[Deathpenalty]death penalty news-----TEXAS, CONN., N.Y.
May 6 TEXAS: Houston confidence up with employment rateSurvey sees traffic as top problem for 6th consecutive year Public confidence in the Houston area's economy and job opportunities has improved in the past year as the unemployment rate has dropped, the 2005 Houston Area Survey shows. Half of those surveyed this year rated job opportunities as excellent or good, up from 40 percent in the 2004 survey. And 42 % of the respondents said their personal economic situation was improving, up from 31 % last year. Stephen Klineberg, the Rice University sociology professor who directs the survey, said the recession that followed the technology boom of the late 1990s was the 3rd to affect the local economy since the surveys began in 1982. There are consistent indications that this third recession has started to turn around, Klineberg said. There's some renewal of optimism, but it's tentative. The level of public confidence in job prospects tends to closely follow the local unemployment rate, Klineberg said. Harris County's unemployment rate in March was 5.6 %, down from 6.5 % in March 2004, a Texas Workforce Commission spokesman said. In recent years, local economic confidence measured in the survey peaked in 2000, with 73 % rating job opportunities as excellent or good. During the ensuing recession and jobless recovery, that figure declined steadily, reaching a low of 39 % in 2003. Asked to name the biggest problem facing people in the Houston area today, 15 % cited the economy, down from 18 % last year and 25 percent in 2003. Other survey findings: Local support for the death penalty continues to decline, with 60 % supporting capital punishment for convicted murderers this year compared with 68 % in 1999. Meanwhile, support for a life sentence without possibility of parole as an alternative to execution increased to 64 % this year from 57 % in 2003. (source: Houston Chronicle) CONNECTICUT: Little progress on resolving death penalty bias claims A 2-year-old order by the state Supreme Court for hearings to determine if Connecticut's death penalty is biased stands unfulfilled less than a week before New England's first scheduled execution in 45 years. The court appointed former Chief Justice Robert J. Callahan in 2003 to arrange hearings on claims that that there is racial and geographic discrimination in the use of the death penalty. However, no hearings have been scheduled and a new judge has been ordered to assist after Callahan, 74, asked to be relieved because of health issues. Superior Court Judge George Levine said he's acquainting himself with the cases. I don't even know the size of the universe yet, he said. Serial killer Michael Ross, 45, is scheduled to die by injection Friday morning. He was convicted of killing and raping four women in the early 1980s and has confessed to eight murders in Connecticut and New York. Ross hasn't claimed the death penalty is biased and has fought to expedite his execution by forgoing his appeals. But death penalty opponents and at least 2 state Supreme Court justices say the claims are relevant to Ross' case. Should the courts conclude that our entire death penalty system is fundamentally flawed as discriminatory on the basis of race after the defendant has been executed, our Judicial Branch as a bastion of civil rights might suffer irreparable harm, Justice Flemming Norcott Jr. wrote in a January dissent of a decision that found Ross competent to volunteer for execution. Antonio Ponvert III, an attorney for Ross' father, Dan, said if the appeals had been heard earlier, the sentences of everyone on death row may have been commuted to life in prison. I really don't understand how anybody, the court, the state's attorney's office the AG's office, anybody can be contemplating killing Michael Ross at a time when the constitutionality of the entire death penalty scheme in Connecticut is under review, he said. Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano said the claims are irrelevant to Ross. Most importantly, Mr. Ross has decided that he doesn't want any part of it, Morano said. Death-row inmates have claimed in appeals that capital punishment is sought disproportionally in Connecticut when there is a white victim. They also have alleged the statute is not applied consistently across the state. 6 of the 10 people sentenced to death since 1980 are from the Waterbury area. Bias allegations are part of the post-conviction appeals of 4 death row inmates, and one inmate whose death sentence was overturned. Waterbury State's Attorney John Connelly called the bias claims a delaying tactic. He said public defenders have conducted an exhaustive study of bias in capital cases, but have not released the results of that study. If the study shows what they claim it would show, we would have seen this study years ago. The reason we haven't heard about the conclusions is because it did not show what they wanted it to show, he said. Chief Public
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news --- TEXAS, CONN.
death penalty news May 19, 2005 TEXAS --- execution: Texas Carries Out Seventh Execution Of 2005 Wednesday Death row inmate Bryan Wolfe, 44, was executed just after 6 p.m. Wednesday in Huntsville for the 1992 slaying of an 84-year-old woman who was stabbed 26 times during a robbery at her home in Beaumont. Police believe the killer escaped with about $40 from the victim?s purse. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case on Monday. Wolfe was on parole from Louisiana and had fled a work-release program when he was arrested for the slaying of Bertha Lemell. A psychologist testifying for the defense blamed Wolfe's actions on intoxication. Wolfe said he had a drug habit. Click Here For More Information On Bryan Wolfe From The Texas Department Of Criminal Justice An eighth execution is scheduled Thursday evening. Richard Cartwright, 31, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection for the 1966 robbery and murder of a Corpus Christi man. (source: KWTX) CONNECTICUT: DEATH PENALTY - Ross goes quietly At 2:01 a.m. on Friday the 13th, the state of Connecticut put Michael Ross to death by lethal injection. Given the rarity of the event, the first state execution in New England since 1960, one might have anticipated that people on both sides of the death-penalty issue would show to mark the occasion. Clearly the Connecticut Department of Correction (DOC) expected it, setting aside separate parking lots for pro- and anti-execution protesters. Clearly the media anticipated it, swarming the DOC campus on the Enfield/Somers border in search of protesters. (I think they?re arriving around 12, I told one young, black-suited blond newscaster. That doesn?t do me any good for my 11-o?clock stand-up, she grumbled.) Three busloads of anti-death-penalty protesters finally arrived at 12:20, after meeting up at a Congregational church, and about 225 people (as best I could separate the protesters from the press and photographers, some 40 of whom tagged along) took their pre-planned walk to within 50 feet of the driveway of the Osborn Correctional Institution ? which, although it sounds close, actually left them a very long way from the building itself. Of the 225, roughly 50 came from Massachusetts, according to Rebecca Keiser of Massachusetts Citizens Against the Death Penalty. Quite a few Rhode Island and New Hampshire residents attended as well, and a few flew in for the event. Which means that in all of Connecticut, significantly fewer than 175 people felt strongly enough to come out to protest their own state?s first execution in decades. That may partly reflect the particulars of the case. Michael Ross admitted killing eight women, raping at least some of them beforehand, and he had declared that he wanted to be put to death. But that makes the other half of the equation even more curious: the virtual absence of a pro-execution crowd. A total of five came out for the event, four of whom carried no signs and had little apparent interest. The only enthusiast for Ross?s death was a man who came early, equipped with a five-foot-high sign on wheels declaring that LIBERALISM IS A MENTAL DISORDER. He sat in his truck (festooned with anti-liberal stickers) all evening, agreeably getting out to be interviewed in front of the sign for 11-o?clock stand-ups, and later marching, sign in tow, alongside the anti-death-penalty protesters toward the Osborn building. After standing around awhile, he turned and wheeled his sign back to his truck, well before the execution. Sure, it was in the middle of nowhere and during the wee hours of the morning. Still, think of the population living within a two hours? drive, including residents of Boston, Springfield, Worcester, Providence, Hartford, New Haven, and Albany. Given that, it seemed stunning that the Catholic contingent, as one person called it, turned out to number all of five. They stopped at a seemingly random spot that was, they had determined, the closest they could get to the Execution Enclosure, as the Connecticut DOC Web site calls it. The contingent remained there, saying the rosary, until Ross died. Connecticut, it seems, is pretty blas? about the execution. A few hours before the event, at the nearby T.J.I. Friday?s bar on Route 220, the only person with a strong opinion was Mary Preussel ? absolutely against the death penalty ? a Dallas resident in town for a business trip. Locals ranged from ambivalent to indifferent. Ross?s execution had not been a big topic of conversation over the pervious couple of days, said the bartender, Jess. As patron Mike Halpy philosophized, I guess however you look at it, [Ross] is an asshole. (source: Boston Phoenix)
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., ILL.
July 7 TEXASstay of impending execution Supreme Court stays execution of San Antonio killer The U.S. Supreme Court has put on hold the execution of a San Antonio man while the justices decide whether to consider issues he raised on appeal. Troy Kunkle had been scheduled to die tonight for the 1984 slaying of a Corpus Christi father of 2 young daughters. After he killed Stephen Horton, trial testimony showed, Kunkle recited from No Remorse, a Metallica song: Another day, another death, another sorrow, another breath. Kunkle has appealed on grounds that he does not deserve the death penalty. It was not immediately clear which issue or issues the high court will consider. The former Roosevelt student was 18 at the time of the crime and has been on death row nearly 20 years. (source : San Antonio Express-News) * MAN CHARGED WITH KILLING MOM FOUND IN CONTEMPT OF COURT A man charged with killing and robbing his mother was found in criminal contempt of court Tuesday for refusing a judge's orders to provide the state with a handwriting sample. Tracy Lane Beatty, 43, was sentenced to 180 days in jail and a $500 fine after he refused two orders by 241st District Judge Jack Skeen Jr. Beatty is charged with killing Carolyn Ruth Click, 62, and burying her body behind their mobile home on County Road 2323 2 days before Thanksgiving last year. Beatty allegedly stole his mother's car and ATM card, making the offense capital murder. The state intends to seek the death penalty against him. The judge granted a written motion by the state last Tuesday, ordering Beatty to provide handwriting exemplars. On Friday, a handwriting analysis expert was called in but Beatty refused to comply with the order. During a pre-trial hearing Friday, he refused again when the judge made a second order in court. Skeen said the defendant had no constitutional protection from providing the state with a sample of his penmanship. Beatty's conduct to not comply was willful and intentional, Skeen said. His contemptuous conduct is obstructive and interruptive of the court's proceedings, he said. The defendant was given one more chance to conform Tuesday. Judge Skeen, I'm not going to comply with your order ... and I'm not submitting a handwriting sample - That's my decision, Beatty said. He said his attorneys, Robert Perkins and Ken Hawk, did not recommend that he refuse the court orders. Skeen said immediate punishment was necessary to preserve the authority of the court. Beatty believed Skeen's order was an unlawful one and the defense wanted a chance to file an appeal before the judge decided whether he was in contempt of court, Hawk said. District Attorney Matt Bingham said the contempt charge was a separate criminal issue and should not delay the proceedings dealing with the capital murder charge. He asked that Skeen find him in contempt and Beatty could file a direct appeal. First Assistant DA Brett Harrison is also prosecuting the case. Hawk agreed it should not delay the case but requested the defense be able to appeal the order before Skeen made his decision on whether he was in contempt of court. Skeen denied the defendant's request and found Beatty in contempt. Since he ordered the defendant twice to provide handwriting samples, Skeen said he would hold another contempt of court hearing for Beatty sometime next week. Jury selection is set to start Thursday, with individual questioning beginning next week. Beatty's trial is scheduled for July 26. The defendant was brought back to Smith County in December from Henderson County, where he was jailed on charges of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and possession of a weapon by a felon. Information from inmates at the Henderson County Jail, who Beatty allegedly talked to about the murder, helped authorities find the body on Dec. 23. Ms. Click may have been strangled, struck by a blunt object, smothered or suffocated by being buried alive, the indictment states. Mrs. Click was last seen by her neighbors Nov. 25, 2003. Beatty was living with her at the time, having been paroled from prison to her house. Texas Department of Criminal Justice records show that he has been in and out of prison on charges including injury to a child, theft, possession of a controlled substance and aggravated assault. (source: Tyler Morning Telegraph) *** Jury Selected for Capital Murder Trial The trial date for an East Texas man accused of killing his neighbors has been tentatively set. Jury selection wrapped up last week for the capital murder trial for Barney Fuller, Jr. He's accused of fatally shooting his neighbors and wounding their teenage son last year in Lovelady. It took Houston County authorities 11 days to individually question 109 potential jurors. Late Friday night, they finally ended up with a panel of 48 jurors, from which they selected 12 jurors and 2 alternates. Fuller was indicted last summer on numerous charges in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., S.C., USA, CALIF.
Oct. 10 TEXASnew execution date New execution date set in 1984 murderKunkle convicted of killing Steven Horton A San Antonio man whose execution was stayed hours before he was scheduled to be put to death now faces a new date with death for the 1984 murder of a Corpus Christi man. Troy Kunkle, who has been on death row for 19 years, is scheduled to be executed on Nov. 18 for the murder of Steven W. Horton, 30, a father of 2. The U.S. Supreme Court lifted his stay on Monday, KRIS 6 News reported. Assistant District Attorney Mark Skurka said the district attorney's office was notified earlier this week about the Supreme Court's decision. Skurka said barring extraordinary circumstances, the execution date will stand. All appeals have been exhausted, he said. The stay was granted in July, the day of Kunkle's first scheduled execution. The high court said it needed more time to consider a writ filed by Kunkle's lawyers. The stay was based on a Supreme Court decision that said Texas courts have been applying an unconstitutional standard that did not allow juries to consider mitigating circumstances, such as mental illness, during capital murder trials. Kunkle's attorneys did not return phone calls Thursday, but in a previous interview, attorney Dana Recer said jurors were not given a chance to understand the troubled background of her client who was 18 at the time. She said in July that his parents were both medicated for depression and that he was abused. She also said Kunkle was diagnosed with mental illness since his conviction. Trial testimony showed that Horton's father, Nolan Horton, testified that his son had gone for a walk about 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 12, 1984, and a short time later police were notified by a passing motorist that his body was lying on a dirt road off the 1600 block of Paul Jones Avenue. Kunkle was one of four people tried in Horton's murder. According to court testimony, Horton was lured into a car where he was shot in the back of the head, thrown from the car and his wallet stolen. There was $13 in the wallet, which later was found on the grounds of Naval Air Station Corpus Christi. Horton's family was not available for comment Thursday. (source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times) CONNECTICUTexecution date//volunteer Michael Ross execution date set for January Serial killer Michael Ross' execution date was set Wednesday for Jan. 26, after Ross said he wished to end 17 years of appealing his death sentences for killing 4 women. The execution would be the first in Connecticut in 44 years, but it is far from certain whether the execution will proceed as planned. Families of the victims, police officers who investigated the case and even one juror who sentenced Ross to death in 2000 said they doubt Ross is sincere. I don't think it will take place, said Lera Shelley, mother of one Ross victim, 14-year-old Leslie Shelley. We'll see what happens. Ross' lawyer, T.R. Paulding, said Ross believes he has the moral obligation to accept his punishment and spare his victims' families any more grief. He has no death wish, Paulding told Superior Court Judge Patrick Clifford. It's not a suicide issue. It's much more than that. Ross, wearing a yellow prison jumpsuit and his hair in a stubby ponytail, told the judge that he believes the state Department of Correction is trying to force him to pursue appeals. By giving up any more appeals, Ross said, prison officials may see him as a suicide risk and may put him in the medical ward at Northern Correctional Institution, which would isolate him. There has been this pressure put on me to pursue my appeals, Ross said. I think that's inappropriate and unfair. Michael Malchik, a former state police detective who helped arrest Ross in 1984, said he thinks Ross will use the medical ward as an excuse to renege on his promise. We've been down this road before. He just wants to be in control, Malchik said. He'll use the excuse that the state screwed up the bargain. Ross' critics recalled that he has promoted himself in the media in past years, appearing on a television show about serial killers and writing a personal essay for The Hartford Courant's Sunday magazine about his life behind bars - each time causing his victims more pain. Ross still could file a habeas corpus petition, seek a pardon or ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, although these requests are rarely granted. Paulding acknowledged that Ross could change his mind, but he said Ross has desired for nine years to drop all appeals and was forced by the state court system to follow the lengthy appeals procedure. He said he doubts that Ross will renege if he is sent to the medical ward. Another death row inmate, Sedrick Cobb, was briefly sent to the medical ward when he said in court that he would drop his appeals. The Superior Court clerk sent the warrant for execution to the warden of Northern Wednesday afternoon. The state Department of Correction is
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., USA, LA. N.Y.
Oct. 16 TEXAS: The Community Speaks Up: Cheers and Jeers Cheers To the Texas Democratic Party and our local candidates standing on the Texas Democratic platform. Concerning capital punishment, the party platform states: In order to promote public confidence in the fairness of the Texas criminal justice system, Texas Democrats support the establishment of a Texas Capital Commission to study the Texas death penalty system. During that study, we recommend a temporary moratorium of executions pending actions on the Commissions findings. J.C., Texarkana, Texas (source: Texarkana Gazette) * Couple indicted in child's brutal murderDallas pair accused of using many objects to harm, kill 5-year-old A capital murder indictment against a Dallas couple Friday lists a staggering litany of objects that investigators think were used to injure and eventually kill their 5-year-old daughter. The list of objects used as weapons that caused the child's death includes a wall, and a foot, and a shoe, and a broom, and a belt, and a hand, and a brush, and a screwdriver, and a clothes hanger, and an extension cord, and an object, the exact nature and description of which is unknown. Stepfather Jason Pumphrey and the girl's mother, Hope Pumphrey, were arrested after they brought 5-year-old Amber Hope Pacheco to Children's Medical Center Dallas on Aug. 18. The child had new and old injures, including to her head and fractures to her pelvis, arm and ribs, authorities said. The indictments charge that Amber was beaten, had her hair pulled and her airway blocked and that she was stabbed with a clothes hanger. Ms. Pumphrey, 31, told authorities that she had not sought medical treatment for the girl earlier because she thought that the child was possessed by demons and that no one would believe her. The 5-year-old never regained consciousness after being taken to the hospital and died Sept. 3 after a judge ordered that it was in her best interest to remove her from life-support machines. According to court documents, Ms. Pumphrey told investigators that her husband punched his stepdaughter and whipped her with an extension cord. Mr. Pumphrey, 43, told police that he hit the child and whipped her with a belt. The Pumphreys remain in a Dallas County jail and could not be reached for comment. If convicted of capital murder, the two could face life in prison or the death penalty, though prosecutors have not determined whether they will seek the death penalty in these cases. (source: Dallas Morning News) ** Man Found Guilty of Capital Murder A Polk County jury found Donnie Roberts guilty Friday of capital murder. He's accused of killing 44-year-old Vickie Bowen in her Lake Livingston home a year ago. Authorities say 32-year-old Roberts, who was Bowen's boyfriend, confessed to killing her. Roberts says he shot her with a 22-caliber rifle during an argument. He could get the death penalty. It only took jurors a little more than two hours to find Donnie Roberts guilty. Roberts was reportedly married when he moved in with Vickie Bowen. During his trial, he told the jury he wanted to get back with his wife he'd left in Baton Rouge, but she'd refused. Last October, Roberts argued with Vickie at her Lake Livingston home. That's when he pulled out a gun and shot her to death. Just after the murder, Vickie's neighbor Anne Nelson said, I couldn't sleep. Every time I'd close my eyes, I'd see her. Roberts never denied the shooting. Jurors say that made it hard to listen to some of his testimony. Alternate juror Curtis Myers says, Roberts Kept pretty much the same demeanor, even (during) his earlier testimony way in the beginning; just not showing a whole lot of emotions. Vickie's family, including her mom and 18-year-old son, sat in on the trial. The family section behind Donnie Roberts remained empty all week. The punishment phase of the trial starts Monday. It's expected to last about a week. (source: KTRE News) CONNECTICUT: Convicted hit man could face federal death sentence A New York man faces a possible federal death sentence after being convicted of acting as a hit man in the slaying of a Hartford street gang leader. Fausto Gonzalez was found guilty Friday by a jury in U.S. District Court of firing 13 shots from a motorcycle into a car carrying Savage Nomads street gang leader Theodore Teddy Casiano on May 24,1996. On Tuesday, the jury that convicted him will begin hearing evidence whether Gonzalez, 33, should be executed. Gonzalez would become the 2st Connecticut convict on federal death row in decades. The only other possible sentence is life imprisonment without the possibility of release. In June, Wilfredo Perez, a drug dealer and rival of Casiano's, was convicted of hiring Gonzalez for $6,000 to kill Casiano. He and his brother, Jose Antonio Tony Perez, 44, both face life in prison for their roles in the murder. Prosecutor said the killing followed a
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., CALIF., IOWA
Oct. 19 TEXAS: Death penalty sought for suspect in 4 killings Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against a man they say strangled a young woman and 3 other females over a 9-year span. An attorney for Anthony Allen Shore, however, says prosecutors have proof problems in their case against the 42-year-old tow truck driver who was arrested in October 2003 and faces 4 capital murder charges. Shore's trial began Monday for the death of Maria Del Carmen Estrada, 21. Prosecutors said the other 3 slayings will be mentioned during the trial. Estrada last was seen at 6:30 a.m. on April 16, 1992, when she left her home to walk to work. Her body was found 4 hours later in the drive-through lane of a fast-food restaurant. She had been strangled with a cord, police said. Harris County prosecutor Kelly Siegler told jurors during opening statements that Shore used a cord and a piece of wood to torment and control Estrada while sexually assaulting and strangling her. When he was finished having his way with her, he left her ... like a piece of garbage, Siegler said. Shore's attorney, Gerald Bourque, told jurors his client was guilty of murder but not capital murder and said Estrada and Shore knew each other. Police say they have DNA evidence connecting Shore to the Estrada slaying but not to the other three. But he has been accused of capital murder in the kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and strangulation of 9-year-old Diana Rebollar in 1994; of 16-year-old Dana Sanchez in 1995; and 15-year-old Laurie Lee Tremblay in 1986. (source: Associated Press) CONNECTICUT: Mills escapes death penalty Jonathan Mills, who stabbed his former aunt and her 2 young children to death in Guilford, escaped the death penalty Monday. Mills, 31, who appeared nervous as he waited for the Superior Court jury's decision, hugged his attorneys when the verdict was announced. He clasped his hands before him and looked up toward the ceiling, smiled and said he wanted to call his mother. Mills stands convicted of 3 counts of capital felony for the murders and will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. His formal sentencing before Superior Court Judge Jon Blue is scheduled for Jan. 21. The 12-member jury appeared calm as the verdict was announced, though at least 1 juror wiped tears away. Jurors ultimately found that Mills' drug addiction, childhood abuse, and his willingness to take responsibility for the deaths outweighed his criminal history and the heinous nature of the crimes. The verdict came after slightly more than 5 full days of deliberations. Mills murdered Katherine Kitty Kleinkauf, who was divorced from Mills' uncle, and her 2 children, Rachael Crum, 6, and Kyle Redway, 4, in their Guilford home Dec. 27, 2000. Mills entered Kleinkauf's bedroom with two knives, intending to take her ATM card to get money to buy drugs. He stabbed Kleinkauf 46 times when she awakened and confronted him. The children, who had been sleeping in the same bed, awakened and began screaming. Mills stabbed each child 6 times. While several of the victims' loved ones traveled from out of state to attend the majority of the trial, they weren't in court Monday for the verdict. Kleinkauf's sister, Nancy Filiault of New Hampshire, was unavailable for comment Monday. Public Defender Thomas Ullmann said he is totally relieved by the verdict. He noted that Mills was willing to plead guilty back in January in exchange for a life sentence, the same penalty jurors supported. We stand here in the same place, Ullmann said. We have wasted an incredible amount of taxpayer money on this case. He didn't want the victims' families to go through this. He was willing to take the most severe penalty short of the death sentence, Ullmann said. The money spent pursuing a death sentence against Mills could have been used on drug treatment programs to help prevent such cases. Prosecutor Michael Dearington said it was appropriate to pursue the death penalty in this case. I respect the jury's verdict, Dearington said. The jury determined that the state did prove the 2 aggravating factors alleged, including that Mills committed the offense during the commission of a felony he had previously been convicted of, or 3rd-degree burglary. They also found that the murders were committed in an especially heinous, cruel and depraved manner. The defense claimed several mitigating factors, such as significant mental impairment at the time of the killings because of drug use, an abusive family background, and Mills' remorse and willingness to take responsibility. Jurors concluded that the defense did not prove the mental impairment factor. However, the group did find that some of the other mitigating factors were proven. They did not elaborate on their verdict form. Lois Cody, jury foreperson, called the jury a wonderful group of caring people. Cody and other jurors reached Monday declined to discuss their verdict.
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., MO., UTAH, PENN.
Dec. 3 TEXAS: Condemned Texas Woman Maintains Innocence The last time Frances Newton saw her husband and 2 children alive was April 7, 1987, 5 days before her 22nd birthday. She says she went out with a cousin to run a few errands, then came back to her Houston-area apartment to find her loved ones -- 23-year-old Adrian, Alton, 7, and 2-year-old Farrah -- shot to death. 2 weeks later, Newton was charged with murdering her family, convicted and condemned for a crime she insists she didn't commit. Newton spent the next 16 years on Texas' death row. On Wednesday, she was just 2 hours away from becoming the 1st black woman executed in the state when Gov. Rick Perry granted a reprieve. I was hopeful someone would hear us, Newton said from a cell only a few feet from the death chamber. Perry agreed with a rare recommendation from the state parole board that Newton should be spared 120 days so experts could retest evidence -- a .25-caliber pistol described by prosecutors as the murder weapon, gunpowder residue they contend was on her clothes -- using technology that wasn't available when she was convicted. The governor, who supports the death penalty, said he saw no evidence Newton was innocent but thought allowing the new tests was the responsible thing to do. Everything's going to be fine, a teary-eyed Iva Nelms, Newton's mother, said outside the prison after hearing Perry's decision. God is taking care of this situation. Perry's rationale for his decision was understandable to Newton's lawyers. I think there's been real increase in skepticism people have about reliability of convictions in many kinds of criminal cases, and that includes death penalty cases, said David Dow, one of Newton's attorneys. And in that respect, I think Frances Newton benefits. Harris County prosecutors had opposed the reprieve, saying her claims offered nothing new and had been resolved at her trial. She gets another 120 days and then we'll start all over, assistant district attorney Roe Wilson said. Newton believes the real killer is a drug dealer named Charlie who was upset with her husband for not repaying a $500 debt. She says she remembers walking into the apartment, looking for her family, then finding Adrian's bloody body on the couch. He had been shot in the head; Alton and Farrah were shot in the chest. That's the worst feeling I've ever had, Newton said. When I walked in and I found them, it was a scary feeling. It was overwhelming, very frightening. With no eyewitnesses and no confession, prosecutors built a circumstantial case. The murder weapon was found in a blue bag Newton left in an abandoned house that belonged to her parents. Three weeks before the deaths, Newton took out $50,000 life insurance policies on herself, her husband and her daughter, with herself as beneficiary. A day before her arrest, she applied for the death benefits. The insurance money was the motive, prosecutors said. The jury convicted her in 1988. Newton, 39, said the gun belonged to her husband, who had dealt drugs, and she hid it at the abandoned house to keep him from getting into trouble. The gunpowder residue, she said, really was fertilizer rubbed on her dress by her daughter, who stayed with relatives during the day while she worked at a tax accounting office. Her uncle had a large garden, where he used fertilizer, and toddler Farrah would have collected it on her shoes. The insurance policies, she said, were a long-standing goal she was able to achieve by saving money and keeping it secret from her husband. Newton's case is the kind that shakes the confidence in the criminal justice system, according to lawyers trying to help her, and provides fodder for death penalty opponents questioning the competence of legal help, particularly for the poor. Newton's court-appointed lead trial attorney was Ronald G. Mock, notorious for having his clients, perhaps as many as a dozen, wind up on death row. Mock has been suspended or placed on probation by the State Bar of Texas at least 3 times since he was licensed in 1978. Earlier this year he was reprimanded for taking a case he wasn't competent to handle, accepting payment, then refusing to refund the money. Mock, whose office telephone number is disconnected, couldn't be reached for comment. Newton's mother contacted another Houston lawyer, David Eisen. He asked the Harris County court if he could join the case and investigate it. Mock, he said, had conducted no investigation and never even talked to one witness. The court refused. She didn't get a fair trial, not even close, Eisen said. (source: Associated Press) Judge's ruling leaves family reelingSlain woman's relatives want Theodore Goynes executed or in prison for life Ruby Tucker's knees nearly buckled when she read in Wednesday's paper that the man who abducted, raped and murdered her daughter-in-law might be spared the death penalty. I was weak in the knees, the
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN.
Dec. 7 TEXAS: Court backs project probing innocence claims The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, after years of criticism for favoring prosecutors, is supporting a proposal for a project using law students to investigate prisoners' claims they were wrongfully convicted. The project could involve a network of clinics, like those at the University of Houston and the University of Texas at Austin, that probe inmate claims. Students re-examine evidence and in some cases conduct new investigations that can include additional DNA testing, examination of evidence by expert witnesses and further crime-scene analysis. The appeals court will ask legislators to increase its $20 million fund to teach defense lawyers, prosecutors and judges about handling the claims, Judge Barbara Hervey said. If an innocent person is in prison, the entire system has failed, Hervey said. We need to get them out. She has met with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and his general counsel. The judge plans to meet with state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Senate's Criminal Justice Committee, about how to set up the projects. Since the Center for Actual Innocence opened at the UT Law School in 2003, about 10 students have screened more than 1,000 claims of innocence from inmates. About a dozen cases selected are in the early stages of investigation. The Texas Innocence Network opened at the University of Houston Law Center in 2000. It has been credited with helping free James Levi Byrd of Fort Worth and Josiah Sutton of Houston. Convicted of robbery, Byrd spent 5 years in prison before being freed 2 years ago after the law center helped investigate his innocence claim. A new DNA test set freed Sutton last year after 4 1/2 years behind bars. With help from law and journalism students at St. Thomas University in Houston and Lamar University in Beaumont, UH students have screened about 5,000 cases. We've identified cases where (the prosecutors) have made mistakes, and the consequences of their mistakes is pretty ... significant, said lawyer David Dow, who leads the clinic. 6 cases are pending review. (source: San Antonio Express-News) CONNECTICUT: No ReprieveRell Cites Horrors Of Ross' Victims As She Rejects Execution Delay Edwin Shelley lies awake nights trying to imagine the terror his 14-year-old daughter, Leslie, felt as she sat bound in serial killer Michael Ross' car Easter Sunday 1984. She listened as Ross raped and strangled her best friend, April Brunais, before he reached back into the car to make Leslie his seventh victim. Shelley in a handwritten letter recently asked Gov. M. Jodi Rell if she could comprehend his child's anguish. I can't, Shelley said Monday. I asked her if perhaps she could. Rell's answer to Shelley and the state's citizens was a strongly worded statement Monday that she would not grant Ross a reprieve. The governor also said she would veto any legislative attempt to abolish or place a moratorium on the death penalty. That stance will force legislators to coalesce into an overwhelming majority - one that could override a veto - if they wish to halt Ross' Jan. 26 execution. Even those who say they will work tirelessly to halt the execution whisper that the votes are not there. Rell made it clear she heard Edwin Shelley's plea - a letter tucked in the same folder as a letter from Ross, who also implored her not to grant a reprieve. Ross, 45, has waived further appeals and became a volunteer, in death-penalty jargon. A reprieve would have posed a potentially insurmountable hurdle between Ross and his desire to hasten his execution. The words of Mr. Shelley seared my heart; the words of Michael Ross did not, Rell said. In announcing her decision, Rell cited two decades of legislative debate over capital punishment - during which she, as a lawmaker, was a proponent. And she cited the oath of office she took to uphold the laws of the state of Connecticut. To uphold the existing laws of Connecticut is to uphold the death penalty, she said. It was the legislature which put the death penalty on the books many, many years ago ... And it will be up to the legislature to take the death penalty off the books, if that is their will. Said Shelley: I cannot express the joy it brought in hearing that. For Rell - who took office July 1 when former Gov. John Rowland resigned amid an impeachment inquiry and federal investigation into corruption in his administration - the reprieve issue was her 1st real crucible. There has not been in execution in Connecticut - or in New England, for that matter - since Joseph Taborsky was electrocuted May 17, 1960, for a string of robberies and execution-style slayings in the mid-1950s. In many respects this was the first gut-check this governor has had, and she wasn't going to suffer any fools, observed John Pavia, a Quinnipiac Law School professor. Rell, in her public statement Monday, spoke in a forceful voice about the sleep she lost during
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news-----TEXAS, CONN., FLA.
Dec. 16 TEXAS: 1st of 12 suspects found guilty in gang massacre In Edinburg, the 1st of 12 suspected gang members to be tried in the fatal shooting of 6 men in an apparent battle over drugs was convicted of capital murder. Jurors deliberated about 5 hours Wednesday night before convicting Juan Raul Navarro Ramirez, 20, of 2 counts of capital murder. The penalty phase began today, and prosecutors were expected to argue for the death penalty. During the January 2003 attack, heavily armed masked men stormed a house and a nearby ramshackle building and gunned down the six men, according to testimony. Rosie Gutierrez, the mother of victims Jerry Eugene Hidalgo, 24, and Ray Hidalgo, 30, testified that she was bound with electrical tape and witnessed the slayings. Also killed were Jimmy Edward Almendariz, 22; brothers Juan Delgado Jr., 32, and Juan Delgado III, 20; and Ruben Rolando Castillo, 32. Police recovered nearly a dozen weapons from the shooting. Ballistic experts determined the most of the bullets found at the scene came from an AK-47 and an SKS assault rifle. During testimony, jurors heard a tape of a statement Ramirez gave police the day he was arrested. It was a horrible crime, Prosecutor Joseph Orendain said. In a violent nature they were put down. You listen to him talk about it. It's amazing how calm he is, not scared, shaking, crying, he doesn't ask for a lawyer. Defense attorney Alma Garza said police made up their minds based on Gutierrez's account and overlooked evidence against her client. She said police allegations that Ramirez belonged to the Rio Grande Valley gang the Tri-City Bombers were based on hearsay. Some witnesses testified that a disagreement over marijuana led to the shooting. (source: Associated Press) * The murders he can't rememberRelatives' deaths are recounted as man pleads guilty Floyd Thompson remembered the cursed paperwork from family court that would give his wife the Ford truck and camper, his only way back home to West Virginia to escape after their bitter breakup. He remembered visiting his daughter's house Sept. 2 to talk to his wife, Betty, about the divorce settlement. He recalled leaving with the wrong set of keys, which left him locked out of his own home in a woodsy RV park outside Livingston. There, he sat on his pine-shaded patio and tried to figure out what just happened. This much he knew: Betty refused to come home. He was dripping with sweat. His daughter and son-in-law's house - the one he just left - was on fire. And he was clutching an empty pistol. Then there is the part he claims not to remember - 4 people were killed that day: Thompson's wife, daughter, son-in-law and grandson. All four were shot and their bodies burned in the house fire. On Wednesday, in a Polk County district courtroom, Thompson, 76, pleaded guilty to four counts of capital murder. In the same courtroom, family members from East Texas, Houston and Missouri retold stories of the love the deceased shared and vented their anger at the man who took their lives. Living in a hole as you did, said Gail Shannon, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother and friend of those killed, and forcing Betty to live as she did - shutting the drapes, sitting in the dark, watching Law Order day in and day out. That is the way you forced Betty to exist. You are possibly the biggest fool I have ever known. Family members reconstructed their loved ones' final moments from official reports. On the day of the murders, Betty Thompson opened the door for her estranged husband. After a quick exchange, she walked away from him, perhaps knowing he was aiming a loaded gun at her. He shot her in the back and left her to die on the kitchen floor. The Thompsons' daughter, her husband and their son retreated to a rear bedroom, where Floyd found and shot them all, reloading the .38-caliber handgun at some point. Gasoline was poured over the bodies and the house set ablaze. The job done, he closed the door behind him and went home. He later drove to the police station, where he reported the fire, but not the murders. In court, a sister cried, an uncle wept. Even the defense attorney let tears fall. Thompson, awaiting sentencing, said in court he would like to be executed. With the claim that he does not recall the murders and the psychiatric evaluation finding that he acted in a moment of passion, defense attorney Karen Zellars said she could have tried to have the charges reduced to involuntary manslaughter. But Floyd said he didn't want that, Zellars said. He said, 'I don't remember what I've done. But they're all gone. I want them to go ahead and give me the needle.' (source: Houston Chronicle CONNECTICUT: Local legislators debate death penalty Mourn for the victims, not their killer. That was the message Governor Jodi Rell (R) delivered last week as she announced her decision not to grant a reprieve to convicted rapist and murderer Michael Ross.
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., VA.
Jan. 3 TEXASimpending execution//volunteer Convicted killer ready to die Tuesday Convicted killer James Porter figured he did society a favor by fatally beating a child molester even though he wound up on death row for the slaying. Now he believes he's doing himself a favor by short-circuiting his appeals to ensure a trip to Texas' death chamber Tuesday. I'm the type of individual to face up to my responsibility and my mistakes, Porter, 33, said recently from a small visiting cell outside Texas' death row. At Porter's request, no appeals were pending in the courts and no clemency petition was filed with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, said his lawyer, Robin Norris. I believe as much as I can determine that he is in fact determined to go, Norris said. The tattoo-covered Porter, whose body art touts what he said is his former allegiance to white supremacist prison gangs, is the 1st of 9 Texas inmates already set to die this year, including 4 in January. Texas, the nation's most active capital punishment state, carried out 23 executions in 2004. Porter already was in prison, serving a 45-year term for the 1995 fatal shooting of a transient in Denton County, when he killed fellow inmate Rudy Delgado in 2000. Court records show Porter smuggled a rock into his cell at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Telford Unit near Texarkana, stuffed it in a pillowcase and used it to beat Delgado, who was serving a 15-year term for sexually assaulting a child in Dallas County. Dude was a homosexual, Porter said of Delgado, 40. He asked me several times if that was something I might dig. One day, frustration started eating on me, like a little old black shroud covering my eyes. I'm going to kill someone. I guess at that time I just lost all my cool and didn't care any more. By the time prison officers broke up the attack, Delgado's head had been battered with the rock and by kicks from Porter, and he had been stabbed in the neck. Porter stomped the man until his face could not be recognized as being that of a human, said James Elliott, the assistant district attorney in Bowie County who prosecuted Porter. And I'm not exaggerating that one bit. Before his capital murder trial, Porter wrote Elliott, saying he should be lauded for killing Delgado. I said: Hey man, you should give me a certificate of accomplishment for taking this dude out instead of trying to kill me, he recalled, adding that the district attorney used the note against him, telling jurors Porter was boasting and proud of the slaying. In a way, I was, Porter said. That dude never touched any little boys again. Porter also wrote he'd kill again if he didn't get the death penalty. I think he was pretty well determined to get out of the system by murder and that's what he did, Elliott said. Porter said while he had no regrets at the time, he now believes he was wrong to judge his victim. It wasn't my place to re-punish him for something he was already punished for, Porter said. I'm sorry it happened. That's all I can say. Norris said Porter long suffered depression resulting from an abusive childhood that included being raped by one of his stepfathers. He eventually ran away from his home in Lake Dallas, where he dropped out of school in the 8th grade. A burglary conviction in Denton County got him a 5-year prison term. He was on parole from that conviction when he and a brother were arrested and convicted for killing the transient and dumping the man's body down a water well. I made my peace with God, Porter said. I thought about it for a while. I prayed on it. You can't run from your mistakes forever. On the Net: Texas execution schedule: http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/scheduledexecutions.htm (source: Associated Press) * Law and Order -- raucous year in courts [my note---this has been edited to include only the death penalty-relevant portions of the story] Forget CSI or Court TV. Even they couldnt outdo some of the drama that unfolded at the Hidalgo County Courthouse in 2004. The cases ranged from serious to strange - and some didnt end with the calendar. Heres a review of some of the most riveting: Tri-City Bombers As the 2-year anniversary of the Edinburg massacre looms, one man is on death row while his nine co-defendants wait their trials in county jail and 2 other suspects are still on the run. On Dec. 15, a jury found Juan Raul Navarro Ramirez guilty on 2 counts of capital murder in the shooting deaths of six men on Jan. 5, 2003. 2 days later the jury gave Ramirez, 20, of Donna, death penalty. Ramirez, who stood trial in Judge Noe Gonzalezs 370th state District Court, was the 1st of 13 suspected members of the Tri-City Bombers to stand trial for a pseudo-cop raid which left 6 dead at 2 homes on 2915 E. Monte Cristo Road in Edinburg. The victims - Jimmy Edward Almendariz, 22; brothers Jerry Eugene Hidalgo, 24, and Ray Hidalgo, 30; brothers Juan Delgado Jr., 32, and
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., FLA., LA.
Jan. 6 TEXAS: Andrea Yates' conviction thrown out The Texas First Court of Appeals reversed today the capital murder conviction of Clear Lake mom Andrea Yates, who's serving a life sentence for drowning her children in a bathtub. The 3-member appeals court granted Yates motion to have her conviction reversed because, among other things, the states expert psychiatric witness testified that Yates had patterned her actions after a Law Order television episode that never existed. In ordering a new trial, the appellate court said the trial judge erred in not granting a mistrial once it was learned that testimony of Dr. Park Dietz was false. Its unbelievable, defense attorney George Parnham said. I'm stunned, unbelievably happy and desperately trying to get a hold of Andrea. In 2001, Yates confessed to drowning her five children, ranging in age from 7 years to 6 months, but she pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Her case generated national interest and put a spotlight on postpartum depression. The case also raised questions about Texas legal system when it deals with the insanity defense. During her 2002 trial, Yates' attorneys argued the stay-at-home mom, who was under psychiatric care, didn't know right from wrong when she filled up the familys bathtub and drowned her children one by one. The Harris County jury deliberated just 3-1/2 hours before convicting her of drowning 3 of her children. She was not tried in the deaths of her other 2 children. Yates could have received the death penalty, but the jury sentenced her to life in prison instead. Yates' attorneys vowed at the trial's end that they would appeal the case because of the testimony of Dietz, who told the jury he had served as a consultant on an episode of the television drama Law Order in which a woman drowned her children in the bathtub and was judged insane. He testified the show aired shortly before Yates drowned her five young children. Prosecutors referred to Dietz's testimony in his closing arguments of the trial's guilt or innocence phase, noting that Yates regularly watched the show and that she had alluded to finding a way out when Dietz interviewed her in the Harris County Jail after the drownings. But defense attorneys discovered no such episode was produced. As a result, both sides agreed to tell jurors that Dietz had erred in his testimony and to disregard that portion of his account. Dietz later said he had confused the show with others and wrote a letter to prosecutors, saying, I do not believe that watching Law Order played any causal role in Mrs. Yates' drowning of her children. (source: Houston Chronicle) CONNECTICUT: Death Penalty Fight EscalatesCatholic Church Presses Opposition To Executing Ross Archbishop Henry J. Mansell will call on Roman Catholics this weekend to join him in opposing the upcoming execution of serial killer Michael Ross. The death penalty offers the tragic illusion that we can defend life only by taking life, Mansell wrote in a letter to be read in Roman Catholic churches during Masses Saturday and Sunday. The Hartford archbishop is part of a broad spectrum of religious leaders and groups pushing to abolish capital punishment. Mansell does not mention Ross by name in his letter, but refers to the intensifying debate over the death penalty as we face the possibility of our first execution in 45 years. Mansell's letter also calls on parishioners to sign a petition the church developed with the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty. The petition will be available at church entrances. He said inequities in the judicial process, where those most often sentenced to death are poor and minority, raise serious doubts concerning the effectiveness of our criminal justice system in detecting the true source and nature of crimes that have been committed, and in protecting the rights and dignity of those who have been accused of them. It's not clear how much Mansell's words will resonate with parishioners. According to a 2003 University of Connecticut poll, 58 % of Connecticut residents favor the death penalty. A Quinnipiac Poll 2 years ago found that 42 % of Connecticut residents identify themselves as Catholics, and 56 % say they were raised as Catholics. But there is also a disconnect between church teaching and public practice, which James M. O'Toole, a history professor at Boston College, discusses in a the new book, Religion and Public Life in New England: Steady Habits, Changing Slowly. The book is edited by Mark Silk and Andrew Walsh of Trinity College's Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life. O'Toole notes that while New England's Catholic bishops consistently condemned legislation to re-impose the death penalty, Catholic legislators continued to be among capital punishment's most regular supporters. Alex Mikulich, a professor of religious studies at St. Joseph College in West Hartford, said that at one time Roman Catholic teaching
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN.
Jan. 7 TEXAS: Set the Bar Higher: False witness rightly cancels Yates conviction No matter what you believe about Andrea Yates - guilty of capital murder or innocent by insanity - it's hard to argue with the Houston appeals court that threw out her conviction and life sentence yesterday in the drowning deaths of 3 of her children. The question never was what happened but why. Did she know right from wrong? And the way Harris County prosecutors - knowingly or not - misled jurors with false testimony from an expert witness nullifies all other evidence. To have faith in our judicial system, we must have reliable benchmarks. This newspaper supports the efforts of our state's prosecutors, the vast majority of whom are honorable, honest men and women determined to pursue justice. But paying a famous psychiatrist $50,000 and letting him make up an episode of a television show to illustrate his point is, at best, a cheap trick beneath the dignity of an officer of the court. A good lawyer never asks a question in court without knowing the answer. You'd better believe prosecutors vetted and prepped Dr. Park Dietz before he testified. He did, in fact, consult for the TV drama Law Order and cited an episode in which a mother was acquitted for killing her children by using an insanity defense. It was too perfect, of course. Had prosecutors taken the elemental step of asking to screen the episode before trial, they would have discovered that it lived only in Dr. Dietz's head. On appeal, prosecutors argued that they didn't know the information was false; they didn't use the false information; and either way, it wasn't material. That sounds too much like the tongue-in-cheek ABC strategy famously credited to a Houston defense legend, Richard Racehorse Haynes: My dog didn't bite you. My dog doesn't bite. I don't have a dog. We expect more from our prosecutors. (source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News) CONNECTICUT: States priests join push to eliminate death penalty An eerie ticker on an anti-death penalty groups Web site is counting down the seconds until serial killer Michael Ross is put to death. By Thursday, fewer than 20 days remained before the state will execute its first prisoner since 1960. Ross is set to die by lethal injection at 2 a.m. Jan. 26. As the date approaches, the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty has kicked into high gear, leading a broad coalition of religious, secular and political groups aiming to repeal the states capital punishment law. The CNADP this week began holding daily vigils outside the governors office at the state Capitol, calling for an end to the death penalty. Religious leaders are also speaking out against capital punishment. Before recessional hymns signal the end of Mass this weekend, thousands of Catholics statewide will be asked to sign a petition opposing the death penalty. Rev. Henry J. Mansell, the archbishop of Hartford, has sent a letter to 215 Catholic parishes to be read aloud at the end of Mass on Saturday and Sunday. Bishops in the dioceses of Norwich and Bridgeport, and the Ukrainian Catholic Diocese of Connecticut, are making similar pleas to almost 200 more churches, said Marie T. Hilliard, executive director of the Connecticut Catholic Conference. The death penalty offers the tragic illusion that we can defend life only by taking life, Mansell says in the letter, which does not mention Ross by name. Mansells letter asks Catholics to sign a petition urging the General Assembly to abolish the law. The petition will be available after Mass on Jan. 15 and 16. Support for the petition remains to be seen. Despite the vocal opposition, a majority of Connecticut voters say they support capital punishment. A 2003 Quinnipiac University poll found that 60 percent of voters favor the death penalty. However, when given a choice between death and life without parole, respondents split 47 % to 46 %. Dee Clinton, whose son Anson Buzz Clinton, 28, was killed in a murder-for-hire plot in 1994, says she has no sympathy for Ross or other convicted killers. All 3 suspects implicated in the case got off with jail sentences. Clinton said she would have preferred death. Why the hell should the life of a dirt bag like Michael Ross have any value? said Clinton, past president of Survivors of Homicide. Clinton said she is a Catholic and doesnt feel her faith is at odds with her position on capital punishment. I read the Bible and I pray the Our Father, she said. When it says and forgive those who trespass against us does that mean if I forgive our murderers, do I get one free murder? Ross has admitted killing 8 women in Connecticut and New York in the 1980s. Michael Ross is the perfect poster child for why the death penalty doesnt work, said CNADP coordinator Robert Nave. It didnt stop him from committing this crime, it didnt stop us from spending money on court appeals and it wont stop us from killing a mentally ill person. Bishop
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN.
Jan. 18 TEXAS: No verdict in Vela trial; jury to reconvene today After about 5 hours of deliberating on the fate of capital murder defendant Juan Joey Vela, jurors on Monday were sent home and will continue deliberations today, KRIS 6 News reported. Vela, 24, is accused of killing his cousin, 18-year-old Isaac Maldonado, and 19-year-old Jenna Patek last January. The victims were found dead in an upstairs bedroom at the home of Maldonado's mother. Prosecutors claim Vela confessed to a fellow jail inmate that he committed the murders and they area seeking the death penalty. Defense attorneys say the witness is lying in an effort to get his own sentence reduced. (source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times) ** Potential jurors questioned The 1st set of potential jurors answered questions Monday in Andre Thomas' capital murder trial. Thomas faces capital murder charges in the stabbing deaths of his wife Laura Christine (Boren) Thomas, their son Andre Lee Boren, and Mrs. Thomas' daughter, Leyha Marie Hughes. Grayson County District Attorney Joe Brown, his first assistant Kerye Ashmore, and defense attorneys Bobbie Peterson and R. J. Hagood were expected to question seven potential jurors Monday. The 1st juror was on the stand for just over two hours and was not selected to sit on the jury. The day started out with Ashmore giving the woman a brief but thorough explanation of death penalty litigation in Texas. He explained to her the fact that the trial will be split into 2 sections with the first being the part in which the jurors will have to decide if Thomas is guilty of the charges he faces. If the jury progresses past that point by finding Thomas guilty, jurors will then consider whether Thomas should spend the rest of his life in prison or die for the crimes. Ashmore displayed his explanations on a huge screen while he discussed legal concepts like burden of proof, insanity, competency, and mitigating circumstances. Because state law prohibits the attorneys from discussing the Thomas case directly, the attorneys used hypothetical situations to illustrate their explanations of the law in the case. Ashmore told the woman that under Texas law, all persons charged with a crime are presumed innocent and sane. It is the state's responsibility to prove that a person committed a crime, but it is the defense attorney's responsibility to prove that the person is insane. A person can have a severe mental illness and still not be legally insane, Ashmore explained. He said, in order for a defendant to be found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, the jury must find that the person didn't know that the conduct in question was wrong at the time it was committed. Ashmore also explained that one could be legally sane at the time a crime is committed but later be found incompetent to stand trial. He said competency deals with whether a person is able to communicate sufficiently with defense attorneys to aid in his own defense and not with the state of mind one possessed at the time of the crime. At several points during those explanations, Ashmore stopped and asked the woman if she understood the concepts being presented. The woman said she thought she understood the explanations, but noted that it was a lot to take in at one time. When Hagood took over the questioning, he introduced Thomas to the woman. Thomas appeared to have gained weight since his return from a state hospital several months ago. He dressed in casual slacks and a jacket for the 1st day of individual jury selection. When Hagood asked the woman what she had heard about what his client is accused of having done, the woman said she had heard that he mutilated the 2 children. The woman said the news reports were disgusting and that the whole thing sickened her. She said she didn't hear or read any media reports about Thomas' competency hearings. She then said that she works around people who suffer from mental illnesses and that she thinks those with mental illness should be held accountable for their actions just the same as anyone else in society. The woman also agreed that suffering from a mental illness is not a matter of choice and that some people can be vastly different from day to day. The woman and Hagood then spent a good deal of time going over the level of proof the defense would be required to show to prove that Thomas suffered from a mental disease or defect at the time of the crime. By law, Hagood said, the defense only has to prove Thomas' mental condition by a preponderance of evidence which is a significantly lower threshold of proof than the beyond a reasonable doubt threshold that the prosecution must meet when trying to prove Thomas guilty. The woman repeatedly told Hagood that she would hold the defense to proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Thomas suffered from a mental disease or defect at the time of the deaths. When the questioning ended, prosecutors voted to accept the juror and
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN.
Jan. 31 TEXAS: Luna set to appear at murder hearing Juan Manuel Luna, a suspected Texas Syndicate prison gang member accused of the 2002 murder of Manuel Rivera III, is scheduled to appear at 9 a.m. today in 242nd District Court for a plea agreement hearing. Hale County District Attorney Wally Hatch refused late Friday to release details of the pending agreement. A Hale County grand jury issued a sealed indictment on May 26, charging Luna with Rivera's murder. A Texas Ranger and Lubbock police detectives arrested Luna later that day in Lubbock. On June 23, 2002, a farmer discovered Rivera's body in a ditch near a dirt road along FM 400 northeast of Plainview. Autopsy reports later revealed that he suffered 2 gunshot wounds to his head, 1 to his chest and numerous superficial stab wounds, authorities said. I ain't done nothing. I'll walk out of this one, Luna said as officers led him to a May 26 court hearing in Lubbock. After an initial appearance before Lubbock County Justice of the Peace Jim Hansen, officers transferred Luna to Hale County. He has remained since in Hale County Jail on a $250,000 bond, a jail spokesman said. (source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal) Death Row battleYorks man in fight to save Texas prisoner A death row prisoner has enlisted the help of a Yorkshire pen pal in his fight for justice. Samuel Bustamante received the death penalty after stabbing a 27-year-old man to death back in January of 1998. The 35-year-old is currently on death row in Texas from where he struck up a friendship with Garry Kitchin from Tadcaster. Mr Kitchin is convinced that mistakes were made at Bustamante's trial and has now launched a personal crusade to get his sentence commuted to life. And he plans to travel to Texas to visit prisoner 999380 in March. Mr Kitchin first made contact with Bustamante in 2002 through an organisation which works to befriend prisoners on death row. I have got to know Sam over the last few years and the more we have written to each other the more he has opened up, said Mr Kitchin, 33, a machine operator. Ruined He accepts his guilt and was responsible for the death of the man. He is very remorseful about what happened and accepts that it has ruined his life. Mr Kitchin has now launched his own website - www.justiceforsam.co.uk - in support of Bustamante which he hopes will help in the fight to get his death sentence commuted to life. We believe the law was not applied properly at Sam's trial. We feel he should have been sentenced to life imprisonment rather than the death penalty. We now plan to fight that conviction through the appeals process. People may question the reason for me getting involved in Sam's case. But it's simple. I feel I have made a friend and I am also strongly against the death penalty. Mr Kitchin said he was looking forward to meeting Bustamante face to face for the 1st time. He continued: We have built up a friendship and it will be good to be able to talk. But I am well aware that if the case goes against him it could well be the 1st and last time I see him alive. I would go to the execution if he wanted me to be there. The state of Texas adopted lethal injection as means of execution of death row prisoners in 1977. There are currently 447 prisoners on death row in Texas awaiting execution. (source: Leeds Today (UK) CONNECTICUTnew death sentence 'Snowmobile Killer' Is Sentenced To Death A Torrington man was sentenced to death by lethal injection on Monday after being convicted of shooting a man in exchange for a broken snowmobile. Eduardo Santiago Jr., was sentenced on Monday in Hartford Superior Court to the death sentence, in addition to more than 45 years of imprisonment on related charges. Judge Douglas Lavine set an execution date of July 15, but said that the appeals process would likely push that date back. The sentencing had originally been scheduled for last month but was postponed after two jurors in the case had expressed misgivings about the death sentence the jury had recommended in August. Earlier this month, Santiago's lawyers said the judge should explore the possibility of juror misconduct, but Lavine said there wasn't enough information to warrant a new hearing. He also denied a motion to replace the death penalty recommendation with a sentence of life in prison without parole. Defense attorney Kevin Randolph said Monday that he plans to file an appeal once Santiago is sentenced. Prosecutors said Santiago, 25, was asked in 2000 to kill Niwinski by Mark Pascual, a 39-year-old Torrington machine shop owner. Authorities said Pascual became infatuated with Niwinski's girlfriend and hoped he could win her affections by having Niwinski killed. Pascual testified that he agreed to give Santiago a pink-striped snowmobile with a broken clutch in exchange for killing Niwinski. Authorities said Santiago was so enthusiastic about the murder-for-hire plot that he made a
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., USA, FLA.
Feb. 9 TEXAS: Study Examines Mental Status and Childhood Backgrounds of Juveniles on Death Row A recent study of 18 juvenile offenders on death row in Texas found that nearly all participants experienced serious head traumas in childhood and adolescence, came from extremely violent and/or abusive families, had one or more severe mental illnesses, and had signs of prefrontal brain dysfunction. The study, conducted by Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis of Yale along with other experts, suggests that most of the juvenile offenders on America's death rows suffer from serious conditions which substantially exacerbate the already existing vulnerabilities of youth. In the study, Dr. Lewis and her colleagues reviewed all available medical, psychological, educational, social, and family data for each participant to clarify the ways in which these various aspects of development may have diminished a juvenile offender's judgment and self control. The study's findings are similar to earlier research conducted by Dr. Lewis in 1988. Her work was cited in an amicus brief filed last year by the Juvenile Law Center and more than 50 other organizations in support of juvenile offender Christopher Simmons. In his case, Roper v. Simmons, the Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of executing juvenile offenders. A ruling is expected before July 2005. The article regarding Dr. Lewis's latest study,Ethics Questions Raised by Neuropsychiatric, Neuropsychological, Educational, Developmental, and Family Characteristics of 18 Juveniles Awaiting Execution in Texas, was recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. (32 American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 408 (December 2004) (source: Death Penalty Information Center) * Prosecutors divided over life without parole option Texas prosecutors are split over a Senate bill that would add life without parole as a sentencing option for juries who find a defendant guilty of capital murder. While some see the bill as a way to alleviate financial and time strains on counties, others say it could take away a convict's hope of parole. If you don't have any hope, you'll do anything, said Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, who opposes the bill. I believe in parole as something we ought to have in the code, even for very despicable crimes. Rosenthal said those convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life with the chance of parole after 40 years have something to work toward. Without parole, he said there is little incentive to behave in prison. Supporters of life without parole said violence isn't more likely among prisoners who aren't eligible for parole than those who are. They say life without parole would have prevented a case such as that of Kenneth Allen McDuff, who had his 1966 death sentence for killing 3 teenagers commuted to life and was later released from prison. After his release, McDuff was suspected of killing five women in Central Texas in 1991 and 1992. He was convicted of two slayings and executed in 1998. Senate Bill 60, which proposes the life without parole option, was introduced by Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, in November. It has been referred to the criminal justice committee. District Attorney Tim Cole, who represents Archer, Clay and Montague counties, said he knows some of his peers don't support the option and see it potentially weakening the death penalty. But Cole said life without parole could help rural prosecutors. Capital trials can bankrupt a small county and bring other cases to a halt while prosecutors focus on one, Cole said. As a DA, if I think a death penalty is appropriate, I should be able to convince a jury with life without parole on the table, Cole said. I don't think life without parole is the death penalty for the death penalty. Shannon Edmonds, director of governmental relations for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, said the organization's membership is evenly divided. You always hear that prosecutors kill that bill every year, and that is just not true, he said. It's a tough bill for us. Division among prosecutors is a promising sign for life without parole supporter David Dow, director of the Texas Innocence Network. There have always been prosecutors who are in favor of life without parole, but in the past it has been my sense that a majority of prosecutors have been against it, he said. It is an irony because on the one hand prosecutors claim they want to give jurors the greatest number of options and here they oppose something jurors want. Rosenthal said if a new element, such as life without parole, is added into the existing law, it is going to lead to more litigation as to when it should be applicable and when it shouldn't. Edmonds said there's nothing constitutionally wrong with life without parole. Some fear, however, if life without parole becomes an option and if the death penalty were abolished, opponents then
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news-----TEXAS, CONN., N.Y., ALA.
March 10 TEXAS: Survey: Texans back Supreme Court's juvenile death penalty ruling Texans firmly support the death penalty but a majority agrees with last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision that bars execution of people convicted for crimes when they were under the age of 18, according to a survey by researchers from Sam Houston State University. In the latest Texas Crime Poll conducted by the Huntsville school's Criminal Justice Center, 77 % of the people who responded believed the death penalty is appropriate. 57 %, including the 23 % opposed to capital punishment in all instances, said they did not favor executing people under 18. The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling last week in a Missouri case, said execution of juveniles was unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. The ruling threw out the death sentences of about 70 inmates, 28 of them in Texas. The results of the Supreme Court's decision, in concert with the results of this survey, reinforce my sense of hope for the general community at large, Dennis Longmire, director of the school's Survey Research Program, said Wednesday. It shows me there is compassion out there. We talk about compassionate conservatism. I think Texans in this context might represent it, because at least most Texans are willing to open themselves up to the issue of mental maturity. The survey, designed to aid Texas lawmakers and taken for the 38th consecutive year, was conducted before last week's decision from the high court. It looks like the court got it right, Longmire added. Even those of us in the most active death penalty state in the nation seem to have reached the same conclusion. Researchers mailed their questions to 2,463 Texas households in October. About one-quarter - 23 % - were returned, giving the survey a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 % points. Researchers cautioned the responses from women and lower socio-economic categories were underrepresented, while the sample overrepresented older Texans and those with higher levels of education. But Longmire said the racial breakdown - 57 % white, 12 % black, 25 % Hispanic - was in line with the population. Politically, 38 % of the respondents identified themselves as Republicans, 39 % as Democrats. Almost 2/3 of all the people said television was the source of their crime news. 14 % of the whites were totally opposed to capital punishment, a sentiment shared by 34 % of the Hispanics and 36 % of the blacks who responded. Overall, 35 % of the people who favored execution of juveniles said age 16 should be the minimum. Texas law had allowed the death penalty for those who committed capital murder at 17, an age cited by 12 % as the youngest they thought was appropriate. 6 % of the respondents favored capital punishment for those 10 years of age or younger. On related issues, 69 % said they would strongly or somewhat support legislation to create in Texas a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole. Convicts now given life terms become eligible for parole after 40 years behind bars. And 78 % strongly or somewhat favored creation of a special commission to study the quality of legal help given indigent offenders facing capital charges. 88 % would back the same panel looking into whether new technology like DNA testing should be employed to boost the certainty of guilt in capital cases. There was less support - 37 % - for a study by such a commission of whether race is a factor in decision-making in capital cases. But 81 % of the survey respondents favored the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles meeting as a body when it considers clemency in death penalty cases. The board now communicates by phone or fax. It strikes me that we've got a really strong sense of the need for holding people accountable, Longmire said of the findings. We want to make sure we're getting it right. And a lot of people don't think we're getting it right. ON THE NET -- Texas Crime Poll http://www.shsu.edu/cjcenter/College/srpdex/2004SLSreport.html (source: Star-Telegram) CONNECTICUT: Committee votes to abolish death penalty A key legislative committee voted Wednesday to abolish Connecticut's long-standing death penalty, as serial killer Michael Ross awaits execution. The Democrat-controlled Judiciary Committee voted 24-15 to replace the punishment of death by lethal injection with life in prison without the possibility of parole. It marked the 1st time a bill ending the death penalty has survived a committee vote. It is questionable whether there is enough support in the full General Assembly to pass the bill, but death penalty opponents hailed the Judiciary Committee's vote as an important step toward eventually ending capital punishment. I think for those people who are opposed to the death penalty, this is an encouraging victory for them, said Kim Harrison, a lobbyist for the Connecticut Church of Christ since 1988. She acknowledged the bill faces a long hurdle in the House of
