March 6
COLORADO:
Colorado Democrats introduce bill to abolish capital punishment----Currently 3
men facing death penalty in Colo.
Colorado’s Democratic lawmakers have put up a proposal that would make the
Centennial State the 21st state in the United States to ban the death penalty.
Sen. Angela Williams, D-Denver, introduced legislation, SB19-182 , late Monday
to abolish Colorado's capital punishment law.
"It's going to be a full, straight repeal," said Williams.
With Democrats in power and a new governor in office who has said he would sign
such a measure, Williams believes now is the time to ban capital punishment in
Colorado.
"We had a trifecta from the November election. Democrats do control the 1st
floor and the 2nd floor. We feel like our opportunities are greater to finally
get this important piece of legislation passed in the state of Colorado,"
responded Williams.
If passed, the bill would take effect in July. Williams said it will not impact
the sentences of the three men currently on the state’s death row; that
decision will be left up to Governor Jared Polis.
"I've been clear that if the legislature passed a bill to abolish the death
penalty, I would sign it," Polis said in a statement to Denver7.
His office has not yet commented on whether he plans to commute the sentences
of the 3 men currently on Colorado's death row – Nathan Dunlap, Sir Mario Owens
and Robert Ray.
Denver7 first took a 360 look at the many layers to the death penalty in
Colorado when there was a call for Christopher Watts to be put to death after
he pleaded guilty to killing his wife and daughters in Frederick.
We are now revisiting the impassioned debate lawmakers have ignited once again
inside the gold dome.
20 states currently have no capital punishment on the books. Those highlighted
in blue have either never had a death penalty or have abolished it.
History of the death penalty in Colorado
John Stoefel was the 1st to legally be put to death in Colorado in 1859 after
killing his brother-in-law. There were 36 executions carried out up until 1897,
when capital punishment was abolished up until it was restored in 1901 after a
host of lynchings.
Every man executed in Colorado died by hanging up until 1934, when the state
switched to gas chambers to kill those on death row. All 100+ murderers killed
up until 1967 were convicted murderers.
In 1966, Colorado voters defeated a ballot measure referred by the state
legislature that would have abolished capital punishment in a 67 to 33 % vote.
The next year, Colorado put Luis Monge to death. 5 years later, the U.S.
Supreme Court stopped executions across the country in the Furman v. Georgia
decision that deemed the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment.
In 1979, Gov. Dick Lamm allowed a bill to become law without his signature that
reinstated the death penalty and 9 years later, the state adopted lethal
injection as its means of capital punishment.
In 1995, Colorado lawmakers passed a new bill putting death penalty decisions
to a panel of three judges, which would be struck down in 2002 after another
Supreme Court ruling saying such decisions needed to go to a jury.
In 1997, Gary Lee Davis became the last person to be executed in Colorado and
the 1st since Monge in 1967. He was also the only person executed in Colorado
to die as a result of lethal injection.
After the 2002 court decisions, the three men on death row at the time saw
their sentences changed to life in prison. Though several cases have led to
death penalty sentences and some cases are still pending , others, like the
Aurora theater shooting case, led to life sentences because jurors decided not
to impose capital punishment as a sentence.
Bill sponsor says capital punishment is unjust, costly
"I'm passionate about this because, No. 1, it does not deter crime," said
Williams. "I am passionate that it is implied differently."
Williams points to data from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which
estimates a death penalty trial costs Colorado taxpayers $3.5 million compared
to $150,000 for a life-without-parole trial.
All 2 men on Colorado's death row are black. A University of Denver study found
prosecutors are "more likely to seek the death penalty against minority
defendants."
"They're all African-American, they're all from Arapahoe County, they're all
from the same high school and they were all tried in the 18th Judicial Court,"
explained Williams.
Colorado's 3 death row killers include Dunlap, who was convicted of killing 4
employees at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese in 1993.
Governor John Hickenlooper granted Dunlap a temporary reprieve in 2013 and left
his fate up to the next governor.
The other 2 are Owens and Ray. They are the two men responsible for killing
state Sen. Rhonda Fields' son and fiancée.
Mother and Democratic lawmaker disagrees with race and cost arguments
For Sen. Fields, D-Aurora, the death penalty is personal.
"It's hard because every day I have a sense of emptiness. He was my only son. I
taught him how to tie his shoes," said Fields in an interview with Denver7 late
last year.
Her son, Javad Marshall-Fields, was murdered in 2005 along with his fiancée,
Vivian Wolfe.
Both were about to start new careers and a life together in Virginia. Before
they could start that life, Marshall-Fields was set to testify about the night
his friend was murdered.
"I believe that there's some crimes that the death penalty is warranted," said
Fields.
She refutes arguments on race and cost.
"I don't know what cost you put on justice, what cost you put on someone's
life," she said.
Denver7 asked her about efforts to repeal the death penalty during the same
interview last year, and how she might feel if Gov. Polis were to commute the
sentences of her son's killers – Owens and Ray.
"I will not be upset about that and the reason I can't get upset about it is
because I've lost the greatest gift of my life. I've lost my son due to gun
violence," said Fields.
DA with history of death penalty cases thinks Colorado voters should have the
final say
18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler tried one of the
highest-profile death penalty cases in recent history – that of Aurora theater
shooter James Holmes.
"It was probably the hardest professional decision that I've had to make," said
Brauchler in an interview last year.
He sought the death penalty for Holmes but was unable to secure it.
"I think there was justice from the standpoint of that's what our system
produced," Brauchler said.
Ultimately, one juror saved the life of the shooter responsible for killing 12
innocent people inside the Aurora movie theater.
"We're not Texas, we're not Georgia, we're not Florida. We're the state of
Colorado. We do this a bit differently and I think we do it the right way,"
said Brauchler. "The death penalty in Colorado is appropriate to distinguish
what I will call regular murders from more aggravated heinous murders."
Brauchler wrote a recent op-ed in the Denver Post that he believes Colorado
voters – not lawmakers – should have the final say as to whether to abolish
capital punishment.
He shared a similar view with Denver7, saying he believes Coloradans do have an
appetite for the death penalty.
"I think what you look to is the fact that it is still on the books and nobody
who's anti-death-penalty has the guts to send it to the voters to try to repeal
it," Brauchler said.
Archbishop supports repeal, says life is sacred
Archbishop of Denver Samuel J. Aquila said he is opposed to the death penalty
and supports the repeal.
"I am opposed to the death penalty and it is really rooted in the dignity in
the human person and the dignity in human life itself," said Aquila.
He also said he sees real inequity in how the death penalty is implemented.
"Our whole prison system is a miserable failure," said Aquila. "What the death
penalty doesn't say is this person can really change."
Death penalty juror says experience redirected his moral compass
"I grew up believing an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth kind of deal, and
so I was in support of the death penalty," said juror Nate Becker.
Becker said he changed his mind on capital punishment after serving on the
Edward Montour death penalty case in Douglas County.
"I walked away angry, I walked away disappointed in our judicial system," he
said. "I felt the death penalty is not justice. It's vengeance and vengeance
doesn't belong in our courts."
Becker's time on a death penalty jury came to an abrupt and emotional end after
the judge let the defense present evidence sympathetic to the defendant. It was
evidence Becker believes should have come to light long before he was asked to
potentially put a man to death.
The evidence turned out to be so strong that the prosecution ended up taking
the death penalty off the table.
"It became very apparent to me that we are asking people to come to this
conclusion and not providing them all of the information. We're hiding facts
and we're hiding the information and asking them to do that," said Becker.
He also brings up another perspective, what about the heavy burden that kind of
decision leaves on jurors.
"Is it fair? Is it fair to ask a person to live with that for the rest of their
life?" Becker asked.
What's next?
"I am very confident but I also understand the delicacy of this type of
legislation and working that very closely, working with my colleagues, working
with different organizations outside of the state capitol and we're going to do
our best to repel the death penalty," said Williams.
The bill was formally introduced Monday and is scheduled to be first heard
Wednesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sens. Angela Williams and Julie Gonzales and Reps. Jeni Arndt and Adrienne
Benavidez are the prime sponsors of the measure. All are Democrats. But among
the cosponsors are Sen. Kevin Priola, a Henderson Republican.
(source: thedenverchannel.com)
****************
Everything you need to know about Colorado’s current death penalty law----As
lawmakers debate repealing it, here's how Colorado's capital punishment system
works.
Colorado lawmakers may soon repeal the death penalty in the state, so that
makes this a good time to brush up on how the law actually works. Here’s a
guide.
Not every murder case is eligible for the death penalty
Prosecutors in Colorado can seek a death sentence only in murder cases, but
they must be especially heinous murder cases. That means they have to be not
just first-degree murder cases — the most serious murder charge, often
requiring prosecutors to prove it was committed with premeditation — but they
must go even beyond that.
Colorado law lists 17 elements that can elevate a first-degree murder case to
death-penalty eligibility. They are:
The defendant was already in prison for another high-level felony.
The defendant had previously been convicted of murder or another very serious
felony.
The defendant intentionally killed a police officer, prosecutor, firefighter,
emergency medical technician, judge, elected official or federal law
enforcement agent while that victim was performing their job.
The defendant intentionally killed a person who had been kidnapped or held
hostage.
The defendant was “party to an agreement” to kill someone.
The defendant killed someone while lying in wait or in an ambush or by use of a
bomb or incendiary device.
The defendant committed a serious felony and then, while trying to get away,
intentionally killed someone.
The defendant killed someone for financial gain.
While killing one person, the defendant knowingly created a “grave risk of
death” to at least 1 other person.
The defendant killed someone to escape from custody or to avoid arrest,
including the killing of a witness to a crime.
The defendant knowingly, intentionally or with “universal malice manifesting
extreme indifference” killed 2 or more people during 1 incident.
The defendant killed a child under the age of 12.
The defendant killed the victim because of the victim’s race, religion or
national origin.
The defendant killed a person with a weapon they were not legally allowed to
have.
The defendant killed people in multiple incidents
The defendant intentionally killed a woman he or she knew to be pregnant.
The defendant committed the murder in “an especially heinous, cruel or depraved
manner.”
Prosecutors must announce in advance their intention to seek death
Colorado’s court rules require prosecutors to announce within 9 weeks after a
defendant’s arraignment whether they will seek the death penalty. The
arraignment is where a defendant enters a plea. In big cases, it typically
occurs roughly in the middle of the case, after there has been a preliminary
hearing to determine whether the defendant should be bound over for trial.
Juries must be “death qualified”
Death penalty trials require special juries because prosecutors and defense
attorneys have to ask an additional question: Are you willing to impose a death
sentence? Anyone who says they are 100 % against the death penalty, no matter
what the facts of the case are, is ineligible to sit on a capital jury.
Anybody who says they would automatically impose a death sentence for any
1st-degree murder, regardless of the specific facts, also gets booted. This
screening process makes the resulting jury “death qualified.”
Trials move in phases
Death penalty trials also have additional steps and require additional
deliberation by the jury. The 1st half of the trial — the “guilt” phase —
proceeds like any normal trial. Prosecutors and defense attorneys present their
cases, and the jury decides whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty.
Verdicts must be unanimous.
If the verdict is guilty, prosecutors who have given notice of their intent to
seek the death penalty can then move into the “penalty” phase of the trial,
where they and the defense will present additional evidence and the jury will
deliberate anew. Depending on how the judge conducts the trial, there could be
three steps in the penalty phase, each requiring the jury to deliberate and
reach a unanimous verdict before moving on to the next step.
Aggravators vs mitigators
The penalty phase is where prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt
that the defendant, in addition to committing murder, also committed at least
one of those 17 elements listed above, known as “aggravators.” But,
significantly, death penalty cases aren’t just about how awful a murder was.
Unlike every other criminal trial in Colorado, death penalty cases also require
juries to look at the entire life of the defendant before them.
State law lists 11 specific “mitigators” that aren’t defenses against guilt but
might persuade a jury to give a defendant life instead of death. They are
generally more open-ended than the aggravators, and there’s also a 12th
mitigator that basically opens mitigation evidence up to anything that could be
relevant. The 11 specified mitigators are:
The age of the defendant
That the defendant’s capacity to appreciate the wrongful of their actions or
conform their conduct to the law was impaired.
That the defendant was “under unusual or substantial duress.”
That the defendant was involved in the killing but not the ringleader.
That the defendant “could not have reasonably foreseen” that their conduct
would kill someone.
The emotional state of the defendant at the time of the murder.
The absence of any significant prior criminal history.
The extent to which the defendant cooperated with police or prosecutors.
The influence of drugs and alcohol.
That the defendant had a “good faith, although mistaken, belief” that there was
a moral justification for their conduct.
That the defendant is not a continuing threat to society.
Once prosecutors have proved the aggravators and defense attorneys have
presented the mitigators, the jury must decide whether the mitigators outweigh
the aggravators. If they do not, the jury moves to its final bit of
deliberation.
The sentencing decision
The last hurdle is where most capital cases that reach the penalty phase in
Colorado fall. In the final analysis, juries make a moral choice about whether
death is the appropriate punishment. There’s not really a legal standard to
guide them here; if the trial has reached this far, then all the legal elements
have been proved. Nothing in the law ever requires a jury to sentence someone
to death. So this one is up to each juror individually and what they believe is
right.
The jury must be unanimous for a death sentence to be handed down. This is why
defense attorneys will often start as early as jury selection talking to jurors
about the importance of respecting one another’s decisions at this phase and
standing up to deliberation room bullies.
Appeals can take decades
Actually getting to a death sentence is only a fraction of the life of a
typical death penalty case in Colorado. The appeals usually take much, much
longer.
There’s basically three appeals that everyone sentenced to death is legally
guaranteed, two in state court and one in federal court. The 1st in state court
challenges the trial judge’s decisions in the trial — should certain evidence
have been admitted or excluded, for instance. This is called the direct appeal.
The 2nd in state court is the better known one — the post-conviction appeal.
This is where usually a new team of attorneys looks for new or undisclosed
evidence or argues that a defendant’s trial lawyer made big mistakes.
******************
He survived the Aurora Chuck E. Cheese shooting 25 years ago. A possible death
penalty repeal is bringing it all back up.
He remembers the hum of the vacuum cleaner, the sound of closing time at the
Aurora Chuck E. Cheese restaurant where he worked in 1993.
He remembers the dishes and the clatter they made when he dropped them to the
floor after being shot in the face. He remembers the sight of his co-worker,
just a teenager, lying motionless on a blood-soaked floor. He remembers a smile
on the killer’s face.
For Bobby Stephens, the lone survivor of the mass shooting at the Chuck E.
Cheese that claimed four lives, the flashbacks are infrequent now. He’s busy
working and raising four rambunctious boys at home.
And, yet, the shooting — and the, so far, unsettled sentence for the killer,
Nathan Dunlap — still looms in his life.
“Every time I seem to move on with my life, I move past everything, it’s in the
back of my mind — because you can never really truly forget, but you can place
it aside and not have it affect you,” he said. “But, it seems like every time I
do so, something happens and it gets stirred back up.”
That’s what happened nearly six years ago, when former Gov. John Hickenlooper
granted an indefinite reprieve to Dunlap, placing his execution in a state of
limbo. That’s what happened when current Gov. Jared Polis took office in
January — and then made no announcement about how he would handle Dunlap’s
case.
And that is what is happening now that lawmakers at the state Capitol are
introducing a bill to repeal the death penalty. The bill would not directly
affect Dunlap’s sentence. But Polis has said he supports repealing the
punishment, and he told Colorado Public Radio he would commute the sentences of
those currently on death row, including Dunlap, if a repeal bill becomes law.
It raises a confusing clash of emotions within Stephens — his anger and a
belief that Dunlap deserves to die for his crime; his altruism and a sense that
the criminal justice system needs to be fair and thorough; his exhaustion and a
hope that the case will finally come to an end.
But the question for him comes down to this: 25 years after he pulled himself
up from the kitchen floor and ran out the restaurant’s back door to seek help,
how is this what justice looks like?
“This has been going on so long. So long,” he said. “And it just doesn’t make
sense to me that this process has been what it’s been.”
Even in a state sadly familiar with mass murder, it’s hard to exaggerate how
shocking the Chuck E. Cheese shooting was.
Three of the victims — Sylvia Crowell, Ben Grant and Colleen O’Connor — were
only teenagers. (Stephens, at 20, wasn’t much older.) The fourth victim,
manager Margaret Kohlberg, was 50 and like a mother to her young crew.
Dunlap, who was 19 at the time, had previously worked at the restaurant, but,
after he was fired, he vowed to get even. Eleven days before Christmas in 1993,
he hid in a bathroom until the restaurant closed, then shot the only people
remaining inside. When it was over, he made off with $1,500 and some game
tokens.
The public reaction almost set a template for debates to come. There was
discussion about gun violence and the ease of acquiring firearms. There was
debate about mental health. Businesses increased security. The community held
vigils. Politicians made speeches. Prosecutors and defense attorneys readied
their arguments. The headlines went on for months.
To Stephens, it was bewildering.
“Even back then, it seemed like all of this was a big game,” he said of the
legal proceedings. “It was a political circus.”
He had his own struggles. His body healed, but he still felt uneasy.
One day, he said, he tried going to a shopping mall, but he couldn’t shake the
feeling that someone there would shoot him. He watched the hands of everyone
who passed by, looking for sudden movement.
On another day, he hit the floor in a 7-Eleven when a child using the air
machine out front overinflated his bike tire, resulting in a loud pop. He moved
to Arizona for a bit to get away from it all, but a coworker there recognized
him from the news. At his lowest point, he said, he attempted to take his own
life.
With the court case, he tried to set aside his anger and view it fairly. He
wanted the system to work the way it is supposed to — from arrest, to trial, to
jury, to verdict, and then to possible punishment. He would be patient, even
though his emotions were sometimes anything but.
A few years ago, he set foot inside a Chuck E. Cheese again — the 1st time
since the shooting. It was his nephew’s birthday, he said, and the restaurant’s
design and decor had changed so much since his time working there.
It started off well.
“And then one of the employees started vacuuming the floors,” he said. “And I
lost everything, including my stomach.”
The years of appeals ticked by, longer and longer periods of quiet punctuated
with reminders and turmoil. Then came 2013, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied
the last of the appeals that Dunlap was legally guaranteed. Colorado’s rusty
gears of execution began to turn, and Dunlap’s attorneys sent Hickenlooper a
petition for clemency.
Stephens and family members of the victims wrote Hickenlooper letters. They
just wanted a decision.
“We asked for the same thing: Put this behind us,” Stephens said. “Put this to
rest, and either carry out the sentence or not.”
He paused.
“So now here we are another 5 years later.”
Stephens said his personal belief is that death is the appropriate punishment
for Dunlap — whom Stephens’ sometimes refers to simply as Nathan. An eye for an
eye.
But part of Stephens’ healing has been recognizing that the case is bigger than
just him. He wants to respect the opinions of family members of the victims,
not all of whom favor execution.
Part of him, he said, would be relieved if Polis commuted Dunlap’s sentence to
life in prison.
“At least it’s over,” he said.
But another part feels just as strongly that anything short of execution would
be an injustice — not because he would take comfort in lethal vengeance, but
because that’s what the legal process ordered.
“That’s where a lot of the turmoil comes from,” he said. “I put my faith in the
judicial system. And at that point, I figured, I’ll let our system do its job.
I’ll let our system decide whether he should live. … A verdict was given. And
then, all of a sudden, it came to a screeching halt.
“To be honest with you, I wonder why we’re still playing this game 25 years
later.”
And, so, Bobby Stephens sits in his home in Colorado Springs, surrounded by the
life he’s built after tragedy — children playing, family photos spread across
the walls — waiting for the end of a case that’s already haunted him for more
than half of his life. appeals used to go one after another. But Colorado law
now tries to speed up the process by making them run at the same time. (So far,
it hasn’t made things any quicker.) Both appeals first start with the same
judge who oversaw the trial. Then they go to the Colorado Court of Appeals and,
finally, the Colorado Supreme Court.
< Once the appeals in state court are exhausted, defendants can file an appeal
in federal court arguing, basically, that the state court process was unfair.
This appeal starts with a federal trial judge in Denver, then goes to the 10th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, also in Denver, and lastly to the U.S. Supreme
Court. Defendants can try to file more appeals beyond these, but courts don’t
have to hear them.
The governor has final say
Once all the appeals are done, the condemned’s attorney will usually draft a
petition to the governor asking for clemency. The process here is really
ill-defined, and the governor has broad discretion over whom to grant clemency
to and why.
Clemency is different from a pardon. If granted, a killer’s sentence would
usually be changed to life in prison. Depending on your perspective, this is
one last check on the system or one last chance to thwart justice.
(source for both: The Colorado Sun)
NEVADA----death row inmate drops appeals, seeks execution
AG says inmate volunteering to be executed underscores need to resolve lethal
injection lawsuits
Death row inmate Kevin Lisle has voluntarily given up his right to appeal and
is seeking to be executed, potentially setting up another situation in which
Nevada struggles to carry out a death sentence.
The 48-year-old Lisle’s request to drop all further appeals, which was first
reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, came in the form of a handwritten
note that was attached to a court document filed Monday with the Nevada Supreme
Court. The state is asking the Nevada Supreme Court to decide soon whether the
maker of a drug in the lethal injection combination can block the drug’s use in
capital punishment.
Lisle wrote in a letter addressed to the attorney general that he “hereby WAVES
[sic] HIS RIGHT TO APPEAL of his own will with the complete and competent
understanding that ELY STATE PRISON EXECUTIONERS will put him to death by
leathal [sic] means.”
Lisle, 48, was sentenced to death for the August 1994 killing of Justin Lusch,
the 19-year-old son of the then-chief of the North Las Vegas Police Department.
He was also sentenced to death in the October 1994 murder of Kip Logan, a
former Bishop Gorman High School student who was shot to death in an
altercation on the U.S. 95 roadway.
“Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC) acknowledges the motion of Inmate
Lisle,” prison officials said in a statement.
Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office is arguing that the Nevada Supreme Court
should take up the state’s appeal of lower court orders restricting the use of
lethal injection drugs. The office contended that even though the subject of
the original case — inmate Scott Dozier — died by suicide in January, the case
is not moot.
“So long as Nevada law provides for capital punishment, there is a likelihood
that similar issues as presented in this case will arise in the future,” the
attorney general’s office argued.
Some of the state’s supply of lethal injection drugs meant for Dozier has
already started expiring, with several packages of the painkiller fentanyl and
the paralytic cisatracurium past their expiration dates and others going bad
this spring and summer. Ford’s office noted that the last batch of the drug
midazolam that the state owns, and that is subject to an injunction, is
expected to expire Jan. 30, 2020, and an execution order for Lisle could come
before that date.
The office also pointed to the public interest in the viability of executions,
noting there are bills pending in the Legislature seeking to abolish capital
punishment.
“The Court should not consider the issues presented here moot, especially in
light of pending legislation that may alter Nevada’s capital punishment
statutes,” the motion said. “The Nevada Legislature’s consideration of
legislation that may alter capital punishment statutes reveals the public
importance of the issues in this case.”
(source: The Nevada Independent)
CALIFORNIA:
Death Sentence Sustained For Pier Shooters
On Thursday, February 28, the California Supreme Court upheld the convictions
and death sentences of 2 gang members for a 3-month killing spree back in 2000.
The killing spree ended when one of the members held up a Santa Monica Pier
arcade with hostages and began shooting at authorities.
The California Supreme Court rejected the defense’s dispute that there were
critical errors in the trials of the 2 gunman Joseph Flores and Oswaldo
Amezcua. The defendants’ refused to allow their attorneys to present arguments
on their behalf or any mitigating evidence during the trial penalty phase. In
March 2005, jurors recommended the 2 men be sentenced to death for their
crimes.
The jurors convicted co-defendants Joseph Conrad Flores and Oswaldo Amezcua for
the 1st-degree murders of George Flores, John Diaz, Arturo Madrigal, and Luis
Reyes. The jury also convicted the 2 men of multiple counts of attempted
willful, deliberate, premeditated murder, some of them related to police
officers; custodial possession of a weapon, multiple counts of false
imprisonment in a hostage-taking incident, and other enhancement allegations.
One of the enhancement allegations was that many of the killings were committed
for the benefit of a criminal street gang.
Justice Carol A. Corrigan wrote in a 63-page ruling that, “The record clearly
demonstrates defendants’ objective in this case. The court engaged in extensive
and careful colloquy with defendants and their counsel to ensure that each
defendant understood the stakes involved in pursuing his choice.”
The murders took place between April 11, 2000 and June 19, 2000, after both
Flores and Amezcua were released from state prison for an armed robbery
conviction. 3 of the victims were murdered in Baldwin Park and Luis Reyes was
murdered in the city of Ontario.
On July 4, 2000, Amezcua surrendered after a 5-hour standoff with the Santa
Monica Police Department at the Playland Arcade located on the Santa Monica
Pier. Multiple police officers were wounded during the standoff. Flores was
tackled to the ground by police and arrested.
When asked to address the court at his sentencing Amezcua stated that he loved
his family. He began to exalt his gang affiliation by declaring that he was a
“soldier” who chose his “profession.” Amezcua commented that the justice system
turned the jury into killers. He declared that he would “offer no lame attempts
to apologize” for the crimes he committed.
(source: canyon-news.com)
*****************
Juan Corona, California’s most prolific serial killer, dies of natural causes
Juan Vallejo Corona, California’s most prolific serial killer, died of natural
causes Monday morning in a hospital, more than four decades after he hacked to
death 25 farmworkers and buried most of them in a prune orchard near Yuba City
in Sutter County, prison officials announced.
Corona, 85, was serving 25 concurrent life sentences after being convicted of
25 counts of 1st-degree murder. There was no death penalty in California when
he was sentenced in 1973.
Corona was denied parole 8 times since 1984 and was next eligible for a hearing
in 2021. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced
his death Monday and released his most recent mug shot from California State
Prison-Corcoran, showing a frail old man with a droopy left eye caused by a
1973 stabbing attack at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville that
nearly killed him.
In May 1971, authorities found 25 mutilated bodies of male, middle-aged
farmworkers in orchards along the Feather River in Sutter County. Many of the
victims lived on a Marysville skid row and were considered “fruit tramps,” men
who would follow the orchard harvests finding work.
Police recovered a machete and other sharp weapons from Corona’s house at the
labor camp he supervised, where he hired many of the men he would later kill.
Corona’s family described him as a man with a violent temper, whom they had to
tie with rope to calm down. He had been committed to a mental hospital years
before the murders, believing that everyone in Yuba City had drowned during the
catastrophic 1955 flood that killed 37 people — and that he lived in a land of
ghosts.
Corona was tried in Colusa County and found guilty in January 1973. 5 years
later, his conviction was overturned by an appellate court and he won a new
trial. His second trial was held in Alameda County, and he was again convicted
of all 25 murders in 1982.
Authorities have said over the years that Corona’s body count could be higher,
and his name is likely to be brought up when a body is uncovered in Sutter
County.
Corona was born in Mexico. After receiving shock therapy treatment at the
mental hospital, he was released and deported to his native country before he
returned to California with a green card. He got married and started a family
in Yuba City, raising 4 daughters.
The case broke in 1971 after a farmer found a hole dug in his peach orchard and
suspected someone had been burying trash. Instead, a body was found, and then
more in a neighboring orchard. Many of the men had machete gashes to the backs
of their heads in the shape of a cross.
In his 2nd-to-last parole hearing in 2011, Corona admitted killing the men,
saying they were trespassing.
A Sutter County cemetery has a tombstone over the unclaimed bodies of 14 of the
25 victims. 4 of the men were never identified. It reads: “Here lie 14 men of
the sod, four of them known only to God.”
(source: San Francisco Chronicle)
OREGON:
Bill would effectively abolish the death penalty in Oregon
A bill filed Monday would allow the death penalty only in cases involving
terrorism-related killings, effectively abolishing capital punishment in
Oregon.
Currently, aggravated murder includes crimes such as killing a child under 12,
killing more than one person, killing a police officer on duty or killing
someone during a rape or robbery. Those crimes are eligible for the death
penalty.
Under House Bill 3268, aggravated murder would be limited to only crimes when 2
or more people are killed in a terror attack.
Crimes considered aggravated murder under current law would be classified as
1st-degree murder, which would carry a maximum sentence of life in prison
without the possibility of parole.
Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D-Portland, is the bill’s chief sponsor; 10 lawmakers,
including 1 Republican, Rep. Ronald Noble of McMinnville, have also signed onto
the bill.
“I think generally people support doing away with the death penalty,” Greenlick
said. “I know it’s problematically applied and it’s extraordinarily expensive.”
Mary Elledge, an Oregon City woman whose son, Rob, was murdered in 1986, said
she opposes eliminating the death penalty even though executions are rare in
Oregon. She said just the threat of the death penalty can be effective in
murder cases. Elledge leads a local chapter of Parents of Murdered Children, a
nonprofit that does not take a position on the death penalty. She said her
personal views do not reflect those of the organization.
“The death penalty is a great bargaining tool,” she said.
The bill represents the latest chapter of Oregon’s long and evolving stance on
the death penalty. Oregonians voted to abolish capital punishment once before,
in 1914. They revived it in 1964 and then twice more voted to keep it around,
most recently in the 1980s.
In 2011, then-Gov. John Kitzhaber imposed a moratorium on the death penalty. He
argued that the death penalty isn’t handed down fairly: Some inmates on death
row have committed similar crimes as those who are serving life sentences. He
said capital punishment should be replaced with a sentence of life without the
possibility of parole.
In 2015, Gov. Kate Brown, who personally opposes the death penalty, extended
the moratorium.
Oregon hasn’t executed anyone since 1997. In the past five decades, the state
executed 2 men, both in the 1990s. Those men essentially had volunteered for
the death penalty after waiving their rights to appeal before their deaths.
There are currently 30 people on death row.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, states continue to
grapple with the fairness and cost of capital punishment, currently authorized
in 31 states. Since 2009, a handful of states, including New Mexico, Illinois,
Connecticut and Maryland, have abolished the death penalty through legislation
and replaced it with life without parole.
The Nebraska Legislature also abolished capital punishment in 2015, but it was
reinstated by a statewide vote in 2016. Courts in Delaware recently ruled that
the state’s capital punishment law is unconstitutional.
A 2016 study funded by an anti-death penalty organization, the Oregon Justice
Resource Center, concluded that the costs associated with the death penalty in
Oregon are almost twice as much as those for life sentences.
Alice Lundell, a spokeswoman for the Justice Resource Center, said HB 3268 is a
positive step but doesn’t go far enough. Her organization has advocated for a
complete elimination of the death penalty and has urged Brown to commute the
sentences of those on death row.
She said the bill doesn’t address the fundamental problems with capital
punishment, such as its costs, high reversal rates and its uneven application
among counties.
“But it’s still a good thing to limit it further,” Lundell said.
The Oregon District Attorneys Association issued a brief statement Monday
saying the death penalty was created through a citizen initiative petition in
1983 and was adopted the following year.
“Any change should be done in a transparent manner and should be decided by the
voters,” said Beth Heckert, organization president and Jackson County district
attorney.
(source: oregonlive.com)
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