Death penalty dropped in toddler’s killing

Death penalty dropped in toddler’s killing

GALVESTON, Texas — Prosecutors won’t seek the death penalty against the mother and stepfather of the 2-year-old girl known only as “Baby Grace” for weeks after her body was found in Galveston Bay.

Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk decided against seeking the death penalty for Royce Clyde Zeigler II and Kimberly Dawn Trenor, the Houston Chronicle reported Wednesday.

The couple faces capital murder charges in the death of Riley Ann Sawyers.

Trenor moved with the girl from Ohio to Texas last year. The girl was buried in Mentor in Northeast Ohio in January.

Trenor told police she and Zeigler beat and tortured Riley to death July 24 in a disciplinary session that veered out of control. Sistrunk said he chose not to seek the death penalty based on a 2007 Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruling that required a jury in death penalty cases to determine that the accused would be a future danger to society.

Child rape case

WASHINGTON — A seemingly divided Supreme Court struggled Wednesday over whether the rape of children should be punishable by execution, a case that could determine whether the death penalty is extended to crimes other than murder.

Arguments involving a Louisiana man’s rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter took place the same day the fractured court upheld lethal injection in the execution of condemned prisoners.

The case of Patrick Kennedy of Harvey, La., outside New Orleans represents a shift in the ongoing debate over the death penalty. In recent years, the Supreme Court has narrowed capital punishment, overturning it for murderers who are juveniles or are mentally retarded.

No competency hearing

ERIE, Pa. — Kenneth Barnes, a co-defendant in the collar-bomb death of a pizza deliveryman in a suburban Erie bank robbery has dropped his request for a hearing to determine if he’s mentally incompetent to stand trial.

The lawyer for his co-defendant, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, is still challenging whether she’s mentally fit.

In August 2003, Brian Wells robbed a PNC Bank. He told police he’d been forced to wear a bomb around his neck and rob the bank. The device exploded, killing Wells.

Diehl-Armstrong is in prison for killing her boyfriend. Prosecutors say she killed him so he wouldn’t tell authorities about the plot.

Turnpike privatization

HARRISBURG — Toll increases on the Pennsylvania Turnpike would be capped and some of the turnpike commission’s 2,240 employees are expected to eventually lose their jobs under a privatization plan released by the Rendell administration Wednesday.

Gov. Ed Rendell’s aides said prospective private operators would have to submit bids near the end of April and the Legislature could approve a deal by mid-June.

If a lease of the turnpike is approved, a private firm will operate about 500 miles of the system for 75 years, and a controversial effort to introduce tolls onto Interstate 80 would be abandoned.

The goal is to raise billions of dollars to repair the state’s crumbling roads and bridges.

Deaths in Gaza Strip

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israel struck hard against targets in Gaza on Wednesday, killing at least 20 Palestinians in a day of heavy fighting that also saw three Israeli soldiers die in a Hamas ambush. Among the Palestinian dead was a news cameraman.

The surge in violence came after a relatively quiet month and threatened to unravel an Egyptian effort to mediate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

Wednesday’s death toll was the highest since an Israeli military offensive in early March that killed more than 120 Gazans.

War in two cities

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Clashes with Shiite militiamen flared in two cities Wednesday as a U.S. drone fired two missiles in Basra and U.S.-backed Iraqi troops battled in Baghdad’s sprawling Sadr City slum.

The airstrike in Basra came after militiamen attacked an Iraqi army patrol, the U.S. military said.

On Wednesday, the Iraqi government said it was replacing two senior military commanders overseeing operations in Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city.

Also Wednesday, the U.S. military said two Marines were killed by a roadside bomb in western Anbar province. The statement said the blast occurred on Sunday while their vehicle was under attack by enemy fighters.

Associated Press