Arizona inmate could face death penalty
The man accused of murdering an Oklahoma couple after escaping from Arizona‘s Kingman state prison in 2010 could face the death penalty.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Mexico filed notice Thursday in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque that it will seek the death penalty on 14 separate counts against John McCluskey. He is accused of carjacking Gary and Linda Haas on Aug.2, 2010, from a New Mexico rest stop on Interstate 40, then shooting them to death and burning their bodies inside their camper.
McCluskey was one of three inmates who took advantage of lax security and faulty alarms to escape on July 30, 2010, from the Kingman prison, run by Management and Training Corp. of Centerville, Utah. The men cut their way out using tools McCluskey’s cousin and fiancee, Casslyn Welch, had tossed over the fence.
Escapee Daniel Renwick took off on his own and was recaptured in Colorado a day later, after a shootout with police. He is serving a 60-year term after pleading guilty to two attempted murder charges last year.
McCluskey, fellow escapee Tracy Province and Welch traveled together, coming across the Haases two days later. Welch and Province pleaded guilty Jan. 20 to a variety of charges in connection with the Haas killings. Province agreed to serve five consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. Welch faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
In their plea agreements and in prior interviews cited in FBI affidavits, Province and Welch said the trio carjacked the couple to take their pickup truck and camper. After pulling off the interstate onto a ranch road in eastern New Mexico, McCluskey ordered the Haases into the camper while Welch and Province rounded up three small dogs which had leaped out of the pickup truck.
According to the affidavits and plea agreements, McCluskey then shot and killed the couple. The trio drove the truck and camper to a remote spot where they unhitched the trailer and set it on fire with the two bodies inside
A week after the murders, Province separated from the other two. He was captured in Wyoming on Aug. 9, 2010. McCluskey and Welch were recaptured 10 days later at a campground in eastern Arizona.
In filing for the death penalty, Assistant U.S. Attorney Linda Mott alleged that the murders were intentional, and noted that McCluskey has prior convictions for attempted second-degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery and three aggravated assaults, among others. The filing also alleged that in statements to police after his arrest, McCluskey said he would have killed more people if he hadn’t been recaptured, and that he is a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, a white-supremacist criminal gang.
FAYETTEVILLE — Lawyers continued their opening skirmishes in Cumberland County Superior Court on Friday on whether convicted murderer Marcus Reymond Robinson of Fayetteville should be taken off death row because of racial bias in the court system.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers argued before Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Greg Weeks over whether current and former judges may take the stand to testify about allegations of racism in trials. They argued over whether a national expert on racism in the judicial process should be allowed to testify.
They also discussed how to handle errors in a study of race in the court system.
Robinson’s claim is scheduled to be heard starting Jan. 30. If it goes forward, it will be the first in the state to be considered on its merits under the controversial Racial Justice Act.
This law, enacted in 2009, allows convicted killers on death row to use statistics to try to prove the criminal justice system is racially biased. The legislature tried last year to repeal the law, prompted by law enforcement complaints that it is clogging up the court system and is being used to try to end the death penalty in North Carolina.
If a killer were to win a Racial Justice Act claim, the law says his death sentence would be converted to life with no possibility of parole.
Regardless of specific language in the Racial Justice Act that specifies the killers can’t get paroled, North Carolina prosecutors contend previous court rulings will give some of these killers a chance to be paroled or otherwise released. They say crimes committed before late 1994 are subject to older sentencing laws that offer prisoners with life sentences a chance for freedom. The prosecutors’ theory has not yet been tested before a judge.
Robinson, whose crime was subject to the older laws, is on death row for killing 17-year-old Erik Tornblom during a 1991 robbery in Fayetteville. Robinson is black; his victim was white.
A recent study contends North Carolina’s court system is more likely to sentence a defendant of any race to death if his victim is white than if his victim is of another race. Most of the state’s 158 death row defendants, regardless of race, are pursuing Racial Justice Act claims.
The arguments
Prosecutors Cal Colyer and Rob Thompson said they have learned of several errors in the defense team’s study that says race is a factor in death sentences. The defense team wants to submit the corrected data.
Weeks agreed to permit the original and corrected data to be presented.
In an interview later, defense lawyer Tye Hunter said that out of a review of 7,600 jurors and potential jurors, 11 mistakes have been found in the data of their race (some whites were listed as black, and vice versa, for example). That’s too few to alter the overall results of the study, Hunter said.
Colyer and Thompson may ask six sitting or retired judges to testify on whether they observed racism in Cumberland County capital murder trials, according to court documents. Robinson’s four defense lawyers said in court papers that under the law, the judges should not be allowed to testify.
Instead, the court can rely on transcripts of the trials, defense lawyer Hunter said.
Weeks said he could allow the judges’ testimony and decide later whether it is appropriate for him to consider it when making a decision on Robinson’s claim.
Colyer and Thompson wanted Weeks to keep a proposed defense witness, Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative in Alabama, from testifying. Stevenson has studied racism in the court system in other states, but not in North Carolina, they argued.
Defense lawyer Cassandra Stubbs argued that Stevenson has reviewed North Carolina cases and he would give his opinion about race in North Carolina and jury selection.
Perry Executed 9/11 Hate Crimes Murderer Despite Victim’s Pleas
Rais Bhuiyan ( rais01@yahoo.com) was shot in the face at close range after 9/11 by Mark Stroman, an Aryan Brotherhood member, partially blinding him in his right eye. Stroman also killed Vasudev Patel, an Indian immigrant who was Hindu, and Waqar Hasan, a Muslim born in Pakistan.
Bhuiyan sued Governor Rick Perry in order to stop the execution of Stroman, saying: “I strongly believe what Mark Stroman did was a hate crime because of his ignorance, and he was not capable of distinguishing between right and wrong. Otherwise, he would not have done what he did. … The way my parents raised me, and my Islamic faith teaches me, that he is the best who can forgive easily. And my faith teaches that no one has a right to take another human life. Islam doesn’t allow for hate and killing.”
In a statement written in prison, Stroman says, “Not only do I have all my friends and supporters trying to save my life, but now I have the Islamic community joining in … spearheaded by one very remarkable man named Rais Bhuiyan, who is a survivor of my hate. His deep Islamic beliefs … gave him the strength to forgive the unforgiveable … that is truly Inspiring to me, and should be an example for us all. The hate has to stop, we are all in this world together.” Despite Bhuiyan’s efforts, Stroman was executed on July 20. See interview on http://www.democracynow.org/2011/7/19/muslim_victim_of_post_9_11 link”>Democracy Now.
Kate Lowenstein ( kelowenstein@aol.com
) is program director for Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights. She said today: “Rick Perry has it precisely wrong when he says he got applause for carrying out 234 executions because ‘Americans understand justice.’ The fact is that the more Americans understand about the reality of the death penalty — that it costs millions, squanders valuable resources that could be spent on fighting crime that are instead put toward seeking revenge — the less they support the death penalty.
“Governor Perry should be asked why he, who proclaims himself an advocate for victims, just a few months ago proclaimed victims’ rights ‘largely symbolic’ when the victim disagreed with him on the death penalty. So whose rights does he stand for? Not the wrongfully convicted, not the victims who don’t agree with him.” www.murdervictimsfamilies.org link
