[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----VA., FLA., NEV., ARIZ., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

March 26



VIRGINIA:

Virginia made conditions on death row better. The state is still being sued.


For over a year now, prisoners on Virginia's death row have been allowed to 
shower daily, instead of 3 times a week. They can see their families weekly 
without a glass partition, and they get daily indoor or outdoor recreation.

Those changes were made in response to a lawsuit arguing that the isolated 
conditions on the state's death row are unconstitutional cruel and unusual 
punishment. But a federal court ruled Friday that the concessions don't let the 
state off the hook. The lawsuit will continue.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema was convinced last year that the lawsuit 
was moot, noting that the Department of Corrections had spent nearly $2 million 
upgrading the death row facilities.

A 3-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed.

"Defendants have refused to commit to keep the revised policies in place and 
not revert to the challenged practices," they wrote.

Now, the state prison system will have to go back to court if an agreement 
cannot be reached. Attorney Victor Glasberg, who represents the plaintiffs, 
says they hope to reach an agreement with government officials.

"In most cases like this the government agrees to some kind of consent decree 
or a settlement," said David Rudovsky, a civil rights lawyer who teaches at the 
University of Pennsylvania Law School. "It's just a case where I think the 
district court made an error in giving too much credence to the defendants."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia celebrated the ruling, saying in 
a statement that "temporary relief of harsh, inhumane conditions in a state 
prison is not enough to cast aside a legal claim of unconstitutional 
treatment."

The state Department of Corrections declined to comment and the attorney 
general's office did not immediately return a request for comment.

Under the old policies, prisoners slated for execution spent about 23 hours a 
day alone in a 71-square foot prison cell and could see visitors only through a 
plexiglass wall. For 1 hour a day, 5 days a week, they were taken to an equally 
small "outdoor cell" with a concrete floor and no exercise equipment. They were 
barred from the recreational facilities used by other inmates.

Now, the 6 death row prisoners at Sussex I State Prison in Waverly, Va., have 
their own yard with a basketball court and stationary exercise equipment, as 
well as an indoor recreation room with books and movies.

However, officials refused to come to a formal agreement mandating the changes 
stay in place.

"Things might change in the future," Assistant Attorney General Margaret Anne 
O'Shea argued in court earlier last year. "If there's an attempted escape next 
month, the department might need to temporarily go back on lockdown status."

The state had previously argued that isolation was necessary to keep the death 
row inmates from plotting escape or creating other conflicts. All 6 men 
awaiting execution in Virginia were convicted of murder.

A separate case challenged Virginia's solitary confinement of death row 
prisoners on due process grounds. The case died with the execution of the man 
who brought it, Alfredo Prieto, in 2015.

(source: Associated Press)






FLORIDA:

Florida NAACP held press conference about death penalty


The NAACP Florida state conference leaders are having a press conference 
Saturday morning to discuss Governor Rick Scott's decision about State Attorney 
Aramis Ayala and her stance about death penalty cases.

"The NAACP stands fully behind State Attorney Aramis Ayala decision not to seek 
the death penalty in future cases. The overwhelming evidence shows that the 
pursuit of the death penalty results in community resources being spent on a 
costly, unnecessary, fallible, and racially-biased punishment," said Adora Obi 
Nweze, NAACP Florida State Conference President. "With 26 death row exonerees, 
Florida leads the nation in the number of innocent people freed from death row 
and it's time to shine a light on this critical issue."

The press conference is scheduled to be heald during the NAACP Florida State 
Conference spring meeting in Orlando.

(source: Fox News)

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

The price of revenge is much too high


Editor: TV news reporters and advocates for the death penalty usually say that 
it will "help the family get closure." Speaking from experience, closure should 
happen when the coffin lid is shut.

When I was 17, my twin sister was killed when she resisted a purse snatching. 
She was dead and gone before anyone expected it. She could have died in a car 
accident, while serving in the armed forces, in a landslide or, due to cancer, 
and we would have been just as devastated.

The difference was, she held tightly to her purse, he flipped out and started 
beating her and she died from the injuries. Had she released her purse and run 
in the other direction, she would still be here. The crime of purse snatching 
turned into 2nd-degree murder.

It was not premeditated (1st degree). He didn't plan to murder anyone that day, 
and she didn't plan to die that day. The dollar he got out of her purse cost 
him his entire adult life, as well as hers.

She didn't know him, nor did he know her. He was 26 years old at the time and 
on parole for ridiculously petty crimes (breaking into a cigarette vending 
machine, other purse snatchings). He had been discharged early from the Navy 
(not honorably or dishonorable, just discharged). He had held one job, and it 
amounted to keeping the roadsides clear of dead animals and other debris. 
Mostly he was in and out of jail.

According to the FBI, this type of murder is what happens in about 44 % of 
murder cases (victim and offender don't know each other).

In most murder cases, the victim and offender actually know each other and 
often they are from the same family. These are usually crimes of passion and 
the offender is usually in a blind rage.

What a lot of people don't understand is that it costs so much more to send a 
person to death row. Florida would save $51 million each year by punishing all 
first-degree murderers with life in prison without parole. Based on the 44 
executions Florida has carried out since 1976, that amounts to an approximate 
cost of $24 million for each execution.

Imagine what we could do with $51 million a year to provide anger management 
and family counseling, job creation/training, and

The argument that the death penalty deters murder is easily squashed when 
statistics are looked at (it doesn't deter murder).

So, back to the "closure" argument. A few years ago, after spending his entire 
adult life in jail, he died there. When I knew that he was dead, I didn't feel 
the hole in my heart fill and I didn't have my sister back. She didn't get an 
opportunity to life her life either.

"Trying to get a family closure" is a nice way to say "revenge." And when you 
seek revenge, it's like drinking poison and hoping the object of your revenge 
dies. Revenge doesn't heal. And it looks like Florida spends an awful lot of 
money on revenge.

Even before my sister's life was taken, I've been against allowing the state to 
kill in my name by executing prisoners. I've always been against being the only 
First World country to have the death penalty. This punishment is one we share 
with China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, as well as countries in Africa.

Applying a sentence of life-without-parole (zero chance of parole), instead of 
the death penalty will bring us in line with the world's more civilized 
countries, ease the hearts of peaceful people who don't want to execute others 
- even by proxy - and free up monies that could be used for the greater good.

Sandra "Sam" Williams

St. Augustine

(source: Guest Editorial, St. Augustine Record)

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

In a Florida death-penalty case, the governor leads the mob against the rule of 
law


State Attorney Aramis Ayala is an elected official. If the voters dislike her 
decision to not seek the death penalty, they have the means to hold her 
accountable for it. Instead, Gov. Rick Scott imposes his office, supersedes her 
will and tramples upon the separation of powers.

It's a scene you've seen a hundred times.

The angry rabble advances on the jail, meaning to seize the prisoner and hang 
him from the nearest tree. The sheriff, a lone defender of the rule of law, 
stands them off, refusing to give in to the mob's demand for extralegal 
justice.

Granted, no one is storming the Orange County, Florida, lockup where Markeith 
Loyd sits waiting for trial on charges of killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend 
and an Orlando police officer. But in at least one respect, what is happening 
in Central Florida mirrors that movie cliche absolutely.

The mob wants blood. Somebody has told them No. And they are not happy about 
it.

Chief among the unhappy is the governor, Rick Scott. In a stunning move, he 
recently removed State Attorney Aramis Ayala from the case after she announced 
she would not seek the death penalty against Loyd - or any other defendant.

It was an exercise of brute executive force alarming enough that last week 
nearly 140 legal professionals signed their names to a letter declaring 
themselves "deeply troubled" by it. Donna Coker of the University of Miami 
School of Law; Gerald Kogan, former chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court; 
Karl Racine, attorney general of Washington, D.C.; and Gil Garcetti, former Los 
Angeles County district attorney, are among those accusing the governor of an 
action that "infringes on the vitally important independence of prosecutors 
(and) exceeds your authority."

Scott, they said, has set "a dangerous precedent. The governor picking and 
choosing how criminal cases are prosecuted, charged or handled in local matters 
is troubling as a matter of policy and practice."

People will want to make this a referendum on the heinousness of Loyd's alleged 
crime. It isn't.

People will also want to make this a referendum on the death penalty. It isn't 
that, either.

Ayala, yes, has a philosophical opposition to capital punishment. Many of us 
do. It is worth noting, though, that a number of her defenders support the 
death penalty and disagree with her decision. Yet they are still in her corner.

Because death is not the issue here. No, the issue is whether we shall have law 
or the mob.

The tenor of the latter may be inferred from a Facebook post by a Seminole 
County bureaucrat who wrote that Ayala "should be tarred and feathered if not 
hung from a tree" for her refusal. Stan McCullars, who later deleted that post, 
was placed on administrative leave and ultimately resigned. Given that Ayala is 
the 1st African-American state attorney in Florida history, his threat carries 
a terrible resonance.

It's arguably more noteworthy, however, for what it says about the mind of the 
mob. They want - no, they demand - blood and they will not be denied. Which is 
human, maybe even understandable. But it's also inimical to justice.

That's why we construct the machinery of law, to temper and constrain the 
passions of the moment. We trade the visceral satisfaction of ripping the limbs 
off some accused child rapist for rules that protect us - particularly the 
wrongly accused among us - from just that sort of misguided rage.

Ayala is an elected official. If the voters dislike her decision, they have the 
means to hold her accountable for it. Instead, the governor imposes his office, 
supersedes her will and tramples upon the separation of powers.

Those who can't see beyond their own fury are surely pleased. The rest of us 
can only be appalled.

The law exists to protect us from the mob. But that's hard to do when the 
governor is leading it.

(source: Opinion; Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald)






NEVADA:

Fate of death penalty set to heat up in Nevada Legislatureimg


The death penalty may be ending in Nevada.Assembly Bill 237 in the Legislature 
would ban capital punishment and commute the sentences of inmates on death row 
to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Supporters of the move say the time is right to end the death penalty in 
Nevada. The state has been unable to find a company to provide the cocktail of 
drugs needed for lethal injection, making it impossible to administer the 
punishment. Meanwhile, a death chamber that the state finished last year 
remains unused.

"I feel like now we can show it is a burden to the taxpayers," said Assemblyman 
James Ohrenschall, D-Las Vegas. He's sponsoring the bill with Sen. Tick 
Segerblom, D-Las Vegas.

Prosecutors say that the death penalty is an important option that should be 
available for heinous crimes, and that cases are carefully reviewed before 
deciding to seek the death penalty.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee will hear the bill Wednesday.

If it is enacted, Nevada would join 19 other states that have no death penalty. 
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, governors in 4 of the 31 
states with a death penalty have imposed a moratorium on the punishment.

DEATH PENALTY HISTORY

Even before last year, when Nevada found itself without the drugs needed for 
execution, imposing the sentence has been relatively rare since it was 
reinstated in the state in 1977. There are currently 82 inmates with death 
sentences, including Javier Righetti, who was sentenced Tuesday for the rape 
and murder of Alyssa Otremba.

The death penalty in Nevada only applies to 1st-degree murder convictions with 
aggravating circumstances, such as those involving a child, torturing a victim 
or committing the murder during a robbery or kidnapping.

About 160 defendants have received the death sentence in Nevada in the last 4 
decades, but only 12 of those have been executed. 11 volunteered to be 
executed, opting not to pursue further appeals.

All the others have either died in prison or had their death sentences 
overturned and been re-sentenced. In one case, Clark County awarded Roberto 
Miranda, who was on death row for 14 years, $5 million after a judge ordered a 
new trial because of a poor defense, and prosecutors opted not to try the case 
again.

Nevada Department of Corrections officials sent out 247 requests for proposals 
last year after its stockpile of at least 1 drug used in executions had 
expired.

No responses were received. Spokeswoman Brooke Keast said the department is 
still exploring options, but it is unclear what those options are.

The last execution in Nevada occurred at the Nevada State Prison on April 26, 
2006, when Daryl Mack was put to death. Mack was executed for the rape and 
murder of a Reno woman, Betty Jane May, in 1988.

The 2015 Legislature approved nearly $860,000 for a new execution chamber at 
the Ely State Prison, which houses Nevada's death row population.

ARGUMENTS AGAINST DEATH PENALTY

People sometimes have the misperception that it saves money to sentence 
defendants to death rather than incarcerating them for life, said Anthony Sgro, 
an attorney who handles death penalty cases.

But it's more costly to house inmates on death row, where they are isolated and 
can spend many years as the case goes through the appeals process, he said.

"Could the money not be better spent on something such as education or mental 
health or any of the programs that have been cut in the last decade?" Sgro 
asked.

A 2014 state audit found a death penalty case costs about $1.3 million. A 
murder case that does not involve the death penalty costs about $775,000, which 
includes defense fees and incarceration costs from arrest through the end an 
inmate's incarceration.

"It is hard for me to think of a bigger waste of Nevada's resources than 
pursuing a death penalty we can't enforce," said Scott Coffee, an attorney in 
the Clark County Public Defender's Office.

In death penalty cases, defendants get 2 attorneys instead of 1. Because most 
defendants cannot afford their own legal counsel, that means taxpayers shoulder 
the cost of defending someone staring down a possible death sentence.

"It is less expensive to try a case non-capital and get a sentence of life 
without parole than it is to file a death notice and negotiate the case," 
Coffee said.

Other costs come into the equation, too.Death penalty cases require hiring 
experts and evaluating a defendant for potential mitigating factors such as 
intellectual disability, he said.

"In a capital case, I am required to investigate somebody's entire life 
history, and that is extremely expensive," Coffee said.

ARGUMENTS FOR DEATH PENALTY

The 17 district attorneys in Nevada are unanimous in wanting to keep the death 
penalty as an option.

"Here in Washoe County and throughout our state, we're all believers in the 
death penalty, provided we use it sparingly and judiciously," said Chris Hicks, 
Washoe County district attorney and president of the Nevada District Attorneys 
Association.Washoe County has sought and received the death penalty twice in 
the last decade. Since the late 1970s, Washoe County has sought the death 
penalty on only 3 % of homicide cases, he said.

The costs, Hicks said, are a "minimal factor," because the death penalty is 
reserved for the very worst offenders.

"When you make the cost argument, people always need to remember you cannot put 
a price on a victim's life and a price on justice," Hicks said.

Juries, not prosecutors, make the final decision on whether an inmate receives 
the death sentence.

"Certainly, the death penalty is not appropriate in every case," said 
Christopher Lalli, an assistant prosecutor with the Clark County district 
attorney's office. "In some cases, it's important to give the jury the option 
to impose death as the possible sentence.

"In certain cases, he said, the death penalty is the most appropriate sentence.

"The truth of the matter is, I'm not sure there is a whole lot of closure for 
people whose loved ones have suffered a violent death," Lalli said. "It's more 
about what is the appropriate punishment for somebody who commits a crime so 
terrible, so heinous, so depraved that any punishment short of death would 
simply be insufficient."

(source: Las Vegas Review-Journal)






ARIZONA:

Maricopa County runs out of death-penalty defense attorneys


The Maricopa County Attorney's Office has not obtained a death penalty in a 
capital murder case since November 2015 - but it's not for lack of trying.

>From July 1, 2014, until now, the office has "resolved" 35 cases in which it 
filed a notice to seek the death penalty. In only 6 of those were death 
sentences ultimately imposed at trial.

In the past 2 fiscal years, the County Attorney's Office has filed more death 
penalty cases than it has resolved. And by January, there were so many 
potential capital cases that the county ran out of specialized attorneys to 
defend them.

As word of the shortage leaked to the press, Maricopa County Attorney Bill 
Montgomery, who makes the ultimate decision whether to seek the death penalty, 
scrambled to designate possible capital cases as non-capital cases.

Through spokesmen, Montgomery characterized the shortage of defense attorneys 
as a mix-up - and declined to talk about it further.

The Arizona Republic was able to obtain correspondence about the "mix-up" from 
public defender agencies through the Arizona Public Records Law. But few 
county-employed attorneys or staff members - including those who must battle 
his prosecutors during death-penalty trials - are willing to discuss 
Montgomery's office's actions on the record.

Resources strained

Capital murder cases are different from non-capital cases. Defendants facing 
the death penalty get not 1, but 2, publicly paid defense attorneys who must be 
certified for death-penalty work. They also get an investigator and a 
mitigation specialist.

Consequently, capital murder cases cost eight to 40 times more than 1st-degree 
murder cases where the death penalty is not on the table.

"It's really difficult to manage these things," said Jim Haas, the county's 
Public Defender. "All 1st-degree murder cases have the potential of being 
death-penalty cases. We have to assign people."

A supervisor at another of the county's 4 indigent-defense agencies said, 
"We're almost always within a case or 2 of running out of them (attorneys)."

Yet another called it "a strain on resources."

A capital murder trial that ends in a life sentence costs about a half-million 
dollars to defend, more than 21 times the cost of defense in a 1st-degree 
murder trial where the death penalty is not sought, according to an audit 
commissioned in 2015 by the county Office of Public Defense Services. A capital 
case that ends in a death sentence costs 40 times more, the added cost driven 
by post-conviction legal activities designed to keep the defendant off the 
lethal-injection table.

Often, death-notice cases filed by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office end in 
plea agreements.

"For a variety of reasons it appears that juries in Maricopa County are less 
willing to return death verdicts in trials for 1st-degree murder than they once 
were," said John Canby, an attorney who works for the Maricopa County Public 
Defender's Office and sits on the Capital Defense Review Committee, an informal 
group that advises the indigent defense agencies.

"Nevertheless," Canby said, "it seems that the County Attorney???s Office is 
still willing to seek death sentences in cases with only a remote possibility 
of a death verdict. That practice costs the taxpayers of Maricopa County a lot 
of money because the court is required to appoint capital-qualified attorneys 
to those cases, even if the possibility of a death sentence is in fact very 
remote."

At present, there are 65 active death-penalty cases in Maricopa County Superior 
Court, according to court administrators.

On Jan. 31, Christina Phillis, who recently took over direction of the Office 
of Public Defense Services, sent an email to Superior Court Presiding Criminal 
Court Judge Sam Myers saying that she could not find attorneys for a capital 
case. Phillis' office oversees all of the county's criminal defense agencies 
for indigents: the Office of the Public Defender, the Office of the Legal 
Defender, the Office of the Legal Advocate; and the Office of Contract Counsel, 
which hires outside attorneys to handle cases the other agencies can't take.

Pushing past capacity

The death sentence, according to U.S. Supreme Court case law, is supposed to be 
reserved for the "worst of the worst" cases. To get a death sentence, 
prosecutors must prove there is at least 1 "aggravating factor," chosen from a 
statutory list, and that the aggravation outweighs any mitigating factors 
presented by the defense.

County defense attorneys have long argued that there are so many aggravating 
factors in the state's death-sentence statute that prosecutors can seek death 
in nearly every 1st-degree murder case, blurring what constitutes the worst of 
the worst. On March 15, however, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled in a murder 
appeal that the statute is adequate and that prosecutors indeed have the 
discretion to make death-penalty decisions.

According to several members of the Capital Defense Review Committee, a former 
head of the county attorney's homicide unit used to inform them of cases in 
which they were likely to seek the death penalty, so they could plan 
accordingly.

But under Deputy County Attorney Jeannette Gallagher's direction, that is not 
being done, they said. In addition, prosecutors have been demanding to see what 
the defense's mitigating evidence will be shortly after the murder charge is 
filed, saying they need it to take before the county attorney's committee that 
determines which cases are capital and which aren't.

The requirement forces defense attorneys to divulge their defenses beforehand. 
It also triggers the appointment of capital defense teams.

On Feb. 6, Phillis sent an email to Montgomery.

"Something change with the way your office is handling 1st degree murder 
cases?" she asked. "OPDS and the staffed office have been assigning capital 
teams after the initial arraignment, on cases they believed had the potential 
to become capital. The past procedure has allowed for ethical, efficient and 
cost-effective representation.

"Recently, on almost every 1st degree case the assigned attorney is being asked 
if they want to submit mitigation for the capital review team and/or agree to 
an extension regarding a motion to seek the death penalty," she continued. 
"Once the request is made the case is then reassigned to a capital team. This 
has resulted in the staffed office and OCC (Office of Contract Counsel) 
reaching their capacity to assign capital cases."

Course of least resistance

As of February, 15 capital murder cases were assigned to the Public Defender's 
Office, 11 to the Legal Advocate, and 9 to the Legal Defender. The Office of 
Contract Counsel, which is directly under Phillis, had 30, which she had to 
divide between 16 first-chair, death-qualified attorneys and 12 second chairs.

It's not the 1st time.

In 2007, for example, former County Attorney Andrew Thomas filed so many death 
notices that the system crashed. At that time, Maricopa County had 130 to 140 
pending capital cases. Pima County had 4.

This time, Montgomery acted quickly.

According to an email Phillis sent to The Republic, "Attorneys became available 
when the (county attorney) chose not to pursue death notices in a few cases and 
2 defendants received life (sentences)."

Later she specified that Montgomery's office had chosen not to pursue death in 
5 cases that were in question. He has that discretion.

Most recent death-penalty cases haven't gone to trial.

According to Superior Court administrators, prosecutors resolved 20 cases in 
fiscal 2015. Of those, 3 were dismissed, 11 ended in plea deals, 6 went to 
trial and 4 defendants were sentenced to death. Meanwhile, 8 new cases were 
filed.

In fiscal 2016, 7 cases were resolved, 4 went to trial. 2 resulted in death 
sentences. The office filed 11 new death cases, however.

So far in fiscal 2017, 8 capital cases have been resolved. None ended in death 
sentences. 10 new capital cases have been filed.

All have been defended as capital cases, driving up costs.

An audit commissioned by Phillis' predecessor at the Office of Public Defense 
Services examined trial costs from 2011 to 2015. It found it cost about $27,000 
to defend a non-capital murder defendant at trial. But if the death penalty is 
sought, the defense cost jumps to $213,000, even if the case later is pleaded 
down to a lesser offense or a lesser sentence.

When a capital case goes to trial and ends in a life sentence, it costs 
$580,000 to defend. And if it ends in a death sentence, it can cost $1 million, 
not including the price of federal appeals.

"This is where the rubber meets the road in this system," defense attorney 
Larry Hammond said. "The Legislature gives the prosecutor tremendous power. It 
is up to the discretion of a publicly elected prosecutor (to decide) who gets 
death and who does not."

"I think seeking death is the course of least resistance," Hammond said. "You 
do not want to be thought of as soft if you're in that office.

(source: The Arizona Republic)

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

Rector death penalty trial postponed again until after June 2 status hearing; 
28-year-old Bullhead City man faces death penalty in case of Isabella 
Grogan-Cannella, 8


The May 1 trial date for accused child kidnapper and murderer Justin James 
Rector was postponed Friday by Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen to give both 
sides more time to prepare for the death penalty case.

Jantzen he'll "remain heartened" that a new trial date can be set at June 2 
status hearing, as the case has dragged on for 2 1/2 years.

Rector, 28, is charged with the September 2014 kidnapping, child abuse and 
1st-degree murder of Isabella Grogan-Cannella of Bullhead City and burying the 
8-year-old girl's body in a shallow desert grave about a quarter-mile from her 
home.

Rector had been staying with the girl's mother, Tania Ann Grogan, and 
stepfather, Ralph Folster III, who were later arrested for selling 
methamphetamine and heroine from their home.

Defense attorney Gerald Gavin said the most important and slowest process for 
the trial is gathering the necessary documents and lining up expert witnesses. 
Otherwise the case could be appealed to the Supreme Court, like other death 
penalty appeals that claimed the defense counsel was "not up to par," he said.

Gavin told Jantzen he had 95 % of the records needed to move forward with the 
trial, and that some records would be coming in right up to the trial date.

He suggested that the court get the 1st set of "mitigation experts" on board 
for interviews. One of them has been cleared for interviews as early as Monday.

"I realize you're working on a calendar and you don't want this case to 
linger," Gavin said. "We want to make sure we get it right the 1st time."

The judge said the defense has the right to due process, but he has a 
responsibility to move the case along.

"I want the parties to really think about what we're doing on that date (June 
2) so we can get some certainty," Jantzen said.

Mohave County Deputy Attorney Greg McPhillips said he???s been in contact with 
the defense team via email about available dates for expert interviews and 
wasn't able to coordinate with them.

"As a prosecutor, I don't know if we're going to do a mental evaluation," 
McPhillips said. "I think the (May 1) trial date is unrealistic. I don't know 
what the trial date is."

He also responded to the judge's inquiry about notes from the Mohave County 
Medical Examiner, explaining that changes in personnel have made it difficult 
to obtain documents to be used as evidence in the case.

The medical examiner first reported no physical evidence that the girl had been 
sexually assaulted, but it was later revealed that her hymen was missing and 
there were hemorrhages in her vagina.

Grogan-Cannella was last seen about 11:30 p.m. on Sept. 2, 2014, by her older 
sister, who was going to the bathroom. The children's mother and stepfather 
were not home at the time, and the children were being watched by their 
grandmother.

Detectives questioned Rector the next day about the girl's disappearance and 
found his alibi to be false. He reportedly stole a set of new clothes from 
Walmart and tossed his old clothes. Investigators linked shoe prints at the 
grave site to Rector's shoes.

(source: Kingman Daily Miner)






CALIFORNIA:

Coachella man accused in stabbing death of ex-girlfriend to stand trial for 
murder


A man accused of repeatedly stabbing his ex-girlfriend outside her Coachella 
home after she broke up with him must stand trial on a murder charge, a judge 
ruled today.

Carlos Antonio Mendoza, 38, of Coachella, is charged with killing 31-year-old 
Cecilia Silva, who was found lying in the driveway of her home in the 52700 
block of Calle Empalme at 6:25 a.m. on March 20, 2016.

Mendoza faces a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait, making him 
eligible for the death penalty if convicted of Silva's murder. Prosecutors have 
yet to decide whether to pursue capital punishment.

Sheriff's homicide investigator Daniel Moody testified that Silva was stabbed 
"at least 15 times'' and was found lying face-down in a pool of blood. A friend 
of the victim told investigators that Silva and Mendoza had been dating, but 
Silva said Mendoza was "suffocating her.''

Following Silva's death, Mendoza checked himself into Canyon Ridge Hospital in 
Chino.

District attorney's investigator Sean Freeman testified that after Silva's DNA 
was found on some of the defendant's clothes at the hospital and he failed 
multiple psychological tests aimed at measuring his potential mental 
impairment, Mendoza admitted to the killing.

Freeman testified that Mendoza said he waited for Silva to return home from 
work, then donned all-dark clothing, including a mask, patterned after the 
comic book character "Bane,'' and stabbed Silva with a "large bowie knife.''

According to Freeman, the defendant said he threw the knife into a La Quinta 
canal, where it was later recovered by investigators.

Mendoza remains in custody without bail and will return to court April 7 for a 
post-preliminary hearing arraignment.

(source: KESQ news)






USA:

Prosecutors oppose competency exam for death-row inmate Marvin Gabrion


Federal prosecutors oppose a defense request that condemned killer Marvin 
Gabrion undergo a competency evaluation.

His attorneys contend he is incompetent and unable to assist in proceedings.

Gabrion's mental-health status has been an issue from the start of his case 
until now.

He was convicted in the 1997 killing of Rachel Timmerman, 19, of Cedar Springs.

He is suspected of killing her 11-month-old daughter, Shannon, whose body 
wasn't found, and 3 of his associates.

Marvin Gabrion is awaiting the death penalty in the 1997 killing of Rachel 
Timmerman, 19. Authorities suspect he also killed her 11-month-old daughter and 
3 other men.

Gabrion has exhausted criminal appeals but has filed a civil challenge to his 
conviction and sentence.

Federal prosecutors say Gabrion has no legal right to competency evaluations in 
the civil appeal.

"His conduct before and during the trial caused the district court to order 
three competency evaluations," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer McManus wrote 
in court records.

"Each time he was found not only competent, but a malingerer; five other mental 
health professionals would later agree. Gabrion's motion merely asserts that he 
is exhibiting the same type of erratic behavior; it does not identify a 
diagnosis, a course of proposed treatment, or attach a declaration of a mental 
health professional.

"Moreover, Gabrion's current counsel have not shown his claims could 
substantially benefit from his assistance," McManus wrote.

Attorneys for Marvin Gabrion submitted a detailed report on Gabrion and 4 
generations of his family in an effort to overturn his death sentence for 
killing a 19-year-old girl in 1997, court records showed.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has found Gabrion severely mentally ill but 
not incompetent.

Because Timmerman's body was found in a lake on federal property, Gabrion was 
tried in federal court, which allows juries to sentence defendants to death.

His attorneys filed a comprehensive report that examined Gabrion and four 
generations of his family. It looked at instances of mental illness, abuse, 
poverty, violence and substance abuse.

Tim Timmerman says being a foster parent helped kids who needed a home - and 
helped him, too, as he dealt with losses of his daughter and granddaughter.

His attorneys say he was incompetent at trial, and his condition hasn't 
improved during his stay on death row. His attorneys say he should undergo an 
adversarial hearing - which wasn't demanded by his trial attorney - to 
determine his level of competency, records said.

Gabrion killed Timmerman two days before she was to testify that he raped her 
in 1996.

She was bound to cinderblocks and thrown into Oxford Lake, a remote area in 
Newaygo County.

Gabrion's bizarre behavior was on full display at trial: he whispered loudly, 
became agitated, belched and had to be told repeatedly by his attorney and the 
judge to be quiet.

On the witness stand, he declared: "I am the speaker of the truth."

During the penalty stage, he punched his attorney in the face in front of 
jurors.

Gabrion's filing asks for his conviction or sentence be vacated, or to receive 
a new trial.

His attorneys have sought a stay to hold a hearing on his competency.

Attorneys for Marvin Gabrion have asked a judge to hold a hearing to determine 
if he is incompetent and should be treated with psychiatric medication so he 
help appeal his conviction and sentence.

They describe him as "actively delusional," and said his competency could be 
restored with medication.

(source: mlivev.com)