Death Penalty News

HENDERSON, Nev. (DPN) — A Henderson woman will spend the rest of her life behind bars after admitting to the drowning deaths of her two young children, according to court records and local authorities. Jovan Trevino, 33, reached a plea agreement with Clark County prosecutors to avoid a potential death sentence. Under the terms of the deal, Trevino pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and waived her right to a trial.  A judge subsequently sentenced her to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.

A Louisiana man who spent nearly 30 years on death row walked out of prison Wednesday after a judge overturned his conviction and granted him bail. Jimmie Duncan, now in his 60s, was sentenced to death in 1998 for the alleged rape and drowning of his girlfriend’s 23-month-old daughter, Haley Oliveaux — a case long clouded by disputed forensic testimony. His release comes months after a state judge ruled that the evidence prosecutors used to secure the conviction was unreliable and rooted in discredited bite-mark analysis.

Alabama, for some reason, has now volunteered to be the guinea pig state responsible for developing the newest execution method. Attorney General Steve Marshall is on a crusade to stop what he considers murder. In a court filing this week, he expressed intent to prosecute people who make travel arrangements for pregnant women to have out-of-state abortions. Marshall misses the deep irony in this announcement, following his enthusiastic race to invent the newest method for state murder: nitrogen hypoxia to carry out the death penalty. Marshall is at once proclaiming absolute intolerance to the killing of a fetus, and yet leading the charge on new ways to kill adult human beings. 

Texas is set to execute a man on Tuesday for the 2009 murders of his wife and her young daughter. Green, 51, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was sentenced to death row in 2010 for the fatal stabbing of his wife, Lovetta Armstead, and the drowning of her 6-year-old daughter, Jazzmen Montgomery, at their home in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas on September 21, 2009. If Green's execution goes ahead, he would be the 4th inmate put to death in Texas so far this year.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against a man and woman accused of killing their 8-year-old son, who drowned last year after suffering a large head wound. In a notice of intent to seek the death penalty filed last week by prosecutors John Giordani and Pamela Weckerly, more than two pages detailed the numerous cuts, bruises and abrasions found all over Isaiah Gritz’s body. Prosecutors confirmed they were seeking the death penalty at an arraignment hearing Monday morning for Isaiah’s parents, Christina and Leon Gritz. During a preliminary hearing in July, Justice of the Peace Amy Chelini said she had never seen a child abuse case “as bad as this.” “I don’t think there was an inch of that kid’s body that didn’t have a scar on it,” Chelini said, according to court transcripts. Leon Gritz’s defense attorney, Sarah Hawkins, declined to comment on the case on Monday. Christina Gritz’s defense attorneys did not reply to a request for comment. The Clark County coroner’s office in Apri...