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Thread: Ricky Allen Dubose - Georgia

  1. #21
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    Donnie Rowe argues for 'rights,' asks for Death Penalty to be thrown out

    By Amaris Jenkins
    wgxatv.com

    PUTNAM CO., Ga. -- Donnie Rowe -- one of two men charged with killing two guards on board a bus from the Baldwin State prison in 2017 -- accused the Department of Corrections of "blatantly' violating his rights Wednesday in Putnam County Court.

    Rowe's defense team asked for his federal rights, state rights, privacy rights and 14th Amendment rights to be processed.

    The state agreed to suppress Rowe’s medical records. But if he tries to use his physical or mental state as a defense, his medical records will be opened for use in the case.

    The defense is also motioning to strike the Death Penalty out.

    Jury members are currently being selected in Grady County.

    Rowe's next court date is March 22. Trial is expected to begin in November.

    https://wgxa.tv/news/local/donnie-ro...-be-thrown-out
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #22
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    Eight inmates who watched Georgia prison guards killed on bus file federal lawsuits

    By Natalie Neysa Alund
    Murfreesboro Daily news Journal

    Eight inmates who witnessed two Georgia prison guards killed on a bus two years ago have filed federal lawsuits against the Georgia Department of Corrections claiming the deaths could have been prevented.

    Convicted armed robbers Donnie Russell Rowe and Ricky Dubose were riding on a prison bus in June 2017 when they broke free and fatally shot two guards on a prison transport bus before carjacking their way to freedom. The felons are awaiting trial in Georgia and face the death penalty if convicted of killing correction officers Christopher Monica, 42, and Curtis Billue, 58.

    In eight individual suits, the plaintiffs claim they suffered physical and mental harm during the incident and that they were later punished with solitary confinement.

    Each lawsuit seeks a jury trial and at least $250,000 for each man and was filed by Kennesaw attorney Ted Salter on behalf of the following plaintiffs: Geiger James Clifford, Timothy Elijah Faison, Timothy Brian Dotson, J.D. Powell Jr., Samuel Moss, Dennis Roberson, Timothy Arnell Ghiden Jr. and Christopher Trammell.

    According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a recorded interview played during a hearing last June, Dubose told FBI and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents he seized the opportunity when he noticed the gate separating officers and inmates was unlocked, that guards had failed to double lock prisoners’ handcuffs and that one of the officers was asleep.

    The men escaped, authorities said, carjacked a Honda and held a couple hostage for several hours before stealing another vehicle. Authorities apprehended them in Murfreesboro after a three-day manhunt.

    After the guards were killed, the suit states, the state of Georgia conducted an investigation and found rules for transporting prisoners had not been followed.

    At the time of the killings, Rowe had been sentenced to life without parole for an armed robbery in Macon. Dubose was serving 20 years for an armed robbery in Elbert County.

    https://www.dnj.com/story/news/2019/...it/1585882001/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #23
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    Judge grants continuance in Dubose murder case

    By Billy Hobbs
    The Union-Recorder

    EATONTON, Ga. — The murder trial of a state prison inmate accused of shooting to death two corrections officers during an escape from a transport bus on June 13, 2017, in Putnam County, will not be going to trial next month as originally scheduled, The Union-Recorder has learned.

    A continuance was granted Friday afternoon by Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Alison T. Burleson in Putnam County Superior Court in the case of the State of Georgia vs. Ricky Allen Dubose.

    The defendant is accused of killing Georgia Department of Corrections Sgt. Curtis Billue and Sgt. Christopher Monica while they were transporting more than 30 inmates by bus from Baldwin and Hancock state prisons to the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center near Jackson. The victims were shot multiple times with their state-issued handguns before the two prisoners escaped. The escape led to a nationwide manhunt that ended three days later when they surrendered to local, state and federal authorities in Rutherford County, Tennessee.

    Dubose, along with co-defendant Donnie Rowe, is charged with malice murder, felony murder, escape, and hijacking of a motor vehicle. They were both indicted by a grand jury on the charges on Sept. 19, 2017.

    Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Stephen A. Bradley announced shortly after they were returned from Tennessee that the state would seek the death penalty against both men.

    It also was decided that Dubose and Rowe would be tried separately.

    Dubose’s trial had been set for Sept. 30, with jury selection taking place in Glynn County. Once a jury was chosen there, the plan was to take the jurors to Putnam County where they would listen to the testimony and evidence about the case before deciding the fate of the defendant.

    Now that the trial has been continued, Dubose is not likely to go to trial until sometime in early 2020. A trial date has yet to be determined, however.

    Dubose’s lead defense attorney, Gabrielle Amber Pittman, and co-counsel, Nathanial L. Studelska of the Office of Georgia Capital Defender, filed a motion Tuesday in the Putnam County Superior Court Clerk’s Office for a continuance.

    The motion, a copy of which was obtained by the newspaper, sought the continuance based on allowing the defense team adequate time to investigate and prepare for trial.

    During Friday afternoon’s hearing before Burleson, Pittman contended that it takes on average in Georgia 24 months to go to trial in a death penalty case.

    “We’re at less than half of that,” Pittman said, noting that the volume of what has yet to be done in preparing to go to trial continues to mount. “At this time, we cannot be ready for trial.”

    Pittman said there are too many inadequacies.

    The defense attorney said the case file consists of more than 20,000 pages of documentary evidence, not including videos and photographs.

    Additionally, Pittman said the investigation was spread across at least five, possibly six states.

    In preparing for trial thus far, Pittman said there have been numerous issues that have arisen.

    Pittman said she and her co-counsel were asking for more time to prepare for trial so their client would have adequate and constitutional counsel.

    “He (Dubose) will not have constitutional and adequate counsel for trial in September,” Pittman said.

    In the motion seeking a continuance, defense attorneys contend that Dubose is raising issues about his intellectual disability and that because of such fact, even greater care must be taken on his behalf.

    “The United States Supreme Court found that the Eighth Amendment prohibits execution of persons who are deemed mentally retarded, currently called intellectually disabled, thus giving Mr. Dubose protections under both the Georgia Constitution and the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution to be free from execution. The danger that intellectually disabled persons may be subject to execution is evidenced by the fact that no defendant facing the death penalty in Georgia has ever received a GBMR verdict for malice murder from a jury in the statute’s nearly 30-year existence.”

    After summarizing her argument, Bradley explained the state’s position.

    Bradley said the state had attempted to avoid this in every way.

    The veteran prosecutor pointed out that the state had regularly inquired with the defense counsel as to whether they planned to present a mental health defense.

    “I draw the court’s attention to the facts, dates of the discovery that they gave us Tuesday of this week,” Bradley said. “It’s facts of Sept. 27, 2017, judge. This is going on two years ago. It’s one thing to say that I wish I had a different answer, or I need another answer, but to say I haven’t had any answer in two-plus years seems either disingenuous or either it’s profoundly incompetent or it’s intentional dilatory.”

    Bradley told the judge he didn’t think they were incompetent.

    “This is a trial; the state has the burden,” Bradley said. “We have been ready for more than a year to try this case.”

    He said it was disrespectful to the court and to the families of the victims.

    Denise Monica, the widow of Sgt. Monica was seen crying in the courtroom when she learned that the Dubose would not go forward this year.

    Bradley said what the prosecution team had attempted to guard against was exactly what has occurred.

    Bradley said it was evident early on that Dubose needed to undergo a mental evaluation.

    “The reason he needed to be evaluated was it was evident, there were at least some questions that needed to answered for both of us (prosecution and defense teams),” Bradley said. “Not only did the defense object then, they have yet to say let’s start that process over again.”

    The next question, judge, is what is the next best step, Bradley asked.

    The district attorney suggested that Burleson enter an order for a mental evaluation of the defendant by a state agency. He also recommended that the court order the release of Dubose’s school and juvenile records because they now are “very important.”

    Bradley said if the court believed there were grounds for a continuance that the court should go in that direction.

    Burleson later said she would attend a Superior Court judges’ conference next week and she plans to talk with the chief judge of the circuit that oversees Glynn County about the latest developments in the Dubose case as far as jury selection is concerned. She said she also planned to talk with the Glynn County Superior Court clerk as well.

    “Based on what I know that I’ve heard from the defense in ex parte, and what I know the state is going to have to do to prepare their side of things, knowing what I know is coming in ex parte, I’m not sure that 30 days would be meaningful for either side.”

    Burleson also expressed curiosity about how a continuance might affect the Rowe trial that is set for Oct. 28 before Judge Brenda H. Trammell.

    Bradley told the judge that regardless of the outcome, in either case, the state will be ready to go forward with the prosecution of the defendants when the time comes.

    He added that he thought the defense team should have been ready to go to trial by now with the Dubose case.

    “And they shouldn’t have waited as long as they did to raise the issues they have,” Bradley said.

    Pittman told Burleson that the state had no right to question what they were doing or why they were doing it when they did it.

    The prosecutor said his preference was to start the case at the end of January.

    Pittman is involved in another death penalty trial that is slated for early January in Fulton County Superior Court.

    https://www.unionrecorder.com/news/j...1ca9df63e.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  4. #24
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    Jury selection moved to February 2020 in death penalty case

    By Billy Hobbs
    The Union-Recorder

    EATONTON, Ga. — For the second time in less than two months, Donnie Rowe has learned that he won’t stand trial for the murders of two state corrections officers as originally planned. Rowe tentatively had been scheduled for trial in the double-murder case in January.

    During a pre-trial hearing held Tuesday morning in Putnam County Superior Court in Eatonton, Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Brenda H. Trammell said jury selection will instead begin on Feb. 10, 2020, in Grady County Superior Court.

    Once a 12-person jury along with alternate jurors has been selected, they will be taken to Putnam County where they will begin hearing testimony in the case that could last up to a month.

    Rowe and his co-defendant, Ricky Dubose, are accused of shooting to death Georgia Department of Corrections Sgts. Curtis Billue and Christopher Monica on the morning of June 13, 2017, in Putnam County. The two officers were helping transport prisoners from Baldwin and Hancock state prisons to the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison near Jackson when Rowe and Dubose reportedly escaped through an unlocked gate as they were being transported from one facility to another one.

    Both of the officers were shot to death with their own state-issued handguns, authorities said.

    Rowe and Dubose, who are being tried separately for the alleged crimes, escaped from the prison transport bus and made it into Rutherford County, Tennessee before they eventually surrendered to residents nearby and later turned over to local, state and federal law enforcement authorities. The two state prison inmates led authorities on a nationwide manhunt for three days.

    Billue and Monica were both assigned to the transportation department at Baldwin State Prison near Milledgeville. They also lived in Milledgeville.

    As has been the case during nearly all of the pre-trial hearings of the defendants, several members of the victims’ families were on hand for the hearing on Tuesday.

    One of Rowe’s defense attorneys, Franklin J. Hogue, of Hogue, Hogue, Fitzgerald & Griffin, LLP, of Macon, brought up Motion No. 47 during his client’s latest hearing.

    The motion was filed in an attempt to prevent prejudicial security measures, said Hogue, who was recently named the lead counsel. He is being assisted by Adam S. Levin and Erin L. Wallace of the Georgia Capitol Defender Northeast Georgia Regional Office in Athens.

    “It appears somewhere along the way, the court invited the sheriff to file a document saying what security measures he planned, and so Iooking at that document the sheriff filed on Aug. 6, 2019, five pages in which he lays out among other things, some security measures with respect to Donnie Rowe,” Hogue said.

    After Trammell informed him of some particulars in how such actually came about, Hogue continued.

    In response to the sheriff filing such security measures, the defense filed Motion No. 116, which bars the use of an electrical shocking device on the defendant. He described the device as a stun cuff.

    Hogue was referring to Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills.

    “And just to perfect the record of this hearing, as we did in the prior hearing, in the sheriff’s five-page filing, on page two, paragraph three, he wrote that considering the defendant’s criminal history and severity of the crimes he is charged with, ‘it is my intent that he will wear a stun cuff electronic wireless prisoner control device, and a humane restraint prisoner transport leg brace,’” Hogue said.

    The defense attorney also brought up a recent demonstration that the sheriff put on in the courtroom and later was aired by an Atlanta television station. The demonstration was done during a hearing that involved the co-defendant in the case, Ricky Dubose.

    Sills was called to testify during Tuesday’s hearing by Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale.

    Under questioning by Barksdale, Sills said this case marks the first time that he has ever been requested to provide a security plan in the many years that he has been sheriff of Putnam County.

    “Sheriff, what factors do you look at when you provide security for the courthouse,” Barksdale asked.

    The sheriff replied that one of those factors was the type of crime or crimes that the defendant is accused of having committed, as well as the defendant’s behavior, and most importantly, the defendant’s prior behavior, his prior record.

    “All of that is considered, and likewise, we obviously cannot have restraints present on a defendant that a jury can see,” Sills said. “I’ve studied a number of devices over the years and found the stun cuffs to be … virtually impossible for anyone to see, yet still a very effective device. We used it in every criminal case in this county no matter what the individual was charged with whether it was a misdemeanor or a felony, and if they were in custody up until the time of the Weldon case.”

    Sills said there had never been a problem and the device had never been activated.

    https://www.unionrecorder.com/news/j...608504608.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    State investigator in Ricky Dubose death penalty case arrested

    By Billy Hobbs
    Union Recorder

    JACKSON, Ga. - A 31-year-old criminal defense team investigator with a state agency was arrested Wednesday afternoon after being accused of smuggling illegal contraband to an inmate at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison near Jackson.

    The investigator was identified as Lily Eugenia Engleman, of the 900 block of Brookhaven Way, Brookhaven, Georgia, according to information released to The Union-Recorder from the Butts County Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Georgia Department of Corrections.

    Engleman is accused of passing off undisclosed items to Ricky Dubose, who is expected to stand trial some time next year in Putnam County Superior Court in Eatonton for the murders of a pair of state corrections officers, both of whom worked at Baldwin State Prison and lived in Milledgeville.

    Dubose reportedly took the unnamed items from Engleman and hid them in the socks he was wearing during a visit with the state criminal defense investigator in early September.

    Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Stephen A. Bradley is seeking the death penalty against Dubose and his co-defendant Donnie Rowe. The defendants are accused of shooting to death Sgt. Curtis Billue and Sgt. Christopher Monica during an escape from a state prison transport bus on June 13, 2017 in Putnam County.

    The two state inmates, who already had been convicted on other felony crimes, then escaped and became the subject of an intensified nationwide manhunt for three days, before they surrendered to state and federal authorities in Rutherford County, Tennessee.

    They subsequently were brought back to Georgia, where they were informed that the state would be seeking the death penalty against them in upcoming separate trials.

    Rowe’s trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 6, 2020, while Dubose’s trial date has yet to be set by a judge.

    Engleman is employed as an investigator with the Office of the Georgia Capital Defender in Atlanta and was assigned to the case involving Dubose. She was charged with a felony count of giving weapons, intoxicants, drugs, or other items to an inmate without consent of the prison warden, according to an arrest warrant and affidavit obtained by the newspaper.

    The Georgia Capital Defender is a division of the Georgia Public Defender Council, which is charged with providing defense counsel to all indigent defendants accused of felony charges and facing the death penalty.

    Engleman, who has attended numerous pre-trial motion hearings involving the Dubose case in Putnam County Superior Court, was taken into custody shortly before 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, jail records show. She subsequently was released from the Butts County Jail in Jackson shortly after 3 p.m. on a $5,000 bond, a jail spokeswoman said.

    Engleman, who technically is known as a mitigation specialist who serves in an investigative role, has been suspended from her job, according to Cheryl Karounos, director of external affairs for the Georgia Public Defender Counsel.

    “I’m not going to comment on the pending litigation, but I can confirm that she is an employee or ours and that she is currently suspended, pending an investigation,” Karounos told the newspaper Thursday afternoon by telephone.

    Engleman is a 2017 graduate of Georgia State University with a masters degree in social work, according to her Facebook account. She is reportedly banned from any state prison facility pending the outcome of her case in Butts County Superior Court.

    A warrant for Engleman’s arrest was issued Monday by Butts County Magistrate Megan Kinsey to Nathan Adkerson, who is described as the prosecutor in the case.

    Engleman is specifically accused of being seen passing Dubose “two small unknown items” between 3:39 p.m. and 3:42 p.m. on Sept. 6 while visiting with the inmate in the prison’s Special Management Unit, which is referred to as the SMU.

    After Dubose was seen picking the undisclosed items up off the floor, he then reportedly hid the items in his socks “to avoid detection by staff,” according to the affidavit.

    “Said accused (Engleman) did pass these items to inmate Ricky Dubose without the permission or consent of the warden at the Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Special Management Unit, a correctional facility located in Butts County, Georgia,” according to a copy of the affidavit.

    Engleman’s arrest stems from an ongoing investigation, which began after it was discovered that Engleman reportedly passed illegal contraband to Dubose, according to a press release from Lori Benoit, manager of the Office of Public Affairs with the Georgia Department of Corrections.

    “The GDC closely monitors all interactions between offenders and outside visitors, and this case was no different,” according to the press release. “We applaud our diligent staff in their commitment to ensuring the safe and secure operations of our facilities, and investigators with our Office of Professional Standards for making the arrest.”

    Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said he first learned of the ongoing investigation two weeks ago.

    “I was aware that there was an investigation in this regard,” Sills said. “I did not know there had been an arrest made until after the arrest was made (Wednesday). Obviously, I was aware because when they are in court here, then they are my problem. So, that’s why I was aware of it.”

    The sheriff indicated he has never been told what the exact items were that reportedly were smuggled to Dubose.

    “But it doesn’t matter what was being smuggled in,” Sills said. “You cannot give something to an inmate no matter what it is without the specific permission of the warden or the sheriff if they are in a county jail, and it is a crime if you do.”

    https://www.unionrecorder.com/news/s...f9dc213ed.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #26
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    Rowe death penalty trial set for March

    By Billy Hobbs
    The Union-Recorder

    EATONTON, Ga. — After more than three years and dozens of pre-trial motion hearings, the death-penalty trial of one of two men accused of shooting to death a pair of state corrections officers during a daring escape from a prison bus in Putnam County will go forward in a few months.

    But when jury-selection in the trial of Donnie Rowe begins on March 1, 2021, in a Grady County courtroom in Cairo, there will be several new faces in the courtroom.

    The co-defendant in the case, Ricky Dubose, meanwhile, will be granted his death penalty trial at a later date next year.

    The defendants are accused of shooting to death Georgia Department of Corrections Sgt. Curtis Billue and Sgt. Chris Monica while they waged an escape from a bus loaded with inmates being transferred from one prison to another. The defendants were incarcerated at Baldwin State Prison near Milledgeville.

    That was also the facility where Billue and Monica worked in the transportation department. Both of the victims lived in Baldwin County.

    The prison bus escape led to a nationwide manhunt that was launched by Putnam County Sheriff Howard R. Sills. The manhunt included local, state hand federal law enforcement agencies and eventually ended in Tennessee following a series of felony crimes in that state, including a home invasion of an elderly couple, theft of vehicles, and a shootout with deputies along an interstate highway.

    One of the new faces in the upcoming trials of Rowe and Dubose will be T. Wright Barksdale III, who takes over as the new lead prosecutor.

    Barksdale, a Jones County resident, and former assistant district attorney, defeated Carl Cansino in the primary election to become the new district attorney of the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit.

    Even though Stephen A. Bradley still serves as district attorney of the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit, he will no longer be in that position when jury-selection begins in the Rowe case in a few months. At the end of December, Bradley will be sworn in as the newest judge of the eight-county Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit.

    Bradley led the way in prosecuting the case since it happened on the morning of June 13, 2017, along Ga. Route 16, between Eatonton and Sparta.

    Now that Barksdale is transitioning in his role as district attorney-elect, he has already brought on Dawn M. Baskin, a longtime senior assistant district attorney, to help in the prosecution of Rowe during his death penalty trial.

    Barksdale told The Union-Recorder in a Thursday afternoon telephone interview that Baskin will be his replacement on the prosecution team. Baskin, who typically prosecutes cases in Jones County, will join a third member of that team, Allison Mauldin, who serves as chief assistant district attorney.

    “Alley has done a phenomenal job for our office thus far in this case,” Barksdale said. “I certainly wanted to leave her in place.”

    Barksdale, who soon will become one of the youngest district attorneys in Georgia history, said he decided to add Baskin to the team because he and Baskin had prosecuted “quite a few cases together” in the past.

    “She’s one of our better attorneys as it pertains to jury trials,” Barksdale said. “She brings a lot of experience and talent to our team. Those attributions, coupled with the way we have worked so well together in the past, just told me that it made sense to bring her into the fold.”

    Barksdale said it’s most important to have a cohesive team anytime prosecutors are involved in a big case.

    “I’ll take a step back and say, I don’t care what kind of case it is, if you don’t have a group that can work together, trust one another, and talk things through, you’re not going to get the outcome you were seeking,” Barksdale said.

    Take a basketball team, for example, he explained.

    “You can have five all-star players, but if they don’t play well together, the team isn’t likely to do well,” Barksdale said.

    The district attorney-elect said he and his assistant prosecutors are confident in their abilities.

    Since the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to still be around when jury selection begins next year, Barksdale said it is really anyone’s guess as to how long it will take to select a jury and alternates to hear the case against Rowe, who is currently incarcerated at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison near Jackson.

    “I’m excited that Judge Trammell has given us a March 1 date to proceed with this case,” Barksdale said.

    The death penalty trials of Rowe and co-defendant Ricky Dubose should have already have concluded earlier this year had it not been for the global pandemic, Barksdale said.

    “I think the biggest impact to it was that it kicked the can down the road and drew out the case longer than it otherwise would have,” Barksdale said. “We’ve been ready to try this (Rowe) case from the time of the original trial date until now.”

    Once the Rowe case is completed, the separate trial for Dubose will go forward with jury selection taking place in the Glenn County seat of Brunswick.

    Similar to the Rowe case, jurors will be selected from that county and brought back to Putnam County where the trial will take place in Eatonton.

    Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Alison T. Burleson will preside over the Dubose trial.

    https://www.unionrecorder.com/news/r...e1abdb498.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #27
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    Start of death penalty trial up in the air

    By Billy Hobbs
    The Union-Recorder

    EATONTON, Ga. — It appears the death penalty trial of Donnie Rowe won’t go forward in March next year as previously thought.


    He and co-defendant Ricky Dubose are accused of shooting to death Sgt. Curtis Billue and Sgt. Christopher Monica on a state prison transport bus on the morning of June 13, 2017, between Eatonton and Long Shoals Road in Putnam County. The shootings happened during a daring daybreak escape from the bus that sparked an intensified manhunt across the country that involved hundreds of local, state and federal law enforcement officers.


    The pair were eventually captured following a series of violent crimes in Tennessee, including firing gunshots at deputies during a chase along a busy interstate highway.


    A number of criminal charges, including felony and malice murder, were later filed against Rowe and Dubose by Putnam County Sheriff Howard R. Sills, who led the shooting probe and subsequent manhunt.


    Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Stephen A. Bradley later announced that the state would seek the death penalty against Rowe and Dubose.


    Since then, numerous motion hearings have been held in Putnam County Superior Court in Eatonton pertaining to the cases of both men, who will be tried separately.


    Another such hearing was held Monday, Nov. 16.


    Rowe was escorted into the courtroom by heavily armed state corrections officers before the hearing began in front of Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Brenda H. Trammell.


    The judge had previously announced that Rowe’s trial would begin March 1, with jury selection in Grady County Superior Court in Cairo.


    That trial date is now up in the air because one of Rowe’s defense attorneys, Adam S. Levin and his wife are expecting their second child around that same time.


    Levin, who is with the Northeast Capital Defense Team in Athens, along with co-counsel Erin Wallace, recently filed a motion to reschedule the trial because he would be on FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act) for 60 days for the birth.


    Once other motions were dealt with, Trammel announced that they would deal with Levin’s request.


    “It’s not going to be 60 days,” Trammel told Levin. “I’m going to go ahead and tell you that.”


    Although Levin expressed appreciation to the judge for considering his request and a short delay for the start of the trial, he noted it still put him in “a rough spot.”


    Trammell asked Levin to try and get a better timetable concerning the expectancy of his second child.


    The judge asked Levin about the possibility of moving up the trial date to sometime in February or toward the end of March.


    Levin insisted that the bigger issue is his being there for his wife and his newborn child.


    Trammell was later made aware of other special days to follow what had been set as a trial date.


    Those special times include Good Friday and Easter.


    “Sometimes I just have to come up with a date, which is one of the problems we have when trying to move things around,” Trammell said. “I thought we had a great day scheduled in March, but here we are.”


    Trammell said she wanted to discuss the matter with the chief judge in Grady County and would get back with attorneys on both sides regarding a new trial date.


    She also requested that Levin let her know when he might be able to return to work and to the courtroom.


    The prosecution team announced that they were ready to proceed to trial, but needed time to get in touch with prospective witnesses as to when they would be needed to testify. Several witnesses are from out of state.


    Rowe, who came out with a buzz haircut and wearing jeans and a long-sleeve plaid shirt, sat beside his lead attorney Franklin J. Hogue, of Hogue, Hogue, Fitzgerald & Griffin Law Firm in Macon, and Wallace during the latest hearing that lasted a little more than a half-hour.


    The prosecution team, meanwhile, consisted of District Attorney Bradley; T. Wright Barksdale III, district attorney-elect; Chief Assistant District Attorney Allison Mauldin; and Senior Assistant District Attorney Dawn Baskin.


    “Who knows what can happen next year, whether there will be another emergency shutdown,” Mauldin said. “We can’t look into a crystal ball and know. We just have to prepare.”


    Attorneys on both sides practiced social distancing and wore masks during the hearing because of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, which also has played havoc with court proceedings involving the Rowe case, as well as the Dubose case, which will be presided over by Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Alison T. Burleson.


    Rowe will be back in Putnam County Superior Court for another pretrial hearing on Dec. 11.

    https://www.unionrecorder.com/news/s...5bff72037.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  8. #28
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Judge relents, allows lawyers concerned about COVID to appear remotely

    By Bill Rankin
    Atlanta Journal-Constitution

    A Putnam County judge has relented to lawyers’ concerns about in-person court proceedings during the coronavirus pandemic by allowing a death-penalty hearing set for Monday to be held remotely.

    In an order signed last week, Superior Court Chief Judge Brenda Trammell said she will allow attorneys to appear via Zoom. The lawyers represent Donnie Rowe, charged with killing two guards during an escape from a prison bus in 2017. Prosecutors are seeking the ultimate punishment against Rowe and co-defendant Ricky Dubose, who will be tried separately.

    Monday’s hearing will focus on the defense’s request to postpone the trial, now set to begin April 5. In court motions, the lawyers — Frank Hogue of Macon and state capital defenders Adam Levin and Erin Wallace of Athens — said the pandemic will still be in effect and a potential danger at that time.

    Trammell had previously scheduled the continuance hearing for Dec. 11. When she refused the defense's request to hold it remotely, the lawyers declined to appear in court. Trammell then denied their motion to postpone the trial.

    In a new order issued last week, Trammell indicated she will consider the continuance request at the videoconference hearing.

    The judge noted that Putnam County has called in grand jurors and has been holding in-person court proceedings for both criminal and civil matters, all the while following mandated protocols for courtroom safety. These proceedings have occurred “without incident,” the judge said, although she did not specify how she knew that to be so.

    In a recent motion asking Trammell to consider holding Monday’s hearing remotely, the defense team cited health statistics that show the risk of getting COVID-19 in Putnam was “extremely high.” They noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the best way to protect yourself and reduce the spread is to limit interactions with others as much as possible.

    Even though she relented to the videoconference hearing, Trammell expressed her misgivings about it.

    “This court does not believe proceeding other than in person is necessary, desirable or proper in this case, other than on any but the current scheduling, and specifically, continuance issues,” she wrote in her order. A hearing tentatively set for March 31 on evidentiary issues is to be an in-person court proceeding, she said.

    On Sunday, Hogue, who is at greater risk because he is 66, said the defense team has no comment on Trammell’s latest order.

    At the urging of Chief Justice Harold Melton, judges across the state have been holding videoconference hearings instead of requiring lawyers and litigants to show up in court during the pandemic. Jury trials are currently suspended because of safety concerns, although Melton has indicated he may allow them to resume in the coming months.

    If the Rowe trial proceeds as planned, jury selection will begin April 5 in Grady County, because of pretrial publicity. Once jurors are picked there, they will be taken to Eatonton for the trial at the Putnam courthouse.

    https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-new...AE6PE3CWL45GE/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  9. #29
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    Trial set to begin for prisoner accused of killing guards

    By Associated Press

    Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the trial of one of two Georgia prisoners accused of killing two guards more than four years ago.

    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Donnie Rowe in the killings of Sgt. Christopher Monica and Sgt. Curtis Billue in June 2017. Rowe and Ricky Dubose are accused of using the guards’ guns to shoot them while escaping from a prison transfer bus southeast of Atlanta. They were arrested in Tennessee a few days later.

    Dubose also faces the death penalty and will be tried separately.

    The trial is set to be held at the Putnam County courthouse. But because the case garnered so much public attention, jury selection will be held in Grady County, in south Georgia, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

    Jurors will then be brought about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north to Eatonton for the trial.

    Rowe’s lawyers had asked last week for the trial to be delayed, saying the surge in new COVID-19 cases means there’s a risk of a mistrial, the newspaper reported.

    “Sadly, Georgians did not unite against the virus and vaccination rates remained low enough to allow the delta variant to develop and spread like wildfire,” Rowe’s lawyers wrote in a motion. “Once again, Georgians find themselves facing a steep threat from COVID-19.”

    They said jurors would be so preoccupied by the risk of infection that they are “unlikely to focus their attention where it needs to be — the evidence, jury instructions and deliberations,” the motion says.

    Rowe’s defense attorneys have said in previous court filings that he’s willing to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, the newspaper reported.

    In their motion last week, Rowe’s lawyers had asked that the trial be delayed or that the death penalty be taken off the table. But Putnam County Superior Court Judge Brenda Trammell said during a hearing Wednesday that jury selection will begin Monday as planned.

    https://apnews.com/article/health-tr...76297758fe5dc0
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #30
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    Jury selection in death penalty case to continue over holiday weekend

    Questioning of prospective jurors in the upcoming death penalty trial of accused killer Donnie Russell Rowe Jr. will continue through the majority of the Labor Day weekend, The Union-Recorder has learned.

    As of Thursday night, 23 of 57 prospective jurors had been qualified as potential trial jurors and alternates, according to Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale III.

    Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Chief Judge Brenda H. Trammell informed prosecution and defense attorneys, as well as prospective jurors and Grady County court officials that they will work Saturday and Monday, in hopes of reaching the necessary 57 prospective jurors.

    The only day anyone connected with the juror selection process will get off during the holiday weekend is Sunday. Monday morning, which will be a holiday for most millions across the country, will be a workday for court officials, attorneys and prospective jurors involved in the jury selection process in Grady County.

    Trammell has informed prospective jurors since Monday when the qualifying of prospective jurors began that they need to pack enough clothes in suitcases for at least 2 weeks if they are selected as one of the 12 jurors or 1 of the alternate jurors to hear and decide the fate of the case.

    Jurors selected for the murder trial will be sequestered for the case.

    Rowe’s trial was expected to begin Tuesday with opening statements from attorneys on both sides. Since it is taking more time to go through the jury selection process, including the striking phase, it is likely the trial won’t start until Thursday, court officials say.

    The trial will be held in Putnam County Superior Court in Eatonton.

    Rowe and co-defendant Ricky Dubose, who will be tried separately, are accused in the June 13, 2017, murders of Sgt. Curtis Billue and Sgt. Christopher Monica, both of whom worked as Georgia Department of Corrections officers assigned to the transportation department at Baldwin State Prison in Milledgeville.

    The victims were shot with their own 9mm state-issued pistols, authorities say.

    After the murders of the corrections officers, Rowe and Dubose escaped from a state prison transfer bus and went on a crime spree that took them into Madison and Morgan County and then crossed state lines into Tennessee.

    The escapees surrendered to authorities following a 3-day nationwide manhunt that was spearheaded by Putnam County Sheriff Howard R. Sills.

    During Thursday morning’s questioning of a prospective juror in Grady County Superior Court, Rowe’s lead criminal defense attorney was temporarily taken into custody on a charge of contempt of court.

    Franklin J. Hogue, of Hogue & Hogue, LLP in Macon, was found in contempt of court for failure to comply with a verbal order from the bench by Judge Trammell to stop questioning a prospective juror, and to sit down, according to Sills.

    Attempts to reach Hogue for comments through his law firm on Friday were unsuccessful.

    (source: The Union-Recorder)
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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