Death Penalty News

According to Greta Lindecrantz's attorney, Robert Ray's defense team believes that testifying for the prosecution could actually save Ray's life. A Mennonite woman who refused to testify in a death penalty case on the grounds that capital punishment violated her religious beliefs has reversed course, and has now agreed to take the stand. According to a release from Greta Lindecrantz’s attorney, Mari Newman, the criminal defense investigator now feels that her beliefs compel her to testify.  Newman says this comes after Lindecrantz learned that Robert Ray’s current legal team believes that not obtaining her testimony would actually hurt Ray’s chances of avoiding the death penalty. Lindecrantz was jailed on February 26 because she declined to testify for the prosecution seeking to uphold the death sentence of Robert Ray, who was convicted of two murders in 2009.  Ray’s current defense team is trying to argue that the defense in his original trial was in...

The Colorado Court of Appeals on Friday affirmed a contempt of court ruling, thereby keeping a Mennonite investigator, who is refusing to testify in a death penalty case, in jail. The judges listened to arguments for about an hour from attorneys representing Greta Lindecrantz, the 67-year-old who has been in jail since Monday for contempt of court , and Arapahoe County District Judge Michelle Amico, who sent her there. The three-judge panel did not make an immediate decision, although Presiding Judge Jerry Jones said they would consider the case carefully and quickly.  He opened the hearing by saying, “We are acutely aware this is a very serious matter.” Later in the day,  the panel affirmed the ruling. “Ms. Lindecrantz is in a tough spot — caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. We take no pleasure in declining to extricate her. But the state of the law being what it is, decline we must,” Judge Jones said in the ruling. Judges Robert D. Hawthor...

Lawyer for Greta Lindecrantz says she is being punished for long-standing religious beliefs A 67-year-old Mennonite woman spent a second day in the Arapahoe County jail Tuesday after she refused to testify for the prosecution in a death penalty case. Greta Lindecrantz on Tuesday morning was found in contempt of court after she told District Judge Michelle Amico she would not answer questions in the witness stand because of her religious beliefs. Lindecrantz has been called to testify on behalf of the prosecution in an appeals hearing for Robert Ray, who was sentenced to death in 2009 for ordering the murder of Javad Marshall-Fields and Vivian Wolfe, who were witnesses in another murder case. Lindecrantz worked as an investigator for Ray’s defense team, but those attorneys have not called her as a witness. However, the prosecution wants to question her about her work during the investigation and original trial, said her attorney, Mari Newman. All of her work already is a ...