death penalty news September 25, 2004
ARIZONA: Man given death penalty in fatal '98 bar robbery gets life in resentencing A jury yesterday spared a man who it said played a major role in a fatal robbery spree but was not a killer. Convicted murderer Keith Royal Phillips, 27, of Tucson will be sentenced Oct. 22 to life in prison without parole or with the possibility of parole after 25 years. "The jury took 4? hours to deliberate," defense attorney Joseph P. St. Louis said. "Then 12 people came back with a life verdict. What does that tell you about this case?" A 2002 study by the Columbia University Law School said Pima County hands down more death sentences than any other county in the country, but more than 70 percent of those cases are overturned on appeal. All defendants have been spared the death penalty in Pima County since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that juries, not judges, must decide capital sentences. Phillips is the fifth. "This suggests to me that there's absolutely no process in the Pima County Attorney's Office about which cases warrant the death penalty and which cases do not," St. Louis said. "There's no way this was a death sentence case. It was a complete waste of time and resources. How can they justify to the taxpayers all of these expenses with no real chance of getting the death penalty?" St. Louis estimated that Phillips' defense cost taxpayers more than $100,000. Before the resentencing trial, prosecutors rejected Phillips' offer to plead guilty to pending assault cases against him if they dropped the death penalty in favor of life without parole. Phillips and Marcus Lasalle Finch, 34, also of Tucson, were convicted of 48 crimes and sentenced to death for three 1998 robberies, including one at Famous Sam's restaurant and bar, 3010 W. Valencia Road, during which Finch shot and killed Kevin Hendricks of Sells. Hendricks fled the bar during the attack, and Finch admitted chasing him down and killing him outside. Their sentences were overturned and sent back so juries could decide the men's fates. Finch will be resentenced in April. By law, Phillips could have been held just as responsible as Finch for Hendricks' death, an idea jurors rejected. "All the evidence is fine and dandy, but that doesn't tell you that he deserves to die," said juror Olandre Edwards, 23, who works in communications. "It was not eye for an eye." "Everyone deserves a second chance," said juror Sheri Johnson, 41, a homemaker. Juror Sheila Gagnon, 37, who works for Bombardier/Learjet, said 11 jurors were fairly quick in rejecting the death penalty. Phillips surprised prosecutors by agreeing to testify and be cross-examined, which jurors said was a pivotal moment. "He was very impressive," said Eric Karaszewski, 24, who works with the Arizona Air National Guard. "It was very good for the defense. He had nothing to lose. It showed us how he really was." Phillips' trial had three phases. First, defense attorneys and prosecutors agreed that Phillips' convictions in the robberies made him eligible for the death penalty. Then jurors ruled that while Phillips was not the shooter, he played a big enough role in the robberies to continue considering the death penalty. During the last phase, mitigation, jurors heard defense testimony from relatives, friends and experts about abuse Phillips endured as a child as well as state's witnesses rebutting that testimony. In closing arguments, St. Louis stressed that Phillips is not a killer. "If we as a society are going to punish the worst of the worst and save the death penalty as the ultimate punishment for those people, then isn't it a mitigating factor that Keith Phillips did not kill anybody?" St. Louis said. Other mitigating factors offered by the defense included a dysfunctional family, a family history of drugs and mental illness, remorse, intoxication at the time of the offense, the capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions and age or lack of maturity. Jurors told St. Louis that they saw another mitigating factor: that the New York child welfare system failed to protect Phillips from abuse. Deputy County Attorney Rick Unklesbay reminded jurors that Phillips bought the weapons used in the robberies and sprayed bullets into a group of bar patrons, injuring several. Unklesbay said Phillips had shown that he could function as an adult and stay off drugs and alcohol but chose not to. Mitigation expert Mary Durand, who did not work on the Phillips case, said his resentencing is a first for the Arizona justice system. "Not by having the county attorney drop death, not by having a jury hang and the county attorney decide not to do it over, but by having a jury reject the death penalty at the end of the mitigation phase" makes the case unique, Durand said. Chief Criminal Deputy County Attorney David L. Berkman said the Phillips case and the four others before it do not set a precedent but will be factors in deciding to seek the death penalty. "It's a new process," Berkman said of the requirement that juries decide death sentences. "We will continue to make the best determination of whether to seek death or not based on each case, not (several) juries." Unklesbay and Teresa Godoy, who prosecuted Phillips, did not return calls requesting comment. (source: Tucson Citizen)
