January 29
SOUTH CAROLINA:
Man sentenced to death for 2 2005 murders appears in Georgetown County
courtroom----Stephen Stanko appears in Georgetown County courtroom, seeking
post-conviction relief of death sentence
A man sentenced to death for 2 2005 murders appeared in a Georgetown County
courtroom on Monday.
Stephen Stanko appeared in a Georgetown County courtroom at 9:30 a.m. on
Monday, according to Robert Kittle, with the Attorney General's Office.
Kittle said this was a post-conviction relief hearing related to Stanko's 2006
conviction and death sentence for murder and other convictions including
assault and battery with intent to kill, 1st degree criminal sexual conduct,
kidnapping, and armed robbery.
Court documents filed by Stanko and his legal team say Stanko intended to rely
on affidavits and prior witness testimony to support his post-conviction relief
claims.
"In support of his claims, applicant intends to rely upon an affidavit provided
by Russell Stetler," the court documents state. "Applicant also intends to rely
on prior testimony from witnesses Russell Stetler and Bryan Wilson."
Stetler is "an expert in the prevailing professional norms in the investigation
and presentation of mitigation and mental health evidence in capital cases" and
he previously testified in Stanko's 2015 Horry County capital post-conviction
relief hearings, the documents claim. Wilson previously testified in Stanko's
Horry County capital trial in 2009.
In 2009, a jury convicted Stanko for killing Henry Turner, of Conway, and he
received the death penalty.
Stanko also received the death penalty in a separate trial for killing his
girlfriend Laura Ling.
Both murders happened in 2005.
(source: WBTW news)
OHIO:
Episcopal dioceses oppose death penalty
As an Episcopal priest and follower of Jesus of Nazareth, I seek to respect the
dignity of every person, including prisoners. While some may make an exception
for those on death row, there is no disagreement that inflicting a torturous
death on another is contrary to the Gospel and our most basic humanity.
The Tuesday Dispatch.com article “Ohio’s execution method likened to
waterboarding, fire in veins — but won’t change” outlined shocking evidence
that if Ohio would have executed Warren Keith Henness, “it will almost
certainly subject him to severe pain and needless suffering.”
Before this new evidence came out, the bishops of both Episcopal dioceses in
Ohio wrote to Gov. Mike DeWine to reaffirm the church’s teaching that capital
punishment is unacceptable. Now the call to stop this injustice from being
carried out in our names is even more urgent.
The Rev. Richard A. Burnett, rector, Trinity Episcopal Church, Columbus
(source: Letter to the Editor, Columbus Dispatch)
KENTUCKY:
KY Students Hear Conservative Case Against Death Penalty
Conservatives historically are pegged as champions of the death penalty, but
some say there's growing momentum to change that narrative.
Hannah Cox, national manager of the group Conservatives Concerned About the
Death Penalty, will make the conservative case against capital punishment
Monday night at a public forum at Campbellsville University.
As a former death penalty supporter, Cox says she now recognizes that the
practice doesn't align with the traditional conservative principles of limited
government and fiscal responsibility.
"We know that the government does not operate correctly,” she asserts. “We know
there's corruption. We know that they're definitely not using our resources
correctly.
“Why would I ever think this government could competently handle matters of
life and death? Of course they can't! So, it's kind of a natural eye opening
moment for a lot of people on the right."
Cox adds not only does capital punishment cost more than a life sentence, a
wrongful execution cannot be reversed.
And in order to truly uphold conservative beliefs about the sanctity of human
life, Cox argues that view should be consistent from birth through death,
regardless of a person's mistakes.
A Kentuckian is among 164 people on death rows who've been exonerated. And
while DNA is a beneficial tool, Cox notes it's only available in fewer than 10
% of criminal cases.
Cox says she expects more conservatives to change their stance on the issue.
"There's a bit of a zeitgeist moment happening right now, where people are
really paying attention to the criminal justice system,” she states. “There's a
lot of 'true crime' out there. There's a lot of big things happening, both
nationally and at the state level, to reform. People are becoming more educated
about the realities of our system and how it actually operates."
John Chowning, executive assistant to the president of Campbellsville
University for government, community and constituent relations, says Cox's
visit is part of a Quality Enhancement Plan focused on ethics. He says she'll
also be speaking with individual classes.
"The death penalty, both pro and con, comes up in various classes from various
points of discussion from political science, to theology to social work,” he
states. “It is an emotional issue that is debated, and we felt like it was
appropriate for our students to be presented that case."
The event at the Badgett Academic Support Center Banquet Hall begins at 6 p.m.
(source: Mary Kuhlman, Public News Service)
TENNESSEE:
DA Wants To Try Athens Park Bloods Death Penalty Case First; Attorneys Say
Dealing With Piles Of Evidence In RICO Case Is "A Monster"
District Attorney Neal Pinkston said his office first wants to try three
members of the Athens Park Bloods gang in a death penalty case before the other
51 defendants in the complex RICO conspiracy case.
However, the trial of Andre Grier, Courtney High and Charles Shelton will not
be soon. Defense attorneys said they need up to nine months to go through a
mountain of evidence turned over by the state.
They are charged with killing Bianca Horton before she could testify against
another gang member, Cortez Sims. The state wants the trio put to death. Sims,
who was convicted and given a life sentence even without Ms. Horton, was among
those in court. He said he wanted a speedy trial, saying it had already been a
year.
DA Pinkston indicated he wants to keep not all but many of the remaining
defendants together. However, Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholz asked, "Where
are we going to try 45 people?"
The DA replied with humor, "I figured the court in its infinite wisdom had
already figured that out."
Many of the defendants were in the Greenholz courtroom on Monday for a long day
of hearing some 40 motions that have been filed. Some are out on bond, while
others with more serious charges were brought into the courtroom shackled.
The motions attack various aspects of the relatively new state RICO statute.
The rulings of Judge Greenholtz are expected to be appealed and set the
groundwork for future RICO prosecutions in Tennessee.
One attorney is asking to get off the case. Brandy Spurgin-Floyd, who
represents Martrel Arnold, said the case is "a monster." She asked how since
Arnold is in jail how she can go over 360 hours of recorded evidence with him.
Attorney Steve Moore, who represents one of the defendants in the capital case,
said he has already had a firm print out 70,000 pages of documents provided by
the state. Another 15,000 to 20,000 pages is coming, it was stated.
DA Pinkston on Monday was handing out another "terabyte" of evidence to defense
attorneys.
Since an incident last October when one of the defendants put on social media
sensitive information that put certain people at risk special precautions have
been taken. Attorneys are now asked to sign an agreement that they will not
release such electronic documents to their clients.
There were so many defendants and because almost all of them cannot afford to
hire an attorney that a host of local lawyers had to be called in. Some are
civil attorneys who rarely appear in Criminal Court. One said on Monday, "This
is my very 1st criminal case."
(soruce: The Chattanoogan)
*******************
Lemaricus Davidson: New trial sought for Knox death row inmate in
Christian-Newsom case
Find a fair jury in Knox County? Everyone said it couldn't be done.
To the lawyers for Lemaricus Davidson, that sounded like a challenge - and
maybe a last chance.
"I think even the judge thought we were crazy," defense attorney Doug Trant
testified Monday. "But I told Lemaricus, we could bring in a jury from Mars,
and if they believed what the prosecutors said he did, they would give him the
death penalty."
The crime on Chipman Street
A Knox County jury sentenced Davidson to death nearly 10 years ago for his role
as ringleader in the carjacking, rape, torture and killing of Channon Christian
and Chris Newsom in January 2007. Christian and Newsom were on a date when
Davidson and four others — Letalvis Cobbins, Eric Boyd, George Thomas and
Vanessa Coleman — kidnapped them at gunpoint.
The couple spent their last hours as captives in Davidson's rental house on
Chipman Street in East Knoxville. Police later found Newsom's burned body along
the nearby railroad tracks and Christian's body in a garbage can where she'd
suffocated.
Monday marked the start of hearings set to last through much of the week as
lawyers for Davidson seek to convince Senior Judge Walter Kurtz that Davidson's
2009 trial was flawed and that the jury's verdict should be thrown out.
Assistant capital defenders William Howell and J. David Watkins focused
questions for Davidson's initial attorneys, Trant and David Eldridge, on
defense strategy, pretrial publicity and a mob atmosphere they argue surrounded
the case.
(source: Knoxville News Sentinel)
******************
Channon Christian's father says his daughter's spirit will be in the court room
as her killer faces a judge----Gary Christian says he hates that his daughter's
killers keep getting second chances to be heard in court because she didn't get
another chance or a choice when she died.
Gary Christian has spent over a decade watching his daughter's killers be on
trial, be convicted and now appeal.
"It's kind of aggravating to have to do, but it's something that has to be
done, so we're ready to do it," Christian said, as he prepared for another
court case coming next week.
The man accused of being the ring leader in the torture and murders of the
young Knoxville couple, Channon Christian and Chris Newsom, will appear in
court again on Monday, Jan. 28.
Lemaricus Davidson was sentenced to the death penalty in October 2009 for the
torture and murders of the couple.
In the hearing Monday, Davidson is trying to lessen his sentence and get off
death row.
Christian says he's upset Davidson will be back in court tomorrow, but says
he's not giving up and he plans to keep fighting for justice.
"How many more stamps of approval on his conviction do we need before we get on
with it?" Christian asked about Davidson. "We're going to do whatever we have
to do to to get us to the day where his sentence is completed."
Christian says it's unfair his daughter's convicted killer keeps getting a
chance to plead his case when his daughter didn't get another chance or a
choice before she died.
"I wish Channon would have had as many chances as he does," Christian said.
However, Christian knows he won't have to worry about having his guardian angel
in the court room on Monday.
"I know God will be and I've got a feeling he'll let her come too," Christian
said.
He also noted Channon's worries are gone.
"I just really don't think that she really cares too much about what happens
with any of them. She's got her reward," he said.
Christian also says the District Attorney told him at the beginning the death
penalty would mean a long appeals process, to which Christian said, "So be it."
In January 2007, Channon Christian and her boyfriend Christopher Newsom were
out on a date when they were carjacked and taken to a nearby house.
(source: WBIR news)
ILLINOIS:
County clerk says Mendoza’s death penalty record shows ‘she’s no reformer’
Mayoral contender Susana Mendoza’s own words were used against her Monday as 2
political allies of Toni Preckwinkle and a man exonerated from death row
questioned her record on the death penalty.
In 2 videos shown at a press conference, Mendoza is shown calling gang members
who gunned down a mother of 3 “street thugs, animals” and saying there’s no
issue she cares about more than the death penalty.
“I want to leave no doubt that I feel no compassion or see any value whatsoever
in the lives of the truly guilty on death row,” Mendoza says. “I could
administer the death penalty myself to a cop killer or a serial murderer and
sleep like a baby at night if I knew without a doubt of their guilt.”
Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough, state Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago, and
Nathson Fields, who was cleared of double murder, sought to “set the record
straight” about Mendoza’s role in abolishing the death penalty. The 3
specifically pointed to Mendoza’s claim in November that she was the deciding
vote in overturning capital punishment — a claim that was found to be “mostly
false.”
“This is especially concerning for me that she would use this because she had
already made herself very clear where she stood on criminal justice issues,”
Yarbrough said at the West Loop law offices of Loevy and Loevy.
“She’s no reformer and I really take issue with this whole business of being
the 60th vote, like she carried the day.”
Fields was represented by attorneys from Loevy and Loevy.
The former El-Rukn gang member said he cringed when he heard Mendoza’s
comments. He said it was prejudice against gang members that led to him being
wrongfully convicted.
“At the time that Ms. Mendoza made these comments, in 2010, there were 20 death
row exonerees already where it was proven that these men were sent to death row
for something they didn’t do,” Fields said. “Despite that, she was charging
right forward with ‘let’s do ‘em all in.'”
Yarbrough and Peters’ both have ties to Preckwinkle, who is also running for
mayor. Yarbrough is a committeeman for the Cook County Democratic Party where
Preckwinkle serves as chair.
Peters’ appointment to finish out Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s term in the
State Senate was seen by some residents in the district as a backroom deal put
together by Preckwinkle and Ald. Leslie Hairston.
A spokeswoman for Mendoza said the press conference was “rehashing” an old
issue and “that makes it clear its all political nonsense” orchestrated by the
Cook County Board President.
She also said that while Mendoza was a deciding vote, the deciding vote came
from former state Rep. Pat Verschoore who initially voted against abolishing
the death penalty then flipped his vote.
In a statement from Mendoza’s campaign, Verschoore says “anyone who says Susana
did not play a decisive role in ending the death penalty in Illinois either
doesn’t know the history or isn’t telling the truth.”
“This is just another politically motivated attack by Toni Preckwinkle who
continues to try and deflect attention from her campaign’s chaos and her
refusal to return $116,000 in contributions to Ed Burke despite her claims to
have already done so,” Mendoza’s spokeswoman said in a statement. “Susana is
proud to have been a deciding vote for ending the death penalty in Illinois and
played a pivotal role in recruiting other members to join her in that critical
vote.”
Peters said Monday he supports Preckwinkle, but the issue of the death penalty
goes beyond who he supports to be the next mayor.
Yarbrough said her actions weren’t politically motivated. “Toni couldn’t get me
to do this … We’re comrades on the Central Committee, but that has nothing to
do with this,” she said.
(source: Chicago Sun-Times)
UTAH:
Public Defenders Representing Man Charged in Officer's Death
Public defense attorneys have been appointed to represent a Utah man accused of
killing a Provo police officer.
The Daily Herald reports Judge Kraig Powel appointed attorneys Thomas Means and
Erik Jacobson to represent 40-year-old Matt Frank Hoover during his appearance
in the 4th District Court on Monday.
Hoover was charged last week with aggravated murder in the death of Police
Master Officer Joseph Shinners.
Provo and Orem officers tried to arrest Hoover on Jan. 5 in an Orem shopping
center parking lot.
Authorities say Hoover pulled out a handgun and fired one shot, striking
Shinners who later died at a hospital.
Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander says prosecutors have not decided if they
will pursue the death penalty.
Hoover remains in custody at the Utah County Jail without bail.
(source: Associated Press)
IDAHO:
Trial begins in lawsuit over Idaho execution records
An attorney for a University of Idaho professor seeking access to public
records on drugs used during the state's most recent executions says the
Department of Correction acted in bad faith and frivolously denied her client
access to the documents.
Molly Kafka, an ACLU-Idaho attorney representing Aliza Cover, made the argument
during opening statements in Ada County's 4th District Court Monday morning.
Cover and the ACLU sued last year, asking a judge to force the state to turn
over the documents so the public can assess the suitability of the drugs and
how they were obtained.
IDOC attorney Jessica Kuehn told Judge Lynn Norton the state has already given
Cover all the records that could be legally released under department rules,
and that officials provided her more information that was tangentially related
to her request in the interest of transparency. Kuehn said the records that
were withheld weren't subject to release because the Board of Correction has
the discretion under state law to exempt the release of records that could
threaten security or prevent the department from carrying out executions.
"This is not the proper proceeding to challenge the wisdom of the Idaho Board
of Correction," or the Legislature's rules that give the board the discretion
to determine which execution records may be safely released, Kuehn said.
Kafka said the Board of Correction didn't actually make any determination that
the need for secrecy outweighed the public's right to know, but rather said the
state reflexively denied access to the documents.
She said she would present witnesses including Jeanne Woodford, who carried out
four executions while she was the warden of San Quentin State Prison in
California and is now an opponent of the death penalty. She said Woodford will
testify that reducing the secrecy surrounding executions had no negative
effects.
"IDOC is relying on speculation and fear rather than data," Kafka said.
The case began after Cover filed a public record request with the Department of
Correction in 2017 seeking receipts, purchase orders, paperwork and other
documents on the drugs the state used in its two most recent executions along
with any documents on the drugs it expects to use in future executions.
The department provided her with documents detailing Idaho's execution
policies, but refused to turn over the other documents, contending the
information was exempt.
The issue has arisen in court cases around the country as prison officials face
increasing difficulty in obtaining the drugs used for lethal injections. Many
prison officials fear that revealing where they obtain the drugs will cause
their remaining suppliers to dry up. Pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced in
2016 that it would not provide lethal injection drugs to states, and the
following year asked states to return any of the drugs that they had previously
obtained.
With most traditional suppliers gone, some states have turned to compounding
pharmacies or foreign countries to purchase the drugs.
Increasingly, condemned inmates are also challenging the suitability of lethal
injection drugs in court, arguing that the drugs often don't work as planned
and contending that there are no longer any legitimate sources of the drugs
available to prisons. Inmates in some states, like Tennessee, have opted for
electrocution rather than risk what they fear could be a botched attempt at
lethal injection.
(source: myrtlebeachonline.com)
NEVADA:
Undocumented Salvadoran charged in 4 Nevada killings; death penalty possible
Prosecutors in Nevada said Monday they've filed murder charges that could bring
the death penalty against a 19-year-old Salvadoran immigrant in four recent
killings carried out over a 6-day span.
Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman acted alone in the deaths of a couple in Reno
and 2 women in their homes in nearby Gardnerville, prosecutors Mark Jackson and
Chris Hicks told reporters.
Martinez-Guzman has been jailed since his arrest Jan. 19 in the state capital,
Carson City, where court documents say Martinez-Guzman admitted to sheriff's
deputies that he fatally shot a Reno couple with a gun he stole from their
home.
Hicks said it could be 30 days before prosecutors decide whether to pursue the
death penalty.
"We are looking to hold an alleged murderer accountable," he said.
Hicks added that Martinez-Guzman's immigration status had nothing to do with
the criminal charges, which also included 5 burglary counts.
President Donald Trump tweeted a week ago that the 4 killings in Nevada showed
the need for his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall, which was at the center of
the federal government shutdown.
Jackson said Monday that investigators in Douglas and Washoe counties had "a
high level of confidence" that Martinez-Guzman acted alone.
Jackson alleged that Martinez-Guzman burglarized the Reno property of Gerald
David, 81, and his 80-year-old wife, Sharon David, on Jan. 3 and Jan. 4.
Martinez-Guzman stole a .22-caliber revolver during the second break-in and
used it days later to kill Connie Koontz and Sophia Renken in their
Gardnerville homes, Jackson said. Their bodies were found three days apart in
mid-January.
The Davids, who were prominent Reno Rodeo Association members, were found dead
in their home Jan. 16 after what Jackson said was Martinez-Guzman's 3rd
break-in in 6 days.
Martinez-Guzman is charged in Carson City with possessing weapons and selling
jewelry belonging to several victims, and with illegally possessing a cache of
rifles stolen from the Davids.
The .22-caliber revolver was recovered from a car Martinez-Guzman was driving
when he was arrested in Carson City.
He is being held in the Carson City jail on $500,000 bail. His newly appointed
public defense attorney, Karin Kreizenbeck, has declined comment.
Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said earlier that Martinez-Guzman's only known
contact with authorities was a speeding ticket last February.
(source: Associated Press)
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