Jan. 9
MONTANA:
Canadian death row case falls to new Montana gov.
Gov. Steve Bullock's office isn't saying how the new governor will deal with
the pending request for clemency from a Canadian citizen who remains on
Montana's death row for the 1982 slaying of 2 Native American men.
Former Gov. Brian Schweitzer left office Monday without making any decision on
Smith's high-profile case. The former governor told The Associated Press that
his replacement has all the paperwork necessary to evaluate the clemency
request.
That leaves the high-profile case in the hands of Bullock.
Family members of the victims, along with the Blackfeet Tribal Council, have
pushed for enforcement of the death penalty. They have argued clemency for
Smith could show less value is placed on the life of Native Americans when they
are killed.
Smith's family has countered that Smith is now a different man who they value,
and who has become an important part of the prison community.
The Montana Parole Board responded last May shortly after a lengthy hearing,
arguing that "justice is best served" by continuing with the execution. They
unanimously recommended that the governor reject the request and continue with
the execution.
Smith is asking for life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of
the death sentence, currently only stalled amid separate legal arguments over
the constitutionality of the state's lethal injection protocols. Smith argues
his original 1983 trial for shooting 2 Blackfeet cousins - in which he asked
for and received the death penalty - was botched.
Smith was 24 years old when he marched the 2 young men into the woods just off
U.S. Highway 2 near Marias Pass and shot them both in the head with a
.22-caliber rifle. He has said he was out of his mind on drugs and alcohol.
Smith has asked the governor in his petition to look beyond the horrific
killings of Harvey Mad Man, 23, and Thomas Running Rabbit, 20, and consider
that he is now a different person.
Smith's backers also argue it is unfair that he be executed after an accomplice
was paroled long ago. Rodney Munro took a plea deal on the charges and avoided
the death penalty, while Smith did not.
The Canadian government, after some internal policy changes, has asked Montana
to spare Smith's life.
Bullock, the former attorney general, will be evaluating a familiar case.
Bullock just left an office that fought while he was there to uphold the
conviction and sentence.
Bullock's new office, 2 days into his administration, isn't tipping its hand.
Spokesman Kevin O'Brien would only confirm that the case is still pending.
Schweitzer said Monday after leaving office that he considered the Parole Board
a recommendation to keep the sentence intact "a recommendation to do nothing."
"I decided not to decide. There wasn't a recommendation. There was nothing
really in front of me," Schweitzer said.
Schweitzer noted that the victims' families had personally told him they felt
that the death penalty was the only way they could get closure.
(source: Helena Independent Record)
******************
New Montana governor to consider high-profile case of Canadian on death row
Gov. Steve Bullock's office isn't saying how the new governor will deal with
the pending request for clemency from a Canadian citizen who remains on
Montana's death row for the 1982 slaying of two Native American men.
Former Gov. Brian Schweitzer left office Monday without making any decision on
Smith's high-profile case. The former governor told The Associated Press that
his replacement has all the paperwork necessary to evaluate the clemency
request.
That leaves the high-profile case in the hands of Bullock.
Family members of the victims, along with the Blackfeet Tribal Council, have
pushed for enforcement of the death penalty. They have argued clemency for
Smith could show less value is placed on the life of Native Americans when they
are killed.
Smith's family has countered that Smith is now a different man who they value,
and who has become an important part of the prison community.
The Montana Parole Board responded last May shortly after a lengthy hearing,
arguing that "justice is best served" by continuing with the execution. They
unanimously recommended that the governor reject the request and continue with
the execution.
Smith is asking for life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of
the death sentence, currently only stalled amid separate legal arguments over
the constitutionality of the state's lethal injection protocols. Smith argues
his original 1983 trial for shooting 2 Blackfeet cousins - in which he asked
for and received the death penalty - was botched.
Smith was 24 years old when he marched the 2 young men into the woods just off
U.S. Highway 2 near Marias Pass and shot them both in the head with a
.22-caliber rifle. He has said he was out of his mind on drugs and alcohol.
Smith has asked the governor in his petition to look beyond the horrific
killings of Harvey Mad Man, 23, and Thomas Running Rabbit, 20, and consider
that he is now a different person.
Smith's backers also argue it is unfair that he be executed after an accomplice
was paroled long ago. Rodney Munro took a plea deal on the charges and avoided
the death penalty, while Smith did not.
The Canadian government, after some internal policy changes, has asked Montana
to spare Smith's life.
Bullock, the former attorney general, will be evaluating a familiar case.
Bullock just left an office that fought while he was there to uphold the
conviction and sentence.
Bullock's new office, two days into his administration, isn't tipping its hand.
Spokesman Kevin O'Brien would only confirm that the case is still pending.
Schweitzer said Monday after leaving office that he considered the Parole Board
a recommendation to keep the sentence intact "a recommendation to do nothing."
"I decided not to decide. There wasn't a recommendation. There was nothing
really in front of me," Schweitzer said.
Schweitzer noted that the victims' families had personally told him they felt
that the death penalty was the only way they could get closure.
(source: Associated Press)
FLORIDA:
Time to debate the death penalty
It defies logic that taking life honors life.
For the 2nd year in a row, Florida has sent more convicted killers to death row
than any other state.
And acting Palm Beach County State Attorney Peter Antonacci would like to send
more. His office is now seeking the death penalty for all 1st-degree murder
cases.
There were 22 new death penalty cases this year in Palm Beach County.
"You have a dead human being," Antonacci told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
He said that by not seeking the death penalty, "we have cheapened the value of
human life."
There are many ways we cheapen the value of human life. Sexism, racism, ageism,
discrimination against gays, the disabled, atheists and others with different
or no religious views are but a few examples.
A political and economic system that allows millions to go without food,
shelter and health care is another.
As is a justice system that sanctions taxpayer-funded killings.
Killing is no more just when the government does it than when an individual
does.
A life for a life is not justice. It is retribution.
That is not the purpose of our legal system.
What's more, the death penalty does not deter people from killing, which
proponents claim is its purpose. Our murder rate far exceeds that of many
countries that have no death penalty.
The United States, China, the Congo, Saudi Arabia and Iran account for 85 % of
the world's death-penalty executions. Many would argue that this isn't the kind
of human-rights company we want to be keeping.
Our justice system makes mistakes. If for no other reason, death should not be
a penalty for any crime.
Not only does Florida lead the nation with 21 individuals sentenced to death
this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, it's also No. 1
for the number of death row inmates exonerated.
Just last month, the 24th inmate since 1973 was set free. At his 3rd trial, a
jury found Seth Penalver, who had been sentenced to death in 2000 for killing 3
people, not guilty after a 5-month trial.
3 trials. 3 results. The 1st resulted in a deadlock.
If that's not enough evidence that our system is flawed, consider the case of
Frank Lee Smith.
Cancer set him free from Florida's death row after serving 14 years for a
murder and rape he didn't commit. The Innocence Project cleared Smith with DNA
evidence 11 months after he died.
How many other innocent people have died behind bars? How many have we
executed?
We will never know.
The lives of the innocent are the cost we pay for the lives of the guilty. It's
not worth the price.
When Gov. Rick Scott signed his first death warrant last year, he said
implementing the death penalty is "not an enjoyable process."
"It takes a toll on you. It's something you really need to think about," he
said. "You've got to be very cautious about it. I've prayed a lot about it. And
it's the law of the land."
Actually, it's the law in 33 states. Florida was the 1st state to reintroduce
the death penalty after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all death penalty
laws in 1972.
Laws are made to be changed. Florida can lead the way in another direction.
Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasalinda, D-Tallahassee, filed a bill last year to
abolish the death penalty. It died in committee but it doesn't have to be that
way.
Isn't it time that we at least had a debate?
"Life without parole is a sensible alternative to the death penalty," said
Rehwinkel Vasalinda. "It is much less expensive to keep a criminal in prison
for life without parole than it is for the state to execute them. A sentence of
life in prison without parole allows mistakes to be corrected or new evidence
to come to light. That would increase faith and fairness in our justice
system."
So would a state that doesn't kill to punish killers.
(source: Rhonda Swan is an editorial writer for The Palm Beach Post; TBN
Weekely)
IDAHO:
Child killer Duncan's attorneys want to appeal death sentence; Convicted
child-killer Joseph Duncan allowed to represent himself during death penalty
hearing
Convicted child-killer Joseph Duncan III may represent himself in his death
penalty hearing, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Attorneys for convicted murderer Joseph Duncan say their client has a
delusional belief system that rendered him incompetent to waive his right to
appeal a federal death sentence.
Duncan, who was sentenced to death in 2008 after pleading guilty to kidnapping
and torturing 2 northern Idaho children before killing one of them in western
Montana, was back in Boise's U.S. District Court Tuesday for a competency
hearing.
The hearing, which was ordered by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is
intended to determine whether Duncan was mentally competent when he waived his
right to appeal his sentence in 2008.
Defense attorney Michael Burt told U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge that
experts will testify that Duncan has a medical condition called brain
impairment, which may have caused psychosis and other mental problems. They say
that for years, Duncan has held a delusional belief system based on an epiphany
that he should not participate in his own defense.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Whatcott told the judge that the evidence
will show that multiple experts and three judges in three different courtrooms
all have found Duncan to be competent, and that Duncan himself has consistently
demonstrated an ability to make rational decisions.
Duncan has been convicted of 5 different murders in Idaho, Montana and
California. But this competency hearing focuses only on the crimes he committed
against young Dylan Groene and his 8-year-old sister, Shasta, in 2005.
The hearing is expected to last at least 2 weeks.
(source: The Missoulian)
VIRGINIA----impending execution
Gleason still determined to die
A capital defense attorney has until 5 p.m. today to prove that a death-row
inmate is mentally incompetent as he is determined to die next week by
electrocution.
Former hit man Robert Gleason Jr. has strangled 2 prisoners at two prisons in
Southwest Virginia and threatened to kill again unless given a date with the
executioner.
He is scheduled to die a week from today - Jan. 16 - and has no desire to stop
it.
But a group of former attorneys hope to convince a federal judge that Gleason
has become mentally unstable after 15 months of solitary confinement on death
row.
On Friday, lead attorney Jon Sheldon argued in U.S. District Court in Roanoke
for the chance to again represent Gleason, this time to seek a mental health
evaluation and stave off the execution.
He argued that Gleason is paranoid, suicidal and has always been combative with
his legal representatives, especially when he waived all appeals last year.
"If Mr. Gleason is competent and he doesn't want counsel, that's his right,"
Sheldon said at the hearing, according to a court transcript. "But...we have
substantial and serious concerns about his competency."
Gleason, fighting his former attorneys, called Sheldon a liar and blasted the
hearing as a waste of time.
"This is just a ploy to stretch this out, either to line his pockets or his
conscience about someone being executed," Gleason said in the court transcript.
"I don't want an attorney. I want to let the January 16th day go as is."
Assistant Attorney General Katherine Burnett argued that Sheldon's evidence
pointed merely to an uncooperative client.
"I have not heard any evidence of someone who is incompetent," the transcript
states. "We have someone who obviously has a troubled background and troubled
life."
Gleason, a former tattoo artist, initially earned life in prison without parole
for shooting to death an Amherst County man in 2008 to cover any tracks leading
to a methamphetamine ring.
A year later, he ended up in a cell with 63-year-old convicted killer Harvey
Gray Watson Jr. at Wallens Ridge State Prison in Big Stone Gap. Watson was
mentally impaired and known for such antics as drinking spoiled milk.
Gleason quickly tired of Watson and beat and strangled him on May 8, 2009.
Eventually, he threatened to kill again unless given the death penalty.
And on July 28, 2010, he strangled convicted carjacker Aaron Alexander Cooper,
26, on the recreation yard of supermax security Red Onion State Prison near
Pound. It was done with a braided bed sheet threaded through the chain link
fence separating the 2 inmates.
During the Friday hearing, Judge Glen E. Conrad pointed to a pair of
psychological evaluations originally used to green-light Gleason's competence
and guilty pleas for the 2 prison murders.
"He comes to this court with a presumption of competence," Conrad said,
according to a court transcript. "So it seems to me that under the case
law...the [Sheldon's] motion is without merit."
Still, in a judicial order filed Monday, Conrad agreed under "an abundance of
caution" to give Sheldon until this evening to come up with evidence of mental
incompetence.
(source: Tricities.com)
CALIFORNIA:
Kumra Murder: Defendants Could Face Death Penalty; Criminal complaint reveals
the 3 men accused of killing Monte Sereno businessman Raveesh 'Ravi' Kumra are
also believed to have taken cash, collectible coins and jewelry from Kumra and
Hariner Kumra.
The 3 defendants in the murder of Monte Sereno businessman Raveesh "Ravi" Kumra
could face the death penalty, if found guilty, because the killing is said to
have occurred while they were alleged accomplices in a robbery at his home on
Withey Road on Nov. 30, the day of the murder.
Count 1 in the 6-page criminal complaint against Lukis D. Anderson, 26, Javier
R. Garcia, 21, and Deangelo J. Austin, 21, alleges the men killed Kumra, 66,
the former owner of The Mountain Winery in Saratoga, while in the commission of
felony robbery, becoming a "special circumstance" that qualifies them for
capital punishment.
Count 2 says the men, arrested in December, acted "voluntarily in concert," and
took personal property from the 7,000-square-foot mansion that also included
cash, collectible coins and jewelry from Kumra and Hariner Kumra.
Count 3 accuses the men of assault with a deadly weapon, an instrument other
than a firearm, a metal object against Hariner Kumra.
The men are also accused of making criminal threats resulting in death or great
bodily injury through either a statement made verbally, in writing or by means
of an electronic communication device, according to the complaint.
"... Even if there was no intent of actually carrying it out, which, on its
face and under the circumstances in which it was made was so unequivocal,
unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened,
Hariner Kumra, a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of
the threat and caused him or her reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or
her own safety and for his or her immediate family's safety."
Counts 5 and 6 of the complaint allege the men also committed the crime of
felony false imprisonment violating the personal liberty of Kumra and Hariner
Kumra by violence, menace, fraud and deceit.
The complaint further alleges that prior to the killing and the other crimes
that are said to have taken place that early Tuesday morning in the mansion,
Anderson had already been convicted of felony residential burglary.
Similarly, Garcia had been convicted of possession for sale of a controlled
substance in the Superior Court in Alameda County and served a prison term.
Like Anderson, Austin, too, had been convicted of felony residential burglary.
The complaint makes reference to official reports and law enforcement documents
related to the high-interest case, but those records are now in a court file
that's been sealed by the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office.
The men appeared last Friday afternoon before Santa Clara County Superior Court
Judge Jerome Nadler in Department 23 of the San Jose Hall of Justice and waived
their time for their preliminary hearing. They were scheduled back to court at
2 p.m. Feb. 4 to possibly enter pleas.
A 4th suspect, 22-year-old Raven Chanel Dixon, has been charged with conspiracy
to commit murder in connection to the Kumra killing, felony narcotics
possession, misdemeanor prostitution and being drunk in public. The charges
against her are found in a separate complaint Patch will publish Wednesday.
(source: Los Gatos Patch)
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