San Quentin to Get New Death Row Inmate

A San Mateo County Superior Court judge sentenced  26-year-old Alberto Alvarez to death by lethal injection for killing East  Palo Alto police Officer Richard May in 2006.
     
"The circumstances of the murder were particularly savage and  brutal," Judge Craig Parsons said before imposing the sentence. "Death is warranted."

Alvarez's case will be automatically appealed to the state Supreme  Court, as is every death penalty case in California.  Legal experts say the appeals will take at least 25 years.

Scott Peterson was the last person to be  sentenced to death in San Mateo County Superior Court after he was found  guilty in 2004 of murdering his wife Laci and their unborn child.
     
Alvarez, who was found guilty in November of first-degree murder  with the special circumstance of killing a peace officer for the  execution-style shooting of May, showed no emotion and declined to make a  statement at this morning's sentencing.

Had Judge Craig Parsons not condemned Alvarez to death, he would  have faced life in prison without the chance of parole.

May was killed the afternoon of Jan. 7, 2006, after he responded  to a report of a fight at a taqueria on University Avenue in East Palo Alto.

He had followed Alvarez from the area of the taqueria to nearby  Weeks Street, where the two exchanged gunfire. May was hit and fell to the  ground.

Alvarez then fired two additional shots at May, including a fatal shot to the head.

When testifying in the trial, Alvarez claimed he shot May in  self-defense.

Parsons ordered Alvarez to be transferred to death row at San  Quentin State Prison within 10 days.

Alvarez's defense attorney Eric Liberman said outside the  courtroom that his client "seems to be holding up all right."

"He's always been remorseful for the hurt and damage he's  inflicted," Liberman said. "The very night this happened, he called people  and expressed he had done something that would alter his life forever."

May's wife Diana May said after the sentencing that she  doesn't believe Alvarez has ever shown any remorse.

"I don't think he is capable of feeling what a normal person  does," she said. "He doesn't have a conscience."

May's stepfather Frank Merrill said he hopes Alvarez will "take  responsibility for what he's done."

"Unfortunately his death will be humane, unlike May who had to  look down the barrel of a gun," Merrill said.

"This is a message in San Mateo County that when you execute a  police officer, you get the maximum punishment," prosecuting attorney Steve  Wagstaffe said.

 

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