MFVR

LOUISIANA: Court: Mother's opinion impermissible

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal ruled late Monday that the mother of a slain 6-year-old boy cannot ask jurors to spare the life of the man who admitted molesting and strangling her son. The appeals court said "the personal belief of the victim's mother about whether the defendant should receive a life or death sentence" is impermissible victim impact testimony and is irrelevant. The state Supreme Court is considering an appeal on the same issue.

Lorilei Guillory was allowed to testify briefly Monday, however. As the final defense witness, she told jurors that Ricky Langley's present mental condition is different from when she 1st met him Feb. 7, 1992, as she searched for her missing son, Jeremy. Though she may not ever be allowed to tell jurors, Guillory read a prepared statement to reporters after court Monday in which she said putting Ricky Langley to de! ath is not the way to honor her son. "The way to honor Jeremy," she said, "is through the child protection laws passed in his honor."

She was referring to sex offender registration and notification laws passed as a result of Jeremy's death. Guillory made it clear she does not want Langley to go free. "I have always wanted him to be locked up and unable to harm another child," Guillory said." I must clarify that I personally have not forgiven Ricky Langley for what he did, and he must be held accountable."

Guillory said she met with District Attorney Rick Bryant last year and asked him to accept Langley's plea agreement to life in prison without parole "and put an end to this by putting Ricky in jail for the rest of his life." She said she told Bryant she doesn't need Langley put to death to heal, and that she personally opposes the death penalty for Langley "as a solution to this terrible and sad situation."

"Jeremy's death devastated me and my family, and I have worked very hard to pull my life together since it happened," Guillory said.

"I resent the fact that because I do not want the death penalty in this case, and wanted the state to accept life without parole, the state has treated me as if I am the enemy and has used my disagreement with the death penalty to divide my family at a time when we need each other to heal." My son was the victim, and I'm here to honor and represent his voice since his voice was smothered and taken from him.

No one can tell another person the right way to heal, and the state cannot tell me the death penalty will heal me."

During her brief stint on the witness stand Monday, Guillory told jurors, "Just as I can hear my son's death cries, I also hear Ricky Langley's cries for help and for whatever reason he has never gotten that help." She agreed with lead defense attorney Clive Stafford-Smith that Langley is sick. Under cross-examination by Assistant District Attorney Cynthia Killingsworth, Guillory could not be specific about where she had obtained her information about the defendant. She said she had spoken with him only twice, once on Feb. 7, 1992, when she was looking for her missing son and again last year when she had an extended visit with him and Stafford-Smith at the Calcasieu Correctional Center.

After Guillory testified, the defense rested its case. Killingsworth and Assistant District Attorneys Sharon Darville Wilson and Wayne Frey are expected to present testimony today, May 13, to rebut the sanity issue raised by the defense. To prove Langley was insane at the time he killed the boy, defense attorneys have to prove he suffers from a mental disorder that prevented him from knowing right from wrong.

Jurors heard from two defense experts Monday, a psychiatrist and a physician who specializes in maternal fetal management.Dr. Rhan Bailey, formerly of LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans but now affiliated with Baylor School of Medicine in Houston, told jurors he believes Langley suffers from a psychosis and "was not mentally able to develop an intent" when he strangled the Guillory boy. He said he believes Langley "did not know it was wrongful."

Bailey said he reached those conclusions after interviewing Langley twice in March and April of this year, speaking to some of the defendant's family members and examining volumes of records and documents, including 3 taped confessions Langley gave to police.

The other expert, Dr. Robert T. Maupin, an instructor at the LSU medical school, testified about the effects drugs and X-rays can have on a developing fetus.

Langley was reportedly conceived while his mother was wearing a body cast during her recovery from a serious automobile accident.

Before her pregnancy was detected she was given various medication and X-rays that Maupin said could have had adverse effects on Langley as he was developing in the womb. Stafford-Smith denied on Monday that part of his trial strategy was to call 3 black expert witnesses with ties to New Orleans to testify before a predominantly black jury selected from Orleans Parish. Defense attorneys put at issue early in the trial the racial makeup of the jury. They were successful in having 2 black women re-instated to the jury after the state asked that they be excluded.

Stafford-Smith said the experts he called, including one on Saturday and 2 on Monday, were last-minute finds after some of the experts he had previously lined up either refused to assist or were not available for the trial. None of the experts called during this trial testified during Langley's 1st trial in Baton Rouge in 1994.

Statement of Lorilei Guillory

Released in Lake Charles, Louisiana -- May 12, 2003

My name is Lorilei Guillory. I am the mother of Jeremy Guillory who was 6 years old when Ricky Langley murdered him in 1992.

I do not want Ricky Langley to go free.

I have always wanted him to be locked up and unable to harm another child.

I must clarify that I personally have not forgiven Ricky Langley for what he did and he must be held accountable.

Last year I met with the district attorney and asked him to please accept Ricky Langley's plea agreement of life without parole; and put an end to this by putting Ricky Langley in jail for the rest of his life.

I informed the district attorney that I do not need Ricky Langley put to death in order to heal and that I personally oppose the death penalty for Ricky Langley as a solution to this terrible and sad situation.

Jeremy's death devastated my family and me and I have worked very hard to pull my life together since it happened.

I resent the fact that because I do not want the death penalty in this case, and wanted the state to accept life without parole, the state has treated me as if I am the enemy and has used my disagreement with the death penalty to divide my family at a time when we need each other to heal. No one can tell another person the right way to heal and the state cannot tell me that the death penalty will heal me.

Putting Ricky Langley to death is not the way to honor my son Jeremy.

The way to honor Jeremy is through the child protection laws passed in his honor.

Thank you.

For more information contact Kate Lowenstein, National Organizer for Murder Victim's Families for Reconciliation at 202 270-0279