Death Cases this Week:
(1) You'll remember that a while back I noted a death penalty imposed for rape (because I didn't think you could do that anymore). The Curmudgeonly Clerk picked it up and offered a more thorough analysis. Now Sherry Colb, at FindLaw, offers her take on the matter.
(2) If you are going to provide an alibi in your son's murder case you had best have your facts straight.
(3) A judge in North Carolina stayed an execution because the State wasn't using the right drugs to kill people. But the State Supreme Court over-ruled him and the man was executed post haste.
(4) This article intrigued me so I looked the case up. The basic ruling is that GPS tracking is allowed but a warrant must be in place (one was).
(5) While I think the sentence in this case is just (probably even light), I think that the judge let the SEVEN HOUR sentencing hearing get way out of hand. In particular I am disturbed that the judge would allow the decedent's mother to walk over to the Defense table and stick a picture of the victim in the Defendant's face. It may feel good emotionally to allow such breaches of proper courtroom behavior but it makes the judge seem either predisposed (and thus willing to allow the Defendant to be maltreated in the courtroom for further punishment) or unable to control his courtroom. I'm not sure which is worse.
(6) "A biochemist ordered 18 large bottles of hydrochloric and sulfuric acid shortly before her estranged husband was found dead, stuffed in a barrel filled with chemicals, according to testimony Thursday from a detective who found the receipts and empty acid bottles." 'nuff said.
(7) This week in the Sniper Cases:
(a) Muhammad - The judge refused to close in limine motion hearings (in order to keep from poisoning the jury pool) but said "he will take as many precautions as possible to prevent unnecessary disclosure of sensitive information." I'm not sure what steps those might be. After this hearing the news reported that "[o]ne item that he specifically objects to is a statement purportedly made by Muhammad that 'America got what it deserved' after the Sept. 11 attacks."(8) The jurors in the NC Peterson case visited the bloody stairwell.
(b) Malvo - The prosecutor is fighting hard to keep as much of his trial by ambush right as he possibly can.
(c) Muhammad - The Defense is trying to keep eyewitness testimony out of the trial because it would be strongly influenced by all the news showing picture after picture of Muhammad making an untainted identification impossible. It is also seems worried that officers walked up to witnesses with a single picture (making it real obvious) and asking "is this the guy?"
(9) If the inconclusive DNA evidence in your case was discarded by mistake while appeals are ongoing - tough luck. Because none of that evidence has been analysed 17 years later, with more advanced techniques, and shown someone to be innocent (as an aside: Earl Washington is now suing the Commonwealth Attorney and Sheriff for his 17 year false imprisonment).
Actually, I'm more disturbed that the Virginia Supreme Court doesn't think that withholding the fact that a medical examiner - paid by the same Commonwealth who pays the prosecutor and possibly under pressure to conform to the prosecution's case - changed her opinion from one favorable to the Defense to one favorable to the prosecutor prior to trial is important and something which just might have affected the trial. Personally, that strikes me as pretty damning impeachment evidence if she was the one who testified and strong evidence for the Defense if she wasn't called by the prosecution.
(10) 18 years later, fingerprint evidence leads to an arrest in a double murder.
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