Effort is on to speed up Nevada death penalty cases

The execution chamber at Nevada State
Prison in Carson City

Reno police undercover narcotics officer Jimmy Hoff was about to make his last and biggest career drug bust before returning to patrol as a K-9 officer.

Instead, the 32-year-old was fatally stabbed June 24, 1979, during an ambush at Idlewild Park that was planned and practiced by 4 young men whose aim was to rob him of $16,000 in cocaine money.

32 years after a 3-judge panel sentenced the ringleader, Thomas Edward Wilson, to death, he remains Nevada’s longest standing death row inmate, to the dismay of Hoff’s surviving relatives and the original police investigators.

The delay is the result of appeals filed on his behalf ­— which for more than 3 decades have been denied by local, state and federal courts. Most, including an oral argument to the state high court last month, seek the same claims for relief.

Wilson pleaded guilty to Hoff’s 1st-degree murder, and his three accomplices are serving sentences of life without parole.

In Wilson’s appeal denials, judges have written there had been “overwhelming” evidence of guilt in the “premeditated” murder that was committed to rob Officer Hoff and receive his money.

State Sen. Don Gustavson, R-Sparks, and a group of retired Reno police detectives will be testifying Friday morning during a state Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on behalf of Senate Bill 283, which Gustavson hopes will help shave at least a few years off of “meritless” death penalty appeals so that inmates like Wilson don’t linger on death row for decades.

A death sentence is automatically appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court; all other appeals are voluntary. In 2010, the average time spent on death row in Nevada was about 17 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The U.S. Supreme Court already has ruled that states are not required to provide attorneys in postconviction appeals. Nevada law mandates it, leaving judges no choice but to appoint a new attorney.

Gustavson’s amendment to the state’s law on death penalty appeals would give judges discretion in appointing new lawyers, either when an inmate seeks to raise legal issues that mostly were denied in the past or claims that prior attorneys were ineffective.

“The current system for dealing with capital appeals is dysfunctional, and the limited judicial resources of our courts is promising years of delay at the expense of the families’ victims who deserve finality and closure,” Gustavson said Thursday.

But others said that this bill won’t fix Nevada’s death row problems and could keep innocent people on death row.

“We believe it would likely violate constitutional protections, such as equal protection and the Sixth Amendment,” Washoe County Public Defender Jeremy Bosler said.

Victim’s family

Hoff’s siblings — Patty Rowan of Las Vegas, Dennis George of Reno, and Sandra Hutchison of Woodland, Calif. — support the proposal because they said Nevada’s death penalty does not work, delaying justice.

82 inmates are on death row in Nevada, according to the Nevada Department of Corrections. The state’s last execution was in 2006, and that was only because the executed inmate, Reno serial killer Daryl Mack, gave up his appeals.

“I worry they won’t execute him in my lifetime,” Rowan, 73, said of Wilson.

Rowan said their mother, Lucille, died in 1997 brokenhearted because Wilson had still not faced justice.

“That would make my life worth dying for,” Rowan said. “When he got death, I thought it was a good sentence and he wouldn’t be allowed to live. This has been going on way too long and there’s gotta be a law that says ‘this is enough’ Families have to suffer through this, and it’s horrible for all of them. We’ve got to fix the law."

George and Hutchison said they are disappointed Wilson remains on death row.

“I believe in a life for a life,” Hutchison said. “It’s so annoying to me that here it’s been 32 years and he’s still hanging in there. It makes no sense. I don’t know a lot about the judicial system but it seems that after a certain amount of time something should be done. Nevada doesn’t do anything."

Opponents: This isn’t the fix

But not everyone is convinced that the proposal is the right way to solve the problem.

Washoe County Public Defender Jeremy Bosler said his office supports the need for speedy justice, but there is an even greater need for accuracy.

He said that in recent years, hundreds of death row inmates across the country have been exonerated following a closer look at their cases — even though juries determined there had been overwhelming evidence against them.

State and federal courts also affirmed many of those convictions, yet years later, evidence was discovered that forced prosecutors to dismiss charges, he said.

“The idea that at the end of this complex litigation, a court, or some other government officer, is given the discretion to decide if a person facing execution should have a lawyer to prepare a direct appeal does not comport with our country’s fundamental rights of due process,” Bosler said.

And while Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick, a Republican, said he supports the death penalty for deserving killers, he’s not so sure changing the state law would make a difference. He said the federal 9th Circuit Appeals Court would have to agree the changes are constitutional; otherwise, the cases would continue to be sent back to lower courts for new hearings.

“They’re not even close to solving the problem,” Gammick said of the proposal’s affect on reducing languishing death penalty appeals.

Supporters: Money could be saved, justice served.

Retired Reno police detectives Wayne Teglia, who approached Gustavson to introduce the bill, and Dave Jenkins said the general public likely isn’t aware of inmates languishing on death row for decades, even though juries and judicial panels voted they were the “worst of the worst” and deserve death.

Both said the proposal is not a moral debate about the death penalty. Instead, it’s about carrying out a legal sentence made available by the state Legislature. They also said that in this recession, it’s simply too expensive to allow taxpayer money to be wasted on legal fees associated with senseless appeals.

“It’s a slap in the face of justice when sentences never get carried out,” Jenkins said. “Right now, it’s a system of a process of no ends and a lack of respect for the verdict. How can you have a just process when if 32 years later, you are still on death row? There is something fundamentally wrong with the system."

Teglia said Wilson isn’t the only local murderer languishing on death row. He pointed to Ricky Sechrest, who was sentenced to die in 1983 for kidnapping and killing two young girls in Reno; Siaosi Vanisi, sentenced to die in 1999 for the hatchet slaying of a University of Nevada, Reno officer; and serial killer David Middleton, who was sentenced in 1997 for the deaths of 2 women in Reno.

“These guys are guilty as sin, and some have confessed,” said Teglia, an original investigator in the Hoff killing. “The chance of error on death row with a guilty conviction is very hard now that DNA is so advanced. Now, victims’ rights are not considered. The Nevada Legislature created this problem, and only they can fix it."

Source: Reno Gazette-Journal, April 8, 2011

A closer look

Senate Bill 283

What it does: Introduced by state Sen. Don Gustavson, R-Sparks, this bill aims to reduce some death penalty appeals by giving local judges discretion to keep appointing new lawyers to file new appeals, instead of mandating them by law.

Supporters say: Death-row inmates would not be able to abuse the appeal process as much, and would cut down the number of years they would be on death row. It could save the state money — possibly millions — in legal fees associated with endless appeals. A change would help ensure that a legal sentence was carried out for the benefit of victims, their families and the community. The U.S. Supreme Court already has ruled that states are not required to appoint attorneys in post conviction proceedings.

Critics say: Appeals are part of a person’s right to due process and should be left alone. Previous death-row exonerations across the country proved that later appeals provided evidence that proved the person was innocent. Any change in the law would also face scrutiny from the federal 9th Circuit Appeals Court, which could not accept the change and kick the case back to a lower court for more hearings.

What’s next

Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today.

Death row costs

The cost each year of housing Nevada’s 82 death-row inmates is about $2.1 million, said the Nevada Department of Corrections. While no current data were available, it was estimated in 2001 it costs the state between $2.5 to $5 million per death row inmate, compared to about $760,000 for an inmate sentenced to a life in prison without parole.

Death penalty appeals are conducted at state and federal courts. A death sentence is automatically appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court, while subsequent appeals are voluntary. According to Nevada Supreme Court appeals filings, Thomas Edward Wilson’s defense fees are more than $3,000 per month when he has an active appeal in that court.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, in 2008, California concluded it spent $137 million a year on its death-penalty system, compared to spending $11.5 million a year to fund an inmate’s life-in-prison term without parole.

Other states, the center said, found that costs to its indigent court services were so extraordinary that there were not enough resources to defend capital cases, such was the case in New Mexico. Other states such as New Jersey and New York also spent millions each year while having no executions.

Last month, Illinois became the 16th state to abolish the death penalty, after several death row inmates were exonerated throughout the last several years. Its last execution was 11 years ago.

Source: Reno Gazette-Journal, April 8, 2011

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