Here is an article on the two attorney's in CA whose dogs killed a women in SF several years ago.
This is very good news. The CA Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that the trial judge error ed in a manslaughter sentencing. The Supreme court recommended a 2nd degree murder sentence that will bring this woman back to prison for 15 years to life.
GOOD FOR THESE JUDGES !!! These two pieces of garbage deserve to spend the rest of their pitiful life in prison.
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State high court orders judge to reconsider SF dog mauling case
By PAUL ELIAS Associated Press Writer
Article Last Updated: 05/31/2007 11:50:37 AM PDT
SAN FRANCISCO- A woman whose dogs fatally mauled a neighbor could get more prison time, after the California Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a trial judge to consider convicting her of second-degree murder rather than involuntary manslaughter.
A San Francisco jury had convicted Marjorie Knoller of second-degree murder, but the presiding judge tossed out that charge and convicted her of involuntary manslaughter. The judge ruled that Knoller wasn't aware that her two leashed Presa Canario dogs, each weighing more than 100 pounds, would escape her control and kill 33-year-old Diane Whipple in 2001.
But an appeals court reinstated the second-degree murder charge last year, saying that Knoller disregarded the known risk that the vicious dogs presented.
On Thursday, an unanimous state Supreme Court said the trial judge and the appeals court were both wrong and sent the case back down for reconsideration.
The high court said the trial judge "set the bar too high" in requiring that Knoller have a "high probability" of knowing the dogs were likely to kill. But the Supreme Court also said the appeals court "set the bar too low" in reinstating the conviction because Knoller should have known the dogs were at risk to cause "great bodily harm."
The California Attorney General's office, which took over prosecution of the case in the appeals court, said it will ask a San Francisco judge to reinstate the second-degree murder conviction. The original trial judge, James Warren, has since retired and the case will be reassigned.
"Her conduct was heinous and egregious and was one of the worst second-degree murders I have ever seen," said Deputy Attorney General Amy Haddix. "We are very determined for the sake of the victims."
Knoller and her husband, Robert Noel, have been released from prison after each served half of their four-year manslaughter sentences. If Knoller is convicted of second-degree murder, she faces an additional 15 years to life in prison.
The Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of Noel's manslaughter conviction. Noel wasn't at home during the grisly attack that tore all of Whipple's clothes from her body and left her with 73 different bites, including fatal injuries to the neck.
The couple—both of whom were attorneys at the time—said they were keeping the dogs in their apartment on behalf of a state prisoner, who was a white supremacist. The two eventually adopted the prisoner as their son.
Knoller's attorney Dennis Riordan and San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, who filed the initial charges, didn't immediately return calls for comment.
2nd degree murder sentence for dog attack killing
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