Walter Lagrand, his younger stepbrother Karl, and their older sister were born out of wedlock to different fathers of U.S. nationality in Augsberg, Bavaria. Walter believed his father was a Puerto Rican soldier. Their German mother Emma placed the children in a convent in order to work. She brought them home after marrying Masie LaGrand, an African-American serviceman who adopted her children. The family moved to the United States in 1967 when Walter was four. Except for five months of 1974 spent at a U.S. army base in Germany, the LaGrands were raised in the U.S. They were never formally naturalized as U.S. citizens and spent time in foster care as a result of parental neglect and abuse. Masie LaGrand abandoned the boys. [3]
At age nine Karl was arrested
for shoplifting, and the delinquent teens set a fire that caused $20,000
in damage when they lived in Texas.
In 1981, Tucson authorities charged the 18 and 19 year-old brothers
with robbing three supermarkets in a six day period, and they were released
on their own recognizance.
While awaiting trial, they took girlfriend's car from Tucson to
rob the Valley National Bank in Marana before it opened on January 7,
1982. Karl bought a toy gun and steak knife
that he used to intimidate the first arrivals--Ken Hartsock the 63-year
old bank manager and a 20-year old teller, Dawn Lopez. Hartsock had only
half the combination required to open the vault, and the LaGrands bound
and gagged their two victims in the manager's office.
After Hartsock kicked Karl, the bank manager was fatally stabbed
26 times in the front with the knife, a letter opener or both. Lopez suffered six stab wounds to the head, neck, and side
that resulted in a collapsed lung and three week hospitalization.
[4]
A suspicious bank employee who remained outside reported the license
number of their vehicle, and the LaGrands were arrested in Tucson that
afternoon. Both invoked their Miranda rights to remain
silent and to be assisted by counsel. Karl appeared in a weak emotional
state, and detectives obtained approval from the County Attorney's office
for an immediate interrogation. One detective acknowledged that he had
shaken the hyperventilating suspect by the shoulders to calm him down
and may have slapped him, but denied causing a bloody nose. [5]
During
two to three hours of questioning, Karl made an audio taped confession
after midnight. Karl insisted
he alone did all the stabbing, and that Walter was not in the room at
the time.
The brothers did not speak German, but a 1982 pre-sentence
report identified each as a "Citizen of Germany--resident alien." [6]
The responsible officials never informed the men of
their right to contact the German consulate for assistance, and may not
have realized they had a duty to do so.
The LaGrands only learned of that right from other German prison
inmates in 1992 when they promptly notified the German consulate. At their
1984 trials, unaware of possible help from the German consulate and unable
to afford lawyers, the LaGrands were represented by court appointed local
defense counsel.
 |
In separate jury trials both men were convicted
of first-degree murder, kidnapping, attempted murder and attempted
armed robbery. Karl's confession was inadmissible, although
Walter wanted it considered at his trial. The victim Lopez testified that both defendants were present
when Hartsock was stabbed, and that one of them repeated: "Just
make sure he is dead."
The state argued that one man held Hartsock from behind while
the other repeatedly stabbed him from the front.
Both juries were dismissed after returning guilty verdicts
in February 1984, two years after
the killing. |
 |
In a 1990 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court had approved
post-trial sentencing by the judge without jury review of aggravating
and mitigating circumstances. The Pima County trial Judge imposed death sentences in December 1984 based
on findings of murder for monetary gain and a
"cruel, heinous or depraved" killing.
Eighteen years later in Ring v. Arizona,
the Supreme Court overruled its 1990 opinion and found that capital
defendants have a 6th Amendment right to a jury's determination
of aggravating factors.
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