FRIDAY,AUGUST 23,2002
NATION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
7A
Murder suspectsane, DA claims
The Associated Press
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The defense of Cary Stayner, a former handyman on trial in the slayings of three Yosemite National Park tourists, was a smoke screen to confuse jurors, a prosecutor asserted during closing arguments yesterday.
Prosecutor George Williamson said defense lawyer Marcia Morrissey had to "blow smoke" because she didn't have any facts to support her claim that Stayner had been insane when he committed the crimes.
He said there was overwhelming evidence to convict Stayner of first-degree murder, which could bring the death penalty. The defense has argued for a second-degree murder conviction, which would spare Stayner from death row.
"It's not her fault she doesn't have a case," Williamson said. "What are you going to do when you come into court and the DA has three bodies and a cop-out you can corroborate 42 different ways?"
In her closing Wednesday, Morrissey argued that Stayner
had been psychotic at the time of the killings.
Jurors were expected to begin deliberations later in the day.
Stayner, 41, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to murdering Carole Sund, 42, her daughter Juli, 15, and their friend Silvina Pelosso, 16, in February 1999, while they were staying at the motel where Stayner worked outside Yosemite National Park.
Williamson discounted the insanity defense as "goofy" and "loopy."
He reminded jurors that Stayner described his plans to
kill in detail during his confession to the FBI.
If Stayner is convicted of first-degree murder and at least one other felony, such as kidnapping or attempted rape, the defense will try to prove he was insane during a second phase of the trial.
If that bid fails, a third phase will determine whether Stayner should be executed.
Stayner is already serving life without parole after pleading guilty to murdering nature guide Joie Armstrong, 26, near her cabin in the park three years ago.
Man overdoses parents indicted for failure to act
The Associated Press
Trenton, NJ - A couple showed "conscious disregard" for their 18-year-old son by ignoring the heroin use that killed him, a grand jury said in a manslaughter indictment that legal experts say raises questions about parental liability.
Lawyers assist Moussaoui after recent plea change
The Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Zacarias Moussaoui, who has derided his court-appointed lawyers as "blood-suckers," is working through an intermediary to get legal help from the attorneys he despises as he prepares for his Jan. 6 trial as an accused Sept. 11 conspirator.
Moussaoui, representing himself, changed his tactics
— but not his rhetoric — on July 25, after a judge refused to accept a guilty plea on his terms and made a trial likely.
After withdrawing the guilty plea, Moussaoui was faced with the realization that he had to prepare a defense for a case that could end with his execution.
Moussaoui said in court July 25 he would begin indirect contact with the lawyers but added: "It is most disgusting."
Since that day, motions by Moussaoui and the court-appointed team indicate the defendant has been communicating with the lawyers through a Muslim professor, Sadiq Reza of New York Law School in Manhattan.
Reza declined to comment on his role in the case.
"It appears that Mr. Moussaoui, without changing his view that we are adverse to him, will be seeking assistance from Professor Reza, who has indicated he will need assistance from us precisely in the areas related to our discovery (evidence) review," the court-appointed team said in an Aug. 16 motion.
A defense team motion a week earlier said Moussaoui "recently re-engaged communication" with the lawyers but did not want them initiating motions on his behalf.
Before the July 25 hearing
ended, Moussaoui told the defense team headed by federal public defender Frank Dunham Jr. that he was giving the lawyers their first assignment: find a man described by Moussaoui as a British agent and a conspirator in the Sept. 11 attacks.
"We're pleased to help him in any way we can and we will be out there looking for the witness as soon as he sends us the particulars," Dunham said after the hearing.
The lawyers and Moussaoui sought to preserve testimony of a witness who faces deportation from the United States. The lawyers sought a videotaped deposition but the judge went further, granting Moussaoui's own motion to postpone the deportation so the witness could appear in person.
Dunham wouldn't comment on other ways the team is working with Moussaoui.
Editor dies in 15-story plunge
NEWYORK — A business editor at The New York Times fell to his death from the 11th floor of the newspaper's Times Square office building yesterday in what police said was a possible suicide.
The Associated press
possible Myerson, 47, fell from the West 43rd Street building and landed on the roof of a garage.
Newspaper representative Catherine Mathis confirmed the death and said Myerson had worked at The Times since 1989. His title was assistant business editor/weekends.
"As with any family, we're called on to endure our share of tragedies," she quoted publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.
Police were investigating the circumstances of the death.
Myerson joined the Times after working for the Lexington Herald-Leader and The Dallas Morning News. He is survived by his wife, Carol Cropper Myerson, who works at BusinessWeek.
Criminal law experts said the indictment handed up Tuesday was "very unusual" because Mary and Lewis Hockenbury were not accused of selling or giving drugs to their son. Leonardo DiPasquale died of an overdose at the couple's home last year.
"Criminal law doesn't prosecute a failure to act. It only prosecutes acts," said George Thomas, professor of law at Rutgers School of Law in Newark.
Prosecutor Katharine Erickson said the Lebanon Township couple weren't presented as possible defendants to the grand jury.
"But after the hearing all the evidence jurors decided on their own they wanted to consider a charge of manslaughter against the parents," Errickson said.
the parent. The grand jury saw evidence of "conscious disregard" by the couple for their son, Erickson said. She did not elaborate.
The couple didn't return phone calls yesterday from The Associated Press, and prosecutors did not know whether the couple had an attorney.
The Hockenburys, who could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted, were indicted along with three friends of DiPasquale who are accused of giving him drugs.
"Criminal law doesn't prosecute a failure to act. It only prosecutes acts."
George Thomas professor at Rutgers School of Law
Erica Poch, 18, and Christine Curtin, 21, were also charged with manslaughter. James Bowkley. 46, was charged with drug distribution.
Sandra Guerra Thompson, a law professor at the University of Houston Law Center, said prosecutors would have a tough time proving the couple knew DiPasquale's heroin use would contribute to his death.
"Relatives living in the same home may have a legal duty to rescue each other if in trouble, like choking, for example," Thompson said. "But people who take heroin don't normally die."
In recent years, some states have passed laws that hold parents liable for a child's crimes. But Thompson said courts had consistently declared those laws unconstitutional.
Thomas said the case was especially unusual because DiPasquale was an adult when he died and presumably responsible for his actions.
However, Errickson said that made no difference in the case: "If he was a child, more charges could have been filed against the parents."
Before his death, DIPasquale himself had been charged with drug distribution for his role in the fatal overdose of a 17-year-old who also died last year after taking heroin.
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