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Article: Serial killer seeks a lifeline: `NIGHT STALKER' APPEALS DEATH SENTENCE, CLAIMING A FAULTY DEFENSE.
- Article from:
- San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, CA)
- Article date:
- June 4, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 San Jose Mercury News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Howard Mintz
Jun. 4--More than 20 years after he terrorized Southern California in a grisly killing spree, "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez's challenge to his death sentence is reaching the state Supreme Court. But when lawyers argue one of the state's most notorious death row cases in the Supreme Court's chambers Tuesday, Ramirez's devil worship and eerie crimes will not be center stage. Instead, the focal point will be a pair of San Jose defense lawyers whose inexperience in capital cases and controversial behavior at trial are at the heart of the effort to get Ramirez's death sentence set aside. Ramirez, now 46, was condemned to die in 1989 for ...