Feb. 4 TEXAS: Appeal of killer's execution date is sought With an execution date set for the man known as the railroad killer, whose brutal slayings in the late 1990s shocked police and prosecutors, his lawyer said Friday that the condemned man deserves to have his appeals re-examined so that a constitutional question can be settled. Jack Zimmermann, who has been hired by the Mexican government to represent condemned killer Angel Maturino Resendiz, said he hopes that a federal appeals court will allow him to present evidence before the May 10 execution that his client has been denied due process of law. "We think the Texas death penalty statute is unconstitutional because it fails to spell out who has the burden of proof when it comes to deciding whether there were mitigating circumstances that warrant someone being sentenced to life in prison rather than to death," said Zimmermann, whose client is a Mexican national. Whether he will be able to make that argument to a judge remains uncertain because Resendiz's former lawyer failed to meet a key deadline to file an appeal with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Zimmermann said. Zimmermann's first task is to persuade the appeals court to extend that deadline. If he is successful, then he could advance his argument that his client is insane and therefore ineligible to be executed. Roe Wilson, an assistant district attorney in Harris County who is assigned to the case, said the courts have already examined the claim Zimmermann hopes to raise and have rejected them. Wilson also said that there is no question of Resendiz's guilt and that the condemned man has already been certified as competent to understand why he has been sentenced to be executed. "This man's DNA and fingerprints are all over these crimes -- literally," said Wilson. During his trial in Harris County in 2000, authorities described Resendiz as a heartless serial killer who brutalized the nine victims he had admitted to killing. He was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list, having evaded authorities for several years before his capture in 1999. He was condemned for the capital murder of Dr. Claudia Benton, who was bludgeoned to death in her Houston home just before Christmas 1998. "He has forfeited his right to be among us," Harris County prosecutor Devon Anderson told the jury during the punishment phase. IN THE KNOW Railroad killer timeline Key dates in the case of Angel Maturino Resendiz: Aug. 29, 1997 -- Christopher Maier, a 21-year-old student at the University of Kentucky, is killed as he and his girlfriend take a shortcut along the railroad tracks from one party to another. Oct. 2, 1998 -- Leafie Mason, 87, is found in her home in Hughes Springs, 125 miles east of Dallas, beaten to death with her antique iron. Dec. 17, 1998 -- Dr. Claudia Benton is found raped, stabbed and beaten to death in her Houston-area home near railroad tracks. Her vehicle is later found abandoned in San Antonio. A Resendiz fingerprint is found in the car. May 2, 1999 -- Norman Sirnic, 46, a Church of Christ minister, and his wife, Karen Sirnic, 47, are found dead in their home near railroad tracks in Weimar. Their pickup is found in nearby San Antonio. June 2, 1999 -- Resendiz is picked up by Border Patrol agents for illegal entry into the United States and sent back to Mexico. Agents said they were unaware he was wanted by police and the FBI. June 4, 1999 -- Josephine Konvicka, 73, is found slain in her Fayette County home, about 85 miles west of Houston. June 5, 1999 -- Noemi Dominguez, a 26-year-old Houston schoolteacher, is found beaten to death in her home. June 15, 1999 -- The bodies of George Morber, 80, and his daughter, Carolyn Frederick, 51, are discovered at their home in Gorham, Ill. The house is 100 yards from railroad tracks. July 13, 1999 -- Resendiz surrenders to authorities near El Paso. [source: The Associated Press] (source: Fort Worth Star-TGelegram) ******************** No Verdict in Texas Human Smuggling Case Prosecutors showed graphic photos of 19 illegal immigrants who died in a stifling trailer in a 2003 smuggling attempt and asked jurors during closing arguments to remember what the defendants did to the victims. "These were people with hopes and dreams whose lives were ended," Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Rodriguez said Friday. But defense attorneys scattered blame for the nation's deadliest smuggling attempt, telling jurors their clients were bit players in a scheme orchestrated by others. Deliberations were set to resume Monday after jurors met for about 2 hours before adjourning for the day. Victor Sanchez Rodriguez, 58; his wife, Emma Sapata Rodriguez, 59; and Rosa Sarrata Gonzalez, 51, Sapata's half-sister, are accused of being part of a smuggling ring that trucked more than 70 immigrants from South Texas to Houston in May 2003. During the trip, the immigrants began to succumb to the airtight trailer's deadly heat. The driver abandoned the trailer in Victoria, about 100 miles southwest of Houston. Seventeen immigrants died inside and two died later, all from dehydration, overheating and suffocation. "It's time to send a message to these three (smugglers) that their days of making money on the pain, desperation of others has come to an end," Rodriguez, the assistant U.S. attorney, said. The 3 defendants, all from South Texas, had each been charged with 58 counts of harboring and transporting illegal immigrants. But U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore dismissed most of the counts, citing lack of evidence. Sarrata now faces 3 counts, while Sanchez and Sapata each face 20 counts, including 2 charges alleging they held for ransom the 3-year-old son of a Honduran woman who survived the smuggling attempt. If convicted, they could face life in prison. Sanchez's attorney, David Adler, told jurors prosecutors only had enough evidence to convict his client of the charges related to the 3-year-old boy and that his client did not know how far the immigrants were being taken. "You may not like this man. You may hate his guts. But you can't convict him on the indictment the government brought to this court," Adler said. He blamed the deaths on Abelardo Flores, who has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with prosecutors, and the driver, Tyrone Williams. Sapata's defense attorney, Gerald Bourque, blamed U.S. immigration laws, saying they aim to keep out illegal immigrants while Americans welcome their low-cost labor. Bourque said Sapata was performing a humanitarian service by feeding, clothing and sheltering the immigrants. "I'm asking you to stand up to ... the government and say we will no longer allow you to hide your dirty little immigration secret," said Bourque. Sarrata's attorney, Joe Salinas, said Sarrata housed one immigrant in her home but only as a favor and was not paid. In all, 14 people were indicted in the case. 2 were convicted of various smuggling charges. 2 had charges dismissed, 5 others previously pleaded guilty and 1 man remains a fugitive. Williams, the only one to face the death penalty in the case, was convicted in March 2005 of transporting illegal immigrants, but none of the 38 counts were eligible for the death penalty. Prosecutors want to retry Williams, a Jamaican citizen who lived in Schenectady, N.Y., on all 58 counts he faced, getting another chance for a death sentence. An appeal is pending. *********************** Family's slaying remains Texas' longest unsolved mass killing When the tire on their 10-year-old Buick went flat in this rugged, isolated stretch of West Texas about 40 miles north of the Mexican border, it seemed merely an inconvenience for Manuel Arellano and his family. Arellano fixed the flat, but had another a few miles farther north. They relied on a Good Samaritan to take them another 30 miles up the lonely road to Sonora to get that tire repaired. What happened next has baffled authorities for nearly 40 years. A mile-long stretch of U.S. Highway 277 became a killing field, with family members shot, stabbed, raped and robbed. In all, 5 people died in what remains Texas' oldest unsolved mass slaying. But thanks to an anonymous tip that reinvigorated the stalled investigation, a Texas Ranger assigned the case now believes authorities are close to cracking it. "I couldn't give you a numerical value on our chances of solving it," said Sgt. Brooks Long, who is responsible for a four-county area of vast West Texas. "But I can tell you this: In 1998, law enforcement wasn't even in the ball park. And today we're on third base." It was April 16, 1968, when the Arellano family piled into the blue four-door 1958 Buick Special for a 190-mile drive to San Angelo from Villa de Fuente, just inside the Mexican border south of Piedras Negras, to visit a relative who had just given birth. Along with Arellano, 25, was his wife, Monica, 25; their children, Manuel Jr., 5, Leticia, 2 1/2, Eduardo, 15 months; and Arellano's sister, Rosa Elia, 19. It wasn't expected to be a difficult journey. Arellano was familiar with the United States, spoke fluent English and had been a migrant farm worker in Iowa. The couple had other relatives in Texas, and their car carried Texas license plates and election stickers promoting a relative running for sheriff in Zavala County. By daybreak, though, the family was dead. A ranchhand discovered the carnage - Arellano's body was found near a water trough, inside a barbed wire fence line not far from the highway. His wife's body was in a ditch about a mile south. Her sister-in-law's body was in some brush a few feet away. The children were nearer their father, in the rocks and shrubs usually occupied by goats, snakes and armadillos. The car was found about eight miles away, still with a flat tire. Amazingly, Leticia, shot twice between the eyes, was alive. So was her brother, Manuel Jr., also shot in the head and stabbed. Leticia died 2 days later. Manuel Jr. survived, but underwent multiple brain surgeries. Some 2 weeks after his attack, the boy was able to tell authorities about a white man, "a big cowboy," who was helping them, then killed his father. Several people were brought in for questioning. The attendant couldn't identify any of them as the man he saw. No charges ever were filed. The .22-caliber murder weapon never was found. Investigators weren't even certain how many suspects to hunt. By 1982, the investigation had turned cold after producing thousands of pages of documentation, Long said. "It had been worked to exhaustion," he said. That's how it stayed until 1999, when a caller told the Texas Department of Public Safety he knew the identity of the killer. Detectives traced the caller and eventually dismissed him as an unreliable source, but the tip renewed interest in the case. "We had to go look, start digging things up, find reports and start piecing things together," Long said. "We came to realize this is a case that needs to be looked at" again. Rangers tracked down the ranchhand, an illegal immigrant, who found the bodies, but he had nothing new to add. Long looked for two years for the old Buick, finally convincing himself it was destroyed in a salvage yard. The lead investigator at the time, Ranger A.Y. Allee Jr., died in January, but Long has a sworn statement from him that could be used in court. The investigation has taken Long all over the country and to Mexico, where he found Manuel Jr. He was taken to Mexico after recovering from multiple brain surgeries and raised by his grandmother. He's now about 42 years old, married, a father, and working in the financial industry. Long said Manuel Jr. wasn't sure what to make of authorities contacting him decades after he lost his family. "You can only imagine what went through this gentleman's mind," Long said. "Initially he was skeptical. After I was able to meet him in person, I think he realized we were for real." But he could provide little help, even after questioning under hypnosis. "His memory of the incident was basically nonexistent, except for what he has been told or read," Long said. He did, however, lift his shirt and show Long the 5 or 6 scars from stab wounds he suffered, Long said. Long, who is about Manual Jr.'s age, has authorities did collect some physical evidence years ago, like pieces of the victims' clothing. Some has been submitted for DNA testing that wasn't available in the late '60s and early '70s. Long believes more than one person was involved in the slayings, which differs from the beliefs of his peers decades ago. "Back in '68, I think with the information they had, probably they looked at a hate crime as the motive. Sexual assault was secondary, thirdly would have been theft," said Long, referring to the rape of at least one of the women. "I think now we put that reversed. I think you have a robbery that kind of gets out of hand that leads to murder and sexual assault." Long said the attacker or attackers may have killed again. "Experience is, definitely you don't do this and stop," he said. "And if it was just a one-time event in some individual's life, that's questionable how somebody rational could do something like this and just carry on with his normal routine in life." Few in the sparsely populated area remember the case, though it seems to have spawned a legend from Del Rio to Mexico. Carol Finegan, who with her husband owns the nearly 80-year-old Loma Alta store where the Arellano family repaired their 1st flat, has heard talk about how Mexicans won't stop there or travel the road. "It seemed like a ghost thing they were talking about, or something like that," said Finegan, whose store is the lone oasis on the winding 90-mile highway between Del Rio and Sonora. A preacher once came in the store "to get rid of the Loma Alta devil or ghost," she recalled. Another time she was questioned by a man who said he was a private investigator looking into some killings, she said. The killings are among more than 900 mass slayings in the 20th century and several remain unsolved, according to Grant Duwe, a senior research analyst with the Minnesota Department of Corrections who has studied the subject. Among them is one that occurred only 2 months after the Arellano family slayings in 1968, when a vacationing family of 6 was killed in a Michigan cabin. Long said he hopes one day to get answers to what happened that day in that West Texas field. "If anything this case did do, it showed me the importance of how not to quit," Long said. "There's always something to follow." (source for: Associated Press) *************** ATTORNEYS DISCUSS WILLIAMS CASE AT HEARING Attorneys discussed pre-trial matters in a capital murder hearing Friday for a man accused of robbing, beating, stabbing and burning an elderly woman in Tyler. Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham said he has not decided whether the state would seek the death penalty against Clifton Lamar "Crazy C" Williams for allegedly killing Cecilia Schneider. But, he said, he would make the decision before the next pre-trial hearing in March. Williams faces life in prison or death by lethal injection if convicted of capital murder. The state, represented by Bingham and First Assistant DA April Sikes, has listed 157 potential witnesses and 10 experts who could be called to testify during the trial set for June 9 in 114th Cynthia Stevens Kent's court. Attorneys Melvin Thompson and Don Killingsworth are defending Williams. Judge Kent said no issues of incompetence, mental retardation or insanity have been raised in the case. The 22-year-old defendant was arrested in July after Tyler police discovered fingerprints and blood inside Ms. Schneider's stolen and abandoned vehicle. Ms. Schneider, 93, was found July 9 beaten and stabbed to death inside her home at 311 Callahan St. in Tyler. The suspect then set fire to the victim and her bedding, according to the arrest warrant. The indictment charges Williams with killing Ms. Schneider by stabbing, striking, inflicting sharp or blunt force injuries, burning her or her habitation or by strangling her, any of which he did in the course of committing or attempting to commit burglary of a habitation, robbery or arson. It also alleged he used a deadly weapon in the offense. Stolen were Ms. Schneider's purse and 1997 Toyota Camry, which was recovered wrecked on Greenbriar Road. A "large amount of blood" was found both inside and outside the car. A bloody Kleenex and fingerprints were also retrieved, according to the affidavit by Tyler police Officer Dennis Matthews, who said he was informed by several witnesses who observed a black male standing in front of and walking away from, the wrecked car. Judge Kent issued a restrictive and protective order, limiting what those involved in the case can disseminate to the public. (source: Tyler Morning Telegraph) ************************** Lack of motive may have hurt Pratt prosecution Asking a jury to understand the complexities of cells and tissues may have been the undoing of Tarrant County prosecutors' capital murder case against Laverne Pratt in the slaying of 14-year-old Lan Bui. Prosecutors offered no motive for Lan's Feb. 7 slaying but presented massive DNA evidence they said Mr. Pratt, 44, left at the crime scene. Lan, a Trimble Tech freshman, was found bound, gagged and stabbed on the playground of the Waldemar Apartments where she lived. Mr. Pratt was her neighbor at the apartment complex. With no way to connect the brutal slaying with the biology touted by prosecutors, a Tarrant County jury stunned the courtroom and some courthouse observers Wednesday when it returned a not guilty verdict after 5 hours of deliberations. "The O.J. Simpson case is a good example that DNA evidence does not guarantee a conviction," said Fred Moss, an associate professor of law at Southern Methodist University. "The problem with DNA is that it can be complicated and confusing. A jury may think that it's beside the point. They may find that even if it is his DNA, is it evidence of a murder?" Not having a motive leaves jurors with complex forensic evidence and little else, he said. Juries, he said, want a motive. "Juries always ask why would a person do this horrible thing," said Mr. Moss, a former federal prosecutor. "This is a crime of passion, and if you're going to have any evidence of a relationship between the 2 that would give rise to a passion, it helps to have a motive." Mr. Pratt left an extensive biological track at the crime scene, said Steve Jumes, who prosecuted Mr. Pratt. He told jurors that there was no blood trail and that Lan was killed at the park. Mr. Pratt's DNA, he said, was found on tape around the girl's mouth and on rope used to tie her hands. Lan's blood, he said, was found on Mr. Pratt's pajamas. Mr. Jumes said he is convinced the right person was arrested and tried. "I would have liked a motivation," Mr. Jumes said. "The positioning of her body, the obvious binding suggests a motivation for this crime." There are no plans to pursue anyone else, and the case is closed, he said. Prosecutors are disappointed though respectful of the jury's verdict, said David Montague, a senior staff attorney for the district attorney's office. In the last 10 years, Tarrant County has had a 95 % conviction rate in capital murder cases. "Sometimes juries make decisions that don't make sense, and sometimes juries don't see the evidence the way you do," Mr. Montague said. "People don't always make decisions on logic. A lot of times it's their emotions." Jurors declined to comment after the announcement of the verdict. Tarrant County tries 15 to 20 capital cases per year. About 3 of those go to trial with death penalty specifications attached, he said. Had Mr. Pratt been convicted, he faced an automatic life sentence. "The Lord set me free," he told reporters as he left the Tarrant County Jail, where he had been held since his arrest in March. Mr. Jumes said he intends to do a lot of soul-searching to determine if the outcome could have been different. "This case does not reflect the value of Lan Bui or her memory. My personal reaction is to investigate what I could have done. I did everything I knew to do. I believe the science was there." Vicky Rios, Lan's mother, said she is disappointed with the verdict and is trying to put her life back together after learning that she may never see justice for her daughter. "I'll have to do it one day at a time," she said. "It hasn't sunk in yet." (source: Dallas Morning News) TENNESSEE: Supreme Court considers Holton case Questions were raised Thursday about the authority of a legal service created by state lawmakers to represent all death row inmates so the state can be sure that those condemned to die have not suffered inadequate legal representation or other violations of their rights. The question arose during a Tennessee Supreme Court hearing ostensibly for Daryl Keith Holton, 45, who was living in a Shelbyville garage where he shot his four children to death nearly 7 years ago. Related arguments were heard in Montgomery and Davidson counties' cases against Paul Reid, convicted in several fast food murders. Tennessee's justices aren't expected to issue a ruling for weeks, but one consequence could be resetting an execution date for Holton, 1 of 2 men on death row because of crimes in Shelbyville. The Post Conviction Defense Office is not a general guardian of all death row inmates, Associate Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Smith said, challenging the office's authority to represent Holton without his request. That's not the issue, said Donald E. Dawson, an attorney for the Post Conviction Defense Office created by the Legislature in 1995. "Is the defendant making a knowing, competent waiver of the rights?" Dawson asked, adding that Holton suffered mental illness in high school, during and after his military service during the Gulf War. Beyond arguing the Post Conviction Defense Office shouldn't be trying to stop Holton's execution because it does not have any cooperation from Holton, or even contact with him -- he allows only visits by his mother -- Smith challenged a Bedford County Circuit Court order last spring that postponed Holton's execution. The court order stopping the execution exceeded the judge's authority, Smith said. Without Holton's assistance, or even acknowledgment that the Post Conviction Defense Office is trying to help him, that state-funded law office is "over-reaching," Smith said. Judge Don Harris of Brentwood, who's acquired senior status since his retirement, presided over Holton's post conviction relief hearing here because Bedford County judges recused themselves. Harris ordered Holton's execution be put on hold until the state's defense lawyers could make their case for Holton. "They want him alive for the hearing," District Attorney Mike McCown explained after Harris' ruling May 16, 2005. "They want time to talk with him." Yet, Holton has refused to meet with Dawson, or anyone with his office. In contrast, Paul Reid initiated post conviction relief himself, according to arguments Thursday. Even so, advocates for his life report he sent a hand-written letter in March 2003 saying he would not pursue any post conviction appeals. Without even such an indication of what the inmate wants, Dawson filed court papers for Holton. At issue in both cases is the mental health of the inmates, the same type of arguments heard in state and federal courts on behalf of Gregory Thompson, whose execution date was next Tuesday, Feb. 7, until a federal judge put it on hold so that court's record may be complete and consideration given on the issue of whether he's competent to be executed. Thompson killed Brenda Blanton Lane of Shelbyville. During yesterday's hearing, Smith was asked if a defendant must always sign to have post conviction relief. She said the state requires verification. But, Chief Justice William Barker asked, suppose there was an "improbable ... prison accident and the prisoner is in a coma, unable to sign; would time run out" on a statute of limitations for filing appeals? Smith: "Absence of verification is evidence there was no consent or authorization." Dawson has openly conceded that he did not file petitions before a time limit expired on that opportunity, but he proceeded with the office's request as he was questioned Thursday on what appears to be a tardy request for more litigation that might same Holton's life. Noting dates on files indicating the statute of limitations expired, the chief justice asked Dawson why he waited. "I got lost," Holton replied. "I'd been looking at the June execution date, not the deadline." "That," Baker replied, "is understandable, but is it an excuse?" Dawson replied it is because the court has made exceptions in the past, and it can because it retains jurisdiction and with that authority, it can decide that an inmate is incompetent. Competency for execution has been argued in the Thompson case with the state emphasizing that the condemned need only know that the state plans to execute them and why. Dawson was asked also about the authority of his office to take up a prisoner's case. "Legislative intent," Dawson replied. "The Post Conviction Defender is to provide representation for any person condemned to die." Yet, Barker noted, there are people who choose not to appeal and would "take their medicine." Dawson said Holton may be one, but it's unknown because he's not met with anyone and because of that there's no record of mental illness in state records, although Holton's federal case file shows the federal defender's office found a psychiatrist who concluded Holton isn't competent. (source: Shelbyville Times-Gazette) DELAWARE: 2 men receive death sentences for 2nd time----Judge decides on execution for '95 slaying of store guard 2 men who were condemned to die nearly a decade ago for the 1995 execution-style slaying of a department store guard were given the death sentence again Friday. Michael R. Manley and David D. Stevenson were silent as Superior Court Judge Jerome O. Herlihy handed down the sentence. Manley did, however, place his right fist over his heart and looked at family members as corrections officers led him out of the courtroom. "We will be filing an appeal," Stevenson's attorney, Michael C. Heyden, said after leaving the courtroom. The 31-year-old men were convicted of 1at-degree murder in the slaying of 25-year-old Kristopher Heath, a Macy's security officer who was about to testify against Stevenson in a theft case. Manley shot Heath at Stevenson's direction to prevent him from testifying in the theft case. "The execution, arguably assassination, of a witness in a criminal proceeding, here with a clear and potential benefit to his friend, is such a fundamental crime against a society of laws that its seriousness and weight cannot be overstated," Herlihy said as he sentenced Manley. "Accordingly, a sentence of death is the appropriate punishment." Manley and Stevenson originally received a death sentenced in 1997 after a jury recommended execution. But the Delaware Supreme Court dismissed that sentence in 2001 after finding that the original judge had a conflict. In December, however, a new jury again recommended death for the pair, voting 11-1 that Manley be put to death and 10-2 that Stevenson be executed. In 1996, the jury recommended death by a vote of 7-5 for Manley and 8-4 for Stevenson. In the 2nd penalty phase, defense attorneys portrayed their clients as "good guys" who did well in school, visited sick friends in the hospital and had loving families. Manley was an Army Reserve medic at the time. Stevenson was a University of Delaware student who held 2 part-time jobs, one of them at Macy's. Neither had a criminal record. But "those mitigators pale in the face of the brutal, cold-blooded, premeditated, uncalled-for execution of a witness," Herlihy wrote in his ruling. "Few types of murders are more heinous." Heath's family, who hugged and thanked prosecutors and also shook the hands of defense attorneys, declined to comment. Prosecutor Stuart E. Sklut was brief with his comments about the sentencing: "The court said it all." (source: The News Journal) MARYLAND: Evans waits for word on appeals----Catholic church leaders urge the governor to commute death row inmate's sentence With an execution warrant scheduled to go into effect Monday, death row inmate Vernon Lee Evans Jr. awaited word yesterday from Maryland's highest court on several pending appeals as leaders of the Roman Catholic church implored the governor to commute Evans' death sentence. Also yesterday, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. received a statement -- signed by religious and civil rights leaders, professors and the author of a state-funded study that found geographic and racial disparities in imposition of capital punishment -- calling for ending executions until the system can be overhauled. Emphasizing their "range of viewpoints" on the death penalty, those who signed the statement asked the governor and legislature to "halt all executions until steps have been taken to assure (1) that the innocent are not sentenced to death, (2) that the death penalty is reserved for only the 'worst of the worst' among the guilty, and (3) that racial bias ... plays no role." Evans, 56, was sentenced in the 1983 contract killings of two employees of a Pikesville motel. A death warrant signed by a Baltimore County judge authorizes his execution during the five-day period that begins at 12:01 a.m. Monday. A clerk with the Maryland Court of Appeals informed the defense team late yesterday afternoon that the judges would not rule before Monday on appeals pending before the court. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied yesterday a request to overturn the ruling of a federal judge, who rejected Evans' challenge to Maryland's lethal injection procedure. In letters yesterday, church leaders with the Maryland Catholic Conference and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops asked Ehrlich to spare Evans' life. "We are not unmindful of the suffering visited upon the families of Susan Kennedy and Scott Piechowicz, whose murders led to Mr. Evans' conviction," wrote Cardinal William H. Keeler, the archbishop of Baltimore; Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the archbishop of Washington; and Bishop Michael A. Saltarelli of Wilmington, Del. "They are in our prayers, especially now, as the publicity surrounding the scheduled execution compels them to experience once again the utter sadness they must have first felt on that day in 1983 when they learned of their losses," the church leaders added. "Had the life-without-parole sentence been available at the time of Evans' trial, their reliving of that terrible time might have been avoided. That sentence is available now and we ask you to apply it as a substitution for execution." The Vatican's envoy to Washington, Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, made a similar appeal this week. Evans' attorneys also sent the governor information about the options presented to jurors at his sentencing hearing. Evans is the 1st death row inmate to be considered by Ehrlich whose jury was not given the option of life without parole. The legislature did not make that punishment available until 1987. Capital defense attorney Julie S. Dietrich said that four of the 6 jurors contacted by the defense team said they would have chosen life without parole as a sentence for Evans, had they been given the option. Death sentences must be decided by a unanimous vote in Maryland. "That makes him a very different candidate for clemency than the others before him," Dietrich said of Steven Howard Oken and Wesley Eugene Baker, who were executed in 2004 and 2005, respectively. (source: The Baltimore Sun) ARKANSAS: Robida could face Ark. death penalty Should Jacob D. Robida be convicted of killing Gassville, Ark. police officer Jim Sell, he could face death by lethal injection. Under Arkansas law, murdering a police officer is a capital offense punishable by death. According to information available on the state's Department of Corrections' Web site, as of Feb. 1, 35 men are awaiting execution on Arkansas' death row, ranging in age from 24 to 53. According to the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center, a self-described non-profit organization that serves the media and public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment, 27 executions have been carried out in Arkansas since 1976, the year the U.S. Supreme Court declared capital punishment constitutional. The last execution before that ruling took place in 1964. Arkansas' 27 executions put it on par with many other Southern states, including Louisiana's 27, Alabama's 34, South Carolina's 35, Georgia's 39 and North Carolina's 40. More executions are carried out in the South than any other region of the United States - 824 since 1976, as opposed to four in the Northeast, according to DPIC statistics. The last execution in Arkansas was carried out in November. Eric Nance, 45, was executed for killing a teenage girl with a box cutter in 1993. Arkansas executions have been the focus of controversy in recent years. In January 2004, the state executed convicted murderer Charles Singleton despite his lengthy history of severe mental illness. And in 1992, then-Gov. Bill Clinton was roundly criticized by death penalty opponents for flying home to Arkansas in the middle of his presidential campaign to observe the execution of Rickey Ray Rector, who unsuccessfully tried to kill himself after slaying a police officer, suffering permanent brain damage. Critics said Clinton did so only to bolster his anti-crime credentials before the election. (source: Standard-Times)
