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Thread: Jorge Galindo - Nebraska Death Row

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    Jorge Galindo - Nebraska Death Row







    Summary of Offense:

    Convicted for his role in the 2002 Norfolk bank murders that left five people dead. On the morning of September 26, 2002, Jose Sandoval, Erick Vela and Jorge Galindo entered a bank located in Norfolk, Nebraska. In less than a minute, they shot and fatally wounded four bank employees and one customer: Lola Elwood, Samuel Sun, Lisa Bryant, Jo Mausbach and Evonne Tuttle.

    For more on Sandoval, see: http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...aska-Death-Row

    For more on Vela, see: http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...ght=erick+vela

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Inmate Personal Information

    Race: Hispanic
    Gender: Male
    Date of Birth: 05/18/1981


    Crime and Trial Information

    * County of conviction: Madison
    * Number of counts: Five
    * Race of Victims: All White
    * Gender of Victims: 4 Female/1 Male
    * Date of crime: 09/26/2002
    * Date of Sentencing: 11/10/2004


    Legal Status

    Current Proceedings:
    Party in 1983 prisoner civil
    rights case in D. Neb. 4:84‐cv‐
    00712‐WKU; Post‐conviction
    proceedings


    Attorneys

    Douglas Stratton
    Andrew Weeks


    Court Opinions

    State v. Galindo, 774 N.W.2d 190 (Neb. 2009), cert. denied, 130 S.Ct.
    1887 (2010).


    Legal Issues

    On direct appeal:
    1. whether the statutory amendment requiring a determination by
    jury, rather than sentencing judge, as to existence of aggravating
    circumstances was procedural rather than substantive under ex post
    facto analysis;
    2. whether the application of the amendment to defendant violated
    due process;
    3. whether the amendment to capital sentencing procedures, requiring
    that jury, rather than sentencing judge, determine the existence or
    absence of aggravating circumstances rendering a defendant eligible
    for death penalty constituted a “bill of attainder,”

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    An inmate on Nebraska's death row for his part in the 2002 Norfolk bank slayings has asked a judge to throw out his conviction.

    Jorge Galindo says in the 225-page appeal filed this week in Madison County District Court that the death sentence shouldn't apply in his case because Nebraska didn't have a valid death penalty at the time of the crimes, among other things.

    The 29-year-old Galindo who was among three men who burst into a U.S. Bank branch and killed five people in a botched robbery attempt on Sept. 26, 2002. He was convicted of five counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. No execution date has been set.

    The Nebraska Supreme Court previously upheld his conviction.

    http://www.therepublic.com/view/stor...yings-Galindo/

  4. #4
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    20th anniversary of Norfolk bank killings approaches, no execution date in sight for 3 shooters

    By Lori Pilger
    Lincoln Journal Star

    Twenty years after five people were slain in a Norfolk bank in one of the deadliest bank killings in U.S. history, the three men who shot them remain on death row with open appeals and no execution date in sight.

    In just 40 seconds on the morning of Sept. 26, 2002, Lola Elwood, Lisa Bryant, Jo Mausbach and Samuel Sun, employees at the US Bank branch in the northeast Nebraska town, and a customer at the counter, Evonne Tuttle, had been gunned down, the terrible crime captured on video and in the accounts of two employees who survived the nightmare.

    Jose Sandoval walked to the front, quickly shooting Sun, Tuttle and Mausbach.

    Erick Vela and Jorge Galindo went to offices on either side, Vela shooting Bryant and Galindo shooting Elwood, then firing at a customer who started to walk in.

    The three left empty-handed as the five died.

    Police later would describe the acrid smell of spent gunpowder and blood heavy in the air when they arrived.

    Within hours, Sandoval, Galindo and Vela would be locked up for it after stopping at a McDonald's in O'Neill, 75 miles away.

    But nothing else in the cases has happened quickly.

    The three ultimately landed on death row, Sandoval and Galindo after being found guilty at trial and Vela after pleading guilty.

    Separate three-judge panels found their crimes warranted death sentences.

    Then came automatic appeals, all rejected.

    But in the years since, legal twists complicated matters. First, a U.S. Supreme Court decision over how it's determined who gets life versus death. Then, Nebraska lawmakers' repeal of the death penalty in 2015, which voters reinstated the next year.

    Attorneys argued the sentences for everyone on the state's death row had been commuted to life in prison. And they've raised dozens of other issues that they say should lead to a new trial or a life sentence rather than death for them.

    In March 2019, the state filed a response in Sandoval's case arguing the district judge should deny his motion for post-conviction relief without a hearing.

    "The case files and records affirmatively show that the defendant is entitled to no relief," Solicitor General James Smith wrote.

    But court records indicate in the three and a half years since the filing, District Judge Geoffrey C. Hall of Fremont has yet to rule either way.

    In Vela's case, his attorney, Jerry Hug, told a federal court judge this May that he anticipated progression of the state court proceedings "with the understanding that the state court records of the petitioner’s capital case are voluminous and have necessarily involved considerable time to gather, review and organize. Additional time will be required for briefing, submission, and a state court decision."

    And Hug referenced a number of postconviction cases pending resolution in the Nebraska Supreme Court, including Galindo's.

    At oral arguments Sept. 1, Adam Sipple, Galindo's attorney, tried to convince the justices that a district court judge was wrong to deny a hearing on a motion for post-conviction relief.

    In a 138-page motion filed in 2019, he detailed a laundry list of issues, including the state's last-minute disclosure it was going to present evidence of Galindo's alleged involvement in the death of Travis Lundell, a 21-year-old who had gone missing a month before the bank robbery, in pursuit of a death sentence.

    "When Mr. Galindo's sentencing case is assessed and evaluated consistent with the law and consistent with the Constitution, his youth, his confession, his cooperation and his demonstrated remorse provide a strong case to spare him from execution," Sipple said.

    He said there were two huge issues that could have led to a life sentence if the sentencing panel had known. One, his trial counsel's failure to introduce the evidence of remorse. And two, his failure to argue Galindo's youth as a mitigating factor.

    Sipple said defense counsel at sentencing left sworn deposition testimony in his file from, among others, a captain at the jail who told a defense investigator that Galindo expressed remorse to him and another jail deputy, and testimony from a teacher who said he was immature and easily influenced by others.

    He also raised issues over a criminal investigation by the Nebraska State Patrol of the lead prosecutor, Madison County Attorney Joe Smith, "including his associations with drug-dealing suspects he called as jailhouse informants against Galindo."

    But Justice Jonathan Papik said, even if they found that trial counsel had been deficient and that the panel shouldn't have considered Lundell as an aggravator, "Wouldn't we then have to ask 'Well, is there prejudice?'"

    Is there a reasonable probability that the outcome would be different, he asked.

    Sipple agreed, but said the allegations created legitimate issues warranting an evidentiary hearing, which would lead to findings.

    On the other side, James Smith, the solicitor general, said even if the sentencing panel didn't consider the Lundell evidence and did consider Galindo's youth and remorse, it wasn't sufficient to outweigh all the aggravating circumstances.

    "In short, if you go in and murder five innocent people saying that 'Gee, I shouldn't get the death sentence because I really didn't kill the sixth,' that doesn't really indicate a prejudicial error in the sentencing that would justify having a futile evidentiary hearing," he argued.

    The Supreme Court hasn't yet ruled.

    Norfolk Mayor Josh Moenning wasn’t living there on Sept. 25, 2002.

    “But as a native of the area, I precisely recall the shock and bewilderment I experienced upon hearing the news,” he told the Journal Star on Friday.

    Moenning called it an unthinkable horror that sent shockwaves throughout the community and entire state.

    “Norfolk’s response, though, was telling,” he said. “Immediately the community embraced the victims’ families, supported their needs, and recognized the importance of honoring their loved ones’ legacies.

    "Ultimately created in the place of these heinous crimes was a place of solace and peace — a natural landmark that to this day welcomes travelers on U.S. Highway 81 with a profound message: love and community always outlasts hate and violence."

    https://journalstar.com/news/state-a...1fa28d7a5.html
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    - 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

  5. #5
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    I can't copy the story, but he just got his post-conviction relief denied. He hasn't even gotten to federal level yet. 19 years to clear state court.

    https://norfolkdailynews.com/news/ne...6270ab000.html
    "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. #6
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Nebraska Supreme Court denies appeal of U.S. Bank murderer on death row

    By Austin Svehla
    Norfolk Daily News

    One of the four men convicted in the September 2002 murders of five people at a U.S. Bank branch in Norfolk was denied an appeal on Friday pertaining to a motion for postconviction relief.

    The Nebraska Supreme Court, in a 73-page decision published on Friday, affirmed a previous Madison County District Court decision to deny Jorge Galindo, 42, postconviction relief without an evidentiary hearing.

    Galindo was convicted of five counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in March 2004 for his role in the bank killings. Galindo, along with co-defendants Jose Sandoval and Erick Vela, entered the U.S. Bank that was at the corner of 13th Street and Pasewalk Avenue on the morning of Sept. 26, 2002.

    The three men had intended to rob the bank but instead killed four employees and one customer before fleeing with nothing. Employees Samuel Sun, 50, Lola Elwood, 43, Jo Mausbach, 42, Lisa Bryant, 29, and customer Evonne Tuttle, 37, were killed.

    Galindo shot and killed Elwood and also fired at a customer who was able to escape after walking into the bank.

    A fourth perpetrator, Gabriel Rodriguez, did not enter the bank but was part of the robbery plans and was supposed to be the getaway driver.

    Galindo, Sandoval and Vela left the bank on foot and forced themselves inside an occupied house about two blocks east of the bank, stealing the residents’ new Subaru Outback before fleeing west.

    The men ditched the Outback near Meadow Grove, stole a pickup and continued west. They were arrested outside an O’Neill McDonald’s later that day after being spotted driving into town by an O’Neill police officer. Police arrested Rodriguez in Norfolk that same night.

    Galindo, Sandoval, 44, and Vela, 42, are on death row at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution. Rodriguez, 47, is serving five life sentences at the Tecumseh prison.

    In 2019, Galindo, represented by appointed counsel, filed a motion for postconviction relief. His postconviction claims were related to alleged prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel and the admission of evidence at trial that was used to prove aggravating circumstances that led to his eventual death sentence.

    The district court denied Galindo’s motion for relief, prompting his latest appeal.

    Galindo appealed on the basis that the court erred by denying an evidentiary hearing on his prosecutorial misconduct claims; denying an evidentiary hearing on his ineffective assistance of counsel claims; and denying relief for alleged violations of his constitutional rights.

    The state supreme court’s ruling is the latest failed appeal for Galindo, who is one of 11 inmates on Nebraska’s death row.

    Between Nebraska’s inability to obtain the lethal drugs needed to execute its death row inmates and the numerous appeal opportunities afforded to such convicts, it’s not clear how soon the bank murderers will be executed, if ever.

    https://norfolkdailynews.com/news/ne...6270ab000.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

  7. #7
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    On 12/11/23, Galindo filed a habeas petition in federal district court.

    https://dockets.justia.com/docket/ne...cv03241/101765
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