Death Row Inmate Expresses Remorse in Video

SAN QUENTIN —  State officials have released a videotape of convicted killer Manuel Babbitt in which the death row inmate expresses remorse for the murder of a 78-year-old Sacramento woman.

In the video, Babbitt says he prayed for his victim upon returning to his cell after the murder trial. He has maintained that he has no recollection of the killing.

“What else can I do? I don’t know if I caused her death, or if I killed her or not,” he recalls.

The videotape, commissioned by Babbitt’s defense attorneys as part of a clemency plea, includes interviews with the convicted killer, his family and fellow Marines who served with him in Vietnam.

Babbitt, scheduled to be executed May 4, did not testify during his 1982 trial for the murder of Leah Schendel, who died of a heart attack after Babbitt struck her during an attempted burglary and rape.

The state public defender’s office released the 45-minute video on Tuesday after media outlets urged its release.

It is among evidence Gov. Gray Davis will consider in determining whether to carry out the execution or commute Babbitt’s sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Babbitt claims he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and believed he was in Vietnam when the crime occurred. A former Marine, he was wounded at the siege of Khe Sanh.

His lawyers say the jury did not hear key evidence of his combat experience, childhood trauma or the history of mental illness in his family.

On Wednesday, Sacramento Dist. Atty. Jan Scully dismissed the assertions. Scully, flanked by representatives of crime victims groups and relatives of Schendel, said the death penalty verdict “deserves to be supported in the court of public opinion.”