U.S. Appeals Court Upholds Death Penalty in Stabbing

Bucking a recent trend of reversals, a federal appeals court on Monday upheld the death sentence for a California man convicted of fatally stabbing a Stockton motel manager in 1980.

In recent months, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers nine Western states and is considered to be the most liberal federal appellate group in the country, has issued 10 rulings that either reversed a death sentence or upheld the decision of a federal trial judge who had reversed a death sentence. Nine of the cases were from California.

But on Monday, a three-judge panel for the circuit upheld the state Supreme Court’s decision to confirm the death sentence for Blufford Hayes Jr., who sought to overturn the death sentence partly by arguing that he received ineffective counsel during the penalty phase of his trial.

Hayes was convicted in the Jan. 1, 1980, stabbing of Vinod “Pete” Patel, who was found dead on the floor of a motel room bathroom with his hands and feet bound with a wire coat hanger. Prosecutors said Hayes enticed Patel to the room to rob him and stabbed him 22 times with a hunting knife.

Through his current lawyer, David A. Senior, Hayes argued that former attorney Leonard Tauman failed to offer evidence on his family background. Hayes acknowledged that he forbade Tauman to call family members to testify on his behalf.

In the ruling written by appellate Justice Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, the three-judge panel said that Tauman had acted properly by agreeing with Hayes’ wishes.

Senior disagreed, saying: “There is a substantial difference between not wanting your family involved to testify on your behalf versus presenting evidence from other sources that are available about one’s family.”