Latvian Embassy Asks Leniency for Killer
- Share via
The Latvian Embassy has asked a judge to spare the life of a man convicted of killing five people of various ethnic groups in a hate-driven shooting rampage.
Richard Baumhammers, 36, who has dual U.S. and Latvian citizenship, was convicted in May in the April 2000 killings.
Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning, who is scheduled to sentence Baumhammers this week, received a letter from the Latvian Embassy asking that Baumhammers not be sentenced to die, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. But the judge has no discretion in the case. In Pennsylvania, a jury’s sentencing verdict in a capital case is binding.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
The latest effort is coming from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. They just announced a $3 million program in conjunction with some nonprofits groups to test and clean the soil at homes still standing in the areas impacted by the Eaton Fire.
California once bet big on offshore wind to help power its clean-energy future, but the Trump administration is now paying developers billions to walk away from their projects. As California’s remaining offshore-wind leases hang in the balance, the state is fighting back in court.
The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched.
