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Thread: Christopher Lynn Johnson - Pennsylvania Death Row

  1. #21
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Adams death-penalty trial starts Monday

    Both the prosecution and the defense have spent close to two years building their cases.

    An out-of-town jury was selected, many witnesses and experts will be brought in to testify, and the fate of a man accused of killing a wildlife conservation officer on a November night in 2010 will be decided.

    The trial of Christopher L. Johnson, 29, of Carroll Valley, is scheduled to start Monday morning in Adams County court.

    Johnson faces the death penalty for allegedly shooting and killing Wildlife Conservation Officer David L. Grove after he pulled him over on suspicion of illegally shooting a deer.

    Adams County District Court Administrator Donald Fennimore said this will be the first death penalty trial in Adams County since 1999 when Edward Siebor III faced charges in the murders of Phillip Hoover, and his wife, Rachel.

    Capital trials are never an easy thing for anyone involved, especially, perhaps, the jury.

    "The jury has the unenviable task of deciding 'does he get life or death?'" said University of Pittsburgh law professor John Burkoff. "It's almost always traumatic, and they are almost always tragic. And it's almost always sad, too."

    Death penalty trials

    Death-penalty trials come in two phases - the guilt phase and the capital-sentencing hearing.

    Burkoff explained that the guilt phase is conducted like a typical trial. The prosecution lays out its case before a jury, then the defense gets a chance to present its side.

    After the parties make their closing arguments, the jury deliberates, and comes to a unanimous verdict of either "guilty" or "not guilty."

    But in death-penalty trials in which the jury comes back with a guilty verdict, the case enters a capital sentencing hearing in which a different defense attorney has a chance to present mitigating evidence to the jury, explaining why the now-convicted defendant committed the crime, Burkoff said.

    This phase can include testimony from family members, clergymen, former teachers, friends and anyone who knew the defendant well, and can help the defense outline the circumstances of the defendant's past that Burkoff said do not excuse his actions, but may help explain them. Testimony could cover childhood traumas, addictions or psychological problems that did not give rise to a good insanity defense.

    "Even when we have a defendant who is clearly guilty, and clearly deserves severe punishment, it's often the case we see the factors in his life that led him to do it," Burkoff said.

    The prosecution has a chance to counter those mitigating circumstances by laying out the aggravating factors that led to the death penalty being sought in the first place.

    Then it's in the hands the jury, who must unanimously decide whether to impose the death penalty. They have only two options - death, or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    "It's pretty awful to be picked as a juror, then have to decide if someone lives or dies," Burkoff said. "It's a tough burden to place on ordinary people.

    The Johnson case

    Johnson is accused of shooting and killing Grove on Nov. 11, 2010.

    According to court documents, Grove pulled over Johnson's vehicle on Schriver Road on suspicion Johnson had illegally shot a deer. Johnson allegedly told his passenger, Ryan Laumann, of Fairfield, that it was illegal for him to carry a gun because he was a felon, and he did not want to go to jail again.

    Johnson got out of the truck, and exchanged fire with Grove, who was pronounced dead at the scene, court documents indicate.

    Johnson, who was wounded, fled, dropping off Laumann along the way.

    Following a nightlong manhunt, Johnson was arrested the next morning on a trail off Orrtanna Road.

    Johnson faces charges of murder in the first and third degrees, persons not to possess firearms, flight to avoid apprehension, firearms not to be carried without a license, possessing an instrument of crime, resisting or interfering with an officer, unlawful use of lights while hunting, and unlawful taking of big game.

    Judge Michael A. George is presiding over the case. He issued an order this week limiting the number of members of the public who can watch the trial. Each morning at 8 a.m., 42 public passes will be made available.

    Additionally, President Judge John D. Kuhn banned firearms, with limited exceptions, from the courthouse.

    Fennimore said the trial is slated to last two weeks, but the court is prepared if it goes longer.

    The last death penalty trial

    Often in death-penalty cases, a plea agreement is reached just short of trial, or sometimes in the middle of it, which Burkoff said could be an ideal situation for both sides.

    "The defense counsel is in a situation where they would be saving their client's life, and the prosecutor would be guaranteeing a conviction and guaranteeing this defendant never sees the light of day outside of prison ever again," Burkoff said.

    That's what happened in Adams County's last death penalty trial.

    In that case, Fennimore said, the death penalty trial began for Edward Siebor III in 1999, but Siebor took a plea before the trial concluded.

    Siebor and his brother, Joseph Siebor, pleaded guilty to murdering an Abbottstown couple at the couple's home in 1994. Their arrests came five years after the murders.

    Though the death penalty can be sought by prosecutors in first-degree murder cases, no one has been executed in Pennsylvania since 1999.

    The last case heard in Adams County resulting in execution was a half-century ago, when the Montgomery County homicide case against Elmo Smith was moved to Adams County. Smith was convicted of the 1959 brutal rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl, and was executed in the electric chair in 1962.

    http://www.eveningsun.com/news/ci_21...-starts-monday
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  2. #22
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    Johnson trial enters second week

    The trial of a man accused of killing a wildlife conservation officer will enter its second week in Gettysburg Monday.

    Prosecutors allege Christopher Johnson shot and killed WCO David Grove in November of 2010, after Grove pulled him over for a suspected case of poaching. Prosecutors claim Johnson shot at Grove because he didn't want to go back to prison.

    Johnson's lawyers argue that he was too drunk to form the intent to kill.

    On Friday, prosecutors said if Johnson was coordinated enough to drive to the scene, pull his gun out, and shoot Officer Grove in the back of the head, he was sober enough to know what he was doing.

    Prosecutors also said Grove was shot at 15 times.

    If Johnson is convicted he could face the death penalty.

    http://www.abc27.com/story/19680754/...rs-second-week
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  3. #23
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    Deliberations to begin in Pa. game warden case

    Jurors in central Pennsylvania will soon begin weighing the fate of a man charged with killing a state game warden.

    Defense attorneys acknowledge Christopher Johnson fatally shot Wildlife Conservation Officer David Grove. But they say Johnson was too drunk to form the intent to kill.

    Investigators say Johnson had poached a deer before Grove pulled him over near Gettysburg in November 2010. A passenger testified that Johnson vowed he wouldn't go back to prison before the shootout that left Grove dead and Johnson wounded.

    Prosecutors are seeking a first-degree murder conviction, which could carry the death penalty. Defense lawyers argued for third-degree murder, which could mean a possible 40-year sentence.

    The defense rested Monday without calling Johnson to testify. The jury is expected to begin deliberating Tuesday.

    http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/D...#ixzz288SlzsGw
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  4. #24
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    Johnson convicted of first-degree murder in Pa. wildlife officer's death

    A deer poacher has been convicted of first-degree murder in the slaying of the Pennsylvania game warden who pulled him over.

    The jury deliberated for less than hour Tuesday before delivering the verdict against Christopher Johnson. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty.

    http://www.herald-mail.com/news/tris...,2902271.story
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  5. #25
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    Jury hears from family of slain Pa. game warden

    The mother of a central Pennsylvania game warden slain in the line of duty says her son loved his job and being outdoors.

    Lucy Grove testified Wednesday in Adams County at the death-penalty hearing for her son's killer.

    A jury is weighing whether Christopher Johnson should be executed or spend life in prison without parole for killing wildlife conservation officer David Grove in 2010.

    Johnson was convicted of murder Tuesday for fatally shooting Grove during a poaching investigation near Gettysburg.

    Johnson's mother also testified Wednesday. According to the Evening Sun (http://bit.ly/QrZHsi), Kim Topper said her son is a good person who suffered from depression and had a hard life.

    She says that he has been a loving father to his 8-year-old daughter.

    The hearing is continuing Wednesday afternoon.

    http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/03/487...#storylink=cpy
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    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  6. #26
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    Expert explains how a jury decides death penalty

    An Adams County jury is now deliberating on whether or not Christopher Johnson should be executed for the 2010 murder of a wildlife officer. A death penalty expert says they must decide whether his life circumstances should exclude him from the death penalty.

    In Pennsylvania, the death penalty is decided by a jury - unlike other sentences - explained Jules Epstein, an associate law professor at Widener Law.

    "[The legislature decided that] this punishment is so severe that it should be decided by a body representative of the community," Epstein said.

    During jury selection, all jurors said they would be willing to give fair consideration to both the death penalty and a life sentence.

    Earlier this week, the jury convicted Johnson of intentionally killing an on-duty Wildlife Conservation Officer. Prosecutors say Johnson, who was a convicted felon, was not allowed to carry a gun and killed Grove because he did not want to go back to jail.

    In order for the jury to sentence Johnson to death, they must unanimously agree that prosecutors proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, that an aggravating circumstance surrounded the murder. These circumstances are varied and set forth in the law. For example, a murder would have occurred in an aggravating circumstance if it happened during another violent crime, such as a rape.

    In Johnson's case, prosecutors say there were four aggravating circumstances. First, Johnson had previous felony convictions involving potential violence. Second, he murdered Grove while convicting a felony (possessive a firearm when he was not supposed to). Third, he killed an on-duty officer and, fourth, he killed Grove to prevent him from testifying against him.

    "Without an aggravating factor, the death penalty is out of the question," Epstien said.

    But, if the jury believes prosecutors have proved even one of these circumstances, they may sentence Grove to death.

    However, that's not the end for Johnson.

    Epstein said evidence about the defendant's life prior to the incident can be considered. This could be anything from the fact that a person served in the military, has brain damage or cured cancer.

    In Johnson's case, his family said his life should be spared since he was abandoned by his father as a child and fell into the wrong crowd as a teenager. Despite that, they say he became a loving father to his daughter even when he suffered bouts of depression and alcoholism.

    Johnson himself even took the stand and apologized for murdering Grove.

    Having heard testimony from both sides, the jury must decide if the aggravating circumstances outweigh the plea of Johnson, his friends and family.

    In other words, they must answer this question: Does the fact that his father abandoned him and the fact that he apologized mean he deserves to be spared the death penalty?

    Epstein said each juror must weigh the testimony on an imaginary scale. If each and every juror decides that the scale tips in favor of the death penalty, they must sentence Johnson to death. If the opposite happens, Johnson will spend life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    If the jurors cannot agree, Johnson will automatically spend life in prison. If they unanimously decide to sentence him to death, his case will automatically be appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

    "There will be significant review [before he is executed]," Epstein said.

    http://www.abc27.com/story/19739114/...death-penalthy
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  7. #27
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    Jury sentences convicted officer killer to death

    Deliberations took a Lancaster County jury just about four hours in the penalty phase of Christopher Johnson. The decision was death for the convicted killer. The Adams County man killed Wildlife Conservation Officer David Grove in 2010 and now he will pay the ultimate price.

    Johnson was convicted by the same jury on Tuesday of killing Officer Grove during a shootout in Adams County in November 2010. Grove stopped Johnson for illegally poaching deer. A 25-round shootout ensued with Grove taking four bullets, including a fatal shot to the upper body.

    Johnson took the stand in the penalty phase of the trial yesterday where he apologized to Officer Grove's family for the killing. The 29-year-old Carroll Valley man told Grove's family that nothing he can do will ever bring the officer back and he has to live with that for the rest of his life.

    "Probably the toughest part is hearing the words death, when you've seen a son for 29 years, he's a special child and it's hard to let go of anybody," said Ronald Johnson, Christopher Johnson's father.

    "We feel that based on the facts that were presented in this case that the verdict is the right verdict that it's a just verdict and most importantly I think it speaks to the memory of David Grove," said Adams County District Attorney Shawn Wagner.

    The jury had to weigh conflicting testimony from medical experts. A defense psychologist told the jury that Johnson suffered from depression and alcohol related problems. But a prosecution psychiatrist testified that Johnson was well aware of his actions and even tried to cover up the crime after the shooting of Grove.

    Testimony in the penalty phase of the case lasted about a day and a half before the Lancaster County based jury returned the decision in favor of death.

    The jury was brought from Lancaster in to Adams County because of the publicity of the case.

    No word on whether the defense plans to appeal the decision.

    Pennsylvania has not executed an inmate in 13 years. The last prisoner executed for his crimes dates back to 1999. Since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, Pennsylvania has executed only three men. All three of those cases, the inmates waived their appeals and asked for the executions be carried out.

    http://www.fox43.com/news/wpmt-death...,3168532.story

  8. #28
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    Adams County death row inmate appeals sentence

    A Carroll Valley man on death row is appealing his sentence to the state supreme court, according to court documents filed by the Adams County Public Defender's office.

    Legal counsel for Christopher Lynn Johnson, 30, will appear March 11 before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania's Eastern District in Philadelphia to make arguments for the appeal.

    Johnson was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in October 2012 for the 2010 killing of David Grove, a wildlife conservation officer for the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

    Johnson's legal counsel, Adams County Chief Public Defender Kristin Rice, said the trial court made several errors during the penalty phase of Johnson's conviction surrounding what was allowed and rejected as evidence.

    The trial court should not have allowed prosecutors to introduce into evidence Johnson's 2005 endangering the welfare of a child conviction, Rice argued. And the trial court should have admitted Johnson's remorse statements, she said.

    Johnson's statements made in an ambulance ride the night of the shooting should have been suppressed, Rice said, claiming he was hypothermic, dehydrated, in pain and under the influence of morphine.

    Additionally, the trial court should have declared a mistrial after the prosecution invited comparison of Grove's life with that of Johnson's during opening statements in the penalty phase, Rice said.

    "The prosecutor exposed and invited for the jury's consideration the elephant in the room: the legally improper but all-too-human tendency to compare one life against another, to attribute value or lack thereof to what is incapable by mortals of valuation," the appeal states.

    While Adams County President Judge Michael George instructed against weighing the value of one life against another, Rice said she thought the prosecutor's statement was prejudicial.

    Adams County District Attorney and lead prosecutor Shawn Wagner declined to comment on the appeal.

    On Johnson's behalf, Rice filed post-sentence motions in October 2012 followed by a brief the following year.

    Johnson is incarcerated in a state correctional institute in Greene County. Johnson's was the first death-penalty trial in Adams County since 1999. Since Pennsylvania reinstated the death penalty in 1978, only three prisoners have been executed.

    The state Supreme Court reviews each death-penalty case following sentencing, and can either uphold the sentence or vacate it and impose a life sentence instead, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

    If the Supreme Court affirms a sentence, the case goes to the office of the governor, who may set an execution date by singing a governor's warrant.

    Since 1990, all executions have been carried out by lethal injection at the state prison at Rockview in Centre County.

    http://www.eveningsun.com/local/ci_2...peals-sentence
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  9. #29
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    State Supreme Court hears Adams County death-row appeal arguments

    Christopher Johnson was given the death penalty in 2012 for the 2010 killing of David Grove, a wildlife conservation officer

    By Mark Walters
    The Evening Sun

    PHILADELPHIA - An Adams County death-row inmate is now at the mercy of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court after the court's seven justices heard arguments from defense counsel and prosecutors surrounding a sentence appeal.

    Adams County Public Defender Kristin Rice argued that Christopher Johnson, 30, of Carroll Valley, should be taken off death row or given a new sentence hearing based on several errors made by the trial court during the penalty phase of his conviction.

    Johnson was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in October 2012 for the 2010 killing of David Grove, a wildlife conservation officer for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, in the line of duty.

    Rice argued that Adams County District Attorney and lead prosecutor Shawn Wagner aroused the passions and prejudices of jurors with a prejudicial statement during the 2012 hearing when he invited jurors to draw comparisons of Grove's life with that of Johnson's.

    Rice wanted a mistrial declared during Wagner's opening statements of the sentence hearing. Instead, Adams County President Judge Michael George instructed jurors against weighing the value of one life against another.

    But Rice argued that regardless of what the judge said, Wagner's statement could not be erased from jurors' minds.

    "A bell that has been rung cannot be un-rung," Rice told the state's Supreme Court justices Tuesday

    Rice's assertion was discussed by the court, with Justice Thomas Saylor saying that lives cannot be weighed against each other. That has been determined by the Supreme Court more than once, he said.

    But Justice Debra McCloskey Todd noted that Wagner did not precisely make a comparison of one life over another.

    "He asked if any of the mitigation outweighs the crime," said Justice J. Michael Eakin.

    Wagner, who was represented by Robert Falin, assistant district attorney for Montgomery County, said after the hearing he is confident that Judge George's dismissal of Johnson's appeal will be upheld by the Supreme Court.

    "What I did in my opening argument was say that the life of David Grove was taken," Wagner said outside of court today. "A police officer's life was taken in the line of duty. I don't think the statement itself was wrong."

    Wagner said he took that aggravating factor and invited the jury to compare it to whatever evidence was taken in mitigation.

    "They had to weigh aggravating and mitigating factors," Wagner said of the jury that was sequestered from Lancaster County for the three-week trial. "When we opened the penalty phase, we had already proven at that point the aggravating factor that a law enforcement officer was purposely killed in the line of duty."

    Rice and Sean Mott, assistant public defender for Adams County, argued three other factors Tuesday on behalf of Johnson.

    In the penalty phase, the jury was not allowed to consider Johnson's intoxication because the judge had instructed the standard of intoxication was the same as it was in the guilt phase, Rice said, declaring the "catch all" an error.

    In the guilt phase, the defendant has to be drunk to the point of not knowing what he is doing at all, while the penalty phase's standards for intoxication are not as high, Rice said.

    Johnson's 7-year-old conviction for endangering the welfare of his daughter, now 7, should not have been submitted as character evidence, Mott maintained, because she was likely too young to remember the events from 2005.

    But Eakin said the girl's memory is not relevant to what Johnson did in 2010. Johnson's 2005 endangering the welfare of a child conviction came after he was driving the back roads of Adams County at 100 mph to the point of a felony, Eakin said.

    "He doesn't get to get up and say 'I'm father of the year, even though I'm convicted of child abuse," said Justice Max Baer.

    Rice also argued the trial court should have admitted Johnson's statements of remorse for the jury to consider.

    But Eakin pointed out that Johnson wanted a jury trial, his Constitutional right, but not one exercised out of the same side of the mouth as "I'm sure sorry."

    It could take the Supreme Court up to a year to render a decision on Johnson's appeal, Rice said before Tuesday's oral arguments.

    Johnson is incarcerated in a state correctional institute in Greene County. Johnson's was the first death-penalty trial in Adams County since 1999. Since Pennsylvania reinstated the death penalty in 1978, three prisoners have been executed.

    The state Supreme Court reviews each death-penalty case following sentencing, and can either uphold the sentence or vacate it and impose a life sentence instead, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. If the Supreme Court affirms a sentence, the case goes to the office of the governor, who may set an execution date by signing governor's warrant.

    http://www.eveningsun.com/local/ci_2...unty-death-row

  10. #30
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    Pennsylvania v. Johnson

    Opinion Date: December 30, 2014

    Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

    Appellant Christopher Johnson appealed the sentence of death he received for first-degree murder and related charges in the 2010 shooting death of Officer David Grove. Grove was patrolling an area near Gettysburg National Military Park when he saw appellant's car stopped near the Battlefield. Grove was later discovered by a fellow officer, shot three times, including a fatal shot to the back of the neck. Appellant raised multiple issues on appeal to the Supreme Court, but finding no reversible error, and that the evidence sufficiently supported the sentence, the Supreme Court affirmed appellant's sentence of death.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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