NJ- High court upholds no-parole sentences

5-14-2009 New Jersey:

The state Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the constitutionality of replacing the death penalty with a sentence of life in prison without parole for a onetime death-row inmate from Middlesex County if a jury can find the necessary qualifying factors.

In a 5-2 decision in the case of Steven R. Fortin, the high court said that the defendant's constitutional rights would not be violated by imposing a sentence of life in prison without parole if a jury found the same factors necessary for imposing the death penalty.

After the state Legislature abolished the death penalty in 2007, two defendants in the Shore area, Richard Toledo in Ocean County and Rosario "Russell" Miraglia in Monmouth County, received sentences of life in prison without parole for convictions in what had once been capital murder cases.

But Ronald F. DeLigny, first assistant Ocean County prosecutor, and Peter Warshaw, first assistant prosecutor in Monmouth County, said the Fortin decision has no impact on them.

That is because those defendants committed the murders for which they are serving life in prison without parole after 2000, when the state Legislature enacted a law allowing for those sentences in certain capital cases.

The murder Fortin was convicted of was committed on Aug. 11, 1994.

In 2001, Fortin, now 44, of Carteret was tried and convicted of capital murder in the death of Melissa Padilla, a 25-year-old mother of four from Woodbridge who was attacked while walking home from a grocery store. She was sexually assaulted, beaten, strangled and left in a drain pipe.

Fortin was sentenced to death, but the state Supreme Court in 2005 overturned his conviction and sentence, citing mistakes at trial.

Fortin was retried in 2007 and again convicted, but before the penalty phase of the trial could begin, the Legislature abolished the death penalty and replaced it with life in prison without parole. Prosecutors applied to have Fortin sentenced under the amended law to life in prison without parole, but the trial judge denied the application, and the prosecution appealed.

(2 of 2)


Attorneys with the state Public Defender's Office argued that a sentence of life in prison without parole would subject Fortin unfairly to a punishment not available when he committed the crime and one that is more severe than life in prison with a 30-year period of parole ineligibility, which was on the books at the time.



Attorneys with the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office argued that the death penalty was more severe than life without parole, so imposing life without parole would not violate Fortin's rights.

RELATED
Summary of ruling on life sentences without parole

Chief Justice Stuart Rabner and Justices Jaynee LaVecchia, Roberto A. Rivera-Soto and Helen E. Hoens joined in an opinion written by Justice John E. Wallace saying that Fortin's constitutional rights would not be violated so long as a jury weighs the aggravating and mitigating factors before making a determination if he qualifies for life in prison without parole, using the same process it would have to decide if he qualified for a death sentence.

Justices Barry T. Albin and Virginia Long wrote a dissenting opinion saying that retroactively applying the law would violate Fortin's rights and is inconsistent with the high court's prior opinions in the case.

Toledo and Miraglia were both facing capital charges when the Legislature abolished the death penalty.

Toledo, 24, pleaded guilty in Ocean County last year to the Jan. 19, 2006, clawhammer murders of two Stafford brothers, Karlo Gonzalez, 14, and Zabdiel Gonzalez, 7, and to kidnapping the boys' mother, Wanda Gonzalez. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of the younger boy, life in prison with 63 3/4 years without parole for the murder of the older boy, and 30 years in prison for the kidnapping.

Miraglia, 36, was tried in Monmouth County last year and convicted of the murders of his grandmother, Julia Miraglia, 88, and ex-girlfriend, Leigh Martinez, 31, who were both beheaded and dismembered in their Ocean Township home on June 8, 2004. Miraglia was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.

Attorneys with the state Public Defender's Office argued that a sentence of life in prison without parole would subject Fortin unfairly to a punishment not available when he committed the crime and one that is more severe than life in prison with a 30-year period of parole ineligibility, which was on the books at the time.

Attorneys with the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office argued that the death penalty was more severe than life without parole, so imposing life without parole would not violate Fortin's rights.

Chief Justice Stuart Rabner and Justices Jaynee LaVecchia, Roberto A. Rivera-Soto and Helen E. Hoens joined in an opinion written by Justice John E. Wallace saying that Fortin's constitutional rights would not be violated so long as a jury weighs the aggravating and mitigating factors before making a determination if he qualifies for life in prison without parole, using the same process it would have to decide if he qualified for a death sentence.

Justices Barry T. Albin and Virginia Long wrote a dissenting opinion saying that retroactively applying the law would violate Fortin's rights and is inconsistent with the high court's prior opinions in the case.

Toledo and Miraglia were both facing capital charges when the Legislature abolished the death penalty.

Toledo, 24, pleaded guilty in Ocean County last year to the Jan. 19, 2006, clawhammer murders of two Stafford brothers, Karlo Gonzalez, 14, and Zabdiel Gonzalez, 7, and to kidnapping the boys' mother, Wanda Gonzalez. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of the younger boy, life in prison with 63 3/4 years without parole for the murder of the older boy, and 30 years in prison for the kidnapping.

Miraglia, 36, was tried in Monmouth County last year and convicted of the murders of his grandmother, Julia Miraglia, 88, and ex-girlfriend, Leigh Martinez, 31, who were both beheaded and dismembered in their Ocean Township home on June 8, 2004. Miraglia was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. ..News Source.. by Kathleen Hopkins, STAFF WRITER