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Thread: Jody Lee Miles - Maryland

  1. #11
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    Murder Victim’s Mother Outraged By Gansler’s Request To Rescind Death Sentence

    BALTIMORE (WJZ) – A convicted killer may have his death sentence thrown out. That’s because state officials say they have no way to execute Jody Lee Miles. The victim’s family says they feel betrayed.

    Attorney General Doug Gansler says since the state doesn’t have the legal means to perform an execution, the death sentence can no longer stand.

    Her son’s killer has sat on death row for 15 years.

    “No other family should have to go through what we have been through,” said Dottie Atkinson.

    Now word that the sentence for Miles could be lessened has enraged her.

    “We get some hope each time and then all of sudden all these appeals have been in our favor and then all of a sudden we get this news that we’ve been let down,” Atkinson said.

    Atkinson’s son Edward was found shot to death on the side of a Wicomico County road in 1997.

    Miles admits to the killing.

    But now that Maryland has repealed the death penalty, defense attorneys for Miles are pushing for a new sentence.

    Gansler agrees, filing a brief asking that Miles gets life in prison without parole.

    “Life without parole is a death sentence. You are dying in jail,” Gansler said.

    Miles is one of four inmates currently on death row here in Maryland.

    A ruling could set the stage for legal battles for the other inmates.

    Gansler says since a Court of Appeals struck down Maryland’s lethal injection procedures in 2006, it’s impossible to execute anyone.

    “There would be no way upon which we could carry out the execution even if someone wanted to do that,” he said.

    Miles’ attorney argues his client deserves to be off death row.

    “There is a possibility of him going to a facility that would have more opportunities for him as an inmate to improve himself,” said Robert Biddle.

    Those are opportunities Dottie Atkinson doesn’t want to see.

    “He has admitted that he killed my son. It’s not a case of doubt,” she said.

    And she wants him to pay with his life.

    The Wicomico State’s Attorney’s Office has accused the attorney general’s office of letting the victim’s family down, releasing a statement Thursday afternoon.

    In the release, Wicomico County State’s Attorney Matthew A. Maciarello urges Gansler to reconsider his position and urges Gov. Martin O’Malley to commute the death sentence in the case.

    Maciarello also questions Gansler’s timing.

    “The fact that this move would be put into action one day after the election gives the appearance that the state is playing a political game that places politics above the interests of people who have experienced an incalculable loss,” the release states.

    Both the attorney general and defense attorneys for Miles will argue the case in front of the appellate court on Dec. 8.

    http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2014/1...eath-sentence/

  2. #12
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    Appeals court hears arguments from death row inmate

    By Pamela Wood
    The Baltimore Sun

    Maryland's second-highest court is weighing the future of Jody Lee Miles, one of four men left in limbo on death row after lawmakers abolished the death penalty.

    Lawyers for Miles and state Attorney General Doug Gansler agree that Miles can't be executed because the state no longer has the authority to carry out the death penalty. But in arguments before the Maryland Court of Special Appeals in Annapolis on Monday, Miles' lawyers and Gansler offered different suggestions of what should happen next.

    Miles' lawyers are asking for his case to be sent to a lower court for a new sentencing hearing, and they hope a jury would be able to consider either life in prison or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Gansler said Miles' sentence should be changed to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    Miles was convicted of the robbery and murder of musical theater director Edward Joseph Atkinson on the Eastern Shore in 1997.

    Maryland's death penalty had been on hold since 2006, when a court threw out the state's regulations for lethal injection, and new regulations were not written. Then in 2013, state lawmakers abolished the death penalty.

    "The sentence of death can no longer be carried out," said Robert Biddle, one of the lawyers representing Miles.

    There's no indication when the court will rule.

    Outgoing Gov. Martin O'Malley, meanwhile, has signaled that he may be weighing whether to commute the sentences of Miles and the other three men on death row. He has spoken with some of the victims' families in recent weeks, but has not indicated whether he will take action.

    http://touch.baltimoresun.com/#secti.../p2p-82224626/

  3. #13
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    Maryland Gov. commutes four death penalty sentences

    Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley says he will commute the capital sentences of the state’s last four inmates on death row to life in prison.

    In a statement released Wednesday, the outgoing Democratic governor says leaving the death sentences in place “does not serve the public good of the people of Maryland.”

    Two years ago, the state legislature abolished the death penalty, making the ultimate sentence in new cases life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    That left four previously sentenced inmates on death row.

    The governor noted in his statement that the state’s attorney general recently asserted that carrying out prior sentences would be illegal in the absence of an existing statute.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/poli...icle-1.2061877
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  4. #14
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    Miles' attorneys not giving up after governor's order

    Despite a governor's executive order changing the sentence for former death row inmate Jody Lee Miles to life without the possibility of parole, his defense attorneys aren't giving up.

    They want the chance to argue for a lesser sentence.

    Miles, now 45, formerly of Greensboro, Maryland, was convicted in 1998 of the April 2, 1997, murder of Edward Atkinson. The trial was held in Queen Anne's County Circuit Court, although the homicide took place in Mardela Springs.

    Now-former Gov. Martin O'Malley signed an executive order dated Jan. 20 changing Miles' sentence from death to life without the possibility of parole.

    "He has not applied for a change in his sentence by the Governor to life without parole and will not accept any such change in his death sentence by the Governor," Miles' attorneys, Robert W. Biddle, Erica Alsid Short and Brian Saccenti, wrote in a motion opposing this change dated Jan. 20 and filed in Queen Anne's County Circuit Court.

    Miles' attorneys express that for O'Malley to legally change Miles' sentence in this way, Miles would have had to make that request, and he did not. His lawyers also made it known to O'Malley that they were against this type of change in his sentence, the motion states.

    There's a pending Court of Appeals case, argued before the governor's announcement, in which both sides have expressed that Miles cannot be executed; however, the Attorney General's Office sees the former governor's action to change Miles' sentence to a life without the possibility of parole sentence differently.

    "Attorney General (Brian) Frosh and his office are fully prepared to defend the authority of a governor to commute death sentences," Attorney General's Office spokesman David Nitkin wrote in an email. "He's a firm believer that this was an appropriate action."

    Wicomico County Senior Assistant State's Attorney Joel Todd, who is handling the Circuit Court case, said he filed a motion asking the Circuit Court to wait to go through with proceedings relating to that case until the Court of Special Appeals releases a ruling.

    Miles' attorneys asked the Court of Special Appeals to make a decision on whether his sentence was legal, via a motion, on Jan. 29.

    Biddle said he believes if the sentence is determined to have been illegal, it has to go back to Circuit Court for a sentence determination.

    In the Circuit Court motion, Miles' lawyers state that he wants a hearing, where additional information would be able to be used to help in the sentence determination.

    "Mr. Miles contends that any change at the present time in his death sentence should come from the judicial process, not gubernatorial fiat," the motion reads.

    http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/new...ange/22811197/
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  5. #15
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    Motion filed by Jody Lee Miles dismissed

    Jody Lee Miles will now be spending his life behind bars.

    A motion filed by his attorneys to argue a lesser sentence, than life in prison without the possibility of parole has been dismissed.

    According to online documents, the Court of Special Appeals threw out the motion earlier this month.

    This decision comes on the heels of an executive order signed by Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley on January 20th.

    O'Malley formally commuted the death penalty for Miles and 3 other inmates because of the state's decision to abolish the death penalty in 2013.

    Miles was convicted of the 1997 murder of Edward Atkinson.

    The dismissal now means Miles will spend life behind bars no parole.

    http://www.wmdt.com/news/more-local-...issed/31261728
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  6. #16
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    '97 Mardela murderer still fighting for life sentence

    The fight for a life sentence isn't over for a former death row inmate convicted in a 1997 Mardela Springs homicide.

    In January 2015, the death sentence for Jody Lee Miles, now 46, was changed to a sentence of life without parole by former Gov. Martin O'Malley. In February 2015, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals dismissed an appeal and the chance to determine whether Miles' sentence was illegal following the state's repeal of the death penalty.

    But there's still a pending case in U.S. District Court, filed on Nov. 30, in which Miles is arguing for a life with the possibility of parole sentence instead. Current Gov. Larry Hogan and the State of Maryland are listed as defendants.

    Miles, formerly of Greensboro, Maryland, was convicted in 1998 of the April 2, 1997, murder of Edward Atkinson. The trial was held in Queen Anne's County Circuit Court, although the homicide took place in Wicomico County.

    Miles has been fighting to have his sentence altered in the court system for years.

    "Mr. Miles seeks a declaration that because he did not accept the Governor's change in his sentence from death to life without parole, the Governor's change in his sentence violated the Maryland Constitution, and thus should be vacated," reads a complaint in the federal case originally filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court by Miles' attorneys.

    Miles wants the constitutionality of O'Malley's actions to be considered and also to find that the change in his sentence is "without legal effect."

    But in a motion to dismiss filed by lawyers from the Attorney General's Office, the state says Miles isn't going about trying to change his sentence in the correct way. Rather than asking for declaratory judgment, he would need to file a motion to correct an illegal sentence, and that would be in Queen Anne's County Circuit Court, the attorneys wrote in the motion.

    "(U)nder Maryland law, procedures for mounting challenges to criminal sentences — of which Miles has repeatedly demonstrated his knowledge over the last nearly eighteen years of litigation surrounding his conviction and sentence — are firmly established, and do not include a civil declaratory judgment action," the motion reads.

    The state didn't have further comment on this case, as the case is pending, according to Attorney General's Office spokesman David Nitkin.

    In its response, Miles' attorneys write that the state had brought the case from state to federal court. They also write that the declaratory judgment action is the correct way to fight the governor's change of Miles' sentence.

    "Mr. Miles' sentence of life without parole is not one imposed by a court, so there is no sentencing court," the response reads.

    Miles also has a pending habeas corpus case, originally filed in 2007, pending in U.S. District Court. In this case, one of the goals is for a "new trial and/or sentencing hearing."

    It's now nearing two decades since the original crime, and Miles' fate will once again be in the hands of a judge.

    http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/new...ence/80768490/

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