Juanita Crawford, 19, who spent a year and a half at Lansing Girls Residential Center after she was found guilty of reckless endangerment and conspiracy and is now an intern at the A.C.L.U.,
said in an interview that she was restrained after not moving quickly enough to dispose of her food tray and talking back to a staff member. “He takes you and hooks your arms backwards with a lot of force, and it hurts, and you’re dropped face down,” she said. “It’s almost like getting tripped.”
The 183-page brief, filed Wednesday in state appeals court, also argues that there was not enough evidence during the trial of burglary -- the special circumstance that allowed Judge Barbara Zuniga to sentence Dyleski to life without parole.
The judge also should have allowed a change of court venue because of the local notoriety; held a hearing on the reliability of DNA testing that linked Dyleski to the murder; and should have thrown out evidence from a home search that attorney Philip Brooks claims was based on a "recklessly inaccurate" search warrant affidavit, the brief argues.
Evidence at the trial showed that Dyleski entered Vitale's home as she worked at her computer and beat her 26 times, knocking her teeth out and breaking her fingers. While she remained alive, he also cut a symbol resembling a double-crossed "T" into her back. Then he stabbed her in the abdomen.
Prosecutor Harold Jewett argued that Dyleski killed Vitale as part of a plot to steal financial information from her and buy marijuana growing equipment. He said Dyleski killed Vitale in part because he thought she was a different neighbor who had foiled his plan to use stolen credit card
Dyleski's attorney said at trial that he was home at the time.
A jury convicted him in August 2006. A month later, Zuniga described him as "evil" during the sentencing.
Dyleski, now 19, wears inmate #F46590 at Kern Valley State Prison in Delano.
Brooks declined to comment on the appeal, which asks the court to overturn Dyleski's conviction or, short of that, reduce his sentence to life with the possibility of parole.
Brooks draws in part on research and international law to argue that juveniles should not be held to the same standards as adults because their character "is not as fully formed" and they are more amenable to rehabilitation.
The arguments echo a push by some state lawmakers to ban life without parole sentences in the future for anyone under 18. Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, said this week that he will push a bill to change the law.
Also this week, the group Human Rights Watch released a report that advocates for the change and said 227 California inmates were sentenced to life without parole as juveniles. New York, Colorado and Washington, D.C. prohibit such sentences, and several other states are considering a change.
Vitale's husband and prominent East Bay attorney Daniel Horowitz declined to discuss the appeal, but noted that judges have discretion in juvenile cases.
"We give judges the ability to reduce it to a lesser sentence, life with parole. That's a special benefit juveniles get that adults don't," he said. "That's why you have a judge, to determine if a juvenile is fully formed and evil."
