Originally published January 16, 2015
WOODBURN, Ore. -- Attorneys for a man accused of killing two police officers with a bomb outside a Woodburn bank are asking for a new trial and taking their case to the Oregon Supreme Court.
Bruce Turnidge, 63, and his son, Joshua Turnidge, 38, are on Oregon's death row after they were convicted in the Dec. 2008 explosion that killed state police bomb technician William Hakim and Woodburn Police Lt. Tom Tennant.
Woodburn's police chief, Scott Russell, lost a leg, and a bank employee was wounded.
Prosecutors said the Turnidges planned the bank robbery, built a bomb, left it outside the West Coast Bank and phoned in a bomb threat. Authorities found the device and brought it into the bank, where it went off.
As first reported in The Oregonian, attorneys for Bruce Turnidge have claimed the judge in that 2010 trial made a total of 24 errors.
Turnidge's lawyers also argued that Judge Thomas Hart improperly excluded three potential jurors and destroyed questionnaires they filled out.
The lawyers also say the judge should not have allowed testimony about the Turnidges' anti-government views and improperly excluded information from the jury instructions.
The lawyers also objected to the prosecutor saying the defendants should receive a death sentence so they would be excluded from the general inmate population and prevented from spreading opinions critical of police.
In the hearing Thursday, the justices focused on one question: Does it matter that there was no evidence the Turnidges themselves attempted to detonate the bomb?
Prosecutors argue the bomb was detonated by a stray radio wave. Turnidge's lawyers say it went off because an Oregon State Police bomb technician hit it with a hammer, thinking it was fake.
Turnidge's attorneys maintain he never deliberately intended to kill anyone in the bombing, and so he shouldn't be held responsible for the deaths caused by the explosion.
"They [Bruce and Joshua Turnidge] didn't do anything to set the bomb off," attorney W. Keith Goody told the court. "The bomb was set off for other reasons." Goody said the "personal act" of opening the bomb "was done by the victim."
But state's attorney Susan G. Howe countered that prosecutors presented enough evidence to hold Turnidge responsible.
"Turnidge committed the physical act of placing the bomb, and calling it in," Howe said. "Thus, he directly contributed to the officers death."
Meanwhile Pat Turnidge, Bruce's brother, told KGW the entire case was fabricated.
"I have no idea who actually made the bomb," he said. "I know it wasn't either of them [Bruce or Joshua] because the workmanship on it was so terrible, they would have had to have been trying to create that device with their eyes closed with the left hand. It was not their work."
Pat said Joshua is also innocent and plans to appeal.
All Oregon death penalty cases are automatically reviewed by the Supreme Court. No hearing has been scheduled in Joshua Turnidge's case.
The hearing before the Supreme Court started Thursday morning, but it could be several months before the justices issue a ruling.
