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Thread: Scott Thomas Erskine - California

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    Scott Thomas Erskine - California


    Charlie Keever, 13, and Jonathan Sellers, 9







    Facts of the Crime:

    On March 27, 1993, Charlie Keever, 13, and Jonathan Sellers, 9, were molested, tortured and strangled to death by Erskine; Sellers’ body was discovered hanging from a tree. The case went unsolved for eleven years until new DNA analysis linked Erskine to the killings. When Erskine was charged with the boys’ murders he was already serving a 70-year sentence for rape. He had an additional long history of sex crimes. Erskine also pleaded guilty to murdering a woman in Florida in 1989. The defense did not contest the killing, but asked the jury to spare Erskine life because he suffered from a brain injury when he was hit by a car at age five. The defense argued the injury caused Erskine to lose the ability to stop sexual impulses.

    Erskine was sentenced to death in San Diego County on September 1, 2004.

  2. #2
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Erskine was appointed counsel to represent him on direct appeal on June 25, 2008.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S127621

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On April 10, 2015, Erskine filed his opening brief before the California Supreme Court.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S127621

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Erskine's direct appeal has been fully briefed before the California Supreme Court since May 31, 2017.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S127621

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On March 6, 2019, oral argument will be heard in Erskine's direct appeal before the California Supreme Court.

    https://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/...s/SMAR519C.PDF

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On May 6, 2019, Erskine filed a habeas petition before the California Supreme Court.

    https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca....tRICAgCg%3D%3D

    In today's opinions, the California Supreme Court AFFIRMED Erskine's conviction and death sentence on direct appeal.

    https://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/d...ts/S127621.PDF

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    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    South Bay Murderer's Death Penalty Conviction Upheld

    Scott Erskine has been on death row at San Quentin State Prison since 2004 after a jury convicted him of the murders of Charlie Keever, 13, and Jonathan Sellers, 9

    The California Supreme Court decided Thursday to uphold a death penalty conviction for a man who molested and murdered two South Bay boys in 1993.

    Scott Erskine has been on death row at San Quentin State Prison since 2004 after a jury convicted him of the murders of Charlie Keever, 13, and Jonathan Sellers, 9. Erskine was already serving a decades-long prison sentence for rape at the time.

    Keever and Sellers disappeared while on a bike ride along the Otay River in 1993. Their bodies were later found days later in a riverbed in the South Bay neighborhood of Palm City. Investigators said they had been beaten, raped and murdered.

    In a 40-page unanimous decision released Thursday, the state supreme court justices rejected all arguments made by Erskine’s appellate attorney, Kimberly Grove.

    In the appeal, Grove argued that a judge wrongly removed a juror who opposed the death penalty and that the judge gave an an incorrect instruction that prejudiced the jury.

    The court also rejected arguments that the death penalty is unconstitutional and was wrongly applied to Erskine in this case.

    Erskine's appeal came months after Governor Gavin Newsom signed a moratorium on death penalty for the more than 730 condemned inmates in California.

    The order meant a reprieve for all individuals sentenced to death, a withdrawal of the state's lethal injection protocol, and the closing of San Quentin's never-used execution chamber. It did not mean a release of inmates or change in their conviction, a spokesperson for the governor's office said.

    The mothers of the two boys, Maria Keever and Milena Sellers-Phillips, who have been fighting for decades to see Erskine's death sentence run its course, feared the moratorium rendered their efforts useless.

    The order did very little to change the death penalty process, which hasn't executed a condemned inmate since 2006 when the state indefinitely suspended capital punishment to rework its lethal injection policies and procedures.

    Under Newsom's order, condemned inmates remain on death row, sentenced to death, and their appeals continue. But no executions will be scheduled while the governor's moratorium remains in effect.

    The last inmate to be executed was Clarence Ray Allen, killed Jan. 17, 2006 at age 76. Allen, sentenced to death on three counts of first-degree murder, was on death row for more than two decades before a lethal injection was administered.

    Prior, the state had executed 13 inmates since the time the death penalty was reinstated in 1978.

    Newsom’s executive action is only temporary. Repeal of capital punishment would be up to California voters, who have consistently rejected statewide ballot measures to repeal the death penalty.

    https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/loc...510328281.html
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    Senior Member CnCP Addict one_two_bomb's Avatar
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    Excellent news! Next please!

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    Man Who Killed 2 South Bay Boys Dies on Death Row Due to COVID-19 Complications

    Scott Thomas Erskine, 57, was sentenced to death in San Diego County on Sept. 1, 2004, for the first-degree murders of Charlie Keever, 13, and Jonathan Sellers, 9

    By Brenda Gregorio-Nieto
    NBC News

    A man who has been on death row at San Quentin State Prison since 2004 after a jury convicted him of the murders of two South Bay boys has died due to complications related to COVID-19, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Friday.

    Scott Thomas Erskine, 57, was sentenced to death in San Diego County on Sept. 1, 2004, for the first-degree murders of Charlie Keever, 13, and Jonathan Sellers, 9, and was admitted onto death row on Dec. 27, 2004.

    Erskine was already serving a decades-long prison sentence for rape at the time.

    Keever and Sellers disappeared while on a bike ride along the Otay River in 1993. Their bodies were found two days later in a riverbed in the South Bay neighborhood of Palm City. Investigators said they had been beaten, raped, and murdered.

    CDCR said Erskine died on July 3 at an outside hospital from what appears to be complications related to COVID-19.

    In 2019, the California Supreme Court decided to uphold the death penalty conviction for Erskine after it rejected all arguments made by Erskine’s appellate attorney, Kimberly Grove.

    https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/loc...tions/2359040/
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