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Thread: Joseph Seferino Cordova - California

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    Joseph Seferino Cordova - California


    Cannie Bullock








    Facts of the Crime:

    Sentenced to death in Contra Costa County on May 11, 2007 in the August 25, 1979 killing of Cannie Bullock. He denied committing the crime. Cannie's mother left her alone at home on August 24, 1979 to go drinking at bars. She returned early the next morning to find her daughter's lifeless body beneath a blanket in the backyard. Decades passed without prosecutors charging anyone with the crime until 2002 when investigators matched sexual assault DNA from the crime scene to Cordova's. He was serving a prison sentence in Colorado for child molestation.

  2. #2
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Cordova filed an initial brief on direct appeal before the California Supreme Court on May 17, 2013.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S152737

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Cordova's direct appeal has been fully briefed since March 17, 2015.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S152737

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On September 2, 2015, oral argument will be heard in Cordova's direct appeal before the California Supreme Court.

    http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/c...s/SSEP215A.PDF

    This case seems to be on a relatively fast (by California standards) track.

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    California Supreme Court upholds death penalty in 1979 murder of San Pablo girl

    SAN FRANCISCO -- The murder conviction and death sentence of a man who raped and strangled an 8-year-old San Pablo girl in 1979 were unanimously upheld Monday by the California Supreme Court in San Francisco.

    Joseph Seferino Cordova, 71, was arrested in 2002 after a so-called "cold hit" DNA match in a national database linked his DNA to evidence found in the body of Cannie Bullock 23 years earlier.

    Cordova was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death in Contra Costa County Superior Court in 2007.

    Cannie's body was found early on the morning of Aug. 25, 1979, in the backyard of the house where she lived with her mother, Linda Bullock.

    Bullock had gone out to a bar the previous evening with a woman friend who was visiting and had locked the doors and windows and told Cannie not to let anyone in.

    At the time of the murder, Cordova was living in San Pablo. He later moved to Colorado and was convicted in that state of attempted sexual assault on a child in 1992 and sexual assault on a child in 1997.

    Among other claims, Cordova contended in his appeal of the murder conviction that there was an unfair delay in prosecution because authorities allegedly should have suspected him sooner.

    The California high court rejected that argument, saying that prosecutors established that the investigators possessed no evidence connecting Cordova with the crime until the cold hit in 2002.

    "Indeed ... defendant was wholly unknown to the investigators until 2002," Justice Ming Chin wrote in the court's opinion.

    Neither Bullock nor her friend, Debbie Fisher, mentioned Cordova to investigators in 1979, the court noted. At the 2007 trial, Bullock testified she did not remember Cordova, while Fisher testified that she had met Cordova at Bullock's house a couple of times.

    The panel also turned down challenges by Cordova to the use of the DNA evidence.

    "The basic science behind DNA testing has long been accepted in court," Chin wrote.

    Monday's ruling was made in Cordova's direct appeal from the trial court judgment. He can continue constitutional challenges to his conviction in the federal court system.

    Cordova's appointed lawyer, Glen Niemy, said Monday that he had not immediately read the decision, "but I will read it and speak with people about petitioning for certiorari," a process where four of the U.S. Supreme Court's nine justices would assess the case and decide whether to take it on.

    Niemy acknowledged the level of difficulty such a case might face. "I don't know if this is the kind of case they will want to look at," he said. "I need to see if it's in our client's interest to petition for rehearing, and it's unlikely because it was a 7-0 verdict."

    Niemy, who led oral arguments at the court Sept. 2 in San Francisco, said his defense hinged on a state statute that allows evidence of other sex crimes to be admitted before a jury in order to prove propensity.

    Niemy said his defense also drew on support from the California Appellate Project, which he said helps attorneys in preparing death-penalty cases like Cordova's.

    "They work hand in hand with counsel," Niemy said. "As counsel, we make the ultimate decision, but they have a wealth of experience and I find their advice very good."

    There are currently 747 inmates on death row in California, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. No one has been executed in the state since 2006 as a result of federal and state lawsuits challenging capital punishment procedures in California.

    http://www.contracostatimes.com/brea...ty-1979-murder

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On March 24, 2016, Cordova filed a habeas petition before the California Supreme Court.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S233248

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

    Docketed: January 21, 2016
    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of California
    Case Nos.: (S152737)
    Decision Date: October 26, 2015

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/search.a...es/15-7804.htm

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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Convict in East Bay child rape, murder dies on San Quentin death row

    State prison: Marin coroner to determine cause of death, COVID-19 status

    By Nate Gartrell and George Kelly
    East Bay Times

    SAN QUENTIN — A 76-year-old inmate convicted of the rape and murder of an 8-year-old San Pablo girl died Wednesday, authorities said.

    At 4:08 p.m., Joseph S. Cordova was found unresponsive in his single cell at San Quentin Prison, according to a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation statement Wednesday night. Guards called for an ambulance and attempted to provide medical assistance. He was pronounced dead at 4:22 p.m.

    Cordova, who had been on death row since May 22, 2007, showed no signs of trauma, and the Marin County coroner will determine a cause of death and COVID-19 status. His next of kin was notified Wednesday evening, the CDCR said.

    The coroner and state Office of the Inspector General still are investigating last week's death of 71-year-old death row inmate Richard E. Stitely, who was found unresponsive in his single-occupant cell. Stitley had been on San Quentin’s death row since 1992 for a rape and murder conviction.

    Some San Quentin prisoners have been sent to Bay Area medical centers for treatment in the wake of a COVID-19 outbreak that has sickened more than a thousand prisoners.

    Cordova was one of 725 people awaiting execution on California’s Death Row, though Gov. Gavin Newsom effectively has suspended the death penalty here.

    Cordova was convicted and sentenced to death five years after a cold DNA hit revealed him to be the suspect in the rape and murder of 8-year-old Cannie Bullock in 1979.

    Cordova got away with the crime for more than 20 years but at the time of his arrest was serving a prison sentence in Colorado for a sexual assault on a 12-year-old.

    Cannie was murdered on Aug. 24, 1979, after her mother left her alone at her San Pablo home to go to a bar that evening. When she returned in the early morning hours, Cannie was missing, and her blood-smeared robe was on the living room floor.

    Cannie’s body was discovered under a blanket in the backyard.

    A witness, Cannie’s mother’s roommate, later would testify that Cordova was an acquaintance — known for having a methamphetamine addiction — who would occasionally come by the home.

    Judge Peter Spinetta, who handed down the death sentence, said at sentencing that Cordova likely coerced his way into the home since there was no sign of forced entry.

    “At no point has Mr. Cordova evinced any remorse for the crime, not only denying that he perpetrated it in the face of all-but-conclusive DNA evidence to the contrary, but not even showing any sympathy for what happened to the child,” Spinetta said, according to a Contra Costa Times story on the sentencing.

    Before the sentencing, Cordova said his appeal process will last longer as a death row inmate and that the single cells given to condemned inmates will keep him from mixing with other convicts.

    “Death row is a little more safer,” he said at the time, adding that because he has diabetes and hepatitis, he expected to die in prison either way.

    The state Supreme Court unanimously upheld Cordova’s conviction in October 2015.

    https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2020/07...tin-death-row/
    "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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    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Keep COVID going through there baby. Hopefully we can say bye bye to David Carpenter soon.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

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