San Diego prosecutors agreed to the reduced sentence for Susan Eubanks, who was seeking a new trial
In this Aug. 9, 1999, file photo,Susan Eubanks, then 35, sits next to her public defender, William Rafael, as a prosecutor delivers an opening statement on the first day of Eubanks’ murder trial at the Vista courthouse. A mother sentenced to death for killing her four children in their San Marcos home 25 years ago has been resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, a move pursued by prosecutors that ends her bid for a new trial.
Her appellate attorneys argued in state court filings that her trial attorneys chose to “abandon all mental health evidence they had gathered” and instead argue that their “mentally ill and brain damaged” client was a great mom until she killed her children. “urors in this case were given a grossly misleading profile of her life and her mental functioning,” her appellate attorneys argued.
“The moratorium on the death penalty in California and assuring that the victims’ family won’t be put through the anguish of a lengthy new trial, all factored into our decision to accept this agreement which is guaranteed to keep this murderer behind bars for the rest of her life,” Stephan said. Deputies forced entry into the home and found three of the boys dead and took a fourth to a hospital, where he died. They also found her 6-year-old nephew, unharmed.
The filings from Eubanks’ attorneys indicate that when Weber presided over the trial in 1999, she expressed concern that the defense did not present any mental health evidence during the penalty phase, the portion of a death penalty trial in which the jury, after finding the defendant guilty, recommends whether the sentence should be life or death.
Weber also agreed to consider arguments regarding Eubanks’ motivation for killing her children. At trial, prosecutors said Eubanks did so in revenge against their fathers. The defense did not show the jury research that such revenge killings of children are rare. Much more common is “altruistic filicide,” in which a parent has the deluded belief that killing the child is in the child’s best interest.
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