[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., S.C., FLA.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 16



TEXAS----impending execution

Arlington woman's execution set for Wednesday


An Arlington woman who abused and starved the 9-year-old son of her live-in 
girlfriend is set to be executed Wednesday, the 1st Tarrant County woman to be 
put to death since executions resumed in Texas in 1982.

Lisa Ann Coleman, 38, was convicted in 2006 in the death of Davontae Williams, 
1 of 3 children of Marcella Williams.

Davontae???s body was found July 26, 2004. He had been beaten and bound, 
weighed 35 pounds and his body bore more than 250 scars, according to evidence 
presented at trial.

Initially, both Coleman and Williams were charged with capital murder.

Coleman's appellate attorney, John Stickels, filed a clemency application on 
Aug. 27, arguing that Coleman is not guilty of capital murder and requesting 
that Gov. Rick Perry commute her sentence to life in prison. The board voted 
unanimously on Monday not to recommend commutation or a reprieve of Coleman's 
sentence.

The clemency petition states that Coleman may be guilty of causing Devontae's 
death but not guilty of capital murder.

Stickels said Coleman was punished with death because she had the temerity to 
take her case to a jury. Prosecutors never offered Coleman a plea bargain as 
they later did Williams, Stickels said.

"What she's really guilty of is being a black lesbian," Stickels said. "If she 
is executed, it will be because of her sexual orientation. Her sexual 
orientation played a role in the state choosing to seek the death penalty and 
in her getting the death penalty.

"I have hope that I can save her."

After Coleman was sentenced to death, Williams pleaded guilty to capital murder 
in exchange for a life sentence and will be eligible for parole in July 2044, 
when she is 66.

If Coleman is executed Wednesday, she will be the 6th woman put to death in 
Texas since 1982, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice records.

Case based on kidnapping

Coleman was charged with capital murder before the Texas statute changed in 
2011 making the killing of a child age 10 or younger a capital crime. In 
Coleman's case, prosecutors used kidnapping as the underlying charge justifying 
the death penalty.

Prosecutors argued at her trial that Coleman did not allow Davontae to have 
visitors, kept him from visiting others by restraining him and told people he 
was not at the apartment when he was there, in effect saying that using such 
restraints and keeping Davontae's location a secret was kidnapping.

Stickels' clemency petition is based on the assertion that Coleman is not 
guilty of kidnapping and therefore cannot be guilty of capital murder. In the 
appeal he recently filed in the federal court system, Stickels contends the 
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals referred to the idea that Devontae had been 
kidnapped in his own home as "counterintutive."

It was only the kidnapping component of the prosecutors' capital murder case 
that made Coleman death penalty eligible, Stickels said. In his filings, he 
says that the federal court or Perry should take the time to consider new 
evidence about the kidnapping component, Stickels said.

"Of the claims made by the state, the court found that the kidnapping case was 
the weakest," Stickels said.

The appeal also claims that at least four people saw Davontae Williams playing 
with other children a week or less before his body was found, Stickels argued. 
The evidence showed that Davontae Williams was restrained with his mother's 
permission no more than twice and only then for his own safety, Stickels said.

A Tarrant County district court denied Coleman's appeal last week. Stickels 
appeaed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which has not 
responded.

'Nothing new' in appeal

A Tarrant County jury deliberated about 3 hours in June 2006 before 
recommending the death penalty.

"This 9-year-old child suffered a horrific death at the hands of Lisa Ann 
Coleman," said Dixie Bersano, one of the Tarrant County prosecutors who 
presented the state's case. "Davontae died of malnutrition, a slow and cruel 
process.

"There was not an inch on his body that had not been bruised or scarred or 
injured. The jury assessed the appropriate punishment. Court testimony during 
Coleman's trial showed that she had a leading parental role and was the 
decision-maker on how Davontae should be treated."

Tarrant County prosecutors in the appellate office maintain that the execution 
should be carried out as scheduled.

"Our position on this is that all of these issues have been fully litigated in 
state and federal court," said Steven Conder, Tarrant County's chief of 
post-conviction writs. "There is nothing new in these petitions that have not 
already been considered by the courts."

Death penalty unfair

Coleman's aunt, Tonya Brown, said her niece does not deserve to die. The courts 
are skewed in favor of the people with the most money, Brown said. Brown said 
evidence of the system's unfairness is as recent as the case of Ethan Couch, a 
white teenager who received a sentence of 10 years probation and psychiatric 
treatment after driving drunk and killing 4 people.

Brown also said the court acted unfairly when it decided to give Davontae 
Williams' mother a life sentence and Coleman death.

"If you don't have money, you cannot get good representation," Brown said. 
"She's given her life to Christ and she's trusting in His grace and mercy and 
believing that God will work it out."

Fred Cummings, one of Coleman's defense attorneys during the capital murder 
trial, said her attorneys sought a plea agreement but never got an offer from 
the Tarrant County district attorney's office. Cummings, who said he has been a 
prosecutor, a defense attorney and a police officer, said the death penalty is 
unfair in the way it is administered and nearly impossible to fix.

Had Coleman's trial been in a smaller county, it is likely the district 
attorney's office would not have had the money to pursue a death penalty trial, 
Cummings said. Or, if Coleman's trial been more recent, after the law changed 
to permit a sentence of life without parole, prosecutors might not have sought 
the death penalty, Cummings said.

"The DNA exoneration are illustrative of the fact that we often don't get these 
right," Cummings said. "There are confessions, eye witness testimony, that 
juries often rely on that turn out to be wrong."

Davontae's death was one of several cases cited in 2005 when the Legislature 
passed a bill sponsored by state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, that 
overhauled the state's protective services agencies.

Child Protective Services first investigated Williams in 1995 when she was 14 
and Davontae was 2 months old. Caseworkers investigated her 6 more times until 
2002 when they lost track of the family.

(source: Star-Telegram)

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

Court Declines To Stop North Texas Woman's Execution


A federal appeals court has refused to stop this week???s scheduled execution 
of a North Texas woman for the starvation and torture death of her lover???s 
9-year-old son a decade ago.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected appeals Tuesday from lawyers for 
38-year-old Lisa Coleman.

She's scheduled for lethal injection Wednesday in Huntsville.

Paramedics responding to a 911 call from an apartment in Arlington found 
Davontae Williams on a bathroom floor and first thought he was about 3 to 5 
years old. He weighed only 36 pounds.

Evidence showed the 9-year-old had been restrained repeatedly, kept in a closet 
away from food and suffered more than 250 distinct injuries.

His mother and Coleman's partner, Marcella Williams, took a plea deal and is 
serving a life prison term.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Death penalty withdrawn in Dixon capital murder case----Dixon accused of hiring 
out killing of romantic rival Sonnier


The Lubbock County District Attorney's Office is no longer seeking the death 
penalty in the capital murder case of Thomas Dixon, according to a spokesperson 
with the 140th district judge's office.

The DA's office withdrew its intent to seek the death penalty case in August, 
the spokesperson said.

Dixon, 50, is an Amarillo doctor accused in the 2012 murder-for-hire plot 
against a romantic rival in Lubbock.

He is being held at the Lubbock County Detention Center on a charge of capital 
murder.

The punishment for capital offenses include the death penalty or life 
imprisonment.

Dr. Joseph Sonnier was found dead at his Lubbock home in 2012. He was shot and 
stabbed, according to an arrest warrant.

The 57-year-old chief pathologist at Covenant Health System in Lubbock was 
dating Dixon's ex-girlfriend when he died.

David Neal Shepard admitted to killing Sonnier and pleaded guilty in November. 
He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors are accusing Dixon of paying Shepard three silver bars worth $3,000 
each for killing Sonnier.

Investigators described Dixon and Shepard as business associates.

Shepard's roommate called police after he said Shepard admitted to him to 
killing Sonnier.

The case is expected to go to trial in late October.

Judge Jim Bob Darnell issued a news media gag order on the parties of the case 
prohibiting them from speaking to the media about the case.

The district attorney's office in October 2013 filed its intent to seek the 
death penalty in the case.

A spokesperson for Darnell's office could not say why the death penalty 
sentence was withdrawn.

(source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

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

Inmates Aren't the Only Victims of the Prison-Industrial Complex ---- 
Prison-reform advocates tend to focus on the plight of those behind bars. But 
the enforcers of this draconian system are victims as well.


The worst part of Dave's job as a death-row guard happened early morning on the 
day of an execution. After taking the inmate for his final shower and 
instructing him to change his clothes for his last visit with his family, Dave 
would bring him back to his cell. Officers would then escort him in handcuffs 
to a prison van, which would take him from the Polunsky Unit in the east Texas 
town of Livingston to the death chamber at another prison in Huntsville, 40 
miles away. "They have that look - like they know what's coming," Dave (not his 
real name) says. "Man, it's hard to look at them in the eyes."

If you live in Livingston, a town of little more than 5,000 an hour north of 
Houston, you're either employed in the timber industry or by the prison. Dave 
was a truck driver for 13 years, but when his employer shut down because of the 
flagging economy after 9/11, he trained as a corrections officer. There's more 
money in logging, he says, but corrections provides steadier employment. 
"Prisons are recession proof," he says.

But serving as a cog in a machine whose ultimate aim is to destroy human life 
takes a toll. After 8 1/2 years working on death row, Dave started having 
nightmares. He suffered from high blood pressure. "Even the younger guys get 
high blood pressure working there," he says. "There were times I'd get to the 
entrance [of the prison], go through screening and do an about-turn, go back 
into the parking lot and call in sick." So Dave transferred from death row.

Prison-reform groups tend to focus on the plight of inmates - their conditions 
under incarceration, getting them access to legal counsel. One is not naturally 
inclined to feel sympathy for the enforcers in this draconian system. But 
working in a crushing environment where violence is the norm, guards are 
victims as much as victimizers.

"Prison functions in entirely the opposite way from the small, healthy family 
or community," says Frank Ochberg, a psychiatrist who sat on the panel that 
went on to define post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the 1970s and who 
has served as an expert witness for countless inmates on death row. "It does to 
a human being what a zoo does to a wild animal."

More than 25 % of prison guards suffer from PTSD compared with 3.5 % of the 
general population, according to a study by the Desert Waters correctional 
outreach center in Colorado. Corrections officers commit suicide at more than 
double the normal rate. They are collateral damage in a system that embodies 
one of the most devastating uses of state power.

Dave recounts the harrowing story of a fellow officer on death row who 5 years 
ago was working a night shift at the Polunsky Unit. During his break, he walked 
out into the parking lot, climbed into his car, pulled a gun out and killed 
himself. "He went undiscovered for an hour even though he was in the front row 
[of the parking lot] at the end spot practically at the entrance to the gate 
house," Dave says.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice will only confirm that on December 4, 
2008, "a correctional officer assigned to the Polunsky Unit was found deceased 
inside a private vehicle from a self-inflicted gunshot wound."

***

Set on 472 acres surrounded by forests and fields, Livingston's Polunsky Unit 
is one of 111 state prisons overseen by the Texas Department of Criminal 
Justice. It is a bleak, foreboding complex connected by walkways and encircled 
by 2 perimeter fences of razor wire with guard towers. The buildings that house 
Texas's male death-row inmates (women are housed at a prison in Gatesville) are 
set off from the others: 3 concrete rectangles with white roofs, each with a 
circular recreation area at the center. In total, the prison houses 2,936 
inmates, 279 on death row, and employs 691 people.

Since 1976, when executions resumed in the United States after a moratorium, 
Texas has executed the lion's share of the condemned: 515 people, compared to 
Oklahoma, which is next with 111. In total, 1,382 people have been executed in 
the US since 1976.

Like the inmates themselves, prison guards spend their days in a windowless 
concrete bunker. "There's no field of vision," Dave says. "All you're looking 
at is concrete walls and steel bars all day long."

For officers on the day shift, work begins at 5:30 am and lasts until the night 
shift takes over at 6 pm. In the death-row wing, 3 officers are assigned to 
each of 6 pods. One mans the "picket," which operates the doors and controls 
communications. The 2 others serve as "rovers" on the floor, responsible for 
ensuring each inmate showers (if he wants to), takes an hour of recreation and 
is served food in his cell.

"It doesn't sound like much," Dave says, "until you consider you have to go to 
each cell to do each one of those things, and you have time limits. Each inmate 
has recreation separately, and if you're going to take an inmate out of his 
cell, you need 2 guards there."

Strip-searching inmates to look for weapons has always been common practice for 
high-risk inmates. So-called "shanks" can be forged from almost anything - 
plastic food containers, metal pulled off the bunks or walls, even 
papier-mache. Before each inmate can exit his cell, he must strip and change 
clothes, then be handcuffed through the slot in his door. "That tires you out, 
too," Dave says, "looking at these naked guys all day long - 1 naked inmate 
after another.... I'm sure it's dehumanizing for them too."

As with the inmates themselves, officers are under constant threat of violence. 
In 2013, only 3 incidents involving exposure to bodily fluids by death-row 
inmates were reported to the TDCJ's Emergency Action Center, the division that 
gathers information regarding potential risks to the agency. In 2012 there were 
10. But inmates throw sour milk and other liquid at staff on an almost weekly 
basis. Dave says this happened to him many times.

Luckily, serious staff assaults resulting in injuries that require treatment 
beyond first aid are few and far between. In 2013 and 2012, there were just 2 
involving a death-row inmate. In 2011 and 2010, there were 3 each year.

Inmates often set fires using paper and other flammable items - even ground-up 
Tylenol. After setting the items on fire, they typically throw them at 
officers. Inmates have even been able to start fires by sticking pencil led or 
razor blades in sockets.

"I spent my first 4 years on the night shift," Dave adds. "And I can't remember 
how many times I [had to extinguish] fires on E or F pod. One thing they can do 
- it's amazing - they're all locked in their cells and they have nothing but 
the screen mesh on the door and they can set a fire right in front of their 
cell."

Using the same method, they also make what are known in prison as "stingers" - 
homemade devices to heat water that they can then use to make coffee or as a 
weapon. Dave explains: "They have hot pots in their cells, but they're preset 
to heat water to a certain temperature. It won't boil. It's lukewarm. But with 
stingers they can get liquid boiling hot."

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, inmates in the United States 
typically spend more than a decade awaiting execution. And despite the fact 
that some are violent to the men and women who guard them, and others just a 
pain, it is typically not relief corrections officers feel on the condemned 
man's last day.

Lee Taylor was no saint. In the eleven years he was on death row in Texas, the 
245-pound murderer nicknamed "Tiny" caused constant problems for his guards at 
Polunsky, always angling for a fight. Even the other inmates thought he was a 
"knucklehead."

On the morning of his execution, June 16, 2011, Taylor was in his cell on 
F-pod, known as death watch. A female officer who had known him for several 
years - and been on the receiving end of some of his troublesome behavior - 
arrived at his cell door to take his fingerprints. In 1 of the more bizarre 
rituals of the death-penalty process, inmates about to be escorted to the death 
chamber are fingerprinted to ensure the state executes the right person. After 
Taylor was taken from his cell to the waiting prison van, that officer broke 
down in tears. As Dave says, "You get to know them. You wouldn't call them 
friends, but you understand them a bit. You get that human contact. So when 
you're getting them ready for that last day and they have that lost look in 
their eyes, you can't help feeling a little for them."

* * *

While the physical repercussions of working in prison have been studied, only 
recently have academics begun to study the mental stress of prison life on 
guards. Caterina Spinaris, a psychologist who runs the Desert Waters 
correctional outreach center in Colorado, is one of the emerging scholars who 
studies "corrections fatigue." A couple of years ago, she published a study on 
PTSD and depression among US corrections workers. She estimated that 26 percent 
of corrections staff suffer from depression - more than 3 times the rate for 
full-time adult workers in the general population. Among the emotions 
corrections officers most frequently report experiencing are shame and guilt.

Spinaris attributes the elevated rate of PTSD and depression to a variety of 
stressors, including "witnessing offender-on-offender violence in real time, 
discovering bodies of offenders who committed suicide, or being physically 
assaulted, or threatened with physical or sexual violence."

After twenty or 30 years working on death row, Lance Lowry, president of the 
Huntsville American Federation of State County Municipal Employees, the largest 
corrections officers' union in Texas, says the constant battle "messes" with 
corrections officers. "You can definitely see them age after working in there," 
he says. "Day after day, bombarded with high noise levels, high stress, not 
knowing if you walk through that gate whether it'll be your last time."

Lowry says facilities like Polunsky are so large that, like the inmates 
themselves, corrections officers are reduced to "just a number." He says that 
although no studies have been conducted on depression and PTSD among Texas 
prison officers specifically, anecdotally there is a high level of depression 
among his members.

Although he could never work on the death row wing at Polunsky again, Dave 
insists it was just a "rough job." "Did I ever see a doctor? No," he says. "But 
I couldn't wait to get away from the place."

(source: The Nation)






PENNSYLVANIA----new (non-serious) execution date

Padilla Execution Date Set


Governor Corbett signed the execution warrant for a Blair County man earlier.

Miguel Padilla was convicted and sentenced to death in 2007. He shot and killed 
3 people outside the UVA Club in Altoona after he and some friends weren't 
allowed into the private club. This was the 37th execution warrant Governor 
Corbett has signed. But no one has actually been executed since 1999. So far 
this year 5 death row inmates have gotten stays of execution in Pennsylvania 
including 1 in our region.

Jackie Bernard was 1 of the prosecutors in the Miguel Padilla trial. She's felt 
all along the death penalty was appropriate, for this case where Padilla killed 
3 men. And she's glad the governor has started the process.

In April, Stephen Edmiston was given a stay of execution to allow more time for 
appeals. He was convicted raping and murdering a 2 year old in Cambria County.

Most people on our Facebook page felt like the death penalty should be used 
more often. Rhonda Reynolds says "There will be a huge decrease in crime! The 
reasons for the death penalty should also include rape and child abuse." 
Christina McIntosh said, "Nobody's afraid of the law because you don't enforce 
it. The death penalty might make people rethink crime." But a few people like 
Brenda Law said are against it, "She said in my eyes it is just more murder. 
>From the governor, to the judge, to the person who hooks them up, to the person 
who pushes the button. 2 wrongs don't make a right."

Bernard worries delays will only hurt the victims again because families get 
told the execution date is set and then often have to go through it again when 
there is a stay.

For now Miguel Padilla's execution is scheduled for November 13th.

(source: wearecentralpa.com)

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

ANALYSIS: The details of death penalty delay execution


Gov. Tom Corbett's decision this week to indefinitely delay the execution of a 
convicted murderer illustrated some of the practical and legal challenges the 
state faces these days in carrying out the death penalty.

Corbett issued a temporary, indefinite reprieve, meaning Hubert Lester Michael 
Jr.'s death by lethal injection for the murder of a teen girl more than 20 
years ago won't go forward as scheduled Sept. 22.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had already issued a stay of its own to 
give it time to consider whether the full court should reconsider a ruling by 
three of its members that would have cleared the way for Michael to be put to 
death.

In the flurry of legal activity surrounding the case this week, Michael's 
lawyers asked for an injunction against his execution, the latest move in a 
long-running challenge to the state's execution protocol. The Corrections 
Department revised the procedure 2 years ago, and a group of inmates has sued, 
saying the new policy conflicts with the 1990 state law that determined how 
executions should be performed.

Pennsylvania law calls for a 3-drug mixture, but manufacturers under pressure 
from death penalty opponents have put the 1st drug - a sedative which could be 
pentobarbital or sodium thiopental - off limits completely.

Texas and Missouri use a specialty dose of non-FDA regulated pentobarbital, but 
won't say where they've obtained it, and other states like Ohio have been 
unable to find similar supplies.

Supplies of the other drugs Pennsylvania policy calls for - pancuronium 
bromide, a paralyzing drug, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart - are 
also increasingly scarce.

Michael and 3 other death row inmates recently filed a lawsuit in Commonwealth 
Court that challenges the legality of the execution protocol, saying among 
other things that neither the sedatives nor potassium chloride are authorized 
under state law.

The Corrections Department won't say where it gets its drugs, and Corbett 
halted plans for Michael's execution, he said, because the state needs to 
obtain them. Four media organizations asked a federal judge this week to order 
that the source of the drugs be disclosed.

Finding completely new drugs isn't easy. The 2-drug method used by Ohio and 
Arizona has led to prolonged executions in which inmates repeatedly gasped and 
snorted. In Ohio, the 26-minute spectacle last January led to a yearlong 
moratorium on executions.

There are currently 184 people on Pennsylvania's death row, including 3 women, 
and the only three people Pennsylvania has executed since the death penalty was 
reinstated in the 1970s - the most recent in 1999 - had given up on their own 
appeals.

Earlier this month, Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ronald Castille issued a lengthy 
opinion that was highly critical of the Philadelphia-based Federal Community 
Defender Office, which represents many of the state's condemned inmates.

He blamed them for endless appeals and delays, saying they were attempting to 
do through the courts what they could not achieve in the political arena.

But others say Pennsylvania's lack of executions should be attributed to 
shortcomings in the state's court system, particularly when it comes to 
providing defendants with adequate representation at trial.

"Appeals attorneys have many issues to work with," said ACLU lobbyist Andy 
Hoover, an anti-death penalty activist. "And the reason is that Pennsylvania's 
system of public defense is really lacking and has been for a long time."

Corbett, a former prosecutor, has signed 35 execution warrants, but he's 
trailing badly in the polls as he seeks re-election. The Democratic candidate, 
Tom Wolf, says he won't sign the warrants and will issue temporary reprieves 
while the state studies the issue of wrongful convictions.

(source: York Dispatch)

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

Pennsylvania death row inmate asks federal judge for stay of execution


A Blair County man to be executed for 3 1st-degree murder convictions asked a 
federal judge on Monday to stay his execution by Pennsylvania while he appeals 
his sentences.

Miguel Padilla, 34, of Gallitzin plans a federal challenge of the 
constitutionality of his convictions and sentence, said the brief filed by 
Marshall Dayan, an assistant federal public defender who specializes in death 
penalty appeals.

He's also asking for the court to appoint an attorney to handle his final 
appeal and waive his filing fees.

Gov. Tom Corbett on Monday signed the death certificate for Padilla.

Padilla's state appeals ran out in June when the Supreme Court refused to hear 
his challenge of lower court decisions upholding his convictions.

A Blair County jury in 2006 convicted the construction worker of killing 3 
people at an Altoona social club after his friend was denied admittance. 
Padilla fatally shot Alfred Mignogna, 61, owner of the United Veterans 
Association Club; Fredrick Rickabaugh Sr., 59, the club doorman; and Stephen M. 
Heiss, 28, a club patron.

The Mexican government tried to intervene in the state appeals because Padilla 
had been in the United States illegally since he was about 9 years old. The 
state Supreme Court in 2008 denied Mexico's petition.

(source: triblive.com)

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

Man to argue 2 others killed woman, baby in King of Prussia----Jury selection 
began Tuesday for trial of Raghunandan Yandamuri


A Montgomery County man accused of having killed a baby and her grandmother in 
a botched kidnapping plot has indicated that he will argue that 2 other people 
committed the crimes.

Raghunandan Yandamuri of Upper Merion could face the death penalty if he's 
convicted.

Prosecutors allege that Yandamuri kidnapped 10-month-old Saanvi Venna from her 
family's apartment in King of Prussia in October 2012 and killed the baby's 
grandmother. The girl was later found dead.

Yandamuri maintains that he was forced to lead two men to the household and 
that they killed the victims.

He asked a judge Monday to bar prosecutors from using some images of the 
bodies, arguing that they would prejudice jurors and prevent him from receiving 
a fair trial.

Jury selection began Tuesday in Montgomery County Court in Norristown.

(source: WFMZ news)






NORTH CAROLINA:

NC conservative group wants death penalty reviewed


Some North Carolina political conservatives want state lawmakers to consider 
whether to replace the death penalty with life in prison without parole due to 
recently vacated murder cases.

The group North Carolina Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty said 
this week the General Assembly should re-evaluate capital punishment.

A judge 2 weeks ago ordered the release of half brothers - 1 the 
longest-serving death-row inmate and the other serving life in prison - after 
overturning their convictions related to an 11-year-old girl's slaying. The 
judge cited new DNA evidence.

Republicans at the legislature passed a law last year designed to resume 
capital punishment after years of legal delays.

The group's coordinator is Republican consultant Ballard Everett. Group members 
include current or former GOP chairmen in Nash, Wake and Durham counties.

(source: Associated Press)






SOUTH CAROLINA:

Former solicitors: Retrial of accused cop killer will be costly, but worth it


A new trial began Monday for a man charged with killing a Myrtle Beach police 
officer in 2002.

Luzenski Allen Cottrell will be tried before a new jury in the 2002 shooting 
death of Officer Joe McGarry.

Authorities say McGarry confronted Cottrell outside a Dunkin' Donuts and the 
officer pinned Cottrell against a car as he questioned him.

The 2 struggled and investigators say Cottrell shot McGarry in the face.

Cottrell was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in April, 2005.

In 2008, the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned the conviction because the 
jury was not allowed to consider a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.

It's likely Cottrell will never get out of prison, because he's also serving a 
life sentence in an unrelated murder case.

But 2 former prosecutors say going ahead with the retrial in the McGarry case 
is still the right thing to do.

Former Horry County solicitor Ralph Wilson says the death penalty retrial will 
likely cost several hundred thousand dollars and state taxpayers will cover 
nearly all of it.

"They're paying for the defendant's lawyers, they're paying for psychiatric 
evaluations, for mitigation experts, they're paying for doctors, they're paying 
all these costs," Wilson said.

But Wilson says the state can't put a price on justice.

He says a solicitor needs to send a message to other criminals that murdering a 
police officer will not be tolerated.

"You kill law enforcement while they're in the performance of their duties, 
then we're going to come after you and we're going to come after you with 
everything that we have," he said.

Former solicitor Greg Hembree, who tried Cottrell the 1st time, says the 
retrial will be tough on McGarry's family.

But when he was solicitor, Hembree says he would tell the victims' families 
that the decision on going to trial had to be up to him alone.

"I'll take your thoughts and your feelings into consideration, as we go down 
this decision making process, but I'm not going to hand that off to you," said 
Hembree.

Both former solicitors say current solicitor Jimmy Richardson made the right 
call in deciding to retry Cottrell.

"The reason why (Cottrell) should be prosecuted in my view for the death 
penalty is because he deserves the death penalty," said Hembree.

Wilson says the retrial may not be the popular decision, but it's the right one 
and sends a message to police that the prosecutor will stand behind them.

Attorneys in the Cottrell case are under a gag order and Richardson did not 
return calls seeking a comment.

(source: carolinalive.com)






FLORIDA:

Convicted Fla. killer defiant at death penalty hearing


A South Florida man convicted of murder was defiant in asking a judge to spare 
his life, reports CBS Miami.

A jury recommended death for James Herard back in May, when the 25-year-old was 
found guilty of ordering the execution of Eric Jean-Pierre, 39, who was on his 
way to work in Lauderhill, Fla., in November 2008. Herard was found guilty of 
ordering Jean-Pierre's murder while driving with a fellow gang member, 
according to the station.

Herard was also convicted of a string of violent robberies at a Dunkin Donuts 
in Tamarac that left 56-year-old Kiem Huynh dead, another man disfigured and a 
third blind. He was sentenced to life in prison for those crimes.

The station reports Herard testified Friday at the Broward courthouse at a 
hearing for death penalty defendants to present testimony before a judge makes 
a final ruling on sentencing.

"Honestly and truly, I'm not asking you to spare me. Go ahead and do what you 
gonna do. I pretty much dare you to give me the death sentence because I'm 
innocent," Herard told Judge Paul Backman, as reported by NBC Miami.

"I wasn't there," the defendant said, according to CBS Miami. "I'm guilty of 
having friends in gangs but I'm not a gang member."

Herard, who said he was a churchgoer, admitted to not being a saint. "I'm 
guilty of running a red light and going through a stop sign but I'm not a 
killer."

The hearing will continue Sept. 22. The judge will then have a month to decide 
Herard's fate.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Nubia Barahona's adoptive sister sues DCF


The adoptive sister of Nubia Barahona, the child whose gruesome death while 
under the care of her adoptive father and mother shook Florida a few years ago, 
filed a lawsuit on Monday against the Florida Department of Children & 
Families, a child welfare worker, and 2 former DCF investigators.

The lawsuit alleges that Nubia Barahona's now 11-year-old adoptive sister, 
referred to as "J.B." in the complaint, is a "survivor of severe child abuse" 
and accuses DCF and its employees and agents of "negligence and wanton 
misconduct."

J.B. was "abused physically, sexually, and emotionally" by her adoptive 
parents, Carmen and Jorge Barahona, and she was also "forced to witness" the 
Barahonas' abuse of her adoptive siblings, according to the complaint, filed in 
state court. The Barahonas, awaiting trial, face the death penalty if convicted 
on charges of 1st-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and neglect for Nubia's 
death and the alleged mistreatment of her twin brother, Victor.

Nubia was found dead at the age of 10 on Valentine's Day 2011, her decomposing 
body swimming in chemicals and stuffed in a garbage bag in the flatbed of her 
adoptive father's pest control truck. Victor was in the cab of the truck with 
Jorge Barahona, alive but unconscious, with chemical burns on his body. Victor 
later told police that he and his sister had been routinely and repeatedly 
abused - beaten, tied up, screamed at - by the Barahonas.

He said he heard his adoptive parents beating his twin to death as he lay tied 
up in a bathtub at the family home in West Miami-Dade. Later, Nubia would be 
loaded into the back of the truck, with Jorge and Victor riding in the front. 
The vehicle was found on the side of Interstate 95.

Nubia's death, reported on extensively by the Miami Herald, prompted the 
creation of a task force to recommend reforms, such as hiring more child-abuse 
investigators and making changes to the state's abuse and neglect hotline.

Monday's lawsuit states that DCF "repeatedly ignored red flags of abuse in the 
household," even though the agency had "ample cause" to remove J.B. and her 
adoptive siblings. Educators reported that the twins showed up at school 
bruised or famished, but DCF ignored or downplayed the complaints. Finally the 
children were removed from school by the family, purportedly so they could be 
home-schooled.

Todd Falzone, J.B.'s lawyer, called the case a "systemic failure."

"These people shouldn't have had any children in their home," he said. For 
instance, the Barahonas were allowed to adopt Nubia and Victor despite the 
misgivings of a guardian ad litem, an individual who represents children in the 
court system, who felt the parents were unfit.

"One of our main goals in pursuing cases like this is not only to compensate 
the kids, but to try to fix a system that is ridiculously broken and just never 
seems to get fixed," Falzone said.

Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are Lacheryl Harris, a family services 
Counselor for the Barahona children, and 2 child protective investigators who 
had looked into allegations of abuse and neglect in the home, Jean Lacroix and 
Eunice Guillot.

In an unrelated incident after Nubia's death, Lacroix was charged with engaging 
in sex with a foster child. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison.

DCF placed J.B. with the Barahonas in 2004 when she was 7 months old, and they 
adopted her in 2007. J.B. was removed from the Barahonas' home after Nubia's 
death and has been in therapeutic foster homes ever since, Falzone said.

DCF declined to comment on the case.

(source: Miami Herald)