April 10 TEXAS: Sterling appeal has AG working: Death row inmate seeks stay from Supreme Court The Texas Attorney General's Office is working on its response to a U.S. Supreme Court appeal filed by the attorneys representing death row inmate Gary Lynn Sterling. Sterling is scheduled for a May 25 execution date, two months to the day before his 38th birthday. He has been on death row for more than 15 years. Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the capital litigation department of the AG's office, said the work will continue throughout April. "We have until April 22 to file our response," Strickland said this week. "We are basically responding to (Sterling's) claims." Sterling was convicted for the May 14, 1988 of Navarro County resident John W. Carty. He was first apprehended in connection with the May 17, 1988 murders of two elderly brothers in Hill County -- Leroy and William M. Porter, 70 and 72 years old, respectively. Sterling received two life sentences for the Porter murders as part of a plea bargain agreement with the Hill County prosecutor. He admitted to the slaying of Carty after he was arrested for the Porter murders, directing law enforcement officers of Hill and Navarro counties to the body in an area near the Brushie Prairie community. Also found with Carty were the remains of 52-year-old Deloris June Smith. It was later determined that Carty had been beaten to death with an automotive bumper jack. Sterling was never tried in connection with the Smith murder. The defense appeal is based on a contention of ineffective defense counsel in his original trial, according to a copy of defense appeal documents provided by the AG's office this week. Local attorney Rob Dunn was court-appointed to represent Sterling at the February 1989 trial. Austin attorney Robert C. Owen is representing Sterling at the federal appeals level. Neither Dunn nor Owen returned calls for comment this week. Owen's office was contacted Wednesday and a voice mail message was left. A woman who answered a phone call Friday to Dunn's office said he was gone for the week. Owen's "Writ of Certiorari" (the legal name for the appeals document filed on Sterling's behalf) contends that Dunn had knowledge one of the jurors selected for the 1989 trial "was likely a racist." Sterling is black while his victim, Carty, was white. As a part of the appeal document, Owen cites an interview his investigator had with that juror -- an affidavit covering it was submitted as part of an earlier, unsuccessful appeal -- in which "it became clear that (the juror) harbored racial bias against African-Americans." The attorney also notes later appeal hearing testimony by Dunn where Dunn admitted he knew the juror personally and he felt it likely the juror had racist feelings. Dunn argued at that hearing, however, that allowing the person to become part of the jury was a strategic decision. Dunn said he felt the personal relationship he had with the juror would outweigh any shortcomings the juror's possible racial bias might have. At earlier levels of the appeals process, courts have refused to find evidence satisfying requirements to prove ineffective counsel claims by the defense. The arguments will be front and center when the Supreme Court takes up the case. They will have slightly more than four weeks from the attorney general's office's deadline for filing its response until execution day. Should the nation's highest court refuse to overturn the death sentence in this case, Sterling's only remaining option will be the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Rick Perry. The board can vote to recommend a stay of execution, then the governor has the right to uphold the stay or ignore it. In Navarro County's most recent death row case, the board voted 15-0 against Cameron Todd Willingham and he was executed Feb. 17, 2004. It is rare for the board to vote in favor of a death row inmate. (source: Corsicana Daily Sun) ************************ Man who took son on murder spree sentenced to die An Irving man who brought along his young son as he killed his pregnant wife and mother-in-law was sentenced Thursday to die by lethal injection. A Denton County jury reached that decision against Christopher Swift, 30, who went on the killing spree in April 2003. Jurors sentenced Swift to die after determining that he was a risk to society and that there were no mitigating circumstances for him to serve a life sentence, court officials said. The same jury convicted Swift on Wednesday of capital murder in the slayings of his wife, Amy Sabeh-Swift, 27, at their Irving home, and his mother-in-law, Sandra Sabeh, 61, at her Lake Dallas home. His wife was 8 months' pregnant and her unborn child also died. Prosecutors did not pursue charges in that case. Defense attorneys had argued that Swift was insane at the time of the deadly attacks. After killing his wife and mother-in-law, Swift checked into a Farmers Branch motel and abandoned his then 5-year-old son there after the child went to sleep, officials said. The boy contacted police after he woke up. The boy is living with his maternal grandfather. Police arrested Swift in Dallas a few hours after his wife and mother-in-law's bodies were discovered. (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) ***************************** Family of murder victim celebrates her quinceaera In some ways it was like any other quinceaera: cake, balloons, a piata and mariachi music. But there was no dancing and very little laughter. The mariachis played to a group of somber faces. The only big smile came from a portrait of a young girl, the one being celebrated, the one who's been dead nearly six years. Saturday, Mary Bea Perez's family gathered under a green canopy at San Fernando Cemetery No. 2 to celebrate what would have been her 15th birthday. They sang "Happy Birthday," ate cake and wiped away tears. "I would like for her to know that we still love her," said Samantha Gonzalez, Mary Bea's 15-year-old cousin. "She'll always be in our hearts." Mary Bea was kidnapped from Market Square during Fiesta on April 18, 1999. She had turned 9 just 11 days before. A fisherman discovered her badly decomposed body a week later in Alazan Creek. Confessed serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells admitted to strangling her. By the time he pleaded guilty to Mary Bea's killing, he already was on death row for the slaying of a 13-year-old Del Rio girl. Mary Bea's grandmother Mary Torres said she organized the family get-together because if Mary Bea was alive, she would have had a quinceaera just like her cousin Samantha did. And they couldn't help but wonder what might have been. Maybe she would have worn high heels like the ones she used to borrow from her aunt to parade around the house. Maybe her fingernails would have been pink, like they were the day she died. She definitely would have danced cumbias, just like she had done throughout her short life. Saturday's celebration was simple. Several family members wore yellow T-shirts with Mary Bea's picture. The mariachis sang a few somber songs and a lively version of "Happy Birthday" that for a few moments elicited applause and laughter. An uncle said a prayer, and they ate cake and drank soda. Mary Bea's mother, Patricia Guerrero, said she still has bouts of depression. The 6 years haven't made the loss of her daughter less painful. "It's really hard," she said. "It hasn't changed. I think about her all the time." (source: San Antonio Express-News) VIRGINIA----4 face federal death penalty Feds seek 4 death sentences in gang murder trial In a federal courtroom this week, prosecutors will ask a single jury to extinguish the lives of 4 alleged members of one of Virginia's most vicious gangs. If one needs any proof that law enforcement is taking a hard-line stance against the region's gang problem, look no further than the cases of U.S. vs. Rivera, U.S. vs. Grande, U.S. vs. Cisneros and U.S. vs. Garcia-Orellana, with opening statements scheduled to begin Monday. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against all 4 alleged members of the Latino gang Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, for the murder of Brenda Paz, a former gang member herself who was to have been a witness in a murder trial against Denis Rivera, her one-time boyfriend. Paz left the witness protection program against the advice of the FBI, and the teenager was found dead in July 2003 in rural Shenandoah County. Paz, who was pregnant, died of multiple stab wounds. According to prosecutors, Rivera masterminded the killing from a jail cell while he awaited trial. Rivera told a fellow gang member that he would "plant her in a park" for snitching on him, according to the indictment. The indictment states that Oscar Antonio Grande, Ismael Juarez Cisneros and Oscar Alexander Garcia-Orellana met with other members of their MS-13 clique in a Fairfax hotel room and decided to kill Paz. The next day, the three drove out to the country with Paz and murdered her along the banks of the Shenandoah River. After she was killed, Rivera bragged on another call from the jail that those who "rat on 'Conejo' (his gang name, Spanish for "rabbit") die. They rat and that's it," according to the indictment. Police had monitored the jailhouse conversations in which Rivera allegedly planned the killing, but they said the slang words, nicknames and code words used by the defendants made it difficult to decipher the plot. As it turned out, prosecutors were still able to introduce Paz's testimony against Rivera through her court-appointed guardian. Rivera was convicted and sentenced to life in prison last year for the 2001 murder of Joaquim Diaz. Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information center, said it's rare but not unprecedented for a single jury to hear 4 death-penalty cases. "The difficulty for the defense is to make sure their client gets individual consideration and are are not lumped together," Dieter said. The trial is just a small part of a regional crackdown on MS-13 and other gangs that have been implicated in a series of high-profile attacks in northern Virginia. In several recent incidents, victims have been hacked by machetes and had fingers severed from their hands. Many attacks have occurred in relatively quiet suburban areas unaccustomed to gang violence. Last week, a 14-year-old boy was beaten with baseball bats and stabbed at a mall in Manassas in an apparent dispute between rival gangs. Another machete attack occurred earlier this year at a multiplex theater in suburban Merrifield. Authorities have responded with creation of a regional gang task force, aggressive prosecutions like the Paz trial, and efforts to round up and deport gang members in the country illegally. In the past week, immigration police arrested 15 MS-13 members in northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., on administrative immigration violations. Authorities are seeking to have all deported. About 50 MS-13 members in this region, most from northern Virginia, have been arrested in the last two months, said Allan Doody, the special agent-in-charge of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Washington field office. Doody said it's clear that recent anti-gang efforts have disrupted gang activity, with as many as 50 gang members from the area arrested in the last few months. "We know we have dismatled whole cliques within certain gangs," Doody said. "We have driven some gangs from this area into other states. We know we have changed behaviors. ... If our efforts mean that gangs are spending more time avoiding my agents and less time on criminal activity, then, yes, that is a victory." Jerry Keys, a sergeant with the Herndon Police Department and a spokesman for a regional gang task force, said that aggressive prosecution of gang members deters gang activity. The prospect of lengthy prison sentences often spurs a gang member to cut deals and provide information that helps police, he said. The ultimate way to deter gang violence, though, is to stop young people from joining gangs, which is why educational an social programs are in place to steer kids away from gangs, he said. "We can keep filling up the jails, but it won't do much good if we don't prevent kids from joining these gangs," Keys said. Frank Salvato, who represents Garcia-Orellana, 1 of the 4 charged in Paz's death, said that in this case he sees little reason to believe the government's prosecution will be a deterent. "All of these guys basically come from the same type of background broken homes, poverty," Salvato said. "Giving these 4 guys the death penalty, with their individual backgrounds, is not going to deter any future conduct by anybody." Salvato acknowledged the difficulty of defending alleged MS-13 members when the community has been frightened by the gang's actions. Final jury selection will take place on Monday from a pool of 88 who have already been qualified to serve as jurors. The 4 defendants will collectively be allowed to strike 40 potential jurors from the panel, while prosecutors can strike 20. "If the jury gives these guys individual consideration, we will not be in bad shape," Salvato said. (source: Associated Press) CONNECTICUT: Conn. serial killer fighting to end Death Row appeals Serial killer Michael Ross, defending his right to give up his death row appeals, testified Friday that he wants to be executed next month even though he recently renewed a relationship with his former fiancee. Ross says he wants to spare his victims' families additional agony, but his father and a court-appointed lawyer questioned that explanation, saying mental illness is driving him to commit state-assisted suicide. Michael Ross, 45, is scheduled to die May 11 for killing 4 young women in Connecticut in 1983 and 1984. Ross has admitted to 4 other killings. The Cornell graduate would be the 1st person executed in New England in 45 years. 'I know what I must do' Ross testified Friday that while his rekindled romance with a former girlfriend ''has complicated things immensely," he still wants to die. Ross became involved years ago with Susan Powers, an Oklahoma woman who started writing him in prison after reading about him. They broke up 2 years ago, but she began contacting him again in the last few months and is encouraging him to fight his execution. "I have not changed my mind. I know what I must do," Ross wrote in a letter to Powers in February. "I can't say to the families of my victims, 'Hey, sorry, but my girlfriend is back and we might actually get married someday, and I'd like to see if this can/will work this time.'" Thomas Groark, a court-appointed attorney charged with proving that Ross is incompetent, tried to cast doubt Friday on his claims that he's acting out of compassion for his victims' relatives. Groark pointed out that Ross wrote letters detailing his life on death row to media outlets, which put the killings back in the headlines. "Did you consider the impact that might have on the victims' families?" Groark asked. "No. I did not," Ross replied. State public defenders have argued that Ross likely suffers from "Death Row syndrome'' -- severe mental health problems and suicidal tendencies that some theorize comes from severe isolation. Thursday, the 1st day of the hearing, state psychiatrist Dr. Michael Norko testified that there are no signs Ross suffers from such a syndrome. New London Superior Court Judge Patrick Clifford had previously ruled that Ross is competent to end his appeals. (source: Associated Press)
