As an aside, did you notice that he was sentenced in 1998, but the appellate court affirmed his appeal in 2004. Presumably that means he was granted a delayed appeal (because there’s no indication that this was a re-opened appeal pursuant to App.R. 26, and sentencing errors are typically not proper for petitions for post-conviction relief). Given the timeframe involved, I would think a delayed appeal would’ve been filed at some point in late 2003 or early 2004. Considering the fact that delayed appeals aren’t granted frequently, I’d be interested in knowing what he said in the motion that convinced the court of appeals to grant him a delayed appeal.
I noticed the date discrepancy, too, so after your comment I went and checked. Your right, it was a delayed appeal. Main issue were the alleged failure of the judge to properly instruct the jury on complicity. She’d also appealed the consecutive sentences (this was pre-Foster, of course) on the grounds that the court hadn’t stated a sufficient justification for them. Somewhat interestingly, the court noted that she could have gotten 133 years, “yet the [trial] court opted to order her to serve only 39 years.” “Only…”
From the details provided in the two opinions, this was certainly a frightening crime; she and her brother robbed a jewelry store at gunpoint, and she told her brother to kill the people in the store so there wouldn’t be any witnesses (he obviously didn’t). Still, in light of what she’s done with her time in prison, I’m not sure how we’re better off that she’s going to be there for another 30 years, until she’s 58.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:34 am
As an aside, did you notice that he was sentenced in 1998, but the appellate court affirmed his appeal in 2004. Presumably that means he was granted a delayed appeal (because there’s no indication that this was a re-opened appeal pursuant to App.R. 26, and sentencing errors are typically not proper for petitions for post-conviction relief). Given the timeframe involved, I would think a delayed appeal would’ve been filed at some point in late 2003 or early 2004. Considering the fact that delayed appeals aren’t granted frequently, I’d be interested in knowing what he said in the motion that convinced the court of appeals to grant him a delayed appeal.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Sorry, all the male references in the last comment should have been female.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:56 am
I noticed the date discrepancy, too, so after your comment I went and checked. Your right, it was a delayed appeal. Main issue were the alleged failure of the judge to properly instruct the jury on complicity. She’d also appealed the consecutive sentences (this was pre-Foster, of course) on the grounds that the court hadn’t stated a sufficient justification for them. Somewhat interestingly, the court noted that she could have gotten 133 years, “yet the [trial] court opted to order her to serve only 39 years.” “Only…”
From the details provided in the two opinions, this was certainly a frightening crime; she and her brother robbed a jewelry store at gunpoint, and she told her brother to kill the people in the store so there wouldn’t be any witnesses (he obviously didn’t). Still, in light of what she’s done with her time in prison, I’m not sure how we’re better off that she’s going to be there for another 30 years, until she’s 58.