[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., GA., FLA., ARK., CALIF., USA, US MIL.

[Rick Halperin]

July 31




PENNSYLVANIA:

A new state grant program will help poor defendants in capital punishment 
cases. Why aren’t reformers satisfied?



For the first time ever, Pennsylvania lawmakers have set aside state funds to 
represent poor criminal defendants facing the death penalty.

The only problem, according to criminal justice advocates? It’s not nearly 
enough money.

In June, tucked into a piece of budget legislation known as the fiscal code, 
lawmakers approved a $500,000 allocation to reimburse counties for costs of 
indigent criminal defense in capital cases.

The money will be distributed through a grant program administered by the 
Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

Drew Crompton, a top lawyer for Senate Republicans, said this year’s allocation 
is “in the spirit” of a 2018 recommendation from the Joint State Government 
Commission, which found in a study of Pennsylvania’s death penalty that the 
state didn’t provide sufficient resources for poor, or indigent, defendants.

While the $500,000 grant program might not cover all costs related to indigent 
defense in capital cases, Crompton said, it could lead to larger investments in 
the future.

“I don’t think we were looking to offset every dollar of capital cases,” 
Crompton told the Capital-Star on Monday. “We’re just going to have to see how 
the program works.”

Under the sixth amendment of the U.S. Constitution, anyone charged with a crime 
is entitled to a lawyer. If a defendant is too poor to hire one, a court will 
assign a public defender to their case.

Pennsylvania is the only state in the country that doesn’t allocate general 
funds for indigent defense, according to a 2011 study by the Joint State 
Government Commission. Those costs are borne entirely by the state’s 67 
counties, which each maintain their own public defender’s office.

The system “is particularly burdensome to the poorer counties, which must 
contend with the dual handicap of scant resources and high crime rates,” the 
report reads.

Last year, an investigation by Keystone Crossroads found that those problems 
had hardly improved. In addition to wide spending disparities among counties, 
reporters found that the caseload for public defenders had risen, even as crime 
has fallen across the state.

Phyllis Subin, a former public defender who now heads the Pennsylvania 
Coalition for Justice in Philadelphia, has long called on Pennsylvania to 
direct state funds to indigent defense. A $500,000 earmark for capital murder 
cases, she says, isn’t nearly enough to ensure fair representation for the 
state’s poor defendants.

“It’s a small and … an unrealistic appropriation,” Subin said. “This is pretty 
much a drop in the bucket of what’s really needed in terms of appropriate and 
systemic change.”

Marc Bookman, a lawyer and director of the Atlantic Center for Capital 
Representation, an anti-death penalty legal aid group based in Philadelphia, 
put it another way.

“Imagine there’s a terrible drought across Pennsylvania and the Legislature 
decides to address the problem by opening up a lemonade stand in Harrisburg,” 
Bookman said. “That’s what they’ve done here to address the state-wide problem 
with capital punishment.”

Both advocates argue that a reimbursement program won’t encourage counties to 
invest more in indigent defense, since they’ll only be able to claim money 
they’ve already spent. Counties also can’t count on grants if demand for the 
funds exceeds supply.

Crompton said there’s no guarantee that a county will recoup the money it 
spends on a capital defense case. But he thinks the grant fund “will allow 
counties some freedom” in crafting defense strategies.

While it’s hard to say how much the average capital punishment case costs in 
Pennsylvania, cases in which prosecutors seek the death penalty are generally 
among the most expensive to litigate, according to Vic Walczak, legal director 
for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, which opposes the death penalty.

Defendants facing the death penalty need two lawyers, Walczak said: one to lead 
them through the trial, and another to represent them during sentencing.

The cases are also subject to multiple rounds of costly appeals. What’s more, 
prosecutors and defense attorneys often enlist multiple expert witnesses to 
testify in court.

Walczak said public defenders have to consider the cost of these witnesses as 
they build their cases. For that reason, he’d prefer a program that offsets 
defense costs throughout the duration of a case, as opposed to one that offers 
reimbursements after the fact.

In Northampton County, taxpayers have spent $80,000 litigating charges against 
Dekota Baptiste, an indigent defendant who was convicted of 1st-degree murder 
in May, the Morning Call reported Monday.

Prosecutors seeking the death penalty have paid more than $25,000 for expert 
witnesses, including a psychiatrist and a forensic pathologist.

The county public defender’s office, meanwhile, has spent $50,000 representing 
Baptiste. That covered two court-appointed lawyers, a private investigator, and 
a ballistics analyst, among other expert witnesses.

Despite the mounting costs, the Baptiste case is so far the cheapest death 
penalty case that Northampton County has litigated this decade, according to a 
Morning Call analysis of county court records.

Since 2011, the costs in 4 separate capital murder cases have totaled between 
$90,000 and $143,000.

Even if prosecutors secure a death sentence for Baptiste, there’s little chance 
that Gov. Tom Wolf will sign off on it. Wolf, a Democrat, declared a moratorium 
on executions when he took office in 2015.

The last execution in Pennsylvania was in 1999, according to the Death Penalty 
Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.

Nonetheless, Pennsylvania prosecutors sought the death penalty in 33 capital 
cases last year, Walczak said.

The Joint State Government Commission estimated in 2018 that 80 % of defendants 
facing the death penalty are indigent. Given the cost of their cases, Walczak 
fears the General Assembly’s allocation may only cover defense costs for a 
small handful of them.

“$500,000 is better than zero dollars, which is where [funding] has been,” 
Walczak said. “But it doesn’t come close to even covering funding for capital 
defense.”

(source: Pennsylvania Capital-Star)








GEORGIA:

I witnessed an execution and this is what I saw.----'I’ve been putting off 
talking about what I saw in the execution chamber until this moment.'



On June 20, 2019, Marion Wilson Jr. became the 1500th person to be executed in 
the United States since capital punishment was resumed in 1976.

Journalist Jeremy Campbell was asked to serve as a media witness for the 
execution.

The new podcast, Number 1500: About to be Free, follows Campbell's journey as 
he and a team of investigators learn all they can about the crime, the man 
being executed, the victim and the controversy surrounding the death penalty in 
America.

The following excerpt chronicles the hours journalist Jeremy Campbell spent 
deep inside lockdown as the execution was carried out:

This is the part of the podcast I’m not at peace with. I’ve been putting off 
talking about what I saw in the execution chamber until this moment.

I documented the experience minute by minute in a small 5 x 7 notebook, the 
kind with the blue lines from elementary school. That’s all I was allowed to 
carry into the prison. That notebook and two number two pencils are both issued 
to media witnesses by the Department of Corrections. We’re asked to leave 
behind everything else - all recording devices, cell phones, anything that 
would communicate with the outside world.

Outside it’s pitch black. The prison van that’s transporting me pulls up to a 
wall of barb wire that stretches at least 20 feet. A guard examines our van. He 
uses a mirror to check it underneath and under the hood for safety before 
entering the central most portion of the prison. Someone yells, “Open the 
inside gate!” and just like that, we’re deep inside death row.

I’m quickly escorted into a small room filled with about 30 people. There are 
as many armed guards as there are those of us without weapons. We all sit in 
wooden pews that look like they could be from a church. There are three rows… 
or maybe four. We sit shoulder to shoulder. I recognize the pink hair of a 
woman sitting two seats down from me. I remember from my research that she 
befriended Marion Wilson through pen pal letters to prison.

Everyone is staring at the glass window in the front of the room. It must be a 
twenty foot window, about five feet tall, showing a panoramic view of the 
execution chamber. The room is still and quiet, except for the hum of 
fluorescent lights.

Marion Wilson is on the other side of glass in the center of the room on a 
gurney that’s elevated - maybe by 40 degrees. He’s dressed in all white with 
his arms outstretched displaying his wingspan, hands secured with clear tape, 
wrapped around a platform on each palm. With arms open, and elevated to near 
standing positions it almost looks like he’s on a crucifix I see the tubes in 
one arm and the heart rate monitor on the other. He’s lucid. Looking around the 
room. Making eye contact. Blinking. This is the man we’re about to watch die.

The warden asks Marion Wilson if he’d like to make a statement. Wilson already 
declined once today. This is his last chance. He takes it, and this time he 
says a lot.

Wilson says “I’d just like to say to my family and supporters I love you 
forever. Death can’t stop it. Nothing can stop it. I never took a life in my 
life. They think they know better than me. Nobody escapes this life alive. See 
you all when I get there.”

It’s 9:40 p.m, and Wilson’s eyes keep moving from person to person. I wait for 
some sort of indication things have started. That never comes.

Suddenly, Wilson shouts out “About to be free.” He repeats it, “About to be 
free… I don't have to worry about a chain gang no more.” His voice was loud 
enough to echo through the glass. It’s muffled, but clearly audible. He sounded 
confidant like he was about to escape, not die.

He smiles. He seems to be staring directly at the woman near me with pink hair. 
She’s quietly crying. Tears puddling down her face, eyes locked on him. She 
blows him a kiss.

9:42 P.M.: His chest heaves. He’s breathing heavily. His eyes close.

9:43 P.M.: His chest jolts as his mouth seems to form a large yawn, like he 
suddenly fell asleep. I look to see if he’s still breathing. His chest moves up 
and down.

9:44 P.M.: I look to the doctor in the room, who is watching patiently. I can't 
tell if Wilson is breathing anymore.

9:45 P.M.: The lady with pink hair is crying. I hear her sniffle. I think I 
hear someone’s cell phone vibrate. How did they get it in the room? Maybe it’s 
a guard.

9:46 P.M.: Marion looks like he’s sleeping. He’s still.

9:47 P.M.: His color is changing. His complexion seems to be a slight shade of 
gray.

9:48 P.M.: I wonder when will this end.

9:49 P.M.: Still waiting. A guard holds in a sneeze on the left side of the 
room.

9:50 P.M.: All 30 people in the room are still staring through that glass 
window at Wilson. He hasn’t moved in minutes or shown any sign of pain.

9:51 P.M.: Time feels so slow. I'm wondering if it worked or if somehow he’s 
just sedated. Should it take this long? Two more doctors quickly enter the room 
from behind the glass. The warden rushes in too. They’re in white coats, 
wearing stethoscopes They examine him, each listening to different parts of his 
body, focusing on his chest.

9:52 P.M.: The loudspeaker is turned back on and the Warden speaks. He declares 
9:52 p.m. as the time of death and announces that the execution of Marion 
Wilson was carried out by law.

Curtains on the other side of the glass close. It feels like a theater and the 
movie is over. I’m quickly escorted out of the room and back in the van with 
the other media witnesses.

It feels like we’re speeding back to the media staging area - all of us 
comparing notes to make sure we are accurately quoting the last words ever 
spoken by Marion Wilson Jr.

Just like that, we’re all back in reporter mode. Confirming details, 
dispatching information and on deadline. My live report will lead the 11 
o’clock newscast in just under an hour.

(source: 11alive.com)








FLORIDA:

Death row convict Paul Beasley Johnson to be resentenced for killing 3 people, 
including Polk deputy----This will be the 4th time in the 38 years since the 
fatal shootings of three people, including a Polk County Sheriff’s Office 
deputy, that Johnson will stand before a jury facing the death sentence.



For the 4th time since his initial conviction in 1981, Paul Beasley Johnson is 
expected to stand before a jury next month seeking mercy for killing 3 people, 
including a Polk County Sheriff’s Office deputy.

On Tuesday, Circuit Judge Donald Jacobsen denied the state’s motion to postpone 
next month’s sentencing hearing. Assistant State Attorney Paul Wallace had 
argued, in part, that a case pending before the Florida Supreme Court could 
negate the need for Johnson’s resentencing, but Jacobsen said he remains under 
a mandate to conduct a new penalty phase, and it needs to be held.

“The jurisdiction I have over this case is in accordance with the mandate sent 
to me by the Supreme Court,” Jacobsen said during Tuesday’s hearing, “and that 
is to retry the penalty phase portion of the case.”

The pending case Wallace referenced relates to a January 2016 ruling by the 
U.S. Supreme Court that declared Florida’s death penalty process 
unconstitutional. The ruling stated that Florida’s law allowing judges, and not 
jurors, to decide if prosecutors have proven any aggravating factors supported 
the death penalty during trial was flawed. As a result, the state Legislature 
drafted new laws reflecting that change and others, including a mandate that a 
jury’s vote to recommend death must be unanimous instead of a simple majority, 
which had been the state’s law.

In light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling, the state’s high court set aside 
the death sentences of those condemned inmates statewide who didn’t have a 
unanimous jury recommendation and whose sentences were affirmed by the Florida 
Supreme Court after June 2002, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that jurors 
should decide whether aggravating factors are proven. That would include 
Johnson, who was resentenced to death in May 2014 on an 11-1 jury 
recommendation.

But now, a case is pending before the Florida Supreme Court seeking to reverse 
the earlier decision on retroactivity. If granted, it would mean those whose 
death sentences were affirmed after 2002, including six from Polk County, may 
not get new sentencing hearings.

Case timeline

A look at the key dates over the past 38 years in the Paul Beasley Johnson 
death penalty case:

Jan. 8, 1981: Overnight crime rampage leaves 3 people dead, including Polk 
County Sheriff’s Deputy T.A. Burnham.

Sept. 22, 1981: Johnson convicted of three counts of 1st-degree murder, jury 
recommends death on all 3 counts.

Sept. 23, 1981: Sentenced to death on all 3 counts.

Dec. 11, 1986: Florida Supreme Court overturns convictions and sentences on 
grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel.

April 22 & 26, 1988: Convicted on all counts, jury recommends death.

April 28, 1988: Sentenced to death on 3 murder counts.

Jan. 11, 2010: Florida Supreme Court overturns death sentences on grounds of 
prosecutorial misconduct.

Feb. 20, 2013: Polk County jury votes 11-1 to recommend death sentence for each 
of the 3 murders.

May 7, 2014: Sentenced to death on all 3 counts.

Dec. 6, 2016: Florida Supreme Court overturns death sentences after U.S. 
Supreme Court declares state’s death penalty process unconstitutional. That 
ruling has led to next month’s resentencing hearing.

Note: This timeline does not include any appeals that were upheld.

In his motion seeking to delay the Johnson case, Wallace noted that Chief 
Justice Charles Canady has taken the position that the new death penalty laws 
shouldn’t be retroactive to 2002. Beyond that, 3 of the justices who agreed to 
retroactivity have retired from the state Supreme Court and have been replaced 
by those who are more conservative, leaving only one who supported the ruling 2 
years ago.

Johnson, 70, was convicted of killing 3 people in a night-long rampage that 
began shortly after midnight Jan. 9, 1981, when a dispatcher heard a stranger’s 
voice over a taxicab’s radio, saying cab driver William Evans had been knocked 
out. When Evans’ body was found in a grove 5 days later, he’d been shot twice 
in the head, his wallet and fare money were missing and his cab had been set on 
fire.

About 3 a.m. Jan. 9, Ray Beasley and his friend, Amy Reid, offered Johnson a 
ride, and he asked them to stop along a remote area of Drane Field Road so he 
could relieve himself. Johnson was convicted of shooting Beasley on the side of 
that road, and when Reid fled in the car to summon help, Johnson fatally shot 
Deputy Theron A. Burnham 3 times with his own service revolver after he 
responded to Reid’s call.

Johnson was arrested the following day after telling friends he had shot the 
deputy, according to court records.

In addition to his initial trial, Johnson had appeared before 2 other juries 
after winning appeals, but each time, juries have recommended that he be 
executed for the killings. None has been by unanimous vote.

Johnson has remained on Florida’s death row for nearly 4 decades.

(source: The Ledger)








ARKANSAS----female to face death penalty

Prosecutor to seek death penalty in killing of former Arkansas senator



Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against a Randolph County woman 
arrested last month in connection with the killing of former state Sen. Linda 
Collins, Third Judicial Circuit District Attorney Henry Boyce said Tuesday.

Rebecca Lynn O'Donnell, 48, has an arraignment scheduled Tuesday afternoon on 
charges of capital murder, abuse of a corpse and hindering physical evidence. 
Boyce told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that prosecutors will formally 
announce their plans to seek the state's highest punishment at the hearing.

There are currently no women on death row in Arkansas.

Authorities haven't divulged what led police to arrest O'Donnell, a friend and 
former campaign aide to Collins.

The former senator's body was found at her home in Pocahontas on June 4. A 
local judge's order to seal the case days later has prevented police and 
prosecutors from publicly releasing details about the murder, including the 
cause of death.

The local judge later recused from the case. Collins' ex-husband was a judge 
who served on the same circuit, and a new judge, David Goodson, has been 
assigned to the case.

The Democrat-Gazette wrote a letter to Goodson earlier this month requesting 
that the order to seal be lifted in light of rumors and innuendo about the case 
that have circulated online.

(source: arkansasonline.com)








CALIFORNIA:

Suspect in San Fernando Valley Killing Spree Charged With Capital Murder



A man accused in a 13-hour killing spree pleaded not guilty Monday afternoon to 
4 counts of murder and special circumstances in a possible death penalty case.

In addition to the murder counts, Gerry Dean Zaragoza, 26, was charged with 2 
counts of attempted murder and 1 count of attempted robbery, according to the 
complaint filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

He was also charged with a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, 
making Zaragoza eligible for the death penalty. A decision on whether to seek 
the death penalty will be made later.

Zaragoza is accused of fatally shooting his 56-year-old father, Carlos Ignacio 
Zaragoza, and his 33-year-old brother, Carlos Pierre Zaragoza, at an apartment 
in Canoga Park on Thursday.

He also allegedly shot his mother in the hand.

Zaragoza then went to North Hollywood where he is accused of killing a former 
girlfriend, Azucena Lepe-Ayala, 45, at a gas station near the Burbank Airport.

Relatives said Lepe was a mother of 4 children, ranging in age from 12 to 18. A 
man also was wounded in the attack, officials said. He cleaned the gas station 
at night and did not know the suspect.

Members of the Zaragoza, Lepe and Ayala families were in court on Monday.

At one point before the arraignment, a woman who identified herself as a 
Zaragoza sister began sobbing uncontrollably. Later she turned to Lepe's 
widower and his sister and said to them, "I'm so sorry."

Lepe family members have said Zaragoza had stalked Lepe after she rebuffed him 
and ended a brief relationship.

Outside the courthouse, a Lepe sister said that the stalking abrutply ended 
about 6 months ago, and that his sudden and unexpected reappearance made her 
death even more shocking and difficult to bear.

Zaragoza is also accused of trying to rob a man outside of a bank in Canoga 
Park. He also allegedly shot to death Detwonia Harris, 55, aboard a bus that 
had stopped in Van Nuys.

Police say that as Zaragoza was getting off the bus, he turned around and shot 
Harris although there had been no interaction between them.

Zaragoza was later found and arrested.

The suspect is unemployed and described as being violent and having a history 
of drug use.

The 1st shooting occurred at 1:50 a.m. Thursday at an apartment in the 21000 
block of Roscoe Boulevard, near DeSoto Avenue, in Canoga Park, police said.

The 2nd shooting occurred at 2:30 a.m. at the Shell station in the 6700 block 
of Vineland Avenue, near Vanowen Street. Both victims, who worked at the gas 
station, were taken to a hospital, where Lepe was pronounced dead.

Michael Ramia, who was Carlos I. Zaragoza's boss, told reporters the suspect 
was "very violent."

"He told me (Gerry Zaragoza) was violent in the house. He was very violent," 
Ramia told reporters outside the Canoga Park apartment. "And I told Carlos, I 
said, 'Carlos, get rid of him, you know? Just take him to rehab.'"

About 7:20 a.m. Thursday, an attempted robbery believed to have been committed 
by Zaragoza occurred outside a bank at Sherman Way and Topanga Canyon Boulevard 
in Canoga Park, police said. The suspect allegedly pulled a handgun on a man 
about 40 years old, but he fled when he realized the victim had no money, 
police said.

At about 1:50 p.m., Harris was fatally shot aboard an Orange Line bus at 
Victory Boulevard and Woodley Avenue in Van Nuys, and a suspect generally 
matching the description of Zaragoza was seen running from the scene.

"He didn't even talk to his last victim," LAPD Capt. Billy Hayes, commander of 
the LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division, said at a Thursday afternoon news 
conference. "He's getting off the bus and he turns and shoots the person. It 
doesn't look like there was any interaction between them."

About 2 p.m. Zaragoza was spotted in Canoga Park, about 7 miles from the 
location of the bus shooting. He was taken into custody after "a small use of 
force" near the intersection of Canoga Avenue and Gault Street, according to 
Hayes.

Zaragoza is due back in court September 3 to set a date for a preliminary 
hearing to determine if there is enough evidence for trial.

(source: nbclosangeles.com)








USA:

Resuming Executions Puts US on the Wrong Side of History



Fueled by a recognition that the United States criminal justice system is 
unfair and discriminatory, there has been a great deal of focus on efforts for 
reform – many bipartisan, including by President Trump. Attorney General 
William Barr’s decision to resume carrying out executions under the federal 
death penalty is a slap in the face of this effort. It ignores concerns over 
the death penalty’s equity and fairness, and is contrary to efforts around the 
nation and the world to end this form of punishment.

The US has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world, with 
more than two million people behind bars. Now it will add to its legacy as an 
outlier globally by restarting federal executions after a nearly two-decade 
hiatus. More than 70 % of the world’s countries have abolished capital 
punishment in law or practice. This decision positions the federal government 
as the renegade, compared with the states. Twenty-one states have outlawed the 
death penalty. Public attitudes are also changing. A 2018 Gallup Poll found a 
decrease in the number of Americans who believe it is applied fairly.

Barr’s declaration came just months after Trump, with much fanfare, surrounded 
by many formerly incarcerated people, signed the First Step Act, which makes 
modest reforms to the criminal justice system. The death penalty is 
inconsistent with the inherent dignity of the person and is an inherently cruel 
form of punishment. In the US, it is inevitably plagued with arbitrariness, 
racial disparities, and error. Since 1973, 166 people have been released from 
death row after later being found innocent. Just last month, 2 California 
prisoners, each with over 30 years on death row, were freed after appellate 
courts found significant errors in their trials.

Numerous studies over the past several decades have found persistent patterns 
of racial disparities in courts imposing the death penalty, with Black people 
much more likely to receive such verdicts, especially if the victim is white.

Since Trump’s election, the US has been at the center of both nationwide and 
global criticisms regarding eroding rights protections ranging from a newfound 
disrespect for the rule of law to an immigration system that has led to family 
separations, and harsh and dangerous detention conditions, including keeping 
children in cages.

Barr’s decision only cements the image of the United States as a nation that 
fails to respect people’s inherent rights and dignity.

(source: Human Rights Watch)

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

End the death penalty



Regarding “Resumed federal executions raise death penalty’s 2020 stakes” (July 
27): The United States should reject resorting to an archaic system of justice 
whereby modern society still paradoxically chooses to (premeditatedly) kill its 
citizens for (premeditatedly) killing its citizens. Each execution is like a 
wrecking ball to the pretense of a civilized society. Norms that allow for an 
eye-for-an-eye bloodlust should have long since been left to distant history, 
with no proper place for any vestiges in the 21st century.

Capital punishment is itself morally corrupt — all the more so given a system 
of justice that calls out for reform to remedy the too-often intrusion of 
matters of race, ethnicity and the shallowness of defendants’ pockets to afford 
competent representation. The ideal, while achievable, system is one scrubbed 
of excesses, absent skewed punishments like the death penalty.

“One ought not return injustice for injustice,” Socrates advised more than two 
millennia ago. Let’s hope, 2,000 years later, the future augurs a 
more-enlightened United States absent state-sanctioned execution.

(source: Opinion, Raleigh News & Observer)






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

Death penalty hangs over 10 defendants in Bronx drive-through murder of mobster 
‘Sally Daz’ Zottola, failed hit on his son



Prosecutors, in a threat with new teeth, confirmed the death penalty remained 
on the table Tuesday against the cabal of alleged co-conspirators in the 
McDonald’s drive-through murder of a Bonanno crime family veteran.

9 of the defendants, including supposed mastermind Anthony Zottola Sr., paraded 
silently into Brooklyn Federal Court wearing handcuffs and prison jumpsuits for 
a pretrial hearing. Zottola was accused of plotting with the others to kill his 
dad, Sylvester “Sally Daz” Zottola, and his older brother Salvatore in separate 
attacks last year.

“All of the defendants as of now are death-eligible?” asked Federal Judge 
Raymond Dearie.

“That’s correct, your honor,” replied Assistant U.S. Attorney Kayla Bensing.

Though the last U.S. execution of a federal inmate was in 2003, the Trump 
administration recently announced that 5 death row inmates were now facing 
execution this coming December and January. All were convicted of murdering 
children, and are in custody at a high-security federal prison in Terre Haute, 
Ind.

The 71-year-old Sally Daz died waiting for a cup of coffee at the Bronx 
fast-food outlet on Oct. 4, 2018, in what was widely viewed to be a mob hit but 
turned out to be a family feud over business. Authorities charged that the 
greedy Anthony Zottola was at odds with both his relatives, and he even 
proposed targeting the 2 in a single attack in a Christmas Day 2017 text 
message.

“Can we get a doubleheader?” he wondered.

Zottola was indicted last month for arranging the attacks on both his father 
and his older brother just 3 months apart last year. Salvatore survived a July 
11, 2018, murder try outside his waterfront home in the same borough.

The cold-blooded Anthony joined his brother in delivering eulogies for their 
father after allegedly ordering the old man’s execution.

Bensing said the government had asked all the defense attorneys to prepare a 
mitigation submission for review of the possible capital case, with another 
hearing set for October.

(source: nydailynews.com)

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

The only Native American on federal death row who killed a grandmother, 63, and 
her granddaughter, 9, claims execution would be 'unjust' because Navajo Nation 
disavows capital punishment and murders happened on tribal land



Attorneys for the only Native American man on death row, who is among the 5 men 
scheduled for the 1st federal executions since 2003, have said that his death 
would be a violation of tribal sovereignty.

Lezmond Charles Mitchell, 37, is set to be executed on December 11 for the 2001 
murders of Alyce Slim, 63, and her nine-year-old granddaughter Tiffany Lee on 
Navajo reservation land in Arizona.

His pending execution is one of five announced on Thursday by Attorney General 
William Bar, in a surprise resumption of the federal death penalty after 
decades of an effective moratorium.

The killer and both of the victims were Navajo tribal members - and now 
attorneys for Mitchell argue that the federal government does not have legal 
authority to carry out the execution.

'This is the only case in the modern history of the death penalty where the 
federal government has denigrated tribal sovereignty in this manner, and Mr. 
Mitchell remains the only Native American on federal death row,' attorneys 
Jonathan C. Aminoff and Celeste Bacchi said in a statement to DailyMail.com on 
Monday.

Although Mitchell is the only Native American on federal death row, as of last 
October there were about 28 Native Americans on state death rows across the 
country, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The Navajo Nation is the largest tribal reservation in the US, covering about 
27,400 square miles in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, with a population of about 
350,000.

The Navajo tribe opposes the death penalty and did not 'opt in' to federal 
executions as required of tribal nations by the 1994 Crime Bill.

However, in 2015 the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Court ruled that while 
the federal government could not impose the death penalty for rape and murder 
on Navajo land, the carjacking charge against Mitchell made him eligible for 
capital punishment.

'It does not matter that the crime occurred in Indian country, and therefore, 
the opt-in provision of the Federal Death Penalty Act does not apply,' the 
court said in its ruling. 'In other words, carjacking resulting in death 
carries the death penalty regardless of where it was committed.'

The tribe's attorneys general and a chief justice have repeatedly written 
letters to congressional members and to federal attorneys in Arizona and New 
Mexico opposing Mitchell's execution.

The latest was a July 2014 letter by then-Chief Justice Herb Yazzie to John 
Leonardo, who served as U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona from 2012 to 
2017, according to the Farmington Daily Times.

'Capital punishment is a sensitive issue for the Navajo people. Our laws have 
never allowed for the death penalty. It is our belief that the negative force 
that drives a person to commit evil acts can only be extracted by the creator. 
People, on the other hand, are vehicles only for goodness and healing,' Yazzie 
wrote.

Murders of Alyce Slim and Tiffany Lee

On October 28, 2001, Mitchell, then 20, and his 16–year–old accomplice, Johnny 
Orsinger, were seeking a vehicle to use in a robbery they planned to carry out 
on a trading post on the Arizona side of the reservation.

Grandmother Alyce Slim and her 9 year-old granddaughter Tiffany were traveling 
to see a medicine woman on the reservation when they apparently picked up 
Mitchell and Orsinger as hitchhikers.

When Slim stopped near Sawmill, Arizona, to let Mitchell and his accomplice out 
of the car, the men began stabbing her a total of 33 times as she tried to 
fight off the attack, according to court documents.

Once dead, her body was pulled onto the rear seat. The granddaughter was put 
next to her.

Mitchell drove the truck into the mountains with the girl sitting beside her 
grandmother's lifeless body.

In the mountains near Tsaile, Slim's body was dragged out of the truck

The girl was ordered out of the truck Mitchell told her 'to lay down and die,' 
according to court testimony.

Mitchell cut the girl's throat twice, but she didn't die. When she did not die, 
Mitchell and Orsinger each dropped large rocks on her head. 20-pound rocks 
bearing the child's blood were later found at the scene.

Mitchell and Orsinger left the murder scene, but later returned to hide 
evidence.

While Mitchell dug a hole in the ground, Orsinger severed the heads and hands 
of both victims in an effort to prevent their identification.

The dismembered parts were buried in the hole and the torsos were pulled into 
the woods. Mitchell and Orsinger later burned the victims' clothing and other 
personal effects. Mitchell washed the knives with alcohol to remove any blood.

Mitchell's attorneys do not deny his involvement in the heinous murders, but 
they do argue that he is less culpable than Orsinger, who was spared the death 
penalty due to his age.

'A life sentence would have been consistent with punishments meted out to 
similarly-situated defendants including Johnny Orsinger, Mr. Mitchell's 
co-defendant in these killings,' the attorneys said.

'Mr. Orsinger, who initiated the killings, had a history of violence, and, in 
fact, had previously murdered two people in an unrelated incident,' they 
continued.

'Mr. Mitchell, on the other hand, had no significant criminal history, no 
history of violence whatsoever, and was diagnosed by a board-certified 
psychiatrist as being psychotic at the time of the crimes.'

3 days after the murders, Mitchell and 2 other men robbed the Red Rock Trading 
Post at gunpoint, driving off in Slim's stolen GMC pickup truck, which they 
later burned.

On May 8, 2003, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona 
found Mitchell guilty of numerous offenses, including first degree murder, 
felony murder, and carjacking resulting in murder, and he was sentenced to 
death.

Mitchell is being held on federal death row at USP Terre Haute in Indiana.

His attorneys say that allowing his execution to go forward as scheduled on 
December 11 'would be a grave injustice, an affront to the Navajo Nation's 
values and sovereignty, and contrary to American values given our long history 
of discrimination towards the Native American people.'

Full statement of Lezmond Mitchell's attorneys

Statement issued by attorneys for Lezmond Mitchell on July 29 regarding his 
scheduled execution:

'Lezmond Mitchell is a Navajo man who was convicted of the 2001 murders of two 
Navajo people on Navajo reservation land in Arizona. The Navajo Nation has 
consistently maintained its opposition to capital punishment generally, and as 
applied to Mr. Mitchell specifically. Despite the objections of the Navajo 
Nation, as well as the objections of the victims' family and the local United 
States Attorney's Office, the federal government insisted that Mr. Mitchell be 
prosecuted capitally. This is the only case in the modern history of the death 
penalty where the federal government has denigrated tribal sovereignty in this 
manner, and Mr. Mitchell remains the only Native American on federal death row.

'The Government's violation of tribal sovereignty did not end with the decision 
to pursue a death sentence against Mr. Mitchell. In addition to the charging 
decision, the Government committed misconduct in the course of this prosecution 
by stashing Mr. Mitchell in a tribal jail without affording him his federal 
constitutional rights. For 25 days after his arrest, Mr. Mitchell was 
continually interrogated by the FBI without being provided with an attorney. 
Furthermore, in numerous different ways, the Government systematically excluded 
Navajos from serving on Mr. Mitchell's jury.

'Mr. Mitchell accepts responsibility for his role in these crimes and offered 
to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. A life sentence would have 
been consistent with punishments meted out to similarly-situated defendants 
including Johnny Orsinger, Mr. Mitchell's co-defendant in these killings. Mr. 
Orsinger, who initiated the killings, had a history of violence, and, in fact, 
had previously murdered 2 people in an unrelated incident. Mr. Mitchell, on the 
other hand, had no significant criminal history, no history of violence 
whatsoever, and was diagnosed by a board-certified psychiatrist as being 
psychotic at the time of the crimes. Mr. Orsinger, who was 16 years old at the 
time of the crimes, received a life sentence due to his age; yet Mr. Mitchell, 
who had just turned 20 and was less culpable, received a death sentence.

'Under these circumstances, allowing Mr. Mitchell's execution to go forward 
would be a grave injustice, an affront to the Navajo Nation's values and 
sovereignty, and contrary to American values given our long history of 
discrimination towards the Native American people.'

(source: dailymail.co.uk)

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

UN: Trump administration 'rolling back progress' with death penalty decision



A United Nations human rights spokesman expressed concerns on Tuesday about the 
Department of Justice's decision to resume federal executions, saying it was 
“rolling back progress."

“It’s also based on the unacceptable risk of executing innocent people,” Rupert 
Colville said at a news briefing, according to Reuters.

“And there have been reports in the United States showing, using DNA evidence, 
etc., that innocent people have been executed there,” he added.

Colville reportedly said there is no indication the death penalty serves as a 
deterrent, noting that 25 U.S. states and 170 of 194 U.N. members have 
eliminated capital punishment.

“I would also note that the decision by the U.S. attorney general very much 
goes against the trends in the United States as a whole, as well as against the 
international trend,” he said, according to Reuters.

Attorney General William Barr last week published a list of 5 inmates scheduled 
to be executed, all of whom were convicted in the murders of children. The 
first of the executions is scheduled for Dec. 5.

The U.S. government has not executed anyone since 2003, but there are currently 
52 federal inmates on death row, including Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar 
Tsarnaev.

The Justice Department's announcement last week drew swift condemnation from 
several Democratic presidential candidates who noted the history of racial and 
class disparities in how the death penalty is applied.

(source: thehill.com)

***********

NAACP Condemn’s William Barr’s decision to reinstate death penalty



“Attorney General William Barr’s new order to reinstate the federal death 
penalty, after almost 2 decades, is a mark of regression in a time when our 
nation desperately needs reform of the criminal justice system. The death 
penalty is racially biased, inhumane, and risks the lives of innocent people. 
It should be abolished, not resurrected.”

(source: naacp.org)








US MILITARY:

What death row executions may mean for these four soldiers at Leavenworth



There are 4 death row inmates at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Ronald Gray, Hasan 
Akbar, Timothy Hennis, and Nidal Hasan.

The Department of Justice’s effort to clear the way for the federal government 
to resume capital punishment after a nearly 2-decade pause won’t immediately 
change the individual statuses of those on the military’s death row, but some 
experts do view it as a potential sign of things to come.

There are currently four death row inmates in the military justice system: 
Ronald Gray, Hasan Akbar, Timothy Hennis and Nidal Hasan.

All are former soldiers.

In 2009, Nidal Hasan was an Army major when he killed 13 people and wounded 
more than 30 others in a mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.

“Attorney General [William] Barr’s announcement does not affect the individual 
status of any of the 4 death row inmates,” a Department of the Army official 
said on background. “The military will make an appropriate announcement if and 
when an execution date has been scheduled for any of our prisoners."

The new policy under the Trump administration clears the legal path to resume 
using lethal injection for federal death row inmates, which is also how the 
military would perform an execution. The policy switches away from a three-drug 
cocktail that was caught up in legal challenges to using a single drug — 
pentobarbital — to execute inmates.

Although the statuses of the 4 individuals on military death row are not likely 
to change anytime soon, the eagerness of President Donald Trump’s DOJ to change 
the status quo could bode badly for the death row inmates at U.S. Disciplinary 
Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

“If I were on death row, I would consider this a very bad sign, but not a sign 
that anything is happening immediately. There is going to be litigation over 
this," said Eugene Fidell, a Yale Law School lecturer on habeas corpus and 
military justice.

The military hasn’t executed a prisoner since 1961, though capital punishment 
remains a legal penalty under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice.

Military death row was more populated in past decades, but legal challenges 
stemmed the number of occupants.

In the 1970s, capital punishment was invalidated by the Supreme Court, only to 
be later reinstated by that same legal body. And in 1983, the Armed Forces 
Court of Appeals also ruled the penalty unconstitutional, only to be again 
reinstated by an executive order from President Ronald Reagan the following 
year.

Since then, more cases have wound their way toward and away from the death 
penalty.

“Some have gone away because of clemency, or errors found on appeal,” Fidell, 
who also served as a judge advocate in the Coast Guard, said. “So there’s been 
a lot of cases that have gone through the system, but the system does tend to 
winnow them out. And presidents have not fallen all over themselves to clear 
the path for executions.”

Retired Lt. Col. Jeffrey Addicott, a former Army judge advocate who tried a 
death penalty case that was ultimately commuted to life, said that he hopes the 
DOJ guidance signals a change on the military side.

“Hopefully it is a harbinger of things to come,” Addicott said. “Obviously the 
military appeal system is broken and hopefully the DOJ’s decision will energize 
a revamping of the military’s appeal process so that the victims can have 
justice.”

“Although the military rules of evidence are word for word the same as the 
federal rules of evidence, the military appeal system takes a somewhat 
different track than the Federal Court appeal system, but both ultimately merge 
together at the U.S. Supreme Court," he added.

As it stands, Ronald R. Gray, a former Army private convicted in 1988 of 
multiple murders and rapes, appears to be the closest to being put to death.

Gray was initially given an execution date in 2008 after then-President George 
W. Bush approved it, but a stay was granted less than a week afterwards. That 
stay of execution was lifted in 2016, but even he doesn’t face any immediate 
execution date.

Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who opened fire in a shooting rampage at Fort 
Hood, may also wait to learn of an outcome.

Hasan’s former defense lawyer, retired Col. John P. Galligan, told Army Times 
that they spoke last week on the day in which the new DOJ guidance was 
announced.

Galligan, a former Army judge advocate who still represents Hasan on some civil 
cases, said that his client could be affected by the new guidance, but there 
remain many avenues to appeal his sentence.

“[Hasan’s] case hasn’t even really gotten through the initial stages of the 
appeal,” Galligan said. “The case is still being litigated on post-trial 
discovery issues ... I think it’d be a long time before that [the death 
penalty] becomes one of the pertinent issues to be addressed on appeal.”

Hasan Akbar is another former soldier on death row. He was sentenced to death 
for a premeditated attack that killed an Army captain and an Air Force major 
early in the morning of March 23, 2003, at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait, at the 
start of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Also on death row is Timothy Hennis, a former master sergeant who was convicted 
and sentenced to death for the murders of a North Carolina woman and her 2 
children in 1985.

(source: armytimes.com)