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Thread: Robert Diamond - Pennsylvania Death Row

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    Robert Diamond - Pennsylvania Death Row


    Robert Diamond


    Facts of the Crime:

    Sentenced to death in Bucks County on April 17, 2009 for two workplace murders. He gunned down Angel Guadalupe of Falls Township, as Guadalupe backed his sport utility vehicle from the parking lot. Guadalupe, 46, a father of four, had just started the extra job two weeks earlier to help pay his mortgage. Diamond then shot and killed Reginald Woodson, 52, who had tried to intervene after hearing shots. Diamond shot Woodson in the back as he tried to run back inside the warehouse -- a moment captured on a security video that sent Woodson's family into loud wailing when it was played in court.

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    April 17, 2009

    Bucks murderer sentenced to death


    Bucks County judge today sentenced Robert Diamond, a mentally ill Bristol man, to death for the Aug. 1 shootings outside the Simon & Schuster warehouse in Bristol.

    Judge Rea B. Boylan pronounced the sentence after hearing four days of evidence against Diamond, who had pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of first-degree murder.

    Diamond, 33, showed no emotion as Boylan condemned him to death. His family members left the courthouse without commenting.

    Diamond admitted shooting to death Angel Guadalupe, 46, of Falls Township; and Reginald Woodson, 52, of Willingboro, N.J., outside the warehouse where he once worked. Prosecutors contended that Diamond acted in part out of racially tinged malice toward minority workers at the warehouse, who he believed had conspired to get him into trouble on the job.

    District Attorney Michelle Henry, who prosecuted the case herself, called the death sentence "the only just verdict."

    But defense attorney Barnaby Wittels, who had argued that Diamond's longtime mental illness was behind the shootings, angrily denounced the judge afterward, calling it a "travesty of justice" and "against the law."

    http://www.philly.com/philly/news/br..._to_death.html

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    May 11, 2009

    Killer appeals death sentence

    A Bristol man who was sentenced to death last month for gunning down two coworkers is asking a Bucks County judge to reconsider the historic sentence.

    Robert Diamond, 33, is the first Bucks resident to be sentenced to death by a judge alone since the death penalty was reinstated in Pennsylvania in 1974. All of the other five Bucks men on death row were sent there by juries.

    In a petition filed in county court in Doylestown, Diamond's attorney, Barnaby Wittels, has asked Judge Rea Boylan to change the sentence to life in prison, saying the sentence is "unduly harsh" and unfair.

    District Attorney Michelle Henry has filed a response to the petition, asking Boylan to let the sentence stand.

    A hearing on the matter is scheduled for next month.

    http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/loca...-sentence.html

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Killer on death row seeking appeal

    The case of a Bristol Borough man on death row for gunning down two men outside his former workplace in 2008 is back in Bucks County Court to determine whether he is mentally competent for an appeal.

    Robert Diamond, 36, has shown paranoid schizophrenic behavior since he has been in state prison following his guilty plea in 2009, forensic psychologist John O’Brien testified Wednesday on his behalf.

    “His responses on the surface are reasonable, but his answers to follow-up questions are disorganized and difficult to understand,” O’Brien said. “He is not able to engage in rational and reasonable conversations.”

    The county’s forensic psychologist, Timothy Michals, said Diamond was “vague” and “defensive” in his interview, but he showed “sufficient mental capacity” to participate in his appeal.

    Diamond stared straight ahead throughout the 4½-hour hearing without seeming to look at the two witnesses, the lawyers or Judge Rea B. Boylan, who had sentenced him to death. His mother, step-father, a sister and a few friends sat in the gallery.

    Diamond worked as a book sorter and forklift operator at the Simon & Schuster warehouse on Radcliffe Street for 5½ years before he was fired for absenteeism and not getting along with co-workers. Before the firing, he was disciplined for calling a young co-worker “boy.”

    The other employees were jealous of him and harassed him because he was a harder worker, he told Michals.

    Out of work and short on rent money, Diamond drove to the warehouse on Aug. 1, 2008, and fatally shot Angel Guadalupe, 46, of Falls Township. Guadalupe, a father of four, had just started the extra job to help pay his mortgage.

    Diamond then shot and killed Reginald Woodson, 52, of Willingboro, who had tried to intervene. Diamond shot Woodson in the back as he tried to run back into the warehouse.

    At the sentencing, his lawyer argued that Diamond had suffered from mental illness most of his adult life, twice had been treated in mental-health facilities, and was too sick to be put to death.

    But Boylan said the aggravating factors against Diamond -- the multiple victims and the danger of death he imposed on other workers that day -- outweighed his mental affliction, his lack of a serious prior record, and his guilty plea.

    It was the first time that a Bucks County judge, acting independently of a jury, imposed a death sentence since Pennsylvania reinstated capital punishment in 1978.

    At the hearing, Boylan asked for Diamond’s records from the state Department of Corrections and adjourned the proceeding without ruling.

    Diamond’s case has been appealed directly to the state Supreme Court -- normal for inmates on death row -- for numerous issues, Assistant District Attorney Michelle Henry said.

    http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/b...144714693.html
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    Double death penalties upheld by Pa. Supreme Court for racially-motivated workplace slayings

    The state Supreme Court has upheld two death sentences for a Bucks County man who pleaded guilty to the racially-motivated slayings of two people at a book warehouse where he once worked.

    In the high court's majority opinion, Justice Max Baer wrote that there was ample legal justification to impose capital punishment for Robert Diamond's August 2008 shooting rampage at a Simon & Schuster facility in Bristol.

    Baer's opinion, issued Friday, portrays a chilling crime.

    Diamond, who is white, worked as a forklift operator at the warehouse for about six years before being fired in April 2008. During his time at Simon & Schuster he had frequent run-ins with a black co-worker Kalif Crump and Crump's mother, Debra Vorters, who also was employed at the warehouse.

    Diamond, now 38, was fired after he failed to report to work for several days. Four months later, on Aug. 1, 2008, Diamond made a tape recording of what he called his last will and testament as he drove to the warehouse on a mission of revenge.

    He stated on the tape that he was running out of money and that his time at Simon & Schuster had been a "living hell." He also expressed the view that he had been the victim of racial harassment, and mentioned Crump and Vorters as being largely responsible for his woes.

    Diamond, who didn't know that Crump was no longer working for Simon & Schuster, arrived at the warehouse during the afternoon shift change. In front of multiple witnesses he first shot and killed a Hispanic employee, Angel Guadalupe, who was pulling out of the parking lot.

    Then, in an act caught on security cameras, Diamond popped the magazine out of this pistol, checked to see how many bullets he had left and reinserted the magazine. He did not fire at several other people in the parking lot, but did fatally shoot another warehouse employee, Reginald Woodson, in the back as Woodson, who was black, tried to get back inside the building.

    Diamond surrendered when police arrived. Police said he admitted to the murders at the scene. In a document found at his home, Diamond wrote that "I am no racist," but stated that he hoped his actions "save hundreds of innocent whites from tyranny."

    After Diamond pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, a Bucks County judge held a three-day nonjury trial to determine a penalty and sentenced him to death for each of the slayings.

    http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind...es_upheld.html

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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Diamond's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Eastern District
    Case Nos.: (594 CAP)
    Decision Date: December 27, 2013
    Rehearing Denied: February 25, 2014
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    Man on death row for shooting of York City man among five execution warrants signed by Governor Corbett

    Governor Tom Corbett signs execution warrants for five men including one man sentenced to die for the 2008 murder of a York City man.

    Kevin Mattison, of Baltimore, was convicted for the December 9, 2008, robbery and shooting death of Christian Agosto. Records show that Mattison shot Agosto over a pound of marijuana. He was convicted in 2010 and handed the death penalty. Mattison’s execution is scheduled for March 12th.

    The four men in the other warrants are:

    * Terrance Williams, convicted of murder for the beating death of a man on June 11, 1984 during a robbery in Philadelphia County.

    * Kenneth Hairston, convicted of killing his wife and son on June 11, 2001 in Allegheny County

    *Alfonso Sanchez, convicted for the shooting deaths of a man and woman in 2007 in Bucks County

    *Robert Diamond, convicted for the shooting deaths of two men on August 1, 2008 in Bucks County;

    All five men are incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Greene. Williams’ execution has been scheduled for March 4, 2015; Hairston’s for March 5, 2015; Sanchez’s for March 10, 2015 and Diamond’s for March 11, 2015.

    The execution warrants signed today for Mattison, Williams, Hairston, Sanchez and Diamond represents Governor Corbett’s 44th through 48th warrants signed, respectively, since taking office.

    Executions in Pennsylvania are carried out by lethal injection. For more information, visit the Department of Corrections online at www.cor.pa.gov.

    http://fox43.com/2015/01/13/man-on-d...ernor-corbett/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    Moderator mostlyclassics's Avatar
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    I wonder if Tom Wolf, who becomes Pennsylvania governor on January 20th, would commute their sentences to LWOP?

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    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Could i ask, if the Governor keeps signing death warrants for numerous death row inmates and the courts keep staying the executions, would Pennsylvania ever get to execute an inmate? Seems kind of meaningless after so long! If PA had the LI drugs and protocols in place, then their is nothing to hold back on the executions signed by the Governor!

  10. #10
    Senior Member Frequent Poster schmutz's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mostlyclassics View Post
    I wonder if Tom Wolf, who becomes Pennsylvania governor on January 20th, would commute their sentences to LWOP?
    I hope not - in Maryland it was understandable, but not in this case.

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