[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.Y., PENN., MISS., ARK. , KY.

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 3



NEW YORK:

Attorneys talk race, justice at SBU


2 area attorneys Wednesday afternoon at St. Bonaventure University blasted a 
justice system they claim is rife with inequity for minorities.

Cattaraugus County Public Defender Mark Williams, who is white, cited racism 
inherent in courts and police departments nationally and locally before a crowd 
of several dozen at the John J. Murphy Professional Building.

John Elmore, a black Buffalo attorney and an Olean native, spoke from 
experience defending numerous capital murder cases and others in which 
African-Americans were often punished more severely than Caucasians who 
committed similar or greater crimes.

The talk, titled "RaceMatters Locally, Too," was part of Bonaventure's yearlong 
#RaceMatters series stemming from the "All Bonaventure Reads" selection of 
"Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption" by Alabama attorney Bryan 
Stevenson.

"I'm sure you're sitting here wondering, 'What does a white guy know about 
racism in Cattaraugus County, locally?" Williams said. "Being born white 59 
years ago, my life always mattered."

But legal experience, including with the military, framed a perspective of how 
that's not always true, Williams said.

"Not everybody has that advantage of their life mattering, being important from 
day one, to other people," he added. "... It's not always the case for somebody 
whoss an African-American or, even in Cattaraugus County, a Native American. 
The racism that you see is there. It's always in the back of my mind as far as 
what's going on with the criminal cases that I've had."

His office took 4,500 cases last year, roughly split evenly between family 
court and criminal proceedings mostly for drugs, thefts and assaults.

"When we have drug cases, we have an unbelievably disproportionate number of 
clients of color," Williams said. "You have to sit there and say, 'Why? How 
does that happen in Cattaraugus County ... that most of our drug cases are 
African-Americans?'"

According to U.S. Census estimates from 2014, 1.5 % of approximately 78,600 
county residents are African-American and 3.3 % are Native American.

"But if you look at the defendants in these drug cases, it's around 40 to 50 % 
(minorities)," Williams said. "I think there's a little bit of racism that 
starts right there on targeting who they're going to go after."

Williams alleged the Olean City Police Department has used racial bias, citing 
several incidents the Times Herald was unable to independently verify 
Wednesday.

"It's racial profiling. It happens all the time. I hope that the Olean Police 
Department learns they've got to get training," Williams told the Times Herald 
afterward. "They've got to hire different people. It's all in the interview 
process. They think they're performing a function by ridding Olean of drugs, 
but they're targeting a small part of the population and not looking at the big 
picture."

Reached for comment Wednesday evening, Olean Mayor Bill Aiello countered the 
racial claim.

"Since I've been mayor, I have had no allegations of racism by the Olean Police 
Department brought to my attention," Aiello said. "That's a true and accurate 
statement."

Most defendants who claim innocence at the county level eventually take plea 
deals, fearing that losing a trial would yield a harsher sentence, Williams 
said. It's difficult, he added, to defend cases for black clients in a county 
that sees often fields predominantly white juries.

Williams further alleged race plays a role in county prosecutors' decisions 
during jury selections.

"I'm saying that people, either consciously or subconsciously, don't 
necessarily see what their actions are equating to," he added afterward, 
without specifically naming the district attorney or her office.

"Yes, I would agree there is a disproportionate number of minorities in our 
jail and in our justice system, both African-Americans and Native Americans," 
District Attorney Lori Rieman responded when called for comment. "I don't think 
it's because of their race that they were arrested, though. It's because they 
were witnessed or there's evidence they committed a crime.

"I think it's a cultural thing that has nothing to do with their race. I know a 
lot of very upstanding Native Americans and African-Americans. ... When I get a 
case, I don't look at their mugshots first to see what color they are."

Elmore has worked with the author Stevenson on several death penalty cases.

"There's more wrongful convictions in a death penalty case than any other kind 
of case because of jury selection," Elmore said. "It becomes more political. 
Prosecutors are more inclined to cheat in death penalty cases. Police officers 
are more likely to cut corners and do things that they shouldn't be doing that 
result in innocent people being convicted in death penalty cases."

He said minorities are "3 times" more likely to be arrested with force, citing 
many incidents currently in the media spotlight of white police officers 
killing unarmed blacks.

Jury selections in death penalty cases, regardless of race, often set up 
defendants for failure, Elmore said.

To qualify for a death penalty jury, potential jurors have to believe in it as 
punishment. As a result, Elmore added, "You get some of the most right-wing, 
law-and-order people. ... You have a Rush Limbaugh jury. They're just like a 
bunch of sharks that smell blood just waiting to kill your client."

Elmore is the author of "Fighting for Your Life: The African-American Criminal 
Justice Survival Guide." He also is a former Manhattan assistant district 
attorney, a former New York state assistant attorney general and a retired New 
York state trooper, among other titles.

Noting poverty as a major cause, Elmore said many African-Americans also 
receive inadequate legal representation.

(source: Olean Times Herald)






PENNSYLVANIA:

Man accused of killing 3 pleads guilty to 1 murder


A man accused of killing 3 people over 4 days last year pleaded guilty to 
3rd-degree murder in one of the cases Wednesday.

Theodore Smedley, 20, still faces the possibility of the death penalty in the 
other case, a double homicide that is expected to go to trial in late 2016.

However, he was sentenced to serve 20 to 40 years in prison for the March 28, 
2014, shooting death of Rasheed Strader, as part of a negotiated plea agreement 
before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Joseph K. Williams III.

Smedley also pleaded to conspiracy and illegally possessing a firearm.

Mr. Strader was shot multiple times outside his mother's home about 9:30 p.m. 
on Goettman Street in Troy Hill. Assistant district attorney Stephie-Anna 
Ramaley told Judge Williams that 2 neighbors on the street witnessed the 
shooting, but Smedley told another inmate in the Allegheny County Jail, where 
he's been held since April 2014, that he would "beat this case," because he had 
made arrangements to burn the witnesses' home.

In July of this year, Ms. Ramaley said, there was a fire that was ruled arson 
at that home. Smedley's cousin was charged in that case after investigators 
were able to track a 3-way call between Smedley, his brother and the cousin, 
she said.

Mr. Strader's mother, Thomia Kinsel, said during a victim-impact statement that 
she had to try to save her son's life in the street after he'd been shot in the 
head.

"This changed my whole 'live every day' of living," she said. "That pain of 
losing a child - it's unexplainable."

As the defendant was being taken away, someone from Mr. Strader's family yelled 
to the defendant, "We'll be waiting for you, Teddy. We'll be waiting for you, 
man," before being told to leave.

Smedley still faces trial in the March 25, 2014, shooting deaths of Jamarow 
Trowery, 36, who had lived in Homewood, Penn Hills and Wilkinsburg, and Rashad 
Freeman, 18, of Verona.

Police said the 2 were found shot inside a black Cadillac Escalade that crashed 
into the back of a church on Kincaid Street in Garfield.

The district attorney's office intends to seek the death penalty against 
Smedley in that case.

(source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)






MISSISSIPPI:

Miss. death penalty drug at issue


A panel of federal appellate judges in New Orleans heard arguments Wednesday on 
whether they should leave in place a lower court's preliminary injunction 
delaying the execution of a man on Mississippi's death row for the murder of a 
Metairie-raised woman nearly 40 years ago.

An attorney arguing in support of the ruling issued in August by U.S. District 
Judge Henry Wingate, of Jackson, Mississippi, said serious doubts persist on 
whether Mississippi's lethal injection protocol is legal under the state's own 
laws.


However, an attorney representing the Mississippi Department of Corrections 
insisted that the protocol was legal. He urged 5th U.S. Circuit Court of 
Appeals Judges Patrick Higginbotham, Priscilla Owen and Jennifer Elrod to 
vacate the injunction.

At the heart of the case is a federal lawsuit filed in Mississippi by 2 state 
prisoners awaiting execution. 1 of them, Richard Gerald Jordan, 69, was found 
guilty in 1976 of kidnapping Metairie native Edwina Marter and fatally shooting 
her earlier that year.

(source: bayoubuzz.com)






ARKANSAS:

Body identified, 2nd capital murder charge added----Trio faces a 2nd count of 
capital murder after remains of missing Midway woman identified


The 3 Baxter County residents facing a capital murder charge in the Nov. 7 
killing of 75-year-old Donald Rice now face a 2nd charge of capital murder 
after the Arkansas Medical Examiner's Office positively identified the remains 
of 71-year-old Ladonna J. Rice. The couple's remains were found in the burned 
out shell of the Midway residence.

Nicholas Ian Roos, 24, and 20-year-old Mikayla Mynk, both of Gassville, along 
with 23-year-old Mountain Home resident Zach Tyler Grayham now face 2 counts of 
capital murder along with two counts of arson and a host of burglary theft 
charges. All 3 could face the death penalty.

The crimes

"Investigators believe the suspects arrived at the residence on Saturday 
morning Nov. 7, killed Donald Rice and Ladonna Rice and then stole various 
items of personal property including a large-screen TV from the residence 
before setting fire to the residence," Said Baxter County Sheriff John 
Montgomery during a press conference announcing the arrest of the suspects.. 
"The suspects then left the residence in the stolen 2015 pearl white GMC Sierra 
Denali truck that belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Rice."

A citizen's tip that led investigators to arrest Roos and Mynk, Montgomery 
said. The pair were picked up during a traffic stop conducted on CR 11 by an 
investigator from the BCSO and one from the Arkansas State Police.

The day the Gassville pair were arrested happened to fall on Veteran's day, a 
day that normally finds the sheriff attending the local Veteran's Day event. 
That day, however, Montgomery was not in evidence at the event. Instead, as 
Roos was brought in to the criminal investigation division building, the 
sheriff was seen to enter the building.

It was some 4 or 5 hours after the suspects arrived that their mug shots 
appeared on the Baxter County jail website. The charges they faced, according 
to the website, ranged from residential and commercial burglary charges to 
drug-related crimes. The burglary charges stemmed from thefts from a Wildcat 
Shoals (CR 7) home and a local business, Dean's Top and Canvas.

"Investigators served a search warrant on Mykala Mynk's residence on Baxter 
County Road 709," Montgomery said of what followed the pair's arrest. "During 
that search, items stolen from the County Road 7, Wildcat Shoals Road burglary, 
and the Dean's Top and Canvas burglary were found and seized."

Perhaps one of investigators' biggest breaks also came from the search of 
Mynk's residence.

"Items ultimately determined to have come from the Rice residence on Baxter 
County Road 508 were also found and taken into evidence," Montgomery said. 
"Additionally, a search warrant was served on the vehicle that Nicholas Roos 
and Mikayla Mynk had been apprehended in."

The 3rd suspect was identified and arrested on Nov. 13, Montgomery said. Zack 
Tyler Grayham, 23, of Mountain Home was booked into the Baxter County jail at 
4:58 p.m. on charges of residential burglary and theft of property.

Mynk's bond was originally set at $25,000 while Roos' bond was set at $50,000. 
Grayham's bond was set at $75,000. With the arrests for unrelated charges and 
bonds set, the clock started ticking for investigators, who believed they had 
identified suspects in the homicide investigation, to produce enough evidence 
to allow the prosecutor to level charges against the trio.

In Arkansas, had the three suspects bonded out on the unrelated charges, 
authorities could have held them on what is called an investigative hold. An 
investigative hold allows authorities to hold a suspect for 72 hours without 
charges. Once those 72 hours are over, authorities must charge a suspect or 
release them.

Other search warrants related to the case have been served, according to the 
sheriff who said investigators have collected electronic evidence. Such 
evidence often includes text messages, social media postings, and audio and 
video recordings often captured by smart phones.

Additional physical evidence has been collected and will be sent to the state 
crime lab, the sheriff noted.

It wasn't until Nov. 16 when investigators presented the evidence to 14th 
Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney David Ethredge that the decision to 
charge the trio with capital murder was made.

Prosecuting Attorney David Ethredge was on hand for the press conference. 
Ethredge said the affidavits in the case would be sealed, for the time being. 
That means they cannot be inspected and the factual details that often lend 
credence to charges cannot be examined until a judge determines the records can 
be made public.

"Presently those will be sealed, they will be unsealed as soon as possible when 
the investigation is at a place where we can allow those to be given to the 
public," Ethredge said. "The reason we're doing that is because of the work 
they're (investigators) doing right now. We don't want to do anything to 
interfere with what they're trying to get to."

As for whether or not the suspects will potentially face the death penalty, 
Ethredge was noncommittal. The trio also face charges of aggravated robbery and 
arson.

"At this time, based on where the investigation is, that determination has not 
been made," Ethredge said. "Arkansas law gives us lots of options as to when 
the decision is made. When the decision is made, we'll let the public know."

All 3 suspects have entered not guilty pleas during brief court hearings last 
week.

(source: The Baxter Bulletin)






KENTUCKY:

Judge delays hearing for man accused of killing 7-year-old girl


The family members of a 7-year-old who was killed had another chance to look at 
the man accused in her killing.

Timothy Madden was in court Wednesday for what was supposed to be a preliminary 
hearing for the commonwealth to go over evidence in the case.

Several people showed up to the pretrial to support the family of Gabbi Doolin, 
but instead, they'll have to wait to learn more about the case.

Madden walked into the courtroom handcuffed and shackled.

On one side of the courtroom was his family, and on the other side, the family 
of the little girl he's accused of killing.

Gabbi's body was found in a creek behind Allen County-Scottsville High School.

Police said she was raped, strangled and drowned.

Madden's attorney, Travis Lock, said he needs more time because he was just 
given a lab report from the commonwealth.

"The report indicates that the report was concluded on Nov. 20 of 2015, which 
is coincidentally the same day Madden was charged," Lock said.

Lock is also hoping to find more evidence of his own.

He's requested surveillance video from businesses in Scottsville for before and 
after the time of Gabbi's death.

"It's my understanding that some video does exist that may show Mr. Madden on 
the date in question," Lock said.

The judge agreed to push the hearing back, so no evidence was discussed. No one 
from either family wanted to speak with our reporters, but a man who said he is 
friends with the Madden family said Madden didn't commit the crimes he's 
accused of.

But the man said he knows what he'd consider justice for the killer, saying, 
"I'd catch him, hang him up in a tree, and actually beat him to death."

Madden will be back in court Dec. 14.

This is a case where the commonwealth can seek the death penalty.

That has not been decided yet.

Also, it is possible Madden could be indicted by a grand jury before his next 
court date.

Madden's attorney said he might request for the trial to be held outside of 
Allen County, but he's not ready to make that decision yet.

(source: WLKY news)