Richard Ramirez

Ramirez died aged 53 in a hospital near San Quentin while still under sentence of death. The coroner attributed his death to complications of B-cell lymphoma, with hepatitis C and a history of drug abuse identified as significant contributing factors.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

The federal Supreme Court declined to review Ramirez's convictions and sentence, leaving the California decision undisturbed.

The California Supreme Court rejected all the grounds raised in Ramirez's automatic appeal and upheld both his convictions and the death sentence.

State of the evidence

Documented

Following an exceptionally lengthy trial, the jury found Ramirez guilty of forty-three crimes. The California Supreme Court's judgment specifies that these comprised twelve first-degree murders, one second-degree murder, five attempted murders, four rapes, three counts of forcible oral copulation, four counts of forcible sodomy and fourteen first-degree burglaries.

Attribution

Directly implicated

The jury recommended the death penalty at the conclusion of the sentencing phase, and the judge formally sentenced Ramirez to death in November 1989.

Attribution

Directly implicated

The series of attacks attributed to the “Night Stalker” involved night-time break-ins, murders, attempted murders, rapes, other sexual assaults and burglaries. The offences brought to trial subsequently resulted in forty-three guilty verdicts.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

Attribution

Directly implicated

Ramirez was charged in San Francisco in connection with Peter Pan's death and the attack on Barbara Pan, which occurred shortly before his arrest in Los Angeles.

A Los Angeles grand jury indicted Ramirez on 68 counts covering, among other offences, fourteen murders, five attempted murders, numerous burglaries, thefts and sexual offences linked to approximately twenty attacks.

Attribution

Accused