Reversal of Death Penalty in Officer’s Killing Decried

The family and colleagues of a West Covina police officer who was murdered 17 years ago said Tuesday that a federal appeals court ruling overturning the killer’s death sentence has reopened old wounds.

Until Monday, convicted killer Michael Jackson was closer than any other California inmate to being executed, authorities said. Jackson was convicted of killing Officer Kenneth Wrede in 1983 with his own shotgun.

But in a 2-1 decision Monday, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Jackson’s court-appointed defense attorney did such a poor job during the penalty phase of the trial that the death sentence should be thrown out. The appeals court sent the case back to the trial court to issue a writ invalidating Jackson’s death penalty.

The appeals court judges faulted former Los Angeles County public defender William Klump for not presenting potentially mitigating evidence that Jackson was choked by his mother as a boy, that he had once been diagnosed as schizophrenic and that his use of PCP, an illegal drug, might have made him incapable of knowing he was killing Wrede.

Wrede’s parents say the decision brings back horrific memories.

“Its like Aug. 31, 1983, all over again,” Wrede’s mother, Marianne Wrede, said Tuesday. “This is my Mother’s Day present.” She added: “We want justice for Kenny. Jackson deserves the death penalty. Execution wouldn’t be closure but at least a resolution.”

Jackson’s current attorneys declined to comment on the appeal, as did Klump, the original lawyer who was criticized in the ruling.

But Stanford University law professor Robert Weisberg said he was startled that Jackson had such a poor defense during his trial’s penalty phase.

“That sounds like one of those stories you used to hear out of Alabama or Mississippi or Georgia in the 1970s, where you hear that the state paid the lawyer a $200 flat fee,” Weisberg said.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that although they haven’t made a formal decision they most likely will challenge the ruling.

“It can always be suggested a jury should have heard something else in the penalty [phase] of a death penalty case,” said Donald de Nicola, a deputy state attorney general.

West Covina Police Cpl. Rob Tibbetts said Tuesday that he recalled the day Jackson shot Wrede.

“He killed Kenny in cold blood. He made victims of his family and his friends and now they are all going to be victimized again,” said Tibbetts, a 26-year veteran who was the investigating officer in the case. “This is a miscarriage of justice. But I don’t think it will be the last word in the case.”

According to the appeals court summation of the evidence, Jackson had smoked PCP cigarettes, then ran into the street and dived headfirst onto the pavement, hitting himself repeatedly. When Wrede arrived, Jackson refused to cooperate and a fight ensued.

When Wrede ran to his cruiser to call for help, Jackson grabbed the shotgun in the patrol car, prompting Wrede to draw his service revolver. Jackson put the shotgun on the roof of the car, but picked it up and shot Wrede when the officer lowered his weapon.

The appeal court upheld Jackson’s murder conviction but concluded that if other evidence had been presented during the penalty phase, the killer would have had a reasonable probability of receiving a sentence of life in prison.

Klump, Jackson’s lawyer at the time, spent only two hours on the penalty phase--his first ever--and had limited preparation, the judges said. He interviewed Jackson’s mother, estranged wife, and reviewed his client’s military and juvenile records, the justices said.

But Klump failed to use psychiatrist reports that might have indicated Jackson lacked the mental capacity to form the intent for murder, the justices said, adding that the killer may have been too intoxicated as well to know the seriousness of his actions.

Reached in Nevada on Tuesday, Klump said “he never forgets [the case]” but declined to comment further.

Times wires services contributed to this story.