[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----NEV., CALIF., ORE., USA

[Rick Halperin]

August 9




NEVADA:

Man with dismissed murder conviction still on death row in Nevada



Paul Browning is a freed man on Nevada’s death row.

Many of the key witnesses in the November 1985 stabbing death of jeweler Hugo 
Elsen, including Elsen’s wife, Josy, have died.

District Judge Douglas Herndon ruled in March that because the attorney who 
represented Browning at trial failed to ask essential questions of witnesses 
who are now dead, "a fair trial consistent with due process is no longer 
possible."

That decision came 5 months after an opinion from the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of 
Appeals found "a mixture of disturbing prosecutorial misconduct and woefully 
inadequate assistance of counsel" led to "extreme malfunctions" at Browning’s 
trial.

Yet Browning sits on death row, as prosecutors fight to keep him there, 
appealing Herndon’s decision to the Nevada Supreme Court.

On Thursday, Herndon lifted a hold on his own dismissal, while prosecutors 
await a decision from the higher court. In the meantime, Browning, who spent 33 
years as a condemned man, should be allowed to leave the penitentiary, his 
lawyers said. Browning was held in Ely State Prison rather than being 
transported to Las Vegas for the hearing.

But neither Herndon’s decision nor the 9th Circuit opinion contemplated an 
escape charge for which Browning was convicted during his murder trial. It’s up 
to the Nevada Department of Corrections to determine whether he has already 
served the maximum 10-year sentence that was set to begin in 2079.

"How can Mr. Browning be sitting on death row, as he is now, when this court 
has said all charges against him are dismissed?" one of his lawyers, Tim Ford, 
argued Thursday. "He’s not even a pretrial detainee, and he’s on death row. 
That can’t be."

Prison officials said that they had not received a court order to release 
Browning as of Thursday afternoon, and the process of freeing an inmate can 
take upward of a week.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo argued that Browning could be 
convicted of murder, even after key witnesses have died. Some are still alive, 
the prosecutor said. Browning’s fingerprints were found on the underside of a 
glass counter in Elsen’s store, and a knife with Elsen’s blood was discovered 
under the stairs where Browning was arrested 20 minutes after the slaying, 
DiGiacomo added.

"There’s forensic evidence," he said. "There’s live witnesses. There’s no 
question Paul Lewis Browning killed Hugo Elsen. I’d have even more evidence of 
his guilt if these people were still alive - To me the proof is pretty darn 
evident, and the presumption is pretty great."

Herndon said the case consisted of "a unique complicated set of circumstances."

Ford told the Review-Journal that in the years since his conviction, Browning 
and his lawyers have discovered evidence that points to his innocence.

At trial, a prosecutor pointed to blood on Browning’s tan jacket, saying it 
matched Elsen’s blood type, even though Elsen himself described the jacket as 
blue before he died. DNA evidence later revealed that it was not Elsen’s blood.

"Every time we turn over something, it’s turned out to be more and more things 
that call into question what was said," Ford told the newspaper.

A month after the slaying, Elsen’s wife could not pick Browning out of a 
lineup, but at trial she pointed to him as the killer.

Elsen’s business neighbor, Debra Coe, told police she had seen a man with a 
blue Hollywood cap, which was later found in a dumpster outside Browning’s 
motel, running from Elsen’s shop.

She identified Browning as the man she 'thought' ran by her office, but said 
she could not be certain because Browning was not wearing a cap when she 
identified him.

Pressed further on whether she could be 'more sur'” about his identification, 
she said, "No, I wouldn’t think so. No - They all look the same, and that’s 
just what I think when I see a black person, that they all look the same." At 
trial, she retracted the statement and identified Browning as the man she saw 
run past her office.

A couple who had told authorities that Browning confessed the killing to them 
were habitual drug users, which jurors knew.

More than a decade ago, the Nevada Supreme Court reversed a denial of 
Browning’s challenge to his death sentence, but a jury in 2008 reinstated 
capital punishment.

Browning’s sister, Dell Harris, watched Thursday’s hearing from the courtroom 
gallery with other family members, all hoping that they would be reunited with 
a man they had not seen outside walls for more than 3 decades.

“We can see the light at the end of the tunnel," Harris said. "I mean it’s been 
forever, but we still have hope. It’s time. It’s time."

(source: Las Vegas Review-Journal)








CALIFORNIA:

Accused serial killer has no memory of 1 attack and denies others, defense says



After Michael Gargiulo was arrested in 2008, Los Angeles County sheriff’s 
detectives placed the accused killer in a jail cell with 2 undercover deputies.

In conversations that were recorded, Gargiulo told them that he’d looked up 
serial killers, referencing Ted Bundy and Ed Gein. He hid shims in his 
waistband that he planned to use to break out of his handcuffs, he told his 
cellmates. He tried to come up with different explanations for a piece of 
evidence cops had against him and floated using the excuse that he suffers from 
blackouts.

At one point, Gargiulo asked the undercover officers, "How would you explain it 
to the jury?"

A prosecutor recounted those jailhouse conversations during closing arguments 
this week in Gargiulo’s trial on charges that he thrill killed 2 women and 
attempted to kill a 3rd in knife attacks in the Los Angeles area from 2001 to 
2008. He has pleaded not guilty.

"That’s Michael Gargiulo trying to fool each and every one of you," Deputy 
Dist. Atty. Garrett Dameron told a jury hearing the death penalty case in a 
downtown courtroom.

Gargiulo showed little emotion as Dameron spoke, watching the screen as the 
prosecutor flipped through dozens of slides that included crime scene photos. 
Sometimes he whispered to his attorney or took notes. He shook his head for a 
moment when one of his attorneys was addressing the judge at the bench.

Gargiulo’s trial, which just entered its 4th month, has drawn national 
attention because of its sensational details and celebrity connection. One of 
the victims, Ashley Ellerin, was set to go out on a date with actor Ashton 
Kutcher the night she was killed.

The prosecutor spent much of his argument listing similarities between 
Gargiulo’s alleged series of attacks, beginning in the Chicago area in 1993 
with the killing of 18-year-old Tricia Pacaccio.

Gargiulo wasn’t charged in Illinois with Pacaccio’s slaying until 2011. He is 
set to be extradited after the Los Angeles trial concludes.

In each case, the prosecutor said, Gargiulo preyed on attractive young women 
who were outgoing and lived nearby.

Once he picked a target, he’d lurk around her home, watching and waiting for an 
opportunity to attack. He always struck at night, always at their homes, 
prosecutors said.

Ellerin, 22, was stabbed 47 times in 2001, her throat slashed so severely that 
she was almost decapitated. Maria Bruno’s breasts were sliced off and part of 
one was placed on her mouth.

"These were torturous, cold-blooded attacks," Dameron said.

Gargiulo lived in Hollywood a few short blocks from Ellerin at the time of her 
death. He lived in the same El Monte apartment complex as Bruno, 32, in a unit 
diagonal to hers across a pool, when she was killed in 2005. After Bruno’s 
slaying, investigators found a blue surgical bootee with drops of her blood and 
Gargiulo’s DNA on the elastic band. Gargiulo wore the same types of bootees 
over his shoes for his work as an air conditioner repairman.

Ellerin and Bruno each had a man over just before they were killed. Prosecutors 
alleged Gargiulo timed the attacks 'perfectly,' knowing that police would first 
investigate their last known visitors.

Prosecutors said Gargiulo’s alleged string of attacks ended in Santa Monica in 
2008, when Michelle Murphy, 26 at the time, fought off a harrowing ambush and 
survived. During the struggle, prosecutors said Gargiulo cut his hand and left 
a trail of blood out her door and through the alley that separated their 
apartment buildings.

Defense attorney Dale Rubin acknowledged Gargiulo’s role in Murphy’s attack, 
but argued that his client suffered from a mental disorder that left him in a 
"fugue state" - unable to recall his actions.

He "has no recollection and no memory of what happened because he was in an 
amnestic state," Rubin said, adding that when Gargiulo cut himself and came to, 
he apologized and ran out of the apartment. Rubin also said Gargiulo has 
suffered as a result of childhood trauma, but did not provide details.

But his defense team denied that Gargiulo was guilty of the other attacks, 
citing the lack of DNA evidence linking Gargiulo to Ellerin’s slaying.

Defense attorney Dan Nardoni suggested that in Bruno’s case, the true killer 
fled and left her blood on a bootee that Gargiulo had accidentally dropped in 
the area. He said no one saw Gargiulo at either woman’s home on the nights they 
were killed.

"In fact, the evidence is that others were" with the women, Rubin said. "There 
is absolutely no evidence as to where Mr. Gargiulo was at the time of the 
commission of those crimes. Except that he wasn’t in the apartment."

The man who visited Ellerin before her death denied any role in her slaying, as 
did the one who had been with Bruno. Both testified during the trial.

Kutcher also testified, saying that when he went to pick up Ellerin for a date 
the night she was killed, she didn’t answer the door or his calls. He was late 
and figured Ellerin had already left.

"I knocked on the door. There was no answer. Knocked again. And once again, no 
answer," the actor testified. "At this point I pretty well assumed she had left 
for the night, and that I was late, and she was upset."

But before he left, he peeked through a window. All the lights were on and he 
saw what appeared to be red wine stains on the carpet. Kutcher said he had been 
at a housewarming party at Ellerin’s home about a week before where people had 
been drinking. He wasn’t alarmed.

Kutcher said he was "freaking out" the next day when he found out she was dead, 
noting that his fingerprints were on the door.

Meanwhile, prosecutors said Gargiulo had tried to cover his tracks. 
Investigators found a program installed on his computer that deletes 
information from a user’s hard drive, Dameron said.

And about a week before his arrest, Gargiulo asked a friend if he would be 
interested in taking over his business if Gargiulo were to move to Mexico, 
Dameron said.

Closing arguments are expected to wrap up Thursday before jurors begin 
deliberations.

(source: Los Angeles Times)








OREGON:

Voters should have final say on death penalty



Gov. Kate Brown last week signed a bill that narrows Oregon's use of the death 
penalty by limiting the crimes that qualify for capital punishment.

The bill likely won't make that much difference in Oregon, a state that has not 
executed a prisoner since 1997 and doesn't seem poised to do so anytime soon. 
Brown has maintained a moratorium on capital punishment that was first put into 
place by Gov. John Kitzhaber.

The bill was crafted in such a way that the issue didn't have to be referred to 
voters. In that regard, it represents a missed opportunity. Voters should have 
gotten the chance to weigh in, not just on this issue, but on the larger 
question: Should Oregon continue to keep capital punishment on the books?

The bill Brown signed carefully skates around that question; it fact, it was 
crafted to do that. Previously, the death sentence in Oregon could be applied 
to cases of aggravated murder, which includes crimes such as killing on-duty 
police officers or slayings committed during a rape or robbery. Now, those 
crimes will receive sentences of life without the possibility of parole.

The death penalty in Oregon now can only be applied in four types of crimes: 
killings motivated by terrorism, murders of children 14 years or younger, 
killings by an incarcerated person who's serving a previous aggravated murder 
sentence and premeditated killings of police or corrections officers.

The law is not retroactive and will not apply to the 30 people on Oregon's 
death row.

It seems obvious that lawmakers were looking for a way to avoid asking the 
broader question about whether the state should follow the example of other 
states and do away with capital punishment. But we don't understand their 
reluctance, unless lawmakers thought that Oregonians were likely to reject any 
attempt to ban the death penalty.

We're not so sure that's the case, considering Oregonians' long and twisty 
history with the death penalty. Capital punishment was outlawed by Oregon 
voters in 1914 and then reenacted in 1978. 3 years later, the state Supreme 
Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional, a ruling that paved 
the way for a 1984 initiative in which voters reaffirmed capital punishment.

Since then, the topic rarely has been revisited in Oregon, and the 
gubernatorial moratoriums have had the effect of sweeping the debate about 
capital punishment under the rug. It would have been an easy matter to refer 
the measure, Senate Bill 1013, to the state's voters. Or death penalty 
opponents could have moved to place the broader question on a statewide ballot.

That last option still is available to legislators - or, for that matter, to 
any group of citizens with the interest, time and money required to place an 
initiative on the statewide ballot. But surely there is a lawmaker willing to 
take a stab at referring the big question to voters; certainly, the discussion 
that would result is long overdue.

(source: Editorial, Democrat Herald)








USA:

U.S. Atty. Gen. William Barr announced the Justice Department will resume 
executions of federal death row inmates. ---- The impact of reviving the 
federal death penalty

University of Miami legal experts in law and sociology weigh in on the Justice 
Department’s decision to restart executions.

Barring a last-minute stay, Daniel Lewis Lee will be strapped to a gurney at 
the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., on Dec. 9, asked if he would like 
to make a final statement, and then administered a lethal injection of 
pentobarbital.

Over the next 37 days, four other men will follow him into the death chamber, 
and if the U.S. Department of Justice has its way, they won’t be the last.

With Atty. Gen. William P. Barr’s announcement that the U.S. government would 
resume executions of federal death row inmates after a nearly 2-decade hiatus, 
capital punishment has once again been thrust into the national spotlight, 
becoming, along with gun control, a contentious issue of debate, especially in 
the wake of the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.

In the 1972 landmark Furman v. Georgia case, the Supreme Court struck down 
state and federal death penalty laws. The court reinstated the death penalty in 
1976, and several states quickly adopted laws restoring capital punishment. The 
U.S. government did not do so until 1988, but only for a few offenses. The 
Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 greatly expanded the number of crimes 
eligible for capital sentences. But since then, only 3 federal death row 
inmates have been executed, with the last sentence being carried out in 2003.

In making his announcement, Barr did not say why the government is restarting 
executions after what had been essentially a moratorium. But with an election 
year on the horizon, could the decision be politically motivated - an attempt 
by the current administration to show voters it is tough on serious crime?

"Crime and punishment in the United States has been used as a political weapon 
for decades. From George H.W. Bush’s Willy Horton ad to Bill Clinton’s 1994 
Crime Bill, politicians have been lining up for years to be tougher on crime 
than their opponents," said Craig J. Trocino, director of the University of 
Miami School of Law’s Innocence Clinic. "Sentences have been increased from 
mandatory minimums to 3-strikes laws. It is no surprise that the ultimate 
punishment, the death penalty, is also political. The ultimate penalty as the 
ultimate tough-on-crime stance is a political position some find too good to 
pass up."

The government’s decision to restart executions comes at a time when most 
states are forgoing the death penalty altogether, replacing it with 
life-in-prison sentences. A total of 21 states have outlawed the death penalty. 
Meanwhile, opponents of capital punishment, armed with data and statistics, 
continue to make a strong case against it, arguing that it is racially biased 
and arbitrarily administered.

"The most disturbing fact for everyone, even death penalty supporters, is of 
course the astonishing number of individuals who have been sentenced to death 
and were later exonerated," said Scott Sundby, a professor of law and Dean’s 
Distinguished Scholar at the School of Law, who is the author of "A Life and 
Death Decision: A Jury Weighs the Death Penalty."

Sundby noted that the state of Illinois, before it abolished its death penalty, 
had exonerated more of its condemned death row inmates than it had executed. 
Nationwide, more than 160 people sentenced to death since 1973 in the United 
States were later exonerated.

Sundby, Trocino and Nick Petersen, an assistant professor of sociology and law 
in UM’s College of Arts and Sciences, weigh in on some of the important issues 
surrounding capital punishment.

What are some examples of crimes that would allow the federal government to 
seek the death penalty even when the crime is committed in a state that has 
outlawed it?

In order for the federal death penalty to be implicated it must be in the 
confines of a federal crime in order for the United States to have jurisdiction 
over the case. However, with the implementation of the 1994 crime bill, federal 
death penalty prosecutions increased dramatically. For instance, if a victim is 
killed with a gun, it would normally be a state case. But if that gun was 
classified as 'an illegal firearm,' then the murder could be prosecuted 
federally. Also, carjacking that causes a death or a drive-by shooting that is 
'gang related' can also be prosecuted federally. Armed with this, federal 
prosecutors have increased death penalty prosecutions, and in particular, in 
states that have abolished it. For instance, Illinois instituted a moratorium 
on the death penalty in 2001 after it executed 12 people but exonerated 19. In 
2011, Illinois formally abolished the death penalty. Nonetheless, federal death 
prosecutions have increased in Illinois.

—Craig Trocino, director of the Innocence Clinic at the University of Miami 
School of Law.

The 5 inmates scheduled for execution in December and January were all 
convicted of murdering children. Could the Department of Justice be attempting 
to make a more powerful argument for its case to resume capital punishment by 
scheduling the executions of inmates convicted of murdering children?

Given that the Department of Justice’s news release heading specifically noted 
that the five had been convicted of murdering children, there is no doubt that 
was a primary reason they were chosen. One also suspects that the race of the 
inmates entered into the DOJ’s equation as a way to try to keep the death 
penalty’s continuing problems with racism in the background. Even though over 
1/2 of the federal death row consists of racial and ethnic minorities, three of 
the five whose executions were scheduled are white. In other words, the DOJ is 
staging these executions in a way that they believe will be most likely to 
engender public support for the executions.

—Scott Sundby, professor of law and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar at UM’s School 
of Law.

Proponents of the death penalty have argued that it is a deterrent. Is it?

The death penalty is not a deterrent despite the claims of its proponents. In 
2012 the National Research Council concluded that the studies claiming it is a 
deterrence were fundamentally flawed. Additionally, a 2009 study of 
criminologists concluded that 88 % of criminologists did not believe in the 
death penalties deterrence while only 5 % did. Perhaps the most consistent and 
interesting data that the death penalty is not a deterrence is to look at the 
murder rates of states that do not have the death penalty in comparison to 
those that do. In states that have recently abolished the death penalty, there 
has been no increase in murder rates. In fact, since 1990 states without the 
death penalty have consistently had lower murder rates than states that have 
it.

--Craig Trocino, director of the Innocence Clinic at the University of Miami 
School of Law.

Social science research does not support the contention that the death penalty 
deters crime. In 1978, the National Research Council, one of the most 
prestigious scientific institutions in the nation and world, noted that 
"available studies provide no useful evidence on the deterrent effect of 
capital punishment." A 2012 report by the National Research Council reached a 
similar conclusion. Citing a number of problems with deterrence research, the 
council reported that "claims that research demonstrates that capital 
punishment decreases or increases the homicide rate by a specified amount or 
has no effect on the homicide rate should not influence policy judgments about 
capital punishment."

--Nick Petersen, assistant professor of sociology and law in UM’s College of 
Arts and Sciences.

What are the serious flaws with the death penalty?

The death penalty has many flaws that are not as commonly known. Just as a 
sampler: (1) studies continue to find that death sentences are racially biased, 
both in terms of who receives a death sentence and the race of the victim. 
Someone who kills a white victim is more likely to receive a death sentence 
than the killer of a minority victim); (2) Death rows are comprised largely of 
individuals suffering from mental illness and intellectual disabilities. 
Although the Supreme Court in theory barred the death penalty for 
intellectually disabled individuals, many still receive the death penalty 
either because their IQ tests are a few points above the cutoff or because of 
the way the state makes the determination); (3) The juries that impose death 
sentences generally are not representative of the general population in terms 
of race and gender; (4) The death penalty is far more expensive to impose and 
carry out than life-without-parole sentences; (5) The vast majority of death 
sentences are from only a handful of states, and if one turns up the 
magnification further, only from a small percentage of counties (2 percent of 
the country’s counties are responsible for more than a majority of all death 
sentences).

--Scott Sundby, professor of law and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar at UM’s 
School of Law.

There are serious problems with the implementation of the death penalty 
regardless of what jurisdiction is doing it. There is a misplaced notion that 
the federal death penalty is better than any state system could be. This is 
simply not the case. All of the problems with the death penalty exist equally 
in the state and federal systems. The causes of wrongful convictions are well 
known and occur in both the state and federal system. Things such as faulty 
eyewitness identification, false confessions, incentivized testimony, junk 
forensic science, police and prosecutorial misconduct, and ineffective defense 
lawyers all exist equally in the federal system as they do in the state system. 
Racial bias is indeed a major factor in the decision to seek the death penalty. 
Prosecutors have immense discretion is whether to seek the death penalty in a 
prosecution. Those discretionary decisions are made in myriad ways that 
sometimes, unfortunately, are based on biased decision-making.

--Craig Trocino, director of the Innocence Clinic at the University of Miami 
School of Law.

A wealth of research has shown that death penalty decisions are influenced by 
race, geography, and other extra-legal factors. My own research finds 
cumulative racial and ethnic disparities in death penalty cases, with 
accumulating inequalities across multiple stages of the death penalty system. 
In addition, I have found that murders involving white victims are more likely 
to be solved by the police than those with black victims, and that these 
policing disparities contribute to inequalities in death-penalty charging 
decisions.

--Nick Petersen, assistant professor of sociology and law in UM’s College of 
Arts and Sciences.

The federal government plans to replace the three-drug protocol previously used 
in federal executions with a single drug, pentobarbital. Could the 5 inmates 
scheduled for execution have a potential appeal based on the Eighth Amendment?

The likelihood of the executions proceeding forward in the near future is 
fairly slim. The manufacturer of pentobarbital has cut off supplying it for 
executions, leading to a shortage. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has refused to 
say if it has any stockpiled, and while some states have turned to compounding 
pharmacies, the FDA has started to crack down on the pharmacies because of 
serious quality control issues. In other words, it is unclear whether they can 
get the pentobarbital. Even if they can, however, there are serious legal 
issues to be litigated. The first is whether the protocol constitutes cruel and 
unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment by inflicting unnecessary pain, 
an issue especially highlighted by the lack of quality control in its 
manufacturing. There also is an issue whether Barr’s promulgation of the new 
death penalty protocol comports with the Administrative Procedural Act. Given 
that there has not been a federal execution in sixteen years, the sudden push 
to execute 5 individuals over the one-month winter holiday season will likely 
run into legal and logistical headwinds.

--Scott Sundby, professor of law and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar at UM’s 
School of Law.

(source: miami.edu)

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

U.S. seeking death penalty of accused Dickson County deputy murderer



The man accused of murdering a Dickson County deputy has been indicted on 
federal charges and U.S. attorneys are seeking the death penalty.

Steven Wiggins was indicted on federal charges of federal carjacking and 
firearms violations. Wiggins is charged in the 1st-degree murder of Dickson 
Sgt. Daniel Baker.

U.S. Attorney Don Cochran immediately filed a notice with the Court that the 
government intends to seek the death penalty and authority to seek the death 
penalty has been granted.

Wiggins previously pleaded not guilty to a slew of charges, including 
premeditated 1st-degree murder, arson and abuse of a corpse.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Sgt. Baker was killed on May 30 
after responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle.

Wiggins is accused of shooting Baker at close range, dragging the deputy's body 
to the patrol car, placed Baker in the rear seat and drove away.

Wiggins reportedly ditched the patrol car in a field a few miles away and set 
it on fire, with Baker inside, before fleeing the scene.

GPS tracking technology was used to find Baker's patrol car after he had not 
been hear from for a period of time. Baker was found dead inside his patrol 
vehicle.

Initial autopsy reports show Sgt. Baker had 6 gunshot wounds: 2 to his torso; 1 
to his hand; and 3 to the left side of his head.

An affidavit said Erika Castro-Miles, also charged in the murder, watched as 
Wiggins shot Baker to death. She tried to flee by hiding under a garage in Bon 
Aqua, but was spotted by the property owners and detained by police.

(source: WZTV news)

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

Mass shootings delay evidence testing in deputy's death, federal prosecutor 
says



In the 154 days since a member of a federal task force was shot at an east side 
hotel, 202 mass shootings have been reported in the United States.

At least some of those shootings, which are catalogued by the Gun Violence 
Archive, are delaying the completion of evidence testing and analysis in the 
shooting death of McHenry County Sheriff's Deputy Jacob Keltner, a federal 
judge was told this week in Rockford.

Floyd E. Brown, 40, of Springfield is accused of shooting through the door of a 
room at Extended Stay America hotel, 747 N. Bell School Road, jumping out of a 
3rd-story window and then shooting Keltner in the parking lot outside before 
fleeing on March 7. Keltner was shot outside the hotel while he and other 
members of a U.S. Marshals task force were trying to arrest Brown.

Several weeks after Keltner’s slaying, federal prosecutors estimated it would 
take a year to determine whether they would seek the death penalty against 
Brown. But during a hearing on Tuesday at the U.S. District Courthouse in 
Rockford, a federal prosecutor said that DNA testing and shooting 
reconstruction analysis has been delayed, so it may take even longer to 
determine whether the death penalty will be sought.

“We only have one lab. When there are mass shootings, sometimes those deadlines 
(for evidence and reports to be returned) are pushed back,” Assistant U.S. 
Attorney Talia Bucci told the judge handling this case.

That one lab is the FBI Laboratory at Quantico, Virginia, where all evidence 
handled by FBI offices around the nation is funneled for testing, processing 
and analysis. The Illinois State Police, by contrast, have eight lab sites 
throughout the state, including one in Rockford.

It is unknown how many mass shootings have involved evidence sent to the FBI 
Laboratory. The FBI’s national press office staff declined to comment for this 
story.

"There are 93 federal districts in the country, so they service all 93 U.S. 
attorney's offices. So it has to be a pretty robust operation," said John Beal, 
one of Brown's defense attorneys.

Without having evidence back from Quantico, Beal said, the entire case is 
delayed.

"We have been told around the end of the month" that outstanding work should be 
completed, Bucci told U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly.

Once this evidence is returned, the lengthy process to determine whether 
federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty will begin.

Beal said both sides meet with the Capital Case Committee, which makes a 
recommendation to the deputy attorney general, who in turn will make a 
recommendation to U.S. Attorney General William Barr. Keltner’s family can 
weigh in with the committee, too. Ultimately, Barr will decide whether to seek 
the death penalty. Decisions usually are issued 2 to 3 months after meetings 
with the Capital Case Committee.

Brown didn’t speak during Tuesday’s court appearance, for which he was sitting 
in a wheelchair wearing dark green jail scrubs. His trial has been set for Jan. 
11, 2021.

Brown faces federal charges of murder of a federal law enforcement officer, 
illegal possession of firearms by a felon and illegal possession of firearms 
with an obliterated serial number. The murder charge is punishable by life in 
prison or death.

Brown also faces criminal charges in Winnebago County Circuit Court in 
connection with the same shooting, but that case is on hold as the federal case 
proceeds.

He remains in the Livingston County Jail. Brown is due back in federal court on 
Dec. 16.

(source: nwherald.com)