[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA. FLA., ALA., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 6



TEXAS:

Families have exchange in capital murder hearing


The family of a 13-year-old shot on his grandparents' front doorstep and a 
relative of the man accused of the killing faced each other in a court hearing 
Monday.

David Davila appeared briefly before 148th District Judge Guy Williams after a 
Nueces County grand jury indicted him last week on a capital murder charge. The 
indictment accuses Davila of shooting 13-year-old Alex Torres as part of a 
retaliation.

Davila, 27, pleaded not guilty. As Torres' grandmother walked out of the 
courtroom, she stared at a woman sitting in the gallery with Davila's mother. 
The women made eye contact.

"What are you looking at?" the woman sitting down said loudly to Torres' 
grandmother. Several others in the audience turned to look. A nearby bailiff 
put himself between the women and ushered Torres' family out of the courtroom.

Torres was shot Jan. 13, 2015 when he answered the door of his grandparents' 
Southside apartment in the 2200 block of Treyway Lane. His grandparents were 
grocery shopping. The killing went unsolved more than a year before a tipster 
told Corpus Christi police Davila was responsible but that the gunshot was 
intended for his ex-girlfriend who lived in a nearby apartment.

According to an arrest affidavit, Davila's ex-girlfriend reported him to Child 
Protective Services. Davila's girlfriend at the time of the shooting, Christina 
Trevino, was also indicted on the same charge last week and is accused of 
driving the getaway vehicle.

Davila's lawyer, Adam Rodrigue, declined to comment after the hearing. During 
the hearing, a prosecutor gave Rodrigue a box of evidence, including CDs.

Davila and Trevino, 24, remain in the Nueces County Jail in lieu of $500,000 
bail each. Capital murder is punishable by life in prison without the 
possibility of parole or the death penalty.

(source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Man accused of murdering Granville County couple seeks to avoid death penalty


Nearly 2 years have passed since Jerome and Dora Faulkner were ambushed and 
killed inside their rural Granville County home by what prosecutors have 
described as a father-and-son team who selected the retirees at random while on 
the run from Texas authorities.

Eric Alexander Campbell, son of the late Edward Campbell, is facing the death 
penalty in a crime spree that made national headlines after it ended in West 
Virginia in a shootout with deputies.

In a court document associated with a hearing set for Tuesday in Granville 
County Superior Court, Amos Tyndall, a Chapel Hill attorney representing the 
younger Campbell, provided details of a multi-state crime spree in which Eric 
Campbell reportedly was so afraid of his father that he could not extricate 
himself from his grip.

In the request to take capital punishment off the table for Eric Campbell, 
Tyndall described Edward Campbell as a tyrant parent who abused drugs and 
manufactured methamphetamines, held his children upside down and beat them, 
shot the family dog and beat up his wife so viciously that she escaped him late 
one night while he slept.

"When Eric was prescribed Adderral for ADHD as a child," the court document 
states, "Edward Campbell took all the pills for himself."

Edward Campbell, 54, died in March 2015 when officials at Central Prison found 
him unresponsive in his cell after he had attempted to hang himself.

That left Eric Campbell, now 23, to stand alone on 2 counts of murder, as well 
as charges of 1st-degree burglary, 2nd-degree arson and identity theft. He also 
was charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, larceny of a motor vehicle, 
financial card theft and 2 counts of cruelty to animals - charges stemming from 
the spear-deaths of the Faulkners' 2 dogs.

Crime spree

The court document details a crime spree that began in Brezoria County, Texas, 
in September 2014 after Edward Campbell was arrested for severely assaulting 
his wife after believing she was cheating on him.

In that incident, according to court documents, Holly Campbell told law 
enforcement officers that her husband threatened to shoot her in front of their 
children and held her hostage for hours - beating her, choking her and 
continually threatening her.

After being released from jail on bond in that case, Edward Campbell skipped a 
court date, stole a 2007 Chevy Suburban from a school and left Texas with Eric 
on Christmas Eve of 2014, telling his adult son they were going camping.

The men made it across the southern United States to Georgia in 4 days. They 
stopped at an Advanced Auto Parts for a new alternator in Suwanee, Ga., on Dec. 
28, 2014. Later that day, they stopped in a Home Depot in Greenville, S.C., 
purchasing a sprayer, muriatic acid, drain opener, lighter fluid, a chain, 
padlock, jam nut and U bolt.

They camped for a few days near Hillsborough, and are seen on surveillance 
footage of a Wal-Mart buying food. The 2 then headed north, according to the 
court document, with the elder Campbell telling his son they would do some 
camping further north.

During that drive, Edward Campbell told his son that he needed money and 
planned to rob a house by putting lye in the sprayer he had just purchased and 
threatening his victims.

Knock on the door

Jerome Faulkner, 73, of Oak Hill, a retired fire chief with the Cornwall 
Volunteer Fire Department in nearby Oxford, was at his roadside mailbox near 
dusk that evening when Edward Campbell saw him. Edward Campbell, according to 
the defense team, then told his son to drive to a wooded area near the 
Faulkners; home, and they waited until a little after sunset.

Edward Campbell, according to his son's lawyers, got out of the Chevy Suburban 
with a backpack sprayer filled with lye and a crossbow. Eric was handed a bag 
with a spear that broke into three sections. The s men headed toward the back 
of the Faulkners' house.

Edward Campbell then knocked on the door, while Eric Campbell stood near the 
corner of the house, according to the defense lawyers. When Jerome Faulkner 
answered, the elder Campbell said he had car trouble and when Faulkner opened 
the door, he sprayed lye in his face.

Edward Campbell pushed further inside, and Eric, according to the defense team, 
could hear the Faulkners screaming for help. After 5 minutes or so, Edward 
Campbell came outside and reprimanded his son for not coming inside, according 
to his lawyers.

The Faulkners were lying on the floor, injured from the crossbow "and perhaps 
other weapons," when Eric joined his father inside.

"Eric's father removed the spear from the bag he had given Eric and beat the 
victims, demanding their bank information," according to the court filing.

Edward Campbell, according to his son's lawyers, then stabbed the Faulkners, 
killing them. He then killed the 2 dogs with a spear and began searching the 
house while ordering his son to search for bank account records and other 
valuables.

The father and son then loaded property from the home into the couple's truck 
and the vehicle they had come in. They put the bodies in the truck, too, then 
early the next morning torched the home with lamp oil and papers - leaving 
behind a fire that bewildered the community.

"The killings of Jerome and Dora Faulkner are a senseless tragedy," Tyndall and 
William Durham, a lawyer with the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, argued 
in their request to abandon the death penalty. "...The statements of Eric 
Campbell establish that he did not intend the deaths of the Faulkners or 
assault them during the crime. His participation was limited to mere presence 
during the killings, fear of his father, and participation in the thefts after 
the death - at the urgings of his homicidal abusive father."

If the judge in Granville County refuses to grant the defense team's request, 
Granville County could soon begin its first capital punishment case since 1991.

(source: newsobserver.com)

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

Hembree murder trial moves out of county


A convicted killer originally sentenced to death for the murder of a 
17-year-old girl will have his new trial held in another county.

Danny Robbie Hembree isn't scheduled to leave prison until he's 90 years old 
thanks to a series of robbery convictions and a 2nd-degree murder conviction in 
the death of 31-year-old Randi Dean Saldana. But another 2009 murder charge, 
one that initially sent him to death row, could ensure the 54-year-old spends 
the rest of his life behind bars.

Gaston County District Attorney Locke Bell asked for a change of venue Monday 
for Hembree's upcoming murder trial related to the killing of Heather Marie 
Catterton, requesting it be moved to Catawba County.

After Hembree was originally convicted in Catterton's death, Superior Court 
Judge Beverly Beal granted the prosecution's request to select a jury of 
Rutherford County residents for the Saldana trial, in an effort to avoid the 
heavy media coverage.

"Since Judge Beal had ruled a change of venue on the 2nd (case), we think that 
the state thinks, to err on the side of caution, that we need to go with that 
same ruling," Bell said.

Bell said officials in Catawba County indicated a willingness to try the case 
there, with Catawba County jurors.

Bodies found

The woman Hembree pleaded guilty to killing and the teenager whose death at one 
point landed him on death row knew each other. Their bodies were found in York, 
S.C., within miles and weeks of each other.

Catterton was found first, half naked in a culvert. Saldana's body was dumped 
and set on fire along the side of a road.

Hembree was charged with unrelated armed robberies in Mecklenburg County, at 
which point he confessed to killing those women.

Hembree later recanted those confessions at his 2 trials, saying he confessed 
in an effort to negotiate lighter sentences for the robberies.

He admitted to smoking crack and having sex with the women on the nights they 
died, but said their deaths were accidental.

An overturned conviction, and a mistrial

Hembree's 1st trial ended with a 1st-degree murder conviction and a death 
sentence.

Beal ordered the Rutherford jury for the 2nd case, which ended in a mistrial 
after an anonymous letter claimed Hembree had an affair with the case's 
prosecutor.

The judge found no evidence for the claim, and Hembree ultimately accepted a 
plea deal. He admitted his guilt and received a 26-year term behind bars.

Hembree was on death row until the N.C. Supreme Court overturned his death 
penalty conviction in 2015. The court ruled that prosecutors relieved too 
heavily on evidence from Saldana's death in the Catterton trial.

A new trial

The 2nd Catterton trial was slated to be held September 2017 with a pool of 
jurors bused from Wilkes County 75 miles south to Gastonia.

That will no longer happen, and the date of the new trial is still to be 
determined.

Catterton had lived her short life in both Cleveland and Gaston counties.

(source: Gaston Gazette)

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

New evidence in Raleigh hotel murders; victim's mother calls for death penalty


A Raleigh mom sat in her living room and went through old photos of her child. 
As Betty Holland looked through pictures, she questioned how she is going to 
pay for her 22-year-old daughter's funeral.

"Until the day I die, it's gonna hurt me. You never knew that your child is 
going to die before you," said Holland.

April Holland, Betty's daughter, and Dwayne Garvey, April's longtime boyfriend, 
were shot and killed at the America's Best Value Inn near Crabtree Valley Mall 
early Friday morning.

April is a mother of e and family says she was pregnant with her 4th child

2 men are accused in these murders. Authorities have 1 in custody and are 
searching for the other.

Seaga Gillard is facing a murder charge for allegedly killing Garvey. He is 
being held at the Wake County Detention Center without bond.

ABC11 has learned in 2011, Gillard was charged with attempted murder in a 
separate case. Durham police say he and brother, Kalid Gillard, shot 2 men 
multiple times inside an apartment on Juniper Street.

Authorities are now searching for Brandon Hill and said he should be considered 
armed and dangerous.

Authorities came close to capturing Hill on Sunday. Officers trailed him on a 
high-speed chase and crossed over 2 counties, but authorities say when the car 
stopped, he jumped out and took off running.

His girlfriend, Brittany Hooks, is accused of driving the car. She has been 
arrested and is facing charges of felony speeding to elude.

Prosecutors say they found a bag in Hooks' car with several items, "numerous 
firearms including a 40 caliber, which may have been our murder weapon. It also 
included uniforms from the Durham Police Department which had been stolen from 
a prior burglary. It also included several identifications that would match 
back to some robbery of those victims."

Prosecutors also say there is video of April Holland and Garvey being murdered 
execution-style.

"I know that this Christmas and her birthday coming up is going to remind me 
for the rest of my life I will never see her again, I will never speak to her 
again," said April's sister.

April's family wants the death penalty.

"They need to not be put away. They killed her, they need to be killed too. I'm 
mean it's rough to say that, but you killed somebody over something stupid," 
said Betty Holland.

Police are not offering a motive.

The Holland family is raising money for funeral expenses with a GoFundMe.

The victims' 3 children are staying with family in Rocky Mount.

(source: WTVD news)






GEORGIA----impending execution

Parole Board rejects request to stop Sallie execution


The State Board of Pardons and Paroles has refused to halt Tuesday's scheduled 
execution of William Sallie, leaving him only with the hope that a court will 
hear his appeal.

There are filings pending in the Georgia Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme 
Court, even though those courts and others previously turned him down.

Sallie, 50, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Tuesday for 
murdering his father-in-law in 1990. If his execution occurs, he will be the 
9th inmate put to death in Georgia this year, expanding Georgia's lead over 
other capital punishment states. Texas is 2nd in the nation with 7 executions 
in 2016.

Sallie's lawyers, with help from the sister of Sallie's mother-in-law, on 
Monday begged the Parole Board to do something the courts have thus far refused 
to do: stop the execution because a juror was so biased, she would have been 
disqualified from Sallie's case had she not lied during jury selection.

"We're hoping they will do the right thing," attorney Jack Martin said after 
meeting with the board for 3 1/2 hours.

7 hours later, the board turned Sallie down. The board does not explain its 
decision.

Those who want to see Sallie executed also met with the board on Monday for 
about 2 hours in the afternoon. They declined to comment afterward.

In numerous filings, Sallie's lawyers have tried to get a hearing on the issue 
of juror bias, which has not been argued in any court because Sallie missed a 
critical deadline to bring that appeal.

Martin said that deadline came at a time when Sallie did not have a lawyer, as 
Georgia law does not mandate that the state pay for appellate attorneys for 
death row inmates.

Martin said former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher told the 
Parole Board about Georgia's history of not providing lawyers for condemned 
inmates.

Martin also said the sister of Sallie's mother-in-law told the five Parole 
Board members that she frequently visited Sallie at the prison after he asked 
for her forgiveness.

Sallie was convicted in Bacon County of murdering his father-in-law John Moore. 
Sallie also shot and wounded his mother-in-law, Linda Moore, and kidnapped his 
estranged wife and her 17-year-old sister.

Sallie broke into his in-laws' home - where his wife, Robin, and their 
2-year-old son, Ryan, were sleeping - after he lost a custody battle and his 
wife filed for divorce.

Sallie's lawyers wrote in the clemency petition and in a series of court 
filings that the domestic turmoil in William and Robin Sallie's lives was much 
like that lived by a female juror who denied ever being part of a volatile 
marriage, custody dispute or relationship that included domestic violence.

During jury selection for Sallie's murder trial, the woman said her marriages 
had ended amicably with "no big court fights" and without a "big custody fight 
or issue."

Sallie's lawyers wrote in filings that those claims were a lie.

They wrote that the juror fought with soon-to-be ex-husbands over child custody 
and support payments and lived with domestic abuse.

The petition said the judge who presided over Sallie's trial handled 3 of the 
juror's 4 divorces that were marked by hostilities, allegations of lying to the 
court and multiple court filings.

(source: myajc.com)






FLORIDA:

State taking death penalty issue to US Supreme Court----Pam Bondi's lawyers to 
appeal ruling by Supreme Court in Timothy Hurst case


The state plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit a landmark case in 
which justices struck down as unconstitutional Florida's death-penalty 
sentencing procedure because it gave too much power to judges, instead of 
juries.

Attorney General Pam Bondi's lawyers will appeal a ruling by the Florida 
Supreme Court in the case of Timothy Lee Hurst, according to a motion asking a 
judge to put on hold a resentencing hearing for Hurst. That resentencing 
hearing was ordered by the Florida Supreme Court in October.

The state is objecting to the Florida court's interpretation of the U.S. 
Supreme Court's landmark decision in January in the Hurst case, according to 
the document filed Friday in Escambia County.

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Hurst's case found that Florida's system 
of allowing judges, instead of juries, to find the facts necessary to impose 
the death penalty was an unconstitutional violation of the Sixth Amendment 
right to trial by jury. The court sent Hurst's case back to the Florida high 
court.

At the time of the January ruling, Florida's system allowed jurors by a simple 
majority to recommend the death penalty.

Judges would then make findings of fact that "sufficient" aggravating factors, 
not outweighed by mitigating circumstances, existed for the death sentence to 
be imposed, a process known as "weighing."

Florida lawmakers hurriedly rewrote the law this spring, requiring jurors to 
unanimously find that at least 1 aggravating factor exists before a defendant 
can be eligible for a death sentence and requiring at least 10 jurors to 
recommend death for the sentence to be imposed.

The new law, approved by Gov. Rick Scott, also required juries to weigh whether 
sufficient mitigating factors exist to outweigh the aggravating circumstances, 
but the law is silent about whether those decisions must be unanimous.

In October, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the new statute was 
unconstitutional because it did not require unanimous jury recommendations 
about imposing the death penalty, something not addressed by the U.S. court 
decision.

The Florida court, in a 5-2 ruling, decided that the lack of unanimity in the 
state law runs afoul of protections guaranteed by the U.S. and state 
constitutions.

The majority also found that the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Hurst mandated 
that all findings necessary for imposition of a death sentence are "elements" 
that must be decided by a jury, and Florida "has a longstanding history of 
requiring unanimous jury verdicts as the elements of a crime," the majority 
wrote.

But the state disagrees.

The Florida court interpreted the U.S. court's earlier ruling in Hurst "to 
require jury findings of all aggravating circumstances; mitigating 
circumstances; and weighing rather than only requiring jury findings of 1 
aggravating circumstance," Senior Assistant Attorney General Charmaine Millsaps 
and Assistant Attorney General John Molchan wrote in the 6-page request in 
Escambia County.

"The state of Florida believes this expansive reading to be in error and will 
seek discretionary review in the United States Supreme Court," the lawyers 
wrote.

But defense lawyers said the state's appeal is problematic because the Florida 
Supreme Court based its Hurst ruling in large part on the state's 
constitutional guarantee to trial by jury.

"They're unhappy with the result, and they're unhappy with all of these death 
sentences being reversed. But they're running into a problem: what's the 
federal issue and what's the state issue. The U.S. Supreme Court doesn't have 
jurisdiction to decide what the state statute meant. That's a question of state 
law," lawyer Martin McClain, who has represented more than 250 defendants in 
death penalty cases, said in a telephone interview Monday.

In its Hurst ruling, the Florida Supreme Court concluded that "under the 
commandments of Hurst v. Florida, Florida's constitutional right to trial by 
jury, and our Florida jurisprudence, the penalty phase jury must be unanimous 
in making the critical findings and recommendation that are necessary" before 
death can be imposed.

"I believe the U.S. Supreme Court is unlikely to interfere with a state Supreme 
Court interpreting state law and that state's Constitution," said Pete Mills, a 
10th Judicial Circuit assistant public defender who is chairman of the Florida 
Public Defenders Association's Death Penalty Steering Committee.

While the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Hurst did not address unanimity, the 
state's appeal of the Florida court's decision could be an attempt to get a 
federal ruling on the issue.

"I think they're trying to get another bite at the apple," said 5th Judicial 
Circuit Public Defender Mike Graves. "I don't understand how they expect to get 
from here to there."

(source: news4jax.com)






ALABAMA:

Life or death decisions in Morgan County capital murder cases


Morgan County District Attorney Scott Anderson said he understands the 
magnitude of the possible consequences when he asks a judge to order that a 
convicted capital murder defendant be put to death.

Anderson has successfully sent 2 men - Jordan Creque and Marqueze Smith - to 
death row during his 6 years in office. Anderson said he was told by others 
that he "won that one" immediately after their death sentences were announced.

"My response was, 'There's no winner in these cases - there's justice,'" 
Anderson said. "I've never correlated winning as justice."

A conviction of an adult on a capital murder charge carries only two possible 
penalties - execution, or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Presently, there are 13 capital murder cases at some stage of the judicial 
process in Morgan County.

Cedric Cowan, Amani Goodwin and Cortez Mitchell, who are charged in the 
killings of 2 men in Decatur in May 2015, are not eligible for the death 
penalty because they were younger than 18 when the crimes occurred.

If any of the 3 are convicted, recent court rulings leave local judges with 2 
sentencing options - life in prison with the chance of parole or life without 
parole, Anderson said.

Joseph Cowan, also charged in the 2 2015 killings, is eligible for the death 
penalty. He was 20 when the crimes occurred. Anderson declined to say if he 
would seek the death penalty.

Prosecutors are required by law to notify the court if they intend to seek the 
death penalty in a capital murder case.

Anderson's office has filed an intent to seek the death penalty against Gary 
Hill and Jovan Anderson, who are accused of killing Brandon Harris last year 
while Harris sat in a car in a Decatur alley.

An intent to seek the death penalty has not been filed in Joseph Cowan's case 
or in the other eight capital cases. Anderson said a decision has been made in 
some of those cases, but he declined to name them.

Attorneys Tom DiGiulian and Jim Mason represent Jovan Anderson, and the pair 
has defended other capital murder defendants during their careers. They said 
defending a person facing a possible death penalty affects how they prepare and 
present the case.

"It changes it because the punishment is the ultimate punishment," DiGiulian 
said.

"That's a big difference in preparing for a capital case," Mason said. "You 
have 2 different tracks (trial and sentencing)."

During the trial phase, "everything is contested" when the death penalty is on 
the table, DiGiulian said. He said an attorney has "extra incentive" to keep 
his client from being executed.

Defense attorneys can ask the court for money to hire a mitigation expert for 
the sentencing phase in a death penalty case. Mason said the expert can comb 
through the defendant's entire life to determine if there are mitigating 
factors that might sway the jury and judge not to impose the death penalty.

Mason and DiGiulian both said they haven't agreed with all of Anderson's 
decisions to seek the death penalty. But, overall, they said Anderson has been 
fair in his decisions whether to seek the death penalty.

"I think he's conscientious about it," Mason said. "He's not vindictive in 
seeking the death penalty."

Anderson said the decision whether to seek the death penalty starts with him 
going to the scene of a homicide if he can.

"That gives me a unique perspective of the results and consequences of what a 
criminal defendant has done," he said.

He said he gets input from the victim's family, law enforcement investigators, 
and an assistant district attorney helping with the case to get their views on 
what would be an appropriate punishment. He also reviews the police file of the 
case to determine possible mitigating and aggravating factors that might be 
considered in the sentencing phase.

Anderson said he has never 2nd-guessed any of his decisions whether to seek the 
death penalty or a life sentence.

"People out there have the opinion that defendants alleged to have committed 
capital murder should be hung in the courthouse square the next day," Anderson 
said.

"I understand that sentiment. But it's a different story when you're the one 
charged with standing before a jury asking that an individual's life be taken 
away from them by the government, or standing before a judge asking that he 
order that an individual???s life be taken from them by the government."

----

Morgan inmates on death row

The following inmates on Alabama's death row are listed from Morgan County. 
Included is the date each was moved to death row.

Arthur Lee Giles, Aug. 18, 1979.

Robin Myers, June 8, 1994.

Willie Burgess Jr., Aug. 26, 1994.

Ulysses Charles Sneed, Dec. 21, 1995.

Corey Maples, Nov. 21, 1997.

Jordan Stanley Creque, Jan. 16, 2014.

(source: The Decatur Daily)

******

Jury selection underway in 2012 triple killing at Teasers nightclub in 
Wicksburg


A local judge must determine whether the words "probably", "guess" or "maybe" 
are strong enough to unequivocally exert a right to counsel during a police 
interrogation for a man charged in a 2012 triple killing at a Wicksburg 
nightclub.

Ryan Clark Petersen, 26, of Enterprise, is charged with 4 counts of capital 
murder and another count of attempted murder in connection with the Aug. 9, 
2012, shooting at Teasers. Petersen was located by police in the woods near the 
establishment the next morning.

Police believe Petersen was kicked out of the club earlier in the evening and 
sought revenge on nightclub employees who removed him. Petersen, through 
defense counsel, may argue during the trial that he was unable to appreciate 
the gravity of his actions.

Petersen made a statement to Houston County Sheriff's Capt. Bill Rafferty a few 
hours after he was found in the woods. The interview lasted about an hour. A 
few minutes into the interview, Petersen told Rafferty "I probably should talk 
to my mom and talk to my lawyer before I know what the charges are."

The interview continued and another interview was conducted 4 days later.

Defense attorney Chris Capps argued during a suppression hearing Monday that 
Rafferty had a legal obligation to halt the interview at the time because 
Petersen's statement amounted to an exertion of his Constitutional right to 
counsel.

District Attorney Doug Valeska argued that "probably" does not rise to the 
level of an actual exertion of the right. Valeska also said that Petersen 
voluntarily continued the interview after making the statement and later 
acknowledged he was not coerced into speaking to police.

"It's a pure legal question," Circuit Judge Brad Mendheim said. "Is what he 
said sufficient (to invoke the right)?"

Mendheim will rule Tuesday.

Capps and co-counsel Ben Freeman cited other instances during Petersen???s 
first interview with Rafferty on Aug. 10, 2012, and a second interview on Aug. 
14, 2012, in which Petersen used the words "guess" or "maybe" in connection 
with an attorney. Valeska, again, indicated Petersen voluntarily continued the 
interview after making those statements.

A jury in the case could be struck later Tuesday involving one of the largest 
mass killings in Houston County.

Petersen faces 3 counts of capital murder in connection with those deaths 
because police allege they happened during the course of a burglary. He also 
faces a separate count of capital murder because the incident resulted in the 
death of 2 or more people. Petersen also faces one count of attempted murder 
resulting from a wounded patron at the nightclub.

Investigators charged Petersen with killing 20-year Cameron Paul Eubanks, who 
was the nightclub owner;s son. Investigators also charged Petersen with fatally 
shooting 31-year-old Tiffani Paige Grissett and 59-year-old Thomas Robins Jr. 
inside the club.

Mendheim began questioning a jury pool of 71 members Monday. The trial is 
expected to last through late next week.

Court records indicate Petersen could argue 3 different defenses.

-- Voluntary intoxication: Petersen was too intoxicated to be able to form the 
intent to kill.

-- Involuntary intoxication: Petersen may have become intoxicated through the 
efforts and practices of nightclub employees and, as a result, may not have 
been able to appreciate the criminality of the alleged conduct.

-- Mental disease or defect (insanity): Petersen may not have been able to 
appreciate the nature, quality, or wrongfulness of the alleged act due to a 
mental condition. Capps and Freeman have subpoenaed Coffee County Probate Court 
records relating to an involuntary commitment proceeding and are attempting to 
call Probate Judge Steven Blair as a witness

The legal standard for an insanity defense to prevail is clear and convincing 
evidence of the alleged mental condition.

Petersen was present at Monday's proceedings, dressed in a jacket and tie. He 
is being assisted by others in his defense along with Capps and Freeman.

Valeska is prosecuting the case and is being aided by assistant district 
attorneys Kristin Shields and Seth Brooks. Case officer Rafferty and some 
members of the victims' families were also present at the prosecution table.

During Monday's proceedings, prospective jurors were given the opportunity to 
provide reasons why they may not be able to serve. At least one person said she 
viewed television publicity of the upcoming trial. Another said she had contact 
with a victim's relative within the past year. Others said they had work or 
travel obligations that could not be changed. Several prospective jurors said 
they were morally opposed to recommending the death penalty. Some said they 
could not physically sit throughout the day due to health concerns.

Prospective jurors can be struck from the jury pool by the judge for legitimate 
reasons such as health, unavoidable work or travel issues or moral/religious 
opposition to the death penalty in which the person could not render a fair 
verdict regardless of the evidence. A handful or prospective jurors were struck 
for cause Monday.

(source: Dothan Eagle)

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

Alabama's Prison System Goes On Trial


A lawsuit on behalf of Alabama's prisoners, claiming they're being denied 
mental health care, begins in federal court Monday. The class-action suit 
states that Alabama doesn't provide adequate mental health treatment for those 
behind bars.

Lawyers for the prisoners argue that the state provides little other than 
medication, and sometimes inmates are forced to take it against their will. The 
plaintiffs allege prison conditions are dangerous and discriminatory, which 
amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, a violation of the Eighth Amendment.

The conditions in the prisons are inhumane, according to attorney Maria Morris 
with the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Montgomery-based group that 
represents some of the plaintiffs.

"There's just nothing that comports with anything like what we as a civilized 
people in the 21st century would expect to see as far as the way we're treating 
people," Morris says.

For instance, she says, one severely mentally ill plaintiff is housed in a 
suicide-watch cell.

"He is spending 23 hours a day or more locked up in a cell, getting no 
counseling," says Morris. "That's their highest level of care that they can 
give him."

The lawsuit is on behalf of Alabama's male prison population. 2 years ago, the 
state agreed to improve conditions in women's prisons after a federal 
investigation found nearly two decades of systematic abuses, including male 
officers forcing women to have sex.

The trial that starts Monday is part of a larger lawsuit that also accuses the 
state of denying male inmates basic medical care. That issue will come to court 
early next year.

The root problem, Morris says, is that Alabama can't afford to provide adequate 
services for the number of prisoners it incarcerates.

Alabama's prisons are some of the most crowded in the country. At times, the 
lockups are at nearly double capacity, with staffing levels that are half what 
they should be, according to Alabama's Department of Corrections. For example, 
the state has 21 doctors for about 23,300 prisoners.

The class-action lawsuit comes as the U.S. Department of Justice is conducting 
a civil rights probe of Alabama's chronically overcrowded and understaffed 
prison system. Investigators are looking at whether prisoners are safe from 
physical harm, as well as examining reports of sexual abuse committed by 
prisoners and guards.

Violence in Alabama's prisons has escalated this year. A warden and guard were 
stabbed during an uprising at the Holman Correctional Facility - the maximum 
security prison that houses Alabama's death row. In September, a guard was 
stabbed to death by an inmate in the prison's mess hall.

The Department of Corrections won't comment on the litigation, but state 
leaders know there's a crisis developing.

"We acknowledge it and realize it's about to be an issue so we're going to have 
to deal with it," says Republican State Sen. Cam Ward, chairman of the Alabama 
legislature's prison oversight committee. Ward has helped push sentencing 
reforms in recent years, but he says that alone can't help unless there's 
political will to invest in updating Alabama's antiquated prison system.

"It's not politically popular," says Ward. "No one goes home to campaign and 
says, 'By the way, keep me as your senator or house member because I'm going to 
fix the prisons.'"

But he says the state is in a position now "where we really don't have a 
choice."

Ward says the state is on a path to receivership - a costly court takeover of 
the system. Alabama's prisons were last under federal court control in the 
1970s because of what was determined to be unconstitutional conditions.

"We consistently talk about the First Amendment, the Second Amendment," says 
Ward. "We've just ignored the Eighth Amendment, which is cruel and unusual 
punishment, so we're going to have to address that."

While testimony gets underway in the federal class-action lawsuit, Alabama Gov. 
Robert Bentley is pushing state lawmakers to approve a massive new prison 
building program.

(source: npr.org)






LOUISIANA:

Landon Broussard without public defender for almost a year


Landon Broussard, the man accused of raping and killing a 3-year-old in 2012, 
is still awaiting his capital murder trial.

The 25-year-old is charged with 1st-degree murder in the beating death of 
Julian Madera.

The coroner's report detailed more than 25 injuries on the boy's body.

Broussard's case will not be going to trial any time soon. He has not had a 
public defender for almost a year now.

"You can imagine just to tell a person 'Oh, we will get back to you later. You 
can't get counsel,' " Paul Marx, the 15th Judicial District Defender, said. "So 
some of these people are going on a year now without counsel. It's not right."

It all comes down to a lack of funding for the public defenders office.

Marx said the number of defendants on the waiting list has fallen in the last 
year from 5,500 to 4,400.

"We need two lawyers," Marx said. "We need much more in the way of experts and 
investigation and social history. What's happened is the state has had a bunch 
of private firms take these cases in our district, but for some reason they 
haven't taken Landon's case even though its pretty much the oldest one they 
have."

He said he cannot speculate on why Broussard's case is still on hold.

Marx did say the costs of pursuing the death penalty as opposed to a life 
sentence is drastic. He referenced a a recent death penalty case that reached a 
guilty plea. Marx said it cost about $150,000.

He said the state has made up for the shortfall in the current fiscal year but 
not enough for it to fund the capitol program locally.

"It's an unmitigated disaster and by that I mean the state staff really hasn't 
done a good job in figuring out priorities and funding," Marx said.

In a hearing last week, the state said they are ready for trial and have been 
for a while. The prosecution is hoping to get matters taken care of by the end 
of next year.

An attorney has agreed to represent Broussard for free, but in a capital case 
defendants are required to retain 2 attorneys.

(source: KATC news)