Post by CCADP on Aug 20, 2005 9:10:07 GMT -5
Death sentence: Why not?
Some convicted killers will never face the death penalty in a courtroom. Many people wonder why that is. Local prosecutors say the issue just isn't that simple.
By Janet Kelley
Lancaster New Era
Published: Aug 19, 2005 5:10 PM EST
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LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Three people were tortured before they died.
Two victims were murdered just so they couldn’t testify in court.
Four other people were intentionally murdered after their killers committed other serious crimes.
Now, seven Lancaster County men are on death row: Orlando Baez and Landon May, who tortured their victims; Francis Harris and Kevin Dowling, who killed witnesses; Robert Zook, a burglar; and Tedor Davido and Freeman May, who raped or tried to rape their victims.
But not all violent crimes end in a death sentence.
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With last week’s announcement that prosecutors would not seek the death penalty against the man accused of killing Cortney Fry, some asked why.
Why would the district attorney not seek death for someone who allegedly had a history of domestic violence with the victim and who police said killed the young mother of a two-week-old baby, tossed her body out a window and then set her on fire?
The answer is in Pennsylvania’s death penalty law.
The law is written so that the death penalty is not imposed randomly.
First, a person must be convicted of first-degree murder — an intentional killing.
Then at least one of 18 specified aggravated circumstances must be present before prosecutors can ask that the death penalty be imposed.
If none of those aggravated circumstances is present, the penalty is life in prison without parole.
“In any case where an aggravating circumstance exists,’’ said Lancaster County District Attorney Donald Totaro, “our office files a notice of intent to seek a sentence of death, which then allows the jury to determine the appropriate sentence.’’
Totaro said seeking the death penalty every time it’s appropriate avoids accusations from defense attorneys “that we arbitrarily discriminate for or against certain defendants.’’
But, Totaro continued, “we do take into consideration other factors...While certain homicides may qualify for the death penalty, we have been faced with situations where family members of victims have expressed a preference for a life sentence rather than death.’’
“Some want a guaranteed guilty plea to life in prison, believing that is worse than a sentence of death. Some have stated they have religious reasons for opposing the death penalty. There are also those who don’t want to deal with a lengthy trial and many years of appeals.
“Our office gives great deference to the wishes of crime victims and their families,’’ Totaro said.
In the Cortney Fry case, prosecutors said, none of the specified aggravating circumstances is present in the young Columbia woman’s case.
If new evidence of aggravating circumstances is revealed, Assistant District Attorney Christopher Hackman said last week, prosecutors may change their position.
Not only must there be at least one aggravating circumstance, but the jury must decide if it outweighs any mitigating circumstances.
Mitigating circumstances include such things as the defendant’s age, a lack of significant prior criminal history, an impaired ability to appreciate that actions are criminal, or actions taken under extreme mental or emotional disturbance.
Aggravating circumstances are more specific.
· If, in the cases of Harris and Dowling, the victim was a prosecution witness to a serious crime committed by the defendant and was killed for the purpose of preventing his or her testimony in court — that is an aggravating circumstance.
Daryl Martin, a 22-year-old store clerk who lived with his mother, had witnessed Harris, now 38, assault a woman and was scheduled to testify against him in court. Before that could happen, Martin was lured to a Columbia Avenue restaurant and murdered in the parking lot in 1997.
Jennifer Myers, a York County shopkeeper and the mother of two young boys, had been robbed and sexually assaulted in 1996 by Dowling, of East Petersburg, who is now 47. The day before she was to testify against him the following year, she was murdered.
· If, as in the case of Zook, now 45, the defendant committed a killing while in the perpetration of a felony, specifically burglary, that is an aggravating circumstance.
Since Zook killed two people, he was sentenced to death twice.
Paul Conard, 55, and his 19-year-old girlfriend, Sandra Wiker, were bound and gagged before Zook and his friends killed them in Conard’s North Queen Street typewriter repair shop during a burglary in 1985.
The elder May, now 57, also was sentenced to death for killing during a felony crime, in his case, attempted rape.
May was arrested and convicted for taking two Lancaster County girls to a wooded area of Lebanon County in December 1982 where he raped one and stabbed both. They survived.
Six years later, the skeletal remains of another Lancaster woman, Kathy Lynn Fair — who had been missing since September 1982 — were discovered in the same Lebanon County location. May was convicted and sentenced to death for her murder and attempted rape.
Davido, now 29, was convicted of raping and killing his estranged girlfriend, Angelina Taylor, in the Lancaster City home they shared in 2000.
· If, as in the case of Baez, now 44, and the younger May, now 23, each tortured their victims before killing them, that is an aggravating circumstance.
Baez was sentenced to death for torturing Janice “Sissy’’ Williams in 1987. Police said she was also raped and beaten.
Williams would have been alive and conscious, prosecutors said, while she was stabbed more than 80 times. Her small children, who were in the next room during her murder, were left alone with the body.
The younger May was sentenced to death for torturing Terry Smith and sexually assaulting Lucy Smith before killing them while burglarizing the couple’s Ephrata home in 2001.
Police said he bound his victims with duct tape, then stabbed, shot and suffocated the couple. The torture, along with the sexual assault of Mrs. Smith, were considered two aggravating circumstances in May’s case.
In an unusual twist, one of the mitigating arguments the younger May used in his defense was that his father is already on death row.
· A contract killing, whether the person paid someone else or was paid to kill someone else. In Lancaster County, Roderick Frey, now 68, was sentenced to death for hiring a man to kill his estranged wife, Barbara Jean, in 1979.
In 1997, the state appeals court decided the judge’s instructions to the jury were ambiguous and changed his sentence to life in prison without parole, like the sentence of the two men convicted of killing the woman.
· If the defendant was the subject of a protection from abuse court order restricting his behavior.
In 1998, Leroy Stallworth, now 31, was sentenced to death for gunning down his estranged wife, Natasha Turner-Stallworth, in her Lancaster City home.
But the sentence was later changed to life in prison when the state appeals court said that Stallworth had not received notice of the PFA, so it could not be used as an aggravated circumstance.
· In a pending homicide case, Christina Colon, of Lancaster, was five months pregnant when she was found murdered in a York County quarry last summer. Her boyfriend, Damien Schlager, is awaiting trial in the case and prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty.
A victim’s pregnancy is an aggravating circumstance under the law.
· Other aggravating circumstances that can be used include whether the victim was a law enforcement officer or someone else in authority and killed in the line of duty;
If the victim was under 12, a government informant, a hostage, or was killed while the defendant was hijacking an aircraft;
If the killing was connected to a drug deal or placed someone, in addition to the victim, at risk of death;
If the defendant has a significant history of felony convictions involving violence;
If the defendant had been convicted of voluntary manslaughter, murder, or any other crime in which the sentence could have been life in prison.
Each death penalty case is automatically and carefully reviewed by the state Supreme Court. There are currently 218 men and women on Pennsylvania’s Death Row. The last person executed in the state, by lethal injection, was in 1999.
Some convicted killers will never face the death penalty in a courtroom. Many people wonder why that is. Local prosecutors say the issue just isn't that simple.
By Janet Kelley
Lancaster New Era
Published: Aug 19, 2005 5:10 PM EST
Subscribe to
Home Delivery
Article Tools
Link to This Article
Printer Friendly Format
Order a Reprint
Email This Article
Most Emailed Articles
Related Articles
More Lead Story
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Three people were tortured before they died.
Two victims were murdered just so they couldn’t testify in court.
Four other people were intentionally murdered after their killers committed other serious crimes.
Now, seven Lancaster County men are on death row: Orlando Baez and Landon May, who tortured their victims; Francis Harris and Kevin Dowling, who killed witnesses; Robert Zook, a burglar; and Tedor Davido and Freeman May, who raped or tried to rape their victims.
But not all violent crimes end in a death sentence.
Advertisement
"Animal Tracks" Sterling Silver Cuff Bracelet
Coyote Trails $65.99
Golf Balls
LancasterOnline $13.30
Federal Artillery License Plate
Battle Field Dry Goods $8.95
With last week’s announcement that prosecutors would not seek the death penalty against the man accused of killing Cortney Fry, some asked why.
Why would the district attorney not seek death for someone who allegedly had a history of domestic violence with the victim and who police said killed the young mother of a two-week-old baby, tossed her body out a window and then set her on fire?
The answer is in Pennsylvania’s death penalty law.
The law is written so that the death penalty is not imposed randomly.
First, a person must be convicted of first-degree murder — an intentional killing.
Then at least one of 18 specified aggravated circumstances must be present before prosecutors can ask that the death penalty be imposed.
If none of those aggravated circumstances is present, the penalty is life in prison without parole.
“In any case where an aggravating circumstance exists,’’ said Lancaster County District Attorney Donald Totaro, “our office files a notice of intent to seek a sentence of death, which then allows the jury to determine the appropriate sentence.’’
Totaro said seeking the death penalty every time it’s appropriate avoids accusations from defense attorneys “that we arbitrarily discriminate for or against certain defendants.’’
But, Totaro continued, “we do take into consideration other factors...While certain homicides may qualify for the death penalty, we have been faced with situations where family members of victims have expressed a preference for a life sentence rather than death.’’
“Some want a guaranteed guilty plea to life in prison, believing that is worse than a sentence of death. Some have stated they have religious reasons for opposing the death penalty. There are also those who don’t want to deal with a lengthy trial and many years of appeals.
“Our office gives great deference to the wishes of crime victims and their families,’’ Totaro said.
In the Cortney Fry case, prosecutors said, none of the specified aggravating circumstances is present in the young Columbia woman’s case.
If new evidence of aggravating circumstances is revealed, Assistant District Attorney Christopher Hackman said last week, prosecutors may change their position.
Not only must there be at least one aggravating circumstance, but the jury must decide if it outweighs any mitigating circumstances.
Mitigating circumstances include such things as the defendant’s age, a lack of significant prior criminal history, an impaired ability to appreciate that actions are criminal, or actions taken under extreme mental or emotional disturbance.
Aggravating circumstances are more specific.
· If, in the cases of Harris and Dowling, the victim was a prosecution witness to a serious crime committed by the defendant and was killed for the purpose of preventing his or her testimony in court — that is an aggravating circumstance.
Daryl Martin, a 22-year-old store clerk who lived with his mother, had witnessed Harris, now 38, assault a woman and was scheduled to testify against him in court. Before that could happen, Martin was lured to a Columbia Avenue restaurant and murdered in the parking lot in 1997.
Jennifer Myers, a York County shopkeeper and the mother of two young boys, had been robbed and sexually assaulted in 1996 by Dowling, of East Petersburg, who is now 47. The day before she was to testify against him the following year, she was murdered.
· If, as in the case of Zook, now 45, the defendant committed a killing while in the perpetration of a felony, specifically burglary, that is an aggravating circumstance.
Since Zook killed two people, he was sentenced to death twice.
Paul Conard, 55, and his 19-year-old girlfriend, Sandra Wiker, were bound and gagged before Zook and his friends killed them in Conard’s North Queen Street typewriter repair shop during a burglary in 1985.
The elder May, now 57, also was sentenced to death for killing during a felony crime, in his case, attempted rape.
May was arrested and convicted for taking two Lancaster County girls to a wooded area of Lebanon County in December 1982 where he raped one and stabbed both. They survived.
Six years later, the skeletal remains of another Lancaster woman, Kathy Lynn Fair — who had been missing since September 1982 — were discovered in the same Lebanon County location. May was convicted and sentenced to death for her murder and attempted rape.
Davido, now 29, was convicted of raping and killing his estranged girlfriend, Angelina Taylor, in the Lancaster City home they shared in 2000.
· If, as in the case of Baez, now 44, and the younger May, now 23, each tortured their victims before killing them, that is an aggravating circumstance.
Baez was sentenced to death for torturing Janice “Sissy’’ Williams in 1987. Police said she was also raped and beaten.
Williams would have been alive and conscious, prosecutors said, while she was stabbed more than 80 times. Her small children, who were in the next room during her murder, were left alone with the body.
The younger May was sentenced to death for torturing Terry Smith and sexually assaulting Lucy Smith before killing them while burglarizing the couple’s Ephrata home in 2001.
Police said he bound his victims with duct tape, then stabbed, shot and suffocated the couple. The torture, along with the sexual assault of Mrs. Smith, were considered two aggravating circumstances in May’s case.
In an unusual twist, one of the mitigating arguments the younger May used in his defense was that his father is already on death row.
· A contract killing, whether the person paid someone else or was paid to kill someone else. In Lancaster County, Roderick Frey, now 68, was sentenced to death for hiring a man to kill his estranged wife, Barbara Jean, in 1979.
In 1997, the state appeals court decided the judge’s instructions to the jury were ambiguous and changed his sentence to life in prison without parole, like the sentence of the two men convicted of killing the woman.
· If the defendant was the subject of a protection from abuse court order restricting his behavior.
In 1998, Leroy Stallworth, now 31, was sentenced to death for gunning down his estranged wife, Natasha Turner-Stallworth, in her Lancaster City home.
But the sentence was later changed to life in prison when the state appeals court said that Stallworth had not received notice of the PFA, so it could not be used as an aggravated circumstance.
· In a pending homicide case, Christina Colon, of Lancaster, was five months pregnant when she was found murdered in a York County quarry last summer. Her boyfriend, Damien Schlager, is awaiting trial in the case and prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty.
A victim’s pregnancy is an aggravating circumstance under the law.
· Other aggravating circumstances that can be used include whether the victim was a law enforcement officer or someone else in authority and killed in the line of duty;
If the victim was under 12, a government informant, a hostage, or was killed while the defendant was hijacking an aircraft;
If the killing was connected to a drug deal or placed someone, in addition to the victim, at risk of death;
If the defendant has a significant history of felony convictions involving violence;
If the defendant had been convicted of voluntary manslaughter, murder, or any other crime in which the sentence could have been life in prison.
Each death penalty case is automatically and carefully reviewed by the state Supreme Court. There are currently 218 men and women on Pennsylvania’s Death Row. The last person executed in the state, by lethal injection, was in 1999.