Execution Date Set for Decorated Vietnam Veteran in 1980 Slaying
SACRAMENTO — A judge scheduled a May 4 execution date Monday for Manuel Babbitt, a decorated Vietnam veteran who was sentenced to death for murdering an elderly Sacramento woman during a 1980 robbery.
Babbitt’s 50th birthday is May 3. His lawyers have asked a federal appeals court to reconsider a ruling upholding his conviction and death sentence. They also plan to ask Gov. Gray Davis for clemency.
Babbitt was convicted of murdering Leah Schendel, 78, while robbing her apartment in December 1980. The coroner said she died of a heart attack brought on by a severe beating and possible suffocation. Babbitt was convicted of murder, robbery and attempted rape.
He was also convicted of robbing and attempting to rape another Sacramento woman, whom he grabbed and beat unconscious the next night.
Babbitt’s brother, William, turned him in to Sacramento police.
Babbitt did not deny the attacks. But he claimed insanity or diminished capacity because of head injuries suffered at the age of 12 and aggravated during two combat tours as a Marine in Vietnam.
He received a Purple Heart in prison last year for his wounds during the 1968 siege of Khe Sanh.
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