Nov. 10
TEXAS:
Obama's spiritual advisor wants new sentencing for murderer Duane Buck
An outrageous mass email sent out on Friday from Sojourners, a group led by
President Obama's "spiritual advisor" Jim Wallis, declares "Duane Buck could be
executed by his home state of Texas because he is black."
The email, which was summarized on the Sojourners website here, attempts to
persuade the reader to sign a petition which would grant Buck a new sentencing
hearing, despite the fact that the case already went to the Supreme Court and
was denied. The email does not mention the names of the victims. It does not
describe the brutal crime to which multiple witnesses testified.
Another post on the Sojourners website describes the murderer as being a "model
for other prisoners," who has "surrendered his life to Christ..."
In 1995, Duane Buck murdered his ex-girlfriend Debra Gardner, and her friend
Kenneth Butler. As reported by Allan Turner of the Houston Chronicle, "Buck
also shot his sister, Phyllis Taylor, in the chest at point-blank range, but
she survived."
In 1997, he was sentenced to death.
At issue is the testimony of a psychologist brought in by the defense team.
Walter Quijano "testified that blacks and Hispanics are statistically more
likely than whites to commit future crimes." But he also testified that "Buck
would not pose a continuing threat to society if incarcerated," as reported by
Nina Totenberg of NPR.
Due to Quijano's testimony, new sentencing hearings were granted in five other
cases, but not Buck's case, which was shot down by the Supreme Court in 2011.
As Totenberg writes,
"All of those who got new sentencing hearings were sentenced to death again."
The email from Sojourners disregards the crime itself, as well as the Supreme
Court's ruling, saying that Buck "was sentenced to death because a Texas jury
heard testimony that African Americans are more likely to pose a future danger
to society simply because of their race." The email also declares that "It is
well known that the U.S. criminal justice system often displays racial bias."
It is not the testimony of the psychologist that prompted the death sentence.
It was Duane Buck's crime. Debra's older sister, Accie Smith, is against the
death penalty. But still, she wanted the Supreme Court to consider the
"brutality of the murders and their impact on surviving family members." She
said that the controversy "victimized us all over again."
Buck, not surprisingly, had "prior convictions for delivery of cocaine and
unlawful possession of a weapon," as described in a news release by the
Attorney General's office. The news release also noted that
"Several witnesses portrayed Buck as a violent and remorseless criminal. For
example, one of Buck's former girlfriends testified that Buck had physically
abused her and once threatened her with a gun. In addition, one of the police
officers who had been present during Buck's arrest testified that Buck had
laughed both during and after the arrest. The officer recalled telling Buck
that he did not find the situation funny, to which Buck, still laughing,
responded, 'The b**** deserved what she got.'"
Sojourners did not mention the crime itself, the victims, or the damning
testimony.
One cannot help but think of the repeated narrative of those who pushed for
Obamacare to be imposed on the American people, that it is the "law of the
land." In this case, Duane Buck's advocates are not so concerned about Supreme
Court rulings.
(source: The Examiner)
SOUTH CAROLINA:
New trial sought for S.C. boy, 14, executed in 1944----George Stinney is the
youngest person to be executed in the U.S. in the past 100 years; He was
convicted of killing 2 white girls, ages 11 and 7; Stinney was executed 84 days
after the girls were found in a water-filled ditch
Supporters of a 14-year-old black boy executed in 1944 for killing 2 white
girls are asking a South Carolina judge to take the unheard-of move of granting
him a new trial in hopes he will be cleared of the charges.
George Stinney was convicted on a shaky confession in a segregated society that
wanted revenge for the beating deaths of 2 girls, ages 11 and 7, according to
the lawsuit filed last month on Stinney's behalf in Clarendon County.
The request for a new trial has an uphill climb. The judge may refuse to hear
it at all, since the punishment was already carried out. Also, South Carolina
has strict rules for introducing new evidence after a trial is complete,
requiring the information to have been impossible to discover before the trial
and likely to change the results, said Kenneth Gaines, a professor at the
University of South Carolina's law school.
"I think it's a longshot, but I admire the lawyer for trying it," Gaines said,
adding that he's not aware of any other executed inmates in the state being
granted a new trial posthumously.
The request for a new trial is largely symbolic, but Stinney's supporters say
they would prefer exoneration to a pardon.
Stinney's case intersects some long-running disputes in the American legal
system - the death penalty and race. At 14, he's the youngest person executed
in the United States in past 100 years. He was electrocuted just 84 days after
the girls were killed in March 1944.
The request for a new trial includes sworn statements from two of Stinney's
siblings who say he was with them the entire day the girls were killed. Notes
from Stinney's confession and most other information deputies and prosecutors
used to convict Stinney in a 1-day trial have disappeared along with any
transcript of the proceedings. Only a few pages of cryptic, hand-written notes
remain, according to the motion.
"Why was George Stinney electrocuted? The state can't produce any paperwork to
justify why he was," said George Frierson, a local school board member who grew
up in Stinney's hometown hearing stories about the case, and decided 6 years
ago to start studying it and pushing for exoneration.
The South Carolina Attorney General's Office will likely argue the other side
of the case before the Clarendon County judge. A spokesman said their lawyers
had not seen the motion and do not comment on pending cases. A date for a
hearing on the matter has not been set.
The girls were last seen looking for wildflowers in the tiny, racially-divided
mill town of Alcolu about 50 miles southeast of Columbia. Stinney's sister, who
was 7 at the time, said in her new affidavit that she and her brother were
letting their cow graze when the girls asked them where they could find flowers
called maypops. The sister, Amie Ruffner, said her brother told them he didn't
know and the girls left.
"It was strange to see them in our area, because white people stayed on their
side of Alcolu and we knew our place," Ruffner wrote.
The girls never came home, and hundreds of people searched for them through the
night. They were found the next morning in a water-filled ditch, their heads
beaten with a hard object, likely a railroad spike.
Deputies got a tip the girls had been seen talking to Stinney. They came to
Stinney's home and took him away. His family wouldn't see the boy again until
after his trial. Newspaper accounts suggested a lynch mob was nearly formed to
attack the teen in jail.
Stinney's dad worked for the major mill in town and lived in a company house.
He was ordered to leave after his son was arrested, said Stinney's brother
Charles Stinney, who was 12 when his older brother was arrested. Charles
Stinney's statement explains why the family didn't speak to authorities at the
time.
"George's conviction and execution was something my family believed could
happen to any of us in the family. Therefore, we made a decision for the safety
of the family to leave it be," Charles Stinney wrote in his sworn statement.
Charles Stinney said he remembered the events vividly because "for my family,
Friday, March 24, 1944, and the events that followed were our personal 9/11."
Both statements were made in 2009. Lawyer Steve McKenzie said he planned to
file the request for a new trial then, but heard from a man in Tennessee who
claimed his grandfather was with George Stinney the day of the killings.
McKenzie thought the information from someone not related to Stinney would be
especially powerful, but the person suddenly stopped cooperating after
stringing the lawyers along for years.
The request for a new trial points out that at 95 pounds, Stinney likely
couldn't have killed the girls and dragged them to the ditch.
The motion also hints at community rumors of a deathbed confession from a white
man several years ago and the possibility Stinney either confessed because his
family was threatened or he was given ice cream. But the court papers provide
little information, and the lawyers also wouldn't elaborate.
At 14, Stinney was the youngest person executed in this country in the past 100
years, according to statistics gathered by the Death Penalty Information
Center.
Newspaper stories from his execution had witnesses saying the straps to keep
him in the electric chair didn't fit around his small frame, and an electrode
was too big for his leg.
Executing teens wasn't uncommon at that time. Florida put a 16-year-old boy to
death for rape in 1944, and Mississippi, Nevada, Ohio and Texas executed
17-year-olds that year.
Lawyers also filed a request for to pardon Stinney before the state Department
of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services in case the new trial is not granted.
There is precedent for that. In 2009, two great-uncles of syndicated radio host
Tom Joyner were pardoned by the board nearly 100 years after they were sent to
the electric chair for the death of a Confederate Army veteran. Joyner's
lawyers showed evidence the men were framed by a small-time criminal who took a
plea deal that saved his life and testified against them.
But Frierson said a pardon would be little comfort to him in the Stinney case.
"The first step in a pardon is to admit you are wrong and ask for forgiveness,"
Frierson said. "This boy did nothing wrong."
(source: Associated Press)
**************************
Was Executed 14-Year-Old Innocent?
Only 14-years-old, straight-A student George Stinney, Jr. became the youngest
person in recorded U.S. history to be executed. That was nearly 70 years ago in
Alcolu, South Carolina, and now attorneys in that state have requested a new
trial in hopes of posthumously clearing the child???s name.
While 7 decades have passed since George was executed, his case illustrates
human rights abuses inherent in the death penalty that continue today.
Police contended at the time that George, who was black, had confessed to the
crime of murdering 2 young white girls, 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and
7-year-old Mary Emma Thames. The supposed confession came after hours of harsh
interrogation, without either of his parents or an attorney present. Reports
claim police officers offered the young boy ice cream if he confessed to the
murders. His "confession" was said to be verbal, and there is no written record
of a confession.
"False confessions are a very real, contributing factor to innocents being
sentenced to death," said Rosalyn Park, The Advocates for Human Rights'
research director. "1 study shows that false confessions constitute nearly 10 %
of the causes behind wrongful convictions." Park represents The Advocates on
the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty's steering committee, and she
chairs the working group for World Day Against the Death Penalty.
George's court-appointed white attorney, who at the time was preparing a run
for the South Carolina state house, mounted no defense during a trial that
lasted less than 3 hours. Moreover, there was no physical evidence linking
George to the murder and no record on paper of his confession for the jury to
consider. The courtroom was packed with 1,500 people, all white. Blacks were
not allowed.
His family did not have a chance to provide the child's alibi or present
evidence in defense of their loved one because they had been run out of town.
George's father was not allowed to speak to or see his son before the trial.
It took only 10 minutes for the all-white jury to convict him. 2 months later,
George was electrocuted. Standing 5'1" and weighing 95 pounds, he was so small
that his executioners had to stack books on the chair's seat so that the
child's head would reach the electrodes.
George's case is representative of the racial bias pervasive throughout the
capital punishment system today. "If the victim is white, a defendant is more
likely to be sentenced to death than if the victim is black" said Park. "The
race of the defendant also increases the likelihood of a death sentence, and
black persons are disproportionately overrepresented on death row in comparison
to the general population."
George's case also indicates how the United States is behind international
norms, said Parks. Although international law has long prohibited the execution
of a juvenile offender, executing juvenile offenders was only abolished in the
United States in 2005 with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
The Advocates for Human Rights has submitted a shadow report to the United
Nations' Human Rights Committee on the death penalty in the United States.
Let's hope that the next time the United States' human rights record is
reviewed by the United Nations, the death penalty will have been abolished in
the United States, allowing the country to hold its head high.
(source: The Advocates Post)
**********************
Study: Blacks arrested at higher rate
A report released this fall by the Sentencing Project suggests that 1 in every
3 black men will go to prison in his lifetime.
The report, which discusses racial disparities in the U.S. criminal justice
system, said the country operates two distinct criminal justice systems: one
for wealthy people and another for poor people and minorities. It examines
racial disparities in police activity, in trials and in sentencing.
What the report says
The report indicates that a significant portion of the disparity in arrest
rates is attributed to implicit racial bias - unconscious associations people
make about racial groups. Also known as stereotypes, the biases occur when
people have to make fast decisions with "imperfect" information, and the biases
allow people to "fill in" the missing information and make decisions in a
limited time.
The 26-page report can be viewed by visiting http://bit.ly/19njFko.
The report used data from the Bureau of Justice and determined that while
white, black and Hispanic motorists were stopped at similar rates nationwide,
black motorists were more likely to be searched during a stop.
In the court system, racial minorities continue to encounter bias, in addition
to inadequate resources and training, that together contribute to the racial
disparities in the justice system, according to the report.
Indigent defense agencies cannot provide adequate representation to their
clients because they are so understaffed and underfunded, according to the
report, which also said the weak state of indigent defense in the U.S. affects
mainly racial minorities because black and Hispanic defendants are more likely
to require the services of a public defender than white defendants.
In sentencing, the report found that black and Hispanic defendants received, on
average, longer sentences than white defendants. Additionally, defendants
convicted of murdering a white victim are more likely to face the death penalty
than those convicted of killing non-white victims, according to the report.
'They have to learn it'
Dr. Melencia Johnson, a professor of sociology at USC Aiken who focuses on
criminology, teaches a class on race, crime and justice.
"It's the same thing we've been teaching for the last few years," she said of
the study. "We learn our implicit biases. You're socialized that way from your
family, your friends, your employer. No one comes out of the womb saying that
they're racist. They have to learn it."
"Yes, the laws may be race neutral, but those people that are applying the laws
and enforcing them have these implicit biases," she continued.
People may not be racist themselves, but certain policies such as the
controversial "stop-and-frisk" program in New York can drive them to have
implicit biases, Johnson said.
"You may not be explicitly racist, but when you are told to stop and frisk at
least 200 people a day and write a report on it, you tend to go to those
'high-crime areas,' which are largely minority areas," she said.
A 'disconnect'
Phillip Howell, president of the Aiken branch of the NAACP, also said the study
is nothing he hasn't heard before, and that there is a "disconnect" between law
enforcement and the black community.
"People believe that because there's so many African-Americans in prison it's
because they commit the most crime, and that's just not true," he said. "They
get convicted more, therefore, they are sentenced and they do more prison time.
They can't afford the fancy lawyers. Most of them have public defenders ... and
they just can't devote the time they need to really defend a person
adequately."
Howell said the perception of the black community is that the police will "let
the white person go."
He cited the case of Lukisha Thomas, a black woman who died in April after
being struck by a vehicle while walking on the sidewalk on York Street. The
driver of the vehicle, who is white, was charged with careless driving, which
Howell called "unacceptable" at the time.
"There needs to be programs that can repair that," he said of the relationship
between blacks and law enforcement. "We need the police. I feel like, in Aiken,
the police do a pretty good job, but it's still not as it should be. A trusting
relationship is what needs to be built."
'A broader spectrum'
Aiken Public Safety's Lt. Karl Odenthal said the criminal justice system is not
perfect, but the report was not completely objective.
He noted that it mentions other studies that demonstrate higher crime rates are
better explained by socioeconomic factors, and that disadvantaged neighborhoods
experience higher rates of crime regardless of racial composition.
"When you try to make race the sole thing just by looking at numbers, you can
make numbers say whatever you want," he said. "What I think is, it's a broader
spectrum."
He noted that in the Second Judicial Circuit, a majority of the criminal cases
end with a guilty plea instead of going to trial.
"There's not even a trial," he said. "How can they be targeting if you're
pleading guilty to the charge?"
Aiken Public Safety has a clear policy on racial profiling.
"It says, 'We don't do it,'" Odenthal said. "It's not accepted in our
department."
Turning it around
The report lists 10 recommendations to reduce the existence and effect of
racial bias in the justice system. They include abolishing capital punishment,
fully funding indigent defense, allowing social framework evidence and
structural reform litigation in trials and implementing training to reduce
racial bias.
Johnson said some of the ideas could be implemented.
"There'd have to be a serious overhaul in the government before we see many of
these happening," she said.
Racial sensitivity training would be useful in helping people not outwardly
discriminate but would not change a person's implicit biases, Johnson said.
"Until there are departmental policies that are created and followed not to
target people because of their race, their ethnicity, the way they talk or the
way they dress, I don't think the training is going to help reduce their bias,"
she said. "It has to start within the family unit, within the schools before
you grow up to be an adult and have these implicit biases - teaching tolerance
right on. ... It's going to take decades."
Repairing the disconnect
Howell said he'd like to see a board of residents that review law enforcement
in their jobs.
Cynthia Mitchell, community services coordinator for Aiken Public Safety, said
a similar committee is available. The Aiken Safe Communities Action Team
consists of community members who work alongside Aiken Public Safety.
"As the community and law enforcement work side by side in their respective
lanes, that puts in place an automatic checks and balances," she said. "As we
build meaningful relationships, one side doesn't want to let the other side
down anyway. It's almost like we review each other."
Howell also said there needs to be more programs that put officers out
interacting with residents in a non-threatening or non-emergency setting to
build relationships.
Mitchell said Aiken Public Safety has a number of such programs already up and
running, including golf clinics and basketball tournaments for children,
community cafes, Coffee with a Cop, Chat with Chief and mobile movie nights.
"Public Safety has facilitated, in particular, a camp in Crosland Park -
basically what we view as a minority neighborhood," Mitchell said.
Public Safety is always seeking feedback on programs and what does and doesn't
work.
"Even as law enforcement goes out into the community, we need the community to
come to the events and engage in the dialogue with Public Safety," she said.
"...We've been soliciting people to come and look at the individual committees
we have under Safe Communities and everybody get in where you fit in."
(source: Teddy Kulmala covers the crime beat for the Aiken Standard and has
been with the newspaper since August 2012. He is a native of Williston and
majored in communication studies at Clemson University----The Aiken Standard)
FLORIDA----impending execution
Killer Darius Kimbrough's execution nears: 'There's no forgiveness,' victim's
family says
22 years of rage and pain live inside Diane Stewart.
Life as she knew it stopped Oct. 3, 1991, the day her 28-year-old daughter,
Denise Collins, was raped in her Orange County apartment and beaten to death.
Tuesday is the day Stewart has been waiting for all these years.
The New Jersey mother and her surviving daughter, Annette Collins, plan to
travel to Florida to witness the execution of Darius Kimbrough, the man
convicted of the savage attack.
It's past time, Stewart said.
"There's no closure," she said. "There's no forgiveness for him from either of
us. No forgiveness whatsoever. 22 years is outrageous. It's just outrageous."
If 40-year-old Kimbrough is put to death as scheduled, he will be the 81st
person executed in Florida since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstituted the death
penalty in 1976 and the 2nd man executed using a new drug.
A pending federal lawsuit alleges that the drug, 1 of 3 used in the process,
violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual
punishment.
Stewart is unmoved: "He's going to leave this planet much easier than she did."
'This is justice'
Denise and Annette Collins were best friends. They loved going to the beach and
antiquing together, playing Monopoly and cards, listening to pop music and
styling each other's hair.
Denise was an aspiring graphic artist and fashion designer who could take cloth
scraps and transform them, her sister said.
"It looked like couture from a high-fashion store," said Annette Collins, now
51 and living in Ocean County, N.J.
Denise Collins graduated from Titusville High School and Brevard Community
College - now Eastern Florida State College - and briefly attended art school
in Boston. She drew, painted and sculpted.
She was working at a Kinko's copy center and had recently moved to Carousel
Club Apartments on Rio Grande Avenue south of Orlando when she was murdered.
"Sometimes you sit here even after all these years and can't believe this
happened to your loved one, your family," Annette Collins said. "It doesn't go
away. The shock of it just doesn't go away."
Denise Collins had complained to a manager at her apartment complex that a
stranger, thought to have been Kimbrough, was harassing her with lewd comments
and had threatened her. He lived with his mother in a different building at
Carousel Club.
One night, Kimbrough, then 18, put a ladder against Collins' 2nd-floor balcony,
climbed up and broke in through a sliding-glass door. He raped her in her bed,
punched her in the face, broke her jaw and fractured numerous bones in her
skull.
Orange-Osceola State Attorney Jeff Ashton, who prosecuted the case early in his
career, remembers seeing blood everywhere in Collins' bedroom. He also
remembers standing at the foot of her hospital bed as machines kept her alive.
She died the day after the beating when life support was disconnected. Her
sister was there, holding her hand.
Kimbrough was arrested after he raped another Orange County woman in March
1992, leaving DNA evidence that connected him to the attack on Denise Collins.
He was sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison for that crime.
Ashton plans to attend the execution with Assistant State Attorney Ted Culhan,
who was his co-counsel on the case, and Riggs Gay, the sheriff's detective who
investigated.
2 mothers' losses
Annie Kimbrough has suffered a loss, too. Darius is her only child, and she
believes him when he says he is innocent.
But the Florida Supreme Court denied Kimbrough's appeal Oct. 31, paving the way
for the execution to move forward. On Friday, the court denied a written
request from Kimbrough to review the case again.
"If I am going to Die I at least give me a fair chance to fight for my life,"
Kimbrough wrote.
Kimbrough's state-provided attorney, Robert Strain, would not comment.
This year in Florida, 6 killers already have been put to death - the largest
number in 1 year since 1984, when 8 men were executed. Only Texas, with 14, has
executed more people in 2013.
Annie Kimbrough is hoping for a last-minute reprieve. If none comes, her son
will die at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Florida State Prison.
"I'm just praying," said the Orlando woman, whose 59th birthday is Tuesday.
Stewart, 69, was living in Florida when Denise was murdered, but she moved away
about 3 years later and could bring herself to return only once, to a memorial
service for a friend.
On this trip, she and her daughter hope they will find some measure of peace.
"It's very important for us to see it [the execution] because it's the only
redemption we'll ever have as far as he's concerned," Annette Collins said.
"And for my sister as well."
(source: Orlando Sentinel)
TENNESSEE:
Accused Ax Murderer Found Innocent Of All Charges, Now A Free Man
A man accused of being an ax murderer walked out of jail a free man after 3
years behind bars.
A jury deliberated for just over 4 hours before finding Joshua Cline not guilty
of the crime. Cline would've faced the death penalty had he been found guilty.
The former Marine was accused of using an ax to kill his uncle and his uncle's
girlfriend at their home near the University of Memphis. The bodies were found
on Christmas Eve in 2010.
Shortly after the verdict was read, Cline's family gathered outside 201 Poplar
waiting to hear when he would be released.
Cline's mother said he loved his uncle and would never have killed him. She
says police rushed to judgement in arresting her son.
"They just automatically charged him. They didn't give him the benefit of the
doubt. They arrested him and threw him in jail when he was just coming out of a
coma but my baby's coming out and that's all that's important right now," said
Brenda Cline.
Cline's release was delayed a few hours because he had to post bond for 2 minor
unrelated charges.
(source: WREG news)
UTAH:
Man to stand trial in Utah girl's 1989 slaying
A man serving a life sentence for murder has been ordered to stand trial in the
1989 death of a 17-year-old girl in Salt Lake City.
Third District Judge Elizabeth Hruby-Mills ruled Friday there's sufficient
evidence to try Thomas Noffsinger on felony charges of aggravated murder, rape
and forcible sodomy in Felicia Pappas' death.
The murder charge carries the possibility of the death penalty.
Pappas was last seen walking alone in the early-morning hours of April 6, 1989,
after leaving a billiards hall. Her partially clad body was discovered just a
block from her home the next morning. She had been sexually assaulted and
strangled.
The judge issued her ruling after hearing testimony Thursday and Friday.
On Thursday, Chad Grundy, forensic science manager at the state crime lab,
testified that three samples taken from Pappas had DNA consistent with
Noffsinger.
Unified Police Department detectives pursuing the cold case in 2011 submitted
DNA swabs taken from the victim to the lab. Noffsinger was charged with Pappas'
murder after lab technicians determined Noffsinger was a match.
Noffsinger remains in the Utah State Prison for the March 1990 stabbing death
of Marie Callender's chef Victor Aguilar during a burglary at the Salt Lake
City restaurant. Aguilar was stabbed, stomped on and his throat was slashed.
Noffsinger also is a person of interest in the 1989 disappearance of Annette
Hill, 38, of Sandy.
His attorneys did little to challenge the evidence in the Pappas case and did
not call any witnesses during this week's hearing, The Salt Lake Tribune
reported.
Unified police detective Todd Park interviewed Noffsinger twice at the state
prison about Pappas' slaying. Noffsinger, in the first interview, denied any
involvement in her death.
In the second interview, Park testified Friday, Noffsinger said he did not know
how he had come across Pappas the night of her death.
"I feel that someone that hadn't done this would not respond that way. They
would respond, 'I didn't,'" Park said.
(source: Associated Press)
MONTANA:
Montana State Prison: Inmate admits slitting throat of fellow prisoner
An inmate at Montana State Prison on Friday pleaded guilty to deliberate
homicide by cutting the throat of a fellow inmate.
Clyde Ervin Cosner, 38, admitted in Deer Lodge district court that he killed
Danny Lee Hartford. According to court records, Cosner murdered Hartford on Oct
7, 2012, about 10 p.m. by cutting his throat with a prisoner-made weapon.
The state initially planned to seek the death penalty, but court records
indicate it elected to withdraw its intent because of the great expenditure of
resources and taxpayer money.
In a plea bargain agreement, lawyers for the state and defendant recommended a
sentence of life without parole.
Prior to sentencing, Cosner told Judge Ray Dayton that he killed Hartford
because he was a child molester, and can't live with them.
He said he asked for the maximum punishment and has pushed for transfer to
another prison where pedophiles are housed separately.
"I'm trying to get somewhere I can spend the rest of my life," he said.
Judge Dayton accepted the plea agreement and sentenced Cosner to life without
parole, he gave no credit for good behavior, and did not impose a fine or court
fees. The sentence will run consecutive to the January 2009 sentence Cosner is
serving for deliberate homicide in Toole County. He was remanded back to
Montana State Prison.
(source: The Missoulian)
CALIFORNIA:
2 men charged with murder in Turlock slaying
2 men have been charged with murder for the slaying of a 21-year-old man in
Turlock.
The Modesto Bee reports (http://bit.ly/196iwb8 ) that 21-year-old Pardeep Singh
and 22-year-old Kultar Singh were each charged Friday with murder, making
criminal threats and other charges.
Neither defendant has entered a plea; they are being held without bail.
Prosecutors say the pair killed Amritpal Sandhu, whose body was found inside a
white Infiniti sedan at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Sandhu had called 911 for help early Wednesday, telling a California Highway
Patrol dispatcher that someone was shooting at him.
Prosecutors filed special circumstances alleging the shots were fired from one
car to another vehicle with intent to kill, which makes each defendant eligible
for the death penalty.
(source: Associated Press)
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