[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., OHIO, OKLA.

[Rick Halperin]

April 22




NORTH CAROLINA:

NC State Bar panel considers innocence rule for prosecutors


A North Carolina State Bar panel seemed to make progress Thursday on the issue 
of whether prosecutors should be required to turn over evidence of innocence 
after a person is convicted.

At issue is a model rule recommended by the American Bar Association that 
requires prosecutors to turn over such evidence. In 2009, North Carolina's 
State Bar rejected the rule, which the ABA says has been adopted in some form 
in 13 states.

The 5-member ethics subcommittee took no votes but appeared to reach a majority 
consensus that all attorneys, not just prosecutors, should be required to turn 
over evidence of innocence.

"If we have evidence that someone is innocent, I think that's a pretty strong 
indictment of our system if we don't try to do something about that," said 
defense attorney Colon Willoughby, a former prosecutor who advises the 
subcommittee.

Acting U.S. Attorney John Bruce took the strongest stance against the rule, 
saying he didn't think it was the job of the ethics commitment to micromanage 
the actions of prosecutors.

"We all believe that innocent people should be free," said Bruce, who said he 
was not on the subcommittee in his official capacity. "I don't think we need to 
draft a rule to send a message."

Defense attorney Brad Bannon asked the State Bar in January to reconsider the 
ABA rule, which requires prosecutors to come forward if they find "new, 
credible and material evidence" that an innocent person is serving time.

"These rules are about protecting the public, including the most vulnerable 
members of the public, who are people in prison who shouldn't be there," Bannon 
said.

He and several other attorneys proposed specific language for North Carolina 
that differs from the ABA rule, including a "safe harbor" provision that 
protects prosecutors who conclude "in good faith" that the evidence isn't new 
"even if this conclusion is later determined to have been erroneous."

It also requires only that prosecutors disclose new evidence, not that they 
investigate it or remedy the situation.

Advocates call a Buncombe County murder case a prime example of why North 
Carolina needs the rule. 5 innocent men served prison terms in connection with 
a murder they didn't commit.

Another man confessed in 2003 and implicated an accomplice whose DNA was 
eventually found on masks and bandanas near the scene. The district attorney 
said in a deposition that he didn't believe the confession and he never saw the 
DNA evidence, although the report from the State Bureau of Investigation 
indicated it was copied to the DA.

The 5 recently received a total $8 million for their wrongful convictions. Some 
of them had pleaded guilty to avoid the threat of the death penalty in a home 
invasion murder in 2000.

"I honestly don't see any moral, ethical grounds to say 'I'm going to sit on 
information even though an innocent person may be in prison even though all I 
have to do is send it to IDS (Indigent Defense Services) or send it to the 
defense lawyer," David Rudolf, who represented 1 of the 5 Buncombe County men 
in a civil lawsuit, told the subcommittee.

The subcommittee didn't set a date for its next meeting. The panel is just the 
1st step in a lengthy process that - if the rule is approved at each step - 
involves the full ethics committee, public comment, the full State Bar Council 
and finally, the State Supreme Court.

(source: Associated Press)






OHIO:

Girlfriend of accused East Cleveland serial killer described 'deep scratches' 
in his face


The girlfriend of accused East Cleveland serial killer Michael Madison's told a 
jury Thursday that he showed up at her house with scratches on his face around 
the time police believe he killed 18-year-old Shirellda Terry.

Madison is on trial for the murder of three women, Terry along with Shatisha 
Sheeley, 28, and Angela Deskins, 38, whose bodies were found near his apartment 
in July 2013. Thursday featured the 4th full day of testimony in what is 
expected to be a month-long trial. Madison faces the death penalty if 
convicted.

Madison's former girlfriend, Shawnte Mahone, told the jury that she often slept 
with Madison in the months and days leading up to his arrest. She met Madison 
in October 2012.

Mahone said she asked him what happened when he showed up at the door with 
deep, fresh scratches on his face that July.

"He said he got into a fight and a girl jumped in and scratched his face," 
Mahone said. Madison told her that he got in a fight while taking his car to a 
repair shop.

In the days that followed, Mahone said that Madison's apartment began to smell 
like sewage. Madison told her that he thought an animal died, and he lit 
incense throughout the apartment in an attempt to cover up the smell.

Less than 2 weeks later, police found Terry's body inside Madison's garage, 
along with evidence that he had kept the body inside a hallway closet.

The day Terry's body was discovered, Madison was staying at Mahone's home about 
seven houses away from his apartment at the corner Hayden and Shaw avenues.

The accused killer was arrested later that day after a SWAT standoff at his 
mother's home in Cleveland.

The trial continued with prosecutors showed the jury a series of photographs 
taken of Terry's body after it was recovered and removed from the plastic 
garbage bags. Madison had tied the girls neck and angles together with a belt.

The defendant, who has watched much of the trial, kept his face down as the 
photographs were shown onscreen.

The jury was also shown the first minutes of a 10-hour long interrogation that 
was taped shortly after Madison's arrest. The presentation of Madison's 
interrogation will continue Friday.

(source: cleveland.com)






OKLAHOMA:

Murder jury told of brothers' abuse -- Wrong one accused, defense claims


Witnesses in the trial of a man accused of killing a Fort Smith woman began 
testifying Thursday in support of the defense theory that his brother committed 
the crime.

Randy Studie, a cousin of Elvis Aaron Thacker and his brother, Johnathen, 
testified before a LeFlore County, Okla., District Court jury that when the 
brothers were younger, they were mistreated by male friends of their mother, 
Marsha Gregory.

When they were 5 or 6, Studie said, he recalled them being locked in their 
bedrooms. Ropes were tied to the doorknobs and boards were nailed across the 
doors to keep them secure.

At times, he said, Elvis Thacker was made to stand in the corner all day. At 
other times, if all three brothers -- including William Thacker -- were 
fighting, Elvis Thacker would be singled out for punishment.

Studie said he never saw Gregory kiss Elvis, but she would give candy to 
Johnathen and hold him up to the other siblings as her favorite.

The brothers' uncle, Tommy Osman, testified that when the brothers were 
younger, they often asked if he would take them home to live with him and his 
wife because of the abusive situation in which they lived.

He said he and his wife believed the brothers were starved because when they 
visited Osman's farm, and at other times, they told him that they were hungry.

Osman said he noticed that as Johnathen Thacker grew older, he seemed to become 
depressed and would say that he wanted to die.

Elvis Thacker is on trial on charges of first-degree murder and forcible rape 
in the Sept. 13, 2010, death of Briana Ault, 22, at a secluded pond in Pocola, 
Okla., just across the state line from Fort Smith in Arkansas. Her throat was 
cut.

Oklahoma is seeking the death penalty for Thacker.

Johnathen Thacker also was charged in the case with his brother but pleaded 
guilty to 1st-degree murder in April 2014 in exchange for his testimony against 
his brother and to avoid the death penalty. He testified last week that he 
believed he will be sentenced after Elvis Thacker's trial to life in prison 
without parole.

The lead attorney in Elvis Thacker's defense, Gretchen Mosley with the Oklahoma 
Indigent Defense System, told jurors she believes Johnathen Thacker killed Ault 
and blamed his brother.

She said the defense contended Johnathen was obsessed with sex and had wanted 
to be a serial killer since he was 12 as a result of the psychological trauma 
he developed from his abusive upbringing.

Both he and his brother used Elvis Thacker's cellphone, Mosley said, and 
Johnathen Thacker used it to ask Ault to leave a bar and give him a ride to 
Texas Road where he directed her to the pond.

Elvis Thacker was recovering from a broken leg he suffered in a traffic 
accident a month earlier and could not have moved around as Johnathen Thacker 
testified he did in committing the slaying, Mosley has told jurors.

A former neighbor when the brothers lived together at the Holly Avenue 
Apartments in south Fort Smith, Jesse Shipman, testified that Elvis Thacker 
always took care of his brother like a father but that the larger Johnathen 
Thacker was hard to control.

Shipman said Johnathen Thacker once became angry and almost hit Elvis Thacker 
after trying to cash a paycheck stub of his brother's at a bank thinking it was 
an actual check. But Elvis Thacker, as usual, was able to calm him down and get 
him under control, Shipman said.

Elvis Thacker didn't trust his brother and was concerned about him, Shipman 
said. He said Johnathen Thacker would spend money on beer and cigarettes that 
Elvis Thacker had given him to buy necessities.

Joyce Thompson, an employee at Southern Steel and Wire Co. in south Fort Smith 
at the time of Ault's death, testified that she saw a car, later identified as 
Ault's Chevrolet Cavalier, speed by the plant on Tulsa Street. It was before 
dawn, she said, but she couldn't recall the day or year.

She said she thought the car was going too fast to make the turn where Tulsa 
Street ended at the end of the block.

She said she heard a boom as the car hit chunks of concrete where the street 
turned into a short overgrown track and saw that the vehicle was on fire. As 
she grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran out the door, she said, she saw one 
person running from the scene.

In cross examination, First Assistant District Attorney Margaret Nicholson 
confronted Thompson with her interview that was videotaped by a Fort Smith 
police officer Sept. 13, 2010, when Ault's car was found burning blocks from 
where the Thacker brothers were staying.

Johnathen Thacker testified the brothers ditched the car there after driving 
away from the pond where they had left Ault's body.

In the 2010 interview, Thompson said she saw the car go by too fast, but went 
back to work and noticed nothing else until she heard firetrucks arrive.

(source: arkansasonline.com)