Motion claims death penalty statute unfair ! Defendant in UA student slaying wants death penalty off the table
Posted on Saturday, October 11, 2008
Marcyniuk
A Fayetteville man should not face the death penalty for the stabbing death of his 24-year old exgirlfriend, according to a motion filed by his attorney Friday.
Zachariah Marcyniuk, 29, is charged with capital murder and burglary. He is accused of fatally stabbing Katharine "Katie"Wood on March 9. Wood was a senior English major at the University of Arkansas.
Fayetteville attorney W. H. Taylor argued in the motion to prohibit the death penalty on constitutional grounds that the defendant is doomed to death if the jury finds just one aggravating factor. The jury must also find him guilty if mitigating circumstances do not outweigh aggravating circumstances.
"Under such circumstances, the Arkansas capital murder scheme becomes a mandatory death sentence. As such, it does not let a jury show mercy upon a particular defendant despite whatever finding are made," the motion claims.
The law does not provide any definition or procedure to differentiate between capital murder and the lesser charge of first-degree, which does not carry the death sentence, according to the motion.
The death penalty is justified in this case because the "defendant committed the murder in an especially cruel and depraved manner, " according to an earlier motion filed by 4 th Judicial District Prosecutor John Threet.
Marcyniuk has a violent history.
Marcyniuk pleaded guilty in July 2005 to aggravated assault and was sentenced to two years of probation. He was accused in that case of holding a gun to his head and threatening to commit suicide while driving 70 mph as he held his girlfriend against her will in the vehicle.
That same girlfriend filed three orders of protection against Marcyniuk during 2005, according to court records, before he eventually found another girlfriend and apparently left her alone.
He is being held without bail in the Washington County Detention Center on charges of capital murder and residential burglary.
If convicted of capital murder, Marcyniuk faces either life in prison without parole or the death penalty. He could get between five and 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $ 15, 000 on the burglary charge.
The case is set for trial on Dec. 8.
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