[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., FLA., OHIO, ARIZ., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 5



PENNSYLVANIA:

Pa. death penalty by the numbers: How many executions, how many on death row, 
more



As part of our special project on the death penalty in Pennsylvania, here are 
tidbits about the death penalty in the state and around the nation:

--To qualify for the death penalty in Pennsylvania, a person must be convicted 
of 1st-degree murder along with any one of 18 aggravating factors such as if 
multiple victims were involved, if a victim was younger than 13, and if a 
victim was a police officer.

--3 inmates have been executed in this state since the death penalty was 
reinstated. All 3 were voluntary in that the inmates chose not to pursue 
further appeals.

--Since 1985, 29 Pennsylvania death row inmates died of natural causes while 
awaiting execution and 3 committed suicide.

--Pennsylvania has the country's 5th-highest death row population of 186, 
according to the Death Penalty Information Center's website. As of Oct. 1, 
California had the most with 745. Florida was next with 404, followed by Texas 
at 276 and Alabama, 198. Pennsylvania along with these other states account for 
60 % of the death row inmates, according to the center.

--Pennsylvania's method of execution is lethal injection, but 2 class-action 
lawsuits are challenging the constitutionality of the state's execution 
protocol.

--The state Supreme Court ruled the death penalty sentencing procedures 
unconstitutional in 1972. The death penalty was reinstated 2 years later by 
legislative override of former Gov. Milton Shapp's veto. In 1977, the state 
Supreme Court ruled the 1974 law unconstitutional. The Legislature then passed 
a revised version in 1978, which again became law by a legislative override of 
Shapp's veto.

--Pennsylvania is one of 32 states that has a death penalty law.

--Between 2008 and 2013, Pennsylvania's murder rate per 100,000 people has 
exceeded the national average of states without the death penalty as well as 
the national average of those with it, according to the Death Penalty 
Information Center.

--A Gallup poll in October showed 63 % of Americans support the death penalty, 
which nearly mirrored last year's 40-year low of 60 % supporting it. That is a 
considerable drop from the early 1990s when it peaked at 80 % support.

(source: pennlive.com)








FLORIDA:

Bill Seeks To Require Unanimous Juries In Death Penalty Cases



Juries would have to be unanimous before recommending the death penalty for 
defendants in murder cases, under a bill filed by a South Florida lawmaker. The 
bill, proposed by Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami, will be considered 
during the 2015 legislative session.

Under current law, a majority of a jury can recommend that a defendant receive 
the death penalty, with a judge ultimately deciding whether to impose the 
sentence. Rodriguez's bill would create a higher standard, with juries needing 
to be unanimous in such recommendations.

The bill also would give direction to judges on some jury instructions in 
death-penalty cases. Those instructions deal with what are known as 
"aggravating circumstances," which are factors used to support death-penalty 
recommendations.

The bill, in part, would require aggravating circumstances to be proven beyond 
a reasonable doubt and be subject to a unanimous vote. The bill would apply to 
offenses committed on or after July 1, 2015.

(source: northescambia.com)








OHIO:

Deathly silence



Ohio's death penalty became a very public issue last January, after the botched 
execution of Dennis McGuire. Executed with a 2-drug combination - midazolam and 
hydromorphone - never tried before in the United States, McGuire, 53, took as 
long as 25 minutes to die, as he convulsed, gasped, and snorted.

Last February, Ohio postponed scheduled executions to review its procedures - 
one of several states to do so in 2014 because of protracted and apparently 
painful executions.

A nationwide shortage of drugs traditionally used in lethal injections, such as 
pentobarbital, has forced states to look for alternative drugs - often with 
troubling results. In Oklahoma, a warden called the execution last April of 
Clayton Lockett "a bloody mess." An execution in Arizona took nearly 2 hours 
while the prisoner gasped.

Pausing executions in Ohio was prudent. Since then, however, the administration 
of Gov. John Kasich has too often proceeded with ill-advised secrecy.

With the execution of Ronald Phillips of Summit County set for Feb. 11, the 
state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction won't say what steps it has 
taken to end a federal judge's moratorium on executions and ensure that 
Phillips' execution will be efficient, humane, and constitutional.

Last April, the department said it would use the same drugs in future 
executions that were used on McGuire, but in larger quantities. If that's the 
plan, the administration needs to show why it believes increasing dosages will 
produce a better result. Asked about the issue by The Blade's editorial page, 
spokesman JoEllen Smith said in an email: "If any changes are made to the 
execution policy, DRC will notify the court at least 30 days in advance of a 
scheduled execution, as we have done in the past." She declined further 
comment.

Why all the secrecy?

In Oklahoma, after Lockett took 45 minutes to die, the state took steps to 
improve training and procedures. The plan didn't satisfy opponents of further 
executions, but at least the public knew what its government was doing.

Not so in Ohio, where Governor Kasich signed an egregious bill last month that 
shields the identities of lethal-injection drug manufacturers. Among other 
things, the new law prevents the public from evaluating how drugs from 
pharmacies used by Ohio are working in other states. Such scrutiny is even more 
important since states started turning to compounding pharmacies that make 
drugs without federal oversight.

The administration's lack of transparency should trouble the most ardent death 
penalty supporters. It undermines open and accountable government, arrests 
public debate, and opens executions in Ohio to numerous constitutional 
challenges. The new law shielding the identities of lethal-injection drug 
makers already faces a federal court challenge by four death-row inmates.

In 2014, U.S. executions fell to a 20-year low - and botched executions in Ohio 
and other states were partly responsible. Nationwide, 35 people were executed 
last year, down from a high of 98 in 1999, the Death Penalty Information Center 
reports. DNA evidence exonerated another 7 people in 2014 who were sentenced to 
death.

As states continue to experiment with lethal drug cocktails, Ohioans need to 
know whether executions here can proceed properly. Sadly, the administration is 
making that practically impossible.

(source: Editorial, Toledo Blade)

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

Summit County court records show $400,000 deficit in fund to pay for indigents' 
defense



Costs continue to rise in the prosecution of indigent defendants in Summit 
County, causing a budget overrun for 2014 projected at $400,000 or more.

Court officials said last week that the excess spending - a deficit currently 
at 17.5 % in the Common Pleas Court's General Division budget for its so-called 
indigent defense fund - could be even higher when figures for the full December 
caseload are tabulated.

In the latest court filings, through mid-December, court-approved expenses for 
the defense lawyers and expert witnesses in the continuing capital murder case 
of 23-year-old Deshanon Jammal Haywood alone have exceeded $43,000, with a 3rd 
round of jury selection set to begin April 27.

Capital murder cases put a huge strain on the county's budget, and Summit 
prosecuted seven such death-penalty cases in 2014.

Judge Paul Gallagher, who vacated Haywood's aggravated murder convictions in 
October after defense claims of prosecutorial misconduct and false trial 
testimony by 2 witnesses, approved payment of the following fees in the ongoing 
court battle:

-- $31,192, or a little more than $15,000 apiece, for Haywood's 2 
court-appointed attorneys.

-- $6,900 for a forensic psychologist's review of case files and psychological 
tests, for possible defense issues.

-- $5,513 for a forensic computer analyst's examination of cellphone records 
and tower locations, for possible defense issues.

On Oct. 1, Haywood was convicted of multiple counts of aggravated murder for 
his alleged role in the quadruple slaying at a Chapel Hill-area townhouse in 
April 2013.

2 young men and 2 young women were shot and killed during a robbery over a 
heroin delivery, trial testimony showed.

Haywood's 1st jury, which was chosen in early July after the 2 sides conducted 
nearly 3 weeks of questioning in the high-profile case, wound up being 
dismissed. Prosecutors raised the issue of prejudice, saying the trial judge 
had attempted to influence the jury against the death penalty. Gallagher, who 
was not the original judge assigned to the case, sided with the state's 
argument.

In a written court order Aug. 6, he said that the "integrity of these capital 
proceedings" persuaded him to "err on the side of caution" in ordering a new 
jury.

So a 2nd pool of 300 potential jurors was summoned to the county courthouse in 
September. The cost of that process, based on figures in the court system's 
monthly budget, totaled about $2,700.

Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands, Haywood's original trial judge, tried 
unsuccessfully to persuade prosecutors to drop the death-penalty charges after 
handling the proceedings of the 1st defendant, Derrick Anthony Brantley. He was 
convicted of aggravated murder, but jurors rejected his potential death 
sentence in the penalty phase of his trial.

Budget records show the cost of prosecuting Brantley's case, which ended with a 
sentence of life in prison, totaled $102,715.

Court Administrator Andrew Bauer said common pleas officials will have to ask 
the Summit County Council for additional funds to cover the court's budget 
shortfall.

Summit Assistant Prosecutor Brad Gessner, head of the office's criminal 
division, said agency policy on pending capital cases prohibits him from 
commenting on specific issues related to Haywood's mounting trial costs.

In general, Gessner said the strain from handling so many death penalty cases, 
all in connection with crimes that occurred in 2013 by defendants found to be 
indigent, should not necessarily be viewed as a trend.

"It was an anomaly based on the amount of violent and vicious murders out 
there. If you look year to year, 2013 stands all by itself in that regard," 
Gessner said.

In 2014, he noted, only 1 case resulted in a capital indictment - the Nov. 16 
slaying of Akron police officer Justin Winebrenner. The accused killer, Kenan 
D. Ivery, had 2 attorneys appointed to his case last month as required by the 
Ohio Supreme Court.

Brian M. Pierce, Haywood's lead defense counsel, said it would be inappropriate 
to comment on the next step in the case. He noted, however, that the input of 
paid expert witnesses is not a matter of choice, but is mandated by high court 
rules for all capital cases involving indigent defendants.

(source: Akron Beacon Journal)








ARIZONA:

Jodi Arias files new porngate motion, nobody gasps: Did Jodi implicate herself?



Public record sessions in the retrial of the penalty phase of the Jodi Arias 
trial have been quiet since court adjourned for a holiday break between Dec 19 
and Jan. 5. For most sentencing phases of high profile trials that would mean 
things get quiet so people can take a moment to relax and remember the more 
important things in life. Granted, most sentencing phases of capital or even 
death penalty trials rarely last longer than 40 billable hours, either, 
according to the Death Penalty Information Center. This sentencing phase for 
Jodi Arias however has been ongoing since September 2014, with defense costs 
alone almost toppling the $3 million dollar mark. But, Jodi Arias has proven 
time and again that speedy trials, or quiet holiday breaks aren't the only 
areas where she veers far off the normal range. The Jodi Arias supporters have 
been loudly banging their pots over the holiday break, and the defense team has 
been busy preparing a motion as well. CBS 5 for Arizona reported on January 3 
that the defense team of Jodi Arias has filed yet another motion on New Year's 
Eve asking prosecutors to once again turn over more evidence related to the 
computer of Travis Alexander. The Porngate saga continues, a term coined by 
Kelly from Really Big Mean Dog School of Law who has been reporting almost 
daily on the Jodi Arias trial.

To many members of the public, and even more taxpaying citizens of Arizona that 
are footing the bill for Jodi Arias defense, this latest Porngate motion, is 
just another stall tactic in an already protracted trial process. It was 2008 
when Jodi Arias brutally murdered her lover Travis Alexander. In 2013, a jury 
convicted her of 1st degree murder with aggravating factors that made her 
eligible for the death penalty.

All that is left to decide for Jodi Arias now is her sentence. But she is doing 
whatever she can to delay that. One almost can't blame her, since life in 
prison or execution are the only sentencing options facing this jury.

Now, on the eve of 2015, the defense is saying they still want the prosecutor 
to hand over evidence regarding the computer of the victim of this convicted 
killer. For a sentencing phase! Is this stall tactic perhaps another attempt by 
the Jodi Arias team going to be another baseless one that proves nothing?

Mud slinging at both the murder victim and the prosecution in this case seems 
to be the favoured approach of the Jodi Arias defense when they lack evidence 
to support their allegations. We previously reported on Christmas Eve that just 
after trial broke for the holidays the State filed their own motion refuting 
Jodi's claims of prosecutorial misconduct. In that motion Juan Martinez 
essentially said that, as far as the defense allegations are concerned, no 
evidence means no misconduct, Jodi doesn't have anything to back up her story 
telling, again.

CBS 5 reports the newest motion to compel from the defense is asking the 
prosecution to hand over reports from the Mesa Police after they initially 
investigated the computer of the murder victim Travis Alexander. The computer 
of Travis Alexander has taken center stage in this sentencing phase as a key 
strategy to stall and delay from the Jodi Arias defense. They are doing 
everything they can to get this jury to hear that Travis Alexander watched 
porn.

This defense thinks that if the jury finds this out they will believe that Jodi 
Arias was abused and hopefully not vote on the death penalty for Jodi Arias. 
The defense also thinks that the prosecution is guilty of Brady violations when 
it comes to evidence handling of this alleged "computer evidence" according to 
ABC 15 Jan. 2. In this motion to compel, the Jodi Arias defense is alleging 
that the State has violated evidentiary laws when it comes to the computer of 
Travis Alexander, also known as Evidence # 390633.

Key portions of this motion can be viewed in the slideshow where the defense 
asks the court to compel the State to turn over evidence. The motion asserts 
the prosecution is committing Brady violations by not handing over this 
evidence. The motion opens with,

"...pursuant to Rule 15.1 Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure Brady v. 
Maryland, 373 U.S. 667 (1963), Skipper v. South Carolina, 476 U.S. 1 (1986) and 
the rights due her pursuant to the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth 
Amendments to the United States Constitution, Article 2, Sections 4, 10, 15, 
23, 24, and 30, of the Arizona Constitution, hereby moves that the prosecutor 
make available to the defendant any and all forensic reports generated by any 
member of the Mesa Police Department and/or anyone working on their behalf 
whose work is related to evidence item #390633 aka Mr. Alexander's laptop 
computer."

The motion addresses the defense's "awkward moment" in court when the State 
accused the defense of tampering with the computer. Jodi Arias says in this 
motion,

"These accusations were made despite the fact that the Mesa Police Department's 
own investigators, detectives Smith and Brown, per the testimony of Detective 
Smith, both concluded that the image of #390633 made on June 11, 2008 and/or 
that made in December of 2009, contained the same file logs related to 
pornography that Mr. Neumeister was accused of putting on the computer."

The defendant then asks that the court compel the State to turn over those 
reports stating that according to Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 
15.1, failure to do so is a Brady violation. The defense is also saying, not 
only should this evidence be turned over to us, but we believe that sanctions 
should be applied to those responsible for this grievance, and that Jodi should 
be freed from jail immediately.

"Given that the State has not yet complied with the automatic disclosure 
provisions found in Rule 15.1...thus already violating the rights due Ms. Arias 
pursuant [ to all of the bozillion amendments we already cited] Ms. Arias would 
request that any Order to Compel these reports be supported by meaningful 
sanctions up to and including dismissal of all charges."

The story of the porn files and the computer in question is much simpler than 
the defense wants the judge to believe. Once there wasn't porn files on the 
computer of Travis Alexander and then there was and then there wasn't. The 
prosecution doesn't know how that happened and have testified in 2013 that 
there was no porn on the computer and they really don't know why all of a 
sudden there is this issue.

The defense is saying, 'You deleted evidence. No, we can't prove that. But we 
think we should be believed on our word alone and we think this means the death 
penalty should be taken off the table, on our word.' Now the defense wants Mesa 
Police to hand over reports that were done almost 7 years ago in their attempts 
to validate these claims.

But many can't help but wonder what will suddenly happen to those reports if 
they wind up in the defense's possession. Many people, including the State as 
this motion concedes, have openly speculated that Jodi has planted any evidence 
that makes State look bad and Jodi look good. Many trial watchers that have 
been following this trial believe that one possibility is that Jodi planted the 
alleged porn evidence during one of the times she was in the home of Travis 
Alexander before she stabbed him over 25 times, nearly decapitated him, and 
shot him in the head.

Another theory that has been openly speculated is that Jodi planted porn 
evidence and created the Porngate stall tactic of the century when she was 
representing herself this summer. In fact, whether she realizes it or not, Jodi 
Arias has even suggested as much on the very matter on her own Twitter page. 
Whoever is tweeting on behalf of Jodi Arias may be telling us what really 
happened to the computer of Travis Alexander during Porngate, as the following 
tweet from @JodiAnnArias is not being received the way it was intended.

"Has anyone realized TA's pc porn and viruses and States misconduct and 
tampering wouldn't have been discovered had #jodiarias not been pro per?"

Jodi is trying to suggest that had she not been "smart enough" to 
self-represent, it may never have been discovered that Evidence #390633 had 
been tampered with. But that's not how her tweet is coming off to the public. 
Instead to many it is sounding like, "Has anybody realized that there would be 
no issue of tampering and misconduct if Jodi hadn't self-represented herself so 
she could obtain evidence and possibly tamper with it?"

The public wouldn't be the first to accuse Jodi of planting the Porngate drama. 
In fact it was Juan Martinez, prosecutor for the State of Arizona, that was the 
first to accuse the defense of committing those acts. The defense admits this 
in their very own motion to compel more evidence. It is coming across as a dog 
with a bone. Now the new defense motion to compel wants the judge to compel 
Mesa Police to hand over reports that everybody knows the defense likely 
already reviewed in 2008. It's looking a lot like the, "Okay we know we don't 
have any evidence so now let's revisit yours and see what we can tear apart 
with that" technique.

All of this is happening courtesy of the good taxpaying people of Arizona over 
a matter that the jury hasn't even heard anything about yet, if they ever will. 
All of these "prosecutorial misconduct" allegations have been occurring in 
hearing outside of the jury presence. Why? After months, and months, and 
months, and months, a good legal reason has not been found to show that this 
Porngate circus is relevant in regards to Jodi's sentencing phase. 
Unfortunately for Arizona, without this costly matter in play, it is not 
inconceivable to believe that Jodi would have been sentenced by now and the 
Jodi Arias show would be over per the original court docket schedule.

When jury selection began in September 2014 jurors were asked to keep their 
commitment and calendars blocked to December 18, 2014. In one of the 
evidentiary hearings for Porngate Kirk Nurmi first chair for the defense openly 
admitted he never expected it to be finished by then. Does this mean Nurmi was 
planning all along to bill Arizona for delaying and inconveniencing this jury 
as long as he possibly could?

To many, it looks that way. Especially since these evidentiary hearings have 
been lacking just that, evidence, and consumed the better portion of November 
2014. To what end?

As it stands now, to no end for Jodi Arias. As it stands now, the jury doesn't 
know anything about Porngate. In other words, as it stands now, as far as this 
jury and this sentencing phase is concerned, Porngate doesn't even exist.

To the end game then if this continues, Porngate remains completely irrelevant. 
Porngate then will be remembered as nothing more than just another series of 
tales from nobody special but another one of America's killers who is trying to 
get away with a really horrific series of crimes, via a really horrific series 
of lies.

Will Jodi's charges be dismissed under these alleged Brady violations? The 
judge will need to find that they are indeed Brady violations, which means that 
it is found this evidence is exculpatory. In other words the judge needs to 
find that if the 2013 jury heard this evidence, they would have found Jodi to 
be "not guilty" of 1st degree murder with aggravated cruelty.

With death on the line, this is either a desperate last minute attempt to save 
Jodi's life, or just another eleventh hour delay tactic. Either way, succeeding 
with this motion is a seriously uphill battle for the defense. The aggravating 
factors that made Jodi eligible for the death penalty were cruelty.

This means that based on the forensic evidence one jury has already found her 
to be exceptionally cruel. Computer files or no computer files, that forensic 
evidence doesn't change.

In the meantime, the public is reacting to all of these delay tactics. One 
trial watcher has written an open letter for the Jodi Arias jury to read once 
this is all said and done. The full letter can be read in the slideshow, and 
places an emphasis on the one person in this trial the defense rarely mentions 
unless they are slinging mud. That would be the victim, Travis Alexander. In 
this letter, @JodiBanArias writes,

"Dear Arias jurors, By the time you read this you will have sentenced convicted 
murderer Jodi Arias to Death or LWOP (Life Without Parole) or improperly passed 
it on to Judge Stephens to pass sentence. You will now be aware Arias violently 
murdered (overkill) her ex-boyfriend largely due to her built up rage as a 
result of rejections by her ex, with whom she was consumed with and stalked for 
months...

We hope you were fully aware of the shady defense team's Defaming Tactics, 
along with the many lies, all made up over a 6 year time frame. Sadly the 
murder victim is unable to give his side of the story, the REAL one. Facts 
amount to Travis Alexander being stalked???..If you DIDN'T fall for the 
murderer's many lies and false allegations and gave Jodi Arias the Death 
Penalty: CONGRATULATIONS. The Alexander family will have got the long awaited 
justice for their brother they so deserve. From: The World."

Another member of the public that has been following the trial in the hopes of 
justice for the victim Travis Alexander has expressed his interpretation of the 
numerous motions to dismiss that continue to be filed by the defense. During 
all of these evidentiary hearings, that appeared to many to lack evidence, on 
the matter of the many Porngate motions a member of the public commented on the 
Facebook page titled, "The State vs Jodi Arias -- Travis Alexander murder 
trial". This is how a member of that group interprets the frequent Porngate 
motions filed by the defense.

"Your honor, the convict is guilty as crap, and all us dimwits on the defense 
team have [bleep] for brains and have royally screwed up. But we're not gonna 
own that, so we're throwing up boatloads of hooey in the air that we don't have 
any actual evidence for and ask you to penalize the prosecution for our 24/7 
misconduct operation."

Court will adjourn for the retrial of the sentencing phase of the Jodi Arias 
trial tomorrow Jan. 5 in Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix, Arizona. 
Defense domestic violence expert Robert Geffner is expected to take the stand 
to continue testimony where he will try and paint Jodi Arias as an abuse 
victim. The defense will conclude their direct examination of Dr, Geffner after 
which prosecutor for the state will cross examine him in a strenuous attempt to 
discredit everything he says that Jodi alleges about abuse.

(source: Ther Examiner)








USA:

Shifting Politics on the Death Penalty



In January 1992, Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, left the 
presidential campaign trail to fly home for the execution of a man named Ricky 
Ray Rector. Mr. Clinton's decision not to grant clemency to Mr. Rector, who had 
been sentenced to death for killing a police officer, was widely seen as an 
attempt to fend off the familiar charge that Democrats were soft on crime.

On Dec. 31, Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland, whose name has been mentioned 
among potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidates, commuted the sentences 
of the last 4 inmates on the state's death row.

Maryland abolished the death penalty in 2013, but only for new sentences. In 
resentencing the condemned men to life without parole, Mr. O'Malley said that 
leaving their death sentences in place would "not serve the public good of the 
people of Maryland - present or future."

Whether or not Mr. O'Malley runs for president, his action is a mark of how 
quickly the death penalty debate in America has shifted. Liberals have long 
opposed capital punishment, and now more conservatives are speaking out against 
it as well, variously describing it as immoral, unjust, racist, arbitrary, 
costly and ineptly carried out.

35 people were put to death in 2014, the fewest in 20 years, according to a 
report last month by the Death Penalty Information Center. All but 7 of the 
executions took place in 3 states: Texas, Missouri and Florida. And while 2/3 
of those executed were black, only 6 had been convicted of killing a black 
person, even though blacks make up almost 1/2 of all murder victims.

Another sign of the times: Fewer people are put on death row. There were 72 new 
death sentences in 2014, the lowest number since 1974.

In various decisions, the Supreme Court has helped to reduce these numbers, 
barring the execution of the mentally ill, the intellectually disabled and 
those who were minors at the time of their crimes. But states have found ways 
around those rulings, and have executed many people who fall into one or more 
of these categories - people like John Errol Ferguson, who was schizophrenic 
and sat on Florida's death row for 34 years before he was executed in 2013, and 
Marvin Wilson, who had an I.Q. of 61 and was executed in Texas in 2012.

A study published last June in the Hastings Law Journal found that of the last 
100 people to be put to death, 1/3 had evidence of an intellectual disability, 
borderline intellectual functioning or a traumatic brain injury. At least 20 
others were diagnosed with or showed symptoms of mental illness, such as 
schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Others had experienced severe trauma in 
childhood.

In other words, while the death penalty may be increasingly infrequent, it is 
all too often a brutal end to a brutal life. The people executed in recent 
years were not the "worst of the worst" - as many death-penalty advocates like 
to imagine - but those who were too poor, mentally ill or disabled to avoid it.

In 2014, for the 1st time, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that a 
majority of Americans favored life without parole over the death penalty. Mr. 
O'Malley's move may seem unusual among politicians, but it reflects the views 
of a growing segment of the country.

(source: Editorial, New York Times)

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

Boston Bombing Trial To Start With Jury Selection



The trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is set to begin 
on January 5 with jury selection.

On January 3, a court rejected a bid by Tsarnaev's lawyers to delay the trial 
or move it out of Boston, the U.S. city where the attack occurred in April 
2013.

Tsarnaev, a naturalized U.S. citizen with roots in Russia's North Caucasus, has 
pleaded not guilty to charges of killing three people and injuring more than 
260.

He could face the death penalty if convicted.

Prosecutors say Tsarnaev, now 21, and his older brother, Tamerlan, left 
backpacks stuffed with explosives near the finish line of the annual race.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police several days after the 
bombing.

U.S. District Court Judge George O'Toole will have to select a 12-person jury 
and 6 alternates out of a pool of some 1,200 prospective jurors.

Tsarnaev's lawyers contended that it would be impossible to find an impartial 
jury because of intense news coverage and the fact that thousands of people 
attended the race or hid in their homes during a daylong lockdown in the Boston 
area after the attack.

But the court that rejected their request to postpone the trial or move it out 
of Boston said they had not offered a sufficient rationale.

Jurors are supposed to make their decisions based solely on the evidence they 
hear in court.

The judge will also have to find jurors who are not entirely opposed to the 
death penalty.

The death penalty is banned under Massachusetts state law but applies in 
Tsarnaev's case because he faces federal charges.

Tsarnaev's family emigrated to the United States about a decade before the 
attack and settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just outside Boston.

Prosecutors say Tsarnaev wrote messages on the hull of the drydocked boat where 
he hid after the bombing that indicated the attack was politically motivated.

Court papers say one message read, "The U.S. government is killing our innocent 
civilians," and another read, "We Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt 
us all."

Tsarnaev's defense team includes Judy Clarke, whose clients have included the 
long-elusive "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph, 
and the man convicted in an Arizona shooting rampage that killed 6 people and 
wounded a U.S. legislator in 2011.

All 3 received life sentences instead of the death penalty.

The prosecution includes Assistant U.S. Attorney Aloke Chakravarty, who was the 
lead prosecutor in the case of Tarek Mehanna, a Massachusetts man convicted of 
conspiring to help Al-Qaeda.

Tsarnaev's trial is expected to last 3 to 5 months.

(source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)