Post by CCADP on Mar 17, 2006 22:35:47 GMT -5
We have a page for him at www.ccadp.org/williamclark.htm
Here's a news article
Death sentence reversed for Los Angeles murderer
By DAVID KRAVETS, AP Legal Affairs Writer
Friday, March 17, 2006
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(03-17) 15:20 PST San Francisco (AP) --
A federal appeals court on Friday overturned the death sentence of a Los Angeles man who murdered his therapist's husband in an attempt to make her as miserable as he was.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld William Clark's conviction, meaning the decision commutes his sentence to life without parole. But the court said jurors may have sent Clark to death row based on the judge providing them false information about capital punishment law.
In 1982, Clark threw gasoline and a lighted flare into his former therapist's home, killing Ava Gawronski's husband, David. Their baby girl was unharmed after she was rescued by a neighbor.
Ava Gawronski lost her fingers, nose and had other injuries but survived.
Clark confessed to the crime and claimed that his purpose in committing the arson was to drive the family out of the home so that he could kill the husband by shooting him with a shotgun, as Gawronski watched. He claimed he did not mean to injure her.
He said the crime was to cause her to suffer the same emotional pain that he claimed to have suffered when she abruptly discontinued counseling him.
Generally, committing a felony, such as arson, while murdering somebody is a capital offense. But the appeals court said Friday that the judge should have instructed the jury — while it was deliberating a life or death sentence — that the arson in Clark's case did not automatically qualify for the death penalty.
The case is Clark v. Brown, 02-99007.
___
Editors: David Kravets has been covering state and federal courts for more than a decade.
Here's a news article
Death sentence reversed for Los Angeles murderer
By DAVID KRAVETS, AP Legal Affairs Writer
Friday, March 17, 2006
* Printable Version
* Email This Article
(03-17) 15:20 PST San Francisco (AP) --
A federal appeals court on Friday overturned the death sentence of a Los Angeles man who murdered his therapist's husband in an attempt to make her as miserable as he was.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld William Clark's conviction, meaning the decision commutes his sentence to life without parole. But the court said jurors may have sent Clark to death row based on the judge providing them false information about capital punishment law.
In 1982, Clark threw gasoline and a lighted flare into his former therapist's home, killing Ava Gawronski's husband, David. Their baby girl was unharmed after she was rescued by a neighbor.
Ava Gawronski lost her fingers, nose and had other injuries but survived.
Clark confessed to the crime and claimed that his purpose in committing the arson was to drive the family out of the home so that he could kill the husband by shooting him with a shotgun, as Gawronski watched. He claimed he did not mean to injure her.
He said the crime was to cause her to suffer the same emotional pain that he claimed to have suffered when she abruptly discontinued counseling him.
Generally, committing a felony, such as arson, while murdering somebody is a capital offense. But the appeals court said Friday that the judge should have instructed the jury — while it was deliberating a life or death sentence — that the arson in Clark's case did not automatically qualify for the death penalty.
The case is Clark v. Brown, 02-99007.
___
Editors: David Kravets has been covering state and federal courts for more than a decade.
