Posted on 05/01/2007 11:22:18 AM PDT by DogByte6RER
5-year term for investigator in forgery case - "I believe that the death penalty is illegal...It is barbaric and an atrocity...Any acts I committed are out of a firm belief against the state killing these people."
Mark Martin, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
(05-01) 04:00 PDT Sacramento -- A former criminal defense investigator accused of forging statements from jurors, witnesses and others in death penalty cases pleaded guilty to four charges Monday and accepted a five-year prison sentence.
Kathleen Culhane, 40, said outside a Sacramento courtroom that she filed incorrect documents on behalf of five condemned inmates because she believes that capital punishment is wrong.
"I believe that the death penalty is illegal," she said. "It is barbaric and an atrocity. Any acts I committed are out of a firm belief against the state killing these people."
Culhane, who had worked on death penalty appeals since 1999, will likely go to prison in August when she is formally sentenced.
A prosecutor said Culhane's feelings on capital punishment were irrelevant and said filing false documents is "about as serious as it gets."
"It doesn't matter whether you're for or against the death penalty, you have to play by the rules," said Michael Farrell, senior assistant attorney general in state Attorney General Jerry Brown's office.
Culhane was charged in February with 45 criminal charges involving 23 declarations she filed with courts and the governor's office from 2002 to 2006. In the plea bargain with Brown's office, she admitted to one count of perjury, two counts of forgery and one count of filing a false document. Authorities say Culhane made up stories and forged the signatures of witnesses and jurors to benefit clients' appeals.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Convicted felon Kathleen Culhane and disgraced "investigator" should of also added to her quote:
"I believe that the ends justify the means and I believe that the concept of 'rule of law' doesn't apply to me. I also believe in cheat at any cost principles as depicted in his writing 'The Prince.'"
Well...maybe during her next five years in lock-up, she can get to know some of the psychopathic death row killers whom she so admires. Rot in jail, b-tch.
SACRAMENTO / 5-year term for investigator in forgery case Kathleen Culhane, a former criminal defense investigator, received a five-year sentence for forging documents for death penalty appeals. Sacramento Bee photo by Kevin German via Associated Press
Nice slap on the wrist
It’s called anarchy.
I don’t like the death penalty because the process takes so blasted long. With each appeal the families of the victims have to go through the crime over and over again, while more attention is given to what is best for the criminal.
The income tax is unconstitutional too. Maybe we should all withhold our income taxes?
No, no, no...
It's called creative writing...
Some people make good money at it..
Some are just zealots and do so as an obssession.
“”I believe that the ends justify the means and I believe that the concept of ‘rule of law’ doesn’t apply to me.”
Spoken like an illegal alien.
Regardless of what it’s called, I hope she like carpet.
If we followed the investigator's example we wouldn't withhold; we'd merely falsify our declarations.
Obviously the death appeals process takes so long because of unscrupulous criminal defense teams who are willing to lie, cheat and forge their way through a 20-year death penalty appeal process.
But that’s just me judging by appearances and offering an opinion of what might be the case.
We can thank Bill Clinton and his supporters for setting the example that everyone is above the law, and today we have tens of millions of illegals. And both Democrats and Republicans want more of them, thinking that if we make them citizens, they will vote for us....WRONG, they won’t be voting these old white guys, they will be voting for young, radical Hispanics!!!
2 years max!
The cop looks like Joey Butofuco
she looks like Jodie Foster...
she looks like Jodie Foster...
She is very stupid to say the lease, she believes the death penalty is illegal. Wow what a tard.
If you have to get to forgery, maybe you are starting from the wrong position.
Personal convictions expel principle in the zealot’s mind.
YES it’s Bill Clinton’s fault we have so many illegals in this country. Thanks for pointing this out to the rest of us. /Sarcasm
Jerry Brown is a liberal loon. I’m surprised he defended the law here.
Good thinking.
Lookie a Bill Clinton defender.
Lookie we have a Bushbot who can’t think for himself. How many illegals have come in the country in the last 6+ years since Bush became President? What has he done to stop it? Maybe his amnesty talk has even encouraged a bunch...ya think?
Tell me how that is “defending” BC? Little Bushbots like yourself add little to the discourse here in my opinion.
Well, personally, I think she should die for her actions.
5 years is beyond light, she willingly and willfullly abused the criminal justice system. Her battle was not for justice, or even for holding up the state to its requirement of burden of proof.
She should be on death row.
A Bushbot? Where did you get that slur from, democraticunderground.com?
Nope on FR. It’s not a slur per se, just an insult. Mostly directed toward people who somehow think President Bush and his polices are above reproach.
I never commented here about President Bush. That’s just your projection. But to suggest that Bill Clinton actually protected the borders in the 1990s is a fallacy. Illegal immigration skyrocketed during his tenure.
“I never commented here about President Bush. That’s just your projection. But to suggest that Bill Clinton actually protected the borders in the 1990s is a fallacy. Illegal immigration skyrocketed during his tenure.”
And I never suggested Clinton didn’t. My point is that Bush deserves as much blame as Clinton if not more due to the amnesty talk.
> Well, personally, I think she should die for her actions.
I wonder if any/many of the cases she interfered with will be re-tried? And if so, how many will result in executions?
I don’t think she should get the Death Penalty for this: as bad as it is, ten years should be adequate. But she *should* be made to witness every execution that arises from the re-trials, and personally apologize to the hapless condemned felon and his family before they string him up.
Nope, she willing and willfully undermined the justice system and thumbed her nose at the rule of law, and did all this as an AGENT of the court. Capital Punishment is more than justified as far as I’m concerned.
She believed herself and her cause to be above and beyond the law and in the process perverted the justice system to achieve her goals. I think 10 years is wholey inadequate.
You cannot have a nation of laws, if attacks on that system are not treated as complete affronts to the entire foundations of society. Her actions were treasonous, and warrant death.
> You cannot have a nation of laws, if attacks on that system are not treated as complete affronts to the entire foundations of society. Her actions were treasonous, and warrant death.
Put that way, it is difficult to argue with your logic. In which case, America needs to revisit the preferred means of execution.
Lethal Injection is just a tad too... sterile and clinical. It has no stigma attached to it: it’s just a medical procedure.
There was nothing wrong with hanging as an execution methodology, and it carried a certain stigma that no other execution methods did.
So, if what you are talking about is “Treason”, then it follows that it is best to ensure that the Traitor is Hanged, and thereby gets the full benefit of the stigma that goes with being hoist up the yardarm to dance a merry jig midair, “to encourage the others...”
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