Ohio
Death row inmate resentenced, could get parole
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio prison inmate who has spent nearly four decades on death row in the murder of a convenience store clerk has been resentenced to a term that could allow his release on parole.
Lucas County Judge Stacy Cook vacated Gregory Esparza’s death sentence and imposed a new term of 30 years to life with credit for time served, The (Toledo) Blade reported. Two months ago, Cook had declared capital punishment unconstitutional in the case because prosecutors had failed to disclose evidence in his original trial.
“God is good for everyone,” Esparza said to relatives Friday as he was escorted from the courtroom back to the county jail.
Esparza, now 60, was convicted in 1984 of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery with gun specifications in the February 1983 death of Melanie Gerschutz. The 38-year-old wife and mother was working the cash register at Island Variety in East Toledo when she was shot during a robbery of $110 from the register,
Esparza’s initial appeals were denied but a public records request in 1991 turned up a large number of police reports, interviews, and other documents never given to his defense attorneys. A federal appeals court in 1995 overturned the death sentence citing a “defective indictment,” but the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision. A 2016 appeal was denied on the grounds that federal courts had assessed the 1991 evidence, but a state appellate court later said no court had yet addressed the 1991 evidence in the context of capital punishment.
Cook wrote that although prosecutors may have been unaware of the 1991 evidence, the defense should have had it. More importantly, she said, some of the evidence indicated that Esparza didn’t act alone and therefore “may not have been the principal offender,” so the death penalty could not be imposed.
In Friday’s hearing, Esparza said he had been just 21 and a “confused, lost soul” at the time of the crime but the rigors of life on death row for so long had helped him mature.
“God knows I am not a killer,” he said. “Even when offered life without parole if I gave up my appeals, I chose execution.”
Marsha Raymond, Gerschutz’s daughter, a teenager at the time of her mother’s slaying, told the court that the defendant “committed murder in cold blood.”
“I am so grateful that I had such an amazing mom, but unfortunately because of his actions my family fell apart,” she said. “My dad couldn’t speak about my mom, and he (Esparza) talks about a young child being abused? My younger brother was six years old. He has no memories of my mother.”
Julia Esparza, Esparza’s sister, said the family was happy to see this day come.
“It has been very emotional,” she told the newspaper. “We appreciate the justice system.”
Massachusetts
Rep. Katherine Clark’s daughter is charged in police assault
BOSTON (AP) — The daughter of U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts was arrested during a protest Saturday night on Boston Common and later charged with assault after a police officer was injured.
In a statement on its website, the Boston Police Department said the 23-year-old was expected to be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court.
Clark, the House Democratic whip, said in a tweet that her daughter, Riley Dowell, had been arrested. “I love Riley, and this is a very difficult time in the cycle of joy and pain in parenting,” Clark wrote. “This will be evaluated by the legal system, and I am confident in that process.”
Clark has spoken publicly about the fears of her own nonbinary child amid bigotry targeting transgender people.
Police said officers responded to a report at the Parkman Bandstand Monument located within the Boston Common. They found a person, identified as Dowell, a resident of Melrose, defacing the monument with spray paint and anti-police phrases, according to police.
During the arrest, “a group of about 20 protesters began to surround officers while screaming profanities though megaphones on the public street causing traffic to come to a standstill,” police said, adding that “an officer was hit in the face and could be seen bleeding from the nose and mouth.”
Dowell was charged with assault by means of a dangerous weapon, destruction or injury of personal property, and damage of property by graffiti/tagging, police said.
A fatal police shooting earlier this month in nearby Cambridge sparked protests over use of force. A 20-year-old student at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Sayed Faisal, was shot and killed by Cambridge police. He had advanced on officers with what police described as a kukri, a type of sword, and a less-than-lethal “sponge round” had failed to stop him, police said.
Clark is in her sixth term in the House and represents the state’s 5th Congressional District.
California
Prosecutors: Convicted CEO Elizabeth Holmes is a flight risk
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Elizabeth Holmes is a flight risk and shouldn’t be allowed to stay out of prison while she appeals her 11-year prison sentence for defrauding investors, federal prosecutors said in court documents.
Holmes had a one-way plane ticket to Mexico booked for Jan. 26, 2022, three weeks after being convicted by a jury on four counts of fraud and conspiracy, federal prosecutors said in a motion filed Thursday in federal court in Northern California.
Holmes, who was CEO of Theranos during the company’s turbulent 15-year history, was convicted in a scheme that revolved around the company’s claims to have developed a medical device that could detect a multitude of diseases and conditions from a few drops of blood. But the technology never worked, and the claims were false.
Holmes booked the 2022 flight without a scheduled return trip and only canceled it after prosecutors contacted Holmes’ attorneys about the “unauthorized flight,” prosecutors said.
Holmes’ attorneys did not immediately respond Friday to email and phone messages from The Associated Press. In a Jan. 23, 2022, email responding to prosecutors’ concerns about the planned trip, they said Holmes had booked it before the jury’s verdict to attend a wedding in Mexico.
“Given the verdict, she does not plan to take the trip and therefore did not provide notice, seek permission, or request access to her passport (which the government has) for the trip,” wrote Lance Wade, one of Holmes’ attorneys.
On November 17, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila sentenced Homes to more than 11 years in prison. Davila ordered Holmes, who is pregnant, to report to prison on April 27, giving her enough time to give birth to her second child before she is incarcerated. She gave birth to a son shortly before her trial started last year.
Prosecutors did not protest Davila’s decision to give Holmes five months of freedom or bring up the fact that they considered her a flight risk.
Holmes is scheduled to return to court on March 17 for a hearing on her request to stay out of prison while she appeals her conviction.
