[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., FLA., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 10



NORTH CAROLINA:

Death penalty, race divide NC House panel members


Sharp partisan differences surfaced once again as lawmakers considering changes 
to North Carolina's Racial Justice Act held their first meeting Friday.

The House Select Committee on Racial Discrimination in Capital Cases met one 
month after Republicans fell a few votes short of overriding Democratic Gov. 
Beverly Perdue's veto of a bill that would have essentially repealed the 2009 
law. House leaders sent the bill to the new committee to see if changes could 
be worked out to avoid another veto or sway enough Democrats to secure an 
override.

Rep. Tim Moore, who chairs the panel, said he'll seek a consensus to address 
concerns by prosecutors and others about how the law is applied. The law 
creates a new legal process by which a judge must reduce a death sentence to 
life in prison without parole if the judge determines race was a significant 
factor in the sentencing. Defendants can use statistics to make their case - a 
big hang-up for the law's opponents.

"Since the majority of both chambers passed this bill and it was kept from 
going into law by the executive branch, the thought is to ... give it another 
try and to hear from the folks who are actually having to deal with the 
application of this law," said Moore, R-Cleveland. The committee aims to have 
recommendations by May, when the next extended General Assembly work session is 
scheduled.

Democrats on the committee questioned why the law should be altered when the 
1st such case involving a death-row inmate is just beginning to make its way 
through the courts. The 1st evidentiary hearing under the law continued Friday 
in Fayetteville involving convicted killer Marcus Robinson.

House Minority Leader Joe Hackney, D-Orange, told Moore the Racial Justice Act 
shouldn't be interfered with until at least after Robinson's case is resolved, 
if it all, because there are no known unintended consequences. A death penalty 
litigation lawyer estimated it would take a year for Robinson's case to be 
completed given likely appeals.

"We have an active application of the act in court as we speak," Hackney said.

But Rep. Sarah Stevens, R-Surry, said there were already unintended 
consequences. Nearly all of the 158 prisoners currently on death row have filed 
papers seeking relief under the Racial Justice Act, including white defendants 
convicted of murdering white defendants. Racial Justice Act supporters say 
white defendants can also face discrimination if prosecutors deliberately 
remove black citizens from jury pools as a strategy to seat a jury that will 
sentence someone to death.

The state's district attorneys - nearly all of whom sought the override of 
Perdue's veto - have said the requests by so many defendants show how overly 
broad the 2009 law is and how it will extend a de facto death penalty 
moratorium that has gone on for 5 1/2 years largely for other reasons.

Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby told the committee the use of 
statistics to attempt to prove racial bias is too expansive. The 2009 law also 
is vague on how judges should conduct a hearing, giving them room to "impose 
their own political philosophy" and deny certain evidence from being heard, 
Willoughby said.

Ken Rose, a senior attorney for the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in 
Durham, disagreed, saying "the courts are in the best position to sort out this 
evidence, to interpret this law and to apply the law," pointing out that trial 
judges already preside over murder trials that may end with a death sentence.

"If we can't trust them to interpret and apply this Racial Justice Act, why 
would we trust these same judges in deciding important issues of who lives or 
dies under our capital punishment law?" Rose asked the committee.

Committee members heard from other supporters and opponents of the Racial 
Justice Act, including district attorneys and relatives of murder victims. The 
speakers have given similar presentations to legislators in recent months as 
the Racial Justice Act repeal was heard.

Moore said the committee would look at several ideas, including whether to 
narrow the scope of the use of statistics in these evidentiary hearings.

The Racial Justice Act also applies to murder defendants who have not yet gone 
to trial and are challenging a prosecutor's decision to seek the death penalty. 
Committee members also wanted more information on a Michigan State University 
study that showed a defendant in North Carolina is 2.6 times more likely to be 
sentenced to death if at least one of the victims is white.

(source: Associated Press)






FLORIDA----new death sentence:

Cop killer Delgado gets death sentence


Humberto Delgado never asked for mercy and he didn't get it Friday.

His victim's widow called him a cop killer and told him to choke on his own 
blood.

There was no prelude from the judge, except just 6 words:

"All of this on your hands."

Delgado, 36, said nothing when he was condemned to death.

His family was not present.

They had been warned.

Dozens of officers left the courtroom in silence and lined up in the lobby, 
flanking a pathway for Cindy Roberts, just as they had at the hospital the 
night of Aug. 19, 2009, after the chief and the mayor took her into a room with 
trauma surgeons and told her that her husband, 38-year-old Cpl. Michael 
Roberts, had been shot dead on the streets of Sulphur Springs.

For more than 2 years, she had sat at court hearings, rows behind the gunman, 
without saying a word. On Friday, she got a chance. She rose from her seat, 
passed the chained inmate and stood at a lectern. She spoke to the judge, then 
turned to Delgado, and jabbed her index finger in his direction.

"I want to speak to you. You...

"I will not speak your name. You are not worthy of such respect. You have been 
given several opportunities to speak during this trial, and like a coward, you 
have remained silent and you are not remorseful. I have seen the face of evil 
and disdain. What bothers me the most is that was the last face my husband saw 
on this earth...

"You coward. You murdered my husband in cold blood. You pistol-whipped him 
until he was unconscious. He was no threat to you, but you intentionally and 
willfully shot him anyway... through the lungs and the heart.

"I hope that when your time comes, you, too, will choke on your own blood...

"I lost my husband, my friend and my soulmate. My son lost his daddy, his role 
model...

"We did nothing wrong. You should get a more severe penalty, much more...

"I hope you receive the death penalty. So does Mike... He had no tolerance for 
cop killers...

"You no longer have a name. You are just an inmate number. But to many of us, 
you will just be known as Cop Killer.

"This case is not about an illness. This is pure evil and hatred. You should 
not be here. When you finally leave this world... you and the devil can dance 
in the pale moonlight, in the darkness, in hell, where all evil starts."

Moments later, Circuit Judge Emmett Lamar Battles made his spare pronouncement: 
"Mr. Delgado, for the murder of Cpl. Michael Roberts, this court sentences you 
to be put to death in the manner prescribed by law."

Among those who embraced Cindy Roberts after the sentencing were Tampa Police 
Chief Jane Castor and Kelly Curtis, the wife of Tampa Police Officer David 
Curtis, slain in 2010.

In November, a jury voted 8-4 to recommend the death penalty for Delgado. Many 
legal experts interviewed by the Times — but not all — believed Delgado would 
get life in prison, that he did not meet the death penalty standard of "worst 
of the worst."

Delgado was homeless and paranoid, pushing a shopping cart, when Roberts 
approached him that night. At some point, Delgado ran, the corporal shot a 
Taser and a scuffle ensued. Roberts was knocked unconscious before Delgado shot 
him, took his radio and ran.

His primary defense, during a 3-week trial last November, was his mental 
illness. He was diagnosed as bipolar, with psychotic features.

Before the sentencing, the defense offered more than 3 dozen additional reasons 
not to kill Delgado, from his lack of prior crimes and former service as a 
police officer and soldier to his three children, strong work ethic and even 
his sense of humor. Battles said he gave most of those "little weight."

In his order, Battles expressed no qualms over the split jury vote and said the 
defense's contention that Delgado is mentally ill does not mean he didn't 
understand what he was doing.

"The court is reasonably convinced that the defendant was under the influence 
of an extreme mental or emotional disturbance at the time he killed Cpl. 
Roberts," Battles wrote. "The court is reasonably convinced that the 
defendant's ability to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law was 
impaired, albeit not substantially."

Under the law, Delgado is entitled to an automatic appeal. Hillsborough Public 
Defender Julianne Holt said she could not comment for that reason.

If the death sentence sends a message, Chief Castor said, she is not sure those 
who kill police officers will get it.

After the hearing, Cindy Roberts said she continues to worry about every 
officer on the street.

"I say to them, 'Stay safe. You never know what's out there. Take care of each 
other.'"

When asked how long it took for her to compose her words to Delgado, she 
responded, "2 1/2 years."

(source: Tampa Bay Times)






OHIO:

Ex-death row inmate files wrongful imprisonment lawsuit against Ohio, 
prosecutor


A man who spent two decades on Ohio's death row before being released is suing 
the state and a county prosecutor for wrongful imprisonment.

The Plain Dealer in Cleveland (http://bit.ly/zVCLaZ ) reports that former 
inmate Joe D'Ambrosio is seeking money for lost wages as well as compensation 
for being wrongly imprisoned.

He spent more than 21 years behind bars after being convicted of murder in 
Cleveland. He was released in 2009 after a federal judge ruled that prosecutors 
failed to provide evidence that could have exonerated him.

Prosecutors still don't think D'Ambrosio is innocent and are likely to contest 
the suit that could net D'Ambrosio more than $1 million.

The suit comes just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision 
preventing prosecutors from pursuing another trial against D'Ambrosio.

(source: Associated Press)