July 10
OKLAHOMA:
Prosecutors seeking death penalty in Okla. slaying
Prosecutors say they're seeking the death penalty for a Wynnewood man charged
in the beating death of an 84-year-old man.
Prosecutors filed a bill of particulars for 42-year-old Martin High in the
September 2011 death of Glenn Brownlee. Authorities say Brownlee was found in a
pool of blood in his Wynnewood home on Sept. 29, 2011. Wynnewood police say
Brownlee died from severe head trauma.
The Pauls Valley Daily Democrat reports (http://bit.ly/18KHguu ) that defense
attorneys are asking a judge to not allow into evidence statements that High
made to police. The defense argues that High "involuntarily and unknowingly"
made the statements to police.
On Monday, a judge in Garvin County scheduled a hearing for Aug. 5 on pending
motions in the case. Trial is set for Sept. 9.
(source: Associated Press)
MISSOURI:
Missouri Death Row Legal Battle Could Bring Back Gas Chamber
21 inmates on Missouri's death row have sued the state's Department of
Corrections in federal court, alleging that the state's new lethal injection
protocol -- which calls for a single injection of the powerful sedative
propofol -- constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
The Missouri Supreme Court has since halted all executions by lethal injection
in the state as a result of the lawsuit, and now state Attorney General Chris
Koster has hinted at bringing back the gas chamber.
The inmates claim in their lawsuit filed last August that Missouri cannot
execute by lethal injection, because the injections now contain propofol, which
has never been used before in any U.S. execution. The effects of propofol at
lethal doses, they argue, are unknown and can never be tested in a clinical
trial.
Koster said the federal litigation raises an "artificial hurdle ... to prevent
the state from carrying out the death penalty. Unless the court changes its
current course, the legislature will soon be compelled to fund ... alternative
methods of execution to carry out lawful judgments," he said last week in a
statement.
Find out more about the controversial drug propofol.
"Our state legalizes only two methods of execution, execution by lethal
injection or execution by lethal gas," Nanci Gonder, a spokeswoman for the
attorney general's office, told ABC News. "So if we couldn't execute by lethal
injection, the alternative would be by lethal gas."
Lethal gas is "basically a painful process, no matter how you describe it,"
Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a
nonprofit group that provides data on capital punishment, told ABC News.
"You drop pellets in an acid, which produces a gas that replaces the oxygen in
the room. There are multiple ways of producing this gas. You can even use
different gases. But either way you are slowly depriving the person of oxygen,
making it difficult and then impossible for them to breathe."
Missouri last conducted an execution by lethal gas in 1968, according to Mandi
Steele, a public information officer for the Missouri Department of
Corrections. The state has since closed its lethal gas chambers, after lethal
injections became a more common execution method.
"Currently, there are no operational facilities that are capable of conducting
an execution by lethal gas," Steele said. "They would have to be rebuilt."
Dieter does not believe that Missouri will actually reinstate the gas chamber.
"This is just Koster's ploy to put pressure on the Missouri courts to expedite
lethal injection executions," Dieter said. "Koster needs the courts to act
before the state's supplies of propofol, the drug Missouri uses in lethal
injections, runs out."
Missouri has only 3 batches of propofol left because the drug's manufacturer
has stopped distributing it to correctional facilities in the United States.
The oldest batch will expire in October 2013, and the newest batch will expire
in 2015.
Koster explained the shortage in a request filed in the Missouri Supreme Court
on July 1, 2013.
"As each supply expires, the department's ability to carry out lawfully imposed
capital sentences diminishes," Koster said.
Missouri's lethal injection shortfall is the latest in a series of drug
shortages that have limited states' ability to carry out executions by lethal
injection.
"The companies that make the drugs that are normally used in lethal injections
did not want their products to be used to carry out the death penalty. A lot of
these companies are European and face strong pressure from the European Union
to not export drugs into countries where they can be used for executions,"
Dieter said.
"So states had to scramble to find other drugs they could use. Missouri chose
propofol, but now they're in the same situation they were in before," Dieter
added.
On May 15, 2012, Missouri changed its lethal injection protocol to include a
single lethal dosage of propofol; propofol was one of the drugs in the deadly
mix that killed Michael Jackson.
One year later to the day, the sole propofol manufacturer in the United States,
Germany-based Fresenius Kabi, announced it would stop distributing its drug to
American correctional facilities because the use of the drug for executions
conflicted with the company's policy.
"We understand that one or more Departments of Correction in the U.S. are
considering amend[ing] their lethal injection protocols to include propofol.
Clearly, such use is contrary to the FDA approved indications for propofol and
inconsistent with Fresenius Kabi's mission of 'caring for life," Scott Meacham,
president of Fresenius Kabi's pharmaceutical division in North America, said in
a letter to health care providers.
"To best prevent propofol from being used for purposes other than its approved
indications, Fresenius Kabi does not accept orders for propofol from any
departments of corrections in the U.S.," Meacham said in the letter.
Whether propofol can be used in lethal injections is at the center of
Missouri's legal battle.
"That is why the inmates in Missouri are suing," Dieter said. "In order for the
drug to be lethal, it needs to be administered in amounts that are much larger
than normal. We don't know the side effects of the drug when it's taken in
these amounts.
"Given that in the clinical setting, and at normal dosages, many patients
experience significant pain on administration of propofol, it is highly likely
that the incidence and severity of pain experienced by the prisoners subjected
to the massive dose, specified by this protocol would be at least as high as
are seen in smaller doses," the lawsuit states.
This pain, according to the lawsuit, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
The lawyers representing the death row inmates did not return several calls
from ABC News seeking comment.
The Missouri Attorney General's Office countered the lawsuit with a motion to
dismiss.
"Pain that is an 'inescapable consequence of death' does not meet the standard
to fall under cruel and unusual punishment," Koster wrote.
Missouri is one in a number of states, including California, Maryland, Ohio and
Texas, where inmates have sued to change lethal injection protocol.
"In California and Maryland, all executions were halted until the legal
proceedings had concluded," Dieter told ABC News. "In Ohio and Texas, the
executions were carried on."
For Koster, the inmates' lawsuit against Missouri is a way of stalling the
inevitable.
The lawsuit, he said in his recent statement, "has been used by convicted
killers as a delay tactic to prevent the state from carrying out lawful
judgments."
(source: ABC News)
CALIFORNIA:
Death Sentence Upheld for Killer Dubbed 'Uncle Fester'
The California Supreme Court yesterday upheld the death sentence for an Orange
County man convicted of the 1989 kidnapping, rape, and murder of a 9-year-old
schoolgirl.
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said there had been no showing of prejudicial
error at the second trial of Richard Lucio DeHoyos, now 56. Orange Superior
Court Judge Everett W. Dickey sentenced DeHoyos in 1993 for the killing of
Nadia Puente.
Nadia's body was found in a plastic trash can liner in an aluminum trash can in
Griffith Park. She was wrapped in a bedspread from a Santa Ana motel, and the
trash can and the plastic liner were also from that motel.
DeHoyos' fingerprints were found on the liner, and police determined that
DeHoyos had registered there, for 2 people, and had raped and killed Nadia in
his room. Arrested days later in San Antonio, Texas, DeHoyos agreed to talk to
Santa Ana police and eventually admitted that he had lured Nadia, who was
walking home from school, into his car by posing as a schoolteacher who needed
help carrying books.
He testified that he attacked the girl while in a rage over losing his job at
Taco Bell earlier that day. He denied having raped her, and claimed he had
sodomized her only after she was dead.
Reporters called DeHoyos "Uncle Fester." They attributed the nickname to jail
inmates who said he looked like the television character portrayed by Jackie
Coogan in the Addams Family television series.
Jurors found him guilty at his 1st trial, and returned a death penalty verdict.
But Dickey ordered a 2nd trial on the basis of juror misconduct, after hearing
testimony that 3 jurors had met with a former member of the jury panel and had
discussed other high-profile cases involving DeHoyos' trial counsel, Milton
Grimes.
DeHoyos pled not guilty by reason of insanity. But the 2nd trial also resulted
in a conviction and death penalty verdict, and the judge pronounced sentence
accordingly.
DeHoyos, who had occasionally barked and growled in court, told the judge that
he was sorry for his actions. But he showed little emotion when he was
sentenced to death row, a newspaper report said at the time.
10 mental health experts testified for DeHoyos. But the defense argued on
appeal that several rulings by the judge had interfered with the right to
present an insanity defense or to show that his impaired mental state precluded
a finding of criminal intent.
One of the challenged rulings dealt with testimony by Dr. Susan Fossum, a
clinical psychologist who had evaluated the defendant and who was called in an
attempt to establish the impact of the defendant's job loss on his mental
stability. The judge allowed her to testify about her evaluation, and to state
that DeHoyos had a particularly fragile mental state that was damaged after he
was fired by a female authority figure, but said she could not offer an opinion
that he killed a child several hours later at another location because of what
happened at his workplace.
That ruling was within the trial judge???s discretion, Cantil-Sakauye
concluded. Noting that the witness had not done research into the relationship
between workplace problems and homicides away from the workplace, the chief
justice wrote:
"The trial court properly precluded Fossum from generalizing about how job loss
may cause someone to commit a homicide because there was no basis shown for her
to testify as an expert on such topic."
Cantil-Sakuye also rejected a number of claims that the prosecution had used
peremptory challenges to excuse prospective jurors on the basis of race. One
such challenge was to the excusal of a 28-year-old salesman who said he was
"Latin-American," although the prosecutor said he did not appear to be Hispanic
or have a Spanish surname.
The prosecutor said he used a challenge partially because the man had
extensively studied psychology and appeared likely to give special credence to
the testimony of the defense experts. Dickey accepted that explanation, over
defense arguments that Caucasians on the panel had studied psychology as well,
but were not excused.
The chief justice, rejecting the defense argument, noted that the cited
Caucasian jurors had taken only a few psychology courses, whereas the excused
venire member had majored in the subject, taken postgraduate courses, and
helped administer psychological tests.
The case is People v. DeHoyos, 13 S.O.S. 3407.
(source: Metropolitan News Compan)
USA (MASSACHUSETTS):
Boston bomb suspect faces court hearing today
Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces arraignment Wednesday
afternoon in Boston on 30 federal charges, including use of a weapon of mass
destruction.
Several of the charges could bring the death penalty for Tsarnaev, 19, for the
April 15 blasts that killed 3 people and wounded more than 200. Tsarnaev also
is accused of killing an MIT police officer.
His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed in a shootout with police following
a massive manhunt 3 days after the bombings. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured the
next day -- wounded and bloodied from the shootout -- after a Watertown
homeowner noticed blood on his dry-docked boat. Police found the suspect hiding
inside.
This marks the suspect's 1st public appearance since his arrest. A spokeswoman
for the U.S. attorney's office said space is being reserved in the main
courtroom for victims' families, but she wouldn't indicate how many planned to
attend. Court officials have set aside an overflow courtroom to broadcast the
hearing for the news media.
Authorities say the brothers were inspired by al-Qaeda publications and that
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev left a confession in the boat justifying the bombings as
payback for U.S. military action in Muslim countries.
He wrote the U.S. government was "killing our innocent civilians."
"I don't like killing innocent people," he said, but also wrote: "I can't stand
to see such evil go unpunished....We Muslims are one body, you hurt one you
hurt us all."
Tsarnaev's arrest stunned those who knew him as a likable high school athlete
in Cambridge, Mass., where he lived with his older brother after his parents
left for Russia.
The indictment also said that, sometime before the bombings, Tsarnaev
downloaded Internet material from Islamic extremists that advocated violence
against the perceived enemies of Islam.
3 people - Martin Richard, 8, Krystle Marie Campbell, 29, and Lingzi Lu, 23 -
were killed by the bombs, which were improvised from pressure cookers.
Authorities say the Tsarnaevs also killed Massachusetts Institute of Technology
officer Sean Collier days later while they were on the run.
(source: USA Today)
**********************************
Seeking death penalty in Boston bombing case? A long road
If the Obama administration tries for the death penalty against Boston Marathon
bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, it could face a long, difficult legal battle
in a state that hasn't seen an execution in nearly 70 years.
Attorney General Eric Holder will have to decide several months before the
start of a trial - if there is one - whether to seek death for Tsarnaev. It is
the highest-profile such decision yet to come before Holder, who personally
opposes the death penalty.
Tsarnaev will be arraigned in U.S. District Court in Boston this afternoon -
the 1st public court appearance for the teenager who was found wounded in a
boat stored in a suburban backyard after a massive manhunt and a shootout with
the police in which his brother died in April.
Holder, in making his decision, will get plenty of advice.
"If you have the death penalty and don't use it in this kind of case where
someone puts bombs down in crowds of civilians, then in what kind of case do
you use it?" asked Aitan Goelman, who was part of the legal team that
prosecuted Oklahoma City bombing figures Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.
In the past 4 1/2 years, the Justice Department has sought executions in
several instances. But, in an indication of how protracted the process can be,
none of the administration???s cases has yet put anyone on death row.
Massachusetts abolished its own death penalty in 1984, but Tsarnaev is being
prosecuted in federal court. Since the federal death penalty was reinstated in
1988, only 3 people, including McVeigh, have been executed. Others have pending
appeals.
In cases where federal juries have chosen between life and death, they have
imposed twice as many life sentences as death sentences - 144 to 73 - according
to the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project, a 2-decade-old group
created by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
The jury pool for a death penalty case against Tsarnaev would come from
Massachusetts, a state that has rejected repeated efforts to reinstate capital
punishment.
However, a former U.S. attorney in Massachusetts, Michael Sullivan, said
viewing the state as opposed to the penalty is not entirely correct. Voters
have supported reinstating the death penalty in nonbinding referenda. And when
Sullivan was U.S. attorney in Boston, his team of prosecutors won a death
penalty verdict. That case is on appeal.
"I'm not suggesting there's strong interest in reinstating the death penalty in
Massachusetts, but I think jurors in a federal case would be very thoughtful
and under the right circumstances would vote in favor of the death penalty,"
Sullivan said.
"There's going to be a lot of push in that U.S. attorney's office in Boston to
seek the death penalty in this case," predicts former prosecutor Johnny Sutton,
who chaired a panel of 17 U.S. attorneys during the George W. Bush
administration.
(source: Concord Monitor)
*****************************
3 Somalis convicted of piracy, murder in yacht attack off Oman
3 Somalis were convicted on Monday of piracy, kidnapping and murder in the 2011
shooting deaths of 4 Americans sailing in the Indian Ocean off of Oman and
could face the death penalty, according to court documents.
The 3 men - and 11 others who previously pleaded guilty - boarded the
Americans' yacht armed with assault rifles and planned to sail it to Somalia
and hold the Americans for ransom. Instead, the hostages were killed by the
pirates as they were being trailed by U.S. military forces.
A federal jury, which has been hearing the case since early June in U.S.
District Court in Norfolk, found Ahmed Muse Salad, Abukar Osman Beyle and Shani
Nurani Shiekh Abrar guilty on all 26 counts against them, according to court
records.
The jury will be hearing more evidence during the sentencing phase of the trial
later this month.
Scott and Jean Adam, retirees from Marina del Rey, California, and their
friends Phyllis Macay and Robert Riggle, both of Seattle, were killed aboard
the California couple's 58-foot sloop, Quest.
Prosecutors have said all 4 passengers were asleep when the boat was boarded on
Feb. 18, 2011, by the armed assailants.
Negotiations at sea by U.S. Navy officials to free the Americans failed after 4
days, according to the indictment. Navy SEALs subsequently raided the yacht,
killing 2 of the hostage-takers and capturing the rest.
Some of the most emotional testimony during the trial came from Elizabeth Sem,
daughter of yacht owner Scott Adam.
She was quoted in press accounts as saying her father, who had worked on the
production crew of movies and TV shows including "The Dukes of Hazzard," and
"The Love Boat," had attended a theological institute after he retired.
His sea voyages were part of his ministry, she said, adding that he handed out
Bibles to people he met along the way.
(source: Reuters)
*************************************
Serial Killers Fast Facts
Here's a selected list of people convicted of being serial killers and a short
list of famous, unsolved serial killings.
David Berkowitz, aka Son of Sam ---- Killed 6 people and wounded 7 others in
New York City between 1976 and 1977.
Most of the victims were young women or couples in cars on secluded streets.
Claimed a demon spoke to him through a neighbor's dog.
Called himself the "Son of Sam" in letters he wrote to newspaper columnist
Jimmy Breslin.
He once worked as an auxiliary policeman in the Bronx.
He confessed to the murders in 1977 and is serving six consecutive
25-years-to-life sentences.
Ted Bundy ---- Raped and killed at least 16 young women in the early to
mid-1970s.
Convicted of 3 Florida slayings, including that of a 12-year-old girl.
Later confessed to killing more than 30 women and girls.
Was a Boy Scout and then a law student.
He escaped from jail in Colorado twice while on trial for murder. He headed to
Florida, where he was eventually caught and tried for 3 other murders.
Would lure young women to his car, and then beat them to death.
During his nationally televised trial in Florida, he represented himself.
He was executed in 1989 after a long legal battle to keep him alive. A crowd of
several hundred gathered outside the prison where he was executed, and they
cheered at the news of his death.
Blood stored as part of his case file was entered into the FBI's DNA database
with hopes of linking Bundy to cold cases from as early as 1961.
Angelo Buono Jr. and Kenneth A. Bianchi, aka the Hillside Stranglers ----
Murdered 9 women in California between 1977 and 1978.
Buono and Bianchi were cousins.
The victims were sexually assaulted and sometimes tortured. Their naked bodies
were left by the side of various roads in the hills of southern California.
A suspect in a rape and strangulation case in Washington state, Bianchi
implicated his cousin in the California cases. Bianchi pled guilty to 5
murders.
Buono was convicted of killing all 9 victims. He died in September 2002.
Bianchi is serving 5 life terms in prison.
Juan Corona ---- Murdered 25 farm laborers in California in 1971.
Most of the victims had been stabbed to death and then buried in orchards. Some
were never identified.
Corona had worked as a labor contractor, providing farm laborers to orchards
and farms.
In 1973, Corona was convicted and was sentenced to serve 25 consecutive life
sentences.
Jeffrey Dahmer ---- Killed 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991 in the
Milwaukee area.
Dahmer had sex with the corpses of his victims, kept bodies parts of others,
and ate the body parts of some.
Sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms. He was killed in prison in 1994.
John Wayne Gacy ---- Killed 33 young men and boys between 1972 and 1978.
Many of his victims were drifters or runaways. Police suspected Gacy might have
killed more than were discovered.
Most of the victims were buried in a crawl space beneath Gacy's house in
suburban Chicago.
Before he was arrested, he had been active in the Democratic Party and had
dressed as a clown to entertain children at parties.
While on death row, he took up painting. His paintings of clowns sold for
between $200 and $20,000 dollars.
He was executed in 1994.
Ed Gein --- Killed at least 2 women in the 1950s in a small town in Wisconsin.
Dug up the corpses of several other women in the local cemetery to use their
skin and body parts to make clothing and household objects.
Inspired multiple movies, including "Psycho," "Texas Chain Saw Massacre" and
"The Silence of the Lambs."
Died in 1984, at the age of 77, in Central State Hospital in Wautoma,
Wisconsin.
Randy Steven Kraft ---- Murdered dozens of young men between 1972 and 1983.
Prosecutors linked to him 45 murders, but a "death list" created by Kraft
claimed 61 killings. It is believed he killed up to 65 though.
Kraft picked up hitchhikers, gave them drugs and alcohol, sexually assaulted
them, then mutilated and strangled them.
On May 14, 1983, Kraft was arrested by California Highway Patrol, who stopped
him for weaving across a lane on the interstate. The CHP found a dead Marine in
the front seat of Kraft's car.
Convicted in 1989 and sentenced to death.
Derrick Todd Lee ---- Accused of raping and killing 6 women in or around Baton
Rouge, Louisiana, between September 2001 and March 2003.
Police say all 6 murders are linked by DNA evidence.
Arrested in Atlanta on May 27, 2003.
He was indicted on June 25, 2003 for the May 2002 murder of Charlotte Murray
Pace.
He had a record for being a stalker and a peeping tom.
His victims are believed to include Gina Wilson Green, Charlotte Murray Pace,
Pam Kinamore, Trineisha Dene Colomb, Geralyn DeSoto, and Carrie Lynn Yoder.
2004 - convicted and sentenced to death.
Henry Lee Lucas ---- Killed several people between 1975 and 1983.
Confessed to 600 murders but later recanted and claimed he had killed only 3
people.
The exact number of murders he committed may never be known.
Convicted of murdering his mother in 1960 and served 15 years.
Convicted of 9 murders in 1985.
Lost an eye in childhood in a fight.
He was the only inmate ever spared from execution by then Texas Governor George
W. Bush.
Bush claimed doubts about Lucas's guilt in the case for which he was to be
executed.
Died in prison on March 11, 2001.
Charles Ng and Leonard Lake ---- Killed 11 people in northern California
between 1984 and 1985.
Tortured, killed, and buried the victims in their hideaway in Wilseyville,
California.
Arrested for shoplifting in San Francisco. Police found bullets and a silencer
in their car.
Lake killed himself with a cyanide pill at a police station.
Ng fled to Canada but was captured and extradited to the U.S. He was later
found guilty of 11 murders in 1999 and sentenced to death.
Robert Pickton ---- 2002 - Pickton is charged with 26 counts of murder after
police found the bodies of young women on his Port Coquitman, British Columbia,
pig farm.
His trial centered on 6 victims.
December 2007 - Is sentenced to 6 concurrent life sentences with no possibility
of parole for 25 years.
Richard Ramirez, aka the Night Stalker ---- Killed 13 people in southern
California in 1984 and 1985.
A self-proclaimed devil worshipper, from El Paso, Texas.
Found his victims in quiet neighborhoods near freeways, and entered victims'
houses through unlocked windows and doors.
After he was tied to the case through fingerprints, his photo was released.
Citizens in East Los Angeles captured him.
Convicted of 13 murders and sentenced to death in 1989.
June 7, 2013 - Dies at age 53 of natural causes.
Dennis Rader, aka the BTK Strangler ----- Wichita, Kansas serial killer active
from 1977 through 1991, killing 10 people.
Named himself BTK - "bind, torture, kill"
Contacted the media taking responsibility for several murders and sent a poem
about woman he waited to kill, but she didn't come home.
February 2005 - Is arrested on 8 counts of 1st degree-murder and 2 other
homicide charges.
July 2005 - Changes his plea from not guilty and waives his right to a jury
trial and pleads guilty to all 10 counts of murder.
August 2005 - Sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms with the possibility of
parole after at least 40 years.
Angel Maturino Resendez, aka Rafael Resendez Ramirez, aka the Railway Killer or
Boxcar Killer ---- Committed at least nine murders in Texas, Illinois, and
Kentucky between 1997 and 1999. Some reports indicate he confessed to 11
murders.
Robbed and killed his victims by railroad tracks, then would hop rail cars to
escape.
Resendez, a drifter from Mexico, was in the custody of the border patrol but
was let go. He killed 4 more people after being let go.
Convicted in the assault and murder of a female victim in Texas. Sentenced to
death in 1999.
June 27, 2006 - Resendez is executed.
Gary Leon Ridgway, aka the Green River Killer ---- Killed at least 48 women in
the Seattle-Tacoma area, between 1982 and 1998.
Ridgway targeted runaways and prostitutes.MP> The 1st victims turned up near
the banks of the Green River south of Seattle. The remains of dozens of women
turned up near Pacific Northwest ravines, rivers, airports and freeways in the
1980s. Investigators officially listed 49 women as probable victims of the
Green River Killer.
He was arrested in 2001, after DNA linked him to 3 victims.
Confessed to 42 of the 49 listed killings, plus 6 not on the list.
Ridgway's pleas to 48 counts give him more convictions -- though not
necessarily more slayings -- than any other serial killer in U.S. history.
Sentenced to 48 life sentences and fined $10,000 for each victim in 2004.
February 18, 2011 - Ridgway pleads guilty to a 49th murder as part of his plea
deal to avoid receiving the death penalty.
Joel David Rifkin ---- Killed 17 women in New York City between 1991 and 1993.
All of the victims were prostitutes.
Was stopped by police for driving without a license plate. Police found a body
in his pickup truck.
Convicted in 1994 and sentenced to life in prison.
Danny Rolling --- Killed 4 women and 1 man in Gainesville, Florida, over four
days in August 1990. Also is responsible for a 1991 triple homicide in
Shreveport, Louisiana.
In Gainesville, all 5 victims were students, and four were students at the
University of Florida.
Rolling raped, tortured, and mutilated some of his victims, decapitating `.
Rolling was arrested for armed robbery in Ocala, Florida and a triple-homicide
in Shreveport. Evidence, including DNA, later linked Rolling to all murders.
Pled guilty to the murders on the first day of his trial in 1991.
October 25, 2006 - Rolling is executed.
Anthony Sowell ---- Police find the decomposing and buried bodies of 10 women
and the skull of 1, at 12205 Imperial Ave., the Cleveland, Ohio, home of
ex-Marine, Anthony Sowell, between October 27 - November 3, 2009.
The women were strangled to death from 2007 through 2009.
July 22, 2011 - Sowell is found guilty on 82 of the 83 counts against him and
acquitted of 1 - aggravated robbery of the surviving victim Gladys Wade.
August 12, 2011 - A judge upholds the jury's recommendation for the death
penalty.
Chester Dewayne Turner ---- Charged with murdering 10 women and 1 unborn fetus
in south and downtown Los Angeles over an 11-year period between 1987 and 1998.
Was identified as a suspect in 2002 after a DNA test was taken upon his rape
conviction.
The DNA test also led to the release of a man who had been convicted of 3 of
the murders.
July 2, 2007 - Turner is sentenced to death for the murders.
February 1, 2011 - Turner is charged with 4 more murders, linked to him by DNA.
Wayne Williams ---- Killed at least 2 men in the Atlanta area between 1979 and
1981.
Police believed he might have been responsible for more than 20 other deaths in
the Atlanta area.
Was a music promoter and freelance TV cameraman at the time.
Several of the bodies were found in the Chattahoochee River.
Williams became a suspect after police saw him on a bridge they had been
staking out.
Williams was linked to several victims by fibers and hairs found in house. He
was linked to other victims by witnesses.
Some of the victims' parents did not believe Williams was guilty. Others
thought the Ku Klux Klan might have been behind the killings.
Was convicted and sentenced to 2 life terms in 1982.
Williams maintains his innocence, and his appeals for a re-trial have been
rejected.
Aileen Wuornos ---- Killed 7 men in 1989 and 1990 in Florida. The body of the
7th was never found.
Lured her male victims by posing as a prostitute or a traveler in distress.
Claimed to be a prostitute working freeway exits and back roads of Florida.
A drug addict and alcoholic, she stole to support herself.
Has been the subject of 3 movies, an opera, and several books.
Voluntarily ended her appeals, saying she wanted to end a life of violence.
Executed in 2002.
Robert Lee Yates, Jr. ---- Killed 15 people between 1975 and 1998 in the
Spokane, Washington, area.
Most of his victims were prostitutes or drug addicts.
Killed most of the victims in his van.
Buried 1 victim in the flowerbed by his house.
2000 - Confessed in a plea agreement to 13 of the killings and was sentenced to
life in prison.
Was tried and convicted for the other 2 killings, and was sentenced to death.
Unsolved Cases:
Boston Strangler ---- 13 women were raped and strangled in Boston between 1962
and 1964.
Alberto DeSalvo confessed to some of the killings, but was never convicted of
them. He later died in prison.
F. Lee Bailey was DeSalvo's lawyer.
Some critics charge DeSalvo got some of the details he confessed from news
reports or police.
One book argues that the Boston Strangler was actually 6 different killers.
Jack the Ripper ---- From August to November 1888, 5 prostitutes were killed in
London.
A knife had been used to slash their throats and cut their bodies.
A letter sent to the police was signed "From Hell."
The case continues to inspire movies and books.
The Zodiac Killer ---- The Zodiac Killer is believed to have killed 5 people in
northern California in 1968 and 1969.
Has never been caught.
The killer wrote several letters to the police, boasting of the murders. Some
of the letters contained swatches of bloody clothing to verify the killer's
claims. He/she claimed to have killed as many as 37 people.
(source: CNN)
US MILITARY:
Hasan says uniform marks him as enemy of Islam
Maj. Nidal Hasan plans to tell the high-ranking Army officers who will decide
his fate - and potentially send him to death row - that the uniform of the U.S.
Army "represents an enemy of Islam," the Army psychiatrist said Tuesday, as
jury selection began in his long-awaited court-martial.
"I can't take any pride in wearing this uniform," Hasan told military judge
Col. Tara Osborn. "I want the panel to know that, that I am being forced to
wear it."
Hasan, who is acting as his own attorney, didn't question members of the
initial 20-officer group Tuesday, instead saying he may question panel members
individually Wednesday morning when jury selection continues.
It could take several weeks to choose a jury of 13 to 16 officers; 12 are
required to render a verdict, with extra officers seated in case any have to
leave the jury. The trial phase is expected to begin Aug. 6 and last up to 3
months.
Of the first 20, 6 were dismissed Tuesday after questioning from Osborn and
prosecutors, including one who knew slain civilian physician's assistant
Michael Cahill. Another officer said he had a family member who was a victim of
murder or attempted murder.
Hasan faces 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted
premeditated murder in the Nov. 5, 2009, mass shooting of unarmed soldiers at a
Fort Hood medical processing center.
Jurors must be of a higher rank than Hasan, and Tuesday's group included
colonels, lieutenant colonels and majors with more experience than Hasan. The
officers, who include 2 women and 12 men, said although they had followed media
coverage of the shootings, they could serve as impartial jurors. All the
officers said they had no moral or religious qualms about the death penalty.
Hasan had proposed more than 100 questions for jurors, touching on everything
from their feelings on Muslim soldiers to the question of remorse, but on
Tuesday indicated he may not conduct lengthy questioning. "I think we could do
this pretty quickly," Hasan told Osborn.
More than 120 officers have been selected to be part of the jury pool.
Osborn initially said she would schedule six potential jurors per day for
individual questions, but, after hearing from Hasan, said she could call as
many as 10 a day. Jury questioning is being scheduled around Hasan's prayer
schedule.
Hasan was wearing his everyday camouflage uniform and spoke calmly and clearly.
In initial instructions, Osborn ordered potential jurors not to focus on
Hasan's beard, which he grew in violation of Army standards, telling them not
to "hold it against him."
She also told them he wasn't wearing his dress uniform for medical reasons -
Hasan was paralyzed from the chest down in a shootout with Fort Hood police.
She didn't alert the officers to Hasan's thoughts on wearing a uniform, but
told Hasan he could tell jurors "at the appropriate time" if he wished.
Earlier Tuesday, during the final pretrial hearing before the court-martial,
Hasan confirmed he would represent himself for the duration of the trial. He
told Osborn that if she relented and allowed him to put on a "defense of
others" strategy, he planned to hire former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
But Osborn said she wouldn't allow Hasan to claim he was justified in shooting
American soldiers because he was saving Taliban leaders in Afghanistan from
violence.
Clark, who has represented controversial defendants, including former Iraqi
dictator Saddam Hussein and accused Serbian war criminal Slobodan Milosevic,
met with Hasan several times in recent days.
Also Tuesday, Osborn reprimanded Hasan for leaking his defense of others motion
to the Killeen Daily Herald. Hasan admitted to violating a court order in
authorizing the document to be released.
Osborn didn't punish Hasan but told him repeated violations of the rules may
jeopardize his permission to represent himself.
(source: My San Antonio)
******************************
Fort Hood attack: jury selection begins in trial of US officer accused of
killing 13----Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan faces death sentence or life
without parole if convicted of murder in attack that left 13 dead
Jury selection is set to start Tuesday in the long-awaited murder trial of the
US army psychiatrist accused of opening fire with a semi-automatic gun at Fort
Hood nearly 4 years ago.
Several soldiers who survived the mass shooting hoped no last-minute problems
would again delay the case, saying waiting to testify in Major Nidal Hasan's
court-martial has caused them to miss family reunions, vacations and other
events.
"I'll believe it when it happens, because there's been so many delays," said
retired staff sergeant Shawn Manning, who was shot six times during the attack
inside a medical building in November 2009. "We've been given a window (of when
to testify) on and off since 2010."
Hasan, 42, faces death or life without parole if convicted in the attack that
left 13 dead and nearly three dozen wounded on the Texas army post.
Jury selection will begin Tuesday afternoon following a morning hearing in
which the judge, Colonel Tara Osborn, is expected to finalize routine matters.
Last week she rejected Hasan's latest delay request and sternly restated that
proceedings will start Tuesday.
The pool of nearly 150 officers will come from army posts nationwide, including
Fort Hood. All won't be brought in initially, because only six will be
questioned each day, the judge has said. Potential jurors, who must be of
Hasan's rank or higher, have already filled out a questionnaire prepared by
prosecutors and the defense.
Hasan, who is serving as his own attorney but can get help from his former
defense attorneys, will have a jury consultant on hand. Jury selection is
expected to last at least a month, and once testimony starts in August, that
could take another 2 months.
Death-penalty cases in the military require at least 12 jury members, more than
in other cases. And unlike other trials, their verdict must be unanimous in
finding guilt or assessing a sentence.
Potential jurors will arrive to a military courthouse that has been transformed
into a fortress. The building on the edge of the Texas army post is surrounded
by hundreds of stacked freight car-size shipping containers, and by tall dirt-
and sand-filled barriers designed to protect it against the impact of a bomb
blast. Armed soldiers stand guard around the building.
Although Fort Hood's security plans are sealed by the military judge's orders,
the increased measures are evident. In the courthouse, everyone passes through
a metal detector which was not there before Hasan's case. In addition to news
reporters and those involved in the case, only victims' relatives are allowed
in the small courtroom. No other spectators are allowed.
The tight security measures at Fort Hood appear to be the most extreme for any
court-martial on a US army post. Just 2 years after a bomb attack was thwarted
in the neighboring city of Killeen, some military law experts say, the
community once again could be targeted by supporters of Hasan, an American-born
Muslim who has tried to justify the deadly rampage as protecting Taliban
leaders in Afghanistan.
"He's admitted he's on the side of terrorists ... so this area is now a high
threat level for jihadists," said Jeff Addicott of St Mary's University School
of Law in San Antonio. He is not involved in Hasan's case.
In Killeen, law enforcement officials won't discuss security specifics. But
businesses are receiving posters that read: "If you see something, say
something." They feature the picture of a gun store employee who helped avert a
deadly attack in 2011 when he alerted authorities of a suspicious customer who
turned out to be an awol soldier from Fort Campbell in Kentucky.
Private first class Naser Jason Abdo was arrested at a Killeen motel where
authorities found pressure cookers and other bomb-making components, a loaded
gun, 143 rounds of ammunition, a stun gun and al-Qaida magazine article on how
to make an explosive device. Abdo, who became a Muslim at 17, said he planned
to blow up a restaurant full of Fort Hood troops his religious mission to get
"justice" for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Abdo was sentenced last year
to life in federal prison.
As Hasan's trial approaches, some in Killeen are concerned. Guns Galore store
manager Cathy Cheadle, whose sales representative Greg Ebert appears in the
poster by the question: "He said something; would you?", said she hopes the
community remains on high alert.
"If one tried it and didn't succeed, I think everybody wants to be in the news
and ... somebody else would think, 'I want to succeed,'" in an attack, Cheadle
said. "I think people should be that alert anyway. As a test, how many people
would walk by a backpack and not say anything?"
(source: Associated Press)
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