[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., ALA., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 4



TEXAS:

Supreme Court Begins New Term with at Least 1 Capital Case


The U.S. Supreme Court will begin its 2014-15 term on October 6. One of the 
cases the Court will hear during its 1st month is Jennings v. Stephens, a Texas 
death penalty case involving ineffectiveness of counsel and whether a separate 
appeal is necessary for each such claim. Oral arguments will take place on 
October 15. The Court has been asked to review an appeal from Scott Panetti, 
another death row inmate from Texas, who may be mentally incompetent. Last 
year, the Supreme Court struck down Florida's strict IQ cutoff for determining 
intellectual disability. In that case, Hall v. Florida, the Court concluded 
that "Florida's law contravenes our Nation's commitment to dignity and its duty 
to teach human decency as the mark of a civilized world."

(source: DPIC)

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

There must be a better way to try a capital murder case


There is something that has been troubling me for quite some time, but I 
thought that maybe there was something that could be done about it. Maybe it 
would work itself out on its own and the right thing would be done.

I found out earlier this week I was wrong.

My concerns are that a mockery is being made out of the proceedings of the most 
serious, complex criminal case there is - one that involves the death penalty. 
When lives have been taken and another life is on the line, regardless of how 
one might feel about the accused, it is that person's constitutional right to 
get a fair trial.

Sometimes it is the accused who stands in the way of that happening, and 
sometimes it is someone who does not want to admit they are in over their head.

That's what is going on in the capital murder case of Howard Wayne Lewis. The 
former correctional officer stands accused of slaying his 18-month-old son, 
Aiyden Benjamin Lewis, and the boy's grandmother, Shanta Crawford, at their 
Walker County home in July 2013.

Their murders were a horrendous crime that rocked the community to its core. 
The baby was founding hanging from a door inside the residence and his 
grandmother was violently beaten to death.

DNA evidence linked Howard Lewis to the crime. He was arrested and indicted for 
capital murder of a child under 10 years of age. Lewis became "Public Enemy No. 
1" to the people of Walker County and the Walker County District Attorney's 
Office is seeking the death penalty.

Lewis' fiancee, Sharon Lynch, hired Houston defense attorney Maverick Ray to 
handle the case. She said she did not want an attorney from Walker County 
representing Lewis because of the "old boy network." She settled on the 
25-year-old Ray after she talked to "less than 5" other attorneys in Houston. 
When Ray agreed to represent Lewis, he had been out of law school for less than 
a year, had only been practicing for 5 months and had never tried a jury trial, 
not even for a misdemeanor offense. (He said he has since tried "7 or 8" jury 
trials).

It wasn't a surprise that the District Attorney's Office filed a motion to 
determine Ray's qualifications to serve as lead counsel for Lewis' capital 
case.

Ray doesn't even meet the Texas and American Bar associations' qualifications 
to be court-appointed counsel in a capital case.

District Attorney David Weeks said during a hearing Tuesday at the Walker 
County Courthouse that is was "unfair" to Lewis and the county's taxpayers for 
Ray to proceed as 1st chair in the proceedings.

I'll take it one step further. It is also unfair to the family of the victims. 
They deserve to see justice done so they might get a little closure, but a 
long, drawn-out legal process will continue to deny them that.

Ray lacks the necessary experience, which hampers Lewis' right to due process. 
It was even revealed Tuesday that Ray had not signed and dated several motions 
that he had tried to file previously. Red flag.

If the state gets a conviction and Lewis is sentenced to die by lethal 
injection, Ray's inexperience opens the door to a strong appeal for ineffective 
counsel. That could lead to a retrial, meaning Walker County would have to 
spend more money. That's unfair to the taxpayers.

Lynch said Tuesday that she was under the assumption that Ray was qualified to 
try a capital case when she hired him on a $30,000 retainer. (I hear that 
capital case defenders ask for at least 3 to 4 times more than that because 
they often have to put their practice on hold until the case is resolved.)

What the young attorney should have done, ethically, is tell Lynch that he 
wasn't qualified, but he would refer her to someone who was.

Ray doesn't exactly have a lengthy resume for someone tasked with what I have 
been told by well-seasoned attorneys is the most difficult case to try. Ray 
said in court Tuesday that he has peeped his head into a courtroom where a 
capital trial was taking place. I sat in on a death penalty case more than that 
when I was covering the John Falk trial in Bryan.

I look at it this way. This would be like if someone was rushed to the hospital 
in need of complicated brain surgery and decided they didn't want a brain 
specialist but a 2st-year doctor standing in the hallway. Sure, Doogie Howser 
M.D. might be up to the task, but he would probably tell the person to go with 
the more experienced doctor.

Ray might be the next Ben Matlock or Perry Mason, but I would be willing to bet 
that those fictional characters in their younger years like Doogie, would have 
passed a death penalty case on to a more qualified attorney.

Sitting lead counsel on a death penalty case is not and cannot be a learning 
experience for young attorneys. Life and death is on the line. Young attorneys 
should be cutting their teeth trying misdemeanor cases and working up to 
felonies.

I understand that Ray is just trying to build his career. I get that. But he 
should have taken the help offered by the Texas Regional Public Defender for 
Capital Cases office. That agency has expert lawyers, mitigation specialists 
and investigators with years of experience trying capital cases.

This is what they do, and I'm told they do it very well. The agency even 
offered to let Maverick stay on as co-counsel. He declined.

But Lewis isn't helping his case any either. There was nothing legally that 
could be done to remove Ray as lead counsel. It is Lewis' Sixth Amendment right 
to choose who will represent him and he made it known that Ray was his choice 
Tuesday.

Maybe there should be a law for capital cases where lawyers not appointed by 
the court have to meet the same qualifications as appointed attorneys do when 
the death penalty in on the table.

I have witnessed more executions than I can count. And, in my opinion, if the 
government is going to continue to allow the death penalty as a form of capital 
punishment, the qualifications for defense and prosecuting attorneys to try 
these cases must be high.

(source: Cody Stark, News Editor, Huntsville Item)

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

'Dead Man Walking' author Sister Helen Prejean to address death penalty at 
Houston appearances


Catapulted into political advocacy by her 1982 decision to correspond with a 
double-killer, Louisiana nun Sister Helen Prejean has becomea champion of 
abolishing the death penalty. Her 1993 account of her friendship with Elmo 
Patrick Sonnier, "Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty 
in the U.S.," was a clarion call to action for capital punishment foes. Houston 
Chronicle reporter Allan Turner spoke with her in advance of her appearance 
Sunday at Memorial Drive United Methodist Church and her appearance Monday at 
the University of Houston's M.D. Anderson Library.

(source: Houston Chronicle)






PENNSYLVANIA:

Bethlehem murder trial pushed back from delays in jury selection


A Bethlehem capital murder trial will be pushed back a day after the jury 
selection process has gone longer than anticipated.

The trials of Rene Figueroa and Javier Rivera-Alvarado, both of Allentown, are 
now set to begin Tuesday, First Assistant District Attorney Terry Houck said 
Friday afternoon. Lawyers originally hoped to finish up jury selection by the 
end of the week, but the trial is still 2 jurors and four alternates short, he 
said. Potential jurors will report back on Monday to continue the interview 
process, he said.

Figueroa, 34, is charged with the murder of Yolanda Morales and 21 other counts 
stemming from the gun battle outside the Puerto Rican Beneficial Society in 
South Side Bethlehem Dec. 2, 2012. He could face the death penalty if convicted 
of 1st degree murder, so jurors are being interviewed individually to ensure 
they would be unbiased if selected to serve.

Prosecutors are simultaneously trying Rivera-Alvarado, 40, with three counts of 
attempted homicide and 17 related charges for his alleged role in the shootout.

Police said Rivera-Alvarado and Orialis Figueroa got into an altercation inside 
the club that eventually sparked the deadly gun battle. Authorities allege 
Rivera-Alvarado shot three people, none of them fatally, before Orialis 
Figueroa knocked him out with a baseball bat at took his gun. Police said Rene 
Figueroa then came out of the club and opened fire, killing Morales and 
wounding 2 others before he eventually passed out after being shot by Orialis 
Figueroa.

(source: lehighvalleylive.com)

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

Autopsy reports presented in Raghunandan Yandamuri's Upper Merion murder trial


10-month-old Saanvi Venna did not die in the sauna in which her body was found 
four days after Raghunandan Yandamuri allegedly kidnapped her and killed her 
61-year-old grandmother, Satyavathi Venna, forensic pathologist Dr. Paul Hoyer 
testified at Yandamuri???s trial Thursday.

Hoyer told the court that because there were no flies or other insects around 
the child's body when she was found, it is likely she was moved from the place 
of her death to the sauna at the Marquis Apartments. Had she been killed and 
left inside of the sauna, Hoyer said, there would have been flies around her.

During direct examination, Hoyer said he was able to rule Saanvi Venna's death 
a homicide and determined that the cause of death was suffocation. He called 
her death a "soft suffocation" and said that in the moments before her death 
she would have experienced air-hunger, a feeling similar to that of being 
underwater for too long and needing to surface for air.

"It would be very unpleasant," Hoyer said in court.

The death could have been very quick or that it could have taken awhile, Hoyer 
testified, and he could not be certain exactly how long it took. Prosecutors 
allege that Yandamuri, 28, placed a rag in Saanvi's mouth to get her to stay 
quiet and put a towel over her head to keep the rag in place. They further 
allege Yandamuri then put Saanvi in a blue suitcase to take her out of the 
apartment building without her being seen. It was likely she had been deceased 
for two to three days before investigators found her, Hoyer said.

Of the grandmother, Satyavathi Venna, Hoyer said he ruled her death a homicide 
and found that she had been killed by 3 "chopping" wounds from the same point 
of entry, along with 3 stabbing wounds to the chest.

It was within a reasonable degree of certainty that Satyavathi Venna was killed 
in the kitchen of the Venna family's 6th-floor apartment in Upper Merion, Hoyer 
said, and the killer was close to her when she was attacked. Hoyer said the 
chopping wounds to her neck would have required a "great deal of force."

Prosecutors have said that the wounds that led to Venna's death contradict what 
Yandamuri told police during the morning of Oct. 26, 2012, when he confessed to 
the crime.

In the confession, which he has since recanted, Yandamuri stated that when he 
had Saanvi in his hands, Satyavathi Venna went after him and he fell backwards, 
cutting her throat with a knife. Hoyer said that kind of action would not have 
cut Venna's neck so deeply, nor did it explain the stab wounds to her chest.

Hoyer also noted a single defensive wound on Venna's left hand, which he said 
was most likely the result of her trying to grab the knife, or protect her 
neck, sacrificing her finger.

The trial will resume on Friday with testimony from a county detective who 
traced Yandamuri's phone calls on the day of the killing and the day after. 
Prosecutors may close their case on Friday.

Yandamuri is accused of kidnapping Saanvi Venna on Oct. 22, 2012 at the Marquis 
Apartments in Upper Merion and, in the process, of killing Satyavathi Venna. 
Yandamuri allegedly left a ransom note in which he identified the parents of 
Saanvi Venna by their nicknames, which investigators say were known only to a 
handful of close friends.

Yandamuri, who is representing himself in trial, is facing 2 counts of 
1st-degree murder, and, if convicted, may face the death penalty. If there is a 
penalty phase to the trial, Yandamuri will be represented by Henry Hilles.

(source: The Reporter)

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

Michael Ballard changes his mind about being executed


Just 5 weeks after standing before a Northampton County judge and proclaiming 
his willingness to accept his death sentence, Ballard now says he is interested 
in joining a pending lawsuit that could delay his execution indefinitely.

Though he insisted this summer that he is "not afraid to die," Ballard told The 
Morning Call on Friday that the class action lawsuit's claim - that 
Pennsylvania's lethal injection method is cruel and unusual punishment - is one 
that he embraces.

"I have no faith that the Department of Corrections can carry out an execution 
without [expletive] it up," Ballard said during an exclusive interview inside 
Northampton County Prison. "And I'm certainly not going to jump to the head of 
the line and let them guinea pig on me."

The interview, the newspaper's 4th with the 5-time killer, came as Gov. Tom 
Corbett is expected next week to schedule a date for Ballard's execution, which 
the death-row inmate has challenged the state to carry out. Ballard was brought 
to the Easton jail amid that challenge, to allow a psychological work-up to 
determine whether he is competent to give up his appeals and seek an impending 
death.

But his desire to be part of a broad challenge to the death penalty could 
represent a sea-changing development in his case. Pennsylvania hasn't put to 
death an inmate who fought his execution since 1962, with stays regularly 
issued to prisoners who have legal questions pending.

District Attorney John Morganelli, who has called Ballard the "poster boy" for 
the death penalty, said Friday he was not surprised that Ballard is looking for 
ways to prolong his life.

Morganelli likened Ballard to Martin Appel, who murdered three people during a 
1986 bank robbery in East Allen Township, asked the state to put him to death, 
then ultimately decided to appeal.

"I have no problem with it. I don't care if Mr. Ballard changes his mind," 
Morganelli said. "Mr. Ballard may have reasons for that. He's of above average 
intellect and he may have looked at this issue and decided he wants to fight."

"I've been through this before with Appel, so it doesn't surprise me at all," 
Morganelli added.

Speaking through the bars of a prison cell, corrections guards standing at the 
ready nearby, Ballard bristled over a reporter's question on whether joining 
the lawsuit could be seen as a "pretext" as the reality of his death nears.

Ballard, 41, said he makes a distinction between the post-conviction appeals he 
is seeking to waive and a federal suit questioning the drugs the state uses 
during executions and the way they are administered.

"Not wanting to be tortured to death? How is that pretextual?" Ballard asked. 
"Having no faith that the state can get it right with untested drugs?"

But distinction or no, the decision would almost certainly slam the brakes on 
the prospect that Ballard would be executed any time soon. And the federal suit 
involves the same attorneys - the Federal Community Defenders Office in 
Philadelphia - that Ballard has excoriated as recently as Aug. 29 for trying to 
get involved in his case without his permission.

By Ballard's own admission, he savagely knifed to death his former girlfriend, 
Denise Merhi, 39; her father, Dennis Marsh, 62; her grandfather, Alvin Marsh 
Jr., 87; and Steven Zernhelt, 53, a neighbor who heard screams and tried to 
help.

"Nothing is to be preferred before justice." - Socrates

At the time of the June 26, 2010, rampage, Ballard had recently been paroled 
from prison, where he served 17 years for murdering an Allentown man nearly two 
decades earlier. The state Supreme Court upheld Ballard's death sentence in 
November, citing overwhelming evidence in support of it.

Luther Marsh, the brother of victim Alvin Marsh, declined to comment Friday. 
Efforts to reach a relative of Zernhelt were unsuccessful.

Just last month, one of the Ballard's public defenders, James Connell, said he 
believed his client was firm in his desire to be put to death.

"There's no talking him out of it," Connell said. "I think at this point, if 
the governor signs the warrant, he'll say, 'Kill me tomorrow.'"

Michael Corriere, Ballard's lead attorney, said Friday that Connell has begun 
getting details on the federal suit after a request by Ballard. Corriere said 
he expects Judge Emil Giordano may want to ask Ballard about those potential 
legal avenues when he is next in Northampton County Court.

"This is all new to us also," Corriere said.

A hearing for Ballard is scheduled Oct. 14, when Giordano is slated to consider 
whether he is competent to waive his appeals. Both Ballard and Corriere said 
they expect it will be pushed back because Dr. Frank Dattilio, the psychologist 
examining Ballard, has indicated he will need more time to complete his report.

The federal lawsuit was filed in 2007 by Bucks County killer Frank Chester, who 
was sentenced to die for a 1987 torture-slaying of a Levittown artist. It was 
created on behalf of the state's death row inmates, and anyone who may end up 
on death row while it is pending.

It argues that the state's execution methods bring unnecessary pain to the 
condemned, and therefore violates their Eighth Amendment rights.

Ballard also pointed to a recent lawsuit by the ACLU and four newspapers 
seeking to unseal records on the drugs the state acquires for lethal 
injections. He also highlighted botched executions recently in other states.

"There are all sorts of lawsuits in play that I'm just now finding out about, 
that challenge the very things that I'm wondering myself: Can Pennsylvania 
carry out an execution without screwing it up?" Ballard said.

He called that a "worthy fight, absolutely," and said such litigation is 
"something that I feel strongly about."

One of the federal defenders, Billy Nolas, mentioned the federal suit in June 
to Morganelli during a meeting in which Nolas said he planned to represent 
Ballard in future appeals.

Ballard has said he has barred the federal defenders from even visiting him on 
death row, and in court in August, Ballard turned to Nolas and gave him the 
middle finger. Ballard told Giordano that he "absolutely" did not want the 
defenders in his case.

During Friday's interview, Ballard was asked whether that could change with the 
federal lawsuit. Ballard, who said he was unaware of the federal defenders' 
involvement in the suit, did not directly answer the question.

"Needless to say, it's an interesting relationship already," Ballard said.

(source: Morning Call)

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

Experts dispute DNA evidence in York County death penalty trial


2 expert witnesses contested the validity of DNA evidence that could place 
Timothy Matthew Jacoby at the scene of the homicide he is charged with.

Their testimony is pivotal in the death penalty trial in York County Court, 
because the defense contends that Jacoby had never met Schmeyer and the DNA 
evidence could cement a case the defense argues is solely circumstantial. Both 
sides offered up an expert witness with a differing opinion on the genetic 
evidence.

In the second half of Friday's trial filled with jargon-laden testimony, the 
witness for the defense told the jury that the DNA found under Monica 
Schmeyer's fingernails after the March 2010 homicide does not rule out other 
suspects based on the tests she conducted. The prosecution's rebuttal witness 
countered that the tests sufficiently point to Jacoby as the man connected to 
the DNA.

Katherine Cross, the DNA technical leader and partner at Guardian Forensic 
Sciences in Abington, testified before the jury that the DNA taken from the 
fingernails on Schmeyer's left hand does not conclusively identify Jacoby.

She said conducted the initial tests while working with NMS Labs in Willow 
Grove as a DNA technical leader, in 2010. These tests focused on 11 genetic 
markers.

"More markers could define whether it's Jacoby [or someone else]," Cross said. 
She also noted that DNA on the Schmeyer's right hand had other DNA in the 
fingernails.

She added that had she known police had a suspect, she would have conducted a 
more conclusive test, which would have examined 23 markers.

Cross introduced her report analyzing the findings from the original tests she 
took after determining Jacoby was a suspect. Cross's report said there could be 
up to 127 people in the area who would also have the same 11 markers as Jacoby.

The prosecution's rebuttal witness, Christian Westring, director of 
criminalistics at of NMS Labs, said Cross's math is misleading because there 
are not 127 white men with the same gene sequence that would also come back 
positive.

"It's irrelevant. I don't see the value in that calculation," Westring said. 
"The mathematics are incorrect and the philosophy behind those numbers are 
flawed."

He said that even though there were more "discriminatory" tests, Cross's 
assertions do not factor in the high likelihood no one other than Jacoby's DNA 
could have been found under Schmeyer's fingernails.

Earlier in the day, Cpl. David Krumbine said that shell casings found at 
Jacoby's parent's farm came from the same gun that had left a shell casing 
Schmeyer's home, but that he could not definitively say it came from the barrel 
investigators also found.

The trial will resume Monday at 9 a.m.

(source: pennlive.com)






ALABAMA:

Attorney: Death penalty drugs would cause 'agony'


An attorney for an Alabama death row inmate said in a filing Friday that the 
state's new death penalty protocol would cause "agony" and "excruciating pain" 
to a condemned inmate, due to the unreliability of one of the drugs used.

Last month, the Alabama Attorney General's office sought to set execution dates 
for nine individuals on the state's death row, saying in its motions that the 
Alabama Department of Corrections had developed a new death penalty protocol. 
Under the new procedure, the condemned would first be administered 500 
milligrams of midazolam hydrochloride, a sedative; 600 milligrams of rocuronium 
bromide, a paralyzing drug and 240 milligram equivalents of potassium chloride, 
to stop the heart.

However, Suhana Han, an attorney for Thomas Arthur, a death row inmate 
convicted in 1982 of a murder-for-hire scheme, wrote in a filing to the Alabama 
Supreme Court Friday that recent botched executions where midazolam 
hydrochloride was used suggest the drug is "utterly unreliable" as a sedative.

"There is a high likelihood that midazolam will wear off before Mr. Arthur 
loses consciousness, such that Mr. Arthur will experience the excruciatingly 
painful effects of the second and third drugs," the filing said.

The Attorney General's office did not have an immediate comment on the filing 
Friday evening.

The protocol is similar to one carried out in Florida since last fall, and the 
Attorney General's office said in its filings that both the Florida Supreme 
Court and the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld the protocol. 
Midazolam hydrochloride has been present in varying doses in three botched 
executions this year, though its role in the complications that developed - 
including gasping and choking by the condemned men - is not entirely clear.

Arthur sued to stop the state's earlier death penalty protocol in 2012, arguing 
in federal court that the sedative used in that procedure - pentobarbitol - 
would take too long to render him unconscious before the fatal drugs were 
administered. The state said earlier this year it had run out of its supply of 
pentobarbitol, causing a halt to executions in Alabama; it is not clear how or 
where the state obtained the drugs in the new protocol.

Arthur's attorneys argued in their filing that midazolam has a "ceiling 
effect," meaning that a 500 mg dose would have no more of an effect than a 
smaller one. Oklahoma used 100 milligrams of the drug in executing Clayton 
Lockett last April; Lockett appeared to wake up after the fatal drugs were 
administered. Oklahoma officials now say a faulty IV hook-up was to blame.

The filing also argued that the drug could cause Arthur to suffer a heart 
attack due to his current medical condition.

"The State's new lethal injection protocol has not been examined by any court, 
and recent executions using midazolam have demonstrated that this drug is 
utterly unreliable as an anesthetic for purposes of Alabama's three-drug 
protocol," the filing said.

Arthur's attorneys, citing the pending federal litigation, said the court 
should rule the state's attempt to set an execution date as premature.

Alabama has used lethal injection as its primary method of execution since 
2002. The state used sodium thiopental as its primary sedative until 2011, when 
manufacturer Hospira stopped making the drug in the United States. Most states 
with the death penalty have since struggled to find drugs that can be used to 
carry out executions.

(source: Montgomery Advertiser)






OHIO:

Sides fail to agree on plea deal for Schobert murder defendant Shawn Ford Jr.


Attorneys for a young Akron man accused of killing a prominent attorney and his 
wife in their Portage Lakes home have offered a guilty plea in exchange for 
life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors turned down that request, and a death sentence for Shawn Eric Ford 
Jr. remains a possibility.

The Summit County trial of Ford, 19, is expected to begin next week, possibly 
with opening statements Wednesday before Common Pleas Judge Tom Parker.

Ford is charged with multiple aggravated murder counts and death penalty 
specifications in the April 2013 bludgeoning deaths of Jeffrey Schobert, 56, 
and his wife, Margaret "Peg" Schobert, 59, at their lakeside home in New 
Franklin.

No firm date is set for opening statements. Lawyers for both sides still are 
involved in individual talks with potential jurors about their views on the 
death penalty and the issue of pretrial publicity affecting Ford's right to a 
fair trial in Summit County.

Jury selection began last week, and the talks are continuing in the judge's 
chambers.

On Sept. 19, according to transcripts of a hearing in open court, Summit 
Assistant Prosecutor Brad Gessner confirmed that a plea deal for Ford, with 
"some [form] of a life sentence," did not seem likely based on discussions that 
he said his office has held with Schobert family members.

Parker, the transcript showed, then questioned Gessner about related informal 
discussions on the potential for a deal in which Ford would plead guilty, then 
go before a 3-judge panel to decide his penalty.

A deal such as that could result in a death sentence.

Gessner replied: "Your honor, that is not anything the state could offer. That 
is solely the defendant's call if he would choose to do that.

Don Hicks, Ford's lead counsel, told Parker that prosecutors had brought up a 
plea deal, as something they would at least consider, "weeks ago."

Hicks said Ford, in turn, gave him and co-counsel Jon Sinn the go-ahead to 
negotiate a plea involving "life with no parole."

Both sides declined to reply to Beacon Journal questions on a possible plea, 
citing a court-imposed gag order.

Jessica Schobert, the older of the slain couple's 2 daughters, did not 
immediately reply to an email seeking comment on the matter.

Parker ended the Sept. 19 hearing by saying that if something changes in the 
state's position on a plea, "further discussions can be had."

(source: Akron Beacon Journal)

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

Suspect could face death penalty if convicted of killing co-worker


Investigators say 2 co-workers got into an argument at The Blue Fig restaurant 
in Alliance.

Now 1 is dead and the other is facing a possible death sentence.

The suspect, 56-year-old Peter Ortiz, attended his 1st hearing from jail via 
video.

Ortiz could face the death penalty if found guilty of murdering 26-year-old 
Akira Kirksey.

"He wanted to be a rap artist like a lot of young men. He really had talent and 
it was unfortunate we live in a place great artists don't get recognized," says 
Akira's aunt, Carrie Barwick.

Police say Peter Ortiz and Akira got into an argument. Ortiz went home. Came 
back with a gun hidden in his coat. Pulled it out and shot Akira 4 times.

Akira's Family now deeply touched with senseless violence has a message for 
those turning to violence.

"Love each other. Nothing, no matter what, is that deep to take someone's life. 
It you need time to get through something time. Time heals all and love will 
conquer all of this," says Barwick.

Ortiz back in court October 10th for a Preliminary Hearing.

Akira's family has set up a memorial fund with Buckeye State credit union.

(source: WOIO news)

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

Death penalty changes debated in Springfield


State death penalty reform recommendations were discussed during a forum 
Thursday in Springfield.

The event, held at St. Teresa Catholic Church and sponsored by Ohioans to Stop 
Executions, focused on a series of 56 recommendations issued in May by the Ohio 
Supreme Court???s Joint Task Force to Review the Administration of Ohio's Death 
Penalty.

While the recommendations wouldn't eliminate the death penalty in Ohio, the 
panelists talked about ways the reforms could keep innocent people off death 
row. Springfield was 1 of several Ohio stops on the forum tour.

"It's a conversation that needs to happen about what's happening and what's not 
happening," said Abraham Bonowitz, campaign consultant for Ohioans to Stop 
Executions.

While no pro-death penalty advocates served on the panel, John Murphy, 
executive director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, said his 
organization supports the way the system is and the recommendations could 
damage it.

"Many are questionable and if passed would make the death penalty virtually 
indefensible," he said.

Murphy pointed to the recommendation that "Any in-custody interrogation shall 
be electronically recorded, or if not, statements are presumed voluntary" as an 
example of putting prosecutors in an unworkable position.

Discussion is underway to package the recommendations into bills to be 
considered by the state in 2015, Bonowitz said.

As of last month, 138 people were on death row in Ohio.

Bonowitz said 4 of the 5 speakers on the panel previously supported the death 
penalty. Each had experiences that changed their views.

Judge James Brogan, chairman of the Ohio Supreme Court Joint Task Force to 
review the Administration of the Death Penalty, was the only panelist not 
officially advocating abolition of the death penalty. As a prosecutor, he sent 
seven people to death row and often wondered if it was the right decision.

"My belief is in these recommendations. We cannot risk execution of the wrong 
person," he said.

Panelist Terry Collins was the director of the Ohio Department of 
Rehabilitation and Corrections for nearly 33 years and witnessed 33 state 
executions.

"If the death penalty deterred crime, we wouldn't have anybody in prison," he 
said. "We have the best country in the world, the best criminal defense system 
in the world, but we can make mistakes. We do have an option in this state."

Collins said the reinstatement of life without parole in the mid 1990s instead 
of execution is a better alternative and saw a reduction of an average of 15 to 
17 death row inmates a year down to between 2 and 4.

Panelist Joe D'Ambrosio was sentenced to death, exonerated and released in 2012 
after serving 22 years, coming within 3 days of being executed.

"Don't think it can't happen to you," he said. "If these recommendations had 
been in place, I'd have never been on death row. If we're going to have the 
death penalty, at least make it fair and accurate."

Panelist Charles Keith has seen the death penalty issue from both sides. 1 of 
his brothers was murdered in a home invasion in 2007 and his family was in 
favor of it. Another brother spent 17 years on death row, and Keith fought to 
get his sentence commuted. His brother is now doing a life sentence.

"We've got to come together and make it accountable," said Keith.

(source: Dayton Daily News)