Appeals court affirms Michigan death sentence

By Ed White Associated Press DETROIT (AP) -- An appeals court on Tuesday upheld the rare federal death sentence of a western Michigan man who was convicted of killing a woman in a national forest in 1997 before she could testify against him in a rape case. Michigan outlawed the death penalty in 1846. But the victim was killed on federal property, which put the case in federal court and allowed the government to seek a death sentence for Marvin Gabrion. Rachel Timmerman's body was bound with chains and cinder blocks in a lake in the Manistee National Forest in Newaygo County, north of Grand Rapids. A key part of Gabrion's appeal was the location of the homicide. During the sentencing phase of the 2002 trial, attorneys trying to save his life were barred from telling jurors that he would have faced a mandatory no-parole sentence if the case had been prosecuted in state court. They wanted to argue that the federal death penalty didn't fit Michigan's centuries-old culture of justice. But the appeals court, in a 12-4 decision, said it was a "meritless" point and not a reason to upset the outcome of Gabrion's case. "After 11 days of testimony and two days of careful deliberation, the 12 jurors who sat on this case decided unanimously that Marvin Gabrion deserved a sentence of death for what he did to Rachel Timmerman. We have no basis to set aside that moral judgment," the court said. In dissent, Judge Karen Nelson Moore said Gabrion's attorneys should have been allowed to argue that the location of the murder was significant. She noted that the body was very close to being outside the national forest -- and outside of federal jurisdiction -- by just a "distance roughly the length of a hockey rink." Not every juror "would be softened" by that fact, but some may have chosen life in prison instead of the death penalty after convicting Gabrion, Moore said. Timmerman's father, Tim Timmerman, was pleased with the majority's decision. Sixteen years after his daughter's death, he said his family focuses on the positive aspects of life. "We're not reveling in grief because of Gabrion's actions," Timmerman said. Messages seeking comment were left with Gabrion's appellate lawyers. Prosecutors have blamed him for the disappearance of four other people, including Timmerman's daughter, Shannon, who was about a year old in 1997. The body of one of the missing, Wayne Davis, was found floating in another lake a few months after the trial. No charges have been filed. Gabrion, 59, is in federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. Published: Thu, May 30, 2013