Posted on 03/24/2009 12:01:39 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
OGDEN — The defense has filed a motion to suppress Riqo Perea’s police confession to a double gang shooting that has him facing the death penalty.
The motion filed in 2nd District Court is so far less than two pages long, basically a notice of intent to ask Judge Ernie Jones to suppress Perea’s alleged admissions after the Aug. 5, 2007, shooting at a wedding party.
Two died and two were injured in a northern Ogden neighborhood.
Killed were Sabrina Prieto, 22, and Resendo Nava Nevarez, 29.
If found guilty in their slayings on the capital charges, Perea could be sentenced to death, life with possible parole or life without parole.
Perea is also charged with two counts of first-degree felony attempted murder, which carry prison terms of five years to life, for the two people wounded.
Supporting documents for the suppression motion, called memorandum, detailing the grounds and case law backing the motion have yet to be filed by Perea’s lead public defender, Randy Richards. The case is currently under a gag order preventing the lawyers on either side from commenting in the media.
The suppression motion filed earlier this month may be added to the list of defense motions already pending, including a motion to exclude from the jury members of the LDS Church who believe in “blood atonement,” the shedding of blood, as a penalty, in return for shedding another’s blood.
A hearing for oral arguments on the defense motions is currently set for May 4 before Judge Jones.
Other motions include several challenges to the constitutionality of the death penalty, Perea’s, at the time, was the first capital case filed in six years in Weber County.
The defense is also having psychological examinations done of Perea and scouring juvenile court records that may include mental health information.
I don't get excluding Mormons from the jury. Those all sound like nice Mormon names to me.
" Genesis 9:6, capital punishment is based upon a belief in the sanctity of life. It says, "Whoever sheds man's blood by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God, He made man."
Many more citations both OT and NT.
I am a Mormon and they could kill him with lethal injection which would leave all his blood in place.
The Electric Chair would suit me fine also.
Isn’t shooting still on the books there? I remember a while back some guy was shot ....
I believe you're thinking of the two executions that took place in Utah back in 2003.
"The firing squad tradition is rooted in Mormon custom, which holds that blood must be shed for the crime of murder to be appropriately punished. Utah is the only US state to continue the practice, although it has done so just twice since capital punishment was reintroduced by the Supreme Court in 1976."Here are three FR threads that discussed the matter:
See also this thread, for some religious background on the concept of "blood atonement" in LDS history:
Brigham Young on the Insufficiency of the Blood of Christ
OK, thanks for the references ...
In Utah they have a choice, shooting is one of the choices, but he could always choose something else.
Sounds like the defense lawyer is a Tannerite nut.
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