Death sentence for sex slaying upheld

The state Supreme Court upheld the death sentence Monday of a Livermore man who was convicted of breaking into the home of a 59-year-old nurse, sexually assaulting her and stabbing her to death. Richard Tully was an unemployed 27-year-old Marine Corps veteran with a drug habit but no felony criminal record when he broke down the front door of his neighbor Shirley Olsson in July 1986, sexually attacked her and stabbed her 23 times, the court said. A drug arrest in March 1987 led police to take Tully's fingerprints and match them with those on the murder weapon, a knife found in a pond near the death scene, the court said. Tully admitted being at the home of Olsson, a nurse at the Veterans Administration hospital in Livermore, but said another man had attacked her. The court unanimously rejected challenges to Tully's convictions and sentence, including arguments that prosecutors had prejudiced the jury with evidence of the killing's effect on the victim's relatives.

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Death-sentence-for-sex-slaying-upheld-3747671.php