[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., IND., TENN., UTAH

[Rick Halperin]

April 2


GEORGIA:

State plans to seek death penalty against accused serial killer


Prosecutors told a Fulton County judge Thursday that they plan to seek the 
death penalty against an accused serial killer.

Aeman Presley, 34, is charged with killing four victims between late September 
and early December. The victims include 2 homeless men, a man and a woman.

The homeless men, Dorian Jenkins and Tommy Mimms, were sleeping on the street 
in Atlanta when they were shot and killed the week of Thanksgiving.

Calvin Gholston was shot in a Stone Mountain strip mall on September 26 and 
Karen Pearce was robbed and then shot in Decatur on December 6.

Atlanta police say Presley confessed to the killings during interrogation.

Presley was apprehended after MARTA police stopped him for not paying to ride 
and found a gun on him that detectives say matched the murder weapon.

Investigators say it's possible Presley killed others, but they can't say why.

(source: myfoxatlanta.com)






INDIANA:

House Committee Considers Expansion Of Death Penalty


A House committee has approved 1 expansion of the death penalty, but put 
another on hold.

The Senate responded to last year's murder of a Purdue student in a classroom 
on campus with a bill allowing the death penalty for school shootings or 
shootings during worship services.

But Public Defender Council executive director Larry Landis says the bill would 
break new and questionable legal ground by allowing the death penalty based 
where the murder took place.

"Nearly all of the 16 aggravators currently in the statute deal with one of 
three situations," says Landis. "It's either the manner or method of killing, 
the characteristics of the murderer, or the characteristics of the victim. 
They're now starting to put a death penalty aggravator based on the geography."

And Landis says an attempt to limit the bill's impact to hours when classes or 
church services are actually in session instead could make the bill too vague.

Committee Chairman Thomas Washburne (R-Inglefield) says he'll decide next week 
whether to vote on the measure.

The committee did unanimously endorse a bill allowing the death penalty for 
beheadings.

Approval by the full House would send the bill to Governor Pence.

(source: WBAA news)






TENNESSEE:

Tennessee conservatives should reconsider death penalty


Though Sunshine Week in Tennessee has ended, the need for a more transparent 
government has not.

Given the recent revelations concerning the staggering levels of incompetence 
and government secrecy in the execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma and the 
possibility that Tennessee may not have the necessary drugs to carry out an 
execution, our residents have every reason to be concerned.

Still, even if Tennessee and other states continue to keep information about 
execution protocols from public scrutiny, what our state can't hide is the fact 
that the death penalty system risks the execution of the innocent, does not 
ensure swift or sure justice for victims' families, and is extremely costly to 
taxpayers. When the sun shines on the death penalty system in Tennessee, its 
failures are all too clear.

In the last 40 years, 150 people have been released from death rows nationwide 
when evidence of their innocence emerged, including three in Tennessee. For 
each of them, there are surely innocent persons who have been executed, not 
fortunate enough to have had their convictions overturned. This is 
unacceptable.

And, though some victims' families do support the death penalty as a 
punishment, others now favor life imprisonment without parole. In the current 
system, the state dangles the possibility of the death penalty in front of 
families while the process drags on for decades. These families exist in a 
purgatory of endless waiting, wondering whether the sentence will ever be 
carried out. Life imprisonment without parole begins immediately.

As fiscal conservatives, we want to make sure that the state is spending our 
money wisely. Pursuing the death penalty for a handful of perpetrators is not a 
wise use of financial resources. It is considerably less expensive to 
incarcerate a criminal than to execute a criminal. And by "less," we mean 
millions per year.

We anticipate the objection that, since the appeals process is so long and 
expensive, why not just rein in the appeals and execute people more quickly? 
The answer is that the appeals process too often reveals mistakes. In other 
words, if we speed up the process, we run the risk of executing the innocent.

While the state has a duty to punish crime and protect its residents, we need 
to consider whether the power to kill is something we want vested in 
government, particularly when an offender is incarcerated and no longer a 
threat to society.

It's time that Tennessee re-examines capital punishment. For this reason, we 
have taken on a new role as co-coordinators for Tennessee Conservatives 
Concerned About the Death Penalty.

We're concerned that we're executing innocent people and prolonging the 
suffering of victims' families. We're concerned that capital punishment is 
wasting taxpayer dollars and that the power to execute might be too big for 
anyone to handle, especially government.

And we know there are others who are concerned, too. If you're one of them, 
visit tnccatdp.org.

(source: Opinion; Kenny Collins is a junior at the University of Tennessee and 
the state chairman of Young Americans for Liberty. Logan Threadgill is a 
3rd-year student at the University of Tennessee College of Law. They are 
co-coordinators of Tennessee Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, 
one of 10 such chapters across the country working to bring to light issues 
with capital punishment----The Tennessean)






UTAH:

Death penalty trial set for Utah man accused in 2010 St. George double murder


A 2-week death penalty trial has been scheduled to begin Sept. 28 for Brandon 
Perry Smith, accused of killing a woman in a St. George apartment in 2010.

Smith, 33, is charged in 5th District Court with aggravated murder and 
aggravated assault in the stabbing death of 20-year-old Jerrica Christensen.

Prosecutors announced last year that they are seeking Smith's execution.

Smith is accused of beating Christensen and cutting her throat with a pocket 
knife moments after his friend, Paul Clifford Ashton, shot and killed Brandie 
Sue Dawn Jerden and shot and wounded James Fiske.

Smith's attorneys have implied in court papers that their client killed the 
woman because he felt threatened by Ashton, but prosecutors have argued that 
Smith is cold-hearted and relished taking the life of a stranger.

(source: Salt Lake Tribune)