Richard Allen Moran killed three people in Las Vegas, Nevada, in August 1984. Two of them, Sandra Devere and Russell Rhodes, died on August 2. Nine days later, on August 11, his former wife, Linda Vandervoort, died. He confessed to police on August 13, pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, and then in November 1984 dismissed his lawyers and changed his pleas to guilty. A three-judge court sentenced him to death for each murder on January 21, 1985. He was executed in Nevada in March 1996, at the age of 42.
His name is also attached to a decision that is still cited in American courts. In Godinez v. Moran (1993), the Supreme Court of the United States held that the competency standard for pleading guilty or waiving the right to counsel is not higher than the competency standard for standing trial.
The two killings of August 2 and the killing of August 11 were separate events, nine days apart, at different places in the same city. On August 2, 1984, Moran killed two people in Las Vegas: Sandra Devere, who was 24, and Russell Rhodes, who was 27.
Nine days later, on August 11, 1984, he killed his former wife, Linda Vandervoort, who was 26. Moran then confessed to police on August 13, 1984.
Moran was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and entered pleas of not guilty. The trial court ordered psychiatric examinations. Two psychiatrists concluded that he was competent to stand trial, and one of them wrote that there was "not the slightest doubt" that he was in full control of his faculties as to his ability to assist his counsel. The State announced that it would seek the death penalty.
On November 28, 1984, Moran told the court that he wished to discharge his attorneys and change his pleas to guilty. He said he wanted to prevent his lawyers from presenting mitigating evidence at sentencing. The trial court found that he was competent, that he was knowingly and intelligently waiving his right to counsel, and that his guilty pleas were freely and voluntarily given. He pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and two further offenses.
On January 21, 1985, a three-judge court sentenced Moran to death for each of the three murders. His case then went to the Supreme Court of Nevada in two appeals, numbers 16300 and 16301, decided together on March 31, 1987.
In the appeal concerning Devere and Rhodes, the court reviewed the aggravating circumstances found by the penalty tribunal: a random killing without apparent motive, and a risk of death to more than one person. It held that both were "soundly supported by the evidence." The tribunal had also found two mitigating circumstances, Moran's lack of a significant prior criminal history and his remorse. The two death sentences were upheld.
In the appeal concerning Vandervoort, the tribunal had found that the murder showed depravity of mind and that it created a risk of death to more than one person. The Supreme Court of Nevada sustained neither. It wrote that "the facts of this case do not exhibit depravity of mind," and it found no other persons present to support the second finding. The court reversed that death sentence and remanded the case for resentencing to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In its words, the only error that warranted reversal was the penalty tribunal's finding of the two aggravating circumstances in that murder.
On July 30, 1987, Moran filed a petition for state post-conviction relief, in which he claimed that he had been mentally incompetent to represent himself. After an evidentiary hearing the trial court rejected the claim, found him competent and found his pleas voluntary, and the Supreme Court of Nevada dismissed his appeal. The Supreme Court of the United States denied certiorari in 1989.
The federal district court denied his petition for habeas corpus. In 1992 the Ninth Circuit reversed, holding that the trial court should have held a competency hearing before accepting his waiver of counsel and his pleas, and applying a "reasoned choice" standard. The Supreme Court of the United States took the case as Godinez v. Moran and in 1993 reversed and remanded. Its opinion began: "This case presents the question whether the competency standard for pleading guilty or waiving the right to counsel is higher than the competency standard for standing trial. We hold that it is not." The Court added that a trial court must still separately determine that a waiver is knowing and voluntary.
On remand the Ninth Circuit, in an opinion filed on November 15, 1994 and amended on June 2, 1995, held that the trial court should have held a competency hearing when a good-faith doubt arose at the change-of-plea hearing, and that this failure violated due process. It held that the violation had been cured by the retrospective hearing in state court in 1987, that the competency finding was fairly supported by the record, and that the waiver of counsel and the guilty pleas were knowing and voluntary. His claim of ineffective assistance of counsel failed. The court affirmed the denial of habeas relief. Judge Pregerson dissented, and an en banc rehearing was denied.
Moran had abandoned his appeals at first, as five other Nevada prisoners executed since 1979 had done, and later changed his mind. In March 1996 he was 42 and was set to be the first Nevada prisoner executed against his will since 1961. Two Catholic bishops asked the governor in mid-March to delay the execution, and the governor's office said he was not inclined to do so. A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel rejected his last appeal, with Judge David Thompson writing that "We reject Moran's argument that he is actually innocent of the death penalty." The clemency panel was made up of the governor, justices of the Supreme Court of Nevada and the attorney general, and most of its members had already been involved in his case.
Two days before the execution Moran said he was ready to die, and on the Thursday he apologized to the families of his victims. A federal court refused a stay on the Friday, and he decided against further appeals. He was executed in Nevada on March 30, 1996. His age at death was 42.
In Moran's case the penalty was decided by a three-judge court, which weighed statutory aggravating circumstances, listed in NRS 200.033, against mitigating circumstances. The Supreme Court of Nevada reviewed each death sentence separately. It affirmed two and reversed one on the ground that the aggravating circumstances found for the third murder were not supported. Federal courts then reviewed only the question of his competency and the validity of his waiver of counsel and his pleas.
Moran said he did not remember much about the crimes. His birth date is not on record.
August 2, 1984: Sandra Devere and Russell Rhodes die in Las Vegas.
August 11, 1984: Linda Vandervoort, his former wife, dies in Las Vegas.
August 13, 1984: Moran confesses to police.
November 28, 1984: he asks to dismiss his attorneys and changes his pleas to guilty.
January 21, 1985: a three-judge court sentences him to death for each murder.
March 31, 1987: the Supreme Court of Nevada affirms two death sentences and reverses the third, remanding for life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
July 30, 1987: he files for state post-conviction relief.
1992: the Ninth Circuit reverses the denial of habeas relief.
1993: Godinez v. Moran, the Supreme Court of the United States reverses and remands.
November 15, 1994: the Ninth Circuit rules against him on remand; amended June 2, 1995.
March 1996: executed in Nevada.