Man seeks to overturn murder conviction

Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2004 | 8:32 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A member of the Independent Nazi Skinheads is asking the Nevada Supreme Court to overturn his murder conviction and the death sentence he was given for killing two men in the desert outside Las Vegas in 1998.

The court is to hear oral arguments Wednesday by lawyers representing John Butler. Butler was convicted of the July 4, 1998, murders of 25-year-old Lin Newborn and 20-year-old Daniel Shersty. Newborn and Shersty were members of a group called "Sharps," or Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice.

The victims were lured into the the desert in the northwest part of Las Vegas near Powerline Road where they were gunned down.

Butler's lawyers say 10 errors were made by the judge and prosecutor at the trial and penalty hearing and those errors give Butler the right to a new trial. Lee-Elizabeth McMahon, the lawyer representing Butler in his appeal, says all three prosecutors in the case -- William Kephart, Robert Daskas and Christopher Laurent -- committed errors in their statements to the jury during the trial and penalty hearing before District Judge Michael Douglas, who is now on the Supreme Court.

In his appeal Butler said evidence of his membership in the Nazi Skinheads should not have been permitted into evidence. He said his affiliation is a protected right under the First Amendment and is not a crime. He said his membership was not an essential part of the alleged crime.

The appeal contends the defendant, in death penalty cases, has the right to go last in oral arguments to the jury in the penalty phase. And both of his lawyers should have been allowed to argue to the jury, Butler's pre-hearing brief notes.

Butler's lawyers say prosecutors mistated the facts of the case during opening arguments of the penalty phase and thereby misled the jury. And, they allege, it was misconduct for the prosecutors, in closing arguments of the penalty phase, to indirectly state the defense counsel was deceptive.