The trial for a former Marine accused of killing a Navy petty officer in her barracks room might take place in three stages.
Jorge A. Torrez was indicted last year in the July 2009 slaying of Amanda J. Snell at Fort Myer-Henderson Hall, and prosecutors said in February that they would seek a death sentence in his case.
The jury that decides Torrez’s fate could do so in three phases: First, the jury would determine whether he was guilty. Then, if Torrez were convicted, jurors would hear arguments and decide whether he was eligible for the death penalty. Finally, the jury would determine what sentence he should receive.
Both prosecutors and defense attorneys filed motions this week asking U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady to hold the proceedings in three parts. In most capital cases, jurors decide the case in just two phases, guilt and penalty.
Dividing up the penalty stage, both sides say, will reduce the likelihood of juror confusion.
Weighing both eligibility for the death sentence — for which prosecutors must prove certain aggravating factors — and determining the ultimate punishment “commingles two fundamentally different decisions,” defense attorneys Geremy Kamens and Christopher Davis wrote in a motion.
In determining the sentence, a jury is permitted to hear evidence, such as victim impact statements and information about crimes Torrez is suspected but not charged in, that is unrelated to the statutory factors that govern whether he’s eligible for the death penalty, the defense attorneys say.
Torrez is linked through DNA to the 2005 killings of two young girls near Chicago; the father of one of the girls spent five years in jail awaiting trial until Torrez became a suspect.
Torrez has not been charged in those crimes, but prosecutors have indicated those killings will play a role in the penalty phase. Prosecutors wrote in their motion that separating penalty proceedings would eliminate “the prejudicial impact” of jurors hearing about nonstatutory factors, “particularly” the Illinois killings, before the jury determined eligibility.
Torrez was also convicted in Arlington County in 2010 of abducting and raping one woman and robbing another in separate attacks. Those convictions, prosecutors say, form the statutory basis that makes him eligible for a death sentence.
