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Thread: Karl Douglas Roberts - Arkansas Death Row

  1. #11
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    AR death row inmate dropping appeals again

    An Arkansas death row inmate convicted of raping and killing his 12-year-old niece says he wants to be executed.

    Karl Roberts initially didn't file an appeal, but changed his mind in 2004. In Polk County court Wednesday, he told Judge J.W. Looney: "I'm ready to go."

    The Southwest Times Record newspaper of Fort Smith reported (http://bit.ly/158Nfn6) that Roberts said that while he would like to live, he has to take responsibility for the death of Andria Nichole Brewer, who died in 1999.

    Roberts' case was automatically considered by the state Supreme Court, which found that no error occurred at his trial. Justices also said Roberts was competent to waive his appeals.

    Just before his scheduled execution in January 2004, Roberts won a stay of execution in federal court.

    http://www.kait8.com/story/23476725/...-appeals-again
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  2. #12
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Arkansas man stopped from attacking daughter's killer in court

    Fifteen years after his 12-year-old daughter was raped and killed an Arkansas man tried to attack the convicted killer in a courtroom Monday, authorities said.

    The confrontation allegedly occurred after Greg Brewer flipped off his daughter Andi's murderer, and the girl’s uncle, Karl Roberts when he appeared in a Polk County courtroom, reports TV Station KFSM.

    Roberts responded to the distraught father by saying "Greg, it's all going to be O.K."

    But it wasn't.

    The remark prompted the father to jump over the partition and try to attack the man who is currently on death row.

    But officers stopped him and wrestled him to the ground before a physical confrontation could ensue.

    "I think he had just kind of had it," Andi's mother Rebecca Petty told the station. "We're just overwhelmed right now."

    Brewer was arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault, obstructing governmental operations and resisting arrest, the station reported. He was released on $730 bail.

    But the man was so enraged he had to be placed in a cell so he could calm down before he was officially booked, reports THV11.

    Roberts was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing his niece in 1999. He was in court to make a motion to waive his right to appeal and be given the death penalty, KFSM reported, His attorney argues he is not competent to make that determination.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crim...icle-1.2060529
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  3. #13
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Attorneys Argue Over Condemned Killer’s Competence To Waive Appeals

    By John Lyon
    Arkansas News Bureau

    LITTLE ROCK — Mental illness was behind an Arkansas man’s decision not to continue appealing his conviction and death sentence in the killing of a Polk County girl, his attorney argued Thursday before the Arkansas Supreme Court.

    An attorney for the state asked the Supreme Court to uphold a Polk County circuit judge’s ruling that Karl Roberts, 47, was mentally competent to make a knowing and intelligent decision to waive his appeal rights.

    The state’s top court heard oral arguments but did not immediately issue a ruling in Roberts’ case, which has been before it multiple times.

    In 2000, Roberts was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to die in the 1999 killing of his 12-year-old niece, Andria Nichole Brewer. Roberts confessed to raping and strangling the girl, whose body was found in a wooded area near Mena.

    The case was automatically appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld Roberts’ conviction. In 2003, Roberts told a judge he wished to waive further appeals and wanted to die for his crime.

    But in January 2004, hours before he was to be executed, Roberts changed his mind and authorized his attorneys to appeal his conviction and sentence. A judge stayed the execution.

    A Polk County circuit judge declined to reopen the case, so Roberts’ lawyers appealed to the state Supreme Court, which in February 2013 sent the case back to circuit court for new proceedings. The high court said a new mental evaluation was needed because the most recent evaluations of Roberts predated his decision to waive his appeals by three years.

    In December 2014, Polk County Circuit Judge J.W. Looney ruled that Roberts was competent to make a knowing and intelligent decision when he waived his right to further appeals.

    Scott Braden, attorney for Roberts, told the Supreme Court on Thursday that Roberts is actively psychotic and schizophrenic, that he hears voices talking to and about him, and that he has delusions that people are conspiring against him and using listening devices to spy on him.

    Justice Courtney Goodson noted that a psychologist who testified for the state said Roberts gave rational reasons for waiving his appeals.

    Braden said the psychologist also testified that Roberts’ rational statements were inextricably entangled with his symptoms. He said Looney ignored that expert testimony and instead substituted his own non-expert opinion based on letters written by Roberts and Roberts’ courtroom testimony.

    Goodson asked Braden if Looney wasn’t in a better position than the Supreme Court to make a judgment about Roberts’ competence, since the judge was in the same room with Roberts and able to look him in the eye.

    “For us to say that that was clearly erroneous, isn’t that a leap?” she asked.

    Braden said Looney could reject the expert testimony, but he was required to state a reason for rejecting it, and he did not.

    Ashley Priest of the state attorney general’s office told the justices Looney considered all of the testimony and evidence before him. She also said the state’s psychologist testified that Roberts’ mental illness does not make him incapable of making a rational decision.

    “He understands what it means to waive his post-conviction appeal rights,” she said.

    Chief Justice Howard Brill and Justice Josephine Hart questioned whether the circuit judge addressed all the issues that the Supreme Court intended for him to address. Priest said the high court sent the case back to the circuit for a new mental evaluation, and a new evaluation was conducted.

    Hart asked Priest if a new evaluation was the only thing the Supreme Court sent the case back for.

    “That’s my understanding, yes,” Priest said.

    The court did not say when it would rule.

    http://swtimes.com/news/attorneys-ar....RqXvsW6w.dpuf

  4. #14
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Arkansas' highest court says a death row inmate convicted of strangling the daughter of a state legislator is not competent to say he wants to die

    LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas — Arkansas' highest court says a death row inmate convicted of strangling the daughter of a state legislator is not competent to say he wants to die.

    Karl Roberts was convicted of capital murder in the killing of his niece, 12-year-old Andria Brewer, in 1999. The Arkansas Supreme Court's ruling Thursday overturns a circuit court ruling that found Roberts competent to decide between life and death, sighting a schizophrenia diagnosis.

    Roberts has several times waived his right to appeal his death sentence and been ruled competent to make that decision.

    He filed a request in 2012 to be allowed to appeal his sentence and conviction.

    Brewer's mother Rebecca Petty was elected to the Arkansas House in 2014. She sponsored a law that allows victims' family members to witness executions in person.

    http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/sto...-Schizophrenic
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  5. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Heidi View Post
    The remark prompted the father to jump over the partition and try to attack the man who is currently on death row.

    But officers stopped him and wrestled him to the ground before a physical confrontation could ensue.[/url]
    Would have been nice of the courtroom cops took their time in stopping the father getting hold of him... The uncle should have run block for the dad!!

  6. #16
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Death row inmate in court for appeals

    MENA, Ark. — Karl Douglas Roberts is scheduled to appear in the Polk County Court House on Monday for an appeals hearing.

    Roberts was convicted in 2000 of raping and murdering his 12-year-old niece, Andria Brewer.

    It's been 18 years since Brewer's murder and her family is still awaiting justice.

    Andria Brewer's mother, Rebecca Petty is expected to be in court to testify.

    Petty told 40/29 News the defense is trying to claim that buttons the family wore during the trial influenced the jury. However, Petty says they had to remove the buttons before the trial began.

    Roberts' appeals hearing is set to start at 9 a.m. The hearing is expected to last three days.

    http://www.4029tv.com/article/police...825715/9652616
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  7. #17
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    MUM'S AGONY: Death Row monster raped and strangled my girl, 12, until she bit her own tongue in half – why is he alive 20 years on?

    By Sophie Jane Evans
    The Sun

    REBECCA Petty watched the darkness fall in terror. Her 12-year-old daughter was missing and she hated the dark. If she was safe, she'd have come home by now.


    But worried Rebecca couldn't have imagined the horrific truth behind little Andi Brewer's disappearance - that she'd been raped and killed so violently by her own uncle that she'd bit her tongue in half.


    Monster Karl Roberts, then 32, was sentenced to death for kidnapping, raping and strangling Andi to death after luring his unsuspecting niece away from her rural home in Arkansas, in 1999.


    Yet 20 years on, he's still alive on Death Row, after being granted countless appeals.


    In a confession to police too vile to print in full, Roberts - nicknamed "The Devil" as a student - described how he told Andi, "I'm gonna f*** you", before stripping and raping her as she fought for her life.

    Afterwards, he "started choking her and mashing my thumbs on her throat" until she turned blue. He then hid the youngster's naked body in woodland, threw away her clothes and fled the scene.


    Now, grieving mum Rebecca is speaking out to slam the "disgusting" system that has kept Roberts living for two decades - as she reveals horrific details of her daughter's murder.


    "Roberts confessed, he did it - but he's been on Death Row for 20 years," she tells Sun Online.


    "It was a heinous thing Roberts did.

    "Andi was a little kid and she was scared and wanted to go home. When she was assaulted and brutally raped, she bit her tongue in half. That's pretty wrong - but that's the truth."


    A mischievous childhood


    Rebecca, now 49, was just 16 when she gave birth to Andi - her precious "Andit Bandit" - in April 1987. "She had the prettiest hands I'd ever seen, they were so dainty," she recalls.

    Growing up in Oklahoma, Andi was a funny, strong-willed and mischievous child who loved to make her mum, stepfather Kris and younger sisters, Melanie and Kristin, laugh.


    But when she was 10, she decided she wanted to live with her dad Greg Brewer - whom Rebecca had divorced when Andi was young and who had just had a baby with his new wife.


    "I just want to move to Arkansas so I can spend time with my new baby brother," she told her mum.


    Despite feeling heartbroken and tearful over Andi's wishes, Rebecca eventually agreed to let her daughter move to her father's countryside home, 200 miles away, for a while.


    But that decision would turn out to be the biggest regret of her life.


    Terrifying phone call


    Just a year and a half later, on May 15, 1999, Rebecca answered the phone expecting to hear Andi's voice - only to be told her little girl had vanished while babysitting her stepsiblings.

    She'd been last seen leaving her home in a small pickup truck.


    "It was so out of character - and when it got dark I knew something wasn't right," Rebecca recalls.


    By the time Rebecca arrived at the scene, the area was swarming with police, neighbours and relatives - including Greg's sister's husband, Roberts, who lived nearby.


    "I'll never ever forget seeing him," she tells us.


    "When he saw me he just started talking. I thought it was strange how he was explaining why he was there, but I was so caught up in being concerned about Andi it didn't register."


    Depraved Roberts even pretended to help with the search for his niece. But all the while he knew she was lying dead in the woods after he'd lured her away by lying that her grandparents were ill.


    "Worst moment of my life"


    Yet Roberts's facade didn't last long. He was soon identified as a suspect, with police noting that he drove a pickup truck. And on May 17, he confessed to killing his niece.

    The local sheriff broke the news to Rebecca.


    "I remember him taking his hat off," she recalls. "I knew what was going to come next. It was the worst moment of my life. You don't ever think about your child in relation to the words 'her body'."


    And more horror was still to come - as prosecutors told Rebecca rape was among Roberts's criminal charges. Until that point, she hadn't known her child had been sexually attacked.


    "It didn't commute in my mind that a 12-year-old child would be raped by a grown person," she says.


    "It was another punch to the stomach."


    Cruel change of mind


    In May 2000, Roberts was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection - despite his defence trying to claim a childhood brain injury had meant he couldn't control his actions.

    Like all Death Row convicts, he was given the right to a direct appeal after his sentencing. However, he waived his automatic right to this, insisting he wanted to die.


    Yet four years later, moments away from getting the lethal injection and with Andi's family looking on, Roberts changed his mind and said he wanted to appeal after all.


    "We drove down to the prison to see it and then at the last minute he said, 'Well I've changed my mind'. He was strapped down on the gurney," claims Rebecca, now living in Rogers, Arkansas.


    "It was very cruel."


    "Too many appeals to count"


    The lengthy appeals process is supposed to avoid innocent people being executed due to errors in the criminal justice system. Yet each appeal can throw up a dozen issues to be dealt with.
    In Roberts's case, there has been "too many appeals to count".

    "It's something that's always looming over us. It's got so bad I don't even tell my family anymore," says Rebecca, a state representative and an advocate for victims of violent crime.


    In recent years, Roberts has even started making money from Death Row by selling pieces of artwork.


    "If they're going to give the death penalty then they need to use it," Rebecca adds.


    "If not, we need to just get rid of it altogether. It's heartbreaking going back to court every time."


    Mum's grief


    Today, Rebecca thinks of Andi every day and is penning an online book 'Stolen' about her story.

    She's married to third husband William and has two beloved grandchildren - including six-year-old Emma, whom she describes as a "little Andi" both in appearance and personality.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10148143/death-row-monster-raped-and-strangled-my-girl-12-until-she-bit-her-own-tongue-in-half-why-is-he-alive-20-years-on/
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  8. #18
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Arkansas inmate cites mental illness in death penalty appeal

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas death row inmate convicted of killing a state legislator's daughter was diagnosed with schizophrenia and should not be executed, his attorney told the state Supreme Court Thursday.

    Justices heard arguments over Karl Roberts' appeal of his conviction and death sentence in the 1999 killing of his 12-year-old niece, Andi Brewer. Brewer's mother, state Rep. Rebecca Petty, has served in the Arkansas House since 2015.

    Arkansas doesn't have any executions scheduled and its supply of lethal injection drugs expired last year. The state has said it is not actively searching for lethal injection drugs.

    An attorney for Roberts told justices that the inmate's schizophrenia hampered his defense in his 2000 trial because he believed that his jailers were secretly recording him.

    “The real question is, because of that mental disease, can you effectively assist your counsel in the defense?” Scott Braden, a federal public defender representing Roberts, told the court. “And that's what we have here. Because of Mr. Roberts' mental disease, he was unable to assist his counsel.”

    The state noted that experts during Roberts' 2000 trial did not diagnose him with schizophrenia. The state also said Roberts' argument is not ready to be considered by the court because he has a separate case pending in federal court and because an execution date hasn't been set.

    Roberts' attorneys have argued that a competency test administered to Roberts before his trial was incorrectly scored and administered.

    Deputy Solicitor General Vincent Wagner told the court that Roberts' arguments don't change the fact that he confessed to Brewer's rape and murder.

    “To distract from that plain fact, he takes a kitchen sink approach” to his appeal, Wagner said.

    Justices did not indicate when they would rule.

    A separate lawsuit challenging the use of one of Arkansas' lethal injection drugs is pending in federal court. The trial in that suit wrapped up last April, but a judge hasn't ruled.

    https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/202...xecutions.html

  9. #19
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Court rejects death row inmate's mental illness claim

    Associated Press

    The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the appeal of a death row inmate who argued he shouldn’t be executed because he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

    Justices upheld a lower court’s ruling against Karl Roberts, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1999 killing of his 12-year-old niece, Andi Brewer. Brewer’s mother, Republican state Rep. Rebecca Petty, has served in the Arkansas House since 2015.

    Arkansas doesn’t have any executions scheduled and its supply of lethal injection drugs expired last year. The state has said it is not actively searching for lethal injection drugs.

    Roberts’ attorney had argued that the inmate’s schizophrenia hampered his defense during his 2000 trial because he believed that his jailers were secretly recording him.

    The court, however, said there’s no categorical prohibition on sentencing a person with schizophrenia to death. It also said his claim of incompetency wasn’t ready to be adjudicated since no execution date had been set.

    https://katv.com/news/local/court-re...-illness-claim
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  10. #20
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    On May 4, 2022, Roberts filed an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

    https://dockets.justia.com/docket/ci...ts/ca8/22-1935
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