eliminated because her church has a prison ministry, even
though she was not part of it.
The parade ended at Emancipation Park, where the 146th annual Juneteenth
Festival was in full swing. More information on Young's case is posted at
tinyurl.com/y8y7scrw/.
(source: workers.org)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Duquesne death penalty case continues with Facebook evidence, testimony from
friends of the accused
Attorneys and audience members in Allegheny Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony M.
Mariani's courtroom spent nearly 13 1/2 hours over the past 2 weeks watching
footage from the 2014 Allegheny County police interrogation of James Karr, 50,
of Duquesne.
10 hours into the interrogation on Dec. 30, 2014, Mr. Karr admitted to knocking
his 56-year-old estranged wife unconscious, tying her to a chair, dousing her
with vodka, and setting their Friendship Street house on fire in the early
hours of that morning.
In pre-trial motions for the death penalty case, Mr. Karr's defense attorneys
argued that footage of the interrogation should be suppressed because Mr. Karr
asked for a lawyer and never received one.
The pre-trial judge ruled that the video was admissible as evidence, but after
hearing arguments from the defense, Judge Mariani agreed to review the entire
tape.
Friday, after playing the final minutes of the interrogation, the prosecution
went back to calling its witnesses.
First on the stand was a toxicologist with the Allegheny County Medical
Examiner's Office, who testified that lab tests had identified cyanide and high
levels of carbon monoxide in Maureen Karr's blood. Cyanide is created when
plastic burns.
Next, the court heard from 2 men who were with Mr. Karr the night of his wife's
death.
Clifford Jackene, who said that he and Mr. Karr had "loafed together" for
years, testified that he and Mr. Karr had spent the early evening of Dec. 29,
2014, drinking in bars in Duquesne. They then headed to the house of a friend,
Lance Ludwick, where the three men continued drinking and smoked crack.
A little after 8 p.m., Mr. Jackene said, Mr. Karr told him he needed some air
and was going for a walk.
When Mr. Karr did not return and failed to answer his phone, Mr. Jackene said
he got worried. Mr. Jackene knew that Ms. Karr had a protection from abuse
order against Mr. Karr.
"I said to Lance, 'Come on and let's go take a ride down there near his old
house to make sure he isn't getting into trouble,'" Mr. Jackene said.
He and Mr. Ludwick drove to the house where Mr. Karr had lived with Ms. Karr.
After searching unsuccessfully for about 10 minutes, he said they headed home.
A little after midnight, Mr. Jackene said, Mr. Karr called him and asked for a
ride home. Mr. Jackene said he didn't have enough gas to take Mr. Karr all the
way to his mother's house in South Park, and dropped him at a gas station,
where Mr. Karr said his mother would pick him up.
Mr. Jackene said he had just gotten back in bed when Mr. Ludwick knocked on his
door to tell him that the Karrs' house was on fire, and that he thought Ms.
Karr was inside.
He immediately called Mr. Karr, asking, "What did you do?"
He said Mr. Karr sounded calm, telling him to "get out of here, I didn't do
nothing."
Mr. Ludwick, who took the stand next, mostly corroborated Mr. Jackene's story,
though he disputed some of his estimates of time and denied that he had been
smoking crack.
In the afternoon, the commonwealth called Doreen Collins, who said Ms. Karr -
whom she called "Reeny" - had been her best friend.
Ms. Collins told the court that sitting in the backyard of the Karrs' house
with the couple, she had heard Mr. Karr say to Mrs. Karr, "I'll burn it down
before you don't let me have it," referring to the house.
Ms. Collins also read aloud posts that Mr. Karr made on Facebook in the days
leading up to the hearing about his wife's PFA on Dec. 29.
"It's no use going to court tomorrow I'm not going to get my wife back so I
guess my eyes will take my life now that's what I'm doing goodbye I hope
somebody shows up at my funeral," he wrote on Dec. 28.
In another post on Dec. 25, he wrote, "we'll see if it works probably not I'll
probably end up going to jail for it but it's worth giving anything a try to be
back with my wife the one and I love."
(source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
LOUISIANA:
Lockport man sentenced to death for slaying of woman, 2 daughters
A Lockport man was formally sentenced to death by a judge Friday for the
stabbing deaths of a woman and her 2 daughters.
David Brown was sentenced to death back in November 2016 after being convicted
for the triple-homicide. As a formality, there is a 2-year waiting period in
death penalty cases. The judge in the case was able to officially hand down the
death sentence Friday.
Brown,was arrested and charged in 2012 after he stabbed his Jacqueline
Gautreaux Nieves, 29; her 6-year-old daughter, Gabriella Nieves and
20-month-old daughter Isabella Nieves.
Investigators believe Brown broke into the Lockport apartment armed with a
knife. They suspect he went into one of the bedrooms and sexually assaulted 2
of the victims before stabbing all 3 of them several times each, according to
former reports.
According to deputies, Brown set the apartment on fire and left. The woman's
husband, Carlos Nieves, Jr., was asleep downstairs the whole time. He
eventually woke up and called 911 because the apartment was on fire.
Detectives said they found what they thought was the knife used in the attack
on the victims and DNA at the scene that was matched to Brown.
Carlos Nieves Jr. was initially considered a "person of interest" in the crime
and was questioned for several hours. Detectives said he was cooperative, and
there was no evidence implicating him in the crime.
Lockport Police Chief Warren Vedros said it was the city's 1st homicide in
about 40 years at the time of the crime.
(source: WVUE news)
OHIO:
Parole Board Recommends No Halt to Death Sentence for Raymond
Tibbetts----Despite reservations from a former juror in the case, the Ohio
Parole Board announced today that it believes the death penalty is still
appropriate for Raymond Tibbetts.
After a special clemency hearing this month, the State of Ohio Adult Parole
Authority today released its recommendation that Ohio Gov. John Kasich not halt
the execution of Raymond Tibbetts, a Cincinnati man convicted in 1998 of 2
brutal murders. The 9-member parole board arrived at that decision 8-1.
Earlier this year, Kasich called for the special clemency hearing after 1 of
Tibbetts' jurors said he had not been given enough information about Tibbetts'
background before voting for the death penalty 2 decades ago.
Tibbetts was convicted of stabbing to death 67-year-old Fred Hicks and beating
his 42-year-old caretaker Judith Crawford to death with a baseball bat in
Hicks' Cincinnati home in 1997. Tibbetts had married Crawford a few weeks
prior. Authorities found 3 knives left in Hicks. The grisly case made big local
headlines, and Tibbetts was sentenced to death for Hicks' murder and life in
prison without parole for Crawford's.
Just weeks before Tibbetts' originally scheduled Feb. 13 execution, 1 of the
jurors who helped put him on death row asked Kasich to pump the brakes on the
death sentence.
Ross Geiger's name appears on the list of Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas
jurors who in 1998 convicted Tibbetts of murder and recommended he be put to
death. But in a Jan. 30 letter to Kasich, Geiger said new evidence about
Tibbetts' childhood had convinced him that the death penalty isn't appropriate
for Tibbetts.
"I am writing today to ask you show mercy to Raymond Tibbetts by commuting his
death sentence to life in prison with no possibility of parole," Geiger writes.
"This is not an easy request for me as I was a juror on the trial for that
horrible crime."
But the parole board says that Geiger's reservations shouldn't sway Kasich into
halting Tibbetts' execution.
"While the Parole Board believes that Geiger submitted his letter with the best
of intentions, members are not convinced that his decision would have been
different had the information been presented in the same manner at trial, when
the results would have been deliberated within the jury setting. The vicious
and gratuitous murder of Fred Hicks immediately following the brutal slaying of
Judith Sue Crawford was so heinous that the mitigation as presented does not
outweigh the aggravating factors in this case."
Family members of both victims testified at the clemency hearing earlier this
month that the delay in Tibbetts' execution was causing them mental anguish,
and that they believed he should be executed despite his difficult background.
Geiger's reasons for the letter stem from revelations not discussed at
Tibbetts' original trial about horrific abuse he suffered as a child, details
about his drug addiction and mental illness, lack of preparation from Tibbetts'
defense team during the sentencing portion of his trial and other factors.
Tibbetts, who was heavily addicted to opiates and alcohol, had undiagnosed
mental illnesses stemming at least in part from a chaotic and unstable
childhood. His biological mother and father were mostly absent, according to
testimony from his attorneys before a clemency board hearing in January 2017.
When they were around, they were physically abusive. Tibbetts and his siblings
were taken from the home when he was 2 years old, and he then bounced around
between different foster homes and orphanages, where he also experienced abuse
and neglect.
Testimony from Tibbetts' sister about their upbringing, as well as social
service records about his childhood, were available but not presented at trial.
In the months before the murders, Tibbetts attempted suicide. He had attempted
to get into a treatment program for drug and alcohol addiction a month and a
half before killing Hicks and Crawford, but was turned away. Those efforts show
Tibbetts was suffering from mental illness, his attorneys have argued.
"A juror on Mr. Tibbetts' trial identified a serious malfunction in the system,
one that clemency is designed to correct," said Erin Barnhart, an attorney for
Tibbetts and an assistant federal public defender. "Mr. Tibbetts faces
execution because the jury did not receive complete and accurate information
about his background during sentencing proceedings. This was due to ineffective
representation by defense attorneys and reinforced by misleading statements by
the prosecution. Under Ohio law, his single vote as a juror for a life sentence
would have prevented the death penalty. Failing to correct the error caused by
these breakdowns in the adversarial process would irreparably damage the
integrity of our criminal justice system."
At least 1 member of the parole board agreed with that reasoning.
"The issue under consideration is whether the jury was sufficiently presented
with full details of the mitigating circumstances, enabling them to make an
informed decision in the case," the dissenting parole board member wrote. "The
defense did not fully present the scope of the childhood abuse suffered by
Tibbetts and the long-term impact of that abuse."
Kasich isn't bound by the board's recommendation, and could still choose to
permanently cancel Tibbetts' execution.
(source: citybeat.com)
********************************
Ohio Parole Board: Cincinnati killer still deserves death penalty even after
juror sought mercy
The Ohio Parole Board ruled that Raymond Tibbetts, convicted of killing 2
people in Over-the-Rhine, still deserved the death penalty - even after an
11th-hour plea from a juror for mercy.
The board, in an 8-1 vote, did not recommend clemency for Tibbetts to Gov. John
Kasich, according to a report released Friday. Kasich will soon decide whether
to continue with Tibbetts' execution, which is set for Oct. 17.
The board gave Tibbetts' case a second look after a former juror, Ross Geiger
of Loveland, wrote a letter to Kasich, expressing concern that jurors didn't
know more about Tibbett's background before sentencing him to death.
Tibbetts was sentenced to death for beating his wife, Sue Crawford, to death
and fatally stabbing his landlord, Fred Hicks, on the same day in 1997. Geiger
told The Enquirer that he had no doubts Tibbetts committed those murders.
Even so, Geiger said he might not have recommended the death penalty if he had
known about how Tibbetts had been abused as a child, put into foster care as a
toddler and endured years of abuse and neglect, along with his siblings. That
information was not presented before sentencing, Geiger said.
Kasich delayed Tibbetts' execution after receiving the letter. But on Friday,
the Ohio Parole Board found that evidence of Tibbetts' childhood would not have
outweighed the heinous crime - even if Geiger and other jurors had all the
details.
One member disagreed, saying "the defense did not fully present the scope of
the childhood abuse suffered by Tibbetts and the long-term impact of that
abuse." Tibbetts attorney, Erin Barnhart, said the parole board's decision
would "irreparably damage the integrity of our criminal justice system."
Mark Hicks, the nephew of victim Fred Hicks, expressed surprise and frustration
that Geiger was able to delay the execution at all.
"It is absolutely unbelievable to my family and I that we are back here
considering clemency for Raymond Tibbetts AGAIN because a juror was surfing the
Internet one night," Hicks wrote, pleading for Kasich to go forward with the
execution.
(source: cincinnati.com)
TENNESSEE:
Study: Mental illness exemption to death penalty would save Tennessee more than
$1 million a year
Banning the death penalty for defendants with severe mental illness would save
the state of Tennessee an estimated $1.4 to $1.9 million a year, a new ABA
study says.
The study was released by the ABA's Death Penalty Due Process Review Project,
which advocates for a severe mental illness exemption in any jurisdiction that
uses the death penalty. To analyze the cost savings associated with such an
exemption, the study focused on Tennessee.
"A severe mental illness exclusion could result in cost savings [because] a
subset of individuals who currently could face expensive capital prosecutions
and decades of appeals would become ineligible," the report says. "[T]heir
trials and appeals would be significantly truncated, while still resulting in
guilty verdicts."
The study sampled Shelby County, Tennessee's death row population to determine
what percentage of those people had severe mental illness. Severe mental
illness was defined as a documented diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective
disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression or delusional disorder. 15 % of
Shelby County capital defendants had such a disorder, and the authors applied
that proportion to all death sentences handed down in the state since 1977. It
estimated that 28 cases may have involved severe mental illness over that time.
Using an Urban Institute study of Maryland death penalty costs, conducted in
2008, the authors then estimated that a death penalty case costs roughly $1.9
million more than a non-capital case. Thus, they calculated that a severe
mental illness exemption would have saved the state $54.8 million from
1977-2017, or an average of $1.4 million a year. If the true proportion of
capital defendants with severe mental illness is 20 %, they say, the average
yearly savings would be $1.89 million.
Tennessee was chosen because it makes detailed data available on all 1st-degree
murder cases filed since 1977, the authors say, and because there's currently a
campaign in that state to exempt capital punishment for defendants with severe
mental illness. Several other states are considering, or have considered, such
an exemption, the study notes. These campaigns focus on the cost of
implementing the death penalty, as well as law and public policy arguments.
The authors note that the ABA has called for a severe mental illness exemption
in 2006's Resolution 122-A. (As a matter of policy, the ABA does not take a
stand on the death penalty itself.) That resolution says such an exemption
would be a natural extension of Supreme Court cases limiting the death penalty
for people with intellectual disabilities.
(source: abajournal.com)
KANSAS:
Wyandotte County deputies' killer deserves the death penalty
It's too bad there are so many obstacles to actually carrying out the death
penalty of a murderer in Kansas because the suspect in the recent killing of 2
sheriff's deputies in Wyandotte County - if found guilty - should be sentenced
to die by lethal injection.
That should send a clear message that when you murder cops in cold blood or
commit mass murder, your life also will end, sooner rather than later. Although
research finds that the death penalty may not deter murders today, some experts
believe if executions happened more quickly, there could be a significant
deterrent effect.
In Kansas, the death penalty must be decided by a unanimous vote of a jury in
cases of 1st-degree murder without aggravating factors. The murder in Wyandotte
County appears to be such a case. An inmate being transferred in a van got hold
of the gun of one of the two deputies present, then fatally shot them both.
Antoine Fielder has been charged in the 2 deaths and has been booked into the
Johnson County Jail.
Kansas is not big on capital punishment, although it is among 33 states where
it is legal. Only 2 of those death-penalty states - Kansas and New Hampshire -
have carried out no executions since capital punishment was reinstated in the
U.S. in 1976. Kansas does have 9 inmates on "death row," but complex laws and a
Kansas Supreme Court that appears to want to stall these cases have resulted in
executions being postponed indefinitely.
The death penalty should be the punishment in the Wyandotte County case, and
the legal morass should be cleared away to allow for this execution to actually
occur. But there has not been a groundswell of support for expediting
executions because Kansans have been squishy when it comes to actually
following through on death sentences.
In 1978, Kansas Gov. Robert Bennett, a former Republican attorney from Prairie
Village, was defeated for re-election after 1 term by John Carlin, the
Democratic candidate who ran on the platform of get-tough-on-crime by
legalizing the death penalty in Kansas. Carlin beat Bennett and then
immediately changed his mind. He vetoed legislation in 1979, 1980, 1981 and
1985 that would have made capital punishment legal in Kansas. He explained this
change of heart as the result of soul-searching that led him to see capital
punishment as immoral.
Of the states that allow the death penalty, Kansas became the last to reinstate
that punishment in 1994. It happened during the reign of former Kansas Gov.
Joan Finney, who announced she personally opposed capital punishment but
allowed it to become law in Kansas without her signature.
If only for retribution, there needs to be a punishment for killing 2 law
enforcement officers that is harsher than sending the killer to a life in
prison. And that should be nothing less than a death sentence.
That opinion puts me line with the majority of Americans who believe capital
punishment is justified in the case of murder. Although I have not seen a
survey indicating how citizens feel about the murder of law enforcement
officers, I imagine the numbers would be even higher, perhaps significantly so.
As it is, in the United States, 55 % favor the death penalty if a person is
convicted of murder. That number has dropped markedly over the past 25 years
from a high of 80 % in favor.
At the same time, there have been movements in several states to create
specific legislation identifying "death penalty murders." That penalty would be
the mandatory sentence for those who are convicted of killing a law enforcement
officer - as well as for mass murderers.
Kansas should consider such a law. This would take the sentencing discretion
away from a jury when such murders are committed. Capital punishment would and
should always apply in those heinous cases. Then we must do more to make
certain execution by lethal injection in Kansas is swiftly implemented in hopes
of deterring would-be cop killers and mass murderers.
(source: Opinion, Steve Rose; kansascity.com)
COLORADO:
El Paso County jury asks about lesser charges while deliberating in
death-penalty case
A jury deliberating double-murder charges in an El Paso County death-penalty
case appears to be weighing whether Glen Law Galloway acted in self-defense in
the 1st of 2 fatal shootings for which he is on trial.
During Thursday's deliberations, the jury asked for guidance on self-defense
and 2nd-degree murder.
After discussing the issue with attorneys in the case, 4th Judicial District
Judge Gregory Werner sent back a response that jurors had all the evidence and
instructions they need to decide the case. The 9-man, 3-woman panel then
resumed deliberations.
Although far from definitive, jury questions can provide a window into a
panel's thinking, and Thursday's query goes to the heart of Galloway's defense
that he didn't plot the killing of Marcus Anderson, as prosecutors alleged.
Prosecutors must obtain at least 1 1st-degree murder conviction for Galloway to
be facing the death penalty.
If the jury votes for 2nd-degree murder in one of the shootings, the
prosecution would be on shakier ground in requesting the state's ultimate
punishment, legal observers say.
The issue of whether Galloway acted in self-defense has already generated
controversy in the county's 1st capital case in a decade.
Earlier this week, the defense accused Werner of "bias" and asked him to recuse
himself after he barred the defense from using the phrase "self-defense" in its
closing remarks.
Under Colorado law, a self-defense instruction is generally approved if the
defense presents even a "scintilla" of supporting evidence, legal observers
say.
Werner ruled the defense had failed to provide any evidence of self-defense,
despite expert testimony about gunshot residue found inside Anderson's pants
and on his underwear, which the defense argued was consistent with Galloway's
story that Anderson had a gun in his waistband before pulling it on Galloway.
The judge previously ruled there wasn't sufficient evidence for the jury to
consider lesser offenses of manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide,
leaving the panel no alternative beyond 1st- and 2nd-degree murder.
Galloway, an ex-Fort Carson soldier, is charged in the May 2016 fatal shootings
of Anderson and Janice Nam, the defendant's ex-girlfriend. Prosecutors allege
both killings were a revenge plot against Nam, whom he blamed for an October
2015 conviction for stalking.
The judge's rulings on self-defense are likely to figure into any future
appeals should Galloway be convicted, experts say.
Phil Cherner, a retired Denver defense attorney who has argued post-conviction
matters in a prominent death-penalty case, previously told The Gazette that
jury instructions are fertile grounds for appeal in capital cases.
"Of cases that get reversed, frequently it's the jury instructions," he said.
The Galloway jury was sent home at 5 p.m. Thursday without reaching a verdict.
The panel will not deliberate on Friday and is expected to resume deliberations
on Monday morning.
(source: Colorado Springs Gazette)
CALIFORNIA:
Fresno judge rejects death row inmate's motion to dismiss his 1978 murder case
A Fresno Superior Court judge on Friday rejected a defense motion to dismiss
death row inmate Douglas Ray Stankewitz's 1978 murder case, but invited
Stankewitz legal team to file a new motion if they find new evidence of
prosecutorial misconduct.
Judge Arlan Harrell made his ruling after hearing arguments from Fresno defense
lawyer Peter Jones, legendary San Francisco attorney Tony Serra and his
associate, San Francisco attorney Curtis Briggs.
Stankewitz, an American Indian known as "Chief" who is now 60, is the longest
tenured condemned inmate at San Quentin State Prison.
Putting him to death hasn't been easy.
He was initially given the death penalty in 1978 for killing 22-year-old
Theresa Graybeal after kidnapping and robbing her. But in 1982 the California
Supreme Court tossed his 1st death sentence due to judicial error. A year later
he was convicted by a different jury and sentenced to death again.
His case has returned to Fresno County Superior Court because a federal
appellate court in 2012 overturned his 2nd death sentence due to incompetent
defense counsel. Fresno prosecutor Noelle Pebet is seeking to get Stankewitz's
death sentence reinstated through a third jury trial. His trial is scheduled to
start in April 2019.
Friday's hearing dealt with a gun that prosecutors say Stankewitz used to kill
Graybeal in February 1978.
Stankewitz's legal team claimed that prosecutors, in order to get a death
sentence, lied to jurors in both the 1978 and 1983 trials when they said
Stankewitz used the same gun to kill Graybeal south of Fresno and in the
attempted murder hours later of a farm worker outside a bar west of Fresno.
That's not true, his lawyers said, because Graybeal was shot with a .25 caliber
handgun; .22-caliber shell casings were discovered at the scene where the farm
worker was attacked.
Jones pointed out he didn't receive a report about the different shell casing
evidence from the prosecution until 2017. And when Jones looked closer at the 2
shootings, he said he discovered that 3 .25-caliber shell casings that were
test-fired from the Graybeal murder weapon were "in the evidence bag" for the
farm worker shooting.
"They framed out client," Briggs argued. "They hid the evidence. This is a
conspiracy by the prosecution to kill Mr. Stankewitz."
Another issue involved Billy Brown, who was 14 years old when he testified in
Stankewitz's 2 trials. According to Brown's testimony, Stankewitz raised a gun
and shot Graybeal from about a foot away. "Did I drop her or did I drop her?"
Brown quoted Stankewitz as saying.
For his testimony, Brown's murder charge was dropped. But in a declaration
Brown made in September 1993, he says he never saw Stankewitz with a gun and
never heard him utter the words that led to the death sentence. Brown has died
since making the declaration.
In ruling Friday, Harrell reminded the lawyers that in December he had ruled
the prosecution's argument about Stankewitz shooting Greybeal and at the farm
worker with the same gun didn't rise to dismissal of the murder case. He also
said Brown's 1993 declaration was unreliable. After hearing arguments, Harrell
said he still believed the case should not be dismissed.
After Friday's hearing, Stankewitz's legal team said they will ask an appellate
court to overturn Harrell's ruling.
(source: fresnobee.com)
USA:
US should sanction Iran's notorious 'hanging judge'
The story is as jarring as it is depressingly familiar.
In mid-May, Iranian judge Abolghassem Salavati told a British-Iranian prisoner
to expect a new conviction on fresh charges of "propaganda against the state."
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, whom Salavati first sentenced to 5 years in prison
in 2016 on equally specious espionage allegations, constitutes one of more than
a dozen known dual and foreign nationals - including at least 7 U.S. citizens
and permanent residents - languishing in Iran's notorious jails for putatively
seeking to overthrow the Islamist regime.
The Trump administration, as part of its newly announced Iran strategy, has
called for their release and pledged to support the Iranian people's larger
struggle for freedom. But while the European Union sanctioned Salavati for his
human rights abuses in 2011, Washington has yet to follow suit. A U.S.
designation of Salavati, one of the harshest figures in Iran's judiciary, would
mark an important way to increase pressure on the regime for its longstanding
repression of Iranians and Americans alike.
Widely known in Iran as the "hanging judge" and the "judge of death," Salavati
has presided over the trials - or, more accurately, the show trials - of
numerous Iranian dual and foreign nationals. More infamously, Salavati has
imposed draconian sentences, including the death penalty, lashes, and elongated
jail terms, on countless political prisoners. For millions of Iranians,
Salavati serves as the foremost symbol of Tehran's domestic repression and the
radical Islamist creed that drives it.
Salavati holds the title of "judge," but the term, as Bloomberg's Eli Lake has
noted, is a misnomer. Salavati heads the 15th branch of Iran???s Revolutionary
Court, which functions primarily to prosecute ideological opponents of the
regime. Distinct from Iran's civil and criminal court system, the Revolutionary
Court aims not merely to enforce Iranian law per se, though its routine denial
of due process runs roughshod over various Iranian statutes. Rather, the court
effectively serves as an agent of Iran's intelligence ministry and Islamist
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the regime's praetorian guard, which seeks to
advance Tehran's vision of the 1979 revolution both at home and abroad.
Salavati achieved international renown when he presided over televised show
trials of hundreds of Iranians who participated in the nationwide protests that
began in June 2009. He sentenced several of them to death, including a
20-year-old student who threw 3 rocks during the uprising. (On appeal, Tehran
commuted the sentence to three years in prison.) Other protestors received
lengthy prison sentences.
These rulings typify Salavati's career. In his courtroom, trials often last a
few minutes, sentences often occur on the basis of coerced confessions with
little or no evidence, Salavati himself frequently serves as prosecutor as well
judge, and defendants receive little or no access to a lawyer. He routinely
dismisses or ignores allegations of torture in prison. He habitually accepts
sentencing recommendations from the IRGC and the intelligence ministry,
undercutting any pretense that his court offers an independent check on the
executive branch. In fact, the regime consistently brings him cases when it
seeks to make an example of a political prisoner it regards as especially
dangerous.
Salavati has displayed particular scorn for captured Americans. In 2011,
following a closed-door trial, Salavati imposed 8-year prison sentences on 2
vacationing U.S. citizens who had been hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan and
accidentally crossed the border into Iran. The court, without any evidence,
accused them of spying. Eventually, thanks in part to intense international
pressure, Iran released them after more than 2 years behind bars.
Since then, Salavati has consigned multiple other Americans to protracted
prison terms based on unsubstantiated charges of espionage. In January 2016,
the Obama administration secured the freedom of 4 American prisoners, including
former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati and Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian,
both of whom Salavati sentenced, by releasing 7 Iranian sanctions violators,
dropping charges on 14 other at-large Iranians suspected of similar offenses,
and airlifting $400 million in cash to the regime.
Today, at least 5 of Iran's imprisoned American citizens and permanent
residents still reside in jail due to Salavati's exorbitant sentences,
including Iranian Americans Siamak Namazi and his elderly father, Bacquer
Namazi. The most recent known sentencing of an American occurred in January
2018, when Salavati sentenced art gallery owners Karen Vafadari, an
Iranian-American, and his wife, Afarin Niasari, an Iranian national with U.S.
permanent residency, to 27 and 16 years in prison respectively for "acts
against national security." Salavati later reduced their sentences to 15 and 10
years respectively.
Tehran is sensitive to international criticism in the realm of human rights:
Past global pressure campaigns have resulted in the release of some prisoners,
if not an overwhelming number of them. Naming and shaming Salavati, in
conjunction with other economic sanctions against Tehran, would amount to a
significant 1st step in extracting American hostages from Iran while
demonstrating solidarity with the long-suffering Iranian people.
(source: Tzvi Kahn is a senior Iran analyst at the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies, a Washington-based nonpartisan research institute focusing on
national security and foreign policy----thehill.com)
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