Jan. 22
NORTH CAROLINA:
Accused triple-murderer facing rare death penalty trial in Cumberland County
Shawn Lee Legrand of Fayetteville goes to court on Feb. 1 for what has become
uncommon in North Carolina: A death penalty trial.
Legrand, 48, is accused of killing 3 people and of trying to kill 2 others in
Fayetteville in November 2011.
Police said he broke into a home on Ingram Street on Fayetteville's east side.
There, he stabbed a woman and a man to death and shot 3 other people, 1
fatally. He fled from officers in a car chase, the Police Department said, then
crashed and got into a shootout with the officers near downtown Fayetteville.
No officers were hit, but they wounded Legrand and captured him.
A psychiatrist wrote in September that Legrand was attempting to commit
"suicide by cop" when he shot at the officers. As of September, Legrand was
still suicidal and wanted to be sentenced to death, the doctor said.
But the sister of one of Legrand's victims thinks he should serve life in
prison without parole instead being executed.
Capital murder trials once were common in this state. In 2000, according to the
N.C. Center for Death Penalty Litigation, North Carolina had 57 death penalty
trials, 18 of which ended in death sentences. This past year, there were four
capital trials and no death sentences issued.
Cumberland County last had a capital murder trial in fall 2014. A jury
deadlocked on whether to sentence Cedric Theodis Hobbs Jr. to death for killing
a teen during a robbery of a pawnshop.
"I would say as a whole, we probably have less capital trials now than we did,
say, maybe 10 years ago," said Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West.
A change in death penalty law in 2001 is a major reason that the cases have
declined. The prior law required prosecutors to seek the death penalty if any
of 11 "aggravating circumstances" existed in the case. Those included murders
in conjunction with other serious crimes such as kidnapping or rape, killings
or that were especially cruel or murders committed for personal gain.
Now prosecutors have the option to forgo seeking the death penalty even if an
aggravating factor exists. Instead of death, the defendant automatically gets a
sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder.
Prosecutors have good reasons to take the death penalty off the table in a
trial or to accept a guilty plea to 1st-degree murder, West said.
A death penalty trial is are far more time-consuming, expensive and
resource-intensive than a non-capital trial or a court hearing for a guilty
plea, West said. Death penalty trials usually take a bigger toll on the
victim's family members, too, he said.
If there is a death sentence, the appeals process can go for years before the
execution is carried out, West said. Plus, still pending court challenges to
the death penalty in court have blocked executions in North Carolina since
January 2007 and it's unclear when or if they will resume.
In light of those factors, prosecutors evaluate the likelihood of a jury
returning a death sentence, West said.
"You don't ever in our business know what a jury's going to do," West said.
"But I think you can a lot of times gauge whether or not this is a case that a
jury may think is truly worthy of the death penalty."
Ken Rose, of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, agrees that death trials
are rarer these days. But he thinks prosecutors are unfairly using the threat
of a death penalty trial to push defendants into guilty pleas.
"In almost all our cases now ... they're using it as leverage," Rose said.
"They believe that life sentences are acceptable punishment, and suitable and
fit the crime. But then they see the death penalty as leverage to get to the
life sentences without having to go to trial.
"And what that does is, that penalizes people who assert their right to jury
trials in a way that I don't think is right," Rose said.
If the state is going to have a death penalty, Rose said, it should be sought
"only in the circumstances where it's really the only fitting punishment for a
particular crime."
Despite the factors that weigh against seeking death, West is pushing for it in
Legrand's case for several reasons. They include the fact that he is accused of
killing 3 people and that he has a history of violence stretching back decades.
The killings happened on Nov. 26, 2011, a Saturday morning, in a triplex on 288
Ingram Street.
In a court document, Legrand's lawyer describes the residence as "a known drug
house."
According to news accounts and court records, Legrand is accused of tying up
Krystle Price Papile and Gregory Steven Fitzgerald. He stabbed Papile to death.
Fitzgerald briefly escaped, but a witness said Legrand chased him down in the
back yard and stabbed him there. Fitzgerald died later in the day. Ardell Page
Jr. was bound and killed with a head shot.
2 others, Bennie Darwin King and Stephanie Lashaun Croom, were shot in the
face. They survived.
A 911 caller reported a woman was bleeding on the front porch and saying a man
had tried to kill her.
The police received a description of Legrand's car. Police Sgt. Steven Bates
spotted it in the Arch Street area near downtown, about 1.5 miles away from
Ingram Street, and tried to pull him over.
The driver fled, police said, and Bates and Officer Travis Smith chased the car
to Legrand's house at 216 S. C Street.
Legrand crashed, jumped out of the car with a handgun and began shooting, the
police said. The officers shot back and severely injured him.
Forensic psychiatrist Gorge P. Corvin wrote in September that Legrand is
chronically depressed and was trying to kill himself when he shot at the
officers. He also has tried to kill himself by overdosing on medications,
Corvin said.
Legrand has asked the court at least twice to dismiss his lawyers and let him
represent himself. This is "with the clearly stated goal of doing whatever it
takes to make sure that he is sentenced to death," Corvin wrote.
Corvin wrote that he did not think Legrand was competent to stand trial.
Legrand defense lawyer Michael Driver said he and lawyer Lisa Miles are still
on Legrand's case. Legrand has been ruled competent to stand trial but not
capable of representing himself, Driver said.
Angelica Saint-Surin of Columbia, South Carolina, was Krystle Papile's sister.
Saint-Surin said she has struggled with whether Legrand should be sentenced to
death. At first she opposed it because "I was afraid he was going to ask for
forgiveness and be granted forgiveness. And my heart was having a struggle with
that."
She changed her mind to favor death, she said, after seeing Legrand in court.
He was arrogant, she said. "He hasn't even tried to ask for forgiveness or
repent for his sins."
But if Legrand has a death wish, it shouldn't be granted, Saint-Surin said.
"He wants death. So yes, I don't think he should be able to get anything he
wants," she said.
(source: Fayetteville Observer)
MISSOURI----new execution date
Missouri Supreme Court sets execution date for Earl Forrest
The Missouri Supreme Court has set a May execution date for a man convicted of
killing a deputy and 2 other people 13 years ago.
The court on Thursday issued a warrant of execution for 66-year-old Earl
Forrest. His execution on May 11 would be the 1st in Missouri this year.
Forrest was convicted of killing Harriett Smith, Michael Wells and Dent County
Deputy JoAnn Barnes in December 2002. Smith was killed at her Salem home in a
drug dispute, and Wells was visiting her. Barnes died in a shootout when
officers went to Forrest's home to investigate the killings.
Missouri executed 10 men in 2014 and 6 last year, but the pace is expected to
slow because most of the remaining death row inmates still have court appeals
pending.
(source: Associated Press)
***************
Execution date set for Forrest
Earl Forrest, 66, is set to be executed in Potosi May 11 for killing 3 local
residents in 2002 including Michael Wells, Harriet Smith and Dent County
Sheriff's Deputy JoAnn Barnes.
The Missouri Supreme Court set the date Thursday after affirming the sentence
recommended by a Platte County jury in 2004 and denying Forrest an appeal.
This is the 2nd execution date set for Forrest, the sentence was originally
planned to be carried out in the Spring of 2006.
If executed Forrest will be the 1st Missouri death row inmate executed in 2016.
(soruce: thesalemnewsonline.com)
MONTANA:
When Does the Death Penalty Apply to Missoula County Court Cases?
Missoula has seen 2 high profile murder cases in recent days and some citizens
are wondering why the death penalty wasn't invoked in either instance. Missoula
County Attorney Kirsten Pabst was on the other end of the phone on Talk Back on
Friday to provide information.
"There's a couple of reasons why these particular cases didn't qualify. Either
that we show ambush or there was torture involved; They're really extremely
egregious cases that would qualify, and arguably neither of the 2 cases pending
in Missoula County qualified," Pabst said. "There's an even better reason than
that. The United States Supreme Court basically just shot down our statutory
scheme for the death penalty."
Pabst said Montana's scheme was similar to a Florida case that was recently
overturned by the Supreme Court because of their process for seeking and
getting the death penalty.
"If the death penalty is even going to continue in Montana, the legislature is
probably going to have to overhaul the process," Pabst said. "The jury has to
decide. Our statutory scheme requires that a judge decide and that's been held
unconstitutional. And I'm grossly oversimplifying it. At this point in Montana,
I just don't think we are going to be able to do it until we get those laws
straightened out."
Although she didn't know specific numbers, Pabst said it's been a while since a
death penalty case was tried and convicted in Montana.
(source: KGVO news)
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