San Francisco Following a separate state trial on Tuesday, the man who was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for using a hammer to strike former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in their California home was handed a life sentence without the possibility of parole. In June, a jury in San Francisco convicted David DePape of first-degree burglary, false confinement of an elder, and aggravated kidnapping. Judge Harry Dorfman denied defence lawyers’ requests for DePape to be given a second state trial for the 2022 attack on then-82-year-old Paul Pelosi before imposing a life sentence for the kidnapping conviction.
As Dorfman administered the sentence, he stated, “It is my intention that Mr. DePape will never be released from prison, he can never be granted parole.” “I don’t feel sympathy for you,” he subsequently stated. The victim in this instance is fortunate to be alive, and I feel bad for them. Dorfman had been requested by San Francisco deputy public defence Adam Lipson to take into account DePape’s loneliness and mental condition, which left him vulnerable to internet propaganda.
“This is a man who has always been a peaceful, law-abiding person up until his activation,” Lipson stated prior to the penalty being administered. During his opportunity to speak before the court before his sentencing, DePape, wearing prison orange and sporting a ponytail, talked extensively about how Sept. 11 was an inside job, how his ex-wife was replaced by a body double, and how his government-provided lawyers were plotting against him.
“I’m a psychic,” DePape declared to the court while reading from paper. “The more I meditate, the more psychic I get.” DePape ignored the judge’s repeated interruptions when he asked if he wanted to discuss the jury’s decision or his actions the night of the attack. The “last peaceful sleep” Paul Pelosi had ended suddenly “when the defendant violently broke into my home, burst into my bedroom and stood over my bed with a hammer and zip ties demanding to see my wife, yelling ‘Where’s Nancy?'” Paul Pelosi demanded the maximum sentence in a letter read in court by Christine Pelosi, the victim’s daughter.
He said he had a metal plate in his head, bruises on his head, disorientation, and nerve damage in his left hand as a result of the incident. He claimed that sleeping by himself at home brings up flashbacks of the assault. Following a torturous two years, the Pelosi family announced in a statement following Tuesday’s sentencing that “legal justice has been served.”
“Today’s sentence of life without parole gives our Pop some measure of legal justice and, we hope, a message to others that political violence against elected officials or their family members will not be tolerated, minimised or condoned,” added the statement. “We must each do our part to build a peaceful democracy.” DePape was previously found guilty by a federal jury of assaulting a family member of a government official and attempting to kidnap a federal official. He received a 30-year sentence in federal prison in May.
DePape did not apologise for his conduct on Tuesday, despite expressing regret for them during the federal sentencing. In both cases, judges stated that they could not overlook the gravity of attacking elected authorities. DePape was also given additional years in prison on the other counts by Dorfman on Tuesday; however, all of the sentences, including the federal one, will run concurrently. He stated that he would request that the matter be returned to his court for resentencing if an appellate court reversed his life sentence without the possibility of release.
Following the hearing, Lipson informed reporters that he would file an appeal of the decision. “This was a really tragic end to a tragic story,” he stated. The term, according to a statement from the prosecution, San Francisco associate district attorneys Sean Connolly and Phoebe Maffei, “reflects the seriousness of DePape’s conduct and the harm he inflicted on an innocent man.” “In these situations, there is no celebration. It stated, “There are no winners.”
The term, according to a statement from the prosecution, San Francisco associate district attorneys Sean Connolly and Phoebe Maffei, “reflects the seriousness of DePape’s conduct and the harm he inflicted on an innocent man.” “In these situations, there is no celebration. It stated, “There are no winners.” Although the state and federal counts were not exactly the same, the defence said that the state trial amounted to double jeopardy because the two cases were related to the same crime. Some of the state charges were dismissed by the judge, while others that weren’t related to the federal case were retained.