Post by Greener on Aug 30, 2010 14:16:00 GMT -5
Death row inmate, 70, found dead at San Quentin
By Jessica Bernstein-Wax
Marin Independent Journal
Posted: 08/30/2010 07:04:33 AM PDT
SAN RAFAEL -- A prison guard doing routine checks found a 70-year-old San Quentin inmate dead in his death row cell early Saturday, prison officials said.
George Hatton Smithey apparently hanged himself with his bed sheets, Lt. Sam Robinson said.
Smithey had been on death row since July 1989 for the 1988 murder and attempted rape of Cheryl Anne Nesler during the commission of an armed robbery and burglary, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement.
Earlier this week a Calaveras County Superior Court judge reduced Smithey's sentence to life without the possibility of parole after prosecutors determined he was legally retarded and couldn't be executed, according to local news reports.
"Just this week, a judge down there overturned his sentence of death for life without the possibility of parole," Robinson said. "He wasn't moved as of yet because we hadn't received those sentencing documents. So he was still on death row."
Last Monday guards found 33-year-old Honorio Pantaleon hanging in his San Quentin Prison cell with his throat cut in an apparent suicide attempt.
Pantaleon, who was serving a sentence of life without parole for first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and false imprisonment, was taken to a hospital and died Friday, Robinson said.
By Jessica Bernstein-Wax
Marin Independent Journal
Posted: 08/30/2010 07:04:33 AM PDT
SAN RAFAEL -- A prison guard doing routine checks found a 70-year-old San Quentin inmate dead in his death row cell early Saturday, prison officials said.
George Hatton Smithey apparently hanged himself with his bed sheets, Lt. Sam Robinson said.
Smithey had been on death row since July 1989 for the 1988 murder and attempted rape of Cheryl Anne Nesler during the commission of an armed robbery and burglary, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement.
Earlier this week a Calaveras County Superior Court judge reduced Smithey's sentence to life without the possibility of parole after prosecutors determined he was legally retarded and couldn't be executed, according to local news reports.
"Just this week, a judge down there overturned his sentence of death for life without the possibility of parole," Robinson said. "He wasn't moved as of yet because we hadn't received those sentencing documents. So he was still on death row."
Last Monday guards found 33-year-old Honorio Pantaleon hanging in his San Quentin Prison cell with his throat cut in an apparent suicide attempt.
Pantaleon, who was serving a sentence of life without parole for first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and false imprisonment, was taken to a hospital and died Friday, Robinson said.