Governor Perry of Texas has burst onto the political scene as he attempts to become the Republican nominee for President. One issue that has so far been kept below the surface is the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham.
Back in the 1990s, the death penalty had become a third rail, of sorts, as a highly-charged issue. The public supported the death penalty overwhelmingly, Michael Dukakis had been ground into dust on the issue, so Democrats would not touch the issue.
While it is a decision that only applies to the State of New Jersey, observers and analysts expect a decision rendered by the New Jersey Supreme Court earlier this week to have considerable impact nationally, as the U.S. Supreme Court will in November also return to the issue of eyewitness testimony, last considered in 1977.
Over the first portion of the year 2011, we have often noted the sea-change that has occurred in Yolo County with regard to the results of jury trials. Some readers have asked for statistical analysis to bolster these claims.
This is not a case of an innocent man being wrongfully convicted. This is the case of a man, who committed some crimes, being convicted of far more than he committed and facing far longer time in prison than he deserves.
The prosecution in the Topete trial now appears to be attempting to tear away at the notion that Mr. Topete was drunk when he led Deputy Tony Diaz on a high-speed chase that culminated in the fatal shooting.
Last week, during the opening statements, the prosecution showed the full 15-minute video of the incident that culminated in the fatal shooting of Officer Tony Diaz. During the course of airing that video, members of the family, apparently unprepared for the magnitude of emotions, responded by openingly weeping in court, and some fleeing the courtroom were even heard wailing around the entire courthouse.
There was a lot of focus, this opening week of the Topete trial, on the sideshow. In the end, the point I am going to make is probably not crucial. In all likelihood Mr. Topete will get convicted on all charges and sentenced to death. After all, he shot at a police officer 17 times after leading him on a high speed chase. He had his baby in the car and he was drunk.
Earlier this week, we ran a story about the lawsuit that Attorney Stewart Katz filed on behalf of John Hesselbein.
The spectacle of the Topete trial has often distracted from the incident and brutal murder itself. This has proved to be a huge disservice to the magnitude of human tragedy that occurred here.
Judge Richardson Denies Defense Motion For Mistrial – Given the twists and turns in the now three-year-old murder case involving Marco Topete, who faces the death penalty for shooting and killing Sheriff Deputy Tony Diaz in June of 2008, it should be no surprise that the first day of opening arguments would not run smoothly.
Suit alleges a very different string of events than the one detailed by the Sacramento District Attorney’s officeAttorney Stewart Katz, representing John Hesselbein, filed a federal civil rights suit on Monday stemming from an action on January 30, 2011 where Mr. Hesselbein was shot “at point-blank range in the head with a high-powered round fired from an assault rifle while Hesselbein was seated handcuffed in the back of a patrol car.”
On August 1, the Yolo Judicial Watch Editorial Board wrote, “A recent study, by Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Arthur Alarcon and Loyola Law School Professor Paula Mitchell, of correctional records reveals the stunning toll that legal proceedings take on the financial resources of our state. In the face of the staggering cost of capital punishment, California can no longer afford the legal proceedings required, by law, to put a person to death.”
On Friday a reader commenting on the Judicial Watch article about a man convicted of first degree murder of his wife wrote, “The guy is guilty of first degree murder for the public murder of his wife and you are complaining about the 5 digit cost of his trial! Have you totally lost it? When the cost of trying capital cases is more important then [sic] justice we have completely lost our bearings as a society.”
As if to answer that question, on Saturday, the New York Times published an article that shows a reversal in the trend of “tough on crime” polices, even in conservative states.
A Yolo County jury convicted 78-year-old Donna McClure of West Sacramento of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. Ms. McClure had driven her vehicle without a valid license and had failed to yield to a pedestrian in the parking lot of a West Sacramento Raley’s store on October 1, 2009.
Deputy DA Sanctioned For Asking Improper Questions – It was as straightforward a murder case as you will find. There were just two days of evidence in which three witnesses came forward to say that Ignacio Mendoza walked up to his wife in an orchard outside of Zamora and shot and killed her. The closing statements actually took less time in their entirety than the jury instructions.
A Yolo County jury convicted 27-year-old Noelle Warren for her role in a 2007 accident which seriously injured Jonathan Pinkerton. She was convicted of felony hit and run, causing serious permanent injury. The jury hung on the verdict for her father, 52 years old, for being an accessory to a felony for his alleged role in attempting to conceal the crime.
by Alex Clark On July 30th, the Vanguard reported on a case that originated out of Davis. On May 5th, 2010 law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at a home located on the 1500 block of Cypress Lane in Davis. The search produced multiple bags of marijuana, scales and US currency. Consequently, one resident, a minor, was arrested.
In the course of their duties, law enforcement intercepted a text message sent to the minor from “Chico,” a moniker law enforcement recognized as being associated with an individual by the name of Israel Covarrubias. Mr. Covarrubias, a defendant in the aforementioned case, had allegedly offered marijuana for sale. Law enforcement, unbeknownst to Mr Covarrubias, arranged a meeting between himself and the minor in which the former would sell one ounce of marijuana. Mr. Covarrubias is alleged to have agreed to meet the minor for this purpose.
Vanguard Court Watch has analyzed newly available data on the number of prison inmates by county, and determined that Yolo County has a disproportionately high number of prison inmates compared to its size and crime rate.
In mid-July, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office announced it would shut down the unit in Sacramento that had independently monitored police shootings to determine whether the officers’ actions were justified and whether the investigations into them were conducted thoroughly.
