June 2 CALIFORNIA: No death penalty sought in Prunedale homicide, fire----Man accused in knife, incendiary attack Prosecutors announced Thursday they will not seek the death penalty against a Las Lomas man accused of killing his brother-in-law, stabbing his sister and trying to kill her 3 small children by setting their mobile home on fire while they were in it. Prosecutor Stephanie Hulsey said the decision not to seek capital punishment against Daryl Lipska followed a presentation to a prosecution panel by Lipska's defense attorney and was based on a number of factors that she declined to discuss. She said the family of slaying victim Billy Joseph White had been consulted prior to the decision. Defense attorney Charles Murphy said he presented the District Attorney's Office with information regarding Lipska's minimal criminal record and stressed the "devastating effect" a death sentence would have on his large family. Lipska, 30, is charged with murder under special circumstances, as well as 4 counts of attempted murder, arson and burglary. If convicted of the murder and special circumstances, he would be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. Prosecutors allege Lipska went to his estranged sister's mobile home on Blackie Road in Prunedale in the early hours of Nov. 30, fatally stabbed White, then attacked and stabbed his sister, Tania Bone. He allegedly then set the home on fire with the 3 children inside. 11-year-old Corinna Silveira, Bone's daughter from a previous relationship, rescued her 2 younger brothers from the inferno. Bone told investigators the attack was motivated by a dispute over the property, co-owned by members of Lipska and Bone's family. Judge Terrance Duncan set a trial for Oct. 23. Mixed feelings Outside the courtroom before Thursday's hearing, White's family expressed mixed feelings about the district attorney's decision not to seek death for Lipska. Like other family members, White's sister, Kristy Clark, wore a button on her shirt bearing her brother's picture. "I think when you kill someone you deserve to die," she said. While Lipska may spend the rest of his life in prison, "he can still have somewhat of a life and visit with his kids. My brother's children will never have another father again." On the other hand, she said, Lipska's life would essentially be over, either way, if he is convicted. White's grandmother, Frances White, said she did not want prosecutors to seek the death penalty. "I don't want death," she said. "I want him to suffer in prison." Eve Rodrigues, White's mother, said she also wanted Lipska to suffer. But she wanted him to suffer on death row because she feared he would adjust to life in prison among the general population. "I'm not adjusting without my son," she said tearfully. "I don't think he should be able to adjust." Lipska's family thanked Murphy outside the courtroom but made no public comments. Murphy praised the District Attorney's Office for its decision and for allowing him the opportunity to plead against the death penalty. "I think it was just and correct," he said. "This was not the kind of case that should have proceeded to death." Asleep at home According to testimony at Lipska's preliminary hearing, White, Bone and their children had fallen asleep while watching a movie that night when they were awakened by the barking of their pet pit bull, Cyrus. Bone looked out the window and saw her estranged brother approaching the home with a gas can with a rag sticking out of it, according to police testimony. White confronted the intruder at the back door and was stabbed to death during the ensuing struggle. Deputies testified that Lipska then began dousing the interior of the home with gasoline. When his sister tried to stop him, he stabbed her as the children looked on. As Bone escaped the house, according to testimony, Lipska grabbed 11-year-old Corinna and pushed her into a bedroom, threatening to kill her if she came out. He then set the house on fire, police said. Corinna ran from the bedroom and carried her brothers to safety before the home burned to the ground. The girl later told investigators the man who attacked the family and threatened her with a bloody knife was her "Uncle Daryl." Detectives testified that they found Bone's blood on the door jam of Lipska's sport utility vehicle and on a sweatshirt found inside it. They said the sweatshirt and Lipska's boots reeked of gasoline. Murphy has said Lipska "is not capable of committing these crimes." Lipska and Bone's uncle, Benedict John Chirco, 52, of Santa Cruz recently pleaded no contest to trying to dissuade Bone from testifying. According to police, Chirco told Bone that if she cooperated in the case "they're going to have Daryl killed." If she refused to testify, Chirco told Bone, according to police reports, he would set up a trust account for her children. If she cooperated, he said, "you and the kids will pay." (source: Monterey Herald) PENNSYLVANIA: DA's office plans to seek death penalty for Wise----But office says it has not yet filed notice Documents indicating prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against Jesse D. Wise Jr. likely will be filed later this month, the assistant district attorney in charge of prosecuting the case said Thursday. Lancaster County Assistant District Attorney Craig Stedman said he had not filed any document that states the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office will seek the death penalty against Wise, 21, who is accused of killing 6 of his family members and plotting to kill his grandfather in April. Stedman, however, said he plans to file a notice with the court system before Wise is formally arraigned June 28 stating prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty. "It didn't happen yet, but we will be doing that," Stedman said. "I anticipate filing a notice of aggravated circumstances sometime before he is arraigned." District Attorney Donald Totaro said Thursday that last weekend he confirmed for 2 media outlets his office would be seeking the death penalty against Wise. But he said reports that the notice already was filed are wrong. Wise is charged with 6 counts of homicide and one count of attempted homicide. He is accused of killing his cousins, Skyler Wise, 19, and Chance Wise, 5; his uncle, Jesse James Wise, 17; his aunts, Wanda Wise, 45, and Agnes Arlene Wise, 43; and his grandmother, 64-year-old Emily Wise. The victims died sometime during the weekend of April 8 and 9 inside their Leola home, police said. Their bodies were discovered in the basement of the home April 12. All of them sustained multiple traumatic injuries, according to preliminary postmortem reports. Investigators believe that in the days after the killings, Wise left Lancaster County for New York City with the intent to kill his grandfather, Jessie L. Wise, 65, to cover up the slayings. (source: Intelligencer Journal) SOUTH CAROLINA: Bill calls for death penalty for repeat child molesters South Carolina will soon have some of the strongest sex offender legislation in the nation, including a death penalty provision for repeat child molesters, if Gov. Mark Sanford signs Jessie's Law (Senate Bill 1138) in the next few days. Spokesman Joel Sawyer says Sanford has given his word to make that happen. "The governor is very much in support of this bill, and he supports the death penalty provision," Sawyer said. "He believes that this is an important step in protecting some of our states most vulnerable citizens - our children." The S.C. House of Representatives passed the Senate version of the legislation against child molesters Wednesday in a party-line vote. After final approval from the Senate, the bill goes to Sanfords desk. Provisions in the bill - named for 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in Florida who was killed by a registered sex offender in her neighborhood - will allow courts to give the death penalty to child molesters who are repeat offenders (of raping children under 11), increase the mandatory minimum sentence for sex offenders to 25 years to life in prison, make electronic monitoring mandatory for offenders who are convicted of lewd or criminal sexual conduct, and create a new crime for harboring a sexual predator. There were 11 Democrats, including Pawleys Islands Vida Miller, who voted with the Republican majority to pass the bill with a vote of 84-27. "I think this bill is important because it strengthens laws dealing with sexual predators," Miller said. "It is a shame that in this country we have so much sexual abuse of our children." All of the representatives who voted against the bill were Democrats, including Rep. Carl Anderson of District 103. "I wasnt totally against the bill, just some things included with the bill," Anderson said. "The main thing I was against was the death penalty provision." He adds that he and other Democrats tried to remove the death penalty portion of the bill because it will be too costly to remove later. There is a severability clause included in the bill that states if the death penalty is deemed unconstitutional, the bill would be intact without that portion. "What is going to happen is it will go to the S.C. Supreme Court," Anderson said. "Why pass it with the death penalty clause if it is only going to be removed later, with a very high cost to taxpayers." Sen. Jake Knotts, who sponsored the bill in the Senate, says he looks forward to the new law being tested in the highest courts of the state. "We are just waiting to give the Attorney General a chance to defend the constitutionality of this law in the courts because he believes it is constitutional and so do we," Knotts said. "This law will not only send a message to pedophiles, it will send the message to the court system that we are fed up with this type of crime." Knotts had a lot to do with the bill getting a vote in the House Wednesday, threatening to put his name on every House bill in the Senate and filibuster until Jessie's Law was put back on the top of the agenda. He was also influential in attaching Jessie's Law to a related bill (concerning monitoring devices) which had already had 2 readings. The House had no choice but to vote on the bill as it was passed in the Senate. "Their tactic had been to walk out and delay Bill 1138 in the House so it wouldn't have time to be passed," Knotts said. "By using my maneuver, it forced the representatives to vote straight up or down and they couldnt get out of it by hiding." (source: Georgetown Times) GEORGIA: Judge weighs allowing murder evidence in trial----Key element to prosecution case A Forsyth County judge will soon make what lawyers for Lynn Turner say will be his most important decision in her death penalty murder trial. Chief Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Bagley on Wednesday heard arguments for and against allowing a jury to hear evidence of the 1995 poisoning death of Turner's husband, Glenn Turner, for which she was convicted and is serving a life sentence. Turner, 37, faces a possible death sentence if convicted of the 2001 death of boyfriend Randy Thompson. A Cobb County judge allowed testimony about Thompson's death in Turner's 2004 trial for the murder of her husband, though at the time she had not yet been charged in her boy-friend's death. Authorities say both men died from poisoning caused by ethylene glycol, an active ingredient in antifreeze. Turner is still appealing her murder conviction, with one of the chief complaints being that Cobb County Superior Court Judge James Bodiford should not have allowed the jury in her first trial to hear about the Forsyth County death that occurred 6 years after her husband's death. On Wednesday, defense attorney Jimmy Berry told Bagley that the jury foreman said after the guilty verdict in the Cobb County case that the so-called "similar transaction evidence" of Thompson's death sealed the jury's decision. "In my opinion, if we had not had the similar transaction in that case, she would not have been found guilty," Berry said. "If you've got those two things together, it's almost impossible to fight it." Said Berry's co-counsel, Vic Reynolds, "This is the case." District Attorney Penny Penn countered that while the decision to allow similar transaction evidence of Glenn Turner's death is up to Bagley, "the bottom line is there are similarities, and they are big similarities." "You just can't get away from the connection of these 2 cases," Penn said. "They are inextricably bound together." In outlining what the prosecution wanted to present to a jury, Penn told Bagley that for Glenn Turner and Randy Thompson, "in their lives and in their deaths, they had one common connection, and it was the defendant." Both men, Penn said, died from ethylene glycol poisoning, though Turner's was not discovered until a 2001 exhumation brought on by the investigation of Thompson's death. Both men, she said, were brought food or drink by Lynn Turner in the days or hours before their deaths. The defendant stood to gain financially through death benefits and insurance from both men, Penn said. "It doesn't get much more similar," Penn said. "It's almost like trying identical cases, just exchanging one victim with another. The relevant facts are almost identical." Turner's lawyers argued that the cases really weren't all that similar. They pointed to the relatively small amount of ethylene glycol found in Glenn Turner's autopsy, compared with a "large dose" found in Thompson's. Berry said the defense still believes that Glenn Turner did not die from ethylene glycol poisoning, that perhaps an enlarged heart was the cause of his death. He posited that Thompson may have committed suicide. "You have a lot of similarities, but really when you boil them down and look at it, they're not so similar," Berry said. Bagley said he will review the trial transcripts from the Cobb County case before deciding whether to allow in the key prosecution evidence of Turner's 1995 death. A decision is not expected before the parties meet for more pretrial hearings next week. Bagley also must decide whether to move the trial to another county. Turner's 2004 Cobb County murder trial was moved to Houston County in central Georgia after the judge in that case ruled she could not get a fair and impartial jury in Cobb due to the extensive media coverage of the case. As part of its motion for a change of venue, the defense is providing Bagley with a mountain of newspaper clippings and television news videos about the case, which has seen national exposure on the Court TV cable network. It's possible Bagley would not make a decision on whether to move the trial until after potential jurors are questioned about their knowledge and opinions of the case. Special prosecutor Jack Mallard said it would be "preferable to try it in the county where the crime was committed," but also said there was no dispute over the level of media coverage the sensational case has attracted. "If there's a reasonable chance we could get (an unbiased) jury, we'd like to try it here," Mallard said. Said Bagley, "I wish I had a crystal ball but I'm afraid I don't. I will have to make a very difficult decision in the future." Pre-trial hearings were recessed Wednesday and will resume with 3 days of motions and arguments next week. A trial date has not been set. Bagley said the case could take up to a month to try, including jury selection. (source: Forsyth County News) TENNESSEE: Pope pleads to killing family and avoids death penalty A Chattanooga man pleaded guilty in Hamilton County Criminal Court today to murdering his wife, infant son and step-daughter. Tony Harold Pope, 37, pleaded guilty to 3 counts of 1st-degree murder in exchange for sentences of life without the possibility of parole on each count. Prosecutors had been seeking the death penalty against Mr. Pope for the May 2, 2005, death of his wife, Andrea Pope; 5-week-old son, Christian; and 13-year-old stepdaughter, Brianna Justice Moody. Records show Mr. Pope was sentenced to 15 years in prison for killing a girlfriend in 1995, but he was released on parole after serving about 5 flyears. (source: Chattanooga Times) FLORIDA: DeLand killer losing options to appeal 1996 death sentence----Bobby Raleigh loses his last state appeal, but his lawyer says he does not deserve to be executed. A DeLand man on death row for killing 2 men more than a decade ago lost his last state appeal Thursday, but Bobby Raleigh may seek relief from a higher court. Raleigh, 31, does not deny killing Douglas Cox and Timothy Eberlin in June 1994, but the killings do not warrant the death penalty, his attorney said Thursday. "He's not claiming innocence," Orlando attorney Ryan Thomas Truskoski said. "He expressed remorse. He pleaded guilty to wrongdoing." Raleigh and his attorney do not think the shootings, which investigators said were fueled by competition over a marijuana business, were "heinous, atrocious or cruel" to the point that the death penalty should be applied. After Raleigh pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, a jury unanimously recommended the death penalty, which at the time meant the electric chair but is now usually done by lethal injection. Raleigh's attorney has 90 days to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court or to file action with a federal appeals court before the governor can sign the former mechanic's death warrant and set a date for his execution. Raleigh has been on death row at Union Correctional Institution since February 1996 -- about the average length of time before a prisoner's appeals run out. There are 371 people on Florida's death row. The average stay for prisoners on death row is nearly 13 years, according to state corrections statistics. Neither of the victims' families could be reached for comment Thursday. Truskoski said he is reviewing the Florida Supreme Court's ruling, issued Thursday, before deciding whether to take any action. His most recent appeal took three years to make it through the system. According to court records, Raleigh and his cousin, Domingo Figueroa, went to the DeLeon Springs home of Cox and Eberlin one night after an argument at a DeLand nightclub. Armed with a .380 semiautomatic handgun and a 9mm handgun, they shot Cox in the head three times at close range and shot Eberlin until their guns jammed. They then beat him with the barrel of one of the weapons. Investigators said both men confessed. Figueroa was convicted and sentenced to three life terms in prison. Raleigh, who also lost his automatic appeal with the Supreme Court that all individuals sentenced to death receive, claimed in his most recent appeal that he had ineffective counsel, that his mental-health evaluation was inadequate, that his due process rights were violated and that the state knowingly presented false testimonial evidence. Truskoski said he is most concerned with the way the state prosecuted the case in 1996. He said prosecutors used the same evidence at both men's trials and said each was the primary shooter. Raleigh also was accused in the murder of 15-year-old Laralee Spear, a DeLand High School cheerleader who was killed a quarter-mile from her home in April 1994. But charges were dropped after his defense came forward with an alibi and prosecutors said the evidence against him was weak. That killing remains unsolved. (source: Orlando Sentinel)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CALIF., PENN., S.C., GA., TENN., FLA.
Rick Halperin Fri, 2 Jun 2006 12:04:26 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
