James E. Cook, Jr., will get a new trial. Lindsey Bonistall is not so lucky.

[DingDang]

Cooke will get new trial High court won't hear petition to reinstate murder conviction

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

[Dakota Valkyrie]

James E. Cooke Jr. did not get ejected from the courtroom on the first day of his re-trial for the 2005 rape and killing of Lindsey M. Bonistall of White Plains, but he didn’t behave himself either.

Cooke, who is acting as his own attorney, ran afoul of court rulings within moments of starting his opening statement Wednesday in New Castle County Superior Court, telling the jury three things a judge had ordered him not to mention: his own criminal record, the fact there had been a previous trial and allegations of drug use by the victim.

Cooke, 41, argued with Judge Charles H. Toliver IV three or four other times during the course of day. Toliver twice warned Cooke that if he continued to misbehave, he would forfeit his right to represent himself.

But in the end, Cooke — who has refused to wear street clothes brought by his attorneys, and instead appears in his white prison uniform bearing the letters “D.O.C” — remains in charge of his own defense. His court-appointed attorneys, Anthony Figliola and Peter Veith, remain spectators as standby counsel.

On Wednesday, the courtroom was packed with attorneys, members of Cooke’s family, members of Bonistall’s family and two jurors from Cooke’s first trial who said they were curious to see the proceedings from the other side of the bar. They had found Cooke guilty when he was tried in 2007 for Bonistall’s slaying, but an appeals court overturned the verdict, saying Cooke’s attorneys violated his rights when they entered a plea of guilty but mentally ill over Cooke’s objections.

Cooke, who is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, rape, arson and burglary, faces a possible death sentence if convicted.
[...]

Deputy Attorney General Steven Wood told the jury that the University of Delaware sophomore who was studying journalism didn’t know the name of the man who broke into her apartment and “beat her, bound her, gagged her, raped her and then strangled her to death with one of her own T-shirts.” Wood said DNA recovered from Bonistall’s body pointed conclusively to Cooke, who lived a short distance from Bonistall’s apartment in Newark.

“This is a racial trial,” Cooke told the jury. “We have a white victim and a black person that has been racially charged.”

Cooke then told the jury he knew the victim before her death, contradicting his statements in a police interview from 2005. Wood played a video of the interview for the jury.

“I don’t know no Lindsey,” Cooke said on the video. In court Wednesday, Cooke told jurors: “I know Ms. Bonistall. She came to my house.”

http://www.lohud.com/article/2012030...during-retrial

[DamagedGoods]

"racially charged"?

Wtf does that even mean in this context. I don't think he understands the phrase...

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Cooke became irate at Superior Court Judge Charles H. Toliver IV late Thursday when the judge stopped Cooke from directly addressing the jury to complain about rulings by Toliver.

“I’m telling the truth, you are going to hell,” Cooke told Toliver. “You evil, you got so much hatred in you. It’s sad.”

Toliver, however, did not react to Cooke’s taunts and calmly informed Cooke, “You are telling me I’m going to hell. Well, you join a long line of people who wish that.”

http://www.lohud.com/article/2012030...al-judge-evil-

A day after defendant James E. Cooke Jr. told the judge he was "evil" and "going to hell," the judge stripped Cooke of his right to act as his own attorney at his retrial on rape and murder charges.

Cooke's standby counsel, Anthony Figliola and Peter Veith -- whom Cooke dismissed in November -- then resumed their jobs as defense attorneys.

Figliola immediately asked Superior Court Judge Charles H. Toliver IV for a mistrial but Toliver denied the request, saying it would reward Cooke for his misbehavior.
[...]

Throughout two weeks of jury selection and the first three days of the trial, Toliver repeatedly warned Cooke that if he were to continue to represent himself, he needed to be civil and follow the rules of evidence and the court's instructions. Cooke, however, ignored those warnings, saying he was conducting his defense "my own way."

Toliver's patience came to an end Friday morning.

Cooke was cross-examining Assistant Medical Examiner Jennie Vershvovsky, who conducted the autopsy on Bonistall. Despite instructions otherwise, Cooke continued to preface his questions with long, rambling statements, which often appeared to be an attempt to give testimony or make arguments to the jury. Questioning Vershvovsky about consensual sex versus rape, Cooke began, "Me, dealing with a lot of females ... "

Toliver cut him off.

"You are not an expert," Toliver reminded him. Cooke started to argue, saying "This is a homicide case, not a rape case. ... I'm going to tell the jury ... "

"You are not going to tell the jury anything," Toliver said.

He ordered the jury from the courtroom, and appeared ready to give Cooke yet another warning, explaining it was "time for cross examination, not time for argument."

Cooke, however, continued the confrontation. "I'm telling the truth and you know it," he said, then starting listing perceived slights and grievances.

Toliver then calmly said, "We need to stop the proceedings at this point. ... I'd like to let you continue to represent yourself but if you continue to wish not to abide by the rules of the court, I'll have no choice. This is the last time I'll ask you."

"I just wish to tell the truth," Cooke said. "I'm following the rules ... you are forcing me. You are threatening me. You see I do a good job. ... My way is not the court way. I'm not a part of this party. I'm not a Democrat or a Republican."

Toliver asked Cooke what partisan politics had to do with the trial.

"You figure it out," Cooke answered.
[...]

Before he left the courtroom Friday, Cooke told Figliola and Veith not to change course in his defense or call any witnesses he had not approved.

"I don't need no mitigation," he said. "No doctors. Just move on with it."

Toliver told Cooke he may remain in the courtroom for the trial, but Cooke said he would not be coming back.

"Ban me from the courtroom. Don't come get me [from prison] on Thursday. I'm not a part of this corrupt proceeding," he said.

Figliola told Toliver that he and Veith would follow Cooke's wishes to put on a defense maintaining his innocence. However, he said that from this point on, he considered all their decisions would be tactical. Cooke's input would be required only as to whether he intends to return to the courtroom, or to testify.

At the close, Wood, the prosecutor, wished Toliver a good weekend.

"Too late for that," Toliver responded. "You don't have to die to go to hell."

http://www.delawareonline.com/articl...WS01/203100331

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Cooke having a hard time letting anyone else run his show:

He was in — and now he’s back out.

Defendant James E. Cooke Jr. has been removed from the courtroom in his retrial for the slaying of White Plains college student Lindsey Bonistall — this time on civil contempt charges.

The move came after Judge Charles H. Toliver IV ordered Cooke to stand next to a police officer for a demonstration and Cooke refused. Toliver found him in contempt and ordered Cooke out of the courtroom until he complies.

The exercise was intended to allow the jury to compare Cooke to an officer who had demonstrated in photos how someone could easily climb onto a second floor balcony and gain access to Bonistall’s apartment through a sliding glass door.

Cooke will now resume watching the legal proceedings via closed circuit television from a holding cell.

Cooke also had opted for the holding cell on Thursday morning after his court-appointed lawyers took over the case. Cooke had initially represented himself before Toliver ruled that his backup team should take over. However, he had decided to return to court Thursday afternoon so he could direct his attorneys regarding the questions they should ask on cross examination.

http://www.lohud.com/article/2012031...k-holding-cell

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A Superior Court jury on Friday found James E. Cooke Jr. guilty of the rape and murder of University of Delaware sophomore Lindsey Bonistall, just as a previous jury had done five years earlier.

“We are relieved,” Lindsey Bonistall’s mother, Kathleen, said outside the courtroom. “For the second time, justice has prevailed.”

“Now there are 24 people that came to the same conclusion,” said Lindsey Bonistall’s father, Mark, referring to the 2007 Cooke jury, whose verdict was thrown out by an appellate court, and the jury at this retrial.

This panel found Cooke guilty of 10 of 11 criminal charges, acquitting him of a single misdemeanor theft count related to a break-in that occurred three days before the Bonistall slaying.

Friday’s ruling means that Cooke, 41, once again is eligible for the death penalty. The jury that convicted him will be back in court Wednesday to hear evidence as to whether Cooke should die for his crimes or spend the rest of his life in prison.

Cooke showed no emotion when the jury announced its verdict, staring straight ahead at the defense table.

http://www.lohud.com/article/2012041...st-James-Cooke