[Vision2020] Triple murderer wants to take back pleas

[Don Coombs]

To Tom:

So I guess you think he was totally rational at the time of his crimes?
Perhaps you think he committed the crimes for personal gain?

To be perfectly clear, I don't believe either of those things and I have to
agree with Saundra.

Don Coombs

On Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 1:20 PM, Saundra Lund <v2020 at ssl1.fastmail.fm>
wrote:

> While I understand the sentiment, I completely disagree.  Serious mental
> illness is a terrible thing, and the fact that Idaho doesn’t have an
> insanity defense makes me ashamed of my state.
>
>
>
> http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/08/05/
> 487909967/with-no-insanity-defense-seriously-ill-people-end-up-in-prison
>
>
>
> “Because Idaho has no insanity defense, defendants with mental illness
> typically plead guilty to lesser charges and rely on judges to take mental
> health into account at sentencing. Some lawyers and psychiatrists say this
> doesn't provide enough protection against the death penalty or long
> incarceration. As professor Aliza Cover
> <https://www.uidaho.edu/law/people/faculty/alizac> of the University of
> Idaho Law School explains, "In Idaho, you have the unusual circumstance
> that someone who couldn't even be convicted in another state could be
> executed."
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Saundra Lund
>
> Moscow, ID
>
>
>
> Compassion is the basis of all morality.
>
> ~ Arthur Schopenhuaer
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces@
> moscow.com] *On Behalf Of *Tom Hansen
> *Sent:* Tuesday, October 25, 2016 2:47 AM
> *To:* Moscow Vision 2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> *Subject:* [Vision2020] Triple murderer wants to take back pleas
>
>
>
> If it was up to me, I would permanently place photos of Lee's victims
> (Terri Grzebielski, David Trail, and Belinda Niebuhr) in Lee's cell.  They
> would be the first faces he sees every morning and the last faces he sees
> every night . . . for the rest of his life!
>
>
>
> Courtesy of today's (October 25, 2016) Lewiston Tribune.
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
>
>
> Triple murderer wants to take back pleasJohn Lee says he didn't have
> 'free will' when he agreed to deal in shooting deaths of adopted mother,
> two others
>
>
>
> MOSCOW - A Moscow man convicted of killing three people last year is
> asking to withdraw his guilty pleas.
>
>
>
> John Lee, 31, filed a two-page handwritten motion Monday arguing he was
> "not in the right state of mind" when he entered the pleas. Lee is serving
> a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the
> murders.
>
>
>
> He was sentenced in May for the January 2015 shooting spree that killed
> his adoptive mother, Terri L. Grzebielski, 61; his landlord, David M.
> Trail, 71; and Moscow Arby's manager Belinda G. Niebuhr, 47. Seattle
> resident Michael M.M. Chin, 41, was also injured in the incident.
>
>
>
> As part of a plea agreement that Lee accepted in March, he entered Alford
> pleas to three counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated
> battery. By entering Alford pleas, Lee did not admit guilt but acknowledged
> there was enough evidence to convict him.
>
>
>
> In the motion filed Monday in Latah County 2nd District Court, Lee argues
> he was not mentally fit when he accepted the plea agreement in March and
> when he was sentenced in May.
>
>
>
> "Noises were effecting (sic) my decision making and I didn't feel I had
> free will," Lee wrote. "... Now that I am properly medicated mental health
> problems will no longer interfere with my decision making."
>
>
>
> In an attached affidavit, also two pages long and handwritten, Lee adds
> that he attempted to tell a member of his defense team that he was not
> satisfied with the plea agreement a few days after accepting it.
>
>
>
> "I expressed that I felt that the guards and certain people were
> pressuring me and in some instances torturing me to either confess or
> accept a plea deal," Lee wrote.
>
>
>
> He argues that he said he wanted to withdraw the pleas, that he felt he
> didn't have "free will" and that he didn't like the conditions of the plea
> agreement, including the waiver of his right to appeal.
>
>
>
> "At that moment I started hearing noises which told me not to withdraw,"
> Lee wrote.
>
>
>
> According to the document, Lee made it "abundantly clear" he wanted to
> withdraw his pleas.
>
>
>
> "In my opinion my defense should have withdrawn my plea and had me
> medicated so I could make rational decisions," Lee wrote.
>
>
>
> Defense attorneys Charles Kovis and Deborah McCormick represented Lee in
> the case.
>
>
>
> Lee's motion comes after a court decision last week that denied his
> request for his sentence to be reduced. According to the ruling written by
> Judge John R. Stegner, the plea agreement does not allow for modifications
> to Lee's sentence.
>
>
>
> The plea agreement spared Lee from the death penalty. Despite its waiver
> of his right to appeal, Lee has filed an appeal with the Idaho Supreme
> Court and is awaiting a response.
>
>
>
> Lee is being held at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna.
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
>
> Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .
>
>
>
> "Moscow Cares"
>
> http://www.MoscowCares.com <http://www.moscowcares.com/>
>
>
>
> Tom Hansen
>
> Moscow, Idaho
>
>
>
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