[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.H., N.C., FLA., MO., NEV., UTAH, USA

[Rick Halperin]

June 15


NEW HAMPSHIRE:

Prosecutors: Gary Lee Sampson can get fair shot in Boston



Convicted spree killer Gary Lee Sampson's bid to move his September 
death-penalty sentencing retrial out of Boston is a lost cause, given the 
example set by the recently concluded trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar 
Tsarnaev, federal prosecutors contend.

Lawyers for the 55-year-old Sampson filed the motion for a change of venue 
under seal. U.S. District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf yesterday ordered them to 
submit a redacted version, noting, "There is a presumption of public access to 
the documents on which judicial decisions are made." A hearing to address 
relocating Sampson's sentencing retrial is scheduled for Wednesday.

Prosecutors note that Sampson's 3 murders occurred 14 years ago next month. And 
they argue in their opposition papers before Wolf, "The press coverage of this 
case, while significant, is not close to being of the same magnitude as the 
press converage that" swirled around marathon bomber Tsarnaev's case. Convicted 
and ordered executed by a local jury, Tsarnaev, 21, will be formally sentenced 
to death June 24.

A prior jury sentenced Sampson to die in 2003, after he pleaded guilty to 
carjacking, torturing and murdering Philip McCloskey, 69, and Jonathan Rizzo, 
19, before he fled to New Hampshire in Rizzo???s car and murdered Robert 
Whitney, 58, in a cottage on Lake Winnipesaukee. His sentence was overturned in 
2011 after an investigation revealed one juror lied about her family???s 
criminal history during the selection process.

(source: Boston Herald)








NORTH CAROLINA:

The governor's pardon: Harsh lessons from an unjust case



The celebration can't help but be mixed with sadness - and anger. Half-brothers 
Henry McCollum and Leon Brown were pardoned by Gov. Pat McCrory recently after 
being exonerated and released from prison last September. But that was after 
spending 30 years - the bulk of their young lives - in prison.

McCollum was the longest-serving inmate on North Carolina's death row, The News 
& Observer of Raleigh reported.

The half-brothers are entitled to compensation from the state that could go as 
high as $750,000 each; $50,000 for each year they were imprisoned.

In September 1983, McCollum, who was then 19, and Brown, 15, were wrongly 
convicted of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl who had been found in a 
field in Robeson County. There was no physical evidence to link them to the 
crime. The brothers were scared teenagers with low IQs who were coerced by 
police into confessing, according to defense attorneys.

Some physical evidence linked to the crime was tested last year as part of an 
investigation by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission. It pointed to 
a man who is already serving a life sentence for a subsequent rape and murder. 
It was on the strength of that evidence that the brothers were exonerated.

McCollum is now 51. Brown is 47. They're not familiar with cell phones or 
computers. They say they're having a hard time adjusting to life outside of 
prison. They feel shame because they can't help their families pay bills, 
according to news accounts.

They deserve all the compensation the state can provide.

Many will see lessons in the exoneration of 2 innocent men who were wrongfully 
convicted. Some will see it as a sign that the death penalty should be 
abolished before innocent parties are executed, if they haven't been already. 
Some will say that the sentences reveal serious cracks in a flawed system - 
especially when it comes to coerced confessions.

Some may claim, as then-N.C. House Speaker Thom Tillis did last September, that 
the vindication is a sign that the system works - it just takes too long.

That conclusion is a perversion of the facts. The case should never have gone 
to court in the first place. And its conclusion took far too long.

"We're very happy that the governor reached this decision, but not at all 
surprised," Ken Rose, a lawyer who represented McCollum for 20 years, told The 
Associated Press. "None of us have any doubt that they are innocent. And 
finally the state has acknowledged actual innocence."

But he sounded an important cautionary note: "If we continue executions, we are 
going to be executing some innocent people on death row."

We've long called for the reform of the death penalty in North Carolina. The 
pursuit and administration of it has too many "ifs" to feel reasonably secure 
in its execution. The human cost of getting it wrong is too high to bear.

(source: Editorial, Winston-Salem Journal)








FLORIDA----death row inmate suicide

Florida death row inmate commits suicide



Gregory David Larkin, a 41-year-old death row inmate, was found dead in his 
cell at Florida State Prison in Bradford County on the morning of May 27. 
Prison officials listed the cause of death as asphyxiation but did not provide 
further details.

Larkin's trial was a travesty of justice, in which he was allowed to represent 
himself despite showing signs of serious mental illness, in what his lawyer 
later called a "state-assisted suicide."

Larkin was arrested and later convicted of the 2009 murders of his parents, 
Richard and Myra. Prosecutors allege that Larkin bludgeoned his parents to 
death in April of that year. Larkin was arrested weeks later at a hotel near 
the Jacksonville international airport. He claimed to have been in Mexico at 
the time of the murders.

His parents' stolen vehicle was also found at the hotel, and he was initially 
charged only with theft. 2 weeks later, prosecutors charged him with murder 
after bloody clothes of Larkin's were found to match his parents' DNA.

The alleged motive for the crime was anger over his parents' decision to sell a 
dive and kayak business that they had owned in Costa Rica and that Larkin 
managed for them. The business had been doing poorly in recent years.

Over the course of the next 2 1/2 years at various pre-trial hearings, Larkin 
repeatedly displayed paranoid, delusional behavior. At a hearing in November 
2009 Larkin sought to discharge his public defender, Brian Morrissey, for 
ineffective assistance. Larkin alleged that his attorney had secretly recorded 
conversations with him to aid the prosecutors, concealed a secret "2nd 
indictment" made by another judge, and waived his right to a speedy trial 
without his consent. After refuting his client's claims under oath the judge in 
the case asked Larkin if he wished to represent himself, but the defendant 
chose to continue to retain the attorney he had just accused of conspiring with 
the prosecution.

In July 2010, Larkin retained private counsel but subsequently dismissed it in 
September 2011. During a series of hearings throughout 2011 and 2012, Larkin 
sought to represent himself. Though his competency and understanding of the 
charges against him were repeatedly called into question, Larkin was eventually 
allowed to represent himself.

When his trial commenced in January 2012, Larkin refused to participate in jury 
selection. As a result, multiple jurors were struck from the pool by the state 
and the court who were in opposition to the death penalty. Larkin called only 4 
witnesses in his defense - friends and neighbors of his parents who could not 
conclusively state when they last saw his parents alive. Larkin refused to 
testify on his own behalf and was convicted by the 12-member jury.

Larkin again refused representation for the sentencing phase of his trial. 
Morrissey, who had been appointed as Larkins' stand-by public defender, sought 
to have his clients' mental state evaluated, saying that the court's decision 
to allow him to represent himself could be considered state-assisted suicide. 
The state granted Morrissey's request.

Dr. William Meadows, a forensic psychologist, conducted a series of tests on 
Larkin. He stated that Larkin's "understanding of the adversarial nature of 
legal proceedings, his capacity to disclose pertinent facts to counsel, and his 
capacity to testify relevantly and coherently were unacceptable." Furthermore 
Dr. Meadows concluded that Larkin met the "provisional DSM-IV-TR [Diagnostic 
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders] diagnostic criteria for a 
delusional disorder" and was thus "incompetent to proceed," according to 
Florida state Supreme Court documents.

The trial judge attacked Dr. Meadows' conclusions and ordered a 2nd evaluation. 
The subsequent evaluation by Dr. Alan Waldman found Larkin "competent to 
proceed" but added that Larkin suffered from a "Personality Disorder Not 
Otherwise Specified." A 3rd doctor supported Waldmans' conclusions.

During the sentencing phase of his trial, Larkin called no mitigating witnesses 
and did not make any statements or testify on his own behalf. The state allowed 
Morrissey to call Dr. Meadows to the stand where he repeated his previous 
diagnoses. On March 15, 2012, Larkin was sentenced to death. The Florida state 
Supreme Court subsequently upheld Larkin's conviction.

Larkin is the 4th inmate on Florida's death row to commit suicide since 2000. A 
study published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences in 2002 showed that the 
suicide rate of death row inmates between 1976 and 1999 was 113 per 100,000 - 
10 times the rate of suicide in the United States as a whole and 6 times the 
rate of suicide in the general US prison population.

(sourece: World Socialist Web Site)








MISSOURI:

Death penalty sought for man accused of killing couple from Sherwood



Missouri prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for a 35-year-old man 
serving life sentences in 6 Illinois slayings and who is also accused in an 
Arkansas couple's 2008 killing.

Prosecutors in Jefferson County south of St. Louis filed notice on June 8 of 
their intent to press for Nicholas Sheley's execution if he's convicted in the 
Festus, Missouri, killings of Jill and Tom Estes of Sherwood.

Sheley was serving 6 life sentences at Pontiac Correctional Center for a string 
of killings that began in his Illinois hometown of Sterling. 4 victims were 
bludgeoned with a hammer.

He was extradited in February to Missouri, which unlike Illinois has the death 
penalty.

Sheley's St. Louis-based public defender could not be reached for comment late 
Friday.

(source: Associated Press)




NEVADA:

Accused rapist, killer due in court before death penalty trial



Accused rapist and killer Bryan Clay is due in Eighth District Court on Monday 
morning, more than 3 years after a grisly north valley home invasion that 
killed a mother and her 10-year-old daughter and nearly killed the woman's 
husband as well as injuring 1 of his sons.

The court visit, scheduled for 8:30 a.m., is a status check to make sure all is 
in order before the scheduled start of the trial, set for June 22 at 1 p.m. 
before Judge Jessie Walsh.

Clay is accused of bludgeoning to death Yadira Martinez and her 10-year-old 
daughter, Karla, whose bodies were found April 16, 2014, in their Las Vegas 
home. Both mother and daughter had been sexually assaulted during the attacks, 
which also left Arturo Martinez-Sanchez with severe head injuries, according to 
police reports.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson has said his office will seek the 
death penalty if Clay is convicted.

The killings rocked much of the valley, especially because Arturo and his sons 
survived more than a day in the home before one of his son's told his brother 
to go to school and get help. The killings were not reported until the child 
could get to Hoggard Elementary School to tell staff that his mother and sister 
were dead.

In June 2014, a grand jury indicted Clay on 10 felony charges, including 2 
counts of murder with use of a deadly weapon. Metro Police arrested Clay in 
late April after DNA tied him to the crimes.

Arturo, a religious man, has since remarried. He has said several times that he 
has forgiven Clay for his actions.

(source: KSNV news)








UTAH:

Majority of Utahns Think Child Sex Trafficking Should be Punishable by the 
Death Penalty



Most Utahns agree with Rep. Paul Ray's proposal to make child sex trafficking a 
capital offense.

A new UtahPolicy.com survey finds 68% of Utah voters want to impose the death 
penalty for people convicted of child sex trafficking. Nearly a majority (48%) 
strongly agree with the idea. 28% oppose the plan. Just 3% are undecided.

Ray (R-Clearfield) was behind the measure to bring back the firing squad as a 
method of execution in Utah. That bill passed during the 2015 session after 
sparking global outrage.

Ray has said in numerous interviews that he hopes to bring his current proposal 
to an interim committee for consideration sometime this summer.

Support for the plan breaks sharply along partisan lines. A majority of 
Democrats (53%) oppose the idea while Republicans overwhelmingly favor capital 
punishment (76%) for child sex trafficking. Independent voters also are big 
supporters of the proposal as 68% say they are in favor.

Every single religious demographic in our survey favors Ray's idea.

- 72% of very active members of the LDS Church say they like the plan

- 82% of somewhat active Mormons are in favor

- 65% of inactive Mormons express support for the idea

- 80% of Catholics favor the plan

- 76% of Protestants back the idea

- Even 67% of those who subscribe to no religion say they are in favor of Ray's 
proposal.

The survey was conducted June 2-8, 2015 among 601 registered Utah voters. It 
has a margin of error of +/- 4%.

(source: policy.com)








USA:

Death Penalty Is The Ultimate Corrupt, Big Government Program - OpEd By Ron 
Paul



Nebraska's legislature recently made headlines when it ended the state's death 
penalty. Many found it odd that a conservatives-dominated legislature would 
support ending capital punishment, since conservative politicians have 
traditionally supported the death penalty. However, an increasing number of 
conservatives are realizing that the death penalty is inconsistent with both 
fiscal and social conservatism. These conservatives are joining with 
libertarians and liberals in a growing anti-death penalty coalition.

It is hard to find a more wasteful and inefficient government program than the 
death penalty. New Hampshire recently spent over $4 million dollars prosecuting 
just 2 death penalty cases, while Jasper County in Texas raised property taxes 
by 7 % in order to pay for 1 death penalty case! A Duke University study found 
that replacing North Carolina's death penalty would save taxpayers 
approximately $22 million dollars in just 2 years.

Death penalty cases are expensive because sentencing someone to death requires 
2 trials. The 1st trial determines the accused person's guilt, while the 2nd 
trial determines if the convicted individual "deserves" the death penalty. A 
death sentence is typically followed by years of appeals, and sometimes the 
entire case is retried.

Despite all the time and money spent to ensure that no one is wrongly executed, 
the system is hardly foolproof. Since 1973, 1 out of every 10 individuals 
sentenced to death has been released from death row because of evidence 
discovered after conviction.

The increased use of DNA evidence has made it easier to clear the innocent and 
identify the guilty. However, DNA evidence is not a 100 % guarantee of an 
accurate verdict. DNA evidence is often mishandled or even falsified. 
Furthermore, DNA evidence is available in only 5 to 10 % of criminal cases. It 
is not surprising that the government wastes so much time and money on such a 
flawed system. After all, corruption, waste, and incompetence are common 
features of government programs ranging from Obamacare to the TSA to public 
schools to the post office. Given the long history of government failures, why 
should anyone, especially conservatives who claim to be the biggest skeptics of 
government, think it is a good idea to entrust government with the power over 
life and death?

Death penalty supporters try to claim the moral high ground by claiming that 
the death penalty deters crime. But, if the death penalty is an effective 
deterrent, why do jurisdictions without the death penalty have a lower crime 
rate than jurisdictions with the death penalty? And why did a 2009 survey find 
that the majority of American police chiefs consider the death penalty the 
least effective way to reduce violent crime?

As strong as the practical arguments against the death penalty are, the moral 
case is much stronger. Since it is impossible to develop an error-free death 
penalty system, those who support the death penalty are embracing the idea that 
the government should be able to execute innocent people for the "greater 
good." The idea that the government should be able to force individuals to 
sacrifice their right to life for imaginary gains in personal safety is even 
more dangerous to liberty than the idea that the government should be able to 
force individuals to sacrifice their property rights for imaginary gains in 
economic security.

Opposition to allowing the government to take life is also part of a consistent 
pro-life position. Thus, those of any ideology who oppose abortion or 
preemptive war should also oppose the death penalty. Until the death penalty is 
abolished, we will have neither a free nor a moral society.

(source: This article was published by the RonPaul 
Institute----eurasiareview.com)