April 10 CALIFORNIA: Drawing Conclusions----Despite verdict, investigator remains on Peterson case Even though a 12-member jury recently convicted Scott Peterson of murdering his wife and unborn child, private detective Carl Jensen of Roseville is still working on the case. The reason? Unlike the jury and many people throughout the country, he doesn't believe Peterson is the one who committed the crime. Jensen says he was the lead investigator for Peterson's defense and his main job throughout the trial was trying to find the person the defense team believed committed the crime and murdered Laci Peterson, who was eight months pregnant at the time of her death. Jensen believes Peterson was convicted of murder and sentenced to death on the basis of circumstantial evidence. "Based on everything I know, I don't believe Scott is guilty," Jensen said. "I feel everybody deserves a strong defense. My job is to gather the facts to prove the truth. I find it despicable when someone doesn't tell the truth." Jensen recalls having a significant caseload when Peterson's lead attorney, Mark Geragos, called and asked Jensen to help with the defense team. Jensen said that whenever he starts a new case it doesn't matter which side he's on, defense or prosecution. The important aspect is finding the truth. "When I go into something, I don't decide whether the person is guilty or not," he said. "My job is to find the truth. I'm a hard worker. People are always telling me that." According to the law, prisoners like Peterson who are on death row have an automatic right to appeal their case. Jensen said Peterson also has the right to a writ of habeas corpus, which is a judicial mandate to a prison official ordering that an inmate be brought to court in order to determine whether or not the defendant has been imprisoned lawfully. While Peterson's appeal is automatic, Jensen said the next step is to find someone to agree to defend him. Jensen says he was the 1st outsider to see Peterson after his arrival at San Quentin. Although he refuses to answer specific questions concerning the case or provide his personal observations of Peterson, Jensen recalls the San Quentin meeting as a disturbing experience. "But it's a reality check of where we are in this case. It's difficult because I feel he's innocent," said Jensen, who would not reveal how many hours a week he is currently on the case or if he is still being paid for his efforts. "I believe in our legal system, but I also believe it is sometimes flawed." Working with Peterson and the defense team required long hours and Jensen had to readjust his own family's schedule. He said the experience has been stressful for him and his family, but he has no regrets about being involved. "I know people will criticize me because I'm still working on this, but everyone deserves due process," he said. "I always think, this could be my son or daughter and that's what motivates me to keep going and find the truth." Jensen has worked on tough cases before. In addition to being an investigator, Jensen says he worked for the FBI, where he focused on foreign intelligence, such as the former Soviet Union's KGB. His career has spanned 26 years and includes experience in the corporate and private sectors as an investigator, as well as U.S. Navy Investigative Services. He claims to have made significant accomplishments in criminal defense work and pro per cases where defendants act as their own attorney. Jensen's daughter, Heather, a 2004 Granite Bay High School graduate, said her family was extremely supportive of her father's decision to work on Peterson's trial. "It was a huge part of our lives," Heather said. "I admire my dad, especially now, for continuing with the case. He's doing what he believes. I'd be disappointed if he didn't continue." Jenson's daughter said she learned not to completely believe everything she heard or saw through the news media. Instead she did her own research and formed her own opinion about the case. She also believes Peterson is not guilty. Jensen said before becoming involved with the Peterson case he used to be in favor of the death penalty. Now he's not so sure because he feels Peterson was convicted on circumstantial evidence. "This case has really changed my mind," he said. Even though Jensen and his daughter believe someone other than Peterson committed the crime, many local residents don't agree. Granite Bay resident Christine Jantzen and Jenny Bremen of El Dorado Hills agreed with the guilty verdict. "I think he was found guilty because of the deceit that was evident throughout and the double life he seemed to be leading," Jantzen said. "I think he was trying to get rid of her (Laci)." Bremen echoed Jantzen's thoughts. "I was happy with the verdict," she said. "I think he did it because of the lack of emotion he displayed from the beginning. I just don't think that someone whose wife was missing would act the way he did." (source: The Roseville Press-Tribune) *********************** Mickel gets death penalty In Colusa, a jury of 6 men and 6 women recommended death for convicted cop killer Andrew Hampton Mickel after an hour of deliberation. A special sentencing by Colusa County Judge S. William Abel will be held April 27 after the probation report is prepared by Tehama County Probation Department. In his closing argument to the jury in the penalty phase of his trial, Mickel said freedom was "worth killing for." "Killing is no beautiful thing it's disgusting, it's abhorrent. But when liberty is on the line, it's necessary," said the 26-year-old from Olympia, Wash. "I think it's very clear my son was murdered by an incoherent psychopath," said the victim's father, Richard Mobilio, after the jury returned its recommendation. Mickel was convicted on Tuesday of murdering Red Bluff Police Officer David Mobilio in the early morning hours of Nov. 19, 2002. The jury began deliberating at 4 p.m. on Friday on whether Mickel would die for that crime and returned an hour later with a recommendation for death. "He didn't give any pity to Mobilio, and we didn't give him any," said jury foreman Chantelle Estess. Mickel had told the jury if they felt it was necessary to sentence him to death, he would accept that. "If my death is the only comfort the family of Officer Mobilio can take out of this situation ... then maybe you guys should simply go ahead and make that decision," Mickel told the jury. He added that he did not want Mobilio's death to be in vain and pleaded with the jury to fight for their liberties. "I want you to get your liberties back and then defend them," he said. "If I put all this pain and misery on these people for no reason, it's pointless and been for nothing." He ended with an adaptation of a Patrick Henry quote: "Give me liberty, give yourselves liberty, give us all liberty or give me death," he said. Mickel described in detail the murder of Mobilio when he continued his testimony on Friday morning and told the jury, "I do feel what I did was right. I feel extremely sorry for what I have done to officer Mobilio's family, but I am not sorry for what I did to him specifically." "I never heard anything so outrageous in my life as a justification for taking someone's life," said Tehama County District Attorney Gregg Cohen. Recounting the crime: Friday Mickel finally answered the question that local law enforcement has had on its mind since the murder: Why Red Bluff? He said that Red Bluff provided the best in a state that he said had the "most military police force and least friendly gun laws." Mickel said his Army Ranger training taught him how to make a successful ambush and scout a good location. He originally picked Redding for the ambush but said he could not find a good location there that the urban area had too many cameras and he would be identified before he was ready to come forward. Mickel drove to the refueling station on the Nov. 17, 2002, and went to "watch, waiting for an officer." He said he saw several officers refueling that night "but I couldn't get myself to do it," he said. "I sort of lost heart and had trouble going through with it." He then drove to the rest stop between Red Bluff and Redding and spent the day there talking himself into committing murder. "I decided it was right and something I had to do," he said. He then drove back to a field off of Breckenridge Road and parked his car, waiting there until evening before walking to the gas station and hiding behind a garbage bin at the gas station. At some point he fell asleep and was awakened by a car door slamming. Mobilio arrived a short time later to refuel his patrol car. "I came around between the gas thing and car and Officer Mobilio was right there, right next to the door of the car," he said. "He had heard my scraping of my foot, I assume ... and he was looking over his shoulder and saw me coming up at him." Mickel said Mobilio saw him and reached for his weapon. "I was shooting until he went down, then I continued to shoot when he was on the ground, and then I shot him in the head," he said. In cross examination, Mickel said he fired 4 bullets - 3 ended up in Mobilio. He said he then left the flag with the snake and the words "This was a political act" and Don't tread on Us," and then fled to his car. (source: Mercury-Register) ********************** Couple accused in killing could face death penalty The county's top prosecutor said Friday he hasn't decided whether to seek the death penalty against a homeless couple accused of killing a Vallejo woman, whose body was found this week in a trailer. Solano County District Attorney David Paulson said he'll decide after an evidentiary hearing against Robert E. Medeiros and Mary E. Poteate, which could be scheduled months from now. Prosecutors say the couple killed 51-year-old Anne Donahue during a robbery, a combination that allows for capital punishment. Police said Donahue was preparing the trailer, owned by murder suspect Corbin Easterling, for sale. Easterling is in custody in Sonoma County. Medeiros, 40, and Poteate, 45, appeared briefly Friday in Superior Court to hear the charges against them. The suspects appeared in court separately, shackled and wearing black-and-white striped jail uniforms. Neither entered a plea and proceedings were postponed until 8:30 a.m. Friday. Commissioner Barbara James appointed the public defender for both after they said they had no means to hire an attorney. According to a criminal complaint filed by George Williamson, the chief deputy prosecutor, the suspects are charged with pre-meditated murder and robbery. Williamson dropped a preliminary charge that Poteate committed a sex offense against Donahue, but he declined Friday to say why. Donahue's body was found about 12:30 a.m. April 2 by 2 women she had asked to clean the trailer, which belongs to her longtime friend Easterling, who is charged with killing his wife in October before the 2 were found stranded on a Jet Ski. Williamson would not discuss the cause of Donahue's death, saying he has not viewed the coroner's report. (source: Times-Herald) USA: U.S. should follow world's lead, abolish the death penalty What do China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran and the United States have in common? How do these nations differ from Canada, Mexico, all of Europe and most of Latin and South America? In what way is the U.S. unique among nations? Answer: The death penalty. The United States (along with China, etc.) is among the few remaining nations that executes significant numbers of its own citizens. Until this year, it was one of only 2 nations that claimed the right to kill juveniles. Of course it is fashionable to believe that we are right and the rest of the world wrong; after all, American exceptionalism has long led us to a sense of pre-eminence in matters moral and otherwise. Nonetheless, when friends such as Canada, Great Britain and Mexico join most of the world's democracies in criticism, perhaps we should listen respectfully. Capital punishment is one area where we should listen carefully; there are good reasons, beyond visceral distrust of anything done by government, to oppose the death penalty. Perhaps the most telling difficulty with America's death machine concerns the startling numbers of persons who, although convicted and sentenced to death by a jury of their peers after a proper trial, were later proven innocent and released from death row. We Americans support a system riddled with error. Execution of the innocent remains a near certainty. Moreover, the problems are systemic and unlikely to be fixed. Those who believe that DNA testing will save this flawed system are mistaken. Murderers leave something testable in only one case out of eight. In most cases there is no DNA to test, and it will do nothing in those cases to keep innocent people from being executed. What DNA testing does show is how unreliable the capital punishment system is. Because of DNA testing, we know that perjury is the largest single source of error in death penalty cases. Unlike non-capital cases where erroneous eyewitness identification is the largest source of error, we send people to death row on the basis of perjured testimony a surprising amount of the time. The death penalty, and the pressure that this punishment brings to bear on police, prosecutors and judges, contributes to the wrongful conviction problem. Put simply, the pressure to solve potentially capital cases increases both errors and deceit. Thus, the death penalty magnifies the problem of innocence; we increase our odds of convicting the innocent simply by having the death penalty as a lawful punishment. And the fact that when we convict the innocent, we leave the guilty person free, perhaps to kill again, should give us pause. Capital punishment also fails all other tests of social utility. There is no evidence that the death penalty deters violent crime; indeed those jurisdictions that retain capital punishment tend to be more violent than those that have abolished it. Since recidivism rates are low among murderers, execution does not even incapacitate effectively - we almost surely execute more innocent persons than we save by incapacitation. Study after study demonstrates that racism continues to infect this punishment. It costs, by one careful estimate, $2.16 million more to execute someone than to imprison that same person for life - and these costs cannot be reduced without markedly increasing the already too-large odds of executing the innocent. All arguments concerning utility having been empirically resolved against capital punishment, we are left with religious views. The LDS Church's position is: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regards the question of whether and in what circumstances the state should impose capital punishment as a matter to be decided solely by the prescribed processes of civil law. We neither promote nor oppose capital punishment." If the church does not support this sanction, and if no good secular reasons exist supporting it, then re-examination is in order. "Till the infallibility of human judgment shall have been proven to me," the Marquis de Lafayette famously declared, "I shall demand the abolition of the death penalty." Most of the rest of the world's democracies have decided against exercising God-like powers without God-like skills. When it comes to the death penalty we need to listen. They may be right. (source: Opinion; Dr. Alan W. Clarke is an associate professor of integrated studies at Utah Valley State College--Salt Lake Tribune) IOWA: Legislative report: Senate panel approves sex offender reforms A Senate committee approved tough new penalties for sex offenders Thursday, setting the stage for a Republican attempt to reinstate the death penalty. The Senate Judiciary Committee made no changes the bill passed by the House last week, though committee members have appointed a six-member panel that will continue to work on the bill next week. The bill strengthens punishment and oversight of sex offenders, banning offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school or day care center, requiring them to submit DNA samples, forcing them to wear electronic monitoring devices while on probation or parole and making treatment a requirement for offenders to qualify for early release. Sen. Larry McKibben, R-Marshalltown, a member of the panel, will try to amend the bill make the death penalty an option for offenders that murder children in combination with the kidnapping or rape of the same victim. His amendment will probably fail in a 3-3 vote because the panel, like the full Senate, is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. (source: Globe Gazette) FLORIDA: For governor, preserving life is paramount, sometimes Few people questioned Gov. Jeb Bush's sincerity when he complained passionately of his inability to countermand the court decisions that allowed a brain-damaged woman to die. The governor is, of course, the only person who knows what was in his heart. That case contrasts, however, with the governor's consistent disinterest in using the powers he does possess to preserve lives that the courts have abandoned. 16 men and 1 woman have been executed under death warrants Bush signed after they exhausted or abandoned their appeals. Not once has he undertaken to commute a death sentence to life in prison. The governor would rationalize, no doubt, that the 17 were criminals, quite unlike Terri Schiavo. The pope drew no such distinction, and neither do the American Catholic bishops whose recent decision to intensify their opposition to the death penalty will burden the remainder of Bush's administration. Many people of other faiths or no faiths share the church's moral objection. One of the most eloquent was the former Florida governor whom Bush most admires, the late LeRoy Collins, an Episcopalian. He signed 29 death warrants, commuted nine sentences, and spent the rest of his life trying to repeal the death penalty. A governor doesn't have to be an abolitionist, however, to exercise clemency in selected cases. As sociologists Michael Radelet and Babra Zsembik have described it, "Clemency is a free gift of the executive, needing no justification or pretense of fairness." Most often, perhaps, governors have spared prisoners whose guilt or mental competence they doubted. At other times they have done it to keep a less culpable crime partner from suffering a worse penalty than the chief perpetrator. With 17 executions on his watch and 367 people remaining on death row, it is remarkable that Bush has not found anyone worth sparing, not even the paranoid schizophrenic Anthony Provenzano, who went to the gurney still believing that he was Jesus. However, the death of mercy is not a recent phenomenon. After 5 commutations during his first term, Bob Graham granted another in his 5th year and none thereafter. There were none under Bob Martinez or Lawton Chiles. The same thing happened across the country, so conspicuously that a 1993 Vanderbilt Law Review article was entitled, "Faith in Fantasy: The Supreme Court's Reliance on Commutation to Ensure Justice in Death Penalty Cases." The court had shut its mind to the reality that so many governors had closed down their consciences. There have been 957 executions since 1976 and only 228 death row commutations or pardons, all but 57 of them from one governor, George Ryan of Illinois. The polarization of American politics appears to be the primary reason. Another is a misplaced confidence that what has been called "super due process" in the court system guarantees that only the worst of the worst will actually be executed. Former Chief Justice Gerald Kogan believes that Florida has put at least three innocent people to death, although he won't say who he thinks they were. In an earlier era, he could have depended on the governor to spare them when the court would not. >From 1925 through 1964, according to a study by University of Memphis criminologist Margaret Vandiver, every Florida governor commuted at least 10 % of the death sentences that came to his desk. The average was 22 %; Doyle Carlton Sr. spared 8 of 17 between 1929 and 1932. Strictly speaking, Florida governors cannot commute sentences on their own authority. Two of the three elected Cabinet members (formerly, 3 of the 6) must concur, but that used to be routine. During Chiles' term, however, there were only 2 members willing to commute a mentally retarded killer, Danny Doyle. The compromise was to postpone his clemency hearing for 25 years, and he remains on death row. Commutation, it is true, can call for immense courage, such as Collins summoned in 1955 when he spared Walter Irvin, a black man convicted on dubious evidence of raping a white woman in a Lake County case that was internationally notorious. Racists exploited the commutation when Collins ran for re-election the next year; the trial judge ordered a grand jury investigation and the sheriff contrived for the victim to confront Collins at a parade. But the governor held his ground. "There is nothing to investigate except LeRoy Collins' judgment and conscience," he said. "Both are beyond the control or coercion of a grand jury." He won the election. (source: Column, Martin Dyckman, St. Petersburg Times)
