Court Reinstates Calif. Dog Mauling Murder Conviction Against Attorney
SAN FRANCISCO - A state appeals court on Thursday reinstated the
second-degree murder conviction of an attorney whose giant dogs mauled
and killed a neighbor in the hallway of a San Francisco apartment
building.
The 1st District Court of Appeal reversed a ruling by a lower court
judge who vacated the jury's finding against Marjorie Knoller and
reduced her conviction to manslaughter. She was freed after serving
two years of a four-year sentence, but the murder count is punishable
by 15 years to life in prison.
Knoller and her husband, attorney Robert Noel, were convicted in the
2001 mauling death of Diane Whipple, 33, who was attacked outside her
apartment by the couple's two 100-pound-plus presa canario dogs.
The appeals court said Superior Court Judge James Warren erroneously
concluded that for Knoller to be guilty of murder, she would have had
to have known that her dogs would kill.
The court ordered Warren to review the decision using a different
standard — that Knoller disregarded a known risk the dogs presented,
including the viciousness of Bane, the dog mostly responsible for the
death.
State Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office, which had appealed
Warren's decision, was satisfied with the ruling.
"It basically stands for the proposition that the decisions made by
juries should not be overridden by judges except in the most unusual
circumstance, and this is not one of them," said Lockyer spokesman Tom
Dresslar.
"It's very emotional because this was one of the most preventable
murders I've ever seen," said Jim Hammer, who prosecuted the two
defendants and is now a television legal analyst. "There was a
meanness and sadistic quality to it. These people got a thrill because
their dogs scared people."
Dennis Riordan, Knoller's attorney, said he will ask the San
Francisco-based appeals court to reconsider, and if they don't, appeal
to the California Supreme Court.
Riordan contended the appeals court "did not apply existing law." He
said the murder conviction should not stand because his client was not
shown to have had a "conscious disregard for human life."
The appeals court upheld Noel's involuntary manslaughter conviction.
Noel, who was released after serving two years of a four-year
sentence, was not charged with murder because he was not home during
the attack.
Justice James Lambden, writing for a three-judge panel, said Knoller
knew that Bane was a "frightening and dangerous animal: huge,
untrained and bred to fight." During the trial, there was testimony of
at least 11 instances in which the dogs growled, lunged or attacked
others, including nearly severing Noel's finger.
Both Knoller, 49, and Noel, 63, have been paroled. Knoller now lives
in Florida. It was not known whether the two are still married.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/dog_mauling_appeal
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