[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., VA., GA., FLA.

[Rick Halperin]

March 30



TEXAS----impending execution

Dallas Man Set to Die for Killing Daughters


Attorneys are asking federal courts to halt the scheduled execution of a 
60-year-old former Dallas accountant condemned for gunning down his young 
daughters while their mother helplessly listened on the phone.

John Battaglia is set for lethal injection Wednesday evening for the 2001 
slayings of his 9- and 6-year-old girls. His lawyers contend they need more 
time to show he's incompetent for capital punishment.

Texas attorneys say the last-day appeals are a fishing expedition and there's 
no evidence to show he's incompetent.

Prosecutors said the slayings at Battaglia's apartment were in revenge for his 
ex-wife's harassment complaints that led to an arrest warrant issued against 
him. He already was on probation at the time.

His execution would be the nation's 10th this year, and the 6th in Texas.

(source: Associated Press)

**********

Hearing next month in death penalty capital murder case


A hearing is scheduled next month, concerning an appeal of a Hunt County death 
penalty capital murder case.

Micah Crofford Brown of Greenville was convicted and sentenced to death by 
lethal injection in connection with the murder of Stella Michelle "Doc" Ray.

In September of last year, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied 1 appeal 
filed in the case.

But a separate post conviction writ was filed in January 2015 on Brown's behalf 
with the 354th District Court by the Office of Capital Writs, a capital 
post-conviction state agency charged with representing death sentenced persons 
in state post-conviction habeas corpus and related proceedings.

The 124-page document listed multiple alleged issues with Brown's conviction 
and sentence, including ineffective assistance by the trial and appeals defense 
attorneys, improper arguments by prosecutors during the punishment phase, and 
failure to present evidence during the punishment phase that Brown suffers from 
an Autism Spectrum Disorder, which may have mitigates the jury's decision to 
issue the death penalty.

After Judge Richard A. Beacom recused himself from the case, Judge Mary Murphy 
with the First Administrative Judicial Region appointed 196th District Court 
Judge J. Andrew Bench to oversee the proceedings, with a hearing concerning the 
evidence scheduled for April 28.

Brown was convicted of capital murder and received the death penalty in May 
2013. He does not yet have an execution date scheduled.

An appeal is automatic in capital murder cases.

Ray was shot and killed in Greenville on the night of July 20, 2011 as the 
result of a domestic dispute between her and Brown.

Prior to the murder Ray, 36, from Greenville, had been working as a school 
teacher in Caddo Mills but at the time of her death had just completed a 
doctorate program at Texas A&M University-Commerce, and was moving from 
Greenville the next day to take a job teaching at a college in Marshall.

(source: Herald Banner)






PENNSYLVANIA:

State Supreme Court vacates death sentence in chain saw murder case


The state Supreme Court on Tuesday vacated the death sentence handed down in 
the case of a Coatesville man convicted of the grisly chain saw murder of a 
city teenager in 2008.

The court ruled that the previous crimes cited by the prosecution in arguing 
that Laquanta Chapman should be put to death for the slaying of 16-year-old 
Aaron Turner, a Coatesville Area Senior High student who lived across the 
street from him, apparently over a drug deal that had soured, did not fit the 
state's required aggravating factors for seeking capital punishment.

The prosecution had argued that Chapman's conviction in New Jersey for pointing 
a gun at two people in separate cases amounted to felonies under Pennsylvania 
law, and thus could be used to press the death penalty against Chapman, a city 
drug dealer. Instead, the court found, those crimes in the neighboring state 
did not add up to felonies in Pennsylvania.

"The New Jersey crimes of which (Chapman) was convicted - per which the 
sentencing court was authorized to impose, at most, 18-month maximum terms - 
plainly do not qualify as felonies,??? Justice Thomas G. Saylor wrote in a 
terse 14-page decision. Saylor also dismissed a number of post-trial issues 
raised by Chapman's attorney concerning his conviction for 1st-degree murder.

His past crimes, Saylor wrote, "could not serve as the essential predicate for 
the death penalty aggravating factor, which turns on a finding of a significant 
history of violent felony convictions."

Since the alleged felony convictions were the sole aggravating circumstances 
cited by prosecutors in Chapman's 2012 trial, the court said the only solution 
was to send the case back to Common Pleas Judge William P. Mahon, who presided 
over Chapman's 2-week trial, for sentencing. Chapman will now be subject to a 
life sentence without parole.

Chapman's appeal was handled by Assistant Public Defender P.J. Redmond. He was 
not available for comment Tuesday, although attorneys in that office are rare 
permitted to comment on cases. First Assistant Public Defender Nathan Schenker 
declined comment.

Chapman's trial attorney, Evan Kelly of West Chester, had raised the issue of 
the aggravating factor in pre-trial motion, but was rebuffed by Mahon, who 
found that the crimes Chapman had been convicted of amounted to felonies in 
Pennsylvania.

The appellate court reversed that decision.

"I believed from the start that the factors that the Commonwealth was relying 
on in its pursuit of the death penalty were not applicable in this case," Kelly 
said in a statement Tuesday. He credited Redmond for bringing the appeal to the 
state Supreme Court and arguing it in front of the 6-judge court. "I really 
want to compliment 'P.J.,' who took the issue up to appeal."

On the contrary, Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan said the crime 
spoke for itself, referencing Chapman's use of sliced-up pit bull to cover up 
Chapman's dismemberment.

"Laquanta Chapman is a stone-cold killer," Hogan said. "He killed a young man 
with the same lack of remorse as when he killed his own dog to cover up the 
crime. We respect the legal reasoning of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, both 
in upholding the 1st-degree murder conviction and addressing the death penalty 
issues."

"At the end of the day, the victim's family can rest assured that the defendant 
will never see a blue sky again," Hogan said in a statement sent Tuesday.

Former prosecutor Patrick Carmody, who tried the case with Deputy District 
Attorney Michelle Frei, declined comment. Carmody, now a Common Pleas judge, 
was reportedly set to meet with members of Turner's family Tuesday night.

Chapman's death-penalty verdict in November 2012 was the 1st time in nearly 2 
decades that a panel of 12 jurors had unanimously decided to impose the 
ultimate penalty on a defendant in a murder case, and only the 2nd time such a 
decision came from a county jury since the death penalty was reinstated in 
Pennsylvania in the late 1970s.

Chapman, a 33-year-old New Jersey native who moved to Coatesville to be with 
his family, was convicted after a 3-week long trial in the October 2008 death 
of Turner, a beloved teen who had his sights set on a career at Penn State.

In December 2012, Mahon, who had presided over Chapman's case as it made its 
way through the criminal justice system for more than three years, formally 
sentenced the drug dealer to die by lethal injection. He also added more than 
100 years of imprisonment on other charges to his sentence, ensuring that 
should the murder conviction be overturned, Chapman would remain behind bars.

"Most of the people who stand before me are not evil, they are just behaving 
badly," Mahon told Chapman at his sentencing hearing. "Mr. Chapman, there is no 
win-win in this. You are evil, and not fit to walk among us."

(source: mainlinemedianews.com)






VIRGINIA:

Justin Wolfe admits role in drug dealer's slaying, enters guilty plea after 
stint on death row


Justin Michael Wolfe, whose capital murder conviction and death sentence were 
reversed amid concerns about prosecutorial misconduct, pleaded guilty to murder 
in Prince William County on Tuesday, admitting in a handwritten statement that 
he and another man plotted the 2001 robbery and slaying of a fellow marijuana 
dealer.

It was a stunning reversal from Wolfe, who had proclaimed his innocence for 15 
years. Wolfe had argued, at times from Virginia's death row, that the murder of 
Daniel Petrole Jr., the son of a decorated Secret Service agent, was the work 
of a rogue drug associate. The case featured a co-defendant repeatedly changing 
his story about the slaying, a federal district judge ordering Wolfe's release 
from jail in 2012, and 2 federal courts chastising Prince William prosecutors 
for withholding evidence from the defense.

Wolfe pleaded guilty to a charge of 1st-degree felony murder, use of a firearm, 
and a drug charge, part of an agreement with prosecutors that will allow a 
judge to sentence him to a range of 29 to 41 years in prison. He will get 
credit for the 15 years he already has served.

In a 4-page handwritten statement to the court, Wolfe essentially validated the 
prosecution's consistent version of events: Wolfe and Owen Merton Barber IV 
decided to rob and kill Petrole because they knew he would have a large amount 
of cash and marijuana and feared that a robbery alone would invite revenge. 
Wolfe acknowledged that he owed Petrole tens of thousands of dollars from 
continuing drug transactions, and he said that he had planned to split the 
proceeds with Barber and erase a debt Barber owed him.

The statement, dated March 19, 2016, addresses Petrole's parents, and 
concludes: "I am sorry for what I did to your son."

Wolfe entered his plea Tuesday morning before Prince William County Circuit 
Court Judge Carroll A. Weimer Jr., and he is scheduled to be sentenced on July 
20. It is the 1st time Wolfe has taken responsibility for the slaying; he had 
always maintained that it would make no sense for him to kill his marijuana 
supplier, and his lawyers argued that Barber carried out the robbery and 
slaying on his own.

Wolfe wrote that he and Barber initially planned only to rob Petrole, as he 
delivered a marijuana shipment to them, but "eventually we both agreed that it 
would be necessary to kill Danny because he was probably going to resist the 
robbery or figure out who did it and have to get revenge. ... I am responsible 
for Danny's death even though I didn't pull the trigger. If I had not been 
involved Danny would never have been killed."

Petrole, 21, was found shot to death in front of his Bristow townhouse in March 
2001. Wolfe, then 20, and Barber, then, 22, former classmates at Chantilly High 
School, were soon arrested. Barber agreed to plead guilty and testify that 
Wolfe had ordered up the slaying of Petrole, in exchange for a relatively light 
sentence - he received 38 years in prison. Prosecutors sought the death penalty 
for Wolfe, and a jury imposed it in January 2002, disbelieving Wolfe's 
testimony denying any connection to the murder.

The killing helped Prince William County police uncover what was then one of 
the most significant drug operations in the region's history, leading 
authorities to an extensive network of suburban teenagers and young men who 
sold high-grade marijuana and ecstasy to thousands of customers throughout 
Northern Virginia - most of them high-schoolers.

Though Wolfe all along admitted his role in the drug trade and his extravagant, 
free-wheeling lifestyle, Wolfe maintained his innocence in the murder. Then in 
2005, Barber filed an affidavit saying he had lied in court, and Wolfe hadn't 
ordered the murder. In 2006, Barber took the witness stand during one of 
Wolfe's appeal hearings and reversed himself again, saying Wolfe did order the 
murder.

Finally in 2011, after Wolfe had spent 9 years on death row, a federal judge in 
Norfolk ordered a new trial, saying Prince William prosecutors withheld or 
ignored crucial evidence and potential testimony that could have helped Wolfe's 
defense. U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson wrote that the government's 
case against Wolfe was "tenuous" and accused prosecutors of having "stifled a 
vigorous truth-seeking process in this criminal case." A federal appeals court 
upheld Jackson in 2012, and Jackson ordered Wolfe released, before the appeals 
court stayed that order.

Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert and top assistant Richard 
A. Conway stepped aside amid the scrutiny, and Fairfax County Commonwealth's 
Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh stepped in, over defense objections that he was too 
close to Ebert. The case resumed, with Morrogh saying he would again seek the 
death penalty for Wolfe.

Wolfe went through numerous attorneys, including representation by the Virginia 
Innocence Project, before being appointed defense lawyers Joseph Flood, Daniel 
Lopez and Bernadette Donovan. They apparently launched plea negotiations with 
Morrogh, and Wolfe wrote the statement admitting his role in Petrole's murder. 
The plea session itself was not publicized and was not attended by the media.

"Justin entered a guilty plea today in order to take responsibility for his 
crime and to give the Petrole family and his own family some finality if not 
closure," Flood said. "The plea offer extended by the Special Prosecutors last 
week was the result of long negotiations and was the 1st time since the 
inception of this case that he was ever offered a plea. Mr. Wolfe understands 
that he cannot take back this tragedy or make up for the pain he has caused, 
but is hopeful that by admitting and apologizing for what he did and bringing 
these proceedings to an end, he may help Danny's family to heal."

Wolfe's letter said that he had been receiving large marijuana shipments from 
Petrole for some time, and that in the months prior to March 2001, Petrole had 
"fronted" him the drugs, not requiring immediate payment. Then, he wrote, "Owen 
asked if he could rob him for the money and marijuana. At first I played it off 
as a joke but Owen took it serious and I agreed that it would be okay." Wolfe 
then describes Petrole delivering the marijuana, alerting Barber to Petrole's 
location, and staying in touch with him before and after the shooting, later 
meeting him at a bar. Barber later testified that he followed Petrole for 30 
miles before shooting him to death outside of Petrole's townhome.

"Maybe it seems easy for me to say 'I'm sorry,'" Wolfe wrote, "but it's 
actually the hardest thing I have ever done because it means I have to admit 
what I did which contradicts what I said and trial and the position that I have 
taken for all of my appeals and I am very afraid that I will let the people I 
love down."

Morrogh said the defense team showed him the letter and that he spoke to 
Petrole's father, who conferred with the rest of his family.

"They were interested in bringing the case to a conclusion. They were really 
interested in him admitting what he did," Morrogh said. Morrogh said the plea 
and sentence range was "a fair compromise given the evidence in the case. ... 
No one's completely happy, it's fair to say, and the Petroles feel they're 
going to get some good measure of justice in the case."

The plea ensures that Wolfe will not face the death penalty in the case; under 
Virginia's sentencing rules, Wolfe would be eligible for release in 
approximately 10 to 20 years, or in his late 40s or early 50s, depending on the 
judge's sentence.

(source: Washington Post)

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

Federal Appeals Court Temporarily Halts Execution of Ukrainian Man in Virginia


The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has issued a temporary stay of 
execution for Ivan Teleguz, a Ukrainian national who was convicted of ordering 
the 2001 murder of his girlfriend, Stephanie Sipe. He was scheduled to be put 
to death on April 13.

Following his conviction, 2 witnesses recanted their testimony against him, 
with 1 of them saying he fabricated most of his testimony to avoid the death 
penalty himself. During the trial, the jury was told that Teleguz was involved 
in another murder that did not in fact occur as alleged.

"A man's life hangs in the balance based on the faulty testimony of witnesses, 
one of whom later claimed to have lied to avoid the death penalty" said James 
Clark, senior death penalty campaigner for Amnesty International USA. "This is 
clearly a broken system that must be ended entirely. Ivan Teleguz's sentence 
must be commuted permanently."

(source: Amnesty International USA)






GEORGIA----impending execution

Panel to hold clemency hearing for Georgia death row inmate


A Georgia death row inmate scheduled to die this week has grown into a quiet 
man with a positive influence who bears little resemblance to the teenager who 
helped beat a man to death two decades ago, his lawyers argue.

Joshua Bishop, 41, is set to be executed Thursday for the 1994 killing of 
Leverett Morrison in Milledgeville. A clemency hearing is scheduled for 
Wednesday before the State Board of Pardons and Paroles, the only entity in 
Georgia authorized to commute a death sentence.

"The story of Joshua Bishop's life is one of deprivation, abuse, hopelessness, 
and crime; but it is also one of faith, contrition, redemption, gratitude, and 
love," Bishop's lawyers wrote in a clemency petition asking the parole board to 
spare his life.

Morrison's children, however, are adamant that the death sentence should be 
carried out, Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee said.

Bishop had an extremely rough childhood with a mother who constantly drank and 
used drugs and had a weakness for abusive men who beat her and her 2 sons, the 
petition says. He bounced between foster families and group homes, eventually 
returning to his mother, who was frequently in trouble with the law for drug 
and alcohol offenses or prostitution.

Many who knew Bishop as he grew up shared a common sentiment: that he "never 
had a chance," his lawyers wrote.

Bishop spent June 19, 1994, drinking and using drugs with Morrison and a 3rd 
man, Mark Braxley. They continued drinking at a bar that evening and then went 
to Braxley's trailer, where they continued to drink and use drugs.

Morrison fell asleep and Braxley decided he wanted to take Morrison's Jeep to 
visit his girlfriend and instructed Bishop to "get them keys," the clemency 
petition says. Morrison woke up as Bishop was trying to take his keys from his 
pocket, and Bishop hit him over the head with a piece of a closet rod to knock 
him out, the petition says.

Bishop told investigators he and Braxley both beat Morrison and, once they 
realized he was dead, they dumped his body between 2 trash bins and burned his 
Jeep.

Bishop and Braxley were arrested within 24 hours of Morrison's death. Bishop 
quickly confessed and immediately showed remorse, while Braxley lied about the 
crime, the petition says.

While in police custody, Bishop told investigators he had been involved in the 
death of another man, Ricky Willis, about two weeks earlier, also at Braxley's 
trailer. Bishop told police he repeatedly punched Willis after Willis bragged 
he had sexually assaulted Bishop's mother and then Braxley cut Willis' throat, 
killing him.

Bishop and Braxley were both charged with murder and armed robbery in 
Morrison's death. After a trial, a jury convicted Bishop and sentenced him to 
die. Braxley pleaded guilty and got life in prison. He's been denied parole 
twice and will next be eligible for consideration next year.

Bishop has admitted involvement in the deaths of Morrison and Willis. But his 
lawyers argue that Braxley, who's about 17 years older than Bishop, was the 
instigator and influenced Bishop in both cases.

2 decades in prison have given Bishop stability that has led him to become a 
positive influence on fellow inmates and others, and he still has good to do in 
the world, his lawyers argue. They gave the board statements from 2 of 
Morrison's sisters and his niece, who wrote that they don't want to see Bishop 
executed.

But Massee, the sheriff, said he met on Monday with 3 of Morrison's family 
members, 2 daughters and a son, who all said it's important to them to see 
Bishop executed for their father's death.

Bishop would be the 3rd Georgia inmate executed this year. Another inmate, 
Kenneth Fults, is scheduled to die April 12.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Attorneys for Joshua Bishop file appeal as execution day approaches


An attorney for condemned killer Joshua Bishop argued in a court filing Tuesday 
that the jury that sentenced him to die failed to first make certain findings 
about his intent to murder Leverett Morrison. Consequently, Bishop cannot be 
put to death Thursday as scheduled, according to the filing.

Bishop, 41, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Thursday at 7 p.m. for 
Morrison's 1994 beating death. Though Bishop, then 19, confessed to killing 
Morrison after several hours of drinking, he still went to trial. His 
co-defendant, 36-year-old Mark Braxley, however, pleaded guilty and was 
sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

In the petition filed with the Superior Court in Butts County, which is where 
Georgia's death row is located, Bishop's lawyers said it would be 
unconstitutional to execute him because the jury that convicted him did not 
make a specific finding that Bishop "killed, intended to kill or intended to 
aid in the killing" of Morrison.

That meant, Bishop's lawyer wrote, Bishop's "death sentence is unlawful and his 
execution would constitute a miscarriage of justice .... because he is 
constitutionally ineligible for capital punishment."

The filing said the prosecutor incorrectly "argued that it did not matter who 
killed Mr. Morrison for purposes of convicting Mr. Bishop."

It was not established at his trial whether Bishop or Braxley delivered the 
killing blow.

This is the only court challenged filed in Bishop's case since his lethal 
injection was scheduled on March 11.

The filing also included affidavits from four jurors from his death penalty 
case who wrote that they would not have voted to have him executed had they 
known that Braxley was given a deal and much lighter punishment. All four 
jurors wrote that they were led to believe that the case against Braxley was 
pending at they heard Bishop's case.

"We were told during the trial that Mark Braxley would be tried by another jury 
and that we should focus on Josh Bishop," Jackie Dixon, one of the jurors in 
Bishop's 1996 trial, wrote. "We believed that Mark Braxley would get similar 
treatment by the state. I recently found out that this was not the case. I 
learned that Mark Braxley was not tried for his crimes. Instead, he was offered 
a deal where he got a life sentence with the possibility of parole. I also 
understand that this offer was made before Josh Bishop's trial. If I had known 
that Mark Braxley would have been given such a light sentence, I would not have 
voted for the death penalty for Josh."

Bishop's lawyers will make a similar argument when they meet with the State 
Board of Pardons and Paroles Wednesday afternoon. They also focused much of 
their petition for clemency on Bishop's abusive childhood, which was controlled 
by the alcohol and drug addictions of his mother and many others in his family.

If he is put to death, Bishop will be the 3rd man Georgia has executed this 
year. The state has scheduled another execution for April 12; Kenneth Fults is 
to die for the 1996 murder of his 19-year-old neighbor in Spalding County.

Bishop, Braxley and Morrison, 35, had spent much of the day on June 25, 1994, 
drinking at a Milledgeville bar and then at Braxley's trailer. Morrison fell 
asleep and that's when Braxley decided he wanted to visit his girlfriend. 
Braxley and Bishop decided to just take Morrison's Jeep without asking. But 
Morrison woke when Bishop tried to fish the car keys from his pocket. They 
struggled and Bishop and Braxley beat him to death, first hitting him with a 
car battery and then repeatedly striking him with a curtain rod.

After dumping Morrison's body, the 2 set fire to his Jeep in some nearby woods.

Bishop and Braxley were arrested within hours and that is when investigators 
learned there was a 2nd murder. Both admitted to killing Ricky Lee Wills.

Bishop told investigators they killed Wills because he boasted about sexually 
assaulting Bishop's mother. He said they had to bend Wills' legs in unnatural 
directions to make his body fit into a makeshift grave.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)






FLORIDA:

Prosecutor fires back after being accused of felony----Public defender says 
state attorney's office broke law in James Rhodes case


After James Rhodes' public defender accused the state attorney's office of 
misconduct in her client's case, an assistant state attorney fired back Monday, 
calling the accusation a "veiled extortion attempt."

Rhodes is accused of gunning down a Metro PCS clerk in 2013.

Assistant Public Defender Debra Billard sent a letter to the state attorney's 
office after a recent pretrial hearing in the case, accusing prosecutors of 
committing a felony by showing surveillance video of 20-year-old Shelby Farah's 
shooting death to her brother, Caleb Farah.

Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda denied the claim and countered the 
accusation with one of his own. "Let me be perfectly clear, I've been doing 
this job for nearly 33 years and don't take kindly to your veiled extortion 
attempt," he wrote in a letter to Billard. "It's not working. I didn't do 
anything illegal and based on the facts of the case, your client's criminal 
history and the law, the State Attorney's Office will continue to seek the 
death penalty in this case."

Shelby's mother, Darlene Farah, has repeatedly asked the State Attorney's 
Office to agree to a plea deal with Rhodes and not seek the death penalty so 
the case will be over and her family can move on.

But her son, Caleb, testified at a pretrial hearing that he supports the death 
penalty against Rhodes.

Rhodes' attorney said he only took that position after prosecutors showed him 
surveillance video of his sister's shooting death.

Billard asserted in her letter to prosecutors that regardless of whether Caleb 
Farah wanted to watch that video or not, the state attorney's office should not 
have allowed him to do so.

Billard said that because the video shows the killing of a person, Florida law 
states that only a surviving parent has authority to view the video if there is 
no surviving spouse and no written designation from the parent authorizing 
anyone else to view it.

Because Darlene Farah did not give written permission for Caleb to view the 
video, allowing him to see it violated the confidentiality of the video, 
Billard said.

According to Florida law, that's a felony, according to Billard.

"Frankly, I am disturbed to think that you would have considered violating a 
clearly written Florida Statute and, as a result, attempted to justify your 
desire to have Mr. Rhodes killed by citing the opinions of Caleb Farah," 
Billard wrote. "I can think of no blow more foul than violating not only 
Florida law, but also the memory of Shelby Farah."

De la Rionda fired back this week, accusing Billard of unprofessional behavior 
after her letter was leaked to News4Jax and other media outlets.

"I disagree with your comments about what happened in this case and your 
analysis of the statute in question," de la Rionda wrote. "I didn't do anything 
criminally, ethically or morally wrong."

He details why, according to his interpretation of the law, Billard's 
assessment is incorrect, saying requiring written permission to show such 
evidence to potential witnesses ahead of a trial "defies all logic and common 
sense."

"I must assume that you are continuing these unwarranted and unsupported 
personal attacks solely to get more publicity for your anti-death penalty 
beliefs and to litigate this case in the media rather than in a court of law," 
de la Rionda wrote.

Rhodes' trial, which was set to begin May 2, has been pushed back because of 
new state legislation on the death penalty.

Judge Tatiana Salvador set Aug. 29 as the date for jury selection in the trial. 
The final pretrial date will be Aug. 22.

Earlier this month, Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a measure designed to fix 
the state's death penalty sentencing process after it was found 
unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The new law, which went into effect immediately, would require at least 10 
jurors to recommend death for the penalty to be imposed.

Darlene Farah wrote an opinion piece for Time magazine on the death penalty, 
titled "My Daughter's Killer Should Not Get the Death Penalty."

Cellphone store clerk killed in robbery

Rhodes is charged with 1st-degree murder in the killing of Shelby Farah during 
a robbery of a Brentwood cellphone store.

Police said that after several hours of questioning, Rhodes confessed.

Police said Farah was found dead after officers responded to a report of an 
armed robbery at the store on Main Street near 21st Street.

Police said Rhodes pointed a gun at the 20-year-old and demanded money. They 
said she cooperated and after she handed him the last bit of money, he fired 4 
rounds, killing her.

(source: news4jax.com)

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

Family members of victims excoriate rush to death penalty in Jacksonville


A group of about 20 people gathered in Springfield on Tuesday night to discuss 
the death penalty in Jacksonville.

Darlene Farah - the mother of a slain Jacksonville woman - sat in the middle of 
a circle flanked by a woman whose daughter was kidnapped and killed in Montana 
in the 1970s and a man from Broward County who was exonerated after spending 
years on death row.

The message from the 3 of them - as well as an attorney from the American Civil 
Liberties Union of Florida - was that capital punishment is not the best 
answer.

"If you wanted to make me suffer, put me in [general] population," Seth 
Penalver told the group as he talked about his time on death row.

He talked about how in prison, when someone is in the general population they 
risk being killed on a daily basis. He said there's one television for all the 
inmates and some have been killed for changing the channel.

However, on death row every inmate has their own TV, Penalver told the group. 
Still, there is more of a threat of harm in the general population.

"Death Row is sweet," he said.

Farah had already told the story of her 20-year-old daughter who was shot and 
killed while working her job at a Jacksonville Metro PCS store - located down 
the street from the Springfield Community Learning Center where Tuesday's forum 
was held.

James Xavier Rhodes, 24, is accused of killing Shelby Farah in 2013 but Darlene 
Farah told the group she doesn't want him to be sentenced to death. State 
Attorney Angela Corey is pursuing the death penalty anyway, Farah said.

"In my eyes the state created him, they made him what he is. ... they never 
taught him the values of life," Farah said of Rhodes.

She said Rhodes was abandoned at the age of 4 and lived in a boy's home where 
he was physically and sexually abused by a staff member who was convicted for 
the crimes.

"Our case could have been over 2 years ago," Farah said, if the State 
Attorney's Office would have accepted a guilty plea in exchange for dropping 
the death penalty.

Marietta Jaeger Lane comforted Farah as she talked about the pending criminal 
case again Rhodes.

Lane confronted the man who kidnapped and killed her 7-year-old daughter years 
ago and now she travels the country advocating against the death penalty.

"It is not justice," Lane said of the death penalty. "Just because it's the law 
doesn't mean it is moral."

Lane spoke to her daughter's killer several times - over the phone and in 
person - in the years after her daughter was taken during a family camping 
trip.

Eventually, the man admitted to the kidnapping and killing of Lane's daughter 
and 3 others, but it was only after the threat of the death penalty was 
dropped. The man killed himself a short time later but it brought closure to 
Lane and, she said, to the families of the others who the man had killed.

Farah said she doesn't think a death sentence will bring her closure. She said 
it would do the opposite, and make her relive the death of her daughter for 
years during the appeal process.

"A lot of people don't realize the impact it has on the family," she said.

The panel pointed out the death penalty extends the misery for families 
involved and mistakes do happen in the criminal process - like in the case of 
Penalver.

The group said if Penalver was killed before his name was cleared there would 
have been no way to correct the mistake that was made when he was convicted.

(source: jacksonville.com)