[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----UTAH, NEV., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 19



UTAH:

Lawmaker proposes doing away with death penalty


A Utah lawmaker is hoping to put an end to the death penalty.

Sen. Stephen Urquhart, R-St. George, is sponsoring HB189, which would prohibit 
the death penalty for trials held after May 10, 2016.

It would not change any current cases.

Urquhart said the bill was inspired by conversations with a friend.

"Government doesn't do a lot of things tremendously well. I don't think it does 
anything perfectly. So it's odd that we arrogate to ourselves the godlike power 
of life and death," he said.

"I get that people can be for a theoretically functional death penalty. We 
don't have that," Urquhart said, noting that it "takes decades to carry out a 
sentence" and costs $1.6 million more than incarceration.

Senate Minority Leader Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City, said he believes the issue 
is worth discussing.

"It's an issue that's always, always being debated in the public, especially 
when we have an execution in the state of Utah," he said.

Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, said he's undecided on the issue, 
but Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, said he wouldn't vote to do away with the 
death penalty.

"The issue you really have to balance is there may be a majority of people who 
have not had their lives impacted by a murder. The few times I've had the 
chance to visit with ... families of people who have been murdered, let me tell 
you, they have a really strong feeling," Hillyard said.

"I would hope that it's used very, very sparingly and very carefully," he 
added.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said he tries to use the death 
penalty sparingly.

"That's something that I struggle with, and you should struggle with anytime 
you're going to impose the death penalty on somebody," Gill said.

"I think there's a lot of stuff that we need to look at. Whether it's an 
effective tool that we have, and what its real value is to us as prosecutors," 
he added.

The prosecutors have not yet spoken and taken a stance, Gill said.

House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, said while he opposes the death penalty, 
now may not be the time for legislation on the issue.

"I have quietly not been a proponent of the death penalty for quite a while," 
Hughes said. "It comes back to my conservative skepticism of government and its 
processes and the fear they could get it wrong, that giving your government the 
power to execute its citizenry is more than I'm comfortable with."

The speaker said he has tried not to make his opposition to the death penalty 
"a banner issue."

He was not optimistic about the bill's chances.

"I think the debate about capital punishment will continue. Whether it's time 
now, I don't know that it's time right now," Hughes said. "I don't know what 
that bill will do, but it would be a heavy lift. It's an issue that will 
continue to be discussed."

(source: Deseret News)






NEVADA:

rosecutors to seek death penalty in slaying of couple


Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against a man charged in the 
execution-style slaying of 2 people.

In court papers filed this week, prosecutors pointed to previous felony 
convictions of Marcial Manuel Casarez, who authorities said shot and killed 
Jamel Colbert and Shelby Robinson in November after drug and prostitution deals 
gone awry.

Casarez, who has several convictions in Nevada and California, pleaded guilty 
in federal court in 2010 to being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Casarez, 36, has pleaded not guilty to murder with use of a deadly weapon, 
1st-degree kidnapping, robbery with use of a deadly weapon and conspiracy to 
commit robbery in connection with the slayings.

Prosecutors have said they likely will not seek the death penalty against his 
co-defendant, 24-year-old Sergio Davila, who faces the same charges.

Casarez, who also goes by "Crook," had made drug deals with Colbert, 32, before 
the killings and was going to sell him $200 worth of methamphetamine.

Colbert gave Robinson a black revolver and sent her to Casarez's apartment in 
the 2100 block of Sunrise Avenue, near 21st Street, according to police. 
"'Crook' became upset" when he found the gun in Robinson's purse and thought 
she was going to rob him, police said.

Rifle in hand, Casarez led Colbert and Robinson outside at gunpoint, forced 
them into a tan-colored 2005 Hyundai Elantra and ordered another man to drive 
to a nearby alley.

Casarez shot Robinson "at least 10 times" in the backseat, turned the rifle on 
Colbert in the passenger seat and fired multiple rounds through the window, 
police said.

(source: Las Vegas Review-Journal)






CALIFORNIA:

San Francisco court upholds death penalty in Santa Clara County triple murder 
case


The California Supreme Court in San Francisco Thursday unanimously upheld the 
death penalty of a Santa Clara County motorcycle club member who killed 3 
people whom he knew through the club in 1986 and 1987.

James Francis O'Malley was convicted of the 3 murders and sentenced to death 
after a 5-month trial in Santa Clara County Superior Court in 1991.

O'Malley was a member of the Hayward-based Freedom Riders motorcycle club and 
president of its San Jose branch at the time of the murders, according to the 
court.

The 1st victim was Sharley Ann German, who was fatally shot in her San Jose 
home in 1986. She was the wife of club member Geary German, who paid O'Malley 
to kill her so that he could collect the proceeds of her insurance policy, 
according to trial evidence.

The other victims were Herbert Parr of San Jose, a would-be Freedom Rider whom 
O'Malley and another club member killed to obtain his motorcycle, and Michael 
Robertson of Mountain View, an associate whom O'Malley suspected of being a 
police informer. They were murdered in 1987.

The high court, in an opinion written by Justice Leondra Kruger, rejected 
appeal claims in which O'Malley argued that the 3 murder charges should have 
been tried in separate trials and that there were errors in jury selection and 
evidentiary rulings.

O'Malley's direct appeal to the state Supreme Court was the 1st step in the 
death penalty appeal process in California. He can now take his claims to the 
federal courts through a habeas corpus petition.

Executions in California have been on hold since 2006 because of federal and 
state court lawsuits challenging execution procedures.

The administration of Gov. Jerry Brown is currently developing a new procedure 
that would replace a 3-drug protocol with a 1-drug protocol for lethal 
injection executions.

(source: KRON news)