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Thread: Lamar Barnwell - California Death Row

  1. #1
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    Lamar Barnwell - California Death Row


    Lamar Barnwell


    Facts of the Crime:

    Sentenced to death in Los Angeles County on August 9, 1996 for three counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder. Mr. Barnwell’s case is somewhat remarkable in that a policeman saw him shoot two of the murder victims. On December 5, 1992, Los Angeles Police Officers Brad Wise and Greg Smiley were on patrol. As they drove toward a tire shop, Officer Wise heard a shot. A woman screamed and another shot was fired. Wise ran up to a high fence surrounding the shop yard and looked through a hole in the gate. He saw Barnwell, some 20 to 25 feet away, standing above two men lying face down on the ground. Barnwell held a large-caliber, semiautomatic, blue steel pistol in his hand. The men were begging for their lives. Barnwell bent down and put the pistol to the back of one man’s head. Officer Wise heard two shots. Barnwell then fired two more shots into the back of the other man’s head. Barnwell ran but the officers intercepted him as he emerged from another gate, still holding the pistol. Officer Wise told Barnwell to drop the gun. Barnwell protested, “It wasn’t me.” He ran back toward the gate, but then stopped and turned toward the officers. Wise thought Barnwell was going to shoot them, so he fired four shots at him. Barnwell ran back into the yard, where he was found by other officers. He had been shot three times.

    When his clothes were cut away by paramedics, a .45-caliber bullet fell out of his trousers. A .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol, a Colt Gold Cup model, was found on the ground inside the gate Barnwell had re-entered. Expended cartridge casings found at the scene had been fired by the Colt. In addition to the two men Officer Wise had seen Barnwell shoot, the bodies of a woman and another man were also found. All four victims had been shot in the head. Eural Johnson was the night watchman and Kenneth Newman was a friend of his. Jessie Dwight Bingham sometimes slept in a truck parked in the yard. Sandra Ann Green was his girlfriend. Bullets recovered from the bodies of Johnson and Green had been fired by the Colt. The record is silent as to whether slugs were recovered from Bingham and Newman. Barnwell waived his rights and spoke to the police. He said he had ridden a bicycle to the tire shop to sell cocaine to a man whose name he did not know. The victims were already on the ground when he arrived. As he left the scene he was confronted by the police. He put up his hands and said, “I didn’t do it.” He was shot by the police when he fled. The scene was lit by street lights and, inside the yard, by a large bonfire inside a barrel. There was no question in Officer Wise’s mind as to whether it was the same man. He described the suspect as a Black male with bushy hair and a goatee, 25 to 30 years old, five feet eight inches to five feet nine inches tall, weighing 180 to 190 pounds, and wearing blue jeans and a dark blue sweatshirt with white writing on the front. The officer testified: “Everything is the same.”

  2. #2
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On July 26, 2007, the California Supreme Court affirmed Barnwell's sentence on direct appeal.

    http://74.6.238.254/search/srpcache?...qPPG6FYMIz4g--

    On March 17, 2008, the US Supreme Court denied his certiorari petition.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es/07-8168.htm

  3. #3
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Barnwell's habeas case has been fully briefed before the California Supreme Court since July 5, 2012.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...5TUCAgCg%3D%3D

  4. #4
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    On the 28th of November 2018, Barnwell's case was remanded to the trial court on an Atkins claim.

    https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca....5TUCAgCg%3D%3D

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