Death Sentence Asked by Murder Defendant

On the day a jury was being selected to determine whether Jonathan D’Arcy should be executed for setting a Tustin bookkeeper on fire, D’Arcy declared that he wants to be put to death.

“I would like to stipulate to death,” D’Arcy, 34, said Monday. He is on a hunger strike and being kept alive by a court-ordered feeding tube.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert Fitzgerald replied that while D’Arcy may be “ready to meet [his] ultimate maker,” the court cannot let him essentially commit suicide.

“I appreciate your good intentions but unfortunately the law does not allow that,” Fitzgerald said.

Instead, jury selection in the second death penalty phase of the case will resume today with opening arguments also likely to be heard. A different jury convicted D’Arcy of killing Karen Marie LaBorde in 1993 but later deadlocked on whether he should receive the death penalty.

D’Arcy, who came to court Monday with a feeding tube connected to his nose, also waived his right to appear at any future court proceedings. The former janitor boycotted much of his trial to protest the handling of his defense.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Molko is urging the death penalty, saying that LaBorde died one the most cruel and painful deaths possible. The prosecutor said during the trial that D’Arcy was seeking revenge over a paycheck he thought was being withheld from him when he doused LaBorde with gasoline and set her on fire with a cigarette lighter.

Defense attorney George A. Peters has said his client suffers from severe mental problems brought on by an abusive upbringing and that jurors should spare his life.

The case has raised legal questions about keeping a man alive against his will while a jury decides whether he should die.

Michael H. Shapiro, a USC professor who teaches constitutional law and bioethics, said Monday that courts have often ordered that suicidal prisoners be kept alive.

“The idea in this case is that the state has to exact the punishment, not the prisoner,” Shapiro said. “Committing suicide is not a form of punishment.”

Times staff writer Davan Maharaj contributed to this story.