Post by Anja Nieser on Oct 1, 2006 5:34:27 GMT -5
For similar murders, different sentences----Panel studies death penalty
application
Shortly after 8 p.m. on Oct. 6, 1993, Keith Donaghy, an attendant at a
Gloucester County gas station, was killed with a shotgun blast to the
head. Police had no leads until 3 weeks later when another gas station
attendant, Ronald Pine, was murdered.
A friend who suspected Sean Kenney was responsible for both murders told a
lawyer, who called police. Kenney was convicted of Donaghy's murder,
sentenced to die and placed on death row on March 27, 1996. 5 days later,
he pleaded guilty to murdering Pine.
Others have murdered gas station attendants during robberies, including
John Downie, David Mark Russo, Carl Culley, Dwight Hickson, Khalif James
and Harold Rodriguez. All were spared death sentences.
Others, like Kenney, have murdered more than once without going to death
row.
Roger Hoyte admitted the serial murders of three taxicab drivers. He got
three consecutive life terms after his sentencing jury could not agree on
whether he deserved death. Jihad Muhammad already had been convicted of a
1971 murder when, in 1983, he killed a man who refused to buy drugs from
him. Muhammad entered a plea to felony murder that spared his life.
And Charles Cullen, a former nurse, admitted killing 29 patients with
overdoses of medication. The most prolific serial killer in New Jersey
history avoided a possible death sentence through a deal with prosecutors.
Today, a commission studying whether New Jersey's unused 1982 capital
punishment law should remain on the books will ask this question: Are the
nine men on death row really the worst of the worst?
The commission will attempt to determine if there is a "significant
difference" between the death row inmates and 546 other killers who could
have faced execution but were spared.
"I'm not moved personally by the argument that a defendant just as bad
wound up with a life sentence," said Hudson County Prosecutor Edward
DeFazio, who sits on the study commission.
Celeste Fitzgerald, executive director of New Jerseyans for Alternatives
to the Death Penalty, said such an argument is a reason to end capital
punishment in the state.
"You can't get much more arbitrary than the nine death sentences that you
see when there are people serving other sentences who committed very
similar crimes," Fitzgerald added. "When you're talking about a punishment
that's irreversible, the ultimate punishment, people and the courts
rightly hold that to a higher standard."
Perhaps more than any other state, New Jersey has adopted procedures
intended to ensure the death penalty is applied consistently.
The Attorney General's Office has guidelines to help county prosecutors
decide when to seek the death penalty. A grand jury must determine that at
least one of a dozen "aggravating factors" -- such as a prior murder -- is
present. A sentencing jury must find that the aggravating factors outweigh
any mitigating factors, such as the defendant's prior good record or
troubled childhood.
The final safeguard is a proceeding before the New Jersey Supreme Court
known as "proportionality review." Using a variety of statistical
techniques, the justices compare the condemned inmate to others guilty of
similar crimes and determine whether his death sentence is out of line.
Peter Papasavvas robbed, sexually assaulted and strangled 64-year-old
Mildred Place in her Woodbridge home. In 2002, the Supreme Court
overturned Papasavvas's death sentence after finding it was
"disproportionate" to other sentences for equally brutal murders.
At an August meeting of the study commission, Assistant Attorney General
Boris Moczula argued the Papasavvas case shows "the system is working
exactly like its supposed to."
Retired federal judge John Gibbons disagreed.
"Ask yourself: Can mere mortals do that?" he implored the commission. "Can
they say, 'Even among the nine on death row, that one is more worthy of
death than that one?' Can that be anything but arbitrary?"
Today's public hearing by the Death Penalty Study Commission, scheduled
for 1 p.m. at the State House Annex in Trenton, is its third. Its
recommendations to the legislature and governor are due by Nov. 15.
(source: Star-Ledger)
application
Shortly after 8 p.m. on Oct. 6, 1993, Keith Donaghy, an attendant at a
Gloucester County gas station, was killed with a shotgun blast to the
head. Police had no leads until 3 weeks later when another gas station
attendant, Ronald Pine, was murdered.
A friend who suspected Sean Kenney was responsible for both murders told a
lawyer, who called police. Kenney was convicted of Donaghy's murder,
sentenced to die and placed on death row on March 27, 1996. 5 days later,
he pleaded guilty to murdering Pine.
Others have murdered gas station attendants during robberies, including
John Downie, David Mark Russo, Carl Culley, Dwight Hickson, Khalif James
and Harold Rodriguez. All were spared death sentences.
Others, like Kenney, have murdered more than once without going to death
row.
Roger Hoyte admitted the serial murders of three taxicab drivers. He got
three consecutive life terms after his sentencing jury could not agree on
whether he deserved death. Jihad Muhammad already had been convicted of a
1971 murder when, in 1983, he killed a man who refused to buy drugs from
him. Muhammad entered a plea to felony murder that spared his life.
And Charles Cullen, a former nurse, admitted killing 29 patients with
overdoses of medication. The most prolific serial killer in New Jersey
history avoided a possible death sentence through a deal with prosecutors.
Today, a commission studying whether New Jersey's unused 1982 capital
punishment law should remain on the books will ask this question: Are the
nine men on death row really the worst of the worst?
The commission will attempt to determine if there is a "significant
difference" between the death row inmates and 546 other killers who could
have faced execution but were spared.
"I'm not moved personally by the argument that a defendant just as bad
wound up with a life sentence," said Hudson County Prosecutor Edward
DeFazio, who sits on the study commission.
Celeste Fitzgerald, executive director of New Jerseyans for Alternatives
to the Death Penalty, said such an argument is a reason to end capital
punishment in the state.
"You can't get much more arbitrary than the nine death sentences that you
see when there are people serving other sentences who committed very
similar crimes," Fitzgerald added. "When you're talking about a punishment
that's irreversible, the ultimate punishment, people and the courts
rightly hold that to a higher standard."
Perhaps more than any other state, New Jersey has adopted procedures
intended to ensure the death penalty is applied consistently.
The Attorney General's Office has guidelines to help county prosecutors
decide when to seek the death penalty. A grand jury must determine that at
least one of a dozen "aggravating factors" -- such as a prior murder -- is
present. A sentencing jury must find that the aggravating factors outweigh
any mitigating factors, such as the defendant's prior good record or
troubled childhood.
The final safeguard is a proceeding before the New Jersey Supreme Court
known as "proportionality review." Using a variety of statistical
techniques, the justices compare the condemned inmate to others guilty of
similar crimes and determine whether his death sentence is out of line.
Peter Papasavvas robbed, sexually assaulted and strangled 64-year-old
Mildred Place in her Woodbridge home. In 2002, the Supreme Court
overturned Papasavvas's death sentence after finding it was
"disproportionate" to other sentences for equally brutal murders.
At an August meeting of the study commission, Assistant Attorney General
Boris Moczula argued the Papasavvas case shows "the system is working
exactly like its supposed to."
Retired federal judge John Gibbons disagreed.
"Ask yourself: Can mere mortals do that?" he implored the commission. "Can
they say, 'Even among the nine on death row, that one is more worthy of
death than that one?' Can that be anything but arbitrary?"
Today's public hearing by the Death Penalty Study Commission, scheduled
for 1 p.m. at the State House Annex in Trenton, is its third. Its
recommendations to the legislature and governor are due by Nov. 15.
(source: Star-Ledger)