[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., FLA., LA., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

March 1



TEXAS:

Delacerda will get new attorney for appeal of death sentence



A Hardin County jury on Tuesday handed down the state's 1st death sentence of 
2018, deciding a Kountze man convicted of torturing and killing his 
girlfriend's 4-year-old daughter is irredeemable and likely to commit future 
violent crimes.

The jury deliberated for more than 3 hours before unanimously determining there 
was no reason Jason Wade Delacerda, 40, should spend his life in prison instead 
of being executed by lethal injection.

"What mitigates the horror that she lived in? What mitigates the pain she 
suffered?" District Attorney David Sheffield asked during his closing 
statements, holding up a picture of Breonna Nichole Loftin, who prosecutors 
said was abused for weeks before she died.

He asked the jury to think about how they would explain to Breonna their 
decision not to sentence him to death.

"This is a wrong that we cannot turn right for her," he said. "However, we can 
prevent one last death. We can prevent the death of justice for her."

Defense attorneys James Makin and Ryan Gertz, attempting to save Delacerda's 
life, argued Tuesday morning that he was unlikely to commit future violent acts 
while in prison.

They provided the jury with more than 600 pages of records documenting his time 
in the Hardin County Jail for the last 6 1/2 years years and called Beaumont 
psychiatrist Edward Gripon to testify that "in a prison setting, his risk of 
future violence is low."

In his closing statement, Makin told the jury not to let Delacerda's son, who 
testified Monday, live with the knowledge that he was part of the process that 
killed his father.

His son was not in the courtroom Tuesday and did not speak during his testimony 
about the punishment his father should receive.

"Your verdict says that, between life and death, Jason made the wrong choice," 
Gertz said, telling the jury that they could make the right choice instead. 
"Some of you are people of faith," he said, and asked them to consider their 
moral compass.

"This was, absolutely, a terrible tragedy. Nobody's condoning it, supporting 
it, nobody likes it. But there's nothing we can do. There's not one thing you 
can do in that room that fixes this for this little girl." he said.

Assistant District Attorney Bruce Hoffer, who was emotional as he addressed the 
jury, said Delacerda would be a danger to other prisoners and has a history of 
trouble, pointing to past misdemeanor convictions and a threat he allegedly 
made to kill his parents in 1996.

"The facts of this case tell you Breonna went from being that loving little 
child to laying on a gurney at the morgue because of moving in with 
(Delacerda)," he said.

During his closing statement, Sheffield said Delacerda's son's testimony was 
the "most compelling." He said Monday that his father punched, kicked, choked 
and abused Breonna "all the time" the summer before she died, forcing her to 
stand on bottlecaps all night and sit in bathtubs of ice for hours.

The 19-year-old said that while he and his brother visited their biological 
father, he put pushpins in Breonna's face and fingers and paddled her so hard 
she bruised and bled.

During his testimony, he said at first the 4-year-old cried, but then "she got 
used to it."

Sheffield said visualizing and reliving the abuse was difficult, and it was 
clear that it affected him as a then-12-year-old. "He's a victim, too. He 
carries that with him all the time," he said.

Delacerda did not visibly react when the verdict was read.

Makin said afterward that he and Gertz told their client that the death penalty 
was likely when they explained their strategy last week. They did not 
cross-examine witnesses, make an opening statement or call any witnesses of 
their own during the guilt/innocence phase, and objected to all evidence that 
did not relate to the 24 to 48 hours before Breonna died. The judge's decision 
to include that evidence will be targeted in their appeal, they've said.

As a death penalty case, it will go automatically to the Texas Court of 
Criminal Appeals for review, and new counsel will be appointed.

Gertz said they have an appellate attorney in mind who they will request be 
assigned to the case.

Breonna's mother, Amanda Guidry, is also charged with capital murder. She was 
released on bond in 2014. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty in her 
case.

After Delacerda was sentenced, Hoffer praised Sheffield for deciding to seek 
the death penalty in the case, as well as the District Attorney's Office and 
Hardin County law enforcement for their work.

He said Breonna's family members who testified last week chose not to attend 
the sentencing.

"This was very hard, and everybody deals with things in different ways," he 
said.

During his closing statement last week, before Delacerda was found guilty, he 
showed a picture of Breonna to the jury and played a clip of a song from the 
movie "Pitch Perfect," called "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone."

He declined to comment on the decision last week, but said Tuesday that it was 
inspired by the last words Breonna said to her grandmother, Wanda Bailey. 
Bailey was not allowed to testify about that conversation, because it was ruled 
hearsay, but Hoffer said Breonna was trying to tell Bailey goodbye.

"This case goes back 6 1/2 years," he said. "Everybody at that time knew this 
case should end this way."

(source: Beaumont Enterprise)








NEW HAMPSHIRE:

Sununu Vows Veto of Death Penalty Repeal



Governor Chris Sununu says he will veto a death penalty repeal bill if it 
reaches his desk.

The Republican released a statement on Wednesday saying that a top priority for 
his administration has been strengthening laws for crime victims and their 
families, and that "the most heinous crimes warrant the death penalty."

A bipartisan group of lawmakers are backing a measure, SB 593, which would do 
away with capital punishment in New Hampshire. The bill has 13 co-sponsors in 
the Senate, enough votes to pass the chamber where similar bills have stalled 
in recent years.

Michael Addison, who was convicted in 2008 for the murder of Manchester Police 
Officer Michael Briggs, is the only person currently on death row. SB 593 would 
not impact his case.

Read Sununu's full statement:

"I stand with crime victims, members of the law enforcement community, and 
advocates for justice in opposing a repeal of the death penalty. A top priority 
of my administration has been to strengthen laws for crime victims and their 
families. Repealing the death penalty sends us in exactly the wrong direction, 
and I will veto the bill if it reaches my desk. There is no doubt that the most 
heinous crimes warrant the death penalty."

(source: nhpr.org)








FLORIDA:

Supreme Court rejects 9 death penalty appeals



After similar rulings recently in at least 80 other cases, the Florida Supreme 
Court on Wednesday rejected appeals from 9 death row inmates.

All of the cases involve inmates who were sentenced to death before a June 2002 
cutoff date.

The appeals stemmed from a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a case known as 
Hurst v. Florida and a subsequent Florida Supreme Court decision.

The 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling found Florida's death-penalty sentencing 
system was unconstitutional because it gave too much authority to judges, 
instead of juries.

The subsequent Florida Supreme Court ruling said juries must unanimously agree 
on critical findings before judges can impose death sentences and must 
unanimously recommend the death penalty.

But the Florida Supreme Court made the new sentencing requirements apply to 
cases since June 2002.

That is when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling known as Ring v. Arizona 
that was a premise for striking down Florida's death-penalty sentencing system 
in 2016.

In each of the recent cases, the Death Row inmates had been sentenced to death 
before the Ring decision and argued unsuccessfully that the new unanimity 
requirements should also apply to their cases.

The inmates who lost appeals Wednesday were Darryl Brian Barwick in a Bay 
County case; Paul Anthony Brown in a Volusia County case; Milford Wade Byrd in 
a Hillsborough County case; Louis B. Gaskin in a Flagler County case; Mark 
Allen Geralds in a Bay County case; Ronald Palmer Heath in an Alachua County 
case; Thomas Dewey Pope in a Broward County case; Bobby Allen Raleigh in a 
Volusia County case; and Pablo San Martin in a Miami-Dade County case.

(source: news4jax.com)

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

Appeals Denied for 2 Death Row Inmates



The Florida Supreme Court has denied appeals from 2 local murderers who were 
hoping to get off death row.

Mark Allen Geralds was convicted of murdering housewife Tressa Pettibone at her 
Panama City home in February of 1989. Darryl Brian Barwick was convicted of the 
rape and murder of Rebecca Wendt in Panama City in March of 1986.

Both men had been seeking a new sentencing phase in their case following the 
U.S. Supreme Court's decision that Florida's method for determining the death 
penalty was unconstitutional. However, the Florida Supreme Court has ruled that 
cases that were decided before June of 2002 are not eligible for this appeal.

(source: mypanhandle.com)

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

Poll suggests Pinellas County residents oppose the death penalty----By a more 
than 2-to-1 margin, most said they prefer that those convicted of heinous 
crimes face life in prison. But there's a catch.



A Public Policy Polling survey of Pinellas County voters suggests that only 30 
5 of voters favor the death penalty in murder cases while some 68 % prefer life 
in prison in some capacity. About 48 % preferred "life in prison with no parole 
and a requirement to work in prison and pay restitutions to the victims."

12 % selected life with no parole and 8 % said they believed convicts should 
have the option of parole after a minimum of 40 years.

A solid majority of voters surveyed (60 %) also said they opposed executing 
those with mental illness and half said they oppose putting convicts to death 
who are under 21.

The sample size of the poll was relatively small; just 269 Pinellas County 
voters were surveyed. Plus, it was conducted over January 22-23, weeks before a 
gunman killed 17 at Broward County's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Yet if the poll is any indication of how Pinellas County voters generally feel 
about the death penalty, it means their views are at odds with those of 
Pinellas/Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe. Anti-death penalty advocates say 
his office has filed to seek death in 15 pending cases and 6 re-sentences. 9 
death penalty trials are already scheduled for 2018.

Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, according to a Harvard study, are 2 of 16 
outlier counties in terms of the number of death penalty cases that are tried 
there. On Jan. 23, practically as the poll was being conducted, Hillsborough 
County State Attorney Andrew Warren called for the death penalty for the 
Seminole Heights killer.

The poll could reflect the national sentiment. After all, political observers 
have often noted that Pinellas County is somewhat of a demographic 
cross-section of the rest of the country.

Most who oppose the death penalty do so out of concern over individuals who 
were wrongly convicted. Another concern is the taxpayer cost of keeping an 
individual on death row while attorneys file multiple appeals.

"After evaluating other recent polls on this issue, it has become clear that a 
trend has emerged in Florida as voters increasingly prefer alternatives to the 
death penalty. Whether due to the high cost, the legal chaos, or the risk of 
executing innocent people, many voters simply don't think the death penalty is 
a useful tool anymore," said Stephen K. Harper, director of the Florida Center 
for Capital Representation at FIU College of Law, in a written statement.

In the wake of the poll, death penalty opponents have urged elected officials 
to reconsider employing the death penalty.

"The survey results make clear that the state attorney's office is ignoring the 
will of the overwhelming majority of Pinellas County constituents who prefer 
life sentences for those convicted of murder," said Mark Elliott, director of 
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. "Expensive death penalty 
trials do nothing to prevent violent crime, protect law enforcement, or help 
victims' families in meaningful ways, and mistakes are also all-too-common."

(source: cltampa.com)








LOUISIANA:

Jefferson Parish DA won't seek death penalty in Metaire quadruple murder case



Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick will not seek the death penalty 
for a man charged in a quadruple murder at a Metairie apartment complex last 
year.

A grand jury charged Armande Tart with 4 counts of 1st-degree murder in July 
but Connick did not immediately indicate whether he would pursue capital 
punishment. That happened in a hearing in 24th Judicial District Court on 
Monday, when Assistant District Attorney Rachel Africk told Judge John Molaison 
that the state will only seek mandatory life in prison, according to court 
records.

Records also show that the Capital Project of South Louisiana withdrew as 
Tart's counsel and that a lawyer with the Jefferson Parish Public Defender's 
Office will represent him.

The crime Tart is accused of involved several aggravating factors, including 
drugs, burglary and multiple victims, which qualified it to be a 1st-degree 
murder case. But it was still up to the DA's office to decide if it would seek 
the death penalty, which would take a unanimous jury to convict, or life in 
prison, which requires only 10 jurors to agree.

Connick's office does not comment on open cases.

Tart, 21, of New Orleans, is accused of killing 4 people in the early morning 
hours of March 15 and injuring another woman, whom he shot in the face.

The woman called 911 and was rushed to University Medical Center as deputies 
discovered the bodies of Rosemary Charles, a 61-year-old elder care worker, and 
her boyfriend, John Edward Henry, 56.

Charles and Henry each had been shot once in the head. A visiting friend, Kyle 
Turner, 40, was shot twice in the head.

In another apartment in the same complex, 56-year-old Harold Frisard was found 
dead from multiple stab wounds to the head.

In addition to 4 counts of 1st-degree murder, Tart was charged with 1 count of 
attempted 1st-degree murder and 1 count of obstruction of justice.

(source: The New Orleans Advocate)








OHIO:

Selection process for Golsby trial moves slowly, as attorneys probe jurors 
regarding death penalty



Jury selection in the murder trial of Brian Golsby will head into its 5th day 
Thursday. Golsby is accused of the rape and murder of 21-year-old Ohio State 
University student Reagan Tokes. If convicted, Golsby faces the possibility of 
the death penalty.

The process of jury selection started with more than 200 potential jurors 
filling out a 22-page questionnaire asking about their backgrounds, their 
families and their beliefs about crime and punishment.

Selecting a jury for a death penalty case in Ohio requires that potential 
jurors are first "death qualified."

Attorneys have been explaining the process of a death penalty trial to the 
jurors and then questioning them about whether they would be able to put "pen 
to paper" and sign their name on a death sentence if necessary.

Some jurors have been excused after expressing that they would be unable to 
sign someone's death sentence. Others have been excused because of opinions 
formed from exposure to pre-trial media coverage.

Through Wednesday, 45 jurors have selected as "death qualified." Judge Mark 
Serrott said he wants a pool of at least 50 before moving into the final stage 
of selecting the 12 jurors plus alternates who will hear the case.

(source: WCMH news)