Hearing opens before 3 judges

Greg Tuttle

Monday, July 24, 2000 | 11:19 a.m.

A hearing in Clark County District Court to determine the fate of quadruple murderer Donte Johnson began this morning before a panel of three judges.

The hearing started despite a flurry of legal challenges filed last week by Johnson's defense attorneys, who challenged the constitutionality of the three-judge panel convened after a jury deadlocked on whether to impose the death penalty.

On Friday, the Nevada Supreme Court rejected an emergency motion to stay the sentencing hearing and said it would not intervene in the case at this point. A day earlier, Judge Jeffrey Sobel said he could not overturn the state's legal procedure in such cases.

Sobel, who presided over Johnson's trial, is among the three judges who will decide whether Johnson should be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole. District Judges Michael Griffin and Steve Elliot, both of Northern Nevada, will join Sobel on the panel during the two-day hearing.

Johnson, 23, was convicted last month on four counts of first-degree murder for the killings of four men during a home robbery. The same jury that convicted Johnson voted 11-1 in favor of the death penalty, but the decision must be unanimous to be valid.

Under Nevada court rules, the three-judge panel is convened when a jury cannot agree on a death penalty sentence. Critics have said the panel of judges most often returns a verdict of death.

But Johnson's defense attorneys, public defenders Dayvid Figler and Joe Scisento, took the argument against the death penalty panel a step further. In court records filed last week, the attorneys pointed to a June 26 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said jurors should decide the sentence in death penalty cases.

The attorneys also attacked the system on grounds that the Nevada Constitution does not mention the creation of a three-judge panel, nor does it give the Legislature the ability to approve of one.

And unlike jurors, the judges are not subject to questioning about any biases or attitudes they may bring to their decision, the attorneys said.

The American Civil Liberties Union joined the attorneys in their effort to halt today's hearing and could join the case later on appeal.

Johnson was convicted of the Aug. 14, 1998, deaths of Peter Talamantez, 17, Tracey Gorringe, 20, and Matthew Mowen and Jeffrey Biddle, both 19.