Jan. 20
OHIO:
Judge excuses jurors in Seman case
About 180 jurors Wednesday were excused in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court
from having to serve in the capital murder case of Robert Seman.
The jurors were excused for a variety of reasons ranging from financial
hardship to health and age.
About 220 jurors remain in the pool and will be reporting Feb. 3 for jury
orientation in the case before Judge Maureen Sweeney.
Seman, 48, of Green, could face the death penalty if convicted of the deaths of
Corinne Gump, 10, and her grandparents, William and Judith Schmidt, during a
March 30, 2015, arson at their Powers Way home just hours before Seman was to
go on trial on charges he raped Corinne that carry a possible life sentence.
Attorneys for both sides went over juror questionnaires and agreed on the
jurors who were excused. The trial is expected to last several weeks, which
could pose a hardship for someone with a medical condition or who has a job
that does not reimburse people for jury duty.
This is the 2nd time jurors have been called for the case. In September, jury
selection was halted after it was discovered a potential juror was discussing
the case with other potential jurors.
Judge Sweeney declared a mistrial then and disqualified the entire jury pool,
and a new jury pool was drawn.
Judge Sweeney also is changing some of the procedures for the next group of
jurors to come in to try and minimize juror misconduct. Jurors are being called
for their 1st day of orientation on a Friday afternoon, when the courthouse is
typically at its least busiest point of the week. Jurors also will be separated
into small groups, and a deputy will be assigned to each group to ensure there
is no misconduct.
If Seman is found guilty with death-penalty specifications, a 2nd phase, or
mitigation phase of the trial, will then take place.
In that phase, defense attorneys will present evidence to the jury on why
Seman's life should be spared. Only a jury can recommend a death sentence,
although a judge can overturn that recommendation and instead give him a
sentence of life in prison with no parole.
(source: vindy.com)
**************
Psychologist: Death row man's brain 're-wired' by abuse
With executions expected to resume this year in Ohio, a local man who has been
on death row for nearly 2 decades is seeking a reprieve.
At a day-long clemency hearing Tuesday, state parole board members heard a
wide-range of arguments, including whether the jury in Ray Tibbetts' trial
heard about his traumatic childhood.
A clinical psychologist said years of persistent neglect and abuse had
"re-wired" Tibbetts' brain. Another psychologist called Tibbetts' background "a
recipe for disaster."
Tibbetts, 59, has taken responsibility for the 1997 killings of his wife,
Judith Sue Crawford, and the elderly, hearing-impaired man she cared for.
Prosecutors focused on the brutality of the killings - pointing out that
67-year-old Fred Hicks, who used an oxygen tank to breathe, may have been
asleep when Tibbetts stabbed him multiple times. 3 knives and a blade broken
from a knife handle were left in Hicks' body.
"There simply is no excuse for what he did," said Hamilton County Assistant
Prosecutor Ronald Springman.
Family members of both victims spoke at Tuesday's hearing in Columbus, via a
video feed from the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office. They urged the parole
board to recommend that the execution go forward.
"Please, please, please," said Toni Strausbaugh, Hicks' niece. "So we can
heal."
What could happen?
The parole board, made up of 6 men and 6 women, is scheduled on March 10 to
recommend to Gov. John Kasich whether it believes a death sentence should be
imposed. That recommendation is not binding, and Kasich will then decide
whether to commute Tibbetts' sentence to life in prison without parole.
Tibbetts is scheduled to die by lethal injection on April 12, although his
challenge to the state's lethal injection process remains pending in federal
court.
The state was expected to resume executions this month - the 1st since 2014,
when a man suffered during an execution. Tibbetts initially was scheduled to
die by lethal injection in February.
In December, Gov. John Kasich delayed the executions of Tibbetts and Ronald
Phillips to allow time for the federal case to be appealed. Phillips, convicted
in Summit County of raping and murdering a 3-year-old girl, is now scheduled to
be executed Feb. 15.
"This brief delay should provide the court time to resolve any pending legal
issues," a Kasich spokeswoman said in a statement.
The killings
In November 1997, the bodies of Crawford - Tibbetts' wife of 5 weeks - and
Hicks were found in Hicks' Over-the-Rhine home. Crawford cared for Hicks, a
retired electrician who had emphysema, and both Crawford and Tibbetts lived in
the home. Tibbetts says he has no memory of what happened, and there is only
speculation about his motive.
Tibbetts beat Crawford to death with a baseball bat. The blows were so violent,
Assistant Attorney General Brenda Leikala told the parole board, part of her
brain was found outside her skull. Tibbetts then stabbed her numerous times.
Crawford's niece, Stephanie Shoe, said Tuesday that Crawford was planning to
leave Tibbetts and was packing the night he killed her. According to testimony
at trial, Tibbetts and Crawford were arguing.
"He knew he wasn't going to be able to steal from her anymore," Shoe said, "to
fuel his drug habit."
It is assumed that after Tibbetts killed Crawford on the home's 2nd floor, he
went downstairs. Hicks likely was sleeping, Leikala said, when Tibbetts stabbed
him a dozen times in the area of his heart, from the front and back.
The case for execution
Prosecutors said Tibbetts' behavior in the hours and days after the killings
showed he was aware of what he'd done.
He called a former girlfriend to ask for forgiveness, without being specific,
"for what I've done."
About 3 days after the killings, he checked himself into the psychiatric unit
at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Edgewood, Kentucky using a fake name. He signed
that fake name several times. Police tracked him to the hospital, and he was
eventually charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder.
At the hospital, when detectives asked Tibbetts whether he had seen his wife,
he ended the interview. According to police, as they were leaving, Tibbetts
said, "What's the charge, manslaughter?"
"It could be pure evil. We don't know," Springman said.
The case against execution
Tibbetts' attorneys presented a case of a man who as a child suffered abuse,
neglect and abandonment by his mother. He was then sent from one abusive foster
home to another.
"He was set up to fail," attorney Erin Barnhart said. "The fact that he did
fail, doesn't make him evil."
He was born to parents who were addicted to drugs and alcohol. His father was
described as being mostly absent, and when he was in the home, he was violent
and abusive. His mother also was mostly absent.
When Tibbetts was 2, he and his siblings were removed from the home. He spent
the next 12 years living in 2 foster homes and endured abuse and neglect there.
He spent his teen years in orphanages and a home for unwanted children.
Tibbetts also was addicted to drugs and alcohol. Several months before the
killings, he tried to commit suicide while in a psychiatric hospital. 6 weeks
before, he tried to get residential drug and alcohol treatment, but was denied.
2 pastors who work with him, including 1 who supports the death penalty, said
in a video played at Tuesday's hearing that he's a changed man and should not
be sentenced to death.
"He is such a better person," his sister Suzanne Freeman said in another video.
"He has grown so much... He just deserves a chance."
(source: cincinnati.com)
NEBRASKA:
State senators react to new death penalty repeal bill
It's a new year and Omaha State Senator Ernie Chambers is continuing his fight
against capital punishment.
Chambers introduced a bill earlier this week to repeal it.
This comes after about 61 % of Nebraska voted to bring the death penalty back
in November.
"I think the people of Nebraska have spoken and very forcefully spoken, but
it's any senator's right and privilege to introduce the legislation," Sen. Merv
Riepe of Omaha said.
In 2015, the unicameral abolished the law in a close vote.
Some senators said the dynamics of the legislature have also changed since
then.
There are more than a dozen new senators and many of which are more
conservative.
Some lawmakers said this will be an uphill battle including from Sen. John
McCollister who voted in favor of the repeal 2 years ago.
"There was a great discussion and debate on the death penalty in the
legislature, I think it would be short circuited this year," Sen. John
McCollister of Omaha said.
Senator chamber's bill is not the only one dealing with capital punishment this
year.
There's another one regarding how to get the drugs for lethal injection.
Acquiring them has been a great hurdle in the past.
"I think you're starting to see the legislature sort of move forward with more
an implementation instead of the status quo of having something and not doing
or using it," Speaker of the Unicameral Sen. Jim Scheer said.
Chambers said no to an interview.
The next step for his bill is a hearing in the judiciary committee.
(source: KLKN TV news)
UTAH:
Utah prison inmate charged with aggravated murder in cellmate's death
A Utah prison inmate has been charged with aggravated murder, accused of
fatally assaulting his cellmate in August.
Julio Cesar Garza, 26, was charged last week in 6th District Court with the
crime, which could carry the potential of the death penalty. Garza is accused
of punching and kicking 24-year-old Carlos-Adrian Javier Hernandez inside their
cell in the Gunnison prison facility on Aug. 25.
Hernandez had been serving a sentence of up to life for the 2007 murder and
rape of 15-year-old Keely Amber Hall at a St. George park. He was 14 at the
time of the murder.
Garza has been behind bars for aggravated robbery, possession of a prohibited
item in a correctional facility and assault by a prisoner.
Video footage of their cell shows Garza punching into Hernandez's bunk,
according to charging documents, then shows Garza pull Hernandez out of the
bunk onto the floor before kicking and jumping on him during a minutes-long
assault.
After several minutes, an alarm sounded and a corrections officer called a
phone in the cell, according to charging documents. An inmate answered the
phone, apologized for the alarm and said it wouldn't happen again, court
documents state.
But the officer also heard "wheezing" in the background of the phone call,
according to charges, and asked another officer to investigate.
That officer went to the cell and found Hernandez lying on the blood-covered
floor, according to charges. Garza was not injured, the officer observed, but
had blood spattered on his clothing. Hernandez was taken to a local hospital,
where he died from his injuries.
The 2 had been cellmates for less than 1 day, investigators noted in court
documents. No court dates had been set as of Thursday.
(source: Salt Lake Tribune)
OREGON:
Resources Spent On Death Penalty Could Be Used To Help Victims And Prevent More
Tragedies----I have seen this kind of tragedy before, in my own family.
Recently there was yet another horrifying mass shooting that claimed the lives
of 5 innocent people at a Florida airport. As news of the tragedy unfolded and
legal experts speculated about whether this would become a death penalty case,
I read about the shooter's history of mental illness and a pit formed in the
bottom of my stomach. I have seen this kind of tragedy before, in my own
family.
In April 2006, my brother, Andrew, and I found my mother Timmie O'Neil and my
stepfather Craig Stumpf murdered in their Charbonneau, Oregon home. I remember
telling the police, "I know who did this."
I knew that my mentally-ill brother, Joseph, was responsible.
Joey is the youngest of 5 O'Neil kids and we all grew up together in a loving,
Catholic family. As time went on, his behavior became increasingly odd. We knew
he was not well, but we never understood how bad things had become until it was
too late. My mother and stepfather had taken Joey in at the time of their
deaths because we were all trying to find a way to help him. It was only right
before it happened that we started admitting the problem openly to each other
and using the term "mentally ill."
I don't know how we got through the weeks and months after our loss, or how we
dealt with the surreal experience of seeing our brother rightfully charged with
aggravated murder. Prosecutors argued for a death sentence for Joey, although
in the end we were fortunate that he accepted a plea deal and is serving life
without parole. When I think about him, I try to remember what Sister Helen
Prejean said, "People are worth more than the worst thing they have ever done
in their lives."
A death sentence means years of appeals, court hearings, and reliving the grief
and the pain for the families of murder victims. As the years grind on, there's
no resolution and certainly no closure. By contrast, once Joey was convicted
and sentenced to life, I knew I would not have to set foot in a courtroom
again.
"We have a system that's so focused on vengeance it doesn't stop to think about
healing.
Having lost both my mother and stepfather to murder, I've joined a club no one
wants to belong to. Through speaking with other people who have experienced the
devastating loss of a loved one to murder, I know we have a system that's so
focused on vengeance it doesn't stop to think about healing. We pour millions
of dollars into seeking and defending death sentences, but where are the funds
to support families through the painful transition that comes when you lose a
loved one in the worst way possible? Where are the resources to get help for a
loved one with mental illness before tragedy strikes? After our family's
tragedy, we were offered little to nothing in support by the State of Oregon.
It didn't begin to address the emotional, psychological, financial and other
damage caused by murder.
We could be doing so much more to help the families of murder victims and to
prevent these types of horrible crimes from occurring in the first place. A new
report by Harvard Law School's Fair Punishment Project recently revealed that
as many as one in 4 people on Oregon's death row exhibited symptoms or had a
diagnosis of a severe mental illness at the time of their crimes. How have we
let that happen?
An academic study released in November of last year by Lewis & Clark Law School
and Seattle University examined the financial cost of seeking the death penalty
and revealed in detail the millions of dollars that are being spent on death
penalty cases. Pursuing a sentence of life without parole is approximately half
the cost. What could we do with even a fraction of that money to help the
healing process and to provide practical support to families that have lost a
loved one? What kinds of resources could we provide to treat mental illness?
These reports are evidence that it is time for Governor Kate Brown to end the
use of the death penalty in Oregon by commuting the sentences of those on death
row to life without parole. I believe she has the courage and foresight to do
this. Then we could direct some of that money to the services and support that
murder victim families actually need to survive, to heal and, hopefully, to
flourish, and to try to prevent these tragedies in the first place. It will
surely prove to be a far worthier investment than the relentless pursuit of
death sentences in a state that does not carry out executions.
(source: Becky O'Neil McBrayer Board Member, Oregonians for Alternatives to the
Death Penalty; and Director of Community Programs, St. Andre Bessette Catholic
Church; Huffington Post)
WASHINGTON:
Head of prosecutors' association in the state says death penalty decision
should go to voters, not lawmakers
On Thursday, a judge refused to release the man accused of killing 5 people at
Burlington's Cascade Mall.
A Skagit County judge said Arcan Cetin is a danger to the community, refusing
to release the accused killer on his personal recognizance.
The defense also informed the court that Cetin is scheduled for a competency
evaluation next week. As the high-profile case moves forward, the head
prosecutor in charge, Richard Weyrich, is weighing in about the death penalty
issue.
This week, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson asked lawmakers to introduce a
bill in the Legislature to abolish the death penalty.
Weyrich has an issue with the avenue being taken by Ferguson in his attempts to
do away with capital punishment. Weyrich says the state's lawmakers should not
be given the power to decide.
"Better way to make an important decision such as this is to put it on the
ballot," Weyrich said.
Weyrich is the president of the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys
and he says the vast majority of the 39 top prosecutors in the group want to
give voters the choice.
"It's not something the average voter will have access to, the information to
educate themselves," Ricci King said.
King is on the board of Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and
she supports Ferguson's efforts to keep it in the hands of lawmakers.
"Death penalty cases go on and on and on," King said.
She speaks from personal experience. In 1980, King's 14-year-old brother was
abducted, raped and dismembered by serial killer William Bonin, known as the
Freeway Killer in California.
"It doesn't get much more horrible than that, it really doesn't," King said.
In spite of her painful experience she is still passionately against the death
penalty.
"It didn't help my grief, it didn't bring my brother back, it's not justice,
it's revenge," King said.
But Weyrich knows not all victims' family members feel that way.
"People should decide, 40 years ago they voted it in, it should really be up to
the people to vote it out or not," Weyrich said.
Weyrich says the issue is not about his personal beliefs on the issue. He is
not speaking out because he supports the death penalty or not. His only goal is
to give citizens the choice.
But for opponents of the death penalty, they say the system is flawed and
costing society too much.
A Seattle University report says when a prosecutor seeks the death penalty, it
will cost taxpayers on average of over $1 million more than if they were going
for life without parole.
(source: Fox News)
***********************
Washington State Lawmakers Say Death Penalty Not Cost-Effective, Should Be
Abolished
A group of bipartisan lawmakers in Washington state on Monday, Jan. 16,
announced plans to introduce new legislation that would abolish the death
penalty in their state.
The proposed bill, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Tina Orwall and Republican Sen.
Mark Miloscia, would oust capital punishment as a sentencing option for
individuals guilty of committing aggravated murder and instead mandate a life
sentence without the possibility of parole, according to KOMO News. The law,
however, would not be retroactive, so inmates who are already sentenced to
death will not be spared.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, along with Republicans and Democrats
from both chambers of the state legislature, have argued that capital
punishment has become too expensive and hasn???t proven to deter serious
crimes. Republican Sen. Maureen Walsh went so far as to call the method
ineffective and "outdated."
"Not only is life-without-parole more cost-effective, it also offers the
certainty that is an essential element of justice," Walsh said in a statement
released by Ferguson's office.
In 2014, Gov. Jay Inslee imposed a moratorium on the death penalty, sparing
death-row inmates from execution until the ban is lifted, KOMO News reported.
Washington state hasn???t executed a single inmate since 2010 and data from the
Death Penalty Information Center showed that only 5 inmates have been executed
since the state re-established the death penalty in 1975.
"Death-penalty sentences are unequally applied in the state of Washington, they
are frequently overturned and they are always costly," Inslee said. "I could
not in good conscience allow executions to continue under my watch as governor
under these conditions."
Washington would join 19 other states including Connecticut, Illinois and
Maryland in its decision to outlaw capital punishment, according to The Hill.
Use of the death penalty has declined dramatically in recent years, although 5
states - Texas, Florida, Missouri, Georgia and Alabama - put inmates to death
in 2016. The number of death sentences overall also has taken a nosedive. For
instance, 295 inmates were sentenced to death in 1998, compared to just 49
inmates in 2015, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Justice
statistics.
Not everyone is on board with abolishing Washington's death penalty. Republican
Sen. Steve O'Ban opposes the move to end capital punishment and thinks the
method should be used on a case-by-case basis.
"It's obviously a power the government takes soberly," O'Ban said. "But, if we
value human life, the only appropriate sanction for the most serious crime of
taking that precious individual life is the death penalty and should be
retained for the most serious cases."
(source: Atlanta Black Star)
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