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Judges and Judiciary

Aug. 18, 2007

Death-Penalty Investigator Gets Five Years

Just before she was led away in handcuffs Thursday to serve a five-year prison sentence, former death-penalty defense investigator Kathleen Culhane said she felt no remorse for faking documents to delay executions. Culhane, 40, told a Sacramento judge she purposely submitted falsified witness statements in pending capital-murder appeals, knowing that she could get caught, with the hope that her clients’ lives would be spared by a system she called "dysfunctional" and "barbaric."

By Laura Ernde
Daily Journal Staff Writer

      SACRAMENTO - Just before she was led away in handcuffs to serve a five-year prison sentence, former death-penalty defense investigator Kathleen Culhane said she felt no remorse for faking documents to delay executions.
      "I defied the law to prevent the calculated destruction of human life," said Culhane, reading from a prepared statement at ...

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