July 9. 2009

Prosecutors in Ventura County, California yesterday confirmed publicly that they have offered a plea deal to 15-year-old murder suspect Brandon McInerney who faces first-degree murder and hate-crime charges in the 2008 shooting death of his classmate, Lawrence King, 15.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox, who is prosecuting this case, said the deal would bring McInerney’s sentence down “from a maximum of 53 years to life, to 25 years to life.”

Fox said Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten approved making the offer, Ventura County Star reports.

“The reason Mr. Totten authorized that offer is because we are keenly aware of this young man’s age. We are keenly aware of his developmental level, being that he was 14 years old at the time of the crime,” Fox said, according to the Star. “And, we are also keenly aware that he is a very dangerous individual.”

After a hearing yesterday, McInerney’s attorney accused prosecutors of being “vindictive”, Associated Press reports.

Although his lawyers have asked for multiple delays in the case, McInerney is scheduled to stand trial soon. He is accused of shooting King in an Oxnard middle-school classroom in February 2008. King told friends he was gay and sometimes dressed in feminine attire.

At a hearing yesterday in Ventura County Superior Court, McInerney’s lawyer Robyn Bramson asked for another in a long series of delays in the case, according to the Star. She told Judge John Dobroth that she and the other defense lawyer, Scott Wippert, weren’t ready for a preliminary hearing because Wippert is in trial in another county.

Judge Dobroth reset the date to July 20, warning Bramson that she must be ready on that date.

Bramson and Fox sparred over the delays in the case at yesterday’s hearing. Fox said she will consider taking the case to a grand jury on July 20 if the defense lawyers are still unprepared at that time for a preliminary hearing. Prosecutors would have to add an additional charge against McInerney – “lying in wait” – if they take the case to a grand jury, according to the Star.

Outside the courtroom and before going public with the plea-bargain offer, Fox expressed her frustration about the defense attorneys’ delays in moving the case along, saying that it has taken too long to get it to a preliminary hearing.

Source: DA offers plea bargain to McInerney : Crime and Courts : Ventura County Star

Three legal groups that have been highly critical of a federal lawsuit filed to challenge California’s Proposition 8 now want to be added as partners in the case. But the group that filed the case on behalf of two California couples insists it doesn’t want or need direct assistance from the groups that it said have “unrelentingly and unequivocally acted to undermine this case even before it was filed.”

Lambda Legal, National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a brief last month favoring the case, but now want to do even more. Today, the groups asked the federal judge hearing the case to allow them to “intervene” in the case, which would give their attorneys a place at the table when the case is argued.

In their petition, the three legal groups told US District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker that they would represent the interests of three LGBT community groups: Our Family Coalition, Lavender Seniors of the East Bay, and Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

“We believe the involvement of these community groups will significantly help the court decide the case,” said NCLR’s legal director Shannon Minter.

“These groups wish to illustrate for the court the diverse needs of their members and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community generally to provide the full factual record Judge Walker said will help the appellate courts …,” said Lambda’s Jennifer C. Pizer in a statement.

But the group that filed the suit, American Foundation for Equal Rights (AmFER) says it believes the three groups can accomplish their goals by filing briefs supporting the AmFER case, which will be argued by high profile attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies.

In a letter released this morning, AmFER said that the legal groups that now want to intervene in the case had previously been unwilling to say they “supported” the suit even after filing their brief last week.

Even after you filed an amicus curiae brief urging the district court to grant our motion for a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of Prop. 8, you refused to characterize your position as one of “support.” Indeed, Jennifer Pizer of Lambda Legal went so far as to insist that we alter a press release that described your amicus curiae brief as “supporting” our suit. In response, we issued a second release addressing her concerns. 

AmFER’s president and board president Chad Griffin says in the letter that allowing groups that have been hostile to case’s underlying legal strategy to intervene in it would “create a complex, multi-party proceeding that would inevitably be hampered by procedural inefficiencies that are directly at odds with our goal—and the goal of Chief Judge Walker—of securing an expeditious, efficient, and inexpensive resolution to the district court proceedings.”

 

Source: American Civil Liberties Union : LGBT Community Groups Seek to Intervene in Federal Challenge to Proposition 8