Jan. 17
ARKANSAS:
Ark. governor reverses course on death penalty
After running for governor as a supporter of the death penalty, Gov. Mike Beebe
said Wednesday that the experience of signing a death warrant for the 1st time
caused his thinking on the issue to "evolve" and that he would sign legislation
outlawing the punishment if legislators were to send him such a bill.
The Democratic governor doesn't plan to make repealing the death penalty part
of his legislative agenda for this year's session, nor does he intend to ask
any lawmaker to introduce such legislation, Beebe's spokesman, Matt DeCample,
said. Several top lawmakers said it's unlikely legislators would propose a
death penalty repeal.
Beebe said he changed his mind about the death penalty after having to sign his
1st death warrant.
"The awesome burden of being the last person to have to sign one of those
things sobers you differently than talking about it in the abstract," Beebe
said.
His remarks came in response to an audience question during his appearance at
the Political Animals Club meeting at the governor's mansion.
Since taking office in 2007, Beebe has approved four executions, but none of
those have been carried out because of various court challenges. In signing the
death warrants, Beebe said, he pored over "every word of the testimony" in
search of a "scintilla" of doubt about the conviction. He said in all 4 cases,
his review of the court papers convinced him of the person's guilt but that the
experience of having to sign the order shifted his feelings about the death
penalty.
"It is an agonizing process, whether you're for the death penalty or against
the death penalty," he said. "Everybody can claim they're for it until you're
actually the person who's got to sign it."
Arkansas last executed an inmate in 2005. Last year, the Arkansas Supreme Court
struck down the state's execution law, holding that it was unconstitutional for
the Legislature to defer to the state Corrections Department in selecting the
type of lethal drugs used in an execution. The court did not rule on the
constitutionality of lethal injection or the death penalty itself.
Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Benton, said the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he
chairs, would certainly seek to resolve that Arkansas Supreme Court decision in
one way or another.
"It would be an abdication of our duties to just let the court's order stand
and not do anything," he said. "We need to either say, 'We're not going to have
it,' or 'We're going to do it in an appropriate way.'"
He said that in the process of resolving the Supreme Court's concerns about the
methods of execution, lawmakers would also debate the merits of the death
penalty. While he personally supports the death penalty, Hutchinson said he
plans to listen to both sides when he convenes a hearing on the death penalty
some time before the end of the month.
The Republican and Democratic leaders of the House said Tuesday that there was
little interest in any efforts to repeal the death penalty.
House Speaker Davy Carter, R-Cabot, said he supports the death penalty and
doesn't think lawmakers want to eliminate capital punishment in the state.
"I'm not interested in revoking the death penalty here," Carter said.
House Minority Leader Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, said he supports repealing
the death penalty but agreed that it would be "very difficult" to pass out of
the Legislature.
"I doubt that we'll see such a bill filled," he said. "In a session where we
know that we're going to have a lot of fights over Medicaid, people's appetite
for adding more controversy might not be there."
Senate President Michael Lamoureux, R-Russellville, said he personally supports
keeping the death penalty but that it was too early to gauge what type of
interest there would be in the state Senate for repealing it.
"I took the governor's comments as an invitation for someone to act," he said.
"The question will be if there is an individual member who is going to
introduce this."
(source: Associated Press)
VIRGINIA:
Virginia inmate Robert Gleason dies by electric chair
The US state of Virginia has used the electric chair to put to death a man who
killed 2 fellow prisoners to speed up his own execution.
Robert Gleason, 42, was the 1st Virginia inmate to choose electrocution over
lethal injection since March 2010.
The former tattoo artist pleaded guilty to a 2007 murder and subsequently
killed 2 fellow prisoners, while waiving all his rights to an appeal.
Virginia's governor declined to intervene in the case.
Authorities pronounced Gleason dead at 21:08 on Wednesday (02:08 GMT on
Thursday) at the Greensville Correctional Center in the town of Jarratt.
'Urine-soaked sponge'
Gleason's lawyers had argued he had a long history of mental illness and his
condition had deteriorated during a year in solitary confinement.
2 other evaluations deemed him capable of making his own decisions.
He strangled his cellmate, 63-year-old Harvey Watson, in 2009, after tricking
him into allowing his hands to be tied by pretending it was part of an escape
plot.
According to court records, Gleason taunted his victim by stuffing a
urine-soaked sponge into his mouth before killing him.
While awaiting sentencing, he strangled 26-year-old Aaron Cooper.
Gleason said that he asked Cooper to try on a "religious necklace" through a
wire fencing separating them.
He had said in multiple interviews that he had waived the appeals process
because he knew he would kill again if he was not executed.
"Someone needs to stop it," he told the Associated Press at the time of the 1st
inmate murder. "The only way to stop me is put me on death row."
He repeated threats to murder again in court on numerous occasions.
Governor Bob McDonnell said in a statement on Friday: "Gleason has expressed no
remorse for these horrific murders.
"He has been found competent by the appropriate courts to make all of these
decisions."
Only 157 death-row electrocutions have taken place out of 1,320 executions
since the US death penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to the Death
Penalty Information Center.
(source: BBC)
US MILITARY:
Naval Academy Professor Charged With Raping Midshipman; Maj. Mark A. Thompson,
43, is accused of assaulting a female midshipman at his apartment after the the
2011 croquet match.
A professor at the U.S. Naval Academy has been charged with sexually assaulting
a student in his Annapolis apartment after the 2011 croquet match between the
academy and St. John's College.
Maj. Mark A. Thompson, 43, is undergoing an Article 32 hearing, which is
similar to a grand jury hearing, at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, DC,
according to Military.com - a military news outlet.
He faces three charges, including 2 specifications of aggravated sexual assault
and indecent acts; 3 specifications of conduct unbecoming an officer; and 2
specifications of fraternization.
At the hearing on Tuesday, Sarah Stadler, an academy graduate and friend of the
victim, testified to having a sexual relationship with Thompson while she was a
student. According to Military.com, she claims she spent the day of the croquet
match drinking with the friend and fellow midshipman that ended with the pair
playing strip poker at Thompson's apartment.
The annual croquet match between the schools has occurred every spring for the
last 30 years. The match draws hundreds of spectators from Annapolis and
surrounding areas.
St. John's prohibited visitors from bringing alcohol to its campus for the 2012
croquet match, but in 2011 people were still allowed to bring their own.
Stadler testified that she and the victim brought their own alcohol to the
match. They then drank more at El Toro Bravo, a Mexican restaurant on West
Street before heading to Thompson's apartment, according to Military.com.
Stadler admitted to having sex with Thompson that night, and testified that the
victim was in bed with them, but she was not sure if Thompson slept with the
victim as well.
Thompson was a history professor and the officer representative for the
academy's rifle team. Cmdr. William Marks, a spokesman for the academy, said
Thompson is still assigned to the school but he was removed from duties that
would bring him into contact with students.
At the end of the Article 32 hearing, the investigating officer will make a
recommendation to Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Adm. Michael Miller on
what, if any, charges Thompson should face.
Marks said that decision would likely made within the next 2 weeks. If charges
are brought, Thompson will face a court-martial in Washington DC sometime in
the next 2 to 3 months.
The maximum penalty for aggravated sexual assault under the Uniform Code of
Military Justice is the death penalty.
(source: Annapolis Patch)
*******************
U.S. military to arraign soldier accused of Afghan massacre
A U.S. soldier accused of killing 16 villagers in Afghanistan is due to be
arraigned on Thursday on charges of premeditated murder, for which military
prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Robert Bales, a veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, is
accused of gunning down the villagers - mostly women and children - in their
homes in 2 villages in Afghanistan's Kandahar province.
The shootings occurred over a five-hour period in March. It was one of the
deadliest incidents the military has blamed on a rogue U.S. soldier since
theVietnam War and strained U.S.-Afghan relations.
Prosecutors say Bales, 39, acted alone and with "chilling premeditation" when,
armed with a pistol, a rifle and a grenade launcher, he left his base twice,
returning in the middle of his rampage to tell a fellow soldier: "I just shot
up some people."
During a pre-trial hearing in November at Washington state's Joint Base
Lewis-McChord, where Bales is being held and where Thursday's arraignment will
take place, witnesses testified that he had been angered by a bomb blast near
his outpost that severed a fellow soldier's leg days before the shootings.
The government believes Bales was solely responsible for the deaths, and
survivors have testified that they saw only one U.S. soldier. However, several
indirect accounts have suggested more than one soldier may have been involved.
Bales was bound over for court martial in December and faces 16 murder charges,
as well as other charges, including attempted murder, assault and drug and
alcohol charges.
"(The arraignment) makes it official, that he is about to go into a court
martial. It also gives the defense and prosecution an opportunity to present
motions," Army spokesman Gary Dangerfield said, adding that Bales would hear
the summary of charges against him and be able to enter a plea.
Bales' lawyers declined requests for comment.
POSSIBLE POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS
Defense lawyers have not set out an alternate theory of the case, but have
pointed out inconsistencies in pre-trial testimony and highlighted incidents
before the shooting where Bales lost his temper easily.
Those incidents could possibly set up an argument that Bales was suffering
frompost-traumatic stress disorder.
"His defense attorneys would be wise to ask for further expert evaluation of
his sanity," said Mary D. Fan, a former University of Washington law professor
who is following the case. "They might be able to argue (that), at the time,
Bales couldn't tell right from wrong."
Fan added that she expected Bales to enter a plea of not guilty or perhaps
defer a plea pending further negotiation with prosecutors and an independent
mental evaluation.
Army prosecutors told Reuters in November they would arrange for Afghan
witnesses to testify in person during the court martial. Prosecutors have
already presented physical evidence to link Bales to the crime scene, as well
as blood-splattered camouflage clothing.
For Bales to be executed, a military jury must unanimously find him guilty of
the eligible crime and at least one aggravating factor that largely outweighs
any mitigating circumstances,the Army said.
Evidence of anymental illness, post-traumatic stress disorder, extended combat
experience, and the presence of alcohol and other substances could be "critical
evidence," said civilian defense attorney Colby Vokey, a retired Marine
lieutenant-colonel.
The military justice system also requires the U.S. president to approve the
execution of a service member, which last occurred in 1961.
"You can't receive the death penalty in the military with anything less than
premeditation," said Victor Hansen, vice-president of the National Institute of
Military Justice.
(source: Reuters)
OREGON:
2013 Oregon Legislative Session: Bills to watch
House Joint Resolution 1: Refers to voters a constitutional amendment
abolishing Oregon's death penalty. Gov. John Kitzhaber said he will support the
resolution and has already issued a moratorium on executions during his time in
office. He said Monday he supports a maximum sentence of life in prison without
parole.
(source: The Oregonian)
GEORGIA:
Man convicted of killing Christopher Barrios deserves a new trial, attorney
tells Georgia Supreme Court; David Edenfield only told Glynn County officers
what they wanted to hear, defense lawyer argues
The attorney for a Glynn County man sentenced to death in the 2007 murder and
sexual assault of 6-year-old Christopher Barrios told the justices of the
Supreme Court of Georgia that he deserves a new trial.
The justices held oral arguments Wednesday at the University of Georgia Law
School before an audience of 120 students and faculty during their annual visit
outside Atlanta.
In October 2009, David Edenfield was convicted for helping his adult son,
George, abuse and strangle the child who lived nearby in the same Canal Mobile
Home Park outside Brunswick. He was convicted of murder, cruelty to children, 3
counts of child molestation and other charges and has been on death row ever
since.
The Edenfields had moved from a home they owned in Brunswick to the mobile home
park because it was one of the few places the son could live as a convicted
child molester. According to prosecutors, the son said voices told him to kill
the child, and David Edenfield walked in on his son in the act and participated
"to see what it felt like to kill someone."
Christopher's grandmother, Sue Rodriquez, lived just across a narrow road from
the Edenfields' mobile home. In walking between his grandmother's home and his
father's home nearby, Christopher passed through the Edenfields' yard, his
family had said.
Wednesday, Edenfield's attorney, James Yancey Jr., said there was nothing
linking David Edenfield to the crime other than statements made to police by
the older Edenfield, who has an IQ of 83.
However, his wife, Peggy Edenfield, also testified against him and admitted to
helping hide the body.
"Mr. Edenfield told them what they wanted to hear," Yancey said. "What he told
them was not correct."
Yancey argued that investigators made promises to a suspect they could tell had
little intellect, and his statements should not be used to incriminate him
because he was trying to please the officers in hope of being released.
"They focused on him because he was the least low-functioning adult present,"
said Yancey, noting that Peggy Edenfield, their son and a friend also arrested
but later cleared, all had low IQs.
But Assistant District Attorney John B. Johnson told the court that David
Edenfield, who had prior experience with the law, never sought a lawyer nor
asked to exercise his right to remain silent.
"You have to remember that this gentleman, and I use that term loosely, had a
career in the National Guard. He was holding a job and had done so for years.
And to qualify him as 'low-functioning' is a misstatement of the facts that are
in evidence in this case," said Johnson, the lead prosecutor in the case.
Focus on jury
Yancey also complained that the jury was biased by news coverage, even though
they were drawn from Jeff Davis County about 100 miles away. Of the 80
prospective jurors who weren???t excused for having a moral opposition to the
death penalty, 20 of them, or 25 %, were dismissed because they had already
made up their minds. He said a 1991 Supreme Court precedent said a change of a
trial venue is required if news reports swayed as few as 21 % of the
prospective jurors.
Johnson argued that 156 people were summoned to be in the jury pool, and that
the 20 Yancey cited amounted to just 13 % of the larger number available, not
25 %.
A 3rd reason for a new trial, according to Yancey, was because the trial judge
should have excused 1 specific juror as being biased because of his answers
during jury selection. That would have preserved one of the defense team's
limited jury strikes, Yancey said.
Peggy Edenfield pleaded guilty to 5 counts of child molestation and was
sentenced to 60 years in prison. George Edenfield has been found incompetent to
stand trial.
Christopher's disappearance captured the attention of the nation. A week of
extensive searching, a Georgia Department of Natural Resources ranger driving a
road about 2 miles away spotted a black plastic bag in woods. He checked the
bag and found Christopher's nude and decomposing body.
The court gave no hint as to which way it will rule. A decision is expected in
3 or 4 months.
(source: Florida Times-Union)
*********************
Athens on death (row) watch: Capital murder case in Classic City's sights
The days Melissa Christian used to celebrate with her family are now some of
the hardest: her 2 children's birthdays, the holiday season.
February would have marked 17 years of marriage to Athens-Clarke County police
officer Elmer "Buddy" Christian. Instead, 1 month later will be 2 years since
the day she had to tell her children their father wasn't coming home from work.
"From October to March is some kind of anniversary that's going to be a hard
day," Melissa told The Red & Black last week. "So there's lots of 'the hardest'
I guess."
4 days after Elmer was gunned down while on duty in west Athens, the town
became a captive audience when the accused killer, Jamie Hood, surrendered with
a group of hostages on live television. Like something out of a movie, it won't
be soon forgotten. "[My 4-year-old son] still thinks Daddy is somewhere, he
knows Heaven, but he doesn't understand what that means. He just thinks he's
somewhere and he isn't coming home for some reason. He doesn't get that he's
not coming home because he can't come home," Melissa said.
"He expects him to be home any day. He still looks for him. So on one hand it's
really hard when he says things like that, on the other it means he is
remembering him."
The drama has continued to play out through months of pretrial hearings in a
case that could land Hood on death row. Hood has confessed to the crime
multiple times, fired 2 defense teams and even accused one public defender of
being a drug addict.
But the courts were able to grind through the process and Hood pled not guilty
to the 70-count indictment last Friday, signaling the official start of what is
likely to become a tumultuous trial.
"It seems like a circus every time we go," Melissa said. "I'm just ready for it
to get started and get over with."
Execution shy
Hood's trial has brought the death penalty conversation to a community that
historically hasn't had much of a stomach for executions.
The district attorney's office signaled intentions to seek the death penalty in
Hood's case, meaning, if convicted, he could become the county's 1st inmate
executed during the modern era.
But Frank Baumgartner, a political science professor at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, said this isn't typical of the area. Athens-Clarke
County saw 193 murders between 1980 and 2004, but only sought the death penalty
14 times, or for less than 1 % of all murder cases. And none of those judgments
ended with the accused being put to death.
"If you live in [Houston, Texas], you might have a 3 or 4 percent chance of
getting executed if you're a 1st-degree murderer. And if you live in
[Athens-Clarke County], you have a 0 % chance, statistically," Baumgartner
said. "I think what happens is they get a 1st execution and it kind of creates
a self-fulfilling prophecy that the next time there's a really horrific crime,
they're going to also get an execution. And if they never got that 1st
execution or if they never develop a pattern of significant use of the death
penalty, it simply never develops."
University of Georgia law professor Curtis Nesset defended multiple clients on
death row in Utah before coming to UGA. Now he teaches classes on capital
punishment to Georgia students who may encounter the debate in one way or
another after graduation.
"It's a lot of pressure on everybody," Nesset said. "From the state's point of
view, you're asking to take someone's life...If you're on the defense side,
you're asking that that life not be taken. So it's an enormous amount of
pressure."
His and other law students waited in line on Wednesday as they found a front
row seat to watch the debate play out right in their own backyard. The Supreme
Court of Georgia travels to a different college campus each year. This year, it
came to Athens and brought with it a capital murder case.
Students packed out the on-campus Hatton Lovejoy Courtroom as David Homer
Edenfield's lawyers fought to overturn his death sentence stemming from a 2007
murder of a 6-year-old boy in Glynn County.
"I???m really excited about it. I know that kind of sounds vulgar, but I think
it will be very interesting to hear the arguments firsthand," 2nd year law
student Jessica Barrett said.
For other students, Wednesday's trial was a reminder of why they're going into
law in the first place.
"It's certainly much more serious and weighty than reading a contracts case
with only money at stake," Patrick Najjar said. "Knowing that a human life
might be at stake here, it just really gives you an appreciation and
apprehension about the power of the system."
A Southern legacy
Georgia has executed 52 inmates since 1976, ranking 7th in the nation since
that time. While no Georgia inmates were executed in 2012, 4 were put to death
in 2011, 2 in 2010 and 3 in 2009.
The state made national headlines when it went ahead with the execution of Troy
Davis amid public outcry in 2011. UGA students joined in the protests, holding
a sign that read, "Too much doubt" in front of the Arch the day Davis was put
to death.
Georgia has been a main stage for the capital punishment debate dating back to
what researchers consider the beginning of the "modern era" of executions in
the United States.
After William Henry Furman was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in
Georgia, he took his case to the United States Supreme Court in 1972. The
courts ruled the penalty was "cruel and unusual punishment," effectively
banning the practice. But Georgia redrafted its capital punishment laws 4 years
later and went back to the Supreme Court to set another precedent. This time
the courts reinstated the capital punishment under specific conditions still
used today.
Since then, Georgia and other southern states have led the charge in
maintaining and administering the death penalty, accounting for 81 % of all
executions. Baumgartner called the skewed distribution alive today a
"historical fluke" dating back to these early cases.
"There was a really strong reaction in the South to the Supreme Court decision
in 1972 in the sense that the federal government was forcing bussing, was
forcing racial integration, was forcing this and forcing that. Now they've
outlawed the death penalty," Baumgartner said. "What's the country coming to?
We have to stand up for something we believe in. And that was much stronger in
the South then it was in other parts of the country."
But even in the South, the number of inmates executed each year is relatively
small compared to the number of convicted murderers. According to Baumgartner,
just about 1 % of murder convictions come with a death sentence. But just 20 %
of those sentences are carried out. The other 80 % are overturned on appeal or
mitigated by some other factor.
So even as lawyers gear up to take Hood's case to the courts, there doesn't
seem to be any end in sight to this chapter in Athens' history.
"There's an 80 % chance, that even if he's given a death sentence, he won't be
executed. If he is executed it will be 20 years later," Baumgartner said. "So
things just go on, drag on forever and it's very difficult to call it closure."
(source: The (Univ. of Ga.) Red & Black)
USA (IOWA----female faces federal death sentence)
Jury to consider death penalty in Iowa woman's retrial; Sentence debated for
Johnson in 1993 killings
Jurors will answer a single question at the upcoming death penalty retrial of
Angela Johnson: whether she deserves to die for 5 drug-related murders instead
of spending the rest of her life in prison.
U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett said Wednesday jurors will be instructed that
he will impose a prison sentence of life without parole even if one of them
doesn't believe the former Iowa woman should be executed.
The ruling is a victory for Johnson's defense, which argued jurors could be
persuaded to support her death if they feared she could one day be released
from prison.
The June trial will determine the sentence Johnson should receive for the 1993
killings. Bennett threw out a Johnson's original death sentence last year after
finding her defense was inadequate.
Johnson and her then-boyfriend Dustin Honken, a chemistry whiz who became one
of the Midwest's 1st methamphetamine kingpins, were convicted of killing 3
adults and 2 children to thwart a federal investigation into his multistate
drug business. The victims included 2 former dealers for Honken who were
cooperating with investigators; 1 of their girlfriends, and her 2 children who
happened to be home when Honken and Johnson came looking for them.
Prosecutors said Johnson posed as a saleswoman to get into one of their homes
in 1993, days before Honken was to plead guilty to drug charges. Honken and
Johnson forced one of the dealers to make a videotaped statement exonerating
Honken, then took him, his girlfriend and the children to a field, where they
were each shot in the back of the head. Months later, Johnson lured a 2nd
dealer, who was her former boyfriend, to a secluded location where Honken shot
him several times and beat him with a baseball bat.
The drug charges were dropped, and Honken remained a free man.
The victims' bodies were not found until 2000, when Johnson drew a map for a
jailhouse informant that led authorities to their graves near Mason City. Iowa
doesn't have the death penalty, but federal prosecutors intervened, seeking
capital punishment because the case involved the killing of witnesses and
children. Jurors sentenced Honken, who remains on death row, and Johnson to
death after separate trials.
(source: The Gazette)
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