[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----DEL., VA., N.C., FLA., ALA., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

May 6



DELAWARE:

Death penalty brings us all down



We are a better people than to seek revenge over justice as a reason for the 
death penalty. The totality of a person's life cannot be summed up in their 
horrific actions causing the state to be the final judge of their existence. We 
are not Caesar giving a thumbs up or a thumbs down. We have life without parole 
in Delaware, which should serve as the ultimate punishment as it does in all 
other Western countries. And the people agree - 64 % of Delawareans supported 
life without parole in a survey done by the Delaware Center for Justice.

The parents of 8-year-old Martin Richard killed in the Boston Marathon bombing 
said they did not want the death penalty because "it could bring years of 
appeals and prolong reliving the most day of our lives." We are a better people 
than to allow the families to go through the horrors again and again. Many see 
this case as pretty clear-cut for the death penalty and yet the majority of 
people in Massachusetts do not want the death penalty in this case, according 
to a survey done by the University of New Hampshire. Studies show the death 
penalty is certainly not done with a motive to save money, to deter other 
would-be murderers or to be equal in its application. Revenge cannot be our 
motive for the death penalty. We are a better people than that in the State of 
Delaware.

Meg Kane-Smith

(source: Letter to the Editor, delawareonline.com)








VIRGINIA:

Prosecutor will seek death penalty in Jesse Matthew case



Jesse Matthew could now face death row, if convicted of the upgraded charges of 
capital murder. The bombshell dropped in Albemarle Circuit Court Tuesday, in 
Charlottesville. Prosecutors indicted Matthew with the new charges in the death 
of UVA student Hannah Graham.

Head Commonwealth's Attorney on the case Denise Lundsford says her team 
received new evidence, which made her push for the harsher charges, and the 
death penalty for Matthew.

Matthew appears before the judge in shackles. His hearing was originally to set 
a trial date for 1st degree murder and abduction with intent to defile. 
Instead, Matthew was bombarded with new capital charges.

Upon entering the courtroom, Matthew made eye contact with Hannah Graham's 
parents, sitting several rows back.

"If this matter goes to trial, the Commonwealth will seek the death penalty," 
said Lunsford to a gaggle of media outside the court. "(The new forensic 
evidence) ... was compelling enough to me that I felt capital charges were now 
appropriate."

Matthew will now have 2 new capital defense attorneys. His lawyer up until now, 
Jim Camblos, is out of the defense team and refused to comment.

"I'm not on the team anymore. I have nothing to say," remarked Camblos outside 
the courthouse.

Matthew's family also left the court in silence, and in no doubt, distress.

If Jesse Matthew is convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death, there 
would be an automatic appeal process. If that doesn't pan out well for Matthew, 
he would be the 9th man on death row in Virginia, right now.

"The commonwealth is not taking anything off the table at this point," 
continued Lunsford.

That includes a plea deal. A capital murder conviction carries a death penalty 
or a mandatory life sentence.

However, the sentence that Hannah Graham's family must bear is also lifelong.

Mother Gil Harrington carries the same cross. Her daughter Morgan's murder is 
linked forensically to Matthew, according to authorities. However, he was never 
charged.

"Our lives are still as empty. The pain that we'll have after trial is the same 
pain that we'll have today," said Gil Harrington, who attended the proceedings.

In Virginia, there are 2 forms of death a person sentenced to the death penalty 
may choose - lethal injection or the electric chair. Jesse Matthew is set to be 
in court again on June 25th. At that appearance, there could be a motion from 
his defense team to dismiss the judge in the case, who has a daughter at UVA, 
nearly the same age as Graham. The trial date will likely be set during that 
court appearance.

Although Matthew wanted his attorney Jim Camblos to be part of his defense 
team, the judge instead appointed 2 other attorneys said to be more familiar 
with capital murder cases. Douglas Ramseur is an attorney based in Norfolk, and 
Michael Hemenway practices law in Charlottesville.

Matthew is also slated to go on trial in June for the 2005 rape and abduction 
of a Fairfax County woman. He's also suspected in the death of Virginia Tech 
student Morgan Harrington, although he has not yet been charged in that case. 
Authorities have said Matthew's DNA links him to Harrington's 2009 death.

Graham's remains were discovered in Albemarle in October off Old Lynchburg 
Road, less than three weeks after Matthew was taken into custody in Texas. 
Graham went missing in September following a night out on Charlottesville's 
Downtown Mall. Surveillance images showed Matthew following her before her 
disappearance.

(source: WWBT news)

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

Co-ed's accused killer likely to face death penalty



A man accused of killing a University of Virginia co-ed after running into her 
as she wandered downtown early on a Saturday morning will face a capital murder 
charge in addition to other charges, authorities said Tuesday.

Jesse Matthew Jr., 33, was in Albemarle County Circuit Court here for a 
pretrial hearing. His lawyers had asked his June 29th trial date on charges of 
1st-degree murder and abduction with intent to defile to be moved so a a DNA 
expert could examine evidence in the case.

"The commonwealth received some additional information in late February that 
led to this increased charge," said Denise Lunsford, Albemarle County 
commonwealth's attorney. "If I didn't believe that Mr. Matthew were someone 
that would be appropriate for this sort of ultimate penalty, we wouldn't be 
having this conversation."

He also has been charged with abduction. The new indictment against Matthew was 
scheduled to be unsealed Wednesday, but prosecutors decided to release it a day 
early because of Matthew's hearing.

Hannah Graham, 18, of Alexandria, Va., disappeared early Sept. 13 after a night 
out with friends here. Her remains were found about 5 weeks later in Albemarle 
County a dozen miles from campus.

Lunsford said she would seek the death penalty if Matthew goes to trial and is 
convicted of capital murder.

Until Tuesday's new charges, Matthew had faced up to life in prison if 
convicted. Matthew also faces trial June 8 on charges of attempted murder and 
sexual assault in an unrelated case in Fairfax County, Va.

Matthew's family, which attended court with him Tuesday, would not comment 
about the new charge. Graham's parents also would not comment.

During the hearing, Judge Cheryl Higgins dismissed Matthew's court-appointed 
lawyer and named 2 others qualified to defend in death-penalty cases to 
represent him.

On June 25, Higgins will hear a motion to recuse herself from the case. Like 
Graham, her daughter was a 2nd-year student at the University of Virginia, 
which had nearly 22,000 students on campus in fall 2014, at the time of 
Graham's abduction and death.

Higgins has said her daughter did not know nor have contact with Graham.

Earlier this month, Graham's parents announced a University of Virginia 
scholarship in memory of their daughter, according to a university press 
release. The $10,000 scholarship, to be awarded to 1 student this fall, will go 
to someone who embodies Graham's passion for global health, French culture and 
service to others.

Participants will commit to 2 semesters of related courses at U.Va. and at 
least 8 weeks of field work in a developing country where French is spoken. The 
Grahams hope to award more scholarships as donations increase.

(source: USA Today)








NORTH CAROLINA:

Death penalty case brings 8th week of jury selection



The process to select a jury for the trial of a 45-year-old man facing the 
death penalty in three deaths from 2011 is in its 8th week.

So far, prosecutors and defense attorneys for Carl Kennedy have selected 9 of 
the 14 needed jurors, which includes 2 alternates. Kennedy and 2 others - David 
Earl Manning and Leigh Williams, both 44 - have been charged with 3 counts of 
1st-degree murder in the November 2011 deaths of Sharon F. Rushing, 61, Angela 
Dawn Soles, 43, and Gary Lynn Seward, 52, all of 101 Rotary Lane in 
Thomasville. The state is seeking the death penalty against all 3 people, but 
Kennedy's case is being tried 1st.

The jury selection process started March 16 when 101 jurors were selected to be 
potential jurors out of 250 who were summoned.

The process initially caused angst among some potential jurors. 2 days after 
the jury selection process started, 16 potential jurors were dismissed March 19 
after 1 juror expressed in open court concern over how long the process was 
taking.

The juror - 1 of those who was dismissed - inquired to the judge if it was 
possible to reduce the number of people in the panel each day. The juror was 
concerned it would be 2 weeks until the remaining jurors would be called to 
respond to questions from attorneys.

After the request from the juror, Superior Court Judge Christopher Bragg 
decided to split the panels of 20 into 10, so not as many jurors are waiting 
outside of the courtroom in the jury room at 1 time. Once the attorneys make it 
through 8 of each panel of 10 and have 2 remaining, court officials call the 
next 10 potential jurors to appear for the jury selection process. This process 
was aimed at maintaining randomness in jury selection.

The attorneys finished questioning the initial 101 prospective jurors this past 
week. An additional 250 jurors were summoned to appear Monday. After Superior 
Court Judge Christopher Bragg heard excusals/deferrals, 96 jurors were divided 
into 10 panels in hopes of selecting the remaining 5 jurors. No jurors were 
selected Tuesday after a number of potential jurors took the stand to 
individually answer the attorney's questions.

Of the 500 people called for jury duty for the case, some residents have either 
received an excusal or deferment of their jury duty after raising concern over 
a family member who is sick, hardship with their job for being out of work 
during the trial or vacation plans. Residents also have been excused during the 
jury selection process after voicing their views of the death penalty. Some 
potential jurors have been questioned for over 6 hours.

If the court does not have the 14 jurors needed after the 96 are questioned, 
Bragg has the ability to order residents to appear in court. Those are 
residents who didn't show up for the jury selection or had an excusal or 
deferral from a District Court judge, said Brian Shipwash, clerk of superior 
court. The number of residents who did not show up for their summons was not 
available late Tuesday afternoon.

"In my tenure, this is one of the longest jury processes that I've seen," the 
clerk said. "However, I believe in the process, and it should take as long as 
it needs to for the parties to be satisfied that they have a jury of their 
peers."

Jury selection continues Wednesday as the attorneys attempt to pick the 10th 
juror.

(soure: The Dispatch)








FLORIDA----new death sentence

Miami handyman gets death penalty for murder of La Carreta waitress



Rafael Andres served just 18 months behind bars for the murder of a Miami woman 
in 1987.

For his 2nd murder, Andres received the ultimate punishment. A Miami-Dade judge 
on Wednesday sentenced Andres to death for beating, stabbing and using a 
rice-cooker cord to strangle 31-year-old waitress Yvette Farinas in 2005.

Rafael Andres was sentenced to death Wednesday for the 2005 murder of an 
airport waitress.

"When you took that rice-cooker cord and wound it around her neck, the evidence 
is clear. She was alive. She knew you were strangling her," Miami-Dade Circuit 
Judge Dava Tunis told Andres on Wednesday. "She fought you for her life."

The judge noted Andres, 51, served "very little time" for the 1987 murder of 
32-year-old Linda Azcarreta. Andres stabbed her to death - he claimed in a 
frenzy of drug use - then cashed a $100 check meant for the woman.

"You were still a young man. You had the opportunity to live a productive 
life," Tunis said. "Unfortunately, you did not learn and committed a 
2nd-heinous murder."

Wednesday's final sentencing capped a decade of legal wrangling before the 
trial court. A jury last year convicted Andres of first-degree murder and other 
felonies. The jurors, by a 9-3 vote, recommended the death penalty.

The dual tragedy united relatives of both victims. Last year in court, 
Azcarreta's adult son - who as a child discovered his mother's body inside her 
home - attended the court hearings, comforting the Farinas family.

Rene Azcarreta spoke to the judge for the 1st time Wednesday, describing his 
mother as an "amazing woman" who never got to see her son grow into adulthood.

"I wanted to thank you for allowing me to speak," Rene Azcarreta tearfully told 
the judge. "As a child I never had that opportunity to express the excruciating 
loss I had to deal with and the effect this has caused on everyone on my 
family."

After the hearing, Rene Azcarreta and Farinas' parents embraced each other. 
"Peace," Azcarreta said when asked to describe his emotions.

In 2005, Farinas and her boyfriend lived in an efficiency attached to a house 
in the 7300 block of Southwest 12th Street. Andres was a handyman who had been 
hired to do renovations on the home.

His DNA was found on a bloody wash cloth found near Farinas' body. A neighbor 
identified Andres, holding a gas can, leaving the home just before the crime 
scene went up in flames.

Andres also used her ATM card to withdraw cash, buy goods at The Home Depot, 
fuel up his van and pay for a stay at the Miccosukee Resort and Casino.

Farinas left behind a small family that had arrived in Miami from Cuba in 1999. 
She worked at La Carreta restaurant at Miami International Airport, and was 
interviewing to become a federal security officer at the airport.

"The family will never be the same," Miami-Dade prosecutor Gail Levine said 
after the court hearing. "But today, they received some closure."

(source: Miami Herald)

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

Lawyer in murder retrial wants change of venue----Randall Deviney's 1st 
conviction in murder of Delores Futrell overturned



The new lawyer for a man whose conviction for killing his neighbor was 
overturned on appeal is asking for a change of venue.

Michael Hernandez was appointed to take over Randall Deviney's case after the 
1st District Court of Appeals ruled the Public Defender's Office had a conflict 
that required it to withdraw.

Deviney was convicted and sentenced to die in 2008 for killing his neighbor, 
Delores Futrell. That conviction was overturned last year by the Flordia 
Supreme Court, which found that Deviney's confession was coerced by police. He 
is scheduled for a retrial in July.

Hernandez is asking for a change of venue because of all the publicity the case 
has generated. He's also asking the judge to block the State Attorney's Office 
from seeking the death penalty, until the U.S. Supreme Court rules in another 
case.

Lawyers for a death row inmate contend Florida's death penalty law is 
unconstitutional, because it allows death sentences without a unanimous jury 
recommendation. The High Court will take that case up in the fall.

Deviney was in court briefly Tuesday morning, and the hearing was continued 
until Friday.

(source: news4jax.com)








ALABAMA:

The Virginia method with the death penalty



The difference is stark, a comparison of 2 Southern states with seemingly 
contrasting views about death penalty cases. Alabama lawmakers who support 
state-sponsored executions could learn a thing or 2 from Virginia.

12 years ago, Virginia state officials opened a series of regional offices that 
provide death-penalty defendants with legitimate representation. In those 
offices are lawyers with death-penalty case experience, mitigation experts and 
investigators, Mother Jones magazine reported this week. Instead of relying on 
underpaid - and often inexperienced - defense attorneys hired by the state, 
defendants in Virginia began receiving competent counsel.

"Indeed, the number of new death sentences (in Virginia) dropped from 6 to 2 in 
a single year, and has not exceeded that since," Mother Jones wrote.

Virginia has adopted a format that (a.) sends only the worst among us to death 
row, (b.) ensures that capital cases are properly represented and (c.) saves 
the state millions of dollars each year by reducing its death-row population.

Virginia is a death-penalty state that gets it. If you're going to have 
state-sanctioned killings, they should only be done in the most extreme cases.

That description doesn't apply to Alabama, which owns the nation's 4th-highest 
death-row population. By and large, Alabama defendants facing the death penalty 
have long received suspect representation. The state also has had 2 recent 
cases of exoneration of death-row inmates based on new or existing evidence.

The death penalty is an awful form of justice. But if Alabama is going to have 
it, it ought to copy Virginia's model.

(source: Editorial Board, The Anniston Star)








LOUISIANA:

Baton Rouge death penalty case: Murderer is 'not the Lee Turner I know,' 
witnesses testify



Lee Turner Jr. was a quiet kid who had some talent at drawing, did OK 
academically, and enjoyed basketball. His teachers and mentors could sometimes 
sense a frustration deep inside. But they saw nothing in the boy that could 
make them comprehend why he would later murder 2 people while committing an 
armed robbery, they testified at his death penalty trial in Baton Rouge on 
Tuesday (May 5).

"I don't know what caused him to do what he did, but I can tell you that's not 
the Lee Turner I know," said Michael Stallings, a former basketball coach of 
Turner's.

Turner, 25, was convicted Monday of two counts of first degree murder in the 
deaths of Edward Gurtner, 43, and Randy Chaney, 54, at a CarQuest auto parts 
store in March 2011. Turner had recently taken a job with CarQuest, and both 
Gurtner and Chaney worked there.

Now the trial has moved on to the penalty phase, and jurors are tasked with 
deciding whether Turner should be executed for his crimes -- the 1st time in 5 
years that a death penalty case has been heard in Baton Rouge.

Through tears, family members of Gurtner and Chaney described to the jurors 
just how much they lost when Turner shot their beloved husbands, fathers and 
sons. But jurors also learned about Turner's past: How he was a good kid who 
painted beautiful Jazzfest banners, and how as a Katrina refugee in small-town 
Illinois he found a home on a high school basketball team.

Both Gurtner and Chaney loved cars, their family members recalled.

Gurtner coached his son's baseball team, even though his family joked he knew 
nothing about baseball. He was the "protector" for his sisters, and a good 
provider for his family. He died just before his older son's high school 
graduation.

Chaney loved to garden and make breakfast for his kids, and would have adored 
his new granddaughter. He had talked to his wife shortly before he died about 
the possibility of adopting more children because he missed having them around.

Joey Gurtner, Edward Gurtner's now-22-year-old son, grew up working on cars 
with his dad. He recalled coming across a 1980 Chevy Camaro that the family had 
previously sold. Joey traded his own truck in to get it back and work on with 
his father.

"I wouldn't touch (the car) for about 7 months after (the murder) happened," 
Joey Gurtner said. "I couldn't bring myself to look at it."

He cried when he finally got the car working again.

Gurtner's wife, Elizabeth Gurtner, was the one who found her husband, along 
with her other son, Jamie. They had been trying to call him and couldn't reach 
him. Joey Gurtner remembered his brother calling him from the store and hearing 
his mother screaming in the background.

Elizabeth Gurtner said Jamie has struggled ever since the day he found his 
father dying -- he went from getting As and Bs in school to getting Ds and Fs. 
She can't sleep more than a few hours a night. At first it was because of the 
terrible visions she'd see in her head. Then it was because she was worried 
about Jamie.

Family members recalled those moments after the murders where their relatives' 
deaths hit them again: Randy Chaney's daughter Heather Chaney Parsons 
remembered not knowing what to do with her car after her dad died when it 
needed service.

"My daddy was my go-to person," she said.

She took it to the dealership and when the man asked what he could help her 
with, she broke down in tears.

She said her toddler daughter will sometimes walk into the other room and wave 
and say a few things to the apparently empty air.

"I think it's daddy checking up on her," Parsons said.

Turner also had family members attend Tuesday's trial, though none have 
testified yet and they weren't allowed to stay in the courtroom through the 
testimony. They wore white t-shirts that read "We love you Lee" and featured a 
family photo.

Turner, a slight young man who has grown his hair out in braids and wore 
thick-framed glasses and a white dress shirt, sat quietly through the 
proceedings. He didn't have a criminal record prior to the murders.

Art teachers who taught him in a special gifted art program in New Orleans 
schools recalled that he had natural talent, and was quiet and well-behaved. 
His 1-time principal, Anne Siesal, has saved a Jazzfest banner he made, which 
hung in the kid's tent at the festival, since before Katrina. She remembered 
asking him if she could keep it to hang in her office, and he graciously 
agreed. The jury was shown that banner, as well as another he made a different 
year.

Some of Turner's teachers testified that they sensed he was frustrated by 
something in his life, though he never let on to what it was. But he still 
showed up for school, and remained interested in art.

Turner seemed to blossom during a brief time post-Katrina when he lived with 
his father in Johnston City, Ill., attending a small high school there where he 
played on the basketball team and met a girlfriend. His former basketball coach 
said if he had to pick 2 boys on his team who he could never imagine capable of 
murder, it would have been Turner and his own son.

It wasn't long before Turner's father left Johnston City, and Turner had to go, 
too. Stallings said Turner disappeared one day, leaving his basketball 
equipment in the office.

The basketball players wore expensive shoes, and the school held an annual 
fundraiser to help them defray the costs. But Turner had missed that fundraiser 
at the start of the school year, so Stallings said he could help pay off the 
shoes by helping him clean up after practice and helping with practices for 
younger kids on Saturdays, which he did -- always quick to follow directions, 
never causing any problems.

When Turner left, he returned the shoes along with the rest of his basketball 
equipment, even though he had certainly earned them, Stallings recalled through 
tears.

"There may be times when the death penalty may be appropriate," Stallings told 
the jury. "In my heart, I don't think this is one of them."

The trial will resume Wednesday morning.

(source: Times-Picayune)