[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., OKLA., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 11




GEORGIA:

Suspected DeKalb serial killer has death penalty hearing today


The man suspected of being a serial killer of homeless men and a hairdresser 
faces a judge Tuesday afternoon in a hearing about evidence and procedures in 
the death penalty case.

DeKalb District Attorney Robert James has given notice of his intent to seek 
Aeman Presley's execution in the death of Smyrna hair stylist Karen Pearce, who 
was shot to death in a Decatur parking. Presley also faces a murder indictment 
in the death of Calvin Gholston, a homeless man residing in the Memorial Drive 
area.

Pearce, 44, was confronted and shot while walking alone to her car in downtown 
Decatur on Dec. 6 after a dinner date with friends, police said.

Decatur Police Chief Mike Booker said Presley confessed to killing Pearce.

Gholston, 53, was shot multiple times Sept. 27 outside a shopping mall in 
unincorporated Decatur. DeKalb police say they considered Gholston, who 
suffered from schizophrenia, to be homeless.

Presley was also charged in the killings of 2 other homeless people last year, 
Dorian Jenkins and Tommy Mims. Each was shot multiple times during Thanksgiving 
week as they slept on the streets in Atlanta.

Aeman Presley, wearing a charcoal gray suit over an open-collared blue dress 
shirt, did not speak during the process.

He became a suspect after the then 34-year-old unemployed actor was arrested by 
MARTA police for allegedly trying to board a train without paying in Fulton 
County. Police found a Taurus revolver and a box of ammunition, which was 
linked to the killings.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)






OKLAHOMA----impending execution

Pending Oklahoma execution drawing concern from out of state


As the next execution in Oklahoma approaches, the governor's office finds 
itself compelled to defend the process that resulted in the condemned man's 
conviction. For that it can blame anti-death penalty groups, led in this case 
by actress Susan Sarandon.

Last week Gov. Mary Fallin's chief spokesman, Alex Weintz, used 10 Twitter 
messages to explain why Richard Glossip wound up on death row and why his 
execution will go forward Sept. 16. He took to Twitter, he said, because the 
governor's office had been getting many questions about the case.

Not coincidentally, Sarandon had recently given an interview to Sky News in 
which she said Glossip was "clearly innocent." That prompted a letter-writing 
campaign by those who give tremendous credence to what Hollywood activists say 
about issues they hold dear.

Sarandon summed up Glossip's case this way: "Bad representation; 2 trials that 
were ridiculous, no physical evidence." Later in the interview she said, "The 
governor of Oklahoma is just a horrible person, and a woman, so it's even more 
discouraging." Disparaging someone you disagree with isn't exactly an endearing 
or persuasive tactic.

Sarandon famously played Sister Helen Prejean in the 1995 movie "Dead Man 
Walking," and Monday both women took to Twitter to argue on Glossip's behalf. 
Sarandon and her ilk would be easier to tolerate if they simply stood on 
principle - opposing the death penalty in all cases, period, because of 
concerns about the government taking a person's life or because of the 
substantial debate over the death penalty???s deterrent effect. Instead they 
try to pass themselves as experts in individual cases when they are not.

Glossip's attorney and supporters of the inmate started this ball rolling last 
month when they said the case lacked physical evidence, was based on 
questionable testimony, the police investigation was inadequate, and Glossip's 
previous attorneys didn't have the funds to conduct their own thorough 
investigation.

"You would think the death penalty would be for a certain class of people, the 
worst of the worst where guilt is not an issue," attorney Don Knight said. 
"This case is far from the worst of the worst."

Glossip, 52, was sent to death row after being convicted of 1st-degree murder 
in the 1997 death of his boss, motel owner Barry Alan Van Treese, 54. The 
motel's maintenance man, Justin Sneed, pleaded guilty to bludgeoning Van Trease 
at Glossip's behest. Sneed testified against Glossip, who was the motel's 
manager, and was sentenced to life without parole.

This has alarmed anti-death penalty advocates: the man who did the killing gets 
to live, but not Glossip. Yet the law in Oklahoma allows for the death penalty 
to be issued in such cases. Weintz noted that 2 juries have convicted Glossip 
and recommended the death sentence. He has lost appeals before courts in 
Oklahoma, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, and the U.S. 
Supreme Court. The state Pardon and Parole Board unanimously rejected his 
request for clemency. "To say Glossip has had his day in court is an 
understatement," Weintz said. "He has been pursuing the same arguments publicly 
and in court for 20 years."

He noted via Twitter that if Glossip's attorneys had "any legitimately 
exculpatory evidence they could present that 2 state or federal court and stop 
the execution."

"Bottom line: Glossip's execution is going forward because he is a) guilty and 
b) has exhausted his legal options," Weintz said.

Fallin has the authority to grant a 60-day stay of the execution. If that were 
to happen, it would be the result of legitimate concerns about Glossip's guilt, 
not the formulaic and condescending opinions of some Hollywood elite.

(source: The Oklahoman)






USA:

Why 3 Counties That Loved the Death Penalty Have Almost Stopped Pursuing It 
---- A closer look at get-tough DAs.


On Aug. 26, Texas death row inmate Bernardo Tercero is scheduled to die by 
lethal injection. His execution will come more than 15 years after his original 
conviction for murder in Harris County, which more than once has been dubbed 
the "Death Penalty Capital of the World."

That may be a bit of hyperbole, but there is no question capital punishment has 
been a go-to option in Harris County, which includes Houston. It was among the 
2 % of U.S. counties that accounted for 56 % of the people sitting on death row 
as of 2012, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

One reason for the national disparity: The fervor of local prosecutors. Harris 
County District Attorney Johnny B. Holmes secured an average 12 capital 
sentences a year in the decade before his retirement in 2000. After that, the 
numbers fell sharply.

Similar drop-offs have occurred in 2 other counties in the top 2 %, Oklahoma 
County, Okla., and Philadelphia County, Penn. The number of new capital 
sentences decreased significantly after prosecutors - each of them outspoken, 
even celebrity, proponents of the death penalty - either resigned or didn't 
seek reelection.

Some of the decline may be attributed to larger shifts in public sentiment. In 
1996, 76 % of Americans supported the death penalty. In 2015, that has 
decreased to 56 %, according to the Pew Research Center.

The numbers of executions speak to the power and influence of a handful of 
district attorneys in deciding who lives or dies. But what goes up, can come 
down thanks to a change of leadership, a change in the public temperament, or 
the high cost of capital punishment. Here is a closer look at 3 venues where 
the death penalty peaked under hang-'em-high prosecutors, and then plummeted.

Harris County, Texas

Prosecutor philosophy: "I say without apology that if you murder someone here, 
the state of Texas is going to kill you." - former District Attorney Johnny 
Holmes

By the numbers: Holmes won an average of 12 capital sentences a year between 
1992 to 2000, when he retired. By comparison, Holmes's immediate successor won 
the death penalty about 1/2 as often, and since 2008, Harris County has 
averaged only a bit more than 1 death sentence a year.

What happened: Holmes believed in old-fashioned law and order, and he dressed 
the part. "He looked like a character out of the Old West with his handlebar 
mustache," said Murray Newman, a former Harris County prosecutor. Holmes was 
known to monitor police radio feeds from his home at night, often rushing to 
the scene of a crime as soon as he heard word of something in progress.

Holmes easily won each of his elections beginning in 1979. He rallied the 
community around the death penalty, Newman said, and locals "were proud to say, 
'I'm from Harris County,' because of him." Asked recently by The Marshall 
Project about his use of the death penalty, Holmes defended his aggressive 
approach: "The public could have thrown me out if that's what they wanted." He 
described the power he had as district attorney to enforce the death penalty as 
"pretty much total."

Although Holmes didn't seek reelection in 2001, his grip over the District 
Attorney's office continued. His chosen successor, Chuck Rosenthal, "was also a 
true believer in the death penalty," said David Berg, a veteran Harris County 
attorney who handles some criminal defense.

Rosenthal agreed, telling The Marshall Project that he had the same approach as 
his predecessor. But Rosenthal wasn't as successful: he won death sentences 
approximately 1/2 as frequently as Holmes, with an average of a little less 
than 6 death sentences per year.

In 2002, there was a palpable shift, Berg said. In a high-profile case, Andrea 
Yates, a mentally ill woman, was convicted that year murdering her 5 children 
by drowning. Rosenthal sought the death penalty and won a conviction, but the 
jury sentenced her to life in prison without parole. In 2005, Texas allowed 
juries to consider life without parole as an option for guilty defendants in 
capital cases, another possible factor in the drop in death sentences in Harris 
County.

Yates was allowed a new trial in 2006; Rosenthal pursued the death penalty 
again. A Harris County jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity. "The 
reversal caused people to think about the problems within the system," Berg 
said. "She was obviously incapable of understanding right from wrong." 
Rosenthal told The Marshall Project he believed pursuing the death penalty a 
2nd time was the right decision. he said it was up to a jury to determine her 
mental stability.

In 2008, Rosenthal announced he was resigning amid the public disclosure of 
office emails that included racial slurs. Rosenthal declined to comment to The 
Marshall Project on the reason for his resignation. After a brief period with 
an interim district attorney, Harris County elected Pat Lykos, who ran on a 
reform agenda and promised to create a post-conviction review unit to determine 
whether her predecessors had sent innocent people to prison. In 2010, the unit 
helped free a man who had been in prison for 27 years on a wrongful rape 
conviction.

Exonerations "caused a shift in dynamics where you don???t see the population 
thinking that everyone should be hung high. The blood lust is gone," said 
Newman, the former prosecutor.

Oklahoma County, Okla.

Prosecutor philosophy: "[A] killer should not lie in some prison with 3 meals a 
day, clean sheets, cable TV, family visits and endless appeals. For justice to 
prevail, some killers just need to die." - former District Attorney Robert Macy

By the numbers: Macy served as the top prosecutor between 1980 and 2001, 
winning 54 death sentence convictions over this period, averaging a little more 
than 2.5 a year. Since 2009, just 3 people have been sent to death row in 
Oklahoma County.

What happened: "The reputation of the office under Macy was, 'Win at any 
cost,'" said Doug Parr, a criminal defense attorney in Oklahoma City. In 
difficult cases with forensic evidence, Macy relied on Oklahoma police chemist 
Joyce Gilchrist to provide expert analysis and testimony. Between 1980 and 
1993, she participated in approximately 1,700 of his office's criminal cases. 
"She was a favorite of his," recalled Jack Dempsey Pointer, a defense attorney 
based out of Oklahoma City.

Gilchrist offered evidence or testimony in 23 of the 54 death sentences won by 
Macy's office.

In early 2001, the governor launched an inquiry into the scientist's work after 
a state judge faulted her scientific conclusions for putting an innocent man 
behind bars for 15 years on a rape conviction. The Federal Bureau of 
Investigation reviewed her cases in April 2001, finding that she deliberately 
and repeatedly falsified DNA matches, withheld exculpatory evidence, and failed 
to test samples sent to her laboratory. Macy stepped down unexpectedly in June 
of 2001 but said the investigation wasn't behind his early retirement. He cited 
a desire to spend more time with his family. He died in 2011.

Of the 23 people sent to death row at least partly due to Gilchrist's 
testimony, 11 were executed before their cases could be reviewed for errors. In 
2007, an Oklahoma County death row inmate was exonerated after Gilchrist's 
testimony in that case was proven fraudulent. The state government and 
innocence organizations continue to review other cases where convictions were 
secured largely by her testimony. Gilchrist couldn't be reached for comment.

Now, Parr said, "people in Oklahoma County have a tendency to be more skeptical 
of death penalty prosecutions."

Philadelphia County, Penn.

Prosecutor philosophy: "When it comes to the death penalty, I am passionate. I 
truly believe it is manifestly correct." - former District Attorney Lynne 
Abraham

By the numbers: The county had an average of 9.5 death sentences a year under 
Abraham between 1991 and 2000. Amid voter concerns about the high cost of 
prosecuting capital cases, the numbers began to decline until Abraham decided 
not to run again in 2009. Under her replacement, District Attorney Seth 
Williams, Philadelphia County has secured a total of e death sentences since 
2010.

What happened: During the earliest years of Abraham's tenure, Philadelphia 
County was beset by a budget shortfall. In 1992, the county ranked at the top 
of the list of counties in financial crisis in a survey commissioned by the 
National Association of Counties. The quantity of death penalty cases began to 
overburden county resources.

"The money started being spent as soon as the prosecutor filed a death notice," 
said Paul Conway, who has been chief of the homicide unit in the Defender 
Association of Philadelphia since 1993. The cost of experts, psychiatrists, and 
others drives up the cost the sentencing phase of capital cases, he said. In 
Pennsylvania, if the prosecutor doesn't pursue the death penalty, the sentence 
is automatically prescribed as life without parole for a guilty verdict for an 
eligible case.

The county's use of the death penalty was also criticized for an apparent 
racial disparity. One study that looked at nearly 700 murder cases in the 
county over a 10-year period found that black defendants were approximately 4 
more times more likely than white defendants to receive the death penalty for 
similar crimes. Around the same time, Abraham's office was criticized for not 
aggressively prosecuting a cadre of white Philadelphia police officers involved 
in a corruption and brutality scandal that targeted largely poor and minority 
residents in North Philadelphia.

Seth Williams, Philadelphia County's current District Attorney, won the top 
spot after Abraham stepped down in 2009. His reform platform promised to mend 
the office's troubled relationship with minority residents. Since 2010, the 
county has secured just 3 death sentences.

Abraham, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor this year, didn't respond to requests 
for comment.

(source: themarshallproject.org)