[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARK., MO., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 28




ARKANSAS:

Prosecutor to seek death penalty in slaying of elderly woman


A northeast Arkansas prosecutor is seeking the death penalty against a man 
charged in the abduction and slaying of a 90-year-old Bay woman.

Prosecutor Scott Ellington announced Thursday that he is seeking the death 
penalty against 30-year-old Richard Tarver, saying the killing was conducted in 
an "especially cruel or depraved manner."

Tarver is charged with capital murder, kidnapping, abuse of a corpse and 
several theft and firearm charges in the July death of Lavinda Counce.

Counce went missing on July 3, and her car was found in a hospital parking lot 
the next day. Her body was found July 12 in a cornfield after an extensive 
volunteer search.

Tarver has pleaded not guilty. Tarver's attorney is not listed in court or jail 
documents. A trial is scheduled for March.

(source: Associated Press)






MISSOURI:

Missouri Senate committee votes to abolish death penalty


A coalition of Republicans and Democrats voted Tuesday to send a bill repealing 
Missouri's death penalty to the state Senate for debate.

The measure passed the Senate General Laws and Pensions Committee on a 4-3 vote 
with support from 2 Republicans and 2 Democrats. The measure will head to the 
full Senate, which has not debated a bill to repeal the death penalty in 
decades.

"The death penalty isn't going to change without discussion," said the bill's 
sponsor, Sen. Paul Wieland, R-Imperial. "It's important we keep discussion open 
and allow everyone to share their opinions in order to make a change."

The bill also had the support of the committee's chairman, Sen. Rob Schaaf, 
R-St. Joseph.

Also voting for the measure were the committee's 2 Democrats, Sen. Joe Keaveny 
of St. Louis and Sen. Jill Schupp of Creve Coeur. The other 3 Republicans on 
the committee - Sen. Dan Hegeman, R-Maryville, Sen. Bob Onder, R-St. Charles, 
and Sen. Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan - voted against repealing the death penalty.

Before the vote, the committee heard from Joshua Kezer, who served 16 years in 
a state prison after being wrongly convicted of the 1992 murder of a Southeast 
Missouri State University nursing student in Scott County.

Kezer was sentenced to prison for 1st-degree murder, but Kezer's DNA was 
submitted to the FBI and was found to not be a match. Kezer was released from 
prison in 2009.

"I'm the last one to advocate for the life of a serial killer, woman killer, or 
child killer," Kezer said. "But when we are talking about the death penalty we 
aren't just talking about serial killers, men killers, or race killers. We are 
just talking about killers. Unfortunately we are also talking about innocent 
men and women. And because we are talking about that, even though it might be a 
small percentage, we have to address the death penalty."

Witnesses from the Missouri Sheriff's Association and the Missouri Police 
Chiefs Association both said they were against the bill.

There are currently 46 prisoners awaiting execution on death row in Missouri. 
The state executed 16 people in 2014 and 2015, more than a 1/4 of all 
executions nationwide in that period. The state has put 86 people to death 
since 1989, when executions resumed after a 24-year hiatus.

The last time the Senate debated whether Missouri should have the death penalty 
was in April 1974. If the bill passes, Missouri will join Illinois, New York, 
Iowa, and 17 other states that that do not have a death penalty.

Wieland acknowledged his bill still has a long way to go to win passage in the 
Republican-dominated General Assembly.

(source: Columbia Daily Tribune)






USA:

Gary Lee Sampson Death Penalty Sentencing Retrial Set


The Gary Lee Sampson death penalty sentencing retrial has been set for Sept. 14 
in federal court in Boston, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts has 
announced.

Sampson was condemned by a jury to die after pleading guilty to carjacking and 
killing 2 Massachusetts men in 2001.

18-year-old Jonathan Rizzo and 69-year-old Philip McCloskey lost their lives 
during the weeklong crime spree.

In 2011, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Wolf ordered a new sentencing trial 
after finding that a juror had lied about her background.

(source: necn.com)