June 2 TENNESSEE----new execution date Sedley Alley execution set for June 28 The Tennessee Supreme Court has set a June 28 execution date for death row inmate Sedley Alley. Alley was convicted and sentenced to death for abducting and brutally raping and murdering 19-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Suzanne Collins on July 11, 1985. Hours before Alleys scheduled May 16 execution, Gov. Phil Bredesen granted a 15-day reprieve for the express purpose of allowing time for Alleys lawyers to return to the Shelby County trial court to request DNA testing under the Tennessee Post Conviction DNA Analysis Act. On May 31, the Shelby County Criminal Court entered a written order denying Alleys last petition to prevent the execution. Justice Adolpho A. Birch dissented from todays Supreme Court order setting the June 28 execution. (source: Nashville City Paper) PENNSYLVANIA: Death row inmate Koehler back in Bradford County Court Death row inmate John Koehler was back in Bradford County on Thursday, for a post conviction petition hearing before President Judge Jeffrey Smith. Koehler, 45, formerly of New Jersey, was convicted in Bradford County Court in April 1996 of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Regina Clark, 31, and her 9-year-old son Austin Clark. Koehler was sentenced to death the day after his murder convictions. Attorneys representing Koehler, as well as representatives from the Pennsylvania Attorney Generals Office, made their arguments before Judge Smith on Thursday. However, no decision was made during the proceedings, and not all testimony was completed. The hearing is scheduled to be completed in August. Regina Clarks body was discovered in April 1995 in an abandoned refrigerator along a dirt road in Stevens Township. An investigation by the state police led them to William Curley, who was 19 at the time of the double homicide. Curley, a former resident of Bradford County, eventually confessed that hed shot and killed Regina Clark and her son in a garage in Windham Township on Koehlers orders. Curley was eventually found guilty of 1st- and 2nd-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Koehler has spent the last 10 years appealing his death sentences. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Koehler in 1992. (source: The Daily Review) INDIANA: Police cite robbery as motive in Indianapolis murders 7 family members, the youngest just 5 years old, were shot to death in their home during what appeared to be a robbery attempt, officials said Friday as police searched for at least 2 suspects in the attack. Police reached the house shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday after a witness saw one of the victims being dragged into the home and then heard gunfire. Inside, officers found 3 children, ages 5 to 11, dead on a bed and the bodies of 4 adults scattered inside, police said. All had been shot in what officials described as the city's worst mass killings in decades. Police were seeking 2 suspects, including Desmond Turner, 28, of Indianapolis. Sgt. Matthew Mount, a police spokesman, said Turner grew up in the neighborhood but it was unclear whether he knew the family. Turner's criminal history includes time served for pointing a handgun and criminal recklessness. "He'd gone there to rob the home and decided while he was there to execute everybody at the same time, unfortunately," Mount said. Witnesses told police they saw 3 or 4 men running from the back of the house after the shootings, and authorities said they were searching for another suspect. The 7 victims spanned three generations of a family, from 5-year-old Luis Albarran to his grandmother Emma Valdez. Luis had spent the evening with his grandmother while his mother, Flora Albarran, was out running errands with a friend, police said. Albarran, 22, arrived about 10 p.m. to pick up the boy. When she walked up to the house and opened the door, her friend saw a light come on and heard Albarran shout: "Don't do that! My child!" Albarran yelled to her friend not to come in the house, then the friend heard gunshots and screaming, police said in a news release. The friend told police a man holding a long gun stepped onto the porch and the shooting continued inside. Authorities identified the victims as Emma Valdez, 46, and her husband, Alberto Covarrubias, 56; Flora Albarran and her brother Magno Albarran, 29; Alberto Covarrubias, 11; David Covarrubias, 8 or 9; and young Luis. Neighbor Frank Dodson, 49, said Valdez' husband had been at his home earlier that evening and nothing appeared to be wrong. "They were real friendly people," he said. "You couldn't ask for better neighbors. God, I hate to see this happen." At the home Friday morning, an iron security door stood open as the officers passed in and out, and a wind chime hung in one window. Police had no history of calls to the home apart from one to check on an alarm. Neighbors said the area, about a block from the Indiana Women's Prison, had declined in recent years and that drug crimes and muggings had become more common. "We have been complaining and complaining," said Sandy Washington, 65, who said she had gone to neighborhood meetings to report drugs and prostitution in the area. "Our voices aren't heard." Thursday's slayings were the city's worst since King Edward Bell, a laid-off autoworker, killed his estranged wife, mother-in-law and four children in 1981. Bell was sentenced to 6 consecutive 40-year prison terms. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TENN., PENN., IND.
Rick Halperin Fri, 2 Jun 2006 16:46:11 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
