March 1
MISSISSIPPI----2 new and impending execution dates
Miss. high court sets execution dates for 2
The Mississippi Supreme Court has set execution dates for death row inmates
Larry Matthew Puckett and William Gerald Mitchell.
The court Thursday set an execution date of March 20 for Puckett and March 22
for Mitchell.
Both men had appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court turned down in February.
Attorney General Jim Hood said both men are now out of appeals. The executions
will be at 6 p.m. at the state penitentiary at Parchman. Mississippi executions
are by lethal injection.
Puckett was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for the sexual assault and
beating death of a woman in her Forrest County home. Puckett was convicted in
the 1995 death of Rhonda Griffis, 28, of the Sunrise community. Authorities
said Griffis died from blows to the head.
Mitchell was sentenced to death in 1998 in Harrison County for the killing of
Patty Milliken, a 38-year-old store clerk, on the night of Nov. 21, 1995.
Authorities said Mitchell took Milliken from the store where she worked,
brought her under the north end of the Popp's Ferry Road bridge and killed her
by beating her and driving his car over the top half of her body.
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected Mitchell's post-conviction petition.
Mitchell had sought a mental evaluation. The justices said the issue of
Mitchell's mental retardation had been rejected by several courts.
(source: Associated Press)
******************
Death row inmate wins right to pursue post-conviction claim in Lee County
The Mississippi Supreme Court will allow a death row inmate to go back to Lee
County Circuit Court to argue his lawyers failed to do a good job at his trial.
William Wilson cited 6 issues in a post-conviction petition filed with the
Supreme Court. On Thursday, the Supreme Court said Wilson could present
evidence that his attorneys didn't do a good job and that he didn't understand
what he was doing when he agreed to let the judge decide his punishment at
trial rather than a jury.
Wilson pleaded guilty in the death of 2-year-old Mallory Conlee and was
sentenced to death in 2007 in Lee County. He also received 20 years for
felonious child abuse.
(source: Associated Press)
ARKANSAS:
Court upholds death sentence in Fort Smith case
The Arkansas Supreme Court has upheld the conviction and death sentence of a
man who crashed into his estranged wife's car at a busy Fort Smith intersection
then fatally stabbed her.
Thomas Springs had argued that he had ineffectual legal counsel in his 2005
trial when he was convicted of capital murder in the death of Christina
Springs.
Thomas Springs argued that his lawyer should have called his son to testify
during the sentencing portion of the trial. But the Arkansas Supreme Court
noted Thursday that Springs' lawyers called 14 other witnesses who provided
positive testimony about Springs' character, work ethic and love for his
children.
The court says the son's testimony likely wouldn't have changed the jury's
decision to sentence Springs to death.
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA:
End death penalty measure likely to be on November ballot
California voters will have their 1st opportunity in more than 3 decades to
consider whether to keep the death penalty.
During news conferences Thursday in San Francisco and 3 other cities across the
state, backers of a proposed ballot initiative to abolish the death penalty
announced they had more than enough signatures to put the explosive question on
the November ballot. More than 800,000 signatures were gathered, 300,000 more
than required.
The SAFE California Act would scrap capital punishment and replace it with life
in prison without the possibility of parole. If approved, the law would convert
the death sentences of the state's 720 death row inmates to life in prison
terms and eliminate the death penalty option in murder cases.
Death penalty opponents are pushing the measure as a way to save the state as
much as $180 million per year, arguing that capital punishment has become an
expensive waste of money at a time when California is slashing spending on
everything from schools to public safety.
Jeanne Woodford, former chief of the state prison system and San Quentin
warden, is leading the campaign, calling the death penalty no more than a
"symbolic gesture."
"(This) will put an end to its intolerable risk and exorbitant cost," she said
at the news conference.
Former Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge LaDoris Cordell announced
achieving the signature goal Thursday and insisted the state's voters will be
ready to abandon the death penalty.
Other key figures have raised questions about the 1978 death penalty law in
recent months, from state Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye to Don Heller, a
former prosecutor who helped craft the 1978 law.
Death penalty opponents are banking on arguments that California's system is
broken, citing the fact there have been just 13 executions since the state
restored capital punishment 34 years ago. There also has not been an execution
in six years, the result of legal challenges to the lethal injection method
that are unlikely to be resolved for at least another year.
But death penalty supporters are already lining up to combat the measure,
saying the cost savings would vanish if the state resumes executions and begins
to clear its death row. Law enforcement groups such as the district attorney's
association and police groups, along with criminal justice advocacy groups, are
expected to campaign against the measure.
Despite the liberal reputation, polls have shown California voters strongly
support the death penalty.
Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris, who have both expressed
opposition to the death penalty in their careers, have taken no position yet on
the measure, according to their offices.
(source: Mercury News)
*****************************
Richmond man facing death penalty keeps lawyer, sets trial date
The death penalty trial for a Richmond man charged with killing 2 people at the
Richmond-San Rafael Bridge toll plaza has been set for Sept. 17.
Nathan Burris, 48, agreed to keep his public lawyer and set a trial date on
Thursday, the day after the Contra Costa District Attorney's Office notified
him it was seeking capital punishment. Burris subsequently tried to fire his
public attorney and demanded to represent himself.
Burris is charged with fatally shooting 51-year-old toll collector Deborah Ross
inside her toll booth, and bus driver Ersie "Chuck" Everette III in the toll
plaza parking lot, on Aug. 11, 2009.
Ross was Burris' ex-girlfriend, and Everette, a San Leandro resident, was her
friend.
(source: Contra Costa Times)
*********************
Group seeking to repeal California death penalty to turn in signatures
Supporters of a proposed initiative to repeal the death penalty in California
plan to begin turning in nearly 800,000 voter signatures today in hopes of
qualifying for the November ballot.
The initiative, which is backed by a group called California Taxpayers for
Justice, would replace California's capital punishment with a maximum sentence
of life imprisonment without parole. Supporters say the change, which would
apply to inmates currently on death row, would save the state millions.
A recent Field Poll, however, showed more than 2/3 of California voters
continue to support the death penalty.
Proponents need 504,760 valid voter signatures to secure a spot on the November
ballot. The campaign said on its Twitter account that it will turn in nearly
800,000 petition signatures. A campaign committee formed to support the measure
reported raising more than $1.3 million through the end of 2011. Major
contributors include branches of the American Civil Liberties Union, Google
executive Robert Alan Eustace, Hyatt Development Corporation CEO Nicholas
Pritzker and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.
Proponents have scheduled press conferences throughout the state to begin
filing the signatures. Listed speakers at a 10 a.m. event in Sacramento include
Don Heller, the author of the 1978 initiative that reinstated the death
penalty, and the mother of 2 murder victims.
(source: Sacramento Bee)
***************
Death penalty sought in N. Calif. serial slayings
Prosecutors said Wednesday that they plan to seek the death penalty against a
man suspected of killing 4 prostitutes in rural Northern California.
The announcement was made in Marin County Superior Court as Joseph Naso, 78,
re-entered not-guilty pleas to 4 counts of murder.
The former Reno photographer is accused of killing Roxene Roggasch in 1977,
Carmen Colon in 1978, Pamela Parsons in 1993 and Tracy Tafoya in 1994. All 4
were found strangled in rural areas of Northern California.
Deputy District Attorney Dori Ahana would not elaborate on the decision to
pursue the death penalty. She noted that the case involved multiple victims, a
special circumstance that made Naso eligible for the punishment.
Prosecutors presented dozens of Naso's photographs — including 2 showing
alleged victims — where the women appear unconscious or dead. Prosecutors claim
Naso drugged his victims before killing them, photographing their bodies and
leaving them in rural areas.
Naso also kept a safe deposit box with newspaper clippings of the slayings, and
investigators found journals and calendars that noted Naso's meetings with
Tafoya and Parsons around the time of their deaths in Yuba County.
Naso is acting as his own attorney. He has argued that he never used drugs on
his photography subjects.
He said that he had a rapport with women that made them comfortable disrobing
for the camera.
He also argued that his lists and calendars were merely notes about models, and
that most of the women seen in his pictures "are alive and well."
(source: Fox News)
FLORIDA:
Geneva County man faces death penalty in Florida slaying
A Florida jury recommended the death penalty for a Geneva man in the killing of
24-year-old Mia Chay Brown.
Assistant State’s Attorney Brandon Young said a jury returned a recommendation
of death Wednesday afternoon for 34-year-old Johnny Mack Sketo Calhoun.
“After hearing some testimony they came back with a recommendation of death
with a 9 to 3 vote,” Young said. “It has to be a majority for the
recommendation of death. The judge takes that recommendation and he ultimately
decides the sentence.”
Young said the jury returned a guilty verdict a day earlier against Calhoun for
1st-degree murder and kidnapping in connection to Brown’s death, which happened
in Holmes County, Fla., in December 2010. He said Calhoun won’t be sentenced
for at least 30 days. He faces the death penalty or life in prison without
parole.
Holmes County Sheriff’s investigators arrested Calhoun in December 2010.
Calhoun is from the Black community in Geneva County.
Evidence
Young said the offenses started after Calhoun apparently asked Brown for a ride
to his girlfriend’s house, which he wanted after she got off work on Dec. 16,
2010.
“She showed up to give him a ride and at some point a violent confrontation
happened that led to him abducting her,” Young said. “We think it was basically
a crime of opportunity. We don’t know what happened in that trailer, but
whatever it was, it was violent.”
Young said authorities found a duct tape roll inside Calhoun’s trailer in
Holmes County with Brown’s blood and Calhoun’s DNA on it. Young said their
evidence showed Calhoun bound Brown with duct tape and wire, abducted her, put
her in the trunk of her own car and drove her to Alabama.
An employee of an Alabama convenience store testified, according to Young, that
Calhoun was seen in the store on the morning of Dec. 17, 2010, with injuries
prosecutors believed to be consistent with a fight.
Young said an Alabama medical examiner testified during the trial Brown died in
Geneva County after Calhoun intentionally set fire to her car while she was
still alive in the trunk. He’d apparently left the car a few hundred feet from
a campground on his brother-in-law’s property in Geneva County, Young said.
Young said Calhoun and Brown were acquaintances, and that she went to high
school with Calhoun’s girlfriend.
“We argued that certainly it was a premeditated murder, and that it also
happened as a result of arson and kidnapping,” Young said.
Young said the case was prosecuted in Florida because according to state law if
the offense started in Florida by law it can be prosecuted in Florida even if
the final or fatal blow of the offense happened in another state.
Young said the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, the Geneva County Sheriff’s
Office, officers with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources, and the Alabama Medical Examiner’s Office assisted in the murder
inquiry.
“As far as a true death penalty case out of Holmes County, it looks like the
last one was in 1959,” Young said. “It’s extremely rare. We have a very
peaceful community here in Holmes County.”
(source: Dothan Eagle)
OHIO:
Jury begins deliberations on death sentence
The jury in the Victor Gantt death penalty trial has begun deliberating whether
he deserves the death penalty or life in prison, for murdering 75-year-old
Leroy Jones in his Middletown home last May.
The prosecutors and defense delivered closing statements Thursday morning on
the 7th day of the Butler County trial. Brandishing the rusty-looking hand ax
Gantt used to kill Jones, Assistant Prosecutor Brad Burress told the jury they
have a “grand” responsibility.
“When you go back in that jury room no one else is going to be with you to tell
you about things like compassion, sympathy, tears, emotion,” he said. “Jurors
it’s very easy to be swayed by concepts like that. And if you let those
emotions grab hold of you justice will not be served in this case.”
The jury of 6 men and 6 women found Gantt guilty of aggravated murder,
aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery and tampering with evidence last week
in Butler County and are now charged with recommending a sentence. The death
penalty is one of their choices.
The jurors began deliberating at 11:55 a.m. and will be sequestered tonight if
they don’t reach a verdict. ?Burress went on to carefully lay out how Gantt,
26, smashed through a French door with an ax at the Jones home last May, struck
Jones six times in the head and then trashed the house. Gantt tried to burn the
house down to cover his crime by piling items on the kitchen stove and turning
on all four burners. All Gantt took from the house was $150 in pocket
change.?Defense attorney Melinda Cook reminded the jurors it only takes one of
them to preclude the death penalty. The jurors can recommend a sentence of life
in prison with parole eligibility after 25 or 30 years or life without
parole.?She discussed, as his family members have testified all week what a
miserable life Gantt was dealt, with a mother who abandoned him at birth and a
tyrannical and abusive father. She also talked at length about medical records
from various hospitals Gantt was taken to through the years for drug induced
psychotic episodes.
The defense team didn’t call any witnesses in the first phase of the trial so
the jury hadn’t heard this information before. But the records were put into
evidence on Wednesday.
She reminded the jury that Gantt’s family members all said he was acting
“crazy” in the days leading up to May 2, which they say is his particular
reaction to marijuana.?“Do we have any evidence he was on marijuana, do we have
any direct evidence he was not on marijuana,” she said. “His whole family is
telling you what was going on with him in the days before. He’s up, he’s down,
he’s being saved (by God). The next day he’s back to the same thing. Tracing
his finger on a window, growling at family members.”?Prosecutor Mike Gmoser had
the last word during closing arguments, he told the jury he’d give them “a
little scientific CSI” stuff and proceeded to pull the aluminum bat Gantt said
Jones struck him with out of its evidence bag. Photos showed a dribble of blood
trailing down the bat. He said that blood couldn’t stream that way if it was in
Jones’ hand.?Gantt’s brother testified Wednesday that his baby brother didn’t
mean to kill Jones. Gmoser said the defendant’s own words belie that assertion.
Gantt in his confession said he hit Jones with the ax twice in the head, Jones
hit a brick wall and slid down. There were six ax wounds in Jones’ head.?
(source: Dayton Daily News)
KENTUCKY:
State Senate Committee Hears Proposal to End the Death Penalty
For the 1st time in Kentucky, a legislative committee is considering a move to
abolish the death penalty. The bill received a hearing in a Senate committee
today.
Senate Bill 63 would abolish capital punishment in the commonwealth, a move few
other states have accomplished by statute.
The bill has the support of the American Bar Association based on a report the
group released last summer detailing numerous problems with Kentucky’s capital
punishment system.
Those problems include inefficient prosecutors and defense attorneys on capital
cases, evidence that’s disposed after a conviction and trial misconduct.
Based on that, Northern Kentucky University law professor Michael Mannheimer
says at least a temporary suspension of the death penalty is necessary.
“Given the numbers problems we’ve identified, the assessment team is convinced
that Kentucky’s current operation of the death penalty does not ensure fairness
or adequately guard against execution of the innocent,” he says. ” As a result
after completing this two year review the team unanimously decided to recommend
the suspension of executions until the issues identified by our report has been
addressed and rectified.”
The bill’s sponsor, Senator Gerald Neal, echoed that feeling.
“If I was characterizing what I just heard, despite the fact of a lack of
questions, I would probably conclude that, from my perspective, that the system
as it now is operated is fundamentally broken,” Neal says.
The Senate Judiciary committee heard testimony for more than an hour, but did
not vote on the bill. They also did not hear opposition testimony.
The committee’s counterpart in the House has also heard testimony on the
American Bar Association’s report.
(source: WFPL News)
MISSOURI:
Death penalty report questions procedures in state
Missouri needs to do more to preserve evidence and prevent mistakes in police
lineups, said the co-chairman of a panel that studied the state's death penalty
laws and procedures.
Paul Litton, an associate professor of law at the University of Missouri,
co-chaired the Missouri Death Penalty Assessment Team with Stephen Thaman,
co-director of the Center for International and Comparative Law at Saint Louis
University School of Law. The 8-member team also included U.S. District Judge
Nanette Laughrey of Columbia and Rodney Uphoff of Columbia, also a professor at
the MU School of Law.
Improvements in the handling of eyewitness identification, including jury
instructions on the limitations of that identification, as well as issues about
preserving evidence are among the reports recommendations, Litton said.
Missouri does not require, for example, that biological evidence be preserved
for as long as someone who is given a death sentence is incarcerated and
awaiting execution, the report said. That means there might be nothing to test
if new techniques are found.
The report did not consider whether the state should keep or abolish the death
penalty. The report was part of the American Bar Association's Death Penalty
Assessment Project. It is funded by the European Union but is an independent
report, a disclaimer said. Most European countries have abolished the death
penalty.
"We really just tried to investigate the extent to which Missouri law and
procedures conform to ABA guidelines," Litton said.
Other findings include:
•Missouri has several areas of strength, including the defense help provided in
capital cases and fully accredited crime labs that "promote the accurate and
reliable analysis of forensic evidence."
•Laws on applying the death penalty should be amended so people with mental
impairments need not have been diagnosed before they turn 18 to qualify as
exempt from capital punishment.
•Better instructions to juries that let them know that life without parole
truly means a person will never be released.
•A longer period between the time a prosecutor is required to decide whether to
seek the death penalty and the actual trial. Currently, that can be as little
as 25 days.
Missouri resumed executions in 1989 after a hiatus of more than 20 years. Since
then, 68 people have been executed, including two from Boone County. Ralph
Davis was executed April 28, 1999, for the death of his wife, Susan Davis. Gary
Roll was executed Aug. 30, 2000, for the April 1993 slayings of 3 people during
a robbery for drugs and money.
There are 2 inmates from Boone County awaiting execution among the 46 people on
death row. Earl Ringo Jr. was convicted in the July 4, 1998, shooting of 2
people at the Ruby Tuesday restaurant in Columbia. Ernest Lee Johnson is facing
the death penalty for the slayings of 3 people on Feb. 12, 1994, at a Casey's
General Store.
Although the report takes no position on the death penalty, Litton said he
believes there are good reasons to abolish it. The chances of an innocent
person being executed and uneven application are 2 of those reasons, he said.
"My own view is that, even for people who deserve it, the costs are too great.
There are both financial costs, and there are moral costs."
(source: Columbia Daily Tribune)
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