Free Republic

San Francisco -- Former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr and a Los Angeles attorney said Monday they would withdraw unreliable affidavits from jurors submitted to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as part of a bid to spare a murderer and rapist from execution. The documents supporting clemency for Michael Morales purportedly made by six trial jurors were denounced by prosecutors Friday as forgeries, but the defense team stood by them until Monday when they said they would withdraw five of the six. In a letter to Attorney General Bill Lockyer, attorney David Senior said he and Starr were "withdrawing any and all...

San Francisco -- Lawyers for a death row inmate, including former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr, sent fake letters from jurors asking California's governor to spare the man's life, prosecutors said Friday. The jurors denied they thought Michael Morales deserved clemency because some of the testimony at his trial may have been fabricated, said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer. "We showed each person the declaration on their behalf and they all said they didn't say that," Barankin said. San Joaquin County prosecutor Charles Schultz also said the letters sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week were "untrue"...

Morales' roommate says she did not withdraw testimony. Prosecutors opposing clemency for Michael Morales, scheduled to be executed Feb. 21 for the 1981 murder of a young woman near Lodi, accused his lawyers on Monday of fabricating a statement by a witness that purported to withdraw her trial testimony against Morales. In papers filed with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Charles Schultz called the document submitted by Morales' lawyers last month "an outright forgery" and said it showed that none of the assertions in his appeal for clemency were believable. They backed up their claim with...