Charlie Samuel, a transient with a long criminal history, was sentenced to life in prison last week without the possibility of parole last week for the kidnapping and killing of Lily Burk. The Los Angeles Times reports that the man killed the young woman when she couldn't withdraw cash from an ATM machine with her credit card. Her body was found inside of her car last year in a downtown Los Angeles parking lot with her neck slashed and her head beaten.
As it turns out, Charlie Samuel was actually on parole at the time of the incident. Before the murder of Lily Burk, the man had a criminal record that mostly involved minor theft and drug crimes. However, he was involved in one violent robbery in 1986, where he struck an elderly man who did not have any money to give up during the robbery.
Perhaps 50-year-old Charlie Samuel was lucky even this time around because he managed to avoid the death penalty with the conviction of murder. Ben W. Pesta, one of Samuel's defense attorneys, told the Los Angeles Times that he believed the district attorney's office would have sought the death penalty if his client had not pleaded guilty to the murder charge.
Because live is considered to be of the greatest value under the law, it's common for Los Angeles criminal defense attorneys to negotiate a plea agreement so that a person does not have to end their life because of a criminal conviction. FindLaw says that the laws of capital punishment vary from state to state, but California allows for a death sentence in a first degree murder case as well as treason crimes.
Related Resources:
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Murder: First Degree - Criminal Law (FindLaw)
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How Sentencing Works FAQ (FindLaw)
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