July 13
TEXAS----impending execution
Appeal Denied, Another Heads to the Chamber----Stockbroker was shot 12 times
If the state goes through with the execution of Yokamon Hearn, scheduled for
July 18, he will be the 6th person to die in Texas' current schedule of 14
planned executions for 2012. Hearn would become the 483rd inmate executed in
Texas since reinstatement of the death penalty and the 244th inmate to die on
Gov. Rick Perry's watch.
Hearn was sentenced to death for the 1998 robbery and murder of 23-year-old
Frank Meziere in Dallas. Reportedly, Hearn and 3 accomplices kidnapped Meziere
at gunpoint, forced him into his own car, and took him to an industrial area in
the Oak Cliff area of South Dallas, where they shot him a dozen times before
taking his wallet and personal items and fleeing in his car, which was found
abandoned about 5 miles from the body. Hearn's execution has been set before
but was stayed while courts considered appeals claiming he was mentally
retarded and could not legally be executed. His most recent appeal – arguing
that a clinical assessment should be allowed to demonstrate his mental
retardation in lieu of traditional IQ scores – was denied in January.
(source: Austin Chronicle)
GEORGIA----impending execution
Execution spotlights strict definition of mental disability for Ga. death row
defendants
Georgia was the 1st state to ban executing mentally disabled death row inmates,
but the case of an inmate who is to be put to death next week has highlighted
the state’s strictest-in-the-nation standard for proving mental disability.
Former President Jimmy Carter is among those who have said the state pardons
board should commute Warren Lee Hill’s death sentence to life in prison without
parole. However, the state argues defense attorneys have failed to meet their
burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Hill is mentally disabled.
Hill was convicted of the 1991 murder of a fellow inmate.
Most states that impose the death penalty have a lower threshold for defendants
to prove they are mentally disabled, while some states don’t set standards at
all. Hill’s lawyer Brian Kammer said the high standard for proving mental
disability is problematic because psychiatric diagnoses are subject to a degree
of uncertainty that is virtually impossible to overcome.
Prosecutors have presented expert testimony and evidence that Hill is not
disabled, while his attorneys have presented their own evidence to prove he is
disabled. That can make it difficult to determine anything beyond a reasonable
doubt, said Kay Levine, an associate professor of law at Emory University.
“Beyond a reasonable doubt can never be met if you’re simply not sure which
side is unequivocally telling the truth and which side is not,” said Levine,
who has no connection to the Hill case. “The issue with Georgia setting its
mental health standard as high as it’s set is that it requires such a high
level of certainty that even scientists will rarely reach.”
Nonetheless, Georgia’s strict standard has repeatedly been upheld by state and
federal courts.
Last year, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in an appeal of Hill’s
case that it couldn’t strike down Georgia’s law because the U.S. Supreme Court
allows states to create their own definitions for mentally disabled. The
decision, written by Judge Frank Hull, noted the justices were careful not to
set their own rigid guidelines for such a definition.
Even if Georgia “somehow inappropriately struck the balance” when it adopted
its standard, Hull wrote, only the U.S. Supreme Court can overturn the state’s
law.
The Supreme Court last month declined to hear Hill’s case, but his lawyer has
already submitted a new request to the high court.
Diagnostic guidelines from the American Psychiatric Association for “mild
mental retardation” — which is what Hill’s defense claims — include an IQ of
approximately 50-70 and onset before age 18. The guidelines also include
simultaneous deficits or impairments in the person’s effectiveness in meeting
the standards expected for the person’s age or cultural group in at least 2 of
the following areas: communication, self-care, home living,
social/interpersonal skills, use of community resources, self-direction,
functional academic skills, work, leisure, health and safety.
Georgia’s law reflects those guidelines, defining “mentally retarded” — which
is the term used by the law — as “having significantly subaverage general
intellectual functioning resulting in or associated with impairments in
adaptive behavior which manifested during the developmental period.”
****************************
Clemency Board Hears Hill's Case
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles will hear Friday from people seeking
clemency for a death row inmate set to be executed next week.
The board is set to meet with representatives supporting Warren Lee Hill. Hill
was serving a life sentence in 1990 for the 1986 slaying of his girlfriend when
he killed a fellow inmate. A jury in 1991 convicted Hill of murder and
sentenced him to death.
Hill's execution is scheduled for Wednesday.
Hill's lawyer argues his client is mentally disabled and shouldn't be executed.
His lawyer is asking the board to commute Hill's sentence to life in prison
without parole or to grant a stay of 90 days so the U.S. Supreme Court has an
opportunity to review the case.
(source for both: Associated Press)
*********************
Georgia death row inmate seeks reprieve due to mental disability
Attorneys for a Georgia man facing execution next week will argue to the
state's pardons board on Friday that executing the two-time murderer would be
unjust because of his limited mental capacity.
Warren Lee Hill, 52, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on July 18. In a
series of unsuccessful appeals, his lawyers have argued that his execution
should be halted because he suffered from what they termed mental retardation.
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, which will consider the case on
Friday, has more leeway than the courts in deciding whether to commute Hill's
death sentence to life in prison, said Richard Dieter, executive director of
the non-profit Death Penalty Information Center.
In petitioning the board for clemency, Hill's attorneys are raising questions
about Georgia's strict standard for defining mental retardation.
In 1988, Georgia became the 1st U.S. state to enact a law banning the execution
of mentally retarded defendants. But Georgia has perhaps the toughest standard
in the nation for defining mental retardation, requiring proof "beyond a
reasonable doubt," Dieter said.
"I don't know of any other state that puts the burden on the defendant to show
(retardation) beyond a reasonable doubt, the highest standard that there is in
the judicial system," he said.
Mental retardation is generally defined as having a score of 70 or below on
intelligence tests, Dieter said. Hill scored 69 on one intelligence test and in
the 70s on others, according to court records.
States also take additional factors into account, including a defendant's
ability to perform routine tasks. Georgia's attorney general and a federal
appellate court have noted that Hill served in the U.S. Navy and saved money to
purchase cars and motorcycles before his incarceration.
Hill's attorney, Brian Kammer, told Reuters that people who are mildly mentally
retarded "can seem to function 'normally' in many areas of life," including
military service.
Hill was serving a life sentence for the 1986 shooting death of his girlfriend
when he killed a fellow prisoner in August 1990 by beating the man to death
while he slept.
At his trial, a clinical psychologist testified that Hill had below-normal
intelligence but knew the difference between right and wrong, according to the
attorney general's office.
State officials and courts said Hill did not raise mental retardation as a
legal issue until five years after his 1991 conviction and death sentence for
the second murder.
"He was not in special education, socially promoted or labeled as ‘mentally
retarded' or ‘slow' in school," Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens said in a
statement on Wednesday.
Kammer said the issue of mental retardation was not brought up at trial because
Hill's original lawyers did not conduct a thorough investigation into his
background.
Hill's attorneys have challenged Georgia's law in the federal courts, saying
the "beyond reasonable doubt" standard is overly strict and conflicts with a
2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that bans executing mentally retarded
defendants.
A three-judge panel of a federal appeals court in Atlanta agreed with the
defense in 2010. But the full court reversed that decision last year, and the
U.S. Supreme Court last month declined to review the case.
If the parole board grants Hill clemency, his sentence would be converted to
life in prison either with or without the possibility of parole.
"A clemency or parole board can go beyond the strictures of the law to grant
mercy because a case fits within the general parameters of mental retardation,"
Dieter said.
(source: Reuters)
MISSOURI:
Mo. prosecutors stay quiet on death penalty study
When the American Bar Association sought to review Missouri's death penalty
laws as part of a nationwide study of capital punishment, it turned to a
collection of the state's most esteemed lawyers, judges and law professors for
help.
The 2-year ABA study, released earlier this year, relied on detailed responses
from law enforcement agencies, medical examiners, crime labs and others
involved in handing down the state's ultimate legal sanction. But one group was
largely and notably absent from the discussion: the prosecutors who decide
whether to seek the death penalty in the first place.
Several members of the panel that worked on the study said the prosecutors'
lack of cooperation hindered efforts to fully evaluate the death penalty system
in a state that executed 68 people since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated
capital punishment in 1976, trailing only Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma and
Florida.
ABA surveys sent to prosecutors in Kansas City, Springfield, Columbia, Cape
Girardeau and St. Charles went unanswered, while the state Attorney General's
Office provided limited information. Daniel White, prosecutor in Clay County in
suburban Kansas City, was the only survey recipient to write back with his own
thoughts but declined to participate, saying he did not want to "embolden
enemies of justice."
White, who has sought the death penalty just twice in nearly 20 years, said
sharing his insights would "generate a public document subsequently available
to others who may not have justice as their primary mission."
"I can't quantify the soul searching, legal research, fact finding and energy
expended in first, arriving at the decision to see the death penalty and
second, actually going forward," White wrote. "It's not an easy decision; nor
should it be."
The ABA sought details on the training and qualifications of assistant
prosecutors who handle capital cases, including their caseloads. The
association also asked about office budgets and salaries, number of previous
and active death penalty cases, procedures for sharing discovery evidence with
defense lawyers, interactions with families of victims, and policies on plea
bargains.
The study panel had members from Missouri including U.S. District Court judges
Nanette Laughrey and Stephen Limbaugh Jr. and Harold Lowenstein, a former state
representative who spent 28 years as a judge for the Missouri Court of Appeals
and is now in private practice in Kansas City. The panel also included two
University of Missouri law professors and another from St. Louis University.
A 436-page report that came from the study includes recommendations that mostly
would require legislative action. They include improved procedures for
preserving biological evidence and a call for limits on the 17 aggravating
circumstances under which prosecutors can seek death against murder suspects.
"I didn't anticipate a total lack of sharing information," said study panel
member Doug Copeland, a St. Louis attorney and former Missouri Bar president.
"They suggested some problems they had with going into their thought processes.
I can understand that. But there's so much more information that doesn't tip
their hands on anything."
St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch and former Callaway County prosecutor
Bob Sterner, now an associate circuit judge, did not respond to the 40-question
survey in writing but answered verbally, although it's not clear if they did so
over the phone or in person.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce's one-paragraph response to the
survey referred to a collective response by the Missouri Association of
Prosecuting Attorneys written by Taney County prosecutor Jeffrey Merrell, who
merely cited Missouri laws on death penalty cases.
Merrell said prosecutors were concerned the ABA study was an effort to endorse
a moratorium on the death penalty, which was the conclusion in 7 of the
previous nine ABA reviews.
"It seemed that every jurisdiction the ABA had studied, they recommended a
moratorium," he said. "Our initial feeling was this was a superficial effort to
do a study and then recommend a moratorium.
"There were several questions that really did not appear to be designed to be
answered in a way that was a fair representation of how decisions are made in
the state of Missouri."
Panel member Paul Litton, a University of Missouri law professor, said some of
the prosecutors' concerns are reasonable, especially considering that the ABA
office in charge of the review is called the Death Penalty Moratorium Project.
"We did not set out and say, 'Let's go find reasons to implement a
moratorium,'" Litton said. "We went into it with an open mind about everything.
We didn't go into this with some sort of anti-death penalty agenda."
ABA attorney Sarah Turberville, director of the death penalty project, said
Missouri prosecutors weren't alone in their reluctance. The Kentucky review
team, which released its work late last year, was also rebuffed by prosecutors
in that state, who decided as a group to not respond for fear their answers
could jeopardize ongoing cases.
For Litton, the lack of response from Missouri prosecutors means the state is
missing a chance to weigh in on ways it can further improve its death penalty
system.
"There's a lot of common ground," he said. "No one wants to see the innocent
punished. No one wants to see the guilty go unpunished. We all have a concern
for fairness, whether you're anti-death penalty or pro-death penalty."
___
Online: Missouri death penalty assessment report, http://bit.ly/Lcw1em
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA:
Jurors faced with heart-wrenching memories in Oakland death penalty case
Every time Karen Martin sees a stray penny on the ground, she is immediately
reminded of her murdered son James, who was shot dead along with 2 others as
they sat in a car in East Oakland 7 years ago.
Pennies remind Karen Martin of James because he once gave her a card with a
message that told her every penny she found was a signal from him that he was
thinking of her.
About a half-hour before Karen Martin took the witness stand Thursday in the
death penalty case against James Martin's murderer, when she was to tell jurors
about the devastating impact the killing had on her and her family, she saw a
penny on the ground.
"Today, when I was at lunch, I don't know, I just looked down and found a penny
on the restaurant floor," Karen Martin told the jury as tears streamed from her
eyes. "My life is forever changed. I'm supposed to die before he does."
Karen Martin's stories, both cheerful and heart-wrenching, came at the end of a
daylong parade of family members and friends who spoke from the witness stand
about how the murders of James Martin, 28, Dale Griffin, 26, and Rebecca
Martinez, 22, severely impacted their lives.
The testimony came as jurors heard evidence in the penalty phase of the death
penalty case against David Mills, 37, who was found guilty of triple murder and
felony animal cruelty for the shooting on March 11, 2005.
After hearing evidence linking Mills to a 1997 murder, the jurors were faced
with the emotional wreckage that Mills' shooting caused three separate
families. Once the penalty phase is complete, the jury must decide whether to
send Mills to death row or prison for the rest of his life without the
possibility for parole.
Mills killed the 3 victims and critically injured Rebecca Martinez's sister,
Elizabeth, as the group sat in a car in front of Mills' father's house in East
Oakland. The group all knew Mills and had gone to the house to retrieve a gun
Mills had taken from Rebecca Martinez's former boyfriend.
Elizabeth Martinez and Griffin considered themselves husband and wife, although
they were never legally married, and Martin was Rebecca Martinez's boyfriend at
the time of the killings.
During the guilt phase of the trial, troubling details emerged about the lives
of the victims, including serious drug addictions, gang affiliations and past
criminal behavior.
But on Thursday, the mothers, brothers, sisters, aunts and children of the
victims asked the jury to look beyond their troubled lives and said they didn't
deserve to die in a massacre because of their bad decisions.
Deborah Martinez, the mother of Rebecca and Elizabeth, said she continues to
carry a heavy guilt for what happened to her daughters and how their lives were
filled with troubles.
She explained how her daughters were sent to foster care as children after both
she and her husband were sent to prison. She said she never saw her children as
they grew.
"I feel a lot of guilt," she said. " I think if I had been a better mother, she
would still be here."
Martinez said the pain caused by her daughter's murder was unspeakable and was
made worse at Rebecca Martinez's funeral.
"I didn't have any money, I wanted her to have a big fancy funeral, but I
didn't have money for that," she said. "I wanted to have her buried, but I
didn't have money for that, so I had to have her cremated.
"I hate that, I hate that she was cremated; she was so beautiful," Deborah
Martinez said as she began to cry.
(source: Mercury News)
********************
DA to seek death penalty in Libby Lake slayings
A prosecutor on Thursday said the San Diego County district attorney's office
will seek the death penalty for a documented gang member accused of killing an
Oceanside teenage couple ---- who police say weren't in a gang ---- after he
spotted them together in a darkened park on a spring night in 2011.
Deputy District Attorney Cal Logan said his office will seek the death penalty
for Al'c Bejaran, 20, the accused triggerman in the killings of Fernando Felix
Solano, 16, and Sandra Salgado, 14.
The announcement raises the stakes for Bejaran, who was already looking at 100
years to life in prison if convicted of 2 counts of murder and 2 counts of
using a gun in the crime. Trial is set to begin in January.
Oceanside police said the young victims were gunned down about 10 p.m. May 3,
2011, in a secluded corner of Libby Lake Park on the north end of Oceanside.
Reached by phone Monday, Fernando's mother said her son's killer "didn't care
that he (Fernando) was so young."
"If he didn't have mercy for my son, I won't have mercy for him," Fernando's
mother, Rafaela Santiago, said in Spanish, through an English-speaking family
member.
The slayings happened in Oceanside's Mesa Margarita neighborhood, which sits
just north of North River Road and east of Vandegrift Boulevard. 2 rival gangs
---- one black, one Latino ---- have laid claim to "turf" in Mesa Margarita, a
poor community with a history of gang violence.
Police and family members said the young victims were not gang members.
Still, the deaths of the 2 teens may have sparked a retaliation slaying 7
months later. The cousin of victim Fernando, as well as 2 of the cousin's
friends, were charged with murder in the Jan. 2 slaying of Stephan Board, who
prosecutors said was a member of Bejaran's Oceanside gang.
In charging Bejaran last year, prosecutor Logan also filed special circumstance
allegations accusing Bejaran of committing multiple killings. That allegation
opened the door for the prosecution to pursue the death penalty for Bejaran.
Prosecutors have charged 3 other men in relation to the killings of the young
couple. None of those 3 men face the death penalty.
Documented gang members Kenneth Hamilton, 34, and Justin Gibson, 19, are each
charged with 2 counts of murder. Each faces 51 years to life in prison if
convicted of 1st-degree murder, prosecutor Logan said.
A 4th member of the same street gang, Tyrone Blackmon, 30, was charged with
being an accessory to the crime; prosecutors said he helped his fellow gang
members hide. He faces up to 7 years behind bars if convicted, Logan said.
According to testimony at a key pretrial proceeding in November, Hamilton and
Gibson told Oceanside police they went to the park ---- in a rival gang's
territory ---- on the night of May 3 with Bejaran. They were smoking marijuana
when Bejaran found the two teenagers on a nearby hill and gunned them down,
according to testimony.
In the past 12 months, San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has
decided to seek the death penalty in two cases, including Bejaran's.
In deciding whether to seek the death penalty, Dumanis has said that she meets
separately with the family of the victim and attorneys for the defendant.
Dumanis said she also meets with a team of veteran prosecutors in her office,
then sleeps on it for a few days before making the decision.
(source: North County Times)
NEVADA----new death sentence
Man sentenced to death for killing man, fetus in 2008
A 29-year-old man convicted of murder for using a chain saw to cut a hole in
the door of his estranged wife's apartment before shooting her and killing her
boyfriend and her fetus was sentenced to death Thursday.
William Keck was convicted last week of 5 counts - including 1st-degree murder,
attempted murder, and manslaughter-killing of an unborn quick child - in the
Nov. 3, 2008, shooting.
Keck fatally shot Jonathan Lestelle, 26, during an early morning attack at the
Fountains at Villa Cordova apartments, 2800 S. Eastern Ave., near Sahara
Avenue.
During the attack, Keck also shot his estranged wife, Angel Reyes, 8 times. The
18-week-old fetus, fathered by Lestelle, was struck by at least 1 bullet during
the attack and died.
Las Vegas police said Keck used a chain saw to cut a hole in the apartment
door. He then shot the door knob off and fired 21 rounds through the hole.
The incident was recorded on a 911 call.
Keck told investigators he was "deeply in love" with his wife. However, he
dated other women after the couple separated.
Keck's defense attorneys suggested he suffered from a mental disorder.
The emotional, 2-week trial was followed by a 2-day-long penalty phase that
featured wrenching testimony from family members of Reyes and Lestelle.
Angel Reyes testified that before the shooting, Keck had threatened to shoot
her in the stomach and kill her baby.
The jury deliberated about 90 minutes on Thursday morning before handing down
the death sentence.
Following the verdict outside the courtroom, Reyes hugged prosecutor Giancarlo
Pesci and wept. Both Pesci and fellow prosecutor Robert Daskas were brought to
tears as they consoled the Reyes and Lestelle families.
"I'm amazed by the dignity and courage of this family," Pesci said later.
Daskas added, "The death verdict reflects the fact that the defendant took 1
life, destroyed a 2nd life and prevented a 3rd life."
The jury had 4 punishments it could have imposed, including death, life in
prison without parole, life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20
years, or 20 to 50 years in prison.
However, Keck's defense team during closing arguments Wednesday asked the
jurors to "cross out" the last 2 choices.
"Billy Keck (should) never walk free from jail again," deputy public defender
Ed Kane said.
In a dramatic courtroom argument, deputy public defender Jeff Banks berated his
own client and asked, "How dare you, Billy Keck, do that to those people?"
The public defender continued, "What he (Keck) did was horrible, terrible and
inexcusable and no one in this room thinks otherwise."
But Banks argued there were mitigating factors that the jury should consider,
including Keck's mental health issues.
"I'm asking you to lock Billy Keck up in a cage and throw away the key and let
God decide when to take him out," Banks said.
In response, prosecutors accused Keck of faking his mental illness. Witnesses
during the penalty phase, including Angel Reyes, said Keck had gotten an early
discharge from the U.S. Navy by pretending to hear voices and cutting himself.
The witnesses said Keck was proud he had duped the Navy and had "Section 8"
tattooed on his arm, indicating a discharge for mental illness.
During his closing arguments, Daskas said Keck intended to kill Reyes and
Lestelle and their unborn baby when he went to the apartment.
Daskas added that Keck also believed Lestelle's 3-year-old son, Trenton, was in
the apartment when he shot 21 times from an AK-47. Trenton was with a relative
at the time.
Keck was arrested about an hour after the shooting. Daskas said he had gone
back to his own apartment and crawled into bed with his then-girlfriend after
the shooting.
Daskas closed his argument by suggesting jurors might have a hard time
imagining the fear and pain Reyes and Lestelle felt as they were being shot.
The prosecutor then played a 911 call made by Reyes, which recorded the
shooting.
The courtroom hushed as a computerized voice said, "Nov. 3, 2008."
The blasts from the AK-47 were audible and the 911 operator immediately begged
for an address, as Reyes and Lestelle screamed and hollered as they were shot.
"Help. Somebody help me please," Reyes yelled repeatedly. Lestelle made a
gargling sound, choking on his own blood.
Reyes, who screamed pain, kept begging for help as the 911 operator kept asking
for an address. Finally Reyes heard the 911 operator and gave their address.
As the tape ended, Daskas stood in front of Keck, pointed at the defendant and
said, "He did that."
Daskas then asked the jury to punish Keck with a death sentence, as many in the
courtroom choked back tears.
Keck told jurors he felt shame and remorse for what he had done. But "If I said
I was sorry I would expect to be beaten. There is no sorry for murder. There
can be no apology to erase agony. There can be only atonement or intent
thereof," Keck said.
On Thursday, Keck's attorney said he would appeal the verdict, as is done in
all death penalty cases. The appeal process in death penalty cases can take
more than a decade.
Banks added, "Our compassion for everyone involved is unwavering. It's
disheartening that the mentally ill can be executed. As for Mr. Keck, I will
pray for his soul and I will appeal his case."
Keck still faces criminal charges in federal court in an unrelated assault at
Lake Mead of a man who he believed was hitting on his then-girlfriend.
(source: Las Vegas Review-Journal)
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