March 27
TEXAS----impending execution
Lubbock's "suitcase killer" fights upcoming execution----Rosendo Rodriguez is
set to die for killing a Lubbock prostitute and tossing her body in a dumpster
in a suitcase. His final appeals claim the medical examiner's testimony that
she was sexually assaulted before her death could be invalid.
The man dubbed Lubbock's "suitcase killer" is set for execution Tuesday
evening, 1 day after his 38th birthday.
Rosendo Rodriguez was sentenced to death in the 2005 murder and sexual assault
of Summer Baldwin, a newly pregnant prostitute, according to court records.
Baldwin's body was found folded inside a suitcase at the city's landfill.
Rodriguez was also implicated in the 2004 murder of 16-year-old Joanna Rogers,
whose body was also found in a suitcase in the landfill after Baldwin was
discovered.
He still has a final appeal pending in the U.S. Supreme Court questioning the
credibility of the medical examiner's testimony and arguing that Baldwin wasn't
sexually assaulted, but if it is rejected, Rodriguez will become the 4th person
executed in Texas this year and the 7th in the nation.
Lubbock County Criminal District Attorney Matt Powell told the Texas Tribune
Monday that he finds no joy in the execution but that Rodriguez is a man who
deserves the ultimate punishment.
"Who sticks a human being in a suitcase and throws them out with the trash?"
Powell questioned. "This was a guy that, left unchecked, was going to hurt
somebody else again and was going to continue to terrorize women."
At the time of Baldwin's death, Rodriguez was in Lubbock training for the U.S.
Marines, according to court opinions. He was tied to the murder after
investigators found the suitcase she was in had been purchased with Rodriguez's
debit card. Further investigation found Baldwin's blood and a tag for the
suitcase in his hotel room.
Rodriguez told police the 2 had consensual sex but that when he fought with her
over her drug use afterward, she lunged at him with knives and he put her in a
chokehold, accidentally killing her. But the medical examiner, Sridhar
Natarajan, said Baldwin's body showed injuries consistent with sexual assault,
upping the charges and making the murder case eligible for the death penalty.
Prosecutors offered to accept a life sentence instead of the death penalty if
Rodriguez also confessed to the murder of Rogers the year before and helped
authorities find her body, according to court documents. He was already
connected to her disappearance before Baldwin's murder based on internet chats
and phone records. Rodriguez confessed to Rogers' murder and told investigators
he had also put her body in a dumpster in a suitcase. She was eventually found
in the same landfill as Baldwin.
But before the court appearance to finalize the plea deal, Rodriguez backed
out, claiming he couldn't understand anything he was being told by his
attorney. Though they couldn't use the Rogers confession, Lubbock County
prosecutors decided to seek the death penalty in Baldwin's case.
He was found guilty of capital murder and, during his punishment trial, though
attorneys presented evidence of an abusive, alcoholic father and his family
portrayed Rodriguez as a prior Texas Tech student who could have become
president, ex-girlfriends and other women said he raped or assaulted them. The
jury chose death.
But Rodriguez's lawyers haven't given up on his life. His final appeals lay in
the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court justices. The filing argues that a recent
lawsuit calls into question the credibility of the medical examiner's testimony
that defined the Baldwin case as sexual assault - which is what made the case a
death penalty case. (Prosecutors at trial also argued Rodriguez's case could be
death-penalty eligible because Baldwin was pregnant, but the argument was
pushed aside in appeals because there was no indication Rodriguez knew she was
pregnant.)
Last year, Natarajan and Lubbock County paid $230,000 in settling a wrongful
termination lawsuit after a former employee claimed she was fired for speaking
out on the medical examiner's habit of leaving the office and delegating
autopsies to unqualified staff and then signing off on them. Rodriguez's
lawyer, Seth Kretzer, said the lawsuit and settlement raise suspicion of
Natarajan's testimony in Baldwin's case and should be evaluated in federal
court.
"At the minimum, we should be allowed to take the good doctor's deposition and
find out if he actually did the autopsy or not," Kretzer said, adding that
he'll fight for his client until the last hour of the last day of his life.
Natarajan, who still serves as the county's chief medical examiner, did not
return phone calls Monday. But Powell said the appeal is nonsense, adding that
he was there while Natarajan performed Baldwin's autopsy.
"I have no trouble with his lawyers exhausting every avenue that they can, but
there's no question that the right guy got the punishment, and he got the
punishment he deserved," he said.
(source: Texas Tribune)
**************
New Debate Over How to Apply Death Penalty Unfolds at Texas Capitol
A revived discussion on how to apply the death penalty is unfolding in Texas,
with some lawmakers analyzing how it's being imposed on defendants with serious
mental illness or intellectual and developmental disabilities.
"Our courts have asked the legislature to step up on this topic," Rep. Joe
Moody, D-El Paso, said. Moody chairs the House Committee on Criminal
Jurisprudence, which met Monday at the Texas State Capitol to listen to invited
testimony on this issue.
Judge Elsa Alcala, who currently serves on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals,
told the committee she wasn't advocating for lawmakers to lean one way or
another, but that she wants "a death penalty system that is fair to everyone
concerned."
"Judges have been asking for an instruction on intellectual disabilities for
over a decade, I think, and without the legislature's guidance in writing the
law, courts have had to come up with their own version of the definition of
intellectual disabilities," she said during an interview. "That version was
recently struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2017 in Moore v. Texas."
Alcala said when that happens, "the danger is we're more in a legislative
function than we are in a judicial function."
In Moore v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court said Texas had "deviated from
prevailing clinical standards and from the older clinical standards the court
claimed to apply."
"In concluding that Moore did not suffer significant adaptive deficits, the CCA
overemphasized Moore's perceived adaptive strengths," the court said.
Some mental health advocates said when people with intellectual and
developmental disabilities come in contact with the criminal justice system,
they often fall behind.
"We really think that criminal justice professionals, which includes law
enforcement, which includes attorneys, which includes judges and victim service
providers, should undertake a comprehensive training on working with
individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities," Kyle Piccola
with The Arc of Texas said.
Alcala said right now, different counties approach the death penalty in
different ways as well.
"If you have one [district attorney] who is seeking [the death penalty] in 1
case and the other one who is not seeking it with identical facts, there seems
to be an inequity and we're not really targeting the worst of the worst," she
said. "We're really just targeting who happened to commit a crime in a
particular county."
"The State of Texas already has standards in place to gauge eligibility for
example, like with Health and Human Services, so we would support mirroring
that," Piccola said.
(source: Nexstar)
***************************
Lawmakers look at setting intellectual disability standards in death penalty
cases
It's the toughest punishment in Texas' criminal justice system: the death
penalty.
But sentencing can become murky when the defendant is suspected to have an
intellectual disability or mental health issue.
"We couldn't be taking on a more serious topic than the death penalty," said
Rep. Joe Moody (D-El Paso).
Monday, Texas lawmakers met to discuss how defendants with suspected
intellectual disabilities are being diagnosed in the most serious criminal
cases.
"Our courts have repeatedly asked the legislature to step up on this topic, and
I intend to start doing that today," Moody said.
Defendants with an intellectual disability aren't eligible for the death
penalty, but Texas lawmakers left it up to the courts to develop a standard for
diagnosing those disabilities.
"We're not really in the law writing business, we weren't elected to do that,"
said Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Elsa Alcala.
Judge Alcala said the rule-making didn't sit well with her, and that
inconsistencies arose between Texas courts. Then, in 2017, the Supreme Court
struck down Texas' technique of diagnosing intellectual disabilities, renewing
calls on Texas lawmakers.
"Unless they act and pass legislation to define intellectual disability, then
courts will once again have to come up with their own judicially-created
definition," Alcala said.
But lawmakers' hesitancy to set guidelines may stem from a significant reason:
"Intellectual disability is very complex and very unique to the individual,"
said Arc of Texas Public Policy Director Kyle Piccola.
However, a solution may be hiding in plain sight.
"The state of Texas already has standards in place to gauge eligibility for,
for example, health and human services, and so we would support mirroring
that," Piccola said.
It is a potential place to start, as lawmakers get down to the serious business
of ensuring people with intellectual disabilities aren't put to death.
According to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, 2 people have
already been removed from death row after last year's Supreme Court decision.
Executions have been on the decline in Texas since the year 2000. That year
there were 40, compared to just seven last year. in Texas since the year 2000.
(source: spectrumlocalnews.com)
*****************
U.S. Supreme Court rejects appeal by Austin death row inmate
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected, without comment, an appeal by
Brandon Daniel, who was sentenced to die for the 2012 shooting death of an
on-duty Austin police officer.
Lawyers for the death row inmate argued that state District Judge Brenda
Kennedy improperly communicated with jurors during Daniel's 2014 trial, then
refused to step aside when defense lawyers followed with an appeal that
criticized her actions as inappropriate and grounds for a new trial.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals compounded the error, defense lawyers said,
when the state's highest criminal court declined to transfer Daniel's appeal to
another judge, then accepted Kennedy's recommendation that Daniel's appeal be
denied.
According to an affidavit by a juror, Kennedy responded to a jury note without
consulting Daniel's trial lawyers and without revealing what she said. Travis
County prosecutors, however, argued that there is "no competent evidence of an
alleged jury note" and that the allegation that the judge "secretly
communicated with the jury is not supported by the record."
Daniel's lawyers also told the Supreme Court that the inmate should be allowed
to pursue a 2nd claim - that his trial lawyers acted deficiently by missing
evidence that he was autistic. The diagnosis could have explained what
prosecutors called Daniel's lack of remorse and use of drugs and alcohol to
self-medicate, giving jurors a reason to choose a sentence of life in prison
instead of capital punishment, the appeal said.
But prosecutors argued that the state appeals court considered, and rejected,
the autism claim.
Daniel, 30, shot and killed Austin police officer Jaime Padron on April 6,
2012, as the 2 struggled on the floor of a North Austin Wal-Mart. Padron, a
Marine veteran and father of 2 girls, had responded to a call from store
employees about a possibly intoxicated shoplifter.
Daniel was quickly arrested after the shooting, and police found $57 worth of
food, alcohol and other store items in his backpack and a magazine containing 6
hollow-point bullets in his pocket.
Travis County jurors quickly found Daniel guilty of capital murder in February
2014, then sentenced the former software engineer to death after eight hours of
deliberations.
A North Austin elementary school has been named for Padron, 40, who had been an
Austin police officer for 2 years after 14 years with the San Angelo Police
Department.
(source: Austin American-Statesman)
******************
Jurors again must view gruesome photos of Naiya Villegas' injuries in Isido
Delacruz trial
Prosecutors revisited gruesome injuries suffered by a 5-year-old girl while a
pathologist testified during Monday's court proceedings in the case of a San
Angelo man accused of slitting the throat of his ex-girlfriend's daughter.
"Basically, she bled to death," said a Lubbock medical examiner. "My opinion is
sharp force injury to the neck."
San Angelo police believed Isidro Miguel Delacruz, 27, used a large kitchen
knife to cut the child's neck twice. They found the weapon discarded outside of
the girl's residence in the 2700 block of Houston Street.
Delacruz stands trial charged with capital murder in the Sept. 2, 2014 death of
Naiya Villegas. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Isidro Miguel
Delacruz arrives for his trial Thursday,
The pathologist performed the autopsy on Naiya Villegas the afternoon the next
day with San Angelo police present.
The close-up view of the child's fatal wounds on the autopsy table made some
Tom Green County jurors gasps and cry.
"What you're going to see is a child with significant injuries to the neck and
face," the medical examiner said. "(She) would have bled profusely."
The child's injuries consist of 2 deep lacerations on her neck, cuts on her
chin, abrasion and bruising on her left cheek.
Her lacerations were so deep, jurors could see her neck muscles including her
vein and artery.
The pathologist said he believes the child's other injuries were caused near
the time of her death.
She would have been in pain from that kind of incised wound said the
pathologist, adding the child would have completely stopped bleeding in less
than 20 minutes.
Paramedics and doctors tried to save the child. Medics said the girl had
stopped bleeding when they arrived at the residence.
Medical personnel said her heart stopped during the ambulance ride to Shannon
Medical Center where she was declared dead.
Message exchanges shown during Monday's trial showed Delacruz with psychopathic
tendencies.
Delacruz had been messaging his ex-girlfriend, Tanya Bermea, in the afternoon
hours the day before Naiya Villegas' death.
The communication was amicable. He wrote her messages such as, "I love you."
5 hours later he cursed and called Bermea a series of derogatory names after
some kind of alleged incident.
"Forget being my wife (explicit)," Delacruz wrote. "(Explicit) you, I'm done
for good."
"I'm not doing this," Bermea responded.
The communication was ugly talk and argumentative.
Surveillance footage from a bar near Angelo State University showed Delacruz
had been drinking about midnight before he showed up at Bermea's residence.
An acquaintance gave him a ride about 1:49 a.m. and dropped him off at a spot
on Arden Road.
Trial resumes Tuesday morning.
TRIAL TIMELINE
March 26: Jurors again must view gruesome photos of Naiya Villegas' injuries in
Isido Delacruz trial
March 23: Forensic scientists talk DNA evidence, confirm lack of tampering in
Delacruz murder trial
March 22: Jurors see child's bloody blanket as crime tech testifies in Delacruz
murder trial
March 21: Naiya Villegas' heart stopped on way to hospital, medics say during
Delacruz murder trial
March 20: Jurors in murder trial see police dash-cam video, photo of child
dying
March 19: Jury impaneled, Delacruz capital murder trial begins
(source: gosanangelo.com)
*******************
House Committee Examines Texas' Death Penalty
In 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the method Texas used to evaluate a
potential death row inmate's mental and intellectual capabilities was outdated
and flawed.
State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, who is the chair of the House Committee on
Criminal Jurisprudence, is examining what legislative fixes might be required
ahead of the next session.
"The responsibility to fix these things rest with the legislature, but we
haven???t done those things in over a decade, especially when comes to the
issue related to intellectual developmental disability," Moody said.
Elsa Alcla, a Republican judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, told the
committee there are no current guidelines that create uniformity among district
courts about the death penalty.
"What's a death penalty case in San Antonio may not be a death penalty case in
Harris County. It is the subjective decision of the elected DA of that
particular county," Alcla said. Kristin Houle, the executive director for the
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said Texas executions have
dropped almost 85 % over the past 20 years, probably because opinion has
shifted. Texas juries and DAs more often prefer a sentence of life without
parole rather than the death penalty.
"Prosecutors are not simply seeking the death penalty as often as they used
to," Houle said.
There were 7 executions in 2017, and seven executions in 2016, which were the
lowest numbers of executions in Texas history.
(source: Texas Public Radio)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Anti-death penalty activist speaks at UNC about her brother's death row
execution
Activist Kimberly Davis came to UNC's campus Monday night to speak about her
family's long struggle to prove the innocence of her brother, who was executed
by the state of Georgia in 2011.
"I am the sister of Troy Davis, who was an innocent man who was executed on
death row," Kimberly Davis said.
Troy Davis was executed for the 1989 killing of police officer Mark MacPhail.
Nine witnesses originally testified that Troy Davis had killed MacPhail. Later,
7 of those 9 witnesses recanted their statements and said that they had been
coerced into saying Davis had shot MacPhail.
Much of the audience was made up of students enrolled in Frank Baumgartner's
political science course, Race, Innocence and the Decline of the Death Penalty.
"Within the context of the class, this lecture offers a more individual
perspective, and a very human perspective on the topics we've discussed in the
class," teaching assistant Kai Stern said.
Kimberly Davis described her brother as a strong Christian and caring brother
and uncle, even during his 16 years on death row.
"Troy actually taught my nephew De'Juan how to play football by passing a soda
bottle back and forth, and how to build airplanes by making little paper
airplanes out of wrappers from Reese's cups, right there in the visitation room
in the prison," Kimberly Davis said.
She described the web of corruption the Davis family navigated as Troy was
arrested, convicted and executed.
"The justice system and the death penalty is very sporadic," said attendee
Madeline Murray. "It's a really flawed system in general, and the amount of
people who have been killed compared to who have been sentenced is really low."
Davis said her family witnessed intense misconduct, starting when the judge at
Troy Davis' sentencing did not take the hearing seriously.
"He was talking to other attorneys and talking about golfing and when they were
going to hang out," Kimberly Davis said. "They were all on a 1st-name basis,
and it was not professional at all. It was all fun and games to him."
The entire Davis family advocated for Troy, but struggled to find anyone who
would listen, until the case caught the attention of Rev. Al Sharpton.
"None of the ministers we talked to originally wanted to get involved in my
brother's case," Kimberly Davis said. "It was so ironic because when they saw
on Savannah news that Al Sharpton was coming to town, they were knocking on our
door, wanting Al Sharpton to come to their church."
With Sharpton came the support of the NAACP, Amnesty International and the
National Action Network. Support, publicity, petition signatures and letters to
Troy flooded in, and Troy Davis' name became known across the country.
"We met so many people from all over the world that came to Savannah and said
they believed in Troy and wanted to know what they could do. We had petitions
from all over coming in," Kimberly Davis said.
Troy Davis' execution dates continued to be pushed back, and he was ultimately
executed on his 4th execution date.
Kimberly Davis asked the audience to advocate for other death row prisoners,
even when the issue is not in the news.
"If y'all can take anything from this talk, if you know something is wrong,
don't keep your mouth closed," Kimberly Davis said. "We don't need to be
against the death penalty when someone is in the spotlight and then go back to
not talking about it. We have so many people who are on death row for 10, 20
years, and they are innocent."
(source: dailytarheel.com)
ALABAMA:
Alabama's new method of execution has never been tried
Alabama plans to give death row inmates a new option - death by oxygen
deprivation -- but it's unclear exactly how the never-used method would be
carried out.
Gov. Kay Ivey last week signed into law a bill to authorize executions by
nitrogen hypoxia. Nitrogen is an inert gas that makes up about 78 percent of
the air people breathe. With nitrogen hypoxia, death would occur from breathing
only nitrogen, without the life-sustaining oxygen that makes up about 20
percent of the air.
2 other states -- Oklahoma and Mississippi -- have authorized executions by
nitrogen hypoxia. 2 weeks ago, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter announced
it would become that state's main method when it has a protocol finalized. That
is expected to take several months and the state hasn't released any details.
The difficulty of obtaining the drugs for lethal injection led to the decision,
Hunter said.
The Alabama Department of Corrections has no specifics yet about how it will
implement the new law, including the possible cost and whether it would require
a new death chamber.
"The Department of Corrections will follow the law of the state and adhere to
the protocols and method of an execution as ordered by the Alabama Supreme
Court," DOC spokesman Bob Horton said.
Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Montrose, the sponsor of the bill, said he got the idea of
nitrogen hypoxia executions from Oklahoma. Pittman said he believes it will be
a humane method. He said it's important to maintain the death penalty for the
worst offenders.
"I think the death penalty is a deterrence and I think it's the appropriate
punishment for people that commit certain heinous crimes," Pittman said.
Last year, Pittman sponsored a bill to authorize executions by firing squad as
an alternative to lethal injection. That came after a court ruling postponed
the execution of Tommy Arthur for the seventh time in 15 years. Arthur had
challenged the state's lethal injection method and suggested the firing squad
as an alternative. Arthur was finally executed by lethal injection in May 2017
for a 1982 murder.
Pittman said the Department of Corrections opposed his firing squad bill. He
said the DOC was initially neutral on the nitrogen hypoxia bill and eventually
supported it after problems with one of the state's most recent executions and
because of concerns about obtaining lethal injection drugs.
Lethal injection remains Alabama's main method of execution. Inmates can also
still opt for the electric chair, though none have done so since Alabama
adopted lethal injection. Nitrogen hypoxia becomes a 3rd option.
The new law says that inmates can choose nitrogen hypoxia over lethal
injection. It says that if lethal injection is ruled unconstitutional or
becomes otherwise unavailable, nitrogen hypoxia becomes the state's primary
method. The new law takes effect June 1.
Federal courts have upheld the legality of lethal injections through repeated
challenges by inmates. Alabama and other states have at times experienced
difficulties in obtaining the drugs.
Alabama's last execution, of Michael Wayne Eggers on March 15, was carried out
without incident. But the previous one, of Doyle Lee Hamm on Feb. 22, was
called off after medical personnel could not find a vein to inject the lethal
drugs.
Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said
there's no basis for the assertion that nitrogen hypoxia is a humane or
relatively painless form of execution.
"Nitrogen hypoxia may work, it may not work," Dunham said. "We don't know. It's
experimental. And it's unethical to do experiments so that's the dilemma that
states are in.
Dunham said it's not clear if the executions would be carried out in a vacuum
chamber or with just a death mask. The Death Penalty Information Center is a
non-profit organization that provides the media and the public analysis and
facts about capital punishment.
Dunham points to studies that found problems with the use of nitrogen hypoxia
in the euthanasia of animals. The American Veterinary Medical Association
Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals in 2013 says that nitrogen hypoxia is
an unacceptable method for most mammals unless an anesthesia is also used and
that an anesthesia can delay death.
"So, it's either not going to be fast or it's not going to be appropriate,"
Dunham said.
The World Society for the Protection of Animals recommends against using
nitrogen hypoxia for euthanasia for multiple reasons, including that it causes
distress before unconsciousness.
Pittman said there may be ways to mitigate those concerns, including with a
sedative or anesthesia before the loss of oxygen. He also questions whether
those concerns are overstated.
"People that are worried about a little discomfort when a sentence of death is
being carried out, I wish they had shown the same compassion to their victims
when they ruthlessly, in most cases, murdered them," Pittman said.
A report prepared at the request of an Oklahoma lawmaker by criminal justice
faculty members at Oklahoma's East Central University concluded that nitrogen
hypoxia would be a humane method of execution.
The report cited, among other things, a 1961 study that found that people lost
consciousness after breathing pure nitrogen for about 20 seconds and
experienced no physical discomfort. The report said the method would be simple
and noted that nitrogen is used in industry and is readily available.
Dunham said he doesn't think Alabama, or any other state, wants torturous
executions. But he said the failure of the Hamm execution and the lack of a
clear explanation by the Department of Corrections showed a lack of
transparency that could undermine public trust.
(source: al.com)
OHIO----death sentence commuted
Ohio Gov. John Kasich commutes death sentence for killer set for execution in 2
weeks
Ohio Gov. John Kasich granted clemency for a Toledo-area killer who was 2 weeks
away from execution.
Kasich's decision Monday to spare William Montgomery's life comes 10 days after
the Ohio Parole Board voted 6-4 to recommend mercy for him. The governor
commuted Montgomery's sentence to life without parole.
The board's report showed the majority had too many questions over inconsistent
witness statements that weren't disclosed to Montgomery when he was on trial
and whether the jury made its decision on sound grounds.
Montgomery, 52, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on April 11.
He has been in prison since 1986 and was sentenced to death for the murder of
Deborah Ogle during a robbery. He was also convicted of murdering Cynthia
Tincher, Ogle's roommate.
Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates had asked the parole board to deny
Montgomery's request for clemency.
************** ----new death sentence
Alianna DeFreeze's killer, Christopher Whitaker, sentenced to death
A judge on Monday sentenced Christopher Whitaker to be executed for the rape,
torture and murder 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze.
Whitaker, 45, will pay the ultimate price for the brutal crimes he carried out
against the girl in an abandoned home in Cleveland's Kinsman neighborhood in
January 2017.
The circumstances that Whitaker's attorneys presented to convince jurors to
spare his life "pale in comparison to the barbarity of the evidence" of what he
did to the girl, Common Pleas Judge Carolyn Friedland said in imposing the
death penalty.
The same jury that convicted Whitaker last month also recommended that he be
sentenced to death.
Whitaker is the 1st person condemned to death from Cuyahoga County court since
2016, when Michael Madison, who was convicted of killing 3 women in East
Cleveland. He will join 20 other men convicted in Cuyahoga County who are
currently on death row.
Whitaker's trial began on Feb. 1 and brought into a clear and disturbing focus
how the 7th grader whose mother said still played with baby dolls spent the
torturous final hours of her life.
Whitaker approached Alianna at an RTA bus stop near Kinsman Road and East 93rd
Street, where she waited to catch a bus to her school and convinced her to go
with him to a vacant house on Fuller Avenue.
Inside the home, Whitaker brutalized the girl with tools, including a drill, a
box cutter and other items. Many of the girl's wounds had started to show signs
of healing, a sign that she was alive for hours after Whitaker inflicted them
on her, investigators said.
Whitaker eventually stopped his attack, dragged her into another room in the
house and threw away some of her clothing. He left behind the sweater of her
school uniform, that was ripped down the front.
He also left behind his DNA, fingerprints and bloody bootprints that
investigators matched to Whitaker.
Whitaker was previously convicted of sexually assaulting a woman and attacking
her with scissors and spent several years in prison.
(source for both: cleveland.com)
ARKANSAS:
Ark. inmate seeks stay of execution pending appeal----The inmate wants justices
to prevent his execution while he pursues another case before the U.S. Supreme
Court
An Arkansas death row inmate with a case pending before the state Supreme Court
wants its justices to prevent his execution while he pursues another case
before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Bruce Ward had been set to die last April during a string of executions. He
wants the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether he should have been entitled
to the use of an independent mental health professional at his trial. The
Arkansas Supreme Court said March 1 that Ward never met the minimum threshold
for such assistance.
Another inmate slated to die last year, Don Davis, filed similar paperwork last
week asking that the March 1 ruling not take effect.
Ward and Jack Greene also say Arkansas' prison director isn't competent to
judge their sanity.
Arkansas' attorney general didn't immediately comment.
(source: Associated Press)
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