Jan. 1
CALIFORNIA:
Lawyers ask governor to give killer clemency -- Brain defects caused him
to follow orders, attack pair, they say
Lawyers for Donald Beardslee, scheduled to die by lethal injection Jan. 19
for the murders of 2 young women in San Mateo County in 1981, appealed to
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for clemency Thursday, arguing that Beardslee
is a mentally impaired dupe who is facing execution for crimes
orchestrated by others.
"The jury was unaware of the extent to which his actions and conduct were
controlled by severe brain damage that impaired his functioning since
birth," attorneys Michael Laurence and Susan Garvey said in a 48-page
petition to Schwarzenegger.
They said new medical tests had revealed lifelong brain defects that were
aggravated by injuries Beardslee suffered in a head-on auto collision in
1961 and when a tree fell on his head in 1965.
All his life, "everyone knew something was 'off' or 'odd' about Donald,"
his attorneys said. They said jurors ignorance of his condition - for
which he sought treatment that was never provided - allowed the prosecutor
to portray him as a cold and calculating killer.
The petition asks Schwarzenegger to reduce Beardslee's sentence to life
without the possibility of parole.
The governor has rejected one previous clemency request in a capital case,
filed by Kevin Cooper, who was convicted of murdering 4 people in San
Bernardino County after a 1983 prison escape. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals in San Francisco granted Cooper an 11th-hour reprieve in
February and ordered new scientific tests of some of the evidence against
him.
Beardslee's clemency request was filed a day after a panel of the appeals
court rejected his final legal challenge to his death sentence on an issue
unrelated to mental impairment. The court said the San Mateo County jury
that condemned Beardslee could not have been influenced in coming to its
verdict by the fact that 2 of the "special circumstances" that made him
eligible for the death penalty were legally unfounded.
Defense lawyers can ask the full appeals court for a rehearing and appeal
to the U.S. Supreme Court, but neither court is required to accept the
case.
Beardslee, 61, would be the 11th person put to death in California since
the state resumed executions in 1992, and the 1st since January 2002.
He was convicted of murdering Patty Geddling, 23, and Stacy Benjamin, 19,
in attacks that stemmed from a drug debt. Beardslee, who confessed to the
killings, was on parole at the time from a 1969 murder conviction in
Missouri.
Laurence and Garvey, from the state's Habeas Corpus Resource Center, said
in their clemency petition that other participants had planned and
directed the murders of Geddling and Benjamin. Beardslee, caught up in "a
violent and frightening context that he did not understand," followed
their orders, then later turned them in and testified against them, but
was the only one sentenced to death, his attorneys said.
Beardslee's jurors - whose inquiry about the fate of his co-defendants was
rejected by the judge - saw a man whose brain damage kept him from
expressing emotion normally, creating "an impression of remorselessness
that the prosecutor used relentlessly in arguing for the death penalty,"
the petition said.
Defense lawyers also said the prosecutor's warning to the jury that
Beardslee would be a menace to guards and fellow prisoners if allowed to
live had been disproved by his 20-year record as a model inmate with
praise from San Quentin staff and no disciplinary violations.
(source: Axis of Logic)
*********************
Peterson's Suggested Death Sentence a Travesty, What the Media Skipped
How is it possible that so many people saw and reported Lacis abductors
and yet Peterson was convicted? The verdict is either insane or rigged
(surprise, surprise, more jurors were replaced than in any other case).
During the trial, "Aphrodite" Jones gave us blow-by-blow descriptions of
what went on in the case. Funny, I dont recall her describing how Tom
Harshman said he had seen a pregnant woman that looked like Laci crouching
next to a chain link fence with a "scared look on her face."
A scrubby looking gray-haired man stood over her and a 2nd man pulled her
into a beige van. Harshman is a former police reservist who had to admit
he didnt want to get involved but after his wifes prompting, did. This
must have been humiliating for Harshman, but he came forward. This alone
would have given me cause of reasonable doubt, but it gets worse.
On Dec. 24, a driver of an Orowheat bread van, said he saw a woman who
looked like Laci Peterson walking her dog near a bus stop about 10 a.m.,
where two ragged-looking men were sitting. Another man, Homer Maldonado,
also thought he saw Laci Peterson walking past a light-colored van. Three
other witnesses told police about a light-colored van on the Petersons'
street the day Laci Peterson disappeared.
Twelve jurors decided Peterson was guilty "beyond reasonable doubt." Six
people reported suspicious activities and the police were criticized for
their lack of following the leads. Were these jurors deaf? Another
pregnant woman was abducted, murdered and her upper torso washed ashore
near Lacis. Her children are still missing. Where is the media?
Over and over again I hear and read that its not so much what Peterson
said in interviews but how he said it. This is unbelievable. Are we now to
be convicted because of our personalities? Peterson was described as
"arrogant" and "without remorse." Are jurors so used to Hollywood
theatrics that they presume to understand how people react under pressure?
I watched Peterson. I watched how the media frothed at the frenzy, so sure
of his guilt. I remember Rita Cosby excitedly disclosing her "private"
conversations with Scott and any shred of evidence she could present to
speculate on his guilt. I remember reporters assumed he was guilty because
he wasnt talking, then used everything he said against him when he did,
and when he stopped talking, OH! He has something to hide!
If I were innocent, I would have reacted exactly as Scott Peterson in many
ways. After months of media onslaught, I would have held my head high with
a stony face and refused to cry for reporters or even jurors on demand. I
would have looked at them in defiant silence and laughed when I felt like
it. I would have saved my tears for the privacy of my pillow, but I
wouldnt let the media or anyone else break me down.
And I understand the escape. Hounded by attention anywhere he went in the
nation, you can bet I would have changed my hair color in a heartbeat. I
would have left town and my first stop would have been family (in
Petersons case, San Diego). I would have changed my appearance as best I
could because I would be so sick and tired of being confronted everywhere
I went by people who believed the media. Wouldnt you?
As for his attention to Amber Frye, I understand how lying men think
because plenty of men have lied to me. Like an alcoholic, when their life
is a mess, what do they do? Reach for a drink, reach for a distraction,
reach for a blonde, even if you have to lie. I am not excusing it, Im as
furious as anyone about the lies of men, even more-so having been lied to
about wives before. And I can easily see one of those lying types
obsessively perpetrating the fantasy and calling constantly to get his
mind off of the chaos in his life.
Peterson told Frye he would be able to see her more after Christmas. How
many men have told women that? Is there a relationship in the history of
mankind where a man didnt tell us that at some time? Especially a lying
cheating womanizing married man.
If Peterson was guilty and premeditated Lacis murder, I think he would
have avoided Frye for at least a few weeks. No man is that weak or stupid.
But if he didnt do it, and his marriage was in trouble and his wife left,
and he still had this hot babe on the side, he probably would have thought
"whatever" and kept calling Frye.
When I first began writing about this sham, I was defending Petersons
right to a fair trial. But after researching the subject, its obvious
there is plenty of reasonable doubt. A man should not be convicted because
of his personality, (which is what I keep hearing) or because hes not
trembling or didnt jump up and beg for mercy from the jury. What arrogance
on the part of the jury to complain Peterson didnt cater to them. That is
not a great reason for the death penalty, and yes, I believe in the death
penalty, in the event of a fair trial, which this one seriously lacks.
How can you have at least six different witnesses with corroborating
testimony indicating Peterson's innocence and claim there was "no
reasonable doubt"? Its a good thing Im not a vindictive person, I have a
whole list of lying cheating ex-boyfriends I could submit to this jury.
With a little Satanic evidence to motivate the media, they would
immediately hang em high.
The huge emphasis of the media to lynch Peterson is a testimony in itself
that there was a lot more going on behind the scenes by politically
powerful people.
Hopefully this is my last word on a very dark subject that I hate having
to address, but somebody had to say it. This trial was a travesty of
justice and a threat to due process.
(source: Opinion, Jen Shroder, The Conservative Voice)
