Judge Removes Death Penalty Option in Murder Case Because of Law Enforcement Cheating

Lord Coke

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A judge just has written one of the strongest condemnation of legal corruiption that I have ever read. Basically a mass murderer has been on trial for several years. Over the course of the trial the government refused to cooperate with the court due to some of there evidence gathering techniues coming from illegal tacticss. So the judge has taken the death penalty off of the table.


this is the opinon
https://www.scribd.com/document/356649563/Superior-Court-Ruling-August-18-2017

http://www.ocweekly.com/news/orange...urder-case-because-of-police-cheating-8350677

Saying it woulhttps://www.scribd.com/document/356649563/Superior-Court-Ruling-August-18-2017d be "unconscionable even cowardly" to ignore Orange County law enforcement's "chronic" corruption exposed during a controversial murder case, Superior Court Judge Thomas M. Goethals today removed the death penalty as a punishment option, prompting gasps in a packed Santa Ana courtroom.

"This court finds that [Tony Rackauckas' Orange County District Attorney's office and Sandra Hutchens' sheriff department] are unwilling or unable to comply with lawfully issued orders," Goethals said during a 38-minute hearing in People v. Scott Dekraai where he repeatedly spoke about the importance of the rule of law in the criminal justice system.

"No agency is above the law," the judge, a former homicide prosecutor, said.

With a bank of Los Angeles-based TV news cameras nearby, Goethals took the opportunity to ridicule the Orange County Grand Jury's June report dismissing the snitch scandal as imaginary.
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"The [sheriff's tainted] informant program is not a 'myth,'" he said.


Deputy Attorney General Michael T. Murphy, who assumed prosecution duties in the case after the judge recused Rackauckas and his entire office, was left dumbfounded that he lost his argument that allowing a future jury to order the execution of Dekraai was far more important than holding Orange County law enforcement accountable for corruption.

Though they didn't gloat, Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders and his colleague on the case, Sara Ross, applauded Goethals' punishment ruling as appropriate and said their client regrets the pain he caused.

Meanwhile, the sheriff and DA issued lame press releases stating their disappointment and, as usual, pretending that the judge hadn't witnessed four years of remorseless perjury and evidence hiding by badged individuals.

But county Supervisor Todd Spitzer, a former prosecutor and Republican state Assemblyman, reacted to the historic ruling by calling for Hutchens and Rackauckas to resign before the end of their elected terms in office because of their "reprehensible" conduct.
 
The worrisome part is how long were they getting away with that shit before this, and how many other jurisdictions are getting away with it as we speak where the judges are not so principled?
 
It seems taking off the DP for a mass murderer punishes the family of the eight victims just to spite the shadiness of the prosecutors and investigators.

The sheriff and DA blew it but so did the SC Judge. Now this guy gets 3 hots and a cot till his last day.
 
It seems taking off the DP for a mass murderer punishes the family of the eight victims just to spite the shadiness of the prosecutors and investigators.

The sheriff and DA blew it but so did the SC Judge. Now this guy gets 3 hots and a cot till his last day.

What would you have done?
 
What would you have done?

Punish both the murderer, DA, investigators for the laws they broke and not take justice away from the families who I'd safely bet want him offed.

What about you?
 
It seems taking off the DP for a mass murderer punishes the family of the eight victims just to spite the shadiness of the prosecutors and investigators.

The sheriff and DA blew it but so did the SC Judge. Now this guy gets 3 hots and a cot till his last day.
The judge didn't blow anything. Direct all your frustration towards the guilty parties - the ones that hold the law in contempt while charged with the duty to uphold it. I get defense lawyers being dodgy - it's their job to get their client off no matter what (within some parameters). The prosecutor's job is to see justice done.

This DA should be charged with contempt or even conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, serve 12 months and never practice law again.
 
Punish both the murderer, DA, investigators for the laws they broke and not take justice away from the families who I'd safely bet want him offed.

What about you?

It seems like it's a case of good in principal bad in execution but at the same time I won't proclaim to know much about the legal proceedings and what power a judge has in this regard.
 
The judge didn't blow anything. Direct all your frustration towards the guilty parties - the ones that hold the law in contempt while charged with the duty to uphold it. I get defense lawyers being dodgy - it's their job to get their client off no matter what (within some parameters). The prosecutor's job is to see justice done.

This DA should be charged with contempt or even conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, serve 12 months and never practice law again.

My opinion is not by any means a expression of frustration. The Judge blew it and it seems the public in OC feel the same. I fully agree to going after the DA but not the families of the people murdered by a lunatic. There's little to no doubt the murderer is guilty which is even more reason not to make the decision the Judge did here.

Why go easy on the criminal?
 
It seems taking off the DP for a mass murderer punishes the family of the eight victims just to spite the shadiness of the prosecutors and investigators.

The sheriff and DA blew it but so did the SC Judge. Now this guy gets 3 hots and a cot till his last day.

Well, thank the police for that.
 
Wait a minute. Now I'm too lazy at the moment to really look into this, but if the evidence was gathered under shady pretenses, wouldn't that throw shade over charges as a whole? Like do they have the right guy from the get go?
 
It would seem there would be plenty of other options here, but I'm sure legal scholars will be all over this in the near future.
 
life in jail with no chance of parole id say is probably worse than death.
 
Wait a minute. Now I'm too lazy at the moment to really look into this, but if the evidence was gathered under shady pretenses, wouldn't that throw shade over charges as a whole? Like do they have the right guy from the get go?
Nah, he pleaded guilty. There's no question that he did it. He's not arguing that he didn't. The issue is how some of the evidence was gathered, compliance with discovery (requests for information), and apparently some fuckers lying about the above in court.
 
Punish both the murderer, DA, investigators for the laws they broke and not take justice away from the families who I'd safely bet want him offed.

What about you?
Punish the DA and investigators how?
 
Good for the judge. I support the DP but you can't leave it on the table when the state is blatantly breaking the rules. Now this guy goes to jail for life but the DA's office is going to have to face an uncomfortable amount of questions from the families of the victims and presumably the mayor or the governor over why this killer who pled guilty isn't getting hit with the full extent of the law.

Although, even this doesn't really go far enough in my opinion but there's a limit when the guy pleads, I guess.
 
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Punish both the murderer, DA, investigators for the laws they broke and not take justice away from the families who I'd safely bet want him offed.

What about you?
Prosecutorial and qualified immunity protect the DA and the sheriff. This is the judge's only option.
 
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