Court Watch

Lost in the melee of the pepper spraying incident is an interview of a juror by Davis Enterprise reporter Lauren Keene, whose interview now casts doubt on the dismissal of the other juror, ostensibly for language reasons.

Yolo County Judge Janet Gaard held Davis resident Paul Delgado to answer, in a preliminary hearing for two felony charges of attempting to sell meth, despite the fact that there is no evidence that he ever possessed the drug that he allegedly offered to sell to an undercover agent of YONET.

I’d like to be able to tell you that, in the end, justice was served, a murderer got what he deserved and we are all better off for it.  To wearily quote Bob Dylan, “In the courtroom of honor, the judge pounded his gavel – to show that all’s equal and that the courts are on the level – and that the strings in the books ain’t pulled and persuaded…”

When Judge Richardson dismissed Juror No.11 on Monday morning, granting her request for dismissal based on what she claimed to be a language barrier, it created several red flags for the Vanguard, which questioned why she seemed able to understand sufficient English to render a guilty verdict, but not enough to participate in the deliberation on the penalty phase.

On Monday morning, after a brief inquiry with Juror No.11, the judge granted her request for dismissal based on what she claimed to be a language barrier.  Left unanswered by the judge and unquestioned by the defense is how she could understand enough English to render a guilty verdict, but not enough to participate in the deliberation on the penalty phase.

On November 3, 2011, 285 people packed the Yolo Judicial Watch Fundraiser and Awards Ceremony to listen to a night about wrongful convictions highlighted by Maurice Caldwell, an individual who spent 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, and Linda Starr from the Innocence Project, one of the attorneys that helped to free him.

This Thursday at King Hall, John Thompson, who spent 14 years on death row before he was exonerated one month before his scheduled execution, based on the prosecution’s withholding of exculpatory evidence during trial, will speak at King Hall and discuss his experiences with the criminal justice system.

One of the most poignant parts of the recent county realignment discussion was when Debra Shelton, who works for CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) as an educator, talked about Marco Topete and the fact that we simply failed to provide him with the resources he needed to be able to survive on the outside.

It was not supposed to happen this way.  But a juror’s shocking request to be removed from the penalty phase of the Topete trial has thrown a monkey wrench into the system.

As we await the jury’s verdict, I will save you the suspense, this case has been over for a long time, and during District Attorney Jeff Reisig’s brilliant closing, he buried Marco Topete.

After three years of waiting, and three months in trial, then a conviction of first degree murder with four special circumstances, the jury in the Topete case now has the unenviable task of determining whether Marco Topete should spend life in prison without parole or get the death penalty.

Last spring at Picnic Day, the Vanguard decided that one of the best ways to follow what was going on was to drive around, spot law enforcement vehicles pulling people over and film the encounters.

Texas Inmate Scheduled to Die Despite Untested DNA Evidence

This past summer Governor Rick Perry of Texas signed into law a simple measure that would require the state to test DNA evidence if it is available.  But as Governor Perry struggles on the Republican presidential campaign trail, he has thus far denied Hank Skinner, a death row inmate, a DNA test that has the potential to prove his innocence, or at leats remove any doubt as to his guilt.

It was presented as a seminal case to illustrate the threat that the Broderick Boys  presented for the community of West Sacramento.  In April of 2007, three defendants – Austen Nunes, Pauliton Nunes, and Daniel Bonge went with several others to the train tracks in West Sacramento to drink some stolen beer.

Just over six months ago, 43-year-old Maurice Caldwell walked out of the San Francisco Jail a free man, for the first time since his conviction of second-degree murder in a fatal shooting of an individual named Judy Acosta at the Alemany Public Housing Project on June 30, 1990.

For nearly a month now, Occupy Sacramento activists have been cleared from the park on a nightly basis.  Now three Sacramento area attorneys are representing them, led by Mark Merin, who will receive an award on Thursday night from the Vanguard in Woodland, as Vanguard Outstanding Attorney of the Year.

Last week a Twin Rivers School District police officer was shot four times and the suspect wound up dead in the custody of police.

Natasha Minsker – Death Penalty Policy Director of the ACLU of Northern California

Ms. Minsker began her career at the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office, spending the first year as a research attorney in the Capital Defense Unit and the remaining four years as a Deputy Public Defender, handling all types of misdemeanor, felony and juvenile cases.

In an interview, she described her first day working the public defender’s office.

In June of 2009, Tracie Olson took over as public defender for Yolo County when Barry Melton retired. At the time of his retirement, Melton said, “Tracie is a fine lawyer, a talented administrator, a deeply compassionate human being, and a true public servant.”

AB 109 and realignment have the potential to change the way that we do business at the county level and the state level.  Thus, it is disappointing that despite the fact that the process in Yolo County brought the stakeholders together, the plan became less about getting things right and more about protecting one’s funding source and thus one’s turf.