April 13 NEW YORK: Death penalty dying in New York----Assembly vote delays repair of execution law 11 votes in Albany yesterday might have sounded the death knell for New York's death penalty. The Assembly's rules committee voted 11-7 not to allow the full Assembly to consider a law meant to repair the state's death penalty law. A series of state court rulings had found the 10-year-old law to be unconstitutional. Yesterday's vote means the Legislature will not fix the law this year if ever. No one has been executed in New York since the death penalty was restored in 1995. "I think this is an historic step," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. "States have grappled with the death penalty over the years and reformed it, but no state has really taken it off the books like New York has - at least for the time being." Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams called yesterday's vote predictable, based on the large turnout by death penalty foes at Assembly hearings last year and earlier this year. "I believe that the chances are not strong that we will have a death penalty that is workable in this state," said Williams, who prosecuted Larry Whitehurst of Kingston for the rape and murder of 7-year-old Rickel Knox in 1995. Whitehurst was the first person prosecuted in New York under the new death penalty law. He eventually pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and avoided the death penalty. Assemblyman Tom Kirwan, R-C-Newburgh, agreed with Williams' assertion about the death penalty hearings, calling them "stacked." "I do think there are some crimes that are just so awful that they warrant the death penalty," he said. David Kaczynski of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty had a different take on the Assembly's death penalty hearings, saying, "There is definitely a movement and a shift people understand that it's not really the answer. Even people who strongly support the death penalty often express concern about an innocent person being executed." He called the vote "a giant step toward eliminating the death penalty in New York." But he also noted that the governor's seat is up for grabs in New York next year. And in 1994, then-challenger George Pataki rode a pro-death penalty wave to victory over Gov. Mario Cuomo, who repeatedly vetoed a death penalty law. "I think we got this result from public hearings and a process that was pretty rational," Kaczynski said. "Next year comes the political campaign." In December 2004, a poll by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute found that 62 % of American voters favored the death penalty. The same poll found that 46 % of voters who were offered a choice preferred life without parole, while 42 % favored death. Vincent Aversa of Sparrowbush lost his son, New York State Trooper Joe Aversa, during a shootout in New York City in 1990. The law that was passed 5 years later put cop killers on death row. Aversa favors the death penalty but has mixed feelings about it now. "The way it's going on now, these people that are supposed to be dead, it's not happening anyway" Aversa said yesterday. "Sometimes you're better off dead than being in jail for the rest of your life. Maybe that's worse than dying. I don't know." (source: Times Herald-Record) IOWA----female faces federal death penalty Attorneys deep into jury selection in death penalty case Jury selection continued Wednesday in the trial Angela Johnson, accused by federal prosecutors of conspiring with her boyfriend in the 1993 drug-related slayings of 5 people. The selection process got off to a slow start Tuesday, and attorneys brought in a new batch of 10 potential jurors Wednesday. Attorneys will pick a jury pool of 22 from a list of more than 200 over the next 3 weeks. Johnson, 41, is charged with conspiring with former drug kingpin Dustin Honken of killing two of his former dealers -- Greg Nicholson and Terry DeGeus -- who agreed to cooperate with federal agents investigating Honken's multistate methamphetamine business. The other 3 victims include Lori Duncan, the girlfriend of Nicholson, and her 2 children, age 6 and 10. All 5 were shot in the head and buried near Mason City. If convicted, Johnson faces a possible death penalty. Candidates were being questioned both as a group and individually. Attorneys asked about their stance on the death penalty, how much they knew about the case from previous news reports or from conversations with friends or co-workers. After selecting a pool of 22 candidates, attorneys from both sides will each strike 5 more to get to the 12 jurors who will decide the case. Attorneys will then repeat the process to select 6 alternates. Honken, 35, was convicted last fall and the jury recommended that he receive the death penalty, making him the 1st person to face the death penalty in Iowa in more than 40 years. Sentencing is pending a ruling on Honken's motion asking for a mistrial. (source: Associated Press) CONNECTICUT: Psychiatrist discounts talk of 'death row syndrome' A psychiatrist testifying for serial killer Michael Ross' attorney Tuesday dismissed the theory that solitary confinement has made Ross mentally incompetent to volunteer for what would be New England's 1st execution in 45 years. Dr. Suzanne Gentile, an expert on suicide who works at the state-run Whiting Forensic Institute in Middletown, took the stand during the 4th day of a competency hearing to determine whether Ross' execution should go forward as scheduled on May 11. Gentile said there is no evidence that Ross suffers from what another psychiatrist had dubbed "death row syndrome," or that such a syndrome even exits. The idea that years of isolation on death row have helped coerce Ross into accepting his sentence was put forth by Dr. Stuart Grassian, a former Harvard instructor and an expert on the effects of long-term incarceration. He testified Monday that Ross is a narcissist who has been so humiliated by solitary confinement that he is choosing to die. "I have not found any research that supports his theory," Gentile testified Tuesday. "There is no evidence that where he has been housed for close to 20 years has produced incompetence." Death penalty opponents and a court-appointed attorney have made the death row syndrome a key part of their arguments to keep Ross from giving up his legal fight. Superior Court Judge Patrick Clifford, who found Ross competent last year but who is revisiting that decision now, seemed frustrated Tuesday by the conflicting reports and psychiatric evaluations. "I hear you saying you don't want to give me any more reading," he told Ross attorney T.R. Paulding. "But it looks like you are and it's hard to do when I'm watching videotape again." The conflicting testimony is scheduled to continue today with a 4th psychiatrist expected to testify that Ross is incompetent. Clifford will have evidence from 2 psychiatrists who say Ross is competent and 2 who disagree. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Court upholds death sentence of man charged in 2000 slaying The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the aggravated murder conviction and death sentence of a man convicted of slitting his girlfriend's throat and then stealing her ATM card and winter coat. The court ruled 6-1 in favor of the death sentence for Grady Brinkley of Toledo, convicted in the 2000 slaying of his 18-year-old girlfriend Shantae Smith. Brinkley, 37, killed Smith in her apartment Jan. 7, 2000, then stole her bank card and coat and fled to Chicago, according to Wednesday's Supreme Court ruling. The court rejected Brinkley's arguments that prosecutors improperly brought a capital case by including a charge that Brinkley had robbed a diner several weeks before the murder. Brinkley faced a January 2000 trial for robbing Rick's City Diner of $2,211 in November. Smith posted bond for Brinkley in December. Prosecutors argued that Brinkley killed Smith to escape trial for that robbery. A murder committed to avoid apprehension or trial is one of several charges under Ohio law that can be used to bring a capital case. Justice Maureen O'Connor, writing for the majority, said there was ample evidence Brinkley killed Smith so she couldn't help police find him once he left town to avoid trial. "The jury could have reasonably concluded that Brinkley killed Smith in part so that she could not help authorities or the bail bondsman locate Brinkley after he jumped bail," O'Connor wrote. Justice Paul Pfeifer dissented and voted to resentence Brinkley on a charge of murder. He said the evidence for bringing a capital case against Brinkley was weak. "Although it is possible to 'reasonably conclude' that Brinkley killed Smith to escape detection, it is at least as likely that he killed her because he was angry about her perceived unfaithfulness," Pfeifer wrote. "I need more than a reasonable conclusion before I am comfortable affirming a sentence of death." Smith had become romantically involved with another man after Brinkley's arrest for the diner robbery, according to the ruling. ON THE NET----Ohio Supreme Court: http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/ (source: Associated Press) KANSAS: Funeral for Man who Presided over last Kansas Executions A funeral takes place in Topeka Tuesday, for the man who upervised the hangings of the two killers immortalized in the book "In Cold Blood." 76-year-old lawyer Charles McAtee died Friday after a 2-year battle with leukemia. His wife says McAtee had been preparing for a court case just one day earlier. A former F-B-I agent who served in the Marines during the Korean War, McAtee ran several times for Congress and Kansas attorney general. He was the state's director of prisons when Richard Hickcock and Perry Smith were executed in April of 1965 for killing the Clutter family of southwest Kansas. That story -- including McAtee's presence at the executions -- was recounted in Truman Capotel's classic book "In Cold Bold." Later in 1965 McAtee supervised 2 other hangings -- the last executions carried out in Kansas. (source: WIBW News)
