[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., OHIO, TENN., S.DAK., USA

[Rick Halperin]

October 30



TEXAS:

Jurors deciding fate of hitman who killed Uptown dentist shown his 'Life or 
Death,' '1 Man Army' tattoos

The pediatric dentist who was gunned down in 2015 in the parking garage of her 
Uptown apartment loved children, built houses for people in need and served on 
mission trips in third-world countries, her family and friends testified 
Monday.

In contrast, the hitman who killed Kendra Hatcher has a lengthy criminal 
history, according to testimony during the punishment phase of the trial for 
34-year-old Kristopher Love.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Love, who was convicted last 
week of capital murder in Hatcher's death.

Her loved ones said she was universally loved, which made her murder-for-hire 
so shocking to them.

"Nobody disliked her," Hatcher's sister, Ashley Turner, testified.

Prosecutors showed jurors pictures of Hatcher through the phases of her life: a 
3-year-old girl grinning at the camera, a high school honor student, a dental 
school graduate, a pediatric dentist treating children abroad.

Prosecutors also showed jurors photos of Love covered in tattoos that read 
"Life Or Death" and "1 MAN ARMY."

Love was allegedly hired by Brenda Delgado, the ex-girlfriend of Hatcher's 
boyfriend. Delgado, 36, is also charged with capital murder in Hatcher's death. 
Her trial has not been scheduled.

After Hatcher's death, Delgado fled to Mexico. She was extradited from Mexico 
in 2016 and is not eligible for the death penalty as part of the extradition 
agreement.

Delgado, 36, is accused of being the mastermind behind a murder plot allegedly 
fueled by jealousy over her ex-boyfriend's relationship with Hatcher.

A third person, 26-year-old Crystal Cortes, was also charged with capital 
murder for her role as the getaway driver. She pleaded guilty to a reduced 
charge of murder. She expects to receive a 35-year sentence in exchange for her 
testimony in Love's trial and later Delgado's trial.

Cortes testified she was paid $500 for her role as the getaway driver. She said 
Love was paid in "drugs and money" but didn't know the exact amount.

Although Cortes originally told police she didn't know there was a plan to kill 
Hatcher, she testified during Love's trial that she knew Delgado wanted Hatcher 
dead.

She said the trio took turns following Hatcher during the 1 weeks before her 
death. She also admitted she tried to buy a silencer for the handgun that was 
used to kill Hatcher.

Telephone records show that Love was texting about selling marijuana before and 
after Hatcher was killed, and his text messages included conversations about 
working as a pimp.

His cellphone was near Hatcher's apartment at least twice before the murder, 
the records showed.

Hatcher was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head Sept. 2, 2015.

Her family said they were stunned to learn how she died. Hatcher grew up in a 
small town in Illinois with 4 siblings.

"This doesn't happen in central Illinois," Turner said. "We didn't know evil 
like this existed."

After Hatcher was killed, Turner searched for a video that captured her 
sister's laugh.

"I wish she could just walk through the room and do it for you," Turner 
testified Monday. "She was full of life and full of love."

Hatcher was excited about her relationship with Ricardo Paniagua, whom she 
started dating in May 2015. Paniagua testified that he had remained friends 
with Delgado after their breakup and said the woman knew he was in a serious 
relationship.

Hatcher and Paniagua were scheduled to go to Mexico on vacation Sept. 3, 2015, 
the day after Hatcher was killed. They were also planning to go to Hatcher's 
hometown the following weekend.

Tami Patano met Hatcher while they were in dental school. She said she 
struggled to find the words to describe her best friend.

"Her laugh was contagious. It was just so high-pitched and full of joy," she 
said.

"Last time I talked to Kendra was a week before she passed," Patano said, 
pausing to look at Love, "before she was murdered."

Like Hatcher's family, Patano said she hasn't recovered from her grief. She 
said she is plagued by anxiety and fear. She regularly looks over her shoulder 
and even struggles to perform surgeries because the sight of blood makes her 
think of how her friend died.

She also said she couldn't understand why Hatcher was killed.

"Kendra did not participate with drugs or crime," Patano said. "She did not 
associate with questionable people."

Prosecutors also presented jurors Love's criminal history Monday, which 
includes aggravated assault charges and a burglary of a habitation in 
Tennessee, where Love is from.

The sentencing phase of the trial continues Tuesday.

(source: Dallas Morning News)








FLORIDA:

Florida man on death row for 42 years fighting for his life; Private 
investigator says he didn't kill anyone----Florida inmate fights for his life



It was a gruesome crime. 5 people were gunned down in a furniture store in 
Winter Garden, Florida.

Only one made it out alive and that lone survivor is still dodging death 
42-years later. "I didn't do it," Tommy Zeigler said. "They got a conviction 
and here I am stuck."

A judge overruled a jury and sent Tommy Zeigler to death row in 1976.

Private investigator Lynn Marie Carty has spent years digging up evidence that 
she believes proves Tommy didn't kill anyone.

She showed us file folders packed with information about witnesses ignored or 
prevented from appearing at his trial.

"This was all hidden from the judge and the jury," Carty said. "They didn't 
have all the information. The guy didn't do anything and we kept him there."

Zeigler swears he is innocent. He believes if jurors heard from all of the 
witnesses, or knew about the DNA results that would come years later, and not 
been intimidated into voting guilty, he would not be where he is today.

What he wants is a new trial to clear his name.

"They can use every bit of that testimony," Ziegler said. "They can bring it 
all back into that courtroom and present it to a jury and let me present what 
we have now."

Why is the state of Florida so reluctant to allow Zeigler's case back in court? 
Is there a chance he could be the next Florida death row inmate to be 
exonerated?

(source: WFLA news)








OHIO:

Judges spare Warren County man from death penalty in murder of sister



A Warren County man was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Monday 
for murdering his sister and attempting to murder her husband in a robbery 
committed to get money to buy heroin.

Judges Joseph Kirby, Donald Oda II and Robert Peeler came to the unanimous 
verdict after less than an hour of deliberation.

Christopher G. Kirby, 38, of South Lebanon, was the final witness in the trial, 
begun last week in Warren County Common Pleas Court.

Kirby apologized to his wife, children and other relatives, some of whom lived 
in the home in South Lebanon where the crimes resulting in the capital murder 
case were committed on Sept. 15, 2017.

"I would give anything to take that night back," he said, while offering a 
reason for sparing his life. "I'd like to see my children grow."

Last week, the 3-judge panel found Kirby guilty of murdering his adoptive 
sister Deborah Power, 63, and attempting to murder her husband, Ronnie Power, 
66, at the home the Kirbys and Powers shared with other family in South 
Lebanon.

Kirby was found guilty of beating both Powers with a baseball bat after Deborah 
Power told him he and his wife would have to move out of the house. Evidence 
showed Deborah Power told the Kirbys to move out after Kirby overdrew their 
bank account to buy heroin for he and his wife.

On Monday, Kirby's lawyers called 2 psychologists, his aunt and a friend during 
the mitigation phase of the trial.

The psychologists testified that Kirby suffered from mental illness, but 
prosecutors attacked their testimony.

His aunt, Loraine Anderson, remembered Kirby as a young boy playing with Legos 
and toy cars.

"There's so much death already in our family," she said in asking Kirby instead 
be sentenced to life without parole.

His friend, Gabe Ely, recalled their friendship as boys and young men and how 
Kirby was sent to the Madison Correctional Institution for about 18 months for 
non-support in Butler County. This stemmed from a previous marriage.

In April, his 2nd wife, Jacqueline "Jackie" Kirby, 31, was sentenced to 3 years 
on probation for receiving stolen property and misuse of credit cards in the 
case. She was also ordered to enter outpatient recovery.

Last Wednesday, the prosecution and defense rested after the testimony of 
Detective Jay Henning.

"This is your opportunity, last opportunity, to tell us what happened," Henning 
told Kirby as he and another detective questioned him and his wife separately 
at the sheriff's office.

In a video played in court, Kirby told detectives he beat Deborah and Ronnie 
Power with a bat after being told he and his wife would have to leave after he 
overdrew the family's bank account.

Kirby also admitted he and his wife traded a TV he took after the assaults for 
heroin.

He said the violence came about after his expectations that he would be able to 
reimburse the Powers, who supported the household with Social Security 
payments, fell apart.

Henning said he was investigating a felonious assault report involving the 
beating of Ronnie Power when they found Deborah Power’s body in a locked room 
at the house.

"Does Ohio have the death penalty? Can I ask for it?" Kirby asked after being 
served with murder, attempted murder and robbery charges by the detectives.

The judges ruled the prosecutors failed to prove the crime outweighed 
mitigating factors brought up by the defense, Kirby's cooperation in the 
investigation and willingness to give up his right to a jury trial.

The judges also sentenced Kirby to 11 years in the attempted aggravated murder 
of Ronnie Power.

(source: mydaytondailynews.com)








TENNESSEE:

Potential jurors questioned about death penalty in trial of man accused of 
killing Memphis police officer



Somewhere, among the 140 Shelby County citizens that make a Criminal Court jury 
pool, are the 12 people who will decide the fate of Tremaine Wilbourn, who if 
found guilty, could face execution for killing Memphis police officer Sean 
Bolton.

Wilbourn is charged with fatally shooting Bolton shortly after 9 p.m. on Aug. 
1, 2015, in the 4800 block of Summerlane in the area of Cottonwood and South 
Perkins.

Jury selection was expected to end on Monday, but by late afternoon, it was not 
clear if the pool would be whittled down to size by Tuesday.

"In the death penalty case there's going to be jurors who believe they cannot 
impose the death penalty. By the same token, there's jurors who believe a 
person convicted of 1st-degree murder should always get the death penalty," 
Ganguli said. "And so the law is that jurors must be able to follow the law, 
which includes imposition of the death penalty. But they must also be able to 
consider mitigation. It's not mandatory that Tremaine gets the death penalty."

Late last year, attorneys asked the court to no longer require Wilbourn to wear 
stun cuff while in court, but they were unsuccessful.

Wilbourn has been charged with having drugs in jail and will wear a shock 
device around his waist during the trial, Ganguli said.

"I don't think it's necessary and we asked for the court not to do it, but for 
courtroom security purposes, it's going to happen," he said.

Wilbourn is now somber, his attorneys said.

"This is a very serious matter, obviously. And we've spent quite a bit of time 
with him over the last week talking to him. But he is obviously taking this 
very seriously and he is somber," said defense lawyer Laurie Hall.

On Monday, some of those potential jurors were released based on answers in a 
juror questionnaire about the death penalty.

Others were dismissed after Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee clarified the legal 
mandates on a death penalty ruling or what he called "1st-degree murder plus 
something else."

The "something else" are the mitigating circumstances that will be presented 
during the trial, Coffee said.

Bolton, 33, according to police reports, pulled in front of a red 2002 
Mercedes-Benz that had stopped on the side of the street, got out of his 
cruiser and approached the car. Wilbourn, a passenger in the Mercedes, got out 
of the vehicle and the men began to struggle.

Police said Wilbourn pulled out a gun and fired on Bolton at close range. An 
autopsy report stated Bolton was hit 8 times.

The report said Bolton was struck in the face, the right forearm, the right 
hip, the back of the right leg, the right torso, twice in the back of the left 
thigh and the right hand, with fatal shots to his abdomen. Those shots pierced 
Bolton's liver, small intestine, small bowel, ascending colon and a major blood 
vessel, the report stated.

Later, officers found drug paraphernalia as well as 1.7 grams of marijuana in 
the Mercedes.

A man from the neighborhood picked up Bolton’s police radio and called 
dispatchers for help. Bolton was rushed to the Regional Medical Center in 
critical condition, where the autopsy report shows doctors spent an hour trying 
to revive him, but could not.

At the time of the shooting Wilbourn, 32, was out on supervised release from 
federal court for a 121-month sentence for bank robbery. He turned himself in 
on Aug. 3, 2015, to U.S. Marshals.

While in custody on 1st-degree murder charges, Wilbourn was charged with 
inciting to riot, resisting detention, drug charges and bringing in contraband.

Wilbourn pleaded guilty in April 2017 to a carjacking on the same day as the 
officer's shooting. He pleaded guilty to taking a 2002 Honda Accord, 
brandishing a gun during the carjacking and being a felon in possession of 9mm 
ammunition.

Dispatchers received an alert about the carjacking after Bolton was shot.

Wilbourn was sentenced to 28 years in prison by federal Judge Sheryl H. Lipman, 
who said during his hearing that he had a criminal history that went back to 
childhood and that he had been placed in protective custody several times.

(source: Memphis Commercial Appeal)








SOUTH DAKOTA----execution

South Dakota executes inmate whose brother was put to death in Oklahoma after 
Supreme Court clears way



Rodney Berget, a man convicted of killing a prison guard in a foiled escape 
from the South Dakota State Penitentiary, was executed by lethal injection 
Monday night after a delay of several hours.

Berget was sentenced to death for the 2011 killing of correctional officer Ron 
"RJ" Johnson during a failed prison escape attempt. Berget had been serving a 
life sentence for an attempted murder and kidnapping conviction.

The execution came after 6 years of court delays and debates over his 
intellectual capabilities, and 5 hours of delays Monday.

"The execution of inmate Rodney Berget was carried out in accordance with state 
law," DOC spokesman Michael Winder said at 8:10 p.m.

"He (Berget) chose to be evil," Ronald Johnson's daughter said. "We choose as a 
family to be better."

The other inmate who attempted to escape the prison, Eric Robert, was executed 
in 2012 after pleading guilty to the murder. Michael Nordman was sentenced to 
life in prison for providing the plastic wrap and pipe used in the killing.

A little after 6:30 p.m. CT, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the 
lethal injection for Berget, 56, after 7 years on the state's death row. As 
South Dakota's attorney general, Marty Jackley, waited for the Supreme Court 
decision, Berget's scheduled 1:30 p.m. execution time came and went.

The execution, the state's 4th since reinstating the death penalty in 1979, 
would take place Monday evening, Jackley said.

Berget, who is the 2nd member of his family to be sentenced to death, had filed 
an affidavit over the weekend saying he told Yackel not to pursue an appeal.

His affidavit indicated that he didn't want to contest his execution, and he 
said he refused a visit Oct. 2 from Yackel. In 2000, Berget's older brother 
Roger was executed in Oklahoma after being convicted in 1987 of killing a man 
to steal his car.

"Berget wants to partially redeem himself in the public eye and in the minds of 
his family by accepting his punishment," Jackley wrote in his response to the 
U.S. Supreme Court. "It is not Juliet Yackel’s place to thwart Berget’s 
wishes."

Yackel has an extensive background as defense counsel in death penalty cases. 
She represented former Indiana death row inmate Darnell Williams, who was 
granted a stay of execution in 2003 in a nationally prominent case and later 
had his sentence commuted to life without parole.

In her reply to the state's brief in opposition, Yackel argued that the lower 
court's decision on Berget's mental capacity was "fundamentally flawed" in 
disregarding early precedents and that Berget's lawyer "abandoned his ethical 
duties as counsel." She added that Berget "lacks the capacity to represent 
himself."

The Bergets are not the 1st pair of siblings to be condemned. In at least 3 
cases, brothers who conspired to commit crimes both have received the death 
penalty. But Rodney and Roger Berget stand out because their crimes were 
separated by more than 600 miles and 25 years.

"To have it in different states in different crimes is some sort of commentary 
on the family there," Executive Director Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty 
Information Center, which tracks death penalty trends, said in 2012.

The younger Berget spent months with fellow inmate Eric Robert on a plan to 
kill a prison guard so they could escape or die trying. They would corner a 
solitary guard and beat him with a pipe before covering his face with plastic 
wrap.

Once the guard was dead, Robert would put on the dead man's uniform and push a 
box with Berget inside as the prison gates opened for a daily delivery. The 2 
would slip through the walls unnoticed.

Ron "RJ" Johnson became that solitary target April 12, 2011, his 63rd birthday. 
His attackers made it outside 1 gate before another guard stopped them.

Afterward in a statement to a judge, Rodney acknowledged that he deserved to 
die.

"I knew what I was doing, and I continued to do it," Berget said in 2011. "I 
destroyed a family. I took away a father, a husband, a grandpa."

On Monday outside the state penitentiary, the execution's delay was met with 
mixed reaction. Death penalty protesters saw signs of hope while capital 
punishment proponents bristled at the legal maneuvers.

"Unbelievable," a supporter of Berget's execution yelled as another supporter 
held up a cellphone, showing her the news that the execution was on hold.

With flags and buttons bearing Johnson's image, the supporters, largely friends 
of the Johnson family, nervously paced around the front yard of the prison 
frustrated at 7 years of delays.

On the other side, more than 30 protesters showed up to make a statement 
against what would be the 19th execution in South Dakota history. Robert, 
Berget's accomplice, was put to death in 2012 weeks before the state's most 
recent execution before Monday.

Jessie Tewinkel, a niece of Johnson who has been a prison volunteer for 35 
years and was at Robert's execution, said her uncle was murdered, but she still 
doesn't support the death penalty.

"I believe South Dakota's going the wrong way," she said.

Berget becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death in South Dakota this 
year and the 4th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 2007. 
Berget is the 19th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and 
the 1484th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

(sources: USA Today & Rick Halperin)

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

Groups Are Trying to Abolish the Death Penalty



Protesters and supporters came out Monday for the execution of Rodney Berget. 
South Dakota is one of 30 states that still serve capital punishment. Now, 
groups are making a point to abolish the death penalty.

"When I was out there I was saying we might as well be at the guillotine right 
now. That's how gross it feels," says Heather Smith ACLU's Executive Director.

Smith describes the scene at the state penitentiary ahead of Rodney Berget's 
execution.

Smith is passionate about seeing the end of the death penalty.

"As South Dakotan's I want to believe we are better than this eye for an eye 
tactic," says Smith.

The state's last execution was October 2012. Since then groups are acting.

"For the last 6 years legislatively we've tried to repeal the death penalty," 
says Denny Davis.

Davis is with South Dakotan's for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

He says executions gather tremendous costs and time, and could be better used 
elsewhere.

"We are human beings. We don't need to do this in South Dakota. We have the 
means to keep society safe and to keep people in prison for the rest of their 
lives without parole," says Davis.

However when it comes to being in support of the death penalty people are 
mixed.

"It's very tough. You don't want to see somebody die, but sometimes it's well 
deserved," says Jason Druda of Sioux Falls.

"I am for the death penalty, but I'm also against it because it's a cruel and 
unusual way of dying," says Tim Riessen of Sioux Falls.

This execution is the states 4th lethal injection since reinstating the death 
penalty in the late 1970s. It’s a list that Davis does not want to see grow.

"We're better people than that. I don't think that we need to do this, and our 
great hope is that we won't have to do this anymore," says Davis.

Supporters of the death penalty were gathered outside the prison, but did not 
want to talk on camera. Many said they were there in support of Ronald 
Johnson's family.

(source: KDLT news)








USA:

Pittsburgh shooting: Robert Bowers could be 2nd Pa. resident sent to federal 
death row



But, since being reinstated in 1988, the federal death penalty has been carried 
out as sparingly as it has in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania has executed 3 men by lethal injection since capital punishment 
was reinstated in the commonwealth in 1976.

Keith Zettlemoyer, 39, was executed on May 2, 1995, for the 1980 murder of 
Charles DeVetsco, a friend who was to testify against Zettlemoyer in a robbery 
trial. Zettlemoyer waived his appeal rights.

Leon Moser, 52, a former seminary student and Army lieutenant, was executed on 
Aug. 15, 1995, for the March 31, 1985 murders of his estranged wife and their 2 
daughters, ages 14 and 10, in the parking lot of St. James Episcopal Church in 
Lower Providence Township. Gary M. Heidnik, 55, who was honorably discharged 
from the U.S. Army after being diagnosed with mental illness, specifically a 
schizoid personality disorder, was executed on July 6, 1999, for the murder of 
2 of the 6 women he kidnapped and tortured in his home between November 1986 
and March 1987.

Currently, Pennsylvania is under a death penalty moratorium issued by Gov. Tom 
Wolf during his first months in office.

The federal government has executed 3 men since 1988. Judges and juries have 
sentenced 80 people to death by lethal injection, the federal form of 
execution.

Timothy McVeigh, 33, was executed at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre 
Haute, Indiana on June 11, 2001, for the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred 
P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including 19 
children in the building's daycare center, and injuring 684 others. McVeigh, 
who was condemned in June 1997 for the deaths of 8 federal officials in the 
bombing, waived his final appeals.

Juan Raul Garza, 43, a drug dealer, was executed June 19, 2001, 8 days after 
McVeigh, in the same Indiana federal complex. He was convicted under the 
federal Drug Kingpin Act for the August 1993 murders of 3 drug traffickers in 
Texas.

Louis Jones, 53, a decorated Gulf War veteran, was executed on March 18, 2003, 
for the November 1995 kidnapping, rape and murder of a 19-year-old female Army 
private from Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas. Jones claimed he 
committed the murder because of the Gulf War Syndrome trauma he had suffered 
while on active duty.

Hate crimes and terrorism

Dylann Roof, 24, is the 1st person to face capital punishment in the U.S. for 
federal hate crimes. He was sentenced to death in January 2017 for shooting 9 
people in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., 
on June 17, 2015.

Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 25, is the only person on federal 
death row for terrorism and murder. He and his brother planted bombs made from 
pressure cookers near the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing 3 
and injuring more than 200. Tsarnaev was sentenced to death on May 15, 2015.

Pa.'s federal death row inmate

Kaboni Savage, 43, is the only person from Pennsylvania who committed murder in 
Pennsylvania and was federally convicted and sentenced to death. Savage killed 
12 people in connection with a drug enterprise in Philadelphia in 2013.

(source: York Daily Record)

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

Sen. McConnell says he 'embraces the death penalty' following Kentucky, 
Pittsburgh shootings



Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R - Ky., says he 'embraces the death 
penalty' as law enforcement is investigating hate crimes following shootings in 
Louisville and Pittsburgh.

McConnell made the remarks while attending a Federalist Society event at the 
Kentucky House chamber in Frankfort Monday.

His speech was centered mostly on Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation, 
but he also discussed the deadly shootings at a Louisville-area Kroger and a 
Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

McConnell told a group of conservative judges and lawyers that the shootings 
should have people once again talking about capital punishment. He says both 
shootings are clear cases of hate crimes.

"I'm also somebody who still embraces the death penalty. I know that is out of 
fashion, in our country, but there are times when that is the appropriate 
response," McConnell said.

The FBI is investigating the Kentucky Kroger shooting as a hate crime, as 
police believe racism was an underlying motive. The suspect, Gregory Bush, a 
white man, killed 2 black people at the supermarket. Authorities in 
Pennsylvania say suspect Robert Bowers said he just wanted "to kill Jews" when 
11 were killed at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

McConnell was asked if he thought the recent political rhetoric was a factor in 
the shootings, and he said he does believe it needs to be toned down on both 
sides.

(source: WKYT news)