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Thread: Philian Eugene Lee - California Death Row

  1. #1
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Philian Eugene Lee - California Death Row

    Summary of Offense:

    Philian Eugene Lee was convicted of first-degree murder with personal use of a firearm in the February 22, 1996 death of 17-year-old Mele Calani Kekaula. The jury found as a special circumstance that the murder was committed during the commission of an attempted rape. After a penalty trial, the jury returned a verdict of death.

    On July 9, 1999, Lee was sentenced to death in Riverside County.

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    In today's California Supreme Court orders, Lee's conviction and death sentence on direct appeal were affirmed.

    Opinion here

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Death penalty upheld in '96 'Point Blank' slaying

    The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the death penalty for a man who shot a 17-year-old Moreno Valley girl to death in 1996 after she refused to have sex with him during a night of drinking and driving around the Inland Empire.

    Among the appeals from Philian Eugene Lee, now 33, also of Moreno Valley, was that jurors should not have heard his self-proclaimed nickname: "Point Blank."

    Prosecutors said Lee told Mele Calani Kekaula, "So that's how it is," after she spurned him, pressed a .22-caliber pistol against her head and pulled the trigger.

    He fired 6 more rounds into her head after she fell, witnesses said.

    She died at a remote lookout spot along Cactus Avenue.

    2 young men who were with Lee and Kekaula testified against him at his 1999 trial.

    One said he seemed "proud and gloating" as they drove away from the shooting site and composed an impromptu rap tune about his reasons for killing Kekaula.

    The court noted that Lee was 6-feet-2-inches tall and weighed 270 pounds; Kekaula was 5-feet-3-inches tall and weighed 152 pounds.

    Lee declared after the killing there would be no need for a rap song to explain why he was called "Point Blank," court records said.

    The court said prosecutors were right to bring the nickname to jurors' attention.

    "The fact that he introduced himself ... as 'Point Blank' hours before he killed Mele was necessary for the jury to understand the significance of the defendant's statements, and their tendency to support the prosecution's theory that defendant intended to kill Mele in a particular way to prove he deserved his nickname," the state court said in its 7-0 ruling.

    Mele Kekaula was the sister of Lisa Kekaula, the lead vocalist for Riverside band the BellRays.

    (Source: The Press-Enterprise)

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    In Monday's (October 3, 2011) United States Supreme Court orders, Lee's petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis was DENIED.

  5. #5
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On July 7, 2011, Lee filed a habeas petition before the California Supreme Court.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S194609

  6. #6
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Lee's habeas case has been fully briefed before the California Supreme Court since October 26, 2015.

    https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca....pRICAgCg%3D%3D

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