Shelby D.A. backs off
death sentence view
Prosecutor changes
view on Gamble after co-defendant spared
Nancy Wilstach
June 8, 2006
A
tough prosecutor with more than two decades experience in sending
murderers to their deaths testified in an appeal hearing Wednesday
that he would not have sought the death penalty for an older, but less
culpable, accomplice in a double murder-robbery had he known the more
culpable 16-year-old shooter would escape execution.
Shelby County District Attorney Robby Owens was a witness in a hearing
for LaSamuel Gamble, now 29, presided over by Shelby County Circuit
Judge J. Michael Joiner.
Gamble and Marcus Pressley were both sentenced to death for the 1996
execution-style shootings of John Burleson and Janice Littleton at
John's 280 Pawn Shop in Westover.
The crime was caught almost entirely on the store's security
videotape.
Pressley was 16 and Gamble, 19. Last year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
that no one under 18 who commits a crime is eligible for the death
penalty. Pressley, who shot both victims, has been removed from
Alabama's Death Row as a result.
Owens said that he considers ''equity, fairness and the facts of the
case'' when deciding whether to seek the death penalty, under
questioning by Vanessa Buch of the Southern Center for Human Rights.
Owens personally prosecuted both defendants in separate 1997 trials.
During Gamble's trial, Owens described him as the ''one who is
controlling the situation. He just used Marcus Pressley to do the
killing.''
Buch asked Owens whether he would have sought the death penalty for
Gamble if Pressley, who was tried first, had been sentenced to life
without parole.
''No,'' Owens replied.
In
cross-examining Owens, Alabama Assistant Attorney General Henry
Johnson asked why Owens sought the death penalty for Gamble in 1997
when he knew that Gamble did not shoot either Burleson or Littleton.
Owens described how calm Gamble appeared on the videotape and how he
carefully picked up shell casings and then leaned over a railing to
look at Burleson's splattered brains without reacting.
Owens said he also was aware that Gamble was the shooter in a similar
incident in Bessemer in which one person died and another was wounded.
That was information he could not share with Gamble's jury.
''If Marcus Pressley were still on Death Row, would you be here
today?'' asked Johnson.
''No,'' Owens replied.
Owens said his opinion is that ''both deserve to be on Death Row, but
it is simple equity-it is not fair to leave the person on Death Row
who didn't kill anyone and take the person off Death Row who did.''
Joiner's options are a complete new trial, a new penalty phase or
letting the conviction and death sentence stand. Should Joiner rule
for Buch and her co-counsel, William Montross Jr., and grant a
complete or partial new trial, the attorney general's office does not
have to hand the case back to Owens for prosecution and could opt to
retry it with staff attorneys.
The hearing is expected to wind up today, followed by a period during
which lawyers for both sides may submit briefs.
Joiner's ruling is expected to come at least 30 days later.
