Friday, April 3, 1998 | 4:24 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to make an exception for Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa who missed the deadline in submitting an appeal on a murder case because of a mailing snafu.
Del Papa planned to appeal a ruling by an appeals court that killer Gerald Gallego was entitled to another penalty hearing.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled there was a faulty jury instruction given in the trial and there should be a second hearing to set the sentencing.
Gallego was sentenced to death for the killings of 17-year-old Karen Twiggs and Stacey Redican whose bodies were found in the desert near Lovelock in April 1980. In his quest to find the perfect "sex slave," he had kidnapped the two girls from a shopping center parking lot in Sacramento, Calif.
Del Papa's office brought the appeal documents to the state mail room last month for transmittal to the U.S. Supreme Court by first class mail. Instead the mail room, following the rules, shipped it by United Parcel. The appeal documents failed to make the deadline.
Del Papa asked the Supreme Court to allow the appeal to be filed anyway because of the mix-up in the mailing. But she said Friday she has received word the court has denied her request.
Still, Del Papa may get the chance to bring her appeal to the Supreme Court. Gallego is appealing to the Supreme Court on 39 issues denied by the Circuit Court of Appeals. If the Supreme Court accepts his case, than Del Papa's office can raise the issue it tried unsuccessfully to appeal.
If the Supreme Court doesn't accept the Gallego appeal, than there will have to be the second penalty hearing for Gallego.
Gallego was also sentenced to death in California for the 1980 murder of college sweethearts Craig Miller and Mary Beth Sowers.
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