Death Penalty Foe Pleads Guilty

LOS ANGELES : A former death penalty investigator pleaded guilty Monday in Sacramento County Superior Court to perjury, forgery and falsifying documents on behalf of four death row inmates.

Under terms of a settlement deal, Kathleen Culhane pleaded guilty to two counts of forgery, one count of perjury and one count of filing false documents, said Culhane's defense attorney, Stuart Hanlon.

Culhane, 40, faces five years in prison when she is sentenced in mid-August, said David Kravets, a spokesman for California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown.

In a statement, Brown said Culhane "crossed the line from vigorous defense to unethical and illegal conduct."

In a telephone interview, Hanlon said, "This was a very difficult case to plead. It involved emotional and moral issues that made it hard for both sides to make reasonable judgments about what she did.

"The state attorney general is very upset about her actions, saying these are very serious crimes and deserve prison time," Hanlon said. "But my client did what she did because of her lifelong anti-death-penalty beliefs. She felt she did what was necessary to stop the inhumane and immoral death penalty.
LA Times