[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA.

[Rick Halperin]

July 23


TEXAS:

Texas death row inmate ruled retarded


A judge ruled Friday that Texas' longest-serving death row inmate is
retarded, a decision that will spare the man's life if upheld, officials
said.

At a hearing in May, Walter Bell's attorneys asked that his death sentence
be commuted to life in prison under a U.S. Supreme Court decision banning
the execution of retarded people. Prosecutors argued the ruling did not
apply to Bell, 50, who killed a couple in their Port Arthur home in 1974.

Jefferson County District Attorney Tom Maness said the decision was
expected given the Supreme Court guidelines, which he said do not allow
judges and juries to give enough weight to the crime and its aftermath.

"There is no doubt Walter Bell is not a rocket scientist as most criminals
aren't. But he did have the mental capability to plan and commit one of
the most horrible crimes in Jefferson County," he said.

Bell's attorney, William Christian, disagreed.

"Walter Bell is exactly the kind of person the Supreme Court had in mind,"
he said.

As early as 1963, Bell was listed in school records as mentally retarded
with an IQ in the mid-50s. The threshold for mental retardation has been
accepted as 70. Prosecutors said IQ tests of that era have been criticized
and could be flawed by as many as 15 points.

Jefferson County District Judge Charles Carver's ruling will be
automatically appealed to Texas' highest criminal court. Both Christian
and Maness said they expect the decision will be upheld, and Bell's
sentence commuted to life in prison.

Maness said he would oppose any effort to have Bell paroled.

(source: Associated Press)

********************

Killer wins chance for federal appeal--Judge denies Texas' motion to
dismiss incompetency claim


Attorneys for convicted killer Scott Panetti - who wore a purple cowboy
costume during his 1995 trial - will get a chance to argue in federal
court that their client's mental illness makes him incompetent to be
executed. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks on Wednesday denied the state's
motion to dismiss Mr. Panetti's claim of incompetency.

Judge Sparks, who authorized funds for experts and investigators, set a
hearing for Aug. 23, the Houston Chronicle reported Friday.

In February, Judge Sparks halted Mr. Panetti's execution one day before
Mr. Panetti was to be put to death for the 1992 murders of his estranged
wife's parents in Fredricksburg.

The execution stay allowed Mr. Panetti's lawyers to ask the state trial
court to determine whether he understands that he is to be executed and
why.

A psychiatrist and psychologist appointed by state District Judge Stephen
Ables of Gillespie County determined that Mr. Panetti is competent after
they jointly interviewed him. They described Mr. Panetti as uncooperative
and interested only in "filibustering about the Bible and the Lord."

They said although Mr. Panetti "chooses not to discuss the reason that he
is to be executed, he has the ability to understand."

Attorney Michael Gross said he will use the investigative authority Judge
Sparks allowed to have different mental health experts meet with Mr.
Panetti.

Mr. Panetti defended himself in 1995. During jury selection, he flipped a
coin to decide whether a potential juror should be seated on the panel.
His initial witness list sought to subpoena Jesus Christ and John F.
Kennedy.

(source: Associated Press)






FLORIDA:

Death Sentence Reinstated for 1966 Murder


Calling it "an extraordinary case" covering 4 decades, a federal appeals
court Friday reinstated a conviction and death sentence in the 1966
contract murder of Sebring citrus and cattle baron Charles Von Maxcy.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta
ruled that William Kelley "suffered no denial of his constitutional
rights" when he was convicted of the murder of Maxcy, arranged by Maxcy's
young wife through her lover.

U.S. District Court Judge Norman Roettger granted Kelley a new trial in
2002, saying that Hardy Pickard, the state prosecutor during the first
trial, withheld basic evidence to secure a conviction.

The appeals court disagreed, saying "Kelley received a full and fair
trial."

"This office is gratified by the 11th Circuit's decision, both because it
reinstates the conviction of a guilty man and because it vindicates Hardy
Pickard," said Chip Thullbery, a spokesman for prosecutors in the Polk
County-based judicial circuit that includes Sebring in Highlands County.

"Hardy is an honorable prosecutor who did not deserve to be treated as he
was by the district court judge," Thullbery said.

In its ruling, the appeals court acknowledged "that this is an
extraordinary case." The state's "key witness was a reprehensible villain
who literally got away with murder," and one of Kelley's attorneys, Harvey
Brower, was "a disgraced and incompetent scoundrel" who had been disbarred
in Massachusetts, the ruling said.

Kelley, of Massachusetts, was convicted in January 1984 of first-degree
murder in the Oct. 3, 1966, stabbing and shooting death of Von Maxcy, 41,
in his ranch home in south-central Florida, about 140 miles northwest of
Miami. He was defended at different times by famed lawyers William
Kunstler and Laurence Tribe.

Kelley's 1st trial ended with a hung jury. He was convicted in a 2nd trial
3 months later, nearly 2 decades after the contract slaying.

John Sweet, the prosecution's star witness, testified at both trials that
Von Maxcy's wife, Sweet's lover, had asked him to arrange the murder
because she feared she would be left out of Von Maxcy's $1.7 million
estate.

Sweet was originally convicted of the murder in a sensational trial that
attracted national news coverage and was sentenced to life. A year later,
Irene Von Maxcy admitted that she had lied on the stand about Sweet's
involvement in her husband's murder and Sweet was set free.

Defense attorneys argued that Kelley had been falsely accused by Sweet,
who named him 15 years after the killing. In return, Sweet received
immunity from the Maxcy murder and from loan-sharking, counterfeiting and
several other charges in Massachusetts.

Irene Von Maxcy served 4 years in prison for a perjury conviction stemming
from her testimony in Sweet's trials.

(source: Associated Press)






ALABAMA:

Appeals court upholds death sentence in 1983 murders


A federal appeals court has rejected the latest appeal of an Alabama death
row inmate sentenced to die for the 1983 murders of 3 members of a St.
Clair County family.

Atlanta-based 11th U-S Circuit Court of Appeals turned down the appeal of
John W. Peoples Junior, sentenced to die for the July 1983 killings of
Paul and Judy Franklin and their ten-year-old son, Paul Franklin Junior.

The appeals court in a ruling issued Tuesday rejected People's claims that
his conviction should be overturned for various reasons, including that
his original arrest was illegal and that his attorneys were ineffective.

According to court records, the bodies of the Franklins were found in a
wooded area in Talladega County, a week after they disappeared from their
home in St. Clair County. They had died after being struck in the head
with a rifle or other object, according to court papers.

Prosecutors charged that Peoples killed the Franklins after Paul Franklin
Senior refused to sell him a red 1968 Corvette.

Peoples is on his 2nd round of appeals through the court system.

(source: Associated Press)