[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KAN., OKLA., ORE.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 11



KANSAS----new death sentence

Kansas white supremacist sentenced to death for 3 murders.


A judge on Tuesday issued the death penalty for the white supremacist convicted 
of shooting to death 3 people at 2 Jewish centers in Kansas last year.

Johnson County District Court Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan sentenced Frazier Glenn 
Cross, 74, to die by lethal injection.

A jury in early September convicted Cross, a former senior member of the Ku 
Klux Klan, of the murders and recommended that he be put to death. Cross also 
was convicted of 3 counts of attempted murder for shooting at 3 other people.

The jury found Cross guilty of killing Reat Underwood, 14, and his grandfather, 
William Corporon, 69, outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas 
City, and Terri LaManno, 53, outside a Jewish retirement home, both in Overland 
Park, Kansas.

After the judge announced his decision, Cross gave the "Heil Hitler" salute and 
was forcibly removed from the courtroom.

On the way out, Cross said, "One day my spirit will rise from the grave and 
you'll know I was right. I'm a happy man."

Cross said in court on Tuesday, as he did during the trial, that he wanted to 
kill Jews because he believes they control the media, financial institutions 
and the government.

"Jews are destroying the white race," he said, calling himself a patriot. None 
of those he killed were Jewish.M

In court statements before the sentencing, several relatives of victims 
denounced Cross for his views and spoke of their painful losses. Cross, a 
military veteran, sat at a court table in a wheel chair, sometimes glancing up 
at those who spoke at the podium.

Will Corporon, son of William Corporon, glared at Cross as he talked.

"You are a coward," he said. "You are not a patriot. You are a disgrace to the 
uniform you wore."

Cross, representing himself in court, said on Tuesday he should be released 
because he was justified in trying to kill Jews.

"I wanted to kill Jews, not Christians and I do regret it," Cross said. During 
the trial he faulted the victims for associating with Jews by going to Jewish 
centers.

Melinda Corporon, wife of William Corporon, told Cross he has never known love.

"We are here today to make sure this voice of evil is silenced permanently," 
she said.

Kansas restored the death penalty in 1994; no one has been executed in the 
state since 1965.

(source: Reuters)

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

Becker to continue fight against death penalty


State Rep. Steven Becker, R-Buhler, will continue to champion the cause of 
abolishing the death penalty in Kansas.

But he plans a new strategy when the Kansas Legislature convenes in January.

Instead of trying to get a bill hearing before the House Judiciary Committee 
led by Chairman John Barker, R-Abilene, Becker will start the process through 
the smaller House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee, led by Chairman 
John Rubin, R-Shawnee.

"I'm more hopeful we'll have a hearing," he said. "If we are granted a 
hearing," Becker said Tuesday, he is increasingly confident the bill will get 
out of the committee.

Then it will be up to Speaker of the House Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, to allow 
the bill to come to the floor, Becker said.

Becker is a former Reno County district judge who entered the House in 2013. In 
2 sessions, he carried a bill to abolish the death penalty but both times, he 
was unable to get a committee hearing - the 1st step for pending legislation.

The last execution in Kansas was in 1965. There are 9 inmates on death row in 
Kansas. Their status would not be affected by new legislation.

Kansas, Delaware, New Hampshire and Montana are drawing close monitoring by the 
National Coaltion to Abolish the Death Penalty because of active efforts in 
those states to repeal the death penalty.

Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the national coalition is currently 
in Kansas, and spoke Tuesday afternoon at Hutchinson Community College's Shears 
Technology Center. About 10 people made up the audience, including Becker and 
Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty executive director Mary Sloan, 
Lenexa.

"We're prioritizing work in Kansas because it's so important," Rust-Tierney 
said. "We just see so much potential here," she said.

19 states and the District of Columbia have abandoned the death penalty 
practice, and in 4 states, a gubernatorial moratorium has been imposed, 
Rust-Tierney said. The state of Nebraska repealed the death penalty earlier 
this year.

Death penalty executions mostly occur in southern states. In 2014, 35 inmates 
were executed in the country. Those executions were carried out in: Arizona, 
Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Ohio, Georgia and Florida.

The southern U.S. continues to have the highest per capita murder rate, and the 
northeast U.S. has the lowest per capita murder rate, Rust-Tierney said, 
attacking the argument that the death penalty is a deterrent.

Lethal injection is the execution method in Kansas and other states, but it is 
increasingly difficult to employ, Rust-Tierney said. Pharmaceutical companies 
do not want to be linked to the practice, and some states were found to be 
attempting to import drugs illegally.

More people and groups are speaking out against the death penalty, she said.

(source: The Hutchinson News)

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

A matter or morals or money? The Kansas death penalty can make for a 
complicated, emotional equation


Mindy Corporon refuses to say the name of the man who killed her dad and 
14-year-old son. "The defendant," she calls him.

The defendant is Frazier Glenn Cross, also known as Glenn Miller. Depending on 
the outcome of sentencing, Cross could become the latest person sentenced to 
death in the state of Kansas--the 10th since 1994, when the state brought back 
its death penalty. All 9 men currently awaiting execution were are convicted of 
heinous crimes and all 9 are still alive, being housed in a detention center in 
Eldorado, Kan.

When asked if she believes in the death penalty, Corporon seems to bob from one 
side of the debate to the other. It's obvious she's struggling with her 
feelings about all of this.

"I was raised in a house believing in the death penalty. I think we grow up in 
our households and we initially believe and follow what our parents teach us, 
that's how life works," Corporon said. "And then we get a little older and we 
form opinions and life happens to us, then we can change our opinions. But I 
grew up believing in the death penalty. And I would say before this happened to 
us I believed in the death penalty."

If history is any indication of whether or not Cross would linger if sentenced 
to death, chances are pretty good he would. There are numerous reasons for the 
delays: appeals, Supreme Court challenges, debates about methods, and more.

There are a number of arguments for and against the death penalty. In Kansas, 
among the top questions are:

1. cost effectiveness

2. whether it's a deterrent for criminals

3. whether a certain county is more aggressive in seeking the death penalty, 
with racism playing a part

Is it cost effective?

A Kansas legislative committee last year looked into the cost of the death 
penalty. It found seeking, defending and prosecuting a death penalty case is, 
in fact, very expensive.

It found:

-- Defending someone facing death costs four times as much as defending 
someone who is not: $395,762 vs. $98,963

-- Trial court costs were higher: $72,530 vs. $21,554

-- Jury trials take longer: 40 days vs. 16 days

-- The Kansas Supreme Court estimates it spends 20 times the amount of hours 
on death penalty appeals than other kinds

Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe says those numbers don't add up to 
a complete picture.

"When you have a 1st-degree murder case, it doesn't matter whether you have the 
death penalty or not. Whatever is the top crime in the state will be the one 
where you have the most litigation. So that's played out through history. We've 
seen that here in Johnson County. And I think some who use those numbers 
sometimes play fast and loose with the true facts," said Howe.

Howe said, people who question the efficacy of the death penalty should put 
money out of the equation. In short, it's not about money.

"It's really about the moral issue about whether or not the death penalty 
should be imposed. From our standpoint there's no right or wrong position to 
have. Just because we might have differences of opinion as to the death penalty 
doesn't make one us right or wrong."

Is the death penalty a deterrent?

The Death Penalty Information Center polled 500 police chiefs in 2009 and found 
57 % said the death penalty does little to prevent violent crimes because 
perpetrators rarely consider consequences. The same poll found most police 
chiefs believe in the death penalty philosophically, but don't think it's an 
effective law enforcement tool in practice.

When asked if the death penalty is more of a deterrent or punishment, Howe says 
it can be both.

"But one things for sure," he said, with a look in his eyes that is loaded with 
knowledge of some of the most heinous crimes, "when the death sentence is 
imposed, I don't care how tough those defendants think they are, they're 
concerned about it. And they're scared. And to me, it's nice to know that 
finally they feel like how their victims felt maybe at those times."

Could a county be more aggressive or could racism play a role?

There are studies which have found certain counties are responsible for the 
majority of death sentences, and other studies have found certain counties 
convict significantly more minorities to die. For the purposes of this story, 
we only looked at facts in Kansas.

In the state of Kansas, 3 men have been sentenced to death in Sedgewick County, 
1 in Johnson County (Cross would be the 2nd) and 1 each in Crawford, Barton, 
Greenwood, Cowley and Osage counties.

As for the racial makeup of the men sentenced to death in Kansas, 7 are white, 
3 are black.

A personal matter

Even when the question of capital punishment hits close to home, it can be hard 
to know what to think or feel about the ultimate punishment.

"It's a very personal decision and I respect people on both sides of that 
equation. But we just feel very strongly in the state of Kansas that the cases 
that do receive the death penalty deserve it based on the egregious nature of 
the conduct of those defendants," Howe said.

So, where does Mindy Corporon ultimately come down?

"I'm not against it. I'm not for it. I just don't even want to have to ponder 
it too much. I know that my dad would be for it and always has been," she said.

"And I am my father's daughter and I know if I had been killed I know my dad 
would say absolutely he deserves the death penalty... Why can I not say that so 
easily? In terms of general terms of humanity, I hate that a life has to be 
taken for a life, but he took 3."

(source: KSHB news)






OKLAHOMA:

To Close Case, Family Of 1999 Murder Victim Ask Death Penalty Be Removed


A murder case that's been dragging on for 16 years may be closer to reaching an 
end.

The victim's family said they just want it to be over, so they agreed with the 
district attorney to take the death penalty off the table as a possible 
punishment.

A retired woman was kidnapped from the Promenade Mall, robbed, taken to north 
Tulsa County and murdered along with a Good Samaritan who came to her aid.

That was in 1999. Now, 16 years later, the case against the man arrested and 
convicted for killing Mary Bowles and Jerald Thurman has yet to close.

Victor Miller was 1 of 2 men arrested for murdering Bowles and Thurman. A jury 
convicted him and gave him death for Thurman's murder, but he appealed and won.

A 2nd jury also convicted him and gave him death, but again, he appealed and 
won a new sentence.

If he gets a 3rd death sentence it could mean another 10 years of appeals, and 
the family said it's time to stop the madness.

"The family needs some type of closure because it's been going on for so long. 
My mom is not getting any younger and she needs to see some type of justice," 
said Thurman's son Jake.

Miller is representing himself and carries his legal papers in a cloth bag. 
With nothing but time on his hands and access to a computer, he's buried the 
DA's office in paperwork.

Assistant Tulsa County District Attorney, John David Luton, said, "He himself 
has filed 35 to 50 motions just since the last reversal, just since the last 
one."

In order to end the case, the DA and Thurman's family agreed to remove the 
death penalty as an option. The family will ask the judge to sentence Miller to 
life without parole rather than life.

Jake said, "As long as he doesn't get to hurt anybody again. He can sit there 
and think about what he's done the rest of his life."

Miller will get to speak at the sentencing and the Thurman family would like to 
hear him say he's sorry.

"If he would apologize and admit guilt, it would help us heal. It would help 
the healing process," said Jerald Thurman's daughter-in-law, Heather.

As much as they wanted the death penalty, they wanted an ending more. Plus, 
Miller is also serving more than 100 years in federal prison for other violent 
crimes.

Thurman's family hopes the case will be over after the sentencing on December 
8th so they can finally begin to grieve.

(source: newson6.com)

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

Execution Mistakes Followed Corrections Director From Arizona To 
Oklahoma----Each execution attempt under Oklahoma Department of Corrections 
Director Robert Patton has been marred by mistakes. Many of those mistakes 
mirror ones made under his leadership in Arizona, BuzzFeed News has found.

The head of Oklahoma's Department of Corrections has overseen 3 scheduled 
executions during his brief time in Oklahoma. Each time, there was a major 
screw-up.

In Robert Patton's 1st execution as director, just 2 months after he started on 
the job, inmate Clayton Lockett sat up on the gurney after he was declared 
unconscious and told his executioners, "Shit's fucking with me."

Patton called off the execution after realizing it was going awry. Lockett died 
45 minutes after his execution began.

In Patton's 2nd execution as director, which took place this January, Charles 
Warner's last words included, "My body is on fire."

In what was supposed to have been Patton's 3rd execution in the state, 
officials called of the scheduled execution of Richard Glossip in late 
September after the doctor discovered the state had obtained the wrong 
execution drugs. Oklahoma's protocol calls for potassium chloride, but the 
state received potassium acetate. State officials "briefly considered" using 
the wrong drug, but eventually decided to call off the execution.

A few weeks later, it was revealed that Oklahoma had already used the same 
wrong drug earlier that year, in the Warner execution. Now, a grand jury is 
investigating what's been going wrong. Warden Anita Trammell, who oversaw the 
prison where the executions took place, has already resigned. The Department of 
Corrections insists that she had considered retiring for some time and was not 
forced out.

And yet, in the state's investigation into the botched Lockett execution Patton 
disclaimed responsibility, even though he had been on site, watching the 
execution as it went wrong.

"Understand the current Oklahoma protocol does not require anything from the 
director," he told investigators, "and I'm not trying to deflect any 
responsibility, but that's just the way the protocol is written at, at this 
current time."

The Glossip execution would have been the 20th execution in which Patton 
participated - and there have been similar problems before. A BuzzFeed News 
examination of Patton's prior job as the the corrections division director in 
Arizona shows that the errors of the past 2 years were also errors made, and 
criticized, during his time in Arizona.

On April 29, 2014, Oklahoma executioners had trouble finding a vein to carry 
out Lockett's execution, eventually settling on a femoral vein. They cut 
Lockett's scrubs and underwear to gain access and decided on placing a sheet 
over his body to, as Patton said, "protect his dignity."

The Department of Public Safety found that the inability of the executioners to 
see the IV was a factor in the botched execution, a decision that kept 
officials from seeing what was going wrong until it was too late.

During the execution, Lockett began to move. When a doctor looked under the 
sheet, he discovered clear liquid and blood. Lockett had swelling between the 
size of a golf ball and tennis ball where the IV was inserted. Both the doctor 
and the warden, who decided to cover Lockett, agreed that the swelling would 
have been noticed sooner if they had been able to see the IV.

3 years earlier, Patton was involved in several Arizona executions where 
similar mistakes happened occurred, even though the protocol in that state 
specifically required the IV be uncovered during the execution. The incident 
was detailed in a 2011 deposition of Patton obtained by BuzzFeed News.

As in 2014, Patton gave the same response in Arizona years earlier, testifying 
that the sheet had been placed over the inmate's groin "to protect his 
dignity."

During the 2014 investigation into the Lockett execution, Patton admitted he 
was concerned that no one could see the IV and said he was unsure if anyone 
could.

"Now, was I 100 % [sure] that she couldn't see it? No, I was not 100 % sure," 
Patton told Oklahoma investigators afterward. "And purposely you shouldn't be 
able to see it from the witness room, but I was concerned enough to go, 'Oh, I 
hope she can because I knew [the IV] wasn't in the arms."

Patton said he had those concerns "based on experience" from Arizona, but 
admits that he did not voice those concerns to anyone at the time, or instruct 
the warden to make a change.

Warden Anita Trammell, who resigned in October, told investigators after the 
Lockett execution that she looked toward Patton for guidance when things 
started going wrong.

"I was kind of panicking," Trammell said. "Thinking, 'Oh my God. He's coming 
out of this.' It's not working and so he did that, and I wasn't sure where the 
director was sitting at out there, but I looked up to look for the director, 
and he was sitting directly in front of me.

"So I looked at the director hard like, 'Gimme some, you know, gimme some 
pointers,' or, 'Give me some advice,' and he looked up at the clock, the 
director did," she continued.

State investigators found the Lockett botch was caused by issues with the 
insertion of the IV; that personnel did not have the medical equipment that 
they needed; that they could not notice the problems due to the sheet covering 
the inmate; and that training was inadequate.

After promising changes, the Department of Corrections was allowed to carry out 
another execution in January. In that execution, the state used the wrong drug.

During his time in Arizona, Patton also admitted to several deviations from the 
protocol. He allowed an executioner to participate in several executions in 
2010 and 2011 even though the person did not have the required qualifications, 
and he did not do the proper criminal background checks on the executioners. 
"That was an was oversight on my part," he said in the deposition. And he said 
that, to his knowledge, no one checked the professional licenses of the 
executioners.

In the 2011 deposition, Patton said he never checked the forms that would 
indicate how much and which drugs were actually used during the Arizona 
executions.

State officials have not said publicly, at this point, who, if anyone, was 
aware that the wrong drugs were used in the January execution of Charles 
Warner.

In a statement through a corrections spokesperson, Patton disagreed that there 
were mistakes under his leadership in Arizona, and said that the judge in the 
case did not take issue with the selection of the execution team.

When BuzzFeed News provided direct quotes from his deposition, in which he 
admits to these deviations from the protocol, and the ruling from the federal 
judge in which he finds that Arizona indeed deviated from the protocol, the 
Oklahoma Department of Corrections declined to respond.

Gov. Mary Fallin's office did not respond to repeated requests for comment on 
if she still stood by Patton.

----------

Patton's path to the center of the debate over the implementation of the death 
penalty began 30 years ago at the State Prison in Fort Grant, Arizona and has 
involved his participation in 19 executions, with repeated questions raised 
about oversight and adherence to protocol.

He started out as a corrections officer in 1985 after spending time in the 
Navy. He worked his way up the corrections-level ranks in the state - sergeant, 
lieutenant, captain - and then to management-level roles as associate deputy 
warden, deputy warden, deputy warden of operations, and then warden of the 
Arizona State Prison Complex in Douglas.

Patton eventually went back to school, obtaining his bachelor's degree in 2004. 
He then went to Nebraska, where he ran the Douglas County Correctional Center. 
He came back to the Arizona Department of Corrections and eventually received a 
Master's of Administration degree from Northern Arizona University in 2007.

Patton was soon promoted to be the director of the Division of Offender 
Operations. He said he started getting involved in execution planning in 2009.

While Patton oversaw planning of executions while in this role in Arizona, 
Patton also said he was involved in executions in the state before taking on 
that role.

During the 2014 investigation into the Lockett execution, Patton told 
investigators in Oklahoma that he played a role in 17 executions during his 
time in Arizona. The state, however, only conducted 13 executions after Patton 
took on a planning role.

Patton said he first started participating in executions in the early '90s, 
which would have been while he was still in a corrections-level role. From this 
time through 2000, Patton was involved in at least 3 executions, although his 
exact role is unknown. Officials redacted Patton's response when asked what his 
role was during those executions.

While specific information about his role in those earlier executions is not 
known, Patton said in his 2011 deposition that he did not begin playing a role 
in planning executions until 2009.

Investigators also asked Patton if there were any instances in Arizona "where 
there were issues with an execution." Patton asked to go off the record, which 
they did for 15 minutes.

Patton, questioned this week about the earlier executions, refused to discuss 
his involvement.

"Whether I did nor did not participate in any executions prior to becoming 
Division Director in AZ would be protected under AZ law," Patton wrote in a 
statement to BuzzFeed News. "I will not confirm, nor deny that I did."

The 2011 deposition stems from a lawsuit brought by Arizona inmates, which 
alleged the state deviated from its written execution procedures. A federal 
judge found that the department of corrections, under Patton's leadership in 
executions, "failed to follow certain components of its execution protocol," 
but that the deviations did "not suggest cruelty or give rise to a substantial 
risk of serious harm" for the inmates.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few years later, in January 2014, Patton was selected by the Oklahoma Board 
of Corrections to run its prisons.

When he started as the director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections the 
next month, in February 2014, he sent an email thanking Arizona's director, and 
his former boss, Charles Ryan.

"Sitting at my desk and thinking of you," Patton wrote. "The enormity of this 
task is really starting to sink in. I can only hope to accomplish it with the 
dignity and honor that you show everyday. I will never forget all you have 
taught me over the years."

Ryan responded a few hours later.

"The enormity is sometimes mind-boggling! I believe you have the experience and 
tools to get the task accomplished. Shades of gray will become more visible as 
you progress in the job."

Talking of his experience in Arizona in 2011, Patton said he would always spend 
time with the inmates before they were executed, discussing whatever they want 
to talk about. Patton said it???s important to him.

"There's no set structure to it," Patton said in his deposition. "It's whatever 
we can do to make him as comfortable as possible. Our goal is professional and 
humane, and I feel discussion with an inmate, whatever he wants to talk about 
in his last moments of life is very important."

Just a few months after he started in Oklahoma, though, Patton was facing 
controversy. His first execution as director, the Lockett execution, was one of 
the worst botches in lethal injection history.

Patton wrote to Ryan and Arizona Deputy Director Jeff Hood a couple days 
afterward, clearly upset over what had happened. He forwarded an email from an 
angry member of the public that called him "a cruel and inhumane murderer" and 
that "Hell awaits."

"My staff didn't get to this one fast enough before I read it," Patton wrote. 
"I am told this is typical of the hundred or so call, letters and emails that 
have came through."

Ryan offered support.

"Robert, stand your ground... you asked for an independent review... the facts 
will become public..." he wrote.

Hood was more blunt.

"Opinions are like assholes - everybody has one," Hood responded. "If people 
only knew the extraordinary efforts undertaken to treat these vile examples of 
humanity with respect and dignity in their last hours..."

Just a few months later, Arizona - under Ryan and Hood's supervision - carried 
out the longest lethal injection in history, taking nearly 2 hours to kill 
inmate Joseph Wood.

An Arizona Department of Corrections spokesperson said that Hood's email was 
"intended as a message of support to his former colleague." As to comparisons 
between the Wood and Lockett botched executions, the spokesperson said there 
were "distinct and undeniable differences between the facts of each of those 
events."

Several weeks before the Wood execution, Patton hired Lance Hetmer, the warden 
at the prison where the Wood execution took place, making Hetmer his "special 
assistant," a newly created position that pays $88,000 a year.

The Wood execution was the last Arizona execution in which Hetmer participated. 
He started in Oklahoma 1 week later.

(source: BuzzFeedNews)

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

Richard Glossip's fight goes on


Many of us breathed a sigh of relief on September 30th, when Richard Glossip - 
who has been languishing on Oklahoma's death row for 17 years - was granted a 
last-minute stay of execution, following the State's realisation that there had 
been a mix-up involving the drugs needed according to Oklahoma's execution 
protocol. A growing community of supporters had raised concern that Oklahoma 
may be about to execute an innocent man, given that no physical evidence links 
Glossip to the crime for which he was convicted.

The very next day, the State of Oklahoma went even further and issued an 
indefinite stay of all pending executions, until at least 150 days after an 
internal investigation launched by the Attorney-General has shone a light on 
what exactly happened in September - and also in January, when Charles Warner, 
another death row inmate, was executed with the same, wrong drug.

For Richard Glossip, the stay has offered much-needed relief in a seemingly 
never-ending ordeal that tells us so much about what is wrong with the US 
criminal justice system today.

But it won't set him free. The fight for his full exoneration is far from over, 
and I have nothing but admiration for his defence teams who have been working 
so hard to collect further evidence that could eventually allow him to have 
another day in court and demonstrate his innocence. As so many others, from 
Sister Helen Prejean to Susan Sarandon and countless Oklahomans of all walks of 
life, I am confident that day will come.

Just two weeks ago, I had a chance to speak with Richard Glossip over the phone 
for nearly an hour. The man I talked to was a man full of hope and optimism and 
without a trace of bitterness or fear. It's hard to understand what he has been 
through, after having been served his last meal, twice, all but certain that 
his final moment had come. Remarkably, the 2nd time around, he ordered pizza, 
and because of a 2-for-1 deal, offered to share it with his guards.

Richard has never once considered accepting a plea bargain in exchange for a 
life sentence, even though it was offered to him. Unwavering, he insists on his 
innocence. Listening to his version of the story and learning of the sequence 
of injustices that have kept him on death row - many of them corroborated - I 
am more convinced than ever that he needs to be released. Finality of justice 
must never prevail over fairness, and fairness is what Richard Glossip 
deserves. We must do all we can to ensure his case his not forgotten.

(source: Richard Branson, virgin.com)






OREGON:

Defense says serial killer Dayton Leroy Rogers has brain damage, doesn't 
deserve death penalty


Dayton Leroy Rogers really never had a chance in life, psychologists testified 
Tuesday.

The most prolific serial killer in Oregon history suffered brain damage as a 
result of a tortured, tumultuous childhood in an isolated family led by 
abusive, religious extremists, they said.

1 close relatives suffered mental illness or were prosecuted for sex crimes. 
The family moved 39 times before Rogers was 17 and he was unable - sometimes 
prohibited - from taking part in normal school activities or making friends.

The result was problems with memory and impulse control, along with 
dissociative experiences and antisocial behavior, testimony indicated. At the 
same time, he developed unhealthy sexual obsessions and fetishes that 
eventually led to sadism and murder.

"I can't even imagine what his childhood was like," Karen Bronk Froming, a Palo 
Alto University neuropsychologist, told a Clackamas County jury. "It was 
extremely fearsome and completely unpredictable."

Prosecutors Scott P. Healy and Bryan J. Brock tried to chip away at the picture 
during cross-examination, eliciting answers that indicated Rogers could tell 
right from wrong.

That question will weigh on the jury, which must decide whether Rogers, dubbed 
the "Molalla Forest Killer," should receive the death penalty - for the 4th 
time. The first 3 death sentences were overturned on appeal, sending the case 
back to Clackamas County Circuit Court.

Rogers, 63, a former Canby lawnmower repairman, was found guilty in 1988 and 
1989 of killing 7 prostitutes and dumping 6 of their bodies in the woods near 
Molalla. The case brought out graphic details of Rogers driving his victims 
along old logging roads in the Mount Hood National Forest, south of Molalla, 
then sharing vodka and orange juice with them. While engaging in sex, he 
hogtied, stabbed and tortured the women -- even sawing off some victims' feet.

He has been on -- and off -- death row ever since.

The man jurors are seeing now hardly looks threatening. Balding and pudgy, he 
sat at the defense table in a shapeless prison uniform, consulting with defense 
attorneys Richard L. Wolf and Lynne B. Morgan in hushed tones. He never reacted 
outwardly, despite testimony about his horrific crimes, pausing occasionally to 
put on his reading glasses while studying defense documents.

Ruben C. Gur, a University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine 
neuropsychologist, testified that scans of Rogers' brain indicate that he had 
suffered damage to his frontal lobe that could make him lose his inhibitions, 
develop obsessive-compulsive and antisocial behaviors while engaging in 
risk-taking in manic sprees. Other parts, such as Rogers' corpus callosum, 
appear to have stopped working altogether.

"The right side of Mr. Rogers' brain has lost tissue," Gur said. "That damage 
can make him feel detachment, like 'Yeah, it's me, but I'm not really here. I'm 
sitting somewhere up in the clouds.'"

Kevin B. McGovern, a Portland-based psychologist specializing in forensics and 
criminal behavior, testified that Rogers no longer poses a threat to commit 
violent crimes. He said Rogers has displayed exemplary behavior during his 
10,200 days in the Oregon State Penitentiary, even working as a barber and 
using sharp scissors to cut fellow inmates' hair. He also said age has mellowed 
Rogers, who now expresses remorse for his actions.

"I see him basically as a harmless person who is more in danger of being harmed 
by some inmate who wants a notch on his belt rather than him harming someone 
else," McGovern said.

Rogers told him, McGovern said: "'Every morning, I wake up in a cell, 
remembering the horrible things I did.'"

Courts are closed Wednesday in recognition of Veterans Day. Judge Thomas J. 
Rastetter is scheduled to reconvene the hearing Thursday, when the defense is 
expected to conclude its case. The state will follow with rebuttal witnesses 
before the jury will decide Rogers' fate.

(source: oregonlive.com)