[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----S.C., FLA., KY., ARK., OKLA., USA, WASH.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 2


SOUTH CAROLINA:

Judge allows state to seek death penalty against man charged with killing Aiken 
officer


A judge says prosecutors can go forward with their death penalty trial against 
a 21-year-old man charged with killing an Aiken police officer 2 years ago.

The Post and Courier of Charleston reported (http://bit.ly/10bHB7w ) that 
defense attorneys asked the judge Friday to take the death penalty off the 
table for Stephon Carter because prosecutors didn't seek it against another man 
who admitted killing a different Aiken officer a month later.

Circuit Judge Clifton Newman sided with prosecutors, who said the defendant in 
that case had mental problems.

Carter is charged with murder in the December 2012 traffic stop shooting of 
officer Scotty Richardson. The judge ruled the trial should start in January, 
rejecting a prosecution request to delay it.

The hearing was held in Charleston, where the judge was presiding.

(source: Associated Press)






FLORIDA:

Killer lives longer----than victim's father


Unfortunately, Tom Chappell has passed at the age of 94 - a long life, but not 
long enough to see the killer of his police officer son, Brian Chappell, to be 
put to death after 25 years on death row.

I have a personal connection to this case because I was the detective who put 
Norberto Petri, also known as Spiderman, away in the first place on numerous 
burglary charges that occurred in Lake Worth. Mr. Petri escaped while serving 
his time in Lantana Correctional, burglarized a police officers home, took a 
gun and used that gun to kill Brian Chappell in West Palm Beach, where he was a 
motor officer. Where is the justice in this case when a man, a parent, has to 
wait 25 years to see justice served?

Norberto Petri killed a police officer, he confessed to the crime, there was 
direct evidence of his crime, there was no question of his guilt, and he was 
convicted and sentenced to death in 1989. Why has the state not carried out the 
sentence? In addition to those facts, he has also lost every appeal submitted. 
I support the death penalty 100 %, especially when it involves killing either a 
police officer or a child.

Either carry out the sentence or outlaw the death penalty, because at this 
point all the state is doing is punishing the victim's family.

DAVE MATTHEWS, LAKE WORTH

Editor's note: Matthews is a retired lieutenant with the Palm Beach County 
Sheriff's Office.

(source: Letter to the Editor, Palm Beach Post)






KENTUCKY:

Alleged child killer could face death penalty in Boyle


Commonwealth's Attorney Richie Bottoms said Friday that he is preparing to seek 
the death penalty for the man accused of brutally sodomizing and killing an 
13-month old boy in Junction City last month.

Joseph Andrew Adams, 25, of 1860 S. Danville Bypass was indicted by a Boyle 
County grand jury last week on charges of murder and 1st-degree sodomy in the 
October 10 death of Christopher Preston, whom he was babysitting while the 
boy's mother was at work.

Adams was initially only charged with murder but evidence from a preliminary 
autopsy that the toddler was sodomized was presented to the grand jury, Bottoms 
said.

Under Kentucky law, the sodomy charge is considered an aggravator to the murder 
and makes the case death penalty eligible, Bottoms said.

"I do plan to file the paperwork for that to be a consideration," the 
prosecutor said.

"All crimes against children are serious, but this is a particularly serious 
situation," Bottoms continued. "We believe there is overwhelming evidence that 
he caused the death of a child, and that the child suffered extreme 
traumatization leading up to the death, not only with the sodomy but with the 
physical abuse that caused the death."

Adams has pleaded not guilty and waived his right to a preliminary hearing in 
Boyle District Court last month. His attorney, public defender Susanne 
McCollough, said that Adams moved to Danville from Perry County in April and 
lived with the boy's mother. He has a limited criminal history that does not 
include any felony charges, McCollough said.

Adams continues to be held without bond at the Boyle County Detention Center.

(soure: centralkynews.com)






ARKANSAS:

Accused Child Killer's Trial Delayed After Public Defender Admits To Drinking 
Problem


The murder trial for accused child killer Zachary Holly is being rescheduled 
after the public defender admitted in court on Friday (Oct. 31) that he has an 
alcohol problem, officials said.

The trial had been set to begin on Monday (Nov. 3) in Benton County Circuit 
Judge Brad Karren's courtroom.

However, the defense team sought and received a postponement from Karren at a 
pre-trial hearing on Friday, saying that Pat Aydelott, the public defender 
handling the trial portion of the murder case, has a drinking problem, 
officials said.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Nathan Smith said he and the victim's family are 
"very frustrated" by another delay in the trial. Holly is charged with capital 
murder in the 2012 killing of 6-year-old Jersey Bridgeman in Bentonville.

Smith said his office and the victim's family were ready to proceed on Monday, 
adding his office didn't learn of Aydelott's issues until Friday afternoon. 
Smith said the judge didn't have much choice but to delay the trial after the 
public defender admitted to being ineffective because of alcoholism.

A court hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 6 for an update on which public 
defender will replace Aydelott and to learn when a new trial date will be set, 
Smith said.

The case has gone through several delays and mental status hearings since Holly 
was arrested in November 2012 on suspicion of capital murder, kidnapping, rape 
and residential burglary. The suspect was declared fit for trial following 2 
mental evaluations.

Smith has told 5NEWS he will seek the death penalty against Holly in the case.

Jersey Bridgeman lived at 608 S.E. A St. with her mother, who called the police 
early in the morning of Nov. 20, 2012, to report her daughter was missing. 
Officers found the child's body fewer than 15 minutes later in a nearby vacant 
house at 704 S.E. A St., officials said.

Court documents state that Holly and his wife babysat the child the night of 
her death while her mother, DesaRae Bridgeman, and Bridgeman's boyfriend were 
working at a nearby convenience store.

A swab test on Jersey Bridgeman's body showed traces of sperm, according to 
court documents. Holly consented to cheek swabs for DNA comparison and also 
gave authorities the clothing he had worn since going to bed the night of 
Jersey Bridgeman's death, documents state.

DesaRae Bridgeman called police at about 6:45 a.m. to report her daughter 
missing. Jersey Bridgeman and her younger sister shared a bed, but Jersey was 
nowhere to be seen, documents state. Police estimated her death to have 
happened between midnight and 6:45 a.m.

While searching for Jersey Bridgeman, an officer noticed the back door to 704 
S.E. A St. was open. The child's body was found minutes later inside the vacant 
house, official said.

The girl died of asphyxiation, according to court documents.

(source: KFSM news)


OKLAHOMA:

Mother of 11-month-old baby raped and murdered campaigns for killer to be 
SPARED the death penalty; Shonda Waller's 11-month-old daughter Adrianna Waller 
was raped and killed in 1997


A woman whose 11-month-old daughter was raped and killed by her then-boyfriend 
in 1997 does not want the Oklahoma man responsible to be executed, it has 
emerged.

Shonda Waller said death row inmate Charles Warner should instead spend the 
rest of his life behind bars in a recent interview with KFOR.

'If they truly want to honor me, then they will do away with the death penalty 
for him, and they will give him life in prison without the possibility of 
parole, because that's the only thing that's gonna honor me,' she told the 
affiliate station. 'I can only see him spending the rest of his life in prison 
and dying in prison, without him ever walking out of those cell walls.'

Warner, whose execution is planned for this January, was convicted of both rape 
as well as 1st-degree murder 2 years after his 1997 arrest, KFOR reported.

He was prosecuted by Oklahoma County Assistant District Attorney Lou Keel that 
year, as well as in 2002 and 2003, according to the affiliate station.

Keel told KFOR 'Charles Warner was convicted twice by juries and given the 
death penalty each time and given 75 years for the sexual assault.'

Keel also said of Warner 'This person doesn't deserve to live. If you're going 
to have a death penalty, if there are going to be some crimes, some homicides, 
that are so atrocious... then the rape and the brutal murder of a child has to 
qualify.'

Shonda Waller opposed the death penalty for Warner while she spoke in a March 
2014 clemency hearing, the affiliate station reported.

She told KFOR 'I don't see any justice in just sentencing someone to die. To 
me, the justice is in someone living with what they have done to you, to your 
family, and having to live with that for the rest of their life, knowing that 
they'll never walk out those bars.'

ACLU Legal Director Brad Henderson supported Waller's views, telling the 
affiliate station 'I think she hits it right on the head when she says you know 
what, this person took life, this person murdered. This person killed. Now 
we're just doing the same thing in my baby's name. That's wrong. That's 
fundamentally wrong.

Speaking about the death penalty, Waller also told KFOR 'That would dishonor my 
daughter; it would dishonor me and everything and I believe in. Um, I wouldn't 
want to have to know about something like that because I wouldn't want to know 
that my hand or what I went through personally is the reason why he's no longer 
living. When he dies, I want it to be because it's his time, not because he's 
been executed due to what happened to me and my child.

'And I don't want that on my hands. I makes me feel like I'm no different than 
him, and I don't want to feel that way.'

(source: Daily Mail)

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

Trial date set for man charged in teen's death


A February trial date has been scheduled for a Velma man charged with 
first-degree murder in the death of a 16-year-old girl.

KSWO reports that a Feb. 9 trial date was set for 23-year-old Miles Sterling 
Bench. Bench has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say Bench killed Braylee Henry in June 2012 after she stopped to 
buy gas at the convenience store where Bench worked.

The girl's body was found in a pasture in Velma near the home of Bench's 
grandparents, where Bench was living at the time. Bench was arrested near 
Weatherford where he was found driving Henry's car.

District Attorney Jason Hicks has said he is seeking the death penalty if Bench 
is convicted.

(source: Associated Press)






UTAH:

Valdes' mental state debated in double-murder case


The debate continues to rage over murder suspect Jeremy Valdes' mental state 
and whether experts on the subject will be permitted to speak in trial.

The prosecution and defense argued Friday before 2nd District Judge Mark 
DeCaria whether an expert in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging studies 
should be allowed to give testimony about Valdes' mental condition at the time 
of the alleged double murder in 2009.

Valdes is accused of killing mother and son Matthew Roddy and Pamela Jeffries 
in November 2009. The bodies of Roddy, 30, and Jeffries, 56, were found stashed 
in the closet of their mobile home in Roy.

Valdes is eligible for the death penalty if convicted. He was silent and stoic 
throughout Friday's hearing, flanked by his legal defenders.

Valdes' public defender, Randall Marshall, filed a court motion in May 
requesting that fMRI images, which track brain activity by monitoring blood 
flow, be considered in his client's defense. Valdes clearly has a mental 
defect, according to professionally administered fMRI tests, Marshall argued, 
and expert testimony on the test's results should be allowed at trial.

The memorandum ignited a rally of memorandums, motions and procedural 
maneuvering by the prosecution and defense in the months since, extending a 
case that is nearing the end of its 5th year. Prosecutors claim Marshall's fMRI 
expert, Ronald Houston, is an expert in his field but not qualified to apply 
his expertise in a trial setting.

Marshall indicated Friday the jury should be able decide the question of 
whether Valdes was mentally deficient to a degree that warrants his defense. 
Weber County Deputy Attorney Letitia Toombs disagreed, saying DeCaria must 
first consider the validity of expert testimony up to a "certain threshold" 
before allowing it to come before the jury.

DeCaria said Friday he would take the latest round of oral arguments under 
advisement and issue a written ruling. DeCaria also said Friday he wanted to 
reset a jury trial as soon as possible. He wants both sides to finish their 
jury questionnaire input by Nov. 15, he said, and would like to mail the 
questionnaires by Dec. 1.

Valdes' jury trial has been canceled 4 times since he pleaded not guilty to the 
alleged murders in March 2010.

DeCaria also ordered both sides to settle by later this month which photo 
evidence exhibits will be allowed before the jury. County Deputy Attorney 
Branden Miles indicated only about 8 to 10 photos out of more than 1,000 would 
likely be debated with Marshall.

(source: The Standard)






WASHINGTON:

Monfort trial costs and delays


Friday marks the 5-year anniversary of the shooting death of Seattle Police 
Officer Timothy Brenton. But his accused killer has not yet gone to trial.

So far, taxpayers have spent more than $4 million on the case and a jury has 
not yet been selected. Taxpayers are picking up the tab for both prosecution 
and defense because the accused cop killer, Christopher Monfort, is indigent.

Because its a death penalty case, there has already been a challenge, and more 
are expected.

"There's district court, court of appeals, and there's the Supreme Court," said 
John Henry Browne, defense attorney. "And almost every death penalty case gets 
to the Supreme Court of the United States."

Opening arguments in Monfort's case are expected to begin in January.

(source: KING news)