[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KY., MO., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 24



KENTUCKY:

Death Penalty to Be Sought After Kentucky Officer's Death


Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for 2 men accused of involvement in the 
fatal shooting of a central Kentucky police officer earlier this month.

Multiple media outlets report that prosecutors said during arraignments Monday 
that 34-year-old Raleigh Sizemore Jr. and 25-year-old Gregory Ratliff should be 
eligible for capital punishment if found guilty in the slaying of 33-year-old 
Richmond Police Officer Daniel Ellis.

Investigators say Sizemore was the gunman and Ratliff failed to warn Ellis that 
he was in danger while the officer was investigating a robbery. Sizemore and 
Ratliff both pleaded not guilty Monday to numerous charges, including Sizemore 
to murder and Ratliff to complicity to murder.

Kentucky law allows the death penalty in murder cases where there is an 
"aggravating circumstance" such as robbery, rape or the death of a police 
officer.

(source: Associated Press)






MISSOURI:

Missouri Supreme Court throws out Reginald Clemons murder conviction


The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out the 1st-degree murder 
convictions for Reginald Clemons, who had been sentenced to death for a 1991 
double-murder on the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge.

Clemons had been fighting his conviction and death sentence in the 1991 rape 
and killing of sisters Julie and Robin Kerry.

In a 4-3 decision written by Chief Justice Patricia Breckenridge, the Court 
threw out the convictions and sentences for 1st-degree murder and sent the case 
back to circuit court.

The state has 60 days to retry Clemons. If it does not, the case will be 
dismissed, and Clemons will remain in prison on a 15-year sentence in different 
case.

Reached on the phone, Richard Kerry, father of the victims, said, "I'm not 
going to express any opinion at this point in time."

Michael Manners, a retired judge appointed as by the state's highest court as 
"special master" to review Clemons' case, concluded that St. Louis prosecutors 
wrongly suppressed evidence and that detectives beat Clemons into confessing to 
the crimes.

The judge said those factors were unlikely to change the verdict but were not 
harmless mistakes as the state claimed.

The Supreme Court had the power to do anything with Clemons' case, from leaving 
him on death row to tossing out his conviction.

Clemons was among 4 men convicted of raping and murdering sisters Julie Kerry, 
20, and Robin Kerry, 19, on the old Chain of Rocks Bridge in April 1991. A jury 
convicted Clemons without physical evidence of rape. He was sentenced to death 
in 1993.

In testimony during a rare, special hearing on his case more than 2 years ago, 
Clemons asserted his Fifth Amendment right against incriminating himself more 
than 30 times. In the past, he has acknowledged being on the bridge the night 
of the killings but claims police beat a confession out of him and was 
railroaded by an overzealous prosecutor.

Manners also concluded that Clemons' death sentence "was not disproportionate," 
considering that Clemons' co-defendant, Marlin Gray, was executed for the crime 
in 2005, Manners concluded. In Gray's case, the state's high court ruled the 
death penalty was appropriate punishment.

The Kerry sisters led a visiting cousin, Thomas Cummins, then 19, to the unused 
bridge span on the night of April 5, 1991, to show him a poem they had scrawled 
there, but they ended up encountering a group of men. The women were raped, and 
they and Cummins were forced into the Mississippi River. Only Cummins survived.

Police identified the suspects as Clemons, Gray, Antonio Richardson and Daniel 
Winfrey. Winfrey testified in exchange for a 30-year term and has been paroled. 
The others were sentenced to death. Gray was executed; Richardson's penalty was 
later changed to life without parole.

Clemons was weeks from being executed in June 2009 when the 8th Circuit U.S. 
Court of Appeals blocked it. The Missouri Supreme Court then agreed to consider 
the case.

Judges Laura Denvir Stith and Richard B. Teitelman concurred with Breckenridge, 
as did Lisa White Hardwick, a special judge assigned to rule in the Clemons 
case.

Judges Paul C. Wilson, Zel M. Fischer and Mary R. Russell voted against 
granting Clemons' petition.

(source: stlouistoday.com)






CALIFORNIA:

KSBY Investigates: Death row debate


California has 746 convicted murderers, rapists, and torturers on death row, 
the highest number in the nation by more than 300 inmates. Since the death 
penalty was reestablished in 1973, only 13 people have actually been put to 
death, leaving many victims' families waiting for justice to be served and 
asking, 'why have a death penalty if sentences are not carried out?'

On the 2012 ballot, a measure to abolish the death penalty was narrowly 
defeated. Looking toward 2016, 2 measures have been sent to the state's 
attorney general for consideration: One again asks voters to abolish the death 
penalty, the other would reform it to bring swifter justice for victims' 
families. This is fueling the flames of an already heated debate.

"I would reverse the question and ask you, 'why would someone who deliberately 
murdered in a very painful, horrible way, should not receive the death 
penalty,'" questioned Richard Riggins, whose son was murdered in 1980. "What 
redeeming grace could you expect from this individual and why would you want 
this individual back in society, maybe living next door to you?"

It was a foggy December morning in 1980 in Davis, California. John Riggins and 
Sabrina Gonzalves, both freshman at University of California Davis, were on 
their way to a family birthday party. The young couple never made it. 3 days 
later, their bodies were found in a ditch.

It took until 2013 for Richard Hirschfield to finally be tried and convicted 
for the so-called "Sweetheart Murders" and given a sentence of death.

"I was convinced that should someone be held responsible for their murder that 
they certainly should receive the death penalty. That has never been a question 
in my mind," said Kate Riggins as she recalled the trial of her son's murderer.

Kate and Richard Riggins make up just one of thousands of families who have 
lived through the terror of losing a loved one to murder.

"They have deliberately and cruelly destroyed another human being. They just 
don't accidentally kill. They are the most part very aware of what they are 
doing," said Kate Riggins.

Their son, John, has been dead for 35 years and the Riggins still wait for 
justice.

"I think that the fact that there are very evil people out there and they do 
need to have, some way, an ultimate punishment to take place," said Kate 
Riggins.

San Quentin State Prison is located in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is home 
to all of California's male death row inmates. The inmates live in single cells 
with a cot and get three meals a day.

Of the 746 convicted, 3 cases are out of San Luis Obispo County and 10 are out 
of Santa Barbara County. They include Rex Krebs, Richard Benson and Ryan Hoyt.

The upcoming 2016 election could shake things up. Two capital punishment 
initiatives have been submitted to the State Attorney General for review. The 
Death Penalty Reform and Savings Act of 2016 would keep and speed up 
executions. The Justice that Works Act of 2016 would replace execution with 
life without parole.

According to the Justice that Works Act, California has spent $4 billion on the 
death penalty system.

"The fiscal in dollars and cents reasons to deal with this is (it's) vastly 
cheaper to eliminate the death penalty," said San Luis Obispo Criminal Defense 
Attorney Jeff Stein.

Backers of the Justice that Works Act claim it would save the state $1 billion 
in 5 years without ever releasing a prisoner into society.

"We, with China and the Saudi Arabians, are the only place where the death 
penalties are common events," explained Stein. "It doesn't have any positive 
effect for making society safer."

San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow is one of many district 
attorneys in California standing behind the Death Penalty Reform and Savings 
Act.

"It's all about justice and justice for victims," said Dow.

Currently, it takes 5 or more years for capital defendants to be appointed an 
appellate lawyer. This act would create a prompt appeals process.

"But when the facts warrant a verdict of death, then we need to make sure we go 
ahead and implement that once a proper appellate process is preceded," said 
Dow. "We need to make sure we are not delayed by loopholes, or really, a broken 
system."

"I sort of smile when I think about, 'oh it is so inhumane,'" said Richard 
Riggins. "I have often thought, 'well, if you think it is inhumane, why don't 
you dispatch them with the same method that they dispatched their victims?' 
They certainly thought that was good for them, so, good enough for themselves 
and the perpetrator. And if you really hear how, I am sure, by injection, I 
don't really know how many people have been put to sleep, but that is exactly 
what it would be like, except that you wouldn't wake up and I am all in favor 
of that."

Both initiatives are active and pending review. Enough funding and signatures 
are needed for both measures before they can be put on the 2016 ballot.

(source: KSBY news)