Reporter’s Killer Granted 2nd Death Penalty Review

SAN FRANCISCO —  A man who was sentenced to death for the murder of Arizona investigative reporter Don Bolles won a new hearing Friday before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals after the court initially upheld the death sentence.

A majority of the appellate court’s 25 judges agreed to rehear the case of John Adamson and withdraw the April 18 opinion of three members of the court. In the new hearing, 11 judges will decide the case.

Adamson was sentenced to death for the June 8, 1976, car bombing that killed Bolles, a Phoenix reporter who had been investigating political corruption and organized crime in Arizona. Bolles died 11 days after the bombing.

Agreed to Testify

At first, Adamson agreed to help prosecutors by testifying against James Robison, an Arizona plumbing contractor who was accused of detonating the bomb, and Max Dunlap, a Phoenix builder who allegedly agreed to pay Adamson $10,000 to plant the bomb after Bolles wrote a critical story about him.

In exchange for his testimony, Adamson received a 20-year prison sentence on a murder charge. But when the Arizona Supreme Court ordered new trials for Dunlap and Robison, both of whom initially were sentenced to death, Adamson refused to testify in their retrial.

Dunlap has been freed. Robison is in prison on unrelated charges.

Adamson’s refusal to testify prompted prosecutors to file new charges against him, leading to a murder conviction and death sentence in 1980.

Unfair, Lawyers Say

Adamson’s lawyers are arguing that it was unfair for the trial judge to sentence Adamson to death once the plea bargain was broken, after initially sentencing him to prison under the plea arrangement.

In its first ruling in April, the federal appellate court concluded that Adamson voluntarily refused to testify in the retrial of Dunlap and Robison. By breaking the plea bargain, the court said, he assumed the risk that he would be charged anew. That ruling was revoked by the order issued Friday. No date has been set for new arguments.

Adamson’s lawyers also claim Arizona’s death penalty law is unconstitutional because it denies full jury trials to defendants. Under the Arizona law, a judge, not a jury, decides whether to sentence a convicted murderer to death. Only Montana and Idaho have similar provisions. In other states, juries decide whether to impose death.