September 12
MISSOURI:
New St Louis prosecutor vows change in county still grieving from Michael
Brown's death----Wesley Bell stunned Bob McCulloch, who held the post for
nearly 3 decades, including during the police killing of an unarmed black teen
When Wesley Bell declared victory in the battle to become St Louis county
prosecutor last month, it came just two days before the region came together
once again to honor the life of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager killed
by a white police officer, sparking months of protests in Ferguson, Missouri.
Bell's win was a stunning upset that has pushed the previous prosecutor and
fellow Democrat, Bob McCulloch, from an office he had held for nearly three
decades. With no Republican challenger, Bell is now a shoo-in for the post.
The vote, decided by a large margin, was seen as an indictment of McCulloch, on
whose watch the Ferguson officer Darren Wilson was cleared of all charges in
Brown's killing.
But it was also seen as an endorsement for a man who promised a different way
of doing things, and energized voters.
Lawyer urged prosecutor after Ferguson shooting: 'Do the right thing' for
police
"People with different politics came together, people were making phone calls
around the clock, knocking on doors. It was an across-the-table effort," says
St Louis native Tef Poe, a rapper, organizer and Harvard fellow. "I saw people
who never vote go out and vote."
McCulloch had the financial and institutional advantage and, right up to the
end, polls showed him ahead of Bell. McCulloch, even despite his infamy in the
eyes of many, also had the advantage of looking like the majority of St Louis
county and the majority of prosecutors nationwide. In 2015, a study found 95%
of prosecutors are white and just under 80% are white men.
"I don't come from money like that," Bell told the Guardian after his victory.
"I come from regular people."
Bell says he's proud of his campaign. "It was smaller donations, you know? I
got a check for 5 dollars ... that's what they had and that's my constituency
and I appreciated it. That???s who I represent."
Bell, an advocate of robust criminal justice reform, had already garnered
national attention when he won a seat on Ferguson city council in 2015.
"I grew up, initially, in the projects in Alton, Illinois. I was seeing a lot
of people on the other side of law enforcement," said Bell, who went to high
school near Ferguson.
"Growing up in this area, I was being pulled over, car searched so often I
didn't think anything of it - I thought it was normal," Bell said. "But then I
got to law school and thought, 'Oh, so they weren't supposed to be doing
that!'"
Bell won on a platform of progressive ideals such as reforming cash bail and
mandatory minimum sentencing, as well as not pursuing the death penalty.
But he is also emblematic of a new wave of prosecutors who are aware of and
against inequalities in the justice system, as well as the war on drugs and its
resulting mass incarceration.
"One thing I learned then [in 2015], is the absolute need for public engagement
from leaders," Bell said. "I went out to the streets for protests at the time
because I wanted the people to see, to ask me questions. We have a trust
deficit here and I saw my role as a bridge-builder."
But, as Poe says, Bell still has a great deal to prove to a skeptical community
riven by grief for Brown and others.
"I had a real moment when I realized I was knocking doors on behalf of a
prosecutor, you know? That's how wild the system is," Poe said. "St Louis
county is still St Louis county - the budget is still there, folks still going
to jail, getting these same traffic tickets as we speak."
"I don't see this as a big statement about democracy, honestly, or what can
happen when people vote," he said. "This is what happens when you kill an
unarmed teenager and leave him dead in the street for 4 1/2 hours. And we have
a community and a generation that watched it happen and responded. Now here we
are."
Many activists, like Poe, are holding their praise for Bell for now.
I don't put my faith in candidates, I place all of my faith in the people. And
in the people's ability to push candidates to enact change Tef Poe, rapper,
organizer, and Harvard fellow
"It's a chance now for us to engage with power differently than in the past,"
Poe said, "I don't put my faith in candidates, I place all of my faith in the
people. And in the people's ability to push candidates to enact change."
"It's hard, though, to get too excited for someone in the same party as
McCulloch. But we're in a long-term struggle here," he said. "I'm waiting to
see. I can't give him credit for a game he hasn't played yet."
Blake Strode, the executive director for the not-for-profit civil rights law
firm ArchCity Defenders, agrees. "It's certainly a victory for the organizers
who worked so hard on his campaign," he said. "But, for the community, it's an
opportunity - and now Wesley has the chance to turn that opportunity into a
victory."
"If there's a victory in it for me, as a community member," Poe added, "through
the lens of retaliation for all the people I knew that were unjustly thrown
away by Bob McCulloch."
Strode said: "Bell can now challenge these old notions around arresting and
incarcerating people as a solution to all of our social problems in the
region."
"This isn't a [power on] 'both-sides' situation," he added. "We all know about
the tension, distrust and anger between law enforcement and communities most
subjected to police power, but that tension exists in an asymmetrical fashion
in that all of the power is on one side: law enforcement."
Strode continued: "They are empowered by virtue of the law, by virtue of their
badge, their guns, their handcuffs, and their jails."
"And that's now the side that Wesley Bell will have an ability and a chance to
rein in."
(source: The Guardian)
OKLAHOMA:
Oklahoma Man Seeks New Trial In White Supremacist Murder Case
An Oklahoma man sentenced to death for killing an Arkansas family in a plot to
set up a whites-only wants a new trial.
Attorneys for 45-year-old Danny Lee of Yukon say in documents filed Monday that
prosecutors illegally failed to tell defense attorneys that a witness, who
testified that Lee admitted to the murders to him, also told investigators he
believed Lee was lying.
Lee's attorneys say DNA tests in 2007 and the newly revealed witness testimony
should result in a new trial.
Lee and 45-year-old Chevie Kehoe,of Colville, Washington, were convicted of
killing gun dealer William Mueller, his wife Nancy Mueller and her 8-year-old
daughter, Sarah Powell, of Russellville in 1996 and stealing guns and cash as
part of the plot to set up a whites-only nation.
Kehoe, described by federal prosecutors at the time as the leader of the plot,
was sentenced to life without parole days before Lee was sentenced to death.
Prosecutors, seeking the death penalty for both men, at the time described
Kehoe as the ringleader and Lee as his henchman.
(source: KOAM news)
NEVADA:
Prisons chief: Supplier error got Nevada its execution drugs
Nevada's prisons chief testified Tuesday that after more than 200 drug
companies refused to supply drugs for use in an execution, a supplier's mistake
on a buyers' list gave the state an opening to obtain a sedative that officials
want to use in a twice-postponed lethal injection.
Under questioning by drug company lawyers, Department of Corrections Director
James Dzurenda said the top state pharmacy official jumped at the chance last
May, and once Nevada had to the drugs Dzurenda felt no obligation to return
them.
"If I didn't have any contract with them and did it legally, I would keep it,"
Dzurenda told Todd Bice, a lawyer representing Alvogen, maker of the sedative
slated to be the 1st of 3 drugs in the execution of twice-convicted killer
Scott Raymond Dozier.
State attorneys say the drugs came from a third-party supplier, Cardinal
Health, and not the drug companies.
"Is that your definition of dealing with the public in good faith?" Bice asked
after citing passages from Dzurenda's department's rules of ethics.
"I believe so, yes," Dzurenda replied.
The day of testimony provided a glimpse at the trouble Nevada and many of the
other 30 death-penalty states in the U.S. have had identifying, obtaining and
keeping drugs for executions. Nevada requires lethal injection and last put an
inmate to death in 2006.
Drug companies Alvogen, Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA and Sandoz Inc. accuse the
state of improperly obtaining their drugs for a use the companies don't allow,
and deceiving the public in the process.
Dzurenda refused to identify state officials involved in execution planning by
name or title, saying it was to avoid exposing them to harassment or threats by
opponents of capital punishment.
He said he keeps confidential the names of prison employees who he said
volunteer for the overtime job of taking part in an execution.
Nevada also tried to keep secret the drug company identities, although a court
order in a last-minute American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit in July forced
disclosure of the 3 company names.
"Once it goes public," Dzurenda said, "just like when you produce and publicize
people's names, those companies and people get harassed, or could get harassed,
or letters."
Dzurenda told the Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez that the
powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, which has been blamed for illegal use
overdose deaths nationwide, was added to Nevada's 3-drug lethal injection plan
after the state pharmacy chief found a way to get the drug.
Later, the state's top doctor testified that although he's not licensed to
practice medicine in the U.S. and doesn't prescribe or use painkillers or
anesthetics, it seemed to him that the high doses of the sedative, the fentanyl
and a muscle paralyzing drug that Dzurenda told him would be used would kill
Dozier.
In Nevada, the prisons chief and top doctor are the only 2 officials who can
sign off on the execution plan.
"He consulted with me if the proposed medication was appropriate and effective
and I said yes," Ihsan Azzam told the judge.
Azzam even commented, "Yeah, it will kill a mammoth," he told David McElhinney,
an attorney representing Hikma.
Azzam meets qualifications to be chief state medical officer under Nevada law.
He has a master's degree and worked for several years in environmental public
health and epidemiology before being named chief state medical officer last
May. He is originally from Syria, became a doctor in Romania and practiced for
several years as an obstetrics and gynecology physician in Africa before moving
to the United States in the 1990s.
2 more days of hearings are slated Wednesday and Thursday ahead of oral
arguments next week before the state Supreme Court on the state's bid to put
Dozier's execution back on track for mid-November.
15 states are siding with Nevada in the state Supreme Court fight against the
drug companies, led by Oklahoma and including Nebraska, where an inmate was put
to death last month.
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA:
Police detail motive in Fresno double homicide. Prosecutors could seek death
A family disagreement appears to be the cause of a double homicide Sunday in
which a man and his wife were shot and killed by their son-in-law's father,
police chief Jerry Dyer said.
Darshan Singh Dhanjan, 65, has been charged with 2 counts of murder and 1 count
of assault with a deadly weapon. Prosecutors said Tuesday they might seek the
death penalty.
It is potentially a death penalty case because charges include the special
circumstance of multiple murders. But a decision about whether to seek the
death penalty will be made later, a statement from the Fresno County District
Attorney's Office said.
Dhanjan is due to be arraigned Wednesday in Fresno County Superior Court.
Dyer said Dhanjan became upset because the victims he killed - Ravinder Pal
Singh, 59, and Rajbir Kaur, 62 - had been living in the home, which is owned by
their daughter and her husband (Dhanjan's son), and were supposed to move out
but refused.
They had been living there 6 months and had just gotten their green cards
allowing them to stay in the United States permanently, Dyer said. Also sharing
the home in the 5300 block of East Tower Avenue were Dhanjan and his wife. All
are originally from India, Dyer said.
"It's a very tragic case," Dyer said. "It's unfortunate because threats had
been made" by Dhanjan toward his daughter-in-law.
However, "the family did not feel he was capable of carrying out those
threats," Dyer added.
Saturday, the suspect confronted the couple about moving out. "The female
victim said, 'No, we're not leaving. We're staying,'" Dyer said.
Dharjan legally owned the handgun he bought 3 months ago, and recently had been
to a firing range, Dyer said. It's legal to keep a gun inside a home without
possessing a concealed carry permit, he said.
The daughter of the victims was almost a victim herself, Dyer said. She was
upstairs and heard loud noises and went downstairs, bringing her young daughter
with her.
"She saw her mom and dad lying in the recliner" after they had been shot, Dyer
said.
Dhanjan told her, "I'm going to kill you, too," and pointed the gun at her but
it did not fire. It appears he had tried to get the gun to fire but "it may
have jammed," Dyer said.
She ran upstairs and barricaded herself in a bedroom and called police. The
attempt at shooting her is why Dhanjan is charged with assault with a deadly
weapon.
The homicides were captured on the home's video surveillance camera.
After she went upstairs, Dhanjan called his wife and told her what he had done.
He hid the gun inside his bedroom then got in a car and drove away. Based on
the car description, he was pulled over a few miles away and arrested. He was
cooperative, police said.
(source: Fresno Bee)
OREGON:
Jeremy Christian's lawyers don't want jury to see victims' families cry
Defense attorneys for accused MAX train killer Jeremy Christian don't want
jurors to walk by the devastated family members of the men who died when he
goes to trial next summer.
They filed 51 motions on proposed rules for the trial, but the 500 pages offer
little insight -- save for a small hint -- into Christian's possible defense
against charges that he fatally stabbed 2 men in the neck and seriously injured
another.
Among the more unusual requests is the one asking Multnomah County Circuit
Judge Cheryl Albrecht to order that jurors not be allowed to walk down the hall
past the families or friends of Ricky Best and Talisein Namkai-Meche.
"This may cause the jurors to feel sympathy for the victim's family in the
event they should see some of the family crying or upset," wrote attorneys Dean
Smith and Gregory Scholl.
Smith and Scholl repeatedly wrote in the documents that jurors must reach a
verdict based on the facts, not sympathy for the dead men.
The motions show the challenges Christian faces in a dramatic case bolstered by
cellphone and TriMet videos of the scene and eyewitnesses who say Christian was
berating 2 African American teenagers when fellow passengers stepped in. One of
the girls was wearing a hijab.
The May 2017 killings of Best and Namkai-Meche and the near death of a 3rd --
Micah Fletcher -- generated public outrage across the country.
Christian could face the death penalty if a jury finds him guilty of aggravated
murder. His lawyers have been assigned the role of providing him a vigorous
defense. They are clearly trying to do all they can to rein in emotion and keep
juror "outrage," as they phrase it, to a minimum.
In another unconventional request, the attorneys have asked the judge to
prohibit the Best and Namkai-Meche families from testifying during the 1st
phase of the trial to determine Christian's guilt and -- if Christian is found
guilty -- the 2nd phase to determine if he should be sentenced to death.
In a more common request, Christian's attorneys also have asked that
prosecutors be prevented from showing jurors any graphic autopsy photos or
other detailed photos of the fatal injuries. Oregon judges in many aggravated
murder cases have allowed some up-close photos but have capped the number
jurors are allowed to see.
Prosecutors haven't yet filed any of their own motions with the judge. Albrecht
is scheduled to consider both defense and prosecution motions during 3 days of
hearings on Oct. 22-24.
Christian's attorneys haven't yet notified the court of any intention of
presenting an insanity defense. It's unclear if they will pursue that course.
Legal experts not associated with the case say it could be tough to prove
Christian was so mentally ill he wasn't aware of what he was doing.
But among all the motions, his defense team did provide one hint of another
possible defense: that Christian made a spur-of-the-moment decision based on
his background and time previously spent in prison.
"The testimony will focus on how Mr. Christian's history and his reactions to
certain things interacted with the events which led to the charges against
(him)," Scholl and Smith wrote.
In a previous report filed with the court, a defense-hired psychologist wrote
that Christian shows signs of post-traumatic stress disorder and it's possible
that when confronted by so many others on the MAX train, his "survival
responses" kicked in, developed over the 7 1/2 years he spent in prison for
robbing a convenience store.
The defense attorneys also have asked the judge to allow them to argue that
Christian was suffering from an "extreme emotional disturbance" during his
interactions with others on the MAX train. But Oregon law doesn't allow such a
defense to aggravated murder, and the motion will likely serve more as a
placeholder for Christian's attorneys to appeal any guilty verdict to a higher
court.
(source: oregonlive.com)
USA----female may face federal death sentence
Ex-wife indicted in Robert Caldwell murder conspiracy has trial delayed
The ex-wife of a Beavercreek man killed in front of their children had her
trial delayed Tuesday in Dayton's U.S. District Court.
Tawnney (Thomas) Caldwell, 34, had a scheduling conference set for Nov. 1, at
which time her attorneys and federal prosecutors may have a trial calendar,
including a new trial date.
Tawnney Caldwell could face the death penalty if she is convicted of 6 counts
related to the death of Robert "Bobby" Caldwell, who was allegedly shot by
Tawnney Caldwell's boyfriend, Sterling Roberts.
5 total defendants face charges in an alleged conspiracy that included a bitter
custody battle over Tawnney and Bobby's 3 sons who were present when their
father was shot to death Aug. 15, 2017.
Jacob Caldwell, the middle son, was missing for about a year before being
located recently in a Miami Twp. residence. Jacob, now 15, is being kept in
custody.
About a dozen people showed up in Judge Thomas Rose's court on Tuesday to
support Tawnney Caldwell, who was wearing orange Shelby County Jail clothing.
Rose granted a defense motion to continue the trial because he agreed that it
is a complex case with possible capital sanctions, multiple defendants and
voluminous discovery.
Defense attorneys estimated it could take a year to 18 months to get to trial,
in part because the U.S. Attorney General may have to certify the case as
death-penalty eligible. Federal prosecutors did not oppose the motion to
continue.
(source: Dayton Daily News)
US MILITARY:
The death-penalty trial opened for an Army staff sergeant charged with killing
his wife and a police officer
It began with an argument between husband and wife over whether she'd attend a
male dance revue. It ended with the wife dead, a police officer fatally wounded
and 2 other officers shot and bleeding on a suburban northern Virginia lawn.
Jurors heard opening statements Tuesday in the death-penalty trial of an Army
staff sergeant charged with killing his wife and 1 of the officers, who
responded to the scene on her very 1st shift. The 2 other officers survived,
but suffered serious injuries.
Ronald Hamilton, 34, an Army staff sergeant from Woodbridge, is charged with
capital murder and other counts in the deaths of his wife, Crystal Hamilton,
and Officer Ashley Guindon, a former Marine Corps reservist.
On her 1st day on the job, Officer Ashley Guindon responded to a call that
could have become routine, had she gone on to a long career in law enforcement:
a domestic disturbance in a well-kept suburban neighborhood.
Prosecutor Brian Boyle told jurors in opening statements that Hamilton's
actions reverberated beyond the Hamilton and Guindon families.
"By the time he was done unleashing his violence, a neighborhood was scarred, a
police department was devastated, three police officers were on operating
tables and only two would survive," Boyle said. "A son was left without a
mother."
Boyle said Guindon and the other officers arrived just a few minutes after
Crystal made her 911 call. Officer Jesse Hempen arrived first, and asked Ronald
Hamilton to let him in to check on the welfare of his wife. As Hamilton shut
the door, a 2nd officer, David McKeown, arrived with Guindon and tried to use
his foot to force his way into the home. It was then that Hamilton began
shooting at the officers with a military-style rifle. One of the officers,
despite his wounds, was able to radio his colleagues a "signal one," meaning an
officer was down. That prompted a massive police response.
Boyle said that when officers arrived, "bodies are littered across the front
yard of the Hamilton residence. ... As the officers come in all they see are
heaps of bright blue" from the officers' uniforms.
Defense attorneys acknowledged that Hamilton committed the shootings. Indeed,
they offered shortly after Hamilton's arrest to plead guilty and accept a life
sentence if prosecutors took the death penalty off the table. The prosecutors
declined.
What is in dispute is Hamilton's state of mind at the time of the shootings,
said defense lawyer Edward Ungvarsky, who told jurors that Hamilton lacked
premeditation necessary to be convicted of capital murder.
Ungvarsky said the Hamiltons' marriage had long been troubled, and that a fight
that day was precipitated by Ronald Hamilton's anger at his wife's plans to
attend a Chippendales-style dance revue with her girlfriends. Ronald Hamilton
struck his wife during the argument, and Crystal Hamilton called 911 for help.
At that point, he knew that his military career, which depended on maintaining
a security clearance, and his marriage could be over.
"He felt his world was crashing down around him," Ungvarsky said. "Passions
erupted."
Ungvarsky said Hamilton fired indiscriminately at the officers as they tried to
enter his home, but that he lacked any intention of killing them.
Jurors heard the 911 call Crystal Hamilton made, in which she said through sobs
that her husband had slammed her onto the floor. That last thing heard before
the call disconnected was her screaming "Stop!"
Jurors also heard a written statement from the Hamiltons' 13-year-old son,
Tyriq, who was home at the time of the shootings. Both sides agreed to let him
provide a written statement so he wouldn't have to testify in person.
The statement was read to jurors by Tyriq's maternal grandmother.
"I heard like 3 shots," Tyriq wrote in the statement. "Then my mom went
silent."
Hamilton, dressed in his military dress uniform, did not speak during Tuesday's
proceedings and often hung his head as his actions were described to the jury.
The trial is expected to last several weeks. Among those scheduled to testify
are the 2 officers who survived the shootings, McKeown and Hempen.
(source: armytimes.com)
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