[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, WYO., FLA., NEV., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 15



TEXAS:

2 Charged in Hearne Murders

A pair of Waco men have been charged with capital murder in the shooting
deaths of 2 Hearne residents. D'nard Anderson and Dameon Laws, both 21,
are in jail, accused of killing Harry Monson and Chandell Lewis on October
25.

Laws was arrested Thursday, and also faces two aggravated assault with a
deadly weapon charges after being implicated in an August 1 shooting in
Waco. He is in the McLennan County jail on a $1.6 million bond. Anderson
is in the Robertson County jail on a $1 million bond following his arrest
on November 7.

Monson and Lewis were each shot multiple times outside a home on Navasota
Street.

Capital murder charges carry with them a possibility of the death penalty.
Since 1976, Texas Department of Criminal Justice records show no
executions based on crimes committed in Robertson County. No current death
row inmates committed crimes in that county.

(source: KBTX news)






WYOMING:

Wyoming Supreme Court delays execution of man who killed Billings woman


The Wyoming Supreme Court has halted the execution of Dale Eaton,
convicted of killing a Montana woman, while he seeks a U.S. Supreme Court
review of his case. The ruling, written by Chief Justice Barton Voigt, was
released Friday.

In 2004 a jury sentenced Eaton to die for killing 18-year-old Lisa Marie
Kimmell, who disappeared in 1988 while driving from Colorado. Fishermen
found her body floating in the North Platte River near Casper eight days
later. It was not until 2003 that prosecutors, with the help of DNA
evidence, charged Eaton with her death.

Kimmell, whose hometown was Billings, Mont., had been sexually assaulted,
hit in the head and stabbed.

The Wyoming Supreme Court rejected Eaton's appeal in August and directed
Natrona County District Court to set a new date for his execution. In
October, Eaton's death was scheduled for "no later than Dec. 19, 2008."

Because a specific date was not set, the Wyoming Supreme Court had to
vacate the execution warrant in its ruling Friday. In the same ruling, the
court set an execution date of Dec. 19, then delayed the execution.

"This court believes that setting a new date of execution, rather than
remanding to the district court to set a new date of execution, may help
avoid some inherent delays in this case, as well as conserve resources of
the courts and the parties," Voigt wrote.

Numerous appeal options are available to Eaton.

His attorneys were ordered to notify the Wyoming Supreme Court and
prosecutors when submitting their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Eaton has until May to file an appeal with the District Court on the
grounds his constitutional rights were violated. An appeal on that basis
would enter the federal court system.

The entire process could be complicated, with multiple filings moving
through the legal system simultaneously.

The last person executed in Wyoming was Mark Hopkinson, who received a
lethal injection in 1992 after 13 years on death row. He is the only
person executed in Wyoming since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the
death penalty in 1976.

(source: Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune)






FLORIDA:

Defense: Suspect In North Port Death May Be Incompetent


The man accused of kidnapping Denise Lee from her North Port home and
killing her may be incompetent to stand trial, his attorney says.

Michael King's attorney has asked for a competency hearing to determine
whether King has the ability to help in his own defense. No hearing date
has been set.

"Conversations with defendant reveal an irrational thought process on the
part of the defendant," assistant public defender Carolyn Schlemmer wrote
in the motion.

Defendants are required to show an understanding of the charges against
them and facts behind the charges so they can help in their defense.

The charges won't be dropped if King, 37, is determined to be incompetent,
and he is not considered not guilty by reason of insanity. A defendant who
is declared incompetent is sent to a state hospital for treatment until
doctors determine the person meets the legal criteria for competency.

The motion comes 6 months after a judge ordered an examination to see if a
past head injury has affected King's brain function. Attorneys for King
said in a motion that he had suffered a head injury and they wanted
doctors to do a test known as a PET scan. Experts say such injuries can
change a person's personality and behavior later in life.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for King, who is charged with
kidnapping, rape and murder.

Lee, 21, was reported missing from her North Post home on the afternoon of
Jan. 17. Her body was found 2 days later in a shallow grave 6 miles from
her home.

King was arrested on a kidnapping charge the night of the abduction and
was charged with murder after the body was found. He is being held in
solitary confinement at the Sarasota County jail. A lab has matched King's
DNA to DNA found on Lee's body, according to court documents filed by the
prosecution.

(source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune)






NEVADA:

Death penalty under consideration ---- 2-YEAR-OLD CLINGS TO LIFE


A 2-year old boy tentatively clings to life after allegedly being struck
in the head by his mother's live-in boyfriend at the Dandelion Apartments
in Pahrump.

Preliminary medical reports say surgery was performed to alleviate brain
swelling due to bleeding, but the child is not expected to live.

On Tuesday, Nye County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to a call from
Desert View Hospital about an unresponsive child. When they arrived,
doctors reported that the child's injuries were not consistent with a
fall, which is what they had been told happened.

There were also injuries to the child's penis and groin area and possible
burns on his thigh. The child was flown by Flight for Life to University
Medical Center in Las Vegas for further treatment, where his father was by
his side at last report.

Danny Ernest Linville, 16, was arrested for attempted murder and child
abuse after telling deputies he was baby sitting and showering with the
2-year-old when the child fell in the bathtub. Linville and the child's
mother, Michaele Christine Griffin, 28, live together with Griffin's three
children.

Det. Joseph Close interviewed Linville and determined the suspect hit the
2-year-old so hard, using the palm or heel of his hand, that the child was
knocked backward into a corner of the bathroom wall. The resulting injury
allegedly caused extensive head trauma.

Additionally, Close's interview found the couple previously argued over
Linville's discipline of the children and that Griffin had witnessed him
slapping and pulling her children's hair. The detective's report also said
neighbors saw the children left outside to play unattended.

Griffin's other children, an 8-year old boy and a 6-year old girl, were
not home at the time of the incident. However, according to Close's
report, they told their mother Linville harshly disciplined them in the
past. Nye County District Attorney Bob Beckett alleges Griffin left her
2-year-old son in the care and custody of her 16-year-old lover,
ultimately leading to the child's grave condition.

"As the investigation continues, if there is evidence of persistent,
systematic abuse, we will consider asking for the death penalty," said
Beckett. "Our office jumped on this immediately when we were notified by
the sheriff's office as to what happened."

Beckett said his office last asked for the death penalty in 1995, and that
too was a case of child abuse. "We will prosecute to the fullest extent of
the law because we want to send a strong message that will hopefully be a
message of deterrence," said Beckett. "We would like to see these types of
crimes prevented rather than to react to them."

Although he is 16, Linville has been charged as an adult and is in the
adult section of the jail. He is being held without bail with a
preliminary hearing scheduled for Dec. 4.

Griffin has been charged with 3 counts of child abuse and is being held on
a total of $15,000 bail.

(source: Pahrump Valley Times)






USA:

Where is the outrage on the death penalty?


CARDINAL O'MALLEY and the rest of the Catholic bishops may be worried
about having a president who supports women's reproductive rights, but is
O'Malley at all concerned about having a president who supports capital
punishment?

The Catholic Church is as staunchly against the death penalty as it is
against abortion, yet the fact that President-elect Barack Obama and the
strengthened Democratic leadership in Congress won't abolish the death
penalty at the federal level doesn't seem to bother the cardinal.

This election cycle, as in many others, both major party candidates
supported the death penalty, but where was the church in bringing it to
the table? Will Catholic priests be denying Eucharist to politicians who
support the death penalty? Will the Conference of Catholic Bishops be
holding a national meeting about it? Where's Kathleen Walker and the
American Life League to tell people they can't be Catholic and support the
death penalty? To vote in compliance with church doctrine, Catholics
shouldn't vote for Democrats or Republicans.

IAN BOUCHARD -- Jamaica Plain

(source: Letter to the Editor, Boston Globe)