Killer’s appeal heard

CARSON CITY -- An attorney for condemned Nevada inmate Randy Moore told the state Supreme Court on Tuesday that Moore was unfairly convicted in a 1984 double-murder case labeled by prosecutors as the work of teen devil-worshipers.

Attorney JoNell Thomas argued that Moore faced "a huge amount of prosecutorial misconduct" and was represented by an attorney with hearing problems who heard "killer bees" during a courtroom discussion about "killer weed" smoked by defendants in the Las Vegas case.

By mistakenly referring during the trial to a pretrial hearing on the teens' devil-worshiping -- a hearing that trial jurors hadn't been aware of -- Moore's lawyer effectively helped the prosecution, Thomas added.

Thomas also said that Moore faced four aggravating circumstances resulting in his sentence, and that two such "aggravators" must be erased under terms of the state high court's previous decisions to limit criteria prosecutors can use to seek the death penalty.

Steven Owens, chief deputy Clark County district attorney, argued that Moore already has had three penalty hearings and doesn't merit a fourth one or a new trial. "It's been 22 years," he said. "I don't know how long we can keep these cases kicking around."

Owens also said the hearing loss problem brought up by Thomas wasn't that bad, adding that the trial lawyer had requested clarification when he missed something. He said the "killer bee" incident could have happened even to a lawyer with good hearing.