Expendable For A Cause.

Life on the Row

Death row prisoners are stripped of nearly every freedom while waiting to die. Life is a bleak existence marked by isolation, exclusion from educational and employment programs, restricted visitation, and the ever-looming possibility of execution.

Solitary Confinement: Richard spent most of his time alone in a small cell, with limited social interaction and exposure to sunlight, subjected to much more deprivation and harsher conditions than general population inmates.

Limited Time Outside Cells: Richard spent more than 20 hours a day in his cell, only allowed to shower a few times a week, with limited access to exercise and visitations.

Frequent Checks: In California, death row inmates are checked on average 48 times a day. This means Richard had to go through these checks constantly. The checks involve loud noises from keys, voices, and lights, making it hard to sleep without interruption, leading to severe sleep deprivation. Richard spent 24 years on death row (except for the 3 years in the San Francisco County Jail). Imagine how it would feel to be sleep-deprived for over 20 years.

Declining Mental Health: The combination of isolation, limited sunlight, and severe restrictions can lead to a condition known as “death row syndrome.” While it appears Richard had some physical and mental health issues before he was sent to prison, the conditions on death row seem to have exacerbated his illnesses.

What is death row syndrome? Being confined to death row for an extended period of time can cause deteriorating physical health, agitation, delusions, suicidal tendencies, paranoia, depression, and anxiety. Prisoners wait decades for execution and are subjected to prolonged isolation, which many legal experts have concluded is comparable to torture.

From Philip Carlo’s “The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez“

Every death row inmate at San Quentin falls into one of two categories: grade A or grade B. Grade A comprises individuals who mainly abide by prison rules, while grade B includes those who have violated rules, been violent in prison, or have gang affiliations. Those considered “grade B” spend an indefinite period in the Adjustment Center. Any mail sent to prisoners is meticulously examined before being delivered. From the confines of their cells, prisoners have a view of black bars, a sheet of perforated metal, a railing, and a daunting forty feet of open space before reaching a wall of windows. The cells in East Block measure a mere 48 square feet and stand at a height of seven feet, seven inches – about the size of a walk-in closet. Adjacent to some of the cell doors are shoulder-high, A-frame metal structures with attached telephones. Sam Robinson, San Quentin’s Public Relations Officer, explained their purpose, “Because these guys can’t exit their cells freely, we actually have a phone apparatus on wheels, as we say, and we push it in front of the individual cell. We leave his food port open, and he is allowed to extend his hand out, grab the receiver, and place a call.” Walking death row at San Quentin State Prison

The harsh reality Richard faced on death row is far worse than any words can convey. Can you envision this being your life every single day, year after year, decade after decade.

From Carlo’s “The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez“

Mental Health

Mental health issues significantly impact death-penalty cases. Individuals with mental illness are more vulnerable to police pressure, less able to assist their attorneys meaningfully, and are typically poor witnesses. Living conditions on death row are deliberately inhospitable, based on the presumption that those subjected to them are not only the most serious offenders but also predatory individuals who pose a continuing danger to others. The American Psychological Association states that the narrative about the danger posed by death row prisoners is unsupported by evidence. However, the evidence demonstrates that a disproportionate number of individuals on death row experience serious mental health disorders that are predictably worsened by the onerous conditions of confinement.

“The question we need to ask about the death penalty in America is not whether someone deserves to die for a crime. The question is whether we deserve to kill.“ Bryan Stevenson, founder of Equal Justice Initiative

The Death Penalty in America

The United States is the only Western industrialized nation that practices capital punishment, putting it in the company of notorious dictators in countries such as North Korea, Iran, Iraq, China, and Saudi Arabia. The American death penalty system is marred by bias, wrongful convictions, unfair application, and dependence on the defendant’s financial resources and legal representation. It is disproportionately imposed on the poor, uneducated, and people of color. Moreover, it does not effectively deter violent crime, fails to enhance public safety, and is significantly costlier than a life imprisonment without parole sentence. Ultimately, it favors the wealthy and guilty over the poor and innocent.

One in ten prisoners executed in the United States are considered “volunteers,” meaning they have waived key trial or appeal rights to facilitate their execution. This decision is often driven by the appalling conditions they are subjected to on death row for many years before their sentence is carried out.

Since 1978: 1,582 individuals have been executed, while 181 have died from non-execution-related deaths. Richard’s death is included in the non-execution related numbers, as he died from an illness while on death row. Fifteen individuals have had their death sentences carried out. The state of California has carried out 13 of those 15 executions.

California Death Penalty

As of January 2023, 2,463 prisoners were on death row in the United States, with 665 of those being in California. California’s death row is the largest in the Western Hemisphere. An estimate from The National Academy of Sciences concluded that at least four percent of individuals on death row are innocent. California’s death row population is representative of the inherent racism in capital punishment, with Latinos comprising 26% of death row prisoners and 39% of the state’s population.

Does anyone want to guess which county has sentenced the most people to death? That’s right, Los Angeles! Los Angeles County also has the highest number of exoneration cases among all California counties.

• Five prisoners have been found innocent and released from San Quentin’s death row, the most recent in April 2018, when Vicente Benavides was released after 25 years.
• East Block was the home of California’s only death row until it was shut down in early 2023. Currently there is a moratorium on the death penalty in California, but it is still legal.

Wrongful Convictions

According to The Innocence Project, more than 3,000 people have been wrongly convicted since 1989, highlighting significant flaws in the capital punishment system. Since 1973, 196 individuals have been exonerated from death row in the U.S., yet this doesn’t fully depict the impact the death penalty has on wrongful convictions. The threat of the death penalty leads innocent individuals to plead guilty. It elicits false testimony, disproportionately affecting Black and Latino individuals, with documented law enforcement misconduct in two-thirds of Latino exoneration cases.

Leading Causes of Wrongful Convictions:

1. Eyewitness misidentification
2. False and coerced confessions
3. Law enforcement misconduct
4. Inadequate legal defense
5. False accusations or perjury by witnesses
6. False or misleading forensic evidence

Multiple contributing factors of wrongful convictions were present in Richard’s case: (This is by no means an exhaustive list of the issues that contributed to Richard’s conviction)

• Unreliable eyewitness identification– eyewitness identification weighed heavily in convicting Richard. Yet, EVERY single witness gave an initial description that did not match Richard.
• Perjury-Felipe Solano lied during his testimony by stating he only bought stolen goods from Richard.
• Inadequate legal defense-the wholly inept duo, Arturo and Daniel Hernandez, represented Richard, if one can call it that. They conceded much of the forensic evidence presented by the prosecution and didn’t bother with having most of the evidence tested. I suppose that would have required too much actual “lawyering.”
• False and misleading forensic evidence- 
  • Shoe Prints-so called shoe print expert Gerald Burke presented misleading and incorrect information regarding the Avia shoe prints. The evidence did not support Burke’s conclusions; Avia shoes were not a rare commodity in the Los Angeles area. 
  •  Fingerprints-fingerprint evidence consisted of 1 partial fingerprint and 1 palm print. Both are considered by many in the legal field to be “junk science.”
  • Ballistics – the prosecution presented faulty, misleading ballistics evidence.
• Serological testing-None of the blood evidence from the crime scenes was Richard’s. PGM markers also revealed that Richard’s semen was not present at any crime scene. Despite these facts, the forensic specialist downplayed the results.
• Presumption of guilt-A high-profile case such as Richard’s was burdened by a presumption of guilt that shifted the burden of proof to the defense. Richard’s case was “guilty until proven innocent”, instead of “innocent until proven guilty.”
• Involuntary/Coerced statements– Involuntary statements have a high risk of a lack of reliability and accuracy and violate due process. Allegedly, Richard made incriminating statements on the ride to Hollenbeck police station and once he arrived there. The statements were made before Richard was read his “Miranda” rights and considered involuntary and inadmissible.
• Illegal seizure of evidence – based on Richard’s alleged statements, law enforcement used “probable cause” to search him physically, retrieve items from a storage locker at a Greyhound bus station, and the Pontiac vehicle. Richard was physically searched, his wallet confiscated, and the locker content seized before a search warrant was issued. The search warrant was obtained after the fact, with Richard’s alleged statements used as a means to justify it.
• Immunity from prosecution–several individuals were given immunity from prosecution for testifying against Richard, including Jesse Perez, Felipe Solano, Donna Myers and Earl Gregg.

The intense pressure to secure convictions and political motivations for law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges can lead to critical legal mistakes that result in wrongful convictions and death sentences. Tom Bradley, mayor of L.A. when Richard was arrested, publicly announced that same day there was no need to have a trial as he was convinced Richard was the so-called Nightstalker. He had also been an LAPD officer and twice ran for governor of California. His views on the death penalty were clear: “To put it neatly and in a few words, I am in favor of the death penalty.” Sheriff Block of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department ran for reelection in 1989. Securing a conviction for the Nightstalker crimes helped him achieve this goal. Advocating for capital punishment helped one-time San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein to get elected and reelected to the Senate. In contrast, former California Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Bird voted to overturn every death penalty case she reviewed. As a result, she was “booted” from the bench when she ran for reelection in 1986.

Law Enforcement Degeneracy

Counties, states, and the federal government have varying regulations and procedures regarding the preservation of evidence and access to testing for incarcerated individuals striving to demonstrate their innocence. In many cases, prosecutors refuse to reconsider or reopen cases even when new evidence is presented. There is a lack of accountability for law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and judges, even if misconduct results in wrongful convictions. Immunity laws shield them from responsibility, and they can’t be held liable for falsifying or withholding evidence, coercing witnesses, presenting false testimony, or introducing illegally seized evidence at trial.

Official misconduct in Richard’s case (these are only a few examples of the misconduct in Richard’s case-it is not an exhaustive list):

• Los Angeles prosecutors lost the partial and unidentified fingerprint evidence presented in the Vincow crime. No penalties were imposed.
• Federal habeas attorneys retained a fingerprint examiner and a forensic shoeprint expert to review evidence presented at Richard’s trial. Both requests were denied.
• Law enforcement identified potential third-party suspects involved in burglaries and thefts, with motive and opportunity to commit crimes and sell stolen property to Felipe Solano. Yet, the prosecution deceitfully portrayed Felipe Solano as “less than a major receiver of stolen property.”
• The prosecution falsely told the jury that although Solano was involved in receiving stolen property, the State would have to release Richard if they wanted to prosecute Solano.

From Carlo’s “The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez”

*From the statements Richard made to Philip Carlo, he did not appear to have resigned himself to a life on death row. *

Reconsidering Evidence in the Night Stalker Case

The evidence implicating Richard in the Night Stalker case does not meet the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, causing grave concerns about his convictions. All of the evidence from the Night Stalker case should be submitted for independent forensic laboratory testing. Not to a lab looking to uphold the status quo but to one that operates without any knowledge of the significance of the evidence. This could offer an opportunity for unbiased evaluation, potentially shedding new light on the case. What do we have to lose? Many individuals may have a lot to lose.

Those who have built their careers on the premise of Richard Ramirez as the Night Stalker and anyone looking to cash in on this “true” crime story, have a vested interest in keeping to the story they’ve told for decades. The potential impact on such individuals is palpable and adds a layer of skepticism to the entire case. The established narrative of Richard’s convictions is not as straightforward as commonly believed, emphasizing the need for a thorough reevaluation. It is time to uncover the real facts and establish the true story. It’s time for a deeper, unbiased investigation.

San Quentin, I hate every inch of you.
You cut me and you scarred me through and through
And I’ll walk out a wiser, weaker man.
Mister Congressman, you can’t understand.

San Quentin, what good do you think you do?
Do you think I’ll be different when you’re through?
You bent my heart and mind, and you warp my soul.
Your stone walls turn my blood a little cold.

San Quentin, may you rot and burn in hell.
May your walls fall, and may I live to tell?
May all the world forget you ever stood?
And may all the world regret you did no good?
San Quentin, I hate every inch of you (The song “San Quentin” was recorded by singer Johnny Cash in 1969, at San Quentin State Prison).

Additional Sources:

2008 Federal Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus, Richard Ramirez vs Robert Ayers

The Nightstalker. The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez, Philip Carlo, 1996

Time on Death Row | Death Penalty Information Center

California is closing San Quentin’s death row. This is its gruesome history.

Los Angeles County Sheriffs – Past to Present (laalmanac.com)

Wrongful Convictions (eji.org)

The Death Penalty Worldwide – Death Penalty Focus

Death Penalty (eji.org)

California Death Penalty Facts – Death Penalty Focus

https://innocenceproject.org/innocence-and-the-death-penalty/

KayCee