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Thread: Douglas Ray Stankewitz - California

  1. #21
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    Fresno judge rejects death row inmate's motion to dismiss his 1978 murder case

    A Fresno Superior Court judge on Friday rejected a defense motion to dismiss death row inmate Douglas Ray Stankewitz's 1978 murder case, but invited Stankewitz legal team to file a new motion if they find new evidence of prosecutorial misconduct.

    Judge Arlan Harrell made his ruling after hearing arguments from Fresno defense lawyer Peter Jones, legendary San Francisco attorney Tony Serra and his associate, San Francisco attorney Curtis Briggs.

    Stankewitz, an American Indian known as "Chief" who is now 60, is the longest tenured condemned inmate at San Quentin State Prison.

    Putting him to death hasn't been easy.

    He was initially given the death penalty in 1978 for killing 22-year-old Theresa Graybeal after kidnapping and robbing her. But in 1982 the California Supreme Court tossed his first death sentence due to judicial error. A year later he was convicted by a different jury and sentenced to death again.

    His case has returned to Fresno County Superior Court because a federal appellate court in 2012 overturned his second death sentence due to incompetent defense counsel. Fresno prosecutor Noelle Pebet is seeking to get Stankewitz's death sentence reinstated through a third jury trial. His trial is scheduled to start in April 2019.

    Friday's hearing dealt with a gun that prosecutors say Stankewitz used to kill Graybeal in February 1978.

    Stankewitz's legal team claimed that prosecutors, in order to get a death sentence, lied to jurors in both the 1978 and 1983 trials when they said Stankewitz used the same gun to kill Graybeal south of Fresno and in the attempted murder hours later of a farm worker outside a bar west of Fresno.

    That's not true, his lawyers said, because Graybeal was shot with a .25 caliber handgun; .22-caliber shell casings were discovered at the scene where the farm worker was attacked.

    Jones pointed out he didn't receive a report about the different shell casing evidence from the prosecution until 2017. And when Jones looked closer at the two shootings, he said he discovered that three .25-caliber shell casings that were test-fired from the Graybeal murder weapon were "in the evidence bag" for the farm worker shooting.

    "They framed out client," Briggs argued. "They hid the evidence. This is a conspiracy by the prosecution to kill Mr. Stankewitz."

    https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local...213669264.html
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  2. #22
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    No death penalty for convicted killer Douglas Stankewitz in 1978 murder, says Fresno DA

    By Brianna Calix
    Fresno Bee

    The Fresno County District Attorney’s Office announced Friday prosecutors will no longer pursue the death penalty for convicted killer Douglas Stankewitz.

    Stankewitz was convicted for the 1978 kidnapping and killing of Theresa Greybeal. He instead will be resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, a sentence the District Attorney’s Office called “fair and just” in a news release.

    Stankewitz, 60, an American Indian known as “Chief” is the longest tenured condemned inmate at San Quentin State Prison.

    On Feb. 7, 1978, Stankewitz, then 19, plotted with three others to rob and kidnap Greybeal in Modesto. Greybeal was driven to Fresno, where Stankewitz shot and killed her. After the murder, Stankewitz told the others in the group: “Did I drop her or did I drop her?”

    Stankewitz contends he is innocent and prosecutors lied to jurors.

    Stankewitz’s case throughout the years has taken multiple twists and turns. The case was tried twice, and both resulted in a guilty verdict. After the first trial, the California Supreme Court reversed the convictions because Stankewitz’s competency to stand trial was not addressed. He was found competent prior to the second trial, in which he was convicted again.

    The second conviction also was appealed, but in 1990 the California Supreme Court affirmed Stankewitz’s conviction and death sentence.

    Stankewitz filed for relief in federal court, which found his attorney did not investigate and present evidence during the penalty phase of his trial that could have changed the jury’s decision. In 2009, a federal judge affirmed Stankewitz’s guilt but reversed his death sentence. Three years later, an appeals court agreed with that decision.

    The latest development happened after the District Attorney’s Office reviewed and weighed information the juries didn’t hear, according to the release.

    That information included details about Stankewitz’s troubled childhood, which one psychiatrist described as “totally lacking in love, warmth and affection, and frequently filled with deprivation, rejection and punishment.”

    The District Attorney’s Office noted Stankewitz was born into a poor home where there rarely was enough food for the 10 children. The home was dirty, filled with vermin and without running water or electricity.

    By the time Stankewitz was 5 years old, he started sniffing paint and soon began drinking alcohol and using other hard drugs.

    He was physically and mentally abused by both his parents and older siblings. His mother drank alcohol excessively while pregnant with him and his father repeatedly hit her in the abdomen. Before turning 1 year old, Stankewitz was taken to the emergency room three times.

    His father ridiculed him for being light skinned and told him not to take his prescribed medication. At 6 years old, Stankewitz’s mother beat him so badly with an electrical cord she went to jail and he was placed in the care of the state. The abuse from his older siblings resulted in a “substantial indentation on his cranium,” the District Attorney’s Office reported.

    After being removed from his home at 6 years old, Stankewitz was shuffled from one institution to the next and spent the next 13 years until his arrest in some form of government care. During these placements, he was massively and unnecessarily drugged, tied to beds, beaten, sexually molested, neglected, deliberately tortured and abused by staff, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

    While at Napa State Hospital at age 6, he was sexually abused by hospital staff, heavily medicated and placed with psychotic and autistic children even though he never received those diagnoses.

    While in a foster home, he was prescribed extremely high doses of medication and would wet the bed and defecate in it. He’d smear his feces on the wall. He continued wetting the bed until he was nearly 12 years old.

    His foster mother taught him how to talk instead of grunt, use the toilet, dress himself, use silverware and ask for things instead of grab them, the release said.

    Mental health records show Stankewitz suffers from a borderline intellectual disability. His IQ is 79. He also suffers from significant brain dysfunction, possibly tied to fetal alcohol syndrome and childhood abuse.

    https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local...229485689.html

  3. #23
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    Killer had to be re-sentenced for 1978 murder. Here’s why the judge smirked as he ruled

    By Robert Rodriguez
    The Fresno Bee

    Convicted killer Douglas Stankewitz smirked as Fresno County Judge Arlan Harrell on Friday sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    For Stankewitz, whose lawyers have been trying for decades to overturn his 1978 death penalty conviction, the judge’s ruling was not a surprise.

    Harrell said he was left with little choice on how to proceed. A federal appeals court in 2012 threw out Stankewitz’s death penalty sentence, saying the jury should have heard evidence of Stankewitz’s troubled childhood.

    The court’s ruling didn’t change his murder conviction, however, so the Fresno County District’s attorney’s office would have to re-argue his sentencing.

    Three weeks ago, the DA’s office said it would not pursue the death penalty and instead seek life in prison without the possibility of parole. Stankewitz attorney Peter Jones was pushing for life with the possibility of parole. The judge disagreed.

    “The court has but one option ... and that is life without the possibility of parole,” the judge said.

    As for Stankewitz’s smirk, Harrell responded in kind.

    “Yes, as a point of fact, I am smirking because Mr. Stankewitz is smirking — that is the only reason,” Harrell said. “Mr. Stankewitz and I have seen one another occasionally for quite some time. I have no ill will towards Mr. Stankewitz.”

    Family members of the 60-year-old Stankewitz were disappointed at Friday’s outcome. Many were hoping this could open the possibility for parole.

    “One day we are hoping he can be a free man,” said an aunt, Wilma Lewis. “He has been in prison for more than 40 years. It just doesn’t seem fair.”

    Stankewitz is the longest tenured condemned inmate at San Quentin State Prison.

    He was convicted in 1978 for the murder of 22-year-old Theresa Greybeal. Stankewitz, then 19, plotted with three others to rob and kidnap Greybeal in Modesto. Greybeal was driven to Fresno, where Stankewitz shot and killed her. After the murder, Stankewitz told the others in the group: “Did I drop her or did I drop her?”

    Stankewitz has always maintained his innocence and his team of lawyers includes Jones, famed civil rights attorney Tony Serra and his associate, San Francisco attorney Curtis Briggs.

    Over the years, Stankewitz’s case has been litigated from Superior Court to the state Supreme Court. The case was tried twice, and both resulted in a guilty verdict. After the first trial, the California Supreme Court reversed the conviction because Stankewitz’s competency to stand trial was not addressed. He was found competent prior to the second trial, and he was convicted again.

    The second conviction also was appealed, but in 1990 the California Supreme Court affirmed Stankewitz’s conviction and death sentence.

    Stankewitz filed a motion in federal court, saying his attorney did not investigate and present evidence during the penalty phase of his trial. In 2009, a federal judge affirmed Stankewitz’s guilt but reversed his death sentence. Three years later, an appeals court agreed with that decision.

    https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local...229995509.html

  4. #24
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    Chief Stankewitz Granted an Evidentiary Hearing as His Attorneys Attempt to Get Him a New Trial after 46 Years

    By David M. Greenwald
    The Davis Vanguard

    Fresno, CA – Attorneys for Douglas “Chief” Stankewitz believe that he was wrongly convicted of murder in 1978, and has now served nearly 46 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

    Tony Serra, Curtis Briggs, Marshall Hammons and others have been fighting to get him a new trial and now Judge Arlan Harrell, of Fresno County, has granted him an evidentiary hearing.

    In a one-page order, Judge Harrell wrote that “the Court finds that ‘there is a reasonable likelihood that [Petitioner] may be entitled to relief.’”

    The matter is set for a status conference on October 27.

    The Vanguard spoke to Curtis Briggs, one of the lead attorneys in the case along with the legendary Tony Serra.

    He explained an evidentiary hearing “is a space and time that opens up in front of the judge where he can actually give or determine whether something has value as evidence.”

    It is basically a bench trial where the judge will then determine whether the new evidence is sufficient to warrant a new trial.

    Briggs continued, saying “an evidentiary hearing literally opens up a seat on the witness stand and gives us the power to bring witnesses and make them answer questions in front of the judge to explain the documentation, the evidence, and bring their own testimony so that the judge can actually consider this stuff.”

    There are two pieces of key evidence that Briggs believes they “can and will prevail on.”

    The first is ineffective assistance of counsel (IAC) by the trial counsel. He said while there was serious prosecutorial misconduct, “we believe that an even semi-diligent defense attorney would have immediately noticed this at the trial court level. And we think that that’s the most realistic way we can prevail.”

    Second is that they want the judge to look at the evidence that the gun was planted, that the original prosecutor had lied to the court, and was attempting to frame Stankewitz.

    Briggs thinks that might be a tougher sell: “I think politically, to the extent the judge is influenced by pressure politics or local politics, I think IAC is the most viable chance we have.”

    Briggs said, “I certainly believe there was enough evidence that it could have been misconduct, that it could have and should have been pursued at trial by defense counsel, but defense counsel didn’t do their job and discover that.”

    Their goal is to get him a new trial. That resets the burden and puts it back on the DA’s office.

    Moreover, Briggs does not believe they can retry Stankewitz at that point given the amount of time that has lapsed and the age of the witnesses from the original trial.

    “Nobody remembers anything. There’s documents missing. There’s a substantial proof of misconduct, so they can’t really rely on trial transcripts because there was a whole ton of things that weren’t brought to light at that point,” he explained.

    The original trial prosecutor was James Ardaiz.

    “James Ardaiz is the lead prosecutor in the first trial who lied to the court, tried to frame the chief originally, and that trial was overturned. And Ardaiz went on to become the presiding judge of the fifth Appellate District and became this powerful judge, powerful force in Fresno,” Briggs explained.

    Briggs explained that they moved for a gag order on Ardaiz when they came onto the case.

    Briggs noted that Ardaiz got the death penalty reinstated and, in fact, Briggs said they believe that Stankewitz was the first death penalty prosecution after the death penalty was legalized again in California.

    “You have this really aggressive prosecutor, first death prosecution, and he does everything,” Briggs explained. “He’s dirty as hell. All the misconduct basically happens on his watch, gets his conviction.”

    As explained by Briggs, the motion was brought in response to Ardaiz’s statement to the Bee defending the initial conviction of Stankewitz.

    The article from 2016, quoted Ardaiz as saying that he had no doubt that Stankewitz killed the victim.

    He said, “Doug Stankewitz did what I convicted him of doing—a cold-blooded, premeditated murder.”

    In the motion, Briggs charged, “Ardaiz poses an ongoing threat to Stankewitz’s fair trial rights. Ardaiz’s conduct, if unrestrained, jeopardizes the public’s confidence in the judiciary; Ardaiz’s conduct threatens the autonomy of this Court; all of which are against fundamental concepts of an accused’s fair trial rights and due process in violation of the California and United States Constitutions.”

    Briggs added, “Instead of expressing any concern for whether he was misled or not, thereby having taken a part in the wrongful conviction of Chief, Ardaiz essentially told the readers of the Fresno Bee that no matter what a witness says in this matter, and no matter how the evidence unfolds under the adversarial test, Chief should remain on Death Row because Ardaiz said so.”

    https://www.davisvanguard.org/2023/1...fter-46-years/

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