[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., LA., TENN., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 10



FLORIDA:

Confessed Parkland School Shooter Wants New Prosecutor



The man who admits gunning down 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman 
Douglas High School last year wants a new prosecutor, saying the state attorney 
is willfully "blind to any evidence that contradicts his own conclusion that 
(the defendant) is evil."

The defense says State Attorney Michael Satz told them in February he would not 
waive the death penalty; he would consider no evidence that would mitigate 
against a death sentence; and that the killer is "evil – worse than Ted Bundy," 
referring to a now-executed serial killer.

Satz's "determination that (the killer) is evil does not appear to be a 
reasoned decision but instead a decision based on caprice and emotion," 
constituting "substantial misconduct," defense attorneys argue in their motion 
to disqualify.

But, in response, the state calls the move "legally meritless," saying Broward 
Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer is being asked to do what only a governor can 
do – reassign a prosecution based on some perceived appearance of impropriety.

The parents of Carmen Schentrup filed a lawsuit against the United States 
alleging that the FBI didn't do enough to prevent the Parkland tragedy, despite 
numerous red flags and warnings of the confessed shooter. NBC 6's Laura 
Rodriguez reports.

The killer, Nikolas Cruz, is essentially arguing "he is entitled to a 
prosecutor more receptive to his offer of entering a guilty plea in exchange 
for a sentence of life imprisonment," the state wrote in its response.

The prosecution notes a jury will decide if execution is the proper punishment 
for the February 2018 massacre, plans for which the killer laid out in detail 
on cellphone video he recorded three days prior to the killings.

"Simply because the state attorney made an individualized determination to seek 
the death penalty and that a jury should decide what mitigation justifies 
something less than death – particularly when faced with such horrific facts 
and powerful aggravating circumstances – it is neither error nor grounds to 
disqualify him," the state countered.

Judge Scherer said Monday she would hear argument and, perhaps, witness 
testimony on the matter during a hearing Friday morning.

(source: nbcmiami.com)

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

Jury selection begins for Granville Ritchie, accused of killing 9-year-old girl



5 years after young Felicia Williams' body was found, the man accused of 
killing her will head to trial.

Jury selection for Granville Ritchie’s murder trial is set to begin Monday 
morning, and the state attorney says he will ask those jurors to consider the 
death penalty.

Ritchie is facing capital punishment for the rape and murder of 9-year-old 
Felecia Williams. Williams went missing in 2014 and was later found floating in 
the water near the Courtney Campbell Causeway inside of a suitcase.

(source: Fox News)

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

Hearing in Polk County’s worst mass murder postponed until spring.



Nelson Serrano was originally convicted in 2006 of the execution-style slayings 
of 4 people at Bartow’s Erie Manufacturing in 1997.

That didn’t happen.

Hurricane Dorian and a prosecutor’s health issue have pushed the court 
proceedings back to next spring.

Assistant State Attorney Paul Wallace, who was co-counsel for the state in 
Serrano’s 2006 trial and is lead counsel in the resentencing, said he sought to 
postpone the hearing after learning he would be missing several days of work to 
address a health matter.

At the same time, Hurricane Dorian was bearing down on southeast Florida, where 
defense lawyer Gregory Eisenmenger lives and has his offices.

“He was concerned that he may have to evacuate,” Wallace said. “We talked about 
it, and we agreed it would be best just to delay it.”

He said the resentencing has been tentatively set for early March.

Eisenmenger wasn’t available for comment Monday.

Serrano, who will be 81 this month, remains on death row at Union Correctional 
Institution as preparations continue for his resentencing.

In 2006, a jury voted 9-3 to recommend that he be sentenced to death for the 
execution-style killings of George Gonzalves, 69, Serrano’s former partner in 
Erie Manufacturing, and Frank Dosso, 35, Diane Dosso Patisso, 27, and George 
Patisso, 26 — the son, daughter and son-in-law of a 2nd business partner, Phil 
Dosso.

The 4 were gunned down in the company’s offices in the early evening of Dec. 3, 
1997. Initially, law enforcement had eliminated Serrano as a suspect after he 
had produced evidence of being in Atlanta on business at the time of the 
killings. But over the next 4 years, agents with the Florida Department of Law 
Enforcement discovered that he had secretly returned to Florida that afternoon 
using aliases to book flight and rental car reservations, according to trial 
testimony. Agents broke his alibi when they found his fingerprint on a parking 
garage ticket at Orlando International Airport the day of the killings, court 
records show.

It remains the worst mass murder in Polk County history.

Serrano had been ousted from the company by his 2 partners about 5 months 
before the killings, and prosecutors argued he was seeking revenge.

In 2001, a Polk County grand jury handed up a sealed indictment charging 
Serrano with murder, but by that time, he had returned to his native Ecuador. 
Since Florida has the death penalty, Ecuador refused to extradite Serrano, but 
officials later agreed to deport him after learning he had declared American 
citizenship in the 1970s. He has remained in custody in Florida since his 
deportation in September 2002.

After nearly 5 weeks of testimony in 2006, the 12-member jury deliberated about 
6 hours before finding Serrano guilty of each of the murders. The same jurors 
recommended the death penalty, and Circuit Judge Susan Roberts followed that 
recommendation when imposing sentence in June 2007.

But in 2016, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling declaring Florida’s death penalty 
process unconstitutional opened the door for Serrano, and others on death row, 
to be resentenced.

The ruling stated that a jury, and not a judge, must decide whether prosecutors 
have proven their reasons for seeking the death penalty. That forced the state 
Legislature to revise the death penalty laws, including a provision mandating a 
unanimous jury recommendation for death. Prior to that, state law required only 
a simple majority.

In 2017, the Florida Supreme Court took that one step further, mandating that 
defendants in cases affirmed after June 2002, with a jury vote that was less 
than unanimous, would get new sentencing hearings. In June 2002, the U.S. 
Supreme Court had ruled in an Arizona case that juries, not judges, should 
decide if prosecutors have proven the aggravating circumstances supporting a 
death sentence. At that point, the state’s high court ruled the Florida 
Legislature had been put on notice that the state’s death penalty laws needed 
to be revised.

In 2017, a total of 6 condemned inmates from Polk County, including Serrano, 
became eligible for resentencing before a jury. Serrano would have been the 
first, had his case gone forward Monday.

Thomas Woodel, 49, will face a jury beginning Oct. 14 when he’s resentenced for 
killing an elderly couple in Poinciana 2 decades ago. He had confessed to 
fatally stabbing 79-year-old Clifford Moody and his wife, Bernice, 74, on New 
Year’s Eve 1996 in an attempted robbery. His initial death sentences were 
overturned, and he was resentenced to death in 2005 for stabbing Bernice Moody 
56 times.

But there could be a hitch.

A new case pending before the Florida Supreme Court seeking to overturn that 
retroactivity could be decided before the end of the year, and may impact the 
cases set for resentencing.

(source: The Ledger)








LOUISIANA:

Trial date to be selected in Matthew Sonnier death penalty case in 2 weeks



A date for the death penalty trial for Matthew Sonnier, 31 of Alexandria, will 
be selected on Sept. 23, according to Rapides Parish special prosecutor, Lea 
Hall.

Sonnier was in court on Monday for a defense motion filed by his capital 
defense attorneys that aims to suppress information obtained during the stop of 
his truck, during a search of that truck, and his statement made to the 
Pineville Police Department following his arrest the day of the murders of 
Latish White, Kendrick Horn and Jeremy Norris.The murders took place back on 
Oct. 18, 2017. Sonnier's sister, Ebony, also faces the death penalty for her 
involvement.

Hall called several Pineville Police Department officers to testify in court on 
Monday about their involvement the day of the crimes, specifically involving 
the murder of White, and how they properly obtained search warrants and 
conducted a traffic stop to arrest Sonnier.

One more witness with the police department still needs to be called. That 
witness will take the stand on Sept. 23, the same day a trial date is expected 
to be set. After that, Judge Chris Hazel will rule on if the motion will be 
granted or denied.

Attorneys for Ebony Sonnier are trying to get evidence suppressed in her case 
as well. She will also be back in court on Sept. 23, but in front of Judge Mary 
Doggett. Her trial is currently set for March 2020, but prosecutors expect it 
to get pushed back in order to allow the trial for her brother to move forward 
first.

(source: KALB news)








TENNESSEE:

Why won't Bill Lee witness an execution or even visit death row?



Recently, Gov. Bill Lee was challenged by a reporter to personally witness 
Tennessee’s next execution.

Lee said while he had thought about doing so, he has never felt compelled to do 
so. I can understand that.

As a pastor, I visit death row regularly. My church has ordained one of the men 
on death row. He is now considered one of the pastors of our church. His name 
is listed in our program every Sunday. Personally, I consider him to be my 
pastor.

Restorative justice is a better way

I know all the men on death row. I consider all of them friends. Over the past 
12 months I have said goodbye to five of my friends. Between now and April of 
2020, three more are scheduled to die.

I understand why Lee does not feel compelled to witness the barbaric act of 
execution. I am opposed to capital punishment on moral and religious grounds. 
But that’s not what this op-ed is about.

The crimes for which all my friends have been convicted are horrible. The 
brutality of those acts are inexcusable. My heart breaks for the family and 
friends of the victims.

I pray God will grant them peace, comfort and grace. I understand their need 
for justice. I just believe there is another way, a better way, for justice to 
be served.

Restorative justice is a better path than punitive justice. But again, I 
understand their hurt. I lost a family member to murder. I preached his 
funeral.

What I don’t understand is why Lee will not go to Unit 2 at Riverbend Maximum 
Security Institution and pray with the men who have asked him to come and pray 
with them.

On June 6 of this year, 32 men from death row signed a letter that has been 
hand-delivered to the governor. One of the men who signed the letter is now 
dead, killed at the hands of the Tennessee state government.

The men’s letter simply read, “We understand you are a man of faith and we 
would like to ask you to please come pray with us.”

Why won’t the governor answer?

I don’t understand why Lee has ignored their request.

Gov. Lee is a man of faith.

Gov. Lee is a man of prayer.

Gov. Lee has spent much of his adult life involved in prison ministry.

Gov. Lee talks about the need for prison reform.

Gov. Lee ran his campaign championing his faith in Jesus and his belief in 
forgiveness and redemption, even for those who have been convicted of doing 
unspeakable things.

Yet, Lee refuses to acknowledge a request to go and pray with the men on death 
row

Many of these men have committed their lives to Jesus. Most are men of faith. 
All are human beings. None are monsters.

These men are more than property of the Tennessee Department of Correction. 
They are Lee’s brothers in Christ. They are not asking for mercy. They are not 
asking for clemency. They are simply asking their brother to come and pray with 
them.

I do not understand Lee’s refusal to honor their request.

The very last person Jesus prayed with before He died by state execution was a 
man condemned to die by state execution.

Gov. Lee, please be like Jesus and pray with the men in Unit 2.

It would be an honor for me to introduce you to my friends.

(source: Opinion; The Rev. Dr. Kevin Riggs is senior pastor of Franklin 
Community Church----The Tennessean)






Kevin Riggs

USA:

Executing shooters will not stop gun violence. The solution requires us to 
overcome apathy.



Immediately after the El Paso mass shooting on Aug. 3, President Trump spoke 
about adopting universal background checks for gun purchases. He later backed 
away from considering them after a phone call with the president of the 
National Rifle Association. The fact that universal background checks are 
widely popular with the American people, including those who favor gun 
ownership overall, seems to make no difference. A Washington Post-ABC News poll 
released this week found overwhelming support for both background checks and 
allowing authorities to take guns away from individuals who have been found by 
a judge to be a danger to themselves or others.

While the Trump administration has spoken positively about red flag laws and 
rejected background checks, it is also reported to be proposing legislation to 
make it easier to swiftly execute mass shooters. Despite the lack of evidence 
that the death penalty effectively deters any kind of murder, despite arguments 
from gun-rights advocates that criminals will blithely ignore any proposed gun 
restrictions, somehow the threat of capital punishment is imagined to deter 
mass murderers—who often kill themselves or are killed by police in the course 
of committing their crimes. This proposal is nothing more than the desire for 
vengeance masquerading as policy.

The ongoing violence itself is shocking and depressing, but another grim facet 
of the American plague of mass shootings is the way we have become inured to 
it.

Meanwhile, these shootings go on. At a Friday night football game in Mobile, 
Ala. on Aug. 30, 9 teenagers were shot by another teenager, 17 years old, who 
is now being charged with attempted murder. The very next day near Odessa, 
Tex., a gunman murdered 7 people and injured 22 before he was killed by police 
officers. 3 days later, a 14-year-old boy in Elkmont, Ala., was arrested on 
murder charges after confessing to killing 5 members of his family, including 
his 6-month-old brother. All 3 mass shootings came less than a month after El 
Paso and the shooting that killed 9 in Dayton, Ohio.

The ongoing violence itself is shocking and depressing, but another grim facet 
of the American plague of mass shootings is the way we have become inured to 
it. None of these more recent shootings captured the attention of the country 
as intensely as the El Paso and Dayton tragedies did in the first week of 
August. But the even more striking gap between the beginning of August and its 
end is that we seem to have reached the point of resignation more quickly. 
After Las Vegas in 2017 (58 dead, 422 wounded), after Parkland in 2018 (17 
dead, 17 wounded) and after El Paso in 2019, the United States at least went 
through the motions of a debate on gun policy. But another set of shootings not 
even a month later, with the El Paso round of the gun policy debate not yet 
resolved, barely even registers.

The Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization that charts gun violence in 
the United States, says there have been 275 mass shootings (which they define 
as any incident where 4 or more people, excluding the shooter, are shot or 
killed) in the country so far this year. In 2017, almost 40,000 people died 
because of firearms. That is more than 13 times the number who died in the 
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Even incremental steps toward curbing the availability of the assault weapons 
that are so often used in mass shootings face resistance from gun manufacturers 
and industry lobbyists. When Walmart announced on Sept. 3 that it would no 
longer stock certain kinds of ammunition, the N.R.A. denounced the chain: “It 
is shameful to see Walmart succumb to the pressure of the anti-gun elites,” the 
N.R.A. said in a statement. “Rather than place the blame on the criminal, 
Walmart has chosen to victimize law-abiding Americans.”

Our collective inability to respond to the epidemic of gun violence in our 
country or even to its one of its most tragic manifestations in mass shootings 
is a kind of spiritual paralysis.

Even as mass shootings continue to attract a high level of public attention and 
sympathy, the vast majority of gun-related deaths in this country, including 
suicides, take place within homes and families, and most often by means of 
handguns. None of the proposals to curb gun violence that are realistic 
politically—with the possible exception of so-called “red flag” laws—begin to 
address this deadly reality. And even those laws have faced opposition. In 
Colorado, a number of sheriffs pledged to refuse to enforce a state-level red 
flag law because they considered it unconstitutional.

Our collective inability to respond to the epidemic of gun violence in our 
country or even to its one of its most tragic manifestations in mass shootings 
is a kind of spiritual paralysis. Both the sense of apathy following terrible 
news and the idea of countering violence with more “efficient” violence in 
response are marks of desolation, a withdrawal from God marked by a lack of 
hope. At the same time, the resistance to even the most practical and simple 
reforms highlights a disordered attachment to guns and, even more basically, to 
violence as a means to power and security.

There are many questions about what policies will most effectively reduce mass 
shootings or gun violence overall and even more about what sort of reforms are 
politically and constitutionally possible. Yet it is clear that the United 
States has been trapped for too long in the lie that our government can do 
nothing to limit gun violence.

This lie and the apathy that it induces are part of the logic of sin and 
evidence of the evil spirit at work. Trapped in this pattern of sin, we as a 
nation can barely muster attention for shootings whose victims do not number 
more than 10.

Better laws alone will not solve the nation’s gun violence problem, but in 
addition to the good they do as policy, they can also help us break through 
this moment of paralysis. We are not powerless in the face of suffering, nor 
are we limited to answering violence with violence.

(source: Editorial, American Magazine)