[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., ALA., OHIO, TENN., NEB.

[Rick Halperin]

April 1



FLORIDA:

Florida's Death-Penalty Law Favored on Appeal


A Florida appeals panel reversed a lower court and ruled that the state's 
pending prosecution of death-penalty cases can continue after a new sentencing 
law went into effect this month.

The state of Florida brought consolidated case to its Fifth District Court of 
Appeals after a lower court sided with two accused murderers, who argued the 
state cannot pursue the death penalty after the U.S. Supreme Court in January 
struck down the Florida law that allowed judges to override juries in imposing 
the death penalty. The trial court agreed.

The Supreme Court's decision in Hurst v. Florida found Florida's sentencing 
scheme violated the Sixth Amendment's right to trial by jury. After the ruling, 
as executions were put on hold, state legislators scrambled to fix the law.

Lawmakers accomplished the task earlier this month and Florida Gov. Rick Scott 
signed into law the new sentencing guidelines, which require at least 10 jurors 
to decide a death sentence and prevent a judge from overruling their decision.

Since the new guidelines already took effect, the appeals court ruled March 16 
that the Supreme Court decision only applied to the process of handing down a 
death penalty, not the penalty itself.

The 2 defendants in the consolidated case - Larry Darnell Perry and William 
Theodore Woodward - could now face lethal injection.

Perry, 31, allegedly beat his 2-month-old son to death and Woodward, 47, is 
accused of shooting 2 of his neighbors to death. When prosecutors said they 
intended to seek the death penalty, the 2 men argued Florida did not have a 
constitutional death penalty.

But the appeals court disagreed.

"We believe that Hurst's holding is narrow and based solely on the court's 
determination that the 'Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find 
each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death,'" Judge Richard Orfinger 
wrote for a 3-judge panel. "Thus, we have no difficulty in concluding that 
Hurst struck down the process of imposing a sentence of death, not the penalty 
itself."

However, the panel of 3 judges did certify a question to the Florida Supreme 
Court that may ultimately need an answer as more appeals filter through the 
courts: "Did Hurst v. Florida declare Florida's death penalty 
unconstitutional?"

(source: Courthouse News)

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

Death Penalty Sought For Man Accused Of Bahamian's Murder


Florida prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a man accused of brutally 
murdering a Bahamian woman by burying her alive in concrete a decade ago.

The case of 22-year-old Darice Knowles, a college student and 2004 Miss Bahamas 
Universe contestant, is back in the courts after her then-boyfriend Christopher 
Pratt pleaded guilty to her murder in the city of Cocoa in 2010.

According to Florida Today, prosecutors claim that 37-year-old Vahtiece Alfonzo 
Kirkman kidnapped and killed Knowles with help from Pratt. Kirkman is already 
serving a life sentence for his role in the 2006 robbery-related shooting death 
of 29-year-old Willie Parker in Cocoa. Prosecutors believe that Kirkman killed 
Knowles because he suspected that she was giving information to police about 
his involvement in Parker's death.

"Jurors will hear from several witnesses who will detail how Knowles travelled 
from her home in the Bahamas to visit friends in Cocoa," Florida Today 
reported.

"She was staying with Pratt when she went missing a short time later in March 
2006, authorities said."

Family members reported Knowles missing but the murder case went cold until 
police received a tip four years later. Pratt confessed to killing the college 
student and took police to a site off State Road 524 where the victim was 
duct-taped and then covered in concrete while she was still alive.

The report continued: "Police said that before the burial, Kirkman beat Darice 
and tied her up in the back seat of a gold Dodge van while he asked friends to 
give him a ride to a home improvement store to buy a shovel, pre-mixed concrete 
and duct tape, reports show. That van, a rental leased out to Pratt, was later 
set on fire and abandoned."

It continued: "Police cleared away more than an acre of land, using city work 
crews and heavy equipment to search for what would turn out to be Knowles' body 
entombed in 4 foot-deep hole packed with concrete and dirt.

"Detectives first found a lump of soft concrete in a patch of overgrown brush 
and then 2 small bones at what later was determined to be the site where 
Knowles' remains were cast in concrete."

According to the report, forensic investigators removed over 1,600 cubic feet 
of dirt from the site and had an anthropologist examine Knowles' remains to 
determine just how long she had been buried.

"Pratt has offered to testify against Kirkman.

On Facebook, a memorial page is still active where friends and family members 
leave birthday wishes and reflect on the young college student's beautiful 
smile and positive attitude.

(source: tribune242.com)






ALABAMA:

Alabama Supreme Court refuses to review death row inmate's innocence claim


The Alabama Supreme Court this morning said it won't review the claims of 
innocence of death row inmate William "Bill" Kuenzel, who was convicted in the 
1987 shooting death of a Sylacauga convenience store clerk during a robbery.

Kuenzel, who has been on death row since 1988, has gained support for his 
claims of innocence from a group of lawyers, former district attorneys, 
ministers, and actors, including Law & Order actor Sam Waterston. The group 
filed a brief supporting Kuenzel's innocence and request for a new trial to the 
Alabama Supreme Court in November.

Kuenzel's execution had been called off early last year.

Sam Waterston, who played district attorney Jack McCoy in the television 
series, said the issue of someone being wrongfully convicted had played out on 
Law & Order. "In Billy Kuenzel's case it isn't make believe and a man's life is 
at stake," he said.

In a brief order, 7 justices of the justice were in the majority Friday to 
reject Kuenzel's request for a writ of certiorari - or review of the case. 
Chief Justice Roy Moore and Justice Glenn Murdock dissented.

Moore wrote an 11-page opinion as to why the court should have granted a 
review.

Moore stated that the main witness in the shooting death of clerk Linda Offord 
was Harvey Venn, with whom Kuenzel shared a residence.

Venn, who pleaded guilty as an accomplice to the murder, testified that Kuenzel 
suggested robbing the store, Moore's opinion states. Venn owned a 1984 Buick 
Regal automobile, which a number of witnesses testified to seeing at the store 
the night of the murder with Venn in the driver's seat and an unidentified man 
in the front passenger seat, he wrote.

Venn testified that he sat in the car while Kuenzel went inside the convenience 
store with a 16-gauge shotgun. Venn heard a shot and saw the clerk fall 
backwards, Moore wrote in his opinion.

A 16-year-old witness also testified she was riding in a car past the store 
abouty an hour before the murder and that she saw Venn and Kuenzel inside the 
store. Without her identification, the evidence was insufficient to convict 
Kuenzel because state law requires that accomplice testimony be corroborated.

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals on direct appeal found the girl's 
corroboration testimony adequate to satisfy state law, Moore stated.

"I question whether the corroboration evidence was sufficient to satisfy the 
statute," Moore wrote.

The methodology for testing corroboration evidence is first to eliminate the 
accomplice's testimony and then to see if all the other evidence is sufficient 
to connect the defendant with the commission of the crime, Moore wrote.

Leaving out Venn's testimony, the only evidence presented to this Court tending 
to connect Kuenzel to the murder is the 16-year-old girl's drive-by sighting of 
Venn and Kuenzel in the store an hour or more before the crime, Moore state.

"Though one might speculate from this evidence that Kuenzel was involved in the 
crime, the sighting is also consistent with his innocence," Moore wrote.

The girl's testimony "in the absence of Venn's testimony, tends neither to 
incriminate nor to exonerate Kuenzel, Moore wrote.

Being in the company of an accomplice in proximity in time and place to the 
commission of a crime is not always sufficient corroboration to meet the 
requirements of Alabama law, Moore wrote.

"One's presence in a convenience store at 9:30-10:00 p.m. is not of itself 
unusual. Although connecting Kuenzel to the place of the crime, his presence 
there does not connect him to the crime itself or the time of its occurrence, 
which was after 11:00 p.m.," Moore wrote.

Moore, however, notes that regardless of the weakness of the corroboration 
evidence, that issue is not what the court can consider because it had been 
brought up on a previous appeal.

Instead, Kuenzel argues that he wishes to present "newly discovered material 
facts," that require reversal of his conviction, Moore wrote.

Missed deadlines

The evidence Kuenzel says is new evidence is that grand-jury testimony of the 
16-year-old girl, first disclosed in 2010, indicates she could not identify 
Kuenzel as the man she saw in the convenience store the night of the murder, 
Moore states. Because the discovery of that evidence occurred more than 2 
decades after Kuenzel's conviction, his only procedural route for bringing that 
evidence before the circuit court for a hearing was a new petition filed within 
6 months of discovery of that evidence, he stated.

Kuenzel filed his current petition in September 2013, long past the 6-month 
filing deadline, Moore stated. That deadline, however, under extraordinary 
circumstances may be disregarded, he wrote.

Kuenzel argued he had found out about the testimony transcripts while he was 
litigating an appeal in federal court. The Court of Criminal Appeals, 
perceiving no reason why Kuenzel could not file his second petition while his 
federal case was proceeding, affirmed the circuit court's finding that the 
petition was untimely.

"Ordinarily, that would be the end of the matter. Because of the 
irreversibility of the death penalty, however, I believe some leeway may be 
warranted in this case," Moore stated.

Kuenzel also claims that he became aware of other exonerating evidence at 
around that same time, Moore states.

"A significant consideration, I believe, in assessing the equities in this 
matter is that Kuenzel's 1st Rule 32 petition, filed in 1993, was never heard 
on the merits because of another missed deadline," Moore wrote. "Kuenzel's 
attorney at that time apparently measured the time for filing his 1st Rule 32 
petition from the denial of a petition for the writ of certiorari by the United 
States Supreme Court rather than by this court."

Ultimately the trial court dismissed that petition as being filed too late and 
as a result a hearing has never been held on the evidence in the case, Moore 
stated.

Kuenzel subsequently litigated his claims in federal court, but, because of the 
procedural default in state court, had to meet the high burden of demonstrating 
that it is more likely than not that no reasonable juror would have found 
Kuenzel guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, Moore wrote.

"Because Kuenzel, a death-row inmate, has never had an opportunity to present 
his post-conviction claims on the merits in any Alabama court and because the 2 
procedural defaults may not have arisen from a lack of diligence on his part in 
pursuing his claims, but from unfortunate errors of counsel, I would grant 
Kuenzel's petition for a writ of certiorari to examine whether he qualified for 
equitable tolling of the six-month filing deadline for presenting newly 
discovered evidence," Moore wrote.

(source: al.com)






OHIO:

Ohio report shows continued death sentence drop, 1 last year


An annual report on capital punishment in Ohio says 1 person was condemned to 
die last year.

Friday's report from Attorney General Mike DeWine says a total of 324 death 
sentences have been handed down under the state's 1981 law.

The report reflects a continued drop in death sentences in Ohio as prosecutors 
file fewer cases and juries choose the option of life without parole. It also 
comes at a time when Ohio doesn't have any lethal drugs.

No executions are scheduled this year.

The report says 53 inmates have been executed since 1999. 19 have had their 
sentences reduced to prison time and 27 have died before execution.

Ohio has 142 active death penalty cases, including James Conway of Columbus, 
who received two death sentences for different slayings.

(source: Associated Press)






TENNESSEE:

Dickson death row inmate's sentence now life in prison


A Dickson man on death row for the 1995 murder of Virginia Jackson had his 
sentenced commuted this week to life in prison without parole.

Jerry Ray Davidson, 72, of Dickson, was re-sentenced to life in prison, plus 20 
years for kidnapping, Wednesday in Dickson County Circuit Court after he and 
prosecutors reportedly agreed to a compromise that ended the appellate process.

District Attorney General Ray Crouch stated in a press release that Wednesday's 
"conviction brings finality to the case;" and at age 72, Davidson probably 
wouldn't live to the conclusion of another appellate process if a new 
sentencing hearing occurred.

The Tennessee Supreme Court overturned Davidson's death sentence in 2014 due to 
his ineffective counsel during the original sentencing hearing in 1997. The 
Court remanded the case to Dickson County Circuit Court for a new sentencing 
hearing.

Crouch stated he and the family "believe (Davidson) deserves the death 
penalty," but "many" of the prosecution's witnesses have died since the initial 
trial and sentencing hearing.

"Today's verdict terminates the appellate process and assures the family and 
community that Jerry Ray Davidson will remain incarcerated within the Tennessee 
Department of Corrections until his natural death," Crouch said in the release.

Crouch's office also included an "impact statement" from Jackson's daughter, 
Jennifer Koch Law on behalf of the victim's family.

Law wrote she and her family are "in full support" of "the plea agreement" for 
a life sentence for Davidson, but they "believe" the initial death sentence was 
"just and appropriate."

"Only the practical circumstances which would make the defendant unlikely to 
live long enough to receive the death sentence, cause us to ask you to enforce 
the new sentence of Life without parole, plus 20 years," Law penned in her 
statement.

Law stated Davidson's life sentence will "never" equate to justice.

"I want every wakening moment left of his sentence to be as miserable as 
possible for Jerry Davidson and I also believe that he will receive his just 
punishment in the end," Law wrote. "Our mother, Virginia Jackson, the victim, 
will never be forgotten."

THE CASE, SUPREME COURT RULING

A bartender said she last saw Jackson Sept. 26, 1995 at Bronco's bar in Lyles, 
and Jackson accepted a ride from Davidson, a convicted sex offender. Jackson's 
body was found nude and decapitated in a shallow grave weeks later along the 
Dickson-Houston county line.

Jackson was sister of former Dickson County Juvenile Court Judge Andy Jackson, 
and the cousin of former state Rep. Doug Jackson, who later sponsored a bill to 
put convicted sex offenders' information on the Internet.

Davidson told police he gave the 43-year-old mother of two a ride to the Kroger 
grocery store in Dickson, then went on a long camping trip.

Investigators found a campsite about half a mile from the grave with items they 
said belonged to Jackson and Davidson, including a couple of Davidson's 
auto-teller bank receipts and Jackson's purse and brush. Men's underwear, 
shorts and a lady's hair clip were found near the grave.

The Tennessee Supreme Court filed a ruling in November 2014 that described how 
Davidson's attorneys had evidence that he "suffered from severe lifelong 
cognitive impairment and personality disorders and that he was predisposed to 
sexual violence."

His attorneys did not present the jury with "psychological mitigation evidence" 
during the trial, the Court brief stated.

According to The Herald archives, a judge appointed Mike Love and Collier 
Goodlett to represent Davidson lead defense counsel Tommy Overton was deemed to 
insufficient courtroom experience with death penalty cases.

Overton was appointed to represent Davidson after the local public defender's 
office reported a conflict of interest due to an association with the victim's 
brother who was a Dickson County judge, the archives show.

Justice William C. Koch Jr. described the available mitigating evidence, which 
he described as "voluminous and compelling," related to Davidson's purported 
mental illness in a majority opinion for the Court.

Koch wrote about mental health records from the Tennessee Department of 
Correction that "painted a dim picture" of Davidson's mental health and social 
and family history.

Koch also recalled how Davidson spent 27 days at Middle Tennessee Mental Health 
Institute before the original trial, where the staff acknowledged his mental 
illness and social history, but determined his competency to stand trial for 
premeditated murder.

Davidson's counsel hired a mitigation specialist and a neuropsychologist to 
evaluate Davidson, and both "expressed concern" about not enough time to study 
and prepare their reports, Koch wrote.

(source: The Tennessean)






NEBRASKA:

Murder Victim Family Member Speaking Out


Christy Sheppard, a murder victim family member and advocate for death penalty 
abolition is visiting in Nebraska.

Ms. Sheppard's cousin was murdered in Oklahoma in 1982. 5 years later, the 
state convicted 2 men of the crime, sentencing 1 to life imprisonment and the 
other to death. Sheppard believed in the system that put these 2 men behind 
bars. Her perceptions of a just and fair system were shattered after DNA 
evidence proved their innocence 11 years later.

(source: KNOP news)