[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----IND., IOWA, WYO., N. MEX., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 3




INDIANA:

Marcus Dansby's death penalty case rescheduled for spring of 2019



A man facing the death penalty if convicted of the 4 charges of murder 
against him, including the death of an unborn baby, appeared in court 
Friday, a week after an Allen Superior judge said his lawyer wasn't 
qualified for the case.

Judge Fran Gull removed Nikos Nakos as lead attorney of Marcus D. Dansby's 
case, "as he is not qualified to prove the high-quality representation 
required by the 6th Amendment to the United State Constitution," according 
to court records.

Nakos was replaced with public defender Michelle Kraus as lead attorney 
and former Allen County Prosecutor Robert Gevers as co-counsel. Gull found 
Friday they were qualified, which includes taking at least 12 hours of 
capital defense training, and the prosecution agreed to reset the trial 
for April 15-May 31, 2019.

Dansby sat between his public defenders during Friday's hearing and smiled 
at his family and Nakos, who were all sitting in the front row of the 
courtroom. Nakos, a private attorney, said after the hearing that he was 
there at Dansby's wish and had not been ruled out as a 3rd counsel in the 
case.

Dansby is charged with 4 counts of murder, 1 count of attempted murder and 
use of a firearm in the commission of a felony for the Sept. 11, 2016, 
attack that killed Consuela Arrington, 37; her son Traeven Harris, 18; and 
her daughter Dajahiona Arrington, 18, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant with a 
boy. 1 teen survived life-threatening injuries.

The Allen County Coroner's Office determined the unborn boy would have 
lived if Dajahiona Arrington, who was Dansby's ex-girlfriend, had not 
died.

The shootings took place at Consuela Arrington's home in the 3000 block of 
Holton Avenue. She was shot and stabbed, according to an autopsy.

Dansby's murder trial had been scheduled for February 2017, then last 
September, and eventually moved to March 21-30, with no sessions 
Fridays-Mondays during that time. The change in counsel, as well as the 
time it would take to determine an interlocutory appeal - an appeal while 
a trial case is ongoing - that Dansby's new defense plans to file to 
determine Nakos' removal was proper led to the trial being rescheduled for 
2019.

According to court documents, Fort Wayne Police officers found Dansby 
inside the house and took him into custody. A witness told officers he had 
been asleep with his girlfriend in the basement and went upstairs to 
investigate the commotion when he found Dansby covered in blood, putting a 
blanket on Consuela Arrington. He asked why Dansby was there, but Dansby 
didn't answer him. The relative told police Dansby and Dajahiona Arrington 
had broken up about 6 months ago and he believed the baby was not his.

Dansby told police he was on the porch talking with Dajahiona Arrington 
when he saw a man "mean mugging" him, according to a probable-cause 
affidavit filed in Allen Superior Court. It was this man, Dansby said, who 
did the crime while he hid in Arrington's closet. When he came out of the 
closet, he saw a man swinging his arm with a knife as if he were stabbing 
someone and went looking for a phone to call 911. Police found Dansby in 
possession of Consuela Arrington's phone as well as a knife, which he 
accused the police of "planting" on him, the affidavit said.

Police examined Arrington's closet, allegedly finding that the number of 
items in it prevented the door from closing; they also saw it was not 
possible for Dansby to have hidden in the closet while the killings took 
place, according to the affidavit. Police also allegedly found a bloodied 
handgun that contained a smeared handprint hidden under the wall of the 
porch. Dansby told police his cat was responsible for cuts on his hands, 
the affidavit said.

Death penalty experience

On Friday, Kraus said that the Public Defender's Office will limit their 
caseload as the trial date approaches.

She has handled these death penalty cases:

-- She served as lead defense attorney for Simon Rios, a Mexican national 
and Fort Wayne resident who was sentenced in Delaware County for the rape 
and killing of 10-year-old Alejandra Gutierrez, a Fort Wayne native and 
friend of the Rios family he lured into his van Dec. 8, 2005, while she 
was on her way to a school-bus stop near her Clinton Street home. He then 
dumped her body in a gravel pit in northern Delaware County. Days later 
Rios killed his wife and 3 young daughters - ages 10 months, 20 months and 
10 years old - with an extension cord and shoelaces back in Fort Wayne 
before drawing a map to show police where he left Gutierrez's body.

In September 2017 Rios got life in prison without parole in a plea deal in 
the Delaware County case. The next month he pleaded guilty in Allen County 
to 4 counts of murder and 2 counts of moving bodies after a suspicious 
death. In return, Allen County prosecutors dropped the death penalty and 
offered him life in prison without parole.

Rios hanged himself while imprisoned at the Pendleton Correction Facility 
a little over a week after the Allen County case concluded.

-- She represented Gregory Scott Johnson during an appeal of his death 
sentence after he was convicted in 1986 of the beating death of an 
82-year-old Anderson woman and setting her home on fire. The Indiana 
Supreme Court denied his appeal and he was executed in May 2005.

-- She represented Zolo Agona Azania, previously known as Rufus Averhart, 
during his 1996 appeal of the death sentence imposed after his conviction 
for the murder of Gary Police Lt. George Yaros 15 years earlier during a 
bank robbery in Gary. He was tried in Allen County. The Indiana Supreme 
Court overturned that and a 2nd death penalty sentence. Before a 3rd death 
penalty trial started in 2007, the Yaros family agreed to the prosecutor 
dropping the death penalty in return for a 74-year sentence. He was 
released last year from the Miami Correctional Facility in Indiana after 
serving 35 years in prison because of time for good behavior.

Death penalty in Allen County

Dansby is 1 of a handful of men in the last 20 years to face the death 
penalty or threat of it in Allen County. Simon Rios, mentioned above, and 
others have plea-bargained their charges down to life sentences without 
parole or what likely could amount to a life sentence.

-- Michael L. Plumadore would have faced the death penalty had he not 
pleaded guilty in May 2012 and chosen to serve life in prison without the 
possibility of parole for the murder of Aliahna Lemmon. The 9-year-old was 
killed Dec. 22, 2011, and her body dismembered.

-- Ronrico Hatch pleaded guilty in February 2004 to firing the shot that 
killed 17-year-old Cheri Sue Hartman in August 2002. In return for his 
plea, prosecutors agreed to drop a request for the death penalty and ask 
that he instead be sent to prison for life without the possibility of 
parole.

-- Lamar "Marty" Parker, 30, pleaded guilty in 2002 to the shootings of 
Calvin Soil, 39, and Anissa Cole, 26, on May 24, 2001. Soil died soon 
after from his chest wound. Cole lingered in a coma for 6 months after 
being shot in the head before her death. Prosecutors planned to file for 
the death penalty before his plea agreement, which required Parker, 31, to 
serve 110 years in prison.

-- Joseph Corcoran was convicted in 1999 of murdering his brother, James 
Corcoran, 30; his sister's fiancee, Robert Scott Turner, 32; Timothy G. 
Bricker, 30; and Douglas A. Stillwell, 30; in July 1997. He is currently 
the only person sitting on death row after being sentenced in Allen County 
for a case that occurred here.

Indiana reinstated the death penalty in 1977.

(source: The News-Sentinel)








IOWA:

Iowa House Tables Death Penalty Bill



A bill that would allow the death penalty for those convicted of 1st 
degree murder in Iowa has been tabled in the Iowa House. Representative 
Clel Baudler, a Republican from Greenfield, is chairman of the House 
Public Safety Committee - and he says there isn't enough support within 
the committee to pass the bill.

Baudler says he doesn't blame anyone from holding firm views about the 
death penalty.

A bill pending in the Iowa SENATE would reinstate the death penalty, but 
for narrow instances like a kidnapping and then the murder of the victim. 
Baudler says if that bill clears the FULL Senate, House Republicans may 
reconsider the issue.

The Iowa legislature voted to ban capital punishment in 1965. In the 
mid-1990s, a bill to reinstate the death penalty narrowly passed the Iowa 
House, but was defeated in the Iowa Senate.

(source: WNAX news)








WYOMING:

Deadline for possible Cheyenne death penalty case extended



A Laramie County District Court judge has granted prosecutors more time to 
decide whether to pursue the death penalty for a man accused of killing 
his girlfriend's 2-year-old son.

Feb. 1 was the original deadline for which prosecutors had to notify the 
defense whether they planned to pursue capital punishment for John 
Barrett.

But assistant district attorney Edward Buchanan told Judge Catherine 
Rogers that he and lead defense attorney Diane Lozano had agreed to extend 
that time frame.

"The state would request that the court give the defense a little more 
time to review discovery," Buchanan said.

Lozano said her team would treat Barrett's case "as if it were a death 
penalty case" for the time being.

(source: Casper Star Tribune)








NEW MEXICO:

House panel rejects death penalty bill



A proposal to reinstate the death penalty in New Mexico - a priority of 
Gov. Susana Martinez - failed on a narrow vote Saturday.

The House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee rejected the measure 3-2, 
blocking it from advancement. The vote to table the bill was along party 
lines, with Democrats opposed.

House Bill 155 would have allowed the death penalty for adults who murder 
children, law enforcement officers or correctional employees.

It was sponsored by Republican Reps. Monica Youngblood of Albuquerque and 
Greg Nibert of Roswell.

(source: Albuquerque Journal)








CALIFORNIA:

Accused killer of gay ex-classmate arraignment: Officials demand new death 
penalty law



As a 20-year-old Newport Beach man awaited arraignment Friday for 
allegedly killing a gay former high school classmate, Orange County's top 
prosecutor and a state senator announced they would seek legislation to 
make a murderer motivated by gender or sexual orientation eligible for 
life in prison without parole or the death penalty.

While researching the law to consider whether 19-year-old University of 
Pennsylvania student Blaze Bernstein was killed because he was gay, 
prosecutors realized they could not attach a special circumstance 
allegation to the 1st-degree murder charge for the Ivy League student's 
accused killer, Samuel Lincoln Woodward.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas called it a "glaring 
omission" in the law that murder defendants who kill because of animus 
toward women or homosexuals cannot get the death penalty or life in prison 
without the possibility of parole. The law does allow for capital 
punishment for killers motivated by race or religion. Rackauckas said it 
appeared to him lawmakers "intentionally left out" other protected classes 
such as gays and women.

If prosecutors find out that Bernstein was killed because of his sexual 
orientation, then they could file a hate crime allegation against 
Woodward, which allows a judge to tack on more years in prison if the 
defendant is convicted. Because Bernstein was stabbed to death, Woodward 
already faces 26 years to life in prison if found guilty.

Rackauckas called the office of Sen. Janet Nguyen, R-Garden Grove, to help 
amend the law. Nguyen's district includes Santa Ana, where the D.A.'s 
office is located, but it does not include Lake Forest where Bernstein's 
body was discovered in a shallow grave.

A message left with state Sen. Patricia Bates, R-Laguna Niguel, who is the 
state minority leader, was not immediately returned. Sen. John Moorlach, 
R-Costa Mesa, whose district includes Lake Forest was not immediately 
available for comment, but Rackauckas' chief of staff, Susan Schroeder, 
said her office doubted he would support a change in the law.

Nguyen noted that she recently worked with Rackauckas' office on a law to 
punish anyone who dumps a body.

Bernstein was last seen by Woodward late the night of Jan. 2, and he was 
found dead a week later in a shallow grave at Borrego Park near his 
family's home.

Woodward, who is being held without bail, and Bernstein were classmates at 
the Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana and had reconnected 
through the social media platform Snapchat. Bernstein was home from 
college on winter break when he was slain.

According to Rackauckas, Woodward picked up Bernstein from his parents' 
Lake Forest home about 11 p.m. Jan. 2, and drove him to a shopping center 
on Portola Parkway in Foothill Ranch. Later, the 2 went to Borrego Park in 
Lake Forest, he said.

At some point, Woodward allegedly stabbed Bernstein multiple times, then 
buried the body in a dirt perimeter at the park.

Rackauckas declined to discuss a possible motive for the killing, but a 
search warrant affidavit recently obtained by the Orange County Register 
suggested that Bernstein may have tried to kiss Woodward, who responded by 
killing him in an act of rage.

The district attorney conceded that the case remained under investigation, 
and said prosecutors were reviewing whether the killing could be 
considered a hate crime.

Bernstein's parents - Gideon and Jeanne - issued a statement last month 
noting that possibility.

"Our son was a beautiful, gentle soul who we loved more than anything," 
the Bernsteins said. "We were proud of everything he did and who he was. 
He had nothing to hide. We are in solidarity with our son and the LGBTQ 
community. There is still much discovery to be done and if it is 
determined that this was a hate crime, we will cry not only for our son, 
but for LGBTQ people everywhere that live in fear or who have been victims 
of hate crime."

In late January, ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative news site, reported 
that 3 people who knew Woodward said he was part of the Atomwaffen 
Division, an armed fascist organization that aims to overthrow the 
government through guerrilla tactics and terrorism. Atomwaffen Division 
has been linked to 4 other murders and a bomb plot over the past 8 months, 
according to ProPublica.

Rackauckas declined to comment on those reports.

(source: mynewsla.com)








USA----2 new books

1) The Celebrated Marquis: An Italian Noble and the Making of the Modern 
World by John D. Bessler

2) The Death Penalty as Torture: From the Dark Ages to Abolition. This 
book, which seeks to reframe the death penalty debate, was published in 
2017.

Both are available via amazon.com

(sources: JB & RH)