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Thread: Johnny Duane Miles - California Death Row

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    Johnny Duane Miles - California Death Row


    Johnny Duane Miles


    Facts of the Crime:

    Blood tests linked Johnny Duane Miles to at least three after-hour robberies, rapes and one murder in offices from San Bernardino to Los Angeles. The February 4, 1992 murder and rape of Nancy Willem, a 35-year-old rape counselor, occurred in Rialto.

    Miles was sentenced to death in San Bernardino County on February 8, 2000.

  2. #2
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Opening brief was filed on August 16, 2013.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S086234

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Miles' case has been fully briefed on direct appeal before the California Supreme Court since December 19, 2014.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S086234

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On March 3, 2020, oral argument will be heard in Miles' direct appeal before the California Supreme Court.

    https://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/...rs/SMAR320.PDF

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    THE PEOPLE v JOHNNY DUANE MILES

    California Supreme Court upholds death penalty in 1992 Rialto slaying

    The California Supreme Court upheld Thursday, May 28, the San Bernardino County conviction and death sentence of Johnny Duane Miles for the murder of Nancy Willem, 35, of Wrightwood, who was also robbed and raped during the 1992 attack in the Rialto office where she worked.

    Six of the justices upheld the 1999 verdict and sentence, and one dissented.

    The majority rejected a challenge by Mills, who is black, that two African-American jury candidates were excused solely on race, in violation of his right to a fair trial.

    The issue was raised, the court said, because “there are heightened concerns about racial discrimination in this case, given that he was charged with raping and murdering a white woman.”

    The majority found no sufficient reason to overturn the case on that challenge, and said the appointment of an African-American alternate juror “further supports the prosecutor’s good faith” in making jury choices.

    Associate Justice Goodwin Liu said in his dissent he would reverse the case based on the African-American jury candidate rejections. “Our recent cases have upheld quite tenuous or implausible explanations for the removal of black jurors.” he wrote.

    Miles, now 53, was already incarcerated at the time of his murder trial.

    He was sent to state prison from Los Angeles County in 1993 on a sentence of 75 years and eight months for second-degree robbery, oral copulation with force, penetration with a foreign object, possession of a firearm by an ex-felon and an enhancement of use of a firearm, prison records show.

    Miles, a Compton resident at the time of his arrest who also had lived in Moreno Valley, had robbed one man and raped two other women in separate but similar attacks in Victorville and San Bernardino in the weeks after the Willem slaying, prosecutors said at his trial. He was also found guilty of those crimes.

    During the penalty phase of his trial, Miles took the witness stand against the advice of his attorney, and said “ill angels” were controlling him. “My body acted as a vessel and it was being controlled by them.”

    There was a competency trial for Miles after his conviction but before the penalty phase. Jurors found him competent, and the Supreme Court ruling Thursday upheld that conclusion, saying there was no reversible error from testimony given by Miles’ criminal trial defense attorney during the competency hearing.

    A different attorney represented Miles during the competency matter.

    Willem was attacked inside the offices of Behavioral Health Services in Rialto, where she worked as an office manager. She previously had worked as a rape crisis counselor at the Woman’s Resource Center at the University of California, Riverside.

    Miles was dubbed the “Red Dragon Rapist” after bank security cameras caught images of a man, later identified as Miles, withdrawing money from a Pomona bank using Willem’s bank card. The man was wearing a baseball hat with “Red Dragon” written on it.

    https://www.sbsun.com/2020/05/28/cal...ialto-slaying/
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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On May 26, 2020, Miles filed a habeas petition before the California Supreme Court.

    https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca....9RICAgCg%3D%3D

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Not sure how accurate this is but I read on Twitter that apparently Miles is about the 75th inmate in line awaiting appointment of state post conviction counsel.

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    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Distributed for conference March 19, 2021.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....ic/20-808.html
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  9. #9
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Miles' petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of California
    Case Numbers: (S086234)
    Decision Date: May 28, 2020
    Rehearing Denied: July 15, 2020

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....ic/20-808.html

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