August 30 SOUTH DAKOTA: Supporters Of The Death Penalty Speak Out When the news was announced that Governor Round's had stopped Elijah Page's execution, applause and hugs came from those who were protesting against the death penalty. But there were a few that fell somber. They were heavily outnumbered but they stood by what they believed. A mom and her two daughters planned to stay until Page was executed Tuesday evening. The death penalty is something they strongly believe in and they say despite the setback, they'll continue to support it. Robyn Keating and her 2 daughters sat quietly outside the state penitentiary Tuesday evening, hoping their signs spoke loud enough. But news the governor had stopped Page's execution made them speak out. Keating says, "I believe that he wanted to get to play the martyr. That he wanted to come forward and say how he wanted to die knowing that the Governor would feel the pressure from the voters." Keating says she wasn't surprised the execution didn't happen, but she didn't expect the Governor to make that call. "I support the death penalty but I did not figure it would take place here tonight. I didn't expect the Governor to stop it, but I figured Elijah would at the last minute," she says. She says even though Page was not put to death tonight, his punishment will come one day. Keating says, "Whether his appeals run out or rather they commute him to a life sentence, there is a higher court and yes justice will be served one day." (source: Keloland TV) ************ Emotions conflicted for those touched by death cases Most South Dakotans absorbed the news of Elijah Page's delayed execution Tuesday and returned to the pleasant rhythms of work and family. But for a few, the fast-track march to the death chamber had opened a portal to painful decisions about life and death. In Bridgewater, Mike Clarey recalled the daughter he lost to another murderer's hand and his family's decision to spare the man's life. In Yankton, Lori Nooney felt the wrenching inner conflict of holding life in her hands and opting to send a killer to his death. They are among the handful who've made concrete decisions in an otherwise theoretical discussion. Clarey and Nooney had to make a choice - life or death. They came down on opposite sides of the question, but they see the other side. Their real-life decisions are shaded with the kind of consequences with which the rest of us are not burdened. Ann Kathryn "Katie" Clarey was 11 years old when she was kidnapped, raped and murdered while doing her paper route in central Sioux Falls on May 9, 1991. Kelly Van Engelenhoven, then a 28-year-old man with a history of exposing himself, was arrested for the murder. Mike and Kathie Clarey, devout Catholics, persuaded prosecutors not to seek the death penalty in the case. Engelenhoven pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison, where he still resides. Fifteen years later, Elijah Page's voluntary walk to the death chamber revives the memories of the Clareys' decision. "A day doesn't go by that I don't think about what happened," Mike Clarey said from Bridgewater, where his family moved 3 years ago after a stint in Nebraska. "Whenever the death penalty comes up, of course, it's linked." The Clareys followed the coverage leading up to the Page execution and hoped for a reprieve from the governor. For all his certainty about the death penalty, Mike Clarey says he thinks there might be times when taking life is justified to protect innocent people. "Unfortunately, in this country, it's become politicized," he said. "It's more for revenge than for justice, and that's where the problem comes in." Clarey, a salesman, planned to spend Tuesday working as usual, finding time for prayer and reflecting on a society that he says cheapens the value of life. "The people I come in contact with, if we have an opportunity for discussion, I will express my views," he said. "That is all I can do." Nooney also was involuntarily thrust into the death penalty spotlight as a member of the Yankton County jury that convicted Donald Moeller of raping and killing 9-year-old Becky O'Connell of Sioux Falls. It was the 1st death sentence handed down in South Dakota since the reinstatement of capital punishment. The verdict was overturned (Moeller was retried, reconvicted and again sentenced to death) but the vote to kill another person was a "life-altering decision," Nooney said. "I went onto the jury thinking I was more opposed than I was for it," she said from Yankton, where she works as a paralegal. "Up until 5 minutes before we went out there, I still didn't know if I was doing the right thing." In the end, she said she thinks Moeller should die for his crime. She wishes it would happen more quickly and she resents a system that put her in that position to begin with. Judges, not juries, should decide sentencing, she said. Nooney tried to avoid the news in recent days but admits being drawn to Tuesday's coverage in a sort of morbid preparation for Moeller's execution, if that day ever comes. "It's hard," she said. "I don't know that if I do live to see the day he is executed that I will have any relief. "I don't know." (source: Sioux Falls Argus Leader) ***************** Page's reprieve draws cheers, jeers For most of Tuesday, Hazel Bonner kept a lonely vigil at the corner of Sixth and St. Joseph streets in downtown Rapid City, protesting the scheduled execution of Elijah Page. But Bonner smiled broadly when she learned that Gov. Mike Rounds stayed the execution of 1 of 2 men on death row in the torture slaying of Chester Allan Poage of Spearfish in 2000. "I'm opposed to the death penalty under any circumstance," Bonner said. "I know this was a horrible crime. At the same time, I believe all 3 should have gotten life in prison." Page has refused to appeal his death sentence and asked to be executed. But on Tuesday, Rounds, concerned with the legality of the execution, delayed Page's execution by lethal injection until at least July. Bonner was one of the few supporters of the South Dakota Peace and Justice Center that took up the cause Tuesday. Bonner expected more to arrive after work; instead, she stayed to send them home. "That's good news today," one man called as he hurried by. Bonner heard similar comments throughout the day and received a few negative reactions from passers-by, she said. Bonner's relief at the governors action was tempered with compassion for Poage's family. "They're very angry. They have a right to be very angry," Bonner said. But executing Page would not heal their grief, Bonner said. "I believe that until they can forgive and put this behind them, it's never going to be over," Bonner said. Paul Wounded Head said that although Page's actions were wrong, as a spiritual person, he opposes the death penalty. "God put us on this Earth for a purpose, and it is not to kill another human being," Wounded Head said. Art Handel said he wasnt surprised that the governor had stepped in, but he thinks it is unfair to Page. "If he chooses to end his life this way, it should be his right," Handel said of Page. Handel said capital punishment should be used in cases such as Page's. Handel said that Rounds had kept his hands off the case for so long, but he had a feeling that the governor would eventually stop the execution. "I wonder what will happen next?" Handel asked. Nancy Hilding of Black Hawk had intended to spend the evening with Bonner on the corner, but she arrived just in time to hear the breaking news Hilding said that although she believes in the death penalty in some cases, Page should have received life in prison, not a death sentence. The abuse Page suffered as a child likely made him a damaged adult who might now have a chance to heal, she said. "I see him as a victim," Hilding said. "Society did not give him the right opportunities to grow and be a responsible coherent person." However, because of the violence of the crime, Page should spend his life in prison, she said. Joe Kavanaugh has followed Page's story for weeks. The news coverage hasn't swayed in his opposition to corporal punishment. He welcomed the governor's action. "I'm delighted," he said. "I'm an opponent of capital punishment." Pat Clanton was glad that the Tuesday execution is delayed. "I don't think (Page) has a choice in this at all," Clanton said of waiving his rights to appeal his conviction. An opponent of the death penalty, Clanton formed her opinion about state executions years ago. "It doesn't deter any crime, and it just doesnt help anything," she said. By allowing Page's execution, the state is assisting in his suicide, Jewett said. Bobbi Jean Jarvinen said that although it was Page's choice to waive his rights, he should follow every avenue to appeal allowed by the law. "As long as we have corporal punishment, we have to follow the law," Jarvinen said. Only an hour before Rounds intervened, Chas Jewett said she did not understand a governor who would take a Planned Parenthood link off the state's Web site but would allow an execution. "I think it's hypocrisy that everyone in the state will go 9 yards to control my body and control organic life in me," Jewett said. "But they won't step up and have compassion for a young kid who needs compassion." Jewett said she hopes the delay gives opponents time to work out an end to the death penalty. Although several Rapid City residents voiced their opinion about the delay of Page's execution, a mostly silent prayer vigil was held at 8 p.m. at Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The Rev. Matthew Fallgren opened the service with a brief prayer of thanks for the delay in the execution. He said after the service that the delay was needed to provide time to pray for those affected by the crime. "Especially because of the delay, we have the opportunity to pray for healing." Monsignor William OConnell also said prayers during the service. Afterward, he emphasized the importance of the vigil and said prayer would continue for both the family of Poage as well as Page and the 2 other imprisoned men who committed the crime Darrell Hoadley and Briley Piper. "It was important because the whole gathering was to focus on life and the tragedies that occur in life," he said. "Life is important no matter what horrible mistakes or actions people make." ************** Statute spares Page from death After having said for weeks that he would not intervene in the execution of death-row inmate Elijah Page, Gov. Mike Rounds issued a reprieve because of legal technicalities, just hours before the death sentence was scheduled to be carried out. Page was scheduled to die Tuesday at 10 p.m. CDT at the South Dakota State Penitentiary for the murder of 19-year-old Chester Allan Poage in March 2000. Rounds called a news conference shortly before 6 p.m. during which he announced that the method planned for Page's execution violates South Dakota law. Bishop Blase Cupich of the Rapid City Catholic Diocese welcomed the delay. "I'm pleased," Cupich said. "I think his (Rounds) deep instincts are to promote human dignity and protect human life at all costs. I'm glad he found a way to do this." Cupich earlier made the argument to Rounds for a commutation of Pages death sentence to a life prison term, and he said hes looking forward to being involved in ongoing discussion of the issue. "I hope the Legislature's discussion will take up the broader issue of whether the death penalty serves a common good," he said. In Page's case, Cupich said, there are many reasons not just to give a stay of execution, but a commutation of the sentence. Although the legal technicality that delays the execution is an answer of sorts to Cupichs prayers, he will continue to pray for Page's change of heart. "I also hope and pray that Elijah Page uses this opportunity to respect his own life and look for a way to avail himself of the appeals process," Cupich said. "I'll be praying that his heart is moved in this, too." The law that troubled Rounds, SDCL 23A-27A-32, has been on the books since 1984 and requires a death sentence to be carried out by injections of a lethal quantity of two drugs: an ultra-short-acting barbiturate and a chemical paralytic agent. South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long said standard protocol for lethal injections throughout the country has evolved to involve the use of 3 drugs, a method believed to be more humane. That 3-drug procedure was planned for Pages execution until Rounds and Long realized, after several conversations Tuesday, that the procedure violates the law. "The governor became concerned about that, and we looked at all the options and the option the governor has selected to deal with that is using a reprieve," Long said. Long said the issue of the legality of the drugs had been raised in the appeal of Donald Moeller, one of 4 men on death row in South Dakota. Moeller was sentenced to die for killing a 9-year-old Sioux Falls girl in 1990. Mark F. Marshall, Moellers court-appointed lawyer, said in the special appeal that he believed the state Corrections Department intended to add a 3rd drug to the mix of 2 other drugs that are specified in state law as the method to kill inmates. Doing so would violate Moeller's constitutional rights because the combination of chemicals used in executions is so painful that it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, his lawyer argued. Marshall said the 3rd drug, potassium chloride, cannot be legally used in a South Dakota execution. State Corrections officials refused to answer an Associated Press request last week about the reported use of the 3rd drug. Rounds said he made the decision about 4 p.m. Tuesday. "Rather than putting our employees and the witnesses into what could be an illegal activity, we prefer to delay it until such time as the Legislature could correct our existing statute," Rounds said. Suzanne Sanduh of Kansas City, who has known the Page family for nearly 20 years, said the governor and other state officials could have figured that out sooner than a few hours before Page was scheduled to die. "It's just a little bit weird to wait this long," she said. "They didn't have to wait until the last minute to do this. Thats ridiculous. Its a farce." Rounds said the earliest date Page could be executed is July 1. "That would allow the Legislature to step in, review our existing statutes, bring them up to standards found throughout the U.S. and reflect the current practice used in other states where this has been done," Rounds said. "Please remember, we have not executed anyone in South Dakota by lethal injection." Rounds said the concern was not that Page's rights would be violated but that penitentiary employees and execution witnesses would be involved in an illegal activity. "Mr. Page indicated that he was not going to challenge the sentence, but that does not relieve the state of the responsibility to uphold the law," he said. "I decided I will not put state employees in the position of violating a statute." Rounds said this reprieve will provide the Legislature with the opportunity to review the statutes having to do with the death penalty. New legislation could affect the cases of the three other inmates on South Dakota's death row: Donald Moeller, Charles Rhines and Page's co-defendant, Briley Piper. Rounds said he informed South Dakota State Penitentiary warden Doug Weber of the reprieve about 4:45 p.m. Tuesday. Page pleaded guilty in January 2001 for his role in Poage's murder. Page, along with Briley Piper of Anchorage, Alaska, and Darrell Hoadley of Lead, tortured and killed Poage in March 2000 in Higgins Gulch near Spearfish. Piper also pleaded guilty to murdering Poage and was sentenced to death. He is still appealing his sentence. Hoadley stood trial for the murder and was found guilty by a jury. He is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole. Piper and Hoadley remain in the South Dakota State Penitentiary. South Dakota execution statute SDCL 23A-27A-32. Place and manner of executionQualifications to performExemptions. The punishment of death shall be inflicted within the walls of some building at the state penitentiary or within the yard or enclosure adjoining thereto. The punishment of death shall be inflicted by the intravenous administration of a lethal quantity of an ultra-short-acting barbiturate in combination with a chemical paralytic agent and continuing the application thereof until the convict is pronounced dead by a licensed physician according to accepted standards of medical practice. An execution carried out by lethal injection shall be performed by a person selected by the warden and trained to administer the injection. The person administering the injection need not be a physician, registered nurse, or licensed practical nurse licensed or registered under the laws of this or any other state. Any infliction of the punishment of death by administration of the required lethal substance or substances in the manner required by this section may not be construed to be the practice of medicine and any pharmacist or pharmaceutical supplier is authorized to dispense the drugs to the warden without prescription, for carrying out the provisions of this section, notwithstanding any other provision of law. (source for both: Rapid City Journal) *************** A cruel embarrassment----Last-minute stay of execution shows stunning lack of forethought Someone screwed up. We don't know at this point if it was Gov. Mike Rounds, Attorney General Larry Long, the state Corrections Department - or all of the above. But the public deserves to know. For months, we've been expecting an execution - South Dakota's 1st in almost 60 years. Elijah Page, 24, convicted of a horrible torture-murder, waived any further appeals. He was ready to die. Court forms were followed. Corrections officials pored over state law, checking questions about witnesses, about notifying the public. Rounds announced he wouldn't stop the execution. It was set for 10 p.m. Tuesday. Then, just hours before Page was to die, Rounds issued a stay. Incredibly, last-minute research by the attorney general's office supposedly found that state law conflicted with the specific execution procedures planned by prison officials. Page was to be killed using a 3-drug combination. State law mandates "an ultra-short-acting barbiturate in combination with a chemical paralytic agent." 2 drugs. Rounds and Long said at a hastily called news conference that they'd only come to the conclusion Tuesday that the procedure violated state law and that if Page had been put to death as planned, everyone involved might have been guilty of carrying out an illegal execution. Rounds' stay is through July 1 of next year, giving the Legislature time to alter the law. But this 3-ring circus never should have happened. In the months leading up to the execution date, someone in state government - in the corrections department, in the attorney general's office, in the governor's office - someone should have checked state law. If we're going to kill someone, we at least ought to check the law to make sure we're following it and that it is consistent with plans. What happened? Why? It's not as though this was a new issue. Page and his lawyer, Mike Butler, discussed this very disconnect between prison practice and state law, and that discussion was in the case records. The same issue is a part of an appeal by Donald Moeller, who is on death row with Page, convicted of raping and murdering 9-year-old Becky O'Connell of Sioux Falls in 1990. Moeller's complaint, filed with U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol, is specific, and it's based on a June 12 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that helps death-row inmates fight lethal injections. That ruling allows claims that the drugs used in lethal injections are painful and constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Mark F. Marshall, Moeller's court-appointed lawyer, said in the complaint that it appeared from a New York Times story that state prison officials planned to use potassium chloride in Page's execution - and that would violate state law. But he said he couldn't get an answer from the corrections department. "A request for information about that protocol has fallen upon deaf ears," he wrote. In response, Deputy Attorney General Craig Eichstadt argued only that the period for Moeller to raise new issues had expired. So the attorney general's office knew about this problem. Corrections officials knew about this. And yet plans for the execution proceeded merrily along - until the last minute. They embarrassed South Dakota. And in the process, they cruelly took Page and our state to the brink of an execution, only to say, "Oops." (source: Editorial, Argus Leader) ******************** URGENT ACTION APPEAL ---------------------------------- 30 August 2006 Further information on UA 206/06 (02 August 2006) Death penalty / Legal concern USA (South Dakota) Elijah Page (m), white, aged 24 About four hours before Elijah Page was due to be put to death, at 10pm local time in South Dakota on 29 August, Governor Mike Rounds ordered a stay of execution. The stay will last until after 1 July 2007. Governor Rounds ordered the stay on the grounds that there was a discrepancy between the state's law on lethal injection and the method that was about to be used to kill Elijah Page. State law, last revised in 1984, requires that two chemicals be used to execute the prisoner - ''a lethal quantity of ultra-short-acting barbiturate and a chemical paralytic agent''. However, the South Dakota Department of Corrections' lethal injection policy involves a third chemical, potassium chloride, as used in most states in the USA. In a statement, Governor Rounds said that ''I will not have the individuals responsible for carrying out the execution be placed in a position of being in violation of state law. The reprieve will delay the execution until after July 1, 2007. This will allow the SD Legislature enough time to amend the current statute; reflecting more recent lethal injection protocols.'' Elijah Page was sentenced to death in 2001 for the kidnapping, torture and murder of 19-year-old Chester Allan Poage in 2000. South Dakota has not carried out an execution since 1947. Elijah Page had given up his appeals. The issue of whether the state could legally carry out an execution using the three-drug method had been raised in a lawsuit in federal court in June 2006 in the case of another South Dakota death row inmate, Donald Moeller. Over the past few years there have been numerous challenges to lethal injection protocols around the USA. On 12 June 2006, in Hill v. McDonough, the US Supreme Court unanimously overruled a lower federal court decision refusing to allow Florida death row inmate Clarence Hill to challenge lethal injection in a civil rights lawsuit. The lower court, the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, had ruled that the challenge should have been brought as part of the normal death penalty appeals process and was therefore too late to be considered. The challenges to lethal injection generally make the claim that the drugs used cause extreme and unnecessary pain, and that the combination of chemicals masks the pain being experienced by the inmate. For example, the Supreme Court noted that Clarence Hill had alleged that ''the first drug injected, sodium pentothal, would not be a sufficient anaesthetic to render painless the administration of the second and third drugs, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. There was an ensuing risk, Hill alleged, that he could remain conscious and suffer severe pain as the pancuronium paralyzed his lungs and body and the potassium chloride caused muscle cramping and a fatal heart attack.'' There have been 38 executions in the USA this year, all but one by lethal injection. Since the USA resumed judicial killing in 1977, there have been 1,042 executions nationwide. Of these, 873 (84 per cent) have been carried out by lethal injection. No further action by the UA Network is requested at present. Many thanks to all who sent appeals. Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights. This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact information and stop action date (if applicable). Thank you for your help with this appeal. Urgent Action Network Amnesty International USA 600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl Washington DC 20003 Email: uan at aiusa.org http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/ Phone: 202.544.0200 Fax: 202.675.8566 ---------------------------------- END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL ---------------------------------- US MILITARY: U.S. troops charged in Iraqi killing face hearings Hashim Ibrahim Awad was shot to death in a hole by a dusty road west of Baghdad. How the 52-year-old Iraqi came to be there is the focus of an inquiry with possible life and death consequences for seven Marines and a Navy corpsman. Pretrial hearings for the eight soldiers charged with Awad's murder are set to start Wednesday, four months after his death. It will be the 1st time the facts have been explored in public. Prosecutors claim the troops went into the rural Iraqi town of Hamdaniya, took Awad from his home, tied him up, put him in the hole and shot him without provocation April 26. The accused have been held in the brig at Camp Pendleton since May. Defense lawyers say the troops are innocent and question the credibility of the Iraqis who reported the incident to U.S. authorities. If convicted, the troops face the death penalty. This week's hearings are part of an Article 32 probe, where an investigating officer will decide if there is probable cause to recommend bringing the defendants to trial. The decision rests with the convening authority, Lt. Gen. James Mattis. The hearings come barely 2 months before midterm elections, with feelings about the war potentially determining whether Republicans maintain control of Congress. Gary Jacobson, a political science professor at University of California, San Diego, said politicians would likely avoid campaigning on the case. "Nobody is going to make political hay by criticizing soldiers in something like the trial that is going on at Pendleton," Jacobson said. The charges, Jacobson said, are a black eye for the Marine Corps, which prides itself on discipline in the ranks and holding the moral high ground in wartime. "It is bad for them politically, it's bad for them institutionally and it's bad for morale," Jacobson said. "It makes it harder to do their job if they are perceived to be acting in ways that are criminal." Little about the case has been made public. According to charging documents, 5 of the troops are alleged to have shot Awad after kidnapping him from his home. All 8 are being charged with murder because prosecutors say those who didn't shoot were complicit in the killing. Investigators say the troops placed an AK-47 in Awad's hands, apparently to make it look like he was an insurgent. Several defense attorneys have said their clients gave statements to investigators about the incident but did so under heavy-handed tactics, including threat of the death penalty. The case may center on the troops' statements because with 8 defendants, it is likely at least one will cooperate with prosecutors in return for the charges being dropped or a reduced penalty, said Gary D. Solis, a former Marine Corps prosecutor and judge advocate who teaches law of war at Georgetown University Law Center. "My understanding is there are so many statements out there, the web has been laid," Solis said. The case might be a prelude to another trial, in which up to 12 Marines also based at Camp Pendleton may face murder charges in the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha in November. Several of those Marines have hired attorneys. (source: Associated Press) PENNSYLVANIA: Judge plans to allow death penalty motion Fayette County Judge John F. Wagner Jr. said Tuesday that he intends to deny James W. VanDivner's motion to block prosecutors from seeking the death penalty in his homicide trial. VanDivner, 57, of Point Marion, is charged with fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend, Michelle Cable, 41, at her Grindstone, Jefferson Township, home on July 5, 2004. He's also accused of firing one shot at her 20-year-old son, William, who survived but still has the bullet lodged near his spine. District Attorney Nancy Vernon will ask for the death penalty if jurors convict VanDivner of 1st-degree murder. She contends that VanDivner allegedly killed Cable while committing another felony; he created a grave risk of death to others at the home; and he has an extensive criminal record of violent offenses. Dianne Zerega, VanDivner's attorney for the potential penalty phase, argued yesterday that prosecutors failed at the August 2004 preliminary hearing to establish a case for the aggravating circumstances alleged for a sentence of capital punishment. Vernon countered that there's no specific case law that requires such a finding at the preliminary hearing. Instead, Vernon said, a jury must accept the aggravating factors beyond a reasonable doubt during the penalty phase. Earlier this month, Judge Steve Leskinen denied a similar motion by the defense team for Edward Belch, who is accused of killing 2 people in May 2005 when he allegedly rammed his truck into a motorcycle on Route 21. In his ruling, Leskinen said the defense may request proof of the evidence of the aggravating factors at the potential penalty phase. The trial court may decide that the evidence will not be presented if it is insufficient, he said. "Otherwise, this court finds that the aggravating circumstances must be submitted to the jury," Leskinen wrote in the ruling. Wagner took yesterday's arguments under advisement, but indicated his ruling will match Leskinen's. "We intend to rule consistently with Judge Leskinen," Wagner said. (source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) NORTH CAROLINA: Wilson candidate for death penalty Superior Court Judge Ed Wilson ruled Monday that District Attorney Belinda Foster could pursue the death penalty in the first-degree murder trial of Brian Timothy Wilson. If found guilty, Wilson, 32, could face lethal injection at Raleigh's Central Prison. Wilson is accused in the April 13 beating death of his grandmother, Rebecca Isley, 71. Police found Isley dead at 175 New Heights Drive, a home she shared with Wilson. Wilson called 911 to report a break-in, and told authorities he found his grandmother beaten and bleeding in the home. He said he was in his bedroom at the time. The Rockingham County Sheriff's Office arrested Wilson the next day. The Sheriff's Office moved him to Central Prison later the same week because Wilson presented a threat to himself. The Sheriff's Office said Wilson kept banging his head against the jail walls. According to the taped 911 call, Wilson seemed agitated as an operator tried to get details about the incident and help him to help his grandmother. Wilson tried to get off the phone with the operator several times, saying he needed to speak with his father. Wilson's next court appearance has not been set. (source: Reidsville Review) ALABAMA: Jury votes for death penalty in Sharp case----Convicted murderer likely to wait 2 weeks for sentencing After waiting 7 years and 8 months for his trial, convicted murder Jason Michael Sharp may have to wait another 2 weeks to find out if he will receive the death penalty or life in prison without parole. A jury deliberated for four hours Tuesday before voting 11 to 1 to recommend the death penalty. The same jury voted unanimously Monday to convict Sharp, 29, of capital murder in the death Tracy Lynn Morris, 33. Under the law, Circuit Judge Laura W. Hamilton has the job of issuing the punishment, and she could override the jury's advisory verdict for the death penalty. Hamilton told the lawyers she will order a state probation officer to conduct a presentencing report on the case. The report will be ready in about two weeks, she said. "I'll schedule the sentencing shortly after that," she said. Sharp's trial started Aug. 21 and the testimony ended Friday. The jury reconvened Monday for the closing arguments. The prosecutors, Robert Broussard and Randy Dill, told the jury that Sharp raped, beat and fatally stabbed Morris on Jan. 2, 1999, in her home. Semen stains found on her thigh and on the carpet in her bedroom contained Jason Sharp's DNA. Roger Morrison, a state forensic scientist, told the jury Friday that Sharp was 601 trillion times more likely than any other white male in Alabama to be the source of that DNA. Sharp's lawyers, Alan Mann and Barry Abston, attacked the credibility of the state's forensic laboratory and Morrison's credentials. They said evidence of sexual intercourse was not proof of rape and murder. To reach its advisory verdict Tuesday, the jurors weighed aggravating factors against mitigating factors provided under state law. The prosecution had already proved one of the aggravating circumstances, murder during a rape, with Sharp's conviction. As a second aggravating factor, the prosecutors argued Morris' manner of death was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel when compared to other capital offenses. Ralph Morris, Tracy's father, testified his daughter's death has devastated his family. "It might have been different had she been killed in a automobile accident," he said. "But this piece of dirt brutalized and murdered her in such a a vile way. "Just because he wanted to have sex with my baby." Kathy Pierce, a Huntsville police investigator, testified that Tracy Morris' murder was one of the most brutal she has seen in her 24-year career. The victim's hands were bound with duct tape, she was dragged from the kitchen to her bedroom and stabbed 37 times, Pierce said. Some of the stab wounds were on Morris' arms because she had tried to fight off her assailant, Pierce testified. "That is about as torturous and as cruel as it can be, when you are at home where you are supposed to be safe," she said. The defense attorneys offered 7 mitigating factors for the jurors to consider. Sharp's stepmother, Diane Sharp, testified Jason was abandoned by his birth mother when he was 18 months old. After that, when his mother had visitation rights, he witnessed her boyfriends abusing her. Those men also abused him, his brother and his sister, she said. Joanne Terrell, an instructor at the University of Alabama school of social work, is a mitigation specialist. She told the jury that Sharp was dropped on his head when he was eight months old, which fractured his skull and delayed his emotional development. He later lapsed into drug and alcohol abuse. The prosecutors argued that neither Sharp's mother, his drug use nor being dropped on his head killed Morris. (source: The Huntsville Times)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----S. DAK., US MIL., PENN., N.C., ALA.
Rick Halperin Wed, 30 Aug 2006 09:57:47 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
