[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ALA., OHIO, MO., OKLA., ARIZ., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 15


ALABAMA:

Hunger of 'bloodthirsty beast' clouds executions


We in America grieve with the families of those victims who were beheaded by 
ruthless jihadists of the Islamist State. Although President Obama and Congress 
have sparred over a plethora of issues in the past, they both agree that the 
war must be taken to the terrorists now to diminish the risk of facing the 
enemy at home on a large scale. The barbarism exhibited by militants in Syria 
and Iraq is receiving worldwide condemnation.

It is probably not the most opportune time to bring it up; however, the 
gruesome carnage of the innocent civilians in the Middle East pricks my 
conscience and compels me to consider atrocities that occur all too frequently 
in our own country.

In 1992, I was employed as a division chief with the Alabama Department of 
Economic and Community Affairs, working at the pleasure of Gov. Guy Hunt. 
Although I served on the State Democratic Executive Committee and was chairman 
of the Dallas County Democratic Conference at the time of my initial employ 
during the Hunt administration, the fact that we were both preachers gave us a 
mutual respect that transcended politics.

It was during this time that a retarded man, Cornelius Singleton, was scheduled 
to be executed for the murder of a Catholic nun, Sister Ann Hogan, while she 
prayed in a cemetery in Mobile. After exhausting all of Singleton's judicial 
appeals, his lawyers sought clemency from the governor.

Even the other nuns who served with Sister Hogan sought to have Singleton's 
life spared. State law precluded Gov. Hunt from seeking re-election, therefore 
I was certain that he would spare Singleton's life. He didn't. My heart was 
broken.

To spare Singleton's life would have spoiled Hunt's legacy. Hunt understood the 
insatiable hunger for ultimate revenge when an innocent life was taken. 
Singleton had committed the murder and no extenuating circumstances, like 
diminished mental capacity, were going to get in the way of our corporate 
vengeance.

According to the Innocence Project data, 113 prisoners who were on death row 
have been exonerated of murders that they were accused of committing since 
1973. Some of their convictions were the results of over-zealous prosecutors 
who were positioning themselves for some public office, coerced confessions, 
fallacious eyewitness identifications, and in a few cases a societal mentality 
that somebody had to pay. Some of these prisoners spent decades on death row 
prior to their exoneration.

It hurts to think how many innocent people have been executed in this country 
because angels of mercy had not pulled their files for examination.

A civilized society must be willing to punish those criminals who do harm to 
its members. During the enforcement of laws designed to protect the public, 
mistakes are sometimes made. However, when it comes to the ultimate penalty of 
death, a society cannot once be wrong. No pardon, apology or monetary 
compensation to significant others can bring back to life a person who has been 
wrongly executed. It doesn't matter if he/she dies by the electric chair, a 
combination of drugs, a firing squad, guillotine, or some other crude method, 
the person is dead and his family mourns the loss that can never be regained.

America must be willing to go after the bad guys over there. I dare say that we 
need to do a little soul-searching and battle the bloodthirsty beast within our 
own spirit.

(source: Opinion; Joseph Rembert is pastor of New Beginnings Christian Center 
in Montgomery----Montgomery Advertiser)

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

DeBlase capital murder trial begins


Nearly 4 years after John DeBlase was arrested for killing his 2 children, his 
capital murder trial has begun in Mobile County.

According to Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich, DeBlase withdrew his 
initial plea of not guilty because of insanity and is now pleading not guilty.

DeBlase and his common law wife Heather Keaton are accused of gagging, starving 
and poisoning his 2 children, 5-year-old Natalie and 3-year-old Jonathan Chase 
in 2010. DeBlase waived his right to be in the court room Tuesday, October 14 
when potential jurors went before Circuit Court Judge Rick Stout. 278 people 
showed up for jury selection and 1 by 1, they went before the prosecution, 
defense and the judge.

"The reason it takes so long is because they have to do it individually and 
they do that so that 1 person's opinion doesn't sway another persons," said 
Gordon Armstrong with Armstrong & Associates.

Each potential juror is required to fill out a 15 page questionnaire which asks 
about employment, education, military service and belief in the death penalty.

"The Supreme Court has said death is different so when death is the possible 
punishment, then the courts treat the jury selection process much differently 
and it's so important your jury is unbiased and fair and willing to listen," 
Armstrong said.

Some potential jurors were excused from serving this time around while others 
will continue in the jury selection process.

District Attorney Ashley Rich said she expects opening statements to begin in 
middle of next week. Rich and Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Wright are 
prosecuting the case. Attorneys Art Powell and Glenn Davidson are serving as 
the defense.

(source: WALA news)






OHIO:

Prosecutors consider death-penalty charges against man accused of killing 
Michaela Diemer


Cuyahoga County prosecutors are considering whether to bring the death penalty 
against a convicted rapist accused of killing a woman in a vacant West Side 
home.

Ronald Hillman, 46, of Cleveland pleaded not guilty Wednesday to aggravated 
murder in the slaying of Michaela Diemer, who was killed in August. He was 
indicted earlier this month on charges of rape, kidnapping, robbery and abuse 
of a corpse.

Brent Kirvel, an assistant county prosecutor, told Common Pleas Judge John 
O'Donnell that an internal committee of the prosecutor's office will determine 
whether to file death-penalty charges. The panel is expected to study the issue 
next month.

Kirvel told the judge that prosecutors have a great deal of evidence against 
Hillman, including statements he made to authorities. Hillman's attorney, 
Valerie Arbie-McClelland, described the case as complex. She declined to 
comment. Arbie-McClelland and veteran defense attorney Thomas Shaughnessy 
represent Hillman.

If the case goes to trial, it could take weeks to complete.

Hillman had met Diemer while working at a temporary employment agency, 
officials said. Diemer, 31, was reported missing by family members in August, 
around the time court records show she was murdered. Her body was later found 
in a field near West 41st Street and Train Avenue.

Hillman was released from prison in 2012 after serving 7 years for rape. He was 
still on parole at the time that he attacked Diemer, according to state prison 
records.

O'Donnell set Hillman's bond at $500,000. In addition, the Ohio Adult Parole 
Authority has ordered that Hillman cannot be released from jail because he 
violated his parole.

Court records show Hillman's criminal record dates back to 1986. Authorities 
said he was living in a home on Forestdale Avenue, where they suspect he killed 
Diemer. After she disappeared, Hillman took her car, a 2013 Volkswagon Jetta, 
according to interviews and documents.

Diemer's family members spotted the car at a gas station after her 
disappearance, and police were able to get surveillance video that linked them 
to Hillman, according to published reports.

(source: The Plain Dealer)






MISSOURI:

The Death Penalty, Missouri and the Continued Devaluing of Black Life


The murder of a black person is often disregarded by the media and much of the 
public as a normal, ignorable occurrence. But occasionally, the spectacle of a 
murdered black person captures the nation's attention. It's a tradition of 
sorts. The morbid pageantry of killing a black person, consuming black pain and 
stifling black cries of innocence has a long running history here in the United 
States. It's cemented in the lynching postcards whites used to send each other 
as souvenirs, and has trickled down through racist lineage to how we consume 
black deaths today.

This pageantry of black death is performed through many means, including 
"vigilante justice" and extrajudicial police murders - and also the death 
penalty, which is grounded in racism, past and present. A recent example: The 2 
famously condemned black death row prisoners exonerated due to DNA evidence, 
after 31 years of imprisonment. This moment begs a reflection on all the ways 
in which the machinery of death operates in relation to black people (even 
those who are exonerated, after losing decades of their lives). Inside and 
outside of prisons, black people are disproportionately killed - and officially 
authorized to be killed - in the United States. It's crucial to devote our 
concern to all untimely black deaths - including those that happen behind bars.

Since late last year, leading up to the uprisings in Ferguson, the state of 
Missouri has quietly and controversially used midazolam to kill nine condemned 
death row prisoners. Missouri's director of the Department of Corrections spoke 
on behalf of the state to lawyers at a deposition in January saying they 
wouldn't use the drug. They did - and they got away with it. Death penalty 
states have been rushing to get their hands on anything they can use to put 
prisoners to death. Several pharmaceutical companies backed away from letting 
their products be used for lethal injections, causing the widespread usage of 
"chemical cocktails." Now, some death penalty states, more concerned with being 
on schedule than with not torturing prisoners with drawn out exploratory 
executions, have been using what they can find. Some of these states, like 
Georgia, have even passed legislation - which the Supreme Court has upheld - to 
keep their torturous methods secret. The prospect of "humane killing" is 
oxymoronic to say the least, but torture is never warranted.

The mishandled execution that grabbed the country's attention was that of 
Clayton Lockett last April, in Oklahoma. (A mishandling that has come to be 
known as the "botched execution.") Lockett was to be the first of two men 
scheduled for a double execution - the first in the state since 1937. A group 
of witnesses gathered to watch as he was tortured to death by Oklahoma's "new 
lethal injection method": 43 minutes of groaning, writhing and fumbling before 
he finally had a heart attack and died. The second execution scheduled that 
night didn't happen. After Lockett's execution, an independent autopsy revealed 
how his death was tantamount to torture, and led to a brief, unofficial de 
facto moratorium on the death penalty.

7 weeks later, on June 17, many around the country waited to see what would 
happen to Marcus Wellons in Georgia. Wellons' lawyers rushed to stop his demise 
and urged that the moratorium continue. They argued via a petition for 
postponement that the drug secrecy was a violation of his First and Eighth 
Amendment rights - among other trespasses against his person. In his petition, 
Wellons did not plead to live; he simply asked to know how he was going to be 
killed. His lawyers could not stop his execution, despite their pleas to the 
Supreme Court. His death would be one of three in a spurt of these lethal 
experimentations. After Wellons, John Winfield was scheduled to die in Missouri 
and John Ruthell would be executed by Florida the next evening. Three deaths 
occurred in less than 24 hours.

This succession of events has prompted a lawsuit from current death row 
prisoners, who feel they have the right to know how they will die. Of course, 
the Supreme Court has allowed the executions to go on undeterred.

Meanwhile, Ohio has taken the liberty of upping the dosage used to kill. 
Tennessee is reverting to the electric chair, also prompting a lawsuit. This 
alternative torturous method has not been used in years and lawyers argue no 
other country in the world uses it.

At each step in the criminal punishment system, the path is paved for black 
torture and fatality. During surveillance, arrest and conviction, black 
survival is at the mercy of the state. In the pits of solitary confinement or 
in the general prison population, black death is omnipresent. The death penalty 
represents one more step in that chain.

Research shows "unconscious" bias among physicians who treat black people; one 
can only imagine what might lie in store for a black person who is being 
intentionally killed by a medical professional.

Although "innocence" should not be a precursor for being treated like a human 
being, it must be noted that judgments of "innocence" and "guilt" are often 
based not on an individual's actions, but on race. Research has revealed that 
blacks are viewed as less innocent or inherently guilty based on skin color 
from childhood, and blacks are disproportionately sentenced and executed.

Consider the case of 50-year-old Henry McCollum, the man who, with his younger 
half brother, recently walked free from prison after three decades for a crime 
they did not commit. Emerging from prison, McCollum didn't even know how to use 
a seatbelt. Justice Antonin Scalia once argued that McCollum's life was an 
example of the necessity for the death penalty, saying that a "quiet death" by 
lethal injection was "enviable" compared to the crime that McCollum had 
supposedly committed.

Of course, a "quiet death" is far from the death that befell Clayton Lockett 
when a paramedic was unable to find suitable veins in his arms, legs, neck or 
feet, and the line was inserted into his groin. Such cruel and unusual 
punishment should be inflicted on no one - innocent or guilty. However, 
considering the prison system's groundings in anti-black racism, it's not 
shocking that this new trend of torturing prisoners to death hasn't caused 
enormous outrage. The warrantless attack on the black community 
post-Reconstruction was the foundation of our massive prison system, and 
designated blacks as a permanent criminal class. The US brand of racism has 
always rendered the black body quite killable, threatening and worthy of 
torture. The relationship of this perceived "killability" to black bodies is 
unique - and sometimes, white fear and paranoia take black lives before they 
are finished being lived.

In this age of "botched" executions, unprovoked police violence and normalized 
torture, the black community is facing a threat that renews our inconsolable 
history of being test subjects. Black existence is a river of post-traumatic 
stress that we swim upstream daily. It's a gut feeling of knowing that 
something is coming - a feeling that many of us inherit from birth. It's a fear 
of what's coming based on knowing what's already here. It's a fear shared by a 
group of people who know exactly what this country is capable of.

History should make it abundantly clear that the subsistence of black people is 
intertwined with the existence of capitalism. The oppression, stress and death 
of the black body built this nation through enslavement, and persistently keeps 
it moving. Black people entertain, labor and stylize the most powerful empire 
in the world, thereby influencing culture globally. Black people have always 
demanded respect of our humanity, but traditionally, the lives of black people 
have been valued for their labor or subservience. Even though we are all 
killable, certain types of black people are deemed more fit to live, as 
determined through the lens of respectability. "Thug" and "criminal" are 
readymade labels for the justification of murdered blacks like Michael Brown 
Jr. in Ferguson.

The angry awareness of racism in the judicial system, prisons and policing is 
what has provided lifeblood to the protests in Ferguson. What is being 
protested there is not a completely separate issue from the death penalty. The 
black community has always been under attack by numerous forces representing 
the state, from police to courtrooms to prisons to execution chambers. Though 
they operate differently, they are interconnected in their racist groundings.

And so the cry that "black life matters" must include imprisoned black life. 
Innocent or guilty, no person deserves to be tortured to death. Innocent or 
guilty, no one should be extrajudicially killed by a police officer. Innocent 
or guilty, no black person should have their fate decided by a system that 
constantly fails to deliver black people justice.

Black people have always been present en masse to defend the lives of those 
unjustly taken from black communities. Every time, propaganda is released in an 
attempt to justify their murders, to mark them as "guilty." Think of Renisha 
McBride's intoxication, Trayvon Martin's hoodie, Michael Brown stealing from a 
store. No matter what is released, their lives are still worth defending: Their 
past ("guilty" or "innocent") doesn't justify their death. That recognition is 
one of the most beautiful things about the black community: that sense of 
acceptance and placing humanity first.

"Criminality" doesn't justify death - and why is a system guilty of being 
unjust fit to decide who dies?

Black lives matter. All black lives matter. Lives inside and outside of prisons 
matter. When we fight for black people, let's make sure we fight for every kind 
of black person that exists in our society. We cannot negate any black person 
based on ability, gender, sexuality or imprisonment. During these painful 
times, the black community has been reaching outside of traditional white 
definitions of justice. For many, this is a time to begin looking inward at 
what is already exemplary: the tradition of fighting for black lives.

(source: William C. Anderson, truthout.org)






OKLAHOMA:

The 21st century death chamber: $100,000 for a civilised execution


How much does it cost to revamp a death chamber in a prison that hosted a 
notorious botched execution into a state-of-the-art, 21st century, humane and 
civilised killing machine? $106,042.60 - or so says the state of Oklahoma.

This week Oklahoma opened the doors of its maximum-security state penitentiary 
in McAlester to show off its spanking-new redesigned execution suite. It was a 
display of conspicuous transparency put on for the benefit of the media, which 
was paradoxical in the circumstances, as one of the main changes made under the 
renovation is to slash the number of media witnesses at all future executions 
by more than half.

As part of the media tour, the prison authorities handed reporters an itemised 
balance sheet that listed all the expenses that had gone into the upgrade. The 
144 entries ranged from the mundane - $516.92 spent on new carpeting, $358.42 
for paint stripper, $55.24 on "nuts and bolts" - to the more resonant.

Almost $2,000 were spent on restraints - 4 brown leather straps, 1 for each of 
the offender's hands and 1 for each ankle. There was an order for 34 needles, 
as well as a set of new syringes for administering the lethal drugs.

And then there was the listing for a "surgical table", commonly known as a 
gurney, costing a substantial $12,500. In case Oklahoma taxpayers are tempted 
to complain about such lavish expense, it should be pointed out that the new 
gurney is likely to see plenty of use: the last one was purchased by the state 
in the 1950s and was the centrepiece of at least 111 judicial killings.

Scott Crow, the department of corrections administrator of field operations who 
conducted the tour, waxed lyrical about the capabilities of the new death bed. 
"This is an electric bed which has the ability to raise or lower to accommodate 
the needs not only of witnesses in the viewing areas but any needs as far as 
the offender is concerned," he said.

He pressed a set of buttons beneath the gurney so that the assembled media 
representatives could see it rise and fall, rise and fall, with the cheerful 
smoothness of a carousel horse.

The "major renovations" that Crow described on the tour were ordered by the 
director of Oklahoma's department of corrections, Robert Patton, in the wake of 
the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in April. It took 43 minutes for the 
prisoner to die from an experimental concoction of drugs, during which he was 
observed to heave and groan on the gurney. In a rare presidential intervention 
in the debate over capital punishment, the White House said the execution "fell 
short of humane standards".

In Oklahoma's own internal investigation into the Lockett debacle, the state 
noted a number of inadequacies, including poor training of execution staff and 
lack of supplies such as proper sized needles. Soon after the execution, Patton 
said that Lockett had died of a "massive heart attack" - but a more likely 
explanation, indicated in autopsies, was that officials had bungled the placing 
of the IV in Lockett's veins.

In the fallout from the affair, the state produced a new execution protocol, 
under which the the death chamber was renovated. One of the key changes is to 
cut the number of media witnesses to all future executions from 12 to 5.

Hence the paradox. During this week's media tour, reporters heard that the new 
witness area had its quota of seating reduced form 25 to 19, without any 
mention that the missing seats used to be available to reporters.

State officials refused to discuss any aspect of the new execution protocols 
other than bare construction issues, on grounds that the matter was "being 
litigated". When, for instance, the Guardian pointed to an entry among the 
renovation expenses listed as "electrode snap FM Wetgel 50s" and asked for a 
plain English translation, Crow replied: "That's part of the protocol. I'm not 
at liberty to discuss that."

The Guardian, together with the Oklahoma Observer and the American Civil 
Liberties Union (ACLU) are among the litigants to which the officials were 
referring. They have asked the courts to stop the department of corrections 
from drawing a curtain over the viewing window, preventing reporters seeing the 
full proceedings, as happened 16 minutes into Lockett's execution. This week 
the ACLU and the 2 news organizations also called for a preliminary injunction 
to prevent Oklahoma from reducing the number of media witnesses to 5.

Some aspects of the renovation could be deemed to be a step forward, in the 
sense that they will reduce the likelihood of further botches. In the new 
operations room that sits alongside the death chamber, there will now be 
equipment to monitor the offender's heart, blood pressure and blood oxygen 
levels, as well as an ultra-sound that will assist in finding a vein in which 
to place the IV.

Cameras fixed to the ceiling above the gurney will allow the three 
executioners, sitting on the other side of the wall, to zoom in on the 
offender???s face. The old system of indicating difficulties with the lethal 
injection process that used to rely on pushing coloured sticks through the wall 
- red spelling danger - has been scrapped and replaced by a digital intercom 
that will connect the executioners to the 1 person who will be allowed inside 
the death chamber along with the offender.

Reporters asked who that person would be - would it be a physician or 
paramedic, or state official? "I am not at liberty to say that, it's under 
litigation," Crow replied.

Whether the $106,042.60-worth of "improvements" will be appreciated by the 
state's current death row population of 49 is perhaps a moot point. Dale Baich, 
the lawyer who represented Clayton Lockett, said he was withholding judgment 
until he'd seen the changes himself - a visit to the new facilities for 
attorneys working with condemned prisoners is said to be in the offing.

It won't be too long before Oklahoma's death chamber 2.0 is put through its 
paces. Child killer Charles Warner has been given the dubious privilege of 
being the 1st to test it out. His execution is scheduled for 13 November.

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

Doctor involved in botched execution 'experimented' on inmate, suit 
claims----Family of Clayton Lockett, who was killed in prolonged execution, 
names doctor and says he violated rule established at Nuremberg trials


The family of Clayton Lockett, the death row inmate in Oklahoma who suffered a 
long and apparently traumatic execution in April, is suing a family doctor who 
they allege actively participated in the botched lethal injection process that 
killed him.

The legal complaint, lodged with the federal court for the western district of 
Oklahoma on Tuesday, names Dr Johnny Zellmer as a defendant both in his 
individual and official capacity. The lawsuit accuses him of engaging "in human 
medical experimentation in torturing Clayton Lockett to death", and says that 
his participation in the execution was against international protocols 
established at the post-2nd world war Nuremberg trials of Nazi doctors.

The naming of Dr Zellmer under court privilege is a rare instance of the 
identity of a physician who allegedly participated in an execution coming to 
light. Death penalty states, including Oklahoma, go to great lengths to guard 
the secrecy of their execution teams.

The position of doctors is particularly sensitive as physicians take the 
Hippocratic Oath to show "utmost respect for human life". Where doctors have 
been present in the death chamber, their role has in most cases been tightly 
limited to assessing whether the prisoner is unconscious and then officially 
pronouncing death.

However, in the case of Clayton Lockett, the state has admitted that a 
physician was present who actively took part in killing the prisoner. The 
report of the internal investigation into the Lockett execution reveals that 
the physician stepped in to finish the job after the paramedic who had 
initiated the execution failed to place the IV into Lockett's veins.

"The IV access was completed by a physician licensed as a medical doctor," the 
report said.

The direct participation of the physician in helping guide lethal drugs into 
Lockett's body is an apparent violation of the Hippocratic Oath. It is also a 
breach of the voluntary code laid out by the American Medical Association that 
states that doctors should not play any role that contributes to the cause of 
death in a legallyauthorized execution.

David Lane, a civil rights lawyer in Denver who is acting for the Lockett 
family, said he called Zellmer a month ago and gave the physician the chance to 
deny that he took part in the Lockett killing. According to Lane, Zellmer 
replied: "Y'all have to talk to the prison about that," and put the phone down.

The Guardian attempted to reach Zellmer but was not immediately successful.

Lockett endured a 43-minute execution involving an experimental concoction of 
lethal drugs in which he was observed writhing and groaning on the gurney. The 
investigation report indicated that there had been a shortage of appropriate 
needles that day, and that the physician and paramedic had failed to place the 
IV into the prisoner's vein, leading to the injection of a mass of lethal drugs 
into his muscle.

Lane said that he had learned the identity of the doctor from an "inside 
source". Zellmer is listed by the Oklahoma medical board as a fully licensed 
and active doctor, specializing in family and emergency medicine and practicing 
out of McAlester, where the state penitentiary that houses the death chamber is 
located.

The investigation report into Lockett's death notes that the physician had been 
involved in one other execution about 4 or 5 years earlier. He had been 
contacted just 2 days before Lockett was scheduled to die as another physician 
had pulled out due to a scheduling conflict.

The doctor was specifically told that his duties would only involve assessing 
whether Lockett was unconscious and pronouncing death. It remains unclear why 
the doctor agreed to go further, and actively attempt to place the IV.

The report does not identify the physician, but does say that he had a license 
that expired on 1 July every year. Zellmer???s current license expires on 1 
July 2015.

Oklahoma has introduced a law that guards the confidentiality of the execution 
team. Lane said that he was aware of the law, but said he had a first amendment 
right on a matter of supreme public concern.

"I know that it was Dr Zellmer who participated in this execution, and to deny 
me the right to sue the doctor who killed Clayton Lockett is to deny his family 
their civil rights," he said.

The lawsuit against Zellmer also names as defendants the governor of Oklahoma, 
Mary Fallin, the director of the department of corrections Robert Patton and 
various unidentified members of the execution team. It alleges that Zellmer 
received payment for his services, adding that his "participation in the failed 
medical experiment directly caused the tortured death of Clayton Lockett".

(source for both: The Guardian)


ARIZONA:

Jury selection continues, local residents complain about slow legal process


Arizona residents are relieved to learn that the Jodi Arias trial will start 
again on Tuesday to finish the task of selecting the new set of jurors for the 
widely-sensationalized courtroom battle.

Arias had already been convicted guilty of committing 1st-degree murder for 
killing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander back in 2008, yet a sentence had not 
been decided because of a hung jury, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial 
for the sentencing phase of the case.

Tuesday's trial seeks to find the 12 jurors and 6 alternates to sit on the 
controversial murder case.

Last week, the lawyers working on the case started questioning 400 possible 
jurors in Phoenix's Maricopa County Superior Court. After the 1st cut, the 
number was trimmed down to 176. Wednesday's trial resulted to further 
trimmings, which ended up with 26 people returning for further questioning.

The residents from the area, on the other hand, are not happy with how slow 
things are shaping up for the trial. A former Mesa police investigator 
expressed his strong opinion in an interview posted at the Arizona Central.

He said, "YES! I'm sick and tired of the Jodi Arias murder case. Murders happen 
almost everyday in Arizona. Sadly, murder is no big deal. While most murder 
cases and trials are handled quietly and with the dignity of brain surgery, the 
Arias trial has taken on the theatrics of a well-rehearsed circus show, thanks 
to Maricopa County prosecutor Juan Martinez, defendant Arias and the media."

The prolonged trial to sentence Jodi Arias is also putting a hole in the 
pockets of Arizona taxpayers. At this point, the defense costs already reached 
$2.5 million. This is not the final numbers, however, since the tab will 
continue to grow while the second phase for penalty hearing is still ongoing.

The amount paid for the prosecutors were undisclosed.

Aside from the jury selection, the court will also tackle the defense's motion 
to dismiss death penalty as one of the options for Arias' sentence, citing 
reasons of prosecutorial misconduct.

(source: Christian Today)






CALIFORNIA:

Central California man charged with stabbing to death elderly parents, 2 sons 
and family dog


A central California man whom authorities say confessed to stabbing his elderly 
father and mother, his 2 sons and the family dog has been charged with murder 
and animal cruelty.

Santa Barbara County prosecutors announced Tuesday that a grand jury indicted 
45-year-old Nicolas Holzer on felony charges that include special allegations. 
Prosecutors haven't decided whether to seek the death penalty.

Holzer remains jailed without bail.

Prosecutors contend that in August at his Goleta home, Holzer grabbed kitchen 
knives and attacked his 73-year-old father; then his sons, ages 10 and 13, as 
they slept; then his 74-year-old mother and the family dog.

Authorities say Holzer then called 911 to report killing his family.

Authorities say Holzer, who had no criminal history, told detectives that the 
killings were his destiny.

(source: Associated Press)






USA:

New Charges Brought in 2012 Benghazi Attacks


A Libyan militant already behind bars was indicted Tuesday on new charges 
arising from the 2012 Benghazi attacks, including crimes punishable by the 
death penalty, the Justice Department said.

The new 18-count grand jury indictment, which includes multiple counts of 
murder, had been widely expected since Ahmed Abu Khattala was captured in June 
by U.S. special forces and brought to the United States to face trial.

Abu Khattala, 43, the first militant to be prosecuted for the Benghazi 
violence, had initially been charged with conspiracy to provide material 
support to terrorists, resulting in death. U.S. officials had described that 
initial, one-count indictment as a placeholder to allow for him to be brought 
into court and for a grand jury to hear more evidence.

The new indictment does not add to the public account of how the attacks 
unfolded but it does include multiple counts that make Abu Khattala eligible 
for the death penalty if convicted, including murder of an internationally 
protected person and killing a person during an armed attack on a federal 
facility. It also accuses him, among other charges, of providing material 
support to terrorists, malicious destruction of property and attempted murder 
of an officer and employee of the U.S.

One of his public defenders, Michelle Peterson, said last summer that 
prosecutors had not presented evidence tying him to the attacks. In a statement 
Tuesday evening, she cautioned against a rush to judgment.

"It is important to remember that an indictment is merely a set of allegations 
or charges, it is not evidence," she said. "We will vigorously defend Mr. Abu 
(Khattala)? in court where the government will be forced to prove his guilt, 
based upon actual evidence."

After his capture during a nighttime raid, Abu Khattala was brought to the U.S. 
aboard a Navy boat where he was interrogated by federal agents. He remains in 
custody at a detention facility in Alexandria, Virginia.

Abu Khattala, who earlier pleaded not guilty to the terrorism conspiracy 
charge, is scheduled to be arraigned next week in U.S. District Court in 
Washington on the new charges.

Federal prosecutors have long accused Abu Khattala of being a ringleader of the 
Sept. 11-12, 2012, attacks that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and 3 other 
Americans. Attorney General Eric Holder said the new indictment reflects Abu 
Khattala's "integral role" in the attacks.

The superseding indictment alleges that Abu Khattala was involved in 2 
different attacks, hours apart, on the diplomatic compound.

The violence, which quickly emerged as a flashpoint in American political 
discourse, was aimed at killing American personnel at the compound and looting 
the buildings of documents, maps and computers, the Justice Department says.

In the 1st burst of violence on the night of Sept. 11, prosecutors allege, Abu 
Khattala drove to the diplomatic mission with other militants and a group of 
about 20 breached the main gate and later launched an attack with assault 
rifles, grenades and other weapons. That initial attack killed Stevens and 
communications specialist Sean Smith and set the mission ablaze.

Prosecutors say Khattala "supervised the plunder" of sensitive information from 
that building, then returned to a camp in Benghazi where a large group began 
assembling for an attack on a 2nd building known as the annex. The attack on 
that facility, including a precision mortar barrage, resulted in the deaths of 
security officers Tyrone Snowden Woods and Glen Anthony Doherty, authorities 
say.

(source: Associated Press)

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Christianity don't mix


Dear Editor:

Recently, The Tuscaloosa News reported that Alabama has identified drugs that 
pass legal requirements for lethal injection executions, and consequently, the 
state may now resume executions.

In a state where a vast majority of citizens profess Christianity and claim to 
be followers of Jesus Christ, it is ironic that more notable responses from 
that community of Christians have not used the temporary moratorium on 
executions to challenge the resumption of this barbaric practice. No follower 
of Jesus Christ can find one scintilla of support in his teachings that 
justifies the obsessive, dogged determination to retain this form of "justice."

In fact, iconic passages in the Gospels admonish us to do just the opposite: 
"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone ..." John 8:7; 
"Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." Matthew 5:7; "Judge 
not, that ye be not judged." Matthew 7:1; "... In as much as ye have done it 
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Matthew 
25:40.

When we, as a society, in systematic deliberation faced with clear alternatives 
elect to take a life, we take that which is not ours. When we, as professing 
Christians, elect to consign such an immortal soul to eternity, we presume to 
be God, the ultimate blasphemy. Profess Christianity, if that is your faith. 
Support the death penalty, if you will. Clearly, however, you cannot have it 
both ways.

Marvin Johnson, Tuscaloosa

(source: Letter to the Editor, Tuscaloosa News)