Free Republic

MISSION VIEJO - John Paul Ledesma was pumped. His adrenaline flowing, he was ready for his day center stage amid the national immigration debate. A few days before, he had addressed the Minuteman Project's local support chapter, the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, had been written up in several newspapers and was a guest on the John and Ken Show on KFI/640 AM and Fox News. At 6 a.m. he hit the University Athletic Club in Newport Beach. He did bench curls with 15 to 35 pounds. The 5-foot-9-inch, 180-pound Mission Viejo council member needed strength and confidence. He was...

The California Supreme Court today upheld the death sentence of a San Jose man convicted in 1989 after two trials on charges he killed a witness against him in a robbery case. Fermin Ledesma was originally convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1980, in a case prosecuted by current Santa Clara County District Attorney George Kennedy, for the 1978 murder of Gabriel Flores, a gas station attendant Ledesma robbed and later killed after Flores identified him to police. That conviction was overturned in 1987 after the California Supreme Court ruled that he had received ineffective assistance from...