Ohio: Man who killed girl, 3, won’t be executed
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s governor spared the life of a man facing execution Tuesday for killing a 3-year-old, in part because the convict had an undiagnosed medical condition that led to developmental disabilities and large breasts as a child.
Sidney Cornwell’s sentence will be commuted to life without the possibility of parole, Gov. Ted Strickland said Monday.
The Ohio Parole Board had recommended against mercy for Cornwell, but Strickland said jurors might have chosen a different sentence if they had known of the condition, called Klinefelter Syndrome. The condition caused Cornwell to develop motor and language skills late and gave him large breasts as a boy, which led to repeated teasing.
Cornwell, 33, of Youngstown, was scheduled to die by injection Tuesday for the killing of Jessica Ballew. The girl was on her porch in Youngstown in 1996 as Cornwell and other Crips gang members were hunting for a member of a rival gang. He opened fire on people who apparently knew his intended victim, killing the girl.
Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains said he did not believe Cornwell deserved mercy.
“Although I disagree with the governor’s decision, I respect his right to make that decision,” Gains said.
Cornwell’s public defenders had cited the medical condition, in which males are born with an extra X chromosome, in seeking mercy. They also said Cornwell was abused by his father and fell under the influence of gangs as a teenager.
Seventeen men have been put to death since Strickland took office in 2007. Cornwell is the third death row inmate this year to be spared by the governor.
In September, Strickland cited “legitimate questions” about evidence used to convict Kevin Keith, though he said he believed the inmate committed the crimes of which he was accused. In June, he also spared Richard Nields, who strangled his girlfriend during an argument, because of court decisions that questioned the appropriateness of a death sentence.
The decision is the last Strickland must make regarding a death penalty case. He was defeated in this month’s election and will be succeeded by Republican John Kasich in January. Ohio’s next execution is scheduled for Feb. 17.
Kasich also may have to address concerns about a shortage of a lethal injection drug that has prompted execution delays across the country.
Utah: Jury awards Utah family $6 million in girl’s death
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A federal jury has ordered an Oklahoma company to pay $6.1 million to the family of a 2-year-old girl who died from burn injuries following a gas can explosion and fire in 2005.
The settlement for the economic losses and emotional suffering experienced by Hailey Parish’s family followed a 10-day trial in Utah’s U.S. District Court, the Deseret News reports.
But jurors on Thursday said gas can-maker Blitz USA was 70 percent responsible for the explosion and held Parish’s father, David Calder, also responsible.
The Magna family was in a remote Uintah County mobile home in December 2005 when Calder tried to add gasoline to a wood-burning stove fire. The flames crept into the gas can, causing the explosion.
Calder acknowledges that he’s partly to blame. He said he poured gasoline on wet wood to get a fire going in the stove.
“I poured just a teeny bit on there and it went right into the can, and it exploded. It blew up,” said Calder, adding that he patted flames off his daughter who sat nearby. “I was engulfed in flames myself, and it was very painful.”
Calder said he raced outside to get out of his burning clothes but could not re-enter the trailer to rescue his daughter because it was engulfed in flames. Calder was burned on 30 percent of his body and spent two months in the University of Utah hospital’s burn unit. A son also suffered some burn injuries.
Calder said that prior to filing the lawsuit, he tried to settle with Blitz out of court for $80,000 but the company refused.
Calder’s local co-counsel, Don Winder, said Blitz acknowledged its own research shows that 20 percent of its customers use the cans to pour gasoline as a fire accelerant.
Jurors sided with attorneys for the family, who argued that a flame arrester would have prevented flames from shooting into the gas can. An arrester is essentially a screen that goes on the gas can opening and blocks the flames. The devices cost about 5 cents, according to attorneys for the Calder family, and are present on non-Blitz cans.
Calder said he plans to use much of the money to help others suffering burn injuries.
“It won’t replace my daughter,” he said, “but it will send a lot of kids to burn camp.”
Mississippi: School officials mum on fate for accused coach
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Administrators have decided what to do about a high-school basketball coach accused of whipping players with a weightlifting belt, but cannot say what they decided, says Jackson Public Schools Superintendent Lonnie Edwards.
Coach Marlon Dorsey refused to comment when reached Friday at his home, The Clarion-Ledger reported. Earlier, he told the paper that he took a weightlifting belt to Murrah High School players to keep them from destroying themselves.
A written statement from Edwards said, “We do not want to violate Coach Dorsey’s privacy rights. However, you may be assured that this situation has been addressed.”
He said he and his staff took administrative action, considering “seriousness of the circumstances, prevailing policy, input and concerns from parents and the athletes involved, and Coach Dorsey’s overall employee performance record.”
The district is one of the few in Mississippi which forbids corporal punishment, a policy since 1991. People who violate that policy can be suspended without pay or fired, Edwards said.
Principal Freddrick Murray referred questions about who is coaching the team to the district’s public relations office. It said teacher David Deville is the interim coach.
Earlier in the week, three Murrah basketball players filed a federal lawsuit against Dorsey and the school system.
Some players and parents have called for Dorsey to keep his job, saying the first-year coach was improving the team.
Dorsey was on leave with pay during the school system’s investigation.
Idaho: Man gets 13 years for severely beating woman
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A 29-year-old Caldwell man has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for severely beating and trying to strangle his former girlfriend, causing her permanent vision impairment.
The Idaho Statesman reports Gabriel Flores was sentenced Friday by 3rd District Judge Thomas Ryan. Flores will be eligible for parole after serving 7? years.
The former Golden Gloves fighter entered an Alford plea to aggravated battery and attempted strangulation for a September 2009 attack that left his former girlfriend with a shattered eye socket, broken nose and displaced teeth. The woman says Flores tried to drown her in a bathtub.
Under an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges that there is enough evidence for a jury to find him guilty.
South Dakota: Child porn trial nears for defense lawyer
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Lawyers in the case of a Sioux Falls defense attorney facing child pornography charges are sparring over evidence.
Leo Flynn faces a Dec. 14 federal court trial on charges including possession and distribution of child porn.
Flynn maintains that he represents people accused of sex crimes against children and often analyzes Web sites for pornographic content as part of his job. South Dakota law gives immunity to lawyers and some others who work on such cases, but federal law doesn’t.
Prosecutors say hundreds of pornographic files were found on Flynn’s computer, and his actions were too flagrant to be immune from prosecution.
The Argus Leader reports that among the matters a judge will decide is which computer files will be allowed at trial.
Rhode Island: U.S. Supreme Court rejects appeal of hospital CEO
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear the appeal of a former hospital executive from Providence convicted of corruption.
The high court announced Monday that it would not take up the case of Robert Urciuoli (Uhr-see-OLE’-ee), the former president and CEO of Roger Williams Medical Center.
Urciuoli was convicted of paying a state senator to do the hospital’s bidding at the Statehouse, and a federal appeals court this year upheld the jury’s verdict.
Urciuoli is serving a three-year prison sentence in Florida.
