[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., N.C., FLA., OHIO, MO.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 14




PENNSYLVANIA:

Pennsylvania man convicted of murder, state seeks death penalty


A jury on Friday convicted a Pennsylvania man of 1st-degree murder in the 
dismemberment of a woman whose body parts were found stuffed in garbage bags 
strewn along 2 highways, and prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty 
next week.

After 2 hours of deliberation, jurors convicted Charles Ray Hicks, 40, of all 3 
charges he faced in the beating, strangulation and dismemberment of Deanna 
Null, 36, of Scranton. Her remains were found in January 2008.

Showing no emotion as the verdict was read, Hicks was then handcuffed and led 
by sheriff's deputies out of the courtroom and back to a detention center where 
he has been held without bail.

Hicks, a former electrical contractor at the Tobyhanna Army Depot, was 
convicted of first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse and tampering with 
evidence.

The jury will return to Monroe County Court in Stroudsburg for the penalty 
phase of the trial on Monday. Prosecutors are set to ask for Hicks to be 
sentenced to death and the defense will seek life imprisonment.

Testimony in the 2-week trial turned on competing theories of whether Null's 
wounds were inflicted before or after she died.

In closing arguments, lead prosecutor Michael Mancuso recounted medical 
testimony concerning numerous blows to the woman's head, multiple fractures of 
her ribs and a prosecution expert's conclusion that she was alive at least 5 
minutes or more while she was being beaten.

"There's no reason for that other than hate and malice," Mancuso said.

He said it would take great effort to sever the woman's head, limbs and torso, 
as well as gash her breast and genital area.

"This isn't easy stuff to do," Mancuso said, laying out graphic photos, 
including one showing Null's lower torso cut in half.

Public defender Jason LaBar, representing Hicks, argued that Null may have 
suffered a seizure triggered by cocaine and alcohol abuse and hit her head on a 
table corner.

Hicks later cut up her body and disposed of the parts in what he called a "drug 
dump," a street term for dropping off a person who has overdosed, LaBar told 
jurors.

Null's body parts in garbage bags, found on a snowy day along two interstate 
highways in northeastern Pennsylvania, showed very little blood and were cut so 
precisely that troopers initially thought they may have been medical waste that 
fell off a truck.

(source: Reuters)

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

With Frein arrest, it's time to ask whether death penalty is dying a slow death 
in Pennsylvania


Murder suspect Eric Frein was captured just before Halloween weekend following 
an intensive, 7-week manhunt through the woods of northeastern Pennsylvania, 
with cost estimates of the search placed anywhere from $7 to over $10 million 
dollars over the 48 days the suspect eluded police.

Frein is charged with 1st-degree murder, 1st degree attempted murder, and 
possession of weapons of mass destruction. Pike County District Attorney Ray 
Tonkin stated he will seek the death penalty.

According to a recent crime and justice poll conducted this fall by Penn State 
Harrisburg, about 2/3 (66 %) of Pennsylvanians support the death penalty for 
people convicted of murder - a figure markedly higher than the 55 % of people 
who support the practice nationally.

In the Frein case, the 2 victims' identities as police officers will 
undoubtedly serve as a serious aggravating circumstance for jurors considering 
handing down a death sentence. All of this may be moot, however.

With last week's election results indicating a landslide win for Gov.-elect Tom 
Wolf, a large discrepancy exists between Pennsylvanian's support for the death 
penalty and Wolf's calls for an end to the practice.

This begs the question: What will happen in court to suspects like Eric Frein? 
And will the death penalty die a slow death in Pennsylvania?

Even if a venue change is approved, Frein will still likely face a jury that 
overwhelmingly supports the death penalty.

The death penalty was not a hot-button issue for voters during the 2014 
election cycle, and Wolf has plenty of other high priority issues (taxes, 
school funding, pension plans) to tackle the first few months, if not years, in 
office.

Still, it is difficult to completely cast aside questions about the use of the 
death penalty in Pennsylvania, particularly in light of one of the most 
intensive and costliest manhunt in Pennsylvania's history, and especially when 
there is a change in leadership.

Frein's defense attorneys will likely seek a change of venue from Pike County 
to an area of the state not affected by the multiple school closings and 
shelter in place orders that disrupted the lives of citizens for weeks.

Even if a venue change is approved, Frein will still likely face a jury that 
overwhelmingly supports the death penalty.

But death sentences are often uncertain punishments. They certainly do not mean 
death comes swiftly. As is the legal right of all U.S. citizens, death 
sentences are automatically appealed and carefully reviewed.

After all, it is important that states do not kill innocent persons.

Sentences are sometimes overturned on appeal. In other cases convictions are 
overturned and the defendants are freed. Many cases thus spend decades in 
limbo, though the length of the appeals process is certainly justifiable.

After all, it is important that states do not kill innocent people. Since 1973, 
a total of 147 persons sentenced to death have had their convictions overturned 
during the appeals process.

Between 2000 and 2011 there were an average of 5 exonerations a year 
nationally, up from an average of 3 a year between 1973-1999.

In Pennsylvania 6 innocent persons have been freed from death row since 1974 
(after serving an average of 10.6 years in prison).

In light of the uptick in wrongful convictions, many states have overturned 
their death penalty statutes altogether. The death penalty was abolished most 
recently in Maryland last year.

5 people remain on death row and their sentences have not yet been commuted to 
life without the possibility of parole; as was the case when Connecticut 
abolished theirs in 2012.

One thing that is abundantly clear is that if Frein is in fact found guilty and 
sentenced to death, the sentence will not be meted out quickly.

The appeals process for death row inmates is especially lengthy in Pennsylvania 
where 186 men (and 4 women) are currently on death row. Only 3 people have been 
put to death in Pennsylvania since 1976. In fact, the last person killed in 
1999 was only eligible for death because he voluntarily gave up his right to 
appeal.

In Pennsylvania, death sentences perhaps more closely resemble life sentences, 
just in smaller, isolated cells.

To its credit, the Commonwealth takes the appeals process in death eligible 
cases very seriously; though such scrupulousness carries a hefty price tag.

The most comprehensive study in the country found that the death penalty costs 
North Carolina $2.16 million per execution over the costs of LWOP sentences. 
Audit studies in Florida and Texas suggest their costs are even higher.

In the post-recession era, where all 50 states are contending with severe 
budget shortfalls, there is a growing consensus that the practice is simply not 
cost feasible. Though one may render a different interpretation.

If Pennsylvania can afford the $10 million spent over 48 days to find and 
arrest Frein, the Commonwealth ought to be able to spare an additional few 
million to ensure he is killed.

Whether Pennsylvania should retain the death penalty for the most serious forms 
of murder may indeed be a topic of debate as the governorship transitions from 
a vocal death penalty supporter in Corbett, to a vocal opponent in Wolf.

(source: Philip R. Kavanaugh and Eileen M. Ahlin are professors at Penn State's 
Harrisburg campus----pennlive.com)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Freed pair to attend celebration----Anti-death penalty group marks anniversary


2 half brothers recently released after decades in prison after being 
exonerated in a Robeson County rape and murder will be special guests as an 
interfaith, anti-death penalty group marks its 20th anniversary in North 
Carolina.

Leon Brown and Henry McCollum will be in attendance when People of Faith 
Against the Death Penalty holds its anniversary banquet, scheduled for today at 
Chapel Hill's Friday Center.

The 2 were freed from prison in September after a judge vacated their 
convictions for the 1983 rape and murder of an 11-year-old Red Springs girl. 
Their release came after the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission 
presented DNA evidence implicating another man in Sabrina Buie's death and 
showed that no physical evidence had tied the brothers to the crime.

McCollum had been the state's longest-serving death row prisoner. Brown was 15 
and McCollum 19 when lawyers say officers coerced them into confessing to 
Buie's murder.

In the days following McCollum and Brown's release, People of Faith Against the 
Death Penalty's executive director, Steve Dear, wrote an article asking how the 
brothers could ever be compensated for their wrongful convictions.

"Now Henry and Leon face ... we can't imagine," Dear said. "... What can we say 
to these 2 survivors of the system that we vote for and pay for? How do we say 
we are sorry? We can offer our prayers for Leon and Henry. We can pray for 
Sabrina Buie's family. We can pray for ourselves who allow the death penalty to 
continue."

People of Faith Against the Death Penalty is a nonprofit founded in 1994 to 
educate people in the faith community and work to abolish the death penalty.

During the ceremony, the organization will give an award to Helen Prejean, the 
nun known for her anti-death penalty work through the movie "Dead Man Walking." 
Other awards will go to Sen. Floyd McKissick and to Rep. Larry Womble, who 
sponsored and championed the Racial Justice Act of 2009.

(source: The Robesonian)






FLORIDA:

State to seek death penalty in Orange County teen Alexandria Chery's slaying


Records show prosecutors intend to pursue the death penalty against Sanel Saint 
Simon, the Orange County man accused of beating his girlfriend's 16-year-old 
daughter to death in July..

Saint Simon, 44, faces 1st-degree murder and other charges in the slaying of 
Alexandria Chery, who disappeared from her family's Hawthorne Hills Place 
apartment July 28.

The teenager was found dead days later. Though her body was partly decomposed, 
an autopsy found evidence of multiple skull fractures and stab wounds.

In a Nov. 6 notice, prosecutor Ryan Vescio wrote that, based on "the facts of 
this offense, sufficient aggravating circumstances do exist to justify" the 
death penalty.

"Therefore, the State will be requesting the imposition of the death penalty 
should [Saint Simon] be convicted in this case," the notice continued.

Authorities say Saint Simon beat the teenager to death, then used a car he had 
borrowed from his uncle to drive her lifeless body to a secluded area near the 
Osceola-Polk county line.

DNA tests found Alexandria's blood on the front seat of the borrowed Pontiac 
and on Saint Simon's clothing.

Authorities say he tried to clean Alexandria's blood from the family's 
apartment with bleach, and lied about his whereabouts at the time she went 
missing, initially claiming he worked all day.

Saint Simon was the live-in boyfriend of Alexandria's mother. Family members 
have told authorities he had sexually abused the teen in the past.

In addition to the 1st-degree murder charge, Saint Simon is charged with 
aggravated child abuse and giving false information to law enforcement in a 
missing person investigation.

He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail in the Orange County 
Jail.

(source: Orlando Sentinel)






OHIO:

2 justices stay put in death penalty case


2 Ohio Supreme Court justices say they won't step down from a death penalty 
case despite an attorney's allegation of potential bias.

The lawyer for condemned killer Ashford Thompson says the justices cast their 
votes in the midst of campaigns that focused on their support for law 
enforcement.

At issue is the court's 4-3 ruling last month in an appeal by death row inmate 
Ashford Thompson, who fatally shot a Twinsburg police officer in 2008.

Justices Judi French and Sharon Kennedy both said Thursday they saw no reason 
to step down.

Defense attorney Rachel Troutman wants a new hearing for Thompson, arguing that 
campaign commercials for both justices demonstrated a tough-on-crime strategy 
that would be undermined by granting relief to a man who had killed a police 
officer.

(source: Associated Press)






MISSOURI----impending execution

Execution Looms For Missouri Inmate Leon Taylor


The attorney for the man Missouri is scheduled to execute next week told 
Missourinet he is a changed man, but one of the men that prosecuted him remains 
confident the death sentence is just. Some lawmakers are asking Gov. Nixon for 
clemency.

It's been more than 20 years since Leon Taylor fatally shot Robert Newton, the 
attendant of an Independence service station that Taylor had just robbed. After 
killing Newton, Taylor attempted to shoot Taylor's then-8-year-old stepdaughter 
as well, but the gun didn't fire, and he left her with Newton's body.

Taylor is sentenced to die by lethal injection early Wednesday morning at the 
prison at Bonne Terre.

The Springfield chapter of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty 
(MADP) will hold a vigil on Tuesday, November 18 from noon to 1 p.m. in 
downtown Park Central Square to protest Taylor's scheduled execution.

Attorney Elizabeth Unger Carlyle has represented Taylor since 2003. She said he 
is a "dramatically" different man than he was on April 14, 1994.

"He has become a real force for good and a force for God at the Potosi 
Correctional Center," said Carlyle.

She said a petition for clemency transmitted this week to the office of 
Governor Jay Nixon includes statements from people inside and outside the 
prison about his influence and letters from pastoral groups and current and 
former legislators urging the governor to commute his sentence.

The Governor's office's policy is to not offer comment on pending applications 
for clemency, and Nixon has only granted clemency 1 in his 6 years as governor.

Carlyle knows the governor's track record regarding clemency, which includes 
denying it for men executed since November of last year.

She believes the one time Nixon granted clemency, in the case of Richard Clay 
who also committed a murder in Missouri in 1994, he based that decision on a 
number of factors, "including the activities of the person in prison."

Carlyle knows skepticism is common toward people sentenced to death who claim 
to find religion and change for the better, but she believes Taylor is 
legitimate.

"One of the things Leon does is he's a songwriter and he writes and records his 
own praise songs," said Carlyle. "I think if you listen to them you can see 
that they come from his heart and I think that's where his heart is."

Taylor wrote a letter of apology and a poem for Newton's widow, Astrid Newton 
Martin. Martin said in the 2012 documentary Potosi: God in death row, that she 
has forgiven Taylor.

"It took me ... I think 17, almost 18 years to finally realize I need to 
forgive and I did," Martin said in the film. "I can honestly say I forgive him 
if he really means what he said in the letter."

"You did some horrible stuff to me and for a long time I could not forgive 
you," Martin said of Taylor, "especially knowing you were trying to hurt my 
little girl."

Martin's daughter, now nearly 30, has declined recent requests for media 
interviews. The film includes a recording of what she had to say in a 1995 
radio interview.

"I have never had so many nightmares," she said then. "The best thing in my 
life was destroyed. Now I too feel like dying ... it's lonely out here with no 
dad. It is dumb for the best, sweetest and kindest man and dad to be killed 
over a lousy $450. I think Leon Taylor should get the death penalty."

Taylor's relatives that were with him the night of the murder said he later 
said of the little girl that he, "should have choked the bitch."

The attempt Taylor made to kill her is one of the "aggravating factors" Michael 
Hunt and the rest of the prosecution team presented when it asked for the death 
penalty.

"Reasons why this is different than any other case," Hunt tells Missourinet in 
describing aggravating factors. "Essentially what you want to have are ... 
egregious factors why this [case] is different."

Hunt is still with the Jackson County Prosecutor's office. He said the case 
stuck with him.

"The one thing you don't ever forget is that little girl," he told Missourinet. 
"It's just so horrendous to hear her version of standing there, holding her 
stepfather's hand as he is shot and killed, as he is pleading for his life, and 
then after he has been shot in the head, to have her describe how he turns that 
gun on her and pulls that trigger ... that's a horrendous act and it's a 
horrendous act for her to have to relive and tell the jury."

Hunt said he respects the beliefs of those who, for varying reasons, don't want 
to see Taylor executed next week.

"When you start down this path on our side there has to be a comfort level that 
this is the appropriate punishment, because there's no way that I could sit 
there as the prosecutor and ask that jury to sentence him to death unless I was 
comfortable with it," Hunt said. "I was then and I am now."

Taylor has also declined recent interview requests, but he is featured in that 
documentary. In it, he talked about growing up with an alcoholic mother and 
having to raise his brothers and sisters.

"The men who were supposed to be my role models, they weren't. They were women 
beaters and alcoholics themselves, so that's basically what I grew up around," 
said Taylor.

At the time he reacted to the news that Missouri might soon resume carrying out 
executions, saying, "I'm not worried about that."

Taylor continued, "If my number comes up during that time, I'm fine. I'm good. 
I'm ready."

(source: ozarksfirst.com)