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Thread: Ivan Teleguz - Virginia

  1. #71
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Federal Appeals Court Declines to Halt Virginia Execution

    RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A federal appeals court has refused to put a Virginia death row inmate's execution on hold so he can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

    The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond issued an order Thursday declining the request from Ivan Teleguz, who is scheduled to be executed April 25.

    Teleguz was sentenced to death in 2006 for hiring a man to kill his ex-girlfriend but maintains he's innocent. He asked the 4th Circuit last week to stay his execution so the high court could review his argument that he was denied the right to effective counsel.

    His attorneys said in a statement that Teleguz will now petition Gov. Terry McAuliffe to grant him clemency.

    https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...inia-execution
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  2. #72
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Christian Leaders Ask Governor McAuliffe to Halt Teleguz Execution

    RICHMOND, Va. (WVIR) - Monday, Christian leaders called on Governor Terry McAuliffe to halt a scheduled execution from moving forward. Groups opposed to the capital punishment have come together to fight for the life of Ivan Teleguz.

    In 2006, a jury sentenced the Ukrainian native to death in connection with a 2001 murder for hire case. Stephanie Sipe, the mother of Teleguz’s child, was stabbed to death in their Harrisonburg apartment.

    The prosecution said Teleguz paid others to kill Sipe so he would not have to continue child support. Teleguz’s lawyers say that makes no sense and the child support continued after Sipe’s death.

    "Someone may be executed who could very well be innocent,” said Ed Woodard, pastor at the Central Church of the Brethren.

    The Supreme Court decided not to review Teleguz’s case in October 2016. A Rockingham County judge set April 25 as Teleguz’s execution date.

    As that date looms, a growing coalition is calling on McAuliffe to intervene.

    “Human life, from the beginning of its conception all the way through to its end, must be given its ultimate care,” said Charles Swadley, with the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church.

    Faith leaders prayed and delivered a letter to McAuliffe’s office pleading for clemency.

    "And as we reflect on Holy Week, we know Jesus faced a lot of false witnesses and we've seen in this case that there have been false witnesses,” said John Myers, president of the Virginia Council of Churches.

    Those defending Teleguz point out that two of the three witnesses in the case have since recanted their stories. The third man is serving a life sentence for carrying out Sipe’s murder.

    “He’s convicted on the basis of three witnesses, two of whom have come forward and said 'Hey I lied. This guy had nothing to do with it and I just said that to get leniency in my own case,’” said Cara Drinan, professor at Catholic University of America.

    Teleguz’s attorneys are seeking more time from the U.S. Supreme Court and McAuliffe.

    “Many clemency decisions are difficult ones for governors. In my opinion, this is an easy one,” said Drinan.

    A spokesman for the governor says McAuliffe is reviewing the case and an announcement will be made once he reaches a decision.

    http://www.nbc29.com/story/35114339/...eguz-execution
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  3. #73
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Ivan Teleguz's attorneys react to widespread plea to halt his execution

    It's a decision that will come down to the wire.

    Ivan Teleguz and his attorneys await a response from Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe after filing a petition for clemency last week.

    His attorneys said they are overwhelmed by the amount of support.

    "Thousands of pages of letters and petition signatures have now been submitted in support of Mr. Teleguz's petition to Governor McAuliffe," said Elizabeth Peiffer with the Virginia Capital Representation Center.

    Among those thousands are former Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich, the Virginia Council of Churches, political leaders of all parties and Virgin CEO Richard Branson. His tweet on Wednesday reached his more than 10 million followers.

    "The more people that hear about the case, the more positive feedback we're getting and the more reactions that we're getting. This is really the type of case for which clemency was designed," said Peiffer.

    Some said, it's a case that carries too much doubt to justify an execution.

    "It just demonstrates what a compelling case Mr. Teleguz presents to Governor McAuliffe," said Peiffer. "That there's significant evidence that has developed during trial that jurors never heard that cast doubt on both his conviction and death sentence."

    Teleguz was convicted in 2006 for the murder-for-hire of his ex-girlfriend Stephanie Sipe.

    As the clock ticks closer, his attorneys grow in confidence with each display of support.

    "We're optimistic about Governor McAuliffe's decision that he will do the right thing. Also, that as people continue to hear about his case that the support will increase," said Peiffer.

    WHSV reached out to the Governor Terry McAuliffe's office on Thursday but have not received a response.

    Peiffer said Governor McAuliffe can decide to grant or deny clemency at any time between now and Teleguz's scheduled execution date on April 25th.

    http://www.whsv.com/content/news/Iva...419451554.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  4. #74
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Victim's sister: 'No doubt' Teleguz hired men to kill Stephanie Sipe

    HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) — With his scheduled execution date less than two weeks away, the fate of Ivan Teleguz rests in the hands of Governor Terry McAuliffe.

    His attorneys have filed a petition for clemency to spare his life before his April 25 execution date.

    Teleguz was convicted in 2006 of hiring another man to kill his ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Sipe, in Harrisonburg. Since that time, he has maintained that he is innocent and his execution has been delayed several times for appeals to higher courts, until the Supreme Court chose not to review the case.

    Nonetheless, a Change.org petition in support of clemency from the governor has gained over 113,000 signatures, arguing that "jurors who convicted Teleguz and sentenced him to death relied on testimony that, since the trial, has been proven false and recanted."

    Some big names, including Virginia CEO Richard Branson, have also expressed public support for clemency for Teleguz.

    But prosecutors argued that Teleguz ordered the killing of Sipe because he wanted to get out of paying child support, and Commonwealth's Attorney Marsha Garst stands by the case, which she prosecuted eleven years ago.

    So does the family of Stephanie Sipe, many of whom still live in the area.

    On Friday, Sipe's sister, Jennifer Tilley, called WHSV.

    "There's no doubt in my mind that he hired these people to kill my sister," said Tilley. "And it blows my mind, it really does, that he is still trying to fight and plead for his life."

    While some may question the guilt of Teleguz, Tilley says their family knows the truth.

    "The family has heavy hearts. We are struggling daily, all the time, looking over our shoulders waiting for that phone call. Unsecure right now, until justice is served."

    For now, Teleguz is scheduled to be executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia on April 25.

    http://www.whsv.com/content/news/Vic...419506183.html
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  5. #75
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Gov. McAuliffe Considering Clemency for Death Row Inmate

    RICHMOND, Va. (WVIR) - Governor Terry McAuliffe will soon announce whether he will grant clemency to a Virginia inmate on death row.

    Ivan Teleguz is set to die next week. A jury convicted Teleguz of a murder-for-hire plot to kill his ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Sipe, in Harrisonburg in 2001.

    There's been a growing push from Teleguz's lawyers, Christian leaders, and other public officials in the commonwealth to halt the scheduled execution.

    McAuliffe is reviewing a clemency petition filed by the inmate’s legal team.

    "Clearly issues have come up issues have arisen that I need to look at very closely," said the Democratic governor.

    Attorney Elizabeth Peiffer, with the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center, is fighting to stop the execution.

    "No juror could look at the evidence and look at the record as it currently stands and find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt," she said.

    Peiffer points out that two of the three key witnesses in the case have recanted their testimony, admitting that they lied about Teleguz's involvement.

    The third witness, Michael Hetrick, was the man who was actually convicted of stabbing Sipe to death.

    Peiffer also believes Teleguz received the death penalty because of false information given to jurors during the sentencing phase.

    "The jurors based their sentencing decision on a fictitious murder. A witness testified that Mr. Teleguz was involved in another murder in Ephrata, Pennsylvania," said the attorney. "But now we know that this murder is a fiction. It never happened.”

    McAuliffe says he's carefully examining all the information in the case.

    "Nothing is more tough for a governor than to have to make this life death decision, and I take it very very seriously,” he said.

    Lawyers for Teleguz are also working on filing a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

    The execution is scheduled to take place on April 25.

    http://www.nbc29.com/story/35169271/...ath-row-inmate

  6. #76
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Three former Virginia attorneys general urge commutation of death sentence for Ivan Teleguz

    Three former Virginia attorneys general, Mark Earley, Mary Sue Terry and William Broaddus, are asking Gov. Terry McAuliffe to spare the life of Ivan Teleguz, set to be executed Tuesday for the murder-for-hire of his girlfriend.

    "We would like to add our voices to those calling for you to commute the sentence of Ivan Teleguz. As former Attorneys General of the Commonwealth of Virginia — under both Republican and Democratic administrations — we are familiar with the difficult decision before you when asked to spare the life of a death-sentenced prisoner," began their letter, dated Tuesday.

    Teleguz, 38, was sentenced to death for the 2001 capital murder of Stephanie Yvonne Sipe, the mother of their 23-month-old son. Sipe was stabbed to death in her Harrisonburg apartment. Trial evidence showed that Teleguz was angry that he had been ordered to pay child support.

    He hired two men to kill Sipe for $2,000 and drove them from Pennsylvania, where Teleguz had moved. Sipe was stabbed to death. Her body was discovered by a neighbor who also found her son, unharmed, in a bathtub full of water.

    According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Virginia and Oklahoma are tied for the second most executions in the U.S. – at 112 – since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. Texas, at 542, leads the country.

    Teleguz's lawyers argue that the new evidence pointing to his innocence has never been fully examined by the courts. They say two prosecution witnesses admitted "that they testified falsely in exchange for leniency in their own cases, and have no reason to think Teleguz was involved in the murder-for-hire."

    His lawyers say that one of the witnesses has been deported, and the other was told he would lose his release date set for next year if he went back on his testimony.

    The jurors also relied on false testimony that Teleguz was involved in an additional murder in Pennsylvania. Investigation since the trial by law enforcement and by the defense has confirmed that the murder never happened. The lawyers contend the only evidence remaining against Teleguz is the testimony of Michael Hetrick, the actual killer who was spared the death penalty.

    His lawyers said the clemency petition details why his testimony is not credible or reliable. A Change.org petition in support of clemency has been signed by more than 113,000 people, and Teleguz also has submitted written requests for clemency from thousands of supporters.

    In a release Wednesday, The Constitution Project said the three former attorneys general collectively oversaw the execution of over 50 prisoners while they were in office.

    The former attorneys general wrote that "justice cannot be served by executing a prisoner in a case replete with unreliable investigative techniques, coercive tactics by both law enforcement and the prosecution, recantations of key trial witnesses, and consideration of false testimony in support of a death sentence." The case, in their view, is "precisely the kind of case that calls out for executive clemency."

    Since leaving office both Earley and Broaddus have come to oppose the death penalty.

    http://www.richmond.com/news/virgini...b8774b6d4.html
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  7. #77
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Gov. McAuliffe to make statement on pending execution of Ivan Teleguz

    Gov. Terry McAuliffe will make a public statement this afternoon regarding his review of Ivan Teleguz’s petitions for a pardon and for commutation of his death sentence.

    A spokesman said the briefing will be held at 3:30 p.m. at the Capitol.

    Teleguz, 38, is scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the July 21, 2001, capital murder-for-hire of Stephanie Yvonne Sipe, the mother of their 23-month-old son. Sipe was stabbed to death in her Harrisonburg apartment. According to trial testimony, he hired two men to kill Sipe for $2,000 and drove them from Pennsylvania, where Teleguz had moved.

    On July 23, 2001, Sipe's mother, Pamela Y. Woods, went to her daughter's apartment because she had not heard from Sipe two days. Woods found her daughter's body in the front room and her grandson in a bathtub full of water, but unharmed. A neighbor took Woods and her grandson out of the apartment.

    Teleguz’s current lawyers have filed a clemency request among other things arguing that courts have never fully examined new evidence pointing to his innocence. They say two prosecution witnesses admitted “that they testified falsely in exchange for leniency in their own cases, and have no reason to think Teleguz was involved in the murder-for-hire.”

    His lawyers say that one of the witnesses has been deported, and the other was told he would lose his release date set for next year if he went back on his testimony.

    In 2015, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals noted that a lower court judge held an evidentiary hearing in 2013 concerning the recantations. One recanter refused to testify and the other did not appear. "In other words, neither of the recanters testified in support of their recantations."

    Marsha L. Garst, the commonwealth’s attorney for Rockingham County, has declined to comment on the case. However, the appeals court opinion noted: "Prosecutor Marsha Garst, whom (the recanters) accused of threatening them into testifying against Teleguz, appeared and testified that those accusations were false."

    Virginia has executed 112 people since the death penalty was allowed to resume in 1976. Virginia governors have commuted eight death sentences during the same period.

    http://www.richmond.com/news/governo...af91cfe00.html
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  8. #78
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    WTVR will live stream the governor’s remarks here at 3:30 p.m.

    http://wtvr.com/on-air/live-streaming-sc/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  9. #79
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Aaron and I called this one.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  10. #80
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Virginia governor commutes sentence of death row prisoner

    Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has decided to commute the death sentence of Ivan Teleguz, a 38-year-old man who was set to be executed Tuesday in the murder-for-hire of his former girlfriend.

    Teleguz has maintained his innocence in the 2001 slaying of 20-year-old Stephanie Yvonne Sipe in Harrisonburg. His lawyers have argued that two key witnesses have recanted their testimony, calling his guilt into question. Multiple courts have deemed those recantations unreliable, and the man who killed Sipe has never wavered in saying that Teleguz paid him to commit murder.

    McAuliffe said Thursday that while he believes Teleguz is guilty, the sentencing phase of his trial was “terribly flawed and unfair.”

    Teleguz will now serve life in prison without a chance of parole.

    In their clemency petition, attorneys for Teleguz argued that Gilkes testified that Teleguz was involved in an Ephrata, Pa. murder that never actually occured. Courts in Virginia concluded that the erroneous testimony had no bearing on Teleguz’s guilt in Sipe’s case, nor on a jury’s decision to sentence him to death. But McAuliffe disagreed.

    McAuliffe personally opposes the death penalty, citing his Catholic faith. But this marks the first time he has commuted a death sentence. As governor, he has presided over three executions, and at the behest of correctional officials he has pushed for more secrecy in the lethal injection process.

    The governor’s decision comes as there is increasing scrutiny over the death penalty nationwide. Many pharmaceutical companies now refuse to participate in executions, creating shortages across the country and a turn towards compounding pharmacies and drugs experts say are less effective. Courts have blocked Arkansas from carrying out eight executions this month, planned in order to use a lethal injection drug before it expires.

    Teleguz’s plea for a commutation has attracted high-profile support, including from billionaire Richard Branson and former governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.

    Investigators and Sipe’s family, however, are confident of Teleguz’s guilt.

    “There's no doubt in my mind that he hired these people to kill my sister,” Sipe's sister, Jennifer Tilley, told the Harrisonburg television station WHSV last week. “And it blows my mind, it really does, that he is still trying to fight and plead for his life.”

    Sipe was found dead in her apartment July 23, 2001, her throat slashed. Her 2-year-old son, also Teleguz’s child, was sitting in a bathtub in the next room.

    It took three years for prosecutors to charge Teleguz. The break in the case came when police encountered one of Teleguz’s acquaintances, Aleksey Safanov. Safanov, who was facing charges, told an officer that he knew Teleguz had hired a man to kill his ex-girlfriend. His motivation, Safanov said, was anger at paying child support.

    Teleguz’s phone records led police to Edwin Lee Gilkes, Jr., who said Teleguz had paid a man named Michael Hetrick to kill Sipe. Hetrick confessed, saying Gilkes was also part of the plot and that the dispute was not over child support, but money and drugs. He testified that Teleguz drove him and Gilkes to Harrisonburg on the night of Sipe’s death, then drove back to Pennsylvania to establish an alibi.

    Hetrick testified that he went to Sipe’s apartment alone and asked to use the telephone. He told jurors that he cut his hand while slashing the young woman’s throat with a fillet knife. Going to the bathroom to wash his hands afterward, he found the young boy in the tub, the water still running. He turned the water off and left, leaving blood that was later matched to his DNA.

    Sipe’s body was found two days later by her mother, who attracted a neighbor with her screaming. The child was still in the tub, unharmed.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...=.99d0e9009766
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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