Court lets Leavitt’s death sentence stand

BOISE – The state’s highest court has refused to overturn a death sentence for Richard Albert Leavitt, who was convicted in a gruesome 1984 murder. Leavitt had argued that because of a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, he should have been sentenced by a jury instead of a judge. The Idaho Supreme Court disagreed, ruling that Leavitt’s challenge was just a rehash of earlier appeals he had lost.

Leavitt, 46, was sentenced to death for the murder of Danette Jean Elg. The 31-year-old Blackfoot resident was stabbed 15 times and her sexual organs were removed; her body was not found for days after the crime.

Now-retired U.S. District Judge H. Reynold George sentenced Leavitt to death in 1985, citing the heinous nature of the murder. But in 1989, Leavitt appealed the case, arguing that his attorney was ineffective. Though Leavitt did not win a new trial, the Idaho Supreme Court did order the 7th District Court to hold a new sentencing hearing so that all mitigating circumstances and other sentencing options could be weighed against the crime.