Juan Corona, also known as the "Machete Murderer" died in a California prison on March 4 at the age of 85. Corona had been convicted of 25 murders in 1973, and again on retrial in 1982, and sentenced to 25 terms of life without parole. At the time, Corona was the most notorious mass murderer in U.S. history. The New York Times obituary is here.
Corona's crimes were discovered almost by mistake when a neighbor noticed what appeared to be a freshly dug grave on his property near Yuba City in 1971. Virtually all of the victims had been hacked to death -- one was also shot -- and they all appeared to be migrant laborers who had been lured to the property with promises of work from Corona, who was a farm labor contractor. Four victims were never identified, and there may have been more bodies that were not discovered.
Corona's defense counsel at the first trial was private attorney Richard Hawk, whose conduct led to a revision in standards of legal ethics, now codified in the Model Rules of Professional Responsibility.
Corona was initially represented by the local public defender, but his family eventually managed to retain Hawk. Due to pretrial publicity, Hawk succeeded in obtaining a change of venue from Sutter County to Solano County, but the then made a series of baffling tactical decisions. Most prominently, Hawk decided not to raise an insanity defense, even though Corona had a documented history of metal illness.
It turned out that Hawk had entered into an agreement with Corona, as part of their fee agreement, in which the defendant waived confidentiality and assigned to Hawk all "literary and dramatic rights" to his life story:
Pursuant to the agreement, Hawk was granted exclusive literary and dramatic property rights to Corona's life story, including the proceedings against him, in return for legal services. Under the agreement, Corona expressly waived the attorney-client privilege, thereby removing any impediment to the publication of the most intimate and confidential details of his life and his trial. The surrender of all-inclusive publication rights and the attorney-client privilege was irrevocable and in perpetuity binding not only on Corona, but also his heirs, executors, legal representatives and assigns. The income derived from the publications was to inure solely and exclusively to Hawk.
In reversing Corona's convictions, the California Appellate Court held that such an agreement constituted a conflict of interest amounting to ineffective assistance of counsel:
[I]t is indisputable that by entering into the literary rights contract trial counsel created a situation which prevented him from devoting the requisite undivided loyalty and service to his client. From that moment on, trial counsel was devoted to two masters with conflicting interests he was forced to choose between his own pocketbook and the best interests of his client, the accused. Two, the record as a whole abundantly demonstrates that the conflict of interest unanimously condemned by case law and proscribed by the canons of ethics resulted in obvious prejudice to appellant. . . .
This principle is now embodied Rule 1.8(d) of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (as it was in the predecessor Model Code of Professional Responsibility):
Prior to the conclusion of representation of a client, a lawyer shall not make or negotiate an agreement giving the lawyer literary or media rights to a portrayal or account based in substantial part on information relating to the representation.
On retrial, Corona was represented by Terence "Kayo" Hallinan, who blamed the murders on Corona's half brother. The trial lasted seven months. After over 50 hours of jury deliberation, Corona was again convicted on all counts.
Hallinan was later elected District Attorney of San Francisco. After two terms, he was defeated for reelection by Kamala Harris.
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