[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., N.C., FLA., ALA., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

March 26



TEXAS----impending execution

Lookout Man for 'Texas 7' Set for Execution----Pending final appeals, Patrick 
Murphy, who was convicted under the controversial law of parties after playing 
lookout during a deadly store robbery, is set to be executed on Thursday at the 
Huntsville “Walls” Unit.



He’s one of the last surviving members of the notorious ‘Texas 7’ prison 
escapees.

Pending final appeals, Patrick Murphy, who was convicted under the 
controversial law of parties after playing lookout during a deadly store 
robbery, is set to be executed on Thursday at the Huntsville “Walls” Unit. The 
law of parties states that a person can be held criminally responsible for the 
actions of another if in the attempt to commit one felony, another felony is 
committed by one of the conspirators.

Murphy would be the 6th member of the 'Texas 7' group to die, and 5th to be put 
to death by the state of Texas. The final member, Randy Ethan Halprin, has yet 
to have his date with death scheduled.

Murphy and Halprin were both convicted after a December 2000 escape from the 
TDCJ John B. Connally Unit in Karnes County. Murphy was serving a 50-year 
sentence for aggravated assault at the time of the escape.

Court testimony shows that once the group of inmates escaped the South Texas 
prison they committed numerous robberies, including the one in which they shot 
Dallas suburban police officer Aubrey Hawkins 11 times, killing him. Testimony 
shows that Hawkins had just finished Christmas Eve dinner with his family when 
he responded to the call about the robbery at a sporting goods store and was 
ambushed.

The escaped inmates were eventually arrested in Colorado, ending a 6-week 
manhunt with the help of the television show America’s Most Wanted. One of the 
7 escapees killed himself as officers closed in and the other 6 were arrested 
and convicted of killing Hawkins and sentenced to death.

The “ringleader,” George Rivas was executed on February 29, 2012. Michael 
Anthony Rodriguez was executed on August 14, 2008, Donald Newbury was executed 
on February 4, 2015 and Joseph Garcia was executed on December 4, 2018.

Murphy currently has a motion for a stay pending with the Texas Court of 
Criminal Appeals, which was filed last week after the court refused to 
reconsider a motion for relief. No appeals are pending with the United States 
Supreme Court with the last motion denied in November 2018.

“At Murphy’s 2003 trial, there was no testimony at any point that he was 
suspected of having fired a weapon during the robbery,” Murphy’s attorney David 
R. Dow said in an appeal earlier this month. “Rather, the government’s theory 
was that Murphy served as the lookout during the robbery.”

(source: The Huntsville Item)

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

Condemned man pulled no trigger



On March 28, the State of Texas is planning to execute Patrick Murphy. Although 
he was present in the building when Officer Audrey Hawkins was murdered in the 
Dallas area, he was not the shooter.

Murphy is being executed because he was one of the “Texas 7,” the name given to 
the 7 men who in 2000 organized the largest prison breakout in Texas history. 
After escaping from prison, the men broke into a sporting goods store where 
Hawkins was killed.

The ringleader of the escape, George Rivas, later admitted to shooting the 
officer. Murphy was on the other side of the building as the lookout and, while 
he warned the others when Hawkins arrived, there was no indication he ever 
fired a shot.

If executed, he will die because of the law of parties. The law states that a 
person is criminally responsible for the actions of another if they are engaged 
in a conspiracy. Patrick Murphy is the second-to-last remaining member of the 
notorious “Texas 7.”

Two bills are currently being considered by the state legislature that would 
remove the death penalty as a sentencing option for those convicted of capital 
murder as a party under Section 7.02(b) of the Texas Penal Code, which if 
passed would update the law of parties.

I am a crime victim. My mother was murdered in Houston in 1991 and I am against 
the death penalty.

I guess, looking back, I can see how a group of people could be equally 
culpable for a crime. I recall when as a teen that my friend and I had 
purchased matching knives. One night we carried them out with us when we went 
to a Taco Bell. A guy from another group looked at us funny and things almost 
escalated. It was in that moment that I could see how just having a weapon, for 
some people, could cause an incident to escalate.

This isn’t the case for Murphy. He was not at the scene of the crime when the 
killing occurred. He had no idea the group was going to kill Hawkins and 
therefore was not guilty of that crime.

So what is proven by killing Murphy? That Texas has stricter laws than any 
other state? That we are more bloodthirsty and we will seek out revenge at any 
cost — no matter what the circumstances?

Anybody can kill. It takes a wiser, more learned person, to sit back and 
evaluate the circumstances and determine when not to use force. This is one of 
those times.

Please do your part in getting rid of the law of parties by contacting the 
governor and the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole to see that this man does 
not die for a crime he did not commit. End this outdated law.

Let’s use our brains and stop killing innocent people under the guise of 
justice.

Call Gov. Greg Abbot at 512-463-2000 and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles 
at 512-406-5452 to make a difference.

(source:Chris Castillo is coordinator of chaplain volunteers with the Catholic 
Diocese of Beaumont and a member of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death 
Penalty----Port Arthus News)

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

Death penalty case moved to September



Denton County prosecutors are still pushing the death penalty for Daniel Greco 
of Little Elm for allegedly murdering a pregnant woman in 2016, but they’ll 
have to wait until September before a jury trial begins.

Greco is accused of strangling and stabbing Little Elm woman Anjanette Kristina 
Harris, 40, to death in 2016. Authorities say Harris was pregnant at the time 
of her killing. Greco allegedly dumped Harris’ body in a wooded area.

After a hearing Monday morning in Judge Jonathan Bailey’s 431st District Court, 
Greco’s jury trial was again postponed, this time to September, with jury 
selection to begin sometime this summer, said Michael Moore, chief of the 
Denton County District Attorney’s Office felony trial division.

Greco is charged with capital murder. It is the 1st case since 2011 in which 
Denton County prosecutors have sought the death penalty, officials said.

(source: Denton Record-Chronicle)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----42

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----560

Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #

43---------Mar. 28----------------Patrick Murphy----------561

44---------Apr. 11----------------Mark Robertson----------562

45---------Apr. 24----------------John King---------------563

46---------May 2------------------Dexter Johnson----------564

47---------Aug. 21----------------Larry Swearingen--------565

48---------Sept. 4----------------Billy Crutsinger--------566

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)








DELAWARE:

Rehoboth Reads to host death penalty discussion April 16



Rehoboth Reads will host “A Conversation About the Death Penalty with Judy 
Catterton” with writer and legal expert Judy Catterton from 5:30 to 7 p.m. 
April 16 at Rehoboth Beach Public Library, 226 Rehoboth Ave., as part of the 
events surrounding its “One Book, One Community” project.

This presentation will include a history of the death penalty in the U.S., 
arguments made by proponents, arguments made by opponents, considerations of 
racial disparity, costs both economic and emotional, and current issues before 
the courts.

Rehoboth Reads is a new project that involves the city-wide reading and 
discussion of a single book. The book selected for 2019 is Bryan Stevenson’s 
“Just Mercy,” the true story of an idealistic young lawyer who tries to 
overcome inequalities in the justice system. One of the cases in the book 
concerns Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious 
murder he insisted he didn’t commit.

Catterton practiced law in the Washington, D.C., area for more than 35 years, 
where she served as a prosecutor and chief of a Major Offender Bureau before 
becoming a partner in Catterton, Kemp and Mason. She served as president of the 
Maryland Criminal Defense Attorneys Association, was a consultant to the 
Maryland Office of the Public Defender and is a fellow in the American College 
of Trial Lawyers, an organization that allows 1 percent of all a state’s 
lawyers to be nominated.

Catterton taught criminal procedure and trial practice, has lectured and is 
considered an expert on capital punishment. She writes and publishes essays 
describing her work with death row inmates.

The event is free, but space is limited so reservations are strongly 
encouraged.

For registration and more, visit rehobothreads.com/events.

(source: sussexcountian.com)








NORTH CAROLINA:

James Bradley faces death penalty in alleged murder of Elisha Tucker



After 23 witnesses, 185 pieces of evidence and a jury selection process that 
lasted more than a month, closing arguments started Monday in the third murder 
trial of James Opleton Bradley.

Bradley, 56, is charged with 1st-degree murder in the death of Elisha Tucker, 
found bludgeoned to death at age 33 in 2014.

Tucker had been missing from Wilmington since August 2013, 5 months after 
Bradley, a former Army sergeant, was released from prison after serving 23 
years in the Fayetteville killing of his 8-year-old stepdaughter, Ivy Gipson.

Police found Tucker’s body while searching for another missing Wilmington 
woman: Shannon Rippy Van Newkirk, 53, last seen April 5, 2014, while walking to 
a downtown Wilmington bar. Van Newkirk’s body has never been found, but Bradley 
was convicted of 2nd-degree murder in her presumed death in 2017.

But Bradley’s conviction in Rippy’s murder was not admissible evidence in his 
current trial. One juror, who on Monday morning accidentally heard TV coverage 
of Bradley’s trial and conviction in Rippy’s death, had to be dismissed Monday.

Ben David, District Attorney for New Hanover and Pender counties, laid out the 
state’s argument for convicting Bradley of first-degree murder. If the jury 
condemns Bradley to the death penalty, he will be the 1st person from the 
region sent to death row in 15 years.

David walked the jury back through the grisly discovery of Tucker’s body in 
April 2014, when she was found buried in a field in Pender County, bound in 
duct tape inside trash bags.

“Elisha Tucker is gone, and now we know exactly what happened to her,” David 
said.

Tucker’s autopsy, David told the jury, showed she had four broken ribs. Her 
head had been bludgeoned four times with a blunt object, or slammed against 
something. By the time her body reached the autopsy table, there was no blood 
left in it.

But there was blood -- lots of it -- in Bradley’s truck, David said. 
Investigators were able to match it with Tucker’s DNA profile.

Timeline

June 9, 1988: Law enforcement officers say James Bradley kills his 8-year-old 
stepdaughter, Ivy Gipson. Bradley, who tells police she never came home from 
school, wraps the girl’s body in trash bags and places her in a dumpster that 
is emptied at a Fayetteville landfill.

Jan. 22, 1990: Bradley, in custody since his arrest days after Gipson’s 
killing, pleads in her death. He is sentenced to life with parole after 25 
years. North Carolina has since done away with parole on newer cases.

Feb. 11, 2013: Bradley is released on parole from the N.C. Department of 
Corrections.

April 5, 2014: Shannon Rippy Van Newkirk is last seen at The Husk bar at the 
corner of Front and Dock streets.

April 7, 2014: Van Newkirk is reported missing.

April 15, 2014: After reviewing traffic camera footage, WPD investigators serve 
a search warrant on Bradley’s Flint Drive apartment, phone and red Tahoe. His 
story, they have since testified, changes several times. He is read his Miranda 
rights and interviewed at police headquarters. He tells police he was with Van 
Newkirk on April 5, but that the 2 argued and she jumped out of his truck at 
Greenfield Lake Park and ran off.

April 29, 2014: Wilmington Police Department investigators unearth a woman’s 
body -- bound with duct tape and wrapped in trash bags -- buried in a Hampstead 
field. They believe it is Van Newkirk. Bradley is arrested during a traffic 
stop. He is charged with first-degree murder in the presumed death of Van 
Newkirk.

May 1, 2014: Police announce the body found in Hampstead is not Van Newkirk’s.

May 12, 2014: The Hampstead body is identified as that of Elisha Tucker of 
Wilmington, last seen in August 2013.

July 21, 2016: A judge rules the jury in Bradley’s trial in Van Newkirk’s 
presumed death will hear about Ivy’s killing, the discovery of Tucker’s body 
and 2 short stories Bradley wrote about serial killers.

Dec. 5, 2016: A grand jury indicts Bradley in Tucker’s killing.

Jan. 9, 2017: DA announces he intends to seek death penalty in Tucker’s 
killing.

June 29, 2017: Jury finds Bradley guilty of second-degree murder in presumed 
death of Van Newkirk.

Jan. 22, 2019: Jury selection begins in Bradley’s murder trial for the killing 
of Elisha Tucker.

David also noted that the tape used to bind Tucker matched a roll of tape found 
under Bradley’s old apartment at 2505 Flint Drive.

At multiple points Monday, defense attorney Geoffrey Hosford motioned for a 
mistrial, arguing that David was improperly instructing the jury and that he 
had made improper references to Rippy’s murder.

When David showed jurors a copy of the verdict sheet and asked them not to 
choose 2nd-degree murder, Hosford argued that David was implying the defense 
was pushing for that conviction. As in any trial, the burden of proof rests 
with the prosecution.

“He’s telling them that we asked for it,” Hosford said. “That’s improper, 
that’s not truthful, that’s not the law. That’s a mistrial, your honor.”

Hosford’s motion was denied, but the lengthy disagreement meant David’s closing 
statement had to be interrupted by a lunch break.

David did reference Rippy’s disappearance in his closing arguments Monday.

“Wherever she is, we will never stop looking,” David said.

The trial was to resume later Monday afternoon.

(source: Wilmington Star News)

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

Death-penalty defendant lashes out at victim’s family in court before deputies 
remove him



In handcuffs and chained around the waist, accused killer Jonathan Sander 
lashed out at the elderly father and husband of the victims of the triple 
slaying during court Monday afternoon.

On the 1st day of his death penalty trial, Sander loudly interrupted Salvatore 
Mazzella on the witness stand as Mazzella recalled his wife dying of shotgun 
wounds.

“You’re telling me I blasted through the door 5 times?” Sander yelled. “You 
killed your family, and you’re going down for it!”

The jury was taken out of the courtroom, then Superior Court Judge Graham 
Shirley warned Sander that he had one more chance to be civil or he would be 
watching his trial from a holding cell.

Jonathan Sander shot his next-door neighbor and business partner, along with 
his wife and mother, out of small disputes that snowballed into rage, telling 
investigators, “I wanted to kill him so that his family would be hurt like my 
family was,” prosecutors said Monday.

The death penalty case began against Sander, who was 52 at the time of the 
triple slaying in 2016, with a description of the steady disintegration of his 
friendship with Sandy Mazzella, 47, with whom he operated a landscaping and 
lawn care business near Wake Forest.

Mazzella, his wife Stephanie and his 76-year-old mother Elaine died from 
shotgun blasts in their home on Clearsprings Drive.

Sander and the Mazzellas were close enough that their families took vacations 
together, Assistant District Attorney Stacy Newton said. But the friendship 
began to sour over petty disagreements such as who watched the children while 
they were vacationing in Gatlinburg, Tenn., grew larger when the Mazzellas’ 
finances strained the business and other members of their family got added into 
the landscaping mix, and finally erupted once a member of the Mazzella family, 
a minor, accused Sander of inappropriately touching her, Sander’s attorney 
Thomas Manning said.

Manning said his client denied killing the Mazzellas but noted events in which 
“there were epithets hurled” and “the temperature went up on the Internet.” He 
indicated Sander would testify during the trial.

Both sides noted that Sandy Mazzella and his father Sal tried to obtain 
permanent restraining orders against Sander — cases that a district court judge 
dismissed on the day before the shootings.

Police responded to a dispute between the families on the morning of the 
shootings, issuing Sander’s wife a citation for blocking a driveway. Later, 
Newton said, Sander went to a Buffalo Brothers in Wake Forest where he was a 
regular customer, telling a bartender that served him his customary Shock Top 
beer he “would see him on the news the next day.”

Sander shot his way into the house, shot Sandy Mazzella 3 times, his wife 2 
times and his mother twice, Newton said. He spoke to deputies afterward, having 
been read his rights, and told them he wanted to cause the Mazzella family 
similar pain, Newton said.

“He told police, ‘When I shot Sandy, I felt like I got my revenge,’ “ Newton 
said.

Monday’s trial marks the 2nd time Wake County has sought the death penalty this 
year, an increasingly rare punishment in North Carolina. The state has not 
executed a prisoner since 2006, and juries more often opt for life in prison.

Earlier in March, a jury sentenced Seaga Gillard to death for 2 murders that 
stemmed from a string of robberies involving sex workers at Raleigh motels.

District Attorney Lorrin Freeman has said her office reserves capital 
punishment for a small percentage of the most egregious cases, but the 
nonprofit Center for Death Penalty Litigation has called her an “outlier” for 
bucking the statewide trend.

(source: newsobserver.com)








FLORIDA:

Florida Man Who Took Plea to Avoid Death Penalty Posthumously Exonerated of 
1983 Rape-Murder

Broward County, Florida prosecutors moved to posthumously exonerate Ronald 
Stewart of a rape and murder he did not commit. Stewart pled no contest to the 
1983 rape and murder of Regina Harrison after he was threatened with the death 
penalty. The actual killer, whose guilt has since been confirmed by DNA 
testing, went on to murder at least 2 more women after Harrison.

On March 21, 2019, prosecutors released a statement announcing that they were 
seeking to overturn Stewart’s conviction in Harrison’s rape and murder after 
the confession of another man, Jack Jones, led them to test DNA evidence from 
the case. “Although Stewart is now deceased, it is appropriate that the record 
be corrected at this time to reflect the results of the new information and 
evidence uncovered since November 2018,” Broward State Attorney’s Office 
spokeswoman Paula McMahon said in a joint news release with the Hollywood 
Police Department. “It is also important to try to determine if Jones killed 
other victims. … We regret that [Stewart] pleaded no contest to a murder he did 
not commit and that this diverted attention from the real killer.”

Stewart’s no-contest plea was not an admission of guilt. At his sentencing, his 
lawyer told the court, "Rather than, you know, run the risk of the death 
penalty, he chose to enter this plea." Counsel pointed out that the evidence of 
guilt was weak, since fingerprints from the crime scene did not match Stewart 
and key testimony came from unreliable jailhouse informants. However, Stewart 
feared that he would be sentenced to death because he had previously been 
convicted of a series of rapes. He was serving concurrent 50-year sentences for 
Harrison’s murder and 3 other rapes when he died in prison in 2008.

The re-examination of the case came as a result of a letter written by Arkansas 
death-row prisoner Jack Jones, prior to his 2017 execution. Jones sent his 
sister the letter with instructions not to read it for a year after his death. 
In that letter, Jones confessed to Harrison’s murder, writing, "So, you just 
let [Harrison’s family] know that I am deeply sorry, that I couldn’t rest easy 
until they knew the truth. Let them know that in the end I became a better 
person, and I did the best I could to be as much as I could for others, out of 
respect for the ones I’ve harmed." His sister gave the letter to detective John 
Curcio, who reopened the investigation and had DNA evidence tested. In 1991, 
Jones killed Lori Barrett, a tourist who was visiting Fort Lauderdale. 4 years 
later, he murdered Mary Phillips in Arkansas.

The case is one of a growing number of exonerations in which the threat of the 
death penalty has induced false confessions or caused innocent defendants to 
enter guilty or no-contest pleas to crimes they did not commit. Recent 
high-profile examples of this phenomenon include the Beatrice 6 in Nebraska and 
the Norfolk 4 in Virginia.

(source: Death Penalty Information Center)








ALABAMA:

U.S. Supreme Court rejects petition of Nick Acklin, on death row for 1996 
‘cellphone murders’



The U.S. Supreme Court Monday declined to hear arguments in the case of Nick 
Acklin, one of the men convicted in the 1996 cellphone torture-murders off 
University Drive.

Acklin, who is facing the death penalty, contends his lawyer had a conflict of 
interest.

Acklin and Joey Wilson both received death sentences for the 1996 murders of 4 
people and the wounding of 2 more in a case still remembered for its brutality. 
A 3rd man charged in the case, Corey Johnson, served 15 years in prison on a 
felony murder charge before being released in 2011.

Among those killed, AL.com reported, were Bryan Carter, 21; Michael Beaudette, 
19; Johnny Couch, 18; and Lamar Hemphill, 21. Michelle Hayden, then 17, was 
shot in her face, elbow and abdomen. Ashley Rutherford, then 22, was shot in 
the back of the head and survived by pretending he was dead.

Johnson is facing an unrelated capital murder charge for the November 2016 
stabbing death of his girlfriend, Candy Wilson, the sister of Joey Wilson.

Acklin’s petition to the U.S. Supreme Court was co-authored by Donald Verrilli, 
a former Solicitor General of the United States.

It said the case presented the following question to the court:

"Whether a criminal defendant is deprived of his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment 
rights to conflict-free counsel when his lawyer is paid by a third party; the 
third party threatens to withhold payment unless the lawyer conducts the 
defense in a manner that serves the third party’s interests; the lawyer does 
not inform his client or the court of the conflict; and the lawyer in fact 
conducts the defense in a manner that serves the third party payer’s interests 
and sacrifices the client’s interests."

The argument focused on the fact that Acklin’s father had a long history of 
violent abuse of Acklin, his mother and his brothers. Shortly before trial, his 
attorney, Behrouz Rahmati learned about it and wanted to raise the issue during 
the sentencing phase.

But, according to the court filing, Acklin’s father, who had paid about $3,000 
toward Acklin’s defense, strongly objected – telling Rahmati “You tell Nick if 
he wants to go down this road, I’m done with him” and “done with helping with 
this.”

Rahmati later told Nick Acklin he wanted to raise the issue, but Acklin told 
him no. The court filing says Rahmati got Acklin to sign a waiver confirming 
that he told Rahmati not to use the abuse evidence during Acklin’s trial and 
sentencing.

The abuse issue wasn’t raised during Acklin’s trial; instead, there was 
testimony Acklin came from a loving home.

The Supreme Court filing argued that Acklin’s lawyer didn’t do enough to raise 
the issue, and the father’s payments created a conflict of interest which 
denied Acklin effective counsel and a fair trial.

Acklin’s attorneys contend if the details of the abuse he and his family 
suffered were raised, the jury’s recommendation of a death sentence, by a 10-2 
vote, might not have happened.

In opposing the petition the state of Alabama argued Acklin told his lawyer not 
to raise the issue, so it was his clear choice not to present the abuse 
evidence.

Acklin and Wilson remain on death row.

(source: WHNT news)








LOUISIANA:

Murder trial for man who allegedly killed Shreveport Police Officer Thomas 
LaValley begins



The trial in the murder of Shreveport Police Officer Thomas LaValley started 
Monday with jury selection.

LaValley, 29, was an SPD officer for four years before he was killed. He was a 
KTBS sportscaster and videographer prior to becoming a police officer.

In August of 2015, Grover Cannon, 27 at the time, allegedly shot and killed 
LaValley at a residence in the Queensborough neighborhood. LaValley was 
answering an emergency call when he was shot.

A day after LaValley was shot, Cannon was charged and booked at the Caddo 
Correctional Center on first-degree murder charges. He was indicted by a grand 
jury in October 2015 and faces the death penalty if convicted. His trial has 
been rescheduled multiple times. He’s been incarcerated for more than 3 years.

Cannon was 28 years old in September 2016, when he received his first sanity 
evaluation at Caddo Correctional Center. The evaluation lasted two hours, 
according to documents filed in First Judicial District Court. The prosecution 
provided Cannon’s personal history and copies of police reports on four pending 
cases against Cannon for the evaluation.

“He denied any history of physical, sexual or emotional abuse, but said at the 
time of his birth, the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck,” a doctor 
wrote in the report. Cannon was first arrested at the age of 13 for possession 
of a stolen vehicle. At 19 years old, he was incarcerated for 2 years in the 
Department of Corrections for burglary.

Although Cannon had some training to be a barber, his education doesn’t really 
reach beyond seventh-grade level, according to reports. He has a 10-year-old 
and 11-year-old daughter.

“(I’m) not to take no time for nothing I didn’t do,” Cannon is quoted in a 
report.

The court found Cannon competent to stand trial in November 2016. He was 
evaluated again in 2018 and the evaluator testified he was competent, according 
to court transcripts filed in December.

In September 2015, Cannon requested an audio recording from the SPD that he 
said would exonerate him. The defense claimed the recording was the only 
evidence of probable cause the prosecution had. The state said Cannon wasn’t 
entitled to the evidence and Judge Ramona Emanuel denied the request.

“The ‘audiotape recording’ while compelling and clearly demonstrative of the 
cold natured execution of officer LeValley, is by no means ‘the only evidence 
the state has to show probable cause,’” reads a motion filed by the 
prosecution.

Cannon is represented by the Capital Defense Project of Southeast Louisiana 
(CDP), a non-profit law office in New Orleans that represents impoverished 
people who face the death penalty. Kimya Holmes is the lead lawyer on his 
defense team.

Terry Cuccia, Director of the Capital Defense Project, said it wouldn't be 
appropriate to discuss the case at this stage of the proceeding.

The jury that will hear Cannon’s trial is being selected in East Baton Rouge 
because of pre-trial publicity. The case had a great deal of broadcast 
attention. Early this year, close to the time the trial was scheduled to start, 
SPD officer Chatéri Payne was shot and killed while in uniform.

“The defense believed, and the judge agreed, it would be impossible to select a 
jury without being influenced,” said John Prime, spokesman for the Caddo 
District Attorney’s Office.

3 assistant district attorneys and support personnel are in Baton Rouge for the 
jury selection, Prime said. The size of a jury pool varies according to the 
size of a city. In a city larger than Shreveport, like Baton Rouge, a jury 
selection pool could reach more than 100 people. Jury selection is likely to 
last at least 3 days. 12 people will be selected as jurors and at least 2 
alternatives.

Prime said he didn’t know on what criteria the jury is being selected, but jury 
members determined to have pre-disposed bias’ are dismissed. Jury members in 
1st-degree murder cases are usually told not to look at newspapers or watch 
broadcasted news. Much of the time they are ordered not to use their cell 
phones and must make calls from a landline.

“They take pretty strict steps to make sure the jury is impartial and follows 
the judge’s orders,” Prime said.

(source: Shreveport Times)