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Steve Kay was committed to seeking the death penalty for Lawrence
Bittaker. In an unwitting tribute to Bittaker’s jailhouse ambition,
Kay declared that for sheer brutality, the crimes of Charles Manson’s
cultists “didn’t come close” to Bittaker’s rampage. Despite his
experience in prosecuting rapists, murderers and every other kind of
felon, Kay twice broke down weeping during Bittaker’s three-week
trial.
For his part, the defendant seemed to enjoy the proceedings.
Bittaker had prepared for trial by writing his memoirs, fittingly
titled The Last Ride. Though warned repeatedly by his attorney, Bittaker insisted on finishing the manuscript, apparently convinced
that jurors would believe his assertion that Norris masterminded the
operation. The gamble failed, and on February 17, 1981, Bittaker was
found guilty on five murder counts and 21 other related felonies.
California, like all other states, holds its criminal trials in
stages. The first determines guilt or innocence; the second, if a
defendant is convicted, determines punishment. To support a death
sentence, California prosecutors must demonstrate “special
circumstances”—such as slayings deemed “especially heinous, atrocious
or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity.” Bittaker’s personal
audiotapes were replayed for the jury, which promptly recommended
death.
As with Norris another probation report was generated. Bittaker’s
examiner wrote that “during the years this officer has been submitting
evaluations to the court, he has had occasion to interview many
individuals convicted of brutal crimes, but none to the extent of the
one[s] for which this defendant has been convicted. During the
interviews with him, although verbalizing some feeling for the teenage
deaths that he has caused, there is no outward expression or emotion
displayed. His total attitude was almost as if he had been able to
divorce himself from the emotions felt by the major portion of
society.”
The report concluded that there was “little doubt that he would
return to a life of crime, and possibly a life of violence” if
released into society. The jury’s recommended sentence clearly “would
be the most permanent protection available.”
The judge agreed, and Bittaker was sentenced to death on March 24,
1981.
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