[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, N.Y., CALIF., FLA.

[Rick Halperin]

April 14


TEXAS:

A strange twist of justice for the killer of a high school teacher


Ronnie Joe Neal, a killer sentenced to die, remains more than 250 miles
from death row.

8 days after a jury rejected his claim of mental retardation, a doctor is
trying to determine his mental competency.

You read that correctly.

Before Neal can be transported from the Bexar County Jail to death row in
Livingston, he must be competent to understand his sentence.

Smart criminal that he is, Neal skipped his sentencing hearing last week.

Then, before jurors rendered their verdict, Neal swallowed a stash of
prescription pills.

He was hospitalized, then released and placed under suicide watch in an
isolation cell at the county jail.

So Neal has yet to be formally sentenced for the slaying of a
schoolteacher and can't be sent to death row. And he can't be formally
sentenced if there's a question about his mental competency.

Neal's recent suicide attempt - even if it was staged - raises a mental
health question.

You could call the turn of events dumbfounding. District Attorney Susan
Reed, for one, has never seen anything like it.

"This is a unique situation as far as I can remember," says Reed, who has
spent more than a quarter century as district attorney, district judge and
prosecutor. "A mental health expert hasn't decided if he's mentally
competent to be read his sentence."

During the sentencing hearing, 4 mental health experts testified that Neal
is not mentally retarded. Retardation, though, is not the same as mental
incompetency.

"Competence has to do with understanding and being able to converse with
counsel," Reed says. "Retardation has to deal with your mental level and
ability to adapt to society."

In short, a person can be mentally incompetent but not retarded.

Is Neal mentally competent?

We won't know until next week. Defense lawyers have requested a mental
health evaluation of Neal. District Judge Sid Harle agreed to the request
and ordered a physician to determine if Neal is competent to be sentenced.

The physician will interview Neal on Monday and report back to the judge.
Harle is, understandably, trying to be cautious.

After jurors sentenced Neal to die, word reached the DA's office that
Neal's suicide attempt might have left him brain dead.

Adding to the mystery, relatives went on television to say no one would
tell them Neal's medical condition.

Had Neal lost consciousness?

Was he in a coma?

Rumors swirled.

A jail spokesman, meanwhile, said privacy issues prevented the release of
details about Neal's' health.

For a while, almost no one knew if the man who took Diane Tilly's life had
taken his own.

Turns out Neal wasn't dead. He was in the jail infirmary, locked in an
isolation cell, more than a 4-hour drive from death row.

What happened during Neal's suicide attempt is unclear. What's clear is
the attempt fulfilled a written death wish.

In a letter to Harle, Neal wrote that he'd rather take his own life than
attend his sentencing.

"I'm not going to beg you or the (district attorney) for my life," Neal
wrote. "You all can have it."

If Neal is found mentally incompetent, he will be held until he regains
competency. And if that never happens?

"That's never come up," says Assistant District Attorney Dan Thornberry.
"He may go to death row, but he can't be executed until he's competent. I
suppose he would be held for life."

Prosecutors, of course, expect Neal will be found competent. This is,
after all, a man who orchestrated an elaborate plan to break out of jail
in Rusk County. A killer who plotted Tilly's death and used his daughter
to win the teacher's trust.

Dumb he is not. Neal might be bright enough to meet death on his own
terms.

**************************

No leniency for teacher's teen killer


Pearl Cruz, the 16-year-old who helped prosecutors send her father to
death row, pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 30 years in
prison Thursday for her own part in the killing of an Alamo Heights
teacher.

It was the most severe punishment possible for Cruz, who led investigators
to the deserted field where she and her father killed Diane Tilly as she
pleaded for her life.

District Judge Laura Parker cited the grave nature of the crime as she
rejected a request from Cruz's attorney for leniency.

"I want to make sure that you are highly motivated to stay on the right
path," Parker said. "I wish things were different."

The hearing, which lasted barely 10 minutes and had the feel of a legal
formality, marked the last expected courtroom appearance for Cruz, who had
testified in disturbing detail about how she and her father, Ronnie Joe
Neal, plotted the robbery and murder of the Robbins Academy teacher on
Nov. 22, 2004.

After her father's conviction in March, Cruz returned to the witness stand
last week during the penalty phase of his trial and testified not as her
father's accomplice, but as his victim. Cruz told jurors that he sexually
abused her for 2 years before she gave birth to her father's son in July.

Thursday's hearing brought no such drama. Cruz stood solemnly in front of
the judge and said nothing in her own defense. In a soft voice, she
offered an apology to Tilly's family. None of them was present to hear it.

Prosecutors said the family wanted nothing short of the maximum sentence
for Cruz, who played a key role in the murder by asking Tilly to use her
phone. Once inside the house, Cruz forced Tilly to the floor at gunpoint,
and opened a back door for her father.

According to the deal she struck with prosecutors, Cruz agreed to testify
against her father in exchange for no more than 30 years behind bars.

Though she will get no credit for the 17 months she already has spent in
juvenile lockup, the deal came with considerable benefits for Cruz. It
allowed her to avoid being sentenced as an adult and could make her
eligible for parole in just 3 years.

But the actual amount of time Cruz will spend in prison depends largely on
how well she performs in the program that will be set out for her by the
Texas Youth Commission. Assistant District Attorney Jill Mata said Cruz is
a likely candidate for the juvenile "capital offender" program, the most
intensive rehabilitation program in the state for young criminals.

Mata praised the judge's decision as fit punishment for a terrible crime.

"I'm very pleased with the 30-year term," Mata said. "I think it's fair
given the circumstances of this murder. Anything less would not have been
proper."

Cruz's attorney, Mario Trevino, had asked the judge to consider the
penalties already paid by Cruz.

"She had to reveal some of the most terrible things a child could
experience at her age," Trevino told the judge. "There were many, many
victims of a crime in this case and my client was one of them."

(source for both: San Antonio Express-News)

*******************

Murder trial reset for July


A murder trial that was scheduled to be heard in May for a 21-year-old
Killeen man accused of slaying 4 people has been reset for midsummer.

Koran Small, indicted on 6 counts of capital murder, will go to trial July
24. A pretrial hearing is set for July 13.

He is charged in the Oct. 20, 2003, deaths of Natasha Deeds, 20, and Tanya
Barnes, 19, both of Killeen, and in the April 24, 2004, deaths of Gary
Ridley, 35, and Sheria Advertisement Lunde, 33, both of Belton.

The highly anticipated trial was scheduled for Jan. 30, but 3 weeks
before, Small's attorneys, Tom Seigman and Frank Holbrook, withdrew from
the case, citing ethical concerns.

Belton attorney John P. Galligan was appointed to take over the case a few
weeks later.

In his motion for a continuance, Galligan stated that he needed more time
to adequately prepare due to the short amount of time he has been on the
case.

Small's alleged co-conspirator in the case, Kyle Wade Green, 19, was
convicted and given an automatic life sentence last October in the deaths
of Ridley and Lunde. He must serve a minimum of 60 years before he is
eligible for parole.

Green was 17 years old at the time of the killings and was not eligible
for the death penalty.

The district attorney's office has not decided whether to seek the death
penalty for Small.

The first bodies those of Ridley and Lunde were discovered May 13, 2004.
The couple was reported missing April 29, 2004.

On May 19, the skeletal remains of Deeds and Barnes were discovered in
separate graves about 1/4 mile north of where the first bodies were found.

Barnes was last seen Oct. 28, 2003, at Sam's Dollhouse on Elms Road, where
she worked. She was reported missing in February 2004 by Killeen police
along with Deeds, her co-worker.

The 2 women were last seen in a car that was reported stolen, but the
vehicle was found abandoned Jan. 30.

Small is charged in separate indictments with robbing and murdering the
Belton couple and with kidnapping, robbing and murdering the 2 women.

According to the arrest affidavit, Greene stated that on April 26, 2004,
he drove with Ridley and Lunde in their truck to meet Small at "the
field."

Greene admitted that the purpose of the meeting was to rob the couple of a
gun they were trying to sell.

Ridley was shot once in the head, and Lunde was shot twice.

In a written statement given to investigators by Greene on May 14, 2004,
Greene stated that he set up the robbery, but that he had no idea why
Small shot Ridley and Lunde.

(source: Killeen Daily Herald)

**********************

HPD lab chemist's error gets case tossed----She realized her testimony was
inaccurate and told prosecutors


The troubled Houston police crime lab is investigating inaccurate
testimony by one of its chemists that led to the abrupt end of a drug
possession trial.

Although the mistake forced the dismissal of charges, lab director Irma
Rios said it does not signal a return to the problems that led to an
ongoing investigation of the lab. She said she doesn't know when her own
investigation will be completed.

"It's unfortunate," Rios said. "Sometimes it may happen. We want our
scientists to be as perfect as humanly possible."

Rosaura Rodriguez, who has worked at the lab for about 8 years, changed
her testimony Wednesday after realizing she had erroneously identified a
crack pipe while testifying Tuesday.

Rios said that prosecutors asked Rodriguez whether the pipe they were
showing her was the pipe she had tested. She testified that it was and
that it had tested positive for cocaine.

However, she later checked her lab files and remembered she had been given
two pipes as evidence in the case and that the pipe she had identified in
court was not the one she had tested.

After Rodriguez testified Wednesday about the mistake, state District
Judge Brock Thomas dismissed the case for lack of evidence. Investigators
had not linked the 2nd pipe to the defendant.

Double-jeopardy protection prohibits prosecutors from retrying the man on
the charges, said Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal. He said
he has asked his investigators to determine whether there was any criminal
wrongdoing by Rodriguez.

Rosenthal said Rodriguez's action in telling prosecutors about her mistake
and correcting it encouraged him that the crime lab is moving away from
its past troubles.

After a long period of questions about the lab's work, all but its closed
DNA unit was accredited last year by the American Society of Crime
Laboratory Directors.

The DNA unit was shut down in 2002 after the discovery of unsound
practices. Problems later were uncovered in the lab's ballistics,
toxicology, serology and drug analysis work, as well.

A special investigator hired by the city is continuing his investigation
of the problems.

*******************************

Police think 2nd woman was killed to hide 1st crime


A man accused of strangling 2 women, one of them his girlfriend, and
hiding their bodies apparently killed one because he didn't want her to
discover the other slaying, Houston police said.

Derrick White, 35, was charged with capital murder in the April 7 deaths
of Arianna Mingo, 35, and his girlfriend, Tanyanika Berry, 34.

Detectives said White killed Mingo after she returned from work to the
town house all 3 shared in the 9800 block of United.

"There was some type of confrontation about some money between him and
Mingo and (she) was killed," HPD Detective Steve Straughter said.

Police said Berry was slain at the town house later.

"We're not sure whether she had found out about (Mingo) being murdered,"
Straughter said. "We figured he killed (Berry) because he didn't want her
as a witness."

According to the criminal complaint filed against him, White strangled
both women with his hands.

White put Mingo's body in the trunk of her car then left the vehicle in an
apartment complex parking lot. It was later towed to a storage lot on
Rhonda Lane. Berry was stuffed inside a cluttered utility closet at the
town house, police said.

"In all happened in an 8-hour period," Straughter said, "Then, he
basically walked around the whole weekend."

The bodies were discovered April 10, police said, when Mingo's relatives
became concerned and went to the home. White surrendered the next night
after detectives identified him as a "person of interest" in the case.

Mingo was a nurse at Methodist Hospital and allowed White and Berry to
move into her town house because of money problems they were having,
police said.

Prosecutors charged White with capital murder April 11. He was denied bail
and is being held in the Harris County Jail.

(source for both: Houston Chronicle)






NEW YORK:

LI serial killer dies in Albany hospital


Robert Shulman, the former Hicksville postal worker whose spree of
murdering, dismembering and discarding young women horrified Long Island a
decade ago and made him the Island's 1st death row inmate in decades, died
in an Albany hospital Thursday, state correction officials said.

Shulman, 52, had been recently re-sentenced to life without parole after
New York's death penalty was overturned. Shulman's closest living
relatives -- brothers Barry and Sheldon, of Long Beach, did not return
calls for comment. "Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord," said Ruth Brown,
of York, Pa., Thursday in her first words after hearing the man who killed
her daughter, Lisa Ann Warner, had died. "Even though man took away the
death penalty, he deserved it, and he got it. ... I feel it's the
Almighty's justice system."

State Department of Correctional Services spokeswoman Linda Foglia said
Shulman, who was serving his sentence at the Clinton Correctional Facility
in upstate Dannemora, was transferred to a local hospital on Tuesday,
requiring undisclosed medical treatment.

"There was no assault, nothing suspicious. He was having medical
problems," Foglia said.

He was later transferred to Albany Medical Center where he was pronounced
dead at 3:15 a.m. Foglia said Shulman's cause of death, pending an
autopsy, is tentatively classified as natural causes.

"He was one of the few, true serial killers that I've ever come across,"
said former Suffolk County District Attorney James Catterson, who sought
the death penalty in the case. "He received the ultimate penalty anyway.
He was shut away from society, from anyone, and died alone, and, I'm sure,
unmourned."

10 years ago this month, Shulman was arrested inside a cramped and filthy
Hicksville apartment that prosecutors called the killer's
"slaughterhouse." Inside, police say, Shulman bludgeoned to death 3 women
-- believed by authorities to have been prostitutes -- shattering their
skulls with a blunt object. Shulman then dismembered his victims -- before
discarding their body parts in various locations.

In 1999 Shulman was convicted of murdering Warner, 18, of Jamaica, Queens,
whose body was found in April 1995 at a Brooklyn recycling plant; Kelly
Sue Bunting, 28, of Hollis; and an unidentified woman whose body was found
in December 1994 by the side of Long Island Avenue in Medford.

2 other victims, Lori Vasquez, 24, of Brooklyn, and another unidentified
woman were found dumped in Yonkers. Shulman was separately tried and
convicted for their murders.

Shulman was sentenced to death, but his sentence was nullified by a 2004
Court of Appeals ruling that found part of the state's capital punishment
law to be unconstitutional.

Shulman's Hauppauge defense attorney Paul Gianelli said his client's life
was one ravaged by mental disease and a tragic childhood.

Shulman maintained his innocence when he was resentenced in November.

John Collins, chief of homicide for the district attorney, faced off with
Shulman in court that day. "The legacy left by Robert Shulman is one of
abject violence and senseless destruction of precious human life," Collins
said. "The sooner he is forgotten by the people of Suffolk County, the
better."

(source: Newsday)






CALIFORNIA:

Autopsy results at odds with Polk's defense -- Pathologist testifies
stabbing, head blow probably were fatal


A forensic pathologist testified Thursday that Felix Polk died after being
hit in the head and stabbed repeatedly, and he told jurors that Polk had a
heart condition that may have left him too weak to defend himself.

Dr. Brian Peterson, testifying in the murder trial of Susan Polk, said
that although her husband, Felix Polk, probably suffered from high blood
pressure, there was no evidence he died of a heart attack. The victim did,
however, suffer from hardened arteries, he said.

Peterson's testimony appeared to undercut a theory by the defendant that
her husband, a Berkeley psychotherapist, suffered a heart attack when she
attacked him in self-defense on the night he died.

"Heart disease was not necessary for his death," Peterson told jurors in
Contra Costa Superior Court in Martinez. But, he said, "It might have made
him an easier victim, so to speak."

Peterson said Polk's hardened arteries could have left him too weak to
defend himself. But even if Polk did not have atherosclerosis, the medical
term for hardened arteries, "I think he would have ended up similarly
dead," Peterson said.

Susan Polk is defending herself against charges that she killed her
husband in the pool house of their Orinda home in October 2002.

Prosecutors say she killed him during an acrimonious divorce after Felix
Polk was awarded their home and custody of their youngest son.

She says he attacked her, and she killed in self-defense.

Jurors viewed autopsy photos of Felix Polk that showed numerous stab
wounds to his chest, defensive wounds on his hands and a laceration to his
head that Peterson said was caused by blunt-force trauma. The deepest
injury was a 5 1/2-inch wound that punctured the victim's lung, Peterson
said.

"How does that affect your ability to defend yourself?" prosecutor Paul
Sequeira asked.

Peterson said the victim would be in pain and short of breath.

"All that would add together to make a further defense difficult," the
pathologist testified.

Polk objected to hand gestures Peterson made as he testified.

"The witness is adding to his testimony in a dramatic way," she said. She
also complained that his use of a red laser pointer to draw attention to
specific wounds in the photographs would not be reflected in the court
record.

Superior Court Judge Laurel Brady said both the gestures and the laser
pointer would be allowed.

On cross-examination, Polk asked Peterson how he could remain objective
while working under a contract to conduct autopsies for Contra Costa
County. Polk has said she is the target of a plot by prosecutors and the
judge.

Peterson replied that his "patient" is the person on which he is
conducting the autopsy, and that people would have to be "pretty stupid"
to force him to change his findings -- something he said has never
happened anyway.

"I just do my job," he said. "There's never been a time where the
sheriff's office or district attorney had tried to influence my thinking
on a case."

Polk then asked Peterson about a previous autopsy he conducted that came
under scrutiny from an attorney. She asked if it was important to be sure
of all the details in a case that might lead to someone being sentenced to
the gas chamber or to prison for life.

Sequeira objected.

Brady agreed, noting, "It's not an issue in this case" because prosecutors
have not sought the death penalty.

Testimony continues Monday, when Polk's son Adam Polk could testify
against her.

(source: San Francisco Chronicle)





************************

Commission Urges Changes in Use of Eyewitness Identifications----The state
panel cites problems with current procedures, particularly cross-racial
IDs, a leading cause of wrongful convictions.


A state commission on reforming the criminal justice system proposed
significant changes Thursday in the use of eyewitness identification in
California courts, citing problems, particularly with cross-racial
identifications, that have led to exonerations of prisoners.

The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, which is
chaired by former California Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, cited
statistics from the Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of
Law in New York that more than 77% of inmates cleared since 1989 were
convicted based on mistaken eyewitness identifications.

Indeed, mistaken identifications were involved in nearly 3 times as many
cases as the next most common factor, according to figures compiled by the
Innocence Project.

In addition, a study published last year by researchers at the University
of Michigan Law School found that mistaken eyewitness identification was
involved in 88% of wrongful rape and sexual assault convictions.

A disproportionate number of the rape exonerations involved white victims
misidentifying black suspects, the Michigan study said, suggesting that
"the risk of error is greater in cross-racial identifications."

"Research has consistently confirmed that cross-racial identifications are
not as reliable as within-race identifications," the commission's report
said.

The commission made a dozen recommendations, including changes in methods
of witness identification using lineups or photo arrays.

The commission has no power to enforce new practices; local jurisdictions
set their own policies.

But other jurisdictions, including Santa Clara County, have adopted them
with positive results, the report said.

The recommendations are the first from the commission, which was created
by the state Legislature "to study and review the administration of
criminal justice in California, determine the extent to which the process
has failed in the past," examine safeguards and improvements, and offer
proposals to make the system better.

Santa Clara University law professor Gerald Uelmen, the commission's
executive director, said he expected the 18-member commission to
investigate false confessions, perjured testimony, mishandling of forensic
evidence, withholding of exculpatory evidence and incompetent defense
lawyers between now and Dec. 31, 2007, when the commission is to issue its
final report.

The issue of problematic eyewitness identifications began to attract broad
attention in the 1990s with the advent of DNA tests that cleared innocent
people.

Standard police practice now is to ask witnesses to pick out suspects from
lineups or from groups of half a dozen photos, known as "6-packs." It also
recommended presenting individuals in a lineup or photo array
sequentially, rather than simultaneously.

The commission suggested adopting the double-blind and sequential
identification procedures.

Gary Wells, a psychology professor at Iowa State University, told the
commission at a hearing last month that police officials using standard
lineups or photo displays can inadvertently or deliberately telegraph to
witnesses whom they want them to select.

David Angel, who heads the Innocence Project in Santa Clara County, said
his county had adopted the double-blind and sequential procedures in 2002
without problems.

The commission, which includes prosecutors, defense attorneys, law
professors, a judge, a rabbi and law enforcement officials, including Los
Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton and Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee
Baca, unanimously agreed to recommend the double-blind procedure.

However, California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer and two district attorneys -
Jim Fox of San Mateo County and Gregory Totten of Ventura County - issued
a partial dissent on sequential lineups.

"The debate over the effectiveness of sequential lineups is not yet
settled," the prosecutors wrote.

"The sequential method appears to be particularly problematic in cases
involving children and the elderly, cases involving cross-racial
identifications, cases involving multiple perpetrators, and cases where a
suspect has altered his or her appearance," they wrote.

The 3 prosecutors also dissented from a recommendation that California
jury instructions on eyewitness identifications "should be evaluated in
light of current scientific research regarding cross-racial
identifications and the relevance of the degree of certainty expressed by
witnesses in court."

The commission also called for legislation requiring the attorney
general's office to convene a task force to develop guidelines for new
procedures and training in eyewitness identification.

The task force should report back to the Legislature within one year, the
commission said.

The commission is scheduled to have its next major public hearing in Los
Angeles on June 26 on the issue of false confessions.

(source: Los Angeles Times)

******************

Killer sues for public hearing


Attorneys for condemned Stockton man Michael Angelo Morales are trying to
force the state to hold public hearings in the debate over execution by
lethal injection, according to a new lawsuit.

The latest court action Morales' legal team has taken threatens to further
delay the Stockton man's execution for the 1981 murder and rape of
17-year-old Tokay High School senior Terri Lynn Winchell.

The lawsuit contends the state didn't follow its own procedure of allowing
public review of a new method for carrying out lethal injections. Under
California law, the state has to publish any regulation changes and offer
the public a chance to ask for a hearing.

Anything less deprives Californians the opportunity to ensure death
sentences are carried out "properly, humanely and comply with relevant
medical ethical standards," the Morales lawsuit said.

Morales' execution was set for Feb. 21 at San Quentin State Prison but
indefinitely delayed when two physicians, who were brought in to assist
with the lethal injection under a federal court order, walked out.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel ordered the state to hire the
anesthesiologists when Morales' attorneys argued the lethal-injection
procedure may cause the inmate pain and violate his constitutional
protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

Fogel is scheduled to hold hearings in his San Jose courtroom on May 2 and
3 to take up the constitutionality of lethal injection.

State attorneys with the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation reworked its cocktail of lethal drugs in anticipation of
the hearing. This prompted the most recent lawsuit, which was filed April
5 in Marin County Superior Court.

Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, said
Wednesday he disagreed that public input is required. Historically, prison
officials have maintained that lethal injection is an "institutional
procedure" and doesn't require public input.

But Morales' lead attorney, David Senior of Los Angeles, said San Quentin
is a state prison, so it must follow state law.

"It doesn't matter what it is - prisons or otherwise. When the state
changes its rules, they've got to let people comment on it," Senior said.

San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Chuck Schultz said the recent
lawsuit is an act of desperation by Morales' legal team. California has
executed 13 men since 1992, and no one has thought up this tactic but
Morales' lawyers, he said.

"A penal institution is allowed to adopt its procedures without public
hearings," Schultz said. "The procedure on how to kill someone is one of
those, too."

(source: Record.net)

*********************

Witness at Aryan Brotherhood says leader ordered killings


A former member of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang testified that a gang
kingpin admitted ordering the killings of 3 other inmates and doing
another hit himself.

Kevin Roach took the stand Thursday with a shaved head and arms covered
with tattoos in one of the largest capital punishment cases in U.S.
history.

He testified that Barry "The Baron" Mills told him he was mad that he had
gotten caught for the 1979 murder of an inmate named John Marzloff over a
drug dispute. Mills is serving two life terms for the killing.

Roach also recalled a discussion in which Mills said he had ordered the
killing of Jimmy "Doc" Inman for teaching Mexican Mafia members how to
make weapons. Roach said Mills had dug up a secret note planted in the
recreation yard indicating Inman was to be targeted and read it before
ordering the killing.

"We read it together ... He told me that Inman was 'in the hat' and was
going to be hit," Roach said, explaining the term "hat" was code for being
on a hit list.

The attack in 1993 was not successful, prosecutors have said.

Roach testified about several of the 32 murders and attempted murders
detailed in a sweeping indictment targeting the violent gang founded in
1964 at California's San Quentin prison.

Roach, a convicted murderer, left the gang and became a government witness
in 1998. He was expected to continue testifying on Friday.

Prosecutors hope to dismantle the Aryan Brotherhood - nicknamed the
"Brand" - in a series of racketeering trials. Of the 40 men initially
charged, as many as 16 could face the death penalty for crimes going back
30 years.

The 1st group of 4 defendants - Mills, Tyler "The Hulk" Bingham, Edgar
"The Snail" Hevle and Christopher Gibson - are on trial in Santa Ana. All
have pleaded not guilty. The remaining defendants are scheduled to be
tried in Los Angeles beginning in October.

Roach testified that Mills also ordered the killing of Thomas Lamb, an
inmate who had been released from state prison and fallen in love with a
woman he was supposed to kill. When Lamb was later re-arrested and sent to
federal prison, Mills ordered his murder, Roach said.

Roach also said Mills told him he had ordered inmate John Greshner to kill
Richard "Rhino" Andreson in 1983. Andreson was on the gang's hit list
because he told authorities about a bank robbery, Roach said.

Earlier in the week, retired prison warden Patrick Keohone testified that
he witnessed Andreson's murder at the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth,
Kan.

Keohone said he saw two inmates with 12-inch knives repeatedly stab
Andreson. When he tried to intervene, one inmate attacked him. Keohone
identified the 2 inmates as Greshner and Ronnie Joe Criswell.

"They would thrust these knives not only into his body but all the way
through his body," Keohone said. "They were hitting the stone underneath
his body with the knives."

Greshner was "licking the blood off his hands and laughing about it" after
being subdued, Keohone said.

Mills, an alleged gang leader who is already serving 2 life terms for
murder, could face the death penalty in the 1997 deaths of 2 inmates in a
Lewisburg, Pa., prison.

Attorney H. Dean Steward, who represents Mills, said the defense team will
argue that Roach and other informants were coached and promised favorable
plea deals for their testimony.

Bingham, 58, also faces a possible death penalty for the 1997 inmate
killings. He is currently serving time on robbery and drug charges.

Hevle, 54, and Gibson, 46, could face life in prison if convicted.

(source: Associated Press)






FLORIDA:

Judge grants change of venue in Deltona murder trial


The trial of four men accused of beating 6 people to death will not be
held in Volusia County, a judge ruled Thursday after defense attorneys had
argued it would be difficult to find an impartial jury.

Circuit Judge William A. Parsons granted the change of venue motion after
four days of jury selection. He is expected to announce the new venue
later in the day.

Out of 25 potential jurors in the county, only one had not heard about the
2004 deaths, defense attorney Jeff Dowdy said Thursday.

"The judge was intent on picking a jury here, but I think even he realized
after a few days that it was going to be very difficult to seat a jury,"
Dowdy said.

Jerone Hunter, 19, Troy Victorino, 29, and Michael Salas, 20, all face 6
counts of 1st-degree murder, 5 counts of mutilating a dead human body and
3 other felonies.

Prosecutors allege Victorino organized the attack to retrieve an Xbox
video game system that he lost.

A 4th man, Robert Cannon, 19, pleaded guilty in October to his role in the
deaths and will get a life sentence instead of the death penalty in
exchange for his testimony.

(source: Associated Press)