In 1978, Douglas Ray Stankewitz Was Sentenced to Death in Fresno County Superior Court

Ballot measure asks: Is California death penalty on death row -- including 42 from the central San worth the cost? Joaquin Valley. By Pablo Lopez From The Fresno Bee Monday, Jan. 30, 2012 Among the initiative's supporters are a former San Quentin warden, Jeanne Woodford, and Don Heller, In 1978, Douglas Ray Stankewitz was sentenced to a former prosecutor who wrote the original ballot death in Fresno County Superior Court after he killed measure reinstituting the death penalty. Theresa Graybeal and then bragged to his friends: "Did I drop her or did I drop her?" Heller now says the death penalty was a mistake and is too costly to administer. More than three decades later, Stankewitz remains on death row at San Quentin Prison, no closer to But Shani Jenkins, an assistant Tulare County district execution than the day he was sentenced. attorney, worries the ballot measure may be only the start of a long-term effort to scale back other First there were years of appeals. Then a federal prison terms: "What will they go after next? Life in judge in 2009 ordered a new trial to determine prison without parole?" whether Stankewitz -- who has been on death row longer than anyone in California -- should be Prosecutors in Fresno, Kings, Madera and Tulare executed or given life in prison. Prosecutors head counties each have at least two death penalty cases back to court Feb. 6 to argue that ruling. in the works, and they say capital punishment remains a crucial prosecution tool. It can be used as To death penalty opponents, cases like Stankewitz's leverage to get defendants to plead guilty to murder illustrate an issue: It can take decades before in return for life in prison, thereby avoiding costly appeals run their course, leaving taxpayers to foot trials. It also can be used as a bargaining chip to get a the bill for special housing at San Quentin, plus all murderer to divulge the motive for a killing or that court jockeying. location of a body, sparing families the trauma of having to wonder what happened. In fact, it takes so long to get a date in the death chamber that far more inmates die of natural causes Miguel Valdovinos, an assistant district attorney in -- or by their own hand -- than are executed. And the Madera County, said the initiative's proponents fail costs are mounting. A study last year estimated that to note how the death penalty can aid prosecutors, the death penalty has cost California at least $4 even in cases that don't end in a death sentence. billion since it was reinstated in 1978. "Hopefully, voters will recognize what they are trying Now, a growing chorus of death penalty critics who to do -- make it tougher for us to do our job," he for years focused on moral arguments are making a said. pocketbook appeal to voters: Their ballot measure to abolish the death penalty focuses on the costs to "Saying it costs too much is an easy thing to do," taxpayers to execute a prisoner. They say they have Valdovinos added. "But the easy thing is not always collected enough signatures to get it on the Nov. 6 the right thing." ballot. Kings County District Attorney Greg Strickland sees it "It is time to stop wasting money," said Natasha in more basic terms: "People who rape and kill a Minsker, statewide campaign manager for SAFE child deserve death." California, which proposed the measure. SAFE stands for Savings, Accountability and Full Enforcement. There are four death penalty cases pending in Kings County, including one that involves a Corcoran State Proponents of the initiative say taxpayers will save Prison inmate accused of killing his cellmate. That $1 billion over five years by replacing the death defendant already was serving life in prison without penalty with life in prison without parole. Those parole, Strickland said. savings, they say, would be better spent on unsolved rape and murder cases, and for hiring teachers and If the death penalty was abolished, inmates who kill building roads. There are 722 condemned prisoners in prison would never be punished, Strickland said. "Where's the justice in that?" he said. Pocketbook appeal By the time he was executed in 2006, Allen was 76, a diabetic, legally blind, using a wheelchair and had Prosecutors have public sentiment on their side. A survived a near fatal heart attack at San Quentin. Field Poll last September found 68% of voters favor retaining the death penalty, while 27% want to get His accomplice, Billy Ray Hamilton, 57, never got to rid of it. "There has been no appreciable change in see the executioner. He died the following year of this division of sentiment over the past 15 years," natural causes, prison officials said. the survey said. Allen was the last person to be executed at San Backers of the initiative to abolish the death penalty Quentin. Since then, capital punishment in California understand it's hard to counter emotions, so they're has been in limbo as a result of legal challenges to playing to voters' practicality. The initiative would the state's execution process. Just last month, in the set aside $100 million over four years for law latest such ruling, a Marin County judge rejected the enforcement to dig into unsolved rape and murder state's revised lethal injection procedure, saying cases. The Legislature could use the rest of the officials failed to consider a one-drug procedure savings for schools and roads, and to help balance used in other states. the state's budget, said Minsker, the initiative's campaign director. Prosecutors appear to be winning death sentences less often. In the 1990s, an average of 32 death Whether the initiative will save $1 billion in five sentences per year were imposed in California, years as supporters say is in dispute. according to corrections department data. From 2001 to 2010, the average dipped to 20 per year. The state's Legislative Analyst's Office estimated last There were only seven death sentences last year. October that the net savings would be in "the high tens of millions of dollars" annually if the death James Ardaiz, the retired presiding justice of the 5th penalty is abolished. District Court of Appeal and a former prosecutor, said limited resources and a higher standard of proof Murder trials would be shorter because there would to convict have forced prosecutors to be more be no separate penalty phase, prison housing would selective in seeking a death sentence. be cheaper because inmates would share cells, and the appeal process would be shorter. "Prosecutors are less likely to go after it unless there's a high degree of confidence they are going to On the other hand, more cases could go to trial and get it," said Ardaiz, who has trained judges in "the magnitude of these costs is unknown," the handling death penalty cases. Legislative Analyst's Office said. Fresno County District Attorney Elizabeth Egan Executions in limbo declined an interview request but said in an email that she remains committed to the death penalty. Since 1978, only 13 condemned inmates in California have been executed. Another 55 have died of In 2005, Egan successfully sought the death penalty natural causes while waiting to be put to death, for Marcus Wesson for orchestrating the 2004 according to the state's Department of Corrections killings of nine of his children. Egan is seeking death and Rehabilitation. Nineteen other death row sentences against Leroy Johnson, who is accused of inmates have committed suicide. robbing and killing a Kerman couple in 2009, and against Eddie Ricky Nealy, accused of raping and Fresno County has put 21 people on death row, but murdering 14-year-old Jody Lynn Wolfe in 1985. only one has been executed: Clarence Ray Allen. He received a death sentence in 1982 for County prosecutors also are busy trying to make masterminding Fresno's notorious Fran's Market death sentences stick against Stankewitz, Fernando slayings of Bryon Schletewitz, 27, Douglas White, 18, Caro and Donald Griffin. and Josephine Rocha, 17. Fresno defense attorney Pete Jones said county prosecutors have won capital punishment verdicts in 21 of 44 cases since 1978. Five of those verdicts, In Ceres, Wayne Graybeal, father-in-law of Theresa, including Stankewitz's, were later overturned. is fed up with the delays.

"That's not even batting .500," Jones said. "She was just a kid," Graybeal said, recalling that Theresa, just 22, had gone to the store to buy dog Jones has defended five men facing capital food when she was kidnapped, then killed. punishment, but only Wesson was given the death penalty. Graybeal, 78, still keeps a newspaper clipping about the killing in his wallet. He said his family won't get Egan's predecessors, both now defense attorneys, justice until Stankewitz gets executed. agreed death row is expensive. Ed Hunt put 13 men there during his 20 years as district attorney, and "He's just a bad, bad guy," Graybeal said. "We hate Dale Blickenstaff put two on death row before Hunt. his guts."

Blickenstaff wouldn't say which way he would vote on the ballot measure, but Hunt said his stance on death has softened with concerns an innocent person could be killed.

"Sometimes I wonder what is society looking for -- vengeance or justice," he said.

A death in Calwa

Theresa Graybeal's family is still waiting for something to happen 34 years after she was killed.

Stankewitz was 19 in February 1978. He and four others -- Billy Brown, 14, Marlin Lewis, 22, Teena Topping, 19, and Christina Menchaca, 25 -- had gotten stranded in Modesto when they forced Graybeal into her car outside a Kmart and drove off. During the ride to Fresno, they robbed Graybeal of $32 and her watch.

They drove to the Calwa area of Fresno looking for heroin. They got out of the car at Vine Avenue and 10th Street and smoked cigarettes. Then everyone got back in the car except Stankewitz and Graybeal. Stankewitz raised his gun, braced his hand and shot Graybeal from about one foot away.

Brown's charges were dropped for testifying against Stankewitz. Lewis pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, and Menchaca and Topping pleaded guilty to being accessories.

Stankewitz's first conviction was reversed in 1982, but a year later he was convicted again and sentenced again to death.

That second death sentence is in limbo. U.S. District Judge Anthony Ishii ruled in 2009 that Stankewitz's attorney didn't tell jurors about his abusive childhood and mental health.