(Federal) Appeals court overturns murder convictions of alleged L.A. serial killer

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Source: Los Angeles Times

A federal appeals court Tuesday overturned the 1984 murder convictions of an alleged serial killer dubbed the "Skid Row Stabber," calling the government's chief witness an "infamous" jailhouse informant and a habitual liar.

Bobby Joe Maxwell, who has spent more than 30 years behind bars, should be given a new trial or set free, the court ruled. Maxwell was convicted of two of 10 murders attributed to the Skid Row Stabber in 1978 and 1979.

The prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of Sidney Storch, one of a notorious cadre of snitches used by Los Angeles authorities in dozens of murder cases in the 1970s and '80s. At Maxwell's trial, Storch told jurors that the defendant had confessed to the killings when they shared a cell in Los Angeles County Jail.

Storch, a career criminal, testified for the prosecution in at least half a dozen trials and received reduced sentences and other considerations for helping secure convictions. He was said by other jailhouse snitches to have taught them the art of "booking" fellow inmates in exchange for lighter sentences and other favors.

"Storch perjured himself multiple times at Maxwell's trial and employed a signature method to 'book' fellow inmates," a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said in ordering a new trial. "Storch also had a chronic pattern of dishonesty that both predated and followed Maxwell's trial."

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-skid-row-stabber-20101201,0,2757145.story