National Roundup

Arizona
Juror issue to be reconsidered in case of 6 killings
PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Supreme Court has ordered a trial court to hear evidence and reconsider whether there was juror misconduct prejudicial to a death row inmate during his trial in six killings in Yuma County.

The court’s order released Friday follows Preston Strong’s appeal of his 2017 convictions and death sentences for the killings of his best friend, the man’s girlfriend and her four young children in 2005.

The issue sent back to the trial court stems from a juror’s reported statement to a defense investigator that she knew of Strong’s previous conviction in another homicide.

According to the investigator, the juror said she wasn’t asked during questioning of prospective jurors about whether she knew of the old homicide case, only about the case involving the six killings.

The juror reportedly said her knowledge of the other case didn’t influence her vote on a verdict against Strong, but the trial judge ruled in the case that prosecutors couldn’t introduce evidence of the other killing during the second trial’s guilt phase because it could unfairly influence jurors.

The since-retired trial judge denied a motion for a new trial or a hearing on the juror issue, but the Supreme Court ordered that a current judge consider the circumstances of the juror’s knowledge and whether it was harmless.

Prosecutors said Strong spent hours killing 35-year-old Luis Rios, 29-year-old Adrienne Heredia and her four children, ages 6 to 13, and that the killings were motivated by money.

When he went on trial in that case, Strong already was in prison for life in the 2007 killing of Satinder Gill, a Yuma physician who was strangled and bludgeoned in his home. Prosecutors said a large amount of money was stolen.

Tennessee
Police arrest man in arson of historic Nashville courthouse
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A man who set fire to a historic courthouse in Tennessee during weekend protests has been arrested, police said.

Wesley Somers, 25, is charged with felony arson, vandalism and disorderly conduct. He is accused of setting fire Saturday night to Nashville’s Historic Courthouse, Metro Nashville Police said.

Somers was among 29 people arrested after protesters in Tennessee’s capital set fires inside and outside the courthouse and toppled a statue of a former state lawmaker and newspaper publisher who espoused racist views. Protesters damaged 30 businesses and buildings including the courthouse and the historic Ryman Auditorium, known as the mother church of country music, which reported window damage, police said.

Thousands had rallied near the state Capitol  starting Saturday afternoon to protest police brutality and racism. The demonstration turned violent after darkness fell.

Others who were arrested face charges that include assaulting police officers, disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing, police said.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Somers has an attorney.

The demonstrations spreading across America were also held around Tennessee over the weekend in response to the latest killings of black people by police. After peaceful protests turned violent each night, strict curfews were imposed in places and the National Guard was mobilized to support police.

Separate demonstrations were held in Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, and Memphis, where protesters made it onto Interstate 55, circumventing officers in riot gear. Protesters chanted “Black lives matter” and “George Floyd.”

It marked the fifth night in a row people had met in Memphis to protest the death of Floyd, who died last week after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck.

Sunday night was the most intense yet for Memphis, where the group walked from the interstate to Beale Street and were met by officers wearing helmets and holding protective shields in front of the FedExForum, the NBA basketball arena and concert venue.

The National Guard and sheriff’s deputies joined Memphis police in response, and tear gas was used to disperse a crowd near City Hall. Windows were broken at a handful of businesses, including a black-owned shoe store.

Ohio
AG seeks review by full court in death penalty case
CINCINNATI (AP) — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has requested a hearing before a full panel of judges at the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati to argue that a man considered intellectually disabled can and should be put to death.

Yost made the request Thursday after a three-judge panel ruled earlier this month for the second time that executing Danny Lee Hill, 53, would be unconstitutional, The Warren Tribune Chronicle reported.

The 6th Circuit’s ruling May 20 was made after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a rehearing because the appellate court’s initial 2018 ruling relied on a case decided long after Hill was sentenced to death in 1985.

Hill was convicted in the slaying of a 12-year-old Boy Scout in northeast Ohio’s Trumbull County. Raymond Fife was abducted while riding his bicycle to a Boy Scout meeting, beaten, raped, set on fire and left for dead. He died two days later.

Yost argued the latest 6th Circuit ruling was again based on erroneous case law.

Hill was 18 when Raymond was killed. Co-defendant Timothy Combs was 17 and couldn’t be sentenced to death because of his age. Combs died in prison in 2018 while serving a life sentence.

Tennessee
June 9 hearing set for inmate spared execution
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Oral arguments are set for June 9 in an appeal by Tennessee officials after an inmate was spared execution due to his claim that racism tainted the jury selection at his trial.

State officials will argue in front of the Court of Criminal Appeals that the death sentence should be reinstated for Abu-Ali Abdur-Rahman.

Last August, a Nashville judge approved an agreement between Abu-Ali Abdur-Rahman and Nashville’s district attorney to resentence Abdur’Rahman to life in prison.

Abdur’Rahman’s resentencing agreement came after Abdur’Rahman presented evidence that prosecutors at his original trial showed a preference for white jurors. In his appeal, Attorney General Herbert Slatery argued that the agreement “circumvented established legal procedures”.

Abdur’Rahman had been scheduled to be executed in April.

Abdur’Rahman was sentenced to die for the 1986 murder of Patrick Daniels. Police said Daniels and Norma Jean Norman were bound with duct tape and stabbed repeatedly with a butcher knife at Norman’s home.