Gay News from London

Murderer Jeffrey Landrigan's appeal will be heard

Jeffrey Landrigan, an Arizona inmate who murdered two men including a gay man he picked up when he escaped from prison, won a reprieve when a federal appeals court set aside its original decision that Landrigan should die for his crimes. The San Francisco-based court announced in a two-sentence order it would rehear the appeal and entertain claims that the judge who sentenced the murderer failed to understand Landrigan's mental state due to alleged brain maladies. Is Landrigan, who strangled Chester Dyer with an electrical cord and repeatedly punctured him with a screwdriver, truly mentally defective? "The frontal lobes of his brain don't work," his attorney said. "He cannot foresee the consequences of his actions. If the judge had a complete background on Mr. Landrigan, we believe she could have come back with a life sentence."
SF Gate[Date: 16-Feb-05 ]