Sept. 8
TEXAS:
A New Law Gives Hope to an Inmate on death row
When Iris Morgenstern, an English teacher, remembers her former student Robert
Avila, she pictures the towering El Paso teen squeezing a tiny dropper of food
into the mouth of a scrawny newborn kitten.
"Robert is just a really gentle, kind soul," she said.
That is why, more than a decade after he was convicted of stomping to death his
girlfriend's 19-month-old son in a fit of jealousy, she still cannot believe
that he is facing execution. Now, after years of fighting to prove his
innocence, Ms. Morgenstern and Mr. Avila's legal team hope a new law will give
the death row inmate a chance for a new trial and the opportunity to prove his
innocence.
In the last legislative session, in the wake of dozens of exonerations in
recent years based on advances in forensic science, Texas lawmakers approved
Senate Bill 344. The 1st law of its kind in the nation, it allows courts to
grant defendants new trials in cases in which forensic science has evolved. On
Friday, Mr. Avila's lawyers filed a motion under the new statute arguing that
recent developments in biomechanical science that were unavailable at the time
of their client's 2001 trial indicate that Nicholas Macias's death may have
been the result of an accident.
But Jaime Esparza, the El Paso County district attorney, said he was not
convinced that the jury's verdict, based on scientific testimony and a signed
confession, was wrong. On Wednesday, a judge will hear arguments from both
sides as Mr. Avila's lawyers seek the withdrawal of his January 2014 execution
date to allow time for full consideration of his claims under the new law.
"Finality and certainty is important, but we have to also have a criminal
justice system that is flexible enough to take into account when we have
scientific advancements and to allow people like Mr. Avila to have their day in
court," said Cathryn Crawford, one of Mr. Avila's lawyers at the Texas Defender
Service, which represents death row inmates.
Mr. Avila's 2001 conviction hinged on El Paso County prosecutors' theory that
while baby-sitting his girlfriend's 2 children, Mr. Avila became jealous of the
baby Nicholas and stomped on him.
The Navy veteran, then a 28-year-old with no criminal background or history of
violence, contended that he was innocent and that he had been out of the room
when the baby was injured. He said he learned that the baby had stopped
breathing when the older child, a 4-year-old who had been fixated on televised
wrestling shows, came into the living room where Mr. Avila was watching TV and
told him that he had held his hand over his little brother's mouth. Mr. Avila's
trial lawyers suggested that some other adult may have caused the fatal
injuries.
Jurors rejected the notion that the only other person in the house at the time
- the toddler - could have caused such damage. Dr. George Raschbaum, a
pediatric surgeon, explained that the baby's injuries were so severe that the
4-year-old could have caused them only if he had jumped from a height of 20
feet. The jurors also saw a signed confession, which Mr. Avila has disavowed,
in which he wrote, "I don't know what came over me, but I walked over and
stamped on him with my right foot."
It was the 2nd of 2 statements Mr. Avila gave the night of the baby's death. In
the 1st, he adamantly denied hurting the child. The other, he alleges in legal
filings, was written by officers while he slept. Mr. Avila said the detective
who told him to sign the 2nd statement after he awoke told him it was simply a
clarification of the 1st.
At the end of a 3 1/2-day trial, the jury found Mr. Avila guilty and sentenced
him to death.
Ms. Crawford, Mr. Avila's court-appointed lawyer, said that after his previous
appeals failed she hired a scientist to examine the evidence that doctors used
in 2001 to determine the child's cause of death. In an April 2013 affidavit,
Dr. John Plunkett, a forensic pathologist, wrote that only a few scientists
understood the importance of biomechanics in child deaths at the time of Mr.
Avila's trial.
"It is mandatory and in the interest of justice for a qualified physicist or
biomechanician to perform the appropriate tests, quantifying the potential
forces required to cause Nikki's intra-abdominal injuries," he wrote.
Dr. Chris Van Ee, a biomedical and mechanical engineer who specializes in using
impact biomechanics and accident reconstruction to identify the causes of
injury, performed a laboratory experiment in May 2013. Using information from
the case, he set out to determine whether a child jumping about 18 inches from
a mattress onto an infant could cause fatal injuries.
"Results from the testing indicate that a child approximately the size of
Nicholas's older sibling jumping off of a bed landing feet first onto another
child's abdomen could produce abdominal impact forces as large as 400-500
lbs.," Dr. Van Ee reported, concluding that such an accident could have caused
the child's death.
Dr. Janice Ophoven, a forensic pathologist who specializes in pediatric
forensics, said that when Mr. Avila went to trial more than a decade ago,
forensic pathologists did not have the tools to assess biomechanical forces in
infant deaths. Juries were left to make decisions on whether trauma was the
result of an accident or malice based on incomplete science and emotionally
charged testimony, she said.
"It's a completely different world now," she said, adding that advances in this
field have improved everything from toy design to playground engineering. "In
this day and age, there is a scientific way to evaluate the potential forces
that could have been generated in the Avila case."
That is why S.B. 344 is critical not just in Texas, she said, but as a model
for other states as they seek to address cases in which scientific advances
could provide new perspective on past convictions.
State Senator John Whitmire, Democrat of Houston and the chairman of the
Senate's Criminal Justice Committee, wrote the bill. He said he has watched for
years as cases have been overturned that were based on outdated arson theories,
bogus dog-sniffing evidence and inaccurate evaluations of brain injuries that
were thought to have resulted from shaken baby syndrome.
"We should always be certain, obviously in more extreme cases of the death
penalty being the outcome, that you have the right person," Mr. Whitmire said.
Mr. Esparza, the district attorney, said he was sure Mr. Avila caused Nicholas
Macias's death. He said he had not seen the inmate's latest court filing, but
that he did not expect it to change his opinion, though he has not opposed
previous postponements of the execution date.
"I believe the jury's verdict is a good verdict," he said.
Ms. Morgenstern, who now teaches English at El Paso Community College, hopes
advances in science will change Mr. Esparza's mind and persuade the court to
give her former student another chance to prove his innocence. She stays in
touch with Mr. Avila on death row at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas. He
asks about the latest animal she has rescued, she said, and she tells him about
the latest news.
"The whole world knows how far science has come in the last 12 years," she
said. "I think it's clear to everybody involved that Robert deserves a new
trial."
(source: New York Times)
CONNECTICUT:
Steven Hayes from death row: 'I just snapped' at scene of Cheshire home
invasion
Steven Hayes sat slumped in a chair at Northern Correctional Institution, 6
years after the Cheshire home invasion, and tried to explain how it had all
gone so wrong so quickly.
"To this day, I don't know why it happened," he said of the horrific crime he
participated in with Joshua Komisarjevsky that left Jennifer Hawke-Petit dead,
along with her daughters, Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17.
During a recent hour-long interview, Hayes, 50, who is on death row with
Komisarjevsky, said he agreed to go to the home of Dr. William Petit Jr. on
July 23, 2007, because "I just wanted money. That's all I was looking for."
After forcing Hawke-Petit to go to the bank and withdraw $15,000 while he
waited in her vehicle, Hayes returned with her to the house, where
Komisarjevsky remained with the 2 daughters. They had been tied to their beds;
Petit was tied up in the basement, bleeding from severe head wounds.
Komisarjevsky had beaten him with a baseball bat.
Hayes said when he walked back into the house with Hawke-Petit, "at that point,
we were just going to leave. Nobody was going to get hurt - at least not by
me."
"But that's when Josh told me about him and the girl," Hayes said, referring to
Komisarjevsky sexually assaulting Michaela while Hayes was out of the house.
"I started to lose it," Hayes recalled. "Then I looked out the window and saw
an unmarked police car. And I just snapped."
What happened next, he said, "wasn't who I am. I wasn't thinking right; I don't
know what I was thinking. It was so unlike me. I'd never done anything like
that."
But he raped and strangled Hawke-Petit.
Then 1 or both of the men doused the house with gasoline, including the bodies
of the 2 girls in their bedrooms; they were still conscious. A match was struck
and Hayes and Komisarjevsky ran out of the house, as the girls were burned
alive.
"It took a year before I could even remember what happened in those last few
minutes," Hayes said. "I was told it was rage and stress or something. I just
know that for a couple of minutes I became somebody else."
But he added, "I'll never forgive myself for that."
Hayes had contacted a New Haven Register reporter to request the interview so
he could talk about a civil suit he has filed in federal court in Hartford,
alleging denial of medical care and "harassment and psychological torture" by
the prison staff. But he spent almost all of the interview answering questions
about what occurred during the home invasion that shocked the state and the
nation.
State Department of Correction officials agreed to the interview but arranged
to have DOC Public Information Officer Andrius Banevicius present. No guards
were in the small room. Hayes, handcuffed and with his legs also shackled to an
iron peg in the floor, is balding and physically shrunken compared with the
stocky man who was arrested by Cheshire police moments after he fled the Petit
house.
Hayes, sitting across a table, sometimes smiled ruefully during the session but
often shook his head as he tried to explain what he had done.
After the interview, the Register asked DOC officials to address Hayes'
allegations he is being mistreated.
Banevicius said Hayes is provided with access to unit counselors, social visits
and medical and mental health attention. Banevicius said DOC "absolutely
disputes the allegation" that Hayes is denied such services.
Banevicius said the medical staff provides medication when appropriate to each
inmate.
The Register also sought comment from Dr. Petit, who managed to free himself
shortly before the fire consumed his home and stumble out of the basement in
search of help. He did not provide a response.
But his sister-in-law, Cindy Hawke-Renn, said of Hayes' remarks: "All I can say
is, too little, too late. How do you plan such behavior and allow people to die
at your hands and burn alive, especially when you have children of your own?
Snapped? Doesn't sound like an excuse to me."
When asked what he would tell Petit if they were face-to-face, Hayes said, "I
don't know if there's anything I could say. I definitely feel sorry but that
doesn't change things. I'd try to answer his questions."
Hayes did not refuse to answer any of the many questions during the interview.
He responded to the one question he had ducked during previous encounters with
reporters: Who lit the match?
"It wasn't me," he replied.
So he was blaming Komisarjevsky for doing that? Hayes nodded.
But when asked why he hadn't tried to stop Komisarjevsky from lighting the
match, Hayes said, "I wasn't thinking right. I didn't try to stop anything."
In his long statement to police the day he was arrested, Komisarjevsky said it
was Hayes who escalated the violence. Komisarjevsky, who is now 33, said his
older cohort told him the daughters and their mother had to be killed.
Komisarjevsky claimed he told Hayes, "no one's dying by my hand today."
When asked about this, Hayes said, "Everything gets twisted with peoples'
interpretations."
But Hayes added he doesn't blame Komisarjevsky for what occurred. "I can't
blame anybody but myself for the decisions that I made."
"I should've known better," he said. "I'd been in recovery (drug treatment) for
4 years."
He noted that up until about 30 days before the home invasion, he had been
"clean" for 4 1/2 years.
Asked why he had relapsed, Hayes said, "It was money. I had to get a new car; I
didn't have enough to get mine fixed."
He was living with his mother at her home in Winsted and she quickly realized
he was using drugs again. She told him he had to move out.
And so, needing some "quick money," he went along with Komisarjevsky that night
in July. And when it all came to a head about 7 hours after they broke in, he
said, "Things fell apart. It had been building up for 2 weeks."
Hayes said he recently watched "The Cheshire Murders," the 2-hour documentary
by David Heilbroner and Kate Davis shown on HBO. "I was pretty distressed
seeing it. It's tough knowing I was involved in something like that."
"What was even tougher," he added, "was my 2 brothers."
In the documentary, his 2 younger brothers, Matthew and Brian, said he
physically abused them when they were kids. Brian said somebody "should put a
bullet in his head outside the courtroom."
Hayes denied the allegations, saying, "They tried to paint me worse than I am.
It goes back to our childhood. I was the oldest. Then Matthew came along. My
father wanted a girl. My parents almost split up. When they got back together,
my father took it out on Matthew. When Brian was born, my father left for
good."
"I always had unresolved anger with my father," Hayes said, "for leaving."
Hayes had drug addiction problems from an early age and was convicted for a
series of crimes. But there was nothing violent in his criminal history until
the home invasion.
Hayes said he was not on drugs that night, although he had smoked crack cocaine
about 4 days earlier.
Asked why he had gone out and bought gasoline, Hayes said, "We had both started
thinking about how we'd left fiber evidence at the house. It wasn't really to
burn the house. My thought was that just the presence of the gas would bring a
haz-mat team in."
Hayes conceded, "It was just a lot of stupid thoughts."
Hayes claimed that throughout the family's 7-hour ordeal, except for those
"couple of minutes," he and Komisarjevsky were "nice to everyone. I was trying
to keep people calm. I get them water, I let them go to the bathroom."
Hayes then added, "I'm not saying it was nice, because it wasn't, by any means.
But it wasn't how people perceived it."
In 2010 a Superior Court jury convicted Hayes of multiple murder counts,
kidnapping, assault and 3rd-degree burglary. The jury then decided he deserved
the death penalty. His sentence was automatically appealed and that is pending.
Before the trial, Hayes overdosed on prescription medication in his cell and
had to be rushed to a hospital. During the prison interview last week, he said
he wishes he had been successful in his suicide attempt.
Although one of Komisarjevsky's trial attorneys, Walter Bansley III, recently
said he might seek a new trial because 41 taped phone calls to Cheshire police
the morning of the crime allegedly were not provided to the defense team, Hayes
said he doesn't want to "put anybody through" another trial on his case.
Hayes said he will not try to halt the series of legal appeals that could take
up to about 20 years before he could possibly be executed. He said he had
promised his co-counsel at the trial, New Haven Chief Public Defender Thomas
Ullmann, that he would not "do a Michael Ross." That Connecticut inmate waived
his appeals and was executed in 2005.
Although Hayes wishes he could be executed as soon as possible, he expects to
die in prison of old age.
"I don't deserve to live," he said. "I don't want to live."
But he said he no longer thinks about killing himself. "I realize now I've got
to live with this pain. It's something I'm supposed to live with."
He said he also feels guilt and shame for hurting his son and daughter, now in
their 20s. "I'm sorry I brought this on them." He said he hopes they will
decide they want to visit him. Sometimes his ex-wife does visit; his mother
died in 2008.
Hayes said he is unable to read or watch much TV because of the "ghosts" of his
past and anxiety. He spends his time "pacing back and forth in my cell, day and
night."
He said he can't stop thinking about the Cheshire murders. "It's in my head all
day and all night."
Although Hayes said he feels "guilt, shame and remorse," he added, "But
nobody's supposed to be treated the way we're treated here. I was sentenced to
death, not psychological torment."
His handwritten legal complaint charges DOC representatives are refusing to
provide him with appropriate treatment for his "anxiety issues," "denial of
basic needs," "identity theft" and other grievances. He is seeking $500,000 in
damages.
Hayes wishes that somehow, with what's left of his life, he could "make a
difference" and help somebody.
"Recovery is making amends," he said. "Before (Cheshire) I could make amends to
help people I'd hurt. But this is a situation where I can't see any way I can
make amends. I wish I could. I would do anything."
"One of the things I learned in recovery is that if you can just change 1
person, you've made a difference. If there's some way that what happened here
(in Cheshire) could change one person, stop them from doing something like that
or from getting high..."
Asked what he wants to say to the public, Hayes replied: "I'm just really
sorry. I would do anything to make amends if I could."
(source: Register Citizen)
DELAWARE:
Death penalty has gotten too costly for Delaware
I appreciate the courage that it takes any murder victims' family member to
speak publicly. I, too, am the victim of a murder. My brother, 22, and 4 of his
friends were murdered in 1995. Since then, I have felt the horrible pain of
missing my brother.
It was actually the capital trial of his killer that prompted me to work
against the death penalty. The death penalty and trial were all about the
killer. Focus on the killer, news about the killer. The prosecutors never even
asked the families what we thought. They excluded us. The trial did me more
harm than good.
Also, Delaware's death penalty doesn't help victims' families in cases when the
murder doesn't qualify for the death penalty - when the killer isn't found,
when the family members oppose the death penalty, and when the killer has died
(as in Sandy Hook, Conn.).
I want Delaware to find ways to allow victims' family members to have a voice
after a murder and to receive the help we need to grieve and heal. We use the
death penalty a lot. Delaware is 3rd in the nation for death sentences
executions per capit. (courtesy of the Death Penalty Information Center). Yet,
Delaware still has a terribly high murder rate.
I don't want other families to suffer like mine has. The death penalty clearly
isn't helping, and it costs money that we could use toward programs that
actually reduce violent crime.
Kristin Froehlich----Wilmington
(source: Letter to the Editor, Delawareonline.com)
INDIANA:
Accused serial killer William Clyde Gibson's lawyers denied continuance in
first of 3 murder trials; 4th continuance in murder trial rejected
Floyd Superior Court Judge Susan Orth denied a request for a 4th continuance
from public defenders for William Clyde Gibson, meaning jury selection will
commence later this month for his 1st murder trial in October.
Orth is expected to rule soon on most of the other 14 motions filed this week
by the defense team, including whether to dismiss the state's death sentence
request, exclude autopsy photos and limit crime scene photos during the trial.
Gibson was arrested in April 2012 and charged in the slayings of family friend
Christine Whitis, 75, of Clarksville; Stephanie Kirk, 35, of Charlestown; and
Karen Hodella, 44, of Port Orange, Fla.
Whitis' body was found in Gibson's garage in New Albany, and Kirk's body was
unearthed in his backyard. Hodella was stabbed to death in 2002, and her body
was found near the Ohio River in Clarksville.
Gibson, 55, is to stand trial first in Whitis' murder and early next year in
Kirk's death. Both are capital murder cases, which require the state to prove
beyond a reasonable doubt that aggravating circumstances also occurred for a
death sentence to be imposed.
Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson is not seeking the death penalty in
Hodella's death.
Henderson had no objections to the defense's argument that details of the other
2 murders shouldn't be discussed with jurors as possible aggravating crimes in
Whitis' death.
But the prosecution did object Friday to the defense request that dismemberment
be dismissed as an aggravating crime.
George Streib, Gibson's public defender, argued that dismemberment isn't well
defined under Indiana law and case law deals with murders where the body parts
are removed for disposal.
Steven Owen, Floyd County's chief deputy prosecutor, said evidence shows Gibson
cut off 1 of Whitis' breasts and intended to dispose of at least some of her
body parts, because her body was found lying next to a chain saw and a roll of
plastic bags.
"And the facts will show he tried to cut off her other breast," Owen said.
(source: Indianapolis Star)
ARKANSAS:
Hearing scheduled Monday morning for capital murder suspect
Lee Foster, the accused in a fatal Father's Day double-shooting in Conway will
appear in court Monday morning.
Foster, of Morrilton, is set to appear before Faulkner County Circuit Judge
Mike Maggio.
The 27-year-old defendant faces charges of capital murder, 1st-degree battery,
aggravated assault and possession of a firearm by a certain person for his
alleged involvement in the June 16 shooting at MoteL 6, located at 1105 Skyline
Drive.
The shooting left 23-year-old Quenton Alexander dead. Authorities said the
Foster and Alexander, who were related, were in an ongoing dispute.
Foster was arrested June 20 in Morrilton along with Sierra Cook, 18.
While Foster is being held without bond, Cook, who is accused of hindering the
apprehension of Foster, is being held in lieu of a $250,000 bond.
Since the arrests of Foster and Cook, few details of the investigation have
been released. However, recent testimony at a bond reduction hearing for Cook
shed light on the case.
Sgt. Tracy McDermott, the detective assigned to the homicide case, was called
as witness for the prosecution and testified to specifics the night of the
murder, learned by police from an interview with Cook.
McDermott said Cook admitted to an altercation that had taken place for several
hours leading up to Alexander's murder that involved herself, Foster and the
victim.
During the police interview, McDermott Cook also admitted to driving Foster in
her car, from Morrilton, to a location near the Motel 6.
Cook told police she was not sure of Foster's intentions while traveling to
Conway, but knew Foster planned to kill Alexander when he gave her specific
instructions on where and how to park the vehicle, McDermott said.
Cook admitted to not leaving because she believed she was "too deep into it to
leave," McDermott told the court.
Cook also told police she was present, along with another male who is not
charged, in Morrilton when Foster burned a set of clothes, days after the
Alexander's murder.
Court documents show Teri Lisa Chambers will represent Foster.
Foster was approved for representation by a public defender, however, specific
counsel had not been assigned through his last court appearance Aug. 12.
The Arkansas Public Defender Commission's minimum standards, among other
requirements, states the lead counsel must have prior experience in a case
which the death penalty was sought. Given the case is a capital murder case,
and prosecution has not waived the death penalty, if Foster is convicted, he
would face death or life in prison.
The minimum standards also state that 2 "qualified attorneys" will be assigned
to the defendant. Court documents only show Chambers, at this time, as counsel
for Foster.
(source: Log Cabin News)
OKLAHOMA----impending execution
Okla. death row inmate convicted in 1979 death of 24-year-old Korean national
to be executed
An Oklahoma death row inmate linked by DNA to the death of a Korean
woman 18 years after the crime is scheduled to be executed Tuesday
in the state's fourth execution since the start of the year.
Anthony Rozelle Banks, 61, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced
to death for the June 6, 1979, killing of Sun I. "Kim" Travis in Tulsa County.
Banks was already serving a life prison sentence following his conviction for
the April 11, 1978, slaying of a Tulsa convenience store clerk during an armed
robbery when genetic evidence linked him to Travis' death.
Travis was abducted from the parking lot of a Tulsa apartment complex and later
raped and shot in the head. Her partially clothed body was found in a roadside
ditch on the city's north side on the morning following her disappearance.
Her former husband, Steve Travis, testified during the sentencing phase of
Banks' 1999 trial that he met his wife while serving in the U.S. Air Force in
Korea, where she struggled to support her father and three younger brothers.
The couple married and eventually moved to Tulsa, where Travis enrolled in
school and his wife continued to work, "sending money home to her family."
"Sun I. was kind to everyone," Travis said. "If she could help you in your time
of need, she did so, no questions asked."
"Sun I.'s death was the most tragic thing in my life," he testified. "There is
not a day that goes by that I do not think of her. ... I cannot understand why
someone would want to take the life away from someone so kind and beautiful. We
take life for granted and do not realize how precious it is until it is gone.
Hopefully, knowing the people that did this will answer to their call will help
me to go on with my life, knowing they have been punished."
Banks and a co-defendant, Allen Wayne Nelson, 54, were charged in the victim's
death in August 1997, when their DNA was detected in evidence found on Travis'
body and clothing. A 12-member jury convicted Nelson of first-degree murder and
sentenced him to life in prison.
Banks was already in prison when he was linked to Sun Travis' death following
his conviction for the 1978 slaying of David Fremin, who was shot and killed
during an armed robbery. Banks was convicted of first-degree murder by a Tulsa
County jury that imposed the death penalty in that case.
But the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial in 1994, saying
prosecutors failed to disclose evidence to the defense that the jury could have
used to find Banks innocent. The court also said Banks received ineffective
counsel. Rather than face the possibility of being sentenced to death again,
Banks pleaded guilty to the murder charge in exchange for a sentence of life in
prison.
In July, Banks waived his right to ask the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board to
commute his death sentence to life in prison, according to his defense
attorney, Thomas Hird of the Federal Public Defender's Office in Oklahoma City.
Banks' execution by lethal injection will be the fourth in Oklahoma this year.
Steven Ray Thacker, 42, was executed on March 12 for the 1999 death of a woman
whose credit cards he used to buy Christmas presents for his family. James
Lewis DeRosa, 36, was executed on June 18 for the October 2000 stabbing deaths
of a couple on whose ranch he had worked. And Brian Darrell Davis, 39, was
executed on June 25 for raping and killing his girlfriend's mother in 2001.
Besides Banks', no other executions have been scheduled.
The state uses a three-drug lethal injection protocol. Pentobarbital is the
first drug administered and renders a condemned inmate unconscious. It's
followed by vecuronium bromide, which stops the inmate's breathing, then
potassium chloride to stop the heart.
A spokesman for the Department of Corrections, Jerry Massie, said Banks has
asked that his daughter and a spiritual adviser as well as his attorney and
defense investigators be present
***************
Okla. man accused of killing teenage girl last year bound over for trial
following arraignment
A 22-year-old Oklahoma man accused of killing a teenage girl last year has been
bound over for trial.
The Lawton Constitution newspaper reports (http://bit.ly/158vkAy ) that Miles
Sterling Bench of Velma was bound over for trial following his formal
arraignment on Thursday.
Bench pleaded not guilty plea to 1st-degree murder in Stephens County District
Court.
He's accused of killing 16-year-old Braylee Rae Henry in June 2012. The girl
was found dead in a pasture in Velma near a home where Bench had been living.
Bench could face the death penalty if convicted.
The newspaper says District Attorney Jason Hicks said he filed paperwork this
week saying that his office will seek the death penalty for Bench.
Court records show that Bench's jury trial is set for Jan. 13.
(source for both: Associated Press)
COLORADO----female teenager may face death penalty
Isabella Guzman: 18-Year-Old Charged With First-Degree Murder After Stabbing
Mother 79 Times In Face And Neck
A Colorado teenager accused of killing her own mother by stabbing her 79 times
appeared in court to be formally charged with 1st-degree murder. Isabella
Yun-Mi Guzman, 18, is being held in the Arapahoe County Jail after stabbing her
mother, Yun-Mi Hoy, 47, on Aug. 28, according to HLN.
Guzman was originally scheduled to appear in court on Thursday morning, but the
hearing was delayed until later in the day after the teenager refused to leave
her jail cell, KUSA-TV in Denver reported.
HLN reported Guzman and her mother had been viciously arguing in the days
leading to the murder. Guzman's stepfather, Ryan Hoy, told police that Guzman
became "more threatening and disrespectful towards her mother." On the day of
the murder, Guzman allegedly sent her mother a threatening email, reading, "You
will pay." Later that same night, Hoy told police, he heard a noise from the
bathroom where his wife was showering. When he approached, he saw blood
underneath the door.
"Hoy then observed Isabella Guzman standing in the doorway holding a knife,"
the affidavit reads, according to the Huffington Post. "Hoy advised that he
never heard Guzman say anything and that she didn't speak to him as she exited
the bathroom ... [she] was just staring straight ahead when she walked past
him."
Guzman fled the scene, but she was arrested the next day at a parking lot near
the house, 7News reported.
According to HLN, Guzman stabbed her mother 31 times in the face and 48 times
in the neck. If convicted, Guzman faces life imprisonment without the
possibility of parole or the death penalty.
(source: IB Times)
CALIFORNIA:
Goodwin Liu isn't the left winger critics painted him to be
Goodwin Liu lived through 15 months of pummeling by U.S. Senate Republicans
before asking President Barack Obama to withdraw his nomination to the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals.
In the Senate battle more than 2 years ago, Liu endured 2 grueling Judiciary
Committee hearings and reams of Republican criticism that he was an extreme
ideologue unfit for the bench.
None of what the University of California, Berkeley, law professor experienced
in that highly public Senate drubbing or in any other job application process
prepared him for the 2 interviews he had with Jerry Brown as the governor
considered him for the California Supreme Court in 2011.
The Democratic governor "was interested in discussing the theoretical
underpinnings of our legal system - social contract, natural law, positive law
- and he was totally conversant in these deep topics," Liu told me in a recent
chat in his office.
While Liu found Brown an engaging man with a tremendous intellect, he said
nothing led him to think Brown would name him to the state's highest court.
After both interviews, Liu went home and told his wife: "I'm not getting the
job."
But months later, Brown called Liu to say he was appointing him.
Looking back at the hearing by the state's 3-member Commission on Judicial
Appointments that confirmed Liu's nomination, the Sacramento-reared jurist
characterized the discourse as respectful and rigorous. He added: "I didn't
know a lot about the California system before going through it, but it was
certainly interesting to see that a judicial confirmation process can be swift,
thorough and nonpartisan."
Liu's interviews with Brown occurred upon his return to his law school position
after Senate Republicans succeeded in squashing Obama's nomination of Liu to
the San Francisco-based court of appeals.
This turnaround in Liu's life - losing one judgeship and quickly winning
another - has a Hollywood-script feel to it as if it happened in a movie but
wouldn't occur in real life.
Now, 2 years after Brown appointed Liu, court watchers view the 42-year-old
jurist as a moderate liberal - nothing akin to the left-wing extremist that the
GOP painted him to be. The only Democrat on the state's highest court, Liu wins
praise for his scholarship and his capacity to weigh all sides of an issue. In
speeches, he says he wants to see a society where all people can thrive.
"I wouldn't call him a firebrand liberal: On the court, he just about anchors
the liberal side, but that is not saying a lot because the court on the whole
is rather a conservative court," said Gerald Uelmen, a University of Santa
Clara School of Law professor who is widely regarded as the foremost analyst of
decisions handed down by the seven-member California Supreme Court.
"In terms of the quality of his work, I am really impressed. He displays a very
independent streak. His opinions are very well thought out and well reasoned."
Bob Egelko, a legal affairs reporter who has followed the court closely for
decades, said, "Liu is a pragmatic, moderate liberal. I think his dissents come
within the ideological boundaries of this court, which is an institution that
in general moves incrementally."
The court that Liu joined agrees most of the time: In the past year, from July
1, 2012, to June 30, 2013, 80 % of the court's rulings were unanimous, Uelmen
said. Like his fellow justices, Liu voted to uphold the death penalty in the
vast number of capital punishment cases that came before the court. That sets
him apart from Brown's most controversial judicial appointment - Chief Justice
Rose Bird - which he made decades ago during his 1st term as governor. Voters
removed Bird from office in 1986 after she refused to affirm any death penalty
conviction that came before the court.
Since Liu joined the court, it has decided 47 capital punishment cases,
affirming the death judgment in 42 cases and voting unanimously to reverse in 5
others. In all but 3 instances, Liu agreed with the outcome: In one he recused
himself, and in 2 others he dissented.
As for Liu's record, he has a higher dissent rate on criminal cases than he
does on civil cases, Uelmen said.
In one criminal case in which Liu dissented, the court held that a police
officer who discovers the passenger in the front seat of a car is on parole may
search "those areas of the passenger compartment where the officer reasonably
expects that the parolee could have stored (items) when aware of police
activity." Liu's dissent stated: "This holding is unduly broad. After today, a
commuter who picks up a rider in a casual carpool ... and is stopped for
speeding may be subject to a search of all open areas of the car's passenger
compartment if an officer learns that the rider is on parole."
Another Liu dissent came in a case where the court held that although a trial
judge failed to instruct a jury about reasonable doubt, it was harmless error
because "there was no reasonable probability that the outcome" would have been
any different had the instruction been given. Liu's dissent stated: "Until
today, no California case has ever held or even suggested that despite a trial
court's failure to instruct the jury with a standard reasonable doubt
instruction ... an appellate court can still be certain beyond a reasonable
doubt that the jury understood its obligation."
Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Sacramento-based Criminal Justice Legal
Foundation, which advocates for crime victims' rights, said: "Nothing about
Liu's record on the state Supreme Court in any way refutes the fears expressed
when he was nominated to the 9th Circuit."
"The way he is behaving is not necessarily how he would have behaved on the 9th
Circuit, which is much more defendant-oriented," Scheidegger said. "There would
have been a lot more cases there where 1 vote would have determined a case's
outcome."
The son of immigrant Taiwanese physicians, Liu began his path to the state's
highest court in Sacramento. He attended public schools and graduated from Rio
Americano High School. Kids sometimes laughed at him for "having Chinese hair -
spiky with cowlicks," and when his mother put a container of fried rice noodles
in his lunch box, kids would ask, "Eeew, what's that?"
Talking to me about what being Asian American has meant to him, Liu said: "It
gives me a little window into what it feels for people to be outsiders. Being
Asian American is a small window into understanding the nature of difference
and how it can limit the aspirations people have."
In speeches, Liu emphasizes he doesn't want to see anyone's aspirations
curtailed. He admits he has made mistakes in life but says the conclusion never
should be "don't take risks."
In a commencement speech to the University of Southern California's School of
Law graduates last year, Liu said: "Maybe when your generation's epitaph is
written, it will say you put an end to global warming ... reformed our schools
and educated our neediest kids. ... You expanded peace throughout the world.
... You helped everyone get a fair shot at the American dream. Those are my
hopes and dreams for you and for all of us, and I do believe those hopes and
dreams are within your reach."
In his own life, Liu achieved spectacular success in the realm of academia. He
obtained an undergraduate biology degree at Stanford; after that, he deferred
his acceptance to medical school at the University of California, San
Francisco, and spent 2 years at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, earning a master's
degree in philosophy and physiology. At Oxford, he realized he wanted to study
law, and in 1998 he graduated from Yale Law School. In 2003, Liu joined the
faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law where he won
UC Berkeley's Distinguished Teaching Award.
In 2010, Obama nominated him for a position on the 9th Circuit, and Republicans
went on the attack.
"Most of my career had been in academia, and I left behind a paper trail that,
shall we say, was a target-rich environment," Liu told the USC law school
graduates. He had promoted equal opportunities for poor people and minorities,
and supported affirmative action and same-sex marriage.
Perhaps, in the eyes of Republicans, his biggest sin was that he testified at a
Senate hearing against President George W. Bush's appointment of Samuel Alito
to the U.S. Supreme Court, warning Alito would be extremely conservative. Alito
won confirmation, and some analysts see the GOP's rejection of Liu's
appointment as payback for Liu's testimony. Another theory is that the GOP was
slamming Democrats for rejecting earlier nominees who were well qualified but
also conservative. Others say the GOP didn't want a bright, liberal Asian on a
federal appeals court where he might stand a good chance of being nominated to
be the U.S. Supreme Court's 1st Asian American justice.
From time to time, Liu, who in 2009 co-wrote a book on the U.S. Constitution,
talks about the experience he had with the Senate. In a speech in February, Liu
said he thought the framers of the Constitution intended the Senate
confirmation process to be political. But, he added, his real problem was with
the Senate requiring 60 votes just to allow a vote on a nominee.
Liu said he did not believe that practice reflects the intent of the framers;
the Constitution specifies whenever more than a majority vote is required - to
approve a treaty, for example. The Constitution contains no such specification
regarding Senate votes on presidential nominees.
"Historically," Liu told me, "senators of both parties have recognized that
majority rule is the default unless the Constitution states otherwise. But in
recent times, senators of both parties have ignored this principle when faced
with a nominee they don't like. It's a vicious cycle that, for the sake of the
judiciary, needs a lasting solution."
(source: Sacramento Bee)
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