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Thread: Raymond Oscar Butler - California Death Row

  1. #11
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    A prosecution response was filed on the 1st of November 2019 in the inmate murder case.

    https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca....lTMCAgCg%3D%3D

  2. #12
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Butler's direct appeal has been fully briefed before the California Supreme Court in the inmate murder case since December 23, 2020.

    https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca....lTMCAgCg%3D%3D

  3. #13
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Los Angeles DA seeks to lift death sentence for man convicted in 1994 killing of two Japanese students

    Raymond Oscar Butler was convicted of killing Takuma Ito and Go Matsuura. He received a second, separate death sentence for participating in the murder of a fellow inmate

    By Andrew Blankstein and Alicia Victoria Lozano
    NBC News

    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.

    Joseph noted, however, that the jurors in Butler’s double murder trial “had a difficult time arriving at a unanimous sentence,” including twice declaring they were deadlocked.

    In a statement, a spokesperson for the DA's office said: "Mr. Butler has two separate cases. One case involved the murder of the two college students. This case came before our office due to the California Supreme Court deciding there was a prima facie issue of juror misconduct."

    "After reviewing the juror misconduct claim and weighing the equities, our office found it to be in the interest of justice to resentence Butler to life without the possibility of parole in this case. The DA’s office is not seeking Butler’s release from prison. In fact, Mr. Butler will remain sentenced to death in case TA041759. The court hearing will be public."

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-c...g-tw-rcna40108
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
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