Oct. 8 TEXAS: Mother of 1988 Austin murder victim writing book Graham resident Jeanette Popp has been trying to make sense of her daughter's brutal murder at an Austin restaurant for 20 years. Next March, her book, Mortal Justice, with Wanda Evans of Lubbock, will be released by New Horizon Press. As detailed in The Dallas Morning News last February, the case shook Texas' criminal justice system, after 2 men, Chris Ochoa and Richard Danziger were wrongfully convicted of the crime. Mr.Ochoa falsely confessed to the horrific rape and murder to avoid the death penalty, and implicated Mr. Danziger, who always maintained his innocence. The 2 men were released after 12 years in prison after another inmate confessed and other evidence tied him to the case. Ms. Popp befriended Mr. Ochoa, and became an outspoken opponent of the death penalty. According to New Horizon's catalog, a 20 city talk radio tour is planned. (source: Dallas Morning News) MARYLAND: High Drama At Maryland's Death Penalty Commission A commission examining capital punishment in Maryland produced some high drama yesterday, as an exonerated death row inmate tangled with the state's attorney from the jurisdiction that sentenced him to death. Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Schellenberger, a member of the commission, told his colleagues that he believes in Maryland there is virually no chance today of prosecutors falsely convicting and executing an innocent person. Furthermore, Schellenberger said he was not troubled by the disparity among counties in how often prosecutors seek the death penalty. "I believe jurisdictional disparity is really local rule," said Schellenberger, whose office was found in a study to be 13 times more likely to seek a death sentence than prosecutors in the city of Baltimore. His comments invited a pointed response from another commission member, Kirk Bloodsworth, who was twice convicted of the 1984 murder of a 9-year-old girl before being freed in 1993 based on DNA evidence. "I think it's a little cavalier for you or anybody in the state to say that they couldn't make an error of that magnitude, and I think my case proves it," Bloodsworth said. Schellenberger said he was not yet state's attorney at the time and was not directly involved in Bloodworth's case. The commission is expected to make recommendations to Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) later this year about whether to continue executions in Maryland. The state has had a de facto moratorium on capital punishment since December 2006, when its highest court ruled that regulations for lethal injection had not been properly adopted. The administration of O'Malley, a death penalty opponent, has yet to issue new regulations. Bills to repeal the death penalty outright have failed in recent years in the legislature, despite high-profile support from O'Malley. (source: Washington Post) CALIFORNIA: Man accused of killing deputy to face death penalty Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Marco Antonio Topete, the Arbuckle man accused of murdering a Yolo County sheriff's deputy. Jeff W. Reisig, the Yolo County district attorney, filed the announcement Tuesday in Superior Court, and the court released the statement this morning. The 35-year-old Topete was arrested the morning after the June 15 shooting in Dunnigan that killed Deputy Jose Antonio "Tony" Diaz. The slaying followed a high-speed pursuit of Topete's car up Interstate 5 and onto rural roads. Topete was indicted Aug. 12 on charges of murder, and six other counts, including felony evasion of officers, gang membership and child endangerment. The California Highway Patrol says he abandoned his car and left his infant daughter behind after Diaz was shot. He has been held without bail in Sacramento County. If a jury convicts Topete of murder, jurors must unanimously agree to sentence him to death. Otherwise, he would receive life imprisonment without the chance of parole. A status conference on Topete's case is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday. ********************** Prosecutor: Convicted East Bay Serial Killer Deserves Death Penalty A prosecutor told jurors Wednesday that Anthony McKnight "deserves nothing less than the death penalty" for his convictions for murdering 5 young women in the East Bay over a 4-month span in 1985. In his closing argument in the penalty phase of McKnight's trial in Alameda County Superior Court, prosecutor Jim Meehan said he believes the aggravating evidence in favor of the death penalty far outweighs mitigating evidence in favor of the alternative finding of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Meehan said the aggravating evidence includes the viciousness of the 5 murders themselves plus evidence that McKnight brutally attacked 6 other women in incidents he said they wouldn't have survived without medical intervention. "If it were left up to Anthony McKnight, we could be talking about 11 murders instead of only 5," Meehan said. The prosecutor called McKnight an "animal" and told jurors to "judge a man based on what he does when he thinks no one is watching. On Sept. 17 the same jurors convicted McKnight, 54, of 5 counts of 1st-degree murder as well as 5 special circumstances murder clauses. 3 of the special circumstances are for committing murder during the course of a rape, one is for committing murder during sodomy and one is for committing multiple murders. McKnight, a former Navy-enlisted man who lived in Oakland and was assigned to the Alameda Naval Air Station, is already serving a 63-year term in state prison because he was convicted in August 1987 of 11 felony counts, including attempted murder, mayhem, kidnapping and forced oral copulation, for attacks on 6 prostitutes between 1984 and his arrest in January 1986. After he began serving his prison sentence, authorities used new DNA analysis techniques to connect McKnight to the murders in his current case, which occurred in secluded locations in Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley and Richmond between September and December of 1985. McKnight's 2 defense lawyers will present their closing arguments later today. Jurors will then begin deliberating on whether to recommend the death penalty or life in prison without parole. (source: KTVU News) NORTH CAROLINA: Death row inmate dies of natural causes A killer on North Carolina's death row who took $1 from a victim after shooting her in the head has died in prison. The state Department of Correction said the 68-year-old Leroy McNeil died Wednesday of natural causes, which the agency did not specify. McNeil was convicted in Wake County for the April 1983 murders of Deborah Jean Fore and Elizabeth Faye Stallings. McNeil won a new trial after the U.S. Supreme Court found problems with North Carolina's instructions to jurors. He again pleaded guilty to killing the two women and a jury again recommended in 1996 he get the death penalty for each slaying. Testimony at his trial indicated McNeil killed the two women while looking for victims he could rob. According to the testimony, McNeil got $1 after killing Fore. (source: Associated Press) ARIZONA: Prosecution seeking death penalty for Lunsford On Sept. 26, the prosecution filed a Notice of Intent to Seek the Death Penalty against Justin Wade Lunsford, 26, who is being held in lieu of $600,000 bond, for the July murder of Mary Elizabeth Hermann, citing aggravating factors and witnesses. In August, the prosecution made allegations of aggravating circumstances other than prior convictions in the case. Another Grand Jury indictment was returned on Monday, Sept. 29 against Lunsford, who was served the following day and is scheduled for an arraignment hearing on those charges at 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 8. As of press time, Sonoran News had not learned what the new charges entail. Lunsford's case is scheduled for a status conference on Thursday, Oct. 23 at 8:30 a.m. before Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Rosa Mroz. (source: Sonoran News)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MD., CALIF., N.C., ARIZ.
Rick Halperin Wed, 8 Oct 2008 18:16:58 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
