Posted on 03/18/2002 3:18:30 PM PST by another cricket
Gabrion's lawyer: Sentence not justifiable
Like the lawyers who argued in front of them, the jurors who decided Marvin Gabrion should die had their own way of organizing the case, even posting notes on the wall as they measured the evidence.
U.S. Chief District Judge Robert Holmes Bell shared an insider's perspective.
"The impression I have from them," he said, "was that after they finished the weighing process (and) arrived at the conclusion, they looked at each other and took a deep breath: Can we say it?"
They did -- and they made history Saturday in federal court in Grand Rapids.
The jury of six men and six women became the first in West Michigan to sentence a defendant to death, condemning a 48-year-old man for the murder of a young woman whose body surfaced in a lake in a national forest nearly five years ago.
The jury's decision would not have been allowed in state court; Michigan has no death penalty.
But when fishermen found Rachel Timmerman's body, bound with cinder blocks and chains, it was in the federally owned end of Oxford Lake, a discovery that gave jurisdiction to the government. And under federal law, the death penalty is possible for murder.
"I want front-row seats at the execution," said he victim's mother, Velda Timmerman.
"I want to watch him fry."
Her former husband, Tim Timmerman, broke down in tears as he thanked many people for their respect, compassion and hard work while investigating his daughter's death. Authorities said Gabrion killed her to dodge a rape charge pending in Newaygo County.
"We're happy," Tim Timmerman said of the punishment, "but it's not anything you want to see done."
During the sentencing phase of the trial, Gabrion's lawyers never disputed that he was dangerous. The jury witnessed it when he punched one of his attorneys, David Stebbins, in the head.
His lawyers said his violent past could be attributed to a poor childhood, drug abuse and motor-vehicle wrecks that injured his brain. The defense team said life in prison without parole would be more appropriate than a lethal injection in Terre Haute, Ind., where federal convicts are executed.
"I'm obviously disappointed," Paul Mitchell said a few hours after the verdict.
"The government has no reason to exact this medieval punishment. It may lack medieval pain and suffering, but it has its own peculiar form of horror.
"Believe me, both David and I feel badly for the Timmerman family," Mitchell added. "That still does not justify the government taking a life."
Wearing rumpled blue sweater and white pants, Gabrion looked at the jury as the foreman went step-by-step through the 10-page verdict form.
He showed no obvious reaction but kept trying to make eye contact with his mother who was comforted by a friend in the second row.
The foreman answered "we have" several times when the judge's aide asked if the jury had unanimously agreed with the "aggravating" factors presented by prosecutors.
To return a verdict of death, jurors had to at least agree that Timmerman had died in a "heinous" way or that her murder was preceded by substantial planning. The trial offered plenty of evidence of both.
During the week-long sentencing phase, prosecutors put much emphasis on another factor -- Gabrion as a threat, even if sent to prison. Several witnesses testified about how he made weapons in jail, threw his feces at a guard and threatened people by phone while in custody.
The jury agreed that he would continue to pose a serious threat to others.
Gabrion's lawyers presented 12 "mitigating" reasons to try to outweigh the government's claims. The jury unanimously agreed that he was the victim of abandonment, neglect and abuse as a child, and that he has "several personality disorders."
But the jury rejected arguments that Gabrion has suffered traumatic brain injuries, which may have spoiled his ability to control his conduct. Neurological problems were a keystone of the defense during the sentencing phase.
After moving through the checklist, the foreman finally arrived at page nine and declared that Gabrion be put to death.
"The sentence will be carried out as pronounced," Bell, the judge, said at 10:34 a.m.
Because of appeals, however, the execution won't be scheduled for years.
As Gabrion was escorted out of court by a bevy of federal marshals, he said: "Mom? mom? See ya in the morning, OK, mom?"
Through a whisper, Elaine Gabrion said the death penalty was unfair.
"He's sick," she said.
Jurors were whisked out of the courthouse by federal marshals who drove them to a parking lot near Grand Valley State University's downtown campus. They exchanged hugs, climbed into their cars and drove away.
"It's been a tough thing," a juror from Kentwood said later. "I really don't want to comment now."
Another juror, from Cascade Township, politely declined to comment as well, explaining that Saturday was a "difficult day."
The prosecution team was made up of federal, state and county authorities.
There was no doubt where they stood. Inside their small office in the courthouse, someone had posted a newspaper survey from Newaygo County showing 91 percent of readers called for the death penalty.
"We think it's a just decision -- the only decision," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim VerHey who has dogged Gabrion since 1997, when he was captured in New York state.
Long before the trial, VerHey personally "struggled" with having to handle a death-penalty case. "I'd never given the death penalty much thought," he said.
"But I finally decided it's the law, and I'm a lawyer," VerHey said.
"In this case, it had to be done after looking at the facts and the devastation to the family."
VerHey's co-counsel was the government's senior prosecutor, Don Davis, whose searing cross-examination during the guilt phase of the case destroyed Gabrion's credibility.
Any time that he sensed the defense was making points with the jury, Davis would question witnesses while displaying a large picture of Timmerman and her baby daughter, Shannon VerHage, who is presumed dead. Authorities blame Gabrion.
"I wasn't prepared for the emotional drain," Davis said. "Even when the judge asked us to stand after the verdict, it was difficult to stay standing. ... I'm absolutely convinced that what the jury did was the just verdict. We didn't see much good about Marvin Gabrion.
"Hopefully," he said, "there just aren't many people like that."
Press reporters Mary Radigan, Ken Kolker and Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood contributed to this story.
a. cricket
But when fishermen found Rachel Timmerman's body, bound with cinder blocks and chains, it was in the federally owned end of Oxford Lake
Class, compare and contrast the "peculiar forms of horror".
Including a barely mentioned second victim:
Davis would question witnesses while displaying a large picture of Timmerman and her baby daughter, Shannon VerHage, who is presumed dead.
Including a barely mentioned second victim:
Davis would question witnesses while displaying a large picture of Timmerman and her baby daughter, Shannon VerHage, who is presumed dead.
Sorry for the duplicate post.
a. cricket
Sorry for the duplicate post.
I thought the idea here was to duplicate posts. You mean you're not supposed to do that?
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