[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.J., PENN., N.C., GA., FLA., ALA., LA., ARK.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 17



TEXAS----impending executuion

Condemned man's lawyers stop helping, cite 'false hope'


>From his cell on death row, Raphael Holiday drafted letter after desperate 
letter to lawyers who represent the condemned. He begged for their help to 
plead for mercy from Gov. Greg Abbott, to try any last-ditch legal maneuvers 
that might stave off his impending execution.

Holiday's appointed lawyers had told him that fighting to stop his punishment 
was futile, and they wouldn't do it. The 36-year-old thought he'd be left to 
walk to the death chamber with no lawyer at his side.

Less than a month before his execution - scheduled for Wednesday - Holiday 
secured help. Austin attorney Gretchen Sween agreed to ask the court to find 
new lawyers willing to try to keep him from dying.

But Holiday's federally appointed lawyers - the ones who said they would do no 
more to help him - are opposing their client's attempts to replace them.

Now, just hours before he is set to face lethal injection for burning to death 
3 children, including his own daughter, Holiday is awaiting word from the U.S. 
Supreme Court on his latest request for help.

'False hope' argument

Lawyers James "Wes" Volberding and Seth Kretzer said they worked diligently to 
find new evidence on which to base additional appeals for Holiday, but that 
none exists. Seeking clemency from Abbott, a staunch death penalty supporter, 
would be pointless, they say.

The 2 contend they are exercising professional judgment and doing what's best 
for their client.

"We decided that it was inappropriate to file [a petition for clemency] and 
give false hope to a poor man on death row expecting clemency that we knew was 
never going to come," Volberding said in a telephone interview.

But others say the law under which death row lawyers are appointed doesn't 
allow that kind of discretion. It requires attorneys to make every possible 
effort to save a client's life, if that's what the inmate wants.

"This seems unconscionable," said Stephen Bright, president and senior counsel 
of the Southern Center for Human Rights and a teacher at Yale Law School. 
"Lawyers are often in a position of representing people for whom the legal 
issues are not particularly strong, but nevertheless they have a duty to make 
every legal argument they can."

So far, appeals courts have sided with Volberding and Kretzer. Last Thursday, 
the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a motion to have them replaced. On 
Monday, Sween appealed to the Supreme Court.

Holiday was convicted of intentionally setting fire to his wife's home near 
College Station in September 2000, killing her 3 little girls. He forced the 
children's grandmother to douse the home in gasoline. After igniting the fumes, 
Holiday watched from outside as flames engulfed the couch where authorities 
later found the corpses of 7-year-old Tierra Lynch, 5-year-old Jasmine DuPaul 
and 1-year-old Justice Holiday huddled together.

Volberding and Kretzer were appointed in February 2011 to represent Holiday in 
his federal appeals. They filed a 286-page petition in federal court, alleging 
dozens of mistakes in Holiday's case, ranging from assertions that he was 
intellectually disabled to charges that clemency is so rarely granted in Texas 
that the process has become meaningless.

On June 30, the Supreme Court denied Holiday's petition for a review of his 
case.

Such rulings are common; the high court declines thousands of cases each year. 
Still, it's a major blow to an inmate whose life depends on the court's mercy. 
Many lawyers for death row inmates deliver the news in person, knowing how 
devastating it can be when a last, scant shred of legal hope disintegrates.

Volberding sent Holiday a letter.

'The end of work'

"I am sorry, but the Supreme Court just denied your appeal," the Tyler-based 
lawyer wrote. "This marks the end of work for your appeals I regret."

The 1 1/2-page message informed Holiday that his lawyers would not file 
additional appeals or seek clemency from the governor. Neither option, 
Volberding wrote, presented a real chance of sparing Holiday's life.

In the letter, Volberding told Holiday he could seek the help of pro bono 
lawyers if he wanted to pursue those options.

So Holiday blanketed the small community of Texas death penalty lawyers with 
letters seeking help.

When none responded, he wrote to the court.

"Your honor, I beg you to consider new appointment of effective counsels to my 
case," Holiday wrote. "They have refused to help me and it is a disheartening 
conundrum I am not fit to comprehend."

Kretzer countered with a letter to the court insisting that he and Volberding 
were still working on the case despite its hopelessness. They refused to seek 
clemency or file additional pleadings not out of laziness or antipathy toward 
Holiday, Kretzer said, but because they recognized the "political realities" in 
Texas.

In late October, Sween, an appellate lawyer from Austin who teaches writing and 
advocacy courses at the University of Texas School of Law, agreed to help 
Holiday obtain new lawyers, at no charge.

Sween filed a motion alleging that Volberding and Kretzer had abandoned Holiday 
in his hour of greatest need. The law under which the 2 were appointed says 
lawyers for death row clients "shall" represent them in "all available 
post-conviction proceedings." She pleaded with the court to assign new lawyers 
who would do so.

Clemency petition

Volberding and Kretzer opposed the motion and sent Sween a letter threatening 
to seek sanctions if she did not stay away from their client. They said they 
would agree to her involvement only if she would take on Holiday as her client 
pro bono. She declined, insisting that she was unqualified because she had 
never worked directly on a capital case.

"If you can propose a course of action that stands a reasonable chance ... we 
will pursue it," Volberding said in a letter to Sween. "Otherwise, we 
respectfully ask that you take no further action in this case. We will respond 
firmly if you do."

Nevertheless, in an effort to mollify Sween, Volberding and Kretzer filed a 
clemency petition - hastily. In 2 places on the 1st page, the document cites 
the wrong execution date for Holiday. The petition painstakingly details the 
horrific nature of Holiday's crime, while containing little evidence that might 
persuade the governor to show Holiday mercy.

After the federal district court rejected her attempts to remove Volberding and 
Kretzer, Sween appealed to the 5th Circuit, calling the lawyers' clemency 
petition a "sham" and asking the judges to stay Holiday's execution. 
Additionally, she argued, the lawyers are now in conflict with their own 
client, opposing his wishes for new attorneys that he trusts to fight until the 
bitter end.

A 3-judge appellate panel denied the motion and warned Sween that future 
attempts to dislodge Holiday's lawyers would be viewed skeptically.

Jim Marcus, a UT law professor who specializes in capital punishment, said that 
while Holiday certainly has an uphill battle to avoid execution, federal law 
requires his lawyers to push ahead.

"There's a difference between saying that's not a viable strategy or viable 
claim and abandoning an entire proceeding altogether"??? said Marcus, who has 
represented condemned inmates for more than 20 years. "The latter is not really 
permissible under the statute."

The statute, though, is rarely enforced and judges provide little oversight of 
attorneys who represent indigent condemned clients, said Bright, of the human 
rights center.

In decades of practicing, Bright said he had never seen a case like Holiday's 
in which appointed lawyers so vociferously fought to keep a death row inmate 
from retaining a different attorney. In some cases, he said, new lawyers have 
discovered evidence others overlooked pointing to an inmate's innocence or 
showing people's intellectual disabilities made them incompetent for execution.

"Most people don't get executed for crimes they committed," Bright said. "They 
get executed for mistakes their lawyers made."

(source: Dallas Morning News)





**********

The Pilgrimage for Raphael Holiday is The Pilgrimage for Abolition


This Wednesday, Raphael Holiday will be executed minutes after 6pm at the Walls 
Unit in Huntsville, Texas. Unlike many of those I've encountered on death row, 
I believe that Holiday deserves to die.

In early 2000, Raphael was partnered with Tami Wilkerson. Together, they lived 
in a secluded log cabin in Madison County with their infant daughter Justice 
and Tami's young daughters, 5-year-old Jasmine and 7-year-old Tierra. In March, 
Tami discovered that Raphael had sexually assaulted Tierra and filed charges 
against him. Raphael was forced to move out. Despite the protective order, Tami 
let Raphael occasionally see his daughter. In August, Raphael started to 
assault and terrorize Tami incessantly. When she cut off all communication, 
things got worse.

Late in the night of September 5, 2000, Tami saw a figure coming through the 
woods. By the time family arrived to help, Raphael was in the house. Tami's 
aunt Beverly Mitchell rushed the oldest girls to the car. Though her uncle 
Terry Keller had a gun, Raphael choked Tami and made him hand it over. Raphael 
was unsuccessful in his attempts to burn the car with the girls in it. In the 
midst of it all, Tami rushed to a neighbor's home for help. By the time she 
returned to the log cabin, the structure was engulfed in flames and all 3 
children were locked inside.

Though Raphael Holiday tried to argue that he didn't mean to kill the 3 little 
girls, I don't believe him. The jury didn't either. Now, the hour has come for 
the punishment to be carried out. I still believe that he deserves to die.

There is only 1 question left to ask. Who deserves to kill him? I've sat with 
this question for many hours. I believe I know the answer.

There once was an execution scheduled. The authorities threw a woman that 
committed a capital offense at the feet of Jesus. As they raised their stones 
to kill her, Jesus got down in the dirt to join her in her fate. Looking up, 
Jesus declared, "Whoever is without sin can cast the first stone!"

Over the next 2 days, I will pilgrimage over 40 miles carrying the cross 
between death row/Polunsky Unit in Livingston and the Execution Chamber/Walls 
Unit in Huntsville not because I believe that Raphael Holiday is innocent...but 
rather because I know he's not.

Jesus taught us to "love our neighbors as ourselves" and Holiday has already 
shown us that there is no love in killing. May we show Holiday the mercy that 
he didn't show his victims. Throughout my journey, I will pray that we will 
stop emulating the killers we claim we are punishing and stop this foolishness 
of executions once and for all.

Amen.

(source: Jeff Hood, Fellowship of Reconciliation)






NEW JERSEY:

SPEAR "Who Do We Kill" campaign began this week


Students for Prison Education and Reform launched the newest protest campaign, 
"Who Do We Kill," on Monday.

The campaign is to protest the death penalty in the United States.

The campaign began with a talk by Anthony Ray Hinton, an exoneree who was on 
death row for 30 years.

"I have been through pure hell," Hinton said, regarding his experience as a 
death row inmate.

He noted that no one, regardless of race or gender, should ever be on death row 
for a crime they never committed, and urged for the end of death sentence.

"We need to put an end to the death row," he added.

Steffen Seitz '17, co-organizer of the campaign, said that Hinton's experience 
is something that few people hear about and it's important for people to 
understand the torture of living under death row.

SPEAR co-president Clarissa Kimmey '16 said that the 1st piece of the protest 
would be this Wednesday, when Texas inmate Raphael Holiday is scheduled to be 
executed.

Kimmey explained that all the students participating in the protests will wear 
black ribbons around their wrists.

SPEAR advocacy co-chair Margaret Wright '17 said that students can get ribbons 
in the Pace Center for Civic Engagement.

Maxwell Grear '18, co-organizer of the campaign, said that the goal of the 
campaign is to start conversation about the death penalty on campus and remind 
people about its continuing prevalence.

Grear is also a columnist for The Daily Princetonian.

He explained that every time a person is scheduled to be executed in the 
country, SPEAR will circulate information about each person and hold a protest. 
He said that the protests are meant to last indefinitely until the death 
penalty is outlawed in the United States.

Grear explained that although it seems that people are overall sympathetic to 
the idea of reforming the criminal justice system, they are more accepting of 
the status quo in terms of the death penalty.

The issue is not on the radar of most people or there is a certain sense of 
complacency, he added.

Wright said that what is visible in the media is only the stories of the 
victims in terms of the crimes that were allegedly committed.

"It's really easy not to think about the fact that each one of these people is 
a human being with an entire life story," she added.

Kimmey said that another one of SPEAR's goals is to let the people being 
executed speak for themselves. The campaign will distribute letters written by 
people on death row to students on campus.

"When you talk about drone warfare or police killings or gun violence, there 
are staggering numbers of people affected that brace people," SPEAR 
co-president Daniel Teehan '17 said. "With the death penalty, however, if you 
say the number of people that are executed, that doesn't really register with 
people, and yet it's really something that exceptional in society that we're 
still allowing the killing of people."

He added that although the number of executed people are not very large, the 
system is still something to be protested against.

"Even though it's not 30,000 people every year, even if it's just 50 people, 
it's 50 people too many. I think that's the message we're trying to convey with 
the campaign," he added.

Kyle Berlin '18, a participant in the campaign, said, that he thinks the 
campaign is important because the death penalty is "an act of extreme 
injustice."

"The fact that we can call ourselves civilized and then kill people, many of 
whom are African Americans or later proven to be innocent, is a travesty," he 
said.

He said he hopes SPEAR's protests will spur some conversations on campus so 
students can start talking about the death penalty and how it represents a 
larger system of injustice and discrimination.

(source: The Daiy Princetonian)






PENNSYLVANIA:

Prosecutor urges judge to dismiss defense motion in Con-ui case


The attack on the death penalty mounted by gang assassin Jessie Con-ui's 
defense last month amounts to little more than a "boiler plate" assault on a 
well-established federal law, prosecutors wrote in a response filed Monday 
urging dismissal of the defense motion.

Con-ui, 37, faces the death penalty if convicted next July of murdering 
Nanticoke native Correctional Officer Eric Williams at U.S. Penitentiary Canaan 
on Feb. 25, 2013. Prosecutors allege Con-ui, angered over a previous cell 
search, kicked Williams down a flight of stairs before beating and slashing him 
to death with 2 shanks.

Prosecutors argue Con-ui should die for the crime, which was recorded by 
surveillance cameras, because it was committed in an "especially heinous, cruel 
or depraved manner" by a convicted drug trafficker and murderer who has a 
history of violence, including against law enforcement.

But in a filing last month, Con-ui's defense sought to have U.S. District Judge 
A. Richard Caputo strike down the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 as 
unconstitutional, saying it has been implemented in an "arbitrary, capricious, 
irrational, and invidious manner."

In the filing Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa says such 
motions have become commonplace in capital cases and their arguments are 
nothing new.

"As daunting as Mr. Con-Ui's Motion to Strike appears at first glance, it is 
nothing more than a 'boiler plate' assault on the FDPA, which is filed by the 
defense for consideration 'in nearly every, if not every, federal capital case 
in recent decades,'" Sempa wrote.

Because the arguments aren't new, prosecutors opted not to "reinvent the 
wheel," instead citing extensive case law from other judges who have rejected 
the same arguments, he wrote.

"All of defendant's arguments are afflicted by the same basic and fatal flaw, 
that is, they are in opposition with long-standing legal principles and 
overwhelming authority to the contrary," Sempa wrote.

Con-ui's trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection on Monday, July 11, 
2016.

(source: Wilkes-Barre Citizens Voice)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Death penalty sought against Sanford man in deaths of wife, stepdaughter


Prosecutors said Monday that they plan to seek the death penalty against a 
Sanford man charged with killing his wife and stepdaughter in July.

Firefighters found the bodies of Calandra McLean and her 13-year-old daughter, 
Tashonna Cameron, inside the family's 916 Clark Circle home on July 13 after 
extinguishing a blaze in the home.

A nationwide search ensued for Billy Jo McLean, 54, who was arrested four days 
later at a motel in the Texas Panhandle, where he had fled with his stepson.

17-year-old Tobias McLean, who had walked to a nearby diner while Billy Jo 
McLean slept, learned from Facebook about the deaths of his mother and sister 
and the manhunt for his stepfather and asked diner employees to call 911.

Billy Jo McLean fought extradition to North Carolina but was returned to the 
state in September.

(source: wral.com)

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

Sanford man faces death penalty in killings of wife and daughter


The Sanford man accused of burning his wife and teen stepdaughter to death and 
fleeing to Texas in July could get the death penalty if convicted.

The Lee County District Attorney's Office made the announcement at a hearing 
Monday.

Billy Jo McLean, 54, was captured in Oldham County, TX days after investigators 
say he burned his wife, Calandra McLean and his 13-year-old stepdaughter, 
TaShonna Cameron, on July 13.

McLean is charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder. He's due back in court 
March 7.

(source: WTVD news)






GEORGIA----impending execution

Murder victim's daughter will attend execution


Marcus Ray Johnson is now scheduled to be executed at 7:00 Thursday night at 
the prison in Jackson, for the 1994 brutal murder of Lee County single mother 
Angela Sizemore. He was sentenced to death in 1998 after his trial.

Katie Barker was only 4 when her mother was murdered. In a Skype interview from 
her home in Chattanooga she said plans to be at the prison Thursday to support 
her other family members who will witness the execution. But says she is not 
sure if she, herself, will watch.

Katie Barker for almost a decade has attended most of Ray Johnson's death 
sentence hearings, sitting just feet from the man convicted of stabbing her 
mother 41 times, brutally murdering her. "I believe in my heart that it's time 
for justice. He will never own up to his actions. He will never be sorry."

Now 21 years after her mother's death, Barker says she will continue to be 
there for every step. "We will be at the hearings and we will be at the prison 
when it takes place. Because someone has got to step up for my mom. Someone's 
got to make sure that she gets the justice she is supposed to get."

Barker says she will support her family members who will witness the execution, 
but still has not decided if she will watch. "This is something that has been 
leading up for 20 something years. Basically my whole life. So, for it to 
finally come to pass, is just a lot to take in."

Barker says she has no doubts about Ray Johnson's guilt, and that it's time for 
him to face justice. She said she has been in contact with Ray Johnson's 
family, including his daughter, who is close to her age.

(source: WALB news)






FLORIDA:

Judge issues sentence today in Bessman Okafor death-penalty case


An Orange County judge will decide today whether Bessman Okafor, a convicted 
murderer thought to have masterminded a witness execution plot in 2012, joins 
392 Florida inmates awaiting execution on death row.

Okafor, 30, was convicted of 1st-degree murder in August. A jury then 
recommended capital punishment, but a judge makes the final decision.

The hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.

Okafor is already serving a life sentence for robbing the same Ocoee home 
months before the killing. Prosecutors argued Okafor broke in again to stop the 
residents from testifying against him in that case. Okafor was convicted of 
shooting siblings Brienna and Remington Campos in the head and killing 
19-year-old Alex Zaldivar.

If Circuit Judge John Marshall Kest sentences him to death, Okafor will be the 
1st person in Orange County to receive that fate since 2008.

(source: Orlando Sentinel)

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

DEAD WRONG----After giving ineffective counsel in more than 1 death penalty 
case, the Public Defender's 2nd-in-command may no longer be allowed to do his 
job


A woman from Meals On Wheels found Andrew Dwelle dead on the bedroom floor of 
his Jacksonville apartment on Jan. 9, 1997. Dwelle was 82 years old and needed 
help bathing, dressing and preparing meals. He'd been stabbed twice in the 
neck. One of the wounds was 5 inches deep.

Jacksonville police arrested Raymond Morrison the next day. He confessed he'd 
killed Dwelle during a fight after he'd grabbed some of the old man's money.

Morrison even led police to the knife.

It sounds like an open-and-shut case. A jury found Morrison guilty of 
1st-degree murder in 1998 and sentenced him to death. But in September 2015, a 
circuit court judge threw out the verdict and the death sentence and ordered a 
new trial.

Judge Henry Davis said Morrison's attorney failed to present key evidence. One 
omission: Morrison had an alibi. Three witnesses said he wasn't even in 
Jacksonville when Dwelle was murdered. Though Morrison, intellectually, is 
barely functional, and he'd previously confessed to and spent time in prison 
for a crime he did not commit, no expert testified as such. The actual 
perpetrator would have testified, but Morrison's attorney never put him on the 
stand.

Morrison's attorney was Refik Eler. And this is the 2nd time a court has ruled 
the Jacksonville attorney gave ineffective assistance of counsel in a death 
penalty case. It's a big deal. Under a law enacted in 2013, a defense attorney 
with 2 ineffective counsel findings is disqualified from representing death 
penalty clients for 5 years. Also, Eler is Public Defender Matt Shirk's chief 
assistant public defender, leading the public defender's homicide division.

State Attorney Angela Corey may be Florida???s death penalty queen. Since she 
took office in 2009, she's secured more death sentences than any other 
prosecutor in Florida, and more than most other places in the United States. On 
the other side of the bar, Corey and her prosecutors face a chief assistant 
public defender with a history of providing such inadequate lawyering that it 
violated his clients' constitutional rights to a fair trial and to legal 
representation.

In a 3rd case, the court criticized Eler's performance but did not overturn the 
death sentence. Currently, 2 other cases of Eler's are under court review.

Gung-ho prosecutor. Failed defense. "It's a deadly combination," says Stephen 
Harper, of Florida International University's Death Penalty Clinic.

Though no one seems to know quite how it will work, the Timely Justice Act of 
2013 disqualifies a defense attorney with 2 ineffective assistance of counsel 
rulings in a death penalty case from those kinds of cases for 5 years. The 
Timely Justice Act does not, however, address whether it's applied 
retroactively. Though the ineffective judgments were issued in 2013 and 2015, 
Eler's cases went to trial in 1995 and 1998, more than a decade before he 
joined the public defenders office in 2009.

While it's common for someone convicted of a crime to blame his lawyer, filing 
an ineffective counsel motion is one of the few ways to fight bad lawyering. 
And it's not easy to win a judgment. The U.S. Supreme Court requires a finding 
of both deficient representation and that an attorney's omissions might have 
changed the jury's decision. The Innocence Project found that 81 % of the first 
255 defendants exonerated by DNA lost ineffective assistance claims.

In an evidentiary hearing, Eler testified he decided not to present expert 
testimony on another death penalty defendant's mental illness and 
hospitalizations, suicide attempt and brain abnormalities as a strategic 
decision, as a jury weighed whether to recommend life or death for Michael 
Shellito. Eler thought such information might make the jury less sympathetic.

The Florida Supreme Court disagreed. It threw out Shellito's death sentence in 
2013 after reviewing what the court described as a "a plethora of evidence" 
from multiple experts on Shellito's substantial mental health problems, 
possible organic brain dysfunction, childhood sexual and physical abuse and 
neglect, and history of alcohol and drug abuse. The court ruled Eler's failure 
to fully investigate mitigation in the case deprived the judge and jury of 
information it needed when considering life in prison or death.

An adequate defense is critical in rendering justice, Harper says.

"It shortchanges the jury in making a fully intelligent and fully informed 
decision, when making the most important decision any person can make," Harper 
says, "a life and death decision."

And there's more.

A 3rd ineffective assistance of counsel claim was made against Eler by death 
row inmate Luther Douglas, though it did not result in Douglas' death sentence 
being overturned. But in its 2012 decision, the Florida Supreme Court 
criticized Eler's lack of mitigation work for the penalty phase of the trial. 
Douglas was found guilty of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1999 
for the sexual battery and murder of 18-year-old Mary Ann Hobgood. Attorney 
Rick Sichta has appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

And in June 2015, the Florida Supreme Court "made it abundantly clear," 
according to The Florida Times-Union, the lawyers representing a fourth death 
penalty defendant, Thomas Bevel, failed him. Eler was the lead attorney. A jury 
found Bevel guilty of 1st-degree murder and sentenced him to death in 2005 for 
the murder of his roommate Garrick Strickland and Strickland's 13-year-old son. 
In oral arguments, 1 justice said it was hard to argue the defense had done a 
competent job during the penalty phase because it never hired anyone to 
investigate mitigating circumstances in Bevel's life. Attorney Rick Sichta 
described Eler's mitigation as an "11th Hour" investigation that failed to 
uncover a host of mitigating factors.

Glossing over mitigation seems to be a pattern with Eler.

Wilton Manors attorney Linda McDermott, who prevailed in arguing both 
Shellito's and Morrison's claims of ineffective representation, questions 
Eler's knowledge of death penalty defense.

"In dealing with Mr. Eler between these 2 cases," McDermott says, "it's clear 
to me that he doesn't understand the defense available to someone facing the 
death penalty.

"He is the 2nd person in charge in the public defender's office, and he doesn't 
seem to understand what the U.S. Supreme Court has said is a [legitimate] 
defense in a capital case."

Neither Shirk nor Eler returned multiple calls from Folio Weekly requesting 
comment on whether Eler would continue to lead the homicide defense unit.

Both Sichta and Harper say Shirk should remove Eler from his role as top 
defense counsel now. Sichta says leaving him in charge will only lead to more 
claims and ultimately cost taxpayers.

"He may be a good administrator and he may be an improved attorney [than when 
he defended Shellito, Morrison, Bevel and Douglas]," says Harper, "but if I 
were the public defender, I would not want someone found deficient [3] times 
heading up my death penalty defense."

Harper and others say it's not just Eler. An American Bar Association article 
in 2009 reported on an ABA study that concluded public defenders nationally had 
too many cases and too little funding to mount an adequate defense. It 
described the defense of indigent clients as a crisis, where ineffective 
counsel was the most frequently raised and too often legitimate claim.

While Duval County might be among the deadliest counties in the state and in 
the nation, Harper predicts the county might also lead in death sentences 
overturned because of bad lawyering.

"They may be 1st in death sentences, but they will also be [1st in] getting 
reversals," McDermott predicts. "Constitutional rights are being overlooked in 
that county because of overreaching of the prosecution and inadequacy of the 
defense bar."

(source: Folio News)

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

State seeks death penalty in McLean murder case


The Lee County District Attorney's Office on Monday revealed it would seek the 
death penalty against the Sanford man charged with murdering his wife and 
teenage stepdaughter.

Billy Jo McLean, 54, appeared in court for the 2nd time since his capture on 
July 17 in Oldham County, Texas, where authorities said he fled with his 
18-year-old stepson, Tobias McLean, after killing his wife, Calandra McLean, 
and 13-year-old stepdaughter, Tashonna Cameron, on July 13.

"The state wishes to proceed capitally," said Matt Craven, a prosecutor with 
the district attorney's office, during a hearing Monday at the Lee County 
Courthouse.

According to Robert Reives II, a Lee County attorney unaffiliated with the 
case, a prosecution seeking the death penalty has a profound effect on how a 
case is tried.

"There are 13 or 14 'statutory aggravators' that the state can use to help them 
decide whether they want to proceed as a capital case," Reives said. "They can 
be all kinds of things like [the crime] being particularly heinous and cruel, 
or based on a person's previous [criminal] record. It changes a lot about the 
complexion of a case."

Among the major changes are that McLean now will receive a 2nd court-appointed 
attorney in addition to Stephen Freedman, who represented him during Monday's 
hearing, and the length of time that the trial will take.

"With a [non-capital] case, you're probably looking at a couple of weeks for 
jury selection, and the case itself might take a couple of weeks," Reives said. 
"But with a death penalty case, our last two death penalty cases have gone 
right around three or four months each. ... You literally will have selected a 
jury and finished the trial [in a non-capital murder case] before you're 
halfway through your jury selection in a death penalty case."

During the hearing, Craven said the district attorney's office believed it 
could prove one or more "statutory aggravators" in McLean's case.

Calandra McLean's mother, Joann Jackson, attended the hearing along with other 
family members.

"We're ready for this to be ended," she said after the brief hearing. " ... 
I'll be glad when it's over."

As for her thoughts on the prosecution seeking the death penalty, Jackson said, 
"I'm not the judge or the jury. I'll have to go with what they decide."

McLean's next court appearance is scheduled for March 7.

Reives said that death penalty trials really are 2 trials in 1.

"First you have the guilt/innocence phase, which is in any trial," Reives said. 
"Then if the person is convicted, you have what amounts to a separate trial to 
determine if they'll face the death penalty. ... It's pretty intensive."

(source: The Sanford Herald)






ALABAMA----female faces death sentence

Sentencing hearing postponed for woman who was found guilty of killing her 
daughter


The Russell County woman convicted of hiring someone to kill her daughter was 
expected in court on Monday for a sentencing hearing.

But the sentencing for Lisa Graham was postponed and is now scheduled for 
Wednesday afternoon.

Graham was found guilty earlier this year in the shooting death of her 20-year 
old daughter Stephanie Shae Graham back in July of 2007.

Kenny Walton confessed to the murder and admitted to shooting Shae 6 times and 
leaving her body on a dirt road near Cottonton.

Walton is now serving a life sentence.

The jury is recommending the death penalty for Lisa Graham.

(source: WLTZ news)






LOUISIANA:

Judge asked to decide if man accused in 2010 fatal shooting in Beauregard Town 
is mentally disabled


A prosecutor and attorneys for Aramis Jackson are asking a Baton Rouge state 
judge to resolve a split between 2 psychologists and decide whether the man 
accused of fatally shooting a woman and wounding her young daughter during a 
2010 home invasion in Beauregard Town is intellectually disabled.

It's a move that would take the crucial determination of intellectual capacity 
out of the hands of a jury.

Accused killers found to be intellectually disabled, formerly called mentally 
retarded, cannot be executed if convicted of 1st-degree murder.

At this point in the 5-year-old case, the East Baton Rouge Parish District 
Attorney's Office intends to seek the death penalty if the 25-year-old Jackson 
is convicted of 1st-degree murder in the slaying of Alexandra Engler, 42. He 
also is charged with attempted 1st-degree murder of Ariana Engler, who was 9 
years old when she was shot.

A California psychologist hired by Jackson's attorneys concluded earlier this 
year that he is intellectually disabled, but a New Orleans psychologist hired 
by the state found last month that Jackson is not mentally disabled.

That led prosecutor Darwin Miller and Jackson's attorneys, David Price and 
Mario Guadamud, to ask state District Judge Tony Marabella to settle the 
matter.

"The State of Louisiana and defense counsel are jointly requesting that the 
court hold an evidentiary hearing to resolve the issue relating to 
'intellectual disability' prior to a jury trial in this case," they wrote in a 
motion filed Thursday.

The prosecutor and defense lawyers are asking for a hearing March 4.

Jackson is accused of shooting Alexandra Engler to death inside her Beauregard 
Street home on Sept. 24, 2010, and shooting her daughter multiple times. The 
young girl survived.

Witnesses identified Jackson, of Baton Rouge, as the man they observed in the 
area shortly after the crime carrying a gun and television believed stolen from 
the Engler home, police have said.

A forensic consultant, hired by the prosecution, who specializes in footwear 
impressions testified at a hearing in 2013 that a bloody shoeprint found in the 
kitchen of the Engler home was left by one of Jackson's shoes.

District Attorney Hillar Moore III has said previously that the shoeprint 
matched shoes found in Jackson's possession, but he would not say if Jackson 
was wearing the shoes when he was arrested.

(source: The Advocate)

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

Review: Song of a Man Coming Through ---- A tale of death row redemption, by 
Andrew Doss and Joe Morris Doss


Earnest Knighton Jr. killed a man during a robbery in the early 1980s and was 
sentenced to death. While on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at 
Angola, a team of lawyers appealed his sentence, arguing that if he wasn't 
black, he wouldn't have received the death penalty. Song of a Man Coming 
Through, currently receiving its premiere from Southern Rep at the First Grace 
United Methodist Church, recounts Knighton's time on death row.

Song of a Man Coming Through is co-written by Andrew Doss and his father Joe 
Morris Doss, who is a character in the drama. Lawyer-turned-minister Joe (Mike 
Harkins), lawyer Julian Murray (John Neisler) and paralegal Catherine Brame 
(Cecile Monteyne) pursue the long and arduous appeals process to overturn 
Knighton's (Robert Diago DoQui) sentence. They argue the system is racist, and 
if Knighton was white, he would have been sentenced to life in prison. DoQui is 
a powerful actor, and he plays Knighton with confidence, even when the 
situation looks hopeless.

The audience surrounds the stage, which is minimally appointed with stacks of 
long, wooden crates, and the openness creates the sense of a communal 
experience. Aimee Hayes' direction is excellent, and powerful hymns, led by 
Brittney James and Barbara Shorts, punctuate scenes.

The show's focus in the second act is unbalanced. Toward the end, Knighton 
tells Doss to help "tell his story," which ostensibly is the show's purpose. 
Knighton's story comes through a series of interviews with his lawyers. During 
these sessions, the lawyers seem to cross-examine him, probing for important 
information. But instead of adding insight into Knighton's life, these scenes 
ultimately show more about the lawyers and their growing compassion for 
Knighton.

We see Knighton as a charming and thoughtful man when he's talking to an inmate 
played by Lance E. Nichols (TV's Treme). This character gives Knighton 
perspective and cautions him to be wary of the lawyers' intentions. The 2 men 
bond and constantly debate the best stance for a baseball player to use in the 
batter's box, a metaphor for their imprisonment. Nichols gives an extremely 
funny and dynamic performance full of gripping emotion and insight.

Although there were issues with the play's focus, the show's end is powerful 
and moving in both its emotional and religious context. The narrative raises 
many important points, such as the failings of mass incarceration, the ethics 
of capital punishment and the history of biased sentencing of black criminals. 
The acting and direction in Song of a Man Coming Through are outstanding, and 
this production should initiate some tough conversations.

(source: bestofneworleans.com)






ARKANSAS----female to face death penalty

Trial rescheduled for man accused of killing son, 6


A January jury trial will not take place for the Bella Vista man accused of 
killing his 6-year-old son.

Mauricio Alejandro Torres' jury trial was scheduled to begin Jan. 12. The trial 
was rescheduled due to the appointment of 2 new attorneys to represent Mauricio 
Torres. Jeff Rosenzweig and Bill James replaced attorneys for the Arkansas 
Public Defenders Commission who had represented Mauricio Torres.

Mauricio Torres, 45, and Cathy Torres , 43, the boy's mother, are charged with 
capital murder and 1st-degree battery. They have pleaded not guilty to the 
charges.

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for both.

Their son was pronounced dead at the hospital March 29. A medical examiner 
later determined Maurice Isaiah Torres suffered from chronic child abuse, and 
his death was from internal injuries caused by being raped.

Torres appeared in court Monday afternoon for a hearing in his murder case.

Circuit Judge Brad Karren scheduled jury selection to begin at 8:30 a.m. May 6.

Nathan Smith, Benton County's prosecuting attorney, told the judge he expects 
the trial to take at least 3 weeks.

Rosenzweig told the judge that the previous attorneys had done plenty of work 
on the case, but they still need to look into Torres' childhood in Central 
America. He lived there until he was 11 or 12 years old and then lived in 
California. Rosenzweig said they also had to look into the time that his client 
lived in California.

Prosecutors have already decided to try Mauricio Torres first.

Cathy Torres' jury trial was set to begin Jan. 26. She is scheduled to appear 
at 2:30 p.m. Monday for a hearing.

Karren discussed the possibility of setting her trial for Aug. 23 while 
discussing trial dates during Mauricio Torres' hearing.

The Torreses also were arrested in connection with rape, but prosecutors didn't 
include that offense in the charging documents. The rape occurred in Missouri, 
not in Benton County, Smith said.

Smith previously said his office didn't have jurisdiction to charge the couple 
with rape. The office has jurisdiction in the murder case because the boy died 
in Benton County, Smith said.

The Torreses are being held without bond in the Benton County Jail.

(source: Arkansas Online)