Here's but another reason to keep the death penalty: easy pleas.
Sampson offers to admit he killed 2
Seeks to avoid the death penalty
By Thanassis Cambanis, Globe Staff, 8/7/2002
In an unusual maneuver to avoid the death penalty, triple-murder suspect Gary Lee Sampson yesterday asked a federal judge to let him plead guilty to two murders in exchange for a life sentence in prison without possibility of parole.
Federal prosecutors rejected a similar plea offer from Sampson in February and appear to be pushing forward with a capital case. Sampson's defense team, however, wants to circumvent the Department of Justice's death penalty process by making an overture directly to the judge handling the case.
''The intention in filing this motion is to allow Gary Sampson to plead guilty to his crimes, to go to jail without the possibility of release for the rest of his life,'' David A. Ruhnke, one of Sampson's three attorneys, said in a telephone interview. If US District Judge Mark L. Wolf accepts the plea, Ruhnke said, Sampson will waive his right to any appeals.
However, it is unlikely that US Attorney Michael Sullivan, a former state prosecutor and staunch supporter of capital punishment, would give his blessing to any deal that spares Sampson the possibility of the death penalty.
In addition to his previous rejection of the same plea offer, Sullivan decided to move Sampson's case into the federal system from the state courts, where Sampson would not have faced the death penalty. Those actions signal that the US attorney will seek the maximum penalty.
The US attorney's office had no comment yesterday on Sampson's court filing.
Prosecutors and Sampson's defense team will present arguments to US Attorney General John Ashcroft's death penalty committee on Aug. 19. Ashcroft will make the final decision whether to seek capital punishment in the Sampson case.
During a single week in July 2001, Sampson allegedly murdered Philip A. McCloskey, 69, of Taunton, and Jonathan M. Rizzo, 19, of Kingston, in Massachusetts after stealing their cars, and then allegedly killed Robert Whitney, 58, of Concord, N.H., in New Hampshire.
''In my personal opinion, I'd like to see him executed,'' said Scott McCloskey, the son of Philip McCloskey. ''It doesn't make anything better, but it would make my heart feel better to know he's not around.''
The defense team's motion tries to capitalize on a US Supreme Court decision in June, Ring v. Arizona, which requires prosecutors to list aggravating factors, such as atrocity or premeditation, or multiple killings in a single series, within the actual indictment. Prior to the June decision, federal prosecutors weren't required to spell out those factors at the indictment phase.
Sampson faces capital punishment because carjacking was involved in the two Massachusetts murders, and because he crossed state lines while allegedly committing the series of murders. He has pleaded not guilty to two charges of carjacking resulting in death.
In the motion filed yesterday, his defense team asks Wolf to accept a guilty plea and immediately sentence Sampson to life imprisonment without the possibility of release.
Prior to the killings, the defense team argues, Sampson called the Boston office of the FBI from a pay phone in Abington and offered to turn himself in on outstanding robbery charges. Agents never showed up. In June, an FBI employee pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about Sampson's call.
There are other extenuating circumstances, the defense team argued, that should count in Sampson's favor. After surrendering to a Vermont state trooper, Sampson cooperated with investigators, leading them to one victim's body. ''He is remorseful for his conduct,'' his lawyers wrote.
''By accepting a plea, this case will be over and Mr. Sampson will disappear into one of the maximum-security penitentiaries maintained by the Federal Bureau of Prisons for the remainder of his life,'' Ruhnke wrote in his motion. A guilty plea followed by immediate sentencing, he added, would save the cost of a protracted trial and the likelihood of years of appeals if the death penalty is imposed.
''In a one-hour court proceeding, this case could be concluded,'' Ruhnke wrote.
But legal observers said it would be unprecedented for a judge to accept a guilty plea in a situation like this, short-circuiting the normal court process to resolve a capital case.
''They're going to have a hard time making this work,'' said Harvard Law School professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr. ''I think in this case it's going to be impossible to get the judge to admit the guilty plea without the consent of the prosecution.''
Thanassis Cambanis can be reached at tcambanis@globe.com.
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