[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARIZ., NEV., WASH., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 7



ARIZONA:

Potential jurors questioned at Arias penalty trial


Lawyers began individually questioning prospective jurors for the penalty phase 
retrial of convicted murderer Jodi Arias, the next step in the effort to pick 
an impartial panel that will determine whether she receives the death penalty 
or life in prison.

Potential jurors answered questions Monday about their views on the death 
penalty and whether they can fairly judge the evidence.

1 prospective juror was asked about her distrust of psychologists, while 
another discussed moral objections to the death penalty.

Roughly 175 prospective jurors remain out of an initial group of 400 who were 
brought in for questioning last week.

The retrial is expected to last into December.

Arias was convicted of murder last year in the 2008 killing of her ex-boyfriend 
in Arizona, but jurors couldn't agree on a sentence.

(source: Merced Sun-Star)






NEVADA:

Death penalty stands in '06 killing, dismemberment


The Nevada Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty for a former math teacher 
convicted of killing his wife in a Las Vegas hotel room, then dismembering and 
cooking parts of her body.

Justices issued a 5-2 decision Thursday saying there were no errors that 
merited a new trial for 74-year-old John Matthias Watson III

Prosecutors say Watson lured his wife to Las Vegas from their Ontario, 
California home in 2006 on the pretense of celebrating her 50th birthday. But 
prosecutors say he planned the murder of Everilda "Evie" Watson for more than a 
month out of fear she'd take his money in a divorce.

Prosecutors say Watson shot her, then cut her up with a band saw and wrote 
letters from jail admitting he cooked part of the body.

(source: Associated Press)






WASHINGTON:

Jury selection in trials for Carnation murders could take months


On Christmas Eve 2007, 6 members of an extended family were shot to death in a 
home in Carnation. After years of delays, the 1st of 2 aggravated murder trials 
is underway with jury selection that could take several months.

This week, groups of 8 to 10 potential jurors are sitting in a courtroom in 
Seattle, answering questions from attorneys and a judge, mostly concerning 
their opinions about the death penalty. Joseph McEnroe and Michele Anderson are 
each charged with 6 counts of aggravated murder for the shooting deaths of 
Anderson's parents, her brother and sister-in-law and their 2 small children.

Jury selection started last summer with the county sending out 3,000 summonses, 
hoping about 650 people would respond.

"But the number of people who came in the door were more than we expected," 
said King County jury manager Greg Wheeler. Almost 750 responded.

In 2010, Superior Court Judge Greg Canova presided over the aggravated murder 
trial of a man who killed 4 neighbors and set their Kirkland house on fire.

"It was going to be more difficult to select a jury because of people's strong 
feelings on one side or the other of the issue of the death penalty."

So, Judge Canova started with 600 potential jurors.

"From that jury pool, with scheduling in advance, a set number of jurors to 
appear every day in subsequent weeks, it took us roughly 6 to 8 weeks to pick 
this jury."

Judge Canova said that the jury that heard that 2010 capital case was a good 
cross section of the community, not just old people or employees of companies 
that pay their workers' salary during jury duty. The jury convicted Conner 
Scheirman and then voted again to sentence him to death.

In the Carnation case, McEnroe is 1st to go to trial. The trial court is hoping 
to pick a final jury of 17, including alternates, just before Christmas. Then, 
the trial could last 4 months.

You might wonder how anybody could sit on a jury that long, other than the 
retired or unemployed. Particularly with juror pay of $10 a day, unchanged 
since the Eisenhower administration, according to Wheeler.

A few years ago, King County was part of a pilot project to gauge the need to 
raise jury pay, using minimum wage as a suggested increase.

"The results surprised all of us, frankly," said Judge Canova. "The bottom line 
was, there was no appreciable increase in the number of people who were able to 
serve on jury duty."

The Anderson-McEnroe case has dragged on due to multiple legal issues, 
including changes in defense attorneys and a challenge to the prosecutor's 
application of the death penalty. At one point, the trial judge tossed the 
death penalty but it was reinstated earlier this year by the State Supreme 
Court. The prosecution attempted to get a new judge assigned to the case, which 
would have meant even further delays.

No trial date has been set for Michele Anderson. Oral arguments are scheduled 
for this Friday in King County Superior Court in a competency hearing. She has 
been found competent to stand trial in previous hearings.

When opening statements are heard next year in the McEnroe trial, it will have 
been 7 years since the murders. The cost to prosecute and defend McEnroe and 
Anderson is approaching the most expensive case in King County history, the $12 
million spent to investigate and try Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer.

(source: mynorthwest.com)






USA:

6 Prison Stories Reveal How Flawed Our Justice System Really is


After 14 years on Florida's death row, Frank Lee Smith died of cancer in 
January 2000, before he was exonerated of rape and murder. The DNA results not 
only cleared Smith of the crime, but also identified the true perpetrator, 
Eddie Lee Mosley.

According to the Innocence Project, 311 people in U.S. history, 18 of whom were 
sentenced to the death penalty, have been freed after DNA evidence proved them 
innocent. The average DNA exoneree has served 13.6 years behind bars.

In 2013, 9 men were exonerated. Flawed eyewitness testimony is a factor in 76% 
of wrongful convictions. False confessions play a role in 1/4 of them.

DNA testing is not always an option. First, biological evidence - hair, blood, 
semen, or saliva - must be present and preserved. In 90-95% of major felonies, 
it's not. If it is, either prosecutors must consent to have the testing done, 
or the court must order it. In 19% of cases, this doesn't happen. Lastly, the 
testing must yield a conclusive result, an outcome reached in fewer than 20% of 
cases.

Some of the following men spent many, many years behind bars before they were 
exonerated.

Some never lived to see their innocence proved.

1. Wiley Fountain, Texas

Wiley Fountain spent 15 years in prison for a 1986 rape for which he was 
wrongly convicted following a flawed photo lineup.

The Dallas Morning News examined his case and wrote, "He was the only man 
wearing a dark baseball cap and light-colored warm-up suit, similar to what the 
attacker had on. He fit the rapist's description 'to a T,' a Dallas police 
officer later testified. The victim was sure. Prosecutors believed her. So did 
the jury. But all of them were wrong."

DNA testing proved Fountain's innocence in 2002 and he was exonerated in March 
of 2003.

In 2008, CNN reported, "Wiley Fountain is homeless just 5 years after he walked 
out of prison an innocent man ... For awhile, Fountain wandered the streets of 
Dallas, looking for aluminum cans to trade in for cash. He earned the 
occasional meal by cleaning the parking lot of a restaurant. At night he had 
nowhere to go. Now he's nowhere to be found. Just as the headlines of his 
release vanished from the front pages of the newspaper, Fountain, 51, has 
disappeared. And so have his hopes for a fresh start after spending 15 years in 
prison for an aggravated sexual assault he did not commit."

2. Michael Morton, Texas

Texas Monthly ran a November 2012 investigative report on Morton's case. "On 
August 13, 1986," journalist Pamela Colloff wrote, "Michael Morton came home to 
discover that his wife had been brutally murdered in their bed. His nightmare 
had only begun."

"When the guilty verdict was read, Michael's legs buckled beneath him." He was 
sentenced to life in prison. Morton spent 24 years wrongfully behind bars 
before DNA testing connected another man to the crime.

The Houston Chronicle wrote, "For years, Williamson County had denied Morton's 
request to have the evidence in his case tested. Finally on Jan. 8, 2010, 
Morton was successful in getting investigators to perform DNA testing on the 
bandana found near the crime scene. The results showed that the DNA sample 
belonged to a convicted felon in California who had been in Texas during 
Christine Morton's murder."

Morton was released from prison on Oct. 4, 2011. 3. Larry Peterson, New Jersey

Larry Peterson spent nearly 2 decades in prison for the rape and murder of 
25-year-old Jacqueline Harrison in 1989. In July 2005, six months after the 1st 
DNA results were released, the judge on the case vacated Peterson's conviction.

But NPR reported that 2 years after his release, he was unemployed and was only 
beginning the long battle for restitution for his time in prison.

4. Damon Thibodeaux, Mississippi

Thibodeaux was working as a deckhand on a Mississippi River workboat when he 
was convicted of raping and murdering his 14-year-old cousin. According to a 
Washington Post investigation, he "cracked at the end of a 9-hour interrogation 
and confessed ... 'I didn't know that I had done it,' Thibodeaux said at one 
point, according to a police transcript. 'But I done it.'"

He spent 15 years in solitary confinement on Louisiana's death row before DNA 
evidence exonerated him in 2012.

He was the 300th wrongly convicted person and 18th death row inmate exonerated 
in the U.S. based on DNA evidence.

5. Dennis Williams, Illinois

Dennis Williams was convicted in Illinois in 1978 and sentenced to death.

A young couple had been murdered in an abandoned house. Williams lived in the 
neighborhood where the couple was found, and was seen on the street the night 
of the crime.

This is an amazing story: A group of journalism students at Northwestern took 
up the case in 1996. They came across a tip from a witness that the police 
never investigated, and looked into it because of the students' urging.

Williams was cleared through DNA and released in 1996. He'd spent a total of 
over 17 years in prison and death row.

In 1999, Cook County settled lawsuits filed by Williams and the 3 others 
convicted of the crime for $36 million, the largest civil rights payment in 
U.S. history. Dennis said that he would give all that money back in a heartbeat 
if he could have those 18 years of his life back.

He'd barely been a free man for 6 years when his fiancee found him dead in 
their home.

6. Carlos DeLuna, Texas

On Dec. 7, 1989, Texas executed Carlos DeLuna. He'd been convicted for stabbing 
and killing Wanda Lopez during a robbery in Corpus Christi.

There were always doubts about DeLuna's guilt in the case. Andrew Cohen of The 
Atlantic wrote, "The DeLuna case was flawed at virtually every level" and that 
"his case reminds us of the glaring flaws with capital punishment." He 
continued, "On the day, sooner than you think, when the United States Supreme 
Court again outlaws the death penalty, the justices will almost certainly cite 
the DeLuna case as one of the prime reasons why."

A May 2012 investigation published by the Columbia Human Rights Law Review 
strengthened claims of innocence by detailing a large amount of evidence 
suggesting the actual murderer was Carlos Hernandez, a similar-looking man who 
lived nearby.

The prosecutor never returned evidence with DNA that could have freed DeLuna.

(source: policymic.com)

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

U.S. seeks death penalty in USPS worker murder case


The United States has filed a motion of its intent to seek the death penalty 
upon the conviction of James Wayne Ham for the murder of a mail carrier with 
the United States Postal Service (USPS), announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth 
Magidson along with Inspector in Charge Robert Wemyss of the U.S. Postal 
Inspection Service (USPIS), and San Jacinto County District Attorney Richard 
Countiss.

A grand jury sitting in Houston returned a 2-count indictment against Ham, 37, 
of Coldspring, on June 13, 2013. He is charged with 1 count of murder and 1 
count of using a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence.

The indictment alleges that on or about May 17, 2013, Ham committed 
premeditated murder of a USPS employee while she was engaged in the performance 
of her official duties and that he intentionally carried, brandished and 
discharged a firearm in the commission of that murder.

The investigation began shortly following the receipt of a 911 call from the 
son of the now deceased USPS worker on Friday, May 17. He indicated he had been 
speaking with his mother via cell phone and heard 2 loud noises. His mother 
allegedly told him she had been shot. Shortly thereafter, the phone was 
disconnected, according to the complaint.

Court documents allege the victim was shot on Friday, May 17, 2013, shortly 
after delivering mail at Ham's residence. The victim was on her normal rural 
delivery route in her personal vehicle. Ham allegedly shot her multiple times 
at close range with a .30/30 caliber rifle.

Ham then allegedly drove the vehicle to a nearby secluded area and set it on 
fire.

According to the complaint, the victim's body was discovered in her burning 
vehicle in San Jacinto County. Firefighters extinguished the flames and found 
the woman inside.

The investigation eventually led to Ham after it was discovered he had 
allegedly complained previously about not getting his mail delivered properly, 
according to the complaint.

Ham was located after an extensive manhunt and arrested without incident 
Sunday, May 20, 2013, near his home in San Jacinto County.

If convicted, he now faces the death penalty.

A variety of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies have been and 
will continue to work together in furtherance of the investigation and 
prosecution of this matter to ensure the proper administration of justice.

The case is being investigated by the USPIS, San Jacinto County Sheriff's 
Office, Texas Rangers, San Jacinto Constable Precinct 4, Texas Department of 
Criminal Justice, Montgomery County Sheriff's Department, Texas Parks and 
Wildlife, San Jacinto County Fire Marshall and the San Jacinto County District 
Attorney's Office. Also providing assistance was the Bureau of Alcohol, 
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the volunteer fire departments in Point 
Blank and Cape Royale. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joe Magliolo, Casey MacDonald 
and Suzanne Elmilady are prosecuting.

An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence.

A defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted through due process of law.

(source: yourhoustonnews.com)