The Death Penalty: Does One Size Fit All?

Phoenix, AZ— Some crimes are so horrific that a quick death for the perpetrator feels justified. But our criminal justice system has a fundamental flaw: the standard of proof, “beyond a reasonable doubt.” This nebulous term has become a source of injustice, particularly in capital cases.

Having witnessed numerous criminal trials, including those where the death penalty was at stake, I’ve seen firsthand the confusion over what “reasonable doubt” really means. It’s a vague standard that varies from one juror to the next. And when the crime is especially heinous, that ambiguity can lead to false convictions. People, naturally outraged by terrible acts, can be eager to punish, and often that means overlooking the very doubt that should protect the innocent.

I’ve come to despise the term “beyond a reasonable doubt,” because I’ve watched as innocent people were convicted, and in other cases, where the convicted might have been innocent. Worse, I’ve seen law enforcement and prosecutors in high-profile cases intentionally hide exculpatory evidence to secure a conviction. The pressure to win often outweighs the duty to seek the truth.

Then there’s the issue of eyewitness testimony, which is notoriously unreliable. In many cases, people are absolutely certain they saw someone, only to be proven wrong when surveillance video footage comes to light. The fact is, people lie under oath more easily than in everyday conversation, and when the prosecution’s star witness is a co-conspirator looking for a deal, the system becomes even murkier.

The solution? We must raise the standard of proof, particularly in cases where life or death is on the line. Prosecutors won’t like it, but if we want to eliminate wrongful convictions, we need something more concrete than “reasonable doubt.” No innocent person should ever face death, and the only way to ensure that is to demand absolute certainty of guilt.

Our justice system is many things, but perfect it is not. In recent decades, over 200 people have been exonerated and taken off death row after new evidence surfaced. Some spent the majority of their lives in prison before finally proving their innocence. If we’re going to take someone’s life—or lock them away forever—we should be sure beyond a shadow of doubt.

There’s another issue we can’t ignore. Some killers act in a single moment of madness and, after 20 or 30 years in prison, they become entirely different people. Our justice system doesn’t account for the possibility of redemption or transformation. Should we be sentencing people to death or life without the chance of ever considering the person they might become?

The death penalty, and our system of capital punishment, demands reform. One size does not fit all. The stakes are too high to settle for a standard that allows for uncertainty.

Top Gun Arizona Lawyer Dead at 68

Richard D. Gierloff  1950-2018

Gilbert, Arizona—It’s with great sadness that I must report on the death of Phoenix, Uber-Lawyer, Richard D. Gierloff this past Monday (04-09-18).

Richard was my personal lawyer, mentor and friend for well over three decades.  He handled criminal cases exclusively, including many death penalty matters.  He took on each case as a matter of life and death for his clients.  He never undertook his duties in a lighthearted manner.  Richard was a very meticulous winner.

Richard began his working life as a drug abuse counselor; soon he entered the University of Arizona Law School.  He went on to become one of Arizona’s greatest lawyers.  I was really pleased to work as his investigator on so many high profile cases.  Together we had many great victories.   

Richard was stricken with throat cancer last year and waged a courageous battle.  He was forced to shut down his law practice and withdraw his State Bar Admission.  He knew things were very serious.

Soon a special lady that was a longtime girlfriend, Christine Berry suddenly became Richard’s caretaker.  Christine lovingly took care of Richard’s needs as he was in the biggest challenge of his life.

I was able to visit Richard and Christine last month.  Richard was still confidant and fighting.  He was however, so frail and thin.  Considering this was a man that always ate right and did daily gym workouts this was so grossly unfair.  

Richard surprised me by telling me I was invited to finally see something that should have happened years ago.  Richard and Christine were to be married on April 21^st.  Instead of a wedding, I’ll be attending his final sendoff. If I know Richard, he will be vigorously advocating for people waiting at Saint Peter’s Gate. 

As for the rest of us, we lost a giant of a man.  He has saved and changed many lives.  Richard Gierloff is a real hero that will never be forgotten.  

Richard is survived by his true love, Christine and his adult daughter, Nora Gierloff.    

Why This Conservative Hates The Death Penalty!

Jodi Arias Freed by Police Perjury, Evidence and Witness Tampering!

Phoenix, AZ—Okay I’m jaded.  I have investigated so many high profile cases over the decades and have learned one sad thing about them.  Integrity among witnesses, cops and prosecutors quickly vanishes.

Being a criminal defense investigator is not like what most people think or understand.  While investigating these cases I soon found myself trapped in a world of lies.  If I can expose the lies my client often goes free! Because of bizarre dynamics, this is anything but an easy task.

Let’s begin with a personal statistic I’ve established about my fellow humans.  A full one-third or more of people routinely lie.  As we know most people in fact can’t seem to tell the truth about something as simple why they’re late for work. 

If this percentage of people can achieve the same result by lying as telling the truth they will choose to deceive.  It’s best described as a form of narcissism or self-empowerment. 

In high profile cases deception is the rule, not the exception!  People lie from every possible side of a case skewing justice along the way!

Whether or not the accused is guilty, those arrested lie most of the time.  They think that lies will help them and they are desperate.  Their friends and family members that find themselves as defense witnesses want to help so they lie too.

For the cops interviewing those people separately, they can easily expose this deception.  Lies told by suspects and their family or friends will nearly always destroy any chance of escaping even an unjust conviction.

Unfortunately many cops have a terrible habit of guessing culpability first and then creating, shaping or forming the evidence to convict those they believe are guilty. 

The best example I can cite here is O.J. Simpson.  The case appeared weak and cops went about to frame a guilty man.  However in the end they got caught and Simpson was freed.    

Cops are in the unique position to remove, move or add physical evidences including DNA to any crime scene.  When they subsequently serve search warrants more opportunities are presented to place damning evidence inside the homes, offices or vehicles of the accused.

Motives for this behavior include seeking professional recognition, fame, or simply being driven to nail the coffin lids on the people they arrest.  Let me say that the percentages of this happening are so much higher than you would ever dare imagine.

We all have made ourselves believe that cops and prosecutors wear the white hats.  After all they are the good guys who can always be trusted never to mislead you, right? 

Ego’s, self-image issues and narcissism are no strangers to cops and prosecutors.  They love the attention they get by publicly demonizing some hapless perceived miscreant.

In high profile cases this begins at press conferences where cops and prosecutors pat each other on the back for the important arrest.  Thus the demonization of the accused begins and the defense is never able to challenge this with equal time. 

By the time the defense discovers any solid evidence they are subject to gag orders by the judges on the case!  Prosecutors often deliberately cross the line so that gag orders are issued.  That in effect insures the public will only hear one side of the case!

Once they bring in the TV cameras inside the courtrooms that suddenly guarantees that lies will become the new truth!  Bad behavior and deception go into high gear! 

Savvy cops know how to play the civilian witnesses by making them feel important.  The cops want to hear only the things that will bolster their cases.  So it’s very easy to ask questions that provide the answers they want to hear the witnesses repeat! 

This often begins with the first eyewitness identifications.  The witness was either a victim and saw a violent crime committed by a stranger.  Their eyes were fixed on weapons, the hands and shocking deeds of the perpetrator/s.

Soon a cop brings a suspect to the witness in a police car.  The witness assumes that the cop somehow found the right person and they want to help the cops. 

What happens next is horrible.  The witness will more than likely identify whomever the cops have brought! After all the witness wants to help the cops whether they recognize the suspect or not.

Identifications made outside of a proper line up suck in a big way.  The so-called, one-on-one identification method is excessively subjective and should be outlawed. 

A high percentage of people will exaggerate or outright lie if they think it will help the police take a criminal off of our streets.  Once the useful idiot/witness gets praise and recognition he or she will become locked into the lie forever. 

Thankfully the mass proliferation of surveillance cameras has stopped many false identification cases cold before they got out of hand.  

With the limelight of TV cameras, and recognition from the likes of TV commentators such as Nancy Grace witnesses abandon the truth and instead gravitate to what’s seems popular at the moment.  

It’s exactly like the intuitive Dr. Josef Goebbels infamously said, “If you tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth.”  The media can be counted on to repeat each and every lie until they are set in stone!

When you allow a murder trial like the Jodi Arias case to become a media circus only bad things will happen.    

Today with the Internet and our instant communication keeping a jury away from sensational influence outside of the courtroom is impossible. 

Guilt or innocence is established by a lot of things in America.  Unfortunately too often the truth does not really matter.

This all takes me to my personal motto about the criminal justice system, “If justice happens it’s usually by accident and for all the wrong reasons.”

Murder Conviction and Sentence of Jodi Arias May Be History

Phoenix, AZ—A major time-bomb of sorts is waiting to go off in the courtroom of Judge Sherry Stephens.  This is in the form of a motion that would remove the death penalty from consideration due to serious misconduct.  The shenanigans and misconduct of cops and prosecutors in this case has grown to fill a massive book. 

Judge Stephens lost all control of the the Jodi Arias case from day one.  Stephens has simply turned a blind eye to the misconduct that allowed this murder trial to become one of the more infamous judicial circuses since the Salem Witch Trials.

The latest stunt revealed today was that Mesa police detective Estaban Flores unlawfully shared confidential and court sealed information with his wife.  She in turn allegedly uploaded outrageous videos containing some of the information onto YouTube in efforts to incite public opinion against Arias.

Ultimately, if this is true, Estaban’s police career and peace officer certification is history.  He and his wife probably will now be facing criminal charges brought by an appointed special prosecutor. 

As for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and Maricopa County Attorney’s Office,  it seems that they have from the beginning chronically and deliberately obstructed Arias’ right to a fair trial. 

Everything from withholding evidence, witness tampering, and obstructed communication with the Arias defense team has taken place.  Of course who could forget the grandstanding circus Ringmaster, prosecutor Juan Martinez signing autographs for his infatuated female court watching fans.

That means there is so much more at stake here than lifting the Death Penalty but outright dismissal is now in plain sight.

No small issue is that Arias has been transformed by a runaway prosecution effort into a reviled pariah.  Current jury selection happenings have made it abundantly clear that the jury pool is hopelessly tainted.

There is no chance that the damage could ever be undone.  There is only one solution now That is setting Arias free and that’s exactly what the law requires.

As for the angry mob of mindless court watchers that have made Arias the object of their intense hate?   They can now transfer their wrath to the brain dead officials that let this happen through their redundant, persistent and chronic misconduct.

The 23 page Motion is attached below:

  Jodi Arias Motion Oct 1 by crimefile

Dangerous Criminals May Deserve Execution but Government’s Incompetence is Epic.

Phoenix, AZ—Joseph Wood was condemned to die after being convicted of two rather nasty murders.  I won’t comment on his innocence because I don’t know.   It seems on its face Wood’s two murder convictions was not the subject of controversy.

We will never know what demons drove Wood’s violence or if there were any very real excusable brain malfunctions behind his mad acts.  We can only guess.

I won’t argue that some hopelessly evil people on our earth don’t deserve to live.  I absolutely encourage people to use guns and other deadly weapons in self-defense and the defense of others.  The concept of killing these people decades later is an entirely different matter. 

Arizona used secret drugs obtained from a clandestine source to kill Wood.  Wood’s lawyers demanded to know about the drugs and their effectiveness, but were rebuffed throughout the entire appeal process.  This was happening in a nation where its government brags about its transparency.

Wood choked and gasped for air during the nearly two hour deadly ordeal.  Finally he died.  The legislature sought lethal injection to make murder by government quick and clean.  Just as Wood’s lawyers feared Arizona’s experimental drug cocktail failed and the execution was botched. 

Just like Wood’s murder victims, he too had family members and friends.   The kin on both sides of these things always suffer too.  Murder and punishment is an ugly business. 

It would be a lot less disturbing if witnesses and cops never lied, evidence and it’s meaning was an exact science but that’s just not the case.

Jurors are a lot of things but perfect is not one of them.  We can never guess what a jury will do and that alone is a monument to their guesswork. 

Twice prosecutor of the Year, Kenneth Peasley from Pima County, AZ was the champ of all Arizona prosecutors putting more people on Death Row that any other.  He was a Death Penalty Hero for sure. 

Peasley was a brilliant lawyer and ruthless prosecutor.  He was the master of giving immunity to confessed killers if they’d testify implicating others.  Peasley would put a suit on Satan and bring him into court as he vouched to a jury for his witnesses from Hell.

Thankfully that ended when Peasley got caught knowingly putting a perjuring police witness before a jury in a death penalty case.  Peasley was subjected to a pretend Grand Jury investigation by his peers and exonerated.  The State Bar of Arizona yanked his law license.

Peasley since contracted and died of cancer.    

With hundreds of Death Row inmates being exonerated sometimes after decades of solitary confinement something’s obviously wrong.

If we end the Death Penalty we will save hundreds of millions on appeals.  We too often forget that we must bay for both the defense and prosecution of Death Penalty cases.  It’s significantly cheaper if we simply warehouse the convicted killers until they die or are too old and feeble to cause any harm.

I’m going to end with a simple premise; the Death Penalty is always and properly the tool of a Police State.  It’s better suited for Nazis, Communists and Fascists. It does not belong in a civilized society.

Who in their right mind would give a politician or bureaucrat the right to kill them?  That’s exactly what we’ve done!  Considering the crackpots we elect was that a good idea.

The Senseless killing of Eric Garner and Our Police State

New York, NY—Selling cigarettes on the street cost a man his life.  Think about it for a moment.  Trying to make a meager living in a miserable economy by selling a legal product deserves death now in New York.

That’s precisely what happened to an obviously overweight (350 lbs.) and unhealthy man last week.  A squad of cops investigating this tax transgression approached Eric Garner. Garner actually begged the cops to leave him alone.   Soon Garner began to shun the cops and resist being handcuffed and the cops piled on him.  All too quickly, Garner was dead.

Was it the long banned chokehold?  I don’t think so.  I suspect positional asphyxia was the actual cause of death.  Does it really make any difference how they killed him?  Garner was killed not by policemen in the true sense of that noble occupation but a gang of government extortionists. 

This was not about anything more than the attempted evasion of an outrageous tax on a legal product that millions consume in America.  

Our greedy politicians expand their power and the government monster by overtaxing anything they can.   We all know that this was about money rather than evil, violence or simple public safety. 

Cops used to be there to protect and help us from evil.  They all signed up to help their fellow man, not to become extortionists.  However politicians changed the game decades ago by feeding the government monster with fines for minor offenses. 

Along the way our politicians stayed wide-awake nights dreaming of the creation new petty offenses and raising the fines on the ones already on the books.  They all need to bribe contractors for crap we don’t need for reelection campaigns.  That takes money and new creative ways of taking it from the public.

Parking enforcement and meters led the extortion parade.  Today unconstitutional Photo traffic enforcement has provided billions of illicit dollars to local governments. 

Most Americans don’t have a clue that they only way to convict people with photo enforcement and collect fines flagrantly violates our Sixth Amendment rights to confront and cross-examine witnesses against us. 

Where there is no live witness to a transgression courts must rely on long banned hearsay testimony to admit photo and computer data evidence into court.  You can’t cross-examine and ask the photograph about errors or equipment malfunctions.  Was the equipment actually tampered with to make it appear there was a violation by greedy equipment manufacturers selling government on this garbage?  

The whores in local politics appoint the judges and they know they better side with those that feed them.  Again, those sworn to defend it have trashed our Constitution. 

You can of course appeal the fines to higher courts where the judges owe nothing to local politicians.  However that red light ticket conviction will cost as much as a house to appeal to your state Supreme Court and a couple of million more to get a shot at the U.S. Supreme Court. 

The cost of court appeals denies all of us justice facilitating the tyranny of or politicians.  If we somehow had the money it still takes decades for these cases to be litigated and decided by the courts.  It’s truly a case of justice both denied and delayed. 

The only real remedy is through unimaginable self-help by violent revolution.  The Second Amendment was designed to that we the people would have arms parity with the government.  We’ve allowed the government to disarm the population and any arms we do have are not remotely comparable to those military grade arms.   

Today Americans could not stop a rogue President much better than Germany or Russia could stop Adolf Hitler or Josef Stalin.   

As long as it’s only the government breaking the law that’s seems okay with today’s Americans.

Politicians know Americans cannot possibly afford to seek justice against rogue politicians and they expect us all to simply shrug off the tyranny.   Our forefathers would have simply found and killed all these bastards. 

How soon we forget that we revolted against the British over a 3% tax on tea.  Have we forgotten that Americans began to kill those that dare extort from them?  Have they forgotten that they became free of their corrupt oppressors by chasing the ones that survived back to the UK? 

Cops are not nor should they be they ever become hated tax collectors.  However the Communists and Socialists we’ve elected have a different idea and like in every totalitarian society the cops are never on the side of the population.

The very reason we demanded our politicians and public officials take an oath to the Constitution was to prevent what we’ve allowed our nation to become. 

We now have a full-blown police state.  We have more people imprisoned per capita than any other nation on earth that proves the point.   

Slowly they’ve promoted the snitch system where our neighbors and children can be rewarded to turning us in to the authorities.

It’s only a matter of time before the death penalty will be used against anyone criticizing politicians or government tyranny.  They of course will claim this is necessary for public safety and a large percentage of the population will actually believe it. 

Those that love the idea of giving politicians to power of the death penalty need to rethink their position. 

We better get used to the idea of many more killings like Eric Garner’s.  That’s even if they prosecute those NYPD officers for excessive force.  The cops are no longer here for public safety but simple extortion.

Can Jodi Arias be Helped Through a New Defense Investigation?

Phoenix, AZ—A jury convicted Jodi Arias of Capital Murder.   She now faces sentencing and her lawyers are frantically trying to save her life. 

I have gotten several requests from sincere readers to reinvestigate the Arias case.  None of them have come with the necessary retainer to allow me to help out.  

The case is somewhat problematic since Arias had changed her story to police and juries rarely will forgive what they believe to be lies, especially by the accused.   I can tell you that many innocent defendants fib to police all the time out of absolute desperation.  It is more about fear and the instinct for survival that anything else.  

I know that the trial was beyond troubling because the jury was bombarded with outrageous outside influences from the massive media circus.  Her trial was a lot of things but fair was not one of them.  Members of the Mormon community pulled out all the stops in efforts to influence that poor excuse for a trial.

For those that would ask why would you investigate for someone like this?  My answer is simple every American that is accused has a constitutional right to an effective defense and investigation is part of that.  The chips will fall where they may. 

Saying that,  I don’t know what the truth is about the actual innocence of Arias.  In the end her defense was self-defense.  I specialize in those kinds of cases and won 14 out of the last 14 I’ve handled for the defense.  Saying that I can’t make a promise of a particular result for Arias.

Lawyers can only do so much with what they are given in the way of evidence and witnesses.  My job is to give defense lawyers more evidence to work with.  Accordingly the defense investigation often becomes more important than the legal work by defense counsel.  Of course the lawyers have to get that evidence before the jury and sometimes that's very difficult.  

Too often the defense investigation is not done well.  Sometimes lawyers constrain the investigators too much or they are unable to suggest creative ways of gathering evidence to the investigators.  Far too many defense investigators are simply not creative and only follow suggestions of the lawyers. 

The investigator must be sharp, creative and must discuss his ideas with the lead lawyer.  The reality is that the lead lawyer is the captain of the ship.  The defense team is not a democracy but a dictatorship with the lead lawyer as a single dictator.  

Like all of us I have to pay the mortgage companies, utilities and the daily costs in a miserable economy.  There is no way for me to do this pro-bono.  The reinvestigation could easily run $50K before it’s over.

It is substantially easier to win a case at the initial trial level that to overturn an existing conviction.  However convictions are overturned all the time.  I don’t have a crystal ball and can’t predict how this will end.

A proposition

I’m willing to begin a reinvestigation this case for $20K.  That would essentially allow me to get up to speed on the facts and give me the various directions to move forward.  In it self this may somehow be enough to find the evidence that could make a difference.  I can’t possibly know until I have spent a couple of months on this case where it will go or what it will cost in the end.  If things begin to look promising we can worry about the additional costs later.    

Arias’s supporters seem both convinced and vocal.   Through our social media funds can be raised and if my minimum retainer can be met I am willing to take this case on.  Perhaps Kickstarter or some other Internet fundraising scheme may be the way to get funding.  I won’t get involved with the solicitation of funds myself.

The other side of this coin is the media  and social media has made Arias a pariah especially within the ranks of the fans of TV legal bomb thrower, Nancy Grace.   Nancy Grace however could be the biggest fundraiser as she agitates the supporters of Arias.

There is just one thing more Ms. Arias must consent to my intervention.  The ball is now in the court of Arias and her supporters.  This  game does not have to be over.

UPDATE:  I just got a reliable tip in Phoenix about the Arias case.  Apparently the defense has found a new witness and is filing a motion for a new trial so that this witness may be allowed to testify.  I don't know the details yet and of course I'm not going to look too hard until I am retained.  

The Death Penalty for Dummies

Phoenix, AZ—I don’t think the people that know me or visit my blog will ever question my Conservative/Libertarian credentials.  As a young man growing up I naturally hated criminal violence and wanted to see cruel killers exterminated.  Believe me when I say my thinking on this has not changed a bit.  Not all, but certainly most murderers do not deserve to live. 

I’m also staunch believer in Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground laws as well as the absolute right of law-abiding Americans to carry guns wherever they wish.  The statistics overwhelmingly show that armed citizens save millions of lives every year.  In the vast majority of these incidents a gum may have been displayed but no shots were fired. 

I never morn the justifiable killing of thugs like Travon Martin, home invaders, armed robbers, rapists or murderers.  I also believe that each justifiable homicide prevents as many as a dozen future violent crimes that otherwise would have been committed by the decedent.

The Death Penalty is an entirely different matter.  This is a pre-meditated murder of an accused suspect.  It is the product of our local, state and federal governments along with their appointed bureaucrats.  We all know how unreasonable government can be.  We have a criminal justice system that is awash in wrongful convictions, corruption and incompetence.

Our jury system fails when our government’s judges keep evidence from being seen by juries.   It fails yet again when jurors are not allowed to consider or even know what punishment the accused defendants faces.

No matter what your political persuasion may be you will see politicians elected or otherwise put in office that you distrust, dislike and even hate.  Do you want a government run by what you consider an evil politician to have the ability to have you arrested, tried, convicted and executed?  You may like who is in office right now but that can and does change in a heartbeat.

Keeping someone in a cage for life, with crappy food, harsh prison temperatures and abject loneliness is punishment that far exceeds a merciful lethal injection.   Just imagine what that would be like.

For taxpayers the Death Penalty is a total disaster.  The pst-cnviction litigation must run its course usually through a state court system of appeals and once that happens the Habeas Corpus efforts begin with a federal judge and winds its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.  That process can take 30 years to complete and usually costs many millions of dollars.  Needless to say you pick up both the prosecution and defense’s legal tab.  It’s much cheaper to imprison someone for life. 

The Death Penalty has never been a crime deterrent beyond making sure the executed cannot reoffend.

With respect to every government on earth sooner or later history redundantly shows that they go bad and begin to slaughter their own citizens.  The Death Penalty is a control tool for Communists, Socialists and every Muslim Nation.   It’s a tool for America’s Far Left Wing.  You don’t see Obama or his political minions calling for ending this vile practice.  Ask yourselves, why not?  What’s past is prologue.   

Please pass this around to your conservative friends.