Back to Utah. Well when arriving in Court Wednesday, the present case was dismissed, but instead of it going away, the prosecutor had re-charged the defendants and new dates were set. More trips to Salt Lake, but the case was finally settled with dispositions by plea for the several defendants. My guy got a great deal, but the main man, my client’s brother, got hammered. The judge must have liked me, as he invited me into his chambers afterwards for some coffee (looks like I was on the second level of approval, as I was told that “top-tier” got a shot of Wild Turkey.) Got to see a hockey game in Salt Lake during the course of the proceedings and also a professional basketball game and did lots of skiing.
LET’S ADDRESS THE DEATH PENALTY.
The presidential election is coming up next month, including lots of State and local propositions. Included in one is the elimination of the Death Penalty and in another proposition it’s keeping the Death penalty but tightening up the rules for attacking a Death penalty conviction to make it quicker to move to an execution.
My personal experience involves several cases both as a prosecutor and defense attorney. I will address both as this blog progresses I will state at this time I am ambivalent on the subject and there are good arguments for both positions.
My first experience with a Capital Punishment case was in November of 1959 when I was just 32 years old, At the time, I was the third level DA in Department 101 of The Superior Court My boss was the assistant Chief Trial Attorney in a Court of three prosecutors. My Boss, Cliff Crail was a long-time DA as were a whole bunch of the senior DAs. The best job for new lawyers during the Depression of the 30s was government jobs protected by Civil Service Laws. The old timers were the best of the best and as straight-shooters as anyone could find. They were super knowledgeable and great role models. We learned from them the awesome responsibility of prosecution and the non-abuse discretion in charging someone with a crime Anyway, this was at the time of my second stint in the trial department coming from an assignment in the Santa Monica Branch Office.
Well, Darrell Kemp was indicted by the Grand Jury with 5 Counts as follows: One Count of premeditated murder in the course of the commission of forcible rape of Nurse Marjorie Hipperson committed on June 10, 1957; The rape of Hellen Shelton on June 15, 1959 as well as the rape by force and rape by threat of force, and the forcible rape of Lila Sherman on May 12 1959. and set for trial on November 19, 1959, before Judge Herbert Walker in Dept. 101 at the Hall of Justice.
Cliff Crail was to try the case and I was assigned to assist, which meant to carry Cliff’s briefcase and see to it all of the witnesses were in order. Then a case broke which had coverage a lot like the OJ. Simpson case:
Dr. Bernard Finch fell for his office nurse and, rather than just get a divorce, he and his nurse, Carol Tregoff, apparently conspired to kill Dr. Bernie’s wife. A sloppy job with all of the overtones of a cheap novel.
Anyway the Office wanted Cliff and another senior Deputy Fred Wichello to prosecute Dr. Bernie and his true love, Carol. They had to have a special courtroom to accommodate the Press and spectators. If you want to read the facts, Google People v Finch/Trgoff at 213 Cal App 2nd 752. (it took three trials to finally get the bad guy and girl)
Well, that left the Kemp case sort of in limbo wouldn’t you say. Cliff and one of my earlier bosses, Joe Carr, thought I could do the job on my own even though LAPD wanted a more experienced prosecutor; it was going to be my job to prosecute Kemp.
For the facts, Google People v Darrell Kep 55 Cal 2nd 458.
The Kemp trial was in three phases, first guilt and if the Jury returned a verdict of Guilty to the murder charge in the 1st degree, then the next phase due to a plea of not-guilty by reason of insanity, and if the jury finds the guy sane at the time of the crime, then California had instituted a new law where the jury then decides whether the defendant should get either Death or Life imprisonment. The Kemp case was the second trial in California with the three-phase trial (in law, it is known as bifurcated trials.
In the beginning, Kemp claimed through his attorney he was not presently sane to the extent he was incapable due to a mental condition to know what was going on and could not cooperate with his attorney. After extensive hearing on that issue with psychiatrists testifying at cross conclusion, the Court found Kemp sane so we then proceeded to the guilt phase.
A short fact summary is Kemp crawled through the window of Marjorie’s window, attacked her violently, bruising parts of her body as she must have resisted,tied her with her own stockings, shoved a dishrag into her mouth to prevent a call for help, forcefully penetrated her private parts and then strangled her to death. She was in her 30s, a nurse engaged to a young intern, but her future life was stolen from her. There was no direct evidence connecting Kemp to the crime, but his fingerprints were found on the entry window sill as well as his palm print found on the wall next to her body and someone had left a note slipped under a neighbor’s door stating the writer had been watching the neighbor and inquired if the neighbor was interested in getting together. (the neighbor reported to the police and also had kept the note) The other two charged rapes occurred in Griffith Park, a large expanse of park property located in North Central Los Angeles near Dodger Stadium where in one case posing as a park attendant he told the victim he would give her a ride, as she was waiting for a bus, but instead of driving out of the Park, he lured her to a remote area by a steep cliff and after walking to a secluded area threatened to throw her down the hill unless she succumbed to a sex act. Based on the threat, she complied. And, the third after posing as a Park attendant forcefully stopped her vehicle, grabbed her by the hair, dragged her to a hidden area, bashed her with a rock rendering her unconscious, but first telling her he was going to kill her like he did to Hipperson, left her for dead. He started to leave, the victim regained consciousness, ran out, saw another car approaching, screamed for the car to stop Kemp, but he got away, but not before the victim was able to get partial plate numbers. Based on that, a car matching the description was spotted by a LAPD Officer, detained and Kemp the driver was arrested, interrogated and subsequently charged.
There is a lot of stuff left but after a lengthy trial, Kemp was found guilty of Murder 1st and sentenced to death.
Never able to execute Kemp, because every time I would draft a death warrant to the Warden at San Quentin, Kemp would, I believe, pretend insanity until the Death Penalty was declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court as then written in California and then, surprise surprise, Kemp became very permanently sane. The alternative to Death in California is Life Without Parole, but not for Kemp. Guess what? You got it, he was eventually paroled, moved to Texas and got caught trying to attack another young lady and again tied her up with her own stocking after invading her residence, but she must have fought back as he was convicted of the rape, sent to a Texas prison.
I bet you thought that was the end-but no.
A woman was murdered in Northern California and her body was found in a remote area on the East Bay area city of Lafayette. Until DNA became the connector between a person and evidence, that crime had not been solved. Now there was a match between trace evidence on this East Bay victim and Darrell Kemp.
Kemp was a few years back extradited to Contra County Court, tried for the murder, convicted and now resides on Death Row at San Quentin State Prison.
Back to discussion of the Death Penalty. One of the arguments put forth by opponents of the death penalty is it is no deterrent. In some cases of crazy nuts acting on impulse, that might well be true. But in the case of Darrell Kemp, if he had been executed rather than paroled, that Texas young lady would not have been attacked and certainly the young lady found murdered in the East Bay would still be alive, living her life, possibly married, possibly having children and possibly enjoying those things we all expect throughout one’s life, and, of course the parents, family and friends and joys would still be with her and them.
In addition, my former partner, Byron McMillan’s dad was an assembly man from, would you believe, the Borscht Belt (Beverly /Fairfax in LA) and would author a bill every two years or so to abolish the Death Penalty in California and I as a DA was assigned to debate the issue to various organizations through LA opposed by an ACLU representative. I had solid evidence of the deterrent effect through several different police reports where the perpetrator for robberies was armed with either a fake, unloaded or dismantled hand gun. When asked why such a unworkable weapon, the response was always,”I don’t want to accidentally or any other way get into a position to kill someone and face “The Pill.” (in those days, execution was in the gas chamber by dropping a pill of potassium cyanide.) So at least in those cases the Penalty is and was deterrent
I am not done with this conversation about the penalty. Too many innocent people have been sentenced to Death throughout the Country, too many corrupt DAs, too many incompetent attorneys, some I have witnessed in my cases. So, the issue is still an open question in my mind. We will face the issue later, as I am fading out at this time.
Bye,
Marshall
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