A Denver federal jury’s decision last week to spare the life of a convict who killed and gutted a prison cellmate is the latest example of a national trend: U.S. prosecutors increasingly seeking the death penalty, with juries usually saying no.
Under President Bush, prosecutors have pushed for death sentences more often. Yet since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988, juries nationwide have decided on death in 56 of 416 cases where prosecutors sought it, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-death-penalty group in Washington.
Instead, defendants in death-penalty cases usually wind up sentenced to life in prison without parole.
“Juries and the public in general now have an option of life without parole, and that causes many jurors to hesitate,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
On Friday, a U.S. District Court jury said it could not agree on whether William Sablan should be put to death for the 1999 murder of Joey Estrella, a fellow inmate at the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence.
The same jury had convicted Sab lan of first-degree murder last month. While most on the panel favored a death sentence, one held out, jurors said.
“There was no strong-arming or arguing,” said juror Brent Zimmerman, 25, a materials engineer interviewed Friday.
“Personally, I’m frustrated in one way,” he said. “On the other hand, the law is what it is. You have to respect everyone’s opinion.”
Federal prosecutors had labored to have Sablan put to death, citing the brutality of Estrella’s murder. Jurors learned how Sablan eviscerated his victim, then sat on Estrella’s bloody body taunting guards.
The crime “is the very definition of ‘heinous or depraved,”‘ a legal hurdle for a death sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brenda Taylor told jurors.
But because the panel could not reach a unanimous decision on a sentence, Sablan will serve life in prison. Judge Wiley Daniel scheduled a formal sentencing for April 18.
The jurors cited mitigating factors, such as evidence Sablan has severe mental trouble, that he once saved the life of a drowning swimmer and that executing him would cause emotional trauma for his four children.
The killing occurred when Sablan, 42, was serving a 21-year sentence for a hostage-taking during a 1999 prison uprising on his former home island of Saipan in the Pacific.
The case marked the first time in Colorado that federal jurors considered the death penalty since Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to die a decade ago. McVeigh was executed in 2001.
Despite prosecutors’ failure to convince jurors to support a death sentence, U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said that “justice is served” by Sablan serving life in prison.
“Mr. Sablan is going to spend the rest of his life behind bars,” Eid said outside the courtroom. “He is clearly a menace to society. … The absolute obligation now is to make certain he is closely monitored in prison.”
Defense attorney Nathan Chambers called it “a difficult case for everybody,” adding that jurors “obviously took their duties very seriously … and we, of course, are very happy with the verdict of life sentence.”
Of the 56 federal cases where jurors voted for the death penalty since 1988, three defendants have been executed, three had sentences overturned and 50 await death.
In 2000, federal death row prisoners numbered only 19, with the increase reflecting the Bush administration’s aggressive push for death sentences.
Staff writer Bruce Finley can be reached at 303-954-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com.
