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Thread: Marvin Charles Gabrion II - Federal Death Row

  1. #21
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Prosecutors oppose competency exam for death-row inmate Marvin Gabrion

    GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Federal prosecutors oppose a defense request that condemned killer Marvin Gabrion undergo a competency evaluation.

    His attorneys contend he is incompetent and unable to assist in proceedings.

    Gabrion's mental-health status has been an issue from the start of his case until now.

    He was convicted in the 1997 killing of Rachel Timmerman, 19, of Cedar Springs.

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

    Gabrion has exhausted criminal appeals but has filed a civil challenge to his conviction and sentence.

    Federal prosecutors say Gabrion has no legal right to competency evaluations in the civil appeal.

    "His conduct before and during the trial caused the district court to order three competency evaluations," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer McManus wrote in court records.

    "Each time he was found not only competent, but a malingerer; five other mental health professionals would later agree. Gabrion's motion merely asserts that he is exhibiting the same type of erratic behavior; it does not identify a diagnosis, a course of proposed treatment, or attach a declaration of a mental health professional.

    "Moreover, Gabrion's current counsel have not shown his claims could substantially benefit from his assistance," McManus wrote.

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

    Because Timmerman's body was found in a lake on federal property, Gabrion was tried in federal court, which allows juries to sentence defendants to death.

    His attorneys filed a comprehensive report that examined Gabrion and four generations of his family. It looked at instances of mental illness, abuse, poverty, violence and substance abuse.

    His attorneys say he was incompetent at trial, and his condition hasn't improved during his stay on death row. His attorneys say he should undergo an adversarial hearing - which wasn't demanded by his trial attorney - to determine his level of competency, records said.

    Gabrion killed Timmerman two days before she was to testify that he raped her in 1996.

    She was bound to cinderblocks and thrown into Oxford Lake, a remote area in Newaygo County.

    Gabrion's bizarre behavior was on full display at trial: he whispered loudly, became agitated, belched and had to be told repeatedly by his attorney and the judge to be quiet.

    On the witness stand, he declared: "I am the speaker of the truth."

    During the penalty stage, he punched his attorney in the face in front of jurors.

    Gabrion's filing asks for his conviction or sentence be vacated, or to receive a new trial.

    His attorneys have sought a stay to hold a hearing on his competency.

    They describe him as "actively delusional," and said his competency could be restored with medication.

    https://www.google.com/amp/amp.mlive...competency.amp
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  2. #22
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Judge denies Marvin Gabrion's latest appeal

    24 Hours News 8

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — One of the last chances for Michigan's only inmate on death row to avoid execution has been struck down.

    In a 216-page response filed last week, a federal judge in West Michigan denied Marvin Gabrion's latest appeal.

    In that appeal, Gabrion claimed some of what the jury heard was false or misleading, that his attorneys were ineffective and that the government didn't disclose some evidence that could have helped his case.

    He also claimed the death penalty was unconstitutionally applied in his case, in part because he is white and in part because he says he is mentally ill.

    Judge Robert Jonker said the appeal had no merit and that parts of it didn't meet procedural requirements. Jonker also rejected Gabrion's request to have a competency hearing, to have a psychiatrist visit him, to file some documents under restricted access and to fire his lawyer.

    Gabrion was convicted in 2002 of killing 19-year-old Rachel Timmerman in 1997. Authorities say she was still alive when he bound her, weighed her down with cinder blocks and dumped her in a lake near Big Rapids.

    At the time, Gabrion was awaiting trial for Timmerman's rape. She and her 11-month-old daughter Shannon Verhage are among five people he is suspected of killing to get rid of them.

    Michigan does not have the death penalty. But because Timmerman's body was found on federal property in the Manistee National Forest, Gabrion's case was handled at the federal level, which does have capital punishment. Over the course of several appeals, higher courts have overturned his sentence and then reinstated it.

    Now 64, he is being held at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

    https://www.woodtv.com/news/michigan...eal/1508070641

  3. #23
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    On death row, Marvin Gabrion plans appeal in woman's 1997 killing

    By John Agar
    MLive.com

    GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Condemned killer Marvin Gabrion filed notice he would appeal a federal judge's ruling rejecting his multiple, long-running allegations of mistreatment by the justice system.

    Gabrion, 65, is awaiting the death penalty in the 1997 killing of Rachel Timmerman, 19.

    He is also suspected of killing her 11-month-old daughter, Shannon, whose body was never found, and three others.

    Gabrion, who has already exhausted direct appeals, has waged a "collateral attack," a civil process that alleges violations of the U.S. Constitution, in an attempt to vacate his conviction and sentence or get a new trial.

    He wanted to depose attorneys, prosecutors, FBI agents, mental-health experts, a forensic pathologist, state police and others and examine evidence and records used to convict him. His attorneys provided an extraordinary report looking at four generations of his family's history, including mental illness, substance abuse and "chaotic" home environments.

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

    He has filed notice to appeal a ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker in Grand Rapids to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

    Jonker rejected Gabrion's claims that Gabrion's incompetence, ineffective counsel, false or misleading evidence, lying witnesses and other issues led to his wrongful conviction.

    "The evidence of Gabrion's guilt and of the aggravating factors in support of his sentence are overwhelming," Jonker wrote in a 216-page opinion.

    "His trial attorneys provided admirable assistance in the face of this evidence, despite Gabrion's uncooperative and unpredictable behavior. .. the evidence of Gabrion's guilt is so strong.. ."

    The government says Gabrion, awaiting trial accused of raping Timmerman, killed her to prevent her from testifying against him. She was bound and gagged, chained to concrete blocks, and thrown from an old, metal boat into a weedy, muddy lake in the Manistee National Forest

    She was alive when she was put into Oxford Lake and drowned. Her body was recovered about a month after her early June 1997, killing.

    She disappeared two days before Gabrion was to stand trial for raping her in August 1996

    Gabrion was sentenced to death by a jury in 2002. Michigan law does not allow the death penalty but Gabrion was tried under federal law after the prosecution showed the killing happened on federal land.

    The federal appellate court has previously cited the "the utter depravity of the manner in which (Gabrion) killed (Timmerman)." The U.S. Supreme Court has refused previous request to hear his case.

    Gabrion is held in a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where most condemned prisoners stay. His execution is anything but certain. Since 1988, when the federal penalty was re-instated after a 16-year moratorium, only three on death row have been put to death.

    Among them: Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He did not challenge the sentence.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy VerHey says Gabrion's challenge to the appellate court could be his last legal avenue.

    The government said John Weeks, at Gabrion's urging, convinced Timmerman to go to dinner with him. She brought her daughter. They soon went missing. Weeks also went missing. So did Wayne Davis, a witness to the sexual assault, and Robert Allen, a mentally disabled Kent County man whose Social Security checks were stolen by Gabrion.

    For many years, Gabrion tried to get U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell to recuse himself, including when Bell told MLive/Grand Rapids Press in 2016 that Gabrion "is in the right place" on death row. Bell would not recuse himself. He retired at the end of 2016 and Jonker took the case.

    In a strongly worded opinion, Jonker rejected Gabrion's claims. Many of them have been litigated, at length, over the years.

    "Furthermore, in the Court's own judgment, the death penalty is not automatically an excessive punishment for all criminally responsible people who have some form of mental illness," Jonker wrote.

    "In this case, all the evidence before the Court indicates that Gabrion is unwilling to cooperate with counsel, not that he is unable to do so. Gabrion's current counsel assert that '(e)fforts to discus (Gabrion's) case are met with derision and anger,' and that Gabrion is 'consumed with topics having nothing to do with this litigation and that is all he will discuss with counsel. He is actively delusional,'" the judge wrote.

    Those are "virtually identical" observations of trial attorneys, the judge said.

    He was "always hostile" to his attorneys. During the sentencing phase, he punched an attorney, which he later contended should have served as grounds for a mistrial.

    The judge said Gabrion filed "an exhaustive list of challenges" to the criminal proceedings but none had merit.

    He also wants to represent himself now, saying his attorneys "are in a conspiracy with an 'Obama crime syndicate,'' and he has been "proven innocent through DNA evidence," the judge said.

    Jonker said that Timmerman "made it clear to others that she was terrified that Gabrion would kill her. At one point, she stopped by a friend's house, closed the curtains, and stated repeatedly that Gabrion was going to kill her because of the rape case," Jonker wrote.

    She had called police twice to report seeing Gabrion in an effort to leave a "trail" in case he followed through on a threat to kill her, the judge said.

    "Rachel's fear was justified."

    https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rap...abrion_pl.html
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  4. #24
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    Michigan has one person on federal death row list as executions resume after 17 years

    After 17 years, the United States executed two federal death row prisoners by lethal injection this week, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

    The U.S. also plans to complete the execution of inmate Dustin Lee Honken, who is convicted of multiple offenses including five counts of murder. His execution is scheduled for Friday.

    The only person from Michigan on the list of federal death row prisoners is Marvin Gabrion II. Gabrion was sentenced to death in 2002 in the 1997 murder of Rachel Timmerman, who had accused him of rape.

    Even though the death penalty was abolished in Michigan in 1847, Gabrion committed this crime on federal land. Here's a look at what happened and what to possibly expect in the future.

    What happened?

    Just days before Gabrion was set to stand trial on the rape accusation, Timmerman, 19, and her 18-month-old daughter went missing. Timmerman's body was found in a lake, with cinder blocks weighing her down. The 18-month-old daughter was never found.

    Will he be executed?

    The Federal Bureau of Prisons adopted an addendum to federal execution protocol after being directed by U.S. Attorney General William Barr. This would allow for the death penalty to occur by the federal government.

    No further updates have been provided about Gabrion's execution, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons says to check their website for further updates.

    Following Honken, the next execution will not take place until Aug, 28. This will take place for Keith Dwayne Nelson, who pleaded guilty to a 1999 kidnapping and "unlawful interstate transportation of a child for the purpose of sexual abuse which resulted in death," according to his offender information.

    https://www.freep.com/story/news/loc...on/5452829002/
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  5. #25
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    On September 10, 2020, Gabrion was GRANTED a COA on four claims by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/federal...020-09-10.html
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  6. #26
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    Senior Judge Merritt (Carter) and Judge Moore (Clinton) voted to grant the COAs, while Senior Judge Batchelder (G.H.W. Bush) dissented.

  7. #27
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Halt of federal executions could spare Michigan killer

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The U.S. attorney general announced a moratorium on the federal death penalty on Thursday after a rush of executions during the Trump administration.

    At first blush, that shouldn’t mean much in Michigan, which was the first English-speaking government in the world to ban capital punishment.

    But in one case, it could mean life or death.

    Marvin Gabrion Jr., now 67, has been on death row for nearly 20 years for a murder on federal property in Newaygo County.

    On Friday, his attorney in the federal case, Paul Mitchell, told News 8 he hopes the moratorium will help keep Gabrion from getting on the death row “conveyor belt.”

    “I mean, Marvin’s Marvin,” Mitchell said. “Whatever he did, whatever they accused him of doing, whatever he was convicted of, he is no greater than anybody else and no less of a person than anybody else, in many respects.”

    There’s no doubt that many would disagree.

    Gabrion was convicted of killing 19-year-old Rachel Timmerman in 1997, throwing her into a lake weighted down and alive to keep her from testifying against him in a rape trial.

    Her body surfaced in Oxford Lake in the Manistee National Forest, giving the federal government jurisdiction.

    The body of Rachel’s baby, Shannon Verhage, was never recovered. Gabrion also is suspected of killing three others.

    A federal jury sentenced him to death in 2002.

    In 1847, Michigan became the first government in the English-speaking world to outlaw the death penalty. That didn’t stop the feds from hanging a robber for killing a man during a heist at a federal bank in 1938; the state’s last execution.

    “Exacting this penalty, it goes against all the citizens of the state of Michigan when they do that,” Mitchell said. “I can see them doing it, if I can see them doing it at all, in Louisiana or Texas or some of the less civilized states, but I can’t see them doing it here and they should not do it here.”

    The feds halted executions in 2003, but the Trump administration reinstated them, putting 13 to death over six months.

    “The Trump administration decided to have a conveyor belt towards the end and that was unseemly by any standards, by any civilized standards,” Mitchell said.

    On Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered a moratorium while the Justice Department reviews policies and procedures, including the use of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital.

    “We are the last of the civilized countries to still exact this penalty,” Mitchell said.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.woo...an-killer/amp/
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  8. #28
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    On May 24, 2022, oral argument will be heard in Gabrion's appeal before the Sixth Circuit. The panel will be made up of Senior Judge Batchelder (G.H.W. Bush), Judge Moore (Clinton) and Judge Gibbons (G.W. Bush).

    https://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/sites/c...242022_arg.pdf

  9. #29
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Michigan girl still missing 25 years after mother murdered, found dead in lake; Killer on death row

    Michigan doesn’t have death penalty, but it is available in homicides prosecuted in federal court

    Shannon Dale Verhage was just 11 months old when she disappeared. Shannon and her mother, Rachel Timmerman, were last seen at Timmerman’s parents’ home in Cedar Springs, Michigan, on June 3, 1997.

    Timmerman was going on a date with a man, and he asked her to bring Shannon along. They planned on only being gone a few hours, but neither ever returned home.

    Timmerman was found dead a month later, on July 5, 1997. Her body was found bound with a chain and weighed down by cinder blocks. Duct tape was found across her eyes and mouth. Marvin Charles Gabrion was tried and convicted of murdering Timmerman.

    On Aug. 7, 1996, Timmerman went to her mother and told her that Gabrion had raped her. She said she was afraid to press charges because Gabrion said that if she did, he would kill her and her baby. That afternoon, she reported the rape to the Newaygo County Sheriff’s Office, according to court documents from 2013. 2 months later, Gabrion was charged with rape. It took another 3 months before he was found and taken into custody.

    Gabrion was arrested on Jan. 20, 1997. They gave him an arrest warrant that named three witnesses for the rape charge. He was held in jail until a friend posted bond for him on Feb. 3, 1997.

    Twice in May of that year, Timmerman reported to the sheriff that she had encountered Gabrion and said she thought he would kill her. During this time, a friend of Gabrion’s repeatedly called Timmerman to ask her out on a date. Timmerman did not know the man was calling because Gabrion had asked him to.

    On June 3, 1997, two days before the trial, Rachel told her father that she was going on a date and would be home in a couple of hours. She said she was bringing her baby because the man had asked her to.

    Gabrion was scheduled to be tried in court for the rape on June 5, 1997, but that trial did not happen. Two days before the trial was set to begin, Gabrion abducted Timmerman and took her to a remote location in the Manistee National Forest, and killed her, according to court documents.

    'Timmerman’s murder was a federal offense because it occurred in a National Forest'

    Gabrion bound and gagged Timmerman before weighing her down with concrete blocks. He put her in an old metal boat and threw her overboard, while alive, into the shallow, weedy lake, where she drowned.

    While the body of Timmerman’s 11-month-old daughter has never been found, it is believed that Gabrion killed her. In 2006, Timmerman’s mother said she would prefer to spare Gabrion’s life if he would tell police where to find Shannon’s remains, according to the Associated Press.

    According to the court documents, while Gabrion was awaiting trial for Timmerman’s murder, he gave another prisoner a map of Oxford Lake, on which he had written, ‘body of 3, 1 found.’ The court documents also said Gabrion told 2 inmates that he ‘killed the baby because there was nowhere else to put it.’

    Marvin Charles Gabrion sentenced to death

    Gabrion was convicted of murdering Temmerman on federal property on March 5, 2002. During the penalty phase of the trial, 58 witnesses testified against Gabrion.

    According to court documents, the testimony concerned his future dangerousness and his presumed murder of 3 other people. Officials suspect Gabrion of murdering three people: Wayne Davis, a witness to the rape; John Weeks, a witness to Timmerman’s murder (who disappeared 18 days after the murder); and Robert Allen, who vanished before Gabrion assumed his identity and began stealing his disability checks.

    Witnesses described Gabrion’s propensity for violence. Two witnesses said their homes had been set on fire after they had disagreements with Gabrion. another witness said Gabrion shot at his house after he told Gabrion to leave a party. Another witness said Gabrion aimed a rifle at her and her 2-year-old child as she walked to his car -- then followed them for 2 miles. There were many accusations listed in the court document.

    Following the penalty phase, Gabrion was sentenced to death. He has continued to appeal that sentence.

    'Gabrion committed the murder in an especially heinous, cruel, and depraved manner'

    Below is a report from the Associated Press from Sept. 10, 2020:

    “A Michigan man sentenced to death nearly 20 years ago won a key decision Thursday to extend his efforts to overturn the punishment.

    “Marvin Gabrion can appeal four points, including claims that his trial lawyers were ineffective at the 2002 trial in federal court in Grand Rapids, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 order.

    “Gabrion, now 66, was convicted of killing a woman in a lake in a national forest in Newaygo County, north of Grand Rapids. Michigan doesn’t have the death penalty, but it is available in homicides prosecuted in federal court.

    “The location of Rachel Timmerman’s death was the key factor in how the government got involved. Prosecutors said Gabrion killed her to prevent her from testifying against him in an assault case.”

    (source: clickondetroit.com)
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  10. #30
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    The Sixth Circuit has denied Gabrion’s appeal and affirmed the district court’s denial of his habeas petition

    https://law.justia.com/cases/federal...022-08-04.html
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