May 9
TEXAS----stay of impendnig execution
Execution for Prison Guard Murder Delayed for DNA Tests
State lawyers agreed Thursday to a 60-day reprieve for death row inmate Robert
Pruett, who was scheduled for execution May 21, after the inmate filed a
request for DNA testing, arguing it may prove his innocence in the 1999
stabbing of prison correctional officer Daniel Nagle.
Pruett, 33, was convicted in 2002 of Nagle's killing and maintains that inmates
and corrupt officers colluded to implicate him. A jury found Pruett guilty
after prosecutors argued that he murdered Nagle after a dispute over a
disciplinary write-up. Prosecutors told jurors that Pruett - who was already
serving a life sentence for another murder he allegedly participated in with
his father - killed Nagle because the inmate was upset that he had written him
up for taking a sack lunch into the recreation yard at the McConnell Unit in
Beeville.
That write-up is the subject of the DNA request. A palm print was found on the
report that did not match Pruett. The Texas Department of Public Safety
currently maintains a database of palm prints, but it did not exist in 2002.
"Since 2002, the science of touch DNA has developed, and prints left on pieces
of evidence are routinely tested for DNA," Pruett's lawyer David Dow, who
teaches at the University of Houston Law Center, wrote in the request for
testing. "The State's scientists that examined the disciplinary report did not
utilize this technology, which was still in its infancy at the time of trial."
Pruett believes that someone else tore up the disciplinary report and spread
the pieces near Nagle's body in an attempt to frame him for the murder, Dow
wrote. He added that no guards witnessed the murder and that the inmates who
testified about witnessing the murder may have been unreliable.
(source: Texas Tribune)
*************************************
Executions under Rick Perry, 2001-present-----258
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7,1982-present----497
Perry #--------scheduled execution date-----name---------Tx. #
259-------------May 15-------------------Jeffrey Williams-----498
260-------------June 12------------------Elroy Chester--------499
261------------June 26-------------------Kimberly McCarthy----500******
262--------------July 10------------------Rigoberto Avila, Jr.----501
263-------------July 16-----------------John Quintanilla Jr.---502
264-------------July 18------------------Vaughn Ross----------503
265-------------July 31-------------------Douglas Feldman-----504
266-------------Sept. 19------------------Robert Garza--------505
267-------------Sept. 26------------------Arturo Diaz--------506
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Murphy sentenced to death in killings of mother, sister and aunt
A Westmoreland County judge this afternoon sentenced convicted triple-murderer
Kevin Murphy to death by lethal injection.
Offered a chance to make a statement, he declined.
In a brief hearing, Judge Al Bell then imposed the sentence delivered by a jury
late Tuesday night.
The death penalty is punishment for the murder of his mother, Doris Murphy, 69,
on April 23, 2009. He received life in prison for the murders of his sister,
Kris Murphy, 43, and his aunt, Edith Tietge, 81.
Mr. Murphy was convicted of shooting all 3 in the back of the head in the
garage of his glass shop in Loyalhanna.
Disrict Attorney John Peck said Mr. Murphy shot them at the behest of his
then-married girlfriend, Susan McGuire, who urged him to "knock off" his
relatives because they disapproved of his relationship with her.
Ms. McGuire has not been charged but Mr. Peck said the investigation remains
open.
Following the sentencing, Mr. Murphy cried as he hugged members of his family
in the gallery while sheriff's deputies stood guard.
It was the 1st time since his trial began nearly 3 weeks ago that he showed any
emotion.
It's unlikely, however, that Mr. Murphy will be executed for many years, if
ever. Nearly 200 inmates are on death row in Pennsylvania, but the state hasn't
executed anyone since Gary Heidnik in 1999.
In Mr. Murphy's case, the 1st step now is an automatic review by the state
Supreme Court.
(source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
OHIO:
Castro, arraigned for kidnapping and rape, could face murder charges
Ariel Castro has been arraigned on charges of rape and kidnapping, days after
three women missing for over a decade were found alive at his home. He looked
down at the ground while lawyers spoke to the judge. Bond was set at $2 million
on each case.
Ariel Castro, the former school bus driver who owned the home where three women
were held captive for the past decade, was arraigned Thursday morning on
kidnapping and rape charges. But Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty
suggested later Thursday that Castro could face murder charges and he's
implicated in the deaths of the victims' unborn children.
McGinty said pending further police investigation, Castro, 52, could face
charge of murder in the course of kidnapping, which carries a potential death
penalty. McGinty will present the case to the grand jury and would seek
aggravated murder charges for each of the pregnancies.
Initial police reports obtained by Cleveland TV station WKYC said kidnap
victims Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were raped by Castro and
that Knight had been impregnated 5 times, then starved and beaten, killing the
fetuses. Berry, also impregnated, gave birth to a baby - now 6 - in Castro's
basement, according to the report.
Earlier Monday, Castro was arraigned on 7 charges of kidnapping and rape.
Handcuffed and wearing a dark blue jail jumpsuit, Castro stared at the floor
throughout most of the 5-minute hearing, even while exchanging words and a few
nods with his attorney, public defender Kathleen DeMetz.
Cleveland Municipal Court judge Lauren Moore set bail at $8 million.
It was Castro's 1st court appearance since Berry's screams Monday alerted
neighbors, then the police and the world to the nightmare she and fellow
victims Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight endured.
Prosecutor Brian Murphy said the rape and kidnapping charges are based on
Castro's "premeditated, deliberate and depraved decisions to snatch 3 young
ladies from Cleveland's west side streets to use for whatever self-gratifying,
self-serving ways that he saw fit."
He said the women were forced to endure a "horrifying ordeal for more than a
decade" in which they were had been "bound, restrained and sexually assaulted."
"They were never free to leave this residence," he said, referring to Castro's
Seymour Avenue home.
Castro did not enter a plea, which DeMetz said would be done when the case is
transferred from municipal court to county court. She acknowledged that Castro
could face additional charges.
Castro has been under suicide watch during his confinement in the medical ward
of the municipal jail. He'll be transferred to the county jail.
CBS News, quoting an unidentified law enforcement source, reported Thursday
that FBI agents found a note in Castro's house, apparently dating back to 2004,
in which he contemplated suicide and asked that all of his money be provided to
each of his victims. In the note, Castro wrote that he was abused as a child
and raped by an uncle, CBS said.
DeMetz met with Castro for 30 minutes Thursday morning to review his rights and
court procedures. She declined to discuss what they talked about or describe
his demeanor.
She said he had not spoken to his brothers, Pedro and Onil. The brothers were
arrested Monday, but prosecutors say there is no evidence linking them to the
victims' kidnapping or sexual assault. They were in court on unrelated
misdemeanor charges Thursday. Pedro Castro pleaded no contest to an unrelated
open-container charge and two unrelated misdemeanor charges against Onil Castro
were dropped. Both were later freed.
Knight, now 32, remains in a Cleveland hospital. Berry, 27, and DeJesus, 23,
returned to their Cleveland homes Wednesday for their 1st time since they
vanished.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson made a statement asking everyone to give the
victims in Cleveland time and space to heal.
As prosecutors consider additional charges, grim details emerge from the
initial police report on what went on inside Castro's home, where the victims
were heled after being abducted on separate occasions by Castro after he
offered them rides home from school or work.
The report sketches the outlines of the victims' descent into hell and is rife
with details of beatings, chained confinement, starvation and death threats.
The report alleges that Castro impregnated Knight five times, forced her to
starve for weeks at a time and punched her in the stomach until she miscarried.
Castro, the report said, also forced Knight to deliver Berry's baby in a
plastic kiddie pool and threatened to murder Knight if the newborn died.
"Michelle stated that Ariel told her that if the baby died, that he'd kill
her," the police report states, according to WKYC's Tom Meyer.
The report then tells of the next few harrowing minutes as Knight fought for
her own life and for the life of Berry's child, Jocelyn, who had stopped
breathing during the birth. Knight, the report said, put her mouth to the
Jocelyn's mouth and "breathed for her" to keep them both alive.
The report, according to WKYC, says Berry managed to escape Monday because
Castro forgot to lock the "big inside door" when he left briefly to go to a
local fast-food restaurant. She then alerted neighbors and called 911.
Once police arrived, the officers checked the basement and then walked to the
second floor."As we neared the top of the steps, Officer Espada hollered out,
'Cleveland Police,' at which time ... Knight ran and threw herself into
(Officer) Espada's arms," the officer writing the report noted. "We then asked
if there was anyone else upstairs with her, when (DeJesus) came out of the
bedroom."
Espada then put Knight down and DeJesus jumped into the officer's arms.
As the victims settled into their sudden freedom, Gina's aunt, Sandra Ruiz,
called on friends, relatives and the media "to give us time and privacy to
heal."
Mayor Frank Jackson said Thursday afternoon that he had ordered his police and
public safety officials to plug leaks of information in the case. Jackson said
the order was not intended to conceal information, but "to demonstrate
compassion for the victims and their families and to ensure the credibility of
our investigative process and to allow us to arrive at a just conclusion in
this very difficult situation."
He would not elaborate, but suggested he was concerned about the dissemination
of erroneous information through leaks.
(source: USA Today)
ARKANSAS:
Death Penalty Racist, Unconstitutional, Murder Suspect Claims
The attorney for a Greenland murder suspect is calling on county court
officials to abolish the possibility of the death penalty for Mandrake
Patterson, calling the death penalty racist against African Americans.
Patterson was arrested in January, suspected of gunning down his wife and
mother-in-law. Patterson, 27, is charged with 2 counts of capital murder and 1
count of attempted capital murder. Patterson pleaded not guilty to the charges
and remains in the Washington County Detention Center without bond.
The capital murder trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 26. Public defender Gregg
Parrish submitted several pretrial motions last month seeking to take the death
penalty off the table, since prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against
Patterson, according to court documents from the Washington County Circuit
Clerk's Office.
Despite the motions' language, prosecutors have not yet decided whether to seek
the death penalty in the murder case against Patterson, according to the
Washington County Prosecutor's Office.
In 1 pretrial motion, Parrish states the death penalty has been historically
racist.
"(T)he death penalty has been arbitrarily and capriciously imposed in an
unconstitutionally and racially discriminatory manner," Parrish states.
"(T)here has been a clear pattern showing that the death penalty is more likely
to be imposed upon an African-American defendant convicted of killing a white
person."
The motion goes on to state that the 14th Amendment prohibits racial
discrimination in capital sentencing.
Other motions call the death penalty itself unconstitutional, on grounds of
cruel and unusual punishment, and seek a 2nd trial for sentencing if Patterson
is found guilty of capital murder. A jury able to render a death penalty
finding may be pre-disposed to think of Patterson as guilty during the trial,
one of the motions states.
Patterson was arrested Jan. 10 on suspicion of killing 2 people and injuring
his wife's aunt at 1037 N. Main St. in Greenland.
Patterson's mother-in-law, Betty Desalvo, 53, was pronounced dead after the
shooting. His wife, Hope Patterson, 34, died later at Washington Regional
Medical Center, according to the Greenland Police Department.
A 3rd woman, Denise Fulfer, 55, was in critical but stable condition at
Washington Regional Medical Center. Desalvo and Fulfer are sisters.
Patterson made a voluntary statement to Greenland police and confessed to being
involved in the shooting, according to a probable cause preliminary report from
the Washington County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.
Police responded to a domestic disturbance call at the Elmwood Apartments on
Main Street at 8:46 p.m., authorities said.
"It was a domestic dispute that went bad," said Police Chief Gary Ricker.
All those involved lived at the address where the shooting occurred, police
said.
Police said there was 5th person who also lived in the apartment who witnessed
the shooting and is being questioned by police.
Greenland police said a shotgun was used in the shootings.
Police said they have responded to disturbance calls at the home in the past.
Ricker said it's been a while since something like this has happened in the
city of Greenland.
"The last murder we had before this was probably about 10 years ago, and I've
been police chief for 21 years. And this is only the 2nd time that something
like this happened," Ricker said.
(source: KFSM News)
ARIZONA:
After Conviction in Murder Case, Sentencing Presents a New Trial
There were cheers and hugs on the packed sidewalk outside the courthouse here
on Wednesday as word trickled out of a verdict in the 4-month murder trial of
Jodi Arias.
A petite woman with bangs and glasses, Ms. Arias, 32, stood accused of
shooting, repeatedly stabbing and almost decapitating her former boyfriend,
Travis Alexander, 5 years ago. Nancy Grace of HLN, the cable news channel, who
had done much to popularize the case on television, choked up as she delivered
the news. "Guilty on murder one," she said.
The trial has brought large crowds and a news media scrum to the Maricopa
County Superior Court, as well as a live, online video stream of the
proceedings and extensive coverage on cable television. Entered into evidence
were sometimes salacious pictures, videos and text messages that depicted the
couple's tumultuous relationship, and coverage of the trial took on some of the
aspects of a nonfiction soap opera. Ratings soared.
Now, far from the cameras, in a jury room deep within the courthouse, the case
will enter its solemn ending, as 12 citizens begin the task of deciding whether
Ms. Arias should die for her crime. After a postponement on Thursday, jurors
will reconvene on May 15.
If reality television shows have fueled viewers' appetites for the sensational
details of courtroom testimony, jurors on many previous capital cases say that
they were unprepared for the emotional impact of the sentencing phase. Reaching
a decision to impose the death penalty, they say, is painfully difficult, with
haunting effects that linger long after the trial ends.
Stephanie DePrima, 61, a sales clerk in Salem, Ore., recalled staring at
autopsy pictures alongside other jurors during a trial three years ago, as a
man's life "hung from the tips of our fingers," she said. The pictures, of a
bank lobby where the defendants had detonated a bomb during a robbery, depicted
"the most horrific scenes" she had ever seen, Ms. DePrima said.
"We saw so much, it got to a point we kind of started going numb," she recalled
during an interview this week. "It became so overwhelming you had to shut
yourself off from what you were seeing."
Ms. DePrima said she did not cry until weeks after the jury sentenced the
defendant to death. Nightmares began after several months, she said, jolting
her awake in sheer terror - "sweat, my heart beating fast."
Alison Ward, 65, a retiree from Sanibel, Fla., was a juror in 2010 in the
capital trial of a man accused of killing his 11-month-old stepdaughter.
One image stayed with her, she said: the defendant and the girl's mother
carrying the child's body in a suitcase, where they had stored it overnight.
"Reality is nothing like you see on TV," Ms. Ward said, describing the
experience of serving on the jury as a lonely, painful quest to decide whether
to impose what she called "a measure of justice that is bizarre" - a death as a
sentence for a killing.
A Supreme Court ruling in 2002 required that jurors, rather than judges, decide
whether sufficient aggravating factors existed before the death penalty can be
imposed. In Arizona and most of the other 31 states that have the death
penalty, jurors also decide on the sentencing, the only time in criminal
prosecutions when the penalty is applied by average citizens.
During trials of any type, jurors cannot talk to anyone about the case they are
weighing, not even one another, save for discussions held inside the
deliberation room.
"We take all of that in," Ms. Ward lamented, "but can't get it out."
Ms. DePrima said that she and some of the other jurors got together for coffee
a few times "to decompress a little bit," but after a while, she stopped
accepting the invitations. "It got too hard to remember," she said.
Ronald Reedy, 77, a juror in the capital trial of a man charged with stomping a
person to death, said he often bumped into some of the other jurors, his
neighbors at a retirement community in Central Florida. The greeting is nothing
more than, "Hi, how are you," he said.
"We did what we had to do," Mr. Reedy said, "and then it was over."
For the jurors weighing Ms. Arias' fate, the sentencing is the 1st step of the
trial's final chapter. After considering whether aggravating factors were
present, they will move to decide whether to recommend the death penalty.
Of the 125 inmates on death row in Arizona, 3 are women. Depending on the
jury's decision, Ms. Arias could be sent to join them, or she could remain in
prison for the rest of her life. If jurors cannot reach a unanimous decision,
Arizona law allows the court to order another jury. If a 2nd jury cannot reach
a unanimous decision, the judge would impose a life sentence.
Ms. Arias has expressed her preference for execution. "Death is the ultimate
freedom," she said during a television interview after the verdict. "I'd rather
just have my freedom as soon as I can get it."
(source: New York Times)
******************************
We're obsessed when it's white women in trouble
Our country is obsessed with the perils of attractive young white women, as
this week's trio of high profile crime stories about Amanda Knox, Jodi Arias
and the Cleveland kidnapping victims demonstrates. We don't see breathless
coverage of the disproportionately large number of African-American men tried
for crimes in our system. We see almost no coverage of missing boys, or missing
children of color, or crimes against nonwhites.
This week an African-American man in Mississippi, Willie Manning, was about to
be executed, though he was denied access to DNA testing. Manning, convicted of
murdering 2 college students in 1994, maintains his innocence and requested the
scientific testing, which has exonerated many convicted murderers, including
some on death row.
The Mississippi Supreme Court denied that request and ordered his execution. At
the last moment, U.S. Justice Department letters tipped the balance in favor of
a reprieve. Few media outlets considered the monumental constitutional issues,
or even the dramatic ticking clock toward his execution, worthy of mention.
Isn't the fact that we still execute Americans without giving them access to
DNA testing a stunning, significant story? Yet it got next to no attention.
Instead, in the last week thousands of hours of attention have been devoted to
every detail of just 3 crime stories.
In Phoenix, Arizona, Jodi Arias was convicted Wednesday of 1st degree murder,
after the jury unanimously found that she intentionally and with premeditation
killed her former boyfriend, Travis Alexander. The trial was covered live on
HLN and followed closely on social media and other television networks. The
next phase of the trial is scheduled to begin May 15.
In Cleveland, Ohio, Amanda Berry reportedly screamed for help, a neighbor came
to her aid, and she, her 6-year-old daughter, and 2 women, Gina DeJesus (who is
Latina) and Michelle Knight were freed after a decade of captivity. Ariel
Castro was charged today with kidnapping and rape.
Amanda Knox, the American college student who was convicted, then acquitted of
the murder of her roommate in Italy, has given tearful interviews in connection
with her book tour, as an Italian court has reversed again and held that she
should stand trial again for the charges.
Each of these cases includes salacious allegations and high-stakes outcomes.
The Cleveland victims were reportedly raped and beaten countless times over the
years. Amanda Knox is accused of killing her roommate as part of a drug-fueled
sex game. Jodi Arias posed nude for photos and had sex with her victim just
before she murdered him.
While each of these crime stories is worthy of news coverage -- especially the
Cleveland story, which involved serious questions of alleged law enforcement
lapses -- many others are equally worthy yet receive little or no attention,
even as every detail of the high-profile stories is pored over and rehashed.
Missing children websites carry pictures of many African-American and Latino
kids who have disappeared, and photos of little boys who have vanished. News
outlets rarely feature their stories. Their families grieve their absence and
yearn for media coverage that could help find their children and energize law
enforcement.
And the biggest American crime story of all receives the least mention: that we
now incarcerate more of our own people than any other country on earth, or in
human history, and that minority males are disproportionately policed, arrested
and convicted, and sentenced to harsher sentences. African-American juveniles
are 6 times as likely as whites to be sentenced to prison for identical crimes.
In Washington, 3 out of every 4 black men can expect some time behind bars in
their lifetimes. In Baltimore and Chicago, the majority of young black men are
currently under the control of the criminal justice system. In sheer numbers,
more African-Americans are under correctional control today than were enslaved
at the time of the Civil War. Our disastrous war on drugs has devastated
inner-city communities, and led to large numbers of African-Americans being
legally barred from voting, jury duty, public housing, food stamps, student
loans, and many other civic rights and benefits, often for life.
We cannot fix these problems if we are unaware of them. We cannot get a
groundswell for reform if we are distracted by titillating outlier stories.
The media choose which stories to make high profile, driven by public interest
in those stories. We cannot call ourselves a nation of equals until we pay
equal attention to all those in our criminal justice system whose stories merit
our attention, regardless of their race or gender.
(source: Opinion, Lisa Bloom--CNN)
WASHINGTON:
WA Supreme Court hears Carnation death penalty appeal
The Washington Supreme Court will hear arguments for and against the use of the
death penalty against a man and a woman accused of killing 6 Carnation family
members on Christmas Eve 2007.
Joseph McEnroe and his girlfriend Michele Anderson are accused of murdering 6
members of Anderson's family, including her 6-year-old niece and 3-year-old
nephew.
Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ramsdell ruled January 31st that the King County
prosecutor's office made a mistake in considering the strength of its evidence
in deciding to seek the death penalty.
Jury selection was set to take place in early February for McEnroe's trial, but
the trial is on hold as prosecutors appeal Judge Ramsdell's ruling. Anderson's
trial has also been stayed pending the appeal.
(source: KING News)
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