McManis Faulkner successfully obtained the first and only denial in Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen’s campaign to resentence twelve condemned men on Death Row to life in prison. Jim McManis and a team of McManis Faulkner lawyers represented the wife of one of Richard Farley’s shooting victims, contesting Rosen’s petition to change Farley’s death sentence.
In 1988, Farley went on a shooting rampage at ESL, his former workplace, killing seven and wounding six. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1992. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office sought to change his death sentence to life without parole.
On March 21, in a court hearing that included hours of excruciating personal testimony from Farley’s victims, Santa Clara County Judge Benjamin Williams denied the request, preserving Farley’s death penalty sentence.
“It wasn’t easy reliving those terrible days and what the lives of these poor people have been like as a result of that homicide,” McManis said following the hearing. “I’m just glad for them that we got this result.”
To view coverage of the matter, see below:
- ABC 7 News, March 21 – Santa Clara Co. court denies death penalty resentencing petition of 1988 mass shooter
- NBC Bay Area, March 21 – South Bay judge keeps death sentence in place for mass shooter Richard Farley
- NBC News, March 21 – Judge rejects California DA’s request to change mass shooter’s death sentence to life without parole
- KRON4 News, March 21 – Survivors retell horrors of Sunnyvale ESL mass shooting
- Hoodline, March 22 – Santa Clara Court Upholds Death Sentence for 1988 Sunnyvale Mass Shooter Richard Farley
- The Mercury News, March 23 – Judge rejects DA petition, preserves death sentence for 1980s Sunnyvale workplace shooter