[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., ALA., LA., NEB., S.DAK., COLO.

[Rick Halperin]

June 19




FLORIDA:

The Timeline Of Serial Killer Ted Bundy's Gruesome Murder Spree



Before his execution, Bundy confessed to 30 murders, but some fear his actual 
body count is more than 100.

Ted Bundy is one of America's most prolific serial killers. From 1974 until his 
final capture in 1978, he preyed on young woman, leaving a trail of 
misogynistic violence from one end of the country to the other. Unlike many 
serial killers, Bundy was by all appearances an upstanding member of mainstream 
society, successful and well-liked.

He used his personal charms to lure victims to his infamous but unassuming 
Volkswagen Beetle, often feigning injury and asking for help, before beating 
them unconscious and taking them to another location where they were raped, 
tortured and murdered. After disposing of their bodies in remote wooded areas, 
he would often revisit their corpses to perform sexual acts.

Below is a timeline of the important moments in Bundy's life and the dozens of 
horrific crimes he committed. Before his execution, Bundy confessed to 30 
murders, some of which remain unconfirmed, but some fear his actual body count 
is more than 100.

November 24, 1947----Eleanor Louise "Louise" Cowell, 22, gives birth to 
Theodore Robert Cowell at an unwed mothers home in Burlington, Vermont. The 
true identity of his father has never been confirmed.

1947-1949----As a toddler, Ted lives in Philadelphia thinking his maternal 
grandfather and grandmother are his parents and his mother is his older sister. 
He learns his true parentage at a later date, though has given conflicting 
accounts of how and when.

1950----Ted and his mother move to Tacoma, Washington.

1951----Louise Cowell marries Johnny Culpepper Bundy, who formally adopts Ted. 
They go on to have 4 children together.

1965----Theodore Bundy graduates from Tacoma's Woodrow Wilson High School. As a 
teenager, he is twice arrested for suspicion of burglary and auto theft.

1966----Bundy transfers from the University of Puget Sound to the University of 
Washington.

1968----Ted drops out of college and works as a volunteer for Republican 
presidential nominee Nelson Rockefeller.

1972----Theodore Bundy graduates from the University of Washington with a 
bachelor's degree in psychology.

1973----Bundy is hired as an assistant to the Chairman of the Washington State 
Republican Party. That fall, he begins studying law at the University of Puget 
Sound.

January 4, 1974----Bundy breaks into the basement apartment of 18-year-old 
University of Washington student Karen Sparks as she's sleeping. Using a metal 
rod, he savagely beats her then sexually assaults her with it. She remains in a 
coma for 10 days, but survives with brain damage and internal injuries.

February 1, 1974----University of Washington student Lynda Ann Healy, 21, is 
abducted from her apartment by Bundy. Pieces of her skull are later found at 
Washington's Taylor Mountain, where Bundy dumped the remains of various 
victims.

March 12, 1974----Donna Gail Manson, a 19-year-old student at Evergreen State 
College in Olympia, Washington, disappears after leaving her dorm. Bundy later 
claims responsibility for her murder.

April 17, 1974----Susan Elaine Rancourt, 18, goes missing from Central 
Washington State College in Ellensburg. Witnesses say a man with his arm in a 
sling had been asking for help moving books into his tan Volkswagen Beetle. 
Rancourt's skull was later found on Taylor Mountain.

May 1974----Bundy begins working at the Washington State Department of 
Emergency Services in Olympia, and begins dating Carole Ann Boone.

May 6, 1974----Roberta Kathleen Parks, age 22, a student at Oregon State 
University in Corvallis disappears after going to meet friends for coffee. Her 
skull was later found on Taylor Mountain.

June 1, 1974----Brenda Carol Ball, 22, is last seen talking to a man with his 
arm in a sling after leaving a bar in Burien, Washington. Her skull was later 
found on Taylor Mountain.

June 11, 1974----University of Washington student Georgann Hawkins, 18, goes 
missing while walking the 1 block between her boyfriend's dormitory and her 
sorority house.

July 14, 1974----Janice Ann Ott, 23, goes missing at Lake Sammamish State Park. 
She is last seen walking with a man with his left arm in a sling who had 
approached other women that day asking for help moving a sailboat from his car, 
a tan Volkswagen. He told people his name was "Ted." Later that afternoon, 
19-year-old Denise Marie Naslund disappears from the crowded beach area.

August 30, 1974----Bundy moves to Salt Lake City to attend the University of 
Utah Law School.

September 6, 1974----The remains of Ott and Naslund are discovered in Issaquah, 
Washington. Bundy says additional remains found there belonged to Georgann 
Hawkins.

October 2, 1974----Before his execution, Bundy admitted to raping and murdering 
16-year-old Nancy Wilcox of Holladay, a suburb of Salt Lake City.

October 18, 1974----Melissa Anne Smith, 17, daughter of Midvale, Utah's chief 
of police chief goes missing. Her nude corpse is later found, showing signs of 
rape and strangulation.

October 31, 1974----On Halloween night, 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime goes 
missing. Her nude body is found in a canyon.

November 8, 1974----In Murray, Utah, Bundy poses as a police officer and tries 
to abduct 18-year-old Carol DaRonch. When he attempts to handcuff her, she 
fights him off and escapes on foot. Later that night, he abducts and murders 
Debra Jean Kent, 17, in Bountiful, Utah. A key found in the parking lot where 
she disappeared matches the handcuffs that DaRonch had been wearing when she 
escaped.

January 12, 1975----Michigan nurse Caryn Eileen Campbell, 23, disappears from a 
hotel in Aspen, Colorado. Her nude body is found in a snow bank a month later, 
beaten to death.

March 15, 1975----Bundy abducts and murders Julie Cunningham, age 26. He later 
confesses to posing as an injured skier on crutches and asking for her help 
carrying his ski boots before knocking her unconscious and strangling her.

April 6, 1975----Denise Lynn Oliverson, 24, of Grand Junction, Colorado, goes 
missing while riding her bike. Bundy later claims he threw her body in the 
Colorado River.

May 6, 1975----Lynette Dawn Culver, 12, goes missing from her junior high 
school in Pocatello, Idaho. Bundy later says he dumped her body into the nearby 
Snake River.

June 28, 1975----Susan Curtis, 15, goes missing after attending a youth group 
meeting at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Bundy confesses to her 
murder moments before being executed.

August 18, 1975----Utah Highway Patrol Capt. Robert Hayward notices a 
suspicious vehicle in a Salt Lake City suburb in the early morning. When it 
speeds off, he gives chase before stopping it an empty gas station. While 
searching the car, he finds pantyhose, a ski mask, a crowbar, an ice pick and 
handcuffs. Bundy is arrested on suspicion of evading.

September 1975----Now under surveillance by police, Bundy sells his Volkswagen 
Beetle to a teenager in Midvale, Utah. It is almost immediately impounded and 
sent to the FBI, and hairs matching Caryn Campbell, Melissa Smith and Carol 
DaRonch are found inside the car.

October 2, 1975----After being picked out of a lineup by Carol DaRonch, Ted 
Bundy is arrested for the kidnapping.

March 1, 1976----Bundy is found guilty of aggravated kidnapping and sentenced 
to serve a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 15 years in the Utah State Prison.

October 20, 1976----Bundy is charged with the January 1975 murder of Caryn 
Campbell and extradited to Colorado.

June 7, 1977----While awaiting trial at Aspen's Pitkin County Courthouse, Bundy 
jumps from a 2nd-story window and flees into the nearby wilderness. After a few 
days, he is apprehended.

December 31, 1977----While most of the staff is home for the holidays, Bundy 
saws a hole in the ceiling of his jail cell at the Garfield County Jail in 
Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and escapes.

January 7, 1978----Bundy makes his way to Tallahassee, Florida, renting a room 
at The Oaks rooming house under the name Chris Hagen.

January 15, 1978----Sometime after 2:30 AM, Bundy breaks into FSU's Chi Omega 
sorority house where he murders Margaret Bowman, 21, and Lisa Levy, 20. Both 
women are strangled and bludgeoned to death. Bundy mutilates Levy, savagely 
biting her on the nipple and buttock, and sodomizing her with a hair spray 
bottle. He then attacks Kathy Kleiner and Karen Chandler, both 21, in their 
room, beating them with a club, breaking their jaws, knocking out teeth and 
leaving lacerations on their faces. Just blocks away, he breaks into the ground 
floor bedroom of 21-year-old Cheryl Thomas, beating her so badly that a nerve 
connecting to one of her ears is severed. When her roommates hear the 
commotion, they call the police, and Bundy flees into the night.

February 9, 1978----Bundy abducts 12-year-old Kimberly Leach from her junior 
high school in Lake City, Florida. Her dead body is found in a pigpen 7 weeks 
later, showing signs of sexual and physical abuse.

February 15, 1978----Bundy is pulled over while driving a stolen Volkswagen 
Beetle in Pensacola, Florida, and tries to run away on foot. After being 
subdued, he is arrested for car theft. He initially gives a fake name before 
being identified.

July 25, 1979----Theodore Robert Bundy is found guilty of 2 counts of 
1st-degree murder, 3 counts of attempted murder in the 1st degree and 2 counts 
of burglary. Less than a week later, he receives 2 death sentences for the 
murders of Bowman and Levy.

February 9, 1980----Ted Bundy is convicted of kidnapping and 1st-degree murder 
for the death of Kimberly Leach, for which he receives his 3rd death penalty. 
During sentencing, he proposes to Carole Boone. She accepts and later gives 
birth to a daughter, Rose.

January 24, 1989----Ted Bundy is pronounced dead at 7:16 AM after being sent to 
the electric chair at Florida State Prison. According to The New York Times, 
his final words are ''Give my love to my family and friends.'"

(source: oxygen.com)








ALABAMA:

AL Supreme Court upholds death sentence for Jackson County triple murderer



The Alabama Supreme Court has denied the appeal of a Jackson County man's 
capital murder convictions and death sentence.

James Ben Brownfield, 43, of Scottsboro, was convicted of three counts of 
capital murder in 2004 for the murders of his sister, Brenda McCutchin, his 
brother-in-law, Latham McCutchin, and his sister's 3-year-old grandson, Joshua 
Hodges.

According to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, evidence presented at 
trial established that Brownfield consumed Xanax pills on Dec. 23, 2001, became 
enraged with his sister over drugs and money, then killed her and Joshua with a 
claw hammer. Branda McCutchin suffered approximately 20 blows to the head and 
other injuries to her body. Joshua suffered approximately 16 blows to the head 
and other injuries to his body. They both died from multiple blunt force 
injuries.

Brownfield tried to burn the house with kerosene and a cigarette before 
leaving.

After killing Brenda McCutchin and Joshua, Brownfield took the claw hammer and 
a set of clean clothes and drove across town to her estranged husband's home, 
pretended it was a friendly visit to gain access, then hit him with his fists 
and the hammer. Latham McCutchin suffered numerous injuries, including 10 
forceful blows to the head with the claw hammer. Brownfield then stabbed him in 
the heart and cut his throat with a knife, Marshall said. Latham died from 
multiple blunt force injuries.

The Jackson County district attorney's office prosecuted the case. Brownfield 
was found guilty, and a Jackson County jury recommended the death penalty. The 
trial judge followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Brownfield to 
death.

Brownfield's subsequent attempts to have his convictions and sentence reversed 
on appeal have been rejected by the courts. The request was denied Friday.

(source: WAFF news)








LOUISIANA:

Man who spent 14 years on death row claims prosecutor, detective elicited false 
testimony



A man who was convicted of murder in 1998 has filed a lawsuit alleging that a 
prosecutor and investigator coerced a teen to give false testimony.

Michael Wearry was convicted in 2002 in the murder of 16-year-old Eric Walber. 
Wearry's attorneys were preparing for a retrial when they were able to find the 
witness, Jeffrey Ashton, in May 2017.

Jim Craig, representing Wearry with the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice 
Center, said Ashton talked to the criminal defense attorneys and told them what 
allegedly happened.

"It's not every day that one accuses a prosecutor, a sitting district attorney, 
of fabricating witness testimony," Craig said. "It's a very serious case and a 
very disturbing case. I hope it's unusual. I don't think anybody wants to think 
this kind of behavior happens every day."

Wearry's lawsuit was filed in federal court in Baton Rouge. District Attorney 
Scott Perriloux and former Livingston Parish detective Marlon Kearney Foster 
are named as defendants.

"It's very disturbing to have a sitting district attorney who we believe has 
gone to a witness and pressured a witness to give an account of something that 
didn't happen," Craig said.

Craig said the case is challenging, but he feels optimistic about the outcome.

"We expect that Mr. Perriloux will challenge this very vigorously through his 
attorneys," Craig said. "I think his reputation is very much at stake. I think 
the integrity of this and other cases in that district is at stake and we 
expect this to be a very hard fought case. We are confident that what we have 
filed is correct and truthful."

According to the innocentproject.org, the Supreme Court reversed Wearry's death 
row conviction with a 6-2 vote in 2016.

The court didn't find physical evidence linking Wearry to the murder of Walber, 
who was found dead on the side of the road in rural Louisiana, according to the 
innocentproject.org.

In 2016, Wearry told the court that he was at a wedding reception when the 
murder took place.

When Wearry was convicted in 2002, Perrilloux was quoted in The Livingston 
Parish News, saying "Some cases cry out for the death penalty. This one screams 
for the death penalty. It hollers and yells."

According to The Livingston Parish News report in 2002, Ashton testified to 
seeing Wearry throw "something shiny" in the ditch near Ashton's home on the 
night of the murder.

Ashton also testified to seeing Walber's red Ford Escort driving down the 
street.

According to The Livingston Parish News, Ashton went out the next morning to 
find whatever Weary had thrown, which turned out to be a Tommy Hilfiger cologne 
bottle that Cherie Walber said she had given him for Christmas.

Walber was making his pizza delivery when he was murdered, according to court 
documents.

Sam Scott, who was incarcerated at the time, contacted authorities and 
implicated Wearry, according to court documents.

"Scott initially reported that he had been friends with the victim; that he was 
at work the night of the murder; that the victim had come looking for him but 
had instead run into Wearry and 4 others; and that Wearry and the others had 
later confessed to shooting and driving over the victim before leaving his body 
on Blahut Road," the opinion stated.

The facts, however, show the victim had not been shot and his body had been 
found on Crisp Road.

(source: louisianarecord.com)

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

Convicted killer faces death penalty



A Houma man convicted of killing a Lockport woman and her 2 children in 2012 is 
to be sentenced Friday.

On Oct. 30, 2016, a jury unanimously convicted David Brown of the 1st-degree 
murders of 29-year-old Jacquelin, 7-year-old Gabriela and 1-year-old Izabela 
Nieves. Brown stabbed all 3 victims, raped Jacquelin and Gabriela, and set the 
family's apartment on fire.

The jury decided Nov. 1, 2016, that Brown should get the death penalty. It 
marked the 1st time in nearly 40 years a jury has voted to put someone to death 
for a crime committed in Lafourche Parish.

District Court Judge John LeBlanc denied Brown's request for a new trial on 
April 5 and originally scheduled the formal sentencing for June 1. Brown's 
attorney, Cecelia Kappel, of the New Orleans-based Capital Appeals Project, 
said she asked the court to reschedule the sentencing to 10 a.m. Friday to 
allow time to prepare for the case.

Although a sentencing hearing for a capital case is rare in Lafourche, 
Assistant District Attorney Joe Soignet said Sunday the hearing will be carried 
out like other sentencing hearings.

"During a capital trial the jury is the one who recommends the sentence, and 
the judge imposes it," Soignet said. "There could be some victim impact 
testimony as well. The purpose of the victim impact statement is not for the 
victim to address the defendant. They get the opportunity to express to the 
court how the crime has impacted them personally. There will also be an 
opportunity for defense counsel to speak or offer anything that they feel is 
relevant or admissible at a sentencing hearing. The judge will then impose the 
sentence."

There are 70 death row inmates in Louisiana, but only 2 have been executed in 
the last 18 years. Gerald Bordelon, who was convicted in 2002 for killing his 
12-year-old stepdaughter in Livingston Parish, was executed in 2010 after 
waiving his appeals.

During her 15 years as a Lafourche prosecutor, District Attorney Kristine 
Russell has been involved in 2 such cases - Brown and Amy Hebert. Although 
Hebert was facing execution for the murders of her 9-year-old daughter and 
7-year-old son in 2007, she was given a life sentence in 2009 after jurors 
disagreed about her fate.

Russell said the decision to seek the death penalty is not taken lightly.

"From the very beginning it's such a painstaking process because you want to do 
the right thing," Russell said. "While ultimately (former District Attorney) 
Cam Morvant made the decision to go forward with the death penalty in those 
cases, I was able to participate in the process. He really made sure he got 
opinions from people in our office and talked to family members. It's a 
completely different decision-making process than any type of case that comes 
to our office. Death penalty cases are not taken lightly."

(source: houmatoday.com.)




NEBRASKA:

Judge: Nebraska officials must release some death penalty records



A Lincoln judge has ordered the state to release records of communications with 
its lethal-injection drug supplier as well as several other documents related 
to Nebraska's efforts to carry out the death penalty.

In a decision Monday, Lancaster County District Judge Jodi Nelson said the 
state Department of Correctional Services is to disclose the documents to the 
Lincoln Journal Star, Omaha World-Herald and the ACLU of Nebraska within seven 
days of the order.

But she found certain other documents are exempt from disclosure under a state 
law protecting the identities of members of the state's execution team. Those 
documents include purchase orders and chemical analysis reports.

Either side could appeal, given that neither got everything it sought, and the 
state says it will - a move that likely will delay release of the records.

The state wanted to withhold all the records, and the news organizations and 
civil liberties group wanted them all to be released.

In separate lawsuits, the newspapers and the ACLU had asked the judge to force 
Nebraska officials to release the records after Scott Frakes, the state's 
prison director, refused public records requests.

Their attorneys had argued the documents - which include photos of drug 
packaging, purchase orders, emails between a prison employee and the drug 
supplier and between the Drug Enforcement Administration and the prison, and an 
invoice related to the drugs - all are public records and should be released.

At a hearing last month, the Nebraska Attorney General's Office argued against 
it, saying that identifying the state's lethal injection drug supplier might 
compromise those team members' names.

Frakes testified that he was concerned simply redacting the names wouldn't 
prevent identities of execution team members from becoming public. Those names 
are confidential under state law.

If their names became public, Frakes said, he fears execution team members or 
their families could be threatened or harassed.

In her order Monday, Nelson broke the withheld records into 2 categories: those 
that show the names and those that do not.

Those that identify execution team members were exempt, she ruled. Those that 
didn't, were not.

"The evidence is speculative at best that disclosure of these documents would 
be reasonably calculated to lead to such identification," Nelson wrote.

And she rejected the state's argument that photos of packaging were protected 
under the attorney work-product doctrine.

Suzanne Gage, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General's office, said they are 
pleased the court agreed that the Corrections Department is not required to 
disclose records that identify execution team members.

"We respectfully disagree with the court's analysis on the remaining records 
and plan to appeal," she said in an email.

On the other side, Dave Bundy, editor of the Journal Star, said: "The legal 
wrangling probably isn't over, but we view Judge Nelson's decision as a victory 
for the people of Nebraska, not just the media."

Danielle Conrad, executive director of the ACLU of Nebraska, said overall the 
ACLU was "pleased with the court's decision reaffirming Nebraska's proud 
tradition of open government."

She said they look forward to reviewing documents about the source of the 
state's execution drugs to learn more about the legal and policy issues 
involved in their acquisition.

"We appreciate that Nebraskans of goodwill hold divergent viewpoints on the 
death penalty, but the citizens' referendum did not grant permission to state 
officials to cloak the death penalty in secrecy. The court's decision today 
ensures transparency and accountability as the state seeks to carry out its 
most grave function," Conrad said.

(source: Lincoln Journal Star)

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

Attorneys for Nebraska AG, lawmakers square off in 'weird' subpoena case



A retired Nebraska Supreme Court justice took sides with the Legislature's 
Judiciary Committee at a hearing Monday, defending a group of state senators in 
a unique legal battle between them and the state's attorney.

In an unusual move, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson's office sued 15 
state senators, seeking to block Judiciary Chairwoman Laura Ebke and others on 
the committee from issuing a subpoena to force Scott Frakes, the prisons 
director, to answer questions about how the state developed its death-penalty 
protocol.

At a hearing Monday, William Connolly, the retired judge, said in 54 years 
practicing law and on the bench he'd never seen anything like it.

"This was weird," he said.

Connolly said subpoenas are issued every day in Legislatures all over the 
country.

"It's a simple issue. Was the subpoena issued in a legislative activity. And it 
was," he argued. "Which leads me to the next question: Why are we here? What 
are we hiding? Why are we spending all this money litigating this issue. All 
the director has to do is come in ... and answer the questions."

If the state followed the Administrative Procedures Act and dotted all the i's 
and crossed all the t's with the protocol, it's fine, Connolly said. He was 
skeptical.

He told Lancaster County District Judge Lori Maret she had the opportunity to 
open up the window, pull back the shroud of secrecy and let the sun shine in 
and see how Frakes went about establishing the state's death-penalty protocol.

"That's not asking too much," he said.

But, on the other side, Assistant Attorney General Ryan Post said like anyone 
else, the members of the Legislature have to follow the laws that they enact.

"We are here today because a small subset of the Legislature violated Nebraska 
law, their own rules and bypassed the entire Legislature in order to issue this 
subpoena ... on the last day of the legislative session," he said.

Post said the question wasn't if lawmakers can lawfully issue subpoenas. They 
can, he conceded.

But, he argued, "they can't issue subpoenas while breaking the rules."

Post said Sen. Ernie Chambers, a member of the Judiciary Committee, filed the 
complaint initially under a state statute dealing with the Administrative 
Procedures Act.

At that point, he said, the Judiciary Committee could've sought approval to 
issue a subpoena from the entire Legislature, but for whatever reason didn't.

Instead, they turned to another state statute, 50-406, which allows committees 
to issue subpoenas. But they aren't acting to discharge a duty imposed by the 
entire Legislature, by statute or by resolution, Post argued.

He said not once in 67 pages of briefing and 40 minutes of argument did 
attorneys for the state senators show the purpose for seeking the subpoena.

Post argued they couldn't state a reason because one didn't exist.

"Again, I don't know why the small subset of the Legislature didn't comply with 
their own statutes and they haven't explained either," he said. "Instead, they 
want absolute immunity under the speech-and-debate clause."

Post argued that creates a host of other issues. For instance, the fact that 
Clerk of the Legislature Patrick O'Donnell, who signed the subpoena, isn't a 
state lawmaker.

Attorney Patrick Guinan, Connolly's co-counsel, said in the 100 years of the 
Nebraska Legislature issuing subpoenas, this is the only one he knew of that's 
ever been challenged.

"The idea that somehow the Legislature is going to run rampant with legislative 
drunkenness ... now that they understand the scope of their immunity in issuing 
subpoenas ... it's just a fictional boogeyman," Guinan argued.

He said there is a reason the Constitution was written the way it was, creating 
a hard-line between the legislative, judicial and executive branches.

"This is what our democracy is based on," Guinan said. "It needs to be 
selfishly defended, and that's what the defendants are doing here."

Maret took the matter under advisement.

Outside the courtroom, Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, the only state senator being 
sued who attended Monday's hearing, said what's at issue isn't just about the 
death penalty.

"What the attorney general is trying to ... get the court to do is second-guess 
the Legislature and say it cannot do what, under the Constitution, it's 
empowered to do," he said.

(source: Beatrice Daily Sun)

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

Court orders correction department to release execution drug information



As Nebraska gets ready for what could be the 1st execution in 20 years, a court 
is ordering the corrections department to release information on the purchase 
of the drugs to be used in carrying out the death penalty.

The ACLU initially sued the corrections department said it didn't comply with 
open records requests as it withheld the supplier of the drugs to be used in 
the execution. The District Court of Lancaster County ordered the Nebraska 
Department of Corrections to release records

In a statement, Executive Director for the ACLU of Nebraska Danielle Conrad 
said:

"Overall the ACLU is pleased with the court's decision reaffirming Nebraska's 
proud tradition of open government. We are reviewing the decision carefully to 
determine next steps. In the short term, we look forward to reviewing documents 
about the source of Nebraska's execution drugs to learn more about the legal 
and policy issues involved in their acquisition. We appreciate that Nebraskans 
of goodwill hold divergent viewpoints on the death penalty, but the citizens' 
referendum did not grant permission to state officials to cloak the death 
penalty in secrecy. The court's decision today ensures transparency and 
accountability as the state seeks to carry out its most grave function."

The corrections department will have 7 days to release the documents.

(source: KHGI news)








SOUTH DAKOTA:

Supreme Court rejects appeal from gay inmate in South Dakota



The Supreme Court is rejecting an appeal from a gay death row inmate in South 
Dakota who says jurors were biased against him because of his sexual 
orientation.

The justices did not comment Monday in leaving in place the death sentence for 
Charles Rhines. He was convicted in the stabbing death of a doughnut shop 
employee in Rapid City, South Dakota, in 1992.

Rhines tried to persuade the court to take an interest in his case after the 
justices last year ruled that evidence of racial bias in the jury room allows a 
judge to consider setting aside a verdict. Rhines said 1 juror said Rhines 
should not be sentenced to life in prison because he is gay and would be housed 
with other men.

(source: Daily Journal)








COLORADO:

Death penalty defendant in Colorado Springs refuses to take the stand



A Colorado Springs man facing the death penalty in a 2016 double murder 
declined to take the stand Monday, bringing his lengthy trial one step closer 
to a verdict.

In deciding against testifying, Glen Law Galloway lashed out against 4th 
Judicial District Judge Gregory Werner, accusing the judge of "forcing" his 
hand through rulings that bar him from addressing one killing but reserving his 
right to remain silent about the other.

"I wish to testify about Marcus Anderson, but I do not wish to testify about 
Janice Nam," Galloway said. "You are forcing me not to testify."

The comments came moments before Galloway's attorneys rested their more than 
weeklong defense. The prosecution intends to call rebuttal witnesses Tuesday, 
and closing arguments are expected Wednesday morning.

If the jury convicts Galloway of murder, it then must decide whether to impose 
life in prison or the death penalty, a distinct phase of trial that could last 
until mid-July.

Galloway's defense, and his comments in court, hinge on his claim that he shot 
Anderson in self-defense at a self-storage lot in central Colorado Springs 
after the homeless methamphetamine addict stole Galloway's pistol and 
threatened him with it.

Galloway's attorneys say the trauma of that encounter led to a mental break in 
which he killed Nam, an ex-girlfriend he blamed for what they call a wrongful 
conviction for stalking.

That conviction cost him his job at Atmel Corp., and he was on his way to 
prison. A day before he was to be sentenced for stalking, he cut off an ankle 
monitor and went on the run Jan. 7, 2016.

Galloway's defense team fought for separate trials in part because Galloway had 
separate explanations for the killings - arguing that trying the cases together 
would prejudice a jury and leave it less able to consider the crimes 
individually.

The presiding judge, Gregory Werner, ordered the trials joined over their 
protests in June 2017, arguing the killings were tied by common evidence.

In ordering that Galloway must address all the allegations against him should 
he testify, Werner cited appellate rulings that found defendants cannot pick 
and choose which charges they address when they elect to take the stand.

Under Werner's rulings, Galloway could have been questioned about his 2015 
conviction for stalking Nam, 26, as well as her multiple protection orders 
against him, had he elected to testify.

Galloway's attorneys, led by public defender Daniel King, renewed their 
objections to Werner's rulings, saying the judge was forcing Galloway to choose 
between his right to remain silent and his right to testify in his defense.

The defense has argued that Nam invented or exaggerated allegations against 
their client to get revenge for his infidelity, driving his mental break.

His attorneys presented at least 5 women who had dated Galloway. All said he 
wasn't physically or emotionally abusive and showed no signs of stalking.

Annalethea Bladow of Silverthorne, Galloway's ex-wife and the mother of his 2 
sons, said he never abused her emotionally, though she admitted to saying 
otherwise in a petition for child support.

Prosecutors previously called a domestic violence expert who testified that 
women who capitulate to abusers may not suffer abuse.

The women all testified they were assertive with Galloway without retaliation. 
Their testimony drew frequent objections from prosecutors, who called it 
irrelevant to the murders.

Testimony is expected to continue at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

(source: Colorado Springs Gazette)