Nov. 11
KANSAS----new death sentence
Kansas white supremacist sentenced to death for 3 murders.
A judge on Tuesday issued the death penalty for the white supremacist convicted
of shooting to death 3 people at 2 Jewish centers in Kansas last year.
Johnson County District Court Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan sentenced Frazier Glenn
Cross, 74, to die by lethal injection.
A jury in early September convicted Cross, a former senior member of the Ku
Klux Klan, of the murders and recommended that he be put to death. Cross also
was convicted of 3 counts of attempted murder for shooting at 3 other people.
The jury found Cross guilty of killing Reat Underwood, 14, and his grandfather,
William Corporon, 69, outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas
City, and Terri LaManno, 53, outside a Jewish retirement home, both in Overland
Park, Kansas.
After the judge announced his decision, Cross gave the "Heil Hitler" salute and
was forcibly removed from the courtroom.
On the way out, Cross said, "One day my spirit will rise from the grave and
you'll know I was right. I'm a happy man."
Cross said in court on Tuesday, as he did during the trial, that he wanted to
kill Jews because he believes they control the media, financial institutions
and the government.
"Jews are destroying the white race," he said, calling himself a patriot. None
of those he killed were Jewish.M
In court statements before the sentencing, several relatives of victims
denounced Cross for his views and spoke of their painful losses. Cross, a
military veteran, sat at a court table in a wheel chair, sometimes glancing up
at those who spoke at the podium.
Will Corporon, son of William Corporon, glared at Cross as he talked.
"You are a coward," he said. "You are not a patriot. You are a disgrace to the
uniform you wore."
Cross, representing himself in court, said on Tuesday he should be released
because he was justified in trying to kill Jews.
"I wanted to kill Jews, not Christians and I do regret it," Cross said. During
the trial he faulted the victims for associating with Jews by going to Jewish
centers.
Melinda Corporon, wife of William Corporon, told Cross he has never known love.
"We are here today to make sure this voice of evil is silenced permanently,"
she said.
Kansas restored the death penalty in 1994; no one has been executed in the
state since 1965.
(source: Reuters)
**************
Becker to continue fight against death penalty
State Rep. Steven Becker, R-Buhler, will continue to champion the cause of
abolishing the death penalty in Kansas.
But he plans a new strategy when the Kansas Legislature convenes in January.
Instead of trying to get a bill hearing before the House Judiciary Committee
led by Chairman John Barker, R-Abilene, Becker will start the process through
the smaller House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee, led by Chairman
John Rubin, R-Shawnee.
"I'm more hopeful we'll have a hearing," he said. "If we are granted a
hearing," Becker said Tuesday, he is increasingly confident the bill will get
out of the committee.
Then it will be up to Speaker of the House Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, to allow
the bill to come to the floor, Becker said.
Becker is a former Reno County district judge who entered the House in 2013. In
2 sessions, he carried a bill to abolish the death penalty but both times, he
was unable to get a committee hearing - the 1st step for pending legislation.
The last execution in Kansas was in 1965. There are 9 inmates on death row in
Kansas. Their status would not be affected by new legislation.
Kansas, Delaware, New Hampshire and Montana are drawing close monitoring by the
National Coaltion to Abolish the Death Penalty because of active efforts in
those states to repeal the death penalty.
Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the national coalition is currently
in Kansas, and spoke Tuesday afternoon at Hutchinson Community College's Shears
Technology Center. About 10 people made up the audience, including Becker and
Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty executive director Mary Sloan,
Lenexa.
"We're prioritizing work in Kansas because it's so important," Rust-Tierney
said. "We just see so much potential here," she said.
19 states and the District of Columbia have abandoned the death penalty
practice, and in 4 states, a gubernatorial moratorium has been imposed,
Rust-Tierney said. The state of Nebraska repealed the death penalty earlier
this year.
Death penalty executions mostly occur in southern states. In 2014, 35 inmates
were executed in the country. Those executions were carried out in: Arizona,
Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Ohio, Georgia and Florida.
The southern U.S. continues to have the highest per capita murder rate, and the
northeast U.S. has the lowest per capita murder rate, Rust-Tierney said,
attacking the argument that the death penalty is a deterrent.
Lethal injection is the execution method in Kansas and other states, but it is
increasingly difficult to employ, Rust-Tierney said. Pharmaceutical companies
do not want to be linked to the practice, and some states were found to be
attempting to import drugs illegally.
More people and groups are speaking out against the death penalty, she said.
(source: The Hutchinson News)
***************
A matter or morals or money? The Kansas death penalty can make for a
complicated, emotional equation
Mindy Corporon refuses to say the name of the man who killed her dad and
14-year-old son. "The defendant," she calls him.
The defendant is Frazier Glenn Cross, also known as Glenn Miller. Depending on
the outcome of sentencing, Cross could become the latest person sentenced to
death in the state of Kansas--the 10th since 1994, when the state brought back
its death penalty. All 9 men currently awaiting execution were are convicted of
heinous crimes and all 9 are still alive, being housed in a detention center in
Eldorado, Kan.
When asked if she believes in the death penalty, Corporon seems to bob from one
side of the debate to the other. It's obvious she's struggling with her
feelings about all of this.
"I was raised in a house believing in the death penalty. I think we grow up in
our households and we initially believe and follow what our parents teach us,
that's how life works," Corporon said. "And then we get a little older and we
form opinions and life happens to us, then we can change our opinions. But I
grew up believing in the death penalty. And I would say before this happened to
us I believed in the death penalty."
If history is any indication of whether or not Cross would linger if sentenced
to death, chances are pretty good he would. There are numerous reasons for the
delays: appeals, Supreme Court challenges, debates about methods, and more.
There are a number of arguments for and against the death penalty. In Kansas,
among the top questions are:
1. cost effectiveness
2. whether it's a deterrent for criminals
3. whether a certain county is more aggressive in seeking the death penalty,
with racism playing a part
Is it cost effective?
A Kansas legislative committee last year looked into the cost of the death
penalty. It found seeking, defending and prosecuting a death penalty case is,
in fact, very expensive.
It found:
-- Defending someone facing death costs four times as much as defending
someone who is not: $395,762 vs. $98,963
-- Trial court costs were higher: $72,530 vs. $21,554
-- Jury trials take longer: 40 days vs. 16 days
-- The Kansas Supreme Court estimates it spends 20 times the amount of hours
on death penalty appeals than other kinds
Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe says those numbers don't add up to
a complete picture.
"When you have a 1st-degree murder case, it doesn't matter whether you have the
death penalty or not. Whatever is the top crime in the state will be the one
where you have the most litigation. So that's played out through history. We've
seen that here in Johnson County. And I think some who use those numbers
sometimes play fast and loose with the true facts," said Howe.
Howe said, people who question the efficacy of the death penalty should put
money out of the equation. In short, it's not about money.
"It's really about the moral issue about whether or not the death penalty
should be imposed. From our standpoint there's no right or wrong position to
have. Just because we might have differences of opinion as to the death penalty
doesn't make one us right or wrong."
Is the death penalty a deterrent?
The Death Penalty Information Center polled 500 police chiefs in 2009 and found
57 % said the death penalty does little to prevent violent crimes because
perpetrators rarely consider consequences. The same poll found most police
chiefs believe in the death penalty philosophically, but don't think it's an
effective law enforcement tool in practice.
When asked if the death penalty is more of a deterrent or punishment, Howe says
it can be both.
"But one things for sure," he said, with a look in his eyes that is loaded with
knowledge of some of the most heinous crimes, "when the death sentence is
imposed, I don't care how tough those defendants think they are, they're
concerned about it. And they're scared. And to me, it's nice to know that
finally they feel like how their victims felt maybe at those times."
Could a county be more aggressive or could racism play a role?
There are studies which have found certain counties are responsible for the
majority of death sentences, and other studies have found certain counties
convict significantly more minorities to die. For the purposes of this story,
we only looked at facts in Kansas.
In the state of Kansas, 3 men have been sentenced to death in Sedgewick County,
1 in Johnson County (Cross would be the 2nd) and 1 each in Crawford, Barton,
Greenwood, Cowley and Osage counties.
As for the racial makeup of the men sentenced to death in Kansas, 7 are white,
3 are black.
A personal matter
Even when the question of capital punishment hits close to home, it can be hard
to know what to think or feel about the ultimate punishment.
"It's a very personal decision and I respect people on both sides of that
equation. But we just feel very strongly in the state of Kansas that the cases
that do receive the death penalty deserve it based on the egregious nature of
the conduct of those defendants," Howe said.
So, where does Mindy Corporon ultimately come down?
"I'm not against it. I'm not for it. I just don't even want to have to ponder
it too much. I know that my dad would be for it and always has been," she said.
"And I am my father's daughter and I know if I had been killed I know my dad
would say absolutely he deserves the death penalty... Why can I not say that so
easily? In terms of general terms of humanity, I hate that a life has to be
taken for a life, but he took 3."
(source: KSHB news)
OKLAHOMA:
To Close Case, Family Of 1999 Murder Victim Ask Death Penalty Be Removed
A murder case that's been dragging on for 16 years may be closer to reaching an
end.
The victim's family said they just want it to be over, so they agreed with the
district attorney to take the death penalty off the table as a possible
punishment.
A retired woman was kidnapped from the Promenade Mall, robbed, taken to north
Tulsa County and murdered along with a Good Samaritan who came to her aid.
That was in 1999. Now, 16 years later, the case against the man arrested and
convicted for killing Mary Bowles and Jerald Thurman has yet to close.
Victor Miller was 1 of 2 men arrested for murdering Bowles and Thurman. A jury
convicted him and gave him death for Thurman's murder, but he appealed and won.
A 2nd jury also convicted him and gave him death, but again, he appealed and
won a new sentence.
If he gets a 3rd death sentence it could mean another 10 years of appeals, and
the family said it's time to stop the madness.
"The family needs some type of closure because it's been going on for so long.
My mom is not getting any younger and she needs to see some type of justice,"
said Thurman's son Jake.
Miller is representing himself and carries his legal papers in a cloth bag.
With nothing but time on his hands and access to a computer, he's buried the
DA's office in paperwork.
Assistant Tulsa County District Attorney, John David Luton, said, "He himself
has filed 35 to 50 motions just since the last reversal, just since the last
one."
In order to end the case, the DA and Thurman's family agreed to remove the
death penalty as an option. The family will ask the judge to sentence Miller to
life without parole rather than life.
Jake said, "As long as he doesn't get to hurt anybody again. He can sit there
and think about what he's done the rest of his life."
Miller will get to speak at the sentencing and the Thurman family would like to
hear him say he's sorry.
"If he would apologize and admit guilt, it would help us heal. It would help
the healing process," said Jerald Thurman's daughter-in-law, Heather.
As much as they wanted the death penalty, they wanted an ending more. Plus,
Miller is also serving more than 100 years in federal prison for other violent
crimes.
Thurman's family hopes the case will be over after the sentencing on December
8th so they can finally begin to grieve.
(source: newson6.com)
*******************
Execution Mistakes Followed Corrections Director From Arizona To
Oklahoma----Each execution attempt under Oklahoma Department of Corrections
Director Robert Patton has been marred by mistakes. Many of those mistakes
mirror ones made under his leadership in Arizona, BuzzFeed News has found.
The head of Oklahoma's Department of Corrections has overseen 3 scheduled
executions during his brief time in Oklahoma. Each time, there was a major
screw-up.
In Robert Patton's 1st execution as director, just 2 months after he started on
the job, inmate Clayton Lockett sat up on the gurney after he was declared
unconscious and told his executioners, "Shit's fucking with me."
Patton called off the execution after realizing it was going awry. Lockett died
45 minutes after his execution began.
In Patton's 2nd execution as director, which took place this January, Charles
Warner's last words included, "My body is on fire."
In what was supposed to have been Patton's 3rd execution in the state,
officials called of the scheduled execution of Richard Glossip in late
September after the doctor discovered the state had obtained the wrong
execution drugs. Oklahoma's protocol calls for potassium chloride, but the
state received potassium acetate. State officials "briefly considered" using
the wrong drug, but eventually decided to call off the execution.
A few weeks later, it was revealed that Oklahoma had already used the same
wrong drug earlier that year, in the Warner execution. Now, a grand jury is
investigating what's been going wrong. Warden Anita Trammell, who oversaw the
prison where the executions took place, has already resigned. The Department of
Corrections insists that she had considered retiring for some time and was not
forced out.
And yet, in the state's investigation into the botched Lockett execution Patton
disclaimed responsibility, even though he had been on site, watching the
execution as it went wrong.
"Understand the current Oklahoma protocol does not require anything from the
director," he told investigators, "and I'm not trying to deflect any
responsibility, but that's just the way the protocol is written at, at this
current time."
The Glossip execution would have been the 20th execution in which Patton
participated - and there have been similar problems before. A BuzzFeed News
examination of Patton's prior job as the the corrections division director in
Arizona shows that the errors of the past 2 years were also errors made, and
criticized, during his time in Arizona.
On April 29, 2014, Oklahoma executioners had trouble finding a vein to carry
out Lockett's execution, eventually settling on a femoral vein. They cut
Lockett's scrubs and underwear to gain access and decided on placing a sheet
over his body to, as Patton said, "protect his dignity."
The Department of Public Safety found that the inability of the executioners to
see the IV was a factor in the botched execution, a decision that kept
officials from seeing what was going wrong until it was too late.
During the execution, Lockett began to move. When a doctor looked under the
sheet, he discovered clear liquid and blood. Lockett had swelling between the
size of a golf ball and tennis ball where the IV was inserted. Both the doctor
and the warden, who decided to cover Lockett, agreed that the swelling would
have been noticed sooner if they had been able to see the IV.
3 years earlier, Patton was involved in several Arizona executions where
similar mistakes happened occurred, even though the protocol in that state
specifically required the IV be uncovered during the execution. The incident
was detailed in a 2011 deposition of Patton obtained by BuzzFeed News.
As in 2014, Patton gave the same response in Arizona years earlier, testifying
that the sheet had been placed over the inmate's groin "to protect his
dignity."
During the 2014 investigation into the Lockett execution, Patton admitted he
was concerned that no one could see the IV and said he was unsure if anyone
could.
"Now, was I 100 % [sure] that she couldn't see it? No, I was not 100 % sure,"
Patton told Oklahoma investigators afterward. "And purposely you shouldn't be
able to see it from the witness room, but I was concerned enough to go, 'Oh, I
hope she can because I knew [the IV] wasn't in the arms."
Patton said he had those concerns "based on experience" from Arizona, but
admits that he did not voice those concerns to anyone at the time, or instruct
the warden to make a change.
Warden Anita Trammell, who resigned in October, told investigators after the
Lockett execution that she looked toward Patton for guidance when things
started going wrong.
"I was kind of panicking," Trammell said. "Thinking, 'Oh my God. He's coming
out of this.' It's not working and so he did that, and I wasn't sure where the
director was sitting at out there, but I looked up to look for the director,
and he was sitting directly in front of me.
"So I looked at the director hard like, 'Gimme some, you know, gimme some
pointers,' or, 'Give me some advice,' and he looked up at the clock, the
director did," she continued.
State investigators found the Lockett botch was caused by issues with the
insertion of the IV; that personnel did not have the medical equipment that
they needed; that they could not notice the problems due to the sheet covering
the inmate; and that training was inadequate.
After promising changes, the Department of Corrections was allowed to carry out
another execution in January. In that execution, the state used the wrong drug.
During his time in Arizona, Patton also admitted to several deviations from the
protocol. He allowed an executioner to participate in several executions in
2010 and 2011 even though the person did not have the required qualifications,
and he did not do the proper criminal background checks on the executioners.
"That was an was oversight on my part," he said in the deposition. And he said
that, to his knowledge, no one checked the professional licenses of the
executioners.
In the 2011 deposition, Patton said he never checked the forms that would
indicate how much and which drugs were actually used during the Arizona
executions.
State officials have not said publicly, at this point, who, if anyone, was
aware that the wrong drugs were used in the January execution of Charles
Warner.
In a statement through a corrections spokesperson, Patton disagreed that there
were mistakes under his leadership in Arizona, and said that the judge in the
case did not take issue with the selection of the execution team.
When BuzzFeed News provided direct quotes from his deposition, in which he
admits to these deviations from the protocol, and the ruling from the federal
judge in which he finds that Arizona indeed deviated from the protocol, the
Oklahoma Department of Corrections declined to respond.
Gov. Mary Fallin's office did not respond to repeated requests for comment on
if she still stood by Patton.
----------
Patton's path to the center of the debate over the implementation of the death
penalty began 30 years ago at the State Prison in Fort Grant, Arizona and has
involved his participation in 19 executions, with repeated questions raised
about oversight and adherence to protocol.
He started out as a corrections officer in 1985 after spending time in the
Navy. He worked his way up the corrections-level ranks in the state - sergeant,
lieutenant, captain - and then to management-level roles as associate deputy
warden, deputy warden, deputy warden of operations, and then warden of the
Arizona State Prison Complex in Douglas.
Patton eventually went back to school, obtaining his bachelor's degree in 2004.
He then went to Nebraska, where he ran the Douglas County Correctional Center.
He came back to the Arizona Department of Corrections and eventually received a
Master's of Administration degree from Northern Arizona University in 2007.
Patton was soon promoted to be the director of the Division of Offender
Operations. He said he started getting involved in execution planning in 2009.
While Patton oversaw planning of executions while in this role in Arizona,
Patton also said he was involved in executions in the state before taking on
that role.
During the 2014 investigation into the Lockett execution, Patton told
investigators in Oklahoma that he played a role in 17 executions during his
time in Arizona. The state, however, only conducted 13 executions after Patton
took on a planning role.
Patton said he first started participating in executions in the early '90s,
which would have been while he was still in a corrections-level role. From this
time through 2000, Patton was involved in at least 3 executions, although his
exact role is unknown. Officials redacted Patton's response when asked what his
role was during those executions.
While specific information about his role in those earlier executions is not
known, Patton said in his 2011 deposition that he did not begin playing a role
in planning executions until 2009.
Investigators also asked Patton if there were any instances in Arizona "where
there were issues with an execution." Patton asked to go off the record, which
they did for 15 minutes.
Patton, questioned this week about the earlier executions, refused to discuss
his involvement.
"Whether I did nor did not participate in any executions prior to becoming
Division Director in AZ would be protected under AZ law," Patton wrote in a
statement to BuzzFeed News. "I will not confirm, nor deny that I did."
The 2011 deposition stems from a lawsuit brought by Arizona inmates, which
alleged the state deviated from its written execution procedures. A federal
judge found that the department of corrections, under Patton's leadership in
executions, "failed to follow certain components of its execution protocol,"
but that the deviations did "not suggest cruelty or give rise to a substantial
risk of serious harm" for the inmates.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A few years later, in January 2014, Patton was selected by the Oklahoma Board
of Corrections to run its prisons.
When he started as the director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections the
next month, in February 2014, he sent an email thanking Arizona's director, and
his former boss, Charles Ryan.
"Sitting at my desk and thinking of you," Patton wrote. "The enormity of this
task is really starting to sink in. I can only hope to accomplish it with the
dignity and honor that you show everyday. I will never forget all you have
taught me over the years."
Ryan responded a few hours later.
"The enormity is sometimes mind-boggling! I believe you have the experience and
tools to get the task accomplished. Shades of gray will become more visible as
you progress in the job."
Talking of his experience in Arizona in 2011, Patton said he would always spend
time with the inmates before they were executed, discussing whatever they want
to talk about. Patton said it???s important to him.
"There's no set structure to it," Patton said in his deposition. "It's whatever
we can do to make him as comfortable as possible. Our goal is professional and
humane, and I feel discussion with an inmate, whatever he wants to talk about
in his last moments of life is very important."
Just a few months after he started in Oklahoma, though, Patton was facing
controversy. His first execution as director, the Lockett execution, was one of
the worst botches in lethal injection history.
Patton wrote to Ryan and Arizona Deputy Director Jeff Hood a couple days
afterward, clearly upset over what had happened. He forwarded an email from an
angry member of the public that called him "a cruel and inhumane murderer" and
that "Hell awaits."
"My staff didn't get to this one fast enough before I read it," Patton wrote.
"I am told this is typical of the hundred or so call, letters and emails that
have came through."
Ryan offered support.
"Robert, stand your ground... you asked for an independent review... the facts
will become public..." he wrote.
Hood was more blunt.
"Opinions are like assholes - everybody has one," Hood responded. "If people
only knew the extraordinary efforts undertaken to treat these vile examples of
humanity with respect and dignity in their last hours..."
Just a few months later, Arizona - under Ryan and Hood's supervision - carried
out the longest lethal injection in history, taking nearly 2 hours to kill
inmate Joseph Wood.
An Arizona Department of Corrections spokesperson said that Hood's email was
"intended as a message of support to his former colleague." As to comparisons
between the Wood and Lockett botched executions, the spokesperson said there
were "distinct and undeniable differences between the facts of each of those
events."
Several weeks before the Wood execution, Patton hired Lance Hetmer, the warden
at the prison where the Wood execution took place, making Hetmer his "special
assistant," a newly created position that pays $88,000 a year.
The Wood execution was the last Arizona execution in which Hetmer participated.
He started in Oklahoma 1 week later.
(source: BuzzFeedNews)
****************
Richard Glossip's fight goes on
Many of us breathed a sigh of relief on September 30th, when Richard Glossip -
who has been languishing on Oklahoma's death row for 17 years - was granted a
last-minute stay of execution, following the State's realisation that there had
been a mix-up involving the drugs needed according to Oklahoma's execution
protocol. A growing community of supporters had raised concern that Oklahoma
may be about to execute an innocent man, given that no physical evidence links
Glossip to the crime for which he was convicted.
The very next day, the State of Oklahoma went even further and issued an
indefinite stay of all pending executions, until at least 150 days after an
internal investigation launched by the Attorney-General has shone a light on
what exactly happened in September - and also in January, when Charles Warner,
another death row inmate, was executed with the same, wrong drug.
For Richard Glossip, the stay has offered much-needed relief in a seemingly
never-ending ordeal that tells us so much about what is wrong with the US
criminal justice system today.
But it won't set him free. The fight for his full exoneration is far from over,
and I have nothing but admiration for his defence teams who have been working
so hard to collect further evidence that could eventually allow him to have
another day in court and demonstrate his innocence. As so many others, from
Sister Helen Prejean to Susan Sarandon and countless Oklahomans of all walks of
life, I am confident that day will come.
Just two weeks ago, I had a chance to speak with Richard Glossip over the phone
for nearly an hour. The man I talked to was a man full of hope and optimism and
without a trace of bitterness or fear. It's hard to understand what he has been
through, after having been served his last meal, twice, all but certain that
his final moment had come. Remarkably, the 2nd time around, he ordered pizza,
and because of a 2-for-1 deal, offered to share it with his guards.
Richard has never once considered accepting a plea bargain in exchange for a
life sentence, even though it was offered to him. Unwavering, he insists on his
innocence. Listening to his version of the story and learning of the sequence
of injustices that have kept him on death row - many of them corroborated - I
am more convinced than ever that he needs to be released. Finality of justice
must never prevail over fairness, and fairness is what Richard Glossip
deserves. We must do all we can to ensure his case his not forgotten.
(source: Richard Branson, virgin.com)
OREGON:
Defense says serial killer Dayton Leroy Rogers has brain damage, doesn't
deserve death penalty
Dayton Leroy Rogers really never had a chance in life, psychologists testified
Tuesday.
The most prolific serial killer in Oregon history suffered brain damage as a
result of a tortured, tumultuous childhood in an isolated family led by
abusive, religious extremists, they said.
1 close relatives suffered mental illness or were prosecuted for sex crimes.
The family moved 39 times before Rogers was 17 and he was unable - sometimes
prohibited - from taking part in normal school activities or making friends.
The result was problems with memory and impulse control, along with
dissociative experiences and antisocial behavior, testimony indicated. At the
same time, he developed unhealthy sexual obsessions and fetishes that
eventually led to sadism and murder.
"I can't even imagine what his childhood was like," Karen Bronk Froming, a Palo
Alto University neuropsychologist, told a Clackamas County jury. "It was
extremely fearsome and completely unpredictable."
Prosecutors Scott P. Healy and Bryan J. Brock tried to chip away at the picture
during cross-examination, eliciting answers that indicated Rogers could tell
right from wrong.
That question will weigh on the jury, which must decide whether Rogers, dubbed
the "Molalla Forest Killer," should receive the death penalty - for the 4th
time. The first 3 death sentences were overturned on appeal, sending the case
back to Clackamas County Circuit Court.
Rogers, 63, a former Canby lawnmower repairman, was found guilty in 1988 and
1989 of killing 7 prostitutes and dumping 6 of their bodies in the woods near
Molalla. The case brought out graphic details of Rogers driving his victims
along old logging roads in the Mount Hood National Forest, south of Molalla,
then sharing vodka and orange juice with them. While engaging in sex, he
hogtied, stabbed and tortured the women -- even sawing off some victims' feet.
He has been on -- and off -- death row ever since.
The man jurors are seeing now hardly looks threatening. Balding and pudgy, he
sat at the defense table in a shapeless prison uniform, consulting with defense
attorneys Richard L. Wolf and Lynne B. Morgan in hushed tones. He never reacted
outwardly, despite testimony about his horrific crimes, pausing occasionally to
put on his reading glasses while studying defense documents.
Ruben C. Gur, a University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
neuropsychologist, testified that scans of Rogers' brain indicate that he had
suffered damage to his frontal lobe that could make him lose his inhibitions,
develop obsessive-compulsive and antisocial behaviors while engaging in
risk-taking in manic sprees. Other parts, such as Rogers' corpus callosum,
appear to have stopped working altogether.
"The right side of Mr. Rogers' brain has lost tissue," Gur said. "That damage
can make him feel detachment, like 'Yeah, it's me, but I'm not really here. I'm
sitting somewhere up in the clouds.'"
Kevin B. McGovern, a Portland-based psychologist specializing in forensics and
criminal behavior, testified that Rogers no longer poses a threat to commit
violent crimes. He said Rogers has displayed exemplary behavior during his
10,200 days in the Oregon State Penitentiary, even working as a barber and
using sharp scissors to cut fellow inmates' hair. He also said age has mellowed
Rogers, who now expresses remorse for his actions.
"I see him basically as a harmless person who is more in danger of being harmed
by some inmate who wants a notch on his belt rather than him harming someone
else," McGovern said.
Rogers told him, McGovern said: "'Every morning, I wake up in a cell,
remembering the horrible things I did.'"
Courts are closed Wednesday in recognition of Veterans Day. Judge Thomas J.
Rastetter is scheduled to reconvene the hearing Thursday, when the defense is
expected to conclude its case. The state will follow with rebuttal witnesses
before the jury will decide Rogers' fate.
(source: oregonlive.com)
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