Justices Urged to Stay Death Sentence

An openly skeptical state Supreme Court was urged Tuesday to overturn the conviction and death sentence of a man who, under the influence of drugs, killed a West Covina policeman with the officer’s own shotgun in 1983.

An attorney for Michael Anthony Jackson, now 34, told the court that the jury should have been instructed to consider the possibility that Jackson acted in self-defense--although witnesses said the victim, Officer Kenneth Scott Wrede, had not even drawn his service revolver until after Jackson had wrenched a shotgun from Wrede’s patrol car.

Several justices reacted with unusually open disdain for that claim, as well as other contentions made by lawyer Gerald H. Gottlieb during arguments in the case in Los Angeles.

‘Cost Him His Life’

“Wait a minute,” Justice Edward A. Panelli said at one point in the hearing. “If the officer had unholstered his revolver earlier, we probably wouldn’t be here today. . . . He showed fantastic restraint--and it cost him his life.”

The court also showed little patience with Gottlieb’s surprising contention that Jackson’s sentence should be overturned on grounds the framers of the federal Constitution had not intended to permit capital punishment. That theory has been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court for more than a century, most recently in a 1976 ruling upholding the death penalty.

“I wouldn’t waste time on that issue, counsel,” advised Justice David N. Eagleson. Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas added a wry reminder that the state court is legally bound by federal high court rulings on federal constitutional questions. “You are asking us to reverse U.S. Supreme Court cases, are you not?” Lucas asked. “Isn’t that a little heroic?”

State Deputy Atty. Gen. David F. Glassman argued that there were no significant procedural errors in Jackson’s trial and that his conviction and death sentence should be upheld. Officer Wrede had displayed uncommon patience in dealing with the suspect in his drug-induced state, Glassman said, “but he was met with such violence that he lost his life.”

There was “no possible analysis” of the evidence that would support a claim that Jackson was reasonably, or even unreasonably, acting in self-defense, the state prosecutor said.

Wrede was on routine patrol by himself shortly after noon on Aug. 31, 1983, when he received a radio call to investigate a man acting strangely at a nearby intersection. The officer encountered Jackson, walking down a street barefoot and appearing disoriented. According to authorities, Jackson reacted violently when Wrede sought to question him, at one point grabbing an eight-foot garden stake and brandishing it at the 26-year-old officer.

Called for Help

After a struggle, Wrede ran to the patrol car to call for assistance. Witnesses said Jackson also went to the car and took the officer’s 12-gauge shotgun from its holder. Wrede then unholstered his service revolver and crouched on the other side of the car. Jackson momentarily rested the shotgun on the roof, but then fired the weapon, striking Wrede in the head.

Moments later, more police arrived but were cursed and threatened with the gun by Jackson before he finally was brought to the ground by a police dog, authorities said.

Jackson was charged with first-degree murder and prosecutors sought the death penalty, as permitted by law in the killing of a police officer performing his duty.

Admitted PCP Use

At trial, Jackson, previously convicted of burglary and drug-related offenses, testified that he had taken the hallucinogenic drug PCP on the morning of the incident and could not remember shooting Wrede or the events leading up to the incident.

His trial counsel argued that Jackson, in his state of intoxication, was not aware of his actions. Because he thus could not have intended the officer’s death, he should be convicted of no more than involuntary manslaughter, the lawyer contended. Nonetheless, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury found Jackson guilty of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to death.

‘No Intent to Kill’

Gottlieb, appointed by the high court in 1984 to represent Jackson on appeal, argued Tuesday that Jackson had fired into the flashing light bar of the patrol car and that the fatal wound to Wrede came from a ricocheting pellet. This was an indication, the lawyer said, that “there was no intent to kill--no intent to hurt.”

There was a “high probability” that the officer’s death was accidental, Gottlieb said. Jackson, he said, could well have been responding to a perceived threat to his own life, and he should not have been convicted of murder. “The pattern here is not one of action (by Jackson) but one of response,” the attorney said.