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Thursday, November 17,1983/The Battalion/Page 7
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Lawyers fight to save
man from electric chair
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'ury focuses on murder
Feminist found innocent
United Press International
GRETNA, La. — California
feminist Ginny Foat was found
nnocent Wednesday in the
965 tire-iron slaying of Argen-
l ine businessman Moises Chayo.
The courtroom erupted in
icreams and shouts as the six-
nan, six-woman jury returned
he verdict after deliberating for
wo hours.
Defense attorneys in closing
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As the verdict was
announced, Foat’s
mother, Virginia Gal-
luzzo, shouted,
“Thank you. ”
d irguments characterized Foat’s
:hief accuser, her ex-husband,
is a drunken and vengeful liar,
Hit prosecutors claimed the
alifornia feminist was a crafty
nurderess trying to hide from a
iolent past.
Foat was besieged by jurors
m vho hugged her and asked for
icr autograph. She wrote on
l, wouldanjbne piece of paper, “My love, my
othecotlappreciation, my thanks for
lelping me to continue my be-
iranceCoi lef in our system. Ginny Foat.”
tbineagrtt As the verdict was
•geswerea innounced, Foat’s mother, Vir-
itract,bull giniaGalluzzo, shouted, “Thank
Ibelesslli jou,” and the rest of the cour-
room let out a loud shriek. Foat
iftelephoi dipped her head and cried,
ble,those “It’s the First time I’ve had to
kepartinif tellmy story to the people,” Foat
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said, adding that previously
when she had told her story to
police and prosecutors who did
not believe her.
Foat’s sister, Emilia Guidi,
said, “She’s finally free. It was
the last time he (Sidote) could do
this to her.”
Jurors said they reached the
verdict on their first vote and
one juror, Melba Sowell, said “I
didn’t decide until we sat down
and considered all the facts.”
Defense attorney Robert
Glass said, “I always had doubts,
but this is a person who deserved
to be free.”
While defense attorneys
attacked the character of John
Sidote, her ex-husband and star
prosecution witness, prosectors
urged jurors to concentrate on
the facts of the case instead of
Sidote’s alcoholism,
cord and viole
against Foat.
Sidote, the second of Foat’s
four husbands, was granted im
munity in exchange for his testi
mony. He is serving a 25-year
prison term in Nevada for a
parole violation stemming from
an unrelated killing.
Tom Porteous, an assistant
prosecutor, questioned Foat’s
memory “blackout” the night
Chayo died and Foat and Sidote
left New Orleans.
“I can tell you why she (Foat)
can’t remember anything about
that evening,” Porteous said. “(It
is) because they had just perpe
trated the murder of Moises
Chayo.
“The past is the one thing
Virginia Foat cannot hide from
any longer. Miss Foat’s past is
her downfall. The crime she
committed, she must be
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punished for.”
Foat, 42, whose emotional
testimony spanned two days,
claimed Sidote physically and
sexually abused her and blamed
her for Chayo’s death in retalia
tion for their failed marriage.
Defense attorneys said Foat,
former president of the Califor
nia chapter of the National
Organization for Women, could
be convicted only if jurors be
lieved the “lies” of Sidote — a
man who had “the red glow of
the devil.”
“Ginny Foat is innocent and
John Sidote is a crazy person and
a liar — a person whose word
cannot be trusted, whose accusa
tion means nothing,” Glass said.
United Press International
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Less
than 24 hours before Stephen
Todd Booker’s scheduled ex
ecution, his lawyers fought in
federal and state courts
Wednesday to spare him from
the electric chair for raping and
murdering a 94-year-old
woman.
Last-minute petitions for a
stay of execution were pending
in both the Florida Supreme
Court and the U.S. District
Court in Tallahassee.
Booker, 30, is scheduled to
die this afternoon at Florida
State Prison for the 1977 slaying
of Lorine Demoss Harman, who
surprised him burglarizing her
Gainesville apartment.
The late appeals centered on
a defense claim that Booker’s
first lawyer inadequately repre
sented him during his trial by
not presenting evidence demon
strating he was mentally incom
petent.
Booker’s 90-pound victim,
described by a judge as “active,
alert and spry,” was beaten,
wounded with a knife, raped
and then fatally stabbed. Her
body later was found in her ran
sacked bedroom.
Court papers show Booker,
who had a juvenile record in
New York, admitted using a
variety of drugs since age 13,
and was disciplined for violence
while in the military and con
victed of an armed robbery in
Florida.
Two of three court-appointed
psychiatrists declared him com
petent to stand trial. The third
was unable to reach an opinion.
Testifying against himself
during the sentencing phase of
his 1978 trial, he told the jury,
“A defendant found guilty of
such a crime should receive the
death penalty.”
He also testified he had “no
recollection” of his activities the
day of the murder.
Booker’s conviction and
death sentence were affirmed by
the Florida Supreme Court in
1981 and Gov. Bob Graham
signed a death warrant for him
1 on March 22, 1982, but his ex
ecution then was stayed by the
11th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals.
The appeals court subse
quently rejected Booker’s
appeal and the U.S. Supreme
Court refused to review his case
on Oct. 17. Graham then signed
the current warrant.
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