April 23
TEXAS:
Prosecutors highlight killer's 'ugly, vulgar' past as they push for death
penalty
The punishment phase is underway for a convicted killer in McLennan County.
Monday evening, a jury found Carnell Petetan Jr. guilty of capital murder in
the shooting death of his wife, Kimberly.
Prosecutors want Petetan to get the death penalty. They are painting a vivid
picture of Petetan's past, calling it ugly and vulgar. They say he victimized
people throughout his life, even when he was in prison.
Tuesday morning, a teacher testified about the day Petetan threw a tray of food
on her, then a friend recounted how Petetan shot him twice for no apparent
reason.
Prosecutors say Petetan also randomly shot an elderly man walking down the
street. Another man said Petetan put him in a coma during a fight.
A director with the state juvenile justice system testified that he and his
colleagues exhausted all attempts at rehabilitation for Petetan.
Petetan was arrested 18 times and ended up going to prison as a teen, serving
nearly 20 years. But the crimes didn't necessarily stop behind bars.
Prosecutors say Petetan masturbated in front of guards and offered them sexual
favors.
They say he also attacked several inmates on several occasions and raped at
least one of them.
Prosecutors called 15 witnesses to the stand today. The defense will bring in
their witnesses when the trial resumes Wednesday morning.
(source: KXXV news)
VIRGINIA:
Man Linked to 2005 Killings of 2 Zion Girls Could Be Put to Death for Murdering
a Marine; Zion native Jorge Torrez strangled a 20-year-old Marine and then went
on a rape spree in Virginia.
A man suspected in the 2005 slayings of 2 Zion girls could be put to death in
Virginia for strangling a fellow Marine in 2009.
Jorge Torrez, 25, a Zion, IL, native linked by DNA to the murders of 8-year-old
Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias, who disappeared on Mother's Day, has
left a trail of death and terror in his wake throughout his adult life.
On Monday, a federal jury decided Torrez, convicted earlier this month of
1st-degree murder in the 2009 death of 20-year-old Marine Amanda Jean Snell, is
eligible for the death penalty, the Washington Post reported.
Prosecutors said Torrez is a sexual predator who browsed Internet sites about
rape fantasies and randomly attacked the women in suburban Arlington, VA, after
Snell's death, the Post reported.
In the 2009 attack on Snell, prosecutors said Torrez attacked Snell at random,
creeping into her room at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall and wrapping the young
woman's neck with the power cord of her pink laptop.
Torrez was convicted in October 2010 for the Arlington attacks. In one
instance, he displayed a gun to a woman and tried to force her into a car.
Failing, he stole her purse.
In another Arlington case, Torrez, brandishing a handgun, confronted 2 women
and tied them up inside a residence. He forced 1 of the victims to leave the
house with him. 4 hours later, the victim was found seeking help and medical
treatment.
In 2011, the Chicago Tribune interviewed Torrez from a prison cell and asked
him about the Zion girls' murders and why the 8-year-old child had his semen on
her body. Hobbs and Tobias, stabbed to death, were found together in a park.
"I'm not denying that (the DNA) is mine," he told the paper. "Once I tell them
how my DNA got there, I'm walking."
Torrez was in prison serving 5 life sentences for rape and abduction in the
Virginia cases. Once a corporal in the Marine Corps, Torrez now faces possible
execution for taking the life of a fellow Marine.
Hobbs' father, Jerry Hobbs, spent 5 years in prison for the murders after
breaking down during interrogation and confessing to the murders. His
conviction was overturned after the DNA evidence was discovered linking Torrez
to the crime.
(source: Buffalo Grove Patch)
FLORIDA---execution
Florida executes man convicted of murdering 2
Florida has executed a man convicted of murdering 2 relatives to prevent 1 of
them from testifying against him in a burglary trial.
Robert Hendrix was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m. at Florida State Prison in
Starke, shortly after the lethal injection procedure began.
Prosecutors say that in August 1990, Hendrix shot, hit and stabbed his cousin,
Elmer Scott, in his Lake County trailer home. They say he then cut the throat
of Scott's wife, Michelle, and shot her.
Elmer Scott had planned to testify the next day at Hendrix's burglary trial.
Scott had been his partner in the crime but had reached a plea deal.
The 47-year-old Hendrix becomes the 5th condemned inmate executed by Florida
this year and the 16th since Gov. Rick Scott took office in 2011, and the 86th
overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1979.
Hendrix becomes the 19th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the
USA and the 1378th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17,
1977.
(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)
LOUISIANA:
New details revealed in Marchand slayings; Family members killed during theft
Bernard James, 1 of 5 men accused in the February 2012 slayings of Robert Irwin
Marchand, his wife and stepson, told investigators he saw a bloodied Michael
Aikens standing near the entrance of the Marchands' home with a box cutter in
his hand and 3 dead bodies lying on the floor behind him.
James, 27, then of 36344 Lorena Drive, Prairieville, had turned back toward the
Marchand home after he and 2 other men loaded Marchand's house safe into a
Chevrolet Suburban.
Aikens had stayed behind in the Marchand home off Babin Road north of Gonzales,
James told Ascension Parish Sheriff's Capt. Michael Toney.
Aikens, James and the other men wanted to steal the safe, which they thought
contained thousands of dollars in valuable coins, though investigators have
said far less money was inside.
In a hearing Tuesday, Toney went over the statement as prosecutors and defense
attorneys argued before Chief Judge Alvin Turner Jr., of the 23rd Judicial
District, whether James understood his Miranda rights when he surrendered to
investigators without a lawyer present in early March 2012.
James' defense attorneys argued his statement should be suppressed because it
was not voluntarily given.
Turner has not yet ruled on that request.
Aikens, formerly of Prairieville, pleaded guilty Oct. 1 to 3 counts of
1st-degree murder in the home invasion robbery on Feb. 17, 2012.
Aikens, who was facing the death penalty before the plea, was sentenced Oct. 29
to 3 life terms.
James is the next of the 4 remaining defendants headed to trial. Turner set
James' capital murder trial for Aug. 19 in Ascension Parish. He also faces 3
counts of 1st-degree murder. Turner rejected a defense motion Tuesday seeking
to preclude the death penalty.
Toney's recounting of James' statement Tuesday provides new details about what
may have happened the night Robert Marchand, 74; his wife, Shirley Marchand,
72; and her son, Douglas Dooley, 50, of Cross Plains, Tenn., had their throats
slashed.
Aikens' plea agreement and other documents remain under seal to limit pre-trial
publicity.
Assistant District Attorney Robin O'Bannon cautioned some defendants gave
initial statements to deputies that tended to downplay their own roles in the
slayings and point toward the culpability of other men.
Under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Dupaty, Capt. Toney
described how James, during the March 7, 2012, interview, portrayed Aikens as
having a lead role in planning and committing the robbery and slayings.
Toney also described how James had himself and others involved in the lead-up
to the robbery, the robbery itself and attempts to dispose of the safe in rural
Livingston Parish.
Toney told Dupaty how James claimed Aikens, who once worked for Robert Marchand
when he had a house-moving business, knocked on his door but James and another
man rushed in and James knocked Marchand down.
James also said Shirley Marchand was hit after she heard the scuffle and
appeared, telling the men to take the money once she was struck, Toney
testified.
Soon, Dooley showed up. He and Aikens fought and Dooley briefly had Aikens in a
headlock before another man got him off, James reportedly told Toney.
Toney testified James signed a standard waiver form, was read his rights and
was talkative during his March 2012 interview. But Toney also said James
smelled of alcohol, though he did not appear to be impaired.
(source: The Advocate)
OHIO:
Prosecutors: Death penalty report 'strongly influenced'
Prosecutors who served on a panel that studied Ohio's administration of the
death penalty say final recommendations were "strongly influenced" by groups
that want to abolish capital punishment in the state.
In a 49-page minority report of the Joint Task Force to Review the
Administration of Ohio's Death Penalty, dissenting members say some of the law
and policy proposals likely would mean an end to death sentences in Ohio.
"Some of the recommendations would tie the death penalty system up in knots,
creating procedural and litigative traffic jams that would potentially tie up
particular cases in litigation even more than is already occurring," dissenting
members wrote.
They added, "While the task force majority has embraced anti-death penalty and
delay-inducing proposals, it has rejected proposals that would take the
blinders off sentencing judges and juries to allow a full and fair assessment
of the appropriate sentence in a capital sentencing proceeding, including
rejecting a proposal that would have allowed consideration of victim-impact
evidence."
The minority report is to be included with the larger final report of the task
force, with more than 50 recommendations for capital punishment changes,
including limits on the death penalty for those who are seriously mentally ill
or that rely on the testimony of jailhouse informants.
A majority of the group's members also wants to remove several crimes from the
list of specifications used in determining whether to pursue the death penalty
and require clemency hearings and parole board interviews with death row
inmates to be recorded and made available to the public.
The recommendations were not unanimously endorsed by members of the task force,
however. Prosecutors requested and received approval to write a minority
report, voicing concerns about the potential impact of some of the
recommendations.
For example, the task force is urging that the death penalty be considered or
imposed only in cases where there is biological or DNA evidence, a confession,
recorded evidence that definitively links a defendant to a crime, or other
factors offered by the general assembly in developing related law changes.
Prosecutors say that change is "ill-advised ... All things considered, here
experience verifies common sense. Timothy McVeigh, perhaps the most notorious
mass murderer in recent history, would not have been eligible for a capital
sentence under the majority's proposed criteria."
(source: The Review)
****************
Suspect in Trumbull County jail hostage crisis facing death penalty case
1 of the 3 inmates identified as being involved in a hostage situation at the
Trumbull County jail faces criminal charges that could bring the death penalty
if convicted.
The 3 are accused of taking a correctional officer hostage at knifepoint in a
jail cell Wednesday afternoon.
Authorities say that one of the suspects, David Martin, 29, of Cleveland is
awaiting trial for the murder of Jeremy Cole in Warren in September, 2012.
Martin was a neighbor of Cole, who was shot to death during a break in at his
home on Oak Circle SW. A woman was also wounded during the crime.
Wanda Cole, Jeremy Cole's mother, said "What it was over I don't know. I'm just
waiting for justice to be served for him and why he murdered my son that's all
I want to know."
Cole's mother and sister were outside the jail during the hostage situation
Martin was allegedly involved in Wednesday.
"I think it's crazy myself," said Wanda Cole.
Amy Biles, Cole's sister, said "He gets what he deserves. He thinks he has
nothing else to live for. He gets what he deserves."
The Trumbull County Grand Jury handed up a ten count indictment against Martin,
charging him with aggravated murder, robbery, kidnapping, weapons violations,
receiving stolen property and tampering with evidence.
Because of the seriousness of the offenses, the crimes are a capital offense.
Martin has yet to go on trial. His next hearing is scheduled for May.
In 2007, Martin was sentenced to 2 years in prison after being convicted of
robbery, assault, drug and weapons offenses in Cuyahoga County. Martin is still
on probation for another year
. A 2nd suspect in the hostage situation has been identified as Kevin Johns,
24, of Cincinnati. Johns was just sentenced in Trumbull County Court this month
to 28 years in prison for kidnapping 2 Warren woman and raping 1 of them.
The sentencing judge also designated Johns as a sex offender, meaning he has to
register his whereabouts with authorities after he is released from prison.
In 2010, Johns was sentenced to three years in prison for robbery and assault
in Cincinnati. He is on probation until 2016.
Richard Ware, 27, of Warren was also named as 1 of the 3 suspects in the
hostage situation.
Warren police charged Ware with aggravated robbery in January. Ware was a
suspect in the December robbery at a CVS pharmacy in Warren.
In 2011, Ware was sentenced to one year in prison for robbery and drug
violations committed in Trumbull County. His probation is set to expire in July
of next year.
(source: WFMJ news)
******************
Report: State task force veers off course
A state task force created to examine the fairness of the application of the
death penalty veered off course, according to a report released today that
objects to some of the panel's recommendations.
"A large number of the recommendations would establish a series of procedural
and legislative nightmares that would render Ohio???s death penalty
inoperable," reads the minority report consisting of objections raised
primarily from prosecutors.
"This, of course, is a result the Death Penalty Task Force was not even
permitted to consider," it reads. "Sadly, these recommendations have little to
do with 'fairness,' the stated goal of the Task Force."
The body, created 2 years ago by Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen
O???Connor and the Ohio State Bar Association, is wrapping up its final report
that will also include the objections of those who came out on the short end of
votes for 56 recommendations the report will make.
Among the recommendations is taking the execution off the table as an option if
the defendant was mentally ill at the time of the crime or at the time of his
scheduled execution. It calls for the end of so-called "felony murder," crimes
such as aggravated robbery, kidnapping, rape, and aggravated arson that can
come with the death penalty attached if the victim dies in the process.
The task force also wants to open up elements of the state's clemency process
to more public scrutiny and would remove the death penalty as an option if the
prosecutor relied on a jailhouse informant whose testimony was not corroborated
by other evidence.
The one thing not on the table for consideration by the 22-member task force
under its original directive was the question of whether Ohio should have the
death penalty in the first place. Nor was the panel permitted to consider a
temporary moratorium on executions in the state while such a review took place,
something proposed by the American Bar Association several years ago.
The dissenting report takes particular aim at the felony murder recommendation.
"Such victims suffer horrific deaths, oftentimes after prolonged kidnapping
and/or rape, and the Task Force majority's answer is to abolish the death
penalty in such cases," the minority report reads. "While such a proposal does
not entail outright abolition in all cases, it is certainly anti-death penalty,
an area supposedly off-limits to the task force."
The majority of the task force pointed to studies showing the prosecutors and
jurors do not find felony murder to be among "the worst of the worst murders"
for which the death penalty is intended.
It noted that "such specifications result in death verdicts 7 % of the time or
less when charged as a death penalty case," adding that "removal of these
specifications will reduce the race disparity of the death penalty..."
The task force also looked at such things as long-term preservation of
evidence, funding for the prosecution and defense in murder trials, racial
bias, and geographic uniformity in decisions as to when to prosecute a murder
as a death penalty case.
Some of the recommendations would require legislative action. Others could be
accomplished by the Supreme Court through its judicial rules.
The panel also included judges, legislators, prosecutors, defense attorneys,
members of law enforcement, and academics.
(source: Toldedo Blade)
KENTUCKY:
Supreme Court won't overturn death sentence for Kentucky man
The Supreme Court says there will be no new sentencing hearing for a man who
confessed to kidnapping, raping and killing a 16-year-old girl in Kentucky.
The justices in a 6-3 ruling Wednesday refused to overturn Robert Keith
Woodall's death sentence for abducting and killing Sarah Hansen on Jan. 25,
1997, after forcing her from a convenience store in western Kentucky.
A federal court ruled that the judge at Woodall's state trial should have
instructed the jury not to draw any negative conclusions about his refusal to
take the stand at his 1998 capital sentencing hearing. The 6th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals upheld that ruling.
But the high court reversed, finding that trial judge was under no obligation
to instruct the jury about drawing adverse conclusions.
(source: Associated Press)
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