April 4
INDIANA:
Alleged DOJ misconduct spreads to Indiana death penalty case
Accusations of sexual harassment and prosecutorial misconduct at the U.S.
Department of Justice's Capital Case Section have ensnared a death penalty case
in the Southern District of Indiana against a federal inmate charged with
killing his cellmate.
The allegations of unwanted sexual advances and discrimination against women
were revealed in a civil lawsuit filed against the Justice Department. Attached
to the complaint was a declaration by a longtime attorney at the Department,
Amanda Haines, which also detailed a hostile work environment and specifically
pointed to violations in handling the Indiana death penalty case.
Chief federal defender Monica Foster of the Indiana Federal Community Defenders
is representing the inmate, Andrew Rogers. While working on the case, Foster
was tipped off to take a look at the civil lawsuit, Rodriguez-Coss v. Sessions,
3:16-cv-00633, where she found the declaration.
Foster and her team had been surprised when the Department of Justice decided
to push for the death penalty for Rogers. She said she is not surprised by the
claims of prosecutorial misconduct, but she is angered by the revelations of
how the female attorneys were treated.
"I think it is appalling behavior that should not be going on anywhere in any
office, least of all the office deciding life and death," Foster said. "... I
have some empathy for the women who had to work in that office under those
conditions. I can't imagine going to work in that environment every day."
The civil lawsuit and accusations of discrimination and sexual misbehavior were
spotlighted in a New York Times article published Sunday.
Documents filed as a part of Jacabed Rodriguez-Coss' complaint highlight
discrimination and retaliation against women attorneys in the section as well
as the former Capital Case Section chief Kevin Carwile and his deputy Gwynn
Kinsey, accused of "turning a blind eye" toward rampant sexual harassment. Male
attorneys were alleged to have made unwanted sexual advances to female interns
and administrative staff, bragged about sexual conquests and showed naked
pictures of women to each other during office hours.
Haines' declaration also accuses Justice Department attorney James Peterson of
mishandling the death penalty case against Rogers. In particular, he was said
to have committed the violation of interviewing more than 12 witnesses without
a law enforcement officer or another official being present. He then
"compounded this error" by destroying his interview notes, particularly from
witnesses who were suspected of having information that could have been
detrimental to the death penalty case.
After telling Carwile and Kinsey about the problems with the Rogers case and
noting the defense needed to be alerted, Haines said to her knowledge, no
action was taken. The office did not investigate or impose any kind of
discipline.
"To the contrary," Haines stated in her declaration, "the Rogers case was
simply reassigned from me to other attorneys in the Section (it has been
reassigned 3 times since then)."
The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana declined
to comment. Instead it pointed to the statement Justice Department spokesman
Ian Prior made to the New York Times.
"The Department of Justice takes these allegations extremely seriously but
cannot discuss specific employee disciplinary actions, or comment on internally
handled personnel actions or matters that may impact personal privacy," Prior
said.
Based on the allegations, Foster is asking the court to bar the government from
seeking the death penalty against Rogers. The case is United States of America
v. Andrew Rogers, 2:16-cr-00018.
Rogers, who was serving a 27-year sentence for robbing a Subway sandwich shop
in Illinois, was housed at the high-security U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute
at the time his cellmate was found dead in the cell in a pool of blood.
According to court documents, Rogers confessed to the stabbing, saying he did
not want to live in a bathroom with another man for 27 years.
Foster said Rogers had "begged" prison officials for mental health treatment
prior to the incident with his cellmate. However, she said, he was given
puzzles rather than medication or therapy. That is suspected to be what the
witnesses told Peterson, which did not help the case for capital punishment.
"The government's conduct here is an affront to the judicial system itself and
has, in a way, sought to make the Court complicit in its misconduct," Foster
wrote in the motion to strike the notice of intent to seek the death penalty.
"The government has brought a capital proceeding before the Court, and the
Court has understandably assumed that the government conducted the
death-penalty authorization process in good faith. The recently discovered
information demonstrates, however, that the government has enlisted the Court
in a sham proceeding where the death penalty was authorized by the use of
unconstitutional tactics."
In her motion, Foster also asserts that the high tolerance for sexual
misconduct and sexual discrimination undermines the integrity of the capital
review process. She questioned whether she was given the proper respect when
she argued against the death penalty before the Capital Review Committee.
Carwile was a member of that committee and he, according to Haines, holds the
view that "women only go to law school to find rich husbands."
The government counters that Peterson contacted the prison employees in 2015
who were listed as providing for Rogers' care and custody. No one offered any
facts that would exculpate the defendant or impeach the government's witnesses.
Peterson subsequently turned their comments over to the Attorney General and,
in 2017, summarized his contact with prison's medical personnel in a memo for
the defendant's counsel.
The government argues that the statements made to Peterson just illuminated the
information contained in the prison records and those records were already in
the possession of the defendant.
"The (Bureau of Prisons) personnel uniformly agreed with their earlier
assessments that the defendant did not manifest symptoms of any mental health
malady that required intervention beyond that which was requested and
provided," the government said in its response motion. "That information is not
exculpatory. That information is not impeaching. That information was not,
therefore," subject to disclosure under (Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83
(1963))."
The Rogers case is continuing. Judge William Lawrence of the U.S. District
Court for the Southern District of Indiana has ordered each party to file a
proposal as to the scope of the discovery by Friday.
(source: theindianalawyer.com)
ILLINOIS:
Will a settlement short-circuit search for truth in 37-year-old murder case?
An ominous lull has settled over the search for the truth about what arguably
was this area's most consequential murder case.
It's been nearly 6 months since the last pretrial deposition in the case of
Alstory Simon v. Northwestern University et. al., a $40 million lawsuit that
has the potential to sort out once and for all the claims and counterclaims
stemming from a 1982 double homicide in Washington Park that played a pivotal
role in the abolition of capital punishment in Illinois.
The lack of activity in the case, along with a closed-to-the-media conference
in the chambers of federal Judge David Weisman on Tuesday afternoon, suggests
that a pretrial settlement is in the works. Such a strategic surrender by
Northwestern might save the school from legal fees in the short run but cost it
its reputation in the long run.
Here's the background: When Marilyn Green and Jerry Hillard were shot to death
in the bleachers by the swimming pool in Washington Park, it looked like
another tragic escalation of a drug dispute or petty grudge and did not get a
lot of media attention. Anthony Porter was arrested, tried and ultimately
sentenced to death for the crime.
Flash ahead to September 1998. 2 days before his scheduled execution, Porter
was granted a stay based on his lawyer's claim that his IQ was so low that he
didn't understand what was happening to him. This gave time for student sleuths
and a private investigator working under Northwestern journalism professor
David Protess to investigate Porter's claim that he was innocent.
A little more than 4 months later, this team secured a dramatic videotaped
confession to the murders from Alstory Simon, who'd lived near Washington Park.
Porter walked free. Simon repeated his confession several times, then
apologized to the victims' families in open court before heading off to prison
to serve a 37-year sentence.
The story rattled then-Gov. George Ryan. Less than a year later, he emptied
death row, either commuting the sentence of or pardoning every inmate, and
declared a moratorium on executions. "How do you prevent another Anthony Porter
- another innocent man or woman - from paying the ultimate penalty for a crime
he or she did not commit?" he said.
The moratorium was never lifted, and in March 2011, then-Gov. Pat Quinn signed
legislation repealing the state's death penalty.
In the meantime, Simon retracted his confession and asserted his innocence.
He claimed he'd been hoodwinked by Paul Ciolino, the private eye working with
Protess, and had merely been playing along with an elaborate ruse.
According to Simon, Team Protess, along with a local defense lawyer in on the
scam, had decided to frame an innocent man - him - and free a coldblooded
killer - Porter - in order to dramatize the need to abolish the death penalty.
This astonishing story captured the imaginations of a small group of men who'd
long been chafing at the numerous, high-profile stories of wrongful
convictions, some of them exposed in part by Protess. They saw in Simon's claim
an opportunity to flip the script and vindicate the police and prosecutors
who'd been implicated in those stories.
Never mind that Simon's tale was fundamentally preposterous and illogical. It
was credulously retold in a book by a former Tribune reporter and in a
documentary feature film bankrolled in part by a lawyer who once represented
famously brutal Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge. And the attention prompted
then-Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez to order a reinvestigation of
the case in 2013.
Her investigators reported back that "there is not sufficient evidence to seek
to vacate Simon's convictions." But Alvarez vacated them anyway in late 2014,
taking the opportunity to deliver a broadside against Protess, Ciolino and
others, an attack that bolstered the contention that the local innocence
movement is fundamentally corrupt.
The question was no longer who killed Green and Hillard in 1982 - Alvarez
claimed to be agnostic on that point - but whether Protess and those working
with him under the Northwestern banner had conspired to commit an irredeemably
wicked act.
Had those of us in the media who had believed Simon's numerous confessions been
complicit in putting an innocent man in prison?
Or was a cabal of supporters of law enforcement promoting a cockamamie story to
drive its agenda?
I guess you know where I stand.
Simon's lawsuit, filed in February 2015, promised to provide some resolution.
Teams of lawyers would subject everyone involved to pitiless, adversarial
questioning in depositions and at trial, and we'd see at last who's been acting
in bad faith.
But depositions for the key players - Protess, Simon and Ciolino - have been
repeatedly delayed, and on Tuesday Judge Weisman finally set them for mid-July.
These complicated lawsuits are costly to defend and not without risk. Protess
had a falling out with Northwestern in 2011 over another matter and is no
longer with the university. He is being represented by private counsel. He did
not return my repeated requests for comment.
His attorney, Simon's attorneys and Northwestern's attorney declined to answer
my questions about settlement talks. Ciolino's attorney, Jennifer Bonjean,
declared emphatically outside the courtroom Tuesday that her client, who is
countersuing his accusers for defamation, would never settle.
A settlement, no matter how it's couched, would not only imply guilt or shared
responsibility on the part of Northwestern and Protess, it would stand to
hamper or help conclude the search for truth to which the institution is
ostensibly devoted, and would taint the innocence movement in which
Northwestern and its law school have played such an integral role.
At the very least, those itching to be done with all this should wait a few
months until the major witnesses are deposed and history has a full enough
record to render its own judgment.
(source: Chicago Tribune)
MISSOURI:
Missouri prosecutors demand death penalty in transgender teen's killing
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for one of the suspects in the
slaying of a transgender teenager in southwest Missouri, ABC News reported
quoting AP.
Court records show plans requesting the sentence for Andrew Vrba were filed
Monday. Vrba is charged with 1st-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Ally
Steinfeld. Investigators say Steinfeld was stabbed several times, including in
the genitals. Her eyes were gouged out and her body was set on fire. Officials
say the slaying wasn't a hate crime.
One female suspect has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for 2nd-degree
murder, while another awaits a 1st-degree murder trial. A 4th suspect has
pleaded not guilty to abandonment of a corpse.
(source: news.am)
***************************
Class brings exonerees to MU campus
Joe Amrine and Richard Jones served 17 years in prison.
Lamonte McIntyre served 23 years.
Reggie Griffin was behind bars for 33 years.
All were wrongfully convicted and eventually freed after serving decades in
prison.
"Who wants to be in jail, period? Especially if you ain't done nothing?"
Griffin said.
Amrine, Jones, McIntyre and Griffin shared the stories of their trials and
experiences in prison at a discussion Tuesday at the University of Missouri
School of Law. "The Exonerated: Surviving Justice" was sponsored by the
Innocence Clinic, a joint project between the MU and University of
Missouri-Kansas City schools of law and the Midwest Innocence Project.
The Midwest Innocence Project is a member affiliate of the national Innocence
Project in New York City. The project was launched to bring awareness of
wrongful convictions happening around the state. 4 Missouri death row inmates
have been exonerated since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
The clinic is a four-credit class that selects only 8 students who review case
transcripts, gather documents and other evidence, search for witnesses and
conduct interviews. UMKC Assistant Clinical Professor Lindsay Runnels said the
students in the clinic investigate cases in which the Midwest Innocence Project
is deciding if there is enough evidence to litigate.
Students in the clinic volunteered to interview and study the 4 exonerees and
their cases.
"They're going to be dealing with these cases every single day and if they do
it long enough they're either going to represent someone who's innocent or
prosecute or indict someone who's innocent, so for those folks it's incredibly
important," Runnels said.
Runnels also suggested to open up the discussion with the exonerees to not just
her students, but to the public, as well.
"It is important for our broader community as a whole because this is a social
justice that affects all of us and it affects the integrity of our social
justice system when we get it wrong," Runnels said.
Paul Litton, associate dean for research and faculty development in the MU law
school, was part of a committee established by the American Bar Association
that studied capital punishment, focusing on laws and practices.
Litton mentioned some of their recommendations went beyond the death penalty,
including "reforms with how law enforcement conducts eyewitness identification
lineups and also with respect to the videotaping of confessions and
interrogations".
Litton said mistaken eyewitness identification is "the major cause of wrongful
convictions."
Jones and McIntyre were wrongfully accused partially because of mistaken
eyewitness identifications. Other top contributing factors to wrongful
convictions include perjury or false accusation, false confession, false
forensics and official misconduct. Litton believes defense attorneys and
prosecutors should know about the major causes of wrongful convictions.
"I think it's important to highlight the work of our clinic. We could show its
importance by talking about empirical studies and with statistics," Litton
said. "But statistics don't resonate like personal stories do."
(source: Columbia Daily Tribune)
NEBRASKA:
Nebraska seeks execution date for death row inmate Carey Dean Moore
Death row inmate Carey Dean Moore might soon have an execution date, following
a request by the Nebraska Attorney General's Office for an execution warrant
from the state Supreme Court.
It would be Nebraska's 1st time carrying out capital punishment since Robert
Williams was electrocuted in 1997 for killing 3 women.
In the motion filed Tuesday, Solicitor General James D. Smith said Moore has no
appeals pending.
"The State of Nebraska has a constitutionally acceptable method of carrying out
Moore's death sentences by lethal injection, which method is both available and
can be carried out by the Director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional
Services in accordance with the Department's Execution Protocol upon the
issuance of an execution warrant," Smith wrote.
On Jan. 19, Prisons Director Scott Frakes notified Moore that diazepam,
fentanyl citrate, cisatracurium besylate and potassium chloride would be used
and were on hand.
The Nebraska death penalty protocol requires the director to provide notice to
the condemned inmate at least 60 days prior to the attorney general???s request
to the Nebraska Supreme Court for an execution warrant.
Then, by state law, it's the Supreme Court's duty to establish a date for the
enforcement of a death sentence and command the prisons director to proceed.
An execution date is to be set no more than 60 days following the issuance of a
warrant.
Moore, 60, was sentenced to death on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in Douglas
County in the 1979 deaths of 2 Omaha cab drivers, Reuel Van Ness Jr. and
Maynard Helgeland. Van Ness was shot during a robbery, with Moore's younger
brother along, and Helgeland was shot 3 times, Moore has said, just to prove he
could take a man's life all by himself.
He is being housed at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution.
Moore has had multiple execution dates, the latest in 2007 and 2011, and all of
them have been stayed. Nine months after the 2007 date, execution by electric
chair was declared unconstitutional by the Nebraska Supreme Court. Before the
June 2011 date, the state's high court issued a stay after Moore's lawyer
challenged the purchase of 1 of the lethal injection drugs to be used and the
lethal injection law itself.
A number of lawsuits currently are working through the courts about the new
drugs chosen to carry out capital punishment in Nebraska, including 3 seeking
public records about where the state got the drugs.
Danielle Conrad, executive director of the ACLU of Nebraska, condemned
Tuesday's move, which she called a "rush towards an execution with a 4-drug
cocktail that has never been utilized in executions, while hiding the source of
these drugs in open defiance of our state's strong open-records laws and
failing to account for its apparent failure to follow federal law and DEA
regulations."
She said there are multiple pending court and administrative actions and more
expected. Conrad said the process needs to play itself out before Nebraska
executes a single person.
"While we respect Mr. Moore's decision to stop fighting at this juncture, it is
precisely because he is not fighting that our institutions bear extra
responsibility to check themselves by ensuring that the laws are followed and
that an unlawful and potentially cruel and unusual execution does not take
place. Holding a lawless execution would greatly diminish our state," she said.
(source: Lincoln Journal Star)
UTAH:
Man suspected of killing Tooele teens appears in court, families support death
penalty
The man arrested for reportedly killing 2 Tooele teens and dumping their bodies
down a remote mine shaft near Eureka could face the death penalty if convicted
of the charges being pursued.
Jerrod Baum, 41, of Mammoth, was arrested and booked into the Utah County Jail
on March 28 after 2 bodies, later identified as Breezy Otteson, 17, and Riley
Powell, 18, were recovered from a mine a few miles outside Eureka.
Baum appeared in court for the 1st time Monday afternoon at Provo's Fourth
District Court before Judge Darold McDade.
Led in to the courtroom separately from the others awaiting court appearances
Monday, Baum quietly answered questions from the judge as to whether he
understood the charges against him, and informed the judge he hadn't worked a
job in some time.
Baum will be appointed a public defender and is scheduled to appear in court
again on April 26.
Prior to the court appearance Monday afternoon, the Utah County Attorney's
Office held a press conference announcing the charges they will be seeking
against Baum.
Utah County deputy attorney Chad Grunander said they are filing 2 aggravated
murder charges against Baum, which allows for prosecutors to seek the death
penalty.
The decision about whether the death penalty will be sought will be made at a
later date, Grunander said, and prosecutors will have to declare whether or not
they will seek the death penalty within a certain number of days after Baum
enters a plea.
"The case is still developing, the investigation is ongoing," Grunander said.
"We look at the heinousness of the crime - the depravity - that???s one of the
factors we would look at to make this aggravated murder."
After Baum's court appearance, family members of the 2 teens said they support
seeking the death penalty.
Bill Powell, father of Riley Powell, said he wanted the death penalty sought in
the case, and he wanted it implemented sooner rather than later.
"These kids have no life," Bill Powell said. "He doesn't deserve a life. We as
the taxpayers don't need to support him and give him a life, because he took
life."
Powell's younger sister, Nikka Powell, 17, said her reaction upon seeing Baum
walk into the courtroom was "I wanted to stab him."
"My brother didn't deserve this, and neither did she," Nikka Powell said
through tears. "They had a whole life to live. She was only 17. He was 18. Me
and my brother were so close, and I was so close to Breezy. We did everything
together. And it's just hard to actually realize that they're gone now. Really
gone."
According to the probable cause document filed in court, Baum's girlfriend,
Morgan Henderson, told law enforcement that Baum was jealous the teens had
visited her the night they went missing, Dec. 29.
Henderson told police, according to court documents, that Baum then bound the
teens' hands and feet, duct taped their mouths and put them in the back of
Powell's Jeep.
Baum then drove to a remote location near Eureka, killed the teens in
Henderson's presence and dumped their bodies in the open mine shaft, according
to the probable cause statement.
Baum beat Powell before stabbing him, the probable cause statement said.
Otteson was forced to kneel and watch the beating before her throat was cut and
she was also thrown into the mine.
Henderson also told police that Baum was acting under the belief that Otteson
was pregnant when he killed her.
"(Baum) offered to Brelynne and Riley his congratulations as they walked from
the car to the open mine shaft," the probable cause statement says.
Grunander said prosecutors do not believe Otteson was pregnant.
According to the probable cause statement, Baum later told Henderson he felt
bad about killing Otteson because she was "innocent."
Otteson's aunt, Amanda Hunt, said the details of the probable cause statement
came as a shock, causing the family to relive the loss.
"I can't even fathom what went through the kids' heads that night," Hunt said.
The families have planned 2 memorial services, one in Eureka on Saturday and
one in Tooele on April 14. More information about those services can be found
on the Justice For Breezy and Riley Facebook page.
Grunander said the only other person who may face charges in the case is
Henderson, who was booked in the Utah County Jail over the weekend on an
obstruction of justice charge.
"We will see what she gets charged with," Grunander said. "We'll see how these
cases proceed along first off, OK? We first need to make the determination to
charge her, and that hasn't been completed, there are no charging document
filed."
Grunander said if they receive information and they believe they can prove
beyond a reasonable doubt that Henderson was an accomplice in the murders, they
will charge her accordingly, but said it's a question for another day.
Grundander said Henderson could use coercion as a possible defense.
"(Henderson) was threatened at one point," Grunander said.
Baum is currently being held at the Utah County Jail without bail.
(source: Daily Herald)
IDAHO:
Idaho GOP candidate supports death penalty to stop abortions
A Republican lieutenant governor candidate says women who get an abortion
should be punished if it is ever criminalized in Idaho, adding the punishment
should include the death penalty.
Bob Nonini's comment came during a Monday candidate forum in Moscow hosted by
the conservative Christian podcast CrossPolitic.
"There should be no abortion and anyone who has an abortion should pay," Nonini
said.
Pressed by moderators on the nature of the punishment, Nonini nodded in
agreement when asked if he supported the death penalty as a possible outcome
for abortion.
Nonini, a 3 term state senator from Coeur d'Alene, confirmed that position in a
phone interview with The Associated Press.
"I don't believe in any exceptions. There is always another option," Nonini
said Tuesday. "Women should be charged...I firmly believe if the penalties were
tougher, there would be fewer abortions."
Nonini added that his wife, Cathyanne, does not share his endorsement of the
death penalty even though both are devout Catholics.
It's common for Republican candidates to express their anti-abortion positions
in GOP-dominant Idaho. However, many stress the importance of educating women
on alternative options to an unplanned pregnancy or making access to abortion
clinics more difficult rather than focus on possible punishment for the woman.
A handful of anti-abortion advocates have begun increasing their call for
stricter penalties for women and providers.
Last year, Abolish Abortion Idaho launched a ballot initiative seeking to
charge both abortion providers and women with 1st-degree murder - but it is
unclear if the group will have enough signatures to make it on the ballot in
November.
Meanwhile, Republican state Sen. Dan Foreman attempted to introduce legislation
that would also classify abortion as 1st-degree murder for mothers and doctors,
but the proposal never received a hearing.
Nonini was joined at Monday's forum by 2 other Republican candidates: Idaho
Falls businesswoman Janice McGeachin and former Idaho Republican Party Chairman
Steve Yates.
5 Republicans are running in the May primary election after incumbent GOP Lt.
Gov. Brad Little announced he would run for governor, but only Nonini, Idaho
Falls businesswoman Janice McGeachin and former Idaho Republican Party Chairman
Steve Yates were invited to attend the forum.
Both McGeachin and Yates say abortion is murder, but stopped short of
supporting charging women with 1st-degree murder for undergoing the procedure.
"No, I cannot support a woman facing the death penalty for having an abortion,"
said McGeachin. "What we should do is prevent that."
Yates downplayed that criminalizing abortion would result in fewer women
seeking the procedure.
"In terms of criminalizing things, I have no problem with that except that
doesn't always solve the problem," Yates said.
Nonini's comments echo similar rhetoric said by Donald Trump during the
presidential campaign. In 2016, Trump came out in support of "some sort of
punishment" for women who get abortions, but the campaign later backtracked
that he believes abortion providers should be the ones punished.
(source: Associated Press)
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