[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., FLA., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 24



PENNSYLVANIA:

Quarryville man faces death penalty in double murder trial


Leeton Thomas, who is accused of killing an East Drumore mother and daughter to 
silence their testimony against him in a sex-assault case, will face the death 
penalty when the case goes to trial.

The 38-year-old Quarryville man is charged with killing Lisa Scheetz, 44, and 
her 16-year-old daughter Hailey on June 11.

Police allege Thomas murdered the women to make sure they couldn't testify on 
charges that he had molested Hailey and her sister in December 2013.

Thomas was out on bail, awaiting formal arraignment on the molestation charges, 
when he allegedly broke into Scheetz's basement-level apartment at 2 a.m. and 
stabbed the woman and 2 of her daughters multiple times with a knife.

Lisa and Hailey Scheetz died at the scene. The sister, 15, was critically 
injured in the attack - officials said she suffered multiple stab wounds to the 
chest, shoulder and back - but was able to flee the scene and seek help from a 
neighbor.

Scheetz's 3rd daughter, age 13, was not at home at the time of the attacks.

District Attorney Craig Stedman in June called it a 'premeditated 
assassination."

Assistant District Attorney Christine Wilson, who is prosecuting the case with 
ADA Christopher Larsen, filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty on 
Thursday, according to a release issued Thursday by the District Attorney's 
office.

Wilson, in her filing, outlined 5 aggravating factors that she says make the 
case death-penalty eligible.

They are:

-- The victims were killed to prevent them from testifying in the sex-assault 
case.

-- The killings happened during the course of a felony (burglary).

-- Thomas created a grave risk of danger to another person (the sister who 
survived).

-- Thomas is charged with multiple counts of homicide.

-- Thomas broke a no-contact order in place regarding the victims.

Thomas is at Lancaster County Prison, without bail, on charges of homicide (2 
counts), attempted homicide and burglary.

He waived a preliminary hearing in August. Brett Hambright, with the District 
Attorney's office, said Thomas has also waived his arraignment, which was 
scheduled for Friday.

The trial will not be held before 2016, Hambright said.

(source: lancasteronline.com)






FLORIDA:

State to seek death penalty against Green Cove Springs murder suspect


The State Attorney's Office has filed a motion to seek the death penalty 
against a man accused of murdering a woman in Green Cove Springs last month, a 
spokesperson for the Fourth Judicial Circuit told First Coast News Thursday.

Victor Lamar Cruger, 25, was indicted on charges of premeditated murder and 
attempted murder.

He is currently being held in the Clay County Jail without bond.

According to the Green Cove Springs Police Department, Cruger shot a woman 
named Ernestine Griner Hines Aug. 23.

Hines later died from her injuries at a hospital, police said.

Authorities said that the shooting took place in the back of a vehicle on the 
300 block of Washington Lane before Cruger Jr. ran off into the woods.

The daughter of the victim was then able to drive to another location and call 
police, according to GCSPD.

Police said all 3 were acquaintances.

Cruger was on the run until he was located in Gainesville, Fla. several days 
later on Aug. 28. He was arrested several days later in Clay County.

His next court date is scheduled for Oct. 7.

(source: First Coast News)

*********

State Will Seek Death Penalty For Girl In Machete Murder


State prosecutors have announced that they plan to seek the death penalty for a 
teenage girl accused of taking part in the grisly machete murder of a Homestead 
student.

Desiray Strickland, 18, has been indicted on 1st degree murder. On Thursday, 
her attorney entered a plea of not guilty and said they would go to trial.

Also charged with 1st degree murder in the June 2015 murder of 17-year-old Jose 
Guardado are 23-year old Joseph Cabrera, 20-year-old Kaheem Arbelo, 18-year-old 
Jonathan Lucas and 19-year-old Christian Colon.

Strickland and the others were students at Homestead Job Corps, a live-in 
school and vocational training program for at-risk students run by the U.S. 
Department of Labor.

The group allegedly spent 2 weeks planning Guardado's death. A few days before 
they actually carried it out, they went into the woods near the school and 
allegedly dug a shallow grave.

On Sunday, June 28th, they lured Guardado into the woods and Arbelo ambushed 
him with a machete as the others watched, according to Strickland's arrest 
report. As Guardado lay dying on the ground, the group reportedly ordered him 
to crawl into the grave they had dug.

When Guardado made 1 last attempt to fight back, Arbelo struck him repeatedly 
until his face caved in, according to the arrest report.

They then placed him in the grave and buried him. Noticing all the blood, they 
burned Guardado's belongings as well as their own clothes, according to police. 
They also got rid of the shovel and machete.

Strickland and Arbelo reportedly stayed in the woods and had sex until it was 
time to return the campus at Job Corp.

(source: CBS news)






USA:

Pope's call to Congress to abolish death penalty comes at a critical moment 
---- Pope Francis's bold statement arrived as several US states are preparing 
to restart the controversial practice after several months of hiatus


Pope Francis's unequivocal call in his speech before Congress for the death 
penalty to be abolished in the US comes at a critical moment in the history of 
the ultimate punishment, with several states preparing to restart the 
controversial practice after several months of interlude.

The pontiff's bold statement on Thursday could not be misconstrued: he told the 
assembled members of Congress that he wanted to see the "global abolition of 
the death penalty".

He rooted his opposition in fundamental moral ground, saying the conviction 
stemmed from his belief that "every life is sacred, every human person is 
endowed with inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the 
rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes".

A total of 1,414 prisoners have been executed in the US since the modern death 
penalty started in 1976. Overall, the practice has been on the wane since its 
peak in 1999 when 98 prisoners were killed - last year that number fell to 35.

But though the wind of change is blowing against US capital punishment, a group 
of states, mainly in the south, continue to adhere doggedly to the contentious 
penalty. In June, the US supreme court in effect removed barriers to carrying 
out executions when it gave the go-ahead for the use of a controversial drug, 
midazolam, in death protocols - thus clearing a legal barrier that had been 
holding states back for several months.

Now the death penalty rump is cranking back in to executions with renewed 
vigor. Between now and the end of October, 11 executions are scheduled in seven 
states - Arkansas, Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and 
Virginia. It was within that context that the pope delivered his forthright 
words. Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center said that Francis 
commanded significant influence.

"People's views about the death penalty are affected by a number of different 
things - concern for the innocent, racial discrimination, cost. But they also 
have moral views about the death penalty and statements by the pope and other 
religious figures are influential in changing beliefs," Dunham said.

While the most heated debate over the criminal justice system is reserved for 
the death penalty, the pope also vented his dismay over another extreme 
judicial practice in the US - the meting out of life without parole sentences. 
Otherwise called "life means life" sentences, this involves committing 
convicted prisoners essentially to remain behind bars for the rest of their 
natural life.

The pontiff said he opposed the sentence because it removed all hope from the 
prisoner. "A just and necessary punishment must never exclude the dimension of 
hope and the goal of rehabilitation," he said.

The US is the only country in the world that still sentences juveniles under 18 
to life without parole, with some 2,500 people currently serving that sentence 
for crimes they committed as a child. As the ACLU has also reported, there are 
more than 3,000 prisoners of all ages who have been sentenced never to be set 
free for non-violent offenses that in one case included stealing a jacket 
valued at $159.

(source: The Guardian)

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

Cruz takes exception to pope on death penalty


GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz said he disagrees with Pope Francis' call 
Thursday to abolish the death penalty, calling the use of capital punishment a 
"recognition of the preciousness of human life."

In an interview with POLITICO shortly after the pope's historic address to 
Congress, the Texas senator said he respects Francis' views and the Catholic 
Church's teachings on the issue, but "as a policy matter, I do not agree."

"I spent a number of years in law enforcement dealing with some of the worst 
criminals, child rapists and murderers, people who've committed unspeakable 
acts," Cruz said. "I believe the death penalty is a recognition of the 
preciousness of human life, that for the most egregious crimes, the ultimate 
punishment should apply."

Cruz also said that whether the death penalty should be in place is an issue 
that should be left up to each state.

Though Francis touched on several hot-button policy issues during his speech to 
lawmakers, one of his sharpest messages came on the topic of the death penalty. 
He called for its "global abolition" and arguing that any punishment should 
never preclude the chance for rehabilitation.

"I am convinced that this way is the best," Francis said. "Since every life is 
sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society 
can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes."

(source: politico.com)

*********

Pope Francis wouldn't have to call for ending the death penalty in most 
developed nations

Pope Francis, in his speech to Congress on Thursday, renewed his call for the 
US to end its use of the death penalty.

"The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend 
human life at every stage of its development," Francis said in his prepared 
remarks. "This conviction has led me, from the beginning of my ministry, to 
advocate at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty. I 
am convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred, every human 
person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit 
from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes."

But if Francis were in almost any other developed country, he wouldn't need to 
make this call - because the US is the only developed nation, with the 
exception of a few in Asia, that still allows and actively uses the death 
penalty.

The death penalty is abolished in most of the developed world.

In fact, it is the rest of the developed world's opposition to the death 
penalty that is now making it more difficult to carry out executions in the US: 
Over the past several years, states have had trouble obtaining drugs used for 
lethal injections in large part due to a European ban on exporting the drugs 
and abolitionists' work in European countries to get companies to stop selling 
the drugs for execution purposes.

But states continue pushing on with the death penalty, sometimes relying on 
untried drugs like midazolam, and resulting in several botched executions over 
the past couple of years.

So Francis is left calling for the abolition of the death penalty in the US 
through a moral argument - one that sounds a lot like the reasoning 
conservative lawmakers in the US use to speak out against abortion rights. Of 
course, these same conservative lawmakers are more likely to support the death 
penalty in the first place - so it's clear whom the pope was trying to appeal 
to in his speech.

(source: vox.com)