[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARK., OHIO, KY., ARIZ., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

March 19



ARKANSAS:

State Supreme Court Allows Karl Roberts To Pursue New Appeals


A death-row inmate who waived his right to further appeals in the killing of a 
Polk County girl and said he wanted to be executed was not mentally competent 
to make that decision, a divided Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

In a 4-3 decision, the court reversed a Polk County circuit judge's ruling that 
Karl Roberts, now 48, was mentally competent to make a knowing and intelligent 
decision to waive his appeal rights.

Roberts was convicted in 2000 of capital murder and sentenced to die in the 
1999 killing of his 12-year-old niece, Andria Nichole Brewer. Roberts confessed 
to raping and strangling the girl, whose body was found in a wooded area near 
Mena.

The case was automatically appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld Roberts' 
conviction. In 2003, Roberts told a judge he wished to waive further appeals 
and wanted to die for his crime.

But in January 2004, hours before he was to be executed, Roberts changed his 
mind and authorized his attorneys to appeal his conviction and sentence. A 
judge stayed the execution.

A Polk County circuit judge declined to reopen the case, so Roberts' lawyers 
appealed to the state Supreme Court, which in February 2013 sent the case back 
to circuit court for a new mental evaluation.

In December 2014, Polk County Circuit Judge J.W. Looney ruled that, based on 
the new mental evaluation, Roberts was competent to make a knowing and 
intelligent decision when he waived his right to further appeals.

In oral arguments before the Supreme Court last month, an attorney for Roberts 
told the justices that Roberts is actively psychotic and schizophrenic, hears 
voices talking to and about him, and has delusions that people are conspiring 
against him and spying on him.

In its majority opinion Thursday, the Supreme Court said Roberts is entitled to 
withdraw his waiver of his appeal rights and pursue new appeals in circuit 
court.

"The evidence before the circuit court evinces that it is undeniable that 
Roberts suffers from schizophrenia, that these symptoms of his psychological 
disorder clearly impact his ability to choose between life and death and to 
knowingly and intelligently waive his appeal rights," the court said in an 
opinion written by Justice Rhonda Wood.

The majority also said it would refer to its Committee on Criminal Practice the 
question of whether post-conviction proceedings should be mandatory and not 
subject to waiver in death-penalty cases.

Justice Courtney Goodson wrote in a dissenting opinion that she would have 
upheld Looney's ruling that Roberts knowingly and intelligently waived his 
appeal rights.

"The circuit court had the first-hand opportunity to observe Roberts and to 
assess the credibility of the expert witnesses. On this record, the circuit 
court could well conclude that Roberts understands the choice between life and 
death and that his decision to waive further review is knowingly and 
intelligently made," she wrote.

Chief Justice Howard Brill wrote in a separate dissenting opinion that the case 
was not properly before the Supreme Court. He said Looney did not include 
specific findings of fact in his order and that "the majority engages in 
fact-finding that is within the exclusive province of the circuit court."

Justice Paul Danielson joined in Brill's dissent.

(source: swtimesrecord.com)






OHIO:

Should Ohio death row inmate Romell Broom go on the gurney again? Editorial 
Board Roundtable


In a 4-3 ruling, the Ohio Supreme Court found this week that Romell Broom, a 
serial criminal, convicted murderer and child rapist formerly from Shaker 
Heights, would have to face another execution attempt.

The Supreme Court ruled that a 2nd attempt to execute Romell Broom for the 
murder of a 14-year-old girl would not constitute cruel and unusual punishment 
or violate his constitutional protection against double jeopardy.

Broom, 59, who's spent more than 30 years in prison, became Exhibit #1 for 
botched executions when death row staff in Ohio couldn't execute him 6 years 
ago despite more than 2 hours of trying -- poking him with catheter needles so 
many times that the puncture wounds became swollen and bruised, and 1 needle 
inserted by the prison doctor struck a bone.

Broom, according to the Ohio Supreme Court's recitation of the facts, 
repeatedly cried from the pain. Eventually, prison officials called a halt 
after the office of then-Gov. Ted Strickland indicated his willingness to grant 
a reprieve.

Broom's lawyers had argued another execution attempt would amount both to 
double jeopardy and to cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the 8th 
Amendment.

On Wednesday, the Ohio Supreme Court majority disagreed, citing in part a 1947 
U.S. Supreme Court precedent when a Louisiana man was ordered into the electric 
chair a second time after a first attempt failed to kill him.

The Ohio majority opinion, authored by Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger and joined 
by Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, and Justices Terrence O'Donnell and Sharon 
Kennedy, said a 2nd execution attempt would not constitute multiple punishment 
for the same crime since Broom wasn't actually pumped full of death-penalty 
drugs the 1st time because the staff couldn't insert the IV. The majority also 
found a 2nd attempt would not be cruel and unusual because there was no 
intention "to cause unnecessary physical pain or psychological harm."

In a scathing dissent, Justice Judith French wrote the majority was "wrong on 
the law, wrong on the facts, and inconsistent in its reasoning," saying there 
was no evidence in the record showing that Ohio "has cured the problems in its 
execution procedures" that led to the 2009 fiasco. Rather, she wrote, in a 
dissent joined by Justice Paul Pfeifer, there was testimony "concerning the 
magnitude of medical incompetence displayed" and evidence of a "long, 
problematic history with IV catheters" in Ohio executions.

In a separate dissent, Justice William O'Neill denigrated the majority's use of 
the 1947 Supreme Court precedent -- a case, he argued, of a 17-year-old black 
male convicted by an all-white jury with defense lawyers appointed six days 
earlier, who did not mount a defense.

Romell Broom was convicted of a heinous crime -- the 1984 kidnapping, rape and 
murder of 14-year-old Tryna Middleton of East Cleveland as she and 2 other 
young girls walked home from a Friday night football game. He's a danger to 
society. But given the state's failure to be able to execute him once, is it 
right for Ohio to put him through another attempt?

Our Editorial Board Roundtable weighs in and we welcome your thoughts in the 
comments that follow.

Sharon Broussard, chief editorial writer, cleveland.com:

The majority in this case held that "we do not believe that it would shock the 
public's conscience to allow the state to carry out Broom's execution." It 
should. The attempts to execute Broom, as vile as his actions were, were ugly, 
brutish and long, as the execution team searched for a vein. But so is every 
execution even when it goes perfectly well. The state should not be in the 
killing business.

Kevin O'Brien, deputy editorial page editor, The Plain Dealer:

I disagree with the court on the moral question -- whether in the United States 
today capital punishment should be enforced. On the legal question, though, the 
court is on solid ground. The punishment to which Broom was sentenced -- death 
-- was not carried out so a 2nd attempt would not constitute punishing him 
twice. And the court explicitly chose in this case not to change the definition 
of cruel and unusual punishment to incorporate lethal injection. Broom remains 
subject to execution.

Ted Diadiun, editorial writer:

Tryna Middleton was 14 years old on Sept. 21, 1984, walking with 2 friends on a 
street near her home, when then-28-year-old Romell Broom set upon them, 
snatched Tryna as her screaming friends ran for their lives, drove her to a 
secluded spot, raped her and stabbed her 7 times in the chest. Now we are being 
asked to consider whether retrying a failed attempt at lethal injection 
constitutes cruel and unusual punishment for him. Who cares?

Elizabeth Sullivan, opinion director, cleveland.com

Every Ohioan should read Justice Judith French's powerful dissent in this case, 
exposing the nasty underbelly of Ohio execution procedures -- an inadequately 
trained staff. They botched it once with Romell Broom. They could do so 
multiple times and it wouldn't be unconstitutional, according to the majority's 
flawed reasoning. Dollars to donuts, the U.S. Supreme Court will give us a more 
reasonable standard for capital cases. And if we're lucky, the high court will 
also address mounting evidence that the lack of medically competent personnel 
willing to preside at executions and a shortage of proper drugs have made it 
impossible for states to carry out the death penalty in a consistently 
constitutional manner.

Thomas Suddes, editorial writer:

The death penalty should be rare in Ohio, and as time passes I am more and more 
skeptical about its morality as well as its utility. Still, it appears that 
this prisoner's crime was particularly vicious. Absent a commutation from the 
governor, the inmate's execution should proceed.

(source: cleveland.com)

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

When fighting the death penalty is heartless---The tragedy in the failed 
execution case is Tryna Middleton, a tiny 14-year-old girl who was kidnapped in 
1984 as she was walking home from a Cleveland football game with 2 13-year-old 
girlfriends.


The failed 2009 execution of Romell Broom, a U.S. serial child kidnapper, 
rapist and murderer, is a tragedy in the sense that all executions are a 
tragedy. But this one was especially so in that Broom says executioners tried 
18 times and failed to find a vein for lethal drug injection.

The Ohio Supreme Court has now ruled that he will finally be executed, 
presumably successfully this time.

The U.S. legal system confounds good people, whatever their views on capital 
punishment. (I always oppose state murder.) It doesn't help that stories like 
this are badly reported and ignore the victim, thus favouring the killer, the 
person left alive.

The tragedy in the Broom case is Tryna Middleton, a tiny 14-year-old girl who 
was kidnapped in 1984 as she was walking home from a Cleveland football game 
with two 13-year-old girlfriends. They all fled but Broom caught Tryna. Within 
3 hours, he had raped her, stabbed her 7 times in the abdomen (presumably so 
she could watch it being done) and dumped her corpse in a parking lot.

I only mention this because the AP story says Broom cried and screamed as 
needles were repeatedly inserted in his arm. It does not mention that Tryna 
must have screamed and cried as well.

I understand why Tryna's slaughter doesn't rate. The lengthy story is crowded 
with other matters, like legal arguments, comments from prosecutors and 
anti-death penalty campaigners, and the suggestion that the ruling will be 
appealed. Broom is safe for a few more years.

The story also mentions a possible reason executioners couldn't find a vein - 
Broom may have swallowed a box of antihistamines to dehydrate himself and 
narrow his veins - and it includes information on a similar 1947 case when an 
execution succeeded on a 2nd attempt.

There is no room for Tryna here. In her grave, she is silent.

Her parents are in agony. According to the Columbus Dispatch, her mother 
Bessye, now 72, still thinks of her daughter every single day. Her father, 
David, cannot drive down the street where Broom took her. For years he became 
nauseated when he entered his home full of memories.

Anti-death penalty lawyers didn't forget Tryna. They attacked her. As the 
Cleveland Plain Dealer reported, a 2007 clemency hearing for Broom took the 
worst course imaginable: Lawyers questioned if Tryna had really been abducted 
and raped.

They portrayed Tryna and her friends as drunk on beer and high on pot that day. 
They suggested she was sexually active and known to accept rides from 
strangers. In other words, he was guilty but Tryna allegedly being a little 
slut should save Broom from death.

The prosecutor took this badly, the Plain Dealer reported. "Whatever they were 
doing, experimenting with their sexuality, they were still innocent of this 
crime," he said. "They were still 3 little girls."

It doesn't help anyone's view of Broom that he killed Tryna 4 months after 
being paroled from a prison sentence for raping a 12-year-old girl, but AP 
doesn't mention that. And 3 months after killing Tryna, he forced an 
11-year-old girl into his car. Her mother ran after the car and screamed to her 
daughter to jump out. Broom ran over the girl's leg as she escaped.

And that's how Broom was caught for Tryna's murder.

Meanwhile in Britain, a British mother is fighting for her son's release. He 
was convicted of murder under the "joint enterprise" law, meaning that he 
didn't kill anyone but was in a group whose other members did.

But Janet Wilson expresses extreme sympathy for the victim and his family. "For 
this to be all dragged up again for any victim's family is so unfair," she told 
the Guardian. "You think the person who has done it has been caught and they're 
going to be punished and that's the last of it and you grieve and get on with 
your life. To have people like me and campaigners popping up all the time; it 
must be like rubbing salt in the wounds."

It's why families didn't want the Boston Bomber executed. They knew campaigning 
lawyers would fight it for decades, reminding them of the agony daily.

U.S. anti-death penalty activists burn with pride at the rightness of their 
cause. But the pain they leave in their wake for decades does them no credit.

This is the problem with extreme positions. When you will brook no disagreement 
and don't see that you're making things worse for some, you are not advancing 
social justice. You are increasing social misery.

(source: Heather Mallick, The Star)






KENTUCKY:

Murder case goes to grand jury


The case against a man charged in the Jan. 9 shooting death of Caleb Hallett 
was sent to a Fayette County grand jury Thursday.

After a preliminary hearing, Fayette District Judge Megan Lake Thornton found 
probable cause for a grand jury to consider the case against Marquess L. 
"Hector" Smith, 19. He is accused of shooting Hallett on University Avenue.

Hallett, 18, was shot multiple times after a robbery and died a short time 
later at University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital. His friend Josh Baker was 
shot in the right arm. In addition to murder, Smith is charged with 2 counts of 
1st-degree robbery and 1 count of assault.

During the hearing, Lexington police detective Bill Brislin said Smith, Marique 
Q. Sturgis, 18, Kenyon Hipps, 21, and 2 juveniles had planned to rob the house 
in the 200 block of University Avenue because they thought narcotics were 
there. Hipps died in Dayton, Ohio, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound 10 days 
after the shooting.

Police identified the 2 juvenile suspects after one contacted police, Brislin 
said.

At the time of the robbery, Smith, Hipps and Sturgis put on masks and walked 
behind the house while the 2 juveniles stayed in a car, the juveniles told 
police.

The 3 came running back to the car after the juveniles heard shots. They told 
the juveniles that Hallett and Baker came out of the house and got into 
Hallett's car. Smith approached the driver's side, and Sturgis approached the 
passenger side.

Juveniles overheard a conversation between Smith and Sturgis, Brislin 
testified.

According to what the juveniles heard, "Mr. Smith stated there was a verbal 
altercation between he and Mr. Caleb Hallett," Brislin testified. "Mr. Smith 
stated that at that time he shot into the vehicle to strike Mr. Hallett. It was 
also at that time that Mr. Sturgis said that he then shot into the vehicle as 
well, striking Mr. Baker."

The 5 suspects then fled separately. The only item taken in the robbery was 
Baker's cellphone, which Sturgis took, Brislin said.

Sandra Downs, directing attorney of the Capital Trial Branch-East of the state 
Department of Public Advocacy, which is defending Smith, indicated after the 
hearing that prosecutors might seek the death penalty against him, given that 
the case involves murder during a robbery.

"Right now we have not been served with a notice of death penalty," Downs said. 
"If in fact it does occur, we're ready for it."

Meanwhile, Sturgis also appeared Thursday before Thornton and waived an 
unrelated charge of trafficking in cocaine to a grand jury. Sturgis is accused 
of murder, assault, wanton endangerment, criminal mischief and 2 counts of 
robbery in the Hallett and Baker case.

(source: kentucky.com)






ARIZONA:

Court to review ruling that overturned man's death sentence


The Arizona Supreme Court has agreed to review a trial judge's decision that 
threw out a death sentence for a man convicted of killing a prostitute in 
Phoenix in 1993.

The state high court said Tuesday it will schedule oral arguments on 
prosecutors' appeal of a 2015 ruling by now-retired Judge Roberts Gottsfield in 
the case of Darrel Peter Pandeli.

Gottsfield ruled that Pandeli's former attorney was "deficient" in presenting 
evidence during Pandeli's original sentencing and that jurors weren't told the 
defendant suffered from a mental illness that affects his brain function.

The judge ordered a new penalty phase trial.

Pandeli was convicted for the 1993 killing of 43-year-old Holly Iler. She was 
found in an alley with her throat slashed and her breasts cut off.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

You're not getting off that easy, judge tells alleged 'Grim Sleeper' mass 
killer


A judge Friday rejected a defense motion to dismiss the case against the man 
charged in the "Grim Sleeper" killings of 9 women and a teenage girl in a crime 
spree stretching over more than 2 decades.

"The motion's denied," Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy said 
immediately after one of Lonnie David Franklin Jr.'s attorneys made the request 
at a hearing outside the jury's presence based on the evidence that was 
presented during the prosecution's case-in-chief.

Franklin, a 63-year-old former city garage attendant and sanitation worker, is 
charged with the murders of 9 women, who were mostly in their 20s, and a 
15-year-old girl, and dumping their bodies in alleys and trash bins in and 
around South Los Angeles, Inglewood and unincorporated Los Angeles County.

Franklin is also charged with the attempted murder of another woman, Enietra 
Washington, who survived being shot in the chest and pushed out of a moving 
vehicle in November 1988.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against him.

The defense is scheduled to begin its portion of the case Monday, with attorney 
Seymour Amster telling the judge that he believes his opening statement to 
jurors is going to take about an hour.

The prosecution wrapped up its case Wednesday after calling relatives of 9 of 
the victims to identify autopsy and crime scene photos of their loved ones.

The prosecution's portion of the case - which took about a month - included 
testimony from Washington, who identified Franklin in court as her assailant 
and said he took a Polaroid-type photo of her after shooting her.

Jurors also watched a videotape of Franklin being interrogated by Los Angeles 
Police Department detectives. He denied killing anyone, but called one of the 
victims "butt ugly" and another "fat" after the detectives showed him photos of 
them.

In her opening statement last month, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman 
told jurors that DNA and firearms evidence linked Franklin to the attacks.

"The evidence in this case will tell a story, a story of a serial killer who 
stalked the streets of South Los Angeles, a serial killer who is responsible 
for the murders of 10 women" and the attempted murder of another woman, the 
prosecutor told jurors.

The killings occurred between 1985 and 1988, and 2002 and 2007, with the 
assailant dubbed the "Grim Sleeper" because of the apparent 13-year break in 
the killings.

Most of the victims were shot in the chest or strangled, Silverman said.

The prosecutor said all of the victims were "connected to the same serial 
killer" either through DNA evidence or firearms evidence.

"And that serial killer, ladies and gentlemen, is the defendant Lonnie 
Franklin," Silverman told the jury.

8 of the victims were linked through firearms evidence, and DNA collected from 
7 of the victims was linked to the same male profile, she said, noting that the 
male profile was matched to "the defendant's unique DNA profile" during an LAPD 
task force investigation into the killings.

Franklin is charged with murdering:

-- Debra Jackson, 29, who was found dead from 3 gunshot wounds to the chest in 
an alley on Aug. 10, 1985;

-- Henrietta Wright, 34, who was shot twice in the chest and found dead in an 
alley on Aug. 12, 1986;

-- Barbara Ware, 23, who was shot once in the chest and found dead in an alley 
on Jan. 10, 1987;

-- Bernita Sparks, 26, who was shot once in the chest and found dead in a 
trash bin on on April 15, 1987;

-- Mary Lowe, 26, who was shot in the chest and found dead in an alley on Nov. 
1, 1987;

-- Lachrica Jefferson, 22, who was found dead from 2 gunshot wounds to the 
chest in an alley on Jan. 30, 1988;

-- Alicia Alexander, 18, who was killed by a gunshot wound to the chest and 
found in an alley on Sept. 11, 1988;

-- Princess Berthomieux, 15, who was strangled and discovered in an alley in 
Inglewood on March 19, 2002;

-- Valerie McCorvey, 35, who was strangled with a ligature and found dead at 
the entrance to an alley on July 11, 2003; and

-- Janecia Peters, 25, who was shot in the back and found dead inside a sealed 
plastic trash bag in a trash bin in an alley on Jan. 1, 2007.

Authorities said after Franklin's arrest that he was identified as a suspect 
using familial DNA - investigators determined that his son had DNA similar to 
the killer, and when they subsequently got Franklin's DNA, his genetic material 
allegedly matched forensic evidence from 8 killings between 1985 and 1988, and 
3 killings between 2001 and 2007.

Detectives have said since Franklin was taken into custody in July 2010 that 
they were also investigating whether he might be connected to the 
disappearances or deaths of 8 other women whose photos were found in his home 
near 81st Street and Harvard Boulevard.

(source: mynewsla.com)