Possibility of Death Penalty Expansion in Virginia: The Examiner writer William C. Flook reports that with a change of Virginia's governor, there could be a change with death penalty. In Virginia, only the triggerman is eligible for the death penalty, with a few exceptions. For the last three years, there has been an effort to abolish the triggerman rule, and expand the death penalty. But current governor Tim Kaine has vetoed the bills that have reached his desk. With Kaine's successor, Bob McDonnell, the fight for expansion seems more likely to succeed. McDonnell has said that if the bill to repeal the triggerman rule reaches his desk, he will sign it. Opponents of the death penalty, like Kent Willis say that "[they're] hoping that the knowledge that McDonnell will certainly sign the bill may cause a few senators to rethink their stance."
Ninth Circuit Court Throws Out Death Sentence in Double Murder Case: Metropolitan News writer Steven M. Ellis reports on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision to overturn the death sentence of Scott Lynn Pinholster because of ineffective assistance of counsel at the penalty phase. The case has been remanded for a new penalty trial because the majority of the court believed counsels' failure to introduce evidence of traumatic childhood head injuries, abuse and deprivation, along with other mitigating evidence would have resulted in a lesser sentence. In 1984, Pinholster was convicted of murdering of Robert Beckett, 29 and Thomas Johnson 25, during a burglary at the residence of a convicted marijuana dealer. Pinholster had two accomplices. One accomplice, became witness against Pinholster and the other accomplice was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
Bernard Madoff is the exemplar of a person who was once respected and is now disgraced, but it turns out he has found respect in a new peer group in his new abode. Dionne Searcey reports for the WSJ, "'To every con artist, he is the godfather, the don,' says an inmate [at Butner Federal Correctional Complex] interviewed earlier this week." Madoff has served 12 months of his sentence and has "only" 1,795 to go.
Ninth Circuit Court Throws Out Death Sentence in Double Murder Case: Metropolitan News writer Steven M. Ellis reports on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision to overturn the death sentence of Scott Lynn Pinholster because of ineffective assistance of counsel at the penalty phase. The case has been remanded for a new penalty trial because the majority of the court believed counsels' failure to introduce evidence of traumatic childhood head injuries, abuse and deprivation, along with other mitigating evidence would have resulted in a lesser sentence. In 1984, Pinholster was convicted of murdering of Robert Beckett, 29 and Thomas Johnson 25, during a burglary at the residence of a convicted marijuana dealer. Pinholster had two accomplices. One accomplice, became witness against Pinholster and the other accomplice was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
Bernard Madoff is the exemplar of a person who was once respected and is now disgraced, but it turns out he has found respect in a new peer group in his new abode. Dionne Searcey reports for the WSJ, "'To every con artist, he is the godfather, the don,' says an inmate [at Butner Federal Correctional Complex] interviewed earlier this week." Madoff has served 12 months of his sentence and has "only" 1,795 to go.
Leave a comment