A confessed killer’s rampage left eight innocent people dead and one wounded in the worst case of mass murder in Orange County history. But because law enforcement violated proper due process, the punishment will not fit the crime.
This utterly sickening miscarriage of justice in the case of People v. Dekraai was neither a failure by the court nor the by judge, but of Orange County’s top law enforcement agencies — the District Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Department. Misconduct by the prosecution and jail handlers forced the bitter decision to strike the death penalty made by Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals.
The foundation of our criminal justice system is the right to a fair trial. It is incumbent on law enforcement officials to properly investigate the crime, submit evidence for prosecution and share discovery with the defense. That simply did not happen in this case despite Judge Goethals’ repeated insistence by court order over a period of more than four years. A prosecutor’s duty is to seek justice, not convictions.
The district attorney and Sheriff’s Department did not appeal any of the discovery orders but rather ignored, denied or delayed the production of evidence. Judge Goethals described it as “chronic obstructionism.” Simple evidentiary sanctions (excluding some evidence) could not be imposed as it was impossible to know what evidence was tainted by the discovery violations and what was not. This left the court with the unfortunate choice to impose a draconian sanction by striking the death penalty, an unthinkable remedy.
“During this entire period, prosecutors failed their professional responsibility to properly investigate,” Judge Goethals wrote in his ruling. “The court finds the prosecution team is unable and/or unwilling to comply fully with these lawful orders that remain in full force and effect. As a result, the court now exercises its discretion to strike the death penalty as a potential punishment for this defendant, despite the horrendous nature of his crimes.”
The improper use of jailhouse informants and withholding evidence violated the defendant’s constitutional rights, denied true justice for the victims, and shattered the public trust. If our top law enforcement officials can’t abide by the rule of law, and allow or even encourage such misconduct to filter through their ranks, this leadership is no longer capable of running our most powerful public agencies.
Dekraai is only the most notorious case of OCDA and OCSD misconduct. In recent years, at least six murder convictions in Orange County have been overturned or sentences reduced due to similar prosecutorial misconduct. In one case, a teenage boy was held for more than two years in jail before exculpatory evidence was revealed and he was exonerated from the murder charge. Our public safety is compromised as dangerous criminals are released to the streets and our individual liberties are threatened by the unethical and unconstitutional practices of the District Attorney’s Office. We should all be very afraid.
It is shameful that both the OCDA and OCSD issued statements that continue to blame the judge, defense attorneys and the media for the unsatisfactory outcome in the penalty phase of the Dekraai trial. There has been no acceptance of responsibility and no apologies; neither to the victims’ families, nor to the public. It is time for all citizens of Orange County, and our elected leaders, to finally acknowledge and repudiate the threat to our community through the depth of systemic corruption in these agencies, even if the agencies refuse to acknowledge it themselves.
Mario Mainero is a professor of law at Chapman University’s Fowler Law School. Todd Spitzer is an Orange County supervisor, representing the Third District, and a candidate for district attorney.