[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., N.Y., MO., COLO.

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 7



TEXAS----execution

Parolee executed for strangling of stepdaughters


A parolee condemned for killing his 2 stepdaughters during a strangling
spree almost 10 years ago that also claimed the life of his wife was
executed tonight.

James Jackson thanked his family and expressed love for them. "This is not
the end but the beginning of a new chapter for you and I together
forever,'' he said.

"See you all later,'' he told witnesses that included a brother and
sister. "We'll be waiting for you,'' a couple of them replied.

"See you all on the other side,'' he said.

Jackson, 47, then told the warden standing over him, "Warden, murder me.''
He then referred to Harris County, where he was convicted, as Sodom and
Gomorrah, the biblical cities destroyed by God for their sins.

"I'm ready to roll. Time to get this party started.''

7 minutes later he was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m.

The 6-foot-7 Jackson, known to fellow death row inmates as "Big Jack,''
insisted he wasn't responsible for the slayings of Sonceria "Sonnie''
Mayes, 19, and her sister Ericka, 18, at the Harris County apartment they
shared with Jackson and his wife, Sharon, 39. Sharon Jackson, the girls'
mother, also was murdered.

The U.S. Supreme Court last month turned down Jackson's request to review
his case. Jackson's lawyer, Kenneth Williams, said legal efforts to block
the execution had been exhausted.

"I'm at peace with the situation,'' Jackson said recently from death row.
"I embrace the execution with open arms. I know if this is the only way I
can be reunited with my family, I accept that.''

A friend of Sharon Jackson became concerned April 9, 1997, when the
normally conscientious woman failed to pick her up for a drive to church.
She called the woman's sister, who went to the apartment and found the 3
bodies.

Jackson was on parole after serving about half of a 10-year sentence for
using a shotgun to wound the elderly father of a former girlfriend in
Dallas. He was arrested the next morning when he returned to the
apartment.

Police found a handwritten note, signed by Jackson, in which he lamented
how he had no job and couldn't care for his wife and stepdaughters.

"I gave them back to God,'' the note said. "He and they will understand.''

Jackson, however, insisted it was a prayer left weeks earlier in a Bible
study folder.

"Everybody I talk to that's a Christian, they understand,'' Jackson said
from death row. "You're giving back to God. They just took it out of
context.''

"That doesn't make any sense,'' said Julian Ramirez, a Harris County
assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case. "He had left the note
at the crime scene. It was an open-and-shut case.''

Prosecutors said the note confirmed a confession Jackson gave to police in
which he acknowledged strangling the 3.

A jury believed the prosecution, convicted Jackson of capital murder after
30 minutes of deliberation, then decided he should be put to death.

In his confession, Jackson said he and his wife had been arguing for
several days over his unemployment and that she intended to divorce him.
>From death row, he said he was on the other side of Houston the day of the
killings, was out all night "gambling and got high.'' When he returned
home the next morning, police investigating the deaths took him into
custody.

In the confession introduced into evidence, he said he killed Sonnie Mayes
when she came home in the afternoon, then killed her sister about 30
minutes later when she arrived home. He called his wife at work at the
Harris County clerk's office to pick her up, told her the girls were
sleeping, then killed her when they got home. Evidence showed he then
pawned the woman's sewing machine and used the money to buy drugs.

Jackson becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Texas and the 383rd overall since the state resumed capital punishment on
December 7, 1982. Jackson becomes the 144th condemned inmate to be put to
death in Texas since Rick Perry became Governor in 2001.

Jackson was the 1st of 3 Texas inmates set to die this month. Newton
Anderson, 30, is scheduled to follow Jackson to the death chamber Feb. 22
for the 1999 slayings of a Tyler couple during a burglary of their home.

Jackson becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
the USA and the 1062nd overall since the nation resumed executons on
January 17, 1977.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

********************* new death sentence

Ex-Pastor Gets Death Penalty


In San Antonio, a jury on Wednesday sentenced a former youth pastor to die
by lethal injection for killing his pregnant girlfriend and their unborn
baby.

Jurors deliberated for about 3 hours before deciding on the punishment for
Adrian Estrada, who fatally stabbed 17-year-old Stephanie Sanchez in 2005.
The other option the jury had was life in prison without parole.

During closing arguments, prosecutors left jurors with one last
description of the defendant.

"Where in a normal person, there would be a conscience, there would be
guilt, there would be grief," said prosecutor Kirsta Nelson, "in Adrian
Estrada, there is nothing."

Nelson also called Estrada a master manipulator and a wolf in sheep's
clothing.

Defense attorneys pleaded with jurors to spare Estrada his life, saying
that he had a clean record prior to the slaying and that he displayed good
behavior while he was in custody.

A Bexar County jury this afternoon decided that a former youth minister
should receive the death penalty for killing his 17-year-old girlfriend
and unborn child.

(source: KSAT News)

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

Judge rejects appeal of woman who pleaded guilty to killing cab driver


A 31-year-old Midland woman's bid to withdraw her guilty plea, stand trial
for capital murder and risk a death sentence has been rejected by 142nd
District Court Judge George Gilles.

Charged in the Nov. 10, 2005, death of Midessa Transportation taxi driver
Rich Cullum, Monica Palmer had claimed her attorneys inadequately
represented her during an appellate hearing in her original trial court
here last Oct. 30-31.

Palmer pleaded guilty on May 9, 2006, and accepted a sentence of life
imprisonment without parole but then claimed she had not understood the
implications of her decision. Gilles' ruling will now be reviewed by the
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin.

Court-appointed attorneys Woody Leverett of Midland and David Zavoda of
Odessa represented her last summer and David Rogers of Midland offered her
appeal.

"In any type of post-conviction writ, effectiveness of counsel is really
the only issue," Rogers said Tuesday. "One of her main hang-ups was she
relied on old law books that said even if you got life, you would still
become parole eligible at some point.

"Mr. Leverett and Mr. Zavoda testified it was their job to save her life
and they did that. They're outstanding criminal defense lawyers. Prison is
exceedingly difficult when you're with your children and suddenly you're
locked up and the realization hits that this is your life forever.

"I think the reality hit her that she is never going to be released unless
the court grants her petition; but had the judge granted the motion, she
could have faced the death penalty again."

Palmer, who has 2 children, was accused of stabbing Cullum in a robbery
attempt, getting behind the wheel and driving south for a mile on North
Terrell Street with the cab driver hanging in his seat belt and dragging
on the asphalt.

Leverett noted District Attorney Al Schorre and First Assistant Teresa
Clingman had filed notice of their intention to seek Palmer's execution by
lethal injection and were certain to use evidence of two previous violent
offenses to prove her "future dangerousness."

Those offenses were robbing and stabbing a pizza delivery man in November
2004 and choking and robbing a convenience store clerk in August the next
year.

Leverett on Tuesday said he and Zavoda "felt like the death penalty
presented an unjustifiable risk for going to trial.

"The state was going to present several things which would have painted a
picture that this was not this woman's only offense," Leverett said. "It
was undisputed that this crime involved a serious drug addiction and I
think that was a big motivating factor.

"Monica was concerned for her kids. I can't even imagine what it would be
like for a parent to go off and serve a life sentence without parole and
leave very young children behind to be raised by someone else.

"Nobody is 100 % pure evil. Everyone has good qualities if you look. She
has values as a human being, so it is a sad, sad thing."

Palmer is incarcerated in the Murray Unit of the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice in Gatesville, shaving her head and being housed in a
single cell since her last Midland appearance, a legal official told the
Reporter-Telegram.

Assistant District Attorney Ralph Petty said her original attorneys and
Gilles repeatedly informed her of the nature of her impending sentence and
it was specified in the plea acceptance document she signed.

"The death penalty was always a viable, realistic possibility if she
insisted on a trial before a jury for the offense of capital murder," said
Petty, who presented the state's evidence at the habeas corpus hearing to
test the constitutionality of previous proceedings. "With the defendant's
prior history and the facts and circumstances of this case, there was a
reasonable probability that a jury would have assessed death.

"The cab driver's killing showed a heart utterly devoid of compassion and
social duty. All murders are regrettable, but this was ruthless and
unnecessary."

Palmer was charged with capital murder rather than 1st-degree felony
murder, for which the possible penalties are five to 99 years or life,
because she killed Cullum during the commission of another felony,
robbery.

(source: MyWestTexas.com)






FLORIDA:

BROWARD COURTS----Broward judge faces ethics charges; A state commission
that looks at judges has filed ethics charges against Broward Circuit
Judge Cheryl Alemn.


Calling her courtroom behavior ''arrogant'' and ''discourteous,'' the
state commission that polices judges filed ethics charges Tuesday with the
Florida Supreme Court against Broward Circuit Judge Cheryl Alemn.

Alemn, long known as a strict judge prone to clashing with attorneys,
could lose her job over the alleged ethics violations, among them "a
pattern of arrogant, discourteous and impatient conduct.''

Alemn, who last month was transferred out of the criminal division and is
now hearing civil cases, did not return calls for comment.

In a formal notice of charges, attorneys for the Judicial Qualification
Commission lambasted Alemn, writing that she has conducted herself "in a
manner that erodes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of
the judiciary.''

NOT ONLY ONE

Aleman is the latest judge to come under fire in Broward. Over the past 2
years, complaints have been filed -- or rumored to have been filed --
against at least 3 other judges, including Circuit Judge Eileen O'Connor,
accused of lying on her application for appointment to the circuit court.
Last fall, a panel cleared O'Connor of misconduct.

Judiciary watchers say the JQC's charges against Alemn, along with public
and rumored complaints against other Broward judges, are sending a message
that judges cannot assume they'll be on the bench for life.

''There's so much frustration here, and anger and resentment, it's
resulting in complaints to Tallahassee,'' said attorney Bill Gelin, one of
several lawyers behind JAABlog, a web site focused on Broward courts that
often criticizes the local judiciary.

The Florida Supreme Court rarely removes judges from the bench. Other
forms of discipline, such as fines, reprimands and suspensions, are more
common remedies.

Last year, after criticism from minority groups over judges' treatment of
blacks and Hispanics, the county's chief judge recommended that all
Broward judges attend sensitivity training.

ALLEGATIONS DETAILED

The notice of charges filed Tuesday details several instances in which
Alemn allegedly behaved with bias or violated judicial rules of conduct.

Among the accusations leveled against the judge:

- That she showed bias against public defenders during the 2006 murder
trial of a Hollywood man, giving unreasonable time to file motions and
threatening to jail them on contempt charges when they tried to have her
removed from the case.

- That she wrongly jailed an attorney last year for missing hearings in
her court. Alemn allegedly ordered him to appear in court, threatening him
with jail, even though she knew he was out of town and unable to appear.

- That she violated judicial ethics in July 2003 when she refused to
release a jailed inmate who was dying of AIDS, despite recommendations of
prosecutors and defense lawyers.

Sandra Perlman and Bruce Raticoff, veteran public defenders who battled
Alemn during the 2006 murder trial, greeted the news of the charges with
relief.

''She cannot act with impunity, she has to take responsibility for her
actions,'' said Perlman, who believes she was unfairly targeted by the
judge because she campaigned for a judicial candidate who ran against
Alemn.

Perlman's client, Lawrence Braynen, suffered because his attorneys had to
defend themselves while they were defending him, she said.

Braynen, who could face the death penalty if he is convicted in the fatal
2001 beating of a child, often felt forgotten amid the courtroom acrimony,
Perlman said.

Alemn's transfer forced the case to go to another judge and is scheduled
for trial next month.

''It's very reassuring to know the JQC is doing their job,'' Raticoff
said.

"This set of events was in my 26 years the most egregious judicial
misconduct I've ever been witness to.''

Alemn has 20 days to file a written response to the charges. She can
choose to agree to some form of discipline, which can range from a public
reprimand before the state Supreme Court, a fine or suspension.

If Alemn chooses to challenge the charges, she or her attorney must argue
the case before a JQC hearing panel.

In either case, the full panel of the state's highest court decides on a
fitting punishment. If she challenges the charges and loses, the Supreme
Court could decide to kick her off the bench.

Appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2001, Alemn first generated controversy
after discussing her religious views at her swearing-in.

(source: Miami Herald)






NEW YORK----federal death penalty trial

Former Leader of Drug Gang Could Face the Death Penalty


A federal jury will begin death penalty deliberations by Friday in the
case of an infamous drug kingpin from Queens.

The jury last week convicted Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff of hiring a hit
team from Harlem to execute 2 rivals in 2001. The penalty phase of the
trial opened yesterday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn and is expected
to conclude tomorrow afternoon.

The prosecution of McGriff is the 3rd capital case since January to unfold
in the U.S. courthouse located at Cadman Plaza.

2 weeks ago, the federal judge presiding over the case, Frederic Block,
expressed severe reservations about allowing the death penalty phase of
the trial to go forward against McGriff. But the prosecution proceeded as
originally planned yesterday, with an assistant U.S. attorney, Jason
Jones, telling the jury that McGriff deserved the "ultimate punishment."

In the 1980s, McGriff led a violent drug gang called the Supreme Team. The
murders that he was involved in occurred after his release from federal
prison, where he had been serving a sentence on drug charges.

"You are here to decide the appropriate sentence for a man who named
himself Supreme and then acted like it," Mr. Jones said.

He told jurors that, following the murder of one of his victims, McGriff
sent a text message to a friend via cellular phone. McGriff 's text
message read, "You missed the party," according to Mr. Jones.

>From his seat at the defense table, McGriff, 46, appeared composed as Mr.
Jones called for his death. McGriff sat with his fingers interlaced in his
lap. He swiveled his chair back and forth.

If the jury does not give a death sentence, McGriff, 46, will be sentenced
to life in prison for his involvement in the murders of Troy Singleton and
Eric Smith.

A defense attorney, Jean Barrett, told the jury that the defendant, one of
nine siblings, has shown he is capable of friendship and love.

"His life has value and he should not be wiped off the face of the earth,"
Ms. Barrett said.

(source: New York Sun)

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

Death Row killer gets the bill for damage in jail tantrum ---- Episode is
not expected to affect his appeal in murders of Island cops


Ronell Wilson will pay for busting up a jailhouse visiting room over the
weekend but the incident is not expected to affect his appeal process, his
attorneys said yesterday.

Prison authorities have filed internal disciplinary charges in the wake of
Saturday's incident, in which the convicted killer went berserk and
smashed two Plexiglas partitions with a chair at Brooklyn's Metropolitan
Detention Center after learning that he couldn't have physical contact
with his mother and 2 sisters during a visit.

Wilson's family visits have been suspended.

Money to pay for the damage will be taken out of Wilson's commissary
account, said Ephraim Savitt, one of his attorneys.

"He's rather sober, subdued, and he regrets that he lost control," Savitt
said yesterday.

The jailhouse bust-up probably won't affect the appeal currently being
mounted by Savitt and capital defense lawyers Kelley J. Sharkey and
Mitchell Dinnerstein, all of whom represented Wilson during his December
trial and penalty phase, which ended last Tuesday with a jury sentencing
Wilson to death by lethal injection.

"I don't think so," Savitt said. "This is essentially outside the record.
It's no longer a question of anything the courts can decide right now."

A spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Prisons said yesterday that
estimates weren't available as to how much damage Wilson caused. Although
inmates' commissary accounts are not public record, Wilson can earn
between 12 and 40 cents an hour if he chooses to work, the spokeswoman
said. Some of the jobs include food service, as groundskeepers, or
performing janitorial duties.

"If he's paying [for the damages Wilson caused in the MDC's visiting area]
from his commissary account, it could take quite a while," the spokeswoman
said.

Wilson, 24, a gang member who formerly lived in the Stapleton Houses, was
sentenced to death for the execution-style murders of Detectives Rodney
Andrews and James Nemorin in Tompkinsville in March 2003.

His weekend outburst was addressed during an impromptu court hearing
called by U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis. "I'm a death-penalty
inmate, I don't have anything to lose!" Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen
Kavanagh quoted Wilson as shouting. It was Garaufis who Thursday granted
Wilson's request for his mother's visit.

"I'm angry," Garaufis said during Monday's court session. "I'm not going
to see this man hurt or kill somebody at the MDC after I adhere to a
request to give him a special privilege."

Any future temper tantrums could land Wilson in shackles at the federal
Lewisburg (Pa.) Penitentiary, to await sentencing in Brooklyn federal
court on March 29.

"He can make this easy or he can make this hard," Garaufis warned Wilson's
attorneys Monday. "The next time it's going to be extremely hard."

(source: Staten Island Advance)






MISSOURI:

Jury orders death penalty for former Seattle man


A jury decided Tuesday that a former Seattle man should receive the death
penalty for killing his wife and shooting four other people at the St.
Louis County Courthouse in 1992.

The jury in St. Charles County deliberated for less than three hours after
the penalty phase of the trial ended Tuesday morning, the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch reported on its Web site.

Formal sentencing for Kenneth Baumruk will be March 19.

The sequestered jury heard testimony from several of Baumruk's relatives,
including his wife Mary's 2 daughters, during the penalty phase.

The jury on Saturday had found him guilty of the shootings during the
couple's divorce hearing in 1992.

Baumruk, 67, was convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of his
wife. It was his 2nd trial, after a guilty verdict in the first was
overturned by the state's highest court.

Jurors ignored pleas by defense attorneys Robert Steele and David Kenyon
to find Baumruk not guilty by reason of insanity.

The 2 attorneys argued during the weeklong trial that Baumruk suffered
from "delusional disorder" and couldn't appreciate the wrongfulness of his
actions.

There was little question that he fired the fatal shots. Several people
witnessed the shooting and it was captured on audiotape.

St. Louis County Prosecutors J.B. Lasater and Dean Waldemer told jurors
that Baumruk knew what he was doing. They said he bought 2 guns in January
1992 and told Boeing Co. co-workers that he would "kill them all" at the
couple's hearing, including his wife, the attorneys and the judge.

Prosecutors said Baumruk packed the guns in a suitcase for the flight from
Seattle to St. Louis. For the bus ride to the courthouse, they said he put
the pistols in his briefcase and put ammunition in his coat pockets.

As the hearing began, Baumruk pulled out one of the pistols and began
shooting.

Baumruk was convicted of murder by a St. Louis County jury in 2001 and
sentenced to death. But the Missouri Supreme Court threw out the
conviction, saying the trial should have been moved out of the same
courthouse where the shooting occurred.

Baumruk was not determined mentally fit for his 2nd trial until August
2005.

(source: Associated Press)






COLORADO:

Push to abolish death penalty moves forward


The bill to abolish the death penalty in Colorado and create a cold case
unit is moving forward in the state legislature.

In a 7-4 vote, the House Judiciary Committee approved the measure
Wednesday.

State Representative Paul Weissman, a Democrat from Louisville, says
abolishing the death penalty could save millions of dollars which could go
elsewhere.

Weissman says the money should be used to create a cold case unit within
the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to help investigate unsolved
homicides.

"By eliminating the death penalty the state itself saves about $800,000,"
said Weissman. "If you count local governments, it saves $4.5 million.
Take about $600,000 of that, you can create a cold case unit in the state
and also beef up forensics and chemical labs."

"The agency is opposed to the bill, primarily because of the way the
funding mechanism for the unit will be created. Cold cases remain the work
of local law enforcement and we continue working with them," said CBI
spokesman Lance Clem.

Weissman says 1,200 killings have gone unsolved in Colorado since 1970. At
the same time, he says millions have been spent prosecuting and defending
death penalty cases.

"We hardly ever use the death penalty in the state; we put one murder, if
you believe in the death penalty, above another one," said Weisman. "You
make district attorneys really pick and choose which cases they want to
prosecute at the death penalty."

Wednesday's hearing was very heated and lasted for hours. It eventually
turned into a debate whether the death penalty is right or wrong.

Adams County District Attorney Don Quick testified against the measure.

"It's not fair to say, you only have one choice," Quick said, "the capital
crimes unit, or these families, that's wrong. It's wrong to put it in that
context."

State Attorney General John Suthers opposes it as well.

"The preservation of the death penalty for the very heinous (crimes) is
absolutely essential to a meaningful social contract and I would oppose
its abolition," Suthers said.

A number of people whose loved ones were murdered and killers never found
testified in support of the measure.

Among them was Gail Lasuer, whose daughter, Monique, was strangled to
death 6 year ago.

"It cost so much money and so many years to execute one person. If a cold
case squad caught 30 murders, I think that would be a bigger benefit to
society," she said.

Linda Gruno, whose sister, Polly Sullivan, was stabbed to death, says the
cold case unit is needed.

"The death penalty is a good idea, unfortunately it's not implemented as
nearly as often as it should be. But I feel you can only kill a person
once, but you can make them miserable every day," said Gruno.

Currently, just 2 men are on death row in Colorado. Edward Montour was
convicted in the 2003 murder of a corrections officer. Nathan Dunlap was
convicted for the 1993 murder of 4 employees at the Chuck-E-Cheese
restaurant in Aurora.

Weissman says he's not debating whether the death penalty is right or
wrong.

"The local law enforcement could probably use the help of the additional
money in forensic labs, need new eyes looking at the case," said Weissman.

If the bill passes, Weissman says it will take affect July 1 and will
affect all the cases from that day forward. Dunlap and Montour would not
be affected.

The House Appropriations Committee will take up the bill next week.

(source: KUSA News)





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

Lawmaker pushes to abolish death penalty, fund cold case unit


State Representative Paul Weissman, a Democrat from Louisville, says
abolishing the death penalty could save millions of dollars which could go
elsewhere.

Weissman says the money should be used to create a cold case unit within
the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to help investigate unsolved
homicides.

"By eliminating the death penalty the state itself saves about $800,000,"
said Weissmann. "If you count local governments, it saves $4.5 million.
Take about $600,000 of that you can create a cold case unit in the state
and also beef up forensics and chemical labs."

"The agency is opposed to the bill, primarily because of the way the
funding mechanism for the unit will be created. Cold cases remain the work
of local law enforcement and we continue working with them," said CBI
Spokesman Lance Clem.

Weissman says 1,200 killings have gone unsolved in Colorado since 1970. At
the same time, he says millions have been spent prosecuting and defending
death penalty cases.

"We hardly ever use the death penalty in the state, we put one murder, if
you believe in the death penalty, above another one, said Weisman. You
make District Attorneys really pick and choose which cases they want to
prosecute at the death penalty."

Currently just 2 men are on death row in Colorado. Edward Montour was
convicted in the 2003 murder of a corrections officer. Nathan Dunlap was
convicted for the 1993 murder of four employees at the Chuck-E-Cheese
restaurant in Aurora.

Sherry Burt, whose 15-year-old daughter Marilee Burt was killed 37 years
ago, says she supports the legislation.

"Instead of putting somebody on death row and waiting for 25 years, appeal
after appeal, when I heard how much it cost, I was stunned," Burt said,
"We could use that money so much better to help out the folks who lost
their loved ones. I would just as soon have the person in prison for the
rest of their life. On a realistic basis, it really is the way to go."

Adams County District Attorney Don Quick says the death penalty is rarely
used but necessary as a form of punishment.

"We like the idea of resources going to cold cases, on the other hand, the
place to get it is not from the death penalty," he said. "In Colorado, the
prosecutors are very conservative and only seek the death penalty in the
most aggravated murder cases."

Weissmann says he's not debating whether the death penalty is right or
wrong.

"The local law enforcement could probably use the help of the additional
money in forensic labs, need new eyes looking at the case," said
Weissmann.

The house judiciary committee will take up the bill Wednesday.

(source: KUSA News)