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Thread: James M. Harrison - Nevada

  1. #1
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    James M. Harrison - Nevada

    January 6, 2010

    Appeals court bars death penalty for Las Vegas killer

    CARSON CITY – In a 2-1 decision, a federal appeals court has ruled that Las Vegas killer James Harrison cannot receive the death penalty as punishment for his fatal 2002 stabbing of a Las Vegas driving instructor.

    Harrison was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Daniel Miller, 58, who owned American Driver Education in Las Vegas at the time of his death.

    Harrison stabbed Miller 128 times and carved a swastika into his back. The prosecution sought the death penalty but the jury could not reach a decision on the penalty.

    Defense lawyers asked District Judge Valerie Adair to question the jury to determine if the members had decided whether aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating material.

    To merit the death penalty the aggravators must outweigh the mitigators.

    Adair refused to allow the questions and declared a mistrial.

    The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that Judge Adair was wrong not to permit the questioning.

    Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who wrote the majority opinion, said: “A jury may have acquitted James Harrison of the death penalty. We will never know because the trial court denied his request to ask the jury two simple questions … We conclude that there was no manifest necessity to declare a mistrial without first polling the jury in order to determine whether Harrison had been acquitted of the death penalty.”

    Reinhardt said reassembling the jury to question them now would not be feasible. And holding a second penalty hearing with the death penalty on the table “would violate the rights guaranteed to Harrison under the Double Jeopardy Clause.”

    Steven Owens of the Clark County District Attorney’s Office said a new penalty hearing would be scheduled without the death penalty as an option. That means Harrison will face either life with or without the possibility of parole.

    Harrison’s companion, Anthony Prentice, was sentenced to life without parole by a different jury. The victim was the roommate of Prentice.

    Judge Procter Hug Jr. agreed with Reinhardt for the majority.

    Judge Barry Silverman wrote a dissent. Silverman argued that Judge Adair “did not abuse her discretion in declaring a mistrial and ordering a new sentencing trial.” He said there “is no court case anywhere holding the constitution requires a state trial judge to ask more specific questions about the status of the jury’s unfinished deliberations in a sentencing matter entrusted to its discretion.”

    http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010...-vegas-killer/

    Opinion here

    http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastor...5/08-16602.pdf

  2. #2
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    Appeals court to reconsider death penalty ruling

    The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has decided to reconsider a ruling of a panel that Las Vegas killer James Harrison can't be sentenced to death.

    A majority of the appeals court decided to re-hear the case decided in January this year in a 2-1 decision by the panel.

    Harrison and Anthony Prentice were charged in 2002 with the murder of Daniel Miller, Prentice's roommate. Harrison stabbed Miller, 58, the owner of American Driver Education, 128 times and carved a swastika on his back.

    They received separate trials and Prentice was sentenced to a life term without the possibility of parole.

    The state sought the death penalty for Harrison, but the jury in the penalty phase couldn't reach a decision on whether the aggravating circumstances outnumbered the mitigating circumstances as required to return a death sentence.

    Two of the jurors said they were deadlocked between life with or without the possibility of parole. Harrison, through his lawyers, asked District Judge Valerie Adair to poll the jury. She denied the request.

    The panel said Adair abused her discretion by denying Harrison's polling request.

    It said the prosecution "may not seek the death penalty at a sentencing retrial and no such penalty may be imposed by the court.” It said seeking the death penalty again would be double jeopardy since the jury did not find there were more aggravating circumstances than mitigating circumstances to warrant the death penalty."

    In an order Friday, the appeals court said a majority of the members have voted to re-hear the case, but it did not give any more details.

    (Source: The Las Vegas Sun)

    Order is here:

    http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastor...0816602ebo.pdf

  3. #3
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    Related Case:

    July 26, 2010

    Prentice murder conviction upheld

    CARSON CITY – Anthony “Popeye” Prentice, serving a life term without parole for the murder of his roommate in Las Vegas, didn’t convince the Nevada Supreme Court that he should be entitled to a new trial.

    The court Monday rejected Prentice’s claims that his attorneys at trial and on his first appeal were both ineffective.

    Prentice complained his trial attorney failed to object to the admission of evidence of Prentice’s racist beliefs and to evidence that he got in a fight while he was in jail.

    He said his attorney on his prior appeal should have argued that he was not read his Miranda rights before he gave a statement to the authorities.

    Prentice, now 26 years old and held at the state prison in Ely, was convicted of first degree murder in the 2002 death of Daniel Miller, 58, the owner of American Driver Education. Miller was stabbed 128 times and had a swastika carved on his back.

    He argued his friend James Harrison, also known as Evil, was the one who killed Miller. Harrison received the death penalty on his conviction. His appeal is now before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

    http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010...iction-upheld/

  4. #4
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    Opinion here

    Killer loses appeal in death penalty case

    In a 6-5 decision, a federal appeals court ruled today that killer James M. Harrison could be subject to the death penalty for the fatal stabbing of a driving instructor in Las Vegas in 2002.

    The court rejected the claim of Harrison that the first sentencing deadlocked on his penalty and another jury couldn't return the death penalty.

    Harrison was convicted of stabbing Daniel Miller 128 times and then drawing a swastika on his back. Miller’s partner in the crime, Anthony Prentice, received a life term without parole from a different jury.

    Miller, 58, was the roommate of Prentice and the victim was also the owner of American Driver Education.

    The jury, after convicting Harrison, deadlocked on the penalty phase. Harrison, through his lawyers, asked to poll the jury to see if they unanimously had rejected the death penalty, but District Judge Valerie Adair rejected the polling request.

    Harrison appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In its first 2-1 ruling the federal appeals court said Adair was wrong and held the state could not seek the death penalty in a new hearing.

    The state was granted its request for reconsideration.

    In the ruling Tuesday the federal appeals court, in a decision written Judge Milan Smith Jr., said Adair didn't abuse her discretion or subject Harrison to “double jeopardy by declining to poll the jury before discharging it because it was unable to reach a verdict.”

    The dissent, written by Judge Sidney R. Thomas, said “By all indications, the jurors in James Harrison’s capital trial had decided to acquit him of the death penalty.”

    He said the jurors informed Adair that they were deadlocked between life with and without parole.

    Thomas said, “We will never know with certainty what the jury would have answered if asked. But we do know this: Harrison’s chance of a likely acquittal on the death penalty left the courthouse with the jurors.”

    Harrison’s penalty hearing is pending.

    http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011...-penalty-case/

  5. #5
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    JAMES HARRISON V. DOUGLAS GILLESPIE

    Today the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals DENIED Harrison a rehearing. The dissenting opinion is included in the 47-page opinion.

  6. #6
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    Appeals court reaffirms decision in Las Vegas death penalty case

    A federal appeals court has reaffirmed its decision that the Clark County district attorney can seek the death penalty for James Harrison, who was convicted in a fatal stabbing in Las Vegas in 2002.

    The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the petition by James Harrison for a future re-hearing.

    Harrison was convicted of stabbing Daniel Miller 128 times and then drawing a swastika on his back. Miller’s partner in the crime, Anthony Prentice, received a life term without parole from a different jury.

    A jury convicted Harrison of first degree murder but deadlocked on whether to give him the death penalty or a life term. Attorneys for Harrison contended that the next penalty hearing could only decide whether to impose life in prison with or without the possibility of parole.

    The appeals court initially ruled in a 2-1 decision that the district attorney’s office could not seek the death penalty in a new hearing, but then the full court voted in February 6-5 to overturn the first decision.

    http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011...vegas-death-p/

  7. #7
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    According to the NAACP, Harrison is no longer on death row.

    http://www.naacpldf.org/files/public...inter_2016.pdf

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