Post by thinkinkmesa on Mar 1, 2009 23:05:05 GMT -5
Inmate's attorney fighting execution
www.ohio.com/news/40406547.html
Inmate's attorney fighting execution
Summit prosecutor asks parole board not to spare life of Akron murderer
By Phil Trexler
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Friday, Feb 27, 2009
COLUMBUS: Some describe him as the kind of guy who wraps chocolate bars to give as Christmas gifts to less fortunate inmates.
Others say he's the kind of guy who ties up a woman, strangles her with an electrical cord, stabs her 138 times, then severs her hands.
The Ohio Parole Board Thursday heard of the divergent life of condemned inmate Brett Xavier Hartmann and pleas to spare him from execution.
Their recommendation to Gov. Ted Strickland won't be announced for another week, but board members closely questioned Hartmann's attorney on the former Akron man's clemency request.
Hartmann denies killing his lover, 46-year-old Winda Snipes, inside her one-room Highland Square apartment in September 1997.
At the same time, his attorneys are asking board members to consider what they called Hartmann's ''chaotic childhood,'' which included his being shunned by both parents at age 8 and living for four years on an isolated Indian reservation in Arizona.
The board is also weighing the abbreviated life of Snipes, an educated, attractive Southerner who had relocated to Akron less than two years before her brutal murder.
Snipes' family, including a younger brother, sister and elderly mother, want Hartmann executed as scheduled on April 7.
Hartmann's supporters at Thursday's hearing included his mother, Carol Parcell of Akron; his aunt; a Lutheran minister and a Catholic nun.
Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh traveled to Columbus to personally ask the board to deny Hartmann clemency.
''Eleven years have now passed since Winda Snipes was so mercilessly and brutally murdered by Brett Xavier Hartmann, a man who is remembered in our community not only as a sadistic, violent murderer, but also for his arrogant attitude and lack of remorse and lack of sympathy for the family of Winda,'' Walsh said.
Hartmann is trying to avoid becoming the 29th Ohio inmate executed since 1999.
In a Feb. 12 video conference with the board, Hartmann, 34, continued to maintain his innocence against what police and prosecutors say is a mountain of physical evidence that only continues to grow.
During Thursday's clemency hearing before the parole board, Hartmann's attorneys spent little time on the innocence claims and instead tried to focus on mitigating evidence they say was never offered to jurors at Hartmann's trial.
His attorneys are seeking a reduction of his sentence to life in prison.
David Stebbins, an attorney with the Federal Public Defender's Office, presented a three-prong argument to the board that includes Hartmann's model behavior in prison; his continuing efforts to have crime-scene evidence tested; and Hartmann's childhood, which included an untreated mental disorder diagnosed when he was 13 years old.
Jurors are permitted at trial to consider mitigating circumstances, such as a defendant's mental disorders, drug or physical abuse, before deciding on a sentence. Many courts have thrown out death sentences when trial attorneys fail to fully pursue such mitigation.
Stebbins said that's what happened to Hartmann. He said Hartmann's original attorneys failed to fully explore his troubled childhood.
As a result of his upbringing, Hartmann turned to juvenile crimes. Stebbins said that during a mental evaluation, Hartmann, then 13, was determined to be ''disturbed,'' ''repressing anger and hostility,'' and feeling ''rejection and abandonment.''
A medical professional concluded: ''Intervention is a must,'' Stebbins said.
Hartmann didn't receive any treatment and instead continued to be passed around to family in California, Wisconsin and Ohio, he said.
''And jurors heard almost nothing about the abuse, violence and rejection,'' Stebbins said.
Stebbins spoke only briefly on Hartmann's claims of innocence, which didn't go unnoticed by board members who wanted to know more about the evidence.
Then 23, Hartmann told the board he found Snipes' body, panicked and tried to clean up evidence of his previous visit.
Board chairwoman Cynthia Mausser and other board members also questioned Stebbins on what she called a conflict of Hartmann's claims of innocence with his arguments of a troubled childhood.
''Maybe legally you can have both [arguments], but you can't have both . . . logically,'' she said.
Stebbins said the two are separate arguments. He urged the board, if they fail to believe Hartmann's innocence claims, to then grant him clemency based on the mitigating evidence of a poor childhood.
Rev. Deborah Wissner of Bethany Lutheran Church described Hartmann as a selfless man, more concerned about the impact his incarceration has on his family than on himself.
She said he is a positive example to other inmates and has requested birth dates of Death Row inmates in order to send them cards. She said on occasion, he has wrapped candy bars to give inmates who are ignored by their own families.
''I believe Brett Hartmann's life is worth saving,'' she said.
Walsh called Hartmann a sadistic, remorseless killer whose sentence needs to be imposed.
She said DNA testing done in 2003 at Hartmann's request only solidified the state's case. The DNA linked Hartmann to semen found on Snipes' body. She then rattled off a litany of evidence against Hartmann: His initial denial of calling 911 and finding the body, and the bloody T-shirt and Snipes' watch police found in his bedroom.
Snipes' severed hands and the knife used to kill her have never been recovered.
Walsh recalled police testimony claiming Hartmann approached them at the murder scene after calling 911 and said Snipes was a ''sleeper'' who ''got what she deserved.''
Those words have not been forgotten by Snipes' family in South Carolina.
''Remember what you said, Brett X. Hartmann? She deserved what she got,'' Snipes' 78-year-old mother, Ella Oxford Snipes wrote. ''Now, let's give him what he deserves.''
Phil Trexler can be reached at 330-996-3717 or ptrexler@thebeaconjournal.com.
COLUMBUS: Some describe him as the kind of guy who wraps chocolate bars to give as Christmas gifts to less fortunate inmates.
Others say he's the kind of guy who ties up a woman, strangles her with an electrical cord, stabs her 138 times, then severs her hands.
The Ohio Parole Board Thursday heard of the divergent life of condemned inmate Brett Xavier Hartmann and pleas to spare him from execution.
Their recommendation to Gov. Ted Strickland won't be announced for another week, but board members closely questioned Hartmann's attorney on the former Akron man's clemency request.
Hartmann denies killing his lover, 46-year-old Winda Snipes, inside her one-room Highland Square apartment in September 1997.
At the same time, his attorneys are asking board members to consider what they called Hartmann's ''chaotic childhood,'' which included his being shunned by both parents at age 8 and living for four years on an isolated Indian reservation in Arizona.
The board is also weighing the abbreviated life of Snipes, an educated, attractive Southerner who had relocated to Akron less than two years before her brutal murder.
Snipes' family, including a younger brother, sister and elderly mother, want Hartmann executed as scheduled on April 7.
Hartmann's supporters at Thursday's hearing included his mother, Carol Parcell of Akron; his aunt; a Lutheran minister and a Catholic nun.
Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh traveled to Columbus to personally ask the board to deny Hartmann clemency.
''Eleven years have now passed since Winda Snipes was so mercilessly and brutally murdered by Brett Xavier Hartmann, a man who is remembered in our community not only as a sadistic, violent murderer, but also for his arrogant attitude and lack of remorse and lack of sympathy for the family of Winda,'' Walsh said.
Hartmann is trying to avoid becoming the 29th Ohio inmate executed since 1999.
In a Feb. 12 video conference with the board, Hartmann, 34, continued to maintain his innocence against what police and prosecutors say is a mountain of physical evidence that only continues to grow.
During Thursday's clemency hearing before the parole board, Hartmann's attorneys spent little time on the innocence claims and instead tried to focus on mitigating evidence they say was never offered to jurors at Hartmann's trial.
His attorneys are seeking a reduction of his sentence to life in prison.
David Stebbins, an attorney with the Federal Public Defender's Office, presented a three-prong argument to the board that includes Hartmann's model behavior in prison; his continuing efforts to have crime-scene evidence tested; and Hartmann's childhood, which included an untreated mental disorder diagnosed when he was 13 years old.
Jurors are permitted at trial to consider mitigating circumstances, such as a defendant's mental disorders, drug or physical abuse, before deciding on a sentence. Many courts have thrown out death sentences when trial attorneys fail to fully pursue such mitigation.
Stebbins said that's what happened to Hartmann. He said Hartmann's original attorneys failed to fully explore his troubled childhood.
As a result of his upbringing, Hartmann turned to juvenile crimes. Stebbins said that during a mental evaluation, Hartmann, then 13, was determined to be ''disturbed,'' ''repressing anger and hostility,'' and feeling ''rejection and abandonment.''
A medical professional concluded: ''Intervention is a must,'' Stebbins said.
Hartmann didn't receive any treatment and instead continued to be passed around to family in California, Wisconsin and Ohio, he said.
''And jurors heard almost nothing about the abuse, violence and rejection,'' Stebbins said.
Stebbins spoke only briefly on Hartmann's claims of innocence, which didn't go unnoticed by board members who wanted to know more about the evidence.
Then 23, Hartmann told the board he found Snipes' body, panicked and tried to clean up evidence of his previous visit.
Board chairwoman Cynthia Mausser and other board members also questioned Stebbins on what she called a conflict of Hartmann's claims of innocence with his arguments of a troubled childhood.
''Maybe legally you can have both [arguments], but you can't have both . . . logically,'' she said.
Stebbins said the two are separate arguments. He urged the board, if they fail to believe Hartmann's innocence claims, to then grant him clemency based on the mitigating evidence of a poor childhood.
Rev. Deborah Wissner of Bethany Lutheran Church described Hartmann as a selfless man, more concerned about the impact his incarceration has on his family than on himself.
She said he is a positive example to other inmates and has requested birth dates of Death Row inmates in order to send them cards. She said on occasion, he has wrapped candy bars to give inmates who are ignored by their own families.
''I believe Brett Hartmann's life is worth saving,'' she said.
Walsh called Hartmann a sadistic, remorseless killer whose sentence needs to be imposed.
She said DNA testing done in 2003 at Hartmann's request only solidified the state's case. The DNA linked Hartmann to semen found on Snipes' body. She then rattled off a litany of evidence against Hartmann: His initial denial of calling 911 and finding the body, and the bloody T-shirt and Snipes' watch police found in his bedroom.
Snipes' severed hands and the knife used to kill her have never been recovered.
Walsh recalled police testimony claiming Hartmann approached them at the murder scene after calling 911 and said Snipes was a ''sleeper'' who ''got what she deserved.''
Those words have not been forgotten by Snipes' family in South Carolina.
''Remember what you said, Brett X. Hartmann? She deserved what she got,'' Snipes' 78-year-old mother, Ella Oxford Snipes wrote. ''Now, let's give him what he deserves.'
www.ohio.com/news/40406547.html
Inmate's attorney fighting execution
Summit prosecutor asks parole board not to spare life of Akron murderer
By Phil Trexler
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Friday, Feb 27, 2009
COLUMBUS: Some describe him as the kind of guy who wraps chocolate bars to give as Christmas gifts to less fortunate inmates.
Others say he's the kind of guy who ties up a woman, strangles her with an electrical cord, stabs her 138 times, then severs her hands.
The Ohio Parole Board Thursday heard of the divergent life of condemned inmate Brett Xavier Hartmann and pleas to spare him from execution.
Their recommendation to Gov. Ted Strickland won't be announced for another week, but board members closely questioned Hartmann's attorney on the former Akron man's clemency request.
Hartmann denies killing his lover, 46-year-old Winda Snipes, inside her one-room Highland Square apartment in September 1997.
At the same time, his attorneys are asking board members to consider what they called Hartmann's ''chaotic childhood,'' which included his being shunned by both parents at age 8 and living for four years on an isolated Indian reservation in Arizona.
The board is also weighing the abbreviated life of Snipes, an educated, attractive Southerner who had relocated to Akron less than two years before her brutal murder.
Snipes' family, including a younger brother, sister and elderly mother, want Hartmann executed as scheduled on April 7.
Hartmann's supporters at Thursday's hearing included his mother, Carol Parcell of Akron; his aunt; a Lutheran minister and a Catholic nun.
Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh traveled to Columbus to personally ask the board to deny Hartmann clemency.
''Eleven years have now passed since Winda Snipes was so mercilessly and brutally murdered by Brett Xavier Hartmann, a man who is remembered in our community not only as a sadistic, violent murderer, but also for his arrogant attitude and lack of remorse and lack of sympathy for the family of Winda,'' Walsh said.
Hartmann is trying to avoid becoming the 29th Ohio inmate executed since 1999.
In a Feb. 12 video conference with the board, Hartmann, 34, continued to maintain his innocence against what police and prosecutors say is a mountain of physical evidence that only continues to grow.
During Thursday's clemency hearing before the parole board, Hartmann's attorneys spent little time on the innocence claims and instead tried to focus on mitigating evidence they say was never offered to jurors at Hartmann's trial.
His attorneys are seeking a reduction of his sentence to life in prison.
David Stebbins, an attorney with the Federal Public Defender's Office, presented a three-prong argument to the board that includes Hartmann's model behavior in prison; his continuing efforts to have crime-scene evidence tested; and Hartmann's childhood, which included an untreated mental disorder diagnosed when he was 13 years old.
Jurors are permitted at trial to consider mitigating circumstances, such as a defendant's mental disorders, drug or physical abuse, before deciding on a sentence. Many courts have thrown out death sentences when trial attorneys fail to fully pursue such mitigation.
Stebbins said that's what happened to Hartmann. He said Hartmann's original attorneys failed to fully explore his troubled childhood.
As a result of his upbringing, Hartmann turned to juvenile crimes. Stebbins said that during a mental evaluation, Hartmann, then 13, was determined to be ''disturbed,'' ''repressing anger and hostility,'' and feeling ''rejection and abandonment.''
A medical professional concluded: ''Intervention is a must,'' Stebbins said.
Hartmann didn't receive any treatment and instead continued to be passed around to family in California, Wisconsin and Ohio, he said.
''And jurors heard almost nothing about the abuse, violence and rejection,'' Stebbins said.
Stebbins spoke only briefly on Hartmann's claims of innocence, which didn't go unnoticed by board members who wanted to know more about the evidence.
Then 23, Hartmann told the board he found Snipes' body, panicked and tried to clean up evidence of his previous visit.
Board chairwoman Cynthia Mausser and other board members also questioned Stebbins on what she called a conflict of Hartmann's claims of innocence with his arguments of a troubled childhood.
''Maybe legally you can have both [arguments], but you can't have both . . . logically,'' she said.
Stebbins said the two are separate arguments. He urged the board, if they fail to believe Hartmann's innocence claims, to then grant him clemency based on the mitigating evidence of a poor childhood.
Rev. Deborah Wissner of Bethany Lutheran Church described Hartmann as a selfless man, more concerned about the impact his incarceration has on his family than on himself.
She said he is a positive example to other inmates and has requested birth dates of Death Row inmates in order to send them cards. She said on occasion, he has wrapped candy bars to give inmates who are ignored by their own families.
''I believe Brett Hartmann's life is worth saving,'' she said.
Walsh called Hartmann a sadistic, remorseless killer whose sentence needs to be imposed.
She said DNA testing done in 2003 at Hartmann's request only solidified the state's case. The DNA linked Hartmann to semen found on Snipes' body. She then rattled off a litany of evidence against Hartmann: His initial denial of calling 911 and finding the body, and the bloody T-shirt and Snipes' watch police found in his bedroom.
Snipes' severed hands and the knife used to kill her have never been recovered.
Walsh recalled police testimony claiming Hartmann approached them at the murder scene after calling 911 and said Snipes was a ''sleeper'' who ''got what she deserved.''
Those words have not been forgotten by Snipes' family in South Carolina.
''Remember what you said, Brett X. Hartmann? She deserved what she got,'' Snipes' 78-year-old mother, Ella Oxford Snipes wrote. ''Now, let's give him what he deserves.''
Phil Trexler can be reached at 330-996-3717 or ptrexler@thebeaconjournal.com.
COLUMBUS: Some describe him as the kind of guy who wraps chocolate bars to give as Christmas gifts to less fortunate inmates.
Others say he's the kind of guy who ties up a woman, strangles her with an electrical cord, stabs her 138 times, then severs her hands.
The Ohio Parole Board Thursday heard of the divergent life of condemned inmate Brett Xavier Hartmann and pleas to spare him from execution.
Their recommendation to Gov. Ted Strickland won't be announced for another week, but board members closely questioned Hartmann's attorney on the former Akron man's clemency request.
Hartmann denies killing his lover, 46-year-old Winda Snipes, inside her one-room Highland Square apartment in September 1997.
At the same time, his attorneys are asking board members to consider what they called Hartmann's ''chaotic childhood,'' which included his being shunned by both parents at age 8 and living for four years on an isolated Indian reservation in Arizona.
The board is also weighing the abbreviated life of Snipes, an educated, attractive Southerner who had relocated to Akron less than two years before her brutal murder.
Snipes' family, including a younger brother, sister and elderly mother, want Hartmann executed as scheduled on April 7.
Hartmann's supporters at Thursday's hearing included his mother, Carol Parcell of Akron; his aunt; a Lutheran minister and a Catholic nun.
Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh traveled to Columbus to personally ask the board to deny Hartmann clemency.
''Eleven years have now passed since Winda Snipes was so mercilessly and brutally murdered by Brett Xavier Hartmann, a man who is remembered in our community not only as a sadistic, violent murderer, but also for his arrogant attitude and lack of remorse and lack of sympathy for the family of Winda,'' Walsh said.
Hartmann is trying to avoid becoming the 29th Ohio inmate executed since 1999.
In a Feb. 12 video conference with the board, Hartmann, 34, continued to maintain his innocence against what police and prosecutors say is a mountain of physical evidence that only continues to grow.
During Thursday's clemency hearing before the parole board, Hartmann's attorneys spent little time on the innocence claims and instead tried to focus on mitigating evidence they say was never offered to jurors at Hartmann's trial.
His attorneys are seeking a reduction of his sentence to life in prison.
David Stebbins, an attorney with the Federal Public Defender's Office, presented a three-prong argument to the board that includes Hartmann's model behavior in prison; his continuing efforts to have crime-scene evidence tested; and Hartmann's childhood, which included an untreated mental disorder diagnosed when he was 13 years old.
Jurors are permitted at trial to consider mitigating circumstances, such as a defendant's mental disorders, drug or physical abuse, before deciding on a sentence. Many courts have thrown out death sentences when trial attorneys fail to fully pursue such mitigation.
Stebbins said that's what happened to Hartmann. He said Hartmann's original attorneys failed to fully explore his troubled childhood.
As a result of his upbringing, Hartmann turned to juvenile crimes. Stebbins said that during a mental evaluation, Hartmann, then 13, was determined to be ''disturbed,'' ''repressing anger and hostility,'' and feeling ''rejection and abandonment.''
A medical professional concluded: ''Intervention is a must,'' Stebbins said.
Hartmann didn't receive any treatment and instead continued to be passed around to family in California, Wisconsin and Ohio, he said.
''And jurors heard almost nothing about the abuse, violence and rejection,'' Stebbins said.
Stebbins spoke only briefly on Hartmann's claims of innocence, which didn't go unnoticed by board members who wanted to know more about the evidence.
Then 23, Hartmann told the board he found Snipes' body, panicked and tried to clean up evidence of his previous visit.
Board chairwoman Cynthia Mausser and other board members also questioned Stebbins on what she called a conflict of Hartmann's claims of innocence with his arguments of a troubled childhood.
''Maybe legally you can have both [arguments], but you can't have both . . . logically,'' she said.
Stebbins said the two are separate arguments. He urged the board, if they fail to believe Hartmann's innocence claims, to then grant him clemency based on the mitigating evidence of a poor childhood.
Rev. Deborah Wissner of Bethany Lutheran Church described Hartmann as a selfless man, more concerned about the impact his incarceration has on his family than on himself.
She said he is a positive example to other inmates and has requested birth dates of Death Row inmates in order to send them cards. She said on occasion, he has wrapped candy bars to give inmates who are ignored by their own families.
''I believe Brett Hartmann's life is worth saving,'' she said.
Walsh called Hartmann a sadistic, remorseless killer whose sentence needs to be imposed.
She said DNA testing done in 2003 at Hartmann's request only solidified the state's case. The DNA linked Hartmann to semen found on Snipes' body. She then rattled off a litany of evidence against Hartmann: His initial denial of calling 911 and finding the body, and the bloody T-shirt and Snipes' watch police found in his bedroom.
Snipes' severed hands and the knife used to kill her have never been recovered.
Walsh recalled police testimony claiming Hartmann approached them at the murder scene after calling 911 and said Snipes was a ''sleeper'' who ''got what she deserved.''
Those words have not been forgotten by Snipes' family in South Carolina.
''Remember what you said, Brett X. Hartmann? She deserved what she got,'' Snipes' 78-year-old mother, Ella Oxford Snipes wrote. ''Now, let's give him what he deserves.'