Santa Clara County death penalty case put to test
SAN JOSE, Calif. - The Santa Clara County District Attorney is standing behind his push to remove the death sentences in 15 murder convictions.
A court hearing was held Friday to that effect for Mark Christopher Crew, who was sentenced to death for the murder of Nancy Jo Andrade as part of a complicated scheme to take her money in 1982.
Relatives of the homicide victim called the district attorney's move an act of injustice.
"It seems like the district attorney’s office needs to be on the right side of this and not the left side. Because he’s doing the defense attorney’s job," said the victim's brother Tony LoBue.
As the Mercury News described it, Crew is believed to have shot her in the head in a remote mountain site, only to return the next day to find his wife still alive. An accomplice is alleged to have beheaded her and at least parts of her body were dumped off the Dumbarton Bridge, tethered to cement.
"It’s a wound that’s always been there. It’s just ripping it open once again," said the woman's son, Tom Andrade.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen had a change of heart about the death penalty in 2020, and after a trip to Montgomery, Alabama, now believes that capital punishment is racially biased and is also not a crime deterrent.
Under California law, district attorneys can seek a new sentence if they determine the previous sentence is no longer just.
Rosen is seeking to change 15 convictions from the death penalty to life in prison, with no chance of parole. Crew is one of the men on that list.
"This DA is abandoning the victims. That’s not what he’s sworn in to do. That’s not the job he was asked to do," said Tom Andrade. "In my opinion, this is a huge injustice."
Added LoBue, "Do you have faith in the justice system? Do you think that by overturning this step, that they can’t overturn the step of life without the possibility of parole? I don’t believe it."
Several more cases will be heard in the coming months.
Jesse Gary is a reporter based in the station's South Bay bureau. Follow him on Instagram, @jessegontv and on Facebook, @JesseKTVU.