SAN DIEGO (AP) — Federal prosecutors said they will not seek the death penalty for a 22-year-old former nursing student charged in a deadly shooting at a Southern California synagogue on the last day of Passover.
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The decision was disclosed Monday in a one-sentence court filing in federal court in San Diego. It comes less than two months after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland halted federal executions while the Justice Department conducts a review of its policies and procedures.
In July, John T. Earnest pleaded guilty to murder and other charges in state court. The San Diego County district attorney’s office said at the time that he agreed to serve the rest of his life in state prison without the possibility of parole. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 30.
In the federal case, Earnest submitted a conditional plea agreement for consideration by federal prosecutors in June 4, the terms of which have not been disclosed. A hearing in that case is scheduled Sept. 8.
Earnest opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle during the last day of Passover services in April 2019 at Chabad of Poway. The attack killed 60-year-old Lori Gilbert-Kaye and wounded three others, including an 8-year-old girl and the rabbi, who lost a finger.
Earnest then called 911 to say he had shot up a synagogue because Jews were trying to “destroy all white people,” authorities said.
It looks like he got life imprisonment as part of the deal to plead guilty. Otherwise, multi-million dollar trial (I know incarceration is more expensive) and decades of appeals. I guess it also spares victims from testifying.
The death penalty in this country doesn’t have any logical guidelines behind it and the appeals take forever. This provides quicker closure to the extent closure exists.
Hopefully when he’s in jail some of the inmates will take a liking to him.
put him to death, there is NO sense in giving him life imprisonment…
Thank you Senile Joe for giving us Merrick Garland. Thank G-d that Senator Mitch McConnel wouldn’t grant Obumski the chance to put him on the Supreme Court. Just imagine that looney lefty sitting on the court.
The issue is that you need to “seek
the death penality” This guy killed out in the open. There isn’t even a beyond reasonable doubt. He is guilty as heck. Why not just take him to the firing squad and kill him? Why are we wasting money on this peace of trash via imprisoning him. We became so tamish and Harryish as a nation. Like no common sense. It’s all a system and the law. Such nonsense.
Of course Shelly silver a rich powerful white dude is treated worse than him