United States v. Church

OPINION AND ORDER

JONES, District Judge.

The defendant, facing a trial in this court in which the government seeks the death penalty, argues in accord with a recent New York federal decision that to sentence him to death would violate due process because of the purported unreliability of the guilt process leading to the death penalty. I respectfully disagree with the case relied upon by the defendant and reject his effort to strike the death penalty as unconstitutional.

Walter Lefight “Pete” Church is accused by the government with participating in the 1989-shotgun murders of three members of a…