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Thread: William Joseph Burns - Virginia

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    William Joseph Burns - Virginia






    Summary of Offense:

    Born on April 30, 1966, William Joseph Burns was sentenced to death in Shenandoah County for the murder, rape and forcible sodomy of his wife’s 73-year-old mother, Tersey Elizabeth Cooley, fatally beaten at her home in Edinburg.

    Burns was drunk and abusive on September 20, 1998, when his wife, Penny Marlene Cooley Burns, fled their trailer in Baker, West Virginia and took shelter at a friend’s house. Earlier when Burns was abusive, he knew she had gone to her mother’s house.

    The next day Cooley’s other daughter discovered her mother’s unclothed body on the bedroom floor of her home.

    The house had been broken into and it was later determined Cooley had been raped, sodomized and beaten -- suffering abrasions and bruises on her head and 24 rib fractures. One broken rib punctured her heart.

    When questioned by investigators, Burns initially denied going to Cooley’s house. Then he said he was there and encountered a man who had killed Cooley so he killed him.

    He said he hid the body because he did not want his wife to learn a black man had raped and murdered her mother.

    Eventually Burns gave up that story and claimed that he broke into the house, found Cooley dead and thought his wife had killed her mother. He said he then masturbated and used his hand to insert his semen in her body so the evidence would lead to him instead of his wife.

    DNA in sperm found in the victim’s vagina and anus was a match with Burns. During the penalty phase of the trial, the jury learned of Burns’ prior convictions for felony theft, breaking and entering, malicious destruction of property, resisting arrest, battery, assault, disorderly conduct and a third-degree sexual assault.

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    January 15, 2010

    Virginia court revives death row retardation claim

    RICHMOND (AP) - A Virginia death row inmate will get another chance to prove he is mentally retarded and therefore cannot be executed.

    The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday sent the case of William Joseph Burns of Baker, W.Va., back to Shenandoah County Circuit Court for a new hearing on his retardation claim. Burns was sentenced to death for raping and killing his mother-in-law in Virginia in 1998.

    Burns' lawyers raised the retardation claim after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that executing the mentally retarded is unconstitutional. Virginia's justices unanimously ruled that a Shenandoah judge prematurely threw out his claim.

    http://hamptonroads.com/2010/01/virg...ardation-claim

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    Burns' mental hearing Aug. 25

    Death row inmate's lawyers say behavior 'increasingly bizarre'

    A competency hearing on death-row inmate William Joseph Burns' ability to stand trial is slated for Aug. 25 in Shenandoah County Circuit Court.

    A jury recommended the death penalty for Burns after finding him guilty of the 1998 rape, murder, forcible sodomy and burglary of his mother-in-law, Tersey E. Cooley, 73, of Edinburg. The U.S. Supreme Court later banned the execution of mentally retarded people, and Burns is claiming he is mentally retarded.

    In a hearing regarding Burns' intellectual status in September 2008, Circuit Court Judge Dennis L. Hupp granted a prosecution motion for summary judgment because the defense didn't have an expert witness to testify. However, the Virginia Supreme Court overruled that decision in January, sending the case back to Circuit Court.

    On May 28, Hupp appointed Dr. Evan Nelson, a licensed clinical psychologist from Midlothian, to conduct an evaluation of Burns, who is imprisoned at Sussex I Correctional Center, court records state. Since then, the defendant's team of attorneys filed two motions June 30 to be addressed in advance of the August hearing -- one to allow Nelson's evaluation be taped and another giving the doctor access to recordings made between Burns and his lawyers.

    In the latter motion, the defense states it has "direct evidence" of Burns' inability to assist his attorneys by way of 61 recordings that document more than 15 hours of phone interviews in the last three years. Defense attorney Jonathan Sheldon started to record his conversations with Burns in August 2007, when his client's behavior was deteriorating and becoming "increasingly bizarre," the motion states.

    The calls include many examples of the attorney's unsuccessful attempts to explain information to Burns and to get "vital" information from him, it states, and they "overwhelmingly" demonstrate the man's mental illness.

    Because the communications are protected by attorney-client privilege and Burns cannot knowingly waive that right, the defense must ask for the court to issue a protective order releasing them. There are some stipulations if the request is approved, including Nelson destroying any irrelevant recordings.

    In a July 8 letter to Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert, a special prosecutor in the case, and Katherine Burnett, a senior assistant attorney general for the Virginia attorney general's office who was recently added to the prosecution, Hupp states that the defense motions need to be heard before Aug. 25, and that it can be done by phone.

    On Friday, defense attorney James Connell III said Hupp has granted the motion to allow Nelson to audiotape the evaluation, but the matter of the phone recordings was still pending.

    http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2010/07/...g-aug-25-1.php

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    Hearing set to see if man OK for trial

    WOODSTOCK -- A hearing on death-row inmate William Joseph Burns' competence to stand trial is slated for Jan. 12 in Shenandoah County Circuit Court, Judge Dennis L. Hupp said.

    The judge announced the date at the outset of court proceedings Wednesday, following a conference call. Hupp said because only a date was being set in the matter a formal hearing was unnecessary.

    A jury recommended the death penalty for Burns after finding him guilty of the 1998 rape, murder, forcible sodomy and burglary of his mother-in-law, Tersey E. Cooley, 73, of Edinburg. The U.S. Supreme Court later banned the execution of mentally retarded people, and Burns is claiming he is mentally retarded.

    http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2010/11/...-for-trial.php

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    Killer found incompetent, sent for further treatment

    Death-row inmate's defense argues he's retarded

    By Preston Knight
    The Northern Virginia Daily

    WOODSTOCK -- Death-row inmate William Joseph Burns is heading to Marion Correctional Treatment Center to have his competency restored before undergoing further tests to determine whether he is mentally retarded.

    Burns, 43, who was sentenced to die for the 1998 rape and murder of his mother-in-law in her house near Edinburg, appeared in Shenandoah County Circuit Court on Wednesday afternoon. The matter returned to the local court to determine his competency after the U.S. Supreme Court banned the execution of mentally retarded people several years after Burns was sentenced to death. Burns and his attorneys have been claiming he is mentally retarded.

    Citing a Nov. 3 report from Dr. Evan Nelson, a licensed clinical psychologist from Midlothian, Judge Dennis L. Hupp found Burns to be incompetent, and stated that the "big question" was how to proceed. He called the case peculiar, unusual and a hybrid proceeding.

    Tests to determine the man's mental retardation cannot be administered because he is incompetent, Hupp said. As a result, the plan, backed by Nelson, is to send Burns to Marion, where he can be treated and security is not an issue.

    Special prosecutor Paul Ebert, Prince William County commonwealth's attorney, said this was the first time someone in Burns' position was to be sent to a facility to have his competency restored.

    Burns was found guilty of the September 1998 rape, murder, forcible sodomy and burglary of his 73-year-old mother-in-law, Tersey E. Cooley. She was so badly beaten that her heart burst and 24 of her ribs fractured.

    Burns, who gave varying stories to investigators about his involvement in the murder, but did admit to being in Cooley's house, is now incarcerated at the Sussex I Correctional Center. Four Department of Corrections guards escorted him into the courtroom Wednesday.

    Defense attorney Jonathan Sheldon said he has been in contact with the Marion facility, which regularly takes Sussex inmates. He said staff there expressed some concern about being the "fox guarding the henhouse" in terms of Burns, but all parties involved, including Hupp, are satisfied with sending the inmate there.

    Burns was silent throughout the short court proceeding. In a motion filed last summer, Sheldon referenced some of the issues surrounding his client's mental retardation by explaining the man's "increasingly bizarre" behavior as the two held recorded conversations in a three-year period beginning in August 2007.

    In an interview last January, another defense attorney, James Connell III, said: "He can't form a sentence that's rational. He's not only mentally retarded, he's also severely mentally ill."

    The case is set to return to Circuit Court on July 13, giving Marion enough time to treat Burns.

    http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2011/01/...-treatment.php

  6. #6
    Does anybody know his current appeal status and is he still mentally incompetent for execution? And is it likely that he would be resentenced to life imprisonment without parole like Leon Winston? The last news I found were a few years old like the last comment here!

  7. #7
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    I haven't been able to find a thing about him lately. My guess is that he might actually be genuinely nuts and, as a result, they're going to let him serve out a de facto life sentence much as Alvord did in Florida.

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    In Va., Supreme Court decision on intellectual disabilities could aid two on death row

    At least two inmates on Virginia’s death row might have an easier time proving they are intellectually disabled — and thus ineligible for capital punishment — because of Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision that struck down rules for defining such people with a discrete IQ score, according to experts and lawyers involved in the cases.

    While the legal road ahead is far from clear, Alfredo Prieto — who was convicted of killing a man and woman near Reston in 1988 — and William Burns — who was convicted of raping and killing his mother-in-law in Shenandoah County, Va., in 1998 — will likely use the Supreme Court’s ruling in Hall v. Florida as they seek to get off death row, the lawyers on their cases said. Both have challenged their death sentences on intellectual disability grounds in the past, and the Supreme Court’s ruling seems to give them another chance, the lawyers said.

    “I believe that at least it opens the door for a fresh look at whether or not he can be given the death penalty,” said Cary Bowen, Prieto’s attorney. “And that’s a big deal.”

    The Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that states could no longer draw a bright line on IQ-test results to define those with intellectual abilities when it comes to the death penalty. Virginia was among a small group of states that did just that, deciding an inmate who scored above 70 on the test did not meet the first step of proving that he or she was intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for capital punishment.

    In Prieto’s case, that IQ score requirement came into play in an earlier proceeding, said Jonathan Shapiro, a visiting law professor at Washington and Lee University and an attorney at the Greenspun Shapiro firm who represented Prieto in the past.

    “Where we presented an intellectual disabilities defense, the state’s argument was, no, that it was a hard-and-fast 70,” he said. “That, obviously, now is not valid.”

    Burns, too, is pursuing an intellectual disability claim, though his case is somewhat unusual in that he was declared incompetent for trial — which is different from being intellectually disabled — after he was convicted and sentenced, said Jon Sheldon, his attorney. Sheldon said were Burns’s competency to be restored, he would face testing for an intellectual disability and more hearings, and the Supreme Court’s decision would likely come into play.

    Sheldon and other defense lawyers specializing in death penalty cases said the ruling brings Virginia in line with most other states across the country. The broad impact, though, might be somewhat muted, as relatively few inmates sit on death row, and only a subset of those would likely be able to raise a legitimate intellectual disabilities claim, experts said.

    John Blume, a law professor at Cornell University and an expert in capital punishment cases, said there were likely less than 20 defendants across the country who “lost because the court said they couldn’t meet the first prong of intellectual disability.”

    “It’s not going to open the floodgates to litigation,” he said of the Supreme Court’s decision.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...637_story.html
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    Virginia quietly grants death row inmates new privileges

    Only a few months ago, the condemned men on Virginia’s death row left their tiny cells just three days a week for showers, and an hour a day five days a week for recreation in a fenced outdoor cell. A sheet of glass separated them from family during visits.

    Now, the seven men awaiting execution get an extra half-hour of recreation each day, and officials are building a new yard with a basketball court and exercise equipment. They can hang out with up to three other death row inmates for an hour daily, and the state is building a room where they can watch TV, make phone calls, play games and send emails. They can hug and hold hands with relatives when they visit.

    “Those kinds of things are meaningful when so very little is granted to the inmates,” said Victor Glasberg, an attorney who represents several of the condemned men challenging Virginia’s restrictions, which for years effectively held the inmates in solitary confinement and were among the most stringent in the U.S.

    Those policies were quietly overhauled recently after months of legal challenges, the first of which was filed by a man convicted of three murders who was executed Oct. 1. Alfredo Prieto first won more privileges when a federal judge agreed that Virginia can’t automatically place death row inmates in solitary confinement, but an appeals court later overturned that ruling.

    The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed Prieto’s appeal this week, but another lawsuit filed by other death row inmates before the overhaul is still moving through the courts. They argued they were entitled to the same privileges as Prieto and said their isolation amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

    Michael Bern, Prieto’s attorney, declined to comment. A Department of Corrections spokeswoman said Director Harold Clarke was not available for an interview and declined to comment because litigation is pending.

    The agency has said in the past that federal courts have ruled that long periods of isolation aren’t considered cruel and unusual punishment. But Clarke said in an August affidavit that he authorized the changes “in an effort to explore improvements to the overall environment on Virginia’s death row.”

    Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said in court documents last month that conditions on death row are now “significantly more progressive,” though Glasberg said he’s meeting with officials Friday to discuss further changes.

    “When your comparators are horrible, it goes just so far to say that you’re at the top of the heap,” Glasberg said.

    The changes bring some comfort to Paul Burns, whose older brother William Joseph Burns has served on Virginia’s death row for 15 years. But Paul Burns still doesn’t think he can face visiting his brother, who was sentenced to death in 2000 for raping and killing his mother-in-law.

    “When you’ve got a family member on death row, it just hurts to go see them. You know he’s living a hell of a life in there,” he said.


    Conditions among the 31 death penalty states vary widely and are difficult to track because there are no reporting requirements and the policies can change frequently, said Richard Dieter, senior program director at the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes the death penalty.

    Nearly all isolate death row inmates in some way, and most offer more privileges than Virginia had previously, according to a survey conducted by the Association of State Correctional Administrators in 2013 and cited by Virginia officials in court documents.

    Most of the states surveyed allow inmates to participate in certain group activities, like religious services and therapy, but fewer than half let inmates touch their family members and friends during visits. The new room in Virginia will be used for religious services, behavioral programming and employment opportunities for the condemned inmates, Clarke said.

    Missouri, which has the least stringent policies, is the only state that houses its death row inmates with the general prison population, and they’re offered the same programs as other offenders. Meanwhile, in Colorado and other states, inmates can’t participate in group activities, get recreation time with other inmates or have contact visits, according to the ASCA survey.

    Even the families of some victims don’t object to the new privileges in Virginia. Harold McFarland said he believes the man who killed his 32-year-old son deserves to die. But he supports giving William Morva more freedom within prison walls.

    “While he’s still on the Earth, he should be treated as a human,” McFarland said.

    http://www.bdtonline.com/news/virgin...89edc095f.html
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  10. #10
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    The changes bring some comfort to Paul Burns, whose older brother William Joseph Burns has served on Virginia’s death row for 15 years. But Paul Burns still doesn’t think he can face visiting his brother, who was sentenced to death in 2000 for raping and killing his mother-in-law.

    “When you’ve got a family member on death row, it just hurts to go see them. You know he’s living a hell of a life in there,” he said.
    Given that Burns has been ruled incompetent, I'm surprised that he's still being held on death row instead of being kept in a secure mental-health facility.

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