Posted on 07/27/2022 12:35:16 PM PDT by grundle
LOS ANGELES — The office of embattled Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón has asked a judge to lift the sentence of a man condemned to die for killing two college students during a 1994 carjacking, according to court documents obtained by NBC News.
The 264-page resentencing recommendation, filed July 11 in Los Angeles County Superior Court by Deputy District Attorney Shelan Joseph, seeks to change Raymond Oscar Butler’s death sentence to life without the possibility of parole.
The filing argues that Butler, now 47, committed the murders of the two college students when he was 18 years old after having endured violence and trauma throughout his childhood. As a result, he suffered mental illness and cognitive impairment before and at the time of the killings, according to the petition.
“The defendant today is not the same, cognitively immature teen-ager who murdered two innocent victims in this case. … the interests are best served by resentencing the defendant,” the petition reads.
The petition goes on to add that a hearing is not necessary if all parties agree to the resentencing.
Butler was convicted in 1996 of shooting Takuma Ito and Go Matsuura, both 19-year-old film students at Marymount College, in the backs of their heads in a Southern California grocery store parking lot. The case drew international outrage and prompted the U.S. ambassador to Japan to issue a televised apology, The New York Times reported in 1994.
Butler was later found guilty, after a trial and a retrial, of taking part in the 1995 fatal stabbing and beating of a fellow inmate. He was again sentenced to death.
The recent filing does not seek to lift the capital sentence for the 1995 inmate attack.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Another example of why executions should be carried out promptly.
If LA had an NY Post-like tabloid, it would scream “Gascon wants dead Asians”.
This guy needs to be recalled and exiled at the same time.
Why? He will still be on death row.
IMHO this is about sending a message to China and Japan.
If Gascon takes his place in the Gas Chamber, I would grant the motion.
It's typical of the maudlin left liberals to excuse a criminal because of how THEY were treated.
He’ll eventually be released to kill again. As surely as the turning of the earth.
Asian Lives Don’t Matter.
The shooting happened on February 15, 1933. Zangara was tried, convicted and executed on March 20, 1933. That is 35 days from crime to execution.
Compared to Zangara, the guy in this story has been cruising for free for 28 years. If you count the time spent in a new unit of measure called a Zangara, that guy has been living at taxpayer expense for over 290 Zangaras.
ALL CRIME VICTIMS DESERVE THE JUSTICE THAT THE MAYOR OF CHICAGO GOT. Of course, Cermak also got a street named after him, but that is a consolation for the family, not the victim.
Turn him over to the families of those he killed.
In a perfect world, Butler would have gotten the electric chair in 1995.
“The shooting happened on February 15, 1933. Zangara was tried, convicted and executed on March 20, 1933. That is 35 days from crime to execution.”
This is still, just barely, within living memory. Now a guy sits on death row for nearly 3 decades for three murders with there being little if any chance that he will be executed by the state.
I watch a lot of movies set in the UK in the 30s, 40s and 50s. If you murdered and you were caught, and found guilty, you would go to the gallows. Likely within a year of your crime. Now people accused of murder are let out on bail. I can’t say that we’ve progressed
This POS has been on death row for 29 years????
Just damn! Justice delayed is justice denied!
“the interests are best served by resentencing the defendant,” the petition reads.” Whose interests is he talking about? Interesting choice of words in a plea.
so just allowing Asians to be assaulted on a daily basis isn’t enough now...
For all intents and purposes California has no death penalty.
The courts refuse to carry it out, in spite of the citizens repeatedly voting for it. But in true California voter fashion, they just shrug and keep voting D.
264-page resentencing recommendation
That’s the problem right there... It took 264 pages to recommend a resentencing.
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