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Thread: Robert J. Ybarra, Jr. - Nevada Death Row

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    Robert J. Ybarra, Jr. - Nevada Death Row




    Summary of Offense:

    Sentenced to death in 1981 for the rape, beating and burning alive of 16-year-old Nancy Griffith of Ely, Nevada in September 1979.

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    September 2, 2010

    Inmate on death row appeals '81 sentencing -- Defense: Man who raped, burned girl, 16, is disabled

    The attorney for a man who has spent nearly three decades on Nevada's death row for raping, beating and burning alive an Ely teenager told the Nevada Supreme Court on Wednesday that Robert Ybarra is mentally disabled and ineligible to receive the ultimate punishment.

    The victim's family hopes this latest appeal fails, as have all the others.

    "All these people are waiting for him to die," said Robin Griffith, the sister-in-law of Nancy Griffith, whose murder continues to haunt longtime residents of the mining town. "He was given a punishment and they need to carry it out."

    Ybarra, then 25, drove Nancy Griffith to a remote area 20 miles from Ely on Sept. 28, 1979, where he raped and beat her before dousing her in gasoline, setting her on fire and leaving her for dead.

    With burns over 75 % of her body, the 16-year-old walked a mile before she was found by two fishermen. The men left to flag down a passing car and ask its driver to get the police.

    The driver was Ybarra, who offered to stay with the girl while the men drove to Ely. Ybarra was unable to find his victim, who hid when she saw his red pickup.

    When police arrived, Griffith identified Ybarra and his truck. She later died at a hospital. Her last words were, "I love you, Mom."

    At Ybarra's trial in 1981, an investigator said Griffith's blood was on Ybarra's boots, and that Ybarra had asked him if the girl lived long enough to talk.

    Ybarra admitted burning Griffith but denied he raped and beat her. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but was found competent for trial and was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder and sexual assault.

    Appellate attorney Michael Pescetta said Ybarra at age 9 suffered a serious head injury, was plagued by migraines and had an IQ of 71. Mental retardation is defined as an IQ of 70 or lower.

    White Pine County District Attorney Richard Sears said there is no evidence Ybarra was ever tested for mental retardation and that tests now wouldn't prove Ybarra's status then.

    "He's been on psychotropic medicine for 30 years," Sears said. "How will we know what his IQ was with that kind of drugging?'

    That's a question Robin Griffith would like answered. "I guess anybody who has been in prison for 30 years might be mentally disabled, but he was competent then. He knew exactly what he was doing."

    Her family has grown weary of Ybarra's appeals and feels betrayed by the system, she said.

    "We're not vengeful people, but the courts gave him the death penalty and 30 years later he's still appealing. Every time we find out he has another appeal we relive this."

    She said the family would have been happier with a life sentence.

    "At least then we could have moved on at some point,'' Griffith said. "My mother-in-law panicked every time he appealed."

    On behalf of Ybarra, now 56, Pescetta also argued the trial judge should have removed himself from the case.

    Pescetta questioned District Court Judge Steve Dobrescu's objectivity, because "ruling in Ybarra's favor" would have undoubtedly cost him an election, and said the judge had a conflict of interest because he once prepared a standard will for the victim's parents.

    The high court rejected his argument in 2007, ruling the minor legal work did not rise to the level of conflict requiring a judge to remove himself from the case.

    Suggestions that political considerations influenced the case prompted Chief Justice Ron Parraguirre to note that, "Every judge makes a friend and an enemy every time he rules. ? It would be nice if no judge had to hear these kinds of cases."

    A decision could be several months away. Ybarra is barred from more appeals, but Griffith isn't holding out hope that a date with the executioner is near.

    "Nancy lived a long time after he burned her alive. She lived that long because she loved her family and she really felt her brothers would come help her. She lived that long to tell them who did this to her," said Griffith. "Doesn't she deserve justice?"

    (Source: The Las Vegas Review-Journal)

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    Nevada Supreme Court rejects appeal of Henderson man facing life sentence

    CARSON CITY – The Nevada Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of Henderson killer Robert Lamb, sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole for the murder of his sister.

    The court also denied the petition of Robert Ybarra Jr., who claimed he couldn't be put to death for a killing in White Pine County because he was mentally handicapped.

    Lamb, who was 57 at the time, shot his younger sister, Susan Bivans, eight times in 2004 in the parking lot outside her daughter’s private school, Warren-Walker Elementary School on Windmill Parkway in Henderson. Prosecutors say he was angry because he was left out of the will of his father.

    Lamb maintained he made statements to police before receiving his Miranda rights that he didn't have to talk to authorities. Henderson police asked Lamb if he knew anybody named Susan and he denied that he did. His rights were then given.

    The court declined Thursday to grant the argument that his constitutional rights were violated.

    Lamb also challenged the sufficiency of evidence, a claim the high court rejected.

    Ybarra, now 57, was sentenced to death in 1981 for murder, sexual assault, kidnapping and battery in the death of his girlfriend, 16-year old Nancy Griffin in White Pine County.

    Griffin was taken to the desert outside Ely, raped and set on fire with gasoline. She was found wandering naked in the desert and identified her assailant before she died the next day.

    This is Ybarra’s fourth appeal to the Supreme Court. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a mentally handicapped person can't be executed.

    The court said Ybarra hadn't demonstrated he was mentally handicapped and struck his motion to escape the death penalty.

    http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011...enderson-man-/

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    YBARRA V. MCDANIEL

    In today's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals opinions, Ybarra's petition for federal habeas relief was DENIED.

  5. #5
    It looks as if Nevada may be in line to hold it's first "Non-Volunteer" execution in decades. I've done quite a bit of research on this case though and although Ybarra's appeals technically are exhausted now, I see a few issues that will keep him on death row for quite a few more years

    - Attorneys will try to litigate the lethal injection issue in Nevada

    - Ybarra's mental competency has been an issue in several of his appeals so even if he were to have a scheduled execution, I could see courts reluctant to carry out his death sentence based on this 1 issue

    - Ybarra will try to re-litigate the mental retardation claim with 'new evidence' to support his claims

    All in all, It is Nevada and this state just doesn't carry out involuntary executions. One little claim by the defense, and the execution gets stayed (Unlike in Texas, Virginia, Etc)...

    I see the whole lethal injection issue becoming a big problem in Nevada now to when Ybarra's time nears

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    I wonder if Nevada even has a source of drugs for an execution?

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    At the moment, they don't have the drugs, and the execution chamber isn't up to code.

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    Why do you all think states aren't instituting the firing squad as at least a back-up method? There's obviously no problem procuring guns and bullets. The US Supreme Court, albeit in the 1890s, has sanctioned its use. The protocol would likely require that the firing-squad members will have qualified on the rifle range (police, corrections officers and National Guardsmen could be among those so qualified).

    This lethal-injection morass is absolutely untenable. It's like a whack-a-mole game where as soon as one problem gets resolved, the defense bring up another objection that the courts pay heed to. The firing squad would seem to be a simplification and likelier to avoid endless litigation. However, those capital appellate lawyers are pretty clever!

  9. #9
    I've been saying the exact same thing for so long, except in my case I've supported the use of just bringing back old sparky. This controversy surrounding lethal injection has just gotten way out of hand. The defense will never be happy with any drugs that are used in a L.I. What's also a problem is the fact that states will soon run into a problem acquiring pentobarbitol in the future as the company that produces the drug has banned its use in lethal injections... One way or another, the states with the D.P are going to have to figure something out. If they can just bring back the electric chair, i think it will resolve alot of things. If it gets challenged and upheld by the U.S Supreme Court, there will be nothing any state can do.

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    Unfortunately, Nebraska and Georgia have already declared the electric chair to be cruel and unusual. So, perhaps other states would follow suit. However, I would think a firing squad with five or six marksmen would provide for a quick death. Plus, no state or federal court has ever declared the firing squad's use to be unconstitutional.

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