[Deathpenalty]death penalty news --- N.Y. / USA; CALIF. / HAWAII

[Joerg Sommer]

death penalty news

July 21, 2004


NEW YORK / USA:

NY, Other States Urge Death Penalty Ban for Juveniles

The New York Attorney General's Office has filed an amicus brief on behalf 
of eight states, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to ban the execution of 
people for crimes they committed when they were under 18.

The brief, filed Monday, urges the Court to uphold a ruling of the Missouri 
Supreme Court.

By a 4-3 vote, the Missouri court overturned the death sentence of 
Christopher Simmons for murdering a woman during a robbery in 1993, when he 
was 17.

In 1988, the Supreme Court banned the execution of youths younger than 16 
in Thompson v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 815. The question in the Missouri case, 
Roper v. Simmons, 03-633, which is expected to be argued in October, is 
whether the execution for the crimes of youths 16 and 17 is constitutional 
under the Eighth Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment.

New York has banned such execution since at least 1963, and the state had 
no death penalty on its books from 1977 until 1995. When it re-enacted 
capital punishment in 1995, it carried forward the ban on executions for 
the crimes of juveniles.

In addition to New York, the brief was submitted on behalf of Iowa, Kansas, 
Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon and West Virginia. New York 
Solicitor General Caitlin J. Halligan, Deputy Solicitor General Daniel 
Smirlock and Assistant Solicitor Generals Jean Lin and Julie Loughran are 
the counsel of record on the brief.

(source: New York Lawyer)


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CALIFORNIA / HAWAII:

Former Isle man won't face death penalty

Former Hawai'i resident Eddie Rapoza, charged with murdering his wife and 
two daughters, will not face the death penalty in California.

San Mateo County Deputy District Attorney Al Giannini said yesterday his 
office determined the death pen-alty would not be appropriate, and that 
Ra-poza, 37, should be subject to a sentence of life imprisonment without 
the possibility of parole if convicted of first-degree murder.

Rapoza, of Foster City, Calif., is accused of driving a 2002 Dodge Caravan 
over a 150-foot sea cliff near Moss Beach on Oct. 6, 2002, killing his 
wife, Raye Rapoza, 34, their 4-year-old daughter, Tehani, and the nearly 
8-month-old female fetus Raye was carrying.

Rapoza has said it was an accident and that his foot got stuck between the 
accelerator and the brake pedal. He said police elicited a confession from 
him while he was in the hospital, seriously injured and incoherent from 
painkillers and other medication.

Prosecutors say Rapoza had a history of abusing his wife and purposely 
crashed the minivan in an apparent murder-suicide attempt.

Raye Rapoza's sister, Robin Pang of Belmont, Calif., said she accepts the 
district attorney's decision. "Nothing brings her or Tehani back. The main 
thing is we want to make sure there's a fair trial and that justice is 
served," she said yesterday.

The Rapozas were high school sweethearts from Wai'anae. Raye Rapoza was a 
1986 Kamehameha Schools graduate and her husband attended Wai'anae High 
School. They moved to Maui in 1990, leaving for California in 1996. While 
on Maui, Raye Rapoza obtained a restraining order against her husband, 
saying he was abusive and had threatened to drive them both off a cliff.

(source: Honolulu Advertiser)