[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., TENN., IND., MO., OKLA., COLO., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 29



TEXAS:

Terrell man found guilty in 2013 killing spree----Man convicted of killing mom 
in murder spree


A man was found guilty in a 2013 Terrell killing spree that claimed the lives 
of 5 people, including his mother, his aunt, and a convenience store clerk.

It took a Kaufman County jury just 20 minutes to find Charles Brownlow Jr. 
guilty Thursday morning in the killing of the clerk. They rejected his defense 
team's contention that he had been insane at the time of the killings.

A jury is now hearing testimony to determine his sentence.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the Oct. 28, 2013 killing spree 
that claimed the lives of his mother, Mary Brownlow; his aunt, Belinda Walker; 
an acquaintance who was a fellow Terrell High alum, Jason Wooden, 33; Woodens' 
girlfriend, Kellye Lynnette Sluder; and convenience store clerk Luis 
Leal-Carrillo.

The punishment phase of the trial is expected to last at least a week. 
Testimony resumes Monday afternoon.

"He took somebody precious off the face of this earth that I love, that loved 
us, that I'm sure he loved to," said his brother, Terrence Walker. "I don't 
understand how you can take somebody off this earth that loves you and does 
everything for and provides for you... But not only her, but my aunt, and all 
the other 3 victims that were impacted by this situation."

Dressed in a suit Thursday, Brownlow acted nonchalant and even waved at the 
media as he was escorted by the Kaufman County sheriff's deputies. He looked 
very different than the sweaty, half-naked man taken into custody by the 
authorities in 2013.

As they seek the death penalty, prosecutors are portraying Brownlow as a 
predator with a history of violence dating back 2 decades. Among those 
testifying was a woman who said he got her drunk and then raped her when she 
was 13 in a Terrell motel room in 1996.

"He got on top of me and he put himself inside me. [...] I told him it hurt 
really bad. I said, 'Stop. Stop,'" the woman said.

She said she dropped the charges after her family began receiving threatening 
phone calls.

"The way I looked at men for a very long time was not very good. I could not 
trust anyone," she said. "I blamed myself for a long time, thinking I had done 
something wrong when I didn't. I was a child."

For decades, Brownlow was in out and out of trouble with the law.

Then came that fateful day in October 2013.

It was a killing spree that stretched over hours and multiple bloody, horrific 
scenes.

His 55-year-old aunt's body was the first to be found in her home, east of 
downtown Terrell. She had been shot in the head.

A short time later, firefighters saw flames coming out of the home that 
Brownlow shared with his mother. She was found in her bedroom and her body had 
been set on fire. Her car was missing and police launched a manhunt looking for 
him.

After killing his mother and aunt, Brownlow also paid a visit to an 
acquaintance. He asked the friend where the party was, but was asked to leave 
when he insulted the acquaintance's girlfriend.

Brownlow showed back up later, forcing way into the home as they barricaded 
themselves in the bedroom. Brownlow managed to get his hand in the door and 
began firing a gun while they hid under a king-size mattress.

The acquaintance and his girlfriend were the only victims to survive the 
rampage.

>From there, about 5 hours after the initial killings, Brownlow's classmate 
Jason Wooden and his girlfriend were shot in their home in the presence of 
their then-3-year-old son.

Afterwards, surveillance video showed Brownlow walking into a Mexican 
restaurant in Terrell. Witness said he was wearing a football jersey, mumbling 
to himself, and asked to see someone before he left without further incident.

About 15 minutes later, Brownlow entered the Ali's Market on U.S. Highway 80.

Police say he took a single can of Bud Light from the convenience store after 
shooting Leal-Carrillo, 22, in the forehead. The clerk did not know Brownlow.

An off-duty sergeant who was working an security job heard radio traffic about 
the shootings, and spotted Brownlow's mother's car and the suspect inside the 
store. It appeared to the officer that Brownlow was buying something. He did 
not realize the clerk had been shot.

The off-duty sergeant tailed Brownlow as he left, providing information to 
on-duty officers. That led to a high-speed chase through town.

Brownlow wrecked his mother's car, fled on foot, and was captured hours later, 
hiding in a creek.

A former girlfriend of Brownlow, who is the mother of his 17-year-old daughter, 
testified that Brownlow's mother doted on her daughter. She also said 
Brownlow's mother was very protective of him and sheltered him, although she 
had told her that he was "acting crazy."

"She was always taking up for him," the former girlfriend said.

Walker, Brownlow's brother, said their mother did everything for his younger 
brother. He said his brother rarely had a job and was a drug user.

He says he's visited Brownlow once since his arrest in the killings.

"He talked to him once and he didn't want to talk, so I didn't go back," he 
said. "He has to be held accountable, and if that means the death penalty, then 
that's what it means."

(source: WFAA news)






NORTH CAROLINA:

DA to ask judge for death penalty in case of man found burned in hotel


If a judge approves, the Guilford County District Attorney's Office intends to 
seek the death penalty in a high-profile slaying of a former city worker 
accused of setting fire to a hotel room with a man inside.

Garry Joseph Gupton, 27, of 1312 Wiley Lewis Road, is charged with 1st-degree 
murder and 1st-degree arson in the death of Stephen Patrick White, 46, of 1722 
Aftonshire Drive.

The district attorney's office announced in court filings that it will seek the 
death penalty in the case on two factors, according to Howard Neumann, chief 
prosecutor with the district attorney's office. The factors are that the 
slaying was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel and the death was committed 
during an arson.

The hearing to determine whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty 
against Gupton will be scheduled during the week of May 16 in Guilford County 
Superior Court.

Gupton and White met at Chemistry nightclub Nov. 8, 2014 in Greensboro, then 
went to the Battleground Inn at 1517 Westover Terrace, police said. White was 
found assaulted and burned in a 4th-story room of the hotel in the early hours 
of Nov. 9. He died from complications of his injuries at Wake Forest Baptist 
Medical Center on Nov. 15, 2014.

According to court documents, Gupton activated the fire alarm at the 
Battleground Inn, then ran screaming throughout the hotel. When responding 
police officers arrived to talk to Gupton they saw smoke coming from a room 
officers later learned had been rented by White, documents stated.

In a publicly released 911 call made by a hotel employee, the caller says a 
man, later identified as Gupton, is running around the hotel shirtless and, 
"just flipped out." He can be heard in the background yelling obscenities.

During the investigation, Gupton told police, "he believed he was possibly 
given an unknown drug that altered his mental state," according court 
documents. He had his blood drawn at Wesley Long Hospital and sent to the N.C. 
State Crime Lab for testing. It's not known publicly what the results are.

Responding officers tried to enter the hotel room where White was unconscious, 
but the smoke was too heavy, according to court documents. Firefighters went in 
and found White on the floor of the room with severe burns.

Firefighters said, "There were items, possibly items of furniture, laying on 
top of (White) when they found him," court documents state. White had 
significant trauma to his head.

Neumann has said it appeared White had also been struck with a telephone, TV 
and other furniture.

White was initially brought to Moses Cone Hospital for his injuries, then taken 
to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Both of his arms were partially 
amputated because of his wounds.

Gupton was initially charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to 
kill for White's injuries. When White died on Nov. 15, 2014, the charge was 
upgraded to 1st-degree murder. The district attorney's office has since 
dismissed the assault charge due to the murder charge, according to court 
documents.

The case has garnered wide interest in part because Gupton was employed by the 
city of Greensboro in the water resources department. The city fired him on 
Nov. 16, 2014. The case has also generated national interest from the gay 
community. Police and the district attorney's have determined White's death was 
not a hate crime.

(source: Greensboro News & Record)






TENNESSEE:

Death penalty trial opens in killing of Memphis motel clerk


17 years after he was sentenced to death in the killing of 45-year-old Ricci 
Ellsworth, Michael Rimmer walked into Shelby County Criminal Court and sat 
beside his attorneys.

Rimmer's new trial, which was ordered in 2012, opened Thursday. The trial comes 
after a judge found Rimmer's defense counsel, both in 1998 and at a later 
resentencing, failed to effectively investigate the capital case. Shelby County 
Criminal Court Judge James Beasley Jr., a former prosecutor, found that the 
Shelby County lawyer who prosecuted Rimmer, Thomas Henderson, "purposefully 
misled" Rimmer's defense counsel about evidence.

Ellsworth disappeared in February 1997 from the Memphis Inn near Interstate 40 
and Sycamore View where she was a night clerk. Her body was never found. Large 
amounts of blood and the ring she always wore were found in the employee 
bathroom.

"Revenge and robbery," said Pam Anderson, of the Davidson County District 
Attorney's office, who is one of the prosecutors of the retrial. "That's what 
this case is about."

In 1989, Rimmer raped Ellsworth and was sent to prison, Anderson said.

Ellsworth forgave him and visited him in prison.

"She was a very forgiving woman," Anderson said.

While incarcerated, Rimmer talked to another inmate about Ellsworth. He felt 
she owed him money, Anderson said. In 1996, before he was released from prison, 
he told another inmate he planned to kill her and talked about how to dispose 
of a body, Anderson said.

"February 8, 1997, was the last time that anyone saw Ricci Lynn Ellsworth 
alive," Anderson said.

Her son and daughter never heard from her again.

On Feb. 8, 1997, between about 8:30 and 9 a.m., Rimmer came to his brother's 
house. He was muddy and had a shovel, Anderson said. The backseat was wet. The 
brother dumped the shovel and it was never seen again, Anderson said.

Rimmer was stopped March 5, 1997, in Johnson County, Indiana for speeding. 
Blood consistent with the female offspring of Ellsworth's mother was found in 
the car.

Ellsworth was kind-hearted, said her sister, Dianne Faulk.

"We were devastated by my sister's murder," she said.

Faulk said there is "no doubt in any of our minds and hearts, that he did kill 
her."

Defense attorney Paul Bruno said two people had something to do with what 
happened to Ellsworth, but neither were Rimmer.

"There is actually no definitive proof that she's deceased," Bruno said.

Bruno said one of the inmates who came forward with information against Rimmer 
had been convicted of eight felony drug offenses. Another had a lengthy history 
of forgery and a conviction for voluntary manslaughter.

Bruno said a credible witness, an Army sergeant named James Darnell, had been 
at the motel and saw two men who did not fit Rimmer's description with blood on 
their hands. Darnell saw a person put something heavy into the trunk of car. 
The object was wrapped in something cloth-like.

Bruno said Darnell described 2 men and a composite sketch was printed in The 
Commercial Appeal.

A lady in Arkansas identified one as Billy Wayne Voyles. Police put together a 
photo lineup with 44 white males, including Rimmer in jail clothing and a hat, 
Bruno said.

"Of 44 people, who does he pick out? Billy Wayne Voyles," Bruno said. He did 
not pick out Rimmer.

Bruno said the second person in the composite sketch had a full head of hair. 
While Rimmer, who looked similar in 1997 as he does today, is bald on the top 
of his head, Bruno said.

(source: Commercial Appeal)






INDIANA:

DNA evidence in Vann case cited in judge's ruling


Prosecutors allege that a suspected serial killer used the same pair of gloves 
to clean up crime scenes.

A swab taken from the outside of the gloves was consistent with the DNA profile 
of Afrika Hardy and included a mixture of DNA from two other people, according 
to court records.

The information about the DNA evidence was included in Lake County Criminal 
Judge Samuel Cappas' findings of fact and conclusion of law when he recently 
ruled that Darren Vann will be tried during one jury trial on charges accusing 
him of strangling to death Hardy and Anith Jones.

Vann has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder. The Lake County prosecutor's 
office is seeking the death penalty against him.

In court last week, Cappas briefly indicated that he denied the defense's 
motion to separate the cases, which would have required 2 jury trials.

Vann's attorneys argued in their motion to sever the cases, because he could be 
convicted in one of the homicides based on evidence from the other homicide, 
based on the complexity of the evidence. They also argued the state's theories 
as to the motives in the homicides were distinct.

In Cappas' findings, it states the investigation into Vann produced overlapping 
evidence such as the statements he made to police and DNA found on a brown cord 
that is consistent with the DNA profiles for Hardy and Jones.

A swab taken from Vann's shoe also indicated there was a mixture of at least 
three people. According to court records, one of the profiles is consistent 
with Jones' DNA profile.

The ruling also states that there wasn't enough reasoning to indicate that the 
evidence was so complex it would confuse jurors.

Cappas determined the alleged acts were of "similar conduct and a series of 
acts connected together or constituted parts of a single scheme or plan," 
according to court records.

Among the similarities are that Hardy and Jones used backpage.com while working 
as prostitutes. The women also were killed within 10 days of each other in 
low-income areas, were paid to have sex, were strangled with a brown cord and 
had their cell phone stolen from them, according to court records.

Hardy, 19, had arranged to meet Vann at a Hammond motel room, according to 
court records. She was found strangled to death Oct. 17, 2014, inside the 
motel.

When Hammond detectives questioned Vann, he allegedly confessed to killing 
Hardy along with 6 other women, which included Jones, 35, of Merrillville. Her 
body was found in an abandoned home in Gary.

In a separate capital case, Vann faces murder charges in the homicides of 
Teaira Batey, Kristine Williams, Tracy L. Martin, Sonya Billingsley and Tanya 
Gatlin. He also has 2 other pending criminal cases in front of Cappas.

His next court hearing is scheduled for May 20.

(source: nwitimes.com)






MISSOURI:

For Joe Amrine, Life 13 Years After Being Freed From Death Row Is Tough, But 
Worth It


On Monday, July 28, 2003, Joe Amrine was released from prison, after serving 17 
years on death row for a murder he did not commit.

4 days later, shell-shocked from his first few days of freedom and swarms of 
media attention, Amrine appeared on KCUR's Up To Date with Steve Kraske, 
wearing sunglasses.

"I didn't want people to see the fear in my eyes," Amrine says.

Amrine returned to Up To Date this week to give a glimpse of what life looks 
like for him after 13 years of freedom.

"I'm still shell shocked," he told Kraske.

He describes the fear that he still feels everyday, fears that are different 
than the ones he had immediately after his release.

"I'm scared of not doing what I should do, I'm scared I'm not going to amount 
to what I should amount to, I'm really scared that my situation is just going 
to be forgotten," he says.

Back in 1985, Amrine was given the death sentence for stabbing a fellow inmate 
at the state prison in Jefferson City to death. The supreme court overturned 
his conviction in April, 2003 and he was released a few months later.

Amrine says life for him now has more down than ups.

"Being locked up 26 years has a lot of baggage with it. Getting back into 
society, dealing with my inner self. It's hard to find a job, it's hard to be a 
relationship ... it's like Rip Van Winkle," he says.

After his release, Amrine didn't receive any assistance from the state, other 
than a $14 check that was leftover from his commissary account while in prison. 
He gave that check to his brother, who still has it today.

Sean O'Brien is the attorney who helped Amrine get his conviction overturned. 
The irony of Amrine's situation, he says, is that Amrine would be better off 
now had he plead guilty and been released on parole. That way, he would have a 
parole officer helping him get public assistance to get reestablished in 
society.

"As an innocent person, unless you can find someone at fault who you can sue, 
and overcome this really difficult governmental immunity doctrine, then you 
don't get anything, O'Brien says.

Amrine says he's harbored a lot of animosity towards the state of Missouri, but 
he's trying to let that go. He says he only wants one thing from the state.

"I actually went on record and said that the only thing that the state of 
Missouri owed me was an apology, and that was 13 years ago and I still haven't 
gotten it. Actually, I just feel like the state of Missouri, to me, it's like 
still trying to keep me down," he says.

"Because I have nothing, I have no support."

Still, he reiterates how much he loves life and loves his freedom.

Amrine came close to being executed four times during the 17 years he spent on 
death row, but he says his lowest point came when he was watching the news on 
the day of a fellow inmate's execution. He says the 1st story on the news was 
about a protest against animal cruelty that drew more than 50,000 people.

"The very next segment was the execution and the 7 people who was [sic] outside 
protesting. And I'm like, 50,000 people show up to protest animal cruelty, 7 
people came out to protest this man's execution. That really hit home for me," 
Amrine says.

Amrine fears that he's not doing enough in the fight to abolish the death 
penalty, but keeping up the the daily struggles of his new life is already a 
persistent battle.

He got his GED and a paralegal certificate, which he hasn't been able to use 
because of difficulties getting a job. Right now, he's working at Habitat For 
Humanity for $7 an hour. He doesn't have a cell phone - too confusing, he says 
- and he admits he isn't great at saving money. Instead, he usually spends it 
all buying things for his nieces and nephews.

"I don't sense the value of money ... People make fun of me ... I get a lot of 
pleasure out of that, helping my nieces and my nephews, or just helping people, 
period. I feel my life was saved for that reason," he says.

Amrine's sister tells him that at nearly 60 years old, he's still a work in 
progress, and he agrees - there's still a lot left for him to do in his life, 
and he's grateful every day for that opportunity.

(source: KCUR news)



OKLAHOMA:

Defense in LeFlore County murder trial in question


The 1st-degree murder trial of Elvis Thacker took a turn Thursday in the 
LeFlore County Courthouse when the prosecution argued against a new defense 
strategy of the accused being an "accessory to the murder after the fact."

The 6-man, 6-woman jury will receive instructions today from District Judge 
Jonathan K. Sullivan on exactly how they may proceed in deciding the fate of 
the 28-year-old Cedarville man accused, along with his younger brother 
Johnathen Thacker, 27, in the September 2010, slaying of Briana Ault of Fort 
Smith.

Multi-district issues surfaced Thursday in the "accessory" defense due to 
"conduct that was made in Arkansas," Sullivan said as part of the responses to 
First Assistant District Attorney Margaret S. Nicholson's rebuttal in which at 
least 2 defense objections were sustained on the basis of "confrontation clause 
violations."

Essentially, the judge said, if Elvis Thacker was an "accessory in another 
state" then it is out of Oklahoma's jurisdiction.

The defense's expert witness, forensic scientist Brent E. Turvey of Sitka, 
Alaska, testified Wednesday there was no evidence the murder was committed at a 
pond in Pocola off Texas Road where the body was found by a fisherman. A family 
member testified that Elvis never left his apartment the 2 days before and 
after the murder.

There also was no evidence, Turvey said, that 2 people committed the murder and 
it was most likely one person. Ault's car was found burning by a janitor at 
Southern Steel & Wire in Fort Smith and only 1 person was seen running from the 
vehicle by the janitor and surveillance video. Elvis Thacker was not able to 
run at the time, according to several family members, who said that Elvis 
Thacker had been in a leg brace and had a torn ligament from a truck wreck a 
month prior to the slaying.

Cellphone records showed that the Thackers had been in contact with Ault the 
night she was killed. Police were also led to the Thackers in an unrelated rape 
claim, which later was not substantiation. The phone was in Elvis' name. 
Johnathen Thacker did not have a job.

Gretchen Mosley of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System has said in opening 
arguments April 12 that her client, Elvis Thacker, is innocent of the crime and 
previous confessions were made under duress to get medial attention or stay 
alive. Turvey claims what police did to him were "torture." There was also no 
evidence of a rape of Ault, Turvey said, and he indicated that post-mortem 
mutilations of the body were indicative of a budding serial killer. The defense 
claims Johnathen Thacker acted alone in the murder and had solicited sex from 
his sister and mother in prison letters.

"It's not a lesser defense," Mosely said of the "accessory" claim in rebuttal 
exchanges. "In Oklahoma, the criteria can be met. Multiple jurisdiction is 
coming together to undermine the right of a fair trial."

To Mosley's question "if he is acquitted here, what about Arkansas?" Sullivan 
replied "I have no jurisdiction there."As it stands, Elvis Thacker's jury might 
be only getting instructions today for either charging the accused with 
1st-degree murder or to acquit him.

The younger Thacker pleaded guilty to murder in April 2014 but has yet to be 
sentenced. Having made a deal to avoid the death penalty, Johnathen Thacker 
testified against his brother earlier in the trial this month. Both of the 
Thackers are being held at the LeFlore County Detention Center.

Elvis Thacker, faces the death penalty if convicted in a crime that has caused 
more than 5 years of emotional turmoil and suffering for the Ault family. 
Bethany Ault-Pyle of Fort Smith, mother of the late Briana Ault, formed a 
support group for families grieving relatives lost to murder. Homicide 
Survivors United meets at 6:30 p.m. the 2nd and 4th Thursday each month at 
Central Chrisitan Church in Fort Smith.

(source: Times Record)






COLORADO:

Planned Parenthood shooting suspect due in Colorado court for competency 
hearing


A man accused of fatally shooting 3 people and wounding nine others at a 
Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado last year is set to return to court on 
Thursday for a hearing to determine if he is mentally competent enough to fire 
his lawyers.

Robert Lewis Dear, 58, has said he wants to represent himself against multiple 
charges of murder and attempted murder, after previously declaring he was 
guilty and calling himself a "warrior for the babies" at a hearing in December.

El Paso County District Court Judge Gilbert Martinez ordered the South Carolina 
native to undergo a competency examination after Dear said at previous hearings 
he wanted to dismiss his lawyers.

Those attorneys have since said in court papers that evaluators concluded Dear 
was mentally incompetent, but it is up to Martinez to rule whether the case can 
proceed and if Dear can represent himself.

If the judge rules Dear is mentally unfit, the case will be suspended while he 
undergoes treatment at the state mental hospital until he is restored to 
competency.

Dear has been held without bond at the El Paso County jail since he surrendered 
on Nov. 27 at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs following a 
5-hour siege in which 3 people were killed, including a police officer, and 9 
others suffered gunshot wounds. It marked the 1st deadly attack on a U.S. 
abortion provider since 2009.

Dear, who police said was armed with several rifles and opened fire in the 
parking lot of the clinic before storming the building, told detectives after 
his arrest that he was upset with Planned Parenthood for performing abortions 
and what he said was the "selling of body parts," the documents showed.

Among those scheduled to testify at Thursday's hearing include a detective who 
interviewed Dear after his arrest and at least one of the mental health 
evaluators who examined Dear, a onetime self-employed art dealer who lived in 
Hartsel, Colorado.

District Attorney Dan May said he would not announce whether he would seek the 
death penalty until some time after Dear formally enters a plea.

(source: rawstory.com)






CALIFORNIA:

North Hills man eligible for death penalty after charge in wife's death


A 69-year-old North Hills man was charged with murder Thursday in connection 
with his wife???s death weeks after he was charged in his son's death, making 
him now eligible for the death penalty, prosecutors announced Thursday.

Prosecutors allege that Shehada Issa killed his wife Rabihah Issa, 68, with a 
knife sometime between March 27 and March 29. The matriarch was found dead in 
the bathroom of the home with multiple stab wounds on March 29, according to 
authorities.

Issa was charged earlier this month with the slaying of his 38-year-old son 
Amir Issa, who lived in the back of the family's house and was shot in the head 
and torso outside the home.

Issa told police at the time that he shot his son in self-defense and claimed 
that his son had killed his mother.

However, Operations-Valley Bureau Homicide Detective Rich Wheeler said in a 
previous interview that investigators believe the father may have killed the 
son to cover up his wife's death.

The case has attracted national headlines because prosecutors also charged Issa 
with a hate crime, alleging that he killed his son because he is gay and had 
threatened to kill him on prior occasions for that same reason. However, LAPD 
detectives have said they don't believe that was the primary factor in the 
man's killing.

Issa, who is being held without bail, is scheduled to be arraigned on May 17 at 
the San Fernando Courthouse.

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

Homeless man could face death penalty in 7-Eleven stabbings that killed clerk


A homeless parolee pleaded not guilty Thursday to murdering a Valley Village 
convenience store clerk and to trying to kill the clerk's girlfriend after 
allegedly trying to steal a sandwich and beer from the store.

Hasaan Blunt, 42, is charged with murder in the March 25 stabbing of Washi 
Uddin Ahmed, 55, of North Hollywood, along with the attempted murder of Ahmed's 
girlfriend, also a clerk at the 7-Eleven store at Laurel Canyon and Chandler 
boulevards.

The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegation of murder during 
the commission of a robbery. Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the 
death penalty against Blunt.

He also is charged with 2 felony counts of 2nd-degree robbery and 3 misdemeanor 
counts of vandalism of vehicle tires with under $400 damage.

Blunt allegedly slashed the tires on 3 vehicles before going into the store, 
grabbed a sandwich and beer and walked out without paying, according to 
prosecutors.

Blunt allegedly stabbed the clerks after they chased him outside the store and 
confronted him, according to prosecutors.

The criminal complaint alleges that Blunt was convicted in 1998 of assault with 
a deadly weapon, battery causing serious injury and assault with a deadly 
weapon by a state prison inmate.

He is being held without bail and is due back in a Van Nuys courtroom June 21, 
when a date is scheduled to be set for a hearing to determine if there is 
enough evidence to require him to stand trial.

(source for both: Los Angeles Daily News)

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

Father who confessed to killing his son is charged in wife's death


A 69-year-old man was charged Thursday with fatally stabbing his wife at their 
North Hills home before shooting their son to death, prosecutors said.

Shehada Issa faces 2 counts of willful, deliberate and premeditated murder with 
a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, Deputy Dist. Atty. Emily 
Cole said.

Issa is accused of killing his wife, Rabihah Shibi Issa, 68, with a knife on or 
between March 27 and 29, according to the charging document.

The complaint also includes a special allegation that Issa intentionally fired 
a shotgun, which killed his son, Amir Issa, 38, as well as a hate crime 
allegation. Amir Issa was gay, authorities said.

Authorities said officers arriving at the home late last month walked into a 
gruesome scene: The son's body lay outside the house, while the wife's body was 
found inside a bathroom.

Police said the condition of the wife's body indicated that she may have been 
dead "for a while" before her son was shot. LAPD Officer Mike Lopez said she 
was "stabbed numerous times."

Shehada Issa told police that he had shot his son but said it was in 
self-defense, according to detectives. He told police that he had heard noises 
inside the home and, suspecting a burglar, grabbed a shotgun only to find 
himself confronted by his son, who he said threatened him with a knife.

Turmoil appears to have reigned behind closed doors at the Issa home since Amir 
moved back in with his parents, which neighbors said occurred within the last 2 
years.

LAPD Sgt. Greg Bruce said officers had been called to the home to help evict 
Amir, whose parents were attempting to sell the house against their son's 
wishes. The son had even vandalized the house, according to police.

A neighbor who lived across the street from the Issas for 15 years said Shehada 
Issa complained to him about what he described as his son's problems with drugs 
and mental illness.

"He was a good guy. The son was a bad guy," Joel Munoz said. "I'm so sorry for 
the old man."

Those problems were evident, among other places, on Amir Issa's Facebook page.

In his last post, 10 days before his death, he said he worried that his 
parents, brother and sister were "literally controlling me in my sleep" and 
that "they tell people to rape and molest me and make it seem like I enjoy 
that."

Shehada Issa's arraignment is scheduled for May 17 at the Los Angeles County 
Superior Court's San Fernando branch. He is being held without bail.

If convicted, he faces the death penalty or life in prison without the 
possibility of parole.

(source: Los Angeles Times)






USA:

Is the death penalty moral?----In Franklin Lakes, a Jewish look at capital 
punishment


There are some hot-button issues that can destroy friendships - abortion, gun 
control, immigration, to name just a toxic few.

There are other issues that are just as important, just as emotional, and that 
seesaw just as precariously on the knife edge dividing justice and mercy, but 
for some reason allow people to discuss and disagree without thinking that 
people on the other side are inhuman brutes.

For some hard-to-pinpoint reason, the death penalty seems to be in that 2nd 
category. Reasonable people can disagree civilly - and in fact reasonable 
people at times break with the consistency of their own political positions as 
they take their own stands.

On May 9, Rabbi Joseph Prouser's Moral Literacy series will tackle the question 
of the death penalty, asking such questions as who is bad enough to deserve it, 
who is good enough to impose it, and what does Jewish law and tradition say 
about it.

Rabbi Prouser, who heads the Conservative Temple Emanuel of North Jersey in 
Franklin Lakes, is a registered Republican and describes himself as "pretty 
conservative. But I really break with conservative thinking on this issue. I am 
absolutely opposed to capital punishment."

It is not a live issue in New Jersey, he conceded. Capital punishment has not 
been legal here on the state level since 2007, although it still is possible in 
federal cases. No one has been executed in New Jersey since 1963. But it is 
both legal and not infrequent in other parts of the country.

And, of course, "this debate is an area that shows that Jewish tradition has an 
important voice to contribute to the moral discussion," he said. "Jewish 
tradition has evolved in a way that should be heard by everyone. We have an 
important perspective to share with other Americans in this debate, but it's 
not being heard, because Jews instinctively keep these debates internal, so it 
becomes just a Jewish debate.

"We are reluctant to have a public voice on the big questions, although we have 
well developed and evolved things to say. Our voice generally isn't heard by 
the American public because we don't raise it. Jewish morality has been an 
internal Jewish issue, and we haven't felt authorized to impose our perspective 
on the broader public."

His own view, which "I have held my entire adult life, has been shaped by 
Jewish sacred texts and Jewish tradition," he said. "The Torah certainly 
prescribes capital punishment for all sorts of things, from Sabbath violations 
to high crimes, but the rabbis so dramatically limited our ability to impose 
capital punishment that they rendered it virtually nonexistent." Citing the 
talmudic idea that a Sanhedrin - the Jewish court of that period - that oversaw 
one execution in 7 years (or others say, in 70 years) was a "bloody Sanhedrin," 
"the rabbis understood that the kind of perfect moral perspective that is 
required to take human life is not accessible to us," Rabbi Prouser said. "It 
is ideologically presumptuous to take human life when there are other options 
available. Doing so in the heat of combat is different, and even targeted 
assassinations of people plotting a terrorist attack is different, but when you 
have someone who already is imprisoned, you have options. There is no immediate 
compelling moral need to take their lives."

Then, he added, there always is the chance that when you sentence someone to 
death, you'll get it wrong. "Israel has sentenced two criminals to death," he 
said. One was Adolf Eichmann, the absolutely and horrifically guilty Nazi mass 
murderer whom Israel tried and executed in 1962. The other was John Demjanjuk, 
nicknamed Ivan the Terrible, who was convicted of being a Nazi guard and mass 
murderer at Treblinka. But the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the lower 
court's verdict, saying that there wasn't enough evidence proving Demjanjuk was 
Ivan. He was released. "So even Israel got it wrong 50 % of the time," Rabbi 
Prouser said. "And I'm not sure that Texas" - which executes more prisoners 
than any other state - "uses the same methods in correcting misguided 
decisions.

"I say this while acknowledging that some crimes are terrible, and I have no 
problem with locking people away for life. I'm not sure that's more merciful 
than capital punishment. I just think it's more defensible because it's 
reversible. It's an expression of theological humility. We can't be sure we're 
right."

Rabbi Prouser's panel is still being formed, but the three speakers he's 
gathered so far have interesting takes on the subject.

Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky of Congregation Ansche Chesed on Manhattan's Upper 
West Side is a member of the Conservative movement???s Committee on Jewish Law 
and Standards. In 2013, he wrote a teshuva - a response to a question about 
halacha, or Jewish law - on capital punishment. The question was about whether 
it is halachically acceptable for a Jew to participate in the American legal 
system in a capital case, whether as a prosecutor, a judge, a juror, or a 
witness.

The short answer is yes.

Although "the United States is the only country in the world with a significant 
Jewish population that has the death penalty" - leaving aside Israel's special 
circumstances - "the question is not if we???d prefer that it not be there, but 
if the policies are so bad that you have to resist them and refuse to 
cooperate."

Because of the directive that unless there is a compelling reason to disagree 
with it, "dina d'malkhuta dina" - the law of the land is the law of the land, 
and because "every state has to create order, and that always involved criminal 
justice, there is no prima facie reason to refuse to participate in this.

"This is a contested question, and in democracies the people get to decide 
contested questions," Rabbi Kalmanofsky said. "It's a bad policy, and they 
should change it, and there are all sorts of reasons why it should be changed - 
not the least of them is the not inconsiderable number of false convictions - 
but it would not be correct to say that the canons of Jewish law mandate not 
cooperating with the state on it."

Rabbi Simon Rosenbach, who heads Congregation Ahavas Sholom in Newark, also is 
a lawyer and a former assistant prosecutor in Middlesex County.

New Jersey's death penalty was struck down in 1972 and revived in 1982, the 
result of political machinations (and the source of many good stories best told 
elsewhere).

In 1982, Rabbi Rosenbach, who was (and is) against the death penalty, found 
himself arguing for it in court, in charge of death penalty litigation, 
motions, and appeals. "This was a new adventure," he said. "The defense 
attorneys made every challenge that had already been rejected in the U.S. 
Supreme Court because maybe it would be accepted by New Jersey courts."

There was "a very narrowing set of factual surrounding circumstances" that kept 
all but the most egregious criminals from being eligible for the death penalty, 
Rabbi Rosenbach said. "If you killed a law enforcement officer, or if you kill 
for hire, or if you hire someone as a killer. If you killed someone in a 
barroom brawl, you probably weren't getting the death penalty, but if you hired 
someone to kill your wife, or if you were the hired killer, you would be 
eligible."

Next, in the penalty phase, aggravating factors would have to outweigh 
mitigating factors for capital punishment to be imposed. And of course all this 
took time. By 2007, when capital punishment again was stopped, no one had been 
executed in New Jersey. (Or at least "not by the criminal justice system," 
Rabbi Rosenbach said. "Maybe by fellow inmates in jail.")

Although Rabbi Rosenbach was opposed to the death penalty, "I thought it was 
not something that reasonable minds could not differ about. It is an individual 
person's moral judgment, but it doesn't mean that society as a whole is morally 
bankrupt for executing it."

Like Rabbi Prouser and Rabbi Kalmanofsky, Rabbi Rosenbach talked about the real 
possibility of mistakes, and the irrevocability of the punishment. Although it 
wasn't true in New Jersey, where a full web of safeguards were in place, that's 
not so true in other parts of the country, where many people are executed, some 
of them wrongly. "A lot of institutions, like the Innocence Project, show us 
that we make mistakes a whole lot of times," he said.

Moreover, "it's against Jewish law to commit suicide, even in the case of 
terminal illness, because it's not your body. You might inhabit the body, but 
it's not yours. It's God's. So who are we to execute someone? It's not his 
body. It's God's."

Plus, he said, it is expensive to prosecute capital cases. On the other hand, 
"It's crass and immoral" to argue that we should execute people because it's 
cheaper than keeping them alive, he said.

David Feldman, an Essex County assistant prosecutor, defines himself as Rabbi 
Prouser's mirror image. "I tend to be pretty liberal on most issues," he said. 
"But having spent as much time in the court system as I have, I know that there 
are some people who are not redeemable, and some acts that are so heinous, that 
to me there is a place for capital punishment.

"Everyone has to come to terms with their own moral compass," he added.

Yes, mistakes happen, he said, but despite what we hear, they are rare. The 
thought of "putting an innocent person in jail keeps me up at night.

"The second I get wind that I might have the wrong person, I do everything 
possible, I explore every avenue, to find out the truth."

That's a position that the prosecutors he knows share, he added. "Our motto is 
to do justice. To seek justice. It is not to get convictions. It is to protect 
the community. We have to get both those things right.

"And if we convict someone who did not do the offense, we are not getting the 
person who did do it." These, he said, are strong safeguards against mistakes, 
although, he added, he knows that some mistakes are inevitable, and that is a 
terrible truth. "There is nothing you can say to a person who has lost someone 
wrongly to the death penalty," he added.

"I am sure that there are people who would find my position morally repugnant," 
Mr. Feldman said. "It is a deeply personal, deeply emotional topic, and there 
is no one right answer to it."

(source: New Jersey Jewish Standard)