Daily hearings have been underway and will continue to be until July 22 in Rutland federal court on the constitutionality of the death penalty, and the testimony could make a difference in whether a man facing a second trial for murdering a North Clarendon woman in 2000 is once again sentenced to death.The case of Donald Fell, the man convicted by a federal jury in 2005 for murdering Terry King five years earlier, has taken a number of twists and turns already, and these hearings on the death penalty could result in even more.
Fell is getting a second trial because his lawyers argued that one of the jurors in the original case was guilty of juror misconduct when he visited the scene of the crime against a judge's orders not to do so.
Experts on the death penalty are now being brought in to give their views on whether capital punishment is constitutional in this case. Vermont does not allow the death penalty, but it adheres in the case of Donald Fell, because he is said to have crossed state lines from Vermont into New York before allegedly killing Terry King, an act that makes the crime eligible for a capital punishment sentence under federal law.
Prosecutors including Vermont U.S. Attorney Eric Miller argue Fell should be executed if he's found guilty in a second trial due to the heinous nature of the crime. Terry King's family also wants Fell put to death if convicted. But experts testifying at the Rutland hearings say capital punishment is inhumane and is not a deterrent to murder.
Reporter Kathleen Phalen Tomaselli has been covering the hearings for the Rutland Herald. You can hear her interview with VPR's Mitch Wertlieb by clicking "Listen."
