Lawyers for a death row inmate, including former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr, sent fake letters from jurors asking California’s governor to spare the man’s life, prosecutors said Friday.
“We showed each person the declaration on their behalf and they all said they didn’t say that,” Barankin said.
San Joaquin County prosecutor Charles Schultz also said the letters sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week were “untrue” and “pure fiction.”
Morales is scheduled to be executed February 21 for the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl in San Joaquin County 25 years ago.
No comment.
Update 2/13: Starr and Senior today withdrew 5 of the 6 letters they’d submitted. The prosecutor accepted this as conceding the documents were forged and fabricated.
I would not discount the possibility that the jurors did get cold feet when confronted by (doubtlessly angry) attorneys for the State. I am sure that the jurors thought (and were assured by the defense investigator) that their involvement in the case would be over once they signed the statement. having the prosecutors contact them was likely an unpleasant suprise.
there is a rather simple solution – hold off on the lawyer-bashing for a moment and skip straight to handwriting analysis and see if the signatures are genuine …
I find it unlikely that all the jurors who signed what are obviously legal documents would get cold feet and then go lie about not signing them.
I think it’s safe to say on his record that Starr does not feel constrained by the truth.
Someone has some answering to do. The investigator swears the signatures will match. The Prosecutor swears they are forged. Starr and Senior, the appeal lawyers, have too much to lose to purposely falsify documents. But then the Police and Prosecutors do it all the time without penalty.
Not too often does the Prosecutor admit that any of their evidence or witnesses might be less then credible. The point about the Prosecutor’s office showing up with badges and guns makes a good argument for people falsifying testimony and affidavits.
Charles McGrath, the Ventura County judge who presided over the trial in 1983 and sentenced Morales to death, also has asked the governor to commute the sentence to life in prison without parole, saying he questions the reliability of a jailhouse informant who testified against Morales.
If the presiding Judge now questions the reliability of certain witnesses, why not give the man a new trial. Would it not be better to be sure he is guilty? When we are talking about executing someone, we better be sure and NOT have doubts.
>I think it’s safe to say on his record that Starr does not feel constrained >by the truth.
What record is that? His record during the impeachment investigation was perfect. The only lies I’m aware of from that are Sid Blumenthal lying about what he was asked by the grand jury. Starr even self-investigated and found and fired the leaker in his legal team.
He wasn’t commissioned to investigate an impeachment. get your facts straight neocon.
His record as a special prosecutor is the same as a man caught in a snow storm. He was originally commissioned to investigate Ms. Clinton’s commodities trading issues and then he wanders around for five years and comes up with a guy who lied about a blow job.
Great record!
Heh. Ken Starr. Is anyone surprised???
>get your facts straight neocon.
What a strange correction. I use the words impeachment investigation loosely to mean his investigation led to impeachment, and you come back with false facts. He was originally assigned to Whitewater, and also given Travel Office, FBI files, and Vince Foster’s suicide, and then assigned to investigate obstruction of justice in the Paula Jones case aka Monicagate. I don’t think he had anything to do with cattle futures unless that is linked in with Whitewater(which the Monica Lewinsky case was).
James – you would be surprised at the number of people who are putty in the hands of the last lawyer they talked to.
Refresh my memory, AB – to what party did the majority of people who repeatedly “assigned” Ken Starr to investigate increasingly far reaching and unrelated issues to that which he was originally tasked belong? Oh, wait, nevermind, I remember now. It was the party of Dick Cheney and Jack Abramoff.
Ken Starr obviously feels morally obligated to see to it that people are punished for their wrongdoing, except in those cases where they actually break a law. What a beacon of morality. No wonder the Pat Robertson wing of the Republican “Party” is so quick to rally to his side.