Jan. 12
TEXAS----impending executions
Questions Linger for Anthony Shore, Larry Swearingen----Shore to be 1st Texan
executed in 2018
Houston serial killer Anthony Shore faces another death date, this one Jan. 18.
Shore was originally set for execution in October, but that got halted by the
Harris County District Attorney's Office amid rumors he was planning to confess
to another murder: the 1998 killing of Melissa Trotter. Except Larry Swearingen
had been convicted of kidnapping, raping, and strangling Trotter in 2000, and
by then was preparing for his own execution in November.
Assistant District Attorney Tom Berg said his office revoked Shore's execution
warrant at the request of Montgomery County D.A. Brett Ligon, who believed
Shore was colluding with Swearingen. (He says a folder was found in Shore's
cell with information relating to Trotter's death.) Berg said the Texas Rangers
have since interviewed Shore, who admitted he had "nothing to do" with
Trotter's murder. Shore alleged he and Swearingen once contemplated conspiring,
but had since "parted ways." Berg, who says his office and Ligon's have
reviewed the interview, said Shore decided not to "take the fall" for his
fellow inmate. Shore has exhausted his appeals; Berg said he's unaware of any
new attempts to stay Shore's execution, and concluded that his case will see
its "inevitable end" next Thursday.
Shore's execution is just the beginning of a busy month.
Swearingen, however, had his November execution stayed due to a filing error,
and has since been granted additional DNA testing. Unlike Shore, who confessed
to killing 4 girls between 1986 and 1995, Swearingen has maintained his
innocence. His supporters, including his lawyer James Rytting, say he was in a
county jail for outstanding traffic warrants at the time of Trotter's murder.
The 19-year-old was last seen on Dec. 8, 1998, with Swearingen (who wasn't
arrested until 3 days later), but her body wasn't discovered until Jan. 2.
Rytting said forensic evidence suggests her body could not have been dumped in
the woods until "a week or 10 days" after Swearingen was arrested.
Included in the evidence sent out for testing is Trotter's rape kit, which was
never tested and could exonerate Swearingen should analysts uncover another DNA
profile. Samples of hair particles found on Trotter's undergarments and the
alleged murder weapon (a torn pair of pantyhose) will also be tested. The
evidence was shipped out in December and testing will likely take 4 weeks.
Rytting was alarmed that the state had reissued an execution date for Shore.
"They shouldn't be putting the guy into the ground with these questions still
around," he said. He says 2 witnesses, with no connection to Swearingen, told
the D.A.'s Office that Shore suggested to them that he was connected to
Trotter's murder. The information, Rytting said, would "sure as hell" make
Shore a suspect had it been provided prior to Swearingen's conviction. "It's a
type of incriminating statement the prosecution seizes on all the time," he
said. "You don't get to wiggle out of it with an 'Aw shucks, I was kidding.'"
Shore will likely mark the 1st state-sanctioned killing of 2018, and his is
just the beginning. William Rayford is scheduled for Jan. 30, and John
Battaglia for Feb. 1.
(source: Austin Chronicle)
*****************
Ending Texas' death penalty is priority for ex-governor's son now seeking
state's top post
Andrew White told reporters Thursday that he would try to eliminate the death
penalty if elected as Texas governor.
According to the Houston Chronicle, after speaking in a forum hosted by the
Texas Tribune, White said he would try to commute sentences for death row
inmates and ask the Legislature to outlaw lethal injections.
"It is a flawed system. It is not a deterrent. It does not work," White said.
"The data says we put innocent people on death row. Our system needs to be
changed."
His father, former Gov. Mark White, supported the death penalty, and Texas
executed 20 inmates during his term. He later said executing prisoners was the
"most distasteful thing I had to do" as governor. Mark White died in August at
age 77.
White also said Thursday that he wants to be the "education governor,"
according to a Tribune reporter. He said that public education needs billions
of dollars more in funding and that he doesn???t understand the system's
financing formula.
"I have yet to meet somebody who can explain it to me. ... It's incredibly
complicated and it shouldn't be," White said.
White has advertised himself as a "common sense" Democrat. He said at a
candidate forum Monday that as governor, he would would close commercial tax
loopholes to raise teachers' pay and make sure Texans have access to affordable
health care.
"I'm an outsider with a fresh perspective to fix this mess," White said. "I
have the ability and the judgment and the fight to beat Greg Abbott."
He is 1 of 9 Democrats running for the party's nomination. He and former Dallas
County Sheriff Lupe Valdez are expected to be the front-runners in March's
primary contest.
(source: Dallas Morning News)
**********************
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew White calls for end to death penalty
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew White called Thursday for Texas to
abolish the death penalty, saying if elected governor he will work to erase the
hallmark law that has fueled the nation's busiest death chamber in past
decades.
Speaking with reporters after a candidate forum, White said he would commute
the death sentences of condemned convicts, if given the chance, and would lobby
the legislature to do away with the lethal injection law.
"It is a flawed system. It is not a deterrent. It does not work," White said
after the forum sponsored by the Texas Tribune, an online news site. "The data
says we put innocent people on death row. Our system needs to be changed."
White's late father, former Gov. Mark White, supported the death penalty while
in office but in recent years became an outspoken opponent of capital
punishment, due in part to death-row convicts who were proven innocent during
appeals and amid growing questions about whether the system was a deterrent to
crime as intended.
At least 1 other Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Tom Wakely, has announced
he will seek to abolish the death penalty -- a position taken by Democrats in
the past, contrasting with Republicans' support of the death penalty.
During the forum, White also said he supports diverting the $800 million Texas
spends for border security to education, and letting the federal government
pick up the tab for securing the Texas border -- an about-face from current
state policy.
***********************
Texas man with scheduled execution uses letters from fellow death row inmates
to argue for reprieve
A Fort Bend death row prisoner scheduled for execution in February for his role
in a plot to kill his own family is begging for a reprieve in a request
bolstered by 58 letters of support - including 7 fellow death row prisoners.
Thomas "Bart" Whitaker is slated to die on Feb. 22 for the 2003 slayings of his
mother and younger brother, who the Sugar Land man had killed in a
murder-for-hire scheme aimed at snagging a hefty $1 million inheritance. The
attack wounded Whitaker's father, who has since fought against his son's death
sentence and serves as the centerpiece of the commutation request now before
the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
"There is only 1 person on Earth who is intimate with the murderous attack, the
lives and deaths of the other victims, and the life of Thomas Whitaker - Mr.
Whitaker's father, Kent. Kent was there," the condemned man's attorneys wrote
in their petition.
"For the rest of us, the case against commutation to a life sentence seems
clear. We can't forgive; we have no sympathy. But clemency is not about
something so simple as sympathy or as formidable as forgiveness."
The petition describes the deaths in graphic detail, draws comparisons to the
story of Cain and Abel and lays out a scene of the grieving father on his knees
begging prosecutors to spare his son.
But Fort Bend County District Attorney John Healey defended the decision to
continue pursuing the state's harshest punishment and pushed back against
Whitaker's petition for clemency.
"Bart Whitaker is a master manipulator of reality," he said. "And this approach
doesn't surprise me at all."
The 2003 killings took place just after celebratory dinner marking Whitaker's
supposed graduation from Sam Houston State University - a milestone that never
happened. Before the ruse of a dinner, Whitaker had arranged for 2 friends to
wait at the family home for a burglary set-up.
When the family of 4 returned home from the restaurant, a gunman opened fire as
they walked through the door, killing 51-year-old Patricia Whitaker and
19-year-old Kevin.
Afterward, as police probed the killings, Whitaker stole $10,000 from his
father and fled to Mexico.
When authorities picked him up 15 months later, his father hired an attorney to
argue against the capital case.
The pair of slayings came after 3 years of planning and at least one previous
murder attempt, according to court papers.
Triggerman Chris Brashear pleaded guilty to murder a decade ago and took a life
sentence, while the getaway driver - Steve Champagne - agreed to a 15-year plea
deal.
Over his father's protestations, Whitaker was sentenced to death. But in the
intervening years, his attorneys argue in Wednesday's petition, he's had an
awakening described by other death row inmates, teachers, extended family and
international pen pals.
"Of all the people I have met over the years Thomas Whitaker is the person I
believe deserves clemency the most," wrote death row inmate William Speer, who
described him as "one of the best-liked inmates" who has "worked the hardest"
to rehabilitate himself.
"Killing him would be a crime, because the system needs men like him out on the
farms keeping everyone calm and looking forward," Speer wrote. "Please give him
another chance."
Healey was not impressed to hear of Whitaker's letters from fellow prisoners.
"What a noble group of supporters," he said. The decision to seek death over
Kent Whitaker's objections, he said, stemmed from the need to represent
"society as a whole" instead of solely weighing the opinions of the victims'
family.
"My conscience and that of the prosecutors, I'm certain, has been clear."
**********************
Harris County leads Texas in life without parole sentences as death penalty
recedes
Harris County has relied more on life without parole and death sentences and
execution have decreased.
Once known as the "capital of capital punishment," Harris County is now doling
out more life without parole sentences than any other county in the state.
In the 12 years since then-Gov. Rick Perry signed the life without parole or
"LWOP" bill into law, Harris County has handed down 266 of those sentences -
nearly 25 % of the state's total, according to data through mid-December
obtained from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
"It's concerning, but this is like economics or engine performance, there's no
free lunch," said Houston defense attorney Patrick McCann. "We have far fewer
death cases than we used to. That's a tremendous win. But now we have a lot of
LWOP sentences."
The county's reliance on the lengthiest sentence available in capital murder
cases comes as the Houston area - and Texas as a whole - has shifted away from
capital punishment. For the 1st time in more than 30 years, 2017 saw no new
death sentences and no executions of Harris County killers. And although part
of that downturn stems from the possibility of life without parole, some
experts see possible drawbacks.
"There has always been speculation about whether that has encouraged
prosecutors to file capital cases more than they otherwise would because what
better leverage do you have in a plea bargaining situation than, 'Agree with me
or I will kill you,'" said Scott Henson policy director with the non-profit
Just Liberty, which advocates for reducing incarceration. "The government will
literally kill you if you don't go for life without parole and there is no
stronger bargaining chip than that."
District Attorney Kim Ogg, whose office has overseen less than 25 life without
parole sentences since she took the reins last year, pushed back against that
suggestion.
"We don't use the death penalty as a plea bargaining tool," she said.
Andy Kahan, the city of Houston's victim advocate, described life without
parole as a "saving grace" for victims' families.
"Like it or not, there's some really evil people out there that commit some
horrible atrocities that deserve to be locked up for life," he said. "In a
utopian world it'd be great if we didn't have to have it but that's not
reality."
While Harris County grabs the lion's share of the state's life without parole
sentences, Dallas County came in right behind with 120, according to Texas
Department of Criminal Justice data through Dec. 18. Tarrant County had 69 of
the state's 1,067 total such sentences, while Bexar County had 47 and Hidalgo
had 26.
Without more data to compare the percent of slayings charged as capital cases
seeking death or LWOP in Harris County before and after the introduction of the
law, it's difficult to evaluate whether the sentencing option has had any
measurable impact on local death penalty charging practices, pointed out Robert
Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center.
"The raw numbers may tell us something and what they tell us is not a
surprise," Dunham said. "But the raw numbers don't tell us a lot."
Just over 17 % of the state's population lives in Harris County, according to
Texas Department of State Health Services population projections for 2016. That
makes for an LWOP rate of 6 sentences per 100,000 residents, which is higher
than in all but two counties with populations over 100,000.
In comparison to murder figures, the relatively large number of life without
parole sentences looks less surprising. According to an analysis of DPS data,
in 2016 Harris County accounted for 27.7 % of the state's murders and 22.7 % of
the murders cleared.
Harris County has led the way in the use of life without parole sentencing.
And while Harris County accounts for a disproportionate number of total
executions nationwide - more than any other county or entire state, except the
rest of Texas - it has generated only a small fraction of the total life
without parole sentences across the country, based on TDCJ figures and a 2017
Sentencing Project report.
"Where the corporate culture has changed is the willingness to seek death,"
McCann said, referring to local prosecutors. "Cases that 10 years ago would
have been death even with LWOP are now charged as non-death," McCann said. "But
that doesn't mean that they've stopped charging the LWOP cases."
To some extent, Texas' relatively low LWOP use compared to national numbers may
stem from the fact that prosecutors have only had the option for life without
parole since 2005. Before that, the harshest choices were death - or the
possibility of release after 40 years.
"Life without parole became an option because of a turnaway from the death
penalty," said Elizabeth Henneke executive director of the Lone Star Justice
Alliance. "It was considered a more humane option than the death penalty and
increasingly juries seemed to be uncomfortable with death as the only option."
Texas became the last death penalty state to adopt the option, after Harris
County prosecutors dropped their opposition. Initially it only applied to
capital murder, but later the law was expanded to include crimes like repeated
sexual assault of a child.
From the statute's inception, Harris County was one of its biggest users.
"It's not surprising because Harris County is also the driver of the death
penalty numbers and most juvenile commitments as well," Henneke said. "Across
the board Harris County is the incarceration county."
Last year, one of the county's most high-profile life without parole sentences
was handed down to Shannon Miles, the man who fatally shot Harris County Deputy
Darren Goforth at a gas station during a brutal August 2015 ambush. After
months of wrangling over competency issues, defense and prosecutors agreed to a
controversial plea deal allowing the mentally ill man to avoid the death
penalty.
Also in 2017, James Tinsley netted a life without parole sentence after he was
convicted of fatally shooting 3 men at a northside car dealership. Another 19
defendants were given the state's 2nd-harshest sentence last year as of
mid-December.
Even though it could save convicted killers from death row, Henneke offered
concerns about the medical costs associated with housing a growing cadre of
elderly prisoners, especially given their relatively low recidivism rates.
"What it means is that one county is driving a statewide policy with statewide
financial implication because the rest of the state is going to be paying for
housing these extra long sentences," she said.
Unlike with death-sentenced cases, there's no automatic appointment of
post-conviction appellate counsel and no punishment phase of the trial, which
makes the whole process quicker and cheaper.
"Life without parole was an unintentional gift to major urban prosecutors'
offices," McCann said. "It makes it very easy to dispose of a large number of
violent and often youthful offenders without any more thought than one would
need to toss away a piece garbage."
Shannon Edmonds, staff attorney and director of governmental relations for the
Texas District and County Attorneys Association, said his group doesn't have an
official position on the matter.
"It kind of tickles me that defense lawyers are upset that prosecutors aren't
trying to kill their clients," he said. "Even if the punishment was a minimum
of 40 years on a capital life sentence, they still complained that prosecutors
used the death penalty to get a guilty plea. That's not anything unique to life
without parole."
(source for all: Houston Chronicle)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Notorious Baby/Grandma Killer Raghu Yandamuri to be Executed Feb. 23 in
Pennsylvania
Raghunandan Yandamuri, convicted of the 2012 brutal murders of 61-year-old
Satyavathi Venna, and her 10-month-old granddaughter Saanvi Venna, in
Pennsylvania, will be executed Feb. 23, according to a statement issued by the
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Jan. 8.
Yandamuri will be the 1st Indian American to receive the death penalty. He is
scheduled to die by lethal injection. As he awaits his end, Yandamuri is being
held at the Greene State Correctional Institution, a maximum security prison in
Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.
Following his conviction in 2014, the Andhra Pradesh native - who came to the
U.S. on an H-1B visa - asked that the death penalty be imposed upon him. "I
don't want this hearing. I would rather take the death penalty," Yandamuri told
Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge Steven O'Neill before he was
sentenced.
The convicted killer later appealed his sentence, saying 2 other men were
involved in the murders and kidnapping of baby Saanvi. Yandamuri lost his
appeal last April (see earlier India-West story here).
After he was arrested in 2012, the killer provided a chilling account of how he
entered the Vennas' apartment while Saanvi's parents, Venkata and Latha, were
at work. He fatally stabbed Satyavathi - who was attempting to protect her
granddaughter - before kidnapping the baby, which he hoped to use to obtain
$50,000 in ransom from her parents.
Yandamuri and his wife Komali were friends with the Vennas and lived in the
same apartment building in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
After kidnapping Saanvi, Yandamuri covered her mouth and stuffed the baby in a
suitcase, then left her at a basement gym in the apartment building, where she
suffocated to death. During a frantic 3-day search by police and the local
community, Yandamuri handed out missing baby flyers.
Yandamuri was arrested later that week at a local gambling casino. Earlier
India-West stories reported that Yandamuri had accrued $35,000 in gambling
debts and had filed for bankruptcy while working in Northern California. His
wife Komali was pregnant at the time of the murders.
[my note: this is NOT a serious execution date]
(source: indiawest.com)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Accused killer, in a call from jail, pleaded for an alibi for night of 2
slayings
Spectators and jurors were riveted in a 7th-floor courtroom Thursday while
listening to an audio recording of an accused killer.
It was nearly 2 years ago when Donovan Richardson called a friend from the Wake
County jail and pleaded with her to provide him with an alibi for the night of
a home invasion that led to the shooting deaths of 2 longtime friends in 2014.
"You are like an angel to me right now," Richardson said to his friend. "I
kinda need you to be my alibi. I need you to say I was there. I was not
somewhere else."
"Yeah," the friend, Jamila Gillam of Angier, replied.
Thursday marked the 6th day of testimony in the capital double murder case of
Richardson, 24, of Holly Springs. Prosecutors say Richardson, along with
Gregory A. Crawford of Fuquay-Varina, broke into the Fuquay-Varina home of
Arthur Lee Brown in the early morning hours of July 18, 2014.
A 3rd accomplice, Kevin Bernard Britt of Holly Springs, waited outside in a
truck for the burglars.
Brown, a popular 74-year-old construction company owner, and his friend and
longtime employee, David Eugene McKoy, 66, were both shot and killed in Brown's
home.
Crawford last year was sentenced to life in prison. Britt has not gone to
trial, but has been cooperating with investigators. Richardson could face the
death penalty if he is convicted of 1st-degree murder.
On Thursday afternoon, prosecutor Matt Lively called Gillam to the witness
stand. She told the court that on May 16, 2016, she was at her home with
Tykeiyah Alexander, Richardson's girlfriend. Gillam told the court that while
she was there, Richardson made a collect call to Alexander from the Wake County
jail, where he has been in custody since his arrest on Aug. 3, 2014.
Lively activated a recording of the call in the courtroom. Alexander could be
heard talking with Richardson for a short period before handing the phone to
Gillam.
"Hey Donovan," Gillam said.
"What's up?" Richardson replied.
"What's going on?" Gillam asked.
Richardson asked if he was on speaker phone. When Gillam told Richardson he
was, the accused killer asked her to take him off so they could speak
privately.
"All you got to say is I was there. I need an alibi. You know what I'm saying?"
said Richardson.
Later in the conversation, Richardson told Gillam, "When my lawyer calls and
ask what time was it, say it was early in the morning and I was there with you.
I got you. You know I love you."
"I love you," Gillam replied.
Alexander was pregnant with Richardson's child when he was arrested. The child
could be heard in the background of the recording while Richardson spoke with
Gillam and Alexander.
The child's mother got back on the phone with Richardson. "This is crazy," she
repeated several times.
"Donovan, don't make me cry," she added before promising to accept his next
collect call from the jail and hanging up.
During cross-examination Thursday by defense attorney Joseph Zeszotarski,
Gillam said neither prosecutors nor defense attorneys suggested she provide
Richardson with an alibi.
Wake prosecutor Howard Cummings on Thursday asked Wake County Superior Court
Judge Graham Shirley to place Richardson in solitary confinement, where he
would not have access to a telephone or digital devices until the trial ends.
"He needs to be excommunicated until we finish this trial," said Cummings, who
requested that Richardson only have contact with detention officials or his
attorneys. "It appears he has people on the outside who are willing to do
things for him."
Shirley said he would inquire with jail officials about Richardson's housing
status.
The trial resumes Tuesday morning.
(source: newsobserver.com)
FLORIDA----new death sentence
Man Sentenced To Death In Wilton Manors Murders
It took 2 hours for a Broward jury to sentence convicted killer Peter Avsenew
to death Thursday afternoon.
Last November, Avsenew was found guilty in the murder Stephen Adams and Kevin
Powell in their Wilton Manors home during Christmas 2010.
Avsenew fired his attorneys shortly after his conviction and represented
himself during the penalty phase of his case. He showed no emotion when the
jury's decision was announced.
Thursday morning he read a statement to the jury which read in part, "I have no
regrets in my life and I am proud of every decision I ever made. Nobody knows
what happened that day, everyone can speculate, you would need an Ouija board
for that."
Prosecutors say Avsenew met the couple after posting a suggestive ad on
Craigslist. They say Avsenew shot the couple to death and then stole their
credit cards and car.
Afterwards, they say Avsenew traveled to his mother's home. She became
suspicious and turned him into authorities.
Avsenew claimed that he came home and found the couple dead and fled in a
panic.
Prosecutor Shari Tate said in closing arguments, "He made a choice and the
choice has consequences."
(source: CBS News)
*******************************
Man who murdered gay couple flipped off the victims' families as he was
sentenced to death
A man convicted of killing a gay couple in Florida flipped off the victims'
families after the jury recommended the death penalty.
Peter Avsenew, 32, was convicted of murder in the 2010 deaths of Kevin Mark
Powell, 47, and Stephen Adams, 52, in Wilton Manners, a city near Ft.
Lauderdale with a large LGBT population. Prosecutors said Avsenew used
Craigslist to get invited to the victims' home and then killed and robbed them,
leaving with their money, a car, and other belongings.
During the sentencing hearing, he opted to defend himself instead of letting
his lawyer present arguments. He expressed no regret and did not ask the jury
to spare his life.
"My job here is simple," he said. "I don't have to prove anything to you as
clearly the state's proven. All I have to do is be here and behave. It's up to
you to decide life or death based on the information provided to you throughout
this entire trial."
"I have no regrets in my life and I am proud of the decisions I've made. No one
really knows what happened that day. Everyone can speculate what ifs and maybes
until they're blue in the face, which they'll never really know."
Prosecutors showed the jury pictures of the victims. It took them 2 hours to
agree to recommend the death penalty.
Minutes after the sentencing, he flipped off the victims' families, showing
that it wasn't so easy to "be here and behave."
"In my heart of hearts, I knew that he was making that gesture to us, and then
he admitted that he made the gesture to our family," Said Marci Craig, one of
the victim's sisters.
"After what happened in that courtroom just now, I'm happy that he's being put
to the death penalty," said Missy Badget, sister of the other victim.
The judge described that gesture as "unwise," because he has not yet been
formally sentenced. The jury can only recommend the death penalty; a judge has
to order it.
Avsenew's attorneys argued that he went to the couple's house and found them
already dead, and that he didn't call 911 because he was working for the couple
as an escort.
Prosecutors said that there was no evidence that Avsenew worked as an escort.
Shortly after the couple's deaths, he showed up at his mother's door and said
that he had done "something worse than ever before."
While staying with his mother, he searched the web several times for
information about the investigation into the killings. He also threatened his
mother: "Peter has chased me with a Samurai sword," Jeanne Avsenew told the
court. "Peter has had a gun, had a shotgun with my name on the bullet."
When she checked her computer's browser history, she saw that he searched the
web a few times for information about the investigation into the killings, and
she got worried. "All I can think of is if he did that to them, what will he do
to me?"
She turned her son into the police.
Adams and Powell met at Cleveland Pride in the early 80's.
"They fell in love, and they've been together ever since," Powell's brother
said.
lgbtqnation.com)
******************
Dontae Morris' death sentence in Tampa murder vacated by Florida Supreme Court
Murder suspect Dontae Morris in court for a hearing. The Florida Supreme Court
on Thursday tossed out Morris' death sentence in the murder of Derek The
Florida Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the death sentence of Dontae
Morris in the 2010 killing of Derek Anderson in Tampa.
The justices upheld Morris' 1st-degree murder conviction, but in a 5-2 decision
they ruled that Morris must be resentenced because of the U.S. Supreme Court
ruling in Hurst vs. Florida that the state's former death penalty sentencing
system was unconstitutional because it limited the role of the jury in capital
punishment cases.
In its decision Thursday, the court said: "Because the jury in this case
recommended death by a vote of 10 to 2, we cannot determine that the jury
unanimously found that the aggravators outweighed the mitigators ... The error
in Morris' sentencing was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt."
Morris is also on death row for the murders of 2 Tampa police officers, Jeffrey
Kocab and David Curtis that occurred 42 days later. Last year, the court upheld
the death sentences in that case, which had a unanimous jury.
Anderson, 21, was shot in the back outside his mother's east Tampa apartment on
May 18, 2010. He had just arrived home after doing laundry at a friend's house,
carrying a load of clean clothing in a backpack.
A friend of Morris testified that he called her a few days after the murder and
confessed that he shot Anderson. The friend, Ashley Price, claimed Morris told
her he and Anderson had argued earlier that day because Anderson was selling
marijuana on what Morris considered to be his "turf."
Police were unable to link Morris to the crime until June 29, 2010, when he
murdered Curtis and Kocab during a traffic stop. Curtis, who pulled over a car
driven by Morris' then-girlfriend, discovered that Morris had a warrant for
writing bad checks. When Curtis moved to arrest him, Morris drew a gun and shot
each officer once.
A Florida Department of Law Enforcement analysis of the 2 bullets he fired
revealed they came from the same gun used to murder Anderson.
On appeal, Morris' defense argued that his conviction should be overturned.
Among other issues, they cited the notoriety of the case and the judge's
decision to keep the trial in Hillsborough County. But the high court ruled
that there was no evidence that the jury knew anything about Morris's crimes
before the trial.
The Hillsborough State Attorney's Office will have to decide whether to seek a
new death sentence for Morris in the Anderson case.
He remains on death row for the police killings.
(source: Tampa Bay Times)
INDIANA:
7th Circuit reverses death sentence for murderer Baer
Despite the "atrocious" nature of a murderer's crimes, the 7th Circuit Court of
Appeals reversed his death sentence in a habeas petition, finding prosecutorial
misconduct and misleading jury instructions likely influenced the jury's
decision to sentence him to death.
Fredrick Baer approached Cory Clark on her front porch near Lapel and asked to
use her phone. He then followed her into the home with the intent to rape her,
but later cut her throat instead. He then inflicted the same fate on Clark's
4-year old daughter, Jenna, before stealing money from Clark's purse and
leaving the apartment.
Baer was eventually arrested and admitted to the crimes, and the trial
proceeded on the issue of whether he was guilty but mentally ill, or just
guilty. During voir dire, Madison County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings repeatedly
stated the incorrect legal standard for a guilty but mentally ill conviction
and incorrectly told prospective jurors that such a conviction might preclude a
death sentence, the 7th Circuit found.
Baer's counsel failed to object to these statements, and the jury eventually
found Baer guilty as charged.
He was sentenced to death in Marion Superior Court, and the Indiana Supreme
Court upheld that sentence on direct appeal. The court also upheld the denial
of his petition for post-conviction relief in 2011.
Baer then moved for habeas corpus in the Indiana Southern District Court, which
denied the petition and also denied him a certificate of appealability. The 7th
Circuit Court of Appeals, however, granted a certificate of appealability, and
Baer brought 3 arguments before the court, 2 of which were addressed in a
Thursday opinion reversing the denial of his petition for habeas corpus in
Fredrick Michael Baer v. Ron Neal, 15-1933.
Specifically, Baer argued his counsel was ineffective for failing to object to
jury instructions that likely precluded the jury from considering mitigating
evidence, and for failing to object to numerous instances of prosecutorial
misconduct.
During the sentencing phase of the trial, the jury was instructed to consider
that Baer's "capacity to appreciate the criminality of (his) conduct or to
conform that conduct to the requirements of the law was substantially impaired
as a result of mental disease or defect" as a mitigator. However, this
instructor excluded the words "or intoxication" - germane here because Baer
claimed he had been using methamphetamine on the day of the murders.
Baer's counsel failed to object to the modification of that instruction or to a
"voluntary intoxication" instruction that allowed intoxication to be a defense
if the intoxication was involuntary. Those failures constituted prejudicial
ineffective assistance of counsel because "a reasonable juror could have
understood the complete penalty phase jury instructions as foreclosing the
evidence of voluntary intoxication from consideration...," Judge Ann Claire
Williams wrote in a 37-page opinion Thursday.
Similarly, defense counsel's failure to object to the prosecutor's prejudicial
comments at trial was prejudicially ineffective, Williams wrote. In addition to
his incorrect statements during voir dire, Williams said the prosecutor also
told prospective jurors that Clark's family wanted Baer to be sentenced to
death, and inserted his personal opinion and facts that were not in evidence
into other portions of the trial.
"Can we be certain that Baer would not have been sentence to death if given a
fair trial and effective counsel? No," the judge wrote. "But, it is 'reasonably
likely' that without the prosecutor's injection of impermissible statements and
incorrect law the jurors would not have recommended death."
Thus, the Indiana Supreme Court unreasonably applied Strickland v. Washington,
466 U.S. 668 (1984), to Baer's claims, Williams wrote, so the 7th Circuit
reversed the denial of his district court habeas petition and remanded his case
for further proceedings and resentencing.
(source: The Indiana Lawyer)
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