death penalty news
July 21, 2004
SOUTH DAKOTA:
Death Penalty Won't Be Sought In Hit-And-Run Case
The state will not be seeking the death penalty against a man charged in a
May hit-and-run incident that killed Brian Pokorney of Yankton.
"For the record and on the record, the state is not seeking the death
penalty in this case," said state's attorney Robert Chavis during a motions
hearing Tuesday for Jeremy Dean Zimmerman, 22, of Sioux Falls.
Zimmerman pleaded not guilty to alternate counts of first- and
second-degree murder June 22 in association with the killing of the
25-year-old Pokorney. Zimmerman is accused of being the driver in the May
16 incident.
Judge Glen Eng also accepted the state's proposal for a joinder of the
Zimmerman and Jay Alan Schild trials.
Schild, 23, of Yankton was also arrested in connection with the incident as
an accessory to either first- or second-degree murder. He is accused of
being in Zimmerman's vehicle at the time of the incident.
"The court sees if we have a joinder of the two trials, there is a
potential that Schild would be at a disadvantage ... but he has agreed" to
the proposal, said Eng.
(source: Yankton Daily Press)
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NEW YORK:
Letter: Need for death penalty grows
I used to be against the death penalty. The thought of willfully and
clinically ending a life repulsed me.
Over the years, I've witnessed unbelievably cruel crimes by an
uncontrollable class of barbarians and an industry of activists who make up
excuses for them. Enough is enough. I no longer see a need for the electric
chair. We need electric bleachers.
KAREN KUZMA, ENDICOTT
(source: Opinion, Press & Sun-Bulletin)
