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Thread: Pete Carl Rogovich - Arizona Death Row

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    Pete Carl Rogovich - Arizona Death Row




    Facts of the Crime:

    On March 15, 1992, Rogovich robbed a Super Stop Food Mart and shot and killed the clerk. He later went to the Palo Verde Trailer Park where he encountered Phyllis Mancuso and shot and killed her. He entered the home of Marie Pendergast, where he shot and killed her. After leaving the Pendergast residence, he shot and killed Rebecca Carreon in the driveway of her home. He fled on foot to a local restaurant, where he took a vehicle from an employee at gunpoint. He then robbed a Circle K store. He was later apprehended after a pursuit by local law enforcement agencies.

    Rogovich was sentenced to death on June 9, 1995.

  2. #2
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On August 15, 2008, Rogovich filed an appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over the denial of his habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cir.../ca9/08-99015/

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    Inmates sue over execution protocol

    Three inmates on Arizona’s death row have sued the governor, the state corrections director and those who conduct executions, arguing that a new execution protocol violates their constitutional rights.

    In a filing obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, the inmates’ attorneys argue that the new protocol — made public last month — gives too much discretion to Arizona Department of Corrections director Charles Ryan.

    The protocol says that Ryan can decide with which and how many drugs to execute inmates. He has also loosened requirements for those who inject the lethal drugs.

    Before, everyone on Arizona’s execution team needed to have at least one year of current experience with starting intravenous lines. Now, the protocol says that those on the execution team need only have past experience starting IV lines and that Ryan can decide whether someone on the medical team is “appropriately trained.”

    “The Department of Corrections undid the constitutional protections that were built into the previous protocol and now gives total discretion to the director,” said Dale Baich, the attorney who represents one of the inmates in the lawsuit.

    Matt Benson, a spokesman for Gov. Jan Brewer, said the governor “is confident that the procedures followed by the Arizona Department of Corrections are in accordance with state and federal law.”

    Corrections spokesman Bill Lamoreaux didn’t respond to requests for comment Monday. He said last week that the department hasn’t lowered standards in its new execution protocol and changed it merely to simplify it.

    The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Arizona on Monday, seeks to have two upcoming executions delayed as the litigation plays out. The lawsuit argues that giving Ryan discretion to execute one inmate one way and another inmate in a different way violates prisoners’ rights.

    “Clear standards must exist, and deviations from those standards result in equal protection violations,” the lawsuit says.

    Baich also argues that the last time Ryan chose an execution team, one of its members had an arrest record that didn’t come to light until after he had helped conduct the state’s past five executions by inserting IV lines.

    Court records show the team member, a Yuma-based corrections officer, had been arrested for drunken driving and public intoxication, didn’t have a medical license, and last inserted IV lines on a regular basis in the mid-1990s when he was in the military.

    It’s unclear whether the officer is still on the execution team.

    The inmates suing include Robert Henry Moormann, who is set to be executed on Feb. 29 for killing and dismembering his adoptive mother in Florence while on a “compassionate” furlough from prison. Robert Charles Towery, who was convicted of killing a man while robbing his home in 1991, is set for execution March 8 and is named in the suit.

    The third inmate suing is Pete Rogovich, who was sentenced to death for a 1992 crime spree in which he fatally shot four people and robbed two businesses. His execution hasn’t been scheduled.

    The Department of Corrections unexpectedly changed its execution protocol last month following a separate lawsuit over the qualifications of the execution team and other aspects of the way Arizona conducts its executions.

    Among the suit’s claims was that the state deviated from the previous court-approved execution protocol by using improperly vetted personnel to administer lethal injections under a sheet, away from witnesses’ view.

    Judge Neil Wake dismissed his lawsuit on Dec. 21, saying the state did not violate inmates’ constitutional rights by deviating from written execution protocol. Baich is appealing the decision.

    http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2012/...tion-protocol/

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    PETE ROGOVICH V. CHARLES L. RYAN

    In today's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals opinions, the court AFFIRMED the district court’s denial of Rogovich's petition for habeas relief.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
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    and the article.......

    18-murder-mug-inside.jpg


    Appeals court upholds conviction in 1992 Phoenix trailer-park killing spree

    WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court Tuesday rejected multiple challenges by an Arizona death-row inmate to his conviction for the 1992 murders of four people, including three who were killed in a Phoenix trailer-park “homicidal rampage.”

    Pete Carl Rogovich, 46, confessed to the killings and other crimes when caught by police on March 15, 1992, after a lengthy car chase, according to court documents.

    “I did it. I know it was wrong. I know I’ll burn in hell,” Rogovich reportedly told police.

    He presented an insanity defense, but was convicted of all counts by an Arizona jury in a seven-day trial in May 1994.

    In his latest round of appeals, Rogovich argued that his attorney at trial presented the insanity defense without his approval. He also claimed that his attorney failed to challenge prejudicial prosecution statements during closing arguments or to challenge the aggravating factors that led to the imposition of death penalty.

    But a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals flatly rejected those arguments Tuesday, saying there is no law “requiring the defendant to consent on the record to an insanity defense.” It also upheld lower court rulings that Rogovich was adequately represented at trial.

    “Of course we’re disappointed” by the decision, said Sarah Stone, Rogovich’s lawyer for his appeal. “He’s a seriously mentally ill person.”

    She said there is no question that he committed the crimes, since he never denied his actions. “The question is whether the punishment (a death sentence) is appropriate,” she said.

    “We think a life sentence is best for Mr. Rogovich, given his mental condition,” she said.

    Prosecutors could not be reached for comment on the ruling Tuesday.

    The case began on the morning of March 15, 1992, when a customer walked in to the Super Stop Market near Rogovich’s central Phoenix apartment at 8:45 a.m. and found clerk Tekleberhan Manna, 24, dead, shot once in the eye at close range. No money or goods had been taken from the store, court documents said.

    Rogovich, who had told an apartment maintenance worker that morning that he was angry with his girlfriend and would get even with her, left his apartment about 1 p.m. that day with a gun and began firing randomly. After shooting at two people in the parking lot and missing, he hopped the fence to a neighboring trailer park and began what courts described as a “homicidal rampage.”

    Rogovich shot Phyllis Mancuso, 62, in the laundry room; Rebecca Carreon, 48, in her driveway; and Marie Pendergast, 83, in her trailer. All three women died as Rogovich ran off.

    Some time later, he stole a radio station’s van at gunpoint from a promotional appearance at a restaurant. He was later seen at a convenience store in Goodyear, where he stole beer and cash before “casually” walking out and driving off in the van.

    Goodyear police spotted him about 5 p.m. and caught Rogovich after a “lengthy chase at speeds ranging from 50 to over 100 miles per hour.”

    Rogovich admitted to all the crimes, including all four killings, but said he was upset by the breakup with his girlfriend and the death of his stepfather six years earlier.

    “Of course I’m sorry. It was wrong,” he said, according to the court. “I know it, but I just snapped. I was so angry. I just couldn’t stop.”

    Despite his insanity defense he was convicted in 1994 of all charges against him: four murders, two aggravated assaults, two armed robberies and unlawful flight.

    At his sentencing a year later, his attorneys presented evidence of an abusive childhood, mental illness and drug dependencies. But the court sentenced him to death for the trailer-park killings and life in prison for Manna’s death.

    Stone said Tuesday that Rogovich’s attorneys have not decided what step to take next in the case.

  6. #6
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On December 11, 2012, the Ninth Circuit denied Rogovich's petition for an en banc rehearing.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...s/12-10225.htm

  7. #7
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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Rogovich's petition for a writ of certiorari was DENIED.

    Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
    Case Nos.: (08-99015)
    Decision Date: September 18, 2012
    Rehearing Denied: December 11, 2012

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...s/12-10225.htm

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    Lawyers for 2 Arizona death-row inmates question source of drugs for any upcoming executions

    Lawyers for two Arizona death row prisoners on Wednesday asked the state Department of Corrections for information about the source of drugs for any upcoming executions.

    Dale Baich, who oversees the federal public defender's office for the Arizona district that represents death-row inmates, sent a letter to Corrections Department Director Charles Ryan after learning that Arizona plans to use midazolam and hydromorphone in a two-drug protocol.

    Those drugs were used in a recent Ohio execution that was problematic, and the sedative midazolam was used in a botched execution Tuesday night in Oklahoma, Baich said.

    He's concerned that Arizona "intends to experiment in the same way that Ohio and Oklahoma have done," Baich said.

    Arizona officials announced last month that the state was changing from a single drug for executions to a two-drug combination because it is no longer able to obtain the previous drug pentobarbital.

    The previous 11 executions conducted by the state since 2011 used pentobarbital, but its sole manufacturer has refused to sell it to states for use in executions.

    Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne has said state law blocks release of the new drugs' supplier.

    But Baich's letter asks Ryan for information about the source of the drugs, the manufacturer or compounder of the drugs and the method by which Arizona selected midazolam and hydromorphone.

    Last year, a federal judge ordered the Corrections Department to turn over information on the source of the drugs that were going to be used to execute two death-row inmates in October.

    State prosecutors already have asked the Arizona Supreme Court to order the execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood III.

    Wood, 55, was sentenced to death for the 1989 killings of his estranged girlfriend and her father at a Tucson auto-body shop.

    Defense lawyers say Pete Carl Rogovich also has exhausted his appeals, although the state hasn't asked the Arizona Supreme Court for a warrant of execution yet. Rogovich, 48, received the death penalty for a 1992 crime spree in which he fatally shot four people and robbed two businesses at a Phoenix trailer park.

    http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/sto.../#.U2GyEqJmH9c
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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