[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----VA., FLA., MISS., ARIZ.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 30



VIRGINIA:

Death Penalty Upheld in Harrisonburg Murder Case


A federal appeals court has rejected a Virginia death row inmate's appeal of 
his murder-for-hire conviction. Rockingham County Commonwealth's Attorney 
Marsha Garst said she is pleased with the ruling.

Ivan Teleguz was sentenced to death in 2006 for hiring a man to kill his former 
girlfriend, Stephanie Sipe, in Harrisonburg. After two key prosecution 
witnesses recanted, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2012 ordered a 
judge to conduct a hearing on Teleguz's innocence claim.

After 1 of those witnesses refused to testify and the other did not attend the 
hearing, U.S. District Judge James P. Jones determined that affidavits 
recanting their previous testimony were unreliable. A 3-judge panel of the 4th 
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday that it found no reason to overrule 
Jones on that issue.

Garst said Teleguz could ask for another review and appeal to the Supreme Court 
and Virginia governor for a stay of execution.

(source: Associated Press)






FLORIDA:

A who's who of Brevard's most notorious in court Friday


It's a routine procedure that oftenseems like little more than housekeeping.

Still, this Friday's docket sounding at the Moore Justice Center in Viera bring 
together the majority of the county's most notorious cases from the past few 
years for scheduling purposes.

Usually docket soundings are held to check on the status of a case, but there 
may finally be some trial dates set and maybe even a surprise plea. And while 
it may not rival Batman's rogues gallery, a look at the court calendar reads 
like a scorecard of recent terrible headlines.

Among the cases being called are the capital murder cases against Jessica 
McCarty, who telephoned police to tell them she had killed her 3 small children 
in March, and registered sex offender Marcus Royal, who police say brutally 
killed an 80-year-old Cocoa woman and the 59-year-old man who arrived at her 
home to drive her to church only hours after Royal was released from the county 
jail.

Royal was also later charged with the 2011 murder of an elderly Rockledge 
woman.

Both McCarty and Royal face the death penalty if convicted.

Other cases being called Friday include William Woodward, who admitted to 
killing two of his neighbors and shooting another 11 times. Woodward's attempt 
to invoke Florida's Stand Your Ground law was rejected by the court but it 
appears from court documents that he will try to use self-defense as the reason 
for the killings.

Woodward had a contentious relationship with neighbors and video and audio from 
that night shows them taunting, cursing and yelling in the direction of his 
home. Like McCarty and Royal, Woodward could face the death penalty.

(source: floridatoday.com)






MISSISSIPPI:

Suspect in Waffle House shooting asks if death penalty possible during court 
appearance


The man accused of shooting a Waffle House server over a no smoking ban had 
only one question when standing before a judge for his initial appearance on 
Monday.

"Is the death penalty going to be involved in this charge?" suspect Johnny Max 
Mount asked Justice Court Judge Albert Fountain.

In response, the judge read the law regarding capital offenses that could 
result in a possible death penalty. But as for now, Mount only has been charged 
with 1 count of 1st degree murder, and not a capital offense.

He has requested a preliminary hearing, which Fountain said would be set within 
a couple of weeks. The court will appoint a public defender to represent Mount, 
who indicated he wished to speak to an attorney.

Harrison County jail Warden Evan Hubbard said Mount is being held in the 
medical block at the jail for medical reasons.

Mount, a former Biloxi firefighter arrested on a charge of 1st-degree murder in 
the Friday slaying of long-time Waffle House server, Julie Brightwell, 52. The 
hearing is set at the Harrison County jail, Sheriff Melvin Brisolara confirmed 
this morning.

Mount is being held on a $2 million bond set by Fountain.

Biloxi police arrested Mount, 45, as he was walking out of the Waffle House 
restaurant around 1 a.m. Friday.

According to authorities, Brightwell was trying to get Mount to stop smoking in 
the restaurant when he pulled out a 9 mm handgun and shot her. She was taken to 
Merit Health Biloxi, where she was pronounced dead.

Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove said she died of a single gunshot wound 
the head.

Brightwell had been working for Waffle House for 8 years. She had worked at the 
Waffle House where the shooting occurred since June 2014, when it reopened 
after being destroyed in Hurricane Katrina.

According to Pat Warner, vice president of Waffle House's corporate office in 
Atlanta, a candlelight vigil in memory of Brightwell is scheduled at 5:15 p.m. 
Friday on the beach across the street from the restaurant where Brightwell 
worked in the 2400 block of U.S. 90. He said Monday her coworkers, friends and 
Waffle House management are helping set up the vigil.

"One of her coworkers is planning on singing," he said. "She had been 
encouraged by Julie to pursue her singing, so she wanted to do that."

Warner said he and other senior corporate officials are hoping to make it to 
the memorial.

In addition, he said, Waffle House plans to cover the funeral costs for 
Brightwell and help her family "any way we can."

Since the shooting, Warner and Waffle House employees from other restaurants 
have filled in for those workers who needed time away to grieve and come to 
terms about what happened.

"Julie touched a lot of people," he said. "This tragedy doesn't just affect 
this one restaurant. It affects our entire market. All of our associates knew 
her or knew of her."

Brightwell, he said, had been handpicked to help reopen the Waffle House where 
the shooting occurred.

"She was picked because she was such a good associate," he said. "She had that 
kind of personality that made you feel better when you came in and dined with 
us. She seemed to really bond with her customers and she made sure they had an 
enjoyable visit while they were there."

A GoFundMe account has been set up to help Brightwell's family with any 
expenses.

The Waffle House where the shooting occurred is smoke free. Some of the chain's 
restaurants allow smoking.

Waffle House also prohibits firearms in its restaurants unless the customer 
works in a law enforcement field or the military, Warner said.

Customers said Brightwell spent some of her last minutes alive asking them if 
they'd enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday or if they had found some good deals 
during their post-Thanksgiving shopping.

Mount has no felony record, but he does have misdemeanor violations.

Since Brightwell's killing, people have taken to Twitter and Facebook to talk 
about the killing and wondering what could have set off the accused.

A friend of Mount's family said he "was not a monster," and that something 
must've "snapped" in him.

On Christmas Eve 2002, a car struck Mount while he was standing in the middles 
of U.S. 49 in Gulfport. A family friend said he lost a limb and suffered a 
traumatic brain injury at that time.

Mount stopped working for the Biloxi Fire Department after the 2002 accident.

Biloxi police are continuing their investigation.

(source: sunherald.com)






ARIZONA:

Will Arizona be the death of death penalty?


Arizona's unethical, possibly illegal purchase of execution drugs from 
overseas, along with the state's grotesque determination to use those drugs to 
kill death row inmates, and then botching one attempt, very well could be the 
death of the death penalty in the United States.

It should be the death of the death penalty in the United States.

It speaks to everything that is wrong with capital punishment as it is applied 
in states like ours, where justice has been supplemented by a monstrously 
surreal bloodlust and the inability to treat execution for the savagery that it 
is.

CBS's 60 Minutes aired a segment Sunday on Arizona's botched execution of 
Joseph Wood in July of last year, which was supposed to take 10 minutes and 
instead took 2 hours and involved 15 dozes of the drug cocktail of midazolam 
and hydromorphone. The Arizona Republic's Michael Kiefer has done excellent, 
ongoing reporting on this, drawing attention to the growing national crisis 
over executions.

This is not to say that Wood was innocent. Just the opposite.

He was a cold-blooded killer. In 1989 he hunted down and shot to death his 
former girlfriend, Debra Dietz, and her father, Eugene Dietz. He was convicted 
of the crime. The citizens of the state of Arizona decided to kill him.

And we did.

Only in trying to execute Wood in a "humane" way, as if such a thing is 
possible, we did just the opposite.

The CBS reporter spoke to Kiefer as well as to Dale Baich, one of Wood's 
attorneys, who said, "I've witnessed a number of executions before and I've 
never seen anything like this."

He also spoke with Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who came off like a 
lame apologist for the state's clumsy, unethical, possibly illegal effort to 
get the death penalty drugs under Gov. Jan Brewer's administration. Brnovich 
also sounded like a pro-death penalty blowhard hoping to impress conservative 
voters.

In the end, the person who made the most sense in the CBS report was Chief 
Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Kozinski's court has been in the forefront of the legal battle over all of this 
and he has spoken boldly and bluntly about it.

During the appeals process before Wood's execution Kozinski wrote, "Using drugs 
meant for individuals with medical needs to carry out executions is a misguided 
effort to mask the brutality of executions by making them look serene and 
peaceful..." He added, "Sure, firing squads can be messy, but if we are willing 
to carry out executions we should not shield ourselves from the reality that we 
are shedding human blood. If we, as a society, cannot stomach the splatter from 
an execution carried out by firing squad, then we shouldn't be carrying out 
executions at all."

He's right.

(source: Column, EJ Montini, Arizona Republic)

********

Did Jodi Arias Deserve Death? Juror Accused Of Falling In Love With Killer


Should Jodi Arias be on death row? According to prosecutor Juan Martinez, her 
life was saved thanks to the love of one of the jurors. The Daily Mail reports 
that Martinez is penning a book about the trial that made national headlines 
and the crime the Arizona woman committed. The prosecutor is reported to have 
information in this upcoming book that has never been addressed by media over 
the course of this brutal case.

Martinez says that a juror fell in love with the woman convicted of killing 
Travis Alexander. He alleges that the juror refused to vote for putting Arias 
to death, which ultimately saved her life. Now she's serving a prison sentence 
of natural life, which is known to have angered numerous people who wanted 
justice for Travis. On social media, sentiments against Jodi Arias remain 
nearly a year after she evaded the death penalty.

Jodi Arias reportedly murdered Travis Alexander in an overkill type of slaying 
that rocked media headlines for years. The convicted murderer drove to 
Alexander's home on June 4, 2008. The following day, his body was discovered by 
some of his friends. The man had suffered nearly 30 stab wounds and a gunshot 
to the head. His throat was crudely slashed, and his body was left slumped in 
his shower. The killer told many lies throughout the course of the 
investigation, even going on crime shows and declaring her innocence. 
Ultimately, she confessed to the horrific crime but claimed it was done in 
self-defense. A jury wasn't convinced of this argument since Travis's death was 
so brutal in nature.

Nearly a year later, Jodi Arias is still on the minds of folks who follow 
gruesome crime cases. That's only going to intensify with the book being 
published by the prosecutor of her case. Meanwhile, Jodi's own former attorney 
has published his own tell-all.

Kirk Nurmi writes that he was "forced" to represent the then-accused killer, 
according to the Huffington Post. One quote in particular, written by Nurmi, 
appears to sum up feelings of pure contempt for Arias.

"To fully get a visual of what Ms. Arias did to my brain you would have to find 
some fecal matter, throw it into the pan, add a chopped up dead rat and 
scramble the whole mess up. Once completely cooked this concoction would then 
approximate the effect that Ms. Arias would have on my brain."

So it seems that Arias left a lasting impression on pretty much everyone who 
has encountered her. That evidently includes the juror who reportedly "fell in 
love" with her. It should be noted that at least 1 of the former jurors have 
claimed they are not in love with Arias. Meanwhile, Juan Martinez is not naming 
the juror who reportedly has romantic interests in the murderer. Do you think 
his claims hold any weight, or are they just intended to drum up interest so he 
can sell copies of his book? If a juror did, in fact, fall in love with Jodi 
Arias, would this have any effect on her escaping a death penalty sentence?

(source: inquisitr.com)