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StumbleLand dispute, death penalty case highlight Supreme Court session
Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2010 | 1:45 a.m.
CARSON CITY – A fight between Clark County and the state over 330 acres adjacent to the Colorado River and a death penalty case from Ely will highlight the opening of the fall session of the Nevada Supreme Court, which begins Wednesday.
The full seven-member court will hear oral arguments Wednesday and Thursday and rule later on the cases. It is also expected to issue decisions on cases it heard earlier in the year.
The 2007 Legislature adopted the Fort Mohave Valley Development Law, directing the state to turn over to Clark County an estimated 9,000 acres for potential development. The land was held by the Colorado River Commission for the state.
All of the property except for an estimated 330 acres was transferred to Clark County. The state Land Registrar’s Office declined to turn over that land, arguing the land adjoining the Colorado River must be held in the public trust.
Clark County says the 2007 law clearly grants it the power to develop the disputed land.
It filed suit against state Land Registrar James Lawrence, and District Judge Mark Denton sided with Clark County. The case is now before the Supreme Court.
Deputy Attorney General Kevin Benson argues in briefs submitted to the court that the state holds certain lands in trust for the public. These lands include the beds and banks of navigable waterways, which he argues must be open to the public for navigation, fishing, commerce, recreation and other uses.
The land was submerged under the Colorado River when Nevada became a state. Dams and levees built on the river resulted in this disputed land now being dry, but the state maintains it still must hold the land in public trust.
Clark County, represented by Deputy District Attorney Paul D. Johnson, says the state has no right to ignore a law passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor unless it is unconstitutional.
Johnson argues that the dispute raised by the land registrar is clouding the title to the land and preventing any possible development.
Clark County said passage of the 2007 law “very clearly grants to (Clark) County the power to develop and dispose of the disputed lands.”
In the death penalty case, Robert Ybarra Jr. was convicted of first-degree murder in the sexual assault, battery, kidnapping and killing of 16-year-old Nancy Griffin in 1981 in White Pine County.
In his latest petition, he says he was mentally retarded at the time of the murder and the death sentence is invalid.
The Supreme Court in its last hearing of the Ybarra case returned it to district court to consider Ybarra’s mental state at the time of the murder. District Judge Steve Dobrescu rejected the mental retardation argument and the case is now back in the Supreme Court.
Ybarra, now 57, is accused of taking the teenage girl into the desert, raping her and then setting her on fire. She was found wandering naked and identified her assailant before she died the following day in a Salt Lake City hospital.
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WHY is Ybarra still alive? This animal should have been put down years ago!
It's time to expand capital punishment; this will clean out the overcrowded prisons and make our streets safe. North Las Vegas for example has only gotten worse, since there is no EFFECTIVE punishment for the animals who commit Major crimes, after the death penalty laws were weakened.
Ok, don't kill anyone in my name! I think God forbids that as well!!!
The NAME is JUSTICE.
revtomperl: executing that low-life, scum-bag will not be done in your name. Why are you so vain as to think it would be? The family of that young lady deserves justice and have not received it for 29 years. That's an abomination! Nancy was given no appeals and was slaughtered most inhumanely so that dirt-bag could satisfy his predatory needs! It's long past the time that he was sent to his just reward!