Judge upholds death sentence in van Dam killing

CNN ^ | 1/1/03 | CNN

[SunStar]

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) --San Diego Superior Court Judge William Mudd on Friday refused to overturn a recommended death sentence for David Westerfield in the February murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam.

"The court finds that the weight of the evidence ... supports the jury's verdict of death," Mudd said.

[hsmomx3]

600 in line ahead of him? Geesh, the $$$ spent on these people while waiting. Maybe we need to bring back executions and have it done immediately.

[Bella_Bru]

"The court finds that the weight of the evidence ... supports the jury's verdict of death," Mudd said.

Good.

[Psalm 73]

"More than 600 inmates are currently on California's death row awaiting execution."

Don't see a backlog like that in Florida or Texas!
Governments owe it to the people to have fair trials, then swift and sure execution of people like Westy.

[PhiKapMom]

Same with Oklahoma! Time to clean out that backlog in CA IMO!

Found it interesting that the Judge remarked about Danielle's blood found on clothing of Westerfield. I probably missed that before, but found it telling!

[MeekOneGOP]

Gotta post a pic of the little girl.....

Danielle Van Dam

[Libertina]

Additionally, California law provides an automatic appeal to all death sentences.
???

[Kilborn]

AAARGGHHH

Death sentence brings automatic appeal process - more pain for the VanDam's. He's going to die in the cell (maybe he can get a heart replacement operation paid for by you and me) - this sentence was all flash, no substance...

[Dimensio]

Many states have such a procedure. I've heard of a few cases where inmates had their cases appealed even though they did not wish to contest their sentence. I'm not sure of the rationale, though I suspect that it has something to do with the death penalty being one of those where you can't say 'oops, sorry!' in the event of a mistake.

[EllaMinnow]

Thank you for posting the photo. After all, she's what it's all about.

[lexington minuteman 1775]

California has executed a total of three people since 1977.That is why there are over 600 on death row.Richard Davis who brutally murdered Polly Klass was sentenced probably close to seven years ago to death.He has yet to be appointed his appeals lawyers.Appeals of course will take years.My guess it would be a minimum of 15 years before Westerfield would face execution and hes already in his mid mid fifties, so my guess is he will die a natural death in prison before he is ever executed. The residents of California ought to be outraged by this. And until they are the system won't change.

[Freedom2specul8]

Thanks for posting this thread..It needed a breaking news announcement IMHO


also being discussed a bit here..
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/backroom/816251/posts?page=52

[Kilborn]

<> Good one - where was Danielle's due process?

[marshmallow]

Thanks for that interesting statistic.

This means, that barring a dramatic turnaround, this sentence is meaningless.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Wow, and this happened in the state that couldn't convict OJ. Luckily, the victim and killer were both white so that Kalifornia couldn't inject their state-sponsored racism to skew the jury.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

That's a good little factoid. I knew Kalifornia was going to screw this up one way or another.

[FreeTheHostages]

Good for you. This is about the victim.

[dighton]

California has executed a total of three people since 1977.

Our record is bad, all right, but not *that* bad. California has executed eleven from 1992 to the present.

[concerned about politics]

He deserves the death penalty, no doubt. He's a cold blooded child killer.
It irks me to no end, though, how the mother is pretending to be a loving mother for the court. This woman spent her time in bars bringing home complete strangers for group sex.
I'm suprised it was just one of her kids! It could have been them all.
After court, while interviewing the "mother", she was smiling!!! She's actually loving the cameras!
I wonder how much she'll get for a book deal, as visions of dollar signs dance in her head!

[dighton]

Footnote to #18: one of those eleven, under sentence of death in California and Missouri, was executed in Missouri.