Jacque had spent eight years working to free his brother when he formally took over as his lead defense attorney in 2017. Last spring, as he was preparing for Neko’s case to finally go to trial, he heard about a bill pending before the California legislature that would bar prosecutors across the state from charging someone with a murder they had no direct connection to. “The first time I read it, it was as if the words were jumping off the pages,” Jacque said. He called Chatfield, who is policy director of the advocacy group Re:store Justice, which was sponsoring SB 1437. “I said, ‘Hey, whatever I have to do … I will do to try to get this bill passed.’”
It wasn’t a particularly easy lift, but after a dramatic final vote in the state Assembly, the bill did pass, and in September, it was signed by Brown. It is now poised to serve as model legislation for reform-minded lawmakers across the country. A Check on the Power of Prosecutors STATE SEN. NANCY Skinner’s district is in Alameda County, just east of San Francisco. She said she had no idea that felony murder was something that existed until she started hearing about it from constituents and advocates.
She remembers meeting with the family of an incarcerated woman who was prosecuted under the rule. The woman had been on a third date with a guy “who, in hindsight, she never should’ve dated,” Skinner said. The guy was a gang member. The woman was in the car with him and several other members of the gang when there was a drive-by shooting. “She was not aware that would happen,” Skinner recalled, “and yet she was charged with felony murder.”
What Skinner learned convinced her to co-author SB 1437. Put simply, she said, felony murder is not fair because it divorces intent from action.
Hi Donnie, I remember having read an article on this new law, I will drop this article hear (copy paste, not typing over) maybe sth in it is interesting to you...
LANDMARK CALIFORNIA LAW BARS PROSECUTORS FROM PURSUING MURDER CHARGES AGAINST PEOPLE WHO DIDN’T COMMIT MURDER November 23 2018 The intercept
JACQUE WILSON WAS in his car heading home from a softball game on a late August evening when his phone rang. It was his friend Kate Chatfield: She told him California Senate Bill 1437 had finally passed and was headed to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk. “And I’m driving, and I just break down crying,” Wilson told The Intercept.
The new law would dramatically redefine use of the state’s archaic felony murder rule in criminal prosecutions. It would also mean that Wilson’s younger brother Neko might finally be coming home after more than nine years behind bars awaiting trial for a grisly crime that he insists he played no part in.
Neko Wilson was one of six people charged with the robbery-murder of Gary and Sandra DeBartolo, who had an illicit marijuana grow operation inside their Fresno County home. The state alleged that Neko and the others planned to steal the dope and whatever cash was in the house. But that plot apparently went sideways. Minutes after two of the accused conspirators, Leroy Johnson and Jose Reyes, entered the DeBartolos’ home on the morning of July 22, 2009, the couple was killed, their throats slashed. After a high-speed chase, police caught up with the getaway car.
Neko was not at the DeBartolos’ house that day, and he wasn’t in the getaway car. Still, he was arrested and charged with the couple’s murder. Prosecutors announced that they would seek the death penalty for Neko under the felony murder rule.
A throwback to English common law, the felony murder rule works like this: Say two people decide to burgle a house, and in the process, one of them shoots and kills the homeowner; even if the shooting was completely spontaneous, and even if one of the burglars didn’t know the other had a gun, both could be held equally liable for the murder. Neko Wilson might not have been there when the DeBartolos died, but prosecutors alleged he was the one who hatched the plan for the robbery, which meant he was responsible for what happened even if he didn’t kill anyone.
Most states have some version of the felony murder rule on the books, and in a number of states, it can be used to seek the death penalty. In Texas, five men have been executed for murders that they did not commit (a sixth is slated for execution in December). Although a handful of states have curtailed or eliminated this brand of accomplice liability, California’s law had remained active — much to the chagrin of people like Jacque Wilson, who is also an attorney with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office.
I am currently transcribing your story and wanted to check up on a few things for you. I did a quick online research to help update some information here.
--
Regarding Mike Walsingam, he's been promoted to Assistant Special Agent in Charge at GBI. He's still called to testify in courts from the look of it, and he makes the news for public commentary.
Wendell Cofer has been promoted to Chief Deputy at the Decatur County Sheriff's Office. I couldn't find a report regarding the investigation of his wife's death. Only a comment he made about how another deputy's wife accidentally shot herself with a loaded gun.
Paula Smith is now a Senior Assistant Attorney General for Atlanta, Georgia.
Thurbert E. Baker is an Attorney General in Atlanta, Georgia. Or at least, as far as this year he is. Some of the hits appear dated.
Elizabeth Lewis Jaeger appears to be an attorney. And she was a new one at the time of your case, according to her online stats. I don't see a lot about her, only other people with her name.
I can't find your Ginger Harris online. I found another woman with the same name, but she wouldn't have been working at the same time as your cases (by about a good 5-6 years).
Google doesn't show you or your loved ones' case(s). If it does, it is very obscure and hard to locate. Another Johnson in a completely unrelated case does show up though.
---
Like I said, I'm still transcribing (and still reading), and I hope to finish this soon. I'm not sure if this information will help you or not. Hoped to give you some perspective of changes, is all.
RSS
It wasn’t a particularly easy lift, but after a dramatic final vote in the state Assembly, the bill did pass, and in September, it was signed by Brown. It is now poised to serve as model legislation for reform-minded lawmakers across the country.
A Check on the Power of Prosecutors
STATE SEN. NANCY Skinner’s district is in Alameda County, just east of San Francisco. She said she had no idea that felony murder was something that existed until she started hearing about it from constituents and advocates.
She remembers meeting with the family of an incarcerated woman who was prosecuted under the rule. The woman had been on a third date with a guy “who, in hindsight, she never should’ve dated,” Skinner said. The guy was a gang member. The woman was in the car with him and several other members of the gang when there was a drive-by shooting. “She was not aware that would happen,” Skinner recalled, “and yet she was charged with felony murder.”
What Skinner learned convinced her to co-author SB 1437. Put simply, she said, felony murder is not fair because it divorces intent from action.
I remember having read an article on this new law, I will drop this article hear (copy paste, not typing over) maybe sth in it is interesting to you...
LANDMARK CALIFORNIA LAW BARS PROSECUTORS FROM PURSUING MURDER CHARGES AGAINST PEOPLE WHO DIDN’T COMMIT MURDER
November 23 2018 The intercept
JACQUE WILSON WAS in his car heading home from a softball game on a late August evening when his phone rang. It was his friend Kate Chatfield: She told him California Senate Bill 1437 had finally passed and was headed to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk. “And I’m driving, and I just break down crying,” Wilson told The Intercept.
The new law would dramatically redefine use of the state’s archaic felony murder rule in criminal prosecutions. It would also mean that Wilson’s younger brother Neko might finally be coming home after more than nine years behind bars awaiting trial for a grisly crime that he insists he played no part in.
Neko Wilson was one of six people charged with the robbery-murder of Gary and Sandra DeBartolo, who had an illicit marijuana grow operation inside their Fresno County home. The state alleged that Neko and the others planned to steal the dope and whatever cash was in the house. But that plot apparently went sideways. Minutes after two of the accused conspirators, Leroy Johnson and Jose Reyes, entered the DeBartolos’ home on the morning of July 22, 2009, the couple was killed, their throats slashed. After a high-speed chase, police caught up with the getaway car.
Neko was not at the DeBartolos’ house that day, and he wasn’t in the getaway car. Still, he was arrested and charged with the couple’s murder. Prosecutors announced that they would seek the death penalty for Neko under the felony murder rule.
A throwback to English common law, the felony murder rule works like this: Say two people decide to burgle a house, and in the process, one of them shoots and kills the homeowner; even if the shooting was completely spontaneous, and even if one of the burglars didn’t know the other had a gun, both could be held equally liable for the murder. Neko Wilson might not have been there when the DeBartolos died, but prosecutors alleged he was the one who hatched the plan for the robbery, which meant he was responsible for what happened even if he didn’t kill anyone.
Most states have some version of the felony murder rule on the books, and in a number of states, it can be used to seek the death penalty. In Texas, five men have been executed for murders that they did not commit (a sixth is slated for execution in December). Although a handful of states have curtailed or eliminated this brand of accomplice liability, California’s law had remained active — much to the chagrin of people like Jacque Wilson, who is also an attorney with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office.
I am currently transcribing your story and wanted to check up on a few things for you. I did a quick online research to help update some information here.
--
Regarding Mike Walsingam, he's been promoted to Assistant Special Agent in Charge at GBI. He's still called to testify in courts from the look of it, and he makes the news for public commentary.
Wendell Cofer has been promoted to Chief Deputy at the Decatur County Sheriff's Office. I couldn't find a report regarding the investigation of his wife's death. Only a comment he made about how another deputy's wife accidentally shot herself with a loaded gun.
Paula Smith is now a Senior Assistant Attorney General for Atlanta, Georgia.
Thurbert E. Baker is an Attorney General in Atlanta, Georgia. Or at least, as far as this year he is. Some of the hits appear dated.
Elizabeth Lewis Jaeger appears to be an attorney. And she was a new one at the time of your case, according to her online stats. I don't see a lot about her, only other people with her name.
I can't find your Ginger Harris online. I found another woman with the same name, but she wouldn't have been working at the same time as your cases (by about a good 5-6 years).
Google doesn't show you or your loved ones' case(s). If it does, it is very obscure and hard to locate. Another Johnson in a completely unrelated case does show up though.
---
Like I said, I'm still transcribing (and still reading), and I hope to finish this soon. I'm not sure if this information will help you or not. Hoped to give you some perspective of changes, is all.