[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., FLA., ALA., MISS., OHIO, MO., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 23




NORTH CAROLINA----female may face death penalty

Greensboro woman charged with murder of toddler appears in court


A woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter was told Monday in 
Guilford County District Court that she could face the death penalty.

Cherelle Marie Rhoden, 25, of 3809 Overland Heights is charged with 1st-degree 
murder of a child younger than 2 years old and intentional child abuse causing 
serious bodily injury in the death of ZeNobya Latrice Rhoden, who died on May 
8, 2015.

Rhoden is also an absconder from probation and parole, according to the N.C. 
Department of Correction's website. She was on probation for a May 2014 
conviction in Guilford County for willful or wanton injury to real property and 
2nd-degree trespass.

In court on Monday, District Court Judge Angela Foster told Rhoden that she was 
facing life in prison without parole or the death penalty on the murder charge.

(source: Fox news)






FLORIDA:

Jacksonville mother takes fight against death penalty to Tallahassee


A Jacksonville mother is in Tallahassee Tuesday to continue her fight against 
the death penalty.

Darlene Farah wants the man accused of killing her daughter, Shelby, to not 
die.

Darlene Farah walked into the State Attorney's Office Thursday afternoon with 
her son Caleb, their victim's advocate and her attorney. She had 1 thing on her 
mind. "I want to focus on the healing process. I'm tired," Farah said.

James Rhodes, 24, is accused of killing Shelby at a Metro PCS store where she 
worked in 2013. Darlene Farah will meet with lawmakers and advocate for 
legislation requiring a unanimous jury verdict in death penalty cases.

Darlene Farah has been asking the State Attorney's Office to let her daughter's 
alleged killer serve a life term. The request has been refused.

"He's been ready to plea out 2 life sentences and 20 years it would be over 
with," Darlene Farah said.

The State Attorney's Office sent a statement that reads in part, "The State is 
still seeking the death penalty in this case. Due to this being a pending 
matter, it would be inappropriate to comment further."

The State Attorney's Office also said the case is set for a hearing on 
Wednesday to address the various motions filed by the defense.

(source: actionnewsjax.com)






ALABAMA:

Bill would create commission to examine felony convictions


A Senate committee plans a hearing Wednesday on a bill that could establish a 
new commission to investigate felony convictions in certain cases, and impose a 
year-long moratorium on capital punishment in Alabama.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Dick Brewbaker, R-Montgomery, would create an 
Innocence Inquiry Commission within the state court system. The commission 
could review cases where there was "some credible, verifiable evidence of 
innocence" that was not present at trial or during sentencing hearings.

If the commission finds sufficient evidence of innocence in a case, Alabama's 
Chief Justice would convene a 3-judge panel in the judicial circuit where the 
conviction took place to hear the evidence. The panel could vacate some or all 
of the charges against the accused on a unanimous vote.

Though the bill is not specific to death penalty cases, Brewbaker said last 
week it aimed to ensure fairness in the capital punishment process.

"I'm in favor of the death penalty," he said. "I think for people who 
absolutely refuse to live at peace with their neighbors, the death penalty is 
the only appropriate remedy. That said, the death penalty process needs to have 
all the integrity you can give it to make sure you don't execute people who are 
innocent."

Alabama has put 57 people to death since executions resumed in the state in 
1983. But capital punishment in Alabama faces legal challenges, and, recently, 
shortages of supplies of the drugs used for executions. The state went nearly 2 
1/2 years without an execution before Christopher Brooks was put to death on 
Jan. 21 for the 1992 rape, murder, and robbery of Jo Deann Campbell.

The bill, if passed, would bring a halt to executions in the state until June 
1, 2017. Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, who has pushed for an overall moratorium 
on capital punishment, said Monday he would prefer that extended to a 3-year 
stoppage, but said he would support the bill if it came to a vote.

"What Sen. Brewbaker is doing is a step toward fairness and justice," he said. 
"I think it needs to go a lot of further, but it's a step toward fairness and 
justice."

But Janette Grantham, executive director of VOCAL, a crime victims' rights 
group, opposed the moratorium. Grantham said Monday it would affect all the 
pending executions set by the state.

"I think the other issues can be worked out," she said. "The moratorium affects 
all of them. There's quite a few them where there's no doubt they're guilty. 
It's not fair keeping victims waiting 30 years for a little piece of justice."

The commission would not have to review cases brought to it. Generally, at 
least 5 of the 8 members would need to vote to review a case to allow it to go 
to the panel. If the defendant pleaded guilty, all eight members would have to 
vote to move the case forward.

The commission's proceedings and deliberations would not be open to the public.

Brewbaker said the commission would consider new evidence, not raise procedural 
questions, as happens in the post-conviction appeals process known as Rule 32.

"It is not a not guilty commission," he said. "It's an innocence commission. 
You can't raise a Rule 32 issue and think this commission is going to let you 
off."

Texas and North Carolina created similar commissions, Brewbaker said. North 
Carolina's found evidence that led to the 2014 release of Henry McCollum and 
Leon Brown, 2 half-brothers convicted in 1984 of the rape and murder of an 
11-year-old girl. The commission discovered DNA evidence from a cigarette butt 
at the crime scene linking the murder to another man, according to the Raleigh 
News & Observer. But Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty 
Information Center, an anti-death penalty group based in Washington, said 
Monday these commissions "do not come close to exonerating everyone who's 
innocent."

"When you have eyewitnesses coerced into giving false identifications, or 
informants who lie to gain favor for themselves, it is often extraordinarily 
difficult for an innocent person to do anything more than establish doubt about 
their reliability," he said. "People who have been wrongly convicted as a 
result of that type of evidence are frequently left out in the cold by the high 
procedural hurdles these commissions sometimes establish. And they often find 
it extraordinarily difficult to prove their innocence in the state and federal 
courts."

Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, has signed on as co-sponsor, as 
have Democrats Rodger Smitherman of Birmingham and Vivian Davis Figures of 
Mobile.

(source: Montgomery Advertiser)






MISSISSIPPI:

Man freed from Mississippi death row: 'Racism is still around'


After 23 years in prison and 5 years on Mississippi's death row for murder, 
Gary Griffin is a free man.But he admitted he is not innocent.

Gary Griffin and his lawyer, Ken Rose, senior staff attorney for the Center for 
Death Penalty Litigation, spoke Monday as part of the "Race, Innocence and the 
End of the Death Penalty' lecture series.

"Today, racism is still around," Griffin said in an interview. "We see that 
with police shootings, gerrymandering, red lining of housing, so it seemed like 
we were worse off in 2016 than we was in 1985. We haven't made any progress."

Griffin said students are vital to the change he said society needs to see.

"It was the student movements of the '50s, the '60s and '70s that brought about 
change," he said. "And we gonna need you guys to bring about change this time."

Griffin said he wanted others to become passionate about social change after 
hearing his lecture.

"I speak to inspire others to stand up, to reevaluate their values and their 
opinions of what they see in front of them," he said. Political science 
professor Frank Baumgartner said this lecture series has a theme of injustice 
in crime and punishment. The series is hosted by Baumgartner's class of the 
same name and the political science department.

"The entire series is about the issues related to innocence, racial disparities 
in the criminal justice system, the death penalty in particular and whether the 
death penalty is really something that is worth it," he said.

Baumgartner said the lecture was important to his class, but he said that was 
not the only reason he hosted it.

"I think that the people that come in with these personal stories can convey to 
the students in a way that I could never do," he said.

Baumgartner said he respects different opinions on capital punishment.

"I am personally opposed to it in the absolute because I do not believe in 
killing. However, I understand that other people differ on that," he said. "I 
think what we can agree on is whether the system is worth the administrative 
problems, and I think that's where we can reach common grounds on the facts and 
evidence."

Rose said the lecture was about more than the death penalty.

"It's about prison (and) mass incarceration," Rose said in an interview. "It's 
about the death penalty. It's about the focus of society on incarceration over 
education, over childhood welfare, over other things we could be spending our 
resources on that would have a greater impact on the health and welfare of many 
of our population."

Griffin said he was well aware he could not undo the wrongs he has done.

"If I can't help anybody, then I am surely not going to hurt them," he said.

(source: The Daily Tar Heel)






OHIO:

Opponents Hopeful Pope's Calls to End Death Penalty Resonate in 
Ohio----Executions are on hold in Ohio until 2017 as prison officials search 
for the necessary lethal injection drugs.


Death penalty opponents are hopeful the pope's calls to stop the use of capital 
punishment worldwide will resonate in Ohio, where executions have been highly 
criticized. After a 2007 assessment found Ohio fell short in 93 % of standards 
for a fair and accurate state death penalty system, an Ohio Supreme Court task 
force put forth recommendations for improvement.

Abraham Bonowitz, spokesperson for Ohioans to Stop Executions, explains that 
since then, more Ohioans support the alternative of life in prison without 
parole. And because Pope Francis is a moral leader for the world, says 
Bonowitz, his calls should be heard.

"We've got many, many Catholics here and many Catholics in leadership, in the 
legislature for example," he says. "And what we have to realize is that all of 
the mainstream Christian faiths and other religions as well call for ending the 
death penalty."

Ohio has a moratorium on executions until at least 2017, as prison officials 
attempt to secure the drugs needed for lethal injection. Of more than 140 
death-row inmates in Ohio, 25 have a set execution date starting early next 
year.

Controversy grew over the death penalty in Ohio in 2014, when Dennis McGuire 
appeared to choke and struggle for 10 minutes during lethal injection. The 
state contends he did not suffer distress, and has said it plans to increase 
dosages in the future. Andrea Koverman, program manager with the Intercommunity 
Justice and Peace Center in Cincinnati, says the incident opened many people's 
eyes.

"More and more people are questioning the practice, not only from moral 
principles but because of its ineffectiveness and the expense of it all," says 
Koverman. "And people are realizing it has not been an effective deterrent."

Recent research from the University of North Carolina found significant racial, 
gender, and geographic disparities in the 53 executions performed in Ohio since 
the state resumed capital punishment in the 1970s. Bonowitz contends an 
alternative punishment is needed in order to ensure a fair system.

"It's one thing to believe in the concept of the death penalty, but if you look 
at it and understand how the system fails us - it's not fair, it's not 
equitably applied," says Bonowitz. "The more you know about the death penalty, 
the less you like it."

According to Ohioans to Stop Executions, 9 death row inmates have been 
exonerated, spending a combined 190 years on death row before release.

(source: publicnewsservice.org)






MISSOURI:

Worst of the Worst Deserve the Ultimate Penalty


This week marks the 2-year anniversary since little Hailey Owens was kidnapped 
outside her home and then raped and murdered at a home in Springfield. That 
crime is a reminder of what unimaginable cruelty and evil some people in our 
society are capable of. Unfortunately, cases like Hailey's play out all over 
the country all too often.

As we look back at Hailey's case and so many other heinous crimes that have 
been committed against our neighbors and fellow citizens, it is an appropriate 
time to revisit the issue of the death penalty and its use as a necessary and 
fair punishment.

The death penalty is 1 of the most hotly debated and emotionally charged issues 
this country has faced over the last half-century. This debate usually takes 
the form of hypothetical arguments and a long list of what-ifs. The problem 
with these debates over the death penalty is that they miss the most important 
point: the victims. There have been 1,427 executions since 1976 and a 
conservative estimate of the victims of those murderers exceeds 2,000. That's 
2,000 people who will never spend another moment with their children, will 
never know their grandchildren, and will never have another chance to hold 
their spouse in their arms. They were violently ripped from this world while 
their families were left to cope with the horrible crime committed against 
their loved one. At the same time, their murderers spent decades eating 3 
square meals a day, receiving free healthcare, and reading and writing their 
days away.

Is that fair? Is that justice? Is it justice for a victim's family to never 
receive closure? Is it fair for a criminal, guilty of the most heinous acts one 
can commit, to live out their days while the victim's life is literally taken 
and their families' lives are figuratively taken?

Last week, the Missouri Senate debated a bill, Senate Bill 816, which would 
repeal Missouri's death penalty. Proponents of the bill started out by arguing 
that the death penalty is not an effective deterrent and cited studies to try 
to back it up. But, they failed to recognize a few important points. Given that 
1 in 6 of the people sentenced to death in the last 35 years have actually been 
executed, no studies properly looked at whether the fact so few are actually 
executed reduces the deterrent effect. Furthermore, the death penalty is a 100 
% effective deterrent when actually carried out. That criminal will never take 
another life. That may sound tough but what should we tell the family of Boris 
Naumoff of California. His killer, Robert Massie, previously murdered a mother 
of 2 during a follow-home robbery. Hours before execution, a stay was issued so 
Massie could testify against his accomplice. Massie's sentence was commuted to 
life when the Supreme Court halted executions in 1972. Receiving an undeserved 
2nd chance, Massie was paroled and 8 months later robbed and murdered Naumoff.

Proponents then argued that public opinion is shifting and that Americans are 
turning against the death penalty. Their claims are just flat-out wrong. Even 
with an energetic public campaign and the media and pundits aiding efforts, an 
October 2011 Gallup poll showed that 61 % of Americans still support the death 
penalty, while a 2003 Zogby poll found that over 66 % of Missourians supported 
the death penalty. In a country as divided as ours, 60 % support of the death 
penalty is about as solid as it gets.

We can have a worthwhile conversation about how the death penalty is applied or 
whether it is an effective deterrent, but this is not what opponents of the 
death penalty are seeking. They want a wholesale repeal and ban that ignores 
the nature and motivation of these terrible crimes and that ignores what these 
criminals did to their victims and what is still happening to their families. 
To put this issue in perspective, it's estimated that there are over 14,000 
murders a year, while only 28 convicted murderers were executed last year. This 
proves that the death penalty is truly for the worst of the worst. The people 
of Missouri and the 29th District have continually voiced their strong support 
of the death penalty and I took that voice to the Senate floor last week as I 
spoke out against SB 816 and, along with my colleagues, ensured that it will 
not become law this year. We owe it to Hailey Owens and the thousands of 
victims and their families to stand our ground.

As always, I welcome your ideas, questions and concerns about Missouri 
government. You may contact me at the State Capitol as follows: (573) 751-1480, 
david.sater at senate.mo.gov or by writing to Sen. David Sater, Missouri State 
Capitol, Room 419, Jefferson City, MO 65101. (source: Column; Sen. David Sater, 
R-Cassville----Missouri Times)






CALIFORNIA:

Death penalty still on the table for Noonkester


A Cottonwood man who is possibly facing the death penalty for the deaths of his 
ex-wife and her father reaffirmed his innocence Monday in Tehama County 
Superior Court.

Tehama County District Attorney Gregg Cohen told a Superior Court judge Monday 
afternoon that his office is still weighing whether to seek the death penalty 
against double-murder defendant John Wayne Noonkester, 32.

Cohen said his office is continuing to review the issue and talking with the 
family of the victims before finally determining how to proceed.

Noonkester, who reentered his not guilty plea during a brief appearance in 
court, is not scheduled to return until May 16.

Superior Court Judge C. Todd Bottke said he will set a trial date for 
Noonkester at that time unless a resolution is reached in the case.

Redding defense attorney Joe Gazzigli said after court he hopes a resolution 
can be reached, saying it's his wish the DA's office doesn't seek the death 
penalty against his client.

But if it does, Gazzigli said, he would have no other choice than to take the 
case to trial.

"It's (the death penalty) still on the table," Gazzigli said.

Noonkester, who was ordered last month to stand trial on 2 counts of 1st-degree 
murder and other charges, is accused of murdering his ex-wife, Kimberlee 
Thomas, 29, and her father, Keith Thomas, 53, during a July 3 shooting rampage 
outside the Little Country Store in Lake California.

Tehama County Sheriff's Detective Eric Patterson testified at Noonkester's 
preliminary hearing last month that Noonkester fired at least 10 rounds, 
shooting Kimberlee Thomas twice, including once while she was lying on the 
ground.

Her father, who was Noonkester's 1st victim, was also shot as he was lying on 
the ground, including one shot to the head.

Sheriff's deputies have said the shooting erupted outside the store after 
Kimberlee Thomas called 911 to report that her ex-husband and the father of 
their 2 young children had punched her father.

Although a possible motive behind the shooting was not raised at the 
preliminary hearing, electronic court records show that Noonkester had been 
involved in a dispute with his ex-wife over the custody of their 2 children 
after she had filed for divorce earlier that year.

In addition to murder, Noonkester is charged with attempted murder in the 
wounding of bystander Anthony Maitias Baugher, then 25, of Cottonwood.

Noonkester is being held in Tehama County Jail without bail.

(source: Record Searchlight)

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

Local murder prompts death penalty verdict


Nearly 5 years after a Moreno Valley man was shot dead during a home invasion 
robbery, a Riverside jury decided that a 40-year-old resident of that city 
should be executed for his role in the slaying.

Romaine Ulyses Martin is scheduled to be sentenced April 22 in Riverside 
Superior Court for the 2011 gang-related murder of Jerry Mitchell Jr. in the 
victim's Carnation Lane condominium.

Co-defendant Deontray Robinson is scheduled to return to court Tuesday, Feb. 
23, to set a date for him to face a new penalty phase of his trial after his 
previous jury deadlocked Nov. 13 on whether he should be executed or imprisoned 
for life without the possibility of parole.

(source: Press-Enterprise)






USA:

Inconsistent executions make death penalty unjust


I've read the stories. The horrific tales of helpless, innocent people - many 
of them women and children - tortured and killed by sociopaths in manners 
inconceivable to any decent human mind. As a society, we often attempt to 
understand these killers' psychology, their impetus for mortal violence. But 
more often than not, we are left in a quandary submitting to the notion that 
such brutality is beyond the grasp of our moral understandings. What is not 
beyond our collective reasoning is the acknowledgment that these killers 
deserve the same fate as their victims - a death sentence. It is not my opinion 
that this reflexive desire for definitive retribution demonstrates any moral 
shortcomings. People who commit crimes deserve a befitting punishment for their 
crimes, and we, as a community of people, are responsible for delivering these 
punishments in the interest of protecting a moral harmony that upholds our 
communities. Moreover, most of us understand that punishments cannot be 
delivered indiscreetly, and that there needs to be a proportionality to our 
method: A killer of innocent children is more aptly punished by death than 3 
months in jail. The dilemma we face in our country is not our innate idea of 
proportional punishment. It is the fact that our historically flawed and 
immensely complicated society, including our judicial system, makes it 
impossible to deliver death to those who deserve it in a consistently just 
manner.

Though it might be a matter of regional zeitgeists, how can we justify the 
disturbingly lopsided reality that roughly 2 % of all counties in America are 
accountable for the majority of all executions? Can we justify it by pointing 
to the dictum that punishing brutal crimes like murder with death acts as the 
most effective and formidable deterrence? And therefore, should we naturally 
expect these regions with a high propensity to execute to also have the lowest 
rates of murders? The reality is quite the opposite. Since 1976, the South 
overwhelmingly leads the rest of the country in number of executions with 1,147 
(Texas and Oklahoma alone are responsible for 639). The murder rate in the 
South was 5.5 per 100,000 persons in 2014, the highest in the entire country. 
In contrast, the Northeast had the lowest number of executions in the country 
with 4 per 100,000 persons, yet had the lowest murder rate with 3.3. So as a 
matter of ultimate deterrence, the statistics fail to support what seems 
apparently intuitive.

The question that might remain in some people's minds is, "What if we were able 
to prove a murderer's guilt beyond the most reasonable doubts?" What if we 
fine-tune the standards of our criminal justice system and the way we 
prosecute? Will we then be able to bring the death penalty with indisputable 
confidence to murderers? Once again, this aspiration is not consistent with 
reality. Since 1973, 150 people on death row have been exonerated with evidence 
of their innocence. This is not a small number, and to think that it is would 
be devaluing innocent life. And this 150 merely represents the cases that were 
actually given the chance to be re-evaluated and have light shone on the 
missteps of sloppy defending and corrupt prosecuting. Bryan Stevenson of the 
Equal Justice Initiative portrayed several such cases through tense and 
heart-wrenching accounts in his book, "Just Mercy." Stevenson's imperative work 
highlights the pathology in the criminal justice system, namely, but not 
exclusive to the South, where trials play out like a lock and key situation - 
hastily convict a man to pacify the public, often with racial motives - secure 
the lock and throw away the key. It's truly a "buried alive" type of scenario. 
Race and lower socioeconomic status are egregiously intertwined with the death 
penalty. To suggest otherwise is blatant ignorance of the facts. Multiple 
studies show that race of the accused and the victim play a prominent role in 
determination of the death penalty. In a study reviewing influence of race and 
the death penalty, 96 percent revealed a pattern.

The suggestion that the death penalty is unviable in this country is not an 
admission that our society is incapable of weighing and acknowledging crimes 
that ought to be punished by death. It is our proven history of judicial 
fallibility and deliberate unfairness with administering these punishments that 
render the death penalty not only unviable, but also cruel and unusual.

(source: Commentary; Matthew Man is a Rutgers College Class of 2003 
alumnus----The Daily Targum)