[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., ARK., OKLA., S. DAK., ARIZ., USA

[Rick Halperin]

June 15



TEXAS:

Former death row inmate Kerry Max Cook fires lawyers, threatens to undo 
exoneration deal


2 days after his legal team secured an agreement that could lead to his 
exoneration in a high-profile 40-year-old murder case, former death row inmate 
Kerry Max Cook fired the very lawyers who set him on a path that could finally 
clear his name.

In a series of Facebook missives and incensed email screeds, Cook accused 
lawyers from the New York-based Innocence Project and the Innocence Project of 
Texas of betraying him by accepting a deal with Smith County prosecutors that 
he never agreed to. Cook maintains that the deal lets prosecutors escape 
accountability for years of repeated misconduct that kept him behind bars and 
nearly resulted in his death.

Now, the 60-year-old former inmate says he plans to represent himself in court 
and prove to both the judge and Smith County prosecutors that he didn't 
brutally kill Linda Jo Edwards in 1977.

"I am completely devastated by what has been done wirh [sic] my 40 year 
struggle for truth & justice," Cook wrote in an email to his former lawyers. 
"This corporate take-over of the truth of my story has left me still publicly 
convicted and the district attorneys office exonerated."

It's the latest strange twist in a case that has been marked by continued 
oddities over 4 decades.

Cook was convicted in 1978 in the gruesome slaying of Edwards, a 22-year-old 
who was found beaten, stabbed and mutilated in her Tyler apartment bedroom. 
Through 3 trials that courts said were tainted with prosecutor misconduct, 20 
years on death row and even since his release in 1999, Cook has maintained his 
innocence. DNA tests also have revealed the DNA of another man - Edwards' 
married lover - on the panties she wore the night of her death.

Smith County prosecutors, however, remain resolute that Cook is guilty. Last 
week, they agreed to drop the murder charges only after a key witness admitted 
he lied during Cook's trials. Cook's lawyers struck a deal with Matt Bingham, 
the Smith County district attorney, in which they agreed to drop claims of 
misconduct by previous prosecutors in exchange for the state dismissing the 
long-standing murder charges. Bingham, however, said he would 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.

A hearing on the actual innocence claim is scheduled for June 29.

In court last week, Cook told the judge that he had agreed to the deal, which 
would require final approval from the state's highest criminal court.

But in dramatic emails and Facebook posts in the days after the hearing, Cook 
said that agreement "exonerated" the prosecutors who helped secure his wrongful 
conviction. He accused his lawyers of bullying him into taking the deal and 
said he would rather die than accept it.

Cook ordered Innocence Project lawyers who have helped exonerate hundreds of 
inmates in Texas and across the country to withdraw from the case. He wants the 
agreement he signed with Smith County prosecutors nullified. And he has vowed 
to represent himself going forward, a move many equate with legal suicide.

"This stress may kill me," Cook wrote in an email Saturday to his former 
lawyers. "But as I have told you repeatedly during the course of your 
representation if [sic] me, some things are worth dying for and the truth about 
how I wound up on Texas death row completely innocent in a case that has become 
known as the worst case in America, is one of them."

Even if a court were to rule that prosecutors engaged in misconduct in Cook's 
case - a move that is rare - it's unclear what consequences, if any, the former 
state lawyers might face.

In unusual, high-profile cases like those of Michael Morton and Anthony Graves, 
the prosecutors who oversaw their wrongful convictions were punished by the 
State Bar of Texas. But under state law, complaints like those must be filed 
within 4 years of an innocent person???s release from prison. Cook was released 
in 1999.

Innocence Project lawyers said they made the agreement with Cook's best 
interests in mind and an eye toward securing his exoneration. Nonetheless, they 
agreed to withdraw from the case.

"It is our firm belief that ?Kerry is innocent of this murder and that he has 
finally received justice and a recognition from Smith County that his 
prosecution was based on false testimony and he never had a fair trial," 
Innocence Project lawyers said in an emailed statement. "The attorneys who have 
worked on Kerry's behalf for many years hope that whatever course of action he 
ultimately pursues will end in his complete exoneration."

Bingham declined to comment.

George Kendall, a defense lawyer who has represented inmates who spent decades 
behind bars, including former Texas death row inmate Delma Banks, said it's not 
unusual for those who've spent years in prison to have rocky relationships with 
their lawyers.

"Having gone through what he's gone through," Kendall said, "it would surely be 
understandable for him to have some real problems trusting people connected 
with the criminal justice system."

But, he said, Cook should reconsider his plan to represent himself in court.

"Our legal system makes resolution of the kind of case Kerry has much more 
difficult than it needs to be," Kendall said. "The issues involved in his case 
are complicated and they are tricky."

(source: Dallas Morning News)






PENNSYLVANIA:

Judge allows death penalty option in retrial in 2004 slaying


A federal judge in Pennsylvania has upheld a ruling allowing prosecutors to 
seek the death penalty when they retry a man who was convicted of the 2004 
death of a woman whose body was found in a state park.

The (Altoona) Mirror reported (http://bit.ly/25X2nIt) Wednesday that the 
federal judge rejected the defense argument that a federal magistrate and state 
courts had wrongly ruled against Paul Aaron Ross on the death penalty issue.

Ross is charged in the 2004 death of 26-year-old Tina Miller. Her body was 
found partially submerged and bound with duct tape at Canoe Creek State Park in 
Hollidaysburg.

He was convicted at his 1st trial and the state judge sentenced him to life in 
prison. But the Pennsylvania Superior Court in 2011 ordered a retrial.

Ross' death penalty attorney, Thomas Hooper, wasn't immediately available for 
comment.

(source: Associated Press)






DELAWARE:

Death penalty arguments to be heard by Delaware Supreme Court


The Delaware Supreme Court hears arguments on the constitutionality of the 
state's death penalty today, bringing an issue that has been debated for months 
closer to conclusion - and potentially opening up a whole new deliberation.

Rauf v. State of Delaware will be argued at 9:30, with the Department of 
Justice and Public Defender's Office representing opposing sides. The 
Department of Justice contends the state's capital punishment statute is not in 
violation of the U.S. Constitution, while the Public Defender's Office believes 
it contradicts the right to jury trial.

Anyone interested can watch online at 
https://livestream.com/DelawareSupremeCourt/.

In January, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Florida's death penalty is 
unconstitutional because it allows the judge to sentence death. Delaware's 
death penalty law has similarities to Florida's, with a judge having some sway 
over whether to sentence a person to death.

Even if the court rules that portion of the law is unconstitutional, it may not 
strike down the death penalty as a whole. If the justices hold, however, the 
language in question is invalid and cannot be separated from the greater death 
penalty provision, capital punishment in the state would be at least 
temporarily eliminated.

Responsibility would fall to the General Assembly to craft a new law, and there 
may be enough opponents of capital punishment in the 2 Democratic-controlled 
chambers to block an attempt to overhaul the law.

Santino Ceccotti and Elizabeth McFarlan are the lead attorneys for the Public 
Defender and Justice Department, respectively.

(source: Delalwalre State News)

***********

Delaware justices hear arguments on death penalty law


Delaware's Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments on the constitutionality of 
the state's death penalty.

The court agreed in January to answer questions from Delaware's Superior Court 
to determine whether the state's death penalty law meets constitutional muster. 
Meanwhile, all death penalty trials in Delaware are on hold.

Questions were raised about the constitutionality of Delaware's law after the 
U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year struck down Florida's death penalty 
sentencing statute. That statute required a judge, not a jury, to find the 
factual existence of an "aggravating circumstance" making a defendant eligible 
for the death penalty.

Delaware's law is similar to Florida's, but prosecutors argue that it 
nevertheless is constitutional.

/ In advance of Wednesday's hearing, the court accepted written briefs from the 
attorney general's office and public defender's office.

(source: Associated Press)






ARKANSAS:

Trial Set for Parents Accused of Torturing Son to Death


A married couple accused of raping and torturing their 6 year old son until he 
died are both slated to face a jury next month. The father faced a judge in a 
Benton County, Arkansas courtroom Monday afternoon.

The prosecution and defense say Mauricio Torres' August 22 trial date is on 
track to happen.This comes after it being pushed back multiple times.

In a court hearing yesterday, a series of motions from the defense were denied; 
1 being a motion asking the state to declare Mauricio Torres the main offender 
or the accomplice in 6 year old Isaiah Torres' murder.

Police say Mauricio Torres and his wife Cathy Lynn Torres brutally abused their 
son to death.The 2 are both facing capital murder, rape and 1st degree battery 
charges.

Mauricio Torres' next hearing is scheduled for July 29. His trial is set for 
August 22.

Cathy Lynn Torres has a hearing in Benton County Tuesday. Her trial is set for 
August 22.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in both cases.

(source: ozarksfirst.com)






OKLAHOMA:

2 Oklahoma men convicted in 2009 'Cathouse' murders; jurors to deliberate over 
potential death penalty


2 Oklahoma men were convicted of 1st-degree murder Monday in the 2009 slaying 
of an HBO reality show star and 3 other people.

Investigators said Brooke Phillips, a "Cathouse" prostitute from the show about 
a legal Nevada brothel, and another woman killed at an Oklahoma City drug 
dealer's home were both pregnant at the time. Prosecutors are seeking the death 
penalty after a jury found both Denny Phillips, 38, and Russell Hogshooter, 38, 
guilty for 6 counts of murder and 1 count of conspiracy.

"6 people were gunned down and slaughtered," Assistant District Attorney 
Gayland Gieger said during closing arguments, according to The Oklahoman. "This 
is one of the most violent crimes I've ever seen. Actions of sheer evil were 
involved that night."

Gieger said Denny Phillips, who isn't related to the TV show star, was the 
"puppet master" who enlisted Hogshooter, and that "these 2 guys had the plan 
all along."

2 other men have already pleaded guilty to the Nov. 9, 2009, slayings. 
Investigators said Hogshooter attacked Brooke Phillips, 22, tortured her and 
set the home on fire as part of a plot to kill drug dealer Casey Mark 
Barrientos and eliminate the 3 women in the house as potential witnesses.

Moonlite BunnyRanch owner Dennis Hof, who appeared alongside Phillips on the 
show, told KFOR-TV he hopes to watch the two murderers get executed.

Missing brothel worker found, she was 'distraught' over Odom

"It was disgusting. I was crying in the courtroom. It's just terrible, it's 
killing me. This is a wonderful, caring, giving girl that all she wanted to do 
was have a baby," Hof said while tearing up outside court Monday night. "The 
BunnyRanch will never get over it. We miss her dearly."

A lawyer for Denny Phillips argued he had no reason to want Barrientos dead and 
that David Tyner, who pleaded guilty and testified that Phillips threatened to 
kill him if he didn't participate in the murders, was the one who was actually 
angry at Barrientos.

Hogshooter's lawyer questioned the accounts of Tyner and the other man who has 
pleaded guilty, Jonathan Cochran, and denied his client was at the 1-story 
brick South Oklahoma City home at the time of the killing.

An Oklahoma County jury convicted them both after 3 hours of discussion in the 
death penalty trial that started last month. Jurors were slated to begin 
deliberating over their sentences Tuesday.

(source: New York Daily News)

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

Prosecutors Show Body Cam Video At Albert Johnson Capital Murder Trial


On Monday morning, the jury in the Albert Johnson capital murder trial was 
shown body cam video from the first responders who responded to the crime 
scene.

That video was very hard for the victim's families to see. Many of them came 
out crying in the hallway of the courthouse after prosecutors began playing the 
tape.

Despite listening to hours of testimony and seeing the video for himself, 
Johnson did not show any emotion or remorse for the June 2014 attack.

Johnson remained stoic and silent and listened to both a police officer and 
police detective with The Village Police Department testify about what they saw 
when they responded to the 911 call coming from a home on Lakeside Drive.

They testified how there was blood all over the floor and the walls and how 
they found 24-year-old Rachel Rogers' unconscious body in one of the rooms.

The officers testified how they tried to give her CPR to save her life but it 
was too little too late.

The entire time, friends and family of Rogers and Johnson's former girlfriend 
were inside the courtroom, listening to every painful word.

They also saw all of the body cam footage from The Village Police Department as 
officers processed the crime scene and tended to the victims.

Johnson's legal team does not deny Johnson attacked both women, but said they 
are now fighting for his life.

Johnson is pleading guilty by reason of insanity for the attack that left 
Rogers dead, and not guilty to the rest of the 9 felony counts he faces.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in this case.

(source: 9news.com)






SOUTH DAKOTA:

Trio Accused Of Contract Killing Plead Not Guilty


3 men accused of stabbing a woman to death last year and hiding her body in a 
shallow grave near Rockerville have pleaded not guilty to a variety of charges 
against them, including 1st-degree murder.

The 3 are facing life in prison or the death penalty for the apparent contract 
killing of 22-year-old Jessica Rehfeld. Investigators accuse Jonathon 
Klinetobe, Rehfeld's ex-boyfriend, of offering David Schneider and Richard 
Hirth money to kill Rehfeld. 2 other men charged as accessories to the murder 
have also pleaded not guilty. Klinetobe, Hirth, and Schneider are scheduled to 
appear for evidentiary hearings on June 20. Story from May 27, 2016 below.

A Pennington County grand jury has indicted 3 men accused in the contract 
killing of a Rapid City woman.

Jonathon Klinetobe, of Sturgis, Richard Hirth, of Rapid City, and David 
Schneider, also from Rapid City, face a number of charges, including 1st degree 
murder.

Last week, the 3 were arrested for the killing of Jessica Rehfeld. Police 
officials allege Klinetobe hired Hirth and Schneider to kill Rehfeld in May 
2015. 1st degree murder carries a minimum sentence of life in prison and a 
maximum of the death penalty.

(source: sdpb.org)




ARIZONA:

Judge wants update on Arizona's supply of execution drugs


A judge presiding over a lawsuit that protests the way Arizona carries out the 
death penalty has told lawyers to be prepared later this month to reveal the 
status of the state's supplies of lethal-injection drugs.

U.S. District Judge Neil Wake says attorneys in the case also should be 
prepared at the June 29 hearing to discuss whether there are any issues to 
litigate in the lawsuit if execution drugs aren't currently available in 
Arizona.

Nearly a month ago, the judge ruled that condemned prisoners could press 
forward with the lawsuit.

The suit comes as the state has faced difficulties in obtaining drugs for 
executions.

Executions in Arizona are on hold until the lawsuit is resolved.

The lawsuit seeks more transparency in the state's execution process.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Arizona woman charged with stabbing 3 sons to death, hiding bodies in bedroom 
closet


An Arizona mother who prosecutors say stabbed her three young sons to death and 
stashed their bodies in a bedroom closet in her north Phoenix home has been 
indicted on murder charges, according to an indictment made public on Tuesday 
(June 14).

Octavia Rene Rogers, 29, was charged with 3 counts of 1st-degree murder in the 
deaths of her sons, aged 2 months old, 5 years old and 8 years old, in the 
Maricopa County Superior Court indictment handed down on Monday.

Police said the 2 oldest boys, Jaikare Rahaman and Jeremiah Adams, were found 
partially dismembered amid clothes and boxes inside the closet. 2-month-old 
Avery Robinson was discovered in a suitcase.

The cause of death was multiple stab wounds to each child, police said.

Rogers was hospitalised with what the police described as self-inflicted stab 
wounds to her abdomen and neck on June 2 and booked into custody 3 days later.

The authorities were called to the house by Rogers' brother, who also lived 
there. He said Rogers, in a conversation in the garage, talked about religion 
and how she found the answer to life before locking him out. The brother broke 
in and found her bleeding and called 911.

Arriving officers found the bleeding woman in the bathtub, police said.

The woman initially said the children were being cared for elsewhere, but the 
authorities searched the home and found the 3 dead children.

It has not yet been determined whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty, 
a Maricopa County Attorney's Office spokesman said.

(source: Reuters)






USA:

U.S. Attorney Nettles stepping down on eve of Roof trial ---- Sources: Nettles 
didn't want the federal government to seek the death penalty against Dylann 
Roof

Bill Nettles is retiring Wednesday as U.S. attorney for South Carolina, just 
before the federal death penalty prosecution of Dylann Roof, one of the 
highest-profile trials the state has seen.

In recent months, Nettles quietly lobbied high officials in the Justice 
Department not to seek the death penalty against Roof, the accused white 
supremacist killer of 9 African-Americans last June in a Charleston church, 
sources said.

Nettles, who usually signs major documents, noticeably did not sign the Justice 
Department's recent notice of intent to seek the death penalty against Roof.

To Nettles, a former criminal defense lawyer who represented a dozen clients in 
death penalty cases, it sufficed that state prosecutors were seeking the death 
penalty and had scheduled a January trial.

But Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who in May made the final decision to seek 
death, overruled Nettles. Now, the federal trial has been set for November, 
jumping ahead of the state's death-penalty trial.

In an interview, Nettles declined to confirm his position in the death penalty 
deliberations in the Roof case, the highest-profile criminal matter his office 
handled on his watch.

"I will say this, when I took the job, I joined a team. And there is no 'I' in 
team," said Nettles. "I am grateful to the attorney general. She allowed me to 
discuss with her my thoughts (on Roof). At the end of the day, I respect the 
decision she made and appreciate the opportunity to have been involved in the 
process."

Apart from the Roof case, for 6 years, Nettles has brought changes to how the 
federal government pursues South Carolina criminal and civil offenders, 
according to those close to the office and how it works.

Since 2010, Nettles has shifted the office's focus away from drug cases, 
instead prosecuting more white-collar crimes and getting involved in 
initiatives designed to prevent crime.

"It's time to go," Nettles, 54, said in a wide-ranging interview about leading 
the U.S. attorney's office, a band of some 60 prosecutors and civil attorneys 
who work with federal law agencies like the FBI, the DEA and the IRS to press 
charges statewide against wrongdoers.

"Our office's role is to get involved in South Carolina anytime the state 
government is unwilling or unable to act - civil rights, for example, and 
guns," said Nettles, who earns $154,000 yearly as the chief federal law 
enforcement official in South Carolina.

Under Nettles, federal prosecutors sent longtime Lexington County Sheriff James 
Metts to prison on a charge involving freeing illegal Mexican workers from his 
county jail, levied a $1 million fine against a major S.C. farm for employing 
undocumented workers, sent prominent Midlands lawyer Richard Breibart to prison 
for swindling nearly 100 clients out of millions and prosecuted a Blythewood 
man who had fleeced the Veterans Administration for more than $1 million in 
disability benefits.

However, the number of defendants charged with federal crimes each year in 
South Carolina while Nettles was in office dropped from 1,190 in Nettles' 1st 
year, to 828 in 2015.

"That's by design," Nettles said. "I shifted the focus from going after street 
level drug dealers - the state can prosecute those - to white collar crime and 
fraud cases."

But federal initiatives against big drug operations in South Carolina continue. 
The FBI and local law officers recently rounded up dozens of alleged drug 
violators in Sumter and Orangeburg counties.

Key initiatives overseen by Nettles include:

-- White collar crime. Under Nettles, the office began to focus on white 
collar crime, large and small.

"He showed there is more crime in South Carolina than just black crime," said 
Lonnie Randolph, president of the S.C. NAACP.

-- Public corruption. Nettles oversaw the cases of Metts, who pleaded guilty 
to conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants and served a year in prison; former 
Williamsburg County Sheriff Michael Johnson, who received 30 months in prison 
for a credit scheme; and former Lee County charter school director Benita 
Dinkins-Robinson, who received 42 months in prison for embezzling $1.5 million 
in federal funds.

-- Civil fraud cases against major corporations that were allegedly defrauding 
the federal government. In these cases, the government will file its own civil 
lawsuit against an alleged wrongdoer after a "whistleblower" brings the case to 
its attention.

In the past year, Nettles' office has brought whistleblower cases against 
Lexington Medical Center and a large Columbia-area physicians' group, Family 
Medical Centers, alleging that millions of dollars in Medicare billings were 
overbilled. The cases are pending.

"He has developed a national reputation in those cases," said Bart Daniel, U.S. 
attorney in South Carolina from 1989-92 who initiated the far-reaching General 
Assembly corruption scandal called "Lost Trust."

When Nettles took office, his lawyers were recovering only several million 
dollars a year in civil fraud cases. Now, with the civil litigation staff 
increased to 7 from 2 lawyers, his office is on track to recover $200 million 
in 2016. That money flows into the U.S. Treasury and pays for Nettles' 
120-person office, with its annual $9 million budget, many times over.

Apart from prosecutions, some give Nettles high marks for reaching out to the 
South Carolina's large black population after several shootings of 
African-Americans in North Charleston, Columbia and North Augusta by white 
police officers.

"At one time or another, we would communicate about every officer-involved 
shooting that we had," said SLED chief Mark Keel in an interview. "We talked 
many times."

Nettles' involvement helped Keel - whose agency had initial responsibility for 
investigating the potentially explosive shootings by white officers - send a 
message to the African-American communities that both the federal and state 
government were taking the incidents seriously.

Nettles himself takes pride in what he calls "community-based law enforcement." 
These involved initiatives to reduce crime by methods other than the 
traditional prosecuting and sending someone to prison.

"We've opened avenues other than incarceration," Nettles said. "Our job is not 
to put people in prison - it is to make South Carolina a safer place."

For example, in Charleston and Columbia, Nettles worked with police, civic and 
church groups to rid small neighborhoods of drug dealers and keep them that 
way. His office started an outreach to adult and juvenile serious offenders, 
making it clear to them that once freed, they would be subject to stiff federal 
prison sentences -15 years minimum; far stiffer than state law provides - 
should they be found with a gun.

And he pioneered federal drug courts that allow some drug offenders, if they 
pass intensive screening, undergo drug counseling and become law-abiding 
citizens, they can avoid prison.

Nettles also did not emphasize long prison terms as much as some prosecutors.

For example, it was a federal judge, not Nettles, who insisted that Metts serve 
at least some time in federal prison for betraying the peoples' trust. Nettles' 
office had agreed to a non-prison sentence.

"Him pleading guilty and surrendering his career would have sufficed," Nettles 
said.

Nettles will be going into private practice, serving clients across the U.S. 
and state. His practice will include whistleblower and mediation cases, but he 
can't take any cases that he was involved with as U.S. attorney.

Asked what he will miss, Nettles laughed and said, "People probably won't 
return my calls as fast or laugh at my jokes."

(source: thestate.com)