[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., FLA., CALIF., WASH., USA, US MIL.

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 4




PENNSYLVANIA:

DA Zappala rescinds intent to seek death penalty in 2013 Duquesne double 
slaying


Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. today rescinded his 
decision to seek the death penalty against a man charged with a 2013 double 
homicide in Duquesne.

The notification about the prosecution's plans for defendant Michael Robinson 
was sent to Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos, who is presiding over the trial 
expected to start Monday.

In his notice to the court, Mr. Zappala writes, "intervening events have caused 
me to reconsider my decision to seek a penalty of death..." He did not 
elaborate in the filing.

Defense attorneys in the case have vigorously attempted to challenge the 
prosecution's DNA evidence and specifically the computer code powering the 
program that authorities say links Mr. Robinson to the slayings.

Prosecutors announced their intention to seek the death penalty in June 2013.

Mr. Robinson is charged with 2 counts of homicide in the May 6, 2013, shooting 
deaths of Lawrence Short, 29, of Clairton and Tyrone Coleman, 18, of Duquesne, 
who were killed on Crawford Avenue in Duquesne.


FLORIDA:

Typo upends Florida Supreme Court's death penalty ruling


Just hours after declaring prosecutors could not seek death sentences under 
existing state law, the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday rescinded the order, 
an uncommon move that casts fresh uncertainty on the state's death penalty.

The reason: A typo.

In a 5-2 ruling Wednesday morning, the court rejected Attorney General Pam 
Bondi's request to let prosecutors seek the death penalty as long as juries 
voted unanimously. The court threw out the state's revamped death sentencing 
law in October because it required only a 10-2 super majority of the jury to 
put someone to death.

Then at 1 p.m., the Supreme Court rescinded the order, saying it was 
"prematurely issued," and deleted it from the court's website.

The Wednesday morning ruling was vacated because of a "clerical error," said 
Craig Waters, a spokesman for the court.

Instead of writing that death penalty laws in section 921.141 of Florida 
Statutes were unconstitutional, the court identified section 941.141 - a 
statute which does not exist.

"It may have simply been a scrivener's error and they wanted to rescind the 
order to correct the scrivener's error," said Rex Dimmig, the public defender 
in Polk, Highlands and Hardee counties. "It could be that simple; it could be 
something more complicated."

Waters did not say if or when the court planned to re-issue the ruling, which 
provided brief clarity for a death penalty system that was in limbo.

After the court ruled in October that juries had to be unanimous to sentence 
someone to death, Bondi and prosecutors said capital trials ought to continue 
but that jurors should be instructed that the rules had changed.

Defense attorneys saw things differently: If the death penalty law was 
unconstitutional, then no one could be sentenced to death, they argued.

That's what the justices decided early Wednesday, writing that the whole 
statute was unconstitutional and "cannot be applied to pending prosecutions."

How the court will act now is uncertain, but it is likely the Legislature will 
rewrite the state's death penalty statutes when they come into session March 7. 
Next week, the House Judiciary Committee will start deliberating on the issue.

Last month, the committee's chairman, Rep. Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, told 
the Times/Herald that rewriting death penalty laws is a priority.

"We have to act," said Sprowls, a former prosecutor. "By the time we conclude 
our business, we have to have a death penalty statute that can be relied upon 
and that's legal, so that victims have access to justice."

(source: miamiherald.com)





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

Florida Supreme Court: Prosecutors can't seek death penalty


Florida's highest court is making it clear the state's current death penalty 
law cannot be applied to people currently awaiting trial for murder.

The Florida Supreme Court Wednesday rejected a request by Attorney General Pam 
Bondi to clarify 2 rulings it made last October.

In a 5-2 decision the court stressed Florida's law "cannot be applied to 
pending prosecutions."

Last fall the court concluded death sentences must require a unanimous jury and 
then struck down a 2016 law that allowed a defendant to be sentenced to death 
as long as 10 of 12 jurors recommended it.

Shortly after that ruling Bondi's senior attorney asked the court to revisit 
its decision to "avoid any potential miscarriage of justice." Bondi's office 
asserted death penalty cases could proceed in Florida as long as juries were 
told they must reach a unanimous decision.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

Accused Huntington Beach Killer Could Face Death Penalty --- A Huntington Beach 
real estate agent accused of killing 2 women and dumping their bodies in 
Newport Beach could face the death penalty.


A Huntington Beach real estate agent was charged on Wednesday with murdering 2 
women and dumping their bodies in a Newport Beach field following a Westminster 
New Year's Eve gathering.

Christopher Ken Ireland, 37, is charged with murdering 2 female acquaintances: 
59-year-old Yolanda Holtrey and her 49-year-old friend and reported co-worker, 
Michelle Luke, both of Huntington Beach. Ireland is also accused of dumping the 
women's bodies in Newport Beach, where they were discovered by authorities.

As of Wednesday Ireland was being held without bail pending his arraignment.

According to charges filed by the Orange County District Attorney's Office, he 
faces 2 counts of murder with a special circumstance allegation of multiple 
murders, which makes him eligible for the death penalty if convicted, as well 
as felony counts of arson and aggravated mayhem.

The motive for the killings remains under investigation, according to 
Westminster Police Cpl. Alan Aoki. The cause of death has not yet been 
determined.

"The three were at a New Year's Eve gathering at Holtrey's home when something 
transpired, we don't know exactly what or why, and the victims were killed," 
said Aoki, who added that all 3 "seemed to be acquaintances."

Orange County Fire Authority personnel responded to a blaze at Holtrey's home 
in the 5000 block of Northwestern Way on New Year's Day. The home's interior 
sustained some fire damage, and investigators suspect the blaze was 
deliberately set, according to Capt. Larry Kurtz of the Orange County Fire 
Authority.

The bodies of both Holtrey and Luke were found on Monday in the weeds near a 
strip mall in Newport Beach, Aoki said.

"Ireland was apprehended at the scene of the fire and investigators collected 
evidence at the home that appeared to link him to the killings," Aoki said.

Court records show that Ireland has no prior criminal record in Orange County.

He is a licensed real estate agent working for Realty One Group Inc. in Rancho 
Cucamonga with no disciplinary actions on his record, according to California 
real estate records. He was first licensed as an agent in August.

The suspect's wife worked with the victims at Stein Mart, according to 
broadcast reports.

Samantha Ireland told NBC4 that the couple attended a New Year's Eve party at 
Holtrey's house and had a good time then went home.

"There were no fights, arguments," she told the station. "I don't remember him 
leaving the house. He doesn't remember anything."

(source: patch.com)






WASHINGTON:

New charges mean Cascade Mall shooting suspect could face death penalty ---- 
Arcan Cetin, 20, is accused of killing 5 people in Macy's department store at 
the Skagit County mall on Sept. 23.


The Oak Harbor man suspected of killing 5 people in a September shooting at 
Cascade Mall in Burlington was charged Wednesday with 5 counts of aggravated 
murder, opening up the possibility that he could face the death penalty.

Arcan Cetin, 20, was initially charged with 5 counts of 1st-degree premeditated 
murder in Skagit District Court. Skagit County prosecutors have transferred the 
case to Superior Court, while updating the charges to aggravated murder.

Cetin will make his 1st appearance under the new charges at a Thursday 
arraignment, authorities said.

Aggravated murder is punishable by either life in prison without parole or the 
death penalty. Skagit County Prosecutor Richard Weyrich said in an email he has 
30 days to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

Last week, Inslee signed a reprieve for Clark Richard Elmore, who had been 
convicted of raping and killing his girlfriend's 14-year-old daughter in 
Bellingham in 1995. Elmore will remain in prison for life. With his legal 
appeals exhausted, his execution had been scheduled for Jan. 19.

The charges filed Wednesday accuse Cetin of walking into Macy's department 
store on Sept. 23 and killing 5 people in about a minute. The documents say he 
used a Ruger .22-caliber rifle with a 25-round magazine.

According to the charges, he opened fire near the Macy's cosmetics counter, 
killing 4 people outright and mortally wounding a 5th before placing the gun on 
a counter and walking out of the store.

Killed were Sarai Lara, 16, of Mount Vernon; Shayla Martin, 52, of Mount 
Vernon; Belinda Galde, 64, and her mother, 95-year-old Beatrice Dotson, both of 
Arlington; and Wilton "Chuck" Eagan, 61, of Lake Stevens.

Cetin, who has a history of bizarre and aggressive behavior according to people 
who knew him, was taken into custody near his Oak Harbor home after a daylong 
manhunt in Skagit and Island counties.

After his arrest, Cetin told detectives he had committed the killings, 
according to the documents, which do not offer a clear motive.

The documents filed Wednesday provide no new details in the shootings.

Cetin was turned away from buying a large-caliber handgun by an Oak Harbor 
gun-shop owner hours before the deadly shooting, investigators confirmed.

Cetin came to the U.S. from Turkey when he was 6, having never met his 
biological father, according to court documents, and is a naturalized U.S. 
citizen. He said his mother's family was abusive while he lived in Turkey, but 
reported a good transition to the U.S., the documents say.

(source: Seattle Times)






USA:

Jury to weigh whether to spare life of carjacking killer


Jurors in the death penalty trial of a man convicted of carjacking and killing 
2 Massachusetts men in 2001 were shown gruesome photos of his victims while a 
prosecutor described how they were stabbed over and over while begging for 
their lives.

Gary Lee Sampson was condemned to die in 2003 for killing Jonathan Rizzo, 19, a 
college student from Kingston, and Philip McCloskey, 69, a retired pipefitter 
from Taunton. But that decision was later overturned by a judge who granted him 
a new sentencing trial in 2011 after finding that 1 juror had lied about her 
background.

Sampson, a drifter from Abington, received a separate life sentence for killing 
a third man, Robert "Eli" Whitney, in New Hampshire.

Sampson, now 57, tricked the carjacking victims into thinking he would spare 
their lives but then stabbed them each more than a dozen times, slit their 
throats and left them to die in the woods, Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary 
Hafer said during closing arguments Wednesday.

As Hafer described the killings - often using Sampson's own words from his 
confession - he displayed grisly crime scene photos. Soft sobbing could be 
heard in the courtroom from some members of the victims' families.

The victims, Hafer said, were "kind, caring souls" who were "brought together 
by the pure heinousness and cruelty" of Sampson's decision to kill them.

"That's what this case is about: these cruel, cruel murders," Hafer said. He 
urged the jury to give Sampson the death penalty.

But defense attorney Michael Burt asked jurors to spare his client's life, 
saying Sampson took responsibility by confessing and pleading guilty to the 
killings.

Sampson is not offering excuses or justification for his crimes, Burt said, but 
is asking only to live a "very narrow and restricted life" in prison without 
the possibility of release.

Sampson's lawyers are asking the jury to consider 115 mitigating factors they 
say support a life sentence rather than the death penalty.

Sampson's lawyers say Sampson suffered head injuries as a child and has 
antisocial personality disorder and severe dyslexia. They also cite a call he 
made to the FBI before the murders because he thought he was "losing control" 
and planned to turn himself in for a string of bank robberies he was wanted for 
in North Carolina. The call was accidentally disconnected.

Hafer told the jury Sampson tricked McCloskey and Rizzo into giving him rides 
by wearing conservative clothes and trying to look like a businessman. "Dressed 
to deceive," Hafer said.

Once inside their cars, Sampson threatened them at knifepoint but promised he 
would not kill them, Hafer said. Sampson forced them to drive to wooded areas, 
then tied them up, still assuring them he would let them live. He even sprayed 
Rizzo with bug spray after tying him to a tree, telling the teenager he was 
protecting him from insects while he waited to be rescued, Hafer said.

Hafer called the defense claims of a traumatic childhood "fiction" and derided 
the testimony of defense experts who said Sampson has a brain injury.

"It truly is the most convenient brain injury you will ever see," Hafer said.

Burt said each juror should consult his or her own conscience to decide whether 
Sampson should receive a life sentence or the death penalty.

"It's about as stark and gray a moral question as anybody could ask any human 
being to decide," Burt said.

The jurors are expected to being deliberations after they receive instructions 
from the judge.

Massachusetts abolished the state death penalty in 1984, but Sampson was 
prosecuted under federal law, which allows prosecutors to seek the death 
penalty when a murder is committed during a carjacking.

(source: WHIG news)






US MILITARY:

Federal, military courts proceed cautiously in Ronald Gray death penalty case


The longest-serving prisoner on the military's death row was facing an imminent 
execution date in 2008. 2 decades after a horrific rape and murder spree on and 
around Ft. Bragg, N.C., that left 4 young women dead and several more injured, 
former Spc. Ronald Gray's military appeals appeared to have been exhausted.

President George W. Bush had approved Gray's execution - to be the 1st in the 
military in more than 50 years - and the Army had selected a December day to 
kill him by lethal injection.

But Gray, 51, still on death row at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., is unlikely to be 
executed any time soon. His case, after languishing in federal court for 8 
years, now is headed back to the military courts.

"I think that process could take some time," said James Cross, a spokesman for 
the Kansas U.S. Attorney's Office, which was prosecuting the case at the 
federal level.

The long-delayed development reflects the confusion among the courts over 
jurisdiction and procedures in what is essentially the 1st military 
death-penalty case "in the modern era," said Robert Dunham, executive director 
of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.

"What made it more complicated here is that nobody knew what the process was 
because it hasn't happened before," Dunham said. "The courts were having a 
problem determining who had to decide what, when."

In 2008, after Gray received his execution date, the U.S. District Court for 
Kansas accepted his habeas corpus petition - usually the final stage of the 
appeals process - and stayed his execution while it reviewed the case.

In the meantime, judges and lawyers retired or moved on; the case moved at a 
glacial pace.

Eventually, in 2015, Judge J. Thomas Marten denied most of Gray's appeal, 
according to court documents. He also dismissed new or "unexhausted" claims 
included in Gray's petition "without prejudice," meaning Gray could refile 
those claims later.

But the 10th Circuit Court concluded that that process was incorrect. Marten 
vacated his judgment.

Federal prosecutors argued for Marten to instead rule entirely against Gray, 
including against the new claims, which they said were either without merit or 
procedurally barred.

They pointed out that in 2012 the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces had 
declined to review Gray's new claims.

But that court's ruling, also "without prejudice," appeared to have "left open 
the door for (Gray) to present these claims to the military courts again upon 
learning what this court would do," Marten wrote.

As a result, Marten dismissed Gray's entire habeas corpus petition without 
prejudice 2 months ago.

The additional delay was "regrettable," he wrote, but would "avoid injecting 
unnecessary procedural error that would only further delay final disposition."

Gray has previously argued in appellate filings that his trial lawyer was 
ineffective, that he lacked the mental capacity to stand trial and that the 
military did not have jurisdiction over him. It's not clear what the petition 
his lawyers are filing to the Army court will claim.

Last month, Marten lifted Gray's stay of execution and denied Gray's request 
for a new stay, saying that with the case dismissal he no longer had 
jurisdiction.

Army officials could not be reached for comment on whether they planned to set 
a new execution date.

Before Gray's, no military death sentences had been presidentially approved, as 
the law requires, since 1957, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower affirmed a 
condemned soldier's death.

Pvt. John Bennett, who had raped an 11-year-old girl then tried to drown her, 
was hanged at Ft. Leavenworth in 1961.

Since then, statutes, procedures and conventions regarding the death penalty 
have undergone numerous, significant changes. Bennett, for example, would 
almost certainly not be executed today: In 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 
that the death penalty for the rape of a child violated the constitutional 
protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

Since 1984, 11 men sentenced to death at courts-martial have had their death 
sentences overturned because of problems with their trials, according to the 
Death Penalty Information Center.

Most recently, in 2012, the death sentence of former Marine Lance Cpl. Kenneth 
Parker was set aside by the Navy-Marine Corps appellate court nearly 2 decades 
after he was sentenced for 2 murders in North Carolina.

The court found "numerous and substantive procedural and legal failures at 
trial." The Navy hasn't executed anyone since 1849.

5 men besides Gray remain on the military's death row.

The Armed Forces appeals court recently overturned an Air Force appellate court 
decision upholding airman Andrew Witt's death sentence for the murders of a 
fellow airman and his wife in 2004. Witt is scheduled to have a new sentencing 
hearing.


(source: stripes.com)