[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----IND., OKLA., ARIZ., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

June 27




INDIANA:

Boone County prosecutor may seek death penalty against homicide suspect


A 19-year-old was charged with murder, attempted murder and 21 additional 
charges Monday in connection to the fatal stabbing that left 1 man dead and his 
wife seriously injured.

The Boone County prosecutor also announced he is considering seeking the death 
penalty in the case, which he called "everyone's worst nightmare" and 
"horrific." The aggrevators that make the case eligible for the death penalty 
include the charges of burglary, arson and rape, County Prosecutor Todd Meyer 
said.

Zachariah Wright is charged with the murder of 73-year-old Max Foster and the 
attempted murder his wife, Sonja Foster, on June 18. The couple had been 
together nearly 50 years, an investigator said.

Other charges recently filed include burglary, sexual battery of Sonja, 
attempted arson in trying to light her on fire, and the theft of knives in the 
Foster home, the prosecutor said.

The prosecutor said DNA evidence helped link Wright to the murder and attempted 
murder. A pair of jeans discovered at the home Wright was living in tested 
positive for blood linked to the Fosters.

"This criminal episode really began when the defendant left work and headed 
back to the home he was staying in. Along the way, he started engaging in 
criminal activity," Meyer said.

Wright first stole a pickax and other items in the city's Pearl Street area, 
and then more items from a car in the same area, the prosecutor said. Those 
items were found in the home where Wright was staying.

Later, he rode a bicycle to the Dicks Street area, where the homicide and 
attempted murder occurred, Meyer said.

He also tried to break into another home in the Pearl street area, the 
prosecutor said.

Wright was apprehended June 18 as a person of interest. His initial hearing 
should be Tuesday morning or early afternoon, Meyer said.

Max Foster's funeral was on Saturday.

The Fosters' family issued this statement:

On June 18th, 2017 our family and the entire city of Lebanon was rocked with 
the news of the home invasion and viscous attack of Max and Sonja Foster. As a 
result of one man's senseless actions, Max Foster was taken from us early on 
Father's Day morning. Sonja was left scarred and without her life partner of 
almost 50 years. Within hours of the crime, a multiagency effort resulted in 
the arrest of Zachariah Wright. A diligent and comprehensive investigation 
ensued and we were kept in the loop every step of the way. We are so thankful 
for the relentless efforts of Detectives Tony Bayles, Amy Dickerson and Jeff 
Nelson along with all law enforcement who assisted and brought us to this 
point. Also, we would like to thank Prosecutor Todd Meyer and his office for 
their diligence and the comfort they provided to us throughout the week. We 
take much solace knowing the right person is behind bars and will suffer the 
consequences of his actions. We would also like to thank the entire Lebanon 
community for their tremendous love and support during this extremely difficult 
time. As we move forward we ask for continued peace in our community, prayers 
and respectfully ask for privacy while we continue to cope with the loss of 
Max.

Respectfully,

The Foster family"

(source: WISH news)

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

Wright could face death penalty in Foster slaying


Zachariah Wright, 19, could face the death penalty for the Father's Day slaying 
of a Lebanon man.

Wright was charged Monday with murder and 22 other crimes, 15 of them felonies, 
Prosecutor Todd Meyer said at a news conference.

Wright was charged with the death of Robert Maxwell "Max" Foster, 73, and the 
attempted murder of his spouse, Sonja Foster, 68, at their West Dicks Street, 
Lebanon, home.

Wright is expected to be arraigned today in Superior Court I. Wright, 
interviewed June 19 at the Boone County Jail, denied involvement in the attack 
on the Fosters and a nearby burglary. Detectives had interviewed Wright as a 
suspect in the burglary, but were about to release him. A routine urine test, 
however, found Wright had been drinking - a violation of his probation in a 
2016 burglary conviction.

In a statement read by LPD Officer Justin Fuston, the Foster family thanked 
police for conducting "a diligent and comprehensive investigation."

"We take much solace knowing that the right person is behind bars," the family 
said. "We ask for privacy as we cope with the loss of Max."

It will be months before a decision is made on whether he will ask that Wright 
be executed for the crimes, Meyer said. He will review that decision with the 
Capital Litigation Committee of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council.

Max Foster died at the scene of multiple stab wounds to the head, chest and 
back. Mrs. Foster suffered a severe laceration to the face.

Both of the Fosters fought with Wright after he surprised them in their bedroom 
as they slept, Lebanon Police Det. Tony Bayles said in the probable cause 
affidavit.

Next to Foster's body, police found a serrated kitchen knife that had been bent 
90 degrees, Bayles said. Four other knives believed to have been used in the 
attacks were found throughout the home.

Mrs. Foster told LPD Det. Amy Dickerson that she awoke to see a man who was 
carrying a knife standing at the bedroom door; the man walked to the bed and 
began stabbing her husband, she said.

Both of the Fosters fought with that man, Bayles said in his probable cause 
affidavit.

During the fight, Mrs. Foster bit the suspect on the forearm and hit him with a 
baseball bat, Bayles said.

"The male followed Max and was stabbing him in the back," Bayles said Mrs. 
Foster told Dickerson.

After subduing Foster, the suspect exposed himself to her, Mrs. Foster said - 
she kicked him in the groin, she told Dickerson - and he asked whether she had 
any duct tape.

Eluding the suspect by telling him duct tape was in the garage, Mrs. Foster ran 
out the front door. But the suspect followed her, knocking her down and trying 
to set her nightgown on fire with a lighter. Fighting him off, she fled to a 
neighbor's home; the suspect ran south.

"This case is everybody's worst nightmare, being awakened in your home with a 
stranger armed with a deadly weapon," Meyer said.

"Investigators are confident this was a random act of violence," LPD Sgt. Ben 
Phelps said.

DNA from both the Fosters was found on a pair of jeans in a South East Street 
apartment that Wright had been renting, Meyer said. Wright???s wallet was found 
in the jeans, Bayles said in his affidavit. Other evidence was collected that 
investigators believe tie Wright to Foster's death.

Multiple witnesses contacted police with tips leading to Wright, Meyer said.

The Indiana State Police Crime Lab rushed the processing of evidence that 
helped tie Wright to the murder scene, Meyer said.

There is no evidence to believe that Wright was intoxicated, Meyer said.

Wright is also charged with attempted murder, attempted rape and 2 counts of 
burglary, all as level 1 felonies, level 3 felony aggravated battery and 
criminal confinement, level 2 felony attempted burglary, level 4 felony sexual 
battery and attempted arson, 9 counts of level 6 felony theft, level 6 felony 
obstruction of justice, class A misdemeanor unauthorized entry of a motor 
vehicle and class B misdemeanor false informing.

If convicted of murder, Wright faces 45 to 65 years in prison. A level 1 felony 
term is 20 to 40 years.

(source: reporter.net)






OKLAHOMA:

Federal appeals court reverses death sentence for convicted Oklahoma killer


A 3 judge panel for the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit 
has reversed part of the sentence for a convicted killer in Oklahoma.

James Pavatt was sentenced to death for the 2001 murder of Rob Andrew, an 
Oklahoma City advertising executive.

Rob was gunned down in the garage of his Oklahoma City home as he was picking 
up his 2 kids for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Rob and his wife, Brenda Andrew, were separated at the time of his death.

Prosecutors said Brenda and Pavatt killed Rob for the insurance money, and both 
were sentenced to death for the murder.

In order to receive the death penalty, the state must prove at least 1 
aggravating circumstance.

In Pavatt's case, they alleged the crime was heinous, atrocious or cruel.

However, not everyone agrees.

Earlier this month, the federal appeals court found the state did not prove 1 
of the aggravating factors for the death penalty in Pavatt's case.

"What they basically found was that the state did not or the Court of Criminal 
Appeals did not find the especially heinous, atrocious and cruel aggravator in 
a way to sufficiently narrow it to warrant the death penalty," said Jennifer 
Miller, deputy of the Criminal Appeals Division for the Oklahoma Attorney 
General's Office.

In fact, the 3 judge panel said the "supporting evidence is slim" for the crime 
to be ruled as especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.

They pointed out the medical examiner "said only that Mr. Andrew could have 
experienced pain while dying."

The judges also focused on the 911 call Brenda made, in which she said Rob was 
still breathing and trying to talk to her.

"She did not mention any sign of suffering or pain," the decision read.

"You have to have conscious physical suffering or mental torture, and what we 
had in this case really was both," Miller said.

The Oklahoma Attorney General's Office has appealed the decision, asking for a 
hearing before the full appeals court.

"We've gone through a lot of the appeal process, and then to have this decision 
is very disappointing," Miller said.

Local defense attorney David McKenzie, though, said it's very important to have 
this kind of scrutiny in all convictions.

"They want to make sure that all the t's are crossed and the I's dotted before 
they put somebody in the death chamber and take their life," McKenzie said.

There are still several steps before Pavatt's death sentence could be 
overturned.

If the 3 judge panel's decision stands, it could mean a new sentencing trial 
for Pavatt.

Mike Arnett represented Pavatt in his trial. He said they would have preferred 
the appeals court reverse the entire case but they are happy and pleased with 
the decision.

(source: KFOR news)






ARIZONA----female faces death penalty

Phoenix woman convicted in death of young cousin


An Arizona woman has been convicted of 1st-degree murder in the 2011 death of 
her 10-year-old cousin who was locked in a small plastic storage box.

A Maricopa County Superior Court jury returned a guilty verdict Monday in the 
trial of Sammantha Allen after only a few hours of deliberations.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

Why Constitution-Loving Californians Will Continue the Fight against Capital 
Punishment


Pro-death penalty zealots, special interest groups, and prosecutors hell-bent 
on political gain - including a prosecutor accused of lying under oath during a 
murder prosecution, another profiled by the BBC because of his infatuation with 
the death penalty, and of course, Mark Peterson, the Contra Costa district 
attorney forced to resign this month after pleading no contest to felony 
perjury - promised voters that under Prop 66, death row inmates would have just 
5 years to appeal their convictions.

"Hogwash," I wrote, and still maintain; "Prop 66 won't fool Californians." 
Because, as many of our regretful, "woke" citizens are realizing post-election, 
unlike carpenter James Wilson Marshall's historic discovery of gold at the base 
of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 1848, Prop 66's promised turbo-charging of 
California's machinery of death is 24 carat "fool's gold."

But this is not strictly an "I told you so" column despite the fact that 
several judges on California's highest court recently indicated that they too 
believe Prop 66 usurps the judiciary's authority to decide the complex, life 
and death issues at stake in death penalty litigation. And there's no need to 
rehash the indisputable truth that: there are not enough willing and qualified 
death penalty lawyers in California - and they don't grow on trees; Prop 66, 
and the death penalty generally, exact a horribly inhumane and unjust toll on 
the children of the condemned; Prop 66's death penalty deterrence argument is 
pure shibboleth; unacceptable racial bias persists in capital punishment as 
illustrated by the environmental disaster in Flint, Michigan; Prop 62, the 
opposing ballot initiative that would have ended capital punishment forever in 
our state, appeals to the better nature of our angels and could have marked the 
progress of a maturing society for conscientious Californians; or, finally, 
that California could have tipped the balance in the national debate on the 
death penalty.

Instead, this column affirms that despite last fall's bamboozled vote approving 
Prop 66 by the barest margin, on human rights, California is still better than 
Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, and Texas! We understand executions are 
hardly an exact science. That's a major reason they've been stalled so long in 
the Golden State. And it's also why, in addition to the substantive legal 
challenges jeopardizing Prop 66, they're not slated to start again anytime 
soon.

Californians simply aren't quick to torture citizens to death and cover it up - 
like in North Korea or in other parts of the United States even. Yup, that's 
right, I'm talking about you Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Arizona, and you 
abominable others too (as alluded to above, when it comes to the death penalty, 
as with mostly everything else, "don't mess with Texas!").

Civilized, peaceful, fiscally savvy, state and federal constitution-loving 
Californians know we can't afford 18 executions all at once, which is, at a 
minimum, the number of inmates out of appeals and immediately eligible to be 
put to death. Californians don't want our courts paralyzed and rendered 
completely dysfunctional due to Prop 66 and the emotionally draining, morally 
bankrupt, money-sucking demands necessitated by the death penalty. Rather, we 
need every scarce resource available to fund the entirety of California's 
justice system - civil, criminal, administrative, etcetera - not to mention our 
state government, our health care system, our school system, and many other 
things affecting large swaths of the population.

In fact, here in California, we need every penny of the millions of dollars we 
routinely chuck out chasing lethal vengeance. We need that money, manpower, and 
precious moral credibility that is lost through state-sanctioned murder. We 
need it to invest in our children, our fragile economy, and our threatened 
environment.

It's long past time we ended capital punishment in California. We should have 
done it on November 8, but we can't give up the fight. For as the incomparable 
civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., counseled, "the time is 
always right to do what is right."

(source: Stephen Cooper is a former D.C. public defender who worked as an 
assistant federal public defender in Alabama between 2012 and 2015---- 
citywatchla.com)

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

Modesto man accused of killing wife, her 2 sons enters plea


A Modesto man accused of beating his wife and her 2 sons to death with a 
baseball bat pleaded not guilty to murder charges, which could have him facing 
the death penalty if convicted.

The case against Oscar Daniel Espinoza, 28, is eligible for the death penalty. 
Deputy District Attorney Blythe Harris on Monday told the Stanislaus Superior 
Court Judge Ricardo Cordova that prosecutors have not decided whether they will 
seek the death penalty.

Deputy Public Defender Maureen Keller entered the not guilty plea on Espinoza's 
behalf. The defense attorney also denied enhancements added to the 3 counts of 
murder in the deaths of Espinoza's wife, Tiffany Espinoza, their son Edward 
Espinoza, 4, and his stepson Spencer Giese, 9.

The 30-year-old mother and her children were found dead shortly after 7 p.m. on 
June 17 at their home in the 1600 block of Bay Meadows Drive in north Modesto. 
Espinoza was found outside the home with what appeared to be self-inflicted 
wounds.

Oscar Espinoza was hospitalized and treated for his injuries before he was 
booked at the county jail last week. Espinoza did not appear in court Friday 
for his arraignment after being evaluated by a mental health expert. The 
defense attorney on Friday told the judge Espinoza needed to be in a safety 
cell at the jail.

There was no discussion in court about Espinoza's mental health status during 
his first courtroom appearance Monday afternoon. Keller told the judge she 
needed time to review the prosecution???s evidence against her client.

Cordova scheduled a pretrial hearing for Espinoza on July 10. In that hearing, 
the judge will consider whether to set a bail amount for Espinoza. For now, the 
defendant will remain in custody.

6 bailiffs were in the courtroom providing security during the 10-minute 
arraignment hearing. Several members of the victims' family attended Monday's 
hearing. Matthew Page, who is married to Tiffany Espinoza's sister and has 
spoken on behalf of his family, declined to comment after the arraignment.

Espinoza entered the courtroom wearing a red-and-white jail inmate jumpsuit 
with shackles on his wrists and ankles. He sat calmly next to his attorney and 
answered the judge's questions about whether his correct name and age appeared 
on the criminal complaint filed against him.

The criminal complaint includes enhancements that allege Espinoza acted with 
premeditation and used a baseball bat in the deaths of his wife and the 2 boys. 
A special circumstance allegation in the complaint makes the case eligible for 
the death penalty.

Police found the victims after 2 visits to their home. Tiffany Espinoza's 
family had not heard from her for about 24 hours, so they asked police to check 
on her. Modesto police went to her home about 6:30 p.m. June 17, but nobody 
answered the door. About 30 minutes later, officers returned to the home after 
receiving a report there was a bloodied man on the front porch and others 
possibly injured inside.

Police officials have said the attack on the 3 victims occurred on the night of 
June 16 or the early morning hours of June 17, based on evidence at the scene.

(source: modbee.com)






USA:

Federal government will not appeal vacated death sentence of cop killer Ronell 
Wilson


Convicted cop killer Ronell Wilson will likely spend the rest of his life in 
prison after the Department of Justice announced Monday that it will not appeal 
a judge's decision to vacate his death sentence.,P> "After further 
consideration of all the pertinent legal issues, the government has decided not 
to pursue an appeal of the district court's finding that Ronell Wilson was 
intellectually disabled," a statement from the DOJ read.

In March 2016, District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis, of Brooklyn Federal Court, 
vacated Wilson's July 2013 death sentence ruling that the U.S. Constitution 
"forbids the execution of intellectually disabled persons."

"The court finds that Wilson has demonstrated significant defects in adaptive 
functioning and he therefore meets the legal standard for proving intellectual 
disability," Garaufis wrote in a 76-page decision. "Accordingly, Wilson is 
ineligible to receive the death sentence that has been imposed on him.

Wilson, now 35, was convicted in December 2006 in front of the same judge for 
the execution style-murder of undercover NYPD Detectives James Nemorin, 36, and 
Rodney Andrews, 34.

Juries sentenced the former Stapleton gang member to death twice -- once in 
January 2007, and again in 2013 -- for the double slaying that happened after a 
gun buy-and-bust operation gone wrong.

Garaufis ruled in 2013 that Wilson was not mentally incapacitated, but was 
ordered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to reconsider his 
decision.

Wilson's lawyers contended he was mentally impaired as evidenced by his low IQ 
and his severe emotional and behavioral problems while growing up.

In a landmark 2002 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court found that executing those 
with mental retardation violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and 
unusual punishments. Such persons typically have an IQ below 70.

The DOJ said in its statement that its decision to not appeal does not change 
its view "that it was proper to seek the death penalty against Wilson."

"Nor does it lessen the culpability of Wilson, whose conviction was upheld on 
appeal, for his cold-blooded execution of Detectives Nemorin and Andrews.

They expressed sympathy to the detectives' families, and their fellow officers.

"Detectives James Nemorin and Rodney J. Andrews made the ultimate sacrifice in 
protecting and serving this city and we extend our deepest sympathies to their 
families as well as to the members of the New York City Police Department, who 
honor and mourn the loss of their colleagues," the statement read.

(source: Staten Island Advance)