[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., OHIO, TENN., ARK., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 4



TEXAS----impending execution

Texas set to execute Billy Crutsinger in Fort Worth slayings of 2 elderly 
women----Crutsinger has pushed to stop his execution based on claims of bad 
lawyering during his trial and in the appellate process.



In 2003, an 89-year-old woman and her 71-year-old daughter were stabbed to 
death in their Fort Worth home. On Wednesday, Texas plans to execute Billy 
Crutsinger for the crime.

Crutsinger, now 64, was sentenced to death for the home robbery and slayings of 
Pearl Magouirk and her daughter, Patricia Syren. The two women were found two 
days after their murders, and police tracked Crutsinger to a Galveston bar 
using Syren’s credit card, according to court records.

In Tarrant County, Assistant Criminal District Attorney and lead prosecutor 
Michele Hartmann said Tuesday the loss of the mother and daughter “is still 
felt deeply by their family and the Fort Worth community.” Unless his execution 
is stopped by the U.S. Supreme Court or delayed by Gov. Greg Abbott, Crutsinger 
will be put to death after 6 p.m. in Huntsville.

After the murders, Crutsinger was arrested — albeit illegally — after he didn’t 
identify himself to police in Galveston. He consented to a DNA swab that linked 
him to the crime scene and confessed to the murders while in custody, the 
records state.

A judge ruled that police were not justified in arresting Crutsinger on the 
spot for credit card abuse because they didn’t have a warrant, and he didn’t 
commit the crime of failure to identify himself before his arrest. Still, 
despite the illegal arrest, the judge found his confession and DNA sample were 
admissible evidence in court because the police conduct was not “purposeful or 
flagrant,” and there was probable cause for his arrest, just not a warrant.

During his nearly 16 years on death row, Crutsinger has appealed his sentence 
arguing against the legal validity of his confession and DNA sample. But more 
recently, he has pointed to his lawyers’ failings.

Crutsinger has argued that his trial lawyer failed to adequately investigate 
mitigating factors that could have swayed the jury to hand down a sentence of 
life in prison instead of execution. Specifically, he claims the attorney 
overlooked evidence of mental impairment caused by alcohol addiction, head 
trauma, depression and low intelligence, according to a recent federal district 
court ruling.

His current lawyer, Lydia Brandt, has also knocked his state appellate lawyer — 
claiming his incompetence and the courts’ refusal to grant investigatory 
funding has kept Crutsinger from any meaningful appeals process. She noted that 
a judge in another capital case found Crutsinger’s state appellate lawyer 
“sloppy” and lacking professionalism, and that his filings were “poorly done 
and of minimal assistance to the court,” according to Crutsinger’s petition.

“The State of Texas denied Mr. Crutsinger his initial right to one full and 
fair opportunity to present his claims concerning violations of his fundamental 
constitutional rights,” Brandt wrote in a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme 
Court last week.

Brandt did not respond to The Texas Tribune on Tuesday.

The federal courts, as well as the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals, have so far 
rejected his arguments. U.S. District Court Judge Terry Means ruled last month 
that despite a lack of funding for Crutsinger to investigate it, Means fully 
addressed the merits of the ineffective counsel claim and found it was without 
merit. He referred to trial records that revealed the lawyer presenting 
multiple witnesses at the phase of trial where jurors weigh questions that lead 
to life in prison or death, including prison officers who testified to his good 
behavior and family members who described his grief and issues with drinking.

According to the testimony of his ex-wife and wife at the time of trial, 
Crutsinger had lost a newborn daughter; his toddler son to drowning; his 
teenage son to lymphoma; his brother from illness; his father, who was hit by a 
car; and his sister, who was killed in a car crash in which he was driving.

“The assertions that the denial of funding precluded a true merits review and 
that trial counsel's representation was egregious, border on frivolous,” Means 
wrote in a ruling last month. “... His conclusion that trial counsel failed to 
explore his alcoholism, his ‘personality change’ after a single drink, his 
history of domestic violence and abuse, and his repeated losses of significant 
friends and relatives, is completely false.”

Earlier rulings in Crutsinger’s case from the federal district court and the 
5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have been highlighted by the U.S. Supreme 
Court, though, when pointing out that the appellate court overly limited 
investigatory funding. Although the courts reexamined the case and still denied 
funding and declined to reopen the case for further review, one appellate judge 
split from his court’s ruling.

Judge James Graves on the 5th Circuit court said last week he would stop 
Wednesday’s execution. He said earlier that Means’ ruling on the merits of 
Crutsinger’s claim came before he had any funds to further investigate the 
issue, so it was not yet developed for such a ruling.

“The court concluded that Crutsinger must prove his claim of ineffective 
assistance of counsel to be able to establish that ‘investigative, expert, or 
other services are reasonably necessary’ to then be able to prove his claim of 
ineffective assistance of counsel,” Graves wrote in a dissent in July. “Such a 
circular application is illogical ... . A defendant who has already proven his 
claim of ineffective assistance of counsel would have no need for additional 
investigative, expert, or other services.”

Without intervention, Crutsinger will become the 5th person executed in Texas 
this year and the 14th in the country. There are 10 other Texas executions 
scheduled through December.

(source: The Texas Tribune)

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

Texas inmate set to be executed for killing 2 women in 2003



A Texas death row inmate is set to be executed Wednesday for fatally stabbing 
an 89-year-old woman and her daughter more than 16 years ago in their Fort 
Worth home.

Billy Jack Crutsinger, 64, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Wednesday 
evening for the 2003 killings of Pearl Magouirk and her 71-year-old daughter 
Patricia Syren. Authorities say Crutsinger killed the women then stole Syren's 
car and credit card. He was arrested 3 days later at a bar in Galveston, more 
than 300 miles (480 kilometers) away.

Crutsinger's appellate attorney has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his 
execution, alleging his previous lawyer had a long history of incompetence in 
death penalty cases.

"The jury heard nothing from the defense that provided an explanation about the 
disease of alcoholism in relation to the offense conduct," including "a history 
of domestic violence and abuse, and repeated losses of significant friends and 
relatives," Lydia Brandt, Crutsinger's current attorney, wrote in her one of 
her Supreme Court petitions.

At trial, prosecutor Michele Hartmann told jurors that Crutsinger's actions had 
nothing to do with alcohol but were the result of "evil."

Brandt also argued that lower courts have wrongly denied Crutsinger funding to 
investigate competency and mental health claims that were not sufficiently 
reviewed by prior attorneys.

Lower appeals courts and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles have declined 
to stop the execution. If it happens, Crutsinger would be the 14th inmate put 
to death this year in the U.S. and the 5th in Texas.

Friends and family described Magouirk, known as "R.D.," as an avid gardener. 
Syren volunteered as a receptionist at her church. Both women were retired and 
lived together.

Crutsinger had been "spiraling downward much of his adult life." He had three 
failed marriages and a propensity for violence when he drank, according to a 
report by a forensic psychologist hired by his trial attorneys.

In the months before the slayings, Crutsinger became homeless and increasingly 
desperate after his wife kicked him out and his mother, who had enabled his 
behavior, stopped helping him, according to the report.

Crutsinger offered to do some work for Magouirk and Syren in their home, but 
when he realized they didn't have enough work to give him much financial 
relief, he flew into an alcoholic rage, the report said.

"All of his anger at being left to fend for himself and of having his safety 
net taken from him was then brought to bear on the victims," according to the 
report.

Magouirk was stabbed at least 7 times while her daughter was stabbed at least 9 
times.

DNA evidence tied Crutsinger to the killings and he confessed to the crime.

In an email, Brandt described Crutsinger's previous appellate lawyer, Richard 
Alley, as a "great word processor" who cut and pasted "worthless" legal 
arguments from other cases and who was removed from another death row inmate's 
case and had been suspended from practicing in federal court.

Brandt alleges Alley performed similar shoddy work in at least 6 other death 
penalty cases. 4 of those inmates have been executed. An attorney for former 
death row inmate Bobby Woods also alleged incompetent work by Alley before 
Woods was executed in 2009.

In 2006, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals removed Alley from its list of 
lawyers eligible to represent death row inmates in their appeals.

Alley died in 2017.

"I do the best I possibly can on all these cases," Alley told the Austin 
American-Statesman in a 2006 story that was part of a series that looked at bad 
work by court-appointed attorneys in death penalty appeals.

The Texas Attorney General's Office called Crutsinger's allegations against 
Alley "speculative" because he had not identified any claim that Alley should 
have raised but did not. The attorney general's office also said Crutsinger's 
case has received an "extensive review" during his appeals process.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Greg Abbott backs “expedited executions” for mass shooters after Odessa 
shooting----The governor tweeted Monday night that Texas is “working on a 
legislative package” and that “expedited executions for mass murderers would be 
a nice addition.”



After the 2nd Texas mass shooting in a month, Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted Monday 
night that “we’re working on a legislative package right now” and that 
“expedited executions for mass murderers would be a nice addition.”

Details, however, were scarce. A spokesman for Abbott said Tuesday morning that 
he hadn’t spoken to the governor since the tweet was posted and had no more 
immediate information. The Legislature doesn’t convene again until 2021. Abbott 
would need to call a special session to pass legislation before then — a move 
he showed reluctance to make after a mass shooting in El Paso last month.

Abbott’s tweet linked to an article in The Blaze on the U.S. Department of 
Justice drafting legislation to speed up executions of people who commit mass 
murder; that article attributed the news to Bloomberg. In Texas, the average 
time spent on death row is almost 11 years, according to the Texas Department 
of Criminal Justice. The more than 200 people on death row have been there an 
average of nearly 16 years.

The Texas death penalty appellate process winds through both state and federal 
courts. Speeding up that process for mass shootings would lead to inconsistency 
and an uneven justice system, said Amanda Marzullo, the executive director of 
Texas Defender Service, which represents death-sentenced appellants and 
advocates for death penalty reform.

“Texas already has an appellate process that is much faster than the rest of 
the country,” she said. “Accelerating this process would only run the risk of 
further constitutional violations or that an innocent person is executed.”

Marzullo also said the death penalty has not been shown to be a deterrent to 
murder in any case, let alone in mass attacks where many killers say they 
expect to die.

Of Texas’ four high-profile mass shootings in the last 2 years, 2 of the 
shooters were killed in the immediate aftermath of their attacks. Abbott’s 
tweet came 2 days after a gunman killed seven people and wounded 22 others 
while driving through Odessa and Midland. The shooting ended when police shot 
and killed the gunman.

A gunman in Sutherland Springs killed himself in 2017 after leaving a church 
where he killed 26 people. The suspect in the El Paso shooting is in county 
jail, but he said in a racist manifesto published just before the massacre that 
he expected to be killed that day.

In the aftermath of the El Paso shooting, Abbott convened a commission of 
lawmakers, activists and law enforcement to discuss possible responses. The 
Texas Safety Commission had 2 meetings last month, and Abbott indicated that 
the group plans to issue a report with recommendations. Meanwhile, Texas House 
Speaker Dennis Bonnen and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced Tuesday that they 
would each form select committees on mass violence prevention and community 
safety. Committee members and issues they'd be asked to study will be made 
public next week, the 2 Republican leaders said.

“The heinous tragedies like those that occurred in El Paso, Midland, and Odessa 
have become all too common in our state, and such a serious epidemic of 
violence should be met with meaningful solutions,” Bonnen said. “These 
committees have difficult, important work before them, and the solutions they 
come up with will provide a roadmap for the Legislature’s work over the interim 
and in the next session.”

But during last week’s closed-door meeting, Abbott told a survivor of the El 
Paso shooting, which left 22 dead and more than 2 dozen wounded, that he wasn’t 
calling lawmakers back for a special session to address gun violence. The 
survivor, Chris Grant, told The Texas Tribune that the governor told him during 
the meeting that a special session is “a long process.”

Abbott tweeted earlier Monday that the gunman in Saturday’s mass shooting in 
Midland and Odessa had previously failed a gun purchase background check and 
did not go through a background check to buy the gun used in Saturday’s 
incident.

Abbott’s tweet did not say why the shooter didn’t pass the background check or 
how he obtained the rifle he used to kill 7 people and injure 22 others — 
including a state trooper and 2 police officers. The gunman died after a 
shootout with police outside a Midland movie theater. Abbott also cited the 
shooter’s criminal history.

“We must keep guns out of criminals’ hands,” he tweeted.

(source: The Texas Tribune)








NORTH CAROLINA:

Members of Exonerated Five reflect on ‘criminal system of injustice’ in Monday 
talk



As a child, Yusef Salaam skateboarded and wanted to make a difference by 
becoming a hip-hop artist. Raymond Santana kept up with the latest fashion and 
was still exploring a world of future options.

That all changed when, at the ages of 15 and 14 respectively, Salaam and 
Santana, along with three other boys, were accused of crimes they did not 
commit. Formerly referred to as the Central Park 5, this group is now known as 
the Exonerated 5.

At an event at Page Auditorium moderated by Mark Anthony Neal, James B. Duke 
professor of African and African American studies, the two spoke of their 
story’s connection to racial bias, the flawed criminal justice system and the 
media’s role in both. They described their story as one of personal evolution, 
resilience and even love.

“We were survivors of the criminal system of injustice,” Salaam said, referring 
to the social stigma associated with what was revealed as a wrongful 
conviction.

The 5 teenagers—Anton McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana 
and Korey Wise—were arrested in connection with the attack of Trisha Meili, who 
was raped and beaten while jogging in Central Park in New York City. She was 
hurt so badly that she spent 12 days in a coma and woke up with no memory of 
the assault.

The 5 confessed after hours of interrogation from police, and they became the 
center of a storm of media coverage. The suspects were described as a “Wolf 
Pack.” Now-President Donald Trump took out newspaper advertisements that 
declared “Bring Back the Death Penalty, Bring Back Our Police!”

Santana spoke to the way in which this biased media coverage led the public to 
conclude the 5 were guilty.

“They just painted these pictures,” Santana said of the news media. He noted 
that they seized on facts like Salaam’s possession of a ninja star medallion to 
spin “stories to make it look bad in the public eye, which in turn made the 
people turn their backs on us because they thought that we were guilty, and if 
they didn’t think we were guilty of rape then we were guilty of something.”

This, he said, made it “easy for the courts to convict us.”

Salaam said that the New York Police Department, including homicide detectives 
who had at least 20 years of experience, must have known that the 5 were not 
guilty.

However, the police told the media that the five were with a gang of teenagers 
who were assaulting people in Central Park that evening, or “wilding.”

“They knew that these stories were false, and then they sent this information 
to the media,” Salaam said. “The media then should have done its due diligence 
and said, ‘Okay, I’m going to fact check this stuff.’”

The accused and their families personally experienced the public outcry. Salaam 
brought to the talk a copy of a letter he received that said God would punish 
them for the assault.

The 5 were tried, convicted and sentenced in 1990 to six to 13 years in prison. 
12 years later, the men were exonerated when serial rapist Matias Reyes 
confessed that he had assaulted Meili. Afterwards, the Exonerated Five sued the 
New York City government and settled for $41 million.

The men were featured in a 2012 Ken Burns documentary and a 2019 Netflix 
miniseries directed by Ava DuVernay, who coined the term “Exonerated Five.” For 
Salaam, the films allowed the five to tell their stories in a way that the 
public had never previously heard.

“Folks had never heard our voices until [Burns’s] film came out,” he said. “And 
then we had our voices back.”

Despite the positive media coverage, scars from the false conviction remain. 
Santana described the lingering fear that someone would try to attack him who 
believed that he was guilty of Meili’s assault.

“I think about it every day,” he said. “That stuff constantly plays out in my 
mind… What if somebody did that? How would I react? How would I respond to it? 
Suppose I’m with my daughter at the time. You’ve got to think about those 
scenarios, just to be prepared.”

There are still deep flaws in the U.S. criminal justice system, Salaam said.

“This is not new,” he said. “This is a continuation of a system that has been 
looking at black and brown bodies as collateral damage for centuries.”

Salaam highlighted the issue of privatized prisons, saying that “they’ve got a 
cell waiting for each and every one of us.” He compared incarceration to 
slavery, noting that the Thirteenth Amendment, which banned slavery, made an 
exception for criminals.

He also noted that “The New Jim Crow,” Michelle Alexander’s book about mass 
incarceration, has been banned in prisons.

The men said that the challenges they have faced helped shape them into the 
people they are today, despite the havoc that their conviction wreaked on their 
lives and the problems that remain with the justice system.

“Many years ago, someone actually said, ‘If you could go back and you could 
change anything, would you change it?’ And I had to think about it, and then my 
answer was, ‘No,’” Santana said. “Because going through this process, it has 
made me the man I am today. And I’m proud of that man.”

Indeed, both men have made a name for themselves in the years since their 
exoneration. Salaam has become a public speaker and proponent for criminal 
justice reform. Santana never forgot his childhood dreams and started a fashion 
line called Park Madison NYC, donating part of the proceeds to the Innocence 
Project—a nonprofit that works to exonerate the wrongly convicted. One of the 
shirts features the first names of the Exonerated 5.

Salaam said that the five’s experience serves as a reminder of what people are 
capable of, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

“The Central Park jogger case is actually a love story between God and his 
people,” he said. “With us, what was so beautiful about what happened, I think, 
even in prison we got college degrees… If we were in a place that is called the 
belly of the beast, imagine what you can do as a free person.”

(source: dukechronicle.com)








OHIO:

Death penalty does more harm than good for victim’s son



I lost my father two years ago to a brutal and senseless murder. The man who 
took his life, Thomas Knuff, was recently sentenced to death. Knuff took my dad 
from me and robbed the two of us of invaluable time together. It’s impossible 
to describe the depths of my pain or how to cope with what’s happened to me, 
but I know that Knuff’s death sentence will not provide healing to me. As 
someone with a very close connection to the death penalty, I appreciate Ohio 
House Speaker Larry Householder’s recent comments about his waning support of 
the death penalty.

It may be surprising to hear that I am opposed to the death penalty given that 
I lost a loved one to such brutality. However, when you look at how the death 
penalty impacts victims’ families, it makes complete sense.

My father was killed more than 2 years ago, and Knuff was just sentenced to 
death. Still, our journey with his case is only just beginning. Because the 
death penalty is irreversible and a life is on the line, the U.S. Supreme Court 
has mandated a complex process. These procedures are attempts to reduce the 
risk of mistakes — given that more than 165 innocent people have been released 
from death rows, I’d say they are more than necessary. But this is torturous to 
families like mine who become trapped in legal limbo.

It’s typical that capital cases can take upward of 15 years to weave through 
the system, which means constantly reopening the wound of my father’s death at 
hearings and appeals. Though nothing will ever fully heal the pain of losing my 
father, it would certainly be easier for me to focus on my grief and healing 
without being ensnared in this process.

This complex process does more than divert the attention of families like mine 
trapped in the system. It also diverts millions of dollars that could instead 
benefit all victims. Speaker Householder is right to mention cost as one of the 
reasons he’s losing support for the death penalty.

Every dollar we pour into the death penalty is a dollar we aren’t investing in 
services for victims or helping to stop violent crime from occurring initially. 
A study of Summit County examined initial trial costs of 2 aggravated murder 
cases in 2017, one with a death specification and one without. Both defendants 
were tried around the same time, but the result was that the county spent 10 
times more on the death case than the nondeath case. The legislature has never 
done an in-depth cost analysis of the death penalty. If these are the numbers 
for just one county, I can’t imagine what the numbers for the entire state 
would be.

All this money, and Ohio has nothing to show for it. A common misconception is 
that the death penalty system acts as a deterrent, preventing future murders. 
However, studies have shown repeatedly that it really makes no difference 
statistically whether a state has a death penalty or not.

The death penalty shifts attention and resources from people who really need 
it: the victims’ families. Instead of spending money on a death sentence, the 
state needs to discuss and fund ways for people like me to heal. I’m very 
fortunate to have a job with wonderful insurance and a great support system of 
family and friends. But this isn’t just about me. There were 103 homicides just 
in Columbus in 2018, and most survivors might not be as fortunate as me. They 
shouldn’t be forced to go through this impossible healing process without 
specialized grief counseling or ongoing support.

In some respects, we were “lucky.” For families in unsolved murders there is 
the added pain of never learning what happened to their loved ones. We need to 
prioritize cold cases. With the death penalty on the books countless law 
enforcement hours are spent chasing a handful of executions instead of solving 
more cases. This leaves offenders on the streets and victims’ families aching 
for answers.

Our state has tunnel vision toward ending a life and not focusing on those 
whose lives continue. This has to change. I’m hopeful to see leaders like 
Speaker Householder state their waning support for this system. I’m confident 
that the state will start to see the harm the death penalty does to victims’ 
families and will realize the time and resources spent on seeking death could 
be better used to improve the lives left behind after such a devastating loss.

(source: Opinion; Jonathan Mann’s father was murdered 2 years ago in Parma, and 
his father’s killer was recently sentenced to death----Columbus Dispatch)








TENNESSEE:

Abdur’Rahman’s Death Sentence Vacated Months Before Scheduled Execution ---- 
Judge agrees that 1987 trial was marred by racial discrimination in jury 
selection



Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman was led into a Nashville courtroom on Aug. 28 wearing 
shackles and a beige Tennessee Department of Correction uniform. It was the 
same uniform 5 men have worn as they were led into Tennessee’s execution 
chamber since the revival of the state’s death penalty last year. 
Abdur’Rahman’s own execution was scheduled for April 16, 2020.

But he’s been closer to death before.

On April 8, 2002 — 25 years after he was sentenced to death by a Nashville jury 
for his role in the killing of Patrick Daniels and attack on Norma Jean Norman 
during a robbery — Abdur’Rahman was on death watch. He was sitting in a small 
cell next to the execution chamber — within 2 days of his execution date — when 
the Supreme Court of the United States issued a stay. A little more than a year 
later, he came within 12 days of execution before he was spared by a stay from 
the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He knows a feeling of 
relief that few people can imagine.

Only more so now.

On that morning in Nashville Criminal Court just last week, Abdur’Rahman’s 
attorney Bradley MacLean spent more than 30 minutes detailing evidence of 
prosecutorial misconduct — highlighted by racial discrimination during jury 
selection — in the 1987 trial. Then-ADA John Zimmermann, MacLean said, used 
racist stereotypes as a pretext to strike prospective African American jurors. 
He also highlighted how Zimmermann — who is still a prosecutor in Rutherford 
County — suppressed evidence the defense was entitled to see.

When he rose to speak, Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk would not 
defend Zimmermann’s conduct. Although there was no question of Abdur’Rahman’s 
guilt, Funk said, “Overt racial bias has no place in the justice system.” He 
added: “The pursuit of justice is incompatible with deception. Prosecutors must 
never be dishonest to or mislead defense attorneys, courts or juries.”

To that end, Funk told the court that he was submitting a proposed order that 
would vacate Abdur’Rahman’s death sentence and have him serve a life sentence 
instead (consecutive to 3 other life sentences). 2 days later, Criminal Court 
Judge Monte Watkins signed off on the agreement removing Abdur’Rahman from 
death row.

There were others in the courtroom last week too. Katrina and Shawanna Norman 
were sitting in the front row, 32 years after they’d cowered in their bedroom 
at ages 8 and 9, as their stepfather was stabbed to death. Their mother, Norma 
Jean Norman, later came crawling into their bedroom with a knife in her back. 
Tears streamed down their faces as Funk recounted these details to the 
courtroom last week, but days later they too felt relief.

“I hate going to the mailbox, especially when we see something from the 
district attorney’s office,” Katrina says. “I’m just glad that it’s finally 
over.”

Their mother has forgiven Abdur’Rahman, and while Katrina and Shawanna don’t 
necessarily share that feeling, the 2 women say they believed justice had been 
served.

“The scars that she has, they’ve healed,” Shawanna says of her mother. “But 
she’s never going to forget what happened that night. We’re never going to 
forget what happened that night.”

For many years, she says, she and her sister wouldn’t even keep knives of any 
kind in their homes. The memories of that “night of horror” have never left 
them, Shawanna says, recalling the way she and her sister had huddled in their 
bed, shaking so hard with fear that the bed frame knocked against the wall. And 
while they’re happy to see Abdur’Rahman held responsible for his crime, they 
place much of the blame for these traumatic legal aftershocks at Zimmermann’s 
feet. Shawanna told reporters he should be disbarred.

Seated only feet from the Norman sisters in court last week was Linda Manning, 
a Vanderbilt professor who has been visiting Abdur’Rahman on death row for 19 
years. When Manning first met Abdur’Rahman, his attorneys believed he would be 
executed within six months. He had no visitors at the time and no family coming 
to see him.

“I thought to myself, nobody should have to travel that road alone, and I can 
do anything for six months,” Manning tells the Scene. “And here we are 19 years 
later.”

Manning knew Abdur’Rahman in 2002 when he was taken to death watch, a place he 
will never go again. From now on, when she goes to visit a man she says has 
become family, she won’t be going to death row.

(source: nashvillescene.com)








ARKANSAS:

Rare death-penalty trial looms in Little Rock----Case against man accused in 
slayings of mom, 2 kids is 1st in 8 years by John Lynch



"Get off my mama!!"

Those were the last words of 5-year-old A'Laylaih Fisher as she ran to the room 
where her mother and little brother were being stabbed to death, according to 1 
of the 2 men accused of killing her.

The girl, who loved reading and baking with her 4-year-old brother, Elijah 
Fisher, died with him and their mother, 24-year-old Mariah Cunningham, in a 
bedroom at their home at Rosewood Apartments, 6600 Lancaster Road, in Little 
Rock.

Cunningham's 78-year-old grandmother found their bodies three weeks before 
Christmas in 2017. The woman had gone to the apartment to check on the family, 
concerned because the children weren't in school and Cunningham wasn't 
answering the phone.

Investigators believe Cunningham and her children had been dead about two days 
when their bodies were found. Police reported finding bleach smeared on the 
bodies, and a steak knife believed to have been used in the killings was 
discovered in the bathtub.

Cunningham was a mother of 3 who was attending the University of 
Arkansas-Pulaski Tech. Family members remembered Elijah for how much he loved 
his toy toolbox and building blocks as well as spending time with his 2 
sisters. The other sister, age 8, was not home when the rest of her family was 
killed.

Next month, on Oct. 16, 26-year-old Michael Ivory Collins of Colorado will face 
the death penalty at trial before Circuit Judge Herb Wright on charges of 
capital murder and aggravated robbery, the 1st time in 8 years Pulaski County 
prosecutors have sought execution.

They are seeking a life sentence on the charges for his co-defendant 
half-brother William Burnelle Alexander, 23, of Little Rock, whose trial has 
yet to be scheduled.

The brothers also face capital murder charges over accusations they're 
responsible for the July 2017 slaying of 64-year-old Billie "Candy Man" 
Thornton, a small-time drug dealer who had once been a neighbor of Alexander.

Court filings show suspicion for the family's killing quickly fell first on 
Collins, who had lived with Cunningham recently but had moved out after about a 
week.

Cunningham's boyfriend, who was in jail on a gun charge, told detectives that 
if anyone had done something to the mother of three it would be Collins because 
he regularly robbed people and that's the kind of thing he would do.

Collins' mother told detectives that he had suddenly shown up at her North 
Little Rock home 2 days before the bodies were discovered.

Denise Alexander said it was the 1st time she'd seen Collins since he was 13, 
when he arrived at her apartment to clean up and change clothes before leaving 
to stay with an aunt in Chicago.

U.S. marshals arrested him 2 days later in Chicago on a federal probation 
violation warrant. At the time, federal authorities in Colorado had been 
looking for Collins for about 5 months over accusations he had violated his 
probation on a 2014 conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm by 
moving without telling his probation officer and not participating in required 
counseling.

He also was wanted because police in the Denver suburb of Greenwood Village had 
named him a suspect in a June 2017, gun-related threatening case. He'd been 
released from prison 2 months earlier, in April 2017, after serving about three 
months in prison.

Among Collins' belongings seized by federal authorities were some clothes that 
appeared to have dried blood on them. DNA testing on his black Adidas shoes by 
the Arkansas Crime Laboratory turned up blood from Cunningham and her children, 
and Collins was arrested in their deaths Jan. 8, 2018, court filings show.

Questioned by Little Rock detectives Terry McDaniel and Matt Hoffine, Collins 
said he knew Cunningham and that she'd given him a key to her home during the 
week he lived with her.

Collins said he'd left town by Greyhound bus two days before the bodies were 
found, saying he was frustrated because he couldn't find work in Little Rock 
because he was a convicted felon.

Asked whether he'd been inside the apartment after Cunningham and the children 
were killed, Collins replied "No" and said there would be no reason for her 
blood to be on him. He then ended the interview and asked for a lawyer.

'WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME'

It wasn't until 2 days after Christmas 2017 that William Alexander came to the 
attention of police as a suspect. Investigators received a tip that Alexander 
and his brother were part of a "robbing crew" and that Alexander was said to 
have stolen a TV and X-Box video game console from the Cunningham home, court 
filings show.

"I ain't' do nothing wrong. I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. 
Guarantee," Alexander told detectives McDaniel and Wade Niehouse during 
questioning on the same day his brother was arrested.

The 27-minute taped interview, which ended with Alexander's arrest, begins with 
Alexander telling detectives that he was outside the Cunningham apartment 
smoking a cigarette when the woman and children arrived. The recording was 
played in court at an evidentiary hearing in July.

He said he briefly spoke with Cunningham before she went inside. Then, on the 
spur of the moment, seeing she'd left her keys in the car door, Alexander said 
he drove off with the vehicle -- not stealing it but borrowing it -- and 
planned to have someone return it to her later. Only, he ended up abandoning 
the car a short while later at Autumn Park Apartments, 43 Warren Drive, and 
walking home. The car's power-steering was broken, which made it hard to drive, 
he said.

Acknowledging that he and his brother planned to steal from Cunningham, 
Alexander said the visit to her apartment had been his brother's idea but that 
he went along because "I thought it was easy money."

He said he didn't know what had happened until he saw news reports about the 
killings 2 days later and police started coming by the house looking for 
Collins.

But told by detectives they had surveillance video that showed him getting into 
the car several minutes after Cunningham and the children walked into the 
apartment, Alexander asks for a break in the interview so he can talk to his 
wife.

The recording starts again a minute later, and Alexander's story changes. He 
said he could tell what his brother's plans were as they waited at Cunningham's 
apartment.

“I think he waiting for somebody like to be in there or some s---, man,” he 
told detectives. “A robbery. And then I’m thinking, like, ‘f--- it, I’m broke,’ 
” Alexander said. “The first thing that come to my mind, man, she come up in 
the house. And my brother always got gloves on. You know … this is crazy he 
always got gloves on like don’t matter what”

'SCREAMING'

Alexander also described how Cunningham told him that she had finally saved up 
enough money to bail her boyfriend out of the Pulaski County jail, where he'd 
been held about 5 weeks. Alexander said he was following Cunningham and her 
children into the apartment when the screaming started.

"All I hear was screaming ... and my brother was stabbing her ass ... the mama. 
Somebody's fighting for their life. That's what it sounded like," he said, 
describing how the sight and sound of it froze him in place.

But not 5-year-old A'Laylaih.

"The little girl, I'm following her. I'm trying to see what she'd fixing to 
do," Alexander said. Then she run back there, [yelling] 'get off my mama, get 
off my mama.' I was just sitting there looking."

Alexander said the next thing he heard was his brother go into the bathroom, 
wash up and drop something metallic into the bathtub.

Alexander said he went into the bedroom where the bodies were and took the 
woman's TV -- which he later learned didn't work -- and an X-Box. He assured 
detectives that he did not have to step over the bodies to take the 
electronics.

"This whole time, I'm thinking that I'm broke," he said. "I ain't trying to 
leave with nothing."

Alexander said he drove away in Cunningham's car, dropping Collins off at the 
older man's request at the Greyhound bus station.

Alexander said he couldn't explain why his brother would kill the woman and 
children, describing their deaths as unforgivable and that he also could not be 
forgiven for watching what happened.

"I should have took off running. Or I should have just never went," Alexander 
said. "Something told me not to [go], but I just needed the [money.]"

According to police testimony, Alexander's story is somewhat at odds with the 
physical evidence. He told investigators that A'Laylaih was stabbed in the 
bedroom with her mother, but police found the girl's blood on the living room 
floor. Investigators also found blood smears where the TV and XBox had been in 
the bedroom.

Surveillance video shows Cunningham and her children entering their apartment 
then someone walking out carrying something about 20 minutes later. The person 
puts the items into the car and then walks back into the apartment. A few 
minutes later, the car is seen leaving.

Alexander told the judge at a recent court hearing that he intended to go to 
trial and would not accept a plea deal.

(source: arkansasonline.com)








CALIFORNIA----new death sentence

Palm Springs Cop Killer Sentenced To Death ---- Veteran Officer Jose Gilbert 
"Gil" Vega, 63, and his partner, rookie Officer Lesley Zerebny, 27, were gunned 
down in 2016.



A convicted felon who killed 2 Palm Springs police officers responding to a 
domestic disturbance at his mother's home was sentenced to death Friday.

A jury in May deliberated less than 2 hours before recommending capital 
punishment for 29-year-old John Hernandez Felix, who gunned down veteran 
Officer Jose Gilbert "Gil" Vega, 63, and his partner, rookie Officer Lesley 
Zerebny, 27.

The same jury earlier convicted Felix of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder and 
found true special circumstance allegations of killing peace officers and 
taking multiple lives.

Following an hours-long sentencing hearing at the Larson Justice Center in 
Indio, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Anthony Villalobos affirmed the 
jury's findings and imposed the death penalty.

The officers were killed Oct. 8, 2016, as they stood outside the Felix family 
home in the 2700 block of Cypress Avenue in Palm Springs.

Vega was killed just months before he was set to retire after 3 decades of 
service. Zerebny had been with the department for 18 months and had just 
returned to duty following maternity leave, having given birth to a daughter, 
Cora, 4 months earlier.

Deputy District Attorney Manny Bustamante told jurors during the trial that 
Felix fired 21 shots from an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle inside his family's home 
as police stood outside. He said Felix carried out an intentional "ambush" on 
police, who had been called to the home 37 times previously due to his erratic 
behavior.

Defense attorney John Dolan unsuccessfully argued that at worst, his client was 
guilty of voluntary manslaughter. While conceding that Felix's actions were 
"horrible," Dolan argued his client's auditory processing disorder and intense 
emotions -- combined with methamphetamine use -- created a "perfect storm" of 
irrational decision-making.

Vega and Zerebny were the first Palm Springs police officers killed in the line 
of duty since Jan. 1, 1962, when Officer Lyle Wayne Larrabee died during a 
vehicle pursuit. The only other death in the department was that of Officer 
Gale Gene Eldridge, who was fatally shot on Jan. 18, 1961, while investigating 
an armed robbery.

(source: patch.com)