[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., FLA., ALA., ARK., OKLA., IDAHO, USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 5



NORTH CAROLINA:

James Bradley escapes death penalty in third murder conviction



A New Hanover County jury could not come to a decision as to whether James 
Bradley should be sentenced to death or spend life in prison for the murder of 
Elisha Tucker.

Instead, the judge declared a mistrial, which means Bradley will receive an 
automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“A serial killer is off the streets of southeastern North Carolina and will 
never walk among us again,” New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David 
said.

“3 strikes and you’re out” were the words of David to 3-time convicted killer.

Bradley has had 2 murder trials in 2 years along with his 1988 murder 
conviction of his 8-year-old stepdaughter.

“I can tell you that it’s mercifully rare to see pure evil,” David said. “With 
Bradley, he’s pure evil.”

Bradley killed Ivy Gibson, Shannon Rippy Van Newkirk and Elisha Tucker.

“If there’s going to be a death penalty in this state, there are times when it 
needs to be enforced,” he said. “This was that defendant. This was that case.”

It’s a sentence the district attorney’s office offered Bradley several times 
during the years and most recently during closing arguments, if he would tell 
them where Shannon Rippy Van Newkirk‘s body was located. He denied the offer 
every time.

“Right when we found Elisha Tucker and were still looking for Shannon Rippy, 
that if he would just take us to Shannon’s body, we would give him life without 
parole,” David said.

Bradley was convicted in 2017 of killing Van Newkirk, but her body has never 
been found. Friday will mark 5 years since she was reported missing.

While investigators were searching for Van Newkirk, they found Tucker’s body 
buried in trash bags and wrapped in duct tape in Hampstead in 2014. Bradley was 
sentenced to between 30-37 years in prison for Van Newkirk’s murder.

Bradley previously spend 2 decades in prison for killing his 8-year-old 
stepdaughter.

“I believe personally, that this is one of the few things that he can still 
control and still be cruel about,” he said.

As David emphasized throughout this trial, it’s not about Bradley, but those 
whose lives were brutally taken.

“There’s no joy in this,” he said. “There’s justice. There’s no question that 
justice has been done by this jury, and we thank them for their verdict.”

Bradley was immediately taken to Raleigh following the sentencing, where he 
will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

(source: WWAY news)








FLORIDA:

Freed former death row inmate Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin to ask judge for 
compensation today



A man who spent more than a decade on death row will appear before a judge 
Thursday morning to seek legal recognition as having been wrongfully 
incarcerated and request up to $700,000 in compensation.

The hearing comes nearly 5 months after prosecutors dropped all charges against 
Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin, 38, in November. He became the 28th person absolved 
from Florida’s death penalty after spending more than 14 years behind bars.

Aguirre-Jarquin is seeking restitution under the Victims of Wrongful 
Incarceration Compensation Act, a 2008 law providing $50,000 for each year 
somebody was wrongfully incarcerated. His claim will be heard at the Seminole 
County Courthouse 9 a.m. before Circuit Judge John Galluzzo.

Aguirre-Jarquin was sentenced to die for the 2004 slayings of his next door 
neighbors, Cheryl Williams and her mother Carol Bareis. Williams had been 
stabbed more than 120 times. Bareis, who used a wheelchair, was stabbed once in 
the back and once in the heart.

Aguirre-Jarquin, who was friends with Cheryl Williams’ daughter Samantha, 
initially denied knowing anything about the killings, but eventually said he 
had found the women’s bodies after walking into their Altamonte Springs trailer 
looking for beer after a night of drinking.

He said he bloodied his clothes while checking Cheryl Williams for a pulse and 
picked up a knife he found near her body because he did not know whether the 
killer was still in the trailer. He dropped the knife near the trailer and 
bagged his bloody clothes before throwing them on the roof of the shed next 
door, where he lived.

He said he initially misled police and didn’t call authorities after finding 
the bodies because he was an undocumented immigrant who did not want to be 
deported to his native Honduras, where he says gangs killed his friends and 
threatened his life.

Exonerated from death row, freedom is a 'beautiful dream' for Clemente 
Aguirre-Jarquin

Aguirre-Jarquin was the only witness in his defense during his 2006 trial. A 
jury convicted him and recommended his execution. Then-Circuit Judge O.H. Eaton 
sentenced Aguirre-Jarquin to die, but told the Orlando Sentinel last year he 
regretted it, describing the case as a “poster child” for flaws in capital 
punishment.

While he was in prison, Aguirre-Jarquin’s lawyers uncovered testimony that 
Samantha Williams had repeatedly confessed to killing her mother and 
grandmother. Tests on previously un-tested blood from the home found that none 
belonged to Aguirre-Jarquin, but several droplets belonged to Samantha 
Williams.

In 2016, the Florida Supreme Court overturned Aguirre-Jarquin’s conviction and 
ordered a new trial, calling him a “scapegoat” for Samantha Williams, who has 
never been charged in the case. The Seminole-Brevard State Attorney’s Office 
opted to re-try Aguirre-Jarquin, again seeking the death penalty.

Prosecutors abandoned the case at the beginning of his re-trial in November 
after testimony surfaced that undermined Williams’ alibi for the night of the 
killings. Aguirre-Jarquin’s lawyers later filed paperwork seeking to have him 
legally recognized as an unjustly imprisoned person under the 2008 law.

In court filings contesting Aguirre-Jarquin’s claim to innocence, prosecutors 
argued there is still evidence supporting his guilt.

Assistant State Attorney Stewart Stone cited Aguirre-Jarquin’s initial 
dishonesty about having been at the murder scene and questioned his claim that 
he only briefly lifted Cheryl Williams’ body; his clothes, Stone wrote, were 
“essentially saturated with blood.”

Stone also argued Aguirre-Jarquin filed his claim too late. The 2008 law says 
compensation claims need to be filed 90 days after a conviction is vacated. 
Stone says Aguirre-Jarquin should have filed in 2016,after the state’s high 
court overturned his conviction, but while Aguirre-Jarquin was still awaiting 
his 2nd trial.

In court filings last week, Aguirre-Jarquin’s lawyers called the state’s motion 
“absurd” and “Orwellian.”

Aguirre-Jarquin currently lives in a Tampa community for people who were 
wrongfully convicted. He plans on seeking asylum from an immigration judge to 
avoid deportation.

(source: Orlando Sentinel)








ALABAMA----impending execution

State responds to Alabama inmate’s request for stay of execution



The Alabama Attorney General’s Office has responded in a court filing to 
Christopher Price’s motion for a stay of execution, arguing the execution 
shouldn’t be called off because the inmate failed to elect an alternate means 
of execution in a timely matter.

Price, 46, is set to die by lethal injection on April 11 at Holman Correctional 
Facility in Atmore. He was convicted in the 1991 robbery and slaying of Bill 
Lynn and was sentenced to death by a jury’s vote of 10-2. A judge upheld the 
jury’s recommendation and sent Price to death row.

Last week, attorneys for Price filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for 
the Southern District of Alabama asking for a stay of execution. The motion 
filed Friday argues the state’s three-drug lethal injection cocktail could 
cause Price severe pain, and also claims the state’s refusal to allow Price to 
elect the newly approved nitrogen hypoxia method denies him equal protection 
under the Constitution.

The AG’s response, filed Tuesday, states Price was given the forms necessary to 
elect a change of execution method from lethal injection to nitrogen hypoxia 
last summer, when all other inmates on death row were given the same 
opportunity. The state says Price neglected to make that election.

“That counsel failed to keep abreast of relevant developments in a state in 
which he was actively engaged in litigation concerning a death-sentenced inmate 
has no bearing on the question of whether the State treated Price differently 
from other inmates," the filing states. "Price had timely notice, Price could 
have asked counsel if he wanted a legal consultation, and yet Price sat on his 
hands for seven months until the State moved to set his execution date.”

Early last year, Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill giving inmates the option to 
choose execution by nitrogen hypoxia. According to the state, inmates waiting 
to be executed were allowed to opt in the nitrogen method if they wished, but 
had to do so within a 30-day period in June 2018. Of the 177 inmates on 
Alabama’s Death Row, more than 50 inmates have chosen to die by the new method.

ADOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn said the department is working with the AG’s Office 
to develop a protocol for executions by nitrogen hypoxia, but has no timeline 
on when that protocol might be finalized and ready to implement.

One of Price’s attorneys argued in a filing the ADOC allowed some inmates to 
choose nitrogen hypoxia in a manner that was “completely arbitrary” and 
“created 2 classes of death row inmates.”

The state said in its response, “There is nothing irrational about the State 
setting a time limit for an inmate to choose how he would prefer to be 
executed. Requesting an execution date is not a matter the State takes lightly, 
and the [ADOC] must ensure that its equipment and training are up to standard 
before an execution is carried out. Price offers no time limit in his pleading, 
and taking his view to the logical end, an inmate could change his mind as to 
his method of execution up until the moment he entered the death chamber. In 
other words, conceivably, the ADOC could prepare for a lethal injection but be 
blindsided by an 11th-hour nitrogen election.”

The AG’s Office called the current lawsuit a “meritless delay tactic.”

Price also was at the center of a lawsuit in 2014 seeking to block the state 
from setting his execution date, because of what the inmate called a 
“prolonged, excruciating and needless pain,” caused by the lethal injection 
drugs.

Lynn, a minister at Natural Springs Church of Christ, was fatally stabbed 
outside his home in the Bazemore community three days before Christmas. Court 
records state Lynn was putting together Christmas presents for his 
grandchildren, when the power went out. He walked outside to check the power 
box when he was attacked.

Lynn died en route to a local hospital. Price was arrested in Tennessee several 
days later, and was convicted in 1993. Lynn’s wife, Bessie Lynn, was wounded in 
the attack but survived her injuries.

(source: al.com)








ARKANSAS:

Arkansas seeks death penalty in 2017 triple slaying



Prosecutors in Arkansas plan to pursue the death penalty for one of two 
brothers accused in the killing of a Little Rock mother and her two young 
children in 2017.

Pulaski County Chief Deputy Prosecutor John Johnson told Circuit Judge Herb 
Wright on Tuesday that prosecutors would seek the lethal injection for 
26-year-old Michael Collins of Colorado, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 
reported. The county last sought the death penalty in 2009.

Collins and his brother, 22-year-old William Alexander of Little Rock, have 
been charged with capital murder and aggravated robbery in the deaths of 
24-year-old Mariah Cunningham, 5-year-old A'Layliah Fisher and 4-year-old 
Elijah Fisher. The family was found stabbed to death in their Little Rock home 
in December 2017.

The brothers will stand trial separately. Collins' trial date will be scheduled 
at his next hearing on May 28. The death penalty won't be sought for Alexander, 
prosecutors said.

Collins and Alexander were also charged in July with capital murder and 
aggravated robbery in the death of Billie Thornton, 64. Thornton was found dead 
in his Little Rock apartment in July 2017.

Arkansas hasn't performed any executions since 2017, when 4 inmates were 
executed in 8 days.

The last of the state's lethal injection drugs expired in January. Arkansas 
doesn't have any executions scheduled, and state prison officials last year 
said they wouldn't search for any new lethal injection drugs until a law 
keeping the source of drugs secret is expanded to cover manufacturers.

(source: Associated Press)








OKLAHOMA:

Prosecutors Plan To Ask For Death Penalty In Tulsa Triple Murder



Tulsa County prosecutors plan to ask for the death penalty for 1 of 2 men 
charged in a triple homicide last year.

The district attorney says the murders of Marquis Brown, Hosea Fletcher, and 
7-year-old Maziah Brown were especially heinous. They say the proper punishment 
for Keenan Burkhalter, if convicted, should be execution.

Investigators say the 3 were still alive in a home when Burkhalter set the home 
on fire. Another man, Andrew Conard, is awaiting trial for the killings.

(source: newson6.com)



IDAHO:

Judge upholds 2 death sentences for Duncan



A federal judge has upheld 2 of 3 death penalties for a man convicted in a 
gruesome child kidnapping and murder case, and put a 3rd death sentence on hold 
for now.

Joesph Edward Duncan III was sentenced to death after an incredibly violent 
spate of crimes in which he stalked 2 small children, broken into their Coeur 
d’Alene, Idaho, home and killed 3 people there before abducting the 8- and 
9-year-olds.

Duncan then took the kids deep into Montana’s Lolo National Forest, where he 
tortured and raped them for weeks. He eventually killed 9-year-old Dylan 
Groene, and later returned with the 8-year-old girl to Idaho, where he was 
captured.

It was at least his 2nd, and possibly his 4th, child murder: Duncan was later 
convicted in the 1997 abduction and murder of a California boy, and federal 
prosecutors said Duncan confessed to killing 2 young half-sisters in Seattle in 
1996.

Duncan challenged his sentence in the Idaho case on multiple fronts, saying in 
part that his attorneys were ineffective, that graphic video evidence used 
during his sentencing hearing unfairly prejudiced the jury against him, and 
that the judge failed to appreciate how “irrational and deluded” Duncan was 
when he waived his right to appeal.

But Lodge said the court took care to ensure that Duncan was competent to waive 
his rights.

“Duncan competently, clearly, knowingly, intelligently, voluntarily and 
unequivocally elected to waive his right to appeal,” Lodge noted in the ruling. 
“Duncan understood and knew the pros and cons of his decision and that the 
decision was his to make.”

SOME OF the evidence used in the federal case included videos and photographs 
Duncan made that showed him torturing and abusing the children he kidnapped. 
Lodge said that graphic evidence — though it was particularly horrific and 
difficult to watch — had a “clear and overwhelming” value to the jurors as they 
considered whether or not Duncan should be put to death for his crimes.

“The videos capture the very crimes which Duncan has been charged and plead 
guilty to; unmistakably showing Duncan’s heinous, cruel, and depraved manner in 
committing the criminal acts against his victims and the circumstances 
surrounding those acts,” Lodge wrote.

Ultimately, the jury found Duncan should be put to death for 3 of the 10 
federal charges of which he was convicted: kidnapping resulting in death, 
sexual exploitation of a child resulting in death and using a firearm during a 
crime of violence resulting in death.

Lodge upheld the death penalty for the kidnapping and sexual exploitation 
charges, but said his ruling on the death penalty for using a firearm during a 
crime of violence would have to wait.

Both the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court are 
expected to issue rulings soon in separate and unrelated cases that also 
involve the firearm-related charge. Those rulings could determine whether that 
federal crime statute is unconstitutionally vague, as Duncan says in his 
appeal.

Regardless of the outcome on the firearm-related charge, the imposition of the 
death sentences for the kidnapping and sexual exploitation related charges 
remain in full effect, Lodge said.

(source: Associated Press)








USA:

Here’s where 3 governor candidates stand on the death penalty



The 3 announced candidates for governor all have different positions on the 
future of the death penalty in Louisiana -- revealing one of the most striking 
policy contrasts among them in the race, to date.

Baton Rouge businessman Eddie Rispone opposes the death penalty; U.S. Rep. 
Ralph Abraham thinks it should be used more; and Gov. John Bel Edwards won’t 
divulge his personal views, instead saying he will uphold whatever’s in state 
law.

Abraham and Rispone are both Republicans challenging the only Democratic 
governor in the Deep South.

The election is Oct. 12. A Nov. 16 runoff will take place between the top 2 
vote-getters if no candidate gets more than 50 % of the vote in the primary, 
regardless of party.

Louisiana is one of 31 states that still allow the death penalty as a form of 
criminal punishment in law. But the state’s last execution was in 2010, and 
that inmate volunteered to be executed. The issue has been tangled up in the 
legal system amid a fight over the state’s process for lethal injection, all 
while debate over the death penalty’s future has simmered. The state has agreed 
that it will carry out no executions at least for another year as a legal 
battle wages over its lethal injection protocol, so whoever wins the governor’s 
race this fall could be instrumental in determining the future of capital 
punishment in Louisiana after the new term starts in January 2020.

“I really don’t believe in the death penalty,” Rispone said. “It goes back to 
my faith -- really and truly. If it was proven to be a deterrent and it saved 
innocent lives, then I would probably have to think hard about it again.”

Rispone contrasted the death penalty with war, which he said is necessary. “We 
have to go to war to save innocent lives,” he said. “But I’m not convinced that 
(the death penalty)’s a deterrent.”

He said he came to that conclusion after discussions with prosecutors and 
others in law enforcement.

“The DAs say they spend so much time on the death penalty and could be out 
prosecuting way more people if they didn’t have to go through that,” Rispone 
said.

Abraham, meanwhile, has sided with Attorney General Jeff Landry in aggressively 
pushing for the use of the death penalty in Louisiana.

“Not only am I in favor of the death penalty, but I’m also in favor of 
enforcing it,” Abraham, R-Alto, told The Advocate. “If you murder someone in 
Louisiana, you should know that when caught you will be put to death.

“While we’re at it, I’d like to see child molesters added to the list of death 
penalty eligible person,” Abraham added. “There is no greater monster than 
someone who harms an innocent child.”

Edwards has repeatedly deferred to state law on the matter and dismissed 
questions about his personal views on the topic.

“I took an oath to support the Constitution and laws of the United States and 
the state of Louisiana,” Edwards said in a statement last fall when The 
Advocate asked for clarity on his position. “The fact of the matter is that we 
cannot execute someone in the state of Louisiana today because the only legally 
prescribed manner set forth in state statute is unavailable to us. That’s not 
through any fault of my own or the Department of Corrections.”

Landry, a Republican seeking re-election as AG this year, has helped put a 
spotlight on the issue in recent months, accusing Edwards of playing a role in 
executions being put on hold and publicly criticizing the governor’s lack of 
clarity on his personal position. The AG recently orchestrated a State Capitol 
hearing on the future of the death penalty that included testimony from 
families of murder victims whose killers remain on death row.

Proponents of abolishing the death penalty say it will reduce costs and could 
save innocent lives of those wrongly convicted. Opponents say the measure comes 
across as soft on crime and lessens the weight placed on the most heinous 
crimes committed in the state.

The debate over the death penalty often is further complicated in heavily Roman 
Catholic populated south Louisiana. Pope Francis, an outspoken critic of the 
death penalty, has issued a proclamation that the death penalty is unacceptable 
in any case in the eyes of the Catholic Church.

Edwards and Rispone are Catholic (as is Landry), and Abraham is Baptist. All 
oppose abortion, a position frequently noted in the death penalty discussion.

Attempts to abolish capital punishment have been made in recent years at the 
State Capitol, but the effort continues to face major resistance in both the 
Republican-controlled House and Senate. The debate hasn’t gotten a formal 
recorded vote in either chamber in the past two years that it’s been proposed.

Multiple bills have been filed ahead of the regular session that begins Monday 
that again call for an end to the use of capital punishment in Louisiana. 
Separately, legislation has been proposed that would conceal providers of 
lethal injection drugs, possibly freeing up the state to resume carrying out 
executions.

(source: houmatoday.om)

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

In the Space of One Minute, Joe Biden Defends the Death Penalty for Drug 
Dealers, Asset Forfeiture, and Mandatory Minimums



Right now most of the news about likely 2020 contender Joe Biden involves his 
history of being handsy with people at public events. Yet another, far more 
problematic element of his history has been popping up too: his record on 
criminal justice.

On Wednesday, the same day Biden put out a video statement responding to 
criticisms of his wandering hands, journalist Ziad Jilani tweeted a 1991 Senate 
floor speech made by the then-senator from Delaware.

Though the clip is only a minute long, Biden manages to brag about his role in 
some of the worst tough-on-crime policies around, including civil asset 
forfeiture, mandatory minimum sentencing, and an expanded federal death 
penalty.

"There is now a death penalty. If you are a major drug dealer, involved in the 
trafficking of drugs, and murder results in your activities, you go to death," 
said Biden at the beginning of his remarks, in what appears to be a reference 
to the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act.

That law expanded the federal death penalty to apply to murders committed as 
part of a drug trafficking conspiracy. Biden would go on to help write the 1994 
crime bill, which "authorized the death penalty for dozens of existing and new 
federal crimes."

Biden also sought credit for expanding civil asset forfeiture—a practice that 
allows the government to seize your property even if you've been convicted of 
no crime.

"We changed the law so that if you are arrested, and you are a drug dealer, 
under our forfeiture statutes, you can, the government can take everything you 
own," said Biden, referencing the 1984 Comprehensive Crime Control Act, which 
the then-senator from Delaware sponsored alongside Sen. Strom Thurmond 
(R–S.C.).

"Everything from your car to your house, your bank account, not merely what 
they confiscate in terms of the dollars from the transaction you just got 
caught engaging in," added Biden.

Reason has written endlessly about the abuses of civil asset forfeiture (see 
here, here, and here for some examples), and there is now a growing bipartisan 
consensus that that the practice is dire need of reform or even abolition.

As if defending the death penalty and civil asset forfeiture weren't enough, 
Biden manages to squeeze in a glowing reference to mandatory minimum sentencing 
at the tail end of his remarks.

"We have laws that don't allow judges discretion to sentence people, flat time 
sentencing. You get caught, you go to jail," says Biden before the clip cuts 
off.

Needless to say, all 3 of these policies are anathema to many Democratic 
primary voters today, and indeed many Republicans too, who've come around to 
seeing the error of the tough-on-crime approach so zealously pursed by Biden.

Attitudes have shifted so far on criminal justice issues that even Biden 
himself has had to engage in a little self-reflection.

"I haven't always been right. I know we haven't always gotten things right, but 
I've always tried," said Biden during a January speech, referring to his record 
on criminal justice issues.

In one sense, Biden's expression of regret is a sign of tremendous progress. 
The primary voters he needs to get the Democratic nomination are increasingly 
turned off by the policies he used to champion.

Will a few brief expressions of regret be enough for those same voters to give 
Biden a pass for his central role in creating an era of mass incarceration? 
That remains to be seen.

(source: reason.com)

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

Buttigieg calls for abolishing death penalty



Pete Buttigieg, the Democratic mayor of South Bend, Ind., and a likely 2020 
presidential candidate, on Thursday called for abolishing the death penalty.

Speaking at the 2019 National Action Network Convention in New York City, 
Buttigieg said capital punishment "has always been a discriminatory practice."

“As we work to end mandatory minimums for nonviolent offenses, as we work to 
put an end to prolonged solitary confinement, which is a form of torture, here 
too we must be intentional about fixing disparities that have strong and deeply 
unfair racial consequences,” he said while discussing criminal justice reform.

“Speaking of sentencing disparities, it is time to face the simple fact that 
capital punishment as seen in America has always been a discriminatory practice 
and we would be a fairer and safer country when we join the ranks of modern 
nations who have abolished the death penalty," he added, according to the 
outlet.

Several states, including Maryland, Connecticut, Illinois and New York, have 
repealed capital punishment since 2007. California suspended the death penalty 
earlier this month.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), a 2020 presidential candidate, praised 
California's decision to do so earlier this month.

Former Colorado Gov. and 2020 hopeful John Hickenlooper (D) has also said that 
he would suspend capital punishment if elected.

Buttigieg, 37, announced a presidential exploratory committee in January and 
has since surged in popularity. He hinted early Thursday that he will formally 
declare his 2020 presidential candidacy later this month.

The National Action Network Convention this week will also feature 2020 
candidates vying for the Democratic nomination, including Sens. Bernie Sanders 
(I-Vt.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Cory Booker 
(D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) who are all 
slated to speak at the convention.

(source: thehill.com)

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

Judge Kleeh sets revamped 2020 jury and trial schedule for fed inmates in NCWV 
death penalty case In Clarksburg (W.Va.), U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Kleeh 
has set a revamped trial schedule for two inmates facing death penalty 
prosecution for a 2012 slaying at U.S. Penitentiary Hazelton.

Previously, Senior U.S. District Judge Irene M. Keeley had the case involving 
Michael A. Owle, 30, of Cherokee, North Carolina, and Ruben Laurel, 40, of San 
Antonio. She had set jury selection next March 16, with time set aside between 
April 6-30, 2020, for the trial. The lawyers had advised the court at that time 
that it could take up to 10 days to seat a jury, a week or more for the trial 
and possibly twice that long for a separate trial, if necessary, on whether the 
death penalty should be imposed.

Kleeh recently granted a joint motion to issue a fourth amended scheduling 
order in the case that, among other deadlines, sets: A final pretrial 
conference Aug. 20, 2020; jury selection to begin Aug. 31, 2020, and to last 
about 5 days in Clarksburg; the jury trial itself to begin Sept. 21, 2020, and 
to last about 7 days, also in Clarksburg; and a jury trial for the penalty 
phase, if necessary, to begin Oct. 13 and to last about 5 days, also in 
Clarksburg.

Owle and Laurel were indicted last May 1 on charges of aiding and abetting 
1st-degree murder and of assault with a dangerous weapon.

They’re accused in the alleged Aug. 29, 2012, stabbing death of fellow Hazelton 
inmate Anthony Morris Dallas, 31, as well as the stabbing of another inmate.

Dallas, who was 31 at the time of his death, was serving a total sentence of 55 
years imposed in 2004 by Senior U.S. District Judge James A. Parker.

Dallas’ crimes: The 2nd-degree murder Feb. 21, 2003, of Alfred Jake on the 
Navajo Reservation in McKinley County, New Mexico, as well as using, carrying 
and possessing a firearm (a Remington .243) in connection with that crime.

Laurel has been serving a lengthy sentence (294 months) for being part of a 
cocaine distribution conspiracy in Tennessee involving more than 5 kilograms of 
cocaine. Laurel also has gotten in trouble behind bars for committing assault 
with serious injury, which added more time to his sentence; possessing weapons; 
using drugs or alcohol; and destroying property, according to court records.

He is at U.S. Penitentiary Coleman-2 in Sumterville, Florida, where he’s 
scheduled for release July 22, 2027.

Owle’s crimes include robbery by force or violence and using, carrying and 
discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, May 26, 2008, on the Eastern 
Band of Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina. Owle also has gotten 
into trouble behind bars previously for assaulting a corrections officer and 
another inmate and is serving a lengthy sentence.

Owle is at U.S. Penitentiary Florence Admax in Florence, Colorado, where he is 
scheduled for release Jan. 15, 2033.

Previously, Keeley ruled a 300-person jury pool would be needed for the death 
penalty prosecution trial. Because it wouldn’t be feasible to accommodate that 
many jurors at the same time, the juror questionnaire will be used to whittle 
down the pool, Keeley ruled.

The questionnaire will be mailed to randomly selected individuals in Harrison, 
Braxton, Calhoun, Doddridge, Gilmer, Pleasants, Marion, Monongalia, Preston, 
Ritchie and Taylor counties.

The high-security Hazelton prison, where mobster and prison James “Whitey” 
Bulger was killed Oct. 30, has been the scene of several violent incidents 
among inmates.

No one has been charged in Bulger’s homicide.

Another Hazelton homicide case that’s pending is that of Marricco Sykes, 39, a 
prisoner at Federal Medical Center Butner in Butner, North Carolina.

Sykes was indicted March 1, 2016, by federal grand jurors meeting in 
Clarksburg, who accused him in the Nov. 6, 2015, homicide of 60-year-old fellow 
prisoner Zakii Tawwab Wahiid. Previously, the government was instructed by the 
Department of Justice not to seek the death penalty against Sykes.

The court file indicates that Senior U.S. District Judge Keeley has received at 
least three psychiatric reports on Sykes, on June 10, 2016, Oct. 27, 2016 and 
last April 3. The file also has several sealed docket entries and motions 
asking that records be placed under seal.

The office of U.S. Attorney Bill Powell also last November balked at moving the 
trial of Sykes to the Eastern District of North Carolina, at least on a 
preliminary basis, “due to substantial resource limitations.”

(source: wvnews.com)