Thursday, July 27, 2000 | 11:10 a.m.
Donte Johnson's death sentence handed down Wednesday by a panel of three judges could become the next case to challenge how Nevada doles out the most severe penalty.
Johnson, 23, became the third convicted murderer in less than a week to be sentenced to death in Clark County District Court. Zane Floyd, the man who gunned down four people at a grocery store, and Fernando Hernandez, who strangled and stabbed his ex-wife to death in front of their 3-year-old daughter, were sentenced to die at separate proceedings last week.
But Johnson's case has drawn the attention of death penalty opponents who say the three-judge panel used in capital cases when a jury can't decide punishment exposes a fatal flaw in the state's criminal justice system.
"Today's case illustrates that the three-judge panel is a complete failure," said JoNell Thomas, a Las Vegas attorney and national board member of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Thomas said the ACLU will join Johnson's defense team from the Clark County Special Public Defenders unit in challenging the constitutionality of the state's use of the three-judge panel.
Death sentences are automatically reviewed by the Nevada Supreme Court.
The three-judge panel is convened when a jury is unable to make a unanimous decision on whether to impose the death penalty. In Johnson's case, the jury split 11 to 1 in favor of death.
The three-judge panel convened Monday, then spent Tuesday reviewing testimony and evidence from the trial. Defense attorneys presented their case Wednesday morning, and both sides made their closing arguments to the judges before deliberations began at about 11:30 a.m.
The death sentence was announced shortly after 1 p.m. by Judges Jeffrey Sobel, Michael Griffen and Steve Elliot. Sobel presided over Johnson's quadruple murder trial, and Griffen and Elliot were brought in from Northern Nevada to serve on the panel.
Johnson was convicted last month on four counts of first-degree murder for the Aug. 14, 1998, slaying of four men during a home robbery. The men were bound with duct tape and killed by a single gunshot to the head. Killed were Tracey Gorringe, 20, Peter Talamantez, 17, and Jeffrey Biddle and Matthew Mowen, both 19. Their family members reacted with enthusiasm to the death sentence Wednesday. When asked, all said they hope to attend Johnson's execution.
"It's not going to bring him back, but I do feel better," said David Mowen, Matthew Mowen's father.
Two other men involved in the robbery were sentenced to life without parole following separate trials last year.
Thomas said Johnson's case highlights several flaws in the three-judge panel system she believes makes it unconstitutional. The death sentence came not from a jury of Johnson's peers, she said, but from a panel of "three rich white guys."
It was the fourth time Judge Griffin has voted for death while serving on a death penalty panel, Thomas said. A potential juror with a similar track record would be removed from the process, she said.
And because judges are elected by the public and opinion polls show most voters support the death penalty, Thomas said the panel's final decision is heavily influenced by politics.
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