[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----DEL., LA., NEB., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

June 18



DELAWARE:

Judge vacates death sentence of Delaware killer



A Delaware Superior Court judge has vacated the death sentence of a killer 
facing execution for 2 1996 murders in Wilmington.

In a ruling issued Wednesday, Judge Andrea Rocanelli said lawyers for Luis G. 
Cabrera Jr. were not properly prepared and provided ineffective assistance in 
the penalty phase of his trial.

Cabrera was sentenced to death in 2002 for the killings of Brandon Saunders and 
Vaughn Rowe, whose bodies were found in Rockford Park.

Rocanelli said Cabrera was entitled to have extensive mitigating evidence, 
including information about his childhood, presented to the jury for its 
consideration in whether to recommend the death sentence.

At the time he and a co-defendant were indicted for the Rockford Park murders, 
Cabrera was already serving a life sentence for a 1995 murder.

(source: Associated Press)








LOUISIANA:

Supreme Court Rules For Death Row Inmate Over Intellectual Disability Claim



The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a federal judge was correct to 
hold a hearing on whether a convicted cop killer on Louisiana's death row is 
intellectually disabled and therefore potentially ineligible for the death 
penalty.

The court, in a 5-4 decision, threw out an appeals court ruling that said Kevan 
Brumfield was not eligible for the special hearing in which the lower court 
judge found he was intellectually disabled. Brumfield will remain on death row 
for now, as the appeals court has yet to decide if the judge was correct to 
find that Brumfield was ineligible for the death penalty.

(source: Reuters)








NEBRASKA:

Ricketts pressing too hard to restore death penalty



The state treasurer, a state senator from Omaha and a senior adviser to the 
governor walk into the Nebraska Secretary of State's office.

It's not the set-up for a joke. There is nothing mildly amusing about it. In 
fact, it's a matter of life and death.

Treasurer Don Stenburg, state Sen. Beau McCoy and privately paid adviser 
Jessica Moenning are doing the bidding of Gov. Pete Ricketts, whose attempt to 
keep the death penalty on the books was thwarted by a legislative veto override 
during the waning days of the recently completed session. McCoy and Stenberg 
are the co-chairs of Nebraskans for the Death Penalty and Moenning - who is 
paid an undisclosed amount by Ricketts - will be the campaign coordinator of 
the attempt to put the death penalty question on the ballot.

Stenberg was the attorney general during the only 3 executions since 1959 when 
mass murderer Charles Starkweather died in the electric chair at the Nebraska 
State Penitentiary. The state killed Wili Otey in September 1994, John Joubert 
in July 1996 and Robert E. Williams in December 1997. They were the first 
executions since 1976 when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty.

There hasn't been an execution since. There are currently 10 men on death row.

Nebraskans for the Death Penalty formed less than a week after lawmakers voted 
to override Gov. Pete Ricketts' veto of LB268, the bill to abolish the death 
penalty. Ricketts endorsed the campaign on June 2. His senior adviser, 
Moenning, will serve as the referendum effort's campaign coordinator. She has 
managed Ricketts campaigns since 2006.

Moenning, first appointed several months ago by Ricketts, is officially a 
privately paid senior adviser. That arrangement has prompted questions about a 
private employee, paid out of the governor's own pocket, being involved in 
public policies. To whom is such an employee accountable? Ricketts says she is 
accountable to him and he is accountable to the voters.

It's called political patronage and is legally defined as the practice or 
custom observed by a political official of filling government positions with 
qualified employees of his or her own choosing. It's been done before. Gov. Ben 
Nelson hired campaign director Sunny Foster to head the Department of 
Administrative Services. Gov. Mike Johanns hired his neighbor and good friend 
Lori McClurg to head DAS. Gov. Dave Heineman hired campaign manager Carlos 
Castillo to head DAS. But those people have all been public employees, paid for 
by public funds.

Ricketts said Moenning's position fits with his pledge to run state government 
differently. Keeping her on his private payroll, rather than the state's, will 
allow her to better focus on long-term strategies and setting up advisory 
committees to provide broader input on policy decisions.

Well, excuse me governor. Does that mean that Nebraskans for the Death Penalty 
is an advisory committee and that allowing the state to execute the men on 
death row is a long-term strategy? Forgive me, I thought it was all just a 
knee-jerk response to the Legislature voting to override your vetoes of the 
death penalty measure and 2 others.

I must admit that your comment that you need someone like Moenning who can 
really be divorced "from the day-to-day ... and not get caught up in the urgent 
things that happen every day" really has me confused given the urgency that you 
have portrayed in needing to get enough signatures quickly to allow you to 
execute people before the public has a chance to vote on the issue.

Silly me, I would have thought that addressing the crying needs in the 
Corrections System in the aftermath of a bloody Mother's Day riot that left 2 
dead in Tecumseh would be more of a long-term strategy issue. To say nothing of 
the new round of appeals that will be filed on behalf of the death row inmates 
in an effort to further derail your blood lust.

And, while we're at it, surely state Treasurer Stenberg has some fiscal things 
to deal with and Sen. McCoy has more pressing constituent issues to address.

(source: J.L. Schmidt is the statehouse correspondent for the Nebraska Press 
Association; Kearney Hub)








CALIFORNIA:

Supreme Court reinstates conviction, death sentence for 1985 San Diego triple 
killing



The Supreme Court has reinstated the conviction and death sentence of a 
California man convicted of murder - even though a lower court found that 
prosecutors illegally excluded blacks and Hispanics from the jury.

The justices ruled Thursday that Hector Ayala wasn't entitled to argue that 
prosecutors systematically excluded minority jurors during his 1989 trial for a 
triple murder during a drug robbery in San Diego.

A divided California Supreme Court found there were trial errors but they were 
harmless.

A federal court rejected Ayala's challenge. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of 
Appeals said Ayala was denied a fair trial because prosecutors excused all 
seven potential jurors who were black or Hispanic.

The Supreme Court ruled that the 9th Circuit should have deferred to state 
court proceedings.

(source: Associated Press)






USA:

Re-sentencing of killer Gary Lee Sampson to stay in Boston



A judge has rejected a request by convicted triple killer Gary Lee Sampson to 
move his federal death penalty re-sentencing trial out of Boston.

Judge Mark Wolf on Wednesday denied a change-of-venue motion filed by Sampson's 
lawyers, clearing the way for a 2nd death-penalty sentencing trial in 
September. Sampson's lawyers had argued that nonstop media coverage surrounding 
the trial of convicted marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had jeopardized their 
own client's chances of getting a fair trial in Boston.

In a heavily redacted motion filed Tuesday, Sampson's lawyers argue that 
near-daily news reports drawing comparisons between the two cases -- which both 
included the rare chance of a federal death penalty sentence in a state that no 
longer imposes it -- will make it impossible to find jurors in the Boston area 
who not already prejudiced against Sampson. The attorneys asked Wolf, who heard 
arguments on the motion Wednesday, to move Sampson's re-sentencing trial to 
another court.

The request came as Sampson, a former Abington drifter who pleaded guilty in 
2003 to killing 2 men on the South Shore and a 3rd in New Hampshire, prepares 
to face a federal death sentence trial for the 2nd time in less than a dozen 
years. His 1st death sentence was thrown out after a judge found that a juror 
had lied about her background.

Lawyers for Sampson said in the motion that Boston-area media outlets, 
including The Patriot Ledger, have covered his case "regularly and with zeal" 
in the years since his sentencing, producing more than a thousand news stories, 
most of them mentioning the jury's verdict in the 1st sentencing trial. The 
lawyers argue that attention to the Sampson case has only intensified in the 
last 18 months as Tsarnaev prepared to face the death penalty in the same 
federal courthouse where Sampson will be tried.

The lawyers argued that the widespread coverage means that few potential jurors 
will be unaware of the fact that Sampson has already been sentenced to death 
once, which they say would prejudice them against him if they were to sit on 
his jury.

The lawyers also raised concerns about specific information reported in the 
media, but those portions of their motion were redacted under the order of 
Wolf, who said that including the information in court documents could invite 
more news stories and make it harder to find an impartial jury. The motion was 
originally filed under seal, but Wolf ordered the lawyers to file a redacted 
version in the public record ahead of Wednesday's hearing.

In response to the defense motion, prosecutors argued that the court should to 
be able to find 12 impartial people in a city as large and diverse as Boston, 
particularly given that Tsarnaev was tried here despite receiving even greater 
media attention. They also argued that the reporting around the Sampson case 
has not been as prejudice as the coverage in the rare trials that have been 
moved to a new venue.

(source: The Patriot Ledger)