Jan. 22
PENNSYLVANIA:
Accused family killer's death-penalty trial is Fulton, Franklin counties' 1st
in 20 years
For the 1st time in almost 20 years, a death-penalty case is going to trial in
Pennsylvania's 39th judicial district, this time out of Fulton County.
Anthony Lyn Hollenshead, 36, will be tried on 2 counts of criminal homicide
starting Monday. Fulton County District Attorney Travis Kendall filed notice of
"aggravating circumstances" in July 2015, making the case a death-penalty case.
Pennsylvania's 39th District, which includes Franklin and Fulton counties, has
only seen 2 death-penalty cases in the last 25 years. Both came out of Franklin
County, for homicides committed in the 1990s.
Hollenshead is accused of fatally shooting his wife and daughter, Laura
Hollenshead and Jaedi Weed, respectively, with a 20-gauge shotgun at around
midnight May 5, 2015, according to police.
Both women were found in front of their home in the 1200 block of Great Cove
Road, in Big Cove Tannery.
During Hollenshead's preliminary hearing, troopers testified to the scene they
found upon being called to the home. 2 girls, related but not identified by
police, were home during the shooting.
Hollenshead allegedly admitted to police to shooting his wife and daughter,
saying it happened after an argument, according to court documents.
Hollenshead was not at the home when police arrived, having fled, but later
peacefully surrendered, according to police.
Read: Franklin County's drop in overdoses in 2017 is progress, but not
'success'
Hollenshead was being held at Bedford County Jail while awaiting trial,
according to online court records. He was denied bail after being charged with
1st-degree homicide.
The only other cases that involved the death penalty in the district in the
last 10 years were for Jeffrey Miles, Kevin Cleeves and Carl Varner. In each
case, the death penalty was taken off the table before the cases went to trial.
Cleeves took a plea to first-degree murder in the 2012 deaths of his estranged
wife, her boyfriend and the boyfriend's mother, to avoid the death penalty.
Miles and Varner had the notice of aggravating circumstances withdrawn before
their cases went to trial, but were both convicted of murder and are serving
life sentences. Miles was convicted in 2013 and 2014, respectively, of the
murders years earlier of Kristy Dawn Hoke and Angie Daley, while Varner was
convicted with Jason Shauf in the 2012 death of Victor Hugo Campos-Olguin.
Fulton County currently has no inmates on death row, according to a report from
the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf ordered a "moratorium" on death-penalty cases in
2015, declaring that the system was flawed and needed to be addressed before
death sentences could be carried out.
No cases in the 39th district, aside from Hollenshead, have been filed as
death-penalty cases since the moratorium.
(source: publicopiniononline.com)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Death penalty or life? Sentencing phase begins in Donovan Richardson trial
The sentencing phase for the trial of Donovan Richardson, a man convicted
Friday of 1st-degree murder in the deaths of 2 Fuquay-Varina seniors in 2014,
is set to begin Monday.
Court will begin at the Wake County Justice Center at 9:30 a.m., and the
arguments will be streamed live on WRAL.com.
A Wake County jury on Friday found Richardson guilty of murdering Arthur Lee
Brown, 78, and David Eugene McKoy, 66, on July 19, 2014 at their home on Howard
Road.
The sentencing phase of the trial will determine whether Richardson will face
the death penalty or life in prison.
Richardson is 1 of 3 men accused in the crime.
Gregory Crawford pleaded guilty in May 2016 to charges of 1st-degree murder,
robbery with a dangerous weapon and burglary in connection with the slayings.
He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Kevin Britt was charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, robbery with a
dangerous weapon and burglary. He has not been sentenced yet, but he did plead
guilty to being an accessory to murder. He also testified against Richardson
during his trial.
Jurors found Richardson guilty on all counts, which included 2 charges of
1st-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and burglary.
Wake County has tried and failed to get the death penalty in 8 cases since
2007, causing district attorneys to question its effectiveness, as fewer jurors
are willing to give it.
The last person sentenced to death in Wake County was Byron Waring in 2007, who
was convicted of 1st-degree murder for fatally stabbing Lauren Redman on Nov.
8, 2005. The last time a North Carolina convict was put to death was in 2006.
There are currently 143 people on death row in North Carolina -- 140 men and 3
women.
(source: WRAL news)
OHIO:
Death Penalty Documentary Includes Troubling Ohio Executio
A new documentary on the death penalty includes the work a federal public
defender did on an Ohio execution that lasted 26 minutes while the inmate
repeatedly gasped and snorted.
"The Penalty" tells 3 capital punishment-related stories. They include that of
a recently exonerated death row inmate and a homicide victim's family trying to
negotiate the legal system.
A 3rd story examines the 2014 execution of Dennis McGuire using a never tried
2-drug process that Ohio has since abandoned.
The film follows federal public defender Allen Bohnert during his unsuccessful
fight to stop McGuire's execution.
Screenings are scheduled in several Ohio cities beginning Monday to include
Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton and Columbus.
*******************
Lawyers: Firing squad must be option for condemned killer
Attorneys for a condemned killer whose execution was stopped last year after 25
minutes of unsuccessful needle sticks are once again recommending the firing
squad as an alternative.
The execution could also proceed if the state adopts a closely regulated lethal
injection process that includes a headpiece to monitor the brain activity of
death row inmate Alva Campbell and medicine to revive him if the lethal drugs
don't work, attorneys said in a court filing earlier this month.
Without these measures, Campbell's execution would involve "a sure or very
likely risk of serious harm in the form of severe, needless physical pain and
suffering," Campbell's federal public defenders said in the Jan. 4 filing.
Campbell, 59, was sentenced to die for fatally shooting an 18-year-old man in a
1997 carjacking.
The state unsuccessfully tried to execute Campbell on Nov. 15 in the state
death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.
After the Ohio prisons director stopped the execution, Republican Gov. John
Kasich issued a reprieve and rescheduled the execution for June 2019.
Prison officials said 3 examinations found usable veins in Campbell's arms the
day of and the day before the execution. But executioners weren't able to
establish successful IV lines when it came time to put Campbell to death.
As a result, using a firing squad for Campbell must be an option, his attorneys
argue.
A firing squad wouldn't cause severe suffering, doesn't require drugs Campbell
might be allergic to or the need to find a vein. It also doesn't require the
involvement of a doctor, the attorneys said in a 533-page filing.
A firing squad "virtually eliminates the unconstitutional lingering death and
other severe physical and mental pain and suffering" that Campbell might suffer
by injection, the attorneys said.
The Ohio Attorney General's Office wants Campbell's request tossed out, saying
it's "beyond the borders of common sense."
"It would seem indisputable that a firing squad produces greater observable
effects on the inmate than lethal injection," Jocelyn Lowe, an assistant
attorney general, said in a Thursday filing.
She also called the proposal a "non-starter" since a judge previously said the
firing squad is not an execution method recognized under Ohio law.
At least 2 U.S. states allow the firing squad, including Utah and Oklahoma,
which permits it if other methods aren't available.
Campbell's attorneys argue lethal injection is permissible as long as his heart
rate, blood pressure and breathing are continually monitored and drugs and
equipment to revive him are on hand.
They say Campbell's health problems pose additional risks for a successful
lethal injection. Campbell uses a walker, relies on an external colostomy bag,
requires four breathing treatments a day and may have lung cancer.
During the November execution attempt, executioners provided Campbell a
wedge-shaped pillow to help him breathe while he was put to death.
The state isn't obliged to resuscitate an inmate who's been administered the
state's 3-drug lethal injection system, the state replied.
"Providing medical or resuscitative care would directly contravene the
court-ordered death sentence," Lowe said.
Ohio's next execution is Feb. 13, when Raymond Tibbets is scheduled to die for
killing a man at his home in Cincinnati. Tibbetts also received life
imprisonment for fatally beating and stabbing the man's wife during an argument
that same day over Tibbetts' crack cocaine habit.
(source for both: Associated Press)
TENNESSEE:
Severely mentally ill should not face death penalty for crimes
As a former federal prosecutor in East Tennessee, a federal magistrate judge
and a current criminal defense practitioner, over the past 50 years I have
witnessed first-hand the evolution of mental health issues as they are
recognized by and applied to the criminal justice system.
On 2 occasions, I was appointed by the court to represent individuals who were
convicted of first-degree murder. The crimes were horrific. Both individuals
had a severe mental illness yet neither person's mental state was adequately
taken into account at the trial level, and the result in both instances was a
sentence of death. When, as in these examples, the defendant's mental state was
not discovered by the appellate courts and not adequately addressed until years
spent on death row, the sentences were eventually reduced to life behind bars.
That was the good news. The bad news: The cost to taxpayers in Tennessee was
enormous, and ultimately neither received adequate mental health treatment.
Thankfully, the tide is shifting toward recognizing that individuals who have
been diagnosed with severe mental illnesses should be exempt from capital
punishment. Today we have a better understanding of mental illness and better
tools to diagnose its effects on the individual. As a result, national mental
health organizations are in support of this reform. These include the National
Alliance on Mental Illness, Mental Health America, the American Psychological
Association and the American Psychiatric Association.
Legislative progress is being made. As reported by the American Bar
Association, in 2016 and 2017, 8 different states introduced bills that would
prohibit the death penalty for people with severe mental illness. In the prior
40 years, only 5 states considered such exemptions. Several other states are in
the process of exploring this same reform.
In a recently published commentary, former Ohio Democratic Gov. Bob Taft and
former Indiana Republican Gov. Joe Kernan stated their support for reform: "For
the very small number who do commit a capital crime while suffering from a
severe mental disorder, current death penalty law does not adequately take the
effect of their illnesses into account. ...The death penalty was not intended
for people in the throes of severe delusions, living with schizophrenia or
suffering from combat-related PTSD. These are not the blameworthy individuals
whose executions can be justified."
Senate Bill 378 and House Bill 345, sentencing legislation now pending in
Tennessee, specifically defines the elements of "severe mental illness" and
provides for a pre-trial hearing by the court. Therefore, if the defendant
prior to trial is adjudged to have a severe mental illness and then at trial is
found guilty of 1st-degree murder, that defendant will not face the death
penalty, but rather either imprisonment for life or life without parole. These
individuals will still face punishment for their offenses, just not the
ultimate punishment of death.
As someone who has been a practitioner in the criminal justice system for more
than half a century, I believe this legislation is needed to keep pace with our
current knowledge of mental illness. As Taft and Kernan concluded, a severe
mental health exemption "would put an end to a practice that is not consistent
with current knowledge about mental illness and fundamental principles of human
decency."
National polling in 2015 found that 66 % of likely U.S. voters supported such
an exemption. I congratulate those in our Legislature that have proposed this
legislation. It is simply the right and just thing to do.
Please join me in supporting SB 378 and HB 345 this coming legislative session.
(source: Guest Columnist; W. Thomas Dillard is a Knoxville native who served as
a lead federal prosecutor for East Tennessee for 14 years, a federal magistrate
judge, court-appointed U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Tennessee and
the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida under President Ronald
Reagan. A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Dillard has served
on the Tennessee Supreme Court's Rules Commission and the Tennessee Bar
Association's Professional Standards Committee. Dillard has received the
Knoxville Bar Association's Governor's Award and the Barrister's Law and
Liberty Award----knoxnews.com)
WASHINGTON:
King County Prosecutor Calls For Repeal Of Death Penalty
The prosecutor of Washington's most populous county is calling for the repeal
of the death penalty. King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg plans to testify
Monday in favor of a proposal to replace capital punishment with life without
the possibility of parole.
Satterberg has previously called for a statewide referendum on the death
penalty, but that idea has not gained traction. So now he's urging lawmakers to
pass a repeal measure this year.
"I've come to the conclusion that our criminal justice system would actually be
stronger without the death penalty," Satterberg said.
Satterberg, a Republican, said as a prosecutor he's struggled to administer the
death penalty and has come to believe it's unnecessary.
"It's unnecessary for public safety, it's not a deterrent and frankly we don't
do it very well," he said.
Satterberg noted that most counties in Washington can't afford to prosecute a
death penalty case. He also doesn't believe it serves victims well. Instead,
Satterberg said mandatory life without the possibility of parole is the best
answer in aggravated murder cases.
A bill going before the Senate Law and Justice Committee on Monday would
eliminate capital punishment in Washington and require that anyone convicted of
aggravated 1st degree murder be sentenced to life without parole. It was
introduced by Republican state Sen. Maureen Walsh at the request of Democratic
Attorney General Bob Ferguson and has several Democratic co-sponsors.
Walsh represents Walla Walla, where the state penitentiary is located. It
houses death row and the state's execution chamber.
In recent years, death penalty repeal bills have gotten a hearing in Olympia,
but not a vote. Washington's current death penalty law was enacted in 1981.
Since then, 5 death row inmates have been executed. The last was Cal Coburn
Brown in 2010. He stabbed and strangled 21-year-old Holly Washa in 1991 in King
County. Satterberg attended that execution.
In 2014, Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee imposed a moratorium on executions in
Washington. In 2016, Inslee issued a reprieve to Clark Richard Elmore, who
raped and murdered his girlfriend's 14-year old daughter, Kristy Lynn Ohnstad,
in 1995.
Currently, there are 8 people on death row in Washington, including Byron
Eugene Scherf, who was already serving a life without parole sentence when he
strangled to death correctional officer Jayme Biendl at the Monroe Correctional
Complex in 2011.
Satterberg acknowledged a case like Biendl's makes a "good" argument for
keeping the death penalty.
There's also the case of Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, who confessed to
dozens of murders in exchange for a life sentence instead of the death penalty.
Satterberg was chief of staff to then-King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng who
made that deal with Ridgway's attorneys.
"Yeah, that leverage might be gone if the death penalty is gone," Satterberg
said. "But, again, that's a unique situation and I don't think it's one that is
so compelling that we should keep this program."
County prosecutors in Washington have not taken a position as a group on the
repeal of the death penalty. However, they have called on lawmakers to put the
issue to voters - something that hasn't happened since 1975.
(source: KUOW news)
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