Another Jury Sentences 1980 Murderer to Death

In what is emerging as one of California’s lengthiest death penalty cases, a jury on Thursday ruled that a gunman should die for the 1980 Garden Grove shooting spree that left one police officer dead and four people injured.

Defendant John George Brown, who was already one of the longest-serving prisoners on death row, is likely to set a record by the time he exhausts another round of appeals.

Both prosecutors and defense attorneys predicted it will be nearly two more decades before he is executed, meaning that Brown’s total stay on death row could exceed 30 years. The longest-serving prisoner on death row now has been there 22 years.

The jury’s verdict was the second death sentence that Brown, 53, has received for the killing of Garden Grove police officer Donald Reed and follows a retrial ordered two years ago by the state Supreme Court.

On Thursday, the emotional toll of the recent trial, with its details about one of the bloodiest shootings in Orange County history and the consequences to the dead officer’s family, was evident in the jurors’ faces.

As the clerk in Santa Ana Superior Court read the final verdict, one young woman trembled and held back tears. As she left the jury box, she glanced over to Reed’s parents and gave a quavering smile.

Rita Reed, the slain officer’s mother, smiled back and wiped tears from under her glasses.

“I just feel that justice has been served,” Reed said outside the courtroom. “I hope this is the last time.”