The suspect accused of fatally shooting two people outside the Capital Jewish Museum pleaded not guilty to all nine charges against him Thursday, including two hate crime charges.
Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were shot and killed the night of May 21 as they left an event at the museum downtown. Both worked at the Israeli Embassy in D.C. They were on the verge of getting engaged.
“These are people who are broken because of one man’s actions,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, describing a recent conversation with the victims’ parents. “These are people who should’ve been in-laws, but because of one man’s actions, will never be able to celebrate the marriage that was intended or the grandchildren that would’ve resulted.”
Wearing an orange jumpsuit, the shooting suspect, Elias Rodriguez, walked into a courtroom Thursday morning and appeared calm as he answered the judge’s questions.
Pirro has previously said the death penalty isn’t off the table.
“This is a weighty decision. It takes time,” she said. “There will be a rigorous process, after which the capital case section in the attorney general’s office will advise the attorney general, and the attorney general herself will make the decision regarding whether or not this office will seek death against Elias Rodriguez.”
The death penalty is not common in D.C. In fact, no one has been executed in the nation’s capital since 1957.
Doug Gansler, who used to be Maryland’s attorney general and a prosecutor in D.C., spoke to News4 to help us understand why.
A big reason: Most homicide cases in D.C. are tried in local court. Since the death penalty was abolished by the D.C. Council in 1981, the only way for it to be a possibility today is if a defendant is federally charged.
“It’s really rare to get a federal homicide case,” Gansler said. “The Oklahoma City bomber would be one of those types of cases. Somebody who blows up a federal building or an airplane or something of that nature.”
So could this be the first death penalty case that D.C. has seen in decades? It could be — but that decision will ultimately be made by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“The seeking of the death penalty by the U.S. attorney general in D.C. is a seismic change from the past,” Gansler said. “Will it continue? Will more cases be brought under the death penalty? Unlikely, unless they’re of this type of nature.”
As for what’s next in the case: The judge ordered the prosecution and defense teams to update the court within 90 days. He wants to give them more time to sift through the evidence.
News4 learned Thursday that 1.5 million pages of evidence have already been compiled in the case.
from Local – NBC4 Washington https://ift.tt/8M9WYt0
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