[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OKLA., NEB., ARIZ., ORE., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 28



OKLAHOMA:

Multiple trials probable in 'far-reaching' drug case involving Hoover Crips; 
Operation Battlefield involves 51 defendants facing 241 counts.


The sheer enormity of a criminal case that involves murder, drug dealing, dog 
fighting and Hoover Crips gang members is beginning to take shape in Tulsa 
federal court.

What started in early 2013 as a conspiracy case to distribute crack cocaine 
involving three individuals has since mushroomed into 51 defendants who among 
them face 241 counts. Once centered on drug trafficking in the 61st Street and 
Peoria Avenue area, the case has gone multi-national.

In announcing the results of Operation Battlefield in August, U.S. Attorney 
Danny Williams said what he deemed Tulsa's "most violent and dangerous gang" 
brought an estimated $10 million worth of cocaine - more than 600 kilograms - 
and marijuana through the city over a 3-year period.

The August revelation that dozens of defendants had been added to the case has 
meant rethinking how best to handle the pending trial or trials.

A 6th superseding indictment filed Oct. 15 by federal prosecutors charges 43 
named defendants and eight unnamed defendants with 241 counts in allegations 
ranging from a $10 million drug trafficking conspiracy to animal fighting to 
murder.

U.S. District Judge John Dowdell, who is presiding over the case, noted in a 
September order that the number of defendants and counts charged "presents one 
of the most far-reaching indictments in the district's history."

Dowdell has asked for input from prosecutors and the scores of defense 
attorneys assigned to the case as to how best to proceed, with the aim toward 
avoiding long trial proceedings if at all possible.

"In fact, for a number of reasons, extremely long trials can result in 
significant waste of public resources," Dowdell wrote, in an order that 
stronglyhinted at the need to split up the case into smaller segments.

The reasons, Dowdell suggests, against having one trial for all the defendants 
range from court-appointed attorneys being compelled to sit idly through the 
vast majority of a trial waiting for their client's relevance to emerge to 
requiring jurors to hear extended trial testimony related to more than four 
dozen defendants.

Prosecutors have responded with a proposal to try the 43 named defendants in a 
series of six trials beginning in September 2015, rather than 1 trial that 
could otherwise last three to four months and involve 100 to 125 witnesses.

In proposing 6 trials, the defendants would be grouped in part based on the 
relatedness of evidence gathered from more than 16,000 intercepted telephone 
calls, records show.

Dubbed Operation Battlefield by prosecutors, the case alleges Hoover Crips gang 
members and their associates, a former NFL running back and others participated 
in a drug conspiracy to traffic drugs from Mexico to Oklahoma City and Tulsa 
and into Ohio.

FBI Special Agent in Charge James E. Finch at the August news conference 
described the gang's activities as an "ongoing crime wave" that committed 
crimes including murder, drug distribution, gun-running, dog fighting and tax 
evasion.

In the weeks since the news conference, a handful of defendants have filed 
motions that express opposition to the government???s trial plan.

Attorneys for 31 defendants, including former University of Oklahoma and NFL 
running back De'Mond Parker, whose name is also listed as Demonn Parker in 
court records, have filed documents agreeing with the need to divide the case 
into small segments for trial purposes, while withholding comment on 
prosecutor's suggested trial plan.

Co-defendant Gaywone Dekeith Blades, through an attorney, has requested he be 
tried separately by February 2015. Prosecutors have suggested Blades be tried 
with a group of 10 other defendants sometime next fall.

Prosecutors allege Blades was in a vehicle with Lorell Antonio Battle when 
Battle shot and killed Anthony Dejuan Campbell in April 2013. Prosecutors claim 
Battle shot Campbell in retaliation for Campbell helping law enforcement in the 
prosecution of Hoover Crips members and associates in a robbery trial.

Blades claims his case would be prejudiced if he were tried with Battle, who 
could face the death penalty. He points out that he is not implicated in any of 
the charges added to the case in August.

"Blades can safely say, with the single exception of one distant cousin who is 
among the 50 charged, that he knows none of these other co-defendants nor had 
dealings with them," he claims in a court filing.

Prosecutors say that Blades hasn't met the legal burden to warrant a separate 
trial, which if held would still be complex in nature and warrant more than 2 
days to put on.

Other attorneys for defendants have advanced similar arguments for separate 
trials.

Attorneys for co-defendants Brenda Brown and Diane Walters have objected to a 
plan that would call for them to face trial alongside their sons and others.

A filing by Brown and Walters noted that the proposed trial plan would 
prejudice their cases because jurors would hear evidence that is unrelated to 
charges they face.

"It is patently unfair to throw the mothers of 3 of the charged defendants into 
a trial with their sons when they have not been charged or identified as 
members of the conspiracies," attorneys for Brenda Brown and Diane Walters 
wrote in a response to the prosecutor's proposed trial plan.

Rather, the defense attorneys for Brown and Walters suggest the cases against 
them could be tried separately in 1 or 2 days.

Walters is charged with using her home as a place where drugs were either 
manufactured or distributed and 2 counts of using a telephone to traffic drugs. 
Brenda Brown is charged with 1 count of using a telephone to traffic drugs. 
Prosecutors have put the 2 in different groups for proposed trial purposes.

The attorneys for the pair also assert the 2nd trial might not start until 
early 2016, a delay of which would be "presumptively prejudicial."

(source: Tulsa World)






NEBRASKA:

Death penalty should go


In large part, I agree with Jim Davidsaver ("Repealing death penalty would make 
us 'smart on crime,'" Nov. 23) and his recommendation to abolish Nebraska's 
death penalty. It is, in fact, horrendously expensive, and as near as I can 
tell, deters no one from committing a murder. And further, even though I know 
I'm in the minority, I still believe that not one of us has a right to take the 
life of another.

The only caveat, I think, is that the alternative punishment should be the most 
horrific possible. I care not a whit what the ACLU or anyone else has to say 
about cruel and unusual punishment. For me, an appropriate punishment would be 
for the guilty to fed a diet of bread and water for as long as they live, and 
be confined to the smallest cell possible, with no daylight and no other human 
contact, ever.

Judy Allen, Lincoln

(source: Letter to the Editor, Lincoln Journal Star)






ARIZONA:

Jodi Arias Trial Update News 2014: Appeals Court Overturns Judge's Decision to 
Protect Mystery Witness in Death Penalty Trial


An Arizona Court of Appeals ruling overruled a judge's decision to block the 
media and public from hearing the testimony of a "mystery" witness as requested 
by the defense team last month in the Jodi Arias sentencing trial.

On Oct. 30, Judge Sherry Stephens kicked the media and public out of the 
Maricopa County Superior Court without explanation just before a "mystery" 
witness took the stand. In response, a media coalition filed an appeal in order 
to re-open the public courtroom, according to AZ Central.

The attorney representing the media argued that conducting a trial behind 
closed doors and shrouded in secrecy would set a new precedent in the U.S. 
legal system.

"We have just heard the risk of being kept in perpetual confusion, and darkness 
looms in this case unless the court steps in and enforces the 1st amendment 
rights of the press and public," said attorney David Bodney, according to Fox 
10 Arizona.

He added that exclusion of the press and public violated the U.S. and Arizona 
Constitutions, along with the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure. Not only 
does the state and the defendant have a right to a public trial, but "it's the 
public's right to a fair trial," too, Bodney said.

On the other hand, Arias' attorney countered that the witness didn't feel 
comfortable testifying in public and feared for their reputation and life.

After initially issuing a stay in the case, the appeals court handed down a 
decision in favor of the media on Wednesday. It was also revealed that the 
"mystery" witness was Jodi Arias, herself, reports AZ Central. As a result, the 
convicted boyfriend killer must testify in public if she plans on taking the 
stand again.

Attorney Bodney said he will request that the transcripts of Arias' testimony 
also be released without delay.

"I think this order sends a strong message about the importance of allowing the 
public to attend this trial when the defendant testifies," he said.

State prosecutors maintained that they had "no objection to the media in the 
courtroom and opposed closing the hearing and proceedings to media and the 
public."

(source: Latin Post)






OREGON:

Eliminating the death penalty would save money


In the Nov. 6 front page story on the advent of recreational marijuana sales in 
Oregon, state economists estimate that Oregon will earn between $17.5 million 
and $25.9 million in taxes during the 1st year.

Considering the costs of creating a regulatory system, the net revenue is 
estimated between $6.5 million and $12.8 million.

The article went on to point out that the revenue would go to the Common School 
Fund, mental health agencies, drug and alcohol treatment services and law 
enforcement.

An even more lucrative revenue opportunity would be to repeal the Oregon death 
penalty and save the majority of the $28 million now being spent annually to 
maintain the death penalty.

The savings could also go to law enforcement, alcohol and drug rehabilitation 
programs for addicted felons, intervention into abusive households or support 
of murder victims' families as well as to the Common School Fund.

The savings would be immediate and there would be no need to create another 
commission to watch over a system without a death penalty. More money would be 
saved than marijuana sales earned and no expense to administer. This only makes 
common sense.

Ron Steiner

Salem

(source: Letter to the Editor, Oregon Statesman Journal)






USA:

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's defense eyes leaks, cites article


Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lawyers are demanding a 
judge reconsider holding a hearing to ferret out law enforcement officials they 
suspect of leaking "non-public" details of the case to the media, citing a 
local magazine article.

U.S. District Court Judge George A. O'Toole Jr. just Tuesday refused the 
defense's previous requests for a hearing, explaining, "I am confident that 
counsel for the government appreciate the importance of this issue," 
particularly with the trial's Jan. 5 start now little more than a month away.

"Now, however, the stakes have increased," wrote leading anti-death-penalty 
attorney Judy Clarke in her appeal to O'Toole filed late Wednesday. "It appears 
that actual confidential FBI interview reports have been released" to Boston 
magazine and the author of the article, titled "Inside the Mind of a Killer," 
former Herald crime scribe Michele McPhee.

Based on FBI interviews with Khairullozhon Matanov, a Quincy cab driver charged 
with lying to investigators, the article describes how Matanov allegedly 
visited Tsarnaev, now 21, and his late brother Tamerlan, 26, at their family 
home in Cambridge immediately after the deadly twin bombings and found them 
watching television coverage of the April 15, 2013, attack.

Matanov reportedly told agents he had no idea the Tsarnaev brothers were 
involved. And when he allegedly expressed sadness that an 8-year-old Dorchester 
boy, Martin Richard, was 1 of 3 spectators killed, Tamerlan Tsarnaev allegedly 
responded, "So what if a kid dies. God will take care of him," the article 
states. The 3 then allegedly went out to dinner in Somerville.

Boston magazine Editor Carly Carioli said yesterday it would be "premature" for 
him to comment because the publication has not yet seen the defense motion. 
Spokesmen for the FBI???s Boston office and U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz's office 
declined comment.

(source: Boston Herald)