According to a Las Vegas Review-Journal story on Saturday, a dirtbag names Jose L. Echavarria walked into a Las Vegas bank on June 25, 1990 “dressed as a woman” and “pulled out a gun on a teller.”
An FBI agent named John Bailey happened to be in the bank as the robbery took place and tried to stop it.
Echavarria shot and killed Bailey.
The facts of the case and Echavarria’s guilt are indisputable. He was convicted in 1990 and is now serving on death row.
But on January 16, 2015 – some 25 years later! – U.S. District Judge Miranda Du unfathomably decided that Echavarria didn’t get a fair trial and “ordered his release from custody within 60 days” unless the Nevada attorney general agreed to grant the slimeball murderer a new trial.
Fortunately, Nevadans elected Adam Laxalt as Attorney General in November and he has appealed Du’s decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, saying, “Echavarria does not deserve a retrial.”
Now, I’ve learned from experience that when I read about some outrageous decision like this that the judge was probably appointed by a Democrat. And sure enough, Judge Du was recommended by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and nominated by President Barack Obama.
Go figure.
Du’s nomination, not surprisingly, was quite controversial. Here’s the lowdown according to Wikipedia…
“On November 3, 2011, the Senate Judiciary Committee narrowly reported her nomination to the Senate floor in a party-line, 10–8 vote. The reasons cited by some of the eight Republican senators on the committee who voted against sending Du’s nomination to the Senate floor were her lack of criminal-law experience and a 2008 sanction against Du imposed by the very judge, serving on the court to which she was being nominated, who in 2011 was recommending her nomination.”
A judge criticized for lacking criminal-law experience decides to let a death row inmate whose guilt is unquestioned out on the street?
Go figure.
Thank goodness for Adam Laxalt.
