California Court Bars Death Penalty in Mass Killing Because of ​“Unprecedented” Government Misconduct

Citing ​“relent­less non-com­pli­ance” with court orders and ​“chron­ic obstruc­tion­ism” by a pros­e­cu­tion team it says ​“has effec­tive­ly com­pro­mised” Scott Dekraai​’s rights to due process and a fair penal­ty tri­al, a California tri­al court has barred pros­e­cu­tors from pur­su­ing the death penal­ty in the worst mass killing in Orange County history. 

In a scathing opin­ion on August 18, Judge Thomas M. Goethals (pic­tured) — who had dis­qual­i­fied the entire Orange County District Attorney’s office from the case as a result of ear­li­er mis­con­duct and lying to the court about a decades-long prac­tice of using jail­house infor­mants to vio­late defen­dan­t’s con­sti­tu­tion­al rights — wrote that in light of con­tin­ued ​“indo­lence and obfus­ca­tion” from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in response to orders seek­ing infor­ma­tion on the infor­mant scan­dal, the court had ​“lost con­fi­dence that it can ever secure com­pli­ance” by the pros­e­cu­tion with future court orders in the case. Given the ​“unprece­dent­ed” nature of the gov­ern­ment mis­con­duct, Judge Goethals wrote, it would ​“be uncon­scionable, per­haps even cow­ard­ly,” for the court not to take reme­di­al action by bar­ring the death penalty. 

Judge Goethals addressed the emo­tion­al toll on the vic­tims’ fam­i­lies cre­at­ed by the need to con­duct four years of court pro­ceed­ings inves­ti­gat­ing the scan­dal. He said the court would ​“do what lit­tle it can to mit­i­gate their suf­fer­ing” by impos­ing eight con­sec­u­tive life sen­tences ​“that will end this case now and insure that this defen­dant dies a for­got­ten man in some obscure max­i­mum security prison.” 

Family mem­bers in the court­room expressed anger at coun­ty pros­e­cu­tors. Butch Fournier, whose sis­ter Michelle, Dekraai’s ex-wife, was one of the eight vic­tims, said, ​“It’s been six years for noth­ing. … They caused us pain and suf­fer­ing that was unnec­es­sary. It was a cut-and-dry case.” 

Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer — a for­mer pros­e­cu­tor who is con­sid­ered a like­ly can­di­date for District Attorney next year — called on District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Sheriff Sandra Hutchens to resign, say­ing the con­duct of the District Attorney’s and Sheriff’s offices had been ​“rep­re­hen­si­ble” and con­sti­tut­ed an ​“egre­gious assault on our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem.” In a state­ment, Spitzer wrote: ​“I am appalled that the mis­con­duct of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, in col­lu­sion with the OC Sheriff’s Department, result­ed in this mis­car­riage of jus­tice. I am incred­u­lous that the Orange County crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem has earned a nation­al rep­u­ta­tion for cor­rup­tion that will take years, if not decades, to repair. Fundamental changes are needed.” 

The edi­to­r­i­al board of the Orange County Register said ​“the fact that a death sen­tence couldn’t even be secured for an admit­ted mass mur­der­er speaks to the lev­el of dys­func­tion with­in the county’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem.” The Orange County District Attorney’s office was named in a July 2017 report by Harvard University’s Fair Punishment Project as one of the pros­e­cut­ing offices cit­ed for repeat­ed pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct.