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Thread: Zolo Agona Azania - Indiana

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    Zolo Agona Azania - Indiana






    INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A man convicted of killing a Gary police officer in 1981 can face the death penalty for a third time, but he can't be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled.

    The 3-2 ruling Wednesday clarified which version of the state's death penalty law applied to Zolo Agona Azania.

    The court in May reversed a trial court ruling and found that prosecutors could seek the death penalty again against Azania, but left attorneys wondering if he might also be eligible for life in prison without parole.

    The court said Wednesday that he would not, because that law specifically states that it is available only in cases where defendants committed their crimes after June 30, 1993.

    In 2002, the General Assembly changed the law so that judges must abide by jury findings in capital cases. The court said Azania must be sentenced under those rules.

    Allen County juries sentenced Azania, formerly known as Rufus Averhart, to death twice for killing Gary police Lt. George Yaros during a bank robbery. The state Supreme Court overturned the sentences but upheld the conviction.

    The Azania case has dragged on for more than two decades after the sentencing phases of his trial were marred with controversy. His first death sentence in 1982 was overturned because of ineffective defense attorneys. The second, in 1996, was disallowed after officials discovered a computer glitch that limited the number of blacks eligible for jury service in Allen County. Azania is black.

    The case was moved to Allen County because of pretrial publicity in northwestern Indiana.

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    Allen County to host man's third trial in Gary cop killing ---- Zolo Agona Azania's 2 previous death sentences have been overturned

    A third Allen County jury will be asked to decide the death penalty case of a man accused of killing a Gary police officer in 1981.

    Allen Superior Court has set Oct. 20 to begin the retrial of Zolo Agona Azania. The Indiana Supreme Court ruled last November to overturn 2 previous death sentences by Allen County juries against Azania. Azania sought to be resentenced under the pre-2002 death penalty statute, which would have allowed a jury to impose a term of years or life without parole as a sentence. His defense counsel argued that prosecutors should be barred from seeking the death penalty again because the passage of time would hinder his defense. Attorney Michael Deutsch told the high court in June 2006 that several witnesses who could provide mitigating evidence were dead, and some physical evidence was now missing.

    Azania, formerly known as Rufus Averhart, was sentenced to death twice in the killing of Gary police Lt. George Yaros during a bank robbery. The case was moved to Allen County because of pretrial publicity in Gary.

    The state Supreme Court ruled he will be resentenced under the post-2002 death penalty statute but cannot receive life without parole.

    (Source: The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel)

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    On Friday, Tim Yaros made the hardest decision of his life.

    It was a decision that could keep his father's killer behind bars for the rest of his life.

    "He hid behind the judicial system all these years," Yaros, 54, said Friday night. "He hid behind guns. He never gave my dad a fair shot."

    Twice sentenced to death before, Zolo Agona Azania, 53, formerly known as Rufus Averhart, was to face his third death penalty sentencing trial beginning Monday in Fort Wayne. Twice before, in two separate decades, his death sentences had been overturned.

    Azania shot Gary police Lt. George Yaros three times outside Gary National Bank at 37th Avenue and Broadway in 1981. The third shot came after he had taken Yaros' gun away.

    Azania changed his name in prison and, for a time, became a cause celebre to death penalty opponents. He has his own Web site in three languages where he is billed as an "artist" on "Death Row U.S.A."

    Tim Yaros' oldest son was born five weeks after Lt. Yaros, his grandfather, was slain. He and his two siblings never knew him.

    On Friday, Tim Yaros was given the choice of having prosecutors again seek the death penalty or a 74-year sentence. If they failed to secure the death penalty, Azania would have been eligible for parole in three years under sentencing in force in 1982.

    "My mom always wanted to see closure and that weighed heavily in my decision," Yaros said from his Valparaiso home in an emotional voice Friday night.

    His mother is now 83 and struggling with health problems, but now she knows her husband's killer will never get out of jail.

    Yaros hopes Azania has to serve out the entire 74-year sentence. But under Indiana law, Azania could be paroled in as little as 10 years from now.

    Yaros said that is what made the decision particularly difficult.

    Yaros said he talked with several Gary police officers and they backed his decision. Most all who worked with his father are now retired. An eyewitness to the shooting is long dead.

    Only three of seven pallbearers at his father's funeral are still alive, Yaros said.

    Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter said the decision to offer a plea agreement to Azania was based in part on the passage of time, which resulted in many witnesses being unavailable.

    "The agreed sentence of 74 years in no way diminishes the sacrifice made by Lt. Yaros to protect the citizens of Gary and Lake County," Carter said.

    Yaros said he was deeply grateful to police officers, prosecutors and everyone who had supported him, his wife, children and mother through the years.

    Azania was convicted of murder and felony murder in 1982 as the triggerman in Yaros' death during the bank robbery done with two accomplices. Azania was sentenced to death.

    That sentence was overturned by the Indiana Supreme Court in 1993, when it found he did not have adequate legal representation. In 1996, the death penalty phase was retried and he was again sentenced to death.

    That sentence was overturned by the Indiana Supreme Court in 2002, because of a computer glitch in Allen County that caused blacks to be underrepresented on juries there. Azania is black.

    (Source: Nwi.com)

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    Man sentenced to death twice for murder of Gary cop to be freed

    By Lisa Chavarria
    Fox 32 Chicago

    SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE - A man who was sentenced to death twice for the murder of a Gary police officer will soon be a free man.

    Despite spending three decades in prison, he still claims he is innocent.

    Zolo Azania is set to be released from an Indiana prison on Monday. Back in 1981, he was known as Rufus Lee Averhart, a bank robber who shot and killed the man who stood between him and $91-thousand dollars in a heist.

    Now, the family of murdered Gary police lieutenant George Yaros is preparing for his release.

    The family of the lieutenant told the Sun Times they're not sure how they would react seeing his convicted killer on the street.

    Zolo Azania escaped the death penalty twice thanks to the Indiana Supreme Court.

    In an interview with the Sun Times, Yaros' son recalls his father's last words to him.

    "He said you take care of Lavonne. He said the most important thing in your life is your family and that baby. That's the last thing he ever told me,” said Tim Yaros.

    Azania denies killing the lieutenant, only saying he was an accomplice. But according to the Sun Times, authorities said witnesses identified Azania as the man in the blue suit who they saw kill Yaros.

    "I'm not trying to absolve myself in this situation and I'm not trying to point the finger at anyone else. I just accept my own responsibility. I cannot change what has happened. The best thing I can do is pull my life together and move forward and try to do something to give back,” Azania said.

    http://www.fox32chicago.com/news/crime/233657122-story
    "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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    Cop killer released from Ind. prison

    GARY, Ind. — After 35 years behind bars, a convicted cop killer is out of prison.

    In 1981, Zolo Azania, formally known as Rufus Averhart, and two other men were robbing a bank when police responded to the scene, CBS Chicago reported.

    As Lt. George Yaros, 57, approached the men, the suspects opened fire on the officer. Witnesses said Azania shot Yaros in the chest as he lay wounded on the ground.

    Azania was convicted and sentenced to death in 1981, but his death penalty was overturned twice by the Indiana Supreme Court. He was then sentenced to 74 years in prison.

    He admitted he was an accomplice, but claimed he did not shoot Yaros.

    The killing wasn’t the first on Azania’s record. He pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for the killing of another man during a botched robbery in 1972, according to the news station.

    Before the third death penalty trial in the Yaros killing, the officer’s family agreed to drop the capital punishment request if Azania accepted a 74-year sentence, ABC 7 reported.

    Officials said he was released Monday from prison for good behavior. But Yaros’ son Tim told ABC 7 he doesn’t believe Azania has changed.

    "I just don't think justice was served,” Tim said. “All the times we went to Indianapolis for Supreme Court hearings, he would come out in the shackles, but he would never look me in the eye, not one time. He would never look at anyone in our family.”

    Azania, now 61, claims his innocence to this day.

    “Now he’s getting a third chance,” Tim said. “I don’t think he deserves any chance whatsoever.”

    https://www.correctionsone.com/priso...om-Ind-prison/

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