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Thread: Bruce Aldon Turnidge - Oregon

  1. #41
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Oregon Supreme Court upholds death sentences in Woodburn bank bombing

    SALEM, Ore. -- The Oregon Supreme Court unanimously upheld the death penalty for two men who set off a bomb at a Woodburn bank in 2008, killing two people and injuring two others.

    Bruce Turnidge, 63, and his son, Joshua Turnidge, 38, are on Oregon's death row after they were convicted in 2010. The explosion killed state police bomb technician William Hakim and Woodburn Police Capt. Tom Tennant.

    Woodburn's police chief, Scott Russell, lost a leg, and a bank employee was wounded.

    The Turnidges planned a bank robbery, built the bomb, left it outside the West Coast Bank and called in a bomb threat. Authorities found the device and brought it into the bank, where it went off.

    While prosecutors argued at the time that a stray radio wave detonated the bomb, Turnidge's attorneys said a bomb tech inadvertently set it off. They said Turnidge never intended to kill anyone in the bombing, so he shouldn't be held responsible for the deaths caused by the explosion.

    They also argued in 2015 that the judge in the 2010 trial made a total of 24 errors. Among them, the lawyers claimed the judge should not have allowed testimony about the Turnidges' anti-government views.

    The case went to the state's high court, and on Thursday Marion County District Attorney Walt Beglau announced that the court affirmed the convictions and death sentences for the aggravated murders of Capt. Tennant and Trooper Hakim.

    The court also upheld the attempted aggravated murder and assault charges in connection with the injured victims.

    "Today's decision reinforces the justice and fairness of the trial process and of the jury's verdicts and sentences," Beglau said Thursday.

    http://www.kgw.com/news/crime/oregon...bing/173723531
    "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

  2. #42
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    High court upholds death sentences for Woodburn bombers

    The Oregon Supreme Court on Friday upheld the death sentences of Bruce and Joshua Turnidge, the father and son each convicted of aggravated murder for the 2008 bombing of a Woodburn bank. The sentences were upheld when the court denied the Turnidges' petitions seeking reconsideration.

    In May, the court unanimously upheld the death sentences when reviewing arguments from the Turnidges's attorneys that a new trial should be granted because of lower court errors.

    Marion County District Attorney Walt Beglau said Sunday that he believes justice has been served in this case. Officials from the Oregon Judicial Department were not immediately available to comment on whether the Turnidges have now exhausted their appeals.

    http://www.statesmanjournal.com/stor...bers/88366430/
    "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

  3. #43
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Turnidge's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Oregon
    Case Nos.: (S059156)
    Decision Date: May 5, 2016

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/...16zor_8nho.pdf

  4. #44
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    Families of Woodburn bank bombing, MAX attack victims testify against changes to death penalty

    The families of two high-profile crime victims urged lawmakers on Wednesday to reject a bill that would significantly restrict the death penalty in Oregon.

    Erik Best, the oldest son of Ricky Best who died in the May 2017 MAX train attack, testified along with the wife and two children of Woodburn police Capt. Thomas Tennant, who was killed in the 2008 Woodburn bank bombing.

    Senate Bill 1013 has already passed the Oregon Senate. On Tuesday, the bill was the subject of a hearing before the House Rules Committee.

    The bill would redefine aggravated murder to apply only to acts of terror that kill two or more people, killings in jail or prison by people already convicted of aggravated murder and the premeditated murder of a someone younger than 14.

    Best testified that a jury, not lawmakers, should decide the punishment for his father’s alleged killer.

    Jeremy Christian is slated to go on trial next year for aggravated murder in the fatal stabbings of Best’s father and Taliesin Namkai-Meche on a train as it pulled into the Hollywood MAX station. Christian also is accused of stabbing a third passenger, Micah Fletcher, who survived.

    “It’s a cruel world,” Best said, “and in the face of absolute evil, I would like for the jury to have the ability to enforce justice as they see fit.”

    Under current state law, aggravated murder covers crimes such as killing a child under 12, killing more than one person, killing a police officer on duty or killing someone during a rape or robbery. Those crimes are eligible for the death penalty.

    The bill would reclassify those as first-degree murder, carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    The proposed legislation also would change one of the four questions juries must decide when considering whether to impose a death sentence. Under Oregon’s system, jurors must determine that a person guilty of aggravated murder is at risk of being a danger in the future. The bill would remove that question.

    Mary Tennant, Tennant’s widow, took issue with the change involving police officer killings.

    “That is wrong,” she said. “It is an injustice. Oregon police officers put their lives on the line every day for ordinary citizens. They run into danger, not away from it.

    “If a person is willing to kill a police officer, they are the worst of the worst," she said.

    The men convicted of the fatal bombing, Bruce Turnidge and his son, Joshua Turnidge, were sentenced to death.

    Katie Suver, a deputy district attorney in Marion County, said the Turnidges’ crimes wouldn’t be eligible for the death penalty under the bill. She testified that the proposed legislation effectively does away with the death penalty in Oregon because the crimes it includes are exceptionally rare.

    https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/201...h-penalty.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  5. #45
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Josh Turnidge, convicted in Woodburn bank bombing, says he wants to end appeal, face execution

    By Noelle Crombie
    The Oregonian

    The letter to the court was handwritten and to the point.

    Joshua Turnidge, part of the father-son pair condemned to death for their roles in the deadly 2008 Woodburn bank bombing, wanted to drop his legal appeals, he wrote to Marion County Circuit Judge Lindsay Partridge.

    Turnidge, now 44, asked Partridge to send his case back to the judge who presided over his original trial so his death warrant could be signed.

    Under Turnidge’s signature, he wrote his latest address: Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla.

    His request, made earlier this year as the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the state’s prison system, echoes one expressed a decade ago by Gary Haugen, a two-time convicted killer whose demand to be executed by the state led to a high-profile legal battle and prompted then-Gov. John Kitzhaber to impose a moratorium on executions.

    Calling the death penalty “costly and immoral,” Gov. Kate Brown extended the moratorium after she took office.

    Turnidge’s request comes at a time of continued scrutiny for the death penalty, which Oregon lawmakers dramatically restricted in 2019. The Oregon Supreme Court is now deliberating two cases that could also have significant implications for the future of capital punishment.

    Turnidge’s letter didn’t explain why he wanted to drop his legal appeals, and the status of his request remains unclear.

    Turnidge’s mother, Janet, said her son and husband Bruce were transferred to Two Rivers after the Oregon Department of Corrections shuttered death row at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem last year.

    Bruce Turnidge, 69, suffered various health problems that prompted officials last June to return him to the state penitentiary to be closer to medical care.

    Joshua Turnidge did not respond to questions from The Oregonian/OregonLive about the reason for his letter.

    Janet Turnidge said she is aware of her son’s request and declined to speculate on his motivations.

    “Josh had his reasons for doing it,” his mother told The Oregonian/OregonLive in an interview last week. “He just said I will not live my whole life in prison for something I didn’t do.”

    VETTING TURNIDGE’S REQUEST

    Turnidge’s wish is far from a simple one.

    Stephen Kanter, emeritus dean at the Lewis & Clark Law School, said a letter from the condemned isn’t enough to prompt the court to act. The request must be vetted by his lawyers, who would then have to submit it to the court.

    Kanter said Turnidge’s lawyers would likely talk with Turnidge to find out what he’s thinking and “and what could be done that might be acceptable for him to continue to fight for his life.”

    The court, he said, would likely schedule a hearing to determine whether Turnidge’s request is “knowing and voluntary.”

    “He cannot just on his own say, ‘I give up,’” Kanter said.

    He said Turnidge could argue that “an indefinite moratorium with no move toward repeal” constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution.

    “He’s raising at least an interesting point, an interesting question, but it probably is more symbolic,” Kanter said. “It could be a lever point for maybe a prison conditions issue or something about his particular treatment.”

    Partridge responded to Turnidge in a letter eight days after Turnidge submitted his request, according to court records. The judge said he turned over the letter to Turnidge’s legal team.

    “At this point,” the judge wrote, “I am not acting on your request until your attorneys have had an opportunity to review your letter and discuss its contents with you.”

    Kathleen Correll, the Portland lawyer who represents Turnidge, declined to comment on her client’s letter.

    It is unclear if Correll has even been able to see Turnidge in person this year. Prison visitation was suspended last year due to the pandemic. The state is reopening prisons for visits, though corrections officials said they do not know when Two Rivers will open.

    TURNIDGE CASE STILL UNDER REVIEW

    Joshua and Bruce Turnidge were both convicted of aggravated murder after prosecutors said they carried out a bank robbery fantasy by planting a bomb outside the West Coast Bank in Woodburn 13 years ago. The plot went awry when the bomb exploded as police officers, thinking the bomb was a hoax, moved it inside the bank and tried to dismantle it.

    The blast killed Oregon State Police Senior Trooper William Hakim and Woodburn Police Capt. Tom Tennant. It critically injured Woodburn Police Chief Scott Russell and wounded bank employee Laurie Perkett.

    The father and son were sentenced to death.

    Turnidge has exhausted his direct appeals, and his aggravated murder conviction has been upheld by the Oregon Supreme Court.

    His case is in a stage called post-conviction relief: a legal review process that can grind through the courts for years.

    Jeffrey Ellis, a veteran Oregon capital defense lawyer, said it’s not uncommon for defendants to express a wish to drop their appeals at some point during the lengthy process.

    In legal circles, they’re called volunteers.

    The state has executed two men, both volunteers, over the past five decades. The men had waived their rights to appeal and were put to death in the 1990s in the state’s now-mothballed execution chamber at the Oregon State Penitentiary.

    The ground has shifted on capital punishment since Turnidge and his father were convicted and sentenced to death in 2011.

    Polling suggests fewer Americans are receptive to the death penalty. Gallup polling shows 80% of Americans supported capital punishment in 1994; 52% supported it in a poll conducted last year.

    The Legislature significantly narrowed the list of crimes eligible for capital punishment two years ago, hoping to limit the ranks of the condemned.

    And over the past year the Oregon Supreme Court has heard arguments in the appeals of two death penalty cases — convicted killer David Ray Bartol and serial killer Dayton Leroy Rogers — that could reshape the state’s approach to capital punishment yet again.

    Among the issues before the court: whether recent changes to the aggravated murder statute should apply to the men.

    Ellis said depending on the court’s ruling, all 25 inmates who are sentenced to die in Oregon may “be entitled to a new sentencing” hearing.

    ‘MISSING A PART OF OUR FAMILY WE WILL NEVER GET BACK’

    While executions have been suspended indefinitely in Oregon, Ellis said those sentenced to death still live with uncertainty. Ellis said he was speaking generally and not on behalf of any of the men serving death sentences.

    “You’ve got people being told by the state of Oregon: We are going to strap you down on the gurney and kill you,” Ellis said.

    He said he doesn’t know what prompted Turnidge’s request but noted that inmates sometimes are reacting to a family matter or expressing grievances over legal proceedings or living conditions.

    Ellis said sometimes it’s a problem as minor as not having enough money on their books to purchase items from the prison commissary.

    The pandemic has also cut off inmates’ in-person contact with friends and family, he said, disrupting their routines and compounding their isolation.

    “What frequently happens is a capital defendant is upset with current circumstances and with the lack of control over proceedings and says, ‘I know one way to take control — I am going to get rid of this,’” he said.

    “And in many of those cases,” he said, “defendants change their minds.”

    Scott Tennant, whose father Tom Tennant died in the bombing, said his reaction to Turnidge’s request is a complicated one.

    “It does bring up a lot of emotions and a lot of stuff for us as a family,” said Tennant, a deputy with the Linn County Sheriff’s Office. “It brings up a lot of family feelings and emotions and memories. Regardless of how it ends, we are still missing a part of our family that we will never get back.

    “Even if the death warrant is fulfilled,” he said, “it isn’t really going to change things.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...ion/ar-AAL22GS
    "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

  6. #46
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Sentence officially commuted to LWOP.

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dzT...RSrp4B4Un/view
    "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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