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Thread: John Booth-El - Maryland

  1. #1
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    John Booth-El - Maryland


    Irvin and Rose Bronstein


    John Booth-El


    Facts of the Crime:

    Convicted of murdering an elderly couple, Irvin and Rose Bronstein, while robbing their home in 1984.

  2. #2
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    May 1, 2009

    On Maryland's Death Row: John Booth-El

    John Booth-El, 55, convicted of murdering an elderly couple when robbing their home in 1984, has been on death row for almost 25 years.

    Court records state that on May 19, 1983, Booth-El, with another individual, broke into the home of Irvin and Rose Bronstein, ages 78 and 75 respectively, presumably to steal money to purchase drugs. The Bronsteins were Booth’s neighbors.

    Booth bound, gagged and stabbed them multiple times with a kitchen knife, court records state.

    In 1984, Booth-El was charged in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City with the first-degree murder of the Bronsteins, two counts of robbery and one count of conspiracy. He was given the death penalty for the murder of Irvin Bronstein and was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Rose Bronstein; this sentence was reaffirmed by the Maryland Court of Appeals.

    But in 1987, his death sentence was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. The court said the prosecutor’s use of victim impact statements -- written documentation on the effect of the crime on the victim’s family that is included in every felony case in Maryland -- had biased the jury. The court ordered a new sentencing hearing in Booth-El’s case.

    In 1988, Booth-El was again sentenced to death by the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. However, the Maryland Court of Appeals overturned it because prosecutors did not allow Booth-El’s defense attorneys to tell the jury that he would soon be eligible for parole. The court ordered a new setencing hearing

    Booth-El was sentenced to death by the Circuit Court for Baltimore City for a third time in 1990. The sentence was overturned in U.S. District Court in 2001; a Maryland law in effect at the time of Booth-El’s crime said the offender’s intoxicated state should be taken into account when deciding his sentence. Because Booth-El was intoxicated at the time of his crimes, this law would have applied. But prior to Booth-El’s hearing, intoxication was removed from the law as a justifiable state and the jury was told to disregard Booth-El’s intoxication when deciding his sentence.

    His death sentence was reinstated by the Fourth Circuit Court U.S. Court of Appeals in 2003.

    Due to an appeal made to the Maryland Court of Appeals by Vernon Lee Evans, all executions in Maryland were put on hold in 2006 until the legislature approved a new protocol. The protocol is under review.

    Booth-El’s attorney, Mike Millemann, said his client has several petitions pending in Baltimore City Circuit Court.

    Booth-El is one of the five men now on Maryland’s death row.

    Source

  3. #3
    theone
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    Murder Victims' Daughter Fights For Death Penalty For 30 Years

    A hearing takes place later this week in Annapolis on a bill to repeal the death penalty, and for one local woman it marks a 30 year battle.

    It was in May, 1983, that Phyllis Bricker's parents Irvin and Rose Bronstein were murdered in their Pimlico home.

    Their killer John Booth-El is now 59-year-old and is one of five men on Maryland's death row.

    Bricker told WBAL News that she never thought her parents killer would remain alive nearly 30 years after their murder.

    Bricker is also frustrated that the Maryland General Assembly continues to debate a death penalty repeal.

    "If we don't go by the decisions in the courts, then why do we need all of the juries, and all of the money that went into that, if somebody doesn't like the death penalty in Annapolis," Bricker told WBAL News recently.

    Over the years, Bricker has attended various court hearings for her parents' killer. She has also come down to Annapolis to testify against bills that would repeal the death penalty.

    Now, as the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee prepares to hold a hearing on Thursday on a death penalty repeal, Bricker is not sure she wants to testify again.

    She is not sure she can change any minds in the Maryland General Assembly.

    "I have testified for years. This is 30 years that this has happened. I don't know if I will go to Annapolis again this Thursday because I'm familiar with the views of the people on the...committee. I know how they feel, many of them," Bricker said.

    "I don't know whether I want to go down again and be confronted with all of the anti-death penalty people."

    Four years ago, the last time lawmakers considered Governor O'Malley's bill to repeal the death penalty, Bricker and her husband waited eight hours to testify before the committee.

    She says most lawmakers had left the hearing room by the time she testified, and she called the whole process very frustrating.

    She is angry, the governor is advocating a repeal of the death penalty.

    Bricker says it is needed to provide justice to the families of murder victims. She feels justice won't be served until Booth-El is executed.

    "He probably will outlive us," Bricker added.

    http://www.wbal.com/article/97519/3/...y-For-30-Years

  4. #4
    Senior Member Member Diggler's Avatar
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    I object to a defence of "I was pissed/drunk" when I did it." Therefore I did not have the guilty mind (mens rea) for the crime.
    Unless he was forced to drink alcohol or consume drugs it should be rejected.
    I drink yet I do not commit home invasions and murder people. If I found my drinking was getting out of hand I would stop. I am responsible.
    Giving the defence of intoxication is the the thin end of the wedge as any claim thereafter can be made. Cough syrup. Xanax. Hypnotism. A bad day at work which reminded him of an abused childhood.
    I don't blame the lawyers or the accused. I blame the judiciary for even considering such a rubbish defence package.

    Diggler
    Sponsored by Rants-R-Us.

  5. #5
    Senior Member CnCP Addict Stro07's Avatar
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    Death-row inmate found dead at North Branch Correctional Institution

    A man who spent more than two decades on death row was found dead in his cell at North Branch Correctional Institution in Cumberland Sunday morning, a state corrections spokesman said.

    Corrections staff at the prison found John Booth-El, 60, unresponsive not long after an officer had spoken with him earlier in the morning, according to Mark Vernarelli, the spokesman. Booth was pronounced dead shortly afterward, despite attempts to revive him, Vernarelli said.

    The death appears to have been from natural causes, Vernarelli said. The State Medical Examiner will make an official determination after an autopsy.

    Booth-El was housed in a single cell, like other inmates with death sentences, Vernarelli said.

    Booth-El had been on death row since he was convicted in 1990 of fatally stabbing his neighbors, Irvin and Rose Bronstein, during a robbery of their Northwest Baltimore home in May 1983. His death sentence has been overturned three times, only to be reimposed.

    http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/mar...#ixzz30BN6OjZF

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