[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., LA., OKLA., NEB., NEV., ARIZ., WASH.

[Rick Halperin]

September 11



TEXAS:

WTAMU to host a death penalty debate



WTAMU students will get the chance to witness a debate on a divisive topic.

The school's Department of Criminal Justice will be hosting a debate on the 
death penalty on September 11 at 6:30 p.m.

The debate will host guest speakers James Farren, former district attorney for 
Randall County, Jeff Blackburn, defense attorney and Dr. Keith Price, retired 
warden and criminal justice professor.

It is free and open to the public and will take place in Legacy Hall in the 
Jack B. Kelley Student Center on WT's campus.

(source: KFDA news)








PENNSYLVANIA:

Saranchak leaves death row, will spend life behind bars



Daniel M. Saranchak, who murdered his grandmother and uncle in October 1993 in 
East Norwegian Township, will not be executed for his crimes, but will spend 
the rest of his life in prison after a Schuylkill County judge sentenced him on 
Monday.

Making it clear that he never wanted to deal with him again, Judge Cyrus Palmer 
Dolbin imposed 2 consecutive life sentences on Saranchak, 50, of Pottsville, 
for killing Stella Saranchock and Edmund "Edju" Saranchak, plus an additional 
25 to 50 years in a state correctional institution for other crimes.

"We're not going to try the case again," Dolbin told a combative Saranchak, who 
is serving his time at SCI/Greene and participated in the 30-minute hearing by 
videoconference. "This is the end of the road."

In Pennsylvania, a life sentence does not include a chance for parole.

Dolbin's resentencing of Saranchak, who made it clear that he disliked the 
judge, followed Angela M. Regnier, great-niece and cousin of the victims, 
describing the killer as a heartless man who tore 2 holes in his family.

"I have experienced heartache and loss," Regnier testified. "Stella and Edju 
were loved by many."

Monday's hearing ended a 25-year odyssey during which Saranchak came within 45 
minutes of execution before a federal judge spared his life.

Saranchak pleaded guilty on Sept. 1, 1994, before Dolbin to 2 counts each of 
criminal homicide, robbery, criminal solicitation and conspiracy, 4 of 
aggravated assault and 1 of burglary.

Dolbin then presided over a nonjury degree of guilt hearing with respect to the 
criminal homicide charges and, on Sept. 8, 1994, convicted Saranchak of 2 
counts of 1st-degree murder.

Saranchak opted to have a jury decide his sentence; jurors ruled Sept. 16, 
1994, that Saranchak should get the death penalty.

However, after many appeals in state and federal courts, a three-judge panel of 
the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2015 that Saranchak did not 
receive effective legal representation during the sentencing hearing before the 
jury and overturned his death sentence.

Saranchak was to be executed at 7 p.m. Nov. 8, 2000, at SCI/Rockview, Centre 
County, but the 3rd Circuit issued an order at 6:15 p.m., staying the death 
sentence to allow for additional appeals.

State police at Schuylkill Haven charged Saranchak and Roy W. Miles Jr., New 
Philadelphia, with entering the Five Points home of Stella Saranchock, 78, and 
her son, Edmund Saranchak, 57, between 10 p.m. Oct. 15, 1993, and 2 a.m. Oct. 
16 and shooting them. Stella Saranchock spelled her last name differently that 
her son did.

Miles pleaded guilty on Aug. 26, 1994, to third-degree murder and related 
offenses. Dolbin sentenced him on Oct. 31, 1994, to serve 11 to 40 years in a 
state correctional institution. Miles died on Sept. 18, 2017, at 
SCI/Huntingdon.

During Monday's hearing, Saranchak complained about both Dolbin and Jeffrey M. 
Markosky, Mahanoy City, his newest lawyer.

"You're still sitting on this case," but should not be, Saranchak said to 
Dolbin. He did not make clear why he wanted Dolbin removed from the case.

He also complained that Markosky has not adequately represented him.

"He's not going to appeal it," Saranchak said of Markosky's reaction to 
Dolbin's sentence. "He's done nothing."

During her testimony, Regnier asked Saranchak questions, to which he paid no 
attention.

"Did she say your name? Did she see you?" Regnier asked of his encounter with 
his grandmother. "I ask you 1 question, Daniel Michael Saranchak: Was it worth 
it?"

In addition to Regnier, her father, Robert Mestishen; Michele Saranchok-Parker, 
Edju's daughter and Stella's granddaughter; and Dolores Perzel, Edju's ex-wife, 
attended Monday's hearing, but none of them spoke during it.

Markosky and Senior Deputy Attorney General Andrew M. Notaristefano each 
declined to comment on the case after the hearing.

Defendant: Daniel M. Saranchak

Age: 50

Residence: Pottsville

Crimes committed: 2 counts each of criminal homicide, robbery, criminal 
solicitation and conspiracy, 4 of aggravated assault and 1 of burglary

Sentence: 2 consecutive life sentences plus an additional 25 to 50 years in a 
state correctional institution

(source: Republican Herald)








GEORGIA:

Judge denies delay in Columbus' only pending death-penalty trial



The death-penalty trial of Brandon David Conner remains only weeks away after 
Muscogee Superior Court Judge William Rumer denied a defense motion for a 
delay.

Accused of killing his girlfriend and their infant son before setting their 
home afire in 2014, Conner is set for trial Oct. 1.

Defense attorneys J. Mark Shelnutt and William Kendrick moved Aug. 17 to 
postpone the trial, saying they had not received crucial discovery evidence 
related to quality control and other administrative procedures at the Georgia 
Bureau of Investigation crime lab conducting DNA tests for the prosecution.

Rumer heard arguments on the motion Aug. 21, and issued an order denying the 
defense request Aug. 31.

The prosecution, led by District Attorney Julia Slater with the aid of Senior 
Assistant District Attorney Don Kelly and Assistant District Attorney Wesley 
Lambertus, argued the information the defense seeks is not covered under the 
law governing pretrial discovery, and must be obtained by other means, such an 
open-records request.

The case had been delayed before. It was set to go to trial in late January, 
but had to be postponed because some of the same attorneys were involved in 
another prominent case coming to trial in Judge Gil McBride's court, the brutal 
murders of a grandmother, son and granddaughter, found dead Jan. 4, 2016, in 
Columbus' Upatoi area.

Conner is accused of fatally stabbing girlfriend Rosella "Mandy" Mitchell, 32, 
and killing their 6-month-old son Dylan Ethan Conner before setting their 1324 
Winifred Lane home afire on Aug. 21, 2014.

On this past Aug. 21 - 4 years to the day after the bodies were discovered - 
Shelnutt and Kendrick argued they needed more time because the crime lab had 
not provided information on its administrative procedures, data a defense 
expert needs to judge the lab's performance.

The defense expert not only needed information, but also sufficient time to 
review it, to assist the attorneys in defending Conner, Shelnutt said.

Kelly told Rumer the courts have ruled a crime lab's internal documentation 
related to its operation is not subject the law on disclosing prosecution 
evidence, and the district attorney's office does not collect or maintain such 
records. The defense is supposed to get that information on its own, Kelly 
said.

The fire at Mitchell's Winifred Lane home was reported at 12:35 a.m. About 30 
minutes later, Officer Jason Swails saw Conner's blue 2001 BMW turn from 
Wynnton Road onto Cedar Avenue in midtown before Conner parked near Davis 
Broadcasting, where he worked. Conner then sat in the car for 10 minutes, the 
officer said.

Because of recent business burglaries in the area, Swails questioned Conner and 
saw the suspect was shaking and sweating, and apparently had blood on him, the 
officer said.

Conner told Swails he had just left work, which Swails didn't believe because 
he'd seen Conner turn off Wynnton Road and park. Conner then altered his story, 
claiming he'd left work to get some food, but changed his mind and returned, 
Swails said.

Swails arrested Conner for breaking a city law against lying to police. Because 
police routinely search suspects being detained, officers checked Conner's 
pockets, and found a bloody, yellow dishwashing glove, a bloody baby wipe, a 
cigarette lighter and an extended grill lighter.

Learning of the bodies found on Winifred Lane, they had Conner's BMW impounded, 
and got a warrant to search it. Inside they found a bag of bloody clothes, a 
bottle of bleach and a bent steak knife with blood on the handle, they said.

Arson investigators in 2014 searched the burned home with a dog that alerted to 
flammable liquids poured in 3 places. They also found a gas can stored in a 
closet. An autopsy revealed Mitchell was stabbed multiple times in the throat 
and torso. Authorities have not said how the infant died.

On April 14, 2015, a grand jury indicted Conner for murder, aggravated battery, 
1st-degree arson and using a knife to commit a crime. 6 days later, Slater 
filed notice she would seek the death penalty.

Conner's is the 2nd case in which she has sought the death penalty since taking 
office in 2009. The 1st was the fatal shooting of local radio disc jockey Heath 
Jackson during a burglary at his Carter Avenue home on Sept. 7, 2010.

In May 2013, defendant Ricardo Strozier pleaded guilty to Jackson's homicide 
and a string of related crimes. Judge Gil McBride sentenced him to life in 
prison without parole.

(source: ledger-enquirer.com)








LOUISIANA:

Death Row Inmate Whose Atty Admitted Guilt Gets New Trial



The Louisiana high court on Friday granted a death row inmate a new trial, 
finding that his lawyer's admissions of his client's guilt in the death of a 
child, made over the defendant's explicit objections, constituted ineffective 
counsel.

Referring to a recent U.S. Supreme Court opinion backing defendants' right to 
insist that their counsel not admit their guilt, the Louisiana court said that 
decision didn't just apply to situations in which a defendant maintains his or 
her "absolute innocence."

Considering an appeal brought by Brian Douglas Horn, the court agreed that 
Horn's Sixth Amendment rights were violated when his defense attorney told a 
state jury he wasn't asking for a not guilty verdict, only for a finding that 
the state hadn't demonstrated that Horn was guilty of first-degree murder, 
which would expose him to a possible death penalty.

The record of the case also demonstrates that Horn clearly objected to his 
lawyer's concession that he'd killed the child, the court said, and that Horn 
made the court aware of his disagreement with his lawyer's trial strategy both 
before and during a 2014 trial. Horn wanted his lawyer to argue that the 
killing was accidental, or negligent homicide.

"While conceding guilt in the hope of avoiding a death sentence may be a 
reasonable strategic decision in some cases, the decision to do so belongs to 
the defendant," the court said. "Defense counsel's decision to concede Mr. Horn 
was guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter over Mr. Horn's objections 
resulted in a structural error requiring this court to vacate defendant's 
conviction and sentence."

Horn, a convicted sex offender, was working as a taxi driver in 2010 when he 
lured 12-year-old Justin Bloxom via text message to his taxi by pretending to 
be a girl interested in a sexual encounter, according to the decision. Bloxom 
was later found dead in a pool of water off a highway.

Based on evidence including graphic cellphone messages between Horn and the 
victim, Horn was indicted by a DeSoto Parish grand jury on a charge of 
1st-degree murder while engaged in an aggravated kidnapping or 2nd-degree 
kidnapping.

In the pretrial stage, Horn filed a pro se motion asking for a hearing related 
to ineffective counsel and a disagreement with his lawyer on defense strategy. 
A state district court declined that motion.

During closing arguments at trial, Horn's then-attorney called his client's 
actions "awful" and emphasized that the defense wasn't contesting that Horn 
killed Bloxom, only that the state hadn't demonstrated the intent required to 
support a first-degree murder conviction.

"We know that Brian Horn killed Justin Bloxom," the lawyer said, according to 
excerpts of the trial transcript included in the high court order. Horn was 
found guilty and sentenced to death in 2014.

Among dozens of arguments Horn raised on appeal was a May decision from the 
U.S. Supreme Court in McCoy v. Louisiana granting a new trial for Robert McCoy, 
who also had been convicted of murder in Louisiana. That appeal also focused on 
McCoy's lawyer and trial admissions that McCoy had killed three family members, 
over the objections of his client. In that case, McCoy's attorney was pursuing 
arguments designed to limit his client's culpability through diminished mental 
capacity.

In the Horn appeal, the Louisiana court rejected the state's argument that the 
McCoy holding on a defendant's right to control case objectives was not 
controlling, even if Horn differed from McCoy in his desire to argue the plead 
to a different offense where McCoy had wanted complete exoneration.

"The fact that [Horn] instructed his attorney to admit guilt to this different 
crime as part of his defense objective did not give defense counsel the 
authority to admit guilt to the crime charged or the lesser-included crimes, 
and does not cause us to disregard the holding of McCoy," the opinion states.

Horn's lawyer in the appeal declined to comment.

Horn is represented by Blythe Taplin and Christopher Murell of The Capital 
Appeals Project.

The state is represented by Jeffrey Martin Landry, Colin Andrew Clark, Gary 
Evan and Kenneth Patrick Haines.

The case is State of Louisiana v. Brian Horn, case number 2016-KA-0559, in the 
Supreme Court of Louisiana.

(source: law360.com)





OKLAHOMA:

Death penalty sought for man charged in fatal beating of his child's mother



The Tulsa County District Attorney's Office announced Monday it is seeking the 
death penalty against a man accused of beating the mother of his child to death 
with a hammer last year.

Derrick Wayne Stith, 25, is the 5th defendant among 4 pending cases in which 
prosecutors have requested jurors have the option to consider capital 
punishment.

Stith is charged with 1st-degree murder over the Nov. 25 death of 21-year-old 
Kimberly Vo, whom he's accused of striking with a framing-style hammer at least 
50 times inside the couple's midtown Tulsa apartment.

A bill of particulars filed Monday morning - the same day as Stith's trial 
court arraignment - alleges Vo died in a manner that was especially heinous, 
atrocious or cruel and that there exists the probability Stith would be a 
continuing threat to society. The case has been assigned to District Judge 
Sharon Holmes.

Holmes entered a not-guilty plea on Stith's behalf and selected a jury trial 
date of Aug. 26, 2019. Both sides will also return to court April 29 for a 
status related to evidence exchange, or discovery.

Preliminary hearing testimony in March revealed Stith spoke on jailhouse phone 
calls about his hopes that his case would be reduced to manslaughter and that 
he lied to authorities about being under the influence of drugs when Vo was 
attacked.

Tulsa Police Detective Justin Ritter testified that the injuries in the case 
are "definitely the worst I've ever seen" from a beating.

Ritter said a hammer recovered from the apartment had a pattern that matched 
marks observed on Vo's body.

Last year, the state filed its intent to seek the death penalty against Gregory 
Epperson for his alleged role in the strangulation death of 19-year-old Kelsey 
Tennant in March 2017. Epperson's case is scheduled for a jury trial Dec. 3 
before District Judge Doug Drummond.

A separate death penalty case against Jacky Mayfield related to a double 
homicide at Chamberlain Park in June 2016 has a trial date set for Jan. 7 
before District Judge James Caputo.

Prosecutors also have sought the maximum punishment against Gerald Lowe and 
Michaela Riddle in connection with the gang-related beating death of 
23-year-old Courtney Palmer in November 2016. That case, also assigned to 
Holmes' courtroom, will go before a jury April 22.

(soruce: Tulsa World)








NEBRASKA:

Nebraska Legislative Committee Hears Need for Defense Standards in Death 
Penalty Cases



A Nebraska State Senator says Nebraska's decision to reinstate the death 
penalty means there should be accepted standards for defense counsel 
performance in capital cases.

The Nebraska Legislature's Judiciary Committee Friday considered the 
feasibility of adopting American Bar Association guidelines for appointment and 
performance of defense counsel in death penalty cases.

State Senator Adam Morfeld said 10 states have taken that step.

(source: KWBE news)








NEVADA:

Nevada high court says execution doctor's name stays secret



The name of the physician picked to attend a state inmate's execution can 
remain secret, even from drug makers suing to ban the use of their products in 
the twice-postponed lethal injection, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled Monday.

In a twist, lawyers for three pharmaceutical companies who won the right to 
obtain the name last week - and had promised to sue the doctor once they got it 
- told a judge in Las Vegas that they welcomed Monday's high court order.

Attorney Todd Bice, representing drug firm Alvogen, told Clark County District 
Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez the high court decision to protect the doctor's 
identity, coupled with a recent sworn statement from Nevada prisons chief James 
Dzurenda, bolsters companies' arguments that their business would be hurt if 
their drugs are used.

"We aren't going to get into the identity of the doctor. We do intend to argue 
strongly that having your name associated with capital punishment is harmful to 
reputations," Bice said. "The director testified that it would be ruinous of 
the doctor's reputation."

Gonzalez had ruled last week that drug companies could learn the name, but it 
would not be disclosed to the public.

The turnabout came on a day of boundary-setting decisions a day ahead of 
hearings on the drug companies' contentions that Nevada improperly obtained 
their drugs for a use the companies don't allow.

Gonzalez plans three days of testimony on a lawsuit by Alvogen that stopped the 
July execution of Scott Raymond Dozier. The case was later joined by Hikma 
Pharmaceuticals USA and Sandoz Inc.

State Supreme Court justices are watching developments before Gonzalez ahead of 
oral arguments next week on the state's bid to put Dozier's execution back on 
track for a yet-to-be-determined date in mid-November.

15 states are siding with Nevada in the state Supreme Court fight against the 
drug companies, led by Oklahoma and including Nebraska, where an inmate was put 
to death last month.

They argue that similar drug company challenges amount to a tactic in a 
"guerrilla war against the death penalty" aiming to thwart the will of voters 
in the 31 states with capital punishment.

Nevada's trouble obtaining drugs from companies that don't want to be 
associated with capital punishment, its attempts to fashion a protocol using 
medications it found and the challenges it has faced in court has made Nevada a 
model of the trouble that death penalty states have had carrying out lethal 
injections.

Dozier's execution was postponed last November and again in July by legal 
challenges to the choice of drugs and the procedures developed for what would 
be Nevada's 1st execution since 2006.

The state's lethal injection protocol calls for using the sedative midazolam, 
made by Alvogen, followed by lethal doses of the powerful opioid fentanyl made 
by Hikma and then the muscle paralytic cisatracurium produced by Sandoz.

Nebraska used a similar sedative, diazepam, followed by fentanyl, cisatracurium 
and a 4th drug, potassium chloride, that is not part of Nevada's planned 3-drug 
protocol.

Gonzalez did not immediately decide Monday on a new bid by the state to dismiss 
the drug makers' claims outright. She scheduled another hearing Oct. 2 on that 
question, saying she expects her eventual decision will also be appealed to the 
state high court.

Dozier, 47, was sentenced to die in 2007 for murder convictions in killings in 
Phoenix and Las Vegas. He has given up court challenges, insists he wants to 
die and says he doesn't care if it's painful.

(source: Associated Press)








ARIZONA:

8 or 9 homicide victims? Lawyers ask about the murder left off their client's 
indictment



On Dec. 11, 2017, Liliana Vasquez found her brother dead in his bedroom in the 
Avondale apartment they shared with another sister and their children.

Jesus Real, 25, had been shot twice in the face, probably while he slept.

Liliana went to find her sister Griselda, and they called Real's girlfriend, 
Desaree Coronado, and then returned to the apartment. Coronado called police.

Police immediately suspected Liliana's boyfriend, Cleophus Cooksey, a would-be 
rapper and ex-convict.

8 days later, at a press conference in downtown Phoenix, Mayor Greg Stanton 
stood with the police chiefs of Phoenix, Glendale and Avondale and other 
municipal and federal law enforcement officials to announce Cooksey's arrests 
for 9 murders over a 3-week shooting spree in November and December. The 
victims included Cooksey's mother and stepfather.

And Jesus Real.

The mayor and the law enforcement officials spoke confidently about how all the 
murders had been linked by the most up-to-date ballistic testing. It seemed 
likely that Cooksey killed Real. He was allegedly a frequent overnight guest of 
Liliana Vasquez in the apartment where Real was killed. She told police she had 
broken up with Cooksey the night before. They tracked his phone calls and his 
whereabouts.

But when a grand jury brought up an indictment against Cooksey on March 1, 
there were only eight murders listed. Real was no longer included.

And in subsequent legal documents, the prosecution said Real's death was 
immaterial to the death-penalty case against Cooksey. Capital cases crawl 
slowly through the legal system, usually taking years and years to come to 
trial.

On Aug. 24, Gary Beren and Stephen Kunkel, attorneys for Cooksey, raised some 
obvious questions: Where is the evidence relating to the murder of Jesus Real? 
And if the ballistics so closely matched those of the other 8 murders, why was 
Cooksey not charged with that death?

Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Susie Charbel responded that the murder is 
still under investigation, and she called the motion for disclosure a "fishing 
expedition."

And though nobody mentioned the obvious in the court papers, maybe Real's death 
just complicates prosecution strategy: All of the other murders - Parker Smith, 
Andrew Remillard, Salim Richards, Latorrie Beckford, Kristopher Cameron, Maria 
Villanueva, Rene Cooksey and Edward Nunn - seemed to have been carried out by a 
lone wolf.

Cooksey was arrested on Dec. 17, immediately after police say he shot the last 
2 victims, his mother and stepfather. Neighbors heard him arguing with Nunn and 
screaming about the devil before shots were fired, and police found the bodies 
on the other side of the apartment screen door when they forced their way past 
Cooksey.

But Real's death had 3 possible witnesses after the fact - the Vasquez sisters 
and Coronado. They were initially arrested and charged with hindering 
prosecution, tampering with evidence and false reporting. Then the charges 
disappeared, and apparently, so did the 3 women.

According to police reports, the officers who responded to Real's murder saw a 
phone charger and earbuds near the body, but no cellphone. The 3 women denied 
knowing what happened to the phone.

Police got a warrant to track the phone, and for several days there was no GPS 
signal coming from it because the phone was obviously turned off. But when it 
was powered up again, investigators followed the signal to a Goodyear motel, 
where they found Coronado and the Vasquez sisters.

Coronado had the phone in her sweater. Coronado, who was Real's girlfriend and 
the mother of at least 1 of his children, said that she wanted to protect 
personal photos and messages in the phone.

Liliana at first was evasive about when she had last seen or heard from Cooksey 
and then admitted to police that she had spoken to him the day after the 
murder, according to a probable cause statement by police after her arrest. She 
told police that Cooksey slept there several nights a week but that she had 
broken off their relationship the night before.

The probable cause statement for Cooksey as it related to Real's death stated 
that he had made 2 phone calls and sent a text message, though whether he was 
communicating with the victim or the women was redacted out of the report. 
According to records, 6 cellphones were confiscated.

All 3 women were arrested, taken to jail and had initial appearances in the 
jail's courtroom that were recorded on the court's video system.

In their probable cause submittal to the courts, Avondale police claimed the 
weapon used to kill Real matched one stolen from another of the murder victims 
linked to Cooksey, and upon questioning, Cooksey said he knew "something" had 
happened in Avondale.

Then came the Jan. 18 press conference.

Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams talked about the 9 homicide victims.

"9 deaths, 3 weeks, 9 people shot in our communities in Avondale, Glendale and 
Phoenix," she said. Then she read their names, including Real's.

A public information officer from Avondale Police Department spoke specifically 
about Real.

"Our detectives continued to investigate what happened by collecting evidence, 
physical evidence through forensic science and witness statements we were able 
to develop probable cause for Mr. Cooksey in this case," he told the reporters 
at the press conference.

But when the indictment was handed up in March, Real was not among the victims. 
Coronado and the Vasquez sisters were never charged with evidence tampering or 
hindering prosecution.

Beren and Kunkel would not comment on their filing, titled "Motion for 
Disclosure of Brady Material."

Brady refers to a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case, Brady vs. Maryland, which says 
that prosecutors must turn over evidence that may exonerate defendants in 
criminal cases.

"Perhaps the government's evidence regarding Mr. Real points to a perpetrator 
other than Mr. Cooksey," they wrote. "Perhaps the 9 murders are not linked by 
ballistics evidence. Whatever the truth, defense counsel are entitled to know 
all the information that undermined the government's boast that ballistics 
evidence linked all 9 deaths to Mr. Cooksey.

"Knowing the investigative flaw(s) that led the government to no longer allege 
that Mr. Cooksey killed Mr. Real may reveal similar flaws in the investigations 
undergirding the charges that Mr. Cooksey faces."

On Aug. 29, Charbel filed a response that said, "The homicide of Jesus Real is 
an ongoing police investigation and is not part of the current indictment."

And, "There is nothing in the defendant's motion that suggests the information 
is somehow material to the current, pending charges," she wrote.

"This motion is nothing more than a 'fishing expedition,' expressly forbidden 
(by law)," she wrote.

County Attorney Bill Montgomery agreed that his office has to disclose only 
information for crimes that are charged, not for those they chose not to 
charge.

In an email to The Arizona Republic, he wrote, "In our Response, (Charbel) 
makes clear that the Real case is an ongoing investigation. She does not say 
there was no crime. She makes clear that our Brady obligation is centered on 
'the particular crimes with which the defendant is charged.' That is accurate. 
The case posture reflects murders that meet our charging standard and can be 
constitutionally joined for one trial."

Cooksey is scheduled to be back in Maricopa County Superior Court on Oct. 1.

(source: azcentral.com)








WASHINGTON:

Fact: Kids under 16 are not death-penalty eligible



To the editor -- In your Sept. 5 article on Luis Medina-Beltran's murder case, 
Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Brusic is quoted as stating "Looking 
at all the facts and circumstances of the first 15 years of his life, he's not 
eligible for the death penalty." As an academic scholar on the death penalty, I 
want the public to know this isn't the toughness tempered by mercy that it may 
look like. In fact, Brusic is billowing hot smoke.

Medina-Beltran was 15 years old when the murder he is accused of committing 
happened. It is likely no solace for the family of the teen who was killed, but 
the Supreme Court barred the death penalty for kids under 16 way back in 1988, 
in a decision called Thompson v. Oklahoma. Even before that, sentencing 
children to death in America was virtually unheard of in the much of the 20th 
century. In 2005, the Supreme Court banned the death penalty for juveniles 
entirely. Washington State courts have to abide the Supreme Court on these 
matters, and its statutes reflect that.

Too often, elected local prosecutors like Mr. Brusic manipulate the public's 
lack of knowledge about the law to fit an agenda. He could be trying to appear 
"tough" for his re-election efforts or bolster his personal stance on the death 
penalty issue. Crime victims are the ones who lose, as he is giving them false 
expectations on what to expect from the justice system.

RORY FLEMING

St. Paul, Minn.

(source: Letter to the Editor, Yakima Herald)