Nov. 2 MISSOURI: Carl Kabat, omi, did a Nonviolent Public Resistance to Evil action at the state sanctioned murder on October 25, 2005 in Bonne Terre, MO. He was arrested by the Bonne Terre Police Department and charged with trespassing, as he attempted to walk to the front door of the institution carrying a lighted candle and two signs around his neck. In front was a sign pleading "Stop the Murder" and on his back hung from his neck was another sign saying: "Thou shall NOT KILL - IN PRISON - IN WAR - IN CRIME OR ANYTIME" He is to appear in St. Francis County Municipal Circuit Court at 118 E. School St. Bonne Terre, MO on December 14th at 1:30pm (This message typed by a friend of Carl's, Christen Parker) INDIANA: Appeals court upholds decision to overturn death row inmate's conviction Citing "unmistakable" judicial bias, a federal appeals court has upheld a lower court's decision to overturn the 1991 conviction of Indiana death row inmate James Patrick Harrison. Late last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Harrison was deprived of a fair trial by Posey County, Ind., Judge James Redwine, who refused to remove himself from the case after defense attorneys raised allegations about his relationship with one of Harrison's victims. According to the appeals court opinion, U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker was "eminently correct" when she ruled Redwine had demonstrated an "unmistakable bias infecting James Harrison's (murder) trial." Barker overturned Harrison's conviction last year and the Indiana Attorney General appealed her ruling. Harrison was convicted in the 1989 slayings of 20-year-old Stacy Forsee and her 2 small children. He was sentenced to death by a Posey County jury in 1991. In her order, Barker said Redwine demonstrated "actual bias" before and during the trial, after Harrison's attorneys made public an allegation that Forsee saw Redwine and other influential politicians at a drug party shortly before her death. The allegations were never substantiated but Barker ruled Redwine should have have removed himself from the case after the allegation was brought to his attention. (source: Evansville Courier & Press) OHIO: Inmate pleads for help from death row A death row inmate who claims he's innocent of murder said Wednesday he hopes someone in authority steps in to help spare his life, which is to end by lethal injection Nov. 15. As John Spirko was repeating his claim of innocence, his lawyers were trying to compel state and local officials to reopen the case and conduct DNA testing of evidence in an effort to clear Spirko or link the crimes to someone else. Also on Wednesday, the Ohio Parole Board refused to reconsider its second recommendation that Gov. Bob Taft deny clemency to Spirko in the stabbing death of a northwest Ohio postal worker. Spirko, 59, said he's having trouble accepting the realization he could die within 2 weeks. He spoke at death row at the Mansfield Correctional Institution with a pool reporter who forwarded the interview to other Ohio reporters. "It's down to the wire and you know the end is here soon. You still can't believe it. You still have that hope that somebody is going to step up and do the right thing," Spirko said. "When you are in position of power, you should assert that power in the right way. Where there are questions like this, I don't think the governor ever had case like this before with mountain of evidence. I'm asking the governor to give me a chance. How many more years do I have left anyway?" Taft spokesman Mark Rickel said the governor is reviewing Spirko's case and will make a timely decision on clemency. Spirko has said he is innocent of the killing. Authorities say he described details only someone at the scene of the crime could know. Spirko says he got the details from media reports and used the information to make a deal with authorities to gain the release of a girlfriend, who was held on an unrelated crime. Spirko's lawyers filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Toledo asking for an order that Attorney General Jim Petro and Van Wert County Prosecutor Charles Kennedy conduct DNA testing. One key piece of evidence, Spirko's lawyers say, is a painter's tarp that was used to wrap the body of Betty Jane Mottinger, 48, after she was abducted from the post office she ran in Elgin and stabbed. Her body was found dumped in a field three weeks later. Petro spokeswoman Kim Norris said no decision had been made on a response to the complaint. "We're looking at what they filed and what's available in terms of evidence that would be available for DNA testing, how well it was preserved, if it was preserved, if it was evidence that was entered in to trial," Norris said. A house painter, John Willier, last week repeated his 1997 statement accusing his former boss on a painting crew as the real killer and passed a lie-detector test paid for by Northwestern University law professors who investigate claims of wrongful capital convictions, defense attorney Thomas Hill said. Hill said the former boss, Dale Dingus, had threatened to kill Willier if he ever told authorities about the crime, which Willier described as a botched drug pickup at the post office. Dingus is imprisoned at the Avoyelles Correctional Center in Cottonport, La. Prison officials there said Wednesday they could not give information on his crime, but published reports have said it is rape. He must serve at least until 2019. The (Cleveland) Dealer reported that Dingus said he had no involvement in the crime or any knowledge of what happened to Mottinger. The Associated Press on Wednesday left a message seeking comment from Dingus through the warden's office. Edwin Colfax, director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University Law School, said he has little hope that the case will be reopened without Taft's help. "It's really up to the governor at this point," Colfax said. "We're calling on the governor directly to pursue this testing as well. We're basically going to recruit the governor to get the facts." Death penalty opponents are urging people to write to Taft to grant clemency, said Alice Gerdeman, chairwoman of Ohioans to Stop Executions. Rickel said Taft has received correspondence from the law school professors and Spirko's lawyers but none since the complaint was filed. He also said the governor has received 1,592 letters, e-mails and faxes urging clemency for Spirko. Taft received 6,721 pleas for clemency before the 2002 execution of John Byrd, Rickel said. "The governor should find it very difficult to accept an execution under his watch when there is doubt about the guilt," Gerdeman said. The parole board recommended Oct. 19 that Taft deny clemency after a rare nd hearing on Spirko's case. The vote in both recommendations was 6-3. On the Net: John Spirko: http://www.johnspirko.com) (source: Associated Press) COLORADO: Death penalty a possibility in Madrid slaying In Eagle, District Attorney Mark Hurlbert is considering the death penalty in the 1st-degree murder case against Charles Anthony Gross, accused of killing Gypsum resident Maria Madrid on Oct. 7. "The death penalty is open, but I won't be able to make a decision until I go through the statutes and talk to the family, Hurlbert said. Although Hurlbert is eyeing the death penalty, he is not leaning for or against the measure, he said. First Hurlbert must consider several other factors about defendant's background that could lead him to seek the death penalty. Hurlbert said he hopes to make a decision shortly after the preliminary hearing scheduled for Dec. 14. The decision must come within 90 days after Gross enters a plea, which should be early next year, Hurlbert said. Death penalty cases are often longer because there is more legal wrangling over what evidence will be allowed in a trial, Hurlbert said. Hurlbert, who has never tried a death penalty case, said he will seek outside counsel from the state attorney generals office if capitol punishment is sought. The last person executed by the state was Gary Davis in 1997, by lethal injection, according to the Colorado Public Defender's Web site. Since the death penalty was instated in 1859, 103 people have been executed. The penalty has been nixed and reinstated twice since its inception. According to the Web site, the state defender's office has a "strong and unswerving commitment to opposing capitol punishment." Gross' public defender, Ken Barker, did not immediately return phones messages left for him. Gross is charged with 1st-degree murder in the shooting death of Madrid. If convicted, he also faces life in prison without parole. Gross is accused of murdering Madrid and shooting her husband Eliseo Madrid as the family drove away from a campsite picnic on Coffee Pot Road north of Dotsero. Maria died at a nearby home of a gunshot wound to the head, while Eliseo was hit in the arm. Their son Joel also was in the car at the time. (source: Vail Daily News) ALABAMA: Officials: Murderer nonchalantly admits to killing 12 more In Mobile, aman convicted of raping and murdering an Alabama woman has confessed to at least 12 more slayings in four other states and could be linked to four more killings, authorities said Wednesday. Alabama Attorney General Troy King branded Jeremy Bryan Jones "a monster who would kill without remorse." Jones, 32, of Miami, Oklahoma, faces a possible death sentence December 1 for the killing of Lisa Marie Nichols, 44, in Alabama. During his trial last month, Jones maintained his innocence in the presence of his mother and girlfriend. But privately Jones gave detectives details of the crimes, including victims' names and the locations of the killings, said sheriff's Detective Paul Burch. Jones was "very nonchalant and matter-of-fact" in recounting the rapes and killings, Burch said. Of the 13 victims Jones is suspected of killing, 10 were women. He is charged with killing a Georgia teen and a Louisiana woman. He also is a suspect in 10 other deaths -- 7 in Oklahoma, 2 in Georgia and 1 in Kansas. State and local law enforcement also suspect he is linked to the slayings of 4 Atlanta-area prostitutes. (source: Associated Press)
