Sept. 19
OHIO:
Suspect in Jim Brennan murder may face death penalty
1 of the 4 defendants charged in connection with the murder of a Cleveland
Heights restaurant owner may face the death penalty.
The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's office capital review committee has not yet
met to decide if Darien Jones will face the death penalty.
Darien Jones is the alleged shooter in the case and is the only defendant
eligible for the death penalty at this time, defense and prosecutors said
during a pretrial held Friday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.
The prosecutor's office says it is still reviewing the matter.
Brandon Jones, Darien's brother, is also facing an aggravated murder charge.
Brandon Jones worked for the victim, Jim Brennan, and was working the day the
murder happened.
Devonne Turner is also facing an aggravated murder charge. His brother, Paul
Turner, is facing an obstruction of justice charge.
The Turner brothers were also arraigned Friday morning on an aggravated robbery
charge. That robbery happened the same day as the murder.
Prosecutors also said they are waiting on federal agents' reports before they
can turn them over to defense attorneys.
(source: Fox News)
******************************
Toledo man confessed to killing Cuyahoga Falls mother, detective testified in
court
A forensic pathologist said a Cuyahoga Falls mother was stabbed more than 55
times during a preliminary court hearing for the Toledo man charged in her
murder, and a police detective said he confessed he killed her.
During the preliminary hearing Sept. 11 at Stow Municipal Court, bond for
Jeffery J. Conrad of Toledo was continued at $1 million cash by Judge Kim R.
Hoover. Conrad, 43, is charged with aggravated murder, a 1st-degree felony, in
connection with the death of his ex-girlfriend, Amanda Russell, 40.
Conrad did not enter a plea to the charge.
Ms. Russell's body was found by her 14-year-old daughter behind their home on
Eighth Street Aug. 28. Conrad is in Summit County Jail.
"Amanda Russell had many, many stabs wounds, primarily to the back side of her
body," said Dr. Lisa Kohler, a forensic pathologist and chief medical examiner
for Summit County, during the hearing Sept. 11. "There are greater than 55 stab
wounds identified." She said the cause of death was stab wounds to the neck and
torso and there was no other cause of death.
Kohler and a Cuyahoga Falls police detective were called to testify during the
hearing by Cuyahoga Falls prosecutor Gregory Ward. Conrad's attorney, Noah
Munyer, did not question them during the hearing.
The court provided the Falls News-Press with an audio recording of the hearing.
"A preliminary hearing is a probable cause hearing where a municipal judge
decides if there's sufficient evidence to bind the matter over to the Summit
County Grand Jury for its consideration," Judge Hoover told the Falls
News-Press. "... neither the prosecutor for the city of Cuyahoga Falls nor the
Summit County prosecutor went to the lengths to have an indictment handed up
before the preliminary hearing ..." Hoover said the defendant in a felony case
is entitled to a preliminary hearing but typically the defense waives it.
Munyer said he chose not to waive it because he was missing a key piece of
information from the state.
"We still don't know if the state intends to charge Mr. Conrad with the death
penalty," Munyer said by phone Sept. 17. "They haven't made that decision, at
least as far as they have related to us. As such, if it does become a death
penalty case, we can't concede any point no matter how minor."
At the Sept. 11 hearing, Det. Chad Lengel said when he arrived at the scene of
the crime Ms. Russell was lying on the ground face down in a pool of blood.
"She had a lot of wounds which ... looked to be stab wounds," he said.
Lengel said Conrad and Ms. Russell had a boyfriend-girlfriend status that was
"on again-off again" for approximately three years. There were "a lot" of
reports of violence involving them, he said.
Conrad was arrested Aug. 28, the day of the murder, by the Cleveland Metroparks
Ranger Department on unrelated charges. Conrad appeared on a trail in the park
and threatened two rangers with a hunting knife, telling them to "do what you
have to do," according to the rangers' report. Sept. 2, Lengel said, he spoke
to Conrad in the Cleveland City Jail where he "wished to tell me what had
happened and he confessed to the murder of Amanda Russell by using the knife
that he had in his possession in the Cuyahoga Metro Parks' jurisdiction." He
confessed to the crime after being read his Miranda Rights with two other
officers present, Lengel said.
There was blood on the knife recovered by the rangers, Lengel said in court,
and the blood tested positive for Ms. Russell's blood.
(source: Twinsburg Bulletin)
************************
Ohio shouldn't risk executing innocent
Former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro and wife Nancy Petro are co-authors of
False Justice: 8 Myths that Convict the Innocent.
Throughout our lives together, we have held differing views on the death
penalty. Nancy has always opposed it; I have generally supported the right of
the citizens of a state to establish the death penalty as a consequence for the
most heinous crimes.
Despite this difference, our views of the justice system have always shared a
commitment to fairness, accuracy and public safety.
As a legislator, I voted in favor of reinstating Ohio's death penalty law in
1981. As attorney general, I oversaw 18 executions in accordance with Ohio law,
but increasingly I struggled with my views on the death penalty. It's one thing
to consider the law in the abstract; it is much different and more difficult to
make decisions in a state process that concludes with the taking of a human
life.
Nancy's view was unwavering: She believes the death penalty sends a message of
vengeance to our children, diminishing the value of all human life and the
culture. Increasingly, we both recognized that it is impossible to implement
without a substantial risk of catastrophic error.
Over time, our views came together. My work gave me an up-close view of our
death penalty in practice, which is much different from theory or intention.
Our justice system is based on the decision-making of human beings, and human
beings are fallible. We make mistakes and our judgments are influenced by
biases and imperfect motivations. Implementing the death penalty makes our
errors permanent and impossible to remedy.
Nancy and I were horrified to learn what many have known for some time.
Thousands of people have been, and currently are, imprisoned for crimes of
which they are completely innocent. This includes some on death row. It is
likely that America has executed people who are completely innocent of the
crimes for which they were put to death. More innocent people will die as long
we use this deeply flawed system.
The difficult truths about the death penalty must be met with honesty,
integrity and a willingness to improve Ohio's justice system - so that we don't
risk having Ohio on record as having executed an innocent person. In our view,
it is a mistake not to require that interrogations of suspected murderers be
recorded from start to finish. It is a mistake not to require that crime labs
testing evidence in capital cases be certified. It is a mistake to leave broad
prosecutorial discretion unchecked and without oversight. Today's criminal
justice and death penalty systems are compromised by these and many other
shortcomings.
We recently had an opportunity to share our concerns with the Supreme Court
Joint Task Force on the Administration of Ohio's Death Penalty, which issued
its final report in May. We appreciate the comprehensive work of the task force
and wholeheartedly support the great majority of their recommendations that
address the contributors to wrongful conviction and the unacceptable fact that
innocent people have been sent to death row.
Today's legislative leaders have both the opportunity and moral imperative to
fix these and many other weaknesses in our criminal justice and death penalty
systems. In our opinion, they must act to implement many of the reforms
recommended by the Supreme Court Task Force. Without action the death penalty
system will continue to be an expensive, unfairly applied, and risk-filled
process that has no place in today's criminal justice system.
Ohio may not yet be ready to part ways with the death penalty, but we should
all agree Ohio is ready to make changes that will help ensure that the ultimate
sanction is applied fairly and accurately.
If you go
What: Ohioans to Stop Executions panel on reforming the death penalty
When: 2-4 p.m. Saturday
Speakers: Former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro and Nancy Petro
Panelists: State Sen. Bill Seitz, R-Green Township; Terry Collins, former
director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation & Corrections; and Kevin
Werner, executive director of Ohioans to Stop Executions
Where: Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, 103 Wm. H. Taft Road, Cincinnati 45219
(source: Opinion, Jim Petro; cincinnati.com)
TENNESSEE:
Experts duel over whether man is too disabled to execute
Prosecutors say a man awaiting trial in a 2007 murder is not intellectually
disabled and should be executed if found guilty.
Christopher Lee Davis, 27, is accused of killing an Iraq War veteran Herbert
Clayton in 2007 during a robbery at a Murfreesboro Pike ATM. Criminal Court
Judge Monte Watkins had already ruled that Davis was "intellectually disabled"
and, therefore, ineligible for the death penalty. But prosecutors dispute the
psychology report used in that decision.
Despite the fact that seven years have passed since Clayton's death, Davis,
whom police identified as the trigger man, has not yet gone to trial. The man
police say was 1 of Davis' accomplice, James Phillips, pleaded guilty in
Clayton's murder in was sentenced in July to 20 years in prison. 2 other
suspects are also awaiting trial.
At issue is whether Davis' IQ is higher than 70, a threshold that, along with
other factors, the Tennessee Supreme Court decided is the cutoff to determine
whether someone is intellectually disabled, and therefore ineligible for the
death penalty.
On Friday, Watkins heard dueling psychology experts' interpretation of IQ tests
and other measures used to determine Davis's IQ. Dr. Pamela Auble was the
psychologist who fully evaluated Davis over the years. Despite Davis scoring
slightly higher than 70 on multiple IQ tests, she declared he was
intellectually disabled because of other factors.
Assistant District Attorney General Roger Moore called another expert, Dr.
Thomas Schacht, to poke holes in Auble's evaluation methods. Schacht said Davis
refused to be fully evaluated by him. but he said many of the factors Auble
used to determine that Davis' IQ was below 70 weren't scientifically sound.
Auble rejected that criticism on the stand.
"Has your opinion changed any?" asked Davis' attorney, Dwight Scott.
"It has not," Auble responded.
Scott said that nothing has changed since Watkins' 2011 ruling that Davis was
disabled and that Schacht failed to convincingly rebut Auble's findings.
"Mr. Davis does not qualify for the death penalty," he said.
Moore said that Davis has shown on multiple occasions that he is more
intelligent than Auble has given him credit for, particularly in prior
interviews with police.
"When it all boils down, this man is not intellectually disabled," Moore said.
"That's clear."
Watkins said he would take the matter under advisement and rule on it "as soon
as possible."
(source: The Tennessean)
MISSOURI----new execution date
Missouri Supreme Court sets execution date for killer from Maries County
The Missouri Supreme Court set an execution date on Friday for a man who is
convicted of killing a mother and her 2 children near Vichy in February 1998. A
jury in Nevada convicted Mark Christeson in 1999 of 3 counts of 1st-degree
murder and recommended a death penalty.
In its order on Friday, the Supreme Court noted Christeson has had 15 years of
various appeals, all denied by judges and panels of judges. It set his
execution date for Oct. 29.
Investigators said Christeson killed Susan Brouk, 36, her daughter, Adrian, 12,
and her son, Kyle, 9, on Jan. 31, 1998, before dumping the bodies in a pond
several hundred yards their rural home in Maries County. Christeson was 18
years old at the time. Detectives think Christeson wanted to have sexual
relations with Susan Brouk but she refused, and he then killed her and the
children.
Another man, Jessie Carter, 17, a cousin of Christeson, was charged along with
him. Prosecutors later dropped the death penalty against Carter in return for
his testimony against Christeson. Carter is serving a life prison sentence
after being convicted by a jury in Rolla of 3 counts of 1st-degree murder.
Law enforcement officers arrested Carter and Christeson in Blythe, Calif.,
several days after the murders. Another officer stopped the teens in Shamrock,
Texas, on Feb. 2, 1998, but let them go because there was not yet a warrant for
their arrests in Missouri. That's because no one found the bodies until Feb. 3
and Brouk's 1984 Ford Bronco was not yet reported stolen on Feb. 2.
On the night of Feb. 2, the Bronco had engine trouble on Interstate 40 near
Gallup, N.M. An officer there ran the plates but again found no reason to
detain the teenagers.
In the penalty phase of Christeson's trial in October 1999 in Vernon County,
where the trial was moved to try to ensure a fair outcome, the jury heard from
family members of the Brouks, including a sister of Susan Brouk.
"It was like losing my mother," said Joy Lamoine. "She was my big sister, my
best friend, my surrogate mother. She did everything."
Christeson's defense team answered with raw emotion of its own. Christeson's
mother wept inconsolably on the stand and then told the jury how she
emotionally abandoned her son because he was the result of an affair she had
with her husband's brother.
"I rejected him. Every time I looked at him, I saw how I had been wrong," she
said.
The jury took a little less than 3 hours to recommend the death sentence for
Christeson.
Missouri has executed 8 men in 2014, and 10 since November 2013.
(source: KSPR news)
ARIZONA:
Jury Details Revealed for New Sentencing Phase
Some new details about the jury selection for the Jodi Arias trial have been
revealed.
An all-new jury is being selected because the last one couldn't decide on a
verdict for the convicted killer.
Under state law, prosecutors can elect to choose a new jury and press for the
maximum conviction again, which in this case is the death penalty.
If the new jury also can't come to a unanimous decision, then the death penalty
is off the table and Judge Sherry Stephens will decide whether Arias, who was
convicted of killing former boyfriend Travis Alexander, should spend the rest
of her life in jail with no possibility for parole, or with a possibility for
parole after 25 years.
The jury selection is slated to start on September 29 after months of delays.
The selection was originally supposed to start in May.
The trial is on the court calendar until the last part of December, reported
KTAR.
The outlet also revealed that both sides are working on the questionnaire that
will be given to potential jurors.
On September 29, barring another delay, three panels of 100 jurors each will be
called in and brought up to the courtroom to be questioned and either rejected
or accepted for the jury.
Meanwhile, another Arizona columnist has come forward to make an argument in
the ongoing debate on whether the sentencing phase should be televised or not.
Stephens has already barred live coverage, but some media outlets are pressing
to be allowed to broadcast 30 minutes of footage each night. Right now, no
footage is allowed to be shown until after the conclusion of the trial.
EJ Montini is the latest columnist to weigh in, saying that there's plenty of
legitimate reasons to allow the footage to be shown each night - such as the
U.S. Constitution - but that it actually shouldn't be allowed.
"Defense attorneys Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott are right to ask for the
blackout. This 2nd trial isn't meant to decide guilt or innocence. It's meant
to determine life or death. The jury will have to decide (since the previous
jury could not) if Arias should spend her life in prison or receive the death
penalty," he said.
"The entire exercise is a tremendous waste of time and money. The fact that the
previous jury had trouble answering the death penalty question should have been
proof enough that this is not a death penalty case. The Maricopa County
Attorney should have dropped it and let Arias rot in prison. It would have
saved the rest of us the expense."
He added that "We had our fun with the first trial. Even worse, Arias had her
fun. And is continuing to do so with things like the auction of her eyeglasses.
This trial is different. The Jodi Show should be canceled. Our right to attend
court proceedings can't interfere with the ability of a defendant - even this
one - to get a fair hearing."
(source: The Epoch Times)
CALIFORNIA:
Tracy man talks to Swedish news about execution
Tracyite Roger Birdsall wasn't surprised - but was still a bit overwhelmed - to
see his name in a headline next to his picture in a recent edition of Sweden's
largest newspaper.
He had been interviewed on several occasions by Carina Bergfeldt, senior news
reporter for the Stockholm daily newspaper, Aftonbladet, so he expected some
kind of coverage, although the size of his photo was large indeed.
Why were Roger and his comments featured in a newspaper in Sweden? It all
revolves around the murder of his brother, the execution of the killer and the
death penalty.
"Carina, who has extensive experience covering major stories around the world,
was preparing a series of articles on the death penalty, which Sweden doesn't
use in its criminal justice system, but something more Swedes want to find out
about in the wake of an increase in the Scandinavian country's murder rate,"
Birdsall explained.
The 71-year-old Birdsall was chosen to be one of those interviewed, along with
relatives of the convicted killer, because he had personally followed the
January 2001 murder of his brother in Texas, the arrest and conviction of his
killer and finally the killer's execution by lethal injection in July 2013.
"She (Bergfeldt) wanted to learn my reaction to the whole process and how being
a close observer of carrying out the death penalty had, or hadn't, affected my
reaction to it and my views on it," he said.
The Tracyite's involvement began Jan. 31, 2001, when he received a phone call
from a police detective in Lubbock, Texas, informing him that his 53-year-old
brother, Douglas, had been shot and killed while sitting in his car in a
residential neighborhood of Lubbock.
"It came as a complete shock," Roger recalled. "Doug was assistant dean of
libraries at Texas Tech (in Lubbock), and I had a hard time believing what I
had been told."
He immediately flew to Lubbock to find out all he could about the case.
Apparently, someone thought Roger's brother had some kind of relationship with
a relative, but the supposition was pretty murky, Roger said, and grossly
exaggerated. Nevertheless, a relative with those suspicions became a prime
"person of interest" in the murder investigation.
Roger became well acquainted with detectives of the Lubbock Police Department
as they investigated the murder over several months. He returned to Lubbock on
numerous occasions to follow the investigation and attend court hearings.
The police in Lubbock finally pieced together evidence of the suspect's DNA at
the tip of a rubber glove found in the car and DNA of the blood of Roger's
brother on the suspect's sweatshirt. "The police and prosecutors did a terrific
job."
The suspect, a 29-year-old Lubbock man, was charged with premeditated murder.
He pleaded not guilty but was convicted of 1st-degree murder a year after the
killing and sentenced to death. Roger was present in the courtroom when the
verdict and the sentencing came down.
After a series of appeals were denied, the convicted killer, by then 41 years
old, was executed July 18, 2013. Roger was among the witnesses viewing the
execution by lethal injection at Huntsville State Prison.
"We've all read about botched executions by lethal injection, but this wasn't
one of them," Roger said. "It was done correctly and, from what it appeared to
me, painless."
Bergfeldt, recognized as the top reporter on the Swedish newspaper's staff, had
earlier researched and written a series of in-depth articles on the 2011 mass
murder of 69 people, many of them teenagers, at a summer camp on Utoya Island
near Oslo, Norway.
The lone gunman convicted for committing the massacre, a 32-year-old right-wing
extremist, was given only a 21-year prison term, but with the possibility of
continuing 5-year extensions.
With increasing interest in capital punishment in Sweden, she began researching
her series on the death penalty. Bergfeldt dug into the history of the case of
the murder of Roger's brother as an example of how the death penalty is applied
and carried out in Texas and what impact it has on those close to the long,
drawn-out process leading to the execution.
"Carina interviewed me and many others who were close to the case," Roger said.
"She is very professional and conducted extensive thorough interviews about how
carrying out of the death penalty had had affected me and my thinking about
it."
The final interview with Roger was conducted 2 months ago at his Tracy home.
"I told her that before my brother's murder, I had supported the death penalty,
as long as circumstances of the case warranted it and the execution was
performed in a humane way," he said. "After the execution of my brother's
killer with a properly administered lethal injection, I still feel the same
way. I don't know if the death penalty is a deterrent or not - that's hard to
say - but I haven't changed my mind."
Bergfeldt asked Roger if he had slept well after witnessing the execution.
"I told her I slept very well indeed. I felt justice in my brother's murder had
been served."
(source: Tracy Press)
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