Rare "Death Penalty" Sentence Remains

In a very rare “death penalty” case here in Michigan, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that a murder suspect on death row will stay on death row. The dispute had to do with a murder that was committed on federal land within Michigan’s state borders. In 2002, a federal jury chose a death sentence for Marvin Gabrion. He was convicted of drowning Rachel Timmerman back in 1997 at Oxford Lake in Newaygo County. The case went to federal court after the government claimed jurisdiction over Manistee National Forest, located on federal land. Gabrion’s maximum penalty would have been life in prison had the case gone to circuit court, due to Michigan’s laws against capitol punishment.