[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----VA., USA, LA., CALIF., NEV.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 8


VIRGINIA:

Red Onion State Prison inmate dies of unnatural causes


Officials said Thursday that Robert C. Gleason Jr., twice sentenced to death 
Tuesday, had nothing to do with the death of a prison inmate the morning after 
the sentencing.

Still, Gleason’s courtroom promises of violence against his enemies at Red 
Onion State Prison in Pound definitely haunted the thoughts of investigators 
looking into the death, which they said occurred after the inmate was attacked.

“That’s the first thing that came to my mind,” Wise County Commonwealth’s 
Attorney Ron Elkins said.

Inmate Kawaski Bass, 31, was mortally wounded during a possible 
inmate-on-inmate attack in a cell around 1 p.m. Tuesday, the Virginia 
Department of Corrections reports.

He was pronounced dead early the next morning at Carilion Roanoke Memorial 
Hospital.

“We don’t know all the details yet,” Elkins said. “We’ll know more in the next 
few days … after we get the autopsy report.”

Bass was serving a 65-year sentence for the 1998 and 1999 convictions of 
robbery, use of a firearm, carjacking, assault and battery, and conspiracy in 
multiple Virginia counties.

The name of Bass’ accused attacker is being withheld during the investigation, 
corrections department spokesman Larry Traylor wrote in an email.

At the time of the attack, Gleason, 41, was in the Wise County Circuit Court 
arguing to get the death penalty for strangling two inmates in separate attacks 
since 2009.

“Once I get back [to maximum security], your honor, the clock starts ticking … 
for the ones that messed with me,” he warned.

Judge John C. Kilgore granted Gleason’s wish later that day.

On May 8, 2009, Gleason hogtied, beat and strangled cellmate Harvey Watson, 63, 
at Wallens Ridge State Prison in Big Stone Gap.

After pleading guilty for Watson’s murder, Gleason threatened more destruction 
unless he got the death penalty. He followed through in July 2010 while 
awaiting trial at Red Onion, the maximum-security prison built to house the 
state’s most dangerous criminals.

Gleason strangled inmate Aaron Alexander Cooper, 26, in the adjacent cage in 
the prison recreation yard with a makeshift noose. He pleaded guilty in that 
murder, too.

Initially, Gleason was in prison serving a life sentence for the May 8, 2007, 
shooting death of Virginia trucker Michael Kent Jamerson, 53, in Amherst 
County.

Elkins said he interviewed Gleason at the prison Thursday morning for possible 
links to Bass’ death.

“There’s nothing there that links Gleason to it,” Elkins said.

(source: tricities.com)






USA:

West Memphis 3 and Other True-Crime Stories Featured in Documentaries


The West Memphis 3 left prison in 2011 after serving over 18 years behind bars 
for the murder of 3 boys in 1993. The Memphis courts found them guilty despite 
doubts about their involvement in the crime and alleged police incompetence in 
the case. Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky teamed up and worked on a 
documentary looking into the case with the goal of finding the real truth about 
the murders.

"Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills"

While the documentary "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" 
did not officially lead to the reversal of the original court's decision, it 
did something even better. The documentary shows numerous interviews with the 
accused, families of the victims, and members of the West Memphis Police 
Department. It also introduces numerous discrepancies in the original case, 
produces withheld evidence, and spotlights many things the police did that 
contaminated the actual evidence in the case. What the documentary did was 
shine a national spotlight on the case, question the validity of the evidence, 
and defend the accused while actively seeking the truth.

It also helped the accused find support in unlikely places. The rock band 
Metallica, musician Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, and Henry Rollins all came out 
in support of the accused. With those musicians behind the Three, public 
support began to swing in their favor.

The documentary spawned a sequel, "Paradise Lost 2: Revelations," which 
included more interviews with the accused, including Damien Wayne Echols, 
sentenced to the death penalty. It also includes evidence that points to 
another suspect and presents more evidence that hints the accused may not be 
guilty. Courts reopened the case with a new trial scheduled when the three 
reached a plea bargain, releasing them from prison on a deal to avoid the new 
trial. A third documentary, "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory," concludes the 
chronicle of the men's imprisonment and features their eventual release, 
hitting theaters in late 2011.

"Thin Blue Line"

The case of the West Memphis 3 was not the only true crime feature to try to 
help the convicted prove their innocence. Documentary filmmaking legend Errol 
Morris directed "The Thin Blue Line" about Randall Dale Adams, a man convicted 
and sentenced to death for the murder of a Dallas police officer in 1976. 
Morris presents the case through interviews and reenactments of the murder.

The movie also supposes the witness who led the police to Adams also had strong 
evidence against him but he was never charged. "Line" suggested that five of 
the witnesses committed perjury; the conviction ended up overturned 12 years 
after Adams' conviction by the Texas Court of Appeals. The ironic twist is that 
Adams ended up taking Morris to court when he got out of prison concerning the 
rights to his story.

"The Trials of Darryl Hunt"

"The Trials of Darryl Hunt" is another case where a documentary filmmaker 
worked diligently to show the truth about a man wrongly convicted of murder. 
Hunt spent 19 years in prison for the rape and murder of a young woman in 1984 
before DNA evidence proved he did not commit the crime. The documentary follows 
the case and shows Hunt in prison as he adjusts to life as an inmate, 
eventually converts to the Muslim religion, and marries his wife while behind 
bars.

The case took a turn when another man confessed to the rape and murder in 2003 
and DNA testing linked him to the crime. The documentary, directed by Ricki 
Stern and Anne Sundberg, shows Hunt remaining strong despite spending 19 years 
in prison for a crime he never committed.

(source: Yahoo News)






LOUISIANA:

Greenwood home invasion death sentence upheld by Louisiana Supreme Court


The Louisiana Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty for a Shreveport man 
who killed and then set ablaze a fire captain who interrupted a holdup in 2006.

It rejected claims that prosecutors showed racial bias in choosing a jury to 
try Felton Dorsey for first-degree murder of Joe Prock, whose mother was burned 
but escaped her house that Dorsey was robbing. The appeal also argued that 
codefendant Randy Wilson's testimony against Dorsey could not be believed.

None of the 7 judges dissented to Wednesday's opinion written by Justice 
Catherine Kimball.

In the death penalty review required by state law, she wrote that the sentence 
does not seem excessive.

"Defendant tied a seventy-nine year old woman to a chair, ransacked her home, 
bludgeoned her 52 year old son to death with sufficient force to cause his 
broken skull to lacerate his brain, set him on fire, and left the woman tied to 
a chair in her burning home," she wrote.

Kimball also wrote that the defense waited too long to argue that the 
Confederate flag memorial in front of the courthouse automatically made race 
part of court proceedings.

It's probably within the court's power to consider that "the display of a 
Confederate flag would be offensive to some," but the question of whether it 
creates an atmosphere of prejudice should have been brought up at trial rather 
than in an appeal, she wrote.

And, she wrote, Dorsey's lawyers "made no showing" that the parish maintains 
the memorial to hurt black defendants' chances, or that its presence creates a 
significant risk that any jurors voted to convict Dorsey or sentence him to 
death because he is black rather than because of "the moral culpability of his 
acts and his individual character."

The American Civil Liberties Union's Capital Punishment Project, which filed a 
friend-of-the-court brief for Dorsey, said Thursday that the ruling 
"underscores the reality that flying the flag prevents criminal justice from 
being fairly administered, especially in death penalty cases, and invites trial 
courts in Caddo Parish to take a closer look at this issue in the future."

ACLU attorney Anna Arceneaux said, "For many people, and particularly 
African-Americans, the flag is a stark reminder of the public entrenchment of 
racism in Caddo Parish's judicial system and is an endorsement of historical 
efforts to deny African-Americans equality under the law. So long as it is 
allowed to fly, capital punishment cannot be fairly administered within the 
courthouse walls."

The Rev. Sim Roberson, a member of the Louisiana Coalition for Alternatives to 
the Death Penalty, said in a news release from that group that the question of 
whether the memorial creates a prejudicial atmosphere in Caddo Parish capital 
cases will be brought up in another trial.

"The court has called for pretrial hearings to determine whether the 
Confederate flag injects racial bias into capital proceedings. So that's 
exactly what we'll do," he said.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

Stanley speaks from San Quentin


Convicted wife-killer Gerald Frank Stanley testified Wednesday morning during a 
retrospective competency hearing related to his murder conviction and death 
sentence in the 1980s.

"I deserved the death penalty," Stanley told Judge William McKinstry during 
Wednesday's hearing at the Lake County Courthouse.

Stanley appeared along with his attorney, Jack Leavitt, via videoconferencing 
from San Quentin State Prison. Lake County District Attorney Don Anderson 
represented his office.

A Butte County jury convicted Stanley in 1983 for shooting to death his fourth 
wife in Nice in 1980, while Stanley had been on parole for killing his 2nd 
spouse 5 years before.

A separate jury was then asked to determine whether Stanley was mentally 
competent during penalty phase of the 1983 trial. That jury determined Stanley 
was competent and he eventually received the death penalty.

However, a federal judge overturned the competency verdict in 2008, staying 
Stanley's execution because one of the jurors on the competency panel failed to 
disclose that she had been a violent-crime victim.

A Butte County judge then ruled it would be feasible to look back and determine 
whether Stanley was competent during the penalty phase of the trial. The 
retrospective competency matter was transferred to Lake County in March.

Both sides in the retrospective competency hearing appear to be arguing for the 
same point, as Leavitt has said his client does not want the death sentence 
invalidated.

Stanley told McKinstry that he understood the nature of all the court 
proceedings related to the murder trial, penalty phase and original competency 
hearing. He said he has never suffered from mental illness and has always been 
competent.

Stanley also said he objected to his federal defenders filing a motion 
questioning the jury's competency decision.

Stanley added that he knew of the juror's failure to fully disclose her history 
at the time of the original hearing but he didn't object to her sitting on the 
competency panel. "I wanted to keep that juror," he said. "I liked her very 
much."

He said he thinks his original trial counsel may have allowed the juror to 
remain on the panel to create an issue that could be appealed after the fact.

McKinstry heard nearly 30 minutes of testimony from Stanley on Wednesday, but 
reserved making a final decision until Sept. 30. The judge said he needed time 
to consider case-related transcripts.

Technical difficulties delayed the start of hearing for nearly 35 minutes. Once 
under way, the hearing lasted approximately 45 minutes.

(source: Record-Bee)






NEVADA:

Death penalty on table in Vegas teen slaying case


A 19-year-old may face the death penalty in the kidnapping, rape, stabbing and 
burning of a high school sophomore whose body was discovered over the weekend 
in a vacant lot not far from her northwest Las Vegas home.

Prosecutor Christopher Lalli said Thursday that a Clark County district 
attorney panel will consider whether to seek capital punishment against Javier 
Righetti in the slaying of 15-year-old Alyssa Otremba.

Righetti made an initial appearance before a Las Vegas judge who set an Oct. 14 
evidence hearing.

Righetti's lawyer, Tim O'Brien, says Righetti is on suicide watch at the Clark 
County jail. He's being held without bail.

Otremba was a student at Arbor View High School.

Her mother reported her missing Friday evening after Otremba text-messaged that 
she was walking home.

(source: Associated Press)