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Thread: Marvin Charles Gabrion II - Federal Death Row

  1. #11
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    US Supreme Court will not hear Gabrion appeal

    WASHINGTON DC (WZZM) -- The US Supreme Court has denied a request to hear a West Michigan man's appeal of his death sentence.

    Marvin Gabrion was sent to death row for killing 19-year-old Rachel Timmerman back in 1997.

    Timmerman's body was found in the Manistee National Forest.

    Since the crime was committed on federal property, the death penalty can be applied.

    Gabrion has filed several appeals, the most recent of which was turned down Monday.

    That doesn't mean he's done fighting. A US district judge in Michigan has appointed Gabrion new lawyers to help him with future appeals.

    http://www.wzzm13.com/story/news/cri...-cert/8496753/

  2. #12
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    Marvin Gabrion, awaiting death penalty, files 'emergency' request for psychiatric exam

    Awaiting the death penalty, Marvin Gabrion is seeking an "emergency" psychiatric review to determine his mental functioning when he killed Rachel Timmerman in 1997, when he stood trial and now.

    His attorneys are seeking an order as part of an "exhaustive claim" to show Gabrion's trial counsel's representation was below the standard required under the law.

    "Mr. Gabrion's mental functioning was a primary focus, and rightly so, at trial," his attorneys wrote. "Mr. Gabrion's current functioning is important to how counsel moves forward in these proceedings and is also relevant as to whether Mr. Gabrion is even competent to be executed ... ."

    They have asked that Gabrion, 61, undergo an evaluation on Wednesday, Feb. 18, at USP Terre Haute, a high-security federal penitentiary in Indiana. A psychiatrist is scheduled to meet with Gabrion but the prison will not reserve a room without a court order, attorneys Scott Graham, Monica Foster and Joseph Cleary wrote.

    The government opposes the motion "for the reason that there is no emergency in this case, and that there is no basis for concluding that a fourth mental assessment is necessary," Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy VerHey wrote in court records.

    He said Gabrion has feigned mental illness in the past in an attempt to avoid responsibility.

    "Gabrion has been exhaustively evaluated by mental health professions," the prosecutor wrote. "He was assessed for competency no fewer than three times during the course of the proceedings before this court, and each time he was found to be competent. In fact, the evaluations concluded that Gabrion was malingering."

    VerHey said the defense wants to use an assessment "apparently to cast doubt upon the efforts of his trial counsel. However, even if (the psychiatrist) determines that Gabrion suffers from some new, previously undiscovered mental condition, that does not translate into a basis for overturning the verdict and sentence," VerHey said.

    A Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals panel earlier overturned the death penalty, but the full court, by a 12-4 vote, affirmed the conviction and sentence.

    Gabrion showed "utter depravity" when he killed Timmerman, 19, in a shallow, remote lake in the Manistee National Forest, the federal appellate court said. He kidnapped her two days before he was to stand trial in Newaygo County for raping her.

    He bound and gagged her, weighed her down with a concrete block, then threw her into the water and she drowned. He also killed her 11-month-old daughter, Shannon Verhage, whose body has not been found, the government says.

    Federal investigators believe he killed three others.

    http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapi...ing_death.html
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  3. #13
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    On April 27, 2015, Gabrion filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/mic...5cv00447/80840

  4. #14
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    Condemned Michigan killer files suit in bid for freedom

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WZZM) – Convicted killer Marvin Gabrion is trying a new tactic to quash his 2002 conviction and death sentence for killing a 19-year-old woman on federal land in Newaygo County.

    In a civil lawsuit filed last week, Michigan's only death row inmate is asking a federal judge to set aside what he calls an illegal sentence for the 1997 murder of Rachel Timmerman. The young mother from Cedar Springs was found in a lake in the Manistee National Forest bound with chains and cinder blocks.

    Gabrion, 61, is on death row at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.

    Unlike other court petitions, Gabrion wants to keep this case sealed due to psychological and personal records that are "highly relevant but sensitive.''

    That doesn't sit well with the U.S. Attorney's Office. It filed a response this week opposing Gabrion's petition to keep the case under wraps.

    "There is no rule or precedent that permits Gabrion's request,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy P. VerHey wrote in the government's response. "The law is decidedly against his request.''

    VerHey's five-page response is the only document available for public inspection in the civil case filed April 27.

    "The Court will recall that, at the time of his conviction and trial, there was much public interest in the case because of, among other things, the rarity of death penalty cases in Michigan,'' VerHey wrote.

    "By claiming that his case was a miscarriage of justice, Gabrion has provided the public with an opportunity to learn more about the process,'' VerHey contends. "Further, the public always has an interest in determining whether its judicial system is working properly. This is especially true in a high-profile case such as this one.''

    Gabrion's attorney, Scott G. Graham of Portage, was not immediately available for comment.

    Gabrion has exhausted all appeals in his criminal case, a voluminous file containing 771 entries over the course of 16 years. Eight defense attorneys have worked on the case since its inception.

    A federal appeals court in Cincinnati four years ago upheld his conviction and death sentence. In April, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would not hear Gabrion's case. Earlier this year, Gabrion filed a request for an emergency psychiatric review. That request was rejected.

    http://www.wzzm13.com/story/news/loc...suit/70889246/

  5. #15
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    Feds urge judge: Don't put cloak over Gabrion appeal

    Federal prosecutors in western Michigan are urging a judge to let the public see recent court filings in a death penalty case.

    Attorneys for Marvin Gabrion want to keep a cover on the latest challenge to his death sentence. There might be references to Gabrion's mental health.

    In 2002, Gabrion was convicted of killing a woman in a national forest in Newaygo County, north of Grand Rapids. He was sentenced to death, a punishment available for murders prosecuted in federal court. He's still fighting the sentence.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim VerHey says the public isn't served when court filings in a well-known case like Gabrion's are kept secret. It's not known when Judge Robert Holmes Bell will make a decision.

    http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/feds-...ppeal/33037344
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  6. #16
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    Awaiting execution, Marvin Gabrion says he deserved mistrial for punching attorney

    GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Marvin Gabrion has asked a federal judge to vacate his death sentence in the 1997 killing of Rachel Timmerman.

    Among the reasons: the trial judge failed to declare a mistrial when Gabrion punched one of his attorneys.

    Gabrion's voluminous filing – 604 pages – asks U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell to grant him a new trial, vacate a jury's guilty verdict for murder, or vacate, set aside or correct his sentence. It also asks that Bell recuse himself and set an evidentiary hearing over what it considers disputed issues.

    Bell presided over Gabrion's trial.

    The government showed that Gabrion kidnapped and killed Timmerman, 19, two days before he was to stand trial in Newaygo County Circuit Court for raping her. Her body was found in a remote lake. She was bound, gagged and weighed down by a concrete block.

    The body of her 11-month-old daughter, Shannon Verhage, has never been found. The government believes he killed her as well as three others. The federal government, which allows use of the death penalty, prosecuted Gabrion because the killing occurred on federal land.

    State law in Michigan does not allow executions.

    His attorneys say in motion filed Friday, May 29, that he should not be executed because he has suffered severe mental illness for decades. They also say he was provided ineffective assistance of counsel at trial.

    Gabrion, 61, recently asked that he be allowed to file his Section 2255 motion under seal. The judge said that only sensitive information about third-parties could be redacted.

    Gabrion has filed numerous appeals over the years. A federal appeals panel once overturned his death penalty but the entire Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati re-instated the sentence.

    Among questions Gabrion's three attorney cite as grounds for a new trial or sentence:

    • Did the grand jury allege an aggravating circumstance to make Gabrion eligible for the death penalty?

    • Was there insufficient proof to show Timmerman's killing happened on federal land?

    • Whether the judge erred by refusing to relieve one of Gabrion's attorneys and declare a mistrial after he punched the lawyer during the penalty phase of proceedings.

    • Whether the judge erred in refusing a defense request for another competency evaluation "after a neurologist testified that Mr. Gabrion was brain damaged and after Mr. Gabrion's mental state deteriorated during the trial to the point that he punched his attorney in front of the jury during the penalty phase."

    • Whether the court wrongly denied Gabrion's attempt to confront a Newaygo County prosecutor about a report that alleged "prosecutorial misconduct and evidence of a vendetta against Mr. Gabrion."

    • Whether the judge should have instructed the jury about Gabrion's courtroom behavior or allow argument about it.

    • Whether witnesses should have been allowed to testify during the penalty phase of trial about other bad acts by Gabrion.

    • Whether evidence should have been allowed that three men with connections to Gabrion had disappeared.

    • Whether the victim's mother should have been allowed to testify that she wanted Gabrion executed.

    • Whether Gabrion's rights were denied because the jury foreman told The Grand Rapids Press after the sentencing that "I knew he was off the wall before the trial."

    http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapi...rvin_gabr.html

  7. #17
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    When will teen's killer, Marvin Gabrion, be executed?

    Tim Timmerman remembers the day nearly two decades ago when he walked for hours inside the old General Motors plant on 36th Street SW. He was unable to speak. Unable to do anything, really, but pace the shop floor.

    He'd picked up a newspaper at work and read the description of an unidentified drowning victim whose body had been pulled from a lake up north. He knew it had to be his daughter, Rachel Timmerman. The 19-year-old had been missing for more than a month, along with her infant daughter.

    When Tim Timmerman's shift ended that day, he punched out at 10:30 p.m. He didn't say a word to anyone. He didn't call the police. He didn't tell his boss.

    It's hard to explain why. Things just happen this way when your world is collapsing.

    Police showed up the next day. "We're so sorry, Mr. Timmerman ... ."

    But they couldn't tell him what he needed to know.

    "'Where's my granddaughter?' That was the big question. (Rachel had) left with Shannon. 'Where's Shannon?'"

    No one knew.

    It has been nearly 20 years since Marvin Gabrion killed Rachel Timmerman - and presumably her daughter - to prevent the teen from testifying at Gabrion's rape trial in Newaygo County. Details of the gruesome killing shocked the West Michigan community. The young mother was bound and gagged, her body weighted with concrete blocks. She was thrown while still alive into a weedy lake in the Manistee National Forest, where she drowned.

    In the lengthy legal maze that has followed, the focus has shifted from why Rachel was murdered, to how long Gabrion, 63, will linger on death row. There's no push to execute him. Experts say the long wait times for prisoners like him are part of a "major climate change" in how the U.S. treats inmates who have been marked to die.

    A federal jury in 2002 sentenced Gabrion to death. He responded with an aggressive legal battle to spare his life and get a new trial - a legal fight he's still waging.

    While Michigan law does not allow the death penalty, Gabrion was tried under federal law - which permits juries to sentence killers to death - after prosecutors showed the killing happened on federal land.

    Gabrion has already lost his direct appeals but is pursuing a "collateral attack," a civil process alleging violations of the U.S. Constitution, in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids.

    The losing side is certain to appeal to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which previously noted "the utter depravity of the manner in which (Gabrion) killed (Timmerman)," and a possible hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has previously refused to hear Gabrion's case.

    His appeals could end relatively quickly. But it does not necessarily mean Gabrion will be executed any time soon.

    A Drop in Death Sentences and Executions

    Overall, federal executions account for a small slice of those put to death for their crimes. Since 1927, 37 federal prisoners have been executed.

    Since 1988, when the federal death penalty was re-instated after a 16-year moratorium, only three death-row prisoners have been put to death by the U.S. government.

    One of them, Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, was executed five years later. He'd dropped efforts to appeal his case.

    The last federal execution was in 2003. These numbers have made headlines in the last week when white supremacist Dylann Roof, 22, was sentenced to death by a federal jury after killing nine black members of a South Carolina church.

    Nationwide, the number of death sentences and executions handed down by states reached historic declines in 2016, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

    Last year's 30 new state and federal death sentences came after a 40-year low of 49 in 2015. The 20 state executions in 2016 were the lowest in a quarter century, the center said in a recent annual report.

    The center said that 31 states permit the death penalty but four - Colorado, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington - currently have moratoriums in place.

    Nineteen states and the District of Columbia do not allow executions.

    "America is in the midst of a major climate change concerning capital punishment," said Robert Dunham, the death penalty center's executive director.

    "Whether it's concerns about innocence, costs, and discrimination, availability of life without parole as a safe alternative, or the questionable way in which states are attempting to carry out executions, the public grows increasingly uncomfortable with the death penalty each year."

    Gabrion's Long Journey to Death Row

    Michael Dettmer, a former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, opposed the death penalty for Gabrion, in large part because of the expected costs to taxpayers defending Gabrion for decades. Gabrion's attorneys specialize in death-penalty cases.

    Dettmer, appointed by President Bill Clinton, was in office from 1993 to 2001. When he left, prosecutors decided to seek the death penalty. He felt no sympathy for the defendant.

    "He was a despicable character."

    He guessed that Gabrion's legal fight against the death penalty has already cost about $3 million.

    "I opposed the death penalty because I thought exactly this was going to happen: You'd have 20 to 25 years of spending millions of dollars to put the guy away," Dettmer said.

    "I think people like Mr. Gabrion should be locked away for life and let them think about it. ... Let him suffer in some prison. (With execution), the suffering is done. They're not sitting in hell thinking about the crime. It's over."

    The U.S. Attorney General determines whether defendants in federal cases face the death penalty. Local prosecutors make recommendations.

    Dettmer met with then-U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno in what he called "one of the most rigorous meetings I've ever had in Washington. I didn't make Ms. Reno very happy."

    She deferred the decision to her deputy, James Robinson, who decided against seeking the death penalty.

    "The big issue, in my view, is Michigan is a non-death-penalty state, and ... the question of where the crime took place," on federal or state land.

    The decision to seek the death penalty for Gabrion came after President George W. Bush took office in 2001 and appointed John Ashcroft his Attorney General. Margaret Chiara was named U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan.

    "I can't tell you what the inter-office politics were, but obviously ... it was changed," Dettmer said.

    After Rachel Timmerman's killing, prosecutors did not rush to try Gabrion for that crime because he was serving five years in prison for taking a missing man's Social Security benefits, authorities said.

    Gabrion was convicted in Timmerman's killing in 2002.

    Former U.S. Attorney Donald Davis, who helped Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy VerHey try the Gabrion case, said legal efforts by Gabrion and others show they fear the death penalty. They consider it a harsher punishment than life in prison without parole.

    In this case, Gabrion would face the certainty of his own imminent death, just as Rachel Timmerman did when she was bound and drowned in that remote Newaygo County lake.

    With the exception of those like McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who halted appeals, "people on death row don't want to be executed," Davis said.

    "Bad Crimes, Bad People"

    It's hard to guess when Gabrion's death sentence might be carried out, Davis said.

    A flurry of last-minute appeals, for whatever reason, are common in these cases. And that's after a lengthy process in the beginning to put the death penalty into play.

    Davis said seeking the death penalty for Gabrion wasn't a difficult call. There are defendants who commit crimes but aren't necessarily bad people.

    "But sometimes, the two things come together: Bad crimes, bad people," Davis said.

    VerHey, who prosecuted the case, has also handled the appeals. He said Gabrion's civil appeal is his last chance to try to overturn his conviction. The losing side will certainly go to the federal appellate court, he said.

    It could be Gabrion's last stop if he's unsuccessful. The Supreme Court has "already taken a position on the direct appeal," VerHey said. "I think I can safely say in any death penalty case, it's going to take a long time from the jury decision to when the sentence is actually carried out," he said.

    He expects a decision soon on the civil appeal, but it was uncertain if Judge Robert Holmes Bell, who is retiring at the end of the month, would act on a 604-page defense brief asking for a new trial or to have his death sentence vacated.

    The defense has asked that Bell recuse himself based on his comments to MLive and The Grand Rapids Press and WOOD TV-8 about the Gabrion case in stories about his upcoming retirement.

    Bell has said that Gabrion, held in a high-security federal penitiary in Terre Haute, Ind., is in the "right place," and agreed that Gabrion is "evil."

    After 42 years on the bench, Bell is considered the dean of judges in West Michigan. Federal prosecutors would not support the motion to recuse.

    Bell said in an earlier interview: "I think we have a movement in the United States to not execute these people. I'm not advocating one way or another. At a certain point, it becomes a political question."

    The defense also filed a 152-page document that describes how Gabrion's family tree is beset by mental illness, substance abuse and "chaotic" home environments.

    "Marvin did not escape this family tree unscathed," a defense report said.

    The defense challenged whether the killing happened on federal land - arguing Timmerman may have been killed elsewhere - and questioned whether the jury found aggravating circumstances to make Gabrion eligible for the death penalty. It said Bell, the trial judge, should have declared a mistrial when Gabrion punched one of his attorneys in front of jurors during the penalty phase.

    Defense attorneys dispute whether details about the disappearance of three men with connections to Gabrion should have been allowed at trial. They say his rights were denied because the jury foreman told The Grand Rapids Press after sentencing that "I knew he was off the wall before the trial."

    A Teen Mom Goes Missing

    Gabrion abducted Timmerman on June 3, 1997, bound and gagged her, then weighted her body with concrete blocks before he threw her, alive, from an old metal boat into Oxford Lake where she drowned, prosecutors say.

    Her body was found the next month in the shallow, weedy lake in the national forest.

    Police were suspicious because she disappeared two days before Gabrion was to stand trial for raping her in August 1996.

    When a detective showed up at Tim Timmerman's house and asked why his daughter had not shown up for trial, it was then he knew Rachel and her 11-month-old daughter were missing.

    Tim Timmerman said he had just gotten a letter from her. It said she was fine and had met the "man of her dreams," he said. She said the man's name was Delbert, which was strange.

    "She had written it under duress, I'm sure. It was postmarked Cedar Springs, saying she was fine."

    His daughter, he says, was "trying hard to be a good mom." He has a favorite photo on his dining room wall of his daughter smiling, holding her little girl.

    He recalled telling the prosecutors during the case that they could take the death penalty off the table if Gabrion would tell them where his granddaughter was.

    "He refused to talk."

    He long ago gave up hope that Shannon was still alive, a sentiment not entirely shared by family.

    On the fourth and fifth anniversaries of his daughter's death, he would wonder if Shannon would show up for kindergarten somewhere.

    "I was optimistic in the beginning."

    Now, he says: "Gabrion killed her. Gabrion got rid of her. I don't think I have any hope of him telling me what he did with Shannon. The time for that was in Grand Rapids during the trial."

    Timmerman does not spend time thinking about Gabrion. He knows his daughter's killer won't leave prison alive.

    He has access to court filings that detail the case, but he doesn't bother. He knows what he needs to know.

    Once, Gabrion managed to get past prison security and mail a letter to him.

    "It was 10 pages or more of his bulls---, derogatory of the U.S. attorneys. Crazy ramblings."

    Timmerman remembers the last time he saw his daughter and granddaughter. Rachel and Shannon were going to go to dinner with a young man, John Weeks. They were only supposed to be gone for a couple of hours.

    Timmerman, who had just taken pain medication after breaking his finger, did not meet Weeks.

    "So there was a lot of guilt there. Parents are supposed to meet the guy their daughter leaves with," he said.

    As it turned out, Weeks acted at Gabrion's urging, authorities said. Weeks was last seen in June 1997.

    Two other Gabrion associates - Wayne Davis, a witness in Gabrion's sexual assault case, and Robert Allen, a mentally disabled Kent County man whose Social Security checks were taken by Gabrion - both went missing before Rachel Timmerman died.

    Tim Timmerman said he does not hate Gabrion. He can't live that way. His daughter would want him to enjoy life.

    But if Gabrion is put to death, "I would go to Terre Haute to view it. I would go witness it."

    http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapi...er_marvin.html
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  8. #18
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    Once 'near genius,' Marvin Gabrion's path to death row marked by abuse, mental illness, violence

    Death-row inmate Marvin Gabrion may have been born into poverty, abuse and neglect. But in his early years, he showed promise, having a strong intellect and tender side for others.

    He routinely helped elderly family, and cared for a cousin with mild mental disabilities while others shied away.

    Described by a classmate as "very smart - near genius," he had an IQ of 121, which is at the lower end of the "very superior intelligence" category.

    These descriptions and more are outlined in an incredibly detailed report, now filed with the court, that examines Gabrion's life and family stretching back four generations. It includes sobering vignettes about mental illness, mental and physical abuse, poverty, substance abuse and violence.

    It's being used by his attorneys in Gabrion's quest to set aside his death penalty and conviction stemming from the murder of Rachel Timmerman, 19, of Cedar Springs, who was bound and drowned in 1997 before she could testify against Gabrion at a rape trial.

    Despite his smarts, Gabrion didn't want to act like he was better than anyone else, the report said. Mostly, he was a loner, though he did stand up for other kids getting picked on. He stayed out of trouble. His presence in the school lunchroom could easily go unnoticed.

    He was a miler on the track team. He wasn't the fastest - his best time was 5 minutes, 16 seconds - but he worked hard and helped the team. He had a young niece and nephew who adored him.

    After he graduated from high school, he began a downward slide. He suffered an incredible number of head injuries, and struggled with mental illness and substance abuse.

    His behavior became increasingly bizarre.

    Now 63, Gabrion, is awaiting execution for the slaying of Timmerman, a teenage mom who'd accused him of rape the year before.

    While Michigan law does not allow capital punishment, he was convicted under federal law - which allows executions - after prosecutors showed the young woman was slain on federal land in Newaygo County.

    With his direct appeals exhausted, Gabrion has filed a civil procedure, or "collateral attack," seeking a new trial or sentence.

    As part of that, his attorneys filed the 152-page document that examines Gabrion's life.

    One of his three attorneys, Scott Graham of Portage, asked that the investigative report on Gabrion's family - extending from his parents to grandchildren of his cousins - be filed under seal because it contains highly sensitive personal information.

    However, Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy VerHey, who tried the case in 2002, said court records are presumed to be open. Filing the documents under seal would prevent public access to the Gabrion's arguments seeking to set aside his conviction and death sentence.

    U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell agreed. He said Gabrion's case has drawn significant public interest.

    "Gabrion's collateral attack on his conviction and sentence raises numerous issues, including whether he received a fair trial, whether he received effective assistance of counsel, whether the death penalty is fairly administered, and whether his execution would violate the Eight Amendment (as cruel and unusual) in light of his mental illness and organic brain impairments," the judge said.

    He said Gabrion's attorneys could redact names, which was not done.

    "Marvin did not escape this family tree unscathed."

    Gabrion, the fifth of six children, was born into a "family plagued by poverty" near Newaygo County's Round Lake.

    Their father, who had a rocky relationship with their mother, questioned whether he was the biological father of all of the kids, the report said.

    "To understand what catapulted him off his life's trajectory, it is important to know the many risk factors that were at play in his genetic and environmental make-up," the report said. "Several of Marvin's relatives suffer from mental illness, substance abuse and chaotic environments. Marvin did not escape this family tree unscathed."

    The report said Gabrion's father gave his children "lickings," and once beat Marvin Gabrion's head into a wall until a brother rescued him.

    When he was 4, Marvin Gabrion had to box an older brother as the rest of the family cheered them on, the report said.

    Marvin Gabrion said that as a child, he did not get the same quality of clothes as his siblings, so he would steal them. "My mother would beat me up in stores when I asked for clothes," he said.

    When he was about 12, two brothers held him down and "tried to smash his head with a large rock. Around that time, a brother fired a gun at him, the report said.

    "When the family was short of money, Marvin Sr. complained they should have sold Marvin."

    The family lived in a small cabin built by the father. The six children shared a bedroom partitioned by curtains.

    They later moved to White Cloud. That house was described as "disgusting," with chickens and turkeys wandering inside and out.

    A classmate recalled that Marvin Gabrion's shoes were two or three sizes too big, and split down the back. He had holes in his socks.

    "Marvin was dirty and kids made fun of him," the report said. "The classmate felt bad for Marvin (and a brother), and tried to stop kids from teasing them. Marvin's whole family was dirty."

    An "astonishing number" of brain injuries

    The report said Gabrion's mother, Elaine, encouraged drug use by her children, and was busted trying to smuggle marijuana into jail for a son in 1980. She also taught her grandchildren to steal, the report said.

    Meanwhile, Gabrion was being treated for bipolar disorder.

    After he graduated from high school, Gabrion suffered an "astonishing number" of brain injuries in up to 14 car or motorcycle crashes. He went through the windshield more than once. Once, during a carjacking, he was hit in the head with an object.

    A family friend hit Gabrion in the head with a baseball bat during a fight.

    The head injuries took a toll, the report said.

    He had trouble with everyday tasks. Tests showed he was in the "border-line range for a possible organic mental disorder ...," the report said.

    Gabrion had lived in Arizona for a time in the 1970s. When he returned in 1979, his family noticed that he had "changed." He was "suspicious" and "acting paranoid."

    He also drank excessively.

    He frequented a bar where an in-law worked. Invariably, he would end up in a confrontation.

    "Marvin would ... one by one ... piss off everyone in the bar ... it happened all the time," she said.

    An evaluation in 1993 found "dramatic cognitive and behavioral impairments," the report said.

    He was homeless, sometimes living on a roof on South Division Avenue, or in a shed in Comstock Park. His aggressive behavior got him thrown out of a shelter.

    In 1996, he attended a high-school reunion where he was "completely nuts," a classmate told investigators.

    He had a pencil mustache and had changed the pronunciation of his name.

    By that time, he had racked up nine arrests for drunken driving. He got "even crazier" while drinking, the report said.

    After he was arrested for Timmerman's killing, he wrote odd letters, in what sometimes appeared to be "indecipherable code."

    He wrote the judge, prosecutors, the victim's family, penned letters to executed Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, and the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, despite pleas by his attorneys to stop.

    He tried to kill himself and heard voices, the report said. He attacked his attorney, in front of the jury, during the sentencing phase of his trial.

    "During more than 15 years of incarceration and for about 40 years in total, Marvin Gabrion has behaved like a man suffering from severe mental illness," the report said.

    http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapi...in_gabrio.html
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  9. #19
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    Teen murder victim's family finds solace as foster parents

    By John Agar
    mlive.com

    CEDAR SPRINGS, MI - After his daughter was killed and his granddaughter disappeared, Tim Timmerman's home turned silent.

    The change was too much to bear in a place that once was so full of life.

    Rachel Timmerman, 19, and her daughter, Shannon Verhage, 11 months, had lived with Timmerman and his wife, Lyn. Shannon took her first steps in their living room.

    But Marvin Gabrion, now a death-row inmate suspected in five killings, broke apart their family in June 1997, when he killed Rachel Timmerman to prevent her from testifying against him for rape, and presumably killed her infant daughter.

    He bound and gagged the young woman, who was still alive when he threw her into Oxford Lake in a remote area of Newaygo County. Because the lake is on federal property, it allowed prosecution under federal law - and the death penalty.

    State law in Michigan does not allow the death penalty.

    Tim Timmerman said he and his wife decided that Gabrion wouldn't take any more lives. Despite their grief, they became foster parents a year after the tragedy.

    It changed everything.

    They cared for newborns and young children, among the dozen to share their home over the years. They loved to hear the sounds of kids playing.

    At one point, they took in three siblings, ages 4, 5, and 8. The couple felt overwhelmed at times, but it helped them as much as it did the children.

    Later, when the oldest of those siblings, a boy, turned 16, he showed up in their driveway. He had just gotten his driver's license. He wanted to say thanks.

    "It was pretty cool," Tim Timmerman told The Grand Rapids Press and MLive, in an interview at the Cedar Springs home he and his wife have shared for 25 years.

    He credits his wife with spending the most time with the foster children.

    "They liked us, I don't know why. It was the coolest time," he said.

    Timmerman, whose 19-year-old son with special needs died in 2006, said he has learned to accept loss. He's had no choice, really.

    "There's nothing worse than losing a child, much less a grandchild," he said.

    It took him a long time to find his equilibrium after his daughter's murder. He would be troubled when other parents got mad and yelled at their kids. "Stop it," he would think. Children are precious.

    "The best way I can explain it is, it was very painful and very traumatic. I loved her. She would want us to be happy.

    "I mean, it's sad. We all like to see our kids reach their full potential. It could've been anybody's kid. Acceptance is, by far, the most helpful thing."

    To that end, he's gone to the lake where his daughter died. It's not easy to find. But once you get there, it's a peaceful place.

    "I do not associate it with my daughter's last moments on earth. It's gorgeous, in the middle of nowhere."

    http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapi...im_rachel.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

  10. #20
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    Death-row inmate Marvin Gabrion 'actively delusional,' no help to attorneys

    GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Attorneys for death-row inmate Marvin Gabrion contend he is incompetent and unable to help challenge his murder conviction and death sentence.

    Gabrion has filed a civil appeal in U.S. District Court in the 1997 killing of Rachel Timmerman, 19, of Cedar Springs.

    He is also suspected of killing her 11-month-old daughter, Shannon, whose body wasn't found, and three of his associates.

    His attorneys filed a detailed report that looks at Gabrion's life and four generations of his family. It includes stories of mental illness, abuse, poverty, violence and substance abuse. Gabrion's attorneys asked for a stay in proceedings and a hearing to determine his competence.

    They have also sought recusal of the trial judge, U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell. The case will likely fall to another judge, anyway, because Bell is retiring.

    The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has found Gabrion severely mentally ill but not incompetent.

    His attorneys say he is incompetent now and was at trial.

    Gabrion "has a long history of severe mental illness" that "may have deteriorated over the last 15 years while he has been housed on death row. His condition has certainly not improved," his attorneys, Scott Graham of Portage, and Monica Foster and Joseph Cleary, both of Indianapolis, wrote in documents.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer McManus opposed the motion for a competency hearing, the attorneys said.

    The government says Gabrion killed Timmerman two days before she was to testify that he raped her in 1996. She was bound to cinderblocks then thrown into Oxford Lake, a remote Newaygo County lake on federal land.

    Michigan does not allow the death penalty but federal prosecutors convinced the jury the killing happened on federal land, thus allowing the federal death penalty.

    Gabrion's attorneys said he is unable to assist them with his appeals unless his competency is restored with medication. When will teen's killer, Marvin Gabrion, be executed? They say it would be an "abuse of discretion" to deny Gabrion a hearing because the issue of his competence has not undergone an adversarial hearing.

    "Mr. Gabrion behaved bizarrely during the run up to the trial and during trial itself," his attorneys wrote.

    "His peculiar conduct has continued unabated in the 15 years since he was sentenced to death. His mentally ill conduct did not begin with the events described at trial. Mr. Gabrion behaved erratically for decades prior to Ms. Timmerman's death."

    The attorneys said there were reports at trial that Gabrion was faking mental illness to help his criminal case. His trial attorney reported "difficulty communicating" with him.

    It was "a refrain that would haunt this case to its conclusion," Gabrion's attorneys said.

    Despite the concerns, the trial attorney did not insist on a hearing to test government witnesses' conclusions, his appellate attorneys said. The trial attorney sought a competency evaluation but a neuropsychologist and a forensic psychologist concluded he was "competent and malingering even though some bizarre behavior was noted ... ."

    At trial, Gabrion whispered loudly, was very agitated, belched and was told repeatedly by his attorney and judge to be quiet.

    Gabrion ignored his attorney's advice and took the witness stand where he declared: "I am the speaker of the truth."

    His testimony veered into irrelevant tangents.

    When the penalty phase began, Gabrion punched his attorney in the face as jurors looked on.

    The judge noted that Gabrion's competency was "one of great concern to this court," but denied a request then for a competency examination, records showed.

    Gabrion returned to court after 25 witnesses testified.

    Then, he said: "I'm sorry to be represented by evil shysters in a kangaroo court in a prostitute evil nation that murders its babies by abortion. And I'll be quiet because I'm forced to just as if I was in Nazi Germany. Thank you." He spent the last day of the penalty phase with his head on the defense table, sleeping.

    Then, he again testified against his attorney's advice and went on odd rants. He told jurors he would be "fine" with whatever punishment they handed out.

    He didn't care because he had been depressed over the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, he said.

    He speaks nearly every day with the Indiana Federal Community Defenders' Office but refuses to talk about his case.

    "He is consumed with topics having nothing to do with his litigation and that is all he will discuss with counsel," his attorneys said.

    "He's actively delusional."

    They said he was not always this way. Despite chaos and poverty growing up, he was described as a "tenderhearted" boy who looked after family and stood up for kids being bullied. He ran track and liked to play chess.

    The trouble started after high school, when his behavior turned bizarre, his attorneys said.

    His attorneys say a forensic psychiatrist would testify that Gabrion is incompetent. His competence could be restored with psychiatric medication but that is not the goal of the Terre Haute, Indiana, prison where he is housed.

    "The process that leads to the execution of a citizen by the government must bear the hallmarks of due process," his attorneys wrote.

    "Mr. Gabrion's trial conduct was bizarre. Though the government claimed he was malingering mental illness for the purpose of influencing these proceedings, Mr. Gabrion did nothing to try to save his own life and much to destroy any chance of a life sentence."

    His attorneys say they need "nondelusional input" from Gabrion to assist in his appeals.

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    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

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