[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., ALA., LA., MO.

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 31



PENNSYLVANIA:

Alleged killer's motive? He claims victim sexually assaulted him


2 years after the death of Andrew "Beep" White, prosecutors have offered no 
motive for his murder at the hands of Jeffrey Knoble.

On Monday morning, Knoble gave his reason: that White sexually assaulted him 
while he was passed out in a hotel.

"I just woke up and he was naked. Andrew. He was naked. He had his hands down 
my pants and was kissing on my neck," Knoble testified Monday in Northampton 
County Court.

Defense attorney Gavin Holihan said Knoble perceived the sexual assault as an 
insult, a threat to his manhood and threat to his reputation.

"I just snapped. I just snapped out," Knoble said. "I pushed him off. It felt 
like it wasn't me. It felt like, what is it called? Like autopilot and I just 
put the pillow over his head and I just shot him in his head."

Knoble is accused of killing White after White paid for a hotel room at the 
former Quality Inn in Easton on March 11, 2015. Knoble faces the death penalty.

As a member of the Bloods gang, engaging in a homosexual act is a sign of 
weakness, Holihan said.

"If he's identified as being a homosexual in any way shape or form, his life 
will be over," said Holihan, adding that this was Knoble's perception, but 
perhaps not the reality, that this was a life-changing threat.

Knoble was homeless and desperate, and White put him up for the night and paid 
for a meal, according to Assistant District Attorney Terence Houck. Houck 
previously identified White as an openly gay man. He also called him a generous 
and kind man.

Holihan said White's motives for putting Knoble up for the night were sinister. 
Holihan said Knoble had been up for three to four days straight, high on 
methamphetamine. Knoble also ingested K2, or synthetic marijuana, that night 
and both of the men drank vodka.

According to Holihan, White took advantage of Knoble's heavy intoxication, 
waited until he passed out, then stripped and made a sexual advance on him.

"That's why Andrew White was naked. Jeffrey Knoble didn't strip Andrew White. 
Andrew White got naked himself," Holihan said.

He said Knoble overreacted by shooting White. Then he panicked. He tied White 
up and tried to drag him off the bed to dispose of the body, but quickly 
abandoned that plan, Holihan said.

'I don't feel guilty," Knoble allegedly said after fatal shooting.

He argued those facts add up to voluntary manslaughter or 3rd-degree murder, 
which is murder with malice but not a predetermined plan to kill.

"You're going to hear it today it was a combination of drugs, alcohol and fear 
of being labeled a homosexual that drives him to react in a way that kills 
Andrew White," Holihan said. "It's not specific intent to kill."

Prosecution witnesses have labeled Knoble as a liar and a manipulator and White 
as a good Samaritan. Knoble's mother, his two ex-girlfriends and a friend have 
all testified against him.

(source: lehighvalleylive.com)






ALABAMA:

States growing weary of death penalty fights


The Alabama Attorney General's office last week asked the state Supreme Court 
to set an execution date for convicted murderer Robert Melson. It revived 
memories of one of Gadsden's bloodiest and most heinous crimes.

On the night of April 15, 1994, Melson and Cuhuatemoc Peraita robbed the 
Popeye's restaurant on East Meighan Boulevard. They forced 4 employees into a 
freezer and Melson shot them all. 3 died; the one who survived ID'd Melson as 
the killer.

Both were arrested before an hour passed. Melson was convicted in April 1996 of 
capital murder and sentenced to death. He's literally spent a generation on 
death row, filing multiple state and federal appeals to stay out of the 
execution chamber. 2 previous execution dates were stayed during that appeals 
process. We're sure Melson and his attorneys will continue that strategy should 
the state Supreme Court set another one.We have zero idea whether they'll 
prevail again and continue this delaying process, or if Melson finally will be 
strapped to a gurney - or if external forces will further complicate the 
process.

This comes when capital punishment itself again is under assault and becoming 
more infrequently administered.

A federal judge in Ohio ruled that state's procedure for lethal injections, 
which uses the drug midazolam, unconstitutional under a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court 
ruling in a Kentucky case.

Midazolam - you might know it by the trade name Versed - is commonly used to 
sedate patients before minor medical procedures. It's administered to condemned 
prisoners to knock them out before the drugs that stop their breathing and 
heartbeat are injected.

The 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling mandated that the 1st drug administered in 
an execution must make the inmate unconscious. There have been reports of that 
not happening with midazolam - including the execution in December of Ronald 
Smith in Alabama.

The high court actually, in 2015, ruled the use of midazolam in executions 
constitutional. However, the Ohio court said it didn't "logically imply that it 
can never be proven that midazolam presents an objectively intolerable risk of 
harm."

That's splitting legal hairs so finely it would take the Titan Themis 
electronic microscope at Rice University (which can see hydrogen atoms) to view 
the result.

Still, given the passion on both sides of the death penalty argument, the 
question likely will meander back up the appeals chain to the U.S. Supreme 
Court, which is likely to confirm its original ruling, after a year or 2 of 
legal machinations.

We don't see Alabama disengaging from such battles anytime soon. This is a 
law-and-order state where people want criminals punished, including the 
ultimate punishment for the ultimate crimes.

Robert Melson certainly falls into that category, with the lives he took and 
the others he left shattered. We'll shed no tears at his demise, however and 
whenever it happens.

However, other states seem to be growing weary of trying (and expending 
resources) for decades to see justice done, and are saying "enough."

Only 30 people were sentenced to death in the U.S. last year; that has to be a 
microscopic percentage of the ones who could've been. Only 20 people already on 
death row were executed.

We've previously said the death penalty seems to be collapsing under its own 
weight and from disuse.We see no reason to alter that view.

(source: Editorial, Gadsden Times)






LOUISIANA:

State prosecutors will seek death penalty against Dereck Viator


The State of Louisiana will seek the death penalty against a man charged with 
1st-degree murder in Vermilion Parish.

Dereck Viator was indicted in the 2014 disappearance of his then girlfriend, 
Tyler Domingue. Domingue's car was found in the Bayou Tigre in June, but her 
body has not been located.

Viator is also charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the deaths of Cody 
Fell and Abigail Clark. Their bodies were found in a burned SUV on Claude Road 
in Maurice back in 2014.

Jay Prather, the prosecutor in the Domingue case, said they are seeking the 
death penalty because of the heinous nature of the crime.

He said the state is dealing with a deceased young woman and her family wants 
her body back.

Prather said it takes a lot to seek the death penalty against a defendant but 
in this case, the state feels they have what they need against Viator.

A death penalty case is done in 2 phases. The 1st will deal with the crime 
itself and the 2nd deals with the penalty. Prather said at that point Viator's 
criminal record will be considered.

As of now, no trial date is set. Court documents indicate there is a hold up on 
the defense side while they try to sort out issues with representation for 
Viator.

Prather said he wants to move the case forward as quickly as possible for the 
victims' families.

(source: KATC news)

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

Man released from death row will have to wait for day in court----Rodricus 
Crawford given court date of Feb. 22 for further proceedings


Rodricus Crawford, who was freed in November after spending almost 3 years on 
death row, was in Caddo District Court today to set a date for arguments and 
hearings regarding a new trial.

In November, was released on $50,000 bond, after the Louisiana Supreme Court 
overturned his 1st degree murder conviction and subsequent death penalty and 
remanded his case back to Caddo District Court for a new trial.

Crawford, who was convicted by a Caddo Parish Jury in November 2013 for the 
February 2012 death of his 12-month-old baby, was sentenced to the death 
penalty in February 2014, and was sent to death row to await his execution.

But in the high court's November decision, the majority agreed with Crawford's 
attorneys who claimed the prosecution in Crawford's trial was racially biased 
in striking 5 African-American prospective jurors. The jury ultimately 
consisted of 9 white jurors and 3 African-Americans.

Publicity surrounding the case, which was spotlighted in a lengthy article in 
the New Yorker magazine and a subsequent article in the New York Times, drew 
public scrutiny not only to Crawford's case, but to the large amount of 
prisoners on death row from Caddo Parish, most of whom were African American.

Crawford and his attorneys will be back in court on Feb. 22 for arguments and 
hearings. He remains free on bond.

(source: arklatexhomepage.com)






MISSOURI----impending execution

Missouri prepares for 1st execution since May


A Missouri man scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening for killing a woman and 
her 2 children almost 20 years ago has asked state and federal courts to spare 
his life.

Mark Christeson, 37, is set for lethal injection at the state prison in Bonne 
Terre for the rape and death of Susan Brouk, who was attacked in her rural home 
in Vichy in 1998. Her 12-year-old daughter and her 9-year-old son also were 
killed.

If the courts don't step in, Christeson's execution will be Missouri's 1st 
since May. Christeson was just hours away from execution in 2014, when the U.S. 
Supreme Court granted him a temporary reprieve.

Christeson's attorney, Jennifer Merrigan, declined comment when reached by 
phone Monday by The Associated Press. But in court appeals, his lawyers argue 
that Christeson was mentally incapable of understanding his legal rights during 
his original trial. They said he has severe mental impairment and an IQ of 74.

His attorneys also argue that Christeson's original trial lawyers were so inept 
that they missed a 2005 deadline for a federal appeal, a standard procedure in 
death penalty cases.

Christeson was 18 when he and his 17-year-old cousin, Jesse Carter, decided to 
run away from a home where they were living with a relative near Vichy. Armed 
with shotguns, they walked a half-mile to the neighboring home of Susan Brouk, 
planning to steal her Ford Bronco.

Once there, they used shoelaces to tie the hands of Brouk's 12-year-old 
daughter, Adrian, and her 9-year-old son, Kyle. Investigators said Christeson 
forced Brouk into a bedroom and raped her.

The men later drove the family to a pond, where Brouk and her son were stabbed 
and thrown into the water to drown. Adrian suffocated when Christeson pressed 
on her throat while his cousin held her.

The cousins fled to California, where they were caught 8 days later. Carter 
agreed to testify against Christeson and was sentenced to life in prison 
without parole.

Maries County prosecutor Terry Daley Schwartze called the killings "brutal."

"If there is a person who deserves the death penalty, it is this defendant," 
Schwartze said.

In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in at the last minute, ruling that 
Christeson's court-appointed attorneys were ineffective because of the missed 
federal appeal deadline.

Missouri executed 16 men from 2014 to 2015, 2nd only to the 23 executions in 
Texas over the same 2 years.

Last year, Missouri had just 1 execution, largely because most of the 25 men on 
the state's death row have appeals remaining or are unlikely to be executed due 
to medical or mental health concerns.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Missouri death row inmate appeals to US Supreme Court


A Missouri man convicted of killing a woman and her 2 children almost 20 years 
ago asked the U.S. Supreme Court to spare his life on Monday, a day before his 
scheduled execution.

Mark Christeson, 37, is set for lethal injection Tuesday evening at the state 
prison in Bonne Terre. Investigators said he raped and killed Susan Brouk, and 
killed her 12-year-old daughter and her 9-year-old son near their rural 
south-central Missouri home in 1998.

The nation's highest court halted Christeson's execution in 2014, just hours 
before it was scheduled. Monday's appeal focuses on the same main issue that 
Christeson's attorneys cited then: His trial lawyers were so inept that they 
missed a 2005 deadline to file a federal court appeal, which is standard 
practice in death penalty cases.

His lawyers have also argued that Christeson has an IQ of 74 and was therefore 
mentally incapable of understanding his legal rights during his original trial.

Christeson's attorney, Jennifer Merrigan, declined comment when reached by 
phone Monday by The Associated Press.

Maries County prosecutor Terry Daley Schwartze, who prosecuted the original 
case, called the killings "brutal."

"If there is a person who deserves the death penalty, it is this defendant," 
she said.

Christeson was 18 when he and his 17-year-old cousin, Jesse Carter, decided to 
run away from a home where they were living with a relative near Vichy. Armed 
with shotguns, they walked a half-mile to the neighboring home of Susan Brouk, 
planning to steal her Ford Bronco.

Once there, they used shoelaces to tie the hands of Brouk's 12-year-old 
daughter, Adrian, and her 9-year-old son, Kyle. Investigators said Christeson 
forced Brouk into a bedroom and raped her.

The men later drove the family to a pond, where Brouk and her son were stabbed 
and thrown into the water to drown. Adrian suffocated when Christeson pressed 
on her throat while his cousin held her.

The cousins fled to California, where they were caught 8 days later. Carter 
agreed to testify against Christeson and was sentenced to life in prison 
without parole.

Missouri executed 16 men from 2014 to 2015, 2nd only to the 23 executions in 
Texas over the same 2 years.

Last year, Missouri had just one execution, largely because most of the 25 men 
on the state's death row have appeals remaining or are unlikely to be executed 
due to medical or mental health concerns.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Missouri's Unjust Rush To Execute Intellectually Disabled Man Who Was Abandoned 
by His Attorneys----The state's determined efforts to execute Mark Christeson 
are hasty, bizarre, and troubling.


Death is the ultimate punishment a state can impose. Because of the death 
penalty's severity and finality, its implementation should never be rushed or 
done without full due process of the law.

Yet Missouri will do exactly that if it proceeds with the execution of Mark 
Christeson on January 31. Intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court is now 
needed to prevent a grave miscarriage of justice. The federal courts have 
truncated due process by ordering unreasonably expedited briefing and hearing 
schedules, solely for the purpose of maintaining an execution date that was set 
at the State's request while appeals were already pending. No court has ever 
fully considered the merits of Mr. Christeson's important underlying 
constitutional claims, and no court has ever provided him with counsel free of 
conflicts of interest to raise those claims.

Mr. Christeson was 18 years old at the time of the offense for which he was 
sentenced to death and has significant cognitive limitations, scoring only 74 
on an IQ test. There are also other mitigating factors in his case that were 
not properly presented at trial, such as a tragic history of pervasive sexual 
violence in his family. Yet no court has fully considered the merits of these 
claims or analyzed whether he has an intellectual disability that makes his 
execution unconstitutional, because the first attorneys to raise these claims 
filed the petition 117 days late. Although it is the lawyers who made the 
error, the fatal consequences of their mistake fall squarely on Mr. Christeson, 
and courts have declared that all of his claims for relief are now waived and 
"procedurally barred' from review. For many years afterward, Mr. Christeson's 
lawyers concealed their serious error from their client, preventing him from 
seeking new counsel who could argue that the procedural bars should be set 
aside on equitable grounds.

These issues led the United States Supreme Court to intervene in 2014, granting 
a stay only hours before his execution. The high Court sent the case back to 
the lower courts, directing them to appoint new, conflict-free counsel.

"Without even holding a hearing, and based on the limited evidence that counsel 
could compile with minimal funding, the court concluded that Mr. Christeson was 
not entitled to relief."

Responding to this directive, the federal trial court appointed new attorneys 
to represent Mr. Christeson, but it approved only 6% of their requested budget, 
thereby creating a new conflict of interest for substitute counsel who lacked 
the funding or resources necessary to adequately investigate and assess his 
severe cognitive impairments. Without even holding a hearing, and based on the 
limited evidence that counsel could compile with minimal funding, the court 
concluded that Mr. Christeson was not entitled to relief.

Before the federal Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals had decided whether to 
consider Mr. Christeson's appeal of this decision, the state of Missouri 
decided to go forward with their plans to execute Mr. Christeson, setting his 
execution for January 31. After taking several extensions for filing their own 
briefs, lawyers for the State asked the court to set short deadlines for Mr. 
Christeson's counsel so that the execution could proceed on schedule. 
Mystifyingly to many, the Eighth Circuit agreed to hear the appeal but then 
granted the State's request for an expedited schedule, leaving Mr. Christeson's 
attorneys a mere 5 business days over the holidays to file his appeal brief.

The Eighth Circuit ordered the district court to hold another hearing to 
develop evidence about prior counsel's abandonment of Mr. Christeson. The lower 
court responded by scheduling the hearing less than 2 days after receiving the 
order. This timeline was so short that Mr. Christeson's counsel could not even 
arrange for witnesses to travel to Missouri in time for the hearing, let alone 
adequately prepare to present evidence and make complex legal arguments. After 
the hearing concluded, the court ruled immediately from the bench, rejecting 
all of Mr. Christeson's claims and sending the case along its hurried path 
toward execution.

If the death penalty is to be used at all, it should be carried out fairly and 
only with full due process of law. Justice should never be sacrificed for the 
sake of expediency in any criminal proceeding, and in a capital case, a court's 
failure to take the necessary time to hear all relevant evidence is simply 
unacceptable.

No court has ever fully considered the merits of Mr. Christeson's claims, and 
if this execution proceeds on January 31st no court ever will. Now is the time 
to halt the frenzied rush toward his execution and ensure that he is provided 
with the means and opportunity to present his case, before the state makes an 
irreversible mistake.

(source: Carol S. Steiker is a professor at Harvard Law School and co-author 
with Jordan M. Steiker of "Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital 
Punishment.")