[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KAN., ARIZ., IDAHO

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 30


KANSAS:

Unusually high number of capital cases pending in Kansas


An unusually high number of capital murder cases are piling up in the area 
causing trouble for those on both sides of the courtroom.

This week 2 men were charged with capital murder for separate cases 
back-to-back in the same courtroom. Those two plus another pair of pending 
capital murder charges are leaving prosecutors and public defenders with an 
enormous workload.

"Unfortunately it's a busy time right now with these types of cases," says 
District Attorney Marc Bennett.

Capital murder is very different from 1st degree murder. Instead of 25 years to 
life in prison, it's life in prison without parole and possibly the death 
penalty.

Cornell McNeal is charged for the death of Latitia Davis at Fairmount Park in 
northeast Wichita. It's a capital murder charge because the killing stemmed 
from sexual assault.

The other 3 cases are also for capital murder because there were multiple 
killings.

Steven Edwards is charged with murdering an elderly couple near downtown 
Wichita last month. Vinh Nguyen is accused in a triple murder in east Wichita 
from this past summer, and four people are charged in the deaths of a Valley 
Center couple last year.

Both prosecutors and defenders say they are running into staffing issues with 
this many cases. Mark Rudy of the Public Defenders Office says his staff is 
having to team up to tackle the extra workload.

"Kansas doesn't charge that many cases, capital," says Rudy. "There's only 10 
or 12 capital litigators in the state, so we're kind of at our limit right now. 
Hopefully nothing happens anytime soon."

The reason these cases take so much time is because there's extra steps when it 
comes to capital murder.

"If you actually go to a trial that actually involves capital murder and the 
state actually seeks the death penalty then there's another layer of filtering 
that aggravated factors have to exist," says Bennett.

Bennett says it could get worse considering the Carr brothers case is on hold 
until the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in. That could potentially come back to the 
state.

(source: KAKE news)






ARIZONA:

Don't shoot up condemned with drugs, just shoot them


Prior to the botched execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood, during which the 
convicted killer gasped and snorted for nearly 2 hours before dying - 2 hours 
-- Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals 
suggested that instead of shooting up a condemned man with drugs that we just 
... shoot him.

I agree.

The state would save itself a lot of time and trouble and expense over the 
procurement and use of drugs. And, it would be more honest.

We're killing a guy. So kill him.

Or, as Kozinski wrote, "Using drugs meant for individuals with medical needs to 
carry out executions is a misguided effort to mask the brutality of executions 
by making them look serene and peaceful - like something any one of us might 
experience in our final moments...The firing squad strikes me as the most 
promising. 8 or 10 large-caliber rifle bullets fired at close range can inflict 
massive damage, causing instant death every time. There are plenty of people 
employed by the state who can pull the trigger and have the training to aim 
true."

After Wood's ugly death, a lawsuit was filed claiming the drug cocktail used in 
lethal injections is public record. Last week that suit was put on hold and the 
Arizona Department of corrections agreed to not seek any death warrants until 
an independent review is complete. The state also agreed to study the changes 
in protocols and making them public.

It's a waste of time. There will always be problems with drugs. And if we 
happen to reach a time when there are no problems then we are doing something 
even worse. Taking a human life should never appear to be routine. Peaceful. 
That would make killing someone too easy for us to accept. It should not be 
easy to accept.

Instead, Arizona should do what Utah is doing.

It was reported recently that Utah's Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice 
Interim Committee overwhelmingly approved a proposal that would make the firing 
squad the primary method for carrying out capital punishment if lethal 
injection was not an option.

Utah is 1 of 2 states where the firing squad is legal, although only for 
inmates who selected that method of execution before May 3, 2004. Oklahoma also 
has a firing squad, as well as lethal injection and electrocution. (What, no 
stoning?)

I'd eliminate any "options." Firing squad only.

Utah Rep. Paul Ray called a firing squad "one of the most humane ways to 
execute someone."

Really? As if "execute" and "humane" belong in the same sentence.

The best course would be to abolish executions. It would save the state 
millions and millions of dollars in legal costs and special housing for 
inmates. And it might save our souls.

But if we're going to continue killing people we should stop pretending it can 
be humane.

As Judge Kozinski wrote: "Sure, firing squads can be messy, but if we are 
willing to carry out executions we should not shield ourselves from the reality 
that we are shedding human blood. If we, as a society, cannot stomach the 
splatter from an execution carried out by firing squad, then we shouldn't be 
carrying out executions at all."

(source: EJ Montint, Columnist, azcentral.com)






IDAHO:

Changing of the guard for Ada County prosecutor hails new era----As Greg Bower 
retires, Jan Bennetts takes over, becoming the 1st female to lead the office.

--

MURDER TRIALS FOR BOWER

"My 1st homicide was in 1977, and I can see every picture still in my head of 
Dorothy Fenley, shot in the neck with a 16-gauge by her husband, sitting in her 
house at 2510 N. 30th St. That's almost 40 years ago," newly retired Ada County 
Prosecutor Greg Bower said.

Fenley's estranged husband, Charley C. Fenley, was convicted of 1st-degree 
murder and was imprisoned until March 1991.

Among the other murder prosecutions Bower handled:

-- In June 1987, drug dealer Daniel Rodgers shot Preston Murr in the head at a 
home at 805 W. Linden St. in Southeast Boise. Murr, injured and bleeding, had 
run around the neighborhood banging on doors as Rodgers chased him. After 
killing Murr, Rodgers chopped his body into 13 pieces and scattered the parts 
in Brownlee Reservoir outside Weiser.

Rodgers was convicted of 1st-degree murder and given a life sentence. Now 65, 
he is in the Idaho State Correctional Center.

-- Darrell Payne was convicted for the July 2000 kidnapping, rape, robbery and 
murder of 22-year-old Samantha Maher. The Boise State student was abducted in 
Julia Davis Park as she was on her way to school. Payne attacked her, shot her 
in the back of the head and dumped her body in a sewage pit at his home.

Payne later had his death sentence overturned by the Idaho Supreme Court over 
errors in the original sentencing hearing. Payne, now 48, was resentenced to 
death in 2010 and is on death row at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution.

-- Erick Hall was sentenced to death for attacking, sexually assaulting and 
strangling New York flight attendant Lynn Henneman in 2000. She was grabbed 
steps from her room at the DoubleTree Riverside hotel after taking a walk on 
the Greenbelt. Her body was found two weeks later in the Boise River.

JOHN SOWELL

John, who grew up in Emmett and spent more than two decades reporting in 
western Oregon, is the Statesman's public safety reporter.

--

Greg Bower and Jan Bennetts have 1 major similarity: Neither set out to become 
Ada County's top prosecuting attorney.

Bower, 65, who retired Friday after nearly 40 years at the office - all but 8 
as the elected prosecutor - was supposed to go on active duty with the U.S. 
Army after finishing law school at the University of Utah in 1974.

"I had a 4-year gig that I needed to do," Bower said during a conversation in 
his 3rd-floor office at the Ada County Courthouse.

Uncle Sam had other ideas. The war in Vietnam was ending. The Army had too many 
officers, so it jettisoned thousands of them, including Bower.

He returned home to Boise and got an $850-a-month job with the Ada County 
Prosecutor's Office. Bower ended up outlasting everyone there.

"I never had any expectation of staying more than 5 years," said Bower, whose 
ending annual salary was $143,837.

Bennetts, 47, grew up in Challis. Like Bower, she did her undergraduate work at 
the University of Idaho in Moscow. She graduated from law school at Willamette 
University in Salem, Ore.

She has spent 20 years with Ada County and was instrumental in helping organize 
the Faces Family Justice Center, which houses prosecutors, law enforcement 
officers, health and welfare case workers, and medical personnel from Saint 
Alphonsus and St. Luke's health systems to assist victims of child abuse, 
sexual assault and domestic violence.

For the past 2 years, Bennetts has served as Bower's chief of staff, and she 
received his endorsement to take over when he retired. The Republican Central 
Committee then recommended her for the job, later affirmed by Ada County 
commissioners.

"I don't honestly think this is something that I would have said 10 years ago 
or 20 years ago that I'm going to be the Ada County prosecuting attorney," 
Bennetts said. "I like being in the courtroom and being a trial lawyer."

Bennetts earned $138,790 as chief of staff. Any change in her salary has not 
been determined, said county spokeswoman Jessica Donald.

Bennetts said she was taken aback when Bower suggested she take his place.

"I could hardly believe that's what he was thinking," Bennetts said. "I was 
honored that he would select me."

Q&A WITH BOWER

Q: What was the office like when you started?

A: When I entered the prosecutor's office, turnover was high and the people 
running it did not have five years of experience. Nobody could really feed 
their family for long on the salary of a deputy prosecutor. Out of the class of 
people I started with, virtually all of them ended up in civil litigation 
firms.

Q: How has the office changed?

A: One of the big changes in this organization over the last 40 years is that 
when I joined the organization, no woman had ever served as a deputy 
prosecutor. As I leave this organization, I leave it in the hands of a woman 
whose staff of lawyers is 50 percent women. No law firm in this state has more 
women than this organization. It is a testament to a change in society, and it 
is also a testament to the integration of females as fully qualified trial 
lawyers and administrators. It's like we see in much of the country.

The other significant difference is that we've gone from a high-turnover 
organization to an organization where at 20 years, Jan has several people who 
will be working for her who have decades more experience in this organization 
than she has.

Many of the trial lawyers here have 15 to 20 years of service, which means more 
than you can possibly imagine to the way the organization functions, with 
experienced professionals who have been in place long enough that they know 
exactly how to get their job done and they do it with a minimum of dust and 
waves.

Q: What differences will Ms. Bennetts face coming in than when you became Ada 
County prosecutor?

A: When I took over on the job, I had 8 years of experience. I was the most 
experienced person to take on the job since the days of Jim Blaine back in 
World War II. Jan comes to this job with 2 decades of experience. She has more 
experience than all of the last 3 prosecuting attorneys put together. ...

Jan has done most of the jobs in the office, and over the course of the last 2 
years has basically been the CEO of this organization. She has been the chief 
of staff, running both sides, the criminal and civil sides, and running the 
budget and making all of the critical decisions that the prosecuting attorney 
had to make. She has a staff now of almost 150 people, a budget of $13-odd 
million, a variety of litigation on both sides that some days is kind of 
mind-boggling.

Jan is kind of famous in our organization for her work ethic. One of the things 
that sets her apart from many of her peers is that she has no hobbies. Her 
hobby is work, and her capacity to get things done has pushed her from the 
ranks of trial lawyers into the ranks of an administrator.

I first recognized this very early in her career, when she helped me with a 
very difficult case where a 2-year-old had been sodomized to death. We tried 
this case during the summer of probably 1995, and Jan volunteered to be on the 
case. While most people would take some time off over the weekends, she would 
not. It's caused her to be pushed into a variety of positions that are 
virtually seven days a week. Although she takes time off when forced, mostly by 
me, it's hard to get her off the job.

She's the only woman in Idaho history who has ever gotten a jury to give the 
death penalty in a case. She tried the case of State v. Eric Hall in 2007. It 
was during the time right after the Arizona (appeals) case that required juries 
to impose the death penalty rather than judges.

Q: What are your thoughts as you get ready to retire?

A: To leave behind something that you've spent your entire life building is a 
tough thing to do. And to leave it in her hands makes it totally easier, 
knowing she'll guard it just as carefully as I have.

Q&A WITH BENNETTS

Q: How do you view your work?

A: I work to the best of my ability every day, all day. If you asked the people 
around me, they would say I'm a hard worker. I will do my best to serve this 
community with the same values and integrity that I've done my job the past 20 
years and will look for ways that I can continue into the future and improve 
day by day, as I think we can all do. I'm one who likes to look at a system and 
see how I can improve it and do better, and I will continue to do that.

Q: What changes will you make?

A: We're moving forward smoothly, and I don't see a need for a lot of dramatic 
changes. I'm going to look for ways to be more proactive in our community. As 
the criminal justice system and law enforcement, we're always in a position of 
reacting to something bad that's happened. We come in and see that justice is 
done and move forward with the case.

Educating our community and hoping to end violence or at least reduce the 
incidence of domestic violence is a great way to be proactive, because you can 
go out into your community and make a difference in a way that prevents crime 
from happening.

Q: What are your thoughts on the wealth of experience that many of your 
prosecutors have? A: The pressures on prosecutors are significant. We talked 
about the long hours and the hard work that is put into prosecuting a case. I 
think, over time, it's more complex and the pressures are increased. Having 
that experience is certainly exciting to me as I take over - to know that I 
have those people who are talented and experienced behind me and helping me.

(source: Idaho Statesman)