This story is taken from Sacbee / News.


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Investigator to be sentenced over death penalty cases
By Christina Jewett - Bee Staff Writer
Published 10:11 am PDT Thursday, August 16, 2007
A defense investigator who plead guilty to falsifying documents to cast doubt on death penalty verdicts is expected to be sentenced to five years in state prison in Sacramento Superior Court today, attorneys said.

Kathleen Culhane essentially admitted that she tried to overturn death penalty sentences by falsifying reports, when she pleaded guilty in April to two counts of forgery, one count of perjury and one count of filing a false document.

Culhane had worked for the Habeas Corpus Resource Center, a state agency that defends inmates facing capital punishment, for several years before suspicion was cast on her work last year. Culhane had prepared last-minute documents on behalf of five jurors who said they regretted condemning Michael Morales to death for the 1981 killing of Terri Winchell. The documents had been sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzennegger in a bid for clemency that was later denied.

Senior assistant attorney general Michael Farrell said his office and the San Joaquin District Attorney's Office began to call the jurors who reportedly had changed their minds. Prosecutors learned that none of them had reversed their positions or had even heard of Culhane.

Culhane agreed in April to accept a five-year term in state prison in exchange for prosecutors dropping 41 of the 45 charges against her.

Culhane's attorney, Stuart Hanlon of San Francisco, has characterized her as a deeply idealistic person who was caught up in her desire to see the death penalty abolished. Farrell has said she only harmed her causing by lying.

The hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. today.


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