Nevada County’s long history of few capital cases will not be changing. District Attorney Cliff Newell says his office has decided to not seek the death penalty regarding the murder, in April of this year, of Vietnam War veteran Stan Norman. He did say it was a close call, because of the high level of brutality in the killing, including the alleged use of torture by the suspects, Sean Bryant and Michael McCauley. But he says the largest factor involved those impacted the most by Norman’s death…

click to listen to Cliff Newell

Newell also says the reality in California is that it’s very unlikely a death sentence will be carried out in the forseeable future…

cliff to listen to Cliff Newell

Newell says there are 747 inmates currently on death row, with the last execution in January of 2006. He says Bryant and McCauley could still be sentenced to life in prison without parole if convicted. Their next scheduled court appearance is Thursday for a pre-trial proceeding.