[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ALA., LA., MO., S.DAK., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 13



ALABAMA:

Trial of father accused of poisoning his young children and dumping their 
bodies set to finally begin


It has been more than 4 years since young siblings Natalie and Chase DeBlase 
were brutally killed and dumped alongside county roads in Mobile and Jackson 
County, Miss., in a case that shocked the community to its core.

And this week their father goes on trial for capital murder after lengthy 
delays and the appointment of a whole new defense team. Jury selection, which 
is expected to take about a week, starts on Tuesday.

According to prosecutors, John DeBlase and his common-law wife, Heather 
Leavell-Keaton, tortured the children over several months and eventually killed 
them with antifreeze before the defendants moved to Louisville, Ky. Her trial 
is scheduled to begin in March.

DeBlase's attorneys, Art Powell and Glenn Davidson, were appointed in March 
after previous attorneys withdrew following a series of delays surrounding 
mitigation experts in the case, who are necessary in cases that could result in 
the death penalty.

DeBlase, 30, initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity or mental 
illness, although in the years since that plea was entered it's no longer clear 
if that's to be his defense. When asked about how they plan to try the case, 
Powell declined to comment, other than to say that the defense is ready for 
trial.

Both sides are under a standing gag order not to speak about the case, by 
Circuit Judge Rick Stout, the presiding judge.

At times, Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich has accused the previous 
defense attorneys of playing games and stalling, citing the costs of getting 
witnesses from all over the country to Mobile for trial. A change of venue 
motion was denied in Sept. 2013, although Stout has said that if the jury 
selection process fails to produce the necessary jury pool, the trial could 
still be moved.

A daughter full of laughter, and a tiny lady's man for a son

--According to investigators, the final weeks, and possibly months, of the 
children's lives were very rough. Below are several details alleged in court 
documents, and through statements by investigators and prosecutors.

--It's possible that family members hadn't seen Chase and Natalie DeBlase for 
nearly a year before they were reported missing. Their mother, Corrine 
Heathcock, said she hadn't seen them since Nov. 2009. John DeBlase had custody 
of the 2. She said her daughter was full of laughter, and her son was a tiny 
lady's man.

--After leaving the Mobile area in July, DeBlase and Leavell-Keaton eventually 
made their way to Louisville, Ky. It was there, when she tried to get a 
restraining order against her common-law husband, that Leavell-Keaton is said 
to have first told police that the children were dead. On Nov. 18, 2010, they 
were reported missing.

--Leavell-Keaton was arrested on Dec. 1 in Louisville; DeBlase was apprehended 
in Milton, Fla., that same week. They had been together since 2008, having met 
while Leavell-Keaton attended Spring Hill College, but were never married. The 
2 defendants have at times blamed each other for the childrens' deaths.

--According to court documents, during one incident Leavell-Keaton tied duct 
tape around Natalie's hands and feet, shoved a sock into her mouth and put her 
in a suitcase. Once Natalie was inside the suitcase, Leavell-Keaton locked her 
in the closet, where the girl stayed for 12 hours.

--The documents further allege that, on another occasion, Leavell-Keaton tied 
Chase to a broom with duct tape, wrapping his hands at his sides and the broom 
to his back so as to force him to stand upright. From there, the boy was made 
to stand in the corner, a sock forced into his mouth, while the couple slept 
for the night.

--DeBlase allegedly told investigators he buried the boy's body around the end 
of March in Mississippi, and later disposed of his daughter's body near the end 
of June in Alabama, according to police. It is now believed Natalie's body was 
dumped on March 4 and the Chase's body on June 20, according to the court 
documents.

--After a massive, miles-wide search near Vancleave, Miss., on Dec. 8 Chase's 
remains were found in the woods. 2 days later, near the corner of Prine Road 
and Beverly Jeffries Highway in Citronelle, Natalie's remains were found.

--DeBlase is charged with 3 counts of capital murder, as is Leavell-Keaton, who 
also faces 2 counts of aggravated child abuse. Her trial is scheduled to begin 
on March 25. They are both being held without bail.

(source: al.com)






LOUISIANA:

Man accused of killing woman, daughters heads to court


Attorneys for a man accused of fatally stabbing a Lockport woman and her 
daughters in their apartment are seeking to bar the death penalty and move the 
trial out of town, Lafourche District Court records show.

Brown is set to stand trial April 20.

The Capital Defense Project of Southeast Louisiana, led by New Orleans-based 
attorney Kerry Cuccia, has filed 16 motions to be presented Monday in Judge 
Jerome Barbera's courtroom in Thibodaux.

Prosecutors, led by Lafourche Parish District Attorney Cam Morvant II, are 
seeking the death penalty for Brown.

Brown's attorneys want the judge to rule out the death penalty because they 
claim it contradicts modern decency standards, doesn't follow consistent 
guidelines and has been imposed on innocent people, according to court 
documents. They cite prejudiced and uninformed jurors as other reasons capital 
punishment shouldn't be considered in the trial.

The defense also seeks to move the trial out of Lafourche Parish. The public 
has already decided Brown is guilty and should be executed, meaning he would 
not get a fair trial in the parish, the attorneys claim.

In addition, Brown's attorneys have filed a request for the prosecution to 
identify photographs to be used as evidence. The defense does not want 
"gruesome" images from the crime scene and autopsies to be included in the 
trial.

The Nieveses' bodies were found in a fire set to cover up the killings, the 
Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office has said. Detectives also believe Brown 
sexually assaulted Jacquelin and Gabriela.

(source: WWL TV news)






MISSOURI:

Missouri Supreme Court to hear death penalty case appeal


The Supreme Court of Missouri will take up an appeal of a death penalty case 
from Laclede County. On Wednesday, defense attorneys will argue that Jesse 
Driskill was not competent to stand trial when he was convicted of 2 counts of 
1st degree murder last year.

Driskill was found guilty in the deaths of Johnnie Wilson, 82, and Coleen 
Wilson, 76, on July 26, 2010, at their home near Bennett Spring State Park. 
Investigators alleged that Driskill also raped Colleen Wilson. The jury also 
convicted him of rape, sodomy, burglary and 5 counts of armed criminal action 
in addition to 1st-degree murder. He also received 7 life sentences and a 
15-year sentence. Driskill was out on parole after serving barely a year of an 
8-year prison sentence for burglary from Hickory County.

According to court documents, Driskill's attorneys will argue the trial court 
erred in trying his case, accepting the jury's guilty verdict and sentencing 
him. The appeal contends that Driskill was incompetent to stand trial and that 
the trial court violated his constitutional rights to due process when it 
denied his motions for a competency evaluation. Driskill says he suffered from 
anxiety and panic attacks during trial that rendered him unable to consult with 
counsel and to assist in his defense. Driskill argues the trial court violated 
his constitutional rights to due process, to a fair trial, to confront 
witnesses against him, and to a fair and reliable sentencing trial when it 
allowed crucial phases of the trial to proceed without Driskill's presence in 
the courtroom. He argues he could not waive his right to be present and was not 
able to be present due to the panic attacks he suffered without his necessary 
medication.

Driskill also contends that he had a right to testify at the guilt and penalty 
phases of the trial and that he could not and did not waive that right 
voluntarily. He said he told the court he wanted to testify but his untreated 
mental illness prevented him from doing so without suffering panic attacks. 
Driskill argues that denial of his medication caused him to be unable to 
participate in his trial and assist counsel. He contends the jury should have 
been permitted to see all of the exhibits offered into evidence, especially the 
documents from past psychiatrists who had evaluated him. He argues that the 
jury should have been allowed to see the exhibits during deliberations. He 
claims it prevented his defense from an effective rebuttal of the state's 
evidence, and a fair and reliable sentencing trial. Driskill further argues the 
trial court erred in admitting excessive victim impact evidence that 
overwhelmed the jury with emotion and improperly encouraged it to weight the 
value of his life against the value of the victims' lives.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster argued the case with Laclede County 
Prosecuting Attorney Jon Morris in September 2013.

(source: KSPR news)






SOUTH DAKOTA:

Work of advocacy has 'human face'


On Oct. 3 and 4, the South Dakota Peace and Justice Center held its annual 
meeting. This year, the focus was on the "Human Face of the Death Penalty." 
First, I'd like to thank everyone who helped make the conference a success, 
especially those who attended. They took time from their busy lives to be a 
part of this conference, and the work cannot be done without them.

Most letters like mine begin with statistics, foundational information and 
then, at times, religious reasons to support whatever it is the letter writer 
is trying to convince readers of. However, in this case, I believe most of us 
know these things.

Instead, I am going to ask you to look in the faces of those you pass by today. 
Those you know and those you do not know. All human faces. Then take a moment 
and consider that every issue the South Dakota Peace and Justice Center works 
to educate on and advocate for has a human face connected to it.

Death penalty, poverty, racism, environmentalism, equality and nonviolence. All 
human faces, with human stories. For instance, consider the issue of the death 
penalty: When we dehumanize one another, we all become dehumanized. We all lose 
pieces of our humanity.

Some will say that those on death row have dehumanized the ones they have 
murdered. Yes, that is right, but when the human community emulates the exact 
act we are attempting to stop, we are no less guilty.

During the next several months, the South Dakota Peace and Justice Center will 
bring human faces into our conversations on peace and justice. I hope you will 
join in.

(source: Letter to the Editor; The Rev. Kristi McLaughlin, executive director, 
South Dakota Peace and Justice Center, Sioux Falls---- Argus Falls Leader)






USA:

Walking Free From Death Row, And Into a New Nightmare


Sabrina Butler can lay claim to a dubious honor - she is the only female death 
row prisoner in the United States to be exonerated.

But while she may finally be free, the stain on her character has proven far 
harder to erase, while adjusting back into normal life is an everyday struggle. 
Getting compensation is a whole new battle.

"I get to meet other people that are just like me, you know? Well, the guys, 
rather, because I'm the only female," Butler said at a meeting in Philadelphia 
of 30 former death-row convicts who were all exonerated - the victims of false 
testimonies, judicial errors, wrongful confessions and worse.

"I enjoy these times because I get to see,talk to them, and we've all been 
through the same thing. We don't have to worry about the judgments and all that 
when we're together."

Butler was a teenaged mother in Mississippi when she was convicted over the 
death of her baby. It was later ruled that he died in his sleep of a kidney 
malady. She spent 5 years on death row.

"I was in a cell 23 hours a day but the hardest thing is that you have your day 
of death approaching and there's nothing you can do about it," she recalled.

Damon Thibodeaux was released from death row in Louisiana in 2012, having spent 
15 years awaiting death for his supposed rape and murder of a 14-year-old 
cousin.

"You sit in a cell for 15 years and you adapt to living a certain way in a 
small confined area. Now you walk out into the world and everything is changed 
in 15 years... there was no Internet in 1997," he told AFP.

"Not having anything to walk out to was probably the hardest part, walking out 
of there with nothing is like stepping out on a very flimsy cardboard bridge - 
you don't know if it's going to collapse or if it's going to be strong enough 
for you to get to the other side. It's been a journey with a lot of unknowns.

"There has been no compensation - sadly, we have to fight for that."

'It is a stain'

Since 1973, 146 death row prisoners have been exonerated in the United States.

The latest was on Wednesday when a man convicted of murder and awaiting 
execution walked free after 9 years behind bars in Texas.

Death penalty opponents say that while Manuel Velez is now a free man, his case 
again underlines the risk of executing the innocent in the United States.

Those who do have their convictions overturned and return to mainstream society 
face a litany of difficulties, supporters say.

Most come out with some form of post-traumatic stress, according to the 
organization Witness to Innocence, which wants the death penalty abolished and 
provides support to those who are freed from death row. In many cases, they 
have spent years there awaiting an uncertain future.

"It's not easy - you have no job, you have no identity, you have no history, 
you have no retirement, you have no health care, you have no job training, you 
have no experience in today's world," said Thibodeaux, who became a truck 
driver.

"It is a stain, it's not easy because all of this is still on your record, plus 
it's frightening because you have this 15-year gap - or whatever time you 
served - you have this big gap in your life where it's just a 15-year 
nightmare.

"They stole the best part of your life from you."

'Relearning everything'

Steve Honeyman, interim executive director at Witness to Innocence, said being 
freed is only the start of a long battle, especially when it comes to 
compensation. Those freed are often broke and jobless.

"Some of them sue the state that they're in and they get some compensation, but 
most of them get out and don't get anything," said Honeyman.

Randy Steidl languished for 17 years in Illinois prisons, including 12 on death 
row, before his exoneration in 2004.

"You ever heard the story of Rip Van Winkle, waking up after 20 years, and how 
the world had changed?" asked Steidl, now on the board of Witness to Innocence.

"That's how it was. You have to relearn everything - I didn't even know how to 
pump gas. Cell phones - I'd never seen a cell phone, never saw a laptop. It was 
relearning everything."

Steidl said he doesn't like the word "compensation."

"We feel the federal government is personally responsible for our wrongful 
convictions and spending time on death row in states all across America. 
Regardless if we had state damages paid for us, we feel that the federal 
government is responsible for the states' actions," he said.

"It's not just money - it's health care, mental health care, job training, 
social security, maybe some cash.

"But at least get a middle-class living after the hell they'd been through, 
that's all they're asking for."

(source: ndtv.com)