DingDang
*Fiercest Calm*
Cooke will get new trial High court won't hear petition to reinstate murder conviction
more information on the Rape and Murder of Lindsey Bonistall:
Slaying of Lindsey Bonistall
- University of Delaware Student Raped and Strangled to Death -
Memorials, etc. for Lindsey:
"Always In Our Hearts" Lindsey M. Bonistall
WELCOME TO PEACE OUTSIDE CAMPUS
The family and friends of Lindsey M. Bonistall are going to have to endure the painful, clinical details of her rape and murder a second time -- and once again have to sit in a Delaware courtroom with the man accused of carrying out those brutal acts.
"Obviously, this is a dark day for us," Bonistall's father, Mark, said from his home in New York on Monday, reacting to the announcement that the U.S. Supreme Court had refused to hear a petition from the Delaware Attorney General's Office to reinstate the 2007 conviction and death sentence of James E. Cooke Jr. for Bonistall's murder.
As is tradition in such cases, the high court did so without explanation.
This means that last year's ruling by the Delaware Supreme Court -- which overturned Cooke's conviction and called for for a new trial to be held -- stands.
"We were hoping they would see it otherwise," Mark Bonistall said. "It is deeply disturbing that the judicial system protects the lawless and disregards the rights of victims. This is not a loophole in the law -- it is a sinkhole."
According to testimony at the 2007 trial, Cooke broke into the off-campus apartment of Bonistall on May 1, 2005. Prosecutors said Cooke raped and strangled the 20-year-old and then, in an attempt to cover his tracks, defaced the apartment with racist graffiti and set her body and the apartment on fire. DNA evidence linked Cooke to the crime, but Cooke claimed the sex had been consensual and that he did not kill Bonistall. A jury found Cooke guilty and recommended the death penalty, which a judge later imposed. But both the verdict and sentence were subsequently reversed by the state Supreme Court's decision.
At issue in the appeal was not Cooke's guilt but whether Cooke's public defenders had violated his fundamental right to a fair trial by entering a plea of guilty but mentally ill on Cooke's behalf at trial over Cooke's objections.
Cooke maintained he was neither guilty nor mentally ill -- repeatedly -- during the course of his six-week trial in 2007.
The Delaware Supreme Court last year, in a rare 3-2 vote, decided that the actions of Cooke's attorneys did violate that right and Cooke was entitled to a new trial.
Prosecutors disagreed, and took the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court.
more information on the Rape and Murder of Lindsey Bonistall:
Slaying of Lindsey Bonistall
- University of Delaware Student Raped and Strangled to Death -
Memorials, etc. for Lindsey:
"Always In Our Hearts" Lindsey M. Bonistall
WELCOME TO PEACE OUTSIDE CAMPUS