For the third time, the Supreme Court on Monday reversed the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and restored a death sentence for a California murderer who bludgeoned a young woman in 1981 to steal a stereo from her house. | 28 years and counting ... |
"It is hard to imagine . . . additional facts about Belmontes' difficult childhood outweighing the facts of [Steacy] McConnell's murder," the justices said. "We agree with the state court's characterization of the murder" as one of " 'extraordinary brutality' and simply cannot comprehend the assertion by the Court of Appeals that this case did not involve 'needless suffering.' "
Belmontes broke into McConnell's home in the small Central California town of Victor, near Stockton, and struck her in the head 15 or 20 times with a steel barbell, crushing her skull. She put up "a desperate struggle for [her] life," the court said, but died a few hours after the beating. Belmontes and two accomplices sold her stereo for $100 and used the money to buy beer and drugs.
In 1982 a jury convicted Belmontes and condemned him to die, and the California Supreme Court affirmed his sentence in 1988. Since then, the case has been on appeal in the federal courts.
Under the Habeas Corpus Act, state defendants can sue in a federal court and argue that they are being punished in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Three times in this decade, the 9th Circuit Court ruled in favor of Belmontes and set aside his death sentence. In the first two decisions, the appeals court said jurors may have thought they could not weigh evidence about Belmontes' conversion to Christianity as a reason for sparing his life.
| As a new-baptised Christian, should not Mr. Belmontes be grateful that he has avoided eternal damnation, without demanding additional rewards in this life? |