[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.H., OHIO, KAN., S.DAK., COLO.

[Rick Halperin]

June 24



NEW HAMPSHIRE:

Putting people to death gains us nothing, by Delmar Burridge



Gov. Chris Sununu this week vetoed the abolishment of the death penalty because 
he supports law enforcement. This was passed in both houses with an 
overwhelming majority but not enough in the Senate to make it veto-proof.

As clerk of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, it's my job 
to record, collect submitted position papers - some often mirroring testimony - 
pink sign-in cards to speak for or against, and signed blue tally sheets of 
those just present and not speaking who want to weigh in as a citizen with 
their decision. This job is forced attention for me.

One retired Manchester police commissioner twice offered almost identical 
testimony, a year ago against the expansion of the death penalty and just 
months ago, for the end of the death penalty. A compelling statement that cause 
me to have a vivid memory was him saying; "There is a lifer for killing a 
Manchester police officer. Nobody knows his name, he's forgotten because he is 
not sentenced to death."

2 or 3 officers wanted to keep the current law. That's it ... everyone else 
wanted to end the death penalty. We had an overflow crowd out to the hallway to 
back choosing to end capital punishment.

The governor has it wrong about law enforcement. At best, they are better 
described as divided. Add to this public testimony my anecdotal observations of 
twice-yearly travels to 16 police departments when I was a college professor. 
Having informal conversations with many chiefs yielded, "Let (Michael) Addison 
rot in jail" was the ongoing common thread.

Earlier this year, I gave each representative of our committee of copy of Saul 
Kassin's social psychology chapter "On Aggression" and offered this caveat: 
"When my students studied capital punishment, I gave this out as a supplement 
and tested them on the chapter about corrections." Most students who believed 
in the death penalty changed their minds. I just listened to the lively 
discussion.

I would have given the governor a copy, but he was a no-show.

Is the governor just caving to a typical revenge reality? I view this decision 
as institutionalized racism on a continuum disguised as support from law 
enforcement?

In a conversation, the widow of Addison's victim, Officer Michael Briggs, told 
me: "I don't care about the death penalty. My worry is how to get my 3 sons to 
baseball practice."

DELMAR BURRIDGE

7 Starlight Drive

Keene

(source: Letter to the Editor, Keene Sentinel)








OHIO:

Trial for man charged with killing 9 in Akron arson fires delayed



A judge in Ohio has delayed until early next year the start of a trial for a 
man who could face the death penalty if convicted of killing nine people in 2 
arson fires.

The Akron Beacon Journal reports attorneys for 59-year-old Stanley Ford argued 
Friday that Ford should have separate trials for the fatal fires in his Akron 
neighborhood. One fire killed 2 adults in April 2016. The 2nd killed 2 adults 
and 5 children in May 2017.

Ford's attorneys argue that death penalty cases are not "business as usual" and 
say the cases are separate and distinct.

Summit County prosecutors say the arsons were part of a common scheme and that 
jurors should be able to distinguish between them.

Prosecutors have alleged Ford had a "beef" with neighbors.

(source: Associated Press)








KANSAS:

Man charged with capital murder in deputy deaths



A suspect has been charged with capital murder in the deaths of 2 Kansas 
sheriff's deputies who were shot while transporting him last week.

Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree announced Friday that 
30-year-old Antoine Fielder was charged with 2 counts of capital murder over 
the deaths of deputies Theresa King and Patrick Rohrer.

The deputies were killed June 15 when police say they were apparently 
overpowered by Fielder in a gated area behind the courthouse in Kansas City, 
Kansas, possibly with one of their own guns. The deputies were transporting 
Fielder between the county jail and the courthouse.

Fielder also was shot but survived.

In Kansas, the premeditated killing of a single law enforcement officer is 
grounds for the death penalty.

A joint funeral service was held Thursday for the deputies. The Wyandotte 
County 911 call center put out a last message over the radio on Thursday for 
the fallen officers.

"Deputy King and Deputy Rohrer are both 10-7 on June 15, 2018. Although, they 
were 1 woman and 1 man, they laid down their lives for us. We thank you both 
for your dedication, loyalty and service to the citizens of Wyandotte County 
and Kansas City, Kansas," a woman said over the radio. "We will stand together, 
this thin blue line, portecting the prey from the predators, the good from the 
bad."

(source: Associated Press)








SOUTH DAKOTA:

South Dakota case isn't how justice is supposed to work



So it looks like Charles Rhines is going to be executed -- and it's probably 
because he's gay.

Well, not only that. There's also the matter of his committing an especially 
heinous murder in 1992. Rhines, caught burglarizing a doughnut shop in Rapid 
City, South Dakota by an employee named Donnivan Schaeffer, stabbed the 
22-year-old in the abdomen and back. Then, as Schaeffer pleaded for his life, 
Rhines thrust the blade into the base of his skull.

Point being that this guy is no hero or martyr. He is undeserving of pity.

That said, the circumstances of his case -- more specifically, his sentencing 
-- ought to concern anyone who believes in equal justice under the law. It 
seems that, in deciding what sentence to impose -- death or life without parole 
-- jurors worried that, as a gay man, Rhines might enjoy prison. They thought 
condemning him to that all-male environment would be like the old folk tale 
about Br'er Rabbit tricking Br'er Fox into throwing him into the briar patch 
where he wanted to be all along.

So they gave him death.

Evidence of the effect of Rhines' sexuality on the panel's reasoning abounds. 
Jurors sent the judge a note asking if he would be housed in general 
population, if he might "brag" to "young men" about his crime, if he might ever 
marry or have conjugal visits, if he would have a cellmate. As if that weren't 
enough, several jurors later issued sworn declarations affirming how homophobia 
warped their deliberations.

One juror was quoted as saying that putting a gay man in prison would be 
"sending him where he wants to go." Another quoted a fellow juror as saying 
Rhines "shouldn't be able to spend his life with men in prison." A third 
reported that, "There was a lot of disgust" in the jury room. "This is a 
farming community."

That sort of thinking, should it need saying, is idiotic. Unfortunately, it 
made sense to the only people whose opinions mattered.

As it happens, the Supreme Court ruled last year that jury deliberations can be 
impeached if it can be proven they were tainted by racial bias. Rhines' lawyers 
reasoned that if racism is enough to question a jury's decision, homophobia 
should be, too.

But last week, the court declined to hear Rhines' appeal. It's a disappointing 
decision. If equal justice means anything, it means a judge or jury may not 
heap an added penalty based on some facet of cultural identity. Whether 
grounded in race, religion, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity, bias 
has no place in our legal system. The high court had a chance to make that 
clear, but punted instead.

And Rhines got kicked in the teeth by Lady Justice. No, it couldn't happen to a 
more-deserving individual. But the issue at stake here is a lot bigger than 
him.

It's also bigger than anyone's position on the death penalty. The view from 
this corner is that capital punishment is a barbaric vestige of frontier 
justice, biased in just about every way -- race, gender, class, geography -- 
that a thing can be. Beyond that, it is expensive, immoral and irreversible.

But even the person who supports state executions should be unsettled by this 
non-ruling, should want the questions raised here definitively decided as soon 
as possible. Either the ideal of equal justice is a foundation of our system -- 
or it is not.

If it is, how can we countenance the notion that sexual orientation -- or 
religion, or race or anything else -- can so brazenly function as a thumb on 
the scale? That's not how justice is supposed to work. Whether the sentence is 
life or death, one thing should be immutably true: in America, you are punished 
for what you did.

Not for what you are. (source: Commentary; Leonard Pitts Jr., Sioux City 
Journal)








COLORADO:

Glenwood Springs murder suspect held on $1M bond



A Glenwood Springs homeless man charged with the murder of acquaintance Keith 
Wayne will be held in the Garfield County Jail on $1 million bond.

The suspect, Trevor David Torreyson, 42, faces life in prison or possibly the 
death penalty for the beating death of Wayne, age 56. Wayne died in West 
Glenwood sometime Tuesday night or early Wednesday, possibly during a night of 
drinking, based on Torreyson's statements to police after his arrest Wednesday 
night.

Torreyson was advised of 1st-degree murder charges in Garfield County Combined 
Court by Judge Paul Metzger at a Friday hearing, during which the bond amount 
was set. Formal filing of charges is expected at a July 11 hearing before 
District Judge James Boyd.

According to an arrest affidavit filed with the court by Glenwood Springs 
Police, Wayne's body was found early Wednesday morning. He was lying in a pool 
of blood in a grassy area next to a picnic table outside an office building 
along Storm King Road in West Glenwood.

The blood was from what looked to be a blunt force head injury, according to 
the affidavit.

Police investigators noted footprints leading away from the body that appeared 
to be from hiking or work boots. The footprints went in the direction toward 
where Torreyson was arrested later that night, the affidavit noted.

After Wayne was identified as the victim, the break in making the arrest came 
during a Wednesday night shift change, when a Glenwood Springs Police officer 
made a key observation that led to Torreyson.

According to the affidavit, one of the officers coming onto duty was looking at 
photos of the crime scene and noticed a multicolored bandana near the body in 1 
picture.

The officer zoomed in on the photo, "and recognized the bandana from a suspect 
he arrested in a theft approximately 3 weeks ago," the affidavit stated. That 
suspect was Torreyson.

"That same night Torreyson confessed to the theft, [he] took officers back to 
his campsite located at the end of Gilstrap Road underneath the walking path 
bridge over Mitchell Creek," the affidavit continued. "Torreyson is also known 
to wear heavy duty, construction-type boots that are tan in color."

The night of the murder, officers found Torreyson at the same camp. His boots 
had a red substance on them consistent with dried blood, officers said in the 
arrest report.

"The green shirt Torreyson was wearing also had red smudges and spatter marks 
on it that appeared consistent with dried blood," the affidavit stated, as did 
his arms and hands.

After his arrest, Torreyson reportedly told police that he and Wayne had bought 
a bottle of vodka and went to the picnic table by the Ford dealership, near 
where the body was found the next morning. However, Torreyson stated numerous 
times that he did not touch Wayne, but that no one else was with them.

"He stated numerous times that he does not know how Wayne's blood got on him," 
the affidavit said. "Torreyson repeated several times that he and Wayne were 
talking and that Wayne put his head on the table and fell asleep. He stated 
that he then took the rest of the vodka, drank it and left the area."

Public defender Alex Haynes filed a motion in the case seeking to limit 
pretrial publicity by asking police and others involved in the case not to talk 
about it to the media. Metzger did not rule on the motion, but advised those in 
the case to follow ethical responsibilities when discussing the case.

Torreyson remains in the Garfield County Jail on $1 million bond. In addition, 
the judge extended a protection order preventing Torreyson from contacting 
Wayne's daughter, who was on the phone during Friday's court hearing.

(source: The Post Independent)