[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN.

[Rick Halperin]

June 6



TEXAS:

After nearly 40 years, murder charges dropped against Kerry Max Cook in East 
Texas case


In a shocking reversal, Smith County prosecutors agreed Monday to throw out 
murder charges against Kerry Max Cook, a man they've insisted for nearly 40 
years was guilty of one of the small county's most notorious killings.

Cook and his lawyers declined to speak with reporters after the court hearing. 
But the former death row inmate, who has been fighting for decades to clear his 
name, celebrated outside the courthouse, sharing hugs with his wife, Sandy, his 
legal team and a group of Texas exonerees, who came to support him.

Cook was convicted in 1978 in the gruesome slaying of Linda Jo Edwards, a 
22-year-old who was found brutally beaten, stabbed and mutilated in her 
apartment bedroom. From the outset, through 3 trials that courts said were 
tainted with prosecutor misconduct, 20 years on death row and even since being 
released in 1999, Cook has maintained his innocence.

His quest to prove it gained worldwide attention. But his saga is not over. 
Now, at age 60, he can move toward a full exoneration. Prosecutors agreed to 
drop the murder charges, but they will continue to oppose Cook's claims of 
actual innocence, which would allow him to receive compensation for the 2 
decades he spent on death row.

"Under no standard was Kerry treated fairly," said Marc McPeak, who represented 
Cook from 2008 to 2013. "I don't know if there is justice at this point, but 
hopefully there is peace."

Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham, who declined to comment after the 
hearing, agreed to drop the murder charges after the latest revelation in the 
case destroyed one of the few remaining pieces of the state's case against 
Cook.

James Mayfield, Edwards' married lover at the time of her death, admitted in an 
April deposition that he had lied during previous trials when he said that it 
had been weeks since he had sex with the young woman. He admitted that he and 
Edwards had sex the day before she was killed - his birthday.

Mayfield was at the courthouse Monday. He left the courthouse using a walker 
and declined to speak with reporters.

Mayfield, a former university library dean who worked with Edwards, denied 
killing her, and prosecutors agreed to give him immunity in exchange for his 
deposition. But several DNA tests have identified his semen in the panties 
Edwards wore the night of her death.

In addition, Edwards' roommate, Paula Rudolph, initially told police that it 
was Mayfield, a man with medium-length silver hair, whom she saw in their 
apartment the night of the murder. She changed her story at trial and 
implicated Cook, though he had longer, dark hair at the time.

While crucial to the prosecution's decision, Mayfield's new testimony was only 
the most recent piece of the state's case to fall apart. The 1978 guilty 
verdict was overturned in 1991 after the state's highest court tossed out the 
testimony of the prosecutors' psychiatrist, who said Cook would be a future 
danger to society.

Prosecutors tried again to convict Cook, but a 1992 trial produced a mistrial 
after jurors found a stocking tucked inside pants Edwards had been wearing - it 
was a stocking prosecutors had alleged Cook used to secret away body parts he 
had carved from his victim.

A 3rd trial sent Cook back to death row. But an appeals court threw out that 
verdict, too, finding prosecutors had engaged in "pervasive" and "egregious" 
misconduct. Among the offenses, the court said, prosecutors withheld evidence 
and misrepresented a deal they made with a jailhouse snitch who later admitted 
he lied when he said Cook confessed to him.

And yet prosecutors were still undeterred. In 1999, just days before what would 
have been his 4th trial, Smith County prosecutors offered him an unusual 
no-contest plea deal that allowed Cook to be released from prison.

Cook didn't admit the crime but remained guilty in the eyes of the law. Later, 
Cook learned that DNA tests conducted shortly before the trial showed 
Mayfield's DNA on Edwards' underwear.

Since 2012, Cook has been fighting to clear his name entirely. And until 
Monday, prosecutors appeared determined to fight back. Despite court rulings 
that eviscerated much of the state's evidence and multiple DNA tests that 
failed to produce any of Cook's biological material, prosecutors maintained 
that he was guilty.

"This is sort of really the quintessential railroading," McPeak said.

Despite Monday's action, prosecutors are not ready to declare Cook innocent. 
While they've agreed to drop the murder charges, prosecutors will still argue 
against a claim that Cook has filed seeking a declaration of actual innocence.

In the end, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will decide whether to grant 
that claim and fully dismiss the charges. If it does, he could be eligible for 
more than $3 million in compensation from the state, plus health and education 
benefits, for the 20 years he spent behind bars.

Cook has said, though, that his fight has never been about the potential for 
compensation. Since his release from prison, he has written a book, been the 
inspiration for a play and spoken around the world about the importance of 
resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. He has 
repeatedly called for accountability for the prosecutors whose misconduct 
helped secure his conviction and nearly resulted in his execution.

"It is long past time for the state of Texas to admit that it got the wrong man 
and that it prosecuted the wrong man repeatedly and sought the death penalty 
against the wrong man repeatedly," said Kathryn Kase, executive director of the 
Texas Defender Service, which represents death row inmates.

It is "shameful," Kase said, that prosecutors will continue to fight Cook's 
efforts to prove his actual innocence and receive compensation.

"Kerry Max Cook has really suffered," she said. "The very least the state could 
do would be to compensate him."

Billy Smith, a Dallas exoneree who spent nearly 20 years in prison for a rape 
he didn't commit, said outside the courthouse on Monday that Cook's 
perseverance should serve as an example to others who are wrongfully 
imprisoned.

"It just goes to show you that justice always prevails," he said, "no matter 
how long it takes."

(source: Dallas Morning News)

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

Justices to review claims from Texas death row inmates


The Supreme Court will hear appeals from 2 African-American death-row inmates 
in Texas, including one who argued his sentence was based on his race.

The justices on Monday said they will review death sentences for inmates Bobby 
Moore and Duane Buck. Neither case poses a broad challenge to the death 
penalty.

Moore was sentenced to death more than 35 years ago and says he is ineligible 
to be executed because he is intellectually disabled.

A jury voted to sentence Buck to death after a defense expert testified that 
black people were more likely to commit violence. Buck's lawyers have fought 
for years to win a new sentencing hearing.

Buck came close to being executed in 2011, before the justices stepped in with 
a last-minute reprieve.

But the court later denied a full-blown review of Buck's case in 2014.

This time around, the appeal focuses on a claim that Buck's legal 
representation was constitutionally deficient.

He was convicted of capital murder and sent to death row for the slaying of his 
ex-girlfriend and a man at her Houston apartment in July 1995. During the 
punishment phase of Buck's 1997 trial, psychologist Walter Quijano testified 
under cross-examination by a Harris County prosecutor that black people were 
more likely to commit violence.

Quijano, called as a defense witness, had testified earlier that Buck's 
personality and the nature of his crime, committed during rage, indicated he 
would be less of a future danger.

Buck's case was among 6 in 2000 that then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn, 
now a Republican U.S. senator, said needed to be reopened because of racially 
charged statements made during the trial sentencing phase. In the other 5 
cases, new punishment hearings were held and each convict again was sentenced 
to death.

The attorney general's office has said Buck's case was factually and legally 
different from the 5 others and that Buck's trial lawyers first elicited the 
testimony from the psychologist. They also said the racial reference was a 
small part of larger testimony about prison populations.

Moore claims that Texas' top criminal appeals court is using outdated medical 
standards in evaluating whether he is eligible to be executed. Moore says that 
Supreme Court decisions in 2002 and 2014 bar executing intellectually disabled 
inmates, who are evaluated under current standards.

The court initially announced that it would consider a second issue raised by 
Moore, that executing him after he has lived under a death sentence for so many 
years would inflict "needless pain and suffering in violation of the Eighth 
Amendment." But the court said later Monday that it had made a mistake and 
would not consider the length of Moore's time on death row.

The cases, Moore v. Texas, 15-797, and Buck v. Stephens, 15-8049, will be 
argued in the fall.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Why is the Supreme Court reviewing 2 Texas death row inmates' cases? ---- This 
fall, the high court will examine the cases of convicted murderers Duane Buck 
and Bobby Moore, who say their constitutional protections were violated.


2 African-American death row inmates will have their cases reviewed by the 
Supreme Court later this year to determine if their death sentences are valid.

The high court's justices decided Monday to hear the appeals of Texas inmates 
Duane Buck and Bobby Moore, neither of which is expected to contend with the 
constitutionality of the death penalty itself.

Mr. Moore was convicted of capital murder in 1980 after he fatally shot a 
grocery clerk while committing a robbery. His legal team now says he should be 
exempt from execution because he is intellectually disabled. They also contend 
that following through with an execution after more than 35 years of living 
with his death sentence would cause him "needless pain and suffering in 
violation of the Eighth Amendment," according to The Associated Press.

Mr. Buck was convicted of capital murder after killing his ex-girlfriend and a 
male friend of hers in 1995. The Court accepted Buck's appeal to review 
racially charged comments made during his initial sentencing, which he says 
impacted the trial's outcome.

Buck was almost executed in 2011 but was granted a reprieve, although his 
request to have his case heard by the Supreme Court was declined at the time. 
In 2014, he requested a full case review, which was also denied. He now argues 
that the order for his execution was made without "equal protection and due 
process" guaranteed under the Constitution, due to comments a defense witness 
made during the 1997 penalty phase of his original case that may have changed 
the outcome of his sentencing.

During that phase, his defense called psychologist Walter Quijano to testify on 
Buck's potential future threat to society if he were to avoid the death 
penalty. Mr. Quijano, who for many years was the chief psychologist at the 
Texas Department of Criminal Justice, had concluded in a report that black and 
Hispanic lawbreakers are more likely to commit violence in the future.

Three Supreme Court justices at the time noted Quijano's testimony as "bizarre 
and objectionable," but the court declined the case as the doctor was called to 
testify by the defense, not the prosecution. That Quijano's remarks were 
referenced by the prosecution separated Buck's case from several other Texas 
capital cases that called on the psychologist and were later reviewed, although 
their new punishment hearings all resulted in reasserted death penalties.

Moore, who was previously found to have "significantly subaverage general 
intellectual functioning" paired with an intelligence quotient level under 70, 
now also says that Texas courts' standards for determining disability are 
incorrect.

His attorneys cited Atkins v. Virginia, a 2002 case that halted the executions 
of mentally disabled criminals, determining the practice to constitute "cruel 
and unusual punishment" under the Eighth Amendment. That opinion is supported 
by a 2014 Texas judicial decision that updated the terminology to 
"intellectually disabled."

Moore says that he would likely not be sentenced to death if assessed under 
current standards. Both his and Buck's high court cases will be argued this 
fall.

(source: Christian Science Monitor)






PENNSYLVANIA:

Trial to open in meat rendering plant stabbing death


Jury selection begins Monday for a man's trial in the stabbing death of a 
co-worker during an argument at a suburban Philadelphia meat rendering plant 
last year.

33-year-old Peter Atem of Lansdale is charged in Montgomery County with 1st- 
and 3rd-degree murder in the February 2015 slaying of 25-year-old Danny Vazquez 
at the MOPAC plant in Franconia Township.

Authorities said the stabbing occurred the day after the victim yanked a chair 
out from under the defendant as a prank. Defense attorney Benjamin Cooper has 
called the events a fight that "got beyond what it should have."

The judge earlier denied a defense request to bar prosecutors from using Atem's 
statements to detectives. Prosecutors have announced that they won't seek the 
death penalty if Atem is convicted of 1st-degree murder.

(source: Associated Press)