Dec. 28 FLORIDA: DEATH ROW INMATE----Grant Zeigler an opportunity to prove his innocence Over the weekend, William "Tommy" Zeigler, a lifelong Christian who joined the Catholic Church earlier this year, spent his 29th Christmas on Florida's Death Row. Who can comprehend the grief of having one's wife and in-laws brutally murdered in the family store on Christmas Eve? Who can imagine the trauma of being rushed to the hospital with a near-fatal bullet wound through the abdomen on the very same Christmas Eve? Or the agony of spending the next 29 Christmases on Florida's death row, wrongfully convicted for those murders. That was Christmas for Zeigler, a white businessman widely thought to be on death row because he helped defend Andrew James, a black man, against a group of corrupt white residents trying to shut down his legitimate business. Zeigler arranged for a lawyer to defend James and appeared as his character witness. Judge Maurice Paul appeared as the character witness for Herbert G. Baker, the white man who brought the charges against James. James was successful in the case and kept his business. A few months later, on Christmas Eve, there was a multiple murder at the Zeigler family furniture store. Zeigler was charged with the murders. Paul was the trial judge who presided over Zeigler's fate. Paul overrode the jury's recommendation and sentenced Zeigler to death. Zeigler has maintained his innocence. Ironically, Edward Williams, the man who turned the principal murder weapon over to the police and had acquired the 3 other murder weapons involved in the crime, became the state's star witness. He claimed to be an innocent bystander. In the 1989 nationally syndicated television program on the case, A Matter of Life and Death, television journalist Ike Pappas noted: ``Zeigler was attempting to clean up corruption right in his hometown of Winter Garden, Florida. He was helpful in shutting down the old Edgewater Hotel, a center of prostitution and drug dealing. But he was also trying to gather information on other illegal activities such as gun running and, most importantly, loan sharking. "The loan sharks made a fortune letting [black] migrant workers buy groceries on credit at an interest rate of 520 % per year. And Tommy Zeigler alleges that certain members of the Winter Garden police force were in on the action." Now DNA evidence offers Zeigler the hope of a very different future Christmas. DNA evidence has played a significant role in 14 of the 117 exonerations from U.S. death rows. Such evidence is vital, especially in Florida, which -- according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. -- has had 21 people found innocent on its death row, more than any other state. Lawson Lamar, the state attorney in Zeigler's death-penalty case, fought for years to prevent DNA testing of the crime-scene blood. In August 2001, the court ordered the tests. The results, which were reported in June 2002, hopelessly devastate the state's theory of Zeigler's culpability. The results completely support Zeigler's innocence. On Dec. 20 and 21, Circuit Judge Reginald Whitehead heard the DNA evidence in Orlando. The lawyers for Zeigler asked Whitehead to grant Zeigler a new trial so that -- for the first time -- a jury could look at all the evidence of the case. The state attorneys argued against a new trial. The state seeks to execute Zeigler without any jury ever seeing the mountain of lately discovered evidence of Ziegler's innocence. Whitehead now must decide whether to grant a new trial for Zeigler. How can anyone resist a new trial in this case? There can be no doubt that if the information now available had been known in 1976, Zeigler would never have been prosecuted. One of the original jurors has even signed a sworn affidavit that she would have voted "not guilty" if the new evidence had been available at the trial. The purpose of DNA testing in this case was to establish whose blood was on the clothes of Charlie Mays and Zeigler to show who committed the murders. No jury has heard most of the evidence of Zeigler's innocence: the DNA test results; the buried original police report, which contradicts the state's case; the buried tape recording of the investigator from the state attorney's office trying to induce potential witnesses to change their testimony; the gunshot-residue tests, which establish that Williams had no residue in the pocket of the pants in which he claims to have carried the freshly discharged murder weapon; or even the testimony of the Roaches and the Nolans, all credible eyewitnesses, that contradicts the state's "eyewitnesses," including Williams. No jury has wrestled with these questions: "What was Oakland Chief of Police Robert Thompson doing in uniform outside his jurisdiction, sitting at a restaurant across the street from the killings while Zeigler was being shot? "Why did Thompson write the original police report, allow it to be buried by the state attorney and then testify under oath to facts inconsistent with his own buried police report? "Why are Thompson, Mays, Williams and Felton Thomas (the state's other star witness) all connected through the city of Oakland and its migrant camps, the very place where illegal practices that preyed upon black migrant farmworkers were being attacked by Zeigler? The DNA evidence and the other post-trial evidence of Zeigler's innocence are absolutely clear. Zeigler was wrongfully prosecuted, wrongfully convicted and wrongfully sentenced to death. After Zeigler's 29 Christmases on death row, it is high time to correct this horrendous error. Zeigler's case demands a new trial. Bianca Jagger is the Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador. (source: Op-Ed, Miami Herald) CALIFORNIA: Preparing for death If Donald Beardslee's lawyers are successful at either of 2 upcoming court hearings, the condemned man wont receive a lethal injection in 3 weeks. But the possibility of the Redwood City mans life being spared isn't stopping local prosecutors and death penalty opponents from working as if the Jan. 19 execution is still a go. "We're following the courts closely and hope things go his way so we won't have to mobilize. But it's important to get a jump start so there isn't an execution we aren't ready for," said Crystal Bybee, West Coast organizer for the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. Bybee's group is holding an emergency meeting Jan. 4 to strategize letter-writing campaigns, contact state leaders and - if its worst-case scenario plays out - organize execution night rallies outside San Quentin's death row. Before that point, though, Beardslee has two last chances for his defense team to argue why he should not be executed for admittedly killing two young women 2 decades ago. Today, a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in Pasadena and will issue a ruling sometime in the coming weeks. Beardslees attorney, Michael Laurence, is pushing for a new trial because in 1991, 3 of 4 death penalty special circumstances in his case were dismissed by the state Supreme court. Barring that decision, Beardslee is taking on the method of execution itself in a Jan. 6 hearing before U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel. Claiming lethal injection, and all modes of capital punishment, is inhumane is a common maneuver by condemned inmates and are often rejected. San Mateo County Deputy District Attorney Martin Murray declined to speculate on the outcome of either hearing but is also continuing as if the execution will occur Jan. 19. The 2 appellate hearings are conducted by Senior Assistant Attorney Dane Gillette but any final bids for gubernatorial clemency by Beardslee must be handled by the local district attorneys office. If Beardslee's case comes before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, he will either hold an oral hearing or make a decision based simply on documents. Either way, Murray must respond to any reasons why Beardslee claims he should not be executed. While the courts look at legal reasons for a new trial, clemency typically looks at mitigating factors such as mental competency or childhood abuse. Outstanding conduct during incarceration can also play a role but Murray said very little can take away from Beardslee's crimes. "They'd have to come up with something shockingly new. Maybe if he engaged in some extraordinary life saving act or found a cure for cancer," Murray said. One thing Beardslee can't do is claim innocence in the April 25, 1981 murders of Patty Geddling, 23, and Stacey Benjamin, 19. He admitted his involvement to police but told a jury he feared for his own safety if he didn't participate. Prosecutors claim the women were lured to a Redwood City apartment over a minor drug dispute. Geddling was shot once in the shoulder before being taken to a rural road and fatally shot again. Benjamin was strangled, stabbed and had her throat slashed in Marin County. In 1983, Beardslee, on parole for the murder of a Missouri woman, was convicted and sentenced to death the following year. Beardslee later claimed unfair representation, including a lawyer who read Bon Appetit magazine during the trial. 3 others involved in the deaths of the 2 women also stood trial but only Beardslee received a death sentence after jurors learned of his prior murder during the penalty phase. Beardslees lack of innocence, as well as his relative obscurity, make it more challenging to rally death penalty opponents, Bybee said. "Innocence is easy for people to get behind. It's very cut and dry. It's a longer process to mobilize without the claim because it's not the just the basic question of whether somebody did something. Instead, it's a question of if the death penalty is fair or is the world a safer place if Donald Beardslee is dead," Bybee said. The group had a much easier time, she said, with the last scheduled execution of Kevin Cooper. Years of claiming innocence created a solid group of opponents who worked against his execution long before it was set. Once Cooper's execution was stayed by a federal court and Beardslee moved to the head of the line, Bybee said the goal was to retain the momentum. The recent conviction and death sentence of double-murderer Scott Peterson provided an unexpected silver lining to the cause. The media frenzy educated trial watchers that more than 640 male and female inmates sit on Californias death row and most spend decades there, Bybee said. "On one hand it was a good thing because a lot of people were really disturbed by the crowds cheering and some have condemned the death penalty because of it," she said. Petersons sensationalized case also sparked the Green Party of San Mateo County to denounce capital punishment and call for a moratorium on all executions. "It has long been the position of the Green Party that governments do not have a right to kill human beings, particularly with premeditation and ceremony. Instead, governments have a special responsibility to set an example by being just and humane. The death penalty violates this because it is motivated by a demand for vengeance," stated Green Party spokesman Mitchell Smith. Beardlsee, if executed, will be the 1st from San Mateo County since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978. (source: San Mateo Daily Journal) CONNECTICUT: Ross' Father, Lawyers Seek Emergency Stay The father of serial killer Michael Ross and his former public defenders filed motions Monday in Superior Court in Rockville seeking an emergency stay of his planned execution on Jan. 26, Ross' lawyer said. T.R. Paulding, Ross' defense attorney, said Ross' father, Daniel, and the public defenders are making numerous claims. For example, they say that Connecticut's death penalty is unconstitutionally discriminatory and biased, that Ross' mental state was impaired during his trial and that his lawyers were ineffective. Ross decided in October not to seek further appeals of his death sentence. He was scheduled to appear in Superior Court in New London today for a mental competency hearing so a judge could determine if he is fit to make such a decision. Paulding said he could not comment on the decision by Ross' father to step in and attempt to block the execution. "I'll leave that to their private discussions," Paulding said. "They have been in touch with each other." Jon L. Schoenhorn, Daniel Ross' lawyer, did not return a message Monday night. In his motion, Daniel Ross said his son's competency is at issue, The Day of New London reported. "The father avers that Michael Ross is not of competent mental state ... his waiver of the right to seek the writ is not knowing, intelligent and voluntary but is, instead, a product of his desire to commit judicial, state-assisted suicide, which is either a product of or a symptom of his unsound mental state," the motion said Paulding said Ross is annoyed by the efforts of the public defender's office to continue to try to block the execution. "He's very upset by it," Paulding said. "He's very frustrated by what the public defenders are doing. It is totally contrary to his wishes and it does not reflect at all on what he is trying to achieve here." A judge has ordered a hearing on Jan. 3 in Rockville to determine whether Daniel Ross and the public defenders have the legal standing to be granted "next friend" status as intervening parties in the case. Ross has admitted killing 8 women in Connecticut and New York and raping many of them. He is on death row for killing 4 young women in eastern Connecticut in the 1980s. In related news, the state Supreme Court dismissed another request from the public defenders to stop the execution and today's mental competency hearing. However, the state's highest court still has to hear arguments regarding the writ of error filed by the lawyers. Gerard Smyth, Connecticut's chief public defender, said last week that his office is arguing that Superior Court Judge Patrick Clifford in New Londaon erred when he recently refused to grant the public defender's office standing to argue against Ross' execution - which would be the first in New England since 1960. The public defenders claim Ross is not mentally competent to decide against pursuing his remaining appeals and he's volunteering to be executed "in order to commit judicial, state-assisted suicide." The public defenders also claim the judge erred in not allowing them to participate in today's competency hearing. (source: Connecticut Now) ******************** Sources: Ross Is Competent To Waive Appeals A doctor examining Michael Ross has determined the serial killer is competent to waive further appeals and proceed to his execution, sources said this morning. State psychiatrist Dr. Michael Norko, who examined Ross, is expected to testify this morning in New London Superior Court that Ross is competent. Ross' father, Daniel, and his former public defenders filed motions Monday in Superior Court in Rockville seeking an emergency stay of his planned execution on Jan. 26. Ross decided in October not to pursue further appeals of his death sentence. He is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in New London today for a mental competency hearing so a judge could determine if he is fit to make such a decision. After hearing Norko's testimony, Judge Patrick Clifford will make a final determination on the convicted killer's mental competency. Ross, 45, who has admitted killing 8 women in Connecticut and New York, is on death row for killing 4 young women in eastern Connecticut in the 1980s. He would be the 1st person executed in New England in more than 40 years. (source: Hartford Courant) MISSOURI: Spared by Ryan, on trial again Thomas Umphrey was sentenced to death for the 1998 kidnapping and killing of a stranded driver in Illinois, but he got a reprieve when Gov. George Ryan cleared Death Row two years ago and commuted his sentence. Now, Umphrey could find himself facing the death penalty again -- this time in Missouri, where he is charged with killing his former boss at a foam rubber plant 6 days before the Illinois slaying. Umphrey, 43, has never been tried in the St. Louis shooting. If convicted, he would be the 2nd of Ryan's commuted-sentence inmates to face a return to death row. Prosecutors in St. Louis spent months trying to extradite Umphrey, and he finally was moved from an Illinois prison to the St. Louis city jail on Dec. 14 and charged with 1st-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of Gerald Eichschlag. Assistant prosecutor Rachel Smith confirmed Monday prosecutors seek the death penalty. "The primary motivating factor was the victim's family really needed closure on this case," Smith said. Authorities were also worried that without the second murder conviction, Umphrey could be moved to a less restrictive prison in Illinois. He had previously been accused of trying to escape from a prison in Missouri, she said. The city public defender's office, which is representing Umphrey, did not return calls Monday seeking comment. Case set to move quickly The case is expected to move quickly because Umphrey filed for a process that requires his case be tried within 120 days, Smith said. No trial date has been set. Tom Block, a St. Louis death penalty opponent, questioned the need for another trial when Umphrey was already behind bars for life. "Can't they see the handwriting on the wall that neither the country nor Missouri in particular is enthusiastic about executing people?" Block said. "Why bring this man to prison in Missouri? Illinois is supporting him. You're talking about spending $1 million to $2 million to give this person death." Umphrey had served nearly two decades in prison for armed robbery and theft and was on parole in 1998 when he worked at C.J. Zone Manufacturing Co. in St. Louis. On Nov. 5, 1998, Umphrey quarreled with his boss, a product supervisor at the plant, authorities said. The 2 men stepped outside to settle their differences, and Umphrey shot Eichschlag, 45, in the back of the head, according to police. Authorities say Umphrey then used a shovel from Eichschlag's truck to bury his body nearby. 6 days later, Umphrey's pickup truck stalled along Interstate 55 near Springfield, Ill. Parts that had fallen from the truck damaged a car driven by Phyllis Liles, a 46-year-old mother of three from Virden, Ill., who was on her way home from work. She stopped to fix a flat tire caused by the debris. Umphrey helped her, then kidnapped and shot her in the back of the head. He buried Liles' body under logs and brush near Spaulding Dam in central Illinois. After Umphrey was arrested trying to cross into Canada in Liles' car, police say he confessed to both murders and drew a map to show authorities where the bodies were buried. Umphrey was convicted of Liles' murder and sentenced to death in Illinois in 2000. But in January 2003, outgoing Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of all the state's 167 death row inmates to life in prison, including Umphrey's. The other case Umphrey would be the 2nd of those inmates to face a potential return to death row. Andrew Urdiales, 40, of Chicago was convicted in August of another Illinois murder committed years ago and was sentenced to death, said Gail O'Connor, a spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Urdiales has also confessed to 5 murders in California and could also be extradited there, O'Connor said. In Missouri, 55 men are currently on death row, but the state hasn't carried out an execution in more than a year. The balance of the Missouri Supreme Court tipped toward Democratic-appointed judges 2 years ago, and the court has overturned an increasing number of death sentences and has slowed the scheduling of executions to a standstill. (source: Chicago Sun-Times) ********************* Murderer who escaped death penalty in Illinois charged in Missouri killing A killer whose life was spared last year when Illinois governor emptied out death row could again face a death sentence - this time in Missouri - if convicted of murdering his boss in St. Louis. Thomas Umphrey, 43, was sentenced to death in 2000 for kidnapping and killing a woman in Illinois. In January 2003, outgoing Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of the states 167 death row inmates to life in prison because of grave doubts about Illinois criminal justice system. Authorities believe that six days before the slaying in Illinois, Umphrey killed his boss at a foam rubber factory in St. Louis. On Dec. 14, Umphrey was moved from an Illinois prison to the St. Louis city jail and charged with murder. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. "The primary motivating factor was the victims family really needed closure on this case," prosecutor Rachel Smith said. Also, authorities were worried that without the 2nd murder conviction, Umphrey could be moved to a less-restrictive prison in Illinois. He once tried to escape from prison while serving time in Missouri, Smith said. (source: Associated Press) *************************** Suspect in Mom's Slaying Appears in Court A woman accused of killing an expectant mother and cutting the baby from her womb asked for a public defender Tuesday in one of her first steps of what's likely to be a long legal journey. Federal prosecutors have charged Lisa Montgomery, 36, of Melvern, Kan., with kidnapping resulting in death. She is accused of strangling 8-months-pregnant Bobbie Jo Stinnett and cutting the baby from her womb during a Dec. 16 attack at Stinnett's home in Skidmore. Tuesday marked Montgomery's first court appearance in Missouri after it was transferred from the other side of the state line in Kansas. Shackled at the ankles, waist and wrists and dressed in an orange jumpsuit, Montgomery answered quietly -- often inaudible to the those gathered in the courtroom -- to a series of questions from U.S. Magistrate Judge John T. Maughmer in a hearing Tuesday that lasted just about 10 minutes. "Have you read a copy of this complaint?" Maughmer asked. "Yes, I have," Montgomery said timidly. The queries continued: how frequently did she receive a paycheck (every 2 weeks), does she own a car (a 1986 Isuzu Trooper), how many children does she have (4). Based on her answers, Maughmer said Montgomery would qualify for a public defender. Two such lawyers, Anita Burns and David Owen, were in the court, but it was not clear if they would be permanently assigned to the case. Burns and Owen left without speaking to reporters. A receptionist at the public defender's office said Owen was unavailable this week; a message left with Burns was not immediately returned Tuesday afternoon. Maughmer advised Montgomery that she could face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted as she is currently charged. U.S. Attorney Todd Graves said "we're way to early to make a determination" on whether prosecutors would seek the defendant's death. Montgomery is scheduled to return to court Thursday afternoon for a detention hearing, and prosecutors have already asked she be denied bond. The defense has not said if they'll seek her release. Kevin Montgomery, the suspect's husband, did not appear to be in the courtroom Tuesday, nor did the victim's husband, Zeb Stinnett. Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, was found by her mother in a pool of blood, her midsection sliced open. The day of the killing, officials say Montgomery called her husband from Topeka, Kan., and told him she had just delivered a baby girl. Authorities said the baby was found a day later, Dec. 17, with Montgomery and her husband in Melvern. The infant, named Victoria Jo Stinnett, spent that weekend in a Topeka hospital before going home with her widowed father. (source: Associated Press)
