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Belmontes on Remand

By Kent Scheidegger et al.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has demonstrated once again why it simply cannot be trusted to decide capital cases fairly. The Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit in the case of Ayers v. Belmontes in 2006 and remanded the case. Today, the Ninth Circuit overturned the death sentence again, finding that trial counsel had provided ineffective assistance in the penalty phase. The truth is that trial counsel had pulled off a major coup for the defendant in the penalty phase. The jury had convicted Belmontes of the brutal murder of a young woman, Steacy McConnell of Victor, California, just to steal her stereo to sell it for beer money. This was not Belmontes' first killing. He had previously killed Jerry Howard in 1979, shooting him in the back of the head...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime and Consequences on June 13, 2008 (boomark / email).