[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TENN., KY., OHIO, OKLA., NEB., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 2




TENNESSEE:

TN Supreme Court to review death penalty case of man convicted of murdering, 
dismembering girlfriend


The Tennessee State Supreme Court will review the death penalty case of James 
Hawkins, a Shelby County man who was sentenced to death for premeditated 1st 
degree murder.

Hawkins was convicted in 2011 of murdering his girlfriend, the mother of his 3 
children, and dismembering her body.

Investigators said Hawkins forced their then, 12-year-old daughter to help 
dismember her mother and dispose of her body.

Charlene Gaither was stabbed and strangled to death in 2008 in Raleigh.

The court will consider multiple issues, including whether Hawkins' statements 
to police and statements made by the victim to other witnesses should have been 
excluded.

The court will hear this case in addition to several others Wednesday in 
Jackson.

(source: Fox news)






KENTUCKY:

Lane could face death penalty if convicted in Ashland murder case


24-year-old Jacob Lane of Franklin Furnace could face the death penalty if 
convicted of 1st-degree murder, according to Boyd County Commonwealth???s 
Attorney David Justice.

Lane is accused of killing Justin Reeder, 21, of Ashland, on Oct. 16. By state 
law, murder cases are death-penalty eligible if the capital offense was 
committed during the attempt of a specified felony, such as robbery, kidnapping 
or rape.

A Boyd County grand jury indicted Lane on Tuesday morning on first-degree 
robbery and 2nd-degree burglary charges in addition to murder, Justice said. 
Lane, jailed in the Boyd County Detention Center, pleaded not guilty to murder 
last week in Boyd County Circuit Court.

Reeder was found dead in Lawrence County, Ohio on Oct. 24, a week after he was 
reported missing.

Over the course of the search for Reeder, Lane was questioned by the Ashland 
Police Department after phone records and additional evidence pointed toward 
Lane as a suspect, according to Chief Todd Kelley. Lane initially denied 
involvement, but later admitted to police he shot Reeder in the head on Oct. 16 
in the 1100 block of 29th Street in Ashland. Lane also told police the man's 
body was hidden along Tunnel Ridge Road near Ironton.

Reeder's parents told police Lane had broken into their home a few days after 
Reeder's disappearance "in an attempt to steal money and narcotics," according 
to Kelley.

The police chief announced on Tuesday an arrest warrant was issued for Zachery 
Tarleton, of Ironton, who allegedly provided Lane with a weapon.

Tarleton, 24, is awaiting extradition from Lawrence County Jail to the Boyd 
County Detention Center on a 1st-degree criminal conspiracy to commit robbery 
charge. Tarleton provided the gun to Lane, Kelley said, during Lane's attempted 
robbery of Reeder.

Lane was not originally charged with robbery. Kelley announced the warrant 
issuance for Tarleton during a press conference Tuesday afternoon, and did not 
take questions from reporters, citing the ongoing investigation.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Lawrence County Sheriff's 
Department, Kentucky State Police, the Lawrence County Coroner's office and 
Justice's office were among the agencies that have assisted Ashland police.

Lane's next court appearance has not been scheduled, according to the online 
courts system.

An online petition created anonymously on change.org titled "Death Penalty for 
Jacob Lane" has circulated since last week and accrued over 345 signatures. The 
author of the petition suggests Lane "doesn't deserve his life" and the 
petition will be delivered to Gov. Matt Bevin and Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Justice said the death penalty eligible case is the 1st such case in Boyd 
County in more than 10 years. Kentucky has carried out 3 executions of death 
row inmates since 1976.

Lane is represented by attorney Mark Hardy. Circuit Judge Gerald Reams declared 
last week Lane's bond remains $100,000.

(source: The Daily Independent)






OHIO:

Ex-student leader could face death penalty in US


While some student leaders face the prospect of spending Christmas behind bars, 
one of their former leaders who made Durban's Westville campus ungovernable in 
the early 2000s is set to spend his 6th Christmas behind bars.

However, it won't be for student protests, but rather his conviction for 2 
murders that will keep Muziwokuthula "Muzi" Madondo behind bars in the US state 
of New Mexico.

According to officials in Ohio, he is unlikely to be moved any time soon from 
the Penitentiary of New Mexico near Santa Fe to Ohio, where he faces a further 
2 charges of murder and a potential death sentence.

"I suppose we are in no rush to get him here. He's not going anywhere soon," 
said James Pollack, spokesperson for the Summit County prosecutor's office.

Madondo, who led student protests over the canteen food at the then University 
of Durban-Westville (UDW) before its merger with the University of Natal in 
2004, pleaded guilty in December 2015 to gunning down father and son Bobby 
Gonzales, 57, and Gabriel Baca, 37, in a motel in Tucumcari in New Mexico. It 
is a crime for which he will have to serve at least 24 years before being 
eligible for parole.

A case for extraditing Madondo from New Mexico to Ohio has yet to be presented 
to a grand jury.

Madondo, who was student representative council president at the then UDW, is 
alleged to have killed First Merit Bank executive Jacquelyn Hilder in Akron, 
Ohio, which is in Summit County.

Hilder died in her home from 2 gunshots to the chest and abdomen on the night 
of February 17, 2011. 2 days later, the bullet-riddled body of a Maritzburg 
College old boy, Zenzele Mdadane, was found in a forest some 300km away in 
Butler Township near Dayton, Ohio.

Unlike New Mexico, Ohio has the death penalty.

During his arrest and initial detention in the Texas town of Conroe in March 
2011, Madondo confessed not only to the murders of Gonzales and Baca, but also 
apparently to those of Hilder and Mdadane.

Madondo succeeded earlier last year in getting the Supreme Court of New Mexico 
to rule that his rights were violated when the confession was taken.

The court ruled that a jury should not hear the confession, but then, less than 
2 months before he was due to stand trial, Madondo pleaded guilty to the 
Tucumcari killings.

Speaking shortly before Madondo's sentencing in December last year, District 
Attorney Tim Rose said Madondo had admitted to killing Hilder with the purpose 
of "getting money".

"He travelled from Akron for the sole purpose of committing the murder of 
Mdadane. He said it was cold-blooded and premeditated. He wanted some 
retribution for some acts that Mdadane had done to him in the past."

Madondo, from Richmond near Pietermaritzburg, admitted in his videotaped 
confession to stripping Mdadane of his clothing so that he would not be 
identified. Madondo used Mdadane's identification to open a bank account and 
lease an apartment.

The confession will be the subject of a court battle when Madondo is eventually 
extradited to Ohio.

(source: iol.co.za)






OKLAHOMA:

State Question 776 pre-empts death penalty commission's work


Since Oklahoma became a state in 1907, Oklahomans have traditionally favored 
the death penalty. That is, until now. The latest nonpartisan SoonerPoll survey 
shows that a majority of Oklahomans (52.5 %) favor abolishing the death 
penalty, if replaced by life without parole. Only 27 % of Oklahoma's population 
remains strongly in favor of capital punishment. Our current death penalty laws 
are 40 years old and have resulted in 112 executions from 1976 to 2015, making 
Oklahoma the state with highest number of executions per capita in the United 
States.

To say the least, these executions have not always gone smoothly. Last year, 
the state used the wrong drug to execute Charles Warner, and very nearly did so 
with Richard Glossip. Attorney General Scott Pruitt empaneled a multicounty 
grand jury to look at mistakes in the execution process. The grand jury's 
106-page report paints state officials charged with carrying out executions as 
careless and, in some cases, reckless. Although the grand jury didn't indict 
anyone, 3 top officials resigned.

With this high number of executions, combined with recent issues of 
administering the death penalty that have paused executions, perhaps it is a 
good opportunity for all Oklahomans to take a deep breath when it comes to 
capital punishment.

A blue-ribbon group of Republican, Democratic and independent Oklahoma leaders 
voluntarily came together earlier this year and formed the Oklahoma Death 
Penalty Review Commission. Headed by former Gov. Brad Henry, former Court of 
Criminal Appeals Judge Rita Strubahr, and lawyer Andy Lester, the group is 
gathering and analyzing data in a holistic, impartial review of the entire 
capital punishment system from arrest to execution. Their report, which will be 
issued in early 2017, will aid Oklahomans in making a responsible, thoughtful 
and thorough decision when it comes to the death penalty.

Before the report is even issued, however, voters will see State Question 776 
on the Nov. 8 ballot. This measure pre-empts the work of the commission and, if 
passed, would permit execution by virtually any means if lethal injection drugs 
are unavailable. It would also change the Oklahoma Constitution to declare that 
the death penalty cannot be deemed to be cruel and unusual punishment. This 
constitutional change would make it impossible for judges in Oklahoma to take 
the issue of "cruel and unusual punishment" into consideration when dealing 
with capital offenses.

Each of the 16 Christian denominations which constitute the Oklahoma Conference 
of Churches has an official statement opposing capital punishment. Jointly, the 
Oklahoma Conference of Churches has also issued a public statement, signed by 
every one of the member bishops and other heads of communion, opposing SQ 776.

SQ 776 is premature until the commission completes its work and the Department 
of Corrections finishes its consideration of recommendations by the multicounty 
grand jury investigation. Let's not put the cart before the horse, but have the 
confidence in our policies and the assurance that systems are in place before 
moving forward on deciding when to assign the death penalty. As Oklahomans, we 
are called to make sensible and assured decisions backed by research.

Our situation in Oklahoma is not unique. Other states that use the death 
penalty face similar problems. However, we have the unique opportunity to lead 
the nation by being the first state bold enough to tackle this complicated 
issue in a comprehensive and dispassionate way.

Rather than enshrining the death penalty in the state's Constitution now, we 
should let the commission finish its work and offer its recommendations on the 
way to proceed in the future.

(source: Opinion; The Rev. William Tabbernee is executive director of the 
Oklahoma Conference of Churches----Tulsa World)

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

Understanding The State Questions On The Oklahoma Ballot


Oklahoma voters will decide the fate of 7 state questions on Tuesday, November 
8, 2016. This information was compiled by the League of Women Voters of 
Oklahoma to help you make an informed decision about each one. Visit the 
League's web site for more information.

State Question 776----Execution Methods

Proponents say:

--The death penalty is strongly supported by Oklahomans. The ability to carry 
it out must be protected.

--Passing SQ 776 would result in no direct costs for the state.

--There is a chance certain drugs used in lethal injections, or even the lethal 
injection itself, will be ruled an unconstitutional. Oklahoma needs options so 
that lethal injection can continue to be used.

--The Department of Corrections should have some flexibility to utilize any 
available method of execution.

Opponents say:

--The death penalty is immoral and should be outlawed altogether. Passage of SQ 
776 could mean that the state death penalty could never be ruled as 
unconstitutional on a state level.

--This amendment is not necessary. The death penalty already exists in state 
law. The amendment will not prevent courts from striking down the death penalty 
by applying federal law. The amendment duplicates existing Oklahoma statutes. 
The only purpose appears to be to address the moratorium resulting from the 
recent mistakes in the administration of the lethal drug method of execution.

--There is no limit on what crimes the Legislature might choose to make subject 
to the death penalty and the courts would be restricted in their ability to 
prevent legislative overreach even if it is inadvertent.

--This amendment could result in expensive legal challenges that the state 
would have to pay for.

(source: newson6.com)

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

Voters should say no to SQs 776 and 777


Oklahoma's state constitution is among the nation's longest, largely because it 
is packed with provisions that should have been handled in statute. If 
anything, the Oklahoma Constitution should be reduced in size, not expanded.

That alone justifies opposition to State Question 776 and State Question 777. 
Both would add provisions to the constitution without any obvious public 
benefit in response to no obvious problem.

State Question 776 endorses the death penalty, and mandates that the 
Legislature has the power to authorize new methods of execution should current 
methods (lethal injection) be declared unconstitutional by federal courts. Yet 
the death penalty is already constitutional and the Legislature already 
determines execution methods. So SQ 776 changes nothing, and its passage would 
have little bearing on federal court rulings.

While we consider SQ 776 unnecessary, its passage would not have any great 
consequence. That may not be true of SQ 777, the proposed "Right to Farm" 
constitutional amendment.

SQ 776 is unnecessary, and should be rejected by Oklahoma voters on Nov. 8.

(source: Editorial, The Oklahoman, Oct. 30)






NEBRASKA:

Life doesn't mean life


Death penalty opponents would like us to think that a sentence of life in 
prison without the possibility of parole means that we lock the door and throw 
away the key. But that's not what it means, and even if it did, life in prison 
is the next penalty that will come under attack by death penalty opponents.

I support the death penalty because it is a just punishment, sparingly applied, 
and reserved for the most egregious cases of 1st-degree murder. That's as it 
should be.

For their part, death penalty opponents want us to believe that there is a 
suitable alternative to the death penalty - life in prison without parole. Is 
it?

First, as a matter of law, there is no such thing. The Nebraska Board of 
Pardons, which exercises the virtually unlimited power of executive clemency in 
Nebraska, has the power to pardon and to commute life sentences to a term of 
years, which makes the inmate eligible for parole.

This power is not just theoretical. Laddie Dittrich was 1 of 3 men convicted of 
1st-degree murder in the beating and stabbing death of a man they ran off the 
Interstate in Omaha. Dittrich was sentenced to life in prison without the 
possibility of parole.

But in 2013, the Pardons Board commuted his sentence to a term of years that 
made Dittrich immediately eligible for parole. Within a month he was out. The 
following year he was arrested and subsequently convicted of sexually 
assaulting a 10-year-old girl. He's back in prison.

That doesn't happen very often, death penalty opponents respond. For the 
10-year-old girl and her family it happened 100 % of the time.

Just as concerning, many of those who are wooing the public with the claim that 
a life sentence is the alternative to the death penalty are themselves 
challenging the legitimacy of life imprisonment. This makes their argument 
disingenuous at best and very nearly fraudulent at worst.

Brian J. Adams was convicted of 1st-degree murder for shooting to death 2 men 
in two separate robberies. He was sentenced to life in prison without the 
possibility of parole. In 2014, Adams sued the state. His lawyers claimed that 
his life-without-parole sentence violated his Nebraska constitutional rights. 
This year the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled against him. Does anyone really 
believe there aren't more such lawsuits awaiting us?

The ACLU's opposition to the death penalty is a given. The ACLU opposed even 
putting the issue on the ballot. But the ACLU also is quietly working to end 
life without parole. For example, the ACLU filed a brief in a case last year 
before the U.S. Supreme Court involving juveniles sentenced to life without 
parole. In the brief, the ACLU directed the court to a study that is critical 
of life sentences altogether - not just for juveniles, but for adult criminals 
also. Ironically, such studies point to the growing number of 
life-without-parole sentences resulting in part from sentencing in states that 
used to have the death penalty but don't any longer.

Getting rid of life without parole is quite plainly the next target. A 
well-funded national group called "The Sentencing Project" wrote a paper in 
2013 essentially calling for the elimination of life without parole. 
Californians will be voting on the death penalty this year also. There, a 
proliferation of voices are arguing that life without parole should be 
abolished too. Law review articles abound. The ACLU is on board. You will not 
be surprised to learn that the challenges to life without parole are remarkably 
similar to the claims being raised against the death penalty.

Often quoted by death penalty opponents, former Nebraska District Court Judge 
Ron Reagan recently intoned, "Let me be perfectly clear about what happens when 
someone is sentenced to life in prison. They die in prison.:

But when he was a judge, and John Joubert, a slayer of young boys, stood before 
him for sentencing, then-Judge Reagan didn't sentence Joubert to life in 
prison. Judge Reagan sentenced John Joubert to death.

(source: Opinion; Bob Evnen is a Lincoln attorney and a co-founder of 
Nebraskans for the Death Penalty----Letter to the Editor, Lincoln Journal Star)

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

Kirk Bloodsworth brings his wrongful conviction, death row life story to 
Nebraska


The 1st U.S. death row inmate to be exonerated based on DNA evidence is in 
Nebraska.

Kirk Bloodsworth was wrongfully convicted for the 1984 rape and murder of a 
nine year old girl in Maryland.

He served 2 years on death row and several more years of a life sentence before 
a DNA test proved his innocence.

"The prosecutors withheld the evidence about the real person, the real killer. 
That is to say, they never went back to check," Bloodsworth tells Nebraska 
Radio Network. "That is a mistake. We make mistakes over and over and over 
again, and at the cost of somebody's life, and we cannot be doing it."

The referendum on the death penalty will ask voters to retain the law that 
repealed it in favor of a life sentence without parole, or if the law 
abolishing capital punishment should be repealed.

Bloodsworth says Nebraskans voting on the issue next week should not make a 
snap decision.

"It could happen to anybody here and I would say, don't let it happen. It's not 
for the guilty people that we want to get rid of the death penalty," he says. 
"It's because of the possibility of executing an innocent person."

Bloodsworth is featured in a TV and radio ad for the anti-death penalty group, 
Retain a Just Nebraska.

(source: Nebraska Radio Network)






CALIFORNIA:

Why I'm voting to keep the death penalty alive in California


After 30 years as a journalist in California, I've come to believe that my 
industry can unintentionally distort the public's understanding of the death 
penalty.

I'm not referring to political distortions rife in the state's initiative 
process as voters consider 2 death penalty measures on the Nov. 8 ballot. (A 
yes on Proposition 62 would repeal the death penalty; a yes on Proposition 66 
would keep it and speed the appeals process and the time it takes to execute 
inmates).

No, I'm referring to distortion by omission in many media accounts of death 
penalty cases. As journalists, we often won't describe the most gruesome 
details because they can violate the rules of decent public discourse.

We are mindful of subscribers reading the paper at their breakfast tables or 
online at their computers at work. So it's unlikely we're going to tell you the 
excruciating ways in which some people on California's death row tortured their 
victims. It's unlikely we're going to tell you exactly how they derived 
emotional or sexual satisfaction from playing god over defenseless children who 
begged for mercy before being killed.

4 years ago, I wrote a column about Michael Lyons, 8, of Yuba City, who was 
killed in 1996 by a convicted sex offender named Robert Boyd Rhoades. I was 
familiar with the Lyons case because I covered it as a reporter.

In the column, I was as graphic as I could possibly be because I wanted readers 
to understand what that case was about as they considered Proposition 34, a 
2012 ballot measure to repeal the death penalty (it eventually was rejected by 
voters).

However, the most distressing details about the torture and killing of that 
young boy were removed from my column by my editors. I don't blame them for 
doing it. There are and should be rules of public discourse.

But what I know about the final hours of Michael Lyons' life has given me 
nightmares for 20 years. I never met Michael, don't know his family, but I've 
cried for that child more than once.

Michael would be in his late 20s if he were alive today. But he's not alive. 
His killer is, though. Rhoades is on death row at San Quentin. Lyons wasn't 
Rhoades' only victim. 12 years before he killed Lyons, Rhoades murdered Julie 
Connell, 18, of San Leandro.

Rhoades abducted Connell as she went to a Hayward park. We know from newspaper 
accounts that Rhoades tied Connell up and raped her before slashing her throat.

During the 2007 murder trial - made possible by DNA evidence linking Rhoades to 
Connell - a San Francisco Chronicle account of the evidence presented to jurors 
adhered to standard media practices when covering acts of violence: "(The 
prosecutor) described the damage to Lyons' body in graphic detail ... just as 
the boy's mother, Sandra Fuller, walked into court and took a seat in the 
gallery."

What was the graphic detail? Readers usually don't get that. Instead, they get 
toned-down descriptions and passive language.

The end result is that murders are described similarly in media accounts when, 
in fact, they are not all similar. They are all different based on the details. 
And the details that we don't provide often are the ones that matter the most 
in cases when prosecutors seek the death penalty.

"These (cases) are the worst of the worst," said McGregor Scott, a former 
Shasta County prosecutor and U.S. attorney.

They are also very rare. State statistics show that less than 2 % of murders in 
California become death penalty cases.

Juries in California don't handle capital punishment cases routinely. A 
defendant must be convicted of 1st-degree murder, and the details of the case 
have to meet a set of "special circumstances," some approved by the Legislature 
and others by voters in previous elections.

Those circumstances include rape and torture. They include killing police 
officers and federal officials. They include killing witnesses to crimes, or 
killing people for a fee. The statute is invoked for people convicted more than 
once of murder.

The argument that innocent people may be put to death is suspect in California. 
Gov. Jerry Brown, a death penalty opponent, said this in 2012 when he was asked 
by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra J. Saunders if he had considered 
appointing a commutation panel for death row inmates: "As attorney general, I 
think the representation was good. I think people have gotten exquisite due 
process in the state of California. ... To think that they've missed anything 
like they have in some other states, I have not seen any evidence of it. None."

No one feels good about the death penalty. So why support it? Because some rare 
cases are that heinous. Because the law always has recognized punishment 
proportional to the crime. Past efforts to abolish the death penalty have 
failed in California, the bluest of states. It happened 4 years ago, and a 
recent USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll showed that more than half of the 
respondents opposed abolishing the death penalty. To be fair, a Field Poll 
showed narrow support for Proposition 62. But the Field Poll showed Proposition 
34 winning by 7 points in 2012 before the measure lost by 4 points on election 
night.

Part of the ambivalence that people feel about the death penalty is because 
endless delays stopped executions years ago and made a punch line of death 
penalty convictions. How would people feel if those delays were addressed?

It's easy for Silicon Valley millionaires to fund the latest effort to repeal 
the death penalty because they - like most of us - are untouched by the horror 
known only by the families whose loved ones were killed in unspeakable crimes. 
It's easy to remain detached from the details of these crimes when they are too 
graphic to be shared publicly.

You have to sit in a courtroom and listen to the evidence in these crimes - and 
to witness the anguish of family members of victims - to truly understand why 
the death penalty can be an appropriate punishment for the worst criminals 
among us.

A yes vote on Proposition 66 will speed up the appeals process and clean up the 
protocols for dispensing lethal injections. If those 2 issues were addressed, 
death penalty cases would not take 25 years to resolve.

You might be wondering what happens if both measures pass? The one with the 
higher vote total becomes law.

I would never presume to tell you how to vote, but I am voting no on 
Proposition 62 and yes on Proposition 66. There are 19 men on death row whose 
legal appeals have all been exhausted. The families of their victims deserve 
justice. And some punishments do fit the crime.

(source: Opinion; Marcus Breton----Sacramento Bee)

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

California prison guards have good reasons to fear death penalty repeal


As correctional peace officers working inside California prisons, we take 
Proposition 62 very personally, because it directly impacts our safety and the 
safety of the inmates we oversee.

Proposition 62 would repeal California's death penalty law, putting inmates and 
correctional officers at serious risk. The Sacramento Bee's editorial board 
supports it ("End the illusion: Abolish the death penalty," Endorsement, Oct. 
9).

But without the death penalty, what would deter an inmate serving life without 
the possibility of parole from killing again inside prison? Another life 
sentence?

In fact, the death penalty is our last line of defense, the one deterrent left 
that could give pause to an inmate with a murderous history who's thinking 
about attacking a correctional officer or fellow inmate.

California's maximum-security prisons can be dangerous places. Most inmates 
have been convicted of numerous felony offenses. Many are hardened criminals 
with gang affiliations and long histories of serious and violent crime. Most 
want to serve their time without incident. But for those who don't, we need the 
death penalty.

Correctional officers are vastly outnumbered. It's sobering to walk across a 
prison yard filled with hundreds of inmates, when all you carry is a baton and 
a can of pepper spray. On average, nine correctional officers are assaulted 
every day. Without the death penalty, this number would likely soar.

The safety of inmates is also jeopardized by Proposition 62. They are also in 
an unpredictable environment in which gang rivalries, anger-management issues 
and growing mental illness are constant threats. They live with inmates who 
have committed horrific crimes of violence, including child murderers, sexual 
killers and serial killers who tortured their victims without mercy. Take away 
the death penalty and the final restraint on them has been lifted.

For those of us on the inside, this isn't a philosophical debate over whether 
the death penalty is morally justified, or a matter of retribution. In our 
world, it's a practical matter of survival. The death penalty helps keep us 
safe.

(source: Opinion; Chuck Alexander is president of the California Correctional 
Peace Officers Association----Sacramento Bee)






USA:

Roof's family asks for privacy during upcoming trial


The family of a white man accused of killing 9 black parishioners at a South 
Carolina church is asking for privacy during his upcoming trial.

Relatives of Dylann Roof said in an email statement Tuesday afternoon they are 
"still in anguish and shock that a member of our family could have committed 
such a terrible, senseless crime" and are "still struggling to understand why 
Dylann caused so much grief and pain to so many good people."

The statement goes on to say Roof's relatives "pray that the Emanuel AME 
families and the Charleston community will find peace."

Roof's federal death penalty trial in the June 2015 shooting is scheduled to 
start later this month. He also faces the death penalty in a state trial set 
for next year.

(source: Associated Press)