[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., OHIO, ARK., NEB., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 29



TEXAS:

Man accused of tossing wife off bridge will face death penalty trial


Tarrant County prosecutors will seek the death penalty against the man accused 
of kidnapping his wife and killing her by throwing her body from the Lake Worth 
bridge in April.

Rodolfo Montes "Rudy" Arellano, 34, of Fort Worth, is accused of kidnapping 
Elizabeth Pule Arellano and tying a rope that was attached to concrete around 
her neck and throwing her off the bridge.

He remains in the Tarrant County jail with bond set at $500,000 on the capital 
murder charge, jail records show.

The Tarrant County district attorney's office filed a notice of intent to seek 
the death penalty on Sept. 16, records show.

The last person to get the death penalty in Tarrant County was Cedric Ricks of 
Bedford, who was convicted in 2014 for killing his girlfriend and her 
8-year-old son. He remains on death row.

Fishermen on a Lake Worth dock had called 911 at 3:20 a.m. April 16 - some 10 
hours before Elizabeth Arellano, a 28-year-old mother of four, was reported 
missing - after seeing what appeared to be a person falling from the bridge 
across Loop 820.

When the Fire Department's swift-water rescue team pulled the woman's body from 
the water, Elizabeth Arellano's body was still clad in maroon scrubs she wore 
as a medical assistant.

10 days after her disappearance and death, police arrested her estranged 
husband on a capital murder warrant.

Family members say the couple had been sweethearts at Diamond Hill-Jarvis High 
School and had been together 13 years. The couple recently separated, however, 
and Elizabeth Arellano had planned to divorce him.

Arellano told homicide detectives that he last saw his wife 2 days before she 
died and that he last spoke to her at 2:39 a.m. on the day she disappeared.

He said she told him in that phone call that she had just arrived at her 
parents' house and would soon be bringing their four children to his house.

Arellano said that when his wife and children never arrived, he assumed she had 
decided to stay at her parents' home.

Asked about his whereabouts that night, Arellano told the detectives he had 
spent most of the evening of April 15 with a friend, tinting the man's windows. 
He said he arrived home about midnight and didn't leave the house again until 
7:30 a.m.

Through interviews, investigators learned that Arellano had torn down and 
replaced a wooden fence for an acquaintance within the past year. The fence 
included wood posts set in concrete.

In the back yard of Arellano's Fort Worth home in the 1400 block of Jasper 
Street, police found pieces of concrete similar to the one used to weigh down 
Elizabeth Arellano's body.

In the bed of his pickup, they uncovered a small piece of concrete consistent 
with that found at the crime scene. A large piece of concrete was also found in 
the driveway directly behind his truck, the affidavit states.

(source: star-telegram.com)






FLORIDA:

Florida Death Penalty Still On Hold As Courts Seek Answers


Executions are on hold, judges are postponing death penalty cases, and defense 
lawyers are seeking additional reviews after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision 
in January that struck down Florida's death penalty sentencing process.

Supreme Court justices ruled that Florida gave too much power to judges, 
instead of juries, in deciding whether defendants should be executed. But the 
8-1 ruling also created uncertainty by failing to address whether jury 
recommendations for death sentences should be unanimous.

The focus is now on the Florida Supreme Court.

"Defense lawyers are trying to push the cases off, waiting for the court, and 
in some instances judges are going along with it," said Bernie McCabe, the 
state attorney in the 6th Judicial Circuit in Pasco and Pinellas counties. "And 
if they don't go along with it, defense lawyers file other motions claiming 
other stuff, to try to push it. So the frustration is we're not getting the 
cases to trial that ought to be tried. And, unlike fine wine, my cases don't 
get better with age."

Of nearly 3 dozen states that have the death penalty, Florida is 1 of only 3 
states - including Delaware and Alabama - that do not require unanimous jury 
recommendations for death. Delaware's death penalty is also in flux. The 
Delaware Supreme Court in August decided that the state's death-penalty 
process, similar to Florida's, was unconstitutional. In contrast to Florida, 
Delaware's last execution was in 2012.

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in a case known as Hurst v. Florida dealt 
with the sentencing phase of death-penalty cases after defendants are found 
guilty, and it focused on "aggravating circumstances" that must be determined 
before defendants can be sentenced to death. The ruling cemented a 2002 U.S. 
Supreme Court decision, in a case known as Ring v. Arizona, requiring that 
determinations of such aggravating circumstances must be made by juries, not 
judges.

Under Florida's old law, jurors by a simple majority could recommend the death 
penalty. Judges would then make findings of fact that "sufficient" aggravating 
factors, not outweighed by mitigating circumstances, existed for the death 
sentence to be imposed.

That system was an unconstitutional violation of the Sixth Amendment right to 
trial by jury, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in an 8-1 ruling.

After the Hurst decision, Florida justices indefinitely postponed executions 
that had been scheduled to take place in February and March. The decision also 
set off a scramble by lawmakers to revise the sentencing system.

Florida's new law - crafted by the Republican-controlled Legislature during the 
session that ended in March - requires juries to unanimously determine "the 
existence of at least 1 aggravating factor" before defendants can be eligible 
for death sentences. The law also requires at least 10 jurors to recommend the 
death penalty in order for the sentence to be imposed, a departure from the old 
law, which required a simple majority of jurors.

After hearing arguments in dozens of cases since January, the Florida Supreme 
Court is considering whether the Hurst decision applies to defendants whose 
death sentences were handed down before the January ruling.

One of the most highly anticipated decisions involves the case of Larry Darnell 
Perry, who was convicted in the 2013 murder of his infant son.

Perry's case hinges on whether the new law should apply to defendants whose 
prosecutions were underway when the new law went into effect. While Perry's 
lawyer, J. Edwin Mills, argued that the new law should not apply in his 
client's case, other defense lawyers are split on the issue. Mills contends his 
client should receive a life sentence.

Arguments in the Perry case also focused on the new law, which circuit judges 
in Tampa and Miami have ruled is unconstitutional because it does not require 
unanimous recommendations from juries.

Lawmakers adopted the 10-2 recommendation at the urging of prosecutors, who 
objected to the notion of requiring unanimity.

The issues awaiting Florida Supreme Court decisions will have a far-reaching 
impact, affecting inmates already on death row as well as defendants whose 
cases are in progress or have not yet reached the trial stage.

(source: WUSF news)






OHIO:

Woman facing death penalty: 'I don't care'


A woman facing a possible death sentence in the killing of her 2-year-old 
daughter is seeking a plea deal, her attorneys said Thursday.

Andrea Bradley was visibly agitated Thursday after being led into Hamilton 
County Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman's courtroom. The previous day, a jury 
recommended that her onetime boyfriend, 34-year-old Glen Bates, be sentenced to 
death. Both were charged in the beating and starvation death of their daughter, 
Glenara.

"If the world wants the death penalty, give it to 'em," she said to no one in 
particular, before a scheduled hearing began. "I don't care."

Deputies had led Bradley to the area in front of Judge Robert Ruehlman's bench, 
but he was still conferring with prosecutors and one of her attorneys. Another 
of her attorneys, Scott Rubenstein, stood next to Bradley and appeared to tell 
her to not speak. Ruehlman also warned her: "Don't say another word."

The hearing was supposed to focus on whether Bradley, 30, is eligible for the 
death penalty because of an intellectual disability. Her attorneys say experts 
have determined that her composite IQ is 67. An IQ below 75 is considered an 
intellectual disability, according to the Ohio Department of Education.

Her attorneys, however, announced that they want to talk to prosecutors about a 
possible plea deal. The hearing was rescheduled for Oct. 6.

"She was basically a child taking care of children," her attorney, Will Welsh, 
said.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 2002 decision, said that executing someone who 
suffers from an intellectual disability is cruel and unusual punishment, a 
violation of the Eighth Amendment.

Bradley is charged with aggravated murder, murder and child endangering. A jury 
on Monday, after about two hours of deliberations, convicted Bates of those 
same charges. On Wednesday, the jury recommended a death sentence. Judge Megan 
Shanahan will announce next month whether she will impose that sentence.

Glenara was beaten severely, starved and forced to sleep on a bathroom floor, 
according to testimony at Bates' trial. She weighed only 13 pounds when she 
died in March 2015, and prosecutors said her body was "nothing but a mass of" 
scars, burns and bruises.

Glenara lived with Bradley, Bates and several siblings in a rented house in 
East Walnut Hills.

According to Bradley's attorneys, she was in an abusive relationship with 
Bates. They also have said Bradley has been diagnosed with depression and 
bipolar disorder, and has been under psychiatric care most of her life.

In May, Bradley rejected a plea deal that would have meant she faced the 
possibility of spending the rest of her life in prison, instead of the death 
penalty.

(source: cincinnati.com)






ARKANSAS:

Autopsy due before death penalty try in Arkansas deputy case


A prosecutor says he'll look at an autopsy report due this week as he explores 
whether to seek the execution of a man accused of killing a western Arkansas 
deputy.

The Arkansas State Crime Lab says the medical examiner has completed its 
autopsy on Sebastian County Cpl. Bill Cooper and that investigators and 
prosecutors should have access soon. Prosecutor Dan Shue told the Southwest 
Times Record newspaper (http://bit.ly/2d8sjda ) that part of his due diligence 
before starting a possible death-penalty case includes a look at the autopsy.

Billy Monroe Jones is accused of killing Cooper on Aug. 10 after Cooper and 
others responded to a domestic disturbance call near Hackett. Jones has been 
charged with capital murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and injuring an 
animal used by law enforcement.

(source: Associated Press)






NEBRASKA:

Catholic leaders urge voters to retain death penalty repeal


Catholic leaders are launching a campaign that will urge voters to retain 
Nebraska's repeal of the death penalty in the November general election.

The Nebraska Catholic Conference announced a series of steps Thursday that 
church leaders will take to speak to the state's 375,000 Catholics.

The church has distributed materials to parishes throughout the state, 
including videos filmed by bishops that outline the church's teachings on 
capital punishment.

The Nebraska Catholic Conference will also advocate through radio and video 
spots and events planned in Omaha, Lincoln and Grand Island. Priests throughout 
the state are expected to speak about the issue from pulpit.

Catholic leaders say the death penalty in Nebraska isn't necessary to protect 
society. Death penalty supporters say the punishment is appropriate in certain 
cases.

(source: Associated Press)


CALIFORNIA:

California death penalty propositions 62 and 66: Condemned inmates, victims' 
families speak out


Sitting on a couch at his home in this remote farm town last week, Charles 
Erbert thumbed through a well-worn Bible to find the passage that captures his 
perspective on the most emotionally charged issue on November's ballot: 
California's death penalty.

"Scripture tells us not to kill, but it also tells us that he who strikes a man 
and kills him shall surely be put to death," said Erbert, 65, whose pregnant 
wife and their unborn child were brutally slain in one of the Bay Area's most 
gruesome crimes.

On a chilly Halloween night in 1984, William Michael Dennis donned a wolf mask 
to disguise himself as a trick-or-treater and used an 18-inch machete blade to 
slay San Jose resident Doreen Erbert, his ex-wife, and the 8-month-old fetus 
she had conceived with Charles, her 2nd husband. The Erberts' 4-year-old 
daughter, Deanna, hid behind a couch during the attack.

Now 66, Dennis sits on the nation's largest death row at San Quentin State 
Prison with more than 700 other inmates whose fate will be decided when voters 
consider 2 dueling death penalty initiatives.

Death penalty advocates say a death sentence is the only appropriate punishment 
for crimes as horrifying as Dennis'.

"This crime was cold and calculated. He did it deliberately - and he's not 
sorry," Erbert said.

So he and other supporters of capital punishment are seeking a no vote on 
Proposition 62, which would abolish the death penalty in California, and a yes 
vote on Proposition 66, which would keep the death penalty and aims to speed up 
an appeals process that often drags on for decades.

Opponents of capital punishment call Proposition 66's vision of faster, more 
efficient appeals a fantasy and warn that the measure could cost the state tens 
of millions of dollars a year to implement if voters endorse it. That's why 
they are seeking a yes vote on Proposition 62, which would make life without 
the possibility of parole the maximum penalty for murder.

If both measures pass, the one with the most yes votes will supersede the 
other.

A Field-IGS Poll released last week showed that 48 % of likely voters plan to 
support Proposition 62, while 42 % are unsure how they'll vote on Proposition 
66.

Several killers interviewed by this news organization on a recent, rare tour of 
death row say they feel conflicted, too.

"I know I'll get my case overturned eventually," said Dennis, who spoke through 
a chain link fence surrounding a rooftop exercise yard at the historic Marin 
County prison overlooking San Francisco Bay. "But if I had a choice between 
dying tomorrow or spending 30 more years in prison, I would pick death 
tomorrow."

Virtually no one is arguing that California's current system for capital 
punishment is working efficiently. Since California voters revived the death 
penalty in 1978, only 15 people have been executed - none since 2006, when U.S. 
District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose forced the state to halt lethal 
injections over concerns that it violated the constitutional ban on cruel and 
unusual punishment.

That means death row inmates are far more likely to die in prison from illness, 
suicide or old age than they are to be executed by the state. Of the 930 
individuals sentenced to death over the last 4 decades, 104 died behind bars 
and 64 had their sentences reduced by the courts. That leaves 747 inmates on 
death row waiting for execution or exoneration.

"A well-working system would bring justice, however you define it, much 
sooner," said Robert Weisberg, a Stanford Law School professor who co-directs 
the university's Criminal Justice Center.

Proponents of Proposition 66 - many of them police officers, prison guards and 
district attorneys - identify the "endless, frivolous appeals" sought by the 
condemned as the source of the problem. Weisberg, however, says the complexity 
of the law, coupled with too little funding for public defenders, is to blame.

Once the death penalty is imposed by a jury, the state Supreme Court must 
review the verdict. It often takes the state 3 to 5 years to appoint an 
attorney to represent the inmate because of a lack of funding for these 
attorneys and the low pay they receive. And before those appointments are made, 
nothing happens.

After an attorney has agreed to take the case, he or she must research the 
record, starting with a trial transcript that is 9,000 pages long on average, 
prepare a legal brief on the inmate's behalf, and submit it to the court. This 
step takes about 4 years, and it could be another 3 years before the court 
issues its ruling.

If the Supreme Court upholds the verdict and the sentence, the condemned inmate 
may contest it on different grounds. Then the inmate may seek relief at the 
federal level. From start to finish, the appeals odyssey can take a 
quarter-century or more - and that drives inmates and their victims' families 
mad.

"Let me go home or kill me already," said Joseph Perez, 45, who was convicted 
in 2002 of robbing and murdering a Lafayette mother. "I don't want life without 
(the possibility of parole). I don't want to be an old, decrepit man walking 
the prison yard. My only fear is dying in prison."

Proponents of Proposition 66 say the measure would accelerate the appeals 
process by requiring more public defenders to accept death penalty cases and by 
requiring state courts to issue decisions on the cases within 5 years. 
Resolving these cases more quickly would eventually lead to cost savings, 
supporters of the measure say.

But the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office notes in its analysis of the 
initiative that the near-term costs of expediting appeals could be substantial, 
as high as tens of millions of dollars annually for many years. Opponents call 
it a "costly experiment" since the measure doesn't identify a source of funding 
for the expedited system.

Charles Erbert and his daughter, Deanna Scott, say costs shouldn't be a factor 
in the debate over capital punishment. They say voters should simply ask 
themselves if execution is what men like Dennis and Perez deserve.

"I can forgive, but I can't forget, and I do think that he should get the death 
penalty," said Scott, 36, who moved to Red Bluff with her father shortly after 
the attack. "I had to grow up without a mom - and a brother."

If voters endorse Proposition 62 and abolish the death penalty, Scott vowed to 
do "anything in my power to switch it back around."

Dennis told reporters he is appealing his death sentence because he believes he 
should have been charged with manslaughter, not 1st-degree murder. He said he 
was blinded by grief over the drowning death of his 4-year-old son when he 
killed his ex-wife.

"I lost a son, and I have to live every day with that knowledge," Dennis said. 
"I want a new trial. If people knew what I'd been through, the verdict would 
have been different."

Prosecutors said Dennis killed Doreen Erbert - and had planned to kill Charles, 
too - as revenge for his son's death in the Erberts' San Jose swimming pool 4 
years earlier. He had even prepared coffin-like boxes and body bags for the 
couple's corpses, prosecutors said.

"Finally, she got pregnant, and he took that life, too," Erbert said through 
tears, noting that his wife had 2 miscarriages in the years before her death. 
Still, he said, "I want him to know we survived. And we're making it. He hasn't 
conquered us."

Other relatives of victims whose assailants sit on death row are hoping for a 
different outcome in November and want to see the death penalty abolished.

Brentwood resident Dionne Wilson asked an Alameda County jury in 2007 to 
sentence her husband's killer to death because she believed that the ultimate 
punishment would deter crime and heal her. Her husband, San Leandro police 
officer Dan Niemi, was killed by Irving Ramirez, 34, during a routine traffic 
stop. He now sits on death row, awaiting action on his appeal.

But years later, Wilson says that when she took her own need for vengeance out 
of the equation, her thinking changed.

Wilson is now a leading advocate of Proposition 62, hoping to show voters that 
not all victims' family members want to see their loved ones' killers put to 
death. The $150 million the state would save each year by outlawing capital 
punishment could, she said, finance the sort of therapy and job training that 
has been proven to reduce recidivism.

"California doesn't have the time or the resources to fix this system," Wilson 
said. "It's broken beyond repair.

"I want to give voters permission to think differently about what justice looks 
like."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PROPOSITION 62

What it would do: The measure would abolish the death penalty and make life 
without the possibility of parole the maximum punishment for murder. Prisoners 
condemned to death would be re-sentenced to life in prison.

What supporters say: The measure would save the state about $150 million 
annually within a few years and eliminate the risk of executing any innocent 
people.

What opponents say: The measure would get rid of the only fitting punishment 
for California's worst killers.

How much money is being raised? Proponents collected $4.8 million as of Sept. 
20. The opponents - including police officers, corrections officers and 
district attorneys - have raised $3.8 million.

PROPOSITION 66

What it would do: The measure would speed up the death penalty appeals process 
by requiring more public defenders to accept death penalty cases and by 
requiring state courts to issue decisions on the cases within 5 years.

What supporters say: Resolving these cases more quickly would bring swifter 
justice for victims and their families and eventually lead to cost savings.

What opponents say: The measure is a poorly written, pricey experiment that 
would cost tens of millions of dollars a year to implement and increase the 
chances of executing an innocent person.

How much money is being raised? Proponents collected $3.8 million as of Sept. 
20. The opponents have raised $5.3 million.

If both measures pass, the one with the most yes votes will supersede the 
other.

[sources: California Secretary of State's Office, MapLight]

(source: Mercury News)