[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----IND., MO., COLO., WASH., USA

[Rick Halperin]

July 24



INDIANA:

Major Davis asks for murder charge to be dismissed in Officer Perry Renn case


The man charged in the 2014 shooting death of Indianapolis Metropolitan Police 
Department officer Perry Renn says he has been denied his constitutional right 
to a fast and speedy trial.

Major Davis Jr., the man facing the death penalty for the 2014 shooting death 
of a police officer, is asking a Marion County judge to dismiss the murder 
charge against him.

Davis, who is charged in the July 2014 slaying of Indianapolis Metropolitan 
Police Department officer Perry Renn, argued in court records that the charge 
against him should be dismissed because Marion Superior Court Judge Marc 
Rothenberg wrongfully denied him his constitutional right for a fast and speedy 
trial.

Rothenberg has struck down Davis' multiple requests for a fast and speedy 
trial. In response, Davis filed 2 motions to dismiss in the past 2 months.

The 26-year-old defendant had gone against the advice of his public defenders 
when he asked for a fast and speedy trial. That request, as well as the motions 
to dismiss, were made without the authorization or signatures of one or both of 
Davis' attorneys, Ray Casanova and Eric Koselke.

Neither Casanova nor Koselke has returned calls requesting comment.

Rothenberg cited violation of trial procedures, when he denied Davis' previous 
requests for a fast and speed trial. The judge struck down the requests because 
the motions were filed without any of Davis' public defenders' signature. The 
state's trial rules require pleadings and motions to be signed by an attorney. 
In Davis' case, "fast and speedy trial may be waived by counsel for purposes of 
trial strategy," Rothenberg said during a hearing in March.

In that hearing, Davis said he has grown frustrated with his public defenders 
for going against his desire for a speedy trial. He also admitted receiving 
legal advice from someone else other than his attorneys, but he refused to 
identify that person.

His court-appointed attorneys a few days later asked Rothenberg to move Davis 
to a state prison, after concerns that a "clergyman" had been visiting Davis at 
Marion County Jail and "may be engaging in the unauthorized practice of law and 
obstruction of justice," court records say.

Davis is being held at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, about 170 miles 
north of Indianapolis.

Court records do not name the clergyman who attorneys say has been intervening 
in the case, but the Rev. Mmoja Ajabu had been speaking publicly on behalf of 
the Davis family.

Ajabu told The Indianapolis Star that he does not know who that "clergyman" is. 
He said Davis is the one who decided to seek the dismissal of the murder charge 
and "rightfully so," he added.

"It's time for his constitutional rights to be recognized and that the case be 
dismissed as the Constitution says it should," Ajabu said. "When you talk about 
the right to a fast and speedy trial, that???s one of the foundations of 
American jurisprudence. ... For him to be denied his rights, it scares me."

In a ruling on Davis' 1st motion to dismiss filed in April, Rothenberg cited 
the same reason he denied the requests for speedy trial: It's a violation of 
the Indiana Rules of Trial and Procedure because it wasn't signed by Davis' 
attorneys.

Davis filed the amended motion to dismiss last week. Rothenberg has not ruled 
on it yet.

The case is scheduled for an Aug. 21 pretrial conference in Marion Superior 
Court.

(source: Indianapolis Star)






MISSOURI:

White victim is key indicator for receiving death penalty in Missouri


Homicides involving white victims are seven times more likely to result in an 
execution than those involving black victims, according to a recent study on 
the racial disparities of executions in Missouri.

And homicides involving white female victims are nearly 14 times more likely to 
result in an execution than those involving black male victims.

"These disparities are so great that they call in to question the equity of the 
application of the harshest penalty, adding to growing concerns that the death 
penalty is applied in an unfair, capricious and arbitrary manner," stated Frank 
R. Baumgartner, a political science professor at University of North Carolina 
at Chapel Hill, who did the study.

Baumgartner's study, released on July 16, is titled "The impact of race, gender 
and geography on Missouri executions."

Between 1976 and 2014, the study found that the state of Missouri executed 80 
men. 81 % of these men were executed for the murder of white victims.

"This is striking given that 60 % of all homicide victims in Missouri are 
black," Baumgartner wrote.

White women represent just 12 % of all homicide victims, but constitute 37 % of 
the victims in execution cases, according to the study. Black men, by contrast, 
represent 52 % of all homicide victims, but just 12 % of the individuals who 
were executed in Missouri were convicted of killing black men.

Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis City NAACP, said these statistics 
do not surprise him, "when you take into consideration that Missouri courts 
found that county prosecutors excluded black jurors because of race 5 times 
since 2002."

He said the courts' finding prompted elected officials, attorneys and others to 
send Governor Jay Nixon a letter in April asking for a Board of Inquiry to 
examine the exclusions of African Americans from juries in St. Louis County 
death penalty cases.

The group said when black men go up against an all-white jury, they are more 
likely to get a death sentence. Nixon has not yet acted on their letter.

The study gives their claim teeth. It shows that a person convicted of homicide 
in St. Louis County is 3 times more likely to be executed than if they were 
convicted of the same crime in the vast majority of other counties in the 
state, and 13 times more likely to be executed than if they are convicted of 
the same crime in the city of St. Louis.

Nixon also declined an interview with The St. Louis American regarding 
Baumgartner's study.

Nationally, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that from 1980 through 
2008, white perpetrators killed 84 % of white victims of homicide, and 93 % of 
black victims were killed by black perpetrators.

Further, this tendency for crimes to be within racial group remains true even 
among "stranger homicides" - where the victim does not know the offender, 
Baumgartner found. Black-on-black crimes are extremely unlikely to be punished 
with the death penalty, however.

"The importance of the victims' race in the application of the death penalty 
has created a system where whites are likely to face the death penalty only for 
within-race crimes, and blacks for cross-race crimes," he wrote. "In other 
words, the race and gender of the victim is a key determining factor in 
deciding who faces execution in Missouri."

Here are a few other key findings of his research:

-- Homicides committed in Callaway, Schuyler and Moniteau counties are 30 to 
70 times more likely to result in an execution than homicides committed in the 
vast majority of the state's counties.

-- A majority of the state???s 80 executions that occurred between 1976 and 
2014 come from just 3, or 2.6 %, of the state's 114 counties and the 
independent city of St. Louis.

-- 81 % of the individuals executed in Missouri were convicted of killing 
white victims even though white victims are less than 40 % of all murder 
victims in the state.

-- Even though the vast majority of murders involve an offender and victim(s) 
of the same race, 54 % of the African-American men executed by Missouri were 
convicted of crimes involving white victims.

The Missouri analysis is based on a larger, nationwide study Baumgartner 
conducted with Amanda Grigg and Alisa Mastro titled "#BlackLivesDon'tMatter: 
Race-of-Victim Effects in US Executions, 1977-2013." See the larger study at: 
http://www.unc.edu/~fbaum/articles/BlackLives-2015.pdf.

See the Missouri study at: 
http://www.unc.edu/~fbaum/articles/MissouriExecutions-2015.pdf.

(source: The St.Louis American)






COLORADO:

Aurora shooting jury: James Holmes's crimes satisfy first death penalty 
criteria ---- Jurors find that James Holmes's actions at movie theater shooting 
included 'aggravating factors' - the 1st of 3 steps required to sentence him to 
death

Jurors in the Aurora shooting trial found on Thursday that the defendant's 
actions included "aggravating factors" - the 1st step of 3 required to sentence 
James Holmes to death.

12 people died and 70 were injured in the July 2012 shooting, which took place 
at a showing of The Dark Knight Rises. Earlier this month, Holmes was convicted 
on 165 counts, including 24 for 1st-degree murder.

In Colorado, jurors are required to consider death sentence in 3 phases. In the 
1st, prosecutors attempt to prove the crimes being considered had at least 1 
"aggravating factor".

In Holmes's case, prosecutors attempted to prove 5 aggravating factors for most 
of the counts of 1st-degree murder against him, and jurors found at least 1 
aggravating factor in each of the 24 counts.

1 aggravating factor was the murder of a child younger than 12. Another proved 
by prosecutors was that Holmes ambushed his victims by "lying in wait"; he also 
created a grave risk to another person during the commission of a crime.

The jury's verdicts, which were read by Judge Carlos Samour Jr, brought the 
case to the next phase: consideration of capital punishment. Had the jury not 
found aggravating factors, Holmes would have been sentenced to life in prison.

In the 2nd phase, jurors will consider factors that could mitigate the 
aggravating factors. If a 3rd phase is needed, jurors will decide whether to 
sentence Holmes to life without parole, or death.

If Holmes is sentenced to death, he will be 1 of 4 people on Colorado???s death 
row. The state has executed 1 person since 1977. 19 states in the US do not use 
capital punishment.

(source: The Guardian)

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

Key Witness Refuses To Testify In Denver Death Penalty Case


A key witness in a death penalty case in Denver has refused to testify.

Dexter Lewis is on trial for stabbing 5 people to death in a Denver bar during 
a botched robbery attempt.

Lewis, 25, is charged with killing 5 people inside Fero's Bar & Grill on South 
Colorado Boulevard in October 2012 and then setting the building on fire.

2 co-defendants, brothers Lynell and Joseph Hill, pleaded guilty to the 
killings in July 2013 in an agreement to testify against Lewis. They said he 
had accompanied Lewis to rob the bar.

Joseph Hill was scheduled to testify on Thursday but refused to take the stand. 
He has already been sentenced to life in prison. His brother, Lynell, remains 
in prison on a 70-year sentence for the murders.

The victims included 53-year-old Young Suk Fero, an Aurora woman who owned the 
bar; Daria M. Pohl, 21, of Denver; Kellene Fallon, 44, of Denver; Ross Richter, 
29, of Overland Park, Kansas; and Tereasa Beesley, 45, of Denver.

( Lewis also is charged with trying to hire a former prison cellmate to kill 
several witnesses who were expected to testify against him.

(source: CBS news)






WASHINGTON:

Seattle cop killer avoids death sentence----Jury unanimous in decision - life 
without parole for Chris Monfort


Seattle cop killer Christopher Monfort will die in prison. Eventually.

Coming to a verdict within minutes of the close of trial, a King County jury 
asked by prosecutors to order Monfort's death spared him execution. Instead, 
Monfort will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole 
for the cold-blooded murder of Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton.

The death sentence sought against Monfort would've been, for the moment at 
least, a pro forma order as Washington's governor has paused executions in the 
state. The slow pace of the state's death row would likely have meant years if 
not decades of delay before the executioners would get to Monfort, a 
46-year-old left medically fragile and unable to walk following a shootout with 
police.

Nearly 7 years have passed since Monfort killed a Seattle police officer during 
a weeks-long anti-cop rampage. Jailed since his arrest a week after the 
Halloween 2009 murder of Brenton, Monfort was convicted of aggravated 
1st-degree murder and other crimes in June.

The same jury that convicted him began deliberations Thursday afternoon on 
whether he should be executed. Having been empaneled since January, the jurors 
reached their verdict in just an hour.

Filing out of the courtroom for a final time, 11 of the 12 jurors who rendered 
the unanimous verdict passed without comment. The 12th described an arduous 
process while declining to explain the jury's thinking.

"Now that the trial is over, I don't think there's really anything to say other 
than it really was a horrible incident full of sadness, just regrettable in 
every way," the juror said. "I'm very glad that the jury was unanimous in both 
verdicts that we gave."

Any juror hearing Monfort's case could have stood alone against execution and 
spared Monfort. That all 12 jurors weighing the case found a compelling reason 
not to kill Monfort may be unprecedented in Washington's recent history of 
capital punishment.

(source: seattlepi.com)






USA:

Death penalty considered in death of 5-year-old Kansas girl


Federal prosecutors are considering whether to seek the death sentence for a 
31-year-old man accused of killing a 5-year-old Kansas girl.

Prosecutors allege Marcas McGowan kidnapped Cadence Harris from an Atchison 
home they shared with the girl's mother in July 2014. A police chase ended near 
Leavenworth when McGowan exchanged gunfire with officers. Cadence was found 
dead in the car.

The Kansas City Star reports McGowan initially faced state murder charges. In 
February, prosecutors dismissed the state charge after a federal grand jury 
indicted McGowan on charges including kidnapping and using a firearm during a 
violent crime.

A motion filed by McGowan's attorneys says federal prosecutors in Kansas have 
submitted the case to the Justice Department's death penalty review board in 
Washington.

They expect a decision within 90 days.

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

Man accused in church shooting indicted on dozens of federal charges, including 
hate crimes


5 weeks after 9 people were slain at a black Charleston church, federal 
authorities have indicted the suspected shooter on dozens of new charges, 
including hate crimes, firearms violations and obstructing the practice of 
religion.

The prosecution, particularly on hate crimes, has been expected since the June 
17 shootings at Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston. The suspected 
shooter, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, is white and appeared in photos waving 
Confederate flags and burning or desecrating U.S. flags. He purportedly wrote 
online of fomenting racial violence, and federal authorities on Wednesday 
confirmed his use of a personal manuscript in which he decried integration and 
used racial slurs to refer to blacks.

Roof is scheduled to be arraigned Monday on the new charges, according to court 
records. On Thursday, the federal judge assigned to the case provisionally 
appointed David Bruck to represent Roof on the federal charges. Bruck was the 
lawyer for Boston Marathon Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was sentenced to death, and 
Susan Smith, the South Carolina mother sentenced to life for drowning her 2 
sons.

Hate crimes cases can be tricky to bring, with the onus on authorities to prove 
a suspect's motivations and intentions. But 1 expert who has followed this case 
says some of the extenuating circumstances of Roof's case could potentially 
make it easier for prosecutors - and more difficult for his defense team.

"All a jury is going to have to do is look at the crime that was committed and 
the victims that he selected and then read what he wrote in advance, and then 
look at the photos, as well as things that he might have said to people about 
why he was committing the crimes," Cornell Law School professor Jens Ohlin 
said. "This strikes me as an incredibly easy case for a federal prosecution. 
It's not clear to me at all what kind of defense strategy his lawyers could 
come up with."

Although what tack Roof's defense lawyers might take is unclear, Ohlin said 
their job may be made even more difficult if Roof were to be unapologetic for 
any of the photos or writings.

"Dylann Roof might object to his lawyers trying to defend him against the hate 
crimes charges," Ohlin said. "If the lawyers go in there and say, 'This wasn't 
a hate crime' - he might not let his lawyers say that. His view might be: 'This 
was a hate crime, and I'm proud of it.'"

The Justice Department has not decided whether it will seek the death penalty 
against Roof, nor whether its prosecution will come before a state case that 
includes murder charges and another potential death penalty prosecution.

Because South Carolina has no state hate-crimes law, federal charges were 
needed to adequately address a motive that prosecutors believe was 
unquestionably rooted in racial hate, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said 
during a Wednesday news conference.

Roof, Lynch said, had for several months prior to the shootings conceived a 
goal of "increasing racial tensions throughout the nation and seeking 
retribution for perceived wrongs he believed African-Americans had committed 
against white people."

To carry out those goals, he "decided to seek out and murder African-Americans 
because of their race," Lynch said, adding he had purposefully selected the 
historic church to "ensure the greatest notoriety and attention to his 
actions."

He took advantage of his victims' generosity when they welcomed Roof into their 
Bible-study group, she said.

"The parishioners had Bibles. Dylann Roof had his .45-caliber Glock pistol and 
eight magazines loaded with hollow-point bullets."

Hate crime cases are often challenging for the government because it must prove 
that a defendant was primarily motivated by a victim's race or religion as 
opposed to other factors frequently invoked by defense attorneys, such as drug 
addiction or mental illness.

Last year, a federal appeals court in Ohio overturned hate crime convictions 
against Amish men and women accused in beard- and hair-cutting attacks against 
fellow Amish who were thought to have defied the community leader.

The court held that the jury had received incorrect instructions about how to 
weigh the role of religion in the attacks and that prosecutors should have had 
to prove the assaults wouldn't have happened but for religious motives.

(source for both: Associated Press)