[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----NEB., NEV., CALIF., WASH., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 31



NEBRASKA:

Ricketts vows to keep working on death penalty without waiting for decision on 
identifying drug suppliers


Gov. Pete Ricketts said Monday he will continue working to restore the death 
penalty without waiting for lawmakers to decide a bill that would hide the 
identities of lethal drug suppliers.

The governor said during a State Capitol press conference that there is no 
timeline for when the Department of Correctional Services might get the lethal 
injection drugs. The comments were the first Ricketts has made publicly on the 
topic since last week, when he signed a new execution protocol.

As proposed several months ago, the protocol included a provision that would 
have allowed the corrections director to withhold the identity of drug 
suppliers. The final protocol removed the provision in response to comments at 
a public hearing that the secrecy rule would violate state law while breaking 
with Nebraska's tradition of open government.

A bill pending in the Legislature would allow state officials to shield the 
identities of lethal injection drug suppliers. Other states have used secrecy 
laws or procedures to maintain their drug supplies, saying disclosing the 
identities of sources subjects them to public pressure from death penalty 
opponents.

While the governor has said recently that he supports efforts to reinstate the 
death penalty in Nebraska, on Monday he declined to say whether he supports a 
lethal injection shield law. Regardless of what the Legislature does with 
Legislative Bill 661, Ricketts said his administration will move ahead with 
carrying out the executions of the 10 men on the state's death row.

The revised execution protocol is designed to give the corrections director 
greater flexibility in obtaining lethal injection drugs.

The former protocol required the department to use three specific drugs in a 
defined sequence. The new protocol would allow one or more drugs to be used, 
and it would be left to the corrections director to select the drugs.

Death penalty opponents have predicted that court challenges will delay any 
executions for months or perhaps years.

The governor on Monday pointed out that 61 percent of Nebraskans rejected the 
Legislature's 2015 repeal of capital punishment during the November election. 
Lawmakers overrode the governor's veto to enact the repeal, which in turn 
prompted Ricketts to help fund a petition drive to put the question on the 
ballot.

(source: Omaha World Herald)






NEVADA----female faces death penalty

Brandy Stutzman found guilty in 2010 stabbing death of estranged husband


A woman was found guilty of 1st-degree murder this afternoon in the stabbing 
death of her husband more than 6 years ago.

Brandy Stutzman, 33, was accused of hatching the murder plot with a 19-year-old 
teenager man who was in love with her. Jeremiah Merriweather, now 25, says he 
was in love with Stutzman and that she wanted her husband dead.

Joe Stutzman, 32, was found dead Nov. 7, 2010, at his home. Prosecutors say the 
couple were planning to divorce and that Joe wanted full custody of their 
then-5-year-old boy.

According to neighbors who knew her in 2010, Brandy Stutzman, 37, had a bizarre 
relationship with Merriweather.

Joe Stutzman worked as a civilian aircraft mechanic overseas, and neighbors say 
his wife would host parties with teenagers - including Merriweather - while he 
was away.

Prosecutors proved that Stutzman convinced Merriweather to stab her husband to 
death. Stutzman is facing the death penalty in connection to this case.

Merriweather had previous pleaded guilty to the killing, but the defense tried 
to prove unsuccessfully he acted alone.

If sentenced to death, Stutzman will be the only woman on death row and the 1st 
female sentenced to death in more than a decade.

The penalty phase will begin Wednesday morning at the Regional Justice Center.

(source: KSNV news)






CALIFORNIA:

Man pleads not guilty to murder in Burney burning death


A Redding man charged with 1st degree-murder and torture for allegedly setting 
a Burney man on fire last month pleaded not guilty Monday in Shasta County 
Superior Court.

Juan Manuel Venegas, 39, who remains in Shasta County Jail in lieu of $5 
million, is accused of setting 54-year-old David Wicks on fire on Dec. 21 while 
Wicks was working behind the cash register at a gas station in Johnson Park 
outside Burney.

Redding defense attorney Michael Borges, appointed to represent Venegas, 
entered the not guilty plea on behalf of his client after the Shasta County 
Public Defender's Office announced it could not represent Venegas due to a 
legal conflict.

Venegas is due back in court on Feb. 21 to set the date for a preliminary 
hearing, which will determine whether there's enough evidence in the case to 
order him to stand trial.

Arrested Jan. 19 at his Telecaster Lane home in west Redding, Venegas failed to 
enter a plea at his arraignment last week after the Public Defender's Office 
said it needed to first conduct a background check to determine whether it 
could represent him.

In what's a death penalty-eligible crime, it's believed by law enforcement and 
prosecutors that a man believed to be Venegas walked into the Rocky Ledge Shell 
gas station in Johnson Park on Dec. 21 shortly before 7 p.m., wearing yellow 
rain gear, a black hood and ski mask.

He allegedly sprayed Wicks with an unidentified liquid and then set him on fire 
with what appeared to be a cigarette lighter, according to the Shasta County 
Sheriff's Office, adding that the attacker is also shown on video surveillance 
adding even more of the liquid to Wicks as he's on fire.

A possible motive in the case has not been disclosed.

The sheriff's investigative report says the attacker is also seen standing in 
flames on the floor for a second or 2 before running toward the gas station's 
front door and getting on a bicycle before pedaling away.

"As the suspect was leaving, his/her right foot was on fire," the report 
states, later adding that the right leg of the rain suit later recovered 
appears to be burnt.

During the course of the investigation, detectives set their eyes on Venegas 
after collecting evidence, including the bicycle and rain gear, as well as 
interviewing a number of people, including those with information about 
Venegas.

According to the sheriff's report, deputies and detectives found on Dec. 22 a 
yellow rain suit similar to the one the attacker wore discarded in a trash can 
on Robin Way, about 100 yards from where detectives had earlier found the 
bicycle.

Forensic tests conducted by the California Department of Justice revealed on 
Dec. 30 that Veneagas' DNA was found on the inside wrist cuffs of the rain 
suit, as well as on the bicycle and a ski mask that deputies recovered, 
according to the sheriff's report.

According to the report, a detective interviewed Venegas on Dec. 23. He said he 
heard about the homicide through Facebook but refused to provide a DNA sample 
and eventually left the interview.

Anyone with information on the Wicks case is encouraged to call the Major 
Crimes unit at 245-6135 or send an email to mcu at co.shasta.ca.us. Information 
can also be provided anonymously to Secret Witness of Shasta County at 243-2319 
and www.scsecretwitness.com.

(source: Redding Record Searchlight)

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

He murdered a 3-year-old girl, and now the judge has sentenced him to death


Convicted murderer Christopher Cheary was sentenced to death Monday by a Tulare 
County judge for the killing of 3-year-old Sophia Acosta, also known as Baby 
Sophia.

Cheary, 26, was found guilty by a jury in November of 1st-degree murder, with 2 
special circumstances of sexual penetration with a foreign object and torture.

Several days later, the same jury came back with a death-penalty verdict for 
Cheary. On Monday, Judge Joseph Kalashian upheld that choice.

On May 7, 2011, police were called to an apartment in Exeter at which Cheary, 
then 20, lived with his girlfriend and her 2 girls. Sophia was unconscious.

Sophia was taken to Kaweah Delta Medical Center and then Valley Children's 
Hospital, where she died a few days later.

At the sentencing, defense attorney Angela Krueger referred to the Biblical 
book of Matthew and the philosophy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 
arguing for a sentence other than death.

But prosecutor David Alavezos said the death penalty was the appropriate 
punishment given the facts.

"This is what we call justice," Alavezos said.

Kalashian said he had no choice but to uphold the death penalty.

"I took an oath when I took the job to follow the law," he said. "I can't 
nullify the penalty because of my personal views."

Several of Sophia's relatives addressed both the judge and Cheary, who showed 
no visible emotion.

"We will never see her go to school," said Sherry Stone, an aunt. "We will 
never see her graduate. She will never get married and have children of her 
own. This monster has never shown one ounce of remorse."

Trina Lopez, a great aunt, said Cheary took Sophia's life "like a thief in the 
night."

"As long as you are in prison and on death row you will have visits from your 
family," she said. "We will have to visit her at the cemetery."

Sophia's grandmother Diana Coronado said the girl's death put the family 
through "the worst kind of pain."

"How dare you violate an innocent child," she said. "You sealed your fate. May 
you rot."

During the trial, the prosecution showed pictures of Sophia's badly bruised 
body.

Cheary's girlfriend Ericka Smith testified she went to Visalia that morning by 
bus to get him heroin, and left the girls with him. When she got back, the 
girls were asleep in a upstairs bedroom. She closed the door and went 
downstairs.

He smoked some heroin and they both smoked marijuana, she said. She heard a 
thud upstairs and went to check on it.

She found Sophia on the ground with her arm across her mouth, and she had 
vomited. Her eyes were in the back of her head.

Smith called 911 and went to a neighbor's apartment for help. The neighbor came 
to the apartment and said at the trial that she saw Cheary go upstairs and 
bring down Sophia, naked and sopping wet.

She asked Cheary why the girl was all wet and Cheary told her, "he had to rinse 
her off," neighbor Mary Ann Flores testified.

Smith was never charged.

Cheary appears to be the 1st person in California to be found guilty in a 
death-penalty case since the passage of Proposition 66 in November. The state 
Department of Justice said it is is not aware of any earlier case.

The proposition gives death-penalty defendants on automatic appeal and legal 
representation more quickly, and allows lower courts to hear the appeals 
instead of going directly to the state Supreme Court. But Tulare County 
District Attorney Tim Ward has said it's still not clear if the appeals process 
will move faster in Cheary's case.

(source: fresnobee.com)

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

California death row inmate dies; convicted in San Jose murder trial


A killer convicted in a high-profile Santa Clara County trial died of unknown 
causes Saturday at San Quentin State Prison.

Fernando Eros Caro, 67, had been sentenced to death for the 1980 murders of 2 
bicycling teenagers and a man in citrus orchards near Fresno. He was tried in 
San Jose because of pretrial publicity in Fresno County.

His death sentence was reversed in 2002 by the Ninth Circuit Federal Appeals 
Court, which found that Caro did not have adequate legal representation.

The court commuted Caro's sentence to a life term, though he remained on death 
row after Fresno County prosecutors declared their intention to retry him and 
again seek the death penalty.

Caro was pronounced dead around 11:45 p.m. Saturday. The cause of death is 
unknown pending the results of an autopsy.

Caro had been convicted of fatally shooting 15-year-old cousins Mary Booher and 
Mark Hatcher. The pair were riding their bicycles in a tangerine orchard on an 
August evening in 1980 when Caro fatally shot Hatcher. He then drove Booher a 
short distance away and fatally shot her, then dumped the bicycles in an 
irrigation canal.

Caro was not acquainted with either youth and no motive was ever proved.

He was also convicted of an attack later that evening on Jack Lucchesi and Rick 
Donner. After Caro sideswiped Donner's car with his pickup truck outside a 
tavern near the town of Fowler, the 2 men had given chase. He pulled over, and 
when Lucchesi approached him, Caro opened fire on both men. Lucchesi died.

Caro's death came 2 days after that of another San Quentin death row inmate, 
James David Majors, 69.

Majors, who was sentenced in 1991 for the slayings of 3 people in a suburban 
Sacramento County home, died Thursday at a hospital.

And a 3rd California inmate died early Monday after being found unresponsive in 
his cell at Pelican Bay State Prison. His cellmate is considered a suspect in 
the death of 29-year-old Neil Z. Ramirez, who was serving an 8-year sentence 
for kidnapping.

The cellmate, who was not being named because of the ongoing investigation, is 
serving a life prison sentence for a Los Angeles County murder.

California's last execution was in 2006.

Since 1978, when California reinstated capital punishment, 71 condemned inmates 
have died from natural causes, 25 have committed suicide, 13 have been executed 
in California, 1 was executed in Missouri, 1 was executed in Virginia, 8 have 
died from other causes, and 3 (including Caro) have their cause of death 
pending. There are currently 750 offenders on California's death row.

(source: Mercury News)

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

In Murder-for-Hire Case: ---- Ninth Circuit Dissenters Blast Overturning of 
Conviction


The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Friday denied en banc rehearing of a 
panel decision that overturned the conviction of 1 of 3 men implicated in the 
1981 murders for hire of a Van Nuys woman and her young son.

The court's vote to leave standing its Aug. 11 decision granting habeas corpus 
relief to James Edward Hardy drew a blistering dissent, joined by 10 of the 25 
active judges. Judge Carlos Bea, who authored that opinion, said the panel 
failed to give the required level of deference to the California Supreme 
Court's unanimous ruling that Hardy was not prejudiced by his trial counsel's 
deficient performance.

Hardy was convicted, along with Clifford Morgan and Mark Reilly, of the 1st 
degree murders of Nancy Morgan, 44, and her 8-year-old son Mitchell in their 
Saticoy Street home. Prosecutors charged that Clifford Morgan, who stood to 
collect nearly $1 million in insurance benefits, hired Reilly, who in turn 
hired Hardy, and that the pair committed the murders after Clifford Morgan took 
a job in Nevada, perhaps to establish an alibi.

One of the prosecution witnesses, Calvin Boyd, testifying under a grant of 
immunity, claimed that Reilly tried to recruit him into the scheme. While he 
was interested and involved in the planning of the murders, Boyd testified, he 
dropped out of the plot because Reilly would not pay him in advance.

Boyd further testified that after the murders were committed, Reilly admitted 
that he and Hardy were the perpetrators.

All 3 defendants were convicted of first degree murder with special 
circumstances of multiple murder, murder for financial gain, and lying in wait. 
Reilly and Hardy were sentenced to death; Morgan was granted a separate penalty 
trial due to ill health but died of bone cancer before it could take place.

Hardy was also linked to the murders by witnesses who said he made statements 
suggesting his involvement, although he did not directly admit being involved 
in the actual killings.

In 2007, the California Supreme Court overturned Hardy's death sentence, but 
upheld his conviction.

S.C. Opinion

In an opinion by Justice Kathryn M. Werdegar, the high court said Los Angeles 
Deputy Public Defender Michael Demby failed to present mitigating evidence that 
might have resulted in a lesser sentence, including evidence that Boyd likely 
committed the acts attributed to Hardy. Because such evidence might have 
resulted in jurors rejecting the death sentence for Hardy, the court said, he 
was entitled to a new trial as to penalty.

But a new trial was not required as to guilt, the court ruled. Werdegar said 
that at the very least, a reasonable jury would have found Hardy guilty of 
special-circumstances murder as a co-conspirator or as an aider and abettor, 
even if Demby had presented evidence of Boyd's culpability.

Hardy was resentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole after 
prosecutors declined to retry the penalty phase. In August of last year, 
however, a divided Ninth Circuit panel said the conviction should have been 
thrown out as well.

Ninth Circuit Panel

Judge Stanley Bastian of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of 
Washington, sitting by designation, said the California high court erred in its 
application of the Strickland v. Washington prejudice standard.

"Although the California Supreme Court recited the Strickland standard, it 
concluded that because there was 'substantial evidence' against Hardy he 
suffered no prejudice from Demby???s deficient performance," Bastian wrote. 
"This was not the correct standard, and consequently, the relevant question 
regarding prejudice at the guilt phase was never properly addressed."

Instead, the correct standard was whether a reasonable probability existed that 
Hardy would not have been found guilty absent his counsel's errors, Bastian 
said.

"We note that the California Supreme Court actually did address the prejudicial 
effect of Demby's performance but only in relation to Hardy's actual innocence 
claim - not as to his ineffective assistance claim," Bastian wrote.

If Demby had discovered and presented the evidence against Boyd, it is not 
reasonable to think Hardy would have been convicted on a conspiracy or 
aid-and-abet theory, Bastian argued. He noted that Boyd was the only witness to 
place Hardy at the scene, and that there was no forensic evidence linking Hardy 
to the killings.

"Hardy's attorney failed him, and the State of California failed Hardy by 
putting a man on the stand that it should have known committed the crime," 
Bastian wrote. He was joined by Judge Harry Pregerson, while Judge Consuelo 
Callahan dissented, arguing that the later-discovered evidence implicating Boyd 
"did not blot out the substantial trial evidence establishing that Hardy 
conspired to commit, and aided and abetted, the murders."

Bea, in his dissent Friday, said the panel majority "far...exceeded the limited 
scope of its review under" the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. 
Werdegar, he said, applied the correct prejudice standard, discussing in detail 
the evidence that Hardy was part of a broad plot to kill Nancy Morgan and 
defraud the companies that insured her life.

Werdegar, Bea argued, did not apply a "substantial evidence" standard to weigh 
the prosecution's evidence, but used the term "to explain that extensive and 
compelling evidence supported the prosecution's theory" that Hardy was guilty 
as an aider and abettor or a co-conspirator. The panel's contrary conclusion, 
he said, "is not a fair reading of [Werdegar's] opinion.

The evidence against Hardy was both "substantial" and "ample," Bea said. He 
cited testimony from Hardy's and Reilly's then-girlfriends that the men spent 
considerable time in contact with one another in the weeks before the killings, 
and were together when Reilly got the final go-ahead over the phone from 
Morgan. Hardy's girlfriend, the judge noted, testified that Hardy had detailed 
knowledge of the murders, that he received money for his participation, and 
that he tried to dispose of evidence linking him to the crime scene.

Bea was joined by Callahan, and by Judges Diarmuid O'Scannlain - who recently 
took senior status -, Ronald Gould, Richard Tallman, Jay Bybee, Milan Smith, 
Sandra Ikuta, N. Randy Smith and John Owens.

The case is Hardy v. Chappell, 13-56289.

(source: Metropolitan News Company)






WASHINGTON:

Washington lawmakers echo global push to end death penalty


There has long been an international push to abolish capital punishment. 
Washington state could follow suit, as a bipartisan group of lawmakers consider 
a bill to end the state's death penalty during this year's legislative session.

The group of lawmakers, including Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, 
presented the proposal at a news conference earlier this month, citing a 
variety of issues, including unequal implementation of sentences, the financial 
burden it poses, and moral opposition on the issue.

Ferguson unveiled his plans alongside Republican State Senators Mark Miloscia 
of Federal Way and Maureen Walsh of Walla Walla and Democrats Rep. Tina Orwall 
of Des Moines and Sen. Reuven Carlyle of Seattle.

Orwall said that while she and her fellow legislators have different reasons 
for supporting it, she is glad to be presenting a united front and to be 
working towards progress.

"I think what gives me hope is that there is a movement going and that will 
give us momentum," Orwall said.

The Senate version of the bill, SB 5354, introduced by Miloscia, is currently 
pending before the Senate Law and Justice Committee. According to The Attorney 
General's office no vote has been taken or scheduled yet.

Ferguson noted in a press release that seeking a death sentence was over $1 
million on average in the state of Washington.

Critics also say the cases are subject to error because of false testimonies or 
jury bias.

"What we have is a system of fair procedure but not necessarily a system of 
truth" said Lara Zarowsky director of the Legislative Advocacy Clinic at the 
University of Washington's School of Law.

Zarowsky said false convictions are a major issue in Washington and the nation 
as a whole.

Orwall said the average time it takes to exonerate someone from death row is 15 
years.

The death penalty has a complicated history in Washington. It's been abolished 
twice, in 1913 and 1975, and then reinstated both times.

2 years ago, Gov. Jay Inslee issued a moratorium on the death penalty and 
supports the efforts to abolish it, said his spokeswoman Tara Lee.

Inslee is inspired by the global movements pushing to abolish the death penalty 
and has long since dedicated himself to the issue, his office said in an email.

"It's great that people around the world are focused on this and the governor 
supports their efforts. The governor has been on record against the death 
penalty in Washington state for several years," Lee said.

Inslee also issued a reprieve of a death row inmate Clark Richard Elmore.

Washington currently has nine people on death row. If the legislature abolishes 
the death penalty, those 9 would remain in prison for life without parole.

Global opposition to capital punishment

The issue of capital punishment has long been a subject of debate around the 
world.

Amnesty International reported that 1,634 executions had been carried out in 
2015 in 25 countries. China carried out the majority of the executions, 
followed by Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia. The United States is the nation with 
the 5th highest number of executions.

The United Nations has been encouraging its members to abolish the death 
penalty for years.

In December of 2014, the UN proposed a moratorium on all executions. In an 
article last month, The New Yorker wrote that in its most recent proposal for a 
moratorium, 117 members were for with only 40 against, one of those being the 
U.S.

About 160 countries in the world have either abolished the death penalty, 
placed a moratorium on executions, or do not practice it at all, according to a 
report from the UN Human Rights.

In October 2014, Gen. Ban Ki-Moon, former General-Secretary of the UN, said 
capital punishment goes against fundamental human rights.

"The death penalty has no place in the 21st century," Ki-Moon said.

He urged members to pose a moratorium on executions or pardon prisoners on 
death row on the basis of moral opposition.

(source: seattleglobalist.com)

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

Keep death penalty


To the editor - Regarding the Jan. 17 article in the Yakima Herald-Republic's 
"Proposal to abolish state death penalty:" Laws are written and applied to 
maintain order in our society. The penalty is designed to match the offense, in 
other words," if you kill someone, we kill you back." That is exactly as it 
should be. There are exceptions and that is where lawyers come into the 
picture.

I hear "do-gooders" wanting to abolish the death penalty. I have also heard of 
the high cost to keep a person in jail. It is very expensive. A few years ago, 
I saw figures of the average income in the U.S.A. were $22,000 per year. That 
same year it cost $33,000 to keep a person in jail a year. I'm sure the price 
has increased. The death penalty should stay.

Gordon Best, Yakima

(source: Letter to the Editor, Yakima Herald)






USA:

Fort Lauderdale airport shooting suspect pleads not guilty----Esteban Santiago 
pleads not guilty to all 22 charges in Jan. 6 attack

The suspect in the Jan. 6 shooting spree at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood 
International Airport pleaded not guilty Monday morning in federal court.

Esteban Santiago pleaded not guilty to all 22 charges during a hearing in Fort 
Lauderdale.

Dressed in a red maximum security jumpsuit, Santiago, 26, told the judge that 
he understood each of the charges.

The FBI said that Santiago flew from Alaska to Fort Lauderdale, took the gun 
out of a checked gun box, loaded it in a bathroom and started randomly firing 
at innocent victims in a baggage claim area.

According to revelations made by prosecutors in court earlier this month, 
Santiago spent five days in a psychiatric hospital in Anchorage, where he was 
given anti-anxiety and sleeping medications. The FBI said none of the drugs 
were to treat mental illness.

Prosecutors said Santiago walked into the FBI office in Anchorage on Nov. 6 and 
told federal agents that he was hearing voices and that his mind was being 
controlled by the CIA. That led to his psychiatric evaluation.

The FBI said the gun used in the attack was later returned to Santiago after he 
was released from the hospital, where doctors determined that Santiago was 
stable. The FBI said Santiago picked up his gun after he was interviewed twice 
by federal agents.

Agents said Santiago, who legally purchased the gun and had a permit to carry a 
firearm, spent time at shooting ranges in Alaska.

Prosecutors claim there were 20 security cameras that captured Santiago's 
actions from the time he got off the plane to when he opened fire in Terminal 
2.

Investigators said Santiago told them he visited the "dark web" shortly before 
the rampage, going from chat room to chat room speaking to Islamic State group 
members and sympathizers who were plotting other attacks. The FBI is 
investigating to determine if there is any validity to his statements.

Santiago is charged with 5 counts of causing death at an international airport, 
6 counts of causing serious bodily harm at an international airport, five 
counts of causing death during a crime of violence and 6 counts of using a 
firearm during a crime of violence.

An attorney for Santiago is seeking a jury trial. He could face the death 
penalty if convicted.

Most of the 5 victims who were killed in the attack were in South Florida for a 
cruise. They were identified as Shirley Timmons, 70, of Ohio; Mary Amzibel, 69, 
of Ohio; Michael Oehme, 57, of Council Bluffs, Iowa; Olga Woltering, 84, of 
Marietta, Georgia; and Terry Andres, 62, of Virginia Beach, Virginia.

(source: WPLG news)