[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., FLA., ALA.
July 20 TEXASnew death sentence Man gets death penalty in 1992 killing of 6-year-old It took more than 2 decades for Angelo Garcia's mother to see her 6-year-old son's killer sent to death row. On Friday, she said it was worth it. It's the greatest news, and it took 21 years, the woman said after jurors sent Obel Cruz-Garcia to death row for the 1992 slaying. It was good when they got the DNA, but this is better. Cruz-Garcia marks the 1st defendant from Harris County this year to receive the death penalty. Over the past 2 weeks, jurors heard a brutal story about a home invasion that turned into a rape that turned into a kidnapping and murder. They also learned it was the sexual assault that ultimately led police to identify the 45-year-old. Cruz-Garcia was serving time for kidnapping in Puerto Rico in 2007 when DNA from the 15-year-old rape kit tied him to the 1992 case. Cruz-Garcia and another man were wearing ski masks when they broke in to the family's south Houston apartment around midnight on Sept. 30, 1992. The child's mother and stepfather testified they were part of the defendant's cocaine-trafficking operation. They said they were tied up while the duo ransacked the home. The men then fled with Angelo in a car driven by a third man, who testified that Cruz-Garcia and the other suspect took the child to a Baytown lake, where he was stabbed. His remains were found in the lake about a month later. On Monday, jurors convicted Cruz-Garcia of capital murder after deliberating about 4 hours. After days of more testimony, they sentenced him to die Friday. Thinking about the time between crime and punishment left the victim's family weeping after the verdict. 'Waited all these years' We just waited all these years, all this time, and it finally happened, said Angelo's brother, James Garcia, with tears in his eyes. Cruz-Garcia, who jumped bail on a felony drug case to flee the country 2 days after the abduction, was brought back to Houston in 2008 for trial. Prosecutors praised the verdict after jurors deliberated about 7 hours over 2 days. It's an important decision, and sometimes it takes some people a little bit longer to get there, said Assistant Harris County District Attorney Natalie Tise. All in all, they weren't deliberating all that long. Defense lawyers for Cruz-Garcia said they were disappointed and that the defendant is focused on his appeal. Cruz-Garcia did not react to the verdict when read by state District Judge Renee Magee. He was pretty even-keeled through the entire trial, said defense attorney Mario Madrid. He didn't show a lot of emotion during the trial or after trial. Cruz-Garcia has denied any involvement in the home invasion, the abduction or the child's death. (source: Houston Chronicle) *** Sheriff says prosecutors will seek death penalty against Eric and Kim Williams Prosecutors will go before a Kaufman County district court on Friday, July 26 and formally announce they will be seeking the death penalty for Eric and Kim Williams, accused of 3 murders earlier this year. Kaufman County Sheriff David A. Byrnes gave that information to a crowd of Kaufman Lions Club members at the organization's weekly meeting on Friday (July 19). Judge Michael Snipes of the Criminal District Court No. 7 of Dallas County will be in Kaufman to sit on that pre-trial proceeding, according to his court coordinator. Snipes was appointed as the presiding judge on the capital murder cases after 422nd Judicial District Judge B. Michael Chitty recused himself. We're going to try to seat a jury in Kaufman County, Byrnes said, heading off questions about whether or not a trial would be held here. We think we can do that. We think the people of Kaufman County deserve to hear this case. Byrnes was the club's guest speaker at its luncheon and was asked there to talk to members about the events that began in late January. Jan. 31st, at 8:43 a.m., changed Kaufman forever, Byrnes began. Mark Hasse was assassinated on his way to work. Hasse, a Kaufman County assistant district attorney, was shot and killed at the scene, 1 block from the courthouse. On March 30, the day before Easter Sunday, district attorney Mike McLelland and his wife Cynthia were shot and killed in their home. In subsequent weeks, former justice of the peace Eric Williams was jailed for sending a terroristic threat by email. Days later, during an interview with law enforcement, his wife Kim Williams confessed that she had been the driver of the vehicle that had carried her and her husband to both murder scenes and said her husband was the shooter in both cases. Both McLelland and Hasse were the prosecuting attorneys in the 2012 trial of Eric Williams that saw a jury hand down 2 guilty verdicts on state jail felony charges. Chitty was the presiding judge on that case. The result of that trial saw Eric
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KY., NEB., ARIZ., CALIF., US MIL., USA
July 20 KENTUCKY: Lexington Death Penalty Case That Was Overturned May Be Headed Back To Court It appears that a Lexington death penalty case that was overturned by the Kentucky Supreme Court will be headed back to trial next year. Carlos Ordway was in court Friday morning, where attorneys scheduled a status hearing for October 25. Prosecutors and defense attorneys said they should be ready to set a new trial date by then. Ordway was convicted in 2010 of two counts of murder for the shooting deaths of Patrick Lewis and Rodrieques Turner. Police say all three men had been involved in a bank robbery in Louisville where two tellers were shot. The high court overturned the verdict last year after finding numerous problems with the trial, including improper testimony and a juror that should not have been seated. (source: lex18.com) NEBRASKA: Affidavit reveals link between Omaha deaths Police discover similarity of stab wounds on victims' necks Police called in May to an Omaha home where a prominent pathology doctor and his wife had been killed noted striking similarities between the stab wounds on the right side of the victims' necks and those inflicted on an 11-year-old boy and a housekeeper slain 5 years earlier. That parity was detailed in an arrest affidavit unsealed Thursday in the case of Dr. Anthony Garcia, who is charged with 4 counts of 1st-degree murder and weapons counts in the May deaths, as well as the slayings in 2008. Police soon discovered it wasn't just the stab wounds that linked the victims. The slain doctor, Roger Brumback, was the chairman of the Creighton University School of Medicine's pathology department. The boy stabbed to death five years earlier in a nearby neighborhood was the son of a professor who worked closely with Brumback in the same department. That connection led police to research those associated with the department, uncovering another eye-opener - that Hunter and Brumback had fired Garcia from the pathology residence program for unprofessional conduct in 2001. The affidavit was used to support a Nebraska warrant for Garcia, who was arrested Monday in southern Illinois. Nebraska prosecutors say Garcia shot and stabbed Brumback and fatally stabbed Brumback's wife, Mary. Garcia is also charged in the stabbing deaths of 11-year-old Thomas Hunter and his family's housekeeper, Shirlee Sherman. According to documents that Brumback sent to Indiana medical licensing officials in January, Garcia was fired for trying to sabotage another Creighton resident's efforts to complete his residency. The documents say Garcia called the colleague's wife to needlessly demand that her husband return to the university's pathology department. The wife then tried to contact her husband, who was taking a high-stakes test for his residency at the time. Documents to and from various medical schools and state medical licensing agencies show that Garcia also left a New York residency program in 1999 to avoid disciplinary action, and that his application for medical licenses in various states were rejected following his firing from Creighton. Police have cited those troubles as a likely motive for the killings. Garcia's attorneys said Wednesday that Garcia, who was extradited from southern Illinois' Jackson County Jail to the Douglas County Jail in Omaha on Thursday, denies the charges. Nebraska prosecutors are weighing whether to seek the death penalty against Garcia. Regardless, a conviction of 1st-degree murder in Nebraska brings a minimum sentence of life in prison without parole. The Nebraska prosecutor, Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine, said Wednesday that Garcia would likely be arraigned Monday or Tuesday. Kleine did not return messages seeking comment Thursday. The affidavit says the killer used knives found at the homes in the attacks and that the weapons were left behind to be found by police. Parts of a gun used to shoot Roger Brumback also were found inside his home. The affidavit says the parts were matched to a Smith Wesson SD9 handgun that police say Garcia bought in March from a gun retailer in Terre Haute, Ind., where Garcia has been living. Garcia made credit card purchases and a cellphone call in Iowa, about an hour away from Omaha, on May 12, the day the Brumbacks were killed, the affidavit said. Omaha police released a photo of a man who looks like Garcia, taken that day inside a convenience store in Council Bluffs, Iowa, which lies across the Missouri River from Omaha. (source: Associated Press) ARIZONA: Jodi Arias Trial Update: Plea Deal Rejected; Arias Says 'Sorry Taxpayers' Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery made his position clear Tuesday: no plea deals; Jodi Arias deserves the death penalty. During an uncharacteristically quick hearing earlier this week, which took place mostly in Judge Sherry Stephens' private chambers, prosecution lawyer
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news---worldwide
July 20 BANGLADESH: File appeal seeking death penalty for Ghulam AzamGonojagoron Mancha urges govt The Gonojagoron Mancha, a platform of youths demanding the capital punishment for all war criminals, yesterday urged the government to file an appeal with the Supreme Court, seeking death sentence for former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Ghulam Azam. The protesters, who raised their demands including a ban on Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir, at a rally at the capital's Shahbagh, will meet the attorney general at his office today to press home their demands. A war crimes tribunal sentenced Ghulam Azam to 90 years in prison on July 15 for masterminding crimes against humanity and genocide in 1971. In a separate rally in front of Jatiya Press Club, Udichi Shilpa Goshti, a cultural group, demanded the capital punishment for Ghulam Azam. Gonojagoron Mancha spokesperson Imarn H Sarker demanded a ban on Jamaat, saying the tribunal in its verdict against Azam termed Jamaat a criminal organisation. Addressing the Shahbagh rally, rights activist Khushi Kabir said Azam's age was considered in sentencing him but he did not consider the age of the victims while killing them. Meanwhile, the Gonojagoron Mancha will hold a photography exhibition on July 26-27 at Shahbagh from 3:00pm to 6:00pm each day, focusing on the country???s Liberation War. (source: The Daily Star) ** Anti-War Crimes Forum demands death sentence for Ghulam Azam Social activists and surviving victims of 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War organized a mass rally in Dhaka. They expressed their voice of disappointment against verdict pronounced on Ghulam Azam, an Islamist leader, who was found guilty of war crime and demanded death penalty to him. Ghulam Azam, a leader of Jamaat-e-Islami party, was awarded 90 years of sentence by a War Crimes Tribunal, set up by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. He was found guilty of committing crimes during Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence with Pakistan. This mass public meeting was organized under the banner of the Anti-War Crimes Forum, Gonojagoron Mancha to oppose the verdict. Participants at the rally said Azam should have been awarded capital punishment. (source: ANI News) AUSTRALIA/SINGAPORE: How I tried - and failed - to save a life Despite what voters might imagine, most politicians believe in what they do and work hard to achieve it. Certainly, when I was Victoria's attorney-general, my colleagues and I worked our guts out to make a difference - changing laws, developing policies, delivering funding and speaking out about those issues we considered important. Sometimes, of course, you come up short. In the unforgiving realm of politics, you learn to accept that you can only do so much. You become hardened to compromise and, occasionally, to disappointment. But it was never for want of trying and, as a result, I left politics with few regrets. The fate of a young Melbourne man called Van Tuong Nguyen, however, is one of those regrets. A new drama series called Better Man will soon feature on SBS and it is worth remembering that this young man was just 22 years of age when he was arrested in Singapore for having 396 grams of heroin in his possession. This was his 1st trip overseas since, having being born in a refugee camp in Thailand, he came with his mother and twin brother to Australia to build a new life. Van was being paid to transport the drug to Australia, and he intended to use the money to pay off debts that his brother had incurred, mainly in legal fees. It was a stupid, foolish mistake, for which he never expected to gain personally. It would cost him his liberty and, ultimately, his life. As attorney-general, I was always passionate about human rights and vehemently opposed the death penalty. This was a young Victorian and in my privileged role I had to try to do something. After all other avenues had been exhausted, I decided to stop in Singapore during the course of another trip to make a last-bid plea to the Law and Home Affairs minister to spare Van Nguyen's life. The premier at the time, Steve Bracks, fully endorsed my decision and wrote a letter for me to hand over to the minister, Ho Peng Kee, again pleading to save this young man's life. I spoke to the minister about Van Nguyen's background, his young age, about his full co-operation with authorities, about how he had no prior convictions, and about the brutality of the death penalty. The minister was a polite and courteous man who listened to my plea and agreed to hand the premier's letter on to his prime minister. My hope was that this meeting would lend final weight to the mass of arguments and pleadings from a variety of sources for the government of Singapore to exercise leniency. I left without much expectation that I had made any difference to a course of action that had already been determined. What followed was
