Sept. 11
FLORIDA:
Murderer Asked for Death Penalty, Not Life in Prison
A man who was convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering a teenager told a
Florida judge he knows "something bad is going to happen" if he is not
sentenced to death.
Instead of convincing a judge to spare his life, William Davis III, 34, used
his final moment on the stand to present evidence as to why the judge should
take his life.
"I cannot sit here in good conscience and knowing what I've done ... ask you,
with a straight face, to give me life in prison. I can't and I won't," Davis
said.
Davis, who was convicted in May of the 2009 kidnapping, rape and murder of
Fabiana Malave, 19, told 18th Judicial Circuit Court Judge John Galluzzo that
he was bipolar, and that sending him to prison for the rest of his life would
be a dangerous error.
"I know how I am when I am off my medication. I have always known how I am when
I am off my medication," Davis said. "When I quit taking it, bad things happen.
... At some point something's going to happen, and I'm going to go completely
off the handle."
Last month, a jury recommended by a vote of seven to five that Davis be
sentenced to death. The final decision rests with Galluzzo, who will hand down
Davis' sentence Dec. 3.
Throughout Davis' trial, his attorneys tried to build a case that their client
was incompetent.
Davis said he was manic depressive and bipolar, and hadn't taken his medication
in months when he abducted Malave from a used car lot where she worked in
October 2009.
Davis abducted Malave at knifepoint and drove her to his home in Orlando, where
he raped and then strangled her, according to his confession to a Seminole
County deputy. Davis was arrested when deputies spotted his SUV near the area
where Malave had been abducted. Inside the car, authorities found Malave's body
covered with a garbage bag and blanket, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Although Davis is asking for the death penalty, his public defender, Tim
Caudill, has argued for life in prison for his client.
A message left for Caudill was not immediately returned.
The young vicitm's sister told ABC affiliate WFTV that no matter what sentence
Davis receives, it will never bring Fabiana Malave back.
"He's a predator. He didn't go after someone who could defend himself or
herself, but he went after my sister who weighed 95 pounds," she said.
(source: ABC News)
GEORGIA:
Tracen Franklin death penalty trial moves to next phase
The death penalty trial for Tracen Franklin is continuing in a Douglas County
court. Franklin is 1 of 4 suspects in the beating death of Bobby Tillman at a
house party in November 2010.
Prosecutors said Franklin delivered the fatal blow to Tillman, causing a tear
in his heart.
Prosecutors rested their case Tuesday without calling Bobby Tillman's mother to
the stand. Prosecutors had wanted to call Tillman's mother to the stand to
identify the clothing he was wearing at the time of his death - likely to allow
the jury to see her raw emotion over the death of her son.
But at the last minute, prosecutors thought better of it - after both the
defense and the judge warned that her testimony could be more prejudicial than
probative, meaning it could lead to a reversal of the case down the road.
The defense says they plan to call witnesses Wednesday and only plan their
questions to take one day.
(source: 11Alive News)
PENNSYLVANIA----impending execution
Phila. man, 46, could be executed Oct. 3
Judge wants more evidence, won't stay execution Judge calls for more evidence
in bid to block execution
BEFORE RULING on whether to stay the Oct. 3 execution of Terrance Williams, a
Philadelphia judge on Monday asked Williams' attorneys to give her more
information about evidence allegedly kept from the jury that convicted him.
Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina gave the defense team until Thursday to
turn over the information.
Williams, 46, of Philadelphia, is in line to become the 1st person executed in
Pennsylvania since 1999 for murdering Amos Norwood, 56, in 1984.
He lured the man to a cemetery, beat him to death with a tire iron and set his
body on fire with gasoline.
Williams stole his victim's cash, credit cards, a calling card and his car and
drove with friends to Atlantic City to gamble, Deputy District Attorney Ron
Eisenberg told Sarmina.
Eisenberg said that the case had been litigated all the way to the U.S. Supreme
Court and that it is time to carry out the sentence.
Defense attorney Billy Nolas argued that Williams had been sexually abused by
Norwood since the age of 13 and that he killed him in response to the abuse at
age 18.
Mark Draper, Williams' accomplice in the murder who is serving a life sentence,
knew of the abuse but was told by homicide detectives and city prosecutors not
to testify about it at trial, Nolas said.
Instead, they told Draper to testify that Williams' motive for the killing was
robbery, Nolas said.
However Sarmina rules, Williams' legal team also is trying to save his life
with a clemency petition it has filed with the state Board of Pardons. The
petition, which seeks to have his death sentence reduced to life in prison
without parole, states that Williams was sexually abused throughout his life by
several men, including Norwood, who allegedly raped him the day before the
murder.
A clemency hearing in Harrisburg is scheduled for Sept. 17.
Norwood's widow has joined with those who are trying to save his life.
Williams also is serving a 27-year sentence for the third-degree murder of
Herbert Hamilton, who he claimed also had sexually abused him. At age 17
Williams lured Hamilton to bed, stabbed him 21 times and beat him with a
baseball bat.
(source: Philadelphia Daily News)
***************
see:
http://www.change.org/petitions/governor-tom-corbett-pa-board-of-pardons-district-attorney-seth-williams-grant-clemency-to-terrance-williams-survivor-of-child-sexual-abuse
(source: change.org)
OHIO:
Denial of Ohio death-row inmate's appeal upheld
A federal appeals panel has upheld a decision denying an Ohio inmate's appeal
of his death sentence for killing his cellmate.
A 3-judge panel of the 6th U.S. District Court in Cincinnati upheld a lower
court's ruling Tuesday that denied death-row inmate James Hanna's appeal.
The 63-year-old Hanna had argued that his death sentence was improper, alleging
prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective assistance of defense counsel.
In 1997, Hanna was serving a life sentence at the Lebanon Correctional
Institution when he attacked his cellmate, Peter Copas, with a shank fashioned
from a paint brush, stabbing him in his eye socket as he slept and beating him
with his hands and a padlock.
Copas died from an infection partially caused by errors in his medical
treatment about 3 weeks later.
(source: Associated Press)
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