Calambro case headed to the U.S. Supreme Court

Thursday, Oct. 8, 1998 | 11:35 a.m.

Federal public defender Michael Pescetta said U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben canceled a hearing set for Wednesday pending a decision by the Supreme Court on whether to hear the case.

Pescetta said he served notice when the Nevada Supreme Court refused to stop Calambro's execution.

Calambro says he wants to die for the murders of two people during the robbery of Reno's U-Haul business.

But his mother, Lydia Calambro, says her son is mentally ill and doesn't know what he's doing.

There has been testimony that Calambro is mentally retarded and a borderline schizophrenic who hears voices telling him what to do. But the state says and a majority of Nevada's Supreme Court agrees that doesn't mean he isn't competent to decide whether he wants to appeal his death sentence.

Pescetta said the state and Washoe County prosecutors are "in a rush" to execute Calambro and have twice tried to set an execution date, including once when the case was before McKibben.

Calambro, 25, was sentenced to die for the January 1994 murders of Peggy Crawford and Keith Christopher. The woman's head was split open with a tire iron and the man's was crushed by a hammer during a robbery that netted just $2,400. Calambro's cohort, Duc Huynh, was also sentenced to death but killed himself at Ely State Prison.

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