April 30 CALIFORNIA----female could face death penalty Stabbing suspect could face death penalty Stephanie N. Erends could face the death penalty for allegedly stabbing Alicia Ernst to death last month. Prosecutor Garen Horst filed a second amended felony complaint with Placer County Superior Court Tuesday alleging a special circumstance of lying in wait in the murder of 24-year-old Ernst. It has not been determined at this point if district attorneys office plans to seek the death penalty. "We will make our intentions known regarding the special circumstance allegations at the next (court) appearance," Horst said to the court Tuesday. Erends, 25, has pleaded not guilty to a single felony charge of murder for the March 8 death of Ernst. Erends was in an Auburn courtroom with her court-appointed attorney John Spurling Tuesday. Spurling said outside the courtroom that the capital-case decision is up to the prosecution. "They think there's enough to support it," he said. "They have to prove 1st degree (murder) first." In cases involving the death penalty, or life in prison without the possibility of parole, the defendant's guilt of 1st-degree murder must first be determined by a jury, according to Deering's Penal Code. "If found guilty of 1st-degree murder, (the jury) shall at the time determine the truth of all special circumstances charged," the code states. Erends, who has a prior felony conviction for possession of a controlled substance, is also charged with a special allegation of the use of a deadly weapon. According to a felony complaint filed March 17 in Placer County Superior Court, Erends reportedly used a sharp-edged utility tool to commit the crime. Ernst, a nurse's aide who was employed by Siena Care in Auburn, was found dead in rural Roseville March 10 by an employee with the Department of Public Works on the side of Walerga Road near Old Walerga Road. Ernst and Erends reportedly knew one another, however, the motive for the alleged killing has not been made public by officials. Investigators reported that Ernst was killed in the early morning hours of March 8 at the location where her body was found. The alleged murder weapon has been recovered, officials said. Ernst's mother clutched a large framed photograph of her daughter as she sat in the front row of an Auburn courtroom Tuesday. Ernst's family has yet to comment publicly about the alleged murder. In a statement released to the media last month they said they were devastated by their loss. "Losing our beloved daughter, sister, niece, cousin and friend is an incredible loss that words cannot describe," Brandon Ernst wrote in a prepared statement. "Our family will be mourning this tragic loss for years to come. Alicia will be dearly missed but never forgotten." Erends remains in custody without bail in the Placer County Jail. She is scheduled to return to Placer County Superior Court at 8:30 a.m. June 10 in Department 13 of Placer County Superior Court. (source: Lincoln News Messenger) DELAWARE: Judge dismisses death penalty challenge A Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a death row inmate challenging Delaware's lethal injection process. Ax murderer Robert Jackson III argued that the state's execution policies and procedures were illegally promulgated because the Department of Correction did not allow for public review and comment. Lawyers for the state argued that the DOC is exempted by statute from having to publicly promulgate its policies, including procedures for lethal injection, under the Administrative Procedures Act. In a ruling handed down last week, Superior Court Judge Richard Cooch agreed, granting the state's request to dismiss the lawsuit. Cooch noted that, under state law, DOC policies and procedures are considered confidential and not subject to disclosure except upon the written authority of the DOC commissioner. "Any change to the confidential procedure by which the Department of Correction presently adopts its lethal injection policies and procedures would require action by the General Assembly," the judge wrote. Jackson, was sentenced to death after he was convicted of killing Elizabeth Girardi in 1992, filed the lawsuit after the DOC instituted new lethal injection procedures in August 2007. The change came after the 2005 execution of Brian Steckel, an unusually long procedure that prompted the condemned man himself to ask "Why is it taking so long?" Prison officials denied that there were any technical difficulties with Steckel's execution, but revised the 3-drug protocol to increase the amount of the first drug, the anesthetic sodium thiopental, from 2 grams to 3 grams, and double the amount of the final, heart-stopping drug, potassium chloride. Jackson's lawyers argued that the DOC's exemption from the APA requirement for public promulgation of state policies was intended to limit only prisoner access, not public access, to DOC materials. They further argued that imposition of the death penalty, from a policy standpoint, should not be shielded from public view. "Indeed, the ongoing and wide-ranging scope regarding the debate of capital punishment nationwide, and in this state, reflects the public scrutiny that such execution procedures should be brought to light," they wrote. "Certainly parties interested in this debate should have the opportunity to voice their concerns consistent with the requirements of the APA." Jackson's lawyers noted that administrative challenges to lethal injection have been raised in several other states. They also cited a 2006 ruling in which a court declared that Maryland's lethal injection protocol must be promulgated in the same manner as other state regulations. In their motion to dismiss Jackson's lawsuit, state lawyers argued that administrative procedure challenges have become a common litigation tactic "to effectively block the effectuation of lawfully imposed death sentences." While citing the "dearth of case law" construing the confidentiality of DOC policies, Cooch noted that other states do not have an exemption similar to Delaware's. The judge said there was no doubt that the General Assembly intended DOC policies to be confidential, and that a 1998 court ruling precluding inmate access to prison policies and procedures "all but answers the issue raised in this motion." Meanwhile, a federal judge in Wilmington is scheduled to meet with attorneys next month to discuss a lawsuit - filed by Jackson and later certified as a class action to include all Delaware death row inmates - claiming that lethal injection is unconstitutional because it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. District Judge Sue Robinson issued a stay in that lawsuit pending a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a similar lawsuit filed in Kentucky. The Supreme Court earlier this month rejected the challenge to lethal injection in the Kentucky case, clearing the way for resumption of executions across the country. (source: Associated Press) TENNESSEE: Federal appeals court upholds death penalty in fatal robbery A federal appeals court has upheld the death sentence for a Nashville man convicted of killing 3 people -- including a 12-year-old boy -- during a market robbery. Cecil Johnson Jr. was sentenced to death for the fatal robbery at Bob Bell's Market on July 5, 1980. He was convicted in the death of the market owner's son Bobbie and 2 men -- taxi driver James Moore and his passenger Charles House-- outside of the store. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 decision that evidence about eyewitness testimony not disclosed at the trial did not violate Johnson's constitutional rights. Bob Bell, the market owner, was wounded in the robbery and testified at the trial to identify Johnson as the shooter. The 51-year-old inmate was given 3 death sentences for the killings. (source: WZTV News) ****************** Tennessee death row inmate seeks release A man on Tennessee's death row for 22 years should be released because modern DNA tests would have helped acquit him in the first place, his lawyer told a federal appeals court panel Wednesday. Paul G. House was convicted of murder in the July 1985 slaying of Carolyn Muncey, whose body was found near her rural home about 25 miles northeast of Knoxville. The killing occurred four months after House was released from a prison in Utah, where he had pleaded guilty and served time on a charge of aggravated sexual assault. Tennessee prosecutors alleged that House raped and murdered Muncey. House, 46, has always maintained he is innocent. Evidence at his trial included semen on the victim's underwear and nightgown. Updated tests years later showed the semen was from the woman's husband. "Without the (semen) evidence, the state can't come up with a case that makes any sense whatsoever," defense attorney Stephen Kissinger told the 3-judge U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals panel. Jennifer Smith, representing the Tennessee attorney general's office, said a positive DNA test wouldn't have made any difference because jurors were told there was a chance the semen was from the woman's husband. "The jury knew it could have been either-or," Smith said. And it wouldn't have made any difference in the death-penalty specification, she said. "There never was evidence of rape; there was evidence of kidnapping," Smith said. House was convicted and sentenced in February 1986, and the Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed the verdict and sentence. House's lawyer has argued that if the jury had known the DNA results, it might not have convicted House or recommended the death penalty. A federal district court in Tennessee rejected that argument, and a 3-judge federal appeals in Cincinnati affirmed that denial in March 2002. A majority of judges on the court, known for its divide on capital punishment, agreed to a full-court hearing that resulted in a 8-7 decision 2 years later, again rejecting House's petition. "I am convinced we are faced with a real-life murder mystery, an authentic 'who-done-it' where the wrong man may be executed," Judge Ronald Lee Gilman wrote in his dissent then. "Despite his best efforts, the case against House remains strong," Judge Alan E. Norris wrote for the majority. The U.S. Supreme Court then agreed to consider an appeal by House that legal experts said could help decide when people should get a fresh chance to prove their innocence. In June 2006, the court ordered a new hearing, calling the DNA evidence a "new disclosure of central importance" that didn't prove actual innocence but might have created reasonable doubt of guilt. The decision noted that the only forensic evidence linking House to the crimes was the semen and certain blood evidence that had been partially discredited. In December, U.S. District Judge Harry S. Mattice Jr. ruled as the Supreme Court suggested and ordered the state to release House unless prosecutors began a new trial within 180 days of the effective date of his order. The clock was stopped on that order when Tennessee appealed the ruling, setting up Wednesday's arguments. The appeals panel of Judges Gilbert Merritt, Alan Norris and Eugene Siler Jr. did not indicate when they would rule, but it often takes several months for decisions to be delivered. Last year, 32 Tennessee legislators signed a letter urging Gov. Phil Bredesen to pardon House, who has multiple sclerosis and is being housed in a medical ward of Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility prison in Nashville. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Admitted Killer Wants Death Penalty An admitted killer facing the death penalty doesn't want his lawyers to fight for his life. David Russ, who admitted to killing Madeleine Leinen, 58, doesn't want the help of his attorneys who are ready to fight for him. It's not only rare, but many veteran attorneys said they never recall anything quite like it. "There is nothing to excuse this," Russ said. Russ already pleaded guilty to a brutal murder. Leinen was killed in her own home. Russ stole her car and her ATM card. Eventually arrested in Texas, his attorneys are ready to ask for mercy. Russ' attorneys said he was beaten his entire childhood, his family history includes some mental illness, he's a drug user, and he is sorry for what happened. But Russ told the judge he does not want any of these things used in his defense. "I don't want to put the victim's family through it. Don't want to put my family through it. I have taken ownership of this from day one. I stand vulnerable, just like the victim stood vulnerable. I don't wish any mitigation put on in this case," Russ said. "I want what my son wants. I don't want him to die. He's my baby boy, I don't want him to die, but at the same time, I have to respect his wishes," mother Beth Webster said. The judge still isn't sure what she'll do. She's ordered an extensive 8 week pre-sentence investigation to know as much as she can about his past. He may not want a lengthy defense, but the judge could call witnesses herself whether he wants her to or not to make sure her final decision is based on all the facts. (source: WESH News) ************************* Death penalty sought in Cape Coral, North Fort Myers murders The state attorneys office has filed notices seeking to put to death two murder suspects. Assistant State Attorney Marie Doerr filed notices of intent to seek the death penalty against Robert Dunn and David Richard Patton. Dunn is accused of gunning down his estranged wife in front of children at Bobbie Noonans Child Care in Cape Coral on Jan. 25. He is charged with 1st-degree murder, armed burglary and child abuse. David Richard Patton is charged with killing 2 sisters in North Fort Myers on Sept. 10, 2006. Along with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, Patton faces 1 count each of 1st-degree burglary, grand theft, grand theft of a motor vehicle and arson. (source: The News-Press) COLORADO: Ouray School Presents Dead Man Walking Philosophical and moral questions will grip the attention of students and community members in Ouray this week, when Ouray High School hosts a lecture and a series of public discussions surrounding the death penalty in conjunction with their presentation of the play Dead Man Walking. The lecture, delivered by death-penalty expert and University of Colorado Department of Sociology Chair Michael Radelet, Ph.D., will be held today, Tuesday, April 29 at 7 p.m. at the Ouray Community Center. The play will follow on Thursday and Friday, May 1 and 2, at 7 p.m. on the Ouray School stage. The play is based on the non-fiction book written by a New Orleans Catholic nun, Sister Helen Prejean, who developed a relationship as a spiritual advisor with 2 death row inmates in the 1980s. Radelet assisted Sister Prejean in writing her book, which was adapted for the screen in a 1995 film of the same name. Sister Helen Fenlon, national coordinator of the Dead Man Walking Play Project, will accompany Radelet in an audience discussion after his presentation on April 29. Sister Fenlon will also lead talks on both evenings of the performances. The film Dead Man Walking was directed by Academy Award-winning actor and director Tim Robbins and starred Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. Robbins went on to pen the stage version in 2002. Robbins has offered the play exclusively to schools in hopes of raising awareness of the death penalty among young people. Ouray will be the 1st high school in Colorado to present the play, according to teacher and play director Nancy Nixon. A schools involvement in the project comes with a requirement: death penalty issues must be implemented in the curriculum of at least 2 academic departments other than the theater department. Some students are eager to learn more about the death penalty at Tuesday's lecture. Sophomores Arielle Baker and Peter Felde told The Ouray County Watch that they have been discussing the pros and cons of the death penalty in 10th-grade English class. "I always sort of thought the death penalty was wrong, but the play shows both sides of the story," Baker said. Felde disagreed. "If a person is a cold hard killer, he probably deserves a death sentence," he said. Radelet will present the audience with a timeline and facts on the death penalty. "4 out of every 10 murders are not solved," he explained in an interview with The Watch on April 25. "Due to constraints on law enforcement, it's more difficult to solve homicides." Radelet said that his presentation will end "with an issue that brings us together how to assist the families of homicide victims." According to statistics provided by Radelet, there were 102 executions and 175 lynchings in Colorado from 1859-1967. Since then, there has been 1 execution. He puts the 2007 death row population in the U.S. at 3,350 (59 are women; almost 55 % are minorities). Since 1980, the death penalty has been sought 120 times in Colorado. "Every time the death penalty is sought it costs oodles and oodles of money" in court costs, Radelet explained. The professor sits on the board of Denver-based Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons, a nonprofit group that hopes to abolish the death penalty in Colorado in order to reallocate funds into solving cold-case murders and disappearances. Junior Jake Abell sees the play as a venue to explore how a death sentence impacts the families of victims and prisoners. "This is not an anti-death penalty playit's a very intimate story about a family," he said. (source: Telluride Watch) OHIO: Execution process resumes after pause The state took its 1st step toward resuming lethal injections today, requesting a new execution date for a convicted murderer who spread his victim's dismembered body over parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania. Kenneth Biros was 1 of 3 death row inmates in Ohio who lost appeals last week before the U.S. Supreme Court following the justices' determination that the cocktail of drugs Kentucky was using to execute criminals does not inflict cruel and unusual punishment. The suit had the effect of halting lethal injections nationwide. Ohio uses a drug cocktail similar to Kentucky's. The 49-year-old Biros came within hours of death last March before the nation's high court called it off, ruling that Biros should be allowed to join other inmates who protested Ohio's lethal injection process in court. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----CALIF., DEL., TENN., FLA., COLO., OHIO
Rick Halperin Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:01:03 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
