[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 13




TEXAS:

Convicted killer faces death penalty in deputy murder case


The sentencing phase was set to begin Tuesday morning in the trial
of Mark Anthony Gonzalez, the man convicted of shooting and killing a sergeant 
with the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.

Gonzalez shot Sgt. Kenneth Vann more than 40 times at an East Side intersection 
more than 4 years ago.

The defense attorney had argued that Gonzalez was drunk, was suffering from a 
head injury and had not eaten prior to the murder. He said the combination of 
those circumstances led Gonzalez to 'black out.'

The jury did not buy that defense, taking only about an hour on Monday to find 
him guilty of capital murder.

He could get the death penalty.

(source: foxsanantonio.com)





FLORIDA:

U.S. justices press Florida over death penalty sentencing


A majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday expressed skepticism about 
Florida's process for death sentences as they weighed the appeal of a man 
convicted of murdering the manager of a Popeye's Fried Chicken restaurant.

Timothy Hurst, whose lawyers describe as mentally disabled with "borderline 
intelligence" and an IQ between 70 and 78, was sentenced to death for the 1998 
murder of a manager at the restaurant in Pensacola where he worked.

Key findings that determined whether he received the death penalty were 
impermissibly made by a judge rather than a jury, Hurst's lawyers argued as the 
high court heard oral arguments in the case.

The Florida procedure violates the right to trial by jury guaranteed under the 
U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment based on a 2001 Supreme Court ruling, his 
lawyers said. The high court said in that ruling that aggravating factors that 
can lead to an enhanced sentence must be determined by juries, not judges.

(source: Reuters)
************

Supreme Court debates Florida death penalty case--Results could affect 
high-profile trail of Bessman Okafor in Orange County


The U.S. Supreme Court is taking up debate Tuesday over a Florida death penalty 
case.

The case before the Supreme Court occurred in Pensacola in 1998. Timothy Lee 
Hurst was convicted of murdering his manager inside a Popeye's restaurant. and 
the jury recommended a death sentence by a 7-5 vote.

Hurt's lawyers argue that their client's rights were violated, because Florida 
is the only state in the country that allows the death penalty with a simple 
majority vote.

Justices will determine whether the death penalty should be enacted if the jury 
does not reach a unanimous decision.

The results could affect another high-profile trial in Orange County. Bessman 
Okafor was found guilty in August of killing a man who was going to testify 
against him in a home invasion trial. As in Hurst's case, the jury's decision 
was not unanimous.

Lawyers in Okafor's case are expected to be back in court Tuesday afternoon to 
continue their final arguments.

(source: clickorlando.com)





LOUISIANA:

Innocent death-row prisoner released with $30 gift card after 30 years

Glenn Ford spent three decades in solitary confinement for a murder he didn’t 
commit.


After 30 years wrongfully imprisoned for murder on death row, Glenn Ford was 
released with a $30 gift card.

Under Louisiana law, Ford was entitled more than $400,000 in compensation for 
the time he spent in solitary confinement at notorious maximum-security 
facility Angola. Instead, he died penniless on the street.

In an astonishing interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes, the prosecutor who convicted 
him said the mistake had ruined both their lives. “I did something that was 
very, very bad,” Marty Stroud told the TV show. “I was arrogant, narcissistic, 
caught up in the culture of winning.”

Stroud, then 32, helped to convict Ford of robbing and murdering jeweller 
Isadore Rozeman, for which he was sentenced to death in 1984. Ford had done 
yard work for Rozeman and was known to be a petty thief. He had even pawned 
some of the stolen jewellery. But was it enough to convict?

No weapon or witness put Ford at the scene. Stroud admitted a number of 
mistakes were made during the case. “There was a question about other people’s 
involvement,” he said. “I should have followed up on that. I think my failure 
to say something can only be described as cowardice. I was a coward.”

Ford’s court-appointed lawyers had no experience of criminal law, with 
backgrounds in wills and estates.

“I snickered from time to time saying … we’re going to get though this case 
pretty quickly,” Stroud said.

There were no African Americans on the jury. “I felt that they would not 
consider a death penalty where you had a black defendant and a white victim,” 
Stroud said. “I was wrong.”

It took the jury less than three hours to find Ford guilty. Afterwards, Stroud 
went out to celebrate with drinks, songs and slaps on the back, a performance 
he now calls “disgusting”.

While Stroud’s career soared after the case, Ford became one of America’s 
longest-serving death-row inmates, locked up alone in cramped conditions and 
often searing temperatures for three decades. At one point, he was a week from 
execution.

But he survived, thanks to a miracle: the real murderer, Jake Robinson, 
confessed to a police informant. A court review found no evidence to show Ford 
had anything to do with the robbery or killing, and he was released last year.

Stroud said he thought he going to be sick when he heard the news.

But it was worse for Ford. He was free, but he had nothing. His $30 gift card 
and good wishes from the prison bought him a meal of fried chicken, fries and 
tea, with $5 change.

Lawyers in the original trial said Ford had known the jewellery store was going 
to be robbed and didn’t report it. The father of four was never charged with 
that crime, but it was enough to refuse him any compensation.

He moved into a home for released prisoners in New Orleans. Soon afterwards, he 
learned he had an aggressive form of lung cancer. For the last few months of 
his life, he survived off charity, and donations covered the funeral.

Ford is one of 10 death-row inmates in Louisiana who have been exonerated, and 
one of 149 freed across the US since the Supreme Court reinstated capital 
punishment in 1976. But Dale Cox, the acting district attorney who secured 
Ford’s release, said he didn’t believe the system had failed, telling 60 
Minutes that prosecutors and lawyers were “not in the compassion business”.

Stroud went to see Ford to apologise, but he didn’t get forgiveness, and he’s 
not sure he would have given it in the same situation. Three weeks before he 
died in a hospice in June, 65-year-old Ford said of Stroud: “He didn’t only 
take from me, he took from my whole family.”

It’s the mistake the prosecutor will regret forever. It’s he who now has the 
life sentence.

(source: news.com.au)