Death Sentence Is Voided for Killer of 2 N.Y.P.D. Officers

[Casino67]

NYTimes:

By MANNY FERNANDEZ and A. G. SULZBERGER
Published: June 30, 2010

An appeals court struck down the first successful federal capital-punishment prosecution in New York State in more than 50 years on Wednesday, overturning the death sentence given to a Staten Island man convicted of killing two undercover New York City police detectives in 2003.

The man, Ronell Wilson, was sentenced by a federal jury in January 2007 to die by lethal injection for killing the detectives. At the time, the verdict was praised by prosecutors and the president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association.

Relatives of the two detectives — each shot in the back of the head in a car on a dead-end street on Staten Island in March 2003 after posing as gun buyers — called out “God bless” after the jury foreman ordered sentences of death on five counts. No federal jury in New York had ordered a death sentence in half a century.

But, a little more than three years later, a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, overturned the death sentences by ruling that federal prosecutors violated Mr. Wilson’s constitutional rights.

The violations centered on two arguments prosecutors made to the jury about Mr. Wilson’s remorse and acceptance of responsibility for the crimes. The judges found that federal prosecutors used Mr. Wilson’s demand for a trial and failure to plead guilty as evidence of his lack of remorse and refusal to accept responsibility, and had argued to the jury that his statement of remorse should be discredited because he failed to testify.

“We’re reviewing the decision and considering our options,” said Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn.

The judges ruled that Mr. Wilson’s conviction still stands, and they rejected other elements of Mr. Wilson’s appeal.

The Detectives’ Endowment Association plans a news conference on Wednesday afternoon at their Manhattan offices.

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I am certainly not a lawyer, but shouldn't this have been brought up during the trial making it a question for the jury to determine?

[Argyle58]

am certainly not a lawyer, but shouldn't this have been brought up during the trial making it a question for the jury to determine?

 

 

The Court is saying that the prosecutor's argument improperly influenced the jury.

[SrWoodchuck]

Casino67!

 

I can't believe they threw away the chance, to reduce his carbon footprint to zero.