Killer Can’t Appeal Sanity Verdict or Seek Retrial, Judge Rules
A Marin County judge ruled Friday that triple murderer Horace Kelly cannot appeal the verdict in his recent sanity trial and has no right to a new trial.
Kelly--who is scheduled to die June 9 by lethal injection--was found mentally competent for execution this month in a unusual jury trial.
Superior Court Judge William McGivern said the sanity verdict is “not appealable, and, if it is not appealable, the remedy of a new trial is not available.”
During the hearing, prosecuting and defense attorneys contended that McGivern did not have the authority over either matter.
Earlier this week, Kelly’s attorneys filed a motion with the California Supreme Court seeking a new trial, part of a flurry of legal maneuvers aimed at stopping the inmate’s execution.
Kelly is sentenced to die for killing two women and a boy in the Inland Empire. His attorneys say the inmate went mad during his 12 years on death row and doesn’t understand the fate he faces.
The warden at San Quentin triggered the competency trial when he questioned Kelly’s sanity during the pre-execution process in February. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1986 that the insane may not be executed.
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