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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 14:39:15 GMT -5
Judge: Deltona massacre trial must move to St. Augustine.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 The Orlando Sentinel
Byline: Kristen Reed
Apr. 14--DeLAND -- Kay Shukwit intended to be there every day.
She wanted to watch with her own eyes as the justice system decided the fate of the three men accused of beating and stabbing to death her 19-year-old daughter, Michelle Ann Nathan.
Now, she said, that won't be possible.
The trial of the three suspects in the Deltona massacre will move to St. Augustine because the case has received too much publicity and stirred too much emotion for the defendants to receive a fair trial in Volusia County, a judge in DeLand decided Thursday.
"How can we possibly do this with having a family, kids that go to school, just living our lives?" Shukwit said by phone after learning of the decision. She let out a huge sigh and said her blood pressure was reaching the "boiling point."
"I wish I could put someone in my place for an hour . . . and let them see the emotions I deal with," said Shukwit of Deltona. "It's just like reliving everything all over again."
Circuit Judge William A. Parsons and attorneys spent four days questioning potential jurors before Parsons agreed that an impartial jury could not be found in Volusia. Parsons had denied repeated change-of-venue requests by the defense but relented after State Attorney John Tanner said he agreed that a move had become necessary.
"I have a duty greater than prosecuting these men and convicting them, and that is to see to it that they receive a fair trial the best I can," Tanner said. "I do not believe in the current state at this time the defendants can receive a fair trial in Volusia County."
The turning point came when the court learned Thursday of a chance meeting between two potential jurors at a 7-Eleven. A legal secretary said she was approached by a contractor who offered her a can of beer while she pumped gas. He told her the jury didn't need weak people who couldn't handle looking at the graphic crime-scene photographs.
"He said, 'We are all the victims have left. We need to see to it those guys get what's coming to them,' " the woman told the judge.
The man denied making any comments about the case. The judge said he would consider whether to charge the man with criminal contempt of court.
Defense attorneys feared the man had tainted other potential jurors. Tanner said he thought the man's comments were indicative of a community attitude that would be hard to escape so close to the brutal killings.
Troy Victorino, 29, Jerone Hunter, 19, and Michael Salas, 20, are charged with murder, mutilating a dead body and other felonies in the Aug. 6, 2004, beating deaths of two couples who shared a Deltona home and two of their friends who were staying over. The three men face the death penalty if convicted. Robert Anthony Cannon, 20, will receive life in prison for his role in the crime in exchange for his testimony.
Investigators said the four men used aluminum baseball bats to kill Nathan; her boyfriend Anthony Vega, 34; Erin Belanger, 22; her boyfriend Francisco Ayo Roman, 30; Roberto Gonzalez, 28; and Jonathan Gleason, 17.
Parsons said he knew finding a jury in Volusia would be difficult but remained optimistic when the process began and said the attorneys needed to try, out of respect for the victims' families.
"When we move a trial that has a consequence to the victims' families," the judge said.
Because of logistics, the trial cannot begin until June or July, and the attorneys will meet next week to pick a date.
Families of the slaying victims, however, were aggravated with the news.
"The whole time it has been about them," Patty Gleason said of the defendants charged with killing her son Jonathan. "I want to know when it will be about us."
Gleason, who lives in Deltona, was not going to attend the trial because she couldn't take any more misery.
Bill Belanger, whose daughter Erin was beaten beyond recognition, thinks the trial should stay in the area where the killings occurred.
"I think the people of Volusia County should have had a say," he said. Belanger, who will drive from his New Hampshire home for the trial, said he wondered whether the move to St. Augustine would really guarantee a fair jury for the three men.
"They're guaranteed all these rights," Belanger said. "Erin had a guarantee to live her life."
The last time the court moved a case out of Volusia County was the 1998 trial of Deidre Hunt, who was convicted for the 1989 killings of two Daytona Beach teens as part of a bungled murder-for-hire scheme. After a withdrawn plea, the former cocktail waitress went on trial in St. Augustine when a judge decided there was too much publicity about the case and the woman's confession.
But high-profile cases have stayed in the county -- such as the trials of serial killer Aileen Wuornos; Jeff and Anthony Farina, who were convicted in a 1992 Taco Bell murder; and the Trull brothers, convicted in a 1998 spring-break attack on two Maryland college students.
But jury selection for the massacre trial was proving more difficult. Frank Bankowitz, who represents Hunter, said he had never seen so many potential jurors excused for cause -- which covers people who have already formed opinions, have conscientious beliefs about reaching a guilty verdict or the death penalty or hardships that are so serious they would distract them from the work in court.
"I've never seen so many jurors with so much knowledge and already have their minds made up," Hunter's co-counsel, Ed Mills, said.
Kristen Reed can be reached at kreed@orlandosentinel.com or 386-851-7924.
Copyright (c) 2006, The Orlando Sentinel, Fla.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 14:38:36 GMT -5
LI serial killer is dead: Taken off death row by court ruling in '04, man who murdered 5 women dies of an undisclosed illness.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 Newsday
Byline: Alfonso A. Castillo
Apr. 14--Robert Shulman, the former Hicksville postal worker whose spree of murdering, dismembering and discarding young women horrified Long Island a decade ago and made him the Island's first death row inmate in decades, died in an Albany hospital yesterday, state correction officials said. Shulman, 52, had been recently resentenced to life without parole after New York's death penalty was overturned. Shulman's closest living relatives - brothers Barry and Sheldon, of Long Beach, did not return calls for comment. "Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord," said Ruth Brown, of York, Pa., yesterday in her first words after hearing the man who killed her daughter, Lisa Ann Warner, had died. "Even though man took away thedeath penalty, he deserved it, and he got it. ... I feel it's the Almighty's justice system." State Department of Correctional Services spokeswoman Linda Foglia said Shulman, who was serving his sentence at the Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate Dannemora, was transferred to a local hospital on Tuesday, requiring undisclosed medical treatment. "There was no assault, nothing suspicious. He was having medical problems," Foglia said. He was later transferred to Albany Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 3:15 a.m.. Foglia said Shulman's cause of death, pending an autopsy, is tentatively classified as natural causes.
"He was one of the few, true serial killers that I've ever come across," said former Suffolk County District Attorney James Catterson, who sought the death penalty in the case. "He received the ultimate penalty anyway. He was shut away from society, from anyone, and died alone, and, I'm sure, unmourned." Ten years ago this month, Shulman was arrested inside a cramped and filthy Hicksville apartment that prosecutors called the killer's "slaughterhouse." Inside, police say, Shulman bludgeoned to death three women - believed by authorities to have been prostitutes - shattering their skulls with a blunt object. Shulman then dismembered his victims - before discarding their body parts in various locations. In 1999 Shulman was convicted of murdering Warner, 18, of Jamaica, Queens, whose body was found in April 1995 at a Brooklyn recycling plant; Kelly Sue Bunting, 28, of Hollis; and an unidentified woman whose body was found in December 1994 by the side of Long Island Avenue in Medford. Two other victims, Lori Vasquez, 24, of Brooklyn, and another unidentified woman were found dumped in Yonkers. Shulman was separately tried and convicted for their murders. Shulman was sentenced to death, but his sentence was nullified by a 2004 Court of Appeals ruling that found part of the state's capital punishment law to be unconstitutional. Shulman's Hauppauge defense attorney Paul Gianelli said his client's life was one ravaged by mental disease and a tragic childhood. Shulman maintained his innocence when he was resentenced in November. John Collins, chief of homicide for the district attorney, faced off with Shulman in court that day. "The legacy left by Robert Shulman is one of abject violence and senseless destruction of precious human life," Collins said. "The sooner he is forgotten by the people of Suffolk County, the better."
Copyright (c) 2006, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 14:38:01 GMT -5
Forever a part of their lives.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 Newsday
Byline: Alfonso A. Castillo
Apr. 14--With the Court of Appeals striking down New York's death penalty - sparing Robert Shulman from paying with his life for the horrific crimes he was convicted of - Ruth Brown began to question whether she would ever truly get justice for her daughter. "I figured, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,'" said Brown, of York, Pa., whose daughter, Lisa Ann Warner, was bludgeoned to death and dismembered by Shulman. "I did not understand why God would not let him get thedeath penalty. But I put it in God's hands." Yesterday, Brown said, God stepped in and delivered justice where the state failed to do so, as six months after his original sentence was vacated and he was taken off death row, Shulman died. For Brown, Shulman's death brought mixed feelings of vindication, and pity for a man who, through her faith, she had learned to forgive. "I just hope someone reached him for Jesus Christ," said Brown. "I feel sort of sad, because if he didn't find Jesus, his torment is going to start so early." John Bunting Jr., whose daughter Kelly Sue Bunting was also murdered by Shulman, declined to comment on his death yesterday. But in a statement written by Bunting for Shulman's re-sentencing in November, Bunting said he and his family had been living in "long-term torture," since his daughter's death. He said he looked forward to the day his daughter's killer met a similar fate. "It is my last hope that every last fiber of your existence will burn in hell," Bunting wrote. "I will find peace when I get the news that you are no longer breathing. I pray to God it will be soon." Dawn Paul, whose sister Lori Vasquez, 24, of Brooklyn, was killed and discarded in a Yonkers Dumpster, could not be reached yesterday. But at Shulman's 2000 sentencing for Vasquez's murder, Paul said Shulman "has torn up my family completely." "She wanted to change her life," said Paul, speaking about her sister, who had recently been released from jail before she was killed. "And this gentleman took her life away." Brown said, with both the murderer and the murdered gone, she is left only with their memories. "Unfortunately, he's in our family history now," Brown said. "We're almost bonded forever."
They shared the same fate Kelly Sue Bunting, 28, of Hollis, was one of Robert Shulman's five victims. All the women, police have said, were prostitutes. Bunting's father, John, said his daughter "took a wrong turn in life" as she grew up in Carson, Calif. Bunting's tattoo, of her street name "Melani," helped to lead police to the Jamaica area where other sex workers said she picked up Shulman, a regular customer. Her body was found in a Melville trash container in December 1995.
The dismembered body of Lisa Ann Warner, 18, of Jamaica was found in April 1995 on a conveyor belt at the Star Recycling plant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She grew up in Allentown and York, Pa., but ran away from home several times before becoming a prostitute, her mother, Ruth Brown, said. Suffolk jurors also convicted Shulman in the killing of an unidentified woman whose body was found in December 1994 off Long Island Avenue in Medford. The body of Lori Vasquez, 24, of Brooklyn, was found in 1991 in a trash can in Yonkers, and an unidentified woman's body was found in 1992 in a trash bin also in Yonkers. Shulman pleaded guilty to both murders in January 2000.
Copyright (c) 2006, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 14:37:22 GMT -5
EDITORIAL: Let the killing stop. (Editorial)
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 The News & Observer
Apr. 14--We love our pets and treat them as part of our families. So when the vet says the time has come to end their lives, we expect their drug-induced deaths to be gentle and painless. The human beings on North Carolina's death row do not get the same compassion. Many would say that as convicted killers, they're not entitled to it. Indeed, there is increasing evidence that the protocol of injections used to kill condemned prisoners may not be as quick or painless as long assumed.
Willie Brown, Jr., 61, is scheduled to die in Central Prison next Friday. His crime was the murder of convenience store clerk Vallerie Ann Robertson. In 1983 Brown robbed the store in Williamston where Robertson worked, took her to a logging road, forced her to lie down and shot her six times. No matter the outcome of his pending appeal, he needs to be kept away from civilized society for the rest of his life. But that appeal has thrust North Carolina into the national debate over methods used to end the lives of condemned prisoners. U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard has ordered that Brown's execution can take place only if medically trained personnel are on hand to ensure he is fully sedated before paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs are administered. Research has shown that unless the sedation is conducted properly, the subsequent drugs may cause the prisoner to suffer terrible pain and the agony of suffocation. Ensuring that the sedating drug is properly administered is easier said than done. The American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association specifically, and understandably, say their members should not participate in executions in any way. That would include monitoring vital signs to make sure a prisoner is unconscious. The state, determined to execute Brown on schedule, has turned to technology in an effort to meet Howard's demand. Use of a device called a bispectral index monitor has been proposed to ensure that Brown is fully unconscious before the paralyzing and fatal drugs are injected. It's a macabre world where the government kills to show that killing is wrong and where technical discussions of the mechanics of the death penalty cloud the dubious ethics of the act. The questions now swirling about the use of lethal drugs merely tilt the scales of justice more toward a temporary moratorium on executions.
The issues that argue for a moratorium grow ever more compelling: inadequate legal representation by inexperienced or unskilled trial attorneys, unethical behavior by some prosecutors, advances in crime scene investigative techniques that call verdicts into question, the documented racial and socio-economic inequities in sentencing and, above all, the irreversibility of the sentence all argue for a halt to executions. The General Assembly, wisely, already has a study under way of inequities in the capital punishment system. But a moratorium would provide an even better chance to assess the ultimate fairness and morality of executions. Discussions about which drugs and which machines are the most efficient, or the least painful, are but a diversion obscuring the real issue.
Copyright (c) 2006, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 9:56:05 GMT -5
[/supForced medication ordered for Death Row inmate: Judge rulesDeath Row inmate must take anti-psychotic drugs.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Byline: Melody Mcdonald
Apr. 12--FORT WORTH -- Death Row inmate Steven Kenneth Staley, convicted for killing the manager of a Steak and Ale nearly 17 years ago, should be physically forced to take anti-psychotic medication -- an order that, in essence, could make Staley competent enough to be executed -- a judge ruled Tuesday.
Judge Wayne Salvant's decision came nearly two months after he stopped Staley's execution, ruling that Staley, a paranoid schizophrenic, is too mentally ill.
The law requires that Staley be mentally competent before he is executed.
"The whole idea of holding somebody down and injecting them so that we can then say, with a straight face, this person is now competent so we can kill them, I think that smacks of an Orwellian-Soviet-style approach to criminal justice," said Jack Strickland, Staley's attorney. "Most people, even conservatives, would find that very offensive. It bothers me."
Prosecutors Chuck Mallin and Jim Gibson said they filed the motion to forcibly medicate Staley, who refuses to take his medication, in part to carry out a jury's decision more than a decade ago that Staley should die for his crimes.
"People in this community tend to forget the brutal nature of this crime because it was in 1989, going on 17 years," Mallin said, adding that he believes this may be the first time a Texas judge has ordered an incompetent Death Row inmate to be forcibly medicated.
"I'm not going to apologize for any actions we take."
Staley, 43, was sentenced to death in April 1991 for fatally shooting Robert Read, 35, after taking him hostage during a botched robbery at a Steak and Ale in west Fort Worth.
According to court records and news stories, Staley and two friends, all armed with guns, demanded access to the cash register after eating at the restaurant on Oct. 14, 1989.
As customers and employees huddled at the rear of the restaurant, an assistant manager slipped out and called police.
Police surrounded the restaurant, and Read, the manager, offered himself as a hostage to spare the others. The trio took him up on his offer and held him at gunpoint as they tried to escape.
Read, who was married and had three small children, was fatally shot when he resisted as the robbers tried to force him into a hijacked car.
Last month, just six days before Staley was to be executed, Salvant rescinded Staley's death warrant after two doctors testified that he was incompetent and unable to understand why he has to die.
Last year, Staley came within five hours of execution before an appellate court stopped the punishment for basically the same reason: Staley's mental condition had deteriorated so much that he couldn't comprehend his punishment.
During the hearing in Salvant's court Tuesday, Staley, seated at the defense table, picked at his unruly hair and red jumpsuit and could be heard mumbling nonsensical phrases.
At one point, he put his handcuffed hands on the back of his head and said something that sounded like "Whoop! Tootie fruity. Want to go back to my cell now."
Staley was recently brought back to the Tarrant County Jail from Death Row in Livingston for the hearing.
Strickland has said Staley has a long history of mental illness. His mother was a schizophrenic who attempted to stab Staley and his sister with a knife and once tried to pound a wooden stake into Staley's chest.
His father was an alcoholic who was killed in a car accident. His grandfather committed suicide. As a teenager, Staley also attempted suicide, the documents state.
Since Staley was sent to Death Row in 1991, he has been hospitalized nearly 20 times, for as long as nine months, because he is psychotic.
Strickland argued that forcibly medicating Staley to execute him is unconstitutional and violates his right to privacy. He said he is not aware of any case in Texas or in any of the 38 death penalty states where a court has authorized the forcible medication of an incompetent inmate for execution.
Prosecutors Mallin and Gibson reminded the judge that inmates are forcibly medicated all the time in prison. The only difference is they are not on Death Row.
The prosecutors maintained that they had an "essential interest" in carrying out the jury's verdict, that it was medically appropriate to forcibly medicate Staley and that the side effects of the drugs did not outweigh the benefits.
In the end, the judge sided with the state, but the issue is far from over.
Staley will not be forcibly medicated right away.
The judge is giving Strickland time to appeal to a higher court.
Although there is case law on this subject, it is not clear-cut.
In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was cruel and unusual for states to execute a person who is incapable of understanding what is happening or why. But in 1990, the high court ruled that it was OK to forcibly medicate inmates in certain cases, if the treatment is essential for the defendant's safety or the safety of others.
In 2003, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Arkansas officials to forcibly administer anti-psychotic medication to control an inmate's behavior, which, in turn, made him competent enough to execute.
The Supreme Court has not gotten involved in the constitutionality of medicatingDeath Row inmates to make them competent to be executed.
Richard Dieter, executive director of Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, said that he isn't sure why the Supreme Court hasn't weighed in on the issue but that it doesn't arise often.
Whether the high court will look at Staley's case remains to be seen, but the legal community will be following the case closely.
"It will be watched by the other states and by the Supreme Court," Dieter said. "It's significant because it is an unresolved issue."
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Melody McDonald, (817) 390-7386 mjmcdonald@star-telegram.com
Copyright (c) 2006, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.),
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Article CJ144412204
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 9:54:56 GMT -5
Alan Gell charged with statutory rape: Man victimized in tainted murder trial is accused of 31 sex offenses with girl, 15.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 The News & Observer
Byline: Joseph Neff
Apr. 13--Late on Wednesday morning in the Bertie County Courthouse, Alan Gell stood at the same table where he was twice tried for murder.
District Court Judge Thomas Newbern interrupted the humdrum of traffic court to explain to Gell that he faced up to life in prison for each of 14 charges of statutory rape, more time for each charge of indecent liberties with a minor, and still more for possession of cocaine. Gell, dressed in a mint green shirt and blue jeans, mouthed a few words to his wife, who sat in the gallery, dressed almost identically to her new husband. Gell then walked silently in handcuffs to a sheriff's vehicle. He was taken to the Bertie-Martin Regional Jail and placed in solitary confinement. That, too, was a familiar place; he had spent two years there before his first murder trial, which landed him on death row, wrongly convicted. Gell had been arrested earlier Wednesday and charged with 31 sex offenses against a minor, a former girlfriend who was 15 at the time. The girl, now 16, is pregnant, perhaps with Gell's child. The girl's father also was charged with having sex with her -- and with her older sister. The sex case would, by itself, capture the spotlight in Bertie County, tucked in the northeast corner of the state. But with Gell's notoriety, the glare is brighter. Gell, 31, spent nine years behind bars, half of it on death row, for the April 1995 murder of Allen Ray Jenkins, a retired truck driver. He was awarded a new trial in 2002 because prosecutors withheld evidence showing he was in jail when the murder occurred. The prosecutors also withheld tapes of two 15-year-old girls, their key witnesses, saying they had to make up a story. Gell, whose case has been covered extensively in The News & Observer, was tried again in February 2004 and was quickly acquitted by a Bertie County jury. Once freed, Gell crusaded against the death penalty and was a vocal critic of the criminal justice system. His case led to major changes in state law, including a mandate for prosecutors to share their investigative files with defendants before all felony trials. His case drew statewide and national attention, including appearances on "Larry King Live" and BBC World Service in December. Gell became a friend of the girl's family last summer and regularly went motorcycle riding with the girl's parents. According to documents filed by the State Bureau of Investigation, Gell had sex with the girl in his home about once a week from late August until December. Gell was a frequent visitor at the family's home, and e-mail messages between Gell and the girl revealed a strong emotional relationship, the SBI said. The victim's mother learned in December that her daughter was pregnant. Gates County Sheriff Edward E. Webb started an investigation focusing on the girl's father, who was suspected of having sex with the girl and her sister, who was 16 at the time, for several years. Gell did not know of the girl's father's alleged sexual abuse of his daughters, Webb said. Webb and District Attorney Valerie Asbell declined to say whether Gell or the girl's father impregnated her. She is about 24 weeks pregnant.
The girl's father was arrested Wednesday afternoon on 21 charges of rape and indecent liberties and held with bail set at $315,000, according to Gates Clerk of Court Nell Wiggins. He is charged with having sex with his two oldest daughters. The News & Observer is withholding the identity of the girl and her father because of the newspaper's policy not to identify victims of sex crimes. 1 drug, 31 sex charges Gell was charged with 14 counts of statutory rape -- one for each sexual encounter in his home in Lewiston -- and 14 counts of indecent liberties with a minor. He was also charged with one count of cocaine possession, one count of sexual exploitation of a minor -- for allegedly photographing them having sex -- and two counts of statutory sex offense. Under North Carolina law, sex with a minor is rape if the victim is 15 or younger and the offender is six or more years older. Statutory rape is a difficult charge to defend. Ignorance of the victim's age or a profession of consent by the victim does not matter. Interested parties Just before 9 a.m. Wednesday, a small gaggle of television cameras waited for Gell outside the Bertie County Sheriff's office. The lead investigator in the Jenkins murder, SBI Special Agent Dwight Ransome, drove by slowly. A few minutes later, Gell arrived with his lawyer, Thomas Manning of Raleigh. He was fingerprinted. A magistrate set bail at $322,000. Gell walked down the street to the courthouse as television crews and photographers captured every step. He walked with his arm around an aunt and holding the hand of his wife, Kristin Gell, whom he married Friday in Maryland. Gell met Kristin, 17, after his release from prison. The news of Gell's arrest did not surprise the family of Allen Ray Jenkins, the murder victim. "I knew he would get in trouble again, beyond a shadow of a doubt," said David Ray, Jenkins' son. "They were watching him like a hawk and waiting for him to mess up." Manning, the lawyer, declined to comment, beyond thanking Asbell, the district attorney, for letting Gell turn himself in. "She arranged a surrender rather than having the agents pulling him out of his house first thing in the morning," Manning said. "This was routine, not ugly."
Copyright (c) 2006, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.),
(213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.
Article CJ144443351
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 9:51:30 GMT -5
Former inmate: System is flawed.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 The Lima News
Byline: Beth L. Jokinen
Apr. 13--BLUFFTON -- While waiting on death row at the Lucasville Penitentiary for a crime he didn't commit, Gary Beeman spent his time studying legal books.
And when the chance came in 1979, he used what he learned to defend himself and prove his innocence.
"I was upset. I was angry. I was frustrated," Beeman said Wednesday of being wrongly convicted. "I swore I would never put my life or liberty in the hands of an attorney again. I said I would defend myself."
Beeman, who now lives in Niagara Falls, N.Y., told his story to about 100 people at Bluffton University on Wednesday. He has become very active in the movement against the death penalty.
"I don't believe capital punishment can be fairly or evenly administered," he said. "We think this is saving money and it's not."
Beeman was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to death in 1976. From the beginning of his trial, he maintained his innocence and that Claire Liuzzo, an escaped prisoner who testified as the main prosecution witness at Beeman's first trial, was the actual killer.
Beeman was granted a new trial in 1978, with the 10th District Court of Appeals finding Beeman's right to cross-examine Liuzzo had been unfairly restricted during the first trial. On retrial, with the help of an attorney, five witnesses testified that they heard Liuzzo confess to the murder. Beeman was acquitted in 1979.
Beeman said he was lucky, saying his story is much different from most on death row, partly because he is white and had family and support.
"I was upset by the [first] verdict, but I was confident that I would get a second try," he said. "That is not a common feeling of people on death row. Most feel hopeless."
Beeman said that nationally there are eight executions to every one exoneration. In Ohio, there are 20 executions to every five exonerations. He said the state desperately needs to stop executions and take a better look at the issue.
"If GM produced a car where in every eighth car the air bag was faulty, they would recall those cars," he said. "There is nowhere in society where we would tolerate a failure rate like that, and we are talking about people's lives."
Beeman said it is usually the poor, disenfranchised and minority who end up on death row.
"It is about power. There is no rich man I know that is on death row," he said. "We tend to think that the worst of the worst are the ones who go to death row. That is simply not true."
Copyright (c) 2006, The Lima News, Ohio
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.),
(213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.
Article CJ144443189
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 9:50:20 GMT -5
Local student wins C-SPAN competition with death penalty video: Documentary: "Is the Death Penalty Dead?".
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 Tulsa World
Byline: Jason Collington
Apr. 10--His documentary is called "Is the Death Penalty Dead?" Scott Hemphill chose the title because, at 17, he had a lot of questions about the issue. The answers he found didn't just satisfy his own curiosity, but also won him a national award. Hemphill, a junior at Broken Arrow Senior High School, received first prize and a $1,000 cash award in C-SPAN's StudentCam, a national competition that invited middle- and high-school students to produce a documentary exploring a current political topic. Megan Aud, Victoria Johnson and Shannon Keller, eighth-grade students at Sequoyah Middle School in Broken Arrow, earned an honorable mention and $250 for their documentary titled "Wildfires Update 2006." The competition was sponsored by C-SPAN Classroom, a free service dedicated to helping teachers use its programming in classrooms. C-SPAN provides public access to the political process.
Students entered videos that touched on issues that ranged from federal wiretapping to video game violence. "We think it's important for our viewers to know what students are thinking about," said Joanne Wheeler, C-SPAN's vice president of education relations, during a telephone interview. "They are the next generation of voters." Hemphill picked the death penalty for his documentary because of the debate that surrounded the December execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams. A former member of the violent Crips street gang, Williams was put to death for the 1979 robbery murders of four people in Los Angeles. In prison, Williams became an anti-gang crusader. "I really wanted to figure out what was really going on there," Hemphill said. "There is a lot more to the death penalty than most people think." So he began calling on people with views on both sides of the issue. His first interview was with Tulsa lawyer Rob Nigh, who defended Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. He then talked to Tulsa County First Assistant District Attorney Doug Drummond. Hemphill also interviewed a priest who leads vigils outside the penitentiary during executions in Oklahoma State Prison in McAlester. He then talked to Oklahomans who have had loved ones killed by people sentenced to death row and a man in Oklahoma City whose son was executed. During a trip to McAlester to get footage at the state penitentiary, Hemphill and his father, John, slid on the ice and totaled their van. The accident left the father and son with scratches and bruises, but it didn't stop them from renting a car and continuing with the trip. Hemphill edited the resulting four hours of video in his bedroom. The finished product was a 10-minute documentary. "I said before I went in, I would not make up my mind on what to think until I was done," he said. "I think that is the problem with the media today. It is either too liberal or too conservative."
Wheeler of C-SPAN said there's a reason why the top contest videos will be shown on the channel. "They are all very well put together," she said. "And Scott did great not only with the content but technically. It's really amazing." Keith Isbell, a Broken Arrow Public Schools spokesman and former reporter for KJRH, channel 2, added: "Scott's documentary is good enough to run on any network." Hemphill already is working on another documentary. He's editing and doing the graphics for one from a production company in Atlanta. The film looks at an animal sanctuary in Florida that takes in tigers. In addition to his filming, he records music and is involved in the school's musicals. He's also in advance placement classes. "I have a pretty tight schedule," he said. "Sometimes I sleep." ------------
Copyright (c) 2006, Tulsa World, Okla.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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Post by CCADP on Apr 13, 2006 7:02:26 GMT -5
A matter of law and death
As much as Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature would like to provide death row inmates with representation on the cheap, Florida courts are nobly standing in the way. The latest ruling by a circuit court in Leon County rejects an attempt by lawmakers to punish lawyers who provide their clients with legal assistance beyond a set number of compensated hours. It is a victory for due process and the proper administration of justice.
If this state has learned anything through the multiple exonerations of prisoners through DNA evidence, it is that the criminal justice system is fallible. Providing additional due process before taking a prisoner's life helps ensure that the right person was convicted and the procedure was fair.
But for years the governor has tried to find ways to handicap the attorneys who do post-conviction death penalty appeals. He and Republican lawmakers have been frustrated by the success rate of the state offices of Capital Collateral Regional Counsel in suspending executions and getting death sentences set aside due to faulty process.
In 2003, Bush engineered the closure of one of the three highly specialized CCRC offices, replacing it with a list of private lawyers who generally had little experience handling death row appeals. The attorneys who signed up to be on the registry had to promise to limit their representation to 840 compensated hours. It was a figure that didn't come close to the number of hours that an average death penalty case requires, which was closer to 3,000. The idea was to provide a lawyer, but not a very good one. Last year, Florida Supreme Court Justice Raoul Cantero described the legal work of the registry lawyers as "the worst lawyering I've seen."
The cap on fees was a clear attempt to keep attorneys from providing their clients with the full defense they are entitled to and was soon abrogated by the Florida Supreme Court. But not to be outmaneuvered, the Legislature came right back and adjusted the law to bar any attorney who requested fees above the stated maximums from remaining on the state registry. Late last month, Leon Circuit Judge Terry Lewis set aside that provision, too.
There is no reason for the state to appeal this latest ruling. Florida courts are not going to allow the Legislature to direct attorneys to violate their professional responsibilities toward their clients.
Experience has demonstrated that post-conviction death penalty work is most effectively handled by lawyers who specialize in the practice. To its credit, the Legislature is considering legislation (H.B. 325, C.S./S.B. 360) to substantially raise the minimum standards for all registry attorneys. Still, the CCRC model serves justice and Florida's court system best. The state should reopen the office that was closed.
(source: Editorial, St. Petersburg Times)
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Post by CCADP on Apr 13, 2006 7:02:06 GMT -5
Ex-death row inmate to speak in focus on capital punishment
As the modern era of executions began in Utah in January 1977 with the death-by-firing-squad of Gary Gilmore, a man named Gary Beeman was sitting on Ohio's death row.
"I remember I stayed up and listened to it on the radio," Beeman said of Gilmore's execution, the nation's 1st in a decade. "It was a shock, it was a real shock."
While Beeman awaited his own date with death, he, unlike Gilmore, was armed with the knowledge that he was innocent.
After he had spent four years in prison for aggravated murder, Beeman won a new trial, served largely as his own attorney and was acquitted in 1979.
Beeman showed the 2nd jury that the state's key witness in the 1st trial had bragged to 5 witnesses that he was the real killer and was framing Beeman.
Now Beeman of Niagara Falls, N.Y., is back in Ohio as part of a speaking tour of colleges and universities. He'll speak Tuesday before a criminal justice class at Sinclair Community College.
It's the 1st time Beeman has taken his story to the public. He said his aim is to start a dialogue on capital punishment.
Beeman says the death penalty "is totally unfair. It's wrong. It's about power. It's not about truth, it's not about justice, it's not about right."
The rate of false capital convictions is unacceptably high, he said, noting there have been 5 exonerations in Ohio since 1979 and 20 executions since 1999.
"What if 1 out of 4 air bags fail? 1 out of 4 airplanes crash? Nobody would put up with that (failure rate)," Beeman said. "And we're talking about people's lives."
Sinclair instructor Cynthia Baugh-Gunder said Beeman's message "is not so much to abolish the death penalty, but that the system is flawed."
After well-publicized exonerations here and in other states, she said, "people in Ohio are starting to question not whether the death penalty is wrong, but is the system wrong."
(source: Dayton Daily News)
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Post by CCADP on Apr 13, 2006 7:01:46 GMT -5
Illinois Supreme Court upholds death penalty for Stark County man
In Springfield, the Illinois Supreme Court today upheld the death sentence for a man who killed a police officer and 2 of his neighbors in Stark County.
Lawyers for Curtis Thompson had argued the death penalty was excessive because he was mentally disturbed.
But the Supreme Court ruled 5-to-1 that the shootings were part of an escalating pattern of violence by Thompson. He had a criminal record of assaults and other misdemeanors dating to 1967.
His actions turned deadly in 2002, when a deputy visited Thompson's home about a warrant.
Thompson killed the deputy, then shot 2 neighbors and led police on a low-speech chase through town.
Justice Mary Ann McMorrow voted to overturn Thompson's death sentence. She says his mental problems make life in prison the appropriate sentence.
(source: Associated Press)
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Post by CCADP on Apr 13, 2006 7:01:28 GMT -5
Use death penalty
The death penalty is good because criminals should get the punishment they deserve. Why shouldn't a murderer go through the same pain as his or her victim?
There are many methods used for the death penalty. The United States uses lethal injection, electrocution, gas chambers, hanging or firing squads. The majority of the states use lethal injection.
Some people think the death penalty is horrible. People against the death penalty think, "Why should we kill another person, even if they deserve it?"
However, most people who kill others don't care about their own family and their own lives. They suppose their victim won't care either.
ELIZABETH ODD Age 14 Mount Laurel
(source: Letter to the Editor, Courier Post)
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Post by CCADP on Apr 13, 2006 7:01:04 GMT -5
Death penalty cases flooding S.C.----Lexington County, with 10 pending trials, to start jury selection today to resolve 2002 killing
Death penalty cases -- 12 death penalty cases are awaiting trial in the 11th Circuit - 10 of them in Lexington County.
As many as 5 trials - including 2 in Edgefield County - could be heard this year. Edgefield County hasn't tried a death penalty case since 1993; Lexington County since 2003.
"If you do three in a year, you're doing 1 every 120 days," 11th Circuit Deputy Solicitor Dayton Riddle said.
"That's a brutal year."
And it begins today, with jury selection in Lexington County's 1st death penalty trial in 3 years.
Richland County, in the 5th Circuit, has 4 pending death penalty trials, with the 1st scheduled for July 16, according to court records.
Death penalty cases are the most complex and expensive in criminal court. If jurors are sequestered, renting hotels rooms and feeding them can cost taxpayers up to $100,000 per case, said Beth Carrigg, Lexington County clerk of court.
Seven of the 10 Lexington County cases are retrials after convictions or sentences were overturned by the state Supreme Court. One defendant, Raymond Patterson, has been tried and sentenced to death 3 times for the same murder, the 1984 slaying of a West Virginia man.
5 people have been executed from Lexington County since 1985. 10 people are on death row from the 11th Circuit.
Along with paying for the prosecution, taxpayers often end up paying for the defense. Patton Adams, director of the state Indigent Defense Commission, said about 85 percent of all defendants in criminal court are indigent.
The commission, which operates from state money, has paid $1.4 million on its 15 pending capital cases statewide, Adams said. The most expensive case costs $244,000, with about $178,000 going to attorney fees.
The difference between "trying a murder and trying a death penalty case is about the same as putting a Band-Aid on a cut and doing neurosurgery," said Columbia defense attorney Bill Nettles, who has tried 7 capital cases.
In the Lexington trial that starts today, Kevin Mercer, 28, is charged with murder in connection with the 2002 shooting death of 35-year-old Tracy Lamar Davis, who was an Army sergeant stationed at Fort Jackson.
Eleventh Circuit Solicitor Donnie Myers' office plans to try 3 to 5 death penalty cases this year, including the Edgefield cases, Riddle said.
Myers was unavailable for comment for this story because of the April 3 death of his wife.
Two of the cases have been assigned to other solicitors because of a conflict of interest in Myers office. Those cases will be tried in Lexington County but handled by another prosecutor.
Each trial can take up to 3 weeks, including jury selection, the guilt phase and the penalty phase. In a death penalty trial, a jury, not a judge, decides the sentence. For the Mercer trial, Carrigg said the county sent about 350 summons to potential jurors - twice as many as normal.
Most death penalty juries are sequestered, and the clerk of court's office is responsible for providing jurors food, hotel accommodations and entertainment.
For example, Lexington County began preparing for the Mercer trial 8 weeks ago, Carrigg said. 7 SLED agents will stay with the jurors at all times.
"It's more than we would like for it to be," Carrigg said about the number of death penalty cases in Lexington County. "If we could try three a year, that takes four years to get rid of those 12 cases. And in the meantime, they are just sitting in jail, and the citizens are footing the bill."
Mercer has complained many times about how long it has taken his case to come to trial. In a letter dated Aug. 2, 2005, to 11th Circuit Judge William Keesley, Mercer wrote, "either my case get called up for court or I ask the courts to set me a bond, so that I can go home to my family!"
Delays have been an issue in the case of Gene Tony Cooper, who was sentenced to death in 1991. In 1994, the state Supreme Court reversed the sentence, ruling that the judge should have allowed Cooper to speak to the jury during the guilt phase of his trial.
In August 2002, the court also reversed Cooper's conviction on the non-capital charges of armed robbery and conspiracy and ordered a new trial. His capital murder conviction still stands.
First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe will try the case in May. Cooper is represented by David Bruck, director of the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse and a longtime foe of Myers in capital cases. Bruck has repeatedly filed motions to dismiss the charges against Cooper, claiming Myers violated Coopers constitutional right to a speedy trial.
In South Carolina, prosecutors, not judges, control the court docket in criminal court. Court documents show that in 2004, Myers said during a hearing that he would try Cooper's case in the spring of that year.
In April 2005, Judge William Keesley ordered that the case be heard before the end of the year. 3 months later, Myers recused himself from the case because one of his deputy solicitors, Rick Hubbard, was the law clerk to the trial judge during Cooper's 1st case.
Bruck again asked Keesley to dismiss the charges and requested the trial begin before classes started at Washington and Lee University law school, where Bruck teaches.
Keesley denied the motion, citing at least 8 pending death penalty cases that were competing for scheduling.
He ruled that while the court has "frequently expressed its deep concern about the length of time that people accused of crimes are being required to sit in jail (in this case on death row) awaiting trial ... there are many reasons for this situation, including the explosive growth of this county."
Death penalty cases can face delays at all stages, Riddle said, including the clerk of courts office assembling a jury pool, the solicitor's office not having enough people to process the cases, and defense attorneys with scheduling conflicts.
"There's a different number of bottlenecks that you can hit." (source: The State)
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Post by CCADP on Apr 13, 2006 7:00:42 GMT -5
Beauty pageants campaign against death penalty
Beauty pageants are campaigning against the death penalty in Iran and are asking in particular for the suspension of the capital punishment for Nazanin, an 18-year-old woman who was sentenced to death for killing a year ago 1 of 3 men who tried to rape her.
In a petition addressed to the United Nations and Iran, the committee has demanded a new trial for Nazanin.
The campaign is promoted by an Iranian woman, Nazanin Afshar Jam, a former Miss Canada, who involved Miss United States, Great Britain, Spain, New Zealand, Belgium, Australia, Germany, France and India.
Italy also set up a committee promoted by former European human rights commissioner Emma Bonino to support Nazanin's cause.
Shadi Sadr, a jurist and women's rights activist, told Adnkronos International (AKI) that the "campaigns abroad supporting Nazanin's cause are crucial."
(source: Alarab)
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Post by CCADP on Apr 13, 2006 7:00:16 GMT -5
2002 Bali bomber relatives waive death penalty appeal
The family of a man convicted for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings said they will not pursue clemency on his behalf, allowing the Indonesian government to carry out his death sentence, according to a spokesman for the attorney general Tuesday. Imam Samudra has indicated that he wishes to die under the belief that it would grant him "martyrdom." The attorney general's spokesman did not say whether an execution date has yet been confirmed.
Victims of the 2002 bombings and other protestors have previously called on the government to expedite the executions of those involved in the Bali bombings, but under Indonesian law convicts and their families must be given the opportunity to pursue all avenues for appeal before such a sentence is carried out. 3 men, including Samudra, who were convicted in the bombings refused to seek presidential pardons against their death sentences last October.
(source: Associated Press)
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