In 1978, Chief was charged with robbery and the kidnapping and murder of Theresa Graybeal. At his first trial, he was represented by Salvatore Sciandra of the Fresno Public Defender’s Office. Attorney Sciandra was beyond his experience in representing Chief. At trial, he was convicted of all three crimes. He sentenced to death for a murder which he did not commit. Since his arrest, Chief has repeatedly maintained his innocence. 

 

Throughout the judicial process, Chief's constitutional rights have routinely been abused, with egregious examples of prosecutors withholding evidence, ineffective assistance of counsel, and witness intimidation. The prosecution's only eyewitness to testify was 14 year old Billy Bob Brown. Brown was the only witness who identified Chief as the shooter. According to a trial motion filed by the prosecution, the prosecution would be unable to prosecute Chief without Brown's testimony. Although representing to the court that he received nothing in exchange for his testimony, court documents and transcripts indicate that Brown was in fact granted immunity. Further, Brown was the only defendant who was not tested for gunpowder residue. Significantly, Brown recanted his testimony before his death, stating in a declaration that his testimony during the trial had been coerced. 

 

Chief was given a gunpowder residue test within hours of being arrested. The test, which was negative, was not introduced at trial.

 

In People v. Stankewitz, 32 Cal.3d 80 (1982), Supreme Court of California reversed the judgment based on a fundamental dispute between Chief and his attorney.

 

In 1983, Chief was retried. As the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals later determined, Chief was represented by ineffective counsel during this trial. His court-appointed attorney at the time, Hugh Goodwin, did not use funds appropriated for an investigator or speak with anyone involved in Chief’s first trial. Goodwin did not challenge the government's version of events, and did not call any witnesses during the guilt phase of the trial. During the penalty phase, Goodwin presented what could be at best called a ‘religious defense’. A few witnesses told the court they believed in the “power of God,” and provided no testimony specific to Chief. In the words of a federal appeals court, Goodwin’s strategy “had little hope of succeeding, and indeed seemed predestined to fail.”

 

Unfortunately, Goodwin has a track record of providing poor representation to innocent men facing death sentences. In fact, just two years before taking Chief’s case, Goodwin also represented Troy Lee Jones, who was wrongly convicted of murder. In 1996, Jones was freed after the California Supreme Court overturned his conviction because of Goodwin’s incompetence. See People v. Jones, 13 Cal.4th 535 (1996).  Before his election defeat in 1978, Goodwin served briefly as a judge on the Fresno Municipal Court, where he ordered defendants to attend church as a condition of probation and called the Commission on Judicial Performance “an instrument of Satan” after it criticized him.

 

In People v. Stankewitz (“Stankewitz II”), 51 Cal.3d 80 (1990), the California Supreme Court affirmed the judgment in the second trial.

 

In Stankewitz v. Woodford, 365 F.3d 706 (9th Cir. 2004), a panel of federal appeals judges decided that Chief was entitled to an evidentiary hearing to determine whether he received ineffective assistance of counsel in the penalty phase of his second trial.

 

In Stankewitz v. Wong, 659 F.Supp.2d 1103 (E.D. Cal. 2009), the court granted Stankewitz’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus as to the remanded claim alleging ineffective assistance of counsel at the penalty phase of his second trial.

 

In Stankewitz v. Wong, 698 F.3d 1163 (9th Cir. 2012), another panel of federal appeals judges affirmed the district court’s order granting Stankewitz a writ of habeas corpus directing the State of California to either: (a)vacate and set aside the death sentence in People v. Stankewitz, Fresno County Superior Court Case No.227015-5, unless the State of California initiates proceedings to retry Stankewitz’s sentence within 90 days; or (b) resentence Stankewitz to life without the possibility of parole.