DA's office rejects plea request from illegal-immigrant cop killer
The Chronicle's Brian Rogers reports that the DA's office has rejected a plea request from Juan Leonardo Quintero, the illegal immigrant who shot and killed HPD officer Rodney Johnson in 2006:
Just days before his death penalty trial, attorneys for Juan Leonardo Quintero said he has offered to plead guilty and be sentenced to life without parole for the 2006 shooting of Houston police officer Rodney Johnson — a deal prosecutors have rejected.
Quintero's attorney, Danalynn Recer, noted in an e-mail Friday that the 34-year-old illegal immigrant confessed to killing Johnson and cooperated with authorities. She also said Quintero regrets the toll his actions have taken on Johnson's family, as well as on his own family.
"He is profoundly ashamed and deeply sorry for the pain he has inflicted on them," wrote Recer, founder and executive director of a Houston anti-death penalty organization, Gulf Region Advocacy Center.
Prosecutors on Saturday said the Harris County District Attorneys office has given the defense an opportunity to submit all mitigating evidence and, after reviewing that evidence, prosecutors will continue to seek the death penalty.
"We trust the judgment of 12 citizens to determine the appropriate punishment for the man who executed Officer Johnson," said Assistant District Attorney Denise Bradley.
Bradley said Quintero is expected to plead not guilty by reason of insanity when he is formally arraigned at the opening of the trial Monday in state District Judge Joan Campbell's court.
Because Quintero was in the country illegally at the time of the shooting, the case has become a rallying cry for those advocating stricter immigration enforcement.
The decision by the DA's office was almost certainly more influenced by the fact that a cop was killed than that the cop was killed by an illegal immigrant.
The Chronicle does inform that anti-death-penalty activists are expected to rally around the cop-killer:
Defense attorneys have worked to bury the prosecution in paper before the trial, which is expected to last one month. The team is expected to have access to national experts who oppose the death penalty.
Of course! Maybe the experts will include Kathryn Kase, an attorney and anti-death-penalty activist (who just happens to be married to Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen). Maybe we can even look forward to an installment of the Chron Eye for the Illegal-Immigrant Cop-Killer Guy!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/27/08 03:35 PM | Print |
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