Post by CCADP on Aug 26, 2005 8:10:26 GMT -5
Court denies convict's death sentence appeal
Schmeck murdered Fremont man while stealing vehicle in 1986
By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER
California's Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the conviction and death sentence of a transient who murdered a Fremont man while stealing his recreational vehicle in 1986.
The court unanimously rejected Mark Lindsey Schmeck's argument that four potential jurors were wrongly excused from the case because of their opposition to the death penalty, or two others because they were Jewish.
The 91-page opinion also dismissed Schmeck's claim that the trial judge incorrectly limited his lawyer's ability tocross-examine Jamie Gronley — Schmeck's former girlfriend — about promises prosecutors made to her regarding an unrelated drug charge in exchange for her testimony.
And the high court rejected Schmeck's claims of hearsay evidence; illegal search and evidence seizure; evidence mishandling; faulty jury instructions; misconduct by prosecutors and jurors; and wrongful admission of information on a prior conviction.
Schmeck was convicted in 1989 and sentenced to death in 1990 for the May 30, 1986, murder of Lorin Gwynne Germaine, 32. Schmeck, also then 32, had responded to Germaine's magazine advertisement offering a recreational vehicle
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for sale. Germaine went to meet Schmeck at a site in Hayward, where Schmeck shot him in the head several times.
Gronley, to whom Schmeck confessed his crime, led police to Germaine's body along Foothill Road between Pleasanton and Sunol; police had arrested Schmeck several days earlier as he tried to sell the recreational vehicle.
The direct, automatic appeal decided Thursday exists only within parameters set at trial, seeking reversible error. Schmeck's lawyer in February filed a separate petition for a writ of habeas corpus: a reinvestigation of the whole case in which new evidence can be brought in or existing evidence can be recast.
Contact Josh Richman at jrichman@dailyreviewonline.com.
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Schmeck murdered Fremont man while stealing vehicle in 1986
By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER
California's Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the conviction and death sentence of a transient who murdered a Fremont man while stealing his recreational vehicle in 1986.
The court unanimously rejected Mark Lindsey Schmeck's argument that four potential jurors were wrongly excused from the case because of their opposition to the death penalty, or two others because they were Jewish.
The 91-page opinion also dismissed Schmeck's claim that the trial judge incorrectly limited his lawyer's ability tocross-examine Jamie Gronley — Schmeck's former girlfriend — about promises prosecutors made to her regarding an unrelated drug charge in exchange for her testimony.
And the high court rejected Schmeck's claims of hearsay evidence; illegal search and evidence seizure; evidence mishandling; faulty jury instructions; misconduct by prosecutors and jurors; and wrongful admission of information on a prior conviction.
Schmeck was convicted in 1989 and sentenced to death in 1990 for the May 30, 1986, murder of Lorin Gwynne Germaine, 32. Schmeck, also then 32, had responded to Germaine's magazine advertisement offering a recreational vehicle
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for sale. Germaine went to meet Schmeck at a site in Hayward, where Schmeck shot him in the head several times.
Gronley, to whom Schmeck confessed his crime, led police to Germaine's body along Foothill Road between Pleasanton and Sunol; police had arrested Schmeck several days earlier as he tried to sell the recreational vehicle.
The direct, automatic appeal decided Thursday exists only within parameters set at trial, seeking reversible error. Schmeck's lawyer in February filed a separate petition for a writ of habeas corpus: a reinvestigation of the whole case in which new evidence can be brought in or existing evidence can be recast.
Contact Josh Richman at jrichman@dailyreviewonline.com.
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