Posted on 09/15/2006 6:36:48 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SANTA ANA, Calif. - Jurors were unable to decide Friday whether to impose the death penalty on two convicted leaders of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang, prompting a mistrial in the matter and giving the men life in prison.
The same jury convicted Barry "The Baron" Mills and Tyler "The Hulk" Bingham in July. Jurors were then asked to determine whether the two should be sentenced to death or life in prison without possibility of parole.
After 3 1/2 days of deliberations, they told the judge Thursday they were deadlocked, but he ordered them to return to the jury room and try to resolve their differences. A day later, the panelists said they would not be able to reach a unanimous decision.
"We are honestly and conscientiously unable to agree after a full consideration of the evidence," they said in a note sent to Judge David O. Carter.
The judge declared a mistrial in the sentencing phase of the trial, meaning Mills, 58, and Bingham, 59, will serve life in prison without parole for murder, racketeering and conspiracy.
The case against the pair was part of a larger indictment that federal prosecutors hope will dismantle the violent white supremacist organization accused of running powerful gambling operations and drug rings from inside some of the nation's most notorious prisons.
Experts say the full indictment, which lists 32 murders and attempted murders, makes up one of the largest federal capital punishment cases in U.S. history, with more than a dozen people potentially facing execution. More defendants go on trial in Los Angeles later this year.
Jurors told Carter they were split 9-to-3 in favor of death for Mills and 8-to-4 in favor of life in prison for Bingham.
The jurors were not made available for comment. Carter said they would be escorted from the courtroom to their cars by authorities, and their identities would remain secret.
The judge scheduled a formal sentencing hearing for Nov. 13.
Tyler Bingham, a top lieutenant of the Aryan Brotherhood, who was convicted July 28, 2006 for ordering the slayings of two other prison inmates as part of a gang war behind bars in seen in this undated booking handout. A jury deadlocked September 15, 2006 over whether Bingham and co-defendant Barry Mills should be sentenced to death. (Handout/Reuters)
Those guys should be big targets in prison. I should think their lives have been shortened, anyway.
I saw something on prison gangs on one of the documentary channels a week or so ago. It seems to me that you're essentially forced to join a gang while in prison--and YOU don't choose which one: Your skin color chooses for you.
The jury must have been swayed by his good looks.
These guys, and the ones yet to be tried, were *already* in prison when these murders were committed. They were top dogs of a prison gang when they were charged with the crimes they were convicted of, and their rivals couldn't touch them. Nothing will change with the sentences handed down. It will be back to business as usual for the both of them...
the infowarrior
These guys are already in jail and are being tried for crimes they committed while incarcerated. Now they get life and will no doubt continue to commit more crimes. Where's the deterent or the punishment? They need to be sentenced to life in solitary. Elsewise, nothing changes.
you become a member of the group that is closest to your own criminal or racial beliefs. in leavenworth thier were about 30 disruptive gangs monitored. all levels of gang activity and affiliation.
I went to elementary school with Tyler. Only, we didn't know his was Tyler, we just knew him as T.D. Bingham. And if we had known his name was Tyler we would never have made fun of him. Hell, he intimidated teachers. He was 14, and we were 11. He would tell us that he was the only good one in the family. Everyone else was in jail.
They'll be moved to the Security Housing Unit in Pelican Bay. I think their days of gang leadership are over - they'll be in the closest thing to permanent solitary that California has.
"Hell, he intimidated teachers. He was 14, and we were 11. He would tell us that he was the only good one in the family. Everyone else was in jail."
Interesting connection
Kind of off of the subject...but when my kids were in gradeschool, we had a neighbor kid in Sacramento who must be dead or in prison by now. Shawn...what a demon. Instead of going to a normal school, he went to what everyone called "FARM SCHOOL." It was actually a farm--a place where they tried to teach the khim that the lives of other things mattered. Every week day the short bus would drop him back off to our neighborhood and the other kids would all have to go into their own homes for safety. His parents stood up for him and made excuses for him. Disgusting situation. When I looked at Scott Peterson, I thought of that boy.
These are federal charges under RICO, so they will either go to Marrion, IL or Colorado Supermax.
I think a lot of have seen this pattern repeated so many many times. There's a kid who's screwing up, and his parents or a parent, cover for him. He ends his days on death row, or overdosed in a cheap motel room. I know in my heart that the parents didn't want it for their child, but no one can talk sense to them when it is most needed.
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