Results tagged “deathpenalty”

One of the confessed masterminds behind the 9/11 attacks, along with four other killers, may be flown from Guantanamo Bay to face death penalty trials in the Big Apple. Yes, we're talking about ex-Al Qaeda "military commander" Khalid Shaikh Mohammed—who admitted last year to being a terrorist "to the bone", said he wished to be a martyr and even played critic to a courtroom sketch artist's drawing of him.

In the opening of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, the narrative voice of Esther Greenwood notes that "It was the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs." The NY Times recently looked back to that summer, in light of Morton Sobell confessing last week he and Julius Rosenberg were in the spy game. Julius and Ethel's sons, Robert and Michael, say they have no reason to doubt "Morty." The Times adds "whatever atomic bomb information their father passed to the Russians was, at best, superfluous; the case was riddled with prosecutorial and judicial misconduct; their mother was convicted on flimsy evidence to place leverage on her husband; and neither deserved the death penalty."

The badly injured survivor of the incident where a garbage truck ran onto a Midtown sidewalk, killing a vacationing British couple, figures his New York instinct to bypass slow-moving tourists ultimately saved his life. Hollis resident Abayomi Henderson told the Daily News he had just finished working out at a nearby gym when he saw Jacqueline Timmins and Andrew Hardie (pictured) on West 35th St. near 6th Ave. Tuesday night.

The announcement that six detainees in Guantanamo would be charged and tried for the September 11, 2001 attacks was welcomed by a number of parties, including the families of people who died on September 11. However, some would like to see a trial in New York and not in Gitmo.

The Pentagon has charged six men accused of planning the September 11, 2001 attacks and will seek the death penalty (the Pentagon's terse press release was titled "Defense Department Seeks Death Penalty for Six Guantanamo Bay Detainees"). These would be "the first trials under the terrorism-era military tribunal system."

The city has been crowing about this year's low murder rate since last week, when officials announced it was likely to be under 500 murders. Currently, the murder rate is 492 as of Sunday night (we're not sure if that number includes the three men killed in Brooklyn); this year's murder rate would be the lowest since 1963, the first year with reliable data and a year that saw 548 killings.

In Following the Equator, Mark Twain wrote:

“In America the ice-storm is an event. And it is not an event which one is careless about. When it comes, the news flies from room to room in the house, there are bangings on the doors, and shoutings, ‘The ice-storm! the ice-storm!’ and even the laziest sleepers throw off the covers and join the rush for the windows.”

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke today, giving a speech and sort of answers some of questions posed by Columbia University President Lee Bollinger and School of International and Public Affairs Dean John Coatsworth. We're sure video and transcripts will come shortly, but in the meant time, The Bwog, New York, and City Room have been liveblogging the speech. Here's a sample of questions posed, via the City Room:

In response to a question about the treatment of homosexuals in Iran, Mr. Ahmadinejad was initially evasive, instead talking about the death penalty, which, he pointed out, exists in the United States: “People who violate the laws by using guns, creating insecurity selling guns, distributing guns at a high level are sentenced to execution in Iran. Very few of these punishments are carried out in the public eye.”

Continue reading "Ahmadinejad Speaks, People Listen, Applaud, Boo, Hiss"

In late November 2005, police officer Dillon Stewart and his partner, Paul Lipka, stopped a 1990 Infiniti for a traffic violation (driving with dealer plates) in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. One of the men inside fired five bullets into the unmarked police car (Stewart and Lipka were uniformed), and Stewart (pictured) and Lipka proceeded to chase the car. But then Stewart realized that he had been shot -- the bullet had missed his bulletproof vest by a quarter of an inch and hit his heart.

In May of 2000, five employees of a Wendy's in Flushing were killed in the basement, while two others were injured. John Taylor and Craig Godineaux were arrested and charged with the murders. While Godineaux pleaded guilty to the crimes and is serving a life sentence without parole, Taylor, a former Wendy's employee, was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2002.

Yesterday, the three men charged with first-degree murder of police officer Russel Timoshenko all pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn court. However, Dexter Bostick, Robert Ellis, and Lee Woods, who were also charged with a number of other crimes related to the July 9 traffic stop shooting, did not ask for bail. The Post and Daily News had the varying statements the men gave investigators:

Woods, 29, told detectives "I ain't going to jail for something I didn't do. I didn't shoot no cops, I was only driving. Fat boy [Bostic] was in the passenger seat and that faggot Roger [Ellis] was behind me."

Continue reading "Brooklyn Cop Shootings: Guns and Not Guilty Pleas"

One of the saddest images from yesterday were the parents of slain police officer Russel Timoshenko, weeping at Brooklyn criminal court after the arraignment of the three men accused of Timoshenko's murder. The suspects, Dexter Bostic, Robert Ellis, and Lee Woods, were arraigned last week on charges including attempted murder. It is believed that Bostic, firing from the front passenger seat, shot 23-year-old Timoshenko in the face and neck during a July 9 traffic stop (Ellis allegedly fired at police officer Herman Yan; Woods was the driver). Timoshenko had been on life support since the shooting and was declared dead on Saturday.

Twenty-three-year-old police officer Russel Timoshenko died yesterday at King County Hospital, five days after being shot twice in the face during a Monday traffic stop in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. Doctors took him off life support after finding he had no brain activity yesterday afternoon. KCH director of trauma service and surgical critical care, Dr. Robert Kurtz, was visibly upset as he reported Timoshenko's death. From Newsday:

Kurtz, who choked up, said the case "affected us emotionally as well as professionally."

Continue reading "Cop Shot During Brooklyn Traffic Stop Dies,
Suspects Now Face Murder Charges"

Today, Dexter Bostick and Robert Ellis will be arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on charges related to the Monday shooting of two police officers during a traffic stop. Bostick and Ellis had fled NYC after the shooting, only to be captured days later in Pennsylvania. Yesterday, they were extradited from Pennsylvania, and lines of police officers watched them as they were escorted to and from the 71st Precinct in Brooklyn. Police officers are expected to appear at the courthouse also, in another display of solidarity with injured officers Herman Yan and Russel Timoshenko; Timoshenko continues to be in critical condition at Kings County Hospital after being shot twice in the face.

"People create because they feel what everyone else is thinking." In 1964, Tommy Trantino was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of two New Jersey police officers. In 1971, the death penalty was over turned and Trantino was sentenced to life in prison. During that time, Trantino wrote to Leonard Weinglass, the lawyer who defended the Chicago Seven, which included social and political activist Abbie Hoffman. Through Hoffman, Trantino's letters were seen by an editor at Bantam, who commissioned him to write Lock the Lock, a collection of poetry, drawings, and autobiographical stories detailing Trantino's youth, the events that led to his incarceration, and the harrowing experiences he'd witnessed in prison. The book was praised by the likes of Howard Zinn and Henry Miller.

Juan Franjul turned himself in for Saturday's sad hit-and-run death of 12 year old Jacob Colon. Franjul had gotten into an accident where he tried to get the other driver to accept money instead of reporting it to the police; when the driver refused, Franjul drove off, ran a red light and hit Colon in the Richmond Hill section of Queens. Franjul is a mechanic who had been returning the car to the owner.

There are a couple articles about a year-old mob murder today, and why not? It happened at the Kreischer Mansion in the Charlestown section of Staten Island. Bonanno associate Robert McKelvey was killed by other Bonanno family associates over a "bad debt" after being lured to the house by the groundskeeper and mob associate Joseph "Joe Black" Young. The NY Times notes the crime is unusual because Young is black, as mob associates of color are pretty rare (in fact, another one of the accomplices is Hispanic). McKelvey was strangled, stabbed, then drowned in "an ornamental pool surrounded by flower beds, elaborate brickwork and 1.3 acres of manicured lawn" - allegedly under orders and a $8000 bounty from Gino Galestro, McKelvey's boss in the Bonanno family. Naturally, the Post's article doesn't mention how Galestro was a former NY Post driver. Anyway, Young and his crew cut up McKelvey's body and burned it in the furnace. And when investigators tried to find the furnace, they found out it had been replaced because the owners are in the process of making the mansion an assisted-living facility! Galestro and Young are charged with murder for hire, which can mean the death penalty.

With alleged terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui awaiting his formal sentencing this morning, the focus is on how the jurors decided to give him life in jail over the death penalty. The NY Times has a helpful graphic showing the mitigating factors that led the jury its sentence: The biggest factors seemed to be that he had a terrible childhood, with two abusive parents, and that he seemed to be, at best, a fringe member of Al Qaeda, one without any real knowledge; conversely, the jurors weren't as convinced by the defense's arguments that he was schizophrenic and wanted to be a martyr by dying. (All jurors need to agree on the death penalty.) While some September 11 victims' families accepted the verdict, many others had been hoping for the death penalty; even former mayor - and witness for the prosecution - Rudy Giuliani said he was "disappointed". President Bush took the time to remind America that the war on terror is still happening and "Evil will not have the final say."

- The award for best shot of Tom Cruise from his MI3 tour of NYC goes to Joe S.

Ah, there is nothing like a seemingly unhinged would-be terrorist taking the stand in his own death penalty trial. Zacarias Moussaoui testified during the sentencing part of his trial, and, like his first trip to the witness stand where he "confessed" to being one of hijackers planning the September 11 attacks, he gave plenty for the prosecution to savor. Like saying how happy he was that people died on September 11, mentioning that he would kill Americans as soon as possible, complaining that his defense lawyer is American and Jewish, criticizing the victims' families' testimony and saying that President Bush would pardon him. For example: "I just wish it had happened on [Sept.] 12th, the 13th, the 14th, the 15th, the 16th and the 17th. We have to destroy you." We can't tell who Moussaoui is trying to work with more - the prosecution or defense, because even though he hates his defense team, he's making a compelling case for mental illness.

The cockpit recording from United Flight 93 on September 11 was played in the courtroom of Zacarias Moussaoui's death penalty trial. The 31 minute tape details, as the Daily News puts it, "the charge toward the cockpit, yelps of pain, groans, crashing sounds and the panic of the hijackers as the Americans tried to shove their way in," as well as hijackers yelling "Sit down!" and someone saying, "I don't want to die." The hijackers also repeatedly said, "In the name of Allah. I bear witness that there is no other God but Allah," (the NY Times says Moussaoui smiled "broadly" when that was played). The prosecution rested, and the defense will attempt to show the jury that Moussaoui does not deserve the death penalty, the strategy being to show that he was actually a fringe member of Al Qaeda and that he's mentally ill, deluding himself into thinking he's a mastermind of the plot.