[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, KY., TENN., IND., MO., NEB., KAN., WASH., USA

[Rick Halperin]

May 6



OHIO:

Lorain woman guilty of murdering her cousins



A 12-member jury found Donna Brown guilty May 5 of killing 2 of her cousins in 
July 2012.

Jurors convicted Brown, 27, of four counts of aggravated murder, four counts of 
murder, two counts of felonious assault, 2 counts of aggravated burglary and a 
single count of tampering with evidence in the shooting deaths of Dale Linder 
Jr., 22, and his brother, Justin Linder, 20.

During her trial, Brown admitted to shooting the brothers at their West 23rd 
Street home July 5, 2012, following several confrontations between the parties 
the night prior. She had claimed self-defense.

Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Rothgery will sentence Brown at 
8:30 a.m., May 18. The conviction means Brown is eligible for the death 
penalty.

The jury was deadlocked on 2 counts against Brown, but Rothgery ordered the 
panel to continue deliberations.

Dale Linder Sr., father of the 2 victims, called the whole ordeal "bad 
all-around" and said it tore his family apart.

"It's just a really sad day," Linder Sr. said. "... Still can't bring them 
back. It will never be right."

Linder Sr., who said he helped raise Brown - a relative by marriage, stated he 
can never forgive her for taking away the only 2 people he says have ever loved 
him.

"I'll never have grandkids," Linder Sr. said. "I'll never be able to take them 
to a ball park.

"My kids never had kids. She took away the only 2 people who have ever loved 
me."

Brown's family and defense attorney, Jack Bradley, declined to comment after 
the verdict.

(source: Morning Journal)








KENTUCKY:

Top prosecutor balks at judge's decision to drop death penalty for 2 charged in 
Lexington slaying



Co-defendants in an upcoming robbery-murder trial will not face the possibility 
of execution after Fayette Circuit Judge Pamela Goodwine granted a defense 
motion to remove the death penalty from the jury's sentencing options.

Trustin B. Jones and Robert Guernsey, who are scheduled to go on trial June 1, 
had faced the possibility of execution if convicted in the 2013 shooting death 
of Derek Pelphrey, 23.

On Tuesday, Goodwine, who has publicly expressed opposition to the death 
penalty in court, granted a defense request to exclude death from consideration 
for Jones, 21, and Guernsey, 34. The ruling had been sought by Kim Green, an 
assistant public advocate who represents Jones. Guernsey's attorneys joined 
Green to seek the exclusion for their client.

Fayette County Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Larson said Wednesday that he 
disagrees with Goodwine's decision "because I think she has put herself, a 
judge, in the position of a jury. Juries are supposed to be the bodies that 
determine the appropriate punishment for an aggravated murder."

Larson said his assistant prosecutors are investigating legal options in 
response to the judge's order.

Last year, Goodwine rejected another defense motion that the death penalty was 
unconstitutional. Earlier this year, Goodwine rejected the argument that 
Guernsey should not face the death penalty because he wasn't the shooter.

When execution is excluded, a jury that convicts on a murder charge would have 
sentencing options of 20 to 50 years in prison, life in prison, or life without 
the possibility of parole for 25 years.

During a hearing last week, Goodwine said she had taken execution off the table 
- as state law allows - in only 1 other case "because I just did not believe 
the facts of the case would even get to the point where the jury would even 
consider" the death penalty.

The jury in that case acquitted the defendant, Goodwine said.

In January, Goodwine said in open court, "I think the death penalty should not 
be a penalty, ever."

"If I had my druthers, there would be no death penalty in Kentucky," she said, 
but "I will do what the law requires me to do."

Pelphrey, a student at Bluegrass Community and Technical College, apparently 
was targeted because he had been in communication with Guernsey, who thought 
Pelphrey carried a large amount of money. Pelphrey was shot to death as he sat 
in his car on Ridgepoint Road near Spangler Drive, not far from Tates Creek and 
Wilson Downing roads.

Jones admitted to police that he was the shooter and that his "sole purpose in 
going there that night was to rob" Pelphrey, whom he didn't know and hadn't 
met, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Andrea Williams said during last week's 
hearing.

Jones "got all his information from Robert Guernsey and sat outside of BCTC and 
waited for Derek Pelphrey to come out of class. He got the information about 
the car that Derek Pelphrey drove from Robert Guernsey and followed that car."

Guernsey wanted Jones to rob Pelphrey because Guernsey needed money for a car 
payment, Williams said.

A 3rd co-defendant, Desmond Jones, 24, a cousin of Trustin Jones, pleaded 
guilty in April to criminal facilitation to 1st-degree robbery. A murder charge 
against him was dismissed. His recommended sentence was 5 years in prison.

Before he is sentenced on June 26, Desmond Jones must testify truthfully at the 
trial of Guernsey and Trustin Jones.

Fayette County juries aren't prone to recommending the death penalty, Goodwine 
said last week.

"I've obviously tried heinous, heinous crimes with totally innocent victims - 
rapes, murders, sodomies - and they don't see fit even in those cases to impose 
the death penalty," Goodwine said.

The most recent example was April in the trial of Joel Searcy, who was charged 
with murder in the 2013 death of Donald "Leroy" Cook, 82, of Lexington. Police 
said Searcy assaulted Cook, who later died, and tried to steal Cook's truck.

Had he been convicted of murder, Searcy might have faced the death penalty. But 
after a 3-week trial before Fayette Circuit Judge Thomas Clark, the jury found 
Searcy guilty of 2nd-degree manslaughter and first-degree robbery. The jury 
recommended a 10-year sentence on the manslaughter and a 15-year sentence on 
the robbery be served consecutively, for a total of 25 years.

In her order to exclude execution, Goodwine wrote that she has presided over 
more death-penalty cases than any other judge in Kentucky, according to 
information she received from a judicial program.

Goodwine wrote: "The death penalty is the ultimate punishment and should be 
reserved and sought in cases involving only the most egregious set of facts one 
could possibly imagine."

In a footnote, Goodwine wrote that the last time the death penalty was imposed 
and upheld in Fayette County was in 2000. The case involved the murder and 
robbery of Lonetta White, 73, who was bludgeoned to death, placed in the trunk 
of her car, driven to a field and set on fire. The two people convicted, 
Virginia Caudill and Johnathan Goforth, are awaiting execution.

There are currently 33 people under a death sentence in Kentucky. The state has 
carried out 3 executions since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. 
The last time an inmate was put to death was in 2008.

Goodwine said in the hearing last week that even when juries recommend 
execution, the cases continue for years because of numerous appeals.

"There's something to be said for closure. There's something to be said for 
finality, which doesn't happen when a death-penalty conviction is handed down," 
Goodwine said. "And for the victim's families, ... there is no closure because 
their cases are still going, they're still arguing, they're still challenging 
... death convictions that have been handed down."

(source: kentucky.com)



TENNESSEE:

Tennessee Officials Fight Inmates' Attempt To Challenge Electric Chair 
Plans----The electric chair is Tennessee's plan B if the state can't get ahold 
of lethal drugs. The inmates argue it's unconstitutional, but the state argues 
that they can't challenge it yet.



Can death-row inmates challenge the constitutionality of electrocution?

The Tennessee Supreme Court will soon decide. Death penalty states once phased 
out the electric chair in favor of drugs - for humane reasons. Now that drugs 
have become hard to obtain, states like Tennessee have turned to older 
execution methods like the chair as a backup.

On Wednesday, the state court will weigh whether death-row inmates can 
challenge the method's constitutionality. 34 inmates allege electrocution is a 
violation of the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment - that 
the electric chair disfigures the body and is an affront to evolving standards 
of decency.

But Tennessee has pushed to have the lawsuit dismissed, arguing that the 
inmates can't challenge the method because none of them are actually scheduled 
to face electrocution.

Tennessee's preferred method is lethal injection, using pentobarbital made from 
a secret compounding pharmacy. Lawmakers passed a law last year that makes 
electrocution the contingency plan if either drug makers or the courts make 
lethal injection impossible.

"The[y] are asking the court in this case to ... consider hypothetical 
situations involving uncertain or contingent future events that may or may not 
occur as anticipated or, indeed, may not occur at all," Attorney General 
Herbert Slatery's office wrote.

"None of the contingencies necessary to trigger [the electric chair] has 
occurred, and they may not ever occur."

The inmates' attorneys counter that the state could switch to the electric 
chair with little to no notice. And as drug makers introduce more stringent 
restrictions to keep their products out of the hands of death-penalty states, 
the possibility of not being able to obtain lethal drugs increases.

Attorney Kelley Henry also points to the scenario in Georgia, where the state 
had to call off an execution when they discovered their compounded drug was 
"cloudy."

"Had [the Georgia inmate] been in Tennessee's execution chamber ... she would 
have been shuttled to the electric chair while her attorneys made a mad 
scramble to get the attention of the court, presuming the state were to give 
notice to the condemned inmate's attorneys - something [the state]'s remarks 
indicate they would be under no obligation to do," Henry wrote.

A lower court sided with the inmates.

"Although hypothetical to some degree, execution by electrocution is possible 
in this setting. This court must respect the assumption that the use of 
electrocution for execution ... is a real issue and that its use could occur 
without any review of testing of the method, and without warning," Judge 
Claudia Bonnyman wrote.

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia all 
allow electrocution, but only if the inmate requests it or if lethal injection 
is found unconstitutional.

The electric chair has been used 14 times since 2000, most recently by Virginia 
in 2013. Tennessee has not used the method since 2007.

(source: BuzzFeed News)








INDIANA:

Rape added to murder and cannibalism charges against Indiana man



A southern Indiana man who is facing a possible death penalty on charges that 
he killed his ex-girlfriend and ate part of her body has now been charged with 
raping her, an attorney representing the defendant said on Tuesday.

The added charge against Joseph Oberhansley is intended to bolster the 
prosecution's case for the death penalty, attorney Mike McDaniel said.

Oberhansley, 34, was charged last September in Clark County, Indiana, with 
breaking into the Jeffersonville home of his ex-girlfriend, Tammy Jo Blanton, 
murdering her and abusing her corpse by eating parts of it. He has pleaded not 
guilty.

Jeffersonville is across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky.

McDaniel said Judge Vicki Carmichael approved the charge on Monday at the 
request of Clark County Prosecutor Jeremy Mull. It was added, McDaniel said, 
because the other charges were not strong enough to warrant the death penalty.

A trial is scheduled for August 2016, time needed to adequately prepare for a 
capital case, McDaniel said. His client is currently in solitary confinement 
and he is concerned about him staying in solitary that long, he said.

(source: Reuters)

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

Sister of woman accused of killing newborn's mother, taking child says charges 
hard to believe



The sister of a Gary woman accused of killing a baby's mother and trying to 
pass off the newborn as her own says the charges against her sibling are "a 
hard pill to swallow."

Geraldine R. Jones, 36, was arraigned Monday on murder, kidnapping and criminal 
confinement in the death of Samantha Fleming, 23, and the abduction of the 
Anderson woman's daughter, Serenity.

After that hearing, her sister, April Jones, said she's baffled by the charges 
against her sibling, whom she called kind and generous and someone who has 
never been convicted of a crime.

"I don't accept any of this. This is a hard pill to swallow. It's a shocker. 
Where did this come from? That is why, mentally, something had to have happened 
to her," she told The Herald Bulletin (http://bit.ly/1F3SOdy ).

Authorities allege Geraldine Jones posed as a state child welfare worker and 
lured Fleming to Lake County under the pretense that Fleming had a court 
hearing there. Fleming's body was found in a Gary home April 17. She had been 
stabbed 10 times, doused in bleach and stuffed in a plastic bin.

Police said Jones fled to Texas after the killing and left the infant in 
relatives' care. She was returned to Indiana on Sunday and is being held 
without bond at the Madison County jail.

During Monday's arraignment, Madison County Magistrate Steven Clase entered a 
not guilty plea on behalf of Jones and told her she could receive a maximum 
sentence of 97 years in prison and the death penalty if she's convicted of the 
charges. Clase approved a public defender for Jones, who told the judge her 
family is raising money to hire a private attorney.

Police said Jones faked being pregnant before the homicide, and April Jones 
said her sister looked pregnant, acted pregnant and even gained weight.

She said she's praying for Fleming's family and cannot imagine their grief.

(source: Associated Press)








MISSOURI:

The out of step debate on the death penalty



One emerging theme of this General Assembly session as it reached its midpoint 
with a flurry of questionable decision making early Thursday morning before the 
crossover deadline is the extent to which legislative leaders are out of step 
with the prevailing wisdom of the era in which they are leading, and are either 
oblivious or unconcerned with the events swirling around them.

The fierce efforts to undermine the expansion of solar energy in the state is 
an obvious example, as is the refusal to acknowledge the growing acceptance of 
same-sex marriage and equal rights for gay North Carolinians.

It's true that the misnamed religious freedom act may be stalled - for now - 
but legislation allowing magistrates to refuse to marry same-sex couples has 
passed the Senate and is very much alive.

There are several other examples and none more illustrative than the passage of 
a bill on the House floor Wednesday night designed to restart executions in the 
state.

No one has been executed in North Carolina since 2006 as the courts consider 
the role of doctors in executions and the drugs used in putting an inmate to 
death.

The legislation that passed the House, sponsored by Rep. Leo Daughtry, would 
allow other medical personnel to play a role in the lethal injection procedure 
and would keep the details of the drugs used unavailable to the media and the 
public.

As Rep. Rick Glazier pointed out, the House debate came the same day the U.S. 
Supreme Court heard arguments in a case challenging the drug cocktail used to 
execute inmates in Oklahoma after a series of horrifically botched executions 
across the country that clearly seemed to violate the constitutional ban on 
cruel and unusual punishment.

The courts and the nation are wrestling with the issue of how to perform 
executions in the states that still allow them. Daughtry's bill would respond 
by simply making it a secret, an outrageous move that would prevent advocates 
and taxpayers from knowing what was happening with their money and what was 
being done in their name.

The provision removing the requirement that a doctor be present when the state 
intentionally kills someone has its own set of problems too, as other medical 
professionals also have ethical issues with being part of the process.

The discussion did prompt a bizarre comment from Daughtry who told the News & 
Observer that doctors wouldn't participate in executions and "he didn't know 
why." Surely Daughtry can figure that one out.

The debate on the House floor also included rare comments by House Speaker Tim 
Moore, who supported the bill as a way to get executions going again.

Moore cited the case of one inmate who has been on death row for almost 25 
years and told the House that justice was overdue.

The name of Daughtry's bill is the Restoring Proper Justice Act, but neither 
Daughtry nor Moore mentioned the case of Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, who 
were released last fall after spending 31 years behind bars for a rape and 
murder they did not commit. No proper justice there.

An investigation by the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission found DNA evidence 
that proved another man had committed the crimes. Brown spent 5 years on death 
row before his sentence was changed to life in prison for the rape after the 
murder charge was dismissed at a retrial.

McCollum spent all of his 31 years in prison on death row awaiting his 
execution and hearing demands like the one that Speaker Moore made this week 
that justice was overdue and that he be put to death.

The death penalty system is broken in North Carolina and around the country and 
people now understand that. Recent polls show its support at historic lows and 
that a majority of Americans favor life in prison without parole as the 
punishment for 1st degree murder instead of the death penalty.

States that still execute people can't figure out how to do it and innocent 
people continue to be released from death row every year.

Simply making the process a secret to speed it up is not the answer. Henry 
McCollum is living proof of that.

The days of the state using its implicitly flawed system to put someone to 
death to show that killing is wrong are waning and someday the folks running 
the General Assembly will realize that and stop fighting so hard to be on the 
wrong side of history.

(source: jeffersonpost.com)




NEBRASKA:

Nebraska could become 1st conservative state in 40 years to abolish the death 
penalty



In the very heartland of the US, something startling is taking place.

A coalition of Republicans and Democrats is coming together, united in the 
belief that the death penalty needs to be scrapped. There are a number of 
challenges to overcome, but if the politicians have their way, Nebraska could 
become the 1st conservative state to abolish executions in 4 decades.

Reports suggest the 2 factions that have combined at the state legislature in 
the city of Lincoln, have come to their beliefs for different reasons; 
Democrats believe the death penalty is unfair and is overly used against 
minorities, while Republicans say it has become an inefficient government 
programme, bound up with red tape.

"Everybody has got their own reasons for doing this," Republican Senator Colby 
Coach told The Independent. "We are not there yet. I am optimistic but I am 
also cautious."

Governor Pete Ricketts has threatened to veto the legislation

"I don't think it's that there is more sympathy for the people on death row. 
It's about efficiency," said Stacy Andersen of Nebraskans for Alternatives to 
the Death Penalty, a campaign group.

As it is, the death penalty operation in Nebraska has effectively ground to a 
halt. There are currently 11 prisoners sitting on death row but the last 
prisoner was put to death in 1997.

In 2008, the state's highest court outlawed the electric chair. The Associated 
Press said that after Nebraska switched to lethal injections, the process of 
appeals meant the supply of sodium thiopental - used as part of the cocktail of 
drugs - expired and officials could not restock its reserve.

In March, members of Nebraska's unique unicameral chamber voted 30-13 to repeal 
the death penalty, but they must secure 2 further votes. Even then, Republican 
Governor Pete Ricketts has promised a veto. The elected members would then have 
to rally to overturn the veto.

The last conservative state to abolish the death penalty was North Dakota in 
1973. In the past 6 years, 4 more liberal states have ended capital punishment: 
New Mexico in 2009, Illinois in 2011, Connecticut in 2012 and Maryland in 2013. 
32 states still have death penalty laws on their books. Robert Dunham, 
Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Centre in Washington, said 
he believed the moves taking place in Nebraksa reflected a general change in 
the country.

"Over the past 20 years there has been a shift from 80 % support to the death 
penalty to a recent survey that found just 56 %," he said. He said the shift in 
attitude was most obvious among younger people and minorities.

Yet he said attitudes among conservatives had also clearly moved. "For 
conservatives, it's less about morality but rather a public policy issue," he 
said.

(source: The Independent)








KANSAS:

Letter: The death penalty's time is up



The time is now to end the death penalty in Kansas.

There are many reasons to do so. The death penalty risks executing an innocent 
person and is racist.

Most states now are questioning the death penalty due to its high cost. Because 
of extra preparation and a separate sentencing phase required in capital cases, 
lengthier appeals and the added costs of incarcerating death row inmates, 
studies consistently find the death penalty much more costly than life without 
the chance of parole.

Kansas is no exception. Our state has spent millions of dollars on the death 
penalty since reinstating it in 1994. A 2003 Legislative Post Audit report 
found that capital cases ending in a death sentence cost 70 % more than similar 
cases in which the death penalty was not sought.

When Kansas reinstated the death penalty, it was estimated it would cost the 
state an extra $2.4 million to $4.2 million a year. The budget disaster we all 
face here in Kansas calls for us to find savings wherever possible. I call on 
the Legislature to pass and the governor to sign a death penalty repeal bill in 
the next few days. That repeal law would not affect people currently on death 
row. We can save money and take a giant ethical leap at the same time.

MICHAEL POAGE , Wichita

(source: Letter to the Editor, Topeka Capital-Journal)

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

The Kansas death penalty is broken



Earlier in this legislative session, a group of conservative lawmakers and 
local leaders gathered at the Capitol in Topeka to call for an end to the death 
penalty in Kansas. One of the speakers, Rep. Bill Sutton, said something that 
particularly resonated with us: "There's exactly zero utility for the tax 
dollars spent" on the death penalty. We could not agree more.

We did not arrive at this position lightly. A little over 5 years ago, our 
mother, Patricia Kimmi, was murdered in northeast Kansas. This tragedy 
devastated our family. Mom was the rock that our family leaned on, a constant 
source of love for us and our children. Losing someone so dear to murder 
necessarily shakes you and forces you to confront your own views on the death 
penalty.

Ultimately, our family remained committed in our opposition to the death 
penalty. That is what Mom would have wanted. She instilled in us the core value 
that we should protect all life, from conception to natural death. Explaining 
her own opposition to the death penalty, Mom would tell us, "You can't be half 
pro-life."

Beyond its incompatibility with a culture of life, the death penalty fails in 
other ways, which became apparent to us as we looked more closely at how it 
functions as a policy. Kansas has not executed anyone since 1965, yet each year 
Kansas taxpayers spend millions of dollars to keep this policy in place.

These costs result from the complex and prolonged trials and appeals associated 
with capital cases. Due to the irrevocable nature of capital punishment and 
past errors, courts have mandated extra legal hurdles that must be met before 
an execution can take place. These legal precedents - which are not changing 
anytime soon - guarantee that death penalty cases linger in the legal system 
for years and often decades.

For this reason, Kansas is far from the only state with a dysfunctional death 
penalty. Nationwide, most death sentences are overturned at some stage in the 
legal process. Occasionally, a legislator or prosecutor vows to expedite the 
legal process in death penalty cases. These proposals, however, inevitably end 
up being empty promises, given the federal laws and precedents governing death 
penalty cases.

Too often, those who suffer the most from the current system are murder 
victims' families. When prosecutors choose to seek the death penalty, they 
guarantee a protracted legal process, which forces families to endure years of 
emotionally difficult trials and appeals. The death penalty keeps families 
stuck in the legal process, delaying when they can put difficult legal 
proceedings behind them and begin to heal.

In short, Kansas' death penalty benefits no one. We are not alone in coming to 
this conclusion, as a number of other Kansas murder victims' families also are 
expressing concerns with the death penalty. Kansas has hung on to its costly 
and broken death penalty for too long. It's time that we as a state eliminate 
this harmful policy.

(source: Commentary; Rita Boller lives in Horton, Kan., and her brother Gene 
Kimmi lives in Lancaster, Kan.----kansascity.com)








WASHINGTON:

Joseph McEnroe makes final plea to avoid death row



Admitting that no words can undo his horrific crimes, Joseph McEnroe still felt 
the need to apologize. Looking wracked with anxiety, McEnroe said he hoped his 
words might in some way help soothe the ongoing agony felt by those left in the 
wreckage of what he did.

"I am not trying to absolve nor excuse myself for my failure and my part in 
your grief," he said. "It is simply part of my debt to you, all of you, and 
those I've killed."

McEnroe shot 6 members of his then-girlfriend's family in the head, including 2 
children, on Christmas Eve of 2007. His attorneys maintain McEnroe is mentally 
ill and was under the control of his girlfriend and her paranoid delusions, 
believing her family was out to get her. In a letter he read in court on 
Tuesday, McEnroe apologized directly to family and friends of his victims.

"I'm sorry for the holes I've created in your lives. I'm sorry that Wayne, 
Judy, Scott, Erica, Nathan and Olivia, all better people than I, are dead by my 
actions, by my failure."

Outside the courtroom, Pam Mantle, who lost her daughter and two grandchildren 
to the gruesome violence, flatly rejected the apology that was more than 7 
years in coming.

"I just don't believe anything he says," said Mantle. "I think he's a liar."

The jury is expected to begin deliberation on Wednesday. They can sentence 
McEnroe to life in prison or to death row.

Convicted several weeks ago for the killings, McEnroe testified that he wants 
to live because he hopes to counsel others in prison and salvage some good from 
his life.

Pam Mantle says she's just spent and doesn't really care anymore whether 
McEnroe lives or dies.

"I think (death) would be an easy way out for him," she said. "On the other 
hand, I just don't think I can take another 15 years of appeals and trials and 
looking at him every day. I'm just pretty done."

(source: KING news)








USA:

Why Conservatives Should Think Twice About the Death Penalty



His torso had deep lacerations, his arteries, organs, and skin cut and sliced, 
his body was badly burned and riddled with shrapnel, and his spine was nearly 
severed. This is how the medical examiner who testified in the sentencing trial 
for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev described the autopsy results for the youngest victim of 
the Boston Marathon bombings, 8-year-old Martin Richards. Lingzi Lu and Krystle 
Campbell suffered similar fates that day, he explained; and more than 160 
others were badly maimed.

The gruesome details from the Boston Marathon bombing were meant to drive one 
point home to the jurors: He deserves to die for what he did.

Tsarnaev is "America's worst nightmare," the prosecutor would go on to say, and 
an unrepentant one at that. Moreover, no doubt remains over whether or not he's 
guilty.

On an emotional level, many would agree with the prosecution in the Tsarnaev 
case and for perpetrators of other heinous crimes, especially when the case 
evidence is as clear as this. But as a policy, should conservatives support the 
death penalty?

If we believe in limited government, fiscal responsibility and pro-life 
policies unilaterally, it's time to give capital punishment a 2nd thought. And 
on a state-by-state basis, Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a 
national "network of political and social conservatives who question the 
alignment of capital punishment with conservative principle and values," is 
leading the charge.

Fiscally Irresponsible

While capital punishment may seem like the most fiscally prudent form of 
justice for state, local, and the federal government, the reality is that the 
cost to taxpayers is much higher than a sentence where the death penalty is not 
sought. In Washington, for example, capital punishment cases cost on average $1 
million more than similar cases where it was not sought, a Seattle University 
study found - a trend that's seen nationwide.

"It's the fiscal aspect of the death penalty that presents one of the strongest 
cases against capital punishment," Marc Hyden, national advocacy coordinator 
for CCATD, told Townhall.

"I can point to Richardson County, Nebraska, [where] they tried to execute 2 
people and when they ran out money they decided to mortgage all their 
ambulances," he explained.

"I know in Lincoln County, Georgia, they ran out of money, they raised taxes 
multiple times and eventually the county commissioner said 'we're not paying 
any more on this death penalty program" and the judge said 'you can't renege on 
your debts' and they threw the whole county commission in jail until they 
approved appropriations," he continued. "It's causing tax increases, it's 
millions of more dollars per case than life without parole, that's really what 
made me start to question the death penalty and whether or not it represents 
conservative principles."

Could the cost be justified if it served as a major deterrent? Perhaps, but the 
truth is it doesn't.

A 2009 study published in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology found 
that 81 % of the nation's top criminologists do not believe capital punishment 
serves as a deterrent to murder. Moreover, as a Forbes article notes, "States 
which impose the death penalty continue to report the highest murder rates in 
the country with only 3 states without the death penalty ranked in the top 25 
(Michigan, New York and Alaska)."

Is a policy that has exorbitant costs, producing dubious returns really one 
worth fighting for?

Big Government At Its Worst

Being in favor of limited government is one of the hallmarks of conservatism, 
yet capital punishment represents Big Government at its worst.

Since 1973, there have been 152 exonerations from death row, the most recent of 
which was just last month.

And many others on death row, Hyden noted, have been executed when there???s 
been serious doubt regarding the veracity of their verdict.

"There's a compelling case out there that perhaps some people may deserve to 
die for some of their crimes but it's whether you trust the government to 
exercise the authority involved in capital punishment fairly and efficiently 
with proper efficacy," he said. "This is the same government that many don't 
trust to shovel snow, fill potholes, or create a website for Obamacare."

By giving the government this much power, how much collateral damage are we 
willing to accept?

The answer for many pro-lifers is zero.

A Consistent Pro-Life Stance

"I don't think there's anything more important than life," Hyden expressed, "so 
for a lot of my fellow conservatives that are also prolife, this is a big 
issue, we don't want to see innocent U.S. citizens being killed by the state, 
we know there's a risk because humans and governments are fallible, so when you 
give them the power to kill people, guilty people, inevitably innocent people 
will fall through the cracks."P> And from a religious perspective, more and 
more Evangelicals are beginning to realize supporting the death penalty is 
incongruent with their religious beliefs, CCATDP national advocacy coordinator 
Heather Beaudoin, whose outreach background includes working with Evangelicals 
and law enforcement, told Townhall.

"I think 10 years ago it would've been hard to find a group of Evangelical 
folks who were against the death penalty ... but we are seeing a real shift in 
that now," she said. "What resonates with them is redemption - that if we 
believe that God can transform any person and that he is created in God's 
image, we can't support a system that takes away life, even from a person that 
commits a terrible crime."

Concern for Victims' Families

All these reasons aside, debates about the death penalty must also include 
thoughtful consideration for the families of the victims, who, like Bill and 
Denise Richards, do not wish to relive the horrific events of the day their son 
was murdered and daughter maimed.

In an op-ed published in The Boston Globe, the Richards' explain why they are 
in favor of the government taking the death penalty off the table for Tsarnaev 
in exchange for life in prison without parole.

"We understand all too well the heinousness and brutality of the crimes 
committed. We were there. We lived it," they wrote. "The defendant murdered our 
8-year-old son, maimed our 7-year-old daughter, and stole part of our soul. We 
know that the government has its reasons for seeking the death penalty, but the 
continued pursuit of that punishment could bring years of appeals and prolong 
reliving the most painful day of our lives. We hope our 2 remaining children do 
not have to grow up with the lingering, painful reminder of what the defendant 
took from them, which years of appeals would undoubtedly bring."

Is the Time Ripe?

There's no denying an overwhelming percentage of Republicans still favor the 
death penalty. That does not mean, however, that attitudes aren't shifting. 
According to Gallup's most recent survey on the issue, 76 % of Republicans 
favor the practice for convicted murderers. But compared to when polling firm 
asked the same question 20 years ago, Republican support is down 9 points.

What's happening in Nebraska, where Republican lawmakers are pushing to end the 
death penalty, is also a good indication support for the broken government 
program may be waning. If the death penalty is repealed in The Cornhusker 
State, it would become the first "red" state in more than 40 years to do so.

"If any other system in our government was as ineffective and inefficient as is 
our death penalty, we conservatives would have gotten rid of it a long, long 
time ago," said Sen. Colby Coash, a Republican from Lincoln, reports The Wall 
Street Journal.

While Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts has vowed to veto the measure, the effort 
led by Republicans signals change, across America, may be coming.

"We have a lot of conservatives in our camp who still do believe that [if you 
kill someone you should forfeit your life], they believe it in principle, they 
believe the philosophy behind the death penalty," Beaudoin explained, "however, 
they've been willing to take a look and they agree that it's just not worth it 
anymore, so I think when you look at the system and the way it's functioning I 
think you come to a different conclusion."

(source: townhall.com)

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

Cinema Killer's Home Rigged To Explode ---- James Holmes placed soda bottles 
filled with petrol and jars containing napalm throughout his apartment, a court 
has heard.



The death penalty trial of Colorado cinema gunman James Holmes has entered its 
6th day, with a lead detective in the case describing the killer's 
booby-trapped apartment.

Aurora police Detective Craig Appel testified Holmes told investigators he had 
rigged his apartment with several devices set to explode.

Holmes built a "trip wire" using fishing line that would trigger the devices 
when someone entered through the front door, Detective Appel said.

He also created a recording with loud music in the hope that a neighbour would 
call police to come and investigate.

Special Agent Garrett Gumbinner, a bomb technician with the FBI, told jurors 
that his team had to break through a side window to gain access to the 
apartment.

The court was shown photographs taken from a bomb robot's camera that revealed 
a maze of objects inside Holmes' residence.

Mr Gumbinner said authorities were "gravely concerned" when they noticed the 
fishing line running from the door to a thermos that was sitting on a frying 
pan.

Holmes told investigators the items contained "glycerine and otassium 
permanganate", which would set off sparks and fires if mixed, Mr Gumbinner 
said.

Soda bottles containing petrol and 2 jars of napalm were also placed at points 
around the apartment.

Asked by the prosecution what would have happened had someone triggered the 
trip wire, Mr Gumbinner said: "It would have made the whole apartment explode, 
killing or maiming whoever was there at the time."

Holmes used air fresheners throughout the residence to help mask the smell of 
the petrol, the agent said.

Jurors also heard testimony on Tuesday from the director of the University of 
Colorado neuroscience programme, where Holmes was enrolled as a graduate 
student.

Sukumar Vijayaraghavan was on the programme's admissions committee when Holmes 
applied in 2011, and later served as Holmes' mentor.

He testified that he was impressed with Holmes' understanding of research and 
rated him "quite highly" during the application process.

He described Holmes as being "quiet and a little socially awkward, but 
definitely someone who had the calibre to be in the programme".

As Holmes progressed through his 1st year, however, some of his lab professors 
expressed concern that he was not engaged and had difficulty communicating with 
fellow students, Mr Vijayaraghavan told the court.

He said 1 professor was concerned that Holmes' presence in the lab would impact 
morale.

Mr Vijayaraghavan said he met with Holmes in June 2012 to discuss his 
performance, at which time Holmes informed him he was quitting the program.

"That was unexpected," he told the court.

On Monday, jurors got their 1st glimpse of a video that showed Holmes talking 
to detectives after the 2012 shooting rampage that left 12 people dead and 70 
injured.

In the video, Holmes asked: "There weren't any children hurt, were there?"

Detectives did not answer the question directly, responding: "We'll get to 
that."

The youngest victim of the 20 July 2012 shooting was 6-year-old Veronica 
Moser-Sullivan. The other 11 victims ranged in age from 18 to 51.

Last week, prosecutors called on several survivors who provided emotional 
descriptions of the shooting that occurred during a midnight screening of the 
Batman film The Dark Knight Rises.

Holmes, 27, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

(source: Sky News)

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

Woman pleads not guilty to Aliamanu murder case



A year after Hawaii's 1st death penalty case, the state could hold another one.

Ailsa Jackson, 24, is accused of deliberately and maliciously stabbing 
38-year-old Catherine Walker at her home on the Aliamanu Military Reservation 
last November.

The Army wife died from stab wounds to her neck and body.

On Monday, Jackson appeared in a Honolulu courtroom after being extradited from 
Indiana. She pleaded not guilty to a charge of premeditated murder.

According to the FBI, Jackson is a civilian. Prosecutors say they will decide 
in the next few weeks whether the death penalty will be sought in this case.

(source: KITV news)