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

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 26



PENNSYLVANIA:

2 death penalty cases to begin next week


The Allegheny County Courthouse will be the setting for 2 death penalty cases 
next week.

Jury selection will begin Monday for Antoine Ward, 39, accused of killing 2 
people in Allentown nearly 2 years ago.

Testimony will start Wednesday in the case of Talon Perozich, 22, accused of 
killing a man and injuring his girlfriend in McKeesport in June 2013.

Having 2 capital cases in Pittsburgh at the same time is highly unusual.

In the case of Perozich, he is charged with killing Brian Cook, 24, and 
injuring Stephanie Pavlovic over money about 5:40 a.m. on June 26, 2013.

Mr. Cook was shot in the head and arm while sleeping in bed, police said. Ms. 
Pavlovic was shot in the hand while trying to defend herself and the couple's 
1-year-old child, who was unharmed.

Prosecutors listed five aggravating circumstances authorizing the office to 
seek the death penalty - including that Perozich has a significant history of 
felony convictions; that he killed Mr. Cook during the perpetration of a 
felony; that he created a grave risk of death to another person during the 
killing; and that the victim had been "involved, associated or in competition 
with the defendant" in drug trafficking and that the killing was related to 
that association.

Perozich has previous convictions for felony burglary and theft.

Jury selection was completed Friday. About 150 potential jurors were 
interviewed to select the panel, which includes eight men, 4 women and 4 
alternates.

In the case against Ward, he is accused of killing Cheralynn Sabatasso and her 
boyfriend, Jason Eubanks, on Jan. 23, 2014, in Allentown.

Prosecutors believe that Ward was trying to get drugs fronted to him that 
night.

Ward, in a statement to police, said things became heated in the car while the 
3 rode around together, and that Mr. Eubanks pulled a gun from between the 
seats and pointed it at him.

Ward told police they struggled over the gun and Ms. Sabatasso was accidentally 
shot in the head. Mr. Eubanks was shot twice while he and Ward wrestled for the 
firearm, the defendant told police.

The aggravating factors in that case include that there were multiple victims; 
that the killings occurred during the commission of a felony and that the 
defendant has a significant history of violent convictions.

Jury selection in Ward's case will begin Monday.

President Judge Jeffrey A. Manning said death-penalty cases are "a huge drain 
on court resources. You have to prepare for the possibility of 2 trials - the 
guilt phase and the penalty phase."

If the jury returns a unanimous verdict of guilty of 1st-degree murder, the 
panel then must hear evidence in the penalty phase. To return a sentence of 
death, the jury must unanimously find that the aggravating circumstances 
presented by the prosecution outweigh any mitigation offered by the defense.

Choosing a jury in a death-penalty case generally takes longer than other 
homicide cases because both sides in a capital case are given 20 peremptory 
challenges - meaning either the prosecution or defense can strike a potential 
juror for any reason. They also have unlimited challenges for cause - for 
example, when a potential juror says that his conscience would prohibit him 
from ever imposing a death sentence.

(source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)





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

Toomey lobbies for bill expanding death penalty in law enforcement murders


U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey came to Bethlehem Friday, to lobby for a new bill that 
would expand the death penalty in the killings of police officers, firefighters 
and EMS.

Called the Thin Blue Line Act, the bill would allow federal prosecutors to seek 
the death penalty if a victim was killed, or was targeted, because they are a 
federal or state law enforcement officer, prosecutor, or firefighter.

A similar bill was first introduced in the House of Representatives this past 
February by Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla., but has been sitting in committee since.

Toomey discussed the bill following a roundtable discussion with Lehigh County 
District Attorney Jim Martin and police chiefs from Bangor, Bethlehem, 
Catasauqua, Coplay, South Whitehall and Whitehall townships.

It was one of a number of roundtables the Republican senator, who is seeking 
re-election this year, is holding across Pennsylvania.

"Police work today is very dangerous. There appears to be an anti-police agenda 
across the country," Bethlehem police chief Mark DiLuzio said.

Toomey said protesters have called for the murder of cops, leading to a 
"chilling" effect on law enforcement officers, most of whom are honest and 
hardworking.

The senator said he proposed the bill because of "cold-blooded killers 
targeting law enforcement officers simply because they are law enforcement 
officers."

Toomey brought up the case of Eric Frein as an example.

Frein is accused of killing Pennsylvania State Police Cpl. Bryon Dickson and 
wounding Trooper Alex Douglass in a shooting ambush Sept. 12, 2014 outside the 
state police's Blooming Grove barracks in Pike County.

"Corporal Dickson was, in fact, murdered," Toomey said.

Frein is being prosecuted at the county level and killing a member of law 
enforcement is already an aggravating factor for the death penalty in 
Pennsylvania, Martin said. Pike County District Attorney Raymond Tonkin plans 
to seek the death penalty if Frein is convicted of 1st-degree murder.

So far, there have been 95 police officers killed this year in the line of 
duty, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.

Earlier this month, The Guardian reported the United States was on track for 36 
non-accidental, firearm-related police fatalities in 2015. It would be the 
lowest total in 25 years.

Toomey referenced fatal police shootings of civilians that have led to 
nationwide protests.

"If a police officer breaks the law, then that police officer needs to be 
prosecuted," he said.

The Washington Post has been tracking fatal police shootings this year in the 
United States. As of Friday, the tally was 727.

The Thin Blue Line Act was one of a number of law enforcement topics Toomey 
touched on during his visit.

Toomey lambasted President Obama for restricting the transfer of federal 
surplus military equipment to local law enforcement.

The president said, "It can alienate and intimidate local residents and send 
the wrong message," to which Toomey said, "I couldn't disagree more."

"It's time for us to show we stand with police officers," the senator said.

Toomey said he also discussed the influx of cheap heroin into the Lehigh 
Valley.

"It's a huge criminal justice problem," he said.

(source: lehighvalleylive.com)






NORTH CAROLINA:

North Carolina prosecutors might seek death penalty for Doyle murder


Cheyenne businessman David Doyle died a grisly death earlier this year in his 
posh North Carolina home, and now prosecutors are considering whether the three 
men charged with his murder should face the death penalty.

A court hearing for the 3 men was postponed Thursday while prosecutors 
contemplate whether to seek the highest possible punishment.

Peter Jay Gould, Daniel Demetrius Blakeney and Tardra Eterell Bouknight are 
facing numerous charges related to the July 18 death of Doyle, including 
murder, kidnapping and assault.

Gould reportedly was Doyle's gardener in the upscale Charlotte subdivision of 
RiverPointe and knew Doyle kept a stash of gold in the home.

He met Blakeney and Bouknight, who are cousins, not long before the murder, and 
the 3 decided to make some money by burglarizing Doyle's home.

Doyle is known in Cheyenne for being co-owner of Tyrrell-Doyle Auto Center with 
his stepbrother, Brian Tyrrell. He did business here up until his death, but 
lived full time in North Carolina.

(source: Wyoming Tribune Eagle)






VIRGINIA:

Former Virginia executioner Jerry Givens expresses regret


Jerry Givens, a former Virginia executioner who now opposes capital punishment, 
says he would prefer that people convicted of heinous crimes be sentenced to 
something akin to incarceration for life in "a hole with no windows."

Givens carried out 62 death sentences from 1982 to 1999 as an executioner at a 
state penitentiary in Greensville County.

In recent years, he has received national attention as a vocal opponent of 
capital punishment.

On Thursday he suggested that, instead of executing inmates by electrocution or 
chemical injection, inmates could be sentenced to what still would be labeled 
the "death penalty" but would consist of incarceration until natural death, 
alone in a cell that has no windows, with no visitors allowed.

"You will be incarcerated for the rest of your life ... in a hole with no 
windows," Givens said.

Givens, who spoke at a University of Richmond forum attended by several dozen 
people, suggested the idea in response to an audience member who asked him to 
opine on an alternative to capital punishment.

Although Givens has actively called for an end to the traditional death 
penalty, he said he hasn't actually lobbied for the alternative he suggested 
Thursday.

In February 2010, Givens told the Virginia Senate Courts of Justice Committee: 
"The executioners and the people that participate in these things, they have to 
suffer through this stuff. These things linger on."

On Thursday, he described the particulars of executing a convicted offender. He 
used lethal injections and the electric chair during his 17 years as an 
executioner.

Givens said he believes lethal injection is less humane than the electric chair 
because it's a longer process that paralyzes and eventually kills the inmate.

But he also noted cases in which electrocution has been a lengthy process and 
the inmates didn't die quickly.

Givens described the unscientific approach he used when performing electric 
chair executions. He had to judge how much voltage to use to put convicts to 
death as quickly as possible while causing as little bodily damage as possible.

Givens spent much of Thursday's session focusing on convictions that have been 
overturned, noting that there have been 155 death row inmates who have been 
exonerated since 1973 in the United States.

He said he could have potentially been the executioner of Earl Washington Jr., 
who was sentenced to death for a 1982 rape and murder but was later exonerated 
based on DNA evidence.

"Come to find out, he didn't commit this crime," Givens said of Washington on 
Thursday.

If it wasn't for DNA evidence showing his innocence, Givens said, "we would 
have killed him."

Givens said he met Washington many years later and greeted him with a hug and 
told him that he could have been his executioner if hadn???t been for the DNA 
evidence that led to his exoneration.

"'I'm glad you didn't,'" Givens recalls Washington telling him, to which Givens 
recalls responding: "I'm glad I didn't either."

Givens told audience members Thursday: "I don't know what I would have done if 
I had taken his life."

Givens said that he's not proud of being an executioner but bluntly 
acknowledges that he killed people, though he didn't enjoy doing it, he said.

One audience member questioned Givens' idea of having a "death penalty" in 
which a person is incarcerated and kept in isolation, considering the potential 
negative effects of isolation. Givens said that with his idea, an innocent 
person could at least be released.

"When you take an innocent life, you can't go back and tell the man you're 
sorry," he said.

(source: Richmond Times-Dispatch)






FLORIDA:

Lawyers drop case of Jupiter woman charged with killing girl, 2


2 private defense attorneys withdrew Friday from the case of the Jupiter woman 
who says one of her alternate personalities drowned her 2-year-old daughter on 
Memorial Day last year.

Marc Shiner and Heidi Perlet had represented Kimberly Lucas' since shortly 
after her arrest in the death of Elliana Lucas-Jamason, but on Friday, Shiner 
told Circuit Judge Charles Burton that Lucas' relatives had been overwhelmed by 
the high costs of medical experts and other expenses and could no longer afford 
to pay.

Burton accepted Lucas' claim of indigence and appointed Assistant Public 
Defender Elizabeth Ramsey to take over her case.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Lucas, 41, but her lawyers 
say she suffers from dissociative identity disorder, and one of her alternate 
personalities killed the girl.

Lucas also tried to kill Ethan Lucas-Jamason, the 10-year old son she shared 
with Jacquelyn Jamason, her former partner, by crushing sleeping pills into a 
cup of coffee and getting him to drink it by telling him it would "make him 
grow." The boy survived.

Jamason, a therapist who had been in a civil union with Lucas in a relationship 
that spanned 20 years, said this week she feared a new set of lawyers would 
further delay the trial.

"I don't want to come to court and see her at every hearing, but I'll be there 
every time to fight for my kids, to let them know that I'm not going to go 
away," said Jamason, who calls Elliana her "angel baby."

If the local public defender's office handling of 2 other death 
penalty-insanity defense cases is any indication, Lucas' case could be headed 
for a plea agreement. In those similar high-profile cases, Public Defender 
Carey Haughwout worked out life-in-prison deals with prosecutors.

One was Paul Michael Merhige, who killed his 33-year-old twin sisters, Carla 
Merhige and Lisa Knight, his 6-year-old cousin, Makayla Joy Sitton and his 
aunt, 76-year-old Raymonde Joseph, during a Thanksgiving Day 2007 family 
gathering.

Merhige in October 2011 accepted a plea deal that earned him 7 consecutive life 
sentences for killing the 4 and injuring 3 other relatives.

4 months later, Haughwout and Ramsey worked out a similar agreement for Neal 
Jacobson. The Wellington man received 3 consecutive life sentences for killing 
his wife, Franki, and their 6-year-old twin sons, Eric and Joshua. Jacobson is 
now seeking to withdraw his plea.

As for Lucas, Burton on Friday set her next hearing for Nov. 9.

Lucas' former lawyers in their insanity defense pleading listed Cleveland 
psychiatrist Phillip Resnick as a defense witness. Resnick testified in the 
2002 trial of Andrea Yates, whose initial conviction for drowning her 5 
children in a bathtub in Texas was later overturned. Another jury found her not 
guilty by reason of insanity.

(source: Palm Beach Post)






ALABAMA:

Death row mom petitions to have 2009 conviction set aside


A Franklin County woman on death row in connection with the 2008 death of her 
6-year-old son has filed a petition asking the Franklin County judge who 
sentenced her to death to set aside the conviction.

Christie Michelle Scott, 36, filed a Rule 32 Petition requesting she be 
released from prison because of "ineffective counsel."

Scott was convicted of capital murder in July 2009. She was found guilty of 
starting a fire Aug. 16, 2009, at her family's home on Signore Drive, 
Russellville. Her son, Mason, died in the house fire.

On Aug. 5, Scott became the 1st woman in Franklin County to be sentenced to 
death. Circuit Judge Terry Dempsey overrode the jury's recommendation that she 
be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Records indicate the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, the Alabama Supreme 
Court and the U.S. Supreme Court have all 3 denied direct appeals filed on 
behalf of Scott. According to reports, those appeals were based on rulings of 
the court, and evidentiary issues during the 4-week trial.

In her latest appeal, Scott's petition brings up the issue of ineffective 
counsel throughout the trial. Robert Tuten, a Huntsville attorney, was lead 
counsel during the trial.

The Rule 32 hearing will be heard by Dempsey. No date has been set for the 
hearing.

Also, in her petition, Scott has requested the court appoint an attorney to 
assist her in her appeals.

Franklin County District Attorney Joey Rushing said the Rule 32 Petition is 
another step in Scott's appeal process. He contacted Alabama Attorney General 
Luther Strange's office.

"The attorney general's office will be handling the matter since it involves a 
death penalty sentence, and will be responding to the petition," Rushing said. 
"(The attorney general's office) has handled all the other appeals, so, I'm 
sure they have someone dedicated to this case and are well prepared to file a 
response."

If Dempsey denies the request to set aside the conviction, court officials said 
Scott can appeal that decision to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied in April a petition to review Scott's death 
penalty sentence.

According to reports, the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery filed a 
petition on Scott's behalf asking the U.S. Supreme Court to convert the death 
penalty sentence to life without the possibility of parole.

Alabama Criminal Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court ruling and 
conviction on Oct. 5, 2012.

In September 2014, the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed the decision.

Scott's trial was the longest criminal case tried in Franklin County. She 
testified she had no idea how the fire might have started in the bedroom where 
her son was sleeping.

During the trial, Scott said she tried to get her son out of the house, but 
couldn't because of heat, smoke and fire. She and her younger son escaped by 
jumping from a window. Her husband was out of town when the fire occurred.

During the trial, prosecutors contended Scott started the fire to collect on a 
$100,000 life insurance policy.

Scott is being held on death row at Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in 
Wetumpka.

(source: The Times Daily)