Jan. 27
TEXAS:
Jury resumes deliberations on death penalty in Rockwell capital murder trial
The jury resumed deliberations at 8:45 a.m. Friday in whether convicted killer
Kwame Rockwell should receive the death penalty or life in prison for the
shooting death of a convenience store clerk during a robbery.
Rockwell was convicted last week of capital murder in the death of Daniel
Rojas, 22. Another man, Mrs. Baird's deliveryman Jerry Burnett, was also shot
in the head during the robbery and died 10 days later.
Prosecutors Kevin Rousseau and Sean Colston are seeking the death penalty
against Rockwell, telling jurors he is a "cold-blooded" killer who poses a
menace to society.
Defense attorneys Mark Daniel and Tim Moore have asked the jury to hand
Rockwell life in prison, saying he had not had a history of trouble with the
law and could function quietly in prison life.
Key evidence against Rockwell was a surveillance videotape, which showed 3
masked men, two with guns, enter the Valero convenience store just after 6 a.m.
on March 23, 2010. A left-handed gunman took just a few steps into the store
before shooting Burnett. The gunmen then rousted Rojas from the store office
and took him around the store at gunpoint while he collected cash from a bag in
the store freezer and then from cash registers.
Rojas cooperated completely with the robbers, the video shows, but they shot
him in the head as they turned to leave.
One of the masked men carried a gas can, and testimony indicated that the men
intended to set the store on fire but couldn't get it started. Burnett was
covered in gasoline when he arrived at the emergency room, medical personnel
testified.
The jury deliberated 7 1/2 hours Thursday on punishment before being sent to a
hotel for the evening.
(source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
MISSISSIPPI----new and impending execution date
Execution date set Feb. 8 for Mississippi death row inmate
The Mississippi Supreme Court has set a Feb. 8 execution date for Edwin Hart
Turner.
Turner, who is 38, was convicted for the 1995 deaths of Eddie Brooks and
Everett Curry. Brooks, a clerk at Mims Auto Truck Village on U.S. Highway 82,
was killed on the job. Curry, a prison guard, was shot to death while pumping
gasoline at Mims One Stop on U.S. 82.
Turner, of Leflore County, and Paul Murrell Stewart, of Greenwood, were
indicted for the slayings and a single count each of armed robbery. In a plea
agreement, Stewart was sentenced to 2 life sentences without parole and
testified against Turner.
Attorney General Jim Hood had asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to set an
execution date, saying Turner had exhausted his state and federal appeals.
(source: Associated Press)
WYOMING:
Justification for seeking death penalty released
Special Prosecutor Michael Blonigen is seeking the death penalty against
Nathanial Castellanos because the murder of Megan McIntosh was “especially
atrocious or cruel, being unnecessarily tortuous to the victim,” court
documents released Wednesday show.
Blonigen also listed that Castellanos, 32, created great risk of death to 2 or
more people, is likely to commit further violence, and will, prior to any
penalty proceedings in this case, have been convicted of a felony involving the
use of great threat of violence to a person.
Castellanos faces 2 counts of 1st-degree murder and 1 count of attempted
1st-degree murder in connection with the Aug. 23 shooting of McIntosh, Cory
Walker and Amber McGuire. McIntosh and Walker died of gunshot wounds.
Blonigen, who is Natrona County’s district attorney, filed his notice of intent
to seek the death penalty in December. The file was unavailable soon after the
filing, however, because defense attorney Robert Rose filed a motion to dismiss
the case and seal the documents based on the assertion that Blonigen was
erroneously appointed.
Laramie County District Attorney Scott Homar declined to prosecute Castellanos
because his ex-wife worked in Homar’s office.
Rose also filed a motion to disqualify Blonigen as special prosecutor because
one of Blonigen’s nephews was previously married to the woman who called 911
after hearing gunshots on the night in question. Blonigen has another nephew
who spoke with Castellanos the night of the alleged shooting while at Mingles
Bar.
Laramie County District Judge Peter Arnold denied Rose’s motions in a hearing
last week. Castellanos’ file was not available until late Wednesday afternoon
while Arnold was drafting his orders in the case.
Arnold ordered a trial continuance, or delay, in the case, though Castellanos
refused to waive his right to speedy trial.
In his motion, Arnold specifies that the court can postpone the trial if “the
defendant will not be substantially prejudiced” by the delay, according to
court documents. He goes on to cite the rules of criminal procedure, saying
that the continuance must be “required in the due administration of justice.”
According to court documents, State Public Defender Diane Lozano said in an
earlier hearing that an attorney qualified to handle a death penalty case would
not be available until the end of February.
Arnold ruled that in order for Castellanos to receive a fair trial, he must
have a competent lawyer experienced in the defense of capital cases and that at
this point a continuance would not prejudice Castellanos.
Lozano told Arnold in the hearing last week that 2 other lawyers in her office
would take over representation of Castellanos in coming weeks. She said the
case could go to trial sometime this summer.
(source: Wyoming News)
ILLINOIS:
The Nobel Prize ...
Bravo! Imprisoned former Gov. George Ryan has once again been nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize for his work that led to the abolition of the death penalty
in Illinois.
-- Laud ’em: Ryan has been nominated several times by University of Illinois
College of Law Professor Francis A. Boyle “because of his courageous, heroic,
and principled opposition to the racist and class-based death penalty system in
America.”
-- Praise ’em: It follows recent high praise by powerful House Speaker Mike
Madigan, who recalled Ryan’s “ability to identify problems and fashion
solutions.”
(source: Chicago Sun-Times)
NEBRASKA:
Debate heated over death penalty
A proposal to abolish the death penalty in Nebraska prompted an emotional
debate Thursday on the floor of the Legislature.
Sen. Brenda Council of Omaha introduced Legislative Bill 276 to substitute life
in prison without parole for the state's current system of lethal injection.
In the hourlong discussion that followed, senators struck a more charged tone
than typical floor debates about tax policy or the minutia of governing.
"To be pro-life is to respect the dignity of every single life. Even the
damned. Even those who do the indefensible," said Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop,
explaining that he will vote for the bill.
"There are some crimes that are so heinous there is no other choice but death,"
said Sen. John Harms of Scottsbluff, noting that two of the state's death-row
inmates — both of whom killed children — are from his district.
It's the 1st time lawmakers have discussed capital punishment since 2010, when
a similar measure by Council failed to gain the 25 votes needed to advance.
The debate falls 2 weeks after the Nebraska Supreme Court scheduled the March 6
execution of double-killer Michael Ryan. Although he is in line to be the 1st
man executed in Nebraska in 14 years, many observers expect more legal
challenges to force a delay.
The debate also comes in the wake of high-profile legal disputes over the way
Nebraska obtained 1 of the 3 drugs necessary to carry out a lethal injection.
The European manufacturer of the drug has alleged it never intended the drug to
be used in lethal injection, although Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning has
said the drug was obtained legally from an overseas supplier.
Council said she intends to bring up Nebraska's death drugs later, but on
Thursday, she pointed to 130 death row inmates in other states who were
exonerated when new evidence emerged in their cases.
Though Council did not argue that any of the 11 current condemned inmates is
innocent, it's not hard to find other wrongful murder convictions in the state.
"Our system is not an infallible system," she stated. "Mistakes are made."
Speaker of the Legislature Mike Flood brought up the 2002 murders of 5 people
in a bank in his hometown of Norfolk, a crime that put all 3 gunmen on death
row. Surveillance cameras captured the shootings on tape, based on evidence in
the case.
"There were no mistakes about what happened in that bank," he said. "These are
vicious, obnoxious folks that have committed the most heinous of crimes, and
they deserve the death penalty."
The floor debate will continue Friday.
(source: Omaha World-Herald)
****************************
Sponsor pulls anti-death penalty bill, for now
Debate on the death penalty has paused at the Unicameral so the sponsor of a
bill that would eliminate capital punishment in Nebraska gathers more
information on accusations that that state used deception to obtain a drug
needed of lethal injection.
Questions surrounding the state’s method of obtaining sodium thiopental became
a focal point of the debate in the legislature. Sen. Brenda Council of Omaha
sponsors LB 276, which would end capital punishment.
Council warned colleagues that they need to pay attention to the controversy
that has arisen over the state’s use of a broker to buy sodium thiopental from
a foreign manufacturer. Council reminds fellow senators that the manufacturer
claims the state obtained the drug under false pretenses.
“So, we’re obtaining this drug knowing its being obtained in a deceitful manner
with the intent to deceive,” Council stated during floor debate.
The executions of Carey Dean Moore and Michael Ryan have been delayed, in part,
because the state didn’t have the anesthetic needed to carry out lethal
injections. Moore was convicted of killing cab drivers Maynard D. Helgeland and
Reuel Eugene Van Ness in 1979. Ryan was sentenced to death for the ritualistic
torture and killing of James Thimm at a religious compound near Rulo in 1985.
The gap between when those crimes were committed and the pending executions of
the two condemned inmates bothered Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh of Omaha.
“The time that has lapsed between when these horrible crimes were committed and
we are still struggling to carry out the sentences that were justly handed
down. At a certain level, it breeds, I think, disrespect for all law,”
according to Lautenbaugh.
Lautenbaugh noted that the debate on the two cases centers more on technical
issues than the crimes committed.
Debate on the death penalty bill could resume later this session.
(source: Nebraska Radio network)
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