[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., LA., MO., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 1



FLORIDA----new death sentence

Jurors recommend death penalty for Bessman Okafor


A jury has reached a decision on whether a 30-year-old man already serving life 
in prison should be sentenced to death.

On Tuesday afternoon, the jury said it recommends the death penalty for Bessman 
Okafor. A judge will take the recommendation under advisement and ultimately 
rule on Okafor's sentence.

A sentencing date will be set for some time in the next couple of weeks.

Bessman Okafor was convicted last week in the September 2012 killing of Alex 
Zaldivar, 19. Zaldivar was set to testify against Okafor in a home invasion 
trial.

"Bessman Okafor decided that Alex Zaldivar should die by the hand of man, that 
he would not be allowed to live past the age of 19, that he would not be 
allowed to grow old and die of natural causes, that he would die by the hand of 
man," said State Attorney Jeff Ashton. "And ladies and gentlemen, based on the 
aggravated circumstances in this case, Mr. Okafor deserves the same thing, to 
die by the hand of man."

But the defense said witness Brienna Campos' own description proves it was not 
the man in the house who drug her out of her room and fired shots.

"The fact remains that Brienna Campos said that the person who brought her out 
of the room and she think fired the shots was tall and lanky and had different 
hair than Bessman Okafor. She told you that herself, and there was no other 
evidence to contradict that statement. None," said defense attorney Francis 
Iennaco.

The defense also explained how Okafor was physically and sexually abused and 
that experts testified he had a learning behavior that resulted in anxiety, 
aggression and poor impulses.

(source: WESH news)






LOUISIANA:

Louisiana Supreme Court upholds Shreveport killer's conviction, death sentence


The Louisiana Supreme Court today upheld the conviction and death sentence of a 
Shreveport man who killed his pregnant, former girlfriend and dumped her body 
in a pond.

LaMondre Tucker appealed the Caddo Parish jury verdict on a number of issues, 
ranging from claims the death qualification process did not represent a fair 
cross-section of the community to prosecutorial misconduct to allegations the 
presence of the Confederate flag flying at that time outside the courthouse 
influenced anti-death penalty views of blacks removed from potential jury 
service.

A Caddo Parish jury in 2011 convicted Tucker of the 2008 kidnapping and murder 
of Tavia Sills, 18. Her decomposing body was found in a north Shreveport pond 3 
days after she was reported missing by her mother.

Evidence at trial showed Tucker, who days before learned of Sills' pregnancy, 
shot Sills twice, and he planned or attempted to set her on fire. He shot her a 
3rd time to ensure her death then with the help of an accomplice used a large 
branch to push her body out into the pond in an attempt to hide the evidence.

An autopsy concluded Sills was 19 weeks pregnant at the time; however, Tucker 
was not the father.

Tucker has been fighting his conviction and sentence. He filed a motion to 
reconsider the sentence, contending his immaturity - he was 5 months past his 
18th birthday when convicted - and diminished capacity made him ineligible for 
the death penalty.

He also filed a motion for a new trial, alleging Sills' mother had forgiven 
him, denying he was the shooter and offering evidence rebutting the state's 
negative depiction of him in the penalty phase. When the motions were denied by 
the trial court Tucker appealed directly to the state's high court.

(source: KTBS news)






MISSOURI----execution

Missouri executes man for 15-year-old girl's 1989 killing


A man who spent nearly 25 years on Missouri's death row was executed Tuesday 
for the kidnapping, rape and stabbing death of a 15-year-old girl. Roderick 
Nunley, 50, became the 6th death row inmate to be put to death in Missouri this 
year. During the execution, his breathing became labored for a few seconds. He 
briefly opened his mouth before becoming still.

He was pronounced dead at 9:09 p.m. CDT.

"Despite openly admitting his guilt to the court, it has taken 25 years to get 
him to the execution chamber," Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said in a 
statement. "Nunley's case offers a textbook example showing why society is so 
frustrated with a system that has become too cumbersome."

Ann Harrison's disappearance and death haunted the Kansas City area in March 
1989. She was waiting for a school bus on her driveway, 20 yards from her front 
door, when Nunley and Michael Taylor drove by in a stolen car and made the 
spur-of-the-moment decision to abduct her.

Her body was found in the trunk of the abandoned car 3 days later.

Both men were sentenced to death in 1991. Taylor was executed last year.

Of 20 executions nationally in 2015, all but four have been in Missouri and 
Texas. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Tuesday denied a clemency request for Nunley, 
filed by death penalty opponents, asserting that racial bias played a role in 
the case because a prosecutor refused a plea deal that would have given Nunley 
life in prison without parole.

Nunley was black, as was Taylor, while the victim was white.

The U.S. Supreme Court, meanwhile, denied several appeals from Nunley's 
attorney, including one claiming that the death penalty amounts to cruel and 
unusual punishment.

Retired Kansas City detective Pete Edlund said the only thing cruel and unusual 
was how long Nunley and Taylor remained on death row.

"They just take forever to do the deed," Edlund told The Associated Press. "The 
delay in executing these 2 is just nuts because it didn't have anything to do 
with their guilt. It was legal mumbo jumbo nonsense."

According to prosecutors, Nunley and Taylor binged on cocaine and stole a car 
in the pre-dawn hours of March 22, 1989. At one point, a police officer from 
neighboring Lee's Summit chased the car but was called off by a supervisor when 
the stolen car crossed into Kansas City.

Later that morning, the men were driving around Kansas City when they saw Ann, 
her school books and flute on the ground beside her.

"They were just cruising and she's out at the driveway waiting for the school 
bus," Edlund said.

The girl's mother had stepped inside to get a younger daughter ready for 
school. When she heard the bus, she looked outside. The books and flute were 
still there, but Ann was gone.

"She knew something was wrong," Edlund said.

Taylor and Nunley had grabbed the girl and taken her to Nunley's mother's home. 
She was raped and sodomized, then stabbed repeatedly in the stomach and neck.

Taylor and Nunley put the girl's body in the trunk of the stolen car, then 
abandoned it in a residential area. The body was found 3 days later.

Edlund said the case was cracked months later when a man in jail for robbery - 
and seeking a $10,000 reward in the case - turned in Taylor and Nunley. Both 
men confessed, and some of Ann's hair was found in carpeting at the home where 
the crime occurred.

Edlund said Ann's father was a former reserve officer with the Police 
Department, and her uncle was a Kansas City officer.

"To all of us, she was part of our police family," Edlund said. "That made it 
even more important that we solve the case."

Nunlley becomes the 6th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in 
Missouri and the 86th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 
1989; only Texas (528), Oklahoma (112), Virginia (110), and Florida (90) have 
executed more individuals since the death penalty was re-legalized in the USA 
on July 2, 1976.

Nunley becomes the 20th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the 
USA and the 1414th overall since the nation resumed executions on january 17, 
1977.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

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

Death row inmate convicted in 1989 rape and murder of 15-year-old KC girl 
executed after Gov. Nixon denies clemency petition


A man who has been on death row for the kidnapping, rape and murder of high 
school freshman 26 years ago, was finally put to death about 3 hours after he 
was originally scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening.

Roderick Nunley, 50, was originally scheduled to be executed around 6 o'clock 
on Tuesday for the 1989 murder a 15-year-old Ann Harrison. His execution was 
put on hold though, after his attorneys filed a "petition for writ of habeas 
corpus," with the United States Supreme Court around 5:30 on Tuesday. The 
petition claimed Nunley's right to council may have been violated because of an 
"incurable conflict of interest" involving the attorney who has been 
representing Nunley.

According to a news release from Missouri Governor's Office sent out just 
before 8 p.m Tuesday, Gov. Jay Nixon released a statement regarding his 
decision to deny the petition for clemency made on behalf of Nunley:

"I have received from my counsel a final briefing on the petition for clemency 
from Roderick Nunley, which has been reviewed in detail. After deliberate 
consideration of its merits and the facts of this case, I have denied this 
petition. As Governor, this is a power and a process I do not take lightly. 
Each instance involves a very specific set of facts, which must be considered 
on its own.

On the morning of March 22, 1989, 15-year-old Ann Harrison was waiting for the 
school bus at the end of the driveway of her Raytown home when she was 
abducted, raped, and then stabbed to death by Roderick Nunley and Michael 
Taylor. The capital punishment sentence given to Taylor for his role in these 
brutal crimes was carried out last year. Nunley also pleaded guilty to these 
heinous crimes and was sentenced to death. My decision today upholds this 
appropriate sentence.

I ask that Missourians remember Ann Harrison at this time and keep her parents, 
Bob and Janel Harrison, and the Harrison family in your thoughts and prayers."

Also around 8 p.m. the Missouri Attorney General's Office said Judge Samuel 
Alito issued an order dening Nunley's application for a stay of execution, as 
well as the petition for writ of habeas corpus.

Nunley's co-defendant Michael Taylor was executed last year. The men were found 
guilty of kidnapping Harrison while she waited for her school bus at 67th and 
Booth on Kansas City's east side in 1989. Taylor and Nunley later raped and 
killed her.

Pete Edlund, a retired Kansas City Missouri police detective, says his squad 
cracked the case and he says Nunley's execution is long overdue.

"It was a horrific murder on top of raping and sodomizing her. They took their 
time and struggled with trying to kill her and the whole time she was begging 
for her life," said Edlund.

Edlund says the delay in justice for Ann Harrison was mainly legal wrangling 
and if it were up to him, both would've been executed shortly after they were 
sentenced to death more than two decades ago.

"They ended up sticking a 7 inch serrated knife through her neck and then 
twisting it on top of slicing and stabbing her in the stomach it was ugly," 
said Edlund.

Edlund says Taylor and Nunley took away everything Harrison would have become.

"He needs to meet his maker because he doesn't deserve to suck the same air 
that you and I do," said Edlund.

(source: fox4kc.com)






CALIFORNIA:

CA Death Penalty Delays Traumatize Families of Victims - Advocacy Group


On Monday, The Los Angeles Times reported that a US appeals court focused on 
procedural issues that could put at risk a previous district court ruling that 
declared California's system of capital punishment was unconstitutional because 
of "decades-long delays."

"Long delays in their [state of California's] system and recurring appeals add 
to the already enormous tab and give nothing but uncertainty to murder victims' 
families who are retraumatized with every appeal and news story," Hyden said on 
Tuesday.

California has spent more than $4 billion on their capital punishment system, 
Hyden added, and have executed 13 individuals while releasing three from death 
row who were wrongly convicted.

"I think it's appropriate for the courts to review California's death penalty 
system," Hyden said. "It is marred by mistakes, inefficiency, and long delays."

Witness to Innocence Executive Director Magdaleno Rose-Avila claims that 
California's 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will listen to all arguments in the 
recent ruling against the death penalty and will judge fairly.

US District Court Judge Cormac Carney ruled last year that California's death 
penalty law is unconstitutional. Carney argued that the system was plagued by 
delays and uncertainty violating the US constitution's ban on cruel and unusual 
punishment.

Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty is a network of political and 
social conservatives who question the alignment of capital punishment with 
conservative values, according to the group's website.

(source: sputniknews.com)