[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, OKLA., NEV., N.C., ILL., WASH.

[Rick Halperin]

April 10



TEXAS:

Mother avoids death penalty in child beating case


The mother of 5-year-old beating victim Daisy Perales avoided a possible
death sentence and was sentenced to 52 years in prison on Monday after
pleading guilty to a lesser charge of injury to a child.

Ruby Jacquez, 26, entered the plea before 399th District Judge Juanita
Vasquez-Gardner, under a plea bargain with prosecutors in which she agreed
to testify against the child's father, Paul Perales, 25.

Daisy was rushed to Wilford Hall Medical Center on Nov. 23, 2004,
suffering from severe head injuries, numerous bruises all over her body,
and malnutrition.

At the time, she was reported to have weighed only 20 pounds. She survived
on life support for 8 days before succumbing to her injuries on Dec. 1.

Her death was the 9th in a wave of child slayings that occurred while the
children were being monitored by Child Protective Services and their
families were being investigated for child abuse in cases stretching back
just two years.

Local caseworkers had been alerted to possible abuse at Daisy's home on 12
occasions before her death and had opened seven investigations. The agency
closed 6 of the investigations without taking action; the seventh case
remains open. A review of the agency's handling of Daisy's case was so
troubling to its parent agency, the Texas Department of Health and Human
Services, that it sent a special administrator to take over the local
office, and a team of four experts to review all of the agency's open
cases.

Multiple investigations of Daisy's case and others prompted legislative
reforms to increase agency manpower and lower average workloads among
caseworkers.

Paul Perales also is charged with felony injury to a child for beatings of
Daisy on other occasions prior to her death, said prosecutor Scott
Simpson. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

At Monday's hearing, Vasquez-Gardner rendered an affirmative finding that
Jacquez used a deadly weapon, namely her hands, in the commission of her
crime, which means that the earliest she could be eligible for parole is
in 25 1/2 years.

(source: San Antonio Express-News)






OKLAHOMA:

Death penalty sought for Cross and Olsen


The District Attorney's Office is seeking the death penalty for 2 half
brothers charged with 1st-degree murder for the shooting death of Scotty
Dean Sheffield.

This morning, District Attorney Emily Redman filed a bill of particulars
in Bryan County District Court announcing that the state will seek the
death penalty for Kevin Leon Cross, 24, and Gary Wayne Olsen Jr., 22, if
they are convicted of murder.

Court papers state that the crime qualifies for the death penalty because
the murder of Sheffield, 23, was "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel."

According to authorities, Sheffield was a witness against Cross in another
crime. Sheffield was lured in September to an area east of Durant on Old
Highway 70 near the Blue River, according to court papers, and he was
beaten with baseball bats.

He was then made to crawl on his hands and knees before being shot twice
in the head, court records state.

After authorities found Sheffield's body, a manhunt began for Cross and
Olsen that ended 2 weeks later with their capture in Mexico. Officers had
to track down Cross again after he escaped Feb. 11 from the Bryan County
Jail, according to authorities. He was caught Feb. 23 and transferred to a
state penitentiary where he is being held on a prior conviction.

Olsen is being held at an out-of-county jail.

Both are due back in court today for a formal arraignment. Cross also is
listed on this month's jury term for trial on drug trafficking and
burglary, but officials said he may enter a plea on these charges.

(source: Durant Democrat)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Judge says he may stop N.C. execution


A federal judge said he will stop an execution scheduled for later this
month unless state officials tell him by Wednesday how they will ensure
the inmate is unconscious as he's being put to death.

U.S. District Court Judge Malcolm Howard issued the ruling Friday in the
case of condemned killer Willie Brown Jr. Brown, 61, was sentenced to
death for the 1983 Martin County slaying of Valerie Ann Roberson Dixon. He
is scheduled to die April 21.

State prosecutors must confirm by noon Wednesday that appropriate medical
personnel will be on hand for Brown's planned execution to make sure that
he's unconscious and to immediately put him back to sleep if there's any
sign of his awakening.

State officials didn't respond immediately to a request for comment.

The case is parallel to a February case in California, where an execution
was canceled after doctors refused to participate.

A lawsuit on Brown's behalf challenges the state's method of execution by
injection, saying inmates may suffer pain if they're not properly sedated.
The state procedure is to inject a drug that puts inmates to sleep, then
others that paralyze and kill them.

"Serious questions have been raised by the evidence concerning the effect
of the current execution protocol," Howard said in his order. "If the
alleged deficiencies do, in fact, result in inadequate anesthesia prior to
execution, there is no dispute that Brown will suffer excruciating pain."

During an execution in March, prison officials wouldn't comment when asked
if there were medical personnel present when the drugs were injected.

Dr. Richard Pollard, president of the N.C. Society of Anesthesiologists,
said only an anesthesiologist or a nurse anesthetist could fulfill the
judge's requirements.

Brown's lawyers also have asked Gov. Mike Easley to grant clemency and
change the death sentence to life in prison, arguing that their client has
a history of untreated mental illness. Prosecutors and defense lawyers are
scheduled to make their cases during a hearing Tuesday.

Defense lawyers also contend that Brown's prosecutor offered a plea
agreement at one point and appeared uncertain about whether the case
should have carried a death sentence. Brown's trial lawyers were
inexperienced and failed to introduce his mental state as a reason he
shouldn't be sentenced to death.

Brown's jury also received unconstitutional instructions, the same ones
that were used by a federal appeals court to invalidate nearly 50 other
death sentences, his latest lawyers contend. Brown's 1st appellate lawyer
didn't raise the issue, they said.

(source: Associated Press)






NEVADA:

Nevada court orders new hearing in death penalty case


A man sentenced to death for murdering his ex-girlfriend in Las Vegas -
after he was mistakenly released from jail - won a new penalty hearing
Monday from the Nevada Supreme Court.

The high court also said 2 aggravating circumstances brought up by
prosecutors in efforts to get the 1st death sentence can't be used again.
That still leaves a 3rd "aggravator," that the murder was committed while
James Chappell was trying to sexually assault Deborah Panos.

Panos, the mother of Chappell's three children, was stabbed repeatedly
with a kitchen knife in 1995. His lawyer said Chappell acted in the heat
of passion after becoming enraged about a love-letter Panos got from
another man.

Chappell had been in jail as a result of several charges, including a
domestic violence allegation. Following a court hearing on the day of the
murder, he was supposed to go to a drug treatment program. Instead, he
wound up on the street.

On appeal to the Supreme Court, prosecutors argued that a lower court
erred in granting Chappell a new penalty hearing. But justices said the
lower court properly found that Chappell's trial lawyer failed to put on
witnesses who could have countered the prosecution's evidence about his
criminal history, bad character and abusive relationship with Chanos.

Citing its 2004 "McConnell" ruling that changed the way prosecutors can
seek a death sentence, the Supreme Court also barred the use of
"aggravators" alleging the murder was committed during the commission of a
burglary and during the commission of a robbery.

In that 2004 ruling, the court rejected the practice by prosecutors of
charging a person with 1st-degree murder for a killing that occurs while
another felony is being committed, and then using that same charge as an
aggravator to seek a death sentence.

The high court said the McConnell case "squarely applies to Chappell's
case and renders infirm the aggravators based on the robbery and burglary,
the predicate felonies that supported the felony murder theory."

But prosecutors didn't rely on the sexual assault charge to support the
felony murder argument, justices said, adding that there's evidence
Chappell sexually assaulted Panos and his "criminal purpose" was distinct
from the burglary and robbery.

(source: Associated Press)



ILLINOIS:

Prosecutors seek 30 years to life for ex-death row inmate


The last 20 years of Aaron Patterson's life have been "an unbroken string
of crime and violence," prosecutors charged in a court filing that made
new allegations about contact between the former death row inmate and El
Rukn street gang founder Jeff Fort.

Pardoned of murder in 2003, Patterson, 41, never abandoned his life as a
gang "prince" and was prepared to use violence to enforce a drug
territory, prosecutors stated in a court filing late last week.

The document also included a glimpse into the current operation of the El
Rukns, also known as the Black P Stones, including allegations that Fort
sought to purchase a $5 million headquarters and offered safe haven to a
presumed rival, Vice Lords leader Willie Lloyd.

Prosecutors presented the new allegations in anticipation of Patterson's
June sentencing for running drugs and buying guns. He was convicted of
those charges last year, and prosecutors are seeking 30 years to life in
prison for him.

Patterson's lawyer, Jason Epstein, had not reviewed the new allegations
late Monday and said he could not comment on the details.

"It's not surprising that they're making these allegations. If they have
it out for you, they're going to say you're just a very bad guy," he said.

Prosecutors detailed Patterson's criminal history, a violent trail that
began in 1985 when he shot at a police officer and missed. While in and
out of prison, Patterson engaged in beatings, stabbings and shootings of
several men, prosecutors recounted.

Since his pardon in 2003, Patterson has portrayed himself as a man bent on
reforming a criminal justice system that unjustly put him on death row for
years. He has also said he was using his position to encourage young men
to stay away from drugs and violence.

But through telephone conversations with Fort, who is serving an 80-year
sentence for plotting acts of terror, Patterson and other top Black P
Stones ran the violent gang, prosecutors charged.

In a February 2004 conversation with alleged gang leader Isaiah Kitchen,
Fort discussed Patterson's ultimately unsuccessful run for state
representative, according to the court document.

"Fort thought that if Patterson became an Illinois sate representative,
[he] would use his office to help the Black P Stones," the document
states.

Patterson plotted to unite gangs in Chicago to extort money from musicians
who wanted to perform here, prosecutors charged.

After Patterson and Kitchen visited embattled gang chief Lloyd in 2004,
Fort told Kitchen to tell Lloyd "to move to their neighborhood and they
would protect him," the document states.

Fort also instructed Patterson to have a "well-known entertainer"
contribute $500,000 toward the purchase of a new headquarters where
Patterson could "guarantee his safety by having a fortified place,"
according to the document.

The notion of a fortified headquarters recalled the days when Fort's gang
controlled a drug empire from an old theater, known as "the fort" and "the
mosque," on South Drexel Boulevard.

(source: Chicago Tribune)






WASHINGTON (state):

Former death row inmate dies at penitentiary


Patrick James Jeffries, who spent 14 years on Washington state's death row
for killing an elderly Port Angeles couple who had taken him into their
home, has died at the Washington State Penitentiary, officials said
Monday. He was 71.

Jeffries died Saturday night in the prison's infirmary, prison spokeswoman
Lori Scamahorn said. Walla Walla County Coroner Frank Brown said Jeffries
died from end stage liver disease caused by liver cancer.

Jeffries was convicted in Clallam County and sentenced to death in 1983
for the aggravated 1st-degree murders of Phillip and Inez Skiff. The 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voided his death sentence in 1997. Phillip
Skiff was fatally shot, then buried in a shallow grave near his home. His
wife was found shot to death inside a shed.

Investigators found that $30,000 in Canadian currency was withdrawn from
the couple's account before their deaths. The money was never recovered.

Jeffries, a Canadian citizen, was on parole for robbery in Canada and
staying in the Skiffs' home when they were killed.

The federal appeals court struck down the death sentence because of juror
misconduct, but let stand the murder convictions.

Jeffries was resentenced in 1998 to life in prison without possibility of
parole after agreeing to plead guilty to aggravating circumstances, and
Clallam County prosecutors agreed not to seek a death penalty.

He is survived by a brother in Canada, Scamahorn said.

(source: Associated Press)