Bonnie Garland murder case
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In the early morning hours of July 7, 1977, Yale graduate student Richard Herrin bludgeoned Yale college senior Bonnie Garland to death with a hammer as she lay sleeping in her parent's Scarsdale, New York, home. The two college students had been dating for a year. Herrin showed up unexpectedly at the Garland home and Bonnie invited him to spend the weekend. They hadn't seen each other in several weeks and Bonnie told Richard she wanted to break off their relationship.
After attacking Bonnie, Herrin stole the Garland family car and drove to Coxsackie. He found a church and told the priest inside, "I just killed my girlfriend."
Herrin was arrested. A group led by members of the clergy of Yale's Catholic Church campaigned to have Herrin released on bail. They raised bail money and wrote letters attesting to Herrin's "good character" to the trial judge. Impressed by the campaign, the judge released Herrin into the care of the Christian Brothers in Albany. While he was awaiting trial he attended classes at the State University of New York under an alias.[1]
Richard Herrin was convicted of manslaughter, rather than first degree murder. He served 17 years in prison, and was released on January 12, 1995. Critics charged that the sentence was the result of the Yale community and, in particular, the Catholic chaplancy uniting to support Herrin by portraying him as the victim of his upbringing in a minority neighborhood barrio in Los Angeles. The Garland case foreshadowed others in which the circumstances of the killing were muddied by the personalities of the victim and accused, such as the Preppie Murder case, tried by Jack Litman, Herrin's lawyer.
[edit] References
- The Yale Murder: The Compelling True Narrative of the Fatal Romance of Bonnie Garland and Richard Herrin, Peter Meyer
- The Killing of Bonnie Garland: A Question of Justice, Willard Gaylin
- True Stories of Law & Order by Kevin Dwyer and Juré Fiorillo
