PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s highest court is scheduled next month to hear the appeal of a Portland man convicted of killing his girlfriend, cutting the head off the corpse and setting fire to the body.
The Portland Press Herald reports that Chad Gurney goes before the Supreme Judicial Court on Jan. 10.
His lawyer intends to argue that Gurney was delusional and did not understand that his actions were wrong when he killed Zoe Sarnacki in May 2009. His attorney says a psychotic episode stemming from a personality disorder, stress and withdrawal from an opiate painkiller is the likely explanation for the killing.
Prosecutors argue that the 30-year-old Gurney showed that he could act with rationality the day of the killing.
Gurney was convicted and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
Gee what a surprise, a defense lawyer trying to make excuses for a murderer. Lock him up, throw away the key, period.
One would hope that will be the case. His claim of mental illness may however, prevent that. Such a shame if that happens.
Well, it IS their job.
No, justice is their job.
And that is realized in aggregate by providing rigorous defenses in all instances.
Nope. You’d be wrong; that would be ideal, however, what would be the point in having a lawyer represent you. Their job is to get you the least sentence possible. If they didn’t do their job, who else would hire them?
They are just as bad as him, a damn criminal.
Yeah , lock up the lawyer and throw away the key.
All of them.
Only sixty years? Too bad Maine doesn’t have the death penalty.
So we could waste millions of dollars for their appeal process while they sit on death row for 20 years?
The appeal process should be overhauled in this country. It’s ridiculous.
Fry him! Are you kidding? Remember the move, “
The death penalty needs to be brought back. But in lieu of that keep this guy on death row for 60 years.
If it has not come back since 1885 I don’t think it is coming back anytime soon.
You may be wrong. If the public outcry at these horrendous, unthinkable crimes continues to grow, as it will and must, that could change in the shake of a political term. I’m hoping it does.
Fry him ! Remember the movie, Hang em High”. Get the rope out!
Death penalty death penalty death penalty death penalty death penalty death penalty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He deserves nothing less POS .
Terrible. Hopefully the step-by-step way he went about destroying evidence (sorry, it sounds callous just to say that) nixes his insanity defense.
Throw away the key. Insane or not, he needs to be locked up for the remainder of his life. Period. End of story.
I hope that after this guy loses his appeal (of course in this state, he may win) I never have to hear his name or see his face again.
I don’t care if he is NUTS. People like this can not be allowed to roam about in society. My opinion is that if someone like this is let out and kills again then the judge is as guilty as the perpetrator and should share in the same penalty.
I agree wholeheartedly. If Maine doesn’t want to bring the death penalty back, then send him to a state who does. If these “lifers” as they are called are going to sit in jail taking up space and costing the state hundreds of thousands of dollars to house and feed and support their families, and there is no chance of them getting out of jail,then I say a resounding YES to sending them to a state that will take out the trash”. I don’t mean letting them sit on death row for years either. Just do what must be done and save the state some money.
should have got life any way
I am glad most of us don’t kill & decapitate people when we are under stress etc. That lawyer should be ashamed of himself.
Need a death penalty in Maine.
What the hell was so offensive about my last comment that it needed to be deleted? WTF BDN?
There’s a governor in Oregon who just stopped a execution because he doesn’t believe in it. The guy was scheduled to die in a few days (last November) and the gov got cold feet. The guy said NOT to appeal his death and the gov ignored him. Now the state has to sell the drugs before they go bad.
Too bad you don’t have the death penalty there. Oregon could make you a good deal.
You can thank the court system for the cost of administering the death penalty. Way to many appeals are allowed. Even when the person is guilty beyond all reasonable doubt, lawyers and the courts find some way around it. Of course they are insane at the time. Or delusional (on drugs and/or alcohol). Take your pick. It shouldn’t preclude the facts. Heck you can go to prison for manslaughter if you kill someone while you’re driving under the influence. Why can’t you get off? I mean you didn’t mean to get behind the wheel while loaded, right?
If you commit a capital offense you should be put to death. The studies are showing that increasingly if they get out they will kill again.
Gary Hagen in Oregon has said so and still they refuse to grant him his wish to die.
The withdrawal from the painkillers may have attributed to this guys insane behavior but he made the decision to abuse those painkillers. This is solely his responsibility.
To all the lawyer bashers, they take these cases pro-bono for the free press. Thet don’t care if this guy fries, walks, spends his life in jail, etc. All they want is top of the mind aweness to capture their next client. I don’t fault them for that. I just fault most of them for being bottom feeding ambulance chasing scumbags that get paid to lengthen your pain and suffering not shorten it.
I think we should set him free 25 miles out to sea““““““““
in remembrance of Zoe. Remember Zoe?
still too close. people have been known to swim fairly long distances.
we can’t take that chance.
Make it 100 miles
BDN prints this, then deletes inappropiate comments ? nothing more inappropiate then the story to begin with,tabloid journalism deserves tabloid type comments.
Yes, they took my comment off. I don’t know why. Didn’t even say “comment removed”.
Who cares whether he was a mental case or perfectly sane when he committed this horrible crime? Either way, he needs to be locked away from society for as long as possible.
it’s really too bad we don’t have the death penalty in maine. this guy is a perfect candidate.
WOnder if Silverstein is this guy’s lawyer too…seems about his type of convict….This is EXACTLY why EVERY state in the nation needs to have the DEATH penalty…sorry for the caps but it litterally makes me irate that he only got 60 years. Killing someone is bad enough, desicrating her body as well….The animal doesnt deserve to have another breath.
Oh he was suffering from stress…Well that explains it…Send him home and sue the state for malicious prosecution….
Appeal? This guy should be executed !