DA defends intent to seek death penalty
Fayette County prosecutors are asking a judge to deny an accused killer’s request to remove the possibility of a death sentence from his case if he is convicted of first-degree murder.
On Monday, Senior Assistant District Attorney Michelle Kelley responded to a motion filed last month on behalf of Henry Clay Crawford, 56, of North Union Township, which argued, among other things, that lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
Crawford is accused of breaking into Lisa Tupta’s home in North Union Township and stabbing her to death in January.
Kelley wrote that in determining the validity of the statute providing for the death penalty, the court must focus on an evaluation of the “evolving standards of decency” in society related to this type of punishment.
“In this case, it is clear that lethal injection does not offend evolving standards of decency,” Kelley stated. “This is demonstrated by legislative action through the fact that out of 38 states that have the death penalty, 37 of them provide for lethal injection.”
Additionally, Kelley argued that contrary to the contention asserted by Crawford’s attorney, Public Defender Jeffrey Whiteko, the commonwealth has provided sufficient evidence to support the notice of aggravating factors necessary to seek the death penalty.
If Crawford is convicted of first-degree murder in the guilt phase of his capital trial, jurors would move on to the sentencing phase. There, prosecutors would argue that certain aggravating factors outlined in the law — including prior violations of protection-from-abuse orders, an alleged killing committed during the course of an alleged felony, use of torture in commission of the alleged killing and a significant history of felony convictions — should result in a death sentence for Crawford.
Kelley pointed out that the notice filed by the commonwealth seeking the death penalty denoted each of those factors. Also, the prosecution is not required to prove the aggravated factors at this phase, Kelley wrote. Rather, “the nature of the inquiry is to be focused solely upon whether the case is properly designated as capital.”
“If the Commonwealth marshalls such evidence to support any aggravating factor, the case is properly designated as capital,” Kelley wrote, and demonstrated that on November 16, Senior Judge Ralph C. Warman granted a protection order precluding Crawford from “abusing stalking, harassing, threatening or attempting to use physical force that would reasonably be expected to cause bodily injury to the vicitm.”
That protection order, filed and docketed in the prothonotary’s office, “sufficiently establishes that the Commonwealth has marshalled sufficient evidence as to that particular aggravating factor to designate the case as capital,” Kelley contended.
Crawford will go before Judge Nancy D. Vernon on Friday at 9 a.m. to have a hearing related to these matters.