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November 14, 2009

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Del Papa suggests Supreme Court appeal in Gallego case

Saturday, Sept. 6, 1997 | 9:15 a.m.

Del Papa says she's considering asking the full panel of the circuit court to look at the decision, which was issued by a three-member panel. Or she may take it to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The 9th Circuit said there was a faulty jury instruction at the trial in Pershing County. The court said the instruction inadequately stated the law on whether or not it was necessary to sentence Gallego to death to ensure he would not be freed from prison after serving only a brief sentence. It ordered a new sentencing hearing.

"This is an extremely disappointing decision that continues to delay justice in a case where justice has already been denied for so many years," Del Papa said.

Gallego, 51, was sentenced to die for the hammer killings of Karen Twiggs and Stacey Redican, both 17, whom he had kidnapped from a Sacramento, Calif., shopping center in April 1980.

He drove them to an isolated area near Lovelock in a van. Testimony at the trial from his former wife, Charlene, said he was looking for the perfect sex slave. Their bodies were found in a shallow grave near Lovelock in July 1980.

Gallego's father, also named Gerald Gallego, was the first man executed in the gas chamber in Mississippi in 1955 for the killing of a police officer.

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