NEVADA DEATH PENALTY
– SINCE 1977 –
BY THE NUMBERS
Through July 31, 2022
—–
# OF INDIVIDUALS SENTENCED TO DEATH: 161
# FOREVER REMOVED FROM DEATH ROW AFTER REVERSAL: 61
Including some freed from prison who were probably actually innocent.
# DIED OF NATURAL CAUSES: 20
# DIED OF SUICIDE: 6
# OF “VOLUNTEER” EXECUTIONS (most recent in 2006): 12
# CURRENTLY ON DEATH ROW FOR < 10 YEARS: 10
# CURRENTLY ON DEATH ROW FOR 10-19 YEARS: 13
# CURRENTLY ON DEATH ROW FOR 20-29 YEARS: 24
# CURRENTLY ON DEATH ROW FOR 30-39 YEARS: 12
# CURRENTLY ON DEATH ROW FOR > 40 YEARS: 3
# OF NON-VOLUNTEER EXECUTIONS: 0
Most commentators claim that Richard Moran was “involuntarily” executed by lethal injection on March 30, 1996. They are wrong. Actually, Moran’s (short) decade of appeals simply confirmed the fact that Moran was a volunteer. He pled guilty in November 1984 to three (3) counts of capital murder after he fired his attorneys so that no mitigation evidence could be presented on his behalf. Moran had confessed to randomly shooting and killing two employees of the Red Pearl Saloon (at Decatur & Oakey) on August 2, 1984, and then murdering his ex-wife nine days later. He then also “tried” but failed to kill himself. Moran had used a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun to easily murder his three (3) innocent victims, but was too much of a drug-addicted fuckup coward to manage to take himself out with his own gun. During his penalty hearing: “Moran presented no defense, called no witness, and offered no mitigating evidence on his own behalf.” That makes him a volunteer. Not surprisingly, Moran was then sentenced to death by an unconstitutional Nevada three-judge panel. On Monday, January 21, 1985, presiding judge Myron Leavitt from Las Vegas announced the death sentence. The death panel, also including judge Michael Fondi from Carson City and judge Peter Breen from Reno, scheduled the execution for the week of April 7, 1985. The Review-Journal headline from Tuesday, January 22, 1985 announced: “Red Pearl killer gets death wish.” Moran later claimed that he was incompetent to have waived his counsel and pled guilty because he had not made a voluntary, knowing, and intelligent waiver of his constitutional rights, and the 9th Circuit reversed his convictions on that ground in 1992. Moran v. Godinez, 972 F.2d 263 (9th Cir. 1992); cert. granted, 506 U.S. 1033 (1992). But the United States supreme court intervened and in a landmark decision ruled that if a defendant was competent to stand trial, they were automatically competent to plead guilty or waive the right to counsel. So according to the United States supreme court, Moran was just a competent volunteer who later had erroneous second thoughts about his voluntary guilty plea and resulting death sentence. Godinez v. Moran, 509 U.S. 389 (1993). Moran abandoned any last-ditch appeal efforts after a Federal court denied his request for a Stay of Execution, and he certainly sounded like a volunteer in the days leading up to his voluntary execution. He told the Associated Press: “I’m looking at Saturday as being out of prison, you know what I mean? That’s not a bad thing.” After the execution, Bob Bayer, director of Nevada’s prisons, read a statement signed by Mr. Moran: “I chose my lifestyle of drugs and alcohol, so there is no one to blame except me.” Therefore, based upon all of the above, Richard Moran is properly classified as a VOLUNTEER.
AVERAGE # OF YEARS BEFORE EACH NON-VOLUNTEER EXECUTION:
