Post by MXB on Jun 10, 2007 6:38:07 GMT -5
U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear Night Stalker's case
By: North County Times wire services -
LOS ANGELES - The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to review the case against "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez, who was sentenced to death for murdering 13 people during a 14-month crime spree that terrorized the Southland in the 1980s.
The nation's high court rejected the defense's request to review a California Supreme Court decision upholding Ramirez's death sentence.
The state Supreme Court, in August 2006, unanimously rejected Ramirez's claim that numerous errors were made in his trial in Los Angeles Superior Court. But more appeals are expected on Ramirez's behalf.
Ramirez, now 47 and on death row at San Quentin, was sentenced to die for the crimes after a high-profile trial.
Ramirez committed murders in Glassell Park, Rosemead, Whittier, Monterey Park, Monrovia, Arcadia, Glendale, Sun Valley and Diamond Bar. His crime spree also extended to San Francisco and Orange County, where an engineer was shot but survived an attack in which his fiancee was raped.
Along with the murders, he was convicted of 30 other counts -- including attempted murder, rape and first-degree burglary -- for the nighttime killings between June 1984 and August 1985 that made the self-proclaimed devil worshipper one of California's most notorious criminals.
Just over a year after being caught on the street by a group of angry East Los Angeles residents, the former drifter from El Paso called a guard over to his jail cell and showed photographs of two of the murder victims.
At his sentencing hearing, Ramirez rocked back and forth and turned to grin at the audience, vowing that he would be "avenged."
"You maggots made me sick, hypocrites one and all. We are all expendable for a cause, and no one knows that better than those who kill for policy, clandestinely or openly, as do the governments of the world which kill in the name of God and country and for whatever else they deem appropriate," Ramirez said.
"You don't understand me," he said just before being sentenced to death. "You are not expected to. You are not capable of it. I am beyond your experience. I am beyond good and evil."
By: North County Times wire services -
LOS ANGELES - The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to review the case against "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez, who was sentenced to death for murdering 13 people during a 14-month crime spree that terrorized the Southland in the 1980s.
The nation's high court rejected the defense's request to review a California Supreme Court decision upholding Ramirez's death sentence.
The state Supreme Court, in August 2006, unanimously rejected Ramirez's claim that numerous errors were made in his trial in Los Angeles Superior Court. But more appeals are expected on Ramirez's behalf.
Ramirez, now 47 and on death row at San Quentin, was sentenced to die for the crimes after a high-profile trial.
Ramirez committed murders in Glassell Park, Rosemead, Whittier, Monterey Park, Monrovia, Arcadia, Glendale, Sun Valley and Diamond Bar. His crime spree also extended to San Francisco and Orange County, where an engineer was shot but survived an attack in which his fiancee was raped.
Along with the murders, he was convicted of 30 other counts -- including attempted murder, rape and first-degree burglary -- for the nighttime killings between June 1984 and August 1985 that made the self-proclaimed devil worshipper one of California's most notorious criminals.
Just over a year after being caught on the street by a group of angry East Los Angeles residents, the former drifter from El Paso called a guard over to his jail cell and showed photographs of two of the murder victims.
At his sentencing hearing, Ramirez rocked back and forth and turned to grin at the audience, vowing that he would be "avenged."
"You maggots made me sick, hypocrites one and all. We are all expendable for a cause, and no one knows that better than those who kill for policy, clandestinely or openly, as do the governments of the world which kill in the name of God and country and for whatever else they deem appropriate," Ramirez said.
"You don't understand me," he said just before being sentenced to death. "You are not expected to. You are not capable of it. I am beyond your experience. I am beyond good and evil."