[Vision2020] Triple murderer wants to take back pleas

Tue Oct 25 15:44:04 PDT 2016

One question I feel fairly certain must be answered in order to plea "guilty by reason of insanity or medical defect" . . . 

Was Lee aware that what he was doing was wrong at the time he shot and killed those three people?

I seriously believe that he was aware that his acts were criminally wrong each time he pulled the trigger.  Otherwise, why did the Pullman Police have to chase him up 195 in hot pursuit ending in a collision.

Tom Hansen

> On Oct 25, 2016, at 3:29 PM, Don Coombs <wildmushroomer at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> To Tom:
> 
> So I guess you think he was totally rational at the time of his crimes? Perhaps you think he committed the crimes for personal gain?
> 
> To be perfectly clear, I don't believe either of those things and I have to agree with Saundra.
> 
> Don Coombs 
> 
>> On Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 1:20 PM, Saundra Lund <v2020 at ssl1.fastmail.fm> wrote:
>> While I understand the sentiment, I completely disagree.  Serious mental illness is a terrible thing, and the fact that Idaho doesn’t have an insanity defense makes me ashamed of my state.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/08/05/487909967/with-no-insanity-defense-seriously-ill-people-end-up-in-prison
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> “Because Idaho has no insanity defense, defendants with mental illness typically plead guilty to lesser charges and rely on judges to take mental health into account at sentencing. Some lawyers and psychiatrists say this doesn't provide enough protection against the death penalty or long incarceration. As professor Aliza Cover of the University of Idaho Law School explains, "In Idaho, you have the unusual circumstance that someone who couldn't even be convicted in another state could be executed."
>> 
>>  
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>>  
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>>  
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>> Saundra Lund
>> 
>> Moscow, ID
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Compassion is the basis of all morality.
>> 
>> ~ Arthur Schopenhuaer
>> 
>>  
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Tom Hansen
>> Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2016 2:47 AM
>> To: Moscow Vision 2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>> Subject: [Vision2020] Triple murderer wants to take back pleas
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> If it was up to me, I would permanently place photos of Lee's victims (Terri Grzebielski, David Trail, and Belinda Niebuhr) in Lee's cell.  They would be the first faces he sees every morning and the last faces he sees every night . . . for the rest of his life!
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Courtesy of today's (October 25, 2016) Lewiston Tribune.
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>>  
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>> ---------------------------------
>> 
>>  
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>> Triple murderer wants to take back pleas
>> John Lee says he didn't have 'free will' when he agreed to deal in shooting deaths of adopted mother, two others
>>  
>> 
>> MOSCOW - A Moscow man convicted of killing three people last year is asking to withdraw his guilty pleas.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> John Lee, 31, filed a two-page handwritten motion Monday arguing he was "not in the right state of mind" when he entered the pleas. Lee is serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders.
>> 
>>  
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>> He was sentenced in May for the January 2015 shooting spree that killed his adoptive mother, Terri L. Grzebielski, 61; his landlord, David M. Trail, 71; and Moscow Arby's manager Belinda G. Niebuhr, 47. Seattle resident Michael M.M. Chin, 41, was also injured in the incident.
>> 
>>  
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>> As part of a plea agreement that Lee accepted in March, he entered Alford pleas to three counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery. By entering Alford pleas, Lee did not admit guilt but acknowledged there was enough evidence to convict him.
>> 
>>  
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>> In the motion filed Monday in Latah County 2nd District Court, Lee argues he was not mentally fit when he accepted the plea agreement in March and when he was sentenced in May.
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>>  
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>> "Noises were effecting (sic) my decision making and I didn't feel I had free will," Lee wrote. "... Now that I am properly medicated mental health problems will no longer interfere with my decision making."
>> 
>>  
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>> In an attached affidavit, also two pages long and handwritten, Lee adds that he attempted to tell a member of his defense team that he was not satisfied with the plea agreement a few days after accepting it.
>> 
>>  
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>> "I expressed that I felt that the guards and certain people were pressuring me and in some instances torturing me to either confess or accept a plea deal," Lee wrote.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> He argues that he said he wanted to withdraw the pleas, that he felt he didn't have "free will" and that he didn't like the conditions of the plea agreement, including the waiver of his right to appeal.
>> 
>>  
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>> "At that moment I started hearing noises which told me not to withdraw," Lee wrote.
>> 
>>  
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>> According to the document, Lee made it "abundantly clear" he wanted to withdraw his pleas.
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>>  
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>> "In my opinion my defense should have withdrawn my plea and had me medicated so I could make rational decisions," Lee wrote.
>> 
>>  
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>> Defense attorneys Charles Kovis and Deborah McCormick represented Lee in the case.
>> 
>>  
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>> Lee's motion comes after a court decision last week that denied his request for his sentence to be reduced. According to the ruling written by Judge John R. Stegner, the plea agreement does not allow for modifications to Lee's sentence.
>> 
>>  
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>> The plea agreement spared Lee from the death penalty. Despite its waiver of his right to appeal, Lee has filed an appeal with the Idaho Supreme Court and is awaiting a response.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Lee is being held at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> ---------------------------------
>> 
>> Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> "Moscow Cares" 
>> 
>> http://www.MoscowCares.com
>> 
>>   
>> 
>> Tom Hansen
>> 
>> Moscow, Idaho
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> 
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