July 17
FLORIDA:
Detectives fear escaped Florida death row inmate is armed
A Florida death row inmate who escaped from a courtroom remained on the lam
Saturday amid fears he was armed.
Broward County sheriff's investigators said they have received information that
accused murderer Dayonte Resiles, 21, may have obtained a weapon. They declined
to give further details, saying it could harm their search.
Resiles burst out of the Broward County Courthouse Friday morning in a daring
escape. He was sitting in a 4th-floor courtroom crowded with defendants and
lawyers when he somehow escaped his shackles, jumped over a courtroom barrier
and ran past bailiffs. He shed his jail jumpsuit and ran out of the courthouse.
The Broward County Sheriff's Office said Resiles is the subject of an intense
manhunt.
At 3 p.m. deputies searched a Fort Lauderdale apartment complex after getting a
tip that he had been spotted there, Fox affiliate WSVN-TV in Miami reported
Saturday.
After more than 2 hours, deputies called off the search. Residents were allowed
to return to their apartments.
Resiles faces murder and other charges in the Sept. 8, 2014, killing of Jill
Halliburton Su, grand-niece of Halliburton Co. founder Erie P. Halliburton. Her
body was found, bound at the hands and feet and stabbed multiple times, in the
bathtub of her home in Davie, Florida. Prosecutors are seeking the death
penalty in the case.
(source: Fox News)
TENNESSEE:
Judge denies new trial for convicted Hamilton County cop killer
Since his 2003 conviction for murdering a sheriff's deputy, Marlon Kiser has
appealed his case, been denied a new trial, had his death sentence upheld,
filed motions for post-conviction relief, had his death sentence delayed, and
hired new counsel.
Last week, after years of back-and-forth between Kiser's defense and state
attorneys, a judge denied his plea for another new trial in the 2001 slaying of
Hamilton County Deputy Donald Bond.
Criminal Court Judge Don Poole reviewed Kiser's 35 claims of ineffective
assistance of counsel and answered them 1 by 1 in a 92-page ruling released
Wednesday.
Even though Kiser, a death row inmate at the Riverbend prison in Nashville,
lost this round, he can still take advantage of a multifaceted appeals process.
Rachel Harmon, general counsel for the Administrative Office of the Courts,
said Kiser now may appeal to Poole's denial to the Tennessee Court of Appeals
based on the post-conviction petition.
And if he continues to appeal, he might not be put to death any time soon.
"He's got a ways to go if he wants it," said Harmon, adding that Kiser doesn't
appear to have a new execution date. "There are lots of filings ahead of him if
he wants to utilize them."
Kiser's listed attorney, Paul Bruno, of Nashville, could not be reached for
comment Friday.
As Poole pointed out, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals upheld Kiser's
2003 conviction. The Tennessee Supreme Court did the same, even though it
returned his case to Hamilton County to merge the judgments into one conviction
for 1st-degree murder.
According to police and prosecutors, Kiser ambushed Bond early on the morning
of Sept. 6, 2001, spraying bullets from a high-powered rifle when the deputy
interrupted Kiser's attempt to set fire to a fruit stand on East Brainerd Road.
A jury found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to death.
In 2009, about a year before his scheduled execution, Kiser filed a petition
for post-conviction relief. A judge granted a delay and Kiser, assisted by an
attorney, amended his petition four times before it got into Criminal Court in
2014.
Throughout numerous hearings on the petition, multiple witnesses testified they
believed a different man, Mike Chattin, had killed Bond and then threatened
them into silence. They said Chattin's wife was having affair with Bond.
Chattin, then Kiser's roommate, has since died.
The hearings carried into March 2015, when Kiser's attorneys requested that
previously untested palm and fingerprints on Bond's flashlight and patrol car
door be run through a state system. The prints came back as Kiser's.
Still, the testimony struck to the heart of his attorneys' argument: Kiser was
convicted in 2003 because his lawyers at the time failed to dig up evidence
that would have showed Chattin framed him.
Ultimately, Poole wrote, if Kiser wanted post-conviction relief for this
argument, he needed to present "clear and convincing" evidence. He must
establish a factual basis for his allegations, since he now carried the burden
of proof.
In a trial, a prosecutor carries that burden and must prove beyond a reasonable
doubt a defendant committed the crime.
On nearly every point, Poole wrote, Kiser's claims failed to do that.
(source: Chattanooga Times Free Press)
NEBRASKA:
'Retain A Just Nebraska' looks to educate the public on anti-death penalty
stance
Many political decisions will be made this November for the state of Nebraska.
One of which will be whether or not to reinstate the death penalty. In an
effort to educate the public on its stance, the organization "Retain A Just
Nebraska" will be kicking off a 10-day, 20-city tour to make a case for its
cause.
5 teams of speakers working with "Journey of Hope" will be taking sections of
the state where guest speakers who come from various walks of life will present
their personal experience with the death penalty.
Journey of Hope co-founder George White said the biggest form of education they
use is personal experience.
"We use personal stories to help educate folks. Some of us come from the
perspective of being exonerated. Some of us lost loved ones to the death
penalty. Some have worked in the justice system and just understand that it's a
broken system," said White.
White's personal experience with capital punishment started in 1985 when he had
gone to a store he owned with his wife after hours to help a customer who
called his home with an emergency. White said when they arrived they weren't
met by a grateful customer but instead a man with a gun. White was shot 3 times
and his wife was fatally shot twice.
The murderer escaped the scene and White was convicted of his wife's murder.
Facing death row, he appealed the case. 7 years, 16 appeals and a hearing with
the Alabama Supreme Court later, 104 pieces of evidence were found proving
White's innocence and he was acquitted of all charges.
"Up until that point ,I had never even thought about the death penalty. But I
did at this point, I wanted that man dead. Ultimately though, I had to confront
that and how I felt. But I knew that without a doubt an innocent man or woman
could be convicted and wrongly given the death penalty," said White. "That
should give us all pause. I wanted to still support the death penalty out of
hate but I just couldn't, around every corner, I found that there is no reason
to support it."
The event in Scottsbluff will take place on Wednesday, July 20 at 6:30 p.m. and
will be held at the Midwest Theater. Some locations such as Scottsbluff will
not just have guest speakers but will also show the academy award nominated
film, "The Last Day of Freedom," featuring Bill Babbit.
The film is an animated documentary narrated by Babbit himself that looks at a
time when he realized his brother Manny had committed a crime and his decision
on whether or not he should call the police. It tells the story of Babbit's
decision to stand by his brother in the face of war, crime and capital
punishment.
After the film, Babbit will be on hand along with White to discuss not only the
film and their personal stories, but to host a Q&A on the death penalty.
Dan Parsons, who is doing public relations for the events, said that he is
pleased with the response so far.
"We have had a broad spectrum of supporters. A lot of people who are more
conservative and Republicans are starting to join our team," said Parsons. "I
think the reason for that is, that it is a broken system. We haven't used it
for 20 years in Nebraska, and we don't want to keep spending money on a broken
system."
At the end of the day, however, Parsons' number 1 goal is to start a dialogue
on what he calls a complicated issue issue before the election.
Though the organization is hoping to see members from the Scotts Bluff County
Democratic Party come out and support the event they are not an official
sponsor.
For more information, or to see other events state wide, you can visit their
website at http://retainajustnebraska.com/events/.
(source: Scottsbluff Star Herald)
CALIFORNIA:
Abolish death penalty; pass Proposition 62
California's death penalty has been a failure on every level.
Capital punishment is barbaric, unfairly applied and does not prevent crime any
more effectively than the prospect of life in prison. Since 1978, the state has
spent more than $4 billion on just 13 executions: Imagine if, instead, the
money had been spent on education, on rehabilitating young offenders or on
catching more murderers, rapists and other violent criminals.
That's how to reduce crime and prevent more people from becoming victims.
Proposition 62 in November would make California the 20th state to abolish the
death penalty in favor of life in prison with no chance of parole. It's time.
No, past time. Vote yes.
A competing ballot measure, Proposition 66, aims to remedy some of the current
costs and delays by speeding up the process of killing convicts. Speed is the
hallmark of places like China, where the average length of time on death row is
estimated at 50 days.
In the United States, for every 10 prisoners who have been executed since the
death penalty was reinstated in 1976, one person on death row has been set
free. One in 10. California has 748 inmates on death row, and the likelihood of
uncovering mistakes continues to grow with advances in DNA and other forensics.
Why not just lock up killers for life? Costs will plunge. The guilty will never
see the daylight of freedom again.
District attorneys throughout the state argue that the death penalty is a tool
to condemn society's most vicious criminals. But this claim flies in the face
of actual evidence: For every year between 2008-2013, the average homicide rate
of states without the death penalty was significantly lower than those with
capital punishment.
Those same district attorneys have unevenly applied the death penalty in
California.
In the past 10 years, Riverside County has condemned murderers to death row at
more than 5 times the statewide rate. Residents of Alameda County are nearly
eight times as likely to be sentenced to death than residents of Santa Clara
County.
The independent Legislative Analysts Office estimates that abolishing the death
penalty would reduce state costs by $150 million every year.
Donald Heller wrote the 1978 proposition that brought back capital punishment.
He now favors abolishing it. He knows that it costs California $90,000 a year
more per prisoner on death row than it costs to jail our worst criminals for
life.
No other Western nation has the death penalty. California shouldn't share the
values of places such as North Korea, China, Pakistan, Libya, Iran and Saudi
Arabia.
Vote no on Proposition 66 -- and vote yes on Proposition 62. Abolish the death
penalty in California.
(source: Editorial, East Bay Times)
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