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Thread: Dale Wayne Eaton - Wyoming

  1. #21
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Federal judge rules Wyoming's lone death row inmate deserves hearings on his claims

    A federal judge has ruled Wyoming's lone death row inmate is entitled to new hearings on his claims that he didn't receive an adequate defense at trial in state court.

    U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson of Cheyenne on Thursday ordered that Dale Wayne Eaton deserves new federal hearings to develop evidence.

    Eaton is challenging the constitutionality of the state death sentence he received in the 1988 rape and murder of 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell of Billings, Mont.

    Eaton's current lawyers say his trial lawyers failed to research Eaton's background and made an inadequate argument that he deserved only a life sentence. State lawyers maintain Eaton received a fair trial.

    Cheyenne lawyer Terry Harris represents Eaton and declined comment Friday. The Wyoming Attorney General's Office doesn't comment on pending cases.

    http://www.therepublic.com/view/stor...ton-Execution/
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  2. #22
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    Lawyers: Hearing on Eaton's claims next year

    Lawyers say it will take until July 2013 to prepare for a federal court hearing on claims by Wyoming's lone death row inmate that he didn't receive a fair trial in state court.

    U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson in early May ruled that inmate Dale Wayne Eaton deserves to call witnesses to testify about his claims, including his allegation that his trial lawyer was ineffective.

    Eaton is challenging the constitutionality of the state death sentence he received in the 1988 rape and murder of 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell of Billings, Mont. Eaton's current lawyers don't dispute he killed Kimmell, who was abducted while driving alone across Wyoming.

    Casper District Attorney Mike Blonigen prosecuted Eaton in 2004. He says he doesn't understand why Eaton's federal appeal can't move faster.

    http://trib.com/news/state-and-local...#ixzz1xWkblLVq
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  3. #23
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    D.A. gripes on pace of Eaton appeal

    The former Riverton resident is Wyoming's only death-row inmate.

    CHEYENNE -- The prosecutor who secured the death penalty conviction for the former Riverton man who is Wyoming's lone death row inmate doesn't see why the condemned man's appeal is moving so slowly.

    Lawyers for Dale Wayne Eaton and the state Attorney General's Office filed papers last week saying it will take until July 30, 2013, to prepare for a federal court hearing on Eaton's claims that he didn't receive a fair trial in state court.

    Eaton is challenging the constitutionality of the death sentence he received for the 1988 rape and murder of Lisa Marie Kimmell, of Billings, Mont. Eaton's lawyers don't dispute that he killed the 18-year-old.

    Eaton lived in Riverton as a youth as was at Riverton High School with the class of 1965.

    Casper District Attorney Mike Blonigen, who prosecuted Eaton in 2004, said he doesn't understand why Eaton's appeal can't move faster. Eaton appealed to federal court in 2009 after the Wyoming Supreme Court upheld his death sentence.

    "This is what I've said before: some people say in Wyoming we don't have the death penalty, we have the death sentence," Blonigen said. "It's 2004 to 2013. That will put it nine years after the completion of the trial."

    Blonigen said it's clear that reviewing capital cases requires great care.

    "This is the most important level of federal review of the state action," he said. "But nine years? In a case where nobody's arguing this man is innocent?"

    U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson ruled in May that Eaton deserves to call witnesses to testify about his claims, including his allegation that his trial lawyer, Wyatt Skaggs, was ineffective. Skaggs has declined comment on Eaton's allegations.

    Kimmell was abducted while driving alone from Colorado to Cody. A fisherman later found her body in the North Platte River. The investigation stalled until 2002, when DNA evidence linked Eaton to the case while he was in prison on unrelated charges.

    Investigators later unearthed Kimmell's car on Eaton's property near Moneta.

    At a hearing last summer, Eaton attorney Sean O'Brien said that the issue in the appeal is a life sentence versus the death penalty. "We're not saying that an innocent man here has been convicted of a crime," he said.

    Blonigen said the delay would be "very difficult on the victims' families. They're just in limbo again on what's going to happen. There must be some way to streamline this process without affecting somebody's right to a fair hearing. But it hasn't been done in the United States so far."

    The judge also ruled last month that Eaton could look into whether his trial team failed to investigate "mitigation evidence" -- things about his past or mental condition that would underscore his humanity and possibly convince a juror not to impose the death penalty.

    Johnson dismissed Eaton's request to investigate other claims, including his allegation that Blonigen failed to disclose that a witness who testified against Eaton had reached a deal with federal prosecutors for leniency in another case.

    David Delicath, deputy Wyoming attorney general, said it would take so long to hold a hearing on Eaton's appeal largely because his attorneys want that much time to gather information.

    "So regardless of whether the state is ready to go sooner than that, the timing, well it's up to the court ultimately, but it's driven largely by the needs of Mr. Eaton and his attorneys," Delicath said.

    Eaton's lawyers, Terry Harris of Cheyenne and O'Brien, of Missouri, didn't immediately return calls seeking comment Monday.

    The same legal team succeeded a few years ago in overturning the death sentence for James Harlow, who was convicted in the stabbing death of a correctional officer at the state penitentiary in Rawlins. The lawyers are raising claims in Eaton's case similar to those that brought them victory in Harlow's case.

    U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer of Cheyenne ruled in 2008 that Harlow was denied a fair trial in state court because of conflicts between his trial lawyer, Keith Goody, and a former state public defender. Brimmer also ruled that the state Public Defender's Office had failed to give Harlow's trial team enough money to prepare a proper mitigation case for Harlow.

    http://dailyranger.com/story.php?sto...f-Eaton-appeal
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  4. #24
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Judge: no mental evaluation of Wyoming death row inmate

    A federal judge has denied a request from the state of Wyoming to have a mental health expert examine the state's lone death row inmate.

    U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson of Cheyenne on Friday ruled that lawyers for the state can review a report from a psychiatrist retained by inmate Dale Wayne Eaton's legal team once it's finished in coming months.

    Johnson said he wouldn't let the state's own expert examine Eaton. Johnson has set a hearing for this summer on Eaton's claims he didn't get a fair trial.

    The 59-year-old Eaton is challenging the constitutionality of the death sentence he received for the 1988 rape and murder of Lisa Marie Kimmell, of Billings. Eaton's lawyers don't dispute that he killed the 18-year-old woman.

    http://billingsgazette.com/news/stat...#ixzz2OIxcRUws
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  5. #25
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Do any of you know on what grounds Judge Johnson would flat out refuse to let the state's expert examine Eaton?

  6. #26
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Lawyers for death row inmate explore new defense

    A judge has approved medical testing for Wyoming's lone death row inmate to determine whether he should be covered by a federal ban against executing people with intellectual disabilities.

    Dale Wayne Eaton is challenging the constitutionality of the state death sentence he received in the 1988 rape and murder of 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell of Billings, Mont.

    U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson on Monday approved a request from Eaton's lawyers for testing to determine whether he has intellectual disabilities that would preclude putting him to death.

    Johnson plans a hearing this summer on Eaton's claim that his original defense team didn't develop "mitigation evidence." Such evidence would have been information about Eaton's past that underscored his humanity to try to convince the jury not to sentence him to death.

    http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/art...se-4605166.php
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  7. #27
    Senior Member Frequent Poster elsie's Avatar
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    Come on Wyoming, have you lost your sense of old west justice?

  8. #28
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Judge sets two-week hearing for condemned man

    A federal judge has set aside two weeks for a hearing on claims by Wyoming's lone death row inmate that he didn't get a fair trial before a jury sentenced him to death nearly ten years ago.

    Lawyers representing inmate Dale Wayne Eaton have listed scores of witnesses they intend to call at the hearing set to start next week before U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson in Cheyenne.

    The 68-year-old Eaton is challenging the constitutionality of the death sentence he received for the 1988 rape and murder of Lisa Marie Kimmell, 18, of Billings, Mont.

    Eaton's lawyers don't dispute that he killed Kimmell. But the lawyers claim that Eaton's trial lawyers failed to present evidence of his troubled background that might have caused the jury to spare his life.

    http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/07/...#storylink=cpy
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  9. #29
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    Death penalty hearing begins for Dale Wayne Eaton

    An attorney for Wyoming's only death row inmate called his client's former trial attorney to testify on the first day of a hearing on the constitutionality of Dale Wayne Eaton's death sentence.

    Eaton, 68, was convicted in 2004 of the 1988 rape and murder of 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell, of Billings, Mont. His current attorneys don't dispute he committed the crime.

    Instead, they question whether now-retired public defender Wyatt Skaggs allocated enough resources to the sentencing phase of Eaton's case a decade ago. They say the defense team failed to find out from Eaton's relatives important details about his background.

    Those details included evidence of serious mental illness that ran in Eaton's family.

    "That is huge. That is very significant that evidence went undiscovered by the trial team," Eaton attorney Sean O'Brien said in the hearing before U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson on Tuesday.

    O'Brien described the public defender's defense of Eaton as "fast and cheap."

    Wyoming law requires all 12 jurors to unanimously support death for the sentence to be imposed instead of life in prison. O'Brien said Eaton's trial attorneys failed to produce evidence and witnesses who could have persuaded at least one juror not to impose the death penalty.

    An attorney with the Wyoming Attorney General's Office defended Skaggs. Deputy Attorney General Dave Delicath said Skaggs handled hundreds of cases over his career without ever being found ineffective.

    In the Eaton case, Delicath said, the question isn't whether Eaton's lawyers represented him perfectly but whether they made reasonable choices and met the standard for providing a reasonably solid defense.

    "I think the court will find Mr. Eaton received effective assistance at trial," Delicath said.

    Eaton was sentenced to death in 2004. He is incarcerated at the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins and wasn't present at the hearing, which is scheduled to take up to two weeks.

    Scores of witnesses are scheduled to testify on matters relevant to Eaton's sentence, including his criminal history and personal life.

    Kimmell's body was found in the North Platte River about a week after she disappeared while driving across Wyoming. In 2002, investigators dug up her car where it had been buried on Eaton's property near Moneta.

    At the time, Eaton was serving a three-year sentence in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm. DNA evidence also linked him to Kimmell's murder.

    http://www.laramieboomerang.com/arti...2df17aff95.txt

  10. #30
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    Doctor testifies death row inmate likely bipolar

    A psychiatrist who evaluated Wyoming's lone death row inmate before his state court trial nearly 10 years ago says evidence unearthed by the inmate's new legal team indicates he suffers from mental illness.

    Windsor, Colo., psychiatrist Dr. Kenneth Ash testified Thursday in federal court in Cheyenne.

    Ash says new information about the background and family medical history of death row inmate Dale Wayne Eaton points to a mental illness called bipolar 2. People suffering from the illness have periods of depression interspersed with intense activity.

    A federal judge is holding a multi-week hearing on Eaton's claims that he didn't get an adequate defense before receiving the death penalty in 2004 in state court for the 1988 rape and murder of Lisa Marie Kimmell, 18, of Billings, Mont.

    http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/D...ar-4715724.php
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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