[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----IND., KY., ARK., ARIZ., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

August 24




INDIANA:

Death penalty for federal inmates in Indiana should appall Hoosiers



I understand that the federal government wants to begin again executing federal 
prisoners. They plan to do this in the state of Indiana because we have a 
federal prison in Terre Haute and we still have the death penalty. I believe 
the residents of Indiana should be appalled.

I spent 8 years visiting death row prisoners in the state prison in Michigan 
City. I was chaplain in the St. Joseph County Jail in South Bend.

I do not believe in the death penalty. As one death row inmate in Arkansas 
declared, “I executed the man I was long ago, the state only takes me out of 
the cage.”

Why is the federal government planning this action? What is the motive of those 
responsible for this effort? It smells foul to me.

Hank Mascotte

South Bend

(source: Letter to the Editor, SOuth Bend Tribune)





KENTUCKY:

State Supreme Court could save young lives with death penalty decision



In August 2017, Fayette County Circuit Judge Ernesto Scorsone conducted a 
hearing concerning the range of punishments that a young man charged in a 
murder might face at trial. After hearing recent research findings and noting 
that “there are currently 30 states in which a defendant under the age of 21 at 
the time of their offense would not be executed,” he determined that “the death 
penalty would be a disproportionate punishment for crimes committed by 
individuals under 21 years of age” and therefore “Kentucky’s death penalty 
statute is unconstitutional insofar as it permits capital punishment for 
offenders under twenty-one (21) at the time of their offense.”

The ruling does not mean that young offenders should not face serious 
consequences, just not execution.

The judge’s decision was grounded in a thriving body of research that includes 
a capacity to visually record brain activity while varying the tasks and 
emotional stress to which subjects are exposed. Hard data also shows that 
myelination, the coating of neurons that improves mental efficiency is still 
underway in young adults. The prefrontal cortex, the last area to undergo 
myelination, is critical to the exercise of judgment and emotional control. 
Younger adults remain highly vulnerable to peer pressure and while they can 
perform reasoning tasks as well as adults in their mid and upper 20s, under 
stress (fear, anger, threat) the brains of 20 year-olds function more like 
those of 16 and 17 year-olds. Developing brains are also more amenable to 
rehabilitation A number of states and re-entry programs concentrate significant 
rehabilitative resources on young offender with striking success.

In 2005, earlier data from developmental and brain research led the Supreme 
Court of the United States, in Roper v. Simmons, to outlaw the death penalty 
for youth under the age of 18. As a psychologist and member of a committee that 
helped rewrite Kentucky’s juvenile statutes in 1978, I have followed developing 
brain research closely. I remember the first time I told my wife that men did 
not reach neurological maturity until about 25 and women several years earlier. 
She marveled at how we waste money researching the obvious. Statisticians who 
track auto accidents and recommend higher insurance rates for males under 25 
might roll their eyes as well.

While we grant many adult functions to youth at 18, we restrict the sale of 
alcohol below age 21. At least 320 localities prohibit tobacco sales under age 
21, including 5 states. Because mental maturity can be further encumbered in 
youth who experience early and chronic adversity, many youth are clearly not 
prepared for adult responsibility at age 18. Accordingly, a majority of states 
authorize extension of foster care until age 21. (Kentucky offers transitional 
living support up to 21).

While in the Navy, I saw young servicemen on shore leave who were far from 
home, drinking, and vulnerable to conflicts with locals or other servicemen. I 
thanked God they weren’t carrying firearms. In my psychology career, I’ve 
evaluated or counseled a dozen young people charged with homicide—almost all 
male. Tragic shootings were not planned. They were impulsive reactions to 
situations usually entered foolishly. Few youth had prior felony convictions 
that would have made it illegal to carry a firearm. Typically, they were not in 
touch with their positive potential, long stymied by circumstances. They are 
seriously sobered and chastened as they face shattered hopes, trial and prison. 
Where restorative justice is in practice, they are usually remorseful.

The government appealed Judge Scorsone’s decision to the Kentucky Supreme 
Court, where oral arguments will be heard this Sept. 19 in Somerset. I 
fervently hope the Kentucky Supreme Court justices find the wisdom to attend to 
the both the science and the serious potential for changing young lives. I hope 
they place Kentucky among the majority of states that does not execute these 
young adults.

(source: Op-Ed; T. Kerby Neill is a retired child psychologist, community 
volunteer, and board member of the Central Kentucky Council for Peace and 
Justice----Lexington Herald-Leader)








ARKANSAS:

April trial set in '18 killing of roommate



An April jury trial is scheduled for a Springdale man charged in the killing of 
his roommate.

Zachary Harlan, 34, is charged as a habitual offender with capital murder, 
aggravated residential burglary and theft of property. He has pleaded innocent 
to the charges.

.. Harlan is accused of killing Steve March.

Harlan was in court Monday, and Benton County Circuit Judge Robin Green 
scheduled his jury trial to begin April 14.

Green wanted to know whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty.

Stuart Cearley, chief deputy prosecutor, told her that at the moment it is a 
death-penalty case and that he expects it to take 3 weeks to try the case.

Springdale police officers found March's body on May 14, 2018, at his Moulton 
Lane home, according to a probable-cause affidavit. He was lying on his bed 
with dried blood on his head and face, the affidavit said. He had an injury on 
the left side of his face and a cut on his neck, according to the affidavit.

Police found a broken knife -- believed to be the murder weapon -- under 
March's body, according to the affidavit. The knife was taken from a set on the 
kitchen counter, according to court documents.

An inmate housed with Harlan while he was in the Washington County jail told 
police that Harlan confessed to killing March, according to court documents.

The investigation found that Harlan downloaded an app called SMS Tracker and 
was able to track his former girlfriend's location and whom she was 
communicating with by accessing her text messages, according to court 
documents.

Police said Harlan was able to read messages between his former girlfriend and 
March, according to the affidavit.

(source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)








ARIZONA:

Department Of Justice Action Prompts Arizona To Renew Pursuit Of Death Penalty 
Drugs



Assistant Federal Public Defender Dale Baich has witnessed 11 executions by 
lethal injection.

“It’s ... eerily silent,” he said recalling the experience. “In the witness 
room, the witnesses don’t speak. There is a low hum of the air-conditioning 
unit and occasionally a voice coming over the speakers announcing that 'the 
prisoner is sedated' or that 'the execution is complete.'"

But in 2014, during the execution of his client Joseph Wood at the state prison 
in Florence, something went wrong. The announcements kept repeating. "The 
prisoner remains sedated. The prisoner remains sedated." But Wood wasn’t acting 
sedated.

“We could hear the sound that was coming from Mr. Wood," Baich said, "and it 
sounded like, like a freight train."

Wood’s mouth was open. He was bucking against the restraints and making a 
sucking, gulping, gasping sound. It went on for 2 hours before the announcement 
finally came that the execution was complete.

The dramatic nature of Wood’s death prompted the state to suspend executions.

'Time To Resume'

There are currently 116 people on death row in Arizona. 14 of them have 
exhausted the appeals process.

Attorney General Mark Brnovich said a recent opinion from the Department of 
Justice has cleared the way to import the drugs necessary to resume executions 
by lethal injection.

“I think we have an obligation to uphold the rule of law and make sure those 
sentences are carried out,” Brnovich said.

(source: KJZZ news)








CALIFORNIA:

Cal State Fullerton man charged with murder in fatal stabbing could face death 
penalty



The Cal State Fullerton employee accused of stabbing his co-worker to death on 
campus this week was charged with murder on Friday morning, Aug. 23.

He did not enter a plea; his arraignment was continued to Oct. 4.

Chuyen Vo, 51, was charged with murder, including enhancements of personal use 
of a weapon and special circumstance allegation of murder by lying in wait. He 
was being held without bail.

If convicted, Vo faces a minimum sentence of life without the possibility of 
parole.

If Vo is convicted of the murder with the lying in wait enhancement – which 
means the defendant intentionally hid and waited to attack the victim – he 
could be eligible for the death penalty. But it’s unclear whether that decision 
has been made.

Vo was arrested on Wednesday at his Huntington Beach home.

Fullerton police say he killed 57-year-old Steven Shek Keung Chan, a retired 
administrator who still worked with the university, who they found with 
multiple stab wounds in a campus parking lot on Monday morning.

The slaying led to a multi-day search for the suspect, who was initially 
described as an Asian man in his mid-20s, and was captured on surveillance 
footage fleeing after the stabbing.

Police say they recovered a backpack that Vo left behind under the victim’s 
car, with weapons and items that could potentially be used in a kidnapping 
attempt, including zip ties, a knife and disguises.

Vo has no criminal record in Orange County, according to court records.

Law enforcement officials at a Thursday press conference on Vo’s arrest did not 
disclose how they found Vo or a potential motive. And a Cal State Fullerton 
representative did not say how long Vo’s worked for the university or his 
employment status.

Neighbors in the quiet Huntington Beach cul-de-sac, where Vo and his family 
lived, said they were shocked upon hearing the news of his arrest. Several 
people who lived near Vo described him as a friendly man they would never 
suspect would be capable of murder.

(source: The Orange County Register)

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

A jailhouse informant’s lies put him in prison for 37 years. Now he‘s free



As soon as Samuel Bonner entered the Long Beach courtroom with his wrists 
chained to his waist, the judge made a simple, yet for Bonner, unprecedented, 
request: Could the bailiff please remove his shackles?

This is the moment, Bonner thought. This is it.

It was the closest thing to freedom he had felt in 37 years. The hour or so 
that followed was just as remarkable for the man who always insisted he was 
innocent of murder.

The hearing that day in July was spurred by the approval of California’s new 
felony murder law, which retroactively limits who can be charged with murder to 
those accused of actually killing or intending to kill. In L.A. County, Bonner 
and more than 1,600 others have sought relief, and about 10 convictions have 
been undone to date.

But the reprieve for Bonner that day went far beyond that. Superior Court Judge 
Daniel J. Lowenthal declined to resentence him and instead ordered him 
released, citing misconduct by a prosecutor who used a shady jailhouse 
informant. Besides the informant’s testimony, he said, there was little linking 
Bonner to the crime at all.

“That the death penalty was sought against someone based on testimony that was 
known to be false is horrifying and shocks the conscience,” the judge said.

The saga began on Veterans Day 1982, when Leonard Polk was found inside his 
Long Beach apartment in a pool of blood, severely beaten with 2 bullets through 
the back of his head.

Bonner and an acquaintance, Watson Allison, were charged with killing Polk 
during a robbery, making both eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

At Bonner’s trial, the prosecutor at the time, Kurt Seifert, argued that Bonner 
was the gunman, despite a weak connection to the crime scene.

An undercover officer testified that he saw Bonner and Allison driving around, 
Bonner’s 1964 Ford rumbling and smoking, and thought they looked suspicious. 
The officer began to tail them, and when the car was idling at an intersection 
he observed a bicyclist leaning up against the car talking with Allison. The 
officer then saw Allison and the bicyclist, Polk, walk into a nearby apartment.

Later, a neighbor saw Allison making several trips in and out of the apartment 
carrying property including a TV set, and then driving off.

No one saw Bonner go inside Polk’s apartment. Authorities did find an envelope 
in his car addressed to Allison with Polk’s cross streets. A speaker found in 
Allison’s home — 11 days after the robbery — was marked by Bonner’s palm print. 
And a fuse found outside Polk’s apartment building matched fuses found in 
Bonner’s pocket.

The most conclusive link to Bonner came from the testimony of a key witness: A 
prolific jailhouse informant who claimed Bonner confessed to him that he shot 
Polk.

Before Bonner’s trial, the informant, Michael Hayes, appeared in court on his 
own murder charge. As part of a deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to 
manslaughter and was sentenced to four years in state prison. The leniency was 
attributed to his cooperation in several serious cases, court documents show.

By then, one defendant in another murder case had already accused him of lying. 
During a preliminary hearing, Hayes testified that he saw the defendant shoot a 
man, then take his jewelry.

“You are lying,” the defendant blurted out, according to a transcript of the 
1983 proceeding.

The judge tried to stop the defendant.

“He sits there and lie on me, just straight out lie on me like that. Why don’t 
he tell the truth?” the defendant said.

Hayes took the stand a few months later in Bonner’s trial, which involved just 
three days of testimony. Bonner’s lawyer, Ron Slick, who was known in legal 
circles as Dr. Death because so many of his clients ended up on death row, did 
not call a single witness in his defense.

Bonner was convicted of murder and robbery, but the jury concluded that he was 
not the shooter, so Seifert dropped the death penalty.

At Allison’s trial soon after, Seifert presented a separate panel of jurors 
with a different theory, in which Allison was the gunman and Bonner had a 
“relatively minor” role as the wheelman who never even entered the apartment. 
The prosecutor never brought up Bonner’s alleged confession.

Allison was convicted and sentenced to death.

In a deposition decades later in Allison’s habeas case, Seifert called his 
strategy — arguing at Allison’s trial that Bonner never set foot in Polk’s 
apartment — a “boo-boo” and “the big oops,” court documents show. A detective 
deposed around the same time said based on the evidence, he and his partner 
didn’t think Bonner killed Polk. He couldn’t remember if he formed that 
conclusion before or after Bonner’s trial, or if he relayed it to Seifert, 
court documents show.

Allison’s death sentence was eventually overturned and he was resentenced in 
2012 to 25 years to life, according to the Department of Corrections and 
Rehabilitation. He will come up for parole again by January.

19 days after his verdict in 1983, Bonner wrote a letter to the judge saying he 
didn’t get a fair trial. He had wanted to tell his side of the story, he wrote, 
but his attorney didn’t let him testify.

Slick, the attorney, could not be reached for comment.

Bonner continued his fight for decades, losing his appeal and habeas petitions 
— once because the paperwork was filed late. He said he was found unsuitable 
for parole several times because he wouldn’t accept responsibility for the 
crime.

“I expressed my empathy for the family,” Bonner told The Times recently. “I 
can’t say I take back something I didn’t do.”

The repeated rejection left him numb, he said, but he never stopped believing 
that one day he’d be free.

In 2002, another case was overturned because Hayes lied about a jailhouse 
confession. As it turned out, Hayes had been trading information with 
authorities in Kentucky for years, but they cut him off as an informant because 
of repeated dishonesty.

Even still, Bonner’s case was never reopened.

A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office said it had no record of 
receiving a conviction review request from Bonner and was not notified of the 
two habeas petitions he filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in recent 
years. Both petitions were denied by Lowenthal, the spokeswoman said.

It wasn’t until January, when the new felony murder law went into effect, that 
Bonner had a fresh chance to fight. The law says that murder charges can be 
filed only against people who actually killed or were a major participant with 
reckless indifference to human life. Bonner filed a petition seeking relief, 
triggering a hearing.

Prosecutors opposed on constitutional grounds, as they have done in many other 
cases, arguing in court papers that the new law improperly changes 
voter-approved crime-fighting initiatives, including a proposition that set 
stricter penalties for murder and another that expanded the definition of 
first-degree murder. They also argued that because it’s retroactive, the law 
improperly reopens judgments that were final.

Some judges across the state have agreed, others have not. Five people have 
been released, one was resentenced and four others are awaiting resentencing, 
the district attorney’s office said. Nearly 650 petitions have been denied.

A dozen or so of Bonner’s relatives showed up to his hearing last month in Long 
Beach, anxiously hoping for good news. His girlfriend said she noticed the 
judge looked over and smiled at them, which she thought was a positive sign. 
She took a deep breath.

“We’re really hoping,” Bonner’s sister said.

The judge started the hearing by saying he was going to do more than just 
address the constitutionality of the new law, and instead ran through the legal 
history of Bonner’s case. Lowenthal said that other than Hayes’ testimony, 
there was “scant evidence” that Bonner was involved in the crime at all. And 
Hayes’ lies, he said, began as soon as he took the stand, starting with his 
name.

“His name is Charles Jones,” Lowenthal said. “Everything thereafter appears to 
have been a lie as well.”

Lowenthal then recounted the inconsistencies: Hayes testified that Bonner said 
he shot Polk with a .357 magnum, but Polk was shot with a .22-caliber gun.

Hayes testified that Bonner told him he stole money, but the evidence shows no 
money was taken. Hayes testified that Bonner told him he woke Polk up and shot 
him, but the evidence shows Allison and Polk had just entered the apartment. 
Hayes testified Bonner told him that he entered Polk’s home alone, but 
Allison’s fingerprints were found inside. Hayes testified that Bonner told him 
he’d shot Polk once, but Polk had been shot twice.

Seifert, the original prosecutor, would admit decades later in a deposition 
that when he heard Hayes describe the gun as a .357 magnum, he knew the 
informant was lying. Seifert, now retired, could not be reached for comment for 
this article.

Lowenthal also said Seifert’s presentation of inconsistent theories at the two 
trials, with no new evidence, violated due process.

“It’s axiomatic that a prosecutor’s function is not merely to seek convictions 
but also to honor truth,” Lowenthal said. “Here, that did not happen.”

The district attorney’s office said there was no record that Seifert, whose 
deposition came eight years after he retired, communicated his concern to a 
supervisor. His deposition, conducted in Allison’s federal case in which the 
district attorney’s office wasn’t a party, did not trigger a review of Bonner’s 
case.

The prosecutor who appeared in court last month urged Lowenthal to give her 
office more time to evaluate the merits of Bonner’s petition, setting off a 
fiery exchange.

“You are considering releasing a convicted murderer,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. 
Evelis De Garmo, who did not try the case and was standing in for a colleague.

“Convicted because of prosecutorial misconduct,” Lowenthal replied.

De Garmo said she was not in a position to respond.

“If that has happened, we will be the first to concede, as we have in the 
past,” she said. “Justice is important to us, your honor, as you’ve indicated.”

“Apparently not in this case,” Lowenthal quipped.

De Garmo said she had come to court that day only prepared to address the 
constitutional argument.

“You have ambushed us, your honor, by setting it for one motion and hearing an 
entirely different motion, when we have no documentation about it.”

Ultimately, Lowenthal declined to resentence Bonner for the underlying robbery 
charge, citing “gross prosecutorial misconduct.”

Judges who have vacated felony murder convictions in other cases have 
resentenced defendants for whatever underlying offense led to the killing, 
whether it be a robbery, assault or other crime. In one recent case, a 
25-years-to-life sentence for murder was reduced to four years for the 
remaining assault with a firearm charge.

Instead, Lowenthal dismissed both the murder and robbery charges, and urged the 
district attorney’s office to evaluate whether any other convictions were 
“procured in the same unscrupulous manner.”

De Garmo objected.

“Don’t interrupt me,” the judge said.

“That is very offensive,” she said.

“Don’t interrupt me or you are going to be removed from court,” he said.

A spokeswoman with the district attorney’s office said allegations of 
prosecutorial misconduct are taken “extremely seriously no matter how old the 
case,” and noted that the office is now reviewing Bonner’s case and other cases 
involving the jailhouse informant.

Lowenthal ordered Bonner released from custody. Bonner, who turned 57 this 
month, showed little emotion at the time. Behind him, his relatives cheered and 
applauded. Some wept; they all smiled. His sister and his girlfriend hugged 
each other tightly.

“Thank you, Jesus,” someone said.

Outside the courtroom, a niece FaceTimed one of Bonner’s sons.

“Your daddy’s coming home,” she told him.

Bonner was released from L.A. County Jail, where he had been held while 
awaiting his court appearances, on July 11, jail records show. He spent that 
day with his sisters in Long Beach, meeting nieces and nephews he never got to 
know. He visited his kids, including a daughter who was born just a month 
before he was locked up. She grew up speaking with him regularly over the phone 
and in letters, visiting when she could. So having him home was easy.

“We never lost touch,” said Tomeka Bonner, who turns 37 in October. “He’s a 
really good supporter mentally ... and spiritually; he just wasn’t around 
physically.”

Bonner is now continuing the schooling he started in prison. He’s enrolled in 
culinary courses and hopes to one day open a restaurant. He’s also interested 
in a trucking career, because “it’ll allow him to travel and be outdoors and 
see a lot of the things he wasn’t able to see,” Tomeka Bonner said.

“Whatever he wants to do I’m behind him 100%,” she said.

Bonner and his mom chat at least twice a day: Once to say good morning, again 
to say goodnight. Sometimes they just sit on the phone, not even exchanging 
words, because they can.

“I don’t have to wake up to the control of somebody else,” Bonner said. “I have 
more control of my life now, which is a good thing.”

(source: Los Angeles Times)








USA:

Lengthy trial in North Miami Terrorist Boyz gang case ends in hung jury, 3 
verdicts



After more than 6 weeks of trial, a jury deadlocked Friday on more than a dozen 
counts against a reputed member of North Miami’s Terrorist Boyz gang, while 
convicting him of one charge, and acquitting him of two others. The hung jury 
led a Miami-Dade judge to declare a mistrial against Benson Cadet, who was 
accused of participating in a bloody street war over a decade ago that led to 
the killings of at least 12 people, and dozens of other shootings.

The jury did agree to convict Cadet of 1 count of conspiracy to commit 
racketeering, while acquitting him of 1 murder charge, and 1 attempted murder 
charge. The jury began deliberating on Tuesday, but could not reach a unanimous 
verdict on 15 counts.

Cadet had been facing the death penalty. Friday’s mistrial means Cadet faces a 
second trial that could last months between jury selection, testimony, 
arguments and deliberations.

“We will continue to prosecute Benson Cadet upon retrial of this case because 
we believe the evidence speaks to his direct involvement in these vicious 
street crimes in the cities of North Miami and North Miami Beach,” State 
Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement Friday afternoon.

Prosecutors say the Terrorist Boyz began their reign of terror in March 2002, 
after ramming a car through the front door of a Broward County gun shop and 
stealing 33 firearms. Dressed in all-black, wearing ski masks and gloves, the 
Terrorist Boyz used the weapons and stolen cars to mount a series of “missions” 
to gun down their enemies, prosecutors said.

Cadet, 36, himself was accused of taking part in four murders and over a dozen 
attempted murders in North Miami-Dade, a spate of violence that alarmed city 
leaders and led to the creation of a police task force.

Five suspected members of the gang were indicted on murder charges in 2007. The 
Terrorist Boyz gang case has the notoriety of being the most expensive 
death-penalty case in recent Florida history.

Those indicted were Jean-Marie, Cadet, Max Daniel, Robert St. Germain and the 
suspected ringleader, Johnny Charles, also known as the “Angel of Death.” St. 
Germain pleaded guilty 3 years ago and agreed to a 12-year prison sentence. 
Daniel and Charles are awaiting trial.

Last year, after 7 weeks of testimony, another jury convicted Frantzy 
Jean-Marie, 36, of committing two murders and four attempted murders, as well 
as conspiracy and racketeering. The same jury declined to mete out the death 
penalty, and Jean-Marie is now serving life in prison.

In Cadet’s trial, prosecutors presented testimony from police detectives, 
eyewitnesses and former gang members who agreed to testify. Cadet’s defense 
lawyer, Scott Sakin, said the state was relying on scant evidence and the word 
of “snitches” and “rats.”

(source: Miami Herald)