Jury hands down death sentence for Battaglia
Posted on 04/30/2002 4:27:47 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Jury hands down death sentence for Battaglia
04/30/2002
A Dallas jury sentenced John David Battaglia to death by lethal injection for the murders of his two daughters.
In closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutors said the accountant deserves to die for killing 9-year-old Faith and 6-year-old Liberty while their mother listened on the phone.
BILLY BRYANT / WFAA-TV John Battaglia listens to testimony in court Monday. |
"He is a person that justifies the death penalty in this state for what he's done over and over and over in his life, culminating in the slaughter of these precious angels," prosecutor Howard Blackman said, referring to the years of abuse Mr. Battaglia's two ex-wives suffered.
The defense countered that that Mr. Battaglia should be spared because his bipolar disorder led to killing the girls in his apartment last May.
"Taking a mentally ill man and executing him for something that he did . . . in the throes of a severe mental illness – that shows no more compassion than what John Battaglia showed to those two children," defense attorney Paul Johnson said.
Mr. Johnson reiterated to jurors that Mr. Battaglia's guilt has never been contested, and that they should consider his illness.
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"You will never see a worse case if you're called down here for 1,000 years of jury duty," he said. "He's operating with a severe mental illness that causes him to act completely different than a normal person."
But prosecutors said the bipolar order did not excuse Mr. Battaglia or cause him to kill his daughters.
"When you hear about bipolar in this case, it should be, 'So what?' " prosecutor Patrick Kirlin said. "There's millions of people out there with bipolar disease that lead peaceful, law-abiding lives."
Mr. Kirlin said Mr. Battaglia should be sentenced to death because he is a future threat to society.
"If someone can do this kind of act, this act of revenge, and use his daughters as pawns, he's capable of doing anything," he said.
Testimony in the week-long trial concluded Monday after a third psychiatrist offered the opinion that Mr. Battaglia was suffering from a longstanding, severe bipolar disorder when the shootings occurred.
Dr. Jay Crowder attributed the slayings to a volatile mix of emotions, including their father's anger at their mother and his projected feelings of hopelessness onto them.
It is likely, he said, that the killings were an impulsive act by Mr. Battaglia triggered by an immature reaction to learning his former wife's effort to have him jailed might ruin his plans for a family campout.
"My belief is it could not have occurred if he had been treated," Dr. Crowder said. "[Medication] would have taken away the irritability and the impulsiveness. It's likely this would not have happened."
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The diagnosis offered by defense psychiatrists conflicted with that of Dr. Richard Coons, who was summoned by prosecutors.
While he agreed that Mr. Battaglia had a bipolar disorder, Dr. Coons said, it was a mild form of the illness and did not contribute to the killings.
Dr. Coons also contended that Mr. Battaglia's history of assaults on two former wives made it unlikely that he would moderate his violent behavior in prison.
Mr. Battaglia did not testify in either phase of the trial. He spoke out only once in front of the jury, when he refuted a prosecutor's contention in closing statements that he did not love his daughters.
Prosecutors have depicted the Dallas accountant as a spiteful man who murdered his daughters to punish their mother, Mary Jean Pearle, for trying to revoke his probation on a domestic violence conviction.
E-mail smcgonigle@dallasnews.com
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Battaglia found guilty of capital murder - man who
murdered daughters faces possible death penalty
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/671981/posts
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my ping list!. . .don't be shy.
Hey, I'd like to listen on the phone while he's executed...
And by virtue of the fact that he killed his two daughters, he acts comepletely different from the hundreds of thousand of Americans who suffer from manic depression.
/sarcasm, highlighting Andrea Yates double-standard
As an example, the John Paul Penry case, a definite case of mental retardation, that has gone on for 20+ years....
Oh, but that would be barbaric, wouldn't it?
I hate to see any man die, but for what he did, he deserves it. I hope he has time to sincerely repent before his death.
God bless the souls of his murdered children, and God help us all.
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