[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., MO., MONT.

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 22




NORTH CAROLINA:

Accused triple-murderer facing rare death penalty trial in Cumberland County


Shawn Lee Legrand of Fayetteville goes to court on Feb. 1 for what has become 
uncommon in North Carolina: A death penalty trial.

Legrand, 48, is accused of killing 3 people and of trying to kill 2 others in 
Fayetteville in November 2011.

Police said he broke into a home on Ingram Street on Fayetteville's east side. 
There, he stabbed a woman and a man to death and shot 3 other people, 1 
fatally. He fled from officers in a car chase, the Police Department said, then 
crashed and got into a shootout with the officers near downtown Fayetteville. 
No officers were hit, but they wounded Legrand and captured him.

A psychiatrist wrote in September that Legrand was attempting to commit 
"suicide by cop" when he shot at the officers. As of September, Legrand was 
still suicidal and wanted to be sentenced to death, the doctor said.

But the sister of one of Legrand's victims thinks he should serve life in 
prison without parole instead being executed.

Capital murder trials once were common in this state. In 2000, according to the 
N.C. Center for Death Penalty Litigation, North Carolina had 57 death penalty 
trials, 18 of which ended in death sentences. This past year, there were four 
capital trials and no death sentences issued.

Cumberland County last had a capital murder trial in fall 2014. A jury 
deadlocked on whether to sentence Cedric Theodis Hobbs Jr. to death for killing 
a teen during a robbery of a pawnshop.

"I would say as a whole, we probably have less capital trials now than we did, 
say, maybe 10 years ago," said Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West.

A change in death penalty law in 2001 is a major reason that the cases have 
declined. The prior law required prosecutors to seek the death penalty if any 
of 11 "aggravating circumstances" existed in the case. Those included murders 
in conjunction with other serious crimes such as kidnapping or rape, killings 
or that were especially cruel or murders committed for personal gain.

Now prosecutors have the option to forgo seeking the death penalty even if an 
aggravating factor exists. Instead of death, the defendant automatically gets a 
sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder.

Prosecutors have good reasons to take the death penalty off the table in a 
trial or to accept a guilty plea to 1st-degree murder, West said.

A death penalty trial is are far more time-consuming, expensive and 
resource-intensive than a non-capital trial or a court hearing for a guilty 
plea, West said. Death penalty trials usually take a bigger toll on the 
victim's family members, too, he said.

If there is a death sentence, the appeals process can go for years before the 
execution is carried out, West said. Plus, still pending court challenges to 
the death penalty in court have blocked executions in North Carolina since 
January 2007 and it's unclear when or if they will resume.

In light of those factors, prosecutors evaluate the likelihood of a jury 
returning a death sentence, West said.

"You don't ever in our business know what a jury's going to do," West said. 
"But I think you can a lot of times gauge whether or not this is a case that a 
jury may think is truly worthy of the death penalty."

Ken Rose, of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, agrees that death trials 
are rarer these days. But he thinks prosecutors are unfairly using the threat 
of a death penalty trial to push defendants into guilty pleas.

"In almost all our cases now ... they're using it as leverage," Rose said. 
"They believe that life sentences are acceptable punishment, and suitable and 
fit the crime. But then they see the death penalty as leverage to get to the 
life sentences without having to go to trial.

"And what that does is, that penalizes people who assert their right to jury 
trials in a way that I don't think is right," Rose said.

If the state is going to have a death penalty, Rose said, it should be sought 
"only in the circumstances where it's really the only fitting punishment for a 
particular crime."

Despite the factors that weigh against seeking death, West is pushing for it in 
Legrand's case for several reasons. They include the fact that he is accused of 
killing 3 people and that he has a history of violence stretching back decades.

The killings happened on Nov. 26, 2011, a Saturday morning, in a triplex on 288 
Ingram Street.

In a court document, Legrand's lawyer describes the residence as "a known drug 
house."

According to news accounts and court records, Legrand is accused of tying up 
Krystle Price Papile and Gregory Steven Fitzgerald. He stabbed Papile to death. 
Fitzgerald briefly escaped, but a witness said Legrand chased him down in the 
back yard and stabbed him there. Fitzgerald died later in the day. Ardell Page 
Jr. was bound and killed with a head shot.

2 others, Bennie Darwin King and Stephanie Lashaun Croom, were shot in the 
face. They survived.

A 911 caller reported a woman was bleeding on the front porch and saying a man 
had tried to kill her.

The police received a description of Legrand's car. Police Sgt. Steven Bates 
spotted it in the Arch Street area near downtown, about 1.5 miles away from 
Ingram Street, and tried to pull him over.

The driver fled, police said, and Bates and Officer Travis Smith chased the car 
to Legrand's house at 216 S. C Street.

Legrand crashed, jumped out of the car with a handgun and began shooting, the 
police said. The officers shot back and severely injured him.

Forensic psychiatrist Gorge P. Corvin wrote in September that Legrand is 
chronically depressed and was trying to kill himself when he shot at the 
officers. He also has tried to kill himself by overdosing on medications, 
Corvin said.

Legrand has asked the court at least twice to dismiss his lawyers and let him 
represent himself. This is "with the clearly stated goal of doing whatever it 
takes to make sure that he is sentenced to death," Corvin wrote.

Corvin wrote that he did not think Legrand was competent to stand trial.

Legrand defense lawyer Michael Driver said he and lawyer Lisa Miles are still 
on Legrand's case. Legrand has been ruled competent to stand trial but not 
capable of representing himself, Driver said.

Angelica Saint-Surin of Columbia, South Carolina, was Krystle Papile's sister. 
Saint-Surin said she has struggled with whether Legrand should be sentenced to 
death. At first she opposed it because "I was afraid he was going to ask for 
forgiveness and be granted forgiveness. And my heart was having a struggle with 
that."

She changed her mind to favor death, she said, after seeing Legrand in court. 
He was arrogant, she said. "He hasn't even tried to ask for forgiveness or 
repent for his sins."

But if Legrand has a death wish, it shouldn't be granted, Saint-Surin said.

"He wants death. So yes, I don't think he should be able to get anything he 
wants," she said.

(source: Fayetteville Observer)






MISSOURI----new execution date

Missouri Supreme Court sets execution date for Earl Forrest


The Missouri Supreme Court has set a May execution date for a man convicted of 
killing a deputy and 2 other people 13 years ago.

The court on Thursday issued a warrant of execution for 66-year-old Earl 
Forrest. His execution on May 11 would be the 1st in Missouri this year.

Forrest was convicted of killing Harriett Smith, Michael Wells and Dent County 
Deputy JoAnn Barnes in December 2002. Smith was killed at her Salem home in a 
drug dispute, and Wells was visiting her. Barnes died in a shootout when 
officers went to Forrest's home to investigate the killings.

Missouri executed 10 men in 2014 and 6 last year, but the pace is expected to 
slow because most of the remaining death row inmates still have court appeals 
pending.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Execution date set for Forrest


Earl Forrest, 66, is set to be executed in Potosi May 11 for killing 3 local 
residents in 2002 including Michael Wells, Harriet Smith and Dent County 
Sheriff's Deputy JoAnn Barnes.

The Missouri Supreme Court set the date Thursday after affirming the sentence 
recommended by a Platte County jury in 2004 and denying Forrest an appeal.

This is the 2nd execution date set for Forrest, the sentence was originally 
planned to be carried out in the Spring of 2006.

If executed Forrest will be the 1st Missouri death row inmate executed in 2016.

(soruce: thesalemnewsonline.com)






MONTANA:

When Does the Death Penalty Apply to Missoula County Court Cases?


Missoula has seen 2 high profile murder cases in recent days and some citizens 
are wondering why the death penalty wasn't invoked in either instance. Missoula 
County Attorney Kirsten Pabst was on the other end of the phone on Talk Back on 
Friday to provide information.

"There's a couple of reasons why these particular cases didn't qualify. Either 
that we show ambush or there was torture involved; They're really extremely 
egregious cases that would qualify, and arguably neither of the 2 cases pending 
in Missoula County qualified," Pabst said. "There's an even better reason than 
that. The United States Supreme Court basically just shot down our statutory 
scheme for the death penalty."

Pabst said Montana's scheme was similar to a Florida case that was recently 
overturned by the Supreme Court because of their process for seeking and 
getting the death penalty.

"If the death penalty is even going to continue in Montana, the legislature is 
probably going to have to overhaul the process," Pabst said. "The jury has to 
decide. Our statutory scheme requires that a judge decide and that's been held 
unconstitutional. And I'm grossly oversimplifying it. At this point in Montana, 
I just don't think we are going to be able to do it until we get those laws 
straightened out."

Although she didn't know specific numbers, Pabst said it's been a while since a 
death penalty case was tried and convicted in Montana.

(source: KGVO news)