Mar. 1
OHIO:
Joseph Thomas Still Facing Death Sentence ---- Judge Richard Collins denies the
defendant's motions to dismiss the death sentence as a possible punishment
Lake County Common Pleas Judge has denied all of murder suspect Joseph Thomas's
motions to dismiss the death sentence as a possible punishment if he is
convicted.
Thomas, 27, is accused of raping and murdering bartender Annie McSween. His
trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 5.
Thomas's attorneys filed several motions in January, asking the judge to
dismiss the death sentence.
They claimed Thomas should not face the death sentence because the grand jury
-- who decides if a defendant could potentially face death if convicted --
doesn't listen to mitigating evidence from the defendant.
Collins disagreed with Thomas. He said having the grand jury consider
mitigating evidence would change the way its operated historically.
"The grand jury, moreover, is in the business of finding probably cause, not
assessing possible defenses," Collins wrote in his decision.
Thomas also claimed the death penalty was unconstitutional for several other
reasons, including:
•prosecutors can decide whether or not they want to pursue the death penalty
•it is racially discriminatory
•it is unconstitutionally vague
•it violates the mandate against cruel and unusual punishment
•it violates international laws and treaties.
Collins disagreed with all of these arguments. He said the Ohio Supreme Court
had already ruled that the death penalty didn't violate any international
treaties and the U.S. Supreme Court said it wasn't cruel and unusual
punishment.
In reference to Thomas's claim that the death penalty discriminates against
certain races, Collins noted that Thomas didn't say he was being unfairly
discriminated against.
"A capital defendant cannot evade a death sentence merely by demonstrating the
statistical disparity of capital defendants or victims of a particular race,"
Collins said.
Thomas is accused of killing Annie McSween, who lived in Mentor.
McSween, 49 was found murdered Nov. 26, 2010, near Mario's Lakeway Lounge on
Andrews Road.
McSween had tended bar at Lakeway Lounge the night she was murdered. She closed
the bar, but never made it home.
Her body was found behind the house at 5612 Andrews Road, next to the bar, at
8:39 a.m. She had been beaten, strangled and repeatedly stabbed, Lake County
Deputy Coroner Dr. Mark Komar said. She likely bled to death.
(source: Mentor Patch)
MISSOURI:
Study says Mo death penalty too broad
Missouri has too many reasons for which prosecutors can pursue the death
penalty against murder suspects and needs to do a better job of preserving
forensic evidence such as DNA samples, according to a report being released
Thursday.
The report is the result of a 1-year study sponsored by the American Bar
Association that was conducted by a panel of law professors, private-sector
attorneys and federal judges who had been nominated to the bench by Republican
and Democratic presidents. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report
before it was to be publicly released later Thursday at a Capitol news
conference.
The study notes that Missouri has 17 "aggravating circumstances" that give
prosecutors wide discretion by which they can argue to jurors that someone
should be sentenced to death. One justification, for example, is that the
murder was "wantonly vile." The result is that the circumstances "are so
broadly drafted as to qualify virtually any intentional homicide as a death
penalty case," the report says.
The report recommends narrowing the law so that only the most serious murder
cases are eligible for the death penalty.
It also says Missouri should do a better job of preserving "biological
evidence" in death penalty cases for as long as the inmate remains behind bars.
In some cases, biological evidence that does not lead to a conviction has been
destroyed, leaving the inmate with little opportunity to pursue new tests if
technology advances.
The report is not entirely critical of Missouri's death penalty system. It
praises the state in at least five areas, including for maintaining what it
describes as an independent judiciary. Judges on Missouri's appellate courts
and urban trial courts are appointed by the governor after being nominated by
special panels while circuit judges in other areas run under partisan labels.
Missouri is the 10th state for which the American Bar Association has released
an analysis of its death penalty system, and additional studies are ongoing in
Texas and Virginia. Although Missouri has curtailed the number of executions
carried out in recent years, it ranks fifth nationally in executions since the
U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.
(source: Associated Press)
VIRGINIA----federal death penalty to be sought)
Feds seek death penalty against Zion murder suspect----Ex-Marine accused of
killing petty officer in her Virginia barracks; DNA links him to 2005 Zion
deaths
Federal prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against Jorge Torrez, the
former Marine from Zion linked by DNA to the vicious slayings of 2 young girls
in a Lake County park in 2005, according to court records.
Authorities intend to pursue Torrez's execution if he is convicted in a crime
that occurred years after the local killings — the 2009 slaying of 20-year-old
Navy Petty Officer Amanda Snell in her barracks in Arlington County, Va.
But prosecutors wrote in a motion filed Wednesday in Virginia federal court
that if Torrez is convicted of that murder, they will try to show at sentencing
that he stabbed 9-year-old Krystal Tobias to death and raped and killed
8-year-old Laura Hobbs in Zion seven years ago.
Until 2010, those killings had been attributed to Laura's father, Jerry Hobbs,
who spent 5 years in jail awaiting trial.
Hobbs' prosecution is one of four recent cases in which Lake County prosecutors
pursued a suspect after DNA appeared to point away from that person.
Authorities knew for years that semen found inside Laura Hobbs' body didn't
match her father, but prosecutors said it didn't point to his innocence because
the DNA could have found its way inside the girl as she played in a spot where
couples had sex.
Yet Lake County prosecutors dropped the charges against Hobbs and released him
in August 2010 after Torrez was arrested in a series of nonfatal attacks on
women in Virginia and, according to court records, his DNA profile was found to
match the semen recovered from the Zion girl.
Federal prosecutors rarely succeed at having the death penalty enforced. In the
last 35 years, federal courts have ordered death for 3 men, one of whom was
Oklahoma City bomberTimothy McVeigh,who killed 168 people, according to the
Death Penalty Information Center.
Such executions are rare because defendants' lawyers often have access to more
resources in U.S. court than they would in state courts, said Kevin McNally,
director of the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project, which supports
lawyers defending clients from execution.
Federal death penalty cases are split into two parts: the trial to determine
guilt or innocence, and the sentencing phase, which is like a second trial in
which jurors determine whether the defendant lives or dies, McNally said.
Sentencing hearings can move quickly in state court, but the 2nd phase of a
federal death penalty trial can take a month, he said.
Previewing their case against Torrez, prosecutors' motion Wednesday listed a
host of alleged crimes and inappropriate behavior by the defendant.
Torrez was 16 when Krystal Tobias, the younger sister of a close friend, was
found dead alongside Laura Hobbs in Zion in 2005. Jerry Hobbs confessed to the
crime, though he would later say officers coerced his admission through
psychological manipulation during an interrogation that lasted nearly 24 hours.
No one has been charged in the murders since Hobbs' release. In a jailhouse
phone call to the Tribune last year, Torrez said he has a defense, in spite of
the finding of DNA linking him to the crime.
"I'm not denying that (the DNA) is mine," he said. "Once I tell them how my DNA
got there, I'm walking."
Along with that crime and the killing of the Navy petty officer in July 2009,
federal prosecutors plan to show that Torrez engaged in aggressive behavior
against women as a teenager, tying up female friends on occasions in 2005 and
2009, the second time with a dog leash, according to the court motion.
In 2009 and 2010, Torrez visited websites featuring rape-themed pornography and
looked up directions on how to make the incapacitating chemical chloroform,
prosecutors said.
He was arrested in February 2010 and later convicted of the abduction and
brutal sexual assault of a 23-year-old woman in Virginia during a series of
attacks on women. He is serving 5 life sentences plus 168 years for those
crimes. After those convictions, he was charged with Snell's death, though
prosecutors have not explained how they believe he killed her.
While jailed after his arrest, Torrez continued to behave threateningly to
witnesses and guards, prosecutors said. Torrez plotted to have the victims of
his Virginia state crimes killed, prosecutors said, and he drew a map to one
victim's home.
He also fabricated a small metal tool to unlock his handcuffs while he was
jailed, prosecutors said. And, later, Torrez wrote a letter to his sister
saying he would kill the children of a correctional officer if the guard
continued to call him names, prosecutors alleged.
Neither Torrez's lawyer nor family members could be reached for comment. Lake
County prosecutors also could not be reached for comment.
(source: Chicago Tribune)
CALIFORNIA:
Debate over death penalty resurfaces in California ---- Opponents ask voters to
repeal it; supporters say bills would reduce delays
The death penalty is emerging as a contentious issue in 2012, both in the state
Capitol and at the polls.
There are 2 competing approaches: repeal or repair. Which direction California
takes, if either, will probably remain unanswered until fall.
Death penalty opponents Thursday plan to announce they have collected more than
enough signatures to qualify an initiative for the November ballot asking
voters to repeal capital punishment and replace it with life in prison without
the possibility of parole.
“It doesn’t make sense to continue to throw money into a death penalty system
that doesn’t work,” said Catherine Thiemann, chairwoman of a San Diego County
coalition working on the campaign.
State Sen. Joel Anderson, R-La Mesa, believes in the death penalty but says it
needs to be fixed. He has introduced legislation to speed up executions by
eliminating long-standing California law that requires death penalty cases to
be automatically reviewed by the state Supreme Court.
“We can all agree justice delayed is justice denied,” said Anderson, who
contends the delays weaken the deterrent value.
Death penalty cases have a lengthy process.
Nearly 14 years can pass between a jury’s decree and the final Supreme Court
decision. Federal appeals and other factors can push the execution date out
another decade, according to a 2008 state study.
California last put a convicted murderer to death in 2006.
In addition to the various appeals filed by death row inmates, challenges to
the lethal injection process have blocked pending executions for the
foreseeable future.
If the initiative is certified, it will be the first time the state’s voters
have had a direct say on the death penalty since 1978 when they overwhelmingly
supported reinstating capital punishment.
13 inmates have been executed since then, while California spends about $184
million a year on the slightly more than 700 still on death row, according to
supporters of a repeal.
The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst placed the net savings from banning the
death penalty to the state and counties at the “high tens of millions” annually
if the initiative is implemented.
Legislative bids to overhaul the death penalty are routine and rarely advance
far. For example, last year legislation to ban executions stalled in the
Democratic-controlled Legislature.
Even a respected jurist has had little success. Ronald George, then chief
justice of California, penned a plea for reforms in the Los Angeles Times in
2008. He argued for allowing the High Court to farm out backlogged capital
cases to appellate courts.
“Thoughtful individuals on both sides of the death penalty debate should be
able to agree on one thing: The existing system … is dysfunctional and needs
reform,” George wrote.
“The public, including the families and friends of victims and of those
convicted, has a keen interest in finality and enforcement of the law …
Moreover, when a reversal occurs long after judgment, and a retrial is
necessary, memories may have faded and witnesses often unavailable,” he wrote.
George is not alone in his beliefs. The California Commission on the Fair
Administration of Justice, appointed in 2008 and made up of a cross-section of
interests, issued a stinging rebuke of the death penalty process.
The commission noted that on average it takes more than two decades from
conviction to execution, when there is one. The national average is half that.
“The failures in the administration of California’s death penalty law create
cynicism and disrespect for the rule of law, increase the duration and costs of
confining death row inmates, weaken any possible deterrent benefits of capital
punishment, increase the emotional trauma experienced by murder victims’
families, and delay the resolution of meritorious capital appeals,” the
commission concluded.
INITIATIVE The initiative would replace capital punishment with life in prison
without the possibility of parole. It also would dedicate $100 million a year —
a share of the assumed savings from eliminating death row and its accompanying
extra lawyer, prison security and trial costs — to boost budgets to investigate
unsolved murders and rapes.
“It’s a tremendous waste of resources given so many needs are going unmet,”
said Catherine Thiemann, chairwoman of a San Diego County coalition working on
the repeal campaign.
Initiative supporters needed to gather slightly more than 500,000 signatures of
registered voters by March 18 to qualify the measure for the ballot. They
expect to turn in about 750,000, which was their goal.
Of those, 58,040 were gathered in San Diego County.
Ronnie Sandoval is one of those hoping voters have second thoughts given the
costs — not just in dollars but in the emotional toll on families and the risk
of sending innocents to death row.
Sandoval, a paralegal in Orange County, comes to the issue with a unique
perspective. Her son, Arthur, was wrongfully convicted of armed robbery and
spent 13 years behind bars before being set free.
Although his case did not involve murder, Sandoval said she and her son talked
about wrongful capital case convictions and both grew determined to support
steps that would help protect the innocent. He was later killed by an alleged
drunken driver, but she wants to carry on.
“My goal is to help victims and the community at large to understand the real
costs of the death penalty,” she said. “You put someone behind bars for life —
that’s holding them accountable. They’re a testament … Is the death penalty
really justice? It’s not.”
Supporters credit the faith community with helping reach the signature goal.
In January, a group of Catholic bishops announced its support for the repeal.
“As Catholics, we hold human life to be sacred - As citizens, we find the use
of the death penalty unnecessary, impractical and expensive,” said a statement
issued by the Catholic Bishops of California.
LEGISLATION Sen. Joel Anderson, R-La Mesa, supports the death penalty but does
see the system as broken given lengthy delays in punishment.
“The family, the victims and the guilty deserve swift justice,” he said.
Anderson has introduced Senate Bill 1514 and Senate Constitutional Amendment
20.
Taken together, the measures would eliminate the automatic appeal to the state
Supreme Court and make the appellate court the 1st stop. The Supreme Court
would then have to be petitioned and justices would be free to determine
whether to take the case. Under the constitution and current law, the Supreme
Court must accept every case.
The time and money saved by changing the automatic Supreme Court review have
not been estimated.
Neither of Anderson’s measures would impact appeals filed in federal court.
It will be a challenge for Anderson to move the legislation to the Gov. Jerry
Brown’s desk given the controversy, the fact that it’s an election year and a
Democratic majority in both houses can delay votes by arguing that voters
should first weigh in on an outright repeal. Moreover, a constitutional
amendment requires a 2/3 majority to move to the ballot for public approval.
Anderson has backing from some law enforcement, including San Joaquin County
District Attorney Jim Willit, a death penalty supporter.
“California’s death penalty is a joke and needs to fixed or eliminated,” Willit
said in a statement. “Sen. Anderson’s proposed legislation takes significant
steps toward fixing it.”
Death penalty supporter Ron Cottingham, a longtime officer in the San Diego
County Sheriff’s Department, has his own unique perspective. His father-in-law
was murdered in 1982 by a man now serving a 25-years-to-life sentence.
He said the death sentence is reserved for the “worst of the worst. I don’t
think it’s inappropriately applied.” Also, as long as they are on death row
“there’s no threat of recidivism. They can no longer harm anybody,” said
Cottingham, now president of the Police Officers Research Council, a lobbying
arm for rank and file law enforcement.
Cottingham said he has not yet reviewed Anderson’s measure, but he is convinced
Californians still want the death penalty.
But it’s likely to draw some fire from those who believe that the Supreme Court
must be the final safety net for those who may be innocent, or who should be
given leniency due to unique circumstances.
Gov. Jerry Brown has not weighed in. He is an opponent of the death penalty but
as attorney general his office routinely called on the state Supreme Court to
uphold death penalty sentences.
(source: UT San Diego)
ALABAMA----female to face death penalty
Prosecutors to Seek Death Penalty Against Savannah Hardin's Grandmother
Alabama prosecutors say they are filing capital murder charges -- which carries
the possibility of the death penalty -- against a grandmother accused of
running her 9-year-old granddaughter to death as punishment.
Etowah County authorities announced the decision Thursday during a bond hearing
for 46-year-old Joyce Garrard. A prosecutor calls her the "drill sergeant from
hell" and says a capital murder charge will be filed.
Garrard and 27-year-old Jessica Mae Hardin are charged with murder in the death
of 9-year-old Savannah Hardin.
(source: Associated Press)
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