death penalty news
September 24, 2005
CALIFORNIA:
Jury asks execution for killer of girl, 9 -
Ex-neighbor tripped up by DNA after 14 years
A jury recommended yesterday that a former Chula
Vista bus driver be executed for the abduction
and murder of 9-year-old Laura Arroyo 14 years ago.
The decision brought the wrenching drama of the
pony-tailed third-grader's slaying a step nearer
to closing. The jury's recommendation will be
weighed by San Diego Superior Court Judge John
Thompson, who will formally impose the sentence at a hearing Dec. 14.
While the judge can reject the recommendation and
opt to sentence Manuel Bracamontes to life in
prison without parole, such a step is rarely taken in death penalty cases.
As the verdict was read, the 42-year-old
defendant did not react. But several of his
relatives seated in the second row of the courtroom began to cry.
Across a narrow aisle separating two sides of the
spectator seats, Arroyo's parents and about 10
other relatives looked on grimly. Outside of
court, Laura's father, Luis, said he was grateful.
"Justice has been made today," Arroyo said. "He
has to pay for all the damage he did to my little girl."
Jurors left the courthouse and declined to
comment. The panel convicted Bracamontes on Sept.
2 of kidnapping, molesting and murdering Laura with a pickax.
She was abducted from her San Ysidro home during
evening bath time June 19, 1991. She was found
the next morning on the sidewalk of a Chula Vista
business park by two women on their way to work.
An autopsy showed she was choked, stabbed 10
times in the chest and once in the face and had a
half-dozen chopping wounds about her face and one of her ears.
She had also been molested, the key to eventually
breaking open the case more than a decade later.
Bracamontes, a former neighbor of the Arroyos'
who had once lived in the same apartment complex,
was linked to the slaying in October 2003. DNA
from semen that was captured on swabs taken from
Laura's body was matched to Bracamontes' DNA.
At the time of the killing, police said there was
no evidence she had been molested. But more
sophisticated DNA technology allowed a San Diego
Police Department criminalist to find the genetic
material when he re-examined the evidence in 2003, prosecutors said.
Defense attorneys at the trial tried to discredit
that evidence, suggesting it could have been
planted or tampered with. They asked that
Bracamontes's life be spared for the sake of his
family and put on witnesses who testified he was
a hard-working and gentle person incapable of such a vicious crime.
Police had suspected Bracamontes when
investigating the slaying and had plucked hair
samples from him as part of the investigation.
Witnesses placed him in the complex around the time Laura disappeared.
After coming inside from playing with friends,
Laura heard the doorbell ring. She ran to answer
it, chirping, "Who is it? Who is it?" About 10
minutes later her parents realized she was gone.
The front door was open. Her shoes were still
neatly placed inside the threshold.
At the time, seasoned detectives were stunned at
the brutality of the crime. Laura, a third-grade
student at Nicoloff Elementary School, was
stabbed with such force that the sidewalk beneath her body was chipped.
As weeks went by without an arrest, a curious
phenomena took shape at a blank billboard on
Broadway in Chula Vista. For several weeks that
summer, at night, passers-by said that they could
discern Laura's image across the white expanse of the billboard.
Some said it was no more than the play of light
and shadow. Others ? eventually numbering in the
thousands who crowded the street in what became a
nationally known event ? believed it was the
spirit of the girl, a spectral plea in the night sky to find her killer.
Yesterday, Luis Arroyo thanked police and
prosecutors who worked the case. He said it was
still hard to wake up each day without his
daughter, but he felt a small measure of relief now.
"I knew sooner or later," he said, "that he would have to pay."
(source: San Diego Union-Tribune)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Judge setsOct. 3 date for Banks hearing
Ten months after the state Supreme Court ordered
a competency hearing held ?expeditiously? for
mass murderer George Banks, a date has finally been set.
Luzerne County President Judge Michael Conahan
scheduled the hearing for Oct. 3 inside the
Bernard C. Brominski Courthouse building in Wilkes-Barre.
Banks? lawyer, Albert J. Flora Jr., had requested
to move the competency hearing to the more secure
federal courthouse in Scranton due to several
death threats he received after the appellate
court issued Banks, 63, a temporary stay of execution on Dec. 2.
Judge Conahan and Mr. Flora could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.
Mr. Flora said previously that Banks would have
to attend the competency hearing in person.
However, Judge Conahan?s order does not say
whether the hearing will be held via
videoconference or with all parties together in one courtroom.
As of late Friday afternoon, there was no hearing
scheduled by videoconferencing for Oct. 3 and the
Luzerne County Sheriff?s Department had not
received a court order to transport Banks from
the State Correctional Institution at Graterford, Bucks County.
If Banks does attend in person, Sheriff Barry
Stankus said security will likely be elevated.
?We?re going to have to address the security
issue on Monday or Tuesday of next week to find
out where Banks is going to be,? Mr. Stankus
said. ?We?re going to have to find out where he
is going to be housed, either at the county
(correctional facility) or at the state prison in Dallas.?
Banks was granted a stay of execution less than
29 hours before he was scheduled to die by lethal
injection for killing 13 people, including five
of his children, during a Sept. 25, 1982,
shooting rampage in Wilkes-Barre and Jenkins Township.
The appellate court sent the case back to Luzerne
County for the competency hearing to determine if
Banks is sane to be put to death and to determine
if he is mentally stable to initiate clemency
proceedings with the state Board of Pardons.
In its order that stayed Banks? execution, the
Supreme Court ordered the competency hearing to be held expeditiously.
Mr. Flora claimed Banks suffers from severe
mental illnesses and is unable to make rationale decisions about his case.
(source: The Times-Tribune)
