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

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 9



TEXAS----new execution date

Bobby Hines has been given a June 6 execution date; it should be considered 
serious.

(sources: TDCJ & RH)

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

Death sentence stands for man accused of capital murder


A man who has been sentenced to death on 2 separate occasions has been denied a 
3rd chance to appeal.

Billy Wayne Coble was convicted of Capital Murder back in 1990 and given the 
death penalty. Coble was retried in 2008 and again sentenced the death.

Coble again appealed to the Texas State Court of Criminal Appeals, but was 
denied a 3rd chance on Wednesday.

Coble had been sentenced for gunning down Zelda, Robert, and Sergeant Bobby 
Vicha at their Axtell homes back in 1989.

During the trial, the prosecutor described Coble as having no conscience and a 
heart full of scorpions.

(source: KXXV News)






FLORIDA:

Prosecutors to seek death penalty against accused killer of Lakeland police


Prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty against a 19-year-old 
accused of killing a Lakeland police officer.

Kyle Williams appeared in court on Thursday and, at one point, was seen waving 
to family members who were inside the courtroom.

Prosecutors also plan to re-file paperwork in Williams' case so the charges 
include the wording "murder of a law enforcement officer." Williams is charged 
with premeditated 1st degree murder in the fatal shooting of Officer Arnulfo 
Crispin.

Crispin was shot one time in the head on December 18 after stopping a group of 
teenagers in a Lakeland park. He later died from his injuries.

In interviews with detectives, those teenagers described how a friendly Crispin 
asked them several questions before asking to search them.

One teenager said Crispin asked "What ya'll doing out here?" and if they had 
"seen anybody 'round here doing crazy things."

The teens said Crispin searched several of them, and was about to search 
Williams when he pulled a gun then pulled the trigger.

"Kyle killed him... he did it," one teenage witness told police.

Williams turned himself in hours after the shooting. His parents helped 
negotiate his surrender.

Williams next court hearing is scheduled for May 17.

(source: Lakeland Ledger)






VIRGINIA:

Bill To Expand Death Penalty In Virginia Dies


A Republican-backed bill that would have enabled Virginia prosecutors to seek 
the death penalty for accomplices of murder, and not the actual triggerman, 
died in a Senate committee Wednesday when a GOP senator abstained, citing a 
potential conflict of interests.

The bill died on a 7-7 party-line vote in the Courts of Justice Committee, with 
Sen. Bill Stanley of Franklin County not voting. Stanley said he could not vote 
because he accepts court appointments to represent defendants in capital murder 
cases.

Sen. Mark Obenshain’s bill would have redefined the so-called triggerman rule, 
which in most cases restricts the death penalty to the person who does the 
actual killing. The legislation would have allowed the death penalty for 
accomplices who share the intent to kill.

“This bill deals with the worst of the worst,” Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, told 
the committee.

He said that if notorious murder mastermind Charles Manson committed his crimes 
in Virginia today, instead of in California in 1969, prosecutors wouldn’t be 
able to seek the death penalty “and that is fundamentally wrong.”

Chesterfield County Commonwealth’s Attorney Billy Davenport spoke in support of 
the bill.

“This makes folks who are equally culpable equally liable,” Davenport said.

Death penalty opponents argued that Virginia should not expand capital 
punishment because the state already ranks second only to Texas in the number 
of executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 
1976. They also said there is too much danger of executing an innocent person 
because there is no DNA or fingerprinting evidence that would prove a 
conspirator’s intent.

Debbie Simpson of Spotsylvania County urged the panel to reject the bill on 
moral and spiritual grounds.

“We are participating in the very act we say is wrong to do,” she said. “We 
have been sucked into the vortex of the cycle of violence, and we don’t even 
realize it.”

Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, said that when she was first elected 2 decades 
ago, she supported death penalty bills because she thought capital punishment 
served as a deterrent and helped bring closure to victims’ families. She 
changed her mind about 10 years ago when her father-in-law was slain in his 
home by a burglar.

“My sons vehemently opposed the death penalty,” Howell said. “My husband wanted 
the man who killed his father tortured. This does not hold families together.”

The heavily Republican House of Delegates is likely to pass its own version of 
the “triggerman” bill, but it still would have to go through the Senate 
committee to have a chance of passing.

Similar bills cleared both the House and the Senate in 2008 and 2009, but were 
vetoed by then-Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat. The Senate courts committee rejected 
the bills in 2010 and 2011, when Democrats held the majority.

(source: CBS News)