Michael F. Murray, one of Orange County’s most accomplished homicide prosecutors, is running to win a superior court judge post in the 2016 election.
Long feared by criminal suspects for his intense, relentless pursuit to solve major crimes, Murray’s prospective departure from prosecution duties should bring a collective sigh of relief from future Southern California hoodlums.
I’ve witnessed psychopathic killers cringe when the no-nonsense, West Point graduate–a U.S. Army captain during the first Persian Gulf War–entered the courtroom.
In October, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the righteousness of Murray’s homicide conviction in People vs. Marvin Smith after bickering lower courts nitpicked about imaginary violations of Smith’s constitutional rights.
The Smith case was one of the senior deputy district attorney’s finest moments. Another veteran prosecutor decided she couldn’t prove who savagely killed Minnie Smith, a wealthy Cypress housewife, in 2005 and dropped the matter. But Murray re-opened the case, began digging with police detectives, found new incriminating evidence and convicted the woman’s husband, Marvin V. Smith, who’d staged the crime scene to look like a burglary gone wrong to get total control of the couple’s multimillion dollar estate. [You can read about the Smith trial HERE.]
With the aid of Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigators, the prosecutor also tackled another cold-case murder: the 1998 killing of Jack Jessee in Placentia. The killers hoped police would believe the stabbing death resulted from a burglary-gone-wrong staging, but Murray solved the crime in 2011 by winning convictions against a hitman as well as the victim’s wife and stepson. You can read about the Jessee murder case HERE and HERE.
During nearly two decades in the Orange County District Attorney’s office (OCDA), Murray handled a wide range of cases, including burglaries, assaults, auto thefts, DUIs and gangs. He’s prosecuted more than 100 jury trials and earned a conviction rate of 96 percent.
“I have an excellent command of the law and a strong sense of fairness,” Murray said in his campaign announcement. “I have the professional ability, judgment and even temperament to be a fair and impartial superior court judge.”
Though he might not garner much support in the public defender’s office and he hasn’t always enjoyed state appellate court favor, Murray has so far captured the endorsements of more than 20 current and retired superior court judges. Prominent defense lawyers such as John Barnett, Gary Pohlson, Joe Smith and Mike Molfetta are also supporting his campaign. A onetime deputy district attorney who now is a defense attorney, called his former OCDA colleague “smart and hardworking.”
Murray’s wife, Jesse, is an FBI Special Agent based in Santa Ana, and his father worked as a defense lawyer.
The election is set for June 7, 2016.
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.
I hope he was not elected a judge because I do not think he is a fair attorney
In 2008, I was a juror on a rape/murder trial which Michael Murray was the prosecuting DA. He was very thorough and an absolute master of law in the courtroom. I remember thinking that he would make a wonderful judge someday…I’m happy to see that he is now.
By the way…. Judge Richard King was also a fantastic judge in the 2008 trial.
Yook harassed me , assaulted my doctor in 2001. Elder abuse is a something that requires certification and evaluation through a evaluation involving Langley training with UCLA, combined with Juvenile offenses. Just Mercy is inspirational. Metro was Medical Fraud , who is competent? obviously, there was prejudice as well. I saved four years of docs . \ Your accuracy is questionable. Your ethically, in another Neuropsychiatric year 2001 I was the witness for Impac challenges.
This guy is a god as far as I’m concerned and there should be more prosecutors like him. He did what he had to do to put hardened murders behind bars or sentenced to death.
This guy is a great attorney as far as I’m concerned and there should be more prosecutors like him. He did what he had to do to put hardened murders behind bars or sentenced to death.
Violating the 8th Amendment of the Constitution is illegal along with Brady Law violations. Exculpatory Evidence is necessary to appropriate each situation and necessary to establish bail within the yearly bail report, published by the county of Orange.
CR 15O -Certificate of Identity Theft -Reading a Police Report is fundamental before establishing bail.