May 22
OHIO----new death sentence
Cleveland man gets death penalty in Mr. Cars double murder
A judge on Tuesday imposed the death penalty on a 32-year-old man convicted of
the execution-style murders of a couple during a break-in attempt at their
family-owned car lot.
Joseph McAlpin will pay the law’s ultimate penalty in the 2017 shooting deaths
of Michael Kuznik and Trina Tomola inside Mr. Cars on East 185th Street.
Common Pleas Court Judge Brian J. Corrigan, who presided over the three-week
trial, condemned McAlpin to death row after the jury on Thursday recommended
the death penalty in the trial’s 2nd phase.
McAlpin, who is believed to be the first defendant to represent himself in a
death-penalty trial in Cuyahoga County’s history, thanked Corrigan and the team
of county prosecutors for their patience with him during the trial. He also
apologized to his own family for what he called “ignorant” declarations during
trial that he would only accept full liberty or death.
McAlpin offered no words to the family of Kuznik and Tomola, who packed the
courtroom’s gallery but chose not to address the court.
“My fight’s going to continue,” McAlpin, handcuffed in an orange jumpsuit,
said. “I know people are tired of hearing that, but there’s not much else I can
say.”
Cleveland City Councilman Michael Polensek, whose ward encompassed the
Collinwood neighborhood where the car lot sat for 40 years, called McAlpin a
“demonic killer” who rocked the entire neighborhood and the business community
across Cleveland.
“This was never about retribution,” Polensek said. “This was about justice.”
After the hearing, Polensek told reporters that he felt death by lethal
injection was “too good” for McAlpin.
“As far as I’m concerned he should be burned at the stake for what he did to
that family,” Polensek said.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley read a statement from Kuznik’s
family after the hearing in which they thanked law enforcement and the jurors
who heard the case.
“Our hearts will be forever broken, and we are greatly relieved that justice
has been served,” O’Malley said, reading from the statement.
Prosecutors put forth no additional evidence in the second phase of trial, and
McAlpin called a handful of family members to testify on his behalf.
The jury reached its recommendation after about deliberating for less than an
hour.
McAlpin has maintained his innocence throughout both phases of the trial.
Corrigan on Tuesday noted that McAlpin lived a difficult childhood. He shot
himself in the leg with his mother’s gun when he was 5 years old, Corrigan
said. He suffered seizures after he was hit in the head with a brick as a
12-year-old, and found his mother’s body after she overdosed on heroin when he
was 19. He also suffered sexual abuse.
Corrigan found that mitigation was not enough to outweigh the aggravated
circumstances of the killings.
The car lot, which had been owned by members of Kuznik’s family since it opened
in April 1975, closed after the killings.
“These crimes slowly eat at a community,” O’Malley said. “It’s through
sentences like this that jurors, who are composed of people from our community,
are just saying ‘we’ve had enough.’ People in this county have had enough.”
Prosecutors relied on DNA evidence, cellphone records and testimony from a man
who admitted to helping McAlpin carry out what was supposed to be a simple
burglary to steal cars and titles on April 14, 2017.
It was Good Friday and the couple, who had Easter baskets for their children in
the back of their car parked outside the lot, were closing up for the day,
prosecutors said. Those baskets remained in the backseat as the car sits in the
custody of Cleveland police as evidence, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors say McAlpin entered Mr. Cars and shot Kuznik, 47, in the showroom.
The bullet grazed Kuznik’s face before he ran to a backroom, where McAlpin
stood over him and shot him in the top of his head, prosecutors say.
Investigators found McAlpin’s DNA in Kuznik’s back pocket, where prosecutors
said he had put cash from 2 car sales earlier in the day. The cash was not
found on Kuznik’s body.
Tomola, 46, tried to run from the building during the robbery. McAlpin shot her
in the back of her head, near an exit, prosecutors said.
McAlpin also shot and killed the couple’s Doberman Pinscher, Axel, disabled the
business’s surveillance system and stole a BMW sedan, prosecutors said.
Andrew Keener told jurors that he participated in the crime alongside McAlpin.
Keener pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and is set to be sentenced
after McAlpin’s trial wraps up. McAlpin’s brother, Jerome Diggs, has pleaded
not guilty to charges including aggravated murder, and his case is pending.
(source: cleveland.com)
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Rethinking Death Penalty in Ohio
It is one thing to argue about the basic morality of capital punishment. But
there should be no controversy about putting to death people so mentally ill
they did not understand that murder is wrong.
Ohio legislators are considering a bill that would amend capital punishment
statutes. It would ban the death penality for people who were suffering from
“serious mental illness” when they committed murder.
The law already permits trials to conclude with verdicts of “not guilty by
reason of insanity.” It also protects those considered “incompetent to stand
trial.” The new proposal would add additional layers, designed to ban execution
for those who, at the time they killed, suffered from conditions that
“significantly impaired” their ability to think rationally.
Care must be taken not to give free passes to murderers who knew they were
committing serious crimes, of course. But if that can be done, lawmakers should
give the bill serious consideration — in the interest of justice.
(source: theintelligencer.net)
TENNESSEE:
Family of man executed for Marine’s brutal 1985 rape, murder seeks DNA testing
of evidence
The daughter of a Tennessee man executed for murder in 2006 is asking that DNA
evidence in the case be tested to determine once and for all if her father
raped and killed a U.S. Marine more than 30 years ago.
Sedley Alley was put to death in the July 11, 1985, murder of Lance Cpl.
Suzanne Marie Collins, who was stationed at the Naval Air Station Millington,
as was Alley’s wife. Collins, 19, was abducted as she went on a run on the
base, where she had just completed a 9-month course in avionics.
Her body was found the next day in nearby Edmund Orgill Park, according to The
Daily Memphian. The Virginia native, who was set to graduate from the training
school the day she was found, was severely beaten, with an autopsy showing she
had been struck about 100 times, authorities said.
Collins was also strangled and sexually violated with a tree branch. The New
York Times reported that her killer stripped the branch of its leaves and
twigs, sharpened one end to a point and drove it repeatedly into her body with
enough force that it pierced her lung.
Alley, then 29, was arrested the following day and charged with Collins’
murder, the Memphian reported. He confessed but later recanted the confession,
saying it had been coerced.
Alley said he could not remember what happened the night Collins was killed
because he had been drinking heavily. He was convicted in 1987 and sentenced to
death.
April Alley, who, along with her brother, witnessed her father’s execution,
filed a petition May 1 in Shelby County Criminal Court seeking DNA testing on
evidence found at the scene, including a pair of red men’s underwear
investigators believe were worn by Collins’ killer. According to the Memphian,
the petition seeks the post-conviction DNA testing that was denied Sedley Alley
prior to his death.
It also asks that Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee use his executive authority to order
the testing on the evidence, which a legal team from the Innocence Project
verified is still intact and housed in storage. That evidence includes the
victim’s underwear, the 31-inch branch used to penetrate her and a sample of
Sedley Alley’s DNA, which the Times reported was collected and stored before
his death.
The case marks the first attempt to use DNA evidence to clear someone who has
been executed for a crime, Stephen Ross Johnson, a Tennessee attorney working
on the case alongside the Innocence Project, told the Memphian.
“There have been other cases where certainly people have been exonerated and
come off death row,” Johnson told the newspaper. “There have also been
situations where DNA testing (was done) after someone died in prison, but this
will the first one where someone was subjected to capital punishment and then
their DNA tested.”
The Innocence Project, which represented Sedley Alley in his appeals, sought to
have the evidence tested for DNA before his execution. The Tennessee parole
board recommended that then-Gov. Phil Bredesen order the testing, but Bredesen
instead told Alley’s lawyers to seek relief through the court system.
The courts denied Alley’s request.
“The Tennessee courts incorrectly ruled that Mr. Alley was not entitled to DNA
testing, even if the testing could produce a match to a 3rd party with a
history of committing similar offenses,” Innocence Project officials said
earlier this month.
The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that the lower court’s denial was incorrect
in 2011, 5 years after Sedley was put to death. The high court ruled in State
v. Powers that Tennessee’s post-conviction DNA law intended to allow defendants
to prove their innocence by comparing their DNA to that from other possible
suspects, including suspects whose genetic profiles are in the FBI’s Combined
DNA Index System, or CODIS.
“The courts got it wrong in 2006 when they allowed Mr. Alley to be executed
before testing the DNA,” said Barry Scheck, a co-founder of the Innocence
Project. “If Mr. Alley were alive today, he would be entitled to DNA testing
under the Powers ruling and the plain language of the post-conviction DNA
analysis statute. We now have a chance to learn the truth in this case.”
A recent tip has also raised the possibility that another man accused in a rape
and murder in another state might be the true killer in Collins’ case, the
Memphian reported. The court petition filed by April Alley identifies the
potential alternate suspect as Thomas Bruce, who, according to the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch, is accused of sexually assaulting 2 women and killing a 3rd at a
Missouri Catholic supply store in November.
Bruce was taking courses at the same avionics training school as Collins in
1985, the petition states.
“I just want the truth,” April Alley wrote in an email to the Memphian. “The
DNA evidence should have been tested before my father was executed. It’s too
late for my father, but it’s not too late to find the truth. The court or
governor should order DNA testing.”
The case against Sedley Alley
The night she was attacked, Collins left the barracks for her daily 10-mile
run, the Times reported. Around 11 p.m., 2 other Marines passed her, jogging in
the opposite direction.
The Marines moments later dodged a station wagon swerving in the road, headed
in the same direction as Collins, the Times said.
A few seconds later, the men heard a woman screaming, “Don’t touch me! Leave me
alone!”
They ran toward the screams and saw what they believed to be the same station
wagon stopped alongside the road, the Times reported. It sped off as they
approached.
The men ran to the barracks gate, where a guard sounded an alarm for a possible
abduction.
Sedley Alley was stopped about an hour later near the base, driving a 1972
station wagon, the newspaper said. He did not have any visible injuries,
according to a Navy investigator.
After talking to Alley’s wife, investigators concluded the two Marines had
heard the couple arguing and, not knowing that Collins was then missing,
canceled the alert for the station wagon, according to the Times. The Alleys
were sent home and a guard was put on their home.
Collins’ body was found the next morning, and Alley was arrested.
Investigators said Alley told them he had hit Collins with his station wagon
while driving drunk and then accidentally stabbed her in the head with a
screwdriver. The petition filed by his daughter states that the medical
examiner determined neither of those claims was accurate.
Alley later said investigators only turned on their tape recorder after he told
them what they wanted to hear.
Physical evidence used to tie Alley to the crime included Type O blood on the
driver’s side door of the station wagon. That type matched Collins, but it also
matched Alley’s blood type, the Times said.
Paper napkins from a local restaurant were also found in the car and on the
ground near Collins’ body, and an air conditioner pump found in the station
wagon had reportedly been installed at a home near where Collins was jogging,
the paper said.
No physical evidence from Collins was found inside the car or on Alley, the
Times said. The petition for DNA testing also indicates that a witness on the
base reported seeing a second station wagon carrying a couple -- potentially
Alley and his wife -- around the time of Collins’ abduction.
Despite the lack of direct physical evidence, Alley was for decades after his
conviction assumed to be the killer. An investigator in 2003 found a
handwritten note, however, in which the medical examiner in Collins’ case
estimated she had died after Alley and his wife were sent home that night --
and while military police were watching the family’s home.
The investigator also learned that a boyfriend of Collins’ drove a station
wagon and matched the approximate height of a man seen near the site of her
abduction, while Alley was about 8 inches taller, the Times said. Alley’s
complexion and hair color also failed to match the description from a witness.
Alley told his daughter a few weeks before his death that if he committed the
heinous acts Collins was forced to suffer, he deserved to be executed, the
court petition says. He told her he did not remember committing the crime,
however, and did not believe he had.
Scheck said if the killer’s DNA can be pulled from the evidence, it can not
only be tested against the known sample from Alley but can also be compared to
profiles uploaded to public genealogy databases.
Dozens of cold cases have been solved over the past year using genetic
genealogy, including murder cases decades old.
“The public’s interest in having the right defendant brought to justice extends
beyond the life of a single defendant,” Scheck said. “If Tennessee executed the
wrong person in 2006, the actual perpetrator may still be free to harm other
people. This is a matter of public safety.”
(suorce: Atlanta JOurnal-Constitution)
NEVADA:
Defense Lawyer Loses Bid to Get Judge to Kill Death Penalty
A state court judge rejected a bid by a defense lawyer on Tuesday to declare
Nevada's death penalty unconstitutional because the 2 most powerful lawmakers
in the Legislature are also career prosecutors.
Attorney JoNell Thomas, representing a man facing 3 upcoming capital murder
cases, said Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro and Assembly Speaker Jason
Frierson — both Democrats and deputy Clark County district attorneys — killed
debate in the Legislature about capital punishment.
Clark County District Court Judge Douglas Herndon agreed with Thomas that
Nevada may be unique among U.S. states to have part-time legislatures led by
party leaders whose full-time jobs are to enforce the law.
Neither the judge nor Thomas said they could find previous instances in other
states or court cases on the question.
Thomas argued the legislative leaders' roles as prosecutors and law enforcers
make them different from elected state representatives who are defense
attorneys, firefighters or teachers.
"The people who enforce the law can't make the law," she said.
Herndon, a former Clark County prosecutor, declined to decide that question.
He said his role is to administer proceedings to determine if 27-year-old
defendant Alonso Perez is guilty — and a jury decision on punishment if he is.
"This is not really a forum to investigate whether there is legislative bias or
why particular representatives may or may not have done something, whether
they're prosecutors or anybody else," he said, adding that if there is
impropriety in the Legislature, it would be up to elected lawmakers to address
it.
Herndon also denied Thomas' request to order Clark County District Attorney
Steve Wolfson to turn over copies of any emails, memos and telephone records
between supervisory prosecutors and prosecutors serving in the Legislature.
Cannizzaro and Frierson did not immediately respond to messages about the
ruling.
Thomas declined outside court to comment, but said later she'll "likely" appeal
Herndon's ruling to the Nevada Supreme Court.
Wolfson, who was in the courtroom for the hearing, said he thought Herndon
reached a "proper conclusion." The district attorney also noted that Perez's
attorneys were making similar arguments before other judges handling his other
murder cases.
Perez faces separate murder trials next year in slayings dating to August 2016.
The court filing on his behalf seeks a finding that the death penalty in Nevada
is "invalid because the legislative process ... has been compromised due to
prosecutorial interference and dominance in Nevada's Legislature."
It claims that Wolfson, as Cannizzaro's and Frierson's employer, exerted
improper authority over legislative leaders and "indirect authority over his
subordinates" to kill debate on the death penalty.
Nevada has almost 80 inmates on death row. The state has not conducted an
execution since 2006.
Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, has said he opposes the death penalty except in
extreme circumstances. He has declined to comment about Thomas' death penalty
challenge.
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA:
Palm Springs police officers recount grief as jury considers death penalty for
Felix
Emotional testimony filled an Indio courtroom Tuesday, as a jury began to weigh
whether John Hernandez Felix will get the death penalty. The "penalty phase" of
the trial started the morning after the same jury found Felix guilty on
1st-degree murder for the killing of 2 Palm Springs police officers in 2016.
Expressing anger, sadness and regret, several officers who survived the
shooting took the stand and attempted, though visibly distressed by their
memories, to explain to the jury how on Oct. 8, 2016, their lives were changed
by the deaths of officers Jose "Gil" Vega and Lesley Zerebny.
Former Officer Abraham Vargas told the jury he was trained, in part, by Vega.
He had a strong bond with the veteran officer, Vargas said, and that they even
joked in the department that Vega was training Vargas to be his replacement.
The shooting changed his life, Vargas told the jury, and he hopes justice is
served.
Vargas has since retired from the force, he said.
John Hernandez Felix has been found guilty on all counts for the 2016 murders
of Palm Springs Police officers Jose "Gil" Vega and Lesley Zerebny. Officer
Jeffrey Burton suffered one gunshot wound, and shrapnel from another round is
still lodged in his right calf and left hip. Burton described Vega as a "father
figure" and Zerebny as a "little sister." He joked to the jury that Vega would
take him to "Swiss Thursdays," a Coachella Valley pastry chain, where the 2 got
donuts.
"He taught me that in training," Burton said, in one of the few moments that
smiles interrupted the somber courtroom mood.
Burton briefly described to the jury that he went to lunch with Zerebny days
before the shooting and spoke to the new mother about being a parent and the
"crazy things little girls do."
The shooting has left Burton with a short temper, he said, and led him to seek
treatment for post-traumatic stress.
"Sadness, anger, frustration," Burton said, "you name it and I've felt it."
Burton said he still feels those emotions today.
Burton is still on the force and said he now treats every call like it's a
"life or death call."
Officer Byron Farley described Vega to the jury as a "good man." They were both
fans of the Dallas Cowboys, and they'd chat about the team when they crossed
paths in the police locker room.
"If you met him," Farley said, "you liked him."
Farley told the jury that he was Zerebny's primary training officer. During the
academy, he said, they spoke once a week and patrolled together for some time
during her first months on the force.
"She knew her job and she did her job," Farley said.
He described the anger, disbelief and, ultimately, the regret he felt and still
feels.
"I should have taken the call," Farley said. "I should have been there sooner.
I missed something."
Farley said he's had some difficulty coping with his emotions after the
shooting. He never returned to patrol and retired on medical leave in 2018.
"I shut down," he told the jury, "stayed away from people,"
Sergeant Shawn Flynn testified that Vega wasn't scheduled to work the day that
he was killed. He was covering a shift for another officer who had requested
the day off. He said he is disappointed in himself as he continues to struggle
with his grief.
"I always tell my officers to back each other up," Flynn said. "I tell them we
all go home together at the end of the shift. I lost two to officers in the
worst way possible and three retired that day."
Michelle Paradise, one of the prosecuting attorneys, told the jury at the
beginning of the penalty phase that it is now their responsibility to hold the
convicted man accountable.
"As a society we have established laws and punishments that reflect those
values that we hold dearest to us," Paradise told the jury, "and we reserve our
most severe punishments for those most heinous crimes, those crimes that tear —
literally rip apart — the fabric of our community."
In this case, Paradise said, the jury is considering the lives of 2 people who
chose to put on a uniform and protect the community. Now dozens of lives, from
their colleagues to their family members, will never be the same.
Paradise displayed photos of the officers while she spoke to the jury. When she
projected a photo of the fallen officer Lesley Zerbny, her infant daughter, who
was sitting on her father's lap in the hushed courtroom, began to cry. Others
in the jury and the audience also began to weep.
When testimony concludes, Paradise told the jury, the prosecutors will ask for
the death penalty.
Jake Devane spoke to the jury on behalf of Felix's defense team.
"Your verdicts of guilt, no one is questioning that," Devane said. "What you
are now deciding is what will be appropriate punishement in this case."
The defense plans to call Felix's family members and doctors who assessed his
mental health. Devane asked the jury to look at the evidence they'll be shown
with fresh eyes and to consider whether life without parole is due punishment.
In the coming days, prosecutors will attempt to persuade the jury that Felix
deserves the death penalty. Felix's attorneys will argue for leniency. The same
jury found him guilty on all counts after approximately four hours of
deliberations.
The trial began on April 17, with the prosecution describing in graphic detail
how Felix used an AR-15 to fire 21 rounds at Palm Springs police officers who
had arrived at his house around noon on Oct. 8, 2016, in response to a domestic
dispute.
Vega and Zerebny were the first officers to arrive at the Felix home on Cypress
Avenue in northern Palm Springs. When Felix refused to exit the home, the
officers attempted to open the metal security door — that’s when shots erupted.
Ultimately, the two officers suffered fatal injuries, one other survived a
gunshot wound, and several others were injured during the shootout.
Felix left the house and surrendered to SWAT officers more than 12 hours later
and only after the home was flooded with teargas.
(source: The Desert Sun)
***************
Defense Begins Effort to Spare Cop Killer from Death Sentence
A Palm Springs resident who gunned down 2 police officers suffers from
intellectual disabilities and should be spared from a death sentence, a defense
attorney told a jury Tuesday, but a prosecutor said the man deserves the
severest of punishments.
“Guilt does not equal punishment,” defense attorney Jacob DeVane told jurors
during his opening statement in the penalty phase of John Hernandez Felix’s
trial, during which jurors will recommend a death sentence or a prison term of
life without parole. “Mr. Felix is not the worst of the worst even in light of
the crimes you have convicted him for.”
Felix, 28, faces a possible death sentence for the Oct. 8, 2016, killings of
Officer Jose Gilbert Vega, 63, and Officer Lesley Zerebny, 27. Jurors on Monday
convicted Felix of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, along with 6 counts of
attempted murder stemming from the shots he fired at other officers outside the
defendant’s family home in the 2700 block of Cypress Avenue, where they had
gone in response to a domestic disturbance call.
DeVane said factors such as Felix’s auditory processing disorder — which he
described as a mental defect — along with a below-average IQ and drug use
during the 2016 attack should all be considered mitigating evidence.
“You are not deciding guilt or innocence,” DeVane told jurors. “But what you
are deciding is what would be the appropriate punishment in this case.”
Deputy District Attorney Michelle Paradise countered that the killings of 2
police officers warranted the death penalty.
“As a society, we establish laws and punishments that reflect those values that
we hold dearest to us,” she said. “And, we reserve the most severe punishment —
the death penalty — for those crimes that tear, literally rip apart, the fabric
of our community. Those crimes that prey upon the innocent, and in this case,
the heroic.”
Paradise said Felix preyed on “the honorable” and “the outstanding,” and said
the “true motive” behind the shooting was “his hatred for law enforcement.” She
also pointed to his criminal past, noting that he previously served four years
in prison, and said the death penalty is the most appropriate punishment.
Felix was also convicted of unlawful possession of an assault weapon, unlawful
weapon possession by a prohibited person and unlawful possession of ammunition.
The jury rejected allegations that Felix was wearing body armor during the
shooting.
They also found true special-circumstance allegations of murder of a peace
officer and multiple murders, opening Felix to the possible death sentence.
Vega and Zerebny were the first Palm Springs police officers killed in the line
of duty since Jan. 1, 1962, when Officer Lyle Wayne Larrabee died during a
vehicle pursuit. The only other death in the department was that of Officer
Gale Gene Eldridge, who was fatally shot on Jan. 18, 1961, while investigating
an armed robbery.
Vega had been with the department 35 years — 5 years past his retirement
eligibility — and had planned to retire in 2018. He had 8 children, 11
grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. Zerebny had been with the department
for 18 months and had just returned to duty following maternity leave, having
given birth to a daughter, Cora, 4 months earlier.
(source: mynewsla.com)
****************************
Lawyer who didn't practice law for 2 decades removed from death penalty case
A California lawyer who was appointed to represent a capital defendant after a
longtime absence from law practice is no longer on the case.
Lawyer Gary Turnbull, now 74, was ousted from the case at the request of the
defendant, Juan Pablo Vega, who is accused of killing 2 people at a nightclub,
the Los Angeles Times reports. Turnbull had regained his law license in October
after he did not practice law for nearly 2 decades.
The American Civil Liberties Union had sought Turnbull’s removal in Vega’s Kern
County case partly because of his long law-practice hiatus. The ACLU also cited
Turnbull’s past sexual relationships with two daughters of a client who was
accused of killing her husband. The relationships took place in 1986 and 1988,
before and during the woman’s trials, according to past coverage by the Los
Angeles Times. Turnbull had fathered a child with one of the daughters.
Cassandra Stubbs, director of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project, told the
Los Angeles Times that Turnbull’s removal is a positive development. “This
continues to show the need for a closer look at the way the death penalty
system is broken in California,” she said. “There are so few mechanisms for
oversight over, really, this abysmal quality of lawyering.”
Turnbull had been appointed to Vega’s case because of a conflict of interest by
the public defender’s office. The public defender had represented Vega’s
girlfriend, accused of soliciting the murders.
Turnbull was suspended from law practice in 1995 for not paying child support
and in 2004 for not paying bar dues. Turnbull said he didn’t renew his law
license because he had cancer and moved to Canada. In a court filing, Turnbull
said he had handled more than 100 criminal jury trials during his career and
had attended 300 hours of death penalty seminars.
Turnbull told the Los Angeles Times last month that the California bar never
found his relationship with the client’s daughters to be unethical. “According
to court rules, I’m totally qualified,” he said.
Turner told the Los Angeles Times he is handling 2 other capital cases.
(source: abajournal.com)
OREGON:
Oregon Senate Passes Bill Limiting State Death Penalty
A proposal to pare down Oregon’s death penalty law is moving forward, after
being approved by the state Senate on Tuesday.
With little fanfare — and zero debate — what some regard as the most meaningful
effort to curtail the death penalty in recent memory passed in an 18-9 vote
that largely stuck to party lines.
If passed in the House and signed by Gov. Kate Brown, Senate Bill 1013 would
redefine the crime of aggravated murder, the only offense punishable by death
in Oregon. The bill would strip out many elements that currently constitute the
crime, moving them to newly created classes of murder.
Moving forward, aggravated murder would be limited to homicides where 2 or more
people are killed to intimidate a civilian population or influence a government
— crimes that are associated with terrorist acts. Defendants who murdered
children under the age of 14, or killed another inmate while serving time for a
murder conviction, could also be sentenced to death.
Additionally, the bill would change the questions Oregon jurors must answer in
order to sentence a defendant to death, removing a query about whether the
person is likely to be dangerous in the future. Death penalty opponents argue
that question is impossible to answer, and could result in Oregon’s law being
found unconstitutional.
“At this point, we have found that the system and the statute is not complying
with what we want and what we intended,” said state Sen. Floyd Prozanski,
D-Eugene, a chief backer of the proposal and the only senator to speak on
either side of the issue before Tuesday’s vote.
He and other supporters of the bill argue that capital punishment rarely gives
much closure to families of victims since cases can take decades to fully
resolve. They also contend the process is expensive. A 2016 study found death
penalty cases can cost between $800,000 and $1 million more than cases where a
defendant is facing life without parole.
Debate over the bill has injected uncertainty into ongoing criminal cases that
could involve death sentences. Perhaps most prominently, the trial of a man
accused of murdering two men on a Portland light rail train was recently
delayed until next year, partly out of concerns over changes to the law.
Capital punishment was approved by voters in 1984, and could not be removed
from the Oregon Constitution without a public vote. While opponents of the
death penalty concede such a vote could be a tough sell, they have argued
lawmakers have the prerogative to alter what crimes are punishable by death.
People who’ve opposed the bill, meanwhile, have said the law should not be
changed without input from voters. That’s a sentiment that’s been shared by
House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, who could block the bill’s path in the
House. Kotek said Tuesday she needed to read the bill in its current form
before commenting on whether it would get a vote.
Despite being on the books, capital punishment is rarely used in Oregon.
Then-Gov. John Kitzhaber declared a moratorium on executions in 2011, and Gov.
Kate Brown has continued the policy. Just two inmates have been executed in the
state in the last 50 years, and both had ceased fighting their sentences.
(source: opb.org)
********
Potential law change looms in murder case involving Grass Valley woman
A possible change in Oregon law would affect the man accused of a Grass Valley
woman’s death, removing the possibility of the death penalty as a punishment.
Justin Lee Graham-Yaeger, 33, faces charges of aggravated murder, murder and
first-degree robbery in connection with the death of Sierra Clemens, 23, in
Medford, Oregon. Arrested May 3, Graham-Yaeger appeared Monday in Jackson
County Circuit Court and was given a copy of his indictment. He’s next
scheduled for court on June 12.
If convicted of aggravated murder, Graham-Yaeger would have a jury determine
his sentence — death, life in prison without parole or life with a chance of
parole after 30 years, said Allan Smith, senior deputy district attorney with
the Jackson County, Oregon, District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors currently aren’t seeking the death penalty, Smith added.
“That’s a decision we’ll make down the road,” the prosecutor said.
A murder conviction brings a life sentence, with the possibility of parole
after 25 years, Smith said.
Legislation moving through the Oregon Legislature, Senate Bill 1013, would
alter aggravated murder if passed.
Currently someone can face an aggravated murder charge if they meet one of
several criteria. In Graham-Yaeger’s case, it’s the robbery charge.
The bill would significantly limit the criteria for aggravated murder, and
Graham-Yaeger no longer would be eligible, Smith said.
“If this goes through, he would not be eligible for aggravated murder or the
death penalty,” he added.
The bill also would create new charges: 1st- and 2nd-degree murder. Someone
convicted of 1st-degree murder would receive a life sentence with the chance of
parole after 30 years. A 2nd-degree murder conviction also would warrant a life
sentence, but with the chance of parole after 25 years, Smith said.
The bill hasn’t yet reached a vote of the Oregon state Senate, records show.
According to reports, officers found Clemens’ body after responding May 3 to a
disturbance at a Medford motel. Moments later they found Graham-Yaeger hiding
in a Dumpster. A police dog bit Graham-Yaeger during his arrest. He was treated
at a hospital before being booked into jail.
(source: theunion.com)
********************
Voters should get a say on death penalty
A bill before the state Legislature that would dramatically curtail the cases
in which the death penalty could be applied passed the state Senate on Tuesday
and now heads for the House.
But in the House, the bill might well run into a major roadblock: Speaker of
the House Tina Kotek has said in the past she believes such a major revision in
Oregon capital punishment laws should go before the state's voters. She said
this week that she would need to read the latest version of the measure, Senate
Bill 1013, before making a final decision — but it certainly is true that the
speaker has the power to stop a bill from advancing in the Legislature.
Here's a case where Kotek is right: This is something that the state's citizens
deserve a chance to consider.
To be fair, Senate Bill 1013 is a well-crafted and clever bit of legislation.
The bill redefines the crime of aggravated murder (the only crime in Oregon
statutes that can be punished by death), so that it includes acts of terror
that kill 2 or more people. The bill has been revised so that it includes two
other instances in which a defendant could be sentenced to death: cases in
which the victim was under the age of 14 or in which a defendant killed another
inmate while serving time for a murder conviction.
Other offenses that currently qualify as aggravated murder under state law,
such as killing someone during the course of a rape or robbery, would be
reclassified as another type of murder, and the maximum punishment for those
would be life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The proposed legislation also would change one of the four questions juries
must decide when considering whether to impose a death sentence. Oregon jurors
now must determine whether a person guilty of aggravated murder is at risk of
being a danger in the future. The bill would remove that question, which is
fine: It's an unfair and unscientific duty to ask jurors to tackle.
The bill passed the Senate on Tuesday on a largely party-line 18-9 vote. Among
mid-valley legislators, Sen. Sara Gelser, a Democrat, voted in favor of the
measure; Sen. Fred Girod, a Republican, voted against it.
For a bill that has drawn a measure of attention this session, the floor debate
in the Senate on Tuesday was remarkably restrained: Only Sen. Floyd Prozanski,
the influential Eugene Democrat who's led the charge on the bill, spoke.
The main argument opponents have raised against the bill — and the very point
that Kotek is pondering — is that such a major change to state law on capital
punishment should be referred to voters.
And that's what the Legislature should do.
The verdict of Oregon voters over the last century on capital punishment has
been mixed: Capital punishment was outlawed by voters in 1914 and then
re-enacted in 1978. 3 years later, the state Supreme Court ruled that the death
penalty was unconstitutional, paving the way for a 1984 initiative in which
voters reaffirmed capital punishment.
Since then, though, the topic has been rarely revisited in Oregon. After
then-Gov. John Kitzhaber imposed a moratorium on capital punishment in 2011, he
made a halfhearted effort to goad the Legislature into action, but the proposal
didn't gain any traction. Gov. Kate Brown has said that she plans to continue
the moratorium, but hasn't taken much of an active role on the issue.
Oregon hasn't executed a prisoner since May 1997; the state has 32 men and 1
woman on death row.
It's very possible that the opinions of Oregonians have changed since that 1984
initiative, as the national debate over the death penalty has taken intriguing
twists and turns in the 35 years since then. But there's only one way to find
out for sure. The Legislature should let voters decide.
(source: Editorial, KVPI news)
USA:
High court bickering over death cases, weeks after…
The Supreme Court shined an unusual light Monday on its internal squabbling
over the death penalty, with the justices making public more than 30 pages of
arguments on issues they decided weeks ago.
The high court almost never revisits opinions after the fact, though Monday was
the second time this spring that the justices returned to arguments in an
already-decided death penalty case. A decision in a Missouri death penalty case
in April featured the justices also tussling in writing over a prior decision
involving an Alabama death row inmate.
The justices frequently get asked to step in to halt executions at the last
minute, and the spats aired Monday involve cases the court ruled on in March
and April. In the more recent case, Alabama asked the Supreme Court to step in
and allow the execution of Christopher Lee Price, whose execution had been
halted by a lower court after he raised a challenge to the state’s lethal
injection procedure.
The Supreme Court fractured 5-4 along liberal-conservative lines to allow his
execution.
In that case, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for himself and his liberal
colleagues that the conservative majority’s decision to let the execution go
forward “calls into question the basic principles of fairness that should
underlie our criminal justice system” and was evidence that “death sentences in
the United States can be carried out in an arbitrary way.”
On Monday, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a 14-page response to, he said, “set
the record straight.” Thomas said there was “nothing of substance” to Breyer’s
claims. An “accurate recounting” of the circumstances surrounding the case show
it was “set to proceed in a procedurally unremarkable and constitutional
acceptable manner,” he wrote.
The justices’ original decision in the case came after Price’s death warrant
expired, so a new execution date had to be set. Price, who was convicted of
murder in the 1991 stabbing death of pastor Bill Lynn, is now set to be
executed May 30.
Also on Monday, Justice Samuel Alito issued a new statement in the case of a
Texas death row inmate, Patrick Murphy. Murphy, a Buddhist, asked the Supreme
Court to halt his scheduled March execution if officials wouldn’t let his
spiritual adviser accompany him into the execution chamber. Texas argued that
only chaplains who had been extensively vetted by the prison system were
allowed in the chamber and that while Christian and Muslim chaplains were
available, no Buddhist priest was.
The high court ultimately granted Murphy a temporary reprieve. At the time,
only Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch noted their disagreement but did not write
to explain why. On Monday, Alito issued a 14-page statement in which he called
the court’s decision “seriously wrong.” He said the issue Murphy raised was an
important one, but he faulted Murphy for an “inexcusable delay” in raising it.
“If the tactics of Murphy’s attorneys in this case are not inexcusably
dilatory, it is hard to know what the concept means,” Alito wrote. He added
that the justices are asked to get involved at the last minute in “virtually
every execution” and that in the “great majority of cases, no good reason for
the late filing is apparent.” He said that by tolerating “such tactics, the
Court invites abuse.”
In response, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who previously voted to halt Murphy’s
execution and said Murphy had not delayed , issued another statement. Despite
“greatly” respecting Alito’s position, he disagreed. He pointed out that after
the court’s decision, Texas changed its policy so that no religious ministers
are allowed in the execution room, only an adjacent viewing chamber. Kavanaugh
called that a “prompt resolution.”
(source: brinkwire.com)
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