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Thread: Vicente Figueroa Benavides - California

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    Vicente Figueroa Benavides - California




    Facts of the Crime:

    Sentenced to death in Kern County on June 16, 1993 for the November 17, 1991 rape-murder of Consuelo Verdugo, a 21-month-old girl he was babysitting. The victim died of an acute blunt force penetrating injury of the anus. The anus was expanded to seven or eight times its normal size, and multiple internal organs were injured. The victim’s upper lip was torn, consistent with a hand being held over her mouth, and there was evidence of previous rib fractures. The special circumstances were felony-murder rape, felony murder rape and felony-murder sodomy.

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    On November 12, 2002, Benavides filed a habeas petition before the California Supreme Court.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S111336

    On February 17, 2005, the California Supreme Court affirmed Benavides' sentence on direct appeal.

    http://74.6.238.254/search/srpcache?...96ILYbD8KS0Q--

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    Benavides' habeas case has been fully briefed before the California Supreme Court since March 14, 2017.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S111336

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    On January 3, 2018, oral argument will be heard in Benavides' habeas case before the California Supreme Court.

    http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/SJAN318.pdf

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    With 'hair-raising false evidence' exposed, Delano man get a second chance

    By JOSE GASPAR
    The Bakersfield Californian

    Every now and then comes a story about our criminal justice system so mind boggling that it's hard to believe it could have happened. But sadly it did.

    When I first heard about a Delano man whose death row sentence may be overturned and, conceivably, his conviction overturned, my interest was piqued. Bear with me through this convoluted case, first reported by my TV colleague, Olivia LaVoice.

    In 1991, 21-month old Consuelo Verdugo was rushed to Delano Regional Medical Center with severe injuries to her abdomen.

    The child, along with her 9-year old sister, had been left in the care of Vicente Figueroa Benavides, the then-42-year-old common-law husband of the children's mother, who was at work. Consuelo was found to have multiple injuries on her head and ribs as well.

    She died a week later. Two years later, Benavides was convicted and sentenced for the child's murder.

    The Kern County District Attorney's office also claimed the murder happened in the course of a rape or sodomy and he was given the death penalty. On appeal, attorneys for Benavides argued he is developmentally disabled, presenting evidence he has the mental ability of a 7-year-old. In 2005, the California Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and death sentence.

    But new evidence uncovered by the state-funded Habeas Corpus Resource Center in San Francisco has thrown this case in a whole new direction. Turns out some key medical records and photographs of the victim were never provided to an expert witness who testified for the prosecution. Without seeing that key evidence, Dr. Jess Diamond testified at trial that Consuelo Verdugo was sodomized.

    "I have been very troubled by this case," wrote Dr. Diamond in a 2012 declaration.

    The 21-month old baby's autopsy was performed by pathologist Dr. James Dibdin. He testified her cause of death was a result of penile penetration that directly caused injury to the anus, bowel and pancreas. And the graphic gruesome pictures of her genitalia were shown to the jury. In his declaration, Diamond now says Dibdin got it all wrong.

    And just to be sure, Diamond said he consulted with another doctor, Astrid Happenstall Heger, considered the pre-eminent expert in the field of child sexual abuse and sexual assault. Diamond now concludes the child was not raped or sodomized and that the child's anal tears and swelling were caused by her medical condition rather than by trauma.

    The Habeas Corpus petition contends the girl's injuries were inadvertently inflicted during medical procedures at at least two different hospitals, a point supported by Diamond.

    In his declaration, Diamond tears into what he called an injustice. He wrote, "I am convinced that this case presents a tremendous failing of the criminal justice system. The jury in this case based its decision to convict and sentence Mr. Benavides to death on substantial and significant inaccurate medical information ... I do not believe Mr. Benavides received a fair trial and I provide this declaration in the hope that the current legal proceedings will correct this injustice."

    Wow! There's something you don't hear every day from a respected expert for the prosecution.

    Indeed, Diamond is admitting he too made a mistake when he took the stand during the trial and said Consuelo had been sexually assaulted. How many other professionals would publicly admit their mistake, especially in such a high stakes trial as this one? And after reviewing medical reports and photographs of the case, Dr. Hager also concludes the child was not sexually assaulted and minces no words. She calls Dr. Dibdin's autopsy conclusion, "So unlikely to the point of being absurd."

    LaVoice also found Gordon Jones, one of the jurors who served on the case in 1993. He was blown away when she presented him with the new findings. "This is, like, unbelievable," said Jones. He was the lone holdout against giving Benavides the death penalty, he said. Then the jury foreman asked him to view the graphic pictures of Consuelo's genitalia one more time.

    "He said, 'If that doesn't call for the death penalty, what does?'" Jones gave in and voted to execute Benavides. He said he would often dream about the case.

    Deputy Attorney General Kenneth Sokolar, representing the prosecution, now concedes the death sentence should be vacated because the evidence presented at trial claiming sexual abuse was false. But even so, Sokolar claims there is still plenty of other evidence that shows Benavides is guilty of Consuelo's murder. He cites what he called inconsistent statements given by Benavides to police.

    During the trial, Benavides' lawyer, Donnalee Huffman, argued it was possible the child's injuries could have been caused after being hit by a car outside of the family's apartment complex. But no neighbors could collaborate that claim. Benavides told police he was making dinner that evening, the child must have wandered outside and he found her lying on the pavement. Benavides worked as a farm laborer and had no prior criminal record.

    The case was finally argued before the California Supreme Court on Jan. 3. "The false evidence permeated the entire trial proceedings," said Paula Fog, a Habeus Corpus attorney representing Benavides. "The prosecution relied on prejudicial and inflammatory photographs of Consuelo's genetalia to allegedly show to the jury how Consuelo had been sexually assaulted."

    Sokolar countered that the false evidence amounted to "harmless error."

    Two of the justices appeared appalled at the new evidence. "This is among the most hair-raising false evidence that I've encountered in all the time that I've been looking at criminal cases," said Associate Justice Carol Corrigan. Fellow Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said the allegations of sexual assault were "like a bomb dropped on the jury" and precluded the jurors from considering that Consuelo's death may have been caused by something else.

    Back to Dr. Atrid Hager. Not only does she believe Consuelo was not sexaully assaulted, but she's convinced "to a high degree of medical cetainty that Consuelo's abdominal and rib injuries were most likely caused by a vehicular accident rather than physical abuse."

    Sokalar is asking the court to reduce Benavides' conviction to second degree murder and allow the Kern County District Attorney's office to either accept that judgement or retry the case. Attorneys for Benavides are asking the court to reverse the conviction and remand the case for a new trial.

    Should the latter happen, Kern County District Attorney Lisa Green told LaVoice, it's unlikely her office would retry the case, which means Benavides would walk free after nearly 25 years on death row. A decision by the state Supreme Court is expected by April 3 or so.

    Both sides now agree that one thing definitely happened to Consuelo: Her death was caused by blunt force trauma to her stomach. A trial has been held and a man was convicted. Wrongfully convicted? Given the way this case was presented, neither Vicente Benavides nor that 2-year-old girl received justice.

    http://www.bakersfield.com/columnist...c5339c496.html
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    BREAKING NEWS: Death penalty reversed; "false evidence" used in trial, court rules

    By Chloe Carlson
    Kern Golden Empire

    BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - A Kern County man on Death Row may be innocent and his murder conviction and death sentence have been reversed, the California Supreme Court ruled today.

    The high court cited “false evidence” in reversing the conviction of Vincente Figueroa Benavides. He’s been in prison 26 years on the case but soon may be free.

    Benavides, now 68, was convicted of raping his girlfriend’s 21-month-old daughter so savagely that the tiny child suffered fatal internal injuries.

    Experts now say the little girl was never assaulted and probably was run over by a car. One key prosecution witness said he was not provided key evidence before he testified and called the conviction “a tragedy.”

    The decision reverses the first-degree murder conviction and death sentence and returns the case to Kern County for a new trial. District Attorney Lisa Green said retrying the case is unlikely because key evidence has been discredited.

    That means all charges probably will be dismissed and Benavides will be released from prison.

    The case was the topic of a KGET special report: Kern’s Questionable Conviction: http://www.kerngoldenempire.com/questionable-conviction

    “This is among the most hair-raising false evidence (cases) that I’ve encountered in all the time I’ve been looking at criminal cases,” Justice Carol Corrigan said when the case was argued before the seven justices in January. Corrigan is a former prosecutor.

    There was never any question Consuelo Verdugo died of internal injuries in 1991 or that Benavides was alone with her for a critical 15 minutes just before her injuries were noticed.

    The autopsy surgeon hired by the Kern County Coroner ruled the child died of injuries caused by a vicious rape.

    Another doctor, the head of pediatrics at Kern Medical Center, reviewed the pathologist’s findings and agreed the sex assault was the cause of death.

    Then-Deputy District Attorney Robert Carbone presented the testimony of both doctors to the jury when the case came to trial in 1993. The jury convicted Benavides of first-degree murder and recommended the death penalty. Judge James M. Stuart concurred and sent Benavides to Death Row.

    On appeal, lawyers argued Benavides is developmentally disabled. His attorneys presented evidence he has an IQ of 72 and the mental ability of a 7-year-old but, in 2005, the California Supreme Court upheld the conviction and death sentence.

    Benavides is now represented by the state-funded Habeas Corpus Resource Center in San Francisco. Lawyers there brought the case back to the Supreme Court.

    HCRC attorneys developed information that discredited the medical testimony that was the heart of the prosecution case.

    Dr. Jess Diamond, who testified in hundreds of molestation cases and was head of pediatrics at Kern Medical Center, said he was not provided all relevant information before he testified against Benavides 24 years ago.

    “After reviewing the medical records and photographs that I should have been provided in 1993, I am convinced that this case presents a tremendous failing of the criminal justice system,” Diamond said in sworn statement aimed at reversing Benavides’ conviction.

    He called the conviction “a tragedy.”

    Carbone, the former Kern County prosecutor who won the conviction, said he didn’t understand why Diamond changed his mind, but said he respected the doctor.

    “Most of what I learned about prosecuting child molest or other sexual assault cases came from Dr. Diamond,” Carbone said of his time in the Kern County District Attorney’s Office. “He was our source.”

    Carbone said he remains convinced Benavides caused the child’s death.

    But he said he can’t explain the findings of Dr. Astrid Heger, one of the country’s top experts on child abuse.

    Heger was brutal in her criticism of the conviction.

    “Dr. Heger’s work speaks for itself,” Carbone said. “I mean, she’s the preeminent expert in the Western United States.”

    Hager said the original autopsy finding, that the child died of sex abuse, “… is so unlikely to the point of being absurd.

    “No such mechanism of injury has ever been reported in any literature of child abuse or child assault,” Hager said in a sworn declaration.

    “I am convinced to a high degree of medical certainty that Consuelo’s abdominal and rib injuries were most likely caused by a vehicular accident rather than by physical abuse,” she said.

    Benavides had no previous criminal record and always maintained his innocence.

    In November, 1991, he was unemployed and living with Estella Medina and her two daughters in an apartment in Delano.

    When Medina went to work on Nov. 17, 1991, Benavides was left to babysit. The 9-year-old daughter went outside to play. Just 15 minutes later, Benavides called her back into the house and told her to call her mother because 21-month-old Consuelo was sick.

    They took Consuelo to Delano Regional Medical Center and then to Kern Medical Center. She was suffering from massive internal injuries. She died eight days after she was hurt.

    Benavides told Delano police he didn’t know how she was hurt. He said she might have been clobbered by the swinging door when her sister left the house; or perhaps she left the house with her sister and was hit by a car in the apartment parking lot.

    The habeas corpus case was argued in front of the California Supreme Court on Jan 3.

    Deputy Attorney General Kenneth Sokoler, representing the prosecution, conceded “false evidence” required the reversal of the death penalty and first-degree murder conviction.

    He argued that even with all evidence of sexual abuse thrown out, there is enough to convict Benavides of second-degree murder.

    "The evidence was undisputed,” Sokoler told the justices. “The victim was left in petitioner’s care for a maximum of 15 minutes. And when those 15 minutes were over, her pancreas had been torn in half by being smashed against her spinal cord."

    Justice Carol Corrigan had a problem with that argument.

    “I mean it basically comes down to, ‘he was with her and she died, so it must've been him and he did it for reasons we don't know, but it must have been malicious,’ ” Justice Corrigan said.

    “That’s quite a case,” she added sarcastically.

    Benavides’ attorney, Paula Fog, argued the now-discredited baby-raping accusations made it difficult for the jury to give him a fair trial.

    Chief Justice Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye seemed to agree. “This was the bomb that was dropped on the jury,” she told the deputy AG. “They couldn’t hear or see anything after that.”

    The case took another strange twist in 2007 when an investigator for the HCRC was convicted of falsifying documents in four cases, including Benavides.

    The entire decision can be read online here, but be advised it contains graphic descriptions of the original case against Benavides: http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S111336.PDF

    http://www.kerngoldenempire.com/news...les/1033839673
    "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."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    The link at the bottom of the article for the opinion is wrong. This is the correct link

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...lSUCAgCg%3D%3D
    "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."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    District Attorney's office decides not to seek new trial for man on death row for decades

    News 5 Cleveland

    BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - The Kern County, California District Attorney's Office has decided not to file charges against a man who was on death row for more than two decades, setting him free.

    Lisa Green made the announcement on Tuesday, saying the case would be nearly impossible to retry in court. She said it would be very difficult to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt of Benavides' guilt.

    According to a decision released by the California Supreme Court last month, the convictions of Vicente Benavides in 1993 "were based on false evidence and that he received ineffective assistance of counsel."

    The decision also says that "false evidence was introduced at trial and that petitioner's convictions of substantive sexual offenses, special-circumstance findings, and judgment of death must be vacated."

    Benavides was convicted in 1993 of first-degree murder, rape and other charges. He was sentenced to life. He was serving his term on death row in San Quentin.

    It was asked that his murder conviction be reduced to second-degree murder. That was also thrown out.

    The judgment has been vacated entirely.

    The California Supreme Court cited multiple doctors who evaluated 21-month-old Consuelo Verdugo in November 1991 when she died. The baby was taken from the Delano Regional Medical Center to Kern Medical Center then eventually the UCLA Medical Center where she died November 25, 1991.

    Multiple reports were made by doctors who said based off the inability to insert a catheter, bruising found near Consuelo's genitalia and other factors, they believed she had been sexually assaulted.

    In the report put out by the California Supreme Court, many of those doctors then admitted later they were wrong in their initial assumptions and those issues "can instead be attributed to medical intervention," like multiple attempts at inserting a catheter.

    Speaking on behalf of Benavides’s post-conviction legal team after the conviction was lifted, the Habeas Corpus Resource Center’s Interim Executive Director, Michael J. Hersek said he and his team were pleased with today's decision.

    “We are pleased that the Supreme Court has reversed Mr. Benavides’s conviction and death sentence. Mr. Benavides has spent over 24 years on death row and has steadfastly maintained his innocence. We are hopeful that the Kern County District Attorney will dismiss all charges against our client soon after the Supreme Court’s decision becomes final. Until then we will have no further comment on this matter."

    Robert F. Carbone was the prosecutor on the case in the 90's and tells 23ABC he respects the Supreme Court's decision but personally still believes Benavides to be guilty.

    "I believe that he's guilty and that he's a danger to children," said Carbone.

    https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/...ow-for-decades
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
    1 A Prayer of David. Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!

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    California inmate released after 25 years on death row


    Fox News

    SAN QUENTIN, Calif. – A man who spent nearly 25 years on California's death row was freed Thursday after his conviction in the rape and killing of his girlfriend's nearly 2-year-old daughter was overturned.

    Vicente Benavides, 68, was released from San Quentin State Prison following a judge's order, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

    Benavides, who had been on death row since June 1993, was freed after the state Supreme Court ruled last month that false medical testimony was presented at his trial.

    The Innocence Project, which helped secure Benavides' freedom, tweeted a photo of him and one of his attorneys posing along San Quentin's Main Street shortly after his release.

    Footage by local TV stations showed a tearful Benavides reuniting with and hugging family members and posing for selfies.

    Kern County District Attorney Lisa Green said earlier this week that she wouldn't retry Benavides for first-degree murder and that without the medical testimony, a lesser conviction would be nearly impossible.

    "Upon an objective review of the facts, there is insufficient evidence to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," she said in a statement.

    Benavides was babysitting his girlfriend's daughter, Consuelo Verdugo, in Delano while her mother was at work on Nov. 17, 1991. Benavides told police that he had lost track of the girl and later found her injured outdoors. He and the girl's mother took her to an emergency room and she died a week later.

    A forensic pathologist concluded that the girl died from injuries idicative of being sodomized, and several doctors testified that the girl's injuries were caused by sexual assault.

    But nearly all later recanted, saying they hadn't seen her full medical records that indicated there was no evidence of sexual assault when the girl was first hospitalized.

    They also said her genital and other injuries may have been caused by her medical treatment and some said the purported cause of death was "anatomically impossible," according to the state Supreme Court's ruling.

    One expert on child abuse said the girl likely had been hit by a car, not sexually assaulted.

    It's unclear whether Benavides plans to stay in California or return to his native Mexico.

    California has the nation's largest death row with nearly 750 inmates. Only 13 have been executed since 1978 — the last in 2006. Currently, condemned inmates are more likely to die of old age during decades of appeals.

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/04/19...death-row.html
    "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."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Senior Member CnCP Addict one_two_bomb's Avatar
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    I used to work with a guy at chipotle years ago who was arrested last year for raping and killing his infant daugter. Maybe a week or two after his arrest, they said the medical examiner made a mistake during the autopsy and the baby wasn't raped, and the death was likely from an accidental fall. All the charges were dropped and he was released. If anyone wants to look it up send me a PM, but its crazy how the medical examiner could make such a misdiagnosis.

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