death penalty news April 7, 2005
SOUTH CAROLINA: Killer of officer from Rhode Island gets death penalty A man has been sentenced to death in South Carolina for killing a police officer who was a native of Warwick. Luzenski Allen Cottrell killed Myrtle Beach police Officer Joe McGarry on December 29th, 2002. McGarry had been checking to see if Cottrell had resolved some tickets he had written weeks earlier for drug offenses. A fellow officer says Cottrell pulled out a gun and started shooting without warning. That led to a gunfight in the parking lot that threatened the other officer and store customers. Cottrell asked the jury yesterday to keep him off death row for the sake of his three-year-old daughter, but they sentenced him to death. (source: AP) NORTH CAROLINA --- military trial: Akbar Jury Selection Focuses On Religion, Death Penalty Jury selection in the court-martial of Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar on Thursday focused on religion, the death penalty and mental health. Akbar is charged with killing two officers in a 2003 grenade attack in Kuwait. The chief prosecutor asked a member of the jury pool if his religious beliefs support his view of the death penalty, and the soldier responded, "Yes, they do." When defense lawyers asked one of the potential jurors about Muslims, the soldier said he didn't have close friends who were Muslim but considered himself pretty fair-minded. He also said he thought some members of that faith interpret it the way they want to. Testimony is scheduled to start Monday after lawyers reduce a pool of 20 soldiers into the panel of 12 that will hear the case. Nearly half the pool, mostly officers and high-ranking sergeants, had been questioned by mid-morning Thursday. (source: AP / NBC17)
