Jodi Arias' testimony didn't help her, jury foreman says
Published May 24, 2013



PHOENIX –  As jurors in Jodi Arias' murder trial filed one by one from the courtroom after a dramatic five months of gut-wrenching testimony and gruesome photographs, three women on the panel cried and one looked to the victim's family, mouthing the word, "Sorry."

The silent gesture toward the loved ones of Travis Alexander offered a glimpse into what was likely a tense few days inside the deliberations room as the jury finally determined it could not agree on whether to sentence Arias to life in prison or execution for murdering her boyfriend.

After about 13 hours of deliberations over three days, the panel gave up.

Judge Sherry Stephens gave a heavy sigh as she announced a mistrial in the penalty phase of the case Thursday. A conference with the judge and attorneys was set for June 20 to determine how both sides want to proceed. In the interim, Stephens set a July 18 retrial date, sending prosecutors back to the drawing board to rehash the shocking case and details of sex and lies to another 12 people.

"This was not your typical trial," Stephens told jurors. "You were asked to perform some very difficult duties."

Jurors declined to comment and left the courthouse. But on Friday jury foreman William Zervakos told ABC's "Good Morning America" that Arias' testimony didn't do her any good.

"I think 18 days hurt her. I think she was not a good witness," he said.

"We're charged with going in and presuming innocence, right? But she was on the stand for so long, there were so many contradicting stories."

Zervakos said with the prosecutor's aggressive style, that length of time testifying "would be difficult for anybody. I don't think I'd want to sit on the stand for 18 days."

Zervakos said he believed Alexander mentally and verbally abused Arias.

"Is that an excuse? Of course not. Does it factor in the decision that we make? It has to," he said.

The mistrial set the stage for a whole new proceeding to determine whether the 32-year-old former waitress should get a life sentence or the death penalty for murdering Alexander five years ago. Arias stabbed and slashed him nearly 30 times, slit his throat slit from ear to ear and shot him in the forehead in what prosecutors described as a jealous rage after the victim wanted to end their affair and planned to head off on a trip to Mexico with another woman.

Prosecutors have the option to take the death penalty off the table, in which case a new trial wouldn't be necessary and the judge would determine whether to sentence Arias to spend her entire life behind bars or life with the possibility of release after 25 years. Should the state decide to seek death again, jury selection alone could take weeks, given the difficulty of seating an impartial panel in a case that has attracted global attention.

The guilty verdict of first-degree murder would stand, leaving the new panel only tasked with sentencing Arias. However, former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley said the case could drag on for several months as the new jury reviews evidence and hears opening statements, closing arguments and witness testimony in a "Cliffs Notes" version of the trial.

If the second jury cannot reach a unanimous decision, the judge would then sentence Arias to one of the life-in-prison options. The judge cannot sentence Arias to death.

Arias, who first said she wanted to die but later changed her mind and pleaded with the jury for mercy, looked visibly upset about the mistrial and sobbed in the courtroom before it was announced. Her family didn't attend Thursday but has been present for much of the trial.

Alexander's family member cried as they left the courtroom without commenting.

Jurors began deliberating Arias' sentence Tuesday and first reported they had failed to reach a unanimous decision the next day. Stephens instructed them to keep trying.

The same jury on May 8 found Arias guilty of murder in Alexander's June 4, 2008 death at his suburban Phoenix home.

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery thanked the panel in a statement after the mistrial was announced, and noted prosecutor Juan Martinez would have no comment given the pending proceedings ahead.

"We will assess, based upon available information, what the next steps will be," Montgomery said, "and we will proceed with the intent to retry the penalty phase."

For now, Arias will remain in the Maricopa County jail system, where she has spent the past five years. Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Thursday she will be confined to her cell 23 hours a day and not be allowed to give anymore media interviews.

The mistrial came two days after Arias spoke to jurors and pleaded for her life. She said she "lacked perspective" when she told a local reporter after her conviction that she preferred execution to spending the rest of her days in prison.

That same night, Arias gave a series of media interviews from jail, telling reporters about her many fights with her legal team and her belief that she "deserves a second chance at freedom someday."

Arias contends she killed Alexander in self-defense when he became enraged after a day of sex, forcing her to fight for her life.

Her case became a sensation from the beginning as she gave a series of jailhouse interviews following her 2008 arrest in which first she blamed the killing on armed, masked intruders.

Testimony in the trial began in January as the case soon provided endless amounts of cable TV and tabloid fodder, including a recorded phone sex call between Arias and the victim, nude photos, bloody crime-scene pictures and a defendant who described her life story in intimate detail over 18 days on the witness stand.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/23/judge-declares-mistrial-in-penalty-phase-jodi-arias-trial/

21 May 2013
Saudi Arabia: Five beheaded and ‘crucified’ amid ‘disturbing’ rise in executions

Saudi Arabia must halt a “disturbing” rise in death penalty usage that has resulted in at least 47 state killings in the country already this year, Amnesty International urged after six more people were executed today.

Five Yemeni men were beheaded and “crucified” this morning in the city of Jizan, while a Saudi Arabian man was executed in the south-western city of Abha.

“Saudi Arabia’s increased use of this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment is deeply disturbing and the authorities must halt what is a horrifying trend,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa director.

“The Kingdom must immediately establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing capital punishment.”

Pictures today emerged on social media appearing to show five decapitated bodies hanging from a horizontal pole with their heads wrapped in bags.

The beheading and “crucifixion” took place in front of the University of Jizan where students are taking exams.

In Saudi Arabia, the practice of “crucifixion” refers to the court-ordered public display of the body after execution, along with the separated head if beheaded. It takes place in a public square to allegedly act as a deterrent.

A sixth execution today was carried out in Abha, where the Interior Ministry reported that a Saudi Arabian man was executed for murder.

There have been at least 47 executions in Saudi Arabia so far in 2013 - an increase of 18 compared to this time last year, and a rise of 29 compared to the same period in 2011.

Today’s six executions mean at least 12 people have received the death penalty in Saudi Arabia in May alone. Of those killed this year, at least 19 are foreign nationals.

Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry today said the five men executed in Jizan were found guilty of forming an armed gang, armed robbery and the murder of a Saudi Arabian man. It is unclear if all five were convicted of the murder.

Saudi Arabia applies the death penalty for a wide range of crimes including “adultery”, armed robbery, “apostasy”, drug smuggling, kidnapping, rape, “witchcraft” and “sorcery”.

Some of these so-called offences, such as “apostasy”, should not even be criminalized under international standards.

The increase in executions for drug-related offences appears to be continuing, with at least 12 executed so far in 2013.

Twenty-two people were executed for such offences last year, compared with three in 2011 and just one in 2010. Non-lethal crimes such as drug-trafficking are not accepted as “most serious crimes” under international standards applicable to the death penalty.

Rates of executions in the country are feared to be higher than declared, as secret and unannounced executions have been reported.

Authorities in Saudi Arabia routinely flout international standards for fair trial and safeguards for defendants, who are often denied representation by lawyers and not informed of the progress of legal proceedings against them.

They may be convicted solely on the basis of “confessions” obtained under torture or other ill-treatment.

Saudi Arabia also continues to execute individuals for crimes they allegedly committed while under the age of 18, in breach of international law.

In January 2013, a Sri Lankan domestic worker who was 17 when she allegedly killed an infant in her care, was beheaded. Rizana Nafeek had no access to lawyers and claimed she was forced to make a “confession” under duress.

In March 2013, seven men, two of whom were under 18 when arrested, were shot in a public square, also in Abha.

They were not officially informed of their execution, but found out about it through friends and relatives who had sent them photos of seven mounds of earth being erected in the public square.

“States have an obligation not to practise the death penalty in secrecy, nor to apply it in a discriminatory manner,” said Philip Luther.

“Saudi Arabia continues to breach a multitude of applicable international standards.”

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/saudi-arabia-five-beheaded-and-crucified-amid-disturbing-rise-executions-2013-05-21

Iran: Eleven executions in four days
Published on Friday, 17 May 2013 08:21

NCRI - In the period between 13 to 16 May 2013, the mullahs’ regime sent 11 prisoners to gallows in the cities of Rasht, Noshahr and Karaj (website of Gilan province judiciary- May 13).

Three other prisoners were hanged in Gohardasht prison in Karaj on May 15, and another one was hanged publicly in Noshahr at the dawn of May 16. Last week also, fifteen prisoners were executed in Qezelhessar prison in Karaj, Shahroud and Semnan just in two days, May 8 and 9.

By resorting to waves of repression and executions, the mullahs’ regime seeks to intensify the intimidation atmosphere in a bid to prevent the outburst of public anger on the brink of sham elections, particularly after the deadly schism in the Velayat-e faqih regime and unprecedented rise in power struggle among regime’s leaders.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
May 16, 2013

http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/ncri-statements/human-rights/13719-iran-eleven-executions-in-four-days.html

the scumbag

Oklahoma Attorney General Seeks Execution Date For Convicted Killer
Posted: May 21, 2013 3:59 AM Updated: May 21, 2013 3:59 AM
Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY -

Attorney General Scott Pruitt is asking for an execution date for a man convicted in the 1979 slaying of a woman in Tulsa.

Pruitt on Monday said in an appeals court filing that Anthony Rozelle Banks had exhausted his appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier in the day turned away a request by Banks for a hearing.

The 60-year-old Banks wasn't charged until 1997 when he and a co-defendant were linked by DNA evidence to the killing of 24-year-old Sun "Kim" Travis.

Travis was kidnapped from a parking lot in Tulsa, raped and shot in the head.

Pruitt asked the Court of Criminal Appeals to set an execution date within 60 days or at the earliest date it deems fit.

http://www.newson6.com/story/22303959/oklahoma-attorney-general-seeks-execution-date-for-convicted-killer

Underground Lender Gets Death Sentence in China
Published: May 20, 2013

 BEIJING — A businesswoman in southern China has been sentenced to death on charges of defrauding investors as the government tightens controls on informal financing that is widely used by entrepreneurs.

The woman, Lin Haiyan, was convicted of “illegal fundraising” for collecting 640 million renminbi, or $100 million, from investors by promising high returns and low risk, according to a statement by the Intermediate People’s Court of Wenzhou. It said that the plan had collapsed in October 2011 and that 428 million renminbi could not be recovered.

The case highlighted potential abuses in the largely unregulated informal lending that supports entrepreneurs who generate China’s new jobs and wealth but often cannot get loans from the state-owned banking industry. The government is tightening controls after a surge of defaults following the global financial crisis set off protests by lenders.

Another businesswoman from Wenzhou was also sentenced to death last year on charges of illegal fund-raising. That penalty was overturned following an outcry on the Internet and she was sentenced to prison.

Communist leaders have promised more bank lending for entrepreneurs and announced a pilot project in 2012 in Wenzhou to allow closely supervised private sector lending. But business leaders in Wenzhou say it is harder for entrepreneurs to get loans because worsening economic conditions have made banks and private sources reluctant to lend.

The underground credit market is estimated by China’s central bank and private sector analysts at 2 trillion to 4 trillion renminbi, or as much as 7 percent of total lending. In some areas, informal lending exceeds that of official banks.

Many households provide money for private lending in an effort to get a better return than the low deposit rates paid by Chinese banks, which effectively force depositors to subsidize low-interest loans to state industry.

The authorities have sentenced 1,449 people to prison terms of at least five years for involvement in underground lending since 2011, a police official, Du Jinfu, said last month.

Legal experts say loans between individuals are legal and that the government has failed to make clear what lenders and borrowers are allowed to do.

“The distinction between illegal fund-raising and private lending still remains unclear,” the Dui Hua Foundation, a group based in San Francisco that researches China’s justice system, said in a report in February.

Ms. Lin started raising money from friends, relatives and co-workers in 2007, according to a statement on the court’s Web site. It said Ms. Lin had told investors the money was going into stock offerings and bank deposits but used it to speculate in stocks.

Even as losses mounted, Ms. Lin continued to raise money until the scheme collapsed, the court said.

The statement said the penalty still must be confirmed. All death sentences in China are automatically appealed to the country’s highest court for review.

The court took the unusual step of issuing a second statement to support sentencing Ms. Lin to death after a Chinese blogger questioned the penalty in a comment that included the phrase “killing the witness.”

“Lin Haiyan’s actions constituted financial fraud that caused huge losses and seriously damaged the people and the state,” said the statement, which was several times the length of the original announcement. It criticized the blogger for challenging the court’s decision.

Protests erupted in 2011 and early 2012 in cities and towns throughout central China and along the southeast coast, areas with large concentrations of small private businesses, after the slowdown in global trade set off a wave of defaults. Schoolteachers, retirees and others who had lent to entrepreneurs demanded the authorities get back their money.

Regulators also worried that banks and state companies had gotten involved in underground lending, exposing the official financial system to unreported risks.

In the earlier case in Wenzhou, an entrepreneur, Wu Ying, was sentenced to death for improperly raising 770 million renminbi from investors in 2005-7. Ms. Wu, who started with a hair salon and built a business empire, had earlier been praised by the state news media as a role model for female entrepreneurs.

The Chinese Supreme Court overturned Ms. Wu’s death sentence following an outcry on the Internet over the severity of the penalty. She was resentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, which usually is commuted to a long prison term.

A statement on the Web site of China’s highest court, dated in 2011, says charges of “illegal fundraising” can be applied to an individual who receives more than 200,000 renminbi of informal loans or causes losses to lenders of 100,000 renminbi. Enterprises can face charges if they receive 1 million renminbi or cause losses of 2.5 million renminbi.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/business/global/underground-lender-gets-death-sentence-in-china.html?_r=0

Indonesia executes 3 death row inmates convicted of murder, mutilation
May 17, 2013

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia has executed three death row inmates who were convicted of mutilating a man and murdering a family.

Attorney General Office spokesman Untung Arimuladi says the three Indonesian men were executed by firing squad Friday at a high-security prison on Nusakambangan island.

A court in South Sumatra province had sentenced 48-year-old Jurit bin Abdullah and 52-year-old Ibrahim bin Ujang to death in 1998 after they were found guilty of beheading and mutilating a man.

The third inmate, 47-year-old Suryadi Swabuana, was convicted of killing an entire family at a house in the province in 1991.

Arimuladi said six other convicts are to be executed this year.

More than 140 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug crimes and about a third of them are foreigners.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Indonesia+executes+death+inmates+convicted+murder/8399986/story.html

Byron Scherf gets death penalty for corrections officer murder
May 15, 2013

A judge has sentenced convicted rapist and murderer Byron Scherf to death after a jury ruled him eligible Wednesday morning.

Scherf admitted to strangling corrections officer Jayme Biendl in the Chapel of the Monroe Correctional Complex in January 2011.

"I've been waiting 137 days exactly to hear those words that he's got the death penalty," Biendl's sister, Lisa Hamm, told reporters outside the Everett courtroom. "I'm going to continue to count until he's finally dead."

"It's been terrible, you can't sleep, you got nightmares," said Biendl's father, James Hamm. "It's over with and I'm glad."

Scherf has refused to explain what Biendl said to him to set him off, but said it was the final straw "of years and years of crap."

The former prison superintendent had described the new restrictions Scherf would endure if the jury gave him life in prison.

The defense argued that security failures at the Monroe prison that led to discipline and several firings, might have contributed to the murder of Biendl in January 2011.

A judge will make a final ruling at 1 p.m.

It's the first death sentence recommended since April, 2010. Connor Michael Schierman was convicted of four counts of aggravated first degree murder for the deaths of Olga Milkin, her two sons, and sister.

A jury handed down a death sentence in June 2012, but it was a reissued conviction for the rape and murder of 43-year-old Geneine Harshfield. Allen Eugene Gregory was first convicted in May 2001, but the case was overturned five years later.

http://mynorthwest.com/11/2274811/Jury-reaches-a-verdict-in-the-Byron-Scherf-murder-trial

newer Photo
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/texas-inmate-executed-killing-1999-article-1.1345289

Published: Friday, May 10, 2013

A military judge on Thursday again denied a request from accused Fort Hood gunman Army Major Nidal Hasan to remove the death penalty as a punishment option in his forthcoming court-martial on charges of killing 13 people in a 2009 shooting rampage.

At a pre-trial hearing, judge Colonel Tara Osborn also denied requests from the defense that Hasan's trial be pushed back until September 1 and that a media affairs expert be appointed at government expense to assist the defense in jury selection.

Selection of the panel of officers who will act as the jury is set to begin on May 29, although Osborn said Thursday that interviews with prospective jurors might not begin until the following day.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, is facing the death penalty for opening fire in Fort Hood, Texas, on a group of soldiers who were preparing to deploy to Iraq on November 5, 2009.

In addition to the 13 killed, 32 were wounded, and Hasan, 42, is paralyzed from the chest down from gunshots fired by two civilian Fort Hood police officers who ended what was the worst shooting at a U.S. military installation.

The defense requested the trial delay because recent media reports about the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings have mentioned Hasan.

"Media coverage was saturated again," Lieutenant Colonel Kris Poppe, the lead defense lawyer, told the judge. "The comparisons are striking and troubling."

But Colonel Steve Henricks, one of the prosecutors, said prominent stories about the Boston bombings had only mentioned Hasan briefly, and Osborn said: "How do we know that nothing else will happen between now and the time of the trial that will bring this case to public attention again?"

Osborn previously denied a request by Hasan's lawyers that the death penalty be removed from consideration in return for a guilty plea. The Uniform Code of Military Justice, the unique law code that governs the armed forces, does not allow a guilty plea to a capital charge.

"The evidence is overwhelming, so the defense has always concentrated on two things: How can we delay this trial and how can we get a reduced sentence?" said Jeffrey Addicott, a former legal adviser to the Army Special Forces and a professor of law at St. Mary's University in Texas.

"The defense is hoping that the more time that goes by, they can just get the government to throw up their hands in frustration and say, OK, we'll just accept a guilty plea."

Osborn has been trying to get the trial schedule on track after extensive delays while the military justice system debated whether Hasan, who is Muslim, should be required to shave his beard to comply with military rules. Osborn has put that issue aside.

Opening arguments in the trial are expected to begin on July 1. Security is being ramped up at Fort Hood's Lawrence J. Williams Courthouse in preparation for the trial. Officials have placed bullet-proof sand-and-fiber barriers close to the building.

Fort Hood is a 340-square-mile Army post located about 60 miles north of Austin, Texas.

http://news-herald.com/articles/2013/05/10/news/2ac0e525-c3ea-470a-80e8-89b88e2c31b1.txt?viewmode=fullstory

Arizona death-row inmate dies of apparent suicide
Fri May 10, 2013 2:06 PM

FLORENCE, Ariz. —  An Arizona death row inmate who murdered his wife and young daughter nearly 27 years ago died Friday in what the Department of Corrections called an apparent suicide.

The department said Milo Stanley, 50, was found hanging in his cell at a unit of the Eyman prison complex in Florence and that his death would be investigated by the department and medical examiners.

Stanley was convicted in Yavapai County of fatally shooting his wife, Susan, and 5-year-old daughter, Seleste, in 1986.

A Corrections Department description of Stanley’s criminal history said he shot both victims in the head during an argument with his wife over his drinking.

He then dumped the victims’ bodies on the side of a road in a remote area, returned to his Clarkdale home and put his 1-year-old son to bed and called police to report his wife and daughter missing but confessed the next day, the description said.

After a 2 1/2-week trial in 1987, Stanley was convicted and then sentenced 2 1/2 months later to death for killing his daughter and to life in prison for killing his wife.

A federal court docket indicated that Stanley had an appeal pending with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding whether he received effective legal representation during sentencing.

Paula Harms, an assistant federal public defender listed as representing Stanley in the appeal, did not immediately return a call for comment.

In a separate matter, Stanley was among six Arizona death row inmates who were plaintiffs in federal litigation challenging Arizona’s execution protocol as unconstitutional. In that now-ended case, federal courts upheld the protocol, but the state made some procedural changes sought by the inmates’ attorneys.

The last suicide of an Arizona death row inmate took place on March 14, 2010, when James Adams, 46, was found hanging in his cell.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/pinal/free/20130510arizona-death-row-inmate-dies-apparent-suicide.html

Juvenile Court sentences two 18 year-olds to death for murder of Abdul Muheeth
May 2nd, 2013

The Juvenile Court has issued the death sentence to two 18 year-olds found guilty of the February 18, 2012 murder of Abdul Muheeth of Galolhu Veyru House.

Three minors were charged in the case, and one was acquitted by the court. The two sentenced to death are both 18 years-old, although both were underage and minors at the time of the murder, according to local media.

A Juvenile Court spokesperson told the local media three male witnesses told the court they witnessed one of the minors attacking Muheeth.

The two minors were seen at ADK hospital the same night with some other suspects in the case.

All Muheeth’s heirs had approved the death sentence if the courts found the suspects guilty of murdering him.

Last year Police Inspector Abdulla Satheeh told the press that the investigation into Muheeth’s death showed that he was not attacked for any involvement in gang related crimes, and that he had no police record.

He also noted that Muheeth was not a member of any gang, and was working in a responsible job at the time.

Muheeth was rushed to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) after he was stabbed at 1:45am near the Finance Ministry building. He later died during treatment.

The three suspects were identified at the time as Muhujath Ahmed Naasih of Abulagee Ge on Gahdhoo in Gaaf Dhaal Atoll, Mohamed Maimoon of Zaithoonige, on Naifaru of Lhaviyani Atoll and Ali Mushahfau of Sultan Villa on Maradhoo in Seenu Atoll.

http://minivannews.com/society/juvenile-court-sentences-two-18-year-olds-to-death-for-murder-of-abdul-muheeth-57326

Iran: 23 prisoners executed in cities across country
Published on Monday, 22 April 2013 13:53

NCRI - The anti-human clerical regime executed nine prisoners in two groups in central prisons of Kerman and Zahedan on April 20 with two Afghanistan citizens.

Two days prior, two prisoners in Mashhad, another in Zarand prison in Kerman province, and a twenty-five year old by name of Hossein Chofleki in Gohardasht prison had been executed.

One of those executed was a 21 year old woker. On April 16 , state-run media reported of nine executions of prisoners in Shiraz with six hanged in public. Yet another young man, Omid Shojaei of age 30, was also hanged in Bandar Abbas prison on April 11.

Also previously, in a time span of just 13 days starting on 19 February 2013, eighty-two prisoners were executed in various prisons or in public across the country.

At the same time, thousands of prisoners are on the death row in prisons across country, including over 1100 prisoners in Gohardasht prison, 100 prisoners in central prison of Zahedan, and at least 100 prisoners in Bandar Abbas prison.

Wave of arrests in various cities, including the arrest of 210 youth in Ahwaz in just a five week span, and initiating patrols by SSF are amongst other suppressive measures by the regime in recent weeks.

On the eve of its sham elections, while feuding between regime’s leaders has reached unprecedented levels and is reaching its final stage, and in fear of eruption of wrath of people under immense pressures that the regime calls them the “army of hungry”, the clerical regime has found its only escape in intensifying its crimes and suppression.

Denouncing the inaction in face of barbaric crimes of mullahs ruling Iran, the Iranian Resistance calls on all international bodies and human rights organizations to adopt urgent actions to stop this criminal trend.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
April 21, 2013

http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/ncri-statements/human-rights/13472-iran-23-prisoners-executed-in-cities-across-country.html

April 23, 2013
Okla. AG requests execution date for death row inmate

By Rachel Petersen Staff Writer

McALESTER — Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt requested that the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals set an execution date for Oklahoma State Penitentiary death row inmate Brian Darrell Davis.

On April 15, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Davis’s final appeal. Pruitt asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to set an execution date 60 days after April 15, “or the earliest date the court deems fit.”

The 38-year-old death row inmate was convicted of the Nov. 4, 2001, rape and murder of 52-year-old Josephine “Jody” Sanford.

“In January 2003, Davis was found guilty by a jury for the November 2001 first-degree murder and rape of his girlfriend’s mother, Jody Sanford, 52, of Ponca City,” Pruitt said in a press release. “He was sentenced to death for the murder and 100 years for rape.”

According to court records, Davis returned home in the early morning hours of Nov. 4, 2001, after socializing with friends at a local club. When he arrived home, he found that his girlfriend, Stacey Sanford, and their 3-year-old daughter were missing.

Davis called Jody Sanford, Stacey Sanford’s mother, to ask if she knew were his girlfriend and daughter were, court records state. “When Jody could not locate her daughter and granddaughter, she went to Stacey’s and Davis’s apartment.”

Davis made several conflicting statements regarding what happened while Jody Sanford was in his home. According to court records, he changed his story multiple times and told different stories to his girlfriend, to police and to the jury at his trial. Court records indicate that Davis did admit to having sex with and stabbing Jody Sanford.

When Stacey Sanford arrived home shortly after 9 a.m., she found her mother’s body. “Stacey (Sanford) immediately called 911 and local police arrived to investigate,” court records state. “Meanwhile, Davis had been involved in a single-car accident while driving Jody’s van near the Salt Fork River Bridge. Davis was seriously injured after he was ejected from the van through the front windshield. Davis was transported to a local hospital for treatment.”

Because Davis had a blood alcohol level of .09 percent, he was placed under arrest for driving under the influence and was later transferred to a regional hospital in Wichita, Kan., for treatment for injuries he sustained in the car accident.

According to Pruitt, Jody Sanford had been beaten and stabbed six times and DNA evidence showed Davis had raped her.

Davis has been in custody with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections since March 17, 2003.

http://mcalesternews.com/local/x1097431251/Okla-AG-requests-execution-date-for-death-row-inmate