[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----NEV., CALIF., ORE., USA

[Rick Halperin]

May 21



NEVADA:

Convicted killer to get new trial after 30 years on death row in Nevada


A convicted killer who has been on Nevada's death row for nearly 3 decades will 
get a new penalty hearing after the Nevada Supreme Court ruled his public 
defender was deficient in representing him.

Richard Canape, now 61, was sentenced to death for the 1988 killing of Manuel 
Toledo, a New Jersey man killed after he ran out of gasoline on his way back to 
Las Vegas from a hunting trip in Utah.

In a ruling posted Friday, the Supreme Court dismissed Canape's claims that his 
trial lawyer at the time, Stephen Dahl with the Clark County public defender's 
office, was ineffective during trial. But justices said Canape was not 
adequately represented during the penalty phase.

"Counsel's performance during the penalty phase of Canape's trial was 
concerning," Chief Justice Ron Parraguirre wrote for the court in the unanimous 
decision, which faulted the lawyer for presenting no evidence or mitigating 
circumstances on Canape???s behalf.

"Counsel began his argument by apologizing for being absent when the guilty 
verdicts were announced, explained that he was not fully prepared to argue, 
then reminded jurors that they did not have to execute Canape - but they could 
if they wanted to," justices said.

"We conclude that counsel's performance fell below an objective standard of 
reasonableness."

The victim had flown to Las Vegas, where he rented a car a drove to Cedar City, 
Utah, for an elk hunt in October 1988. On his way back to Las Vegas, he ran out 
of gasoline on Interstate 15. A convenience store clerk recalled he had come 
into the store with gasoline cans, and told her someone was giving him a ride 
back to his car.

Toledo's body was found down an embankment the next day by another motorist who 
had broken down along the interstate. Investigators said he died of 2 gunshot 
wounds.

About 2 weeks after Toledo's killing, Canape was arrested for an attempted 
armed robbery of a liquor store in Las Vegas. A police weapons expert matched a 
handgun Canape had on him with the bullets recovered from scene where Toledo 
was killed.

Canape was convicted of 1st-degree murder and robbery, both with a deadly 
weapon.

Christopher Oram, a Las Vegas attorney who handled the latest appeal, said 
Canape suffers from serious mental illness.

"I'm really pleased that the Nevada Supreme Court has given him an opportunity 
to present his extensive history of mental illness, as I have no doubt a jury 
will not impose a sentence of death on him again," Oram said.

(source: Las Vegas Review-Journal)






CALIFORNIA:

Antonovich, Sheriff Push for Death Penalty Reform


At a press conference Thursday, Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich joined Sheriff 
McDonnell and law enforcement leaders to express his support for the 
Californians for Death Penalty Reform and Savings Act of 2016, a measure which 
will appear on November's ballot.

"This initiative will promote justice for murder victims and their families, 
save taxpayers millions of dollars per year, and assure due process protections 
for those sentenced to death," said Antonovich. "At a time when crime rates are 
spiking, it is vital to enact reforms to make the death penalty an effective 
deterrent and appropriate punishment for murderers and provide justice for 
victims and their families."

Currently, the State of California has 746 inmates on death row and has not 
executed an inmate since 2006. Of those 746 inmates: 126 involved torture 
before murder, 173 killed children, and 44 murdered police officers.

Proponent of the initiative, Reverend Ferroll Robins, whose brother, Joseph 
Paul, was murdered in south Los Angeles, is also a Los Angeles Police 
Department Chaplain and head of the nonprofit Loved Ones Victims Services, an 
organization that provides grief counseling for people whose family members are 
murdered.

(source: scvnews.com)






OREGON:

Lane County jury refuses to put murderer on death row


A Lane County jury on Friday declined to sentence a man to death for the 2012 
slaying of 22-year-old Eugene resident Celestino Gutierrez, instead ruling that 
life behind bars is an appropriate punishment for the Army veteran.

A.J. Scott Nelson, 26, will return to Lane County Circuit Judge Debra Vogt's 
courtroom on June 2 for sentencing. At that time, Vogt will sentence Nelson to 
life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Nelson is the last of 3 people arrested in the case to have his case play out 
in court. Gutierrez, who did not know Nelson or the others arrested in the 
case, was the victim of a plot carried out by the trio to kidnap and kill a 
stranger in order to use his car as the getaway vehicle in a bank robbery.

Through a victim services advocate, Gutierrez's parents and 2 brothers declined 
comment on the jury's decision.

Defense attorneys Laurie Bender and Chris Clayhold both said Friday that they 
are "relieved" the jury did not rule that Nelson should be executed for his 
crimes.

The same jury earlier this month found Nelson guilty of 18 felony charges 
including two counts of aggravated murder for killing Gutierrez.

The last time a Lane County jury voted against a death penalty in an aggravated 
murder case was in 2008, when Tyke Supanchick of Eugene was sentenced to life 
in prison for fatally shooting his estranged wife. Supanchick, like Nelson, had 
served in the military. Lawyers for both men highlighted their service while 
defending the killers in their respective trials.

Since then, juries in Lane County have sent 2 people to death row. They include 
Angela McAnulty, who was convicted in 2011 of aggravated murder in the death of 
her 15-year-old daughter. She is the only woman facing execution in Oregon.

In 2014, another jury ordered a death sentence for David Ray Taylor, who teamed 
with Nelson to kill Gutierrez.

The 3rd person convicted in Gutierrez's death, Mercedes Crabtree, is serving 
life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.

The last prisoner execution in Oregon happened in 1997.

(source: The Register-Guard)






USA:

Roof hearing set for June 8 in Charleston


A hearing in federal court for Dylann Roof has been set for June 8 in 
Charleston before U.S. Judge Richard Gergel.

Since being indicted last summer on federal hate crime charges resulting in 
death, Gergel has called hearings almost each month to ask attorneys when the 
case might be ready for trial.

Gergel especially wants federal prosecutors to decide whether they will seek 
the death penalty against Roof because if they do seek it, Gergel needs time to 
draw up plans. Death penalty trials are much longer, more complex and more 
expensive than most other kinds of criminal trials.

So far, prosecutors on the case - who await a final decision from top Justice 
Department officials - have been unable to tell Gergel if they will seek the 
death penalty.

Meanwhile, Roof attorney David Bruck has publicly told Gergel at several 
hearings that Roof, 21, is ready to plead guilty and accept a life sentence 
without parole if the government does not seek the death penalty.

Roof, a self-avowed white supremacist from Columbia, is charged with the 
racially motivated deaths of 9 African-Americans last June at Charleston's 
downtown Mother Emanuel AME Church.

Meanwhile, state prosecutors are set begin their own death penalty case against 
Roof in state court in Charleston in January.

(source: thestate.com)