[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., FLA., MISS., ARK.

[Rick Halperin]

May 11



TEXAS----impending execution

Houston triple-killer seeks to avoid execution by claiming insanity; Murderer 
of 3 attempts to avoid execution



Derrick Dewayne Charles had been free on parole only 7 months when, in July 
2002, he murdered his underage lover by dropping a television on her head and 
strangled the teen's mother and grandfather. The killings were the culmination 
of a life largely spent outside the law and, unless courts intervene, will be 
the cause of his execution Tuesday in the state's Huntsville death house.

Just 19 at the time of the crimes, Charles, whose criminal career had brought 
him a three-year sentence for burglary and a stint in a Texas Youth Commission 
lockup, pleaded guilty to the murders. Dead at their northeast Houston 
residence were Myiesha Bennett, 15; Brenda Bennett, 44; and Obie Bennett, 77.

Charles' appellate attorney, Paul Mansur, a Texas Defender Service lawyer based 
in West Texas, is attempting to save his client by establishing that he suffers 
from serious mental illness that would render him ineligible for execution. 
Under the U.S. Supreme Court's 1986 Ford vs Wainwright decision, a killer can 
be spared execution if his "mental illness prevents him from comprehending the 
reasons for the penalty or its implications."

Rejected petitions

The Houston-based U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas 
recently rejected Charles' petitions for a stay and for funds to hire a mental 
health expert and an investigator to develop a his insanity claim. In turning 
down the petitions, U.S. Judge Nancy Atlas noted, Charles' attorney waited four 
months after the state assigned an execution date before turning to the courts.

In order to provide funds for a psychological review this close to the 
execution date, Atlas ruled, her court first must issue a stay. Charles' case, 
she determined, did not meet guidelines for that decision.

Mansur has notified the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans that he will 
appeal.

The Denver City lawyer has filed earlier briefs to the court as sealed 
documents, saying that they contain details about the health of his client and, 
possibly, his client's family, that legally should not be made public. 
Summations of the case in court filings, though, indicate that Charles received 
some psychiatric care as an adolescent and apparently suffered from attention 
deficit disorder, depression and a possible brain injury. Charles' mother, 
court documents asserted, suffered from schizophrenia.

Triple murder

"Nothing in the record, however, indicates that Charles suffers from symptoms 
of 'insanity' as described by Ford," Atlas ruled. "While none of the 
psychological experts during his prior legal challenges performed an 
incompetency-to-be-executed evaluation, the record contains no observations of 
pervasive and severely debilitating conditions, such as major delusional 
symptoms or psychotic episodes, that traditionally give rise to Ford claims."

On the day of the killings, Charles told authorities, he was high from smoking 
marijuana laced with embalming fluid. Authorities contend that Charles was 
angry with Brenda Bennett because she reported him to police for having sex 
with her daughter.

Hours before the killings, Charles had come to the Bennett residence, where, 
unbeknownst to adults, he again had sex with the girl. When Myiesha Bennett and 
her mother left to run an errand, Charles waited undetected in the teen's 
bedroom. Some time later, Obie Bennett entered the residence from a garage 
woodworking shop.

Charles beat the man with his fists, a lamp and athletic trophies before 
strangling him with a lamp cord. When the mother and daughter returned, Charles 
bound them both. The 5-foot-9, 179-pound killer then attempted to strangle the 
girl. He completed the murder by beating her with stereo speakers and dropping 
a television on her head.

No sympathy

Charles forced Brenda Bennett into a water-filled bathtub, into which he tossed 
a plugged-in television. When the attempted electrocution failed, he sexually 
assaulted and strangled her.

The victims were members of Grace Cathedral Church, where the pastor, the Rev. 
Charles Taylor, said he remembered the family well.

"They were my friends and neighbors," he said. "I really enjoyed the older 
gentleman." Obie Bennett, Taylor said, once gave him a rocking chair crafted in 
his woodworking shop.

He also was casually acquainted with Charles, who on one occasion attended his 
church.

"I can have sympathy for the murder victims," Taylor said, "but I can't have 
sympathy for the killer."

Charles declined a request for an interview.

(source: Houston Chronicle)








NORTH CAROLINA:

North Carolina bill would make it legal for people besides doctors to 
administer the death penalty



A bill currently in the North Carolina legislature would allow medical 
professionals who are not doctors to execute inmates on death row. The Guardian 
reports:

North Carolina currently has 149 people on death row, but carried out its last 
execution in August 2006. Since then, North Carolina doctors have refused to 
work with the state's corrections department to carry out executions even 
though the death penalty remains legal. Under a proposed law, conservative 
state lawmakers are hoping to break through that stalemate by letting physician 
assistants, nurses, emergency medical technicians, and other healthcare workers 
oversee executions. But those elected officials face another set of challenges 
including opposition from the professional organizations representing the 
workers impacted in the bill.

In an effort to revive the death penalty, Republican state representative N Leo 
Daughtry has pushed a measure that would no longer require doctors to be 
present during executions. Instead of a doctor, nurses, physician assistants, 
or emergency medical technicians could oversee the death penalty. The bill 
would also keep secret the identities of medical professionals assisting in 
executions.

The North Carolina House of Representatives on 29 April voted 84-33 in favor of 
the legislation. Daughtry, who did not respond to the Guardian???s request for 
comment, said the measure would allow North Carolina to move past the current 
impediments getting in the way of the death penalty.

"The fact that doctors are not willing to be there for the execution has caused 
a real stumbling block for us," Daughtry told WRAL-TV.

An editorial in the Raleigh News & Observer called the bill "unjust":

Since coming under Republican control in 2011, this legislature has made going 
backward its preferred direction on issues of taxation, voting rights, 
environmental regulation, education funding, gun laws and women's health. But 
its effort to restart executions is especially retrogressive with an added 
element of macabre.

The death penalty is unnecessary, unjust and irreversible. Its use now is only 
an act of vengeance against a few prisoners who happened to be convicted in 
death penalty states and whose lawyers failed to negotiate the many legal 
options that could have spared them. Prosecutors say the death penalty is a 
useful tool for negotiating with suspects, but an absolute penalty cannot be 
both fairly applied and negotiable.

(source: Charlotte Sun Times)








FLORIDA:

Ruling could affect death row



Mascotte Police officer James Duckett, 29, was on patrol the night of May 11, 
1987, when he stopped to talk to an 11-year-old girl who had gone to a 
convenience store to buy a pencil.

Her body was found the next morning at a lake less than a mile away, and tests 
showed she had been sexually assaulted while alive, strangled and then drowned. 
Physical evidence linked Duckett to the crime and a jury recommended by an 8-4 
vote he be put to death.

The process of sentencing Duckett, now 57, and the 393 other death penalty 
defendants in the state - which has the 2nd-highest number of people on death 
row in the country - will be in question later this year when the U.S. Supreme 
Court considers whether the state's sentencing guidelines are constitutional.

"It has the potential to have a major impact in Florida," said Rex Dimmig, 
public defender for the 10th Judicial Circuit of Florida. "If the Supreme Court 
determines it is unconstitutional then they will decide if it should be 
retroactive."

The case before the court - Hurst, Timothy v. Florida - is about a man who was 
sentenced to death for killing a co-worker at a restaurant in Pensacola in 
1998. Hurst robbed the store and stabbed a woman numerous times with a box 
cutter.

The jury voted 7-5 to recommend Hurst should be executed. That recommendation 
then went to a judge who sentenced Hurst to death.

At issue is whether a jury's death-sentence recommendation should be unanimous, 
which is something the Florida Supreme Court supports and has urged lawmakers 
to vote into law.

Many of the 32 states that still use the death penalty have changed sentencing 
guidelines to require a unanimous verdict.

Not Florida.

Florida is the only state in the country that allows a jury to have 7 votes for 
a recommendation of death. There are 394 death row inmates in Florida, 
including 9 from Lake County and 1 from Sumter County.

State Attorney Jerry Hill defended the death penalty process in Florida, saying 
that a judge can overide the jury's recommendation of death.

"The fact that you have to prove aggravators, and you have to have a 
significant majority voting for death, there are a number of checks and 
balances in place," Hill said. "It's a shame to have a review."

(source: Daily Commercial)








MISSISSIPPI:

3 arrested in fatal shooting of 2 Miss. officers



2 police officers were shot and killed during a traffic stop, and 3 suspects 
were arrested hours later, authorities said Sunday.

2 of the suspects were charged Sunday with capital murder in the death of 
officers Benjamin Deen, 34, and Liquori Tate, 25.

Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, 
said Marvin Banks, 29, and Joanie Calloway, 22, were each charged with 2 counts 
of capital murder. Banks was also charged with 1 count of being a felon in 
possession of a firearm. He was also charged with grand theft for fleeing in 
the police cruiser after the shooting, Strain said.

"He absconded with a Hattiesburg police cruiser. He didn't get very far, 3 or 4 
blocks and then he ditched that vehicle," Strain said.

Banks' brother, Curtis Banks, 26, was charged with 2 counts of accessory after 
the fact of capital murder.

Lamar County authorities arrested Marvin Banks at a motel shortly before 1 a.m. 
Sunday. Curtis Banks was arrested around 3 a.m. at an apartment complex.

"No sir, I didn't do it," Curtis Banks told reporters gathered at the State 
Police barracks when Banks was brought in.

Strain said 1 officer stopped a 2000 Gold Cadillac Escalade in an industrial 
corridor about 8:30 p.m. Saturday. A 2nd officer arrived as backup. Hattiesburg 
residents Tamika Mills and Pearnell Roberts drove past the scene of the 
shooting, discovered the 2 officers and called 911.

"Never in my life have I experienced or seen anything like this except on TV. 
And to be in the midst of it, it's shocking and heartbreaking," Mills said. "As 
we were coming down Fourth Street, we noticed a bunch of lights. As we came on 
through, (Roberts) told me to turn around because she saw somebody laying on 
the ground.

"So I backed up. That's when we noticed the officer was down. We just saw that 
one, but in the course of me being on the phone with 911, I turned and I saw 
another officer across the street rolling on the ground. (Roberts) ran across 
the street to check on him. He wasn't all the way alert but he asked her, 'Am I 
dying? I know I'm dying. Just hand me my walkie-talkie.' "

It marked the 1st time a Hattiesburg police officer had been killed in the line 
of duty since New Year's Eve in 1984.

Tate, 25, was a recent graduate from the police academy. He posted on his 
Facebook page that he graduated June 11.

Tate graduated South Pike High School and attended Southwest Mississippi 
Community College before joining the Hattiesburg Police Department.

Deen, 34, was a K-9 officer. He was named HPD Officer of the Year in 2012.

"People who believe in prayer, who believe in the power of prayer, I'd ask them 
to pray for the family members," Mayor Johnny DuPree said.

(source: USA Today)








ARKANSAS:

State seeks death penalty In Holly murder trial



Sentencing options

The 2 sentencing options for people convicted of capital murder are life 
imprisonment without parole or the death penalty. The sentence range for a 
kidnapping conviction is 10 to 40 years or life imprisonment. The punishment 
for rape is 25 to 40 years, or life imprisonment, if convicted. A conviction 
for residential burglary carries a prison sentence of 5 to 20 years.

[source: Staff report]

Death row

Benton County has 2 men on Arkansas' death row. Don Davis was sentenced to die 
in 1992 for the execution-style killing of Jane Daniels of Rogers. Brandon Lacy 
was sentenced to die in 2009 for murder of Randy Walker during a robbery. 
Circuit Judge Robin Green ruled that Lacy is entitled to an another sentencing 
hearing.

Washington County also has 2 men on death row: Gregory Decay and Zachariah 
Marcyniuk. Both men were sentenced to death in 2008. Decay killed Kevin Jones 
and Kendall Rice in their Fayetteville apartment. Marcyniuk stabbed University 
of Arkansas student Katie Wood to death after breaking into her apartment and 
laying in wait for her.

[source: Staff report]

--

Benton County prosecutors claim to have a confession in hand, and they want the 
death penalty for the Bentonville man accused of raping and strangling 
6-year-old Jersey Bridgeman.

Defense attorneys will try to convince jurors Zachary Holly is innocent. If 
he's convicted, they will ask jurors to spare his life. They've been working to 
develop evidence for a potential penalty phase of the trial that might build 
jurors' sympathy.

The trial began with jury selection Friday in Bentonville. It could last up to 
3 weeks.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys will begin questioning prospective jurors 
this morning. They need to select 12 jurors and 3 alternates.

Little is known about the state's evidence in the case. The judge sealed key 
DNA results and the specifics of what Holly told police. Court documents say he 
initially denied having anything to do with Jersey's disappearance or death.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys have mentioned Holly's confession in pretrial 
hearings, but Holly's interviews were never played in open court.

Holly, 30, is charged with capital murder, rape, kidnapping and residential 
burglary in Jersey's Nov. 20, 2012, death. Holly was arrested 6 days later. He 
has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Kim Weber, an attorney in private practice in Rogers, said the defense has to 
make sure the case is about Holly, not the victim.

"A little girl has been killed in a horrible, horrible way, but this is not 
technically her trial," Weber said. "The trial is about the accused and whether 
or not he committed the crime and what punishment is available."

Keeping the focus on Holly may be difficult.

More than 100 people gathered the night of Nov. 21, 2012, at the Children's 
Advocacy Center of Benton County for a candlelight vigil in Jersey's memory.

Hundreds of people, many who never met Jersey, attended her memorial service 
Nov. 27, 2012. Jersey's white casket was surrounded by pink and purple flowers, 
her favorite colors. Some mourners brought pink carnations tied with purple 
ribbons.

A photo slide show during the service showed a smiling Jersey wearing a tiara, 
perched on a four-wheeler, dancing in a yellow tutu with glittery wings and 
posing with her mother and other family and friends. Jersey, who attended Sugar 
Creek Elementary School, was remembered as a happy child.

Ultimate Penalty

Former Washington County Prosecuting Attorney John Threet, who sought the death 
penalty 4 times and secured it twice for convicted murderers, said no 
prosecutor takes lightly the decision to ask for the ultimate punishment.

Threet is now a circuit judge in Washington County. His comments came shortly 
before Holly's trial was to begin in November. The trial was postponed because 
of an issue with one of Holly's then attorneys. Threet was prosecuting attorney 
last November.

"The death penalty is heavily weighted against the state through the whole 
process -- and it should be," Threet said. "The death penalty should be 
reserved for certain cases where you feel the citizens of the community should 
decide if the death penalty is appropriate. In Arkansas, we've got 31 people on 
death row and that goes back to 1989. So, it's not used that often."

Threet said he considered the laundry lists of aggravating and mitigating 
factors in state law and consulted with the victims' families in each case 
before deciding to seek the death penalty.

Benton County prosecutors have cited 3 aggravating factors for seeking the 
death penalty against Holly. First, they allege the murder was cruel and 
depraved; 2nd, they claim the murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding 
arrest for another crime, and the last factor is the age of the victim.

Defense attorneys have not yet disclosed any mitigating factors, but abuse 
allegations surrounding Holly's childhood is certain to be on the list. The 
defense has not disclosed any specific details concerning the abuse.

Mitigating factors can be almost unlimited, but prosecutors are limited to a 
list of 10 aggravating circumstances. A jury must find at least 1 aggravating 
circumstance exists before it can return a death verdict, Threet said. A few 
aggravating factors can trump multiple mitigating factors.

"The jury ultimately decides whether those mitigating circumstances outweigh 
what this person did," Threet said. "You have to look at what a jury is going 
to think of the situation."

Threet said the character and lifestyle of the victim always comes into play, 
and he thinks juries tend to be more sympathetic to a victim with "clean hands" 
like a child.

Families of some murder victims push for the death penalty, but others will 
accept a plea bargain of a life sentence in order to avoid the trial, Threet 
said.

"A lot of these families don't want to have to go through that, it's 
excruciating," Threet said. "I've had multiple times when families decided they 
did not want to pursue it because they'd have to relive the whole thing, dwell 
on it and have to talk about it every day. That's terrible for them."

The process does not end with a death sentence. The appeals process in Arkansas 
averages well over a decade and, because of legal challenges to the lethal 
injection protocols, Arkansas has not executed anyone since 2005.

It's also difficult and time-consuming to empanel a jury in a death penalty 
case, Threet said.

"You can't sit if you believe the death penalty should be automatic. You can't 
sit if you believe the death penalty is never appropriate," Threet said. "You 
want objective jurors who will follow the law. If you have a preconceived 
notion, you can't be seated."

Weber, a former deputy prosecutor and assistant U.S. attorney, noted there has 
been very little information released about the case by prosecutors.

"I expect difficult hurdles for the prosecution. I anticipate it's not going to 
be as black and white as it's seemed in the paper," Weber said. "We don't know 
the facts yet. The state has to prove who did what beyond a reasonable doubt."

Weber said she expects jurors will find it is much harder to make a decision in 
a court of law than in the court of public opinion.

"It doesn't matter what's said in the barber shop or the doughnut shop in 
mornings. It's easy to make that quick call," Weber said. "It's a lot different 
when you're on the hot seat, and a man's life is on the line."

Jersey's Death

Holly lived in a trailer house next to Jersey's family on Southwest A Street. 
Holly and his wife sometimes babysat Jersey and her younger sister. The night 
before Jersey's death, the couple watched the girls as their mother, DesaRae 
Bridgeman, worked. When mom got off work, Holly carried a sleeping Jersey back 
to her house and placed her in her bed, according to an affidavit filed in the 
case.

In one interview, Holly told police he awoke at 3:35 a.m. Nov. 20 with an upset 
stomach and walked to the E-Z Mart at Southwest Eighth and A streets to get 
medication, according to court documents. Police obtained video from the store 
and a sales tape showing Holly did make the purchase. Brandon Crouch, the 
boyfriend of Jersey's mom, worked the overnight shift at the E-Z Mart during 
that time, according to court documents.

DesaRae Bridgeman awoke that morning and found Jersey missing from their home. 
Bentonville police got a call at 6:43 a.m. 2 officers found Jersey's body 
within 15 minutes while searching an empty house at 704 S.E. A St., 2 doors 
south of her home and on the other side of Holly's residence.

A swab obtained from Jersey's body was tested and revealed some sperm cells, 
according to court documents. The state crime lab developed a DNA profile and 
begin making comparisons from known samples. Detectives took cheek swabs from 
Holly for DNA comparison. Holly also gave detectives the clothing he said he 
had been wearing since he went to bed the night of Nov. 19.

The results of the DNA testing remain under seal.

The defense team was dealt a blow in August when Circuit Judge Brad Karren 
ruled statements Holly made to police can be used at trial. Holly's defense 
team argued police coerced a confession from him during a Nov. 26, 2012, 
interview at the Bentonville Police Department. Karren found the statements 
were given voluntarily.

The judge also denied a second motion to suppress the statements, and he 
recently denied an attempt by Holly's attorneys to exclude the DNA sample 
collected from Holly from being used as evidence.

Childhood Abuse

Jersey was the victim in another criminal case about a year before her death. 
She was found Dec. 2, 2011, chained to a dresser in the Rogers home where she 
lived with her father and stepmother, David Bridgeman and Jana Slinkard.

David Bridgeman admitted chaining Jersey to the dresser for three days. He 
claimed he was trying to protect her because she sleepwalked. He pleaded guilty 
to felony charges and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Bridgeman is serving 
his sentence at the Arkansas Department of Correction's Pine Bluff Unit. His 
expected parole date is Nov. 1.

Slinkard was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but has since been released. She 
was paroled Sept. 25.

David Bridgeman wasn't allowed to attend Jersey's funeral.

The jury will not hear testimony regarding Jersey's prior abuse. The defense 
filed a motion to prevent prosecutors from presenting evidence of the child's 
injuries and Nathan Smith, Benton County prosecuting attorney, told the court 
they were not planning to introduce the information concerning Jersey's abuse 
during the trial.

The defense has been working to paint a picture of Holly's troubled childhood 
as mitigating evidence for a potential penalty phase of the trial.

"You normally think of death penalty cases as trying to save their life," Weber 
said. "I have a lot of respect for people in the defense community who can do 
these kinds of cases."

Holly spent much of his childhood in Bakersfield and Oildale, Calif. He and his 
siblings were the subjects of numerous abuse and neglect referrals between 1993 
and 1997. The Kern County, Calif., Department of Human Services has supplied 
more than 300 pages of reports, summaries and other documents generated by at 
least 12 caseworkers and supervisors in connection with at least 14 referrals 
involving Holly.

2 case workers, Margarita Soza and Jana Davis, are on the defense witness list. 
The defense lists 15 possible witnesses, which includes several of Holly's 
family members.

The prosecution lists 48, but some are the same as the defense's.

The Arkansas State Hospital did intelligence testing and a mental evaluation to 
determine if Holly was fit to stand trial. The defense had additional testing 
done by its own expert. The results of the tests remain under seal, but defense 
lawyers and prosecutors said Holly is fit to stand trial.

(source: Arkansas Online)