March 28, 2024, 12:57:34 PM *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: NEW CHILD BOARD CREATED IN THE POLITICAL SECTION FOR THE 2016 ELECTION
 
   Home   Help Login Register  
Pages: 1   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Polly Klaas killer appeals death sentence  (Read 4489 times)
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Nut44x4
Maine - USA
Global Moderator
Monkey Mega Star
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 18800


RIP Grumpy Cat :( I will miss you.


« on: March 05, 2009, 09:26:30 AM »

Polly Klaas killer appeals death sentence
03-03) 18:20 PST San Francisco, CA (AP) --

More than 15 years after the disappearance and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas grabbed headlines around the country, her killer's attorney appeared before the state's high court on Tuesday, asking that his conviction be tossed out.

At issue during the hourlong California Supreme Court hearing was a brief encounter Richard Allen Davis had with a Petaluma Police Sgt. Mike Meese hours before his Dec. 4, 1993, videotaped confession, without an attorney present. Davis' appeals lawyer, Phillip Cherney, argued Tuesday that authorities failed to properly inform his client of his right to counsel.

"If he were a rich man, he would have had counsel at his side," Cherney told the Supreme Court.

On the videotape, Davis admitted strangling Polly two months earlier, after abducting her from her home during a girls' slumber party, where he also tied up two of her friends.

Davis, who had been arrested on burglary charges while Klaas remained missing, became the prime suspect after police matched his palm print to one found in the girl's bedroom. While being taken for fingerprinting, Meese asked Davis if the girl was still alive. Davis replied that he had nothing to do with Polly's disappearance and Meese told the suspect to call him if he wanted to talk.

Shortly afterward, Davis called Meese and told him Polly was dead.

Typically, such encounters between police and suspects are often tossed out of court because of failure to inform suspects about their rights to an attorney. But there's an exception called the "rescue doctrine" that allow police to ignore a suspect's rights to counsel if they believe someone's life is in jeopardy.

The majority of seven justices appeared skeptical of Davis' appeal, which turns on the notion that the police had little reason to believe that Polly was still alive after going missing for more than 60 days. They appeared to agree with Senior Assistant Attorney General Ronald Matthias' argument that as long as the slightest chance existed that the girl was still alive, then police were justified in ignoring his rights to consult an attorney.

"There are factors so important that they override the right to counsel," Chief Justice Ronald George said during the arguments.

Jurors in 1996 found Davis guilty of first-degree murder and of the "special circumstances" of kidnapping, burglary, robbery and attempting a lewd act on a child, making him eligible for the death penalty.

Polly's death at the hands of Davis, who had an extensive kidnap and assault record going back to the 1970s, led to the creation of California's three-strikes law. Voters approved the law in 1994 requiring a 25-years-to-life sentence for criminals.

In 662 pages of documents filed with the court, Cherney also alleged other grounds to overturn the conviction, including prosecutor misconduct to improper jury instructions. Cherney even complained that California's inability to quickly carry out executions is itself wrong because for Davis "to endure the uncertainty and ever-present tension on death row for such an extended time constitutes cruel and unusual punishment."

The California Supreme Court must rule on the case within 90 days.

Though the Supreme Court affirms nearly all death penalty cases, chances are that Richard Allen Davis will die of something other than execution even if his 1996 sentence is upheld. State and federal court challenges have put executions on indefinite hold for the last three years.

"He has already outlived one of Polly's grandparents," said Marc Klaas, the victim's father. "It is an absolute travesty of justice."

U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel halted executions in February 2006 and ordered the state to revise flawed lethal injection procedures.

State officials have since changed the dosage of the lethal three-drug cocktail, improved staff training and spent $850,000 on a new, roomier and brighter death chamber at San Quentin. But before prison officials could submit the new procedures for Fogel's approval, a state judge ruled in December 2007 that the revised protocols had to first be reviewed by the public before they could be implemented.

Seth Unger, a spokesman for the state's prison system, said Tuesday that authorities have dropped their challenge to the state judge's ruling after 14 months of appeals and will soon solicit public comment on the new procedures, a process that could take more than a year to complete. Even then, there's uncertainty whether executions will quickly resume once the public comment is gathered.

Davis, now 54, has been now on California's death row for well over a decade, with his appeals likely to continue through the federal court system for at least several more years.

"We don't have the death penalty in California, so we can let these creeps live on death row for years and years," Marc Klaas said.
comments at link
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/03/03/state/n135050S92.DTL&hw=Polly&sn=002&sc=741
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New trial sought for Polly Klaas killer
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

03-03) 19:33 PST San Francisco -- The ex-convict who kidnapped and strangled 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993, and became the catalyst for California's three-strikes law, should get a new trial because police obtained his confession illegally, his lawyer told the state Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The hearing in San Francisco was the first for Richard Allen Davis since he was sentenced to death in 1996 after a trial that was moved from Sonoma County to San Jose because of a public uproar over the case.

Davis, now 54, kidnapped Polly at knifepoint from the bedroom of her Petaluma home in October 1993 while her mother slept down the hall. More than two months later - after twice being let go by law enforcement officers unaware that he was a parole violator - Davis made a jailhouse confession and led police to the girl's body near an abandoned sawmill in Cloverdale.

The revelation that he had an 11-page rap sheet, with two prison terms for attempted kidnappings, galvanized support for a pending initiative to require a sentence of 25 years to life for any felon with a record of two serious or violent felonies.

The measure qualified for the ballot and passed overwhelmingly in 1994, giving California the nation's toughest sentencing law for repeat offenders. The U.S. Supreme Court later upheld three-strikes sentences of up to life in prison for criminals whose third strike was the shoplifting of golf clubs or videotapes.

Davis' lawyer, Phillip Cherney, argued in court papers that the trial should have been moved out of the publicity-saturated Bay Area to San Diego. At Tuesday's hearing, he focused on Davis' encounter with Petaluma Police Sgt. Mike Meese on Dec. 4, 1993, four days after his arrest for a parole violation.

According to court records, Meese took Davis aside and asked if there was any hope that Polly was still alive. Davis, who had already denied any involvement in her disappearance, said he knew nothing. Meese said police had plenty of evidence against him, and told him to call if he wanted to talk.

Shortly afterward, Davis telephoned Meese, asked for two packs of cigarettes and protective custody, and inquired about pleading guilty in exchange for a life sentence, court documents showed, quoting trial testimony. In response to the officer's questions, Davis said Polly was dead.

When investigators returned to his cell, Davis confessed - after being told of his right to remain silent and consult a lawyer - and led them to the girl's remains, prosecutors said. But because Meese did not advise him of his rights before the first jailhouse conversation, Cherney argued that the confession, introduced at Davis' trial, was the product of an illegal interrogation and should have been thrown out.

The fact that Davis called Meese on his own "didn't give the state the right to essentially trample on his trial rights," including the right to an attorney, Cherney told the court.

The justices appeared skeptical, citing past rulings that allow police to question suspects about a missing person's whereabouts without advising them of their rights if there is a reasonable hope that the person is still alive.

"Certain factors override the right to counsel, namely saving victim from death," said Chief Justice Ronald George.

Cherney said the passage of time since Polly's disappearance, and officers' comments during Davis' interrogation, showed they had no realistic belief she was alive. But Justice Joyce Kennard said there are many cases of kidnap victims surviving much longer, and Justice Carol Corrigan suggested that Davis, by voluntarily telephoning Meese, had broken the connection between any improper questioning and his subsequent confession.

The justices' comments didn't satisfy Marc Klaas, Polly's father, who said after the hearing that he doubts Davis will ever be executed because of the delays in California's death penalty process. Reliving the events is "like a punch in the solar plexus," Klaas said, but "I'm here for Polly because I couldn't be there at the time of her greatest need."

A ruling is due within 90 days.
comments at link
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/04/BAN1168PIV.DTL&hw=Polly&sn=001&sc=1000
Logged

Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware/Of giving your heart to a dog to tear  -- Rudyard Kipling

One who doesn't trust is never deceived...

'I remained too much inside my head and ended up losing my mind' -Edgar Allen Poe
cookie
Monkey Mega Star
******
Offline Offline

Posts: 15663



« Reply #1 on: March 05, 2009, 09:35:46 AM »

I am speechless....I feel so sorry for Polly's parents and family...to have to relive this horror is beyond thoughts and belief...
our laws really must change for these pervs....they have more rights than their victims and that must stop...what can we do to change this?
Logged

Edward
Monkey Junky
***
Offline Offline

Posts: 3816



« Reply #2 on: August 24, 2009, 01:44:11 PM »

It is too bad LE never identified others involved..

Logged
cookie
Monkey Mega Star
******
Offline Offline

Posts: 15663



« Reply #3 on: August 24, 2009, 02:00:26 PM »

It is too bad LE never identified others involved..



Edward..what do you mean "others involved?" ...do you mean in the abduction of Polly?
TIA
Logged

Edward
Monkey Junky
***
Offline Offline

Posts: 3816



« Reply #4 on: August 24, 2009, 02:14:39 PM »

Well back in the days when this happened. Things were revealed that said there were Others involved.

Right from the beginning.. Richard asked the girls.. Which one of you lives here.?
Then he told the girls.. " I am only doing this for the money."

The girls told this to investigators..


Many other things happened... that also indicate something was up that night.
It was a planned event.

I keep hopeing that someday the truth comes out.. But it appears to have been covered up pretty good.


It was one of the first cases gf
 
Logged
cookie
Monkey Mega Star
******
Offline Offline

Posts: 15663



« Reply #5 on: August 24, 2009, 03:13:35 PM »

Edward...I do remember that this perv asked who lived in the home when he got in...thought that it was strange at the time...how horrifying for all of those poor girls...and I have often thought about the mom being asleep in the other bedroom...how she must feel about what happened while she slept, never dreaming of the horror that was going on elsewhere in her own home! it makes me sick to think about...
what do you think was the reason to target Polly? if that is indeed what you are thinking could have happened...TIA
Logged

Edward
Monkey Junky
***
Offline Offline

Posts: 3816



« Reply #6 on: August 24, 2009, 04:17:14 PM »

In research I came up with various opinions on WHY Polly Klaas was targeted.
It is just My opinion, that Polly was indeed the Target.
There have been many things published on this case.. My opinion is based on the simple facts.
The Others involved were never considered or looked for..

Richard Allen Davis is an evil man. He is sick... BUT, The people that put him up to this were far worse. They live profit and prosper today.

Who would want to pay a person to kidnap a young girl ?
Just follow the money.
jmho
Logged
Pages: 1   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Use of this web site in any manner signifies unconditional acceptance, without exception, of our terms of use.
Powered by SMF 1.1.13 | SMF © 2006-2011, Simple Machines LLC
 
Page created in 2.197 seconds with 19 queries.