Death Penalty for "Innocent" Home Depot Killer
Whether or not you feel that the death penalty is a good idea, it is hard to dispute that Jason Russell Richardson is not guilty-even though he interrupted the emotional and moving victim-impact statement from the victim’s widow with a cry of “I didn’t kill her husband!”
Between witness statements, security video of the murder and DNA evidence, there’s not much wiggle room for the defense in the killing of Tom Egan at the Home Depot he worked as a security guard on February 9, 2007. Two prior juries deadlocked on the decision of recommending the death penalty for Richardson, or life in prison without possibility of parole. A third jury had no such problems, voting unanimously for the death penalty, citing Richardson’s violent past and the impact it had on Egan’s widow and young twin daughters.
Not surprisingly, when Richardson interrupted A. J. Egan’s eloquent statement in the courtroom, Superior Court Judge William Froeberg threatened to remove him from the courtroom. He also agreed with the death-penalty recommendation for Richardson, calling him a “a cancer on society…who has little or no regard for any life other than his own.”
Although the defense, by attorneys George Peters and Richard Schwartzberg, tried to contend that it was his background that led to the heinous crime, it didn’t seem to fly. Apparently the jury did not feel that murder was excusable just because a person is a drug addict and the product of a horrible, violence-filled childhood, raised by an alcoholic grandmother and a drug-addicted mother with a series of violent boyfriends and connections to the Hell’s Angels. For the full story on yesterday’s court drama, click here.
With prior convictions for rape, grand theft and domestic abuse, Deputy District Attorney Cameron Talley said yesterday that Richardson had earned the death penalty. He will join 58 other Orange County killers on Death Row, some of whom have been appealing their death sentences for 30 years.
Do you feel that California should not have the death penalty? Or do you feel that it is justice served? Does California take too long to execute convicted criminals on Death Row? Does it cost the taxpayer more than life in prison? Please comment-we want to know your opinion on this contentious subject.
Have you been accused of a crime you didn’t commit? Are you in prison appealing your sentence? Have you been convicted of murder and want to appeal the verdict? Please call us call the Law Offices of Glew & Kim immediately on 714-713-4525, or use our online form for a Free Case Analysis. We believe in equal access to justice for all.
