Posted on 08/07/2006 4:19:09 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Richard Ramirez Accused Of Killing 13 People In Mid-1980s
LOS ANGELES -- The state Supreme Court today upheld the death sentence of "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez, who is on death row for 13 murders he committed during a crime spree that terrorized the Southland in the 1980s.
In a 104-page ruling, the state's highest court unanimously rejected Ramirez's claim that numerous errors were made in his trial in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Ramirez, who is now 46 and on death row at San Quentin State Prison, was sentenced to die for the crimes after a high-profile trial.
Along with the murders, he was convicted of 30 other counts -- including attempted murder, rape and first-degree burglary -- for the nighttime killings between June 1984 and August 1985 that made the self-proclaimed devil worshipper one of California's most notorious criminals.
Ramirez's appellate attorney, Geraldine S. Russell, told the California Supreme Court at a hearing in June that Ramirez did not receive a fair trial.
Among the defense's contentions were that two of Ramirez's trial attorneys, Daniel Hernandez and Arturo Hernandez, were not qualified for such a massive case, that Ramirez's mental competence should have been probed, and that the trial court erred in rejecting his motion for a change of venue in his trial.
Associate Justice Carlos R. Moreno, writing on behalf of the panel, rejected all of those claims.
Ramirez committed murders in Glassell Park, Rosemead, Whittier, Monterey Park, Monrovia, Arcadia, Glendale, Sun Valley and Diamond Bar. His crime spree also extended to San Francisco and Orange County, where an engineer was shot but survived an attack in which his fiancee was raped.
In one slaying, the former drifter from El Paso gouged out a woman's eyes. Just over a year after being caught by a group of angry East Los Angeles residents, he called a guard over to his jail cell and showed photographs of two of the murder victims.
At his sentencing hearing, Ramirez rocked back and forth and turned to grin at the audience, vowing that he would be "avenged."
"You maggots made me sick, hypocrites one and all. We are all expendable for a cause, and no one knows that better than those who kill for policy, clandestinely or openly, as do the governments of the world which kill in the name of God and country and for whatever else they deem appropriate," Ramirez said then.
"You don't understand me," he said just before being sentenced to death. "You are not expected to. You are not capable of it. I am beyond your experience. I am beyond good and evil."
The worms should've finished off that SOB's worthless carcass a long time ago.
He is in a league with Charles Manson.
It is a national disgrace that this guy is still living.
I remember the panic he instilled in Southern Californians during his murder spree. One of his murders took place within a block of my home.
It was a hot summer. In those days many in the area didn't have great air-conditioning. At night, they cracked the windows for a little comfort.
The night this guy hit near our house, my wife thought she heard someone trying our windows. Instead the guy broke into the house of an elderly couple and literally slaughtered them. There was blood all over their home.
Just let the public have this guy, they'll know what to do even if our officials can't figure it out.
Is the guy related to Jerry Rivers?
Yep, I was living in San Francisco at the time, feeling pretty safe, when suddenly he showed up in my neighborhood and slaughtered an elderly Chinese couple. This guy's a demon straight out of hell if there ever was one.
McVeigh was executed before the ink dried. Sure seems like someone wanted him dead and dead fast.
Have a good rot, Dick.
And, hey, don't forget who's waiting for you when you finally check out.
The people who caught him should have finished him off.
What a brush with fate, its a shame this guy wasn't stopped in his tracks earlier in his career. Sad that your neighbors weren't as lucky.
Hate to say it, but we're pretty close to agreement on that.
It was something that was very difficult for the children of the old couple to deal with. The house finally sold about five years later, as I recall.
That gives me the shivers. I can't believe he's still alive. What good is voting for a death sentence when the criminals will die of old age?
THIS IS NOT JUSTICE.
The British had absolutely the right sense of things. A quick trial, a quick appeal, to be quickly followed by a swift execution. This, and ONLY this, has been PROVEN to be a complete and total deterrent to violent crime.
You are long overdue to meet your maker, Satan-Boy.
Well it is frustrating to say the least.
The Brits? So did "we", at one time. The classic case, the fellow who tried to shoot president-elect Roosevelt in 1932. He did shoot Mayor "Tony" Cermak, of Chicago, who lingered for a couple weeks before dying. The perp was tried and convicted, midstream for murder, and sentenced to death, executed - in less than a month.
The book went into some detail about some of the things he did, and they were evil beyond belief. I won't recount them here.
By the way, the police had gotten some footprints from some homes Ramirez had broken into. It was their first break in the case. Dianne Feinstein, then mayor of San Francisco, held a press conference and revealed this information. Ramirez dumped the shoes.
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