[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., KAN., UTAH, CALIF., WASH.

[Rick Halperin]

March 30


TEXAS:

ON DEATH ROW

State has execution drugs through April ---- Status of Michael "Spider" 
Gonzales still unknown



TIMELINE

April 22, 1994: Bodies of Manuel and Merced Aguirre found at their 220 W. 
Schell St. home.

May 1994: Gonzales arrested and charged with capital murder.

Nov. 27, 1995: Jury trial begins.

Dec. 8, 1995: Gonzales sentenced to death.

June 3, 1998: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (the highest criminal appellate 
court in Texas) affirms the judgment against Gonzales.

March 10, 1999: Court of Criminal Appeals denies Gonzales' habeas corpus 
application.

Oct. 26, 2000: State files notice regarding the use of race during Gonzales' 
sentencing phase. A witness was found in several other trials to be racially 
biased.

Dec. 19, 2002: Federal district court grants sentencing relief.

July 31, 2006: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upholds guilt phase 
judgment.

May 4, 2009: Gonzales resentencing trial begins.

May 7, 2009: Jury sentences Gonzales to death a 2nd time.

Jan. 14, 2013: Federal judge stays Gonzales execution set for March 21, 2013.

July 31, 2014: Motion to return to state court for further appeals granted.

Sept. 8, 2014: Application for post-conviction writ of habeas corpus filed in 
358th District Court, the original trial court, but will be sent from clerk's 
office to Court of Criminal Appeals.

March 26: Hearing by Court of Criminal Appeals not scheduled on docket.

The State of Texas, like many of the other states in the nation that use lethal 
injection as capital punishment, is looking at what to do with inmates on death 
row once the supply for lethal injections runs out.

Because of the shortage, and the ongoing court case of Ector County's only 
death row inmate Michael Dean "Spider" Gonzales, there is uncertainty what will 
happen if and when he ever gets an execution date.

Texas is 1 of 8 states that uses pentobarbital in a 1-drug method of execution. 
The state moved from a 3-drug cocktail mix in 2012 to using the 1 drug. Since 
that time, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has said they have been 
close to running out.

One of the most recent announcements was on March 11 when the department 
announced it only had 2 doses left. However, TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark said 
the department received a new batch of drugs to allow them to continue through 
next month.

"The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has obtained a new supply of 
pentobarbital which will allow the agency to carry out executions that are 
scheduled for the month of April," Clark announced in an emailed statement. 
"The drugs were purchased from a licensed pharmacy that has the ability to 
compound. We continue to explore all options including the continued use of 
pentobarbital or alternate drugs to use in the lethal injection process."

The company was not named and despite a state district judge telling the agency 
in December to name the supplier, it still has not done so.

Gonzales' case has been going back and forth in the courts for almost 21 years.

Gonzales was originally charged in the April 22, 1994, stabbing deaths of 
Manuel and Merced Aguirre at their 220 W. Schell St. home, and sentenced to 
death on Dec. 8, 1995. He was resentenced on May 7, 2009, after an appeal 
brought the case back to Ector County.

Even though Gonzales has been sentenced to death twice, former federal District 
Court Judge Robert Junell granted a stay of his execution that was originally 
scheduled for March 21, 2013, pending a federal habeas petition.

The writ of habeas corpus can serve as a way to get cases back in court if all 
the direct appeals have been exercised.

According to a Jan. 14 filing, Gonzales' attorneys filed a petition in state 
court on Sept. 9, which was transferred to the Court of Criminal Appeals. The 
hearing, as of Thursday, was not listed on the docket.

In the filing, attorneys for Gonzales said he did not receive "virtually any 
assistance by counsel in his original trial and was incompetent to be tried in 
his resentencing trial."

Calls to Gonzales' attorney Mandy Welch were not returned.

Rick Aguirre, who lives in San Antonio and is one of the slain couple's sons, 
said it has been frustrating that the case is still ongoing while other inmates 
on death row, who have been there for less time than "Spider," are getting 
execution dates.

"We hope he will be executed; it's been a very long time," Rick Aguirre said.

When asked about the possibility of Texas running out of execution drugs, he 
said he hoped there is "another source somewhere."

With Texas lawmakers, Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R-Odessa) said the issue of finding 
a new form of capital punishment has not been brought up. This year in Utah 
state lawmakers voted to bring back firing squads, while in Oklahoma lawmakers 
there are discussing the use of gas chambers.

Any decisions made regarding the future of capital punishment in Texas, 
Landgraf said, should be consulted with TDCJ. He said he was not in favor of 
abolishing the death penalty.

"I think we're a long way from that determination," Landgraf said. "That's not 
what I would advise."

(source: Odessa American)








FLORIDA:

Supreme Court to weigh in on unanimous juries for Florida's death penalty



The U.S. Supreme Court might do to Florida's death penalty what the state 
Legislature has failed to do for years: demand jurors to vote unanimously that 
a person deserves to be executed.

Here are the defendants from Volusia County charged with 1st-degree murder and 
facing a probable death sentence. No death penalty circumstances are currently 
on the docket in Flagler County.

Luis Toledo of Deltona is accused of killing his wife Yessenia Suarez and her 
kids in 2013. The 3 bodies have not been found.

Anthony Farina was convicted of initially-degree murder and sentenced to death 
for his part in the killing of Michelle Van Ness in the course of the robbery 
of a Taco Bell in 1992 at Beville Road and Clyde Morris Boulevard. Farina has 
twice been sentenced to death but courts have twice overturned the sentences 
and he is back in circuit court in Volusia County for resentencing. His 
brother, Jeffrey Farina, was the triggerman but his death sentence was lowered 
to life by the Florida Supreme Court since he was a minor when he killed Van 
Ness.

Justen Charles and Christian Cruz are accused in the residence-invasion robbery 
and murder of Christopher Jeremy in Deltona in 2013.

Mikkia Lewis and Joe McCaskell are accused in the 2013 killing of Lewis's 
4-year-old son, Ke'Andre, who investigators stated suffered horrible abuse just 
before his death.

James Guzman was convicted a second time in 1996 for stabbing David Colman to 
death in 1991 with a samurai sword in a Daytona Beach motel. Guzman was on 
death row in 2011 when a federal appeals court affirmed a reduced court's order 
that he get another trial, saying he did not get a fair trial in 1996.

Frank Fernandez

That would make it much tougher to send a murderer to death row and an eventual 
date with a lethal needle - even in Volusia and Flagler's most heinous crimes.

And it really should be tougher, a lot tougher, say defense attorneys who cite 
Florida's status as the only state where an individual can be sent to death row 
on a basic majority vote.

Public Defender Jim Purdy stated he would welcome making it much more tricky to 
impose the death penalty. Of the 32 states in the nation with a death penalty, 
Florida and Alabama are the only 2 without having needs for a unanimous jury 
vote for the death penalty. Alabama demands a supermajority of at least 10-2.

It's time for the men and women of Florida to join the rest of the states and 
call for a unanimous jury verdict," said Purdy, who serves the 7th Circuit that 
contains Volusia and Flagler counties.

A unanimous recommendation could make it challenging to impose death in cases 
here and across the state. The jury in St. Augustine was not unanimous in 2006 
when it advisable death for Troy Victorino, the ringleader of the 2004 Deltona 
mass murder of 6 people today in a dwelling. Jurors also have been not 
unanimous in Orlando in 1980 when they advisable serial killer Ted Bundy be 
place to death for the 1978 killing of a 12-year-old Lake City girl.

Seventh Circuit State Attorney R.J. Larizza opposes changing Florida's death 
penalty. He mentioned unanimity would bog down juries.

"I think that the way that the method is set up performs well," Larizza stated. 
"The judge in the end has the final say on the aggravators and no matter if or 
not they apply. The jury doesn't make a decision to impose the death penalty, 
it just recommends."

And Florida's death penalty is after once again drawing attention from the 
state Legislature. Bills now in the House and Senate would require a unanimous 
recommendation from jurors rather than a basic majority. The present Florida 
bills require jurors to unanimously choose on an aggravator supporting the 
death penalty, such as the crime was heinous, atrocious and cruel. Then jurors 
would have to unanimously recommend death.

While the U.S. Supreme Court is not anticipated to issue a ruling until next 
year, if the bill in the Florida Legislature passes it would take effect this 
summer season. It would make it tougher to impose death sentences in 
circumstances like that of Luis Toledo, the Deltona man accused of killing his 
wife, Yessenia Suarez, and her 2 young children, Thalia, 9, and Michael, 8. 
Toledo could face the death penalty if convicted of initially-degree murder in 
the children's slayings. The bodies of the 3 are nevertheless missing.

Yessenia Suarez's stepfather, Ruben Perez, stated it would be wrong to make it 
tougher to impose death.

"I consider that's an injustice to the household members who have lost loved 
ones to a substantial crime," Perez mentioned.

"That's not fair to family members that you shed a particular person to such a 
heinous crime. If the majority come across in favor of the death penalty, I 
think that it should be imposed."

The bill's sponsor is Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, a Democrat from Miami who 
mentioned the bill has received 2 favorable reports from committees in the 
Senate, but has however to be heard amongst his colleagues in the Property.

"If we are going to have a death penalty it demands to be trustworthy," 
Rodriguez stated. "Florida is an outlier."

He mentioned the bill was not anti-victim.

"For these who want to make sure we have a death penalty, the most effective 
way to make certain that we have a death penalty is just to make positive that 
it complies with constitutional requirements so that the Supreme Court doesn't 
have the chance to invalidate it," Rodriguez stated.

If the Florida Legislature doesn't make the change, the U.S. Supreme Court may.

The nation's highest court has agreed to evaluation a Florida case in which 
jurors in 2012 advisable by a 7-5 vote that Timothy Lee Hurst be place to death 
for the 1998 slaying of Cynthia Lee Harrison, a manager of a Popeyes Fried 
Chicken in Escambia County. That was the 2nd time Hurst was sentenced to death. 
A jury in 2000 voted 11-1 for death but Hurst won an appeal and his case was 
sent back for resentencing.

Hurst also worked at the Popeyes. Hurst robbed the retailer and stabbed 
Harrison numerous times with a box cutter. He left her bound and gagged in the 
freezer exactly where her physique was identified.

Hurst's lawyer appealed in element saying the Florida case violated the Sixth 
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and violated the case of Ring v. Arizona, 
for the reason that Florida does not call for the jury to unanimously discover 
an aggravating circumstance supporting rising the penalty to death, nor does it 
call for that the jury unanimously suggest death. Ring was convicted of killing 
the driver of an armored van for the duration of a robbery in 1994.

In Ring v. Arizona, the U.S. Supreme Court held in 2002 that jurors should 
determine just as they determine guilt, regardless of whether an aggravating 
circumstance exists to justify a death sentence. The Supreme Court said letting 
a judge decide an aggravating circumstance violates a defendant's Sixth 
Amendment proper to a jury trial.

In Florida as in other states and the federal method, death penalty trials have 
2 parts: jurors very first choose if a individual is guilty and if so jurors 
enter the penalty phase, voting on irrespective of whether to advocate death. 
But only in Florida is a vote of 7 or more adequate for a recommendation for 
death. The judge then schedules what is known as a Spencer hearing, which is an 
more opportunity for the defense to argue against the death penalty and present 
mitigating circumstances.

Right after the Spencer hearing the judge holds a hearing to announce the 
sentence. Even though a judge have to give a jury's recommendation terrific 
weight, the judge is not obligated to impose a death sentence. Nevertheless, 
judges generally do not override death sentence recommendations.

A lot of juries are not unanimous in their death suggestions, even for 
particularly heinous crimes.

Jurors were not unanimous in the case of Troy Victorino and Jerone Hunter, 2 of 
4 males convicted for employing baseball bats and knives to kill 6 folks in a 
Deltona house. Jurors in St. Augustine voted that Victorino deserved death for 
4 of the 6 slayings by votes ranging from 10-2 to 7-5. They voted that Hunter 
deserved death for 4 of the slayings in votes of either 10-2 or 9-3.

Jurors in Orlando recommended death by 10-2 for Ted Bundy, a notorious serial 
killer who was electrocuted in 1989 for the 1978 killing of 12-year-old 
Kimberly Leach of Lake City. In 1979, a majority of jurors at a trial in Miami 
recommended death for Bundy for the 1978 slaying of 2 Chi Omega sorority 
sisters at Florida State University.

Purdy said requiring a unanimous vote would not bar imposition of the death 
penalty. Rather it would mean jurors would deliberate additional.

"If it necessary a unanimous jury recommendation of death, you would have the 
exact same process by the jury as in deciding guilt, they would have vote soon 
after vote till they reached a unanimous decision or were hung," Purdy 
mentioned.

Purdy said that about 80 % of the death penalties throughout the final decade 
have been imposed on a significantly less-than-unanimous vote.

There had been 60 unanimous death suggestions by juries involving 2000 and 
2012, according to a Florida Senate bill evaluation.

Purdy said that life in prison devoid of parole for initially-degree murder is 
just as strong a punishment as injecting lethal chemical compounds into 
somebody's arm.

"In one particular case the state puts you to death, in the other case the 
state puts you in prison till you die of natural causes," Purdy stated.

"Either way it's the death penalty."

He stated the Legislature has proposed bills to call for a unanimous jury vote 
considering the fact that 2006, when the Florida Supreme Court suggested the 
transform, but none has passed. And Purdy is skeptical that the bill will go 
anyplace this year in the state Legislature, especially because the U.S. 
Supreme Court has decided to review Florida's law.

State Lawyer Larizza also stated requiring votes on aggravators would force 
jurors to tackle complicated legal concepts created more than years by lawyers.

"I'm not certain how effectively equipped a person is to evaluate the complex 
law that applies on aggravating aspects,"Larizza said.

Assistant Public Defender Matt Phillips stated defense attorneys have been 
arguing since Ring v. Arizona that Florida's death penalty is unconstitutional.

Phillips recalled the case of Cornelius Baker, who was sentenced to death in 
2009 for killing 56-year-old Elizabeth Uptagrafft soon after kidnapping her 
from her home in Daytona Beach throughout a dwelling-invasion robbery in 2007 
and shooting her to death in rural Flagler County. The jury voted 9-3 for death 
and Baker still sits on death row.

"I would appreciate to practice in a state where if my client gets 1 particular 
vote for life my client doesn't go to death row," Phillips stated.

(source: Herald Recorder)








KANSAS:

U.S. top court agrees to hear 'Wichita Massacre' appeals



The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up appeals concerning two 
brothers convicted in a 2000 execution-style murder of 4 people on a snowy 
soccer field in Kansas.

The 2 brothers, Jonathan and Reginald Carr, and prosecutors appealed for 
different reasons after a July 2014 Kansas Supreme Court ruling that threw out 
death sentences imposed on both men but left various convictions in place.

Jonathan and Reginald Carr were sentenced to death for the murders in 2002. 
Their December 2000 crime spree, known as the Wichita Massacre, included the 
kidnapping of three men and two women in a home invasion that included rape and 
sexual humiliation.

The 5 victims were shot in the head. One survived. The appeals court affirmed 
some of the convictions against the 2 brothers, including murder, but vacated 
the death penalty for both of them, sending the case back to district court for 
new sentencing.

Separately, the high court agreed to hear the state of Kansas' appeal in 
another murder case. The defendant, Sidney Gleason, was convicted of a double 
murder in 2004.

Oral arguments and rulings in all three cases are due in the court's next term, 
which starts in October and ends in June.

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

White Supremacist Pleads Not Guilty In Kansas Jewish Center Killings



A Missouri white supremacist charged with fatally shooting 3 people outside 2 
Jewish centers in a Kansas City suburb last April and trying to kill others 
pleaded not guilty on Friday.

Frazier Glenn Cross Jr., 74, a former senior member of the Ku Klux Klan who had 
expressed a hatred for Jews, could face the death penalty if convicted of 
capital murder for the shooting spree April 13 in Overland Park, Kansas.

Cross, in a wheelchair and using an oxygen tank, pleaded not guilty in a 
Johnson County court to 3 charges of capital murder and three of attempted 
murder. He asked for a speedy trial, over the objections of his lawyers.

Johnson County District Court Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan set the trial to start on 
Aug. 17 after Cross invoked his rights under Kansas law to be tried within 150 
days.

"I want my day in court and to speak," Cross told Ryan.

But public defender Mark Manna said the short time frame was not enough to 
mount a thorough defense, especially in a death penalty case.

"We'd be unprepared, ineffective and incompetent," Manna said.

Cross said he wanted to fire both his lawyers and represent himself but the 
hearing ended with no change of lawyers and with a scheduling hearing set for 
April 3.

Cross is charged with killing Reat Underwood, 14, and his grandfather, William 
Corporon, 69, outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, and 
Terri LaManno, 53, outside the nearby Village Shalom Jewish retirement home.

None of the victims were Jewish.

Cross is also charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting at 3 other 
people outside the 2 facilities.

Cross has repeatedly made derogatory remarks in the courtroom about Jewish 
people.

(source for both: Reuters)








UTAH:

Firing Squad Justified: Utah Has Quite A Few 'Justifiable' Reasons To Bring 
Back The Gruesome Death-By-Bullet Method



The state of Utah approved a rather gruesome method of killing a death-row 
inmate by using a firing squad. While it may seem and feel barbaric, there are 
quite few reasons, Utah points out, that justify bringing back the 
death-by-bullet method.

On Monday, Utah became one of the surprisingly many states to allow executions 
of prisoners sentenced to death by using firing squads. Gov. Gary Herbert 
signed a law approving this controversial method as a backup if the state can't 
restock its depleted supply of lethal injection drugs.

Though it may seem Utah is resorting to primitive ways of killing its death-row 
inmates, clearly there are a few caveats that have to be addressed before the 
inmate is strapped to a chair and shot at. However, even though it's quite 
evident that none of the 8 prisoners presently on death row will face a firing 
squad, there are a few plausible justifications the state has to support the 
method of taking a man's life by firing bullets at him.

Quite A Few States Have Firing Squads As A Backup Method, But Will Prefer To 
Use Lethal Injections, If Available

It's near-impossible to get the lethal drugs: Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, and the 29 
other states where the practice is legal, are finding it really difficult to 
restock the lethal injection drugs. Over the past few years, an acute and 
mysterious shortage of sodium thiopental, a key drug in lethal injections, has 
left states scrambling for alternative ways to execute prisoners.

Since 2010, drug suppliers around the world, including the U.S., have been 
refusing to supply drugs for the injections. While the exact reasons aren't 
exactly clear, few have voiced their displeasure about the death penalty, 
others are more concerned about their products earning the notoriety of being 
associated with executions, or being labeled as the "angels of death."

Such is the shortage, some states imported sodium thiopental from shadier 
overseas sources, forcing courts to issue bans on imports of these lethal 
drugs. The situation did not alleviate when states turned to other European 
companies for alternative drugs, such as phenobarbital and propofol, which are 
typically used as sedatives for surgeries.

Owing To Acute Shortage Of Drugs And Qualified Doctors, The Lethal Injection 
Has Become A Risky Proposition

Firing-squads are way better than botched-up executions: During a firing-squad 
execution, a prisoner is seated in a chair that's stacked with sandbags to 
prevent bullets from ricocheting. 5 precision shooters, hand-picked from a pool 
of skilled and trained volunteers, aim their rifles through slots on a wall and 
target the prisoner's chest (because it's a larger target than the head). If 
the shooters hit their mark correctly, the prisoner's heart ruptures and causes 
a relatively quick death from blood loss.

Lethal injections, on the other hand, have been a hit-and-miss, with many 
botched executions still haunting the states. This is because doctors, who can 
correctly administer the lethal injections, refuse to do so as it violates 
their professional ethics. Combine that with states using unreliable and 
not-thoroughly-tested drugs, makes a very dangerous combination that has 
horrible results, but not a painless death.

Looking at the mess these lethal injections, which promise a painless death, 
have caused in the past, perhaps the firing squad seems like a more humane 
option.

(source: Inquisitr)








CALIFORNIA:

As death row runs out of room, Brown eyes space of those newly sprung



With no executions in nearly a decade and newly condemned men arriving each 
month, the nation's largest death row has run out of room.

Warning that there is little time to lose, Gov. Jerry Brown is asking the 
California Legislature for $3.2 million to open nearly 100 more cells for 
condemned men at San Quentin State Prison. The proposed expansion would take 
advantage of cells made available as the state releases low-level drug 
offenders and thieves under a new law voters approved last year.

California's death penalty has been the subject of a decade of litigation. One 
case led to a halt to executions in 2006. Another resulted in a federal judge's 
ruling last July that the state's interminably slow capital appeals system is 
unconstitutionally cruel. Through it all, the death row population has grown 
from 646 in 2006 to 751 today.

"Until the litigation is resolved, this cost-effective proposal allows [the 
state corrections department] to safely house condemned inmates going forward," 
corrections department spokeswoman Terry Thornton said last week.

Legislators would have to approve the governor's funding request as part of the 
state's $113-billion budget.

But critics of Brown's handling of the state's stalled death penalty say his 
proposal doesn't address deeper problems with the California system. "This is a 
failure of Gov. Brown to do the things within his power to move things 
forward," said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal 
Foundation, a group that has sued California seeking to force the state to 
resume executions.

There are 731 men and 20 women on California's death row. The women are housed 
in a maximum security unit at the Central California Women's Facility near 
Chowchilla, and Brown's proposal would not affect them.

Condemned men live at San Quentin, housed apart from other inmates in three 
cellblocks that Brown's budget plans note would have overflowed already if the 
state last summer had not, under court order, opened a 25-cell psychiatric unit 
for death row inmates.

San Quentin's death row can accommodate 715 inmates. Last week, prison 
officials said, 708 inmates were in those cells. 23 others were scattered 
across the state for court hearings or held in long-term medical facilities or 
at prisons in other states.

The governor's budget proposal anticipates an average of 20 new arrivals on 
death row yearly. He proposes putting them in 97 cells on the first 2 tiers of 
the 5-tier South Block. A small portion of the funding would go to beef up 
security, including modifying showers so condemned inmates can be shackled as 
they bathe. The majority of the money would be spent to increase staff, and the 
expansion would begin in July.

"Based on the critical nature of the bed shortage, it is not feasible to delay 
the approval and implementation of this proposal," the governor's budget 
document states. If expansion is delayed, "San Quentin would not have beds to 
accommodate the condemned should any return from court, outside medical 
facilities, or if SQ receives any newly condemned inmates."

The proposed expansion of death row is possible because California's prison 
population outside of death row has fallen sharply, a result of court-ordered 
releases to reduce overcrowding and a measure approved by voters last fall 
allowing the release of some low-level felons. Meanwhile, without executions, 
the ranks of California's condemned continue to swell.

State and federal courts since 2006 have barred the state from using its 
three-drug lethal-injection protocol. Brown in 2012 asked an advisory board to 
investigate a single-drug method, but none has been proposed, and the state 
lacks a court-approved method for executions.

The constitutionality of the state's capital punishment system is also being 
challenged. A federal judge last July ruled that the appeals process is so slow 
that executions have become unlikely and random. Condemned inmates often wait 
years for lawyers to be appointed to their appeals and years more for the state 
Supreme Court to decide their cases. Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris is challenging 
the ruling in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. She argues that the lengthiness 
of the appeals process prevents capital punishment from being arbitrary.

49 inmates have died of cancer, drug overdose, suicide or other causes since 
the last execution, including two this month. Teofilo Medina Jr., 70, who 
murdered 3 store clerks for petty cash during a robbery spree in 1984, died of 
cancer March 22. Leon Cooper, 54, convicted of the 1998 rape and murder of his 
stepdaughter, died March 18 at a Marin County hospital. Officials have not said 
what caused his death.

Brown's proposal is scheduled for a hearing in late April before a budget 
subcommittee led by Sen. Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), a vocal opponent of the 
death penalty. This month, she and other lawmakers told a federal court that 
the state cannot adequately fund its capital punishment system and should 
abandon the effort.

But because the process continues, Hancock said in a written statement to The 
Times, the Legislature must pay for more death row cells.

"California is in a Catch-22 situation. We are required by the Courts to 
address prison overcrowding and we are required by law to provide certain 
minimum conditions for housing death penalty inmates," Hancock wrote. "The 
Legislature can't avoid its responsibilities in these areas, even though the 
courts are currently considering the constitutionality of the death penalty, 
and I hope will agree to end it."

(source: Los Angeles Times)








WASHINGTON:

Carnation family's killer expected to testify in trial's penalty phase



When jurors return to court Tuesday to determine whether Joseph McEnroe should 
face death by lethal injection they will hear the most personal details of the 
6 murder victims as well as testimony from McEnroe himself.

Joseph McEnroe, convicted last week of killing 6 members of a family in 
Carnation, is expected to testify during the penalty phase of his trial that 
will determine whether he is sentenced to life in prison or death.

During the penalty phase, which begins Tuesday, the same jury that convicted 
him of 6 counts of aggravated 1st-degree murder will hear from witnesses 
speaking on behalf of McEnroe and the victims. At the end of testimony, which 
is expected to last about 3 weeks, jurors will decide whether McEnroe will 
become the 10th man on Washington's death row or be sentenced to life in prison 
without parole.

A death sentence requires a unanimous verdict.

On Wednesday, after a 2-month trial, McEnroe was found guilty of the fatal 
shootings of Wayne Anderson, 60; his wife, Judy Anderson, 61; their son Scott, 
32; his wife, Erica, also 32; and the younger couple's 2 children, Olivia, 5, 
and Nathan, 3, during a holiday gathering on Christmas Eve 2007.

Prosecutors allege the victims were killed because of a dispute McEnroe's 
former girlfriend, Michele Anderson, was having with her parents, Wayne and 
Judy Anderson, and her brother Scott about money. Michele Anderson also claimed 
she had been mistreated by her family, according to prosecutors.

Anderson, who will be tried later this year, also could face the death penalty 
if she is convicted.

King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Scott O'Toole, who tried McEnroe, 
explained the state and defense are limited in what they can present to the 
jury during the penalty phase.

"The state can talk about the facts of the crime and the victim impact. The 
defense can talk about the character of the defendant and the circumstance of 
the crime," O'Toole said.

Generally, prosecutors will call one witness to speak about the character of 
each victim, O'Toole said. He plans to have various relatives and friends 
testify about the victims, including the 2 children.

"The defense has the right to put on their mitigation information, and it's 
usually much more extensive than the state's presentation," O'Toole said. 
O'Toole said that the state has been notified that McEnroe will testify during 
the penalty phase, which will allow him to be cross-examined by the 
prosecution. Defendants facing the death penalty traditionally wait until 
closing arguments in the penalty phase to explain why their life should be 
spared, O'Toole said.

McEnroe, 36, did not testify during his 2-month trial.

William Prestia, one of McEnroe's lawyers, said in an email that the defense 
anticipates calling McEnroe's family and former co-workers to testify on his 
behalf.

While Prestia did not specify which relatives will testify, details about his 
upbringing and life will likely be presented to jurors.

McEnroe was born in San Jose, Calif., and was diagnosed with a serious blood 
disorder, his mother, Sean Johnson of Minneapolis, told The Seattle Times 
shortly after his arrest. At the time, she said the family had lost touch with 
McEnroe about 5 years earlier.

Johnson said McEnroe never showed a violent side, though sometimes he had 
fights in school.

She said she was protective of her son because of his health problems, which 
included chronic nosebleeds.

Instead of sports, she said, McEnroe read a lot and played imaginative games. 
She said after his grades slipped in high school, he dropped out and worked at 
Burger King.

When he was 18, the family moved to Burien for a time, where he worked at 
Safeway. They then moved to Arizona.

McEnroe was living in Glendale, Ariz., when he met Michele Anderson on an 
online dating site around 2002, Johnson said. He moved to the Puget Sound 
region shortly after they met and planned to marry her, Johnson said.

"Mr. McEnroe is presumed to merit leniency, which would result in a sentence of 
life in prison without possibility of release or parole," Prestia wrote in the 
email. "Mr. McEnroe will only face the death penalty if all 12 jurors 
unanimously agree that the State has proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, that 
there are not sufficient mitigating circumstances for Joe to merit the leniency 
of a life sentence."

Prestia explained that a mitigating circumstance is "any fact about either the 
crime or about Mr. McEnroe which in fairness or in mercy may be considered."

Conner Schierman, who killed a family of 4 in Kirkland in July 2006, was the 
last criminal defendant in King County to be sentenced to death. O'Toole 
prosecuted Schierman as well.

Schierman, who waited until the penalty phase to testify, tearfully pleaded for 
leniency. The defense maintained that Schierman was in an alcohol-induced 
blackout and had no recollection of the slayings.

He was sentenced to death in 2010.

(source: Seattle Times)