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Capital Punishment Murder Trial of Dennis Alvarez-Hernandez: Week One
Posted on Tuesday, April 08 @ 15:46:17 EDT by jfbailey
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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. By S. Richard Blassberg, Legal Affairs Correspondent. April 8, 2003:
The capital punishment murder trial which got under way last week in the Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains, before Judge Kenneth Lange, is the first in the county in more than twenty-five years.
WPCNR LEGAL CORRESPONDENT
S. RICHARD BLASSBERG
Photo by WPCNR News
The Defendant, Dennis Alvarez-Hernandez, has the ignoble distinction of being the sole individual chosen amongst ten defendants in the past nine years whose crimes were eligible to be designated for such treatment by District Attorney Jeanine Pirro. If convicted of First Degree Murder, he will face the possibility of being sentenced to Death by Lethal Injection.
The jury which consists of twelve jurors and ten alternates was selected over six months from a pool of 2,656 individuals. They have been advised by Judge Lange that the bifurcated, or two-part, trial will likely last for two months. The first phase is to determine the Defendant’s guilt or innocence, particularly as relates to First Degree Murder. The second phase will occur only in the event of such a conviction, and will be for the purpose of determining whether the punishment will be Life Imprisonment Without Possibility of Parole, or Death By Lethal Injection.
The Defendant is charged with the killing of Patricia Torres, his girlfriend, and two of her four young children, Ashley 4, and William 7, as well as the attempted murder of a third child, Vincent, then nine. Vincent managed to escape although seriously injured. The defense has acknowledged that Alvarez-Hernandez, in fact, committed the acts charged, but maintains that he did not possess the necessary intent to be guilty of Murder in the First Degree, because he was under the influence of alcohol with a blood-alcohol reading of .25, two and one-half times the legal limit. As with all criminal proceedings, under our federal and state constitutions, the prosecution has the burden of proof.
Mrs. Pirro’s assistants, George Bolen and Patricia Murphy, seasoned prosecutors, share the unenviable task of convincing the jury not only that Dennis Alvarez-Hernandez is guilty of Murder One, but also that they should condemn him to Death By Lethal Injection. To obtain such a conviction, they must establish to the jury’s satisfaction that he intended to produce the results his actions produced. They have wasted no time in the first week, bringing to the stand a witness who testified that the Defendant told her before the tragic incident, “If he couldn’t have Patricia, no one would.”
Additionally, Bolen and Murphy have attempted to counter the defense contention that the Defendant’s extreme intoxication and incapacity at the time of the killings rendered him incapable of forming the intent necessary under the statute to find Murder In The First Degree. For this purpose, they brought to the stand witnesses, police officers and emergency personnel, who testified that the Defendant was not nearly as intoxicated as his blood-alcohol reading would indicate he clearly was.
With the conclusion of the first week, the dye has been cast. The pivotal issue has been identified, and defence and prosecuting attorneys have each promised to prove their position.
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