Yolo County

It was like something out of a Seinfeld episode from seventh season, an episode that originally aired back in May 1996.  One of the characters, Newman, learns that bottles and cans can be refunded for ten cents in Michigan, as opposed to 5 cents in other states.

Kramer informs him that it would be impossible to gain profit from doing this, since the travel to Michigan from New York would exact heavy costs in terms of gas, toll booths and truck rental fees.  However, Newman becomes obsessed with finding a way to make a scheme work.

The prosecution continues to attempt to prove gang charges in the Topete trial.  Gang expert Ron Cordova, the gang investigator for the Woodland Police Department, testified on Thursday that Mr. Topete was a Norteño gang member the night of Deputy Tony Diaz’s murder.

On Monday morning, former Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti, a lifelong supporter of the death penalty, spoke at a press conference to announce an initiative that would eliminate the death penalty and commute all current death sentences to life without parole.

Yesterday in Sacramento, a group of former law enforcement officials and other anti-death penalty activists came together to announce that they had turned in a ballot initiative for the 2012 general elections to replace California’s death penalty with life in prison with no possibility of parole.

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 office

Attorney 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.