In California, Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin announced late last month that he will seek the death penalty for 43-year-old Jesse Ceazar Navarro, accused of killing a Riverside County Deputy Sheriff in January. CBS Los Angeles reported. Navarro is charged with one count of murder for killing 30-year-old Deputy Darnell Calhoun after he responded to a report of a domestic disturbance in Lake Elsinore on January 13. He’s facing a capital murder charge with special circumstances that include the murder of a police officer and discharge of a firearm from a vehicle with intent to kill. He is also charged with shooting at another sheriff’s deputy who attempted to aid Calhoun. The second deputy wasn’t injured.
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for James Barnes and set an execution date of August 3, according to the Tampa Bay Times. If it proceeds, it will be the fifth time this year Florida has killed one of its citizens. James was serving a life sentence in 2005 when he confessed to the 1988 murder of Patsy Miller. By doing this, he hoped he would provide closure to Patsy’s family and provide them with answers to the questions surrounding her unsolved murder. James waived his right to a lawyer and represented himself. He pled guilty, and waived a jury and mitigating evidence, ensuring he would be sentenced to death.
In Oklahoma, 51-year-old Jemaine Cannon was executed last week. Cannon was sentenced to death in 1996 after being convicted of killing 20-year-old Sharonda White Clark on February 3, 1995, the Oklahoman reported. Clark had escaped from a prison work center, where he was serving a 15-year sentence on a conviction for assault with intent to kill another woman. Corrections officials admitted that Cannon should have been imprisoned in a higher-security environment, but nothing was available because of overcrowding, according to the Oklahoman.
In Alabama, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the death sentence of Marcus Bernard Williams, sentenced to death in 1996, finding that Williams’ claim of ineffective assistance of counsel during the penalty phase of his trial was valid. “The jury never heard about Williams’ sexual abuse, his early exposure to sexual relations, his exposure to domestic violence, the abandonment by both his father and mother, or the sexual abuse and alcoholism that was pervasive in his family,” the court found. “Had the jury been presented with all of the mitigating evidence, there is a reasonable probability that the outcome of Williams’ trial could have been different.”
In Louisiana, nola.com reports that the state Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole has rejected all 56 petitions for executive clemency those on death row filed in June. According to nola.com, the board maintained that none of the petitioners are eligible. The parole board executive director said the board relied on an opinion from Attorney General Jeff Landry that the board did not have the authority to waive a policy that requires a clemency petition to be filed within a year of a ruling on an appeal by a judge.
In Texas, a jury sentenced former Border Patrol agent Ronald Anthony Burgos Aviles, convicted of killing his former partner, Grizelda, and their son Dominic in 2018, to life without parole last week, KGNS reported. The state had sought the death penalty.
