[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----MISS., NEB., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

June 8



MISSISSIPPI:

Mississippi: No discrimination in ex-death row inmate jury case

A lawyer for the state of Mississippi argued Tuesday that there was no evidence 
prosecutors discriminated when picking the jury that eventually convicted Lisa 
Jo Chamberlin of the grisly 2004 murders of 2 people whose bodies were found in 
a freezer.

The arguments came during a hearing at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals 
where Mississippi is seeking to overturn a judge's order finding discrimination 
in picking the jury that convicted Chamberlin and ordering her release.

"I don't think that we have clear and convincing evidence here that 
discrimination occurred," Cameron Benton argued in front of the 3 judge panel.

But Chamberlin's lawyer, Elizabeth Carlyle, urged the court to uphold the lower 
court's decision, saying that the integrity of the jury selection process was 
not "... some small issue."

"It affects the whole system," she told the judges.

Chamberlin was convicted along with Roger Gillett of the murders of two friends 
in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She was convicted in 2006 and Gillett in 2007.

The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves in March 2015 that 
threw out Chamberlin's conviction outlined the crime in which they're accused 
of brutally killing Linda Heintzelman and Heintzelman's boyfriend, Vernon 
Hulett. Their bodies were eventually discovered stacked one on top of another 
in a freezer at a home outside of Russell, Kansas.

Police initially investigated Chamberlin and Gillett because they thought they 
were making crystal meth and searched the farm, which belonged to 1 of 
Gillett's relatives, as part of the investigation, the decision said. But in 
the freezer they found Hulett's decapitated body with his arms severed at the 
shoulders. Underneath it was Heintzelman's body, a plastic bag wrapped around 
her head with duct tape.

Prosecutors said Gillett and Chamberlin fled Mississippi to cover their tracks 
and hide the crime. Chamberlin, in a taped confession played at her trial, said 
the victims were killed because they wouldn't open a safe in Hulett's home, 
according to the court record.

Chamberlin was given the death penalty. But lawyers representing Chamberlin 
have fought the conviction, citing among other issues, alleged racial 
discrimination in picking the jury.

Reeves agreed, finding that the "...jury selection process in her case 
impermissibly discriminated against African-American jurors." He zeroed in on 
two black potential jurors who were rejected by the prosecution even though 
they gave identical answers on a jury questionnaire to another juror who was 
white and was allowed to remain.

(source: Associated Press)






NEBRASKA:

Anti-death penalty arguments not all that persuasive


A state senator with ties to this corner of the state recently offered 
arguments as to why Nebraskans would be wise to not to restore the death 
penalty that some may find persuasive and compelling.

But not necessarily us.

Sen. Colby Coash of Lincoln - who grew up in Bassett - spoke at a gathering in 
Norfolk, seeking to make his case why the state is better off without the death 
penalty. That's the decision he and many of his fellow state lawmakers made 
last year, but it's now the subject of a key ballot issue in November.

One of Sen. Coash's arguments is that Nebraska's system of capital punishment - 
when it still was in place - was broken.

A murderer would be sentenced to death and then seemingly endless appeals would 
take place that delayed the carrying out of the sentence, he said.

Indeed, it's been almost 20 years since Nebraska put someone to death.

Those kinds of delays are unfair to and hard on the families of the murderer's 
victims, Sen. Coash says, creating an emotional roller-coaster. "I think it is 
a terribly unfair system that says to a victim's family, 'For what happened to 
you, we're going to put this person to death' - and then decades go by and the 
state doesn't make good on that promise," he said.

As we said, Sen. Coash's arguments may prove to be persuasive to some Nebraska 
voters, but here's why we disagree.

While we would agree that Nebraska's system of capital punishment is broken, 
that doesn't mean it can't be fixed. With a governor who supports the death 
penalty, and if Nebraskans vote to restore it come November, that should send a 
message to state lawmakers to make the needed changes to fix the system.

Other states are able to carry out executions. To simply say Nebraska can't is 
wrong.

Then, in regard to the impact on the families of murder victims, it's true that 
the appeals and delays certainly can be emotionally draining on them.

There are, indeed, families of victims who have spoken out against the death 
penalty.

But there also are others who believe strongly that justice needs to be carried 
out, and that the death penalty is appropriate and justified as punishment for 
the most heinous of crimes.

For them, given what their loved one must have suffered, we would argue that it 
would be even more emotionally draining and disheartening to not even have 
capital punishment on the table as a possible punishment.

We believe it to be somewhat inappropriate for death penalty opponents to 
presume that they know what's best for family members of murder victims.

(source: Editorial, Norfolk Daily News)






UTAH:

State could seek death penalty in potty-training beating


Utah prosecutors are set to decide this week whether to seek the death penalty 
for a man accused of beating his girlfriend's 2-year-old son to death over 
potty training.

A lawyer for 35-year-old Joshua Schoenenberger said at a Wednesday hearing that 
Davis County prosecutors will decide by Friday whether they'll pursue capital 
punishment in the aggravated murder case. Attorney Ed Brass says that decision 
will set the tenor for the rest of the case.

Prosecutors say Schoenenberger got angry because the child had used his diaper 
rather than the toilet and stepped on his stomach during a beating.

Charges state James Siger Jr. died of internal injuries. His mother Jasmine 
Bridgeman has pleaded guilty to lying to investigators in the case and is 
serving at least a year in prison.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

Cheary still facing death penalty


The man accused of the worst murder in Exeter history is still facing the death 
penalty after a recent court decision.

ChristopherChearyOn June 1, Judge Joseph Kalashian denied a motion filed by 
public defenders for Christopher Rey Cheary, 25, of Exeter attempting to 
declare that the death penalty was unconstitutional. The Judge also denied a 
motion by the defense to exclude evidence of rape from the trial. Cheary is 
accused of raping and killing his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter more than 5 
years ago.

Cheary's case was originally scheduled for a jury trial this year on Jan. 19, 
2016, but it has been pushed back by motions filed by defense attorneys Angela 
Kruger and Tim Rote. It now looks as if another year will go by before the 
trial begins.

Cheary is being charged with 1 count of murder with special circumstances for 
sodomy, torture and lewd and lascivious acts; 1 count of assault of a child 
causing death; 1 count of sodomy and 1 count of forcible lewd acts on a child, 
each with 3 special allegations for sodomy, inflicting torture and causing 
great bodily harm to a child under 14. The murder charge makes Cheary eligible 
for the death penalty.

Cheary pleaded not guilty to all counts at an arraignment on June 6, 2011.

Cheary is being held without bail at the Bob Wiley Detention Facility. He was 
arrested in May 2011 after Sophia Acosta, the 3-year-old daughter of his 
live-in girlfriend Erica Smith, died at Central California Children's Hosptial 
in Madera.

At Cheary's preliminary hearing on April 5, 2012 Dr. Phillip Hyden of Childrens 
Hospital Central California offered a clinical description of the blunt force 
trauma, exposure to marijuana and sexual assault the 3-year-old Sophia endured 
before she died.

With more than 25 years of experience with child abuse cases in several states, 
Hyden described the abuse as the "worst case I've ever seen."

(source: The Sun-Gazette)