Aug. 19
TEXAS----impending execution
Jeff Wood's family trying to stop his execution
A petition to stop a death row inmate's execution is now on the governor's
desk.
42-year-old Jeff Wood never took a life, but the state is trying to take his
next Wednesday.
A petition to stop the death row inmate's execution is now on the governor's
desk. Thousands of people have signed it, trying to grant him clemency.
Now, Wood's family is speaking out since he can't.
Steven Been came from San Antonio to Austin to fight.
"I'm here to try to save Jeff, save my brother-in-law," Been said. "He's not a
murderer and never was. He was my best friend."
Thursday morning, he delivered the clemency petition with more than 10,000
signatures to the governor's office and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
"Everyone that knows the truth is really scared for him," Been said.
Jeff Wood is set to be executed for his involvement in the 1996 shooting death
of Kerrville gas station clerk Kriss Keeran.
However, he did not shoot and kill Keeran. His friend, Daniel Reneau, was put
to death in 2002 for that crime.
Court documents show Wood drove Renau to the gas station.
"What it was is that they had stopped there and Danny had told Jeff that he was
going in for Gatorade," Been said.
Been said Wood was sitting inside the truck when Renau killed the clerk.
"He told me, 'Danny came running out with a gun in one hand and a cash box in
the other, he pointed the gun at me and told me to come inside,'" Been said.
"He's not a murderer and never was."
People across the world have signed the petition, saying Wood was wrongly
sentenced to death under Texas' law of parties.
This law states that anyone involved in a crime resulting in death is equally
responsible, even if they weren't directly involved in the actual killing.
"To charge somebody else for the same crime that they did not commit, I don't
agree with that," Been said. "It's wrong."
Texas State Representative Jeff Leach, of Plano, agrees and said on Twitter "I
simply do not believe that Mr. Wood is deserving of the death sentence."
"I'm hoping that they let him go," said Bella Sanford, Jeff Wood's childhood
friend. "I mean, 20 years on death row for a crime he didn't commit?"
Wood's family and friends say there's still time for the parole board to
recommend Wood's sentence be changed.
"Hopefully, they'll have a heart and look into the case," Wood's nephew,
Nicholas Been, said.
If they do, Texas Governor Greg Abbott can accept or reject their
recommendation.
Without it, all he can do is issue a one-time, 30-day delay of execution.
KVUE reached out to the Governor's office for a comment but did not hear back.
(source: KVUE news)
**********************
Stop the execution of Jeff Wood, in the name of Jesus
Some folks will argue that the death penalty is necessary for the most heinous
crimes, the "worst of the worst."
But it is increasingly clear that when it comes to executions in America, we
are not killing the worst of the worst. We are killing the poorest of the poor.
One of the best determinants of who gets executed is not the atrocity of the
crime, but the resources of the defendant. As renowned death penalty lawyer
Bryan Stevenson has said, "Far too often, you are better off being rich and
guilty, than poor and innocent."
Jeff Wood is a perfect example of why it is time to abolish the death penalty.
He is the next person facing execution in the United States - on Aug. 24. And,
not surprisingly, it's happening in Texas. In addition to the resources of the
defendant, another key determinant in who gets killed is where the crime is
committed. Geography often determines who dies.
Texas is the death state, accounting for roughly half of all executions. This
year six of the 15 executions in the U.S. were in Texas, and every remaining
execution of 2016 is in this one state.
So what did Wood do that could now cost him his life?
Wood didn't rape or torture anyone. He's not a serial killer or mass shooter.
In fact, Wood did not kill anyone. He drove the getaway car as his
co-defendant, Daniel Reneau, threatened to kill him for disobeying.
Texas is 1 of 5 states that have a peculiar law called the "Law of Parties,"
which allows someone to be condemned for something someone else did. As absurd
as it may seem in modern-day America, Wood is guilty by association. It is
objectively clear in the case that Reneau orchestrated the robbery, shot the
victim and forced Wood to drive the car away from the scene of the crime.
Wood was not even inside the building when the crime was committed. And before
this event he had no criminal record.
Wood's health records dating back to childhood show that he suffers from
intellectual disabilities. He was deemed not mentally fit to stand trial and
was admitted into a mental hospital. The jury in Wood's case heard false and
misleading testimony from a discredited psychiatrist and never heard about his
mental illness or intellectual disabilities.
During trial, Wood asked to represent himself, but the judge found him
incapable of doing this. However, as strange as it may sound, Wood was
permitted to order his attorneys not to defend him. So witnesses were not
called, and others were not cross-examined. It was a debacle of justice.
He was deemed unfit to stand trial. But somehow he is now being deemed fit to
die. The day and hour of his death have been scheduled. He is set to die 5 days
after his 43rd birthday.
I am proud that voices around the world - from Susan Sarandon to Pope Francis -
are rising up and calling for a stop to his execution, and to all executions.
But it's not just celebrities. I was honored to sign a petition alongside
dozens of evangelical pastors and faith leaders in Texas and around the country
calling for a halt to the execution of Wood. It is beautiful to now see
Baptists, Pentecostals and nondenominational megachurch pastors among those
calling for an end to the death penalty.
It blows my mind and breaks my heart that we continue to trust our very
imperfect government with the ultimate and irreversible power of life and
death. It is time to end the death penalty in America. In the name of Jeff
Wood. And in the name of another executed man ... named Jesus.
(source: Comentary; Shane Claiborne is founder and board member of the Simple
Way, a faith community in inner-city Philadelphia, and the author of "Executing
Grace"----religionnews.com)
*************************
DA's office seeks death penalty for Ketchum
The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office is seeking the death penalty
in a capital murder case for the 1st time since Brett Ligon took office in
2009.
The DA's Office filed the notice for the intent to seek the death penalty for
Russell Lee Ketchum in June, according to Trial Bureau Chief Kelly Blackburn.
The next court setting is scheduled for Nov. 7. Blackburn anticipates the trial
will begin in 2017.
Ketchum, 41, of Conroe, is charged with the double homicide of Louis Wilkerson,
58, and Lisa McWashington, 43.
Their bodies were found Oct. 11, 2014, in the 800 block of West Santa Fe near
downtown Conroe. Wilkerson had been choked to death, while McWashington was
strangled with a shirt, according to the Conroe Police Department.
Ketchum was arrested in January 2015 - nearly 3 months after the victims were
found dead.
He has a prior felony criminal history, according to public records. He was
found guilty of state jail felony credit card abuse in 1997 and second-degree
felony robbery in 2003.
Public records also showed Ketchum went through a divorce and custody battle
for his 12-year-old daughter in 2014.
A temporary restraining order was granted during the divorce proceedings in
July 2014, preventing Ketchum from being within 500 feet of the Conroe home he
previously shared with his wife and daughter.
However, in late October 2014 - after the victims were found dead and before
Ketchum was arrested - he gained joint custody of the child in an agreed-upon
order with his ex-wife. He was granted supervised visitation only - reportedly
due to his "history or pattern of child neglect" - and was required to provide
6 straight months of negative drug tests before continuing mediation for
unsupervised visits.
Ketchum has remained in the Montgomery County Jail without bond since his Jan.
7, 2015, arrest.
E. Tay Bond, who previously represented Ketchum, had told The Courier that
self-defense will become a key issue in the case.
"Law enforcement is aware this is a high-crime area where there's a lot of
narcotics being trafficked and there's a lot of dangerous people in that area
and my client was lucky to get out alive," Bond previously said.
Gerald Bourque now is representing Ketchum due to Bond having a conflict of
interest, according to information on the County Clerk's website. However,
Bourque declined comment after multiple attempts to reach him this week.
***
While there has been no case since Ligon took office in 2009 in which the DA
has sought the death penalty, Blackburn said there have been a few capital
murder cases where the defendant has chosen to plead guilty to life without
parole in lieu of possibly facing the death penalty.
According to Blackburn, the DA's Office has an involved process in determining
what cases to seek the death penalty. Every capital murder is reviewed by a
committee within the DA's Office, he said.
"Just because it is capital murder doesn't automatically mean we are going to
seek the death penalty," Blackburn said. "It's a very few number of cases that
would fall into that category."
The committee considers the circumstances and facts of the case, the life of
the defendant and the elements that would need to be proven that a person is a
continuing threat to society in order to obtain the death penalty, he said.
The DA's Office will allow the defense attorney to present any mitigating
evidence, according to Blackburn.
After those factors are reviewed and discussed by the committee, a final
determination is made by Ligon, Blackburn said.
In Ketchum's case, Blackburn said, the committee determined the death penalty
to be appropriate.
"The fact that there were 2 victims also plays a big role," Blackburn said.
(source: The Courier)
**************************
Texas should halt execution of a man who never killed anyone
Jeff Wood is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas next week, despite
the fact that he never killed anyone. Even prosecutors acknowledge that.
Essentially, Wood "is on death row for robbery," as his sister put it.
On Jan. 2, 1996, Wood was sitting in his truck outside a Kerrville convenience
store when his friend Daniel Reneau went in to steal a safe. When the clerk,
Kriss Keeran, didn't comply, Reneau fatally shot him. After the shooting, Wood
joined Reneau in the store; they removed the safe and security footage before
fleeing.
Reneau confessed to the crime and was convicted of capital murder in 1997; he
was executed in 2002. Wood faces the same fate Wednesday. Prosecutors argued
that Wood knew Reneau would kill Keeran if the clerk didn't cooperate with the
robbery and was therefore also liable for the murder. However, testimony in
Reneau's trial claimed that Wood had told Reneau to leave his gun at home and
saw him put it down.
Texas' law of parties allows an accomplice to be charged for a crime he neither
committed nor had intent to commit if that crime "should have been
anticipated." This newspaper generally has no qualms with ensuring that
accomplices pay for a crime they help plan and carry out. However, as applied
to capital punishment, we do.
Wood, who has an IQ around 80 and has previously been ruled incompetent in
court, is certainly not innocent - it's clear he helped plan the robbery and
removed security footage after the murder occurred. But that is not the same
thing as deserving to die.
Supporters of the death penalty argue that it is the appropriate punishment for
"the worst of the worst." It's difficult to see how that category includes
people like Wood, who did not pull the trigger nor had any intention of doing
so.
Cases like this reinforce our belief that state-sanctioned killings are
arbitrary. That's one reason this board has been calling for an end to the
death penalty since 2007. Writ large, we are unable to support a punishment
that is so unfairly applied, nor one that could result in the execution of an
innocent person.
The law of parties is a particularly egregious facet of Texas' capital
punishment system. Texas is among only five states in the nation that actively
pursue such state felony murder statutes. The state has no business executing
defendants who were involved in a crime but did not personally take a life.
Today, family members and supporters plan to hand-deliver a "save Jeff Wood"
petition with thousands of signatures to Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Board
of Pardons and Paroles, who will determine Wood's fate: We hope the Texas Board
of Pardons and Paroles recommends clemency and Abbott commutes Wood's sentence.
The state of Texas should not execute a man for a crime he did not commit.
(source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News)
******************
Law of Parties Execution Has GOP Lawmaker's Attention
A pro-death penalty legislator also considered one of the Texas House's most
conservative members has been working to stop an execution set for next week.
Jeff Wood was given the death penalty for his role in the 1996 death of a gas
station clerk in Kerrville. Wood was in a truck outside while his friend shot
the clerk, but he nonetheless was sentenced to death under Texas' law of
parties.
State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, told the Tribune that the Wood case has kept
him up nights and has had him in contact with Gov. Greg Abbott's office and the
state parole board in an effort to change Wood's death sentence to life in
prison.
Leach told the Tribune he's in favor of the law of parties in cases where an
accomplice is directly involved in the murder. But he said the Wood case stood
out to him as not right. "I simply do not believe that Mr. Wood is deserving of
the death sentence," Leach said. "I can't sit quietly by and not say anything."
(source: The Texas Tribune)
*********************
Why 2015 was a record year for the wrongfully convicted
It sounds like something out of a prime-time TV drama.
Attorneys, with help from new science, debunk old testimonies and theories in
cases long closed, finally proving that the person who has maintained his
innocence is, in fact, innocent.
But it's not fiction: It's a nuanced, sometimes controversial trend that's
becoming more common across the United States every year.
Since 2013, the number of conviction integrity units, a division of a
prosecutorial office that works to identify and correct wrongful convictions,
has more than doubled in the United States, rising from 12 counties to 26
across the country. To be sure, the number remains low - there are over 3,000
counties in the United States. But they are having an impact.
In the wave of steadily increasing exonerations - in 2015, more people were
exonerated than any other year before - conviction review units played a major
role.
Of the 156 exonerations that took place in 2015, a record 60 stemmed from the
work of the review units, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, a
project by the University of Michigan Law School.
In 2014, 2015, and 2016, Conviction Review Units have made up a big portion of
exonerations.
The trend is particularly evident in Texas, a law-and-order state perhaps
better known for the high number of convicts that it sentences to death each
year. It has the most exonerations by conviction review units of any state, the
most exonerations in general and the second highest number of review units.
The idea for a county-level conviction review unit originated in Dallas 9 years
ago - although a less official but similar effort by the district attorney's
office was already under way in Santa Clara, California - in light of years' of
high-profile exonerations stemming from new DNA evidence.
More than 150 defendants on death row have been exonerated nationwide since
1973, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit based in
Washington, D.C., that provides analysis regarding capital punishment. In at
least 20 cases, DNA played a substantial role in establishing innocence.
49%--Percentage of Texans who believe that innocent people are sentenced to the
death penalty in at least some cases. Another 19 % believe innocent people are
sentenced to the death penalty in a "great deal" of cases, according to a 2013
poll.
A 2013 University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll showed the majority of Texans
believed that death penalties are given wrongfully "occasionally" or "a great
deal of the time."
"Dallas had a bad reputation (for wrongful convictions), really," said Mike
Ware, who was the 1st director of Dallas County's review unit. He now serves as
executive director of the Innocence Project of Texas, a nonprofit in Fort Worth
that investigates claims of innocence.
But because Dallas had preserved its evidence for an unusually long time - it
had DNA from cases that were decades old - it was easier for the unit to
investigate defendants' claims of innocence and, in some cases, to prove they
had been wrongfully convicted. "They were starting to get some sort of
statewide and maybe even national attention for the DNA exonerations that were
coming out of Dallas," Ware said.
Although the idea was perceived as politically risky - maybe even politically
disastrous - at the time, Ware said, the rationale for a unit that reviews
convictions caught on across Texas, and eventually across the country. Now, the
state is rivaled in the numbers of conviction review units only by New York and
California.
Perhaps the primary reason for the popularity of review units in Texas, said
Cynthia Alkon, a law professor at the Texas A&M School of Law, is the
willingness of the state legislature to review and change laws because of the
exonerations.
For instance, in 2011 a man named Michael Morton, who spent nearly 25 years in
prison, was exonerated for the murder of his wife after DNA evidence implicated
someone else.
The prosecutor in the case was found guilty of prosecutorial misconduct,
including withholding evidence, and tampering with evidence and government
records. Nearly 2 years later, Republican Gov. Rick Perry signed into law the
Michael Morton Act, which requires prosecutors to keep records of and turn over
any evidence to the defense, Alkon said.
"It sounds like a really simple thing that should've already been in place,"
she said. "But it wasn't."
Alkon, who was previously a public defender in California, said she has not
seen these types of changes in other states.
"I think they were consciously and critically looking at why these people were
being wrongfully convicted," she said of the Texas legislature.
The Dallas County review unit spawned imitators once other counties saw its
success. Although not always popular among the police department or victims
groups, Ware said the unit in Dallas County was popular among the general
public, citing it as one of the primary reasons that the district attorney was
re-elected during the next election cycle.
Across Texas, there are 5 conviction review units. The latest, in Tarrant
County, started up a year ago as part of the newly elected district attorney's
campaign platform.
With the advent of DNA technology, many assumed we might soon see the end of
wrongful convictions. Instead, the technology opened the door for a whole new
introspection of the criminal justice system. Everything, from false
confessions to outdated scientific evidence that is no longer considered
accurate, came under the spotlight.
"What we are grappling with now is that we know there are going to be lots of
cases where there is no biological evidence," said Dawn Boswell, chief of the
Tarrant County conviction review unit.
"You don't have what some people would say is the easy call on the DNA," she
said. "You have to figure out whether someone is really innocent when you
don???t have the evidence to go through."
And Boswell would know. Last July, she walked into her office uncertain about
what her new position monitoring the scales of justice would bring and what it
would mean for Tarrant County. The newly created conviction review unit had
been planning a soft rollout of sorts, a quiet opening that would ensure more
time to figure out what, exactly, the unit???s policies should be.
Instead, on the 1st day, Boswell and the attorneys in the unit began
re-investigating the case of John Nolley, a man convicted of murder who had
maintained his innocence for the nearly 19 years he had spent in prison. Nolley
had been convicted primarily on false testimonies by jailhouse informants,
according to the Innocence Project of Texas. No physical evidence linked him to
the crime.
"I really didn't want, and more importantly the district attorney didn't want,
to be a situation where we say we're setting up this (unit) to do these great
things," she said. "Because it's easy to say that, but you actually have to do
that."
In order to set up the unit in Tarrant County, Boswell said, she talked with
multiple similar units across Texas, and the country, to see what their
practices were. What sort of policies did they have? What was working? What
problems had they encountered?
"What I discovered is, it was sort of all over the place," she said. "That
there wasn't a manual, per se."
New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Alaska have each seen more than 150
exonerations per 100,000 prisoners.
Often overlooked in the conversation about exonerations are the victims, or the
family members of the victims, of the crimes.
"I would think that they would have all kinds of feelings that would come up,"
said Sandra Lydick, co-director of Fort Worth-based nonprofit Crime Victims
Council, which helps counsel victims.
"Because all this time, they were thinking that this person who was in prison
had done it," Lydick said. "And now that's going to bring up, I think,
tremendous variety of feelings of confusion, of outrage, or sadness, sorrow,
that the person did it is probably, or potentially, still at large."
Nonetheless, Lydick said, the units remain an important, necessary balance of
the justice system.
"The person that was wrongly incarcerated was a victim too," she said. "That
puts a whole other complexity into the situation."
Exonerations are happening at disproportionate rates across the country, data
show.
In 2015, 2 review units - Harris County, Texas, and Brooklyn County, New York -
accounted for more than 1/2 of the 60 exonerations that stemmed from conviction
review units across the country, according to the registry.
Reasons for the disparity vary. Some counties established units less than one
year ago and just now are beginning to reexamine cases. Experts say that
exonerating a person can take several years.
And some units are still getting organized. The Travis County conviction review
unit in Austin, Texas, was created in 2015, but there is still no website or
phone number listed for contact purposes. The office consists of 1
investigator, 1 paralegal and 4 part-time attorneys who, in addition to
reviewing past cases, have full caseloads.
Scott Taliaferro, director of the Travis County unit, said the office is trying
to notify all defendants whose cases could be impacted by a new study released
by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, an organization created by the Texas
legislature that investigates abuse or neglect regarding crime laboratories.
The study showed issues with DNA testing in Austin that impacted 1,366 cases,
dating back to 1985, Taliaferro said. Taliaferro and his colleagues sent
notices to 866 defendants and they are working to track down the others.
More than 200 defendants contacted the unit requesting a re-investigation into
their cases. So far, the unit in Travis County has not exonerated anyone.
Taliaferro said they are focusing on cases that may be impacted by DNA issues.
He declined to comment on specific cases or say how many the unit is
investigating.
"We do the best we can," he said.
Concerns about how many people work in the office and what type of caseload
they can handle is not unique to Travis. Both Boswell in Tarrant County, and
Patricia Cummings, chief of the Dallas County conviction review unit, said
they're concerned about how such a small staff could take on the
responsibilities without letting any cases slip through the cracks.
"Oh my gosh. It's so incredibly difficult. We've got more work than we can
handle," said Patricia Cummings, chief of the Dallas County conviction review
unit, on tracking the most important cases.
And for some counties, it's easier to go back and review old evidence. For
instance, Tarrant County has had an open file policy since the 1970s, which
allows the defense to access to files during and after trials.
"That, in the long run, has been very beneficial to us in that we didn't
expect, and we haven't found immediately, these things that the defense didn't
know about," said Samantha Jordan, a spokeswoman for the Tarrant County
conviction review unit. "That alone has seen to really limit the number of
requests that we've had come in, which is a great thing."
The number of counties that have conviction integrity units represents less
than 1 percent of counties across the United States. The units require staff
and funding, and according to a report by John Hollway of the Quattrone Center
for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Law
School, most of those costs are funded from the existing budget of district
attorney offices.
Annual allocations run as high as $1 million per year, in the case of the Los
Angeles County unit. So it is no surprise that the units that do exist are
concentrated in New York, California and Texas counties that tend to have
bigger populations and bigger budgets.
The work can be slow and fruitless. Some units now say there is a dwindling
number of cases that can be solved matter-of-factly with DNA evidence.
Increasingly, the attorneys re-investigating cases are relying on pure
investigative scenarios with little evidence to support the defendants???
claims of innocence. They hope for a day when their work is no longer required.
"Ideally you hope you reach a level at some point where you say, 'OK, we don't
have to worry about this anymore.' Obviously that's the goal," Cummings said.
"But in the meantime, we're human beings, and human beings make mistakes."
Since the Tarrant County unit picked up John Nolley's case almost a year ago,
the 42-year-old man has walked free from jail, though he has not been
exonerated in the case as investigators continue to look at new evidence.
The conviction was overturned and Nolley is out on bond, living with his
family.
(source: mcclatchydc.com)
GEORGIA:
Robber who gunned down Columbus armored truck guard loses appeal
A Georgia death-row inmate who in 1995 gunned down a Brinks security guard
outside Columbus' downtown SunTrust bank has lost an appeal in federal court.
Leon Tollette was appealing only the death penalty a jury gave him, as he
pleaded guilty to killing Brinks guard John Hamilton during a robbery on Dec.
21, 1995, when Tollette approached Hamilton from behind and shot him 4 times,
once in the head, and fled with the money bag Hamilton had.
A former gang member and drug dealer, Tollette had come here from California at
the invitation of an accomplice, Xavier Wommack, who along with Jakeith
Robinson planned the robbery after Wommack studied the Brinks schedule for
collecting bank receipts.
Tollette later would claim he fired on instinct when Hamilton turned around and
saw him coming. A flurry of gunfire ensued as other guards and police
immediately tried to prevent his escape.
The truck's driver, Carl Crane, shot at Tollette, as did Cornell Christianson,
who was driving a nearby Lummus Fargo truck. Wommack, who had been watching
from across the street, started shooting at the guards to aid Tollette's
escape.
Finally Robert Oliver, a police officer accompanied by a cadet, confronted
Tollette, who tried to shoot at Oliver, too, but had no more live rounds in his
revolver. He dropped the gun and surrendered. His accomplices fled without him.
Tollette never went to trial for the crime itself. Instead he pleaded guilty in
1997 to murder, armed robbery, being a convicted felon with a firearm, using a
firearm to commit a crime and 2 counts of aggravated assault.
He had only a sentencing trial for a jury to decide whether he should get life
with parole, life without parole or death. On Nov. 11, 1997, jurors sentenced
him to death.
He since has filed repeated appeals claiming ineffective assistance of counsel
and numerous procedural errors. He initially moved for a new trial in Muscogee
Superior Court, but was denied that on Jan. 28, 1999. The Georgia Supreme Court
rejected his appeal on Nov. 7, 2005, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear
the case Oct. 2, 2006.
On May 6, 2014, Tollette filed a habeas corpus appeal in U.S. District Court
for the Middle District of Georgia. Attorneys since have been filing arguments
in that appeal, which Judge Clay Land denied Wednesday in a ruling more than
100 pages long.
Tollette still may appeal Land's decision. While denying the convict' s habeas
corpus writ, the judge in his conclusion allowed appeals on these issues:
"Whether trial counsel were ineffective for failing to investigate and present
mitigating evidence and for failing to investigate and challenge the state's
presentation of evidence about the circumstance of the murder and whether
subsequent counsel were ineffective for failing to adequately litigate trial
counsel's failure."
Now 57, Tollette remains on death row in the Georgia Diagnostic and
Classification State Prison in Jackson.
(source: Ledger-Enquirer)
*******************
Judge to jurors in death penalty case: Don't talk about Atlanta Braves
It was a moment of levity in a death penalty case.
And it came at the expense of the lowly Atlanta Braves, owners of the worst
record in the major leagues.
Monroe County Superior Court Judge Tommy Wilson on Thursday was reminding
alternate jurors at a competency hearing for an accused cop killer not to
discuss the case among themselves.
The proceeding was to decide whether Christopher Calmer, an unemployed computer
technician, is competent to stand trial for allegedly killing a Monroe
sheriff's deputy in a gun battle at his parents' house near Interstate 75 and
Bolingbroke in September 2014.
"Again," Wilson said, "you are not to discuss this case or talk about it
whatsoever. Talk about ... football if you so choose."
Then he paused, looked down at some paperwork, and added, "Not the Atlanta
Braves."
Many in the courtroom gallery laughed.
The accused, seated between his 2 attorneys, kept his head planted on an oak
table, a posture he had assumed for much of the 3-day competency trial.
90 minutes later, he was deemed competent for the case to proceed.
Read more here: http://www.macon.com)
FLORIDA:
Son wants death penalty for face-biting suspect
The son of a Florida man who authorities say was stabbed by a 19-year-old
Florida State University student wants prosecutors to seek the death penalty.
John Stevens IV tells the SunSentinel (http://bit.ly/2bOMZZz ) he doesn't need
to know exactly what led the student to kill his father and step-mother outside
their house north of Jupiter on Monday night. But he wants prosecutors to seek
the death penalty against the attacker, who investigators say also was biting
the dead man's face when deputies arrived at the scene.
Austin Harrouff hasn't been charged in the attack. Sheriff's officials say he's
still in the hospital where he's conscious but heavily sedated.
Investigators say it took several deputies and a police dog to subdue Harrouff.
He tested negative for street drugs. It takes longer to test for less common
hallucinogenic drugs such as flakka or bath salts.
The younger Stevens says knowing the attacker's mindset is not "super
important" to him. He just wants him to "pay for what he did."
(source: Assoiated Press)
****************
We must re-sentence Florida's death row inmates
Trial judges in Florida have the sole responsibility to decide who will live or
die in death penalty cases. I found that applying Florida's constitutionally
flawed death penalty statute to these cases was a most difficult task.
For years, Florida Supreme Court justices and Florida trial judges told the
Florida Legislature about the problems with the Florida death penalty. All to
no avail. The issue was finally addressed by the United States Supreme Court.
Among other problems, the role of the death penalty jury has been difficult to
define in Florida.
The death penalty cannot be imposed unless at least 1 statutory aggravating
circumstance is found to exist. Until recently, Florida law required the trial
judge to find the existence of an aggravating circumstance.
However, in Hurst v. Florida, the United States Supreme Court held that the
Sixth Amendment requires the jury to make this finding. After Hurst, the jury
retains its traditional role as the finder of fact and provides protection
"against the exercise of arbitrary power" and "to make available common sense
judgment of the community."
The Hurst decision goes a long way towards aligning Florida with nearly all
other states that impose the death penalty. The ruling takes the fact-finding
responsibility off of the bench and puts it into the jury box where it belongs.
The question that remains is what to do with the defendants on death row who
were convicted and sentenced prior to Hurst? All Florida's current death row
inmates were sentenced by trial courts in clear violation of the Sixth
Amendment. Should these defendants face execution when they were sentenced in
violation of the Constitution?
In my view, such a scenario would be a gross miscarriage of justice.
There are 388 inmates now on Florida's death row and the Florida Supreme Court
must decide what to do with their cases. The only fair solution is to set aside
all the death sentences imposed in violation of the Sixth Amendment and
sentence these defendants to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
Florida law provides for just such a result.
The only alternative to the imposition of a life sentence in these cases is to
remand all of them for re-sentencing because the jury made no findings of fact
in any of the original trials. This option presents extraordinary logistical
and financial challenges for our state, counties and courthouses.
But more to the point, re-sentencing old cases is nothing new in Florida. In
1972, the Florida Supreme Court re-sentenced every person on death row to life
imprisonment after the death penalty was invalidated in every state by the
decision in Furman v. Georgia.
The request for re-sentencing was made by prosecutors in 1972 and they should
make the same request now.
(source: Opinion; O.H. "Bill" Eaton, Jr. served for 24 years as the 18th
Judicial Circuit judge. He is a nationally recognized expert on the death
penalty---- Sun-Sentinel)
ALABAMA:
Capital murder trial for man accused of killing Taco Bell manager postponed
The capital murder trial for 1 of 3 men accused of killing a Montgomery Taco
Bell manager during a March 2014 robbery has been continued.
Renauldous Chisholm's trial was set to begin Monday in Montgomery County
Circuit Court, but court records show the trial was postponed to Oct. 17.
The reason for the continuance wasn't listed in Judge Truman Hobbs' order.
Chisholm faces the death penalty in the slaying of Vettia Roche, 43.
Chisholm and Kenneth Temple, who were 19 at the time, worked at the Taco Bell
on Atlanta Highway in Montgomery at the time of the homicide.
The pair, along with Temple's cousin, Gacolby Green, 24, are accused of
plotting to rob Roche, the night manager, of the night deposit on March 10,
2014.
Montgomery police Detective A.D. Gorum claims Chisholm admitted to the crime,
which turned deadly when Roche apparently recognized the robbers as 2 of her
employees.
Gorum testified in April 2014 that Roche was shot twice, kicked in the abdomen
and beaten in the head with a car jack behind the restaurant.
The state is seeking the death penalty against Chisholm due to the "aggravating
circumstances," court records show.
The murder was committed during a robbery and was "especially heinous,
atrocious or cruel as compared to other capital offenses," the state said in
its motion.
Temple's capital murder trial is set to start on Jan. 23. Green's murder trial
is set to begin Sept. 26.
(source: al.com)
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