[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., ALA., LA., KAN., OKLA., NEB., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 17



PENNSYLVANIA:

Man faces death penalty for double homicide in home invasion


York County prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against a man accused of 
2 murders in southern York County last summer.

A spokesman for the York County district attorney's office said the county has 
filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty for Paul Henry in the 
murders of Danielle Taylor and Foday Cheeks last September.

Henry, 40, of Manchester, and his wife Veronique were accused of committing the 
murders during a home invasion at Cheeks' home in Fawn Township. Veronique 
committed suicide in the York County Prison a day after her capture.

Henry faces an arraignment on the murder charges next week in York County 
Court.

(source: WHTM news)






ALABAMA:

Alabama court rules death penalty law constitutional in 3 cases SCOTUS sent 
back for review


The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday ruled the death sentences of 3 
state inmates are constitutional and don't conflict with a U.S. Supreme Court 
ruling that struck down Florida's similar death penalty sentencing scheme.

The U.S. Supreme Court had vacated the sentences of Alabama death row inmates 
Ronnie Kirksey, Corey Wimbley, and Ryan Gerald Russell, this year and sent them 
back to the state appeals court to review in light of its Florida ruling.

Alabama's death sentencing law has been compared to Florida's because both 
allowed judges to override jury recommendations for life and instead impose 
death.

On Friday the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals said it wasn't the same and 
affirmed the convictions of Kirksey, Wimbley and Russell. The court said 
Alabama's law is constitutional and does not "run afoul" of the U.S. Supreme 
Court's ruling in Hurst v. Florida in January.

Prosecutors and Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange have repeatedly argued 
that Alabama's law was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995 and is not the 
same as the portion of the Florida law struck down in Hurst.

Florida's law had required the judge -- not the jury -- to find the existence 
of an aggravating circumstance in order for the defendant to be subject to the 
death penalty.

Alabama's law already requires the jury to find an aggravating factor, such as 
murder during the commission of a robbery, kidnapping or rape, prosecutors 
argue. Therefore, at the time of conviction, the jury has already agreed upon 
at least one aggravating factor before the sentencing phase began.

In Alabama, after the jury unanimously convicts a defendant with at least one 
aggravating factor at the trial jurors in a separate hearing then weigh any 
other aggravating factors and mitigating circumstances and recommend life 
without parole or death. Jurors must vote 10-2, 11-1 or 12-0 to recommend 
death. The judge then imposes the final sentence and at that time can override 
the jury's life or death recommendation. Most of the overrides in Alabama have 
resulted in the death penalty.

In its order in Wimbley's case, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals found 
that the jury - not a judge - had determined Wimbley was eligible for the death 
penalty because it had unanimously convicted him of murder during the course of 
a robbery and arson. Robbery and arson are both aggravating factors.

"Consequently, the jury's guilt-phase verdict satisfied Wimbley's Sixth 
Amendment right to a jury finding as to the existence of an aggravating 
circumstance," the appeals court stated. "That, as the Alabama Supreme Court 
explained, is all that "Ring (a previous SCOTUS ruling) and Hurst require ... 
nothing more and nothing less."

Florida's legislature enacted a new law that gives the jury, not the judge, the 
power to impose a death sentence. In Delaware, the only other state that 
allowed judicial overrides, that state's Supreme Court struck down its override 
law in August. That leaves Alabama as the only state that allows judicial 
override.

Alabama now alone on 'limb' with death penalty law

Alabama is now the only state to allow judges to override jury recommendations 
for life without parole and for those recommendations to be non-unanimous.

Wimbley

Wimbley was convicted in Washington County and sentenced to death in the death 
of 55-year-old Connie Ray Wheat at a grocery store in Wagarville.

Kirksey

Kirksey, of Gadsden, was convicted in the death of 23-month-old Cornell 
Norwood. The jury in 2010 found Kirksey guilty and unanimously recommended he 
be sentenced to death. The judge agreed and sentenced Kirksey to death.

Russell

Russell was convicted of murdering 11-year-old Katherine Helen Gillespie on 
June 16, 2008 in Shelby County. The jury unanimously to recommend Russell be 
sentenced to death and the judge followed the recommendation. A sheriff's 
deputy found Katherine's body in the backseat of a vehicle at Russell's home. 
Her body had been partially stuffed into a garbage can and covered in bloody 
towels and clothes. She had died as the result of a gunshot wound to her head. 
Russell was found inside the home. Russell's case was sent back by SCOTUS for 
review in October.

Bart Johnson

The U.S. Supreme Court this spring also sent back the case of death row inmate 
Bart Johnson for the state appeals court to review in light of its Florida 
ruling.

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, however, has not rendered an opinion in 
the Johnson case.

Johnson was convicted and sentenced to death in Shelby County for the 2009 
slaying of Pelham police officer Philip Davis during a traffic stop.

Consistent with earlier rulings

While the requests by the U.S. Supreme Court for the Alabama Court of Criminal 
Appeals to review the case were pending, the criminal appeals court and Alabama 
Supreme Court had declared in other cases that the state's law was 
constitutional.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tracie Todd in March ruled in four of her 
capital murder cases that Alabama's capital punishment sentencing scheme is 
unconstitutional based on the Hurst case.

In its order the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals told Jefferson County 
Circuit Court Judge Tracie Todd to vacate her March 3 order

In June the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals ordered Todd to vacate her 
rulings and declared the state's law is constitutional.

Then on Sept. 30, the Alabama Supreme Court weighed in. The Alabama Supreme 
Court ruled in the case of death row inmate Jerry Bohannon that Alabama's death 
penalty law is constitutional in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in 
Hurst v. Florida.

(source: al.com)






LOUISIANA:

New trial plea rejected for Rogers LaCaze in notorious 'triple murder with 
ex-cop Antoinette Frank


Rogers LaCaze scored a fleeting victory last year when a state judge granted 
him a new trial over one of New Orleans' most infamous massacres - the 1995 
triple slaying of a New Orleans police officer and 2 others inside the Kim Anh 
Restaurant.

But on Friday, the Louisiana Supreme Court delivered what appeared to be a 
fatal blow to LaCaze's attempts to secure a new trial and to stay off death 
row, at least through the state court system.

In an 18-page ruling, the state's high court unanimously found that the 4th 
Circuit Court of Appeal got it right in January when it reversed ad hoc Judge 
Michael Kirby's decision to grant LaCaze a new trial based on 1 juror's failure 
to identify himself as a "badge-wearing law enforcement officer."

The decision from the Supreme Court, which rejected numerous other claims that 
LaCaze's attorneys cited in their appeal, also seemed to mean LaCaze will 
return to death row.

While District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro's office had agreed to give up on 
sending LaCaze back to death row for the triple killing following Kirby's 
ruling, Friday's Supreme Court order appeared to reinstate LaCaze's death 
sentence, despite no indication that the 4th Circuit had ever taken that step.

LaCaze, 40, was convicted and sentenced to death months after the March 1995 
massacre, in which NOPD Officer Ronald "Ronnie" Williams II and siblings Cuong 
Vu and Ha Vu were slain inside the New Orleans East restaurant.

Williams' former partner, rookie officer Antoinette Frank, also was convicted 
of the triple slaying in a separate trial that year, and she remains on 
Louisiana's death row - the last New Orleans killer to be housed there.

Kirby, a former 4th Circuit jurist, found the evidence of LaCaze's guilt 
"overwhelming" after a prolonged series of hearings, dismissing a litany of 
claims filed by LaCaze's attorneys.

But in his 128-page ruling, Kirby nevertheless found a new trial for LaCaze was 
warranted because juror David Settle had failed to mention he was a state law 
enforcement officer. Such commissioned officers were legally barred from 
serving on juries at the time, though the law has since been reversed.

A panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal responded in January with a terse, 
1-paragraph ruling, dismissing Kirby's blockbuster decision with little 
explanation.

The Supreme Court offered a far more elaborate response on Friday. It noted 
that the law has since changed and found that, even if it hadn't, there was no 
evidence that Settle was "the sort of badge-wearing officer" who would be 
deemed unfit for jury service.

Settle, the court said, was working without arrest powers at a desk for the 
Bureau of Motor Vehicles when he was called to jury service.

If he had offered up his job description, the court found, it would not have 
prompted a valid challenge to his ability to serve on the jury that convicted 
LaCaze and sentenced him to death.

LaCaze "must also show that (Settle) harbored actual bias, or at least point to 
specific facts from which bias must be presumed," the court found, determining 
that he had not done so.

The court also rejected other claims that the case was botched by prosecutors, 
police, Criminal District Court Judge Frank Marullo or LaCaze's own, 
now-deceased trial attorney, Willie Turk.

Marullo presided over the trials of both Frank and LaCaze, even though his 
signature appeared on an order granting Frank possession of the possible murder 
weapon - which then was sitting among surplus police evidence - before the 
killings.

Marullo has denied signing the order, but LaCaze's attorneys raised that 
argument again in their appeal to the Supreme Court, arguing he should have 
recused himself from the trial.

"There has been considerable inquiry, to no avail, as to whether (Marullo's) 
signature is genuine" on the weapon release order, and in any case it didn't 
weigh on LaCaze's guilt, the Supreme Court found.

LaCaze's attorneys also claimed evidence pointed to Frank's brother, Adam 
Frank, as her likely accomplice, not LaCaze. But that evidence "is insufficient 
to undermine the verdict in a case in which the state presented substantial 
evidence of LaCaze's guilt," the high court found.

The court deemed LaCaze's state appeals to be "fully litigated" and its denial 
to be "final."

The 1995 slayings marked a low point in image and morale for a New Orleans 
Police Department that was beset at the time by corruption charges and an 
explosion of deadly street violence, with the city???s murder rate more than 
twice what it is today.

Williams had worked a security detail at the restaurant with Frank, who dined 
there with LaCaze on the evening of the murders. Prosecutors theorized that the 
18-year-old LaCaze and Frank, a 23-year-old rookie cop, were lovers.

Frank led Ha and Cuong Vu's sister, Chau, to the back of the restaurant when 
the gunshot that ended Williams' life rang out at the front of the business, 
according to trial testimony. Frank then ran toward the front of the building. 
As she and LaCaze robbed the restaurant, Ha Vu and Cuong Vu also were killed, 
according to testimony.

Chau, her brother Quoc Vu and a 3rd person hid in a walk-in cooler.

Frank, who then joined other officers responding to the 911 call reporting the 
massacre, was soon arrested based on identifications from survivors.

Police said LaCaze used Williams' credit card to buy gas on the West Bank 
following the killings. LaCaze always has said he was at a pool hall during the 
melee.

Williams' father, Ron Williams, said he greeted Friday's news about the Supreme 
Court ruling with caution. He said countless other decisions have prompted him 
to believe LaCaze is closer to receiving the punishment to which he was 
originally sentenced, only to have them followed by more lengthy delays. "I 
think the whole system is dysfunctional and ... that there's no finality," 
Williams said by phone. "I can't say I'm relieved. I won't be relieved until 
it's really over."

Nonetheless, Williams said he felt a measure of gladness that the Supreme Court 
spared him and his family from having to listen again to days of testimony 
about the slayings of Ronnie and the Vu siblings as well as the investigation 
that followed.

Williams said Ronnie's sons - Christopher and Patrick, who was born shortly 
before his father's death - remain in the metro New Orleans area, along with 
their mother, Mary.

In a statement Friday, LaCaze's lead appellate attorney, Blythe Taplin, said 
Friday's order means "the federal courts will now once again be forced to step 
in and grapple with another ... wrongful conviction" from an era when New 
Orleans' district attorney was the controversial Harry Connick Sr.

"Rogers LaCaze was only 18 years old when he was wrongfully convicted and 
sentenced to death," Taplin's statement said. "His trial was tainted by 
misconduct from the judge, the prosecution and even ... jurors who were law 
enforcement officers. No one could receive a fair trial under these 
circumstances."

Chau Vu did not respond to a message seeking comment, though last year she 
spoke with The New Orleans Advocate about her desire to forever "close the 
book" on LaCaze, Frank and the slayings at the Kim Anh restaurant, which now 
operates in Harahan.

In granting LaCaze a new trial, Kirby also threw out his death sentence, 
finding that his lawyer didn't properly represent him in the penalty phase of 
the trial. In its successful appeal, Cannizzaro's office didn't ask the 4th 
Circuit to reinstate the death penalty for LaCaze.

However, Friday's Supreme Court decision stated that the 4th Circuit "correctly 
reversed the order for a new trial and reinstated LaCaze???s convictions and 
death sentence."

Taplin declined to comment on that wording in the ruling.

(source: The Advocate)






KANSAS:

Kansas Supreme Court to hear 1st death penalty case since justices' election


Kansas' Supreme Court on Friday will hear the appeal of a death row inmate for 
the 1st time since Election Day, when the state's voters chose to keep 4 
justices targeted for removal by opponents who disapproved of their decision to 
overturn other death sentences.

The appeal from James Kraig Kahler's attorneys will reportedly question whether 
his death sentence was warranted and argue that a lower court made mistakes en 
route to convicting him of killing his estranged wife, his 2 teenage daughters 
and his wife's grandmother in 2009. Kahler's killing spree came after his wife 
began a romantic relationship with a woman.

Kahler showed no emotion upon receiving his death sentence.

(source: washingtonexaminer.com)


OKLAHOMA:

State will seek death penalty for man charged in deadly I-40 shooting spree


The state will seek the death penalty for man charged in the deadly shooting 
spree in December 2015.

OSBI releases names of victims, shooter in I-40 fatal shootings

Jeremy Doss Hardy, of Pasadena, Texas, is accused of shooting Jeffrey Kent 
Powell and Billie Jean West while they were driving last year along Interstate 
40. He was charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in connection with the 
crime spree that spanned 50 miles and 3 Oklahoma counties.

Authorities said the rampage started on I-40 in Canadian County. A vehicle was 
run off the road near the Canadian County and Caddo County lie.

Investigators say Hardy continued to drive on I-40 and started shooting at 
different vehicles. Powell died at the scene and West was pronounced dead at an 
area hospital from their gunshot wounds.

(source: KOCO news)






NEBRASKA:

Nebraska prisons chief gets new license for death penalty drugs, with 'no 
immediate plans' to use it


Nebraska's top prison official has obtained a new license to import 
foreign-made death penalty drugs but so far has taken no steps to use it.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration issued the importer's license to 
Scott Frakes, director of the State Department of Correctional Services, about 
2 weeks after the Nov. 8 vote that reinstated the death penalty in Nebraska.

Frakes submitted the application Sept. 22, according to documents obtained this 
week by The World-Herald through an open records request.

"No new effort has been made to import lethal-injection drugs," said Dawn-Renee 
Smith, spokeswoman for the Corrections Department, in response to follow-up 
questions. "There are no immediate plans to utilize the (importer's) license. 
The license was renewed in the normal course of business."

The detail comes about 2 weeks after the department proposed changes in how it 
carries out lethal injections. Among other things, the department wants to hide 
the identity of its drug supplier and allow the director to choose what drug or 
combination of drugs to use.

Smith said corrections officials are focused on the lethal injection protocol 
changes, which will be the topic of a Dec. 30 public hearing in Lincoln.

In 2015 the Legislature repealed the death penalty over the veto of Gov. Pete 
Ricketts. But last month, 61 % of voters overturned the repeal and reinstated 
capital punishment.

Ricketts has said he will make every effort to carry out the will of the 
majority and proceed with the executions of the 10 men on Nebraska's death row.

Although state officials have been vague about how they intend to obtain the 
drugs, the protocol changes seem designed to go through a domestic supplier, 
most likely an independent compounding pharmacy. Maintaining a valid importer's 
license, however, would give prison officials another option.

Nebraska's current lethal injection protocol requires the use of 3 drugs in a 
prescribed sequence. State officials have twice imported drugs from India, but 
the supplies expired before they could be used.

In 2015 Ricketts announced that the Corrections Department had purchased 2 of 
the drugs through the same broker in India. But the state's attempt to import 
was thwarted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which said one of the 
drugs is no longer permitted for use in this country.

The broker, Chris Harris, has refused a demand for a refund. The Corrections 
Department has not taken additional steps to acquire the drugs it paid Harris 
to deliver, Smith said Thursday.

Danielle Conrad, executive director of the ACLU of Nebraska, has been a critic 
of the plan to shroud parts of the death penalty protocol in secrecy. She said 
the state's acquisition of a new importer's license prompts more questions than 
answers.

"The bottom line is this department and this process requires more, not less, 
transparency to ensure the constitutional rights of all are respected and that 
Nebraska's long tradition of open government remains," Conrad said.

(source: Scottsbluff Star Herald)






CALIFORNIA:

Sex offender guilty of murdering 4 prostitutes: GPS ankle monitor cracked case


A sex offender was convicted Thursday of murdering 4 Orange County prostitutes 
in a case that was cracked in part by the GPS monitor he was wearing during the 
killings as a result of his earlier felony conviction.

Steven Dean Gordon, 47, acted as his own attorney at his trial, admitting his 
involvement in most of the abduction murders, although he insisted his 
co-defendant, 30-year-old Franc Cano, was the main culprit in hunting down and 
killing the four victims.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin, however, argued that Gordon was 
the "manipulator" and the "big brother" in the relationship between the 
convicted sex offenders.

In his closing argument, Gordon did not deny many of the allegations, but he 
argued he was not guilty of attacking and killing 21-year-old Jarrae Nykkole 
Estepp.

Gordon and Cano, who will be tried separately and also faces the death penalty, 
are also charged with killing 20-year-old Kianna Jackson, 34-year-old Josephine 
Vargas and 28-year-old Martha Anaya.

Only Estepp's body was found. That discovery led to multiple clues tying Gordon 
and Cano to the other killings, with Yellin making his case on evidence from 
DNA, GPS-tracked movements of both defendants and their own statements to 
police.

Referring to Yellin's opening statement of the trial, Gordon told jurors, 
"Everything he said is 100 % on target. I even complimented him after you (the 
jurors) left. He brought his A game."

While discussing the killing of Jackson, who went missing on Oct. 6, 2013, 
Gordon said, "Franc and I went down to Santa Ana to pick up working girls. Not 
to kidnap or murder, but things escalated out of control, which led to the 
death of (Jackson) before her time."

The next victim, Vargas, who was reported missing Oct. 24, 2013, became a 
target of the defendants, Gordon said.

"Yes, Franc and I went to Santa Ana to commit a murder and kidnapping, which 
led to the death (of Vargas) before her time," Gordon said.

Anaya, who went missing Nov. 12, 2013, was just a target of Cano's, Gordon 
said.

"Franc Cano went to Santa Ana (that night) to commit a rape and murder all by 
himself," Gordon said.

Gordon argued, "You can't prove I was there," because he claimed he was not 
wearing a GPS tracking device at that time.

Probation and parole officials came under fire in the case because the two 
defendants, who actually cut off their devices and left the state at one point, 
were supposed to be monitored, but authorities did not seem to notice they were 
associating with each other, which is typically a violation. Gordon claimed 
that someday the truth will come out that they had "permission" to "hang 
around" with each other.

As for Estepp's killing, Gordon said, "Yes, we went down to look for a girl to 
kidnap and murder. Yes, on the drive back I had a change of heart on killing 
her."

Gordon said, however, he could not stop his partner and that, "I failed her."

Referring to testimony from a coroner that Estepp's attacker "stomped" on her 
neck, Gordon said, "It wasn't me ... I didn't stomp on Jarrae's neck. ... I saw 
what he did to her. I watched it."

Gordon also argued that Cano tried to set him up by using his phone to send 
incriminating text messages to Cano???s phone. "He knew of my intent of letting 
her go, that's my belief," Gordon said.

"I could have blamed him (Cano) for everything," Gordon said.

"Our intent on these nights were beyond evil," the defendant added. "No doubt 
about it. Yes, I changed my mind about killing (Estepp), but it doesn't matter 
because I (screwed) up."

Yellin told jurors no one will ever truly know what happened when the victims 
were attacked. The details of who was driving and who was in the back seat 
hiding when they picked up prostitutes and ambushed them will remain in 
dispute, Yellin said.

But he said it doesn't matter under the legal theories the jury must consider 
to weigh Gordon's guilt. The defendant can be convicted either as a conspirator 
or as an accomplice in the kidnappings and murders, Yellin said.

A killing resulting from a kidnapping is "automatically murder," Yellin argued.

Jurors can also consider 2nd-degree murder if they rule out 1st-degree murder, 
but Yellin argued all the evidence of premeditation and deliberation needed to 
prove 1st-degree murder was present in the killings.

Yellin pointed out the 2 were so savvy about their restrictions as sex 
offenders that they avoided straying too far from areas they were allowed to 
visit, to prevent the GPS-tracking devices from being triggered. There was also 
evidence they used hoses at the auto body shop where they took their victims to 
wash evidence from the bodies, Yellin said.

Yellin brushed off Gordon's arguments on the mistakes authorities made in 
tracking the sex offenders as "white noise" that was irrelevant to the 
decisions jurors must make.

At the beginning of the trial, Yellin compared the Gordon and Cano to the 
sharks in "Jaws," but in his closing argument, Yellin said that was an "insult 
to the sharks."

"These guys not only did horrible things - killing, multiple sexual assaults - 
they also psychologically terrorized (the victims). They gave them hope, 'if 
you just do this we'll let you go,'" the prosecutor said.

(source: mynewsla.com)

********

Death-row inmate has a new champion in legendary lawyer who plans to get him 
freed


Legendary San Francisco civil rights attorney J. Tony Serra received a warm 
welcome Friday in Fresno County Superior Court in his first appearance in the 
death penalty case of Douglas Ray Stankewitz.

After introducing himself to Judge Arlan Harrell, Serra said he and his 
colleague, attorney Curtis Briggs, were ready to join Stankewitz's defense team 
for free.

Harrell said it was "highly commendable" of Serra and Curtis to offer to work 
"pro bono" on Stankewitz's case, but first, Fresno defense lawyer Peter Jones, 
the lead attorney, has to file an affidavit, explaining why he needs 2 more 
lawyers to assist him.

Once the affidavit is filed, Harrell said he has no doubt that Serra and Briggs 
will be formidable defenders for Stankewitz.

Stankewitz is an American Indian known as "Chief" who grew up in poverty in 
Fresno and the foothills east of here. Serra took the case because he believes 
American Indians like Stankewitz are too poor to afford good legal counsel.

The hearing in Harrell's courtroom took only a few minutes, but it foreshadowed 
the upcoming legal battle that pits 1 of nation's top lawyers against 
prosecutor Noelle Pebet, 1 of Fresno County's top homicide prosecutors.

After the hearing, Pebet said she looks forward to the legal battle, saying 
Serra brings a wealth of experience in the courtroom. But Pebet also said she 
won???t be a pushover because she has the full support of District Attorney 
Lisa Smittcamp and her staff. "It should be an interesting experience," Pebet 
said. "I have a great team behind me."

Nearly 4 decades after Stankewitz was convicted of fatally shooting 22-year-old 
Theresa Graybeal in 1978 and supposedly bragging to his friends - "Did I drop 
her or did I drop her?" - he has returned to Fresno for a 3rd retrial of his 
death sentence.

In 1982, the California Supreme Court overturned Stankewitz's 1st death 
sentence. The following year, he was again convicted and sentenced to death, 
but that didn't hold up, either.

Stankewitz, now 58 and the longest tenured inmate on death row at San Quentin 
Prison, is here because a federal appellate court in 2012 overturned his death 
sentence due to incompetent counsel. Though he contends he didn't kill Graybeal 
or utter that chilling quote that led to his conviction, the appellate court 
declined to reverse his murder conviction.

But in an interview after Friday's hearing, Serra said the ultimate goal is to 
prove Stankewitz's innocence and gain his freedom. "We will be firing out of 
both legal barrels," Serra said, saying the legal team plans an attack on 
Stankewitz's conviction.

"We plan to do it right this time," he said.

Stankewitz's dream team faces an uphill battle.

Court records say Stankewitz was 19 in February 1978 when he and 3 others from 
Fresno - Billy Brown, 14, Marlin Lewis, 22, and Teena Topping, 19 - got 
stranded in Modesto. Outside a department store, they forced Graybeal into her 
car and drove off.

In Fresno, they drove to the Calwa area, picked up Christina Menchaca, 25, and 
looked for heroin to buy. Later, they stopped at Vine Avenue and 10th Street.

According to Brown's testimony, Stankewitz raised a gun and shot Graybeal from 
about one foot away. "Did I drop her or did I drop her?" Brown quoted 
Stankewitz as saying.

In exchange for his testimony, Brown's murder charge was dropped. Lewis pleaded 
guilty to 2nd-degree murder. Menchaca and Topping pleaded guilty to being 
accessories. Since then, Brown, Lewis and Topping have died.

In a letter to The Bee, Stankewitz contends he is innocent because Brown signed 
a declaration in September 1993 that said he never saw Stankewitz with a gun 
and never heard him utter the words that led to his death sentence. Stankewitz 
also contends there was jury misconduct in his 2nd trial that led to his 
conviction.

Adding lawyers who will work for free on a capital case has happened before.

Jones told Harrell that in the 1990s the late Fresno attorney Ernest Kinney 
worked pro bono with Jones and attorney Michael Castro on the Dana Ewell murder 
case. Ewell was convicted in 1998 of murdering his family, but the jury gave 
him life in prison, instead of the death penalty.

Jones said Kinney joined the team without an affidavit. But Harrell said that, 
in order to protect the record, he needed an affidavit from Jones to add Serra 
and Briggs.

Douglas Ray Stankewitz, 58, has been on death row at San Quentin Prison longer 
than any condemned inmate.

Stankewitz, dressed in a red jail jumpsuit, appeared in a good mood Friday when 
Serra announced he was joining the defense team.

Serra was the subject of the 1989 movie "True Believer" about a murder in San 
Francisco's Chinatown in which he won an acquittal for death row inmate Chol 
Soo Lee.

Serra also has successfully defended Black Panther leader Huey Newton in a 
murder trial and represented individuals from groups as diverse and politically 
charged as the White Panthers, Hells Angels, Good Earth and New World 
Liberation Front.

On Friday, he told the judge that he needed to get up to speed on the case. The 
evidence, he said, is contained nearly 4 dozen boxes. He also told Harrell that 
Stankewitz???s trial in October 2017 should be pushed into 2018.

Because several motions still have to be filed, Harrell scheduled a status 
hearing for March 17.

(source: Fresno Bee)






USA:

Rev. Barber: We Have Convicted White Supremacist Dylann Roof But America is 
Still Guilty


Guests----Rev. Dr. William Barber, president of Repairers of the Breach and 
head of the North Carolina NAACP.


In Charleston, South Carolina, a jury has found Dylann Roof guilty on 33 counts 
of federal hate crimes for murdering nine black worshipers, including Pastor 
Clementa Pinckney, at the historic Emanuel AME Church in June 2015. The 
verdict, reached after the jury deliberated for less than 2 hours, came after 
30 witnesses testified over 6 days. Roof embraced white supremacist views and 
was shown in photographs posing with the Confederate flag and a pistol. We 
speak to the late Reverend Pinckney's friend, Reverend William Barber, head of 
the North Carolina NAACP.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, I wanted to ask you about news from your neighboring 
state, South Carolina. On Thursday, jurors in Charleston found white 
supremacist Dylann Storm Roof guilty of 33 counts of federal hate crimes for 
shooting nine people dead at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Church on 
June 17th, 2015. Roof embraced white supremacist views, was shown in 
photographs posing with a Confederate flag and pistol, now facing the death 
penalty. Can you talk about Dylann Roof, as well as the rise of white supremacy 
that we're seeing in the so-called alt-right? And your thoughts on him getting 
the death penalty, Reverend Barber?

REV. WILLIAM BARBER: Well, you know, it's a complex conversation. Let me give a 
shout out to my good friend Dr. Lonnie Randolph, who's president of the South 
Carolina NAACP, who has been fighting issues in South Carolina for a long time, 
and the people down there. You know, this is a very Shakespearean moment. You 
know, he was guilty. We know he was guilty. He confessed to being guilty. And 
now he's been found guilty. And that is certainly a certain relief for the 
families.

But then, the irony of it is we've come through this campaign, this Trumpism, 
with all of this overt racism and othering, you know, this - at the same time 
we're convicting Dylann Roof. We have a candidate, you know, who is now 
president-elect, who began his movement on birtherism and demeaning and 
denouncing the very birthright of our president. We have policies being 
proposed. We've got Jeff Sessions, who attempted to prosecute civil rights 
leaders for participating in registering people to vote, who is against voting 
rights and civil rights, who now will be possibly the attorney general. We have 
alt-right, or I call it alt-wrong, and Steve Bannon and white supremacists in 
the heart of the Oval Office. We haven't seen that, at least that blatantly, 
since 1915, when Birth of a Nation was played in the Oval Office by Woodrow 
Wilson. And by the way, Dylann Roof was captured in Shelby, which is the 
hometown of the playwright who wrote the movie and the script for Birth of a 
Nation. And now we have this alt-wrong in the Oval Office, 100 years later, 
exact almost to the date. We've gone from Birth of a Nation in the Oval Office 
to alt-right in the Oval Office.

We have a rise in white supremacy, but we also have a rise in systemic policy. 
We have people being put in place that are going to do what I call destruction 
from the inside. Price over HHS, Health and Human Services, who I believe will 
do great damage to the Health and Human Services, will hurt many black people - 
and many white people. And we've come through this election where people have 
been divided by race and fear. You know, Donald Trump is not the 1st white man 
who has used racial division to be elected. This is not the 1st time America 
has dealt with a racist president. But what we should be surprised about is the 
ease at which he was able to use it in the 21st century and the way in which 
people bought the con and bought this racism and othering that we have seen 
now. So we're in a troubling time.

And while Dylann Roof has been found guilty, lastly, Amy, South Carolina is 
still guilty. South Carolina, after those 9 deaths - you know, my frat brother, 
Reverend Pinckney, was killed. He fought for more money for public education. 
The South Carolina Legislature has not passed more money for public education 
in his name. He fought against voter suppression. Nikki Haley supported voter 
suppression. And now she's going to be an ambassador to other nations. He 
fought for the pulling down of the Confederate flag. The flag did not come down 
until 9 people were killed, which, in an eerie way, sends the signal that only 
black death matters. You know, he fought for a living wage. He fought for 
healthcare expansion that would help black and poor white people in South 
Carolina. South Carolina is still guilty of not expanding healthcare and not 
raising their living wage and still having right-to-work laws, which are 
actually right-to-discriminate laws that keep labor unions out of the South.

So, yes, we have convicted Dylann Roof, but South Carolina and America is - 
we're still guilty of systemic policy racism. And the only way we're going to 
get at it is to have a massive fusion, moral movement in this country, 
particularly out in the South. And, Amy, on December 31st, we're having a 
national watch night, Moral Revival Poor People's Campaign Watch Night Service 
at Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, D.C., calling people to stand up 
against extremism, calling for a race-class audit that we will release on April 
the 4th, the anniversary of Dr. King's death, and calling for, lastly, not a 
remembrance, but a re-engagement of the Poor People's Campaign in 2017, 2018, 
all across the nation.

AMY GOODMAN: Reverend Dr. William Barber, we thank you very much for being with 
us, president of the North Carolina NAACP, Moral Mondays leader. Recent article 
in ThinkProgress, "We are witnessing the birth pangs of a Third 
Reconstruction." We'll link to it at democracynow.org.

(source: democracynow.org)





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

Dylann Roof says mental health should not be factor in death penalty decision 
---- Charleston church shooter says he will not call on experts in trial's 
penalty phase: psychology is 'Jewish invention and does nothing but invent 
diseases'


Dylann Roof does not want jurors to consider his mental health when they decide 
next month if he should face the death penalty for killing nine black 
Charleston church worshippers, according to a handwritten motion he filed.

Roof's decision late on Friday to not call mental health experts to testify is 
not too much of a surprise. In his hate-filled, racist journal read to the jury 
during his trial, Roof said he did not believe in psychology.

"It is a Jewish invention and does nothing but invent diseases and tell people 
they have problems when they don't," Roof wrote.

Roof, 22, is acting as his own lawyer during the penalty phase of his trial, 
which starts on 3 January.

The same jury that convicted him Thursday on 33 charges including hate crimes 
and obstruction of religion will decide if Roof is sentenced to life in prison 
without parole or death for the massacre on 17 June 2015 at Emanuel African 
Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston.

In his handwritten note, he said: "I will not be calling mental health experts 
or presenting mental health evidence."

Roof's lawyers tried to stop him from being his own lawyer, saying he was a 
high-school dropout and that they feared Roof fired them because he was afraid 
the attorneys would present evidence that would embarrass him and his family 
when trying to save his life.

Prosecutors are expected to present evidence showing that Roof picked his 
victims because of their race, killed them to incite more violence, showed no 
remorse and killed 3 particularly vulnerable people who were 70 years old or 
older, according to court papers.

State prosecutors have also said they will seek the death penalty against Roof 
in a separate trial on nine murder charges, likely to begin sometime next year.

(source: The Guardian)

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

Retiring judge doubts Marvin Gabrion will be put to death


The federal judge who presided over the death penalty case of Marvin Gabrion 
now doubts the convicted killer will ever be put to death.

U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell, who is retiring after 30 years on the 
federal bench, recalled the Gabrion trial as the most high-profile one he's 
handled.

"I told my wife at the time, 'I got that one,' I said to my wife, 'This guy and 
I are going to be synonymous for months and years to come,' and it's true," 
Bell said in a recent interview.

Gabrion, now 63, is on death row at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. 
He has been there since 2002, when he was convicted of killing Rachel 
Timmerman, the 19-year-old woman he'd been accused of raping.

Gabrion dumped her alive, weighted with cinder blocks, into a small lake just 
days before he was to go to trial for the rape.

Michigan's constitution doesn't allow the death penalty. But the side of Oxford 
Lake where her body surfaced is in the Manistee National Forest, making it a 
federal crime.

Timmerman and her 11-month-old daughter, Shannon Verhage, are among 5 people 
Gabrion is suspected of killing just to get rid of them.

The mother and daughter disappeared in 1997. The infant's body was never found. 
She would be 20 years old now.

EVIL EYES

Bell recalled the evil look in Gabrion's eyes.


"He tried that on me. I just looked right back at him, and then I said, on the 
record, 'The record should reflect Mr. Gabrion is staring at me and has stared 
at me for the last 2 hours, and it's having no effect whatever upon me.'"

It was a federal jury that decided Gabrion deserved the death penalty, making 
him the first prisoner sentenced to death in Michigan in 65 years.

"That jury unanimously ruled, decided, that he deserved death, not life in 
prison," Bell said.

Gabrion has filed repeated appeals. Higher courts overturned the death penalty, 
then reinstated it.

When asked if Gabrion would ever be put to death, Bell responded: "I don't 
know. I don't know. There's a chance, but I would not give it better than a 
50-50 chance. I think it's more likely he'll spend the right of his life in 
prison. Yeah, I think it's most likely."

Bell said he rarely thinks about Gabrion, though he learned that he recently 
attacked a female attorney in a visiting room at the federal prison in Terre 
Haute.

"Apparently it didn't go well," Bell said. "Apparently the minute she got in 
and got seated and he got seated, he came right across the table after her."

Guards watching through a window charged in, he said.

"They flew the door open and came in and rescued her," Bell recounted.

CASINOS, GANGS AND POLITICIANS

The Gabrion trial was certainly not Bell's only big case.

President Ronald Reagan appointed Bell, a former Ingham County judge, to the 
lifetime job in 1987.

Since then, he's presided over fights between Native American tribes over 
casinos in the 1990s and over cases that helped break up the violent Latin 
Kings gang in Holland.

He and two other judges helped re-draw the lines of U.S. House districts in 
Michigan in the early 1990s. He recalled unveiling the maps to a courtroom full 
of politicians and attorneys.

"Bedlam took place," he said. "Oh, my goodness. Every big shot politician in 
the state of Michigan went nuts."

Bell said he tries to make an impact on every criminal who stands before him. 
Before they're set free, he orders them into court, along with somebody who was 
close to them before they got locked up, like a brother, or a mom.

"I say, 'Ok, you paid your debt to society, you've been punished, I want to 
know, what did you learn from this? How are we going to live for the rest of 
our lives? What are we going to do?'"

A CHANGING SYSTEM

As he retires, Bell said he sees a judicial system that has changed, not 
necessarily for the better, with fewer jury trials and more backroom deals.

(source: woodtv.com)