[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., ARIZ., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 9



GEORGIA----new execution date--female

Georgia sets execution date for woman

A Gwinnett County judge on Monday signed an order setting the execution of 
Kelly Renee Gissendaner for the end of this month, making it possible she will 
be the 1st woman Georgia has put to death since 1945.

The execution warrant sets the window for Gissendaner's lethal injection for 
the week that starts with Feb. 25. The Department of Corrections sets the 
specific time, usually at 7 p.m. on the 1st day that a judge has set aside for 
the execution to be carried out.

Gissendaner was convicted to persuading her boyfriend to murder her husband, 
Douglas, in 1997. The killer, Gregory Owen, helped the district attorney with 
its case against Gissendaner. In exchange, prosecutors did not seek the death 
penalty against him.

Owen is serving life in prison.

Lena Baker, 44, was electrocuted on March 5, 1945. Georgia has put to death 
fewer than 10 women, all but Baker in the 1800s.

Baker, a black maid, was covicted of murder by an all-white jury in a 1-day 
trial even though she said she whot her boss in self defense. She said Ernest 
Knight, a white man, had imprisoned and threatened to shoot her should she try 
to leave. She shot him with his own gun.

The state pardoned her in 2005.

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

Accused Clarke County cop killer trial to start in June



A trial date has been set in the Clarke County case of Jamie Donnell Howard who 
is accused of murdering a police officer and a civilian 4 years ago, the Athens 
Banner-Herald reported Monday.

Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard on Thursday scheduled 
June 1 as the day to start jury selection in the death penalty case, the 
newspaper said.

Haggard had earlier ruled that the jurors should be chosen from Elbert County 
because of pre-trial publicity. Hood, 37, who is acting as his own attorney, 
has argued that the jurors should be chosen from DeKalb or Fulton counties.

Hood is accused of murdering Officer Elmer "Buddy" Christian III on March 22, 
2011 after wounding Officer Tony Howard. He is also accused of murdering 
Kenneth Omari Wray in December 2010 and the cases are linked for trial.

The officers were shot when searching for Hood in a kidnapping case. He had 
served time in prison for armed robbery and was released a few years before the 
2011 case that started with him searching for a drug dealer and ended with him 
surrendering after a hostage situation.

(source for both: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)








ARIZONA:

Jodi Arias Trial Update Reveals Sexual Text Messages Found by Jury, Alleged 
Murderer Suffers Mental Disorder According to Expert



In 2008, Travis Alexander was allegedly murdered by his former girlfriend, Jodi 
Arias. It was so brutal as he was stabbed more than 20 times in different parts 
of his body, including his heart. His face was also shot and the killer 
reportedly took photos of him after his death. The murder trial is ongoing and 
let us provide you with some of the updates.

During the last trial, the Jury was able to find text messages between Arias 
and Alexander. Source says that the messages have put Arias in a bad light. It 
is said to be very sexual and sensual. It defies the image that Arias' side 
tries to portray. The psychologist at the trial shared that according to Arias' 
former colleagues, the alleged murderer has a potential to act differently. In 
fact, someone saw her giving her number to another man after Alexander's 
memorial service, which tries to imply that she was already flirting.

Alexander's supporters are somehow relieved with the revelation because for 
quite some time, the murder victim had an image of a pedophile.

Another surprise from the case is that Arias might be suffering from a mental 
disorder. This was shared by the same psychologist in the trial. She mentioned 
that Arias can be a jealous stalker with borderline personality disorder, a 
report stated. Because of these findings and statement, Arias might not be 
sentenced to a death penalty.

According to one source, while some of the jury believes that Arias was abused 
by Alexander, it shouldn't end the way it did.

The case has been pending for a long time. It has been seven years since the 
incident happened and the development is apparently slow. A lot of people are 
waiting for the verdict but the most affected ones are the Alexanders. The 
death of their loved one was very morbid and no one deserved such. Everyone is 
hoping that Jodi Arias will be able to receive the final verdict soon.

(source: Venture Capital Post)








USA:

Poll shows Americans are still pro-death penalty



Support for capital punishment remains steady, despite concerns about wrongful 
executions and uncertainty as to whether such punishment deters crime.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of 800 American adults found 
that 57 % favor the death penalty. Just 26 % are opposed, while 17 % are 
undecided.

These findings are little changed from surveys over the past 2 years. Support 
for capital punishment hit a high of 67 % in July 2012, shortly after the mass 
shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. Before that, support had 
stayed in a narrow range of 60 % to 63 % since November 2009.

Americans remain divided as to whether the death penalty deters crime: 42 % say 
it does, while 41 % disagree. Another 16 % are not sure.

Most (75 %) also remain at least somewhat concerned that some people may be 
executed for crimes they didn't commit. Just 23 % do not share that concern. 
This includes 39 % who are very concerned that some people may be wrongly 
executed and 4 % who are not at all Concerned. These findings, too, have 
changed little since 2009.

27 % of Americans know their state has banned the death penalty, while 46 % say 
their state has not done so. 27 % aren't aware whether their state has banned 
capital punishment or not, though that's down slightly from 30 % last year. 18 
states and Washington, D.C. have abolished the death penalty.

(source: The Daiyl Ardoremoreite)

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

Killing The Death Penalty



"Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image 
of God made He man" (Genesis 9:6).

As pieces of rhetoric go, I don't know that it gets much better than this. 
There is little room for ambiguity, no avenues for further discussion. It 
retains much of the chiastic structure of the Hebrew Bible, coming easily to 
the ear and providing a gorgeously wrought poetic justification for one of the 
more basic human impulses.

To kill the killers; to cut out the cancer.

Of course, I'm not alone in my contention that its final clause rests on a bit 
of flawed logic. That is, I find much more comfort in assuming that the whole 
process happened the other way round - that it is not God who created man, but 
man who created God. And that he did it, largely, for the vindication of ugly, 
ruthless rules like the one above. In other words, we like to see bad men 
executed, and we like it even more when the boss says it's okay (especially 
when he uses a pretty line like that).

"From the beginning," as Salman Rushdie puts it in The Satanic Verses, "men 
used God to justify the unjustifiable."

But man didn't stop - or begin, even - with God. He created the Devil too, out 
of his own image and likeness. He creates him every day.

And what he comes up with often looks something like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 
gruff, bratty looking kid behind the Boston Marathon bombings of 2013. Devoid 
of any outward remorse or apparent humanity, he has come to be viewed 
(especially around the city of Boston) as some kind of vessel for evil 
incarnate. He has become, in our eyes, a sort of vile monster rather than the 
sick young man that he is.

In mistaking a chemical imbalance in the brain for total depravity, it would 
seem that we've made something of a devil out of him. And, if his trial 
continues along its current trajectory, we will use him, just like he used his 
god: to justify the unjustifiable act of murder. He will die, and we'll all get 
to watch.

However, if the jury selection process is any indication, this will take time. 
And as the 1,363 potential jurors are examined, cross examined, and whittled 
down to 12, we might do well to ask ourselves a few hard questions.

Does this persistent - and nearly fanatical - pursuit of a death sentence for 
Tsarnaev send the wrong sort of message to the world? And, more importantly: 
Are we, the United States of America, still the sort of nation that 
systematically executes its own citizens?

For an answer, we should contextualize a bit. Ranked among the 22 countries 
that still impose the death penalty by amount of sentences carried out, the 
U.S. is listed 5th, having put to death 220 people over a period from 
2007-2013. Though the number might seem low, we should be mindful of our 
company. A list of the top 5, for instance, would include, in order: China, 
Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Short of adding Mordor or Hell, I don't know that 
we could make that any worse of a list to be on.

Even if we could, for a moment, cast common morality aside, there are simple 
issues of cost and practicality to be dealt with. Contrary to view of the death 
penalty as a quick, cheap alternative to a life sentence, recent inquiries into 
state and federal budgets have shed light on the astronomical cost of capital 
punishment. In the state of Nevada, for instance, death penalty cases cost 
anywhere from $1.03 to $1.3 million, compared to only $775,000 for cases in 
which the death penalty is not sought. Studies of California's system have 
yielded similar results, determining at one point that the governor, if he were 
to commute the sentences of the state's remaining death row inmates, would save 
the state over $5 billion dollars over the next 20 years.

And then there is time. For the past month, would-be jurors for the Tsarnaev 
case have been dismissed at a rapid rate, for 2 pervading reasons. Those let go 
have either already decided that the man is guilty, or that they would be 
unwilling to impose the death penalty if he's convicted. Most of those who were 
sent away for the 2nd reason, according to the Boston Globe, seem to have 
figured out either that capital punishment is, indeed, morally revolting, or 
that life in a small dark room might serve to better punish him, if that's what 
we're looking for. Isn't life without parole, after all, just a very, very long 
death sentence?

So, it would seem that the only justification for allowing such a practice to 
continue is illusory. It is outdated, steeped in a flawed worldview which 
conflates the commission of wicked acts with intrinsic wickedness, and creates 
menacing abstractions of evil out of the mentally ill, the disturbed, and the 
misguided among us.

(source: Sean McGowan is a staff Opinions columnist for The (Boston College) 
Heights.

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

Defense in theater shooting case wants jail video barred



Defense attorneys in the Colorado theater shooting case say a jailhouse video 
of defendant James Holmes should be barred from evidence during trial because 
prosecutors gave it to them too late.

Judge Carlos Samour Jr. will hear their arguments during a Monday hearing. 
Holmes' attorneys say they have not had time to assess the significance of the 
video.

The footage is apparently from the jail where Holmes has been held, but its 
contents have not been made public.

Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of killing 12 
people and injuring 70 in the July 20, 2012, attack at a Denver-area movie 
theater. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Meanwhile, attorneys are set to start individually questioning prospective 
jurors Wednesday for Holmes' trial.

(source: Associated Press)