LAKEPORT — A judge Friday found that convicted wife-killer Gerald Frank Stanley was competent during the penalty phase of his 1983 murder trial.
Judge William McKinstry made his ruling at the Lake County Courthouse Friday morning to conclude proceedings in the retrospective competency hearing.
Stanley, 66, appeared along with his attorney, Jack Leavitt, via videoconferencing from San Quentin State Prison. Lake County District Attorney Don Anderson represented his office.
A Butte County jury convicted Stanley in 1983 for shooting to death his fourth wife in Nice in 1980, while Stanley had been on parole for killing his second spouse five years before.
A separate jury was then asked to determine whether Stanley was mentally competent during the penalty phase of the 1983 trial. That jury determined Stanley was competent and he eventually received the death penalty.
However, a federal judge overturned the competency verdict in 2008, staying Stanley”s execution because one of the jurors on the competency panel failed to disclose that she had been a violent-crime victim.
The issue was then sent to Butte County, where a judge ruled it would be feasible to look back and determine whether Stanley was competent during the penalty phase of the trial. The retrospective competency matter was transferred to Lake County in March.
McKinstry said Friday that he reviewed testimony from dozens of witnesses, who testified either in 1983 or in Butte County in 2010. Stanley previously waived his right to have a jury determine his competency, instead asking for a court trial.
Leavitt said Stanley”s 1983 defenders raised the competency issue over Stanley”s objection and later added that Stanley”s federal public defenders filed a motion questioning the jury”s competency decision without Stanley”s consent.
Stanley told McKinstry Friday he would “absolutely agree” with the judge finding him to have been competent.
McKinstry found Stanley understood the nature of the penalty proceedings, could assist in his own defense and understood his role in those proceedings, and was therefore competent.
With the competency issue resolved, the appellate court will continue its review of Stanley”s case, according to Anderson.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
