PHOENIX — A federal appeals court won’t reverse the conviction of Richard Greenway for killing a Tucson mother and her teen daughter in 1988.
Judge Mary Schroeder, writing for the three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, discounted Greenway’s claim that his trial attorney didn’t do enough to keep him from being found guilty.
Police found the bodies of Lili Champagne and daughter Mindy Peters in their home. Each had been shot twice.
Police began looking at Greenway after his sister notified homicide detectives he knew something about the deaths. When police picked up Greenway and co-defendant Chris Lincoln for questioning, Lincoln confessed and implicated Greenway, court records show.
After a three-day trial, Greenway was convicted of murder, burglary, armed robbery, theft and arson and sentenced to death.
In his appeal, Greenway argued his trial attorney should have pursued questions about whether any jurors had been the victim of a violent crime.
The judge did not specifically ask that question. Years later it was learned that one juror had been raped and testified against her attacker at his trial, facts that likely would have led to her being disqualified as a juror.
But Schroeder said there was no way for Greenway’s attorney to know that information, making it “far too speculative” to conclude he didn’t effectively do his job.
