June 17
TEXAS----stay of impending execution
Court Halts Texas Man's Execution in "Shaken Baby" Case
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Thursday halted the upcoming execution of
Robert Roberson, who was sentenced to death for killing his two-year-old
daughter in 2002.
The appeals court sent the case back to trial court in Anderson County after
Roberson's legal team argued that his conviction was based on junk science. His
execution had been scheduled for June 21.
Roberson, condemned for the death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki in
Palestine, has denied he murdered her, insisting she stuck her head after
falling out of bed. But the Anderson County district attorney's office argued
at trial that Roberson acted intentionally, pointing to experts who testified
that Nikki's injuries were consistent with signs of shaking, bruising and blunt
force trauma.
Other witnesses testified that Roberson had a bad temper and would shake and
spank Nikki when she wouldn't stop crying.
Roberson's attorneys at trial did not deny he killed his daughter but argued he
suffers from mental lapses due to a brain injury. His appeals attorneys argued
that he didn't have a fair trial because his mental health expert was not not
allowed to testify to that brain injury claim.
A 2nd legal team last year entered the fray, though, and argued that Roberson's
appeals attorneys had conflicts of interest, which could have complicated his
push for relief, and requested another attorney join the team to review their
work. Both legal teams appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court with separate
arguments to get Roberson's case another look. Both teams were unsuccessful,
and his execution was scheduled.
Roberson is currently represented by only that 2nd legal team, which includes
attorneys from the Texas Defender Service and the state's Office of Capital
Writs.
Backed by affidavits from medical and other scientific experts who reviewed the
case, Roberson's team argued in the stay request that Nikki did not have a
broken neck, an injury often tied to Shaken Baby Syndrome.
Also, prosecutors had said at trial that Nikki was sexually assaulted, a claim
later debunked and abandoned but an inflammatory claim that jurors nonetheless
heard, his attorneys argue.
Experts, his defense counsel and the district attorney's office did not take
seriously Roberson's claim that Nikki fell, an attorney with the Office of
Capital Writs said in the request.
"Instead of taking Robert's explanation about a fall seriously or exploring all
possible causes of the injury sustained by a chronically ill child who had been
at the doctor???s office with 104.5-degree temperature only 2 days before,"
attorney Gretchen Sween wrote, "a tragedy was hastily deemed a crime and a
father, doing the best he could to care for his daughter despite severe
cognitive impairments, was branded a murderer."
If Roberson's trial were today, he would not be convicted or on death row, said
Lee Kovarsky, Roberson's attorney with the Texas Defender Service.
"Robert was convicted under a scientific theory that, if offered as cause of
death today, would consistently result in acquittal," he said via text message.
"Texas courts will now have ample opportunity to do justice in his case."
(source: Texas Tribune)
*******************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----19
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----537
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
20---------July 14------------------Perry Williams--------538
21---------August 19----------------Ramiro Gonzales-------539
22---------August 23----------------Robert Pruett---------540
23---------August 31----------------Rolando Ruiz----------541
24---------September 14-------------Robert Jennings-------542
25---------October 19---------------Terry Edwards---------543
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
*******************
Victims' Family Upset Over Death Penalty Reversal for Convict
The man whose daughter and mother were murdered over 20 years ago is speaking
out against their killer.
The murderer's death sentence was tossed out and replaced with life in prison.
Oscar Palomo is angry because he believes the justice system failed his legally
blind daughter and mother. He said not one day goes by that he doesn't think
about his 4-year-old daughter, Amanda Marie and his 68-year-old mother,
Esperanza.
Both were taken from him in February of 1995. He said he remembers the day
clearly because he found them. They were inside a home in Madero. They were
stabbed to death and sexually assaulted.
The man responsible and convicted for the crime was Jose Noe Martinez, who was
18 at the time.
"He knew what he was doing and broke into my mom's house did what he did. He
knew what he was doing with the intention to do whatever, but he didn't have to
kill them the way he did and abused them the way he did. That's my anger. My
family feels that, and I feel it every day. Since 1995, my life has been not
the same for myself, for my family," Palomo said.
He learned about Martinez's death sentence being tossed out by the Texas Court
of Criminal Appeals.
"We're devastated by this decision the appellate court made. I ask everyone and
I ask myself what about my mother, my daughter. They're buried 6 feet
underneath the ground. ...They don't know what's going on. I know they are
angels and they're among us, but still, I'm speaking out for them and that's my
fight for justice, for them, for my daughter Amanda Marie Palomo and my mother
Esperanza Valdez Palomo,??? he said.
The higher court reduced Martinez's death sentence to life in prison, after
agreeing with psychiatric findings produced 2 years ago. According to the
Hidalgo County District Office, the findings were conducted by experts hired by
Martinez's attorney and the state.
Both found Martinez was intellectually disabled.
The U.S. Supreme Court passed a law in 2002 that prohibits anyone who???s
mentally impaired from being executed.
"Back then he was found to die by lethal injection and that was our fight, and
we thought everything was at a standpoint, that everything was done. And then
all of a sudden, all this popped out little by little that he was being tested
for mental illness and all that. He knew what he was doing," Palomo said.
He said Martinez doesn't deserve to live.
"He's wasting tax payers' money. He's sleeping, eating, breathing air. What
about my loved ones? They're dead, he stabbed them. He didn't care. He took 2
precious lives away from us. Where are their rights? That's my fight," he said.
The higher court's decision isn't stopping Palomo from trying to do something
about it.
"I will fight for justice with God's help and true support of the community and
my friends and my family. I will fight for justice," he said. "I will fight for
justice at least I can do that for them."
Martinez is now 39 years old. The D.A.'s office said Martinez will be eligible
for parole in 20 years.
But due to the nature of the crime he committed, he will likely not be
released.
(source: KRGV news)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Death penalty sought against parents accused in infant's death----Michael
Wright and Andrea Dusha are charged with homicide in the death of their
23-month-old daughter.
The Fayette County district attorney is seeking the death penalty against a
Uniontown mother and father accused in the death of their infant daughter in
February.
Michael Wright, 32, and Andrea Dusha, 26, were formally arraigned today on
charges of homicide, endangering the welfare of children and reckless
endangerment in the death of 23-month-old Lydia Wright. Trial dates have not
been set.
According to a criminal complaint, Ms. Dusha brought her daughter to Uniontown
Hospital Feb. 24 because the toddler became unresponsive while drinking a mix
of water, Gatorade and Pedialyte from a sippie cup. The girl's eyes rolled into
the back of her head, foam began coming out of her mouth and she stopped
breathing.
An autopsy determined that malnutrition and dehydration caused the death of the
child, who weighed about 10 pounds when she died.
Investigators searching the family's home found that it "was in deplorable
conditions and unsuitable for children to be living in," police wrote in the
complaint.
(source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
**********************
Death penalty sought in Whitehall Township baseball-bat slaying
Lehigh County prosecutors have put a Montgomery County man on notice that he
could face the death penalty if convicted in the baseball-bat beating death of
44-year-old a Whitehall Township resident during a jealous rage.
Larry Ray Yaw, 32, of Gilbertsville was arraigned Thursday before Judge Maria
L. Dantos for the April 3 killing of Brian Frank, 44.
Following the hearing, Deputy District Attorney Michael T. Edwards filed notice
of aggravating circumstances, a legal requirement to turn a homicide into a
capital case. The aggravator in Yaw's case is that the defendant allegedly
committed the killing while in the perpetration of a felony, court records say.
Police say Yaw burst into Frank's apartment in the 900 block of Third Street
just before 8 a.m. carrying a handgun and aluminum baseball bat.
After kicking in a bedroom door that turned out to belong to Frank's roommate,
police say Yaw went into Frank's bedroom. The roommate then heard loud noises
and Frank screaming in pain, police say.
Yaw allegedly warned the roommate, "If you tell the cops I was here, I will be
back for you."
After Yaw fled, police were called to the apartment. Officers found Frank
bleeding from the face and the back of his head, convulsing and in obvious
pain. Frank was unable to speak and was taken to an area hospital. He died the
next day.
Yaw's girlfriend, Chyanne Carwell, testified in May that Yaw beat her and held
her at gunpoint when he found out that she had slept with Frank on April 2.
Carwell, 22, told detectives that Yaw threatened to kill her and her father if
she didn't take him to Frank's apartment.
When Yaw was arrested, Carwell told police that Frank had drugged and raped
her. She later testified that Yaw forced her to make up the story.
Yaw is charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, burglary, kidnapping
and a firearms offense. He's being held in the county jail without bail.
(source: Allentown Morning Call)
WASHINGTON, DC:
Former death-row defense attorney turned judge chosen as chief judge of court
The D.C. Superior Court has a new top judge.
Judge Robert E. Morin was selected late Thursday as the court's chief judge in
one of the most hotly judicial races the courthouse has seen in more than a
decade.
Morin, 63, was selected over existing chief judge Lee F. Satterfield, who was
seeking an unprecedented 3rd term. 4 other judges from the courthouse -
including current chief Lee F. Satterfield, Judith Bartnoff, Erik Christian and
Hiram E. Puig-Lugo - also vied for the position.
Morin was appointed judge in 1996 by President Clinton and previously served as
presiding judge of the court's criminal division, where he helps oversee
management of calendars for judges who handle criminal cases. He previously
worked representing death-penalty clients at the Southern Center for Human
Rights in Atlanta and with the Maryland Office of the Public Defender.
Morin, who oversees felony criminal cases, is currently handling the
high-profile retrial of Ingmar Guandique, the man charged with the 2001 death
of Washington intern Chandra Levy. That trial is scheduled to begin in October.
Morin was selected by the 7-member Judicial Nomination Commission. The
Commission - composed of chairman and U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan,
four D.C. attorneys, a local minister and a representative of the AFL-CIO -
decides on the court's top job. The Commission met with the candidates for a
round of separate interviews on Thursday. The Commission also obtained numerous
letters from lawyers, judges and court users regarding the candidates.
Earlier this month, 4 of the candidates met for a question and answer session
at the University of the District of Columbia's Law School sponsored by the
District???s Council for Court Excellence. Satterfield did not attend the
forum, sending word he had a prior commitment that evening in California.
Satterfield, 57, has served as the court's chief since his 1st appointment in
2008. In 2012, Satterfield ran for a 2nd term. In April, Satterfield surprised
many within the District's legal community by seeking a 3rd, 4-year term.
Satterfield had several health issues during his most recent term, including
suffering a stroke while in the courthouse and then undergoing a heart
transplant. He told Commission members his health challenges were behind him
and that he was able to serve as chief judge again.
While several judges and court employees have voiced support for Satterfield, a
few judges have said they have viewed his management style as divisive and
harshly critical. Satterfield attribute his demeanor to his previous poor
health.
Morin, however, had been seen by some as more collegial. At least 1 attorney
organization, the Superior Court Trial Lawyers Association wrote letters to the
Commission expressing their support.
The chief judge is often the public face and voice of the courthouse, and
assigns judges to various cases and court calendars and often sets leadership
initiatives for the courthouse's operations.
The chief job will begin on Oct. 1.
(source: Washington Post)
FLORIDA:
Jacksonville man convicted of murdering 2 with hammer gets off death row
A Jacksonville man charged with killing 2 men with a hammer in his home 8 years
ago is now off death row after the Florida Supreme Court agreed Thursday with a
trial judge who threw out his death sentence but upheld his first-degree murder
conviction.
The Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the decision of Senior Circuit Judge
Charles Arnold to throw out the death sentence of Raymond Bright, now 62.
Bright bludgeoned Randall Brown, 16, and Derrick King III, 20, in his Sibbald
Road home in 2008.
Defense attorneys said Brown and King had moved into Bright's house and were
selling drugs, and Bright wanted them out. Bright said he killed them in
self-defense when they attacked him. Prosecutors said Bright killed them while
they were sleeping.
Arnold later threw out the death sentence after finding his trial lawyers did
an incompetent job representing him during the penalty phase but upheld his
murder conviction after finding that the same lawyers did a competent job
during trial.
The office of State Attorney Angela Corey said it will seek to put him back on
death row in a new death-penalty sentencing hearing.
(source: jacksonville.com)
******************
Prosecutors seek death penalty for infant's death
Florida Panhandle prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a man accused
of killing his girlfriend's 10-month-old son.
The Tallahassee Democrat (http://on.tdo.com/1UBmGjh) reports that Assistant
State Attorney Jack Campbell filed the notice against 26-year-old Dajuan Barnes
last week. He was arrested last month.
Authorities say Barnes called 911 when the infant stopped breathing and became
unresponsive.
Medical examiners determined that the infant died of a broken spinal cord and a
severed aorta. They said that the infant had been slammed against something so
forcefully that it broke the baby's back and caused him to bleed to death
within seconds.
Barnes was indicted on a 1st-degree murder charge several weeks after his
initial arrest.
He has also been charged with aggravated child abuse.
(source: Associated Press)
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