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State v. Steelman9/13/1978
Defendant, Willie Luther Steelman, was charged in two indictments by a Pima County grand jury with one count of burglary, A.R.S. § 13-302; one count of kidnapping for robbery with a gun, A.R.S. §§ 13-491, 492; two counts of robbery armed with a gun, A.R.S. §§ 13-641, 643(B); and two counts of first degree murder, A.R.S. §§ 13-451, 452, 453. The defendant was tried in Apache County and a jury found him guilty of all charges on 23 July 1975. On 27 August 1975, the trial court entered a judgment of guilt on all charges and the defendant received the following sentences: not less than 10 nor more than 15 years imprisonment in the state prison on the burglary conviction; not less than 46 nor more than 50 years imprisonment in the state prison for the kidnapping conviction; not less than 25 nor more than 30 years imprisonment in the state prison on each robbery conviction; and the death penalty for each murder conviction. Notice of appeal in this court was filed by the Clerk of the Court in Apache County. A.R.S. § 13-1711; Rule 26.15, Rules of Criminal Procedure, 17 A.R.S.
The issues presented for consideration are:
1. Whether certain statements made by defendant to police officers were involuntary and should have been suppressed.
2. Whether the M'Naghten test for insanity was the proper test of criminal responsibility in light of (a) A.R.S. § 13-135 which exempts lunatics, (b) the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and (c) the protections conferred by the Fourteenth
Amendment to the Constitution.
3. Whether the motion under Rule 11, Rules of Criminal Procedure, 17 A.R.S., made by defendant's counsel during the trial should have been granted.
4. Whether two of the State's psychiatrists should have been prohibited from testifying because the information upon which they relied was obtained under the doctor-patient privilege or in violation of the defendant's privilege against self-incrimination and his right to counsel.
5. Whether certain medical testimony was based on incompetent evidence or was a violation of the defendant's right to confront witnesses under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
6. Whether a psychiatrist called by the defense should have been allowed to testify in surrebuttal to the State's rebuttal to the insanity defense.
7. Whether the defendant's insanity defense was rendered impotent because the surrebuttal witness was excluded and the State's psychiatrists were allowed to testify.
8. Is the Arizona death penalty statute, as construed, contrary to the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution?
The events leading up to the acts which form the basis of the charges in the instant matter are not in serious dispute and are part of a series of incidents which began in the late summer of 1973 when defendant Steelman left California for Denver, Colorado. In Denver, Steelman began to associate with one Douglas Gretzler. Steelman and Gretzler came to Phoenix, Arizona, in the fall of 1973 where a murder for hire resulted in the death of an accomplice named "Preacher" as well as the victims.
After this, Steelman and Gretzler kidnapped two young men and took them and their van to California where they killed them, stripped their bodies and placed them in some bushes near the road. Steelman and Gretzler later abandoned the van, obtained another vehicle, and drove back to Arizona. On the way back, they picked up a hitchhiker and killed him, together with two others who might have been able to gi
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