U.S. Supreme Court Rejects County Death Penalty Cases : Jurisprudence: Both murder convictions relied on testimony of wounded victims who survived. A prosecutor says the appeals process is far from over.
The U.S. Supreme Court Monday refused to hear the appeals of two Death Row inmates from Orange County, each of whom was convicted on the basis of testimony from wounded victims.
The court declined to review the state’s cases of Thomas Francis Edwards, 47, convicted of killing a 12-year-old girl in Cleveland National Forest, and John Louis Visciotti, 34, convicted of killing a Westminster man during a robbery.
Edwards was convicted of shooting Vanessa Iberri as she walked along a road with another 12-year-old on Sept. 19, 1981. Both girls were shot in the head and Vanessa died. Her companion survived and testified against Edwards.
John D. Conley, who prosecuted the case as a deputy district attorney and is now director of the county’s major offenses division, said Monday that the court’s decision is “not really a surprise.”
Conley said it was “just another step in a long voyage,” meaning that Edwards will now begin at the bottom rung of the federal ladder, at U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
The prosecutor estimated that it would take at least several more years for the case to work its way back to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We’re about halfway through the process,” he said.
Conley called the killing “sinister and strange,” in which Edwards offered no plausible motive for shooting the two girls, whom he did not know.
Edwards had three penalty trials, two of which ended in mistrials.
Visciotti was convicted of shooting 22-year-old Tim Dykstra in the course of a robbery. Visciotti’s accomplice was also convicted, but escaped the death penalty. In an interview with The Times from Death Row, Visciotti said his main regret was not killing a second robbery victim, who testified against him.
Ever since becoming a teen-ager, Visciotti has spent most of his life behind bars. His case, like Edwards’, now goes to federal District Court.
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