Stanislaus judge reverses order to unshackle hand of defendant in capital murder case
A capital murder defendant will remain shackled when meeting with attorneys after a Stanislaus County judge rescinded an earlier order that the man’s writing hand be freed.
On May 5, Superior Court Judge John Freeland vacated the order in the case of Mark Edward Mesiti, who faces a capital murder charge in the death of his teenage daughter. The judge said he reconsidered his initial ruling after determining that handcuffing both of the defendant’s hands is a valid jail security regulation, according to court documents.
Freeland on April 1 ordered sheriff’s officials to unshackle Mesiti’s writing hand during these meetings with his attorneys at the jail. A few weeks later, Mesiti’s attorneys told the judge that the Sheriff’s Department refused to comply with the court order.
On April 20, the Sheriff’s Department filed an appeal. The state’s 5th District Court of Appeal on Tuesday dropped the department’s appeal, because the local judge had already vacated his own order.
Mesiti, 47, is accused of sexually abusing and killing his 14-year-old daughter, Alycia Mesiti. Authorities on March 25, 2009, discovered the girl’s body buried in the backyard of a Ceres home where Mesiti’s family lived when the girl disappeared in August 2006. He had already moved to Southern California when the girl’s remains were found.
The defendant has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He has remained in custody inside a Stanislaus County jail cell for about four years, awaiting prosecution.
Mesiti has told the court that jail officials were depriving him of his constitutional right to meaningfully participate in his defense. His attorneys argued that his hands were kept shackled during their meetings, making it difficult for Mesiti to review thousands of documents relating to dozens of criminal charges in the indictment.
Robert Taro of the Stanislaus County Counsel’s Office has argued that jail officials allow the defendant to meet with his attorneys inside a room not designed for such purposes, even though there are secured rooms available for inmates and their attorneys.
In the April 1 hearing, the judge said because this is a death penalty case, the defendant needed to be able to point to and refer to the thousands of documents in his case.
In the judge’s May 5 motion rescinding his order, Freeland wrote that nothing prohibits Mesiti’s attorneys from writing notes handling the documents for the defendant. At worst, shackling his hands can be cumbersome but does not rise to the level of infringing on his constitutional rights, Freeland wrote.
Mesiti is scheduled to return to court May 21. His trial is expected to last about six months, but a start date has not been scheduled.
This story was originally published May 14, 2015 at 2:28 PM with the headline "Stanislaus judge reverses order to unshackle hand of defendant in capital murder case."