Death Penalty News

The Missouri House is moving forward with legislation that eliminates allowing a judge to sentence someone to death in the case of a deadlocked jury. House members gave first-round approval to the legislation last week. It is likely to pass the chamber this week. Missouri is one of two states where, if a jury is deadlocked on whether to sentence someone to death, the judge can issue the death penalty. Indiana is the other. The bill removes that ability.

Six years ago, Louisianans were weighing the merits of requiring juries to arrive at unanimous verdicts, then the law in every other state save for Oregon. The most vocal opposition to the idea came from district attorneys, some of whom warned that a slew of hung-jury verdicts would result if Louisiana stopped allowing convictions on 10-2 or 11-1 votes.

A Broward judge ruled Friday that Jamell Demons, better known as rapper YNW Melly, will not be entitled to bail ahead of his double murder retrial. “We felt our legal arguments were absolutely compelling, but the judge ignored them,” defense lawyer Jamie Benjamin said. “It was not unexpected.” Broward Circuit Judge John J. Murphy was asked to impose bail for Demons, who has been in custody since his arrest in 2019 in connection with the murders of his friends Christopher “Juvy” Thomas Jr. and Anthony “Sakchaser” Williams. Demons was a rising star in the rap world when he was accused of suddenly shooting his friends.

In most states, a death sentence may only be imposed by a jury in unanimous agreement. But in two recent cases, defendants now face death sentences despite the objections of jurors. In Missouri, a judge imposed a death sentence in Ian McCarthy’s case after the jury deadlocked in the penalty phase. In their recent filing challenging the sentence, Mr. McCarthy’s lawyers argue that “unanimous jury agreement is necessary to ensure that death sentences are imposed reliably on the most culpable defendants and reflect the judgment of the community.” 

YNW Melly is currently behind bars awaiting his second murder trial.  The 24-year-old is accused of killing two YNW associates, SakChaser and Juvy, back in 2018. His defense claims that the young men were killed as a result of a drive-by shooting, however, prosecutors believe he shot them from within the vehicle. If he’s convicted, he could be facing the death penalty.  In July, jurors were unable to come to a unanimous decision as to whether or not he’s guilty, leading the judge to rule a mistrial.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A deadlocked jury prompted a mistrial Saturday in the South Florida trial of rapper YNW Melly on charges that he murdered two of his friends five years ago. The 12-member panel could not reach a unanimous verdict after three days of deliberations.  Broward County prosecutors, who had been seeking the death penalty, will likely choose to retry the case with a new jury.  A unanimous verdict is required to convict or acquit a defendant. Broward Circuit Judge John Murphy twice asked the jurors to keep deliberating after they said they were deadlocked, but relented after they came back a third time.

Missouri judge Steven Goldman talked with me about his views on the death penalty, and his thought process when imposing a death sentence on Amber McLaughlin, in what would become the nation’s first execution of a transgender woman. It was a strangely friendly conversation. We could have been chatting at a cocktail party, gossiping about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, or some other trifle.

Lawyers’ request to conduct additional DNA testing before Ledell Lee was executed had been denied. For 22 years, Ledell Lee maintained that he had been wrongly convicted of murder. “My dying words will always be, as it has been, ‘I am an innocent man,’” he told the BBC in an interview published on April 19, 2017 — the day before officials in Arkansas administered the lethal injection. 4 years later, lawyers affiliated with the Innocence Project and the American Civil Liberties Union say DNA testing has revealed that genetic material on the murder weapon — which was never previously tested — in fact belongs to another man. In a highly unusual development for a case in which a person has already been convicted and executed, the new genetic profile has been uploaded to a national criminal database in an attempt to identify the mystery man. Patricia Young, Mr. Lee’s sister, has been fighting for years to prove that it was not her brother who strangled and fatally bludgeoned the 26-year-old...

A jury that found a former Dent County sheriff's deputy and state correctional officer guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend couldn't decide Saturday whether he should be put to death for his crimes - a decision a judge must now make. On Thursday, the jury found Marvin Rice guilty of 1st-degree murder in the shooting of Annette Durham, 32, and 2nd-degree murder in the shooting of Steven Strotkamp, 39. During the penalty phase of the trial on Friday, the jury decided Rice should serve a life sentence for the 2nd-degree murder charge. The jury had a choice between life without the possibility of probation or parole or death on the 1st-degree murder charge. The jury voted 11 to 1 in favor of the death penalty, but the decision had to be unanimous. Now the decision as to whether Rice will spend his life in prison or be sent to death row rests with Judge Kelly Parker, who has set a punishment hearing for Oct. 6. The fatal shootings in 2011 sp...

A bill that would change Alabama law to give juries the final word on whether to impose a death sentence or life in prison won approval today in the House Judiciary Committee. Under current law, judges can override the sentence recommendations of juries in capital cases. No other state allows that. A bill by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, would say that juries determine the sentences in capital cases, which are either death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. England's bill would also require all 12 jurors to hand down a death sentence. Current law requires 10 of 12 jurors to recommend death. "To me, it never really made sense that we require unanimity when we're convicting a person, but we don't require unanimity when we're putting that person to death," said England, who is a lawyer. The committee approved England's bill on a 10-2 vote, sending it to the full House. The committee rejected an amendment by...

David Risner, Police Chief  Lee Dixon BELTON – The killer of a small-town Texas police chief escaped the death penalty on Wednesday after a jury could not reach agreement on his punishment. David Risner, a 59-year-old former police officer, will automatically be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. He was convicted last Monday in the 2014 shooting death of Little River-Academy Police Chief Lee Dixon. After hearing testimony for five days in the sentencing phase of Risner's trial, a Bell County jury deliberated for more than four hours before announcing it could not agree to sentence Risner to death. “He’s going to die in prison; we’re going to take that home,” Bell County Assistant District Attorney Nelson Barnes said after the sentencing. “We only hope he doesn’t hurt someone in prison.” Almost two years ago, on June 19, 2014, Dixon arrived at Risner’s house a little after 5 p.m. to investigate a complaint. The two talked for a few minutes, but...

Colorado lawmakers will debate giving prosecutors a mulligan when seeking the death penalty. State Representative Kim Ransom, R-Douglas County, is drafting legislation that would allow district attorneys to seat a 2nd jury, if the 1st jury does not agree unanimously on life in prison or a death sentence. "If there is a hung jury, there's always a question afterwards that there was a hung jury," said Ransom. Twice this summer, Colorado juries rejected the death penalty in the Aurora theater shooting case and the Fero's Bar stabbing trial. In the Fero's Bar case, Dexter Lewis was found guilty of stabbing 5 people to death and then setting the place on fire. Death penalty sentencing is a 3-phase process: Phase 1 - Aggravating Factors -- Do the factors exist for the defendant to face the death penalty? Phase 2 - Mitigating Factors -- Does the defendant's life history outweigh the crime they committed? Phase 3 - Life or Death ...