Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 25, 2006 0:56:56 GMT -5
Man On Death Row To Have Appeal Reheard: Fields On Death Row For Murder,
Rape Of USC Student
A man who has been on death row for a quarter century for killing a USC
student librarian and kidnapping and raping 3 other women will have his
appeal reheard, a federal appeals court said Thursday.
Stevie Lamar Fields, 49, was convicted in 1979 of murdering 26-year-old
Rosemary Cobbs a year earlier, as well as kidnapping, robbing and raping
three other women -- one of them an 18-year-old USC student.
He was also found guilty of robbing a man of his car and money at
gunpoint.
In his appeal, Fields argues that because one of the jurors in the trial
had a wife who had been raped, the man was unfairly biased against him.
Fields also claims his attorney should have objected to having the man on
the jury, and that the lawyer failed to interview some members of Fields'
family before the penalty phase of the trial.
The decision to rehear his appeal voids a 3-0 ruling a 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals panel issued in December that rejected Fields' claims,
holding that the juror was honest when he stated during jury selection
that his wife had been "assaulted and beaten, robbed" 2 years before the
trial took place.
As it turned out, the juror's wife had been accosted at gunpoint by a
black man in his early 20s, driven to a secluded area and raped, in
addition to being beaten and robbed.
During the course of Fields' appeal, the juror testified that he did not
intend to hide the fact that his wife had been raped, and that he did not
confuse Fields -- who, like the juror, is also black -- with his wife's
assailant, according to the ruling.
A larger 11-judge panel of the 9th Circuit will now rehear the appeal and
issue a new ruling.
If the panel overturns his conviction, prosecutors would have the chance
to retry the case before Fields would be set free.
The crimes Fields was convicted of began 14 days after he had been paroled
from prison, where he served a voluntary manslaughter sentence for
bludgeoning a man to death in 1976.
A lawyer representing Fields in his appeal could not be immediately
reached for comment.
(source: CBS2, California)
Rape Of USC Student
A man who has been on death row for a quarter century for killing a USC
student librarian and kidnapping and raping 3 other women will have his
appeal reheard, a federal appeals court said Thursday.
Stevie Lamar Fields, 49, was convicted in 1979 of murdering 26-year-old
Rosemary Cobbs a year earlier, as well as kidnapping, robbing and raping
three other women -- one of them an 18-year-old USC student.
He was also found guilty of robbing a man of his car and money at
gunpoint.
In his appeal, Fields argues that because one of the jurors in the trial
had a wife who had been raped, the man was unfairly biased against him.
Fields also claims his attorney should have objected to having the man on
the jury, and that the lawyer failed to interview some members of Fields'
family before the penalty phase of the trial.
The decision to rehear his appeal voids a 3-0 ruling a 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals panel issued in December that rejected Fields' claims,
holding that the juror was honest when he stated during jury selection
that his wife had been "assaulted and beaten, robbed" 2 years before the
trial took place.
As it turned out, the juror's wife had been accosted at gunpoint by a
black man in his early 20s, driven to a secluded area and raped, in
addition to being beaten and robbed.
During the course of Fields' appeal, the juror testified that he did not
intend to hide the fact that his wife had been raped, and that he did not
confuse Fields -- who, like the juror, is also black -- with his wife's
assailant, according to the ruling.
A larger 11-judge panel of the 9th Circuit will now rehear the appeal and
issue a new ruling.
If the panel overturns his conviction, prosecutors would have the chance
to retry the case before Fields would be set free.
The crimes Fields was convicted of began 14 days after he had been paroled
from prison, where he served a voluntary manslaughter sentence for
bludgeoning a man to death in 1976.
A lawyer representing Fields in his appeal could not be immediately
reached for comment.
(source: CBS2, California)