Mar. 4 TENNESSEE: 4 carjacking suspects face death penalty ---- Prosecution pushes for new DNA samples Prosecutors' push for death as punishment for all 4 suspects in a fatal carjacking came as no surprise to the quartet's defenders. Their bid for hair and swab samples for DNA testing is proving a legal shocker, however, with at least one defense team questioning whether the state has lost or destroyed similar evidence collected more than a year ago. Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner has set a Friday hearing on a motion filed by Assistant District Attorney General Leland Price seeking a dozen samples each of head and pubic hair and two swabs from inside the mouths of the suspects in the January 2007 slayings of a 21-year-old University of Tennessee student and her 23-year-old boyfriend. Attorney Kim Parton, who represents Letalvis "Rome" Cobbins, and defense team Tom Dillard and Steve Johnson, who represent George Thomas, challenged the request Monday, arguing samples were taken and tested more than a year ago. In a brief filed by Johnson, Thomas' defenders went one step further, openly questioning whether samples obtained last year and used in earlier testing had been lost or destroyed. "The state's motion raises serious questions about whether it, its agents or others acting on its behalf have degraded or destroyed the biological samples obtained prior to (the quartet's indictment)," Johnson wrote. Cobbins, girlfriend Vanessa Coleman, brother Lemaricus "Slim" Davidson and Thomas all are charged with kidnapping, robbing, raping, torturing and killing Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom after what began as an apparent carjacking. District Attorney General Randy Nichols announced at Monday's hearing that he would seek the lives of Davidson and Thomas should the pair be convicted in the slayings. He and Price already had filed the necessary paperwork to seek the death penalty against Cobbins and Coleman. The hearing was supposed to serve as a chance for Baumgartner to appoint a new attorney to serve as second chair to Parton. Suspects facing death are entitled under state law to 2 defense attorneys, at least one of whom must be skilled in handling capital cases. Parton is qualified under the law and is Cobbins' primary defender. However, attorney Rick Clark, appointed to help Parton in the case, has been hospitalized with cancer. Baumgartner sought on Monday to appoint attorney Bruce Poston to the case. Poston said he was reluctant but would agree at the judge's behest. However, Nichols countered that Poston may have a conflict, alleging Cobbins has made incriminating statements to another of Poston's clients with whom Cobbins is housed in the Knox County Jail. That issue also will be addressed Friday. However, the real fight on Friday will be over DNA testing. According to Price's motion, hair not belonging to either Christian or Newsom has been recovered from the crime scene, although it wasn't clear from his motion whether the hair came from Christian's Toyota 4-Runner or the Chipman Street house where the couple was held hostage and tortured before their deaths. However, search warrant affidavits filed soon after the pair's bodies were discovered and the suspects rounded up show that samples of hair and saliva already have been collected. Johnson wrote in his response that those samples have been tested and compared to the hair found at the crime scene. "No match at all was indicated with Mr. Thomas," Johnson wrote. It was not immediately clear Monday whether attorney David Eldridge, who represents Davidson, and attorney Russell T. Greene, who along with a Kentucky attorney is representing Coleman, also will fight the DNA sample request. (source: Knoxville News-Sentinel) SOUTH DAKOTA: Death penalty not pursued The prosecution in the murder case of Tamara Magic of Rapid City has decided not to seek the death penalty against Tad Blackburn. The 44-year-old woman was found beaten and stabbed in her home on November 8th. Blackburn, who is 22, is being held on a $1 million bond. His trial on a charge of 1st-degree murder is scheduled for next month. Authorities say Blackburn was driving Magic's car when he was arrested in Box Elder the day after she was killed. (source: Associated Press) ALABAMA: Lackey facing death penalty----Jury finds him guilty of murder, urges execution Andrew Lackey stared straight ahead with no visible reaction Monday morning when he heard a jury had convicted him of 2 counts of capital murder nor later in the day when the jury recommended the death penalty. The jury of 7 women and 5 men deliberated about two hours Monday, after spending about 30 minutes in the jury room late Friday afternoon, before finding that Lackey killed Charlie Newman, 80, in Newman's Hine Street home on Halloween night in 2005. The jury spent about 90 minutes Monday afternoon deciding that Lackey should be put to death for his convictions of capital murder during a robbery and capital murder during a burglary. Limestone County Circuit Judge Robert Baker will sentence Lackey at a date to be determined. Baker is not bound by the jury's sentencing recommendation. Lackey's parents, Michael and Sharon Lackey, sitting on the front row of the courtroom, had little reaction to the guilty verdicts. Sharon Lackey put her hand over her mouth and gasped when the jury's sentencing recommendation was announced. "Oh, God," came from someone sitting in the area with the Lackey family. Limestone County District Attorney Kristi Valls in her closing argument Friday told the jury she submitted a mountain of evidence to convict Lackey. After the verdict Monday, Valls said, in a normal case, she would have 1 or 2 things that point to guilt. This case had 8 or 9 things, she said. "It was the overwhelming evidence that the jury couldn't ignore," Valls said when asked about the verdict. Defense attorney Randy Gladden of Huntsville called witnesses and argued that Lackey did not have good social skills, was immersed in video games and computers to the point that he lived in his own world, and didn't go to Newman's home to kill him. "Everything about this case was a challenge," Gladden said after the verdict. Evidence showed that Newman's estranged grandson, Derrick Newman, told Lackey his grandfather had a vault with gold bars in his house. Lackey went to Newman's home with a pizza warming bag and wearing a ball cap on Halloween night. He also had a stun or Taser gun and a blank or starter pistol. Testimony in the week-long trial showed Lackey and Newman struggled before Lackey stabbed Newman an estimated 54 times, beat him and shot him with a .38 pistol that Newman had in the house. Lackey, who was shot in the chest, drove to a Madison convenience store in a rental car. Madison police arrived and Lackey was taken to Huntsville Hospital. Experts testified that three bloody shoe prints found on Newman's kitchen floor matched Lackey's shoes, and DNA tests found Newman's blood on Lackey's shoes and pants. Blood from both Lackey and Newman was found on the .38 caliber pistol and the blank pistol, which were found in the rental car. Blood from both of them was also found in and on the car, and Newman's blood was on Lackey's sweatshirt and blue jeans. A folding knife with a broken tip was found in the car. A forensic expert testified that a tip from a knife blade found in Newman's skull was from the folding knife. During the sentencing hearing, Michael and Sharon Lackey told jurors they wondered if they made mistakes raising Andrew. They testified that he was a loyal and generous person, but had problems adapting socially. "Andrew lives in another world," Sharon Lackey said. "He's not from our world." Through tears, she told jurors, "If you could take me in his place, I'd say, 'Please, please take me.' " Valls recounted the injuries to Newman and how Newman begged for his life on a 911 recording. "You saw the heinousness. The atrociousness. The cruelty ?(Andrew Lackey) was not a desperate person. He had money. What kind of person, for no other reason than greed, butchers an 80-year-old man to death?" Valls said in asking for the death penalty. Gladden asked the jury to consider Lackey's age (he was 22 when the murder happened), that he had no criminal records and that he immersed himself in violent video games. "Look past the horrific pictures," Gladden said. (source: Huntsville Times) OKLAHOMA: Defense attorneys for Underwood argue against death penalty Relatives of convicted killer Kevin Underwood described him as a shy, socially awkward child during testimony Tuesday as his defense attorneys tried to spare him from the death penalty. Underwood, 28, was convicted Friday of first-degree murder for the killing of 10-year-old Jamie Rose Bolin in a plot fueled by cannibalistic fantasies. Gayle Coburn, Underwood's aunt from Emporia, Kan., testified that his social awkwardness began at an early age. She described a picture of Underwood as a toddler reaching his arms out toward the camera. "Probably by the time Kevin became about 2 years old he did not respond to hugs like other children," Coburn said. "It was like that picture. He was always reaching out wanting to play but not able to take the next step." Coburn also described unusual behavior Underwood exhibited as a child including making odd noises and exaggerated blinking. As Underwood grew older, Coburn said he once confided in her he was depressed, isolated and feeling very alone. She said she encouraged him to seek medical help. A Purcell doctor also testified that he treated Underwood for depression and prescribed him the antidepressants Zoloft and Lexapro. Previous testimony indicated Underwood began taking Lexapro for a second time just months before the girl's killing. Another of Underwood's aunts, Valerie Sanders, testified that she worked with Underwood at an Oklahoma City grocery store. She said Underwood exhibited mood swings in the months leading up to the girl's death. Coburn also testified that Underwood shared with her macabre, dark humor. "I remember telling him at one point, 'Kevin, you need to quit looking at that stuff because it's just gross.'" Prosecutors have said Underwood's fantasies involving killing and torturing and killing a victim were fueled by disturbing Internet images of pornography, autopsy photos and cannibalism. The penalty phase of Underwood's trial began Monday. Jurors could sentence Underwood to death by injection or give him a life sentence with or without the possibility of parole. The girl was killed on April 12, 2006. Underwood said he lured her into his apartment with a pet rat, hit her with a cutting board and smothered her. Her body was later found in a plastic tub in his apartment with her head nearly cut off. Although Underwood said a cannibalism fantasy fueled his actions, no evidence has been presented that any actual cannibalism took place. The case was moved from Purcell, where the crime occurred, to neighboring Cleveland County because of the intense publicity surrounding the case. (source: Tulsa World) ***************** Family of Killer Describes Awkward Youth Relatives of a man convicted of murdering a 10-year-old girl testified Tuesday that he was socially awkward while growing up and had a hard time playing with other children. Kevin Underwood wiped away tears as his father testified as part of a defense effort to spare him from the death penalty. Underwood, 28, was convicted Friday of 1st-degree murder for the killing of Jamie Rose Bolin in April 2006 in a plot fueled by cannibalistic fantasies and Internet pornography. Larry Underwood told jurors he was hard on his son and said he loved him ''more than anything.'' ''I didn't tell him enough,'' Larry Underwood said, choking back tears. He recalled a time Kevin played T-ball and spent part of the game rolling around in the outfield. ''I said, 'Kevin, if you didn't want to play ball, why'd you do it,''' Larry Underwood said he asked later. ''He said, 'I done it for you, Dad.''' The penalty phase of Underwood's trial began Monday. Jurors can sentence Underwood to death or give him a life sentence with or without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors said Underwood qualifies for the death penalty because he poses a continuing threat and because the girl's killing was especially cruel. But the defense said he was mentally ill and was out of touch with reality. Gayle Coburn, Underwood's aunt from Emporia, Kan., testified Tuesday that his social awkwardness began at an early age. She described a picture of Underwood as a toddler reaching his arms out toward the camera. ''Probably by the time Kevin became about 2 years old he did not respond to hugs like other children,'' Coburn said. ''It was like that picture. He was always reaching out wanting to play but not able to take the next step.'' As Underwood grew older, Coburn said he once confided in her he was depressed, isolated and feeling very alone. She said she encouraged him to seek medical help. A doctor also testified that he treated Underwood for depression and prescribed him antidepressants. Underwood said he lured the girl into his apartment with a pet rat, hit her with a cutting board and smothered her. Her body was later found in a plastic tub in his apartment with her head nearly cut off. (sources: Associated Press/New York Times) VIRGINIA: Fairfax Jury Calls for 2 Death Sentences: Man Who Killed Young Couple in 1988 Already Faces Execution in Calif. A Fairfax County jury told Alfredo R. Prieto yesterday that he should die for killing a young couple on a field near Reston nearly 2 decades ago. There were no witnesses to the crime, but prosecutors believe Warren H. Fulton III was on his knees when Prieto shot him in the back. Then Prieto shot Fulton's girlfriend, Rachael A. Raver, and raped her as she lay dying. Virginia will now contend with California to see which would be the 1st to get Prieto, 42, to the death chamber. In 1992, Prieto was convicted of raping and murdering a 15-year-old girl in Ontario, Calif., but his appeals could stretch nearly 10 more years. In Virginia, they could be exhausted in 5. The families of Fulton and Raver were in the courtroom yesterday to hear, at long last, the jury give its verdict: 2 death sentences. The victims were just 22 when their bodies were discovered Dec. 6, 1988, in a vacant lot along Hunter Mill Road. Raver had graduated the previous spring from George Washington University, and Fulton was a senior there and the captain of its varsity baseball team. The jury deliberated eight hours over two days last week, then came back yesterday with a verdict after deliberating 45 minutes more. Prieto blinked rapidly as the death sentences were announced. "I'm relieved and very happy, because justice has been done," said Veronica Raver, Rachel's mother. The death sentences will be imposed or reduced to a life sentence without parole May 23 by Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows. The trial was the longest in Fairfax, according to Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh. The murder case caps the storied career of Robert F. Horan Jr., who retired last year after serving as chief prosecutor of Virginia's largest jurisdiction for 40 years. Prieto's first trial ended in a mistrial last summer, but Horan, 75, agreed to return and try the case with Morrogh, his former longtime deputy, without pay. "The evidence called for it," Horan said of the jury's verdict, which also included 20 years on a grand-larceny charge for the theft of Raver's car. On Feb. 6, the jury convicted Prieto of the two Fairfax slayings. To obtain a death sentence, prosecutors had to convince the jury that the crimes were vile and depraved or that Prieto posed a danger to society. To that end, prosecutors presented evidence of the May 1988 rape and shooting of Veronica Jefferson in Arlington County, to which Prieto was linked by DNA, as well as records of his convictions in California for wounding 3 people in a drive-by shooting in 1984 and the rape and murder of Yvette Woodruff in September 1990. Prieto has not been tried in Jefferson's slaying. Prieto's attorneys, Jonathan Shapiro and Peter D. Greenspun, tried to prove that Prieto was mentally retarded and thus ineligible for death under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. They presented Prieto's relatives from El Salvador, who described his difficult upbringing in a war-torn country, and several mental health experts testified that he was mentally retarded or brain damaged. But Horan and Morrogh's mental health expert said Prieto is not retarded, and they presented his writings and conversations from jail to show that he is sound. Horan used his vast experience in confronting various mental health defenses over the years, including his knowledge of technical terms and diagnoses, to sharply cross-examine the defense experts. The case for Prieto's guilt was made almost entirely on DNA. Police had no suspects after Raver's and Fulton's bodies were found, and police had many years of dead ends. Then, in 2005, while Prieto was on San Quentin State Prison's death row, his DNA was entered into a national database. It matched the semen on Raver's body as well as that left on Jefferson's body 7 months earlier. Using ballistic evidence and the placement of the bodies, Horan theorized that Fulton was shot first and that Raver then tried to escape. "She has to know she's going to be the next to die," Horan said. "And she runs, and he shoots her, and he rapes her while she dies. . . . It's depraved behavior, it is outrageously vile and it warrants the death penalty." The jury could choose only the death penalty or life without parole. "Choosing life over death in this case," Shapiro told the jury, "if that's what you choose to do, doesn't mean you're excusing these crimes. It only means you understand that people are shaped by what they live through." Shapiro touched on Prieto's upbringing, his many years in prison and the movie "The Shawshank Redemption." He recounted the biblical tale of Jesus interrupting the stoning of an adulterer, in which Jesus said, "He who is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Horan flashed righteous indignation in his 10-minute rebuttal. "Members of the jury," he intoned, his voice rising, "the only stones in this case are the gravestones of Warren and Rachael and Veronica, the gravestones of the innocent victims of this defendant." (source: Washington Post) PENNSYLVANIA: Ex-lover, sentenced to 30 years, has no explanation for killing The woman who killed Elaine Pierson and helped a search party find her body took responsibility today for her death without saying exactly how it occurred. Rochelle Laudenslager, Pierson's lover for 4 years, was sentenced today to 30 to 60 years in state prison for Pierson's death in December 2006 and attacking a state trooper who arrested with a knife in February 2007. She pleaded no contest to 3rd-degree homicide last month in a deal with prosecutors to avoid a possible death penalty. "My personal actions caused the death of Elaine, but I did not intend to harm her," Laudenslager said. "I too am grieving for my very dear friend." Friends of Laudenslager and Pierson said the 2 met through mutual friends and began dating in 1998. The 2 broke up in 2002 but remained close. friends said. For those who found Pierson's body last year on a Perry County mountainside, the image will never go away. "Our lives will never be the same," Jackie Kennedy said, a friend of Pierson's. The last time anyone heard from Pierson, 48, was Dec. 27, 2006,when she told someone on the phone that there was a knock on her door. Friends reported her missing 2 days later after finding herhome unlocked and her keys, cell phone and dog in the house, but no sign of Pierson. Her body was found on Jan. 6, 2007, a few miles from her home under a fallen tree off Idle Road. (source: The Patriot News)
[Deathpenalty] [POSSIBLE SPAM] death penalty news----TENN., S. DAK., ALA., OKLA., VA., PENN.
Rick Halperin Thu, 6 Mar 2008 00:35:39 -0600 (Central Standard Time)