[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., ALA., OHIO, UTAH, ARIZ., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 31



FLORIDA----impending execution

Inmate Asks Florida Justices to Block Execution Pending Supremes' Ruling on 
Lethal Injection



A death row inmate Friday asked the Florida Supreme Court to at least 
temporarily block his scheduled Feb. 26 execution while the U.S. Supreme Court 
considers a challenge to a key drug used in lethal injections.

Attorneys for condemned killer Jerry William Correll filed an emergency 
petition seeking a stay until the U.S. Supreme Court rules in an Oklahoma case. 
The federal court will consider the constitutionality of a sedative that is the 
1st drug administered during a 3-step process used to execute inmates in 
Oklahoma, Florida and other states.

Critics argue that the drug, midazolam, does not effectively sedate inmates 
during the execution process and subjects them to pain that violates the U.S. 
Constitution's Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

"While the harm to Correll would be great if a stay is not granted, Florida, in 
comparison, will suffer little appreciable harm," the petition filed Friday 
said. "If a stay is granted, the only potential harm to Florida is that it will 
have to wait on the Supreme Court of the United States before it can carry out 
the execution. That delay is a temporary harm compared to the irreparable harm 
of permitting an unconstitutional execution to take place. Simply stated, 
Correll implores this court to just pause until the controversy as to the use 
of midazolam is resolved, thus ensuring that if he is executed his death 
sentence would be administered in the most humane manner."

The petition came 2 days after Orange County Circuit Judge Jenifer M. Davis 
rejected a request to stay Correll's execution.

"The Florida Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the current lethal injection 
protocol against constitutional challenges and held that the protocol used in 
Florida does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment," Davis wrote. "This 
court concludes that it is bound by the foregoing precedential authority, and 
therefore Mr. Correll does not have a substantial likelihood of success on the 
merits" of the issues in the request for the stay.

Gov. Rick Scott on Jan. 16 signed a death warrant for Correll, who was 
convicted in the stabbing deaths of 4 people in 1985 in an Orlando home and is 
classified as a mass murderer. The victims included Correll's ex-wife, Susan, 
and their 5-year-old daughter, Tuesday. Also killed were Susan Correll's 
mother, Mary Lou Hines, and her sister, Marybeth Jones.

In announcing the signing of the death warrant, the governor's office said the 
women were each stabbed at least 14 times, and the child was stabbed 10 times. 
Jerry Correll, now 59, is on death row at Florida State Prison.

Scott signed 21 death warrants in his 2st term, more than any other 2 or 3-term 
governor since the reinstatement of the Death Penalty in 1976. Correll's is his 
22nd death warrant.

After Scott signed the death warrant, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed last Friday 
to take up the Oklahoma challenge to the lethal-injection drug. The federal 
court followed up Wednesday by granting a request to stay executions in 
Oklahoma until the challenge is resolved.

Florida began using midazolam as the 1st step in a 3-drug execution cocktail in 
2013, after it and other states previously used a drug called pentobarbital 
sodium. The states switched because Danish-based manufacturer Lundbeck refused 
to sell pentobarbital sodium directly to corrections agencies for use in 
executions and ordered its distributors to also stop supplying the drug for 
lethal-injection purposes.

(source: FlaglerLive.com)








ALABAMA----new death sentence

Jefferson County man sentenced to death in 2010 slayings of three people

A man convicted in the 2010 shooting deaths of 3 people, and dumping their 
bodies along Birmingham-area roads, has been sentenced to death on Alabama's 
death row.

Marcus Benn, 38, in October was found guilty in the deaths of Jaime Luna 
Gutierrez, Jose Manuel Martinez Calderon, and Evelyn Peralta. A jury 
recommended he be sentenced to death.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tracie Todd on Thursday, after reviewing a 
number of mitigating and aggravating factors presented by defense attorneys and 
prosecutors, agreed with the jury's recommendation and sentenced Benn to death.

The judge could have overridden the recommendation.

"It is, therefore, the judgment of the Court that the recommendation of the 
jury, made of up of a cross section of the community, should not be disturbed, 
and the Defendant, Marcus Benn, should be sentenced to death," Todd stated in 
her order.

One of Benn's attorneys, Ken Gomany, stated in an email to AL.com on Friday 
that he believes they have some good issues for appeal.

Another of Benn's attorneys, Bill Myers, said Friday afternoon they have filed 
a motion asking Todd for a new trial. If overruled, an appeal will 
automatically follow because the death penalty was imposed.

"We were of course disappointed and had hoped for an override for life without 
the possibility of parole, but we fully respect the court's deliberately 
thought process and know this is always a very difficult decision for a judge 
to make," Myers said.

Deputy Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr said he is pleased the 
jury recommended a sentence of death and that the judge ultimately followed 
their recommendation. "I don't take those types of sentences lightly, however 
this case was different based on the facts as it applied to the law," he said.

"The family is also pleased with the court's decision," Carr said.

Gutierrez, Calderon and Peralta were killed Dec. 27, 2010 and Benn was charged 
3 days later.

Benn testified at his trial that he shot the 2 men because he was afraid for 
his life.

Gutierrez was shot numerous times - including 4 shots to the back of the head - 
and his body was left on 22nd Street off Ishkooda-Wenonah Road. Several shell 
casings and blood stains were found at the scene.

Midfield police investigating a burned-out truck off Hartman Industrial 
Boulevard found Peralta's body in a nearby ditch. She was partially dressed and 
had been shot twice in the back of the head. Benn denied any knowledge of or 
involvement in Peralta's death.

After his arrest, Benn led investigators to Calderon's body, which was found in 
the 3500 block of Carver Avenue. Blood and a shell casing were also found 
nearby.

Birmingham police found a blood-stained jacket and 2 guns when they searched 
the home of Benn's girlfriend, an evidence technician testified. Blood on the 
jacket and on a pistol matched the victims.

Bill Myers and Philip Petersen also represented Benn. Deputy Jefferson County 
District Attorney Neal Zarzour also prosecuted the case.

(source: al.com)

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

Man charged in Deshler coach's death will face death penalty



Jeremy Leshun Williams will face the death penalty when his trial for the 
murder of Deshler volunteer coach Brioni Rutland takes place.

Prosecutors made their intentions known during Williams' arraignment Friday 
morning at the Lauderdale County Courthouse.

Willliams is charged with capital murder for the Nov. 2013 death of Rutland, 
whose body was found wrapped in chains in the Tennessee River.

According to court documents, Williams said he stabbed and shot Rutland when 
Rutland came to his apartment in Florence to collect a gambling debt.

(source: WAAY TV news)








OHIO:

Ohio Reschedules Executions for 7 Death Row Inmates



The state on Friday rescheduled executions for 7 death row inmates as it tries 
to find new lethal drugs, meaning no inmate will be put to death in Ohio in 
2015.

The announcement affects 6 executions this year, including 1 set for Feb. 11 
for condemned child killer Ronald Phillips, and 1 previously scheduled for 2016 
that was pushed farther back.

The move, which was expected, follows a federal judge's previous order delaying 
executions while the state puts a new execution policy in place, the state 
said.

The delays also allow the state time to find supplies of new drugs, according 
to the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

The new execution policy calls for Ohio to use drugs it doesn't have and has 
had difficulty obtaining in the past.

The delays mean that for the 1st time Ohio won't execute anyone in a calendar 
year since the state resumed putting inmates to death in 1999. The state put 1 
inmate to death last year and 3 in 2013. A total of 11 executions are scheduled 
for 2016.

Under the revised schedule, the next execution is Jan. 21, 2016, when Phillips 
is scheduled to die for the 1993 rape and killing of his girlfriend's 
3-year-old daughter in Akron.

Tim Young, the state public defender, applauded the move, saying there was no 
need for executions "until we have answers to the numerous legal and medical 
questions posed by lethal injection."

Earlier this month, the state ditched its 2-drug method after problematic 
executions in Ohio a year ago and Arizona in July. Ohio's supplies of those 
drugs, midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a painkiller, were already set 
to expire this year.

Underscoring concerns about midazolam, the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week 
ordered Oklahoma to postpone lethal injections executions using the drug until 
the court rules in a challenge involving midazolam.

Ohio's execution policy now calls for it to use versions of thiopental sodium 
or compounded pentobarbital, neither of which it has.

Death penalty experts question where Ohio would find supplies of thiopental 
sodium, saying it's no longer available in the U.S. and overseas imports would 
run afoul of importing bans.

The state also can't obtain compounded pentobarbital. A law that was enacted 
last month shielding the names of companies providing drugs was aimed at 
finding drug makers willing to provide pentobarbital.

Online: Ohio execution schedule: 
http://www.drc.ohio.gov/Public/executionschedule.htm

(source: Associated Press)

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

Ohio delays all 2015 executions, amid scrutiny of lethal injection drug----The 
postponement was announced 3 weeks after Ohio said it would no longer use a 
controversial drug that was employed in a series of executions that went awry 
last year.



The decision by Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Friday to postpone all seven scheduled 
2015 executions in the state is part of growing evidence suggesting that courts 
- and American society - are coming to a fresh showdown over the humanity of 
how states administer the ultimate sanction. Governor Kasich's decision comes 
as Ohio and other death penalty states struggle to finesse a lethal drug 
cocktail that would consistently end an inmate's life humanely. The 
postponement was announced 3 weeks after the state said it would no longer use 
a controversial drug, midazolam, which was employed in a series of executions 
that went awry last year.

What's more, the decision to delay comes 1 week after the US Supreme Court 
agreed to weigh whether a lethal injection cocktail using midazolam violates 
the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. And it 
comes almost exactly a year after Ohio executed Dennis McGuire, who appeared to 
struggle during a 26-minute execution that was expected to take no more than 10 
minutes.

Similar problems with executions in other states - including the April 
execution of Oklahoma's Clayton Lockett, who regained consciousness during the 
procedure and appeared to writhe in pain before expiring after 43 minutes - 
have played a role in raising concerns. So have high-profile exonerations, 
including a record 6 death row inmates around the country who had their 
sentences reversed last year.

The dynamics changed further last Friday, when the US Supreme Court agreed to 
again take up the issue at the behest of three Oklahoma death row inmates, who 
claim the drug cocktail now being used in the state isn't powerful enough to 
induce deep sleep, making the process, in their opinion, inhumane. The court 
will hear the case in April and likely issue a ruling by June.

The US high court "may focus just on what Oklahoma is doing, but it will set a 
standard for every state," Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death 
Penalty Information Center, told The Washington Post last week. "It's going to 
put a stamp on what's allowable and what's not."

The US Supreme Court found in 2008 that using a toxic mix of powerful 
barbiturates to induce death in state executions was problematic yet 
constitutionally humane. But the protocols have changed so much that the court 
decided to weigh in again on the issue.

The decision will come at a time when society's support for the ultimate 
sanction appears to be ebbing. A majority of Americans still support the death 
penalty overall, but support has slipped from 78 % in 1993 to 55 % in 2014, 
according to the Pew Research Center. That level of support has remained 
unchanged the past 5 years, and does not seem to have been affected by a series 
of botched executions last year.

US juries, even in death penalty states like Texas, continue to condemn fewer 
and fewer people to death, according to a Dec. 19 Bureau of Justice Statistics 
report. The study found that 2013 marked the 13th straight year with a decrease 
in the US death row population. 60 % of the nation's death row inmates are 
housed in 5 states: California, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Alabama. 
Today, fewer than 3,000 people sit on death row in the US.

While experts say death penalty exonerations have raised the biggest questions 
for the US public, the lethal injection issue has caused the most legal and 
bureaucratic issues for states.

States no longer have access to their preferred drugs because a European drug 
maker has refused to sell the product if it's to be used to induce death. That 
has left death penalty states scrambling for alternatives.

The delay in Ohio, which is designed to give the state more time to find a 
supply of new drugs and prepare a new protocol for executions, means that the 
state will go at least 2 years without an execution.

(source: Christian Science Monitor)








UTAH:

Judge reviews death penalty decision in murder case



The judge in a St. George murder case is weighing arguments about whether to 
uphold a prior magistrate's decision allowing the death penalty if a jury finds 
the suspected killer guilty at trial.

Fifth District Judge G. Michael Westfall took under advisement Friday a motion 
by defense attorney Gary Pendleton to "quash" the court's order upholding the 
arrest of Brandon Perry Smith, 33, on suspicion of killing Leeds resident 
Jerrica Christensen in December 2010.

Westfall did not announce a deadline for issuing his decision on Pendleton's 
motion against holding Smith for trial in the case.

Pendleton filed the motion in November 2013, a few weeks after Judge James 
Shumate ruled that prosecutors had amassed sufficient evidence to justify their 
belief that Smith was involved in the aggravated murder of Christensen.

Pendleton's motion does not attempt to dispute whether Smith was physically 
involved in the slaying, but instead claims the court erred in finding the 
murder was an "aggravated" crime and therefore worthy of death penalty 
consideration.

Specifically, Pendleton argues that, contrary to Shumate's ruling, the 
prosecution's evidence does not show Smith deliberately planned to kill anyone 
or that he found some type of perverse pleasure in making the victim suffer.

Shumate accepted four of the 6 "aggravator" circumstances prosecutors had 
alleged - finding that Christensen's death was part of a single incident in 
which 2 or more people were killed or in which an attempt was made to kill 
them, that the slaying was part of an attempted kidnapping, that Christensen 
was killed in an attempt to prevent her from being a witness to other elements 
of the crime, and that her slaying was "especially heinous, atrocious, cruel, 
or exceptionally depraved."

Friday's hearing was in response to arguments about the issue that have been 
prepared during the approximately 15-month interim since the hearing, during 
which time Shumate retired and the prosecutor, Deputy County Attorney Brian 
Filter, left for a job in Nevada.

Westfall told Deputy County Attorney Ryan Shaum, representing the prosecution 
Friday, that he was most inclined to question the 1st and last aggravators - 
whether Christensen's death was deliberately connected to another murder and an 
attempted murder, and whether her death was the result of an intent to torture 
her.

Smith is accused of working with codefendant Paul Clifford Ashton in a scheme 
to kidnap and, eventually, to probably slay a group of people at Ashton's 
downtown St. George condo during the night of the incident.

Ashton pleaded guilty in 2013 to shooting two other people immediately prior to 
Christensen's slaying - St. George residents Brandie Sue Dawn Jerden and James 
Fiske. Fiske survived. Ashton is now serving a life sentence in prison.

Pendleton told Westfall that the crux of his concerns about Smith's case lies 
in actions or, in some cases, the inaction of prosecutors since Smith was 
arrested. Pendleton claims the state failed to investigate evidence that might 
have convinced Shumate that Smith was coerced by Ashton and that the 
aggravators were therefore unwarranted.

"When you effectively prevent the magistrate from being presented with the 
evidence that would provide an alternative explanation and then you say, 'This 
is the only reasonable inference.' ... That concerns me," Pendleton said.

"The state seems to think they have performed every duty they have ... They 
seem to take the position they don't have any obligation to follow up on (the 
other evidence)," he said.

Pendleton specifically referred to text messages Smith exchanged with Ashton 
immediately prior to the incident. In the text messages, Ashton asks Smith to 
bring him a gun to defend himself against someone who reportedly has threatened 
Ashton. Smith initially demurs, suggesting a list of alternatives before 
finally yielding to Ashton's wishes.

Pendleton also referred to testimony from a jail inmate that Ashton, while at 
the Washington County Jail sent "kite" notes between the cells in which Ashton 
allegedly jokes about Smith's clumsy attempt to kill Christensen, requiring 
Ashton's assistance, as well as Ashton???s claim he would have killed Smith if 
he didn't kill Christensen, and Ashton's subsequent efforts to have another 
inmate kill Fiske.

Pendleton argues that the aggravators that could lead to a death sentence for 
Smith essentially hold him responsible for the shootings of Fiske and Jerden, 
even though Smith has not been formally charged in relation to those victims.

Pendleton also claims that Filter erred in deciding to dismiss a charge against 
Ashton that held him responsible for Christensen's death.

In regard to whether Christensen's murder was a "heinous" crime, Filter argued 
that Smith had the opportunity to "just shoot" the woman and instead handed his 
gun to Ashton while beating, choking and repeatedly cutting Christensen with a 
small pocket knife.

Pendleton and Shaum argued Friday about whether Christensen's death was 
deliberately prolonged during the ordeal, because Westfall's ruling on that 
aggravator will hinge on whether evidence shows Smith was simply clumsy or if 
he allegedly displayed a perverse fascination with the different means of 
hurting her.

Ellen Hensley, Christensen's mother, has repeatedly complained about the long 
judicial process and at a courthouse vigil last month reminisced about the 
daughter who was so much like her that they often shared clothes.

"She spent her last night on this earth helping others. Helping a friend. And 
in turn, helping people she didn't even know to move them and their belongings. 
She was murdered by a man ... (who) didn't even know her name," Hensley said.

(source: The Spectrum)


ARIZONA:

Prosecutor tries to unravel Arias trial testimony



Through November, December and most of January, the defense team in the Jodi 
Arias sentencing retrial wove a tawdry portrait of the man Arias killed.

This week, in Maricopa County Superior Court, prosecutor Juan Martinez went to 
work trying to unravel it.

Claims made by an unidentified witness that Travis Alexander was seen viewing 
child porn on a computer and strong-arming another girlfriend were refuted.

And over the next few weeks, Martinez is expected to seat a Mesa police 
computer analyst to knock down allegations that Alexander's personal computer 
was rife with pornography. And he will present a psychologist who testified 
about Arias in her 1st trial in 2013, when Arias was found guilty of 1st-degree 
murder.

Alexander, 30, was found dead in the shower of his Mesa home in 2008. He had 
been shot in the head, stabbed nearly 30 times and his throat was slit. A month 
later, police arrested Arias, his on-again, off-again lover, at her 
grandparents' home in Northern California.

But the jury that convicted Arias of murder could not reach a unanimous verdict 
as to whether she should be sentenced to death or to life in prison. A 2nd jury 
was impaneled in September for what's called the "mitigation" stage of a 
death-penalty trial, where Arias' attorneys could present witnesses and 
evidence to persuade the jury to bring back a life verdict.

Most of it, however, has depicted Alexander as oversexed, abusive and 
mercurial.

Arias, 34, testified for two days in October, behind closed doors and out of 
earshot of the press and public, describing her childhood and how she met 
Alexander when he approached her at a conference and rapidly turned the 
relationship sexual.

The testimony was shut down by court order after media outlets sued for access. 
It was stopped just after Arias told the jury that weeks into their 
relationship, Alexander called her to meet him at a highway Starbucks as he was 
en route from Mesa to Riverside, Calif., then sought drive-by oral sex before 
he continued on his way.

After the court order banning secret testimony, Arias refused to testify 
further in public and Martinez never got a chance to cross-examine her. Her 
testimony segued into that of 2 psychologists who chronicled Alexander's sexual 
appetites and described him as capable only of sexual intimacy.

According to text messages presented by one of the psychologists, Alexander was 
corresponding with as many as 12 women over the last months of his life, 
sometimes carrying on simultaneous raunchy text conversations with 3 or 4 women 
at a time.

During trial, defense attorneys Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott also brought 
in computer experts to allege that Alexander's personal computer was rife with 
viruses from viewing pornography, something Mesa police had denied under oath.

Willmott also presented an affidavit from an Alexander acquaintance who claimed 
that he had seen Alexander holding down and swearing at his ex-girlfriend, 
Deanna Reid, during a period when Alexander was a boarder in a house owned by a 
Mormon bishop. The acquaintance, who was not identified, also claimed he 
confronted Alexander about a folder of online child pornography that he said 
Alexander accessed on the bishop's computer.

The defense rested its case Thursday morning, and Martinez began his 
counterattack.

Reid took the stand and denied that Alexander ever manhandled her. She said she 
was not even in the country when the secret witness said the abuse took place.

Then Martinez produced the bishop, who denied Alexander was living in his house 
during the time the abuse allegedly took place. And though the bishop, Vernon 
Parker - who brought his own attorney to court - said the computer in question 
had problems with pop-up ads showing scantily-clad women, he avowed that it 
occurred after Alexander had moved out of the house.

Parker thought the virus that caused the pop-ups was the fault of another, 
later house guest. He also said that he had never seen Alexander use the 
computer.

Parker resumes testimony Monday. Martinez will then likely put his Mesa police 
computer-forensics expert on the witness stand to try to explain away the 
pornography.

And another expert witness, psychologist Janine DeMarte, is set to counter 
defense claims about Arias' mental illnesses.

The trial is expected to continue well into February.

(source: Arizona Republic)








CALIFORNIA----new death sentence

MORENO VALLEY: Tyrone Harts death sentence ends a family's ordeal----The murder 
of Brandi Morales-Rael meant other family members had to take in her 6 
children, but it brought extended family together



With a purple ribbon and flower on her blazer, murder victim Brandi 
Morales-Rael's mother, Cindy Rael, recalled sitting for days at a time, trying 
to stay composed during the grueling death penalty trial of her daughter's 
ex-boyfriend Tyrone Harts.

"We finally got what we wanted. It was a long 4 years," Rael said outside the 
Riverside Hall of Justice after Harts, 42, was sentenced to death by Judge 
Christian F. Thierbach Friday, Jan. 30.

A jury convicted Harts in the Feb. 22, 2011 incident where Morales-Rael was 
shot by Harts and then set afire. He also was convicted of attempting to kill 
her eldest son and endangering 5 of her 6 children.

In the nightmarish scene that followed her shooting, 4 of her children, ages 6 
to 11, were left to put out the fire with cups of water after the 2 oldest 
boys, ages 13 and 15, ran to get help.

The victim's brother, Rozzy Rael, a Corona police officer, took in 
Morales-Rael???s eldest son, Kobe Rael. The brother described his own anger, 
but with pride shared how at the sentencing his nephew was able to "tell 
(Harts) that he forgave him. That is a positive stand for a 19-year-old."

Influenced by family in law enforcement and the rallying of coworkers after the 
tragedy, Rael said the teen decided to go into the field and graduated last 
month from correctional officer academy. Cindy Rael said her grandson isn't 
quite old enough for the sheriff's academy, but that is his next step.

"It just brought us all together," Isaac Martin, the father of Morales-Rael's 
youngest daughter, said of the case.

Harts was not the father of the children, but they accepted him as a father 
figure. The couple broke up and Harts moved out. He convinced one of the 
youngsters to leave a door unlocked so he could get into the house on the 
fateful night.

"He is at most a wolf in sheep's clothing for lack of a better word," Martin 
said.

The victim's youngest sister, Roxi Rael, said the trial outcome "doesn't change 
the fact that Brandi isn't here" but she will always be in the hearts of family 
members.

(source: Press-Enterprise)

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

Suspect In McStay Family Murders Drops Lawyer, Says He Only Has Months To Live



The man suspected of murdering the McStay family appeared in court Friday and 
asked if he could represent himself in the case.

Charles "Chase" Ray Merritt claims he's ill and only has months to live. He 
said he dropped his lawyer because he wasn't proving effective in speeding up 
the court process.

His former attorney Robert Ponce said outside the courthouse, "The difficulty 
for Mr. Merritt was he wasn't getting an opportunity to be able to get his 
matter before the court...as fast as he wanted to."

Merritt's sister left court saying she thought he made a mistake: "A 
non-attorney is not wise to represent himself."

The judge was of the same opinion and advised McStay to reconsider.

Relatives of the McStay family wouldn't comment outside court.

Merritt was arrested in Chatsworth and pleaded not guilty in November 2014 to 
four felony murder charges for the death of his 40-year-old business partner 
and his family.

Joseph McStay, his wife, 43-year-old Summer McStay, and their 2 children 
Gianni, 4, and Joseph M., 3, disappeared in Feb. 2010 from their Fallbrook 
home.

The family's remains were discovered on Nov. 11, 2013 in shallow graves near 
Highway 15 in the desert outside Victorville and later identified through 
dental records and DNA.

San Bernardino detectives said they went over the initial missing persons 
investigation done by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, and the 
evidence led them to Merritt.

Merritt, who is eligible for the death penalty, is believed to the sole suspect 
in the case.

At Friday's court appearance, Ponce said Merritt is suffering from congestive 
heart failure and is desperate to try and clear his name, before it's too late.

"He's scared to death he's going to die before he gets a chance of doing it," 
Ponce told news outlets.

The judge approved his request to represent himself pending a medical 
evaluation to determine if he is medically capable of doing so.

A status conference was scheduled for Feb. 20, as well as a pre-preliminary 
hearing on April 3 and a preliminary hearing on April 7.

(source: CBSLA.com)

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

San Mateo County DA spars with attorney over 'Sunny Day' murder case



Defense attorney Paul DeMeester and San Mateo County District Attorney Steve 
Wagstaffe are trading blows over the DA's handling of the "Sunny Day" gang 
murder case.

DeMeester, who represents one of the defendants in the ongoing case, Roberto 
Bustos-Montes, accused Wagstaffe on Thursday of using the investigation to 
burnish his tough-on-crime credentials, wasting taxpayer money in the process, 
and said he will ask Attorney General Kamala Harris to take over the 
prosecution.

"When the head DA manipulates a case for political purposes, that office has no 
business handling it," DeMeester said in a statement.

Wagstaffe dismissed DeMeester's allegations as mere "grandstanding."

DeMeester claims Wagstaffe announced in March 2014 he would seek the death 
penalty against nine of 16 defendants in the sprawling murder and conspiracy 
case without ever intending to follow through. That number later dropped from 9 
to 7, DeMeester said. Since June the DA has downgraded the punishment he sought 
for those defendants to life without parole.

The aborted pursuit of the death penalty cost the county Private Defender 
Program, which is representing the seven defendants, roughly half a million 
dollars, DeMeester estimated. Attorneys representing clients in capital cases 
are required to dig through their histories to find any evidence - such as a 
childhood trauma or a psychiatric condition - that would spare their lives.

John Digiacinto, head of the Private Defender Program, said Thursday he had "no 
idea" how DeMeester came up with his estimate of $500,000, though he 
acknowledged that clients facing the death penalty are appointed 2 attorneys, 
instead of 1, and attorneys representing capital clients make $165 an hour 
instead of the usual $140.

Wagstaffe says DeMeester is misrepresenting the March 2014 news conference 
where he announced the "Sunny Day" indictments, which the defense attorney 
characterized as a televised "quest for death." Video of the briefing shows the 
DA mentioned briefly that nine defendants were "charged with capital murder."

The district attorney says his office decided not to pursue the death penalty 
after conducting a routine analysis of the charges.

"Obviously, his motion is nonsensical," Wagstaffe said of DeMeester, adding, 
"We went through our usual process, as all DAs do, and arrived at a decision.

(source: Mercury News)








USA:

The Death Penalty: Chaotic Tedium



Death row is a place of excruciating order, relentless tedium. Days are 
measured in minutes, motion in inches. When turmoil erupts, it does so at the 
periphery. Usually. This week is an exception: Turmoil is inside and out, 
North, South, East and West.

Georgia is set to execute a man with an IQ of 70.

Oklahoma is scheduled to execute a man whose guilt is far from certain.

Massachusetts, where the death penalty was abolished 65 years ago, is being 
forced to empanel a federal court jury for the Boston Marathon Bombing case, 
limiting its members to persons not opposed to execution - a minority of the 
state's population.

California, where the last execution took place nine years ago, continues to 
fill its inactive death row by issuing more death sentences than any other 
state. There are now 749 residents on death row.

Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear the brief of death row inmates 
in Oklahoma, arguing that the drug planned to sedate them will constitute 
torture. That the drug is the same used in the only other states that actually 
practice execution by lethal injection - Florida, Texas, Ohio and Missouri - 
puts all future executions by that mode into question.

It is impossible to avoid the question: Who is served by this chaos?

Is it the victims' families? Not according to the mother of the child killed by 
the man Oklahoma executed last week. She wanted nothing to do with the killing. 
Not according to Bud Welch, father of a victim of Timothy McVeigh, who said it 
was more important for him to be able to forgive McVeigh than to kill him. Not 
according to the hundreds of members of the Forgiveness Project and Murder 
Victims Families For Human Rights who wash their hands of the process and argue 
that the death penalty prolongs and deepens their agony.

Is it the state? Not if budget is considered. A case that includes the death 
penalty option carries exponentially higher court costs (These vary from state 
to state, with the average being double the expense at the first trial and 10 
times the expense through appeals).

Is it the local community? Not if deterrence is the goal. The death penalty has 
no impact on reducing violent crime or restoring civil order following a 
trauma.

Is it the federal government? Not if efficiency is the goal. The cost is 
greater, the effort more, the outcome predictably biased by race and class and 
the likelihood that the sentence will be carried out extremely low. Only 3 of 
the 74 people sentenced to death since 1988 have been executed.

Is it the nation? Not if international opinion matters. Most industrialized 
nations have abandoned execution as a form of punishment and consider the US 
bizarrely behind the times. In fact, the crisis about drugs for lethal 
injection began when pharmaceutical companies in Europe refused to provide 
drugs that will be used to kill.

Is it the American people? Not if squeamishness regarding method is a measure. 
Americans who tell Gallop pollsters they favor execution want it to be 
painless, clean, simple and distant. They choose lethal injection over earlier 
forms that troubled them - electrocution, hanging, burning at the stake, 
stoning, beheading and such.

That lethal injection is not all they hoped forces the question. In fact, when 
Gallop changes the question to, "If you could choose between these two 
approaches, life in prison without parole, or the death penalty," support 
drops. To be sure, people who have performed heinous acts or constitute a 
threat to society should never be restored to freedom, but killing such 
criminals has proven counterproductive.

In 1972, when the Supreme Court instituted its moratorium in Furman v. Georgia, 
it did so stating that the death penalty, as practiced in the United States, 
was "arbitrary and capricious." Data show it remains so. It is also now 
chaotic. It is time to stop pretending a value-centered democracy can execute 
its citizens in a way that honors national commitment to dignity for the 
individual, regardless of who the person is or what that person has done. The 
time for a national solution is now.

(source: Op-Ed; Susanne Dumbleton, Truthout)