Richard Allen Davis

Two schoolmates of Polly Klaas described in frightening detail Tuesday how a bearded stranger with a knife abducted their friend from her Petaluma bedroom, turning a giggly sleep-over into a nightmare that ended two months later when Polly's body was found.

The California Supreme Court unanimously upheld on Monday the death sentence of Richard Allen Davis, convicted in the 1993 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas. Davis had challenged his conviction and sentence, contending that his confession was illegally obtained and that his case in Santa Clara County was tainted by massive pretrial publicity. Marc Klaas, Polly's father, expressed frustration Monday that Davis' appeals were taking too long. He said Polly would be 28 had she lived.

Moments before a judge sentenced him to death Thursday for the murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, Richard Allen Davis stunned a crowded courtroom by accusing the dead girl's father of molesting her. As one of Marc Klaas' friends shouted "Burn in hell, Davis!" an enraged Klaas lunged toward the killer before sheriff's deputies intercepted him and pushed him from the courtroom. Spectators gasped and there was a long, drawn-out "Ohhhh!" The episode began when Davis was telling Judge Thomas C.

Death row inmate Richard Allen Davis, whose 1993 kidnap and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas led to California's three-strikes law, overdosed on opiates in his San Quentin Prison cell but was revived, officials said Monday. San Quentin Prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon said Davis was found unconscious in his cell at 5:13 p.m. Sunday.

The whirlwind defense of the man accused of killing Polly Klaas ended Wednesday as his attorneys rested their case one day after they began it. "When you leave today, you will have heard all of the evidence you're going to hear in this trial," Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Thomas Hastings told jurors before releasing them. Defense attorneys conceded at the outset of the trial that defendant Richard Allen Davis killed Polly, 12, but they denied that the crime was sexually motivated.

The trial of Polly Klaas' accused killer will be moved to San Jose, a Sonoma County judge ruled Monday over defense objections that keeping the trial in the San Francisco Bay Area will make it difficult to find an impartial jury. Superior Court Judge Lawrence Antolini chose Santa Clara County, the first choice of prosecutors, over Fresno, Los Angeles and San Diego. Antolini granted a change of venue for defendant Richard Allen Davis, 41, on Sept.

The FBI announced Friday that a palm print found in the bedroom of 12-year-old Polly Klaas matches that of Richard Allen Davis, the burly parolee who is the prime suspect in her abduction two months ago. Special Agent Jim R. Freeman said tests on the print--collected immediately after a knife-wielding man abducted Polly during a slumber party--show that Davis was "in the room the night of the kidnaping."

On the opening day of the Polly Klaas murder trial Tuesday, prosecutors played an emotional tape of the 911 call Polly's mother made to police and suggested that Richard Allen Davis stalked the child before kidnapping and strangling her. The burly, graying defendant, whose long criminal history spurred passage of the state's "three strikes" sentencing law, sat blankly beside his public defenders in a black, long-sleeve shirt and gray jeans.

A doctor who performed the autopsy on the body of Polly Klaas testified Monday to the pitiful state of her remains, a litany of horrors that sent her family fleeing from the courtroom. Later in the day, three jurors wept as they looked at photographs of Polly's small, headless body, partially clad in a child's flannel nightgown. Others grimaced and appeared to be fighting for control.

Death row inmate Richard Allen Davis, whose 1993 kidnap and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas led to California's three-strikes law, overdosed on opiates in his San Quentin Prison cell but was revived, officials said Monday. San Quentin Prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon said Davis was found unconscious in his cell at 5:13 p.m. Sunday.

Alone in the basement, Jeanne Boylan sketched into the night. She didn't even stop to eat, afraid that if she did, she might never continue. For more than 20 years, two faces had haunted her. In nightmares, she could still hear them taunting her, two strangers who, on a lonely country road, stole long and unforgettable hours of her life. Even today, Boylan talks about the attack haltingly. "I just wanted to forget," she says.

An autopsy Tuesday shed little light on the death of a registered sex offender who was the subject of a nationwide search after allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl in her home last week. Larry Wayne Cole, 55, was found dead Monday in a vineyard ditch in rural Napa County about an eighth of a mile from his car. There were no weapons, drugs, alcohol or suicide notes at the scene, police said.

The media have played right into the hands of Richard Allen Davis by repeating (ad nauseam) his evil courtroom antics ("Klaas Killer Sentenced to Die, Stuns Court," Sept. 27). Imagine the grand disappointment to him if they had been ignored. I believe this is one time when the feelings of the family should have taken priority over "the public's right to know." BETTY BRIDGEMAN- SHANNON Huntington Beach Davis has shaken my allegiance to the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

It was the ultimate insult, hurled at one of the gravest moments in the judicial process. The accusation: that 12-year-old Polly Klaas had been molested by her father. The accuser: Richard Allen Davis, the parolee about to be sentenced to die for killing Polly. Other defendants have erupted in court, shouted obscenities at the judge and even turned on their own attorneys. But rarely, if ever, trial observers said Friday, has one uttered the kind of malevolent insult Davis aimed at Marc Klaas.

Moments before a judge sentenced him to death Thursday for the murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, Richard Allen Davis stunned a crowded courtroom by accusing the dead girl's father of molesting her. As one of Marc Klaas' friends shouted "Burn in hell, Davis!" an enraged Klaas lunged toward the killer before sheriff's deputies intercepted him and pushed him from the courtroom. Spectators gasped and there was a long, drawn-out "Ohhhh!" The episode began when Davis was telling Judge Thomas C.

A jury recommended Monday that Richard Allen Davis be put to death for the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, a crime that horrified the nation and invigorated an anti-crime movement in California. "Yes!" exclaimed a visibly relieved Marc Klaas, Polly's father, as a court clerk read the verdict from the same jury that had convicted Davis in June of murdering Polly. A few Klaas family supporters gasped, then clapped their hands.

Authorities charged Friday that Richard Allen Davis planned to sexually assault 12-year-old Polly Klaas when he allegedly kidnaped her from Petaluma in October. Assistant Dist. Atty. Greg Jacobs filed two additional counts against Davis in Santa Rosa Municipal Court. Davis already has been charged with murder with special circumstances, kidnaping, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, burglary and false imprisonment.

The media have played right into the hands of Richard Allen Davis by repeating (ad nauseam) his evil courtroom antics ("Klaas Killer Sentenced to Die, Stuns Court," Sept. 27). Imagine the grand disappointment to him if they had been ignored. I believe this is one time when the feelings of the family should have taken priority over "the public's right to know." BETTY BRIDGEMAN- SHANNON Huntington Beach Davis has shaken my allegiance to the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

Jurors deciding whether Richard Allen Davis should be executed for killing 12-year-old Polly Klaas put in a fourth day of deliberations Thursday without reaching a verdict. The panel will take Friday off and resume deliberations on Monday. The six-man, six-woman jury found Davis, 42, guilty on June 18 of killing Polly. The panel also found the "special circumstances" of kidnapping, burglary, robbery and attempting a lewd act on a child.

Jurors ended a second full day of deliberations Wednesday with no decision on whether Richard Allen Davis should die or spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder of Polly Klaas. "All we can do now is to have faith they're doing what we expect them to do, which is to follow their responsibilities, to look at all of this conscientiously," defense attorney Lorena Chandler said. The jury will resume deliberations today.