August 14 NORTH CAROLINA: Man on death row gets new trial Citing a jury-selection error by Durham's senior judge, the state Supreme Court on Friday awarded a new trial to convicted killer Todd Charles Boggess, who is on death row for fatally beating a Wilmington honor student in northern Durham County 9 years ago. The court said Judge Orlando F. Hudson erred by not allowing defense lawyers to dismiss a juror whose best friend, it belatedly was discovered, knew the murder victim's mother. Both sides approved the juror, but the jury was not seated when the situation came to light. It would have been appropriate to excuse and replace the woman, the Supreme Court concluded. Hudson was philosophical Friday. "I never question the Supreme Court's decisions," he said. "That's what they get paid for. I'm sure they put a lot of time and effort into this one. The lower court will have to live with it." A new sentencing date has not been set. The high court also found fault Friday with one of Hudson's instructions to the jurors. The court said Hudson might have misled jurors when they asked for a definition of life without parole. He told them they should not consider what "another arm of the government might or might not do in the future." That erroneously led the jury to believe that "another arm of the government" might parole Boggess, his lawyers argued. That was not possible, they noted, because Boggess was convicted under a then-new law that mandates life imprisonment without parole for convicted 1st-degree killers. Before, such people were eligible for parole after 20 years. Had jurors known there was no chance of freedom for Boggess, they likely would have voted for a life prison sentence rather than the death penalty, the appeals team contended. The Supreme Court agreed Friday, marking the second time this year that the death penalty in a Durham murder case has been set aside. In February, Superior Court Judge Ron Stephens concluded that death row inmate Donald John Scanlon should be sentenced anew for the apparent asphyxiation death of 64-year-old Claudine Wilson Harris in her Partridge Street home eight years ago. Stephens based his ruling on the allegedly poor performance of Scanlon's two trial lawyers. In 1995, Boggess, a teenage homeless drifter, was accused of kidnapping honor student Danny Lee Pence in Wrightsville Beach, stealing his Ford Mustang and driving him to a secluded area off Terry Road in Durham, where he was beaten to death. Boggess received the death penalty 2 years later after being convicted of first-degree murder and related crimes. A 14-year-old accomplice, Melanie Gray, was allowed to plead guilty to a reduced charge of 2nd-degree murder. She received between 9 and 11 years in prison. Pence's parents, Sharlene and Lee Pence, could not be reached for comment Friday. After Boggess' conviction, and before he was sentenced, Sharlene Pence said she was "leaving the death penalty up to God." Lee Pence said then that "an eye for an eye" was the appropriate punishment. Court officials said Friday's decision means Boggess will be moved off death row as he awaits a new trial. He probably will remain in a state prison rather than being transferred to the Durham County Jail, officials said. District Attorney Jim Hardin Jr. said it was too early to predict when the new trial might occur. But he disagreed Friday with the Supreme Court's conclusion. "I thought Judge Hudson took appropriate measures to ensure we had a fair and impartial jury," he told The Herald-Sun. "The Supreme Court obviously thought otherwise. Now we're back to where we started from. This was a horrific, tragic crime. I feel very deeply for the Pence family." After it was learned that one of the 1997 jurors had a friend who knew Pence's mother, lawyers for both sides were allowed to question the woman about whether she could be fair and impartial. She said she could. "There was no reason to exclude her," Hardin said. "Judge Hudson gave the appropriate safeguards to the defendant. I thought he did it the right way. I personally think he made the right decision." To save time and money, prosecutors theoretically could elect not to seek the death penalty again. But the case remains in a "capital posture" for now, Hardin said. Fred Battaglia, 1 of Boggess' 2 trial lawyers in 1997, said the Supreme Court decision almost overwhelmed him. "I don't even have words to describe how I feel," he said. "I'm just very happy for Todd. I didn't think he deserved the death penalty then, and I don't think so now." Lawyer Dan Shatz, who prepared Boggess' successful appeal along with attorney Staples Hughes, said he too was thrilled by the prospect of a new trial. "I think the legal issues were clear-cut," he said. (source: The Herald-Sun) MISSOURI: Inmate rebuilds life after freed from death row For nearly two decades, Joe Amrine was known as prisoner number CP48 - the 48th person sentenced to capital punishment in Missouri since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977. Now, his grandnieces and nephews call him "sucker Joe," he says, admitting he once spent $117 at a convenience store on ball caps and candy for them. It's been just more than a year since Amrine was freed from death row and walked out of jail with all his possessions in 2 plastic garbage bags. The prosecution's case fell apart when the former inmates who testified against Amrine in a prison stabbing trial recanted. One of Amrine's attorneys, Arthur Benson, is preparing a wrongful imprisonment suit. After 26 years in prison, 17 of them on death row, the 47-year-old Kansas City resident is tasting freedom - something that once scared him more than being executed. Amrine said he knows how much is riding on his success. "For me to screw up, that would really be a terrible blow all around," he said. "So, I feel a lot of pressure. I mean a lot." A grant of about $30,000 allows him to work full-time for the same attorneys who helped free him. He speaks at gatherings of anti-death penalty activists and reviews claims from inmates seeking help from the Innocence Project at the University of Missouri-Kansas City's law school. "A lot of the cases the guys claim they are innocent despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary," said Kent Gipson, an attorney with the Public Interest Litigation Clinic in Kansas City. "Basically, screening the good cases from the ones that are not good cases. I think he's developed some insight being in prison that long." The high school dropout also is studying for his GED and wants to become a paralegal. He sometimes sits in on court cases, scribbling notes. But despite the grant, there are bills he struggles to pay. Former inmates flooded him with collect calls until he stopped accepting them, wracking up a phone bill of $875 his first month out of prison and $1,300 the next month. His 9 siblings say he moved into his own apartment too soon. They question the new furniture and 60-inch television he bought. But Amrine said he doesn't mind the bills. "Actually, I love it," he said. "I love the idea of having the responsibility of paying these bills every month - whether I'm late or whether I can't pay it or not. Just the idea of being in the position to try and do it. I love it. I love it to death." Amrine was just 20 when he started serving a 15-year sentence for robbery, burglary and forgery. With an older brother already in prison and another brother recently released, Amrine made friends quickly and often found himself in the middle of trouble. Had he behaved, he said he probably would have been paroled long before 1985 when fellow inmate Gary Barber was stabbed to death. Amrine, who by his own admission wasn't a "model inmate by a longshot," was questioned and charged with the killing. Key testimony against Amrine came from three former inmates, who later said they lied to win special protection for themselves. When he was sentenced to death, he had between 18 months and 7 years left to serve. On death row, Amrine kept busy playing basketball and worked with three other inmates to help other prisoners with their cases - charging for some and handling others for free. The other inmates who helped Amrine were Doyle Williams, who beat a man who could have testified against him in the burglary of a small-town doctor's office in 1981; Roy "Hog" Roberts who was convicted of holding a prison guard from behind during a 1983 riot as other inmates repeatedly stabbed him; and Stephen K. Johns who was sentenced to death for killing a gas station clerk during a 1982 robbery that netted $248. "They used to be mad at me because I liked to play basketball and handball," he said. "Whereas Doyle and Big Hog and Steve Johns, they lived law library. They put a lot, a lot, a lot more time into it than I did." Williams was executed on April 10, 1996; Roberts on March 10, 1999; and Johns on Oct. 24, 2001. With time, he said, the executions became easier. But not easy. He still remembers when the guards came to take Robert "Tony" Murray to the area where he would spend the last weeks of his life. Murray was at the apartment where 2 St. Louis cabdrivers were shot to death in 1985. His brother, William Murray, admitted he was the trigger man, but not until 1991, after he was sentenced to life in prison and 4 years after Tony Murray was sentenced to die for the killings. "His cell was right above mine," Amrine said. "We was in a vent together. And he was hollering through the vent, 'They coming to get me. They coming to get me.' I faked like I was sleeping. Because I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to say. And he was a young guy." He said he used to support the death penalty. But not after living it. "Even right to this day, there might be some cases where it might be appropriate," he said. "But because of so many flaws in it, you can't guarantee that this person is getting the death sentence based off his crime and his character alone." (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: Blood On Cooper's Shirt Will Be Tested A T-shirt splattered with the blood of death row inmate Kevin Cooper and 2 murder victims must be tested for a preservative that, if found, could possibly indicate tampering by law enforcement officials, a U.S. District Court judge ruled Friday. Judge Marilyn Huff ordered tests for the blood preservative known as EDTA at the request of Cooper's attorneys and over the objection of state prosecutors. Cooper, convicted of the 1983 murders of three members of a Chino Hills family and their 10-year-old house guest, was issued a stay of execution Feb. 9 by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, 16 hours before he was scheduled to die. The 9th Circuit urged Huff to order both the EDTA testing on the T-shirt and DNA tests on hairs found on the victims. The hair results were announced last week, showing all 13 tested probably belonged to the victims. The testing for EDTA, a common preservative found in soaps and lotions, could be far more difficult to interpret, prosecutors argued. Cooper's attorneys said that if a chemical analysis finds high concentrations of the preservative on Cooper's T-shirt, that would be an obvious indication that law enforcement planted the blood from a vial of his blood taken after his arrest. "All we want to do is get the best qualified persons to do this, and we will," said defense attorney David Alexander. Holly Wilkens, the deputy attorney general handling Cooper's case, has called EDTA testing "junk science" and urged Huff not to create a "cottage industry" of testing. Prosecutors also noted that the T-shirt was never used against Cooper during his trial and that Cooper's own post-conviction request for a DNA test of the shirt in 2001 led to the discovery of his blood. (source: Los Angeles Times) *********************** Defendant: 'I have lied to you' -- Dramatic day as tapes reveal apologies, anger Scott Peterson lied to his secret girlfriend for weeks, acting the carefree bachelor on a whirlwind European trip. Now, he thought she was about to learn the truth. He phoned Amber Frey to make a tearful confession. He was in Modesto, not Brussels. He was married. And his pregnant wife Laci had disappeared 2 weeks earlier, before Christmas. "I have lied to you," Peterson said, in a call in which he sounded alternately tearful, squirmy and apologetic. "I have just been torn up the last 2 weeks wanting to tell you, and I'm so weak that I haven't." It was a dramatic day in Peterson's double-murder trial Thursday as a Redwood City jury heard several phone calls that Frey secretly recorded for police. Prosecutors are hoping to use the calls to bolster their case that Peterson killed his 27-year-old pregnant wife, then dumped her body in San Francisco Bay, in hopes of pursuing a relationship with Frey. The bodies of Laci Peterson and the couple's son washed ashore in April 2003, and Scott Peterson could face the death penalty if he is convicted. After Peterson made his confession to Frey during a Jan. 6, 2003, call, the Fresno massage therapist spent nearly 2 hours grilling him like a seasoned attorney and chewing him out like a woman scorned. "I deserve to understand an explanation of why you told me you lost your wife, and this was the 1st holidays you'd spend without her," Frey angrily demanded on the tape. "That was Dec. 9 you told me this, and all of a sudden your wife's missing? Are you kidding me? Did you hear me?" "I did. I, I, I, I don't know what to say to you," stammered Peterson. Still, despite her persistent questioning, Peterson was elusive. He repeatedly said he would like to tell her more but couldn't until another time. "It's to protect all of us," Peterson said. He also maintained his innocence in Laci Peterson's disappearance, and at times he sounded hurt at the idea that Frey didn't believe him. "Sweetie, you think I had something to do with her disappearance? Amber, do you believe that?" Peterson asked. "Let's see, how can I believe that?" Frey retorted. "How could I believe anything..." "I am not evil like that," he said. "It hurts me (that you) believe I could have something to do with her disappearance." Peterson phoned Frey to make his confession as police were putting the squeeze on him, and just about a half an hour after ending a previous phone call with Frey. In that exchange, Frey had coyly baited him into believing she was about to learn he was in Modesto instead of Europe from a friend who was worried for Frey's safety. Shortly after hanging up on that call, an apologetic Peterson called back. For the past 2 weeks he had not been in France, Brussels or Spain, he said, but in Modesto searching for his wife, whom he said he believed to be still alive. Frey, who was sitting in the courtroom, held a handkerchief to her face and wept openly as she heard one exchange that followed, of her blasting Peterson for presenting himself as a single man. The jury followed the conversations attentively, reading along with printed transcripts and smiling as Frey pointed out some of Peterson's more absurd-sounding lies. "You don't think you lied to me?" Frey pressed him at one point. "No, no, no. I have always told you the truth," he said on the tape, prompting several jurors to laugh aloud. "Oh, really?" she asked. "Well, no, with exceptions obviously," he relented. At one point during the conversation, Peterson even tried to convince Frey that he had been faithful to her. "I never cheated on you," Peterson said. "You're married. How do you figure you never cheated on me? Explain that one to me," Frey responded. "I want to explain it to you, Amber," he replied. "Honey, I can't." Then, when she asked if the baby Laci was carrying was his, Peterson answered: "I can't tell you all these things now." But when Frey asked him why she shouldn't go to police with details of their affair, Peterson did not try to talk her out of it. "It's your decision," he told Frey. "Really?" she asked. "Of course,'' he said . Frey ended by telling Peterson not to call her, but to wait for her to make the next step. She phoned him the next day, as he was driving to the Laci Peterson search's volunteer center. During this call, which the jury will continue to hear when court resumes Monday, Frey asked whether his wife knew Peterson had a relationship with Frey. "Yeah," Peterson said. "Really? How did she respond about it?" Frey asked. "Fine," he said. "Fine?" she asked incredulously on the tape, as one juror threw back her head and guffawed. "An 8-month (pregnant) woman, fine, about another woman?" **** AMBER FREY: DAY 3 ---- Recorded conversations Prosecutors in Scott Peterson's capital murder case played more audiotapes Thursday of conversations Amber Frey secretly recorded at the request of Modesto police. Jan. 6, 2003, 10:16 a.m. Peterson: What's wrong? Frey: I don't know. Sauki (a friend of Amber's) called and left me a message and said she was worried about me and that she was in between flights and said she needed to talk to me when she got back into town. And I have no idea. I ... I don't know. Peterson: Huh! Weird. Frey: It is weird. Peterson: She left like a cryptic message? Frey: Yeah, she had left me a message. I was at dinner with uh ... my family. And when I tried calling her back it went straight to her voice mail and I haven't heard back from her since. ... Peterson: Wow! When does she get in? Frey: Um ... I have no idea. She didn't tell me a time. (source: San Francisco Chronicle) ****************** Valley Death Row Inmate Wants a New Trial It was a crime that stunned the tiny community of Madero - a grandmother and her blind granddaughter stabbed to death. On Friday their killer was back in a courtroom, exhausting one of his final appeals. Jose Noey Martinez looked much the same as he did nearly 10 years ago, when he was arrested for killing his elderly next door neighbor and her 4-year-old granddaughter. The difference now - Martinez is on death row. Back in February 1995, he broke into 68-year-old Esperanza Palomo's home to burglarize the residence. But Martinez did much more. He attacked the mission grandmother - raping, then stabbing her to death. Martinez then turned on 4-year-old Amanda Palomo. Court records show the blind little girl had a stab wound running the entire length of her back. She also had multiple scars on her hands where she tried in vain to defend herself. It didn't take long for a jury to find Martinez guilty of capital murder. He was then sentenced to death and has been in Huntsville since. On Friday his appellate attorney, based out of Austin, got an evidentiary hearing. He questioned the lawyers that defended Martinez nearly a decade ago trying to prove he had ineffective counsel. They also tried to establish that Martinez was mentally and sexually abused as a child. The underlying motive in all of this - Martinez's attorneys argue that he did not get a fair trial. The judge will take the evidence and testimony under consideration, but legal experts say chances are slim he'll be granted a new trial. No execution date has been set as of yet. (source: Team 4 News) NEVADA: Death penalty opponents protest outside prison As Terry Jess Dennis was led to Nevada's execution chamber and strapped to the table, 27 people who opposed the death penalty stood in a semi-circle around lit candles outside Nevada State Prison/ Many held signs with sentiments such as "An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind" and "Violence to solve a problem brings more violence." They were of different religions and different activist groups. Dennis' execution continued, but they were there across East Fifth Street from the Carson City prison entrance to make a point. "I hope it makes people think about the death penalty," Nancy Hart, president of the Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty, said. She added that Dennis was the 10th of 11 people executed in Nevada since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970s who gave up his court appeals. She said the execution was nothing more than state-assisted suicide. Hart wants an end to the death penalty. Short of that, she hopes the number of voluntary executions leads to legislation in Nevada that does not allow death row inmates to give up their appeals so easily. She called for other death penalty reforms, such as making 18 the minimum age for executions and instituting a review process in which a judge checks cases to make sure the crime is heinous enough to deserve the death penalty. "Dennis strangled a woman, but had no prior murder convictions," Hart said. "He was drunk out of his mind. This is not the worst of the worst," Hart said. "This is not a death penalty case." Rev. Charles Durante, known to his parishioners at Our Lady of Wisdom Church in Reno as 'Father Chuck,' led the protestors in chant and prayer. He also asked people to remember Ilona Strumanis, Dennis' victim. Rabbi Myra Soifer of Temple Sinai Reno addressed the use of the phrase 'life for a life, eye for an eye' to justify executions. Soifer said the idea behind the phrase was to impose a system of limits on cultures that had no system of justice, because in seeking retaliation for being wronged, people more do more harm to others than was visited upon them. Classical rabbinical scholars reject its meaning as supporting the death penalty, Soifer said. Nancy Dyer of Carson City said it was her 1st protest. She said she felt it was finally time to stand up against the death penalty. She carried a sign that said, "We pray for a end to all forms of violence."P> Interviewed after Dennis' execution, Dyer said she felt disappointment that the people who perpetuate the system are so entranced in the system. But the fact Dennis was executed despite their protests was not a failure, Dyer said. "It was very important to make a statement," Dyer said. "If no one was here, that would have been a failure." (source: Reno Gazette-Journal, Aug. 13)
