Local News in Brief : Defense Flaw in Death Case Reported

The attorney for a Los Angeles man sentenced to death for the 1978 rape-robbery-murder of a USC librarian failed to dig up background information that might have persuaded jurors to instead sentence him to life in prison without parole, a court-appointed judge has found.

The report in the case of Stevie Lamar Fields, 31, was filed with the state Supreme Court by retired Superior Court Judge George M. Dell, who did not draw any conclusions as to whether Fields’ conviction or sentence should be overturned.

Dell’s finding, however, could lead to a reversal by the high court of the death sentence. Fields was convicted of killing 26-year-old Rosemary Janet Cobb only two weeks after he was paroled from prison after serving time for manslaughter and grand theft.

Field’s death-penalty conviction was one of only four upheld by the state Supreme Court under then-Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird.

Dell told the Supreme Court that defense attorney Carl Jones conducted little or no investigation during the penalty phase of the trial. Such investigation, the judge indicated, would have shown that Fields came from a violent, poverty-stricken neighborhood and that as a child he was sexually assaulted by a male relative.