[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----WYO., ARIZ., CALIF., ORE., WASH., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 20



WYOMING:

Advocates say death penalty in Wyoming should be abolished



In most capital murder cases, jurors in Wyoming prefer life imprisonment 
instead of imposing the death penalty, a veteran Cheyenne defense attorney said 
during a program advocating abolishment of the sentence.

"We've had 2 people executed in the last 40 years in Wyoming," David Serelson 
said Saturday, despite many cases where the state sought the death penalty.

"There is not one person in Wyoming on death row right now," Serelson said. "We 
have evolved as a society. Our laws need to reflect that."

Serelson was 1 of 4 panelists who spoke about abolishing the death penalty 
during a program sponsored by the Wyoming Association of Churches and the 
Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne.

The program called attention to the death penalty in Wyoming and to House Bill 
97, a new bill in the Legislature that aims to abolish it.

The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle reported that the bill proposes that the maximum 
penalty for 1st-degree murder would be life in prison or life without parole.

Gov. Matt Mead, a former state and federal prosecutor, has said he believes 
Wyoming should keep the death penalty.

In addition to Serelson, other people on the panel were Rick Martinez, deputy 
director of Legal Aid of Wyoming; Father Carl Gallinger of St. Joseph's 
Catholic Church in Cheyenne; and Aaron Lyttle, a Cheyenne lawyer who fought for 
the freedom of Andrew Johnson, a man wrongfully imprisoned for 23 years, and 
recently exonerated as a result of DNA testing.

Lyttle worries about people who are convicted for crimes they did not do.

"We know that people are wrongfully convicted and that it happens more than 
traditionally assumed," he said.

(source: Associated Press)








ARIZONA:

Day 26 of Jodi Arias Trial: Jury still has option of death penalty



The sentencing retrial of convicted murderer Jodi Arias continues Tuesday 
morning with the death sentence still possible.

The jury is trying to decide if Arias will get life in prison or the death 
penalty for the murder of her ex-lover Travis Alexander in June 2008.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens last week struck down a 
defense motion to take the death penalty off the table.

Arias' lawyers appeared to make a strong case when they filed a motion to 
eliminate the death penalty as an option, but late Wednesday afternoon Stephens 
ruled against the motion.

Legal expert Dwayne Cates said he didn't think the judge's ruling would make 
much difference because it's very unusual for a jury to sentence a woman to the 
death penalty.

Arias, who was convicted of 1st-degree murder in the death of Alexander, is 
fighting for her life as this jury determines whether she should spend the rest 
of her life in prison or should be executed.

The jury that convicted Arias on May 8, 2013 was unable to reach a verdict in 
her sentencing and Stephens declared a mistrial on May 23, 2013.

The body of the 30-year-old Alexander was found in his Mesa apartment. He had 
been stabbed, his throat was slit and he had a gunshot wound to his forehead.

Arias, who initially denied she killed Alexander, would eventually admit that 
she killed him in self-defense, but jurors didn't buy into that claim.

Members of the current jury, which was selected from more than 400 potential 
jurors over several weeks, have been shown graphic photos of the crime scene, 
listened to interrogation tapes in which Arias produced a number of lies, and 
had a juror dismissed for asking a woman journalist in attendance if she was TV 
journalist Nancy Grace, since the retrial began on Oct. 21.

The trial, which has generated an online and cable news audience nationwide, is 
expected to last through January, Stephens said last week.

(source: KPHO news)








CALIFORNIA:

3rd Trial to Start in 1982 Strangulation of Newport Beach Man----Former death 
row prisoner James Andrew Melton will face trial for the 3rd time in the 1982 
killing of a Newport Beach man.



A retrial is scheduled today in the case of a former death row prisoner granted 
a new trial when a federal judge found that Orange County jail staffers so 
overmedicated him during his 1982 trial that he could not understand the 
proceedings.

An earlier retrial ended in a mistrial in June when jurors deadlocked 10-2 in 
favor of convicting James Andrew Melton, 62, of killing Anthony Lial DeSouza of 
Newport Beach, a gay man who advertised in a magazine for companions.

Melton was awaiting execution at San Quentin when a federal judge overturned 
his conviction, prompting District Attorney Anthony Rackauckas to drop the 
death penalty but retain the original charges, which included robbery.

Melton, who lived in Los Angeles, allegedly admitted killing DeSouza to Johnny 
Boyd of Pasadena, a former cellmate and lover who testified for the 
prosecution. Boyd testified that he and Melton discussed robbing men who 
advertised for companions.

DeSouza, 77, was found nude Oct. 11, 1981 in his condominium, with cord wrapped 
around his hands and neck. An autopsy showed he was strangled.

Melton, who had been released from prison about 5 months earlier, allegedly 
drove off in DeSouza's car and stole 2 diamond rings.

Melton had a long criminal record at the time, including 2 rape convictions, 1 
of which occurred on the altar of a synagogue in Berkeley.

(source: patch.com)








OREGON:

Marquis argues for speed



A trial date had initially been set July 7 for Smith, the mother accused of 
drugging and murdering her 2-year-old daughter and attempting to kill her 
13-year-old daughter in a Cannon Beach hotel last summer.

Marquis has written and said in court multiple times that a trial needs to 
occur within the year, especially since the case involves a surviving child, 
Alana Smith.

Alana Smith and her father, Gregory Smith, have both expressed a desire to have 
the case tried as soon as possible and not to delay the case another year. 
Preferably, they would like the trial this summer or no later than winter.

"The defense is essentially arguing that their need to prepare trumps any right 
of the victim to a speedy trial," Marquis wrote.

The dispute over the trial date will be brought up at the next scheduled 
hearing 2 p.m. Thursday in Clatsop County Circuit Court before Judge Cindee 
Matyas.

Smith's defense attorneys William Falls and Lynne Morgan filed a written 
response last week to Marquis' motion for a "date certain" for the trial.

Falls and Morgan claim the possibility of the death penalty requires additional 
time to prepare Smith's defense.

Smith, 40, of Goldendale, Wash., pleaded not guilty Aug. 12 to aggravated 
murder and attempted aggravated murder. Smith is accused of drowning her 
2-year-old daughter Isabella Smith and cutting the throat of Alana Smith in 
Room 3302 at the Surfsand Resort.

Smith's defense attorneys cite a 429-page law journal from Hofstra Law School 
that argues defense attorneys are allowed more time in cases involving the 
death penalty.

Marquis said he has not decided if he will pursue the death penalty.

In his response, Marquis admits the law journal does summarize some American 
Bar Association guidelines for providing effective defense council. However, he 
questions parts of the law journal that he says, "urges the highly 
controversial use (not known by the state to be allowed yet in Oregon) of 
so-called Defense Initiated Victim Outreach." A DIVO defense team member 
reaches out to victims, survivors and family to help the defendant minimize 
responsibility for the death.

"The state is at a complete loss to understand what relevance a highly partisan 
article authored by many well-known defense lawyers and frequent defense expert 
witnesses stressing the need for mitigation investigation has to do with the 
trial setting," Marquis wrote.

Another reason Falls and Morgan give for delaying the trial is they are both 
already scheduled for trial this year in 2 aggravated murder cases in Clackamas 
and Multnomah counties.

"Defense counsel have pointed out they each have one other major case scheduled 
now. I would point out that my co-counsel, Ms. (Dawn) Buzzard is co-counsel in 
TWO aggravated murder cases (including this case)," Marquis wrote. "The state's 
point is that the ability to work on a single case at a given time is in fact a 
'luxury' few lawyers enjoy."

Smith's defense attorneys also said they do not yet know who they intend to 
call as witnesses and what evidence they intend to introduce in trial because 
they are in the very beginning of preparing this case for trial.

>From Sept. 4 to Dec. 8, Marquis has provided almost 2,759 pages of police 
reports, 36 separate CDs and DVDs, 853 pages of photographs and detailed copies 
of the defendant's statements to the defense counsel.

Marquis suspects in his filing that the defense is delaying as a "trial 
strategy."

The defense's proposed trial date of 2016 would be more than 2 years after the 
incident.

"The need of the victim in particular to know WHEN she might be required to 
give testimony against her own mother is no small matter," Marquis said.

(source: Daily Astorian)








WASHINGTON:

Moratorium continues as 2 death penalty cases go to trial



2 high-profile death penalty cases will finally go to trial Tuesday, but even 
if the men are convicted and sentenced to death, they wouldn't be executed as 
long as Jay Inslee is the governor of Washington.

Gov. Inslee sites cost as part of the reason for the moratorium, and a new 
7-month-long study just released by Seattle University supports that.

It found the average cost of a death penalty case is $3 million. In comparison, 
a life in prison case averages $1 million less.

1 of the 2 death penalty cases beginning Tuesday in King County is that of 
Joseph McEnroe, accused of killing 6 members of his girlfriend's family in 
Carnation in 2007, including 2 children.

The other is Christopher Monfort, who prosecutors say shot and killed Seattle 
police Officer Tim Brenton and wounded his partner in 2009.

Both those cases are going forward despite the fact that Inslee instituted that 
moratorium on the death penalty in February of last year.

"A system that does not deter crime, costs citizens millions of dollars more 
than life imprisonment without parole, is uncertain in its application, and 
exposes families to multiple decades of uncertainty as a result of the judicial 
decision is not right," Inslee said, regarding his decision.

Currently, 9 men on Washington's death row cannot be executed as a result of 
Inslee's decision.

The King County prosecutor said the 2 trials starting Tuesday will not be 
influenced by that moratorium.

(source: KIRO TV news)








USA:

No plea deal likely in Boston Marathon bombing case



The focus of the Boston Marathon bombing trial figures to be as much on what 
punishment Dzhokhar Tsarnaev could face as on his responsibility for the 
attack.

With testimony expected to start later this month, the Justice Department has 
given no indication it is open to any proposal from the defense to spare 
Tsarnaev's life, pushing instead toward a trial that could result in a death 
sentence for the 21-year-old defendant.

In a deadly terror case that killed three people, including a child, and jolted 
the city, there may be little incentive for prosecutors who believe they have 
incontrovertible evidence to negotiate away their ability to seek the maximum 
penalty possible.

"There would be now, in my judgment, no reason for the government to reverse 
course and not let 12 citizens decide if the death penalty is appropriate," 
said Larry Mackey, a former Justice Department prosecutor involved in the case 
of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who was executed in 2001.

The prospect of a death sentence, a rare punishment in the federal system, 
raises the stakes of a trial that will revisit in gory detail the 2013 attack 
that also injured more than 260. Should the jury find Tsarnaev guilty, it would 
then decide in a separate penalty phase whether he should be sentenced to 
death. Jury selection is underway and the judge has said he hopes to begin 
testimony on Jan. 26.

Only 3 federal inmates, including McVeigh, have been put to death since 2001. 
Recent botched executions at the state level have placed the practice under 
scrutiny, with President Barack Obama directing the Justice Department last 
year to investigate how the death penalty is applied across the nation.

Despite his own personal reservations about the death penalty, Attorney General 
Eric Holder says the government is committed to seeking that punishment for 
Tsarnaev. Prosecutors have cited factors including a "lack of remorse," the 
evident premeditation involved in the attack and allegations that Tsarnaev also 
killed an MIT police officer after the bombing that left an 8-year-old boy 
dead.

"The nature of the conduct at issue and the resultant harm compel this 
decision," Holder said in a statement last January.

There has been no indication the government has wavered in that decision, even 
though one of Tsarnaev's lawyers, Judy Clarke, has gotten prosecutors to spare 
the lives of multiple high-profile killers, including Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, 
Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph and Jared Loughner, who killed 6 people and 
wounded former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

But there's also no predicting how a trial will play out, including whether a 
conviction would result in a death sentence - particularly in liberal 
Massachusetts, which abolished its state death penalty in 1984. In a bid to 
save his life, defense lawyers may hope to cast Tsarnaev as an impressionable 
young man pressured into participating in the attack by his older brother, 
Tamerlan, who died after a firefight with police days after the bombing.

Gerald Zerkin, a Virginia defense lawyer who represented Sept. 11 conspirator 
Zacarias Moussaoui, who is now serving a life sentence, said there are obvious 
benefits for the government to accept a plea in death penalty cases, including 
to reduce the uncertainty of a trial and to spare victims and their loved ones 
from reliving the horrific facts of a case.

"You can get a resolution that is life without parole, and you could do it for 
a lot less money, a lot less time, a lot fewer resources" and without 
"re-traumatizing victims," Zerkin said.

Rob Owen, a professor who runs a death penalty case clinic at Northwestern 
University, said a death sentence will result in years of legal appeals whereas 
a guilty plea would presumably help the case fade faster from public attention.

But with the trial's opening arguments projected for later this month, any 
window for a deal to spare Tsarnaev's life has likely closed and there's little 
reason for the government to entertain the possibility, Mackey said.

"The calculus was done, I'm sure in this case, the day after the bombing, when 
people were faced full-front with the ugly scenario left on the streets of 
Boston," he said.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Colo. theater shooting trial set to begin: how it compares with Tsarnaev 
case----James Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to multiple 
counts of murder and attempted murder in the shooting at a midnight showing of 
a 'Batman' movie in 2012.



Just weeks after the start of the Boston Marathon bombing trial, another 
high-profile trial is set to begin Tuesday, as jury selection begins in Denver 
for the Aurora, Colo., massacre.

James Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to multiple counts of 
murder and attempted murder. Mr. Holmes's family and defense team maintain that 
he was experiencing a psychotic episode and was unable to tell right from wrong 
when he opened fire at a midnight showing of the new "Batman" movie in Aurora 
on July 20, 2012. 12 people died in the attack and another 70 were injured.

If found guilty, Holmes could face the death penalty. In the event of a 
not-guilty verdict, he would be remanded to a state psychiatric facility.

Judge Carlos Samour Jr. has called 9,000 Arapahoe County, Colo., residents to 
potentially serve as jurors. The process of whittling that unprecedented jury 
pool down to 12 jurors and 12 alternates could take as long as 6 months.

There are several similarities in the cases unfolding in Boston and Denver. 
Both attacks involved the indiscriminate killing of multiple people in a very 
public setting. Both have been widely publicized in the local and national 
media. And both defendants could face the death penalty if found guilty.

The initial days of juror selection in the trial of accused Boston bomber 
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have provided a glimpse of just how difficult impaneling an 
impartial jury for such heinous and high-profile crimes can be. The defense has 
raised concerns that potential jurors will have already convicted Mr. Tsarnaev 
in their minds, while some jurors have maintained that their personal 
convictions would prohibit them from imposing the death penalty.

Holmes's case is slightly different from Tsarnaev's because of the plea of 
insanity. Holmes's defense team is not expected to dispute the fact that he 
killed 12 people. They are instead arguing that he should be placed in a state 
psychiatric facility, rather than go to jail or be put to death.

An insanity plea in itself is rather controversial. Because the plea is rare 
and defined differently from state to state, it is not well understood by the 
public, according to an analysis of the plea in this case published in the 
Journal of Law and Social Deviance.

Several states have declared the plea to be unconstitutional and bar it 
altogether. Some states place the burden of proof of insanity on the defense. 
In Colorado, however, it is the prosecution's responsibility to prove that the 
defendant is sane enough to be held fully responsible.

"Many people believe that the insanity defense is a loophole that allows guilty 
defendants to 'go free,'" write legal experts Kathleen Bantley and Susan Koski 
in the analysis. "In 1 survey, 66 % of respondents believed that the insanity 
defense should not be available."

Some legal analysts argue that this defense is protected by the 14th 
Amendment's due process clause or the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and 
unusual punishment. The US Supreme Court was asked - and declined - to weigh in 
on the issue in 2012.

If Holmes is found guilty, the jury will then have to decide if he should be 
put to death. Coloradans aren't as opposed to the death penalty as many 
Massachusetts residents are: A poll conducted by The Denver Post found that 68 
% of Coloradans favor the death penalty. However, since the death penalty was 
reinstated in Colorado in 1975, only 1 person has actually been put to death.

Holmes's defense team has reportedly hired a victim-outreach specialist to 
solicit victims and victims' family members to testify against the death 
penalty. A minister in Boston who has worked closely with victims of the Boston 
Marathon bombings told the Monitor in December that the same specialist had 
been reaching out to victims involved in that attack as well.

(source: Yahoo News)