Killer of UD student appeals to Supreme Court

WILMINGTON – Attorneys representing convicted killer James E. Cooke Jr. have filed papers with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to overturn his conviction and death sentence and also filed papers in state court seeking to stop his scheduled Dec. 4 execution.

Cooke was convicted and sentenced to death twice for the May 2005 rape and murder of University of Delaware sophomore Lindsey Bonistall. The first conviction, however, was overturned by a divided Delaware Supreme Court.

That court upheld Cooke's second conviction but in papers filed with the U.S. Supreme Court this week, attorneys with the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation in Philadelphia argue a state judge should have given Cooke more time to prepare for trial after he fired his court-appointed attorneys and chose to represent himself.

Attorney Marc Bookman also wrote Cooke needed the time because 11 days before trial he learned of new evidence about a prosecution witness who had lied at the first trial related to a "prior suspect."

However, according to Deputy Attorney General Steve Wood, the evidence cited by Bookman was not new and was not central to the case and the man involved was never a suspect in the killing. The evidence related to a man who had the same cellphone number as a deactivated cellphone that was used to call police about the crime days after the murder. Wood said the voice in that phone call was positively identified as belonging to Cooke.

Cooke has a history of feuding with and firing his attorneys, including dismissing the attorneys who successfully overturned his first conviction and death sentence. When he fired attorneys Anthony Figliola and Peter Veith, his third set of attorneys, in November 2012, about three months before trial, he was warned he would get no additional legal help and that the trial date would not be postponed.

At trial, after several days of misbehavior in court, Superior Court Judge Charles H. Toliver IV ruled Cooke had forfeited his right to represent himself and re-installed Figliola and Veith as Cooke's attorneys.

Figliola and Veith, meanwhile, filed a motion late Wednesday to stay Cooke's execution, currently set for Dec. 4, citing Cooke's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kathleen Bonistall, the mother of Lindsey, said Thursday the family is not focused on the court process and she avoided even saying the name of the man convicted of killing her daughter.

Instead, Bonsitall said, the family is focused on remembering Lindsey and earlier this week was involved with the 10th annual Lindsey Run/Walk to raise money for the Lindsey M. Bonistall Foundation and Peace Outside Campus. The organizations promote safety programs for college students living off campus with a goal of trying to prevent what happened to Lindsey from happening to anyone else.

Bonistall said more than 800 people turned out for the event.

Delaware prosecutors expected Cooke to file a federal appeal and seek a stay of his execution.

Generally, it takes 10 to 20 years of appeals before a death sentence is carried out in Delaware.

Delaware has until Nov. 26 to respond to Cooke's U.S. Supreme Court motion.

Contact Sean O'Sullivan at (302) 324-2777 or sosullivan@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @SeanGOSullivan