Cali Supremes Uphold Conviction for Celeste Carrington Cali DR in 2 1994 Murders

[Jeff1857]

The California Supreme Court Monday upheld a death penalty for an East Palo Alto woman who fatally shot two people while burglarizing offices where she had worked as a janitor.

Celeste Carrington, 47, was sentenced to death in San Mateo County Superior Court in 1994 for the murders of Victor Esparza, a janitor at a San Carlos shoe factory, and Carolyn Gleason, a property manager at a Palo Alto real estate firm, in two separate incidents in 1992.

Both victims were shot in the head at close range.

Carrington was also found guilty of the attempted murder of pediatrician Allan Marks in his Redwood City office. Marks was wounded but survived and testified at her trial.

Carrington had worked as a janitor at all three offices. She is now one of 15 women among 683 inmates on death row in California.

The state high court, in a ruling issued in San Francisco, unanimously rejected a series of appeal arguments, including Carrington's challenges to a search of her home and to a confession she made to police after giving up her right to a have a lawyer present.

Carrington's lawyers said at her trial that she was under pressure to support her lover and her lover's three children. They argued she should be spared a death penalty because she was abused as a child.

Carrington's automatic appeal to the California Supreme Court is the first step in the state's death penalty appeal process.

She has a separate habeas corpus petition pending before the state high court and also has the right to file a petition in federal court.


http://cbs5.com/local/woman.death.penalty.2.1103029.html

[heidi salazar]

Carrington's lawyers said at her trial that she was under pressure to support her lover and her lover's three children.

My opinion again...I have never had it so good that I would MURDER for it much less throw money at it! Celeste was well on her way to being another Cali serial killer!

[podmornica]

The California Supreme Court Monday upheld a death penalty for an East Palo Alto woman who fatally shot two people while burglarizing offices where she had worked as a janitor.

Celeste Carrington, 47, was sentenced to death in San Mateo County Superior Court in 1994 for the murders of Victor Esparza, a janitor at a San Carlos shoe factory, and Carolyn Gleason, a property manager at a Palo Alto real estate firm, in two separate incidents in 1992.

...

Carrington's automatic appeal to the California Supreme Court is the first step in the state's death penalty appeal process.

She has a separate habeas corpus petition pending before the state high court and also has the right to file a petition in federal court.


http://cbs5.com/local/woman.death.penalty.2.1103029.html

OK, I'm pretty slow myself, but the system in California seems exceedingly slow.  She was convicted in 1994 but this "automatic appeal is the first step in the state's death penalty appeal process."

Does that mean she's been sitting on DR for 15 years and her first appeal has just run its course?

[Jeff1857]

That's correct pod. I understand in Cali it takes an average of 7-8 years to be even assigned an appellate lawyer. Cases are stacked up at the Cali Supremes and take years before rulings as well. There were ideas to revamp the court system to create a seperate court for DP appeals but so far nothing has come from that. Of course then if the appeals are denied with the maze of liberal courts there is always the 9th circuit who have apparently found very few scumbags that they couldn't hug.

[mlc2005]

Unbelievable:  There are currently 13 women on death row in CA, some convicted in the 80's, and none of them have exhausted the appeals. When is that state going to get it together?  Why even have the death penalty if it's just in name only?

[JTiscool]

Unbelievable:  There are currently 13 women on death row in CA, some convicted in the 80's, and none of them have exhausted the appeals. When is that state going to get it together?  Why even have the death penalty if it's just in name only?

California is too liberal.