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Thread: Byron Eugene Scherf - Washington

  1. #61
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Byron Scherf gets death penalty for corrections officer murder

    A judge has sentenced convicted rapist and murderer Byron Scherf to death after a jury ruled him eligible Wednesday morning.

    Scherf admitted to strangling corrections officer Jayme Biendl in the Chapel of the Monroe Correctional Complex in January 2011.

    "I've been waiting 137 days exactly to hear those words that he's got the death penalty," Biendl's sister, Lisa Hamm, told reporters outside the Everett courtroom. "I'm going to continue to count until he's finally dead."

    "It's been terrible, you can't sleep, you got nightmares," said Biendl's father, James Hamm. "It's over with and I'm glad."

    Scherf has refused to explain what Biendl said to him to set him off, but said it was the final straw "of years and years of crap."

    The former prison superintendent had described the new restrictions Scherf would endure if the jury gave him life in prison.

    The defense argued that security failures at the Monroe prison that led to discipline and several firings, might have contributed to the murder of Biendl in January 2011.

    A judge will make a final ruling at 1 p.m.

    It's the first death sentence recommended since April, 2010. Connor Michael Schierman was convicted of four counts of aggravated first degree murder for the deaths of Olga Milkin, her two sons, and sister.

    A jury handed down a death sentence in June 2012, but it was a reissued conviction for the rape and murder of 43-year-old Geneine Harshfield. Allen Eugene Gregory was first convicted in May 2001, but the case was overturned five years later.

    http://mynorthwest.com/11/2274811/By...officer-murder
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  2. #62
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jan240 View Post
    Does anyone know if the judge must impose the death sentence?
    Yes.

    Revised Code of Washington 10.95.080(1):

    If a jury answers affirmatively the question posed by RCW 10.95.060(4), or when a jury is waived as allowed by RCW 10.95.050(2) and the trial court answers affirmatively the question posed by RCW 10.95.060(4), the defendant shall be sentenced to death. The trial court may not suspend or defer the execution or imposition of the sentence.

    Second response to same question: he already has. See the 1:07 p.m. update to the Seattle Times story:

    http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/...-prison-guard/

    Wow. This step, at least, goes fast in Washington.

  3. #63
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    Thank you for finding the state code. Do you happen to know what states fall under similar sentencing guidelines?
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  4. #64
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    6 have been executed for crimes in county

    Six people have been executed for crimes committed in Snohomish County:

    Dec. 8, 1905: Angus J. McPhail, 45, hanged at sunrise for fatally shooting a Darrington saloon owner who had been a former business rival. McPhail was a Canadian-born woodsman.

    May 13, 1910: Richard Quinn, 32, hanged for gunning down his wife in an Everett street during a drunken rage. Quinn's hanging was botched, and he remained lucid for many minutes at the end of the rope.

    Sept. 6, 1940: Edward L. Bouchard, 46, was hanged for the murders of two men whose bodies were discovered in a wooded area east of Arlington. The Seattle decorator used an ax and garrote on the victims.

    Nov. 18, 1949: Wayne LeRoy Williams, 33, was hanged for beating his wife with a rock and pushing her and the couple's 4-year-old daughter off a cliff near Mukilteo. The child survived.

    May 27, 1994: Charles Rodman Campbell, 39, was hanged for the 1982 throat slashing murders of two women and a girl near Clearview. Campbell raped one of the women about a decade before the killings. She had testified against him, sending him to prison for the sexual assault.

    Aug. 28, 2001: James Homer Elledge, 58, died by lethal injection for the 1998 stabbing and strangulation of a woman at a Lynnwood church. A janitor, he requested the death penalty and directed his attorney not to fight to keep him alive.

    http://www.heraldnet.com/article/201...WS01/705159922

  5. #65
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    Monroe prison guard killer moved to Walla Walla

    Byron Scherf was sentenced to death for killing a corrections officer at the Washington state Reformatory, but there are no plans to hold him differently than any of the eight other death row inmates at the Washington state Penitentiary at Walla Walla.

    Department of Corrections spokesman Chad Lewis told The Daily Herald (http://bit.ly/109qn85 ) Scherf is confined to the intensive management unit, the highest security.

    Inmates are generally restricted to their cells 23 hours a day. They are kept in restraints any time they are in the presence of corrections officers.

    Scherf was sentenced Wednesday and moved to Walla Walla Thursday for what could be a long stay. The 54-year-old who confessed to strangling Jayme Biendl and once said he expected to be executed now plans to exercise his appeal rights.

    http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2...o-walla-walla/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  6. #66
    joerodney
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    And Now The Circus Begins…

    “The 54-year-old who confessed to strangling Jayme Biendl and once said he expected to be executed now plans to exercise his appeal rights.”

    The circus brought to you by the rulings of the “Extreme Court” has now come to town.

    It will move at glacial speed, regardless of undisputed, unequivocal, guilt on the part of Byron Scherf, who brutally murdered Jayme Biendl.

    Byron Scherf was in prison serving a life sentence for rape. He was serving a life sentence because the State of Washington did not provide for capital punishment for the crime of rape. Most states had gone this route following Furman v. Georgia and other cases that sought to overturn or weaken the death penalty.

    The “Extreme Court” did our country a great disservice when it ruled that the death penalty could NOT be imposed for the crime of rape. See Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584 (1977).

    Unelected by the people, and appointed for life, the Supreme Court is a flawed entity that has seized for itself a measure of unlimited power that was never intended by our Founders. Added to this is a selection process that insures a never ending stream of unaccountable eggheads who wreak havoc upon time honored principles of morality by afflicting the rest of us with their “judgment.” As they declared in Coker, “the Constitution contemplates that, in the end, our own judgment will be brought to bear on the question of the acceptability of the death penalty under the Eighth Amendment.”

    This statement, made by Byron “Whizzer” White, is dead wrong. Our Founders contemplated that the elected representatives of the people would make this judgment, not nine oligarchs over whom the people have virtually no control.

    “Whizzer” White went on to declare that the crime of rape “does not compare with murder, which does involve the unjustified taking of human life.” Thus, White and his cohorts ruled that despite incalculable physical and psychological injury to the victim, the crime of rape simply did not rise to the level of “serious injury” deserving of punishment by death.

    Tell that to the victims who endured the agony of being raped and who survived to tell their stories of horrendous suffering. I wonder what “Whizzer” would say about the brutal rape of his wife or daughter?

    And who would have ever thought that the death penalty for raping a child would be deemed “cruel and unusual punishment” so as to be prohibited by the Eighth Amendment? Only a group of liberal nuts like Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Paul Stevens, and Steven Breyer, that’s who.

    If you want to read an opinion that will turn your stomach, just read Kennedy v. Louisiana, 554 U.S. 407 (2008). Here, an 8 year-old little girl was so brutally raped that her internal vaginal and cervical structures were so severely torn as to require emergency surgery. One of her doctors testified that he had never seen so brutal a rape in all his years of practice. Yet, Justice Kennedy and his cohorts ruled that this horrible crime was just not “serious enough” for them to uphold the imposition of the death penalty. Under their rubric of “evolving standards of decency,” rape of a child was not enough. The child also had to be murdered in order to warrant the death penalty. I wonder what Justice Kennedy would have thought if it would have been his daughter?

    Condolences to the family of Jayme Biendl. Maybe the circus brought to all of us by the Extreme Court will end with lights out for Byron Scherf.
    Last edited by joerodney; 10-13-2013 at 01:36 PM.

  7. #67
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    Monroe prison guard murder trial cost $1.5M

    It cost more than $1.5 million to try a Monroe Reformatory inmate for strangling a corrections officer.

    The Daily Herald reports (http://bit.ly/17PNynn) Snohomish County agencies _ including the sheriff, prosecutor and medical examiner's offices _ are asking the state to reimburse more than $900,000. Defense lawyers have submitted bills for nearly $400,000. And, Monroe authorities also have billed the state near $300,000.

    Byron Scherf was convicted of aggravated murder in May and sentenced to die for killing Jayme Biendl in January 2011 in the chapel of the Washington state Reformatory. He's now on death row at the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla.
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  8. #68
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    Judge weighing competing rights in Scherf case

    How much should people be told about the way money was spent by attorneys who tried to spare a murderous inmate from a death sentence for the killing of Monroe corrections officer Jayme Biendl? A Snohomish County judge is weighing that question as prosecutors and appellate attorneys spar over what details should become public in court papers connected to Byron Scherf's defense. The repeat rapist in May was convicted and sentenced to die for strangling Biendl in January 2011. Officials already have disclosed that it cost more than $1.5 million to bring him to trial.The Scherf-related expenses began accruing as soon as the murder was discovered at the chapel in the Washington State Reformatory where Biendl worked. The city of Monroe billed the state Department of Corrections $300,000 to cover the costs of its investigation. More expenses piled up for the county during the two years Scherf was locked up at the jail in Everett while lawyers honed their cases.About $400,000 was paid to the two defense attorneys who -- in keeping with state law governing death penalty cases -- were appointed to vigorously represent Scherf. They logged some 4,100 hours working on his behalf, according to county officials.The lawyers also received court approval to spend about $120,000 on experts they believed necessary to Scherf's defense.Access to records explaining who was paid that money, and for what services, are now the focus of legal argument.On Friday, Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Linda Krese was asked to balance the rights Scherf still is guaranteed, as the defendant in a criminal case, with the public's interest in monitoring the legal system. She doesn't expect to rule until after the start of the new year.There are several hundred pages of documents. They were filed with the court in roughly 20 installments during the long buildup to Scherf's trial. They were kept from prosecutors and the public after Scherf's lawyers made the case that his right to a fair trial could be hampered if the paperwork became public.Krese earlier reviewed each spending request. She left public the amount spent, but redacted the name of the person who was paid. The judge sealed some documents altogether if they revealed too much about the defense strategy.On Dec. 20, Krese said she supports the importance of people understanding how money is spent in a death penalty case, but also is mindful of a defendant's rights to a fair trial."That would be the first consideration," she said.The judge's original order to seal the records was set to expire 30 days after Scherf's trial was completed. A jury found him guilty of aggravated murder and on May 15 decided he should receive a death sentence.Scherf's trial lawyers did not seek fresh court orders to keep the records secret. County clerks unsealed the documents in mid-October.By then, Scherf was represented by appellate attorneys, Mark Larranaga and Rita Griffith of Seattle. The pair have been assigned to assist Scherf while his conviction and death sentence undergo mandatory review by the state Supreme Court.Questions about public access to the paperwork didn't surface until this fall when deputy prosecutor Seth Fine, one of the county attorneys who handles appellate challenges to local convictions, joined Scherf's new lawyers on a conference call. A Supreme Court clerk told the lawyers to take their disagreement to Krese.During an Oct. 17 hearing, the judge ordered the records once again temporarily sealed. She also directed Fine to box up the previously sealed documents he'd already gathered from the court file and to place them in her care.In court papers, Fine said the public has a legitimate interest in how money is spent in death penalty cases, and that if Scherf's lawyers had wanted to keep the records sealed, they should have done so with a timely motion.In court, Fine suggested that Scherf's attorneys were offering a "paternalistic attitude" about what people should know. The inmate's new attorneys said the concerns that prompted the records to be sealed earlier haven't gone away since the conviction, and problems would result if Scherf's appeal is successful and he wins a new trial.They supported telling people how much was spent by the defense, but asked Krese to consider reviewing each record and again weighing whether the public interest outweighs the defendant's fair-trial rights.Scherf was not at the hearing. He is locked up at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla.

    http://heraldnet.com/article/2013122...in-Scherf-case
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  9. #69
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Sister of murdered Monroe officer fights bill to abolish death penalty

    BY HANNA SCOTT
    MyNorthwest.com

    The bill to abolish the Washington death penalty continues to make headway in Olympia, but not without significant debate.

    The House Judiciary Committee held a public hearing Tuesday morning after the bill cleared the Senate last week — without proposed amendments that would have allowed the death penalty for cop killers and those who kill corrections officers. Another amendment that would have put the issue to voters via referendum also failed. There is no emergency provision in the bill that would stop voters from doing so, however, even if the Legislature opts to abolish the death penalty.

    The bill — SB 6052 — eliminates the death penalty as an option in aggravated murder cases, and replaces it with a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

    Governor Jay Inslee and State Attorney General Bob Ferguson have been pushing it for years. Republican King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg also jumped on board this year, testifying in favor of abolishing the death penalty for the first time. Satterberg told the House panel that the death penalty is too expensive, can take up to 20 years to carry out, and is applied unevenly. He said that only large counties are able to afford to go after the death penalty.

    “This fight over which we have spent millions and millions of dollars is about whether we get to hasten that date that they’re going to die in prison,” Satterberg said. “Whether we’re going to authorize a state employee to give a lethal dose to somebody so that we can say somehow that we’ve achieved justice, where sending them to prison to die should be enough.”

    “When I say that we don’t need the death penalty, I think that the criminal justice system would be stronger without it because we could achieve finality on aggravated murder cases where life without the possibility of release was the sentence,” he said. “Those cases would be over in about three years.”

    Washington death penalty debate

    Lisa Hamm argued strongly against ending the death penalty, pointing to the 2011 murder of her sister, Monroe Corrections Officer Jayme Biendl.

    “She was murdered by an inmate in the chapel in the Monroe state prison,” Hamm said. “The inmate was already serving a life without parole sentence. By abolishing the death penalty, that effectively removes any type of punishment for the monster who killed my sister.”

    Beindl’s killer, Byron Scherf, was sentenced to death for the killing, but Governor Inslee issued a moratorium on the punishment a short time later. Scherf remains one of eight death row inmates in Washington.

    Despite statements from some bill supporters that ending the lengthy death penalty process makes things easier on the families of victims, Hamm told lawmakers, “abolishing the death penalty will in no way be a relief to myself or my family.”

    But Satterberg argued that the death penalty didn’t work in that case either, “It doesn’t work in any of these cases. That individual is still a long way from facing execution in our state.”

    Others testified the death penalty was an important bargaining tool in murder cases, including Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs Director Steve Strachan. He said having the death penalty made a difference in a child murder case in Kitsap County just last week.

    “Little 6-year-old Jenise Wright was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered by a neighbor,” Strachan said. “He pleaded guilty just last week to a lengthy sentence, and the dynamic and the ability of the death penalty did play a part in that outcome, which is a good outcome for the family and for the community because there was not a trial, there was a plea.”

    Satterberg has testified he doesn’t believe the death penalty should be used as leverage.

    The measure has already cleared the Senate. It has to be passed out of the House Judiciary Committee by the end of this week in order to make it to the House floor.
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  10. #70
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    Washington Supreme Court tosses out state’s death penalty

    OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington state’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the death penalty, as applied, violates its Constitution.

    The ruling Thursday makes Washington the latest state to do away with capital punishment. The court was unanimous in its order that the eight people currently on death row have their sentences converted to life in prison. Five justices said the “death penalty is invalid because it is imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner.”

    “Given the manner in which it is imposed, the death penalty also fails to serve any legitimate penological goals,” the justices wrote.

    Four other justices, in a concurrence, wrote that while they agreed with the majority’s conclusions and invalidation of the death penalty, “additional state constitutional principles compel this result.”

    Gov. Jay Inslee, a one-time supporter of capital punishment, had imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in 2014, saying that no executions would take place while he’s in office.

    In a written statement, Inslee called the ruling “a hugely important moment in our pursuit for equal and fair application of justice.”

    “The court makes it perfectly clear that capital punishment in our state has been imposed in an ‘arbitrary and racially biased manner,’ is ‘unequally applied’ and serves no criminal justice goal,” Inslee wrote.

    The ruling was in the case of Allen Eugene Gregory, who was convicted of raping, robbing and killing Geneine Harshfield, a 43-year-old woman, in 1996.

    His lawyers said the death penalty is arbitrarily applied and that it is not applied proportionally, as the state Constitution requires.

    In its ruling Thursday, the high court did not reconsider any of Gregory’s arguments pertaining to guilty, noting that his conviction for aggravated first degree murder “has already been appealed and affirmed by this court.”

    https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...death-penalty/
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