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Thread: Michael Ray Burgener - California Death Row

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    Michael Ray Burgener - California Death Row




    Facts of the Crime:

    Convicted and first sentenced to death in Riverside County on September 4, 1981. On Halloween morning 1980, Michael Ray Burgener killed William Arias, a convenience store clerk, and emptied the store’s cash register of approximately $50.

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    May 7, 2009

    Murder case sent back to Superior Court for fourth time

    By RICHARD K. DE ATLEY
    The Press-Enterprise

    A Moreno Valley man convicted 28 years ago of murdering a convenience store clerk during a $50 robbery had the sentence in his death penalty case reversed Thursday for what appears to be an unprecedented fourth time in state court.

    In addition to reversals by the California Supreme Court in 1986, 2003, and now 2009, the 4th District Court of Appeal in 1990 also vacated Michael Ray Burgener's sentence.

    "We cannot recall another instance where a case was remanded four times," said Abraham Arredondo, spokesman for the California Attorney General's office, referring to death penalty cases.

    In the latest ruling, Supreme Court justices said a judge did not sufficiently examine whether Burgener, now 58, understood the consequences of representing himself during his 2003 sentencing hearing.

    As with the other reversals, the ruling sends the case back to Superior Court.

    For Burgener's case, "this is the fourth published opinion on appeal ... and it may not be the last," said the opening sentence in Thursday's state Supreme Court opinion.

    Burgener murdered 7-Eleven clerk William Arias on Halloween morning 1980, shooting Arias five times with a .22-caliber weapon before taking money from the store register. Burgener's guilt in the murder was upheld in 1986.

    The reversals all have to do with problems over Burgener's sentence, three of them over the issue of how judges handled an automatic bid to have a jury's death sentence recommendation reduced to life in prison without parole.

    "The history of the ... automatic application to modify the verdict in this case is a long and unhappy one," Associate Justice Marvin Baxter wrote in his 7-0 opinion. "A ruling granting the application and a ruling denying the application has each been reversed."

    The Supreme Court ruled in 1986 it was an error for defense attorneys not to present jurors with mitigating witnesses and evidence at Burgener's penalty trial in 1981, even though Burgener had instructed them not to.

    There was a retrial on Burgener's sentence in 1988. Jurors again recommended death. Riverside County Superior Court Judge J. William Mortland granted Burgener's application to reduce the sentence to life in prison without parole.

    The 4th District Court of Appeal reversed in 1990, saying the judge considered the application improperly.

    Mortland had retired. The case was assigned in 1991 to Riverside County Superior Court Judge Ronald R. Heumann. He read the entire penalty retrial transcript and denied Burgener's application to reduce the death sentence. Heumann was reversed by the Supreme Court in 2003, which said he failed to exercise his independent judgment in reviewing the application.

    In Huemann's hands again, the judge at first denied the application, then vacated his ruling and set a new hearing date, then another. He granted Burgener's request to represent himself at the sentencing hearing, denied the application and reinstated the death penalty.

    Huemann died in 2005.

    On Thursday, the court made its latest reversal, based on the inadequate examination of Burgener for his comprehension of the dangers and disadvantages of giving up his counsel for something as crucial as a death penalty sentencing hearing.

    The death sentence was vacated again and this time returned to Superior Court to reconsider Burgener's request to represent himself -- and the application to modify the death penalty.

    http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/s...8.384138c.html

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    On December 11, 2009, Burgener was sentenced to death again. A direct appeal was filed before the California Supreme Court on January 4, 2010. Burgener's case is now, unbelievably, fully briefed.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...JTICAgCg%3D%3D

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    On May 27, 2016, oral argument will be heard in Burgener's direct appeal before the California Supreme Court.

    http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/c.../SMAY2616A.PDF

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Courts overturn sentences for two California death row inmates and uphold another

    In a separate ruling, the state high court affirmed the conviction and death sentence of Michael Ray Burgener, who was found guilty and sentenced to death for murdering a man during a convenience store robbery in 1981. Burgener’s case has spent more than 30 years bouncing from trial courts to appellate courts.

    “One reason for the long delay between crime and affirmance is that this is the fourth time the defendant’s case is before the court,” David Ettinger, an attorney who frequently argues cases before the California high court, said in a blog post.

    The court affirmed Burgener’s conviction in 1986, but reversed the death penalty. Then, in 2003 and 2009, the court reversed the penalty twice more after it had been reinstated.

    In addition, new lawyers and judges have repeatedly had to take over the 35-year-old case. The judge who presided at Burgener's penalty retrial died, as did the judge who replaced him. The attorney who defended Burgener is also no longer living.

    http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Burgener's petition for writ of certiorari was DENIED.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of California
    Case Nos.: (S179181)
    Decision Date: August 11, 2016
    Rehearing Denied: October 12, 2016

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....es/16-8357.htm

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    On July 14, 2017, Burgener filed a habeas petition before the California Supreme Court.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...JTICAgCg%3D%3D

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