http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/westmoreland/s_724570.html

Cop killer Lesko 'closer to death' after new trial denied

By Richard Gazarik

TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Friday, February 25, 2011

Last updated: 5:14 am

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled yesterday that convicted cop killer John Lesko is not entitled to a new trial and penalty hearing for the 1980 murder of Apollo police Officer Leonard Miller during his "kill-for-thrill" spree.

The decision was made on an appeal to a 2006 ruling that granted Lesko a new trial and a third penalty hearing challenging his death sentence for killing Miller, a rookie policeman working only his third day on the job.

Chief Justice Ronald Castille wrote the opinion. Justices J. Michael Eakin, Max Baer, Seamus McCaffery, Thomas Saylor, Joan Orie Melvin and Debra McCloskey Todd concurred.

In 2002, Westmoreland County Judge Richard McCormick Jr. granted Lesko a new trial and sentencing hearing. District Attorney John Peck appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which has been reviewing the case since March 2008.

Peck said the ruling brings Lesko a step closer to execution.

"He's closer to the death penalty because he was not granted a new trial or sentencing hearing," said Peck, who has worked on the appeal with Assistant District Attorney Tom Grace for the past decade.

"We're extremely gratified. This appeal process has been a 10-year struggle," Peck said.

Peck said Lesko still can appeal to federal court in Pittsburgh, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals and even the U.S. Supreme Court, raising the same arguments he took before the state Supreme Court.

Lesko filed an appeal under the Post-Conviction Relief Act, claiming that his defense attorney, Rabe Marsh III, was ineffective because he failed to present mitigating evidence that would have spared Lesko the death penalty.

He said Marsh should have presented testimony that would have shown that Lesko had a troubled childhood that included abuse, a neglectful mother and psychiatric problems that would have made him ineligible for a death sentence.

Peck argued that Lesko had been examined by mental health experts in Indiana and Westmoreland counties before his 1981 trial, and "neither offered any indication that Lesko was brain damaged," the court wrote.

The ruling also exonerates Marsh, who was appointed to represent Lesko in 1980. McCormick had ruled that Marsh did not provide an adequate defense for Lesko.

"It is all too easy for the defendant or the court to second-guess a strategy that has proven unsuccessful," the justices wrote in the opinion. Rather, a reviewing court must make every effort to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances of counsel's challenged conduct and to evaluate the conduct from counsel's perspective at the time."

The justices noted that the Lesko trial was not an example where Marsh failed to conduct any investigation.

"Instead, it is a case where counsel undertook a reasonable investigation and presented a compelling and partly successful case in mitigation, albeit the defense case did not ultimately carry the day," they wrote.

Lesko has professed remorse for the killing and is a changed man, according to the opinion. A chaplain at the State Correctional Institution at Graterford testified that Lesko is now a man of faith as he waits on death row.

Lesko's co-defendant, Michael Travaglia of Washington Township, also awaits execution.

Travaglia was granted a new trial and sentencing hearing in 2005. He again was found guilty of first-degree murder, and Westmoreland County Judge John Blahovec sentenced him to death.

Lesko and Travaglia went on a killing spree over the Christmas holidays, from December 1979 through Jan. 3, 1980, killing Miller and three others:

• Peter Levato, 49, of Pittsburgh was shot in a wooded area of Loyalhanna Township.

• Marlene Newcomer of Leisenring, Fayette County, was killed when she picked them up hitchhiking along Route 66 on New Year's Eve.

• William Nicholls, a former Irwin resident who was a church organist in Pittsburgh, was kidnapped on Jan. 2.

The pair threw Nicholls into an Indiana County lake after torturing him. They were driving his silver Lancia sports car when they encountered Miller and goaded him into pursuing them by nearly ramming his patrol car.











Photo : The murderer John Lesko












Anne

http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/cityregion/25931485-41/death-mcanulty-jurors-jeanette-oregon.csp

Child killer gets death

Angela McAnulty is sentenced to be executed for the torture murder of her 15-year-old daughter, Jeanette

By Karen McCowan

The Register-Guard

Published: Friday, Feb 25, 2011 05:02AM

Angela Darlene McAnulty on Thursday became the first Oregon woman sentenced to death since state voters restored capital punishment in 1984.

After deliberating six hours, a Lane County jury decided that the River Road mother should pay the ultimate penalty for the 2009 torture murder of her 15-year-old daughter, Jeanette. Minutes later, a somber Lane County Circuit Judge Kip Leonard told McAnulty: “The court enters a sentence that you be executed by the state of Oregon.”

The 42-year-old woman appeared stoic, but several jurors wept.

Her attorneys said they would appeal her death sentence.

Lane County Deputy District Attorney Erik Hasselman thanked jurors for their verdict in the case, saying he suspected “the horror of it” made their decision easier.

“Yet it’s an awesome responsibility that we bestow or impose on jurors in this kind of situation,” he said.

The four-week sentencing trial revealed that McAnulty singled out her eldest daughter for abuse at a young age and pulled Jeanette from school in 2008 after classmates and employees there began questioning the girl’s injuries and dwindling weight. McAnulty’s husband and younger daughter told jurors that the mother deprived Jeanette of food and water and inflicted regular beatings that ripped the girl’s flesh from her bones.

Jeanette was so badly maimed by the time she died in December 2009 that the medical examiner could not determine a single cause of death.

Richard McAnulty is also charged with aggravated murder in his step-daughter’s death, but trial testimony suggested that his wife inflicted most or all of Jeanette’s injuries. His trial is set for May.

Angela McAnulty pleaded guilty Feb. 1 to aggravated murder. Her defense attorneys presented evidence that she, too, had a violent childhood. California relatives, including two brothers and two aunts, told jurors that their mother was stabbed to death when Angela was almost 5. The children then went to live with their abusive father, they testified, who also withheld food and beat them.

Defense lawyers also told jurors that the state failed to prove that McAnulty posed a threat to society of future criminal acts of violence. A person must pose such a threat to receive the death penalty under Oregon law. It appeared that jurors spent much of Thursday afternoon discussing that requirement, based on written questions they submitted to Leonard.

They first asked if the law referred to “prison society or outside society or both.” The judge instructed them that the law referred to “any society in which the defendant will live.”

They later asked him to define “criminal acts of violence.” Leonard responded with a definition from an Oregon appellate court decision: “acts characterized by the ‘application of force which has the potential of inflicting bodily injury or the overt threat of such force.’ ”

On their verdict form read aloud by Leonard, the jury reported unanimously agreeing that McAnulty posed such a threat, that she deliberately inflicted Jeanette’s injuries with the reasonable expectation that death would result, that the girl did nothing to reasonably provoke them, and that McAnulty deserved a death sentence.

Lane County District Attorney Alex Gardner told reporters after the sentencing that he was not surprised that the jury took only about six hours to decide the case.

“These jurors have been thinking about this 24/7 for weeks,” he said, adding that the experience was likely an “incredibly painful process” for them, as it was for detectives, prosecutors and everyone involved in the case.

“Only they’re not in law enforcement, and they didn’t sign up for this,” he said.

He said his office decided to seek its first death penalty in 10 years because the facts in the case were “so horrific, it was clear to us that the community needed to decide” if the ultimate punishment was required.

Prosecutors in counties throughout Oregon have sought the death penalty for female murderers on at least seven occasions in the 27 years since it again became law. But in every case, such women reached plea deals or were sentenced to life prison terms instead.

Among them was Springfield resident Karlyn Eklof, sentenced for the 1993 murder of James Salmu, a man who took in her and her children when they were homeless. Eklof’s boyfriend, Jeffrey Tiner, is on Oregon’s Death Row for beating, stabbing and shooting Salmu.

Also among them was former Lane County resident Amanda Stott-Smith, serving a life prison term after pleading guilty to throwing her two children off Portland’s Sellwood Bridge in May 2009, killing 4-year-old Eldon Jay Rebhan Smith. Her 7-year-old daughter was rescued by boaters and survived.

Stott-Smith, who must serve at least 35 years in prison before being considered for release, told police her crimes were an act of revenge against her husband, who had recently been awarded custody of their children.

The only other Oregon woman ever sentenced to death was former Lane County resident Jeannace Freeman, convicted in 1961 at age 20 of murdering her female lover’s young son by throwing him off the Crooked River Bridge in Jefferson County. Her sentence was commuted by then-Gov. Mark Hatfield in 1964, a day after Oregon voters repealed the death penalty by a 6-to-4 margin.

There are 36 male inmates on Oregon’s Death Row, and two men have been executed since the law’s 1984 restoration by an even larger majority.

That’s not because of sexism, Gardner said, but because women so rarely commit horrific crimes.

Angela McAnulty’s conduct was exceedingly rare, according to a 2010 federal report on child homicides. While most murdered children are killed by a parent, only about 27 percent of such deaths are caused by mothers acting alone.

In his closing statements for the state Wednesday, Hasselman reminded jurors that all had pledged during jury selection that they would not hesitate to impose the death penalty simply because McAnulty is female.

“If Jeanette Maples had been snatched by someone else and held captive in their home, if the atrocities that she experienced both pyschologically and physically had been inflicted by a stranger, would any of us have a serious question if death would be the appropriate sentence?” he asked them. “Is it somehow mitigating that her killer was her mother?”

In fact, he said, it aggravated the crime, by taking from Jeanette “that glimmer of hope that she would be rescued by her parents.”










Other link with video : http://www.kval.com/news/116883498.html?tab=video

Article : http://www.kval.com/news/116883498.html

Friday, February 25, 2011 - Eugene, OR

Jury: Death sentence for mom who tortured teen daughter to death

By KVAL News staff Molly Blancett, Mark Furman and Todd Milbourn

EUGENE, Ore. -- A mother who admitted murdering her teenage daughter by torturing her to death over the course of several years will be the first woman sentenced to die in Oregon since the state brought back the death penalty in 1984.

Angela McAnulty sat and stared after learning the 8 men and 4 women on the jury had condemned her to die for pleading guilty to the aggravated murder of her 15-year-old daughter, Jeanette Maples.

The courtroom was packed, both with people who were part of the trial and judges and the district attorney.

The court appeared to be under extra security compared to the previous 2 1/2 weeks of testimony in the sentencing phase of the murder trial.

The convicted child killer's stoic demeanor upon hearing the verdict contrasts with the crying, wailing figure who didn't want to hear testimony from the paramedics who tried to kindle a spark of life from McAnylty's daughter's savaged body - although she told the jury she was at peace with their decision.

The jury - and McAnulty - sat through hours of videos of police interviews as part of the prosecution's case for death.

McAnulty initially denied doing anything wrong, and later pleaded not guilty.

She changed her plea to guilty on the first day of her criminal trial.














Anne

http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2011-02-24/grand-jury-indicts-accused-killer-capital-murder-aggravated-kidnapping

Grand jury indicts accused killer on capital murder, aggravated kidnapping

Posted: February 24, 2011 - 2:21pm

By BY LOGAN G. CARVER

A Lubbock County grand jury today indicted Humberto Salinas Jr. on charges of capital murder and aggravated kidnapping for the abduction and killing of a Lubbock teen.

Salinas, 45, is accused of strangling to death 15-year-old Elizabeth Ennen before her family even knew she was missing.

Salinas is the father of Elizabeth's boyfriend and a man police had described as a trusted friend of Elizabeth’s mother.

He was seen on video January 5 forcing her into the parking lot of the Carriage House Motel and then returning alone minutes later.

Elizabeth's body was found January 24 in a field in Shallowater.

Criminal District Attorney Matt Powell said he wanted to get as much information about the case as possible before deciding whether to seek the death penalty against Salinas.

"We'll try to make that decision within the next month or so," Powell said.











Photo : The murderer Humberto Salinas Jr.












Anne

http://www.colombopage.com/archive_11/Feb24_1298558630KA.php

* Sri Lankans want the death penalty reinstated

Thu, Feb 24, 2011, 08:13 pm

SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka

Feb 24, Colombo: Sri Lanka's state owned The Dinamina newspaper reported today that a recent survey pointed to the fact that 88% of the Sri Lankans want the death penalty enacted.

Sri Lankan courts deliver death sentences but the President as the head of the state traditionally does not consent to the implementation of the death sentence.

However, with the recent spate of violence, there is a public opinion that the death penalty must be enacted to arrest it.

The Ministry of Prisons and Rehabilitation conducted the survey among a sample of people selected from various social strata, the Ministry sources said.

The report of the survey has been handed over to the President who is the ultimate competent authority to implement the death penalty.













Anne

http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/cityregion/25926249-41/mcanulty-death-jeanette-daughter-jury.csp

McAnulty to jury: ‘Sorry’

With deliberations to begin today, she tells the court she didn’t intend the death of her tortured daughter

By Karen McCowan

The Register-Guard

Published: Thursday, Feb 24, 2011 08:45AM

Convicted child killer Angela McAnulty on Wednesday spoke for the first time to the jury deciding her fate, acknowledging that she fatally abused her 15-year-old daughter, but adding: “I did not want my little girl to die.”

The Lane County Circuit Court jurors will begin deliberating today on whether to sentence McAnulty to death or to life in prison for torturing, beating and starving Jeanette Marie Maples. The River Road girl died Dec. 9, 2009, of malnutrition, bleeding in her brain from a head injury and hundreds of other wounds, some infected to the bone.

McAnulty, 42, did not take the witness stand and testify. Rather, she exercised her right to make an “allocution,” described by Lane County Circuit Judge Kip Leonard as a “personal statement on her own behalf to mitigate the punishment that is to be imposed.”

Such statements are not subject to cross-examination by prosecutors.

Reading from a prepared statement, McAnulty told jurors, “I am very sorry for hurting my daughter in a very bad way, and I take responsibility for what I have done.”

She also apologized to the prosecution and to detectives who investigated the case, then concluded by telling the jury: “I want you to know I am at peace with whatever sentence you give me.”

In closing statements after her remarks, prosecutors said McAnulty deserved the death penalty because of her daily decisions for years to single out Jeanette for systematic mutilation and torture while sparing the girl’s two younger siblings from abuse.

Defense attorney Kenneth Hadley told jurors the state failed to prove that McAnulty posed a future threat to society, a necessary element to impose the death penalty under Oregon law.

He acknowledged that there was “something terribly wrong between Mrs. McAnulty and Jeanette,” but said she did not pose a risk of violence to others in the society she’s going to be in: prison.

Lane County Deputy District Attorney Erik Hasselman vehemently disagreed, saying McAnulty committed assaults “every single day for months,” walking into rooms already splattered with her daughter’s blood, then having Jeanette “pull down her pants to expose the most hideous wounds that she chose to reopen again and again.”

“I suggest to you there could be no more dangerous person, one more prone to violence, than one who could whip the life out of her child,” he said.

Lane County Deputy District Attorney JoAnn Miller questioned the sincerity of Mcanulty’s remorseful statements.

“The repeated sorries don’t cut it,” she said. She reminded jurors that McAnulty so minimized her actions that she told detectives hours after Jeanette’s death that maybe she should have taken up smoking as a “comparable alternative” stress reliever to torturing her daughter to death.

Miller also reminded the jury how McAnulty deprived her oldest daughter of possessions — even a bed.

“The only thing that belonged to Jeanette was her cardboard,” Miller said, reminding jurors that its purpose was to keep her bleeding wounds from soiling the carpet as she slept.

She reminded them how McAnulty pulled her daughter out of school when people there began to question Jeanette’s hunger and injuries.

“This was not an enraged drunk backhanding their kid a couple of times,” she said. “We’re talking about a cool-headed killer.”

Earlier Wednesday, McAnulty’s aunt told the jury that she believes her niece fatally abused her daughter in part because the convicted killer “did not have a strong enough mind” to overcome damage from her own childhood, which included the murder of her mother and abuse by her father.

“I believe my niece suffers from a serious mental defect,” Alice White told jurors.

Under questioning by prosecutor Erik Hasselman, she acknowledged that medical experts failed to find evidence that McAnulty suffers from a serious mental illness, but White said she still believes so, nonetheless.

“I believe for someone to do what she did to Jeanette, they would have to have some kind of mental defect,” the California woman testified.













Anne

http://www.kval.com/news/local/116754114.html#juror

Murderer to address jury weighing death penalty

By Molly Blancett

KVAL News

Story Published: Feb 23, 2011 at 11:34 AM PST

EUGENE, Ore. - Angela McAnulty cried during the final testimony when her aunt, Patricia Linn, testified she would keep in contact with McAnulty until "the day she died."

McAnulty faces the death penalty or life in prison for the December 2009 murder of her 15-year-old daughter, Jeanette Maples.

McAnulty's defense rested justed after 11 a.m. The court is in recess until 1:15 p.m.

Earlier in the day, Sister Carol Lee, a chaplain at the Lane County Jail, tesified that McAnulty's behavior has changed while she's been in jail.
 
Lee said more recently, McAnulty appeared remoresful and sorry.

Cynthia Young, a mental health specialist at the Lane County Jail, echoed Lee's testimony. Young said McAnulty started taking medication a few months after she went to jail. After that, Young testified McAnulty was able to focus better and was less depressed.
 
Another of McAnulty's aunts, Alice White, also took the stand. She tesified that her niece's abusive upbringing caused McAnulty to abuse her daughter. White said McAnulty didn't have a strong enough mind to put the abuse behind her.
 
McAnulty's lawyers said their client will make a statement to the jury when court reconvenes after lunch.

Both sides will then give their closing arguements.

The judge will then give the jury instructions and they will decide McAnulty's sentence. They must consider the following questions:

    * Was McAnulty's conduct that caused Maple's death deliberate? Did she deliberately kill Maples?
    * Will she be a danger to scociety?
    * Did McAnulty kill her daughter without being provoked?

If the jurors unanimously answer yes to those three questions, they must answer the next question:

    * Should the death sentence be imposed?

If the jury does not decide to sentence McAnulty to death, they will then have to decide if there are any circumstances in McAnulty's life or mental state that would mean she deserves the possibilty of parole after 30 years in prison.

Judge dismisses juror
 
The trial started with 15 jurors, leaving the court three alternates.

However, the judge dismissed one juror on Tuesday after the juror made comments about his opinion about the outcome of the trial with other members of the jury.

The dismissed juror also told other members of the jury he watched news coverage of the trial, which is against the rules for jury members.












Anne

http://www.kval.com/news/local/116739809.html

(with video)

Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - Eugene, OR

Defense witnesses describe murderer's childhood

By Molly Blancett KVAL News

Story Published: Feb 23, 2011 at 8:50 AM PST

EUGENE, Ore. - Angela McAnulty faces the death penalty after pleading guilty to the December 2009 murder of her 15-year-old daughter, Jeanette Maples.

Prosecutors wrapped up more than five days of testimony in the penalty phase of the trial on Tuesday and turned the court over to the defense.

Now the defense is trying to convince the jury to spare McAnulty's life.

McAnulty's brothers Mike and George Feusi testified their mom was murdered when Angela was just five years old.

The case was never solved, but their dad was always the prime suspect. That made living with him terrifying.

"When he got behind you, you were so scared," George Feusi said. "He'd come up behind Mike and he'd hit him so hard."

"We weren't allowed to get food out of the kitchen at all. We knew that," Mike Feusi testified. "We could get water but that was it."

McAnulty cried as her friends took the stand.

Linda Mardis said she met McAnulty at a transitional home for unwed mothers.

"I never saw any type of behavior that would indicate this was in her future," Mardis testified.

Earlier in the day, the defense asked the judge to throw out the death penalty as an option, saying the state did not prove Angela McAnulty would likely reoffend or pose a danger to anyone other than her family.
 
The judge denied the motion.

The case continues Wednesday.

When the defense rests their case, the court will give the jury instructions and task them with deliberating whether McAnulty get life, life with the possibility of parole after 30 years, or the death sentence.










Photo : Angela McAnulty in court Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011












Anne

Dear Wicket,


I am sorry for this terrible disaster in your country

I will pray for you and your family 

May Our Lord protects the citizens of New-Zealand

You are all in our hearts









Anne

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/02/22/2869110/man-who-fatally-shot-toddler-son.html

Man who fatally shot toddler son is executed

Posted Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011

By Juan A. Lozano

The Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE -- A Houston man convicted for the 2002 fatal shooting of his 19-month-old son after an hours-long standoff with police was executed Tuesday.

Timothy Wayne Adams, 42, shook his head when asked whether he had any final words.

Before the lethal drugs were administered, he mouthed some words to his parents and brother and sister. Adams kept his gaze on his family and never looked at his son's mother and her family, who watched from a different room than his relatives.

He was pronounced dead at 6:31 p.m.

Emma Adams, the toddler's mother, quietly sobbed throughout the execution.

Adams was the second Texas prisoner put to death this year in the nation's busiest death penalty state.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Adams' final appeal Tuesday.

Prosecutors said Timothy Adams Jr.'s slaying was intended as retaliation by Adams because his wife was leaving him. Defense attorneys argued that the killing was an aberration in an otherwise law-abiding life.

Adams' family had asked that his sentence be commuted to life in prison without parole.

Last week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected a request to recommend that Gov. Rick Perry commute the sentence. It also turned down a request for a four-month execution delay.

Adams' lawyers had argued that his sentence was unconstitutional and that the instructions to his trial jury were flawed. They also contend that his clean prison record belied the jury's finding that Adams would be a future threat, one of the questions Texas jurors must decide when deliberating a death sentence.

At least three other Texas Death Row inmates have execution dates scheduled for the coming months, including Cleve Foster and Cary Kerr of Tarrant County.

However, the prison system's supply of the drug sodium thiopental expires at the end of March. Sodium thiopental is one of three drugs used in the lethal mixture. The drug's sole manufacturer in the United States has suspended production, and supplies elsewhere are scarce. Prison officials have said they are trying to find another source.










Adams' lawyers had argued that his sentence was unconstitutional and that the instructions to his trial jury were flawed.

=> yeeeeaaaahhhh...BLABLABLABLA folks Your scumbag child killer is in Hell forever Amen, justice served in Texas yesterday evening











Anne

Yes, good new Thanks for these informations Terri

Fry this b****






Anne

http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/updates/25921842-55/mcanulty-defense-doesn-guard-hadley.csp

McAnulty defense to examine her childhood abuse

By Karen McCowan

The Register-Guard

Published: Tuesday, Feb 22, 2011 12:22PM

A local woman who fatally starved and tortured her daughter lost her own mother to murder at age 5 and grew up with a violent father who also locked up food and beat his children for “stealing” it, the convicted child killer’s lawyer said Tuesday.

Angela McAnulty’s past doesn’t excuse her 2009 murder of 15-year-old Jeanette Marie Maples, defense attorney Ken Hadley told jurors deciding if his client gets the death penalty or life in prison.

But “something like this doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” he told the panel in his opening statement after the prosecution completed its case late Tuesday morning.

Hadley said the jurors would hear testimony from McAnulty’s relatives and from a psychologist to help them understand the conditions that warped the 42-year-old California native into someone who could commit what he called “a horrible tragedy.”












Anne

http://www.kfdm.com/news/son-41595-old-texas.html

Southeast Texas man who murdered his 19 month old son, scheduled for execution

February 22, 2011 7:37 AM

Nicole Murray

A 42-year-old Houston man is sentenced to be executed this evening for the 2002 shooting death of his 19-month old son.

Timothy Wayne Adam's parents recently made a plea to Governor Rick Perry to intervene, asking for clemency.

The former military veteran's parents live in northeast Houston but often visit their son on Texas Death Row. His mother Wilma told a Houston reporter, "I don't rest. My pillow is wet with tears night after night. I'm thinking about my son. I'm thinking about my grandson. This is a hurting thing." The couple says they aren't searching for sympathy. They lost their grandson. They don't want to lose their son forever too.

Nine years ago, in the height of a custody fight with his wife, Adams shot and killed his 19-month old son Timothy Jr.

Barring a last-minute stay, Adams would be the second Texas prisoner put to death this year.











Photo : The little victim Timothy Adams Jr.




Come on Great State of Texas...Justice will serve today...










Anne

http://www.examiner.com/pop-culture-in-portland/mcanulty-death-penalty-hearing-graphic-report-of-abuse-sparks-outrage

Heather Tooley

* Portland Pop Culture Examiner

McAnulty death penalty hearing - graphic report of abuse sparks outrage

* February 21st, 2011 10:24 am PT

In Eugene, Ore., outrage has been sparked over graphic details in a report surrounding the starvation, torture, and resulting death of a teen girl. The Register-Guard has been updating Oregon residents on the progress of a hearing in whether Angela McAnulty should get the death penalty for the torture/murder of her teen daughter in 2009. If a jury decides McAnulty should get the death penalty, she will be the first woman on Oregon's death row since the capital punishment was reinstated in 1978.

Angela McAnulty has pleaded guilty of intentional maiming and torture of her 15-year-old daughter, Jeanette Maples. Jeanette  died as a result of ongoing starvation, neglect, and horrific abuse. This was at the hands of her own mother while her step-father, Richard McAnulty, enabled and witnessed the maltreatment for years on end. His trial will begin in May for his role in Jeanette Maple's death. Prosecuters are not seeking the death penalty for him, however.

On Friday, February 11, 2011 The Register-Guard newspaper outlined graphic details in the starvation and torture McAnulty, 42, inflicted on her helpless daughter for at least four years inside the home. The report shocked readers, but was a voice for the girl who suffered the most.

First report on graphic details inside Jeanette Maples' murder (=> http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/cityregion/25875909-41/mcanulty-jeanette-blood-county-daughter.csp)

An editorial in The Register-Guard was addressed a week later as to why the vivid accounts were published in the paper. Many readers were offended at the bloody, cruel details found in the newspaper's report.

In a follow-up editorial, reader concerns were addressed over the report's contents.

With the death penalty being the ultimate punishment for Angela McAnulty, the details needed to be released so there was no question as to the severity of her crime. While so many, even in the legal system, are reluctant to agree with the death penalty, the grisly, unimaginable pain that Jeanette Maples endured had to be released so citizens would understand how unsettling this crime really is. It's not just a light-hearted decision to pursue the death penalty by any means.

There's another reason a graphic report of this nature had to be written: the state failed in protecting Jeanette Maples from the starvation and intentional torture at the hands of her mother. Several reports were called into state welfare workers over suspected abuse that McAnulty was inflicting on her daughter, but only a few of the calls were followed up on. When they did investigate, they concluded everything was fine.

Editorial defending graphic accounts of Jeanette Maples' torture (=> http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/opinion/25899141-47/jeanette-death-case-abuse-child.csp)

In addition to the above being a good enough reason to detail the abuse Jeanette Maples went through, there is another factor undeniable in our modern pop culture when it comes to crime - being desensitized. As a society, crime has become an everyday norm they view as not always affecting them. In this child abuse case, the crime affects everyone -- especially those who knew Jeanette Maples. This case brings to light just how awful child abuse can get when it's discounted or not taken seriously. This girl's abuse began as young as the age of seven and went on until her death December 9, 2009.

From Portland to all around the state, Oregon residents are appalled at the disturbing treatment Angela McAnulty forced her daughter to take from her. A mother is suppose to protect her children.  What triggers a woman to intentionally cause the worst kind of pain on a child for years? Jeanette Maples literally lived hell on earth during her short lifetime.

Will Angela McAnulty get the death penalty for the unbelievable crimes she committed by starving, torturing, and murdering her daughter? Prosecution will continue presenting their case during the penalty phase this week.

Sources: The Register-Guard: Feb 11 edition and Feb. 17 edition













Anne

http://therecordlive.com/article/Beyond_the_County/Beyond_the_County/Texas_death_row_inmate_scheduled_to_die_Tuesday/60654

February 21, 2011    08:42AM CST

Texas death row inmate scheduled to die Tuesday

Larry Johnson, The Record Newspapers

Published 02/20/2011 - 6:37 p.m. CST

Huntsville, Texas- The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles in Austin unanimously rejected an urgent clemency petition Friday on behalf of a former Army veteran scheduled for lethal injection on Tuesday. Timothy Wayne Adams, 42, was convicted in 2003 of shooting to death of his 19-month old son, Tim, Jr.

Last Wednesday more than 90 faith leaders and three jurors from the original trial urged the board to ask Gov. Rick Perry to commute Adam’s death penalty to life in prison.

Despite the petition, however, the seven-member board voted 7-0 twice — first against a 120-day reprieve and then against a recommendation to commute the sentence to life in prison.

Adams, a black male, will be executed at Huntsville State Prison this Tuesday evening, Feb. 22.

Evidence showed that on February 20, 2002 Adams held his child at arm’s length and shot him with a pistol, then shot him again as the boy lay on the floor. Prosecutors claimed that Adams killed his son to cause suffering for his wife, who was threatening to leave him. The shooting had escalated to a police standoff at the family’s apartment in southwest Houston.

Adams reportedly had intended a murder suicide but was talked into surrendering by friends and family members by telephone. He gave himself up peacefully to police a few hours after the ordeal began.

Adams, a Houston native, joined the U.S. Army after graduating high school in 1986. He was honorably discharged in 1989 after being stationed in Germany. He married his wife Emma in 2000 and his second son, Tim Jr., was born shortly afterward. Adams was a supervisor for ACSS Security in Houston and had no prior criminal record. He has not had a single disciplinary write-up in prison.

Clemency advocates on behalf of Adams have called the incident that landed him on death row “a tragic mistake” saying that after a fight with his wife escalated out-of-hand, Mr. Adams “snapped” and decided to take his own life and the life of his youngest son.

According to the Texas Defender Service, Adams’ defense counsel did not present crucial mitigating evidence to counter the prosecution’s contention that he was a future danger to society or to show that his life was worth saving.

“Lacking this mitigating evidence, it is perhaps not surprising that the jury sentenced Mr. Adams to death,” the TDS reported, “But since learning additional information about Mr. Adams’ character and background, jurors Rebecca Hayes, Ngoc Duong, and Kathryn Starling have urged the Board to commute Mr. Adams’ death sentence to life in prison.”

The inmate’s lawyers also contended his death sentence was unconstitutional because a 2007 ruling from the court said a mother with no criminal history who murders her child because of stress and depression was not a future danger for purposes of sentencing.

The jury at his 2003 trial in Houston was given the choice of life in prison or death by injection.

Adams will become the second Texas death row inmate to be executed in 2011, both in February.

Last Tuesday, the state put to death Michael Wayne Hall, 31, an accomplice in the torture-slaying of a mentally challenged 19-year old Amy Robinson of Arlington.

Another death row inmate Cleve Foster was scheduled to die Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2011 for a similar murder. Foster, however, received a last hour reprieve by the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. The appeal failed and Foster’s new execution date has been set for April 5.










Last Wednesday more than 90 faith leaders and three jurors from the original trial urged the board to ask Gov. Rick Perry to commute Adam’s death penalty to life in prison.

=> It seems that Justice wins in this terrible case... Thanks to Governor Perry and The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles What a good decision TIC TAC TIC TAC TIC TAC....pay attention bastard...your punishment is set for tomorrow... NO CLEMENCY FOR YOU CHILD KILLER











Anne

Appeals court including Ohio 0-for-15 in Supreme Court rulings

Feb 21, 2011

Written by

DAN HORN

The Cincinnati Enquirer

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati is one of the most powerful courts in the nation, but these days it's suffering through a major slump.

The court owns the longest losing streak in the country over the past two years at the U.S. Supreme Court, which reviews decisions and corrects mistakes made by the nation's top appeals courts.

The Supreme Court has examined 15 rulings from the 6th Circuit since 2008 and has thrown out every one of them.

In each case - from death penalty appeals and tax disputes to disagreements over election law - the Supreme Court found critical errors that tainted the 6th Circuit's decision.

"It's a bit surprising to see 15 reversals in a row," said Michael Solimine, a University of Cincinnati law professor who studies the federal courts.

Some 6th Circuit judges are surprised, too. But they say they're doing their best and are trying to take the rejections in stride.

"Getting reversed by the Supreme Court, some people these days think, is a badge of honor," said Gilbert Merritt, a semi-retired senior judge and one of the 6th Circuit's most liberal members. "It depends on your point of view."

The 6th Circuit's performance matters because the court handles about 2,500 federal appeals a year from Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Michigan - the vast majority of which never make it to the Supreme Court.

The consequences of getting those decisions wrong can be severe. In some cases, it can literally mean the difference between life and death.

Three of the 15 overturned cases involve convicted killers who were spared execution by the 6th Circuit, only to have the Supreme Court send them back to death row.

Two others were denied by the 6th Circuit, but later won reprieves from the Supreme Court.

The 6th Circuit's other overturned cases include a dispute over voter registration laws, an employer retaliation claim and a disagreement about how natural gas companies are taxed.

All of those cases were subject to Supreme Court review because the 6th Circuit, as one of the nation's 12 regional appeals courts, is one notch below the Supreme Court in the judicial pecking order.

"It's their place in the system," said Arthur Hellman, a University of Pittsburgh law professor who studies the appeals courts. "It wouldn't do them much good to get upset or rail against the Supreme Court."

The 6th Circuit's liberal judges were more likely than conservatives to write opinions later reversed by the Supreme Court, but almost all of the appeals court's 15 active judges were on the wrong side of at least one overturned decision.

Court watchers say that suggests the 6th Circuit's losing streak isn't the result of a deep ideological split with the Supreme Court. Instead, they say, the court just keeps getting the law wrong, especially in cases of prisoners challenging their convictions and sentences. Those cases accounted for eight of the Supreme Court's 15 reversals.

"It clearly sends a message to the 6th Circuit that we are watching you," Hellman said.

He said the 6th Circuit's 0 for 15 run could be a symptom of more significant flaws in the court's decision-making process if the reversals continue.

But he warned against reading too much into the streak just yet.

"A unanimous decision by the Supreme Court doesn't necessarily correlate with the circuit court being out to lunch," Hellman said. "It doesn't necessarily reflect on the ability or competence of the judges."

A POOR SHOWING

In some ways, the odds are stacked against the 6th Circuit from the outset.

That's because the Supreme Court reviews only the cases it deems worthy, usually less than 100 a year out of about 30,000 appeals court decisions nationwide. Sometimes the goal is to resolve conflicting rulings in the lower courts, and sometimes it's to answer big constitutional questions.

Either way, the chances for a reversal are good because the Supreme Court justices wouldn't take those cases if they thought the appeals court resolved all the issues the first time around.

"It's not a random sample of cases that they hear," Solimine said. "They decide what they want to decide."

About 70 percent of the time, they decide the lower court got it wrong and reverse the decision.

But even by that measure, the 6th Circuit's batting average is poor.

An Enquirer analysis found that the other 11 regional appeals courts each had at least one decision upheld or partially upheld by the Supreme Court in the past two years.

California's 9th Circuit, the nation's largest and most liberal, led the way with 31 reversals and has butted heads for years with the increasingly conservative Supreme Court. But even the 9th Circuit was upheld seven times and had four split decisions.

The 6th Circuit, which had the second most reversals, hasn't won a case since 2007.

The 6th Circuit's chief judge, Alice Batchelder, did not respond to an interview request.

Boyce Martin, a former chief judge who still sits on the court, said he's not concerned because he sees no pattern in the cases the Supreme Court overturns.

Unlike the 9th Circuit, the 6th Circuit is not engaged in a philosophical duel with the Supreme Court. The 6th Circuit has, in fact, become far more conservative in recent years with the arrival of eight judges appointed by President George W. Bush.

"I don't think you can read anything into it," said Martin, who joined the court under President Carter in 1979. "There's no pattern whatsoever. If you look at those cases, they're splattered from here to yon."

Jonathan Adler, a Case Western Reserve University law professor, said the relationships between judges on the 6th Circuit might have something to do with their bad track record during the past two years.

The judges bickered publicly a few years ago over the death penalty, among other things, and Adler said lingering hard feelings could contribute to mistakes today.

He said that's because judges rely on each other to talk out tough issues and to catch potential errors before they write their opinions. If 6th Circuit judges don't do that, they may be prone to more mistakes.

"The 6th Circuit went through a period where the judges really didn't play well together," Adler said. "I think the temporary breakdown in collegiality and trust hampered the ability of the court to keep itself in line with Supreme Court precedent."

ROOM FOR DEBATE

Merritt chalks up the streak of reversals to a more practical problem: Sometimes judges just disagree when they try to divine the meaning of thousands of government regulations and laws.

"Congress has passed a lot of laws in my 35 years on the bench, and a lot of those laws aren't clear," Merritt said. "It's an issue that's debatable among judges."

Perhaps the best example of that debate is the case of Gary Cone, a convicted killer in Tennessee whose case has bounced between the 6th Circuit and the Supreme Court three times in the past decade.

The first two times, a three-judge panel that included Merritt and two Republican-appointed judges threw out Cone's death sentence because of mistakes made during his trial.

The Supreme Court reversed the 6th Circuit and reinstated Cone's death sentence both times.

Cone returned to the 6th Circuit for a third try in 2008 and this time the Republican judges outvoted Merritt 2-1 to uphold Cone's death sentence, just as the Supreme Court had done twice before.

So what did the Supreme Court do when it got a third crack at the case? It reversed the 6th Circuit yet again, declaring Cone's death sentence should be overturned after all.

Merritt said the Cone case shows how difficult and confusing decisions can be for any judge, whether they sit on the 6th Circuit or the Supreme Court.

The difference is the Supreme Court always gets the last word.

But Merritt said that doesn't mean the Supreme Court is always right - or that the 6th Circuit is wrong every time it gets reversed.

"The Supreme Court is only final because it is final. It's not final because it has an excessive degree of wisdom over everyone else in society," Merritt said. "Just because the 6th Circuit gets reversed, it doesn't mean the 6th Circuit has lost its mind."









INSIDE THE FEDERAL COURTS:

WHAT DO THEY DO?

Federal courts generally decide cases involving the U.S. government, the Constitution, federal laws and disputes between states.

HOW DO THEY WORK?

The lower federal courts include U.S. District Court and Bankruptcy Court. Next up are the 12 regional appeals courts, known as the Circuit Courts, which hear appeals from the lower courts. The highest ranking court is the U.S. Supreme Court, which agrees to hear less than 100 appeals a year that it believes raise significant constitutional questions.

WHY DO THEY MATTER?

The federal courts handle more than 1.5 million lawsuits, criminal cases and bankruptcies each year. They interpret complex federal laws and resolve disputes over the death penalty, the separation of church and state, civil rights, election laws and any other disagreement that raises constitutional issues.














Anne