June 15 WASHINGTON (state): Mother Charged With Killing 2 Daughters In Stevenson, a 39-year-old mother has been charged with aggravated murder after reportedly confessing to shooting her 2 young daughters and leaving their bodies in an abandoned rock quarry. Bail was set at $1 million Monday on Charlene A. Dorcy of Hazel Dell, a Vancouver suburb, in a brief hearing in Skamania County Superior Court. She was expected to enter a plea Thursday. "Certainly I like to have a case where an admission of guilt has been made. They make my life a lot easier," Prosecutor Peter S. Banks said. Aggravated first-degree murder is punishable in Washington by execution or life in prison without parole. Prosecutors have a month to decide whether to seek the death penalty, considering both the crime and any mitigating factors, such as mental illness. Court records indicate Dorcy has received federal disability payments, The Seattle Times reported Tuesday without elaborating. "We'll be looking into her life with a fine-toothed comb," Banks said. The death penalty has never been imposed in the small, rural southwest Washington county, the prosecutor said. Dorcy called 911 Saturday evening from a pay phone outside the Vancouver Police Department, saying she had driven her 2- and 4-year-old girls about 80 miles east and shot them as they sat on the ground in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Sheriff David S. Brown said. She then led detectives to the quarry, where they recovered the children's bodies, Brown said. Looking bedraggled in an orange-striped prison uniform, Dorcy responded in a monotone to questions from Judge E. Thompson Reynolds. He read the charges, which stated that the deaths of 4-year-old Jessica and 2-year-old Brittney, were committed with premeditation. Asked if she understood, she said "yes" softly, then piped up when asked the proper spelling of her younger daughter's name. "It's 'n-e-y.' Not 'a-n-y,'" she said confidently, correcting the erroneous spelling "Brittany" in the court docket. Reached later by telephone, public defender Robert Lewis said, "I don't comment on pending litigation." Dorcy's husband Robert, reached at home late Monday, also would not comment to The Associated Press. Ell Loney of Countywide Chaplaincy, who was at the Dorcy home on Monday, told The Oregonian the husband, an electrician for a company in the Portland, Ore., area, "is devastated and still very much in love with his wife." Robert Dorcy said his wife had mental health problems but didn't elaborate, Loney added. "He's lost his children and his wife in this. Right now, we're going step by step to keep him breathing," Loney said. Banks said autopsies on the children were completed Monday but the results were not immediately released. A warrant was issued for a search of Charlene Dorcy's white Toyota, in which she said she drove the girls, and the gun was still being sought. Marcus Cates, 29, who lives next door, and other neighbors said Dorcy showed signs of mental illness. Cates said he was in his backyard one afternoon building a fence when Dorcy emerged from her house, angry about the noise and angrier after he refused to stop. "She basically lost it, and told us that it would be my fault if she killed her kids or jumped off the Morrison Bridge (in Portland)," he said. In recent years, troubled mothers such as Andrea Yates and Susan Smith have been the focus of intense debate on what constitutes mental illness. In 2001, Yates drowned her five children one by one in her bathtub. In 1994, Susan Smith drove her car into a lake as her two boys slept in the back seat. Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz, a consultant to prosecutors in both of those cases, estimated that about 100 mentally ill mothers kill 2 or more of their children at the same time each year in the United States. Being mentally ill, Dietz said, does not necessarily mean the killer can't tell right from wrong. "The fact that she turned herself in suggests guilt," he said. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: Peterson Prosecutors Turn to Police Prosecutors in the Scott Peterson murder trial have turned to the police officers who first investigated his wife's death, while Peterson's defense is trying to characterize the probe as sloppy and incomplete. 2 officers took the witness stand Monday in Peterson's double-murder trial, one testifying that a few items in the Petersons' otherwise tidy home raised his suspicions almost immediately. Officer Derrick Letsinger said Monday that he didn't smell bleach and didn't notice any signs of a recent cleaning, he did say that he became skeptical after seeing a crumpled rug, dirty towels on the washing machine and a wet mop behind an otherwise "model home." Prosecutors have argued that Peterson's pregnant wife, Laci, was killed in the couple's Modesto home and her body was dumped in San Francisco Bay around Christmas Eve in 2002. Another officer, Matthew Spurlock, said there was something else that seemed suspicious: Peterson's alibi. Peterson told him he had been fishing alone on the bay the day his wife died, but could not say what he was trying to catch. Defense lawyers say authorities bungled the investigation almost as soon as they responded to a report that Peterson had returned home to find his wife gone. His attorneys have asserted that someone else abducted Laci while she walked the dog. Peterson's defense attorney Mark Geragos got a chance at cross-examination. He got Spurlock to testify that, despite his fears, everything seemed in order when he entered the Peterson home. "It appeared to be a normal house," he said. And under fierce questioning from Geragos, Letsinger acknowledged that police did not test the home that night with Luminol - a chemical that can detect unseen traces of blood and body fluids. The officers' recollections dribbled out in a heated day of testimony that included a request for a mistrial, which the judge quickly denied. More police officers were set to take the stand Tuesday. During his testimony, Letsinger said Peterson "threw his flashlight down on the ground," before mumbling a curse word. Spurlock testified he heard what appeared to be an expletive and that "it came through what sounded like gritted teeth." The testimony prompted an angry request for a mistrial by Geragos, who said the claims did not appear in any police report and this was the first he heard of Peterson's reaction. "It's all of a sudden fabricated," said Geragos. Under state law, he said, such a revelation must be turned over to the defense prior to testimony. After asking that the testimony be stricken from the record, Geragos asked for a mistrial. His request was quickly denied. ****************** Man Held in Beheading of Hollywood Writer A homeless man suspected of beheading a 91-year-old screenwriter and stabbing the man's neighbor to death was arrested outside a Hollywood studio minutes after his photograph was broadcast on television. Kevin Lee Graff, 27, was arrested Monday after guards at Paramount Studios recognized him from a televised news conference and called authorities, Police Chief William Bratton said. The man had been turned away at the studio gates, where he had asked guards for the telephone number of a female employee and acted strangely, guard Isaac Macias said. Guards kept their surveillance camera trained on Graff, who had been talking to himself and making obscene gestures at passing cars, security Sgt. Craig Phillips said. Moments later, Phillips saw a news conference about the double murders and recognized Graff. "I turned to the camera on my monitor. I said, 'That's him! That's him!'" Phillips said. The day before, police found the body of retired physician Hal Engelson, 67, at Engelson's home, about 2 miles from the studio. He had been booking an airline flight by telephone when the ticketing agent reported hearing a commotion and notified police. Arriving officers spotted Engelson's body through a window, and forced their way inside. In the rear of the home they found the severed head of 91-year-old neighbor Robert Lees, Bratton said. Lees, who was blacklisted during the Communist scare of the 1950s, also wrote under the name J.E. Selby, according to the Writers Guild of America. He had several film and television credits, including episodes of "Rawhide" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." The motive for the killings was under investigation and it was unclear whether Graff knew the victims. Graff, whose last know residence was in Fullerton, was known to frequent the Hollywood area, Bratton said. He was arrested last year in Orange County for failing to pay a traffic fine and has a half-dozen minor criminal violations, according to police and court records. (source for both: Associated Press) MARYLAND----impending execution Judge to rule today on delay in Oken execution -- Defense is seeking time to argue lethal injection in Md. is cruel, unusual A federal judge said he would rule this morning on convicted killer Steven Oken's bid to delay his execution so his lawyers can argue that Maryland's most recent execution raises doubts about the state's lethal injection procedures. Oken's lawyers said in a hearing yesterday that the state provided them with evidence late last week that there had been a leak in the intravenous line that delivered the anesthetic and deadly chemicals during the execution of Tyrone X. Gilliam in 1998. Lawyers for the state did not deny that a leak had occurred, but asserted that the procedure did not constitute a violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte said he would issue a written ruling by 10 a.m. today. A lawyer for Oken said that development amounted to a "de facto stay of execution." A death warrant permits the state to execute Oken this week. During the two-hour hearing in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Oken's lawyers said they are pushing this claim now because the state did not turn over its complete execution protocol and other related material until Friday. Oken filed a public information request for the material last month, his lawyers said. David P. Kennedy, an assistant attorney general for Maryland, said in court that Oken and his lawyers had created "a false emergency" in a last-ditch effort to stop the execution. Death penalty lawyer Jerome H. Nickerson Jr., who recently joined Oken's legal team and who watched the execution of Gilliam, who was his client, said during the hearing that a document the lawyers received Friday "shows deliberate indifference as to what's going on with the IV." Nickerson said a checklist from Gilliam's execution noted a "bad hookup, left arm leaking" and "execution commander issued to go green." He said this showed that corrections officials continued to administer the lethal chemicals even though it appeared that some of the drug intended to put the inmate to sleep had pooled on the floor. Nickerson asked for proof that the executioners are adequately trained and have a protocol in place to stop a lethal injection if there appears to be a problem. As part of his response, Kennedy, the lawyer for the state, said: "There will never, never, never be a protocol that will satisfy the counsel of a person being executed." A spokesman for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services would not comment specifically on the Oken lawyers' latest challenge. "Our goal is to humanely and painlessly carry out the law of the state of Maryland and to do so with dignity and without spectacle," said Mark Vernarelli, the spokesman. Oken was sentenced to death in 1991 by a Baltimore County jury for the 1987 rape and murder of Dawn Marie Garvin, a White Marsh newlywed. Oken also was convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering 2 other women: Patricia Antoinette Hirt, his wife's older sister, and Lori Elizabeth Ward, a motel clerk in Maine. During yesterday's hearing, Steven Oken's parents, David and Davida Oken, and Garvin's mother, Betty Romano, sat at opposite ends of the courtroom. Romano dabbed away tears as she left the courthouse. 2 earlier delays Twice before, the Maryland Court of Appeals delayed Oken's execution because of pending appeals, but they ruled 6-1 last week not to interfere with the current death warrant, which went into effect after midnight yesterday and is valid through midnight Friday. Yesterday, the Court of Appeals denied another request by Oken for a stay of execution, based on his claim that he received ineffective counsel at trial. Oken also has asked the Supreme Court to delay his execution. If Messitte rules against the stay of execution today, Oken's lawyers could appeal that decision to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and then to the Supreme Court. Oken's lawyers have also asked Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to issue Oken a partial commutation, from death to life in prison without parole. The governor has said that he will not make a decision until Oken's legal options have been exhausted. Both sides gather Death-penalty supporters and opponents gathered yesterday near the maximum-security prison where Oken is being held. Both sides had come in expectation of Oken's scheduled execution but decided to stay even after word spread that it would not take place last night. Holding signs that urged an end to the death penalty, activists vowed to return each night until a judge delays the execution or Oken is put to death. "There are many, many ways for us to be made safe from people who commit violent crime," said Stephanie Gibson, 49, an associate professor at the University of Baltimore and a member of Maryland Citizens Against State Executions. "We don't need to execute people." Just up the street, Garvin's friends and relatives joined death penalty supporters, holding placards that referred to "Judgment Day" and proclaimed lethal injection "too humane." "We've been waiting for 17 years," said Cheryl Romano, 58, of Harewood Park, who is a relative of Garvin. "We've been going through all this pain and agony for Steven Oken to get his due. It's time." (source: Baltimore Sun) VERMONT----re: federal death penalty to be sought Accused killer loses bid to stop death penalty case A man accused of killing a North Clarendon woman has lost his latest bid to keep prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against him and his attorneys are now asking for time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals has refused a request from defense attorneys for Donald Fell to take up their most recent appeal. A 3-judge panel of that appeals court in March overturned a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions that declared the federal death penalty unconstitutional for Fell, who is accused of killing Teresca King, 53, in November 2000. Fell's attorneys asked the three-judge panel to reconsider their ruling and also requested that the full appeals court to take up their case. However, in a recent ruling, the court denied both requests. "Typically what happens with these things is if you lose in the 3-judge panel, you ask those three judges to re-hear the case and at the same time you ask the full court to hear the case," said Michael Mello, a Vermont Law School professor and death penalty expert. "Almost always the court denies both of those." The action by the appeals court is not that unusual. "Petitions for full-court consideration are almost as rare as the U.S. Supreme Court agreeing to take the case," Mello said. Fells attorneys have since asked to put the case on hold so they can seek an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The appeals court has not yet made a ruling on that matter. "What Fell wants is nothing else to happen in Sessions' court until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether or not to take up the case," Mello said. "And since we're in the summertime, we won't hear from the U.S. Supreme Court until the earliest at the first week in October." Federal prosecutors have filed a motion opposing the request to put the case on hold. Should the appeals court reject the motion by Fell's defense team to put the case on hold, his attorneys can still ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case. "My guess is regardless of what the 2nd Circuit does," Mello said, "Sessions won't move very fast on this case until he knows the U.S. Supreme Court isn't going to take up the case and put everything on hold again." Mello said the likelihood of the U.S. Supreme Court agreeing to take up the case is about 1 to 2 %. "Had the 2nd Circuit affirmed Sessions, the odds would be reversed. I would have bet a year's salary that the Supreme Court would take it up," Mello said, "but because the 2nd Circuit reversed the decision and because it was a unanimous decision, 3 to 0, the U.S Supreme Court will find this case much less attractive." Mello said the nation's highest court is generally asked to take up between 7,000 and 10,000 cases a year. The U.S. Supreme Court typically takes up between 150 and 170 of those cases, he said. The recent rulings are the latest legal wrangling in a case that has been working its way through the judicial system for more than 3 years. King, 53, and Charles Conway, 44, and Debra Fell, 44, both of Rutland, were murdered in November 2000. The suspects, Fell and Robert Lee, were 20 and 21 respectively at the time of the murders. According to court records, the two men were allegedly high on crack cocaine when they stabbed Conway and Debra Fell, Donald's Fell mother, in her apartment in Rutland. Police said Fell and Lee then carjacked King in the parking lot of a downtown shopping plaza when she came in to work in the morning. Police said they drove to New York where King was beaten to death. Fell and Lee were arrested 3 days later in Arkansas. Vermont does not have the death penalty. However, since King's death involved crossing state lines, the federal government has jurisdiction in the case. Fell and Lee were charged federally with carjacking and kidnapping with death resulting. Both federal charges carry the death penalty. Lee hanged himself in prison in September 2001. Fell is jailed without bail. U.S. Attorney Peter Hall and attorneys for Donald Fell could not be reached Sunday for comment. (source: Rutland Herald)
