GUILTY VT - Terri King, 53, abducted & murdered, Rutland, 27 Nov 2000 *Arrest*

[OkieGranny]

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/...ty-constitutional-trial-donald-fell/81003710/

The Federal Death Penalty Act will go on trial this summer in Vermont as lawyers involved in the long-running kidnapping and murder case of Donald Fell plan to square off about whether capital punishment is constitutional.

The two-week proceeding would mark the second time in the almost 16-year case that defense lawyers have targeted the federal death penalty as unconstitutional...

If everything stays on schedule, Fell's new trial would start in February 2017.

 

[0101ABA]

Attorneys for a man facing a second federal death penalty trial for the 2000 abduction and murder of a supermarket worker are asking a judge to declare the federal death penalty unconstitutional.

In a two-week hearing scheduled to begin Monday in Rutland, the attorneys for Donald Fell plan to outline why they feel the federal death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.

http://news10.com/ap/federal-judge-to-hear-death-penalty-challenge/

 

[0101ABA]

(...) Fell’s case is one of two in modern history in which the Attorney General — then John Ashcroft — rejected the plea deal and sought the death penalty instead. The other case occurred in Georgia and involved the shooting of a postal worker. The state of Georgia reached a plea agreement that was overturned by then Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder.

Fell was convicted in the brutal killing of Terry King, a North Clarendon grandmother, and sentenced to death in 2005. The verdict was overturned due to juror misconduct and a retrial is scheduled for early next year.

The two-week long hearings in Rutland could lead to a historic Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the death penalty.

http://vtdigger.org/2016/07/15/defense-argues-fell-case/

 

[0101ABA]

The federal judge who will be hearing the death penalty retrial of a man charged with killing a Vermont woman in 2000 says the trial could last 16 weeks.

In an order filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, Judge Geoffrey Crawford told attorneys for Donald Fell and prosecutors they should be available for the trial from March to June.

http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/c...ath-penalty-retrial-could-last-16-9186802.php

 

[0101ABA]

A federal judge in Vermont says a man can face a second death penalty trial even though his mother’s alcohol use caused him developmental delays.

In a ruling issued Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford refused to exempt Donald Fell because he has suffered from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/judge-moms-alcohol-use-wont-halt-mans-death-penalty-case/

 

[0101ABA]

A federal judge says Donald Fell's upcoming death-penalty trial will be heard in Rutland despite requests by the man's defense team to move the case due to pretrial publicity.

U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford ruled Tuesday that publicity was not severe enough to affect Fell's ability to receive a fair trial. Fell, 36, is facing a second death-penalty trial in a case that stems from the killing of North Clarendon grandmother Terri King, 53, in 2000.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/...ps-fell-death-penalty-trial-rutland/96125964/

 

[0101ABA]

Fell: Rutland police won’t yield evidence

Attorneys representing accused killer Donald Fell claim the defense has not been given enough time to prepare an adequate case, and that one reason they believe they are unprepared is a lack of cooperation from the Rutland City Police Department.

In a filing dated Sunday, attorney John Philipsborn, a member of Fell’s defense team, said the defense wants to resolve open issues that include access to some evidence possessed by the Rutland City Police Department, some marijuana or crack pipes and information from a mental health examination of Fell.

 

[0101ABA]

[h=1]Jury selection in death penalty case could take 4 weeks[/h]

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

http://www.921wvtk.com/2017/02/27/wvtk-local-state-news-february-27-2017/

The death penalty trial of Donald Fell is being delayed until this fall. Jury selection in the trial over the killing of a North Clarendon woman was scheduled to begin today in federal court in Burlington. However, a judge agreed to push back the trial until September because the defense team needs more time to prepare. Vermont has no death penalty, but Fell is being prosecuted in federal court because the victim was abducted in Vermont and killed in New York.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Judge: New trial in Fell death penalty case may be delayed more than a year

https://vtdigger.org/2017/07/28/judge-new-trial-fell-death-penalty-case-delayed-year/

Accused killer Donald Fell likely won’t face a retrial in his death penalty case for over a year due to the time it will take for an appeal to be decided on a pretrial ruling.

“The practical considerations are that in all likelihood, this case will not return to the trial court for a year or substantially longer,” federal Judge Geoffrey Crawford wrote in a recent filing.

Crawford, in his recent filing, denied the request from the prosecutors to continue on with other matters in the case while that appeal remains pending.

There are more than 20 other pretrial motions currently pending in the case awaiting decisions.

https://vtdigger.org/2017/06/29/fells-death-penalty-trial-postponed/

The latest appeal by prosecutors centers on the admissibility of statements by Robert Lee, an alleged accomplice in King’s killing. Lee has since died in prison.

The two men, according to court records, were allegedly fleeing the slayings of Fell’s mother and her friend when they carjacked King in the downtown supermarket’s parking lot.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Federal court sends Fell death penalty case back to Vermont

https://vtdigger.org/2017/11/27/federal-court-sends-fell-death-penalty-case-back-vermont/

A U.S. appeals court is seeking more information from a federal judge in Vermont before ruling on a question of evidence in the death penalty case against Donald Fell.

Prosecutors this summer appealed a ruling by U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford that barred Lee’s statements from entering the sentencing phase of Fell’s trial, if he is convicted again. The federal appeals court recently sent the case back to Vermont for a further hearing and a ruling by Crawford on the “reliability” of Lee’s statements.

“Because the district court in its initial ruling did not determine the reliability of each of the statements the government seeks to introduce at the sentence selection phase of the trial … we find the current record insufficient for resolving the issue on appeal,” the court’s order stated.

The appeals court told Crawford to issue a ruling within 60 days of the Nov. 15 order. A hearing is set for Jan. 5 in federal court in Burlington.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Statements declared ‘reliable’ in Fell case, more hearings scheduled

https://www.rutlandherald.com/articles/statements-declared-reliable-in-fell-case-more-hearings-scheduled/

Statements made by the late Robert Lee about the killings he was accused of alongside Donald Fell are “reliable,” according to a federal judge.

Whether they would be admissible if Fell’s second trial goes to a penalty phase remains to be seen.

A four-day hearing was held earlier this month. Judge Geoffrey Crawford ruled late last week that certain statements Lee made to investigators and one he wrote in jail before his death were reliable, while other prison writings by Lee were not.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Experts differ over fatal blow in death penalty case in Vermont

https://vtdigger.org/2018/04/06/experts-differ-fatal-blow-death-penalty-case-vermont/

Dueling experts provided conflicting testimony Friday over whether the fatal injuries suffered by a North Clarendon woman were inflicted by the man facing a capital trial over her beating death or his alleged accomplice.

Judge Geoffrey Crawford took the differing testimony presented in federal court in Burlington under advisement and is expected to issue a written ruling in the death penalty case against Donald Fell.

The issue of which injury caused her death has been a matter of dispute in the case, with prosecutors and defense attorneys differing on whether Fell delivered the fatal blow by stomping King’s neck with his boot, or if it was his alleged accomplice striking King in the head with a rock.

A date for Fell’s retrial has not yet been set. The issue of whether to allow or exclude certain statements from Lee in Fell’s case is currently on appeal before the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

https://vtdigger.org/2018/05/10/judge-bars-testimony-from-expert-witness-in-death-penalty-trial/

A federal judge has issued a decision that excludes a prosecution expert from providing testimony linking the fatal injuries suffered by a North Clarendon woman to the man facing a capital trial over her death rather than his alleged accomplice.

Judge Geoffrey Crawford sided with the attorneys for 38-year-old Donald Fell in the ruling released Thursday, saying that the testimony of Victor Weedn, a forensic pathologist, “is not sufficiently reliable for admissibility” in a potential penalty phase of the case.

During a hearing last month, the judge told Weedn that he is the first scientist in a case that has spanned nearly two decades to say the injuries that were inflicted to the neck of Teresca King, 53, were the “sole” ones that caused her death.

http://www.wcax.com/content/news/US-judge-sets-jury-selection-date-in-Fell-death-penalty-retrial-482099752.html

In a scheduling order issued Tuesday in the case of Donald Fell, U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford ruled potential jurors would be called to complete written questionnaires beginning on July 23, if a pending appeal is settled by that date. Jury selection would begin Sept. 4.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Prosecutors: Sports betting ruling shouldn’t prohibit death penalty for Fell

https://vtdigger.org/2018/07/13/pro...ing-shouldnt-prohibit-death-penalty-for-fell/

Prosecutors are calling on a judge to reject arguments by accused killer Donald Fell that cite a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding sports gambling as a reason to declare the death penalty unconstitutional.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William Darrow, who is prosecuting Fell in the capital case in the November 2000 slaying of 53-year-old Teresca King of North Clarendon, says in a filing that a ruling by the nation’s highest court shouldn’t affect the death penalty case pending in Vermont.

His latest lawyers have filed a blizzard of motions in recent weeks, including raising more arguments why the federal death penalty statute should be declared unconstitutional.

One of those filings argues that Fell was too young to be eligible for the death penalty. Fell was 20 when he was arrested and charged in King’s death.

“Simply put,” the filing by Fell’s attorneys stated, “his evidence will show that at the time of the offenses, Mr. Fell did not function as an adult with sufficient moral culpability for capital punishment.”

 

[JerseyGirl]

Donald Fell admitted to his role in the carjacking and beating death of a North Clarendon grandmother, heading to prison for the rest of his life without the possibility of parole and avoiding a death sentence after nearly two decades of litigation.

Fell earlier in the hearing Friday entered his guilty pleas to four charges in the November 2000 death of King.

Specifically, the federal offenses were:

• Carjacking with death resulting.

• Kidnapping with death resulting.

• Brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

• Transportation of a firearm by a fugitive from justice.

To each charge, Fell, who stood, but remained shackled except for his right hand, responded four times in a voice barely audible in the courtroom, “Guilty.

A co-defendant in the case and friend of Fell, Robert Lee, was also charged with capital federal offenses in King’s death, but he killed himself in prison in 2001 before he could be tried.

https://vtdigger.org/2018/09/28/breaking-judge-accepts-plea-deal-fell-sentenced-life/

 

[Maznblu1]

This case is a road map for defendants trying to avoid the death penalty. Have your attorneys file frivolous motion after frivolous motion until the prosecution figures it isn't worth it. Definitely not justice in this case.

 

[they'll get you]

DBM

 

[they'll get you]

Dbm